532 
August 4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established i 860 . 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, ) 
H. E. Van Deman, > Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Koyle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10 l / t 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, AUGUST 4, 1.900. 
We call attention to the matter printed on the mar¬ 
ket pages of The R. N.-Y. Week after week we hope 
to give brief reports and studies from various parts 
of our country. These reports will deal not only with 
crops, but with social conditions, new enterprises and 
all those things that naturally interest the farmer 
and his family. Read them—it will be worth while. 
lit 
The Eastern New York Horticultural Society ex¬ 
pects to make an exhibit of fruit at the State Fair. 
The Hudson River Valley is a fine fruit region, and 
the best of its products will show up well beside any 
fruit that can be grown in the State. The exhibi¬ 
tion at Syracuse this year should be the finest that 
can possibly be brought out. There are hundreds of 
first-class growers who can well send fine specimens 
to help swell the display. Let them write to B. D. 
Van Buren, Stockport, N. Y., for full particulars. 
* 
The Green pea-louse occupies a prominent place on 
the stage just now. Many persons will not realize 
what he has done until they buy canned peas next 
Winter. The price then will startle them, and they 
may talk powerfuly about a trust of some sort. The 
truth is that this louse ruined the crop in many locali¬ 
ties, and is likely to do more damage in the future. 
That is why The R. N.-Y. devotes considerable space 
to it, for pea growing is not only a large business 
commercially, but occupies a deserved space in every 
garden. 
* 
Americans have won the lion’s share of prizes in 
horticultural products at the Paris Exposition. In 
apples and oranges our growers have won twice as 
many awards as were won by all the other nations 
together. The exhibitors were ready. They always 
had more -than enough fruit to make a fine showing. 
Thus far the exhibit of apples has been from last 
year’s crop. Now choice specimens of this season’s 
crop will he sent to show during August, September 
and October. No doubt this will greatly stimulate 
i„e European demand for the American apple. Dur¬ 
ing the past five years Americans exported $8,150,926 
worth of green apples, and $6,287,786 worth of dried 
fruit. It would be hard to name any product the in¬ 
creased export of which will bring more good and 
less injury to the American farmer than the apple. 
jfc 
Have you not frequently been impressed with the 
great variety of reasons given for the present con¬ 
dition of agricultural prices? One authority gravely 
informs us that farmers were never so prosperous as 
just now; mortgages are being canceled, and all on 
the high road to prosperity. Another declares that 
nobody prospers but trusts, that farmers, especially, 
are the objects of conspiracy in the demonetization of 
silver, this, as he claims, throwing the wealth of the 
country into -the hands of a favored few. Again, the 
Prohibitionist has no trouble in bringing forward 
statistics to prove that far more money is being spent 
for beer than for bread. So, also, the economist 
points to the increase of extravagance, National, 
State, municipal, domestic, and last, but not least, the 
faithful Gospel minister tells us from the sacred desk, 
that no nation has been so divinely favored as this, 
and that the present unrest and inability to provide 
things honest is due to the fact that we are gradually 
slipping away from our moorings, rearing up human 
standards, rather than divine, that the divine favor is 
passing from us to some extent, until we have learned 
the lesson of faithfulness in little things—thorough¬ 
ness, if you will. He argues, consistently enough, 
that the employee in your office or on your farm, who 
is most thorough, attends most carefully to details, 
can De relied upon most when you are not present to 
watch him, is already in the line of promotion. Sure¬ 
ly there is no lack of opinion, but when are we to get 
together and agree upon one definite cause which we 
can remove? 
* 
The Patrons of Husbandry of New York State 
should show their colors at Syracuse on Grange Day 
at the New York State Fair. Tuesday, August 28, has 
been set aside for the special benefit of Grangers, and 
members of the order may well take occasion to 
show their strength and character. The annual meet¬ 
ings of -the State Grange impress the locality in which 
they are held, but at Syracuse there will be a broader 
opportunity to snow what the order is, and who the 
members are. In these days people are impressed by 
the evidence of numerical strength, and an outpour¬ 
ing of Grangers at Syracuse will help both -the order 
itself and agriculture generally. Let the badge oe 
seen on every square foot of the fair grounds. 
Any farmer who has to wrestle with ragweed in 
his corn and potatoes thinks unkind thoughts of the 
pernicious activity with which it insists on growing; 
but judging from what Mr. Slingerland says, on page 
526, it is something worse than a weed. It supplies 
food to support those pestilent beetles who ravage 
the strawberry crop; when strawberries are out of 
season Mr. Harpalus turns to his friend the ragweed, 
and subsists comfortably on its seeds. This is an¬ 
other illustration of the fact that a weed (that is, a 
plant out of place) is not merely stealing the nour¬ 
ishment which should feed economic crops, but is 
also giving active aid to their enemies. We now 
know that many weeds are the hosts of fungous dis¬ 
eases which, when occasion offers, will ravage valu¬ 
able crops, and it appears that similarly they give 
aid to our insect enemies. This shows the danger of 
permitting weeds to remain in any odd nooks on a 
farm, as well as in cultivated fields. They are a 
passive danger which may at any time become an 
active one. 
* 
The small advance in the price of milk offered by 
the Milk Exchange has started up the usual flock of 
ignorant people who try to frighten consumers. The 
daily papers were formerly filled with long articles 
about a “milk trust” which the awful farmers ■were 
forming. There is less of that now, for people begin 
to realize that the only “trust” in this milk business 
is the so-called “Exchange” which dictates prices. 
Those who consume the milk which is sent to this 
city are finding out the fact that their best friends 
are those who produce the milk—not those who 
handle it. Disease, water and extortionate price get 
into -the milk after it leaves the farm, and they are 
put there largely by the middleman. Let the pro¬ 
ducer and consumer become better acquainted. One 
good result of the combination among milk producers 
is the appearance of good writers who argue in the 
daily papers from the farmer’s standpoint. They 
show up the false tactics of the middlemen. Once let 
the consuming public understand -the real situation, 
and the fight is won. 
* 
— The labor unions have attempted to restrict the 
hours of labor for workingmen, and have secured 
legislation in most States limiting the hours of labor 
for a day or week. In Massachusetts the law reads 
that: 
No minor under 18 years of age and no woman shall be 
employed in laboring in any manufacturing or mechani¬ 
cal establishment more than 10 hours in any one day; 
* * * and in no case shall the hours of labor exceed 
5S in a week. 
Two cotton corporations in Fall River hired women 
and children who had worked through the day in 
other mills to work for them at night. Thus the 
workers put in more than 58 hours in one week, but 
d'io not exceed that number for one firm. Suit was 
brought against these mill owners for violating the 
labor laws, but the suit failed. The judge in his de¬ 
cision said: 
The labor laws of the Commonwealth have never at¬ 
tempted to forbid any person from working as many 
hours as he chose. The person who works for a manu¬ 
facturing corporation is obliged to conform to its hours. 
The operatives work as a united body, and as a rule 
each must work the same hours which the others do. 
If the mill is forbidden to employ them for certain hours, 
that sets the operative free outside those hours. If one 
of them should get an opportunity to work evenings for 
a grocer or a farmer, the Legislature has not expressed 
any policy against it. The Legislature has not imposed 
restrictions upon the laborer as it has upon the employer, 
and has not stated any policy of the kind. 
Thus it seems that the laborer has really greater 
rights than the employer. This shows also how many 
laws disappoint those who demanded them. The 
labor people thought the law in question would cer¬ 
tainly prevent just such a condition as it permits. On 
the farm comm on usage puts the hired man’s day 
at about 10 hours, though in busy times this is drawn 
out like rubber. 
* 
Last August, one of our subscribers in Belgium 
wrote us that he had, along the coast of that country, 
on the North Sea, excensive sand dunes or hills. He 
found it difficult to find any plant that would hold 
and confine the sand. He has been partly successful 
with planting evergreens. He had read in an Ameri¬ 
can paper something about certain grasses that would 
thrive and grow in such a location. He wished to 
know what grasses to use, and where such seed could 
be obtained. It seems strange that a man should 
send from the Old World across to the New, for in¬ 
formation of this character. We know that the Cali¬ 
fornia Experiment Station had imported seeds and 
plants from Australia, and had also made experiments 
with grasses and other plants for binding sea sands. 
After some delay we learned from the California Sta¬ 
tion that the best plants for the purpose named are 
undoubtedly the Marram grass (Ammophila arenaria), 
and the Sea Lyme grass (Elymus arenarius). They 
are Usually propagated from root cuttings, and could 
not be obtained in this country. We were able to tell 
where they could be found in Brussels or in London. 
Another grass that might possibly succeed under such 
conditions is the Japanese Lawn grass, and the Aus¬ 
tralian Spinifex. But in order to obtain seeds of 
these grasses, it was necessary to send to the botan¬ 
ical gardens, New South Wales. In the meantime, the 
California Station sent 'its pamphlets and seeds of 
the Australian Salt-bush directly to our subscriber in 
Belgium. Thi-s shows how the various ends of -the 
earth are being brought together in the interest of 
agriculture. In one case we received a question from 
Russia, and found it necessary to send to one of our 
subscribers on the Island of Java, and from there 
back to Egypt in order to obtain an accurate answer. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Off in the west the Storm King drills his band; 
Hear the deep murmur of his mighty drum. 
See, as the signal flashes in his hand 
How the outlying skirmishers come home. 
Each marching in to swell the angry cloud; 
Fainter and fainter falls the fading light. 
Across the farm—with war song chanted loud 
The Storm King marches onward to the fight. 
Far off we see the trees bend down in pain 
Before the storm’s vanguard—rough cavalry 
With hoofs of mist and saber strokes of rain; 
Fear not, old farm, they come to set you free! 
Bow down your heads in thankfulness, drink deep 
Ye thirsty crops—as backward o’er the hill 
Drought and his baffled minions slowly creep 
Fighting in sullen wrath. Ah, not to kill 
The Storm King’s army gathered in the west 
But to bring succor in the blessed rain; 
Now through the parted ranks, a welcome guest, 
The setting sun floods the fresh land again. 
Too late to sow silo crops now. 
Strong— the negative of a positive person. 
What is the best way to fit apples for cold storage? 
Why, yes, the woman who supports her husband is a 
male carrier. 
A fact it is though put in rhyme, tough sorrel will 
submit to lime. 
An oleo trust has been formed in Germany, to go intc 
effect next year. 
Don’t keep a horse that requires both oats and whip 
to make him go. 
Now, then, the afternoon of the season has come. 
Work for the frost is at hand. 
We would like to hear from any readers who have 
fruited the Carman grape in the North. 
It’s a high compliment to the strawberry when that 
meat-eating beetle (page 526) turns to fruit. 
It is asserted that more than 700,000 pounds of oleo are 
sold in Pittsburg and Allegheny, Pa., every month. 
Did you ever know a man to lose a piece of wheat 
through poor culture and then charge it to the “fly?” 
No! No! There never was a -weed plant that did not 
grow from seed! They are not “germinated spontane¬ 
ously.” 
Pray keep your sorrows bottled up. Kill the desire to 
talk; you’ll only spread your bitterness by pulling out 
the cork. 
It is still very dry in western New York. We are told 
of nurserymen who are drilling wells for water to irri¬ 
gate stock for budding. 
A fire at Binghamton, N. Y., spread from a peat 
swamp to an adjoining potato field, and the owner of it 
is now digging baked potatoes. 
The chemists tell us that sourness in the soil is neu¬ 
tralized by uniting with a base. We have observed that 
the application of a base sometimes improves a sour 
temper in a child. 
Export trade in horseflesh from this country to Den¬ 
mark is said to be greatly increasing. Copenhagen is the 
distributing point for Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, 
and the German Baltic. 
“Speak a good word for the robin redbreast,” says a 
New York subscriber. “I found, in an apple tree, a 
robin’s nest, the foundation of which was composed al¬ 
most wholly of the cocoons of tent-caterpillars, all 
pinched as to prevent development.” 
