November 30 , 
876 
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; Wrn. F. Dillon, Secretary; 
409 Pearl St., New York. 
Entered at New York as Second Class Matter. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, Kditor. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet, i . 
Mrs. K. T. Koylb, ^Associates. 
John J. Dillon, Business Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 52.04, 
equal to 8s. 6d., or 8 Mi marks, or 10 Mi 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 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 vou must have 
mentioned The Rijiiai. 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 30, 1907. 
was all planted and well cared for. A large proportion 
of it turned out to be an inferior yellow onion. Thus 
the grower not only lost several hundred dollars on 
his crops, but his special market for white onions was 
injured, since he could not supply his regular custo¬ 
mers. He claims, and with reason, that some one in the 
seedsman’s employ made a mistake and gave him seed 
of yellow onions in place of white. This seems evident, 
for the seedsman says no one else has complained. 
The grower therefore claims that the seedsman 
should make good the loss on the crop, and 
his demand seems a reasonable one. It would 
be no redress for the seedsman to say he will 
send more seed—for he could not guarantee it any 
more than lie did the other. If it was, as seems quite 
likely, a mistake on the part of the clerk who filled the 
order, the salesman ought to make it good and it 
would be good business policy for him to do so. 
* 
THE CATTLE CASE UP TO Q0V. HUGHES. 
At the opening of the Civic Forum in New York last 
week Gov. Clias. E. Hughes discussed his familiar 
subject of honesty in public life. Among other good 
things he said: 
I want no more to do with the man who will spread a 
false accusation or without good just basis of fact will en¬ 
deavor to give currency to aspersions upon public ollicers 
than with those who are faithless to their trust. There 
is no health in either. If you have the facts which show 
that a public officer is derelict you have no need for innuendo, 
and you may and should press your case relentlessly, allieit 
with pity in your heart. But if you have not the facts, 
then be fair, and let your suspicions justify your search and 
your rigid inquiry, but nothing more, until the facts and all 
the facts are found. 
put it before the insurance investigation, this bargain 
of legislative favors in return for campaign contribu¬ 
tions is regarded by politicians as a “moral obligation:’ 
'1'lie corrupt use of secretly gathered campaign funds is 
one of the greatest evils of American public life. Any 
candidate who will compel his party to keep open books 
will, whether elected or defeated, do his country a ser¬ 
vice that will rank with the noblest acts of soldier or 
statesman. 
* 
It is not many years since a great banquet was given 
by cattle men in Texas at which a newspaper reporter 
made a prophetic statement. He told the “cattle kings” 
that their day of monopoly was ending. “The man 
with the hoe,” he said, “is looking over your wire fence, 
and in time he will drive your great herds back where 
they belong.” How they laughed at him! The idea 
seemed absurd. The cattle ranged freely over millions 
of acres. There was no place for the gardener. Who 
but a crazy man would raise garden truck or fruit 
with his markets thousands of miles away? Yet this 
man’s vision has become a stern fact. In Texas to-day 
thousands upon thousands of acres are devoted to fruit 
and .garden truck. Fortunes have been made in the 
business, and State law's have been changed in the in¬ 
terests of gardeners. Read any prominent paper in 
Texas and you will find find far more about the Texas 
mule and hoe than about the steer. In that great 
State, as elsewhere, it is the man who thoroughly tills 
a few good acres who is known as the “independent 
farmer.” All over the country there is a movement to 
concentrate work, skill and fertilizer upon smaller 
areas. If it pays in Texas, it surely will pay in older 
States. 
* 
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. 
* 
1 he Pacific Coast papers are printing pictures of 
enormous apples. Mr. William Rixton, of Sullivan Co., 
N. Y., sent us an apple which weighed 18 ounces and 
measured 15 inches around one way and 14 another. 
We prefer good apples in this country, but can produce 
monsters if they are wanted. 
* 
On page 878 will be found that famous recipe for 
“Cooking Husbands.” This has evidently been filed 
away by many housekeepers—whether to be used in 
theory or in practice, we cannot say. After studying 
human nature for half a century, more or less, we 
should doubt the wisdom of trying this method in full 
upon the majority of husbands, as we view them away 
from home. 
* 
Here we have it again from the Spokane Review: 
Southern Oregon apples appeal to E. II. Ilarriman, the 
railroad magnate. He has just bought for his family use 30 
boxes of Spitzenburgs at $5 a box on the ears at Medford. 
No use talking, the apple is the link which binds so¬ 
ciety together. Even President Roosevelt and Mr. 
Harriman could sit down beside a box of these Spitzen¬ 
burgs and forget their differences. Railroad stocks may- 
play old Harry with the market, but as long as Mr. 
Harriman’s stock of apples holds out, he can remain 
good-natured. Pie is said to live apart from men, 
but here he is a full-fledged member of the American 
Apple Consumers’ League! 
* 
We are stirring up all sorts of comment over the arti¬ 
cles discussing that orchard experiment in western New 
York. People read the first chapter, and begin to say 
that the statements cannot be true. One man charges 
that the article was written by some one who has trees 
to sell. We need not assure readers that the statements 
about these apple orchards are true. They are made 
by honorable men, and even more startling ones can 
be made if desired. The only object of these articles 
is to study and analyze the results of that experiment 
in cultivation. We are glad to see so much interest in 
it, and before the end is reached, we think the critics 
will be satisfied that the statements are fair and true. 
* 
Last week the seedsmen had a chance to say what 
they will do about guaranteeing onion seed. Under 
the circumstances they took a sensible position, for 
anyone who knows about seed growing will understand 
ho\v many chances there are for a mix-up. In some 
cases, however, the mistakes of a seedsman are serious, 
and lead to great trouble and loss. One case now up 
for adjustment is a typical one. An onion grower of 
long experience has developed a good trade for a 
white onion. He bought seed, as he supposed, of this 
variety last Spring from a prominent seedsman.The 
package was marked properly, but bore the usual 
statement about a seedman’s guarantee. You can’t tell 
one variety of onion seed from another, and this seed 
When serious charges were first preferred against 
Frank E. Dawley, the public official in charge of the 
State Farmers’ Institutes, we had no definite* facts to 
sustain the charges. Our search or rigid inquiry was 
conducted, not to justify a suspicion, but to answer the 
full requirements of justice. We approached the sub¬ 
ject with an open mind, determined to find the truth 
regardless of whom it affected. At the conclusion 
of our inquiry we were burdened with no sus¬ 
picions ; we had the facts. The charges were 
made sufficiently definite in our answer to Mr. 
Dawley’s complaint in his libel suits which, by the 
way, have never been moved for trial. For more than 
a year we have been diligently trying to get an official 
examination of these facts, and a decision on the 
merits of the testimony, but so far without success. In 
the meantime some of the cows which form part of the 
evidence have died, and others are in a dying condition, 
but Mr. Dawle}' is continuing his official position. We 
believe that Governor Hughes has authority, under an 
act of the last Legislature, to investigate any State 
department, the Agricultural Department included. Mr. 
Dawley is an employee of that department, and would 
naturally come under the scope of such an investiga¬ 
tion. If Governor Hughes will initiate such an inquiry 
we will assure him that we will not confine ourselves 
to innuendo or suspicions, as we are in a position to 
give him actual facts. It is sometimes contended that 
these charges do not affect Mr. Dawley’s official posi¬ 
tion ; but the farmers who bought his cattle relied on 
his statements because of his position. Our 
esteemed contemporary, the Country Gentleman, is 
rigid in its contention that Mr. Dawley, the Jersey 
breeder, should be a distinct identity from Mr. Dawley, 
the conductor of farmers’ institutes. The Governor, 
however, has repeatedly stated the principle that the 
man cannot be separated from the official. The 
general facts in this case, outlined in our legal answers, 
have been public property for months. We can go no 
further, since Dawley has not moved for trial. Gov¬ 
ernor Hughes has the means at his control to compel 
an official answer to this question: Did Mr. Dawley 
buy grade cattle and sell them for purebred registered 
Jerseys? Under these circumstances, and while this 
question is unsettled, we hold that Mr. Dawley’s con¬ 
nection with the farmers’ institutes is a public scandal 
which we do not expect the Governor to tolerate! Our 
facts are at the Governor’s disposal! 
♦ 
We believe that Mr. William J. Bryan has done the 
country a real service. In a published statement he 
says that if he is the Presidential nominee of the Demo¬ 
cratic party next year that party must open its books 
and show the public where the money needed to run its 
campaign comes from and for what it is spent. If 
Mr. Bryan should be nominated and insist upon this 
accounting, it would form a challenge which his oppo¬ 
nents would be forced to accept. To refuse would be 
a confession of unwillingness to take the public into the 
party’s confidence, or of shame for some of the methods 
employed. The campaign fund contributed by a large 
corporation is a business investment. The giver is to 
be “protected” or “let alone,” and the equivalent is 
far greater than the contribution. The politicians do 
not need to make a definite bargain. As Senator Platt 
Last week we printed a strong letter from a man 
who is disgusted with the various “resolutions” which 
politicians work through public meetings in the name 
of “agriculture.” It may not be clear at first thought 
why these politicians want the resolutions passed. The 
thing can be made clear in a few words. This little 
gang of wirepullers will go into a large meeting where 
representative men are found. At least 50 per cent 
of those present have no use for the gang, and 40 per 
cent more would repudiate them if they understood 
the facts. By pulling the wires through committees and 
office holders the “resolution” is bunched with others, 
and passed, though 90 per cent of those present would 
have voted against it if the truth had been made known. 
We have seen a “resolution” endorsing the Agricultural 
Department passed by the State Grange. It was sprung 
upon the meeting apart from the other resolutions, and 
at a time when the only men likely to oppose it were 
away from the hall. Perhaps five per cent of the dele¬ 
gates present voted for it, but the State Grange went 
on record. Now, having obtained “resolutions” in 
this way, this gang of politicians can go to the Gov¬ 
ernor and the Legislature and say, “See here, we are en¬ 
dorsed by the farmers of the State!” It is very doubt¬ 
ful if among all their backers there were 100 farmers 
who do not obtain some little graft from the Agricul¬ 
tural Department. They have worked this game very 
well in years past, but they seem to have lost connec¬ 
tion with Governor Hughes. At its last meeting the 
State Dairymen’s Association “resolved” against a man 
who told a few truths. The gang, with the able assist¬ 
ance of our worthy friend, the Country Gentleman, 
thought it had ridiculed him out of business! They 
got their answer straight from the shoulder when the 
Governor appointed this man to an important public 
office, and there may be more to follow. We don’t look 
for quite as many “resolutions” this year as usual. 
Imagine the honest members of the New York State 
Fruit Growers’ Association “resolving” in praise of a 
man who has covered his fingers with pitch and then 
put them into the money which members paid for 
chemicals and fertilizers! 
BREVITIES . 
The fishline is a popular chord with the boy. 
You shut the gates of health when you shut the windows 
tight at night. 
Before you curse the big monopolies make sure you are 
not nursing a little one! 
Y T ou can feed a purebred down to a scrub—but you can't 
feed a scrub up to a purebred! 
No one hires a brass band to celebrate entrance at the 
little end of the horn—or exit from it, either. 
Ix England there was a plowing match between daughters 
of farmers and daughters of sailors. The sailors won ! 
Opportunity for the boy! What else does he need? Make 
the opportunity a fair one and within the boy’s means. 
We are in favor of one kind of a tariff on one kind of 
paper—a tariff of honor and oversight on the “papers that 
fit the cows.” 
Think of it. 20 men, women and children were arrested 
at Belleville, Canada, for stealing fruit in an orchard. They 
were actually fined, too. 
An English farmer who was run over by an auto, wants 
to punish the “scorchers” by making them eat two pounds of 
dust every day.” We would be satisfied with making them 
eat prison fare behind the bars for one month. 
