476 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 17, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Da. Walter Van Fleet, i . 
Mas. K. T. Kovle, ^Associates. 
John 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% marks, or 10 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. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 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. 
The United States Supreme Court decided the fam¬ 
ous colored oleo cases against the oleo makers. The 
vital question w.as whether palm oil could be used so 
as to give a yellow tint to oleo. Not satisfied with 
this decision the oleo makers asked for a rehearing 
and made a long argument to show why the case 
should be reopened. 1 he court has denied the motion 
so that the decision must stand. It will be interesting 
to see what the oleo men will try next. 
* 
Sometimes a man rents a farm or a small place with a 
garden. He refuses to plant small fruits or asparagus, 
or plant fruit trees, because he says some one else will 
get the benefit of such planting. We have known men 
to defer planting year after year for this reason, their 
families going without fruit and vegetables meanwhile. 
It seems like a very small thing to deprive the family 
of a luxury for fear that we may leave a blessing behind 
us when we move away. Does anyone really desire to 
leave a curse in his tracks? That is about what we do 
when we leave a farm or garden without fruit. There 
are few pleasanter things than the chance to go back 
to some home of former years and see the trees we 
planted grown to usefulness. 
* 
Ten years ago nearly every back yard in a suburban 
town of 10,000 population contained a few trees each 
of apple, pear, peach and plum. The trees were gener¬ 
ally thrifty and gave the family nearly 50 per cent 
of its fruit supply. Now at least 9 out of 10 of those 
trees are dead—killed by the San Jose scale, and all 
the fruit used by the family must be bought. These 
trees developed the family taste for fruit, but are now 
out of business forever. The same thing is true to a 
greater or less extent in every large town at the East. 
People are demanding more good fruit, but find them¬ 
selves unable to grow it at home. This is one way in 
which the San Jose scale is making a market for fruit 
growers who can control the insect in their orchards. 
* 
A traveling “eye doctor” has been going through 
some nearby suburbs recently reaping an abundant 
harvest from the ignorance and credulity he encounters. 
He talks delightfully of the many troubles caused by 
defective vision, persuades his listener to submit to 
a test, free of charge, and then, of course, discovers 
immediate need for eyeglasses, which he supplies at a 
good price. People who would never think of handing 
over a watch or a bicycle to some wandering mechanic 
for the simplest repairs are quite willing to entrust 
their eyesight, most precious of senses, to such a char¬ 
latan. Let the wandering eye doctor alone; better spend 
a few dollars with a competent authority, if need be, 
and avoid the risk of injury which can never be 
repaired. 
* 
The Fourth of July will soon be with us again, and 
we may prepare for the usual list of accidents affecting 
person and property that follow its celebration. Last 
year the papers gave a list of 52 deaths and more than 
3,000 persons injured by fireworks on Independence 
Day, a longer list of casualties than the Japanese report 
in their recent great sea fight. The fire loss to property 
was something over $300,000, according to various 
authorities. The R. N.-Y. hopes it will not be ac¬ 
cused of lack of patriotism in suggesting that there are 
worthier ways in which to show love of country than 
in maiming oneself or one’s neighbors, nor is “the spirit 
of ’7G” displayed in the recklessness that burns down 
a barn. We have already plenty of laws governing the 
storage and use of explosives; we now need an en¬ 
lightened public spirit that will redeem such laws 
from the dead-letter class. 
* 
The development of rough land orcharding near Wal¬ 
lingford, Conn., has been going on quietly for some 
years. We have heard “experts” who were accepted 
as teachers say that success with such methods is quite 
impossible. Yet here are bearing orchards which pro¬ 
duce the finest fruit. It dotmii’t pay any man to lay 
down cast iron rules and say that nothing else will 
answer! At the same time no one can say that this 
rough system of planting and culture can be advised 
for general use. It is the best system for that sort 
of land. The wise man adapts his plan to his farm, 
for it is easier to change the plan than it is to change 
the farm. To us it seems clear that this rough culture 
points the way to a great change in American fruit 
growing. Thousands of acres have been standing idle— 
resting and gathering new strength. The last genera¬ 
tion believed it best to let them go back to the forest. 
The new generation will make the forest an orchard. 
* 
It is announced that the cost of free rural delivery 
of the mail will reach over $20,000,000 this year! This 
will cause a deficit, and require a larger appropriation 
by Congress. Some of the daily papers argue that this 
being so the parcels post is out of the question, since it 
would only add to the expense. The reverse of this is 
true. The parcels post would help make rural free de¬ 
livery self-supporting. The larger part of the parcels 
post mail would go to and from the country. This in¬ 
crease of revenue would mean little extra expense, for 
the carriers and their outfits are already paid for. They 
would simply carry a wagon load where they now carry 
less than a bushel of mail. We believe that within a 
year the postal receipts from rural delivery would be 
doubled, and that within a reasonable time the deficit 
would be wiped out. They will have to drum up a 
better argument than that. There are only four argu¬ 
ments against a parcels post—the four great express 
companies. 
* 
Some years ago a young farmer began to study ways 
for improving his condition. He had a good job as 
farm manager, but wanted a better one. He finally 
decided either to take a course at an agricultural college 
or to spend a year or two with good farmers in the 
great Alfalfa growing section around Syracuse, N. Y. 
He finally decided in favor of the Alfalfa field, as 
compared with college class room. Now we have a 
letter from him in which he says: 
The more I see of Alfalfa, the more I realize its possibil¬ 
ities. The farmers here have a bonanza and do not know 
it. Some do not grow Alfalfa because it makes too much 
haying. We are just learning the possibilities of Alfalfa 
and inoculation. I observe that when we get off (he lime¬ 
stone formation Alfalfa does not do so well. 
Next year this man will he after a position with 
some farmer who wants to make a speciality of Alfalfa. 
Of course our college friends will tell us this man was 
not wise in his choice of an education, but could they 
teach him any one thing that would be more valuable 
to him than a thorough knowledge of the needs and 
possibilities of Alfalfa? 
* 
Along a dusty road in a country neighborhood not 
far from New York a carriage came rolling one hot 
Summer day. In front of a farmhouse under great trees 
was an inviting well. The woman who rode in the car¬ 
riage motioned her driver to stop, and spoke to her 
footman: 
“Go and get me a drink of water from that well.” 
The footman started, and then hesitated. Well he 
might, for standing by the well, as if on guard, stood a 
great black dog. The open mouth showed long white 
teeth, and there was a faint mutter of a growl deep in 
the throat. 
“Go and get me the water!” commanded the woman. 
“But, madame, I am afraid of the dog!” 
“Go on! I would not miss you as much as I would 
the water!” 
The farmer inside the house heard the conversation. 
He came to the door, and at a few words from him the 
dog left the well and permitted the footman to draw 
the water. Less than 150 years ago the' ancestors of 
that woman in Europe had the same low estimate of 
human life or comfort. “I would not miss you.” 
Human life was cheap before the French Revolution, as 
it is to-day. Between the old-time aristocrat and the 
arrogant woman of to-day there have doubtless been 
wide changes in social conditions. Wealth, idleness and 
a wrong view of life have brought back the old, selfish 
aristocratic disregard of the rights and feelings of sub¬ 
ordinates. And now as then and ever the farmer must 
“call off the dog.” 
* 
It is coming time for the scientific men at the exper¬ 
iment stations to think about their vacations. Life is 
short, and even the vacation may well be used by a busy 
man for improvement. Some of the scientific men rec¬ 
ognize this fact and pass part of their vacation at some 
university digging a little deeper into laboratory sci¬ 
ence. We have before now suggested that they take a 
job as hired men on some average farm for a few weeks 
or months. Let them change their name and drop, if 
they can, the earmarks of the professor, and go out 
and work like an ordinary farm hand. Take our word 
for it, the experience gained in this way will be worth 
far more to them than a year in any great laboratory. 
They will size themselves up against what we may call 
the real thing.” At present some of them do not seem 
to realize just what the average farmer needs. Let them 
work in a farm family and learn, not through a micro¬ 
scope, but through the pores of the skin and the small 
of the back, just how large some of the farmers’ bur¬ 
dens are, and their lives never will be the same again. 
Get out against the real thing, gentlemen, if you want 
to be useful as well as ornamental. 
* 
Hardly a day passes that we do not receive several 
poems or short stories from people who evidently wish 
to earn money with their pens. As a rule these pro¬ 
ductions have little merit, and we cannot imagine how 
they could possibly command a cash value. They are 
usually crude, and show little or nothing of the ability 
to portray the true emotion of human life. We have 
no use for them whatever, and would prefer not to have 
them sent. It is to us a sad thing that so many young 
people are encouraged to write such matter, and really 
think that it can have commercial value. For some 
reason which we quite fail to understand most parents 
are delighted when John or Mary begins to write verses 
or compositions.” The habit is encouraged, often to 
the point of actual damage. There is no good reason 
why John’s poor verse or Mary’s crude essay should 
be ranked above Fred’s fine calf or Lucy’s light loaf 
of bread. The calf and the bread are of far more value 
to society, yet father and mother will not have it so. 
It is well to cultivate the power of expression in a 
child, hut this should not be done to the exclusion of 
the more useful, if homely duties, which all must face 
sooner or later. Many children get over the unfortu¬ 
nate idea that their pens will earn them an easy living. 
Others drag on longer to become more or less of a 
nuisance to their friends. A few with real genius keep 
on, and do really good work, but usually amid hard 
and unhappy conditions. Having had a chance to look 
at the subject from every side, the writer would most 
earnestly advise parents not to encourage children in 
the belief that their crude productions can have com¬ 
mercial value, or that they can make a living with the 
pen. 
BREVITIES. 
Spell ruin In italics —rum ■’ 
Don’t delay bay cutting too long. 
It takes grit to make a ben show her teeth ! 
Dry the grass with least exposure to the sun. 
Let some one else experiment with dynamite! 
Don’t try to breed up from a broken-down mare. 
Bend the style of your living to your circumstances. 
Be sure to remember that the fat in milk is not in the 
form of a solution. 
Too many farmers waste by-products and then waste 
money buying products. 
Din you ever swindle yourself out of a dollar and then 
blame It on some one else? 
Do not spend money on mushroom culture till you have 
read Bulletin No. 22V from Cornell University. 
What about a second spraying with Paris-green in August 
to destroy the second brood of Codling worm? 
Some people seem to regard inherited poverty as an incur¬ 
able disease. It isn’t. It may be made an antidote for 
laziness, and evil, and a germ of prosperity. 
The direct sales of bottled whisky often do more damage 
than the rumshop does. In this way the whisky gets into 
the home. The devil is most dangerous when he is most 
respectably dressed. 
Cut down a tree in full leaf and see how those leaves 
suck the moisture out of the trunk. Cut off or destroy the 
leaves and see how the moisture stays in the wood. Much 
the same with grass and clover. Do not let the leaves dry 
and rattle off at first. Let them suck moisture out of the 
stems. 
Bulletin No. 1G5 of the California Experiment Station 
has a curious history. Asparagus had become a leading crop 
in California, and growers did not understand the rust dis¬ 
ease. The Legislature refused to provide money for an in¬ 
vestigation, so the California Fruit Canners’ Association 
raised *2,500, and the Experiment Station secured an expert 
to study the rust and print his report. 
