35o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 20 
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 Van Fleet. I A 
Mrs. k. t. kovlk, ^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 10Vi 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 ’-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. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
409 Pearl Street, New York. 
SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 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 regard the article on page 339, showing how a 
city man cares for a small flock of hens, as excellent. 
The picture shows that hen-keeping in a back yard 
need not become a nuisance as many think it must be. 
With the system and arrangement our friend outlines 
hen-keeping is not drudgery. And, also, the hen as a 
companion and a- watch dog to drive dull care off the 
premises, is not bad. 
* 
We hear much about teaching agriculture in the 
public schools, but how can that be done until teachers 
know what to teach and how to teach it ? Have you 
ever suffered from the effect which can be traced to 
the attempt to teach cooking in the schools? In Massa¬ 
chusetts they recognize that you must get teachers 
before you can teach. The Legislature has, therefore, 
established a normal department at the Agricultural 
College. It opens this Summer, and the first work will 
be a month’s normal school. An excellent idea 
* 
How are we to get public men off the fence before 
they come down to jump on the “under dog”? We 
suggest putting spikes and barbed wire on the fence. 
Who is to put them there? The people who made the 
public men. Where can they get the spikes? Make 
them out of sharp pens well dipped in ink. We notice 
that some of the politicians are now beginning to say 
that letters do not amount to much—but they know 
better. Whenever a man talks that way we feel sure 
that he has had a good dose himself, and doesn’t want 
another. 
* 
The Brown’s Seedling grape is now going to thou¬ 
sands of readers. The following note from Geo. R. 
Wood, of Kentucky, may prove useful to others: 
Within five minutes after I received the vine from office, 
I unwrapped and examined it, pronounced it a first-class 
plant—dropped it in pan of water—the roots were a little 
dry—picked up a spade and the pan. stepped around to the 
sunny side of my house, where I had a hole something over 
two feet square and 18 inches deep; filled the bottom of 
hole with rich earth (not manure) placed the vine with 
roots well spread, threw in more rich earth, tramped it firm, 
and filled the hole a little rounding: then placed a box 
with both ends out, over the vine. This was to protect 
the buds and make the vine grow much faster, I discovered 
years ago that by putting nail kegs and boxes over vines 
I could make them grow 10 or 12 feet the first year, and 
by cutting back next year to five feet have several bunches 
of grapes without impairing the vine in the least. After 
the growth gets well under way I will give it a drink of 
liquid manure with plenty of wood ashes, which ought to 
make it jump. 
We shall have during the next few weeks advice 
from some of our best grape growers about growing 
this vine. Get it well started anyway, even if you 
are to move it later. 
* 
During the past few years we have taken pains to in¬ 
vestigate many of the extravagant reports printed in 
the daily papers. In the majority of cases there is little 
or no basis for truth in them. Sometimes a half truth 
has been distorted or twisted so as to give an entirely 
wrong meaning to the story. In news relating to farm¬ 
ing matters this tendency to exaggerate or deceive 
seems particularly strong. We have traced so many of 
these things that we begin to doubt if the reader of a 
daily paper really gets a fair review of public events. 
It seems as if much important news is presented in a 
way to bias judgment. There are, of course, reports 
which cannot well be changed, but there are also some 
where it is to the interest of certain parties to keep the 
public misinformed. For example, take the struggle 
which President Roosevelt is having with the rail¬ 
roads, or the efforts of Secretary Hitchcock to save 
the public lands or the desire of Gov. Hughes in New 
York to cut out “graft” and compel faithful service! 
In all these things it would help the guilty and their 
parasites to have the news twisted as far as possible 
from the truth. 
* 
WAITING FOR THE REPORT. 
Last week we gave a plain statement of the proceed¬ 
ings of that Jersey cattle investigation. Now we wait 
for the committee’s report. Stockmen and farmers 
generally will regret that the investigation was held in 
secret. A public inquiry would have inspired greater 
confidence. Probably the A. J. C. C. does not realize 
how intensely interested the public is in this case. 
There will be no serious criticism, however, if the 
decision is based upon the facts as they exist. 
We have never recognized but one point at issue. Do 
the registry papers which accompanied each cow ac¬ 
curately describe her? Mr. Rogers could not make 
them agree. When Dr. Smead examined them he found 
at least one cow older and one younger than the ages 
recorded in the papers. Dr. Barber agreed with him. 
Mr. Hunt, a practical Jersey breeder, could not make 
the papers fit the cows—nor could several other cattle 
men and farmers. This investigating committee exam¬ 
ined the cows several times. Mr. Dawley was there to 
identify them, and the registry papers were at their 
disposal. If these papers had agreed with the cows 
the investigation would have ended at once, for there 
would have been “nothing to investigate.” Since the 
investigation went on for a day longer and the com¬ 
mittee went back for another look at the cows, the 
assumption is natural that these gentlemen could not 
fit the papers to the cows any more than others who 
had tried before them. Having failed in this the com¬ 
mittee might well 4iave stopped to report to the A. J. 
C. C. A court of law having power to take testimony 
and swear witnesses and compel answers to questions, 
might be able to develop interesting facts in connection 
with the case, and show whether or not the discrepancy 
was an unintentional error or a deliberate fraud; bu 
this committee had no such authority. Mr. Adams, 
lawyer for Mr. Rogers, understood this lack of author¬ 
ity. Having, as he stated a cause for action in a civil 
court against Mr. Dawley, he was unwilling to allow 
Mr. Rogers to answer the cross-examination of Mr. 
Dawley’s attorney, unless Mr. Rogers be permitted to 
take an exact copy of the testimony for his protection 
at any future trial. This was only a reasonable pre¬ 
caution on the part of the attorney. No lawyer would 
take any different stand on the part of his client, as 
otherwise he might have been confronted at every step 
of a future trial with a report of an examination in 
the hands of his opponents, which, by the change of a 
word here and there in the testimony might entirely 
change it. As the committee refused to give Mr. Rogers 
a copy of this testimony he could not submit himself 
to cross-examination. But what was the reason for 
going into the details of the transaction? Both men 
have friends who stand by them. Both also have bitter 
enemies who curse them with impartial hatred. These 
personalities have nothing to do with the merits of the 
case. If the papers fit the cows Mr. Rogers is wrong. 
If they do not agree Mr. Dawley has something to 
explain and to settle for. Let one man be as innocent 
as a child and the other a hardened old rogue, and still 
the ages of the cows and the figures in the papers 
remain the same. The cows and the papers represent 
exact, standing records—which will not disappear when 
this investigation is closed. This committee examined 
both, and their findings will, without doubt, be based 
upon such examination. The public awaits the report 
with great interest. 
* 
It is evident that Gov. Hughes of New York will 
receive the support of the people and win. Go any¬ 
where in the State and listen to what people say, and 
you will find not only the issue but the political situa¬ 
tion clearly outlined. In former years you would find 
a note of doubt running through such talk, and men 
would hesitate and ask “How will this affect the party?” 
This year there is less of that than ever, for men are 
tired of playing into the hands of politicians. They 
recognize the logic and also the hope in Gov. Hughes’ 
position. It is what they have been waiting for, and 
the response to it should not surprise any man. The 
great majority of the plain people have only wanted a 
man and the opportunity to support him. It is very 
desirable that the farmers of the State should support 
the Governor at this time. By doing so they not only 
put themselves on the right side, but they show their 
power and their ability to act as a conservative force 
in public life. Most of the wrongs or forms of oppres¬ 
sion for which farmers suffer result from giving 
power into the hands of politicians. That makes ail 
the more reason why people should go straight to 
headquarters with help when they get the chance. It 
may be necessary to organize a campaign against sev¬ 
eral members of the Senate this Fall. Let us wait and 
see how they actually line up when the test comes. 
* 
The ginseng growers seem to have quit making their 
great claims of profit. It is admitted that there is no 
future for sales of large quantities of ginseng through 
the legitimate Chinese market. If any large proportion 
of the gardens now under cultivation produce 20 per cent 
of what was claimed for them, the Chinese would not 
take the goods. In order to make a “home market” 
for ginseng a medicine claiming to use the cultivated 
root for its base is offered for sale. Ginseng growers 
are requested to “take their own medicine” in order to 
help along trade. From the advertisement of this medi¬ 
cine we take the following: 
Don't you want a good appetite? 
Don’t you want a good disposition? 
Don’t you want your friends to know you as that happy, 
prosperous person that you once were? 
Who could possibly say “No” to these questions ex¬ 
cept some of the unfortunates who lost their hard 
earned money planting ginseng? A colored man in the 
South gave us this experience: “Every now an’ den 
I feels like whippin’ all de children an’ slappin’ their 
mudder. At dem times I just goes out to de woodpile 
wid my ax an’ takes it out of a log!” Some of us have 
had similar inclinations and came closer to indulging 
them. We have had other gentlemen say that their good 
disposition and digestion and prosperous appearance was 
due to the fact that whenever trouble threatened they 
ate an apple. We might suggest to our ginseng friends 
that they try the woodpile and apple cure before buying 
their medicine! 
♦ 
There is no limit to the fertilizer question—no bounds 
to the area in which fertilizers will ultimately be needed. 
From Nova Scotia come questions about the use of 
seaweed as manure, from Alaska questions about 
what to use with fish, from Kansas questions about 
corncobs and so on. Wherever we turn, after a com¬ 
paratively few years of cropping e\ren on the richest 
soil the wastes are being studied and utilized. The 
latest call is from a rich section of Texas. For some 
years great yields of cotton were produced and no one 
thought of using fertilizers. Lately the section has 
begun to ship berries, onions, potatoes and other garden 
truck. It is found that while cotton would maintain 
its yield from the natural soil, heavy manuring or 
fertilizing was needed for vegetables. Thus, many 
carloads of fertilizers are brought in from a distance 
at great expense. A large proportion of the fertilizers 
at the South consist of mixtures of cotton-seed meal, 
acid phosphate and potash. Right in the heart of this 
trucking section are cotton oil mills at which cotton¬ 
seed meal suitable for fertilizing can be bought at a 
low price. By shipping in the chemicals and mixing 
with the meal good fertilizers can be made at a low 
cost—and find ready sale. Here is a great chance for 
some enterprising man who understands fertilizers, for 
the truckers will gladly set him up in business. We men¬ 
tion this to illustrate some of the new chances for ex¬ 
perienced men which are springing up with farm de¬ 
velopment. 
BREVITIES. 
Don’t forget the small fruit. 
The simplified spelling for ruin is r u m t 
The best wood lot on the farm Is under the woodshed 
roof. 
“Charity begins at home!” What’s the beginning of 
Charity? Love! What, then, should home be filled with? 
The lawyer states that in the absence of a special agree¬ 
ment stable manure made on the farm is classed as real 
estate. 
Don’t forget the rabbits in the Hudson Valley. In case 
they have damaged you send the facts at once to L. L. Mor¬ 
rell, Ivinderhook, N. Y. 
That Alfalfa train in Ohio. You see that Mr. Jamison 
says many farmers who would not attend an ordinary in¬ 
stitute crowded to the train. 
That is a fine specimen of White Plymouth Rock pic¬ 
tured at Fig. 154, page 339. The “Rocks” are still the 
solid foundation for many a chicken man’s business, and 
“Old Speckle” is giving way to the white bird. 
It is said that Massachusetts factories require more 
packing cases to Fold their goods than those of any other 
State. That is one reason why Massachusetts is so vitally 
interested in forestry. Cover the hills with pine and the 
next generation will use the wood for boxes. 
We are told that agents of the Seedless apple buncoed 
many fruit growers in Michigan. Now it is said for their 
benefit: “Purchasers can refuse to take the trees ordered. 
The Michigan statute covering the sale of nursery stock 
states that parties must take out a license. As the Seed¬ 
less people neglected to carry out this formality they are 
liable to be prosecuted.” 
