356 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 17 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PARER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Colling wool). Editor. 
Bk. Walter Van Fleet, I A , 
Mbs. E. T. Rovlk, £ Associates. 
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 8 y s marks, or 10!& 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, MAY 17, 1902. 
President Roosevelt finally signed the anti-oleo 
bill, and it Is now a law. The last few days witnessed 
some lively hustling. The oleo people made a last 
desperate effort to induce the President to veto the 
bill. It is safe to say that the only thing which pre¬ 
vented this calamity was the clear understanding that 
farmers would regard a veto as a personal injury! 
* 
Mr. Van Deman (page 349) tells of bugs that cost 
this Government $2,000 apiece! Is it a sin to spend 
money that way for a bug when there are so many 
uses for a dollar? No, we regard this as a legitimate 
expense. If this insect will live and thrive in our 
climate it will clean out the dreaded San Jose scale. 
It costs money to test such things. Such an experi¬ 
ment is well worth trying! 
The 17-year locusts are nearly upon us. There is 
some uncertainty as to just when they will come and 
how much damage they will do. One reason for this 
is because few records were made when they last ap¬ 
peared. This year’s brood should be watched with 
care. All can help. Let every reader of The R. N.-Y. 
observe when the locusts emerge and notify the State 
entomologist with any other facts about the insect 
Do this without fail. It will surely help. 
• 
Four Ohio boys recently ate wild parsnip thinking 
it to be sweet anise. One died, and the others are 
in a critical condition. Every country child should 
know the comparatively few poisonous plants growing 
in his vicinity. Boys especially have a disposition to 
investigate and taste all sorts of plants and fruits. 
A little care on the part of parents will often prevent 
the making of such fatal mistakes. Instruction in 
these matters in country schools would not be out of 
place. Specimens obtained from a Summer Saturday 
in the field or woods would furnish pupils an interest¬ 
ing and valuable object lesson. 
* 
On page 361 a reader tells why on the western 
prairies cornstalks are left in the field all Winter. 
They hold the sand and prevent the strong winds 
from drifting it. We often hear farmers condemn a 
method or opinion because it does not agree with 
their own. They think they “know it all” and are 
therefore quick to judge. Often they know only one 
small side of it. The thing that they denounce may 
be exactly the right thing under conditions which 
do not touch them at all. This idea of standing on 
one corner of a thing, shutting your eyes and de¬ 
nouncing it all is bad business. Walk all around it 
before you abuse it! 
The writer once lived in a house in a small town. 
There were two families in the house and a small back 
yard. With Spring came the gardening fever. That 
back yard could not be ornamented so we determined 
to make it useful. The man in the other part of the 
house came with about this proposition: 
“Let’s have a good garden! We’ll divide it up! You 
dig and plant and do the hoeing and I will furnish 
the seeds and pick my share!” 
He claimed that this was fair because he had a 
“pull” with our Congressman and could get the Gov¬ 
ernment seeds ! Of course, he said, these seeds must 
be better than any other! There being no other way 
to agree with him we got the garden ready. His 
famous Government seeds turned out to be about the 
most useless lot of stuff that a politician ever paid 
his small debts with. We quietly burned them up 
bought new seed and had a good garden. The amount 
of stuff grown in that back yard was remarkable— 
and the Congressman received the full credit for it! 
Such experience as this makes one smile when people 
tell how they intend to shut up “the Government 
seed shop!” We regard the seed distribution as a 
first-class humbug, yet sure to continue. Better rea¬ 
lize that fact and manage it so as to get most out 
of it by giving it more and more to the distribution 
of new things that ought to be tested. 
* 
A hang of Italians in this city were carrying a 
heavy steel rail when the six o'clock whistle blew. 
That was their quitting time and they were so 
anxioua not to work a moment over-time that they 
dropped the rail at the first toot right on the foot of 
the Irish foreman! They remind us of some hired 
men who appear to be frightened at the thought of 
giving the boss an extra minute in exchange for the 
hundreds they take in working hours. Who is a 
good match for such a man? The boss who fails to 
appreciate the uncalled-for jobs that the faithful 
hand performs. 
* 
The Health Commissioner of Brooklyn, N. Y., ad¬ 
vises his subordinates that permits may be issued for 
the keeping of hens and little chickens in the bor¬ 
ough, but under no circumstances will roosters be 
permitted. This is not an unjust discrimination 
against the masculine element, but a direct result of 
the rooster’s untimely crow, which in a crowded city 
soon becomes a nuisance. Only those who have tried 
to sleep in a hot and noisy town can realize the exas¬ 
peration of the sound in early morning, when other¬ 
wise there is a temporary lull. Crowing, either on 
the part of birds or humans, is often an irritant to 
the nerves of the audience. 
* 
Senator Penrose, of Pennsylvania, concluded a 
speech on the oleo bill as follows: 
In the State of Pennsylvania the local Granges number 
about 500, with a membership of fully 55,000, principally 
heads of families. The farmers of Pennsylvania are 
among the most intelligent and conservative of all the 
many elements of our population, and in a general way 
they may be said to constitute the best bulwark of our 
institutions. For these reasons, representing as I do one 
of the greatest agricultural States in all the Union, 1 
heartily favor this bill as it is reported from the Senate 
Committee, and 1 shall cast my vote for it when it comes 
up for final passage. 
One of our readers sends us a copy of the speech 
with the following note written on it: 
I enclose this speech so you can see what the postage 
stamp is doing in Pennsylvania. I am of the opinion that 
every farmer should give The R. N.-Y. a vote of thanks 
by subscribing for it. E. p. b. 
Of course such a vote of thanks wouldn’t hurt our 
feelings at all. We would try to face it. Make no 
mistake, however, as to who it was that won this 
battle. There were many of us who did what we 
could, but the victory was made sure only when the 
farmers themselves thrust the small politicians to 
one side and reached straight to the heart of things! 
Let us ever remember that. It is one of the things 
which the American people must not forget—this 
ability of the common people to defend their rights 
if they will but get together behind a fair and honest 
demand! 
• 
During the debate on the oleo bill the following 
newspaper report was sent from Washington: 
Mr. Wadsworth (New York), chairman of the Agricul¬ 
tural Committee, finally succeeded in offering an amend¬ 
ment changing the section providing that oleomargarine 
free from artificial coloration, which is taxable at one- 
fourth of a cent per pound, so as to provide that “colored 
butter shall not be construed as coloration.” The amend¬ 
ment was lost, 61 to 88. 
Well, what about it? You will quickly see the 
point. If the oleo men color their stuff so that it will 
pass as butter, they are taxed 10 cents per pound. If 
made in its “natural” color they save 9% cents per 
pound. They might use a quantity of June butter 
which has naturally a high color and by mixing this 
with their other fats give a yellow tinge to the pro¬ 
duct. What Mr. Wadsworth evidently wanted was 
to give the oleo men the right to use any colored 
butter in this way. You can easily see what would 
follow. They could pour the color into a sample of 
butter until it was as red as a brickbat—then use 
small quantities of it to color their oleo to any shade 
desired. It was a slick scheme but happily nipped in 
the bud. Now a stranger would, of course, suppose 
that Mr. Wadsworth must be a city man—a farmer 
hater—with no dealings whatever with country peo¬ 
ple. A man with such a game as that could not pos¬ 
sibly have the “nerve” to ask a farmer to vote for 
him! The fact is, that Mr. Wadsworth not only rep¬ 
resents an agricultural district but actually pretends 
to be a farmer himself! In all the crooked ways of 
politics we do not know of anything more out of 
joint than a man who advocates such a proposition 
as we have quoted, representing a district controlled 
by farmers'. But surely these farmers do not know 
the man’s record on this question! He must have 
kept under cover and deceived them! On the con¬ 
trary, his record has been published and made as 
clear as possible so that every farmer in Niagara, Or¬ 
leans, Livingston, Wyoming and Genessee counties 
knows just what his Congressman stands for! Why 
there were farmers enough in that district who sign¬ 
ed petitions against oleo to bury Mr. Wadsworth out 
of sight! Do you mean to say that farmers who act¬ 
ually petitioned Congress against oleo turned around 
and voted for this champion of a fraud? They must 
have done so or he never could have been elected! 
Will he run again? Run? Why he expects to canter 
through the district with not so much as a fiy speck 
to block his way. Will the farmers of his district 
nominate him? No, for that will be done by a well- 
organized ring. The farmers will have a chance at 
him later. It remains to be seen whether they think 
more of their bread and butter than of the man who 
tried to scrape the butter off their bread! 
* 
Political economists tell us that prices are regu¬ 
lated by the relation between the supply and the de¬ 
mand. That is, when any article is scarce the price 
advances. When this advance price stimulates pro¬ 
duction, resulting in a greater supply than is abso¬ 
lutely needed, prices decline again. This is called 
the law of supply and demand. While the raw pro¬ 
ducts of nature remain available to labor for produc¬ 
tion, and competition is unrestricted in distribution, 
the law works to a charm. Those who appropriate 
raw products and destroy competition refer us to this 
economic law as if the result of their manipulations 
had no bearing on it whatever. Let us refer once 
more to the production of coal. If men could go to the 
mines and dig it at will, and then if railroads would 
compete with each other in making a price for trans¬ 
porting it to points of consumption, the amount act¬ 
ually required for heat and power and light would be 
the limit—and the only limit—of production. The 
price to the consumer would be the cost of delivery 
and of mining, including, of course, a fair profit to 
those investments of capital^ in the business. The 
conditions that exist, however, are much different. 
Four or five railroad companies control practically all 
the hard coal fields of the country. No man dares re¬ 
move a single pound of it without the consent of these 
companies. They have the power to decide arbitrarily 
just how much or how little coal shall be mined with¬ 
in a given time. They say just what the miner shall 
be paid per ton for mining it, just what they shall 
have per ton for transporting it, and practically what 
the consumer shall pay for it. The law of supply and 
demand has no more to do with trade under such 
conditions than the law of gravitation. As farmers 
we are not all directly interested in the prices of coal, 
but as producers we are all interested in the general 
law that regulates prices of commodities. It is im¬ 
portant that we understand these natural laws of 
trade. Left to themselves they render to every man 
the just fruits of his hand and mind. Man-made laws 
often prevent this equitable adjustment. They are 
made for that purpose to the end that a few might 
profit by the labor of many. In this country, when 
any farm product exchanges for a considerable length 
of time for another product representing a less ex¬ 
penditure of labor and capital, the natural laws of 
trade have been nullified, and the tiller of the soil 
suffers not from nature’s decrees but from laws which 
he himself has helped to make. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Tarred corn is too much for the hens! 
Tillage is the tiller of good agriculture. 
The place to look for “back bone” is in the eye. 
The first dish of outdoor rhubarb is a family event. 
Why should any R. N.-Y. reader who can get a little 
tar bother with scarecrows? 
Whitewashing trees to head off the 17-year locusts is 
not done to kill the insects but is based on the known 
fact that insects do not like to operate on a white sur¬ 
face! 
Will those who are experimenting with the String- 
fellow method of planting trees please tell us what they 
are doing? It is desirable to obtain the widest possible 
range of reports. 
Letters from farmers who use tar on the seed corn 
are pouring in. They all say use tar alone without 
water. Some heat the corn on the stove before adding 
the tar. That’s the best scarecrow! 
The much-cursed English sparrow will have a chance 
to redeem some of its reputation in the locust-infested 
districts this season. It is said that the locusts have no 
show where the sparrows are numerous. 
This is the way a New York reader puts it: “Here is 
the dollar for another year of The R. N.-Y. If every 
dollar Invested brought the returns that we get from 
your paper we would be as happy as pigs in clover.” 
