208 
» i t 
March ?, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
EsUiblished 1850. 
Pulilishcil weekly by the Itnra) Puhlisliinc ©wmptinj-, 40!) Pearl Street, Sew Turk. 
HkkbbbtW. <'’OLUKQ\tOOl), President and Editor, 
John J. DillON, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Ditxok, Secretary. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet ami Mrs. E. T, Royle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign conn tries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. (id., or 8*-j marks, or 10Ss francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
"A SQUARE DEAL.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a 
responsible person. But to make doubly snre we will make good any 
loss to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertising in our columns, and any such swindlerwill bo publicly ex- 
p< >sod. We protect stibcribors 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, 
ami you must have mentioned The Rural Nkw-Yorkkr 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. 
ik 
“Farmers’ Week" at Cornell was a great success. 
Over 1.000 farmers and former students attended, and 
there was great interest and enthusiasm. Lack of space 
prevents a full report this week, but later we expect 
to give a study of the things which seem most im¬ 
portant about this event. 
* 
Our old friend, “Mapes, the Hen Man,” has bec .11 
silent for some time—busy with various matters. A 
reader wants to know if he caught the roup in that 
new Jien barn. Not a bit of it. He tells us that the 
only fault he can find with the “hen barn” is that he 
hasn’t another just like it. We sltall hear again from 
Mapes soon. 
id 
'Quite often we have questions about the life of 
clover seed. Farmers say They feel sure of their own 
seed. If they can keep it safely Three or four years 
they would rather do so than to be put to the risk of 
buying. When conditions are just right and clover 
seed is kept dry and cool and in the dark it will keep 
three or four years. Its vitality falls off, however, and 
more seed must lie used to ensure a stand, as some 
seed will not germinate. It is doubtful if many 
farmers have facilities for keeping the seed properly, 
and with present high prices we should sell and trust 
to the seed laboratory to Iielp buy clean seed in 
future. 
* 
The annual Horticultural Number of The R. N.-Y. 
has grown from a catalogue review of 20 pages to 
the present 40-page issue. More copies of this issue 
will be filed away and kept for reference than of 
any other agricultural paper, for there are facts and 
figures in it which cannot he obtained in any book. 
The advertising too is worth a thorough study. It 
is clean and reliable, and the paper stands back of 
every advertisement. There never was a better time 
to buy farm goods. We take pride in putting before 
you the best fine of advertising ever printed in a 
farm paper, with every advertisement backed by an 
I'ouorable house or individual. 
* 
One of the most outrageous chances for graft and 
legal tribute comes in lawyer fees for “searching" titles 
to real estate. We know of the following case: A 
small piece of property was bought and money bor¬ 
rowed to build a house thereon. Before the lender 
would advance the money he demanded a thorough 
search of the title. This was done by a 'lnwyer, who 
went to the State capital "for complete records and 
charged $50 for the search. A few years later a sum 
of money was borrowed from a hank on this prop¬ 
erty. The former “search" was on record, but the 
bank’s lawyer demanded $25 more. Later a second 
loan was made, and still another charge of $15 was 
made by the lawyer—apparently for looking over the 
farmer search. This makes $90 paid within a few 
years for “searching” the same piece of property! 
A few more deals of this sort and there will he no 
property to search for. The way to overcome this 
nuisance is to adopt the Torrens system of registra¬ 
tion of land titles. A search once made under that 
system, it is certified to and goes with the deed. 
* 
Seldom does any man pul more matter for thought 
iitto 50 lines than Mr. Delos Tenny has in his article 
on page 192. We have noticed much the same thing 
about outside rows. We think those rows are usually 
better when they border on a road. We have seen 
old travelled roads broken up and planted. For sev- 
reals 3 'ears the space where the roads ran coiild be 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
seen in the increased size and color of crops. We had 
supposed this was due to the manure dropped by 
passing animals, or to the “thorough tillage” of hoofs 
and wheels. Here, however, is another story: 
I have been reading with interest the discussion on 
mulching orchards and came across recently an old road¬ 
bed, if one may so style a roadway built 12 to 15 years 
since and never used. It was covered 10 to 12 inches 
with broken stone, I believe from an old wall. This road¬ 
way is now covered with a dense growth of sumach, wild 
cherry, etc., 15 to 20 feet high, while adjoining pasture 
land unfenced lias a sumach thicket with bushes not over 
three feet high. This roadway is near the summit of a 
hill, not one-haif mile from a creek bed and at least 
300 feet, above it. The land is fairly good. J. p. 
Pennsylvania. 
With some three miles of old stone walls on our 
iwn farm we have had a good chance to observe the 
effect of shading and covering the soil. There can be 
no question that forces of Nature are at work under 
these walls, and to a less extent under other forms 
of "mulch” which makes the soil more productive. 
* 
We want \-ou to read every word of the garden 
articles by Mr. Briggs. They begin on page 196. Mr. 
Briggs is a locomotive engineer, working 11 hours a 
day on the engine. His gardening is done after work, 
yet last year he won a silver cup and $10 as a garden¬ 
ing prize from the Massachusetts Horticultural So¬ 
ciety. Some of j'ou men with your hundreds of acres 
may think you can learn nothing from the handling 
of a backyard. You are wrong about that. No one 
has ever demonstrated what an acre can be made to 
do. You never did surely. Very likely your boys 
are thinking of going away somewhere after cheaper 
land. Why don’t you try to make them see that it is 
better to deepen and improve the soil you now have 
than to try and get more? As for the man with a 
little place, he may learn from these articles how to 
make it big. By the way, Mr, Briggs begins garden 
work each year on Washington’s Birthday by sowing 
tomato and lettuce seeds indoors. 
♦ 
We have persistently advised against the use of 
wood ashes or lime for a potato crop, because lime 
induces the growth of the scab germs. The Maine 
Experiment Station has settled this question by an 
interesting experiment. Soil which was known to 
be infected with scab germs was seeded to clover— 
using different quantities of lime. The Hover seeding 
was helped by the liming, but when the ground was 
fitted for potatoes later a great difference was ob¬ 
served. Where 1.000 pounds of lime were used 49 
per cent of the potatoes were scabby; with 500 pounds 
lime 27 per cent showed scab, and with no lime only 
11 per cent. The seed was not treated to kill the scab. 
Thus the lime helps the clover and also helps the 
scab. Where clover is needed in a potato rotation and 
where it will not do well without lime a good plan 
is to plow under the second growth of clover while 
green. This produces an acid in the soil and helps 
neutralize it. In such a soil the scab germs will not 
develop so freely, and if the seed is treated to kill the 
germs on it the crop ought to be clean. Sometimes 
people tell us that they use wood ashes and even 
lime on potatoes without any trofihle. In one such 
case we had the soil carefully examined, and found 
it entirely free from scab germs. On nearly every 
farm where potatoes are grown these germs are found. 
A good preparation for Ithem is to sour the ground 
slightly by plowing under some green crop before 
p’anting and to soak the seed thoroughly. 
* 
One of our readers made a specialty of two market 
garden crops, and became master 'of the art of grow¬ 
ing them. Not satisfied with the seed he 'bought in 
the open market he began selecting seed from the 
best specimens and fields he could find. In this way, 
through a series of years, he found his crops -steadily 
improving. He had no idea of starting in the seed 
business, but one season, having more seed than he 
needed, he began advertising it, partly to see if cus¬ 
tomers will really pay an extra ipricc for selected 
seed. He found that many were glad to do so, but 
as orders came he was shocked to find that part of 
his seed was “dead." Hardly 10 per cent of .it would 
germinate, while the rest was strong and pure. In 40 
years of -seed saving he had not had a similar ex¬ 
perience. Now this man knew that his customers 
paid the extra price because they felt that the papers 
would fit the seeds. He is the sort of man who never 
would put a live paper on a dead seed, and no one will 
get -an ounce of it. That is the only way to do 
business, and happily there arc more honest men than 
rogues. When such a man does his plain duty people 
accept it as a matter of course. When a rogue mixes 
up the papers lie discredits the trade and throws 
more or less suspicion upon every member of it. 
This little experience will show what an honorable 
seedsman is up against with hundreds of varieties, any¬ 
one of which may go “dead.” Think of the patience 
and long-continued work required to make sure that 
the seeds will germinate. Also think of the tempta¬ 
tion to mix this dead seed with others and send it 
out to customers. When we see how easily that could 
be done we can appreciate the courage required to 
destroy it. We may well have greater respect and 
less criticism for the honorable seedsman when we 
realize by experience what it means to grow and keep 
seeds strong and vital. Any man who thinks of 
starting in the seed business should understand that 
it is no soft job or child’s play. 
* 
The New York Senate made short work of the 
Governor’s demand for the removal of Superintendent 
of Insurance Kelsey. Without even listening to the 
documents the Senate voted 32 to 19 against Mr. 
Kelsey’s removal. The Senators whose names we 
have printed for a year again voted against removal, 
and they were joined by Senators Gates, Cassidy, 
Wcmple and O'Neil, all of whom could he defeated by 
farmers. Had there been an election last Fall we 
are confident that at least six of the Senators named 
on page 198 would have been defeated. Country people 
at that time believed that Governor Hughes st-oodl 
squarely for the ideals in government he so freely 
advanced and they would have knifed those Senators 
without mercy. When Governor Hughes refused to 
investigate the Dawley cattle transaction he surprised 
and saddened thousands of the truest friends he ever 
had. When he gave as his reason the excuse of those 
libel suits he disgusted men who had been ready to 
fight at his lightest command. These men saw an¬ 
other ideal vanish in plausible words, and they had 
•no heart to fight for the removal of Kelsey when the 
Governor acted as he did about Dawley. Those politi¬ 
cians knew that, and they naturally grew bolder as the 
menace of the farmer’s boot was removed from them. 
That is the blunt, hard truth, and Governor Hughes 
may thank his advisers in this cattle case for the 
failure. The article on page 221 gives a mild idea of 
what farmers are saying. We think the farmers who 
relaxed their pressure upon these Senators w-ere 
wrong. While disappointed in the Governor, they 
should have remembered the principle at stake in this 
Kelsey matter, and fought for that in spite of their 
loss of confidence in an ideal. As for The R. N.-Y., 
we shall simply add the new names to our list and 
use every honorable means to defeat these Senators 
whenever a ballot can hit them. Men fail, hut prin¬ 
ciples live and go on to our children, if -we have the 
courage to support them without fear. We should not 
tie them to men so that if the man disappoint us the 
principle must fall with him. There are .many worthy 
things that are to come out .of the discussion of this 
cattle case. The best of all is the now established fact 
that the combined powers of wealth, polities and spe¬ 
cial privilege, expressed in threats or sneers, can never 
cover up wrong if the farmers of this country will 
put themselves squarely on the side of right and -truth, 
and stand without fear. 
BREVITIES. 
How many jars of fruit are left? 
Of course your liotbefl is under way. 
Tiie “'papers” are worth more than the cow. 
No man ever made a dollar by buying a low-grade .fer¬ 
tilizer. 
Let no man put up his honest .work to fill up the .mouth 
of a lazy shirk. 
Pure white lead and oil is the best -paint for the stubs 
of pruned trees. 
It is the what •(?) at the end of a .man’s nose that 
marks the investigator. 
Remember that cow peas are beans in ability to stand 
cold. Donlt plant them too early. 
Which should lie called ‘Mtlie people,” $L;000.000 or 
1,000 citizens’? “We vote and work for the last named. 
It seems to be demonstrated that Greening apples keep 
better when tightly barrelled than when In an open bin. 
You notice how Mr. .Briggs planted the asparagus .roots? 
Tie and hundreds of others are using rtheir pens on 'Gov. 
Hughes in much the same way. 
Now, if ever, should the hen men 'l»e conservative. A 
good many peaple are “going into chickens” expecting to 
make a barrel of money with little work. 
It is reported that a jury in Norfolk Co., Mass., lias 
given a verdict of $8,500 against a water eoippan.v for 
lead poisoning. Water was carried through a lead pipe. 
With very hard water the Uime usually coats a lead pipe 
so that there is no danger. 
A California grower sent 4.000 pounds of dried apples 
to a San Francisco dealer. The'fruit was paid for f. o. *t>., 
and reached the city 10 days later. It: was rejected by the 
dealer as being damp and improperly cured, and was sent 
hack to the grower, who refused to accept at. The dealer 
sued rto recover the money, but lost. The court holds that 
the fruit Should have been inspected and rejected, if at 
all, at the .point of .delivery—When sdhl. 
