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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Juno 5, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established, 1850. 
Fablish'ed weekly by the Rural PnMir-hlnr Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. COLLINGWOOD, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer aud General Manager. 
Wm.F. Dillon, Secretary. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet and Mrs. K. T. Royle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. 6d., or 8*c marks, or 10francs. 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 ourcolumns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect suberibers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trilling 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. 
* 
We give the following question prominence here 
at the request of several readers. It looks like a 
wet season, and there is universal demand for in¬ 
formation about wet-weather haying: 
As haying season is not many weeks distant, will some 
of the readers of The It. N.-Y. give the benefit of their ex¬ 
perience in regard to preparing caps or covers for clover 
after it is put in the cock ; also the most practical size for 
the same, and grade of cotton cloth to use. 11. f. d. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
We know that some of our people have the ex¬ 
perience, and we are sure they will give it up will¬ 
ingly. 
* 
Last year Mr. Prickett, of Ohio, spoke of using 
the plow and harrow together. With a strong team of 
three horses a man can ride a sulky plow and hitch 
one section of a spring-tooth harrow behind. This 
hauls the harrow over the fresh-plowed soil and saves 
one extra harrowing. There can be no better time 
for harrowing with a toothed implement than right 
after the soil is turned. In some cases we should 
not care to use a roller or packing harrow at that 
time, but it is always in order to stir up the soil. 
Travellers who have come across the continent this 
Spring say they saw many cases where this plowing 
and harrowing were being done at one operation. As 
far east as the Missouri River the practice was quite 
common. There are some places in the East where 
it would pay. 
* 
Remember the apple show to be held in Boston 
Oct. 19-24. The bloom is now on the New Eng¬ 
land trees that are to produce the fruit for this 
show. Prizes to the value of $10,000 will be offered. 
There is not a quaver in the challenge which these 
apple showmen put out: 
It is unfortunate that the consumers in our home market 
should believe that western fruit is superior to our home¬ 
grown article. The fact is that no fruit has yet come out 
of the West that equals New England fruit in quality. 
Where the western growers score is on appearance, and it 
is the intention of those in charge of this show to offer 
special prizes for the best packing and most attractive ap¬ 
pearance. 
The western men will dispute this claim of su¬ 
perior quality, yet we believe it is justified. There 
are also parts of New England where the most 
beautiful fruit is grown. New England will make 
good her claims, but the West has a long start in the 
market. 
* 
For weeks the United States Senate has been “dis¬ 
cussing” the tariff bill. This is a sample of the de¬ 
bate between the Senator from New Hampshire and 
the Senator from Oklahoma: 
“Will he vote for higher duty on corn and other agricul¬ 
tural products?" persisted Mr. Gallinger. 
"I will not,” replied Mr. Gore. “I will not betray the 
farmers of the United States with the Judas kiss—the duty 
on corn is such a sham and humbug that no man who be¬ 
lieved in it ought to be allowed to run at large outside of 
the United States Senate.” 
It might truly be said that Senator Gore drew first 
blood. A tariff on corn! In eight months of last 
year we actually imported $12,387 worth of corn, 
while our own crop was worth nearly $1,500,000,000. 
There is no country on earth that can compete with 
the United States in corn production. There 
never was a more silly humbug than the idea 
of “protecting” farmers by any such tariff. Yet 
some of these solemn senatorial owls would have us 
believe that farmers get a great advantage when they 
trade a tariff on corn for a high tariff on steel or 
hardware! Why not have a high tariff on spring 
water to protect the American farm well? The 
strangest part of it all is that the Senators actually 
seem to think they are fooling the people. A few 
of them know better! Who are they? The men 
from the States where there are direct nomination 
laws. You will not hear such men blowing off 
steam about a tariff on corn. The farce will con¬ 
tinue until, through direct nominations, the people 
select Congressmen in both houses. 
* 
We recently read a letter in which a man of middle 
years chided a younger man because he worked on a 
fruit farm. The older man called such work “men¬ 
ial” and degrading. What sort of a soul-inspiring 
job do you suppose this critic held? He should have 
been an artist or a poet, of course. Instead of that 
he was a butcher! He considered it “menial” to 
grow beautiful strawberries and fine peaches, but 
very much more elevating to cut up dead hogs into 
ham and sausage! It is amusing to hear such people 
talk. Utterly incapable of appreciating the real dig¬ 
nity or character of labor they assume that any kind 
of a city job is superior to any job in the country. 
They usually handle produce and expect to make 
about twice as much out of it as the farmer who 
goes to all the expense of growing it. Because busi¬ 
ness conditions permit the middlemen to get more 
than belongs to them, they call the farmer a “menial.” 
It’s laughable to see them strut. 
* 
Before we go any further with the “Wonderberry” 
and Luther Burbank, let us understand the situation. 
This plant was introduced as a great and valuable 
novelty, and fully vouched for by Mr. Burbank. 
Now some of the best-known botanists in the country 
declare that the Wonderberry has all the character¬ 
istics of Solanum nigrum, a common plant or weed. 
In reply to such statements Mr. Burbank offers to 
give $10,000 “in cash, cold coin” to anyone who will 
prove that the Wonderberry is a “nightshade.” We 
assume that he means a member of the Solanaceae, or 
nightshade family. The R. N.-Y. purposes to earn 
that $10,000 and hopes to get it. In order to have the 
offer thoroughly understood we have written the fol¬ 
lowing letter to Mr. Burbank: 
Mr. Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, Cal. 
Dear Sir :—Mr. Joseph Meseek has sent us a copy of your 
letter of April 17, in which you refer to The Rural New- 
Yorker in connection with your Wonderberry. In this let¬ 
ter you say that you are ready to give “$10,000 in cold 
coin” to any person on earth who will prove that the Won¬ 
derberry is the Black nightshade. We think we are able to 
do that to the satisfaction of most people. I now write to 
respectfully ask what you consider definite proof. What 
would you expect us to do in order to demonstrate to your 
satisfaction that this Wonderberry is really a nightshade? 
I shall lie very much pleased to have you specify just what 
you desire in the way of proof. 
We are aware that some g:ood people go so far as 
to think that Mr. Burbank should be immune to criti¬ 
cism. Frankly we do not feel that way about him or 
anyone else. We think we are safe in saying that 
no hybridizer or “plant creator” that ever lived has 
ever had more of money and glory from the public 
than Mr. Burbank has received. That being so, we 
think the public has a right to know what it has re¬ 
ceived in return—and we intend to try to find out. 
* 
In the discussion about the use of “floats” or raw 
phosphate rock reference is often made to certain ex¬ 
periments at the Ohio Experiment Station. We are 
able, this week, to give an article by Dr. Thorne 
which will help us all to understand the matter. It 
will be seen that there was a gain in crops when the 
“floats” were mixed with manure—that is, the crops 
were larger than when the manure was used alone. 
The use of acid phosphate in the same way gave an 
even larger gain. You will observe that it has not 
yet been demonstrated that the phosphoric acid in 
the “floats” is made more available by the chemical 
changes in the manure pi!e. The experiments which 
we have reported from Tennessee and Pennsylvania 
go to show that there is no such action in the ma¬ 
nure pile. The increase of crop yields in Ohio may 
be due to one or all of three different things. The 
phosphoric acid, may, after all, become available, or 
the floats may act like plaster to “fix” or save am¬ 
monia which would otherwise be lost, or the “floats” 
may provide lime to soils which need it. You might 
say “What difference does it make, provided we get 
larger crops when we use floats?” It makes all the 
difference between knowing how and guessing at it. 
A farmer nr’ght say “Stable manure gives good re¬ 
sults when I buy enough of it—what do I care what 
it contains or why it helps?” Any farmer who has 
studied the analyses knows that while manure may 
be a cheap form of buying nitrogen it is a costly 
form of phosphoric acid. If his soil is specially in 
need of the latter he can get it cheaper in chemicals 
than in manure. In fact, that is just the argument 
for using the floats. We hope, therefore, the experi¬ 
ments will continue until it is known why these fa¬ 
vorable results are obtained. It will not do for a 
farmer to take the argument from these station re¬ 
sults without knowing more about what he is buying. 
It seems that there are high-grade “floats” as well 
as fertilizers. Some of the results at the station 
were obtained with a material which gave as much 
as three per cent “available” phosphoric acid. It 
seems that some of the floats offered for sale is much 
inferior to this with no “available” and other sub¬ 
stances which make the phosphoric acid almost 
worthless for immediate use. 
* 
Now and then some cautious individual pulls a 
long face, wags his wise head and “regrets that The 
R. N.-Y talks so much about middlemen.” Middle¬ 
men do not usually trouble such people—they have a 
special home market for what they sell. When we 
say that the average grower does well if he gets 35 
cents of the consumer’s dollar, these pcop’e doubt 
the statement. We advise them to read the article 
in the June Everybody’s on “Robbing the Hand That 
Feeds.” This gives detailed statements of just such 
robberies as The R. N.-Y. has been reporting for 
years. We are glad to see the magazines taking tip 
this matter and exposing some of the shameful prac¬ 
tices of which snide commission dealers are guilty. 
Some weeks ago we printed a letter from Texas 
showing how the rascals steal carload shipments of 
produce. There are half a dozen ways of doing it. 
Usually two rascals work together—one rejecting the 
shipment because it came “in poor condition.” The 
other appears like a good Samaritan and manages to 
sell the goods for about enough to pay freight. Then 
the two get together and cut up a great profit out 
of the price which the goods actually bring. They 
are able to do this because the shipper is usually 
hundreds of miles away, and has no friends on hand 
when the car arrives. Texas shippers have been 
robbed in this way until they are desperate. Their 
remedy is to compel the railroads to furnish trans¬ 
portation for a man to accompany a car of produce. 
This man will go through with the car—know just 
how the produce reaches the market and see that it 
is sold on its merits. This would go far toward 
holding up the thieves if a man of some spirit went 
with the car. The Texas shippers have appealed to 
the State railroad commission. These commissioners 
are ready to act if the shippers can show the neces¬ 
sity. Now here is a case where Texas growers can 
help farmers in all parts of the country. If the de¬ 
mand is made the railroad companies will no doubt 
carry the case to the Interstate Commerce Commis¬ 
sion. That is just what we want, for then farmers 
everywhere will have a chance to show how they are 
held up and robbed. Let every Texas shipper get 
busy at once with petitions and personal letters ask¬ 
ing the commissioners to compel the railroads to give 
this free transportation to a watcher with each car 
shipment. Write at once to J. W. Stubenrauch, 
Alexia, Texas. 
BREVITIES. 
Some of the papers are still gravely discussing “cobless” 
corn. 
Another “Apple Show.” This time in Denver, Col., with 
$25,000 in premiums. 
The Chinese at home have no use for pius. Strings and 
loops are used instead. 
“Wickedness in high places!” One antidote for it— 
goodness in low places. 
Miss Mathewson quoted Franklin's saying, “The Mas¬ 
ter’s eye is worth both his hands !” This is pretty nearly 
true of the farmer who does his own work, for “eye” 
stands for organization. 
Alaska was bought 32 years ago for $7,200,000. Many 
argued at the time that Russia had handed this country “a 
cake of ire.” In 1908 Alaska exported to the States $12,- 
255,255 worth of merchandise and $18,021,403 in gold ! 
From its name Greece ought to bo fitted to become a 
dairy country, hut except for cheese made from sheep’s 
milk there is little to the business. The Greeks sent us last 
year $108,276 worth of this cheese, hut imported most of 
their butter from Denmark. 
The fact about Alfalfa and drain tile seems to he that 
when the water runs the year through the Alfalfa roots will 
choke them. When the tiles only hold water in wet sea¬ 
sons there is no trouble. Complete drainage—so as to re¬ 
move all the water—is the thing. 
Now they are saying the time is ripe for educating the 
Europeans to eat more of our corn. The high prices for 
wheat will make other food necessary. But corn is nearly 
out of reach of Americans now. Unless the crop can he 
increased we should not plan to send more corn abroad. 
The grain is needed here. 
This country is not alone in transportation troubles. 
Brazil nuts come from the Amazon Valley. T.ast year 
$1,121,278 worth were exported—more than half to this 
country. Few. if any, go to Rio de Janeiro, because freight 
rates from the Amazon region to the capital are actually 
higher than to Europe or America. If the nuts could lie 
sent to Rio for distribution the trade would be greatly 
increased. 
