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THE RURAL NEW«YORKER 
August 22, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE XU.STRESS FA KM EX'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established WHO. 
I*ubllr.hr(l weekly by the Hum) Publbibbie t'umpaay, 400 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. < :ou.JN<iWO<)li, President and Editor, 
JOBS J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
VV.v. P. IIILLON, .Secretary. 
Dr. Walter Van Fleet and Mrs. E. T. Rotle, Associate Editors. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. Gd., or 8'e marks, or 10'v> 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 Rood any 
loss to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertising in onrcolumns, and any such swindlerwill be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect subcribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjnnt trifling differouces between subscribers and honest, respon¬ 
sible advertisers. Neither will wo 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 havo mentioned The Rural Nkw-Yobker when 
writing the advertiser. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to introduce Tiie 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. 
* 
We believe that the New York farmers’ institutes 
this year will prove the wisdom of Prof. Pearson’s 
plan to conduct them himself. The institute system 
has come to be a great movement, and can be made 
very useful. Let New York farmers give all the 
help they can to the farmers’ institutes this year. 
* 
The primary electron for nominating candidates 
was tried in Kansas and Illinois. If you go by what 
the daily papers say this method of nominating proved 
a failure. We have learned not to depend on these 
papers for facts. We go to the farmers, and they 
tell us that the primary is the greatest political help 
they have struck yet. If we had it in New York this 
year Gov. Hughes would poll 90 per cent tire Re¬ 
publican votes—and the polit ical bosses know it! 
* 
. You will see from the article on the next page how 
that Long Island Produce Exchange is working. The 
farmers at Orient sold their potatoes first. They had 
to get the potatoes out early to make room for the 
second crop. They took less for their potatoes than 
the dealers offered because they knew what would 
happen if they went back on the Exchange. The 
growers at other points should follow this lead and 
stick to the Exchange. Don’t let it be said that Long 
Island farmers can be bought at the price of potatoes. 
* 
That is a very sensible article on sheep raising— 
page 663; There ought to be more sheep on our 
castern farms. The great drawback lias been danger 
from dogs and a strange prejudice which lias existed 
against the sheep. We think this is now passing 
away. The plan of running sheep in a rotation with 
oats, potatoes and grass is worth thinking about. It 
would be air easy way to harvest the hay crop. Witli 
suitable! potato machinery one man with help in 
planting and digging could dxj most of the work. In 
our latitude we should add corn to the rotation— 
before potatoes—sowing clover or rye and rape in the 
com for Fall pasture, and rye after potatoes for 
Spring pasture: We would like to hear from any 
who have tried such a rotation. 
* 
The mosquito pool pictured on our first page con¬ 
tains a surface of 1894 square feet. After dipping 
here and there and counting the larva.* it was calciu 
lated that this pool contained 10,6:16,704 “wiggters,” 
or 6,616 to each foot of area! That does very well 
even for New Jersey. A few pools left undrained 
or without oil on the surface will stock an entire 
county. On the next page our Long Island corre¬ 
spondent tells how the community tried draining the 
marshes. This worked well until a high tide came 
and Idled the breeding pools. Then, just as we have 
tried to explain, there came a pest of mosquitoes. 
The eggs that were laid in these low places hatched 
and the water permitted the “wigglers-” to mature. 
If, after this high tide, sonic one could have gone 
over the marsh filling the holes or pouring oil on 
the water most of the mosquitoes could not have 
developed. 
* 
President Roosevelt has finally appointed that 
commission to investigate agricultural conditions. It 
is a strong commission, including Dr. L. II. Bailey 
of Cornell, President Butterfield of the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College, Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester, 
Henry Wallace of Iowa and Walter Page, of New 
York. It will be interesting to see if this commission 
will really dig down to the core of things and tell 
us why boys leave the farm and many farmers be¬ 
come discouraged. As a part of their work they 
should go right into the country among tenants, mort¬ 
gaged farmers and others who are not prosperous, and 
get them to give in their own way their own reasons 
foi their present condition. Let the commission also 
interview men and women in the ordinary walks of 
city life who have left the farm, and ask them 
why they did so. It would not be fair to base con¬ 
clusions entirely upon such reports, yet, after all, the 
true scat of the disease will be found in this way. 
The prosperous and well-to-do and the so-called 
thinkers can give valuable testimony in an investi¬ 
gation of this sort, but the true cry of the troubled 
should also be heard. This commission has a great 
opportunity to learn the truth and publish it. Later 
reports state that Dr. Bailey declines to serve, being 
unable to take the time needed from his other duties. 
* 
By this time our readers are familiar with the 
details of the fertilizer hold-up in Ohio. The Smith 
Agricultural Chemical Company secured an injunction 
restraining the State Board of Agriculture from pub¬ 
lishing the results of analyses. 'Phis company claims 
that it is the victim of prejudice; in fact they openly 
accuse Secretary Calvert of the State Board of con¬ 
spiring to injure them. Now if they came into this 
fight with a clean record they might have some 
standing before the farmers who buy fertilizers. The 
States of Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and Pennsyl¬ 
vania adjoin Ohio, and this Smith Company has 
sold fertilizers in all of them. There is no prejudice 
or '•onspiracy against the company in any of these 
States, and if their goods are what they should be 
the reports of these four State Chemists would lie 
like a certificate of character. In every one of these 
States the fertilizers manufactured by the Smith 
Company made a poor showing—in some cases the 
poorest of any recorded in the bulletins. What can 
they expect to gain by holding up the State Board 
and delaying the publication of these figures? It 
would be an advantage for them to play for time 
and make settlements and collections before these 
figures are known to the public. Suppose you had 
bought 10 tons of fertilizer on a definite guarantee. 
The State comes around and shows that several 
samples of the same brand which you bought run be¬ 
low the guarantee to the extent of $6 or more per ton. 
You would naturally feel that there was $60 or more 
coming to you. Y r ou would be justified in claiming 
that the figures endorsed by the State made a fair 
basis for settlement! Take the figures wc have 
printed from Indiana. They show that when these 
brands which they represent were handled the agent 
did not deliver, and the farmer did not receive the 
plant food which was paid for. It is right that the 
State- reports should make a fair basis for settlement, 
and it is not unlikely that some of the agents realize 
this and refuse to settle until the Ohio fit arcs are 
published. The Smith Company must realize that it 
cannot hold up the State of Ohio forever. Sooner 
or later these figures will be published; and the story 
they tell will make the final blow all the harder. 
* 
The newspaper story faker is at work again. A 
few weeks ago he sent a long article about “Abra¬ 
ham Adams,” of Idaho, who has out-Burbanked 
Luther Burbank by originating a variety of wheat, 
which yields 100 bushels per acre. Strange to say, 
such wild stories are printed in many papers. The 
Connecticut Farmer printed this one as a first-page 
article! In Colorado some enterprising fakers arc 
selling an old undesirable wheat as “Alaska,” and 
charging $r> a pound or $20 a bushel. Prof. Olin, of 
Colorado, has exposed this fraud: 
Suffice to 8iiy now, Egyptian-, Seven Headed Mummy, or 
Alaska wheat ((lie various names liy which it is known) 
is a soft Spring wheat, not desirable to Colorado millers 
and where grown to any appreciable extent in tills State, 
will he discounted or docked in price by Colorado millers. 
Instead of being a very desirable wheat for milling pur¬ 
poses, it is quite the reverse, since it '-as high starch eon- 
lent and low gluten content of poor quality. Farmers are 
warned to avoid this wheat as they would a pestilence. 
Another evident fake is a letter from “Mrs. Mary 
Bennett,” of Mexico. We expect to see this letter 
going the rounds. Mrs. Bennett tells how she sat 
under a tree and let the “Department of Improvement” 
do all the work and pay her $1,281.76 in gold for 
the fruit on five acres of bananas. We do not know 
how the $1.76 was put in gold, but that is a small 
matter. Mary writes: 
While I am away down in Mexico I do not want my 
friends who read Tub R. N.-Y. to think that I am out 
of the world, or have no business opportunities, for I am 
making more money now than i ever did in my life. 
No, Mary, we are well satisfied that yon have 
"business opportunities,” hut we don’t care to share 
them. You ought to go to housekeeping with “Ab¬ 
raham Adams,” the 100-bushel wheat man! 
There is no doubt about the feeling against State- 
Senator Owen Cassidy in his home district. The 
Tompkins County Republican Committee has asked 
him to withdraw as a candidate. Last March dele¬ 
gates from Tompkins were elected and told to use all 
honorable means to secure Mr. Cassidy’s renomina¬ 
tion. Now the committee resolves: 
Whereas, since the holding of such county convention 
circumstances have arisen which, in the judgment of this 
committee, have materially changed conditions and altered 
the sentiment of a large majority of the Republican voters 
in this county upon the question of the Senatorial muni¬ 
tion. 
These “circumstances”arc nothing more nor less 
than an uprising of plain country people. The noli- 
ticians know that while they handle the wires, the 
people handle the votes. Public sentiment has forced 
this action regarding Mr. Cassidy. Another man 
named in our black list, Senator Horace White, has 
lent his name to act as a foil against the renomina¬ 
tion of Gov. Hughes. He will find that this is the 
worst year he could pick out for trying to fool the 
farmers of central New York. 
* 
“I do not understand hozu any patriotic man in any 
party can be indifferent when the forces that control 
political machinery arc attempting to deprive the 
Empire State of the privilege of another term of 
such service.” 
That sentence from a man in Central New York 
states the feelings of thousands of farmers without 
regard to party. We advocate the renomination of 
Gov. Hughes. The farmers furnish the votes which 
gives the party any chance of electing its ticket, and 
they have a right to decide- upon the candidates. 
We are not talking about the election, but simply 
urging the renomination of Mr. Hughes. All intelli¬ 
gent men, regardless of their party affiliations, must 
see the advantage of strong and independent action, 
especially in selecting candidates-. We care nothing 
about party lines when the ultimate good of farmers 
is to be considered, and we stand ready to support 
any man of any party who will be most likely to 
obtain for the people of New York an honest primary 
elections law and other measures which will give 
farmers a fairer chance. Just now the first great 
struggle comes over the renomination of Mr.Hughes. 
The light is between a few influential politicians and 
tl c great body of plain farmers who provide the 
voting strength for the party. Two years ago Mr. 
Hughes received 749,002 votes and Mr. Hears! 681,106. 
In New York City alone Mr. Hearst polled 668,530 
against 271,463 for Mr. Hughes. Leaving out the 
vote of a dozen cities in the Stale, and the voters in 
struggle comes over the renomination of Mr. Hughes, 
over 160,000 majority! The farmers who did this 
have a right to say who shall- be the candidate of 
their party, since they must elect him. We have 
made a careful canvass of the State. Except in half 
a dozen counties, particularly where the Wadsworths 
are strong, the sentiment among farmers is over¬ 
whelming for the Governor. As stated’ last week, 
Mr. Hughes is no longer the idoL of these farmers, 
because they remember his actions in the Dawley case, 
but they realize that lie- more than any other man 
in his party just now stands for the things which 
New York needs. The farmers should not be 
frightened because a few politicians make a loud 
noise at this time: The country people have the 
votes, and they only need to let their choice be known 
in order to dominate their party. They must move 
quickly and strongly if at all. The farmers of New 
York cannot do better service than to force the. 
nomination of clean and independent men from the 
Governor down. They never had such a chance to 
make their true power felt as is given them right now. 
BREVITIES. 
It is hard to cure a genuine ease of Alfalfa fever. 
Thebe are some good replies to that hay fever sufferer. 
No use talking—the sheep is gaining once more in the 
Enst. 
Do your own purl right before you linil fault with 
ot hers. 
What about the man who lias to stop at this busy 
season and cut fuel ? 
Don't ever brag to your neighbors about what you are 
going to do with Alfalfa. 
IIbrk is a sound bit of advice from Dr. W. A. Evans : 
“Don’t make use of baby's stomach for purposes of punish¬ 
ment or reward.” 
IIow you must love the fertilizer dealer to pay him 18 
cents a pound for nitrogen when clover stands ready to 
make- you a present of it. 
We do not remember any such “spotty”" season as 
this one. Some localities have nearly burned up. while a 
few miles away there have been abundant crops. 
This London Gardener's Chronicle, in discussing the use 
of waste from an acetylene gas machine for fertilizer, says 
that it should never he put on potatoes, as it gives a 
strong and unpleasant taste to the tubers: As it is 
mostly lime it Mill also increase the scab. 
