1000. 
ic >ol 
“JUSTICE” TO THE BURBANK POTATO. 
Will you do justice to Luther Burbank by stating 
that 15,000,000 bushels of the Burbank potato are 
annually grown on the Pacific Coastf h. s. l. 
Certainly, we arc very glad to do full justice to 
Mr. Burbank. When asked how he proves that 15,- 
000,000 bushels of Burbanks are grown each year our 
correspondent falls back upon a statement by Mr. 
Burbank himself. The Department of Agriculture 
gives the total potato crop on the Pacific coast for 
1008 as follows: 
California ... 5,243,000 bushels 
Oregon ... 4,257,000 
Washington. 4,5(50,000 
Total . 14,0(50,000 
If, as Mr. Burbank claims 15,000,000 bushels were 
his seedling, the other varieties made a very small 
showing. Now practically all white, oblong potatoes 
in the markets of the Pacific coast are classed as 
“Burbanks.” This is about the same as nearly all 
dark grapes in other markets are called “Concords.” 
Taking the average of many estimates given us by 
reliable parties we learn that about 40 per cent of the 
potatoes in the three States are called “Burbanks”, 
though many are not of that variety at all. It is fair 
to say therefore that about 6,000,000 bushels—less 
than half of Mr. Burbank’s estimate—are produced. 
East of Nevada the variety is practically unknown, 
as we learn from corresponding with prominent seeds¬ 
men. The following report is a fair sample: 
You will not find this variety listed in the catalogues 
of any seedsmen who are up to da/e. The Burbank Is a 
polato long in shape, medium in size, of excellent quality, 
but has not been grown extensively anywhere as a main 
crop for the last 15 years. The only section of the United 
States where Burbanks are grown extensively enough to 
enable one to buy them in car lots is in Minnesota, and 
there are very few to he purchased there. 
In our business we get potatoes of the different varieties 
from tin 1 section where they thrive the best. This year, 
for instance, we have had a number from northern Maine, 
some from parts one hundred miles north of the city of 
Quebec, others from Michigan, Wisconsin. Minnesota and 
northern Dakota, and it would be impossible for us to buy 
a car of Burbanks in the States named except possibly 
Minnesota. As to New York State, I think there is not 
a carload of Burbanks in the State out of the forty mil¬ 
lion bushels that the Empire State has produced this 
season. We quit growing Burbanks in western New 
York on account of their being such poor yielders 15 years 
ago, succeeding them with White Star, Monroe Seedling 
and then with Rural New Yorker, Carman and Kaleigh. 
As a matter of fact any of the potatoes of the Carman 
family would outyiehl the Burbank two to one. The only 
long white potatoes that are heavy producers with which 
we are familiar nowadays are Money Maker, a potato 
introduced by us a few years ago, and the American 
Giant; these are two good standard sorts, long and white. 
EDWABD F. DIBBLE. 
THE ONLY HOPE FOR MILK PRODUCERS. 
The milk trust has now issued its defiance to both the 
producers and the consumers. The price to tlie producer 
for the year 190!) has been as a whole less than for the 
previous year. Yet the slight advance for the present 
month has l>eon taken as a pretext to advance the price 
to the consumer a cent a quart. The policy of the trust 
in denying the farmer a fair annual average for his milk 
lias curtailed production, and i'll the face of increasing 
cost of production the supply must, if present conditions 
continue, be still further reduced. On the other hand, 
the increased price to tlie consumer must tend to reduce 
consumption. The candle is being burned at both ends. 
It is high time the producers set to work to chunge this 
state of affairs. They have the remedy in their own 
hands. The milk is theirs. It can be secured nowhere 
else. The producers have only to organize a distributing 
or selling company; and they can and must not only 
name their own price to the dealers, but also the prices 
the consumers pay the dealers. The producers must, sec 
that the price to the consumers is reasonable in order to 
encourage consumption, and absorb the production. It 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
would be a simple business proposition to organize a 
distributing company for the sale of the milk supplying 
the New York City market. Such a company with the 
control of the milk could dictate its own terms, and 10 
per cent of the milk bills annually lost as bad debts, 
would be sufficient capital for the enterprise. This com¬ 
pany would encourage small dealers who are now dfriven 
out of (lie business by the larger concerns. Let the 
organization be completed with supply fully controlled and 
(lie now insolent milk barons would find their positions 
with the farmers reversed. They would have no more to 
say about making prices than the producers now have. 
When that time comes, as we believe it soon will, we 
hope the farmer will be able to forget his present 
grievances, and without thought of retaliation treat the 
matter as it business proposition. The price of milk 
should be the cost of production plus a fair profit on 
the investment necessary to produce it, and the consump¬ 
tive price should he enough higher to cover distribution 
and an equal profit on the capital devoted to this distri¬ 
bution. The producer has it in his power to regulate 
it all—now is the time to put. the machine iu order 
to do it. _. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Government secret service agents are in¬ 
vestigating t he affairs of the Great Western Sugar Com¬ 
pany and the American Beet Sugar Company in Colorado. 
The Great Western Sugar Company was organized origin¬ 
ally by C. S. Merry of Denver, and later went into the 
trust, the American Sugar Refining Company purchasing 
51 per cent, of the stock of the various Colorado com¬ 
panies. It is asserted that the trust methods in the East 
were introduced in that Slate to force the independents in 
the State to come into the trust and that the railroads 
were compelled to lend a helping hand. The enormous 
business given to the railroads by the trust in the East 
put it in a position to dictate rates in Colorado, and as 
the result sugar interests have low rates over the entire 
Western territory from towns where plants are situated. 
Merchants of Grand Junction recently complained to Wash¬ 
ington that the factory there charges more for sugar 
than it charges merchants of Kansas City after hauling 
the sugar 1,000 miles. ... A fire that originated in 
a garage in Westfield, N. Y., November 18, destroyed 
the Minton House, the principal hotel, 10 business places 
and three dwellings, besides seriously damaging two other 
brick dwellings, in the heart of the business section of 
the village. The fire progressed so rapidly that little 
of the contents of the burning buildings could be saved. 
The loss is estimated at not less than $150,000, partly 
covered by insurance. . . . The Supreme Court upheld 
November 18 the constitutionality of the amended New 
Jersey automobile law in the test proceedings instituted 
by Richard II. Johnson, of New York. In order to bring 
all the questions sought, to be raised before the court Mr. 
Johnson started from New York In a car not registered 
in New Jersey and containing a quantity of tools which 
he claimed he was taking to Philadelphia, thereby giving 
color to the contention that he was engaged in interstate 
commerce. lie was arrested iu Trenton, and thereupon 
lie began certiorari proceedings to determine the rights 
of automobiles. The validity of the law was attacked 
on the grounds that it. imposes a tax upon automobiles 
not based on their true status but upon their horse power, 
that this is a double tax, the first tax being levied by the 
assessors of taxes; that automobiles are put in a special 
class for the purpose of taxation, from which class is 
excluded property similar in character; that; the imposi¬ 
tion is a State tax upon the business of interstate com¬ 
merce, and so violative of the Federal Constitution, and 
lastly that the act requiring a non-resident to designate 
tin agent upon whom process may be served in this State 
discriminates against citizens of other States. 
The decision of Judge Sanborn, Van Devanter, Hook and 
Adams of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting 
in the United States Circuit Court at St. I>ouls, Ui favor 
of the Government in its suit to dissolve the Standard 
Oil Company, handed down November 20, not only returns 
the control of the Standard’s numerous subsidiary com- 
pnuys to their separate stockholders but enjoins the Stand¬ 
ard Oil Company or its agents from voting any stock it 
holds in the subsidiary companies. The decision also 
forbids the subsidiary companies from paying the Stand¬ 
ard Oil Company any dividends on the stock it holds in 
them. ... On Saturday, November 20, one week after 
the fire in the St. Paul mine at Cherry, Ill., whi'eh had 
entombed over 300 men, 20 men were rescued! alive from 
a distant tunnel The survivors were carried in twos and 
threes from the little chamber of safety which they had 
built up with their own tools when escape was cut off 
by the flames and explosions of the previous Saturday. 
Their only food had been scraps left in their lunch palls 
when they walled themselves in. By a strange freak of 
fate, it was a week to the exact minute from the time 
when the first wisp of hay in the mule stable caught tiro 
until the first of the living men was found. One of the 
imprisoned men lived through the whole week of suffering, 
only to die ns tlie rescue party reached his slue. The 
poisonous gases have made the work of rescue slow and 
extremely dangerous. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The North German Lloyd liner 
Kaiser Wilhelm II., sailed November 23, with it box of the 
finest apples ever raised ib the Middle West for presenta¬ 
tion to the German Emperor. The apples won the first, 
prize in an exhibition at Council Bluffs, la., and were 
given to N. Kaumanns, Die agricultural attache of the 
German Embassy at Washington, to send to the Emperor 
ns a sample of American fruit. On the arrival of the 
liner at Bremen a special messenger will take the apples 
to Berlin. There were 2,500 barrels of other American 
apples on the steamship.. 
The Ohio State Horticultural Society will hold its 
forty-third annual meeting at. Columbus, Ohio, January 
11-12, 1910. Grant Ditchings, Die widely known and 
successful orchardist of New York will deliver two ad¬ 
dresses, and outside speakers will be present. The mem¬ 
bership of the Ohio State Society is larger to-day than it 
has been for many years, numbering more than three 
hundred of Buckeye orchardlsts, gardeners antil home- 
owners. F. II. Ballou, Secretary, Newark, Ohio. 
CO-OPERATION IN SELLING FRUIT.—On page 911 
we made a statement about the Canandaigua Lake Fruit 
Growers’ Association. This is a new co-operative body 
associated with the larger organization whose headquarters 
are at Rochester. The Canandaigua association was 
started late in the season, yet it lias accomplished con¬ 
siderable. Over (50 carloads of fruit have been handled 
by it this year, and shipped to the following points: 
Portland, Maine, Providence, It. I., Paducah, Ivy., Minne¬ 
apolis, Minn., Chattanooga, Tenn., Sout it Carolina, Lan¬ 
caster and Allentown, Pa., Hartford, Conn., Fayetteville, 
N. C., Jacksonville, Fla. and other points. Without this 
association and this method of shipping probably most of 
this fruit would have gone to a few markets, taking its 
chances with fruit from all over the country which was 
dumped into these places. 'Phis wide distribution has 
not only furnished an outlet for fruit, hut has advertised 
the produce from that part of New York. The present 
outlook for this association is good. The first season is 
always the hardest and markets this year have bc^n 
particularly hard. While tit present the organization 
caters principally to fruit growers the intention is to 
include later the growers of every kind of produce. The 
city of Canandaigua lias a Chamber of Commerce which is 
promoting the interests of that place. Rightly, the farm¬ 
ers who have formed this fruit organization are urging 
the Chamber of Commerce to unite with them and build 
a storehouse, so that fruit can be stored and hold for the 
market. This is the right way to get at it, because the 
interests of town and country are bound together, and 
the Chamber of Commerce of Canandaigua, like the 
Chamber of Commerce of Boston, will find it to their 
interest to combine with the fruit growers in order to 
handle the crop fo the best advantage, because the more 
business that pours Into these places will be better for 
the homo market and for all lines of home business. 
Our friends in Central New York are going at this 
matter in just the right way and we wish them every 
success. 
I have been thinking of sending you a sample of our 
black nightshade fruit. It is a very troublesome weed 
or pest here and will fake care of itself among our 
flowers, gardens and fruit trees, and will soou take full 
charge anil keep if unless dug out and destroyed. It grows 
in hush form sometimes as much as 10 feet high, and 
spread of branches as much. It makes itself at home 
everywhere, and grows from January 1 to January 1. with 
surprising energy, and with a display of buds, blossoms, 
green and ripe fruit which is “wonderful !” The berries 
may be somewhat smaller than the “Wonderberry,” hut 
the flavor is similar, not quite the same; but you will 
not hanker for that fruit when we have apples, pears, 
grapes, berries, etc., in profusion. The Burbank Wonder- 
berry grows more in vine form and trails on the ground, 
but the fruiting propensity is about the same. Our 
nightshade grows in shade or sunlight, anywhere; the 
seeds fall or are seatteredl by the birds. It starts up in 
our pasture lands among the rocks or hushes, hut hungry 
cattle and horses will keep it. in subjection. The farmers 
of Carpinteria have nearly finished their harvest of wal¬ 
nuts aud Lima beans. Borne few walnuts to glean yet. 
and a few late Lima beans to thrash. We have hail 
several light rains, about 2% Inches all told. Grass has 
started and the weeds begin to grow, so the cultivation 
for another crop is already begun. It is just a constant 
care aud work to keep out of the way of weeds and 
make the soil ready for another planting season. Grain 
for lay and peas sown* etc. o. n. <■. 
Santa Barbara County, Cal. 
Trinidad Lake 
Asphalt 
is the greatest weather- 
resister known. It makes 
roofing last. We use it to 
make Genasco—and we 
own the Lake. 
If you want your roof 
insured against leaks, dam¬ 
ages, and repairs get 
Genasco 
Ready Roofing 
Mineral and smooth surface. 
Look for the trade-mark. In¬ 
sist on the roofing - with the 
thirty-two-million-dollar guar¬ 
antee. Write for samples and 
the Good Roof Guide Book. 
THE BARBER ASPHALT 
PAVING COMPANY 
Largest producers of 
asphalt and largest man¬ 
ufacturers of ready roof¬ 
ing in the world. 
PHILADELPHIA 
New York 
San Francisco Chicago 
Let Me Start You in Business! 
I will furnish the capital and the advertising. I want 
one sincere, earnest man In every town and township. 
Farmers, Mechanics, lluifilers. Small business men, uny- 
one anxious to improve his condition. Address 
“COMMEKCIAL DEMOCRACY,” Dept. D.36, Elyria, Ohio 
NONE 
JUST 
AS 
GOOD 
wtmAvmm 
■' 4 , 5 . " - 
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WA Hf I ♦ I / 
1 
4- PORTtANO % 
ATLAS 
. One of the 150 
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new Cement Booh 
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