THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 30 
368 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
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 Ss. 6d., or marks, or 10*6 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 by the courts. Notice of the complaint must 
be sent to us within one month of the time of Hie 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, 
409 Pearl Street. New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1904. 
Following the terrible Winter comes a cold and 
late Spring. In our latitude it is impossible to plow 
or plant except on the lightest soils. Even there it 
is a question whether we shall gain anything by 
planting. The high winds prevent early spraying. 
There has never been anything quite like it with us, 
and the outlook would be discouraging to those who 
are not supplied with an abundance o£ hope and pa¬ 
tience. While we are held back from the land let us 
not stand idle, but study the season’s work carefully, 
and do everything now that ought to be done. In 
other years we have always found things undone in 
May. Do them now! 
♦ 
A popular humorist remarks: ‘‘Every Office Build¬ 
ing upon Earth is congested with hollow-eyed Prison¬ 
ers who are planning to be Gentlemen Farmers. 
About next Year or Year after—away from the Hurly 
Burly and nothing to do except raise Chickens.” Many 
a true word is spoken in jest, and the accuracy of this 
quotation is shown by the number of city men, both 
employers and employed, who read The R. N.-Y. and 
tell us that they are preparing to go back to the land 
as soon as circumstances will permit. We have no 
doubt that their ranks are equaled in number by the 
young men in country communities who are longing 
to escape from the life they consider so restricted to 
the brick-and-mortar prison of the city. What a pity 
the two classes do not get together and revise their 
impressions! 
* 
A writer in one of the daily papers argues that a 
merchant is justified in selling adulterated goods in 
order to compete with others. His reasoning is that 
if the other merchant sells such goods at a lower 
price than you can buy pure goods you must compete 
with him on his own grounds. There is no doubt that 
many merchants take just this view because they are 
afraid that the public does not care enough about a 
pure article to pay more for it. Therefore they con¬ 
tinue to sell stuff which they know is adulterated, 
usually with harmless substances. We regret to say 
that there is not much morality in the retail trade, 
and the chief reason for it is the demand for 
"cheap” goods. There is a small class of customers 
that calls for pure food and stands ready to pay its 
full value, but this class is small. Here is a chance 
for public education which will mean millions to 
farmers. 
• 
Not far from 20 years ago Florida was marketing 
large quantities of oranges, many profitable orchards 
being located well toward the northern part of the 
State. The great freeze killed these orchards and 
made hundreds of people poor. But Florida is recov¬ 
ering and last year marketed perhaps nearly as many 
oranges as before this disaster. From this one might 
assume that nearly all of the old orange sections are 
again covered with bearing orchards, but this is not 
so. Other territory below the frost line has been de¬ 
veloped. The industry is again gaining large propor¬ 
tions, which promise to be permanent, but orange 
growing in the northern portion is just as doubtful 
a business as ever. We mention this to illustrate the 
fact that statistics regarding the productions of a 
State are often capable of being twisted about by 
unscrupulous land boomers so as to mislead investors. 
Of course the same rule holds true with other States 
and products. Ohio is a great sheep State, yet there 
are sections where it would be a mistake for a man 
to buy a farm expecting to engage in this business, 
on account of the dog nuisance, and in parts of New 
Jersey it would be disastrous to go into small fruit 
raising because of depredations of birds. Yet land 
agents could easily juggle crop statistics so as to pre¬ 
sent a bright rosy outlook to prospective buyers. 
* 
Congress finally decided to increase the salary of 
the rural mail carriers and permit them to take sub¬ 
scriptions for papers and magazines. There was no 
good reason why a carrier should not act as agent for 
a newspaper. No one is injured by this, for the local 
papers are not hurt by such competition. The car¬ 
riers are not permitted to act as agents for depart¬ 
ment stores or manufacturers. The chief opposition 
to this came from the express companies, who seem 
to be strong enough to prevent any real extension of 
package mail service. These large companies object 
to a parcels post because they say the Government 
has no right to take business away from them. They 
have squeezed many small companies out of business, 
and now use their monopoly to exact extortionate 
rates. These companies stand in the way of a parcels 
post. We must have it out with them sooner or later. 
• 
It is said that two forcible models in butter will be 
exhibited at St. Louis. One will be the model of a 
fine Jersey cow—using the mass of butter which such 
a cow produces in one year. The other will contain 
the butter made by a common or “scrub” cow. It is 
said that the model of the Jersey will be four times 
as large as the other. This is a convincing way of 
showing the difference between the work of a good 
cow and a poor one. We can find so-called “common” 
cows that would outyield some Jerseys, so those who 
exhibit these models should be careful about the 
names they use. Why not go further, and show the 
bales of hay and the bags of grain which the two 
cows consume? We believe in these comparative 
showings. Models of the competent and the shiftless 
hired man would draw a crowd. Have the shiftless 
man surrounded by the tools he has broken and the 
jobs he has spoiled! 
« 
Thousands of gallons of spring water are sold in 
the cities and large towns. Some of this water act¬ 
ually brings more than some farmers receive for 
milk. Now and then a farmer who owns a fine spring 
hears about this sale of water and thinks he will try 
his hand at selling. He will find it the job of his life 
to work up a trade. People may pay for a so-called 
“mineral” water with a few grains of salt dissolved 
in it, but most of them balk at the idea of paying for 
purity. We have heard men in town say that their 
water supply was pure because it came out of a well 
—when the well was a perfect sink, receiving the 
drainings from all sorts of disgusting places. Others 
boil the town water and consider it safer than natural 
water from a spring. Few seem to win much success 
in this water business except the large companies 
who have capital enough to educate the public and 
give a thorough guarantee. The average farmer will 
do well to let the water business alone. 
• 
It is now claimed that the Cotton boll-weevil will 
not breed where cow peas are planted. In support of 
this statement Dr. L. O. Howard, United States Ento¬ 
mologist, is quoted as saying: 
The Cotton boll weevil will not breed in cow peas. 
Therefore, in land planted one year in cotton and the 
next year in cow peas, if examined the second year, the 
boll weevil will not be found. If cotton is grown in an 
adjoining field, the weevil will be found in its usual 
numbers. The cow peas exert no deterrent effect against 
the cotton. They are probably not as valuable for rota¬ 
tion purposes as other crops. 
If this plan is found to be practical it will have a 
great influence on the future of the Gulf States. This 
weevil is spreading steadily north from Mexico, where 
it wellnigh destroyed the cotton-growing industry. If 
it should spread north and east of Texas, as now 
seems sure, cotton-growing in the Southern States 
will be doomed. If this use of cow peas prove even 
fairly effective there will be a double gain. The cot¬ 
ton crop will be at least partly saved and the soil 
will be improved, for the cow pea is one of the great¬ 
est manurial crops ever grown. It has been claimed 
that extra fertilizer must be used on early varieties 
of cotton to push it to maturity ahead of the weevil. 
The cow pea will help supply that, in addition to its 
preventing the insects from breeding. We have long 
urged northern farmers to use the cow pea as a ma¬ 
nurial plant. The good results from this advice have 
been shown in some curious ways. One farmer tried 
cow peas and found them worthless in his section. He 
was, however, through their use induced to try Soy 
beans, which he found just suited to his needs. An¬ 
other man sowed cow peas in drills on land which he 
intended for strawberries. These cow peas were well 
cultivated, and when they were plowed under he had 
little trouble from white grubs, which in former years 
had been abundant. He concluded that the cow peas 
killed the grubs and continued to sow them until 
their good effect upon the soil was evident. Really 
the cow peas had little to do with keeping out the 
grubs. The thorough cultivation did that, but 
through the credit which the peas received this 
farmer was induced to try them until they proved 
their worth. We still urge northern farmers to try 
cow peas. We hope that the “boom” which they are 
about to receive at the South will call increased at¬ 
tention to them all over the country. 
• 
For years we have warned farmers against the 
“creamery shark.” This animal goes about in man’s 
clothing urging the farmers of a neighborhood to 
combine and build a creamery or canning factory. 
He gets many of them to subscribe for stock. The 
building is put up at a cost from 10 to 40 per cent 
more than a reliable firm would charge, and usually 
stands like a white elephant—too large for the needs 
of the community, or unable to obtain milk. In spite 
of all warnings these sharks still find victims. Now 
they are up to a new game—“sanitary milk.” They 
go about telling of the great prices paid for certified 
milk, and offer to put up a plant with all the appli¬ 
ances for handling it. To hear them talk, the same 
milk which now brings two cents a quart will bring 
five or six cents when run through their machinery. 
There is a great chance for frauds to reap a harvest 
at this game, for they do not tell half the story. 
There is a fair market for “certified milk,” but farm¬ 
ers must understand that it will require money, 
brains, great skill and patience to obtain the certifi¬ 
cate. 
* 
It is announced that Governor Odell has granted a 
hearing on the Agricultural College bill for April 27. 
Some friends of the bill seem to fear that this indi¬ 
cates doubt in the Governor’s mind, and that he may 
kill the measure. We do not take this view of it, and 
a brief review of events seems to leave no ground for 
doubts as to the Governor’s position. When the 
Legislature met he called attention to the needs of 
agricultural education. He made no definite sugges¬ 
tion, but left it to the Legislature. After half a dozen 
hearings and a thorough investigation both Senate 
and Assembly passed the bill providing for the agri¬ 
cultural building at Cornell. No objection can be made 
to the Governor that has not already been made to 
the Legislature. Had the Governor desired to kill the 
bill a suggestion from him that he would not sign 
it would have prevented its passage and removed 
responsibility. The disappointment would not be 
soon forgotten. Farmers are slow to let a feeling of 
this sort change their vote, but when once changed 
they do not easily forget it. For example, does any¬ 
one suppose that Congressman Wadsworth could ever 
be elected to any State office after his record on the 
oleo question! No—his name would be cut by thou¬ 
sands of dairymen who feel that he was not true to 
their interests. Governor Odell is a young man with 
political ambitions. He has visited the agricultural 
college and knows the justice of its ‘demand for a 
building. He also knows that the farmers are back 
of this demand, and he knows how much he owes to 
the farmers. Political suicide is no part of the Gov¬ 
ernor’s plan and we have every confidence that he 
will sign the bill after patiently listening to the old 
and stale objections. 
BREVITIES. 
Scratch a criminal and let rum out nine times in 10. 
A combination of mosquitoes and Italian laborers Has 
started epidemics of malaria. The laborers brought the 
germs into a neighborhood and the mosquitoes spread it. 
Could a business man charge more than the average 
price for his goods and remain in business year after 
year with increased trade if he did not have quality 
back of price? 
WE see here and there people burning over sod in which 
young trees were planted last year. That is just the 
thing not to do. It will hurt the trees and waste much 
vegetable matter. 
It is reported that a Cleveland woman recently threw 
an alarm clock at a burglar and knocked him out of 
the window. The marauder appeared to be struck by 
the flight of time. 
The so-called “chain-letter” scheme has been used by 
so many scamps for feathering their own nests that we 
have no confidence in it. We would not write a “chain” 
letter for any purpose. 
No doubt many of our readers have worked three 
horses abreast on a wagon with a pole. Will they be 
kind enough to tell us the best way to hitch up such a 
team so as to make their work count? 
How about this statement made by the French Govern¬ 
ment? “The work of the elementary school should be 
confined to preparing the child for an intelligent ap¬ 
prenticeship to the trade by which he is to live, to give 
him a taste for his future occupation: with this in view 
the teacher should never forget that the best way to 
make a workman like his work is to make him under¬ 
stand it.” If this is so, what sort of a farmer will the 
average town school turn out? 
