896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 17, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARM Ell'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
TTbrbkut W. Colling wood, Editor. 
Du. Walter Van Fleet, / 
Mrs. K. T. Koylk, ( 
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 10Vi 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 he 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 he made in money order, express order, 
personal check or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 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 friends. 
* 
The United States Postoffice Department will make 
things warm for the publishers who advertise “guessing 
contests.” The Supreme Court has decided that the 
Postoffice Department is entitled to fair oversight of such 
contests. The chances are that the papers which print 
them will be denied the privileges of the mails—after 
fair warning. 
* 
From Oregon to New York via Belgium is the round¬ 
about 9,000-mile journey of 40,000 bushels of Pacific 
coast wheat. The grain was exported some time ago, 
but on account of the scarcity and high price of milling 
wheat in this country a flouring concern in New York 
finds it profitable to import this much-traveled wheat. 
As it has been stored so that it can be officially identified 
no duty will be charged on entry into its native land. 
Some of those who think they know most about it 
confidently predict that we shall be importing wheat 
heavily from Canada within 10 years. We doubt it. At 
present prices wheat growing will pay on many farms 
now vacant. 
* 
How about the eggs that were put in water glass? 
How do they come out? Now is the time for custards, 
omelets and fried eggs with ham! Our hens thought 
more of laying six months ago than they do now. It 
is like eating your cake and having it to eat a one-cent 
egg and sell a three-center. A hen may lay two 
eggs in April. One goes into water glass and the other 
into an incubator, where it hatches into a pullet. This 
pullet grows into a hen. The day its first egg is laid 
you may take its shelled sister out of the water glass, 
break both eggs and fry them, and no member of the 
family could tell them apart. Many eggs were put in 
water glass last Spring. How'are they coming out? 
* 
We have, upon divers occasions, warned our friends 
against the shrewd rogues who discover unsuspecting 
heirs of rich estates abroad, which are only awaiting the 
word to divide their fatness among these distant claim¬ 
ants. An Ohio attorney, just locked up for misuse of 
the mails, has been engaged in this business. People 
all over the country have been sending him money, in 
amount from small sums to hundreds of dollars. He 
offered these victims no new inducements, merely the 
old, old story of vast English estates to be had for the 
asking, yet they supplied money that, in many cases, 
represented the scrimped hoardings of toiling penury. 
Another mythical estate consisted of Union Square and 
adjacent property in New York, with an estimated value 
of $20,000,000, which appealed no doubt to the class of 
investors who are prevailed upon to purchase the 
Masonic Temple from a glittering stranger when they 
visit Chicago. Some time ago we called attention to the 
fact that the American Embassy in London felt obliged 
to issue a warning against these mythical foreign estates, 
but apparently without effect. We would suggest, how¬ 
ever, that anyone who feels tempted to succumb to the 
blandishments of an “attorney” for some stupendous 
foreign “estate” should turn to that master of human 
feeling and sympathy, Charles Dickens, and, as he 
studies the pages of Bleak House, let him apply the 
case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce to his own conditions. 
The blighted lives therein depicted are those of genuine 
claimants to an existing estate in Chancery, but their 
warning is none the less emphatic to one influenced 
only by the golden dream of nonexistent heirship. You 
can find a worthier object in life than the search for 
this rainbow gold. 
* 
It is reported from Washington that the next move of 
the oleo men will be to attempt to reduce the present 
tax of 10 cents per pound on colored oleo to four cents! 
Having been beaten at every point on the question of 
coloring oleo in imitation of butter they will now try to 
destroy the force of the law by reducing the tax. The 
result of such a reduction would be to flood the market 
with colored oleo, which could be purchased cheaper 
than butter. This would bring down the wholesale price 
of butter, destroy the market for vast quantities of milk, 
and bring ruin to dairy farmers. Every friend of the 
cow should get into the fight at once. Attend to your 
Congressman now. Write him without delay that you 
oppose any reduction of this tax. 
* 
President Roosevelt’s message gives more space to 
agriculture than to any other single subject. Former 
messages have put farmers aside with a few perfunc¬ 
tory sentences. They reminded us of a “great man” 
we once saw at a public meeting. He shook hands with 
great display with lawyers, doctors and “prominent citi¬ 
zens,” and then observed a farmer standing in the rear. 
The “great man” extended two fingers for the farmer to 
shake! It is good to think that the farmer is in a posi¬ 
tion to wave the two fingers aside and accept the whole 
hand or nothing. He has been worthy of this for years, 
both in performance and character, but during recent 
years he has not only deserved credit, but has started 
on the road which leads to achievement of it. 
* 
Assistant Postmaster General Bristow suggests a 
new postal rate for free rural delivery routes. News¬ 
paper reports say: 
Its purpose is to increase the revenues and add to the 
efficiency of the rural service. He suggests a special rate 
of three cents per pound on packages of hooks or mer¬ 
chandise not exceeding live pounds in weight mailed at the 
distributing point of any rural free delivery route for deliv¬ 
ery to any patron on such route. The present rate of one 
cent per ounce, he says, is practically prohibitive. 
We accept that as the first part of the answer to the 
demands for a parcels post. This is the first step along 
that road. It is not all we want, and by no means all 
we shall get, but it is a beginning, and shows that the 
farmers have been heard from. No one expects to get 
all the loaf at one time. Let’s see to it that Congress 
gives us this slice at least. 
♦ 
The arguments in favor of using hand separators at 
home are well presented in the notes now being printed. 
The East is far behind the West in this feature of 
dairying. For some years the hand separator has been 
a fixture on many western dairy farms, and the cream 
gatherer has been a regular visitor. Either western con¬ 
ditions were better adapted to the use of small separa¬ 
tors, or western farmers were quicker to change. At 
any rate, the hand separator plan has not taken hold 
East as it has West. It is evidently gaining ground, 
and we expect to see it develop rapidly. The chief ob¬ 
jection that we hear urged against the gathering of 
separator cream is that the butter-maker cannot make 
as fine butter as he can when lie controls the entire 
milk. This argument is disputed by some, and surely 
the farmer is better off to send the cream alone and 
keep the warm skim-milk at home. 
* 
We have, from time to time, explained the origin and 
powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission. One 
of the greatest evils of the day is the system of illegal 
"rebates” of freight rates, which railroads grant to large 
shippers. By means of these “rebates” part of the sup¬ 
posed price for carrying freight is secretly paid back 
to the shipper. This, of course, gives him an advantage 
over competitors. As a rule those who benefit from these 
“rebates” are large corporations, who have other unfair 
trade advantages. The Interstate Commission has thus 
far had no power to enforce its decisions. It may de¬ 
clare a practice or rate illegal, but there it must stop, 
while the evil goes on. President Roosevelt, in his 
message to Congress, makes the following statement: 
The Government must in increasing degree supervise and 
regulate the workings of railways engaged in interstate 
commerce, and such increased supervision is the only alter¬ 
native to an increase of the present evils on the one hand 
or a still more radical policy on the other. In my judg¬ 
ment the most important legislative act now needed as re¬ 
gards the regulation of corporations is this act to confer 
on the Interstate Commerce Commission tlie power to re¬ 
vise rates and regulations, the revised rate to at once go 
into effect, and to stay in effect unless and until the court 
of review reverses it. 
Congress ought to act upon this suggestion at once. 
It is not likely to do so unless strong pressure is brought 
to bear. The railroad and trust interests do not want 
the power of the Commission enlarged, and there are 
many honest people who think it a mistake to give too 
much authority to a commission. We think the condi¬ 
tion of affairs at present demands prompt action, and 
the President's suggestion is the most practical method 
in sight. Every farmer and consumer should work for 
the passage of this law. 
* 
Our campaign for warm houses seems to have been 
effective. We hear of many instances where hot water, 
steam and hot-air heaters have been put into farm¬ 
houses. One enthusiastic reader writes: 
If you keep it up as you have for the past 10 weeks we 
won’t have any farmhouses left. They will all he suburban 
residences. Good for you. Really it does seem as though 
most country folks expected to enjoy heat in the other 
world. 
Our friend need not worry about the disappearance 
of farmhouses. We wish we could put bath room and 
heating fixtures into every country house. The com¬ 
fort such things would bring can hardly be measured, 
and comfort in the farm home affects every part of 
public life helpfully. The cold of last Winter was a 
fearful experience to many old and feeble people in the 
farm home. Do not let them suffer again. 
* 
We still meet men who will not understand the truth 
about farm homes and farm society. They seem to think 
that by some law of nature a city man was made su¬ 
perior to a countryman! We would# like to have had 
such people at the banquet of the Watertown, N. Y., 
Produce Exchange last week. They would have met a 
body of farmers gathered from three counties—keen, 
alert, quick to understand, sensible and conservative. 
Most of them were dairymen and cheesemakers. They 
were “brothers of the cow,” and mighty proud of the 
relationship, for the cow gives men profit, patience, 
courage and good citizenship. This gathering was a 
notable illustration of what works out in a community 
where agriculture is the dominating industry. Town 
and city in such a section depend directly upon the 
farm, and are forced to recognize the character and 
dignity of farming. It is not surprising to learn in such 
districts that there is general contentment and hopeful¬ 
ness. The men who discredit farming do not live in 
such places—if they did they would soon discover their 
error. People in places like Watertown know that the 
farm supports them directly. People in New York or 
other large cities are none the less supported by the 
farms, though in this case there are so many handlers 
between that the connection is indirect and lost sight of. 
There is a contest going on in American society between 
the nervous, artificial influence of the city and the calm, 
crude and steady influence of the country. Such meet¬ 
ings as the one at Watertown make one hopeful of the 
outcome. 
BREVITIES. 
The hand separator at home, page 90.3. 
A bushel ot apple seed weighs 40 pounds. 
Is the best way always the most practical? 
Do you expect too much from the hired man? 
0 
Si.ipperv roads, smooth shoes and strained horses. 
“The man behind the cow” is useful—so is the man in 
front of her with the feed bucket. 
“I WANT my farm not only to pay better, hut to look 
better,” writes a New York reader. 
The armies in Manchuria are learning with increased em¬ 
phasis the meaning of the "tug of war." 
Several cases of lockjaw are reported cured even after the 
jaws had “set” by the antitoxin treatment. 
Beware of the “easy work at home” frauds. They offer 
their most glittering inducements when long evenings give 
leisure in the rural home. 
A city snowstorm is a good employer of labor. The last 
little drop here, about four inches, gave a day's work to 
6,000 men and 4,500 carts. 
Mil Manchester refers to apple pomace as a food for 
dairy cows. Analysis has shown that from 38 to 64 per 
cent of the sugar in the apple is left in the pomace. 
Insurance men are fond of telling us that the man who 
does not drink liquor is a safer risk than the so-called 
moderate drinker. If that is so, why not give the total 
abstainers a lower rate? 
Reports from Wisconsin and Minnesota say that during 
the open season for deer this year 42 hunters were killed 
and 20 wounded, which seems to make hunting almost as 
perilous as the streets of New York. 
The idea prevails that in order to make a good mixture 
of lime and sulphur for spraying a good cooking apparatus 
is needed. Is it possible for the grower with a few trees 
to make a satisfactory mixture? 
Here we have a hen report from Connecticut: “Dealers 
are now paying 40 cents for fresh-laid eggs in this place. 
1 am now getting about 50 per cent from April pullets, which 
is very much better than any of my neighbors report." 
A life sentence for piracy is the punishment given a ruf¬ 
fian who robbed a woman on a lake steamer, which, being 
out of local jurisdiction, was technically on the high seas. 
He doubtless realizes tlie danger of making an error in lati¬ 
tude and longitude. 
Is it possible that the Ohio trolley line mentioned on page 
779 will carry three bushels for 10 cents? They charge 
25 cents for a single bushel or the same for two bushels, but 
on a freight car will haul three bushels for 30 cents, at the 
rate of 10 cents a bushel. 
