274 
April 14 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National V/eekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established i860. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, 1 
H. E. Van Deman, > Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly order* 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv .,” 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Onlt. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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, 
*09 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1900. 
Still another shark preying upon farmers is re¬ 
ported from Pennsylvania. He represents himself as 
a census taker, takes notes of facts about the family, 
and secures the signature of the head of the house to 
a paper, which subsequently turns out to be a con¬ 
tract for a lot of worthless books. The books are 
sent to the farmer as the result of the contract, and 
payment demanded. Why are so many ready to sign 
innocent-appearing papers for strangers? 
* 
The cultivation of roses, both for plants and cut 
blooms, has reached large proportions in this coun¬ 
try. We don’t know the exact amount of capital in¬ 
volved ‘in it, but thousands of persons gain their 
bread and butter in this industry, which may yet be 
considered in its infancy. Some day we hope to have 
a class of really high-grade roses that is adapted to 
the rather severe climate of the northern United 
States, without the aid of artificial methods of pro¬ 
tection. Nothing will speed the day more rapidly 
than the popular interest aroused by such exhibitions 
as the one just closed in New York. 
ik 
Oun friend on page 266 wishes to know whether he 
cannot go right out and do successful grafting after 
reading the recent article. No, indeed. There are 
certain things «,nat tie must learn from actually hand¬ 
ling stock and graft. This is true of the great ma¬ 
jority of unfamiliar farm operations. The best that 
we can do is to suggest and induce readers to test and 
experiment. With the best of printed directions our 
first effort will be more or less a crude experiment. 
Some men succeed better than others in putting their 
meaning on paper. The best of them stop far short of 
supplying the sound judgment which must be worked 
into the story. Let us all realize the limitations of 
the printed word. 
± 
At an Illinois farmers’ institute an object lesson 
was given in the value of blended flour. Wheat flour 
mixed with corn meal was made into biscuits, which 
were given away and eaten. The use of corn with 
wheat cheapens the flour without lowering its nutri¬ 
tive value, and, if sold as blended flour, it would sup¬ 
ply an honest product at a cheaper rate than wheat 
only. The corn-producing States are naturally in¬ 
terested in any effort to increase the use of their 
cereal. Only let it be described as “blended flour,” 
instead of masquerading as wheat alone. We now 
have a law compelling such flour to be stamped and 
branded. Like the oleo fraud, all these adulterators 
want to make a cheap counterfeit to be sold as a 
genuine article. 
* 
We receive many inquiries about the Soy bean. Is 
it to be preferred to the cow pea? With us the Soy 
bean has not proved so useful. It seems harder to 
start, and requires a stronger soil or more fertilizer 
than the cow pea. The “hustling” ability of the 
latter plant is with us one of its most useful qualities. 
With little tillage, and less fertilizer, one may put it 
on the back fields and bring them into such shape 
that they will produce good crops of corn. As we un¬ 
derstand it, the Soy bean will not do this—at least, 
it does not do it with us. The bean makes a more 
upright growth, and is said to make better hay or 
fodder. On rich land it will probably give a heavier 
yield than the cow pea. Some good authorities who 
have tried both crops give the preference to the bean, 
but our own experience prompts us to stay by our 
old friend, the cow pea. We are ready to thank him 
for the good he has done, and let him go when any 
other plan will show itself capable of doing more 
work in an average season on our soil. 
A Puerto Rican laborer was sent to this country 
under a regular contract. He was not permitted to 
land, as the labor organizations protested that he was 
a foreigner, and shut out by the contract clause in our 
tariff laws. This opposition was expected, in fact, 
the man was probably sent here in order to make a 
test case before the Supreme Court. If Puerto Rico is 
now a part of this country the man can, of course, 
enter as freely as he could pass from one State to an¬ 
other. If the Island is not a part of the United 
States he is a foreigner. It is a nice and knotty ques¬ 
tion, which has many branches or prongs to it. 
* 
Mr. Slingerland tells us this week, “in so many 
words,” just what he thinks of substitutes for Paris- 
green. This question of insect poisons is a serious 
one. In the older-settled parts of the country it is 
now next to impossible to produce a good crop of 
potatoes or of large fruit without fighting insect ene¬ 
mies. We believe that our present breed of Potato 
beetles has become somewhat immune to arsenic. It 
will take more of it to kill them than was required 
for their forbears of 15 years ago. Paris-green still 
seems to be the standard form of arsenic for poison¬ 
ing insects. The substitutes contain arsenic enough, 
but too much of it is harmful because it is soluble. 
Mr. Slingerland gives sound advice, but it is hard ad¬ 
vice to follow, because one can save a little price 
money by disregarding it. 
ik 
The “Summer resort” business is getting to be an 
important industry. In New Hampshire alone, $10,- 
442,000 are invested in Summer-boarder property, and 
174,280 people last year were glad to exchange good 
money for air, sunshine and food. In many cases 
farmers do not obtain much direct benefit from these 
large hotels. They cannot agree to supply a definite 
quantity of fruit or vegetables each day in the season, 
and so the boarding-house keeper often obtains 
“fresh” vegetables from the distant city. Many farm¬ 
ers find the Summer boarder a profitable sort of live 
stock. He brings a good market right to the farm, 
and if he is well handled and kept good natured, 
there is some profit in feeding him. When he starts 
in to be fussy the farmer must be as wise as Solomon, 
as patient as Job and as strong as Samson—or quit 
the business. 
* 
We recently bought a package of apple scions for 
top-grafting. Some of the wood was from new and 
choice varieties. The man who filled the order wrote 
this note: 
We send to-day a package of apple grafts. After sev¬ 
eral years’ inspection, tlie inspectors found a few trees 
last year with San Jos6 scale. They were destroyed, 
and the block fumigated. We think it only fair that you 
should know this, although we believe the grafts to be 
clean. 
The grafts were taken from large bearing trees, 
which could not well be fumigated. So far as we can 
see they are clean, but in order to be sure we expect 
to clean them again and Shall, of course, watch them 
with great care. How much more honest and fair it 
is for a nurseryman to act in this way than simply to 
paste a “certificate” on the package, and say nothing 
about it. The love of gold sometimes creates con¬ 
tempt for the Golden Rule. 
ik 
We consider it not only bad taste but a waste of 
space for a paper to attempt to “blow its own horn.” 
We would rather devote our energies to improving 
and polishing the horn until some one feels impelled 
to do the blowing for us. One would think that a 
reader of fair intelligence ought to know and appre¬ 
ciate a good thing without being told of it, or having 
it rubbed in. We assume that R. N.-Y readers are 
just that sort of people, and so we try to go ahead 
and at least deserve success if possible. We want to 
print one letter that has just been received from Mr. 
James E. Rice. Thousands of people know “Jimmie” 
Rice, and to know him is to be certain that he means 
what he says: 
I want to take this opportunity to say to you, as 1 
have frequently said to my friends, that in your edi¬ 
torials, Hope Farm Notes, and the general policy of 
your paper, you are meeting the needs of the working, 
thinking general farmer as no other paper Is to-day. 
Most of the leading papers excel in some feature, and 
every farmer ought to have several of them. But The R. 
N.-Y. can be read all the way through, and I read it first. 
I say this because I have thought so many times, when 
I have read each new issue, so clean and crisp, that some 
one must be doing a lot of hard work and continuous 
thinking, and perhaps wondering whether anyone really 
appreciated the effort. They do—lots of them. 
Now, we print that because it tells, better than we 
could express it ourselves, what we are trying to 
make of The R. N.-Y. “The working, thinking, gen¬ 
eral farmer!” We would rather be of real service to 
the farmer who needs true inspiration and help than 
to be elected President of the country. Yes, there is 
hard work and hard thinking packed away in each 
0 
issue of The R. N.-Y. There are no drones here. If 
the paper is crisp, clear and clean, it is mainly be¬ 
cause of the prompt, faithful and conscientious ser¬ 
vice of editorial assistants and business associates, 
it is a pleasure to the writer to accord them full share 
of credit for die hard work which has given The 
R. N.-Y. strength and reputation. 
* 
Letters come pouring in upon us asking for infor¬ 
mation regarding the cannery sharks, which have 
been operating in New York and New Jersey. Many 
of these letters are from people who signed a con¬ 
tract to take stock in a canning factory, and now want 
to get out of their contract. We have little sympathy 
for any reader of The R. N.-Y. who has been caught 
in this trap. We have exposed the scheme again and 
again in plain terms. It is now very late in the day 
for a man to wake up and try to cut himself free. 
The rascals who work this game well know how to 
play on the tender side of human nature. They are 
sharp, scheming men who know their slick business 
by heart. Still, we do not think they would bring 
suit to compel the payment for stock. We hardly 
think they would dare to go beyond a violent bluff. 
We know of one case where a farmer refused to pay 
because he felt that the company had not fulfilled its 
obligations, though the committee had accepted the 
buildings, lue promoters tried to frighten him, but 
haven’t done k yet. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
My daughter talks about cologne, as suited to her nose; 
My wife she wants the natural flower—her posy is the 
rose; 
In lilac time my mother sits with dream eyes far away 
And Father always hobbles down to smell the new-mown 
hay. 
And Billy Brown, the working man, says he don’t care 
to try 
To hunt for perfume that gets past a piece of hot mince 
pie. 
Now, Dick and Dan, the working team, find oats about 
their size, 
While Bossy loves the fragrant fumes that from the 
silo rise; 
And if you want to please the nose of good old Woolly- 
back 
Go get a bunch of clover hay and put it in her rack. 
But as for me, the sweetest smell is when the plow 
turns up 
The mellow soil, and Nature seems to stir her steaming 
cup. • 
Just take some balmy April day; the sweating horses 
stand 
At rest while you sit on the plow close to the steaming 
land. 
Yes! yes! The fragrance of the field is balm for care 
and toil; 
But I love best behind the plow to smell the fresh- 
turned soil. 
The dairyman’s life book is bound in cow-hide. 
And so the gentle sheep goes “mad!” Page 273. 
The Peach borer article on page 263 is interesting. 
If you can’t break a habit, at least try to brake it. 
Wheat and peaches promise w T ell in western New York. 
Too often bunched—money wealth, and moral poverty. 
Remember that formaldehyde is the same as formalin. 
It is a liquid. 
When the cultivator does nothing but “kick up a dust” 
it’s time to stop. 
The Babcock test might make a cheesemaker see the 
error of his wheys. 
Think of it, the live stock in this country is worth 
nearly $3,000,000,000! 
“The hand that rocks the cradle” should make a strike 
for a baby carriage. 
Has any one used hulless barley to cut for hay or green 
fodder? If so, what about it? 
Who has anything to say about homemade fire extin¬ 
guishers. Will they put out a fire? 
We used to promise things. We don’t dare to now. 
“We hope to”—is about as near as we will get to it. 
“The audience sat drinking in his words!” Very good, 
considering that the speaker was Senator Beveridge. 
Which makes the safer citizen, a widow with a farm 
and a family, or a widower with the same blessings? We 
vote for the widow. 
Do you realize how many boys and girls there are who 
do not realize what a blessed privilege it is to be at 
home? 
Worth trying—that arsenic and soda combination men¬ 
tioned by Mr. Slingerland cn page 275. It is time that 
most farmers do not like to "bother” with home mix¬ 
tures. 
Unless they mend their ways upon earth a good many 
who think that they can read their title clear to man¬ 
sions in the skies will find that they have only been build¬ 
ing castles In the air. 
In the quick-lunch restaurants an order for Boston 
beans and beef is given by the waiter as “beef and Bos¬ 
ton.” Another example of beef and Boston is M. M.’s 
cow ration on page 272. 
We like a hog—in his place and with his characteristic 
grunt and bristles. When some fraud colors him and 
softens his hair and teaches him to low like a cow we 
have no use for him. That is why we favor any reason¬ 
able law that will prevent gilded lard from being sold as 
butter. 
