204 
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, 409 Pearl Street, New Pork. 
Hkrbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. 
Dr, Walter V an Fleet and Mrs. E.T. Rovle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. 6 d., or 8*2 marks, or 10 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 time 
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 
loss to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertising in ourcolnmns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect subcribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trifling differences between subscribers and honest, respon¬ 
sible 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 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. 
* 
At the last meeting of the Hanover Farmers’ Club 
the following resolution was adopted: 
“We, the Hanover Farmers’ Club, endorse the action 
of the Rural New-Yorker in giving publicity to the 
methods of the Beet Sugar Company.” 
W. T. Christy, President. 
Mrs. A. M. Reach, Secretary. 
* 
We notice that a good many readers use a camera 
and print excellent post cards. Some of them are 
very good, showing interesting farm scenes. We can 
use some of the best, and can pay for them. If 
you have any we shall be glad to look at them. Send 
them in. 
* 
Now we want the experience of farmers or garden¬ 
ers who have had crops injured by cement dust or 
gases from factories. Such cases are sometimes re¬ 
ported, and we judge -there are many of them. What 
was the extent of the damage and what was done 
about it? You can hardly realize how much you can 
help by reporting just such things to us. 
* 
We have heard of a man who boasted that he made 
$1,000 before breakfast. When asked how he did it 
he said he marked up all the goods in his store! We 
think of this sometimes when we read the figures 
made up in the Agricultural Department. For exam¬ 
ple, we are told that in 1808 there were 13,960,911 
horses averaging $34.26 each. In 1909 the figures 
are 20,640,000 horses at $95.64. Thus the value of 
American horses is about four times what it was 11 
years ago. 
* 
Our reports all indicate heavy corn planting in the 
Eastern States this year. That is good, for at present 
prices corn is one of our most profitable crops. Old 
pastures or worn-out meadows, which barely pay 
taxes, can be broken up and planted to corn—using a 
fair amount of fertilizer. We have simply got to 
save something on “that awful grain bill,” and old 
sod ground in corn is about the best investment we 
can make. 
• * 
Mr. Downey, on page 195, tells us that Minnesota 
started a bounty on beet sugar, hut gave it up be¬ 
cause of “class legislation.” In that State the con¬ 
stitution states that there is to be no discrimination 
in favor of any single industry. You remember that 
when the farmers and market gardeners claimed the 
right to sell their goods at retail they were obliged 
to have the Legislature offer an amendment to the 
constitution, and then give it a popular majority. 
* 
While we firmly believe that it is possible to grow 
as good apples in parts of the East as are grown on 
the Pacific coast, we want our growers to understand 
what it means to produce them. A friend in Montana 
makes this statement: 
Wliat would you say to a man not only thinning his 
whole crop of McIntosh Red to one apple every six inches, 
hut also clipping away with a pair of shears the leaves 
that would shade the fruit on a 15-acre block of trees. 
This is often done, and yet you think you see only the pick 
of our western fruit. There are no culls in an orchard 
handled that way. 
One thing we like about these western growers is 
the way they go at their business. They know they 
have a good thing and they take pride in it, and 
are willing to go the limit in order to put it on the 
market properly. They deserve success, and in order 
to match them we must follow their methods. 
The automobile drivers claim -that they are largely 
responsible for the- “good roads” movement. They 
will now be forced to admit that they are turning 
the good roads into had ones almost as fast as it 
can be done. It is claimed that in England the. 
use of autos has -increased the cost of keeping or¬ 
dinary roads in good condition from 22 to 77 per 
cent. In Massachusetts the.claim is that auto travel 
has increased the cost of road keeping from $100 to 
$300 per mile. As autos increase and are driven at 
higher speed it is likely that the whole plan of road 
building will be upset. The average macadam road 
will not sta’nd the strain of the autos, and new and 
more costly material will have to be used. As the 
autos are directly responsible for this their owners 
ought to pay the larger share of the cost. 
* 
Last week there was a sale of so-called “white 
slaves” in a Brooklyn church. A number of men, 
young and old, unable to obtain work, put themselves 
i p at auction. They were disguised so that they could 
not be recognized, and an auctioneer offered their 
services to the highest bidder. The object was to 
find work for these men—the bidders offering what 
they were willing to pay in wages. It was a novelty 
designed to call attention to the fact that a large 
number of men are out of work. The “bread lines” 
are full this Winter. Farmers, at least, will not take 
kindly to the plan of picking out a disguised hired 
man. Such a man would go right into the farm 
family, and where there are children or young peo¬ 
ple, it is a dangerous thing to take a stranger right 
off the streets. We wish that more of these unfortu¬ 
nate men could find work in the country, yet we 
should be very careful in taking them. 
* 
Well, what about that “infant industry” of beet 
sugar production? Have you seen anything yet to 
convince you that the taciff on sugar is going to 
help American agriculture? We are printing reports 
from New York growers. If they are not correct 
or if these statements are not fair—you have the 
chance to pull them apart. During our correspond¬ 
ence with the Lyons Beet Sugar Company they made 
the following statement: 
You may possibly remember that during last March 
and April the columns of the “American Agriculturist” 
were full of matter discussing our contract and our rela¬ 
tions with the farmers who grow sugar beets for us. 
Every feature of the contract—and the contract now be¬ 
fore you is the same in all respects as the one then dis¬ 
cussed—was thoroughly ventilated in the columns of the 
“American Agriculturist” at that time, and after the 
smoke had blown over we think there was but one opinion 
—excepting perhaps among those who will never bo satis- 
lied—namely, the one as expressed in a recent letter re¬ 
ceived from one of our growers who has been iu the sugar 
beet business for many years both as a grower for his 
own account and it solicitor of sugar beet contracts from 
his neighbors, who writes us: 
“Furthermore will take fliis opportunity to state that 
I consider your business .relations with me as a grower 
of beets, and as an employee have not only been just and 
generous, but as far as I know, which is considerable, you 
liave treated all others in the same manner.” 
There will he no smoke covering the discussion 
in The R. N.-Y. Thus far the figures and facts are 
all one way. We intend to find out whether sugar 
beet growing in New. York State is a paying proposi¬ 
tion, and we don’t know any better way than to let 
the men who have grown beets show their figures. 
Mr. Fessenden, Mr. Kean. Mr. Downey, and the 
others may belong to that class “who never will be 
satisfied”—and we are thankful there are men to 
come out and tell the truth. We think it is now 
up to the Beet Sugar Company to bring forward 
proof that farmers are to get their money back 
from what they pay in tariffs and bounties! 
* 
As we pointed out last week, of all the public edu¬ 
cators in New York, Dr. Schurman, of Cornell, 
should be the first one to defend the principle of 
primary nominations. Instead of that, he seems likely 
to he the last one. We should he very sorry to think 
that the arguments he advances were sincerely be¬ 
lieved by the students at Cornell, or any other insti¬ 
tution where men are to he trained in citizenship. His 
first argument is that the things which will break 
down boss rule and give the average voter a fair 
chance “are attainable under our present system of 
nominating contentions as easily as under any other 
system.” Prof. Janies M. Williams, of Hobart Col¬ 
lege, has fully answered Dr. Schurman. He says: 
Under the present system the boss and his ring, dominat¬ 
ing the convention, may, by arbitrary rulings, unseat, as 
they please, delegates who have been chosen by the people 
in the party caucus. There are several ways of doing this. 
One way is as follows: If the majority of voters in 
the town primary choose delegates who will oppose the 
delegates of the ring in the county convention the minor¬ 
ity in the primary who are the henchmen of the ring will 
secede and elect delegates to the county convention, claim¬ 
ing that the delegates of the majority were Irregularly 
chosen. The two rival delegations will then go up to the 
county convention, and the boss of the convention will 
February 27, 
decide that the delegates of the minority were those reg¬ 
ularly chosen and will seat them and not allow the dele¬ 
gates chosen by the majority to be seated. The only re¬ 
course of the latter is then to the courts, and the courts 
have decided that they have no power to intervene to de¬ 
cide disputes in any party convention. See Matter of 
Fairchild, 151 X. Y. 359. rev. jt. 9 App. Div. 624. (This 
decision was by the Court of Appeals, the highest court 
in the State.) That is, the boss of the convention has 
power to seat and unseat as he pleases, and, of course, he 
decides in favor of his henchmen in the primary. This 
lias been done again and again, until the people have be¬ 
come convinced that il is impossible for any delegate to 
have a voice in a convention until he tirst knuckles down 
to the boss. And the decision of the Court of Appeals has 
confirmed this view. From the lowest to the highest of the 
party conventions, the hierarchy of bosses exercise an ab¬ 
solute despotism. 
Most of our people live in the country, and prob¬ 
ably nine-tenths of them have known just such 
things to happen. They know that so long as the 
power to do this is handed down from one boss to 
another the plain people will never have a fair show 
in New York. The primary nominations will give 
men the power to correct this evil. We have faith 
enough in the manhood of New York farmers to 
believe that if given the chance they will exercise 
that power. To put it bluntly, that is what the 
Grange believes and what Dr. Schurman seems not 
to believe! 
* 
4 
“The Eastern Dealer/’ an implement trade paper, 
is trying to form an organization of what it calls 
“regular dealers.” There isn’t a thing indefinite or 
bashful about its purpose: 
The purpose of the organization to be to unite all regular 
dealers in implements and vehicles in these States, in order 
to protect by all legal ways the regular dealer against the 
practice of some manufacturers and jobbers selling direct 
to consumer or through the medium of agents with no 
store or stock. 
These gentlemen intend to kill off the “farmer- 
dealer.” That means the man who runs a farm of 
his own, uses implement so that he knows what they 
are, and sells -to his neighbors. The “organization” 
will also attempt to ruin the manufacturers who sell 
direct to farmers! They have undertaken a very 
large contract, and it will keep growing larger. The 
farmer’s share is small enough as it is, and it will 
not he a healthy job for anyone to try to whittle it 
down any smaller. 
* 
The abuse of the express companies has become 
so great that the Merchants’ Association of New 
York has appealed to the Public Service Commis¬ 
sioner for help. Here is an extract from their plea 
for an investigation: 
According to the Uuited States Census Report for 1890, 
the Adams Express Compauy, then capitalized for $12,- 
000,000, had an actual investment in equipment of $1,128,- 
195. For years it paid eight per cent on its capital, equal 
to 80 per cent on the actual value of property actually 
used in its business. In 1S98 it distributed $12,000,000 
of its own bonds to its stockholders, secured by the de¬ 
posit in trust of the surplus fund not used in its express 
business, and reduced its dividend rate to four per cent. 
By 1904 the dividend rate had increased to $10 per share 
(10 per cent)), in addition to which each stockholder was 
receiving four per cent interest on an equal amount of 
bonds which lie had received without paying therefor. In 
1907, $24,000,000 additional was distributed to stockhold¬ 
ers, in the form of bonds secured by the constantly in¬ 
creasing surplus. It thus appears that the rates exacted 
from the public by the Adams Express Company have not 
only sufficed to pay a liberal return upon the capital 
actually used in the business, but also of late to pay 10 
per cent upon several times that amount in stock, and in 
addition to accumulate a surplus of $36,000,000 available 
for distribution to stockholders, of which $24,000,000 
seems to have been accumulated within a period of nine 
years. 
The other large express companies have been able 
to do much the same. All these vast sums have been 
dug in small amounts out of the public. It is a 
great holdup game which could not possibly stand 
tone year if we could have such a parcels post as 
is found in England and Europe. What would hap¬ 
pen then? The people would save millions and the 
express companies would still be able to make a fair 
profit.__ 
BREVITIES. 
India exports 112.000 pounds of hone dust every year. 
The hones are collected and crushed. 
In German cities a peculiar horseshoe is used on slip¬ 
pery pavements. A groove extends around the shoe and in 
this groove a piece of rope is fitted. The horse steps on 
this rope. 
The latest life preserver is a rubber hag to which is at¬ 
tached a small tube of liquid gas, such as is used in a 
gas sprayer. You put the tube around you, turn a screw 
in the tube and the bag is quickly inflated. 
You will find some men who find fault with the way the 
Panama Canal is dug, while their own farms are undrained 
or ditched. It is easier to criticise a large thing than to 
do a small one. 
Why should you believe all that a real estate agent 
tells you? Perhaps you want to move from your present 
home.' An agent would try to make a stranger believe 
that the place you give up is a paradise. If you believed 
what this agent would say about your home you never 
would leave it. 
