832 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 19 , 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, 
Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. Gd., or 8 Vi marks, or 10 Vi 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 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, NOVEMBER 19, 1904. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to introduce The R. N.-Y. to progressive 
intelligent farmers who do not now take it, we send it 
10 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory purposes. 
We depend on our old friends to make this known to 
neighbors and triends. 
* 
PRIZES FOR PHOTOGRAPHS. 
In the last contest prizes were awarded as follows: 
Mrs. D. B. Teague, Hamilton Co., Tenn. 
Wright A. Roorda, Marion Co., Iowa. 
J. T. Doston, Howard Co., Md. 
There will be one more contest. We will pay $2, 
$1.50 and $1 for the best three farm photographs sent 
during the next two weeks. 
♦ 
The picture of the horse’s head on page 826 will ap¬ 
peal to many farmers. There is something almost 
human in the expression of those faithful old friends. 
They know members of the family, and plainly show 
their affection and good will. Some farmers have 
grumbled because the women folks could not bear to 
see old Charlie sold or killed before his time. There 
may not be much business in providing for the old 
veterans, but to do it with the right spirit gives a 
farmer something better than business. 
* 
The brace of farmers pictured on page 826 are not 
presented as models. The man doesn’t pretend to be 
an “agriculturist,” and the mule doesn’t know what the 
word means. They make a living somehow, and do 
their part, such as it is, in the world’s work. The 
work of the humble is not to be despised. There will 
be many to say that the mule is the more useful citi¬ 
zen of the two. Possibly they are right, for the mule 
has never been appreciated at his true worth or credited 
with the part he has really played in the agriculture of 
this country. The R. N.-Y. is just as willing to print 
pictures of these humble workers as it would be to 
picture two scientists. A farm paper ought to be broad 
enough to reach all the way from one class to the other. 
* 
The American people have handed Theodore Roose¬ 
velt a prize package which certainly contains a gold 
brick 24 carats fine. An expression of confidence from 
a great majority of American citizens is the highest 
political honor any man on earth can receive. Millions 
of Americans would have withheld the gift if they could 
have had their way, but in this country the majority 
rules. We shall all do well to admit as cheerfully as 
possible that the great majority of Americans have 
confidence in the President’s ability and character. He 
expresses his desire to give all citizens a “square deal.” 
We shall do well to take him at his word, and endeavor 
to show him how we think the farmers’ side of the 
“deal” should be squared. While Congress has the 
power to make or change the laws which we need for 
the benefit of agriculture, the President’s suggestion will 
be the power behind Congress. Two important things 
should be brought to his attention at once. The people 
of this country—farmers most of all—need a parcels 
post such as is now in operation in European countries. 
Increased power should be given the Interstate Com 
merce Commission, so that it can enforce its rulings 
in regard to freight rates. Farmers are receiving the 
benefit of scientific education. New plants and new 
methods enable them to increase the size and value of 
their crops. The extortionate express rates and rebates 
and high freight service prevent them from realizing all 
they ought to from the sale of their products. These 
things and others make a great bulge on their side of 
the “deal” which should be squared off. The two re¬ 
forms we have mentioned will furnish a broad ax with 
which part of this bulge can be cut away. 
* 
If any reader of The R. N.-Y. now pays $3 for 
a tree of the “seedless” apple, he will do it on his 
own responsibility. It is evident to all that the apples 
from such a tree will not sell for 12 or 15 times as much 
as the fruit from a good Baldwin, Northern Spy or even 
a Ben Davis. So far as good judges can tell, the apple 
has no edible qualities which class it with our best 
commercial varieties. Why, then, should any one pay 
$3 for the tree? Some one may like to have a “novelty” 
—different from the fruit grown by friends and neigh¬ 
bors. Others may think they can buy a tree of this 
variety—use the wood for grafting, and thus sell trees 
at a high price. They will doubtless be disappointed 
if they attempt this, but they will now try it, if at all, 
at their own risk. It does not seem to us that sensible 
men need advice in such a matter. 
* 
Some of the most discontented old people we know 
of are those who never acquired the reading habit in 
youth. An active, energetic life has perhaps prevented 
them from feeling this need before the meridian, but 
when physical forces fail and outside interests lessen, 
there is a void that only mental activity can fill. Not 
that the physical activities should cease with old age, 
which is, after all, but a relative term; we find most 
pertinent examples to disprove this, especially among 
gardeners. Such a one is Peter Barr, the English bulb 
specialist, who is making a tour around the world at 75, 
and who writes with almost boyish enthusiasm of his 
bulb-hunting expeditions over the South African veldts. 
But such pleasures as these are not within the reach 
of everyone, and many of us must make our tour of 
the world in an easy chair, with the printed page for 
guide. Here is where the real value of the reading 
habit influences us. The view from our windows may 
show a snow-clad garden beneath lowering New Eng¬ 
land skies, while we in spirit paddle up West African 
rivers with Mary Kingsley, brave the dangers of Bor¬ 
nean forests with Dr. Wallace, or visit the hairy Ainos 
with Isabella Bishop. If a proper supervision is ex¬ 
ercised in selecting the family reading, there will be 
no complaint chat the young people prefer the vicious 
and demoralizing. Of course the boys will want action 
and thrill, but they can get them in some of our best 
standards, without any “yellow” tendencies. Above all, 
don’t think you must keep up with all the “best-selling 
books.” Plenty of them are entirely worthless, in spite 
of the circus-poster advertising given them. In buying 
books, as in selecting friends, it is well to choose them 
as Mrs. Primrose chose her wedding gown, for the 
qualities that will wear well. 
♦ 
Some people seem disappointed because in the cam¬ 
paign for the better fence wire we are not giving start¬ 
ling headlines and making extravagant statements. They 
need not fear. Good progress is being made. We 
know that the fence makers and manufacturers are 
hearing from farmers as they never did before. The 
Farm Journal has now joined Wallace’s Farmer and 
the Ohio Farmer in calling attention to the wire fence 
fraud. The experiment stations still hang fire. In¬ 
stead of volunteering, they prefer to be drafted, and 
farmers will see to it that the draft is made. This is 
not a case either for extravagant statement or for hold¬ 
ing back. The way to win is to keep at the dealers 
and manufacturers with strong and persistent com¬ 
plaint. No one needs to be told that most of the fence 
wire now on the market is worthless stuff. If you have 
any doubt about it, buy some, put it up under fair con¬ 
ditions, and watch it change color and rust. What is 
the reason for this, and what is the remedy? If a 
farmer buy a fertilizer and fail to grow a crop with it, 
or if he buy a feed, and the cow fails to turn it into 
milk, the experiment stations offer him a remedy. They 
will analyze fertilizer and feed, and if it be fraudulent 
they can easily find it out. By publishing the truth 
about it they can brand shame upon the manufacturer, 
and drive him out of business. Now the stations could, 
if they would, in the same manner, compel manufac¬ 
turers to give the public better fence wire. The money 
lost to farmers through bogus fertilizers and feeds is a 
small amount compared with the vast sums lost through 
inferior wire. Let the stations collect samples of rot¬ 
ting wire as they do samples of fertilizers, examine 
them and tell the truth about them, and within a year 
the public would have 50 per cent more value for the 
money they spend for wire. The time is just exactly 
ripe for such work. 
Why do not the stations grasp this opportunity to 
benefit farmers? They give two reasons. One is the 
lack of funds and equipment—too much other work 
to do. The other is the belief that such investigation 
is not legitimate work for the stations to attempt. We 
do not believe that farmers will accept either objection 
as valid. Few, if any, station workers are overworked, 
and farmers justly feel that many lines of scientific in¬ 
vestigation are of insignificant importance compared 
with this question of inferior wire. We have little pa¬ 
tience with the theory that the scientific men should 
be left alone to decide what the stations should do or 
what they should not do. They will find that in the 
end they will be obliged to take up this fence wire 
problem, tell us why modern wire is inferior to the 
old, and what we can do about it. Tljey would be in 
a far stronger position to do this willingly rather than 
be forced into it, as they surely will be. Influences are 
already at work and constantly growing which they 
cannot stand against. Gentlemen of the experiment sta¬ 
tions, what is the matter with modern fence wire? 
* 
There is a mistaken notion about the price of east¬ 
ern farm lands. We often see the argument advanced 
that a man who seeks a farm should go to the Far West 
or South, because “land in the East is worth $100 or 
more per acre.” A little study will show any reason¬ 
able man that this argument has little fact or^ value. 
The farms to which new-comers would naturally go do 
not bring $100 per acre—many of them will sell for 
half that, and some can be bought for less than the 
cost of the buildings. Let a man go as far west or 
south, as he will be forced to in order to find land at 
the price of these eastern farms, and he will be so 
far removed from markets that the railroads will get 
most of his profits. Suppose a man go so far away 
west or south that he finds good land at $25 per acre, 
lie will be at least 1,000 or 1,500 miles from a good 
market, and usually with a single railroad from the 
farm. There are plenty of instances where men have 
bought eastern farms at about the same price, which 
were less than fifty miles from the best markets, with 
dozens of smaller towns within easy riding distance. 
I he fact is, that to-day the best bargains in farm 
lands are to be found east of the Alleghanies, in New 
York, Pennsylvania and New England. This is not 
because the soil of these farms is richer than those in 
the Western States, though many of them are strong 
and easily worked, but because they are well located. 
Where is it possible to find better transportation facilities 
than are found in New York and New England? Rail¬ 
roads network the country, and rivers, lakes and canals 
afford water transportation. In this section, too, are to 
be found millions of people who demand the choicer and 
more delicate products of the soil. What is more, they 
are willing and able to pay for them. Thus, farmers 
in this section have a wider range of crops, and are able 
to cater to a higher class trade if they will. The 
markets and transportation facilities give farmers greater 
opportunities than are found in any other section. The 
time has come to proclaim the value of eastern farm 
lands. For years there has been a heavy drain from 
them, both in money and men. The writer was brought 
up on a farm where every dollar that could be squeezed 
out of the soil was sent west for investment. De¬ 
velopment of the West would have been impossible 
without this eastern farm money, and the boys and 
girls who followed it. The drift to the West has now 
stopped, and there are signs that the stream has begun 
to flow back again. It is high time that the State 
of New York, through its agricultural department, took 
up the business of advertising farm lands and their 
possibilities. 
BREVITIES. 
How is the wood pile7 It looks like another hard Winter. 
The experiment stations suggest, but practical farmers 
test their suggestions. 
With long rye straw bringing more than first-class hay, 
there ought to be money in rye. 
He who leaves mulch around a young tree in Winter makes 
a mouse bait of the tree. Clear it away. 
How would you try to protect a fruit orchard from the 
scale? Do the writers on first page tell it all? 
Can the finest butter be made at a creamery where the 
cream is separated at home? If not, why not? 
No use sowing Alfalfa seed on the surface as you would 
Red clover. It will not grow. 
This year our yield of barley is over 144,000.000 bushels. 
There has been an enormous increase in the yield of this 
•ereal in the wheat-growing States, especially in the North¬ 
west. 
The Oleomargerine Association has been formed. Its 
object is to repeal the Grout law and take the tax off col¬ 
ored oleo. This is the largest job any organization yet 
tackled. 
Next year an international sausage exhibition is to be 
held at Berne, Switzerland, at which 1,749 different varie¬ 
ties will be exhibited. This show ought to remove any un¬ 
certainty concerning the missing link. 
We asked a poultry keeper for his experience with hens. 
He modestly says he is not sure of his knowledge: “I find 
that the longer I keep them the less I know about them. 
What seems like a sure thing last year, as regards feeding 
and housing, this year may prove a failure. So I think 
that the safest thing for me is to say, as my grandfather 
used to when he had made two or three failures in pre¬ 
dicting the weather: ‘I ain’t making any more almanacs 
this year!’ ” 
