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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 2 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
H. E. Van Deman, J 
Frank H. Valentine, [-Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, ) 
John J Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, J2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8*4 marks, or 10y s francs. 
ADVERTISING RATES. 
Thirty cents per agate line (14 lines to the inch). Yearly orders 
of 10 or more lines, and 1,000-line orders, 25 cents per line. 
Reading Notices, ending with “ Adv .,” 75 cents per 
count line. Absolutely One Price Only. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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 , SEPTEMBER 2, 1899. 
Mr. Slingerland, on page- 622, shows us how to 
withdraw a theory when it comes in contact with a 
fact. He knew the habits of caterpillars, and rea¬ 
soned that they omjM to do a certain thing, because 
it was their tendency to do so. Insects are like hu¬ 
mans in one thing, at least—you never know just 
what they will do under certain circumstances. You 
put them down as sure to do this, and before you 
know it, they have gone and done that. We find 
that, perhaps, the most fixed habit of living things 
is the habit of doing the unexpected. 
* 
Our Ohio friend, on page 626, says that it is an error 
to suppose that Rocky Ford melons attain their high¬ 
est excellence only on Colorado soil. Why an error? 
Genuine Rocky Ford melons are those grown in Colo¬ 
rado. The growers there, as a class, have never 
claimed this name as the name of a variety. It is 
generally understood that the variety is the Netted 
Gem. Yet many seedsmen this past year helped along 
the deception by selling seed of Rocky Ford musk- 
melons, and within the past few weeks, we have had 
“Rocky Ford” melons in this market from nearly 
every State from Texas to New Jersey. Let’s call 
things by their right names, especially in such a 
plain case as this. 
* 
This Summer, we have been visited by a revival of 
general prosperity, according to trade reports. It is 
interesting to note, however, that it is the manufac¬ 
turer, rather than the producer, who is benefiting by 
high prices. Steel and iron products have increased 
tremendously, many of them more than double. If 
the farmer buys a keg of nails, a few feet of iron pipe, 
or a lot of builders’ hardware, he will find an in¬ 
crease, in many instances, of 100 per cent. The steel 
and iron men, it will be remembered, have destroyed 
competition by forming a trust, with the benevolent 
intention of cheapening products to the consumer! If 
he wishes to buy a few boxes of glass for hotbed sash, 
the farmer finds an equal increase there. Lumber 
shows a similar increase. How is it with farm crops? 
Is the farmer receiving so much for his product that 
he may view with indifference the exactions of the 
trust-controlled manufacturers? 
* 
Those in the East who buy meat have become pain¬ 
fully aware that meat prices have advanced. Retail 
prices, as a general thing, are from one to three cents 
per pound higher than a few weeks ago. The dressed 
meat companies—popularly known as the meat trust 
—claim that this advance is caused by scarcity of live 
cattle, and higher prices for the same. This is a very 
specious plea, and the more misleading because it is 
true. But why do not these grinding monopolists 
tell the whole truth? Why are cattle scarce and live¬ 
stock prices high? Who is responsible? Who but 
themselves! Between the producers and the con¬ 
sumers stands this great combination. It has the 
whole machinery of slaughtering, handling, transport¬ 
ing and distributing these meat products in its own 
hands. It has crushed out all opposition, until in 
most parts of the country, the producer could not sell 
his live cattle except to the packer or his agents. 
Then the screws were put on, and prices forced down 
to a point so low that there was little or no profit, 
and the business of producing cattle for slaughter was 
either abandoned or smaller numbers grown. Now 
prices for live stock have become higher in the great 
packing centers of the West, but whether there is a 
scarcity in the country at large or not, receipts of 
live cattle at Kansas City have broken the record. 
So the plea of a scarcity of cattle for slaughter is of 
no avail. There has been a great effort of recent years 
to build up our export meat trade. Now it is current¬ 
ly reported that American beei is sold at lower prices 
in Europe than it is in this country. Of course, there 
it comes into competition with beef from other coun¬ 
tries. It looks as though the American consumer were 
being compelled to pay more for his meat, in order 
that the packers may lower prices to compete with 
foreign meat-producing countries. No one denies 
that these great concerns have made immense profits, 
and they have secured at least a good per cent of these 
profits by squeezing both producer and consumer. If 
there is a scarcity of cattle now, they are responsible. 
Their methods have upset established practices on 
thousands of farms, have destroyed a profitable in¬ 
dustry on nearly every farm in the East, and have 
ruined many small tradesmen the country over. Is 
the country at large the gainer by such methods? 
* 
There are in this country 20,627 freight locomo¬ 
tives and 1,248,826 freight cars all ready for busi¬ 
ness. Placed end to end, they would make a train 
over 8,000 miles long. In spite of this vast outfit for 
freight hauling, there is a car famine, and in some 
cases, freight cannot be hauled in time. The farmer 
is loading up the cars, and his crops are so large that 
the railroad men cannot keep up with him. It ds 
claimed by some business men that one reason for 
this famine is that, instead of sending empty cars 
back from east to west, as was the case a few years 
ago, western farmers are now buying so many goods 
that the cars are all loaded, and so must be handled 
with less speed. There may be something in this, but 
it only goes to show more powerfully than ever how 
the Nation depends upon the farmer for 'its trade and 
prosperity. 
The American Pomological Society will hold its 
twenty-sixth biennial meeting at Philadelphia, Sep¬ 
tember 7-8. Years ago, this announcement would not 
mean so much for the average fruit grower because, 
when first organized, this society was a sort of rich 
man’s fruit club. It had too much dignity to be most 
useful. In recent years successful efforts have been 
made to popularize the Society. It is safe to say that 
now its work is useful to every man who plants a 
strawberry bed or prunes a tree. A society of this 
sort ought to have a large membership. Among other 
things, it will classify our fruits, and prevent con¬ 
fusion of names, besides locating desirable varieties, 
so as to learn just where certain varieties reach their 
highest excellence. For these ana other reasons, pro¬ 
gressive fruit growers everywhere should join the so¬ 
ciety. Prof. Wm. A. Taylor, Washington, D. C., is 
secretary. 
* 
The drought through parts of central and western 
New York has proved disastrous to farmers. The 
creeks and brooks are mere dry stone beds, springs 
have dried up, and ponds are often mere beds of baked 
mud. In some places, fires have swept through the 
country, doing great damage. The clover is quite 
generally killed out, and many fine fields of Alfalfa 
will be ruined. We see many fields of corn that are 
barely shoulder high, while late-sown fodder has had 
a hard struggle. Attempts to plow the baked soil for 
Fall grain are made, but tit is difficult to do first-class 
work. The loss of the clover will prove a serious blow 
to farmers—in fact, several years will be required to 
make up for the damage caused by this parching 
weather. We know of several cases where the clover 
having died out in the oats, farmers have plowed the 
oat stubble, and sowed Crimson clover. With a fair 
supply of moisture, this seeding will carry out the ro¬ 
tation quite well. 
* 
It is a great help to a man to know just where to 
go for information. Nowadays, many sources of in¬ 
formation are available on all lines of thought, but 
the difference between men who acquire knowledge 
along all these varied lines, and those who do not, is 
simply the difference in the ability to avail oneself of 
these privileges. In his answer to an inquiry about 
Alfalfa last week, Jos. E. Wing marveled at the man 
not going to the Geneva Experiment Station for in¬ 
formation on this matter. The Station is not very 
many miles from his place, and no doubt, a visit there 
would give him a valuable fund of information about 
the subject on which he is seeking light, as well as 
on many others connected with his calling. One great 
trouble with many farmers to-day is that they do not 
avail themselves of the information available to them 
at slight cost. Most of the experiment stations are 
doing valuable experimental work, and are sending 
out numerous bulletins, giving a record of their opera¬ 
tions, and the results obtained; but comparatively few 
farmers avail themselves of the privilege of these. 
The same is true of the farmers’ institutes. Insti¬ 
tute workers tell us that, in the best farm sections, 
the institutes are most largely attended, and by the 
most progressive farmers, evidently by those who 
need them least, but who appreciate most the value of 
their help. Then, too, there are agricultural papers 
published at prices that place them within reach of 
every farmer. Where, for instance, can one get more 
for the money than in a volume of The R. N.-Y., 
which, in a year’s numbers, comprises over 800 pages 
filled with practical, condensed, up-to-date matter? 
There is no lack of information, but a man might die 
of thirst within sight of a perennial spring, if he did 
not go to the spring to drink. 
* 
The recent violent hurricane which devastated a 
number of West Indian Islands was so terribly de¬ 
structive iin Porto Rico, as to convince even the most 
ardent territorial expansionist that outlying addi¬ 
tions to our public domain are fraught with grave re¬ 
sponsibilities. Over 2,000 lives are reported lost, and 
the destruction of crops and buildings so complete 
that the United States Secretary of War issued a call 
for immediate contributions of food and supplies for 
the relief of the destitute. It is estimated that 100,000 
persons are in danger of starvation, and that it will 
require 1,000 tons of food weekly, for several months, 
to feed those dn need until new crops can be grown. 
We have been told that Porto Rico lay much to the 
westward of the usual track of destructive hurricanes, 
but this frightful visitation seems to confirm the 
prevalent idea that, when a storm travels out of its 
usual course, it is all the more violent; in other words, 
that the atmospheric conditions must be particularly 
intense to generate a storm in an unusual locality. 
Most of the lives were lost on the coast and lowlands 
by tidal waves and floods. While nothing, apparently, 
can be constructed by man that will withstand the 
full force of these awful visitations, it is probable 
that a thorough extension of our modern weather ser¬ 
vice among the islands dotting this dangerous tropical 
sea, would much lessen danger to life and property by 
means of its timely warnings, as soon as the inhabi¬ 
tants could be convinced of its efficiency. 
* 
BREVITIES . 
W h> does this good old world of ours stand still 
When it should move up closer to God's throne? 
hy does the honest man’s best impulse chill 
So that his fervent heart turns cold as stone 9 
“I won’t be left!” That tells the whole sad tale 
Of those who stuff brass in the Golden Rule. 
Stout is the heart that does not creep and quail 
Before the lance of public ridicule. 
“I won’t be left!” Weak words in which we hide 
Our cowardice, our fear to stand alone 
Against the crowd, and then, from side to side. 
Our infirm purposes are rudely thrown. 
Dare to be “left!” Let the impulsive crowd 
Lead for a time, it will return ere night. 
Jo honor one who will proclaim aloud: 
I dare be left when to be “left” is right. 
The trusts believe in cinch law. 
The 10-hour man is often married to the 15-hour woman. 
The potato crop in Ireland is said to be a great failure. 
Unlike old Dobbin, the automobile can’t find its way 
home. 
Give the institute speaker a why’d berth—ask him 
questions. 
Last week, 122 car-loads of California fruits were sold 
on this market. 
\\ hy, of course a fraud is “unearthed” when you take 
the sand out of it. 
VV ith two ice trusts, it remains to be seen which will 
freeze the other out. 
Make the milk dealers steam the cans before sending 
them back to the farmers. 
Jo make a sour old pasture come to time and smile 
with happiness—use lots of lime. 
It pays to step on Mr. Hill’s corns when planting in 
a dry time. Such treading is appreciated. 
That driftwood barn. The Pacific Ocean seems to 
cast up a better quality of timber than the angry At¬ 
lantic. 
It is reported from Michigan that the crop of pepper¬ 
mint is extremely short, and that the growers are cor¬ 
respondingly disheartened. 
The stomach worm is worrying the sheep. J. E. Wing 
doses successfully with two teaspoonfuls of gasoline 
shaken up with four ounces of sweet milk. 
One farmer in Berrien County, Mich., is reported to 
have sold the crop on his five-acre apple orchard for $500, 
and others are selling for equally good prices. 
A friend in Oregon writes that Portland, Ore., used 
the electric funeral car in 1890—thus being ahead of Chi¬ 
cago. That ought to make a pretty rapid funeral. 
“I am thirsty,” writes a reader from Washington, “and 
think I will go out and drink The R. N.-Y.’s health in a 
good-sized watermelon.” That makes a good toasting 
fluid. 
“Good roaos.” If you let the wheelmen and the non¬ 
taxpayers have their way, they would pass a law that 
would tax 40 per cent of the New York farmers away 
from their farms! 
A Philadelphia philosopher says that pie and pros¬ 
perity go together, as pie is a luxury, and that, as people 
in the Quaker City are eating more pie, the arrival of 
prosperity is now an assured fact. 
