668 
T1IH RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 9 , 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbsbt W. Collinowood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet,! 
Mrs. 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. Cd., or 8% marks, or 10% 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 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 lie 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, SEPTEMBER 9, 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. 
* 
Do not give your ->pples away this year. Good fruit 
is scarce and ought to bring $3 per barrel by Winter. 
There is no use accepting any story about “large crops,” 
for there isn’t any in sight. Do not give good apples 
away. 
* 
Usually at about this season of the year the old lie 
about farmers’ wives and insanity gets into print. Some 
wise man is quoted as saying that the great majority of 
women in insane hospitals come from the farm. This 
foolish lie is made the foundation for an argument to 
show that the “isolation” of farm life drives women 
insane. We have exposed this falsehood again and 
again. Last year we obtained figures from a large 
number of insane hospitals. It was proved that in 
proportion to population farming contributed fewer in¬ 
sane patients than any other occupation; this, too, in 
spite of the fact that all towns under 2,500 population 
were classed as “rural districts.” That lie needs a dose 
of caustic lye whenever it appears. 
* 
A nest of oleo frauds has been found near the mouth 
of the Hudson River. It seems that a firm in Jersey 
City, N. J., has been making uncolored oleo and sending 
it on trucks across the ferries to New York where it 
is distributed to hotels and boarding houses, chiefly on 
Long Island. There were no stamps or marks on the 
tubs to show what the stuff was but it was billed as 
“creamery butter” at 19 cents a pound. Assistant Com¬ 
missioner Kracke has caught the rogues in the very act. 
This is a case of inter-State commerce. New York 
officials have no authority to invade New Jersey and 
arrest these oleo men; and it connot be said that the 
State of New Jersey is active after such frauds. The 
Internal Revenue officers will be obliged to prosecute. 
We hope they will land the oleo men in a place where 
they can ue fed on the unmixed ingredients which they 
put together and sold as butter. 
* 
The average push cart dealer in New York does not 
look like one who would disturb the trade of a conti¬ 
nent. He is usually a Greek or Italian, not a close 
friend Of soap and with a vocabulary limited to “Sella 
da banan! Fivea centa!” Yet a rumor that he is to be 
driven out of business has given California more con¬ 
cern than chances of failure of the great peace meeting. 
There are about 8,000 of these dealers in the city. 
They push light wagons or carts about and sell oranges, 
bananas, apples, peaches and other fruits in season. We 
have no statistics, but we judge from appearances that 
they average at least l l / 2 bushel of fruit per day. This 
means daily sales of 12,000 bushels of produce, most 
of which would not be sold if the push cart men were 
put out of business. Many of them sell a class of fruit 
which would not be easily disposed of otherwise. Then 
again New York people eat fruit on the run, buying 
of the push cart dealers and eating from the hand as 
they go about their business. They do not sit down 
and eat apples or other fruit as country people do. 
The push cart trade suits such people, as the fruit is 
always ready to their hand. The quantity of Cali¬ 
fornia fruit sold on these push carts is enormous, and 
if they were kept off the street California trade would 
be seriously hurt. It must be admitted that in the pres¬ 
ent condition of the city streets these push carts are 
a nuisance. There are too many of them. Of course 
the grocers and fruit dealers object to them. We do 
not understand that the city authorities mean to abolish 
the push cart. They will, however, organize and restrict 
the business, as they have a right to do. 
* 
A New England nu'seryman is offering $25 reward 
for the discovery of some sneaking knave who turned 
a lot of Gypsy moth caterpillars loose in his nursery. 
When we consider the devastation already worked by 
this pest—the noble trees destroyed, the highways 
befouled, and the enormous expense entailed by efforts 
aiming at its suppression—it is hard to refer to such 
an outrage as its wanton dissemination with any degree 
of calmness and restraint. Yet several cases of this 
kind have been reported, and there is constant risk of 
infestation within our own fertile fruit-growing sections. 
No legal penalty now existing can adequately punish 
the disseminator of a mischievous insect pest. He ought 
to be confined, for the term of his natural life, within 
the limits of an alkali desert, there to ruminate, amid 
cactus and rattlesnakes, upon the misdoings that exiled 
him from his fellow men. 
* 
Few people outside of the business realize how gaso¬ 
line engines are coming into use on dairy farms. A 
few years ago it was a standing principle of good dairy 
practice that steam was the best dairy power because it 
can be used for cleaning pans and cans. The use of the 
hand separator seems to have changed that. Now on 
many farms the milk is poured from the milking pails 
or cans right into the separator. The cream cans are 
taken from the farm aiid steamed at the creamery, so 
that there is little to clean besides the milk pails and 
separator. This has driven the steam engine out of a 
job on such farms, for the gasoline occupies less space, 
costs less and gives the needed power without constant 
supervision. 'I his is only one way in which a change 
of method has made possible a change in machinery. 
Some years ago the man who bought a gasoline engine 
had to do part of the experimenting needed to test 
them. Now the machines are made so that they are 
fully reliable. 
* 
Reports are constantly coming of farmers who are 
building old style fences of posts and boards or planting 
hedges. In most cases these fences take the place of 
wire which has rotted away. Rather than put up any 
more inferior wire these farmers will use boards, 
though this will cost more. A farmer can get a good 
idea of the lasting quality of wood. He knows what 
it is and he knows that when well painted it will last 
for many years. Not so with the modern wire fence. 
It may last five years or it may be doing duty at the 
end of 15 years! Who can tell? Not a farmer, and 
so it is no wonder he prefers to use materials which he 
can count on. This ought to interest wire manufac¬ 
turers in two ways. It shows them something of the 
discontent which wire buyers feel. It also shows that 
there are a good many farmers who are willing to pay 
a good price for something that they can trust! They 
can trust a board because they can tell by looking at it 
whether it is sound or not. They cannot trust a wire 
in the same way because they .do not know what the 
galvanizing covers and contains. When a manufacturer 
will guarantee wire to last a certain time farmers will 
trust it as they now do a board. 
* 
For sentimental as well as business reasons Amer¬ 
icans will rejoice at the prospect of peace between Japan 
and Russia. President Roosevelt did more than anyone 
else to make this peace possible, and his remarkable 
work will strengthen this country as a world power, 
for this nation must hereafter take a prominent part in 
the development of the Far East. From a business 
point of view the future trade of China and Japan 
will be of vast importance to this country. So that, 
aside from any other consideration, the action of Pres¬ 
ident Roosevelt in helping to bring about peace will 
prove a substantial benefit to the Nation. As to the 
outcome of the peace negotiations, it seems to us that 
Japan has won a substantial victory. It will be hard 
to say what Russia has gained beyond saving her pride 
and escaping the payment of a sum of money which the 
majority of people thought a fair debt. Japan has 
gained every point for which she fought and consid¬ 
erable territory and property in addition. She has also 
made her position as a Nation secure. We take no 
stock in the theory that Japan made concessions out of 
benevolent or purely humane motives. It seems an act 
of wise and far-seeing statesmanship. Ten years ago 
Japan was robbed of the fruits of her victory over 
China because she did not have the backing of the 
other powers. Now, however, her course has been such 
that the other nations are under obligations to see that 
Russia lives up to her agreement. As to the cost of the 
war, we have no doubt that China will finally pay it 
in some way, since the country from which the Russians 
retire will be given back to the Chinese. The world 
will now wait with interest to see what Japan will do 
with the victory. 
* 
We all remember how the Department of Agriculture 
endorsed the wild stories told about “nitro culture.” 
Taking a fair estimate of the reports in the Government 
bulletins, about all that could be said was that the 
plan of using the bacteria was worth trying. The De¬ 
partment seemed to assume that it was all settled and 
that sure results would follow the use of the bacteria. 
The Pennsylvania Experiment Station has tested “nitro 
culture” carefully, sowing seed in pots so there could 
be no mistake about results. In three cases out of four 
the* plants which were not inoculated were slightly 
better than those in which the “nitro culture” was 
used. So far as the nodules on the roots go there was 
little, if any, difference. The Department made a great 
mistake in rushing to exploit this nitro culture before 
it had been fully tested. Farmers have not lost large 
sums of money through it yet, but the principle is a bad 
one and the Department has lost influence through this 
booming of a pet hobby. 
* 
A few years ago an “authority” on cooking started 
a crusade against the potato as an article of food. 
Figures and arguments were given to show that pota¬ 
toes should not be eaten because they furnish neither 
bone, strength nor muscle. This woman meant well, 
but she did not know what she was talking about. Her 
attempted crusade fell flat, as it deserved to. The fact 
is that with the possible exception of Indian corn or 
rice the potato is the most important food plant under 
cultivation. It feeds more working people who labor in 
northern latitudes than any other crop plant. Dr. Alex¬ 
ander Haig, of London, says that many of the ills of 
life are due to uric acid in the blood. He says that, 
roughly speaking, everyone forms about one grain of 
uric acid for each 12 pounds of body weight. If this 
is removed freely there is no danger, if not all sorts 
of disorders are possible. The problem of living is 
to get rid of this uric acid. Among other things, Dr. 
Haig says: 
With regard to quality'of food I exercise here also, an im¬ 
portant precaution. I am careful to eat potato (which con¬ 
tains a considerable amount of alkali), at least three times 
a day. the potato at breakfast being the most important, 
though not the most nourishing, item of the meal.* I am 
one of those who do not think it a mere chance that the 
lowest cancer death rate in the United Kingdom is to be 
found in association with the largest consumption of pota¬ 
toes in some of the country districts of Ireland 1 . Cancer, as 
I have elsewhere pointed out, is associated with retention of 
uric acid in tlie body, and next to warmth and natural activ¬ 
ity, there is nothing which is more likely to prevent this re¬ 
tention than the humble potato. 
Thus, in addition to its food value, the potato has its 
uses in preserving health. It is generally supposed that 
lettuce, celery, asparagus and other plants are “healthy,” 
but it would seem from this that the solid old potato 
outranks them all. It is claimed by some authorities that 
the leaves and stalk of the common potato contain a 
narcotic principle. An extract prepared from the 
leaves has been used with good results in cases of cough, 
rheumatism and cancer. Other members of the plant 
family to which the potato belongs have well defined 
medical properties. With these facts and when we con¬ 
sider the many ways in which potatoes can be cooked 
and served we see what folly it is for ignorant people 
to advise against its use. 
BREVITIES. 
Do not let patience become a vice. 
Give the weak chicken a chance by itself. 
The man behind the begun must carry it through. 
Trying to be funny is a work that makes everyone tired. 
Something to be proud of at this season—a clean straw- 
berrry field. 
The price of potatoes went up, the diggers got at work 
and down came prices again. 
As between the self-satisfied man and the unsatisfied it 
is hard to say which is more dangerous. 
Think of eating food that is guaranteed to keep “any 
length of time in any climate.” It would be tough on your 
stomach. 
When a man feels the acid of adversity and the shaking 
up of misfortune let him think that he is going through a 
sort of Babcock test to try his manhood. 
When you buy and haul coal in dry weather you haul 
less water than in a wet storm. It is possible to make a dif¬ 
ference of 200 pounds per ton in this way. 
The daily papers reported that Eastern Long Island was 
menaced by a swarm of Jack rabbits. Judging from what 
our readers say there is little or nothing in it. 
What is meant by a bureacracy? Go into some home 
where it is the family' ambition for the oldest daughter—■ 
along in years—to catch a beau and find out. 
