436 
June 23 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKERJ 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Cm. i.ino wood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, | 
H. E. Van Dkman, J- Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Rovle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, J2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
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 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, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1900. 
Farmers in Oregon anu Washington seem likely 
to utilize Japanese labor in their sugar-beet fields, and 
this will settle a perplexing problem in the sugar in¬ 
dustry. It has been impossible to secure sufficient 
help, but the Japanese, who have been entering the 
country in alarming numbers, are especially fitted for 
the work required. Accustomed, as they are, to the 
most careful and patient gardening operations in 
their own country, they will be very efficient among 
the sugar beets. It is likely, however, that many 
will see a danger to American labor in their employ¬ 
ment. We put up a high tariff fence to keep the 
product of cheap foreign labor out; the idea of em¬ 
ploying similar labor witnin that fence will seem un¬ 
popular to many. 
* 
Tiie State Department recently sent out another 
warning against the swindling advertisements relat¬ 
ing to foreign estates awaiting heirs. It is not likely 
that this warning will do any special good, for re¬ 
iterated advice seems to fail of effect upon this special 
form of credulity. Only recently a western banker 
paid 313,600 ior a worthless gold brick, though one 
would imagine that this particular swindle could only 
appeal to those entirely unaccustomed to finance, so 
we need hardly be surprised when unsophisticated 
citizens are deluded by tales of some foreign heritage 
awaiting heirs. The only persons who ever attain 
wealth through these mythical fortunes are the at¬ 
torneys who exploit them. Nothing but disappoint¬ 
ment awaits the pursuer of this rainbow gold. 
* 
A kindly-faced man of eloquent speech recently 
went through a western city selling Bermuda lily 
bulbs to confiding housewives. The lilies were war¬ 
ranted to produce a veritable bower of bloom, and so 
persuasive was the seller that he gathered up a goodly 
quantity of current coin. It would appear, however, 
that his customers were not well versed in agricultural 
crops, for those remarkable lilies proved to be an un¬ 
salable stock of large white onions! They would 
like the chance to make a few appropriate remarks 
to the smooth-tongued seller; in default of that they 
may console themselves with thoughts of some east¬ 
ern citizens who, a few years ago purchased seed of 
“the Lily of the Brazos” from a picturesque westerner, 
to discover, later, that they had invested in a heavy 
crop of Jimson weed! 
4c 
'One of the most fallacious arguments advanced 
against the provisions of the Grout bill, taxing oleo- 
margerine 10 cents per pound when colored in imita¬ 
tion of butter, is that it is not fair to tax the hog 
product out of existence in favor of the cow owners, 
and that the simple marking of oleo packages is all- 
sufficient to protect unwilling consumers. While all 
recognize the right to utilize animal and vegetable 
fats as a substitute for butter, when honestly made 
and sold, long experience has demonstrated that the 
legitimate profits to be gained in that manner have 
never contented the oleo manufacturers. They want 
the butter market and butter prices, too, for a product 
that costs less than butter and is not generally 
wanted by consumers in any shape. The percentage 
of fraud a the oleo business is so great that in taking 
out the fraud, which is all the Grout bill aims to do, 
it is possible that tne business may go with it, but, 
if that is the case, it is certainly not the fault of the 
consumer, who has a right to know what he is pay¬ 
ing for. Food products differ very materially from 
other commodities in that they are largely purchased 
at second hand, on the tables of hotels, boarding and 
eating houses, and the actual consumer has but slight 
opportunity to know what he is getting. If every 
one who ate oleo bought it at the stores, the brand¬ 
ing and marking of the packages might be of some 
utility, but it is apparent that a distinctive color for 
genuine butter is the only reliable safeguard. 
* 
A score of young men have come to this country 
from Argentina to study agriculture. Their govern¬ 
ment sends them at public expense. They are now 
learning the English language, and will enter an 
agricultural college, and also spend some time study¬ 
ing and working on stock farms and western ranches. 
From every point of view this is a good thing. Some 
one may say that Americans pay the taxes which 
support our agricultural colleges, and these foreign¬ 
ers have no business to take advantage of our free 
education. That 's a small and narrow view. This 
very education will be worth millions in trade to 
this country. When these young men go home, they 
will want live stock, implements and fixtures which 
can only be obtained here. We send agents abroad 
to tell foreign people the value of our products. It is 
better yet to bring teachers here, and then send them 
home to tell their countrymen what we have for 
sale. 
4c 
The delay of the vote on the Grout oleo bill really 
amounts to just one week. The vote will be taken 
on December 6, three days after Congress comes to¬ 
gether. With the present feeling of the House the 
bill is sure to pass, _ut there may be changes in the 
next election that will make harder fighting. Some 
present members of Congress may be defeated or fail 
of renomination, and thus lose interest in the bill. 
It behooves every cow man to keep up the battle 
right tnrough the Summer and Fall. Our advice is to 
make your candidates for Congress declare themselves. 
If we looked to the cow for support, and the party 
candidate refused to support the Grout bill, we would 
vote against him, no matter what other great issues 
he talked about. One trouble with Congressman 
Payne, of New York State, is that he thinks this oleo 
matter is a little two-cent thing, too small for a man 
who introduces mils involving millions. Mr. Payne 
will be obliged to Iook to tnese two-cent men for his 
election, and he is likely to get many a canceled stamp 
this Fall. We think Mr. Wadsworth will finally sup¬ 
port the Grout bill, but we advise dairy men in his 
district to write and ask him where he stands. As a 
business proposition we should demand from him a 
statement of what he intends doing on December 6. 
* 
A man who goes to r farmers’ club merely to talk 
and be listened to for his own amusement, might 
better stay at home once in a while and attend to 
his neglected work. Sociability should not be dis¬ 
counted, but those who have nothing but this, and 
do not wish to learn, are not of much use to the 
club. Nearly every association has some member 
who tries to monopolize the time. He howls about 
capital and labor, though he has but little of the 
first and does less of the second; crop failures and 
calamities, trusts and monopolies, while he himself 
is running the biggest kind of a talk trust. If he 
were an inexhaustible source of practical agricultural 
knowledge, it would be different. It is refreshing to 
hear a man talk common sense peppered with original 
ideas for an hour; but, when one who can tell all he 
knows that is of interest to others in five minutes, 
takes up an hour, he makes a drought. Such people 
talk their neighbors and friends tired, and them¬ 
selves, their families and live stock poor, while some 
man who does more thinking than talking could give 
valuable bits of experience if given an opportunity 
and encouraged a little. The farmers’ club with a 
chairman who has the tact to draw out the thinkers 
and make the talkers draw in a little, is fortunate. 
* 
The Mayor of New York City has been getting a 
red-hot warming over ice. He bought a large block of 
stock in the American Ice Company, which is in effect 
a monopoly. This company secured concessions and 
valuable contracts and privileges from the city, and 
it looks as though the Mayor has feathered his nest, 
besides drawing a big salary from the city. Of course 
there are lawyers who grind out what they call good 
law to show that a public official is justified in grab¬ 
bing all he can get his hands on. Some men make 
a living—and a rich one, too—by manufacturing the 
legal grease which enables a rich man to crawl 
through a mighty small hole. One of these men re¬ 
cently said that a practical application of the City 
of New York charter would prevent an official from 
owning stock in any company which contracted in any 
way with the city. Now that is just exactly what we 
would like to see. We would like to debar every 
public official from using his office to promote his 
pocketbook. This thing crops out everywhere— 
down to the judge or clerk of the smallest county. 
Let a man get into office, and he seems to think his 
business is not to serve the people, but to help him¬ 
self. When the office itch once fastens its microbe 
in a man’s mind it is not saf^ to leave him alone. It 
is far better to take all temptation away from him, 
pay him a stated salary, and debar him from specula¬ 
tions and outside “pulls.” 
* 
The position of The R. N.-Y. on the temperance 
question is pretty well known. We do not believe 
that a rumshop is ever a public necessity. The abuse 
of intoxicating drink is, we believe, an evil which cuts 
deep into the farmer’s prosperity. There is another 
side to the matter that ought to be discussed—the 
question of health. Prof. Quackenbos, of Columbia, 
says: 
It is easier and cheaper to adulterate with salicylic 
acid than to be clean. Many brewers save the expense 
of washing their bottles by adding salicylic acid to the 
beer. Think of what you may be drinking with your 
beer! Think of the various poisons and unwholesome 
solutions that may be kept in emptied beer bottles be¬ 
fore they are returned to the breweries. I have known 
bottled beer to be mixed generously with spirits of tur¬ 
pentine. I have seen black roaches poured from a bottle 
with the porter. Manufacturers who fill empty bottles 
without properly cleansing them are taking risks out of 
harmony with a Christian regard for human life. The 
chances are that brewers who adulterate with salicylic 
acid, boric acid or the fluorides are supplying the saloons 
with a drink which, if not so treated, would have become 
decomposed and putrid long before it was offered for 
sale. 
We think that most readers will agree that among 
their drinking friends there is an increase in the num¬ 
ber of sufferers from kidney troubles. The great life 
insurance companies are growing stricter every year 
in their rules regarding beer drinkers, for the mod¬ 
ern cheap beers are in reality slow poisons. The 
saloon system of selling liquor is bad enough from 
any point of view. It makes farm labor irresponsible 
and unreliable, and it curtails tne sale of food— 
especially fruits, vegetables and milk. It appears also 
to be a slow poison shop—selling adulterated and 
“doctored” goods probaibly causing more disease than 
any food preparation. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
GRANDFATHER'S JOB. 
Last Spring, when William started up his plow 
I said, “Give me them lines—I’ll show ye how!” 
“No, Father—you’re too old!” He meant it kind, 
But them words sorter rankled in my mind. 
In droppin’ corn I couldn't find the row; 
I lost my glasses when 1 tried to hoe, 
An’ thought a hill of corn was jest a weed. 
Then Susan said: “I guess there ain’t no need 
Fer no more signs to show yer work is done; 
Why don’t ye set down quiet in the sun 
An’ rest!” Jest think of it—set there an’ rest! 
A man like me who’s always worked his best; 
An’ so when William worried on the hay 
I said I’d ride this hoss rake anyway. 
Maybe I’m sorter old to hoe or plow, 
But hitch old Dick—we’ll show them young folks how. 
Why, him an’ me was almost boys together, 
An’ now the both of us pull on the tether. 
Boys, help me on this rake—Git up there, Dick! 
He knows who’s drivin’ him—jest see him prick 
Them ears—Now, William, we’ll bunch up this hay 
An’ do a first-class job—what’s that you say? 
Don’t work too hard! Be I a lu.le boy? 
Maybe you think this hoss rake is a toy. 
Just take my stick and lean it on the fence 
Now Dick—we can’t see good, but show your sense. 
How many hours’ work for the hired man? 
The “green goods” victim has a done color. 
The teamster finds onion weeding dull work. 
Do you earn all you get, or do you get all you earn? 
When a man “crawls into his hole” he is hidebound. 
A note that should be protested—the caw of the crow. 
A man he was to all the country—expensive—the trust 
maker. 
Keep the sword within Its sheath, and the tongue be¬ 
tween the teeth. 
The poorest human character may afford chance for 
the divinest labor. 
Yes, my son, the hog becomes a true pan-American 
when he is hammed. 
Has anyone ever succeeded in killing out ants on a lawn 
by using bisulphide of carbon? 
The time you pray for a drought is when you put on 
I aris-green and all the bugs are out. 
Who will give a reason for planting crops “in the full 
of the moon?” Why should they do better? 
It was the late Josh Billings who asserted that "beans 
is a joyful crop.” The humorist’s view is indorsed in the 
first-page article this week. 
Mix the Paris-green thoroughly—one pound in a gallon 
of water—before putting it in the sprayer. You cannot 
do the best job by pouring dry “green” directly into the 
tank or barrel. 
Letters have been coming by the dozen from all over 
the Eastern States asking what to do for the Green pea- 
louse. This pest seems to be spreading wherever peas 
are grown in large quantities. Prof. Sanderson’s article 
last week told all that is known about this little pest. 
The article came just in time. 
