48o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 18 , 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS EARNER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Kditor. 
Dk. Walter Van Kllkt. \ 
Mrs. k. t. Ho vle. 
Associates 
John J. Dillon. Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or ayi marks, or 10V$> 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 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 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, JUNE 18, 1904. 
THE PRIZE CLIPPINGS. 
Pennsylvania stands at the head again this week, with 
New York second. South Dakota makes its first 
appearance with the winner of the third prize. The 
awards follow: 
F. S. Brong, Monroe Co., Pa. 
L. R. Partridge, Steuben Co., N. Y. 
J. M. Haas, Meade Co., S. D. 
We are still offering prizes of $1.50, $1 and 50 cents 
each week for best clippings from local papers. 
* 
There have been many questions of late about sheep 
—particularly about early lamb raising. In some parts 
of the country there seems to be quite an interest in 
sheep feeding—more than ever before. Quite a num¬ 
ber of fruit growers prefer sheep to any other live 
stock. The demand for information has grown until 
we find it necessary to give more attention to sheep 
matter. A sheep department is started this week. We 
are ready to answer questions and obtain information 
about our good friend the woolly-back. 
* 
The following note is from a Pennsylvania reader: 
I am disappointed that our old R. N.-Y. does not push 
the parcels post delivery. Meantime, the express com¬ 
panies are bleeding the people to their hearts’ content. 
We were informed early in the year from inside 
sources that Congress would not touch the parcels post 
this year. The lobby was too strong. The coming 
election gives us our chance. Put every Congressman 
on record for or against this reform. We hope to 
start a postage stamp vote on this proposition that 
will startle Washington. 
* 
Many fruit growers are just beginning to realize the 
fearful damage done to trees during last Winter. Peach 
trees started their buds as usual, ana many thought that 
meant little if any damage. As the season went on it 
was evident that something was wrong. The leaves 
grew slowly, and are now feeble and unhealthy. While 
some fruit started, much of it has stopped growing 
or has fallen off. We can now see that some early re¬ 
ports, based on the condition of the buds as they 
started, were misleading. The trees may start the buds 
but cannot mature them, and in many orchards the 
injury is permanent. 
* 
On page 487 Mr. Van Alstyne commends the passing 
of the practice of washing sheep, so common a few 
years ago. We have seen them put into water so cold 
that the men doing the work could stay in but a few 
minutes. Washing as commonly done was a farce. A 
small portion of the loose dirt was removed, but this 
gain was more than offset by the colds and catarrh 
which the sheep got from the sudden chill and soaked 
fleece. If sheep pens are kept half way clean there will 
be no need of this rough washing. It does not in any 
way take the place of the scouring which wool must 
have before manufacture. 
* 
Advertisers of fine stock often express surprise at 
the interest R. N.-Y. readers show in good animals. 
There is nothing surprising about it. While we have 
not, up to within a few years, paid great attention to 
live stock matters, our readers are good farmers who 
have done thorough work at fruit growing, gardening 
or general farming. As everyone knows, changes in 
farm methods come to every section. The scarcity of 
farm help, fair prices for meat, wool or milk, advanc¬ 
ing age, change of taste or other causes have induced 
many of these successful farmers to give up crop 
growing and keep more live stock. They used the best 
tools, seeds, varieties and methods they could hear of, 
and of course they want the best animals. This in¬ 
creased interest in good animals has led us to give more 
and more space to live stock matters, and has made 
our readers the best buyers of fine stock to be found 
in the country. 
* 
A great many oat fields are now dotted with a beau¬ 
tiful (?) yellow flower, wild mustard. Where it has 
taken entire possession, hand pulling is out of the 
question, but on fields with only a sprinkling it will pay 
well to take an hour or two for this work. The color 
is so bright that it is readily seen, and it pulls easily 
after a rain. If allowed to remain much of it will 
go to seed before the oats are cut, and the job of pull¬ 
ing for another year be increased 10 times. This 
pest is so widely scattered in oats that no seed should 
be sown unless closely examined and recleaned if at 
all doubtful in appearance. 
* 
Who can measure the value of good neighbors in a 
farm community? We were in a country town recently 
when a large barn was struck by lightning. News was 
sent over the telephone, and at once every neighbor 
along the line started as fast as horse could travel to 
help. The fire was in the cupola of the barn, and by 
prompt and cool work was held there and finally put 
out without great damage. The building was insured in 
a Grange co-operative company, and of course every 
member felt a personal interest in keeping down fire 
losses. Better than this, however, was the neighborly 
spirit that prompted them to drop their own work and 
run to help a neighbor in trouble. Blessed is the farm 
community where “good neighbors” are found. This is 
one of the things that the Grange has done for hun¬ 
dreds of rural communities. 
* 
The Pennsylvania Dairy and Food Commissioner 
has started a crusade against “doctored” meat, which 
is treated with preservatives to prevent tainting. The 
preservative against which their efforts are now directed 
is sulphite of soda, which is said to have an extremely 
deleterious effect upon the digestion. It is said that 
the greatest danger lies in Hamburger steak and other 
chopped meats where tainted scraps are chemically 
treated, which reddens the meat, making it look fresh. 
The sulphite of soda is said to be the most dangerous 
preservative yet investigated. It is to be hoped that 
the unscrupulous dealers who thus endanger the public 
health will be properly punished; in the meantime, the 
prudent housewife will chop her Hamburger steak at 
home and look with suspicion upon all forms of cheap 
factory-made sausage. The farmer who supplies home¬ 
made sausage to private customers has thus another 
argument in favor of his product. 
* 
The French National Agricultural Society is boom¬ 
ing a new species of edible potato, Solanum Commer- 
soni, recently discovered in Uruguay, as a most valu¬ 
able addition to agriculture. It is claimed to be phe¬ 
nomenally productive and resistant to all potato dis¬ 
eases, though the question as to whether it can with¬ 
stand the American Potato beetle has not been raised. 
But little is said about its quality. Hybrids between 
this Uruguayan species and the common potato are al¬ 
ready under way, and interesting results may be looked 
for. It is not surprising that the vast territory of in¬ 
terior South America, so little known botanically, should 
yield a new edible tuber of the potato family, but the 
accounts of its exceeding value should be taken with 
reserve. It does not need a long memory to recall when 
the Asiatic plum, Prunus Simonii, was disseminated in 
this country under the claim that it was “the most valu¬ 
able fruit ever introduced.” Now it is seldom grown, 
and its hybrids are turning out of little value except 
on the Pacific coast. We hope the new potato will live 
up to its present reputation. 
* 
As we go about among farmers and talk with them 
privately we are surprised to learn how dissatisfied 
they are with general political conditions. Party lines 
are strong, but- it is hard to find an intelligent farmer 
who says he is fully satisfied with the attitude of either 
party on public questions. This being so, it does not 
seem likely that there will be any great movement from 
one party to another. Yet forces are at work which 
no politician can measure. It has not found expression 
yet, but many shrewd politicians know that tney are 
sitting on top of a grumbling volcano. We have come 
to a time in history when the old political leaders who 
have controlled legislation since the Civil War are 
passing away. With them will go much of the senti¬ 
ment which has kept young men voting “as Father did.” 
The effect of the recent Supreme Court decision in the 
railroad merger case will have a far greater effect upon 
the public demands than most people imagine. The 
common people know that the parcels post, strict con¬ 
trol of transportation rates and good roads are of far 
more importance than the old issues that have done 
service as scarecrows or bait ever since the Civil War. 
We have confidence enough in the American farmer 
to know that in good time he will push these issues to 
the front in such a way that politicians will help them 
on rather than club them back. 
★ 
Some years ago we printed a number of quotations 
from the Scriptures which were hung in the office of 
a large steamship company. They referred to dead¬ 
heads who always demand a “pass.” The following is 
said to hang in the cars of a southern railroad: 
This means you ! 
Thou shalt not pass. Numbers xx., 18. 
None shall ever pass. Isa. xxxiv., 10. 
Suffer not a man to pass. Judges III., 29. 
The wicked shall no more pass. Nahum i., 15. 
This generation shall not pass. Mark xiii., 30. 
Though they roar, yet they cannot pass. .Ter. v., 22. 
So he paid the fare and went. Jonah I., 3. 
The man with the pass often grows into a nuisance. 
As a rule he is well able to pay his fare, and has usu¬ 
ally never given any equivalent for his free ride. Those 
who are least able to pay‘are usually called upon to 
put up the price of the ride. Like the honest people 
who pay their debts, they must in the end pay for the 
losses incurred through the “passes” and those who 
dodge their bills. “So he paid his fare and went!” He 
certainly should not be permitted to go without paying 
his fare! 
* 
It is said that the Post Office Department will at¬ 
tempt to stop the sale of “Black Pepsin” and similar 
medicine or tonics. We are all familiar with the “Black- 
Pepsin” fraud. It was to be put into milk for the 
purpose of increasing the yield of butter. What it did 
was to cause the casein and fat in the milk to adhere 
so that the “butter” contained a quantity of cheesy 
matter was, in fact, a sort of pot cheese made from 
whole milk. “Red albumen” was another fraud which, 
it was claimed, would compel hens to lay whether they 
wanted to or not. Now the Post Office Department 
purposes to deny the dealers in such frauds the use of 
the mails for their advertising matter. This is a good 
move, though the Department should be cautious, and 
only enforce its power after the Government chemists 
have shown up the fraudulent character of the article. 
When a man sells one cent’s worth of red iron paint and 
pepper for 50 cents because some poor dupe believes it 
will “make hens lay” the rascal ought to be made to 
suffer. These frauds have a shrewd way of advertis¬ 
ing that will beat Uncle Sam. Letters begin to appear 
in the papers from some poor widow or some unfortu¬ 
nate cripple who has made a fortune by using some 
simple remedy or method which is “free to all.” The 
agricultural papers are rarely caught by these letters, 
but hundreds of the daily and weekly papers print them, 
and thus help the frauds. 
BREVITIES. 
IIoe, hoe, and the corn will grow. 
Only one place like home—Heaven. 
The hoe is more useful than ever this season. 
Read what Mr. White says about the boy and hens. 
The robin and fruit question is up again. It will not 
down. 
Do the cows have plenty of clean water, or are they 
drinking out of a mud hole? 
If your chickens have gapes, try Mr. Mape’s preventive 
treatment, page 474. 
Where peach trees were thoroughly sprayed with lime 
and sulphur wash there seems to be less curl-leaf than on 
unsprayed. 
A western watermelon dealer possesses the suggestive 
surname of Anguish. He might be relieved by adopting 
Jamaica ginger as a side line. 
Perhaps those cannibal chicks referred 'to op page 478 
are merely showing the lack of moral training that results 
from their being machine made. 
MoxoR-car exercise is now- recommended as a cure for 
consumption. One can get plenty of it when dodging reck¬ 
less chauffeurs on a crowded street. 
The Japanese are not exhausting all their energies in 
fighting the Russians. They have sent to New Jersey for 
information about killing mosquitoes. 
Now that the Supreme Court has declared that the 
anti-oleo bill must stand it would be interesting to learn 
what Congressman Wadsworth has to say ! 
It is reported that Americans are sending millions of 
eggs and fry of trout and salmon to Argentina for propa¬ 
gation. Get a few more in our home brooks for the boys 
to catch. 
The experts of the Department of Agriculture say that 
our little friend In a brown suit. Mr. Bob White, is the 
greatest foe to injurious insects that the farmer has. 
Don’t let city “sportsmen” drive him off your farm. 
One way to encourage increased consumption of cheese, 
as discussed by Mr. Cook on next page, is to put it within 
reach of the consumer. The average small grocery carries 
a miserable quality of cheese at a high price, and the 
buyer never knows what he will get. 
