670 
5THFC RURAL NEW-YORKEH 
June 10, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established /sso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Hkrbkrt W. Co lung wood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or 10)4 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates «0 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for time 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 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, and any nidi swindler will be publicly exposed. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against roguea. but we do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we bo 
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 
thp transaction, and yon must have imentioned The Kubal ^ew-yorktcr 
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, 
* 
Read the article by Mr. Liverance on page 675. 
This scare over dairy butter is a foolish one, but it 
means trouble for some of our friends. Dairy butter 
as usually made is comparatively dry, and there is 
little danger that it will ever exceed 16 per cent of 
moisture. The whole trouble is due to the oleo men 
and some dishonest creamery operators. The oleo 
men seize upon every opportunity to discredit pure 
butter. The creamery operators tried to work off 
water as butter, while the oleo men try to sell cheaper 
and inferior fats. It is a shame that farmers should 
suffer for this when their dairy butter does not con¬ 
tain an excess of moisture. 
* 
Mr. Van Deman on first page suggests a plan ior 
“gravity spraying." In a hilly country with springs 
at the hilltops such a plan is quite possible! But sup¬ 
pose Van Deman had mentioned such a thing 25 
years ago! At that time there was no spray pump 
much better than a squirt gun. Few had ever heard 
of Bordeaux mixture. The San Jose scale had not 
even been named . The original lime-sulphur man had 
not'taken a pail of sheep dip to try on his trees. Here 
is Mr. Boaz alone using V/2 tons of sulphur! All this 
merely indicates how business is developing. And lis¬ 
ten—you young men: The development of the past 25 
years is as nothing to what will happen by 1936! 
* 
This “Diary of Farm Work” has now gone far 
enough for you to see what we are after. We want 
to tell what is done on some reader’s farm every 
working day in the year. We want them all—fruit, 
grain, dairy, gardening, potato—everything; the actual 
work as it is done and a little of the “why.” Mr. 
Brigham’s notes make a good model. The desire is 
to cover every working day and all parts of the 
country. If you are willing to help, let us know and 
we can assign some day for you to report. We are 
arranging for several weeks ahead. See if we can 
select some day when you do your most interesting 
work. And let the “back to the land” man study 
these records. He will see that these farmers get up 
at 4.30 or earlier and put in nearly two “legal days.” 
* 
Last week we told how the Collin bill for regulat¬ 
ing commission men was defeated in the New York 
Assembly. The contest was like a battle between a 
regiment of volunteers and an army of trained regu¬ 
lars. It was like the Austrians with muzzle-loading 
rifles up against the Prussians with new breechload¬ 
ers! Here was one of the most important bills of the 
season so far as it affected the business of selling 
farm produce. Skilled lawyers from the city had been 
coached by the commission men to tear it apart and 
ridicule it. The farmers, with argument and right 
on their side, had no strong and skilled debaters to 
analyze the bill and answer the other side. The 
matter was new to many of the Assemblymen. Na¬ 
turally they went with the stronger presentment of 
the case. Now the principle embodied in that bill is 
right and it must be made into law and enforced. 
With the fierce opposition which comes from the city 
members it is evident that we must try some new 
plan. How is legislation obtained at Albany? The 
brewers’ association, the Anti-Saloon League, the 
hotel men, the New York Central and others obtain 
about what they want—sometimes beaten but usually 
winning out They work in two ways—constant agi¬ 
tation and a legislative agent at Albany. Few of us 
realize what such an agent who was honest and who 
knew how could do for farm legislation. Recently 
bill after bill introduced by the liquor men for more 
liberal liquor laws has been defeated largely through 
the work of the Anti-Saloon League. They have had 
a man on the job every day. He knows everybody, 
studies every bill—nothing escapes him. It will not 
do to send a committee of learned men to Albany 
from time to time. In order to obtain the legislation 
which our farmers need we must have some one who 
knows Albany right on the job. Here is a chance 
for us to try our agrarian group in New York State. 
An organization can be made this Summer. We can 
decide upon a few needed things that are right, plan 
to increase the real representatives of the farm at Al¬ 
bany and organize our forces for business—and farm¬ 
ing. 
* 
We told you a month ago that the “authorities” 
will side-step parcels post if they can. Postmaster- 
General Hitchcock has returned $3,000,000 to the 
Treasury. This is out of the amount set aside for 
running the postal service. He says there will be 
$1,000,000 profit on the year’s postal business. Parcels 
post at once? Not much—now comes the “National 
One Cent Letter Postage Association” demanding one 
cent postage on letters. They claim to have a “nation¬ 
wide movement among business men.” If these men 
get what they are after it will mean another shortage 
in the Post Office Department, the old attack upon 
higher rates for magazines and papers— and no parcels 
post. There will be the same old argument against 
it, and the express companies will go right on holding 
up the public and paying millions on watered stock. 
The president of this new “association” is said to 
call farm papers “the weeds of literature.” He evi¬ 
dently wants to pull them out, but he will find some 
of them well rooted. But the truth is that penny 
postage will side-track parcels post if we sit still and 
let these men walk over us! 
* 
“I cannot speculate what the decree may be when 
this miserable combination is given an opportunity to 
let itself doivn easy before the public after what it 
has dons in violation of the laws.” 
This is taken from a dissenting opinion of Justice 
Harlan in the Tobacco Trust case. It was clearly 
shown that the Trust had violated the Sherman law 
in the most defiant and arbitrary way. The Supreme 
Count finds the Trust guilty and directs the lower 
court to find some plan for dissolving the illegal 
combination and “recreating out of the elements” a 
lawful business. A possible limit of eight months is al¬ 
lowed for doing this, and if the Trust fails to com¬ 
ply either an injunction against the company will 
be served or a receiver appointed. This seems to be 
on the theory that tobacco has become a “necessity” 
and that the supply must not be interfered with! The 
Court once more distinguishes between reasonable or 
unreasonable monopolies and it is to this that Justice 
Harlan objects so vigorously. 
When the people wake up to the fact that the judiciary 
is legislating there will be trouble. The Q0,000,000 of 
American people are not going to submit to usurpation 
by the judiciary. 
He is right. The tendency of modern legislation 
is in the line of getting away from the people more 
and more. This is just what ought not to be in a 
republic. 
* 
Mr. Petersen, page 662 , got his money out of that 
Florida land company after putting a three-horse 
team on it. We can add little to what he says. We 
had our say before the money was invested. Some 
men are timid when it comes to going up against 
these boomers. They fight, if at all, under cover 
and in some circumstances they are justified in 
doing so. Not so with Mr. Petersen. He comes 
out boldly with name and address and stands ready 
to help others get their money. You have no idea 
how a few such men can shake the walls of Jericho. 
As for those Florida land boomers, they are a 
nuisance pure and simple. The Southern people 
realize it too. We have the following from a leading 
journalist: 
I believe this land boomer nuisance has done more to 
injure Florida and to interfere with progress there than 
any other calamity which ever befell the State, the great 
freeze of ’95 not excepted. I am even now endeavoring 
to get some sort of protective measure in shape for enact¬ 
ment in the pi'esent Florida Legislature protecting the 
State, its people and prospective settlers against the 
machinations of these bare-faced swindlers. The general 
idea along which I am working is that of placing the 
instalment-plan real-estate operator under official State 
control in some such way as the fertilizer and insurance 
business are controlled. 
That means much, for “the great freeze” nearly 
put Florida out of business. Yet we believe it is 
true. Tbe State compels the fertilizer dealer to live 
up to his guarantee. That is to save the farmer’s 
crop. The State also supervises insurance. That is 
to protect a man’s wife and children. Let it now 
supervise the human wolves who use “home” as bait 
for homeless people. We have no better illustration 
of the need of caution in buying Florida land than 
the fact that within a few miles of this worthless 
Burbank tract are some of the best farm lands in the 
South, with good homes and prosperous farmers. 
* 
That Eucalyptus article by Mr. Pryal, on page 663, 
is most interesting, and lie does well to advise against 
reckless investment in Eucalyptus planting. But the 
apparent impossibility of selling the fine Eucalyptus 
timber Mr. Pryal describes is strange, when the real 
commercial value of the wood in Australasia is con¬ 
sidered. Baron von Mueller says that an average 
of 11 tests under his direction showed Blue gum (Eu¬ 
calyptus globulus) to be equal in strength to the best 
English oak, American White oak and American ash. 
In Australasia the wood furnishes ship keels 120 feet 
long, and is extensively used for all outside work; 
joists, studs, fence rails, telegraph poles, railroad ties, 
wagon shafts and spokes. It attains a height of 350 
feet. Baron von Mueller enumerates over 30 varieties 
of Eucalyptus that are valuable for timber, many of 
them being especially recommended for wheelwrights’ 
work, shipbuilding and other purposes where strength 
and endurance are required. The Iron-bark tree of 
Victoria and New South Wales, Eucalyptus Leucoxy- 
lon, is in some respects superior to all the others, be¬ 
ing 18 per cent tougher than hickory. Perhaps local 
conditions limit the appreciation of Blue gum timber 
in California. 
# 
President Taft has refused to pardon the two bank 
wreckers, Walsh, of Chicago, and Chas. W. Morse, 
of New York. Great pressure was brought upon the 
President in these cases, and he should be commended 
for standing firm. Both these men were guilty of 
plain stealing and betrayal of trust. They knew just 
what they were doing—their crime was deliberate 
and cold-blooded. They not only deserve their 
punishment, but their term in prison will have the 
best possible effect upon other robbers who practice 
“high finance.” A large fine is no punishment for 
these big rascals. They can easily pay it and soon 
squeeze the amount out of the people by some other 
criminal trick. The hard bed, plain food and labor of 
the man behind the bars has genuine terror for these 
rogues. If Morse and Walsh had been set free every 
big thief in the land would have assumed that prison 
sentence is a farce and would have planned another 
raid. The common jail sentence is what will make 
these fellows stop and think as nothing else will. The 
Sherman law contains the following: 
“Every person who shall make any such contract or 
engage in any such combination or conspiracy shall be 
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction 
thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding 
$5,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or 
by both said punishments, in the discretion of the 
court.” 
One reason why the Sherman law has not proved 
more effective is because this punishment by im¬ 
prisonment has not been imposed. We would like to 
put a regiment of these big offenders right into jaiL 
They would sleep on straw beds, eat potatoes, soup 
and general prison fare, and zvork. When they got 
out of jail they would probably have the same in¬ 
clination to break the law as before, but there would 
be a curb bit on it. The Attorney General is reported 
as saying that criminal suits will be brought against 
officials of Standard Oil and the Tobacco Trust. 
Well, when we see some of them actually in jail we 
shall know the government means business. 
BREVITIES. 
The 17-year locust has come out of the ground ! 
After it is all figured out, good fodder corn is about 
the best crop to help in drought. 
Help us out on this proposition for selling silage. The 
discussion is started on page 677. What would be the 
chance in your neighborhood? 
In Holland, when the butter from a certain dairy or 
creamery contains too much water, the government de¬ 
nies the right to use its stamps. This stamp is a guar¬ 
antee of quality, and buyers look for it. 
Young man, your kind attention—here’s the secret 
of success. I am no sage or statesman—take it in its 
homely dress. If you ever make a contract—let the day 
be cold or hot, wet or dry, or sour or pleasant—be a 
Johnny-on-the-spot. 
Two years ago the State Geologist of New Jersey stated 
that at least three normal seasons would be needed to 
put the ordinary amount of soil moisture back in the soil, 
besides watering the crops. Since then we have had one 
season of drought, while another is starting. 
The Government is paying $3.50 a cubic yard for 
humus to enrich filled-in ground on Governor’s Island, 
New York Bay, spending $35,000 for this purpose. It is 
quite likely that there are places on your own farm 
where humus would be worth as much per cubic yard as 
Uncle Sam is paying for it. 
