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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 6 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
HEKBEirf W. Colling wood, Editor. 
Or. Walter Van Fleet, I Ass „„.„ t „ R 
Mrs. E. T. Koylk, \ 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 10y 2 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 wc 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, DECEMBER 6, 1902. 
IO 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. 
-J* 
No, Tub R. N.-Y. does not try to put on a little 
extra style just at this time when the subscription 
season is lively. In January as well as in June we 
come in our working clothes. Some of our esteemed 
contemporaries appear to dress up for company at 
this season and wear the patches in Summer when 
business is light. 
* 
Reports show that the warm, open weather has 
proved a great boon for dairymen. Many cows are 
even yet at pasture when a year ago at this time they 
were shut tight in the barn by frost or snow. Nearly 
a full month’s barn feeding will thus be saved. That 
is a good saving when the silo is only two-thirds full. 
November does not usually do so well in paying for 
the pranks of June. 
* 
Who is to be the new Speaker of the House of Rep¬ 
resentatives to succeed Mr. Henderson? The farm¬ 
ers are interested in this because there seems no 
doubt that the oleo men will try hard to overcome the 
effect of the Grout bill. We must have a true friend 
of the farmer in the Speaker’s chair. Let no oleo man 
color himself with plausible words and slip past us at 
this important time. 
* 
Various army officers are coming forward with ar¬ 
guments against the “army canteen” or Government 
liquor saloon. We are told that efforts will be made 
to have the canteen reestablished. There are hun¬ 
dreds of Congressmen who will groan in spirit if this 
subject is brought up. While there are millions of 
people in the country who care little either way about 
the “canteen” there are a few millions more who 
firmly believe that Uncle Sam in the liquor business 
is in league with the Evil One himself. The majority 
of such people come from the farm. They know how 
to harrow a Congressman so as to raise a vote out 
of him. It will make some of our Congressmen 
thoughtful to realize how the next Attorney General 
of New York was elected! 
* 
Most people who are forced to struggle with hard 
things of life are called upon at times to face situa¬ 
tions when it seems that their very manhood demands 
that they strike an offender with the fist or curse him 
with the tongue. No man likes to be called a coward 
or to pass among his friends as a coward. He may 
know in his heart that the world’s standard of man¬ 
hood, based more upon bodily than moral strength, 
is wrong, yet it is human to go back along the path 
that leads away from civilization and indulge an ani¬ 
mal instinct. For what does a man do but come 
nearer to the animal when he uses hands and tongue 
as the dog or the wolf would use teeth and claws. The 
man who gives way to his passion in this way is not 
more of a man—but less. He does not gain strength 
but loses it. The man who accumulates force and 
power is the one who restrains himself, for he is 
armed with character which even the rudest respect. 
Our cynical friend the politician says that the last 
election settled all this talk about trust and tariff. 
“We will hear no more about it,” he says. He knows 
better. The northern farmer settled that election. He 
wants Government regulation of the trusts and a 
tariff that will grant no special favors to the rich, 
who need such favors least of all. That is what he 
is going to have. He gives first chance to settle 
these questions to the party now in power—but they 
must bo settled and will be! 
4c 
Nearly every mail brings us word of some new 
local organization among farmers. Berry growers in 
Michigan, corn growers in Missouri, cranberry grow¬ 
ers in Massachusetts, sweet corn growers in Maine 
and raisin growers in California; they are all at work 
slowly but surely tying their common interests to¬ 
gether. Good. There are some things about success¬ 
ful farming which demand individual effort. There 
are others -which demand cooperation. The small or¬ 
ganization first—then the larger one. 
* 
We rejoice that President Roosevelt is determined 
to save the remaining public lands for actual settlers. 
The “land-grabbing” done by some of the big cattle 
growers and speculators is shameful. All sorts of 
tricks are resorted to to control this land, and shut 
out actual settlers. A favorite method is to “lease” 
this land for a long term of years in the names of 
tramps or irresponsible people who play into the 
hands of the big cattle men. That land belongs to 
home makers! Chase the rogues away from it! 
* 
Here is the comment of a man who sends us the 
names of some of his friends: “There are so many o 
our people who do not take a paper of any kind, and 
a dollar appears to them as large as a cart wheel.’ 
Why, a dollar must be as large as a cart wheel if it is 
expected to help roll off a mortgage or move a debt! 
The thing to do is to use the dollar for the hub. Let 
The R. N.-Y. fit in the spokes and the man himself 
put on the tire of common sense! Such a wheel will 
move anything that is movable, and some things 
that we think are fixed. 
* 
A reader says he will not try packing apples i) 
boxes because commission men tell him the barrel i. 
better. If that is the only reason it is a poor one. I 
may safely be said that commission men rarely de¬ 
velop any new plan for selling goods. When Hal 
started to sell Georgia peaches the dealers said the; 
could not be sold so early in the season! New pack 
ages and methods of shipping do not originate witl 
dealers, but with shippers. The commission men can 
not stop the trade in boxed apples. The Pacific coas 
growers have started it and it will grow. 
* 
Tiie food laws of the different States mention three 
articles that are very likely to be adulterated, viz., 
candy, vinegar and intoxicating liquors. Nearly every 
State has found it necessary to legislate against the 
use of harmful stuff which is put into these articles. 
Much of the cheap candy seems to be a sure and not 
very sweet agent for ruining the teeth and the diges¬ 
tion. In Maine there is a law against the use of 
liquor in candy. This ought to be enforced every¬ 
where. The use of adulterated liquors seems to be on 
the increase everywhere. In fact, the drugs put into 
the stuff do more harm than the alcohol does! 
* 
The following pertinent question comes from one 
of our readers in Maine. We gladly print it here: 
Have 'you seen the crops of hay raised by Mr. Clark, 
of Connecticut? I have talked with quite a number; 
they all laugh at me, but I stick to it and tell them I saw 
it in The R. N.-Y. They tell me it is easy enough for 
Mr. Clark to say he raises such crops, but they would 
rather see it. If you have personal knowledge of it let 
me know and I will floor them. 
Yes! The writer has been in Mr. Clark’s hayfield 
two different seasons. We saw the hay cut, cocked 
up and several loads of it hauled to the barn and 
weighed. We are satisfied that Mr. Clark did just 
what he says he did, and that he has not overstated 
the yield. The R. N.-Y. does not print “big stories” 
for the sake of seeing them in type. Whenever you 
see such a statement in these columns you may rest 
assured that, the editors or some responsible person 
in whom they have confidence have investigated it 
with care. Do we claim then that every farmer can, 
if he will, raise as large hay crops as Mr. Clark does? 
No—we tried Clark’s method on our own farm and 
fell far behind his yield. We do not blame him for 
the failure, but conclude that he knows more about 
grass growing than we do and that his soil is better 
adapted to grass. We raised a larger crop of hay by 
following his method than we ever did before, and 
we are satisfied that we could come closer to his 
results if we could smooth and grade part of the farm 
as carefully as he has prepared his field. When we 
print these accounts of heavy yields we always regret 
that we cannot make the reverse side clear. We 
would like to have the people see the long years of 
failure and experiment through which the farmer had 
to pass until he mastered the forces which opposed 
him, and made the earth do his bidding. That is the 
personal history which lies back of every real farm 
success. We regret that we cannot always make it 
clear to those who read. No human has yet proved 
the full possibilities of an acre of soil. If your friends 
are to be “floored” at all send them down for doubt¬ 
ing man’s ability to master the forces of nature if 
he will but match his God-given powers of body and 
mind against them. 
* 
The hothouse lamb business has greatly increased 
during the last, five years. Formerly but few were 
received before the middle of March, but now they 
begin to come about Christmas, with an occasional 
one before. At first these extra early lambs brought 
extravagant prices, as much as $20 for a 32 to 35- 
pound lamb. Now the linlit is about $10 or $12. 
They should not go below 30 pounds dressed, 35 is 
better. Occasionally we see a stunted six or seven 
months’ lamb which, on account of its small size, 
the shipper evidently thought could be passed off 
as a Winter lamb. The people who buy these lambs, 
however, know what is what, and such has-been 
lambs sell for only what they are worth. There is 
but a limited number of farmers who are situated 
so that they can raise hothouse lambs, and still 
fewer can do it with profit. Those who have suit¬ 
able buildings, the know-how, and are willing to 
give the time and attention needed do well at this 
business. Others would better let it alone. 
* 
A recent report of the milk committee of the Al¬ 
bany County Medical Society makes the contention 
that much of the milk supplied by the many dealers 
in the city and county of Albany is not by any means 
what it should be. In nearly every one of 65 sam¬ 
ples bought direct from the milk wagons of 50 deal¬ 
ers an uncomfortable number of bacteria were 
found, ranging from 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 to each 
cubic centimeter, or unit of laboratory measure, 
though in a few instances the number was so low as 
to suggest the use of chemical preservatives. Be¬ 
sides these great numbers of normal bacteria, indi¬ 
cating rapid decomposition of the milk, other ob¬ 
scure horrors in the way of pus and stable filth were 
found. This is substantially the conclusion of simi¬ 
lar investigations in every part of the country, but 
the Albany Medical Society’s committee has the 
good sense to express the opinion that sanitary milk 
cannot be produced to sell at the current retail price 
of six cents, and recommends the Society to formu¬ 
late certain standards and conditions which when 
fulfilled will entitle dairymen to receive a certificate 
to that effect. The milk from such standard dairies 
is to be recommended by members of the Society 
for the use of invalids and for feeding infants and 
children, at the price of 10 cents a quart. This 
strikes us as the gist of the whole matter. Farmers 
and dairymen are really suffering unjust persecu¬ 
tion in many places by medical societies and sani¬ 
tary boards who have not sufficient intelligence and 
fairness to admit the compensation of the actual 
milk producers is already too low, and that further 
accurate attention to details may only be had by in¬ 
creasing the prices received. 
* 
BREVITIES . 
True molars—the teeth on a mole trap. 
Will a cross section of your family reveal father? 
Why, of course—you can fill your head full without 
nourishing it. 
Food adulterators in Georgia are liable to do time in 
the chain gang! 
Next week we shall have pictures of that so-called new 
method of milking. 
Certainly in order to keep within the pale of the law 
the oleo men must drop color! 
God help the child who grows up in a family where 
father and mother are constantly quarreling! 
Don’t forget it! Many a horse is doctored for all sorts 
of ailments when the true cause of his trouble is poor 
teeth. 
Alabama has a law requiring bakers to stamp their 
name or initials upon every loaf, cracker or biscujt they 
turn out. 
A New York saloon keeper is named Sabbath. “The 
better the day, the better the deed,” does not seem to 
apply to his case. 
Is it true that robins eat cutworms in large quanti¬ 
ties? We should say that their chief diet consists of 
earthworms and fruit. 
The Board of Agriculture of Delaware has the power 
to compel all fruit shippers to stamp their names or 
initials upon packages of fruit. 
