TH h. KURAL N E W-YORKHiR. 
September 2? 
bbo 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1800. 
Hekbeut w. Colling wood. Editor. 
l>u. Walter Van Fleet, 
Mils. K. T. Kovle, 
| Associates. 
Joun J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
etjual to 3s. (id., or 3*4 marks, or 1014 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, aim 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 cheek or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1902. 
We have about completed arrangements for a press 
to print The R. N.-Y. at the rate of over 7,000 copies 
an hour. This is what is called a perfecting press. 
The paper is taken from a roll, and the papers come 
out all complete, folded and pasted, or stitched, ready 
for the mail bags, about as fast as one can conveni¬ 
ently count them. We will tell our readers more 
about this press a little later. It is brand new just 
from the factory, and we expect to print the first 
issue on it some time in October. The R. N.-Y. has 
simply outgrown its old facilities. The new press is 
the largest and fastest as well as the most expensive 
press in this country on which a farm paper is 
printed. The constant growth of the paper during 
the last few years has intimated the necessity for 
means of faster press work. The present circulation 
makes it imperative. We will be able now, however, 
to get out two or three times our present edition with 
ease. We want our old friends to help double the 
number of readers during the coming year. This is 
a good time to begin. Get your neighbor to subscribe 
now. For a trial we will send the paper every week 
for the remainder of this year for 10 cents. Can’t 
you send just one? 
* 
In the case of the American Farm Company vs. 
The R. N.-Y. a motion to transfer the case to New 
York County was argued last week. John E. Con¬ 
nelly appeared for The R. N.-Y. and the motion was 
granted. 
* 
Read the statement of that so-called parcels post 
on page 057. If Uncle Sam can handle the German 
packages, or if our express companies can handle the 
English parcels, why cannot Uncle Sam do our carry¬ 
ing for us? Your Congressman is the proper person 
to ask about this. 
* 
It is again reported that Secretary of Agriculture 
Wilson is soon to retire from the President’s Cabinet. 
This time the story is that he is to be president of the 
Iowa Agricultural College. We hope this report is 
unfounded, but we fear it has more truth than the 
others. Mr. Wilson has given character and strength 
to the Department. Fortunately, this strength is of 
an enduring nature. His plans have been built so 
solidly and with such care that whoever succeeds him 
will be sure to carry them out. 
* 
The farmers’ cooperative creameries have formed 
an organization. Good. This is the logical result of 
cooperative creameries—creameries controlled by th? 
milk producers themselves. It is needless to say that 
The R. N.-Y. has always advocated and encouraged 
the cooperative creamery idea. We did it when some 
good friends of the producing interests could see no 
hope in it. The suggestion for an association of co¬ 
operative creameries appeared in these columns as a 
logical contingent of the establishment of the cream¬ 
eries themselves, and we are glad to see the sugges¬ 
tion taking definite shape. The hope of the milk pro¬ 
ducers rests, we believe, with the efficiency of the 
management of this association. In time we hope to 
see it incorporated under our State laws. There 
should be no rest until every cooperative creamery 
within the shipping territory to New York and Phila¬ 
delphia markets is represented in this association. 
This organization will cause the Exchange autocrats 
more unrest than any move heretofore made. It is 
a business proposition, and, being business men, they 
will see and appreciate the strength of the producers’ 
position. Let this organization be complete and com¬ 
pact, and it can dictate a reasonable price for milk. 
A little snowstorm that blocks the railroads for two 
days produces a milk famine in New York City. Let 
the milk be made into butter and cheese at these co¬ 
operative creameries for a week, and the rout of the 
enemy wouid be complete. Nothing but concerted 
action on the part of the creameries is needed. This 
possibility is afforded by the cooperative creamery 
association. 
* 
The National Provisioner is much concerned be¬ 
cause certain rogues are using mineral oil to adul¬ 
terate tallow! It seems that this cheap oil is mixed 
with the more expensive beef fat and sold as suefl. 
A rogue’s game that ought to be exposed; but it only 
shows that the oleo men have troubles of their own 
■ They fought hard for the chance to put tallow into a 
mixture and sell it as butter, but how they whine 
when some one tries to sell mineral oil as tallow! it 
makes a great difference with a counterfeiter whether 
he cheats some one else or is himself cheated! It is 
enough to make a steer laugh to hear our dignified 
friend, The Provisioner, say: "The objective point 
of such frauds is an invasion of higher grade products 
in which the adulterating agent cannot be discov¬ 
ered.” That “objective point” is what we have tried 
to prod into the oleo men! 
* 
The financial success of this year’s New York State 
Fair seems to have given new ambitions to the man¬ 
agers. It is now reported that a new $50,000 building 
will be erected, containing a great hall in which daily 
concerts will be given. It is also proposed to compel 
eaca of the charitable and educational institutions in 
the State to send an exhibit showing its work. This 
will be well enough, but the Society should do more 
toward encouraging exhibits from the common people. 
The fair exhibits are useful and instructive as ex¬ 
amples of how things ought to be done, but we be¬ 
lieve they would be still more instructive if they were 
closer to how they are done. It is all very well to shake 
an ideal in the air, out of a man’s reach; but you will 
do more for him if you give him exmbits, sports and 
contests in which he can have a fair chance for a 
prize. What is the object of an agricultural iair? 
♦ 
Farmers at the east end of Long Island are jubilant 
just now over the rise in the price of potatoes. We 
were told at the Suffolk County Fair by conservative 
men that the recent review of potato prospects in The 
R. N.-Y. saved at least $25,000 for our readers. Many 
of them were induced by this report to hold their 
crop, and now the price is at least 20 cents a bushel 
higher. The Long Island crop is fine this year, both 
in quality and yield. The chances now are that a 
good share of the crop will be marketed at once. The 
shrewdest growers conclude that the present rise is 
due to reports of rot and blight in upper New York 
State. These reports seem to be based largely on the 
appearance of the vines. It is expected that when the 
crop is really dug the yield will be found better than 
expected, and this may bring prices down again, it 
requires nice calculation to know just when to sell. 
While the present prices may last for a few weeks we 
cannot see that the indications favor a long continua¬ 
tion of them. 
* 
We are asked about the outlook for oleo—or rather 
what the oleo men are doing. We said immediately 
after the Grout bill was signed that the manufacturers 
would not accept the situation and give up the fight. 
They have been and are trying in every possible way 
to pick flaws in the law and to invent some way ol 
getting around the “color clause” so as to make yel¬ 
low oleo and still avoid the 10-cent tax. They have 
employed the shrewdest lawyers in the country, and 
when we consider how small a hole a man will crawl 
through after a dollar we must expect a mighty legal 
struggle. The oleo men evidently expected to use 
palm oil to color their goods, but the Treasury De¬ 
partment stopped that. Their chemists are now 
hunting for something that will be permitted. Ac¬ 
cording to the Chicago Dairy Produce the following 
schemes are being tried: 
Using cotton-seed oil from seeds which have been baked 
in order to give the oil a red color which gives to the 
oleomargarine a sort of light green-yellow. Baking the 
salt brown before using, which imparts a brownish yel¬ 
low. Heating to a high temperature oleo oil to which has 
been added some salt or alkali, which gives color but 
which does not reveal the cause in chemical analysis. 
In every case the object is to give the oleo a darker 
color than the natural fats would show. If this 
slight coloring be permitted by the Treasury Depart¬ 
ment the oleo men would be encouraged gradually to 
darken the shade until great damage to the butter 
trade would result. We think the Treasury officials 
will take this view of the matter and compel the oleo 
men to pay the 10-cent tax whenever substances are 
used for the evident purpose of coloring the mixture. 
This is the point upon which the whole question 
hinges—the right of the butter-maker to use a color 
which has belonged to his product for centuries. 
* 
So ear as we are able to learn The R. N.-Y. is the 
only paper in this country which has ever been forced 
to defend a suit in the courts because of its defense of 
farmers and farmers’ interests. The case of the 
American Farm Company reported two weeks since 
is the third case against The R. N.-Y. within the last 
10 years. The first of these was withdrawn without 
trial, and the other was decided in our favor by a 
jury. Hence, our course thus far has been fully jus¬ 
tified. Any man or concern may sue a paper for dam¬ 
ages which he may think or imagine he has sustained, 
or he may bring suit as a mere “bluff.” In any such 
case the paper must, of course, employ counsel and 
defend itself. This is always expensive, but we re¬ 
gard it as a legitimate part of our expense, just as 
the protection which the information gives the farmer 
is a legitimate part of our duty to farming interests 
in general and to our subscribers in particular. 
* 
Apple buyers, at least some of them, are grieving 
now because farmers will not rush to accept their 
figures. The buyers met and in a general way under¬ 
took to fix the price for fruit. In former years they 
had found the farmers ignorant of the true situation 
as regards the size and location of the crop. The 
buyers expected to go out, tell their usual stories of 
big crops, and scare many a farmer into selling his 
crop at a figure far below its true value. They ran 
against a new thing. The farmers knew as much 
about the situation as the buyers did—in fact then- 
information was more reliable. The New York Fruit 
Growers’ Association had made a careful canvass. 
The R. N.-Y. had collected reliable reports, and the 
fruit growers knew their business. The result was 
that the buyers were obliged to pay what the fruit 
was worth or go without. There is no use for them 
to sulk and play the child. The old game of bluff 
and fake report will no longer work. The growers 
are not operating as individuals—they are being or¬ 
ganized into a strong and compact army! 
• 
We offer no apology for placing before our readers 
the views of State Grange Masters on the tariff as it 
relates to the trusts. Surely such views are import¬ 
ant. The people have a right to know what these 
representatives of a prominent farm organization 
think about an important public question. A farm 
paper is the proper medium for making such views 
public. There was a time when, if a farm paper 
printed the word “tariff” thousands of good people 
nearly had a fit. The public mind is broadening out. 
Men understand now that the tariff can be discussed 
as a business proposition without any partisan bias. 
That is the only way The R. N.-Y. will discuss it. We 
intend to give the American farmer a fair chance to 
state his views on public matters! Some one will ask 
whether the Grange really represents the American 
farmer! It is true that its members embrace only a 
small proportion of the people who actually live on 
farms, yet what other National organization carries 
10 per cent of its influence with farmers? The ex¬ 
pressions of opinion given on page 661 are fair and 
dignified. Where can one find a fairer statement than 
that made by Mr. Atkeson, of West Virginia? 
* 
BREVITIES . 
A post office in Indiana is called Ben Davis! 
Petroleum is already being sold for fuel purposes in 
the North. 
To climb a ladder you must put both best and worst 
foot forward. 
Ice formed at Detroit September 13. Tough on the 
market gardeners. 
The latest is a vacuum canning machine which is said 
to exclude the air from the cans entirely. 
There has been much talk of a big corn crop, but it 
is not fully mature yet. A hot Fall is needed to ripen it. 
A New York trade paper says that the “fool killer” 
should visit western New York, because farmers will not 
accept the first prices offered by apple buyers. He 
might not find all his victims on the farms. 
Farmers want information aboiR crops before they 
sell. What good does it do them to know that their 
apples would have brought 50 cents more per barrel- 
after the other fellow has them? 
Instead of putting his hens in that hole, page 655, Mr. 
Mapes should bury them near those peach trees. We 
buried one near a Japanese ivy. The organic nitrogen 
became so disorganized that the ivy has touched the 
roof. 
Storer’s “Agriculture” is the standard book on 
scientific farming. For a good illustration of the develop¬ 
ment of knowledge regarding bacteria and their work, 
one should compare the edition of 1 2 years ago with the 
latest one. 
