592 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 3, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FARMEE'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. 
Hr. Walter Van Fleet, ( . . ^ 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, f Associates. 
John J. Hii.lon, Business Manager. 
straw which stock will not eat entirely. In ripening 
some of the nutHment in the stems passes into the 
grain. The same is true to some extent of grass. When 
dead ripe the seeds are like the ripened grain, while 
the stems are like the straw. If we could utilize the 
grass seeds as we do the grain we could save the value 
in the entire plant, but we know that grass seeds shake 
off and are lost. Thus we lose a good share of the 
value when we let these seeds fully mature. 
* 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or 8% marks, or 10 Vi 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 Tiie 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-YORIvER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1907. 
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. 
* 
We have a good many letters like the following: 
Our hay is not nearly a full average and quality better. 
Hay buyers are trying to make out a big crop in western 
States. What are the facts? 
There will be a lively contest over prices for apples 
and hay this year. Buyers will naturally attempt to 
show that the general crop is large. Our reports do 
not indicate a heavy hay crop. The old hay is mostly 
cleaned up and we can see no reason for low prices. 
Good hay, properly baled, can be held safely and unless 
there is urgent need of the money we would not hurry 
to sell. Of course, when any farm product runs high, 
substitutes will be used. There will be much prairie 
hay cut, and shredded fodder will be baled and put on 
the market. Still, we can see no reason to expect either 
a large crop or lower prices. Judging from present in¬ 
dications hay should be higher than last year. 
* 
Would it be possible for a case like that of those 
disputed Jersey cows to develop in the other cattle 
associations? Yes, but not so likely to do so. The 
Guernsey Cattle Club has made special provision for 
handling just such cases. A sum of money is laid aside 
to pay for prompt investigation. When a complaint is 
made to the secretary he is authorized to look it up 
at once—either through trusted agents or by going in 
person to see the cattle. Under this system it would 
not be possible for such a trouble as this between Daw- 
ley and Rogers to grow into a scandal. The Guern¬ 
seys, too, generally carry spots of color so that they are 
quite easily identified. The Guernsey Club will not 
undertake to interfere in cases of jockeying or sharp 
practice in selling, but where its records are in danger 
they pounce upon the evil-doer at once. 
* 
Every year we have a good many questions from peo¬ 
ple who ask when they can kill brush or stump growth to 
best advantage. We get in advance of these questions by 
saying that August is the best month. The theory is that 
during the Summer rapid growth is made—largely at the 
expense of the roots. Most of this growth stops in 
August—Nature being prepared to give the roots a 
chance to recuperate. Then if we cut off the tops we 
are like attacking a man who is tired out and with little 
energy left in him. Wait until he is rested and he 
could make a good defense, but when he has worked 
himself out he is in your power. It is much the same 
with brush and tree growth. Cut them in August and 
the roots make a feeble effort to make a new top which 
can be quite easily killed. We can laugh at the slow 
awkward work of a yoke of work cattle until we want 
to break up stump land. Then we know their value. 
* 
Once in a while we find a farmer who argues that it 
pays best to let grass stand before cutting until it is 
dead ripe. Some argue that it cuts easier, dries out 
quicker and makes smaller bulk to handle, but a few go 
further and say the dead hay is better feed. A little 
observation of grain ought to show them better. Take 
oats; if we cut them green, or while the heads are 
soft, we have a good fodder which stock will eat up 
clean. If we let the seeds ripen the stems make hard 
We should all be sure ofxntr ground before we blame 
man, beast or insect for damage to property. Some 
years ago a man sent us in great haste a strawberry 
plant and a box containing insects. He said he had 
caught the insect destroying the plants, and wanted a 
sure remedy at once. The plant had been injured by 
the common white grub. The insect was the common 
wood louse or sow bug, which could not possibly gnaw 
a plant! The man saw this sow bug running away 
from a plant and upon this evidence accused him. We 
have heard of a man who saw that ants followed plant 
lice on trees. ITe reasoned that they killed the lice, and 
so went around digging up ant hills and throwing the 
earth into his orchard. He could not have done a 
worse thing, for the ants protect the lice—herd them in 
fact for a sweet secretion which the lice produce. Now 
comes a man with samples of an insect which he finds 
on maple trees—apparently boring deadly holes in the 
trunk. These insects were sent to Prof. Slingerland 
who reports: 
The insects found boring into the maple stump were try¬ 
ing to lay their eggs in the burrow of the true Maple borer. 
From these eggs would hatch grubs that would follow along 
the burrows until they reached the borer grub, which they 
would then proceed to devour. Thus the insects sent 
were parasites or beneficial insects and should have been 
left to continue their good work. The gimlet-like holes 
were made by the adult of the true borer when it emerged. 
Thus these insects were friends rather than foes and 
deserved shelter rather than harm. What a world this 
would be if we all had the power to weigh circum¬ 
stantial evidence so as not to do injustice. 
* 
The auto question has now come home to New 
Jersey farmers in a new way. For some years past 
there have been races with automobiles on Long Island 
—a course being marked out on the public roads. The 
machines are driven at terrific speed, and, of course, 
during the race and for days before it, travel on these 
highways is impossible or full of danger. A new law 
in New York prohibits such races and the promoters 
of them have now gone to New Jersey. They applied 
to the Legislature to have the auto law changed so that 
a course of some 30 miles can be laid out on the public 
roads, and high speed permitted thereon. As a matter 
of fact the present New Jersey law is broken every 
day and will continue to be until the violators are 
lodged in jail. If these rich “sports” are permitted to 
come to the State and use the public roads for a race 
track, the law will become more of a farce than ever. 
Nq real good can come to the State through such a 
scheme. We are told that thousands of people will 
come to see the races and spend their money. That was 
the argument we heard years ago when we were trying 
to shut out the race track gamblers. The horses that 
ran in these races did consume hay and grain, but the 
humans did a trade mostly in drinks—hard or “soft.” 
New Jersey has no need of the crowd that follows 
an auto race. The roads would be injured and made 
even more unsafe than they are now. If these rich 
men and auto manufacturers want to race why do they 
not build tracks of their own on some of the great 
parks which they are buying? New Jersey farmers 
should oppose this scheme to the limit. 
* 
The following note comes from a man who lives in 
a district at present represented by one of those black¬ 
listed New York Senators: 
You can do no more valuable service than to educate farm¬ 
ers up to a realizing sense of the importance of their looking 
after their own local interests more actively. Our country 
districts have suffered immensely by farmers not keeping up 
their old-time interest in town affairs, and in selecting hon¬ 
est representatives, responsible for making the laws of the 
State. 
One thing is sure, the time has gone by when farmers 
can safely keep on working out in the sun and trust 
their public interests to people who sit on a comfort¬ 
able chair in the shade. From earliest times the man 
in the shade has enjoyed a special privilege and worked 
it to the limit. Under the old caucus and political boss 
system the people were never fairly represented. Every 
one of the men whose names we print has misrepre¬ 
sented his district. With one possible exception had 
they stated last Fall openly that they would oppose 
Governor Hughes in his attempt to strengthen the State 
Insurance Department they would have been the worst 
beaten men who ever ran in their districts. Now they 
must come before the people stripped of all ornament 
or nonsense and run on their record. We make no 
attack upon their character or ability. The issue is a 
higher one. These men deliberately put themselves on 
the wrong side of a great moral question—in the face 
of the expressed wish of their districts. For farmers 
now to humbly give way and send them back to Albany 
would be to admit that dwellers in country 'homes lack 
the courage to use the weapons which time and oppor¬ 
tunity have put in their hands. All over the country 
people are watching to see what the farmers in these 
New York districts will do to those Senators. Fate 
has played right into your hands by jpaking it possible 
to fight these men out in the open without larger issues 
to hide behind or stronger men to pull them through. 
If they are beaten it will be known and recognized that 
the beating was done by farmers and every blow will 
mean an inch back to the better days when the New 
York farmer had a truer power in public affairs. We 
welcome every honest opportunity for a farmer to put 
himself bravely and openly on the right side of a public 
question. No better chance was ever offered than this. 
* 
There are so many “Jersey cattle letters” this week 
that we could not find space for half of them. This 
one comes from Maine: 
The A. ,T. C. C. scrimmage is interesting. I stuck my 
postage stamp on Secretary Hemingway, and think you are 
doing good by following the case. It is hard for a plain 
dairyman to accept all the pedigree and performance of an¬ 
cestors if the doubt arises as to authenticity of individual. 
,t. f. g. 
We have not yet asked readers to stick their stamps 
on Prof. Redfield. We should feel sorry for him if 
they once begin to really use the power of the postage 
stamp. The old baron of the middle ages built a castle 
on a rock and lorded it over the common people be¬ 
cause the latter had no power that could reach them. 
The general use of gunpowder ended that, for a man 
could carry enough of it in his arms to blow down the 
strong gate that barred him before. The postage stamp 
and the drop of ink are to blow up strong entrench¬ 
ments of dignity and special privilege. 
Here comes a letter .from a member of the New York 
State Breeders’ Association: 
I wish to congratulate you on the persistent and bulldog 
tenacity with which you have hung on to the A. J. C. C., 
and I hope you will not let up, for I think you have a just 
cause. The A. ,T. C. C. is not infallible. I have known of 
their making mistakes before, and Mr. Dawley is no better 
than any other man. If he makes a mistake, let him make 
it good, but some men’s heads grow pretty fast. I think it 
would he well for the Governor to appoint a committee to 
investigate the Agricultural Department of the State. They 
have had their own way too long, and need a cleansing 
process. 
Now then —what do you think of that? This is the 
same Association which passed that “resolution” last 
Winter. Governor Hughes knows his business and may 
be trusted to attend to the right thing at the right time. 
And now, from dozens of others, let us select this 
one from Michigan: 
I glory in your stand against the A. J. C. C. Keep at 
them until you straighten them up. You are the only one 
that can do it that has the nerve. I have registered Jerseys, 
but registration papers don't count with me half as much 
as they did before this came up. They have had their last 
fee out of me till they do business. f. i. w. 
A Pennsylvania man has expressed his sentiments in 
three words, “Sic ’em Towser.” We might say that we 
glory in the name of “Towser” when we understand 
the confidence and appreciation which it represents. 
Ever since the world began the “pocket book nerve” 
has run pretty close to the surface. It is enough to say 
that people have got at it in this Jersey cattle con¬ 
troversy. _ 
BREVITIES . 
Needs a divorce—the writer who is married to big words. 
Most people who use sulphur for fumigating fail to use 
enough of it. 
Don't try to sow a clover crop in the corn unless you can 
first get the corn clean. 
Why not raise cane a little more than you do? Stock like 
It and it makes good strawberry mulch. 
“Our combined ages are 161 years,’’ write a farm couple in 
Michigan. Is this the record among readers? 
A great gulf fixed! Where? Between the plain people 
and the expert who has forgotten that once he did not know. 
We have often mentioned hydrocyanic acid gas for killing 
insects. It kills all breathing things, but not the eggs of in¬ 
sects. Dry food products are not injured by it. 
“ I am sure that God does not intend us to have a whole 
loaf and those who come after us only half a loaf.” That is 
what an Illinois farmer says about the soil. What a sat¬ 
isfaction it is to feel that the farm is constantly growing 
better. 
Speaking of “trap crops.” Prof. J. B. Smith includes the 
dog and cat. Fleas infest these household pets. Wash the 
dog in carbolic soap and dust the cat with insect powder. 
When they are clean let them run through the infested house 
and pick up a new stock of fleas, which may be killed by the 
same process. 
The weed known as Devil’s paintbrush is gaining ground 
in southwestern New York. The following sensible advice is 
given : “Don’t delay, for it may get started on your farm 
and get the upper hand of you. Have a sack of salt on 
hand. Keep your eyes open, watching for this pretty rod 
flower. When you locate it, go for the salt. A few pecks 
sprinkled on the thing in time will save purchasing carloads 
of salt in the future.” 
