24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 11 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S RAVER. 
K National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1800. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
DR. Walter Van Fleet, 
MRS. E. T. Hoyle, 
j- Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to Ss. Ud., or 8% marks, or ID'/a francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
backed by a responsible person. But to make doubly 
sure we will make good any loss to paid subscribers 
sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising 
in our columns, and any such swindler will be publicly 
exposed. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we 
do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences between 
subscribers and honest responsible advertisers. Neither 
will we be responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts 
sanctioned by the courts. Notice of the complaint must 
be sent us within one month of the time of the trans¬ 
action, and you must have mentioned The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
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, JANUARY 11, 1902. 
Readers will remember the call we made for vol¬ 
unteers to go to Cuba to help E. E. Hubbard teach 
gardening to his Cuban orphans. We made it clear 
that there was little glory and less pay in the job, yet 
nearly a dozen men came forward and said “Here am 
1.” It certainly kindles a lire undgr one’s heart to 
think that The R. N.-Y. army can supply volunteers 
for such a cause. 
* 
Western dealers are predicting a drop in grain and 
feed prices. We hope they are right, for the figures 
have been altogether too high. The arguments ad¬ 
vanced in favor of this opinion are good. Farmers 
have been feeding more hay and fodder—saving their 
grain. They have used materials which in former 
years were permitted to waste. That is about what 
happens when any article goes too high in price. Sub¬ 
stitutes are found and forced to do service. The let¬ 
ters from these large western dealers will make cheer¬ 
ing news for eastern stock men! 
* 
Marconi may succeed in signalling across the water 
by means of his wireless telegraph, but there is no 
whyless bond between the institute speaker and the 
farmer. We mean that the “whys” or questions of the 
farmer should determine the course of instruction at 
the institutes. Learn what the farmers actually want 
to know, and build upon that. We do not see how 
any set of men, removed from the bread and butter 
side of farming, can prepare a helpful course in agri¬ 
cultural science without first learning what the farm¬ 
er wants. They may have an idea that they know 
what he needs, but that is only half the story! 
* 
We believe we are justified in saying that a great 
majority of the farmers of this country oppose the 
scheme for National irrigation of the arid regions. 
Congress and the President understand this, but be¬ 
fore the year is over it may be necessary to remind 
them of it. Some well-meaning people have already 
begun to urge farmers to write anti-irrigation letters 
to their Congressmen. Gently, gentlemen! Let us do 
one thing at a time. The Tawney anti-oleo bill comes 
first! Let us continue to irrigate postage stamps for 
the old cow before we are drawn off into other fields. 
Just now is the time to finish the job for honest but¬ 
ter. Farmers in the past have started these things 
and left many of them undone. Let it not be so about 
this one. Lick a stamp for bossy and the baby! 
* 
What is known as a “car shortage” is becoming a 
serious problem in some of the larger fruit-producing 
sections. Right in the height of the shipping season, 
when growers are straining every energy to move 
their ripe fruit, there will be no cars available, and 
shipments will be thrown back upon the growers 
with heavy loss. The transportation companies have 
received benefits and favors enough, and it is their 
business to provide proper facilities for handling per¬ 
ishable goods, having agreed to carry them, and so¬ 
licited the trade. The growers have a right to de¬ 
mand better service, and the New York State Fruit 
Growers’ Association will bring up the matter at 
Syracuse. It has been suggested that they call for a 
law compelling transportation companies to furnish 
suitable cars for perishable products. If they fail to 
do so within a reasonable time after demand, a defi¬ 
nite sum is to be forfeited for each day’s delay. Fruit 
growers need such protection. If they failed to load 
or unload a car within a specified time, or left goods 
too long in a freight house, the transportation com¬ 
pany would not hesitate to make them pay for it. It 
is said that such legislation is in accordance with a 
well-settled principle of law. Fruit growers need 
such protection, and their organization was formed to 
aid them in just such tnings. 
* 
We begin this week a discussion of the future 
chances for eastern apple growers. Other articles of 
great value will follow. The stories about the vast 
plantings of apple trees in the West have frightened 
some faint-hearts, but there is less cause for alarm 
than they imagine. Here we are close to the great 
apple markets of the country, and in the natural home 
of the high quality apple. With proper care our or¬ 
chards can be made to outlive and outbear the western 
trees, and if we grow clean fruit and sort and pack 
it honestly, we may claim an advantage which the 
western grower cannot hope to overcame. 
* 
The current number of Sunset, a Californian maga¬ 
zine, contains a very appreciative sketch, with many 
illustrations, of the personality of Luther Burbank, 
by Prof. Edward J. Wickson, of the University of Cali¬ 
fornia, to be followed by an account of his extraordi¬ 
nary work in plant breeding. The public ear is now 
so stunned by the clamor for recognition and reward, 
of cheap little military, naval and political “heroes” 
that it fails to perceive the great and lasting services 
of such patient experimentalists during life, and sadly 
neglects their memory after death. It is refreshing 
to find an authoritative account of one who, with no 
hope of liberal reward or wide public recognition, has 
devoted the best energies of his life to the permanent 
betterment of the fruits and flowers of the earth. The 
products of his garden laboratory will doubtless he 
enjoyed by countless thousands long after the antics 
of many who now seek to monopolize attention are 
forgotten. 
* 
We have never known such a rush of subscriptions 
as The R. N.-Y. is now receiving. They come flowing 
in like a rising tide, and the beauty of it is that the 
majority of those who renew send a new subscription 
with their own name. The most gratifying thing 
about it is that our best agent and advertiser seems to 
be The R. N.-Y. itself. We have little desire to blow 
our own horn, and still less to disparage or injure the 
work or reputation of other farm papers. There 
ought to be a chance in this great country for all the 
agricultural journals to live honestly and cleanly. In¬ 
stead of wasting their energies and character in fight¬ 
ing they should get together and work for a common 
cause. Our policy is to live and help live. Our ambi¬ 
tion is to put The R. ‘N.-Y. in a class by itself— 
making it so original and strong that any reader who 
wants our class of matter will find it necessary to 
subscribe. This of course is an ideal, but the way 
our friends respond this year gives a practical foun¬ 
dation to it. 
* 
One of the greatest problems on many eastern 
farms just now is how to get the most value out of 
the corn fodder. In one way the high price of grain 
will prove a useful thing, for it will force farmers to 
study out new ways of utilizing the corn crop. Many 
farmers have neglected corn, for they thought that 
the western grain could be sold cheaper than they 
could raise it. This year has changed that belief, and 
we look for a heavy planting of corn in 1902. The 
foreign demand for American corn is growing. We 
do not expect to see the time again when the grain 
will be used for fuel, as it has been in the past! As 
for handling the stalks, the silo solves the problem 
on a dairy farm. Where a variety of stock is kept we 
believe it wise to save at least part of the dry grain. 
With us, the shredder leaves the dry stalks in fine 
condition for horse feeding or for steaming as pig 
food. Of course the stalks must be cared for properly 
if we expect to compare them with hay. 
* 
The incoming Postmaster^General is said to advo¬ 
cate the reduction of first-class or letter postage to 
one cent an ounce. This is all very well, as we can¬ 
not have too liberal a postal service, but other fea¬ 
tures are more urgently needed by the mass of the 
population. A well-conducted parcel-post is a more 
vital necessity to millions of country dwellers, and it 
would fit in splendidly with the newly-established 
rural deliveries. The extortionate charges of the ex¬ 
press companies for the most trivial services are a 
constant source of irritation and depreciation of 
values. In many cases the cost of sending packages 
between points in adjoining States exceeds the value 
of all ordinary merchandise, and the tariff to distant 
points is absolutely prohibitory, except with specially 
valuable products. Express rates have been repeated¬ 
ly increased lately, and now the prospect of a great 
express trust does not appear encouraging for ship¬ 
pers. The city man has his express matter called for 
and delivered, and gets some return for the high rates 
exacted, but the farmer must get his packages as best 
he can, and pay the same charges. A reduction of 
letter postage, while of general advantage, would 
benefit the mercantile and urban public far more than 
the farmer, whose burden, for business and personal 
correspondence is not usually great, but who is now 
debarred from receiving many of the best products 
of civilization, or of transporting his own commodities 
to the most favorable markets 'by the merciless exac¬ 
tions of a private monopoly, the functions of which 
in almost every other civilized country on earth are 
performed at cost by the Government itself. 
* 
On page 20 is a reply to an inquiry regarding the 
use of dynamite. The necessity for all the care there 
recommended is emphasized by the case of a work¬ 
man near this city who recently did a bit of investi¬ 
gating in this line on his own responsibility. A cart¬ 
ridge which had failed to explode was sticking out ol' 
a drill hole, and an Italian tried to dig it out with a 
pick. The dynamite resented this treatment in the 
usual emphatic way, and a 40-pound keg of powder 
standing near also exploded, One man was blown to 
pieces and four others badly injured. Five years ago 
Alfred Nobel, the Scandinavian who invented dyna¬ 
mite, died, leaving nearly all of his large estate to 
be given in prizes to men of any nationality who did 
unusually notable works in science, literature or 
statesmanship. The prizes were divided into five al¬ 
lotments, and the first (about $40,000) has just been 
awarded. Among the winners were the discoverers 
of the Roentgen rays and diphtheria serum, and 
Henry Dunant, of Switzerland, on account of his work 
in instituting the Red Cross societies. 
• 
Every period of unusually cold weather is marked 
by an increase in the number of apparently unac¬ 
countable fires in dwelling houses. City and country 
are visited alike, but the usual lack of adequate water 
supply under pressure makes rural fires especially 
disastrous, and it is not uncommon for loss of life to 
be involved. The brief newspaper reports usually 
state that the cause of the fire is unknown, or that 
an overheated stove is suspected as the origin. A 
study of these disasters leads one to believe that the 
heating facilities are provided with reference to com¬ 
fort during weather of ordinary character only; when 
a period of intense or unusual cold supervenes, stoves 
or furnaces are pushed far beyond their usual capac¬ 
ity, and chimneys or flues prove unequal to the strain 
put upon them. In addition to this, builders are often 
careless; unprotected wood is too near the point of 
danger, ready to take fire when the heating apparatus 
is thus forced. A visible danger too often present in 
country houses is the wooden fireboard at the back 
of the stove. In our capricious climate, subject to 
varying periods of arctic intensity, we should try to 
be prepared for proper heating without this dangerous 
forcing, and any point where danger may exist should 
be investigated and rectified. Such foresight would 
materially shorten the list of Winter casualties. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Few men can dignify labor by talking about it. 
Jack Frost is said to have a coal deal in prospect! 
No, gentlemen, muscle is not money until it is stamped 
witli brains. 
Never put up a small tank and then blame the wind¬ 
mill if the water runs low. 
Kind words can never die—but a steady diet of them is 
bad. Honest criticism is the protein of life! 
A man in this city “resolved” on New Year’s Day to 
quit drinking, and then got drunk in celebration of his 
resolve. 
Never mind the hayseed in your hair, but beware of 
the weed seed. Hayseed is the noblest thing that a fine- 
toothed comb can find on your head. 
We continue to receive reports of hardship entailed on 
little children by the centralized school system. The 
trouble is in the poor facilities for carrying the children. 
Here we have a little note from A. R. PhilliDS, of Ohio: 
“With rural telephones, rural trolley lines, rural free de¬ 
livery and Rural New-Yorker, we’re right in the center 
of the earth, and it’s pretty near all ours. 
We have heard of men who “put their foot in it” every 
time they opened their mouth, but now the papers tell 
of a horse that got his hind foot in his mouth with the 
jaws set. It took four men to get the foot out. 
One of our northern readers wants some hybridizer to 
cross the cow pea on some strain of hardy northern beans. 
This, he thinks, would give a hardy manurial plant that 
would prove very useful. So it would—but so are the 
best varieties of cow peas now! 
The mayor of a Pennsylvania town announced on De¬ 
cember 31 that, while his usual charge for administering 
an oath is 50 cents, he would on New Year’s Day perforin 
this service free for all who honestly wished to “swear 
off.” It is to be hoped that all in that vicinity who were 
accustomed to go on a “toot” took this opportunity to 
dishorn the bad habit. 
