756 
November 8 
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 Associates 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, 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. 6d., or 8% 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 bv 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 cheek or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1902. 
“BO Weeks for lO Cents . 
We must have more names to keep this new press 
busy. It takes 7,000 names to keep it going one hour 
a week. Now is the time to interest your neighbors 
in the paper. To give everyone a chance to get ac¬ 
quainted with it. we will send the paper now 10 weeks 
for 10 cents. Perhaps you can get up a club. If so, 
write for terms and cash prizes. 
* 
We need in America as we never did before, a col¬ 
lege or university that shall not only attempt to edu¬ 
cate the farmer along lines of science, but champion 
his rights and sympathize with him. 
* 
Do not think that because The R. N.-Y. gives space 
to a description of the Hitchings orchard we ad¬ 
vise everyone to go to raising apples that way. Some 
people fail to recognize one function of an agricul¬ 
tural paper. It should be a medium for discussing 
hard problems. We give space to “mulch method,” 
“Stringfellow,” or other new topics in order that prac¬ 
tical men and scientists may pick them apart and find 
the exact truth. It would not be the function of a 
station bulletin to do such work, but the agricultural 
paper ought to do it. 
* 
At least some English farmers seem to have solved 
the hired man problem, as may be seen by the fol¬ 
lowing from The Mark Lane Express: 
The winners of awards for long service included George 
Akerman, of Langley, who had been no less than 56 years 
"on the 'same farm or with t'he same master”; William 
Harris, 6f Ditton. 45 years; William Sharpe, of Denham, 
40; Edward Edgson, of Langley, 40; George Coe, of Farn- 
ham Royal, 38; William Francis, Stoke Pogis, 33; Charles 
Elderfield, Langley, 29; Richard Mitchell, Langley, 28; 
Robert Thrift, Denham, 28; Robert Stannett, Stoke Pogis. 
27; John Grace, Stoke, 26; Ephraim Oxlade, Dorney, 26; 
James Hail, Slough, 25; John Goodey, Langley, 25. 
These awards were made at a meeting of the Royal 
South Bucks Agricultural Association. All of the 
premiums were for service of a nature intended to en¬ 
courage practical agriculture and stock raising, espe¬ 
cially by tenant farmers, including two by the King 
for best exhibition of plowing and best cultivated root 
crop of a tenant farmer. 
* 
Wisconsin has taken great interest in agricultural 
education. It was decided that if farmers would not 
come in large numbers to the agricultural college the 
proper tiling would be to carry a small edition of the 
college to them. The last Legislature appropriated 
the money needed partly to support two county agri¬ 
cultural schools in which practical agriculture should 
be taught The Dunn County School of Agriculture 
is located at Menominee with a farm about one mile 
from the town. This school is to teach practical agri¬ 
culture, and besides the farm has carpenter and black¬ 
smith shop, kitchen, laundry, sewing room, dairy, etc. 
Pupils enter this school right from the country school 
without difficulty. These schools are not to conflict 
with the agricultural college—in fact they are more 
likely to prove feeders for it They are brought down 
close to the farmer, and it is expected that many boys 
and girls who would otherwise take the useless 
courses at the ordinary “high” school will attend this 
farm school. Surely it would be far more sensible for 
them to do so. Wisconsin has also begun another 
good movement, the starting of severaloeounty normal 
schools designed for country teachers. There are al¬ 
ready six of them and at least theoretical agriculture 
is part of the course of study. It is evident that most 
of the agricultural colleges are pretty expensive in¬ 
stitutions if we consider the number of students they 
graduate. The farmers will not, or at least do not 
come to them and we consider it a wise measure to 
go to the farmers as Wisconsin is doing. 
• 
Wellesley, a leading woman’s college in Massa¬ 
chusetts, is planning to give instruction in agricul¬ 
ture. Women will be trained in scientific gardening 
and greenhouse work. A good dairy and a poultry 
plant will be maintained for the benefit of students. 
If WelleslSy is taking up this work as a fad or to af¬ 
ford gentle recreation for students it will fail and be¬ 
come a laughing stock. If the new department is or¬ 
ganized in a business-like way and dignified as it 
should be, it will prove helpful to many young 
women. There is no reason why women should not 
succeed at greenhouse work and poultry keeping. Far 
better for them to organize these departments rather 
than enter the already crowded ranks of teachers. 
Useless ideals of education are being constantly upset 
Fifty years ago certain people held that a man was a 
gentleman if he practiced the part of surgery, which 
cut off a leg, but was a cad if he pulled a tooth! That 
was buried, but there is danger of its resurrection! 
* 
Fearful damage is reported from western New 
York to harvested apples. It is confined to scabby 
fruit. A mildew forms on the scab spots. They 
change to rot which finally ruins the fruit. The scab 
itself does not rot the apple but it is the door through 
which this new thief enters to steal the apple’s value! 
The New York Experiment Station is hunting for a 
remedy, but the best it can say at present is: 
The whole trouble can be traced back to a lack of thor¬ 
ough spraying. Had t'he apples been kept free from scab 
by spraying, the white rot fungus could do them no harm 
in storage. However, the past season has been excep¬ 
tionally favorable for scab, and spraying has been less 
effective than usual. 
This does no good to the man who did not spray or 
to the dealer who bought and paid for scabby apples, 
but it seems to be the truth! We need some more ef¬ 
fective fungicide than the Bordeaux Mixture. We 
are sorry to learn that the Greening apple is one of 
the worst affected. Last year this fault was men¬ 
tioned by one cold storage man, but promptly denied 
by others. It is very unfortunate that this fine va¬ 
riety should develop such a weakness. 
• 
Long years of experience are required to know that 
the right spoken word is not always the right word 
for print. There are two ways of reaching man’s 
mind, through ear and eye, and the key is not exactly 
the same. We have good friends who have thought 
long over public questions and perhaps mastered one 
side of them. They talk well and convincingly, and 
because people listen to them they feel that their 
words ought to be printed. When the editor’s blue 
pencil runs over their words they demur, question 
his judgment, and refuse to accept his reasons, if he 
has time to give any! Such talkers do not realize 
what printer’s ink would do to their hot-spoken 
words. The pen is mightier than the tongue because 
it is more enduring. The spoken word may be for¬ 
gotten or time may soften it and thus take out the 
sting. When the word is once printed, however, it 
cannot be forgotten, and all the pitying changes of 
time may not be able to dull its point It probably 
does us all good at times to write out our exact opin¬ 
ion of man or condition—and then tear up the paper! 
We relieve the feelings and do no permanent harm. 
The person or the paper that is continually scolding 
and nagging carries no particular force. They irri¬ 
tate but rarely strike a vital blow! It is the long 
period of evident self-restraint that gives force to an 
utterance against wrong when it does come! 
• 
The latest report is that the coal operators now in¬ 
tend to sell their coal after the plan followed by the 
Standard Oil Company, and the large beef companies. 
They are to establish agents—wholesale and retail, 
and buy out or freeze out the independent dealers. 
Report is that one large dealer was told by the coal 
agent that his “good will” was not worth a cent, be¬ 
cause it is only a question of time before no coal can 
be bought except from some agent of the coal com¬ 
bination. Of course, if there is to be no competition, 
a reputation for fair and honest dealing would have 
little value with the public. Monopoly turns men into 
machines. It is possible that with such a distribution 
of coal, prices for fuel might be lowered and at any 
rate be held at a uniform rate. We do not believe, 
however, that the American people are ready to stand 
quietly and see such a product as coal pass into the 
hands of a monopoly. We think that such a monopoly 
will be a step toward Government control of the coal 
fields. Why not then let the Government open meat 
shops and control the supply of cattle? There is no 
analogy between cattle and coal. The former are re¬ 
newed from year to year and their breeding and feed¬ 
ing afford independent work for millions of citizens. 
The coal is bunched in a comparatively small terri¬ 
tory, cannot be renewed, and affords little if any 
chance for independent labor. 
* 
The R. N.-Y. never did believe that the public high¬ 
ways were made on purpose for the electric cars to 
run on. We have more backing in this position than 
we expected. For instance, here is a New England 
man: 
There has been a lot of damage done quite unneces¬ 
sarily ir. the location of rural trolley lines. Many beau¬ 
tiful country roads have been badly spoiled, and many 
more are being rendered almost unusable. Why, there 
are hundreds of these old lanes where now a young chap 
can’t take his girl out riding without holding the horse 
hard with both hands! Every few minutes some rattle- 
tebang trolley comes ringing and ramping along and 
scares the oid farm horse nearly to death. There's no 
need of kicking on rural trolley lines. They are a great 
deliverance to the farm communities. But there is posi¬ 
tively no use of ruining every good old road in the coun¬ 
try. Let the trolleys go cross-lots! 
The R. N.-Y. doesn’t pretend to be an expert on the 
subject of driving with one or two hands; that may 
be left to younger men. The trolley lines have cer¬ 
tainly brought a blessing to many rural neighbor¬ 
hoods. When we have them carrying freight they 
will be even more useful. That is no reason why they 
should own the earth. They are well paid for their 
service and can afford to keep off the highway. 
* 
The following is from a Missouri reader: 
Can you refer me to an eastern firm that is a large ex¬ 
porter of shelled corn? I want a firm that is trustworthy, 
enterprising and an active fighter for business. We are 
troubled here with a trust in the grain buying business 
whic'h, with the codperation of the - railroad, 
threatens completely to control the price of grain in this 
section We wish to combine the farmers and secure an 
export outlet for the grain if possible. 
We referred the matter to a number of grain dealers 
in the East, but have not thus far found anyone who 
considers that the outlook is at all promising for busi¬ 
ness in this line. They know that outsiders stand but 
little chance in trying to get a share of the business 
of a combine composed of buyers and a railroad that 
has a monopoly of transportation facilities of that 
section. Marketing produce under such circumstances 
is a difficult problem. It is exasperating to be under 
the domination and have to abide by the price dicta¬ 
tions of this particular form of hog. The somewhat 
improbable story of the frog in a can of milk, who 
kept kicking until he churned a lump of butter big 
enough to hold him up, offers a suggestion to others 
imilarly situated. We would keep up a disturbance 
against this injustice. Our reader must remember 
that there is no such thing as “a fighter for business” 
in the shadow of a trust. Monopoly makes the un¬ 
derlings as meek as Moses! All the fight is taken out 
of them, changed into arrogance and given to those 
who control the monopoly. One of our readers in 
France, a large grain dealer, is in correspondence 
with the Missouri man, and may buy the grain! What 
commentary upon American freedom if a French¬ 
man can do what an American dare not attempt! 
• 
BREVITIES. 
Better spoil the rod than spoil the child! 
The “but” end of a discussion contains most of the 
kick. 
“A holy horror of debt” is a good part of a farmer’s 
creed. 
J. S. Woodward doesn’t propose to be misunderstood— 
lage 763. 
Put a pile of stones around a tree and see w r hat they 
do to the ground. 
The man who says he keeps a “private dog cemetery” 
3oes well to keep mum'. 
He who would peddle his produce must have a wide 
knowledge of human nature. 
Indiana farmers find that cooperation is a food saver, 
says Mr. Collins on page 750. 
The world owes no man a living, but every human 
owes the w T orld a part of his life. 
When a young tree bears a good crop of fruit, makes 
abundant growth, and at the same time sets plenty of 
fruit buds for the next season what more do you expect 
from it? 
“If i.he cow should strike where would we be?” was one 
of t’he mottoes displayed by the National Association of 
Creamery Butter-makers at their recent convention in 
Milwaukee. 
Mr. Collins tells us of Indiana farmers -who form co¬ 
operative companies for operating shredders, etc. If 
farmers can combine for the purpose of tearing things 
apart they can do even better work in upbuilding society. 
We continue to hear of new uses for Ben Davis. Mr. 
Wilson, on page 750, points out its value to a manufac¬ 
turer of pressed leather goods, and we think it might 
also find a great field in constructing bomb-proof pow¬ 
der magazines. 
