468 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 4 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FAEMEE'S PAP EE. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Hekbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dk. Walter vax Fleet, i 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associates. 
JoHX J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOULAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
ecjual to 8s. 6d., or 81^ marks, or 10^^ francs. 
“ A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
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- 
Yorker when 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 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street. New York. 
means of National defense are, of course, needed, but 
true safety lies not in costly war preparations, but in 
the contented manhood of our prosperous communi¬ 
ties, and this can best be secured by developing to the 
highest extent our natural resources and diminishing 
their inherent evils. 
* 
Stories are often told of farmers who make an au¬ 
tomobile do double service. They use it on the road 
for carrying light produce and then raise the hind 
wheels and use them to run a grinder, shelter or saw! 
Such stories read well, but they should be well salted 
before being recorded as facts. We have no doubt 
such things have been done. There are men who have 
put in a long day’s work in the field and then come 
home to do the week’s washing at night. This was 
done, not because they liked to do it, but because the 
wife was sick. Let a man try to follow this up as a 
steady thing, and the result would be a weedy farm 
and a lot of dirty clothes. You cannot safely apply a 
special performance to general conditions. It might 
not hurt an auto to do one day’s work at the saw or 
cutter, but to give it such work as a steady diet would 
ruin it for all kinds of service. The manufacturers 
know better than to make any such claims. The latest 
report w'e have is from a man who claims to have 
used his auto for running a sheep-shearing machine. 
* 
SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1903. 
It is probably needless for us to say that we endorse 
what Prof. Waugh says about an agricultural educa¬ 
tion (page 483). The “moral courage” required to get 
out of bed at four o’clock to do the milking certainly 
ought to nerve a man on to serve his country! Apolo¬ 
gize for an agricultural education? Never—or for 
being a farmer either! 
* 
At a recent sale of street car horses in England by 
a company which has just installed other motive 
power it is reported that 854 animals brought an aver- 
.age of nearly $200 each. They must have been much 
superior to those used on the car lines still operated 
by horses in New York, although none of the wretch¬ 
ed looking street horses of former years are seen now. 
'fhough the trolley and automobile have taken the 
place of thousands of horses, the demand for prime 
animals is constantly increasing for heavy trucking, 
light driving, army and general farm work. 
* 
How would it be to celebrate the Glorious Fourth by 
expending force in more real patriotism, and a little 
less “villainous saltpeter”? If we may judge by the 
outward signs of corruption in both social and politi¬ 
cal life, the primitive virtues of the young republic 
are being succeeded by the license we ordinarily as¬ 
cribe to a decadent nation. Happily there is yet a 
saving remnant in the thousands of homes where old- 
fashioned ideals of truth and justice still survive. It 
will be a dark day for the American people if these 
homes ever lose their power to influence the National 
conscience. 
♦ 
Election Day is four months off, yet already New 
York farmers are organizing for the canal election. 
Members of the Grange are at work, and thousands 
outside the Grange will join them. If rich men in 
Buffalo’and New York wanted a new railroad for 
hauling freight they would have to build it them¬ 
selves. Why do they try to make the taxpayers of 
New York deepen the canal for them? It is safe to 
say tliat these two cities and the counties close to 
them will receive 95 per cent of any benefit from the 
canal. Why then should farmers be asked to help 
pay for it? There has not been any fully organized 
opposition to other canal claims. Now let us organize 
one! 
4t 
The widespread drought in the East and the disas¬ 
trous floods of the West, by which untold millions of 
property were destroyed and more lives lost than in 
our late war, together with present uncomfortable 
weather developments, remind us that our climate in 
the long run is not favored above that of most other 
inhabited countries. Science and engineering skill 
should devise some means of conserving excessive 
rainfall, of husbanding the flood waters for a time of 
need and checking their wasteful and destructive rush 
to the sea. Practical irrigation is needed in every 
township east as well as west of the Mississippi al¬ 
most every season to get the best results of the en¬ 
ergy expended in preparing the land. These should be 
great National aims. A large share of the public rev¬ 
enues should be used for solving these great econom¬ 
ical problems in the interest of higher and more effec¬ 
tive civilization. Yet we listen to the clamors of those 
who call for a “mighty navy” and other extravagant 
expenditures for our military establishment. Proper 
We have noticed several reported cases where muti¬ 
lated currency has been redeemed by the Government. 
The latest report was of a Texas dog that destroyed 
a $20 bill. The owner of this dog wanted to see him 
jump. He held a $20 bill in his hand high up—as he 
would a piece of meat. Who wouldn’t jump for a $20 
bill? The dog did, and he jumped so high that he 
got it in his mouth and ran under the house. The 
story goes on to say that the owner finally got the 
dog out, killed him, and sent his stomach on to Wash¬ 
ington. In order to obtain the facts we asked the 
Treasury Department at Washington if there really 
was any combination of dog and money. The Comp¬ 
troller of the Currency replied as follows: 
The general facts as stated are correct, but the details 
are somewhat exaggerated. There are numerous cases 
of redemption of money which has been chewed up by 
animals. Notes or fragments of notes destroyed in this 
manner, or in any other way, and sent to the Depart¬ 
ment with an affidavit setting forth the facts in regard 
to the destruction are redeemed if the notes or frag¬ 
ments can be identified and the evidence submitted is 
satisfactory. 
It thus appears that your Uncle Sam is kinder than 
our hard old Uncle Experience. Let a man play with 
$20 worth of property in any form except currency, 
and lose it, and there is no redemption by the Govern¬ 
ment or anybody else. “Served him right” is the most 
charitable comment that experience usually has to 
offer. 
* 
Still another easy-work-at-home fraud was arrest¬ 
ed at Newark, N. J., recently. He offered to pay 72 
cents a dozen for sewing belts and skirt supporters, 
95 cents being demanded in advance for security upon 
goods. One sensible woman at Troy, N, Y., asked the 
police to look the man up before she sent money to 
him. They found that his office contained no furni¬ 
ture and no signs of business except some circulars 
and letter-heads showing that business had been done 
in other cities under different names. When arrested 
the swindler, who called himself Sidney Howard, had 
just received 20 letters containing 95 cents each, and 
60 inquiries without money. Such business is always 
profitable; the main capital required is a total absence 
of conscience and honesty, which, with a small in¬ 
vestment in advertising, brings in quick returns. In 
our condemnation of these despicable frauds we are 
apt to overlook the equal guilt of their accomplices— 
the papers that are willing to open their columns to 
such advertising. Such papers can afford to charge 
nothing a year in subscription fees; they are giving 
their readers the same benevolent guidance that the 
wolf offered to Little Red Riding-Hood. The adver¬ 
tising columns of a paper are as important an indica¬ 
tion of its moral standards as its editorial page. When 
it sneaks into the home circle with a brave display 
of helpful sentiments, while at the same time its ad¬ 
vertising columns seek to steal money or morals, it 
is not one whit better than those advertisers whom 
Uncle Sam stores away under lock and key. 
• 
The daily papers have developed a class of writers 
to whom the terms “hack” or “fake” may be properly 
applied. Such men steal a thought from some able 
writer, weave their own words around it, and sell the 
production as “original.” Others seize upon some 
doubtful story, boldly enlarge upon it and sell it to 
the sensational papers. Readers would be surprised 
to learn how many men and women are really mak¬ 
ing a living at this questionable business. The same 
tendency is appearing in agricultural journalism— 
though in a milder and somewhat less dishonest form. 
Men sell an article to one paper, wait a short time 
and then rewrite it and attempt to sell it to another. 
Strange to say men who are guilty of this petty form 
of thievery would not try to handle other forms of 
property in this way! Another class of writers pre¬ 
pare articles about farm machinery or other goods, 
get them in the papers if possible, then try to exact 
blackmail from the manufacturers. There are other 
petty frauds which are practiced by such writers—all 
deceptive since they try to deceive either the editor 
or the public. The worst feature of it is that such 
writers cannot see the germ of dishonesty that is 
slowly eating the heart out of their reputation. These 
evil habits are growing, and if there is to be any origi¬ 
nality or force in agricultural journalism they should 
be nipped in the bud. The R. N.-Y. will have no “syn¬ 
dicate” matter, and has no use for warmed-over ideas 
or snap judgments by the “hack” writers. "We may 
find it necessary to point out a few of the worst of¬ 
fenders so that the sunlight of publicity may kill the 
germ which is injuring them! 
* 
If we were asked to name what seems to us the 
strongest feature of The R. N.-Y. we should say with¬ 
out hesitation the close relations it holds with its 
readers. The letters which come from all over the 
country make one feel that he is not dealing with 
strangers, but with members of a big family, where 
the true family feeling has been kept up. Not only 
do these letters contain good wishes and kindly ex¬ 
pressions of confidence, but some of the most useful 
Information is sent by those who would not have 
written out their experience but for some question or 
statement in The R. N.-Y, We have tried the experi¬ 
ment of tucking important questions away in odd cor¬ 
ners and in the smallest type. In every case some 
sharp-eyed reader has found it and sent us just what 
was wanted. It is a pleasure to know that The R. 
N.-Y. is read and studied, not glanced over and thrown 
aside, as we know many papers are. With all these 
thousands of sharp eyes and ready pens eager to de¬ 
tect and correct any wrong or obscure statement of 
fact we are not likely to lead many astray. We wel¬ 
come this confidence and sincere criticism. It is by 
far the strongest feature of any paper which attempts 
to serve the people. It helps in another way too— 
for this careful study by readers will make any paper 
more valuable to advertisers because profitable deal¬ 
ing with an advertiser must be a matter of education 
and development. Our readers study the advertise¬ 
ments and become acquainted with the advertiser’s 
name as they see it repeated week after week. That 
is one reason why we say that most of our advertisers 
would do better to have their name appear in every 
issue of the year rather than to crowd their advertis¬ 
ing into a short “busy” season. 
I* 
BREVITIES. 
Potato beetles are scarce with us. 
How do you kill stumps? Page. 485. 
Some folks take odd ways of getting even. 
Now, Jack Frost—plan for a long, Fall vacation. 
Come, corn growers, let’s be hopeful for a late Fall. 
That will carry us through. 
Why sow buckwheat alone as a cover crop? Why not 
put Crimson ciover with it? 
One crop that thrives in wet weather is the crowd of 
loafers at the country rumshop. 
Try five pounds of sulphur in the barrel of Bordeaux 
Mixture when spraying for blight. 
We have a report of snails that eat tobacco plants. 
Certainly tobacco makes snails out of some men. 
The new King of Servia has a name too long for our 
columns. We prefer to refer to him as the Hon. Peter 
Vitch. 
“The man behind the gun” is also the man before the 
guu—he handles his gun in proportion as he is fearless 
of the one pointed at him. 
There are some American farms which are ruled by 
scrub animals. Suppose these rulers were ended after the 
Servian plan, would these farmers be worse off? 
Kansas is asking for 28,000 harvest hands in addition 
to the men in sight. The State has a 60 , 000 . 000 -bushel 
wheat crop. In the meantime people near large cities 
are feeding regiments of burly tramps who say they 
can’t find work. 
An Indiana hen stole her nest in an abandoned wheat 
stack, and every fowl that strolled by the nest laid an 
egg in it. When the old hen marched proudly up to the 
farmhouse with her family, she was followed by two 
juvenile turkeys, five chicks, an infant Guinea and two 
ducklings, and seemed reasonably proud of the variety 
she had achieved. 
Prof. Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, was re¬ 
cently asked by Lord Grey, of the British South African 
Company, to visit South Africa to make a study of con¬ 
ditions there among the colored population. Had he ac¬ 
cepted the invitation Rhodesia would have been the 
gainer, but the United States would have been the poorer 
for its loss of a valuable citizen. 
