336 
EAe  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BV  STRESS  FARMER'S  rAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  tor  Country  and  Suburban  llome« 
Estahl  ixlint  filO 
Published  weekly  by  the  Hural  Publishing  Comiinny,  8118  We»t  801b  Street,  »n  York 
Herbert  W.  Cor.MNOWoon,  errMilrnl  and  Editor 
Jons  J.  l)iux>N,  Treasurer  and  Urin  ral  Manager. 
Wm.  F.  DllXOX,  Secretary.  Mas.  K.  T.  ilovt.K,  Associate  Editor. 
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“A  SQUARE  DEAL** 
We  believe  that  every  advertisement  in  this  paper  is  backed  by  a  respon¬ 
sible  person.  We  use  every  possible  precaution  and  admit  the  advertising  of 
reliable  bouses  only.  Hot  to  make  doubly  hu re.  we  will  make  (rood  any  loss 
to  mid  Motisorthoiw  sustained  by  tnisiinir  any  deliberate  swindler.  frres|M.n- 
sible  advertisers  or  uMciullint  advertisement!*  in  our  cidnums,  and  any 
such  swindler  wtll  be  pnbtiely  exposed  We  are  also  often  called  upon 
to  adjust  dtifcrences  or  mistakes  between  <mr  MibaariljerB  and  honest, 
responsible  houses,  whether  uavurtJsers  or  not.  We  wilimirlv  nw  our  good 
offices  to  this  end.  hut  such  cases  should  not  tie  confused  with  dishonest 
transactions.  Wo  protect  sutisorrlbers  nvrainst  rogues,  but  we  will  not  he 
responsible  for  the  debts  of  honest  bankrupts  sanctioned  by  the  courts. 
Notice  ..f  the  complaint  must  bo  sent  to  us  within  one  mouth  of  the  time  of 
the  tiutiHiuitiou.  and  to  identify  it,  you  should  mention  Thk  ltL'KAl.  Nkw- 
Yobkbr  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
NOW  that  time  comes  nearer  for  clover  seed¬ 
ing  let  us  put  in  another  call  for  the  use  of  Al¬ 
falfa,  We  think  it  will  pay  to  add  a  little  Alfalfa 
seed  whenever  clover  is  used.  While  the  Alfalfa 
may  not  come  to  much  at  first  some  of  it  will  grow 
and  thus  slowly  fit  the  ground  for  a  full  crop  later 
on.  The  great  ambition  of  every  farmer  should  be 
to  have  a  fair  space  on  Ins  farm  in  good  Alfalfa. 
No  farmer  should  think  of  resting  contented  until 
he  lias  that.  This  plan  of  using  Alfalfa  seed  along 
with  the  clover  will  help  speed  the  Alfalfa  day. 
And  do  not  forget  Alsike  clover.  It  will  make  a 
good  growth  on  soil  too  wet  or  sour  for  Red  clover. 
* 
“7  Jcfl  like  nn  U reflate  terrier  chained  to  a  pant 
with  a  rat  just  on!  of  reach.  I  wish  non  would 
slip  the  chain  off  that  post  and  sag,  *Sic  him!'” 
HAT  comes  from  a  reader  who  sees  the  mean¬ 
ness  and  Injustice  in  an  attack  ujion  an  old 
friend  and  who  aches  to  get  in  and  tell  a  few  things 
he  knows  to  he  true.  We  appreciate  his  feelings, 
but  the  time  is  not  quite  ripe  for  his  plunge.  It  will 
come  in  time,  and  it  will  he  a  very  sorry  rat.  If  lie 
were  wise  he  would  get  into  his  hole  and  pull  the 
hole  in  after  him.  The  Airedale  must  learn  to  be  a 
philosopher  like  the  rest  of  us,  keep  his  teeth  sharp 
and  wait  patiently  for  the  right  time.  It  will  come. 
He  who  waits  senes  a  good  master! 
* 
WE  are  often  asked  how  much  ground  lime¬ 
stone  must  be  used  to  have  the  same  effect 
as  a  good  quality  of  slaked  lime.  The  Rhode  Island 
Station  has  experimented  with  limestone  of  differ¬ 
ent  degrees  of  fineness — using  the  same  quantities 
of  actual  lime  in  each  ease,  rt  seems  to  he  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  fineness.  If  we  can  get  limestone  ground  and 
sifted  so  as  to  lie  as  fine  as  slaked  lime  it  will  give 
equal  results  pound  for  pound  of  lime.  Of 
course  there  is  not  as  much  actual  lime  in 
limestone  as  in  slaked  lime  hut  the  experi¬ 
ment  shows  that  from  -00  to  000  pounds  of  lime¬ 
stone  of  varying  fineness  should  lie  used  to  obtain 
the  effect  of  100  pounds  of  the  slaked.  Our  usual 
advice  has  been  to  use  just  twice  as  much  of  the 
ground  limestone. 
* 
AMONG  the  names  of  prize  winners  at  the  great 
apple  contest  in  San  Francisco  we  printed  that 
of  Eli  Reynolds  of  Lockport,  N.  Y.  We  take  un¬ 
usual  pleasure  in  stating  that,  rhe  full  name  is  Miss 
Elizabeth  Reynolds,  who  won  two  gold  medals  for 
Baldwin  and  King  apples.  The  farm  on  which  these 
apples  were  grown  is  owned  by  three  sisters,  Miss 
Elizabeth  Reynolds  being  the  superintendent  It 
is  a  fine  thing  to  realize  that  this  New  York  woman 
was  able  to  send  fruit  of  ibis  sort  across  the  coun¬ 
try  and  have  it  stand  with  the  best.  When  women 
do  undertake  work  of  this  sort  they  do  it  well,  and 
there  are  just  100  chances  in  100  that  fruit  packed 
and  handled  by  Miss  Reynolds  would  be  as  true 
to-  guarantee  as  human  hand  could  make  it. 
❖ 
TWO  cases  of  legal  punishment  which  ought  to 
interest  our  readers  have  been  reported  to  us. 
Pennsylvania  seems  to  have  passed  a  law  prohibit¬ 
ing  an  unnaturalized  foreigner  from  keeping  a  dog. 
A  Hungarian  kept  a  bull  dog  which  a  year  ago 
saved  the  life  of  a  child  by  pulling  it  off  the  rail¬ 
road  track  just  ahead  of  a  train.  When  this  law 
passed  the  Hungarian  was  forced  to  part  with  his 
dog.  He  gave  the  animal  away  three  times,  but 
each  time  it  returned  to  its  old  home.  Then  the 
man  was  arrested  and  jailed,  as  he  was  not  able  to 
pay  his  fine,  while  the  faithful  brute  was  killed. 
The  other  case  was  in  New  Jersey  where  a  man 
was  arrested  and  fined  for  dry-picking  a  chicken. 
He  refused  to  pay  the  fine  and  was  put  in  jail— 
the  charge  being  cruelty  to  animals.  We  felt  dis¬ 
posed  to  take  up  this  chicken  man’s  case  and  make 
a  fight  for  it  until  we  learned  that,  he  killed  the 
birds  by  strangling  them  with  a  string!  If  this  is 
true  he  deserved  just  what  he  got. 
* 
THE  Eastern  meeting  of  the  New  York  State 
Fruit.  Growers’  Association  at  Poughkeepsie 
was  a  notable  gathering.  It  did  not  seem  possible 
to  those  of  us  who  are  left  of  the  old  guard  that  it 
is  now  2.°.  years  since  the  little  handful  of  pioneers 
met  at  Cornwall  and  started  the  Hudson  Valley  So¬ 
ciety.  Tt  was  a  small  beginning  but  it  Is  mow  grow¬ 
ing  to  mighty  proportions.  The  Hudson  Valley  is 
waking  up.  If  there  are  any  Rip  Van  Winkles  still 
asleep  they  will  soon  he  pelted  out  of  their  slumber 
by  prize-winning  apples.  It  would  he  difficult  to 
find  a  brighter  and  more  intelligent  body  of  fruit 
growers  than  those  who  gathered  at  Poughkeepsie. 
The  vast  majority  of  them  prune  and  pick  and  pack 
with  their  own  hands.  We  do  not  know  of  another 
locality  where  there  are  so  many  fruit  farms  run  by 
father  and  son  in  partnership.  Thus  the  succession 
and  future  of  the  fruit  business  is  secure  and  know¬ 
ing  this,  what  these  fruit  men  call  for  is  worth  lis¬ 
tening  to.  They  demand  that  the  present  apple 
packing  law  stand:  they  demand  full  and  fair  ap¬ 
propriation  for  all  the  agricultural  activities  in  the 
State — the  college,  station  and  Agricultural  Depart¬ 
ment  :  they  want  full  and  adequate  reporting  of 
fruit  crop  conditions,  and  they  want  the  game  laws 
changed  to  keep  deer  and  other  orchard  destroyers 
in  check.  At  Rochester  the  Society  fully  endorsed 
the  Department  of  Foods  and  Markets,  and  at 
Poughkeepsie  it  did  the  same,  calling  for  its  con¬ 
tinuance  and  asking  the  Governor  and  Legislature 
to  give  it  adequate  support.  We  believe  that  09  out 
of  every  100  actual  fruit  growers  in  the  Hudson 
Valley  want  the  Department  as  now  organized  to 
continue  its  work.  And  the  apples  on  exhibition! 
There  is  no  use  trying  to  describe  them.  The  eye 
with  all  its  power  for  absorbing  beauty  cannot  do 
them  justice.  Nothing  but  a  good-sized  bite  right  on 
the  tongue  can  convey  the  full  story. 
* 
A  Fighting  Spirit  for  Farmers 
WHY  are  the  various  trade  interests  so  bitter 
against  the  Department  of  Foods  and  Mar¬ 
kets  and  Commissioner  Dillon?  They  tell  us  the 
whole  thing  is  a  failure  and  then  they  take  a  long 
breath  and  abuse  the  Commissioner  for  injuring 
their  business.  We  think  we  can  explain  these 
seemingly  opposite  statements.  The  trade  papers 
which  are  fighting  Ihe  department  clearly  misjudged 
the  attitude  of  farmers.  <  >ne  of  them,  the  American 
Agriculturist,  ought  to  have  known  better,  but  it 
decided  to  advertise  its  stupidity  by  lining  up  with 
Tin  Packer  and  similar  papers.  They -all  quickly 
found  that  the  farmers  consider  this  marketing 
question  the  one  great  living  problem  of  American 
life.  The  fair  distribution  of  food  and  money  among 
the  common  people  is  the  life  blood  of  all  industry. 
Therefore  our  farmers  realize  that  this  market  de¬ 
partment  is  an  honest  and  sincere  effort  to  improve 
conditions.  It  is  an  experiment  as  all  new  things 
are.  Farmers  realize  that,  and  they  believe  that  the 
experiment  is  of  such  importance  that  it.  should  be 
carried  through.  They  have  made  the  “three  graces 
of  farm  journalism”  understand  that,  and  we  hear 
less  about  the  Department  and  more  abuse  of  the 
Commissioner.  Tt  is  easy  to  understand  what  this 
means,  Ever  since  the  appeal  to  blind  prejudice 
and  haired  in  the  old  cry  of  “crucify  him!”  (and 
long  before)  politicians  and  grafters  have  demanded 
the  head  of  every  man  who  started  a  new  reform 
movement  by  “doing  things!”  If  Mr.  Dillon  had 
started  and  conducted  his  work  in  a  “safe  and 
sane,”  "educational”  and  generally  ladylike  way  the 
nicy  who  now  abuse  him  would  have  praised  him  to 
the  skies.  They  would  have  asked  the  Legislature 
to  give  more  money  because  a  feeble,  dignified  de¬ 
partment  would  have  been  nothing  but  an  ornament 
and  a  protection  behind  which  they  could  continue 
to  graft  and  deceive  or  rob  the  public.  No  man  can 
be  a  reformer  and  a  fashion-plate  at  the  same  time. 
If  you  want  to  know  the  bitterness  of  human  venom 
go  into  the  market-place  and  try  to  show  the  people 
some  of  the  tricks  which  keep  them  poor.  This  is 
what  the  Commissioner  has  tried  to  do,  and  this  is 
why  lie  is  abused  and  insulted. 
Those  of  us  who  have  been  under  lire  for  30  years 
know  all  about  it.  What  these  grafters  are  afraid 
of  is  that  out  of  this  battle  for  the  Department  will 
start  and  grow  a  real  fighting  spirit  among  the 
farmers  of  New  York.  Thus  far  the  politicians 
February  26,  3916. 
have  usually  been  able  to  break  up  any  real  move¬ 
ment  for  business  reform  by  working  in  some  old 
issue  and  stampeding  the  farm  array  before  it.  can 
organize.  In  the  fight  for  this  new  department  these 
politicians  see  growing,  in  this  State,  the  most 
promising  effort  to  put  an  actual,  vital  farm  issue 
into  polities  that  the  Atlantic  slope  has  ever  known. 
That  is  why  the  grafters,  the  soreheads  and  the 
politicians  are  making  use  of  the  American  Agricul¬ 
turist  and  the  other  trade  papers  to  fight  the  Com¬ 
missioner.  It  is  to  he  a  great  battle.  We  welcome 
it  and  march  into  if  with  joy.  for  it  will  give  our 
farmers  a  chance  to  line  up  squarely  and  cleanly 
for  the  largest  issue  which  now  confronts  them.  As 
every  farm  organization  in  the  State  has  endorsed 
Mr.  Dillon  that  part  is  settled.  Now  then,  will  you 
stand  for  the  Department  and  see  that  it  has  a  fair 
chance? 
* 
THIS  is  from  a  farmer  who  attended  the  West¬ 
ern  New  York  Horticultural  Society  meeting: 
You  would  have  appreciated  overhearing,  as  I  did, 
some  of  the  things  the  Parker  man  was  told  about  his 
nerve  in  daring  to  ask  farmers  and  fruit  growers  for 
the  endorsement  of  their  subscription;  seemed  to  drive 
tli<>  poor  man  to  drink. 
These  farmers  do  not  hesitate  to  tell  a  man  right 
up  to  Ills  face  what  they  think  about  his  actions. 
Those  “three  graces  of  farm  journalism”  get  it 
straight  when  they  go  out  asking  farmers  to  en¬ 
dorse  their  course.  Let  a  man  or  a  paper  line  up 
openly  with  crooks  or  interests  which  are  against 
the  producer  and  lie  never  can  square  himself  with 
farmers.  They  have  no  time  to  make  small  dis¬ 
tinctions  or  listen  to  hair-splitting  explanations.  A 
paper  must  be  on  one  side  or  the  other,  and  show 
its  colors. 
* 
Have  “Pep!”  Have  “ Pep !” 
HIS  is  the  advice  given  by  many  of  the  young 
men  who  are  coming  upon  the  stage  as  farm 
teachers.  We  understand  that  by  “pep”  they  mean 
pepper  or  action,  a  smart  gait,  energy,  “get  there!” 
Pepper  is  a  stimulant  in  its  way,  and  puts  a  hot 
taste  on  food  so  that  it  will  appeal  to  a  jaded  appe¬ 
tite.  When  these  young  men  advise  a  farmer  to 
have  “pep,”  we  understand  that  they  want  him  to 
move  and  think  faster,  try  out  new  ideas,  shake 
himself  away  from  old  habits  and  trot  rather  than 
walk.  Now  it  is  true  that  most  of  us  need  more 
“pep”  in  order  to  keep  up  with  the  modern  proces¬ 
sion — that ’s  if  we  do  not  stop  to  ask  what  the  pro¬ 
cession  is  headed  for.  In  youth  we  are  all  ready  to 
join  the  crowd  and  march  for  the  very  joy  of  march¬ 
ing.  It  does  not  make  much  difference  which  way 
the  crowd  is  going — we  can  drop  out  and  still  have 
time  to  join  another  crowd.  As  we  get  older  some¬ 
how  we  find  that  something  more  than  “pep”  is 
needed  to  make  the  unknown  road  safe.  We  sug¬ 
gest  that  these  young  men  would  do  well  to  make 
greater  use  of  the  word  “sab”  along  with  “pep.” 
In  time,  too  much  popper  gets  on  ihe  nerves.  Salt  is 
the  great  solid  preservative.  We  need  to  lie  pushed 
along  to  greater  energy,  hut.  we  also  need  to  pre¬ 
serve  the  slow,  solid  and  satisfying  things  of  life  as 
well.  “Pep"  seems  to  live  in  the  thin,  uncertain 
future;  salt  preserves  the  substantial  things  of  the 
past.  We  may  trust  these  young  friends  to  pump 
enough  “pep”  into  us,  but  let  men  of  thought  and 
years  take  this  advice  also:  “ Have  salt!  Have 
salt  r 
Brevities 
Who  shall  educate  the  educators? 
Shall  it  he  the  golden  hoof  of  the  sheep  or  the  claw 
of  the  cur  dog? 
Honest  now.  do  you  know  anyone  quite  as  stupid  as 
the  “know-it-all  man?” 
One  way  to  secure  a  form  of  rural  credit  is  to  fix 
up  the  buildings  and  grounds  neatly. 
To  help  digest  the  sausage  and  the  scrapple,  pass 
hack  your  dish  and  have  another  apple. 
One  good  tiling  is  that  the  recent  discussion  of  dry 
fuel  has  sent  a  regiment  of  men  to  the  wood  pile! 
The  richest  veterinarians  seem  to  be  those  who  doc¬ 
tor  the  dogs  of  the  idle  rich.  “Throw  physic  to  the 
dogs !” 
Four  more  letters  in  one  mail  this  week  about,  mix¬ 
ing  wood  ashes  with  hen  manure.  One  word  iu  reply 
— don’t. 
In  figuring  out  the  new  year's  work  we  surely  hope 
you  plan  to  give  the  faithful  women  folks  a  gasoline 
hired  man.  For  life  takes  on  a  rosy  look  on  any  busy 
farm  when  weight  is  taken  from  the  back  and  put  oil 
his  strong  arm. 
Wti.l  you  tell  us  a  good  reason  for  calling  purebred 
stock  thoroughbred?”  This  word  refers  to  a  single 
breed  of  horses  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  pure 
breeding  of  other  animals.  A  cow  or  a  hog  is  "pure¬ 
bred”  when  both  parents  are  of  registered  breeding. 
