204 
February 18, 
% 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home*. 
Established, 1850. 
Pabtliked weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, Hew Xork. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8marks, 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 timi 
orders. References required for advertisers unknown to 
us; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“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 
advertisingin ourcolumns, and any such swindlerwill 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 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. 
* 
Next week we shall print an article on Hairy 
vetch, which is the baldest statement of fact we can 
get about this remarkable plant. 
* 
While the hen and cow men are doing their pre¬ 
liminary talking, let us consider that Michigan man 
(page 199) who dug 105 bushels of potatoes in eight 
hours with a hand fork. He helped pick them up, too. 
This man seems to be right in his proper place as 
superintendent of a manual training school. The 
manufacturers of potato diggers would have a form 
of argument in applying for an injunction to prevent 
this man’s pupils from digging potatoes. 
* 
There will be a notable fruit growers’ meeting at 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., February 23-24. It is the eastern 
meeting of the New York State Fruit Growers’ As¬ 
sociation, and a fine programme is being prepared. 
There should be a turn-out of at least 1,000 fruit grow¬ 
ers from the Hudson Valley. It is very desirable 
that men who are actually engaged in the business 
of raising fruit should go to such meetings and give 
them a practical, business-like character. There will 
be a banquet on the evening of February 23, and it 
promises to be one of the great features of the meet- 
ing. 
Thus far we understand no word has been received 
from Mr. Henry A. C. Taylor about another test for 
those Guernsey cows mentioned on page 104. Per¬ 
haps he is waiting until the cows are ready for such 
a test. Of course Mr. Taylor must realize that no 
one can get cream out of an injunction any more than 
you can get blood from a turnip. A judge of the Su¬ 
preme Court may make a record in ink, but milk 
and butter fat are required to make it worth while. 
The brand of the question mark will haunt that record 
until the cows come home unless Missy and Glen- 
anaar are made to “come back.” Mr. Taylor must 
recognize this, and no doubt the cows are now tuning 
up for another test! 
The plight of E. G. Lewis ought to be a warning 
to his kind. Gifted by nature and qualified by educa¬ 
tion to earn his own living he chose to devote his 
talents to the task of gathering to himself the fruit 
of other people’s labors. The schemes devised for 
this end have been pretty well illuminated in this 
paper, and now they have become the subject of in¬ 
quiry by the Federal Government. Conscious of the 
revelations that an examination of his records will 
disclose, he is tied hand and foot in the meshes, of a 
net of his own weaving. Every effort that he makes 
to extricate himself from one position serves but to 
entangle him the more in the general mess. In this 
situation he exhausts his impotent rage at The R. 
N.-Y. which exposed his schemes, and hurls impudent 
defiance at the Federal Government which seeks re¬ 
dress for the complaining people. His offer to pay 
his $500 note, with nearly six years’ interest in full, 
if Mr. White of Ohio would swear to a damaging 
statement against The R. N.-Y. reveals something of 
his desperate straits. Unable to get the affidavit want¬ 
ed and prepared by himself, he was willing to pay 
one year’s interest for a statement which means only 
that we refused to accept his promises in lieu of cash. 
It is with such evidence coupled with lying state¬ 
ments, disproved by written evidence, that he hopes 
to ward off an inquiry of his fake schemes. Accord¬ 
ing to his theory it is a crime for us to doubt his 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER; 
promises; and a virtue for him to repudiate an honest 
debt. That kind of argument may go with his “eman¬ 
cipated womanhood,” but it is not convincing to grand 
juries. If Mr. Lewis will return the money he got 
from our people and stop collecting more, we will 
soon forget him, and may God and the Government 
forgive him. The Government alleges the represen- ‘ 
tations he made to get money from country people in 
he past were not true; he is making more represen¬ 
tations to get more money now. The Government 
asks to be shown if these representations are true. 
He refuses the information. It is up to the Govern¬ 
ment to find out. Lewis thinks he can shoo United 
States officials off like a flock of hens with the waving 
of a few aprons. We’ll see! 
* 
CANADIAN “RECIPROCITY.” 
No. I. : 
Mr. Brigham’s letter oil page' 199 is a calm and 
fair statement of the way northern and eastern farm¬ 
ers regard Canadian reciprocity. We believe this feel¬ 
ing is shared by a large majority of our thinking 
farmers. The tariff system has been kept on its feet 
for more than 40 years by our northern farmers. It 
has been a case of political bunko game, but the 
farmers stood by it and'made our high tariff possible. 
In his “Tariff History of the United States,” Prof. 
Taussig says of the tariff bill of 1883: 
The duties on agricultural products were left unchanged 
in order to maintain the fiction that the agricultural pop¬ 
ulation secured through them a share of the benefits of 
protection. 
At that time it was a fiction, but farmers reasoned 
that a tariff on wheat or corn actually compensated 
for high tariffs on steel, lumber and dozens of other 
necessities. They have seen the protected “industries” 
import cheap foreign labor freely and form combina¬ 
tions of monopoly. And ail through this the railroads 
and other handlers were obtaining 65 cents of the 
consumer’s dollar! No one will now pretend to dis¬ 
pute the fact that these things would have been im¬ 
possible had not the farmers of the Eastern and 
Northern States continued to vote in large majority 
for high tariffs. They will now see how they are to 
be rewarded. Practically the only direct protection 
which the tariff has ever given to farmers is that 
which prevents free imports of food from Canada. 
The rest has been political buncombe or pap for so- 
called infant industries. It is a most remarkable thing 
that the farmers have gone on taking 35 cents of the 
consumer’s dollar and paying over $1.35 for the dol¬ 
lar’s worth of manufactured goods. 
As Mr. Brigham points out, farm lands and farm 
homes in the East were cheapened and broken by the 
government’s policy of giving away the western lands 
or selling them at a low price. Our farmers have 
faced this hard competition for 40 years and more. 
Following'natural law, with increase of population and 
falling away of western fertility the eastern farm was 
coming back to its own. There was hope in the fu¬ 
ture with a chance for fair prices in our own markets. 
Under similar conditions our manufacturers and the 
railroads would have demanded protection and gov¬ 
ernment support and would have received it. Not so 
with our farmers. Just as soon as fair opportunity 
appears it is to be killed. Under the proposed “re¬ 
ciprocity” with Canada our eastern farmers lose the 
last shred of direct benefit which the tariff ever gave 
them, and gain absolutely nothing in exchange. Had 
any other industry been treated in this way there 
would have been in Washington within 24 hours a 
lobby with $1,000,000 if need be to prevent such legis¬ 
lation. The unorganized farmers have no one to take 
up their battle for them. Now it was sure that this 
situation over the tariff had to come to a head. As 
we have pointed out, our northern farmers are re¬ 
sponsible for much of it, first by enabling the high 
tariff principle to live and grow, and now through a 
lack of organization which would enable them to 
influence Congress. It is thus no longer a political 
question, but one of agriculture, and we shall discuss 
it in a few articles from the standpoint of a farmer. 
* 
In all this discussion of the methods of horse com¬ 
panies in selling stallions nothing is said against the 
great advantage in having a fine stallion in the neigh¬ 
borhood. The outlook for good horses is excellent, 
and farmers can make no mistake in breeding suitable 
mares to the best stallions they can find. But this 
method of buying is like putting up a creamery and 
paying a creamery shark about twice what the outfit is 
worth. The “company” plan, as described by Mr. 
Morse, means paying far more than a good horse could 
be bought for cash, and running the risk that a few 
responsible farmers will be finally forced to pay the 
entire amount. The improved horse - business is all 
right. As for the “horse company” we have yet to 
be shown. 
The horse story by J. Grant Morse ought to be inter¬ 
esting to all readers of The R. N.-Y. Most people let the 
other fellow learn for himself, but the experience given in 
this story ought to help abolish selfishness and preach 
brotherhood and fellowship. o. m. b. 
Pennsylvania. 
That is right. The time has come when farmers 
must get together in every way. One thing is to pass 
information along. This horse story, stories of the 
work done by creamery sharks and- dozens of other 
schemes where fanners are led to sign contracts 
ought to be made public. We do not want them pub¬ 
lished simply in a desire to “get square,” but we want 
the broader view of business education. Farmers 
sign too many contracts with strangers. They will 
probably keep on doing it until the results are made 
so clear that anyone can understand what is coming. 
It shows good public spirit for a man to come forward 
and give the facts. In‘addition to the notes printed 
this week, we have heard from about 20 people who 
went into these horse-buying companies. • In not one 
case did the horse pay, and Usually a few responsible 
farmers had to foot the-bills and meet the notes. The 
R. N.-Y. is here to spread the truth about such deals. 
♦ 
The man who comes forward and pushes this plan 
of parcels post to a finish will be the next President! 
That is what our friend Grant Hitchings tells his 
Congressman on page 194. He gets it about right. 
The man who won the fight for parcels post 
would prove himself the best friend that the people 
now have in public life. He would prove that he is 
not afraid of the express companies, the railroads or 
the great army of grafters and leeches who know they 
would be put out of useless or illegitimate jobs by a 
fair parcels post. The victory of such a man would 
prove that these big influences cannot kill him off. 
The people want this unkillable and unquenchable 
vigor of the human bulldog, and they would surely 
put him in the White House. If you think the next 
President of this country will not have to stand up 
and “speak for it” you would better guess once more. 
* 
Last year we had a series of articles on a milk 
commission for New York city. The milk situation 
here is such that actual demand and supply have little 
to do with price. The dealers are able to control the 
milk so that they charge what they please and give 
the producers what they think best. There is at pres¬ 
ent no redress. Milk cannot be held back like meat 
or grain. It must be sold and used at once. Pro¬ 
ducers have not been able to control the supply, and 
with half a dozen States within reach of this island 
such control is not at present likely. It is impossible, 
under laws now in force, to break up the combination 
of milk dealers. They simply form a “gentlemen’s 
agreement” or verbal understanding under which they 
fix prices. There being no written contract the law 
cannot touch them, and they can do as they see fit. 
The result is they hold up the consumer and pay 
the farmer less than the cost of producing milk. A 
bill has been introduced at Albany to remedy this 
..by a milk commission of three members to be ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor. These commissioners are 
to “regulate and control the milk traffic” in New 
York, Buffalo and Rochester. They would have 
power to fix standards for quality and purity, and fix 
the price that can be asked or demanded. We shall 
give the details of this bill later. The principles of 
this form of regulation are up for discussion. As a 
rule we have too many commissions. Some of them 
will make a nice roosting place for political hacks, yet 
there are cases where strong and energetic men could 
make a commission worth while. In this milk situa¬ 
tion they could, if they had real power and wanted 
to do so, put the milk trust out of business. We have 
waited long years for any other practical way of 
doing it. 
BREVITIES. 
The Himalaya blackberry will not stand the frost. It 
Is, among fruits, worse thafl the non-layer among hens. 
Remember that the best egg the hen man can have is 
the “nest egg” laid aside for a rainy day—or an attack 
of cholera or roup. 
That description of the horse sale by Mr. Morse has 
called out a whole volume of comment. The scheme has 
been worked for years. 
Is Spring on the way? Peach trees were in bloom 
January 30 in Texas and Florida, and maple sap had be¬ 
gun to run in southern Ohio. 
We are asked to tell what the “laugh and grow fat hog 
pasture” may be. In the Horticultural Number you will 
find some mixtures that will make any hog happy and 
fat—if you sow them. 
“The ground hog?” We like that form of ground hog 
known as sausage. It goes well with a pile of buckwheat 
cakes. We wish you such health that when you finish 
such a tueal there will not be enough left to cast a shadow. 
Our correspondent John M. Jamison of Ohio, last season 
explained iu detail his plan of working Alfalfa with a 
sharp pointed spring-tooth harrow. A manufacturing firm 
will now put out a harrow carrying such teeth. A good 
move! 
