736 
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 Itural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York, 
Herbert W, Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. 
Pit. Waltkk 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 
8s. 6d., or 8*3 marks, or lO^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 wo will make good any 
loss to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertising in ourcolumns, and any such swindlerwill be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect suberibers 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 bo 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. 
* 
There are 51 members of the New York State Sen¬ 
ate. Of the present Senate one member claims to be 
a farmer. Two others confess that they are half farm¬ 
ers—that is, make their living in some other occupa¬ 
tion. Out of 149 members of the Assembly eight 
men actually have the courage to say they are farmers, 
while six more admit they are half farmers! What a 
glorious showing for agriculture! Wait till we have 
that primary election law, and see the farm crop out 
in the Legislature! 
* 
Never make the mistake of supposing that the oleo 
men have given up their struggle for the privilege of 
selling colored oleo in direct competition with butter. 
They are still working quietly, and the moment they 
can see the least chance of repealing the present law 
they will attempt to force such repeal through Con¬ 
gress. To hear them talk they have a love for the 
poor working people beside which the love of David 
and Jonathan would seem like a candle dip to an elec¬ 
tric light. They are not anxious to give the work¬ 
man cheap ‘food—they want to sell 12-cent oleo at the 
price of 30-cent butter. 
* 
Recently we printed an article from a man who 
mentioned a chance for a young farmer. Now he 
writes: 
I have been deluged with replies, and the wide territory 
from which these answers have come has been most sur¬ 
prising. I have heard from Nova Scotia in the East, 
British Columbia in the West, Alabama in the South and 
Dakota in the North, and most of the intervening States 
and Territories. Instead of Rural New-Yorker you ap¬ 
parently ought to call your paper the Rural North 
American. 
The suggested name would not cover all our terri¬ 
tory, for the paper is sent to practically every civilized 
country. We believe it can he easily demonstrated 
that The R. N.-Y. has the widest circulation of any 
farm paper in the world. 
* 
All over the Eastern States there is a revival in the 
use of lime. We were long taught that the three 
essential elements of plant food are nitrogen, potash 
and phosphoric acid. Now we are to make the trio 
into a quartette, and find that on many soils lime is 
just as much needed as the others. We believe there 
are many sections where chemical fertilizers and even 
manure do not give the results they ought to because 
the soil is sour. The plant food is there but the soil 
does not give it up. A dressing of lime will often 
give great results on such soil, not because it feeds 
the crop, hut because it gives the soil a chance. “Lime 
and cow peas” have built up that Pennsylvania farm 
where the crops burst the barn and the family over¬ 
flow the house! 
* 
“Oregon Winter vetch” seems to be a good com¬ 
panion for “Alaska” wheat. Many southern readers 
have received circulars from the “Square Deal Farms” 
offering this vetch for sale and telling extravagant 
stories about it. It is claimed, for instance, that one 
man raised 1,800 pounds of dry hay on one-sixth of an 
acre. This is so skillfully worded that many readers 
actually believe that this vetch will give over five tons 
of hay per acre on poor soil. Some men take this 
bait at once—others regards it as too “fishy,” and hunt 
for the facts before investigating. The Department 
of Agriculture states that there is little difference 
between this “Oregon” vetch and the common varieties. 
It looks like another scheme to get an extraordinary 
price for an ordinary article. 
Cross two more names out of that black list of New 
York Senators! S. Percy Hooker was not renomi¬ 
nated, and Owen Cassidy was “turned down.” You 
will remember that Mr. Cassidy was advised by “John 
and I” to vote against those anti-gambling bills. Some¬ 
one slipped a “not” into the telegram. Now both 
“John and I” have seen a great light, and they were 
forced by public sentiment to put a “not” in Mr. 
Cassidy’s demand for renomination. The outcome of 
this fight against Mr. Cassidy is the most encouraging 
political sign New York has seen in years, because 
the plain voters have whipped the bosses into line. 
Before Gideon of old would make what seemed to 
him a hopeless fight against the Midianites he called 
for a “sign.” He got several which convinced -.hint 
that a greater than earthly power was to sustain him. 
The farmers of New York have now had enough of 
“signs” to show them that they need no longer fear 
the political Midianites who have so long reaped what 
the people sow. 
* 
There is a merry war of words in Ohio over that 
fertilizer mix-up. The Smith Company denounce the 
State Board of Agriculture, and say they have it tied 
up hand and foot. They say they can prove favorit¬ 
ism and fraud and actually claim they are acting in 
the interests of Ohio farmers! On the other hand, 
the State Board promises to do all sorts of things to 
the Smith Company when it once gets them into 
court. It is claimed that the Smith Company is sim¬ 
ply playing for time in order to make its collections 
for fertilizers before the official figures are printed. 
We do not intend that the real point at issue shall 
he lost in this scuffle. That point is whether the fer¬ 
tilizers sold by the Smith Company were actually in¬ 
ferior at the time the State Board made its analyses. 
They must admit that the argument is against them 
here. In Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Pennsyl¬ 
vania accurate analyses were made, and in each State 
the Smith goods were found inferior. There is the 
weak point in the Smith Company’s position. Their 
quarrel with the State Board is of less importance 
than flie fact that in all the States surrounding Ohio 
their fertilizers made about the worst showing of any 
put on record. 
* 
Read the account of that proposed test for fence 
paint on page 730. We have full confidence that 
Prof. Cushman has devised a plan for saving our 
wire fences. The history of this investigation shows 
what must he done to settle some of these hard 
problems. We began a campaign for better fence 
wire before the Department took up the subject. 
We found that the experiment stations were unable 
to handle the subject, so we went to Washington 
with many samples of good wire and poor wire. 
Prof. Cushman was put in charge of the case, and 
the first thing he found was that the authorities did 
not agree about the cause of rust. No remedy was 
possible until the cause was made clear. Prof.’Cush¬ 
man first proved that this cause is an electric action, 
and subsequent work has been based upon that fact. 
The point we want to make clear is that no one, no 
matter how wise he may be, can find a remedy for 
wrong conditions until he finds the true cause for 
them. People often complain because reforms are 
slow. No permanent reform is possible until the 
cause is made clear, and it often takes longer to find 
the cause and remove it*than it did for the trouble 
to grow. 
* 
This idea of “guaranteed seeds” is getting to a point 
which will compel attention. Personally we hear 
more complaint about onion seed than any other— 
though many complain that cabbage seed produces 
plants which run to seed stalks rather than heads. The 
onion proposition hits hardest because quite a number 
of gardeners have developed special markets for cer¬ 
tain varieties. We now have several cases on hand 
where substitution of the wrong seed has caused 
losses of $150 or more, besides a loss of reputation. 
The seedsmen state frankly that they cannot guarantee 
the onion seed they sell to be true to name. The 
buyer must take all the risk. The excuse usually 
given is that a seedsman doing a great modern busi¬ 
ness cannot possibly give personal supervision to 
growing all his seeds. Many of them must be grown 
by outsiders, and in distant places. While the seeds¬ 
man does his best to sell seed true to name he cannot 
he sure of what others do—therefore he will give no 
guarantee. That is a fair statement of the seedsman’s 
position, but it gives no satisfaction to a man who has 
contracted to deliver thousands of Prizetaker onion 
seedlings. His customers demand that he make good 
any loss they sustain from planting other varieties, 
hut all he could get from the seedsman would be pos¬ 
sibly more seed—also without any guarantee. A 
natural and necessary outcome of such a condition of 
affairs will be home seed growing by those growers 
September 19, 
who must have certain true varieties. We think also 
that the trade will be obliged to come hack nearer 
to the old conditions. There seems to he a good 
chance now for careful men who understand the 
business to make a specialty of growing certain seeds 
of high quality which they can guarantee. We also 
think it would pay the seedsmen to have two classes 
of certain seeds. Let them grow a fair quantity of 
superior seed on their own farms and under their 
own eye, as was done years ago. These seeds could 
surely be guaranteed true to name at least. They 
could be sold as “certified seeds” for a higher price 
than the others, and we believe they would find a 
ready sale. 
* 
Two weeks ago we printed a letter from a farmer 
in Vermont who wanted capital to develop a dairy 
farm. He made a sensible proposition for buying 
land and a few purebred cattle. Payments could be 
secured by the local creamery. The plan was safe and 
worthy—better in every way than 90 per cent of the 
investment schemes which gather up the savings of the 
people. Yet such a safe investment in a farm fails 
to appeal to capital. On the other hand, six wcek^ 
ago a man in western New York mentioned the case 
of a business man who had bought a farm, well 
stocked, and wanted a good farmer to run it for 
him. Nearly 50 men at once came rushing to apply 
for the place. Out of the entire lot one man frankly 
admitted that he has failed in his present situation— 
and the keen business man who mentioned the oppor¬ 
tunity was inclined to select him from the rest. What 
we desire is to point out the contrast between the 
response when capital asks for labor and when labor 
asks for capital. Here is a case where a man pur¬ 
poses to put up capital and equipment; in other words, 
assume all financial responsibility. Labor at once begs 
•for the chance. When experienced labor with fair 
capital in land seeks money with # which to make the 
land productive—capital holds off. Now since it is 
admitted that capital of any sort is the product of 
somebody’s labor, why should the man with money 
possess such an advantage in business over the man 
with an undeveloped farm? It is evident that the 
moneyed man with available cash does have an im¬ 
mense advantage over the man whose property is tied 
up in a farm without improvements or fair working 
capital. Qur financial laws and the business habits 
which have •resulted from them have given an advan¬ 
tage to people who live in towns and cities, because 
town property is on the whole more available for loans 
than farm property. It is easier for the average 
business man in town to obtain working capital than 
for a farmer. This is not entirely true of some 
western farm sections, but it is true in sections where 
the need of capital is greatest. President Roosevelt’s 
commission to investigate farming will surely run 
upon this condition of affairs if they get an inch be¬ 
neath the surface of things. Agricultural education 
without a fair chance to obtain available capital will 
only lengthen the chain with which farming is tied to 
a post. _ 
BREVITIES. 
Our friends, the literary gents, 
Who start In to uplift 
The farmer, mean quite well, no doubt. 
But haven’t quite the gift 
Of reaching things; some call it sense 
And others call it wit—• 
Of knowing you can’t lift a thing 
Till you yet hold of it. 
Don’t stand off with a 10-foot pole 
With precept hard and cold, 
Unless you learn to sympathize 
You never can take hold. 
Time to fill the silo. 
Why is “hydrated” lime better than slaked lime? 
Remember the rye as a catch crop beats weeds. You 
can catch weeds anywhere. 
% 
Do you Imagine that your views on the auto question 
would he modified if you owned one 1 
If frost threatens and you can cut the corn and lay it on 
t he ground there will be mucli less injury than if you left 
it standing. 
We are still trying to learn how far the self-hoiled lime- 
sulphur mixture will take the place of Bordeaux for spray¬ 
ing trees or potatoes. 
Take a farmer who carries through a new plan to suc¬ 
cess in spite of ridicule or lack of faith. He lias a right 
to say, “I told you so!” 
People are still asking about “Alaska” wheat. It will 
go down in history as about the cleverest “fake” ever 
played in this country. It must have cost the public 
$100,000 in money and a million of confidence in news¬ 
papers. 
Vermont has a State nursery iu which trees are started 
for forestry planting. Last year nearly 100 bushels of 
White pine cones were used for the seed they contain. 
This year more are needed. It seems that a bushel of the 
cones will usually yield about a pound of seed, which looks 
much like buckwheat. They should be picked in Sep¬ 
tember. The Experiment Station at Burlington wants 
the seed of forest trees. You can donate them—and help 
the State—or you can sell them. 
