24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 12 
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, | 
H. E. Van Deman, > Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Rotle, ) 
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 SYi marks, or 10V4 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 guar¬ 
antee to adjust trilling 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 us within one month of the time of the transaction, 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, JANUARY 12, 1901. 
We are glad to give this week a clear and simple 
statement of the principles and machinery of the 
Grange. We hope to follow it with other articles 
showing what the Grange has actually done for indi¬ 
viduals and communities. Other organizations of 
farmers come and go, but the Grange lives and grows 
steadily and hopefully. We recommended a live 
Grange as a good antidote for a country rumshop. It 
is that, and a remedy for many other ills also. 
* 
Transcontinental railroads are said to be backing 
the general irrigation movement outlined at the recent 
irrigation congress in Chicago. They will unite in 
efforts to have the arid lands in Arizona, Nevada, 
New Mexico and other States west of the Mississippi 
transformed into fertility with the aid of Uncle Sam’s 
pocketbook. It may be, of course, merely a spirit of 
altruistic patriotism which causes the railways to 
take up this plan; still, another western boom would 
mean millions of revenue for the transportation lines. 
Why not, with equal justice, start a movement for 
Government aid in reclaiming abandoned New Eng¬ 
land farms? 
* 
Governor Odell, of New York, says that some of 
the public officers of New York City receive more 
money for their services than is given to President 
McKinley. For example, the sheriff of New York 
County is paid a salary of $20,000 per year, and one- 
half of certain fees, which amount to $60,000. Other 
officers also receive vast sums—chiefly through the 
fee system. This same robbery of the people is car¬ 
ried on by smaller public officials, and the time has 
come to put an end to it. No business man would per¬ 
mit his clerks to make an income in this way, and 
the State, county or town should be run on strict 
business principles. The fee system should go. 
• 
4 
Read what the commission men say (next page) 
about the box for apples. Does it not seem ridiculous 
for a grown-up man to say that such boxes would 
“lessen the consumption”? Have the small, neat 
packages of oatmeal and other prepared foods “less¬ 
ened their consumption”? No—trade has been doub¬ 
led. City people have no storage place for bar¬ 
rel lots. The statement that the small package will 
prevent deception is true. You may face two ends of 
a barrel, but it will be hard to face six sides of the 
box, as would be necessary in packing three bushels 
of apples. Join the ranks of the “boxers” so that your 
finest fruit will have a better chance to show itself. 
* 
At the Watertown meeting of the New York State 
Dairymen’s Association a working committee was ap¬ 
pointed. The work in mind was that of raising the 
funds needed to send a good delegation to Washing¬ 
ton in the interests of the Grout bill. This commit¬ 
tee did not stop to play but got down to work at 
once. By January 1 they raised $139.64, and the so¬ 
ciety will be well represented at Washington. Not 
only this, but the committee has stirred up renewed 
interest and energy among the dairymen of the State. 
More money is needed—quarters to meet the $5 bills 
of the oleo people. Remittances may safely be sent 
to W. H. Peck, Syracuse, N. Y. Mr. Peck should be 
supplied with a bushel of money for work in this good 
cause. Can the dairyman’s quarter hope to compete 
with the $5 bill of the oleoist? Yes, if two cents are 
added for postage on a strong personal letter to the 
dairyman’s Senator! One of the strongest points made 
by the honest butter people is the fact that the oleo 
men have no public sentiment back of them. They 
are only a few rich men fighting for money which 
is not rightly their own. Men wiii fight to preserve 
the sanctity of a heme but not to uphoid a cheap 
boarding house. Farmers will fight for their trade 
sister, the cow, but the town voter has little love for 
his distant cousins, the hog and steer—even with their 
yellow paint on. Senator Chauncey M. Depew, of New 
York, knows this, and it is one reason why you should 
load him down with letters well colored with honest 
butter. 
A Boston cold-storage company recently discovered 
that a quantity of eggs in its storage chambers had 
acquired a foreign flavor suggestive of fruit, which 
would affect their value. About 40,000 cases of eggs 
were stored in the chambers, but they were not all af¬ 
fected. The storage company believes that the change 
in flavor was due to fruit stored in an adjoining cham¬ 
ber; yet a brick wall varying in width from 16 to 24 
inches* * separated the egg chamber from other apart¬ 
ments. We believe that small producers or holders 
of eggs often overlook the fact that foreign flavors 
or odors are so readily absorbed. It is certainly an 
error to store eggs in a cellar or pantry where fruit, 
cheese, and other articles of food are kept. It is like¬ 
ly that complaints concerning the flavor of fresh eggs, 
on the part of private customers, often result from 
carelessness in this respect. 
• 
The writer well remembers the time when it was a 
great business risk to attempt to take cattle from the 
North to the Gulf States. Younger animais sometimes 
lived, but older ones were sure to suffer from Texas 
fever, and most of them died. There were many 
southern breeders who were anxious to improve their 
herds by importing the best blood that could be ob¬ 
tained, but the severe losses discouraged them. The 
connection between this fever and the cattle tick has 
now been worked out, and it is possible to bring cat¬ 
tle from the North with a good chance of success. 
These cattle are inoculated with the blood from 
southern cattle, or even with the blood of the cattle 
tick, and are thus made immune to the disease. This is 
but one of hundreds of things for which farmers are 
indebted to the patient work of the scientific men. It 
will result in millions of increased value to the cattle 
growers of the South. 
* 
Governor Odell, of this State, makes short work of 
agriculture in his message, and hurries on to what 
seem to him more important matters. He refers to 
Commissioner Wieting’s report, and probably does 
well to let the Commissioner talk for him. The Gov¬ 
ernor suggests a good appropriation for the State 
Fair, wants the bounty on beet sugar continued, and 
suggests that the Agricultural Department should 
have charge of the work of stamping out tuberculosis 
and glanders among cattle and horses. That is a good 
suggestion, and the Legislature ought to act upon it 
this year. Agriculture, the most important industry 
in the State, receives 250 words out of a total of 
15,000! Two questions naturally arise in this connec¬ 
tion: Is agriculture any the worse off for this lack 
of attention? Would agriculture not receive more 
attention if the farmers of the State had fewer poli¬ 
ticians between their real needs and the Governor? 
• 
A LIVE farmer cannot stand still. He must grow. 
All about him there is bustle and activity in trade, 
transportation and manufacturing. In the midst of 
all this mighty rush and change the farmer cannot 
stand still and live. Some farmers grow in spite of 
themselves. The institute, the experiment station or 
the agricultural papers drop a thought into his mind 
which he cannot shake out. In spite of all that farm¬ 
er’s reserve, his mind is filled with a craving for 
knowledge, and the thought grows and develops like 
bacteria in agreeable soil. Before long the farmer is 
brought face to face with the idea that some of his 
old practices and so-called “facts” are wrong. Per¬ 
haps the greatest test of a man’s fitness to live longer 
is the disposition he makes of his mental dead wood. 
Among the worst enemies of American agriculture 
are the farmers who, while knowing that they ought 
to change their methods, lack the courage needed to 
destroy their old hobbies and opinions! 
* 
Not long ago we had occasion to take a long drive 
across the country. It was a cold, windy day—the 
worst of the season. We put the horses up at a town 
stable. When we came to drive home at night, in the 
face of a fierce wind, we found that the stableman 
had put two hot bricks in the carriage. As every one 
knows, the feet are the doors through which comfort 
is driven out of the body by Jack Frost. No one 
thought of asking the stablekeeper to provide these 
bricks—he charged nothing for them. Where did he 
get any profit out of them? Why, our lolks never 
will go anywhere else in that town to stable a horse. 
They will tell the story of the bricks, and advise all 
their friends to patronize that man. That makes 
reputation, which may be the best or the worst ad¬ 
vertising a person can have. If a man is selling any¬ 
thing, be it potatoes, stable room or advice, he should 
give such good measure that his customers will be 
glad to go out and talk about it. The gift of a single 
fine apple may grow, in the mouth of a good cus¬ 
tomer, into a sale for many barrels. “We are ad¬ 
vertised by our loving friends!” 
* 
The financial statement of one of the great life in¬ 
surance companies shows that among its assets are 
bonds of 19 different foreign governments amounting 
in all to $26,297,440. Probably most of these bonds 
were bought when foreign agencies of this company 
were established, but it gives an idea of the vast ex¬ 
tent of our present system of life insurance. Nothing 
quite like it was ever known before in the world, 
and failure through mismanagement of half a dozen 
of the large companies, would sweep away the only 
money provision of millions of women and helpless 
children. 
♦ 
Confidence operators of all classes are usually 
supposed to prey upon the innocent and unsuspicious 
only, but there is no doubt that these adventurers 
occasionally succeed in swindling their own class. 
An example of this was the case of a Chicago street 
fakir, who recently succeeded in buying a lot of nickel 
watches for 50 cents each. He polished and other¬ 
wise treated these watches so that they would pass 
for silver and then departed for a small town down 
in Illinois. Here he put an advertisement in the 
local paper, stating that he had found a silver watch 
which would be restored to the owner on payment 
of $2, no questions asked. The next day he received a 
stream of callers, each of whom announced that he 
had come to redeem his watch. The watches looked 
genuine, and each would-be swindler, thinking it a 
good thing, cheerfully gave up $2. The Chicago man 
made $1.50 on each watch, and went back home serene 
in the knowledge that his dupes would make no com¬ 
plaint. It is likely that we shall hear of this mutual 
swindle in more than one locality. 
^BREVITIES. 
This Stringfellow method of growing the peach 
By making it hoe its own row. 
Makes some fellows get on their hind legs and screech, 
They claim that in order to grow 
A peach that is fit for a king, you must wet, 
The ground with your toil—that’s the word. 
And irrigate every last tree with your sweat. 
And keep things eternally stirred. 
This let-alone-policy don’t suit the men. 
With hustle and work in their veins. 
They didn’t let weeds grow beside their path when 
They went out to fight for their gains. 
It’s hustle and jump—get a move on yourself. 
Kick dust through the long Summer day. 
Or else you’ll be dusted and laid on the shelf. 
And that’s what these smart fellows say: 
A man must be lazy. 
He’ll surely go crazy. 
If he follows the Sti-ingfellow plan, 
’Twas good solid hustle. 
Both mental and muscle. 
Evolved us from primeval man! 
The soiling system cleans up the farm. 
Read the pea-louse article on first page. 
The careless man’s success Is always an accident. 
We observe quite an increase In the use of wood for 
fuel. 
Don’t contract the vice of giving advice and then ex¬ 
pand it. 
What is a clean conscience? The interest on your 
principles. 
Be a farmer, not only from way back, but for far 
future as well. 
Mr. Proctor (page 31), points out the difference between 
nerve and “nerves.” 
No doubt about it! The robber cow fears a lead pencil 
and a pair of scales. 
The chances are that there are too many fat formers 
in your Winter ration. 
Pure food laws are good only when enforced by men 
who are fed on pure moral food. 
The greaj trouble with some men Is that they have a 
conscience that is an “easy keeper.” 
Yes, tes! Leave an egg 36 hours under a hen that 
wants to sit, and It will be at least five per cent hen. 
One of our readers, who Is 89 years old, is just planting 
a quince orchard. There’s an example for you, young 
man! 
In our opinion, the little press bulletins issued by the 
Vermont Experiment Station are models for Interest and 
brevity. 
Farmers are usually loud in their praise of Alfalfa 
until they come to plow a heavy field of It. The very big 
roots that provide the great yield will nearly break the 
plow. 
We still continue to receive letters arguing for and 
against the bee and his ability to destroy fruit. The law 
has now declared the bee not guilty! We cannot find space 
now to print more testimony. 
