76o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 31, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Eetablisfved 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwooij, Editor. 
Hr. Wai.tbr Va.v Fleet.) 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, ^Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04, 
equal to Ss. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or lOVsz francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
backed by a responsible person. But to make doubly 
sure we w'lll 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 wanting 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, OCTOBER 31, 1903. 
We are pleased to find that more and more farm¬ 
ers are running a deposit account with a bank. It 
makes them acquainted with business men and bet¬ 
ter business methods. It is a perfectly safe way of 
paying bills, as one has a receipt for all monies paid, 
which turns out many times to be an invaluable 
feature. It also does away with the necessity of keep¬ 
ing much money in the house, the knowledge of which 
makes many of the women folks nervous and afraid 
of burglars.. 
* 
Some of the “agriculturists” who do their farming 
in an easy chair are full of advice about the Angora 
goat. Statistics show that we import into this coun¬ 
try about $25,000,000 worth of goatskins each year. 
That is fact enough for our easy-chair farmers, and 
they at once advise owners of hill lands to rush into 
Angora-goat breeding. The theory is good, but some¬ 
how the practice seems to go lame. Mr. Browning 
on page 767, has kept the goats but he fails to find 
an easy road to wealth over mohair. What would 
a farmer do with no wise men to theorize for him? 
* 
The curse of many a farm family and community 
is found in the cellar—working away in the barrel 
of “hard cider.” There are various ways of pre¬ 
paring this “devil in solution” which it is not neces¬ 
sary to give here. Some investigator has had speci¬ 
mens of this “hard eider” analyzed. On the average 
he found nearly 10 per cent of alcohol, making it a 
stronger drink than most samples of beer. It would 
be hardly possible to calculate the damage to morals 
and materials in country life that the barrel of hard 
cider is responsible for. As we are situated we would 
just as soon keep a barrel of gunpowder under the 
house. It is hard to see how any man can justify 
an attack upon the saloon while he keeps “strong 
drink” in his own cellar! 
* 
TirE promoters of the scheme to dig out the Erie 
Canal at State expense started out with the claim 
that farmers living near the canal were all in favor 
of the proposition. The fact is that the fiercest oppo¬ 
sition comes from farmers who live in the canal 
counties. There, if anywhere, should there be a sen¬ 
timent in favor of the plan, but instead of that we 
find outspoken opposition. Whenever there is a meet¬ 
ing of farmers this question comes up, and resolu¬ 
tions against the barge canal scheme are adopted 
with a roar. For example, in Walworth, Wajme 
County, a convention was held to nominate town 
officers. A set of anti-canal resolutions were passed, 
and among other reasons given was the following: 
Because the canal cannot be enlarged and used at the 
.same time, and as canal men claim that the canal is a 
great “freight regulator,” and as it is estimated that it 
will take from 10 to 15 years to complete the canal, we 
would be that number of years without a regulator, and 
what little freight the canal now carries would be divert¬ 
ed to other channels never to be regained. 
That certainly puts the value of this great “freight 
regulator” beyond the years of usefulness of most 
men of middle age. By the time it was finished it 
would be behind the needs of their children. The 
truth of the matter has been pretty well sifted out, 
and the farmers of the State now understand that 
western shippers, elevator men, contractors and poli¬ 
ticians are the only ones likely to be benefited by 
the canal. The proposed barge canal will not fully 
compete with the Canadian canals because it will 
not be deep enough to enable ocean ships to sail 
through it. Cargoes of grain are to be broken at 
Buffalo and reloaded at New York, thus giving the 
elevator tru-st and a canal-barge trust a chance a<'. 
handle cargoes. By the time the barge canal was 
completed export trade will most likely have changed, 
.so that nothing but a ship canal will be of any ser¬ 
vice. Why should New York State spend all these 
millions to dig a canal which we all know will prove 
too small to do the work required of it? A ship 
canal, dug by the National Government, is the only- 
waterway across New York that will ever prove a 
satisfactory outlet to the ocean. The entire West 
would benefit from such a canal, and there is little 
more reason why New York State alone should build 
it than there is why California should pay the entire 
cost of digging the Panama Canal. The farmers of 
New York understand this question thoroughly. Their 
opposition to the barge canal does not prove that, 
they are narrow or bigoted. They are really more 
patriotic and more zealous of the State’s welfare 
than those who for selfish interests would plunge 
the State in debt for any work which they know is 
inadequate. Tote agahisf the c/inal appropri/ifion.' 
* 
Three weeks ago we suggested that if frost would 
hold off two weeks longer his name ought to be 
changed from Jack Frost to*Hon. John Frost. We 
tucked this away in our smallest type, and did not 
expect to hear from it again. And yet this is what 
Uncle Sam brings: 
/?. 
A - /I 
There is no use trying to hide anything in The 
R. N.-Y. The “Honorable John” he is,for he has kept 
his hands off and given the corn a chance to mature. 
Now we are ready for him to nip his hardest. We 
want to dig apple trees for transplanting, and the 
Honorable John should bite their leaves off first. 
We expect that Frost will be much like the majority 
of the, humans who earn or build an “Honorable” on to 
their name. At heart he will be the same old “Jack,” 
doing what nature prompts him to do. 
* 
Some of the city papers .still persist in saying that 
the Grout anti-oleo law is a failure because the manu¬ 
facturers have learned how to color their stuff and 
still e\’ade the law. Such papers either wilfully de¬ 
ceive their readers, or are about six months behind 
the times. The oft-repeated truth is that the manu¬ 
facturers tried in every way to avoid paying the 
10-cent taxon coloredoleo. They used palm oils burned 
cotton seed and other substances which gave a yellow 
color to the white fats used in making oleo. While 
the Treasury Department was deciding the matter 
these manufacturers went ahead and made millions 
of pounds of colored oleo and refused to pay the tax. 
Then they claimed that the law was a failure. The 
Treasury Department finally decided that the color 
could not be used, and the manufacturers were forced 
to pay the taxes which they expected to dodge. Now 
they must come to the front and pay taxes on the 
yellow oleo or keep the color out. It seems neces¬ 
sary to repeat these facts again and again for the 
benefit of a few faint-hearted people who are almost 
ready to believe the stories told by the oleo makers. 
Do not be deceived. It is a painful thing for these 
men to be forced to be honest,' but that is what they 
are coming to. 
Farmers iu the M^estern States are taking greater 
interest each year in the fertilizer problem. One by 
one the western experiment stations are taking up the 
study of chemicals in relation to western soils. The 
first step is of course the use of lime, potash and 
phosphoric acid—clover and other legumes supplying 
the nitrogen. The time will come, however, when 
market gardeners and fruit growers will find it to their 
advantage to buy more or less nitrogen. Even now 
carloads of mixed high-grade fertilizer are sent from 
New York to California and used by fruit growers. 
We well remember the time when men like Prof. W. 
A. Henry, of Wisconsin, were trying to induce dairy- ‘ 
men of the Northwest to use more of the wheat bran 
which was shipped out of that section to the East or 
foreign countries. Much the same arguments can be 
given to show why western farmers should use the 
bone, blood or tankage from western slaughter houses 
on their own farms. Since the live animals came origi¬ 
nally from western soil, it seems like good economy 
to put their bones back where they came from. These 
problems are now coming up all over the West. 
Probably one reason why The R. N.-Y. is gaining 
rapidly in that section is because we give considerable 
space to the fertilizer question. 
* 
The Imndon Fruiterer has this to say about certain 
experiments carried on at the Maryland Station: 
Some experiments have been in progress at Maryland 
E'xperimental Station, U. S. A., as to the advantages to 
be derived from the judicious thinning of fruit. One 
would have thought, after the many articles that have 
been written on this subject that no further experiments 
were needed. The Experimental Station has re-discovered 
that the by-years of the apple are largely due to the tree 
being allowed to carry a too large crop. Fungoid dis¬ 
eases are also spread by contact in fruit that is not thinned. 
Thinning produces larger fruit and fruit of a higher 
color, and therefore more salable. But we knew all 
this before. We ask, therefore, why these experiments'’ 
The lofty tone taken by our exchange is scarcely 
justified when it is considered that the experiments 
in question were undertaken, not for the purpose of 
discovering the physiological efforts of fruit-thinning, 
which have long been worked out, but to find out 
whether, under present conditions of fruit culture 
and marketing, it is likely to profit Maryland grow¬ 
ers to thin their fruits. Trials at other stations seem 
to show that while size and attractiveness are quite 
certainly increased by judicious thinning, the actual 
prices realized in the markets for such fruits do not 
always pay for the increased expense. As our markets 
grow more discriminating there will doubtless be in¬ 
creased chances of profit in carefully grown fruits. 
% 
Is this country supposed to be a civilized nation? 
Our politicians would be very indignant if you 
intimated that their country (not ours) does not 
head the list! 
Why then do they permit their country to be the 
only section of civilization which does not enjoy the 
privileges of an international parcels post? 
That would be a good question to ask your Con¬ 
gressman—and ask hard! Our own guess is that 
even a politician would be ashamed to grant us the 
privilege of handling a large parcel at a fair postage 
rate abroad and then deny us the right to do the same 
thing in his own country. 
But who asks him to deny us such a right? 
The express companies! They are charging us 
more than ever for carrying our parcels, and when¬ 
ever a demand for a parcels post comes up they send 
to Washington and kill it. They know well enough 
that if Uncle Sam were permitted to do the fair 
thing by the people the express companies would be 
forced to give better service and fairer rates. 
Do we understand that the express companies are 
more important than the people? 
They think so. You write your Congressman a 
letter and ask him to bring this thing up at the special 
session and you will probably think so too. If, how¬ 
ever, you could get 1,000 of his constituents to sign 
a demand for a parcels post and send some fearless 
man to Washington to hold it right in his face you 
would find what the people amount to! 
It is a matter of power then? 
Exactly! Single men going against the express 
company lobby will be ground under the wheels. A 
crowd of men working together will get hold of the 
wheels and stop them. The public power of the com¬ 
mon citizen lies in his ability to get back to back 
with his fellows! 
BREVITIES. 
Sour apples help sweeten the home. 
Leave fretting to the hen that’s setting. 
If too late for anything else on the bare ground, so. 
rye. 
The lazy man says it is hard to get up from a bed of 
down. 
The fertilizer bill is badly torn when Crimson clover 
comes in after corn. 
It is well enough to take gentle exercise on a hobby, 
but pray for the man whose hobby rides him. 
A London scientist has discovered that rheumatism i.s 
due to germs, which are blue. It has often been noticed 
that rheumatism sufferers are blue also. 
Our Hungarian fellow citizens in New York have a 
paper known as Oesterreichsch-Ungarische Zeitung. 
Happily this sheet has not tackled the canal question: 
Recently (page 679) the Hope Farm man spoke of the 
three ages or parts of a man’s life. Of course, some one 
comes forward to say that the second part is the age of 
steal followed by the age of living on the stolen gold! 
The canal people tell us that the “future of New York 
is at stake” over the question of canal enlargement. If 
the canal ring gets hold of that $100,000,000 a good share 
of New York will be at the stake in the form of a bonfire. 
I The municipal authorities of Paris meditate compelling 
dogs to wear health medals, which will signify that the 
dog has been medically examined, that it is healthy, and 
has an owner. It is believed that this will dimini.sh the 
likelihood of hydrophobia. 
