548 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 9 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FARMER'S RARER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
DR. Walter Van Fleet, / Ark _ 
Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.0-1, 
equal to 8s. fid., or marks, or lOVfe 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, ana 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. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street. New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1902. 
Last year D. R. Pease described his experiments 
with sulphur spraying to combat Pear blight. We un¬ 
derstood at the time that some of our readers expect¬ 
ed to try it in their own orchards. Have they done 
so? If they have we would like to hear from them. 
* 
We repeat out request for figures offered by apple 
buyers. When they begin making prices please let us 
know what they offer. This will help all by equal¬ 
izing prices and protecting those who might be tempt¬ 
ed to sell at a low figure, and thus set the price below 
what the apples are worth. 
Let all remember the date of the New York State 
Fair, September 8-13. There will be special attrac¬ 
tions this year, and the managers will do all in their 
power to make those who attend comfortable. The 
best thing about such an exhibition is the crowd—the 
people who come from their homes with the story of 
another year’s farm experience. It will be a wet story 
this year, but one good way to dry it out is to listen 
to one who seems wetter. 
* 
It is reported that country storekeepers are com¬ 
plaining about the free delivery of rural mail. Tuey 
claim, according to report, that their business is fall¬ 
ing off—that farmers do business by mail with the 
large stores in town or city. Are these reports true 
or not? We would like to hear from both farmers 
and storekeepers. We have found that about the best 
way to settle any leading question is to refer it to our 
readers for a fair discussion. 
* 
Let no dairyman turn over and go to sleep in the 
belief that the oleo manufacturers will quietly accept 
the Grout law. They are still very much alive, and 
will try in every possible way either to have the law 
declared unconstitutional or to use some form of col¬ 
oring matter in their goods. We understand they ex¬ 
pect to carry the law to the Supreme Court—having 
retained the law firm which was able to secure the 
annulment of the income tax law! These men must 
be watched with no sleepy eye! 
* 
Last week a question about using salt on quince 
trees was asked. In their answers our scientific 
friends neglected to mention one point which perhaps 
started the question. It has been noticed that when 
salt is used on very rich soil the straw of wheat or 
rye is stronger. The grain does not lodge so badly as 
where no salt was used. This result is not noticed 
on poor soil, and this suggested the reason for it. The 
richer soil supplied an excess of nitrogen which caused 
the grain to grow too rapidly—thus giving a tender, 
brittle stalk which easily broke down. The salt re¬ 
tarded or held back this action of the nitrogen, and 
thus induced a slower and more solid growth. It may 
be that the quince tree referred to stands in rich soil 
so that it develops wood rather than fruit. The salt 
might retard this wood growth, but it would not be 
likely to stimulate the formation of fruit buds. We 
speak of this because some readers evidently believe 
that all we need to consider in a fertilizer is the 
amount of actual plant food it contains. It is now 
coming to be understood that salt, lime—in fact, most 
manurial substances, produce results in the soil which 
are quite aside from their direct action in providing 
plant food. 
At this time of the year we hear from farmers who 
are in trouble about selling goods from their wagons. 
The local authorities often try to drive them out of 
business, or make them pay for a license to sell. It is 
our opinion that no community has the right to en¬ 
force such payment when a farmer sells his own pro¬ 
duce from his wagon. When he buys produce from 
others and sells it the case may be different, but we 
do not believe that the courts will sustain any at¬ 
tempt to compel a license when selling your own 
goods in any public place. Go ahead and sell what 
you can! 
* 
It seems likely that, at the next session of Con¬ 
gress, an effort will be made to lessen or remove the 
present tariff of 27^ per cent on live cattle, thus per¬ 
mitting the free entry of beef on the hoof from Can¬ 
ada, Mexico and Argentina or Australia. This is of 
course the result of the continued high price of beef, 
which is especially felt by working people in towns 
and cities. The claim that the gradual lessening of 
the ranges, as they are cut up into farms, must result 
in an increased price for beef, causes consumers to 
assert that the time has come for lowering the bars. 
It does not seem very likely at present that any such 
alteration will be made in the tariff, but this feeling 
is undoubtedly growing among those who suffer from 
present prices. 
* 
Ox page U55 mention is made of the damage done to 
nervous cows by driving them about with a dog. We 
have seen farmers who thought it very smart for Shep 
or Tige to round up the cows, barking and nipping at 
their heels, and sending them flying into the barn¬ 
yard as though landed there by a cyclone. Then the 
owner wondered why his best cow should give bloody 
milk. Some cows can stand such treatment without 
injury. The muscular old brindle, whose near ances¬ 
tors considered it amusement to drive wild beasts 
from the pasture, will not be harmed by an argument 
with the dog. In fact, the dog stands an equal chance 
of getting rough usage. But one dose of such treat¬ 
ment may entirely spoil a high-strung Jersey. The 
dog and the yelling hired man are out of place in a 
high-grade herd. 
• 
A recent graduate at an agricultural school has a 
new farming scheme. He expects to get control of a 
good-sized tract of land in the New England hills, and 
go to fattening Summer boarders. His plan is to put 
up small cottages or cabins which can be rented at a 
fair figure. There will be a large house in some cen¬ 
tral location where meals will be furnished if desired, 
and on the level fields vegetables, eggs and meat will 
be produced and sold to boarders. The scheme will 
require capital, but there is money in it rightly hand¬ 
led. The chances are that $10,000 wisely invested in 
this way among the New England hills would pay 
better interest than an equal amount invested in rich 
western farm land. The Summer boarder is the most 
exacting crop that a farmer can have on the farm, 
and unless he possesses Job’s patience and Solomon’s 
wisdom he would better stick to beaus and potatoes. 
* 
The following comparative prices for which 
American protected manufacturers sell at home and 
abroad articles constantly used by farmers are being 
printed in many papers: 
American. 
Foreign. 
Wire nails (keg). 
.$2.25 
$1.30 
Shovels (dozen) . 
. 7.50 
5.80 
Axle grease (pound). 
.08 
.04 
Wash boards (dozen). 
. 3.00 
1.70 
Barbed wire (100 pounds).. 
. 3.00 
2.20 
Fruit jars (dozen). 
.80 
.55 
Sewing machines . 
. 40.00 
17.00 
Who presents these startling figures and where do 
they come from? We understand that they are part 
of a campaign document issued by the Democratic 
Congressional Committee and that they are taken 
from the most reliable sources. The R. N.-Y. will 
have nothing to do with partisan politics. Still, if 
these figures are accurate and truly represent the 
prices at which American-made goods can be sold 
after a journey of thousands of miles, every farmer 
in the country should know it. We have written to 
a score of our readers in Europe and Australia asking 
them just what such articles cost in their market. If 
possible, we shall obtain the wholesale as well as the 
retail prices. We wish to find out whether these fig¬ 
ures indicate what foreign dealers pay, or whether 
the lower price is our export figift-e quoted to stimu¬ 
late foreign trade. Suppose the figures are accurate 
or nearly so—why should they interest farmers? The 
chief reason is that the goods quoted above are manu¬ 
factured by a trust or “combine” which is able to 
monopolize the home market. If the goods can be sold 
in Europe at the figures quoted they can be sold even 
cheaper here, and they would be were R ~^t for the 
double protection which the trust and the high tariff 
give to the manufacturer. If the American farmer is 
to be forced to pay these high prices he should at 
least have some chance to dispose of his own goods 
to advantage. Natural causes prevent the farmer 
from monopolizing the market for the goods he pro¬ 
duces. A “corner” in grain, cotton or pork benefits 
the gambler rather than the farmer. If the so-called 
“industrial supremacy” of this Nation in foreign lands 
is to be won by making the farmer pay for it we want 
to know it. How can the farmer pay for it? If an 
article be sold to the foreign trade for $1, while the 
American farmer is compelled to pay $1.50 for it, the 
latter pays 50 cents extra, which represents a profit 
on both articles and the cost of introducing one to the 
foreign trade. The R. N.-Y. has no prejudice or party 
spirit to serve in this matter. If the figures quoted 
above are correct the American farmer is being 
robbed. If they are not correct we shall be pleased to 
give the true figures. 
* 
This is the season when the city clerk on his vaca¬ 
tion rides through the country and calls the farmer a 
shiftless and wasteful citizen. He sees weeds in the 
corn and windfall apples under the trees and, cool and 
comfortable himself, lays down the law wisely about 
laziness and lack of thrift. It is always easy to sit 
in the shade and tell the workers out in the sun what 
they ought to do. There is, too, a grain of justice 
sometimes in such amateur criticism. This season 
has been a hard one for many farmers. The constant 
rains have forced the weeds along and yet kept the 
ground so wet that it has been impossible to work 
heavy soils properly. In our own case we expected a 
dry season, though we had no right to do so. We 
figured on having plenty of time after harvest to 
clean the cornfields, but rain after rain has made such 
work impossible. As for windfall apples, we have 
learned to let the cows and the pigs take care of them, 
thus preventing a double waste. The city clerk who 
is so quick to criticise farmers, could not make a liv¬ 
ing on the farm if you were to give it to him, yet 
there may be unconscious sense in his criticism. 
* 
The following from the Sacramento Bee shows some 
of the difficulties under which California fruit men 
labor: 
The fruit growers are patient and long suffering. But 
patient endurance of wrong is no virtue. If they com¬ 
bined as the transportation companies do, and protected 
their rights, they would be better treated and Would 
make money. The railroads not only fail to carry fruit 
with reasonable speed to its destination, though well 
paid for such a service, but likewise fail to provide re¬ 
frigeration at moderate cost, or even to break up the 
existing monopoly of refrigerator car service from this 
State, which is plundering the fruit growers to the ex¬ 
tent of hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly. 
This refers to the growers of plums, pears and other 
deciduous truits. It is said that orange and lemon 
shippers get better freight rates to extreme eastern 
points, though why this should be so is not clear. As 
a rule the danger of loss is greater and the profits less 
on deciduous than Citrus fruits. The Citrus fruit men 
appear to be more thoroughly organized, and thus 
better able to stand up for their rights. Who can 
expect to sit down and have his rights picked up and 
cleaned and set before him by others? 
♦ 
BREVITIES. 
The July egg is valuable this year. 
The average life of a cent is five years. 
Take time for honest play but don’t “fool.” 
Who likes to “work like a dog” in dog days? 
Do you cut the weeds into the silo with the corn? 
Better “give yourself away” than to sell yourself! 
When a hen ceases to be a layer plant we advise pot¬ 
ting her! 
A “gent” is a gentleman minus the qualities that go 
to make a man! 
No, friend, the wife and children are not responsible 
for the rain. Don’t make them “dry up.” 
The latest report is that some of the Boers are to be 
sent abroad to study scientific agriculture! 
There’s many a farmer who has given his vote for a 
cause which has, later, demanded his note. 
The average consumption of butter in this country is 
given as 1J pounds per year—cheese 3 1-3 pounds. 
Read how that little fruit business (page 526) got a cot¬ 
ton plantation out of the hands of the money lenders! 
In the French Chamber of Deputies the opposing poli¬ 
tical parties are designated as the Right and the Left. 
The Cuban reciprocity party in our recently adjourned 
Congress might be described as the extremely left. 
Prof. F. W. Rane, of Durham, N. H., is preparing an 
extended article on muskmelons for the coming Plant 
Breeders’ Conference. He would like to hear from all 
persons who have originated varieties or know of others 
who have. 
