1206 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSINESS  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Koine* 
Established  fHEO 
F‘ohli«h*'d  nfelily  bj  the  Rnral  Pnblbhlne  Company,  833  West  80!h  Street,  Neir  Tork 
Herbert  W.  Colling  wood,  IVnuitlent  and  Editor. 
Jons  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Mnnaerer. 
Wm.  F.  Dillon,  Secretary.  Wits.  E.  T.  Rovle,  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  protvuition  and  admit  the  advert  ising  of 
reliable  houses  only.  But  to  make  doubly  sure,  we  will  make  good  any  loss 
to  paid  Fiibse  ribc-rs  sustained  by  trusting  any  deliberate  swindler,  irrespon¬ 
sible  advertiser*  or  misleading  advertisements  in  our  columns,  and  any 
siicli  swindler  will  be  publicly  exposed.  We  are  also  often  called  upon 
to  adlust  differences  or  mistakes  between  our  subscribers  and  honest-, 
responsible  houses,  whether  advertisers  or  not.  We  willingly  use  our  good 
office*  to  this  end,  but  Such  cases  should  not  lie  confused  with  dishonest 
tr. m factions.  We  protect  subscribers  against  rogues,  but.  wo  will  not  bo 
responsible  for  the  debts  of  holiest,  hunk  nipt*  sanctloneil  by  the  rourts. 
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the  transaction,  and  to  identify  it,  you  should  mention  The  Rl  k.il  New- 
Yorker  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
OUR  old  friend,  “Mapes  the  Hen  Man,”  comes 
back  next  week  in  a  new  role — that  of  prophet. 
Taking  a  flight  in  the  airship  of  imagination,  Mapes 
will  try  to  tell  us  something  of  the  poultry  and  dairy 
business  in  the  year  1040!  When  we  consider  what 
has  happened  during  the  past  15  years  we  cau  all 
realize  that  our  children  are  to  see  wonders  during 
the  decade  to  come.  Mapes  usually  passes  as  a  plain 
man  of  figures  and  facts — and  hens.  Let  us  now 
see  what  happens  to  such  a  citizen  when  he  sees 
visions. 
* 
THOSE  who  believe  with  us  that  the  child  crop 
is  the  most  valuable  farm  product  this  coun¬ 
try  aim  produce  should  read  the  article  by  Jane 
Seymour  on  page  1211.  WTe  think  this  is  full  of 
sound  and  practical  common  sense,  by  one  who  feels 
the  responsibility  which  goes  with  motherhood.  It 
is  a  blessed  tiling  to  raise  a  family  of  good  children, 
and  to  feel  that  you  have  honestly  tried  to  do  your 
full  duty  by  them.  It  is  hard  to  tell  a  stranger  what 
to  do  with  a  child  you  have  never  seen,  but  Jane 
Seymour’s  article  comes  close  to  doing  it. 
* 
ONE  good  tiling  about,  this  milk  agitation  is  that 
it  has  made  the  daily  papers  talk.  There  has 
been  more  about  milk  in  the  New  York  papers  during 
the  past  month  than  in  five  years  before.  There  can 
hardly  be  too  much  of  it,  for  the  facts  are  so  clear 
regarding  the  present  injustice  to  the  producers  that 
the  more  it  is  talked  about  the  better  the  consumers 
will  understand.  The  dairyman  should  not  antagon¬ 
ize  the  consumers.  They  are  his  best  friends,  and 
we  all  want  them  to  double  their  consumption  of 
milk.  Some  of  the  New  York  papers  get  the  new 
plan  for  selling  milk  badly  mixed  up.  The  Evening 
Sun  says:  “At  one  swoop  the  milk  plan  would  de¬ 
stroy  freedom  of  trade  and  democracy.”  At  present 
there  is  no  freedom  of  trade  whatever — a  few  deal¬ 
ers  dictate  prices.  Under  the  now  plan  the  price  will 
be  determined  by  30,000  dairymen  instead  of  by  a 
dozen  dealers  or  buyers. 
* 
A  NUMBER  of  our  readers  in  the  Hudson  Yalley 
have  become  quite  alarmed  over  an  order  from 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  which  they  think 
means  that  all  currant  and  gooseberry  bushes  must 
be  destroyed.  After  going  over  the  ease  carefully 
with  the  Department  we  are  able  to  give  the  facts. 
There  is  a  serious  disease  of  the  pine — known  as 
blister  rust.  The  disease  has  come  on  shipments  of 
White  pine  trees  from  Europe,  and  for  the  past 
seven  years  our  State  and  Federal  governments  have 
been  fighting  it.  About  90  localities  in  New  York 
have  shown  this  disease — all  the  way  from  two  or 
three  trees  to  many  thousand.  Now  this  disease  is 
not  'confined  to  the  pines.  Like  some  other  diseases 
it  passes  its  life  on  two  separate  plants — like  the 
cedar  rust  on  apples.  The  Summer  form  of  this 
disease  comes  as  a  rust  on  the  under  side  of  currant 
leaves.  The  black  currants  are  more  susceptible  to 
the  disease  than  the  reds  or  gooseberries.  Tf  this 
.Summer  rust  on  currant  bushes  does  not:  form  the 
disease  will  disappear,  just  as  cedar  rust  on  apples 
fades  away  when  the  cedar  trees  are  removed.  No\v 
it  was  learned  this  Summer  that  the  blister  rust 
was  found  on  pine  trees  in  Massachusetts,  and  it 
was  planned  to  prevent  its  spread  into  New  York  by 
destroying  the  currant  hushes  in  a  zone  extending 
from  the  Massachusetts  line  to  be  Harlem  railroad. 
No  disease  was  found  West  of  that  zone.  It  has 
not,  apparently,  yet  appeared  in  the  section  where 
currant  growing  is  a  large  b.  .ness.  Thus  far  the 
destruction  has  been  in  gardens  or  small  planta¬ 
tions.  The  law  gives  the  Commissioner  the  right, 
after  issuing  an  order,  to  see  that  all  currant  plants 
are  destroyed  if  need  he.  The  work  is  being  carried 
out  in  the  territory  between  the  State  line  and  the 
RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
railroad,  and  all  whose  property  is  destroyed  in  this 
way  are  entitled  to  compensation.  There  have  been 
many  wild  rumors  of  what  is  being  done,  but  this  is 
a  fair  statement  of  the  facts.  If  this  zone  can  bo 
well  cleaned  up  the  spread  of  the  pine  disease  will 
be  stopped,  and  the  great  currant  industry  of  the 
valley  will  be  protected.  This  currant  growing  is 
now  a  great  business  along  the  river,  and  on  general 
principles  the  growers  will  advocate  killing  the  pines 
to  save  the  currants  rather  than  killing  the  currants 
to  save  the  pines! 
* 
You  claim  The  R.  N.-Y.  is  not  a  political  paper,  and 
has  no  use  whatever  for  partisan  politics,  but  at  same 
time  you  advise  to  use  our  voting  power  that  the  evils 
existing  in  the  milk  market  may  be  corrected.  What  I 
want  to  know  is  who  to  vote  for?  Is  any  one  party 
pledged  to  cure  the  ills  of  the  milk  producers? 
E.  s.  T. 
HIS  is  part  of  a  letter  from  a  business  man  who 
owns  a  dairy  farm  and  confesses  that  it  does 
not  pay.  The  It.  N.-Y.  is  not  a  partisan  paper,  and 
would  never  support  any  candidate  just,  because  he 
happened  to  represent  any  particular  party.  Farm¬ 
ers  have  been  doing  that  very  thing  for  years,  aud 
that  is  one  great  reason  why  they  and  their  business 
have  come  to  the  present  situation.  The  political 
leaders  have  assumed  that  while  farmers  might 
growl  a  little  they  would  always  end  up  by  voting 
the  straight  party  ticket.  Other  interests  have  re¬ 
fused  to  do  that;  therefore  they  have  had  the  di¬ 
rect  benefit  of  legislation,  while  fanners  have  had 
indirect  benefit — mostly  education.  This  will  go 
on  indefinitely  just  as  long  as  the  politicians  think 
the  farmer  will  never  use  his  ballot  as  a  weapon. 
We  have  now  come  to  a  point  in  New  York  State 
where  a  definite,  concrete  issue  can  be  made,  and  it 
happens  to  come  over  the  milk  business.  The  New 
York  State  Foods  and  Markets  Department  is  cap¬ 
able  of  starting  a  genuine  reform  in  buying  and  dis¬ 
tributing  milk — so  that  both  producers  and  con¬ 
sumers  may  be  benefited.  It  is  willing  to  do  this, 
but  in  order  to  do  it  properly  and  solidly  the  State 
must  give  the  Department  full  financial  and  moral 
hacking.  That  once  given,  a  sure  reform  in  the 
marketing  problem  will  be  started.  Here  then  is  a 
public  issue  more  important  to  our  farmers  and  con¬ 
sumers  than  any  other  State  issue  which  can  be  pre¬ 
sented  this  year.  It  is  constructive  legislation — an 
issue  definite  and  clear,  which  has  arisen  out  of 
25  years  of  fighting  and  complaining  over  this  milk 
business. 
Therefore  The  R.  N.-Y.  will  do  its  best  to  elect  the 
candidates,  from  Governor  down,  who  will  agree 
most  sincerely  to  give  the  Foods  and  Markets  De¬ 
partment  a  fair  chance  to  handle  this  big  question. 
The  first  candidate  to  speak  out  is  Judge  Samuel 
Seabury,  who  says: 
I  shall  urge  that  the  Department  of  Foods  and  Mar¬ 
kets  be  made  an  effective  instrument  for  the  economical 
distribution  of  food  products  to  the  cud  that  the  farm¬ 
ers  of  the  State  and  the  consumers  of  food  products 
may  be  brought  into  closer  touch  to  the  benefit  of  both. 
Wo  offer  each  and  every  candidate  a  chance  to 
go  on  record  now,  and  such  strength  as  we  can  com¬ 
mand  will  go  to  the  men  who  stand  up  squarely  for 
this  marketing  proposition.  We  now  have  a  clear- 
cut,  definite  issue  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  party 
politics  or  anything  else  except  the  welfare  of  pro¬ 
ducers  and  consumers.  Who  will  stand  with  us? 
* 
WE  hear  much  complaint  about  the  young  man 
with  a  “big  head.”  Honest  now,  is  he  any 
more  abnormal  or  dangerous  than  the  old  man  with 
the  contracted  head?  The  conceited  young  fellow, 
who  thinks  he  knows  it  all,  and  has  such  an  admir¬ 
ation  for  his  own  opinion,  will  get  out  of  his  trouble 
in  time.  Experience  will  carve  him  down  and  grind 
out  the  humps  on  his  head,  which  now  make  him 
laughable.  Experience  will  train  his  enthusiasm 
and  make  it  work.  It  is  different  when  age,  which 
should  bring  mellow  wisdom  and  ripe  growth,  turns 
a  man  sour  and  hard  and  narrow.  lie  can  see  no 
good  in  the  future  or  in  the  younger  generation,  and 
what  is  worse,  he  cannot  see  that  his  bitterness  is 
a  self  confession  of  failure  to  get  the  best  out  of  life 
as  he  has  gone  on  through  the  years.  The  “big 
head”  in  a  young  fellow  is  not  contagious — only  one 
of  the  developments  of  an  unformed  mind.  The 
sour,  contracted  head  of  the  older  man  is  worse.  It 
does  far  more  damage  and  spreads  like  a  disease. 
* 
IT  is  reported  from  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  that  the 
health  officer  demands  a  new  tost,  for  milk  han¬ 
dlers  and  sellers.  One  milkman  was  refused  a 
license  because  he  would  not  be  vaccinated  against 
typhoid  fever!  Later  this  ruling  was  modified  and 
the  license  was  offered  provided  the  dealer  would 
submit  to  a  blood  test.  This  consists  in  taking  a 
drop  of  blood  from  the  veins  and  examining  it  for 
“germs.”  The  milkman  still  refused  and  a  legal  bat- 
September  1G,  191G. 
tie  arose  to  determine  whether  the  health  officer  has 
any  right  to  insist  upon  any  such  test.  A  person 
with  typhoid  germs  in  his  system  is  certainly  a 
“carrier”  of  the  disease,  and  unless  he  is  above  the 
average  in  cleanliness  he  ought  not  to  handle  milk. 
The  blood  test  is  probably  the  quickest,  and  surest 
way  of  deciding  whether  a  human  being  carries  the 
germs  or  not.  The  vaccination  treatment  is  very 
different,  and  it  is  going  too  far  to  expect  milkmen 
to  submit  to  it.  From  the  statement  about  typhoid 
made  on  page  1214  we  can  all  agree  that  we  do  not 
want  known  “carriers”  to  handle  the  milk  which 
comes  to  our  families.  The  world’s  great  social  cam¬ 
paign  now  is  to  kill  off  such  diseases  as  typhoid  and 
tuberculosis  as  smallpox  has  been  practically  wiped 
out.  These  tests  seem  hard  to  the  individual,  but 
year  after  year  they  become  more  and  more  a  part 
of  general  public  demand.  The  man  who  buys  the 
food  is  to  establish  the  standard  for  it — not  the 
seller — unless  the  latter  has  something  so  superior 
that  the  public  must  have  it. 
* 
THAT  club  for  electric  thrashing  (first  page)  is 
a  great  institution.  You  see  it  took  those  Kan¬ 
sas  farmers  only  a  few  hours  to  organize  the  club 
and  get  it  under  way.  They  do  such  things  quicker 
and  easier  in  the  West.  Out  there,  farming  is  the 
main  business,  and  fanners  are  the  leaders.  The 
leading  business  always  attracts  money  and  atten¬ 
tion.  Thus  those  Western  farmers  can  command 
the  enthusiasm  and  confidence  which  go  with  suc¬ 
cess.  The  locality  makes  a  difference  too.  Suppose 
the  grandfathers  of  these  farmers  came  from  upper 
New  England.  They  inherited  energy  and  thrift, 
and  live  in  a  section  where  fanning  is  the  leading 
business.  If  they  lived  back  in  New  England  they 
would  have  a  better  chance  to  develop  such  electric 
schemes,  for  they  would  be  surrounded  with  streams 
which  could  he  harnessed  for  power!  Suppose  some 
of  those  breezy  bustlers  moved  into  New  England, 
fully  realizing  the  possibilities  of  the  markets  and 
power  development !  They  would  make  the  good  old 
section  sing  for  joy.  Thus  we  see  that  confidence 
and  enthusiasm  give  the  life  to  farming.  Where 
farming  is  looked  upon  as  an  honored  business  it 
prospers  and  leads. 
* 
NOW  comes  Mr.  Gibbon  of  Texas,  on  page  1220, 
with  a  big  question  about  purebred  swine. 
When  a  man  buys  a  dairy  bull  he  may  go  back  in 
the  record  and  know  what  the  hull’s  mother  and 
grandmother  did  in  the  milk  and  butter  line.  The 
cows  of  this  family  are  what  they  call  “father’s 
folks,”  and  the  daughters  of  the  bull  may  be  ex¬ 
pected  to  take  after  them.  Through  the  egg-laying 
contests  it  is  getting  to  he  pretty  much  the  same 
with  poultry  breeding  stock.  Some  families  of  sheep 
have  the  record  of  performance  in  wool  production. 
All  this  means  performance  back  of  the  breeding, 
and  is  of  great  importance  to  the  farmer  or  breed¬ 
er.  From  the  very  nature  of  the  ease  such  informa¬ 
tion  would  be  of  even  greater  value  to  swine  breed¬ 
ers  if  it  could  be  obtained,  for  he  could  make  sure 
of  good  litters  of  big  pigs  which  would  prove  good 
feeders.  How  is  it  possible  to  obtain  such  records? 
There  will  have  to  be  a  test  of  some  sort  to  deter¬ 
mine  it,  and  we  would  like  suggestions  from  swine 
breeders.  Tiie  R.  N.-Y.  once  proposed  a  contest  with 
swine.  The  plan  was  to  enter  good  sows,  let  them 
each  raise  two  litters  a  year,  have  them  fed  and 
managed  under  sure  supervision,  keep  exact  rec¬ 
ords  of  cost  and  see  which  could  produce  most  pork 
in  a  year.  Is  the  plan  feasible?  If  so  why  not  have 
it  tried  out  and  not  leave  such  contests  to  the  lien 
and  cow? 
Brevities 
Rrxxi.vc:  water  makes  less  kitchen  walking. 
We  find  more  and  more  interest  in  sheep. 
The  best  time  to  cut  silage  corn  is  when  the  kernels 
begin  to  dent.  When  corn  is  too  mature,  it  will  not 
pack  down  well. 
Be  sure  to  realize  the  difference  between  nervousness 
and  “nerve.” 
A  load  at:  home  is  worth  two  on  the  road.  Try  paint¬ 
ing  the  wagon  felloes  with  coal  tar  for  tires  a  little 
loose. 
“Mahcottaue,”  in  propagation,  is  air  layering,  where 
rooting  is  induced  iu  the  top  of  the  parent  plant,  by 
making  a  tongue  or  incision  and  surrounding  it  with 
cocoa  fiber  or  sphagnum.  This  method  is  used  in  the 
tropics  and  in  greenhouse  practice  especially  for  pro¬ 
pagating  rubber  plants. 
Many  people  refer  to  “peanuts”  when  they  want  to 
speak  of  small  things.  Yet  peanut  oil  is  one  of  the 
important  food  oils  of  the  world.  In  1912  Marseilles 
in  France  alone  produced  over  40.0000,000  gallons  of 
peanut  oil.  This  country  imported  1,332,108  gallons. 
The  old  question  about  cutting  weeds  into  the  silo 
comes  up  again  this  year.  This  wet  season  has  made 
it  impossible  to  keep  the  cornfields  clean,  and  many 
are  well  filled  with  weeds.  It  will  not  pay  now  to  try 
to  get  them  out.  We  should  cut  them  right  in  with 
the  corn,  but  be  sure  to  pack  them  firmly  down. 
