532 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 2, 1902 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FAlt MEN'S PAVER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Uehbekt W. Colling wood, Editor. 
l)it. Waltkk Van Fleet, / 
Mus. K. 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. Gd., or 8V& 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 trilling 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. t 
'*• THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1902. 
Just as soon as apple buyers begin to make offers 
for your crop we would like to have you send us their 
figures. We want to know dll about the price and 
crop outlook, and the more we can learn about it the 
better it will be for all hands. In former years these 
buyers have made a price in one locality which was 
30 per cent off the price made in a locality less than 50 
miles away. The R. N.-Y. goes everywhere, and is 
read by all, so that such figures can be easily com¬ 
pared in widely separated sections. 
* 
The recent fearful floods and constant rains have 
proved disastrous to crops on low ground. Most of 
the estimates of losses are little more than guesses 
thus far. While the lower lands have been flooded 
the upland fields have been well watered, so that the 
gain in one case partly offsets the loss in another. 
We do not hear of serious loss to the apple crop in 
consequence of the floods. The crop promises to be 
fair, but the conditions are such that if fruit growers 
can be kept informed, good prices may be obtained. 
* 
We have received quite a number of fruit leaves 
this season which are badly punctured and apparently 
diseased. Most of them are from trees that were well 
sprayed. The results were enough to discourage and 
puzzle any man who has been taught to believe that 
spraying will prevent disease. In some of these cases 
we feel quite sure that spraying caused the injury. 
Impure samples of copper have been used and, as is 
explained on the next page, this wet season has made 
the leaves very liable to be injured by the spray. It 
is discouraging—to kill with what we expected would 
cure—yet the pure medicine is still reliable. 
* 
There has been great interest in silo building this 
year. Thousands of new silos are being put up, and 
many farmers who have long argued against feeding 
silage will try it next Winter. Many small silos are 
being built, too, on farms where there are already sev¬ 
eral larger ones. The smaller ones are to be used for 
Summer feeding, so that next Summer the cattle can 
be “pastured from a tub.” This means that many old 
pastures have been broken up and planted to corn. It 
is one result of the high prices for corn. Farmers 
have been driven to new methods of obtaining stock 
food from the farm, and the silo has come to stay. 
A Michigan mechanic sends us the following letter: 
I have read with some surprise In recent numbers of 
The R. N.-Y. that some of the students at the land grant 
colleges, who are there, I suppose, to become proficient 
farmers, are ashamed of the fact that they are likely to 
be called farmers or students of agriculture. What are 
they there for? It would be a kindness to them if all 
such so-called students were summarily dismissed from 
such institutions, as their chance as successful farmers 
is very small, and they are a positive injury, not only to 
the institution they attend, but to the business taught 
there. It is folly for any institution to waste its time 
and the time of such students in trying to make them 
proficient in a business that they are ashamed of. When 
a person gets above his business he will do better, per¬ 
haps, at something else. 
The facts as we understand them are that at several 
of these land grant colleges certain students ask to 
have the word “agricultural” removed. As a rule, we 
think such students are in a minority. They are often 
taking the course in “mechanics,” which never should 
have been tacked on to the agricultural school. Then 
there will usually be found at such institutions a 
class of students who never expect to be farmers. 
Most of them come from towns. They take advantage 
of the course because tuition is free and expenses are 
low. They shirk the agricultural side of the course 
so far as possible, and absorb all they can that will 
help them in some occupation away from the farm. 
We think such students do most of the complaining 
about that awful word “agricultural.” The authorities 
make a mistake when they pay any attention to them. 
They should be “sat upon” at once and told to go 
elsewhere if the name of the school is not satisfac¬ 
tory. As for considering for an instant the possibil¬ 
ity of changing the name of a school that is supposed 
to educate farmers—the thing is simply impossible. 
Agriculture needs men who are brave enough to give 
character to the name—not social cowards who con¬ 
sider the stain of the soil a badge of infamy. 
• 
For years California fruit has been coming into 
this market in light, small packages. The trade in 
boxed apples has reached large proportions, while 
eastern fruit growers have continued to pack in bar¬ 
rels. We are surprised to find how little the eastern 
shippers know about these handy California pack¬ 
ages. They are so common here In the market that 
they attract little attention, while fruit growers near¬ 
by are unable to learn how to hit the small package 
trade. We suggest that a display of these light pack¬ 
ages be made at fruit growers’ meetings next \* inter! 
* 
We have a reader who finds fault because The R. 
N.-Y. permits the publication of articles and ideas 
with which he does not agree! It would be hard to 
please such a man—in time he would grow tired of his 
own views. When some one comes along big enough 
and strong enough to upset some pet idea which has 
been accepted largely on trust, we are glad of it— 
even though we own the idea! Why then not print 
everything? The R. N.-Y.’s pages are not made of 
rubber. For another answer we might quote from 
Paul to the effect that some things though not per¬ 
sonally harmful, are not expedient. 
* 
Our local farmers are surprised at the low prices of 
good potatoes. They have read in the newspapers of 
great damage from rain and flood and poor weather 
generally—yet the markets are full of potatoes. The 
floods and bad weather were reported mostly from 
sections which do not ship many early potatoes to 
New York. The crop on Long Island and in New 
Jersey is fair, and most of it will be rushed to market. 
Early varieties are grown, and wheat is usually seeded 
after potatoes, so that the land must be cleared early. 
Thus there is quite sure to be a rush through August 
and September. Later, when the late crop should 
come in, there is more likely to be a shortage, for then 
the damage from flood on low ground in the North 
and West will be evident. 
* 
One of the great railways running out of New York 
recently adopted a new style of locomotive, and then 
found it necessary to sort out firemen and engineers 
according to size. Big men were misfits; they could 
not get into the locomotive cab, or attend to the firing. 
Why not build bigger cabs? Because the powerful 
locomotive demanded more room than usual, and the 
cab might be scraped off like a superfluous barnacle 
when going through a tunnel. There is a point in 
this applicable to many lines of farm work. Why 
carry superfluous weight in any line that impairs the 
working of motive power? Heavy tools whose place 
could be taken by lighter ones; laborious duties that 
might be lessened by short cuts; idle cows that get 
their board for nothing; back-number crops whose 
market value has deteriorated; all these act as a drag 
upon the motive power of the farm. It is a misdi¬ 
rected economy that would cut away motive power 
rather than relieve it of unnecessary loads. 
* 
After a “conference of party leaders” the other day 
it was announced that J. W. Wadsworth is to be re¬ 
nominated for Congress in his district! The scheme 
for putting his name on the State ticket evidently fell 
through when farmers began to express their opinions. 
Now we shall see whether the farmers of Niagara, 
Orleans, Genesee, Livingston and Wyoming counties 
vote as they write! Why do we follow up this man 
so persistently? We have several reasons, and will 
give one at a time during the weeks before election. 
We think the politicians are trying the farmers. They 
don’t believe yet that the man with the hoe will really 
use his tool to clean up politics. The farmers wrote 
brave letters last Winter, and really had the politicians 
on the run. They have now stopped running and are 
waiting to see if the farmers really mean business. 
If they write strong anti-oleo letters and then turn 
around and vote for oleo men, who can blame a Con¬ 
gressman lor saying that their political courage is 
so small that he can carry it all in his vest pocket? 
Another “fountain pen company” has started up. 
This one is in New York City, and offers a pen for $1 
with the old scheme of “guaranteeing” payment for 
writing letters. We wonder whether any of those 
who burned their fingers on the other pens will think 
they are smart enough to handle this one! Another 
rogue in Philadelphia offers a “nice weekly income” 
to those who will write letters about a so-called maga¬ 
zine. Those who wrote the old fountain pen letters 
did more damage than they knew. They put the 
names of their friends in the hands of dozens of 
frauds and immoral rogues who will send all sorts of 
trash to the family. 
* 
In spite of opposition from a portion of the eastern 
agricultural press a National Irrigation bill was pass¬ 
ed by the Congress just adjourned, and is now a law. 
The people of the United States, through their estab¬ 
lished Government, plainly have the right to reclaim 
the waste places of their domain and render them 
habitable and productive, even though temporary in¬ 
justice be worked to remote districts never favored 
with public assistance. While the absolute right of 
National and State governments to inaugurate great 
irrigation projects for the general benefit cannot be 
gainsaid the manner of turning the resulting highly 
improved public property over to individuals cannot 
be too carefully scrutinized. The Irrigation bill as 
finally passed contains the following provision: 
No right to the use of water for land in private owner¬ 
ship shall be sold for a tract exceeding 160 acres to any 
one land owner, and no such right shall permanently 
attach, until all payments therefor are made, and no 
such sale shall be made to any land owner unless he be 
an actual bona fide resident on such land, or occupant 
thereof, residing in the neighborhood of said land. 
This is all very innocent on its face, but with the 
experience of our present Homestead land laws to re¬ 
flect upon one may easily imagine the horde of con¬ 
venient “relatives,” employees, debtors and specula¬ 
tive stool-pigeons of corporations and wealthy non¬ 
residents who will be located so they may legally pur¬ 
chase these lands, only to turn them, with their per¬ 
manently valuable water-rights, over to their employ¬ 
ers after the Government title has been perfected. In 
the light of present manoeuvers of associated capital 
it is not only possible but extremely probable that 
an irrigated land trust will eventually result, perse¬ 
cuting and “freezing out” the real farmers and bona- 
fide purchasers until competition in the products of 
National irrigated lands is killed. The rational solu¬ 
tion of this coming problem would seem to lie in the 
people forever retaining title to these lands when re¬ 
claimed and irrigated at common expense, leasing 
them on long-term non-transferable leases to genuine 
resident farmers and cultivators. The great weakness 
of the present law is in the power to transfer or sell 
to other parties as soon as the original title is per¬ 
fected. It will require much expense to keep the pro¬ 
jected immense irrigation plants in operation after 
they are completed, and a fair continuous rental is 
about the only way the Nation can recoup itself for 
this perpetual outlay. Good irrigated lands are so 
immensely valuable as contrasted with ordinary agri¬ 
cultural soil dependent on our fickle rainfall that no 
estimate can really be made of their ultimate value in 
comparison, and of the temptation for unscrupulous 
capital to gain sole control. Fortunately the opera¬ 
tion of the new law will be so slow that years must 
elapse before the lands are actually ready for settle¬ 
ment, and there should be ample time to amend it in 
conformity with the real interests of the greatest 
number of Americans. 
m 
BREVITIES. 
Are robins robbers? 
Tears only feed the flood! 
Reflectors to frighten birds—page 530. 
The position of everybody’s friend is no sinecure! 
Hen manure and skim-milk. Their value for land and 
animal feeding cannot be measured by the chemist. 
Why certainly, if any New York State farmer has a 
fair argument for deepening the Erie Canal we are ready 
to listen. 
The Treasury Department has decided that if palm oil 
Is used in making oleo the full tax of 10 cents a pound 
must be paid. 
Don’t start selling apples in a box and then pour the 
fruit in as you would into a barrel. Boxed fruit must be 
packed—gently and well. 
An Englishman has invented what he calls a “clock 
gun.” It contains 12 gunbarrels and numerous cartridges, 
which are exploded by clock work, scaring the birds. 
Every year we are asked how to kill ants on the lawn. 
Find their hill. Punch a hole down through it with a 
crowbar, and pour in two ounces of bisulphide of carbon. 
Cover with a blanket for half a day. 
The letters we receive this year show that rain is fall¬ 
ing. The floods have jumped over into the hearts of 
many of our contributors. We know what it means, and 
cannot blame them for feeling blue. Yet, who ever 
stopped the rain by growling at it? 
/ 
