872 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 19 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER, 
h National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collinowood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, ( ___ 
Mrs. E. T. Koyle, j-Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, J2.04. 
equal lo Ss. 6(1., or SV^ marks, or lOV* 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 trilling 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 19, 1903. 
The Color Supplement. 
The picture of the new Crimson Rambler rose 
Philadelphia appears as a supplement in this issue. 
The plants of the rose are now being grown in green¬ 
houses and will be ready for shipment in early Spring. 
We expect to have enough plants to send one to every 
subscriber for 1904. They will be sent in the order 
that the subscriptions are received. Those who renew 
first will get the plants first, as that is the order in 
which they are booked. Instructions for framing the 
picture will be found on page 875. The friends of old 
subscribers who send subscriptions now will get a 
picture by mail, whether the order comes direct or 
through an old subscriber. The extra supply of plates 
is, however, limited, and we can do this only while 
the supply holds out. 
It is time to begin to ask why the reports of the 
New York State .Agricultural Department are delayed 
so long in printing. The fault is not in the Depart¬ 
ment, for the copy for this report is always ready by 
the middle of January. Yet months grow nearly to 
years before the public printer gets around to it. 
These reports contain valuable information, and 
should be printed and issued at once. Farmers have 
respect for gray hairs, but do not want them on their 
agricultural reports. At one time the public printer 
had the MSS. for two of these reports on his hands at 
once. He had held one for more than a year. This is 
nonsense, and should be stopped. The Agricultural 
Department should not be held up in this way. 
* 
President Roosevelt devotes a little space in his 
message to Congress to the cotton-boll insect. He 
urges its destruction, which is an easier thing to do 
than really to destroy it. The President makes no 
mistake in pointing out the possible danger from this 
insect. If some successful way of fighting it is not 
soon worked out it will in a few years cause a loss to 
American cotton growers greater than the cost of the 
Panama Canal. There is already a bill before Con¬ 
gress which calls for $500,000 to enable the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture to learn how to fight this insect. 
The Department will do more for the National profit 
with this money than any 10 warships that could be 
built! 
* 
Tactfully handled the general discussion period of 
a farmers’ institute may prove the most helpful of the 
session, m clinching ihe points made by speakers, and 
drawing out those wTio really know a lot about the 
matters in question, but who feel that they have not 
sufficient of what is commonly called the “gift of 
gab” to warrant an attempt at extensive public speak¬ 
ing. The institute conductor has the fate of the meet¬ 
ing in his hands to a greater extent than most im¬ 
agine. We have seen cases where honest inquirers 
were sarcastically squelched by a speaker because the 
question was something that everyone ought to know. 
The conductor should tolerate nothing of this sort. He 
is not there to give orators a chance to spout, but to 
see that anyone who wants legitimate information on 
agriculture shall get it if it is to be had there. If the 
leader of the “discussion” feels the pulse of the meet¬ 
ing so carefully that he draws out those who have 
something to say, and tactfully prevents the man who 
has said all he knows from repeating it two or three 
times, he makes a big success. 
In the past few' years papers have printed reports of 
a new and cheap motor which Thos. A. Edison has in¬ 
vented. We were told that it is to be the most prac¬ 
tical farm power yet suggested—cheap, compact and 
strong. Several readers have written to learn more 
about it. We are now informed by the Edison Com¬ 
pany that the device is a generator which is to be used 
to develop electrical power. They are not ready to 
give details, but from former descriptions w'e judge 
that this “generator” will store electrical pow'er and 
then may be carried about to any part of the farm for 
w'ork. Anything that bears the name of “Edison” is 
sure to attract attention. We hope that this “genera¬ 
tor” w'ill mean to the farm something of what the 
larger electrical devices mean to the city. We can all 
imagine what it will be to have some fair-priced de¬ 
vice that will store the pow'er developed by a windmill. 
* 
There are over 17,000 words in the President’s mes¬ 
sage but not one in favor of a parcels post, a measure 
of vastly greater importance to the rank and file of 
country dw'ellers than the Isthmian ship canal or the 
exploitation of our navy. The President says a good 
word for rural delivery, largely an accomplished fact, 
needing no further special indorsement, but is silent 
as to the urgent need for the more economical trans¬ 
portation of light merchandise. Surely there are few' 
higher duties of government than to disseminate in¬ 
telligence and commodities at actual cost. All pro¬ 
gressive nations except our own utilize their postal 
facilities for the general good in this manner, to the 
great bettei-ment of rural communities. This great 
convenience, denied us by political leaders and mon¬ 
opolists, will be established w'hen the people make an 
emphatic demand through their representatives in 
Congress. 
* 
The death of a farmer in Orange County, N. Y., 
through injuries received from a vicious ram em¬ 
phasizes the need of care when working about a sheep 
barn where the ram is allow'ed the freedom of the 
place. A blow from one of these woolly cannon balls, 
in the open field, where one can fall against the un¬ 
resisting air, does not add to comfort or the sense of 
personal dignity, but in an enclosure surrounded by 
hard boards the danger is greatly increased. Some 
of these animals seem to have an able-bodied and con¬ 
stantly growing grudge against human beings, and 
have no scruples against murdering the man who feeds 
and cares for them. Where the ram is given free 
range of the sheep barn, he should carry a little bell, 
so that one may hear the w'arning jingle and dodge in 
time. A better plan is to catch the animal on enter¬ 
ing the barn and tie him near the door while doing 
the chores. They soon get used to this imprisonment, 
and we have often had them walk up to the tying 
place and stand until fastened. 
* 
Among other dispatches from Washington wo reo d 
the following: 
In his annual report to the Postmaster-General, Third 
Assistant Postmaster-General Madden says that if it had 
not been for the large increase in the appropriations for 
rural free delivery the postal service would have been 
practically self-sustaining during the last three years. 
The report shows that in 1901, when the increa.se in the 
expenses for free rural delivery was $1,357,055, the total 
deficit was $3,9.S1,521; in 1902, when the increase in thi.s 
appropriation was $2,220,330, the total postal deficit was 
$2,001,170, and in 1903, when the increase was $4,104,044, the 
deficit for the entire postal service was $4,586,977. 
Well, what of it? Reform the abuse of the “frank¬ 
ing privilege” among Congressmen, shut off the peo¬ 
ple who send catalogues and sample copies illegally at 
cheap rates, pay the railroads a fair price and no 
more, or put a few rascals behind the bars, and the 
Department can pay twice as much for rural delivery 
and still make money. The fact is, that no develop¬ 
ment of the mail service has done so much for the 
people or increased business with the country so much 
as rural delivery. No man at Washington dares to 
suggest that it be discontinued. Congress may as well 
understand now as at any other time that rural de¬ 
livery is only a step toward a parcels post. 
* 
The nurserymen begin to have their say about 
“substitution” on page 873. It is a big subject—one 
of the biggest connected with the trade. There are 
several sides to it, and we hope they will all be 
brought out and dusted. We can easily see that sub¬ 
stitution may become a fraud and an evil. When a 
man knows what he wants, and for special reasons 
desires certain varieties, the nurseryman has no busi¬ 
ness whatever to give him something else. On the 
other hand, we can readily see that there may be cases 
where the nurseryman would do his customer a favor 
by changing the order. Buyers are sometimes led to 
make up lists of fruits which are not at all suited to 
their conditions. A nurseryman may know that these 
varieties are not suitable. What is he to do In such 
a case? We have been told of instances where nur¬ 
serymen quierly substituted other varieties, using the 
labels of the varieties called for. When the trees and 
plants came into bearing customers were greatly 
pleased, while they would have been partly disap¬ 
pointed if their order had been strictly carried out. 
There may be a few cases where such work would 
prove satisfactory but we hold that the nurseryman 
has no right to practice this form of deception. He 
should fill the order just as it comes, or write the cus¬ 
tomer and tell him about the better varieties. There 
are also fruits like peaches or strawberries which show 
several varieties of much the same general type. Prob¬ 
ably the substitution of one for another would not 
make any serious difference. We speak of these things 
in order to be perfectly fair to the nurserymen. We 
will let them state their case but, on the other hand, 
it should be known that we are accumulating evidence 
from buyers as well as sellers. We will give this mat¬ 
ter a thorough airing and then sum it up fairly. To 
those who are to buy this year we may give a few bits 
of advice: 
Order early. 
Know what you want before ordering. 
Send the order to several nurserymen for figures. 
If possible go to see the stock before buying. 
Write “no substitution” plainly on your order if you 
do not want it. 
Remember that a good tree costs more than a poor 
one, and is worth more, and that it never pays to buy 
a poor one. 
At least a dozen times every year we are asked 
whether one nurseryman can restrain another from 
using a trade-mark name for a fruit. For example, 
suppose A has a fine new peach which he calls 
“Creamy”—can he prevent B, who has bought a few 
trees and used the wood for grafting or budding, from 
selling trees under this name? The law decided that 
a new variety of fruit cannot be protected by a trade 
mark or patent as a new chair or hammer or toy may 
be. A w'estern nurseryman thought otherwise, and 
brought suit to restrain another from selling certain 
apples under trade-mark names. When the case came 
to trial the plaintiff evidently saw that he could not 
win, and the following court order w'as given: 
Now comes the plaintiff and voluntarily dismi.sses the 
cau.so. It is therefore ordered and adjudged by court 
that the defendant be discharged and go hence, and re¬ 
cover of and from the plaintiff the costs of this suit, and 
that execution i.s.<5ue therefor. 
From the history of other similar ca.ses we felt sure 
that a nurseryman cannot use a “tiade mark” as a 
manufacturer uses a patent. The latter deals with 
dead things, while the plants are alive and may be 
propagated. We regret that such a law seems neces¬ 
sary, for the man who produces a new fruit has as 
much right to a monopoly as he who invents a new 
machine. 
BREVITIES. 
'Talk ajjple into popularity. 
We suggest red pop corn as ideal ears for a corn 
husking. 
Why not make good wages draining that swamp this 
Winter? 
And now the amateur poultry keeper begins to lose 
faith in his hens. 
Jack Frost makes a draft on your pocketbook through 
the crack in the barn. 
What right has the mouth that swallows hard cider 
to declaim against a “rum hole?” 
Who has a better recipe for making a small quantity 
of sauerkraut than that given on page 876? 
It is natural to both hog and tree to root. Yet we ring 
the hog for rooting and call the tree N.G. if it does not. 
Try a dozen or two seedling evergreens. The experi¬ 
ment will be interesting, and in a few years there will 
be a number of trees worth having. 
Some of our “esteemed contemporaries” are printing 
elaborate articles on "The value of an agricultural 
paper!” Whafs the use? The paper should speak for 
itself. 
Mr. Stringfellow is right when he says that New 
England should be the apple orchard for Europe. We 
also know that trees will start and grow when planted 
in small holes. 
The New York Street Cleaning Department burns rub¬ 
bish collected in the city. The ashes from this rubbish 
give 18 pounds of phosphoric acid and eight pounds of 
potash per ton. 
A Jersey milkman has been sued for feeding onions 
to his cows. The dealer who bought the milk lost his 
customers, and now he tries to make the man who fed 
the onions pay for it. 
If the plan for killing cutw'orms suggested on page 869 
becomes popular a market for Uncle Sam’s second-hand 
cannons may be found in the rural districts. Why not 
turn them over to the Department of Agriculture for free 
distribution with seeds, etc.? 
Here is a good suggestion from a reader of long stand¬ 
ing: “For several Winters I have surrounded my house 
on Its north and west sides with a rough board fence 10 
feet high, and find it most largely conducive to comfort 
and'saving of fuel. The needs of the farm utilize the 
boards during the Summer. The one nail in each end 
that tacks up the board in no manner Injures.” 
