222 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
March 12 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Cobbingwood, Editor. 
Dr. wabter van Fleet, ( Assoclateg 
Mrs. K. T. Roybe, Associates. 
John J. Dibbon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. Cd., or 8% marks, or 10% 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 we be responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts 
sanctioned by the courts. Notice of the complaint must 
be sent to 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 
erder, personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1904. 
FARMER AND COLLEGE PROFESSOR. 
A new attack with old weapons has been made up¬ 
on the New York Agricultural College. At a second 
hearing before the Senate finance committee seven 
presidents of New York colleges opposed the bill. 
They filled the room with words and figures which, 
however, could not obscure their real motives. 
1. Jealousy of Cornell University. 
2. Antagonism to the modern idea of a scientific 
education for farmers. 
Some of these colleges are denominational in char¬ 
acter and, as such, have no right to State aid, yet 
their whole argument was a selfish plea against State 
aid for agricultural education at Cornell. 
Let no one suppose that this is a new or original 
idea with these college presidents. The fight over 
“State aid” and the newer agricultural education has 
been fought out in a dozen States. For example, in 
Ohio college presidents have tried to defeat the ap¬ 
propriations for agriculture—and have been well 
whipped. Behind this pretended demand for a divi¬ 
sion of State appropriations is the old opposition to 
special instruction in agriculture. These college 
presidents still cling to the old worn-out theory that 
the farmer needs an “academic” education. Unable 
to comprehend the changes that have taken place in 
farming, or the real needs of the educated farmer, 
they stand like dogs in the manger and snarl out their 
selfish protest. Let us look at the matter fairly. The 
agricultural college at Cornell is the only place in 
the State where agriculture is taught. It must al¬ 
ways be taught there. This college has the ablest 
instructors to be found in the country. It has won 
the confidence of farmers. All it needs is a home and 
New York State agreed years ago to house it prop¬ 
erly. It has already housed the dairy department, 
and is under an obligation to provide suitable build¬ 
ings as other States have done. Suppose another 
agricultural college were established. The expense to 
the State would be enormous, and it would be years 
before such a college could organize its work and 
obtain a following. Suppose the money were scat¬ 
tered about among a lot of "classical” institutions. 
Does any farmer believe that these weak “depart¬ 
ments” co'uld ever gain any real strength? Suppose 
the money which supports the State Fair at Syracuse 
had been scattered about at a dozen places! There 
would be no real State Fair. The college presidents 
want a commission (they of course to be represented) 
to investigate and see w’hat should be done. This is 
only a scheme to delay and put off the matter for 
years, so that no agricultural college building will 
ever be built. These men propose nothing practical 
for the farmer. They would willingly cripple the only 
farmers’ college in the State in order to carry out. 
their own selfish plans. Men like them in every State 
of the Union have tried to kill off the demand for a 
practical system of agricultural education. 
Now, in a contest between seven college presidents 
and 225,000 farmers there should not- be any faltering 
or compromising. Farmers know what they want, 
and they recognize the need of immediate action. It 
simply remains to be seen whether the college presi¬ 
dent or the farmer has the greater power at Albany. 
For we might as well understand that it is now a 
question of power. There must be quick work and 
strong work. There must be 100,000 letters sent to 
Albany within a week. No matter whether you have 
already written your Senator and Assemblyman—do 
it again at once, for this is a new issue which must 
be met. This fight means more than is apparent on 
the surface. It is not the smaller question of a new 
building at Cornell, but the larger question of the 
right of the farmer to an education that will help 
him. Lick a stamp at once for your rights 1 
* 
The business of producing “certified milk” is grow¬ 
ing every week. There ought to be a sale for such 
milk in every large town and city in the country. 
Doctors are interested, because pure milk is as neces¬ 
sary for most of their patients as pure drugs. They 
are justified in demanding purity, and saying how 
the milk should be made. We shall begin soon the 
publication of a series of articles on “certified milk” 
from the consumer’s standpoint, showing what the 
market demands and how to produce it. There is a 
great opportunity for dairymen in selling this milk. 
* 
A good many strange requests are received by our 
Representatives in Congress, so probably a North¬ 
western Congressman was not surprised when he re¬ 
cently had this modest demand from a constituent: 
Please send to me and a number of my relatives (the 
names of whom were given) some garden seeds. I also 
want a gasoline engine of 18 horse-power, a wood saw 
and a barrel of gasoline. Please send them right away. 
After all, the demand was not unreasonable. If 
Uncle Sam is to furnish free seeds—those famous 
seeds that one poet sings as “the seeds that never 
grow,” why not a gasoline engine and a wood saw? If 
he supplies the vegetables for our dinner, why not 
the motive power that saws the wood to cook it? We 
all have personal wants to which a packet of Gov¬ 
ernment seeds appeals but slightly. Why not ask 
the authorities at Washington to substitute therefor 
a pair of new shoes, a barrel of flour or a mole-trap ! 
* 
We print the following note from a farmer who 
went to Rochester and saw the ruins made by the 
great fire. If more farmers could see the under side 
of city life it would do them good: “I have been hav¬ 
ing some business troubles that annoyed md, and 1 
thought they were of all things bad, but when 3,000 
people are within the short space of two hours cut 
off from every means of support, and the city and 
churches take up the question of relief as a stern 
necessity, it makes me feel that the little troubles 
that farmers frequently are obliged to meet are in¬ 
significant. While events often interfere with our 
plans and desires, it is rare, indeed, that anything 
transpires whereby our living is for a moment in 
doubt. Probably 90 per cent of the urban popula¬ 
tion are dependent upon their daily wage, and when 
cut off even temporarily disaster stares them in the 
face. Farmers, on the other hand, largely grow their 
necessities and are therefore independent. May we 
not get a moment of consolation from the trio of dis¬ 
asters that have visited Baltimore, Chicago and 
Rochester? Why then will not more people come out 
of the congested centers of population and live upon 
small tracts of land that will supply, under good care, 
abundant living and an independent happy home?” 
• 
The Brownlow road bill is expected soon to come 
up for action in Congress. It should be promptly 
passed, and a start made toward better country roads 
in those States at least that have not already begun 
to improve roads of their own accord. The United 
States, broadly speaking, has the worst wagon roads 
of any country in the world, though in some other 
ways it is one of the most prosperous and progres¬ 
sive of nations. Only four States, New Jersey, Con¬ 
necticut, Massachusetts and New York, have anything 
like adequate road laws, and the last is new at the 
business of State aid, only making her first appro¬ 
priation last year. Country roads in all other States 
and Territories are built and maintained in the old 
slipshod way, by local taxation. The farmer should 
not be blamed for not having better roads. He cannot 
afford to build them properly, alone and unaided. He 
has never been able to pay the cost and probably 
never will be. It is too big a proposition. Farmers, 
because there are more of them, in the aggregate con¬ 
tribute more in the way of tariff taxation on supplies 
to the National Treasury than any other class, and 
get less in return. There is a limited postal service, 
only a fraction of what it should and must be. There 
are also some experiment stations and agricultural 
colleges, very good in their way, and a free seed dis¬ 
tribution that nobody wants. Here the list of bene¬ 
factions ends. The Government should, in all justice, 
aid in the construction of good country roads. It has 
helped the railroads with credits and huge subsidies 
of valuable lands. It has boomed manufactures by a 
high protective tariff, and has beautified numerous 
towns and cities with costly public buildings. The 
farmer wants good roads, and is willing to pay his 
fair share if the Nation will help. The Brownlow 
bill provides an appropriation of $24,000,000, at the 
rate of $8,000,000 a year for three years, to be divided 
among the different States according to population, 
each locality benefited to add a like sum to that re¬ 
ceived from the Government, the whole to be used in 
the construction of modern roads under the direction 
of a National Department to be created for the pur¬ 
pose. There are hundreds of millions for war pen¬ 
sions, for military and naval aggrandizement, for the 
construction of an Isthmian Canal and millions more 
for all conceivable purposes. There should be no 
hesitation in voting the money for this laudable pur¬ 
pose. The way to push this road bill through is to 
write your Senator and Representative urging its 
passage. Use a postage stamp! 
* 
During the past five years we have had many calls 
for advice from people who think of joining “colo¬ 
nies” in Cuba, Mexico or other countries. Most of 
these colonies are located somewhere in Mexico and 
the most plausible stories have been told about them. 
Many of them have already failed, and hundreds of 
Americans have returned home disgusted with the 
country. What prompts a healthy man to seek a new 
and strange land? Can he expect to succeed under 
strange conditions when he has failed under familiar 
ones? There is one thing that immigrants to Mexico 
or anywhere else will do well to remember. It was 
stated in an interview by Consul Magill, of Tampico: 
Another point I would Impress on all Americans who 
go to Mexico to engage in any line of business or rail¬ 
road work, is this: Mexico belongs to the Mexicans. The 
laws were framed to suit them. Americans were not 
consulted in the matter, though our Constitution was 
freely copied. Therefore, when in Mexico be amenable 
to those laws; do not criticise them openly, and be as¬ 
sured that the rights of an American are safe-guarded 
in Mexico as well as those of the native born. If Ameri¬ 
cans find the Southern Republic unsuited to their tastes, 
three railroads running daily trains, furnish ample facili¬ 
ties for returning home. 
There is sense in that advice, whether a man goes 
to Mexico or over into the next county. He is likely 
to criticise his neighbors and find fault with their 
methods when the chances are that they know far 
more about what is good for them than he does. 
* 
The R. N.-Y. has had most favorable results in 
keeping fresh eggs in water glass. We had no thought 
of starting a “boom” in water-glass eggs, but there 
seems to be some danger of it. People are talking of 
buying cheap eggs in May, holding them in the glass 
and selling them in December at 35 cents or more. 
One farmer writes that he and his wife will risk $100 
in this business. Now some plain facts about this 
must be understood. The eggs must be perfectly 
fresh—24 hours old at the most. It will be useless to 
put eggs two or three days old into the glass. When 
the egg is taken out it must be wiped clean at once, 
for a film of glass will be formed on exposure to the 
air. The eggs preserved in this way are not “fresh 
laid” and will “go off” rapidly, so that they should be 
used at once when taken out of the glass. It will not 
do to take them out and hold them for sale any length 
of time. In short, The R. N.-Y. advocates this plan 
as a household convenience, and not as a business for 
selling eggs. The water-glass eggs will not compete 
in the market with cold-storage eggs. If a man were 
to take eggs out of the glass, pack them in crates and 
send them to market as “fresh laid” the egg candlers 
would soon find him out. These eggs would sell 
whether the market knew just what they were, but 
until they are better known cold-storage eggs will 
outsell them. It is quite likely that in some local 
communities such eggs would sell for enough to pay 
a fair profit on their handling, but we caution our 
readers not to expect too much from it. Our advice 
is for household use entirely. 
BREVITIES. 
The Bordeaux advocates are coming to the front. 
The hot air men have their innings this week on page 
208. 
What is the best “condition powder?’’ The master’s 
eye. 
If man is constantly hunting for the evil people do he 
will rarely see the good they put in at times. 
The first sign of Spring at the Rural Grounds was a 
snowdrop blooming outdoors in a sheltered spot March 1. 
Strange that Iron Mountain peach should be so badly 
damaged by frost as the West Virginia report, page 215, 
indicates. 
As a defence for the robins one of our readers says 
that last season was so bad that even the chickens had 
less natural food, and had to steal or be fed extra. 
Dr. E. H. Jenkins's simple chemistry of the Bordeaux 
Mixture has called out much comment. We shall have 
more of these simple descriptions of common things. 
“You can’t have too much about spraying to suit your 
fruit growing readers,” is the report we have from all 
over. We are planning to cover the subject of spraying 
in every detail. 
It is now asserted that the mocking bird is an inveter¬ 
ate enemy to the Cotton boll weevil, and that, if pro¬ 
tected, that bird will soon prove the most effective rem¬ 
edy for the pest. 
A friend whose heart Is stronger than his spelling 
asks us whether we do not think the laborer is “worthy 
of his higher.” We surely think so—he pulls up his 
worth as he goes higher. 
