8UO 
THE} RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 13, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TI1E BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established I860. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. CollinGWOOD, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. lid., or 8*^ marks, or 10Hi 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 lino—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 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. 
* 
“PLAYING TO THE GALLERIES 1” 
Well, we do not think The R. N.-Y., will be accused 
of playing to the rogues’ gallery at least. 
* 
Next year there will be a New England corn show. 
Some of our western friends, who seem to think 
New England a collection of rocks and frozen sand, 
will smile at the idea of growing corn in that coun¬ 
try. If they come to the show they will find proof of 
some of the largest corn yields on record. Connecti¬ 
cut at one time grew more corn than Iowa. We 
believe to-day that an acre of land in the Connecticut 
Valley planted to one of the selected strains of flint 
corn can be made to produce a larger yield than an 
acre in the so-called “corn belt.” 
* 
Suppose a man came and spread 40 loads of good 
stable manure on your farm—all ready to plow under. 
You would certainly call him a friend of humanity. 
Suppose another man gave you 20 tons of wheat bran. 
You would certainly call him a benefactor. Why not 
earn those titles for yourself? We have some eight 
acres of Crimson clover seeded in the corn. As it 
now looks there will be next Spring considerably 
more plant food than 40 tons of manure would con¬ 
tain. With five acres of Alfalfa in a good season you 
can cut the equivalent of the 20 tons of bran. This 
man who is to make you a present of all this rich¬ 
ness is yourself. What are your corn fields standing 
idle for when clover and turnips ought to be growing 
there ? 
* 
Keep talking about the Brown-tail moth. It is sure 
to spread over the country, and we who live here know 
what a pest it is and how hard it is to tight it. w. 
That is from a New Hampshire reader who lives 
where these insects are abundant. Outside of New 
England we know little about this pest. Would that 
we could remain in ignorance! That is impossible, 
however, for sooner or later the insect will cross the 
Hudson and begin its work of destruction. Smother¬ 
ing calamity in the cradle is comparatively easy. 
Watchfulness rather than strength is required. Mas¬ 
tering it after it assumes a giant’s form taxes every 
resource of will and strength. The moth has already 
appeared in New York, but was quickly discovered 
and burned out. Watch for it and report to the Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture at once if you find it. 
* 
We are experimenting with some box packing; that is, 
we are trying to learn how to do it. Very few Virginia 
apples are boxed. No doubt it will pay us to box our 
fancy stuff if we can learn how to do it. G. 
That man is going at it in the right way. He will 
learn how to pack apples in boxes. He admits that 
at present he does not know how, and that is the 
most hopeful indication that he will learn. It looks 
easy to put fruit into a box and then say the pack¬ 
age is just as good as the box from Oregon, but 
when you come to convince the buyer you meet with 
another story. Those western people have been in 
the business many years. They have experts to pack 
their fruit, and the expert is always better than the 
beginner. Whether a man packs apples or makes a 
watch, he acquires skill with experience, and in no 
other way. Some men pack boxed fruit and become 
discouraged because their first efforts will not rank 
with the best western product. Others, like our Vir¬ 
ginia friend, confess that they have much to learn, 
and start patiently in to learn it. This latter class 
will master the difficulty and succeed. 
An English dairy farmer sued a milk dealer to 
recover value of milk cans lost by a railroad. Under 
the contract between the two parties the farmer sent 
cans of milk wherever the dealer ordered. Some of 
the milk was sent direct to the dealer, while in other 
cases orders were sent to ship to other parties. The 
farmer had an agreement with the railroad to return 
the empty cans, but this agreement had an “owner's 
risk” contract and thus no collection could be made 
for the loss. It came out at the trial that 24 cans 
were lost. Of these four went direct to the dealer, 
and 20 to other parties on the dealer’s order. The 
judge decided that 20 of those cans, while ordered 
by the dealer, never went actually into his possession, 
and he was not responsible for them. He was re¬ 
sponsible only for the four which went direct to him 
for handling. Here we have the same story on both 
sides of the water. Both the railroad and the dealer 
are able to escape responsibility, while the loss falls 
upon the producer. 
* 
When the direct primary bill came before the last 
New York Legislature there were only 28 votes for it 
in the Assembly. At the election on November 2 at 
least 50 assemblymen pledged to vote for direct nom¬ 
inations were elected. Senator John Raines was beaten 
in his own county, and Speaker Wadsworth barely 
scraped through. One of the most notable victories 
was in Onondago County, where John T. Roberts was 
elected on an independent ticket. In several counties, 
while the politicians won they were so badly scared 
that they realize now what the people demand. On 
page 910 we made the following estimate of results: 
The next legislature will show a good gain of members 
in favor of direct nominations. The Governor will offer 
another bill. The politicians of both parties will still be 
strong enough to defeat it. Governor Hughes would in 
that ease no doubt feel justified in offering to accept a 
renomination as he did last year. What then? Last year, 
under similar conditions, the people compelled the Presi¬ 
dent and other groat party men to interfere and forced the 
politicians to renominate the Governor. 
The only change we would make now is to figure 
that the politicians have had a stronger dose than was 
expected. 
* 
Not a word or a dollar yet from Luther Burbank! 
There are others, however. One good friend was 
notified that he had a credit of 55 cents in subscription 
premiums. This was his reply: 
Credit for Fake Fighting Fund. 1 received more 
than I pay for. 
This 55 cents and the spirit which accompanies the 
letter is worth more to us than Burbank’s $10,000. In 
fact, Burbank, by his silence, is doing more than any¬ 
one else to build up that “Fake Fighting Fund.” He 
wrote us that he declined to be drawn into any scheme 
for increasing the circulation of The R. N.-Y. We 
take pleasure in assuring him that his silence has thus 
far proved a better subscription argument among 
those who hate fakers than anything we could have 
thought of. One of Mr. Burbank’s most eloquent 
eulogists recently wrote that he thought the whole 
affair “rather small business.” We put the case at 
him as we see it, and he now comes back with this: 
“/ still think you have the small end of a very large 
question.’” 
He begins to see the size of it at least. We have 
had some experience as a ball player, but we never 
knew of anyone to make a base hit when holding the 
big end of the bat. The small end of a club suits us 
very well! 
* 
Mr. Allen’s article on the care of stable manure 
comes just at the right time. You may call yourself 
a good farmer, yet the chances are that you waste 
a fair share of the plant food in the farm manure. 
If you took the cash which this loss represents and 
threw it away your family might be justified in ap¬ 
plying for a guardian. The loss in plant food is 
slower and less perceptible, yet it is no less real. 
Can you not plan to save it? Mr. Allen plans to 
save by getting the fresh manure out on the grass 
lands as quickly as possible. In this practice there is 
little if any loss by fermentation, while the living crop 
of grass will take care of most of the leaching ex¬ 
cept where a sheet of water flows over the field. In 
such a case we would not haul out manure in this 
way. In most cases we think the chief gain in 
hauling manure every day or week is in getting the 
work done. If the manure is hauled during Winter 
the teams and men are free for other work when 
Spring comes. Where the manure is piled in a shed 
on a cement floor with plaster or kainit used freely, 
and kept moist, there is little loss of plant food, and 
the manure is put in better shape for spreading. We 
would, however, rather have it spread on a hillside 
than left under the eaves of the barn with the water 
draining though it. 
The local milk companies have advanced the price 
of bottled milk in New York City from eight to nine 
cents per quart. The producer gets four cents per 
quart for it delivered in New York City. The 
local milk companies get five cents for taking it 
from the city depot and delivering it to the con¬ 
sumer's door. They get one cent a quart more for 
this delivery than the farmer gets for producing it, 
carting it to the station, and paying from 26 to 32 
cents per can freight, and an additional five cents 
per can ferriage. Yet if the farmers, one and all, 
withheld their milk for 24 hours there would be such 
a famine in this city as would bring the proudest 
milk barons to their knees. Some day these producers 
will form a cooperative distributing station among 
themselves, and distribute their own milk. If they 
do it wisely, the consumer will then pay less and 
the farmer will get more. 
* 
In discussing the New England fruit show and 
what is to come from it we knew that the following 
trouble would have to be faced: 
If you are computing damage to fruit trees by deer, 
I have a ease from Rhode Island. I planted an apple 
orchard of 150 trees some years ago in North Kingston, 
K. I., on the Stringfellow method. The trees did mag¬ 
nificently. The place is overrun with deer, which we are 
forbidden to shoot under $500 penalty. The deer got to 
work at the young apple trees, and our best efforts to 
circumvent "them were useless. We had to abandon the 
whole planting. It is very amusing in this connection to 
read about the efforts of the New England fruit show in 
Boston to encourage fruit growing in the East. In Rhode 
Island we can heat the whole world on flavor and per¬ 
fection of the Roxbury Russets, R. 1. Greenings, Baldwins, 
Porter and Gravenstein app'es, hut not until wo we are 
allowed the privilege of saying what kind of animals shall 
have the run of the orchard, which privilege is denied us 
by the State of Rhode Island. 
w. 15. WELLINC. 
You cannot get anyone to deny the facts or the 
logical outcome from them. Our hope from such 
meetings as that fruit show is that business men in 
town and city will realize at last the importance of 
the fruit-growing industry. When they realize its im¬ 
portance to New England they will help wipe out this 
curse of deer just as they would fight against a men¬ 
ace to their own business. The fruit growers need 
the help of these city men. How can they get it except 
by demonstrating the possibilities of their business? 
* 
We have the facts about a seed-buying case which 
ought to interest farmers. A man in New York 
State ordered 40 pounds of Alfalfa seed from a 
dealer. This seed was guaranteed fine and free from 
weed seed. The farmer, when ordering, made it 
clear that he would have it examined by the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture or an experiment station. If 
those authorities found dodder or a large number of 
other weed seeds, or if the seed was not strong, the 
farmer was to return it and get his money back. 
This was understood by all the parties and the seed 
was shipped and paid for. A sample sent to the 
Agricultural Department was tested and showed a 
germination of 72 per cent. In one pound were 7462 
weed seeds, 1,230 of which were dodder. Another sam¬ 
ple sent to the experiment station was examined there 
and called “the poorest we have ever seen.” The 
seeds were poor and shrunken and full of dirt. Of 
course, this seed was sent back to the dealer. He 
has not yet returned the money, but that matter is 
not ended. The farmer was right in refusing to put 
such seed into his soil. Such trash is a terrible curse 
to any farm. The Department at Washington and 
most of the State experiment stations stand ready 
to test such seeds, and the safest way to buy is to 
go where the Government test will be accepted. 
BREVITIES. 
Perhaps the American people are not using lime! In 
1908 2,766,873 tons worth $11,091,186 were made. 
The first thing for the institute speaker is to get all 
his axes ground sharp before he starts out. Don’t ask 
people to grind them ! 
Mr. John M. Jamison, of Southern Ohio, tells of growing 
$37 of peas per acre, then seeding to Alfalfa, and getting 
$7 worth of it the same season. 
Here is wisdom from Virginia : “The ten cents for 10 
weeks lias convinced me that 1 am too poor to be without 
the Rural New-Yorker.”—l. c. t. 
An English farmer caught a boy stealing apples, and as 
a punishment put him in sheep dip. This farmer was 
forced to dip into his pocket for $7.50 to pay his fine. 
Seneca Grange of Ontario Co., N. Y., won a $25 prize 
for a fair exhibit. The members voted to use the money 
in buying hooks on domestic economy and agriculture. 
Now comes a scientific theory to prove that sour milk 
prolongs life. First thing you know *iome man prosecuted 
for not washing milk cans will put that up for a defense. 
The Supreme Court of Germany recently decided that 
machinery, when walled in, becomes a part of the build¬ 
ing—subject to a real estate mortgage. In the case de¬ 
cided the machinery was to he paid in installments, a lien 
to stand until full payments were made. Under the de¬ 
cision such a lien will not hold. 
