326 
April 15, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TUE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established. 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
SSJK i *—>*“■ 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. (id., or 8 Mi marks, or 10 Vi 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 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, APRIL 15, 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. 
* 
We have seen several letters from commission men 
which read about as follows: “There is absolutely no 
sale for cultivated ginseng root. Do not send us any 
more!” The Chinese refuse to buy this cultivated 
ginseng, and there is no use for it outside of the Chinese 
trade. This is the end of the great boom in ginseng. 
It comes earlier than we expected, yet we understand, 
people are still investing their hard-earned money in 
seeds and roots! 
* 
There are a number of people who persist in dis¬ 
counting whatever good impression they would like to 
make in sending a letter or writing an article. They 
take scraps of old paper, backs of letters or bills, with 
a soft pencil, and frequently send the sheets without 
even looking them over or arranging them. There is 
little excuse for this when clean paper and ink are as 
cheap as they are to-day. It will pay any farmer who 
writes a dozen letters a year to have his name, the name 
of his farm and his post office address neatly printed on 
writing paper. This is one of the things that modern 
business demands. It is not “putting on airs,” but 
rather solid sense. 
* 
A brush heap or lot of dead grass along the fence or 
back of the barn is almost as dangerous as a powder 
mill during the dry windy days of Spring. Smokers or 
boys who are fond of playing with matches are likely 
to set such tinder patches on fire. We have noticed 
several cases this Spring where buildings were in 
danger, and in one instance fire in a strip of sod where 
the grass was uncut last year would have destroyed 
a number of buildings had it not been for the arrival 
of neighbors who raced across the fields. A broom 
with a pail of water to dip it in is the best weapon 
to fight a fire running on the ground, but to prevent 
the accumulation of such rubbish is better. 
* 
It might be considered a little discouraging to have 
readers continue to ask if they should sow Crimson 
clover in Spring, cow peas with oats or use wood ashes 
with hen manure. These thines have been explained 50 
times. Crimson clover is a cold weather plant. Cow 
peas are as tender as beans, and must not be confused 
with Canada field peas. Ashes contain lime which when 
mixed with hen manure will set free the ammonia—just 
what we do not want to do until the manure is worked 
into the soil. We realize that many of these things do 
not interest people until the necessity comes for putting 
them into operation. It is also true that hundreds of 
new readers are constantly appearing. So we always 
tell the old stories cheerfully. 
* 
A few weeks ago we told what happened to a fruit 
tree in California after a wandering “tree doctor” had 
got done with it. He bored a hole into the tree, put in 
a powder and plugged up the hole. The tree died! It 
seems that thousands of trees were abused in this way 
last year in Michigan—at 50 cents a tree. We under¬ 
stand that not a single favorable report has been re¬ 
ceived! There is no State in the Union where the 
experiment station and the horticultural societies are 
quicker to expose a humbug. How then did this one 
find a chance to draw blood money? If you will tell 
us you will answer one of the greatest questions of the 
day. The tribute paid to frauds that have been well 
exposed would quickly pay the National debt. If the 
grown-up people who throw their money away were 
the only sufferers we would not care, but weaker and 
helpless ones often pay the penalty. 
* 
The fence wire question is still full of barbs. Some 
of the correspondence readers have had with manufac¬ 
turers is amusing and instructive. This is what a 
Pennsylvania man says: 
I wish to erect 60 to 80 rods of fence this Spring, and 
have been .ooking about among suvertisers for a fence worth 
putting up. Two samples have been received, one claiming 
to l>e “galvanized,” the other “double galvanized,” which 
upon analysis proved innocent of any galvanizing what¬ 
ever. 
You see people have begun to investigate and test. 
Next week we shall print the chemical test used by the 
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. for wire. This 
great company cannot afford to use untested wire. Why 
should a farmer be expected to do so? Secretary Wil¬ 
son writes that his new wire bureau has been started, 
but is not yet ready to report. The people will wait a 
reasonable time, and then make things lively for the 
bureau. Keep up the demand for better wire and use 
the test on samples. 
* 
Among other strange things connected with the Post 
Office Department the following is reported from Penn¬ 
sylvania : 
As secretary of the Grange at this place I received at the 
post office March 25, 40 large Government Yearbooks from 
one of our Congressmen—over 150 pounds—some, a major¬ 
ity— 1899 and on up to 1903— Post Master said he had 
orders to weigh and report back to Washington I). C. Are 
such sent out to make a heavy mail for railroads to get their 
yearly carrying rates? Why were they sent now, six years 
behind time? March 29 another bag of books—some 125 
pounds, making 275 pounds in all. w. b. t. 
Here is a case where the Congressman ought to ex¬ 
plain. Why did he wait four or five years before send¬ 
ing these books? Why does he send them all at one 
time? We should write him and find out. The year 
books are valuable publications, but they ought to be 
sent on time. The railroads will get their share of mail 
carrying—if they have to carry old clothes for Con¬ 
gressmen. 
▼ 
This year will see an increased number of city fam¬ 
ilies making for the country to try to build a new home 
on a farm. There is hard work ahead of them, though 
Spring is the hopeful and happy season. For their 
benefit we want to print the following note from one 
who has been through the mill: 
I could fill a book with errors committed in the past 
four years, while our successes could probably lie Inscribed 
on the back of a postal card. Still we are well and happy; 
wouldn't go back to any period of our former Ilf j if we 
could, and we do really seem to Ik 1 gradually and surely 
pulling out of a bad hole. I have oceans of sympathy for 
the city man who wants to get out into God's country. I 
realize something of how be feels, and I know something 
of what he has got to “run up against" if he makes the 
attempt, but if the man and his family are united it can lie 
done, and successfully too, in nine cases out of ten. 
When the man from the city is prompted to go and 
tell his neighbors how slow they are and how he is 
going to beat them at his own game he would well go 
into the house and read this over—especially the state¬ 
ment of successes. 
* 
On page 198 Mr. Cosgrove told us that $30,000 worth 
of western grain was bought last year in one single 
town containing 300 voters! This grain was fed to 
cattle, sheep or poultry. That $30,000 will buy not far 
from 1,400 tons of wheat bran or its equivalent. If of 
average quality this would mean 03,000 pounds of nitro¬ 
gen, 40,000 pounds of potash and 77,000 pounds of phos¬ 
phoric acid brought from the West into this one Con¬ 
necticut township. It will require over 6,000 tons of 
average stable manure to provide the nitrogen alone, 
vv'hile no doubt some of this grain is fed at a loss the 
eastern buyer probably makes a greater profit out of 
feeding it than the western farmer does out of the 
growing. 
* 
Every year the question comes up concerning trade 
marks or “patents” for new varieties of fruits. Some 
people on introducing a new variety, try to convey the 
idea that they have a complete monopoly covering its 
sale, as the patentee of a manufactured article has. This 
claim will not hold water. The courts have decided that 
a living thing, like a plant, which propagates and multi¬ 
plies without the aid of man, cannot be monopolized. 
A man may discover some new principle governing a 
watch spring or a steam engine, and secure a patent. 
This gives him for a time a monopoly, and no one can 
manufacture the article without paying a royalty. The 
case would be different with a grapevine or a strawberry 
plant. In that case no manufacturing on the part of 
man is needed. Increase of the new variety is made by 
natural processes, and when a man once buys the new 
variety he may sell the increase if he cares to do so— 
unless he has signed a contract not to do so. This often 
means a hardship to the originator of a new variety, 
but there seems to be no practical way of preventing 
it. The introducer may keep control of his original 
stock, and charge a high price for the first few genera¬ 
tions—giving a guarantee of purity. It is, however, im¬ 
possible to test any new variety without scattering it. 
We regret that the introducer of a new grape has less 
advantage in the market than the inventor of a new 
mop-handle, but we must deal with the facts. 
* 
The plan of sending packages of “free seeds” back 
to the Congressman who is responsible for them seems 
to be popular. The trouble is that many people w'll 
find the seeds too useful for chicken feed. The seeds¬ 
men of the country seem to feel that there is little use 
trying to stop the distri’ ution. Mr. J. J. H. Gregory 
is a philosopher. He says that farmers must accept the 
fact of the seed distribution and attempt to make it 
useful. 
Let us not fight it down, but swing it into a distribution 
of the really new and rare and stand by liberal appropria¬ 
tion for the discovering and distributing of them. 
We have always considered this a sensible thing to 
do, but will these “new and rare” varieties give the 
Congressman what he thinks he gets out of it? In 
some way his fingers must be pulled out of the pie! 
* 
There may be few seeds in the “Seedless” apple, but 
the germs from which “big stories” grow are packed 
close inside the skin. The daily papers now report that 
King Edward of England has become an agent for the 
sale of the trees! At least this is what is reported: 
“Delicious. The best apple I ever tasted.” In this lan¬ 
guage King Edward of England, by cable, sounded the 
praise of the Colorado seedless apple. Incidentally he is¬ 
sued an order that the delicacy he served at court dinners 
whenever such apples can lie had. Four fine specimens 
of the fruit were sent last week to London. One was sent 
to the King and the others were sold at auction for charitv, 
bringing 60 shillings each, or at the rate of $3,000 a 
bushel, the highest price ever paid for apples. 
This prompts one of our readers to send us the fol¬ 
lowing note: 
You must have tasted the wrong apple, or King Edward 
is a poor judge. You and King ldward should have a 
meeting and appoint a third party to decide this. 
Any time King Edward will express a desire for such 
a meeting we will be on hand with a few samples of 
really good fruit. We said some time ago that if the 
King will only use his influence to make apple eating 
popular he will be of great service to apple growers. 
We don’t care whether he begins on a “seedless” or a 
Ben Davis, for he will never eat either one the second 
time after he gets a taste of really good fruit. We 
feel that we have done our duty as regards this “seed¬ 
less” apple. No reader of the The R. N.-Y. can have 
any excuses for buying the tree and then saying “I 
didn’t know!” About next year some of the other 
agricultural papers will begin to talk about the fruit— 
after their readers have paid out good money for it. 
BREVITIES. 
Spring comes on with a rush! 
To control others—-first control yourself. 
Don’t let the fires go out too early. Summer isn’t here 
yet 
IIow many readers had trouble in selling rhubarb forced 
in the dark? 
You are more likely to get a thing done by a man who is 
full of business than one who has “nothing to do”! Why? 
What good can it do a farmer to know about bacteria? 
They control most of his farm operations. Shall he under¬ 
stand them, or be obliged to take the word of some one 
else? 
“A thorough job at spraying"—line up 10 men and 
they will "ive you 10 different opinions as to what is 
“good enough.” 
If after what has been said about it, any man now “booms” 
the seedless apple and advises its planting you have a right 
to hear the jingle around his motives. 
In soaking grain to destroy smut remember that the 
germs of u.sease are inside the chaff scales. Therefore a 
thorough soaking or wetting is needed. 
During 1904 there were 8.022 inmates of New York state 
prisons while 101,554 persons were admitted to county jails. 
Among the latter were seven helpless infants. 
If a man advertised water glass at 15 cents a pound, and 
another offered the same thing as “Wonderful Egg Pre¬ 
server” at one dollar, which do you think would get rich 
first? 
Will somebody tell us why “success’ with most men seems 
to induce them to trample more and more over the rights of 
others? Is the brand of “success” the wrong one? Looks 
like it! 
“Alfalfa meal" is the dried stems and leaves of Alfalfa 
ground to fine meal. It is about equal to wheat bran in 
feeding value and sells at a good figue. Feed the hay to 
cows and see them grind it into a square meal. 
The South is a cotton and hog c untry. and if cotton¬ 
seed meal could be used in place of corn to produce pork 
it would be a great gain to the section. Experiments 
in Arkansas show that the cotton seed meal can be fed in 
small quantities with corn but not safely alone. 
