428 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 27, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
11 KKIIKKT W. COLI.INGWOOD, Edit/Or 
Dr. Wai.tkk Van Relict, f ,,, 
Mrs. K. T. Boyle, ( Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Eoslal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. Od., or 8% marks, or 10% francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
backed by a responsible person. Hut 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 anv* such swindler will be publicly exposed. We 
protect subscribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trilling 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 1o us within one 
month of the time of the transaction, and you must have 
mentioned The Rirai. 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, MAY 27, 1905. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order lo 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. 
* 
Continued study of the swamp lands in the Middle 
West piles up the evidence that many of us have been 
on the wrong track in our handling of such soils. It 
was formerly supposed that after draining lime would 
fit such soils for several if not many crops. It is now 
found that some of these soils are not sour enough to 
need heavy liming, but that they are always deficient in 
potash. The results obtained from the use of wood 
ashes on such soils seem to come from the potash 
rather than from the lime. 
* 
At this time last year new potatoes from the South 
were bringing $4 to $5 per barrel. This year good stock 
sells at $2.50. The chief reason for this low price is 
the large stock of old potatoes left over. People like 
to eat new potatoes, but the proportion of price between 
old and new does not vary greatly from year to year. 
The southern potatoes are a luxury and, except for the 
few who care little for price, the average consumer 
will not touch them when the price is over twice that of 
old potatoes. Too many potatoes were held last Fall. 
Now the surplus is being thrown upon the market for 
what, it will bring. 
* 
An opinion by Attorney-General Moody may be ac¬ 
cepted as another step toward legislation for regulation 
of railroad rates. Congress, he says, has the power to 
regulate interstate commerce. When rates of traffic are 
too high or through “rebates” and other methods, some 
shippers are given an unfair advantage over others. 
Congress has the power to stop the abuses of power by 
changing rates or methods. He also says that Con¬ 
gress may delegate this power to a commission. Thus, 
according to this legal opinion, the proposed law giv¬ 
ing the Interstate Commission power to enforce its 
own rulings will be constitutional. I his is important, 
since the bill has been opposed because it would be 
“unconstitutional.” President Roosevelt has come out 
squarely for the plan to give the Commission greater 
power, and there is no doubt that he has a great ma¬ 
jority of the American people at his back. Probably 
the wisest railroad men are prepared to accept such a 
law, because they are shrewd enough to see that in the 
present temper of the people the proposed change is 
conservative and not injurious to honest trade. 
* 
Reports from southern truck and small fruit grow¬ 
ers are discouraging. In South Carolina alone losses 
will run over a million dollars, due to poor railroad 
service and lack of refrigerator cars. During the past 
few years the business of growing strawberries has 
grown rapidly. This year the growers prepared for an 
extra large crop and secured it. 1 hey notified the rail¬ 
roads early and expected extra cars, as they had a 
4 right to. Instead of prompt and satisfactory service 
they were given the poorest service ever known in that 
section. In some cases where 20 refrigerator cars were 
needed barely half a dozen were provided. At many 
stations thousands of crates of berries were left ex¬ 
posed to the sun for more than a day and then shipped 
on so-called express trains so slow that the fruit was 
ruined. Instead of bringing prosperity and good feel¬ 
ing to the State the berry crop brought loss and dis¬ 
couragement. The most exasperating thing about it is 
the fact that the railroads blame the Armour Company 
for not furnishing iced cars, while the latter say they 
furnished cars as fast as the railroads called for them. 
Between them the railroads and the Armours seem 
likely to ruin a section which ought to be prosperous. 
All over the country wherever perishable fruit is shipped 
there is an outcry against the Armour Company for its 
iced car service. Last week we gave some facts about 
the situation in Michigan. Since then the Armour 
Company offered to compromise by making a reduction 
in charges if the shippers would withdraw their suit 
from before the Interstate Commerce Commission. 
This offer was very properly refused! 
* 
The references to “butted” and “lapped” glass on first 
page may prove puzzling to those unfamiliar with 
greenhouse construction. In butting, the glass is laid 
in the sash bars so that the ends exactly meet, without 
overlapping. The glass must be carefully fitted, as if 
not perfectly straight at the ends, cracks are left open 
at the junction, and annoying drips result. The cracks 
are either sealed with white lead or brought together 
with a narrow zinc strip bent into the form of a Z, 
so placed that one leg of the Z is above one pane, the 
other leg below the next. Sash bars especially made 
for butted glass are not rabbeted, the cracks at the 
sides of the panes being filled with thick paint, and a 
wooden strip then screwed down the sash bar to hold 
the panes in place. Canned glass is laid like shingles, 
the panes overlapping about one-eighth of an inch. No 
paint is put at the overlap. Although it is asserted that 
less glass is broken by frost or wind when butted, and a 
certain amount of soot or dirt is bound to collect under 
ilie overlap of lapped glass, as our correspondents say, 
the majority of practical florists here prefer the lapped 
system. 
* 
When the daily papers reported that King Edward of 
England called the “seedless” apple “delicious” and or¬ 
dered it served at all court dinners, we cheerfully printed 
the news. We have always understood that "court 
dinners” are pretty dry affairs! Having printed one 
side we are bound to present the other. The follovving 
note is now going the rounds: 
London, May fi.—The much vaunted seedless and eoreless 
apple, imported from America, lias been solemnly pronounced 
a fraud on the premises of Messrs. Shearn in Tottenham 
Court Road. On Thursday a little crowd of experts in fruit 
culture met to hear the fierce controversy which for most 
part raged around this fruit. Messrs. Shearn purchased for 
$1.') three months ago two of the only four alleged seedless 
apples which have so far reached England. Columns have 
been written about this fruit. Never before has au agricul¬ 
tural product received such a boom, and orders for the trees 
have poured in from all the parts of England. But there 
was an army of skeptics who talked and wrote with never 
falling energy, their sole desire being to see tlie two samples 
possessed by Messrs. Shearn put to the test of four swift cuts, 
and these seedless and coreless apples were undone, reveal¬ 
ing just as many pits and a harder and larger core than 
most other apples have. There was a gasp of astonishment 
among the onlookers, and the comments which were made 
were as heartless as the apples had been claimed to be. 
If Shearn is wise he will congratulate himself that 
this discovery cost him only $15. We are not told what 
these “onlookers” thought of the quality, but we can 
easily guess. King Edward is yet to be heard from. 
* 
The greenhouse questions discussed on the first page 
this week are characteristic of changing conditions in 
agricultural work. As the great cities enlarge their 
borders, and the suburban dweller treads close on the 
outskirts of adjacent farms, land becomes too valuable 
for bulky mixed farming and intensive culture must 
take its place. This, with the increasing demand for 
vegetable food, turns the farmer into the trucker, and 
the trucker into the greenhouse man. This form of 
evolution is clearly illustrated in many communities 
within easy haul of Manhattan, where hay, grain and 
potatoes first gave way to cabbage, salads and other 
green vegetables, with a few frames given over to 
pansies or daisies. Later the frames blossomed out into 
modest greenhouses; bulb stock and carnations succeeded 
the pansies, and, in the fullness of time stately rose 
houses nourished their fragrant crops above the hay 
fields of the preceding generation. These conditions 
repeat themselves in many a growing community, and 
the long-headed farmer prepares for them by familiar¬ 
izing himself with the simple facts of glasshouse cul¬ 
ture. We have been greatly impressed by the amazing 
increase in questions bearing upon such subjects which 
come to us in our daily correspondence. Naturally, 
every farmer is not or cannot be interested in glass 
gardening; environment and conditions must decide 
that. The growing of cut flowers in the vicinity of the 
great cities is now passing more into the hands of men 
of large capital, owing to the increased cost of equip¬ 
ment, but away from these centers, with a local demand 
to be fed. glass gardening is a good crutch for the 
trucker. Best of all. it provides interesting work that 
holds the family together, since both sons and daughters 
can find employment in "the art that doth mend nature. ’ 
The pictures on the first page preach a good sermon 
to those who grasp the text. There are loo many de¬ 
fectives—who through the loss of some member or fac¬ 
ulty find life made harder—who look only upon the 
dark side of their affliction. The deaf man will not see 
that his eyes are quicker and stronger; the blind will 
not realize that hearing is more acute; the man with the 
missing right hand will not appreciate the wonderful 
development of the formerly useless left! ft is said to 
he “human nature” to grieve over such losses, but is it 
not a poor sample of human nature which spends useful 
time with the dead? The two men pictured this week 
are not of that class. The hunter has taught his left 
hand and trained the stub of his right arm. The blind 
man can nearly see the corn with his hands. The un¬ 
discovered possibilities of the human body which afflic¬ 
tion brings into service may be classed among the most 
wonderful things of life. They are compensations 
wdiich God grants to those hopeful and fearless souls 
who will not be crushed down. We know afflicted 
people who have met their misfortunes in such a way 
that their work is both a guide and a shame to the 
strong, healthy men and women who lose heart and 
quad in the face of fancied disaster. 
* 
We have always considered an agricultural paper 
somewhat like an asparagus plant in one respect at least. 
Asparagus, during the season of cultivation, stores up 
material in its large roots. In Spring the shoots grow 
rapidly, very largely from this stored-up material. Some 
people have made the mistake of supposing that because 
the asparagus makes its edible crop in the early Spring 
this is the time to feed and cultivate the plant. 
The fact is that most of this feeding and cultivation 
should have been done 8 to 10 months before the edible 
shoots appear. The work of the Summer is like storing 
up a good bank account to be spent later. There is a 
tendency sometimes to neglect cultivation of the farm 
paper during the Summer. A poorer quality of paper 
will be used—fewer engravings and less care in select¬ 
ing and editing matter. The theory is that farmers do 
not read much in Summer, it is not the season for r.ew 
subscriptions and therefore the grip may slacken a little. 
In the Fall such papers put on better paper and freshen 
up as business becomes better. This seems to us like 
the work of the man who expects to feed asparagus in 
the Spring, or who attempts to increase the crop of 
strawberries or apples after the fruit buds had been 
formed. The farm paper ought to be at its best in the 
Summer. Character and reputation are made far ahead 
of the subscription season. If farmers do not read so 
much in Summer that is all the more reason why their 
paper should be made doubly interesting, so that they 
will be obliged to read it. 
BREVITIES. 
How many dairymen in your neighborhood own and use 
a Babcock tester? 
Do strawberry growers believe that spraying with Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture pays? 
The best “inoculation” for garden crops—Sweat drops 
from “The mau with the hoe.” 
Prof. Slingeri.anp advocates the prepared limes for mak¬ 
ing Bordeaux Mixture, but we find that stone lime still has 
plenty of friends. 
It makes one think that the world is surely moving to 
receive a bulletin on “Methods of Milking” from the Exper¬ 
iment Station of Hawaii. 
“The R. N.-Y. helps me ‘cut corners.’ We have taken 
three days to plant one acre of potatoes ; now myself and nine- 
year-old boy with team plant 1 % acre in one day and didn't 
work hard.” 
Southern farmers will be interested in China's proposed 
boycott of American goods, as we now sell that country 
$25,000,000 a year in textiles alone. The cotton industry 
would he one of the greatest sufferers. 
When glazing points rusted out too quickly florists told 
manufacturers what they wanted, and a non-rusting metal 
was used, says Mr. Lonsdale. That is one of the many 
cases where the florists have, established good precedents for 
other consumers to follow. 
The striking Chicago teamsters, irritated by the attitude 
of the express companies towards their organization, declare 
they will get even by using all their energies in the advance¬ 
ment of the parcels post. Well, now, they might do a lot of 
less useful things than that. 
China threatens to boycott American goods unless the 
terms of the proposed exclusion treaty recently discussed in 
the United States Senate are modified. The Chinese mer¬ 
chants at the head of this movement look with favor niton 
the exclusion of coolies, but they ask that respectable and 
well-to-do Chinese may visit America upon the same terms 
as other foreigners. 
The following formula for a tonic to make house plants 
bloom was printed in a household paper, being winner of 
first prize in a competition for useful suggestions: “Mix 
together one pound of whole pepper and one pound of cop¬ 
peras in one gallon of rain water. Crush the pepper and boil 
the whole together. Then add four gallons of rain water, or 
use four cups of water to one cup of the solution. Water 
the plants with this once a week. Keep it corked in a cool 
place.” The only improvement we can suggest Is the addi¬ 
tion of Worcestershire sauce and camomile tea. 
