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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1860 . 
Publl»hed weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
Johk J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Boylb. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, oqual to 
8s. 6d„ or S 1 ^ marks, or 10*2 francs. Remit in money ordor, 
express order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 00 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for timt 
orders. References required for advertisers unknown to 
us; and cash trust 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 
advertising in ourcolumns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. Wo protect 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 fanners 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. 
* 
Sorry that the truth makes us say it, but Senator 
Elihu B. Root of New York has taken a front seat 
among the “careful consideration” class! 
* 
The latest word on lime-sulphur' for brown rot, 
scab and other peach troubles is what you want—if 
at all interested in the subject. You will get it in 
Farmers’ Bulletin No. 440, issued by the U. S. De¬ 
partment of Agriculture. It would be hard to figure 
how much good the experiments detailed in this pam¬ 
phlet have done. It will save enough for peach 
growers to pay all the cost of the National Depart¬ 
ment—and more. 
* 
The New Jersey Horticultural Society voted at its 
last meeting to make a display of Jersey fruit in New 
York and Philadelphia. Lying between these two 
great cities New Jersey has a great chance to advertise 
her farm products. Plenty of merchants would will¬ 
ingly display the fruit if asked to do so. The State 
has produced many trusts and mosquitoes but we 
would like it understood also that Jersey apples at 
their best are the finest grown. This advertising 
scheme is a good one. It is said that New Jersey has 
one inhabitant for less than two acres of territory. 
That is crowding them close, but what a market for 
good fruit! 
* 
Under the pure food and drug laws an article is 
adulterated “if it is mixed, colored, powdered, coated, 
or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority 
is concealed.” It has become a custom in some 
localities to pick green oranges and keep them in a 
warm moist room until they change to a yellow color. 
This fruit changes in color but not in character. There 
is no useful change in sugar or acid, and each green 
orange is still a hall of stomach ache for a child, 
though disguised in a yellow coat. The Food Inspec¬ 
tion Board now decides that such disguised green 
fruit are “adulterated” in the meaning of the law. 
They will be after the green peaches next! 
* 
“I can beat that l” No doubt a good share of our 
hen men will say that when they read Mr. Dougan’S 
full report for March. There is nothing remarkable 
about the record, and that is what we like about it. 
The R. N.-Y. is after the truth, whether it be clad 
in feathers or in fur—or without any clothing. There 
have been so many wild and improbable stories about 
hens that we want a plain statement of the average. 
It looks as if we should get that in this hen record. 
If we had a cow working against those hens the 
owner might think he had the contest won already. 
Wait! This is only one month. Mrs. Leghorn and 
Mrs. Wyandotte know their business, and they will 
attend to it. 
* 
Our people are becoming experts at two kinds of 
writing—that is, letters to their local papers and to 
their Congressmen. Many of the local papers are 
dominated by the politicians and advertisers. They 
are afraid to antagonize either of these classes—there¬ 
fore their discussion of such subjects as parcels post 
or reciprocity is one-sided and often unfair. As is 
usually the case, farmers have no one to help them, so 
they proceed to help themselves by sending brief let¬ 
ters right to these local papers. Some of the strong¬ 
est and clearest articles we have read were prepared 
in this way. Some of these local papers refuse at 
first to print the letters. The farmers have a most 
effective answer: “You can stop my paper. I do not 
want it unless you can give us a fair show!” In these 
days of telephones and rural delivery it is easy for 
farmers to get together in a thing of this sort. They 
form the backbone of the local paper’s business. It 
cannot live without them, and they have the right to 
demand that their side shall be heard. They are 
being heard. And some of these “careful considera¬ 
tion” Congressmen are getting straight talk such as 
they never had before. We have copies of many of 
these letters, and some of them are models. The 
hopeful thing is that these farmers are no longer 
afraid of a Congressman. They have been fed on 
“careful consideration” until they are sick and tired of 
the dose. Now they mean business, and any man who 
is abie to read can realize it. Farmers cannot do any 
better political work than keep up these two kinds of 
writing. 
* 
It is stated on good authority that money is being 
spent systematically to manufacture a “war scare.” At 
intervals you notice in the daily papers hints at a war 
with Japan or Germany. There is no reason why 
the United States should fight these countries or any 
others, yet some of the “interests” would like to make 
war seem probable. The object is to create a “patriot¬ 
ic” feeling that will compel Congress to build a 
larger navy and grant subsidies to steamship lines. 
This contemptible work ought to be exposed by every 
honest paper in the land. Farmers always carry the 
butt end of a subsidy, and get nothing for their labor. 
Their only hope of getting what they need from 
Congress is to stamp on “war scares” and make 
Congressmen “ply the arts of peace.” 
* 
If we are asked to hand a prize to the most careful 
of all the “careful consideration” statesmen at Wash¬ 
ington we should from our present information ask 
Senator Page of Vermont to stand up. The Green 
Mountain boys tried to put him on record regarding 
Canadian reciprocity. The Senator promised “careful 
consideration.” The papers of Vermont were largely 
in favor of the measure, hut Air. Page is so careful 
that he concluded to go outside their pages for in¬ 
formation so he went home and invited opinions. He 
got them right straight from the farm. He found that 
these papers were talking for a small minority. The 
great mass of Vermont people opposed reciprocity, 
when they got the chance they swept the local papers 
to one side and made their Senator look like a page of 
well-worn history. 
* 
Ox Saturday the Candor and Spencer Breeders' Asso¬ 
ciation sold at auction at the hotel barns in this village 
the Percheron stallion. Duke of Fremont. Melvin Per- 
soneus was the successful bidder, the price paid being 
$280. This horse is seven years old, stands 17 hands and 
weighs about 1.700 pounds. At the time the association 
was formed some two or three years ago, the price paid 
for this horse was .$2,100. This deal was no exception 
to the rule, as with the cost of maintaining such an ani¬ 
mal, and the large number of stockholders to please nearly 
every venture of this kind proves unsuccessful. 
The item is taken from a local paper in New York. 
We print it as another chapter in the “Horse Com¬ 
pany” discussion. We are still waiting for some one 
to come forward with the figures to show that one 
of those companies has even paid out. We are on 
record as advocating the use of good stallions. New 
York offers great opportunities for raising high-class 
horses, but organized horse companies does not seem 
to be the way to get at it. We are down on any game 
for “organizing” farmers on a basis of inflated capital 
where the other party gets the money and the fanners 
get the wind. 
* 
In England the farmers have an Agricultural Or¬ 
ganization Society which has been very successful. 
At the end of 1909 there were 321 societies in the 
organization, with 19,500 members. Both buying and 
selling were done, and during the year there was a 
total business of about $4,300,000. There were also 
103 other societies outside of the large organization. 
These organizations insure property, buy seeds, fer¬ 
tilizers, grain and machinery, and sell all sorts of 
farm produce. There arc 15 “egg and poultry socie¬ 
ties.” They sold over $65,000 worth of their produce, 
and 18 dairy societies sold $300,000 worth. Most of 
this was evidently handled by parcels post. The Eng¬ 
lish government, through the Board of Agriculture, 
gives financial aid to the A. O. S. because it helps 
organize farmers, and this helps consumers by en¬ 
abling them to get closer to producers. It would be 
impossible for these English societies to do this great 
business if they were held up as our farmers are by 
express extortion and middlemen. It appears that co¬ 
operative buying and selling is the salvation of the 
English farmer. What wonders it would work in 
this country! 
April 22, 
The trains 'are coming any old time except on schedule 
time. There is a freight blockade at Smyrna of 160 cars, 
from the main line. Much of it is for the 6,000 victims of 
misrepresentations advertised by land syndicates who are 
beguiling credulous individuals to ruin financially, and 
hardships indescribable by trying to make homes on the 
lands to which they have come along the east coast of 
Florida. When will people learn that it is never safe to 
trust the statements of real estate agents on land dickers? 
This is taken from the Volusia Co. Record, Florida. 
We have many other reports of a like nature. Train 
service is held up and thousands of dollars worth of 
produce will be ruined through inability to ship. We 
have done our best to tell the truth about Florida. 
Most of the work done by land boomers and sharks 
in luring victims into buying land is positively wicked. 
How we would like to take half a dozen of those 
rascals and make them work out a living through their 
own sweat on the very land which they praise so highly. 
* 
From time to time we have explained about those 
so-called “butter” makers which churn in one minute 
or turn water into butter. They usually work on the 
principle of an eggbeater, turning the milk into a 
sort of slimy mess like a watered pot cheese. The 
latest development of this thing is detailed in a gov¬ 
ernment circular: 
Investigations have shown that there has lately come 
into use in the trade an apparatus known as a “homo- 
genizer,” which has the faculty of so disrupting the glo¬ 
bules of fat that a whole milk homogenized does not per¬ 
mit the separation of the cream through the ordinary 
gravity methods. In like manner butter or other fat and 
skimmed milk passed through the homogenizer form a 
product from which the butter does not separate on 
standing and which resembles in its other physical char¬ 
acteristics whole milk. Investigations have further shown 
that butter and skimmed milk are passed through the 
homogenizer to form so-called “cream,” which is used in 
place of real cream in the manufacture of ice cream. 
Over 1,000 years ago the “dairymen” of that age 
“homogenized” milk by putting it in a hide, tying the 
hide to a horse’s tail and running him over rough 
ground. That old citizen was more honest than the 
modern “homogenizer,” for his stuff was genuine and 
not a counterfeit. The government decides that the 
stuff which comes out of this machine is neither 
butter, milk, cream nor “ice cream.” We warn our 
readers that if they try to sell this “homogenized” 
milk they will run up against a Federal law—almost 
as unhealthy a journey as they could take. 
* 
It seems quite evident that Congress will do nothing 
about parcels post at the special session. We do not 
expect much help before the regular session, at which 
time we believe it will be possible to get Congress 
going. None can be more desirous than we are to 
see a fair parcels post in operation, but the fact is that 
our people must hammer Congress harder than ever 
before we can hope for it. The outlook for reciprocity 
is that the House will soon pass a bill much like the 
one advocated by President Taft. It will be held up 
in the Senate, but will probably go through with some 
little changes. The Democrats in Congress will use 
reciprocity with Canada as the basis for reducing 
the tariff. The main opposition has come from 
farmers for, as we have stated, the other interests 
abandoned the farmers when they thought the farm 
vote was no longer needed. President Taft intro¬ 
duced the reciprocity bill near the end of the last 
session of Congress evidently not expecting any great 
opposition. The farmers felt that their interests were 
being sacrificed and they put up such a strong fight 
for fair play that the bill was held up. The Demo¬ 
crats now come forward with what they call a “farm¬ 
ers, free list” or a bill to remove the tariff from some 
100 articles which farmers now buy at high figures. 
This recognizes the injustice of the reciprocity bill 
as it stands alone. The tariff reduction on things 
which the farmer buys is offered as compensation for 
the removal of protection on what he has to sell. 
This much has been gained by the agitation for 
fair play for farm products. 
BREVITIES. 
The confirmed egg eater is ordained for the chicken pie. 
In sowing grain to be cut for fodder use about one- 
fourth more seed than for grain production. 
This scheme of working off the crows by scattering corn 
over the fields ! How do you operate in cases where it is 
necessary to use a weeder or harrow before the corn comes 
up? That covers the corn. What do the crows do then? 
Some judge of human nature has found a new one for 
milk. The Japanese use but little of it and are silent and 
taciturn. The Tibetans use it freely and arc gay and 
good natured. The cow seems to “scatter sunshine.” 
Here is a new one to us: “Horses are so high that I am 
thinking seriously of bringing up a steer, for the cultivator 
and a one-horse plow. What breed would you recommend? 
I would be sincerely obliged if your readers would give 
hints on training.” 
Yes, sir, there are half a dozen people trying to sell 
churns which run like a Dig egg beater and smash up the 
milk or cream. They make a sort of thick mess like a 
soft pot cheese. It isn’t butter, and anyone who says it 
is ought to be made to live on it. 
