November 17 , 
858 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S RARER. 
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, i. . 
Mrs. K. T. Rovle, ( Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. (id., or 8 Mj marks, or 10 Va 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 tit 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 
tiie debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of tiie 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. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 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. 
* 
For chairman of the Committee of Agriculture in the 
new Congress The R. N.-Y. respectfully suggests the 
name of lion. E. Stevens Henry of Connecticut. No 
man in Congress has a better outfit of the experience, 
ability and character needed for this important position 
than Mr. Henry. 
* 
A LETTER FROM EX-GOVERNOR HOARD. 
You have conducted what 1 think is the strongest and 
most impressive campaign against an unfit man I ever 
saw. The candor and at the same time the sagacity of 
your utterances have impressed me greatly. J hope they 
have had equal effect on the minds of the farmers of 
Wadsworth’s district. Whether you succeed in defeat¬ 
ing Wadsworth or not, you have raised the respect of 
yourself and your paper greatly in the minds of all true 
patriots.. Yours sincerely, w. d. hoard. 
* 
The prizes for the Thanksgiving photographs were 
awarded as follows: 
1. M. H. Mayne, Stearns Co., Minn. 
2. E. R. Gaillard, Erie Co., Pa. 
3. Grace E. Mounts, Warren Co., Ohio. 
Many readers missed the true idea of these pictures— 
sending only pictures of turkeys. We hoped to obtain 
more groups showing the spirit of the holiday as ex¬ 
pressed in family festivals. 
* 
During the seven fat years the average Egyptian 
was not inclined to save much of the fatness. It was 
more comfortable to humor the body rather than deny 
it. The lean years came—as they always do. History 
is repeated with each century. You may now be having 
your few fat years. What are you doing with the fat? 
Are you paying the mortgage, buying the home, educat¬ 
ing the children, or providing for the rainy day? Your 
chance for doing, so is right now. It may not be to¬ 
morrow. 
* 
A friend sent us an old copy of Moore’s Rural 
New. Yorker for January 9, 1869. On the first page is 
an article on “The Coming Farmer” from which we 
take the following: 
The Coming Farmer will be as ready to buy an addition 
to his library, as an addition to liis farm. lie will value 
social pleasures, domestic comfort, moral and intellectual 
culture, higher Ilian money at Interest. Systematic and 
moderate labor will strengthen and develop his body and 
his mind, and he will leave off, and his wife will leave off, 
those untimely and unreasonable toils, that forbid mental 
and moral culture, inflict rheumatic pains, and premature 
deat'h. Trades and professions supported by vice and folly 
will vanish out of sight: farming belongs to the Millenium: 
whatever exalts human nature will improve agriculture. 
The Coming Farmer will be the Model Man! 
That was written nearly 40 years ago! While con¬ 
siderable progress has been made it must be said that 
the farmer here pictured is still “coming.” One sin¬ 
gular feature of this paper is that no reference is made 
to “trusts” or “corporations,” “bacteria,” telephones, 
gasoline engines, or other things which cannot now be 
kept out of print. Those old times are often described 
as “happy days,” and the name was a good one. 
We a.;'.: a careful reading of the statement about reg¬ 
istered cattle on page 847. Our object in presenting 
these facts is to be of service to cattle men in general 
and Jersey breeders in particular. We think the man¬ 
agers of the A. J. C. C. made a mistake in not conduct¬ 
ing a thorough and impartial investigation, as we were 
assured they would do. It is not too late to do so, and 
we feel sure that a great majority of reputable Jersey 
breeders will join us in asking that such investigation 
is made. No Jersey breeder can afford to countenance 
even a whisper that sounds like fraud in the registry 
of cattle, and the same is equally true of other breeders’ 
associations. We desire to hear from cattle breeders on 
this subject, and shall appreciate a frank discussion of 
the principle involved. 
* 
For the benefit of some 30,000 patriotic farmers in 
the Thirty-fourth New York Congressional District we 
repeat our little text from St. Paul of two weeks ago: 
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course; 1 have kept the faith.” II Timothy 4-7. 
The best returns we can get before going to press 
indicate that James W. Wadsworth was defeated by a 
majority of 4,668. Two years ago Mr. Wadsworth 
had 13,036 majority, so that this means a change of 
nearly 18,000! It was a great victory. The credit for 
it belongs to the thousands of farmers who rose above 
party and voted for principle. They responded nobly, 
and turned what seemed at first a hopeless fight into 
the most remarkable victory' ever known in American 
politics. A new and significant power has come into 
political life—straight from the soil. When the com¬ 
plete figures are published we hope to discuss the true 
meaning of this political earthquake and point out its 
hopes and its dangers. All honor to the farmers of 
the Thirty-fourth District! 
* 
We look for a great increase in the business of feed¬ 
ing beef cattle at the East. On some of the light 
lands, as in South Jersey or the Delaware peninsula, 
there is need of manure. In some cases horse manure 
is freighted from New York over 250 miles to be used 
for truck or fruit. This puts the cost too high—out of 
reach of most growers. A substitute for it will add 
considerable value to the returns from fattening stock. 
Let a man get a good stand of Alfalfa and support it 
with corn, cow peas, millet and clover, and he will have 
an abundance of cheap feed for a herd of cattle. While 
the price of milk is high the labor problem is such that 
comparatively few of these farmers on the light soils 
will go into dairying. Good beef cattle can be sold to fair 
advantage, and as manure makers they nearly pay their 
way. Instead of plowing under green crops on these 
light lands forage will be made and fed to stock—the 
manure being put on the land. We believe this plan will 
be carried out in many places—to such an extent that 
it will make quite a difference in the meat trade. 
* 
Which State has the more useless representatives in 
the United States Senate—New Jersey or New York? 
We should call it about a tie! Platt, Depew, Dryden 
and Kean—where can one find in high public life a 
quartette of men who are doing less for the people? 
Not one of them could ever be elected to a State office 
by popular vote on his record ! The interests of the 
common people will be served if these men are retired 
to private life just as fast as there is an opening to 
push them through. This year the opening comes for 
Senator John F. Dryden of New Jersey. He will come 
before the New Jersey Legislature for re-election. So 
far as any benefit to the State is concerned the Legis¬ 
lature might just as well send a stone image or a wooden 
Indian to Washington. Every farmer in the State 
should oppose him for his oleo record. He was one 
of the few northern Senators who voted against the 
Grout bill. It was understood at the time that be did 
this in the interest of the large oleo manufacturers in 
Newark and Jersey City. By doing so he acted in 
defiant opposition to the expressed wish of the farmers 
of New Jersey. Now he has no business to ask one of 
them to help send him back to Washington. Keep him 
at home! 
* 
The Northern Spy apple pictured on our first page 
looks well, and we can assure the public that it tasted 
better than it looks. It was grown by Grant Hitchings 
the mulch culture man. The little story about it is told 
in the following letter: 
Noticing what Mr. Hale said in Tiie R. N.-Y., that those 
who followed the mulch method would never get to Heaven 
that way, I sent him a basket of Spy apples and told him 
I had good reasons for believing that we were on the 
borderland. I send you a similar basket by express to-day. 
so you can judge what our crop looks like: multiplying our 
best previous year by four would about hit this year. Or¬ 
chards never looked better. I am more than ever con¬ 
vinced that our plan is all right. grant g. hitchings. 
We trust that Mr. Hitchings is on “the borderland” 
in more ways than one. We will at least match these 
apples against the produce of any cultivated orchards we 
ever saw. The “mulch method” has won respect from 
some who were fierce in their opposition. The trouble was 
that what these men condemned was not the mulch meth¬ 
od at all. From the first we recognized the justice of 
one criticism. Whenever we talk about “mulch” some 
people claim to have failed with this method because 
they left the trees in sod—cutting all the grass for hay 
and using no fertilize.: or manure. Some people may be 
induced to give up fair care of an orchard by a discus¬ 
sion of “mulching,” but more will understand and 
profit by it. 
* 
Who is very likely to throw up his hat and brag? 
The man who sows Alfalfa for the first time and gets 
a good start. 
When does he do this? 
Usually in the Fall after sowing, at which time the 
Alfalfa has made its first growth! 
What else does this man do? 
He laughs his neighbors to scorn and brings them to 
see his Alfalfa! 
But who is this gentleman apparently hunting for a 
place in which he may hide and give expression to his 
thoughts in such manner that he will not injure his 
standing in the church? 
The same man! 
What now? 
It is Spring, and he finds that the Winter has pulled 
out his Alfalfa and killed it! 
Who are those happy individuals by the fence? 
'Flic neighbors who were silent perforce last Fall! 
What do we learn from this? 
A man should seed Alfalfa not only with lime and 
manure, but with humbleness! While he should culti¬ 
vate the soil until it is fine and open he should also cul¬ 
tivate such a stiff upper lip that it keeps his mouth 
closed. He should endure the gibes and jeers of his 
neighbors in silence until the hay is actually in the barn 
and the next cutting is ready. Then let him lead his 
friends to the triumph ! Not till then! 
* 
Some weeks ago we gave a picture of a device for 
hoisting or pulling loads. It could be run by a gaso¬ 
line or other engine, and was used for unloading hay 
or carrying any load over a carrier. Among other 
comments we have the following: 
I a in interested in the power hoist, page 798, only don’t 
make one for us here in New England to keep a man idle— 
run a cord convenient to man on the load and let him pull 
on the power and drop it off and we will do the rest. In 
my own case, I want a bevel-gear to turn the pull. I have 
been waiting for a low-priced hoist to come my way, as I 
have a gasoline engine standing in shed at end of my barn. 
Over in Yankee-land, as we know from personal expe¬ 
rience, they believe in keeping the man on the load 
awake. The machine may dispense with the extra man, 
but let those who do work with it keep going! That 
is part of the doctrine which has enabled New England 
to produce men and money, and to send them both out 
to develop other parts of the country. Yet they did 
not always see it. A reader calls attention to a speech 
made by Daniel Webster on California in 1838: 
What do wc want of that enormous tract of barren land 
stretching to the westward for hundreds of miles: of those 
gray clad mountains, capped with eternal snows? What 
do we want of that seaeoast of 1,500 miles in extent, with 
scarcely a harbor on it? No, gentlemen of the Senate, 
my voice and vote are opposed to this resolve: and, more. 
I will not vote to bring San Francisco one inch nearer 
Boston than it is at present. 
Yet when the gold came into sight it was the money 
and men from the East that made Webster’s words 
seem idle. I he good old Yankee faculty of keeping 
people busy is one of the things needed in a modern 
education. 
BREVITIES. 
A soft job—the making of some human heads! 
There are 59,332 miles of public roads in North Dakota, 
and 10,447 in Wyoming. 
A reaper says he believes in talking up his own business 
without talking bis neighbor’s business down. Good for 
him ! 
A man who Is supposed to be a high western fruit au¬ 
thority writes to ask if we have ever heard of the Spencer 
Seedless apple ! Such is fame ! 
Is salt good for white grubs? First-rate, provided you 
use the right kind of salt. What is the right kind? The 
assault of a good hog with a free snout in the soil. 
Hereafter only “harmless” color can be used in butter. 
Why not extend this harmless color feature to humans 
and limit it: to the color which good food, exercise and 
sleep put on the Check? 
Repairs in one part of this city have left a small rum- 
sliop standing alone in the midst of ruins. Over the door 
some one has put this significant notice: “Still doing bus¬ 
iness in the old way!” The “way” is that of the “Old 
Boy.” 
What we call truth usually lies between two extremes of 
foolishness. It is seldom reached except through one of 
these extremes. The strangest thing to the wise is to look 
back upon their folly and realize that they once called it 
wisdom. 
People who want a “teaser” in the way of a cover crop 
for northern soils might try the Winter oats used in some 
parts of the South. By “teaser” we mean a crop which 
grows well through the Fall, and dies out in Winter or 
Spring, so as to make easy work with plow or cultivator. 
The Winter oats will do that very thing witli us. 
