8o4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 18 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, | 
H. E. Van Deman, V Associates. 
Mrb. E. T. Royle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 52.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8J4 marks, or 10*4 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 Prick Only. 
Advertisements inserted only for responsible and honorable houses 
We must have copy one week before the date of issue. 
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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 18, 1899. 
New subscribers to The R. N.-Y. will 
now get the paper from the time sub¬ 
scription is received until January 1, 
1901. If you will send us a club of 
four subscriptions, new or renewal, 
with $4, we will advance your own 
subscription one year free. Take a 
few copies with you to the polls election day, and get 
up a club. If you want more samples, drop us a postal 
card. 
* 
IT FORTIFIES MY SOUL TO KNOW, 
THAT THOUGH I PERISH, TRUTH IS SO. 
* 
Cuban farmers have sent a petition to Governor- 
General Brooke, asking for a protective duty on corn. 
They say that American corn competes unfairly with 
them, and that this competition handicaps them in 
their attempts to recover their prosperity. They also 
protest against the protective duties on oil, saying 
that these are enforced solely to protect one American 
refinery. At the present time a Cuban delegation is 
in this country, endeavoring to obtain encouragement 
for the sugar planters. We wonder how the beet- 
sugar interests will view this. 
* 
German opponents of American meat have always 
taken the ground that our system of inspection is 
defective, and that there could be no assurance of the 
wholesomeness of the product. The German dele¬ 
gates to the Commercial Congress at Philadelphia, 
however, after studying the methods of the Chicago 
packers, are convinced that the inspection is thor¬ 
ough, and their dictum will, doubtless, carry weight 
with their countrymen. In this case, as in many 
others, the prejudice against American products was 
fostered by interested persons, who feared commercial 
competition. 
* 
Last week two human brutes in this city were 
permitted by the police to pound each other into 
human jelly while 10,000 high-minded citizens yelled 
themselves hoarse. The daily papers gave column 
after column, in reporting the fight, while hundreds 
of uplifting affairs were unreported or dismissed with 
a few lines. At the same time some of our zealous 
expansionists are arguing that American civilization 
is needed in Cuba and the Philippines, because the 
people there indulge in brutal cockfights and bull¬ 
fights. In vtiew of these things we wonder what a 
delegation of these benighted cockfighters would 
have thought had they been present at the recent 
prizefight? 
* 
Peter M. Gideon died at his home in Excelsior, 
Minn., on Friday morning, October 27. He was born 
in Ohio, in 1820. In 1853 he came to Minnesota, and 
settled at Excelsior, living upon the banks of Lake 
Minnetonka until his death. He was not only one of 
the earlier settlers of the State, but a pioneer horti¬ 
culturist, having begun experiments in the growing 
of apples and other fruits as early as 1854. He was 
the originator of the famous Wealthy apple, was for 
many years superintendent of a State experiment or¬ 
chard, and later originated a considerable number of 
seedling apples just beginning to fruit, that promise 
to extend successful apple culture much farther north, 
and greatly benefit the pomology of the north central 
States. His work was never appreciated as it should 
have been, and like Ephraim W. Bull, F. W. Loudon, 
and others, who spent the best part of long lives in ex¬ 
perimenting with seedlings, and are well-known orig¬ 
inators of valuable fruits, he found the work very un¬ 
profitable. Like heroism displayed or success achieved 
under greater difficulties has seldom been chron¬ 
icled, and it 8s a pity that Mr. Gideon could not be 
appreciated, honored, and rewarded by those who 
have reaped the benefits of his labors. 
* 
Wireless telegraphy, wonderful as it is, is not to 
be compared with the mysterious force we know by 
the name of sympathy. We read of Abraham Lincoln, 
Robert Burns, Florence Nightingale, or some other 
worthy of high class and undoubted genuineness, and 
in spite of the distance that separates us from them, 
whether it be of time, space, station, nationality or 
what not, whatever of nobility, be it little or much, 
there is within us thrills responsively. What a power 
for good may be exerted through this mysterious 
agency by one genuine high-souled life. Sex, station, 
nationality, or color makes no difference. That is 
something to be remembered by men of education, 
who feel that life has not given them the oppor¬ 
tunities they deserve. 
* 
The task of conquering the Dutch farmers of South 
Africa promises to be a bigger job than England 
looked for, and she is gathering her resources with 
great energy. She has plenty of money and an abun¬ 
dance of brains, all of the highest standard, but the 
supply of men is not up to the old standard of phys¬ 
ical quality. It is said that in order to fill the army 
ranks the regulation height of men has been reduced. 
The modern Englishman 'is not so large and powerful 
as his father was, and the reason given for this is 
that the “bold yeomanry” formerly bred on the farms 
of England has been nearly wiped out. There has 
been a rush away from the farm to the town, and the 
townbred man is inferior to the old-time farmer. 
England has grown rich, but her prosperity means 
wealth for the town and poverty for the farm. The 
gold that fills her vaults cannot bring back the blood 
and bone which formerly came from her soil. This 
is but a chapter of the old, old story. Make the farm 
unpopular, drive the best of the young people away 
from it, reduce its earning capacity and, while you 
may add to the total wealth of the nation, you make 
it poorer in those solid elements which constitute its 
truest strength. 
Still another swindle perpetrated upon farmers is 
reported from Jasper County, Ill. A prominent farm¬ 
er was approached by two men claiming to represent 
an Indiana nursery, who wished to introduce their 
stock in Illinois. To do this they were willing to set 
out a two-acre orchard on his land, the only expense 
to the farmer being that of putting the land in order, 
and paying the freight on the trees. The agents were 
delightful talkers, and they assured the farmer that 
they would put out the orchard, and cultivate and 
prune the trees for a term of five years, at the end of 
Which time the orchard of apple, peach and pear 
trees would belong to the owner of the land. The 
farmer fell in with the scheme, and was so hypno¬ 
tized by the agents that he signed a contract without 
reading it. Later he examined the duplicate contract 
left with him, and then discovered that he had put 
his name to an order for 49 apple trees, and a lot of 
peaches, pears, blackberries, strawberries and goose¬ 
berries, for which he had agreed to pay a certain 
price per tree or plant, the whole amounting to $56. 
Other farmers throughout the district were victim¬ 
ized in the same way, and it is said that they will 
combine to prevent the collection of the notes. The 
moral is obvious, and one which The R. N.-Y. has 
emphasized on many a previous occasion. 
* 
The United States Navy has been experimenting for 
some time with the Marconi system of wireless teleg¬ 
raphy, and very successful results are reported by the 
newspapers, though the naval officers themselves are 
pledged to silence. Perfect communication between 
vessels as far apart as 80 miles is said to be possible, 
even though headlands covered with forests or tall 
buildings should 'intervene. The instruments much 
resemble those in ordinary use, except that they are 
larger and heavier, and the current used much 
stronger. The receiving instrument is made like a 
stock-ticker, and records messages on a roll of paper 
tape. The transmitter is a strong instrument, and 
the operator bears down heavily on a lever, the con¬ 
tact of two brass balls causing a sharp report, as the 
powerful current passes. Insulated wires lead up the 
masts or other elevation a distance of 20 or 30 feet, 
where an additional piece of apparatus causes a 
ripple or disturbance in the atmospheric electricity, 
very much as a stone, when thrown in the water, 
causes an expanding ripple. This electrical disturb¬ 
ance spreads in an immense dircle until caught by the 
other receiver miles away. Nikola Tesla, the elec¬ 
trical expert and inventor, of New York, produces 
currents of such intensity that they disturb the elec¬ 
trical balance of the earth, and he claims to fear that 
the atmosphere may be set on fire, and all life on 
earth be destroyed, if the intensity of the disturbance 
be greatly increased. One can limagine the great re¬ 
lief to the monotony of isolated farms that would fol¬ 
low a cheap and practical introduction of wireless 
telegraphy. Neighbors could chat together over the 
radius of a township without the complication and 
inconvenience of a telephone exchange. 
* 
The farmers of New York State wish to know what 
is to be done about the oleo cases against Armour & 
Company. This firm sold quantities of oleo in the 
State, and F. C. Schraub, the former Agricultural 
Commissioner, undertook to prosecute them. He 
handed the cases down as a mighty uncomfortable 
legacy to the present Commissioner. Good lawyers 
say that the Agricultural Department is sure to be 
beaten if the cases come to trial, for Mr. Schraub se¬ 
cured practically no clear evidence. Armour & Com¬ 
pany offered to compromise by paying $20,000, and 
agreeing not to sell oleo in the State if the cases 
were withdrawn. The present Commissioner and 
many others desired to do this, but Governor Roose¬ 
velt wishes the cases pressed—there the matter hangs. 
Back of it all is said to be—politics. Some of the 
politicians would like to compromise, but they know 
that thousands of farmers will rise up and denounce 
them if they compromise with this greasy monopoly. 
The Governor probably thinks it would be good poli¬ 
tics to have the cases fail, as the result of blundering 
or incompetency on the part of a commissioner who 
belongs to the other party. What a shame it 'is that 
w'hile the politicians are hesitating and hedging over 
politics, the great dairy interests of the State must 
take a back seat, because those in authority have not 
the courage to do their duty. Governor Roosevelt 
should now do one of two things, and do it right 
away—either press those suits or settle them. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Courage! It is a strange, mysterious thing; 
Men risk their lives for some ignoble cause, 
And find sweet music in the plaudits wrung 
From those whose low ambitions they despise. 
Their courage needs companionship—they crave 
The backing, right or wrong, of human kind; 
The higher courage beckons them in vain, 
The Godlike quality that nerves the heart 
To stand alone with Truth against the world 
To face the curses of the angry mob, 
And, harder still, the hot, reproachful words 
And sneering jibe of old associates. 
’Tis hard to face the usage of the world 
Alone, and with no backing save the thought 
That one is stepping in the fadeless track 
Made by the mighty Master of mankind. 
And yet, the common people vainly wait 
For leaders who will dare be crucified 
Upon the cross of human spite and hate; 
For, though they die, the words they speak live on 
And finally lift men to higher things. 
Brace up your moral end posts. 
Nitrogen is food—not stimulant. 
Fat men have greatness thrust upon them. 
The saloonkeeper will not pay your mortgage. 
The politician makes hard cash from a soft job. 
The law or the Lord—which do you try to satisfy? 
You can’t cultivate your wife by harrowing her feelings. 
The best stockholders of National prosperity are the 
farmers. 
November 9, Admiral Dewey assumed the position of 
second mate. 
The yew is not popular as a family tree—it’s more 
likely to be I. 
Cats get their eyes open early in life. Some men never 
succeed in doing so. 
No man is fit to head a crowd unless at some crisis he 
dares to stand alone. 
The dairyman who gives short measure is trying to 
supply condensed milk. 
Don’t you let the neighbors laugh you away from 
Crimson clover. Keep at it. 
We take'pleasure in introducing Mr. Vigna Catjang— 
otherwise known as cow pea. 
Full many a rascal whose black soul is bought goes 
through the world with head held up—uncaught. 
Sour milk, or milk in any way tainted ought always 
to be rejected at tire creamery; don’t take it there. 
Showers of stars are a feature of the November 
heavens, and the defeated candidate feels as though he 
saw a majority of them. 
A young farmer with a taste for medicine ought to do 
a fair business in his community as a veterinarian. He 
can make good use of his Winters studying the science. 
The maid who marries a lazy man must put on the 
harness and be the whole span. The man who marries 
a lazy maid will hardly proclaim that his marriage has 
paid. 
The iron and steel trust is credited with reviving one 
old rural industry—that of cutting hoop poles. Years 
ago iron bands crow r ded this trade out, but now the high 
price of iron is increasing the demand for wooden hoops. 
To 
January, 
1901, 
for 
$ 1 . 00 . 
