720 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 1, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert w. Collingwood, Kditor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, | 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, Associates. 
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 8Vi marks, or 10Vb francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
hacked 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 he responsible for 
the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one 
month of tlie 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 Pear! Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTORF.R l. 1904 . 
ALL FOR A DIME. 
In this issue of The R. N.-Y. you will find a little 
envelope. It is addressed back to us, and contains blank 
lines for a new subscriber’s name, and a little pocket 
at the point of the arrow for safely carrying a dime. 
We want to ask you to get the dime from one of your 
neighbors who would appreciate the paper; then fill in 
the blank lines with his name and address and mail to 
us. You may promise him the paper every week now 
for the remainder of this year in exchange for his dime. 
Of course you know that the dime will hardly pay for 
the raw paper and postage. It is not the dime we want; 
we want him to know the paper. It is this kindly service 
on the part of our old friends that has doubled the cir¬ 
culation of The R. N.-Y. within the last few years. 
The Rural family must number one hundred thousand. 
Just send your one name this week. If your neighbor 
does not feel by New Year’s that he has had a good 
bargain, we will return his dime. If the paper is what 
he wants, as we think it is, we want him to know it. 
That’s all. We ask you to do this little service in the 
interest of The R. N.-Y., with confidence that the little 
envelope will return to ns, and we thank you in advance 
for the kindly interest. 
* 
PRIZES FOR PHOTOGRAPHS. 
As announced last week we offer prizes of $2, $1.50 
and $1 for the best photographs suitable for use in The 
R. N.-Y. The prizes are given every two weeks. We 
want photographs which represent some definite scene 
nr object connected with farm life. Small groups or 
single subjects are best. 
4 = 
them long to find out about these things. Let some one 
put an inferior fertilizer or feed on the market and the 
stations are quick to pick it apart and compare it with 
a standard article. Why not take up fence wire in the 
same way? Show what the “standard” for good wire 
ought to be and then expose the inferior goods. The 
stations can be of great service to farmers in this mat¬ 
ter. They will in the end be forced to do such work. 
We suggest to them that the volunteer always has a 
better standing than the drafted man! Our Illinois 
friend need not be discouraged. Such reforms are not 
brought about by abuse or violent statements, but by 
fair and persistent argument. The outcome of this cam¬ 
paign will show what readers of The R. N.-Y. can do 
when they try! Keep at it. 
* 
It seems that there is great interest in the breeding 
of milch goats. Breeders have an association at St. 
Louis, and inquiry of the officers has brought out a 
flood of information about goats. We had no idea that 
so many arguments could be made for these animals. 
4f we were to print half the claims made for these little 
milkers the goats would rank with ginseng, squabs and 
Belgian hares as subjects for a “boom.” 
* 
The people of Vermont have elected a farmer-gov¬ 
ernor. Air. Bell is, we understand, a practical farmer, 
the head of the State Grange. He will, of course, do 
his best to induce the Legislature to provide funds for 
building that dairy school at the Vermont Agricultural 
College. We say “of course” because one naturally 
expects such things from a farmer who has a chance 
to govern. There ought to be a strong statement about 
that dairy school building in the new governor’s first 
message! 
* 
School has begun again. What about the plans for 
teaching spelling this year? The amount of drill in 
this subject is left largely to the teacher, and too often 
is crowded into a few odd minutes near the close of 
school, when pupils are tired and inattentive. There 
is no law, other than that of good usage, against 
spelling cheese, chcase, as we saw it recently in an 
otherwise well written letter, but teachers will make 
no mistake by putting this law of usage well up in the 
list of the laws of the land. Many a man has been 
thankful that he was taught in youth that it was a 
disgrace to misspell simple words. 
* 
Last week we spoke of the low 7 prices of land in New 
England and the chances for turning this land into apple 
orchards. In some parts of Texas there are equally 
good chances for utilizing cast-off land. The cotton 
weevil insect has frightened many cotton growers. The 
land they occupy is rich and strong, but the insect spoils 
the crop. These farmers do not care to try 7 new crops, 
but want to go somewhere else and grow cotton. Thus 
they are willing to sell their land at a mere fraction of 
its true value. In such a case the value of a farm is 
decided by an insect. A man may buy at the insect’s 
valuation and use a man’s judgment about growing 
crops! 
* 
At a moderate estimate the thousands of people who 
work in this city but live in the suburbs travel a total 
of 3,000,000 miles per day in going to and from their 
work. Taking an average of the low rates at which 
commutation tickets are sold the yearly bill for carfare is 
$4,500,000. If to this is aaded the sum paid to elevated 
and surface roads by strictly business people living in 
Brooklyn and Harlem the total is not far from $8,000,000. 
Most of this army of workers comes from a distance of 
20 miles or less, but a good number live 40 miles aw 7 ay. 
* 
Our Illinois friend who discusses the wire problem 
on page 715 is inclined to take a gloomy 7 view because 
The R. N.-Y. is the only representative of the farmers 
to tell the truth about wire. He should not be dis¬ 
couraged. The only power or force which The R. N.-Y. 
can exercise comes from its readers. We know from 
experience that when they are once started in support 
of a righteous cause others will be forced to join the 
procession. No one denies that the wire generally sold 
to farmers is very inferior. We have shown why it is 
inferior and who is responsible for it. Before we are 
done no reader of The R. N.-Y. will be able to say 
that lie does not understand this important question. 
The result will be that readers will begin—first one, then 
a dozen, then 50, then 100, then 500, and so on—talking 
and writing about this wire imposition. Such things 
grow like snowballs, and before long, agricultural papers, 
farm societies and the experiment stations will be forced 
to take the matter up. There is no good reason why the 
experiment stations should not take up the subject of 
fence wire. Let them tell us whether it is true that the 
wire is inferior and carelessly made. Let them also 
tell us if it is true that lead or pewter are used for 
“galvanizing” in the place of zinc. It would not take 
Thousands of dollars have been lost in Connecticut 
in “shade grown” tobacco. The empty 7 tent frames one 
sees all over the tobacco districts are a silent but con¬ 
vincing witness that some one “dropped” a good bit of 
money here and there. Fortunes were in it! Stock 
companies were formed to let in those who had no 
tobacco land, but had the money. Even the United 
States Department of Agriculture helped on the craze. 
Before one puts time and much money into anything 
new, even though backed up by the United States De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, wait a year or two and see 
how things are coming out. It is said that one reason 
for the comparative failure of this business was that 
manufacturers are obliged to use the imported tobacco, 
even though the Connecticut Sumatra is just as good, as 
their customers are prejudiced in favor of the imported 
and insist on having it. 
* 
The Canadians are to have a fruit show in Toronto 
November S-12 with a number of novel features. It 
will be something more than a “mutual admiration so¬ 
ciety” if the plans do not fail. The fruit growers will 
try to educate the public by offering apples prepared for 
food in various ways. That plan commends itself to 
every member of the American Apple Consumers’ 
League. What is the use in limiting the attendance at 
such meetings to fruit growers or handlers? Such peo¬ 
ple do not increase the demand for good fruit. We 
should call in those who are lame, halt or blind when it 
comes to buying fruit and make them see what they 
miss. Let some of the famous farm cooks turn out and 
prepare a feast of baked apples, apple pie, hot biscuit 
and apple sauce, turnovers, apple dumplings and all the 
rest. The hall could not hold the people who would 
come to eat. The wise scientist and the funny man 
alike would talk to empty benches while the tables would 
be lined three deep. Those who came out of curiosity 
would remain to eat and go away to buy. The result 
would be new demands for apples. Now, gentlemen, 
something of this sort is worth trying. We need more 
of the consuming classes at our meetings. If an apple 
pie is a better bait than a scientific lecture—use the pie! 
Some years ago an expert in diseases of the nose and 
throat suggested a simple treatment for mild cases of 
catarrh or a “cold.” He called it The R. N.-Y. treat¬ 
ment, and we have printed it year after year. Bicar¬ 
bonate of soda is used as a snuff ,and the nostrils are 
kept well smeared inside with vaseline. The bicarbonate 
or cooking soda is to be snuffed as far back into the 
nose as possible. It is not a pleasant sensation, but 
clears away the mucus which is of course blown out. 
The vaseline in the nostrils is also “snuffed up.” In 
addition to this the bicarbonate of soda is used on the 
throat as a gargle and in bad cases blown dry through a 
tube inserted through the mouth against the upper part 
of the throat. The first time you do this you may think 
the top of your head is coming off, but it will stay on. 
I his is not a “catarrh cure” guaranteed to terminate 
cases of long standing, but it is a useful treatment for 
nose and throat when mild catarrhal symptoms are 
noticed. 
* 
J he next New York Legislature will be asked to re¬ 
peal the savings bank franchise tax. At present savings 
banks in this State arc required to pay a tax of one 
per cent on the surplus or guarantee fund. On January 
1 the total surplus of all savings banks in New York 
was $77,595,753.77. I here were 2,400,060 depositors. 
The arguments against the tax are that most of these 
depositors are wage-earners. The tax does not affect 
capitalists who rarely have funds in such banks. We 
think these wage earners are quite willing to pay their 
share of the taxes. They would not ask for relief 
provided these banks stood on an equal footing with 
others. 1 hey do not, for the law in this State limits 
these savings investments to the safest securities, which 
never pay large interest. If the banks were free to use 
judgment in loaning money, as other institutions are, 
they could earn more money and pay large interest. 
Since the State limits them in this respect it does not 
seem fair to compel them to pay a tax which would 
not be a burden upon unlimited banks. The law should 
be repealed. 
* 
Nearly every day brings new letters from the South 
and West asking about the cheap farm lands in New 
York and New England. The following letter from 
Missouri states briefly why some of these people are 
looking East: 
••I want to set on a farm, and land is high in this section. 
$40 to $100 per acre. I was born in Kentucky and raised 
on a farm, married a Missouri girl, and have been living in 
this State six and one-half years. I have 15 acres of ground 
here pretty well improved, for which I think I can get $4,000 
if I sell. I want to get a farm that I can pay for and not 
go in debt." 
There is surely room for a Kentucky gentleman and 
a Missouri girl on an eastern farm. The possibilities of 
such a combination are wonderful. Here is a man who 
realizes that western farm lands have about reached 
their top figure. With his $4,000 he can probably buy 
in the East a good sizecl farm and have part of his 
money left for working capital. Of course he knows 
that the reason why the eastern farm is cheap is because 
some one lost faith in it. He must put faith as well 
as cash and work into it. This plan of selling land at 
its top price and using the money to buy cheaper land 
has been popular in the Middle West. Thus far farmers 
who sell have gone further West—away from their 
markets. Why not go east—closer to these markets? 
BREVITIES. 
1)0 not plant potatoes in undrained land. 
October promises to be a “stumpy" month. 
Get the stoves ready—cold nights are coming. 
Read Judge Waugh’s report of the fruit show at Syracuse 
—page 721. 
A crop of garden “sass” grows rapidly when the neighbor's 
hens scratch up the best plants. 
A max in tills city was recently fined $5 for strewing 
catnip on the sidewalk. Dozens of cats came running to roll 
on tlie catnip and nearly created a riot. 
Will any reader who is able to ship his farm produce by 
trolley or electric line let us know about it? 
The blood of the scrub is very useful to the pure bred— 
after it is dried and made into liiood (lour for feeding. 
New York dairymen agree pretty well upon the type of 
cow they want—all except the color. The so-called "dairy 
breed” seems to be made up of grade cows with all sorts 
of blood. 
WnAT a blessing “Apple Day” at the St. Louis Fair comes 
early—before Ben Davis is ripe! Even those who claim 
there is “more money in Ben Davis than in any oilier variety” 
would never offer it as an advertisement! 
