286 
March 30, 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
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. 
Du. WALTER Van Fleet, 
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 y a marks, or 10 y 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 anv such swindler will be publicly exposed. We 
protect subscribers against *-ogues, 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 ip money order, express order, 
personal check or bank draft.' 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 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. 
Remember that we offer the New York farmers a 
chance to express their wishes regarding that assembly 
hall at the Geneva Station. Do you want it, or care 
enough about it to express an opinion? We desire your 
opinion, either for publication or a private expression 
if you prefer! 
We want all the evidence we can get as to the prac¬ 
tice of dipping nursery trees before planting in lime and 
sulphur, soluble oil or other liquids for destroying scale 
or other insects. Does it injure the tree? If so, at 
what strength of liquid and mat what stage of growth? 
Does it kill the insects? W<ii!d you dip the roots? Is 
the practice worth while? Let us have all the experi¬ 
ence vou can give at once. 
* 
Some of our western correspondents have told us of 
the wonderful rise in the price of farm lands in the 
Middle West. As an example of the rise in eastern 
values we may refer to a farm on Long Island which 
was bought from the Indians about 150 years ago for 
a demijohn of rum, three empty bottles and two old 
plug hats. We are informed that it recently sold for 
$288,000. Of course it is now residence property in 
Greater New York. 
* 
We have seen a letter in which a seedsman advises 
sowing Crimson clover in May. We cannot think of 
worse advice than this. The Crimson clover is a cool 
weather plant, and the only safety lies in sowing it so 
late in the season that it will make good growth in the 
cool Fall weather. Once let it go to bloom and seed 
and it is done. Warm weather drives it to seed. As 
an experiment we have seeded it in Spring, and in every 
case late May or June ends it—seed forming often when 
the plants are three inches high. Do not sow Crimson 
clover in May! 
Some weeks ago a Canadian reader, in figuring the 
cost of the lime-sulphur wash, quoted sulphur at 1(4 
cent a pound. At once we received letters from readers 
asking if this can possibly be true. There seems to be 
no doubt about it. One reader in Ontario says: 
We just reeeived quotations from dealers here, and also 
from Cleveland, Ohio. The price quoted us by Canadian 
dealers is $1.50 per 100 pounds, price of the United States 
firm $2.35 per 100. 
Another Ontario grower says he is paying $1.04 for 
100 pounds of sulphur delivered close to his farm. 1 his 
low' price for sulphur cuts down the cost of the wash 
to a low figure. 
The evaporated fruit men introduced an amendment 
to the New York law which puts the standard of mois¬ 
ture in dried apples at 27 per cent. Under the proposed 
amendment it is made illegal for any person to “buy 
for resale, sell, expose or offer for sale,” thus render¬ 
ing the buyer as well as the seller liable. The present 
law has been used to persecute manufacturers. So far 
as we can find no one has ever been troubled or fined 
except men who evaporate the fruit. No inspection 
seems to be made in the markets, and it would be easy 
to add “wet” fruit or even water and sell it without de¬ 
tection. The recent meeting of evaporator men at Roch¬ 
ester was largely attended. There were fruit growers 
present who have never attended other fruit meetings. 
There seems to be no question that the strong and 
conservative men who evaporate fruit are back of this 
movement. The situation is such that we believe every 
fruit grower in the State should help in the work of 
amending that law. 
* 
The Grange Commercial Exchange of New Jersey has 
just been incorporated. For more than a year a com¬ 
mittee of the State Grange has been working to perfect 
a plan for helpful co-operation in the purchase of nec¬ 
essary farm supplies, as well as for selling in quantity. 
The organization is capitalized at $125,000 at $5 per 
share, limited to Granges or members of the order. By 
charging a small per cent on business done the company 
proposes to pay five per cent interest. 1 he articles of 
incorporation are broad enough to cover a wide range 
of business. This organization was started February 
25, 1907, with the following officers: John B. Warick, 
Moorestown, N. J., president; Charles C. Hulsart, Mata- 
wan, N. J., vice-president; Louis H. Burge, Vineland, 
N. J., secretary; W. H. Borden, Swedesboro, N. J., 
treasurer. Main office, southwest corner Third and 
Market streets, Camden, N. J. The way to make such 
an organization what it should be is for Patrons all 
over New Jersey to come in and help. 
* 
Borden milk prices (which are prices offered by the 
Borden Milk Condensing Company) were made public 
Friday, March 15, and are an average of over 11 per 
cent higher than last year. The following is the list 
price per hundred, month by month, for the two seasons: 
1900. 1907. 
April . $1.30 $1.45 
May . LOB -20 
June .90 1.00 
July . L00 LIB 
August . Lin LL> 
September .>•••-* 1.30 1.4o 
While this is a substantial advance, and probably all 
that was expected, it lacks considerably of Coming to 
the advance made in the price of grain feeds. More¬ 
over, there is the uncertainty as to the action of the 
New York Board of Health regarding conditions that 
are to be imposed. It is unfortunate that farmers are 
required to sign contracts, not knowing what they are 
attempting so far as these sanitary requirements are 
concerned. The contracts are, we understand, being 
readily signed. 
There is a bill now before the New York Legislature 
introduced by Mr. Chamberlain which should be de¬ 
feated by fruit growers. The germ of this bill is found 
in the following paragraph : 
Any person or corporation selling grapes In baskets or 
other receptacles containing fifty pounds or less shall stamp, 
mark or label upon the outside of such basket or receptacle, 
in figures not less than one-half inch in height, the number 
of pounds, preceding the word “pounds" of grapes therein 
contained, and such basket or receptacle shall contain the 
number of pounds of grapes indicated thereon. 
To anyone who has ever been in a vineyard where 
grapes are picked and packed the folly of such a de¬ 
mand must be evident at once. Even if every basket 
could be packed on a pair of scales who could guarantee 
what the package would weigh by the time it reached 
the consumer? I Tow ridiculous for a packer to attempt 
to guarantee the weight of fruit which goes in an un¬ 
sealed package and which we all know is liable to loss 
by evaporation! Grape growers all over the State are 
rising up in protest against this bill. Dealers and com¬ 
mission men in the cities write us that it will be simply 
a nuisance Who, then, is in favor of it? We learn 
of no one except wine makers who buy grapes by the 
ton, and evidently want to frighten or force growers 
to sell at a lower rate. Certainly the bill could have 
no other practical result. Every grape grower in New 
York should get after his member of the Legislature 
at once and urge him to defeat this bill. Use the 
stamp at once. 
“The farmer or the sportsman!” Which is of greater 
importance to society? One puts his capital in land 
and produces food and fibre with which to feed and 
clothe the nation. The other makes his money by han¬ 
dling or making over the raw material which the far¬ 
mer produces. Tf you ask the question of a “sport” 
lie will sav without hesitation that there are many 
cases where the farmer’s rights must go under. Farmers 
will not agree with him. yet if they let it go at that the 
opinion will stand. We have a case in New York 
State which must be settled. Some years ago various 
sports turned jack rabbits loose in some of the counties 
in the Hudson Valley, and obtained legislation which 
protects them. The object was to breed a supply of 
game so that the sports could hunt and shoot. Tt soon 
became evident that these rabbits were worse than a 
nuisance. They destroy hundreds of young trees and 
eat up other crops. Affidavits have been made by men 
who have spent $100 or riiore in efforts to protect their 
trees from these pests. You will say, why not go on a 
crusade with gun and dog and run the pest off the 
earth? The "sports” have secured a law which prohib¬ 
its this, and makes the man who thus protects his 
property liable to a fine. The farmer is expected to feed 
the rabbits from his crops, let them gnaw his trees and 
thus accumulate game for the “sports.” Last year the 
Legislature passed a bill making an open season during 
which farmers could shoot the rabbits and thus thin 
them out and protect property. Gov. Higgins vetoed 
it. Why? Because the “sports” got very busy and 
voted with the postage stamp. They showered the 
governor with letters while farmers, supposing it was 
all over, did nothing. The postage stamp vote did it, 
and that is the thing to remember. This year the far¬ 
mers must use postage stamps, too. The thing to do 
first is to collect facts about damage. We urge every 
one who has ever had trees destroyed by these rabbits 
to write at once to L. L. Morrell, of Kinderhook, N. Y. 
Wc must make the strongest possible case, and then 
when the time is ripe get our postage stamps ready for 
the governor. 
* 
During the past week at least a dozen Michigan read¬ 
ers have sent us clippings from local papers in which 
the Seedless apple is boomed in the old familiar way. 
For example, take this extract: 
NO PLACE FOR TIIE WORM. 
After several years of experimenting Mr. Spencer, who is 
a close personal friend of Luther Burbank, succeeded in 
producing five trees which bore seedless, coreless and worm¬ 
less apples. From this little group thousands upon thou¬ 
sands of trees have been produced, and now a plan is on 
foot to introduce the variety into Michigan, the fact that 
the tree is without blossom making it frost proof, an induce¬ 
ment that Michigan farmers cannot afford to ignore. The' 
only resemblance to a blossom is in the several small green 
leaves that grow around the little apple to shelter it. It is 
tills lack of blossom that prevents the Codling moth from de¬ 
positing its eggs, and this insures a wormless apple. As it 
is the blossom of the apple tree that is attacked by the cold 
and frost, the seedless apple is immune, and the late frosts 
that play havoc with thy apple grower's purse by denuding 
his orchard may become* a thing of the past. 
When the promoters of this apple publicly withdrew 
these ridiculous claims we hoped that the fruit might 
have a chance to live or die on its merits. The agents, 
however, are continuing the old humbug plan, and 
while they do so we are justified in urging our readers 
to let the apple entirely alone. 
BREVITIES. 
If you sec if in The R. N.-Y. it is so—or else it is 
your privilege to prove that it isn't. 
Tub Concord grape is still “the grape for the million.’’ 
Your snob grows fat on snubbing, and tries it on worthier 
people than himself. 
Don't forget to tell 11 s why you consider a Cutaw'ay better 
for some purposes than a disk, 
Stii.l another Seedless apple has appeared on the market 
—it is claimed that this one comes from Indiana. 
A good resolution for the new year—let no man paint a 
medicine, corset or other sign on the barn or fence. 
The price of trees of McIntosh Red apple has gone up far 
above the record. Be careful what you buy under this name. 
I)o not attempt to use the Bordeaux Mixture with the sol¬ 
uble oils for spraying. Both the lime and the copper throw 
the oils out of solution. 
While there are cases where potatoes have been grown 
successfully year after year on the same ground, it is safer 
to rotate, trying fresh soil each season. 
Now, please remember this: “Treatment or conditions 
which would not injure an undisturbed tree in the least 
will kill a tree that has also to undergo the shock of trans¬ 
planting." 
The Averill bill preventing the docking of horses’ tails 
had a hearing before the Assembly at Albany, N. Y„ March 
13 . A similar bill was introduced last year and passed the 
Assembly, but failed of passage in the Senate. 
In view of the present fight for Pasteurizing New York’s 
milk supply, it is interesting to note that some European 
scientists are attacking the plan severely, protesting against 
boiled milk as a food for infants, and declaring for healthy 
cows and clean stables, rather than an attempt at ster¬ 
ilization. 
According to newspaper reports, the severe Winter has 
driven wild creatures to man for food and shelter in many 
localities, reports coming from Connecticut of deer that in¬ 
sist on dwelling in a farmer’s woodshed, while quail, blue 
jays and chickadees insist on roosting in chicken houses 
and feeding with the hens. 
At a recent meeting of a “Rat and Sparrow Club” In 
England report was made that during the year heads of 
8,119 sparrows and tails of 958 rats were handed in by 
members. It is said that there are a number of such clubs 
in England—designed to reduce the numbers of vermin and 
injurious birds. A dog club on the same lines would work 
well in some neighborhoods. 
Gifford Pineliot. Chief of the Forestry Service, points out 
the fact that the disastrous Pittsburg flood may be regarded 
as the direct result of the cutting away of our forests. The 
Allegheny and Monongahela rivers have their source in 
steep mountains, once heavily wooded but now bare, from 
which the w r ater rushes without hindrance. Nothing can 
prevent the recurrence of disastrous floods hut the reforest¬ 
ing of these barren hills. 
