73a 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 7, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Herbert w. Gollingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Vax Fleet, ( Ai , 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, ( Associates. 
Johx J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 52.04, 
equal to 8s. t!d.. or 8% marks, or 1014 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, hut we do not guarantee 
to adjust trifling differences between subscribers and honest, 
responsible advertisers. Neither will we he 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 hank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 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 R. N.-Y. advised experiments with kerosene 
and limoid for spraying to kill the San Jose scale. We 
would like to have reports from those who tried it. 
We want especially notes on Summer spraying. With 
us the K.-L. gave fair results, killing many scales, but 
not cleaning the trees entirely. What has it done for 
you? How does it rank with lime and sulphur, oil or 
caustic soda? 
* 
We still receive questions about the law governing 
rural mail boxes. Can the authorities compel a citizen 
to buy and use a metal box? No; but they can refuse 
to deliver the mail in a box which has been condemned. 
The inspectors decide whether a homemade box is safe 
enough to be guaranteed by Uncle Sam. If they think 
not they can notify the owner to buy a metal box. If 
he will not do it the carrier may refuse to put the mail 
in the old one. He will do it at his own risk. 
* 
The questions about fence wire are printed on page 
739. We have received many answers already, all the 
way from Iowa to Maine. We want 10,000 answers 
if possible. Do not put this aside as of no consequence 
—it is an important thing which requires your help. 
The questions are well put, and cover several vital 
points. We do not discuss them yet, because we want 
unprejudiced opinions. The chemists are doing their 
part in the laboratory, but they want reports from the 
field. You can help them. Walk around your fences 
and then answer the questions. We need your help! 
* 
It is reported that a majority of the officers of the 
regular army would like to have the “army canteen" 
restored. This “canteen” is a place in army posts where 
wines and beer are sold to the soldiers. We have talked 
with enlisted men who say that much of the discontent 
among soldiers over this matter is the fact that while 
liquor is kept from the privates in the grounds officers 
have plenty of it at their headquarters and homes. The 
private soldier resents what he calls a special privilege 
in rum drinking for the officers! Suppose these officers 
tried the experiment of setting their men an example 
in temperance. Let them quit drinking and throw the 
liquor out of their own clubs. That would come pretty 
close to settling the “canteen” question for good. 
* 
We have heard farmers say that they do not need to 
use lime because they use large quantities of it in fer¬ 
tilizer. Ground bone and other forms of phosphate 
contain lime. We cannot obtain phosphoric acid in ordi¬ 
nary fertilizers without lime. Such farmers mistake the 
most necessary function of lime in the soil. Air-slaked 
lime has a chemical action which sweetens the soil, 
makes it more compact, or sets free other forms of plant 
food. This is quite distinct from its power to provide 
actual food for the plants. The lime in the bone or 
phosphate may in time serve as plant food, but the air- 
slaked lime is needed for the more important service. If 
one of these farmers were to come to dinner and find 
that his wife had used cooking soda in place of salt in 
the food he would find fault. Yet this would be much 
like his own theory regarding tlje crops carried out with 
his dinner. The cooking soda and the salt are alike in 
the fact that they both contain soda, yet one will not 
take the place of the other any more than the bone will 
take the place of the air-slaked lime. We must remem¬ 
ber that it is the form in which the lime is found that 
makes the difference. 
* 
We do not know of any dairymen’s association in this 
country that is quite as strong and practical as the Con¬ 
necticut society. This organization makes a business of 
holding several field meetings during the season. These 
meetings are held on farms of successful dairymen. 
They are very informal, and no one tries to “slick up” 
very much beyond the average appearance. The local 
Grange often provides the dinner, and good speakers 
are on hand for an outdoor meeting. It has been said 
that if the first settlers in New England had known 
what was beyond the Hudson, New England to-day 
would have been largely a cow pasture! Perhaps—yet 
judging from the cow owners of to-day it would have 
been a lively, prosperous and useful pasture. Individual 
farming still has a good chance in New England. 
* 
A few weeks ago we printed a short note from a man 
in Illinois who wanted to know about farm lands in the 
South. At least 25 letters have already been received 
from people who want to write this man. It is doubtful 
if he was ever before quite so oooular. These letters 
come from both North and South. The northern men 
offer a good job and the southerners cheap land. A 
good farmer, who understands his business, has only to 
make his presence known in order to receive calls from 
those who need him. The North offers him good mar¬ 
kets, fair priced land, a good opportunity with some 
farmer who needs help and is ready to retire. The 
South offers cheap land and good climate. It looks as 
if a man can find almost anything he wants—from a 
hornet’s nest to a home—through the columns of 
The R. N.-Y. 
* 
Nobody needs to show this man from Missouri some 
of the wheels that work inside of politics: 
Would it not be better to know wliat our representative 
stood for before we voted for him, then ask him to stand for 
parcels post or any other measure? I am with that as I 
was with a certain minister; he prayed to make our Con¬ 
gressmen of clean habits and to make them good men. I 
took him to task about it. I told him if he wanted good 
men in Congress to vote for good men. I told him that the 
man he voted for was a bad man, and he knew it. Now to 
put a bad man in office and ask God to make him a good 
man was to say the least mockery, and for my part I will 
know what the man stands for before I vote for him. 
Monroe Co., Mo. J. w. 
The trouble with that minister was that he didn’t 
pray with his ballot. We have found that the ballot 
and the pocketbook are the hardest things to pray with. 
If any man has a recipe for pinning a Congressman 
down to anything that is not in his party platform we 
want to print it in good-sized type. 
* 
The Scientific American undertakes to explain why 
the bicycle has gone out of use. We can easily remem¬ 
ber what a craze for wheeling spread over the country 
some 15 years ago. Now it is rare to find a bicycle on 
the road. The first reason given is that wheeling was 
too hard work. Many people hurt themselves by riding 
too hard and too far. It was not a healthy exercise. 
We heard a shrewd doctor prophesy the outcome cor¬ 
rectly 10 years ago. The other reason is a more serious 
social one. When wheels became so cheap that nearly 
every person could own one the sport became unfash¬ 
ionable. In spite of America’s boast of democracy peo¬ 
ple in this country ape the rich and so-called “exclusive 
set.” Each little class imagines itself above the class 
next below it When the price of a “wheel” started 
at $200 it could be used only by an envied few. As the 
price cheapened the number of wheelers increased, until 
it was no longer the thing to be seen doing what the 
crowd did. It is unfortunately true that the present 
generation is losing much of the sturdy independence 
which made it possible for their ancestors to leave them 
property :■ character. The decadence of the wheel rep¬ 
resents what has happened to many good old-fashioned 
habits and customs, and it is therefore one of the worst 
signs of the times. 
* 
Eor the past two years the United States Government 
has been preparing legal cases against beef packers who 
are accused of accepting rebates from railroads. Last 
week the first of those cases came up, and four packers 
pleaded guilty. They paid fines aggregating $25,000. 
The reason they gave for pleading guilty was that one 
of them was too sick to stand the trial. The true reason 
evidently is that they knew the Government’s case was 
perfect. If they were found guilty in the ordinary way 
they might be punished by imprisonment as well as fine, 
and the testimony against them would hurt their trade. 
As for their fines, a raise of a fraction of a cent a pound 
in beef will take the full amount out of the people! 
The chief value of this trial is that it shows part of 
what the Government can do with the laws that now 
stand on the books. When we are brought face to face 
with these public evils some one always calls for “new 
legislation.” In most cases there is no need of new 
laws—the old ones are strong enough if they can be 
enforced. This “new legislation” cry is often of the 
same nature as the yelp of the dog who will not close 
with the wild animal because he fears a scratch. A 
“rebate” is a bribe. If these packers accepted or gave a 
bribe the other party to the bribery must be the railroad, 
and it cannot be said that one is more guilty than the 
other. The money which these rebates and “graft” rep¬ 
resent comes finally out of the common people. It has 
taken the people over 25 years to be sure of this. Now 
they know it, and the “grafters” know that the end will 
come sooner or later. 
* 
The Colorado Potato beetle has invaded Europe three 
times within recent years, twice in Germany and once in 
England. In each case it has been “stamped out.” 
Entomologists report that not a specimen of the insect 
can be found in Europe outside of the museums. The 
last invasion was in 1901, when the insect suddenly 
appeared at a seashore town in England. As soon as 
it was discovered the Englishmen were ready, for 30 
years ago a law was passed giving the Board of Agri¬ 
culture powci to seize land infested with the Potato 
beetle. The potato stalks were dried and burned. The 
soil was soaked with paraffin, and gas lime at the rate 
of 60 tons per acre was spread on the land and plowed 
under. This was done in the Fall, the object being to 
destroy the old beetles which winter in the soil. Even 
this rough treatment did not kill the beetles, for a num¬ 
ber of them turned up in the Spring and started laying 
eggs. As fast as they hatched they were hand picked 
and thus destroyed. \ he country for miles around was 
examined, and every beetle killed wherever found. We 
do not understand in this country what it would mean 
to have this insect let loose in Europe. Here we accept 
its presence as a matter of course, spending millions to 
fight it, and losing millions more as a result of its work. 
Europe could not stand such a loss. As a food crop 
the potato means more to the European poor than it 
does to us, for we have sources of food in this country 
not known on the other side. The Germans grow nearly 
three times as many potatoes as are grown in this 
country. No wonder Europe is prepared to fight the 
Potato beetle as she would an invading army. Once 
fairly established, the beetle would bring about a revo¬ 
lution in most European countries, for the land would 
be filled with hunger. The fact that Europe, all through 
these years, has been able to fight off this pest should 
be a lesson to Americans who are now in danger from 
several imported insects. The Gypsy moth and Brown¬ 
tailed moth are now in New England, and reported as 
working west slowly but surely. If these insects are 
permitted to spread all through the country the result 
will be fearful loss. The National Government should 
come to the rescue at once, and help the New England 
States destroy these insects. 
BREVITIES. 
“Hew to the line," but let an honest man draw the line. 
Is the Sow thistle or wild lettuce a nuisance in your 
locality? If so, how do you get rid of it? 
Some apple growers figure that when buyers are hot after 
their fruit the best thing is to put it in cold storage. 
The man whose chief ambition is to ‘‘chase a dollar" must 
realize that it can roil into some small and unholy places. 
A New York policeman has fed letters to a hen to increase 
her egg yield. This is his report: “There is a dead hen 
laying in the street.” 
Just before frost pick the tomatoes and get them into the 
hotbeds with the glass on. Look them over from time to 
time and let them ripen. 
Men have, before now, shipped apples to Europe at a loss 
while the local markets did not consume 30 per cent of what 
could have been sold there. 
Kieffer pear is having a chance this year—the high 
prices for apples carrying Kieffer up. Now watch for an¬ 
other “boom” for Kieffer next year—and resist it! 
In sending a stamp in a letter wet the center of the stamp 
and stick it to the paper. When you wet the corner the 
“stick” pulls off and the corner remains loose. 
Last year Great Britain imported 10,051,230 bushels of 
apples—chiefly from this country. No wonder England and 
America are drawing closer together—the Apple Consumers’ 
League does it. 
The Iowa Homestead tells of a farmer in Missouri with 
such a fine corn crop that he cannot harvest it. He thinks 
he will “nail siding on the stalks of the outside rows and 
roof the field over.” 
An inquirer asks on page 738 how he may churn a small 
quantity of cream. Some of the city stores sell for this pur¬ 
pose an egg beater fixed in a two-quart glass jar, which is 
easily operated, and said to be entirelv satisfactory. 
The spores of grain smut are on the grain. It can only 
enter the young plant when sown with the seed. Hence the 
necessity of treating the seed. This is done by sprinkling 
the grain with one pound of formaldehyde in 50 gallons of 
water, piling it together and letting it sweat for two hours. 
