294 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 2 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TUE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert w. Collingwood, Editor. 
dh. Walter van Fleet, | Alte 
Mrs. E, 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. Cd., or 8!6 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 trifling differences between 
subscribers and honest responsible advertisers. Neither 
will we be responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts 
sanctioned bv the courts. Notice of the complaint must 
be sent to us within one month of the time of ..‘he 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 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
109 Pearl Street. New Y r ork. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1904. 
Reports come of great damage to pear trees in the 
upper Hudson Valley. The cold weather has appar¬ 
ently killed whole orchards—especially those weaken¬ 
ed by attacks from Pear psylla. It is also said that 
many old apple trees have been injured. We would 
like accurate information about these things from our 
readers. 
* 
Name the farm! Pick out some appropriate name 
that will last as long as you do. When you talk about 
your farm call it by name. Have the name neatly 
printed on the paper and envelopes you use, and also 
paint it on some building or on a signboard. All 
such things give character to the farm—that is, they 
put your character on it. 
* 
Will those of our readers who have used “trap 
nests” for poultry please describe the nests that suit 
them best, and tell us what they think of this plan? 
By “trap nest” we mean any contrivance for learn¬ 
ing which hen lays a certain egg, or for learning the 
egg record of each hen in the flock. The object in 
doing this is of course to select eggs for hatching 
from the best layers. It is claimed that the laying 
habit may thus be handed down from mother to 
daughter. Does experience prove that this is so? 
m 
One of our readers is just moving to a new farm 
Among other things he says this about it: 
I think the new one has good possibilities for develop¬ 
ment, and I hope to live long enough to make it a place 
that will make strangers say as they ride past: “I'll bet 
a good fanner lives there." 
We all have our ambitions, and the one expressed 
above is a worthy one. The man who can take a farm 
that has “gone to seed,” and write his character on it 
with the labor of his own hands, lias a right tc feel 
proud when strangers make such a remark. 
* 
It is not generally known that The R. N.-Y. has a 
circulation in foreign countries. A reader in Turkey 
writes that he is publishing an article in the Turkish 
papers entitled “The Agricultural Press of the United 
States and its Standard the Rural New-Yorker!” 
Readers in South Africa, Australia, Egypt and Tas¬ 
mania write us that they depend on our advertising 
columns for purchases of agricultural goods. We 
claim, without much fear of contradiction, that The 
R. N.-Y. has the widest circulation of any agricul¬ 
tural paper. 
Led by Dr. James R. Day, Chancellor of Syracuse 
University, the smaller colleges of New York have 
made a savage attack upon the agricultural college at 
Cornell. Dr. Day is a strong and forcible man, but 
he has seriously injured his own cause by his peculiar 
methods and loose statements. Prof. L. H. Bailey has 
replied to some of these statements in such a way as 
to show that Dr. Day did not know what he was talk¬ 
ing about, or else was doing a small piece of petti¬ 
fogging. The contrast between Dr. Day’s impatient and 
rather arrogant statement and Prof. Bailey’s dignified 
answer is very marked. Dr. Day has really strength¬ 
ened the Cornell College. What its friends needed 
was just this form of opposition, which has changed 
many passive supporters into active fighters. As we 
have pointed out, the college presidents offer no sug¬ 
gestion save that of delay. At heart they are opposed 
to the modern plan of agricultural education, and 
their policy is practically that of the dog in the man¬ 
ger that kepi the cattle from the hay. The battle at 
Albany is a hard one, and every farmer in the State 
should help the college. Have you written your 
Senator? If not do so at once! 
* 
There are two things that we dislike to do—one is 
to print a long article, the other is to say that it is 
the best of its kind. These dislikes come close to 
being rules, but we break one and bend the other 
when it comes to the article by “Uncle John” Spencer 
on Bordeaux Mixture on first page. It would be hard 
to divide such an article without losing some of its 
force. If after reading it a man cannot make a fair 
sample of Bordeaux—what can we do to make it 
clearer? This is one of the issues of The R. N.-Y. 
which every reader should file away for reference! 
• 
Some readers are concerned about a report that a 
Colorado man has produced a “seedless apple.” 
Among other remarkable things we are told: 
He is now preparing- to graft his seedless buds on every 
sort of apple tree, and asserts that he will be able to de¬ 
velop seedless apples of every variety. He will not re¬ 
veal the secret of his budding and grafting. The tree on 
w'hich the seedless fruit grows is unusual in that it has 
no blossoms. 
This man does well not to reveal his wonderful 
secret. For aught we know the tree agents may have 
already begun to offer this apple! The statement 
that this tree has no blossoms and yet produces fruit 
is enough to convince any man who ever saw an 
apple tree that this is a “fake.” It might be possible 
to produce an apple with a very small core, but it is 
not going to grow on a tree which never blooms. 
* 
The writer has received gentle criticism at times 
because in trying to present some scientific fact he 
dropped technical terms and tried to illustrate by 
means of homely things which farmers can under¬ 
stand. This, we have been told, is “not dignified.” 
The dignity which some good people carry around 
with their, must become a burden. It sometimes 
binders their view of real human nature as effective¬ 
ly as a glass eye would. We like to talk to our read¬ 
ers and friends just as though we had known them all 
our lives; just as though we had neighbored with 
them for 25 years. Good neighbors come to know 
each other’s faults and virtues. They learn to over¬ 
look the faults because they are of the head rather 
than of the heart. They do not talk too much about 
the virtues because they belong to the heart. Talking 
might drive them into the head and make it too 
large! 
Agents are going about western Michigan claim¬ 
ing that they can kill the insects and cure fungous 
diseases in a tree, by boring a hole in the trunk and 
pouring in a powder composed of charcoal, sulphur 
and soda. Of course there is nothing in this so-called 
“treatment.” Its claims have been exploded time and 
again, but in order to have some standing the back¬ 
ers of this “process” claim that it has been used at 
the Michigan Agricultural College. The facts are 
that a few months ago the college authorities per¬ 
mitted an agent to bore into a few trees and poke his 
powder in so as to make what he calls a test. It will 
not do the trees any good, but it was fair to make the 
trial. This is all the authority these people have for 
saying that the college is using their “treatment.” 
Men who are trying to sell such things profess to 
sneer at the opinions of scientific men, yet they would 
give all their old boots for a square endorsement 
from some reputable station. 
We have received a number of letters like the fol¬ 
lowing: 
There is getting to be a sort of craze over the raising 
of ginseng roots in this part of the State. There are big 
stories of enormous profits going the rounds. If you could 
get at the truth of the matter from those who have had 
experience with it, you would confer a great favor upon 
many who are about to invest in it. 
“Craze” seems a mild term to apply to the way 
some people talk about this crop. The ginseng grow¬ 
ers have a paper of their own, a regular organization, 
and unlimited confidence in the future of ginseng. Wo 
cannot accept their views as to the future, while at 
the same time we will not class it as a humbug or 
“fake.” Millions of roots and seeds have been plant¬ 
ed, and some of the gardens are looking well. Prices 
for young plants are very high, and fortunes have 
been made in selling these plants for transplanting. 
So far as we can learn very little if any of the culti¬ 
vated root has been offered for sale. If we are wrong 
about this we desire to be set right by those who 
know, but we believe that thus far the trade in gin¬ 
seng has been almost entirely in plants and seeds 
intended to start new beds. We believe that if 20 
per cent of the roots thus sold ever grow large enough 
for commercial purposes the market will be glutted. 
Why do we say this? Scientific men find little if any 
virtue in the ginseng root. Its use by the Chinese is 
based upon a superstition. The so-called “open door” 
in China will let such superstitions out into the sea, 
for in all the history of the world such ideas of su¬ 
pernatural value have never been able to stand 
against science and practical education. While the 
Chinese will for years continue to demand ginseng, 
we think such demand will inevitably grow less. 
Should any large proportion of the plants now grow¬ 
ing come to marketable size the limited market will 
be overstocked, with no possible outlet for the sur¬ 
plus. We doubt, however, if many of such plants will 
be heard from. If we had the money that has been 
paid for seeds and roots that never grew we could 
feed a good many thousand poor people. This is the 
“truth” as we see it. Money and care put into some 
standard crop will in the long run bring better re¬ 
turns for most people. 
* 
September 27 will be a great day at the St. Louis 
Exposition. It will be known as “Apple Day,” and 
every man, woman and child who comes to the Fair 
on that day will receive three or four apples nicely 
packed and marked. It is estimated that 20 carloads 
of fruit will be required to supply the crowd. Ben 
Davis will be out of it, too—for it is proposed to give 
away such varieties as Grimes Golden, Jonathan, 
Maiden Blush and Wealthy. With every apple will 
go a pamphlet setting forth the principles of the 
American Apple Consumers’ League, and some of the 
good things that enter the life of the confirmed apple 
eater. The object of all this is to encourage the 
consumption of good apples. It will help to 
make apple eating fashionable. Fashion has much 
to do with food habits. Let the King of England make 
it known to the world that for the rest of his life he 
will eat two baked apples in the morning and two 
raw apples at night and there would be such a rush 
for the fruit that the price would rise! What will 
be done at St. Louis is only a suggestion of what 
could be done on a smaller scale in every town or 
city. Talk apple! Talk apple! 
* 
Last week we spoke of the decision of the United 
States Supreme Court in the celebrated “merger” 
case. The most satisfactory thing about such great 
decisions is not always the direct bearing they have 
upon some particular case, but the new statement of 
the fact that Congress is the real ruler of this Re¬ 
public. The court is obliged to take for its first 
proposition the fact the law-making power lies with 
Congress. They are to decide whether the law in 
question is opposed to the Federal Constitution. 
Thus we are constantly reminded that whoever con¬ 
trols Congress must control the country. We have 
faith to believe that the common people can still con¬ 
trol Congress if they care to do so. This is made evi¬ 
dent whenever some public question comes up in such 
a way that the people are made to see clearly the im¬ 
portance of supporting it. Then they show their 
power, and Congress bows to them. We wish it were 
possible to make the people realize the necessity of 
giving the Interstate Commerce Commission more 
power. At present about all the Commission can do 
is to hear evidence about unjust discrimination in 
freight rates. It cannot enforce its own decisions be¬ 
cause the Supreme Court has ruled that Congress 
never gave the power to do so to the Commission. 
This power should be granted, and the American peo¬ 
ple should make it their business to compel Congress 
to strengthen the Commission in this way. 
BREVITIES. 
The hog claims that the sward is mightier than the 
pen! 
Where a farmer's heart is there will the spirit of his 
farm be. 
Better have hayseed in your hair than weed seed in 
your heart. 
Some people seem to bury the hatchet expecting it will 
grow into a broad ax. 
It will make much difference with your expenses 
whether fruit and vegetables represent a by-product or 
a buy product on your farm. 
The Department of Agriculture is to publish a bulletin 
on “Weeds Used in Medicine." The farmer has to take 
his medicine when he lets weeds grow. 
Mr. Woodward refers to the value of mangels for 
sheep on page 293. It will pay to study what Mr. Fraser 
says on page 257 about the varying quality of these roots. 
We have an account of a man in Texas who hauls a 
load of sand from his farm to town, dumps it on the 
road and hauls back a load of manure in payment. Thus 
he can raise larger crops and have a better road to haul 
them over. This is in a section where, pnly a few years 
ago, manure had no value! 
A fraud practiced on some Indiana farmers is worked 
as follows: Agents for a so-called woolen factory come 
and measure farmers for suits of clothes. A few suits 
are made and delivered at a very low price. Many or¬ 
ders are taken and paid for by notes. Then the “agents” 
disappear and the notes turn up at a bank— and must be 
paid! 
