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The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country anil Suburban Home* 
Established fSSO 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Coluxowood, President and Editor. 
John J. DILLON, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $3.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
$A marks, or IQ}4 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at Neiv York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates BO 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 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 such swindler will be publicly exposed. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust t-i fling 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 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 time has come for the Apple Consumers’ 
League to rally once more. There is a great crop of 
Greening apples in New York State, and they should 
be eaten up quickly to make room for the red Winter 
fruit. If apple eaters will get busy and “call for 
apple” they can make such a demand that all this 
fruit can be handled at a fair price. We have not 
urged apple eaters to exert themselves for some time, 
for prices were high and good fruit scarce. Now is 
the time to “apple up.” Your country needs your 
services, gentlemen. “Five apples per day” is the 
watchword. APPLE UP! 
* 
The Department of Agriculture issues a pamphlet 
on “Crop Plants for Paper Making.” Five different 
kinds of paper are used in this pamphlet. They are 
made from shredded cornstalks, cotton hull fibre, 
broom cornstalks, rice straw, poplar wood in various 
combinations. This paper compares well with that 
used in other Government publications. There are 
a dozen or so crops which can be used to make paper 
when the price of wood pulp goes too high. The 
Department is now looking ahead to that time and 
preparing for it. Ordinary cornstalks make good 
paper. 
* 
The President of Bronx Borough, which com¬ 
prises that part of New York City north of the 
Harlem River, is working out some very practical 
ideas for the improvement of market conditions in 
his borough. He is planning a distributing depot 
covering four or five acres. It will have a water 
frontage, railroad tracks, so that carload lots of pro¬ 
duce can be run in, and ample access to trucks and 
grocery wagons, as well as auction rooms for the sale 
of car lots of produce when desired. These things 
will lessen the cost of handling, and should thus 
eventually make food cheaper in the Bronx. 
* 
On following up the men who are nominated for 
the Assembly in the rural counties of New York we 
find one sure thing. The talk about the Collin bill 
has struck home. Farmers are talking about the 
need of fair protection when dealing with commission 
men, and this has reached the candidates. We know 
also that it has gone up to Governor Dix and his ad-* 
visers, and is discussed by them. We have the names 
of many Assembly candidates, but perhaps not all. 
Will you let us know the names of such candidates 
on both sides in your county? We will put them 
all on record or make them dodge. This business of 
handling commission shipments is one of the most 
vital to our farmers. We must compel the next 
Legislature to do something. Get after your candi¬ 
dates at once and ask them if they will help regulate 
commission men. 
* 
At the New York State Fair a farmer gave us a 
new argument for Alfalfa. He said his farm had 
been about exhausted of available plant food. Now 
he had more productive soil than ever. That was 
because “Alfalfa had found five tiezv farms below 
the one he had been working ” The deep-rooted Al¬ 
falfa had not only taken nitrogen out of the air, but 
had brought up from the subsoil plant food which 
had long been lost to most farm crops. This plant 
food went into the stems and upper roots of the 
plant and was thus left where other crops in the ro¬ 
tation could make use of it. Thus this farmer was 
right in saying that he now had five farms instead of 
one. Let an}’- man who has grown Alfalfa long 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
enough to go through a full rotation tell you what 
he thinks of it. There will be about the same result 
as if some dealer made him a present of a ton of 
bran to the acre or half a ton of good fertilizer! 
Why not make these farms below the one you have 
been working help support the family? 
* 
While reports vary it seems clear that the apple 
buyers have secured control of most of the cold stor¬ 
age space in Western New York. Thus they are, or 
think they are, in position to dictate prices. Thus 
far they have not offered a fair price for Winter 
apples. True, the New York crop of Fall apples and 
Greenings is large, but of the strictly'- Winter red 
fruit there is less than an average crop, and prices 
ought to be higher. Our opinion is that by January 1 
there will be no more apples in storage than last 
year, yet prices rule about one-third less for Winter 
apples. Here we have still further argument in 
favor of cooperation among farmers. They will be 
obliged, sooner or later, to control their own storage 
houses and handle their fruit. More of them are 
doing so this year than ever before. The box trade 
will be heavy, and many are advertising and working 
up a direct trade. One man came to the city with 
samples of his apples and showed them as any 
travelling agent would do. All such things are sure 
to come—it is v the best way to get more of the con¬ 
sumer’s dollar. 
* 
We wrote both Assembly candidates in Tompkins 
Co., N. Y., asking where they stood on the Collin 
bill. Dr. Miner McDaniels, the present member, was 
elected last year by 368 majority. He is recorded as 
not voting on the Collin bill, and makes no reply to 
the question. The other candidate is G. M. Stoddard, 
of Groton. He says: 
I was absent from the State a part of tlie past year 
and am not familiar with the Collin bill you refer to, 
but will say that I am in favor of a much needed legis¬ 
lation on the subject. I am in favor of some legislation 
that will insure a return for produce shipped to commis¬ 
sion agents. I believe that they should designate some 
persorf within the county from which produce is shipped, 
upon whom legal process can be served ; and the business 
has become of such a magnitude that all persons doing 
a commission business, should be required to file a bond 
or give some adequate security for prompt returns for all 
produce received by them to sell. g. m. stoddaiid. 
Mr. Stoddard is a lawyer. We understand he has 
a farm and is thoroughly familiar with farm law and 
the legal needs of farmers.. He ought to be just the 
man to frame a sound law for the commission busi¬ 
ness and push it through the Legislature. 
* 
In this vicinity farmers are taking the cut in the price 
of milk stoically, for the most part. It is supposed that 
the Bordens were reckoning on Canadian reciprocity when 
they made the prices. Dealers iu feeds evidently feel 
elated over the refusal of reciprocity with Canada, and 
liavc immdiately advanced the price of feeds by several 
notches. Thus the dairy farmer is caught both ways. 
Already there is much talk of low-priced cows, the estimate 
being the price of two years ago, or about half of that of 
one year ago. It is too early to make positive statements, 
however, but there is much evidence of lower production 
of milk owing to sales of cows and to less grain feeding. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. h. 
Without doubt reciprocity would have been used 
as a scarecrow to cut prices on what a farmer has 
to sell if the Canadians had voted the other way. 
The Bordens have offered no excuse except that what 
is called the butter fat price of milk is lower. Their 
retail price has not been cut, and they are making 
more money than they know what to do with. At 
the same time the cost of producing milk is increas¬ 
ing. All grain prices were raised after the Canadian 
election. In all the rank injustice over the division 
of the consumer’s dollar there is nothing quite equal 
to the crime against dairymen. They are at the 
mercy of the dealers because milk cannot be held and 
must *be sold at once. 
* 
Last week we spoke of cooperation among farm¬ 
ers. The trouble with most such schemes is that they 
try to start on too large a scale. There is a strong 
element in human nature which prompts men to jump 
into large enterprises without realizing that these big 
things are merely combinations of solid and well or¬ 
ganized units. Suppose 10,000 farmers, each with 
$500, start out to organize a business for buying and 
selling. In one case the 10,000 individuals come to¬ 
gether and try to combine in an entirely new com¬ 
pany. On the other hand take 20 smaller companies, 
each with 500 members. These smaller companies 
have been trained so that the members work to¬ 
gether for growing, packing and shipping a uniform 
product. It does not require much thought to see 
that the 20 trained companies bound together into 
large organization would have a far better chance 
than a group of 10.000 individuals. Our advice to 
farmers is to organize strong local societies for co¬ 
operative growing, packing and shipping. Then they 
October 14, 
can go on the market with a definite proposition and 
combine with others or offer their own goods. The 
foundation for all success in cooperative selling is to 
have a uniform pack. The goods of all ought to go 
through a common packing house—the packers being 
entirely independent of the growers. There is no 
other way to make sure of an absolutely uniform 
brand of goods. The best thing our farmers can do 
is to get together at home, combine their crops and 
adopt a uniform pack for all. Then they have some¬ 
thing definite to sell, and there will be profit for any 
dealer to handle their goods. There is no solid rea¬ 
son why such farmers should contribute the goods 
and also furnish cash to help finance a scheme for 
selling the goods—especially before they have the uni¬ 
form goods to deliver. It is much better to go in 
through the small end of the horn and grow up to 
the size of the other end than to start large and crawl 
out at the little end. 
* 
We know a clergyman who went out to take charge 
of some churches in a back country hill district. Be¬ 
fore he went he said we talked too much about this 
35-cent dollar. He came back in a year and said we 
did not talk about it half enough! Twelve months 
among those farmers who worked with a long string 
of middlemen drinking out of their milk cans opened 
his eyes. The love of money may be the root of all 
evil, but the fight against money injustice may mean 
the fruit of all good. Let any man try to build up 
the rural church, and he will find that the robbery 
of our present money and distribution system is 
largely responsible for church feebleness. 
* 
The daily papers have been talking in a joking way 
about a “potato deal” in Indianapolis, Ind. We have 
looked up the facts about this. It was claimed that 
the Indianapolis dealers combined to keep up the re¬ 
tail price of potatoes and pay no more to producers. 
These dealers would ship carloads of potatoes away 
when the supply threatened to meet demand. The 
mayor of Indianapolis bought a carload of potatoes 
at about 69 cents, and -offered them at a little above 
cost, or 75 cents a bushel. Before he did this the deal¬ 
ers were charging $1.60 or more per bushel, while the 
grower was netting probably about 55 cents. There 
was a great run for the mayor’s potatoes. The car 
was sold out in five hours—no person taking over 
one bushel. The buyers were mostly working people 
to whom the saving meant much. Mayor Shank 
promises to bring in more potatoes to be sold on the 
same basis. This is only further evidence of the 
eagerness of city workmen to get closer to the pro¬ 
ducer and cut down the cost of living. That is the 
way to change that 35-cent dollar. You will under¬ 
stand that if tiie consumer’s dollar is cut down to 80 
cents and the farmer gets half of it he will be better 
off, because there will be more consumer’s dollars in 
circulation. 
BREVITIES. 
Save all the fodder you can—bay will be high. 
TrMES are certainly lively in the western New York 
evaporators this season. 
A MAN should be judged—not by the number of dollars 
he gets together, but what he does with them. 
The first locomotive ever built in the Island of New¬ 
foundland was recently given a successful trial. 
The Kieffer pear, when well grown, gives a fair profit. 
You must be within easy reach of a canning factory or a 
foreign settlement 
We are going to the bottom of this milk inspection busi¬ 
ness if it takes a lifetime to. get there. Look at the com¬ 
parison of scores on page 1015. 
While potatoes are low now they should go higher 
when the present rush is over. We expect better prices, 
for turnips—a potato substitute. 
Austin, Tex., reported recently a plague of crickets 
which covered the streets to the depth of several inches 
and blocked street-car traffic. It was said that the 
insects were killed and carted off by tons. 
At Cornell they have found another reason why soil 
should be covered with a living crop. The loss of lime 
from a soil seems to be determined by the loss of nitrates. 
As the living crop uses and holds the nitrates, the lime is 
also saved. 
In you have occasion to carry a cat do not put it in a 
basket. Make a ‘bag with a stout string at one end. Put 
the cat and all four paws inside and gather the bag open¬ 
ing close around the cat’s neck. Then you have kitty 
where her paws are short. 
Chestnuts are worth nearly per ton. This does 
not mean such a great increase in consumption—it is the 
deadly chestnut disease which has killed off the trees. It 
is true, however, that the public demand more nuts of all 
kinds. You may not get great value out of nut planting, 
but your children will. 
A Century ago wheat was hauled slowly and pain¬ 
fully from the then West over bad roads by oxen or 
horses. The contrast is shown in a new barge which will 
travel on the Canadian lakes. This barge will carry 
100.000 bushels at a load. She uses an oil engine which 
requires so much less room than steam that storage for 
more than 20,000 bushels is saved. 
