632 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 14 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
EstablWied 1850. 
IlEHUEKT W. CoLLiXGWooj), Editor. 
Dk. Walter Va.v Fleet, / 
H. K. VAX Deman. VAssociates. 
Mrs. E. T. Kovle, ) 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. (id., or 8)4 marks, or 10)4 francs. 
“ A SaUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement In this jjaper Is backed by a 
re.si)onsIble per.son. But to make doubly sure we will make good any 
loss to ))ald subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertlsiug In our columns, and any such swindler will be publicly 
exposed. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we do not guar¬ 
antee to adjust tiitiing differences between subscribers and honest 
responsible advertisers. Neither will we be resjmnsible for the debts 
of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. Notice of the complaint 
must bo sent us within one month of the time of the transact on, and 
you must have mentioned The Kural New-Yorker when writing 
the advertiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance Is for, should 
appear in every letter. 
Uemittances may be made in money order, express order, personal 
check or bank draft. 
THE KUKAU NEW-YORKER, 
40*.) I'earl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1901. 
Cut away the trees, shrubs and vines from around 
the well-arranged country home, and you will cut a 
big slice from the selling price. Add such things to 
the treeless home and you make it worth more, and 
also easier of sale. Why should the farmer scorn 
such things when they have a direct bearing on the 
selling value of his property? 
* 
We hear many reports of the depreciation of farm 
property, but some of the “slumps” in other lines of 
business are seldom reported. Two mills in New 
England were recently sold at auction. One was 
appraised by experts in the Spring for $123,850.47— 
yot it brought only $41,250. Another, appraised at 
$57,692, brought only $21,650. Farming in some lo¬ 
calities is hard work, but wouldn’t you rather have 
your money in a comfortable farm than in such mill 
property? 
* 
TirE statement by Assistant Secretary Brigham on 
page 626 puts the position of the Agricultural De¬ 
partment with great clearness. It is possible to de¬ 
velop a great market for our fruits in Europe. In 
order fully to meet the requirements of this market 
we must know how to pack, what to pack and how 
to ship. Our customers are many miles away—how 
can we best reach them? It will evidently cost money 
and time to find answers to these questions. In pro¬ 
viding a new market for surplus agricultural products 
the Government benefits the entire country. We 
think the Secretary of Agriculture is clearly within 
his privileges when he guarantees shippers against 
loss in these experiments. 
* 
Probably the largest cotton grower in the world is 
the State of Mississippi. This State operates 12 large 
farms, using the convicts as farm laborers. This 
work was begun in a small way as an experiment, 
but was so successful that now the yearly profit is 
said to be $150,000, and the State has purchased 
12,000 acres of cotton land. It is now proposed to use 
the county convicts on smaller farms. Louisiana 
and Texas, it is said, have followed Mississippi with 
State convict farms, and other Gulf States are con¬ 
sidering the matter. Should they all decide to adopt 
both State and county farms, an amount of cotton 
would be produced which would seriously affect the 
sale of the crop grown by small farmers. Thus far 
the amount of this State cotton has not been large 
enough to make competition with free labor serious— 
but it will be easy to overdo the matter, 
* 
The other day a farmer volunteered this informa¬ 
tion: “The people in my neighborhood prefer The 
R. N.-Y. to any other agricultural paper!” Of course 
we wanted to know why. His reasons are about as 
follows: “There are a dozen or more good agricul¬ 
tural papers in the country. They all have their 
strong points, and are well worth the price. The in¬ 
formation they print is timely, but one can pick up 
this week’s paper and tell pretty nearly what it con¬ 
tains by looking at the corresponding issue for last 
year! In other words, you know pretty well what 
to expect before the paper comes. On the other hand. 
The R. N.-Y. always contains something new and 
original. You feel sure that every issue wili contain 
a pleasant surprise. A tired farmer will find rest in 
its columns, and carry from its reading thoughcs that 
will haunt him for many a day.” We quote this an¬ 
swer here because it was evidently sincere, and seems 
to indicate that our plans are working out into defi¬ 
nite results. It has never been our policy to dis¬ 
parage the work of our contemporaries. There is 
room for all who will work honestly and fearlessly 
for agriculture. Our ambition is to make The R. N.-Y. 
so fresh, original and helpful that it will occupy a 
class by itself. During the past season our circulation 
has increased faster than ever before, and this in¬ 
crease has been largeiy due to the personai influence 
and work of our regular, subscribers. 
« 
The list of troubles and diseases that may be helped 
or cured by work is a iong one. Let some genius es- 
tabiish a sanitarium in a healthful country place, pro¬ 
vide manual labor of various kinds in field, shop and 
kitchen, study his patients, prescribe for each certain 
forms of work, and tactfully get them to follow out 
his instructions as well as they do those of the phy¬ 
sician, and he could publish a startling list of cures. 
Without irreverence it may be said that a multitude 
of people can, if they will, work out their own salva¬ 
tion so far as health is concerned, though it is doubt¬ 
ful whether this work cure will ever become popular. 
Wholesome employment, that stirs up the blood and 
unused muscles, will remove the cause of many forms 
of nervousness, melancholy and other mental dis¬ 
eases, and make one forget for a time at least, home¬ 
sickness and disappointments. 
• 
It is becoming the custom with some farmers to 
raise chickens in the latter part of the Summer, or 
after haying. The reasons for this are somewhat as 
follows: One cannot get Winter laying pullets un¬ 
less the chicks are very early. After the first few 
chicks of Spring are out, those hatched in July and 
August will lay about as early the following Spring 
as those hatched in the fore part of the Summer. 
The cost of raising from August on is not so great, 
and much of the time, from the middle of August 
till the first of Novembei’, is quite favorable for the 
growth of chickens. Besides this, there is, on most 
farms, more leisure time to look to the chicks after 
haying is over than during the rush of Spring work. 
Add to this the fact that the early hatches are more 
uncertain than those later in the season, and the case 
is, for many people, strongly in favor of Fall-raised 
chicks. It is also true that in some locations the 
Winter egg does not bring the most clear money. 
Eggs in late Summer cost less and bring nearly as 
much money. 
On September 1 a law went into effect in New York 
State prohibiting butchers from selling meat on Sun¬ 
day. A great amount of business has been done in 
meat markets on Sunday morning, especially in the 
larger cities. Much of this buying is the result of 
thoughtlessness on the part of people who might as 
well have laid in their supplies Saturday night. There 
are some who have no conveniences for keeping meat 
over night in hot weather. This Law may work hard¬ 
ship to them, out it is doubtful whether there is any 
great number of meat buyei-s in this class. The law 
is the result of a movement in the interest of the 
journeyman butcher, whose Sunday has heretofore 
been beheaded. Many butchers were not anxious to 
open their shops on Sunday, but felt that they must, 
or suffer severe loss of trade. Putting off until Sun¬ 
day morning buying that could as well have been 
done Saturday night is practically robbing some one 
of rest to which he as a worker is entitled; and it 
would seem as though those who claim to have respect 
for the Sabbath, as well as a reasonable regard for 
the rights of others, should not add to the present 
bui-den of unnecessary Sunday trade. 
« 
We receive a good many lively letters about the 
bulletins issued by the experiment stations. A fair 
summary of this correspondence indicates that the 
majority of farmers, including many of the more 
prosperous, are not able to understand most of these 
bulletins except after hard study. Among the various 
opinions brought out in this discussion is the fol¬ 
lowing: 
In your issue of July 27, page 515, S. R. Walker says: 
“I do not think that the bulletins should be made so 
plain that any farmer could read and understand them 
as readily as he could a daily paper—if he could he would 
forget their contents just as soon.” If his theory is 
correct I would suggest that our experiment station bul¬ 
letins could be improved if written in blank verse like 
Milton’s Paradise Lost. j. w. s. 
There may be poets budding out at the experiment 
stations who can give us a stirring poem on the 
slaughter of bad bacteria or the benevolent murder 
of Potato beetles by some of their parasites. \^e 
doubt, however, if their poetry will ever be com¬ 
mitted to memory or declaimed at school exhibitions. 
The fact of the matter seems to be that one sort of a 
man is required to dig out and develop a scientific 
fact, and quite a different one to present that fact 
so that the common people can grasp it. The world 
has known some men who were able to do both kinds 
of work, but as a rule the scientist who gets nearest 
to Z appears to forget the time when he did not 
know A. 
And now we are to have another great fair—at St. 
Louis in 1903 to commemorate the great “Louisiana 
Purchase.” It would seem as though the public is 
being treated to rather more than its fair share of 
fairs, but this one will be probably the greatest agri¬ 
cultural exhibit ever known. Among other things it 
is designed to have living exhibits of vines and trees. 
For example, a complete exhibit of ali well-known 
varieties of American grapes will be planted in the 
Spring of 1902, so as to have them in actual bearing 
during the Exposition. Other trees and vines wiil 
be grown and exhibited in the same way. This will, 
we feel sure, prove an attractive display. We have 
urged the managers of the New York State Fair to 
have fields of potatoes and corn planted on or near 
the Fair grounds ana encourage trials of farm im¬ 
plements in actual field work. That ought to make 
one of the best displays at the Fair. 
* 
Recent experiments in Europe and Cuba demon¬ 
strate beyond all reasonable doubt that mosquitoes 
carry and transmit the virus of yellow fever and ma¬ 
laria. Persons in normal health, shielded from ex¬ 
posure to these diseases, have permitted themselves 
to be bitten by mosquitoes previously allowed to bite 
patients suffering from these particular diseases, and 
in almost every instance typical symptoms quickly 
followed, ending in several yellow fever cases, with 
the death of persons bitten. The vast benefits to 
humanity to be gained by fixing the chief source of 
transmission of these dangerous maladies tax the 
imagination. When we have located the enemy the 
problem of limiting his efforts becomes much simpli¬ 
fied, but what can be said of the heroism of those who 
take upon themselves such terrible pei’sonai risks, 
with no hope of adequate compensation should they 
survive? It is evident that true courage is not con¬ 
fined to boastful rough riders, but is rather to be met 
with in the more obscure walks of life. Some of the 
subjects of the recent yellow-fever experiments 
wished to become immune by experiencing an attack 
under the best medical care, so that they might de¬ 
vote their future to nursing those afflicted with the 
dread scourge, but all were said to be impressed 
with the possible benefits to humanity and science 
arising from their ordeal. All honor to such unsel¬ 
fish men and women. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
He is surest of his laugh who laughs first. 
No, people who are set in their ways seldom hatch out 
new ideas. 
There is an unnatural demand for “natural” fruit this 
year. It can all be sold. 
Plenty of farmers have been obliged to “hoe potatoes 
with a sickle” this year. 
Last year Americans exported 32,069,371 pounds of clover 
seed, nearly half going to Germany. 
A REPORT from Kansas: “The Ruby Queen died, like 
most everything else in Kansas this year.” 
We do not believe that there is any danger in cutting 
the hemp twine banus on machine-bound corn into the 
silo. 
The demand for corn fodder is so great in the West 
this year that we understand even the sled corn cutters 
are about all sold. 
The average yearly exports of potatoes for the past 
five years were 809,472 bushels. This was only about two 
per cent of the total. 
Reports of attempts to “corner” the apple crop com® 
from various sections. No question but that buyers 
are hard at work getting all the fruit they can. 
We have fodder corn which has so little quality In 
consequence of lack of sun that the cows will hardly 
eat it. They must certainly call it “green goods.” 
What a flood of turnip seed has been sown this year 
for manurial purposes. It is going into many orchards 
and cornfields—much of it mixed with Crimson clover. 
One of our readers who has just been through the 
Province of Quebec says he saw at one place a shipment 
of a dozen new spinning wheels, such as our grand¬ 
mothers used to turn! 
An English orator was endeavoring to paint the 
troubles which at times confront the dairy farmer. He 
told of a farmer who had 50 cows to milk. “It was a 
case of all hands to the pumps!” said the orator. 
The newspapers report that the Colorado Potato beetle 
has finally appeared in England. If it spread to Ger¬ 
many and France as rapidly as it did in this country 
the food supply of Europe will be upset for several years. 
Mosquitoes have carried many disease germs and 
pricked them in, but another germ may be their undoing. 
A scientist is now searching for a disease germ which 
will end the mosquito problem. This germ is to be used 
on live mosquitoes, which will be set free and sent abroad 
to spread the disease among their fellows. Let us hope 
our scientific friend will succeed in his search. 
This is the way one friend puts it: “The talk on 
smoking reminded me so forcibly what an influence the 
devil in our natures will wield over us if we stop to 
parley with him. Intellectual arguments are all right 
when only intellectual things are at issue, but when 
there is a question of right or wrong there should never 
be any compromise, or even consideration, by the man 
whose highest aim is to be right though the heavens 
fall.” 
