86 
February 4, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S RARER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
DR. Walter Van Fleet, I Associates 
MRS. E. T. Koyle, (Associates. 
John' J. DILLON, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. ?2.04, 
equal to 8s. Od., or SVi marks, or 10*6 francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
hacked 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 col¬ 
umns, and any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We 
protect subscribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
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 to us within one 
month of the time of the transaction, and you must have 
mentioned The Rural New-Yorker when writing the adver¬ 
tiser. 
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 4, 1905. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to introduce The R. N.-Y. to progressive 
intelligent farmers who do not now take it, we send it 
10 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory purposes. 
We depend on our old friends to make this known to 
neighbors and friends. 
* 
Some horses need shoeing oftener than others. An 
extra two or three dollars on the yearly shoeing bill 
may save a ruinous lameness. Next to the “family 
physician” a reliable family blacksmith is of most im¬ 
portance to the farmer. There are some blacksmiths 
of this type, and it is worth while to go several miles 
out of the way to have work done at such a place. 
* 
The matter of pedigree plants offers a wide field for 
speculation, with at present little data from which to base 
positive statements. If we decide that we cannot im¬ 
prove plants by selection where they are propagated 
from cuttings or runners, we must entirely ignore the 
fixed variations resulting from bud sports. If a pink 
rose may produce a white bloom upon one branch, and 
cuttings taken from this 'branch hold the “sport” so 
strongly fixed that resulting plants retain the same 
character for 20 years of commercial propagation, and 
apparently for all time, why should we decide that a 
variation on the side of extra vigor of plant may not 
be held with equal firmness? We know that there is 
some strange force working within plant cells that pro¬ 
duces apparently sudden “breaks”—what scientists call 
the mutation of species—but is there not equal reason to 
believe that a vigorous plant will impart vigor to the 
cutting, which is part of the plant itself? In the mean¬ 
time, the business florist, who is not worrying about 
the mutation of species or Mendel’s law, continues to 
avoid “blind wood” in propagating his roses, and takes 
bloom shoots as a means of insuring free-flowering 
plants—in other words, he expects performance to fol¬ 
low pedigree. 
* 
Our scientific friends haven’t given us much help on 
the wire problem yet, but they will come in time. If 
some little man got out a “moth catcher” or some 
powder for plugging a tree the stations would bulletin 
him right out of business. There are some strong forces 
back of the bogus wire, and a public man may well be 
thoughtful before he locks horns w'ith them. Farm¬ 
ers are the chief sufferers from this rotten fence wire, 
and if they cannot get help they will do the work them¬ 
selves. This will, after all, be best, for they will not 
only obtain better wire, but they will demonstrate their 
power Here is a note like hundreds that are coming 
in: 
My experience with had wire is just as you state in your 
paper. I think I was the first to use barbed wire in my 
vicinity: the same wire is very little rusted and has the 
second set of posts, while wire which I bought a few years 
ago is nearly rusted through. Prod the manufacturers till 
they make a good galvanized wire, which they can warrant 
not to rust in 20 years. For the first wire I paid something 
like 11 cents per pound, and consider it was cheaper than 
what we buy now at very much less. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
The horticultural meetings which we have attended 
this year seem better than usual. There are more young 
men present, and rather more discussion from the floor. 
There is also a disposition to fill up the programme 
with local speakers and use the professors for practical 
rather than for professional service. 1 hese things are 
encouraging. They show that farmers are becoming in¬ 
terested enough to take such things into their own hands. 
In several States a grand old guard of devoted and 
unselfish men have kept up the organization—often at 
personal expense. Now their reward is coming. 1 hey 
should have full credit for past service. 
* 
We spoke last week of the mix-up over the Erie 
Canal. There is still another complication which should 
not be overlooked. The last Legislature voted to bond 
the State for $50,000,000, the money to be spent in 
building “good roads.” The present Legislature will be 
asked to vote on this bond issue, and then it will be 
put to a popular vote, as the canal bond issue was. 
It was pretty well understood that this plan for rais¬ 
ing money for road making was intended to placate 
those who opposed the canal. It was often said that 
the public highways were of more importance than the 
canal—which is true. The canal men said, in effect: 
“We are ready to raise money for road building in the 
same way that we raise it for canal enlargement.” 
But for the canal vote it is not likely that the road¬ 
bonding scheme would have been heard from in 10 
years! Should the opponents of the canal succeed 
in preventing the work of enlargement, there would 
be no bond issue for good roads. This complicates the 
situation, because many farmers want the roads im¬ 
proved at any cost, while, on the other hand, thousands 
of farmers are opposed to any bond issue. 
* 
A review of human and bovine tuberculosis in Japan 
by a talented medical observer of that country does not 
afford much support to the theorists who promote the 
idea that human consumption is largely due to the use 
of milk and flesh of infected horned cattle. He finds 
that human consumption, both of the intestinal and lung 
form, is as frequent in Japan as in Europe and Amer¬ 
ica, although cow’s milk has no part in the feeding of 
infants. Milk and flesh.of cattle are scarcely used for 
human food at all. There are large districts in Japan 
where the native cattle, used almost exclusively as 
beasts of burden, are absolutely free from tuberculosis 
or consumption, showing they do not contract the dis¬ 
ease from man even when exposed to infection. Im¬ 
ported or mixed race Japanese cattle can be infected by 
injection of tuberculosis material, but the natives ap¬ 
pear practically immune. His investigations give strong 
proof that human and bovine tuberculosis are not inter¬ 
changeable under normal conditions. 
There you have it in a nutshell. Years ago we could 
buy good wire—which outlived two sets of posts. 
Now the posts are more likely to outlive two sets of 
wire. The posts are of the same timber, but the wire 
is different. Why can we not buy the old kind? We 
are ready to pay for it, and it is all nonsense to say 
that we are demanding the cheap stuff! How can we 
know the wire is good until we know the difference 
between old and new? How is a farmer to learn this 
difference unless some chemist helps him? He surely 
cannot learn it himself, and with hundreds of men paid 
by State or Nation to analyze or test things which he 
buys and sells, has he not a right to ask that fence wire 
be included? We do not undertake to say that the so¬ 
lution of this problem is an easy one. On the other 
hand, it is one of the most difficult problems which the 
stations have been called upon to solve. That very fact 
makes it all the more necessary that the stations should 
take hold of it. Will they not at least take samples of 
wire from various places and tell us if there is any zinc 
in the galvanizing? 
* 
Americans are quick to give their sympathies to the 
oppressed. They have very generally wished the suc¬ 
cess of Japan in her war with Russia. Now, they give 
entire sympathy to the Russian peasants and workmen 
who are struggling against the government. We hear 
much attempted comparison between the Russian troubles 
and the French Revolution. The situation is really not 
similar. The average Frenchman is by nature a very 
different character from the average Russian. The 
latter is slower, duller, filled with a deeper religious 
feeling, and with long-inherited respect for the nobility 
and authorities. Long before the French Revolution 
took definite shape the peasants and workmen had lost 
respect or fear for the nobles. There were also men 
from the higher classes to lead them. In Russia the 
other day, the workmen had no thought of violence 
when they started to see the Czar. They had been 
taught to believe that “the Little Father” would surely 
listen to them and help them. When on this peaceful 
errand the soldiers met them with lead and steel a 
fond and foolish belief was broken. They now realize 
that the Czar is a very ordinary man—a poor coward 
instead of a supernatural being, and this broken idol 
marks the first real step they have taken toward liberty. 
True liberty was impossible to men who believed an 
unworthy ruler capable of noble deeds. The guns of 
the Russian soldiers shot down the barrier to free 
thought. It is probable that the present uprising will 
fail. It is improbable that the Russian people are yet 
fit for anything like a republic. I he army is likely to 
remain loyal to the Czar, and crush out open rebellion, 
but truly the end has begun. The Russian people are 
losing faith in their rulers, and force cannot perma¬ 
nently survive, when faith drops out of it. We look 
to see the Russian people rise again and again, learning 
a little more of their power from each defeat, until at 
last they shake themselves free. The outside world can 
give them little help. They must patiently and brave¬ 
ly fit themselves for liberty. And how freedom for the 
Russians will change the thought and action of the en¬ 
tire world ! 
* 
Investigation of recent sudden deaths traced to the 
drinking of ordinary alcoholic beverages adulterated 
with deodorized wood alcohol or methyl spirit have 
brought out the little-known fact that wood alcohol, 
formerly so nauseous and vile-smelling that it could only 
be used for fuel and manufacturing purposes, has been 
so deodorized and rid of its offensive qualities that it 
can be used as a successful adulterant, not only of ordi¬ 
nary intoxicating beverages, but of witch hazel, cologne 
water, bay rum, Jamaica ginger, essences and extracts 
of all kinds, including lemon extract, liniments, pat¬ 
ent medicines and domestic remedies of otherwise quite 
harmless composition. Already 158 cases of blindness, 
most of them total, and 156 deaths have been reported 
as due to this terribly poisonous product, now made 
so closely to resemble the less toxic grain, ethylic or 
common alcohol that it cannot be detected by ordinary 
means. In order to reduce the risk from inodorous wood 
alcohol it is suggested that it and all its preparations be 
placed in the list of poisons, and that every package 
containing it should bear the warning “this fluid taken 
internally is likely to cause blindness.” Most people 
dread possible blindness even more than death, and 
would be greatly impressed by such a warning. Wood 
alcohol in its legitimate form is a cheap and useful 
product, and its use in competent hands should not be 
restricted, but no mercy should be shown to the human 
vultures who in their greed for gain use it to adulterate 
familiar articles of domestic use. 
* 
Some of the so-called “popular” articles on scientific 
agriculture do as much harm as good. As an illustra¬ 
tion, take the glowing accounts printed in magazines 
and daily paoers of the work of soil bacteria and in¬ 
oculation. They generally give an entirely wrong im¬ 
pression. The fact is that inoculation may, by intro¬ 
ducing the proper bacteria, enable a plant to obtain 
nitrogen from the cheapest source—the air. This will 
not, alone, .change a barren soil into a fertile garden, 
for the soil must be in proper condition to start with, 
and the crops must be supplied with potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid before they can make a profitable growth. 
People who read the great stories in the magazines get 
the idea that the small packet of culture of itself sup¬ 
plies a vast amount of plant food. They do not or 
will not understand that all the culture can possibly do 
is to give the plant a chance to utilize more plant-food 
—if it can find such within reach. We know that people 
get this wrong and dangerous belief, because they write 
reproaching us for being so slow in spreading these 
wonderful “truths.” The belief is a dangerous one, 
because our crops must still be fed in order to obtain 
results that are satisfactory. A package of these cul¬ 
tures may prove very helpful to a farmer. So may 
a good pamphlet or book: and in something of the same 
way—by stimulating latent powers of mind or body 
into action. The “culture” may enable the plant to 
take advantages of supplies of fertility previously de¬ 
nied it. The book may enable the farmer’s brain to 
absorb new methods or keener skill, and then make 
his work more useful. Neither cultures nor book are 
direct sources of fertility or power! 
BREVITIES. 
Why respect old age in a lien? 
What about the man who has quit growing? 
What do you think of sheep-shearing machines? 
One thing we find lacking in Florida—a hotbed. Not 
needed. 
Why not take your boy when you go to the horticultural 
meeting? 
The “bloomless" or “seedless” apple seems to have hidden 
from view. 
A cross of water glass on your hens makes a perpetual 
egg record. 
Who has succeeded in getting three-year-old hens to lay 
in Winter? 
Remember that Sweet clover introduces the bacterium 
which makes Alfalfa thrive. 
A warm pen and plenty of bedding for the “store” hogs 
mean less feed and less squeal. 
This is the season for the creamery shark or promoter. 
He can put a white elephant in your neighborhood with 
great ease. Say won’t to his can talk. 
One of our New Jersey neighbors, just outside New York, 
picked the first outdoor flowers in his garden January 7, 
when he picked a handful of Russian violets blooming under 
a straw mulch. These fragrant hardy violets should have 
a place in every garden. 
A report from Pennsylvania tells of a pet goat which fell 
into a creek and was there frozen solid. Two days later the 
chunk of ice containing the goat was cut out and taken to 
its owner, who with many laments put it to thaw out, in¬ 
tending to remove the hide for a souvenir rug. The next 
morning the thawed-out goat was contentedly eating a hair 
cushion, alive and well. 
