402 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homea. 
Established 1800. 
Published weekly by the lliiral Publishing Company, 409 Pearl 8tre«t, New ¥ork. 
Herbert W. Colunowood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. 
Dr. 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. Gd., or 8^2 marks, or 10 ‘a francs. Remit in 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 ourcolumns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect suberibers against rogues, but wedo 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. 
* 
Dare to “get left” 
When to be “left” is right! 
* 
In our list of New York State Senators who should 
be left at home you will find the name of Albert T. 
Fancher. He will not return to Albany, as Charles 
N. Hamilton has been nominated to succeed him. 
Mr. Fancher presented Mr. Hamilton’s name to the 
convention. 
* 
We are receiving a good many letters from young 
men who expect to graduate from agricultural col¬ 
leges this year. Most of them have studied fruit 
growing and now want to round out their education 
with practical work in the field. Some of these young 
men ought to be able to give good service. 
* 
That hayfield scene on the first page shows the 
tools lined up for review rather than for work. The 
loader is a great help, but there should be a side 
delivery rake instead of the dump rake. It would 
be something of a job in these days to find a man 
who could do a first-class job with a hand scythe. 
Some of our readers seem to have made a mental 
picture of the Hope Farm man which represents a 
good-sized girth. He wants to assure them that the 
central figure in this picture is not the Hope Farm 
man. 
* 
The story of Mr. Dummer's work in developing 
the hay farm shows what a man can find to do right 
at home. Here was a man of 78 who took worthless 
or non-productive land and made it pay interest on 
more than $200 per acre. He made about 100 blades 
of grass grow where one grew before. And we all 
want to remember what a salable crop good hay is 
near an eastern town. In New England thousands of 
carloads of hay are imported, while every pound of 
it might be grown at home. Men like George M. 
Clark and Mr. Dummer are practical missionaries, 
and their work may well shame hundreds of younger 
men who might imitate their work. 
* 
Two years ago The R. N.-Y. began a crusade for 
better fence wire and nails. This was partly respon¬ 
sible for the beginning of investigation by the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. It was necessary to learn how 
metal rusts and why steel is inferior in this respect to 
iron before any definite help was possible. These 
things have been worked out, and we intend to take 
up the subject again and stay by it until something 
is done. We still see wire fences hanging in tatters 
after a few years’ service and shingles blowing away 
from roofs where steel nails have rusted off in half 
a dozen years. There will be serious damage to cheap 
buildings where steel nails or spikes were used, and 
there must be a remedy. 
* 
We have referred, from time to time, to the side¬ 
walk venders who sell all sorts of weirdly named 
horticultural wonders to the innocent commuters from 
the suburbs, but we met a new one this Spring; he 
was selling Aucuba Japonica, a tender broad-leaved 
evergreen, as “hardy English barberry.” We suppose 
he had got hold of a few of these plants at some 
horticultural rummage sale, and as some of them were 
bearing their brilliant red fruits, the name of bar¬ 
berry was suggested. But what a sad awakening 
confronted the unwary purchaser who imagined these 
plants possessed the hardiness of the real barberry. 
The Aucuba is a handsome shrub with broad shining 
bright green leaves, and as it endures smoke and 
dust very well it is often used for Summer planting 
in the city, hut it will not stand our Winters out of 
doors, and is usually carried over in a cool green¬ 
house. Furthermore, it is a dioecious plant, and in 
many cases the showy fruits will not he produced. 
However, it is well worth growing for its foliage, 
either the plain green or the richly variegated form, 
unless the mistaken purchaser thinks he can treat it 
as a barberry. 
* 
THE POWER BEHIND THE PAPER. 
Ever since the A. J. C. C. took action in the Dawlcy 
matter letters have been pouring in from readers. At 
least 1,000,000 people have been reading the story of 
that case from week to week. We cannot reply per¬ 
sonally to all who write, so we thank them publicly 
for their good wishes. We appreciate what they say, 
and also, above all else, the confidence which these 
good friends express. Out of a great pile of such 
letters we select the following: 
I wish to congratulate you and to (hank you upon 
your groat success in the Dawlcy-Rogers controversy. It 
is wholly due to your efforts that Dawley has been 
brought to justice, and I scarcely kuow which to admire 
the most, your persistency in the cause of justice, or 
your modesty and moderation in the hour of victory. 
Your admirers and sympathizers are not bound to refrain 
from rejoicing over the downfall of Dawley, nor need 
we refrain from comparing your manly courageous course 
with the apparent pitiful course pursued by Gov¬ 
ernor Hughes in the same connection, and with Dawley’s 
coadjutor, Brother Tucker of The Country Gentleman. If 
I were a friend of Mr. Tucker I would advise a change 
of name for his publication. A. A. m. 
Iudiana. 
This friend, and others like him, gives The R. 
N.-Y. too much credit. The paper would have had 
little power had there not been thousands of loyal 
friends like this man to stand squarely back of us. 
We referred recently to Rogers, Squiers and Bene¬ 
dict. It was the privilege of these men to stand out 
in the open and face the storm. There were thou¬ 
sands of other good friends who, in quieter ways, 
did their full duty. They wrote plain, fearless let¬ 
ters, talked to friends and neighbors and in a dozen 
ways exerted their influence to form public opinion. 
We shall never forget the way these friends stood 
by us. They believed what we said, trusted our judg¬ 
ment, had confidence in our motives, and whenever 
we asked for their moral support they never hesi¬ 
tated, but rushed at once to do what they could. The 
crisis came when Governor Hughes sent his circular 
letter in declining to investigate. Mr. Dawley and 
his friends had reason to think that this would silence 
us, hut we simply asked our friends to tell Governor 
Hughes the truth. We knew that would mean some¬ 
thing of a sacrifice to many of them, for we realized 
how they regarded the Governor. We doubt if there 
ever was such a response to .an appeal for moral 
support in a fight for a farmer’s rights as there was 
then. These men and women who put the postage 
stamps on Governor Flughes did far more for good 
government than they are aware of. The influence 
of that letter writing will last for years. And hun¬ 
dreds of these good friends did not stop at moral 
support. They offered money, and some of them felt 
disappointed because we preferred to stand the ex¬ 
pense alone. At a word from us thousands of dollars 
would have been cheerfully contributed to see the 
case through, for our people felt that it was their 
fight for a principle. Our friends created the power. 
It was our privilege to give expression to it, and 
it was worth 10 times the cost in time and nerve 
force and money to go through this test of friend¬ 
ship and find it so true. We should be ashamed of 
ourselves if we lacked the spirit or courage to be 
worthy of such friendship. One thing more. Our 
idea of handling a public evil is not to touch it with 
gloved hands, to compromise with it or to cover it 
up, hut to strike it in a vital part as hard as we know 
how. We try to hear all sides, to learn the truth 
and to know just where we stand before we ask your 
support, that we may have power to strike at wrong. 
Should we ever find that we are mistaken on any 
subject after all our care, and that the power of this 
paper has been directed against innocent people, we 
hope and pray that we may have the grace to admit it 
at once and make honorable restitution. 
* 
You will notice that we have begun a discussion of 
pecan growing. Few men in the country are better 
qualified to handle this subject than Mr. James. The 
dairyman or general farmer at the North may see 
little in such culture, yet in parts of the South it 
means a revolution. Any farmer who lives in a sec¬ 
tion where Alfalfa thrives and has been generally 
cultivated knows how the crop has changed business 
by giving greater value to land, putting more money 
into circulation and giving farmers more confidence. 
Now pecan growing is a new crop for the South 
June fi, 
which, in many sections, promises even more than 
Alfalfa does for dairymen. We shall have this well 
brought out in the articles which Mr. James is to 
write. There is no question about the future of nut 
culture so far as demand goes. The use of nuts is 
constantly increasing and we believe the demand will 
grow faster than the supply. 
* 
At the Colorado Agricultural College young women 
are taught “domestic science,” and apparently well 
taught, too. There will be 13 young women grad¬ 
uates this year, and one of the requirements is ex¬ 
tremely sensible. Each graduate is expected to make 
her own gown, and the cost will he limited to $10. 
The instructor helped the girls to select the material, 
and then they went ahead with their dressmaking. 
The average cost of the 13 dresses was a trifle over 
$8. Four of the girls spent the limit of $10. while 
one spent only $5.15. This strikes us as about the 
most sensible thing of the sort we have ever heard of. 
Every one of these dresses will be a “poem" far 
better than any verses or essays which these girls will 
put in manuscript. We will guarantee the dresses 
will fit, and by fitting them the girls will surely fit 
themselves into a helpful place in society. 
* 
Governor Hltghes vetoed the hill which would have 
changed the New York law regulating the State con¬ 
trol of tuberculous cattle. There were some objec¬ 
tionable features in this bill and we think the Gov¬ 
ernor was wise in vetoing it. The most important 
provision to farmers was the increase in the rate of 
compensation. Under the old law a valuation of $60 
for a purebred and $40 for a grade was allowed and 
the owner was to be paid 60 or 40 per cent of this 
amount according to the extent of the disease. In 
this new bill the limit of valuation was $75 and the 
per cent of this which might be paid was raised to 
80 and 50. When this bill was examined by the 
officers of the State Grange and other representative 
farmers provision was made for appropriating $150,- 
000 to pay for cattle slaughtered by the State. With 
the understanding that the money would be appro¬ 
priated the bill was endorsed and finally passed. When 
it came to the Governor he quickly saw that while 
the bill increased the amount of compensation it made 
no appropriation of money to pay for the cattle. Had 
he signed it as presented there would have been a 
large increase in the demands upon the Agricu’tural 
Department for testing cattle, yet this would have 
been only an embarrassment, since such cattle even if 
killed could not have been paid for. Undoubtedly one 
object in juggling with this hill was to put the Gov¬ 
ernor in a false position. The politicians could say 
that the Grange Committee and others had endorsed 
the bill and then they expected to go to farmers and 
tell how the Governor vetoed it. By cutting out the 
appropriation they put the bill in such shape that the 
Governor could not consistently sign it, while if he 
had signed it every farmer who did not receive pay¬ 
ment for slaughtered cattle would have blamed the 
law. In the great State of New York with one-1 nth 
of all the dairy cattle in the country bovine tuber¬ 
culosis can never be stamped out by any penny-wise 
policy. It is not right to expect farmers to subnrt to 
slaughter of their cows without fair compensation 
and the State should provide money enough to com¬ 
pensate for this destruction of property. Under the' 
new administration we believe the money will be 
honestly spent. _ 
BREVITIES. 
Last year 52.230,342 barrels of cement (worth $55,- 
903,851) were made in this country. 
Cut the oats for hay when the grain will crush Into 
a milk when pressed between the two thumb nails. 
We never saw the strawberry plants make early run¬ 
ners as they are doing this year. The wet season starts 
them running before the berries are really started. We 
cut these runners off whenever we can. 
This year we are trying onion plants started out doors 
in North Carolina and in Florida. Thus far we think 
these southern grown plants are superior to ours grown 
in the hotbed. The onion plant stands the long shipment 
well. 
From a subscriber in Ulster Co., N. Y.—“I have had 
many a smile since those fancy Baldwins have been pic¬ 
tured in The R. N.-Y. and the packing said to be by the 
grower. The farmer has to bear all frauds iu apple 
packing. In this section and for 15 miles north, south, 
east and west nine-tenths of all apples going to market 
are sold to speculators, and packed by them. I would 
not want my name on the barrels I have seen packed.” 
Quite late last season we used basic slag on a peach 
orchard kept in sod. The soil is poor, and the grass had 
nearly run out. Judged from the apparent results last 
year there was little or no benefit, hut this Spring the 
clover has come up all over the field, as we never saw it 
before. We think this result is due to the lime rathar 
than the phosphoric acid in the slag. It is evident that 
where this fertilizer is used on sod it should be applied 
early. 
