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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 15 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE li US 1 HESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
DR. WALTER VAN FLEET, | Associates 
Mrs. E. T. Uoyle, ^ Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to Ss. 6d., or 8% marks, or lO'A 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. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1902. 
“SO Weeks for VO 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. 
* 
The man who expects to be paid in appreciation for 
hard acts of self-denial will be disappointed nine times 
out of ten. On the whole it will serve him right, for 
he who attempts worthy deeds for the sake of such 
appreciation seldom deserves it! 
* 
What is a seed? The Botanical Gazette gives the 
following definition, and goes to the head of the class: 
“A seed is an ultimate, trigenerational, symbiotic unit 
in the plant life-history, integrated from tissues and 
structures belonging to two sphorophytic generations 
and the intervening gametophytic phase.” We have 
neither time nor language to attempt to deny this 
statement. We would like to have the man who wrote 
this clear description now give an exact definition of 
a seedsman who catalogues the seed! 
• 
A few weeks ago we printed some facts and opin¬ 
ions about people who were trying to induce Indiana 
farmers to raise currants “on shares.” Since these 
matters were printed the man who wrote the original 
questions writes: 
They have not mentioned the jelly business to me 
except the one time, though they have seen me several 
times since. To a couple of my neighbors they proposed 
to go into a kind of partnership in raising currants. 
The farmers said: “All right, we will furnish the land 
and you furnish the bushes,” and the fakirs suddenly 
remembered that they had an appointment elsewhere. 
* 
Our friend on page 766 states forcibly the feeling 
of many fruit growers. He wants to care for his or¬ 
chard so it can if need be care for him when old age 
comes. Thousands of men are planting trees with 
that idea in mind. The writer is one of them. We 
wish to make no mistake, but desire a permanent and 
enduring orchard that will serve as bank while we 
live and monument when we pass away. We do not 
begrudge fair labor and expense spent in cultivation 
if that is really the best way, but we want every side 
of that word “best” turned up to the sunlight and ex¬ 
amined by an expert for cracks! That is the way The 
R. N.-Y. tries to go at important things. We want no 
guesses at truth, but square-toed information from 
practical men, with the scientists to tell us why! Do 
we put the “how” man before the “why” man? Cer¬ 
tainly; why is ever the servant of how. 
* 
There has been much taik about the use of crude 
petroleum as a fuel substitute for coal in heating 
greenhouses. The coal strike started such theories 
into print, and many persons accepted them as facts. 
We wrote a large number of florists and glass garden¬ 
ers in Texas about the use of crude oil. There, if any¬ 
where, should we find the truth about it We have 
been unable to find a single case where the oil has 
been used for heating a glass house. It is being used 
in railroad and other large engines successfully, but 
the smaller devices for burning it are not entirely 
satisfactory. This crude oil is not burned like a lamp 
with a wick, but is either sprayed with steam under 
the boiler or turned into a gas before burning. As is 
the case with many other operations, a large machine 
may do this economically while a smaller one would 
fail. We find that even the manufacturers of small 
oil burners hesitate to guarantee their machines until 
they have been tested by practical men! We have 
spent some time in learning that no one has yet made 
a success in oil heating a greenhouse. As is often the 
case, some reader who has really succeeded may now 
come forward and prove that his experience is worth 
more than all our research! We shall be glad to have 
him do so. 
* 
The late election in New York developed into a hard 
tussle between the farmer and the city man. The 
remarks made by various city politicians on election 
night varied about as widely as they well could. 
“Infernal hayseeds!” 
That is a well-revised edition of the language used 
by one side. 
“God made the country; man made the town!” 
That is about the way the other side put it. Tiie 
R. N.-Y. has nothing to say about politics, but it is 
well enough to remind Gov. Odell that the ballots 
which elected him came straight from the farm! 
* 
One of our readers rents about 10 acres located in 
a town. He grows small fruits and vegetables, and 
peddles what he grows. This man wanted to insure 
his personal property. The agent issued the policy 
to him as a peddler, because the company did not 
care to insure “farm property.” On the voting list 
this man is put down as a market gardener; in the 
business directory his occupation is given as farmer, 
but when he wants insurance he must change his 
coat and appear as a peddler. His property is close 
to a fire house, with a hydrant within a few feet, yet 
the name “farmer” scares the insurance people away 
from it. What nonsense! 
* 
We have a reader in Missouri who stands by a 
friend as follows: 
I don’t like you to hit oid Ben Davis quite so hard, as I 
would not have had any butter on my bread this year 
if old Ben had failed. 
This man sends us a list of names of neighbors and 
friends. If The R. N.-Y. hits anything at all it will 
put ali possible force into the blow. We must confess 
that old Ben Davis is a “good keeper.” He comes 
back smiling after each attack, and if he keeps the 
butter on any honest man’s bread—good for him! 
His day will come, however, and he has already done 
a heap of mischief in markets where better apples are 
to be found. 
* 
Why take Tite R. N.-Y? The following odd reasons 
are given by a New York subscriber: 
I wish you to know why I take The R. N.-Y. Because 
I take pleasure in disagreeing with the editor. I say 
this in all sincerity, and you have the right to construe 
it as a compliment. If you were colorless, or dealt in 
platitudes, or preached us sermons we heard before the 
Civil War, I would not care to read you at all. 
There are some old truths coming down from the 
Cross that will never grow old. A good share of the 
differences which exist among men are really over the 
amount of rubber which may be put into the Goluen 
Rule. We never ask any reader to agree with us. We 
try to give an honest opinion, based upon a careful 
investigation of the facts. If a man can dig deeper 
than we can and show that the opinion rests upon 
sand rather than upon rock we will change it at once. 
If he cannot do this we will stick to the opinion closer 
than ever. As for “platitudes” they perhaps have their 
uses when one sits down for rest, but they are worse 
than useless in the real battle of life. We have had 
people ask why The R. N.-Y. discusses what may be 
called the moral aspect of farm living. The chief rea¬ 
son is that the vast majority of our readers are sober, 
earnest men and women who realize that farm life 
involves not only a duty to family, but a higher duty 
to country. 
Ax Illinois reader sends us the following clipping: 
“About 18 per cent of what we buy and pay for as 
butter is not butter at all, but just water, salt and 
casein.” This, he seems to think, shows that ordinary 
butter is a fraud because we pay for water in place 
of butter fat. Let us see what we pay for when we 
buy some other articles. Here we have the average 
amount of water in vari'ius articles as bought on the 
market: Apples, 78 per cent; cabbage, 90 per cent; 
potatoes, 80 per cent; cranberries, 89 per cent; wheat 
bran, 10 per cent; average hay, 14 per cent; cornmeal, 
14 per cent; whole milk, 87 per cent. No one thinks 
of calling an apple grower a fraud because when we 
buy 100 pounds of apples we pay for 78 pounds of 
water. We show that we prefer to buy the water by 
refusing dried apples or vegetables when we can get 
the fresh. The average composition of butter is 85 
per cent butter fat, one per cent casein, three per cent 
salt and 11 per cent water. All the casein that can 
possibly be removed is taken out, and surely the 
proper time to add the salt is when the butter is 
“worked.” As for the water—who would care to eat 
dry butter fat? The water gives it “body” and en¬ 
ables tne consumer to smear it on his bread. If there 
were no water in it the butter would gather in dry 
chunks and would not spread. When you buy a piece 
of roast beef you pay for 40 per cent of water, and 
find no fault with the butcher because he did not dry 
the water out and sell you dried beef with only 12 
per cent No, this argument of the oleo men is so 
tliin that a blind man can see through it! 
• 
If words could burn there would be little combus¬ 
tible material left in the frame of Major H. E. Alvord 
of the United States Department of Agriculture. He 
is reported to have said at a public dairy meeting that 
any use of coloring matter in butter is a fraud. For 
saying this all the fires that roasted oleo out of its 
fraudulent place have been lighted under Major Al¬ 
vord. We know how public utterances are often dis¬ 
torted in print, and how a man will sometimes say 
things from the platform which do not entirely repre¬ 
sent his convictions. Major Alvord was not speaking 
for the Department He is or was a breeder of Jersey 
cattle, and believes that when cows of this and similar 
breeds are used the natural color of the butter will be 
high enough! That is the most charitable reason to 
assign for the Major’s remarks. He represents no¬ 
body but himself and a number of cattle breeders, and 
all this shouting and pounding exhausts energy which 
will be needed this year to repel an attack from the 
old enemy—oleo. 
* 
We heard recently of a farmer in Missouri who sent 
$2 to an unknown advertiser for a fire escape, and re¬ 
ceived in return a cheap Bible. As even an expert 
theological jury would be unable to agree on the point 
involved, it cannot be said that the advertiser actually 
obtained money under false pretenses. It somewhat 
recalls the man who sent 25 cents for “a fine steel- 
engraved portrait of George Washington, with Gov¬ 
ernment imprint,” and received a two-cent postage 
stamp! All the purchaser can do in such cases is to 
charge the expense to his experience account, and 
deal with responsible firms in future. It is possible 
to buy anything by mail nowadays, from a doll’s bon¬ 
net to a dwelling house, with every assurance of hon¬ 
est dealing. There is all the more reason why one 
should avoid the catchpenny dealers of dubious wares, 
whose only capital is the ability to compose mislead¬ 
ing advertisements for publications whose advertis¬ 
ing columns are out of the latitude of the Ten Com¬ 
mandments. An honest man is known by the com¬ 
pany he keeps away from, and an honest paper by the 
advertisements it refuses to print. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
The apple buying fraud usually makes a home run. 
Do you believe in a “scratching shed” for poultry? 
Why? What can you build one for? 
If a man will not dignify his own business how can he 
expect some one else to do it for him? 
A barrel of New England Baldwins was sent by ex¬ 
press from Massachusetts to Sweden! 
There are good arguments in favor of mulching straw¬ 
berries before the ground freezes solid. 
Society has rejected the Belgian hare as a practical 
farm animal, and accepted the Angora goat. 
.Next week H. E. Van Deman and Prof. John Craig 
will discuss the “mulch method’’ of handling an orchard. 
The opinion seems to be that the machines for plant¬ 
ing cabbage are partly responsible for the tremendous 
crop. 
We understand that the Ohio Experiment Station is 
experimenting with the mulch method of caring for or¬ 
chards—with gratifying success! 
The people of Colorado recently celebrated “Beet Sugar 
Day.” Thousands inspected the factories which add a 
new industry to the State. 
A Baptist minister out in Colorado says that the Ten 
Commandments are out of date. We think it just as 
well, however, to stick to a few of them, just to be on 
the safe side. 
Any hen is likely to show the white feather in the 
face of a hard moult. As the feathers go out they will 
leave holes for disease to crawl in unless the hen is re¬ 
enforced by good food. 
Immense apple orchards are being set out in New Eng¬ 
land—often on land considered too rough and poor for 
ordinary farm crops. If they are cared for what a mine 
of wealth they will prove some day! 
Glass-grown strawberries must have sun. No substi¬ 
tute for it possible. The sun must shine through Novem¬ 
ber and December, the time when Nature’s face is usual¬ 
ly clouded. It is earth’s moulting season. The sun has 
the best chance in the Northwest. 
