1072 
S»snteinber '> 1022 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TUB BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A Kntlonal Weekly Journal for Country *nd gnburbnn Home* 
Established ittO 
Published weeklj by the Rural Pablishlne Compsey. 888 West SOtb 8treet,Hew York 
IlEKr.KKT IV. COI.MXOWOOP, TYwiilrnt and Editor. 
Jtmy .1 Dii.ujn, Treasurer ami tiem-ral ManoKfr- 
Vbl F. DilloX, Hoc rotary. Mint. K. T. Bo Vi.K. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION ; ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foretell countries In the TT.mr.-wil Postal Union, #2.01. Remit In money 
oitior, cxprwsti ordtr r ih-twoiuU cihh?k or bank dial u. 
Entered at Now York Port Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 81.00 per agate line—7 words. References required for 
Advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany txauMieni orderB, 
44 A 8QUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this patier Is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly snre, we will make good any Iobb 
to paid KUljeorlhcr* sustained by trusting any deliberate ewtuiUor, irrespon- 
rtluc adrerlisun) or misleading advertincjneutB in our cotumn!. and any 
such swindler wilt be pablie'r oxposcsU We are at*. often called upon 
to adiu-t. dilTere.noej or mit^i.« between our Bub-crfl-cni and honest, 
responsible torn,-;, whether advertisers or not. Vi e willingly use our good 
oflioew to Ibis end. but such oases should not be cobfumsl with dishonest 
trailsv’f ions. We protect B-jlwterihnrs against rogues, but wo will not bo 
responsible tar the debts of honest tnuiirunta wuietsoiled tar the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be wnt to us within one month of the t une of 
the transaction, ana to idenlifj It, you ehotild mention THk KliRAh Nltw- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser, ______ 
D URING the New York State Fair at Syracuse, 
September 11 to 16, The Rural New-Yorker’s 
headquarters will be found in the Dairy Building, 
where we shall be glad to meet old friends, and have 
an opportunity of making new ones. 
I* 
IWe take, all told 15 papers. I asked my wife what 
to cut out. and what to retain, as we had too many to 
carry. She named The Rural New-Yorker at the 
head of the list to retain. So here is check for yours. 
You certainly do put up a really useful and practical 
paper. n * c - K - 
Pennsylvania. 
F IRST choice of the lady and useful and prac¬ 
tical to the head of the house comes close to our 
ambition for The Rural New-Yorker. 
* 
T HE State College of New Hampshire at Durham 
recently held a farmers’ and home-makers’ con¬ 
vention which was a really remarkable affair. The 
convention lasted four days, and there "was not a 
dull moment in it. There were sports and games for 
the young people, enough of practical and scientific 
discussion to satisfy those with minds inclined that 
way, an agricultural parade, an original play featur¬ 
ing farm life—in fact, a good combination of an old- 
fashioned fair, a Grange meeting, an athletic tour¬ 
nament and a college classroom. We never saw a 
more evenly balanced program or a happier and 
freer company. At some of these meetings you have 
a curious feeling of ‘•management.” The whole thing 
seems open and free enough, yet somehow you can¬ 
not help feeling that someone behind the curtain is 
pulling the strings, and that you are, after all, play¬ 
ing something of the part of puppets. There was 
nothing of that feeling in New Hampshire. There 
was no “Keen off the grass" sign. The people owned 
the institution for the week and the college men kept 
in the background. It was a rare triumph of sim¬ 
plicity and wise management in handling country 
people. The psychology of the New Hampshire 
farmer was "well understood. The best exhibit of 
all was an army of some COO children, just the type 
of boys and girls who hold the future of New Hamp¬ 
shire right in their small hands. Not long ago we 
met a Western man who said there are no children 
left in Vermont and New Hampshire. We only wish 
he could have seen the fine, bright-eyed youngsters 
who poured into Durham and captured the college, 
t was the real hopeful army of America! 
* 
M R. I.OSEE’S recent article on Baldwin apple 
trees has called out many comments. It 
seems that many growers have strong, vigorous 
Baldwin trees 20 years or more in growth, which 
have thus far given hardly a bushel of fruit all told. 
We have a number of such trees—large and fine, yet 
their entire crop will he barely a dozen apples. We 
have tried practically all the suggested plans for 
making those trees hear fruit, but they seem to he 
natural drones. We think they are the result of 
what wc may call a haphazard selection of fruit 
buds. Too many of such buds seem to he taken from 
any healthy tree, or even from ttie nursery row, 
without regard to the hearing habit, of the trees pro¬ 
ducing them. We think this habit, on the part of 
some of the nurserymen has loaded us up with a lot 
of lazy drones, and this is hurting the Baldwin ap¬ 
ple. What can we do about it? We confess that 
we are puzzled. 
* 
O NE of our people read about using salt on clover 
or Alfalfa hay to prevent heating in the stack 
or mow. Some of the clover seemed a little damp, 
and the boss told the hired man to put on salt—and 
do it right. By mistake the hired man went to a 
bag of nitrate of soda and scattered that on the hay 
in place of salt! The boss discovered the error, and 
now he wants to know if it is safe to feed this hay. 
Oh€ RURAL NEW-YORKER 
There is no way of answering such a question with¬ 
out. knowing how much nitrate was used and how 
the hired man put it on. We have had a number of 
reports of death where cattle licked up nitrate of 
soda or got at bags of it. We should think a good- 
sized cow would have to eat nearly a pound of it to 
give fatal results. If the nitrate was used about as 
we genex-ally use salt, a cow would not he likely to 
get enough at one feed to do her any harm. If she 
continued to eat such hay for several weeks it might 
affect, her. We doubt, however, if there will be any 
great trouble if the hay is well aired and shaken 
up before feeding that part where the nitrate was 
scattered. If you kuow just where the nitrate went 
you can start feeding that part of the hay to a few 
of the poorer cattle and watch them. Honestly, 
about the only way to settle such a case is to aslc the 
cow! 
* 
0 use talking, many of our country readers ai’e 
frightened over the fuel prospects. Here it is 
at the end of Summer, with most coal bins empty 
and miners idle. It does not seem possible that even 
if the miners start once more with full time, there 
can be coal enough to go around this Winter. There 
ought to he a good chance to sell wood, and those 
of us who have a supply of it should use what we 
can to relieve the coal situation. In most cases this 
will mean new grates or special fixtures. We also 
find people who want to change from coal to oil in 
their steam or water heaters. This will mean a new 
form of burner, and we would not advise our people 
to trust to the average plumber to make the change. 
The oil men are working this problem out, and will 
no doubt give publicity when they are reasonably 
sure. There will probably he a good many "fake” or 
impractical devices put on the market. Do not De 
in too much of a hurry to change from coal to oil. 
You may get something that will be more expensive 
than coal and not half as safe. 
* 
F we take the experience of this season’s market 
as a guide it would he little short of an economic 
crime to advise heavy planting of the Wealthy ap¬ 
ple on the upper Atlantic slope. This variety has 
been over-planted—largely as fillers in orchards in¬ 
tended later for permanent plantings of Baldwin 
and McIntosh. This year, in many localities, it is 
almost impossible to sell Wealthy for much more 
than the cost of package and picking. And this is 
only a beginning of the flood which is coming in a 
year or two, when the young trees get more size. 
This early variety demoralizes the entire season’s 
market, for whenever we start with a low price it. is 
very difficult ever to increase it later in the season. 
The business of planting Wealthy has been greatly 
overdone. Give the variety a rest. Too much of 
Wealthy means poverty. 
* 
W E have been rather surprised at the lack of 
interest thus far manifested in the report of 
the Committee of Twenty-one on the rural school 
question. Prof. Works gave a fair and frank state¬ 
ment of what the committee suggests, but thus far 
there has been little or no real criticism or comment. 
We presume this will com© later, when the new term 
of school opens. We would like to point out to our 
readers that if they object to any part of this report 
now is the time for publicity. If there are no real 
suggestions, or only a few perfunctory remarks, the 
committee will be quite safe in concluding that their 
report is acceptable to all, and the first thing we 
know it will be embodied in a new school law. That 
was one trouble with the old township school law. 
Tt was really "slipped over” on us without any full 
understanding of what it really meant. We all re¬ 
member the fearful uprising which followed. That 
experience must not he repeated. The members of 
the Committee of Twenty-one are thoroughly open 
and frank in their operations. They realize that 
there never can he any satisfactory change in the 
rural school system unless the patrons of the dis¬ 
trict. schools are satisfied and well informed. That 
Is why we desire to encourage the fullest discussion 
of Prof. Works’ article. It. is the biggest question 
now before our New York farmers, aud they should 
have a hand in settling it. It is safe to say that no 
rural school law can pass if a majority of farmers 
oppose it. On the other hand, if they remain silent, 
such silence may be accepted as approval. 
* 
HE soldier bonus or compensation bill has been 
slumbering in the Senate during the long de¬ 
bate on the tariff. Now it comes up again. We have 
predicted from the first that the hill would pass 
Congress by a great majority. We think it could 
be passed over the President’s veto, though we think 
it likely he will let it become a law without his sig¬ 
nature. The present bill is neither wise nor eco¬ 
nomic, yet there lias been no chance of defeating :t 
from the time its advocates succeeded in making the 
soldiers believe that Wall Street and the money 
interests are financing the opposition. The soldiers 
have been led to believe that, the profiteers remained 
at home and made fortunes, while the soldiers did 
the work and the fighting, and received loss and 
abuse. Now they think these profiteers, begrudge a 
part of their war profits to compensate those who 
“saved the country.” There is no argument or logic 
that can overcome such a psychological condition of 
the human mind. 
W 
MASSACHUSETTS reader has sent us the fol¬ 
lowing stanza from a poem, “Between the Plow 
Handles,” by Eugene Seeor of Iowa. This is one 
way in which the ends and corners of the country 
are combining to contribute to the publicity of what 
our people consider worthy: 
“What man in all the paradise of God 
Has better right to look aloft, and pray: 
‘I’m partner with the Lord; I plow the sod, 
To feed His hungry children, day by day.”* 
True, but we hope our farmers, while accepting 
and believing this doctrine, will not he satisfied to 
stop there. In this rather prosaic world wo find that 
the glory of working in this way does not pay taxes; 
nor will the dealers in fertilizers, tools, groceries or 
the necessities accept it in full payment for their 
bills. The farmer who is satisfied with this joy of 
service may save his income tax, since he will have 
but a small income, but most, of us must: stand up 
and fight for our rights if we are to keep our farms. 
And the knowledge that we are working as "partner 
with the Lord" will nerve us to put up a better bat¬ 
tle for common justice. It is interesting to see that 
in naming the 12 greatest agricultural leaders a 
number have selected poets and artists who prob¬ 
ably never grow a hill of corn in their lives. Edwin 
Markham, who wrote "The Man With the lloe,” and 
Millet, whose pictures of peasant life are world- 
famous. have without question helped agriculture 
by forcing men and women to think and form men¬ 
tal pictures. 
* 
OME weeks ago we predicted that the tariff hill 
would become a law without substantial changes. 
It has now passed the Senate, and will without 
doubt he signed by the President. This bill will levy 
higher duties than any former bill in our history. 
That is especially true of duties on most farm pro¬ 
ducts—particularly such items as eggs, dairy pro¬ 
ducts, grain, wool, fruit, etc. Some of these tariffs 
seem prohibitive, and it is hard to see how imports 
of such articles cau he profitably made. .It is easy 
to iKjint out the dangers possible under such a tariff. 
It will shut off trade with foreign nations, and if 
they cannot ship goods they cannot pay their debts. 
By keeping out foreign-made goods, such a tariff 
will give flie profiteers and price fixers a chance to 
manipulate prices without competition, and our gov¬ 
ernment seems powerless to stop that. On moral or 
purely economic grounds it is practically impossible 
to justify a tariff which goes beyond the needs of 
revenue and creates an artificial advantage, but in 
the present case it must he admitted that farmers, 
so far as they have been represented at Washington, 
have secured about what they demanded. The agri¬ 
cultural States of the West and the agricultural dis¬ 
tricts of the North favor these high tariff’s and will 
support them. Most of the union labor seems also 
to favor them. The unorganized consumers in the 
city fear that the higher tariff rates will increase the 
cost ol’ living, and such an increased cost is applied 
so mysteriously that it is impossible to detect it. 
HE article on page 1072. comparing the labor, 
wages and income of farmers with those of rail¬ 
road workers has stirred up quite a little discus¬ 
sion. Let us all understand just what that article 
was intended to show. It is. we believe, a fair state¬ 
ment. of the farmer’s position in this industrial ques¬ 
tion. lie may he wrong, hut that is just about what 
he believes regarding his comparative income and 
the way he has been treated. 
Brevities 
Glean up the storage cellar. 
Limestone will pay ou the grain and grass this Fall. 
A problem —how to pay a top price on fertilizers out 
of a bottom price on farm crops. 
On August 2." our New Jersey cotton plants were 
apparently just ready to put out their flowers. 
The Ohio Experiment Station finds that drilling 
wheat is better than broadcasting. The old 8-in. drill 
is better than the new 4-in., and cross-drilling does not 
pay. 
