1108 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 16 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established i8C0 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Collisgwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wit. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
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“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by arespon 
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 bo 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 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-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. 
* 
That first-page article this week is the real thing in 
“back-to-the-land” literature. It is worth an entire 
library of the sort of advice so frequently poured out 
upon the public. Here are the facts clearly stated 
without any effort to make them tell a great success 
or a failure. With the exception of capital this young 
man had strong advantages. Raised as a farmer and 
with a farmer’s daughter for a wife, with a college 
education, health and ambition and liberal terms he 
had a good start. And yet, even with these advan¬ 
tages he had a struggle that would test anyone. We 
want the city people who think of trying farming to 
realize fully what their new life means. They may 
not think so, but plain articles of this sort are just 
what they need. 
* 
The New York State Grange will meet at Auburn 
February 6-9. This will be one of the most impor¬ 
tant meetings in the Grange history of New York. 
Following the battle at the National Grange in Co¬ 
lumbus, New York must decide what the Grange in 
this State is to stand for. The election of officers will 
put New York on record as to a general policy. It 
must be broad, fearless and progressive, or narrow, 
restricted and cowardly. There can be no middle 
course in the State Grange at this time. New York 
is the most important State so far as Grange influ¬ 
ence goes. There are many questions at stake which 
demand strong backing from New York farmers, and 
the Grange must represent them fearlessly and with¬ 
out any string tied to it in any way. We urge upon 
the patrons the necessity of sending as delegates the 
strongest members they can find. Send men who will 
stand for principle and not for individual opinions, 
and let them put fresh and new blood into the order. 
* 
The Long Island Agronomist tells how many Long 
Island products were collected for exhibition at the 
recent land show. It seems that some of these exhibits 
were rejected. For instance: 
Neighbor Child’s superb exhibit was refused flatly, be¬ 
cause he bad purchased a Burbank “creation” aud offered 
it for sale. To the bumble citizen this would appear to 
be an assault on the wrong party. 
This evidently refers to John Lewis Childs and our 
old friend the Wonderberry. Whoever decided “flatly” 
that the Wonderberry episode put Mr. Childs out of 
polite horticultural society did a good job. Under the 
circumstances the effort to boom the Wonderberry 
the year after its introduction was about the most 
brazenly foolish bluff ever attempted by a seedsman. 
We realize that is a large statement, but the public 
reception of this bluff proves it. The American people 
are not fools. They buried Mr. Childs’ Wonderberry 
bluff and stamped on the grave. And now its ghost 
comes back to drive a “superb exhibit” out of the 
exposition! Well, sir, the truth is marching on. As 
for the “other party”—give him a long rest. He de¬ 
serves it. 
Last Winter Congress appropriated $20,000 for pot¬ 
ash hunting and added $12,500 for the Bureau of 
Soils. The Geological Survey was instructed to 
search out the places where potash deposits would 
most likely be found. As a result, a hole is being 
drilled near Fallon, Nev., where the indications point 
to a formation somewhat like that at the German 
potash mines. A 12-inch hole had already been opened 
319 feet by November 18, and the intention is to sink 
it 1,000 feet at least. While no potash had yet been 
reached, the indications were hopeful. This is good 
work. We have for years urged it on, for if there 
are potash deposits in this country our farmers 
should have the benefit of the competition which 
its sale would bring about. In his annual report Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture Wilson mentions the great 
growth of kelp or seaweed on the Pacific coast. Some 
of the “groves” of this marine growth cover miles in 
extent. The Agricultural Department has mapped out 
100 square miles of this kelp and estimated that it 
would yield 1,000,000 tons of muriate of potash an¬ 
nually. In addition to the potash, iodine would be 
obtained. Here, then, is business for the Department. 
Let it find how to utilize this kelp. 
* 
According to a cable dispatch from England Postmaster 
General Samuel announces that, as a result of negotiations 
with the United States postal authorities, the rates for 
parcels from the United Kingdom to the United States 
will be reduced on December 1 as follows: 
Up to three pounds .$0 30 
Up to seven pounds .54 
Up to nine pounds .78 
Up to eleven pounds . 1.0? 
The existing rates are 36, 60, 84 and 108 cents, respec¬ 
tively. 
This is cheering. An Englishman can send one 
package of 11 pounds of Christmas gifts to a friend 
6,000 or 7,000 miles away for $1.02. In the meantime 
the man in New York who wishes to send the same 
weight to a friend in Philadelphia will make it into 
three or more packages and pay $1.76 for the privilege. 
For years just such facts have been piled up before 
the Washington authorities, yet nothing has been 
done. The express companies have been able thus far 
to bold off the people. Hardware merchants and 
country storekeepers have done most of the fighting, 
while the express companies got most of the graft. 
We believe that the next Congress can be forced to 
act. It is a matter of making the members understand 
that we mean business. Get after them at once and 
hang on. 
* 
A number of readers have asked about the “Foote 
Soil Testing Outfit” widely advertised in some of 
the farm papers. For $10 you could buy an outfit with 
which you could tell the plant food needs of your soil. 
Our advice has been to keep the $10, or if you are 
determined to spend it, to buy a new dress for the 
wife. Chemists with $10,000 laboratories would not 
promise to do what it is claimed air ordinary farmer 
can do with this outfit. To give a little color to their 
story the promoters included a copy of “The Story 
of the Soil,” by Dr. Hopkins, of Illinois. The Illinois 
station ordered the outfit and tested it. Thus we 
have the following: 
A thorough investigation of this outfit clearly reveals 
the fact that it is absolutely worthless. The so-called di¬ 
rections for testing soil not only give no valuable infor¬ 
mation, but they are absurd and senseless. The farmer 
who pays $10 for the outfit and attempts to use it will 
have thrown away both his time and money. I make this 
statement because my name is being used in a way to mis¬ 
lead. CYRIL G. HOPKINS. 
You might call that putting your foot on it. This 
is good work, and Dr. Hopkins does well to get right 
out early with this statement. Few things will do 
more to discredit station work than to let the public 
believe that the scientists are tying themselves up to 
commercial enterprises. 
* 
The article on “High Farming and Low Prices.” etc., on 
page 1158, should be copied by the daily papers all over 
the country. It hits the nail squarely on the head. It is 
worth a year’s subscription alone. h. n. t. 
Chester Co., Pa. 
This editorial pointed out the foolishness o£ 
doubling our food crops with the present system of 
distribution. It is doubtful if half a dozen daily 
papers in the country would ever print such matter. 
What do they care about the condition of our farm¬ 
ers? The great majority of them are controlled 
directly or through suggestion by the railroads or 
large monied interests. This control may come 
through direct ownership or through advertising. At 
any rate, they will dodge any definite or direct sug¬ 
gestion for taking five cents of the consumer’s dollar 
away from the transportation companies and giving 
it to the farmers. They may talk in a general way 
about the injustice of wealth distribution and work 
themselves up to a counterfeit rage over some old 
scarecrow issue, hut there they stop. Of course, the 
railroads and their kindred interests want two kernels 
of corn where one grew before. The difference in 
price of a bushel of corn between Chicago and New 
York is about 12 cents. This represents the cost of 
hauling and handling it. The difference is the same 
for 30-cent corn as for 75-cent. Yet the cost of food 
to the actual consumer does not fall proportionately 
when the farmer must almost give his corn away. 
We cannot understand why our scientific men and 
agricultural teachers are all so concerned about 
doubling our crops. They often compare the farmer’s 
business management with that of the big corporations 
—to the ridicule of the former. Are they incapable of 
seeing that the foundation of this corporate success 
lies in limiting output to demand so as to maintain 
prices? Yet they advise farmers to double their crops 
and still follow the business methods of the trusts! 
The average agricultural scientist would' almost as 
soon really antagonize the strong manufacturing or 
commercial interests as he would walk into a bear 
trap. We are going to try to find out why, for we 
think the reason will explain a whole lot of things. 
* 
Mr Clapp, on page 1195, starts a good discussion 
about that storage house. We cannot do better than 
to all get together and help work out a plan. The 
trouble with many of us is that the life of our crops 
is too short. If grain does not bring what it should 
and we do not need the money we can hold it until 
the market is better. Not so with milk or fruit or 
potatoes, and many other things. Unless we have 
good storage we must throw our crops into market 
when everyone else does the same. Of course this 
makes a glut and prices fall. In many cases this 
does not help consumers. The dealers may get con¬ 
trol of our produce, put it in storage and hold it at 
the same time they hold up the consumers. One 
remedy is for us to hold our crops on the farm if 
there is to be any holding at all. We cannot hope to 
compete with the regular cold storage houses, but we 
can give most of our crops more life in a home¬ 
made storage. Therefore we want to know how to 
make one, and our people are the best teachers 
through their experiences. 
* 
In his annual report Secretary of Agriculture 
Wilson gives considerable space to the “Economic 
Results of Cold Storage,” expressing the opinion that 
most evils resulting from the speculative abuse of 
storage could be corrected by publicity. For several 
years The R.»N.-Y. has believed and repeatedly said 
that the only effective way to regulate storage is to 
compel the making of frequent reports of the quantity 
of various products so held. Remove secrecy as to 
the quantity of a food product available, and the 
market speedily adjusts itself on the basis of actual 
supply and demand. Of course, this idea is not popular 
with speculators, as it would ruin their business, hut 
which is of more account, the welfare of the great 
body of producers and consumers, or the pampering 
and “millionizing” of a lot of middlemen? Some 
time ago a Congressman prepared a radical bill pro¬ 
viding for compulsory publicity of the quantity of 
various perishables held in storage, but the bill was 
quickly put into permanent storage. The meat packers 
were then too powerful a force for the average poli¬ 
tician to oppose. Nov/ that they are facing con¬ 
spiracy trials and their influence somewhat nil, ware¬ 
house publicity may become a fashionable slogan. The 
idea cannot be molded into law too soon, and grain 
storage might well be included, thus doing away with 
corners in another essential of both human and live¬ 
stock food. 
BREVITIES. 
New Zealand has nearly 24 sheep for each Inhabitant. 
Certainly ; the kicker may be said to deal out missile- 
toe. 
When the nail is pointed wrong—do not hit it on tha 
head! 
Sales of sand and gravel for building purposes in this 
country for 1910 amounted to $21,037,630. 
In 1910 the people of New Zealand consumed 7.10 
pounds of tobacco for each man, woman and child. There 
should not be any bugs or flies around the average New 
Zealander. 
I he R. N.-Y. stated a little error in figuring the con¬ 
tents of a cistern. About 30 readers discovered it and 
gave their corrections. Among them there were seven 
different answers. 
The King and Queen of Great Britain will have fresh 
milk on their journey to India. Several cows go along on 
the steamer. A picture showing how these animals were 
hauled aboard gives points to the Hope Farm man and 
his Florida cow. 
Among interesting live stock transfers we may include 
the sale of three black foxes for breeding purposes for 
$9,000. According to the newspapers, this was the price 
paid to a Quebec man by the owner of a “fox ranch” on 
Prince Edward Island. 
Yes, sir; it is a fact that a man living on the island of 
Madagascar can mail a package weighing 11 pounds to 
any point in the United States by paying $1.30 to $1.44. 
To mail the same goods 50 miles in this country he must 
make three different packages and pay $1.76. Parcels post 
or bust! 
A New York egg dealer was recently sent to jail for 30 
days for having seven cases of rotten eggs in his pos-' 
session. He was known as the “rotten egg king,” a brand 
of royalty that is truly undesirable, lie should be made 
to eat some of his “omelettes” as additional punishment. 
One of the decorative plants offered by the florists for 
Christmas trade is a dwarf red pepper (Capsicum) with 
small cone-shaped fruits. The Jerusalem cherry, which is 
a Solanum, is always a favorite, aud is more easily grown, 
as it does not need so high a temperature as the Capsicum, 
but the latter fruits so freely, and is so symmetrical, that 
it is a very beautiful plant. 
