December 1 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
8o4 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
Established 1850. 
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, 12.04, equal to 
8 s. 6d., or 8* *4 marks., or 10*4 francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 1 nes 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, DECEMBER 1, 1900. 
“R. M. D. No. 2.” It is surprising how many of the 
notes we now receive contain these letters. Rural 
Mail Delivery has grown like a young giant. In some 
cases it met with opposition at the start, but this has 
always, so far as we can learn, been overcome by 
actual trial. Uncle Sam never did a wiser thing in 
regulating his family affairs than this plan of carrying 
mail free to the farmer’s door. The service should be 
extended until it reaches every farmhouse in the 
land. 
* 
The National Grange passed a resolution which re¬ 
quests the agricultural experiment station writers to 
use less scientific terms in their bulletins! The scien¬ 
tists need such gentle reminders from time to time, 
otherwise they might get the idea that they are not 
talking to the great army of American farmers, but 
to a select few who love a long word better than they 
do what the word represents. The best bulletins are 
usually tne simplest. Some of these jawbreakers from 
the stations are lawbreakers—that is, they break the 
law which declares mat scientific information should 
be turned loose and not haltered. 
* 
The Kansas millers ana wheat growers know that 
they have a good thing in their hard, flinty wheat. 
Some of them think this wheat is becoming softer 
and losing its high flouring qualities. They don’t pur¬ 
pose to stand still and wait until this is so thoroughly 
demonstrated that their wheat has lost its reputation, 
but they will send at once to Russia after more of 
the original seed wheat. The way both millers and 
farmers take hold of this plan speaks well for Kan¬ 
sas. The farmers of that State seem able to get to¬ 
gether. In some States farmers seem to feel that all 
neighbors or other farmers are covered with barbs. 
Ac least they seem to think that combination would 
hurt them! 
• 
Mr. Cox tells us, on page 799, how his high-class 
apples are produced. He also shows a box of these 
apples. Why do not apple growers use the box more 
for packing their fruit? The California growers use 
it, and find it very popular. Thousands of people in 
this great city love apples and would gladly eat them 
every day. Their families are packed closely into 
small flats, where they cannot store a barrel of apples. 
It becomes a nuisance to buy by the “measure” of the 
corner grocer. If such people could buy apples in 
fair-sized boxes, and knew that they are sure to get 
first-class, uniform fruit every time they would keep 
a constant supply on hand. This would add im¬ 
mensely to the demand for fine apples. Here is a 
practical way for some one to coin money. Mr. Cox 
is doing it with success. The market is waiting for 
others. The box Mr. Cox uses is 10 *4 inches inside 
and 22 inches long. 
* 
We recently met a farmer who came to the city to 
look up the potato markets. A number of his neigh¬ 
bors club together each year and send one of their 
number to New York to see what can be done with 
their crop. They have together this year over 5,000 
bushels of potatoes, which would make a nice lot for 
some enterprising dealer to handle. By working to¬ 
gether in this way these farmers are able to handle 
their crop to much better advantage than they could 
if each one was trying to get some advantage over 
the others. There ought to be more of such business 
cooperation among farm neighbors. The man who 
came to town this year said that it always paid a 
farmer to follow his crop to the city and see who 
handles it, and how it goes through a dozen hands 
before reaching the real consumer. A trip to the 
great markets will give any farmer a new idea of 
business, and show him what he must do in order to 
command attention with his goods. 
* 
The last report shows 17 manufacturers of oleo in 
this country—doing business in eight States. There 
were 164 wholesale dealers. The year’s output was 
83,139,901 pounds. There are nearly 10,000,000 people 
in the country directly interested in the dairy cow. 
The fraudulent sale of oleo hurts each one of them 
more or less. Can the 17 have their way against the 
10,000,000? Yes, if the 10,000,000 sit down and play 
the harmless game of petty fault-finding. The 17 are 
well organized and well supplied with money and 
lawyers. These things make a big dent on Congress, 
while the single half-hearted protest flattens out like 
a paper wad. The 10,00u,000 have the strength to 
win, but a good share of them have not even spent 
two cents for a letter to their Senator asking him to 
vote for the Grout bill. 
m 
The city of Brooklyn obtains a good share of its 
water from driven wells which are sunk outside of 
the city limits. The powerful pumps which operate 
these wells suck up so much water from the soil that 
farm crops suffer. Farmers have brought suit against 
the city for damages, and after fighting one case from 
court to court the farmer has received a judgment for 
$6,000. The farmer raised celery, cabbage and water 
cress, all of which love moist ground. Other suits are 
likely to follow, probably to the amount of $1,500,000. 
As a matter of fact, the water in the soil is the most 
important thing the farmer can have there. If the 
soil be sucked dry his manure and cultivation will go 
for nothing. The law gives him damages if a neigh¬ 
bor stops necessary water from running on his land. 
Of course he is damaged if the still more necessary 
water is sucked out of it. 
* 
We have a large personal correspondence wilh R. 
N.-Y. subscribers. They ask many personal questions, 
and seek personal advice which we always try to se¬ 
cure for them. The character of this correspondence 
has convinced us that R. N.-Y. readers are for the 
most part intelligent and quick-minded people, who 
do not need to have an explanation tacked on to an 
axiom. We find that a suggestion or bit of serious 
advice is usually taken at once by a large number of 
readers. For example, here is a note from Secretary 
F. D. Coburn, of the Kansas State Board of Agricul¬ 
ture: 
In passing it is due that I tell you this: You made a 
pleasant little editorial notice of our quarterly report 
devoted to “Forage and Fodders,” stating at its close 
that the pamphlet could be had by sending the postage. 
In all my experiences as a business man, a publisher or 
an official, I have never had a notice of any sort, paid 
advertising or otherwise, which brought so many in¬ 
quiries as this one of yours in The R. N.-Y. They 
seemed to come from everywhere, and from the very 
highest class of people. It was a great revelation to me, 
and so far as results were concerned, it surpassed any 
other half-dozen papers that ever made a notice of any¬ 
thing of ours. 
We could give much more testimony in the same 
line. We attribute this feeling among readers to the 
fact that people who take The R. N.-Y. are, as a rule, 
business farmers or country people. They have confi¬ 
dence in what we say, and understand that we have 
nothing to gain by attempting to practice deception. 
That is one reason why we waste no space in telling 
what we are going to do, or how much better our 
paper is than any other. We prefer the evidence of 
things seen. Our readers know from the past that in 
the future The R. N.-Y. is sure to give them more 
than their money’s worth, or give their money back if 
they demand it. 
* 
From such a formidable name—Ossip Gabrilowitsch 
—one might expect to see a wild-eyed, ferocious indi¬ 
vidual, with hair standing in all directions, and an 
extensive awning on his upper lip; but he is a fair¬ 
faced young man, with plain manner and no eccen¬ 
tricities. He makes the piano say things. Composers 
like Beethoven, Chopin, Wagner and Liszt had un¬ 
speakable thoughts, which they tried to write in that 
strange language of musical notes. By practice any¬ 
one can play this music mechanically, but it is the 
rudest burlesque, ana makes the listener weary, un¬ 
less the deep thought of the writer is expressed. But 
some one comes along who has gone below the sur¬ 
face, studied and grasped the writer’s idea. He inter¬ 
prets these things so clearly that one who knows 
nothing about music except that of Nature, and has 
spent most of his life with plow handles, stoneboats, 
lumber wagons and mules, knew just what the player 
was getting at, saw the Summer sunset, red and gold¬ 
en, fading into gray and dusk and darkness; heard 
the howling Winter storm; the thunder and its echo 
and re-echo through the valley; the wind in the pine 
tree by his window at night, when the Autumn rains 
come; the brook flowing through the wooded gorge, 
with a bird stopping a moment to drink and then 
starting up with a chirp; and others of Nature’s beau¬ 
tiful whispered secrets. But there is a stern and prac¬ 
tical, as well as a sentimental side to all this—the 
careful work several hours a day for years. Some 
people would call it drudgery, but there is no doubt 
that the most of what we call genius and greatness 
is deeply rooted in hard work. “If any man will do,” 
he may know, and tell others. After all, the nearer 
the musician, orator or writer can get to nature, the 
greater will be his power over mankind. The uni¬ 
versal language is made up of natural things. 
• 
Farming with a typewriter is one of the advertising 
features adopted by a western railroad. The railroad 
sends an expert stenographer to visit individual farm¬ 
ers in Oklahoma and other newly-settled sections. He 
drives around with a typewriting machine and supply 
of stationery, and writes letters at the dictation of the 
farmers, addressed to eastern friends. He interviews 
the owner or renter of each quarter section on his 
route, describes conditions just as they are, tells about 
the crops and stock, and winds up with iniormation 
about the family. Many a farmer who never feels 
ready to sit down and write a long descriptive letter 
to his old friends will dictate a lengthy correspond¬ 
ence to the stenographer. Then the railroad mails 
suitable advertising matter to the persons addressed, 
who naturally conclude that a country prosperous 
enough to warrant a farmer in dictating his letters 
to a stenographer must be worth investigating. It is 
an original and apparently costly manner of adver¬ 
tising, but it is said to pay. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Here would be our advice to writing men, 
If such advice were paid for in advance, 
Although such payments are made mostly when 
The folks who offer them are in a trance. 
Do not print moonshine—leave your pages dark 
And rather grope about in inky night 
Until you find a way to draw a spark 
Straight from the source of never-failing light. 
What do I mean by moonshine? Why, the sun 
Gives us our only source of heat and light, 
The moon reflects his light when he has run 
His daily circle and crawls off at night, 
Reflected light—without the life and heat 
That's moonshine—so are buttered words when thrown 
Out of another’s say so by some cheat 
Who undertakes to palm them as his own. 
Don’t deal in moonshine—ye who write and print 
Go to headquarters—go to those who know; 
And if moonshiners fail to take the hint 
Turn them outside where they may think and grow. 
Young man, study your job. 
Up-stepping people are seldom down-trodden. 
Does the busy bee use a buzz saw on grapes and 
peaches? 
We ought to have more reports about Alfalfa in New 
York State. 
The source for the goose is the same as of the gander— 
viz., the egg! 
What is the first requisite of success in farming? The 
ability to be happy on the farm! 
God help the man who, when his hair turns gray, finds 
that he has forgotten how to play. 
There seems to be luck in a filled silo—no one reports 
a farm with such a fixture being sold. 
A Michigan friend says that thorough boiling in butter¬ 
milk will surely clean an old paint brush. 
Work on and murmur not, and life’s bright side to 
you through years shall never be denied. 
Some wise men are so wise that they know more about 
the literature of a thing than of the thing itself. 
Farmers in some sections are disposed to credit the 
short clover-seed crop to the scarcity of bumblebees. 
“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” 
It looks as though a county office would fit some men. 
After reading the article on ferrets, page 810, we won¬ 
der what chance a ferret would have in a fight with a 
woodchuck! 
Don’t mulch the strawberries until the ground freezes 
solid. You mulch to keep the frost in the soil—not to 
keep it out. 
People now talk of erecting a monument to the 
Wealthy apple! Think of it—after refusing to help the 
originator, Peter M. Gideon! 
The horns on the Dorset sheep become a nuisance to 
the feeder at times. The points sometimes project so far 
to the end of the nose that the sheep cannot get into the 
slatted feed rack. 
Progressive farmers in southern New Jersey are de¬ 
manding from the State some action for better protection 
from forest fires, which have worked great havoc in sev¬ 
eral counties. Timber has become scarce in that section; 
it is reported that eight acres of 60-year timber were 
recently sold near Frieseburg for $1,400. 
Soon after the New York State Fair we made some re¬ 
marks about a so-called seed company said to be doing 
business at Buffalo, N. Y. They are now advertising for 
farmers to act as “organizers” in a remarkable scheme 
for pooling the various interests of the universe! Of 
course we advise our readers to let this seed company 
go to seed. Don’t cultivate it with a letter and don’t 
fertilize it with a dollar. 
