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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 1, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established, 1850. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. 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. 6 d., or 8*2 marks, or IOHj 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. Weprotect 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. 
* 
For the best 50,000-word story of American farm 
life submitted before September 15. We want a 
clean, wholesome novel based upon some strong and 
vital problem of country life, so true to life that it 
will serve as a history of the period it describes. 
Some friend of The R. N.-Y. can write the great 
American story. We will gladly give further details 
or discuss your plan with you. Manuscripts not win¬ 
ning prize will be paid for separately or returned, 
for which postage should be sent. This competition 
is open freely to all who may desire to compete, 
without charge or consideration of any kind. Pro¬ 
spective contestants need not be subscribers fot> 
The Rural New-Yorker in order to be entitled to 
compete for the prizes offered. 
* 
We want you to read that account of the clover 
seed testing in Connecticut. All told they found at 
least 50 different kinds of weed seeds in the samples 
that were tested. Several of these samples were, with¬ 
out doubt, adulterated deliberately and purposely by 
adding seed of black medic. This wicked practice 
appears to be quite common and it will never be 
stopped until farmers stop it themselves. They have 
the power to do it. Refuse to buy any clover seed 
that has not been sampled and examined at Washing¬ 
ton or by your experiment station. Get the lists of 
names of dealers such as they print in this Connecti¬ 
cut bulletin and patronize those who give clean seed. 
* 
We have done what we could to show farmers the 
value of a cover crop to occupy soil which would 
otherwise be bare through the Fall. Experiments have 
shown that 37 pounds of nitrogen ran away in the 
drainage water from an acre in one year. This would 
be equal to nearly 250 pounds of nitrate of soda, and 
would about provide the nitrogen needed by 40 bushels 
of corn. The greater part of this nitrogen was lost 
during the Fall and early Winter, when nitrates are 
formed most freely in the soil. We wonder at the 
extravagance of old days when farmers threw manure 
or cotton seed into the river to get rid of them. 
We cannot afford to do that, nor can we afford to let 
nitrogen run away through lack of a living crop to 
catch it. Keep the soil covered this Fall. 
* 
We are making a careful canvass to learn just how 
farmers feel regarding a primary nominations law. 
Next week we shall print a forcible statement of the 
conditions in Iowa. Oregon farmers will also tell 
us what the system promises for farmers in that 
State. In New York the demand for such a system 
is growing every day. Once let an intelligent farmer 
understand just what it will mean to get rid of the 
political caucus and convention, and he sees the point 
at once. There are thousands of farmers all through 
New York who have tried at different times to help 
clean up “politics” as they found them in their home 
county. Every attempt makes them realize more fully 
than ever that the average farmer, with a living to 
make on the farm, is no match for a politician just 
as long as the game is to be played by wire-pulling. 
The only hope for a farmer who wants cleaner poli¬ 
tics is to change the game so that his vote can hit a 
candidate directly and not be handled by a politician. 
We have often been advised to “fight the devil with 
fire,” but many a burn and scar shows that the King 
Imp has the advantage with that form of weapon. 
Fight him with water, sand and sunlight. Our ad¬ 
vices from the Senate district which Mr. Cassidy rep¬ 
resents show that under no circumstances could he 
be renominated by a popular vote of the members 
of his own party. His only hope is to be renominated 
by the politicians; and then argue that it is a crime 
to “split a ticket.” The present outlook is that he 
will be defeated anyway, but a nomination by a pri¬ 
mary would dispose of such men for good. It be¬ 
comes more and more evident every day that the 
plain people of this country absolutely demand cer¬ 
tain clear-cut reforms. They will never be satisfied 
until they get them. 
* 
There will be no Director of Farmers’ Institutes in 
New York this year. The salary formerly paid this 
official can be used to employ new or better speakers 
or for other methods of improvement. Commissioner 
Pearson has a number of plans for the Winter. We 
think he is wise in deciding to take charge of the 
work himself. It will give him a chance to study the 
problem at close range, get out among the people and 
see who they are and what they want, and change 
the system if need be to better advantage than if some 
one else had charge of it. The Commissioner is to 
speak at the great picnic of the Niagara Farmers’ Club 
in July. It is a great advantage to have one in the 
office who is capable pf talking sensibly to farmers. 
Reports which come to us indicate that there is a 
new and improved atmosphere all about the depart¬ 
ment. 
* 
Right now is when most of us realize the value 
of spraying potatoes. A man becomes a strong advo¬ 
cate of insurance when he sees smoke and flame com¬ 
ing from his barn. In our section blight has started 
its work in potato fields. Some are already dead, and 
others are turning brown. The disease came rapidly 
this year, and promises to take everything. This 
season the advantage from spraying is that the 
sprayed vines will evidently live two or three weeks 
longer, which will increase the crop by nearly 50 
per cent. In spite of all that has been said thousands 
of farmers do not yet understand that the blight is a 
disease which may be prevented or held off by using 
Bordeaux. Most people begin, to spray too late— 
after the disease has made its way into the plant. We 
have not been able to learn of any place where 
Potato blight does not give more or less trouble, yet 
very few of what we may call ordinary growers at¬ 
tempt to use Bordeaux Mixture. Still the best potato 
insurance we have is copper plating the vines. 
* 
On page 592 we printed our interview with a cattle 
breeder who expressed some radical views about 
prize-winning cattle. In the article on Ayrshires which 
we have been printing Mr. C. M. Winslow says: 
When the fullest capacity of the Ayrshire cow as a dairy 
cow is obtained, either public opinion as to the highest 
type in the Ayrshire cow must undergo a change or there 
will be a double standard of appreciation, the cow that 
wears the ribbons in public, and the cow that earns the 
money at home. 
We understand him to mean that a herd of Ayrshire 
prize winners would not be the cows to pay off a 
mortgage making milk or butter. We would like to 
see some dairymen send to the State fair purebred 
cows in good working condition, without pampering 
or fitting, and see what the judges would say to 
them. The great future need of pure blood is in the 
working dairy herds of New York. That is where 
the great future market for purebred animals is to lx. 
found also. Our shows ought to develop business 
as well as beauty. 
* 
We want all our readers, and particularly those 
who live in Ohio, to understand the real principle 
at the bottom of this fertilizer trouble. The Smith 
Agricultural Chemical Company claim in effect that 
the State Board of Agriculture is a gang of politicians 
“which has hung like a leech on the farmers of Ohio.” 
They practically claim that the Secretary of this Board 
entered into a conspiracy to injure their business. 
These are serious charges, but they do not after all 
touch the thing most important to Ohio farmers, and 
that is the quality of the goods sold by the Smith 
Company. The entire contest seems to have been, 
started because the Smith Company knew that sam¬ 
ples of its goods, analyzed by the State Board, fell 
below the guarantee. It was to prevent the Board 
from publishing these figures that the Smith Company 
brought its injunction. Now the best evidence that 
this company could have to prove the high quality 
of its goods would be a record in various States 
showing that the goods always ran above the guar¬ 
antee. There are several fertilizer companies which 
can show such a record, and it is just about the best 
asset they have. The chemists always find a “com¬ 
mercial equivalent” in their goods—that is as much 
plant food as they guarantee to give. Now if the 
Smith Company had been able to come with such a 
record as that most people would be likely to say 
there may be justice in their claim. But the record 
does not show any such thing. We have printed 
what the chemists in Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky 
and Connecticut found, and all this should be con¬ 
sidered in judging what Secretary Calvert said in his 
statement filed with the court. In this statement he 
says that the analyses show “universally and without 
exception the product manufactured by the Smith 
Company to be fraudulently inferior from what it 
teas claimed to be and represented to be vohen sold 
by the said Smith Agricultural Chemical Company.” 
Now remember that the people of Ohio have 
through their Legislature made this State Board the 
authority on fertilizers. In Indiana and Michigan, 
which adjoin Ohio, no one questions the right or 
the ability of the Station to exercise fertilizer con¬ 
trol. So that the great principle at stake is whether 
the fertilizer work done by our experiment stations 
or under State control is of any value to farmers. 
The R. N.-Y. claims that it is—the best and most 
reliable guide in selecting fertilizers that we now have. 
We believe that if from the beginning of this trouble 
those whose duty it is to do so had put the facts and 
figures from Indiana and Michigan right before Ohio 
farmers this controversy would never have reached 
its present stage. It is entirely safe to trust the 
farmers of Ohio with the facts, and let them settle 
such matters. 
* 
When Judge Landis imposed a fine of $20,000,000 
upon the Standard Oil Company we advised our 
readers to wait until the fine was paid before letting 
off any fireworks. We felt convinced that .the charge 
of rebating had been proven, and that the company 
had taken so much money from the people that mor¬ 
ally at least the fine was justified. The legal tech¬ 
nicalities were to be considered, and now 7 the United 
States Court of Appeals has reversed the decision and 
declared the fine excessive and illegal. The most 
important reason given is that the fine is too large. 
Judge Landis figured $20,000 on each of 1,462 counts 
—each a carload shipment. The Appellate Court says 
he had no right to consider each carload a separate 
offense. The fine should have been based on 36 set¬ 
tlements between railroads and the oil company. On 
this basis the fine would run from $36,000 to $720,000. 
Under the present law the Government cannot carry 
the case beyond the Appellate Court, as private citi¬ 
zens could. There must therefore be a retrial, and 
we hope the Government will bring suit again at 
once. We believe they will have little difficulty in 
proving their case. They should then collect the 
largest fine the law permits, for the principle involved 
is one that goes down to the very root of government 
by the people. Americans are bound to stand by the 
decisions of their higher courts, even though at the 
time such decisions seem to fall short of the public 
needs. In this country law is the expression of sound 
popular desire, and an earnest and educated people 
will mould the law to suit their needs, .giving full 
justice to all. We do not feel in any way discouraged 
at this decision. The great majority of Americans 
believe that the large corporations have taken more 
n.oney out of the people than they are justly entitled 
to. Fair restitution must be made, without revolu¬ 
tion or bloodshed or high-handed injustice. It will 
be made, however, and he who thinks the present 
movement for reform and justice will ever stop :s 
stupidly ignorant of what is going on. This decision 
educates, but does not stop. 
BREVITIES. 
Do not let wood ashes go to waste anywhere near you. 
Colorado imports $3,000,000 worth of poultry and eggs 
from the corn States. Why? 
In you have an answer to the question at end of Mr. 
Morse’s article we would like to read it. 
The interview with Prof. Cushman shows that the wire 
fence question is moving. We feel confident that a longer- 
lived wire is in sight. 
You might call the poem in the Woman and Home De¬ 
partment this week an advertisement in rhyme for New 
York. There is real human nature in it. 
Ox July 15 Mr. H. T. Ilillenmyer of Kentucky sent us 
sweet potatoes of last year’s crop kept over under ordinary 
conditions. That means sweet potatoes every day in the 
year. 
The “logged-off” lands in Oregon and Washington are 
becoming valuable. A convention will soon be held for the 
purpose of advertising them and learning how to handle 
them. 
We judge that a good many honest citizens are going 
about under contract not to say that they paid a good 
price for the information that sprouted oats make a fine 
chicken feed! 
Quite a number of questions about gas-house lime. Do 
not use it fresh from the gas house. It contains poisons 
for the soil. Let it “weather” in shallow piles and then 
use like other lime. 
The other day we saw a man drilling holes through a 
steel pipe with an electric drill. The power was sup¬ 
plied from a small engine mounted on a wagon and wired 
to the drill. A workman held this in his hands and 
pressed it through the metal about as fast as a car¬ 
penter would drive a small auger through wood ! 
