240 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S TAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Hornet. 
Established, 1850. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, Hew Tork. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon. Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. 
Db. Walter Van Fleet and Mrs. E. T. Rovle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. (id., or 8*2 marks, or lOHi francs. Remitrin money order, 
express order, personal check 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 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 subcribers 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 lie 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 
20 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory pur¬ 
poses. We depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
Score another for the apple. Report is made of a 
flock of 19 Maine hens that “have laid 15 to 18 eggs 
per day all Winter.” These hens have eaten nine 
barrels of apples this Winter, and the owner credits 
the eggs to apples. We are glad to welcome Mrs. 
Hen as a member of the Apple Consumers’ League. 
* 
This week two Bay State Yankees, Smith and 
Briggs, tell us how they do much with little. Now 
let no man think he can start in without training and 
do what these men have done. Smith is certainly 
two-thirds hen, and Briggs is 75 per cent garden. 
They do it because they know how, and have things 
arranged so as to save labor and steps. Head work 
always did beat heel work. 
* 
On page 176 a Montana reader asked why the east- 
-ern fruit growers do not organize for selling fruit. 
We are ready to print the answers. At the last meet¬ 
ing of the Virginia Horticultural Society steps were 
taken to organize the Piedmont Fruit Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, with headquarters at Crozet, Va. This will 
be organized and conducted like the western organi¬ 
zation, and we sincerely hope it will prove successful. 
* 
The Wisconsin Live Stock Breeders’ Association 
has decided to expose and prosecute all breeders who. 
are caught defrauding buyers in the registration of 
animals or other forms of misrepresentation. Charles 
L. Hill, whose article is found on page 218, is presi¬ 
dent of the association. If Mr. Hill will see that this 
plan is enforced he will do great service to breeders. 
What an opportunity was lost by the New York State 
Breeders’ Association when they ran from this Dawley 
case. Instead of taking the bull by the horns the 
horns caught them and tossed them over the fence. 
* 
This week we add four names to the blacklist of 
New York Senators. While election is eight months 
off we start this week on the campaign to keep those 
15 men at home, where they can become acquainted 
with their families. Farmers in Chenango and Mad¬ 
ison counties have a double problem to work out. 
Mr. Allds represents Chenango and Mr. Gates Madison 
at present. Under the new apportionment these 
counties are in one district. Drop them both and put 
up some farmer. As one friend suggests, a practical 
farmers whose fingers are too stiff to milk any 
longer would be a good one! The “cow” at Albany 
has already been milked pretty hard. 
* 
Once upon a time at a county fair a man exhibited 
a “new and rare plant.” There were fair-sized toma¬ 
toes growing at the top and small potatoes growing at 
the roots. There was no question about it—both pota¬ 
toes and tomatoes had evidently been produced by 
that one plant. The man made the most of his oppor¬ 
tunity. Here was a revolution in agriculture. You 
could plant your seeds as you now plant potatoes. A 
hardy plant would grow up and produce a large crop 
of tomatoes for the cannery, while the roots were 
developing a large potato crop. No wonder that when 
he mentioned 50 cents a seed people thought him more 
of a philanthropist than shark. Now the truth was 
that the plant was grafted. An expert had fitted a 
tomato vine to a potato stalk and had by great skill 
secured a union. While this is not often done it is 
quite possible, since potato and tomato belong to the 
same family. Of course the seeds from such a plant 
never would grow other plants with potatoes at the 
roots, hut probably nine-tenths of those who saw the 
plant believed it possible. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
We promised to have those libel suits tried as soon 
as possible, and we have kept our word. We ordered 
them on the calendar for March, and they have been 
printed. It is the business of Dawley, the plaintiff, 
to do this, but he made no move to do it, and so we 
went ahead and tried to force the suits against our¬ 
selves ! To do this we had to serve notice of trial 
on Dawley and pay the fees to the county clerk to 
have the cases put on the calendar. If this were not 
done the cases never would come on for trial. Daw¬ 
ley did not do it, however, yet he says he is 
seeking vindication. Governor Hughes has been 
writing our readers that the case will be tried “in a 
few weeks,” as an excuse for not investigating the 
case. We expect him, therefore, to force Dawley into 
court with his suits, and we now wait for him to do 
so. Meanwhile we call attention to the letters on 
page 250. 
* 
It is refreshing to have a man like Postmaster- 
General Meyer in the cabinet. He not only favors 
parcels post and postal savings hanks, but comes out 
openly and advocates them. If there were more such 
men in Congress the people would stand a better 
show of getting what belongs to them. New York cer¬ 
tainly has two stars in the L^nited States Senate. 
There is no State in the Union more ridiculously 
represented where it ought to he strongest. One of 
our readers in Allegheny Co. wrote Senators Platt 
and Dcpew and Congressman Edward W. Vreeland, 
asking them to work and vote for parcels post. Here 
is Mr. Platt’s illuminating reply: 
I have your letter of January 27, and thank 
you for giving me the benefit of your views upon 
the aubjecte of parcels post and postal savings 
bank. 
Yours truly, 
He is very thankful. No doubt it will be of great 
benefit to him in his express business. Then comes 
Senator Depew:— 
I am In receipt of your letter of 
January 27th. end shall give the matter my 
earnest attention 
Now the great question is whether Senator Platt’s 
“thanks” are more valuable than Senator Depew’s 
“earnest attention.” We don’t consider either one 
worth the price of a postage stamp. Congressman 
Vreeland did not even reply to the letter, and thus 
said more than either Senator. We wish it were pos¬ 
sible to reach these Senators by popular ballot. The 
papers would fit them to a dot on the i if there was 
any way to reach them directly, and New York would 
cease to be the most ridiculously represented State in 
the Senate. 
* 
The telephone companies ought to be the strongest 
advocates of parcels post. With a cheap package ser¬ 
vice through the mails the telephones would be largely 
used for ordering goods. As one farmer in New 
York writes: 
I have a telephone. I am six miles from Syracuse, a 
mail carrier at the door every day, and I know parcels 
post would help me, also the telephone company. 
It is easy to see how this man would be helped by 
parcels post. The expense to the government would 
not be greatly increased, since the mail wagon now 
comes—probably with a light load. Practically the 
entire revenue from increased sale of stamps would 
be clear gain. 
* 
What’s becFme of our worthy friend Brother 
Tucker of The Country Gentleman? He is usually 
very prompt to answer practical questions, yet we 
have asked the following twice before without re¬ 
sponse ! 
We ask you now. Mr. Tucker, if Dawley is buying copies 
of your paper which contain articles in defense of him? 
If so, is he paying for them with State money; We ask 
these questions advisedly, because as you know, Mr. 
Tucker, he has at different times in the past bought copies 
of your paper, and paid for them out of State money on 
vouchers signed by you or your authorized employees. You 
know this to be true, Mr. Tucker, and we now challenge 
you to deny it. 
Since we asked that a silence deep and profound 
has fallen upon The Country Gentleman. Not a word 
even about “yellow journalism.” Dawley’s agents are 
now circulating the story that all that cuts The R. 
N.-Y. is that Dawley gave The Country Gentleman a 
job of printing that The R. N.-Y. wanted. While that 
hasn’t much to do with the question whether Dawley 
March 14, 
bought grade cows from Squiers and sold them as 
purebred to Rogers, we would all like to have Brother 
Tucker tell us what this job was. Let Brother 
Tucker tell the story. 
* 
Several fertilizer manufacturers are offering what 
they call a special guarantee. When a farmer buys 
a good-sized lot of fertilizer the manufacturer offers 
to send a representative who, with the farmer, will 
select a fair sample. This is to be sent to some chem¬ 
ist for analysis—usually to one selected by the manu¬ 
facturer. If this chemist reports a deficiency in the 
goods the manufacturer agrees to make it good in 
money. At first thought this seems a plausible propo¬ 
sition, but what objection can there be to making the 
experiment station analyses the basis for settlement? 
It is unlawful to sell a fertilizer that falls below the 
guaranteed amounts of potash, phosphoric acid or 
nitrogen. The records made for the past 20 years 
show that there is no good reason why a careful 
manufacturer should put out goods continuously be¬ 
low grade in all three elements. The figures printed 
in the station bulletins are the best safeguard a farmer 
can have because they give a record of the character 
of the manufacturer. It may not follow that a brand 
of fertilizer with the highest analysis may prove best 
for a certain crop because the quality of the chemicals 
and the way they are mixed or blended cannot al¬ 
ways be told in figures. When, however, year after 
year certain brands fall short of the guarantee, we 
have evidence that something is wrong. We should 
go by the station’s figures, and if in any doubt apply 
to the director for personal help. 
* 
As is well known, the agricultural societies of New 
York claim to represent the farmers. When they 
argue that the real working farmers of New York 
will uphold race track gambling these societies ought 
to he repudiated. Our correspondent, J. Grant 
Morse, puts it well in the Utica Observer: 
The fact is that the agricultural societies of the State 
are not composed of farmers, or “agriculturists,” if you 
please. In nine cases out of ten the officers of these 
associations are the hotel keepers and business men of 
the town, with a one-horse lawyer thrown in to act as 
secretary. If there is an “agriculturist” in the bunch his 
“agricultural” proclivities consist of an old. broken-down 
trotting-bred stallion, which he offers for service to the 
farmers of the community. In my county (Madison) 
these conditions prevail, and. while the race track of the 
"Fair Grounds” is kept in prime condition, a man ought 
to be prosecuted for cruelty to animals who would con¬ 
fine one of his cows to the “stalls” provided by the asso¬ 
ciation for the use of show cattle. 
Now we want to be entirely fair. There are some 
actual farmers in these societies, but as a rule the 
men who come forward as representatives do very 
little work on a farm. For such men to claim that 
the real farmers of this State are not in favor of 
killing off gambling is both an insult and an injury 
to farming. No matter how they feel on the ques¬ 
tion of State aid for their fairs, the farmers should 
repudiate any man who puts them in a false position. 
BREVITIES. 
A word to the wise is wisdom. 
Sheep in an old cemetery. Would yon object to that 
sort of a lawn mower? 
In 1906 3,574,666 telephone and other poles were sold 
in this country for $9,471,171. 
On page 234 is a question about macadamized roads— 
cost, benefits, taxes, etc. Can you answer it? 
If some of these plausible rogues who write letters 
asking people to invest in wildcat stocks would advocate 
worthy things, what a world we would have. 
It will interest our Florida readers to hear of the snow 
in northern New York. People carry a shovel in the 
sleigh to dig out when they meet another team. 
A new swindle is reported from Dakota. A city man 
advertises that he can sell your farm and charges you 50 
cents an acre for advertising it. Strange to say he has 
taken plenty of money from western farmers on this 
game. 
Mr. John M. Jamison of Ohio says he is plowing his old 
Alfalfa fields, and will grow a crop of peas for a canning 
factory, seeding again to Alfalfa when the peas are off. 
Next week a New Y’ork pea grower will tell how he 
handles the crop. 
Two farmers in New Jersey burned brush on their own 
farms without permission from the State authorities. 
Some one complained of them, and they were fined $50 
each. They appealed, but the judge has upheld the ver¬ 
dict—and the fines stand. 
A member of the English Parliament has introduced 
a bill designed to get people up earlier in the morning. 
Clocks and watches are to he advanced one hour and 20 
minutes, so that people who get up at seven by the clock 
will really he up at six! 
A western friend who came from the old country says 
such a thing as the long delay over this cattle case could 
not occur in Europe. It would have to he settled over 
there. The one great point of advantage in this country 
is the chance for a poor man to obtain land of his 
own. Otherwise the monarchies give better protection. 
If land were free they would not be monarchies; if it 
were restricted in this country we would not live in a 
Republic. 
Yours very truly, 
