56o 
TIIK RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 23, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS EAll MENS PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Colling wood, Editor. 
I)H. WALTER VAN FLEET, I . , 
Mas. K. T. Ho VLB, ( Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. Gd., 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 col¬ 
umns, 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 I lie complaint must be sent to us within one 
month of the time of the transaction, and you must have 
mentioned The Rural New-Yorker when writing the adver¬ 
tiser. 
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, JULY 23, 1904. 
THE PRIZE CLIPPINGS. 
This week the first prize goes to New York, the sec¬ 
ond to Iowa and the third to Georgia, as follows: 
Herbert Grant, Oneida Co., New York. 
Henry Field, Page Co., Iowa. 
Mrs. W. F. Ott, Fulton Co., Georgia. 
in the East is nearer good markets. We have often said 
that the best bargains in farm property are now to be 
had in the East. Western farm land is loo high as com¬ 
pared with eastern land at an equal distance from rail¬ 
roads and markets. 
* 
Last week we gave the prices which retailers charge 
for meat. This week the prices are higher yet, having 
jumped from three to six cents a pound. This is due 
to a strike on the part of unskilled laborers who handle 
meat. The public is expected to pay out thousands of 
extra dollars while the “Meat Trust” decides whether 
their laborers are to have one or two cents an hour 
extra pay. If the strike is continued there should be a 
demand for almost any frame of bones with meat 
packed on it. We think the strike will be settled 
promptly. The public simply cannot afford to pay more 
for meat. They will hold the Meat Trust responsible— 
whether such a charge is just or not. The big packers 
cannot afford to have the present feeling against them 
grow stronger. 
* 
Young man, keep off “Easy Street.” It is no place 
for you, as you have your way to make in the world. It 
may look inviting at a little distance, but people do not 
grow any on that street. In fact, they are quite apt to 
shrink and shrivel up, and never amount to anything. 
No matter where or at what you are employed do not 
dodge or shirk the hard jobs. Pick them out rather 
from preference, and do them better than they were evet 
done before. You can’t help growing if you do, and 
there will be a constant demand for your services; your 
list of accomplishments will widen daily, and you will 
be the man who is really wanted. After you have got 
your hand in those hard disagreeable jobs that the others 
do not want will not be half as hard as they seemed at 
first sight. 
* 
We still offer weekly prizes of $1.50, $1 and 50 cents 
for the best clippings from local papers. 
* 
The New York State Fair will be held at Syracuse 
this year, September 5-10. This Fair has become more 
and more each year an event for bringing farmers from 
all over the State together. In fact, the best exhibits 
of all are the people who attend. It is a good time and 
place for renewing old acquaintances and making new 
ones. The catalogue of the Fair is very complete, and 
will be mailed on addressing the Secretary, S. C. Shaver, 
Albany, N. Y. 
The Government crop report indicates a gain in most 
cereals—that is the outlook for a fair crop of wheat, 
corn and oats is better than one month ago. The corn 
crop in particular is more promising. This is about the 
most joyful news that could" be sent out. From the rail¬ 
road magnate who wants a good share of each bushel 
of grain to pay for hauling it to the workingman who 
has a dinner pail to fill—all look to the farmer for a 
living! 
* 
We receive a good many notes from readers, of which 
the following is a fair sample: 
I was almost submerged with work, shipping strawberries 
and currants, and my health was not the best, hardly being 
able to be around, and to add to the festivities of the occa¬ 
sion a very much-needed man was off on a drunk and has 
not shown up to the present time. 
Rum makes its mark on many a farmer who never 
tasted the wretched stuff. It works indirectly through 
the hired man, spoils his usefulness, curses his family 
and blights the very joy of living on the farm. 
* 
We imagine that many of our readers have tried keep¬ 
ing eggs in water glass. Here is the experience of an 
Ohio reader: 
We placed 300 dozen eggs in water glass a year ago, using 
them during the months of July, August and part of Sep¬ 
tember, and they kept so well that our Summer boarders 
could not tell them from freslily-laid eggs. We used one 
gallon of v ater glass, costing 75 cents, to 20 gallons of 
water. We are now putting down eggs in the same solution 
with different percentages of water and water glass and pro¬ 
pose to keep these trial cases all Fall and Winter. 
It is harder to fool a Summer boarder than many 
farmers think. You may work off an old lien in a 
chicken pie, but a year-old egg wears the badge of a 
veteran. If its wrinkles do not show in water glass we 
can safely call the experiment a success. 
* 
On page 554 an Illinois reader states his desire to sell 
his property and move East. Stockmen in Texas say 
that the man with the hoe has driven them out of entire 
counties. Here is a fruit grower who is driven away 
from home by the man who will not hoe. We are well 
acquainted with this un-hoe-ly citizen. He will ruin a 
small fruit farm. He lives East as well as West, but 
hoeing is more fashionable in the Atlantic States. We 
call attention to what this reader says. Land in his sec¬ 
tion is piling up in price until it has reached a point 
which seems too high for the income from fanning. On 
the other hand, farm land in the East is low, and while 
the western soil may be stronger or in better order, that 
On page 555 is a letter which shows that a horticul¬ 
tural society in Switzerland is interested in thg Apple 
Consumers’ League. While this country has not yet been 
fully covered we are glad to see that the League is 
spreading to Europe. Imagine what will happen if sev¬ 
eral million Europeans join the League and agree to eat 
two good apples each day! Our exports of fruit will 
tax the capacity of outgoing steamers. Tariff laws on 
the other side will be smashed, and laws to prohibit the 
importation of the San Jose scale will be swept aside. 
Nothing can prevail to keep those millions of daily 
apples out of Europe if people once become true mem¬ 
bers of the Apple League. Once let pvery man, woman 
and child in Europe become a full-fledged member, and 
universal peace will prevail, war will be impossible, and 
standing armies will surely take a back seat! Seri¬ 
ously, nothing but good can come from the “talking 
apple” on either side of the ocean. The world cannot 
eat too much of this excellent fruit, and it will do us all 
good to realize the power of a simple idea kept before 
the people taithfully and persistently. 
* 
The writer of the following note presents a problem 
which, just now, is troubling many young farmers. We 
print it here not so much in the hope of answering it 
offhand as to call for a discussion by those who have 
given some thought to it. 
For the past few years I have felt that I did not know 
as much as I would like to about farming, farm managing, 
.. etc., and .come to you for advice. I want a better agricul¬ 
tural educaliou. Would you advise me lo give up present 
position as farm manager (I am getting $475 per year, with 
house rent, vegetables, fuel and milk) to go to take a short 
dairy course at some one of our agricultural colleges? I 
believe I can do better than at present, and would like to 
prepare myself for a farm superintendent or manager if the 
wages are good. 
Before a man gives up such a position he should make 
sure of several things: 
1. Has he capital enough to pay for his schooling and 
support his family until he finds a new job? 
2. Are the agricultural colleges competent to teach a 
practical farmer so that his work on the farm will com¬ 
mand a higher figure? A man may desire a “better 
agricultural education,” but is it wise for one like our 
correspondent to leave a good job unless he feels sure 
that the education will prove a good financial invest¬ 
ment ? 
3. Are there really any places where a farm manager 
can command a salary that will compare with that paid 
the manager of a factory or business? 
Thus it will be seen that no man should rush into a 
plan of this sort without knowing what he is doing. 
Our friend is a good farmer, or he could not command 
the place he now fills. The thing he wants to know is 
whether the professors at an agricultural college can 
make him a better farmer—or trim up his practical 
knowledge so that it will command more money in the 
market. We know that there is a demand for compe¬ 
tent managers, and that college graduates who are able 
to manage are sought after. With our own experience 
we would take the college course if possible, confident 
that it would make practical experience more useful. 
After all, however, the success of any such enterprise 
depends upon the man rather than upon the education. 
A searching investigation into the very prevalent 
anaemia or white-blood sickness afflicting the rural 
population of Porto Rico, made by a Government com¬ 
mission of American and native physicians, seems to 
show the disease is caused by a soil parasite known as 
the hook-worm, which gets into the blood and digestive 
organs of a large percentage of the agricultural laborers 
in warm climates. The red blood corpuscles are de¬ 
stroyed in a great measure and the afflicted individual 
reduced to a pitiable state ot weakness and despondency, 
finally resulting in death. This hook-worm infection 
or tropical anaemia has in the past been assigned to 
various causes, such as innutritious food, unsanitary 
household conditions or has been confounded with 
malarial infection and no specially successful remedy 
was known. To this disease, in mild or severe form, 
may be attributed much of the lassitude common in 
warm climates. Recent medical investigations show that 
it is far from rare in our Southern States, though seldom 
recognized. Fortunately an effective cure for it seems 
to have been found in thymol, an oily camphor extracted 
from the herb thyme. 1 he treatment so far is prompt 
and highly successful, and the remedy is not at all poi¬ 
sonous in the proper dosage. This is indeed good news 
for dwellers in tropical countries. Better have anaemia 
and take thymol than malaria and consume quinine. 
* 
We have been asked to name what we consider the 
“most dangerous class” of citizens to be found in this 
country. Without hesitation we answer, the increasing 
number of young people who think that manual labor 
—work with the hands which produces food or useful 
things—is degrading. These young people are often the 
children of poor parents who have denied themselves in 
the hope that John or Mary may avoid the hardships 
and life tragedies which they have encountered. The 
trouble is that John and Mary have been given the wrong 
view of life. They should have been taught the dignity 
of labor, and the fact that a white soul and a hopeful 
heart can make the labor of the hands an inspiration. 
Instead of that they learn somewhere that it is vulgar 
to sweat in the field, that it is degrading to do hard 
labor in the sun, or a badge of shame to carry the marks 
of a hoe or plow handle on the palm. To ape the rich 
or the idle becomes the life object of such people. To 
our mind this, is more dangerous than openly to pro¬ 
claim violence to the Republic, for those who do the 
latter can be punished, or put where they can do no 
harm. The poor fools who despise honest labor, and 
who will eat the bread earned by others before they 
will soil their hands, propagate a social disease which 
will eat the heart out of free government. Centuries 
ago productive labor was left to the slave. To feed and 
clothe and house the world was a degrading thing. To 
eat the food and wear the clothes which the slave pro¬ 
duced was the evidence of nobility—the mark of the gen¬ 
tleman ! 1 he whole struggle for human rights was 
fought over the principle that the hand wnich produces 
is made noble by producing. This country fought itseli 
free and rose among the nations of the earth because 
the idea that hand work is not of necessity the portion 
of the slave became the first principle of American 
society, lhousands of the rich have despised labor 
because they know that they have wrung their wealth 
out of those who work. I here is little danger in that, 
but the real danger comes when children of those who 
toil lose the best part of their heritage, and refuse to 
soil their hands with honest work. The old ideas and 
methods of education are in large part responsible for 
this dangerous tendency of the young. There is hope in 
the new agricultural education which teaches, or ought 
to teach, the honor of useful labor. 
BREVITIES. 
The reign of the rain. 
Taffy makes poor sticking piaster for friendship. 
All have periods of depression. Try not to decide impor¬ 
tant things at such times. 
Judging from our legal questions the right of way across 
the farm is cause of great trouble between neighbors. 
\Ve are asked to support a man for Assistant Secretary of 
Agriculture because lie did much to introduce Angora goats 
into this country ! 
If Russia controlled the Japan Sea her soldiers would be 
eating American meat by the shipload—but there would be 
little left of Japan. 
Here is one good form of partnership in poultry keeping: 
-I am in partnership with my daughter. She feeds and 
cares for them and gets the income; 1 find the feed.” 
One remarkable thing about this clipping contest is the 
number of articles in favor ot protecting the quail that are 
sent. No one seems to hate me bird as many do the robin. 
Now. girls, why not form a Grass and Chicken League? 
1 ake a pledge to wear Timothy and Red-top grass as hat 
ornaments and the feathers of domestic poultry for a like 
purpose! 
A man who seems to some of us pretty nearly master of 
his business writes thus: “Sometimes when I run against 
one or more of my own foolish blunders I feel like giving 
somebody a price to kick me, and wonder to myself will 1 
ever know anything.” We suould hate to kick a large man 
even if he paid us for doing it, but the feeling our friend 
describes is one of the indications of growth which some 
people never know. 
