A 78 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
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, 40U Pearl Street, New Pork. 
Herbert W. COLLINGWOOD, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and Geueral Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet and Mrs. E. T. Rotle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. (kb, or 8*2 marks, or 10*2 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.” 
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 ourcolumns, and any such swindlerwill be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect suberibers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trifling differences between subscribers and honest, respon¬ 
sible advertisers. Neither will we be responsible for tbe debts of 
honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. Notice of tbe 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. 
* 
We have been asked to state the exact situation 
in that famous Ohio fertilizer case. The Smith 
Fertilizer Co: is still selling goods in Ohio. They 
did not take out any license in 1908, but have done 
so this year. The suits for damages which the Smith 
Company brought against the State Board of Agri¬ 
culture have been dismissed. The Attorney-General 
has brought suit to prevent the Smiths from doing 
business in Ohio, and this suit is still pending. The 
attorney promised to press those suits hard, but has 
not done so. The whole case was about the strangest 
hold-up of a State department that ever happened. 
* 
Naturalists tell us how various organs in animals 
have been developed by use. As new conditions 
arise the organ or member was changed and slowly 
adapted to meet the new requirements of taking food 
or maintaining life. It seems that there is an indus¬ 
trial evolution going on in the development of farm 
tools. For example, the roots found in an old 
Alfalfa sod are as large and strong as ropes, and 
with ordinary plows the work of turning over such 
a sod is a horse killer. This has led to makings new 
kinds of plows for this special work. The develop¬ 
ment in the use of lime has created a demand for 
lime crushing machinery. Manufacturers are to offer 
portable crushing outfits which can go from farm 
to farm like a thrasher. It is the same with spray¬ 
ing, cultivating, silo filling and other farm work. 
As each branch develops new special tools are 
needed, and they are always found. 
* 
In a bulletin recently issued by the Michigan Sta¬ 
tion is the following: 
There are arguments against the care of small apple 
orchards by stock or general farmers, and the arguments 
are sufficient for those to whom the care of an orchard 
is distasteful, if they will purchase and keep on hand 
during the season such fruit as a good home orchard will 
furnish. This proviso well nigh nullifies the statement, 
for few farmers will or can provide such a supply of apples 
during the entire season as a good orchard will furnish. 
Let the farmers’ wives who never have enough 
good fruit copy that and paste it up all over the 
house. We have seen farmers who say they will 
not bother with an orchard or fruit garden because 
they can buy fruit cheaper than they can raise it. 
You ought to see what they buy! When it comes 
to putting up the cash for a fruit supply there is 
nothing to it. If some of these men will admit that 
all they could raise in a garden could be bought for 
what they spend for fruit they will write themselves 
down as very poor farmers. If they would put up 
in cash what they could, if they would, take out of 
orchard and garden they would feel bankrupt. Why 
not learn from that what a good fruit garden pays? 
* 
After some years of cultivation most land be¬ 
comes sour. The lime is taken out of it and acids 
accumulate from the decay of organic matter. In 
this sour condition the land loses much of its power 
to grow crops. Strawberries, cranberries and a few 
other crops will thrive, but clover fails. Grass and 
grain and most other crops are sickly. By ferti¬ 
lizing or manuring heavily it is possible to grow 
fair crops, but the soil does not respond, and a good 
share of the plant food supplied is wasted or left 
unused. We have learned that lime sweetens such 
soils, puts new vigor and life into them, and. makes 
them profitable. The general use of lime on our 
eastern farms will work wonders in increasing pro¬ 
duction. It must he said that men are much like 
soils. Many of them after years of hard work be¬ 
come sour and disappointed. Some who have been 
successful financially and have been well treated by 
the world grow bigoted and narrow and hateful at 
the time of life when they ought to be most capable 
of giving hopeful service. So far as progress or 
useful service go such men are like the sour soils 
which kill out clover and run to worthless plants. 
They cannot give up the useful experience or food 
which life ought to have stored in them. We can 
sweeten and open the sour soil with lime! Now we 
want to know what to use upon the sour men to 
open them up and make their experience available. 
* 
The Utica Press argues that the daily papers are 
taking the place of the farm papers. It says farmers 
take the dailies because 
He gets all there is of importance in agriculture, horti¬ 
culture and other rural affairs long before it appears in 
the special periodicals. The modern daily newspaper is 
a compendium of the best science, the best agriculture, 
and the besl music and art, and the best household in¬ 
formation available. 
The “agriculture” of the average daily is some¬ 
thing fearfully and wonderfully made. When some 
faker wants to sell “Alaska wheat,” spineless cactus, 
orange-cucumber or seedless apples he goes to the 
daily papers. They cheerfully print his romance, and 
the more improbable the story the more space they 
give it. By printing this stuff as genuine news the 
daily papers cause farmers to lose millions of dollars 
every year. The farmer certainly does get “all there 
is” of these fakes “long before it appears” in The 
R. N.-Y. The daily papers need not fool themselves 
into thinking that farmers do not know their own 
business. The better class of farm papers probably 
never were more prosperous than now. The daily 
papers would better give up their dreams of “ag¬ 
riculture” and spend more time verifying the news 
they print. 
Among the New York State Senators who voted and 
worked against the direct nominations bill are our old 
friends John Raines and Jotham P. Allds. Mr. 
Raines is open and outspoken in his opposition to 
any scheme for direct nominations yet presented. 
Mr. Allds doesn't talk as much as he did, hut says 
that he agrees with the great educator. Dr. Schur- 
man of Cornell! For more than a year we posted 
the names of the 15 Senators who voted against the 
removal of the insurance commissioner. Mr. Raines 
and Mr. Allds were the only members of this group 
to be reelected. Let us analyze the vote in their 
districts last Fall: 
FORTY-SECOND SENATE DISTRICT. 
Raines. 
Taft. 
Hughes. 
Yates County . 
. 2.‘.>13 
3.275 
3.295 
Ontario County . 
. 7,599 
8.245 
8.180 
Wavne County . 
. 7,828 
8,008 
7,998 
Total . 
. 18.340 
19,528 
19,473 
THIRTY-NINTH 
SENATE 
DISTRICT. 
Allds. 
Taft. 
Hughes. 
Chenango County . . . 
. 5.051 
5.949 
5.950 
Madison County. 
. 6.612 
6,727 
6.699 
Otsego County . 
. 7.112 
7,459 
7,315 
Total . 
. 18,775 
20,135 
19.9G4 
ow everyone knows 
how hard 
it is to 
get coun- 
try people to cut or change their ticket in a presi¬ 
dential year. Yet, those figures show that Gov. 
Hughes ran about 1,200 votes ahead in each district 
—though the politicians did their best to beat him, 
and expected to do so. These 'figures explain why 
both Raines and Allds do not want direct nomina¬ 
tions or any popular expression of opinion. Under 
the most favorable conditions they could select—with 
a presidential campaign and the political machine 
against the Governor, they trailed 1,200 votes be¬ 
hind him. They do not represent the true sentiment 
of their districts. When they do they will be no 
longer in the Senate! 
What honest man can ask a better argument for 
a national tariff commission than the history of the 
present tariff bill in Congress? Long before Con¬ 
gress met tariff duties up or down were used as 
bribes to make votes. There was no open bribery 
about it, but a large number of Congressmen knew 
that if they did not vote for Speaker Cannon there 
would be no protection for the special interests that 
sent them to Congress’. Left to themselves these 
men would never have reelected Mr. Cannon—hut 
they knew they had to do it. This same purchasing 
of votes ran all through the tariff debate. Party 
lines were broken up as never before.—North, South, 
East and West—all wanted protection on some pet 
industry. Southern men who. in former years, 
wanted free trade, now saw a chance to get a tariff 
on lumber or hides or cotton or oranges, and they 
were ready to trade. Sent to Washington to serve 
May 1, 
their country they served the local pocket book and 
let the country go. So with all this dickering and 
bribery the hill passed the House. Then the Senate 
came forward with a different bill, which after a 
solemn festival of wind will be passed. Then the 
two branches of Congress will begin a game of bluff 
and swap, and the result will be a tariff bill with 
perhaps 10 per cent of benefit to the public and 90 
per cent to the protected interests. That is the sort 
of a tariff hill we shall always have so long as Con¬ 
gress plays football with it. In the nature of the 
case it is impossible for a body of politicians to do 
justice to a business proposition. A tariff commission 
would settle rates of tariff without trading or brib¬ 
ing or bluff. There ought to be a body of the ablest 
men in the country—representing agriculture, labor, 
manufacturing, transportation and other industries 
to take this tariff question out of politics and settle 
it. Congress should grant this commission the option 
of a high and a low rate on each article and give 
them power to decide the rate between these two 
extremes. 1 here can be no better argument for such 
commission than the present action of Congress. 
* . 
During the past year The R. N.-Y. has gained 
many new readers in the West. Most of them came 
to us voluntarily. We find that these western read¬ 
ers are buying machinery and other supplies through 
The R. N.-Y. advertisers. We have made no par¬ 
ticular effort to increase this far western circula¬ 
tion, yet it comes. A Colorado man who has just 
renewed his subscription gives the reason : 
Although The R. N.-Y. treats on many things that do 
not interest the western farmer or stockman, yet the 
western man is beginning to realize that it is a fore¬ 
runner of what is expected to happen a few years later, 
as the country develops, and that it is well to keep 
posted. w. l. p. 
1 hat is the point exactly. Up to within a few 
years the western farmers have felt that their soil 
was inexhaustible. They neglected to haul out the 
manure—convinced that they did not need it. The 
history of 250 years of eastern farming or 1,000 in 
Europe did not appeal to them because their soil 
showed no signs of giving out. Here and there 
farmers tried using some of that' accumulated ma¬ 
nure. The results, compared with unmanured 
ground, showed at once that the soil needed some¬ 
thing. Once convinced of that these men purpose 
to get into the game at once and not wait until the 
soil is “worn out.” The East has had most expe¬ 
rience in restoring this worn-out land—so they come 
East for help. Recently we had a letter from a 
western farmer asking a long list of questions about 
fei tilizer. Ten years ago that man threatened to 
stop his subscription if we did not stop, talking 
chemicals and green manure for poor soils. He is 
now on the list for life, for, as he puts it— “The 
R. N.-Y. keeps up with eastern progress. That puts 
it ahead of our methods and yet in sight so that 
we can follow.” 
BREVITIES. 
How does your garden grow? 
Work ahead of the weeds—not after them ! 
\ ou cannot possibly have the soil too well prepared for 
fine seeds. 
It appears that the sulky plow makes a good-natured 
job of plowing down Alfalfa. 
Once more—did your Spring plans include a home gar¬ 
den with a full succession of vegetables? 
Don’t you forget it! What? That society has done 
more for you than yon have done for society. 
If we could get Alfalfa well rooted on our farm, we 
would spend no time worrying about how to plow it up. 
We have the best Crimson clover we ever had on the 
farm—after the hardest season for this crop that we ever 
knew. 
We admire that philosophical citizen in Ohio, who says 
liis Alfalfa received a heavy dressing of lime, as the result 
of automobile traffic along a limestone pike. 
It is claimed that Germans have a method of drying 
potatoes for stock food. The potatoes are reduced to 
about one-fourth the original weight, and can he kept 
indefinitely. The dried tubers ai’e about equal to corn in 
feeding value. 
Rat clubs sound strange to us, but a good many rural 
districts in England have such organizations, which give a 
prize to the member destroying the greatest number of 
vermin during the year. 
The State of Vermont sells seedling forest trees to her 
farmers at from $3.50 to $7 per 1,000. Tree planting 
has greatly increased, and a two days’ course in forestry 
was given at the agricultural college. 
It looks good in a wet Spring to see the water pouring 
out of the drains. We have one field with stone drains 
where we have seeded grain and elover. Before draining 
it could not be touched before June, and was then sour 
and cold. 
It seems like a twice-told tale, but many farmers need 
1o remember that cow pens are not peas at all. They 
are beans, which, as all know, are tender and cannot stand 
frost. Canada peas can be seeded with oats in cold 
ground, hut cow peas should never be seeded until corn- 
planting time. 
