1004 
September 28, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUBINES8 FARMER'S PAPER 
A ."National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established /«.;» 
Published weakly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Co ll.inc,wood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager 
IVm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8)^ marks, or 10}4 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or hank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates (SO cents per agate line—~ 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 goo,i 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 trilling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the remits. 
Notice of tlie complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and yon must have mentioned Thk Rural Nkw-i ohkkb 
when writing the advertiser. 
We doubt if the man or boy who has never worked 
on a farm will get much good from the short course 
at an agricultural college. That course is for those 
who have some foundation of practical farm work— 
the more, perhaps, the better. It is a mistake, we 
think, to take the short course first and then try prac¬ 
tical farm work. That is putting the light stone as 
foundation and trying to put the big ones on top. 
* 
This week we print letters from fanners who give 
reasons why country people should vote for Wood- 
row Wilson or for Chafin, the Prohibition candidate. 
Next week there will be a letter advocating the elec¬ 
tion of Mr. Taft and the authorized reply of Mr. 
Roosevelt to our “four-sided platform.” Our object 
is to give all sides a fair hearing, cutting out all per¬ 
sonal abuse and so far as possible confining the dis¬ 
cussion to those things which specially interest farm¬ 
ers. Our readers are intelligent people who are capa¬ 
ble of forming their own opinion after the facts arc 
put before them. 
*f- 
Next year the Argentine Republic will celebrate its 
centenary—100 years as a nation. The country has 
made great progress. Starting as an unpromising 
Spanish colony, it has grown to be one of the world’s 
great feeders—supplying bread and meat to millions. 
.It seems to have hardly begun its development. Vari¬ 
ous reasons will be offered for the greatness and hope 
of Argentina. The foundation of it is the ability and 
the inclination to grow' Alfalfa wherever it can be 
seeded. Wherever that crop is generally grown, there 
you will find prosperity in nation or in community. 
* 
During the State Fair we went out to see Hamlet 
Worker’s Alfalfa farm. There was one field which 
has been seeded nine years—they were just ready to 
cut it for the twenty-seventh time. This means about 
80 feet of Alfalfa, or some 35 tons per acre since 
seeding. At a low average of $16 per ton anyone 
can figure what such a crop means. And when the 
sod is broken up for re-seeding, what corn or potatoes 
follow it! The fact is, few of us half begin to realize 
what this Alfalfa crop means to a farm. It is chang¬ 
ing the agricultural history of central New ’’fork as 
few things have ever done before, and the story has 
hardly begun to be told. At the fair we met a man 
from the West who had bought a farm in central 
New York and started with Alfalfa. He said he 
had farmed in five different States and had found 
there is more money to he made on an acre in New 
York than in any other place he had found. 
* 
In France as in this country the price of food in 
“nature’s original packages” is very high in city and 
town. The National Food Products League after in¬ 
vestigation gave the following as what it calls a 
"fundamental fact.” 
There is a persistent and excessive disparity between 
the prices received for food products by farmers, dairy¬ 
men. gardeners, etc., and tbe prices at which the same 
materials are sold to consumers in municipal markets. No 
abundance in crops seems sufficient to bring retail prices 
down to anywhere near the level of a few years ago, and 
the complaints of the employed classes, who are dependent 
on their daily earnings are becoming constantly more 
urgent. 
Their remedy is for the government to exercise its 
authority to reduce railroad rates on food products 
and thus increase shipments of food. These French¬ 
men understand the “two blades of grass” theory. 
Large increases in the crop make little difference in 
the price to the consumer. He does not get the 
benefit of increased competition. The farmer suffers 
from such competition, while the men who gain by 
it are the handlers and middlemen who have a mo¬ 
nopoly of transportation. 
T'HBJ R.URAI* NEW-VORKBR 
There is to he a “clearing house” for fruit at the 
Kansas Agricultural College. Every year in Kansas, 
the same as in other States, great quantities of fruit 
are left to rot on the ground for lack of a market. 
At the same time there may he places where people 
are unable to obtain fruit at a fair price. This “clear¬ 
ing house" will try to learn where fruit can be sold 
and get farmers into connection with such places. 
An effort also is being made this year to bring to¬ 
gether two, three or even a dozen growers in any 
community who have enough fruit to attract a quan¬ 
tity buyer. The clearing house will then find a buyer 
and put him in communication with these farmers. 
Bankers or secretaries of' commercial clubs who feel 
the need of buyers for horticultural products in their 
communities are urged to use the clearing house. 
That is good work and should be encouraged every¬ 
where. We need more fruit eaten. Go through every 
large town or city and you will find hundreds who 
rarely eat an apple. They must be educated—in most 
cases through their children. There are many cases 
where it would pay to carry the culls to town and 
give them to the street children. This would create 
a taste for apples which would in time surely in¬ 
fluence the market. We must imitate the people who 
put a new food product on the market—advertise. 
* 
Without any wish to discuss tbe merits of various 
candidates for President this Fall, it goes without saying 
that tbe reason for the third ticket is in the fact that 
people are anxious to rid themselves of boss rule. I am 
speaking of the rank and file of the third party. If 
they can get rid of the old gang that has so long hampered 
well meaning people, the movement will not be iii vain. 
As we see it here in the country there is danger ahead, 
and our people are coming to see it plainly. If there is 
a fair prospect of the party coming to be a real factor in 
polities, the same old gang are going to know it as quickly 
as anybody, and if they sec any fat picking in the new 
field they will be there and they will seize the party 
management at the first opportunity. In that ease the 
new party will be little better than the old. The question 
of the ones interested iu the new movement is how to 
hold the party machinery from the designing grafters 
long enough to enable some of the needed reforms to be 
worked out. Will the people in general see it in time 
and will the} - he able to hold their rights from the 
robbers? There are conditions developing right now in 
the open country that point to the situation mentioned. 
I do not know how it may be in the city, but our country 
crooks usually get their cue from the city. H. 
Chenango Co., X. V. 
Add this to the answer on page 1002 to the question, 
“What can they do?’’ With most of our country 
people the motive for independent voting is a desire 
to get rid of the “bosses” who have so long run 
politics for us. It is disheartening to see some of 
these well-known old-timers bobbing up in the new 
party. For example, Timothy L. Woodruff. We have 
a good memory. Mr. Woodruff opposed Governor 
Hughes and the direct primary bill, and has choked 
off many a desirable act of legislation. In a party of 
reform such men should be on the “mourners’ bench ’ 
and not on the platform. It is hard for a man with 
political bowlegs to walk straight. Enthusiasts may 
point to them as a “bright and signing light,” but 
to us they seem more like a smoky kerosene^ lamp. 
Keep an eye on them. They will grab the new party 
machinery if the}- can. Here is another reason why 
wc should drive in the farmer’s demands with our 
own hammer. 
* 
The Department of State at Washington is sending 
out circulars describing the various agricultural sys¬ 
tems of Europe. In one entitled-“Agricultural Co¬ 
operation in Switzerland” we find the following: 
The farmers of Switzerland are the backbone of the 
nation. The government recognizes this. It is to the 
farmers that the country would turn if ever it became 
necessary for that Confederation to defend its independ¬ 
ence. Wisely the government has done all in its power 
to aid the farmer, to stiffen the backbone of the nation. 
Incidentally, however, the farmers have taken a hand iu 
the question of the government's looking to their welfare. 
They have made themselves a strong factor in the govern¬ 
ment—that is, the coSpcration practiced by the Swiss 
farmers is largely political. 
We assume that the administration advances these 
facts and propositions because it believes in them. 
Let us see how far they apply to the American farmer. 
Like the Swiss farmer, he also is “the backbone of 
the nation.” More than that, he is the heart and life¬ 
blood. Without him and what his home stands for 
the cities would in three generations he peopled by a 
race of puny weaklings. This country could not pos¬ 
sibly defend its independence without help from its 
farmers. It has little independence now except that 
found on prosperous farms. Does our government 
recognize this? In words very likely—especially be¬ 
fore election. In deeds—no, as compared” with what 
has been done for other interests and classes. Has 
it “done all in its power to aid the farmer”? If it 
has it must admit a power so puny and faltering that 
it is a wonder how the nation can endure. Since the 
war, in particular, this country seems to have gone on 
the theory that farming is a business strong enough 
to take care of itself and in addition provide for all 
the rest. Thus “agriculture” has received experi¬ 
ments in education while transportation, banking and 
manufacturing have received subsidies, special privi¬ 
leges and princely gifts—all finally paid by farmers! 
And the last part of the above statement explains 
why this is so. Our farmers have not “taken a hand” 
in public matters. Agriculture should have a hand 
right on the coat collar of the men who are supposed 
to represent us. It is a mistake to go chasing off 
after one candidate or another. Put up the four¬ 
sided platform we have been advocating and let the 
candidates come inside of it. 
* 
Permit me to express approval of your political posi¬ 
tion. More and more I come to see that principles are 
to be followed rather than men or parties. It is a great 
thing to know what you want, and then go after it as an 
athlete does for the prize. w. H. M. 
Exactly. As we figure it out that is the only way 
for farmers ever to get a fair showing in public 
matters. The very make-up of most political parties 
unfits them to do anything more than compromise. 
The “conservative” element needs the radical vote 
and the radicals do not quite dare to go alone. So a 
compromise is arranged which suits nobody and means 
anything before election and nothing afterwards. In 
all such deals the conservatives or the politicians 
finally secure the advantage. We believe in stating 
a few essential needs of farmers and sticking to them 
rather than expecting any particular party to make 
them into law. They should not be party questions. 
They are public questions, and if farmers will insist 
upon them all parties will make common cause in 
putting them through. 
* 
We received about 50 manuscripts of the farm 
story. This means nearly 3,000,000 words to be read 
carefully. We shall give every story a fair study. 
Tliis will take some time and delay a final decision. 
The manuscripts found unavailable will be returned 
promptly. We should judge that about half of these 
stories were written by people who never lived in the 
country and have no idea of what farm life is. 
Some of them express a desire to address country 
people or write a “problem story” for their edifica¬ 
tion! Of course if a farmer were to suggest writing 
a story of city life he would be laughed at; yet here 
are people with the most limited knowledge of coun¬ 
try living very willing to instruct farmers or picture 
their -life as it should be! It would be amusing if it 
did not typify many of the authorized efforts to “up¬ 
lift” our farmers. There are several of these stories 
written by men and women who know the farm that 
are promising. We hope to obtain something that 
will make a true appeal to farmers. 
* 
I sent your “four points which farmers want” to Roose¬ 
velt. To-day I had a note from his secretary, calling my 
attention to the fact that iu his Hartford speech Mr. 
Roosevelt had added the “blue sky law,” etc., to the other 
three points, using your oten words. Now you have said 
what you want, and stated it as you want it stated, and 
Teddy has come up to the scratch, and from what I know 
of him through his personal friends and enemies, he’ll 
stick to it, or die. F - M - s - 
Let us give Mr. Roosevelt full credit for this. No 
party, no man, should have a monopoly of such pro¬ 
posed legislation. The cursed traffic in which the 
financial frauds are engaged should have no defenders 
whatever among our public men. \\ hen a man capi¬ 
talizes wind and promises and through doing so ob¬ 
tains the money of poor and confiding people he is 
a thief and should be treated like any other rascal. 
He is usually left free to use the United States mail. 
He ought to be shut out of the mail and denied the 
right to sell his paper unless he can prove solid assets 
back of it. That is all the Federal “blue sky” law 
comes to—a simple proposition for preventing liars 
from robbing confiding people. Mr. Roosevelt stands 
for it. The present administration has done its best 
to clean out these fakes. We have no doubt some of 
the bitter fight against Mr. Taft may be traced to the 
rascals put out of business by the Post Office De¬ 
partment. 
BREVITIES. 
The Germans report drying potato vines for stock food 
which prove “equal to meadow bay"! 
A correspondent at North Collins, N. Y., says that land 
values have increased 100 per cent in the last year, 
Italians being willing to pay these high prices. We infer 
this means intensive farming on the part of the Italians, 
and it also means many changes iu the life of the com¬ 
munity. 
Evidently the middleman was in need of regulation as 
far back as the year 1244. for at that time, in preparing 
statutes for Oxford, King Henry III of England ruled 
that no retail dealer should buy victuals on theii a> 
to market, uor lray in the market to sell again before nine 
o'clock in tin* morning, thus giving the consumer a chance 
to deal directly with the producer. 
