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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE 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 Associates 
Mrs. E. 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. Gd„ or 8% marks, or 10 Mi francs. 
“ A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper Is 
backed by a responsible person. Bui 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, NOVEMBER 23, 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. 
* 
Several of our esteemed contemporaries find it neces¬ 
sary to point themselves out to their readers. They 
take a column, more or less, to point out various good 
things which they'- print, as if the readers would not 
otherwise know how good they are. We are thankful 
that we have a class of readers who know a good thing 
when they see it. We have tried the experiment of 
tucking away some question in an obscure corner and in 
the smallest type. Some sharp eye always finds it and 
gives the needed answer. It is a pleasure to deal with 
people who are capable of forming their own opinion. 
* 
Society has reason to be thankful, among other 
things, for the rough-and-tumble man. There are a 
good many men who may correctly be called ladylike. 
They have strong convictions, keen sense of right and 
high courage. There come times, however, when it is 
necessary for some one to grapple with the coarser 
forms of evil, and if need be roll in the dust in a 
genuine rough-and-tumble. These ladylike gentlemen 
cannot do this, for their most effective fighting must 
be done at arm’s length. They might consider it an 
honor to help brush the dust off the rough-and-tumbler 
when he gets up after choking the fight out of the evil! 
* 
The “marriage certificate” swindle is being worked 
in some localities. A well-dressed man in the “blacks” 
of a clergyman appears at a farmhouse, and engages 
board for a few days. The next day a man and woman 
come driving rapidly to the house. They want to be 
married at once and have heard that a minister is in 
the neighborhood. The “minister” is quite loath to per¬ 
form the ceremony, but the strangers are good actors 
and finally get the farmer to persuade his guest to tie 
the knot. This he does with some protest, and the 
farmer signs what he supposes is the “certificate.” In 
10 days or so this turns lip at a local bank in the form 
of a promissory note with the farmer’s signature. It’s 
a case of roast goose for that farmer’s Thanksgiving 
dinner. 
* 
We are glad to find on our list a large number of 
readers who express themselves much as follows: 
My father began the subscription, I bad no idea why; now 
I realize that unconsciously he was preparing the way that 
it might be smoother for me, when he was called to his 
rest, to take up his work and try to complete it. Now that 
the burden has fallen upon me, I want your advice through 
the columns of The R. N.-\ r . 
Here is a man who left the home farm some years 
ago to enter professional life. His father has died, 
leaving a large farm to be carried on. It is a good 
farm and can be kept up as a profitable investment. 
This man wants to know how to do it, and we shall 
go to readers for advice. There are thousands of 
these second-generation farmers who have had a city 
training, and have good farms put into their hands for 
operation. They need -advice of a peculiar kind, and 
we shall try to get it for them. 
November 23, 
President Roosevelt has promised to ask Congress 
to abolish the tariff on wood pul]) from which white paper 
is made, and also on printing paper. For some years 
the production of newspaper has been in the hands 
of a monopoly. They have been protected by a high 
tariff, and under it have raised the price again and 
again, stealing millions from newspaper publishers. 
Besides trying to take off this tariff and thus break 
up their monopoly the President also promises to have 
the paper trust prosecuted. Now the Canadians promise 
to take a hand in this game. Wood pulp, 
from which paper is made, comes largely from 
Canada, and in case our tariff is removed the 
Canadians threaten to put an export tariff on the 
pulp on the plea that they wish to save their forests 
from destruction. We believe, however, that the re¬ 
moval of this tariff will break up the trust, which 
has already lived too long. 
* 
I enclose $1 for subscription. I have been a reader, and 
much of the time a subscriber, of The R. N.-Y. since Mr. 
Moore's day and although not now engaged in farming am 
as much interested as ever. It seems to me that any 
farmer capable of appreciating your paper, and being bene¬ 
fited by it, should and would be willing to pay a reasonable 
price, say two dollars. It does not belong in the list of 
cheap publications. w. K. s. 
New York. 
With the advance of the price of paper, and printing, 
and in fact of everything that goes to make up a paper 
like The R. N.-Y. there is a temptation, and indeed 
sufficient reason for advancing the price as the publish¬ 
ers of nearly all the high-class papers and magazines 
have done. If it were a mere matter of making money 
we would probably have done the same thing, but the 
objection is this: At $2 a year the farmers who do not 
miss an extra dollar would continue their subscrip¬ 
tions and benefit by such improved service as we could 
give them. But even $1 is a greater sacrifice for some 
people who now subscribe for the paper than the $2 
would be for others. Some would manage to supply 
the extra dollar, but others would find pressing need 
for the money, and either take some cheaper paper or 
go without entirely. Our contention has always been 
that the State educational work should consider the 
humblest farmer—those who are unable to help them¬ 
selves—rather than devote their principal attention to the 
needs of the more advanced and progressive classes. 
We would be inconsistent if we preached this doctrine 
while catering ourselves to the successful class exclu¬ 
sively. We take pride in the intelligence and progressive 
ideas of R. N.-Y. subscribers; yet we confess to a 
warm sympathy for the farmer who is struggling for 
success. Some of these poor but ambitious men and 
women are really as intelligent and progressive as many 
of their more fortunate neighbors; they have the ele¬ 
ments of future success in them, and it is a source 
of pride and ambition with us to contribute in some 
measure to their success. If by keeping the paper at a 
price within their means we are able to render them a 
service that they might not feel able to purchase at a 
higher price, then we will satisfy an ambition of our 
own that has no equivalent in dollars and cents. 
* 
For the past few years this country has been passing 
through a period of unrest and unbelief. There have 
been various causes for it. The country has been 
“prosperous”; that is, a vast amount of money has 
been made, there has been an immense production of 
crops and manufactured goods and work have been 
abundant. All this has led to wrong ideas of the real 
value or use of money. The very rich have gone to 
extremes in spending or wasting money, and many of 
the middle class who should have known better have 
gone beyond their means to try to imitate their 
lich neighbors. The rich have tried too much 
of this spending $25,000 on a 25-cent boy. 1 he 
poor have lacked the moral courage to see that the 
germ of good character put into their own boys is 
far better than any coat of dollars. Thus this rush of 
the rich to spend and this struggle of the poorer to 
imitate has done much to break down many old-fash 
ioned ideas of true living. We think that a reaction 
is coming, and that no permanent harm will be done. 
Most of us can remember the time when our current 
literature, both in books and magazines, dealt with 
great success in business. The man who accumulated 
a great fortune, without much regard for the means 
employed, was the popular hero. This sort of thing 
reflected popular thought and desire; but anyone who 
reads the magazines and new books to-day must real¬ 
ize that this has been changed. Popular literature has 
swung to the other extreme. Now the vulgar or tricky 
rich man is held up to scorn or ridicule, and the maga¬ 
zines are filled with clear and fearless exposure of 
“graft” and corruption in public life. This is the best 
indication of what the free middle classes in this 
country are thinking about, for the very life of the 
book or magazine depends upon its keeping abreast of 
the people’s thought. We see great hope for the future 
in this very thing. There are some who grow weary 
because the mastery of good over evil seems so slow. 
Yet they know well that true evolution is far better 
than sudden revolution. There are others who protest 
against great evils in society, and yet do little to master 
the smaller evils’ which form a part of their own lives. 
Make the rural homes of this land what they should 
be, and there need be little fear for the future of this 
country. We are thankful this year that our relations 
with 100,000 farm homes reveal a spirit of content 
and hopefulness, and true sacrifice richer and truer 
than ever before. 
* 
We have often expressed our opinion of the value, 
or rather lack of value, of the average “resolution” 
which is passed in the name of agriculture. One of the 
best examples of a lot of sterile words strung on an 
impotent wire was the “resolution” denouncing Tiie 
R. N.-Y. which was passed by the New York State 
Breeders’ Association last year. Shortly after we paid 
our respects to it, we received the following letter 
from a New York man—widely known and greatly 
respected: 
I read with much interest your editorial under the head, 
“Still Another Resolution." I was especially interested in 
the following sentences: “We do not believe this resolution 
expresses the feeling of the Association : it is more likely to 
be the work of a small band of well-trained politicians 
whose influence is felt by most of the farmers’ organizations 
of the State.” Every time I attend the meeting of the New 
York State Fruit Growers’ Association I have the fact 
stated in your last sentence just quoted strongly forced upon 
me. This was especially true of the last meeting held at 
I’enn Yan. At the second day's session there were intro¬ 
duced quite a number of resolutions. Among them were the 
usual ones in regard to the good work being accomplished 
by the Geneva Experiment Station and the College of Agri¬ 
culture. I doubt the expediency or necessity for such reso¬ 
lutions, but what irritated me the most was that a reso¬ 
lution was offered regarding the “admirable work being 
done by the Department of Agriculture at Albany,” and 
still another resolution was offered in regard to the “excel¬ 
lent work being done by the farmers’ institutes in the 
State.” It was evident to the most obtuse mind that these 
last two resolutions at least were simply political plums, 
which might come in useful if the departments to which 
they applied were investigated by the Governor. Such 
evidences of political methods in such meetings as the 
State Fruit Growers’ Association make ine, to use the slang 
phrase, “exceedingly weary.” I found also by talking with 
others at the meeting that I was not the only one who was 
thus “wearied.” 
If any man can hand out a bard and hot truth more 
clearly than that we will gladly grant him the floor. 
The fruit growers of New York will do better to raise 
other varieties of “plums,” or if they want to hand 
them out let them be well sprayed with hot lime and 
sulphur first. We print this early, before the annual 
meetings are held, so that farmers may know what to 
do. It is high time they quit letting a small gang of 
politicians act as their mouthpiece! 
BREVITIES. 
Look out for the idolatry of the dollar. 
Remember where the Kingdom of Heaven is-—within you ! 
How many men have been made worse by copying your 
weaknesses ? 
Speed the day when the man with “hot air” will chill 
his audience. 
Keep on substituting palliation for punishment, and see 
the end of true character. 
Mighty offensive! A fight over a line fence handed down 
as a legacy from father to son. 
Imagine if you can, your good housekeeping grandmother 
buying canned hash or mincemeat.! 
The value of Oregon’s fruit crop this year is put at 
$4,275,135. There’s reason for Thanksgiving. 
The Department of Agriculture at Washington is willing 
to test your seed for purity and strength. 
We have no objection to the man “with an ax to grind.” 
provided he shpws the ax and pays for the service. 
A classical education will never prevent crime. An in¬ 
dustrial education helps keep one out of mischief at least. 
A man in Idaho is thankful for the name of William 
Dollar. May he always find friends to present him with the 
usual nickname. 
We caution readers to go slow in these “home mixed” 
oils for spraying. It is not a mere matter of putting caus¬ 
tic and oil together. 
Score still another for the apple. Weston, the old pedes¬ 
trian, now tramping through the mud for Chicago, eats his 
baked apple every morning. 
Distrust the people who try to make you think you are it, 
when your heart tells you there should be an N in front. 
Such folks are after something. 
Suppose some of you gray-haired men 40 years ago had 
planted some of your waste land in pine or hemlock? It 
would certainly be paying your board now. 
A new york reader says he has succeeded on the farm 
“thanks to The R. N.-Y. and my noble wife. That’s what 
The R. N.-Y. calls traveling in good company. 
We understand that the San Jos6 scale reached the Hud¬ 
son River Valley on the east side of the river. It has not 
yet spread widely on the west bank—the river having proved 
a barrier. 
An English magistrate recently imposed a novel sentence 
on a schoolboy who had damaged a tree belonging to the 
Ealing Corporation. He ordered the boy to provide another 
tree, and plant it himself. This seems a thoroughly prac¬ 
tical way to make the punishment fit the crime. 
