756 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 12, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established, 1850. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company; H. W. 
Collingwood, President; Dr. Walter Van Fleet, Vice-Presi¬ 
dent; John J. Dillon, Treasurer; Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary; 
409 Pearl St„ New York. 
Entered at New York as Second Class Matter. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, I 
Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, f Associates. 
Joun J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A IIEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. (id., or 8 % marks, or 10% 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 trilling 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, OCTOBER 12, 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 recent attempts to create money panics in “Wall 
Street” didn’t work out as expected, because the so- 
called “financial pulse” of this country is moving away 
from Wall Street—nearer the stone walls on the farm! 
* 
Many readers started Alfalfa this year. They 
coaxed it and stayed by it until the August sowing is a 
foot or so high. What now? We shall clip our own crop 
and let the clippings lie on the ground. When the 
ground freezes we shall apply a fair coat of manure if 
we have it. Give the Alfalfa every chance. It will 
pay. Wouldn’t you kill the fattest hen and fix up the 
best bed for a man who offered to make you a present 
of three tons of wheat bran? 
* 
The men who advocate the plan of ventilating sta¬ 
bles and henhouses with muslin screens have one mighty 
argument. It doesn’t cost much to try it. All you 
have to do is to take out some of the glass and put 
frames covered with cloth in its place! That is simple 
enough, and at a cost of a few cents a cow you can 
try it. Add to this the fact that no one reports fail¬ 
ure, while all say the cloth screens keep the stable 
sweet and comfortable. Try it! 
* 
Perhaps you have a brook or stream of fair size 
running not far from your buildings. For years it has 
been running there, a source of undeveloped power. It 
might be harnessed so as to light your buildings and 
turn your machinery. Perhaps you are one of those 
who are tempted to invest money in “shares” or “stock” 
in some concern that you never could control. You 
might far better harness that brook. We shall, before 
long, tell you how this has actually been done by a 
New York farmer. 
* 
Another of our four-footed friends is pictured on 
the next page. This is the famous “black cow with 
rings in her nose,” variously named by Mr. Dawley. 
He finally decided that she is Matilda Naiad. The 
reader will ask at once—where are the rings? This 
cow came back from pasture one night in July without 
the rings. There was a wound on her shoulder and 
every appearance that she had been fastened to a tree 
and the rings cut out. However, her color, shape 
and the peculiar appearance of her head and horns are 
quite enough for identification. 
* 
A reader in Indiana wants to know if it is true that 
milk inspectors in this city confiscate and destroy milk 
when its temperature is above 50 degrees. In the sani¬ 
tary code of the New York Board of Health nine defi¬ 
nitions of “adulterated milk” are given, one of which is 
“milk the temperature of which is higher than 50° F.” 
The New York Commissioner of Health informs us 
that 41,395 quarts of milk were condemned and de¬ 
stroyed last year. This condemned milk is poured di¬ 
rectly into the gutters or thrown into the river. It is 
possible for men with such arbitrary powers to do 
great damage to the milk business. 
* 
The scream of the silage cutter has been heard in 
the land, as its strong jaws tore up the stalks of corn 
and spit them out into the silo. One does not need 
to have gray hairs to remember the time when there 
was no such job as silo filling on the farm, because 
no one had a silo. What sport was made of the first 
few men who built them! Now the dairyman asks 
himself—what could I do without silage? Those farm¬ 
ers around Syracuse, N. Y., ask the same about Al¬ 
falfa. So do Delaware farmers about Crimson clover 
and cow peas, or western farmers about manure spread¬ 
ers. A man of middle age may well wonder what the 
next 50 years is to show on the American farm. 
* 
You will see that the “water witches” will not stay 
put by Prof. King’s argument. What can be said in 
reply to the article on the first page? We are mildly 
criticized sometimes for permitting a discussion of such 
questions. It is evident that thousands of sensible peo¬ 
ple fully believe in some things which scientific men 
denounce or fail to explain. We attempt to keep The 
R. N.-Y. free from prejudice or bigotry, and therefore 
open its columns to fair discussion of any sensible 
question in which there is a difference between farmers 
and their would-be teachers. It seems to be settled that 
some of these “water witches” do locate water. It 
would seem to be the business of the scientific men to 
tell how they do it. It seems that the “water witches” 
themselves do not agree. One Ohio man declares that 
he can locate water and oil and increase the flow of 
either with his rod! Another in Oregon says he can 
show anyone just how to “do the trick” if they will 
come to his place! 
* 
As is evident from the statement on the next page, 
the issue in Mr. Dawley’s second suit is not as clear 
as that in the other. The article on page 449 is ob¬ 
jected to in so far as it charges that the cattle were 
diseased or worthless. As will be seen, The R. N.-Y. 
meets the charges squarely. Needless to say we have 
evidence to sustain those statements. In one way this 
case will bring out one of the most important things 
connected with the sale of purebred registered cattle. 
Suppose you buy an old bull, relying upon the word 
of the breeder that he is still in good condition. The 
price is figured at $300, on the basis that he is good 
for three years, and that $100 a year would be a fair 
price for his services. You buy the bull on this represen¬ 
tation, and find him practically useless. Or you pay $100 
each for a number of cows for breeding purposes. Good 
judges of cattle look them over and declare that $35 
would be a good price for several of them. One is offi¬ 
cially declared untrue to her papers and there are grave 
doubts about several others. As working dairy animals 
several of the cattle barely give milk enough to pay for 
their food and care! You can easily see how, in such 
case, a poor man, without capital or power, would be at 
the mercy of an unscrupulous breeder who was willing 
to sell him such stock. In such a case a certificate of 
registry with no helpful power behind it would prove 
more of an aggravation than anything else. This brings 
out the principle for which we are contending. If the 
association, which most of us have believed should seek 
to guarantee the purity of their records and the char¬ 
acter of their members, will only do mere clerical work, 
let us understand it as soon as possible. 
* 
Every year we get numerous letters like the following; 
Will you tell me what the Apple Consumers’ League is? 
What does it cost to join it, and where are its headquarters? 
I am very fond of apples and desire to obtain some in¬ 
formation about it. c. C. 
Silver Creek, N. Y. 
Six years ago the writer went to a New York restau¬ 
rant and ordered a baked apple. 
“IVe aint got none!” said the waiter. 
It flashed into mind right there that this was a good 
chance to do missionary work for the apple. So we 
called for the manager and when he came found fault 
because he did not serve baked apple and thus fell short 
of a first-class restaurant. Within a few days “baked 
apple and cream” appeared on his bill of fare, and has 
been there ever since. Then we suggested the Apple 
Consumers’ League, an organization for propagating 
and extending the apple-eating habit. It costs nothing 
to join, and there is no constitution to tie any member 
down. You just agree to eat at least two apples every 
day and to call for apple in some form whenever you 
eat at any public table. If the proprietor doesn’t serve 
apple you agree to find fault with him for not doing so. 
Every member is president, with headquarters in every 
member’s mouth. That is all there is to it, but this 
simple unorganized work of apple eaters has, we firmly 
believed, increased the consumption of apples by at least 
20 per cent. Our aim is to make apple eating fashion¬ 
able, and also to teach people that it is more patriotic 
to eat the true American fruit than to use imported 
oranges or bananas. We could fill page after page with 
incidents showing what the League has done for apple 
growers. Its success shows what any body of earnest 
people can do if they will go about using their personal 
influence upon small things. 
* 
We have never found anything quite like the interest 
which farmers are taking in this Jersey cattle case. 
Mails are filled day after day with letters from people who 
offer suggestion and evidence, or send money “to help 
defend a principle.” A favorite plan is to subscribe 
ahead for several years, so as to “be sure and get it all.” 
Among hundreds of others the following note looks 
well as a text: 
I saw in The R. N.-Y t . to-night that Dawley was trying 
to call off the attention of people in the matter of Rogers, 
etc., so as not to inlure the farmers’ institutes. In my 
humble opinion said institutes will amount to very little, so 
long as the present clique is in charge. I live in the town 
from which these grade cattle came. If you let Dawley 
break that hammer-lock you have, people hereabout will 
wonder to say the least. h. j. h. 
We must confess that the “hammer-lock” was out of 
our vocabulary, never yet having been held securely by 
one. We learn from consulting a professional wrestler 
that a man thus locked would be far more comfortable 
in jail if locked in with an ordinary key. In a “ham¬ 
mer-lock” it appears that the victim’s hand is caught 
by the wrist and twisted behind his back so that he 
cannot struggle, without running the risk of breaking 
his arm or twisting it out of joint. If Mr. Dawley is 
held by any such lock he must realize he and not The 
R. N.-Y. is responsible for it. When his friends came 
suggesting a settlement we asked only that he 
clear himself of the charges by an open investiga¬ 
tion. When Mr. Dawley failed to meet the 
wishes of those friends in this respect he did more 
to clinch that “hammer-lock” than anyone else has done. 
From Rogers’s experience it looks as if a man might 
spend his last dollar for registered cattle, and find later 
that misfit papers would get a “hammer-lock” on his 
money and his cows! As for the farmers’ institutes and 
their future, we may quote another letter, which comes 
from an old soldier at a post office bearing the sugges¬ 
tive name of “Roosevelt”: 
If every newspaper in the land, or even one-third of them, 
should strive as hard as you are doing for the up-lifting of 
mankind and putting the rascals out, we would soon have a 
whole lot of Hughes. There is a lot of them in the country, 
but they are not in politics. Once in a great while one 
of them gets forced into office. Y'ou are doing what no 
other dares do, giving the names of those who fail to per¬ 
form their duty to the public. Then it is the fault of the 
people if they hold office longer. w. h. t. 
We merely say that the farmers in New York can 
break the “hammer-lock” of any man or any set of 
men whenever they care to do so. 
BREVITIES . 
Get the fuel ready! 
Don’t wait too long before starting the stoves. 
Oregon reports an apple 19 inches in circumference. 
Which is worst, “deadhead,” “sorehead” or “blockhead?” 
Are you making any effort to save any of your own supply 
of seeds? 
Milk is rising in price in the large cities—what do you 
get out of it? 
A good coat of fat on the horses before Winter will save 
burning feed for fuel. 
Let me see how you stand up against “hard luck,” and 
I can tell whether you deserve a “soft job.” 
We would not plant peach trees in a lienyard. There will 
be too much growth. Apple or plum trees are better. 
Mr. John Jeannin tells us that he never knew a straw¬ 
berry bed to be too rich or too clean. Exactly our experience. 
Years ago in California manure was burned or thrown 
away rather than handle it. Now it is even suggested to 
grinds the hulls of almonds and feed to stock ! 
You may doubt us when we say that a few years ago corn 
was burned as fuel in Nebraska towns—but what about you 
when you feed good grain to stock and then keep them where 
water freezes? 
The man who plants the wrong variety of fruit and only 
finds his error when the trees mature is better off than the 
young man who learns a profession when he should have 
learned a trade. 
In England footpaths have been used for generations 
across some of the best fields on certain farms. This use has 
extended so long that the public have gained rights which 
overpower those of the owners. 
This from the Spokane Review: “The young man in love 
seems to know a lot about fruit growing. lie is constantly 
referring to his girl as a peach, thinks her the apple of his 
eye and yearns to pair with her.” 
The Mark Lane Express gives the following toast, always 
delivered by an old English farmer: “Here’s health, wealth, 
long life, happiness and prosperity; good crop of corn, good 
price for your wool, more friends and less need of them.” 
We are sometimes taught that when trees grow too long 
In the Fall, remaining green until very late, they are more 
likely to be hurt by the Winter. Is this true? We have 
had a number of cases where such late growing trees proved 
hardiest of all. 
