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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 1850. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, Kew York. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koylk, Associate Editor. 
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To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
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In order to introduce The R. N.-Y. to progressive, 
intelligent farmers who do not now take it, we send it 
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poses. We depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
We have mentioned the subject full many a time; 
you have heard it in prose—now we try it in rhyme. 
Your meadows are scanty, you’re short of good hay! 
How can you get out of the hole? The best way is to 
turn the soil over as soon as you please, and put in a 
seeding of good oats and peas. Don’t sow the cow 
pea—it will rot in the ground when planted so early, 
the best thing we’ve found is the Canada pea—sow a 
bushel or so on an acre then plow some five inches, 
then go and sow some three bushels of oats from the 
bin, and then take a harrow and harrow them in. Then 
let them alone and go on with your job. You may 
think Canadian free trade will rob the American farmer 
but listen to me—you will never be robbed by the 
Canada pea. 
< * 
You will have to admit, after all, that there are 
two good sides to this proposition of figuring the 
products from a hen. One of them is given on page 
538. Suppose two men start on January 1—each with 
$100. One buys two cows, the other 80 hens. They 
agree to compare notes for a year and see which $100 
will prove most productive! If the cow man can add 
four calves to his herd during the year, why should 
'he not add their value to that of the milk or butter? 
If the hen man can add 300 chickens and make some 
of the pullets lay during the year, why is he not justi¬ 
fied in counting it all in? It all comes originally 
from the 80 hens or the $100. If the hen is more 
productive than the cow, that may prove an argu¬ 
ment in her favor. Why is not the hen man justified 
in counting everything which his original $100 gives 
him during the year? 
* 
The more you study into this Guernsey cow case, 
the more the wonder grows. Our understanding is 
that those cows never gave any of that “liquid butter” 
or nine per cent milk when watched or supervised 
by outside parties. We mean unprejudiced people 
who had no interest in the cow. We are informed 
that whenever representatives of several stations 
supervised the test the milk regularly dropped tb 
about five per cent fat. If we are wrong in this, will 
Mr. Taylor or Mr. Hammond set us right? In many 
respects this is one of the most important cases which 
has yet come before a cattle breeders’ association. We 
believe that the Guernsey Cattle Club, both officers 
and members in good majority, view these tests with 
suspicion, and would not willingly let them go with¬ 
out further verification. They would have no official 
standing to-day, we believe, hut for a Supreme Court 
injunction. They stand on the record, therefore, as 
judge-made rather than cow-made. It seems to us 
that in order to stamp them as cow-made the cows 
should “come back” with some of that nine per cent 
milk—not with a few pounds, but when in good flow. 
* 
The House of Representatives passed a resolution 
calling for popular election of United States Senators. 
There was little or no opposition. Anyone who will 
get out among the people can quickly learn the 
strength of the demand for this reform. The Senate 
is now to act on .the resolution. It was lost in the 
last Congress through the votes of “lame ducks.” These 
hindrances are Senators who have been defeated for 
election—repudiated by their States, and who use 
the last days of official life to gratify personal spite 
or kill off some reform. These “lame ducks” killed 
the plan for popular election of Senators and “puri¬ 
fied” Lorimer of Illinois. Among the lamest of these 
ducks were Depew of New York, Kean of New Jer¬ 
sey, Dick of Ohio and Scott of West Virginia. The 
new Senators from New York and New Jersey, 
O'Gorman and Martine, are both in favor of the 
resolution. We think it will now pass and become a 
law. Let us never forget what a chance New York 
State missed when the resolution came up in March. 
It was defeated by four votes. Senators Root and 
Depew both voted against it. Had they voted for it 
the count would have been a tie. It would have been 
decided by Vice-President Sherman, also from New 
York, and all this time a large majority of New York 
people are in favor of this reform! 
* 
Would it be possible or policy for an average farmer 
to hire a man who understands farm economy as well 
as farm management to watch progress for a short time 
and then point out weak points in the said fanner's 
system? The elimination of weak points has been the 
making of our present-day trusts, and I want to apply 
their good methods to agriculture. T. w. a. 
Ilolley, N. Y. 
It will depend on the man. It he is practical and 
is in sympathy with farming and also knows the 
scientific side of it he could help. Such a man’s ser¬ 
vices would be valuable, and it would pay to employ 
him. If, however, he were a pure scientist who knew 
little about the real life of a farmer it is doubtful if 
he would pay. There ought to be a good opening for 
broad-minded and successful farmers of mature years 
to go about in this way and study farm methods. 
Manufacturers and railroad men hire experts in this 
way, let them go free to study methods and report. 
But no man however wise can help a farmer in this 
way unless he has some sympathy with farming. 
* 
Why did not President Taft handle parcels post as 
he did Canadian reciprocity? If he had waited until 
the end of Congress and then, without warning, de¬ 
manded a bill granting parcels post and jammed it 
through zvith all the pozver at his command he would 
have ranked in history as a great President!” 
That, in substance, is what thousands of farmers 
are writing their Congressmen. It has reached 
President Taft himself. We believe it is true that 
if the Republican leaders had shown even common 
interest in parcels post and even started a fair experi¬ 
ment with it they would have held control of Con¬ 
gress. We have evidence to show that a score of them 
were defeated because they would not rise above “care¬ 
ful consideration” when farmers asked where they stood. 
For there is more to this parcels post proposition 
than the politicians seem to think. The people now 
brand the “careful consideration” Congressman as 
either a tool of the express companies and monopolies 
or else afraid of them. A Congress of tools and 
cowards is worse for this nation than a vampire suck¬ 
ing the blood of the living. Judged in all its '•bear¬ 
ings the question of a fair parcels post is the greatest 
one now before this country—larger than the tariff 
or any other. The Democrats are now working and 
studying to gain the confidence of the country and 
elect a President. It is safe to say that they never 
can do it unless they make parcels post a supreme 
issue and either pass a bill or pledge themselves to 
do so. 
* 
Every year we have a good many questions about 
the danger of leaving stock in grass orchards which 
are being sprayed. There would of course be no 
particular danger when using oil or lime sulphur. In 
the case of spraying poisons to kill leaf-eating insects 
many experiments have been conducted, and the gen¬ 
eral verdict is that there is nothing to fear from Hie 
ordinary careful spraying. The grass grows rapidly 
during the spraying season, and a day or so after the 
spraying would not carry enough of the poison to 
injure an animal. There would be some danger if 
the drainings from a spray tank were left on top of 
the ground, or if too much liquid were put on one 
place. Stock has abnormal tastes at times, and might 
lick over such places. With careful spraying, however, 
we would not fear to let stock pasture the orchard. 
As a matter of precaution we would keep them out for 
48 hours after spraying. A few years ago the Massa¬ 
chusetts Experiment Station experimented with some 
cattle by feeding day after day small quantities of 
arsenic. This was fed in the feed or in capsules. 
These cattle were all affected, some dying. These 
experiments do not indicate danger from pasturing 
stock, for quick-growing grass is a very different 
thing from grain and artificially poisoned hay. They do, 
however, indicate a chance for danger when hay is 
used from orchards which were carelessly sprayed 
when the grass was nearly ripe. 
April 29, 
The government has already “withdrawn from entry” 
the following areas of public phosphate land:— 
Acres. 
Montana . 33,950 
Florida . 37,439 
Idaho .1,101,517 
Utah . 107,745 
Wyoming ...1,267,494 
Total..2,548,145 
This means public land underlaid by phosphate 
rock which is the chief source of phosphoric acid in 
fertilizers. It was found that these phosphate beds 
were going into the hands of private owners, and that 
more than half the American production was going 
out of the country. Now the Government will hold 
on to this phosphate and see that it is used for the 
benefit of Americans—as it should be. The greater 
part of this phosphate is in the Ear West, close to 
copper smelters, where large volumes of sulphuric 
acid fumes escape. These will some day be saved for 
treating the phosphate and thus give us cheaper fer¬ 
tilizers. We still lack American supplies of available 
potash. There are vast stores of this material in rocks 
and waters, and the Government should not object to 
any reasonable expense needed to learn to make this 
potash available. 
* 
We have heard .rom a dozen States endorsing the 
suggestion for a farmer’s group or party after the plan 
of the German agrarians. The present situation at 
Washington clinches the argument for such a farmer’s 
party. The House has passed the Canadian reciprocity 
bill and it goes to the Senate. The House will pass 
various free trade bills. No one seems to expect 
that the Senate as at present made up will ever pass 
these free trade bills, or that President Taft would 
sign them. The President wants the reciprocity bill 
passed, but the farmers have protested so powerfully 
against its unjust provisions that its passage is doubt¬ 
ful in the present shape or alone. If the so-called 
“farmer’s free list” had been made a part of the 
reciprocity measure the combination would probably 
have gone through, though the President might veto 
it. As it stands the whole thing looks like playing 
for effect. The Democrats want the lower tariff but 
they do not want to face the responsibility for a busi¬ 
ness depression just before the next election. The 
Republicans are frightened at the attitude of the farm¬ 
ers and would hardly dare antagonize the manufac¬ 
turers. At the same time they realize that the “high 
cost of living” cry from the consumers must he at¬ 
tended to. So there they are playing back and forth 
for political advantage. Neither side apparently dares 
offend the express companies and railroads and de¬ 
mand a fair parcels post. Now anyone can see what 
would happen if we had in Congress 75 or 100 mem¬ 
bers who knew that they were put there first of all 
to stand for agriculture! They might be Democrats 
or Republicans on party issues, but they would not be 
there unless they were pledged to put the interests 
of agriculture above all else. That is what we mean 
by a group like that of the German agrarians. Right 
now we have an illustration of what such a group or 
party could do for us. We must stand and take whaf 
these scheming politicians see fit to throw in our 
direction, simply because we cannot give evident ex¬ 
pression to the power which our numbers and im¬ 
portance would justify. Look at it from any point 
you will, there is no longer any hope for the farmer 
in ordinary party politics. He must run his own 
machine. 
BREVITIES. 
We have begun early to talk about vetch, for wo want 
you to try it this Summer and Fall. 
In England a steam roller “ran away” and was not 
caught until it reached the next county. 
Many Southern towns have what they call “cleaning-up 
day.” All hands take a day off and clean up the yard. 
I'LL sing you now about the cow who makes the dairy 
fail—she puts her fat upon her back and not into the 
pail. 
You cannot beat the Canada field pea for a Spring 
legume—for improving the soil or producing feed. 
It seems a little strange that no one has offered to 
match a good brood sow against the cow or the 10 hens. 
Properly handled a good sow is a fine farm citizen. 
The new way of preventing onion smut is to use a solu¬ 
tion of formaldehyde when sowing the seed. This is done 
by using a drip attachment on the seed drill. A brief 
statement about it is found on page 540. 
Some of the local papers which are supposed to provide 
news for farmers are getting off about the poorest sample 
of baby talk over “reciprocity” that ever went in print. 
They should be chased up and cornered. 
One of the surest ways to increase the value of the 
oats crop In any section would be to have every farmer 
soak the seed in farmaldehyde before sowing. This 
would kill out smut and give that section an advertising 
and a reputation that would “trim” it. 
