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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 York, 
Herbert W. Colljngwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet and Mrs. E. T. Royle, 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*2 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.", 
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 our columns, and any such swindler will 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 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 met a man the other day who started in to 
deny that the handlers get GO cents or more of the 
consumer’s dollar. When confronted with prices 
and figures he admitted that 35 cents seemed to be 
a fair average of what farmers get. Then he came 
forward with this statement: “This would be 
enough for them if they would live as their grand¬ 
fathers did . ” We sometimes wish they would imi¬ 
tate grandfather for a few years. The old gentle¬ 
man knew his rights, and it was a cold day for poli¬ 
ticians and public robbers when" he got after them. 
Let the farmers act as grandfather did about 10 
years and American history would be made over— 
the right way. 
* 
Do you remember my calling your attention to the 
fact that a foreigner living in this' country, or only 
visiting or touring here, or here temporarily to labor at 
good wages, may send a package to his home six or seven 
thousand miles away for three-fourths what a similar 
package would cost me in postage to the next postofiiee. 
two miles away? In other words, the foreigner may mail 
his laundry, weighing one pound, 6,000 miles for 12 
cents, while I must pay 16 cents to send mine two miles. 
And that is not all. The foreigner may mail a package 
weighing 11 pounds, while I must make three packages of 
same. Ought, not citizens and taxpayers in this country 
be on as favorable basis postally as non-taxpaying aliens? 
e. p. r. 
We have yet to find anyone who cares to answer 
this question in the negative. The proposition as 
here put is true. It is a shameful truth, and Ameri¬ 
cans are to blame for it. We have it in our own 
power to compel a change just as soon as we can 
make our Congressmen realize that we mean busi¬ 
ness. The privilege of a parcels post is worth fight¬ 
ing for and cannot be won without a fight. 
* 
Recently a serious difference arose between a 
business firm and one of our subscribers. It was a 
matter regarding the delivery of goods. Our reader, 
who simply acted as delivery agent, refused to force 
the goods upon certain of his neighbors, who had 
good reasons for refusing them. The business firm 
undertook to punish him by forcing him to pay for 
the rejected goods and he appealed to us for advice 
and help. When we took up the case and were con¬ 
vinced that our friend was justified in his position, 
the business house at first talked about as fol¬ 
lows : 
“We do not understand what business this is of 
ycurs anyway. If you have any right to mix into 
our business dealings with customers we wish you 
would tell us where you get it!’' 
A trial subscription to The R. N.-Y. ought to give 
anyone a liberal education along this line. We make 
it our business to try to help our readers. By “help” 
we do not mean sitting in a comfortable chair 
handing out well-worn and trite advice about farm 
crops, or general news about farming. That kind of 
help is needed, but it is the easiest and safest to 
give. There is another sort of “help” which it is 
our ambition to be worthy of giving. There is sym¬ 
pathy for the troubled, encouragement for the down¬ 
cast, and plain, straight, up and down fighting for the 
oppressed, when fighting is necessary. We do not 
practice the theory of non-resistance when helpless 
friends are threatened by fraud or force. It is easy 
to ride over a single farmer when he lacks the 
means and the power to defend himself at law. The 
machinery of “justice” has been used to grind out 
many a crime because the victim, all alone, had no 
power to resist. You band 1000, or better, 100,000 
such men together and you find a very different 
proposition. It is our privilege to enjoy the con¬ 
fidence and the backing of the 100,000, and we would 
not be worthy of it if we did not make it our busi¬ 
ness to “mix into” just such cases as we have men¬ 
tioned. There. is a principle at stake, which vitally 
concerns our people, and we get our license to take 
a hand in the game from them. That authority is 
good enough for us, and we shall act under it with¬ 
out asking further permission, whenever we think 
our help is needed. 
* 
The following letter has been sent to Luther Bur¬ 
bank : 
Mr. Luther Burbank. 
My Dear Sir.—Permit me to repeat the details of a mat¬ 
ter which I am sure will interest you. 
On April 7 you wrote Mr. Joseph Meseek of New York 
offering to pay $10,000 to anyone who would prove that 
your “Wonderberry” was a black nightshade. We printed 
this offer and have asked you three times to specify the 
proof which you require. You have evaded the question 
once, and refused to answer twice. I now come again 
upon the same errand. I sent you further proof in the 
form of a photograph of a letter from Dr. B. T. Galloway, 
of Washington. You will see that Dr. Galloway states 
that the “Wonderberry” is a horticultural variety of black 
nightshade. It is as much a nightshade as different 
varieties of cow peas are cow peas. You will also observe 
that identical forms of this plant have been growing in 
the hot sections of the Southwest for many years. We 
have therefore what we regard as the highest authority 
for the statement that your “Wonderberry” is not only a 
black nightshade, but it is not a new plant. 
In your recent letter you referred us to Dr. G. II. 
Shull for information, which, as you observe, “you evi¬ 
dently need.” I give herewith an extract from Dr. Shull's 
reply. * * * This is a private communication and I 
am not at liberty to print it, but I submit it to you as 
further proof from your own witness. Now, in view 
of this testimony it occurs to me that there is nothing 
left for an honorable man except two things; either pay 
Die $10,000 or state what further proof you require. You 
may rest assured that this matter will be kept before 
the public until you do one thing or the other. 
* 
On the next page Mr. John Lewis Childs makes this 
positive statement: 
"I also know it to be a fact that some other seeds¬ 
men received orders for Wonderberry seed and sup¬ 
plied the garden huckleberry.’’ 
Under the circumstances that is the most positive 
charge of seed substitution we have yet heard. It is 
the plain duty of Mr. Childs to name these seeds¬ 
men. We call upon him publicly to do so, and we 
will print their names upon his statement of them. 
Here is his chance to help the legitimate seed trade, 
for deliberately selling bogus stock of a “novelty” 
is even worse than infringement of a patent. 
Those buyers who received the garden huckleberry 
seed lost nothing, for it is a fair statement to say 
that this plant is superior to the Wonderberry. Three 
weeks ago we stated that the two plants are not 
identical, and Dr. Van Fleet’s report on page 738 will 
■stand. If anything further were needed to show 
the character of this whole “Wonderberry” business 
we have it in the letter from Dr. B. T. Gailoway 
printed on the next page. This opinion will carry 
conviction to the public as forcibly as an opinion 
from the supreme court would in a legal question. 
Mr. Childs may engage botanists to split hairs or 
stretch botanical distinctions, but the fact will remain, 
as Dr. Galloway states, that the “Wonderberry” is 
merely a horticultural variety of black nightshade. 
Furthermore, it is not new, since similar plants are 
reported as growing in the Southwest. These facts 
and the reports which are pouring in upon us in every 
mail justify us in classing this entire “Wonder¬ 
berry” proposition as the boldest effort to work off 
an inferior “novelty” ever attempted in. this country. 
The wonder and shame of it is that a man with the 
reputation of Luther Burbank should have sold his 
name to promote such a scheme. 
* 
In order that we may all understand what is be¬ 
ing talked about a brief history of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission is given on the first page. 
We see that the law which created the commission 
was a compromise. The railroad men and monied 
interests generally were at that time mostly located 
in the East. They advocated the commission but 
were opposed to efforts to prevent the railroads from 
“pooling”—that is, put their earnings together to be 
shared in common. The Western people who were 
largely shippers, opposed “pooling,” wanted a uni¬ 
form legal rate for shipments and wanted to leave 
the enforcement of the law to the United States 
courts. In the compromise the West accepted the 
commission and the East accepted laws against 
“pooling.” We see from our brief history that for 
40 years or more the American people nursed the 
railroad infant with all sorts of special privileges 
Then the infant became a giant, and for the past 
September 4, 
40 years the people have been trying to hold him in. 
reasonable check. As we go on with our facts about 
freight rates we shall see that great need of rate 
supervision and the danger which is coming to the 
country in railroad consolidation. The commission 
has asked Congress for certain changes in the law 
and certain increased powers. When Congress 
meets we shall bring these things up and urge their 
passage. 
This issue of The R. N.-Y. will be distributed at 
the New York State Fair, and at others. We do not 
care particularly for special fair numbers. Our read¬ 
ers are widely scattered, and have varying interests. 
A matter of special value to one locality might not 
interest people who live elsewhere. It may be that 
this issue of The R. N.-Y. is the first one you have 
seen. In that case we hope it will be only the be¬ 
ginning of a long acquaintance. Our simple propo¬ 
sition is that the paper must speak for itself. We 
appeal to intelligent people who know what they 
want and how they want it. It is time and space 
wasted to attempt to tell such people what The 
R. N.-Y. is and what it is trying to do. We can say 
this, however, that no one will be likely to read sev¬ 
eral consecutive copies of this paper without find¬ 
ing something in it which vitally concerns him as 
a man and as a farmer. This is because the pa¬ 
per is very largely edited by its readers. They 
are personally interested in making The R. X.-Y. 
useful and reliable, and as a result we are within 
reach of the experience of more than 150,000 read¬ 
ers—a priceless fund of information always at our 
disposal. We do not believe there is another pa¬ 
per in the country which enjoys so thoroughly the 
affection and confidence of its readers. They are 
indeed like the members of a large family. If you 
join us you will find this so, and we invite you to 
come in. 
* 
Not much has been heard about “Alaska wheat” 
this season. One good reason is that the Government 
has excluded the advertising from the mails. The 
promoters might still have advertised the wheat in a 
reasonable way, but their plan is to tell extravagant 
stories about it. When choked away from this special 
privilege they fall flat. In some localities the wheat 
may be boomed. We have a local paper printed in 
Maryland in which an agriculturist writes an article 
about the wheat with the old claim of 22'2 l / 2 bushels 
per acre. They are always careful'to put in that 
extra half bushel! This man bought two bushels and 
here is his tale of woe. 
The disastrous blight struck my little field with great 
severity, so that like all other wheat it fell far short of 
what it should have made. The two bushels yielded 24 
bushels thrasher measure, which cleaned up about the 
same quantity struck measure suitable for seed. When 
we know that by actual count by disinterested parties 
there were as many as 113 grains in many heads of this 
wheat, that many heads had nine branches, it is a mere 
matter of arithmetic to determine how much more it 
would have produced than ordinary wheat, which latter 
produces a maximum about 30 grains to the head. The 
consensus of opinion among those who watched my field 
of wheat, is hut for the washing out of the blossoms by 
the wind and rain storms the yield would have reached 
a hundred bushels if not more. The loss by English spar¬ 
rows was considerable. 
That is as good a statement of an “if” yield as 
we ever read. The standard varieties of wheat did 
as well as or better than “Alaska.” If anyone wants 
to buy wheat on the strength of “arithemetic” yields 
they may do so. “No, thank you!” for us. We 
once saw a white man cipher a mule trade with a 
darky. The latter’s comment of praise was “If I 
could figger like you can I would have the whole 
world!” 
BREVITIES. 
BURBANK NOW HAS THE FLOOR. 
The “catch crop” is a land fattener. Wheat or corn 
alone is a land skinner. 
The Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, at Lima, N. Y'., will 
establish a department of agriculture. 
Are your chestnut trees dying at the top? Do they all 
go, or are some of them able to resist the disease? 
It may be a little early, but it will do you no harm 
to look after the stoves and figure on the coal supply. The 
fires must be started soon. 
The latest wonder remains untried at Yakima, Wash. 
A gardener says he grows melons in square boxes so that 
they form perfect cubes in shape! 
After working hard to get the facts we conclude that 
the bi-sulphude of carbon remedy for killing white grubs 
in strawberries is not practical. 
We import $10,000,000 worth of cotton from Egypt each 
year. Efforts are now being made to line up larger 
sales of American coal and corn in Egypt. Better add 
apples. 
We must confess that it is a new experience for us to 
have potato vines thrifty and growing on September 1. 
Usually the vines are dead in August. This year we 
kept them going. Spraying? Y'es, it appears as though 
there has been less blight than usual. 
