7o8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 7 
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, 1 
Frank II. Valentine, >Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, ) 
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*4 marks, or 10J/ 2 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 lion or able 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, OCTOBER 7, 18.9.9. 
“Hold Your Corn!” That 'is the advice which Sec¬ 
retary Coburn offers to Kansas farmers this year. He 
says that grain speculators borrow money, buy corn, 
hold it and make a profit. The producers can make 
a good profit this year by holding their grain and tak¬ 
ing good care of it. The first price is bound to be 
low. A year hence the chances are that it will be 
higher. Hold the crop. It seems like a safe risk. 
* 
A friend who recently visited one of the best- 
known experiment stations, was especially struck by 
one fact, viz., that many of the professors seemed to 
feel an ambition to possess a small place, of about 10 
acres, on which to practice intensive farming. None 
of them wished for a 200-acre farm, but all seemed to 
realize the wonderful possibilities of “a little farm, 
well tilled.” There seems no doubt that, wherever a 
near-by market can be secured, the small farm, of 
which every inch is utilized, offers the best oppor¬ 
tunity for a comfortable living. 
* 
Tjie authorities at Cornell University were recently 
asked the length of time necessary for a man to com¬ 
plete all the courses of study offered at the University. 
It was found that about 548 courses were offered, and 
counting that a student might take up five courses 
each year, it will be found that he would need about 
110 years to cover the courses. However, quite half 
the courses offered each year are new, and it is reck¬ 
oned that at the conclusion of the 110 years required 
to cover all the courses offered, it would then require 
6,050 years to cover the courses missed in the mean¬ 
time. On the whole, Cornell is a tolerably compre¬ 
hensive 'institution. 
* 
A conference for the consideration of trusts met a 
short time ago in Chicago. The Governors of 28 
States had appointed over 300 delegates, comprising 
some of the ablest of our public men, including the 
attorney generals of most of the participating States. 
Lawyers of note, journalists, college professors, labor 
leaders, etc., took earnest part in the discussion, 
which lasted four days. No final resolutions were re¬ 
ported or votes taken, but it is generally conceded 
that much light was thrown on the subject. Concen¬ 
tration is admittedly the tendency of tbe age, and 
trusts or combinations of powerful corporations were 
declared to be monopolies in the fullest sense of the 
term, as they crush all competition, fix the prices of 
raw material, of productive labor, and of the finished 
products at their arbitrary will. No one claimed that 
they were entirely benevolent and useful in their ten¬ 
dencies, but the “statesmen” and lawyers, most of 
whom are the sleek and well-paid attorneys of the 
trusts, said there are good trusts and bad trusts; that 
trusts should be regulated by State and National laws, 
and some that a licensing board should oversee the 
chartering and general conduct of the various com¬ 
bines. These astute gentlemen, whose cunning coun¬ 
sel has guided the present oppressive trusts safely 
through the mazes of existing laws, would, doubtless, 
mightily like the job of constructing new “anti- 
monopoly” laws, through the meshes of which the 
most bloated monopoly m'ight glide as gracefully as a 
minnow through a shad-net. Representatives of the 
producing classes, on the other hand, did not take 
much stock in the idea of regulating this tendency by 
statutes and commissions. They said all monopolies 
were harmful, except those managed by the people 
and for the public good. They claimed that State 
regulation was virtually impossible, as combines rep¬ 
resenting hundreds of millions selected and managed 
State and National legislatures, and would make a 
plaything of any commission that could get political 
appointment. The only way to get at these intol¬ 
erable oligarchies ‘is, apparently, to remove all pro¬ 
tection from those known to be viciously oppressive, 
and to Nationalize those of a semi-public character, 
such as the transportation of passengers, intelligence 
and commodities, and those handling natural pro¬ 
ducts, such as coal, water, oil, etc., as fast as expe¬ 
dient. This common-sense solution is a matter of the 
future, however, and many makeshift attempts at 
legislation will, undoubtedly, be tried during the 
opening years of the new century. The mere fact that 
hundreds of prominent men should gather from the 
corners of this big country to discuss the subject, is 
very hopeful. Farmers should be keenly alive to all 
developments on this important subject. About every¬ 
thing they purchase is syndicated, but the articles 
produced on the American farm are generally open 
to the fullest pressure of competition. 
* 
It is not generally known that exports of bran, 
middlings and mill feed from this country are increas¬ 
ing in volume. In 1898, 91,189 tons were sent abroad. 
In 1899, this increased to 127,953 tons valued at 
$2,002,588, or an average export price of $15.65 per 
ton. This export business in bran is one of the 
things that can easily be overdone. We need every 
pound of bran that is produced in this country to 
feed American cattle. What a mistake it is to send 
this bran to Europe, where it is fed to the cows that 
supply England with milk and butter! Here is an¬ 
other instance of the folly of trying to build up a 
great foreign trade in agricultural products at the 
expense of the home market. 
* 
The plan devised by the Illinois Dairy Union to 
prevent the sale of fraudulent butter substitutes, 'is, 
as previously noted in The R. N.-Y., that of issuing 
trademarked labels which butter dealers shall attach 
to all packages, wholesale or retail, of genuine butter. 
This trademark is to be regarded by the purchaser as 
a guarantee of purity. The chief difficulty with this 
plan is the fact that the use of the labels must be 
optional With the dealers. If the consumers insisted 
on a general enforcement of the scheme, the dealers 
would be obliged to carry out the plan, but it seems 
hard to interest the general public in such reforms. 
The education of the consumer seems a needed factor 
in the proper enforcement of all pure food laws. 
* 
We have talked about Alfalfa as a crop for the Far 
West. Somehow, people have an 'idea that it is de¬ 
signed chiefly for the great western ranches where 
stock is grown on an enormous scale, and where 
farming is conducted in a wholesale manner. Experi¬ 
ments with Alfalfa at the New Jersey Station indicate 
that this plant will be of service to the small farmer 
as well. The acre of Alfalfa at New Brunswick has 
proved successful through this dry season. There are 
many men With small farms who have not consid¬ 
ered it wise to try to produce the hay and fodder 
needed for their stock. They usually feed their 
sweet-corn stalks, and buy hay, because it would re¬ 
quire a number of acres to produce a sufficient supply 
of Timothy, and these acres will produce far more 
when planted to other crops. It now appears that a 
single acre well seeded to Alfalfa would give them 
about all the fodder needed to carry their stock 
through the Winter. Such are the enormous possibili¬ 
ties of this plant when properly grown and cared for, 
that it will often pay the farmer who cultivates a 
few acres of high-priced land, to put a suitable acre 
into Alfalfa. It is thus a plant not only for the whole¬ 
sale farmer, but for the high-grade retailer as well. 
* 
Buffalo, N. Y., has adopted an amendment to the 
market ordinances, which permits the market clerk to 
rent wagon spaces by the week to hucksters, or who¬ 
ever else may apply. Previous to this, wagon spaces 
were rented by the day, and there were frequent dis¬ 
putes caused by the scramble for choice places. The 
municipal council considers that the new plan will 
prevent these disputes and insure a more regular 
revenue to the city. The Buffalo Express, however, 
denounces the new ordinance, rightly holding that it 
is unjust to the farmers, for whom the market was 
first intended. Few farmers would care to rent 
space by the week, because few of them come to mar¬ 
ket every day. It is said that in Buffalo, as 'in other 
cities, the public markets are being given up, more 
and more, to hucksters and small dealers, who are at¬ 
tracted by the cheap rent, thus crowding out the 
farmers. In all of the smaller cities, we believe that 
the public market should be, first of all, a place where 
the farmer may deal directly with the consumer, and 
this new Buffalo ordinance 'is certainly mischievous. 
As one of Buffalo’s councilmen said, in opposing the 
amendment: “The markets were originally intended 
for the farmers. We can’t get along without the 
farmer.” Of course, they cannot—let them try it and 
see! 
* 
New York went fairly crazy over the welcome to 
Admiral Dewey! The city was covered with flags 
and bunting. It was estimated that over 2,000,000 
strangers came to the city to swell the crowd. Busi¬ 
ness was largely suspended, and whole days were 
given to the celebration. There never was anything 
quite like this great reception. The triumphs of an¬ 
cient Rome were playthings beside this wonderful 
outburst of feeling toward a popular hero. Dewey as 
a man improves under the microscope. He seems to 
be a solid, cool-headed, sensible American, with old- 
fashioned ideas of duty and patriotism. It would be 
interesting to know what he really thought of the 
noise and splendor of his reception. It is all over 
now, but if the money thrown out so recklessly during 
those two days could have been saved and applied to 
the founding of a great Dewey University, we believe 
the Admiral would be better satisfied. 
* 
The great corn belt of the United States has ever 
been ready to uphold its “walls of corn,” but only of 
recent years have we noted a National movement to 
honor the great cereal on which America’s prosperity 
so largely depends. The establishment of a corn 
propaganda to advertise this crop abroad is coinci¬ 
dent with the corn carnivals and corn expositions 
now held throughout the West. No one can deny the 
value of these festivals as an advertising feature, but 
we think that they have a still greater value in arous¬ 
ing a feeling of enthusiasm and interest for agricul¬ 
ture, both among farm workers and those in other 
vocations. When we think of all Atchison in gala 
dress, offering her hospitality to thousands of 
strangers, and remember that all this display is due 
to the fact that the plain farmer has been rewarded 
by an abundant harvest, we realize more than ever 
that he is the man who makes the wheels of trade go 
round. Every form of business enterprise is profit¬ 
ing by his prosperity. Let the farmer remember that 
his class represents the backbone of American com¬ 
merce, and that his progress in education and charac¬ 
ter must represent the progress of the Nation. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Corn in the silo, 
Clover in the mow, 
And grain running over the bin. 
Pleasant the prospect 
For the faithful cow; 
She longs for Winter to begin. 
Good taste for reading, 
Well developed brains, 
Life shows an honest, spotless page. 
Faith in the future. 
Honest share of gain. 
Who fears a quiet, peaceful age? 
Get ready for rhubarb forcing. 
A hard case —the Hubbard squash. 
We are always glad to see dinner “tabled.” 
Something no one has ever seen—the year 1900. 
New York State fish give themselves away—page 705. 
In great shape—the shepherds who got a good stand 
of rape. 
You can curry favor with the horse by having a brush 
with him. 
The hero who is worshiped to-day is often forgotten 
in a year. 
Why not pattern after Mr. Patton in the ice-cream 
trade—page 705? 
When fine feathers don’t make fine birds—when the 
hens are moulting. 
When may a man be said to be a beekeeper? When 
there’s a “bee in his bonnet.” 
Which is worse—the man who can sing and won’t sing, 
or the man who can’t sing and will sing? 
A living at farming; how’s that brought about? 
Drink lots of good water and then sweat it out! 
“I believe in keeping ground good, not only in building 
up worn-out land,” says one successful woman farmer. 
One trust that was not discussed at the recent Chicago 
conference—an earnest, old-fashioned trust in Providence. 
“Every part strengthens a part!” If that is true, 
sweet corn on the ear should be good food for a deaf 
man. 
Some talkative people appear to be endowed with double 
chins for the purpose of preventing one from being over¬ 
worked. 
People usually have little sympathy for a man who 
gets cheated in a game where he is trying to cheat some 
one else. 
When the six-months’ calves, and the head of the herd 
give milk, it’s about time for the roosters to lay eggs, 
and for the millennium to dawn. 
Nail a box to the wagon body when you haul in the 
•corn. Pick out the finest ears, and throw them in the 
box. Thus you will obtain better seed. 
"Reading The R. N.-Y. got me into this thing,” writes 
a subscriber in Pennsylvania. It’s a good thing—one of 
the things that give a man the chance to manufacture 
care and skill into coin. 
