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The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
\ National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
Join, J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager 
Wit. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. S2-04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or IO 34 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—T 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 trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will wo 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 yon must have mentioned The Rural New-Yorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to introduce 1 he 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 do hope that many practical and working farm¬ 
ers will attend the meeting of the State Agricultural 
Society at Albany, January 18. A strong and sincere 
effort has been made to make this meeting really use¬ 
ful in its discussions and motive. Yet in spite of all 
the arrangements for a strong programme the char-, 
acter of the meeting will be determined by the audi¬ 
ence. Thus it becomes the duty of our practical 
farmers to get out at Albany and help. 
* 
We are glad to know that the National Canners’ 
Association prohibits the use of benzoate of soda in 
putting up their goods. This association supports Dr. 
II. W. Wiley fully in his work for pure food, and was 
one of the first organizations to call for a pure food 
law. Food preserved by members of this association 
is treated in the good old-fashioned way of boiling 
heat without poison or embalming fluid. We are glad 
to learn that this powerful organization stands for 
pure food. 
* 
Nearly every day we receive questions about some 
particular fake or some general scheme for swindling. 
These things are all described and explained in “Hind- 
Sights,” the R. N.-Y. gift book for 1912. The hook 
was prepared to answer just such questions as are 
pouring in. For example, hundreds of people want to 
know how financial schemes are worked in “Wall 
Street.” There has been no better brief statement of 
these operations than the one given in “Hind-Sights.” 
The book is a rogue’s dictionary that should be in 
every country family. . 
=8 
Clark Allis, president of the New York State Fruit 
Growers, did not come hat in hand with some humble 
apology for living when he opened the recent great 
meeting at Rochester. The ordinary “opening ad¬ 
dress” is a pleasant and perfunctory lump of advice 
to be good and go on growing larger crops. Mr. Allis 
got away from that and discussed a few vital issues 
which confront our farmers. It was a good move. 
There are several thousand men paid to show us 
how to produce larger and better crops. Several mil¬ 
lion dollars are spent to educate us in scientific re¬ 
search, but who is there to speak and fight for the 
farmer when words and weapons are needed? He 
must do his own fighting evidently, and public meet¬ 
ings called in his name are the places to start the 
battle. 
THE) RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A few weeks ago we spoke of the American Potash 
Company, which is offering stock in a mining propo¬ 
sition. The scheme is to extract potash at the Leucite 
hills in Wyoming. Geologists have long known of 
this potash deposit. It appears to represent the out¬ 
flow of volcanic lava, and without question potash may 
be found in these hills. There is no evidence yet to 
show that this potash can be extracted in suitable plant 
food form by any economical process. We judge that 
money invested in this-company will be chiefly used 
in costly experiments. If you have a piece of land of 
your own you would much better spend your money 
experimenting with drainage or good tillage. 
* 
A new business in connection with apple culture is 
developing in some parts of the East. On many farms 
are old, neglected orchards. The trees are still vigor¬ 
ous, but have not been pruned or sprayed for years. 
These old orchards are being rented for a term of 
years. The renter sprays, fertilizes and prunes, and 
takes his chance of bringing the old trees back. Of 
course he must control them for five years or more in 
order to get his money back with profit. What should 
such old orchards rent for? In one case a rental 
value of $25 per acre is paid for five years. In an¬ 
other the owner gets half the value of the fruit in the 
orchard. As this scheme is growing, there should be 
some fair basis for figuring. 
* 
The big meat packers are now on trial for conspir- 
ing to restrain trade. We have no desire to prejudice 
the case against them, and shall not review the facts 
until they are all in. Hardly a day passes that we do 
not receive a long statement giving some plausible 
argument for these packers. These articles come 
from the “Auxiliary Press Service” and seem to he 
sent out by the thousand, particularly to these papers 
which advertise goods made by these packers. It is a 
hint quite equal to a kick—characteristic of the inter¬ 
ests who would muzzle the press if they could with an 
oleo advertisement. The case against these packers 
thus far is strong. We think they are likely to be con¬ 
victed. If they are it will he better to pack them in 
jail rather than take a little packing from their wallet. 
Oun Grange has appointed a committee to get out post 
cards to send to our Senators and Congressman on the 
parcels post bill. Will you send what is best to put on 
them? I want to be correct in the matter; I do not want 
any halfway parcels post. We want the whole thing and 
ought to have it. We expect to got several hundred cards 
and have each man send three, one to each of our Repre¬ 
sentatives. F s 
Massachusetts. 
Our advice is to avoid petitions and post cards un¬ 
less you can make the latter very original. If you had 
a camera and could take original pictures of children 
or women illustrating the need of parcels post, such 
would help. The average post card, however, does 
not carry much weight. The Congressman would get 
a lot of them, all alike, and conclude it was some 
perfunctory thing which needed no attention. You 
would have to be quite humble and respectful on a 
post card. If you really talked business it would be 
called threatening oi; “insulting.” Far better let each 
person write a strong, short letter direct to the Con¬ 
gressman, sign it with his own name and send it as 
an individual. Make them original—say just what you 
think, and you may rest assured you will hear from it. 
January 13, 
The article on Winter wheat flour, page 26, brings 
up a matter of unusual interest. At one time Winter 
wheat was the staple bread material of the East. It 
made good bread, as many of us remember. With 
the development of the Northwestern wheat lands 
Spring wheat was put on the market so cheaply that 
Eastern farmers could sell their Winter wheat and 
buy Spring wheat flour at a profit. Thus Spring wheat 
was boomed, first as cheaper, and afterwards as a su- 
perioi bread maker, until the price balance was 
changed and Spring wheat now stands at the top. A 
strong demand for Winter wheat flour will put this 
gram in its proper place as a food, and growers of 
Winter wheat and their friends should see that such 
demand is made and kept up. In New England a cer¬ 
tain white flint corn is grown which the Rhode Island 
people prefer for johnny cake. They demand this 
corn, and the growers see that they get it. Here is 
the opportunity for New York, Pennsylvania and 
Ohio wheat growers. 
* 
An interesting case of high finance came to light 
during the hearings before the House committee on 
the. steel trust investigation. The steel trust bring 
their ore for smelting at Pittsburg from the Lake 
Superioi mines, using their own big steel steamers 
from the mines to Conneaut Harbor on Lake Erie, 
thence over the Bessemer & Lake Erie and the Pitts¬ 
burg, Bessemer & Lake Erie railroads. The steel 
trust owns all the stock of the Bessemer & Lake Erie, 
which is a line eight miles long, and this short road 
leases the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie, which is 
200 miles long. The steel trust owns only 51 per cent 
of the long road which gives it control and enables it 
to lease it to its own (the short) road. The rate on 
oie from Conneaut Harbor to Pittsburg is 96 cents 
per ton, and of this rate the eight-mile road takes 26 
cents, allowing the 200-mile road the balance. The 
principal business of both roads is carrying the ore of 
the trust, and by this division of the rate on ore the 
stock of the long road pays 3]/ 2 per cent and the stock 
of the short road pays 334 per cent. But the steel 
trust owns all the stock of the short road and only 51 
per cent of the long road which it has leased to the 
short load for 999 years. It is a fine example of 
high finance hut common in the railroad world. 
We have tried to keep track of H. M. Whiting, the 
nursery agent. He is a rather soapy character; hard 
to pin down and capable of sliding through a small 
hole. Some of our readers ask if it is true that Mr. 
Whiting has been convicted and fined. That is the 
court record, but it is fair to Mr. Whiting to say that 
this punishment had little to do with his trees or the 
criticism we have made. His legal offence was a 
technical one of representing himself as both agent 
and member of a firm without having complied with a 
local regulation. That was a small matter. We crit¬ 
icise Mr. Whiting for his guff and misrepresentation 
of stock and the fact that he charges excessive prices. 
The law in this free country cannot shut off his flow 
of language—therefore we appeal to an unprinted law 
and urge our readers to send Whiting and the like of 
him off the premises. He is the star orator of all 
the nursery agents who ever left home. Luther Bur¬ 
bank should have joined issues with Whiting. With 
one “creating” and the other selling horticak*ure 
would have been carried to dizzy heights. 
Last week you remember we printed a letter from 
Congressman Hill, of Connecticut, on parcels post. 
Mr. Hill showed a little feeling when he advised our 
reader to go to T. L. Reilly, the Democratic member of 
Congress. Now this farmer has the enduring stuff 
which leads him to go anywhere for parcels post, so 
he went after Congressman Reilly. This is the an¬ 
swer : 
I have your letter of December 22, advocating the pas¬ 
sage of a parcels post bill. You may be sure such a bill 
will have my hearty support, and everything possible will 
be done by me to have a real parcels post bill enacted 
into law. I have, both publicly and privately, advocated 
the passage of a real parcels bill, and I am convinced that 
a bill will be reported at this session of Congress which 
will give entire satisfaction to the great number of persons 
desiring a parcels post. Assuring you of my earnest sup¬ 
port for a real parcels post, believe me to be. 
Yours respectfully, 
THOS. L. REILLY. 
We sincerely hope that Mr. Reilly will prove to be 
a prophet full of honor. We chase this situation right 
up in Connecticut, not because that State needs special 
attention, but because we have learned to stick close 
to a trail when we strike one. Now is the time to 
get right after our Congressmen. By the way, Con¬ 
necticut has one powerful thinker and brave soldier 
in the Senate. This same farmer wrote Senator 
Brandegee. Here he comes with a soul inspiring an¬ 
swer: “When the question comes up for answer* in 
the Senate I will give it careful consideration!” 
There, is no antagonism on the part of the dairy inter¬ 
ests against normal oleomargarine, because it has food 
value, and may be a wholesome and legitimate substitute 
for butter; such genuine oleomargarine is practically un¬ 
taxed. The oleo manufactured so that much of it will be 
sold dishonestly, at a fictitious price, is the kind of oleo¬ 
margarine upon which the government imposes a substan¬ 
tial tax; this tax is in the interest of commercial honesty, 
and does not increase the cost of living a single penny. 
That sensible statement is made by Geo. M. 
Whitaker, the new secretary of the National Dairy 
Union. The fight against nntaxed colored oleo should 
he made on these lines. Tin's makes a sure and just 
position, and the dairy forces should stand firmly right 
on tin's argument and not be drawn away from it. It 
is this argument which will convince the workmen in 
town and city that they should act with us and not 
against us. The butter fraud question is' an old one. 
Over a century ago butter was largely exported from 
New York to the West Indies. Certain dealers packed 
O} sters in the butter to fill out and weigh down the 
tubs! For centuries the characteristic color of butter 
fat has been yellow—distinct in this respect as it is 
in quality from other animal fats. This yellow color 
belongs legitimately to butter and not to any imitation 
mixture. If normal oleo is a food product—well and 
good. Eat it if desired, but eat it for just what it is, 
and not disguised as butter. 
BREVITIES. 
We have got to the point where it gets on our nerves 
to have a Congressman say “careful consideration.” Shut 
them off. 
Here is a New Year’s thought for the agricultural edu¬ 
cators. They work with public funds. The people who 
most need their help do not even have private funds. 
In listing the world's rulers, do not forget Dr. Sun Yat 
Sen, first president of the Chinese Republic, who appears 
to be a patriot of a somewhat rare and old-fashioned kind. 
Just as we thought—that set of articles on how to select 
the dairy bull is considered about the best thing of the 
sort ever printed. It is a thing to study—not to glance 
over. 
^ Tite U. S. Department of Agriculture has issued Bulletin 
No. 455, on “Red Clover,” by J. M. Westgate and F. H. 
Hillman, with notes on the insect enemies of this cron bv 
F. M. Webster. 1 
The United States paid $7,000,000 for Alaska Last 
year $20,000,000 of minerals were sold from that countrv 
—$17,150,000 being gold. We also have a big problem 
in monopoly handling. 
All the privately owned inland telephone lines in Great 
Britain have now been taken over by the British Govern¬ 
ment, and will be operated by the Post Office, which also 
owns the telegraph system. The British Post Office has 
been operating some telephone lines of its own, but hat 
now bought out all competitors. 
