THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
i3o 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TI1E BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collinowood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, l A , t 
Mrs. E. T. HOYLE, ^Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 52.04, 
equal to 8s. (id., or 8% marks, or 10 l /j 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 
bv 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 
3s 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 18, 1905. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
Tn 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. 
* 
PRIZE OFFER; BATHROOM ARRANGEMENTS . 
Many readers of The R. N.-Y. have altered or Im¬ 
proved an old house, in which the location of the bath¬ 
room is a serious problem. Such experience is of value 
to others, and for this reason we made a prize offer, 
several weeks ago, for descriptions and diagrams of this 
work. We offer three prizes, $5, $9 and $2, for the best 
three articles describing this work; how it was planned, 
how completed, and its cost. Diagrams or pictures 
•showing the arrangement of the rooms, and how the 
bathroom was situated, will add to the value of the 
articles. This offer will be open until April 1. Special 
•mention should be made of any defect in building or 
arrangement of the house, which rendered the problem 
more difficult or more expensive than usual. 
* 
Discussion of the old hired man question is coming 
up again. New deposits of gold have been made avail¬ 
able during the past 10 years to help relieve the financial 
situation, but no new deposits of good farm helpers are 
coming to light. There are none in sight. Farmers 
are rearranging their methods of working and their 
plans of farming so as to be less dependent on hired 
labor. We have simply got to study out the plans which 
will enable one man to produce the greatest value in a 
crop. 
* 
Of course Tiie R. N.-Y. favors a National Apple Day, 
so well suggested by Mr. Handly on the next page. 
With us apple day comes 365 times a year, but we know 
that to some unfortunate people it is rarer than Christ¬ 
mas or Fourth of July. “Apple Day” by all means. 
Now then, we want to hear from men who will volunteer 
to put up several barrels of apples with which to give 
the school children in their town a good tuck-out at the 
first celebration of the new holiday. This is to be a day 
for exercising the tongue ! 
* 
Word comes from Washington that Senators will op¬ 
pose the new legislation to increase the power of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission. They claim that such 
legislation is “hasty.” For years this question has been 
:studied and discussed. It has been kept back by just 
such influences as these Senators represent. The time 
has come when they must stand aside. If this legislation 
were new or revolutionary it would be right for these 
men to stand against it and delay. It happens, how¬ 
ever, that the principle involved is old and well under¬ 
stood, and entirely just. 
* 
A town in Georgia remains without saloons, not be¬ 
cause there is an attempt to enforce prohibition, but 
because a liquor license costs $30,000. The town officials 
say that they would issue a license to a saloonkeeper 
who thought it worth $30,000 to him ; in the meantime 
the town is prosperous, over 90 per cent of the children 
go to school, and several large manufacturing concerns 
are considering locating there because the moral tone 
of the community secures efficiency on the part of the 
men. A license law like this seems to work as a prac¬ 
tical prohibition that really prohibits. 
Prof. Waugh, of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col¬ 
lege, employs the old-fashioned debate to interest stu¬ 
dents in horticulture. This question is soon to be de¬ 
bated: “Resolved, That the Hitchings method of or¬ 
chard culture can be recommended for general adoption.” 
We believe that is a sensible and useful form of instruc¬ 
tion. We once visited an agricultural college commence¬ 
ment where students solemnly debated: “Resolved, That 
Milton was a truer exponent of freedom than Crom¬ 
well !” It was hard to see what all this had to do with 
agriculture. The idea was that these students at a 
farmers’ college felt they must ape the practices of the 
students at the classical university. Their professors 
seemed to have neither the nerve nor the knowledge re¬ 
quired to tell those boys that they were merely making 
brass buttons of themselves. Our agricultural colleges 
will never command respect until they adopt original 
habits, methods of thought and powers of expression. 
♦ * 
THE USE OF NITR0-CULTURE. 
Readers must have noticed the great business being 
done in the various “cultures” offered for increasing the 
growth of the legumes or pod-bearing crops. Last year 
the Department of Agriculture gave small quantities of 
these cultures aw'ay for experiment. Now private parties 
are offering them for sale. Naturally, we are asked if 
this “culture” is a humbug, and whether it will pay a 
farmer to invest money in it. It is not by any means a 
humbug, but a farmer should understand what he is 
doing before he uses it. We understand that the “nitro- 
culture” offered for sale is practically the same as the 
“cultures” sent out last year by the Department. It is 
practically all prepared by one company, and sold 
through agents. In the circular used in selling the nitro- 
eulture we find the following: 
What is Claimed for Nitro-Culture. 
On poor or sandy soli, any leguminous (i. e., pod-bearing) 
crop, such as clover, Alfalfa, beans, peas, vetch, peanuts, 
etc., can (provided good seed is used) be more than doubled 
the first year, by merely moistening the seed with a solution 
of Nitro-Culture bacteria and allowing it to dry on the seeds 
before planting. Ferhaps the greatest benefit may be derived 
the second year, when any crop, such as wheat, corn, cotton, 
potatoes, etc., may be planted without fertilizer, and they 
will yield double what would otherwise be taken from the 
same land. Many persons claim that in money value this 
would be equal to 520 per acre, or that a like amount would 
have to be expended on phosphates, capable of producing 
equal results. 
Let us understand that this nitro-culture is a small 
packet of the germs which live on the roots of various 
crops. They are inert, but when treated as directed in 
the circular they become active, and begin to multiply 
rapidly. The theory is that when the seeds are moist¬ 
ened with the liquid containing these germs and put in 
ihe ground, these germs multiply rapidly and obtain 
from the air supplies of nitrogen. This makes a larger 
and stronger plant, giving not only an increased crop, 
but of course leaving more in the soil for crops that 
follow. Do not get the idea that the “nitro-culture” 
adds plant food in the way that a bag of fertilizer or a 
ton of manure would do. It does nothing of the sort. 
It merely starts these germs at work. They may or 
may not benefit the crop. They are not always success¬ 
ful. Last year the Department of Agriculture sent out 
32,490 packets of “culture.” Only 2,502 experiments 
were reported; of these 1,296 showed definite increase 
of crop, 574 indicated failure, 293 no increase because 
the soil was already supplied, and 339 no advantage from 
the use of the cultures. Thus only about one-half the 
experiments paid. Out of 1,043 trials of the Alfalfa bac¬ 
teria 522 reported an increase of crop. We see no rea¬ 
son why the “nitro-culture” should give better average 
results. What were the causes of failure? In some 
cases the directions were not followed. In others the 
soil was either too sour or too alkaline—neither condi¬ 
tion being right for the bacteria to develop. The soil 
was either too rich or too poor. When there is an ex¬ 
cess of nitrogen in the soil the plant does not require 
the nitrogen from the air, and the bacteria do little 
work. When the soil is poor and deficient in available 
potash and phosphoric acid, no amount of increased 
nitrogen supply can make a full crop. The .soil may 
already contain an abundance of the germs. For exam¬ 
ple, on a farm where Red clover had been grown for 
years the soil would probably be well filled with the 
germs. On such soil no one could expect that the 
“nitro-culture” for Red clover would pay. Yet on that 
same farm the special culture for Alfalfa or peas might 
pay well. It is nonsense to suppose that this “nitro- 
culture” will make poor seed give a good yield, or make 
up for poor plowing and harrowing or drought or flood. 
All it can do is to introduce the special germs which 
certain crops need, but there must go with them good 
seed, good culture and a good chance for the crop. We 
have given a fair statement of the matter, and now leave 
the reader free to use his own judgment. We tried the 
Government cultures on Alfalfa last year, and feel con¬ 
fident that they made the difference between total failure 
and fair success. 
February 18, 
We have heard people express disappointment because 
the price of meat has not fallen since the Supreme 
Court’s decision. Such people will not or cannot under¬ 
stand what the court did. They seem to have an idea 
that the court can make the “Beef Trust” reduce the 
price of meat five cents a pound regardless of the price 
paid to farmers for live stock. A little thought ought 
to show how absurd such an idea is. The court has 
simply decided that certain things which the trust has 
been doing are unlawful. If they keep on doing them 
they can be punished. Whether they will be or not 
remains to be seen. Even if they were punished it is 
not likely that either farmer or consumer would receive 
immediate benefit. In the end both will be helped if the 
laws are enforced as they should lie, but the benefit will 
come very slowly. It has taken years for the abuses to 
grow; it may take years to outgrow theni. Let us net 
be impatient, but at the same time keep hammering 
away at Congress for power to destroy the “rebate” 
system. 
* 
Since the Apple Consumers’ League was started we 
have discovered many noble qualities in the apple. It 
keeps man healthy and good-natured. No one has yet 
been found to say he knows a persistent apple eater who 
is at the same time a heavy drinker of liquor. When 
we seek to make some surly fellow good-natured we 
induce him to eat a baked apple. In order to reform a 
drunkard we try the apple cure, which consists in eating 
six good-sized apples every day. Now comes a new use 
for the apple tree, which takes rank with the others. 
I have a large apple tree in one corner of my hen.vard. 
I have on a limb a berry crate hung by a string that is tied 
on each side of the center of crate ; then a string reaching 
up to a limb. I put a broody hen in the crate, and she can't 
sit, for it Is swinging all the time, especially if the wind is 
blowing; it does not take more than two or three days to 
break her up 
As everyone knows, a sitting hen is very much set in 
her ways. Tt is hard to break the habit, but stronger 
habits have gone down before the apple. The apple tree 
will prompt the “Business Hen” to go back to business 
with renewed vigor. What form of apple will break up 
the sitting-down habit in the hired man? 
* 
One of our correspondents, who answers a query re¬ 
garding paint for an 'iron fence, refers to the frequent 
neglect of rural cemeteries. He tells us that in his own 
community the neighbors came together to improve their 
cemetery, now feeling a pride in the well-kept beauty 
of what was before a desolate bit of landscape loneliness. 
We have all seen these neglected resting places, where 
straggling briers embrace the time-worn stones, and 
where the new-made grave seems merely a raw wound 
upon the surrounding desolation. And yet how easy it 
is, by a little co-operative industry, to turn the unkempt 
graveyard into “God’s acre beautiful!” Let the “women 
folks” begin it, if they will—they are usually the prime 
movers in such efforts—they can work up enthusiasm, 
and ask for a plan of action. First of all, straighten up 
the sagging fence, clear out the briers and mend the 
drives. Then begin a general plan of beautifying. A 
very small expenditure in ornamental nursery stock will 
prove a valuable investment, and it is quite possible to 
produce good results with material from wood and field. 
We should like to hear from readers who can describe 
experiences in this line: their suggestions would pos¬ 
sess value for others. We are always saddened by the 
thoughtlessness which gives bareness instead of beauty 
in the city <*f the dead ! 
BREVITIES. 
It may pay you to read the article on Texas fertilizers, 
page 116. 
Who says a Leghorn will eat as much as a Plymouth 
Rock while both are laying hard? 
Which is of more use at a farmers’ institute—the man 
who can’t do it, but can tell about it, or the man who can 
do it, but can’t tell it? 
There are others who feel as this Illinois farmer does: 
“Seems to be a time of unrest in the whole world, and I feel 
like sighing for the good old plain times of 50 years ago.” 
We have one reader who wants to know what “The Busi¬ 
ness lien” has to say about the groundhog! Not very much. 
The feeding of buckwheat is mentioned. Buckwheat cakes 
go with sausage. Sausage is certainly ground hog. 
L’tforts will be made to sell sulphate of iron or copperas 
as a fertilizer. It is recommended for use on manure piles. 
We do not advise its use at present prices. Kainit will do 
as well in the manure, besides adding potash to the soil. 
An Arkansas man, who had formed an erroneous impres¬ 
sion that the Department of Agriculture was giving away 
free swine, wrote to his Senator asking that dignitary to 
pick him out a good pair of Berkshires. Well, why not? 
IIoKTtcrLTFRisTS who are working for new varieties of 
fruits will be interested in the prize offered by the Minnesota 
Horticultural Society for a seedling apple which shall com¬ 
bine the good qualities of the Wealthy with the hardiness of 
the Duchess and tlie keeping quality of Malinda. Compe¬ 
tition is open to the world. 
According to statistics, Americans are steadily increasing 
their consumption of sugar, which now amounts to 72 pounds 
per capita annually; a total of 2,500,000 tons a year, or 
nearly as much as all Europe, exclusive of Great Britain. 
In Spain the annual consumption of sugar per capita is only 
six pounds. 
