770 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 3, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Hoinea. 
Established I860. 
Pubilulud weekly by the Kara) I’ubliihlnp Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. Colei nowood. President rui<l Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dilixjn, Secretary. 
Db. 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 
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express order, personal chock or hank draft. 
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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 makedoubly 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 stibcribers 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 . auctioned 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-Youker when 
writing the advertiser. 
TEN^EEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to i.,.roduce 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. W: depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
Four years ago The R. N.-Y. offered prizes for 
the best homemade contrivances for household water 
fixtures. There has been a demand of late for just 
this information, and so some of the best plans are 
reproduced on page 762. 
* 
The Borden Condensed Milk Company published 
their Fall prices on September 15. Figured for the 
“outer zone”—that is, the territory farthest from the 
city -the prices are, per 100 pounds, October $1.60, 
. 'c v nber, December, January and February $1.80, 
M h $1.60. These prices are 10 cents per 100 lower 
th:: v re offered one year ago, though grain feed 
promises to be just as high, and the drought has 
serious! i injured the hay and corn crops! Last year 
thj Bordens advanced the retail price to nine cents a 
cjv' i . on the plea that they were paying more for the 
miiic. Now let us see what they will do this year. 
* 
Quite a number of our readers are planning to 
heat the house with cither water or steam. Most of 
them live at some distance from a plumber, and all 
have read about the damage done through frozen 
pipes in a very cold snap. As one reader puts it : 
I live six miles from the plumber who, of course, is 
unoblainable by a suburbanite after a blizzard has broken 
pipes in the city os well as on the farm. Which system 
the better avoids the necessity for his services? Safety 
from him is my chiefest concern. Can your readers deter¬ 
mine for me through comparative practical experience 
With both systems? 
We venture to say that they can and will, with full 
explanations. Let us hear from country people. 
* 
At this time of the year we begin to get letters 
from southern cabbage growers asking about the crop 
in the North. It is now time for Florida growers to 
sow their seed if the cabbage is to come into market 
at the right time. Should there be a heavy crop in 
the North it will not pay to plant heavily ill the 
South. While many prefer the new southern cab¬ 
bage to the old stock, if the latter is a heavy crop, 
it will control the price. At present the cabbage crop 
in New York promises to be very short. I he con¬ 
tinued dry weather hurt the plants, and after they 
were set in the field they made but a slow growth. 
Soaking rains from now on may bring up the crop 
somewhat, but even with this the supply will he short 
and prices high. The southern growers may figure 
on (his and take their chances. If they overdo the 
business they will be worse off than if the northern 
crop was a large one. 
The Seedless apple promoters are at it again. It 
is doubtful if any reputable farm paper would care 
or dare to advertise the “Seedless,” hut the magazines 
are giving it place. Here arc the claims made for 
the apple in Everybody’s Magazine: 
No core. No seed. Practically proof against worms. A 
Winter apple of fine flavor, and greatest keeping qualities. 
One-third more edible portion than in ordinary apple. A 
great producer. 
Out of these six statements five arc more or less 
false. We have seen the apples cut open and found 
therein core, seeds and worm holes. It is not of 
“fine flavor,” hut very ordinary. Furthermore the 
fruit authorities at Washington assert that the “Seed¬ 
less” is an old seedling found originally growing in a 
fence corner in the South. So-called “seedless” apples 
were known many centuries ago. When we were 
exposing this humbug two years since we received 
specimens of at least a dozen seedless apples from 
various parts of the country—some of them better 
than the one now being boomed. It seems like a 
waste of space to repeat all this, but we want to warn 
our newer readers as we have the old. 
* 
We hope you will read the article by Mr. Morse 
on the exhibit of Jersey cattle at Syracuse. The fol¬ 
lowing note is written by a New York farmer: 
I attended the State Fair last week, and wanted to look 
over the cattle, but found them all blanketed, so that 
practically all that could he seen was head, hoofs and tail. 
It seems to me this is a fraud on those who go there to see 
this exhibit. The same was true of a considerable portion 
of the sheep exhibit, and I became disgusted and left the 
sheds. It may be stylish to cover up the exhibits, hut how 
is the farmer to get any benefit from the exhibit if it is 
covered up? It hardly seems to me fair to ask people to 
come there, and then hide (lie stock, except the short time 
it may be led around the ring. Is there no way to cause 
the cattle to be shown? Would it not be in the power of 
the commissioners to enforce a rule that during the time 
when visitors a*re allowed on the grounds the exhibits 
should be uncovered? H. p. 
A student of dairy cattle surely does not learn 
much by seeing a head, a tail and four legs sticking 
out of a blanket. From our conversations with farm¬ 
ers at the fair we think Mr. Morse is right when he 
says that a large trade in purebred cattle could be de¬ 
veloped at the fairs if the real working cattle were 
made more of. These fairs give the farmers, or 
ought to give them, the best chance to see what are 
considered the best animals. This is one of the 
livest subjects in practical cattle breeding. If we are 
wrong we want to be corrected. 
* 
Some of the city papers try to be very funny at the 
expense of dairymen. They picture a man wearing 
diamonds with a servant washing off a cow and tying 
ribbons on her horns. Their argument is that the 
milk farmers must be getting rich because city people 
pay eight or nine cents a quart for milk! In Octo¬ 
ber if a farmer is fortunate enough to get the highest 
Borden price he will he paid about three cents a quart 
for milk which retails at eight and nine cents. He is 
constantly put to annoyance and expense by inspec¬ 
tors and new “regulations,” pays all the cost of pro¬ 
duction and then gets about 35 cents out of every 
dollar which his milk sells for! No farmer should 
be expected to produce that kind of milk for a mill 
less than four cents a quart. Even at that price the 
milk dealer will make more money than the farmer. 
Here is another case where agricultural education 
alone will not settle the problem. Even if a dairy¬ 
man should learn to breed and feed his cows so as 
to make more milk, or even milk which costs him less 
per quart, he cannot really prosper while there is 
such a margin between what the milk sells for and 
what he gets for it. There can he no real prosperity 
for farmers so long as they must support one family 
or more besides their own! 
* 
At the New York State Fair we had a chance to 
talk with hundreds of farmers, and hear their opin¬ 
ions of public matters warm from the plow handles. 
L was good to see how clearly and boldly these men 
stated the vital issue that is being worked out in 
New York. We have heard people express surprise 
that the political bosses finally renominated Gov. 
Hughes. He has no use for them, or for their 
methods, and they knew it. They had all the politi¬ 
cal machinery in their hands, and had elected dele¬ 
gates who would have done their bidding without a 
murmur. Yet knowing that it meant pretty close to 
political suicide for them they made his nomination 
unanimous. Why? Any man who could have talked 
with those farmers at Syracuse would have under¬ 
stood the reason. The bosses were simply afraid of 
the man on the farm, and they did not dare to defy 
him when he once told them what he wanted. With¬ 
out organization, without political power or patron¬ 
age the farmers compelled the politicians to renom¬ 
inate the Governor. We knew they would do it be¬ 
cause we knew that as soon as they saw the real 
issue of government by the people or government 
by the politicians they would get on the right side. 
This thing never happened in just this way before in 
the history of New York. It is only the beginning 
of a mighty political force which is to push society 
nearer better government and a fairer chance for all. 
By forcing the nomination of Gov. Hughes the farm¬ 
ers also compelled the opposition party to put forward 
a clean and able man. Rarely have two more upright 
men than Mr. Hughes and Mr. Chanler been selected 
as candidates for Governor of New York. The story 
of how the work was done would fill a book. When 
these farmers saw what was being done they went 
right at the job. “ The hired men are trying to run 
our farms!” That was the way they put it, and the 
politicians were the hired men—and not the masters. 
We often hear that the voters of some town or city 
have risen in their wrath and thrown a gang of poli¬ 
ticians out of office. Usually such voters go back to 
work, think of something else and let the politicians 
return after a vacation. It will not he so with New 
\ork farmers. It has taken some of them long years 
to grow up to a point where they arc ready to talk 
and work against the politicians. At heart they have 
for some years known that they were in a form of 
political slavery, and it has galled them. Now, like 
a flash, they see what they can do if they will only 
stand together for a moral issue, and they will never 
forget it. You might just as well turn a page of 
New York’s history, for a new one is now to be 
written, with some of the letters looking as if they 
were written with a hoe handle. 
* 
You will notice by the letters on the next page that 
farmers and their wives are well able to take care of 
Mr. Norton and the other literary gentlemen who 
criticize farmers and farm life. The farmer’s wife 
who says Mr. Norton puts “the cart before the 
horse” hits the center of the bull’s-eye. As a rule 
these self-appointed critics are in position where it 
is easy for them to raise cash in return for their 
services. If they really knew anything about farming 
they would understand that cash is about the hardest 
thing for a farmer to raise, and yet the only thing 
which wili enable him to obtain the conveniences or 
luxuries which are to help “uplift” him. Reports 
showing the true condition of farming are coming to 
us from all sides. In the great majority of cases the 
worst trouble is inability to obtain working capital. 
There cannot be any marked improvement in the con¬ 
dition of farmers until in some way they can handle 
more money—that is, a fairer share of what their pro¬ 
duce sells for. We offer as proof of this statement 
the fact that in those sections where in some way 
farmers do secure this fairer share in money the 
things which make life easier and more pleasant fol¬ 
low naturally. Our readers may be trusted to shoot 
holes through Mr. Norton’s letter. They will do the 
same with similar targets, and the practice will teach 
them to bring down larger game. 
* 
“You ought to print that article every three months 
at least.” The speaker referred to the article on 
"Alfalfa and Lime,” by Mr. Wing, on page 709. There 
is no doubt that Mr. Wing expressed the conviction 
of thousands of our best farmers when he stated that 
heavy liming is absolutely necessary in Alfalfa cul¬ 
ture. Either the soil must have an abundance of 
lime naturally, or it must be supplied in large quan¬ 
tities. The demand for lime has increased so in the 
past few years that some regulation of its sale be¬ 
comes necessary. We are told that at some quarries 
it has been the custom to scrape up the refuse around 
the kiln and sell it as “agricultural lime.” This con¬ 
tains a mixture of lime, sand and ashes, and fre¬ 
quently contains less than 60 per cent of the strength 
of pure lime. In the early days of the fertilizer trade 
very much the same conditions were found. There 
was no definite legal standard, so that farmers sel¬ 
dom knew what they were buying. Then came the 
demand for a guaranteed analysis of fertilizers and 
this has saved millions of dollars to farmers. The 
same thing must now follow in the sale of lime. 
The manufacturers must guarantee the per cent of 
actual lime and magnesia which they offer for sale. 
They should also state whether the lime is ground 
limestone, burnt lime, or slaked lime, water-soaked 
lime, or a mixture of these. They need not he afraid 
that farmers will not know the difference, for this 
lime question* is being studied so that farmers will 
know just what they want. There was a time when 
farmers were inclined to call all fertilizers by the 
general name of “phosphate.” Now they know 
whether they want nitrogen, potash or phosphoric 
acid, and buy accordingly. It will be the same with 
“lime,” for farmers are coming to the point where 
they know which kind of lime they want, and the 
manufacturers should meet them with a fair guar¬ 
antee. ___ 
BREVITIES. 
Onb manufacturer advertises his machine as “fool proof." 
Tex responses of labor when capital calls to one of 
capital when labor docs llie talking. 
Now then, are you glad you took our advice and plowed 
up some of that old pasture for corn? 
Kansas now has an Association of Alfalfa Millers. The 
business of grinding Alfalfa hay for shipment has become 
a great industry. 
There has been a shipment of oranges from Mexico to 
New York. Every year the territory from which fruit is 
shipped to this city widens. Through it all the No. 1 
apple holds its price best of all. 
When drought or flood or any other calamity heads your 
way there are two methods of meeting it. One Is to sit 
down and magnify the trouble by Imagining it worse. The 
other is to commit the Twenty-third I'salm to memory and 
recite it to yourself. 
