THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
June 2*5. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARM Ell'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, Now York. 
Hkrukrt W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dilion, Secretary. 
Dr, Walter Van Fleet and M rs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION; ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8ki marks, or 10kj francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, porsonal 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 papor 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 wedo not guarantee 
to adjust trilling differences between subscribers and honost, respon¬ 
sible advertisers. Neither will we be responsible for the debts of 
honost 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. 
* 
On page 623 a correspondent calls for some 
prophet to arise and tell the future breeder what to 
aim for. Shall he breed for fat, that is a rich milk, 
or simply for “milk,” without regard to its quality? 
Say what you will, that puts the case about right; it 
is indeed a wise man who will undertake to settle it. 
* 
The Capital Grain and Mill Company offered for 
sale a stock feed. Part of it was branded as fol¬ 
lows; “Mixed (Bran) Feed—made from pure Win¬ 
ter wheat bran and ground ear corn.” The brand 
on the other part read: “Mixed (Middling) Feed— 
made from pure Winter wheat middlings and ground 
ear corn.” The pure food and drug inspectors ex¬ 
amined this stock feed and found that there was no 
ground corn in it It was simply a mixture of wheat 
bran and ground corncobs. The court decided that 
under these circumstances the so-called “brand” con¬ 
tained “false, misleading and deceptive statements,” 
and the dealer or manufacturer admitted it. But 
what about the farmers who have been paying the 
price of cormneal for ground cobs, and what about 
the poor animals who had to eat the stuff and then 
were blamed because they fell short in milk or 
work? We have no doubt that thousands of tons of 
just such stuff has been sold and paid for. We find 
the best method of avoiding such frauds is to buy 
whole grain and grind it at home. 
* 
Is the United States Government afraid to prose¬ 
cute the American Sugar Refining Company—other¬ 
wise known as the “Sugar Trust”? If so, what is 
the reason? These questions are now being asked 
by a great majority of the American people. Last 
year the trust was found guilty of rebating. A few 
months ago it was again found guilty of giving false 
weights in weighing imported sugar, and thus cheat¬ 
ing the Government out of money due for tariff. 
Now, face to face with a suit which threatened to 
expose another criminal action., the trust offered to 
pay $ 10 , 000,000 rather than face the testimony which 
would prove its lack of character. This offer was 
accepted by the rival company that brought suit, but 
here are three plain cases which show evidence of 
crime. The trust has violated the Sherman law like 
an uncommon criminal, yet the Government seems to 
adopt the bandage from the eyes of justice, and is 
satisfied with that resemblance. The meanest part of 
it all is that after all this rascality has been so 
clearly proven, the sugar trust should -be trying to 
control the sugar tariff, so as to capture additional 
“protection.” What is the matter with the United 
States Government? Is it afraid of the sugar trust? 
* 
Last week we printed part of a letter from the 
New England Grain Dealers’ Association. It seems 
that in Massachusetts the Grange has done some 
buying in carload lots of grain. This is a coopera¬ 
tive feature, which might be well developed. The 
grain dealers have met this competition in a way 
familiar to all who try to buy at wholesale. They 
learn when the Grange goods are coming, and pro¬ 
ceed to cut down their own prices to a point even 
lower than the Grangers can obtain. The object of 
tin’s is to shake the confidence of Grange members 
in cooperation and prevent them ordering in this 
way again. It is easy to start evil stories about a 
“rake-off” when the local dealer sells at less than the 
Grange price. This makes bad feeling and some 
members refuse to order again. When the Grange 
buying has been broken up the dealers raise prices 
again, high enough so that they get back more than 
the bait they gave up to hook the wavering members 
of the Grange. It is a strange thing that people 
cannot see through such a game, yet it is played 
again and again. Sometimes you can hardly blame 
the stronger members of a community for feeling 
discouraged. Just when they thought they had a 
stone wall back of them they find a rope of sand. 
1 he dealers appear to think they have some sort of a 
divine right to compel, a farmer to buy at retail 
prices. The farmer will have to change the situation 
himself. No one will do the work for him, and 
he will have to go through the fire to win. 
* 
At the New York State Fair $400 will be offered 
in prizes for best grade dairy cows. We want to 
help make this contest a success, since we have for 
years advocated such prizes. We hope practical 
dairymen will bring on their best cows and enter the 
contest. One of the first things they will want to 
know is how these cows will be judged. What basis 
will be used for selecting the prize winners? Mr. 
Dorr McLaury, who will have charge of this depart¬ 
ment, says: “It was intended that the animals be 
judged from strictly dairy points and their capacity 
to yield milk or fat as they appear the day they are 
shown in the ring.” We assume he means that trie 
cows will be scored by a dairy expert and milked 
on the grounds. The details of such judging ought 
to be published, so that dairymen may know what 
cows to send. If the cattle were to compete on a 
“scale of points,” a partly dry cow will answer. If 
the milk yield for a day or more is a condition, of 
course fresh cows are desirable. It would need some 
study for a judge to tell whether four Holstein 
grades were superior to four Jerseys unless there is 
some definite standard for a grade cow. We would 
like to hear from dairymen about this. If you were 
the judge, what would you look for in the best grade 
dairy cow ? 
* 
In reply to the call for persons who have copies of 
“The Apples of New York,” we hear from a number 
of people. Many of them have large ideas, like the 
following: 
Through the conductor of our farmers’ institute last 
Winter I learned that they wero very scarce, and that 
some people were offering as high as $23 per set. If 
you know of anyone who wants to purchase a set and 
give up good big money, I can furnish one and perhaps 
two sets. T. E. H. 
There is no such demand for the book. We will 
not be a party to any holdup game. That is about 
what it amounts to when we take a gift from the 
State and hold it for an exorbitant price. Four Al¬ 
bany book stores are named to us where copies of the 
book are sold at about their value as compared with 
similar volumes. But where did these book stores 
obtain the volumes? They doubtless came from 
members of the Legislature. For example, the mem¬ 
bers from large cities have no use for the books, since 
their people do not grow fruit. We are told that 
certain Congressmen from cities turn their quota of 
garden seeds or pamphlets over to country members. 
There has been scandal over the distribution of sev¬ 
eral valuable books at Washington. It finally came 
to such a pass that farmers could* not obtain them ex¬ 
cept by buying at certain book stores. It seems a 
shame that these valuable fruit books should be in 
the hands of speculators. They never should have 
been distributed through the Legislature. That al¬ 
ways means more or less graft. 
* 
As a rule we pay no attention to anonymous let¬ 
ters. Long experience shows that when a man re¬ 
fuses to sign a communication he tries to conceal 
his identity for several reasons. He is either 
asjiamed of his name, ashamed of what he writes or 
else lacks the courage to stand up and back his state¬ 
ments. With these preliminaries we print the follow¬ 
ing just as it came: 
I have just finished reading your criticism of Burbank’s 
Wonderberry. The whole world is sick of such knockers; 
have the stomach ache. Certain publications tell us that 
Christ never lived. Don't ho a knocker—be a booster. 
We all know Burbank is a producer, and you will kill 
your little publication when you try to stuff us with such 
rot. a reader. 
It is not impossible that a full dose of the Won¬ 
derberry will bring about the sad condition men¬ 
tioned by this writer. If the desire to strike as 
straight as wc can at humbug or evil qualifies one 
for the position of "knocker,” we shall try to fill the 
position. We shall knock the humbugs and help 
boost the worthy enterprises when we see them. The 
trouble is that too many people have been boosting 
when they should have knocked. As for Mr. Bur¬ 
bank, our issue with him at present is regarding the 
botanical character of this Wonderberry. He says he 
will give $10,000 to anyone who will prove that it is 
a black nightshade When we ask him what proof 
he requires he dodges and evades the issue. We are 
now giving him ample time to state what we should 
do to earn the $10,000. Our anonymous friend need 
not worry about our “little publication.” For every 
“knocker” it will have 100 “boosters,” and the 
knockers are mostly like our friend, who loves dark¬ 
ness rather than light. 
* 
A Northern expert -went to the Delaware penin¬ 
sula to talk fertilizer. He gave advice about using 
nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid and told partic¬ 
ularly how to buy nitrogen to best advantage. It 
was a valuable lecture—worth many dollars to Nortli- 
thern farmers. After the lecture, however, it was 
fovind that barely half a dozen men in the audience 
had bought a pound of nitrogen for years. They 
were good farmers and had bought and used potash 
and phosphoric acid, but by sowing Crimson clover 
and cow peas as catch crops they had actually ob¬ 
tained all the nitrogen their crops needed. Some of 
them starting with naturally poor soil and farming 
in this way had become prosperous, and at the same 
time made their soil very much more productive than 
when they started. Hearing of this incident led us 
to investigate, and we find many cases on the penin¬ 
sula where no nitrogen is needed or bought for any¬ 
thing except possibly very early garden crops. Such 
crops as corn and tomatoes are grown year after 
year. Crimson clover is seeded at the last cultiva¬ 
tion, and this catch crop, with potash and phosphoric 
acid, gives a full manuring. In some places farmers 
cut the clover for hay and plow under the stubble, 
having found that the entire crop gives them too 
much nitrogen. We must remember, too, that this 
soil was originally very light and poor. Climate and 
soil give the Delaware peninsula farmer wonderful 
opportunities for using the legumes to build up and 
supply his farm While there is less opportunity 
to do these things in more northern latitudes, we can 
all make greater use of catch crops if we only will. 
We begin now to beg you to sow some cover crop 
in the corn. 
* 
M e think the New \ork State Grange has a 
great opportunity at this time. There will be no di¬ 
rect nominations law in New York until the farmers 
and country people demand it. The power to com¬ 
pel the Legislature to pass such a bill will never 
come from town or city. To prove this you have 
only to look to the western States where direct nom¬ 
inations are jiow made 1 he Grange is the only 
New York organization that can be said to repre¬ 
sent or give expression to the public or political 
needs of farmers as a class. Other societies are 
used for •business or education. We have heard 
many influential farmers express the belief that the 
State Grange is too much of a political machine, that 
it lacks the courage to initiate or demand just legis¬ 
lation without first consulting certain party leaders. 
Personally, we do not think this criticism is entirely 
just, yet it has weight with many farmers, and the 
State Grange will be more or less embarrassed by 
this criticism until it does something that will ef¬ 
fectively kill it off. We think the opportunity has 
come for the Grange in this direct nominatiops issue. 
Let the Grange proceed boldly to study the subject 
from a farmer’s standpoint. Get a true expression 
of feeling from country people here in New York 
and in the western States, where the plan has been 
tried. Go to Gov. Hughes with the facts thus ob¬ 
tained and show him what country people want, and 
also convince him that they represent the only class 
that can make such legislation possible. Have able 
lawyers draw up a bill embodying what the people 
want—not what a few theorists desire—and broad¬ 
cast copies of that bill all over the State before mem¬ 
bers of the Legislature are nominated, and make it 
the one great issue of the campaign. This is an 
“off year” and with two months to work in our people 
can tip the Legislature over. Now here is the great 
chance for the Grange to do a needed work for 
farmers, and prove that it is large enough to rise 
above politics and dominate the situation. 
BREVITIES. 
Do the papers fit the Wonderberry? 
Good apples will mean good money. 
The latest name we have heard for the Summer boarder 
is “the city complaint.” 
Don’t ask questions of an adder, and let the strawberry 
growers alone at picking time. 
If this wet season does not drive farmers to drainage 
of wet fields they cannot be driven. 
Dan you tell us of a case where lime has helped straw¬ 
berries? With us the crop does better on a soil some¬ 
what sour. 
As for weeders in use, here is a note from Long Island, 
where they have good farmers: “If you’ll come oui on 
Long Island you’ll find hundreds of weeders used on corn 
and potatoes. I use one on Gladiolus and other bulbs and 
om seed beds.” 
