468 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A Natloml Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established fSSO 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Colling wood, President and Editor. 
Jonh 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, SS.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
‘i,y i marks, or I0j^ 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—7 words. Discount for time orders. 
References required for advertisers unknown to us ; and 
cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
Wo 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 pnblicly exposed. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers, h either will we be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must he 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 fanners 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. 
* 
Our reports indicate that the systems and the 
snides in the poultry business are not quite as pros¬ 
perous this year as usual. There are too many wrecks 
from following their advice. On the other hand, the 
legitimate poultry trade is promising and constantly 
increasing. As orcharding becomes extended, hen 
keeping on the colony plan goes with it, for a hen and 
a tree make good partners. 
* 
In Congress the other day Mr. Guernsey, of North 
Carolina, tried to have the House cut out the appro¬ 
priation for garden seeds and pay only for distribut¬ 
ing new and rare sorts. He failed, and Mr. Candler, 
of Mississippi, provided this choice sample of warm 
“guff” for the Record: 
You propose to take away from tbe farmer the little 
pittance of garden seed. You would take away from his 
sweet wife, who labors with him day by day, the little 
package of flower seed that goes to decorate her front 
yard. I do not believe this House will indulge In any such 
economy as this. 
Then came Mr. Page, of North Carolina, who sug¬ 
gested that the distribution be taken from the Con¬ 
gressmen and made direct from the Agricultural De¬ 
partment! That would still provide for the “sweet 
wife,” but as it would not provide for the sour Con¬ 
gressman, the motion was lost. 
* 
On page 459 you will find a fair analysis of the 
express situation. Can you wonder that the express 
companies and the railroads fight parcels post rather 
than pull their fingers out of the public pocket? Beat- 
in mind, too, that the express business started in a 
very small way and that practically all the property 
these companies have was given them by the public 
for performing a service which is done in other coun¬ 
tries by the government. The railroads, too, represent 
largely public gifts in land and in money. We intend 
to open this subject until our people clearly under¬ 
stand why most Congressmen are so desperately 
afraid of the express companies and the railroads. 
Many are shocked at the proposition to condemn the 
express companies, pay a fair price for the business, 
and let the Government run it. Yet, in view of the 
present situation, what else can be done to give any 
practical relief? 
* 
A large proportion of our questions are about the 
use of lime. There are few more important things 
about farming than liming. Let us see if we can give 
the substance in a few lines. Limestone as it comes 
from the soil is called carbonate of lime. When 
crushed or ground it is called ground limestone; when 
limestone is burned instead of being- ground the car¬ 
bonic acid gas is driven away and lime is left. This 
is called lump or “quick” lime. When exposed to air 
or water this lump lime takes up water or slakes. It 
crumbles into a powder known as slaked lime. We 
refer to this when we speak of burnt lime as distinct 
from ground limestone. This burnt lime is quicker 
in its action than ground limestone, and contains more 
actual lime to the ton. One ton of burnt lime per 
acre is what we call a good application, and to obtain 
equal results you must use two tons of ground lime¬ 
stone. The proper way to use lime is to spread it 
after plowing and harrow it in. You cannot obtain 
full benefit from it by putting it on top of a sod or 
on Fall seeding. From choice we should use it when 
seeding down to grass or grain, and particularly to 
clover and Alfalfa. In 99 cases out of 100 every soil 
that has been under cultivation 40 years cannot be 
made to produce 75 per cent of its crop without the 
fair use of lime. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A private letter from a New York State farmer 
contains the following: 
When in New York I bought a tractor which will plow 
four 16-ineh furrows 10 inches deep, roll and drag at same 
time. I have hired a man to run it nights, so when the 
ground is right will run night and day, getting tbe ground 
ready so the weeds cannot start. A machine would have 
paid for itself last year on my bean crop alone. It is out 
of the question from a money standpoint to feed enough 
horses through the Winter to have them to do all the farm 
work in the rush season. A tractor of this kind can do 
the work of 10 teams by working 24 hours per day. 
This man has had a car for several years. His 
farm is reasonably level and smooth, and with large 
fields this tractor can work satisfactorily. It is a 
fact that the “high cost of living” for work horses 
proves a serious burden on farms where these horses 
must stand idle four or five months. This is particu¬ 
larly true on fruit farms, and it must, sooner or later, 
mean a greater use of the tractors. From now on 
there is sure to be a great development in these ma¬ 
chines. We expect to see them climb steep hills and 
twist around among the rocks. 
* 
THE NEXT PRESIDENT. 
If you could cast the vote of a majority of the 
American people, who would you put in the White 
House for the next four years, and why would you 
put him there? No man has such power, but if you 
had it what would you do? We would like to have 
you give us an answer to that question. There is 
no better way to learn what our readers want, and 
we have enough readers to influence the result some¬ 
what if we can get a full expression of opinion. We 
have heard from a good many already. Now let 
us hear from you. It seems evident to us that one 
great party will be radical in its demands while the 
other will try to be “conservative.” Remember that 
we do not care for a “straw vote,” but for fair and 
serious reasons why, in your judgment, one man rep¬ 
resents what you want better than another. The rea¬ 
sons given thus far are for the most part clear-cut and 
fearless. Next week we shall begin printing fair 
samples of the desires of Republican voters. An idea 
of the difficulty the politicians will have this year ill 
holding the ranks steady may be gained from tbe fol¬ 
lowing. Here is one from New York: 
For President my firm choice, first, last and all the 
time, is William Jennings Bryan, under the circumstances 
not available. Second choice. Champ Clark. Reasons, 
better than average, capable and honorable. a. p. c. 
Up to date we have more letters favoring Mr. 
Bryan than for any other Democrat, yet read this 
from a Maryland man: 
I am for Woodrow Wilson because I admire his sterling 
Democratic principles, his ability and his integrity, and I 
believe that the mantle of that peerless Democrat, Grover 
Cleveland, could not fall on worthier shoulders. Again, I 
am for him because he is a Southern man, being born, 
reared and educated in Virginia. It is quite time now 
that the South should be recognized, as no man from that 
section has been elected to the Presidency since the days 
of Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, 60 years ago, owing to 
sectional feelings growing out of the Civil War, which 
should now be done away with for all time. Therefore, 
had I the naming of the candidates to succeed Taft, they 
would be Wilson for the Presidency with Underwood, of 
Alabama, for his running mate, for first choice, with 
Champ Clark and Underwood next; but as to Bryan, nether* 
again! Never, no never! c. g. a. 
* 
Aside from every other consideration the farmers 
of this country suffered a serious loss when Dr. H. W. 
Wiley retired from the Department of Agriculture. 
Every pound of impure and adulterated food displaces 
a pound of the food which leaves our farms. The 
public must pay for the doctored stuff, but the farmer 
who supplies the original food gets the discredit for 
the fraud and must face the false competition as well. 
No man in the country is better qualified to'fight the 
frauds who put poisons and stuff into foods and drug's 
than Dr. Wiley. No man has more completely the 
confidence of the public. Why, then, is such a man 
forced out of office to save his peace of mind? Sim¬ 
ply because James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, 
has been permitted to remain in a place which has 
outgrown and grown over him. And who has kept 
him there? President Wm. H. Taft, with that strange 
and unaccountable obstinacy which induced him to re¬ 
tain Mr. Ballinger in his Cabinet when practically 
everybody else in the country knew he ought to get 
out! President Roosevelt is also responsible, for he 
retained Mr. Wilson at least four years longer than 
he should have done. This Wiley incident, what it 
means, and the influences which have caused it are 
enough to defeat Mr. Taft should they he clearly put 
before the public. It is hard to think of a more 
stupid policy or of a more cynical defiance of public 
opinion than keeping Mr. Wilson longer in office. Mr. 
Taft cannot afford to face this as a “campaign issue” 
in addition to his other troubles. 
April G, 
“The Story of The Soil” is an excellent book by 
Prof. C. G. Hopkins of Illinois. The author makes 
a striking point of the influence of a simple fertilizer 
experiment upon a farmer. They were testing the 
effect of various fertilizers upon Illinois soils. In 
one case a rich drained swamp gave poor or medium 
yields until they used a small quantity of potash. 
Then the corn suddenly found itself, and sprang up 
to an enormous growth. As all students know such 
swamp soils are very deficient in potash, though rich 
in nitrogen. The yield is always determined by the 
lacking element, and not by the one which is abundant. 
A farmer who had for years struggled for a living 
in this kind of soil heard of the experiment and 
brought his family to see it. Prof. Hopkins tells the 
story: 
As he stood looking, first at the corn on the treated and 
untreated land, and then at his wife and large family of 
children, he broke down and cried like a child. Later he 
explained to the superintendent who was showing him the 
experiments, that he had put the best of his life into* that 
kind of land. “The land looked rich,” said he, “as rich 
as any land I ever saw. I bought it and drained it and 
bnilt my home on a sandy knoll. The first crops were 
fairly good, and we hoped for better crops; but instead 
they grew worse and worse. We raised what we could on 
a small patch of sandy land, and kept trying to find out 
whaT we could grow on this black bogus land. Sometimes 
I helped the neighbors and got a little money, but my wife 
and I and my older children have wasted 20 years on this 
land. Poverty, poverty, always! How was I to know that 
this single substance which you call potassium was all we 
needed to make this land productive and valuable? Oh, 
if I had only known this 20 years ago, before my wife had 
worked like a slave, before my children had grown almost 
to manhood and womanhood, in poverty and ignorance!” 
The world is full of sad and discouraged people 
who toil and slave with only a distant, hopeless vision 
of prosperity and freedom. Like this man, they lack 
knowledge and cannot know and find the essentials 
thing which would lift them up from slavery. For 
knowledge is not only power, but life itself. The 
true test of our agricultural education is not how 
to broaden out the knowledge of the naturally bright 
and strong, but how to plant the small kernel of life- 
giving thought where the dull and the slow can 
use it. * 
After a trial of more than three months the 10 
meat packers at Chicago were found not guilty. The 
Government charged them with combining to restrain 
interstate trade and proved its case. Certainly the 
consumers who buy meat, the retailers who are forced 
to buy from the combined packers and the farmers 
■who sell to them know there is sure and harmful 
restraint of trade. Thousands of men have been 
ruined and forced out of business by such restraint, 
yet the Supreme Court decided that such things must 
be settled “in the light of reason,” and that some 
forms of “restraint” were fair and legal! The judge 
and jury in this case against the packers decided that 
this was such a “reasonable” case. There was no 
question about the conspiracy, but as the jurymen re¬ 
ported, “the people have not suffered!” The utter 
nonsense of such a statement will be appreciated by 
the thousands who have been held up by low prices 
for live stock and high prices for meat. Throughout 
the Eastern States the business of beef making has 
been practically ruined by the beef monopoly, which 
makes it almost impossible to sell a good beef animal 
except at prices which are dictated by the Trust. With 
anything like fair competition in buying beef cattle a 
new and profitable industry could be established on 
many of our Eastern farms. Yet with this evident 
record of hold-up and discrimination these packers go 
free because “the people have not suffered.” As 
soon as this verdict was announced the price of pro¬ 
visions jumped up at once, and so did stocks in the 
packing companies. But, of course, the people who 
must pay this extra price for food did not “suffer.” 
Nor will these packers suffer, for it is stated that the 
increase in the price of provisions since the verdict 
will nearly pay the entire cost of the trial which was 
fought for nearly 10 years! 
BREVITIES. 
Spring must be very attractive this year, considering 
how Winter lingers. 
Who do we feel most sorry for in this E. G. Lewis 
matter? The husbands and brothers of those good ladies 
who are still arguing for Lewis! 
Reports are that Kansas farmers are buying potatoes 
and have been all Winter. The “new” farm war cry is 
"potatoes for the Kansas citizen.” 
We will ask you to study tbe article on the German 
system of supplying credits to farmers. There are two 
nore articles to come and they explain the system fully. 
To indicate the great demand for “The Apples of New 
York” and other Isioks. a reader in Michigan tells us that 
the bare knowledge of where he can buy the books is 
worth tbe price of 10 years’ subscription. 
That ‘-'cordial” recently seized near this city by Do 
partment of Agriculture inspectors sounds like a good 
temperance lesson. It contained TO per cent of wood 
alcohol, a poison which causes blindness even where it is 
not fatal. 
