i96 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 3 . 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established. 1850. 
Herbert w. Coli.ingwood, Editor. 
dr. Walter VAN Fleet, I. Assoelfttps 
Mrs. e. T. Uoyle, f Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or 8 (4 marks, or 10 l / 3 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 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. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY. MARCH 3, 1906. 
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. 
* 
Heavy frauds are reported in the trade in grapevines. 
in France. In that country there is a great demand 
for what are called “resistant” cuttings; that is, va¬ 
rieties specially able to resist insects and disease. 
There are such varieties and they are, of course, more 
valuable than ordinary kinds. The well-known Clinton 
grape resembles those prized varieties, and it is said 
that carloads of Clinton are being sold and exported a.s 
“resistant” varieties. This fraud will not only injure 
French grape growers, but many California planters 
as well. 
* 
A bill before the New Jersey Legislature gives elec¬ 
tric railroads the right to carry freight by and with 
the consent of the governing board of the territory 
through which the lines pass. This bill is endorsed by 
the State Horticultural Society, and ought to be sup¬ 
ported by every country dweller in New Jersey. Any¬ 
thing which will give increased competition in freight 
or express service is worth fighting for. We hope every 
reader of The R. N.-Y. in New Jersey will write at 
once to his Senator and Representatives and ask them to 
vote for this bill. 
* 
Hundreds of our readers have taken up the matter 
of parcels post in dead earnest. They are sticking the 
stamps on the backs of their Congressmen at a great 
rate. The Congressmen reply—and you ought to read 
their letters We have received some of them, and we 
want more, for we intend to show the people what 
foolish and worse than childish reasons these men give 
for keeping country people away from a needed and 
just privilege. Our advice is to keep right at them 
respectfully and without fear. They need you more 
than you need them. 
* 
While the United States Senate plays and potters 
with the pure food bill the sales of adulterated food in 
the large cities grow larger and larger. Dr. Darlington 
of New York says that even “communion wine” is made 
of a mixture of wood alcohol and hard cider colored 
with an aniline dye. The sales of adulterated goods are 
so common that it would cost $500,000 each year to stop 
the traffic. At first thought one would say that the sale 
of this stuff affects only the city buyer. That is not so, 
for every pound of bogus food interferes with the busi¬ 
ness of food producers—the farmers. 
* 
Every year it seems like a fitting thing to tell the 
story of Z. Breed and the first weeder. Mr. Breed is 
not likely to have any other monument, though he de¬ 
serves one. An old man, with a weedy garden to care 
for, Mr. Breed started out to make a horse imitate a 
hen at scratching the ground. He bored holes in a 
piece of board and stuck limber sticks in the holes. 
Then he hitched a horse to the board and drove through 
the garden, the ends of the sticks jumping and scratch¬ 
ing along the soil. It did the work of the hen’s claw— 
the horse representing about 200 hens! From this 
crude implement the modern weeder has been evolved. 
It is now one of the most useful of tillage tools. In 
this rushing age people who view the great results of 
to-day are likely to forget the small beginnings of yes¬ 
terday. Yet it does us no harm to remember! 
At intervals some one starts up with a theory that 
certain plants “poison” others when growing with them 
or following closely. Can any one give real proof that 
this is so? We have thought that when one crop in¬ 
jures another it was a case of overfeeding with one and 
starvation with the other. For example, buckwheat is 
said by some to “poison” the ground so that potatoes do 
not do well. Both crops are heavy feeders of potash, 
and it is quite possible for the buckwheat to take most 
of the available potash out of the soil, leaving less than 
the potatoes require. We think most of these cases of 
“poisoning” will turn out to be examples of starvation. 
* 
It is 14 years since The R. N.-Y. began printing an 
annual horticultural number. At first the issue was 
made up of reviews of the various catalogues, and 20 
pages held it without crowding. The character of the 
number has developed from year to year, until now our 
aim is to give information of such importance that the 
paper must be kept for reference. The quality and ap¬ 
pearance have also been improved, until we feel justified 
in saying that this is the handsomest and best illustrat¬ 
ed issue of a farm paper that has been printed this year. 
In size, too, the number shows growth. Starting with 
20 pages we now have 40—filled with sensible matter 
and clean advertising. • 
* 
We have had a number of questions from people 
who have trouble with Tompkins County King apple 
trees. “Collar rot,” a disease of the bark at the base 
of the trunk, attacks this variety severely. It also at¬ 
tacks Spitzenburg to some extent, but is so serious on 
Kings that it is known in some localities as the “King 
disease.” The experimenters at Cornell say that no 
King or Esopus Spitzenburg propagated in the usual 
way should be set in western New York. If King is 
wanted the variety should be top-worked on such va¬ 
rieties as Northern Spy. When the disease has well 
started little can be done to cure it. The dead wood 
is sometimes cut away and the surface painted, but it is 
probably safer to cut the tree out and burn it. 
* 
The spraying question receives considerable attention 
in this issue, because it is the greatest problem now 
before fruit growers. Many of us can remember the 
time when spraying was unheard of. It was first done 
in a poor way by imperfect nozzles and weak pumps. 
Necessity has now driven farmers to demand more 
effective implements, and inventors have met their 
wants. There are demands for power everywhere. 
This is a fair sample of many letters which come to us: 
I have about 800 apple trees; the Brown-tailed moth is 
here, and the Gypsy moth is coming, and it is difficult to 
get a good job of spraying done with our hand pumps. No 
one likes to do the job, and in many cases it does not get 
done. 
This man lives in eastern New York. The scale is all 
about him, and he knows that Gypsy and Brown-tailed 
moths are marching in his direction. He must be ready 
for them or quit the business. There are many like him, 
and they do well to get ready. 
* 
The U. S. Supreme Court has decided that railroads 
cannot deal in products which they haul over their own 
lines. The case in point was that of the Chesapeake 
& Ohio Railroad, which owns the coal mines along its 
lines. It contracted to deliver coal at a low figure and 
made this low rate possible by charging itself as a car¬ 
rier less than it charged other producers. In this way 
of course it had an advantage over all other coal miners 
along its road, making, in fact, a monopoly. In making 
this decision the court sustains the Interstate commerce 
law and lays down one of the most important principles 
which govern the handling of freight. The court is 
now considering what is known as the “private car” 
question. Many manufacturers and dealers in perish¬ 
able goods own refrigerator cars, so that shippers are 
largely at their mercy. Should the court prohibit such 
owners from using their private cars in transporting 
their products the question of rates and rebates would 
be greatly simplified. 
* 
We are very glad to print the following note on 
“Government Weed Seeds,” as we desire to be entirely 
fair: 
On page 98 J. F. Clark states that the Government has 
sent out seeds of two plants which have become had weeds 
in his vicinity. Mr. Clark has, I think, confused the com¬ 
mon names sometimes applied to very different plants. Ilis 
criticism is that the Department of Agriculture sent out 
Cacalia, the devil’s paint-brush, which he claims is one of 
the worst weeds. The weed to which Mr Clark refers, com¬ 
monly known as the devil's paint-brush, is Hieracium auran- 
tiacum. This is a perennial plant, while the Cacalia, which 
should he more properly called Emilia, is an annua! from 
the Philippine Islands and East Indies. It is not known to 
occur wild in the United States. I do not know what Mr. 
Clark means by “blue-bells,” but presume it must be a 
variety or species of Campanula, and certainly the culti¬ 
vated varieties of Campanula are never known to become 
weeds. a. J. pieters. 
Botanist in Charge of Seed and Plant Introduction and 
Distribution. 
Whatever may have been the character of former 
Government seeds, we believe they are now clean. 
We are glad to see the pulpit taking up the apple¬ 
eating question. We are told that Rev. Dr. Sneath of 
New Haven recently said in a popular sermon: 
The drinking man should use helpful agencies, such as 
cleanliness, good food and fresh air. Medical experts affirm 
that if a drinking man eats a half dozen good apples each 
day it will greatly assist in conquering the appetite, I most 
strongly advise drinking men to do so. 
No more sensible temperance advice could be given. 
We have repeatedly asked readers to tell us of any 
man who is a hard drinker and at the same time a large 
eater of apples. This is one of two questions which 
have never called out a response. We firmly believe 
that apple eating is a help in overcoming the taste for 
liquor. 
* 
The Mexican Cotton boll-weevil is a fearful menace 
to the South. Most of us at the North do not realize 
what will happen when the Gypsy moth and Brown¬ 
tailed moth come upon our trees. The entomologists 
tell us, but most fruit growers seem to regard their 
words much as the people of an earlier age regarded the 
truths of Jeremiah. They will learn in time. In the 
South the better class of farmers know what the boll- 
weevil means. It is spreading fast enough naturally. 
The State of Georgia has quarantined against the insect. 
The shipment into the State of Georgia of cotton lint 
(loose, baled, flat or compressed), cotton-seed, seed-cotton, 
hulls, seed-cotton and cotton-seed sacks (which have been 
used), and corn in the shuck, from points in the States of 
Texas and Louisiana, is hereby forbidden, unless such ship¬ 
ment shall bo accompanied by the certificate of a State or 
Government Entomologist, to the effect that such shipment 
originated in a locality where, by actual inspection, the 
Mexican Cotton boll-weevil was not found to exist. 
Household goods, trees or plants, live stock, when 
packed or bedded with these materials are denied en¬ 
trance from Texas or Louisiana, and all such materials 
will be burned. It will be impossible to keep out all 
danger, but if this quarantine is enforced it will delay 
the entrance of a fearful guest. 
BREVITIES. 
Is the public school teacher a machine? 
Wiiat can you tell us about dwarf pears? 
Soak seeds in sweat—from working the soil. 
No bed of roses in caring for a hotbed on a cold day. 
Whatever you do, make the soil of the garden fine. 
A number of readers are coming to defend the milch 
goat! 
One thing the model hired man does is to wipe his feet 
on the doormat. 
Varieties of fruit—who can give you sounder advice than 
the best growers in your neighborhood? 
Count that day lost when yon do not start a discussion of 
the benefits from a parcels post. Keep talking about it. 
Which would yon bet on to come in ahead, the farmer 
who works but won't study, or the farmer who will study 
but won't work? 
“If you do good be sure you do no harm.” Some men 
might take this as a suggestion that it is a mistake to at¬ 
tempt to do good ! 
The intense desire to boot somebody all up the public road 
comes to every hungry soul. The object of the desire is 
to get people to resist it. 
At the recent automobile show in New York sales of 
over $6,000,000 were made. How many people were killed 
or maimed last year by the autos? 
Has a woman a right to expect her husband to be as good 
a man as her father or brothers? Yes, provided she doesn't 
take only the ideal side of Father for the model. 
We think the asparagus growers of the country should by 
all means join the Massachusetts Asparagus Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation. Thomas Hollis, Concord, Mass., is secretary. 
The general law, without special agreement, is that ma¬ 
nure in the barnyard can be removed by the renter if he 
desires. It becomes real estate when hauled out upon the 
farm. 
It is said that Siberia, now exporting 80,000,000 pounds 
of butter annually, is already competing with Denmark, 
and will become in the future one of the greatest dairy 
countries in the world. 
One way of attempting to beat the scale is to plant apple 
trees worked upon Doucin stock. These dwarfs come in 
bearing early, are easily sprayed and handled, and while 
short-lived may be planted close. 
There is great complaint about weed seeds in clover and 
Alfalfa. Buy by sample if you can—send the sample to 
your State experiment station or to the Agricultural De¬ 
partment at Washington for examination. 
Employees of the Chicago traction lines are agitating for 
“a week with a Sunday in it.” At present they work seven 
days a week, with an occasional 24 hours off about once a 
fortnight, but this is irregular and uncertain. 
We have heard people say in a half-discouraged manner: 
“I am a small potato, anyway—what can I do to make his¬ 
tory?” Did you ever stop to realize what a big hill of 
potatoes can be grown from a small seed if the grower has 
faith? 
Here is one from Nebraska : “I do not mean to be with¬ 
out The R. N.-Y t . ; I might spend $100 in attending farmers’ 
institutes and State agricultural meetings, and not get half 
the valuable information I get for one dollar in a year’s 
subscription for this paper.” 
I, ast week we instanced a couple of cases where the re¬ 
cording angel might with propriety look away. Here is an¬ 
other suggestion : A man fits and grades the roadside in 
front of his farm and turns it into a beautiful lawn. In a 
muddy time teamsters desert the road and travel the entire 
length of the smooth grass, cutting and tearing it, and the 
farmer uses what seems to him appropriate language. 
