7oo 
September 23, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Hekbert W. Collingwood, Kditor. 
Or. Walter Van* Fleet.) . „ „ 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, ^ Associates. 
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 y 2 marks, or 10*4 francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL,” 
\Ve 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 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, SEPTEMBER 23, 1905. 
VOTE WITH THE ENVELOPE. 
The R. N.-Y. lias done its share in urging farmers 
to vote with the postage stamp. This voting lias elected 
results—even those who were stamped into line will 
admit that. Now we ask your stamp vote for.another 
purpose, which is explained on the next page. We want 
you to vote with this little envelope, which you may do 
by getting a friend or neighbor to authorize you to 
write his name in this envelope and send it to us with 
10 cents. We seldom ask you for favors, hut this is a 
tiling that we feel free to come to you with. Help us 
in this way, and we will try to make the service mutu¬ 
ally helpful. Vote with the envelope! 
* 
What prices are offered for apples in your neighbor¬ 
hood? Varmors find it very useful each year to com¬ 
pare such prices. There may be a great difference in 
such offers in localities only a few miles apart. Send us 
the figures. This is a practical method of co-operation. 
* 
' In some of the districts in New York where cabbage 
is grown the crop will be small. Buyers will soon he 
going through these sections talking “big western crop” 
in order to hold eastern prices down. What are the 
facts? We want reports from western cabbage growers, 
giving a fair statement of conditions and prices offered. 
Here is a chance for cabbage growers to co-operate 
without cost. 
* 
The fakers and the funny men are hard at work ad¬ 
vertising Luther Burbank. The fakers take some new 
plant which Mr. Burbank is watching, write extrav¬ 
agant stories about it, and broadcast the statement all 
over the country. The funny men solemnly tell of new 
breeds of hogs or mules which the “wizard” is to let 
loose upon the public. It is too bad that a modest, 
retiring man like Mr. Burbank should be annoyed in 
this way. Notoriety is painful to him. 
* 
As one result of the investigation of the Agricultural 
Department promised by Secretary Wilson, Dr. D. E. 
Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, has 
resigned. This Bureau has been little more than a vet¬ 
erinary department. In spite of the criticisms of stock 
men, this Bureau has done some useful work, but it has 
never come up to what seems to us the possibilities of 
such a department. Now that Dr. Salmon has retired 
the Bureau might well be reorganized, broadened out 
and made to attend to other matters beside meat inspec¬ 
tion and animal diseases. The live stock interests of 
the country would appreciate this, and Secretary Wilson 
might well consider the plan. 
* 
There is very little open'objection to the proposed 
“good roads” appropriation which will he submitted to 
New York voters this year. The proposition is to bond 
the State for $50,000,000. the money to be used, under 
fair restrictions, for improving the State highways. 
There are many people in the State who object to the 
principle of State bounties. It is safe to say that thou¬ 
sands who voted against the canal appropriation will 
favor the road bonds or not vote at all. It would hardly 
be possible to name any plan for spending public money 
that comes nearer benefiting the entire people than this 
one of improving country highways. The canal appro¬ 
priation. the proposed shipping subsidies, and other ways 
of spending public money benefit small classes of people. 
f 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKE 
Good roads will benefit rich and poor, city and country 
alike. The humblest road running back to a farm 
home is a part of the Nation’s great highway system. 
* 
The large express companies seem to work on the 
principle that they can tire out people with just com¬ 
plaints by writing that they are “looking it up.” They 
seem to figure that most people will stop writing after a 
while and pocket the loss. There is no chance for the 
owner of a small package, lost or damaged, to obtain a 
fair settlement, and in most cases the amount is too 
small to warrant one in bringing suit at law. The 
writer has a case of this sort against an express com¬ 
pany, and as an experiment we intend to keep at it and 
see just how long it will take to “look it up.” No doubt 
many heads now black will be white as snow before the 
“investigation” is finished, but we will see it through. 
* 
Among organized workers for the parcels post the 
Society of American Florists may be reckoned upon for 
active and intelligent support. At the recent annual 
convention of this society at Washington, D. C., Pres¬ 
ident Vaughan observed, in his address, that postal 
reform is perhaps the most important National matter 
affecting florists, seedsmen and nurserymen. He con¬ 
siders that the third and fourth class matter should be 
combined on a basis of one cent for two ounces, and 
that there should be a bulk rate per pound for cata¬ 
logues, without the per ounce weight limit which now 
compels the trimming of catalogues to an exact fraction 
of an ounce. Mr. Vaughan asks each and every florist 
to write his Congressman concerning parcels post and 
other postal reforms. There are a great many florists 
in New York State, and their pens arc likely to provide 
more thorns than roses for the. Hon. Thomas C. Platt. 
This is no reason, however, for farmers to cease remind¬ 
ing the same venerable gentleman of their views on this 
subject—the florist and the farmer ought to make a 
strong team. 
* 
The following statement about fence wire comes from 
various parts of the country: 
Dealers here say that just as good fence wire can be fur¬ 
nished as was ever made (which some editors don't seem to 
know) and tlie farmer Is not going to demand it at the extra 
price until he learns by experience that he must. h. a. ii. 
We know what the dealers say, but suppose you ask 
them to give a written guarantee that the wire will last 
15 years—as the old-fashioned wire did. See what a 
silence will fall upon them! If they have wire just as 
good as was ever made why should they hesitate to 
guarantee it? During the past year, since the present 
campaign for better wire was started, a better quality 
of wire has been put on the market. The chief improve¬ 
ment is in the galvanizing, but this docs not cover all 
the trouble. The metal now used is not equal to the 
old style metal in its power to resist rust. Our friend 
makes a mistake when he says that farmers are not 
willing to pay extra for extra quality. A good propor¬ 
tion of them know that quality pays, and as soon as a 
manufacturer is willing to give a guarantee he will 
find this out. 
* 
Hon. Thomas C. Platt, the expressman who sits in 
the U. S. Senate and does his best to put a point of 
order on the parcels post law, has his troubles like the 
rest, lie has just been sued by a woman who claims 
to have secured important information for him. Here 
is part of the newspaper report: 
She alleges that she gave Senator Platt such information 
as was useful to him while she was in the Post Oflice De¬ 
partment and that she first discovered that Postmaster-Gen- 
eral Payne intended recommending the passage of a post 
check system hill in his annual report in 1902. This in¬ 
formation she says she gave to Senator Platt who, she al¬ 
leges, went down to the Department early next morning and 
after marshaling his political forces succeeded in having the 
leeommendations greatly modified. She says Mr. Platt told 
her the information saved the express companies hundreds 
of thousands of dollars. 
This money was saved for the poverty-stricken 
express company out of the public. The system oi send¬ 
ing money by post check would have been a great con¬ 
venience to country people, but it meant fewer money 
orders for the express companies. What a helpful thing 
it is to have a man in the Senate who works so hard in 
the interests of the common people. We will give him a 
little information which will not cost him a cent—or a 
lawsuit. Farmers and common people generally want a 
parcels post. What is more, they will have it if it is 
necessary to make the U. S. Senate all over. 
* 
Mr. Jamison of southern Ohio (page G95) finds it 
hard to understand why farmers in other sections should 
go to such pains to get a stand of Alfalfa. Inoculating, 
using lime and fertilizers, and all the petting and fussing 
which some writers advocate seem useless to him, for 
in his locality all one has to do is to fit the land and 
sow the seed. Tn that section Sweet clover grows in 
abundance, therefore inoculation is not necessary. The 
R. 
natural soil is in the proper condition, therefore lime 
is not needed. We have heard farmers around Syracuse 
express surprise that anyone should have trouble in 
growing Alfalfa. They have no trouble, then why 
should others fail? This misunderstanding is brought 
about through one of the most common errors of 
human nature—failure to understand the conditions 
which surround another. The writer seeded Alfalfa 
five times, following closely each time careful directions 
from an Alfalfa expert. The result may be fairly stated 
as V/ failures. The sixth attempt, in which both lime 
and inoculating soil were used, promises to be a success, 
although possibly more “fussing” may yet be needed. 
Like thousands of other farmers, we are satisfied that 
a good stand of Alfalfa will he worth all it can cost in 
experimenting and study. Tt will usually prove most 
valuable in soils and in situations where it is hardest 
to get it started. We are not willing to leave it to 
those who have only to fit the natural soil and sow the 
seed. We want the crop, even if it requires lime, bac¬ 
teria or what not to make it grow. These things arc 
evidently needed by some of us. 
* 
The prices for vegetables and fruits quoted by our 
friend on page 095 ought to set many a farmer to think¬ 
ing. This man is like many others who live in New 
York. They want good vegetables, and are willing to 
pay fair prices when they can buy fresh goods. Under 
the present system of distribution it is almost impossible 
for such people to buy what they want. The vegetables 
are usually a week or more from the vine before they 
are delivered to the consumer. They have passed 
through several hands, each one of course demanding 
a share of the final retail price. By the time the rail¬ 
road, the carter, the commission man and the small 
dealer have had their share there is little left for the 
farmer under such a system. The buyer is not satisfied 
and ends by eating less than half the vegetables that 
he would if he could get them fresh. The farmer con¬ 
cludes that he is called upon to support several families 
besides his own by providing work for all these handlers. 
The situation is had enough, and there seems no imme¬ 
diate chance for relief. In many other cities, from 
Boston to Baltimore, farmers can drive into the city, 
open a stand in the public markets, and sell their goods 
direct. Something of this is done in New York, hut the 
city being built on an island, is harder to reach. The best 
solution of the problem would be co-operative stores in 
the residence districts, where the farmers of a locality 
could send their goods with some representative to sell 
them. In theory this is one of the easiest things to do, 
while in practice it is the hardest. Such things, how¬ 
ever, should cause a farmer to make sure of his own 
garden at least. _ 
BREVITIES. 
Looks like a short potato crop. 
Time to have the pullets housed. 
Nearest to meat of anything that grows—Lima beans. 
The asparagus patch is a good place for Fall chickens. 
IlOW about the man who is willing to accept an easy and 
pleasant job? 
No, you will not always drive things to a head by spend¬ 
ing too much time detailing them ! 
For the man who doesn’t see the importance of it, spray¬ 
ing is the meanest job on the farm. 
. Din it ever occur to you that the habit of giving others 
“a piece of your mind” does not add in any way to peace 
of mind? 
The suggestions given by Mr. Cox on first page will in¬ 
terest many fruit growers. Two or three pickings from one 
tree seem worth while. 
When you find a D. S. Senator who objects to the election 
of Senators by popular vole it's 10 to 1 that he couldn't 
possibly be elected that way ! 
Efforts to organize agricultural laborers in this country 
into labor unions have thus far failed. In Denmark, we 
understand, the workers in creameries, 4,000 strong, will 
organise to protect their interests. 
Note from the Syracuse Alfalfa field : “The third crop 
of Alfalfa is coming on nicely, and new seeding looks good. 
We have some that was seeded alone July 22, after peas 
for canning factory, and is looking very well.” 
Since the note about Winter work in Florida was printed 
we have had many letters from men who want the spend 
the Winter south. From our experience we should say that 
If a man is able to pay expenses on such a trip he will do 
well. 
Some six months ago the city farmer who was to show the 
“old mossbacks" how to run their farms was at bat. Now 
he is looking for a hole in the fence—wishing he had some 
of that moss on his own back to break the fall. These “old 
farmers" are hard to beat on making a living. 
It seems to be the fashion now to try to clean stains of 
history ofT ancestors or “old inhabitants.” A good argu¬ 
ment is now being made to show that the Hessians who 
fought for King George in the Revolution did not: bring 
the destructive wheat fly which bears their name. 
The master butchers of Germany have petitioned their 
government to permit the entry of live animals free of duty. 
The price of beef cattle on the hoof September 7 was 14 % 
cents a pound, and of live pigs 14 cents. The high price 
of food is injuring many industries in the great manu¬ 
facturing towns of Germany. 
