April 8, 
3o6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850 . 
Herbert w. Collinowood, Editor. 
J>R. WALTER VAX FLEET, I Associates 
Mrs. E. T. Boyle, f Associates. 
Jonx J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. 0d., or 8 Yi marks, or 10 y 2 francs. 
dose we will eat oranges or bananas. That hotel keeper, 
and others like him, are in need of education. He 
should be told what a good apple is, and how to serve 
it. lie helps injure the market for home-grown fruit. 
No doubt he belongs to a class of men who find fault 
when a farmer buys imported goods, or goes past a 
home merchant to trade. Yet while this man might in¬ 
crease the demand for home-grown apples, his price and 
service is such that he drives people to other kinds of 
fruit. Serving good apples at a fair price is a form 
of patriotism that ought to be encouraged. 
* 
“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 (o 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. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 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. 
* 
From the West come many reports of dissatisfac¬ 
tion with the work of the last Congress. The failure 
of the Senate to pass the railroad rate bill and the par¬ 
cels post is regretted by farmers. One good thing is 
that such failures do not discourage as they once did. 
Now people simply become more determined to make 
their wishes known. We feel sorry for some of the 
western members of Congress. Life will be a burden 
to them all through their vacation, for farmers will tell 
them what they think about Congress. Still, the bur¬ 
den-bearers are the useful members of society. Keep at 
them! 
* 
Do not forget the home garden while engaged in the 
Spring plowing. It is no great expenditure of time to 
tear up a garden patch with horse tools, and it will en¬ 
courage the “girl with the hoe,” if the masculine mem¬ 
bers of the family are too busy to pay much attention 
to such “puttering” work. We think the hack writers 
who frequently depict the farmhouse as destitute of all 
vegetables but potatoes and cabbage are drawing on 
their imagination for their facts, yet there are still some 
farmers remaining who do not make the most of their 
privileges in this line. It will pay in pleasure and satis¬ 
faction, as well as in actual cash, to plan for a generous 
home garden. And do not forget either to include a 
packet or two of some little-known vegetable you have 
never tried before. 
* 
We have referred several times to the new business of 
calf nursing, which some New England dairymen are 
taking up. Here is a typical case which we learned 
about the other day. A young farmer with a small herd 
of cows has a cream trade. This gives him a good quan¬ 
tity of skim-milk, and it is not necessary for him to 
make more than two trips a week to sell his cream. Not 
far away is a breeder of purebred cattle, who has a 
trade for his milk. It would not pay to raise calves on 
milk that would sell at five cents or more per quart, yet 
purebred calves must be raised. The farmer with the 
skim-milk makes a bargain to raise these calves. He 
feeds them skim-milk anci blood meal with hay and 
some grain feed. The little things thrive on this feed, 
and at six months old are in fine condition. Both far¬ 
mers are benefited. The man who sells whole milk has 
his best calves raised at a fair price, and the man who 
'sells cream gets a good price for his skim-milk. 
* 
The city of Worcester, Mass., lies in the midst of a 
rich farming section, where great quantities of fruit are 
grown. An excellent horticultural society is located 
there, and the Massachusetts Fruit Growers meet each 
year. No fruit meetings are so well reported as these 
are by the Worcester papers. Yet for all this there is 
great need of fruit education of a practical sort. The 
writer recently had breakfast at a Worcester hotel, and 
of course ordered baked apple. The price was 15 cents, 
and the apple was a poor little thing with one worm- 
hole partly cut out and three large patches of fungus on 
the skin. To make good measure they added a small 
piece of the skin of another little apple! We like ap¬ 
ples, but before we will pay 15 cents for another such 
This year there is more interest than usual in the 
use of salt as manure. We have a number of questions 
from farmers who ask if it will pay to buy salt. The 
question cannot be answered by yes or no. Salt 'con¬ 
tains sodium and chlorine, neither of which are con¬ 
sidered essential elements of plant food. When used 
in large quantities salt destroys most forms of vege¬ 
tation, yet when put on asparagus fields it may kill 
weeds and grass, but improve the asparagus. On some 
very rich soils where small grains or grass will “lodge” 
or fall down a fair application of salt gives a stiffer 
straw or stem, so that the plants will stand up. Two 
reasons are given for this. Naturally the plants grew 
too fast—there being too much soluble nitrogen to push 
them on. The action of the salt retarded nitrification, 
thus giving a slower supply to the crop which, growing 
slower, made a stouter stem. Thus the action of the 
salt was the reverse of “forcing.” It is also thought 
that one action of salt in the soil is to set free silica— 
the substance which gives stiffness or strength to the 
stems of grain or grass. Thus it will be seen that the 
action of salt is complicated, and except for use on 
asparagus we should experiment with it before buying 
largely. 
* 
We have done our best to give the facts about “nitro- 
cultures” for inoculating seed or soil. In one way the 
“boom” for these cultures has grown too fast. A friend 
who has made a careful study of the situation puts it 
this way: 
I am inclined to Relieve that in some ways there is alto¬ 
gether too much interest in this matter, and that we are 
likely to see a reaction sooner or later. That is, many 
people are going to use the cultures where they are need¬ 
less, and with crops where they are not intended. Some will 
expect them to take the place of cultivation and phosphoric 
acid and potash as well. The man who never will and never 
can follow directions will rush into it blindly. In all cases 
the failure will be attributed to the cultures, and not their 
own heedlessness and ignorance. 
It would be hard to see how the directions for using 
the cultures that are printed and sent with each package 
could be made plainer, yet we are told that some ridicu¬ 
lous mistakes are made. In some cases farmers simply 
punched holes in the ground and put the packages of 
culture and their food in together. This was done on 
the theory that the bacteria would multiply and spread 
all through the soil. Of course the man who paid cash 
for cultures and then used them in this way will be sure 
to call the whole thing a fraud. Others will use the cul¬ 
tures in fields where they are evidently not needed, and 
of course derive little benefit. That is the way, how¬ 
ever, with most new things. Benefit comes to those 
who study them carefully, understand the principle 
which underlies them and apply it. 
* 
There were two creameries that covered a neigh¬ 
borhood and were doing a fairly good business, 
the patrons getting all there was in it. A pro¬ 
moter came along for a milk-shipping station and by 
rather vague promises of what would be done for them 
got sufficient milk pledged to start the concern. The 
farmers thought there was a good thing in it, but some 
of them got their eyes open a little too late. Good 
prices were paid until the creameries had to drop out; 
then they had the farmers at their mercy, and prices came 
down. Restrictions as to feeds and management of their 
dairy w r ere enforced that made the milk cost the pro¬ 
ducer more. Several of them had silos that had been 
put up at considerable expense, and these they were not 
allowed to use. Only certain kinds of grain feed were 
allowed, and some that were especially good for milk, 
and apparently wholesome, were debarred. There was 
no more skim-milk left at home with which to raise 
young stock, to feed poultry and pigs, and the income 
from these stopped and in many cases was much missed. 
Instead of the cream gatherer coining three times a 
week and taking the cream at the door, each farmer 
had to make a daily trip to town with his milk, rain or 
shine, unless he hired some of the neighbors. This 
round trip of three to ten miles daily took a lot of time 
and axle grease. These everyday trips to town made 
more opportunities for spending money for things that 
they had easily gone without before. A lot of them 
wasted two or three hours in town every day, and sad 
to relate, quite a fair percentage (by far too great) had 
to stop daily at one or two saloons, and “liquor up” 
before going home. The creamery used to buy grain for 
their patrons, and furnish it at practically cost, saving 
the farmers a good many dollars, and by competition 
with the miller keeping his prices down. After the 
creamery closed up the millers’ prices went up, and the 
farmer, instead of buying in ton lots at wholesale, 
bought a bag or two a day, and paid top retail price. 
Nearly every farmer used to raise more or less of his 
own stock, but now thousands of dollars go out of 
town yearly to pay for cows to make good the herd. 
* * 
There are many farmers who cannot understand yet 
why we keep talking about Alfalfa. Not having grown 
the crop or seen it growing they do not realize what 
it would mean to them. We felt indifferent about it at 
one time, but since seeing the small field at the New 
Jersey Experiment Station and the large fields around 
Syracuse, N. Y., we realize the great possibilities of this 
plant. The best way to convert a man is to take him 
right into the field where the last crop of Alfalfa is 
growing, and then into the barn, where the two previ¬ 
ous crops are bulging the boards off the sides. The 
next best argument is to have some reliable farmer 
tell what Alfalfa has done for him. John M. Jamison, 
of Ohio, is a good farmer, and conservative in his state¬ 
ments. This is what he says: 
Last year here the clover crop was poor, and most of 
that saved in poor condition, while Alfalfa did finely. I 
harvested mine in good shape, cutting it four times. There 
was no clover on the farm to cut. I have 11 acres of Al¬ 
falfa. It would have taken three or four times the same 
area of the best clover in this section to give the same 
amount of hay; clover grown on the same kind of land. 
I had an abundance of corn and good fodder, but without 
the Alfalfa or its equivalent in clover hay or bran I could 
not fill my lots with feeding lambs. The clover hay could 
not have been bought, and to buy the equivalent of the 
Alfalfa in bran would have cost at least $500, which would 
have taken a share in the profits of the lamb feeding. 
Where the clover has one chance to make a crop Alfalfa 
has three. 
Mr. Jamison is putting extra tile into his land at an 
expense of $7 an acre in order to fit it for Alfalfa. A 
fruit grower or gardener may say: “This may be all 
very well for a stock grower or large farmer, but Al¬ 
falfa is not for me.” There is where he makes bis mis¬ 
take. We must all keep some stock, and the more ma¬ 
nure we can make without too great an expense the 
better off we are. With two or three acres well set 
in Alfalfa we can cut hay enough for all our stock, cut 
down the feed bills and save a large amount of land 
which would be needed if we attempted to grow any 
other fodder crop. By all means hang to Alfalfa until 
you get it. _ 
BREVITIES. 
Work lime into the ground. 
Last call for ordering goods. 
A little draining this Spring will help. 
Now is a good time to use nitrate of soda on the grass! 
Don’t forget a few transplanted onions in the garden 
this year. 
Can any farmer tell us about a farm fishpond that is 
really a success? 
Get ready for water-glass eggs. Preserve them when 
cheap to eat while fresh eggs are high. 
So great is the curse of consumption that it. is estimated 
that two humans die of the disease every minute. 
If sunshine is energy why do people who live where there 
is most sunshine like to sit down and talk about it? 
A woman was recently refused a hotel liquor, license 
in Armstrong County, Pa., upon the ground that women 
may not legally hold a license to sell liquor in that State. 
If a man gives his wife a fair chance to say “I told you 
so,” it is her privilege to say it. Some people abuse a 
privilege. Others make the privilege stronger by refusing 
to use it. 
This is a good time of year to start boiling the water, 
if there is any doubt whatever of the source of supply. 
As we have remarked before, it is easier to acquire a taste 
for boiled water than to recover from a siege of typhoid. 
A tramp in Indiana tried to crawl into a dog's kennel. 
The dog bit him, and the tramp sued the owner. The 
court decides that the dog had a right to defend his home! 
Even a dog has rights before the law. He does not always 
get them! 
Hen keeping at Rangoon must be an exhilarating occu¬ 
pation. A resident who heard a noise in his .henhouse 
entered to investigate recently, and was immediately at¬ 
tacked by a leopard, which lacerated his head, face and 
body in a dangerous manner. 
A Kentucky firm which advertised for sale “four quarts 
of 10-year-old Favordale whiskey and one full quart of 
Jed Wainwright's old moonshine whisky for $2.80" has 
been barred out by a Postoflice fraud order. The delecta¬ 
ble fluid offered proved to be raw spirits diluted with 
water. 
Rather a startling suggestion in parcels post is offered 
by II. Rider Haggard, the English writer. He sees no 
reason why parcels weighing 100 pounds should not be 
carried for the special benefit of the farmer, who might thus 
put. a stamp on a barrel of produce and hand it over to 
the Postoflice Department for delivery. 
A bill before the Minnesota Legislature, providing for 
the payment of $2 bounty for each rattlesnake killed in 
the State is objected to on the ground that it would make 
rattlesnake culture a profitable industry. It is asserted that 
in February that State paid $4,096 in wolf bounties, and 
that the wolves are carefully protected through the cub 
stage, when worth only $1, until past the yearling age, when 
worth $7.50. 
