246 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 28 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FAltMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homca, 
Established 1850. 
Herbert w. Collingwood, Editor. 
Hr. WALTER VAN FLEET, (. Associatpi 
Mrs. K. T. Kovle, {-Associate*. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLIiAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, J2.M, 
equal to Ss. 6d., or marks, or 10% francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement In this paper 1« 
backed by a responsible person. But to make doubly 
sure we will make good any loss to paid subscribers 
sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising 
in our columns, and any such swindler will be publicly 
exposed. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we 
do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences between 
subscribers and honest responsible advertisers. Neither 
will we be responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts 
sanctioned by the courts. Notice of the complaint must 
be sent to us within one month of the time of the trans¬ 
action and you must have mentioned The Rural New- 
TORKER w’hen writing the advertiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance 
Is for, should appear In every letter. 
Remittances may be made In money order, express 
erder, personal check or bank draft 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street. New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1903. 
Be sure to read the fine print in the contract offered 
you to sign. If it is worded in such a way that the 
meaning is not quite clear, and re-reading does not 
make it plain, a safe rule is to refuse to sign it, and 
not accept any interpretation of the agent. These 
hidden meanings in contracts have cost farmers many 
dollars. What is the use of all these contracts and 
agreements anyway? If a man wishes to sell you a 
plow or harrow let him deliver it, and then if satis¬ 
factory, pay for it. 
• 
There is a bill before the New Jersey Legislature 
providing that fruit growers may shoot robins that 
are found destroying their crops. This bill also makes 
an “open season” for the shooting of these birds dur¬ 
ing the months of September and October. There will 
be a violent disagreement among country people over 
this bill. We suggest that those who are interested 
fight it out with postage stamps. That is the weapon 
of civilization. Let those Jerseymen who firmly be¬ 
lieve that the robin is a robber write and ask their 
representatives to vote for this bill. Let those who 
believe that this bird is a great friend of humanity 
stick a stamp on that belief. 
m 
Wf hear more or less complaint about the service 
on some rural free delivery routes. "While some pat¬ 
rons are much better off under the new system, others 
w'ho live off the main roads are worse off than they 
were before the little post offices were given up. Of 
course no one expects that a complete change of sys¬ 
tem, as this is, would work without any hitch from 
the start, but there ought to be steady and rapid im¬ 
provement. The delivery systems in town and city 
are constantly being changed and improved. The 
same must be done with rural delivery. It will not 
do simply to change the system of country delivery 
and then let it alone. The best is none too good for 
the farmer. 
* 
Farmers who grow produce for the canneries are 
likely to obtain better prices for their goods than last 
year. At least this is true where they are organized. 
In some sections they demand a “fiat rate” for sweet 
corn—that is a rate per ton as picked including 
husks, hard or soft ears or nubbins. This, the farm¬ 
ers think, is the fairest method of dealing. Canners 
in western New York offered ?7 per ton “flat” but 
are now contracting some at $8 and $9, while many 
growers hold off for $10. The dairy business is now 
so promising that many of these farmers do not feel 
compelled to grow crops for the canners. They can. 
for a few years at least, grow fodder and grain crops 
and feed them to stock and make about as much as 
they could by accepting any price the canners see fit 
to offer them. The great business endeavor of the 
farmer is to have more to say about the price of what 
he sells! 
So IT is settled that this country will complete the 
Panama Canal! It should give every American a feel¬ 
ing of pride to realize that this Republic is to make a 
success out of a costly European failure. For no one 
doubts that the canal will be completed—though in 
that fever-stricken land it will mean a frightful sac¬ 
rifice of human life. Probably no American enter¬ 
prise has ever been started on foreign soil which 
meets with such general approval as this. All classes 
are interested in it, and believe that it will benefit the 
country. Farmers through the Grange and other or¬ 
ganizations have expressed their desire for a canal 
across the isthmus. They believe it will stimulate 
foreign trade in agricultural products, and also regu¬ 
late freight rates between the Pacific coast and the 
Eastern States. It will also increase the export trade 
in the Mississippi Valley, sending more and more 
commerce down the river. "While eastern farmers are 
not likely to benefit directly from the canal they rec¬ 
ognize the fact that this closer communication with 
the F'ar West will strengthen the country and give 
w'estern farmers a far better opportunity. Therefore 
we may all unite in urging prompt digging and open¬ 
ing of the canal. 
Here we have a question from a Massachusetts 
reader which seems to be too much for our scientific 
friends: 
Can anyone give me any idea of price to charge for 
fruit tree spraying for trees in small orchards: also what 
would be a fair price for whitewashing with sprayer for 
100 feet, or say a poultry house 100 by 12 feet wide for ex¬ 
ample? Spraying is little practiced here, and I am think¬ 
ing of taking it up for a business, and use it for white¬ 
washing also, though I find it hard to get a good nozzle, 
one that is handy to discharge. 
Such a man requires something more than a for¬ 
mula for preparing Bordeaux Mixture or how to spray. 
What is a fair price for doing the work? The prac¬ 
tical man must help him out. Is there any chance for 
such a business in the average community? The 
theory seems smooth enough, but what do the prac¬ 
tical men say? 
m 
Tiifrf. is much game left in the northern part of 
Maine. During the season thousands of hunters go 
to the State to hunt and fish. It is proposed to make 
this a source of great revenue to the State by com¬ 
pelling such hunters to pay for their fun by taking 
out an expensive license before they are permitted to 
hunt. There is precedent for this, since several of 
the States and Canadian Provinces license hunters in 
this way and derive good revenue from it. The farm¬ 
ers of Maine, as in most other States, appear to be 
opposed to all of the so-called game laws. They are 
quite sure to get the worst end of any such law, for 
their crops are destroyed by protected wild animals 
and some one else usually obtains the food or money 
value of the wild things they have fed. No wonder 
prominent members of the Grange are. in favor of 
wiping out two-thirds of the present game laws! 
• 
We have had several articles on silk culture. As 
usual some one is trying to “boom” the business and 
figure a big success out of a small experience. Prof. 
Gerald McCarthy, who has done much to introduce 
silk culture, talks sensibly about it: 
We do not recommend silk giowing as work for men. 
It is suitable under present economic conditions only 
for women and children, and only as a source of pocket 
money for these. An average child of 10 years can by 
growing silk earn in six weeks of early Summer at least 
$30. Most farm housewives can do the same without in¬ 
terfering with their ordinary duties. These sums, small 
as they are, will make farm life more satisfactory, not 
to say endurable, to the thousands who are now longing 
for city life. Herein lies the greatest present value of 
silk culture for American farmers. 
That is about the size of the business. Oh for the 
power to show deserving people that they cannot ex¬ 
pand a $30 job into a $30,000 “enterprise” by talking 
about it! 
Celery growers often find a portion of their crop 
lessened in value or even rendered unsalable by pithy 
stalks. This has been laid to a variety of causes, such 
as climate, soil and culture, but there has long been 
an impression that pithy celery may be due to de¬ 
fective seed, and this is confirmed by studies con¬ 
ducted at the Maryland Experiment Station, now pub¬ 
lished in Bulletin No. 83. It appears from these in¬ 
vestigations that while soil and climate may have 
something to do with the production of pithy stalks, 
the most marked cause is defective seed, and It be¬ 
came evident that American seed is, as a rule, much 
inferior to the European product. The best results 
were obtained from French seed, some of that Ameri¬ 
can-grown producing as high as 40 per cent of pithy 
stalks. It is not asserted that the highest quality of 
seed cannot be grown in this country, but that it is 
not so carefully selected and grown. The foreign 
growers select their seed stock very carefully, and 
then see that it keeps up to standard. It is evident 
that seed should never be grown from pithy plants 
and that the seed plantation should be carefully 
w'atched for any variations from standard. The 
buyer must select his seed with caution; “cheap” 
celery seed is likely to prove a very dear investment. 
Cautious buying will compel dealers to be more care¬ 
ful in their selection of stock, and we shall thus be 
likely to see an improvement in quality. Anyone pre¬ 
paring for commercial celery culture this season will 
do well to give thought to his seed buying. 
As we are told on page 242, the Borden Condensed 
Milk Co. has offered an increased price for milk, 
as compared with last year. Few farmers outside the 
dairy sections realize the tremendous pressure that 
was necessary before this could have been brought 
about. This great corporation has recognized the 
power of the cooperative creameries. Before these 
were organized the farmers were obliged to take what 
was offered them—or go without. The creameries 
have ended that, because they can take the milk and 
handle it for the farmers at a saving of most of the 
middleman’s profit. Thus it is no longer a case of 
“take what we can get,” but a fair chance to have 
something to say about the price. The cooperative 
creamery, fairly conducted, puts the dairyman in a 
position where he is no longer at the mercy of the 
buyer, for he can be buyer as well as seller if he sees 
fit. Such things are very encouraging, for they show 
what farmers can do if they will only “get together” 
to promote their own interests. 
* 
Lio:itning rod agents are harvesting a good crop 
in Kansas just now. This note from a local paper will 
show how some of these rascals operate: 
Mr. Andrews was in his wagon when a slick-looking 
stranger drove up and tried to talk rods to him. An¬ 
drews ordered him off the place. Instead of going he 
picked up his grip and went into the house. Mr. Andrews 
hitched his team and followed him in. The fellow was 
showing a galvanic battery to the women, which he said 
was a sure cure for rheumatism, and persuaded An¬ 
drews, who is troubled with the ailment, to let him try 
it on him. Before the stranger left Andrews had signed 
an “agreement” to put up rods. Later he found it was a 
note for $160, and he is now consulting a lawyer with a 
view to fighting the case. 
Notv this farmer was probably a shrewd, hard- 
headed man, but he had his soft spot—that was his 
rheumatism! The agent found that soft spot and 
made the most of it. We all have, or ought to have, 
our soit spots. The best things of life may enter 
through them—and rogues may also use them to draw 
out w'hat they could not obtain in any other way. The 
man who is master of himself knows his soft spot and 
guards it well. 
m 
During the past six months this city has had 12 
fatal cases of hydrophobia, which may be regarded as 
12 separate instances of criminal neglect on the part 
of the community. Within a single month during the 
past Winter it is stated that the New York Board of 
Health has treated as many as 10 persons for hydro¬ 
phobia. In a number of European countries this dis¬ 
ease is practically extinct, because strict measures 
have been taken to stamp it out, but in this country, 
owing to carelessness, neglect, and inefficient legisla¬ 
tion there is every chance for its spread. The dog 
nuisance, which in many rural communities has crip¬ 
pled the sheep industry, is entirely free to sow the 
germs of rabies, with its attendant harvest of suffering 
or dearh. Local government seems totally unable to 
deal with this danger, and it would seem to be a duty 
for the Federal authorities. It is said that some of 
the Southern States are especially careless in treat¬ 
ment of rabid animals, and dogs from the North are 
often infected while on hunting trips. The trouble 
is one that calls essentially for prevention rather 
than cure, and it is time that public indifference was 
aroused to a fuller sense of responsibility. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Jerseymkn, vote on the robin question. 
The greater the pressure the finer the spray. 
One pound of potash to a gallon of water for a tree 
wash. 
Some folks, when asked to .shed light, build a shod 
over it. 
Who has to do a year’s business in two months? 'J’he 
nurseryman. 
Where hen manure is worth $1 we consider clear pigeon 
manure worth $1.25. 
Few’ men can give better practical advice than the 
best farmers in your neighborhood. 
AS will be seen on page 239, the market gardeners of 
northern Ohio are trying to combine. 
No farmer’s organization can succeed unless there are 
half a dozen lively •‘workers" in it. 
The latest is "egg oleomargarine.” a mixture of eggs, 
lard and tallow to help beat the anti-color law. 
It would seem as though a man ought to know’ how to 
make Bordeaux after this issue of The R. N.-Y. 
Now, if you had the nitrogen that leached down into 
the creek your fertilizer bill wouldn’t frighten you. 
We notice that expert fruit growers are using more 
and more lime in making the Bordeaux Mixture. This 
practice is certainly in line with science. 
Can you change brass into gold? Just as easily as you 
can make hay grow on a grass field w'hen there is noth¬ 
ing but weeds left. 
We are told to plant apple trees 20 feet apart and cut 
out the odd ones w'hen they crow’d. Who ever found a 
well-shaped tree among those that were left? 
