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THIS RUBiAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS WRITER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal > j v a -ii?y and Suburban Homes 
Established isso 
Published weakly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., Htw Yo k 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John .1. 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 . 01 . equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8>£ marks, or W'A francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Ofllce as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 60 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for time orders. 
References required for advertisers unknown to us ; ami 
cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed bv a respon 
Bible 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 Wilting differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we lie 
responsible for the debt' 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 1 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 
10 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory pur¬ 
poses. We depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
We find that a good many readers who planted or¬ 
chards a few years ago have lost tree labels or 
records of planting. As the trees come into bearing 
there is a mix up over varieties. It pays to be sure, 
and we would have such fruit identified at once. 
Send to the Pomologist, Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. He will furnish boxes in which 
the fruit can be sent free. Forward fair specimens 
and they will be identified. This is the best way to 
be sure of your varieties. 
* 
The “tree dope man” is up to his tricks once more. 
This man promises to cure trees of disease or kill 
the insects on them by putting a chemical under the 
bark. He may call it vaccination, inoculation, or 
any name to suit, but it is the same old story of 
working through the sap of the tree. The latest one 
we have heard of is at Allentown, Pa. This time 
the “dope” consists of cyanide of potash which is 
to be poked into a hole made in the bark of the tree. 
Agents actually sell this deadly poison at the rate of 
several dollars per pound and they have taken in 
thousands of dollars. Let the stuff alone—no matter 
what these agents tell you. 
* 
I want to tell you how the farmers are buncoed again 
on their Winter apples. The buyers have combined 
quietly during the Summer, bought up every inch of 
available cold storage space, allowing but one or two 
buyers to come into each territory, paying the farmers 
$2 per barrel for choice stock. Buyers figure that the 
cold-storage charges will be taken up by buying cheaply. 
Consequently the dry-houses and cider mills are getting 
a choice run of apples this year, and it is my opinion 
apples will be away up for the consumer this Winter. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. c. d. r. 
This has been intimated before, but the facts would 
not develop until farmers looked about for storage 
room. There has been a general report that but few 
buyers have thus far put in an appearance. This 
would be explained by the above statement. Now 
would be the time for consumers to order their Win¬ 
ter supply direct from the growers. 
* 
Thus far we have not received any very strong 
arguments to prove that our readers will make better 
bargains by buying trees from agents. A nursery¬ 
man who does not employ such agents writes: 
I do feel that if you are going to hit the agency busi¬ 
ness in general that is one proposition, but that you 
should hardly single out one branch and go after them 
as hard as you are doing, to the exclusion of the others. 
Our conviction is that the tree agent business is in 
a class by itself. Even the reputable nurserymen who 
do business on the square and compel their agents to 
be fair will tell you there is more guff and misrep¬ 
resentation in the sale of nursery trees or plants than 
with any other goods which agents handle. We are, 
however, willing to include all agents in the proposi¬ 
tion. That is simple enough—in what way can our 
readers obtain the surest guarantee and the best 
value for their money? If the agents can give it, let 
them demonstrate the fact. 
* 
The people of New Jersey will try out a new 
primary election law this year. One feature of this 
law is that sample ballots are mailed to each voter 
two weeks before the primary, so that a voter may 
know who is after the nomination and find out what 
he stands for. In one county of New Jersey some 
11.000 of these ballots were returned by the post- 
office authorities “for better directions.” While, of 
course, there had been some deaths and removals, 
the greater part of these addresses were “ghosts,” or 
fraudulent voters and repeaters. This indicates the 
extent of such frauds, and shows how honest men 
have been outvoted by “ghosts” for years. The hon¬ 
est primary law will overcome this and give the com¬ 
mon people a chance to control nominations. We 
keep at this primary election matter because we know 
that it goes to the root of things by giving the 
people a chance to select their own candidates. No 
one expects any millenium the day the New York 
Legislature passes a fair primary law, but it will 
mark the beginning of a square deal in politics. We 
met a man the other day who said The R. N.-Y. 
would get tired of talking primary elections, parcels 
post and consumer's dollar. Oh, no! It has got 
to be a habit, and as long as we live we shall push 
these reforms and what they stand for. Between 
them they mean pretty much the whole story. 
* 
Canada will have nothing to do with reciprocity. 
Western Canada and the extreme eastern provinces 
voted in favor, but Ontario killed it. It seems that 
the Canadian farmers are prosperous. They have 
good markets now, and their government helps them 
with cash loans and direct business help. This elec¬ 
tion has brought several things forcibly into view. 
First is the value of direct legislation or direct in¬ 
fluence upon legislation. The last Canadian Parlia¬ 
ment could have passed the reciprocity bill. It had 
the votes, but as this election shows, it did not rep¬ 
resent the will of the Canadian people. In this coun¬ 
try many important laws clearly against the wishes of 
the majority have been jammed through Congress or 
State Legislatures. Another thing is the attitude of 
the daily newspapers. They were nearly all in favor 
of reciprocity, and day after day they repeated that it 
was sure to win. People who came from Canada re¬ 
ported that the evidence that reciprocity would be 
beaten was just as clear as it was that Taft would 
be elected two years ago. Yet these newspapers 
twisted the news from day to day. 
How will this election affect the campaign of Presi¬ 
dent Taft for re-election? At first thought one would 
say that the defeat of his pet scheme would end his 
chances. On the other hand, many shrewd and long¬ 
headed politicians think it will, in the end, help him. 
They argue that the chief opposition to the President 
came from farmers in the border States. The Cana¬ 
dian election removes the fear these farmers felt at 
free trade in food products and with this fear Ye- 
moved the politicians argue that the farmers will 
come back into the support of their party nominee. 
You see these men cannot believe yet that our farm¬ 
ers can rise above the dollar and act independently. 
Our study of the situation convinces us that the op¬ 
position to Mr. Taft lies deeper than any question of 
Canadian free trade. It is the general and growing 
belief that the President's sympathies are with the 
great interests rather than with the smaller common 
rights. We think our farmers are rapidly^ coming to 
the point where they will insist that the old parties 
cannot stand still and have the right to live. They 
should move forward with everything else in nature 
or controlled by man—or die. The great advantage 
which many people saw in Canadian reciprocity was 
that it would compel a fair reduction of the tariff. It 
will now be much harder to bring such reduction 
about. 
* 
Germany, Belgium and the British Isles normally 
produce potatoes much in excess of their own food 
needs. Starch and alcohol factories use part of the 
surplus, and potato dealers in those countries keep 
close watch of markets in the United States, so that 
shipments may be made here whenever the price war¬ 
rants. Six years ago it was thought that a wholesale 
price on this side of $1 per bushel was necessary to 
attract many European potatoes, but more recent ex¬ 
perience has shown that the limit may be far below 
this, down to 1% cent per pound, or even less. The 
first lot of potatoes from Liverpool this season (500 
sacks) arrived in New York September 25, but, owing 
to the very weak market, the potatoes were forwarded 
to Havana without payment of duty here. Evidently 
the shippers had heard exaggerated reports of our 
short crop. The latest news from Europe indicates 
that, because of drought, there will be no potatoes 
for export under $2.50 gross per 168 pound bag. But 
this is by no means certain. Favorable ocean freight 
rates and a disposition to speculate on narrow profits 
may bring European potatoes here on a $2 market, 
even in this supposedly short year. New York and 
other eastern markets are loaded with shipments from 
the field, and present prices are abnormal. Certainly 
the size of the crop available for the East is not large 
enough to warrant a price under $2 per barrel at New 
York. 
October 7, 
Cotton growers, as well as users of the staple, 
have been largely under the thumb of speculators, 
who, after getting the crop out of first hands, regu¬ 
larly cornered it and had a little bull and bear game 
of their own on the exchanges. The southern grow¬ 
ers have this year taken the matter in hand, and are 
making strong efforts to finance their own cotton. 
A convention of growers and southern bankers, held 
recently at Montgomery, Ala., made plans by which 
growers who must sell at once can turn the cotton 
over to warehouses and banks as collateral under 
conditions favoring the growers. It is thought that 
with this “distress” cotton off the market it will be 
possible to put the market on a basis commensurate 
with the size of the crop, instead of selling at the 
price some gang of “bull” operators may dictate. 
* 
We believe the New England corn crop is larger 
this Fall than ever before. There ought to be a great 
display at the Springfield corn show. There was a 
time when New England was the great corn produc¬ 
ing section of the world. That was long ago, but 
some of the flint varieties which made it possible for 
New England to feed her people bread are still in 
existence. These flints are purebred, probably show¬ 
ing a longer pedigree than any other corn variety in 
the world. We fell into the habit of calling the 
Western people “corn fed.” The fact is, that term 
belongs rather to the Yankees, for their johnny cake 
and mush are as much responsible for their smartness 
as baked beans and fishballs ever were. At any rate. 
New England is coming back as a corn country. It 
is a good thing, for the nearer any section comes to 
feeding itself the stronger are its foundations. 
* 
The latest thing in humbugs is a Brooklyn church 
selling “Miracle wheat” at $60 a bushel. The pastor 
of this church quotes the Psalms to help the sale 
along. True, the money goes to a church organiza¬ 
tion, and the scheme differs from the petty gambling 
practiced at some church entertainments only in size. 
Yet the scheme is a humbug. The “Miracle” wheat 
is classed by the Department of Agriculture as a 
good strain of Fulcaster, a variety quite common in 
Pennsylvania. When carefully selected and true to 
grade it is a valuable strain, but there is no great 
miracle about it. The agents go about with a sample 
plant showing enormous stooling qualities, but one 
of our correspondents claims that these great plants 
were produced by planting a handful of wheat at 
one spot of rich ground. The true seed of this 
Fulcaster wheat sold at a fair price is not a bad 
bargain, but the efforts of this church and pastor 
to boom the seed at $60 per bushel are samples of 
humbug and fake which should be denounced by 
religious organizations. 
* 
The man is greater than his work. The farm can 
only be made what it should by paying chief attention 
to securing the right man and woman on the farm. To 
develop soil fertility we must develop rural manhood and 
rural womanhood. \Ye must have a social life on the 
farm far better worth living than such life has been in 
the immediate past. 
That is from a message sent to the Conservation 
Congress by ex-President Roosevelt. While the dele¬ 
gates were cheering this fine sentiment, Mr. Roosevelt 
was talking to a delegation of farmers from Penn¬ 
sylvania : 
I don’t object in the least to paying more for some¬ 
thing if I am paying more to the farmer or to the laborer. 
What I do object to is paying profits to three persons 
who stand between me and the worker. I believe in a 
high standard of wages, but I believe that we should 
drive out every middleman who does not help the con¬ 
sumer. Certain middlemen are indispensable, and they 
deserve to get their reward. I want to pay a man when 
he does work, but I don’t want to pay a man for being 
in the way. A man doesn’t deserve a living uulcss he 
does work. 
So long as these useless middlemen have a finger 
in the consumer’s dollar that social life and that im¬ 
proved manhood and womanhood on the farm will 
find mighty slow development. You cannot make 
such desired things with 35-cent dollars. 
BREVITIES. 
Frost will eat fat from the bones. 
A new law iu Bavaria prohibits speculation in farming 
land. 
That dairy farm letter from Mrs. Ives (page 996) 
shows good spirit. 
No one will be likely to succeed who constancy thinks 
he is likely to fail. 
We know a dozen hen men who spray for scale and hen 
lice with the same strength lime-sulphur—and get both 
insects. 
Do not expect any millionaire to bring about the mil¬ 
lenium. It is more likely to come through the efforts of 
poor men. 
The latest disease is “aviation sickness,” as peculiar 
to those whoi go up iu a flying machine as sea sickness is 
on the ocean. We have no desire to experience it. 
