62 4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, New Tork, 
Herbert W. Colli no wood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dilaon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. 
Dr. 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 
8 s. 6 d., or 8*2 marks, or lO^ francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 50 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for time 
orders. References required for advertisers unknown to 
ns; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
” 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 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. 
* 
The readers are struggling with a mountain of 
manuscript in an effort to select the prize story. It 
is no small job to read more than 1,000,000 words in 
such a contest. We shall hurry the work as fast as 
possible, but the reading will be slow enough to war¬ 
rant “a square deal.” 
* 
The photograph from which our first page picture 
was engraved was taken in Chenango Co., N. Y. The 
occasion was the thirtieth anniversary of a wedding. 
All the people shown are farmers except the minister. 
We are glad to show these pictures of country people 
—strong, contented and hopeful. 
* 
The N. Y. State Department of Agriculture has 
opened a new fight against the oleomargarine dealers 
in this city. About 150 dealers have been called 
to court on the charge of selling oleo “in sem¬ 
blance of butter.” The Department claims that 
such “semblance” refers to taste, color and odor. 
Three cases were discharged by the lower court last 
week, but the Department states that the cases will 
be carried to the highest courts before it is settled. 
* 
It may be that dairymen, grain growers and others 
may wonder why we have given so much space to the 
culture of pecans. Let these men stop to realize what 
it would mean if some one were to start a new in¬ 
dustry in their section which would enable them to 
make their waste land productive and give them a new 
cash crop! That is what pecan culture promises to 
do for the South. There is no part of the country 
which stands in greater need of diversified crops. The 
future demand for nuts will be enormous. There is 
yet another reason for giving space to pecan culture. 
It always happens when a promising thing is started 
that men rush in and profit by the enthusiasm of the 
unwary. Some are downright rascals with bogus or 
fraudulent articles for sale. Others are shrewd men 
who want to obtain capital from others. The pecan 
business has its full share of such people and we try 
to give our readers the facts. 
* 
The commercial feed proposition is getting to be a 
tough one for the farmer. During the past few years 
a large number of so-called “mixed” feeds have ap¬ 
peared upon the market. Many of them contain oat 
hulls, ground corncobs and other materials of little 
value. They are mixed with oil meal or cotton-seed 
meal and some grain in order to get grain prices for 
waste. It is now found that some of the gluten feeds 
are colored with coal-tar dye and contain nearly one 
per cent of mineral acid. Such feeds are dangerous 
to stock. The so-called molasses feeds are usually a 
heavy grade of molasses mixed with grain or some 
waste material. Some of them contain weed seeds 
which will sprout even after passing through the ani¬ 
mal ! It is likely that many a farm has been well 
seeded to weeds through these feeds. The high prices 
of grain have enabled dealers to offer these mixed 
feeds at a tempting price, and enormous profits have 
been made by selling the mixtures of wastes and weed 
seeds—every dollar of it coming out of the farmer and 
his stock. The experiment stations are supposed to 
sample and analyze these commercial feeds as they 
do fertilizers, and their bulletins show the result. 
Farmers should study these bulletins, and learn which 
of the manufacturers are sending out these adulterated 
feeds. Like the fertilizer or seed business, the feed 
trade must come down in the last analysis to the 
character of the man who does the mixing. 
Since we printed that letter from T. J. Norton on 
page 739 many have asked who Mr. Norton is. We 
are informed that he is the general attorney of the 
“Santa Fe” Railroad. The records of this railroad 
for rebates and unjust discrimination are pretty well 
known, and farmers who have suffered have taken a 
strong stand against them. That is probably why Mr. 
Norton, in his now famous letter, intimated that 
farmers are “contributing money for the campaign of 
demagogues and disturbers.” It is quite likely that 
Mr. Norton criticized the farmers’ food and home life 
because he did not dare say what he really thought 
about them. He would “uplift the farmers” by biting 
at them. Most likely Mr. Norton now regards his 
letter as “one of the things that would better be left 
unsaid.” 
♦ 
PRIMARY ELECTIONS AND CANDIDATES. 
The R. N.-Y. wrote the candidates for Governor of 
New York on the Independence, Democratic and Re¬ 
publican tickets, asking them if they favor a fair 
primary elections law for this State. Their replies 
follow: # 
From the Democratic Candidate. 
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of October 
2d addressed to Lieutenant-Governor Cbanler. I regret 
that it was not received prior to bis leaving for the upper 
part of the State on a speaking tour. 
Mr. Chanler, however, has bad a great number of com¬ 
munications similar to yours, and to all he has made the 
same reply; that whatever expressions he has to make 
upon public questions will be made upon the public plat¬ 
form. 
I trust you will appreciate how impossible it is for him 
to reply to personal inquiries of such a character, when 
every moment of his time is taken up in the preparation 
and delivery of public speeches. Yours very truly, 
EDWARD J. WHITE, 
Secretary. 
From the Independence League Candidate. 
In reply to your letter of yesterday I beg to say that 
I am earnestly in favor of a primary elections law for the 
whole State of New York and for a mandatory system of 
direct nomination of all candidates. 
I have been working for this reform for several years 
and if you null refer to the National platform of the Inde¬ 
pendence party and to the State platform of that party, 
you will find that the question of mandatory, direct pri¬ 
maries, which means the selection of candidates by the 
people and not by bosses or by party machines, is made the 
leading issues of the campaign. 
I know of no practical method by which popular rule 
can be brought about, other than to permit the people to 
nominate their own candidates at the primaries, instead of 
leaving it to irresponsible political hacks. It avails little 
to be permitted to elect public officials if the bosses are 
permitted to select them first. clarence j. shearn. 
From the Republican Candidate. 
Your letter of the second instant, addressed to Governor 
Hughes, has been received. 
I am sending you herewith copies of Governor Hughes’ 
messages to the Legislature urging the adoption of direct 
nominations. These recommendations were supplemented 
by his speech of acceptance, a marked copy of which I 
enclose, and by the letter written to Clarence J. Shearn 
on the first instant, in which the Governor said : 
“I believe in mandatory direct nominations. When I 
recommended permissive direct nominations I did not be¬ 
lieve that the sentiment of the State was sufficiently 
strong to secure the passage of a mandatory bill, and I 
felt that provision for a permissive plan would pave the 
way for, and make inevitable the adoption of direct 
nominations by all parties. The sentiment in favor of 
direct nominations, however, has greatly increased dur¬ 
ing the past year, and I believe that if I am re-elected, 
and my position is thus endorsed by the people, a man¬ 
datory bill will be passed by the next Legislature.” Very 
truly yours, Robert h. puller. 
Secretary to the Governor. 
* 
“The movement to ‘uplift the farmer’ or ‘hoist the 
hayseed’ has struck this neck o’ woods!” 
This is the way one of our readers puts it. We 
find a disposition among some farmers simply to make 
fun of President Roosevelt’s commission and refuse 
to help it. We think this view is wrong. The results 
obtained from this commission will depend on the 
farmers themselves. If the great body of working 
farmers refuse to state the facts about farming a few 
favored ones will take the floor. The result will be 
a report which does not fairly represent the present 
needs of farming. That report will go to Congress 
and it will stand as an expression of farm opinion. 
Why not put the hard truth into that opinion? This 
we can do by answering the questions which the com¬ 
mission is putting out seriously. Tell them frankly 
just what you believe, and your opinion will help in¬ 
fluence that report. We do not expect great results 
from the first report of this commission, but we feel 
that it gives us a chance to show that we have real 
grievances and are not afraid to state them. If any 
of our readers receive the printed questions from 
Washington we urge them to reply as clearly and 
forcibly as possible. 
October 24, 
It is doubtful if there has ever been a time in this 
country when there were more rogues and fakers try¬ 
ing- to get money from the people through alluring 
schemes than right now. These rascals offer every¬ 
thing from a gold mine to a new variety of grain 
and they put up such plausible stories that in spite 
of all the warnings that can be given people will bite 
at the bait. We recently asked one of those victims 
how he happened to throw away his money as he did. 
He says the thing that attracted him most was the 
idea of “getting in on the ground floor.” He thought 
he was one oi the first to buy and that those who 
bought after him would somehow give a great value 
to his share! During the past year there has been 
considerable idle money in the country, and the 
rogues are after it. We have heard of one case 
where a woman took $500 out of a bank. She was 
constantly haunted by the thought of losing it, and 
so when she did up her hair she pinned the bills in¬ 
side it. After carrying this cash around for awhile 
these people realize that it is idle and begin to look 
about for some place to invest it. We know of sev¬ 
eral cases where the rogues with big promises have 
captured this hard-earned cash. It seems a great 
pity that this should happen, yet we know the tempta¬ 
tion is often strong. We do our best to put readers 
on their guard, yet it seems as if some cannot learn 
even by experience. 
* 
On May 18, 1907, we began printing the names of 
11 New York State Senators who opposed Governor 
Hughes in his efforts to remove the State Superinten¬ 
dent of Insurance. Gov. Hughes felt that the Super¬ 
intendent was not doing his duty, and that he could 
not be relied on to enforce the new insurance law 
properly. The vast majority of New York people 
agreed with the Governor, and upheld his position. 
There was a clear-cut principle at stake—one which 
reached down to the very foundation of public ser¬ 
vice' The men whose names we printed took the 
wrong side of the question, and helped to prevent a 
full enforcement of the insurance laws. That was 
why we printed their names, for it is a dangerous 
menace to society when such men are able to act as 
political highwaymen! These Senators represented 
districts in which farmers held the balance of power, 
so that they could defeat these men if they saw fit to 
do so. We advised farmers to chase all these men to 
their political graveyard, and every week since we 
have repeated the advice. On March 14, 1908, we 
added four more names to the list. Now it is time to 
figure up the results. Of the original 11 blacklisters 
only three have been renominated for the Senate! 
One more, Horace White, is a candidate for Lieut.- 
Governor. Of the quartette of names added later one 
was renominated, while one more nominated himself 
after his party repudiated him. The list is therefore 
reduced to the following: 
John Raines, Canandaigua. 
Jotham P. Allds, Norwich. 
Horace White, Syracuse. 
Joseph Ackroyd, Utica. 
Wm. W. Wemple, Schenectady. 
It is common knowledge in their districts that not 
one of these men could ever have been renominated 
under a fair primary elections law. It is not likely 
that any one of them would have dared to go before 
the voters of their party for such nomination. They 
will now be cut off the ticket with a broadax, and 
there is a good chance to defeat every one of them. 
When we started to print these names 16 months ago 
an old soldier wrote us: ‘‘Keep at them. The farm¬ 
ers will down the whole bunch!” They have downed 
two-thirds of them already. Now for the rest! If 
there is one of them who deserves the broadax more 
than the others it is Jotham P. Allds! 
BREVITIES. 
The “Bang” method of handling tuberculous cattle—page 
S25. 
“Apple Day” was celebrated October 20. We hope your 
celebration was a “peach,” plumb full of enjoyment as a 
pair of fried pies. 
A number of readers who have asked about the culture 
of Eucalyptus in California are referred to Bulletin 196 of 
the California Station (Berkeley). 
We have found a new case where the papers do not fit 
the goods. This time it is the seeds of Catalpa. As is 
well known the Catalpa speciosa is in great demand ns a 
timber tree. We find that seeds of an inferior variety 
are being sold for the true goods! 
What about the various poultry “systems” advertised 
so extensively? They usually contain a mixture of prac¬ 
tical and impractical advice. There is usually some good 
advice—though not new. The claims are extravagant 
though the “system” cannot be called a fraud. 
Those trial subscriptions come pouring in by every 
mail. Here is the note which accompanies one of them : 
“This man paid $2 each for Seedless apple trees, and 
I am willing to go 10 cents on his education.” This is a 
cheap form of education, but it will be effective. Our 
friend will buy no more Seedless apples trees—and become 
a regular subscriber! 
