THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 8 
178 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homea. 
Establisfied 1850. 
Herbert w. Collin awooD, Editor. 
Associates. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, ( 
Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, (' 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or 8y 2 marks, or iuy 2 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, MARCH 8, 1902. 
This lias been a hard Winter in western New York. 
The snow has drifted badly on country roads. Free 
rural mail delivery prevails all over Niagara County, 
and the big drifts have interfered seriously with the 
carriers. Extra effort has been made to clear the 
track for Uncle Sam, and many cross roads which 
were formerly left for the thaw have been dug out. 
There have been no demands from the United States 
authorities, but farmers generally have shown more of 
an inclination to keep the roads open for the mail 
carriers. All sorts of devices have been talked of as 
an aid to the ordinary snow plow, even to a gasoline 
torch such as is used on city pavements. 
* 
We have known farmers to sneer at a man who 
failed as a farmer and yet went to town and made a 
fair living selling produce on commission. We see no 
occasion to find fault with a man for that. Some men 
are born traders, but wholly out of place trying to 
make a farm pay. They do not know how to grow a 
crop, but they do know how to sell it. They really 
injure their neighbors by their work on the farm. 
They might help them greatly by selling for the com¬ 
munity. There are a good many cases where a farm 
failure could be transplanted to town and grow up 
into a success as a trader. Producing is one tiling- 
selling is another. Few men can do both well. 
* 
On our first page this week Mr. Allen tells what is 
known as a “big story”—yet it is true. As we under¬ 
stand it, this work has actually been done. This rep¬ 
resents the possibility of farming or gardening, and 
such records are useful (even though most of us can¬ 
not hope to duplicate them), because they show us 
what can be done with just the right combination of 
matter and man! Many of us have soil that will 
match that described by Mr. Allen. We can obtain as 
good fertilizer and manure, and equally good seeds. 
So far as the matter is concerned we can match it if 
we will. How about the man —the most important 
part of the combination? Are we to admit inferiority 
there? 
* 
From all we can learn there is sure to be a large in¬ 
crease of corn acreage in the Eastern States this year. 
The present price of grain is the highest known for 
years, and thousands of farmers who have argued that 
it is cheaper to buy western corn will this year plan to 
raise a large crop. It is not likely that corn prices will 
ever strike the low mark reached some years ago. The 
export trade in this grain has rapidly grown from al¬ 
most nothing to 82,527,983 bushels in 1901. The for¬ 
eign demand is likely to use up any surplus. Many 
eastern farmers are quite discouraged with potato 
growing and will plant more corn than ever. One 
symptom of the silo fever has been the argument that 
it does not pay in the East to grow the grain of corn. 
Too many silo farmers have cultivated corn for a great 
growth of stalk. Now we shall see this changed and 
corn will be grown more for the dry grain. This will 
mean in many cases a change of varieties—from the 
big southern varieties to the small and quick-growing 
northern strains. Some farmers will say they have 
no good corn ground, yet most of them have poor, 
neglected fields which can be drafted into service. By 
sowing cow peas in these fields, with fair amounts ot 
potash and phosphoric acid, we may have another 
year all the manurial benefits of a clover sod, and 
every farmer knows what that means for corn. By 
using fair dressings of fertilizer these fields can be 
made to produce corn this year. 
* 
The almost prohibitive prices for grain cause un¬ 
told suffering to many farm animals. They should 
have been sold last Fall, but the owners hoped for a 
mild Winter, and so the poor things have dragged on. 
half-fed and miserable, through one of the hardest 
seasons we have ever known. Another thing that has 
hurt is the habit some farm writers have of telling a 
big story about how cheaply animals can be fed. They 
delight in telling how they winter a hog on turnips 
alone, or a cow on turnips and straw. If they did any 
such thing the animal was kept thoroughly warm and 
comfortable, but thousands who read are likely to 
adopt this method of feeding for stock that is kept in 
cold, wet quarters. The result is perfect misery for 
the animal. It is a shame to starve and maltreat our 
faithful dumb brutes in this way. 
* 
A farm housekeeper of our acquaintance, receiving 
the day’s mail, remarked: “There’s So-and-so’s cata¬ 
logue; I’m always glad to see that, because I know 
then that Spring is coming.” Her statement was cor¬ 
rect. although (he poets do not enumerate seed cata¬ 
logues among the first harbingers of Spring. When 
these bulletins begin to crowd the mails, each one the 
personal representative of the firm issuing it. there is 
no time to be lost in deciding our garden plans. Much 
time is gained by laying out a schedule during the less 
crowded period of the Winter and then making final 
plans as regards varieties after the catalogues have 
l )een received. That record of intensive truck growing 
on the first page gives valuable ideas for the home 
garden. The fact that a man has plenty of room for 
his home garden is no reason why he should be waste¬ 
ful with it. The family truck patch ought to be a 
leading example of “the little farm well tilled.” 
* 
Prince Henry of Prussia is now in this country and 
is being entertained in truly royal style. He im¬ 
presses one as a sensible and well-informed man, and 
the American people are glad to see him. One feature 
of his welcome was a dinner given to 100 so-called 
“captains of industry”—men who in the opinion of 
the committee in charge have done really great things 
for the world in business, science, manufacturing and 
transportation. These hundred men combined con¬ 
trolled fabulous sums of money. We should all 
doubtless be astonished if we could know what pro¬ 
portion of the actual money of the country lies at the 
beck and call of these “captains.” It was a striking 
display, but we regret that agriculture was in no way 
represented. One man at least should have been there 
to show the German prince that the mere handlers 
of money and machinery do not represent the true 
strength and value of this nation. If that committee 
thinks that one must be a handler of products in order 
to become a “captain” they should have admitted a 
few high-privates from the soil. What would the 
captain do without his company? 
* 
The final report of the Industrial Commission, 
which has been investigating trade conditions and 
examining trust officials for several years, has lately 
been made public. From the unwilling lips of the 
astute financial magnates themselves come admis¬ 
sions of the evil workings of concentrated capital, 
substantiating fully the claims of the most ardent 
opponents of private monopoly. Amid the multitude 
of denials and in the obscurity cast by the very faulty 
memories of the trust officials one may realize the 
domineering power and ruthless discrimination of 
these aggregations of greed, now without hindrance 
from State or National authority, engaged in destruc¬ 
tive warfare on small rivals on one hand and extort¬ 
ing from the purchasing public on the other the most 
oppressive jirofits ever known to commerce. It mat¬ 
ters little that existence under their exactions may be 
for the moment tolerable. An irresponsible despotism 
is at all times a source of danger and injustice, and 
while the forceful capitalists who now control the 
price and supply of our most necessary commodities 
may be judicious enough not to drive the dependent 
classes to desperation, the shifting personalities com¬ 
prising the management may so change at any time 
that the exactions may become unbearable, and in 
some instances, notably those of transportation and 
coal production, it is evident that safe limits have 
been passed. The present apathy in the public mind 
concerning the operations of trusts results from in¬ 
ability to agree on remedial measures. The major¬ 
ity report of the Commission recognizes the tremen¬ 
dous evil and suggests legislation to place under Na¬ 
tional control, and to ensure publicity in the opera¬ 
tions of all the so-called trusts doing an interstate 
business, while the minority report gives an able re¬ 
sume of their objectionable features and indicates 
plainly that if just regulation is not accepted the al¬ 
ternative is government ownership. It is probable 
that some futile legislation will be pushed through 
Congress to delay and becloud the matter, as it is too 
vast and important to be successfully dealt with by 
present political methods, but in the near future the 
equitable management of industfial operations may 
become the most vital issue. 
* 
Some people make us very weary by their timid or 
cowardly manner of handling public questions. Those 
Montana fruit growers (see page 163) on the other 
hand are inspiring—their action is like a tonic to the 
faint hearts! The oleo wolf crawled under the skin 
of the wool growers and “resolved” that the farmers 
of Montana are opposed to honest butter. As we said 
last week, many “resolutions” really mean little, but 
are blown out through a tin horn as if there was 
something stronger than wind back of them. The 
fruit growers were not to be blown out that way. 
They got up a resolution that meant something. Men 
might vote for the first one without knowing what it 
meant, but they would not vote a reply to it unless it 
expressed their true sentiments. If we had more peo¬ 
ple in this country like those Montana fruit growers 
the farmer’s lot would be an easier one. Montana has 
but one inhabitant to about 300 acres of land. Yet 
500 people attend this meeting! That means 1,500,000 
acres represented! Imagine what would happen if we 
could have that number of acres represented at a 
meeting in New York, New Jersey or Massachusetts! 
* 
That discussion of bud variation on page 163 is very 
suggestive. Apparently the orchardist has not con¬ 
sidered this feature of his work so much as the com¬ 
mercial florist. Both forms of bud variation men¬ 
tioned by Mr. Craig have been evident in a marked 
degree under glass. As a familiar example of the 
first, the change in character of a single branch, we 
may take the Bride rose, one of the most popular 
white Tea roses in cultivation. The parent of this was 
Catherine Mermet, a French variety introduced in 
1869, which is clear pink in color. In 1882 a florist 
in this country discovered among a number of Cath¬ 
erine Mermet plants, one having a single branch bear¬ 
ing pure white flowers. Stock was propagated from 
this branch, and the result was The Bride, introduced 
in 1885, which is not only constant in color, but pos¬ 
sesses a better habit than its parent. At rare inter¬ 
vals a single flower of Catherine Mermet appears on 
The Bride, but its actual character is firmly fixed. In 
1892 another bud variation of Catherine Mermet was 
introduced, Bridesmaid, which is deeper and more 
constant in color. Chrysanthemums are very much 
given to these “sports,” like the Amber Ada Spauld¬ 
ing referred to by Mr. Mead. The bud variation ex¬ 
pressed by the character of the entire plant is another 
thing closely watched; no florist who wishes to keep 
up a productive stock would willingly propagate from 
shy-blooming plants. The study of this whole ques¬ 
tion is one that touches the orchardist very closely. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
"As healthy as a mule!” 
Faith is the sun of a prophet. 
The mule never forgets good or "bad treatment. 
Who can tell us what effect cotton-seed meal will have 
on hens? 
“Peach buds O. K. thus far” is the report from Orleans 
Co., N. Y. 
Here’s an old proverb the wise man heeds; that waste¬ 
ful work makes woful weeds. 
Hugging a delusion represents the pleasures of antici¬ 
pation-embracing a fact those of participation. 
Why should not the neck be as well able to ward off 
cold as the cheek? “Don’t bundle up” the throat. 
No vegetable in the house but potatoes, eh? Decide now 
that this is to be the last Winter for you to say that! 
The man who permits his courage to fall into a dormant 
condition will find himself in a door-mat condition before 
long. 
Take this sound thought into your mind and let it 
harden; the road to health if not to wealth, runs through 
the garden. 
The plant novelty is not getting a fair trial unless the 
familiar sorts compared wfith it are equally well fed and 
cared for. 
The English sparrow is now accused of colonizing San 
Jos6 scale. That is even worse than the ants’ habit of 
herding plant lice. 
Some of us have mixed-up notions about the geography 
of this country—here is a Kentucky man writing that he 
never saw cotton-seed meal! 
The eighth annual meeting of the Massachusetts Fruit 
Growers’ Association will be held at Horticultural Hall. 
Worcester, March 12 and 13. A good programme is al¬ 
ready assured since the management has secured the 
services of Prof. F. A. Waugh, of the University of Ver¬ 
mont; J. H. Hale, of Connecticut; H. E. Van Deman, of 
Washington, and other experts in horticultural matteis. 
Stereopticon slides will be used to illustrate some of the 
lectures. For further information address the secretary, 
C. A. Whitney, Upton, Mass. 
