6o8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 16 , 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TUE 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, | . 
Mrs. E. T. Boyle, ^ Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04. 
equal to 8s. Gd., 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 
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, AUGUST 10, 1907. 
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. 
* 
The Hope Farm man is obliged to hold up both hands 
and go to a back seat on this question of blasting stones 
by fire. When a dozen responsible readers come in with 
a record in this line, and not only prove the process 
but show the philosophy of it, what can you do? Just 
admit it and thank the wiser heads who make it clear. 
Life is a search for truth—not a struggle to defend 
prejudice or personal opinion. 
* 
We would like to have a photograph of a recent street 
scene in New York. A side street in a manufacturing 
district was crowded during the noon hour. Half a 
dozen men sat eating their dinners in a shady corner 
near a saloon. Each had a supply of beer, drinking 
it from cans or pails. A few rods away a milk wagon 
was surrounded by 25 men and boys who were buying 
cold bottled milk. The driver of this wagon has devel¬ 
oped a good trade among men who formerly drank 
beer. If skimmed milk could be sold in this way at a 
low figure, and efforts were made to have it on sale 
near saloons during the noon hour we could make the 
good old cow work for temperance! 
* 
We have had pictures of big strawberries and pota¬ 
toes, and records of big egg and milk yields. Now we 
have a picture of big grass heads at Fig. 297, page 602. 
i hese are sent by Mr. D. W. Feight, of Bedford Co., 
Pa. We show the exact size of these Timothy heads, 
and if anyone has larger we would like to see them. 
Mr. Feigh't says that the grass stalks which carried these 
heads were five feet tall. The soil upon which this 
wonder grew is a limestone gravel. There wouldn’t be 
much trouble about cutting over three tons to the acre 
of such grass, and if Red-top were mixed with it the 
yield would be at least one ton more. The question is, 
would seed from such grass be better than that from 
smaller heads? 
* 
It is close to Alfalfa seeding time. Some farmers 
regard the great loads of hay coming off the field as 
the greatest glory of this crop. To us a greater one 
is its ability to live and start where grasses fail. We 
have one hard old hillside where, some years ago, we 
seeded Alfalfa. We thought it had all dried out, and 
planted other crops, but here and there plants are still 
growing among the grass. The soil is now baked hard 
and the grass has made no start since mowing. The 
Alfalfa, however, started at once and is over a foot 
higher—green and thrifty. How it gets a water supply 
out of that dry soil is a mystery. Alfalfa appears to be 
the weakest of all hay plants while young, yet the 
strongest when full grown. 
* 
The American Poultry Association is a strong organ¬ 
ization that has done much for poultry keepers. The 
New York State branch ought to be the leading part 
of the Association. It is estimated that 300,000 persons 
in New York are directly interested in poultry, repre¬ 
senting an investment, all told, of $60,000,000. The va¬ 
rious smaller association in the State have a member¬ 
ship of less than 1,000 persons. These associations, 
while preserving their local character, ought to be welded 
together, and multiply their membership and power by 
50. These facts seem to be evident. How can they be 
worked out? One way to help is for you to attend the 
annual meeting of the American Poultry Association 
at Niagara Falls, August 13, 14 and 15. Another is to 
get into communication at once with Prof. James E. 
Rice, Ithaca, N. Y., who is secretary of the Association. 
Why not organize for the benefit of the lady who lays 
the egg? 
* 
In the discussion of this Jersey cattle case it has been 
necessary to mention the connection with it of Frank 
E. Dawley. In the report of the investigating com¬ 
mittee we find the following: 
However whether or not the eattle were all properly 
tagged by Dawley, it is evident from the correspondence 
passing between them that Rogers had confused the cattle 
and was unable to identify them to his satisfaction, and 
that he lacked the certificates of transfer, the register 
papers and the necessary information to enable him to do 
so. It appears that he wrote to Dawley repeatedly for the 
papers and for information in reference to service and the 
coming in of the cows, and that Dawley delayed or wholly 
failed to give this information, and that in consequence 
Rogers found himself in difficulty with a Dansville bank, 
which was to accept the cattle as security in place of the 
engine which Rogers exchanged for the cattle. Rogers was 
entitled to this information, and the irritation caused by 
his failure to get it, was undoubtedly the beginning of this 
controversy. 
1 bus the committee bolds Mr. Dawley responsible 
(upon his correpondence, as Rogers did not testify) 
for the trouble, for it seems to be conceded that he 
might easily have straightened out the tangle in the 
beginning lfad he cared to do so. At any rate, being 
largely responsible for the mix-up and what has grown 
from it, Mr. Dawley should not complain at fair criti¬ 
cism or fair inference when he refuses to state his side 
of the case. We never went so far to ask a man to 
state his facts and justify himself before the public as 
we have with Mr. Dawley. While his friends have 
accused us of injustice because we failed to print his 
side, Mr. Dawley has deliberately refrained from giving 
us the facts. Mr. Dawley occupies an important public 
position. There has been some criticism as to the pro¬ 
priety of his continuing to occupy it without clearing up 
promptly and finally his connection with this cattle case. 
The following letter from a well-known breeder is a 
fair sample of several that have come to us: 
I have been mucli interested in the matter of making 
the papers fit the Jersey stock sold by F. E. Dawley to 
Isaac C. Rogers I think this a matter reaching far be¬ 
yond the A. J. C. C., The Country Gentleman, or The R. 
N.-\ r . even. This is a matter that comes home to every 
breeder of purebred stock, and to every progressive farmer 
in the State, and in my judgment should bo taken up by 
Governor Hughes, as Mr. Dawley holds a most important 
appointive office, and one that stands for both the moral 
and financial betterment of farmers whom Director Dawley 
reaches through speakers he selects and sends out. Should 
a thorough and impartial investigation reveal that Mr. 
Dawley’s dealings with Mr. Rogers have been honorable 
and just, everyone interested in institute work will be 
more than pleased, and say amen to it. On the other 
hand, should it be found that Mr. Rogers has been duped 
and made a loser, then it would be the duty of the Gov¬ 
ernor to remove and place at head of institute work one 
who would restore confidence not only as director, but do 
away with any embarrassment to institute speakers. In 
my judgment there has no question arisen that has and 
will so affect breeders and breeding of good stock as this, 
and no question is settled only as it is settled right. 
X BREEDER. 
Thus far we have taken the position that nothing in 
Mr. Dawley’s public or private life concerns us except 
this one incident connected with the sale of cattle to Mr. 
Rogers. We should say that very few besides those 
who are connected with it in some capacity care espe¬ 
cially for the Agricultural Department as at present 
conducted. It ought to be the strongest department in 
the State, and as we believe will be made so in the 
future. 
Crowd Alfalfa into a section of country and you will 
change its history. How could it be otherwise when 
wealth makes change necessary? Fill a country with 
gold taken from other sections and it cannot remain 
the same. Alfalfa is uncoined gold—most of it hon¬ 
estly taken from the air in the form of nitrogen. As a 
country Argentina has advanced in prosperity beyond 
most of her neighbors, largely because the farmers have 
made great use of Alfalfa. The section of country 
around Syracuse, N. Y., has become one of the most 
prosperous farm sections in the country since it was 
demonstrated that Alfalfa does so well there. How 
could any good farm section help prospering if carload 
after carload of wheat bran or ton after ton of nitrate 
of soda were sent there as a gift? That is about what 
happens when Alfalfa fastens itself upon the farms. 
The Pacific coast has not been famous as a swine pro¬ 
ducing country. Most of the ham and bacon used there 
has been imported, chiefly because no large quantity of 
corn is grown there. Now it has been shown that a 
profit of $50 per acre is possible by pasturing hogs on 
Alfalfa! It is well worth making a struggle to get 
this wonderful crop started. 
We have explained the Eggleston fruit bill which be¬ 
came a law in New York last Winter. It is modeled 
on the National Pure Food law and seeks to protect 
New York fruit growers by defending the trade mark 
name of their State. No one can now legally bring 
fruit into this State, unpack it, repack and sell it as 
New York fruit. Such work has been done in the past, 
both with green and dried fruit, and it has been a real, 
inquiry to our growers. Another injury to business has 
been the stealing of packages. A grower will work 
hard to gain a good reputation and then devise an 
original and attractive package for his fruit. Some one 
will gather up the empty packages, fill them with his own 
fruit and sell them as new packages from the original 
grower. I his hurts both ways. The man who is 
jealous of his reputation finds inferior fruit in his 
packages, and customers blame him for the fraud. The 
man who practices the cheat has for a time an advan¬ 
tage over his competitors, since he rides on the reputa¬ 
tion of those cast-off packages. The Eggleston law 
puts a severe penalty on this practice. If a man uses 
these packages he must erase the name of the grower 
or packer before doing so. Now this law will prove 
a genuine help to fruit growers if it can be enforced. 
Nothing will enforce it except public sentiment. This 
sentiment must come from interested parties, and fruit 
gioweis, both inside and out of their organizations, 
should begin at once to talk about this law and demand 
its enforcement. 
* 
This cattle case gives one a liberal education in some 
phases of the purebred live stock business. You will 
generally find a company of “sports” around a livery 
or sales stable. Somehow our noble four-footed friend, 
the horse, seems to attract a crowd of jockeys and sharp¬ 
ers. We find that our horned friend, the purebred cow, 
has her share of these parasites which no ordinary fly 
killer will destroy. Agricultural fairs are partly con¬ 
ducted at State expense, and some of this money is paid 
as prizes for herds of cattle which are driven from 
fair to fair like a string of race horses. In one case 
we are told of a man who draws a comfortable salary 
from tlie State and is also a breeder of purebred stock 
1 his man, who we call A, made over one of his ani¬ 
mals to a friend, who may be called B. Now B takes 
the animal some distance from home to a county fair 
and enters her for a prize. The judge turns out to be 
A, and he gives the first prize to B’s entry. Later B 
tiansfers the animal back to A, who sells her on the 
strength of her prize winning! A horse jockey will 
have to stretch himself to beat that, and what a wise 
use of State money that is for “benefiting the live 
stock industry.” In another case an official of a fair 
is thus entitled to see the entries and records. He 
waits until all entries are made and printed. Then, 
knowing just what the competition will be, he enters 
animals, and is not only permitted to exhibit, but 
awarded prizes on so-called purebred stock that has 
never been registered. There seem to be numerous 
cases where horns of cattle are polished and scraped so 
as to destroy evidence of their ages. All such things 
come floating to the surface now that this Jersey case 
is being thrashed out. The pity of it is that such prac¬ 
tices have defenders. What possible defense can they 
make? Two sentences will sum it up! 
“They all do it!” 
“If you talk about it you will hurt the fairs!” 
The first is a lie; the second a coward’s subterfuge. 
It seems to us that if Satan wanted to win first prize 
in a contest for the most dangerous advice to give 
young men he would model it on these two arguments 
and on the meaner one that a public man should not be 
criticised because there are others just as bad. 
BREVITIES . 
How many jars of fruit yet put up? 
As you get past 40 drop meat and eat vegetables like 
sixty. 
If you can t pull the weeds try to sheep them or bury 
them before they seed. 
5es, it takes some people a long time to get around to 
doing business on the square. 
Last week our “Remember Wadsworth” notice was put 
under the significant heading of “Farmers' Club.” 
You may shuffle up a question and keep it out of si<dit 
hut it never will be settled till it’s fixed and settled right.’ 
Why is cow pea seed so scarce and high ? The wet 
weather last Fall spoiled most of the crop, and more than 
ever before are being planted. 
An Oregon man tells of raising Sharpless strawberries 
five of which measured 17 inches when placed side by side’ 
It was impossible to crowd four of them into a box. 
A new law in Missouri provides for registering farm 
names. By paying one dollar to the county clerk a farmer 
may register the name of his farm, receive a certificate for 
it, and thus secure special right to use it. We believe in 
naming the farm of course. 
This is from a man in a suburban New Jersey town: 
We are now going through our amateur course of horti¬ 
cultural work in small fruits, in my case through the 
pointers which I have got through reading The R. N -Y 
I am in a fair way to pay my taxes easy on my house 
and lot, which amount to $22 a year.” 
