©40 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS PAPER 
A Nutionnl Weekly Journal l'or Country and Suburban Homes 
Established fsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Collixgwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
\Vm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Boyle, Associate Editor. 
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“A SQUARE DEAL” 
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sible person. Rut 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 such'swindler will be publicly exposed. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, 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 
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. 
* 
The election in Maine was a fierce battle over Pro¬ 
hibition. With one of the largest votes on record, 
there is a margin of less than 300 votes either way. 
The country towns voted solidly for Prohibition, 
while the cities went as strongly against it. Maine 
is becoming more and more a Summer pleasure 
ground for visitors and many of this class favor 
saloons and drinking places at the Summer resorts. 
There was another element, not often mentioned, 
which we think had much to do with the result. The 
politicians have been using Prohibition very much as 
the Southern politicians formerly used “negro dour 
ination” to scare the voters away from real reforms. 
On a smaller scale it was much like the old tariff 
issue, which for so many years prevented the people 
from making any real political progress. We believe 
that discontent with this condition was the element 
which turned the tide against Prohibition. The 
amendment providing for direct nominations was 
carried by a good majority. Now see if these Maine 
farmers do not make good use of their power! 
The California Raisin Growers’ Association was a 
cooperative company organized to handle the raisin 
crop. Eight years ago it went out of business, being 
unable to control enough of the crop to command the 
market. During the last of its life, the directors 
advanced money to certain members on the chance 
of a rise in the market. The price did not rise as 
expected, so that these favored ones received more 
for their raisins than others. When the association 
ended those overpaid members were called upon to 
pay back the difference between the general price and 
the higher advance which they received. Some of them 
refused, and have been fighting it out in the courts 
ever since. These growers claimed that the associa¬ 
tion was a trust organized in restraint of trade, so 
that it could not legally enforce its demands. The 
Supreme Court has now decided against them. The 
association was not an illegal trust, and these over¬ 
paid members must pay back. Such a defense should 
never have been made, hut when some men get hold 
of a dollar it is like shaking a mountain to loosen 
their grip. 
* 
One of the meanest practices in the poultry busi¬ 
ness is that of breaking contracts to deliver stock. A 
customer will arrange with a breeder for a certain 
number of good laying pullets to be delivered in early 
Fall. Usually the buyer pays part of the price on 
making the contract. Thinking he is dealing with 
honorable people, he makes no further arrangements 
for Winter layers. In late Summer he writes to 
have the pullets sent, and is informed that the breeder 
cannot furnish them. This breeder is usually as full 
of excuses as the men in the Bible story who were 
invited to the feast. The chances are that he had a 
chance to sell the pullets at a higher price, broke his 
contract and took the chance of picking up others to 
supply his customer. Unable to do this he simply 
backs out! The buye'r is left without Winter layers— 
too late in the season to obtain a suitable stock. 
These men who break their word as carelessly as 
they would a rotten stick are a curse to the poultry 
fraternity. While you may be sure they are morally 
guilty of the meanest breach of contract, they have a 
dozen small holes in the shape of excuses that they 
can crawl through. A few of them should be shown 
up publicly fo.r the credit of the “Business Hen.” 
Will some of our readers who have been thus vic¬ 
timized send us the records of their case? 
THE RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
[" At the State Fair a meeting of alumni and friends 
of the Cornell Agricultural College was called to con¬ 
sider college matters. After some discussion the fol¬ 
lowing resolution was passed. The committee is at 
work. Every farmer in New York should consider 
himself a member of it: 
We, representing the Alumni of the College of Agri¬ 
culture at Cornell University, learning with the greatest 
regret of the resignation of Dean Bailey as Director, 
desire to express to him our sincere appreciation of his 
good work and our earnest wish that he reconsider his 
determination to retire. 
Therefore, he it resolved that we believe the great 
development of the Agricultural College and the high 
efficiency of the work done there is due in large measure 
to his broad and comprehensive grasp of our agricultural 
problems, and to his ability as an educator and organizer. 
And he it also resolved that we would regard the ac¬ 
ceptance of his tendered resignation as nothing less than 
a calamity 
And he it further resolved, in view of this situation, 
that a committee of 15 alumni be appointed by the 
chairman of this meeting, with power to add such other 
members to this committee as may be necessary, not to 
exceed 25 in number, who are authorized to take such 
steps as may be necessary to secure his retention and 
report to the Alumni, in order that they may become 
thoroughly familiar with the situation, and that every 
proper effort may be made to retain Dean Bailey's ser¬ 
vices. 
* 
The daily papers have had much to say about a 
controversy between President Taft and the Con¬ 
necticut State Grange. As usual such papers twist 
the matter in an effort to discredit farmers. There 
are two large fairs in Connecticut; one recognized 
as the State fair is held at Berlin. Near Hartford 
is a racetrack where a trotting meeting called a fair 
is held each year. The managers of this horse trot 
and some shrewd politicians saw a chance to help 
themselves. So they suggested to some members of 
the Grange that the organization celebrate “Farmers’ 
Day” at this meeting. They invited President Tatt— 
the object evidently being to claim that the farmers 
were not opposed to the President. As a matter of 
fact, the Connecticut farmers, and particularly the 
members of the Grange, oppose Mr. Taft bitterly on 
account of his position on reciprocity. When the real 
officers of the Grange met they decided not to have 
any “Farmers’ Day” at this horse trot They meant 
no personal affront to the President, but simply re¬ 
fused to put themselves in what they considered a 
doubly false position. 
Then the long-headed politicans thought they saw 
another chance to make capital. Mr. Taft came, hut 
the farmers did not show up. There is always a 
crowd at such a meeting, and it was easy to fill the 
papers with reports of a great throng. They claimed 
that the farmers’ opposition to Mr. Taft had “petered 
out” and that the Grange had lost its influence, etc. 
Under these circumstances we think the Grange made 
a mistake, because it has given the politicians and the 
daily papers a chance to say that the farmers talk, 
yet do nothing. The facts are that a large majority 
of northern farmers are opposed to the President. 
They feel that he forced through Congress a‘hill 
which will compel them to sell what they grow in a 
free trade market. When he might have given them 
relief by cutting the tariff on things they are obliged 
to buy he refused to do it for reasons which should in 
all fairness have been also applied to reciprocity. 
The President may go about the country and talk to 
large crowds at fair grounds, and the daily papers 
may see in these crowds evidence that our farmers 
believe in his policies. Any man who can go among 
the farmers and learn their honest opinions will 
quickly see that a serious revolt is working out. With 
any fair system of direct primaries which would en¬ 
able country people to express their real choice Mr. 
Taft’s friends would be obliged to fight for every 
delegate from the rural parts of New York and half 
a dozen other Eastern States. This statement is not 
made from any personal bias, but is the truth, which 
anyone but a dunce or rabid partisan can easily 
verify. 
* 
We have spoken several times of the famous or¬ 
chard of A. T. Repp in southern New Jersey. Mr. 
Repp is president of the New Jersey State Horticul¬ 
tural Society and is an expert fruit grower. Go to 
his orchard in August and you would not call him 
so, for the trees stand in a great mass of the worst 
varieties of weeds. They are shoulder high in many 
places—yet the trees are loaded to the ground with 
the finest fruit. You should judge a fruit grower by 
his fruit—not by his weeds—especially when the latter 
are part of a regular system. Mr. Repp’s plan is 
to plow early and fertilize heavily with a high-grade 
fertilizer. Then he gives the most thorough culture 
up to the middle of July. This gives all the growth 
the trees can safely carry to next season. If the 
orchard were still cultivated or even if the soil were 
kept bare the trees would be forced so hard that they 
September 23, 
would be injured. Their growth must be stopped so 
as to let the wood and the fruit buds mature. When 
cultivation stops this great weed crop starts. It 
utilizes the available plant food in the soil and takes 
its share of moisture. The trees therefore are left 
to mature their crop without making much more 
growth, and this is just what is wanted. Of course 
you will ask—why not sow a cover crop like clover 
and vetch and thus add nitrogen to the soil? The 
answer is that on this light soil and in a climate 
where blight is prevalent too much nitrogen is an 
objection. The soil itself should not he too rich. 
Mr. Repp says he wants to know just how much nitro¬ 
gen the orchard receives. When he uses chemicals he 
can tell this. A crop like clover would add too much. 
The late Dr. Voorhees told us that this was sound 
doctrine, and wise reasoning for this case. It would 
not he wise in many other locations especially in 
northern apple orchards which need more nitrogen. 
Many a good fruit grower without studying out the 
details would say Repp’s method is all wrong because 
it goes against the established rules. Yet it is doubt¬ 
ful if any of them can show finer fruit or larger net 
income per acre than the Repp orchards produce. 
After all, these things are what determine the value 
of the method. That man does best who cuts away 
from cast-iron rules and thinks out a method to suit 
his own needs. The danger is that some new begin¬ 
ners will take this man’s special method for a safe 
rule in general practice. 
* 
Two weeks ago the Hope Farm man told of the 
changes wrought in a section of Mississippi by the 
Jersey cow and Alfalfa. There are hundreds of 
similar cases in various parts of the country and 
thousands more where the general production of 
some special crop or product would make a region 
prosperous and famous. The thing has been done 
with apples, cranberries, hens, lambs, or strawberries. 
The history of one is much the same of all. Somg 
man or group of men, usually with white hair, have 
a vision of the future. It seems as idle as a dream 
to their neighbors, but these men live down ridicule 
and patiently demonstrate the possibilities of their 
plajis. They pass away, but younger men follow them 
and fight the thing on to success. Let the farmers of 
any section make a great success of any product, and 
the transportation people and the middlemen come 
rushing for their share. In Mississippi there is a con¬ 
stant fight with the railroad commissioners over rail¬ 
road rates for carrying cattle or hay. There is hardly 
a county in this country in which some special crop 
could not he developed so as to advertise the sec¬ 
tion, but the history of all such enterprises will be 
much the same as outlined above. 
* 
“The most important meeting to he held this year.” 
Henry Wallace of Iowa says that statement is true 
of the National Conservation Congress to be held at 
Kansas City September 25-2?. Mr. Wallace is presi¬ 
dent of this Congress, and, as many of our readers 
know, that connection alone is enough to give the 
Congress character and practical value. ‘'Conserva¬ 
tion” when first suggested covered forests, water 
power, mineral resources and the fertility of the soil. 
The object of the Congress is to call attention to 
these things, and insist that public property must be 
kept for the use of the people. There is a fearful 
battle coming between the land grabbers and monopo¬ 
lies on one side, and the common people on the 
other, for the right to use this natural wealth. Out 
of this grows another line of conservation—the right 
of the farmer to such a share of his own products as 
will give him independence and a good home. Unless 
we can have farmers who feel that they obtain a fair 
share of the consumer’s dollar and a fair dollar’s 
worth in what they buy little progress can be made 
against the lan'd grabbers. The civilization of the 
city alone cannot make a successful fight for con¬ 
servation. It will help therefore if thousands of ac¬ 
tual farmers and their wives can attend this meeting. 
The only petition that carries weight is a petition in 
clothes. 
BREVITIES. 
What shall we do to the tree agent? 
Never forget the rye to cure the hare ground. 
That benevolent orris root gentleman is at his old work. 
He offers roots at seven cents each and says there will be 
a fortune in the business. Let him alone—or let him 
root for his own living. 
It seems easy to the man who knows. He cannot under¬ 
stand how anyone can fail to grow Alfalfa or succeed 
with an orchard. Such people forget there ever was a 
time when they did not know A from B. 
Pull up a few tomato vines just before the hard frost 
and get them under cover. The green ones will slowly 
ripen. Another way is to put the green tomatoes under 
glass in the cold frame before they are frosted. 
