564 
August 16 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Colling wood, Editor 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, I 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, {-Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager, 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, 
equal to to. Gd., or H l /z marks, or 10VE 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 sucli 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, ' 
40S Pearl Street. New' York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16, 1902. 
We regret to see that many of the daily papers are 
busily engaged in trying to show that the Grout anti- 
oleo bill is a failure! There are reports and “dis¬ 
patches” ail trying to show that the oleo people have 
found some way of driving their fraudulent business 
through the new law. It is easy to understand why 
the oieo men should try to circulate such reports. 
They were to be expected, but they should not fright¬ 
en the friends of honest butter for a moment. The 
Grout bill has come to stay. If it is found, after fair 
experiment, that there are a few pinholes in it, these 
holes will be filled up; the whole bill will not be torn 
away! 
• 
The letter from Mr. Keefer, on page 559, states an 
important matter clearly and forcibly. The express 
companies have done their best to defeat the bill es¬ 
tablishing a parcels post. We regret to say that their 
best has thus far proved very effective. It is a shame 
that these private corporations are able to hold up au 
important and much-needed reform in this way. it 
need not be so if the common people will wake up and 
demand what is due them. The history of the anti- 
oleo legislation shows what can be done by earnest 
and united action. Up and at them! Let every farmer 
start now to demand that his would-be representative 
in Congress support the parcels post bill. We shall 
push this as hard as we can. 
\ve hope to announce the names of the prize win¬ 
ners in the contest for the best essay on Why I Take 
The R. N.-Y. next week. Nearly 1,000 essays must be 
read and carefully considered, and the contest is so 
close that a “Philadelphia lawyer” would have a job 
to pick out the best. 
* 
It seems much like old times to be warning people 
against lightning rod agents, but the time has come 
to rub the warning in. These chaps are abroad—after 
a long rest during which they have studied out new 
yarns and made fresh calculations. Mr. Woodward 
will give a good account of their methods next week. 
* 
Our private reports continue to show a falling off 
in the condition of good apples. In some sections a 
good crop was started, but what with the falling and 
the injury from wet the proportion of really good 
barrel fruit will be small. Much of the fruit must go 
to the evaporators, and they are handicapped for lack 
of fuel. There is greater reason than ever for knowing 
what buyers are offering. Send us the figures as soon 
as you can get them. 
* 
The notes on boxed apples (page 569) should be 
read by all shippers. The man who says he received 
only 65 cents for five crates has no reason to argue 
that this proves the apple box a humbug. Suppose 
he sent potatoes or peaches in milk cans, or butter in 
a wash tub, could he hope to get all they were worth? 
They might be of the finest quality, hut buyers asso¬ 
ciate the package with what it previously held. Prob¬ 
ably these apples would have sold as well, or better, 
in barrels. No use trying to sell boxed apples except 
in a special box which customers believe was made 
for the fruit. 
* 
It is a little surprising that so keen a man as Mr. 
Mapes should not see why Mr. Clark lays great stress 
upon the fitting of soil for the hay crop. No one pre¬ 
tends that the thorough fitting of that grass field 13 
years ago provided plant food for this year’s crop! 
Yet that careful work is still felt! How can that be? 
By thoroughly stirring and airing the soil Mr. Clark 
provided a perfect seed bed. The great majority of 
weeds were killed out. The heavy seeding started a 
thick mat of grass which was not obliged to fight 
with big weeds for its life. We have been at some 
pains to compare the number of grass plants on a 
square foot or yard of Clark’s field with the same 
area in what we may call an ordinary meadow. There 
were four or five times as many in the former, and 
this was due to the perfect seed bed which gave the 
grass the advantage over the weeds. Unless this thick 
and even stand can be obtained at starting it is use¬ 
less to try to thicken it up afterward. If that 13-year- 
old field which Mr. Clark refers to had been seeded 
as many fields are handled, it would to-day be more 
than half weeds in spite of the most careful feeding. 
There is a pretty theory to tae effect that fertilizers 
force the good grasses so that they beat the weeds. As 
many a farmer knows to his sorrow this does not al¬ 
ways work out in practice. Mr. Mapes is right in sug¬ 
gesting that lack of suitable plant food has ruined 
many a grass experiment, but the big yields of grass, 
year after year, are cut only on meadows where the 
grass is thick. That means a perfect seeding and a 
start ahead of the weeds. That thorough preparation 
of the soil is like the pedigree in the well-bred cow 
or h g. That is what enables plant or animal to make 
the best use of its food. 
• 
Some of our readers who live hack among the hills 
do not realize the struggle that is going on in some 
localities over automobiles. On Long Island and on 
the smooth roads around the large cities these vehi¬ 
cles go rushing at great speed through the country, 
frightening horses, killing or injuring people, and 
generally demoralizing travel. It is admitted that 
the autos have a right to the public road, and that 
they have come to stay. They are likely to he far 
more numerous than at present. How can they be 
controlled so as to reduce their damage? That is the 
problem, and it is a hard one. There are some who 
do not believe the use of these horseless carriages will 
spread. They think that only the very wealthy or 
the “sports” can afford to own or drive them. We do 
not take that view. It seems to us that their use is 
hound to increase rapidly, and we look forward to the 
time when they will be sold at a price that will put 
them within reach of thousands. To what extent they 
will he useful for farmers remains to be seen, hut we 
believe that they have come to stay and that we 
must get used to them. About the best that can be 
done is to regulate their speed and compel reckless 
drivers to behave themselves. 
August is a good time to get rid of the bushes 
which may have been permitted to grow about the 
fences and stone walls; yet they may be cut in such a 
careless way that the stubs left will be a bigger nui¬ 
sance than the hushes themselves, being a constant 
menace to rubber boots and horses’ feet. The bush 
scythe, with a blade four or five inches wide, is a 
poor thing except for mowing sweet fern, briers or 
similar stuff on an overgrown field preparatory to 
plowing. For trimming about the fences it will pay 
better in the end to use the heel of a narrow scythe 
or a heavy corn knife. This is hard work, and one 
cannot get over so much ground, hut if the growth 
about a fence is cut closely there will be no stubs 
in the way, and most of the next year’s growth will 
go in the hay, if a meadow, or can be easily cut and 
burned after grain is removed. One or two cuttings 
will kill some kinds of bushes, but new ones come 
in, as fences and stone walls are a nurse crop for 
the weed tribe. A yearly warfare must be kept up 
against these intruders, although after a time it will 
be a matter of hours instead of days to handle this 
job. No weed is more widely scattered throughout 
the East than poison ivy, which flourishes especially 
in stone walls, and does not die unless pulled up or 
dosed at the root with some chemical. Usually one 
member of the family or the hired man is immune to 
the poison, and he can handle the ivy end of the job. 
• 
On page 553 Dr. Smead told of the reckless methods 
of soil depletion being carried on in parts of the 
Northwest. In New York State and other sections of 
the East similar conditions may be found, though of 
course on a small scale, as nature has not favored the 
Bast with many river valleys 200 miles long by 70 
wide. In many townships several farms may be found 
which have been “run” until, like an exhausted horse, 
they lie down and refuse to work. We have in mind 
one farm of 200 acres, mostly cleared land and till¬ 
able. The former owner did an immense amount of 
work in clearing, draining, removing stones, etc. He 
raised grain, hay and potatoes, had a dairy and large 
flock of sheep, thus producing manure enough to keep 
the farm in high fertility, and was selling 100 tons of 
surplus hay per year. There was no better farm In 
the vicinity, and it is doubtful whether any better 
farmer ever lived. But his working days were over, 
and the farm was sold to a non-resident who rented 
it for as large amount as he could get, always driving 
a sharp bargain with the renter. After a few seasons 
of this continual cropping with comparatively noth¬ 
ing put on in return the neighbors noticed that the 
land had a tired look. One renter after another gave 
it up. Large fields that had produced fine crops of 
hay, corn and potatoes, were buckwheated until the 
last drop of available fertility was squeezed out of 
them. At last it was rented for $100 for sheep pas¬ 
ture, and not a dozen loads of hay could be cut on 
all of those former fertile meadows. This was be¬ 
cause the non-resident owner knew little about farm¬ 
ing, and thought he was playing a sharp game on the 
land and the man who rented it, a foolish mistake, 
yet most readers will recall instances of similar bad 
management. Nature does not excuse the soil robber. 
He or his successor must pay in hard dollars and work 
for every bit of injustice done the land. 
* 
We received a circular entitled “Farmers and Public 
Schools,” In which Francis B. Livesey asks whether 
schools are to ruin the country. He quotes the fol¬ 
lowing lines by Elwyn Hoffman: 
THE INCAPABLE. 
Below him lie the fields he scorns to till. 
Above him shine the heights he cannot reach; 
The sirens of the dream behaunt him still, 
And still the burdened ox’s groan doth reach 
Up from the length’ning furrow, that turns down 
Together hopes and daisies one by one! 
Incapable! Hell coined that bitter word 
To be the bearer of a special sting; 
A sting more keen than felt by those who ve erred 
Against the laws of God’s adminis’t’ring! 
Incapable! Paused half-way up the height 
Hell send its heralds to him with the night. 
A grievous plight is his, but who’s to blame? 
Where stands the soulless father of the fault? 
Who sent him lust of power—dream of fame— 
And taught his soul from low tasks to revolt? 
Who made him hate his sire because he plods? 
Who gave him frail desires and fragile gods? 
In answer to this question Mr. Livesey attempts to 
prove that education is a detriment rather than a 
benefit to this country. He speaks of high school or 
college graduates who appear to think that all useful 
employment is beneath their dignity, and of the flot¬ 
sam of tramps throughout the country, many of whom 
had more school training in youth than the farmers 
and mechanics whose skill, labor and thrift make pos¬ 
sible the strong, steady motion of that great mechan¬ 
ism which we call business. From one point of view 
these arguments are sound. Any school training 
which causes one to get on a perch from which he 
looks scornfully on the world’s activities and work¬ 
ers, is a mistake. A farmer’s son who, while at col¬ 
lege, is ashamed to have others know his father’s 
business, needs to have his ideas reorganized before 
he can amount to anything anywhere. Lack of men¬ 
tal balance, not excess of learning, causes the trouble. 
If at home one gets a fair common-sense idea of the 
true relations between labor, money and products, 
there is little danger of his being injured by as ex¬ 
tended a course of school training as time and means 
will permit. It isn’t the school that injures the child 
half as much as the fond parent, who lacks the moral 
courage to be strong where the school is weak. 
• 
BREVITIES. 
The coal strike hurts the fruit evaporators. 
The rain that ruins the hay revives the pasture. 
It is no permanent cure for the blues to paint the town 
red. 
Will the steer drive the dairy cow off the eastern 
farm? 
It takes a strong man to reorganize his own views and 
admit that he was wrong. 
Fruit and ice water are good in their places but not 
together in the same stomach! 
No right to “kick”—the man who deliberately takes a 
risk which he knows is unsafe—and loses. 
The retail butchers complain that the exactions of the 
beef trust prevent them from making both ends meat. 
These reasons are from an Illinois man: “I like your 
paper, it puts the good things all in a lump, easy to get 
hold of.” 
We may console ourselves by thinking that if the con¬ 
tinued strike compels us to keep on using soft coal, it 
will seem hard. 
We have many questions as to the best time for cutting 
timber to make it last as fence posts. We like August 
and September. 
Palm oil, which the oleo men want to feed us with, is 
a valuable material in soap-making. The same Industry 
seems the proper channel for utilizing oleo itself. 
Business men in he Philippines are complaining of the 
unstable silver currency. The Government fixed the value 
of $1 United States money (gold standard) at $2.27 Mexi¬ 
can silver, but Uncle Sam’s dollar Is really worth $2.40 
Mexican, and there Is constant fluctuation. 
