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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 Home* 
Established tsio 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon. Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8>£ marks, or lOjsi francs. Remit in money order, 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 time orders. 
References required for advertisers unknown to us ; and 
cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
Wo believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed 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 snob swindler will be publicly exposed. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but wc do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we ho 
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 i lentioned 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 
30 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory pur¬ 
poses. We depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
“The Consumer’s Dollar.” That is the new de¬ 
partment started on page 836. We shall give actual 
facts about prices, methods of selling and cost of 
handling. We want all the actual facts we can get. 
We are not looking for extravagant statements or 
peculiar instances of loss, but we want the truth, 
plain and unvarnished. We believe the farmers who 
sell the goods are best able to show up the real pro¬ 
ducers’ share. Tell us what you receive. We can 
figure the consumer’s dollar here. 
* 
The reciprocity fight has now been transferred to 
Canada. The politicians have “appealed to the coun¬ 
try”—that is, they have ordered a general election 
with reciprocity as the issue. That is what should 
have been done in this country before rushing such 
an important measure through Congress. Canada 
will no doubt favor the plan. The opposition is 
largely in Ontario, where manufacturers want an even 
higher tariff. Quebec is largely agricultural and will 
favor reciprocity. Western Canada will also favor 
it. The English settlers are mostly in favor of free 
trade, while the American settlers want open trade 
with this country. In the meantime our own Con¬ 
gress is still playing with the tariff—mostly for poli¬ 
tical effect. 
* 
You want to absorb that story of the Demonstra¬ 
tion Creamery at Homer, N. Y. That shows that 
farmers can and will produce high-class milk if they 
are paid a fair price for doing it. It is criminal foil} 
to expect men to add to the cost of production when 
they are already producing at a loss. Such cream¬ 
eries as the one at Homer will solve the problem of 
production, but the harder job of selling at a fair 
price remains to he settled. We need a few wealthy 
men with public spirit to put up a chain of milk stores 
in New York at which this high-class milk can be 
retailed at a fair price. Capital would be required, 
but a fair income could be made after the business 
was organized. That is what we must come to sooner 
or later. 
* 
"IVe see the dealers rolling in wealth made out of 
the farmers’ milk, while the producers are struggling 
along under adverse conditions.” 
The writer on page 846 states what is in the heart 
of a large majority of milk producers. Some of the 
retail dealers and peddlers cannot be said to roll in 
wealth. They often have a hard job to make a liv¬ 
ing. There can be no doubt that the large companies 
are making fortunes out of milk. In 1909 the Borden 
Company claimed capital stock of $25,000,000. Of 
this $15,428,408.46 was “water”—that is, the estimated 
value of trade marks, patents, good will, etc. They 
make total net profits of $2,617,029.04 on $9,571,591.54, 
or about 28 per cent. Tn addition they had a “sur¬ 
plus” of $8,824,230.59! This was made out of selling 
milk. Other large milk companies show correspond¬ 
ing profits. When you investigate such companies 
you find them armed with figures to show that their 
stock ought to pay fair dividends. What about the 
milk producer? Let him name his farm and call the 
name worth $5,000. Let him milk cross-handed and 
call it a patent worTi $2,500. Add this to the value 
of his farm and then claim that he must be paid a 
reasonable profit on it. Would anyone listen to him ? 
The man with the 35-cent dollar cannot buy friends 
or “immunity.” These privileges are reserved for 
the 65-centers. 
The newspapers report that the State Granges of 
New York and Pennsylvania arc negotiating with a 
selling company to handle farm produce in a string 
of cooperative stores. The Grange will, no doubt, be 
careful who and what it ties up to. In years past we 
have seen several efforts made by dairymen to com¬ 
bine with interests here to sell mrlk direct. As a 
rule it was found that the city interests expected 
the farmers to provide the milk and also a large 
share of the capital. Such a scheme as the Grange 
contemplates will have to come sooner or later, but 
we will tell them one sure thing: The goods will 
have to run through packing houses and be sorted 
and packed by people who do not produce them. 
That is the only way to obtain a uniform product. 
With each man shipping his own pack the market 
would have so many different grades that it would 
go to pieces. 
* 
On page 690 we printed part of a letter from the 
Advertisers’ Protective Association. They claim to 
spend $100,000,000 for advertising each year, and they 
put their proposition straight up to the papers with¬ 
out the wink of an eye. Dr. H. W. Wiley is after 
the frauds and fakes in “beverages,” drugs and foods. 
This association tells the papers that if they expect 
to get advertising they must attack Dr. Wiley and 
work for his removal. Here you have your orders, 
gentlemen! 
"Take the matter up in the editorial columns of 
your paper and show the people hoiv their money is 
being squandered to advance the interests of Dr. 
Wiley and his particular friends, ostensibly for the 
benefit of the ‘dear people.’” 
We are glad to “take the matter up.” What are 
these “interests of Dr. Wiley?” Does he want to 
be President? We wish he could be for about 10 
years, if he would test and fight the politicians as 
he has the food and drug fakes. There is no man 
in public life to-day who has the confidence and 
respect of the common people as Dr. Wiley has. 
We have been watching to see what the farm 
papers would do with these orders. “Farm and Fire¬ 
side” makes short work of them, as follows: 
We long since decided that we do not want any of the 
hundred millions ready to be disbursed annually by adver¬ 
tisers of foods and medicine which are of the sort which 
come under Doctor Wiley’s ban. We do not want Doctor 
Wiley dismissed. We think him a very useful and a very 
good man. We think he has made some mistakes, but as 
between calling a thing a poison or not when there is any 
doubt, we prefer the man who calls it a poison, and thus 
favors the lives of the people, rather than the ‘‘business 
Interests.” 
On the other hand “The American Cultivator” 
walks up to the block and takes the medicine with¬ 
out a wrinkle. 
At times Wiley has seemed to imagine himself pretty 
nearly an independent official and has acted in open oppo¬ 
sition to the heads of the Department. As an offset to 
this it should be said that some of Wiley’s work has been 
of advantage to the whole country. The warfare against 
adulteration of food products, while carried on with need¬ 
less bother and hardship to manufacturers, has no doubt 
been of some advantage. Still Wiley is not the kind of 
an official to serve properly the agricultural interests. 
That looks as if it came straight from the “man 
higher up.” It is the meanest and most dangerous 
form of attack. It is to be regretted that anything 
calling itself a farm paper should put on the badge 
with such brazen defiance. Think of a man being 
willing to sit still and let manufacturers of adulterated 
whisky and snide drugs tell him what to say to 
farmers! 
* 
Last week we were told of a cow that paid her 
owner an average of about one dollar per day for a 
year. This was not done with "certified” milk, but 
at ordinary prices for market milk. It cost $148.65 
to feed this cow one year. Of course much of this 
profit depended on the handling and care of the cow. 
One man might take a race horse and fail ,to get him 
below his natural speed of 2.40. A skilled trainer 
might bring him down to 2.10. It is much the same 
with feeding a cow. The great argument made for 
this dollar-a-day cow is that she is purebred—that is, 
her ancestors for generations hack are known and re¬ 
corded. Therefore the chance that she can pass those 
dollar-a-day qualities on to her descendants is more 
than good. If this theory is true the outsider will 
wonder why scarcely six per cent of the cows in New 
York are purebred. Who is responsible for it—the 
breeders who sell the animals or the dairymen who 
ought to buy and use them? We know that thousands 
of our readers would like to increase the income from 
their herds. Some have already done so by the use 
of pure blood. Many more would follow if breeders 
would make an energetic campaign for the farmer’s 
business. 
August 19, 
Quietly but steadily the use of gasoline trucks 
for carrying farm produce is increasing. We were 
recently told of a farmer who hauls 100 barrels of 
produce on bis auto-truck and can go at the rate of 
15 miles an hour. He can make two trips with this 
machine while three teams of horses are making 
one, and two more while the horses are resting for 
another trip! The roads are smooth and hard in that 
section. That is part of the game, for the auto¬ 
truck belongs on good roads. When you read of 
such a truck coughing off with the load of six horses 
as fast as they could trot, you want to go back half 
a century and realize the contrast. Last week a man 
was imprisoned in a Western mine 80 feet below 
ground. They bored six-inch holes down to him, let 
down food, a telephone, and even an electric light 
while he was being dug out. You see an entire 
community will stop work to help save the dying. 
How can we get them to take a little time to help 
save the living? 
* 
The old question about using milk from cows fed 
on silage comes up again on page 846. We thought 
this matter was settled when the Bordens decided to 
accept milk from cows fed on silage from inspected 
silos, bor years this company refused to permit its 
patrons to feed silage. During this period, however, 
they admitted that well-made silage from matured 
corn was a good and wholesome food. They objected 
to the poor stuff which was made from unripe corn 
in poor or leaking silos. That covers the whole 
story. No one would want milk made from feeding 
rotten hay or- grain, but that would be no reason for 
rejecting milk where such feed was fit. As we see 
on page 846. the New York State institutions use 
milk from silage-fed cows and find it suitable. The 
best “certified milk” we know of is from a dairy 
where silage is fed, in fact the properly made silo is 
just as much a fixture in the production of good milk 
as the pasture. There ought not to be any further 
argument about it. 
* 
At the New York State Fruit Growers’ meeting 
last Winter representatives of six State societies got 
together and agreed upon a law to enable fruit grow¬ 
ers to guarantee their pack. Thomas B. Wilson, of 
Ontario County, a member of the Legislature, took 
charge of the bill, and secured its passage. The bill 
prohibits the sale of fruit marked as “New York 
State grown” unless such fruit is actually grown in 
this State. It is unlawful to take another man’s 
empty packages, fill them once more with fruit, and 
sell them without erasing his name and trade mark. 
The standard grade for apples is made as follows: 
Apples of one variety which are well-grown speci¬ 
mens, hand-picked, of good color for the variety, normal 
shape, practically free from insect and fungus injury, 
bruises and other defects except such as are necessarily 
caused in the operation of packing, or apples of one 
variety which are not more than 10 per centum below 
the foregoing specifications are standard grade; size A, 
if the minimum size of apples is two and one-half inches 
in transverse diameter, or are standard grade, size B, 
if the minimum size of the apples is two and one-fourth 
inches in transverse diameter, or are standard grade, 
size C, if the minimum size of the apples is two inches 
in transverse diameter. 
Mr. Wilson, who fathered the bill, gives us this 
statement of what it was intended to bring about: 
The hill establishes a standard grade which is guaran¬ 
teed, so if you buy a barrel of apples with the mark, 
“Standard A Grade, packed by T. B. Wilson,” you will 
know they are practically free from blemish and worms, 
of good color, and 2Mi inches in diameter. If not, I am 
good for it. The Standard B and C grades are just 
as good apples, but are 2 % and two inch apples. This 
is to allow Spitzenberg, Snow, Scott’s Winter and other 
small varieties to be sold for first grade. The bill goes 
a little further and forbids any one marking so as to 
deceive the consumer on any pack, but it only applies the 
standard grade to those who wish to use the mark. In 
tins way the buyers can make two prices without hurting 
their trade. 
BREVITIES. 
The German pound contains 500 grains—17.637 English 
ounces. 
Barley is the grain for late seeding for a fodder crop 
this year. 
Never depend on the word of a land liar for the true 
“lay of the land.” 
No hoy or girl is worth educating who will not and has 
not “earned by use the right to their hands and feet.” 
An American city in Washington nas contracted for 
electric power sent over the line from British Columbia. 
In Western India, from June until September, there is 
a rainfall of 175 inches! This flood has in former years 
been largely wasted. Now it will be held in storage and 
used for irrigating and for electric power. 
The fishing waters of the Caspian Sea are divided into 
plots and let out by the government at auction. Two 
firms combined and hid in the right to fish in two thirds 
of all the fish water. This crowded out the smaller fisher¬ 
men and made a monopoly. Thus both land and water 
are being monopolized. Next it will oe the air for Hying 
machines. 
