436 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS PAPER 
A NntloT.nl Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Colling wood, President and Editor. 
Join, J. 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, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or 10)4 francs. Remit in money order, “xpress 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter 
Advertising rates 60 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 hacked by a respon¬ 
sible person. But to make doubly sure wc 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 toadjust trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notiee 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 wilting 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, 
* 
There seems to be a mix-up over the anti-oleo 
bills before Congress. It seems that Representative 
Lever has introduced two bills—one for agricultural 
extension work. This is a good measure—deserving 
support. Mr. Lever also has an oleo bill which 
should be defeated. It will act like a lever to pry 
off the rights of dairymen. Tell your Congressmen 
to oppose the Lever bill. 
* 
We have long believed that in some neighborhoods 
a farmer can make a fair profit by selling a good 
quality of silage. The value of this fine Winter 
cattle food is now recognized. It is as standard a 
food as hay or grain, yet except when sold by the 
large canning factories few people have considered 
it as a commercial product. We believe it possible 
to handle and sell it in bags, and work up a profitable 
trade for close and short delivery. 
* 
The use of lime has gone far past the experiment 
stage. We now know what we use it for, about 
what it will do, and the comparative value of the 
different forms. This information was needed. We 
could not use lime intelligently without it. We be¬ 
lieve that 75 per cent, of our soils that have been 
in cultivation 50 years or more need lime—some of 
them so badly that really profitable farming is im¬ 
possible without its use. But now in the rush to use 
lime, let us remember that there may be “too much 
of a good thing” in this as in everything else. You 
may overdo the lime revival by using too much of it. 
Our advice is to be satisfied with the) equivalent of 
one ton of burnt lime per acre. 
* 
Senator Gardner of Maine more nearly represents 
the working farmers of this country than any other 
man in the Senate. He is a farmer himself, promi¬ 
nent in the Grange, and knows the needs and desires 
of the men who really do farm work. When he went 
to Washington Mr. Gardner saw that parcels post 
legislation is more important for country people than 
any other. So he gave the subject not only “careful 
consideration,” but careful study. The result of this 
study is given in the analysis of the situation, the 
first part of which is printed on page 430. In brief 
the plan is to condemn the express companies and 
run the business they now do as a public function. 
The express companies are to be paid a price to be 
determined by the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
with chance for appeal to the higher courts. It is 
the same plan advocated by Congressman Lewis of 
Maryland. 
* 
Dr. H. W. Wiley has resigned as chief chemist of 
the Agricultural Department. We know that for 
years he has been hampered and maligned in his 
work of enforcing the pure food and drug laws. 
One of the most honest and efficient public servants 
at Washington, Dr. Wiley stands higher in the estima¬ 
tion of the people than any man in public life. Every 
food poisoner and drug faker and every nasty quack 
doctor in the country will chuckle in hellish glee to 
learn that this faithful watch-dog has been driven 
from his post. For that is what has happened, and 
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, and above him 
President Taft, should be held responsible. What in 
the name of common sense can the President be 
thinking of to keep such a complete fossil in his 
Cabinet? Mr. Wilson’s day of real usefulness ended 
five years ago. It is no disgrace for a veteran to 
lose his grip on a big job, but it is worse than foolish 
for him to hang on when everyone knows he is 
making a farce of the whole thing. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
“CAREFUL CONSIDERATION.” 
We have before us a thick package of letters from 
Congressmen. They were sent to our readers in 
response to questions asking about parcels post. To 
a student of human nature these letters are as inter¬ 
esting as any human document could be. They are 
also the most hopeful indication of the power of 
popular demand that we have yet seen. With very 
. few exceptions these Congressmen, when asked where 
they stand on parcels post, say they will give the 
matter “careful consideration.” Some of them vary 
it a little with “serious” consideration or “respectful” 
or “due” or “intense” or “thorough”—one man says 
“prayerful.” We would like to have heard his 
prayer! Now in theory “careful consideration” means 
all you could expect a man to give. In practice it 
means nothing at all—a mere bluff or echoless sound 
to get rid of the man who asks the question. Some 
of these Congressmen have heard of the “anti-care¬ 
ful consideration” club and they try to break their 
habit by saying something which means even less. 
Now we regret to say that a good share of farmers 
accept such a palpable bluff and stop writing. The 
Congressman evidently chuckles and thinks he has 
disposed of an “easy mark.” A few, however, like 
the first selection of Gideon’s band, rip that “care¬ 
ful consideration” up the back. They come back and 
tell their public servant that they do not want his 
“consideration”—they want his answer. Back comes 
the careful considerator and asks which bill out of 
some 25 they want him to support. A few more 
letter writers drop out at this, but the fighters come 
back and tell their man to get down on the ground 
and say yes or no about the principle involved in 
parcels post. He knows enough to say yes or no on 
the general subject of the tariff or the money question 
—let him show equal intelligence on this question. 
In reply the Congressman says one thing or the other 
or takes the “injured innocence” stand and wants to 
know what business you have to examine him. That 
sorts out the fighters again and only the true band 
of Gideon remain. And the way these men sail into 
these Congressmen makes you think of a new Declara¬ 
tion of Independence. Many Congressmen have al¬ 
ready seen the light and have agreed to support 
parcels post. Others still think they are safe in 
dodging and considering. 
Now it is doubtful if there has ever been a ques¬ 
tion before Congress which has induced more farmers 
to write personal letters or which has proved more 
of an education in the power of the postage stamp. 
Practically all the large “interests,” so-called, are 
fighting parcels post or are indifferent. They would 
prefer penny postage, and the work they do for that 
is against parcels post. In the fight for rural free 
delivery the farmers had help from other classes, 
but in this battle for parcels post they must match 
their two-cent stamp against the express company’s 
dollar. And they are doing it, as these letters here 
show, so well that public men begin to realize that 
at last the plain people have begun to know how to 
use their power. The primer class in that knowledge 
has been studying “careful consideration.” They 
know how to spell it and what it means. Now they 
go on further and will pin their Congressman down 
to public business. Friends have often asked all 
through the past years why we have kept at these 
parcels post letters. We saw that too many farmers 
were bluffed by “careful consideration,” and would 
not stick the postage stamp on the ballot. From the 
peculiar nature of this fight for parcels post we know 
these letters would be the most educational thing in 
the power of the postage stamp that our farmers 
could have. So it has proved. Let us now keep 
right at them until we drive “careful consideration” 
out of Congress. 
* 
Last week The R. N.-Y. stated that the National Ex¬ 
press Company, with actual working property worth $29,- 
175.21, made a net profit of $138,884.19. Is there not 
some mistake about these figures? j. s. h. 
If there is any mistake it was made by the Inter¬ 
state Commerce Commission. The figures show that 
this company operated over 1,640.25 miles in five 
States and Canada. This company owned no cars. 
They had horses valued at $8,508.00, wagons, sleighs 
and harness worth $8,527.00, with office furniture, 
trunks and safes making the balance. That was all 
the real value they had, yet with this equipment they 
did business which brought in $1,185,180.53. They 
paid railroads and other carriers $457,193.67, and 
their operating expenses are put at $583,736.00. This 
left $144,250.86, out of which they paid $5,366.67 in 
taxes. This leaves a nice little melon, nearly five 
times as large as the total value of their working 
equipment! This company claimed to have “cash and 
current assets” of $212,945.34 and “current liabilities” 
of $149,194.61! Its capital stock was held at $500,000 
March 30, 
and its “franchises and good will” were valued at 
$398,528.10! We do not single out this company as 
worse than the others, but this gives a clear idea 
of what the American people are carrying and why 
it is like squeezing blood out of a stone to make real 
progress for a genuine parcels post. You see that 
in this case the public must pay dividends on the 
so-called value of this “good will.” That means nearly 
$400,000 of pretty foul “water” which the public gave 
this company in the first place and must now drink 
like a dose of bad medicine. You will see that we 
know what we are talking about when we say this 
fight for parcels post is no children’s game, but a 
death struggle for the right to transact our own 
business! 
* 
You will see by the notes on page 441, that those 
creamery promoters failed to connect in that Maine 
town. The R. N.-Y. is partly responsible for this, 
and we cheerfully admit it. These gentlemen do not 
like us. They can give strong and emphatic language 
to prove why The R. N.-Y. should go to a locality 
where it would be very likely to meet them later on. 
A gentleman of this same class once told us we were 
taking bread out of his mouth—but he forgot to say 
the bread belonged) to somebody else. No use talk¬ 
ing, if words could burn, the fakes and crooks would 
have had us in ashes long ago. One of the best texts 
for the journalist to keep before him is the follow¬ 
ing: “Woe unto you when all men shall speak well 
of you!” 
* 
Agriculture needs men for leadership in agricultural 
thought and activity. The field for leadership is broad 
and open. We need men not only possessed with the art 
of making two blades of grass grow where but one grew 
before, but men with the ability to organize, to prevent 
economic wa'stes. The matter of crop distribution presents 
one of the greatest agricultural problems of to-day. 
Who is this man taking up the blades of grass 
theory? Dr. James Withycombe of the Oregon Agri¬ 
cultural College. They have to come to it out on 
the Pacific coast. Dr. Withycombe says the farms 
of Oregon produced last year produce worth $124,- 
000,000. One half of this found its way into trade, 
and half of that, or $31,000,000, was spent in distribu¬ 
tion. That is what it cost Oregon fanners to distribute 
$62,000,000 worth of goods and they paid the entire 
cost of producing all of it. Perhaps you never 
thought of it in just that way before, but there you 
have the greatest industrial question of the age. This 
$31,000,000 and many times that sum slowly and 
surely works away from the farms into the great 
cities. There it is controlled, making it harder 
than ever for our farmers to obtain cash loans on 
their property, and making the labor question still 
harder by attracting both hired man and farmers’ 
sons with false hopes. Thus the injustice of this 
distribution of the consumer’s dollar is working 
down to the very foundation of agriculture. We are 
mighty glad to see the agricultural colleges taking 
up this question. They come to it first on the Pacific 
cost because necessity drives them to it, and their 
farmers are willing to go. They have been trained 
in cooperative societies to act together and work as 
a well drilled army. These Western farmers do 
not have the inherited prejudices which have so long 
kept our Eastern farmers apart and they are forcing 
their colleges to act for them in public matters. 
BREVITIES. 
Get the sod plowing done early. 
Two sides of the pension question on page 432. 
Do not be tempted to use imported European potatoes 
for seed. 
No—do not try to graft bark on a biting dog. There are 
enough barkers now. 
A chance for women’s rights. Make the man of the 
house prepare a good garden ! 
Test the seed corn. Take each ear, shell off a few aver¬ 
age kernels, plant them in a box or pot, and mark both 
ear and planting. If the kernels send up strong plants, 
use the ear—if not, feed it! 
The London Lancet adds the loathsome bedbug to the 
list of biting insects instrumental in the spread of disease. 
In India it is found responsible for the spread of black 
fever, or kala-azar, a serious tropical disease, which em¬ 
phasizes the need of cleanliness, and the danger of permit¬ 
ting any insect pest to increase in numbers. 
Out in Seattle a number of rats hare been dyed brilliant 
colors and turned loose, that the city health department 
may trace the migration of the rodent population from one 
part of the city to another. For the first time on record 
a citizen of Seattle may be allowed to see an aniline pink 
rat without any aspersions of his moral standing. 
On page 369 C. speaks of conditions that combined to 
depress the apple market. Perhaps the market was de¬ 
pressed, but in February No. 2 Northwestern Greenings 
sold for 10 cents a quart in suburbs of New York, the 
quart including seven apples. Apples have been a luxury 
to many small consumers for several Winters past. 
