3io 
April G. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
T11E BUSINESS FARMER'S PARER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Entered at New York as Second Class Matter. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Editor. 
DR. Walt eh van Fleet, t Ass00lates . 
MRS. K. T. HOYLE, | A 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
_ ^ -*«. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Unton, $2.04, 
equal to 8s. Od., or 8% marks, or 10y 2 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 
bv trusting any deliberate swindler advertising in our col¬ 
umns, and any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We 
protect subscribers against '-ogues, 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, APRIL G, 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. 
* 
We wrote to a fruit grower in Massachusetts asking 
if he could sell a certain variety of plum. His answer 
is worth printing on the honor list: 
I regret that 1 cannot furnish tlie plum trees, as I do 
not propagate trees to sell, and never can, since we are 
Infested with the San Josd scale. I would never curse 
another with this pest if I knew it. 
What a world we would have if all fruit growers 
and nurserymen felt like this about cursing others with 
the San Jose scale. 
* 
We judge from questions that come to us that many 
people will try soiling cattle this year. Dairymen are 
quick to see the possibilities in this plan of growing 
large yields of green forage and carrying it to the 
stock, instead of pasturing. In order to start the plan 
right this year there should be rye or wheat growing 
so as to give the earliest green cutting. The best 
Spring-sown crop for this is oats and peas. 1 his “ham 
sandwich” for cattle is justly popular, and a larger 
acreage than ever before will be sowed this year. 
* 
A Japanese firm has been trying to import a con¬ 
signment of frog skins; the Government says they are 
leather, dutiable at 20 per cent, while the importers 
assert they are fish skins. Evidently the importers are 
unaware of Secretary Shaw’s famous ruling that frogs’ 
legs are dressed poultry, which clearly places their 
hides outside the piscatorial pale. It is. no doubt, a 
patriotic duty to protect the American frog from for¬ 
eign competition; still, we are unable to realize just 
how leather hides can be produced by dressed poultry. 
* 
A few farmers have written about that assembly hail 
at the Geneva Station. Thus far the expressed opinion 
is unfavorable. People seem to think the money which 
this building would cost might better be spent in other 
ways. One man is in favor of erecting the building 
on the State Fair grounds and having the station 
scientists go to Syracuse during the fair—and thus 
meet the crowd. This man adds “of all other equip¬ 
ment give them what they ask for!” We are making 
no argument for the hall—merely gathering opinions. 
Thus far there is no general demand for the hall in 
evidence. 
* 
The florists have not yet finished their discussion of 
express rates before the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission, but so far as we can learn from the Express 
companies’ explanations, they were compelled to double 
the rates because the volume of business increased, and 
because the florists carried their packages to the rail¬ 
way stations themselves, instead of making the express 
wagons call for them; also because the business of 
flower growing is remunerative, and the florists cruelly 
diverted business from them by starting a wagon ex¬ 
press of their own after the rates were raised; in 
other words, they needed the money. Somehow, the 
express company as a poor confiding innocent perse¬ 
cuted by' stony-hearted flower growers does not seem 
entirely convincing. 
As we have stated, the evaporated fruit men of New 
York have a bill before the Legislatur& which ought 
to be passed. It will make the dealer or buyer just 
as responsible for “wet” goods, or those with an 
excess of moisture, as the manufacturer. We are in¬ 
formed that 75 per cent or more of the evaporator 
men favor this bid. Some of the opposition is said to 
come from men who own or are interested in evapo¬ 
rators in Michigan or Pennsylvania, and can mix 
“wet” goods from these States to sell as “New York 
State fruit.” This bill should interest all fruit growers. 
Let them get behind and push it. Even the dealers, at 
their meeting in Rochester, endorsed it. 
* 
This note from California may be added to the dis¬ 
cussion of sulky plows on the small farm: 
There was one point I forgot in favor of sulky plows. 
M.v boy comes home from school, and drives an hour or 
I wo while 1 do a few chores around the house that lie 
could not do. ‘‘Every little helps”—he could not do it with 
a walking plow. 
Almost anv boy likes to drive a team, and can often 
do a man’s work by doing so. Lack of suitable help 
is driving us to the stock and the crops that will come 
nearest to taking care of themselves, or give the largest 
return for labor. We must also use the tools that give 
the largest results for a pound of labor. 
♦ 
A Philadelphia member of the Pennsylvania House 
of Representatives has introduced a bill providing that 
the defendant in any suit for assault and battery 
shall be acquitted if lie proves that the person upon 
whom the assault and battery was committed wrote 
or published within one year previous to the 
assault any false or defamatory matter concern¬ 
ing the defendant or any relative of the defendant. 
The provisions of the bill extend to civil actions for 
damages arising out of a case for assault and battery. 
The bill does not appear to offer any consolation in 
case the person assaulted should be mean enough to 
ward off the attack and then wipe up the earth with 
his assailant. 
* 
The president of the A. J. C. C. appointed the fol¬ 
lowing gentlemen to investigate that cattle case: 
W. B. Dickinson, lawyer. 
Dr. G. A. Dick, veterinarian. 
E. F. Carpenter, Jersey breeder. 
The meeting will'be held at Dansville, N. Y., on April 
3 . We shall give our readers full particulars regard¬ 
ing the case and the committee’s report. We 
shall be very glad to have this important matter settled. 
Thus far we have insisted upon one thing only—that 
it was the duty of the A. J. C. C. to- investigate this 
case. We have held to this in the face of strenuous 
efforts to make us change the issue to one of person¬ 
ality, or one involving the business difference between 
two men. After the A. J. C. C. settles its side of the 
question it may be necessary for us to take up other 
features of it. 
* 
Throughout the Central West there is war between 
farmers and hunters. At Canton, Ill., a league has been 
organized—the members signing the following: 
We, the undersigned, believing it necessary to take some 
united fiction against the marauding depredations of 
persons running over our lands, killing stock, destroying 
crops, tearing down fences, stealing poultry and committing 
depredations in various ways, do each and severally pledge 
ourselves to prosecute anyone trespassing on our premises 
with dog or gun, and to lend our moral- support and sym¬ 
pathy to all others in doing the same. 
This, we understand, is only a sample of what farmers 
are doing to keep “the man with the shotgun” off the 
premises. In one township every land owner has put 
up trespass signs and pledged himself to enforce them. 
In fact hunters have become such a nuisance that these 
farmers will not stand it any longer. As usual, in such 
cases, the trouble is due to hunters who have tried to 
trample over every law and common right. It is doubt¬ 
ful if these farmers will endorse the President’s sug¬ 
gestion to form rifle clubs and teach boys how to shoot. 
* 
We find that the articles on corn growing by Prof. 
East are being read with great interest. The bill for 
grain which New England pays to the West is so 
tremendous that farmers may well be frightened when 
they think of it. Yet, what can they do? It will not 
pay to sow grain on the rich lands of the valley farms, 
for potatoes, tobacco, fruit or vegetables pay better. 
In the case of fields reasonably near the barn, where 
a rotation is followed and corn is used on sod. silage 
will often prove more profitable than grain, where 
cattle are kept. While that is all true, there are still 
places where a good yield of grain can be grown. The 
flint varieties which Prof. East has described are espe¬ 
cially adapted to growing on rough land. There are 
many old pastures or hillside meadows which now 
yield but a small amount of stock food. Flint corn 
properly grown on these fields will give more actual 
grain food than any other crop that can be mentioned. 
Of course, it would not be possible to provide manure 
for these back fields, but by using some good brand of 
special corn fertilizer an abundant crop can be grown. 
We believe that the increased culture of these flint 
varieties on the old fields, using fertilizers liberally, will 
do more than anything else to reduce New England’s 
grain bill. 
* 
A few foundation remarks to the many who ask ques¬ 
tions about Potato scab. The true scab is a fungus 
disease which might he compared to a skin disease on 
animals. Wire worms and some other insects mar the 
surface of the potato, but the scab is a fungus which 
will not attack the crop unless the germs are present 
in the soil or on the seed. These germs remain in the 
soil for some time. If a potato crop showed scab it 
would not be wise to follow with potatoes again, be¬ 
cause the germs would live over and attack the next 
crop. Most potato seed carries more or less scab and 
in order to be sure, the germs on the seed should be 
killed by soaking in formaldehyde—as described else¬ 
where. The germs are affected by the condition of the 
soil. An acid condition retards their development. Thus 
plowing under a green crop or the use of acid fertilizers 
may diminish scab. On the other hand, an alkaline 
soil favors the germs. That is why lime and stable 
manure often give very scabby potatoes. The reason is 
that the germs are in the soil, and the lime and manure 
increased their activity. As wood ashes contain lime 
it is not usually wise to use them on potatoes. We 
have heard of cases where potatoes on land newly 
burned over, or where ashes were heavily used, have 
been dug with no scab. In several cases analysis of 
the soil showed that no scab germs were present—thus, 
of course, lime would have no effect to increase the 
disease. 
* 
The little girl at Hope Farm was discouraged be¬ 
cause, after cooking her “minute pudding” nearly an 
hour, it was still undone! We met p man the other dav 
who was just as discouraged because the elections in 
the great life insurance companies “failed to clean out 
the old gang.” The facts were put clearly before the 
people. Dishonesty and extravagance were proven, and 
yet when the chance was given them the policy holders 
refused to take advantage of it. This man expects too 
much. He goes beyond the limit of human nature. 
Think of the forces that were working for those great 
companies. There was the general feeling that while 
there had been extravagance the policies themselves were 
perfectly safe. There were thousands who have bor¬ 
rowed money and given up their policies as security. 
Agents by the thousands went out early and secured 
proxies. Examiners are family doctors, and a word 
from them would make the wife’s influence felt against 
any change. With these and other forces at work it would 
have been little short of a miracle if at this first elec¬ 
tion a change had been made. When all these things 
are considered we think it a remarkable thing that 
nearly 100.000 policy holders in one company were inde¬ 
pendent enough to vote as they did. We have known 
men to find fault with a builder because the house was 
so slow to rise above the ground. The builder knew 
his business—he knew that the foundation must be solid 
and secure. We believe that the people of this country 
are slowly and steadily laying the foundation of genuine 
and permanent reform. It is better to come in this 
way, like an oak tree, than like a mushroom in a single 
night. Keep at it. Neither the despair of the faint 
heart nor the sneer of the evil heart can keep it back. 
BREVITIES . 
Don’t put off the spraying any longer. 
What happens to onion sets when you plant them eye 
down ? 
What do you think of a man of 83 hopefully planting an 
apple orchard? 
Wiiat would you think of a metal silo—made of gal¬ 
vanized iron, airtight and painted? 
Would it he polite to say that the sewer gas at a “sewing 
circle” has destroyed some characters? 
That Connecticut man who stores his cow pumpkins by 
using them to weight down silage gives a good example of 
Yankee “faculty.” 
A pretty safe game! A* hen you find the political papers 
abusing and ridiculing a public man beyond reason, to con¬ 
clude that he is worth tying to. 
In the Horticultural Number Samuel Cooper told of soil¬ 
ing crates of strawberries in Autumn. A Long Island man 
is frank to say be doesn’t believe it, and back comes Mr. 
Cooper with affidavits. 
The Bureau of Biological Survey of the IT. S. Department 
of Agriculture has issued a bulletin on the destruction of 
wolves and covotes, which will be found very useful by 
farmers where these pests abound. 
An Iov, a paper tells how a bear was killed by telephone. 
A woman living in a lonely place saw from the window a 
bear come out of the woods. She rang a general alarm on 
the telephone, and in a few minutes a dozen neighbors were 
on hand with guns. 
