324 
May 5 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collinowood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, | 
H. E. Van Deman, > Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. IIoyle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 12.04, equal to 
88 . 6d., or 8 V% 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 Only. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable house* 
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, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY. MAY 5, 1900. 
The Eastern New York Horticultural Society needs 
new members. It would be an easy matter for each 
present member to obtain one new one. That would 
double the Society at a jump, and double its power for 
usefulness. Try ft. The Secretary is Chas. H. Royce, 
Rhinecliff, N. Y. 
* 
On page 329 will be found a brief account of the 
Villa Ridge (Ill.) Cooperative Shipping Association. 
This farmers’ organization has succeeded because it 
has been conducted on business principles. We find 
that there are a number of such associations in the 
country—some of them quite successful. We hope to 
give the facts about them in a series of brief articles. 
± 
The k. N.-Y. referred a few weeks ago to the act 
passed by the Florida Legislature last year, requiring 
that every package of seed sold in Florida should be 
labeled with a guarantee showing where and by whom 
said seeds were grown. Judicial authority now de¬ 
cides that this seed law is in conflict with the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States, which provides that 
Congress alone has power to regulate commerce be¬ 
tween the States, and as this legislative act attempts 
to regulate such commerce, it is unconstitutional and 
inoperative. 
9k 
Last week we had occasion to send an electrotype 
to England. It had been used in The R. N.-Y. to il¬ 
lustrate the process of fumigation in Maryland. We 
get so many injurious insects from abroad that it 
would seem like a good thing to help our friends on 
the other side to learn how to destroy bugs and 
worms. This cut weighed 19 ounces, and the postage 
demanded was $1.90! The same package would be 
carried to California or even to Alaska for 19 cents. 
This outrageous postage charge would not be possible 
if we could enjoy an international parcels post as 
other civilized nations do. There is absolutely no 
reason for these extortionate rates of foreign postage, 
except that at gives extra business to the express com¬ 
panies. 
* 
Under the New York State fertilizer law the manu¬ 
facturers and dealers have paid into the State treas¬ 
ury, through the Geneva Station, about $8,000. The 
law regulating the sale of food stuff has contributed 
nearly $3,000 through the same source. Dr. Jordan is 
very sanguine as to the ultimate effects of these two 
measures. He says that both laws are now practically 
self-supporting. That is, the license fees collected 
pay the expense of inspecting, analyses and enforce¬ 
ment of the laws generally. Why could we not have 
a similar law to prevent the adulteration of food for 
human consumption? If manufacturers were obliged 
to pay a small license fee for each brand of goods put 
on the market, just as fertilizer and cattle food manu¬ 
facturers do, the responsibility for the foreign adul¬ 
terants might be placed, and the slow poisoning of 
young and old may be arrested. 
* 
The Ruby Queen rose seems to be giving great sat ¬ 
isfaction to readers. This is what a Pennsylvania 
man says: 
We received the beautiful rose in good condition; my 
wife says it’s a dandy. Thanks; it was a very agreeable 
surprise to us on receiving it. You know these agents 
say a whole lot in order to get subscriptions. 
That is honest, certainly. The “creamery shark” 
sends an agent ahead, who tells many big stories and 
makes verbal promises. Then the boss himself fol¬ 
lows and says that the agent had no business to make 
any such promises. We don’t believe in such business. 
We told our agents to promise a beautiful rose and 
the best paper we are capable of preparing, and we 
will make the promise good. For years we made a 
standing offer to return the subscription price to any 
who would honestly say that The R. N.-Y. was not 
worth a dollar a year. Out of hundreds of thousands 
of subscribers, only two have called for their money. 
They did it because some sharp pen thrust reached an 
open joint in their self-esteem! 
* 
Last week we told the story of the oleo business in 
Philadelphia. The oleo men proclaim their honesty 
and their bulging desire to benefit the poor man by 
selling a cheap fat. Callahan, the Philadelphia dealer 
who “protected” his customers, said when asked about 
his trade: 
The profit in the business is in selling it as pure butter 
at pure butter prices. Then there is a profit for every¬ 
one who handles it. You don’t have to tell all you 
know to every customer, and there you are. 
That is just exactly what we have always claimed. 
The statement that oleo is sold on its merits for just 
what 'it is, is one of the greatest humbugs of the age. 
Such exposures as the one in Philadelphia turn on the 
lights in a way these rascals do not enjoy. 
* 
We know a man who for years has been considered 
a local expert at grafting. For miles around his home 
the orchards show the work of his skillful hands. He 
has given shape and beauty to the trees, and changed 
the fruit of old ones so that the community has kept 
pace with horticultural imp»ovement. That man, now 
gray-haired, rides about the country at fruiting time 
saying to himself: “I grafted that tree! I gave it 
quality and character. But for my skill it would have 
been cut down as worthless. These trees are my chil¬ 
dren. I trained them and made them useful!” An¬ 
other gray-haired old man rides through the same 
community thinking such thoughts as these: “I have 
a mortgage on that man’s farm! I hold this man’s 
note. This man must soon come to me to borrow! I 
shall soon own him!” It might be useless to tell the 
average young men that the grafter is more to be 
envied than the grasper. Yet, isn’t it true? Stand up, 
gray beard, and tell us! 
9k 
' The New York daily papers are beginning to realize 
that there are solids in the milk situation. The 
Herald recently said: 
There is a local exchange which fixes the price paid 
for the fluid to the producers, but the latter not long 
since organized a sort of trust known as the Five States 
Association, and they now propose to do a little “fixing” 
on their own account. In other words, there is talk of 
their adding about a cent per quart to the price of 2Vz 
cents they now receive. Possibly the threatened war 
will be averted, but the organized producers’ threat to 
divert supplies from this city in case their demands 
should not be complied with involves a more direct 
menace to the comfort and health of the city than any 
which could emanate from any of the greater and more 
talked-of “trusts.” 
“A sort or trust” is very good. The Herald is right 
in saying that the milk producers want a better price 
for their milk. It is wrong, however, in thinking 
that this will mean a higher price to consumers. 
There is no occasion for that. New York now con¬ 
sumes a small ocean of milk every day, but It could 
well use twice as much. The farmer receives less 
than two cents a quart. Between that figure and the 
price paid by the consumers is a wide margin, which 
at present is pocketed by middlemen. The farmer is 
after a fair share of the profit. He is really the best 
friend of the consumer. As it is, the farmer does not 
take even a back seat. He stands, while the milk 
middleman sits on a cushion. 
* 
Prof. John B. Smith, entomologist of the New Jer¬ 
sey Experiment Station at New Brunswick, writes as 
a matter of personal information the following: 
Concerning the San Jos 6 scale, there Is a good deal 
more truth than I like in the reports in New York papers. 
1 found this Spring that in parts of Somerset, Hunterdon 
and Warren Counties there are peach orchards that will 
be simply ruined in the course of the present year. I 
went through that district two years ago and the very 
men whose orchards are now practically destroyed man¬ 
ifested the greatest reluctance to having me go into 
their orchards, asserting with the utmost positiveness 
that there was no trace of scale in their orchards, and 
that the trees were in satisfactory condition in every 
respect. There will be hundreds of acres on which not 
a peach will be gathered. Next year will duplicate this 
unless the growers wake up, which however, they seem 
to be inclined to do. 
These growers, and many others, will have to hustle 
around and fight this persistent little intruder, or they 
will find their profits “scaled” down to zero. Fortu¬ 
nately the crude petroleum treatment, which is com¬ 
paratively Cheap, seems to point the way to perma¬ 
nent relief, though extensive trials are needed to de¬ 
termine its exact value. One trouble in New Jersey is 
the fact that there are a number of local nurserymen 
who grow only a few thousand peach trees for local 
t 
trade. The scale crept into these little nurseries, and 
has been bred there without treatment of any sort. 
Prof. Smith has been hampered because the Legisla¬ 
ture made no appropriation for enforcing the law. 
This year a vigorous campaign will be waged. 
9k 
The wise men told us recently that the reason so 
little is now said about dishorning is that everybody 
knows about it—the practice is universal. Their 
writing this has started up a multitude of questions, 
which come to us from all sides. We actually find 
farmers who know nothing about it. Most of them 
want to know how early the little horn should be 
killed. Just as early as it shows life. Everything, 
from horns to habits, will be easiest killed in infancy. 
But our scientific friends mustn’t think that people 
know it all just because they do. 
• 
We begin this week some articles by Mr. Wright on 
the Dry Side of Corn Fodder. The silo men may re¬ 
gard these articles as rank heresy, but we can’t help 
that. The silo side of the question has had its in¬ 
nings for a good while. In some States only pro¬ 
nounced silo men are given a place on the platform at 
farmers’ institutes. A man who talked about saving 
the dry fodder would be run through a fodder cutter 
by some of these experts. Yet, perhaps the greatest 
loss on the eastern farm to-day comes from the fail¬ 
ure properly to utilize the dry stalks. It’s all very 
well to say that every farmer ought to have a silo. 
Every farmer’s wife ought to have a good range, and 
hot and cold water in her kitchen, but we find many 
barns and kitchens without these “necessities.” In 
fact, we know of several silos that are now never 
filled. We see no good reason why the dry side of the 
question should not be turned up to the sun. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Seems like we might have rain—that cloud looks bad; 
Wind’s east, 1 wouldn’t wonder if it should 
Jest drizzle! What? “Kin we go fishin’. Dad?” 
Go fishin ? Well, now, boys, 1 wish I could 
Say yes, but ’tain’t no time ter stop an’ play 
With Spring acomin’ on the double quick. 
We’ll cut them seed pertaters up to-day; 
Git out yer knives—I call it quite a trick 
To cut pertaters—that’s right, slice him down. 
An’ then cut sorter cornerways—jest so; 
Git two good eyes apiece—you done that brown, 
I’ll bet ye every single piece’ll grow. 
You see them little sprouts has got to live 
On this here piece of tater—till they grow 
Above the ground—I’m hungry, and I’a give 
A half a dollar if I could but know 
What Mother's got fer dinner; say now. Jack, 
Go up an’ git a drink an’ look around 
An’ tell your Mother that she’d better pack 
That table full—I’m hungry as a hound. 
What’s that, you say? Baked beans and custard pie? 
We’ll finish up that barrel after noon. 
Dinner! Yes, Ma, we’re here—why, you might try 
Fer years an’ never hit so sweet a tune! 
A saw did affair—the wood pile. 
Put ’em on file—the hoe and saw. 
The omission man—otherwise, yourself! 
Founded on a “rock”—the baby’s sleep. 
The farmer invests in a coat of manure. 
A steal range usually has a poor draft. 
A good herbicide—the man with the hoe. 
Some serious things grow from a laughing stock. 
Sulphur and lime with the onion seed for smut. 
The lazy man is a stealer of waits and measures. 
The steam of self-esteem generates donkey power. 
The pocket gopher is one of the things that go for the 
western farmer’s profit. 
If unto wisdom you would safely tie, go get a wife 
who wants to find out why. 
What are you ready to do to help enforce that short 
package law in New York State? 
The creamery shark whom the farmers run out of 
town may be described as a traveling salesman. 
It’s all very well to plant soiling crops for the cows, 
but don’t forget cabbage, lettuce and spinach for the 
humans. 
We have had a dozen letters asking where the bulletin 
on cereal breakfast foods is published. The Maine State 
Experiment Station is at Orono. 
We did a pleasant little service for a Colorado reader 
and this is what he says about it: “That’s what we call 
treating a man 'white,’ out West, here.” Yes, and it’s 
good to put that sentiment down in black, too. 
Large lots of the seed of Yellow trefoil clover have 
been brought into the country. It will show up later in 
the clover fields—too late. By all means have every large 
lot of clover seed sampled and tested before buying or 
sowing. 
At a recent horse sale in New York City, one bay geld¬ 
ing was sold for ?7,S00. There was nothing remarkable 
about his breeding or performance, but he was an un¬ 
usually handsome animal with perfect style. The buyer 
wished a creditable animal to drive in the Park, and 
was willing to pay a good price for it. In this auto¬ 
mobile age it is encouraging to find that beauty and style 
in a horse are still valuable. 
