August 24 
584 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FABMEB'S PAPEB. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homea. 
Eetabllshed 1850. 
Hekbkrt W. Collingwood, Kdltoc 
Dit. Walter Van Fleet, I 
H. K. Van Deman. VAssooIates. 
Mrs. B. T. koylk, \ 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
STTBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLIiAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
Ss. tid., or marks, or lO^iJ franc-s. 
“A SaUARE 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 trifling differences between subscribers and honest, 
responsible advei tlsers. 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 Bubal New-Yorker when writing 
the advertiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance Is for, should 
appear In every letter. 
Remittances m^ be made In money order, express order, personal 
check or bank draft. _ „ 
THE HUBAIi NBW-yOBKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1901. 
To January 1, 1902, for 25 Cents. 
As‘before announced, we will now send The R. N.- 
Y. every week for the remainder of this year for 25 
cents; that is, from the date the order is received up 
to January 1, 1902. The orders are now coming in, 
but we would like to see more of them. If every old 
subscriber would send just one the plan would be a 
great success. We wish to ask you to take this matter 
right home to yourself. You have at least one neigh¬ 
bor or friend who needs the paper. See that he gets 
it for the remainder of this year, and he will be 
pretty sure to renew himself afterwards. If you can 
get up a club all the better. Do what you can. Keep 
10 cents and send us 15 cents with each name. If you 
can send a club of 10, keep 15 cents for each, and send 
us 10 cents with each name—^^the 10 for $1. We ought 
to get 50,000 new names on this plan before October. 
We shall if each one takes a personal interest in it. 
The R. N.-Y. is simply a farmers’ cooperative insti¬ 
tution, belonging more to you as subscribers than 
to those who have temporary management of its de¬ 
tails. The more members—^subscribers—it has the 
greater its power of usefulness to each and co all. It 
is this cooperation that gives it power to speak in be¬ 
half of farmers’ interests. It is in this spirit that we 
appeal to you to help increase the membership at this 
time. Last week we sent you a convenient blank and 
envelope for sending one subscription. If you have 
not used it, please do so at once now. 
It is claimea that agents of the Armour Packing 
Company are endeavoring to secure the entire crop of 
western apples. The Armours, according to the story, 
wish to secure 1,000,000 barrels of apples in Missouri, 
and they are said to be ready to pay |3,000,000 for 
them! With tne present short crop there would be a 
big profit this year on such an outlay. But if the Ar¬ 
mours can make a small fortune out of these apples 
why cannot the farmers make it instead? The chief 
reason is that they are not organized for business, 
but are acting mostly as individuals. 
* 
A FEW weeks ago a former resident of northern 
New York hitched up his team and drove, with his 
family, to North Carolina. This “long trek” was 
made in search of a new home. Through a series of 
misfortunes the old homestead which had carried 
the family name for generations passed out of the 
hands of our friends. It became necessary to seek 
a new home on a new farm. We are promised an ac¬ 
count of this long and novel journey. We oelieve 
that it will make a strong and interesting story—ap¬ 
pealing with strange power to the thousands who are 
forced to seek new homes. 
From now until cold weather in many sections one 
will come across the wasteful practice of feeding 
green fodder and soiling crops in the field. It is 
easier, we will grant, to drive a load into the pasture, 
spread it around or throw it over the adjoining fence, 
and call the job done, but even this year feed is too 
scarce to waste any. It is hard work, and often un¬ 
pleasant handling, to bring the heavy green food to 
the barn and place in the mangers, but in this way 
each cow gets her share, and a much larger per cent 
is eaten up clean, and none is soiled by the cow’s 
tramping. The timid cow has no show in the field 
with her pugnacious companion, and is worried from 
heap to heap, or stands off a distance and goes hun¬ 
gry. If the cows are expecting a good meal at the 
barn they are more contented in the pasture. A lit¬ 
tle more time is needed to take food to the barn, but 
it is more satisfactory in every way. 
At last even the buyers and shippers agree that the 
apple crop is very short. What little there is of the 
fruit is sure to bring a good price. The danger now 
is that too many poor fruit will be put into barrels 
which are to sell as first class. It will be a great 
temptation to throw in the little stuff, but grower 
and buyer must resist it. Another year we may be 
begging the public to buy our finest fruit, with the 
very hogs rejecting the culls! Dishonest packing this 
year will do a fearful injury to the trade. The price 
will be high enough for all fruit this year. There 
will be more sin than ever in trying to swell a second 
into a first. 
* 
A BIG corporation in this city employs many work¬ 
men on the streets. These workmen are required to 
wear a blue and white badge on their hats. It is a 
good idea in many respects, but some of the workmen 
object to being “tagged” in this way. At noon, when 
these men are free, they take the badge off or turn 
their hats around so that it will not show. No man 
likes to feel that he belongs to another—that he is 
to receive only a percentage of the value of his labor. 
This is a natural feeling born in the heart of every 
true man. It is carried to an absurd and damaging 
extent, however, when a farmer, away from tne farm, 
tries to disguise the fact that he is employed directly 
by nature. The true brand of the sun and the soil is 
a noble one, and no man need be ashamed of it. 
* 
It is said that George H. Phillips, the Chicago man 
who so thoroughly cornered corn, and was afterward 
nearly cornered himself, has made this statement: 
No more corn pools for me. I knew that 1 was stand- 
'ng over a can of gunpowder all the time, and it was 
only by the merest chance that I escaped total annihila¬ 
tion. I was forced into the May pool, but I won’t be 
forced into another. They’re too risky and not at all to 
my liking. 
Thus it would seem that those who attempt to 
manipulate the grain market are likely to have, occa¬ 
sionally, experiences not highly seasoned with un¬ 
mixed happiness; and it is quite possible that the 
man who has enough to eat and wear, only a moder¬ 
ate mortgage hanging over his head, and nothing 
worse than mosquitoes to keep him awake nights, 
still has something to be thankful for. 
* 
iSoME of the friends of the agricultural colleges are 
now calling upon Andrew Carnegie to help these in¬ 
stitutions. This is the way they talk: 
If the agricultural interests of our Nation are on the 
decline, likewise must the other interests follow suit. 
Mr. Carnegie’s interests have been made possible by and 
through the success of the agricultural interests of this 
Nation. What could be more in keeping with the eternal 
fitness of things than that Mr. Carnegie, who has re¬ 
ceived so much from the rural classes, should In turn 
make possible a better agricultural education by increas¬ 
ing the facilities at the splendid Institutions already in 
existence? 
Our advice is not likely to be asked, but we suggest 
that the agricultural colleges let Mr. Carnegie and 
his millions alone. Most of them now receive all the 
money that they can use in a manner really helpful 
to agriculture—some of them do not make the best 
use of what they get. There are already too many 
educational beggars who stand hat in hand before 
rich men. Let us have more independence in agri¬ 
culture! If Mr. Carnegie and others like him will 
remove some of the conditions which make vast for¬ 
tunes possible in this country he would do far more 
for agriculture than he ever could by erecting school 
buildings! 
There are some men, and by long odds they are 
not all found on the farm, whose sole aim in life 
seems to be “How little can I give for the dollar I 
get, and how much can I possibly get for the dollar 
I spend?” They are always trying to get the best 
end of a bargain, and using to accomplish their pur¬ 
pose small petty means. Some of them accumulate 
considerable property, but they get no enjoyment out 
of it, and give pleasure to no one else. When you 
buy of them tneir measure or weight will always be 
found a little short unless you watch them. Hired 
help hate to work for such people, as they get long 
hours, poor food and no blessings. These men are 
despised by everyone who has dealings with them. It 
is twice the work for them to sell anything. No one 
buys a bushel of potatoes of them without measur¬ 
ing them before their eyes, and looking to see how 
many seconds were shoved in. No one wants lO buy 
apples of them, because their aim seems to be to see 
how many poor quality knotty specked apples they 
can get Into a barrel, and call them No. 1 . Economy is 
a good thing, and trying to get a dollar’s worth of 
goods tor a dollar is all right, but one would rather 
have less of this world’s goods and have the respect 
of our fellow men. The man who gives good mea¬ 
sure, has honest goods that are No. 1 when he says 
they are, and pays a fair price for what he buys, can 
hold up his head among men. His face won’t have 
quite so many wrinkles when he is 40, and there will 
not be as long a hook on his nose. 
* 
No more free passes will be given to employees of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, orders to this effect hav¬ 
ing been issued from the head office of the company. 
Those working in railroad shops and living some dis¬ 
tance away will now have to pay the regular com¬ 
mutation rates. Several of the larger western roads 
adopted this system some time ago, and 9 , strong ef¬ 
fort is being made to have the plan general on all 
roads of importance throughout the country. The 
companies take the ground that the granting of 
passes to employees is the same as extra compensa¬ 
tion, discriminating against those who do not require 
them, and being contrary to business principles. 
• 
Cash wheat is selling in New York at 78 to 79 cents 
per bushel, corn bringing 63 to 64 cents, and oats 42 
to 44. In order to understand just what these figures 
mean let us compare them with the prices in former 
years. The figures given are wholesale prices at 
about September 1: 
1896. 1897. 1898. 1899. 1900. 
Wheat.6714 102 70 73 86 
Corn.26 37 35 38 49 
Oats.19% 24 26 26 28 
Thus it appears that there has been a steady rise 
in the price of corn, which has now taken a sudden 
jump to about the highest average figure in the past 
35 years. Oats, too, have gone up in price, and the 
increased cost of these two cereals presents a hard 
problem to many farmers. During the past 10 years 
thousands of farmers have come to depend more and 
more on the cheap western corn. In some cases the 
cultivation of the grain has been given up or largely 
cut down, since there seemed to be more profit in 
growing the stalk for the silo, when western corn can 
be bought at 35 cents. Exports of corn to foreign coun¬ 
tries are rapidly increasing. In 1891 the value of corn 
and cornmeal exported was $18,599,664, while last year 
this had increased to the enormous total of $87,354,- 
810! The removal of this immense volume of grain 
(over 200 , 000,000 bushels) from the home market has 
been responsible for the present excessive price. We 
venture to say that this high price will hurt more 
farmers than it will help, so dependent have many 
of them become upon the western grain for feeding 
purposes. As a result of this year’s prices we expect 
to see a large increase in corn growing on eastern 
farms, for there are farm lands in New Jersey which 
will produce as much corn to the acre as any soil in 
Kansas or Iowa. Thus the export trade in corn is 
likely to change the character of eastern farming. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Read Mr. Cook’s Ideas about silage on page 591. 
Who can know happiness without knowing sorrow? 
To regulate the pants of an overheated dog divest him 
of his coat. 
Cast your Ill-bred chickens upon the waters—and let 
them drown. 
In a season like the present what a blessing the Abund¬ 
ance plum Is. 
You tell some fellows to be clean, and they will scarce 
know what you mean. 
How many of the farmer’s wrongs can be remedied by 
the farmer himself? Lots of them! 
The honey bee seems to be more fully protected by 
the law than any other domestic animal. Why? 
An editor may offer his brains for a fair price, but his 
heart and conscience should be beyond purchase. 
We receive letters every week from western farmers 
who say that they wish to locate in New England. 
When a nurseryman gets in front of the San Jos6 scale 
and tries to hide it he deserves to be sprayed—and he 
will be. 
Should the milkman wear a white uniform? It’s a 
good plan if he will keep it clean. A dirty white jacket 
is worse than a clean blue blouse and overalls. 
This old world might be better if some men could or 
would get off in the woods at times alone and cry—let 
out their troubles and temper through their tears! 
The butter record is only one side of that dairy contest 
at Buffalo. The question of milk production also enters. 
In this the larger breeds naturally beat the smaller ones. 
The drought in the West is driving farmers to all sorts 
of shifts for Winter fodder. Who can give us any ex¬ 
perience with sugar beet tops in a silo? Are they worth 
hauling three miles for this purpose? 
When some new horse bites a fraction of a second off 
the trotting record every horse lover feels the bite away 
down to his sporting blood. Every cow man ought to 
feel his cream at the story of the cows In that dairy 
test at Buffalo. 
We have a number of letters from people who conclude 
that they have cultivated their apple orchards until 
they have overdone the business. Now they want to 
know what grass is best for seeding. We like Red clover 
and Orchard grass. 
Americans Import about 15,000,000 pounds of macaroni 
each year. It should all be made here, and will be when 
our farmers grow the special varieties of wheat from 
which it is made. The Department of Agriculture is try¬ 
ing to interest farmers in this matter. 
