94 
February 0 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collinqwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, ) 
H. E. Van Deman, > Associates. 
Mrs. E. T. Royle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOIiEAB A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
88. 6d., or 8V4 marks, or 10!4 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 sub.scribers 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 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 us within one month of the time of the transaction, and 
you must have mentioned The KL’iial 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, FEBRUARY 9, 1901. 
Next week we shall print a well-prepared article 
on Japan plums by H. O. Mead, of Massachusetts. Mr. 
Mead has studied the Japan plum at both ends of the 
country. He lives in the town where Luther Bur¬ 
bank did his first work, and he has visited Mr. Bur¬ 
bank ill California. What he says about plums may 
be set down as solid and straight. Of course we have 
more of these “essential-principle” articles on the 
way. 
* 
The New York Assembly passed a resolution favor¬ 
ing the urout bill, but the Senate hesitated because 
State Senators “should not instruct National legisla¬ 
tors!” Why not? These State Senators are supposed 
to be the servants or agents of the people. They are 
not supposed to create public sentiment, but to regis¬ 
ter and express it. Some very big men before now 
have lived to be thankful that they were “instructed” 
by very small ones! 
* 
Gov. Odell, of New York, in his message to the 
Legislature, said that the work of detecting and 
slaughtering tuberculous cows should be taken from 
the State Board of Health and put in the hands of 
the Commissioner of Agriculture. That was one of 
the few suggestions he made about agriculture. The 
House has promptly passed such a bill, and the Sen¬ 
ate will doubtless do the same. This is right. It 
should have been done last year. The cow should be 
put in the hands of her friends. 
* 
The doctors appear to agree that insanity is a dis¬ 
ease. Many forms of this mind disease are curable, 
hut our observation is that comparatively few patients 
have a fair chance in public institutions. There ai’e 
institutions for the care of the insane that are truly 
hospitals. Others are as truly jails. Life inside some 
of these great palaces is well calculated to take away 
the last hold upon reason which some poor, nervous 
wretch is attempting to retain. If the State really de- 
sii’es to cure the insane it should sepai-ate them into 
groups, and keep them in smaller companies on the 
farm as much as possible. 
During the past two months, the newspapers have 
reported an unusual number of casualties caused by 
thawing dynamite or giant powder on a cook stove. 
In most cases the victims were farmers, who pur¬ 
posed using the explosive in clearing land, though 
some disastrous explosions occurred where the stuff 
was handled by men making a business of such work. 
The fact is that no powerful explosive can be regarded 
as “safe”; that is, it must always be handled with 
the greatest caution, and familiarity must never de¬ 
generate into carelessness. Such materials are often 
a great aid in clearing land, but their dangerous char¬ 
acter must never be overlooked for a moment. 
There is a new class of would-be farmers large 
enough to merit special attention. They are mostly 
men of middle age who are being crowded out of city 
jobs by the hard fist of competition. Many a man of 
45 or older wakes up some day to find that he is con¬ 
sidered “an old man,” and that his job demands 
younger blood. Usually it happens that when such a 
man loses his grip in the city he cannot fasten it 
again, and the outlook is a hard one. Many of these 
men turn to the country as a last resort, and we re¬ 
ceive many letters from such people asking what the 
chances are for them on a farm. There is so much 
of this appeal for help that we plan to print a series 
of letters giving the experience of some who have 
tried the country. One of these letters is found on 
page 91 by a man who has succeeded. There are some 
who fail—we hope to tell why. 
* 
We are receiving a good many sample contracts of¬ 
fered by canning factories. The grower is certainly 
tied up with a tight knot in most cases. He seems to 
assume most of the risk. In the case of wild-cat can- 
ners he takes it all—and often gets nothing else. 
What we are most anxious to learn is the price offered 
for peas. There is every chance that canned peas will 
rise in price. If the canners get more for the peas, 
the grower should certainly share the increased price. 
The Green pea-louse will make the grower’s risk 
greater than ever, while it means no extra risk to the 
canner. 
* 
Illinois dairymen are much dissatisfied with the 
present law regarding inspection of cattle suspected 
of tuberculosis. They consider that the cattle should 
be appraised at full value at time of examination, the 
owner to receive full value if, after the animal is 
slaughtered, it is found to be healthy, and 75 per cent 
of the value if the disease is present; that no animal 
shall be condemned without the owner’s consent, in 
writing, unless it shall be found diseased on examina¬ 
tion, and that no animal shall be slaughtered with¬ 
out the owner’s consent, after the State appropriation 
for compensation is exhausted. The dairymen feel 
that the present law is unjust and oppressive to them, 
and their concerted action seems the readiest way to 
a remedy. 
No section of this country is so sadly in need of the 
fertilizing and civilizing infiuences of the dairy cow 
as the old cotton-growing States. The cow has saved 
whole counties in the North and West. Year after 
year of grain growing had exhausted the soil, and 
brought farming to a low ebb. Dairying gave the 
farms a new lease or life, and made them once more 
profitable. The dairy cow, with a wise man for a 
partner, means prosperity to any section naturally 
adapted to the production of forage plants. She 
means a constant and sure income, and after all the 
dollar is a mighty agent for civilization. The farmers 
of the cotton States need available fertility in their 
soil and available dollars in their pockets. The cot¬ 
ton bale rests too much on the fertilizer bag, and the 
lump of cotton money is badly melted before it 
reaches the grower. The dairy cow has found her 
place in a few southern localities, notably at Stark- 
ville. Miss. The more cow, the more corn, cotton, 
comfort and cash. That has been the invariable re¬ 
sult. Why do we speak of this? Because the two 
Senators most active in opposing the Grout bill in the 
Senate committee represent the cotton States! It is 
hard to understand why such men should be willing 
to cripple an industry like dairying, which, if intelli¬ 
gently conducted, would add millions to the wealth 
of their section. 
A LEADING peach expert, while lecturing on peach 
culture, was asked what varieties to set. "Don’t plant 
Elberta!” was part of his answer. After the meeting 
a large peach grower said to the writer: “Elberta is 
the best selling variety 1 have! People call for them! 
If instead of the varieties he mentioned I had planted 
more Elbertas I would have made $2,500 more on last 
year’s crop!” In Massachusetts a well-known fruit 
grower from a distant State said: “Don’t plant the 
Baldwin apple. It is a back number! There are bet¬ 
ter varieties of red apples.” A man who heard the 
advice said nothing, but did much thinking. He had 
in his desk at home commission returns for Baldwins 
which sold at $6 to $7.50 per barrel! How can such 
things be reconciled! In the case of the peach the 
expert may know that millions of Elbertas have been 
planted, and that within a few years the markets will 
be swamped with that variety. As to the Baldwin 
apple, in its native State it must be either a very wise 
or a very unwise man who would claim that he has a 
better red cheek! It all comes down to the fact that 
the man and the locality have more than anything 
else to do with varieties. General advice is useful, 
but, after all, the successful local orchard is the best 
object lesson. 
♦ 
An evident fraud has come to our notice in Penn¬ 
sylvania. It seems that an agent is traveling through 
the country districts selling what he calls the Polar 
creamery. The creameries are supposed to be left on 
three months’ trial, but to begin with the would-be 
purchasers sign two articles of agreement and a note. 
The machine is guaranteed to keep milk at a low 
temperature. Summer or Winter, without ice, and re¬ 
gardless of whether it stands in kitchen or dooryard. 
This special and unique feature is claimed to be due 
to some substance which when mixed with water, re¬ 
gards with impunity the sizzling heat of the Summer 
sun or the chilling blast of an imported blizzard. Phy¬ 
sicists do not kuow of a substance in this wide world 
that is an absolute non-conductor of heat. The claims 
made for this new Polar creamery would lead one to 
suppose that such a substance had been found, and 
not only found, but that its cost was such that it 
could be used in the manufacture of every-day ap¬ 
paratus. As the chief value of this new creamery is 
in keeping milk cool during warm weather, we would 
suggest to intending purchasers—if there be any such 
among the readers of The R. N.-Y.—first, that they 
begin their three-months’ trial about June 1, and sec¬ 
ond, that they sign no agreement or note until the 
trial has proved satisfactory. We cannot think that 
any intelligent farmer will he foolish enough to be¬ 
lieve any such statements. It might be well to turn 
the light on some of those Polar agents by polarizing 
them with a bean pole. 
What has become of the Grout anti-oleo bill? The 
plan of the oleo men was to delay it in the Senate 
committee, but this did not work, for finally that com¬ 
mittee reported favorably to the Senate. This report 
contained the following chunks of argument: 
The bill appears to be unanimously desired by the farm¬ 
ers of the country who are engaged in dairying, and has 
the earnest approval of the Secretary of Agriculture. 
Your committee has listened with interest to the repre¬ 
sentatives of the live stock interests and the cotton-seed 
oil manufactures, and is unable to see in this measure 
anything that can greatly injure either. The Secretary 
expressed the opinion before the committee that the 
dairy cow was a necessity to the restoration of the ex¬ 
hausted cotton lands of the South. We have heard some 
objection to this measure from organized labor, and while 
it is true that some laboring men may prefer as a matter 
of pride to consume oleomargarine that is yellow instead 
of white, yet your committee believes that while the 
pride of some may suffer under this measure, which will 
raise the tax in the colored and reduce it in the uncolored, 
a far greater number are now being deceived through the 
sale of oleomargarine as butter and at butter prices. 
There you see the good effect of the thousands of 
letters that were mailed to Senators. The farmers of 
this country have been sticking millions of postage 
stamps upon their Members of Congress. Will the 
bill pass? We believe it will, if it can be brought 
to a vote. The Senators are wrangling over several 
important measures, and unless strong pressure is 
brought to bear upon them the Grout bill may be held 
back. Keep up the letter writing! Stick on the pos¬ 
tage stamp! That is the best advice we can give now. 
If you have written once before, write again and ask 
why the Grout bill is not brought to a vote! 
• 
BREVITIES. 
RUR ALETTES. 
Hopeful his outlook—he perchance may grow 
The man who dares to say “I do not know!” 
But cursed is he, and great will be his fall 
The pompous wretch who thinks he knows it all. 
* 
The politicians are on deck. 
Would that the plague might take ’em; 
With great pretense of statesmanship 
They break laws when they make ’em. 
* 
The apple that carries a big fat worm 
Into the mouth of your friend the eater. 
May safely be labeled an evil germ. 
Working his feelings to call you “cheater.” 
* 
Show me the man who stands right up in church 
And says he never, never "made a break,” 
Or sought amendment for some moral lurch. 
And you will find an angel or a “fake.” 
• 
He talked for half an hour—told all he knew— 
And then sat down? No, poor, inflated fool! 
He told it o’er again—alas! ’tis true! 
He’s made his tongue a plaything—not a tool! 
* 
Your tongue may never reach your Congressman 
Except by licking o’er a postage stamp; 
Sometimes the blackest ink, well written, can 
Illuminate his pathway like a lamp. 
* 
Seventeen manufacturers painting oleo. 
Selling it for butter—see their wallets grow! 
Five million dairymen, fighting for the cow. 
Sticking on postage stamps—stick another now. 
“Hand-raised pigs”—page 93. 
A SHOE squeak is a song of the sole. 
Ren Davis is not a favorite in Boston. 
Jacic Frost will give you freeze seed if he has his way. 
Don’t plunge into plum culture. It’s likely to be over¬ 
done. 
The strawberry crop from the Southern States promises 
to be very large. 
The growth of a peach tree is well controlled by the 
use of nitrate of soda. 
Oh, the snow—the beautiful snow—gives the grass seed¬ 
ing a much better show. 
The world seems to be filled with so-called “cures” and 
remedies for deafness just now. 
'They tell us that in shredded silage the grain is torn 
up and thoroughly mixed with the stalks. 
We know from experience that Mr. Hinman’s plan 
(page 83) of feeding green cut oats in place of horse hay 
is a good one. 
A PEW weeks since a Californian told us about his 
Winter work. Now read the doings of that cold country 
resident on page 97. 
