656 
September 3, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Colling wood, Editor. 
Du. Walter Van Fleet,! . , . 
Mrs. E. T. Boyle, ^Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, S2.04, 
equal to 8s. Cd., or 8 Ms marks, or 10 Mi 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 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 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, SEPTEMBER 3. 1904. 
THE PRIZE CLIPPINGS. 
This week the first prize goes to Missouri, the second 
to Connecticut and the third to New Hampshire, as 
follows: 
Mrs. M. C. Adams, Cooper Co., Mo. 
D. Kingsley, Hartford Co., Conn. 
A. N. Peasley, Merrimack Co., N. H. 
We still offer weekly prizes of $1.50, $1 and 50 cents 
for the best clippings from local papers. 
* 
Wheat prices are jumping. This indicates a smaller 
crop than was anticipated, and means higher prices for 
Hour, bran and middlings. The corn crop is promising, 
and we expect a larger supply than last year. Reports 
are that more silos will be filled this Fall than ever 
before. Cotton prices are expected to rule lower, and 
this will help New England quite as much as higher 
prices would help the South. 
* 
As usual The R. N.-Y. will be represented at the 
New York State Fair. We shall pitch the tent at the 
old place, and be ready for business. It has come to be 
a pleasant event in the year to meet old friends and 
make new ones at the State Fair. We hope you will 
plan to make The R. N.-Y. tent your headquarters. 
Leave your baggage there and come back for a rest. 
We shall be glad to see you, and glad to know how you 
are getting along. 
* 
It is evident from our reports that the “meat strike” 
has hurt feeders and shippers of cattle. Prices are 
lower, and the markets are upset because the packers 
cannot handle the stock. Cattle have been held back 
in some cases when they should have been sold. This 
will mean a loss in handling, and help to clog up the 
market later. Prices to eastern consumers have been 
raised, though not as much as was expected. There 
have been fair supplies of meat, but the people simply 
could not afford to pay more for it, and stopped buying 
or reduced the supply. 
* 
Some people who remember how the farmers made 
a successful fight against oleo are impatient because they 
do not make a harder fight for a parcels post. Such 
critics forget some things and overlook others. The 
oleo fight went on for 12 or 15 years before there was a 
popular demand strong enough to influence Congress. 
Why expect that public education against the postal 
injustice should grow faster than that which made anti 
oleo laws possible? The danger from oleo was evident 
to all dairymen. It could be measured in dollars by 
everyone who sold butter. The danger to other classes 
of farmers was indirect, but none the less a danger. It 
took time to make fruit grower or grain grower or 
poultryman see that there was a principle at stake which 
affected all who sold food. In like manner there are 
at present many farmers who are indifferent to postal 
reforms. They cannot see how a parcels post is to do 
them any good. Of course they grumble at the extor¬ 
tionate charges of the express companies, and they know 
that a fairer rate of transportation would help them, 
yet they do not yet see their duty. We do not feel at all 
discouraged at this. There is no force in public senti¬ 
ment which grows up in a single night. Hit a man 
with a mushroom, and while you may dirty his clothes 
you do not stagger him. Flit him with an oak stick 
which has grown slowly and solidly, and you bring him 
to time! The growth of sentiment in favor of human 
rights must be like that of the oak—solid and true. 
Do not, therefore, be discouraged! Keep at it and 
make a business of the demand! 
* 
So “graft” has been worked upon Gypsy moth stock, 
according to facts given upon page 657. The situation 
there described is a disquieting one, even without the 
additional danger of corrupt politics. An insect that 
not only strips deciduous trees, but will defoliate White 
pine, and devour every green thing within its reach may 
well cause agricultural authorities disquietude. Prof. J. 
B. Smith remarked in 1896 that “It is, perhaps, the most 
dangerous pest ever introduced into the United States, 
and should the State of Massachusetts abandon its cam¬ 
paign against it, the annual charge upon the farmers 
of the country would become enormous, if not ruinous.” 
Prof. Smith’s prediction seems in a fair way to be 
realized. It is surely time for the Government to deport 
this'disreputable immigrant, which is a National menace 
to horticultural interests. 
* 
Never have we known such a crop of late Potato 
beetles as is now seen in parts of the East. Where the 
potato vines are dead the pests are attacking field crops 
of tomatoes, stripping the vines of leaves and eating 
holes in the fruit. After tne tomatoes are sorted and 
crated, they must be covered, or the bugs “shooed” off 
frequently to prevent injury to the tomatoes before they 
can be taken to market. The tomato seems to be the 
only other plant here grown which the beetles will eat, 
so when the potato vines are gone it is a case of hustling 
around to find the next best thing. This year’s experi¬ 
ence shows the need of poisoning the late crop of young 
bugs, even though the potatoes are so nearly matured 
that they cannot be injured. A few hours’ work in 
dosing these late bugs would have saved many dollars’ 
worth of tomatoes, and lessened next year’s bug crop 
just that much, as most of these late arrivals will 
hibernate and spread destruction in Spring. 
* 
T he daily papers contain the following item from 
Hungary: 
The Hungarian official poniological organ states in its 
latest number that the enormous supply and peculiar soft 
condition of American prunes in Europe has awakened a 
lively interest of late. This organ states that an examina¬ 
tion of such prunes was made in Germany and that they 
were declared to he soaked with a fluid containing from 10 
to 12 per cent of glycerine to increase their size and weight. 
We do not believe that the prunes were soaked in 
glycerine—certainly not in this country before shipment. 
With the growing demand for American fruit in Europe 
it would be worse than folly to “doctor” prunes. The 
history of this prune trade is remarkable. In 1893 this 
country imported 26,414,112 pounds of prunes valued at 
$1,162,318. This amount was reduced year by year 
until during the year ending June 1 we imported only 
494,105 pounds, valued at $46,976. During the same 
time we exported of American grown prunes 73,146,214 
pounds, valued at $3,410,497. There is probably no 
record to show that the trade in any other product has 
been so changed about. 
* 
Farmers are waking up on the wire fence question. 
Every day brings us new testimony from farmers who 
are disgusted with modern wire. Many of them have 
wire fences which were put up 15 or more years ago 
still in good condition. On the same farm will be 
found wire fence put up within six years that has 
rusted, if not broken down. We are glad to see that 
farmers are disposed to put the blame where it belongs. 
The manufacturers who weave or build the fence are 
not, as a rule, to blame. They buy wire usually of the 
combination which has secured control of wire man¬ 
ufacturing. A few independent firms manufacture wire, 
but most of those who make fence must depend upon the 
combination for their supply. In most cases it would 
seem that they are obliged to take what they can get, 
which is usually an inferior grade of wire. When the 
fence begins to fail, as it surely will a few years after 
it is built, the first impulse is to find fault with the 
fence maker, but this is not fair. The trouble lies 
beyond him—with the parties who furnished the wire. 
The greatest trouble lies in the so-called “galvanizing.” 
Wire is galvanized by drawing it through a tank in 
which is melted “spelter” or zinc. The object is to give 
the wire a coating of zinc, as this metal will not rust 
when exposed to conditions which would rust iron or 
steel. Under the old process the wire after its bath in 
melted zinc was wiped clean by running it through loose 
sand. Now the wire is passed through a hole in a flat 
piece of iron and as it passes a piece of wicking oi 
asbestos rope is wound around the wire and held in 
place by a steel clothespin. The grip of this pin deter¬ 
mines the amount of zinc that is left on the wire, and 
it is safe to say that of late years very little zinc has 
run through its clutches. The policy has been to wipe 
off all the zinc possible. This leaves only a thin film ol 
galvanizing” on the wire. It is bright and highly pol¬ 
ished, but there is so little zinc upon it that rusting 
begins almost as rapidly as though the iron or steel were 
not coated at all. Here is a statement made by an inde¬ 
pendent wire fence manufacturer, whose name for 
obvious reasons cannot be given now: 
Eighty per cent of the wire business now is controlled 
by the wire trust. It is claimed by those who should know 
that they use from 40 to 50 pounds of spelter or galvanizing 
per ton of wire. This makes a very thin coat. We now 
have our own wire mill, use the same grade of spelter as 
other manufacturers and try to put on from 80 to 100 pounds 
of galvanizing per ton of wire, which should make bettei 
wire but we cannot say that it will; it would take time to 
determine this. Independent manufacturers to-day mostly 
depend largely upon the quality of their goods to hold busi¬ 
ness. This is not the case with the leading interests. They 
are in a position to market their product and claim they make 
it as cheap as they possibly can. 
This inferior galvanizing seems to be the chief trouble 
with modern wire. We are now told that some of the 
wire is inferior, but most of those who are in a position 
to know say that the wire itself is as good as ever. We 
are told that cheaper metals like lead are used in place 
of zinc for galvanizing,” and that even these are wiped 
down to a mere film. We cannot say that this is so, 
but there is no doubt that the manufacturers scrape off 
every bit of “galvanizing” that they can. The whole 
thing is an outrage upon the American farmer. He is 
forced to pay more than the wire is worth and is then 
obliged to replace it after half the service which it ought 
to give. With the trouble clearly put before them how 
long will the American people stand it? 
* 
We have spent some time in obtaining figures regard- 
ing the women patients in insane hospitals. It has been 
charged that a large majority of them come from farm 
homes—driven into their sad condition by the “loneli¬ 
ness and hard conditions” found on the farm. The 
assertion is false. Here is a sample statement from 
the Rochester State Hospital: 
We find that during the year ending September 30, 1903 
118 women patients were admitted; of this number there 
were only 20 who came from farm homes. According to the 
last census there were in Monroe and Livingston counties, 
which comprise our district, 254,903, and of this number 
102,603 belong to city population; according to this it 
would show that the proportion from the cities is much 
greater than from the country. The patients that come 
from the cities include of course most of tne foreign popu¬ 
lation from which a great number of our patients come. 
I think the popular idea that a greater proportion of 
farmers’ wives become insane than those of other vocations 
grew out of the method of classing all of those who came 
from the country as farmers’ wives, whereas the women 
who came from the cities were divided up into various 
occupations, making no one class as great as those that 
come from the farms. e. ii. Howard. 
Superintendent. 
Another reason for the mistake is the fact that the 
population in all towns of less than 4,000 is classed as 
“rural.” Life in the smaller towns is much more de¬ 
pressing than that on the farm. Yet when a patient is 
sent to a hospital from one of these places she may be 
classed as a “farmer.” In this way the farm receives the 
discredit which belongs to the town. A good illustration 
of this is found in this letter from Chas. W. Pilgrim, 
Superintendent of the Hudson River State Hospital at 
Poughkeepsie: 
Out of a population of 1.157 women in this hospital, it is 
found that 114 of them resided on farms before they were 
sent to the hospital. This makes a percentage of 8.980 
per cent. There were 700 admitted from cities, and the 
remainder were admitted from villages and small towns 
Whenever you hear the old tale that farm life breeds 
insanity stamp on it at once. 
BREVITIES. 
Get after the hen lice. 
Sensible notes on silo filling by II. E. Cook on page 662. 
Blood will tell! Tell what? Where the blood came from. 
Read the article on steam heating whether you can afforo 
a steam heater or not. 
The few reports on the use of Bordeaux Mixture for 
potatoes are encouraging. 
Ix 1900 there were in this country 94,437 white and 
15,528 colored clergymen. 
The best way to get Bordeaux Mixture off grapes is not 
to put it on late in the season. 
Our own farm is surrounded by uncultivated fields where 
wild fruits grow in abundance. In spite of this, robins 
and other birds attack the cultivated fruit and destroy 
large quantities of it. 
Since the account of the Dixon strawberry was printed 
there have been calls for plants. Mr. Grafe says that there 
are no plants for sale or gift. He has destroyed all but a 
few of the best, not being fully satisfied with the fruit. 
The weed known as “horsetail” (Equisetum) must be 
cleaned out early in order to stop it. It is reproduced by 
means of spores. The fertile shoots come up early in the 
Spring, ripen and scatter the spores. Thus cultivation must 
be done early. Later cultivation will do little good. 
On page 057 a Minnesota man says he wants New Eng¬ 
land Baldwin apples. Of course he does if he is after a 
good thing. Thousands of barrels of good fruit could be 
sold if growlers could club together, guarantee a uniform 
product and advertise it. 
