64o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 24, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established. 1850. 
filtered at New York as Second Class Matter. 
Herbert w. Collingwooo, Editor. 
l)u. Walter Van Fleet, i 
Mrs. K. T. Hoyle, j-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% marks, or 10Mi francs. 
“A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is 
hacked 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 he sent to u's 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 24, 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 
if) weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory purposes. 
We depend on our old friends to make this known to 
neighbors and friends. 
♦ 
Tt would be a great thing for you and the boys to 
make a collection of all the weeds that grow on your 
farm, and be able to identify them and tell how they 
grow and how they may best be killed. With this 
could be written the analysis of such weeds, and any 
possible use for them. That would make one of the 
most useful studies in botany that anyone could take up. 
* 
It is doubtful if haying, take the country through, 
was ever later than this year. Farmers who usually 
pride themselves on having all their hay in the batn 
by the Fourth of July were this year still haying in 
August. The crop as a whole seems to be an average 
one. The old hay was so nearly closed out that there 
ought to be high prices; at least until the bulk of this 
year’s crop is sent to market. We would not hurry to 
sell. 
* 
Here is Mr. Hart Wallace—a Jersey breeder— on 
page 647, with a radical suggestion: 
I think that the fee for registering animals over one 
year old should he very heavy, say $50 or $100, so the stock 
would he registered young when It can be pretty well proven 
that it is what it is represented to he. Then, too, the heavy 
charge after one year would cut out a great many cheap 
cattle and lessen the production and at the same time im¬ 
prove its class, as an animal would have to he first class in 
order for its owner to pay $50 to register it. 
Mr. Wallace says he is a crank about such rules. Wie 
can only remark that the world is moved by cranks. 
* 
On August 29 of this year the Geneva, N. Y., Experi¬ 
ment Station will celebrate its silver wedding. The 
station will be 25 years old, and the event will be 
properly celebrated by a field day. It is expected that 
Gov. Hughes will be present, and the Legislature, the 
Grange, National and State Departments of Agriculture, 
Cornell University and other institutions will be repre¬ 
sented. On August 28, the New York State Fruit 
Growers and the Ontario County Fruit .Growers will 
meet. There will be room and a welcome for all. You 
ought to be there. 
* 
Here is a suggestion for your consideration: 
Suppose that 10,000 R. N.-Y. readers each sent a postal 
to each one of those Senators > and induced 10 others to do 
likewise, writing on the card “Mene, Mene, Tekel Upliarsin,” 
and their name and address. What? 1 j. D. 
That would help change history at a cost of 11 cents 
for each one of this 10,000! Who can ever expect to 
make a dent upon history with a dime and a penny in 
any other way? We suggest that the following be put 
on these cards— “Daniel 5: 25-28”—for therein they will 
find these words translated. “God hath numbered thy 
kingdom and finished it! Thou art weighed in the 
balances and art found wanting!’' The moral effect of 
such a shower of postal cards would be beyond belief. 
No man in public life could stand up against it. 
Whether elected or defeated his life never could be the 
same again. There would be no “politics” in it, and 
no man could say that a farmer got out of his “legi¬ 
timate field” in sending one of those cards. Tt is this 
simple plan of standing up to be counted that will give 
the farmer the power he ought to have in public 
affairs. The R. N.-Y. can do little for men who will 
not do things for themselves. We do not try to pull 
wires or court the favor of politicians. We try to get 
on the right side of a public question, and then we urge 
men to put themselves openly where their influence will 
count for it. That’s our idea of “farm politics.” 
* 
Before August 10 we began to have questions about 
late fertilizing of corn. In some fields the corn was 
very backward—short and light-colored. Would it pay 
at that late date to use 300 pounds or more of fertilizer 
to the acre to bring up the corn? It will depend upon 
the fertilizer and the season. Nitrate of soda, acid 
phosphate and potash, all being soluble, would become 
available at once if the soil were reasonably moist, and 
they would, without doubt, help the corn. Whether any 
fertilizer could force the corn to make a good crop of 
ears would depend upon the season. With a warm 
September it might be done—otherwise not. The time 
to put fertilizer on corn is before July 4. Any fertiliz¬ 
ing in August will be of doubtful value. 
* 
There is much talk about the loss of real estate 
values and population in rural counties of New York. 
A convention will be held at Syracuse to discuss the 
matter, and various agricultural experts are to make 
studies of the conditions. As a matter of fact New 
York does not need these studies half as much as it 
needs good advertising. With its miles of railroads, 
its wonderful markets, its varied and productive soil 
and great bargains in unoccupied farms, New York 
to-day offers better chances to a farmer than any other 
State in the Union. A man to do what Secretary F. 
D. Coburn has done for Kansas is the present need for 
New York agriculture. We need a man to blow the 
horn and tell what we have to offer, rather than people 
to rub their heads bald “studying” the situation. 
* 
A farmer from Iowa recently took a vacation, and 
spent some time visiting on farms in New York and 
New England. Like many western men, he thought 
that about all there is worth while in farming is located 
west of the Mississippi. Yet he found men in the East 
farming on land that has been under cultivation for 
more than a century, growing as much shelled corn 
to the acre as he could, and getting twice as much for 
it. Some of them were selling the stalks in addition 
for nearly as much as western farmers get for the 
grain. Near Syracuse he saw Alfalfa growing on hard 
old hills that looked scarcely capable of producing 
weeds. Alfalfa was making these hills produce the 
equivalent of three tons of wheat bran per acre, and 
bringing farm values from $40 to $100 per acre. Such 
things show a western man that there are others! 
♦ 
The R. N.-Y. gets all kinds of questions, and rarely 
fails to find a solution for hard problems. The paper is 
read each week by at least 350,000 people, who are all 
willing to help. A proposition must needs be too fine 
to be useful in order to get past all of these friends. 
Not long ago a Virginian asked how to kill coons. At 
once various people came forward with advice—we find 
some of this on page 637. That is all well in theory, but 
here we have a businesslike proposition: 
In answer .to your coon question you tell the inquirer that 
if he will pay my way from Marlon, Va., down there, I 
will catch all the coons in that section of the country. I 
have a dog that will get them all. J. J. B. 
That’s what we call right to the point. The man and 
his coon dog right on the spot would soon fix the coons. 
Every time we talk about giving a politician what is 
due him, or reforming some public abuse we get a lot 
of general advice. At last comes the man with the 
postage stamp, or the man with the votes, who like this 
man with his coon dog, “will get them.” 
* 
Most people are familiar with stories of trouble be¬ 
tween union and non-union workmen, but it is new to 
hear of bloodshed and violence between members and 
non-members of a farm organization. In the tobacco 
growing districts in Kentucky such trouble undoubtedly 
exists. Buildings are set on fire, machinery destroyed 
and men are whipped or shot. The tobacco trust had 
so depressed prices that growers became desperate men, 
with ruin staring them in the face. They were able 
to form an association and by thus combining to hold 
their crop, they have saved themselves from ruin. 
Naturally there would be feeling between the members 
of such an association and those who refused to join. 
The outrages which have occurred in Kentucky have 
been charged against members of the association, but 
from all we can learn they are the work of a few irre¬ 
sponsible men who would like to discredit the associa¬ 
tion if they can. It is not unlikely that the tobacco 
trust is at the bottom of it, for they know that the 
association is doomed to failure if it encourages lawless¬ 
ness. The association should repudiate such outrages in 
the most forcible and public way. 
It is evident that many people are writing the A. J. 
C. C. about the famous Jersey cattle case. We were 
told some weeks ago that it was “a dead issue”—that no 
one cared about it any longer. It is pretty lively for a 
dead one, for drops of ink and postage stamps have 
galvanized it into life. The most important ex¬ 
cuse is that Rogers refused to give his testi¬ 
mony because he could not have a stenographer 
of his own present. We deny that statement, as we 
have before. Mr. Rogers asked the committee to assure 
him that he would receive a certified copy of the testi¬ 
mony. He was willing to proceed if this was assured 
him, but the committee refused to give it, and Rogers did 
what 99 men out of 100 have done under similar cir¬ 
cumstances. When the report was finally made the 
committee blamed Rogers, evidently on the testimony 
of Dawley and Van Dreser. Rogers demanded a copy 
rf their testimony, and it was promised him. Later it 
was refused on the ground that a protest had been made 
against giving out any of the testimony! This shows 
that the lawyer who handled Rogers’s case knew what 
he was about when he refused to submit his case without 
an assurance that he would have a copy of the testi¬ 
mony. We nail this point down right here. Dawley 
and the A. J. C. C. say that at least one cow is bogus. 
All admit that only one side of the case has been sub¬ 
mitted. The A. J. C. C. wants to let this one-sided 
settlement stand. We don’t intend that it shall stand. 
The question to ask the A. J. C. C. is— Why do you fear 
an open and free investigation when you admit that the 
case has not been settled? 
* 
There is a good deal of wickedness and fraud in 
this world. If a man start out to fight even a small 
part of it he will need some strong antidote if he would 
hold his faith in humanity. We find it in the evidences 
of old-time Sterling honesty which are all about us. Our 
old friend D. C. Lewis, of New Jersey, has a very 
successful field of Alfalfa. A few friends wanted small 
quantities of soil from this field for inoculating new 
seedlings, and from this quite a little trade has been 
devejoped. We have just received the following note 
from Mr. Lewis: 
In this week’s R. N.-Y. you say, in your article on Alfal¬ 
fa : “The soil from the old field will he taken where we 
find the nodules on the roots.” Is it probable where Al¬ 
falfa has been grown, and it is now growing successfully for 
three years, to go amiss for soil for inoculation purposes? 
When one of the officials of our experiment station visited 
my Alfalfa plot this Summer, I asked him if it was possible 
to secure so vigorous a growth if the nodules were deficient, 
lie replied no. Give your opinion on this particular, for 
I am putting out soil: it would be a great source of sorrow 
to me to disappoint others. 
Our opinion is that the soil anywhere in that field 
would be suitable, for the growth is uniformly strong 
all over. Parts of our own field are thin. We go to 
the places where the plants are thick, for there most 
nodules are found. We do not believe the Alfalfa could 
grow as it does on Mr. Lewis’s field unless the bacteria' 
were there. But the point that we want to emphasize- 
lies in the last sentence of this note. Many men would 1 
care little provided they got orders for the soil. This, 
feeling of sorrow at any disappointment of customers: 
is a part of what we call old-fashioned honesty, and it 
is refreshing to find it in these days of graft and trick¬ 
ery. And yet that is the way men ought to do business,,, 
and we are thankful that thousands of them still put 
honor and character into the packages they send out.. 
BREVITIES. 
Always read “the next page.” 
Keep soil stirred up in dry weather. 
A “soft snap !” Nothing soft ever had any snap to ft! 
A very sensible article on live stock in New Y’ork, page 
046. 
Why not try a little Winter vetch this Pall for fodder or 
soiling? 
What would you think of a prophet who was really hon¬ 
ored at home? 
With us the drought has dried up the second hay crop, 
but tlie Alfalfa laughs at it. 
What sort of a patriot do you call yourself when you 
encourage lawlessness in your boy? 
We never bad so much discussion of green manuring crops, 
or the benefit of humus in the soil. 
“Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” Some men seem 
to think they will make sure of Mammon anyway. 
The earth floor of the chicken pens is almost as rich 
as some brands of fertilizer. Get it out on the land and 
put fresh dirt back. 
The Ben Davis apple takes Its place now by the side of 
this year’s early fruit, and the old fellow doesn’t seem at all 
ashamed to hold his head up beside the best. 
On Sunday afternoon the humble workman in the city 
walks out and looks at the great building he is helping to 
raise. The architect and financier get most of the credit, 
but it is a monument to the humble man as well. 
That’s a good suggestion on the next page of having a 
few mulched fruit trees, so as to make a farmer look around 
for mulching material. Where young orchards are grown in 
'corn or potatoes, put the boys in to pull the big weeds and 
throw them around the trees. That will give you an object 
lesson long to be remembered. 
