30 
January 0, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Published weekly by tbe itural Publishing Company, 403 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
W.M. F. DlLLON, Secretary. 
Db. Walter Van Flee t and Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. (id., or 8'e marks, or 10‘a francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 50 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for timo 
orders. References required for advertisers unknown to 
us; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“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 
Iok*. to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertising in ourcolumns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect subcribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trilling differences between subscribers and honest, respon¬ 
sible advertisers. Neither will wo 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 tbe time of the transaction, 
and you must have mentioned Tub Rural New-Yorker when 
writing the advertiser. 
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 pur¬ 
poses. We depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
“I have just read ‘Nell Beverly,’ and think it a 
book that ought to be read by every farmer in the 
land. It’s a book that ought to open the eyes 
of many a man to the possibilities of a farm that 
‘doesn’t pay’ when half attended to, but would pay 
largely when properly worked. Thousands of farm¬ 
ers’ wives will sympathize with Lucille about ‘al¬ 
ways having to use green wood.’ That’s something 
my wife can’t complain of, I am happy to say. Nell 
Beverly is a strong character, a genuine product of 
New England. This rocky and difficult soil, the rude 
buffetings of the changeable climate, the short sea¬ 
son making thrift an absolute necessity (for a man 
must in six months make provision for a year), com¬ 
bined with the stern religion inherited from the 
puritanical forefathers, has produced characters as 
granitic as the hills on which they lived.” 
Connecticut. geo. a. cosgrove. 
* 
The picture of that giant corn shown on page 23 
recalls some freak photographs taken by a clever 
amateur of our acquaintance. In some he showed 
himself standing with hands in his pockets watching 
his double black his own boots, a puzzle picture to 
those who believe that the camera cannot lie, but 
there is hardly any limit to possibilities in such 
work. 
* 
A concern in California offers to sell for one dol¬ 
lar “seeds and instructions” for growing a wonderful 
forage plant. It is said to produce from one to 200 
tons per acre each year. No doubt if you dicker 
with them they will throw in the promise of a fer¬ 
tilizer factory and a feed mill on the same acre. We 
think this is the celebrated “spineless cactus” which 
we have already mentioned. \\ e do hope there are 
no readers of The R. N.-Y. foolish enough to try 
this cactus or any other north of middle Texas. Take 
the warning now and let all such fool fakes alone. 
* 
There are two sides to this question of using 
“floats” or raw phosphate in manure or on the land. 
A number of farmers write that they have certainly 
received benefit when the “floats” were used. They 
give what they call evidence to prove their state¬ 
ments. On the other hand chemists tell us that ordi¬ 
nary soils contain phosphoric acid often as available 
as the “floats.” As an absorbent they call the floats 
a failure, and they say that the fermenting process 
in the manure pile is alkaline, while an acid is 
required to affect the floats. It seems to be a case 
where you take your choice whether to pay your 
money or not. 
* 
Farmers have lost millions of dollars through 
buying humbug fertilizers. In some cases there was 
downright robbery—the actual plant food falling far 
below the guarantee. In other cases there was a 
fraud in the sale of nitrogen. In most of tire States 
the analysis of a fertilizer groups all the “nitrogen” 
under one head—all apparently valued alike. Every¬ 
one who has studied the matter knows that the form 
of nitrogen known as “nitrates” is available at once, 
while certain forms of “organic” nitrogen may not 
be available for a year or more. For example, sup¬ 
pose you take silage and rye straw to manure a gar¬ 
den. There would not he much growth. Suppose 
you fed the straw and the silage to a cow and used 
the liquid manure. There would be quick growth. 
The silage and straw contained organic nitrogen— 
the liquid contained nitrates. Anyone can see that 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
a pound of these. nitrates is worth more than the 
organic. Yet the fertilizer dealer would like to sell 
you “two per cent of nitrogen” and have you pay 
the price of nitrates for all of it. This may give 
him a chance to work off dried muck, ground leather 
or coarse tankage. You pay for it all unless you 
know what you are buying. That is where loads of 
money have been lost. You stand the surest chance 
to lose it when you buy a low-grade fertilizer—that 
is one containing about one per cent of nitrogen. 'I he 
station reports show that practically all this nitrogen 
is “organic” and mostly of the unavailable kinds. 
Buy the potash and phosphoric acid, hut if you need 
nitrogen get either the highest grade fertilizer you 
can find, or the nitrogen alone in nitrate, dried blood 
or similar available forms. 
* 
THE SENATOR FROM NEW YORK. 
It appears to he settled that the powers that be 
have selected the next Senator from New York. The 
Legislature is expected to elect the present Secretary 
of State, Elihu Root. The R. N.-Y. received many ex¬ 
pressions of opinion from its readers. 1 he majority 
favored President Roosevelt, with Mr. Root a£ second 
choice. Some farmers are frank and outspoken in 
their opposition to Mr. Root. 1 heir position is well 
summed up in this sentence. “\\ e respect him as a 
man of great ability—but we do not trust him! I his 
lack of trust is due to the fact that Mr. Root is 
known as a corporation lawyer, or organizer and 
defender of trusts and large corporations. It is sig¬ 
nificant of the growing spirit of the times that coun¬ 
try people should express themselves in just that 
way. We wrote Mr. Root asking him to tell us how 
he stands regarding several matters in which farmers 
are deeply interested. We print this extract from 
his reply: 
I do not want to go Into a kind cf civil service exami¬ 
nation regarding my fitness for the Senate. It would 
be hard to put a limit on that sort of process if It were 
once begun, and if carried very far it would result in 
what I think would he the wrong way to select a Senator. 
It seems to me that the way to do that is to select a 
man who is so well known to the people of the State 
that they can have confidence in his good sense to find 
out what their interests are and his loyalty to promote 
them. When men get to answering questions put to 
them for the purpose of determining whether the people 
shall favor them for office, the temptation is very strong 
to make the sort of answers that the people are sup¬ 
posed to want, and I do not think it is at all certain that 
the best and most honest men would come out at tbe 
top of such an examination. 
Naturally we do not agree with that proposition. 
If a civil service examination is a good thing in 
selecting Government employees why is not the prin¬ 
ciple equally good in selecting those who make our 
laws? A Senator is supposed to represent the State. 
The people make the State, and to represent them 
truly means to do their bidding. As a matter of fact 
in this very selection of Mr. Root the people had 
very little to do with it. It was done by a few 
“leaders” or politicians and it cannot by any means 
he called a popular selection. The farmer gets only 
35 cents of the consumer’s dollar because there are 
too many middlemen in the way. In like manner 
farmers get mostly crumbs from the political table 
because there are too many politicians in the way. 
These politicians want to talk for the farmer and 
act for him and express his opinions for him. We 
want the farmers to thrust these politicians to one 
side and go right to headquarters and do their own 
talking. The farmers of New York have certain 
definite things in mind which they feel would help 
them. We venture the assertion that Mr. Root can¬ 
not obtain a fair expression of these needs from the 
so-called “leaders” of his party. We all know how 
he will stand on the tariff and other old-time ques¬ 
tions, but how does he stand on the parcels post and 
half a dozen other important things which directly 
affect our business? How can we find out except 
through a kind of civil service examination? As 
for that last sentence we judge that Mr. Root does 
not appreciate the character of many of our New 
York farmers. They are not so easily fooled as he 
may think, and they have studied into the questions 
which trouble them deeper than he realizes. When 
a man runs for an elective office he must go through 
the “examination” and ’before many years New 
York will elect Senators by popular vote. We pre¬ 
dict that the successor to Senator Depew will be 
obliged to declare himself on public matters before 
he can he elected. Mr. Root will make a brilliant 
and strong Senator. \\ e believe he will favor a 
parcels post, and that he will listen respectfully to 
what our farmers ask for. Let us not spend time 
in complaining because some one else was not elected, 
but proceed at once to give him fair expression of 
what we want. New York will now have a strong 
man in the Senate. Make him understand our cause 
and what farming represents and see if he will not 
stand for it. 
You will see from the statement on page 26 that 
King Edward, Kaiser Wilhelm, Czar Nicholas and 
the President of France are each to have five boxes 
of Oregon apples! The famous Nobel prize is given 
each year to the person who contributes most to the 
promotion of peace among the nations. The man 
who thought out this apple scheme should be con¬ 
sidered for this prize. The German people have re¬ 
cently shown indignation at theif sovereign. Wait 
until he gets through one of those boxes of apples— 
and all will be forgiven. Let these four great rulers 
eat their five baked apples a day for two weeks and 
the peace of Europe will be secure. The Sultan 
of Turkey needs a box and a few more distributed 
along the Danube just now might avert war. No 
man feels like fighting an unjust fight after a com¬ 
fortable meal of baked apples, hut it will send him 
forth to put in good licks for his home. The peace 
of Europe is secure while those apples last—unless 
other rulers become envious and want some of the 
fruit. 
* 
As we predicted, the politicians in New York State 
will oppose a primary nominations bill. An Albany 
despatch to the New York Herald states: 
William Barnes, Jr., fired off the opening gnn to-night 
in the fight which the Republican State organization, or 
at least a potent part of it. will make on Governor 
Hughes’ bill for direct primaries. lie declared emphati¬ 
cally that he will fight to the last ditch against such a 
measure, and he added that John Raines, the Senate leader 
and one of the most powerful men in the organization, as 
well as Speaker Wadsworth, will oppose the Governor. 
The kick from that opening gun will cause an ache 
in every bruise which the politicians carry from 
their last fight with Gov. Hughes. As for Hon. 
John Raines, he would better give some study to the 
election figures of his own district before he begins 
fighting. In his home county of Ontario, Mr. Raines 
received 7,599 votes, while Gov. Hughes polled 8,204 
votes. Gov. Hughes stood for a primary nomina¬ 
tion, and on that issue received 605 more votes than 
Mr. Raines in the latter’s home county! When Mr. 
Raines begins his fight against the primary he will 
show that he is fighting for himself and not for the 
people. 
* 
# 
We have mentioned several times the effect of im¬ 
ports of potatoes upon the price in American mar¬ 
kets. The following letter from a dealer in Scot¬ 
land will show the condition on the other side: 
Our potato crops in Britain are exceptionally large this 
season. The quality is good and prices are low, and are 
likely to remain so. There have been several shipments 
to America, and it is hoped there will be many more, 
for our supplies are more than can ever he eaten by 
home consumption, and in consequence prices to farmers 
are unprofitable. 
While growers on the other side hope there will be 
a great American demand our own growers realize 
that these imports will determine the wholesale 
price in the Atlantic coast markets. It is reported 
that these foreign grown potatoes can be delivered 
in New York duty paid at one cent a pound. They 
wholesale here at $1.75 to $2 per barrel. They will 
determine the price except for guaranteed stock of 
extra quality. While this foreign stock may not be 
carried over 200 miles inland they will discourage 
shipments to this market, since the freight rates 
from Great Britain will often run less than from 
points in New York State! While these shipments 
undoubtedly cut down the price which potato grow¬ 
ers receive, they do not greatly benefit consumers. 
The retailers make very little if any difference in 
price—a barrel at retail measure bringing $4.50 or 
more. Thus the retailer and the importer seem to 
receive about all the benefit there is in imported 
potatoes. The actual amount of the trade is less 
than most people think. In the 10 months of this 
year ending November 1, $272,068 worth of potatoes 
were imported against $179,748 for the same month 
last year, and $501,807 two years ago. 
BREVITIES. 
It’s hard when an iHusion changes to a delusion. 
The string which ties a man -to his job may become 
the chain that holds him to slavery. 
People who halter themselves to a stern “No” and 
j’efuse to break the halter generally get there 
That article by Mr. Moore on breeding up a dairy 
herd appears to be the real experience of a real dairy¬ 
man. 
It is Mapes the mangel man this week. He tells how 
to grow the crop so that any one could do it who has 
the price. 
The picture at Fig. 12 shows how fake photographs 
are used to deceive buyers. You would think that ordi¬ 
nary common sense would show a man that such things 
are impossible, yet they always seem to find buyers. 
A German inventor has devised an apparatus for tak¬ 
ing photographs from a carrier pigeon. A small auto¬ 
matic camera weighing about one-quarter of an ounce, 
made of aluminum, is strapped to the pigeon and “snaps” 
as the bird flies. It is to bo used for photographing 
fortifications. 
