9oo 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKF.R 
December 16, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1860. 
Herbert W. Coi.lingwood, Editor. 
I)n. WALTER Van Fleet, / . . 
Mus. K. T. Ho VLB, j- 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 8Mi marks, or 10Mi 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 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 lie sent to us within one 
month of the time of tlie 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 cheek or bank draft. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 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. 
* 
Among other good features at the West Virginia Hor¬ 
ticultural meeting was an auction of the fruits placed on 
exhibition. A good crowd of townspeople attended, and 
the bidding started at 10 cents a plate. A good sum of 
money was realized, and every plate thus sold started a 
new fruit eater or brightened up an old one. One good 
thing about this meeting was that people took an interest 
in it. While it lasted it was the event of the town— 
made so because fruit growing has been made honorable 
and profitable in that locality. 
* 
The article on the next page is a fair statement of 
the cattle tick problem which confronts the South. 
This little insect has prevented the Southern States 
from occupying the position in beef and milk produc¬ 
tion to which their climate and soil entitle them. Here 
we have a large section of the country held up in its 
development by an insect which can with thorough work 
be exterminated. It is too large a problem for the 
South alone, and the Federal Government should take 
hold of the matter, just as it should aid in destroying 
the Gypsy moth in New England. 
* 
Last Summer President Roosevelt called attention 
to the long letters and tremendous bulletins sent from 
the various National departments. He fails to practice 
what he preaches by issuing a message of such fearful 
length that few busy people will read it all. It is in 
many respects a strong document, but too long. In all 
this flow of words we hunt in vain for any special ref¬ 
erence to the direct needs of agriculture. Not a word 
is said about a parcels post. The arguments for railroad 
legislation are well presented, and we advise readers to 
study this part of the President’s message carefully. 
* 
In England complaint is made of low prices for 
potatoes. The crop was fair, but rot was extensive, 
and fear of its spreading induced many growers to 
market earlier than usual. This has brought the price 
down. As soon as it goes up again imports of German 
and Belgian potatoes will begin. Some older men can 
remember the good old days when a shortage of pota¬ 
toes in one country surely meant high prices. Now a 
dozen countries are ready to pour their surplus into any 
market when the price reaches a certain figure. The 
German potato crop is over three times as large as the 
American. A large share of it is used for making 
alcohol, but millions of bushels could be sent abroad 
at short notice if called for. 
* 
The New York Experiment Station has issued a 
volume which means to fruit growers what a great 
and comprehensive history would mean to intelligent 
scholars. “The Apples of New York” is beyond all 
question the best volume on apple varieties that has yet 
appeared. Well bound and beautifully printed, and 
thoroughly reliable; it reflects great credit upon Prof. 
S. A. Beach and his assistants, Mr. Booth and Mr. 
Taylor. The R. N.-Y. seldom offers unqualified praise 
to the literary productions of the experiment stations, 
for we are frank to say that they seldom deserve it. 
We can appreciate the vast amount of work necessary 
to prepare such a volume and we are very glad that it 
has been printed. The best way to obtain this volume 
is through members of the New York Legislature. The 
present volume describes Winter varieties of apples, 
Fall and Summer varieties will be discussed in another 
volume. 
* 
Twenty-five years ago he would have been voted a 
wild man who said that any part of the South would be 
headquarters for daify cattle. The wildness of one age 
is the wisdom of another. The country around Stark- 
ville, Miss., is noted for its Jersey cattle. From a single 
herd the blood has spread till there is hardly a cow in 
the county without some trace of the Jersey. Grade 
heifers are sent away in carload lots all over the South. 
The business is better than that of growing beef steers. 
We sometimes hear the farmers of a neighborhood say: 
“If w all go into it the thing will be overdone, and we 
cannot sell the goods.” Usually the reverse of this is 
true. When a number of farmers begin together to 
grow Jersey cattle. Leghorn hens, Baldwin apples or 
some other product the quality is likely to improve. 
Competition is stimulated, and each tries to surpass the 
other. This means improvement. It advertises the sec¬ 
tion, and attracts buyers who can come and buy carload 
lots if they desire. All this is a form of cooperation, 
showing how men may work together fairly and hon¬ 
estly to help themselves and their neighborhood. 
* 
Attorney-General Moody gives another reason why 
the Interstate Commerce Commission should have the 
power to regulate railroad rates. He says that rail¬ 
road officials have declined to give evidence which 
would prove illegal rebates. 
The Department lias been, and is. willing to accept the 
evidence either of the shipper or of the railroad official, gis'- 
Ing him the immunity from prosecution which would result 
from the use of the evidence, and to proceed by indictment 
against the other guilty party. But, for reasons which will 
be appreciated by all. men have shrunk from betraying tbeir 
confederates. The cases therefore in which evidence has 
been or will be obtained are occasional and exceptional, and 
unless we are content to allow the evil of the discriminatory 
practice by common carriers to continue, with now and then 
the punishment of a detected crime, some remedy which 
reaches deeper than any law now upon the statute book 
must be found. 
Such a remedy would be the power, upon complaint, 
to fix a maximum rate subject to appeal to the court. 
Having made this rate the Commission could hold the 
railroad responsible, and then if it were caught giving 
rebates to preferred shippers there could be no dodging 
or evading the issue. The result would be that rates 
would be lowered, because the action of the railroad in 
giving low figures to one shipper would show what it 
could do for all. 
* 
What has become of the “Seedless apple”? We un¬ 
derstand that a company has been formed for the pur¬ 
pose of propagating and selling the trees. Exhibits 
showing specimens of the fruit in sealed jars have been 
made at various fruit shows. We recently met Mr. 
Scheu, the general manager of the company. He finds 
fault because when we pictured the apple which he 
brought us we did not state that it had been frozen. 
Just what this freezing would have to do with the core 
of the apple we are unable to say. If Mr. Scheu or any 
one else will bring or send us what they call perfect 
specimens of the apple we will cut them open and have 
photographs made at once. We will also submit the 
flesh of the apple to recognized authorities and print 
just what they say about it. The R. N.-Y. cannot 
afford to do any apple or any man an injustice. 
• * 
Some of the people who have swallowed the reading 
matter as well as the contents of some of the unknown 
number of different breakfast foods now on the market 
will get a shock by reading a bulletin recently issued by 
the Maine Experiment Station. According to it the 
value of many of these is widely overstated by their 
makers, and such statements should be taken with a 
grain of salt. Another exploded theory that most of us 
have had is that when we were eating graham or 
whole wheat bread our system was getting much more 
protein into it, and that we were doing the right thing. 
We had thought that a continual diet of white bread 
was impoverishing the system; yet now one of our 
western experiment stations has proved that the system 
gets more digestible protein from white bread than from 
either graham or whole wheat. The reason is the ease 
of digestion of the protein in the white flour, and the 
hardness of digesting it in the others. 
* 
As strong a business protest as we have read is that 
sent to President Roosevelt by 29 leading seedsmen 
against the free seed distribution. Congress has singled 
out the one business of seed selling for public interfer¬ 
ence. Seedsmen have $20,000,000 invested in honorable 
business, yet the Government each year mails, free of 
postage, 40,000,000 packets of very ordinary seeds. 
Nowhere else on the face of the civilized earth does 
the Government go out of its way to interfere with a 
single line of legitimate commerce. It is said that this 
Government’s distribution includes more small packets 
than are annually sold by all the seedsmen in the 
country. This business is “class legislation” of the 
worst sort, and the seedsmen do well to go direct to 
the President, who is on record as calling for “a square 
deal.” This is the way they talk to him: 
We respectfully urge, Mr. President, that you may see 
fit to incorporate in your next annual message a paragraph 
disapproving of the free seed distribution, as has been pur¬ 
sued for some years past, and to recommend that the intent 
of the original Act be alone the future policy—that intent 
being the procuring from foreign parts seeds and roots of 
plants heretofore unintroduced, and such as are believed 
would flourish on our plains, in our valleys and on our moun¬ 
tains, and thus* diversify the agricultural and horticultural 
production of the nation. 
There seems to be little use in expecting Congress 
to stop this petty "graft.” The President is on record 
as opposed to the principle of it, and relief must come 
from him. 
* 
The following note from one of our best contributors 
is a fair sample of a dozen: 
I wonder if you are hinting at my lead pencil when you 
refer to typewriter on page 854? With the lead pencil 
and tablet I can sit down before the fire as I am now doing, 
and with tablet on my knee write without much effort. 
Still, I want to do as good work as possible. 
It would be hard to say that we had any particularly in 
mind. Typewritten copy is much safer if a writer ex¬ 
pects to get his exact meaning into print. In former 
years, when type was set up by hand, most compositors 
were skilled at reading hand-written copy. That was 
before the days of typewriters. Now most of the work 
on weekly papers is done by machinery and the workmen 
know little of handwriting. They work from typewrit¬ 
ten copy almost entirely, and some of the blunders they 
make in trying to decipher letters are very amusing. 
They have simply lost the art of reading pen work. 
Often the only way to make sure of an article is to have 
it typewritten before it is put in type. It is certainly 
easier to sit by the fire and dash off an article, but the 
best work is not done that way. It would be better to 
lay this first copy aside for a time, then take it up for 
another study and copy it on a typewriter. New forms 
of expression will grow in this way, and the time spent 
in rewriting and copying will not be lost. A large pro¬ 
portion of the articles we receive show haste and lack 
of true thought. In some cases they are not even read 
over, as the pages are left without numbering them in 
order. All this will be avoided by the use of a type¬ 
writer—at the same time we welcome any honest ques¬ 
tion or expression of opinion no matter how written—• 
these remarks applying to those who make something of 
a business of writing. Some of the very best letters and 
articles we receive are evidently written by stiff hands 
not used to pen work, and we would not lose a single 
one of them. 
BREVITIES. 
Solid value is lost in liquid manure. 
California will now try the turkey crop. 
Use the culled poultry for culinary purposes. 
I. ast Cali.! Push the mulch back from the young trees! 
A lazy man is like lightning—he follows the path of 
least resistance. 
Happy and wise is the man who can estimate “taffy” at 
its true valuation. 
What, after all is the best thing in life? To be able to 
say “I have kept the faith.” 
Why is farm butter-making usually classed as women’s 
work any more than sawing wood? 
Jail without bail will do more to cool the “scorching” 
auto drivers than a barrel full of fines. 
A Jersey cow in Indiana is reported to be fond of live 
chicken ! She knocked over a coop and devoured a dozen 
young birds! 
While dressing a chicken a Texas woman found a $150 
diamond. Now the man who claims to have lost the stone 
brings suit against the woman to recover property. 
One of the most useful men in public life is Secretary 
of the Interior Hitchcock. lie has worked quietly and fear¬ 
lessly, nipping rascals and saving property for the Govern¬ 
ment. lie should stay right where he is. 
A canning factory in Maine will put up New England 
“boiled dinners" in two and four-quart cans. This factory 
turned out this year 12,000 gallons of apples, 400,000 cans 
of sweet corn, 10,000 beans, 40,000 peas. 10,000 squash and 
12,000 pumpkins. 
An English court has given damages against both owner 
and tenant of a limekiln. The smoke and fumes from this 
kiln injured crops aud trees of a nearby gardener, who sued 
for damages. The court holds that the owner became lia¬ 
ble by giving a lease to the tenant. 
An Iowa woman has brought suit against a druggist for 
$4,500 damages, because she has injured her health by buy¬ 
ing, contrary to the laws of Iowa. $650 worth of liquor from 
the druggist during four years. It would seem quite logical 
if the State of Iowa now sues the bibulous lady for inducing 
the druggist to violate the laws by selling her liquor. 
It Is said that the State of Maine paid $8,409.43 last year 
for sheep killed by dogs! It seems that 209 different towns 
put in claims for damages done to domestic animals by 
curs. No one need imagine that this sum paid for 10 per 
cent of the loss sustained through the work of these worth¬ 
less brutes. Most of the Eastern States now by law put the 
deer and the rabbit above the farmer. They are now getting 
ready to put the dog above either ! 
