030 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established I SCO 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 4(19 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Colungwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
W«. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or lO 1 ^ 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 time orders. 
References required for advertisers unknown to us j and 
cash must accompany transient orders. 
"A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is hacked by a respon¬ 
sible person. But to make doubly sure we will make good any loss to paid 
subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising in our 
columns, a.nd any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but we do not gua rantee 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 yon 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. 
* 
Do not delay! This means every farmer in New 
York State who hears of this. Help push that railroad 
fire bill through the New York Legislature. Make 
that a law and the railroads must pay for damage 
done by any fire which starts from their operations. 
We cannot get this law unless a strong sentiment is 
worked up behind it. It is just and necessary. It 
is Assembly bill No. 1535, and well worth your imme¬ 
diate attention. 
* 
Experiments in Colorado show that in nine days 
near the end of the season a potato crop gained over 
30 bushels per acre! In fact a large part of the tuber 
growth is made inside of two weeks. The tubers can¬ 
not grow if the vines are killed by blight, for the 
tuber is an enlarged stem. Here then is one of the 
most forcible arguments for spraying potato vines to 
keep off blight. We must keep the vines alive if we 
expect a large crop of tubers. Another thing is that 
we cannot expect high quality in potatoes unless they 
can grow to maturity. If blight kill the vine too early 
the tuber is no more than half developed. 
* 
Reports from some sections indicate great damage 
from peach borers. This insect is often more danger¬ 
ous than the San Jose scale. The best method of 
fighting is the old-fashioned digging out process in 
the Fall with another examination in late May or 
June. Prof. J. B. Smith now recommends a further 
treatment which is being followed by many growers. 
After clearing away the earth to hunt for the borers 
in May, leave the lower bark exposed for a few days 
and then spray thoroughly with lime-sulphur and arse¬ 
nate of lead. Use an excess of lime to make a stiff 
wash, and spray from the lower trunk up for 16 to 
24 inches from the surface. This not only kills any 
borers left on the trunk, but prevents the moths from 
laying their eggs near the ground. 
* 
To be frank, the times, as far as the farmers are con¬ 
cerned, looks mighty dubious to us. There has been 
such a carefully planned and executed campaign in all 
of the great magazines, as well as the daily and weekly 
newspapers, that the great mass of the country thinks 
the farmers have been getting more than their share, and 
everyone seems determined to soak us. Some of the 
things which they are trying to do seem simply out¬ 
rageous to me, and the aggregate of the legislation 
already passed as well as pending is so serious that my 
neighbors even here in the richest part of the State are 
talking of leaving the farms. The results of this would 
be exactly what the country does not want, in that it 
would mean higher prices than ever before. 
This is written by one of the most intelligent far¬ 
mers in Ohio. It is a fair statement of the prevailing 
feeling among men of his class. Our desire is to state 
the facts as they are found. Our friend is right about 
the effect of the foolish “back to the land” campaign 
which the literary magazines have been conducting. 
The great profits of farming have been painted in 
glowing colors, even while many good farmers have 
been receiving less than their products cost. We 
saw from the first what this fool talk would lead to. 
People in town and city have been led to believe that 
farmers are responsible for the high retail prices 
charged for food, while in reality these farmers have 
received barely 35 cents of the consumer’s dollar. 
These glowing stories are responsible for the demand 
for free trade in farm products and continued tariff 
on manufactured goods. You know by this time what 
The R. N.-Y. thinks about it. We do not see how any 
clear-headed farmer can expect any particular improve¬ 
ment so long as the two old parties can use “agricul¬ 
ture” like a football to play the political game. Safety 
and strength lie in cutting loose and forming a politi¬ 
cal group which can look after our own interests. 
The Pennsylvania Experiment Station has some ex¬ 
periments with chemicals under way which will rank 
with those famous ones by Sir J. B. Lawes. They 
have been carried on for more than a quarter of a 
century in a regular farm rotation. They demonstrate 
the fact that by using clover and potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid with the farm manure fertility can be kept 
up and the soil made more productive at a fair profit. 
Under this plan no nitrogen need be bought so long 
as the clover can be kept thrifty. Another valuable 
experiment now under way in Pennsylvania is the use 
of chemicals or fine manure to improve pastures. An 
old pasture has been staked off in long strips, with 
various combinations of chemicals or chemicals and 
manure tested side by side. The pasture already shows 
the effect of this handling, and as soon as results can 
be fairly stated we shall tell what chemicals give best 
pasture. This is great work, for in many hill sec¬ 
tions the pastures are the main source of wealth. If 
they can be improved 50 or even 10 per cent, it would 
mean great things for live stock farmers. 
* 
“UNREASONABLE RESTRAINT OF TRADE.” 
The U. S. Supreme Court has decided the famous 
Standard Oil case, and interpreted the Sherman anti¬ 
trust law. Under this law the Standard Oil Company 
was found guilty of conspiracy to create a monopoly 
in restraint of trade. The company appealed to the 
Supreme Court from this verdict. The decision was 
of the greatest importance, because it not only affected 
Standard Oil, but every other corporation which might 
be brought into court. Briefly stated, the Supreme 
Court upholds the lower court, finds Standard Oil 
guilty and orders it to dissolve and transfer its stock 
back to the various companies which it absorbed. It 
has six months to do this in, and it may continue 
to sell oil in the meantime. 
It was held, until this decision, that the Sherman 
law absolutely forbid any combination to create a 
monopoly. Efforts have repeatedly been made to in¬ 
duce Congress to change the law so as to make a dis¬ 
tinction between “good” trusts and “bad” trusts, but 
thus far every such effort has been defeated. By 
this decision, however, the Supreme Court has done 
what Congress has so long refused to do. The court 
finds that Standard Oil was guilty of “unreasonable 
restraint of trade.” There is such a thing then as 
“reasonable” restraint. Under this decision a com¬ 
bination might be made to create a partial or com¬ 
plete monopoly of a certain line of business. If law¬ 
yers could convince a court that such monopoly was 
“reasonable” it could not be put out of business or 
compelled to be fair. Take this very Standard Oil 
Company. We can readily conceive such a thing as 
its reorganizing with several companies, doing much 
the same as at present and still satisfying the courts 
that its monopoly was “reasonable.” There is the 
danger of such an interpretation of the law. The 
purpose of the Sherman law was evidently to break 
up all form of monopoly if possible. Congress, which 
made the law, has repeatedly refused to change Jt so 
as to admit that any form of monopoly could be 
legal. It is the business of the Supreme Court to in¬ 
terpret rather than make laws. Yet in this decision 
it lays aside the evident intention of Congress, and 
makes what amounts to a new law. For writing those 
words “unreasonable restraint of trade” into the law 
enables the trusts and monopolies to obtain a legal 
standing which Congress would not give them. It 
will now be necessary to fight the battle all over again, 
and make the intent of the people so clear that the 
Supreme Court cannot change it. 
* 
One guess about the fate of the reciprocity bill is as 
good as another. One man tells us that it cannot 
possibly pass, while another assures us that there is a 
sure majority of 10 for the bill. The Evening Post 
quotes a well-known Senator who says just at this 
time there is a majority against the bill, but that he 
feels sure this will change, and that the bill will 
finally pass. You may take your choice. The in¬ 
fluence of the farmers at Washington has been weak¬ 
ened by statements about the work of the National 
Grange. Our understanding is that a firm of New 
York lawyers undertook to manage a plan to organize 
sentiment against the reciprocity bill. Through the 
Master of the Grange arrangements were made with 
Senator Gallinger, of New Hampshire, to mail a large 
number of documents under his “frank.” Now Sena¬ 
tor Gallinger is one of the worst “stand pat” Senators 
at Washington. He voted against popular election of 
Senators, in favor of Senator Lorimer, and his record 
has been uniformly against the things which the 
Grange ought to stand for. To tie up to such a man 
and go under obligation to him for lending his mail¬ 
ing privilege was a blunder which will hurt the Na¬ 
tional Grange. It should oppose such abuses of the 
franking privilege instead of attempting to profit 
May 27, 
secretly by them. The National Grange seems to be 
composed of good-natured, easy-going old ladies and 
gentlemen, but there is mightly little of the noble 
Roman when they come forward as leaders of agri¬ 
culture. 
* 
Just now there is a good deal of stir among breeders 
about the Indian Runner duck. We know it matures early 
and lays well, for every breeder tells us so, and many 
of us have tried it in a small way, but what we would 
like to know most of all is whether it is likely to be 
a profitable farm fowl after we all got stocked up with 
eggs at breeders' prices. It requires special knowledge, 
special markets, special egg crates. How will it com¬ 
pare with bens? Will The R. N.-Y. give us advance in¬ 
formation ? a. M. 
Maryland. 
Here you have the great need of the age stated in a 
few words. “What shall the harvest be?” We have 
seen Belgian hares, ginseng, mushrooms, seedless 
apples and a dozen of their companions come and go— 
each one taking 100 cents of the farmer’s dollar while 
the boom was on. There are several million people 
in this land with a finely developed hindsight. If you 
can only keep that hindsight as tender as a sore 
thumb there is some hope for developing foresight. 
All The R. N.-Y. can do about this duck is to ask 
readers to analyze the situation. We think this bird 
has a good future as a farm fowl, yet we expect “The 
Business Hen ’ will still be attending to business for 
several centuries to come. Give us the truth about the 
Indian Runner. We have a barrel of salt to throw 
over the stories of those who have breeding stock for 
sale. Can anyone give us the plain truth? 
* 
New York ranks well as an agricultural State. It 
is the leading dairy State, and in the front rank with 
several crops. Nine-tenths of its territory are given 
to farming and more than half its population depends 
on farming for their living. You would think that 
farmers ought to be as thick as blackbirds at Albany. 
They are—just about as thick as when the blackbirds 
have been poisoned or cultivated with a shotgun. 
There are 201 members of the Legislature, and 14 
of these, or seven per cent, actually dare to give their 
occupation as “farming.” The Senate with 51 mem¬ 
bers has one solitary farmer, one “agriculturist,” 26 
lawyers, three bankers, three real estate men—the 
rest engaged in some sort of business! In the Assem¬ 
bly with 150 members there are 13 farmers, 58 law¬ 
yers, 17 real estate men, six editors, and the rest 
engaged in some sort of business. There are four 
doctors, one clergyman, two undertakers and three 
druggists. These, with a chemist and two insurance 
men, offset all the farmers. The Senate agricultural 
committee does not contain a single farmer—three 
lawyers, two manufacturers and three real estate men. 
The Assembly committee has six farmers out of 13. 
We would like to be told why this Legislature con¬ 
tains 14 farmers, 20 real estate men, 84 lawyers and 
six bankers. Why should a real estate man make a 
better law tinkerer than a farmer? 
* 
The Western experiment stations are called upon 
to settle many industrial questions. Quite a remark¬ 
able one came up for the Utah Station. One thing 
which makes success in “dry land farming” possible 
is the use of a grain harvester. This machine cuts 
the straw, thrashes out the grain and bags it at one 
operation. This saves much labor as compared with 
the method of putting the bundles or heads of the 
straw in a stack. The harvester is used in “dry” 
farming because, there being no rain, the grain dries 
out quickly after ripening. The millers of some sec¬ 
tions claimed that this grain was not fit for milling 
purposes. They claimed that the grain must go 
through a “sweat” in the stack before being fit for 
use. Making this claim the millers discriminated 
against the dry farming wheat and cut the price. This 
threatened serious damage to these dry farmers. The 
Station undertook to settle the matter by testing the 
bread-making value of both kinds of wheat. It was 
found that the wheat cut by the harvester was just 
as valuable for bread-making as that from wheat 
which had been permitted to “sweat” in the stack. 
The grain harvesting did not affect the value of the 
flour. This will settle it. The millers will no longer 
have any grounds for their discrimination. This is 
fine work for a station to do, and there have been 
many similar cases. 
BREVITIES. 
The old fight against witch grass is on. Thorough 
culture, “smothering” with some rank-growing crop, or 
over-stocking with sheep are the remedies. 
What you want in a sample of lime is the finest pos¬ 
sible division. Slaked lime is usually finer than ground 
limestone, and will spread more evenly through the soil. 
Yes, gentlemen, while we are waiting for the season 
of vetch planting, let us not forget our old friends, cow- 
pea and Soy bean. They will help stuff that soil with 
humus. 
