December 27 
868 . THERURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Hr. WALTER Van Fleet, I. , 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, 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 Sy 2 marks, or lOVfe 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 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, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1902. 
lO Weeks for lO Cents • 
At this time we wish to thank our good friends for 
the interest they are taking in introducing The R. 
N.-Y. to their neighbors and friends on this 10 weeks 
for 10 cents plan. At no other time in the history of 
the paper did names ever come m so fast, and from 
so many quarters of the country. This is a great en¬ 
couragement to us, and gives us our best inspiration 
to make it a help to the farmer who reads it, and a 
power for good to the whole agricultural interests of 
the country. We simply want you who have helped 
in this work to know that your interest has been ap¬ 
preciated. 
* 
How about this plan for conducting a farmer’s 
meeting? Shut off the long-wmded speaker—limit 
him to a 20-minute synopsis, and print his full speech 
in the report. Have several of your best men pre¬ 
pared to criticise what he says and see that they do it! 
* 
At a number of the larger fruit meetings this year 
we find sample boxes of apples from the Pacific coast 
on exhibition. There are usually far better apples in 
the local exhibits than the boxes contain—which gives 
the growers an idea of what they might receive if 
their fruit only had the reputation of the western 
product. 
* 
The R. N.-Y. favors peace—yet we confess to a feel¬ 
ing of satisfaction on learning that Admiral Dewey 
has been instructed to bring his fleet within a few 
hours’ run of the place where John and Hans are try¬ 
ing to collect their debts! Dewey may not be much 
of a hand at raising ordinary farm crops, but he can 
raise a crop of respect for this country that will beat 
Clark’s grass! Dewey is the man who did! 
• 
Our friend Mapes, the hen man, thinks he can 
make his hens lay earlier and better by making them 
hungry and then forcing food upon them! We are 
glad he is trying it. Now why not let some of the 
constant talkers try this thing? They complain some¬ 
times that people tire of listening to them. Why not 
try the silence cure for a while. It might give weight 
to their words. A wise man may talk his wisdom ro 
tatters. A man who knows nothing may obtain a 
great reputation for wisdom by keeping silent! 
* 
The R. N.-Y. does not pretend to be a teacher. 
Teaching is or should be a science. Sometimes we 
think our educators put so much science into it that 
they crowd out most of the sense. What we have to 
say now is merely in the way of suggestion. Farm¬ 
ers of New York who have given any thought to the 
matter want a more practical system of agricultural 
education. When John goes away from home to study 
the book side of farming we want him to come back 
to the farm a satisfied farmer. It’s all very well for 
him to end up by teaching “agriculture” at a college 
or doing scientific work at an experiment station, but 
so many boys aspire to this sort of “agriculture” that 
plain farming is likely to become top-heavy. Cornell 
University is an ideal place for fitting agricul¬ 
tural teachers and finishing scientific farmers. There 
ought to be, in connection with the University, small¬ 
er schools of practical farming. Why not go out past 
the high schools and locate right on the farms of suc¬ 
cessful men? Find a grain farm, a fruit farm, a poul¬ 
try farm, a stock farm, a dairy farm and a market 
garden each conducted in a businesslike way by some 
clear-headed sensible farmer. Put up suitable but in¬ 
expensive buildings and send half a dozen of your 
scientific men to follow the farmer through his suc¬ 
cessful operations and tell the boys why his practice 
is sound. Let a boy get what he wants of practice at 
one or more of these farm schools and then if he 
care to do so polish up with a little more science at 
Cornell. Make the school an annex to the farm rath¬ 
er than the farm an annex of the school! These are 
crude suggestions respectfully submitted to our scien¬ 
tific friends! 
* 
In spite of all warnings and advice various small 
men have put small and inferior apples into bushel 
boxes and sent them to market. The retail buyers 
paid good prices for this fruit. When the wretched 
stuff was exposed there was a violent and just out¬ 
break of language and resolution! The effect of such 
folly is to draw the line closer than ever in favor of 
the Pacific coast apples! The trade in eastern boxed 
fruit has been greatly injured by this work. May 
Santa Claus make the effort of his life and give such 
men a Christmas present of common sense! 
* 
This discussion of the “mulch” method of handling 
an orchard is warming up. Our scientific friends must 
remember one important thing. When they argue 
that a “sod” or “uncultivated” orchard is a failure 
they may be right, but the chances are that they are 
setting up a straw man to knock over. A mulch of 
thick, heavy grass cut and left to rot on the ground 
is a very different thing from a mass of weeds and 
poor grass left to grow until they die. When we ask 
for a trial of this method we mean the mulch. When 
our scientific friends pound away at “sod” and “non- 
cultivated” Mr. Hitchings has a right to say “never 
touched me!” 
* 
Do you let people know when a farmers’ institute 
is coming to your town, or do you hide its light under 
a bushel, and permit visitors to guess at its where¬ 
abouts? Friends tell us of going to some strange 
town where an institute was held to find that no one 
around the railroad station had ever heard of it, and, 
in default of any guide or sign, the visitors must wan¬ 
der about until they meet some one who could locate 
the meeting. The institute is a good thing for the 
community. It is entitled to as much prominence as 
a meeting of local merchants or professional men. 
Why not advertise it—let people know about it, and 
make it a popular movement? 
* 
All sorts of new plans for teaching agriculture are 
being tried in the West. In Missouri an exhibition 
car will be hauled by the railroads. This car will 
carry samples of farm products for exhibition. Speak¬ 
ers will go along and the car can be turned into a 
small hall for holding a meeting if desired. In a 
dairy section, stock food, forage, plants, dairy uten¬ 
sils and ever, animals will be carried. In a fruit-grow¬ 
ing section tools and appliances for cultivating, 
spraying, etc., will be on hand. All this will be un¬ 
der direction of the Missouri Experiment Station. It 
seems like a grand thing, especially, for a large 
State. The West is ahead of the East in such mat¬ 
ters because the western farmer has been able to 
make his power definitely felt. 
* 
At the recent great bicycle race in this city the 
winners rode about 2,200 miles in six days. The 
papers printed a statement of the food these two 
hustlers ate. Among the other items we find half a 
peck of apples! These two lively members of the 
American Apple Consumers’ League deserved to win. 
They called for apple with good results. That is but 
a small allowance for grown-up men, but think for a 
moment what would happen if every apple eater with¬ 
in 20 miles of the New York City Hall would do as 
well for only 200 days in the year! A human be¬ 
comes an apple eater as soon as his teeth are strong 
enough to bite through an apple skin. Such apple 
eating would mean 75,000,000 bushels of this fine fruit 
ealen out of the hand! Gentlemen—are you eating 
your three apples each day, and are you talking apple? 
* 
The shortage of anthracite coal caused by the late 
miners’ strike is still so great that dealers get almost 
any price demanded. The average increase in cost to 
the consumer up to this time must be considerably 
more than $1 a ton over last year’s prices. This 
heavy advance falls with increased weight upon those 
forced by poverty or lack of storage room to pur¬ 
chase in driblets or fractions of a ton. Eager con¬ 
sumers who have means to pay do not stick at any 
price, and well-meaning dealers are distracted by 
their efforts fairly t.o apportion the uncertain ship¬ 
ments they are able to secure from the mines among 
their customers. All sorts of trash, such as would be 
rejected under normal conditions, are delivered under 
the name of good coal, and few consumers with empty 
bins and chilly homes are disposed to be critical in 
regard to the actual weights of their purchases. The 
public generally, especially the portion nearest the 
wage workers, is accepting the hardships and in¬ 
creased expense with much fortitude in the rather 
Illusory hope that the actual miners will get a fair 
portion of the increased price of coal. There will be 
much resentment if in the end added expense to the 
consumer turns up as profit to the owners of coal 
mines and railroad stocks. The demand of corpora¬ 
tions monopolizing natural resources, whose opera¬ 
tions depend on the exploitation of ill-paid human 
labor for increased profits, is not likely to be received 
with much patience by those who pay the cost. The 
ultimate public ownership of coal mines and trans¬ 
portation facilities will be much advanced if consum¬ 
ers are thus heavily taxed without benefit to the 
producers. 
* 
The last issue of the year finds The R. N.-Y. good 
natured and smiling. We are getting our share of 
business and happiness. Every mail brings abundant 
evidence of the good will and kindly feeling of a mul¬ 
titude of friends. The paper never had a larger cir¬ 
culation than now. We think we are justified in say¬ 
ing that never before did it so thoroughly enjoy the 
confidence of its readers; Of course we can stand a. 
few thousand more subscribers, and we are going to 
have them. Our people get them for us. We close the 
year with sincere and hearty good wishes for all. 
Good luck to our friends of the agricultural press. 
More power to them in true service to agriculture. 
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all the mem¬ 
bers of the great R. N.-Y. family. You know us and 
we know you, and we shall all go on hopefully to¬ 
gether through 1903, drawing recruits as we go along. 
* 
A correspondent on page 862 refers to the growing 
sentiment against fences that catch and hold snow. 
The once-popuiar osage orange hedge sins grievously 
in this respect, and we have observed that progres¬ 
sive farm communities now look upon it very coldly. 
Woven wire may he less picturesque in a landscape 
than a quickset hedge, but it possesses many solid vir¬ 
tues, and one of these is its non-resistance to blowing 
snow. We notice that the popular privet hedges in 
suburban communities are a disadvantage in this re¬ 
spect; wherever exposed to the wind snow banks up 
against them, and the result is bad traveling on the 
adjacent sidewalk. This point should be considered in 
any case where drifting snow is likely to cause much 
inconvenience. 
BREVITIES. 
Uncle Sam to Germany—Hans off! 
Who would buy a farm while it was covered with snow? 
Read the account of those "water glass” eggs—page 866. 
“Rubbing it in” is a form of massage that should ben¬ 
efit the memory. 
If you want to get into a verbal fight at a fruit meet¬ 
ing this year say “Ben Davis” out loud! 
The man who asks for anything more than fair oppor¬ 
tunity should have his demands carved down. 
We are asked a dozen times a year how to prepare 
cloth to cover cold frames. Mr. Morse answers on page 
865, with details of treatment. 
We shall during 1903 print a new series of “Primer 
Science” articles dealing chiefly with manures and fer¬ 
tilizers. 
Lampas is a swelling of the roof of the horse's mouth 
just back of the foreteeth. Gnawing ear corn will pre¬ 
vent it. 
There will not be much argument over the statement 
that The R. N.-Y. has more to say about old and new 
varieties of fruit than any other paper. 
After having spent a good many years in experiment¬ 
ing, Prof. Waugh tells us how he thinks the Burbank 
plum should be pruned so as to be plumb. 
We are often asked about various forms of “paint” to 
be used on trees for keeping out borers and repelling 
animals. We have little faith in them, and can only 
suggest a trial in a small way. 
Some worthy friends think too much has been said 
about the “mulching” of orchards. Wait! The cultiva¬ 
tors are now getting their breath. We shall have the 
most useful and interesting discussion of the soil rights 
of a tree ever put in print. 
Dr. Lorenz, the celebrated Austrian, is able to cure 
many cases of club foot. Some of our politicians would 
like to have him operate on the farmers so that they 
would stop clubbing their feet when they desire to make 
their “kick” most effective! 
Our old friend Wm. Jackson is a well-known character 
in southern Illinois. He is 83 years old, works out doors, 
reads without glasses and says he can shoot with a rifle 
as well as he could 40 years ago. That’s what you get 
by living a clean, calm life among fruits—in the open air! 
Prof. H. Garman, of Kentucky, announces a. new enemy 
o'f Burley tobacco. It is known as Orobanche ludoviciana 
or native broom rape. It is found as a parasite on horse- 
weed and attacks hemp as well as tobacco. It is likely 
that the horseweed supported the parasite until the to¬ 
bacco was planted. It promises to become a true vege¬ 
table Carrie Nation in its hatred of tobacco. 
