822 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 3, 
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. Walter Van Fleet, l A , 
Mrs. K. T. Ho vle, 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*4 francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
backed by a responsible person. But to make doubly sure 
v/e 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 he 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, NOVEMBER 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. 
* 
Further reports from that storm in western New 
York show that the damage is found in streaks. In 
some places limbs on old trees are badly broken, and the 
trees are seriously hurt. Near by there may be orchards 
with little if any injury. As a whole the damage seems 
to have been greatly exaggerated. 
* 
We make one more appeal to our Minnesota readers 
to vote for the amendment to their State constitution. 
This will give farmers or gardeners the right to sell 
their own products at retail without a license. This *s 
a right which rural people should enjoy, but which in 
Minnesota has been taken from them by a legal tech¬ 
nicality. The amendment will make that right secure. 
Vote for it! 
* 
Probably the most valuable features of The R. N.-Y. 
are the voluntary contributions sent by readers as com¬ 
ment or criticism. Somehow we seem to have more of 
this than any other paper we know of. Let a question 
be asked, or let some one make a statement which needs 
explanation or change, and some reader is sure to come 
forward with just the right bit of personal experience 
needed to make the matter complete. And this is done 
in such a kindly way! It is as if people would say: 
“We know you mean to tell it exactly, but my experi¬ 
ence has been different and here it is!” These little 
helps are like the kindly acts of personal service which 
no money could buy, and which are yet beyond price. 
It seems that when we speak of The R. N.-Y. family 
we do not use any idle form of speech. 
* 
A few years ago it was hard to sell a ton of Alfalfa 
hay in Syracuse, N. Y. The soil around that city is 
well adapted to the Alfalfa crop, and farmers kept on 
growing it. When they found how useful it was they 
were sorry to let it leave the farm. Livery stable keep¬ 
ers learned of its value in feeding horses, and began 
to buy it. Dairymen in distant sections who read of 
its value, but could not start the crop, began to order 
it. Now, in addition to what is sold in local markets, 
and the immense amount consumed on the farms, about 
200 carloads of baled Alfalfa are shipped annually from 
this district. This hay goes in large bales and nets $17 
per ton. Much more of it could be sold. We speak of 
this to show how the demand for this excellent hay 
grows. Think of raising two tons of Timothy com¬ 
pared with four tons of Alfalfa ! 
* 
Can corn be successfully grown year after year on 
the same ground? Many farmers who follow a regular 
rotation may call this a useless question. They feel 
certain that it is better for the crop and for the land 
to rotate—that is, follow one crop yearly with another. 
There are cases where it is a great convenience to grow 
corn year after year on level fields near the barn. On 
small dairy farms where the largest possible herd is 
kept great crops of corn are wanted for the silo. The 
fields near the barn make short hauls for both corn and 
manure. If these fields can be planted to corn year 
after year it will prove very convenient. The argument 
against the practice is that soils need a rest. After one 
crop has been grown for several years its enemies ac¬ 
cumulate in the soil, and also various poisons which 
injure one crop, but do not hurt another. These ob¬ 
jections are overcome by a rotation so that a good grass 
crop may clean the land for a new crop of corn. Still, 
we know of cases where corn has been grown year after 
year on the same ground with little, if any, decrease in 
yield. Catch crops, like clover, rye or turnips, seeded in 
the corn at the last cultivation have given a quick¬ 
growing sod to be plowed under in Spring. This 
growth seems to have much of the cleaning effect of a 
grass sod, and where fertilizer is used the corn yield 
is kept up. Or, the crop of clover or rye may be cut 
for hay, the stubble well manured and plowed under 
for corn. There are some places where such culture 
will pay better than a long rotation, and a farmer must 
adapt his methods to the needs of his farm. 
* 
“I have fought a good fight; I have finished my 
course; I have kept the faith.’’ 
At the end of the campaign against James W. Wads¬ 
worth we are minded to preach a little sermon. There 
has been a moral question at issue—without which we 
do not think the present revolt in the Thirty-fourth 
District would have been possible. The application of 
our text is very simple. It is a great thing to be able 
to say “I have kept the faith!” Next to having high 
ideals is the courage to remain true to them. Some 
people fight what is called “a good fight,” yet victory 
may bring regrets. When a victory is won by dishonest 
or unworthy means one may lose things that are more 
valuable than the winnings. Speaking for The R. 
N.-Y., we have tried to fight the good fight in an open, 
straightforward manner—fearing not the face of man. 
Firmly believing that Mr. Wadsworth has not been a 
fair representative of farmers, we feel that we have 
sound authority back of every statement we have made. 
We have been told that you cannot arouse country 
people except by violent personal abuse of a candidate. 
We have never believed that—thus we have tried to do 
our part toward lifting the issue to higher ground. 
Be Mr. Wadsworth elected or defeated, The R. N.-Y. 
has nothing to regret. We have been faithful to the 
right of farmers as we saw it, and thousands of good 
farmers in the Thirty-fourth District can say the same 
thing. We know just what it means for those farmers 
to vote for an independent candidate. By doing this 
they are faithful to their best patriotic sentiment. That 
is their way of giving expression to the hope that their 
children may find a cleaner, truer and more helpful 
public life and service. The man who, after years of 
party service rises to independence, from a worthy mo¬ 
tive, ranks well with the soldier who fights for his 
country. It will always be a great satisfaction for such 
men to say honestly “I have kept the faith!” But sup¬ 
pose there be those who in after years must say: “De¬ 
feat came because I was unfaithful!” These are the 
men who, at the last moment, through timidity or some 
less worthy motive, weaken and support what they have 
agreed to defeat. Let such men remember that the 
text can never be for them. They will not be able to 
say they have “kept the faith,” and the thought will 
haunt them for years! Yes, it is a great thing to go 
through a contest involving a principle with a feeling 
of faithfulness. It is a poor and mean thing to feel at 
the end that we have lost the faith—for when faith 
goes from a man the spirit goes with it. Let us hope 
that the day after election we may all be able to repeat 
the text. 
* 
Last week the New York Central Railroad was found 
guilty of giving a rebate on freight. Let us under¬ 
stand just what this means. The American Sugar 
Refining Company shipped sugar to a firm in Detroit, 
Mich. The freight rate was supposed to be 23 cents 
per hundred, but it appears that the railroad secretly 
paid back five cents to the sugar trust, thus making their 
actual rate 18 cents. Thus they gave back more than 
one-fifth of the charge, and as the trial judge said, if 
this rebate were kept up long enough it would in time 
drive competitors of the trust out of business. Under 
the law this rebating is a crime, but only feeble efforts 
have been made to punish the offenders. In this case 
the evidence was so clear that there was really no de¬ 
fense. The railroad was fined $108,000, and its traffic 
manager $6,000 more. In pronouncing sentence Judge 
Holt said: 
Such a violation of the law. in its essential nature, is a 
very much more heinous act than the ordinary common, 
vulgar crimes which come before criminal courts constantly 
for punishment which arise from sudden passion or tempta¬ 
tion. The crime in this case was committed by men of edu¬ 
cation and of large business experience and whose standing 
in the community was such that they might have been 
expected to set an example of obedience to law, upon the 
maintenance of which alone in this country the security 
of their prooerty depends. It was committed on behalf of 
a great railroad corporation, which, like other railroad cor¬ 
porations, has received gratuitously from the State large 
and valuable privileges for the public’s convenience and its 
own. which performs quasi public functions and which 
is charged with the highest obligation in the transaction 
of its business to treat the citizens of this country alike, 
and not to carry on its business with unjust discrimina¬ 
tions between different citizens or different classes of 
citizens. 
That is a clear, fair statement of the case. It has 
been known for years that this “rebating” was going 
on, but the men whose business it was to do so seem to 
have been afraid to push cases against the railroads. 
Instead of leading public opinion they have waited 
until public opinion pushed them on. The Standard Oil 
Company has also been found guilty of rebating, and 
there will be more to follow. The law provides either 
for heavy fines or imprisonment. It may be possible to 
make the fines so heavy that a rich concern will feel 
the loss, but we believe that sooner or later some of 
the rich offenders will be sent to jail. Fine a millionaire 
who robs the public $5,000 and a workman who steals 
a ham $5, and the punishment does not put them on 
terms of equality. Put them both in jail, or at labor 
on a road with pork and potatoes to eat, and they come 
closer to being equal than they ever did before! In 
principle this fining of large culprits is much like fining 
the reckless auto drivers who make our country roads 
dangerous. Men have gone out of this city to Connecti¬ 
cut or New Jersey with just enough liquor aboard to 
be reckless. When stopped they fight the constable, pay 
a fine in a defiant manner, and then go home to cele¬ 
brate their escapade with a dinner! It is little use to 
fine such people. Our roads are made no safer, and 
reasonable auto drivers share the discredit these rascals 
arouse. Suppose these fellows were put in the county 
jail for 15 days and fed on potatoes and bread! Do 
you think they would run over any more children, or 
call it a joke to frighten a horse on a lonely road? 
* 
Mr. Wadsworth should pray to be delivered from his 
friends. The butchers and oleo men endorse him— 
now read the advertisement copied on the next page, 
Doesn’t that tell the whole story? Do you think Mr. 
Wadsworth carries enough of the milk of human kind¬ 
ness to compensate you for the lower price in milk 
which colored oleo will mean? Read the article on 
page 823 in order to understand this “butterine” game. 
The following letter has been received from the most 
prominent dairy authority in this country: 
“The meat packers of Chicago are the head and front 
of the oleomargarine interest. They knozv the men they 
zvant in Congress. They are already sending out letters 
to agricultural papers in the West, calling on them to 
defend James W. Wadsworth. The Drovers’ Journal, 
the packers’ pet paper, expresses surprise that the 
farmers of his district should be dissatisfied with Wads¬ 
worth. The utter hollowness and hypocrisy of the 
Wadsworth game is clearly seen in this latest move by 
the big meat packers of Chicago. Wadsworth votes 
for them and they defend him.” 
'1 hat is a true statement. The oleo men cannot bribe 
or coax any real farm paper openly to support Wads¬ 
worth. The best they can do is to induce one or two 
of them to say nothing. No farm paper with any circu¬ 
lation in Wadsworth’s district will dare to defend him. 
There has not been in the last 50 years an issue upon 
which the farm papers and farm voters are so thor¬ 
oughly agreed. Down him ! Keep him at home! 
BREVITIES. 
Dry bicarbonate of soda can be used to polish metal. 
Lime is a great help for sour soils, but lime water will 
not cure warts. 
That squab raiser on page 810 tells more of the truth 
about the business than most of them do! 
Lots of men, in order to 'enjoy the privilege of writing 
“lion.” before their names, will do dishonorable things. 
Who knows most about bringing up the boy, the maiden 
aunt with her theory, or father with the sad fact of his 
past ? 
When a man is “on the run” anyone seems to enjoy 
throwing a brick at him. Probably Mr. Wadsworth will 
appreciate the force of this statement. 
Gov. Hoard used to ask if a man would pick out a bull¬ 
dog to hunt rabbits. One of our readers said he had a 
bulldog that can catch more rabbits than anything with 
claws. But that dog is worth more as a curiosity than 
for hunting. 
The horse with the “heaves.” Do not feed too much 
hay. Give more oats and water before feeding. Do not 
work hard for an hour after feeding, and do not expect too 
much from such a horse. Wet food is best—and keep 
the bowels open. 
Mr. Stackhouse—page 810—tells of using the weeder 
when the corn was nearly head high. Like most of us 
who use this implement for the first time he thought be 
had ruined his crop. It was rough treatment, and not to 
be advised—but look at the yield ! 
We find the following item floating about in the papers: 
“Dr. Wiley, the head scientist of the agricultural depart¬ 
ment, has discovered that the same muscles are brought 
into play in washing clothes as in playing golf. However, 
it is hardly likely that golf ladies will adopt the wash¬ 
board as a substitute.” They might buy a washing machine 
and thus have full strength left for the game. By the way, 
won’t some one come and prove to our boys that when they 
hoe strawberries they exercise the same muscles used in 
playing baseball? 
