672 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 7 
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 VAX FLEET, I . . t 
MRS. K. T. HOYLE, 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 Mi marks, or 10 l /a 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. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 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. 
* 
The corn crop is heavy and bulky—hard to handle 
and move. We want to know how to cut and harvest 
it with the least lifting. Please tell us what devices and 
methods you have adopted to save the human back! 
* 
The Hope farm man wants statistics showing the 
cost of raising a boy to a self-supporting age. We 
would like to know what it cost to put you in the 
bread winner cla§s and what it costs to put your hoy 
there. It may pay to invest $25,000 in sofme boys but 
with a good many we know we should expect to make 
25 cent boys by doing it. But let’s have your figures. 
* 
Our old friend the Seedless Apple comes up now and 
then. An agent tried to sell the trees in Massachusetts, 
but struck c. neighborhood where nearly everyone took 
the R. N.-Y.! The nurseries in the West where these 
trees were to be grown seem to be winding up. One 
block of 30,000 trees has just been offered at give away 
prices. This marks the end of one of the slickest 
schemes for introducing a “novelty” ever worked in this 
country. 
* 
Give the farmers of this country a fair chance at a 
parcels post and they will prove several things. First 
they will prove the need of it in such a way that no 
one would ever dare suggest taking away the privilege. 
Next they will prove that instead of adding to govern¬ 
ment debt it will become self-supporting and add to 
the revenues. Again they will give the express com¬ 
panies and other owners of privilege an object lesson 
that will make them get out and truly serve the public. 
* 
A picture of boxed apples as packed in Oregon is 
shown at Fig. 328. Every year there is renewed argu¬ 
ment for selling good fruit in boxes and we believe 
the demand for the smaller package is growing. The 
Commission men and shippers prefer the barrel package 
but that is altogether too large for the city consumer. 
The barrel must be unpacked and the fruit put in a 
smaller package before it reaches the family that is to 
eat it. Our proposition is that large growers or com¬ 
binations of smaller growers should box their best fruit, 
store it and put it on the marjeet at retail. 
* 
The annual contest for prices between apple buyers 
and growers is now on. The apple shippers at their 
annual meeting calculated on a fair crop of fruit— 
chiefly distributed through the northern and eastern 
part of the country. All seem to admit that the West 
is short this year, and that New York and New England 
must provide a larger proportion than usual. A large 
Western New York grower now in the West writer 
this note after looking carefully over the field: 
There does not seem to he much of a crop anywhere here 
except in Arkansas and southern Missouri. St. Louis buy¬ 
ers are paying big prices for Ilinois orchards, so I don’t 
think Arkansas apples can be very choice. One buyer of 
St. Louis is paying $4.50 for Nos. 1 and 2 Maiden Blush and 
$4.50 for one big orchard in Illinois for everything on the 
tree. A grower at Centralia, Ill., sold the crop of Benoni 
in Chicago for $G.50 per barrel. I feel more confident that 
New York and the East will get a big price than before I 
came West. I do not think apples should go much below $3 
per barrel for everything on the trees. 
We hope this estimate will prove correct and that 
the shippers can handle the crop at that figure so as 
to come out ahead. There should not be any serious 
friction between growers and shippers. The latter are 
necessary to growers under present conditions and there 
our’t to b fair dealing between the two classes. 
* 
At this season we get a good many questions about 
stringy milk. Sometimes when people have only one 
cow or where there is an entire herd the milk will not 
keep. It becomes stringy or lumpy when left for a 
short time. The cows appear to he clean and healthy 
and the utensils are carefully washed. It is a great 
puzzle to milkmen. The cause is usually a germ which 
lodges in the stables or in pail, can, pan or strainer. 
The best remedy is to clean the stable and the cows 
thoroughly and to boil everything that touches cow or 
milk. By boiling the utensils every day and putting 
them in the sun the germ will retire and with it the 
strings in the milk. 
* 
It is always interesting to know what others think 
of you, and what value they put on your services. No 
doubt many institute speakers are receiving a letter from 
the Pyramid Oil Company of Findlay, Ohio. This con¬ 
cern has a preparation of crude oil for sale, and it 
wants farmers to know about it. So it sends a letter 
containing the following to speakers at New York 
institutes: 
As a lecturer at farmers' institutes and conventions, and 
a contributor to agricultural papers, you can help us to 
educate the people, and with this end in view we wish, to 
make you the following proposition : We will ship you a 
barrel of our preparation free if, after giving it a fair 
test, you are satisfied as to its merits, and can conscien¬ 
tiously recommend it. All we ask is that you agree to do 
so in one or more of your lectures at each place you lecture 
this year. By so doing you will be aiding in the Introduc¬ 
tion of a meritorious article that will result in a great sav¬ 
ing to all who use it, and secure something of value for 
yourself. Hoping to hear from you favorably we are, 
Very truly yours, the pyramid oil company. 
The public would be surprised to see how much of 
this petty bribery or graft is attempted. This letter 
fell into the hands of an honest man who felt the 
insult and saw the folly of selling himself for a $G' 
barrel of oil. We judge, however, that there are other 
men who do not recognize the sin of using a public 
position to advertise their own business or collect bunches 
of “graft.” Who would have any confidence in the 
teachings of farmer’s institutes if it were thought that 
the director and any of his associates were greasing 
their palms in this way or using their patronage to 
build up a political machine? When Demosthenes, the 
Athenian patriot, died the people of Athens erected a 
great statue to his memory. The hands of this figure 
were joined together. The story goes that a soldier 
had a sum of gold which he wished to leave in a safe 
place. He hid it between the hands of this statue and 
when he returned, long after, it was still there. Then 
it was proudly said that the gold would have been as 
safe in the hands of the living man as in those of the 
statue! As between the hands of an image of stone 
and the living hands of most of our modern public 
men which, think you, would make the safer place for 
deposit? And yet why should the fingers of a public 
man itch for graft? 
* 
The State Republican Clubs of New York have called 
a convention at Syracuse to consider the matter of 
decline in value of farm lands in New York. We doubt 
whether this convention will do much good as it will 
be considered by many people as a political movement. 
Men whose memories go back to the times before the 
war remember the struggles made by political parties 
to settle Kansas. There is no politics in the causes 
which have led people away from New York’s rural 
counties unless it be the National policy which has built 
up the town and city at the expense of the farm. We 
are not surprised that farmers resent this attempt to 
make political capital out of any assumed decline in 
their business. For example the Central New York 
Farmers’ Club says among other things: 
The last thing that we need in the State of New York is 
a whine over farm conditions. We are in no condition that 
demands that we he petted patronized or made political capi¬ 
tal of and therefore protest against the proposed legislative 
appropriation for the purposes suggested in the call of the 
convention. 
Our belief is that a large majority of New York 
farmers will back up those statements. There are 
certain definite things that New York farmers need 
such as farm laborers, freer capital and greater con¬ 
fidence in their business. They are not likely to obtain 
any of these things by “whining over farm conditions.” 
The fact is that no State in the Union to-day can offer 
better opportunities for farming than New York. What 
State has better railroad transportation, better markets 
or a wider diversity of soil? In what State can one 
buy land at a better bargain? What we want in New 
York State is a man who can put her agricultural possi¬ 
bilities before the public as a business proposition. If 
farmers in this country are selling out and going to 
the far west or to Canada or to the South it is because 
these sections have advertised their advantages while 
New York, offering superior chances, has been silent. 
We need a man who will advertise New York as F. D. 
Coburn has advertised Kansas, and make the public see 
the ooportunities which lie in our Farm lands. On 
page ei5 we printed a question from an Iowa man who 
asked about breeding horses and heef cattle in New 
York. It was answered by various farmers and at once 
people began writing about New York farms. As one 
result of this correspondence the following letter was 
received: 
I was rending on page 615 about a stockman in Iowa 
looking for information as to the desirability of coming 
East, with a view of raising horses and cattle. I am inter¬ 
ested with three other men in a large tract of land, located 
at Cold Spring-on-IIudson. Calling the attention of one of 
the men interested to the article referred to, he suggested 
that I write your paper with a view that you might put us 
in touch with the man in Iowa. We could easily set aside 
four or five hundred acres of land, or more, if required, for 
a proposition of this character, and possibly take some 
financial interest in the scheme. My associates are men of 
financial standing whose names and business connections 
would be furnished if there was any possibility of carrying 
out the proposition. h. v. porter. 
We print that to show how people are watching for 
just such opportunities. There are men in the State 
who have land to offer and others who want the land. 
Let some man who knows how make it his business 
to bring these men together and show the value of 
New York farms properly. You cannot “repopulate” 
the rural counties by elaborate “studies of conditions” 
or by political brass bands. We must show people what 
we have and go out for customers. 
• * 
We print the following as a fair sample of a good 
many letters that come to us: 
I have learned that farm help is scarce, and that crops 
were partly lost on that account. I have of late been think¬ 
ing of entering this line of work and seeing that help was 
at a premium I thought more strongly of the idea. I have 
never had experience at this work, but I feel that I should 
like it very much. Of course, I would not want to be em¬ 
ployed for a month or two, but would like work for a period 
of time, perhaps a year or more at the least; of this point 
I should like to be certain. In regard to myself, I am 21 
years old, of sound mind and body six feet tall weigh 165 
pounds and am of good character. I have had shop and 
clerical experience of five years and can furnish references 
of any kind. a. g. 
This man falls into the common error of supposing 
that any kind of labor will answer on a farm. “Sound 
mind and body” are both necessary for farm work hut 
noth must be trained as well as sound. It would be 
a long time before such a man could do a full job at 
milking, digging potatoes or seeding grain. It would 
probably be a great surprise to him to learn that more 
true judgment is rcouired in farm work than he has 
ever found necessary in his five years of “shop and 
clerical experience.” When a farmer sized him up at 
his true value and told him that he must learn the 
trade before he was worth full wages such a man 
might feel himself insulted. He can get plenty of work 
in the country whenever he learns to do farm work. 
He ought not to expect a farmer to pay for his 
education. 
BREVITIES . 
One thing about this cattle deal 
Is down in black and white. 
And though men bluster, bluff or squeal, 
We keep it right in sight. 
The cattle were the “only ones,” 
Before the sale was made, 
But a “job lot” of flesh and bones 
When Rogers closed the trade. 
And so the question still will knock, 
And to the front will bob, 
In putting this “job lot” of stock, 
Say-Who put up the job? 
Yes, the cow gives up her milk by giving it down. 
We understand that some 300 -women are operating as 
blacksmiths in this country with more or less success. 
Now we are told that so many vegetables are grown in 
Alaska that it is not necessary to send canned vegetables to 
feed our soldiers. 
There is only one fit place for the old hens now—inside 
of a good pie. Don’t carry the old hen over unless you know 
that she lays the golden egg. 
A Mississippi reader says that some of his neighbors are 
suffering from a disease which they do not recognize. It is 
“need of The R. N.-Y., and a 10-cent dose will cure them. 
Having told of the danger from getting lime and sulphur 
in the eyes we feel like giving the remedy: “On page 602 
J. E. tells of the unfortunate experience of one member of 
his family with lime-sulpluir spray in his eye. While in San 
.Tos6, California, last Winter, I inquired of an apple raiser 
what to do for lime-sulphur on the hands or if it got into 
the eye. He said that each man who was working with 
lime-sulphur soukl carry a small bottle of pure vinegar with 
him, as it was good for the hands and the only relief for 
lime-sulphur in the eye.” 
