5oo 
July 19 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FABNER'S PARER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Hr. Walter Van Fleet, l * *_, . 
Mrs. K. T. Koyle, J-Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. Gd., or 8% marks, or 1UV£ 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. 
w - THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1902. 
We find little interest expressed in Cuba and the 
opportunities on the Island for farming. Most of our 
readers seem to think that a poor American will have 
little chance to make a fortune among the Cubans. 
In this we think they are right! 
* 
We feel sure that more eastern apples will be 
offered in boxes this year than ever before. The box 
used by Pacific coast shippers is a good one. Dealers 
and customers know it, and it will be wiser to imitate 
it rather than to try to devise a new package. The 
apple box is the package for the best fruit. The bar¬ 
rel is too large for a retail package. 
* 
Van Deman gets after another nursery rogue this 
week. The stories this rascal tells about his fruit are 
about the worst we have ever heard. Strange, isn’t 
it, that such scamps can go about the country, right 
into the shadow of the reliable home nursery and sell 
their worthless stuff? If a man wants to buy such 
trash to experiment with we can have no objection 
to his doing so, but we shall continue to play the 
rogue’s march on these so-called agents! 
* 
We can see nothing in our careful and extended re¬ 
ports to indicate a Heavy crop of apples. The condi¬ 
tion of the apple crop this year is the keynote to 
the fruit situation. Some localities send hopeful re¬ 
ports, but as a whole, it seems evident that in the 
sections where large crops of apples are usually pro¬ 
duced frost, disease or flood have cut down the yield. 
In former years The R. N.-Y. was able to obtain a 
good idea of the probable apple yield. We have start¬ 
ed earlier than ever this year to investigate, and it 
seems very clear at this time that good eastern apples 
will be in great demand. 
* 
The National Congress, which has just adjourned 
its first or long session, was guilty of some sins of 
omission. The bill for taxing colored oleo and other 
yellow imitations of butter was enacted into a law, 
not because the politicians acknowledged its justice, 
but on account of direct personal pressure by thou¬ 
sands of interested dairymen and farmers on the lead¬ 
ing party managers. Projects for a postal savings 
bank and a general parcels post met with scant con¬ 
sideration, and were not even reported from commit¬ 
tee, although few greater necessities exist than 
the promotion of thrift and comfort among the busy 
millions living in rural homes, remote from city con¬ 
veniences. It may be said that every nation of the 
world, claiming a passable degree of civilization, with 
the exception of the United States, already possesses 
these invaluable conveniences, but we are met with 
the opposition on the one hand of the National banks 
that wish to handle the wage earners’ money solely 
for their own profit and on the other the express 
monopolies, charging an almost prohibitory price for 
trivial accommodations in the way of light merchan¬ 
dise transportation. When rightly considered in the 
light of possible accommodation to the greatest num¬ 
ber, no omission of Congress is so important or de¬ 
serves greater censure. Our National Post is already 
the greatest business institution on earth, but its 
facilities should be extended so that the most remote 
citizen should not only have a daily delivery of par¬ 
cels and postal matter but savings bank facilities 
brought to his door. Those who have seen the 
pathetic line of toilers before the doors of any well- 
established savings bank, eager to deposit a share of 
their scanty earnings so that some slight provision 
may be made for the inevitable rainy days of sickness 
and old age, need no further argument to convince 
themselves of the tremendous public benefits an ac¬ 
ceptable form of postal bank would create. Our Treas¬ 
ury pays out hundreds of millions of dollars in in¬ 
terest every year on its outstanding bonds, but this 
income practically goes to those already needlessly 
rich. A postal bank with facilities for exchanging 
moderate deposits for low interest bonds would grad¬ 
ually divert a portion of this great stream of wealth 
to those who most need it, and the resulting sense of 
comfort and security would go far to promote real 
patriotism, which in this era of syndicate grabs and 
monopolies is badly needed. The farmers of the coun¬ 
try, through their organizations, and by direct appeal 
to legislators and candidates, can quickly bring about 
these much-needed postal facilities. Now, as a new 
House of Representatives is soon to be elected, is a 
good time to begin the work. 
* 
Newspaper reports state that a spell-binding seed 
agent has been going through sections of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, selling seed of a new cucumber producing fruit 
two feet long, and possessing every virtue that a 
model cucumber should aspire to. There are, of 
course, a number of cucumbers producing longer fruit 
than this, but they are all of the greenhouse type. 
Truth to tell the American market does not yearn 
for serial cucumbers of such amplitude, but a num¬ 
ber of persons bought the seed referred to, for curios¬ 
ity’s sake, following directions given, which were to 
plant them in a barrel filled with rich earth. Subse¬ 
quent experience suggests that the seller was an im¬ 
perfectly reformed manufacturer of wooden nutmegs, 
for the seed refused to come up until it was dug out, 
and then proved to be made of basswood! It is quite 
likely that experimental horticulture has received a 
temporary frost in the locality visited by this seller 
of cucurbitaceous gold bricks, but every experience 
of this kind should cause a reaction in favor of re¬ 
sponsible firms. The man who is in business to stay 
cannot afford to disappoint or mislead his customers. 
m 
Lack of time is an excuse often given for the 
neglect of farm work, while the real trouble is lack 
of ability to arrange work so as to avoid loss of time. 
City business men with great interests and responsi¬ 
bilities train themselves to think and work systemati¬ 
cally, doing as much in the five or six hours spent 
at their desks as others do in a day by haphazard 
methods. Here and there a farmer is found who has 
the reputation for getting along with his work better 
than others. It may not be his physical strength, su¬ 
perior teams and tools or favorably situated farm, but 
merely the knack of doing things. A man of this type 
acts as ginger and pepper sauce for a whole neigh¬ 
borhood. Through his example other farmers are 
stirred up, perhaps unconsciously, to do better work. 
His influence on the young is of great value. A farm 
community without men of this stamp is in a bad 
way. Things drag along year after year, and the 
young grow up without anything to spur them on to 
better things. In the city a young man is sure to 
have whatever latent ambition is in him aroused. The 
struggle for position is so great that he must either 
move on or see others pass him, a hard thing for a 
self-respecting young man to endure. 
• 
The price of corn at Chicago suddenly jumped last 
week to a point barely reached before in 30 years. 
Corn brought more than wheat, but this was an ab¬ 
normal price, as is shown by the New York grain 
market. The price for corn here ranged about 70 
cents per bushel, with wheat about 80 cents. In 1891 
corn brought 70% cents in New York, but in that 
year wheat sold at $1.10. In 1882 corn brought 80 
cents and wheat $1.28. The Chicago price seems to 
be the result of speculation, and does not, we think, 
indicate higher prices for this year’s crop of corn. 
While it seems true that tne crop is slow and back¬ 
ward in many of the western corn sections, we must 
remember that several things will tend to offset a re¬ 
duced western crop. There has never been a larger 
acreage planted to corn east of Ohio. Many old pas¬ 
tures and waste fields have been planted to corn with 
liberal use of fertilizers. The fertilizer dealers never 
had a greater demand for special corn fertilizers than 
this season. While undoubtedly some of this corn 
is backward at present, it will come on later, for one 
of the advantages of fertilizer farming is that a back¬ 
ward crop can be easily fed up. Again, thousands of 
western farmers were taught last year the value of 
corn fodder, both shredded and fed dry and put in the 
silo. They were not prepared to utilize the knowledge 
fully last year, but this year they will do so, and the 
greater use they make of the stalk the more of the 
grain they will have for sale. We do not believe, 
therefore, that the price of corn will rise unless it is 
pushed up for speculative purposes. If a fair crop 
can be obtained present prices or even lower ones will 
mean a good profit. 
* 
Not long ago we received a call from a well-known 
business man who is deeply interested in the foreign 
shipping of New York City. After a few preliminaries 
he announced his business about as follows: 
“We are greatly interested, in a business way, in 
the scheme for improving the Erie Canal at State ex¬ 
pense. We expected to obtain a large appropriation 
from the last Legislature, but the farmers of the State 
defeated it. We have begun already to push this 
matter through the next Legislature, and our purpose 
is to try to overcome the objections which the farmers 
raise. This must be done in some way, and we 
thought it likely that we could make some arrange¬ 
ment with you to advocate the Canal improvement 
in your paper and help us secure this appropriation!” 
There he stopped abruptly, as though he had forgot¬ 
ten something. 
“By the way, how does your paper stand on the 
question?” 
“We support the farmers in their contention every 
time. We see no reason why you wealthy men should 
ask the farmers of the State to dig out the canal when 
every spadeful, while rich in gold for you, is but an 
extra burden on their backs. Furthermore, if your 
suggestion is to pay us for advocating your scheme 
we will inform you promptly, once for all, that you 
cannot buy a line on the editorial page of The R. N.- 
Y. for one million dollars a word!” 
He didn’t stop to advance any arguments in favor 
of a deep canal. He merely said “Oh! Ah! I merely 
thought I would mention the matter!”—and was 
gone! That is all there was to it. We mention it here 
for two reasons. If we find some supposed friend of 
the farmer changing ground on this canal question 
and finding new arguments in favor of that big ap¬ 
propriation we shall wonder whose dollars are in his 
pocket! The promoters of the enlarged canal are 
pulling every wire to secure the appropriation from 
the next Legislature. Just as the farmer plows six 
months or a year before the crop is harvested, so they 
are plowing now to kill off the farmers’ influence at 
Albany. Be careful who is sent to the Legislature! 
We have no particular fault to find with the man who 
came to buy a little slice off our conscience! That 
was his idea of business. We regret to say that many 
papers have but one standard of journalism:—“How 
much is there in it for me?” Such papers put a price 
upon any space on any page. It will cost more to buy 
what is supposed to express their honest conviction 
than it will to buy space in their advertising columns 
—but it is chiefly a difference in price. There is hard¬ 
ly an unbought line about them! Is it any wonder 
that this man assumed that most papers will sell their 
convictions as he would sell hardware? 
• 
BREVITIES. 
Weeds grow In mud. 
Potato prices aim low thus far. 
How the late rains did put legs on the grass! 
It takes righteousness to right the wrongs of agricul¬ 
ture. 
How much of your dinner can you pick from the 
garden? 
If you see it in The R. N.-Y.—we have good reason to 
think it’s so. 
Ever sow oats or rye as a mulch for small fruits? How 
did it come out? 
Is any of your farming done for your country, or is it 
all for yourself? 
We have found nitrate of soda unusually useful In the 
garden this season. 
“Biggest corn crop yet” is what the Government ex¬ 
perts say. We doubt it! 
It takes good brawn and blood to stand up against the 
pounding of frost and flood. 
What an advantage it is to have a man or boy who 
likes to hoe or swing a scythe! 
What is the safe in which to lock the truest manhood 
of this country? The farm home! 
An impossible job—trying to reason with one who has 
absorbed an idea soaked in prejudice! 
Now, gentlemen, no doubt you like to discuss things 
that are far up in the air, but you must remember that 
common people live on the earth. 
Women are often accused of extravagance in their pur¬ 
chase of headgear, but none of them equals Uncle Sam, 
who is willing to pay $40,000,000 for his Panama. 
The Americanization of Europe is a favorite topic with 
the newspapers just now, but a casual view of some ex¬ 
isting conditions suggests that we might well begin by 
more completely Americanizing America. 
An Indiana man recently convicted of stealing hogs de¬ 
clared that the animals jumped into his wagon without 
any invitation, much to his embarrassment, but this 
statement was received coldly by the suspicious and un¬ 
believing jury. He should have said that the hogs recog¬ 
nized a long-lost relative! 
