e©6 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TIIE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* 
Established. iSSO 
Published we«kly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Coiajxgwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dielon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wjl P. Diixo.v, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Boyi.e, 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 >< 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 ; 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 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 advertisei-s. 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-1 okkee 
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. 
* 
Auction sales often give a good idea of local values 
for farm stock and crops. We are particularly desir¬ 
ous of knowing the local values of cows, sheep, hens, 
silage, manure of different kinds and crops in the field. 
If yon attend an auction, will you give us a fair report 
of such prices? 
* 
That is a good suggestion for the State fair mana¬ 
gers made-by Mr. Demary on page 961. Let there 
be a “county house” on the grounds, where the various 
county organizations can make exhibits. Properly 
handled, this would make a fine show and a great 
feature of the fair. Here is a chance for New York 
to lead the country. 
* 
Those people who were going to put Dr. H. W. 
Wiley out of the pure food and drug bureau must 
feel like the man who kicked the hat and found there 
was a brick inside of it. The President exonerates 
Dr. Wiley completely. There was nothing else for 
him to do, for in all the departments at Washington 
there is no more faithful and fearless public officer. 
Would that we had several thousand more Dr. 
Wileys to stand on guard like human bulldogs in 
places where the people need them. And now, Mr. 
President, what about the Secretary of Agriculture, 
James Wilson? He seemed to make it pretty much 
a question of Wiley or Wilson. It is Wiley certainly. 
* 
All through the rural counties of New York there 
is a demand for a Legislature that will serve the peo¬ 
ple. Under the old boss and caucus system of nom¬ 
ination it is hard to make a start, but without question 
the leaven is working. In Yates County the Repub¬ 
licans have nominated E. C. Gillette, secretary of the 
N. Y. State Fruit Growers’ Association. We have 
known Mr. Gillette for years. He has stood up 
straight and clean through many a situation where 
others ran away or went crooked. Let Yates County 
send him to Albany and her farmers will have a de¬ 
pendable man, not to be bribed., bulldozed or bluffed. 
* 
A conference of governors was held last week in 
New Jersey. Among other things, the question of 
State rights was warmly discussed. The question 
came to a head over a railroad case tried in Minne¬ 
sota. The Legislature of that State reduced passen¬ 
ger railroad rates from three to two cents per mile, 
while the railroad commission cut merchandise rates 
20 per cent, or more. A judge of the United States 
Circuit Court decided that these reductions were con¬ 
fiscatory—so severe that they did not permit the rail¬ 
roads to earn fair dividends. He claimed it meant 
“taking property without due process of law.” He 
then went on with another objection, which was that 
these low rates within the borders of Minnesota inter¬ 
fered with or regulated interstate commerce. The 
argument is that a shipment, say from Wisconsin 
through Minnesota to some point West or South, is 
interstate commerce, but would be regulated by the 
low rate in crossing Minnesota. As the Federal gov¬ 
ernment regulates interstate commerce, the right of 
the State to control traffic within its borders would 
fail if this judge is correct. The governors intend to 
make a stand for the right of the States to regulate 
such traffic, and three of them, headed by Governor 
Harmon, will attend the argument before the Supreme 
Court to see that the State’s position is made clear. 
There has been of late years a steady growth of senti-. 
ment in favor of greater Federal power. Much of 
this is justified, for some of the States have proved' 
very feeble in enforcing laws to protect their citizens. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
We can easily remember going to the New York 
State Fair when a single automobile was more of a 
novelty than a flying machine is to-day! We have 
seen a single, crude car crawling about the grounds, 
uncertain and slow. Last week we stood near one of 
the State buildings and looked over more than five 
acres of automobiles in a solid bunch. They had been 
left there while the owners were viewing the fair. A 
large proportion of them were owned by country peo¬ 
ple. And a few hundred feet above us a flying ma¬ 
chine, carrying two persons, was sailing about in a 
high wind! When we stop to realize that all this 
development has been made in about a dozen years we 
may well ask what the next 20 years have in store! 
Unquestionably the tendency is to wipe out the old 
line between town and country by making communi¬ 
cation easier and quicker, and the problem is, What 
effect will this have upon the farmer as we now know 
him? 
* 
The people of Maine voted some 60,000 to 20,000 
in favor of direct primary nominations. The way this 
came about is as interesting as a story. A few years 
ago the Republican State convention made direct pri¬ 
maries a part of its “platform.” Then the Legisla¬ 
ture repudiated the platform. It came up again in 
1909 and was referred to the Legislature of 1911. It 
is wonderful how these politicians want time to 
“study” a question. The friends of direct primaries 
saw that their bill was to be used as a football, so 
they went in to do some kicking themselves. The 
Grange is strong in Maine, and in 1909 the State 
Master came out with a ringing demand for this 
legislation. Then a number of citizens got together 
and organized the Direct Primary League of Maine. 
They studied the question and then started an or¬ 
ganized plan for arousing public sentiment. Then 
they had a definite bill framed—one that suited the 
conditions in Maine—and had it discussed in all the 
Granges, labor unions and other places of meeting 
where they could work it in. The result was that 
public sentiment was aroused and the State conven¬ 
tions of both parties favored it. The Direct Primary 
League put no trust in conventions. Under the Maine 
constitution the people can force direct legislation by 
obtaining signatures of 12,000 legal voters. These 
names were obtained largely through the State Grange 
and the Federation of Labor with light expense. Then 
the prepared bill went before the Legislature and later 
to the people. In the Legislature the politicians paid 
little attention to it. They passed an apology for a 
primary law and thought the people would forget it. 
There is where they made a mistake. .Under the 
constitution the real primary bill had to go before the 
people the same as the Prohibition amendment. The 
working people of Maine saw that the politicians 
could control the Legislature as long as they could 
nominate candidates, so they quietly went to the polls 
and made direct primaries possible by a vote of three 
to one. Now you will see those “Maine iacs” wipe up 
the Pine Tree State with a few hundred political 
parasites! It was a long battle, but Maine shows 
New York the way. In this State the politicians in 
both parties are acting just as they did in Maine. 
The Republicans failed to come to the front. The 
Democrats promised and the people gave them a 
chance. Thus far their promise has fizzled out like 
a damp firecracker. The party has its one great 
chance in half a century to prove its right to its own 
name. Let it fail and the rest of the Maine political 
history will be repeated here—kicking out the politi¬ 
cal parasites and all. 
* 
There will be no Canadian reciprocity. The 
Canadians have settled that by voting overwhelm¬ 
ingly against it. In this country Congress passed 
the bill—the House by a great majority and the 
Senate after a long struggle. The Canadian Par¬ 
liament had a majority of over 40 in favor of 
reciprocity, but on the demand of the people a new 
election was held to see whether this Parliament 
represented the Canadian people. The election 
shows that it did not, for the old majority of 40 lias 
been changed to one quite as large in opposition. 
The question should have been put directly to our 
own people before Congress acted. The Canadians 
defeated reciprocity because they felt that it might 
be a step toward annexation to this country. While 
the Canadian farmers recognized the advantage of 
a freer trade with this country in farm produce, 
they saw that Canadian manufacturers still held 
their tariff advantage, just as our own farmers saw 
the same injustice on this side. The Canadian peo¬ 
ple evidently prefer enlarged trade with Great 
Britain, and are jealous of any suggestion about 
changing their own form of government. We doubt, 
however, if the Western Canadian provinces will 
be satisfied to remain as this election leaves them. 
September 30. 
The country is looking beautiful since the rain, and 
nature seems to be rejoicing, but human nature is pre¬ 
senting a different aspect. A more disgusted and thor¬ 
oughly vexed lot of dairymen you never got among. Lan¬ 
guage fails to express my feelings in regard to the men 
who are responsible for the price of milk to be paid the 
farmers. 
When language fails a dairyman his patience has 
been milked dry, and language may well dry up. The 
Bordens have announced their prices for the next six 
months. You will find them on page 975. They run 
from 10 to 15 cents less than last year. There has 
been a drought, and hay will be short and grain will 
be high. The cost of making good milk will be 
higher, while the Borden’s cost of handling and dis¬ 
tributing cannot be said to increase. The price to 
consumers will not be reduced. The Bordens have 
more money than they know what to do with, and 
are piling up millions of “surplus.” Y r es, it is time 
for language to fail and work begin. Just the time 
to read that article by Mapes on page 973. 
* 
His audience twice emphasized its desire for a parcels 
post system. Mr. Taft mentioned this incidentally in 
the beginning of his address as one of the fields into 
which the Post Office Department might properly go. The 
crowd cheered. Again at the close of his address he in¬ 
cluded parcels post in a string of benefits which he said 
he hoped the farmers would soon receive. This reference 
was quickly picked out by the crowd and cheered even 
more loudly than the first time. Beyond that the crowd, 
which listened closely to the address, did not cheer Mr. 
Taft until the end. 
That is from a daily paper’s report of President 
Taft’s speech at the New Y r ork State Fair. Of course 
there was a crowd to see the President, but it was 
a cold crowd, with more criticism than welcome. It 
must be said that the President’s speech was mostly 
a collection of platitudes about agriculture. When 
he mentioned parcels post, however, he struck the 
one single thing which tied the audience to him. 
For there is no use denying the fact that many of the 
Northern farmers are in revolt against the President. 
If he is wise he will push parcels post harder than he 
did reciprocity. 
* 
As we get down further into this discussion of the 
nursery agent question the same old problem comes 
up. Is The R. N.-Y. run in the interests of its 
readers or not? Some advertisers appear to think 
that they and their money should be about the only 
consideration worth discussing. To such people the 
reader or subscriber is created for their especial 
benefit. They ought to be able to see that the policy 
which The R. N.-Y. stands for is in the end best for 
the advertiser. We claim frankly and openly that 
the interests of our readers come first. The R. N.-Y. 
is published primarily for the benefit of its subscribers. 
They know it, and this very fact adds to its value 
as an advertising medium. That is because its read¬ 
ers know we want to help them in the advertising 
columns as well as in the editorial. Any man who 
offers something that is worth the price he charges 
for it knows the value of the confidence which our 
people feel. To get back to the nursery business, we 
want our readers to buy their plants and trees where 
they can get the greatest value for their mon^y. if 
the tree agents can give more for a dollar than the 
mail order houses can they ought to be able to prove 
it, and we invite them to come up with the proof. 
During the past 12 years the writer has bought and 
planted some 4,000 trees, and has figured with over 
20 nurseries and tree agents. If our experience is 
worth anything it shows that direct buying is to be 
preferred. Perhaps we have never met a tree agent 
who put up the strongest argument for his side. Our 
present advice to our readers is to buy direct. At 
the same time we are open to argument. So, come 
forward freely, gentlemen, and tell us what our people 
can gain by contracting with an agent! 
BREVITIES. 
Get those green tomatoes under glass before frost. 
Now! Right now! Pick out the laying pullets and 
mate up the breeding pens. 
There have been a dozen questions about when to trim 
peach trees. There seems to be a desire to cut as soon as 
the leaves fall. We shall wait until late Winter and 
Spring. 
The Georgia Central Railroad plans to establish 15 test 
farms to advance scientific farming, which will ho dis¬ 
tributed over the territory of the railroad in Georgia 
and Alabama. The tests will be made by individual 
farmers, under the general supervision of T. G. Chastain, 
agriculturist of the Georgia Central. 
The consuls representing the United States in all 
parts of the world have opportunity to got much infor¬ 
mation of value to the country in addition to doing their 
routine work. In order to increase their usefulness the 
Government has opened at Washington a consular school 
in which those newly appointed and their assistants will 
do special studying for 30 days in subjects outside their 
consular duties, such as plant collecting, finance, manu¬ 
facturers and agriculture. At some consular stations 
there is so little official work that interest in outside 
matters is a practical necessity. 
