536 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 25 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FABMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
EBtablished 1850. 
Herbert W. Coleingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, ( . , . 
Mrs. K. T. Koyle, j-Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOEIiAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, J2.04, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or 8^ marks, or 10 y 2 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. 
SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1903. 
Our friends in the South tell us this week some¬ 
thing about cow peas and Crimson clover. They 
make a good story out of it, and we know that what 
they say is not in the least overdrawn. Next week 
our northern friends will begin to talk, and we shall 
see what these good farm friends do when they move 
away from the South. 
* 
Ffw questions about nursery trees have ever called 
out such a discussion as one about using wood from 
bearing trees for budding or grafting. We have a 
remarkable series of answers coming from nursery 
men and others, which not only shed some light on 
the subject, but show that nurserymen are well stirred 
up over this matter. Well they may be, in view of the 
fact that it has been claimed that a bearing tree of 
superior excellence may influence a young orchard as 
a well-bred animal stamps its good qualities on a 
flock or herd. The practical men do not believe much 
in this theory. 
* 
It will be seen that Mr. Mapes, on page 542, objects 
to the proposed contract with the People’s Pure Milk 
Co. He presents good reasons for his objections and 
we are glad to give all sides a hearing. The most 
objectionable part of the contract, at least the one 
which is most frequently mentioned, is the right 
which the company retains of changing the price of 
milk in case of a glut in Summer. As is clearly point¬ 
ed out, many farmers do not try to make Winter 
milk since the cost of grain is too high. They depend 
on the cheaper milk of Summer for their income, and 
if the price of this Summer milk be cut, the higher 
Winter price will not benefit them greatly. These 
objectionable features of the contract were of course 
seen and deplored by milk producers before it was 
signed. The best answer that can be made to the ob¬ 
jectors probably is that under all the circumstances 
the offer is the best that can be obtained at this time. 
There seems to be a desire to give the new company 
a trial. No reader of The R. N.-Y. can say that the 
whole matter has not been made clear. 
* 
Theibe is a man in a western town who deserves 
well of his fellows. This man was born on a farm and 
loves a good tree. A fine White oak stands on the 
street in front of a house. The town council ordered 
the owner to lay a cement sidewalk. Rather than 
spend a small sum to do a neat job of cementing 
around the tree, this man ordered it cut. The hero 
of this story came on the scene just as the men had 
struck the first blow with the ax to bring that noble 
old tree down. There came near being a fight, but 
he held up the owner and the street commissioner 
until the council could decide it. He claimed that the 
tree stood on ground belonging to the people, and he 
obtained all the papers needed for serving an injunc¬ 
tion. Armed with these he went before the council. 
His first argument wks about as follows: “It took 250 
years to make this tree and now you want to destroy 
it in half an hour!” That touched only a few mem¬ 
bers of the council, but this one hit the rest of them 
hard: “That tree belongs to the people. You have no 
business to interfere with their rights. If you don’t 
save that tree at once I will have this injunction 
served and push it so that it will cost you over a dol¬ 
lar for every year this tree has lived.” That tree is 
still standing, and will stand until it dies! There is 
a double lesson in this—not only the saving of the 
tree but the fight for common rights. The “rulers” 
in some of our towns are prepared to ride roughshod 
over the public rights of the common citizen. One 
man who has the courage to fight for such rights can 
win if he will stick to his case like a bulldog. There 
is need of a whole regiment of such men to fight for 
the rights of the farmer. 
* 
One of the essentials for getting along in any line 
of work where improvement of condition depends up¬ 
on merit rather than “pull,” political or otherwise, is 
that peculiar, indescribable faculty of doing as many 
jobs as possible more than “good enough,” though one 
sees no immediate return for the apparently extra 
labor, A street bootblack working on this principle 
has become the prosperous proprietor of several 
“bootblack parlors” yielding a good income. He no 
longer handles the brush himself, finding enough to 
do in overseeing his several places. Others who 
started when he did are still knocking about the 
streets picking up odd nickels. People patronize this 
cheerful Italian because they can sit in comfortable 
chairs and read a newspaper while getting a little 
better shine than ordinary, made with materials that 
do not injure the leather. In no line of work does this 
extra care, or lack of it, count for more or show 
more plainly than in farming. The man who plows, 
harrows, plants and cultivates a little better than 
“good enough” is likely often to raise crops that his 
neighbors cannot account for. 
The demonstration that mosquitoes are the most 
common carrying agents of the malarial organism as 
well as the germs of other dangerous diseases has de¬ 
veloped an urgent demand for the suppression of 
these always annoying pests, and methods advised by 
entomologists, such as drainage or stocking of breed¬ 
ing pools with carnivorous fishes and spraying with 
petroleum are being tested in some localities on quite 
an extensive scale. The outcome of these experi¬ 
ments does not always appear gratifying, but progress 
in reducing these enemies to comfort and health is 
surely being made. A high medical authority asserts 
that ammonia, even in the most attenuated solutions, 
has a deadly effect on larval mosquitoes, and recom¬ 
mends that the soil be thoroughly nitrified by grow¬ 
ing clover, peas and other legumes by the aid of phos- 
phated manures so that the drainage may contain 
ammonia. Whether this theory works out or not as 
a mosquito killer on a large scale it is in line with 
the most progressive ideas of modern agriculture, but 
most farmers would want to save that ammonia and 
market it as a constituent of paying crops rather 
than have it drain off in the streams. 
In speaking of the reorganization of a well-known 
shipbuilding concern recently in trouble, needing a 
loan of $5,000,000 to keep it going, the New York 
Evening Post says: 
Other corporations have failed in like manner from be¬ 
ing under the shadow of a mighty name. A man of 
force and initiative builds up a great business, and It 
comes to be believed that there is magic in the family. 
Sons and nephews are taken in at fancy salaries, as 
though special talent were inherited with the name, for¬ 
getting the intelligent and unremitting effort of the 
founder to get the industry on its own feet and keep it 
there. 
The same remarks would apply to many farms. 
The young man who inherits an improved farm with 
good buildings, fertile soil and bank account of a few 
thousands is likely to forget the hard labor of father 
and grandfather in hammering this farm out of the 
rough wilderness. For every success there is a 
cause, and it is more often the product of active 
brain and hands than of so-called lucky turns or 
good fortune. No industry is more jealous of the at¬ 
tention of its owner than the farm. It demands work 
and planning of the same type, if not in the same 
degree, that brought it to its improved state. 
* 
It seems to be quite evident that the Russian peo¬ 
ple are determined to be rid of the Jews. They are 
not wanted in Russia, and they are likely to be per¬ 
secuted until they leave. While there are other coun¬ 
tries which would receive them, they are most likely 
to come here. We now have a large Jewish popula¬ 
tion, and it is probable that most Europeans of the 
lower or middle class have an exaggerated idea of the 
“freedom” and opportunity to be enjoyed in this 
country. The coming of this great army of Jews can¬ 
not be a blessing to the country, but it may be pos¬ 
sible to distribute it so that it will not be an evil. It 
is not likely that these Jews will help much in solv¬ 
ing the farm labor problem, for they are not as a 
class farmers, and are used to living in town or city 
Left to themselves they are most likely to settle in 
New York and other large cities—just where they 
ought not to go. The Jews already in this country 
can do no more patriotic service than that of hand¬ 
ling their co-religionists as they come so as to dis¬ 
tribute them east, west, north and south. No one can 
do this so well as the American Jews, and this ser¬ 
vice will be but a fraction of what they owe this 
country for receiving the persecuted from Russia. 
The following letter comes from western New 
York: 
Some years ago, by the efforts of Congressman Wads¬ 
worth and friends, Mongolian pheasants were introduced 
in western New York and turned loose as game birds— 
protected by special laws of our independent boards of 
supervisors. While the birds are beauties, they have 
developed great capabilities as corn pullers and grain 
destroyers. No scarecrows affect them. Now, is it con¬ 
stitutional to place a foreign wild bird on our farms to 
our injury and punish us for killing them? 
While The R. N.-Y. has not been able to develop a 
very high estimate of the service to agriculture which 
Congressman Wadsworth has rendered, we do not 
think he deserves to be blamed in this matter. Fi’om 
what we can learn he does not seem to be responsible 
for these pheasants. The New York law declares 
that there shall be no open season for Mongolian 
pheasants except in Suffolk County. The law pro¬ 
hibits the killing of these birds. This is a sample 
of the game laws which are framed in the interests 
of so-called “sportsmen.” The farmers are expected 
to fatten the birds so that the “sportsmen” can enjoy 
killing them later on. Why should any bird fear a 
scarecrow' when the great State of New York pro¬ 
tects it? The farmers have more to fear from such 
a scarecrow of a law. 
The R. N.-Y. has done its share in urging farmers 
to try Crimson clover, cow peas. Soy beans. Alfalfa, 
rape and other plants which are known to be useful 
in certain locations. Some of our readers have sent 
glowing reports of Hairy vetch, which we have not 
yet tried. We welcome fair criticism of these new 
crops, for we know that sometimes their weak points 
are not apparent until long after their virtues are 
seen. We are glad therefore to print the following 
note from Prof. C. D. Smith, of the Michigan Experi¬ 
ment Station; 
I have noted in a recent issue the somewhat enthusi¬ 
astic comments of Prof. Craig on the value of vetches as 
a cover crop for orchards. I may supplement what he 
said by the statement that vetch hay does very nicely 
for sheep; but I want to caution all the readers of 
The R. N.-Y. against the indiscriminate use of vetches 
on all ordinary fertile soils where a good crop of vetch is 
produced. It is impossible to gather all of the seed, and 
the vetch degenerates into a very troublesome weed. 
Where wheat follows, it is utterly impossible to screen 
the vetch seed from the wheat, which it spoils for bread¬ 
making and, of course, utterly ruins for seed. It is but 
just to your readers who have had no experience with 
vetches to warn them against this bad quality of the 
otherwise useful plant. 
When the first Delaware farmers began to use 
Crimson clover largely their neighbors often called it 
a “weed,” and protested against its introduction. It 
proved to be a very valuable weed—worth more than 
some cultivated crops. The objection to vetch seeds 
in wheat seems to us a strong one. 
• 
BREVITIES, 
Who can live comfortably with a lazy liver? 
The buckwheat crop will be heavier than usual. 
Where is the best place to graft broom corns? On the 
palms. 
Who can be so unhappy as a healthy man with nothing 
to do? 
If you would help a man set him at work helping some 
one else. 
The latest reported mosquito “cure” is a Chinese joss 
stick stuck in the hat or hair and burned slowly. 
Who is the brave man? One who can take his pet 
hobby out behind the barn and kill it when the proper 
time comes. 
Do not discuss hopeless things with the child. Make 
childhood the time for manufacturing hope to be carried 
fresh to old age! 
A WISE and witty friend tells the Hope Farm man that 
the thick-winded horse should not be named “Bird” but 
Aurora (a roarer). 
The report is that a hog In Maine ate ?250, which the 
owner had stored away. In Indiana they say that J15.000 
were put Into one hog and called a good business deal. 
We recently saw two women at work weeding onions. 
They had a large umbrella with the long handle fitted In 
a large board. They were on their knees, and by sliding 
the board along kept constantly in the shade. 
One would think farming had made no progress in the 
last 50 years to look at what the “authorities” undertake 
to teach In the country schools. The farmer is to spend 
his life close to nature. Why, then, should he not study 
nature and natural law? 
