84o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 6 
f 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FABMEB'S PAPEB. 
K National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Estahliahed, 1850. 
Hekbkrt W. Collingwood, Editor. 
OR. WALTER VAN FLEET, I a ggoolates 
MRS. K. T. Koyle, f Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOUIiAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to Ss. 6d., or marks, or lOVi francs. 
“A SaUARE 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, DECEMBER 5, 1903. 
An Iowa farmer is said to have received a package 
of “Government seeds” on which was printed “$300 
penalty for private use.” He sent them back with 
the following note: “I cannot put the seeds to public 
use and cannot afford to pay $300 for using them my¬ 
self.” We wish more farmers would send the seeds 
back—not for this reason, but because they know 
that the Government has no right to engage in any 
such business. This abuse may lead to larger ones, 
which will cost a man more than $300 before he is 
done with it. 
* 
Last year a great California fruit company failed. 
It is now stated that this great concern received $1,- 
800,000 from the express companies as “rebates.” In 
other words, while the express companies were sup¬ 
posed to charge all alike for transportation, they were 
paying back enough to this great fruit company to 
make a tremendous profit. The smaller shippers had 
to stand the full rate, while the big ones who were 
best able to pay the price were given a “rebate.” The 
injustice of such methods is enough to sicken any man 
who believes in fair play. Good will come from it, 
though! It will force the people to demand a parcels 
post or Government express! 
* 
In our neighborhood there has never been so much 
Fall plowing as this season. On some light lands, even 
on hillsides, the soil has been turned over—in some 
cases with the furrows running up and down hill. 
We do not like to see so much Fall plowing, and 
would not practice it except in the case of tough old 
sod. It seems to us far better to let the land carry 
some cover crop through the Winter. We are likely 
to have a mild Winter, and there will be a consider¬ 
able loss of soluble nitrogen on these plowed lands. 
In the South, where the ground seldom freezes, we 
should consider Fall plowing just about the worst 
thing to do. 
* 
The high price and shortage of barrels has been a 
great burden to many apple growers, but in the end it 
may prove a good thing. For one thing it has forced 
some growers to pack their best fruit in boxes. This 
form of package is sure to grow in favor as soon as 
buyers are accustomed to it. This year’s shipments 
will help advertise it Growers will remember the 
tremendous apple crop of 1896. The price was low and 
many predicted failure, but the very low price forced 
shippers to send the apples into new markets—places 
where such fruit had never gone before. This created 
new demands which have grown with each year. But 
for that year of cheap apples these demands would be 
unheard of. 
* 
More land frauds have been discovered—this time 
in Louisiana. It seems that for some years past 
wealthy corporations have been stealing valuable tim¬ 
ber lands from the Government by hiring small farm¬ 
ers and others to take up the land for them. Such 
people have secured title to public land, and then 
turned it over to the corporations. It is said that 
whole families—father, mother, son and daughter have 
been bribed in this shameful way. It is bad enough 
for these corporations to steal Government land, but 
worse for them to corrupt the poor. That is ever the 
way. They go on the principle that every man has 
his price, and that the way for them to buy some 
great privilege is to pay a small price for a man’s 
honor! 
Some of our readers are receiving letters from a so- 
called “investment company” which offers to sell west¬ 
ern farms at a low figure. The company claims to 
have an option on a large tract of land which it can 
buy for cash. In order to raise this cash it wants to 
sell the land ahead—that is, it wants you or me to 
send our money to them. They are to take our money 
and when enough of it has accumulated buy the land. 
Then they are to deed the land which we have paid 
for over to us. We certainly would not put a cent into 
any such scheme. If we had any money to spend on 
farm land we would buy tile and trees for the land we 
now have. A farmer can usually find plenty of 
chances for such investments on his own farm. If 
this company had such a remarkable chance to secure 
farm land they could borrow the money easily at a 
bank, or from some rich individual. It would not be 
necessary for them to ask strangers to put up small 
sums of money to help them out. 
• 
A SOUTHERN man once passed a Winter in Maine. 
He dreaded the deep snow, because he had supposed 
that when drifts covered the ground it would be im¬ 
possible to get about. To his surprise he found that 
snow, instead of separating people, brought them to¬ 
gether. Tracks were made through the drifts, and 
when the snow was packed down sleighs made speed 
which wagons in Summer could not reach. Instead of 
separating farmers the snow enabled them to get to¬ 
gether for church and Grange or social gatherings. 
There was far more visiting in'Winter than in Sum¬ 
mer. This man saw how what he had considered a 
great disadvantage was made useful. In the South the 
Winter was a season of mud, country roads were often 
impassable for weeks at a time except for horseback 
riders. The frost which he had thought would keep 
people apart gave them a firm roadbed, so that they 
might get together. There are many such prejudices 
that feed on imagination. A touch of pure fact opens 
holes in them. 
m 
A NEW scandal regarding the Government seed dis¬ 
tribution is reported from Washington. The seeds¬ 
men organized to fight the distribution in Congress. 
It is now charged that the force of this organization 
is being broken by a petty scheme of buying small 
lots of seeds from various members. The Govern¬ 
ment is said to be trying to keep such seedsmen 
good-natured by purchasing their seeds and sending 
their advertisement with each free package. We can 
hardly credit such a report. It does not seem pos¬ 
sible that the Department of Agriculture could be 
guilty of such an open system of petty bribery. Nor 
is it probable that any reputable seedsman would 
back out of his agreement for such a small price. 
.4.fter a seedsman has agreed to stand with others 
for a definite principle it seems worse than folly for 
him to give way. There never has yet been a real, 
organized effort to stop the seed distribution hum¬ 
bug. If the seedsmen will stick together and put up 
a fair fight they have a good chance to win, because 
they can show that the seed distribution is an unfair 
competition in their business. If some of them give 
way for the sake of selling a few seeds the force of 
their protest will be broken. 
« 
The new Department of Labor and Commerce issues 
a bulletin in which figures are given showing the cost 
of living. Records of expenses in more than 25,000 
families have been made. The average of 2,567 fam¬ 
ilies in all parts of the country show that the total 
family Income averaged $827.19, the total expenses 
$768.54, and the cost of food $344.61. These families 
averaged a little more than five members. These were 
families of working men, some of them probably hav¬ 
ing a small garden, or keeping a pig or hens. It is 
found that the cost of food for the average family has 
steadily increased during the past few years. In 1896 
the lowest point was reached, $296.76, so that in six 
years there was an increase of over 16 per cent in the 
cost of food for these families. This is probably due 
to the fact that the prices of common food products 
have ranged higher, and also that people have eaten 
more expensive articles of food. The cost of food 
alone in these families comprised 43 per cent of all 
expenses. The cost of clothing averaged 14 per cent, 
fuel and light five per cent, furniture, etc., 3% per 
cent. The farmer is interested in such figures, be¬ 
cause they show the vast importance of the American 
home market. They show that Americans are paying 
in cash at least $4,000,000,000 for food each year—be¬ 
sides what is consumed on the farms where It is 
grown. To all this should be added the cost of the 
fuel and fiber which really comes off the farms. What 
proportion of this great sum'of money finds its way 
back to the farmer? Let him receive 80 cents for a 
bushel of wheat or three cents for a quart of milk or 
five cents for a pound of beef—what does the con¬ 
sumer pay for these things when they are sold to him 
as food? The manufacturer and the dealer secure a 
double profit on many things which they handle—one 
profit on the offal, as in the case of wheat or a carcass 
of beef, and another in wholesale or retail trading. 
In some cases the latter profit is an arbitrary one be¬ 
cause of a monopoly. The nutshell of the whole ques¬ 
tion is—what share of this cost of food does the actual 
producer receive? We may make the town workman 
so prosperous that he can afford to spend $10,000,000,- 
000 each year for food and still benefit the farmer but 
little unless he can obtain a fairer proportion of what 
his farm produce sells for. The farm should rank 
ahead of the railroad, and the farmer above the mid¬ 
dleman. 
« 
The Irish Industrial Organization Society is trying 
to diminish Irish emigration to this A’ountry by 
making farming more profitable to the farm laborer 
and small tenant in Ireland. 'The movement finds 
backers in Americans of Irish descent, who see that 
their countrymen will be better off if they can be 
kept at home. The Society has introduced the 
creamery system of butter making and other cooper¬ 
ative enterprises in Ireland, and revived the home 
industry of lace-making. These things have created 
a new interest in Irish farm life, and enabled farm¬ 
ers to reap the benefits of helpful machinery which 
they could not have bought singly. There is good 
reason to believe that if this industrial development 
can be kept up the drain of farm laborers away from 
Ireland will be practically stopped, and Irish agri¬ 
culture will reach the place it ought to occupy. It 
seems to us a wise thing for well-to-do Irishmen in 
this country to encourage an enterprise of this sort. 
Far better help to make Ireland self-supporting from 
her own soil than to bring her brawn and blood here. 
’Phere have been too many cases in the world’s his¬ 
tory where men and women have been driven out of 
a section when they might have been kept there- 
contented and happy. The exodus from the New Eng¬ 
land farm towns 30 years ago is an illustration. If 
the money which was sent West and South for in¬ 
vestment had been kept at home and put into needed 
public improvements thousands of farmers would 
have stayed at home with it, and profitable businp.ss 
could have been found for them all. 
« 
The Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General was re¬ 
cently called upon to decide a somewhat delicate 
question of etiquette; whether a lady is justified in 
shooting at a gentleman when he so far forgets him¬ 
self as to keep his hat on in her presence. It appears 
that the postmistress of a little Texas town has taken 
this drastic way of reforming the citizens, and while 
they admit that their manners are a trifie ragged, 
they think that even Lord Chesterfield would find it 
difficult to retain the poise of his courtesy under 
these conditions. Says the complainant: 
We don’t set up any claim that our manners are all 
they should be, but we’d like to be reasoned with and 
helped along. The postmistress here is a worthy woman, 
all right, and there ain’t a thing against her character, 
but she certainly is rude and hasty. One day last week 
the mayor, being some flushed up and careless, refused 
to remove his hat and bow on asking for the official mall, 
whereupon his hat was shot off and plumb ruined, and 
he left the post office so swiftly and undignified that it 
told against the standing of the town. We don’t like to 
appear fault-finding and plcayunlsh where a lady is con¬ 
cerned, but this one Tm telling about is sure arbitrary 
and abrupt, and we’d like to have her toned down some. 
As the lady would seem to be carrying the prin¬ 
ciples of civil service reform a trifle too far, an in¬ 
spector has been sent by the Department to inter¬ 
view her, with strict injunctions to remove his hat 
and salaam obsequiously on entering the office, be¬ 
cause the Department has plenty to do, and cannot 
risk the sudden demise of its employees. In the 
meantime, if the press despatches report a sudden 
earthquake and volcanic eruption in that section of 
Texas, we shall feel sure that the sensitive postmis¬ 
tress is instituting a few further social reforms. 
BREVITIES. 
Bank up for Winter. 
Respect the dishcloth. 
That celery swamp had a gold mine within a toot of 
the surface. 
Oh, how a fellow makes a mess—when he paints "fact” 
upon a guess! 
Put tar on the seed corn and every hill of corn is a 
crow bar hole! 
That California poultry indu.stry, page 847, shows some 
startling figures. 
Mr. Dickson, page 835, found Kerosene, Lime and Co., 
a business combination. 
We expect to give special attention to the subject of 
barn building and remodeling. 
The southern farmer longs for snow in Winter, while 
the northerner wants to be delivered from it. 
A VERV late peach that Is reliable and eatable will 
easily get standing room in hundreds of northern or¬ 
chards. 
The note on feeding calves with little milk on page 
846 is by a woman “dairyman,” who is obliged to do 
things under simple conditions. 
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