1260 
THE RUm NEW-YORKER 
December 14, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A Rational Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established isso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company. 4*9 Pearl St.. New York 
nKKBRRT W. Colling wood, President and Editor. 
Jolty J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretaiy. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01. equal to 8s. (VI., or 
marks, or 10K francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office aR Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates ft) 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 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 we lie 
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 tune of 
the transaction, and you must have mentioned The Rural New-Yorker 
• when writing the advertiser. 
A number of friends ask about the new parcels post 
bill and how it will operate. The Post Office Depart¬ 
ment will issue a zone map of the country. This 
will be marked out in zones or squares showing what 
the postage will be from one point to another. This 
map will be sold by the Department. Later there will 
"be a statement telling how to pack certain articles for 
shipment. Be sure to remember that special stamps 
must be used on the packages. The object of this is 
to enable the Department to know just how much 
postal revenue is due to this new plan. There is some 
opposition to the idea of a zone system of parcels 
post. Our advice is to try to make it a success and 
thus prove the need of such a system. Then as faults 
develop we can be in a position to obtain what we 
need. The work for a complete system of postal 
express will be pushed harder than ever. 
* 
Owing to the continued shortage in milk receipts 
the N. Y. Milk Exchange, on December 1, advanced 
the quotation one-fourth cent per quart. Prices are 
now named on two of the grades established by the 
City Board of Health. Grade B, which is pasteurized 
or selected raw milk, is $2.11 per 40-quart can; and 
Grade C, which can be sold only for cooking or 
manufacturing, is $2.01. This brings the per quart 
price in the 26-cent freight zone up to 4}4 and 4^4 
cents, the highest for many years. Restaurants using 
two or three cans per day now pay the jobbers 5^4 
to 6 }4 cents, delivered at their stores. Without ques¬ 
tion fewer cows than formerly are now available for 
supplying market milk. The decrease has come, to 
quite an extent, from the selling of small dairies. 
As is reported from Massachusetts, many six to 10- 
cow dairies have been driven out of business by the 
strict inspection laws. 
* 
Word comes that Governor Wilson is thinking seri¬ 
ously of selecting Congressman Culbertson of Texas 
as Secretary of Agriculture. It is Mr. Wilson’s 
privilege to do this, but lie ought to know something 
of what will follow. Mr. Culbertson is reported as 
being a strong oleo man. By this we mean that he 
opposes the legislation for which the dairymen have 
fought for so many years. His sympathies are with 
the oleo manufacturers and beef cattle men. For 
some reason the Congressmen from the South have 
always leaned upon the side of oleo whenever the 
question has come before Congress. We do not 
know how Mr. Wilson stands on this subject, but 
we can easily tell him what will happen if he puts 
an oleo man at the head of the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment. By doing so he will promptly alienate the sup¬ 
port of the strongest factor among the Northern 
farmers. As a political move it would be as great 
a blunder as when President Taft insisted upon 
Canadian reciprocity and then practically told the 
farmers they did not know their own mind. 
* 
We were recently helpful in helping one of our 
readers obtain an article which he did not seem able 
to get unaided. Now he writes: 
‘When I asked my eoolc to say to the man who gave 
me this article that I had secured it through your efforts, 
she added: ‘‘Tom, if you were lost, I believe Mrs. W. 
could advertise in The R. N.-Y. and find you.” So I told 
her that I had no doubt of It, as you had already found 
a lost person for her friends. w. 
The title of “finder” would suit us well, for there 
is no one more useful than he who can find the path 
to any worthy desire for his friends. That is what 
we try to do at least. Hunting for lost people is not 
so much in our line, although it is hard to hide from 
the thousands of sharp eyes which look into every 
corner of the paper. When it comes to finding in¬ 
formation or finding the road to facts we shall be 
proud to take as a model' a combination of blood¬ 
hound and bull-dog. 
All over the country farmers are trying to solve 
the hard problem of direct dealing with consumers. 
All sorts of plans are being tried, but chiefly that of 
individual dealing. Some of these turn out much 
like this: 
Hope Farm had a good deal to say about dealing direct 
with the consumer. Let me give you my experience 
during this season in doing the same through the medium 
of Adams Express Co. I sent a basket of fruit and vege» 
tables to Cos Cob, Conn., and nothing remained in basket 
when it arrived but what could not be eaten without 
cooking. w - H< H - 
New Jersey. 
This man is in correspondence with the express 
company. They are still “looking it up.’ We have 
had much the same experience with express ship¬ 
ments of fruit, except in packages which can be 
nailed or locked up. Much also depends on the pack¬ 
ing, for the fruit must not shake or rattle in the 
package, or the expressmen will play Sail with it. We 
think the most practical outcome for this direct selling 
is for a few farmers to combine and make fair-sized 
shipments to a store in which they can have an 
interest 
* 
In his last message to Congress President Taft 
speaks a good and strong word for agricultural credits. 
He calls the plan for providing fair working capital 
for farmers “a concern of vital importance to this 
nation.” So it is. 
No evidence of prosperity among well-established farm¬ 
ers should blind us to the fact that lack of capital is 
preventing a development of the Nation's agricultural 
resources and an adequate increase of the land under cul¬ 
tivation. 
That is sound and ought to be studied by the “two 
blades of grass” gentlemen who are so anxious to 
help the railroads and the consumers. In view of 
the somewhat strained relations between President 
Taft and many Northern farmers, the following 
quotation shows sound sense and a most admirable 
spirit: 
Our farmers have been our mainstay in times of crisis, 
and in future it must still largely he upon their stability 
and common sense that this democracy must rely to con¬ 
serve its principles of self-government. 
We commend that to the New York “Times,” for 
of all the daily papers we have seen it is the cham¬ 
pion for printing blunderbuss insults and fool state¬ 
ments about farmers. 
* 
There has never been a time in New York when 
the Legislature seemed ready to give the farmers a 
fairer chance in legislation than now. We think the 
next session will be remarkable in this respect. For 
some years now there has been a strong demand for 
certain legislation. That has gained such power that 
public men know they must act. The peculiar mix-up 
of the last election has convinced the “leaders” that 
party lines are fading out and that the people will 
now hold their representatives personally responsible 
for their acts. They all want to please the farmers. 
Therefore, if we are wise and fair, we can get what 
we want. It will be a mistake to demand too much. 
A few things which are of vital importance will be 
better than many small bills, cr a demand for the 
impossible. Here are a few things worth working for: 
A strong commission house bill. 
State market regulation. 
An agricultural credit law. 
“Blue sky” legislation. 
By the latter we mean regulation of the sale of 
stocks and bonds and other securities, such as is done 
in Kansas. The object of this is to prohibit the sale 
of bogus or worthless securities. In former years 
the cause of agriculture has had rather a poor show¬ 
ing at Albany. The real work of legislation is done in 
committees, and the agricultural committees have often 
been regarded as the tailings—their appointment a sort 
of perfunctory duty. That ought to be changed this 
year, and care should be taken to have the agricul¬ 
tural committees of both houses filled with men who 
understand farming and know what farmers want. 
There are more farmers than last year in the Legis¬ 
lature, and this committee organization work ought 
to be planned and under way before the Legislature 
meets. 
* 
The Supreme Court has decided that the so-called 
“Harriman deal” was a violation of the Sherman 
anti-trust law. Up to 1901 the Union Pacific and 
Southern Pacific railroad systems were competitors 
for passenger and freight traffic. The late E. H. 
Harriman conceived the scheme of combining these 
two systems under one management or “merger,” so 
that instead of competing they should constitute a 
monopoly. Thus the Union Pacific through Harriman’s 
agents obtained 46 per cent, of the stock of the 
Southern Pacific. This stock was held by one of the 
U. P.’s proprietary companies. While not a majority 
of the stock, it was enough to enable the U. P. to 
control the other road. Evidently this was only the 
beginning of a gigantic scheme to combine other rail¬ 
road systems into what might have become a nation¬ 
wide monopoly. The government brought suit to have 
this combination broken up because it was in restraint 
of trade. This contention was defeated in the lower 
Federal Court, but the Supreme Court has now over¬ 
ruled the lower one. It holds that even though the 
U. P. did not own a majority of the stock it had 
enough to control operations. The court also holds 
that the ability to prevent fair competition amounts 
to the same thing as actually preventing: 
Nor does it make any difference that rates for the time 
being may not be raised and much money be spent in 
improvements after the combination is effected. It is the 
scope of such combinations and their power to suppress or 
stifle competition or create monopoly which determines 
the applicability of the act. 
This is definite and clear, and it ought to settle the 
question as to whether a public carrier or a public 
servant has the right to combine and thus prevent fair 
competition. The court distinctly says No! 
* 
The boxed apple proposition has found itself in 
England. How well we can remember when exhibi¬ 
tors at fruit shows all demanded the barrel package. 
They were not even willing to try boxes. The Pa¬ 
cific coast growers forced the box package into mar- 
kat and the East is following. Now the English take 
it up—and how? The Mark Lane Express says: 
We saw the other day at a fruit show in the West of 
England half a dozen boxes of packed fruit in a com¬ 
petitive" class—but what a difference compared to the 
Maidstone display-! In the first case each box was of 
a different size and different make, and so heavy were 
several of them that the carriage would have been a 
considerable item had they been sent by rail. We looked 
at the printed letters outside the bores, expecting to find 
the names and addresses of the growers and exhibitors, 
but, no, one box was advertising Watson’s Matchless 
Cleanser, another a certain brand of starch, and a third 
dairy produce from New Zealand, so we learnt from this 
the uses to which the boxes had been put before they 
were employed for packing apples for exhibition. Further 
comment is needless. 
Do not smile—we saw just the same thing here 
only a few years ago. Fruit was put into any old 
box until the shippers and handlers found that they 
threw away money by such packing. The demand for 
a standard national apple box has grown from the 
necessities of those who produce high grade fruit. 
“Further comment is needless.” You are wrong, for 
many pounds of ink and miles of words will be 
wasted before your people wake up to their needs. 
Keep at it cheerfully. 
* 
There are some breezy men out on the Western 
prairies who use their knowledge of English not to 
conceal ideas, but to make them clear. One of them 
is Dr. E. F. Ladd, Food Commissioner of North 
Dakota, who says: 
The average person, in case of ill health, or imagined 
illness, likes secrecy in the treatment and secrecy in the 
character of the medicine that is employed. One who is 
approaching possible nervous breakdown, if advised to 
take cottage-cheese and phosphates, would refuse to be 
treated with so simple a remedy as this, for the psycho¬ 
logical effect would not be there, but, under the fanciful 
term of ‘‘Sanatogen,” a simple product becomes a won¬ 
derful remedy to be exploited for the profits. 
Dr. Ladd reports an analysis of Sanatogen shows 
5 per cent, of glycerol phosphate of soda with casein 
of milk. The magazines, especially those who like 
to be classed as religious, are advertising this phos- 
phated pot cheese remedy for nervous breakdown. 
Perhaps it cures somewhat on the homeopathic prin¬ 
ciple that the nerve of the advertisers ought to cure 
most forms of nervousness. On the same principle 
it ought to make operations for gallstones unneces¬ 
sary. This must be one of “nature’s remedies.” Every 
Spring we have dozens of questions about cows which 
chew old boards or bones—especially the latter. We 
never knew it before, but they must be trying this 
new remedy. They can provide their own pot cheese 
and gnaw the phosphate off the bones! Of course 
there are people who claim to be “helped” by such 
remedies. We have seen people greatly benefited by a 
day’s work on a bucksaw, but that is hardly as popu¬ 
lar a remedy as pot cheese and phosphate under a 
fancy name. But, seriously this is a fair sample of 
the medical guff loaded on the nerves of the public. 
BREVITIES. 
The wire protectors around our trees against vermin. 
Use the why protector against fakes. Make them show 
why before they handle your money. 
The Kansas Agricultural College is after the hired 
man who blows his Winter away in town. They want 
this man to take the short course at the college. 
Franked matter that,- if paid for, would have netted 
the Postal Department $20,000,000, was carried in the 
mails during the fiscal year ending June 30. Between 
7,000.000 and 8.000,000 pounds of this matter consisted 
of political documents used in the late campaign, which 
was transmitted as first-class matter. 
