136 
February 4, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A Nstional Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established 1850. 
JlMliM weekly by tbe Rural PnblUhlaf' Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York, 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wii. P. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, (2.04, equal to 
8 s. fid., or 8*2 marks, or 10*2 francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 60 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for timt 
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 hacked by a 
responsible person. But to make doubly sure we will make good any 
loss to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertisingin our columns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect subcribers 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 Thb 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. 
* 
I do not feel very confident that any legislation will 
be reported this session. The Post Offices and Post Roads 
Committee does not seem friendly to this legislation, but 
I shall stand for it because it is sure to come, and ij our 
rural people were actively supporting their interests in 
the matter it would he on the statute hooks within the 
next 30 days. 
That statement is made by Congressman Ralph W. 
Moss of Indiana. The last part of it is, we believe, 
correct The express companies are, through their 
various agents, showering Congress with circulars 
and petitions. Thus weak-kneed Congressmen tell 
their people that the sentiment is against parcels 
post. Whenever the people will really fight for this 
reform they will get it. We still think that Congress 
would have passed the bill last Spring if the papers 
had backed us up in. the campaign for letters. 
* 
Some of these “careful consideration” Congress¬ 
men want to know what they are expected to say 
anyway if farmers are not satisfied with “c. c.” The 
Farmers’ Institute in Rhode Island voted unani¬ 
mously to ask Congressman O’Shaughnessy to “use 
his utmost efforts” for parcels post They appointed 
a committee to tell the Congressman that the farm¬ 
ers wanted parcels post and would not be satisfied 
with the “joker” suggested by President Taft. Mr. 
O’Shaughnessy has kept his system free from “care¬ 
ful consideration.” He comes right out and says: 
I believe that the high cost of living problem would 
be helped considerably to a popular solution by tbe in¬ 
stitution of a proper parcels post. The resultant benefit 
to the farmer for whom yon speak would be pronounced, 
and the consumer would be helped to a ready access to 
tbe products of the soiL That the inauguration of this 
beneficent system would bring about an increased expense 
in the Post Office Department should not be seriously 
considered; that department is supposed to serve the 
people and not to make money. 
* 
The thing puzzled me for a long time, as I never 
knew of a similar instance, but when I read “The Busi¬ 
ness Hen” I found out what was the trouble—that it was 
due to the fright they had received. ' u. n. G. 
This man tells how he had his Leghorn hens so 
tame that he could pick them up and pet them. He 
went in unexpectedly with a basket of leaves and 
frightened the birds so that they stopped laying at 
once. This idea is well brought out by Prof. Rice 
in “The Business Hen.” He shows how fear injures 
the hen as a layer and also as a breeder. It is evi¬ 
dent that contentment is a part of the “business.” 
There is another element of fear in the hen man. 
He whets up his courage on the stories told in some 
of these great “systems,” but the results are like strik¬ 
ing an ax against a stone. One thing may be said for 
“The Business Hen”—it records no big stories and 
feeds out no mental whisky. You will notice that 
Mr. Dougan of New Jersey tells of a “system” which 
helped him select the best layers. This is described 
in “The Business Hen.” 
* 
The experts who studied out the facts about lime- 
sulphur and its use as a fungicide have done great 
things for fruit growing. Without question they have 
given us a substitute for Bordeaux Mixture with 
most of its virtues, and some of its faults left out. 
They must not, however, think that their life work 
is done and that plant disease, or even “brown rot” 
has been conquered. Great results have been ob¬ 
tained in Georgia and parts of the West, but we 
have yet to see a genuine outbreak of fruit rot in 
strawberries, cherries, plums, or peaches, controlled in 
tbe North Atlantic watershed. There the conditions 
THR RURAL NEW-YORKER 
for the spread of such diseases, in a favorable season, 
are such that any fungicide will have a severe test. 
When Bordeaux Mixture was introduced our fruit 
growers expected too much from it. Some were dis¬ 
appointed. Let us not expect too much of lime- 
sulphur. It is a distinct advance in fungicide, and 
will prove a great blessing, but it is not “the end” 
by any means. 
* 
On page 1206 we told how the farmers at Voltaire, 
North Dakota, had worked out some remarkable 
schemes for co-operation. They bought their town 
site, organized a telephone and an insurance company 
and an elevator, and put up a building of their own. 
This last they thought necessary because they had no 
place to meet and discuss their business—and this is 
the way it works. 
When they held a farmers’ institute recently they met 
In their own hall, brought their families and a picnic 
dinner. The basement contains a dining room, kitchen, 
two cloak rooms and coal room. Here the children played 
and had a good time while their elders were entertained 
and instructed up stairs. When noon came all repaired 
to the dining room. Meanwhile the orchestra furnished 
music. They all staid at the hall, no hanging around 
grocery stores, pool rooms and livery barns. 
In addition to all this these farmers have organized 
a mutual bank. It would have been started last 
year, but crops were poor and so they waited for a 
better season. Now these men are working free and 
they are doing it themselves. They get the consum¬ 
er’s dollar and they deserve it. Their work could he 
duplicated in 1,000 other places. It is the way out. 
* 
The meeting of the New York State Agricultural 
Society at Albany developed into a “Consumer’s Dol¬ 
lar” convention. The dominating idea of the meeting 
was, how can farmers obtain a fairer share of what 
their produce finally brings? It is a good thing that 
this question of the 35-cent dollar cannot be kept 
down. The trouble is it has been kept down too 
long, while questions of economical production have 
been given prominence. As we have often pointed 
cut, any man who wants to learn how to produce a 
large crop can he flooded with information. In many 
cases he cannot use this information, because he can¬ 
not obtain the capital needed to work it out, hut the 
energies of the college and stations and other lines of 
agricultural education have been devoted almost en¬ 
tirely to telling farmers how to produce more. It is 
but natural that farmers should now wake up and 
realize that along with increased production we need 
better distribution. Why go on adding 35-cent dol¬ 
lars to the farmer’s share and still giving the middle¬ 
man 65 cents? Look at it from any point you will, 
and this 35-cent dollar is the greatest question now 
before the people. The great volume of the money 
now in the country was made out of land. Our gov¬ 
ernment gave away millions of acres. Some of the 
increase in the value of this land has been legiti¬ 
mate. In other cases this increase has been public 
robbery, where corporations and land grabbers stole 
the public lands and captured the timber, oil and 
minerals. All these vast sums of money gather in 
the big cities. Year after year 65 cents of the con¬ 
sumer’s dollar is sent to join the rest, and this going 
on for 40 years or more has drained the substance 
and the character from our farmers. Thus this con¬ 
sumer’s dollar question gets down to the very foun¬ 
dation of society. This country cannot endure on a 
division which gives one-third to the producer and 
two-thirds to the handlers. This question will be set¬ 
tled just as soon as the American people realize the 
size of it The way to make them realize is to 
keep talking about it everywhere. 
* 
A spraying proposition that is new to us is reported 
from the State of Washington. A written contract is 
made by a horticulturist guaranteeing to keep an 
apple orchard clean from the Codling moth. This 
contract states that the orchard shall not contain at 
harvest over 10 to 15 per cent, of wormy apples. 
With this contract the horticulturist then takes charge 
of the work, sprays as he thinks best and watches 
the orchard thoroughly through the season. Three 
or even more applications are made in fighting the 
Codling worm. Not only are examination of the 
trees made to find the worm, but the moth is trapped 
in cages and studied so as to get an idea of what 
insects outside the cages are doing. As a result of 
this, orchards are reported 95 per cent, or more clean 
of wormy apples. This will be new as a proposition 
to most of our eastern fruit growers, but it is ap¬ 
parently one of the developments of Western fruit 
growing. We have no doubt something of the sort 
will sooner or later be attempted here. There can 
he no doubt that the immense increase in fruit cul¬ 
ture will develop new lines of industry well suited 
to many of our young men, and this is probably one 
of them. *•’ 
Reciprocity or free trade with this country is one 
of the things demanded by farmers of Western Can¬ 
ada. These men know what they want, but it will 
be no easy thing to reconcile the local desires of the 
Canadian people. For example, the coal operators of 
Nova Scotia do not want free trade in coal, while 
in the West American coal is greatly needed. West¬ 
ern Canada wants the fruit grown in Montana and 
other Western States, and would favor free trade. 
On the other hand, the Ontario fruit growers want 
even higher tariffs on fruit. They would like to make 
fruit from this country pay such a tariff that the 
Western farmers would be compelled to buy from 
Ontario. Certain parts of Western Canada demand 
free lumber, while other sections which are well 
wooded want a tariff to protect their sawmill in¬ 
terests. These are only a few of the tariff troubles 
which the Canadian government must face in arrang¬ 
ing reciprocity with this country. In this country 
along the Canadian border and in New England are 
farmers who feel that the tariffs on hay and potatoes 
give them some measure of protection in their local 
market. They will make fierce objection to any 
change which would let these products in free. For 
example, it is claimed that the reduction of the tariff 
ion Canadian cream has led to such heavy imports 
that American creameries are going out of business. 
The facts are that in the 11 months ending last No¬ 
vember there were imported from Canada 1,741,958 
gallons of cream—valued at $1,401,219. During the 
same period were imports of $6,743,868 worth of 
cheese and $261,456 worth of butter. Most of this 
cheese came from Italy and Switzerland. 
* 
The Interstate Commerce Commission has issued 
its first report on the statistics of express companies. 
These companies claimed real estate valued at $14,- 
932,169.24, while their equipment cost $7,381,405.59. 
They did a total business through the year of $132,- 
599,190.92. They paid for “express privileges,” which 
means to railroads and other carriers $64,032,126.69. 
The American Express Co. alone took in $31,896,497.22 
as gross receipts. This company had accumulated 
$45,864,677.65 as assets, most of it in cash, stocks and 
bonds. The Adams Express Company showed in 
1909 assets amounting to $57,648,039.97. This com¬ 
pany was then represented by 120,000 shares. In 1898 
and in 1907 the Adams issued $36,000,000 in bonds 
to its shareholders as a means of getting rid of that 
vast amount of surplus earnings. All this was in 
addition to regular dividends. It was put out in this 
way so that the actual rate of dividends would not 
seem too large. It is shown by this report that the 
express companies are all mixed up with each other 
and also with the railroads. In 1909 railroad com¬ 
panies held stock in the express companies to the 
amount of $14,124,000.00, while the express com¬ 
panies had $20,471,942.36 worth of railroad stock. 
The Adams alone held $3,990,000 of Pennsylvania 
Railroad stock. It also held stock in other express 
companies to the value of $2,846,125, while the total 
thus held by all express companies was $4,662,656.33. 
The directors of the express companies are “inter¬ 
changeable”—that is, some of them are on several 
different companies, and also directors of railroads. 
We shall give the figures and the facts about this 
until the people understand them. They must go 
with parcels post and Alfalfa as fundamental things 
for farmers and country people to remember. For 
years this nation lias been robbed and bled by a com¬ 
bination of carriers that is now fighting parcels post 
because they see in it the end of their grip upon 
public transportation. Think of the Adams Express 
Co. distributing $36,000,000 of the people’s money in 
bonds—not daring to show dividends large enough to 
cover the amount. 
BREVITIES. 
Plow in the Canada field peas, then harrow the oats. 
There will be a banquet at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Feb. 
24, at the eastern meeting of the State Fruit Growers. 
Come and feed on food and “reason.” 
The potato flea-beetle is increasing, and in some places 
threatens to become as serious a pest as the Colorado 
beetle. How can we fight this insect? 
“I recently sent a package weighing 12 pounds to Ala¬ 
bama, value $1.70; paid to the express Co. (Adams) $1.75, 
from Hartford,” says C. G. R., of Connecticut. That is 
a good way to manufacture rabid parcels posters. We need 
them. 
The New York State Fruit Growers’ Association will 
fight substitution in nursery trees. It is evident to us 
that the average individual fruit grower has small chance 
to obtain redress. If it will be fair this association has 
a fine chance to help its members. 
Suppose some one came and showed you how you had 
money in a bank that you knew nothing about. You 
would not begrudge the labor and investment needed to 
obtain this sure supply of money. The chances are that 
in the old wet meadow on your farm there is more money 
than any bank will have for you. Drainage and lime 
will enable you to bring in the legumes. Then your farm 
has that title of L. L. D.! 
