668 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 6, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S TAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban Homes 
Established isso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Colungwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dii.lon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
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“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. But to make doubly sure wc will make good any loss to paid 
subscribers sustained by trusting nny deliberate swindler advertising in our 
columns, and any such swindler will bo publicly exposed. Wc protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible 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. 
* 
We give you fair warning. The R. N.-Y. will keep 
talking about Hairy vetch until you and many others 
try it as a Winter cover crop. The chances are that 
you may scold a little at first because we keep at 
this vetch talk. Later you will come back and thank 
us for leading you into experiment. That is the way 
it went with Alfalfa. By the way, we shall keep at 
that also. So be prepared for a never-ending series 
of sermons on vetch, Alfalfa, parcels post and a few 
others. 
* 
Hardly a week passes without some notice in the 
papers of a new discovery of potash deposits. The 
last story was about great Spanish mines which were 
to change the entire potash industry. Investigation 
shows that those deposits are small and scarcely 
worth mining. It seems evident that American farm¬ 
ers will be obliged to depend on Germany for potash 
supplies until we learn how to utilize what we have 
in American rocks and lakes. Already 10 patents for 
utilizing the potash in rocks have been taken out. We 
must chase up Uncle Sam to go fishing for potash ! 
* 
A flood of rain in Chili washed a large amount 
of nitrates into the sea, where it was lost except for 
feeding marine growth and fish. The rains last Fall 
and this Spring have washed out of unprotected farm 
soil in this country 1,000 times as much nitrate as 
was lost by this flood in Chili. Every field left bare 
and dead gave up its share of nitrates to the water 
which passed over and through it. There was little 
or no loss from fields where rye, vetch or clover were 
growing, for these living plants drew up and held the 
life-giving nitrates. Your farm is a nitrate factory. 
Dead plants do not save the waste for you, but live 
ones do. Never, never let your farm come out of 
Winter bareheaded again. 
* 
Hurrah ! Parcels post is here! Suppose you have 
11 pounds of merchandise to mail. You wrap it in 
one stout package and write on it, Poste Restante, 
Zimony, Hungary. Then you stick on $1.32 in stamps 
and off it goes to any little mountain town in Servia— 
miles from a railroad. What a glorious thing that is! 
“But what good does that do me? I do not live in 
Servia. I want to mail my stuff to customers in towns 
20 miles away!” 
Why don’t you do it? You can take that same 11 
pounds. In order to get it to your friends you must 
put it in three separate packages and then pay $1.76 
for mailing it 20 miles! Hurrah for parcels post! 
There are two chief reasons why Servia receives 
greater favors from Uncle Sam than our own country 
does: 
1. A majority of every Congress thus far has been 
afraid to antagonize the express companies. 
2. A majority of us (the people) have lacked the 
nerve to make our Congressmen face the music. “We 
the people!” We have been spelling it zvee. 
* 
The Canadian reciprocity bill passed the House of 
Representatives 265 votes to 89. There was a strong 
debate in which the farmer’s rights were well defined, 
but all except 11 Democrats and 67 Republicans voted 
for the bill. The Republicans expected to muster 100 
votes in opposition, but could only raise 78—one less 
than a majority of their total membership. In the 
former Congress the negative vote was 92. The 
bill now goes to the Senate. The situation there is 
badly mixed. One leading Senator has said privately 
that the bill cannot pass in its present form. Another, 
equally prominent, says the votes needed to pass it 
are ready at any time. Of the New York Senators, 
O’Gorman favors the bill, Root strongly favored it 
at first, but is now reported as saying “The farmers’ 
case as presented is stronger than I supposed.” We 
think the debate in the Senate will last for months, 
One bad feature of it all is that the big “protected” 
interests, which at first abandoned the farmer, now 
seem to realize his power. They are “rallying to save 
the farmer!” Yes—save five cents for him while he 
saves $500 for them. 
* 
The Troy, N. Y., Times says the Canadian reci¬ 
procity bill will be passed, “which is as it should be.” 
Then “The Times” says about lowering the tariff on 
things farmers have to buy: 
Letting in free of duty articles which compete with 
American manufacturers will affect injuriously American 
industries, and American industries are to a very great 
extent the reliance of the American farmers. The more 
men employed and the more wages paid 'in American 
manufactories the better the market for the American 
raiser of grain, cattle, fruit and vegetables. 
Can you beat that for political guff and baby talk? 
Not if you had 1,000 years to practice in! Canadian 
reciprocity puts everything the farmer produces on the 
free list—takes away the last particle of “protection” the 
farmer ever had. The “Troy Times” thinks that “is 
as it should he,” but the manufacturers must still have 
their tariff. Here is a man who argues that farmers 
should give up all the protection they ever had, sell on 
a free trade market, and yet continue to buy at “pro¬ 
tected” prices! It would be hard to decide which is 
the greater blockhead—what this man thinks the 
farmer is, or what he really is himself. 
* 
When the Panama Canal is finished the engineers 
will receive great credit. This is due them—yet 
there are others in humbler lines who made the great 
work possible. One of these men is Charles J. Finley. 
What did he do? Made it possible for men to labor 
at the great ditch. All the brains and money and skill 
on earth could not complete that work unless backed 
up by hand labor. The French abandoned the canal 
because yellow fever and malaria killed off their 
workmen. Finley proved that these diseases were 
conveyed by mosquitoes. When these insects were 
killed the diseases disappeared. Had the Panama 
Canal been continued as the French left it—a mos¬ 
quito breeding ditch—all the money and energy in 
this nation would have been baffled for years. When 
the United States Army went to Havana death 
claimed its awful harvest. Finley saw that the mos¬ 
quitoes were death’s messengers, and be urged action. 
As the Medical Record says: 
lie was received with polite toleration, hut without 
great enthusiasm. He persisted nevertheless in season 
and out of season, and in fact made such a nuisance of 
himself that an investigation was finally decided upon, 
his confidence arousing a suspicion that he might, after 
all, be on the right track. 
Investigation proved his theory. Give Finley credit 
for the big ditch. Give him credit for proving an¬ 
other theory. “Polite toleration” is first cousin to 
“careful consideration.” Let us make ourselves a 
nuisance to these Congressmen as Finley did, and 
make them give us parcels post. 
* 
You would not have thought it—some of you good 
people who have been inclined to sneer at New Jer¬ 
sey! You have said that Jersey could produce noth¬ 
ing but trusts, mosquitoes and politicians. She did 
have some malignant specimens of all of these pests, 
but during the past five months New Jersey has set 
an example for the rest of the Union. She has put on 
her books the strongest corrupt practice law yet passed, 
a strong primary elections law, an employer’s liabil¬ 
ity act and several other radical measures which are 
sure to benefit the common people. While New York 
has been squabbling over the Senatorial election and 
waiting for one big politician or another to wink his 
eye, New Jersey has gone straight ahead and accom¬ 
plished things. We shall analyze and explain these 
laws before they are in operation. Now we want to 
point out the reason for this great victory. It started 
right after the last election. There was a primary 
last year, and a majority of those who voted declared 
their choice for United States Senator to be E. E. 
Stokes, Republican, or James E. Marline, Democrat. 
To their surprise the Democrats carried the Legisla¬ 
ture and the politicians set out to defeat Mr. Martine. 
Gov. Wilson knew that if this were done his party 
would break faith with the people and prove itself 
dishonest and unfit to rule. So he went past the 
politicians and appealed to the voters of his party. 
They responded like a mountain storm, and so 
frightened the politicians that they gave up at once 
and elected Mr. Martine. That settled it. Having 
once felt the wrath of the voters, the politicians fell 
over themselves to give what the people demanded. 
Thus New Jersey leads the way and shows what 
must be done. Jerseymen mastered the politicians. 
You must either master them or serve them. 
* 
Since there has been so much testimony as to the 
value of lime-sulphur as a spray for fruit trees, many 
have asked if it will prove as useful for spraying po¬ 
tatoes. It has been claimed that Bordeaux Mixture 
is particularly valuable for potato spraying. Will 
lime-sulphur take its place as it promises to do in 
fruit spraying? The best advice we have is the fol¬ 
lowing from W. A. Orton, pathologist in charge of 
the Government investigation in plant diseases: 
We have as yet insufficient evidence upon which to base 
a conclusive, reply in regard to the efficiency of lime- 
sulphur compounds as compared with Bordeaux mixture 
in controlling potato blight. What evidence we have affords 
no reason for giving up Bordeaux mixture. The lime- 
sulphur compounds appear to be on the whole less efficient 
fungicides than Bordeaux. Their increasing use on fruit 
trees is due to other reasons; namely, that the self-boiled 
lime-sulphur Is safe to use on tender foliage, while the 
factory-boiled lime-sulphur is an efficient Winter spray 
and conveniently purchased in rcady-to-use form. Standard 
Bordeaux mixture is not injurious to potato foliage; on 
the other hand, it appears to exert a stimulating or 
beneficial action in addition to controlling parasitic 
diseases, and we advise potato growers to continue its use. 
* 
Some recent cases of fertilizer law settled in Great 
Britain will interest our farmers. A dealer sold a 
fertilizer with a guaranteed analysis. His agent as¬ 
sured the farmers who bought it that the mixture 
was suitable for growing turnips. The crop where it 
was used proved a failure, and the farmers refused 
to pay for it. The dealer sued to recover the price. 
The farmers proved by good evidence that the turnip 
crop failed where this fertilizer was used, and chemists 
testified that the analysis was not a good one for 
turnips. The judge held that the agent’s statement 
that the mixture was suitable for turnips implied a 
guarantee under the law, since the farmers relied upon 
the agent’s skill and judgment. He held that, under 
these circumstances, the farmers were not liable for 
the price of the fertilizer, but were entitled to dam¬ 
ages for the loss of their crop. The Mark Lane Ex¬ 
press says of this decision: 
The judgment is important, because it involves the 
principle that the obligations of the seller do not cease 
when he has supplied the manure and rendered an invoice 
in compliance with the act. If the seller in any circular 
or by the mouth of his agent has made a statement that 
the manure is suitable for the crop it implies a warranty 
that the manure is thus suitable, and should it prove to 
be otherwise the seller cannot escape responsibility. 
Another case in Ireland turned out the same way. 
The English fertilizer laws are very strict—as they 
should be. We doubt if such a verdict could be ob¬ 
tained under any American law now on the books, 
and we regret it. What a wholesome effect there 
would be upon the fertilizer and seed trade if the 
owners were forced to put dollars on the wild wind 
and guff of their agents! 
BREVITIES. 
The best manure spreader—the sheep. 
Ever harrow the grain in early Spring? What was the 
result? 
No matter who you are, where you live or your name, 
try to plant a tree this Spring. 
It looks as if the Hope Farm man might have a $250 
per year cow ! Tell him wherein his figuring is wrong. 
Unhappy that farm home which lacks a full supply of 
dry fuel. Its women folks would be justified in going on 
strike. 
The government of Sweden has secured control of water 
power which amounts to 545,145 horse-power, and is after 
more. This will be used on state railroads and other 
industries. 
The latest suggested “cure” for a cribbing horse is to 
put hog rings in his tongue. It probably would “cure" 
the horse, but the man who would do such a cruel thing 
ought to he kept in jail! 
Among plant novelties promised us from Germany is 
an ornamental cabbage with richly colored leaves, white, 
pink, red, bronze, yellow and crimson, some with pointed 
and some with curled leaves. It is said to give the ef¬ 
fect of Coleus, while much hardier. 
Our American scientific men state that owing to the 
nature of the disease it will do little good to soak seed 
corn to prevent smut, because the germs are not in the 
seed as with oats or wheat. In Europe experiments show 
the value of such soakiug. Some of our readers insist 
that the disease came to them on seed corn. 
One of the troublesome weeds they are destroying with 
arsenite spraying in Hawaii is the pretty little German 
ivy, a favorite house plant with us, and another is the 
Lantana. one of our showy bedding plants. The Lantana 
makes regular jungles in Hawaii, where it originally es 
taped from gardens, and has now become an intolerable 
nuisance. 
At the Kothamsted Experiment Station it was esti¬ 
mated that there were 25.000 angleworms to the acre. 
The actual plant food in the bodies of these worms was 
only equal to the nitrogen in eight pounds of nitrate of 
soda, or about 250 pounds stable manure. The worms 
help by making over and draining the soil, but they add 
but little plant food. 
