October 26 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
728 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* *. 
EgtahUsJied 1850. 
IlERBERT W. COLLIXGWOOD, Editor. 
I)R. Walter Van Fleet, j 
H. E. Van De.man. ^Associates. 
Mrs. E. t. Royle, j 
John J. Dillon, Duslnass Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
88. (Id., or 81^ marks, or 10>^ 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 bo 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 wo be responsible for the debts 
of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. >oilco of the complaint 
must be sent us within one month of the time of toe 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 
»^ear 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, OCTOBER 26, 1901. 
From reports now coming in it seems that the cow 
pea is giving a good account of itself at the North. 
This plant is poorly named. It has little to do with 
a cow, and is not a true pea. Taking the name as it 
stands the plant is truly a bovine—it is about the best 
heau to captivate the shy Miss Nitrogen that we have. 
* 
We are glad to print, on page 734, the names of a 
few more rogues who were caught and convicted of 
selling oleo and bogus milk, A part of the sentence 
of every such rogue should be a good dose of printer’s 
ink well set in by the type. We are glad to contribute 
our share of such a sentence. Publicity for such 
rascals! 
* 
We are glad to see that Mr. Cook (page 735) advo¬ 
cates the plan of growing more corn on eastern farms. 
Somehow eastern people have found it so convenient 
to buy western corn that they seem to think it is a 
crop that belongs to the West alone! Nonsense—corn 
sustained the eastern people while the West was pro¬ 
ducing little besides wild animals and savage Indians, 
The present high price for the grain reminds eastern 
farmers that there are thousands of acres now idle 
that can be made to produce good crops of corn. We 
predict that next year the acreage of corn east of 
Buffalo will be largely increased, without seriously 
affecting the acreage of other farm crops. 
* 
About a year ago a commissioner was appointed to 
Investigate the ration served to the “bluejackets” on 
American warships. One of the first suggestions made 
is that milk be served regularly. It is a good one. 
Such fighting as our sailors will be called upon to do 
can be done better on a diet of milk than on a dose 
of grog! During the Cuban War we did our best to 
have cheese made a part of the army ration. We 
thought then, and we think still, that good cheese is 
better suited to form at least part of a soldier’s ration 
than the fat meat usually furnished him. At any rate, 
the use of milk and cheese by the army and navy will 
provide a new and profitable market for dairy pro¬ 
ducts. If the training of fighting men is necessary, 
let them, at least, eat for the best interests of their 
country! Glory may fill their hearts, but let the old 
cow fill their stomachs! 
* 
Ltoht on the ethics of catalogue requests is de¬ 
sired by a correspondent in another column. He ap¬ 
parently feels that a request to an advertiser for a 
catalogue describing goods for sale, the price of 
which, it is reasonable to infer, includes a fair profit, 
carries a moral obligation to make a purchase, since 
the catalogue and its postage represents an outlay 
on the part of the advertiser, for which he would not 
otherwise get a return. We venture to say that ad¬ 
vertisers in general wish the largest possible circula¬ 
tion of their catalogues and price lists among those 
really interested in the commodities listed, with the 
hope that a fair proportion of orders will eventually 
return. It is not to be supposed that a discriminating 
buyer will always find just what he wants, quality 
and price considered, in the first catalogue that may 
come to hand, and as the cost of several catalogues 
is really included in the profits on an average order, 
he is justified in examining those from different 
houses until he is satisfied. Of course requests for 
catalogues from idle curiosity, when there is no prob¬ 
ability of making a purchase, are clearly wrong, 
though many advertisers would be glad to send them 
in the hope they may eventually be seen by interested 
parties. Catalogues often represent a large expendi¬ 
ture, but they describe a multitude of articles about 
which there would otherwise be an endless amount 
of costly and fugitive correspondence. They give 
valuable and timely information, and form permanent 
records of value. They displace expensive drummers 
or solicitors, and save the time of both seller and 
buyer, as they can be consulted at leisure. As the 
average cost of business letters under present meth¬ 
ods is not far short of 10 cents each, it may be realized 
what an enormous saving is made in correspondence 
alone. It is safe to say that a request for a catalogue 
does not from the advertiser’s standpoint imply an 
obligation to purchase, but only to examine the In¬ 
cluded offers intelligently. 
* 
The State of Connecticut has gone into the forestry 
business. Mississippi raises cotton with convict labor, 
Kansas is to make butter with student labor, and 
Connecticut is to grow oak, pine and chestnut. The 
sum of $2,000 has been appropriated, and the State 
Forester at New Haven is to buy timber land at not 
more than $4 per acre. This land is to be deeded to 
the State but assessed and taxed by the town at the 
regular rate of taxation. It will be handled under 
improved forestry methods to show, if possible, how 
such land can be made useful and productive. The 
State will buy abandoned land without trees or with 
scubby growth, expecting to show what practical for¬ 
estry will do for such fields. This seems to us like a 
valuable and practical form of education. Thousands 
of acres in New England never should have been 
cleared. They have starved the farmer, but may fat¬ 
ten the forester. 
* 
"We hear much about the use of steam power on the 
great farms of the West, but those western farms do 
not have a monopoly of this business by a good deal. 
Now and then an eastern man takes the steam horse 
out into the field. Here is one case: 
A little experience may be worth something to some of 
your readers. 1 had 1,000 old peach trees to clean out, 
and found it rather slow work with ropes, pulleys and 
team. I hired a thrashing traction engine for $5 per day 
and coal furnished; had a stout chain 20 feet long and 
two men to hook and unhook it to and from the trees. 
Result, pulled 600 trees in 10 hours, roots and all, clean 
from the ground. The soil is a stiff loam, and was pretty 
dry and hard. The trees stood 18 feet apart, and it was 
very seldom that the engine had to back. o. t. w. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
We believe that the time is coming when steam and 
electric power will be common on the eastern farm. 
The streams in our hills afford cheap power for gen¬ 
erating electricity, and it will, in time, be wired all 
over the country, and harnessed to suit the small 
farmer. 
* 
The French government has ordered that berry¬ 
bearing trees and shrubs, in woods under its jurisdic¬ 
tion, shall not be trimmed early in the season, be¬ 
cause the removal of fruiting twigs means distress— 
perhaps starvation—^to many birds. It is saddening, 
in many districts, to see how little provision exists 
for these tiny friends; how soon they learn to know 
those who feed them. Deep or prolonged snow means 
distress to so many during a severe Winter; yet how 
cheerful and companionable they are! The bread 
crumbs swept from the table cloth after each meal, 
thrown upon a window sill, soon attract the Winter 
birds; so, too, does a bit of hard suet or fatty meat 
put upon the branches of some shrub. Rare, indeed, 
is the time when sparrows and snow birds are our only 
winged visitors, because they always find their table 
spread for them. When we consider what good friends 
the farmer or fruit grower possesses among the birds, 
we find a thousand reasons for supplementing their 
food supply during any time of scarcity. 
• 
Ex-Governob Hoard, of Wisconsin, makes the fol¬ 
lowing statement: 
There is a deeper sentiment than ever among the farm¬ 
ers of the country that oleomargarine, in the semblance 
of butter, should be taxed to extinction. They are in no 
humor, either, to brook interference with this purpose, 
on the part of party leaders. 
All who have kept track of the feeling among farm¬ 
ers know that this is exactly true. We believe that 
the sentiment in favor of the principles embodied in 
the Grout bill have become more popular than ever 
during the past few months. Public sentiment both 
in country and in town is crystallizing round the evi¬ 
dent fact that the sale of colored oleo has become a 
fraud. It is a dishonest business as conducted in most 
markets. The American people do not object to fair 
and open competition, but they see clearly that if the 
business of counterfeiting is to be legalized, no man’s 
trade or job is safe. For the first time in its history 
an avowed champion of oleo went to the National 
Farmers’ Congress, hoping to secure the support of 
that organization. He failed, and it is now quite 
amusing to hear the oleo people say that this Con¬ 
gress never did represent the farmers. If the honest 
butter advocates had made no fight, and oleo had won 
the day. Its hackers would have glorified the Congress 
to the skies. You see it makes a great difference 
whether the ox or his sister the cow is gored! 
* 
A COMPARISON of military measurements in the 
countries where army service is compulsory or very 
general brings out the fact that the Swedes are now 
the tallest people in Europe, and probably in the 
world. Ten years ago the Norwegians led in height, 
but the average height of the Swedish conscript now 
exceeds his Norwegian brother by half an inch. This 
improvement in stature is attributed to the decrease 
of intoxication brought about by enlightened public 
sentiment, and in part by the Gothenburg system of 
public control of the manufacture and sale of alco¬ 
holic beverages. A similar system is in force in 
South Carolina, and it would be interesting to have 
data on the moral and physical effect on her people. 
* 
If you have not already done so, examine your peas 
and beans for the weevil. Whatever damage has been 
done cannot, of course, be remedied now, but further 
damage may be prevented by using about one ounce 
of bisulphide of carbon to two to four bushels. We 
are not sure just how small an amount can be used 
effectively, but the range given above will do the 
work. Place the grain in a box or bin, pour the liquid 
into a dish, immediately cover with blankets, and the 
work will coon be done. Positively, keep away with 
lights or lanterns for 24 hours. The stuff evaporates 
rapidly; the vapor is much heavier than air, penetrat¬ 
ing quickly through the grain in the box. Any grain 
so affected is cheaply and surely treated with bisul¬ 
phide of carbon. Try it. 
* 
BREVITIES. 
Oh Admiral Schley, 
Did you tell a big lie? 
Did you swear when you made your big loop? 
Those mudslingers say 
That you ran clean away 
Like a chicken that flies from the coop. 
It is talk! talk! talkee. 
But you’ll please excuse me 
If I don’t read a word of the stuff. 
For life is too short 
And the fact that you caught 
All the Spaniards is quite fact enough. 
We don’t care a thrip 
Where you went with your ship. 
While we’d rather not hear people swear. 
We’ll shut up our ear 
And pretend not to hear 
For the sake of the way you got there. 
Strong actions for week days. 
So fertility is too much for Jack Frost—page 723. 
Jack Frost has been under the weather this Fall. 
A BLUB law enforced by a green hand will make a 
yellow record. 
Don’t feed the children on table “scraps” between 
father and mother. 
The demand for vetch seed is good—a chance for some 
farmer to grow the seed. 
“That certainly jars me,” said the peach, as it dropped 
into the preserving kettle. 
It is all right to “scatter seeds of kindness,” but better 
to concentrate them where they will make a good showing. 
Some men think that their value to the world is in¬ 
creased by their ability to keep their trousers perma¬ 
nently creased. 
Many a woman performed her full share of the deeds 
that saved the farm, but she gets a mighty small portion 
of the deed to the property. 
Don’t let your desire to make the yard or garden neat 
induce you to cover plants or shrubs needing Winter pro¬ 
tection too early in the season. 
Chas. Forster, of New York, says that western boxed 
red apples brings $2. This means $0 per barrel, and 
shows what will be gained by boxing good fruit. 
You may set it down as a settled fact that the plan 
of carrying a separator about from house to house to 
separate cream scores 99 in theory but 0 in practice. 
The first shipment of Florida oranges has been made. 
They are too green. It is estimated that there will be 
1,000,000 boxes of oranges from the sandy State this year! 
“The last half of a horse’s life is worth more than the 
first half,” says Mr. Cook, on page 735. He says a good 
word for the horse whose age is between 10 and 20 years. 
If a man were to tell us that there is any fruit just 
now better than a mellow Rhode Island Greening we 
should have to feel sorry for him, and be thankful that 
we haven’t his taste. 
When a person reaches the point which makes him 
Incapable of learning from others he becomes a “know- 
it-all.” He is ripe, and should be both picked and 
kicked. 
Is there any chance for the farm boy to work him¬ 
self into a good surveying practice without the ad¬ 
vantages of a college course? That is one of the things 
we hope to answer before long. 
The season has arrived for testing some of those 
methods of collecting leaves described in The R. N.-Y. 
last Winter. It was generally agreed that fallen leaves 
are well worth the trouble of collecting. 
