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The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Published weekly liy the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, Sew York. 
Herbert W. Colling wood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dili/in. Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. L)ii.i/)N, Secretary. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet and Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign conntries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d„ or 8*2 marks, or lO^ francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, personal cheek 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.” 
Wo 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 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 we bo responsible for the debts of 
honest bankrupts sanctioned by the conrts. Notice of the complaint 
must be sent to us within one month of tiie time of the transaction, 
and you must have mentioned The Rcral New-Yorker when 
writing the advertiser. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to introduce Tiie R. N.-Y. to progressive, 
intelligent fanners 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. 
* 
“Farmers’ Week” at Cornell was largely attended 
by people from, all over the State. Nearly 2,000 
were registered. The programme was so large and 
covered so' much ground that it would be impossible 
to give an adequate report of the proceedings. The 
most useful part of this event is that it brings peo¬ 
ple together, and gives them a chance to talk and 
cultivate the fraternal feeling which is the founda¬ 
tion of progress in true farming. 
* 
When James E. Rice, a plain hen man, was called 
to Cornell to become professor of poultry husbandry 
we knew he would make good. A professor at an 
agricultural college should not come floating through 
the parlor window, but should come up from the 
soil. Prof. Rice has made the hen respected. His 
department has become a great success. There is a 
call for a larger nest and a more complete house. 
We heartily second the call, and hope the Legislature 
will give Prof. Rice just what he asks for. 
* 
Several people have asked if we cannot get the 
Country Life Commission to send a man to their 
neighborhood to investigate special things. Such 
people do not understand what this Commission 
was expected to do. The Commissioners served 
without pay, and their expenses were paid by private 
contributions. They simply went about and listened 
to what people said at public hearings, and read 
letters sent them by some 100,000 persons. They 
have no greater power or authority from the Gov¬ 
ernment than other citizens, and, of course, could 
not go here or there to investigate. 
* 
On page 272 Mr. Keesling, of California, gives a 
list of Burbank’s creations which have given satis¬ 
faction. We are glad to print it, and we shall now 
be pleased to have readers in other parts of the 
country tell us how these varieties have done— 
away from California, We have no wish to do 
injustice to Mr. Burbank. His creations have usu¬ 
ally been sold at a high figure, and most of the 
money obtained for them has been paid by people 
who do not enjoy the California climate. If this 
same California climate is responsible for the suc¬ 
cess of Burbank’s work we think it fair that the 
buying public should know it. Of course, Mr. Bur¬ 
bank himself will agree with this! 
* 
In Hope Farm Notes this week will be found 
some pointed remarks by a farm woman. She is 
right in saying that the closer the farmer’s share 
is whittled down the harder it is upon the women 
and children in the home. We have very little 
use for the fools and faddists who try to make 
it appear that farmers’ wives, as a class, are a 
set of slaves, or that farm life, of necessity, must 
be a dog’s life! Our family selected farm life 
from choice. What we see from day to day, 
however, convinces us that the woman who speaks 
for many on page 275, is justified in saying that 
too rqany men fail to try to defend their women 
with their best weapon—the ballot. We do not, 
as men, strike at the heart of public evils as we 
should. One reason why we have worked so per¬ 
sistently for a fair primary elections law in New 
York is because this will give people a chance to 
get closer down into the corners of politics and 
clean them out. We are told of a test sometimes 
employed at an insane asylum to see if a patient 
THE RURAL NEVVAORKER 
possesses fundamental common sense. They put him - 
in a room over the floor of which a stream of 
water runs from a faucet and tell him to mop it 
up. If he keeps on trying to mop up the water 
he is hopeless. If he knows enough to turn off 
the water he is sane. Under our present political 
system about all we can do is to mop water. Let 
us be men and get to the faucet! 
* 
"In this country such a deal as the settlement 
with Mr. Fessenden would be discussed at the 
farmers’ clubs, fanners’ institutes and Subordinate 
and County Granges, and the factory managers 
would soon think they had punched a hornet’s nest!” 
That is what Mr. Newton Burns, of Michigan, 
tells us on page 271. Has anyone heard such 
things discussed at the New York farmers’ insti¬ 
tutes? Considerable money was spent telling farmers 
how to grow sugar beets. Will somebody please 
tell us why the education which shows the farmer 
how to get what belongs to him is not as important 
as that which tells him how to grow a crop? 
* 
We doubt if there ever was a time when so m^ny 
people were willing to quit work and sell some 
“secret” to the few who are still ready to labor. 
We have all sorts of propositions offered us. Often 
some man thinks he has discovered a new way of 
growing potatoes or making butter. He purposes 
to print it in pamphlet form and advertise it. We 
are expected to work with him on shares—paying 
cost of printing and advertising for a share of 
the proceeds. In one case a man had a secret way 
of growing potatoes. It turned out that he grew 
them under straw in a way familiar to farmers 
for two centuries. Yet this man really thought 
he had an entire’y new plan. The money that is 
spent for fakes and trivial advice runs into millions 
—and nearly every dollar of it taken out of home 
comforts. 
* 
We are informed by Gov. Hughes that the primary 
nominations bill will not be ready for the Legislature 
until after this issue of The R. N.-Y. goes to press. 
We desire to know just what we are talking about 
before we discuss it. In a speech in Brooklyn, Gov. 
Hughes said: 
I believe in party organization and I desire to see it 
strong, efficient and representative. I favor direct nomina 
tions not as a blow to parties, but as a means for bring¬ 
ing the management of parties into closer accord with 
the spirit of our institutions. 
The Governor went on to outline a scheme for 
primary nominations which, we think, gives too 
much power to the politicians. No doubt he ad¬ 
vanced this partly to obtain a fair estimate of public 
opinion. We hope that the delay in introducing this 
bill is caused by efforts to change it in the interests 
of the people. 
* 
Here is a sensible proposition from a farmer in 
Ohio: 
We of the West will have to change our methods to 
suit changing conditions, and we must learn from you 
of the East, who are the pioneers of the new agriculture. 
We of the West are fortunate in that the farmer of the 
East must solve our problems before they seriously con¬ 
front us. 
That is true, and western farmers are now begin 
ning to realize it. Some of the most productive 
soils in the country are those oldest in cultivation. 
We can go to soils more than 250 years under culti¬ 
vation and show that they are now producing larger 
and more profitable crops than ever before. Or we 
will find soil that has produced 200 or more crops 
which will this year produce more corn to the acre 
than rich western soil on which barely 40 crops 
have been grown. When it comes to experience in 
maintaining the fertility of soil our best eastern 
farmers are like men of middle age talking to young 
men of 30. The West is following the East in a 
plan of destructive farming, and sooner or later 
must follow in methods of restoring fertility. Lime, 
green crops and the judicious use of chemicals is 
the combination which gives value to the older east¬ 
ern soils. Our farmers have spent millions in learn¬ 
ing what the soil needs, and western men may save 
millions in learning their lesson in time. 
* 
A btll before the New York Legislature calls for 
inspection of cereal, grass and clover seeds. Under 
its provisions every package of such seeds weighing 
more than one pound must carry a label bearing 
the full name and address of the seller, the name 
of the seed, the per cent of purity and the names 
of the weed seeds present. The limit of weed 
seeds permitted in a “free” sample is five in 1,000 
of the seeds offered. It is claimed in justification 
of the hill that Canada and some States have adopted 
seed inspection, and that if New York does not do 
the same it will become a dumping ground for 
March 13, 
foul seeds. On the average, there are about 300,000 
clover seeds in a pound. This bill permits five weed 
seeds to each 1,000 of clover. Thus a pound might 
contain 1,500 weed seeds and be considered clean. 
The Connecticut Experiment Station tested 26 sam¬ 
ples of clover seed and found from two to 50 per 
cent of weeds and adulterations. In one pound of 
clover seed there were 78,604 weed seeds! We 
firmly believe that weed seeds brought into New York 
mixed with grass and grain have done more dam¬ 
age than imported tuberculosis. 
* 
No use talking—they will beat us unless we can 
imitate their methods! We refer to those apple 
growers on the Pacific slope. They have the pack¬ 
ers to do the practical part of the business, and 
now they have the poets to spur them on. At 
the- recent meeting of the Montana Horticultural 
Society the following “National hymn” was presented: 
Ob, the blue grass waves afar in old Kentucky, 
And tbe corn grows tall upon Nebraska's plains; 
With her melons Colorado's mighty lucky; 
In Dakota they have wheat crops ( when it rains). 
Massachusetts lias her beans and sacred codfish : 
Down in Kansas they raise troubles, so '1 is said; 
But for us there is no place like old Montana, 
Where the McIntosh is glowing bright and red. 
Chorus. 
Oil, the sunshine sheds its splendor o'er our valley, 
O’er her sparkling waters sunbeams dance all day; 
In her orchards fair the McIntosh is glowing. 
Where the Bitter Root meanders on its way. 
Now gentlemen of New England, Virginia, and 
other apple sections, bring out your poets or pre¬ 
pare to trail hopelessly in the rear. Men may 
fight or pull wires or resort to the law, but they 
must all recognize defeat when the poets set peo¬ 
ple to singing hymns containing truth and jingle. 
A section that can produce apples good enough to 
eat, and also good enough to inspire poetry and 
then produce the poets to do them justice, deserves 
full success. Our bashful friends in Vermont must 
get up on the housetops and let people know “There 
is no place like the old Green Mountain State.” 
* 
“Our opinion is that Senator Root looks over the 
heads of those legislators and sees the writing on the 
wall . As a shrewd lawyer lie knows what evidence 
is. " —R. N.-Y., page 144. 
When, on the evening of February 26, Senator 
Root dined with the Albany County Republican 
Association, it was expected that he would give the 
politicians sound advice. He did, and here is part 
of it: 
There is a growing feeling that the present party con¬ 
ditions are not truly representative. The adoption^ of the 
initiative, the referendum and direct primaries in some of 
the Western States is representative of this feeling as well 
as the wide difference in the vote for President and Gov¬ 
ernor in many of the States. * * * * These are 
symptoms of a widely prevailing feeling among the people 
of the country that they are not getting the right repre¬ 
sentation. * * * * This is a sentiment that shows 
that there is something for us to look after—something 
we ought to consider. Of course there can be no other 
outcome from it but organization. But it is a necessity 
that we of the Republican organization should realize the 
fact that a great number of our people are dissatisfied 
with their present representation. 
We consider that these expressions fully justify 
the opinion quoted above. The politicians in New 
York are sitting over a volcano. They all know it, 
but Senator Root, as the responsible man for his 
party, knows it and also has the wisdom to admjt 
it. The dullest can now understand why the poli¬ 
ticians tried so hard to defeat Gov. Hughes last 
Fall. His election gave the plain people of New 
York greater courage to fight public wrongs than 
anything that has happened since the Civil War. 
It only remains for the Governor to stand firmly. 
BREVITIES. 
Florida oranges are now coming in half boxes—and the 
small package finds favor. 
In this open Winter we rejoice more than ever that all 
but a small part of tbe farm is covered with a living 
crop. 
A couple of things about oats and peas. Never sow 
cow peas with the oats. Put Canada or garden peas in as 
early as the soil is fit. 
We never before had so many people ask what to do 
with old and “tired” apple treees. We judge that many 
are buying farms on which these old veterans are located. 
Tiie great majority of Japanese plum reports are not 
very flattering. Many of you will remember the great 
hurrah raised over them some 20 years ago! Who made 
the money out of them? 
A bill before the United States Senate proposed an old 
age pension. It provides that if a person at the age of 
20 will deposit with the Government 25 cents per week, 
at the age of GO he shall be allowed an annunity of 
.$129.91. 
As usual at this season people come asking if they 
should set an entire commercial orchard of dwarf apples. 
They usually want to get in ahead of neighbors and 
“show them how.” If they take our advice they will stick 
to standards and go slow on dwarfs. 
