*076 
November 4, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINB88 FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country anti Suburban Homes 
Extdblished. 18S0 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company. 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert IV. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm F. Dillon, Secretary. Mas. E. T. Koylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal postal Union. $2.(H. equal to 8s. Gd., or 
8J4 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 80 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 cverv 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 t o ail j list 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 lie Font to ns within one month of 1 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. 
* 
A man may know that he has power this great world 
to disturb 
When other men take up his name and use it as a 
verb. 
Take our advice and spray the fruit trees as soon 
as the fruit and foliage are off. Do not take any 
stock in the pleasant theories that the scale is dying 
out. We ought to have known better, but we accepted 
that theory last Spring! Dying out? The scale has 
dyed some of our best fruit with what we regard as 
the purple badge of shame! The insect came in just 
where we did not want it, and where least expected, 
and multiplied with frightful rapidity. You may go 
and tell that fairy tale about the scale dying out to 
some one who has not been stung by it. Spray your 
trees if you expect to stay in the fruit business. 
* 
We have done our best to interest our people in 
rye as a cover crop. This tough grain is the last re¬ 
sort in seeding to occupy the soil during Fall and 
Winter. This year many of our readers have tried 
it for the first time. They come asking what they 
should do with it. Let it alone! It is saving you 
money every day by using up the nitrates and holding 
the soil together. What more could you ask for ? 
Next Spring is the time to ask what to do with it. 
You can pasture or plow it under or cut for hay or 
for grain. We will take that up in time. Just now- 
let it alone and be thankful you have it started. 
* 
It looks as if the Chinese consumer at least keeps 
an eye on his dollar. Considerable American flour is 
sent to China. Much of it is made into wheat cakes 
and sold to the lower class Chinese. Consul Ander¬ 
son, of Hongkong, says: 
When a coolie is to make a purchase of one or more 
cakes lie picks one from the vendor's tray, carefully 
weighs it in his hand, and if in his judgment it is up to 
weight he pays the purchase price and takes the goods. 
If it is not up to the weight, he will promptly refuse it. 
Ilence the vendor. must have his cakes up to weight and 
size. 
When customers buy like that the middleman will 
feel as if he were between two grindstones. In many 
cities housekeepers simply order the goods and let 
the dealer and the servant do the weighing and keep¬ 
ing. Of course they are cheated, and often pay twice 
what they ought to. 
* 
One good way to change the political issues is to 
work a few real farm problems in. That will help 
clean them up. In Erie, Pa., the public market place 
has entered the local election. The independent can¬ 
didate for mayor is H. E. Reed, and he stands for 
the following: 
I favor and will establish municipal markets—markets 
under the control of the city, where the consumer can 
meet and deal directly with the country producer to the 
profit of both. 
This is what we mean by putting real farm prob¬ 
lems into politics. Here is an issue which appeals to 
farmers and consumers alike. This is an “off’ year, 
and thus just the right time to get on to the market 
wagon. A public market in Erie will steady prices 
and help every buyer in the city and every farmer 
for miles around. The R. N.-Y. has many readers 
in and around Erie. We ask every one of them to 
help elect Mr. Reed. Within 12 miles of Erie are 
over 2,000 farmers. While they cannot vote in the 
city, they can influence their city friends and rela¬ 
tives. Our only excuse for coming into this is the 
fact that a good market will bring you nearer the 
consumer’s dollar. Here is your chance. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORkER 
Rumor is busy once more with the report that 
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson is to resign. We do 
not know how true the report is, but it is time Mr. 
Wilson retired. He has had the job too long. He 
might have retired when he was mellow and lived in 
memory as a success. He waited until he has become 
stale—a condition which cannot be sweetened by his¬ 
tory. We have already been asked to “support” 
various gentlemen for the place. We have no candi¬ 
date. President Taft has the right to select his own 
advisers, and he should be left free to make his own 
choice and then take the responsibility for it. 
* 
The hay crop of this country, about 46,900,000 tons, 
is 14,000,000 tons less than in 1910, and nearly 
17,000,000 under the average of five years past. The 
yield in Canada is proportionately better than ours, 
yet below normal. This would be a very serious 
matter if it were not that a hay shortage can be 
known early enough in the season to turn some stand¬ 
ing grain into hay and make additional plantings of 
corn and other late forage crops. Prices for hay will 
probably range higher than last season, though 
not in proportion to the crop shortage. Those who 
use the higher grades of Timothy will have it re¬ 
gardless of price, but those who feed for profit rather 
than pleasure know that the past year’s prices have 
been very near, if not sometimes above, the limit of 
economical feeding. 
Hi 
During the past few months great and important 
things have been working out in the agricultural edu¬ 
cation of New York. It was known to but few, com¬ 
paratively, that Dr. L. H. Bailey had resigned as dean 
of the Agricultural College at Cornell. The old stu¬ 
dents and farmers who are interested in the college 
could not endure the idea of losing Dr. Bailey. They 
knew that he, more than any other man, is responsible 
for the growth of the college, and that he alone can 
carry out the noble plan which has been so wisely 
started. These men know that Dr. Bailey’s work is 
not yet finished. So they organized to see what 
could be done. As they investigated and studied the 
situation they became convinced that the relations 
between the college and Cornell University should 
be clearly defined and changed, if need he, so that the 
college could be free to do its peculiar and necessary 
work. Finally the full board of Cornell trustees 
invited Dr. Bailey to come before them and present 
frankly his views as to just how an agricultural col¬ 
lege should be administered and governed. Dr. Bailey 
did this wisely and well. The board promptly ac¬ 
cepted his suggestions and a strong committee will 
make them into a working plan. The organization 
of graduates and old students has worked in a dig¬ 
nified and forceful manner. They should continue 
their organization and perfect it. They are the chil¬ 
dren of the college, and it is their duty to stand by it 
in the best sense and see that it is fairly treated and 
properly developed. As for Dr. Bailey’s connection 
with the college, we understand that he will remain 
at least until next June. We hope he will remain for 
years. No man can be insensible to the extraordinary 
exhibition of affection and confidence which has been 
made evident by the incidents of the past few weeks. 
The farming interests have shown their loyalty to the 
dean and the Cornell trustees have accepted his sug¬ 
gestions without question. We hope therefore that Dr. 
Bailey will see in this great evidence of faith in his 
personality and powers something of an obligation to 
remain and work out his plans. 
* 
The State of Louisiana has gone into the real 
estate business, and seems to be starting right. A 
commission headed by Prof. W. R. Dodson of the 
State Experiment Station has started a campaign: 
It is designed to check the emigration of United 
States farmers and homeseekers from Canada to the now 
uncultivated lands in the South. In this part of the coun¬ 
try the climate is mild and the soils are very rich, and 
more than one valuable crop can be grown on the same 
land each and every year. We believe the people of the 
country at large would rather help us settle up our 
20,000,000 acres of now uncultivated but highly productive 
lands than help Canada draw thousands of families and 
millions of dollars out of this country annually. 
We doubt if the average citizen will have much 
sentiment in the matter. He will go where there is 
the best chance to make a satisfactory home. It is 
not entirely a matter of soil and climate. Education 
for children, social advantages, protection of prop¬ 
erty rights and fair government protection against 
middlemen and public utility corporations will have 
to be considered. Louisiana is going at it right. One 
of the best things the State can do is to make a law 
providing for the inspection and license of real estate 
boomers. These fakers have done great injury to 
Florida, and if they are not checked they will spoil 
the best efforts of Louisiana to dispose of good land. 
You did us a good favor when you noted in a recent 
number of your paper that we would send mailing boxes 
and franks for fruits that the growers wished to have 
identified. We have the promise this morning of nearly 
a hundred varieties, owing to this publicity. The work 
of fruit identification in this office has never been heavier 
than it is at the present time. Our fruit tables resemble 
those of the expositions. G. B. Brackett. 
U. S. Fomologist, Washington. 
This is good work, and our readers may well take 
advantage of the opportunity. Many of us find, as 
our orchards come into bearing, that we are not 
sure of some varieties. Make sure and then map 
the orchard. The Division of Pomology at Wash¬ 
ington will settle the matter for you, free of charge. 
Their statement may be accepted as standard. 
* 
I would like to have farmers give their experience and 
opinion of auto trucks for farmers. I go weekly 1G miles 
to the city of Lebanon to market and it takes me about 
four hours one way when I have a load. We have a good 
road. I usually have three horses abreast in a large top 
spring wagon. Now I am considering seriously buying an 
auto truck but as they cost so much money I shall not 
be too hasty, so you see I would like to find all out I can 
about it c. R. B. 
It has been proven quite conclusively that at least in 
some places this is practical. We know that some of 
our readers have used these trucks. They will tell us 
the story. We do not want any one-sided statement, 
but the whole story. What can such a truck be 
fairly expected to do? What does it cost to operate? 
Is it reliable? We can easily see the advantage of 
such a truck provided it will run steadily. In most 
neighborhoods it could save the work of 10 horses 
and haul for three or four farmers. What are the 
facts? 
* 
The city of Worcester, Mass., enjoys at least one 
distinction. Her public hogs are more profitable than 
any others of their class! Every community can 
show a herd of public hogs, well rooted to the tax 
trough, and they usually rank as the most profitless 
things that a city can have around. The Worcester 
hogs, however, run on four feet and are kept at the 
poor farm, about three miles out in the country. The 
scavenger department of Worcester collects swill and 
garbage regularly. In many cities this waste is 
burned or dumped into rivers or ponds. In Worces¬ 
ter it is carried to the poor farm and fed to hogs. 
In the last fiscal year it cost the city $39,039.68 to 
collect and feed this swill. The pork, resulting from 
this feeding, sold for $43,224.25, so that these public 
hogs gave a profit of $4,184.75, besides making the 
scavenger service self-supporting. The average city 
farm makes a very poor showing, but the high price 
of pork enabled Worcester to turn a waste and 
nuisance into profit. 
* 
Mayor Gaynor, of New York, recently stated to a 
delegation of farmers that one great reason why 
consumers are held up for high prices is “Too much 
hot air!” Very likely there are some who'think Mr. 
Gaynor must be right, since he is something of an 
expert at talking upon any subject. He had in mind 
another sort of hot air, apd he was right. The great 
majority of New Yorkers live in small tenements or 
flats. These are steam or water heated close to the 
parboiling point. Even in the coldest Winter many 
families must use ice to keep perishable food. Under 
such conditions it is impossible for families to buy a 
barrel of apples or potatoes as would be done in the 
village or country. Such a quantity would not keep. 
Therefore these consumers are obliged to buy in 
small quantities. Habit has cut down the quantity 
until many of them rarely have food on hand for 
more than one meal. This means extortionate prices 
and much cheating. This condition will continue, and 
farmers who plan to sell direct to customers in large 
cities must consider it. They must ship here in large 
lots and plan some system of retail distribution which 
will cover these small orders. These are cold facts 
about hot air. __ 
BREVITIES. 
Do not let resting become rusting. 
Keep the apple cellars open nights and closed days 
•until freezing weather. 
We understand a prize was offered in Germany for the 
best method of “aging beer.” Here is our entry : “Swear 
off.” 
We think President Taft will make a mistake if he 
fails to realize that there may be a great difference be¬ 
tween a crowd and an endorsement. 
We never had so many questions about the ownership 
of fruit growing on trees near the boundary line. The 
rule is that where limbs reach over the line the fruit 
which they carry belongs to the owner of tlie land which 
they shade. He may pick such fruit while standing on 
his own land, hut may not go over the line to pick. 
“We have a fine crop here of Ben Davis and Rome 
Beauty, hut they are no better than pumpkins. I know 
of one man who has 15,000 bushels of Ben Davis that I 
can buy for 30 cents per bushel as they come from the 
trees picked.” That is from an Ohio man who sent to 
New England for a carload of Baldwin and Northern Spy. 
