696 
rilE kURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 12 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
UlCHBEUT W. COLMXGWOOIJ, KditOr. 
Dit. WA1.TEII Van Fleet, / 
H. E. Van Dema.n. VAssocIates. 
MK8. K. T. Koyle, I 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
Ss. (5d., or 8* *4 marks, or 10J4 francs. 
“ 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 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 IIural New-Yomkek when writing 
the advertiser. 
Name and address of sender, and what the remittance Is for, should 
t;u)ear In every letter. 
Remittances may be made In money order, express order, personal 
check or bank draft. 
THE KUUAU NEW-YOKKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1901. 
Several States have passed laws prohibiting fruit 
growers from spraying trees while in bloom. The 
object was to protect the bees, for if poison were put 
on the flowers the visiting bees are likely to be poison¬ 
ed. We doubt whether these laws have ever proved 
of much benefit to bee keepers except in an indirect 
way. They have probably stimulated the investiga¬ 
tors to demonstrate that spraying during bloom in¬ 
jures not only the bees, but the flower and fruit also. 
* 
We want all the information we can get regarding 
tlie behavior of cow peas in the North. 
When were they planted? 
What varieties made seed? 
How were they planted—alone or with some other 
crop? 
What is a fair statement about them? 
We want to know how these peas have prospered 
in the North. Give us bad reports as well as good 
ones—tell us the whole story. 
There has been no intimation yet that any changes 
are to be made in the President’s Cabinet. It would 
be strange if all the members remain, since it must 
be evident that Cabinet members are more or less 
personal advisers. In any event we sincerely hope 
that .Secretary Wilson will remain at the head of the 
Agricultural Department. This Department is not 
old enough yet to make it a great compliment to say 
that Mr. Wilson is the best Seci’etary we have ever 
had. The truth is that he is doing a helpful work for 
the American farmer, and should be permuted to 
finish it. 
* 
The National Farmers’ Congress, in session at 
Sioux Falls, S. D., denounced the fraudulent trade in 
oleo, the Ship Subsidy bill and the scheme for Na¬ 
tional aid for irrigation. G. L. Flanders, of New 
York, was elected president. The oleo people made a 
strong effort to secure an endorsement for their pro¬ 
duct, but the dairy interests were too much for them. 
Some of the agricultural papers were disposed to 
sneer at the work of the dairymen in trying to con¬ 
trol this Congress! It is no time to stay at home and 
. sneer when our ex-Secretary of Agriculture goes to 
this Congress and fights hard for oleo. We favor go¬ 
ing to every hole and corner where the subject is dis¬ 
cussed with an argument for honest butter. 
There are large deposits of gypsum or land plaster 
in Kansas, and efforts are being made to encourage 
its use as a fertilizer. Prof. E. Haworth, of the Kan¬ 
sas University, is reported as saying, among other 
things: 
It is used most extensively in old countries where 
fertilizers of all kinds are most in demand. It consti¬ 
tutes one of the main materials for enriching the soil 
to-day throughout Canada, New England and the central 
and southern Atlantic States, and its extensive applica¬ 
tion is gradually moving westward. 
Alxnit 30 years ago that statement would have been 
more correct, but throughout these Eastern States 
plaster as used directly on the soil is a most decided 
back number. It is still used as an absorbent in 
stables or in manure piles, but seldom as a fertilizer. 
There are two good reasons for this. Formerly it was 
evident that certain crops were helped by an applica¬ 
tion of plaster. The reason for it was not very clear, 
but farmers judged by the effect. Reasons for the 
good results from plaster were given, which are now 
known to be absurd, the truth being that the plaster 
set free potash in the soil that otherwise might not 
have been available. After some years plaster lost 
its effect on crops, because it had set free all the pot¬ 
ash it w'as able to work upon. With the knowledge 
of these facts came the general understanding that 
the first consideration of soil fertility is the presence 
of acailafde nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. Ex¬ 
perience showed that it was cheaper and surer to buy 
the potash outright rather than to try to make that 
in the soil more available by using plaster. Thus the 
use of plaster has oeen discontinued, and the direct 
fertilizing materials have taken its place. Plaster 
was really a kindergarten teacher in the school of fer¬ 
tilizers, and so it will be with its use in Kansas. The 
use of plaster will in time lead Kansas farmers to the 
direct application of potash and bone or dissolved 
rock. 
* 
Most men realize how hard it is to state their exact 
meaning in a brief letter or printed article. There 
is no chance to discuss or explain, and the reader* 
must think out for himself something of what lies 
between the lines. If reader and writer could come 
face to face and discuss the question there might be 
a much better undei’standing. Here lies the great 
value of a farmers’ institute meeting above all other 
agricultural education, and this is really all that 
holds it together. Men meet face to face, and so have 
an opportunity thoroughly to understand each other 
if they will. One drawback to this is the fact that 
some farmers hesitate to get up before the audience 
and ask a question. During the intermissions they 
will come to the speaker and talk freely, so that some 
of the most helpful work of the institute is often done 
in these informal talks. 
* 
Now and then the Treasury Department at Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., receives remittances in unsigned letters 
from people who in one way or another have de¬ 
frauded the Government, usually through the short 
valuation of imports or the dodging of internal rev¬ 
enue taxes. These amounts are deposited in the 
Treasury in what is known as the “Conscience Fund.’’ 
One of these letters recently received from New York 
contained ?6,160 in large bills, and read as follows: 
After much thought I have been convinced that duties 
were not fully paid as desired, difference estimated at 
about two per cent. The wish now is to rectify what 
was done during some years ago, and amount is being 
sent which it is felt must be paid to the United States 
Treasury to discharge those duties and do the right. 
Above has been great grief. 
This adds new emphasis to the fact that honesty is 
the best policy if one cares to keep on good terms 
with his conscience. 
« 
The trekking outfit illustrated on the first page re¬ 
calls the prairie schooners which carried American 
agriculture beyond the Mississippi and opened up an 
outlet for eastern energy in the Far West. The less 
settled portions of the country still see “movers,” no 
longer pioneers, who find advantages in a similar 
mode of travel, but few now journey in that way here 
in the East, save for a leisurely vacation, 'ihe Trek 
to the South, of which a first installment appears on 
page 699, will, we are sure, be of peculiar interest. 
'I’he travelers, a practical farmer and his wife, looked 
at the changing scenes through which they passed 
with intelligent interest, and their experiences are 
sure to be valuable and suggestive to others. Rail¬ 
road speed has maae us look with disfavor upon old- 
fashioned modes of travel, but the trek is not without 
its advantages, and, in the case under aiscussion, it 
was an abiding pleasure. For one who wishes to 
study the country, such a journey is a prolonged edu¬ 
cational course. 
m 
Hon. J. Sterling Morton, who was at one time Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture, is opposed to the principle em¬ 
bodied in the Grout bill. In referring to what he calls 
“class” lawmaking, he is reported to have said: 
Persisted in this system of class lawmaking must 
logically spawn industrial strife and result at last in 
civil war. It sets up one citizen against another citizen. 
It arrays one industry against another industry. It 
formulates prejudice, selfishness, envy and malice into 
statutes. 
The object of the Grout bill is to prevent the frau¬ 
dulent sale of oleo as butter. Other methods have 
been tried and have largely failed, since the counter¬ 
feiting is skillfully done and there is a great profit 
in the business. It is now proposed to try the plan 
of taxing the colored oleo at the factory where it is 
made. Surely Mr. Morton would not have us stand 
still and see an honest business injured by fraudulent 
practices? The Grout bill does not “array one indus¬ 
try against another industry,” but It seeks to compel 
19 oleo manufacturers to be honest in their competi¬ 
tion with 6,000,000 dairymen and 25,000,000 consum¬ 
ers of butter. When we stamp out a fraudulent busi- 
ne.ss and compel counterfeits and substitutes to pass 
for just what they are, and no more, we do not 
“spawn” civil war—we prevent it! 
The success of associated dairying in both butter 
and cheese making warrants the trial of cooperative 
or centralized laundries and bakeries for the accom¬ 
modation of farmers. Associated dairying, especially 
butter making, was opposed by many, especially by 
the farmers' wives, when it was first brought up, 
these people saying that nobody but a woman could 
make good butter; that the mixed milk from differ¬ 
ent farms would not make a satisfactory product, etc. 
These objections have all been conquered, and now 
associated or cooperative dairying is extensively prac¬ 
ticed throughout the dairy districts of the United 
States. If farmers’ wives would push the matter, co¬ 
operative bakeries and laundries could probably be 
established in the country, but the matter will largely 
rest with them. There seems no good reason why 
such laundries should not, in time, prove popular in 
many farm communities. One would think that the 
busy farmer’s wife would be delighted to see her tub 
and washboard take a vacation. One can understand 
why she opposed the creamery system of butter mak¬ 
ing, for that took from her many a dollar of “pin- 
money” which was hers by both right and usage. The 
cooperative laundry will take nothing but dirt and 
hard work away from her, both of which she can 
easily dispense with. 
The following note comes from a girl in a New 
England country neighborhood: 
Seeing many helpful things in The R. N.-Y., I now 
write to ask you whether you know of any work 1 could 
do at home, i am 20 years old, live on a farm, and 1 
am staying at home to help Mother with the work. 
There in a few lines we have a whole story of self- 
sacrifice and anchored ambition. This girl stays on 
the farm to help her mother. There are dozens of 
things whicn an ambitious young woman desires, and 
which can be procured only with cash. How can she 
earn money? The miserable “Work at Home” frauds 
take advantage of just such cases, and offer glowing 
promises of money-making. Several years ago we in¬ 
vestigated many of these concerns. They were all 
“fakes”—their chief and only business being an effort 
to secure a “fee” or cash advance from people in need 
of a job. Our first advice would be to let these rascals 
who offer to set you up in a paying business entirely 
alone. What then can oe done to earn cash in an 
ordinaz-y counli-y neighborhood? It ought not to be 
necessary to leave the country in order to obtain 
money with which to gratify a few simple and honest 
desii-es. This is a question of such wide and genei-al 
importance that we will turn it over to our readei's 
for discussion. How can a young country woman earn 
cash at home? Is there not some one among the great 
rural family v/ho can help this girl? Please do not 
give us any theory—or what she ought to do. Tell 
us what you know /tas been done! 
• 
BREVITIES. 
JONATHAN TO JOHN. 
We used to have our battles on the sea 
With ball and powder to decide the game; 
You got some straight, hot shot, old buy, from me. 
11 ’twouldn’t hurt your feelings I could name 
A dozen cases where we pulled your flag— 
The Chesapeake? And “Don’t give up the ship?’’ 
Of course, you know I’m not disposed to brag. 
And now and then I made a little slip. 
But what’s the use of ball and powder now? 
Our ships are iron teapots that can toss 
A cannon ball aside—and, anyhow. 
Its far more sport to have you come across 
And try to “lift the cup’’—we fight with wind 
And find it hard, sometimes, to raise a breeze. 
But, wind or powder—you are still behind 
And once again your cherished hopes must freeze. 
Don’t overfeed the sows. 
A Two-story man—the liar. 
Prost has been kind to us this Fall. 
Better be a toiler than a despoiler. 
A $20 bill will not pay many of the old scores. 
It is claimed that crows will eat Tomato worms! 
Some new facts about fumigating trees next week. 
If you must throw bouquets at yourself—throw net¬ 
tles. 
1 HERE is little heard from the beet-sugar factories 
this year. 
Don’t forget that the most Important factor about 
truth is fact. 
We wish that some speakers would be as broad as 
they are long. 
The oft-repeated story of the big fish that “got 
away" hecomes a grew some tale. 
Yes, sir, the cow makes milk with her heart and 
lungs—not with hide and horns. Look inside for per¬ 
formance. 
The creamery took a lot of pin money from the farm¬ 
er’s wife, added to it and made it spike money for the 
whole family. 
Now it is thought that a fungous disease which means 
death to the Cotton worm has been discovered, and ex¬ 
periments will be made with spreading it in the field. 
Prop. Slingerland states that in the Hudson River 
Valley many of the caterpillers of the Fall web-worm 
have died from the effects of some disease. We have 
observed the same thing on our own farm. 
