588 
July 28 , 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Entered at New York as Second Class Matter. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Wai.tkr Van Fleet, t Associates 
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. 0d., or 8 '/> marks, or 10 y a 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 be sent to us within one 
month of the time of the transaction, and you must have 
mentioned The Rural New-Youkeii 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. JULY 28, 1906. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to introduce The R. N.-Y. to progressive 
intelligent fanners 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. 
* 
Now conies the annual market report contest over the 
apple crop. The buyers and shippers will do their best 
as usual to spread reports of a heavy crop and conse¬ 
quent low prices. Some years ago they were able to 
do this with much success, but now fruit growers are 
pretty well organized in the sections where apples are 
largely grown and it is hard to fool them. At present 
our reports indicate only a moderate crop of good fruit, 
while the demand is certainly greater than usual. 
* 
Farmers and others are writing us about starting dis¬ 
tilleries for the manufacture of alcohol in a small way. 
They want prices on small-sized outfits. One man, a 
former druggist, says he has $10,000 to invest, and pur¬ 
poses to buy a still and grow sugar beets in New 
Mexico to make into alcohol. We advise him to keep 
his money. As Dr. Wiley pointed out on page 487, 
alcohol making is not a business for farmers. It be¬ 
longs to the large operators—like the making of beet 
sugar. 
pair of spectacles for the use of near-sighted horses. 
It is reasonable to suppose that patent right peddlers 
will not be popular in that district for some time to 
come. But we would really like to know how a man 
who could be parted from his money with such ease 
and rapidity ever managed to accumulate $2,000, unless 
it was his wife’s egg and butter money. 
* 
The Argentine Republic in South America is gain¬ 
ing rapidly in its export trade. Great quantities of 
wool, meat and considerable butter are being sent to 
Europe. A few years ago the country exported hides 
and tallow, but now it is becoming a serious competitor 
of this country in the meat trade. Two things have 
greatly helped in this change—the introduction of im¬ 
proved stock and the cultivation of Alfalfa. This 
forage plant has made large feeding operations pos¬ 
sible, encouraged a higher class of farming and kept 
up the fertility of the soil. What it has done for a 
nation it will do for a farm neighborhood or section 
when well started. 
* 
A few weeks ago a hired man drew a picture of some 
farm employers that was not complimentary. Yet there 
was some truth in it. On page 593 a picture is drawn 
of a certain kind of hired man. This again is not very 
complimentary. Yet we know from sad experience that 
it is not all imagination. Yet, no one, who will think 
for a moment, imagines that the hired man classes all 
employers in his list, or that the employer claims that 
all hired men visit the saloon and fill the house with 
tobacco and rum. In these times there is no reason 
why an efficient workman should stay and work for a 
farmer who does not treat him as a man deserves to 
be treated. As to keeping a drinking or filthy hired 
man about where women and children must be near 
him or work with him—we feel sorry for those who 
feel that they are compelled by force of circumstances 
to endure the nuisance. We would change the plan of 
farming and grow the stock and the crops which will 
best take care of themselves! 
* 
The recent article by a hired man stating how he was 
treated by employers has stirred up considerable com¬ 
ment. Letters will be found on page 593. One reader 
savs that such articles should never be printed. We 
have found it wisest to give all sides a fair chance. 
The writer is an ex-hired man, having worked for 
several different farmers. He knows that the life of 
the farm hand is not all sunshine, especially in sections 
where it is not the custom to make such a hand a full 
member of the family. There are some farmers who 
cannot understand why the hired man should not be 
treated just like a son or brother. That is because they 
arc used to working with the sons of neighbors or 
good farmers, who are clean and self-respecting. If 
they lived near the large towns and cities they would 
soon realize the difference, and quickly modify their 
ideas. 
The cause of agriculture lost a strong friend in the 
death of Congressman H. C. Adams, of Wisconsin. A 
brave, earnest and tireless man, he knew the needs of 
the common people, and had that strong common sense 
which leads a public man to do the needed thing. To 
Mr. Adams more than to anyone else was due the final 
agreement which made the meat inspection bill possible. 
He made it possible for the State experiment stations to 
receive increased appropriations. No man in Congress 
during recent years did what H. C. Adams did for 
farmers! 
* 
We venture to say that more farmhouses will be 
fitted with heaters and water works this Fall than ever 
before. If a farmer can raise the capital it is a wise 
plan to make the house comfortable. It makes a bet¬ 
ter home. The family think more of the farm. Water 
in the house will wash away loads of discord and un¬ 
happiness. There are many places where water from 
springs or brooks can be brought to the house at little 
cost. We have an article by a competent engineer com¬ 
ing in which plans for providing water will be dis¬ 
cussed. 
* 
We are often asked for advice regarding investments 
in patent rights. Now, there are undoubtedly some 
useful implements or appliances sold in this way, just 
as there are some firms of high standing who sell their 
goods through township or county agents, but when a 
stranger of persuasive manner comes along and offers 
to take a note or a goodly amount of money for the 
right to sell some unknown invention it is time to see 
that one’s valuables are all tied down. The Omaha 
Bee tells of a villager (not a farmer, in this case) who 
bought from a shabby stranger an invention guaranteed 
to keep horses off barbed wire fences. Any horseman 
can see the value of such an invention, and the villager 
joyfully paid $2,000 for the State right to sell it. His 
sample came along later. It was a signboard to hang 
on the fence, reading as follows: “Notice to horses. 
Dangerous—keep away!” With the signboard came a 
You will see that Mr. Hartman did not have time 
to shoot off many fire crackers on July 4. He proceed¬ 
ed to “paint the town red” with raspberries and straw¬ 
berries. It is a good thing to realize before you enter 
the business that the life of a market gardener gives 
opportunities for labor at every point touched by the 
clock hands in their journey through night and day. 
That is what we want people to remember when they 
read Mr. Hartman’s story of success. It is the best 
record of the sort we have printed, and ought to be 
filed away for study, but do not skip the part which is 
to be read “between the lines.” It requires character 
and will power far beyond the comprehension of many 
to stay by a piece of land and force it into a garden. 
We hardly know which is more strange—the failure of 
those who begin the business to realize this, or the 
failure of those who have succeeded to realize the dis¬ 
couragements of the beginner. 
* 
Remember that the toad is a garden policeman, his 
dietary containing 77 per cent of insects, and the re¬ 
mainder spiders, Crustacea, myriapods, molluscs and 
worms. He captures his dinner on the wing, too; like 
some slow-moving and awkward people, he has an 
amazingly active tongue. There is every reason why 
farmers and gardeners should encourage the toad, and 
protect him from mischievous children or dogs, to 
whom the little patrolman in speckled uniform is often 
a butt for thoughtless cruelty. European gardeners 
often purchase toads, considering their vigilance in 
hunting insects well worth a trifling outlay. Toads be¬ 
come very tame when treated with consideration, and 
as they never do any harm, beyond occasionally ex¬ 
cavating a little cave for midday retirement in a favor¬ 
ite flower bed, while destroying a vast amount of in¬ 
sect life, there is every reason why they should be 
welcome guests. They may not sing as sweetly as the 
robin, but on the other hand they do not climb cherry 
trees. 
/ 
Mr. CosgrOVE has now given us monthly records 
of his poultry for half a year. As we figure it, since 
January 1 the White Wyandottes have earned in cash 
for eggs and meat $588.48. Their grain has cost $271.91 
and $15.40 were spent for hatching eggs—which means 
new blood in the flock. There were on the average 
less than 400 hens. The grain bill is high now, since 
there are many young chicks to feed, but later, when 
the surplus stock is sold before Winter, part of the 
money spent now for grain will come back. We ar¬ 
ranged with Mr. Cosgrove to give these records be¬ 
cause we wanted an honest account—not of some great 
plant where large capital is invested—but of a well- 
managed business within the power of a careful person 
of moderate means. 
* 
“KEEP HAMMERING AT WADSWORTH!” 
That request comes from one of the best-known 
dairymen in the country. He lives in a western State 
and cannot reach Mr. Wadsworth with his ballot, but 
all the same he would like to see him defeated. Why? 
What business has any man living outside the Thirty- 
fourth New York District to interfere in this contest? 
Mr. Wadsworth is something of a national character 
in the fact that he is chairman of the Committee on 
Agriculture. Bills which are most important to farm¬ 
ers are referred to this committee and all who know 
anything of the way legislation is carried through 
know of the power in the hands of a chairman. We 
had an instance of this during the old anti-oleo legisla¬ 
tion. We have been accused of abusing Mr. Wads¬ 
worth, but it is no abuse to tell the truth that he did 
what he could to modify and weaken the oleo bill so as 
to make it more favorable to the oleo makers. The 
contest had come to the point where the issue meant 
life or death to the dairy industry as then conducted 
Mr. Wadsworth knew this, yet he deliberately chose 
the side which meant ruin or bankruptcy to many dairy 
farmers. Knowing this, is it any wonder that dairy¬ 
men everywhere fear the man’s influence at Washing¬ 
ton? Again, when the meat inspection bill came before 
Congress the issue was simple and clear. It had been 
demonstrated that filthy and disgusting practices were 
permitted in the preparation of canned meat—largely 
because the Federal laws did not give the Government 
power to stop them. President Roosevelt called upon 
Congress to pass an inspection law that would be ade¬ 
quate. It was his duty to do this, and a vast majority 
of Americans upheld him. This bill came before the 
Agricultural Committee, and if Mr. Wadsworth had 
been the paid attorney for the packers he could not have 
been more active in his efforts to have that bill changed 
in their favor. Here is another reason why thousands 
of farmers in other States do not trust such a man to 
guard their interests in Congress. He seems to them 
like some arrogant, overbearing character acting like 
some old-time feudal lord—representing himself and 
little more. These men judge Mr. Wadsworth coolly 
and accurately by his action in Congress. Pie has been 
a menace to their business, and if they lived in his 
district he would be a private citizen just as soon as 
the ballots could legally be cast. What will the farmer 
voters of his own district say? 
BREVITIES. 
Now comes picnic time—also apple sauce season. 
“Grub in the head!” The hired man waiting for the 
dinner hour. 
Mr. Cosgrove is right when he says that right now is the 
time to kill vermin in the chicken houses. 
A bad road puts the farmer out of business for six 
months every year! Who or what does it put in? 
A strong effort will be made to exterminate ticks in the 
South. The credit system of buying supplies might well 
be included. 
To repeat what we have often said—the best time to 
cut briers and bushes so as to kill them: is in August, at 
the end of their growth. 
There are writers who talk all around a subject, seem¬ 
ingly afraid to take any decided stand through fear that 
some one will be offended. Can. they not understand that 
their readers know the trick? 
Let the dairy experts remember that there are good peo¬ 
ple left who never built a silo or saw a Babcock tester. 
Let the horticulturists reflect upon the thousands who 
never made Bordeaux Mixture or sprayed a tree. 
The Corn root-louse is to some extent disseminated by 
ants, which collect the eggs and store them over Winter, 
hatching them carefully in the Spring. A study of the 
communistic relations of ants and other insects shows some 
extraordinary displays of reason and intellect. 
Cutworms gave much trouble last year to Connecticut 
tobacco growers. As an experiment youn" plants, just 
before transplanting, were dipped in a solution of three- 
quarters ounce lead arsenate in one gallon of water. The 
plants were not injured and the cutworms wisely let them 
alone. 
According to Folsom’s Entomology, the number of in¬ 
sect species already known is* about 300,000, and it is safe 
to estimate the total number of existing species as at least 
one million. Conservative observers hold that a majority 
of these species can be found in attendance at any Sunday 
school picnic. 
