664 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 19 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FABMEB'S PAPEB. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850 . 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, / 
Mrs. B. T. XtOYLE, Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLIiAB A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, J2.04, 
equal to Ss. 6d., or 8^4 marks, or 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, SEPTEMBER 19, 1903. 
The Government reports indicate a large corn crop 
in spite of the former unfavorable reports. It all de¬ 
pends on the weather through September. Should 
frost hold off many a cornfield now far behind will 
give a fair yield of grain. The race is now nearly at 
its end, and we still hope for a fair yield. 
• 
Tub canal sentiment at the New York State Pair 
was quite one-sided. The “canal committee” had a 
tent on the grounds, but no one seemed to go near it. 
On the other hand, nearly every farmer at the Fair 
had appointed himself a committee of one to talk 
and work against the scheme. Surely, if farmers near 
the canal can see no advantage in the spending of 
$100,000,000 on this big ditch, how can distant farm¬ 
ers be expected to favor it? 
• 
The New York law demands clean county fairs. It 
clearly states that if any county society permit im¬ 
moral shows or gambling devices on its grounds State 
aid will be withheld. Th.at is right, and the New York 
State Fair sets a good example. There were no “snide” 
shows on the ground, and not a drunken man to be 
seen. The best way to command respect for a law is 
to set a good example! We are told that the managers 
even shut down the sale or use of liquors in the club 
house. Good! Why should there be rum in the club 
house and water outside? 
So IT is impossible for a cow to get drunk on apples! 
That is what the scientific men tell the Hope Farm 
man—though it is evident that they do not really 
know. Some of us have formed our standard of 
drunken behavior by the actions of the human sub¬ 
ject. Perhaps science will now throw the mantle of 
charity over drunken men, and permit us to say that 
when they roll into a fence corner, or fall down in 
the barn, they are merely “tired” or suffering from 
indigestion! Science may call it by any name, but we 
still believe that the safest thing for cows or men is 
to fence them out! 
An answer to the following question may interest 
those who are to enter the prize contest: 
There is some doubt in our minds as to whether the 
article mentioned in your prize offer of August 29 should 
include both the man’s and the woman’s work, or cover 
that of only one. 
We do not care whether the day’s work covers all 
departments of the farm or whether it is made a rec¬ 
ord of one person’s labor. Thus far the articles sent 
cover only one side. Men have written about their 
own word, and women have detailed their own labor. 
A story of the work done by an entire family would 
certainly be interesting. 
* 
Still another letter-writing swindle is reported, 
this including the “unclaimed fortunes” which so 
many misguided people believe to be awaiting claim¬ 
ants in foreign countries. The promoter of the 
scheme, recently arrested in New York, advertised 
that for $1 he would send a complete list of all de¬ 
ceased persons who had left unclaimed property in 
England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and would also 
give the opportunity to earn $5 a week and $1.50 ex¬ 
penses by writing 10 similar letters each day to per¬ 
sons whose addresses would be furnished. A number 
of women responded to this bait, sending the dollar 
and writing the letters, but they received neither the 
“complete list” nor the promised compensation. Such 
swindles as these flourish all the year around, but we 
usually notice an increase in the traps laid for rural 
dwellers in the Pall and Winter, the swindlers cal¬ 
culating that when crops are harvested and money 
received for them, the farmer and his family may be 
more readily ensnared than during the rush of the 
busy season. Letter-writing frauds have been so 
thoroughly exposed during the past two years that 
their power for mischief should be greatly lessened; 
they still flourish, however, and there seems little 
diminution in the crop of victims. 
What are we to think when a man like J. H. Hale 
is willing to experiment with mulching in his peach 
orchard? We think that Hale is growing, and that he 
took advantage of an off year to try an experiment 
that will prove very useful. Speaking of “mulch” or 
sod culture we are able to state that at the next meet¬ 
ing of the New York Fruit Growers’ Association Mr. 
Vergon, of Ohio, will describe his sod orchard. The 
R. N.-Y. has already told about it. Two years ago it 
is doubtful whether a man advocating such a plan of 
growing fruit could have obtained a hearing before 
either of our great horticultural societies. What are 
we to hear next? That Mr. Stringfellow is to address 
the Western New York Horticultural Society? 
• 
A FAIR share of the grease produced by packers of 
beef and pork is used for soap making, its sale add¬ 
ing to the profits of the business. A new waste fat 
has now appeared which threatens hard competition. 
The National Provisioner says that while palm oil is 
used for polishing steel plates, until within a short 
time this oil after use on the plates went into the 
waste. Now chemists have learned how to redeem 
this oil from the waste, and they find that it can be 
used in making soap, thus displacing animal grease. 
We are told that 140,000 pounds of this “steel oil” 
were recently sold to soap makers, and of course this 
means a loss of market for that much tallow. If this 
oil can be saved without too much cost we may trust 
the steel manufacturers to save it or even to begin 
manufacturing soap as a part of their business. All 
this shows how the chemists are overhauling wastes 
and saving the drops of value which have so long es¬ 
caped. It also makes the meat packers thoughtful, 
for it shows them what it means to have some cheap 
fat ruin the market for their tallow. They tried to 
do this very thing in their efforts to sell colored oleo 
in the guise of pure butter. The competition of the 
scrap fats with tallow’ is at least fair and honest, 
while that attempted by colored oleo is not. 
• 
A HROLTP of immigrants from southern Europe were 
walking up Broadway. They w’ere small men with 
hard, wrinkled faces, and each carried a pack on his 
back. A man whose grandfather came, a poor boy, 
from the old country stood watching them. “We shall 
have trouble with those fellows later,” he said. “They 
are dangerous citizens!” That is a common saying— 
often without much thought. It is true that we are 
not now receiving the better class of European 
laborers as was the case 20 years ago. Still those 
men have their use. They do much of the rough and 
dirty work which for some reason Americans do not 
care for. It is doubtful whether some of the great 
public improvements could be carried on without 
them. Those of us who are but a few generations re¬ 
moved from the immigrant should not be too critical. 
As for the “dangerous citizen” it is doubtful whether 
these ignorant foreigners are as great a menace to 
society as two classes of native-born Americans, The 
children who are growing up in institutions—poor- 
houses, asylums or houses of refuge—without personal 
love or home are on the whole more to be feared. So 
are the boys and girls who are ashamed of father and 
mother, though very willing to spend the money 
which the old folks earned at rough toil. When such 
children grow into hard, grasping, cold-blooded men 
and women they become the pirates of society, and 
though their pedigree runs back to Plymouth Rock 
they may become a greater menace to society than 
the ignorant foreigner who comes to this country for 
a home. 
* 
There is a vast amount of bosh uttered by “states¬ 
men” and politicians in their speeches at agricultural 
fairs. Secretary of the United States Treasury Shaw, 
in an address delivered at the recent Ohio State Fair, 
asserted that agriculture as an industry is behind the 
times, and that farmers must practice greater econ¬ 
omies to succeed! Is the Secretary not aware that 
every farmer who actually makes his living from the 
land is a practical economist, spending far less for 
equipment and farm betterments than good judgment 
demands? One may drive far and wide through the 
most prosperous rural regions and never meet a 
farmer who dare expand his facilities as rapidly as 
his business experience seems to justify. If he gets 
a fair income for his endeavors it is because he looks 
after details at least as carefully as the manager of 
any other business, and probably practices more self- 
denial. That there are too many careless and sloven¬ 
ly farmers cannot be denied. There are also incompe¬ 
tent and dishonest bankers and financiers, as the in¬ 
vesting public learns to its cost. Secretary Shaw 
should get away from his accounts long enough to 
realize that agriculture, one of the most complicated 
and exacting of all arts, is in a most progressive state. 
If it lags at all it is because of the enormous tribute 
levied against the farmer in the way of direct and 
indirect taxation, which forces him to a narrow econ¬ 
omy not conducive to National welfare. If the Secre¬ 
tary will kindly make public some device by which 
the high taxes now existing on farms and farm neces¬ 
sities may be measurably shifted to corporate wealth, 
of which this country has an unbounded store, he will 
be listened to with great interest. 
A RFXJENT trial in New Jersey has attracted much 
attention. Last Winter there was a collision between 
an electric car and a steam railroad train, in which 
nine children were killed and others wounded. The 
accident took place at a grade crossing which had long 
been considered dangerous. The electric car, loaded 
with school children, came down a hill. The tracks 
were slippery with snow or ice, and though brakes 
were used and the wheels were stopped the car slid 
in front of the engine and its passengers were ground 
beneath the wheels. The question of money damages 
was clear enough, but in order to place the respon¬ 
sibility for such wholesale murder “higher up” 11 
rich men, oflicers or stockholders in the road, were 
placed on trial for manslaughter. The case was one 
of the most important ever brought before the New 
Jersey courts, for it established a precedent. Can 
criminal law put its hand on the rich man when his 
property, under charge of others, destroys human life? 
The court says No! After hearing the case against 
these men the judges told the jury to acquit chiefly 
on the grounds that the owners or stockholders could 
not be held responsible because the subordinate did 
not use all the means provided to prevent such acci¬ 
dents! This may be the law, but in a State like New 
Jersey it is unfortunate that the owners cannot be 
handled. The slaughter in that State at grade cross¬ 
ings is fearful, and the pittance paid for a human life 
is more insult than compensation. One rich owner 
behind the bars for a year would probably do more 
to stop the slaughter than a thousand money damages. 
BREVITIES. 
The boy problem will not down. 
Don’t forget the cover crop this Fall. 
'roo many people use tact like a tack. 
A GOOD Alfalfa field breaks the barn open. 
The race for the corn crop gets hotter as the weather 
grows colder. 
No man can get a,way from a word that is planted in 
ink. Think many times before you get into print. 
The man who upholds his party, right or wrong, with¬ 
out criticism, is partly responsible for evils at which he 
growls. 
A GOOD way to commit suicide would be to try to eat 
a sample of everything that is offered at a New England 
picnic. 
In it! The man who planted an orchard 15 years ago 
and cared for it. So will be the man who can say the 
same 15 years hence! 
Roadside trees are a good Investment. Their beauty 
is an attraction adding value to adjacent property, and 
their shade is in Summer a blessing to men and horses. 
'J’HE toughest problem for many farms is how to re¬ 
model the old barn so as to handle more stock and suit 
the increase of feed which results from the silo and 
Alfalfa. 
The Secretary of the Treasury says that he believes 
In an elastic currency. A good many of his fellow citi¬ 
zens are obliged to carry out his views by stretching 
every dollar a good deal further than it wants to go. 
Scientists say that the Zebrula, a cross between the 
horse and zebra, will gradually supersede the mule as 
a transport animal. Its great value will be In tropical 
countries, the zebra being immune against attacks of 
tsetse fly and the African horse sickness. 
Another custom house official has distinguished him¬ 
self by charging duty on a batch of imported snails, 
classifying them as “wild animals.” As a rule the snail 
is not nearly so wild as the man who finds his garden 
devastated by these restful mollusks. If a high-tariff 
wall would only keep them out of the cold frame we are 
ready to vote for protection. 
Crimson clover has been seeded in corn and left to 
grow till the following May. Then it was plowed under, 
corn planted again with Crimson again following In the 
1< all. This has been kept up year after year—both the 
clover and the corn growing better as crop after crop 
was taken off. The improvement was faster when rock 
and potash were used on the clover. This is now an old 
story, but is still true. 
