140 
the; rural, new-’porker 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country an«l Suburban Homes 
Established iSSO 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Colungwood, President and Editor. 
John .1. Dn.LON, 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 
8J4 marks, or 10H francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 00 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for time orders. 
References required for advertisers unknown tons ; and 
cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARF, DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by n respon¬ 
sible person. Rut 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¬ 
scriber against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we 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 you must have mentioned The Rural New-Yorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
Suit was recently brought in Maine to recover about 
$500 damages from the N. Y., N, H. & H. railroad 
for damage to a car of strawberies. There seemed 
to be a clear case against the railroad, but its bill of 
lading stated that all claims must be made in writing 
within four months of the date of shipment. The 
plaintiff in this case had not made such complaint on 
time, and the judge gave a verdict to the railroad. 
The moral of this is—when dealing with a public 
carrier know just what is stated on your ticket or 
your receipt. 
* 
One of the most plausible smaller fakes before the 
public is that of “tree vaccination.” This is the old 
scheme of injecting some liquid or powder into a 
tree on the theory that the stpff will work into the 
sap and thus cure plant diseases and even destroy 
insects. This is a very attractive programme to put 
before the man who has a valuable tree which shows 
evidence of feebleness, and the “vaccinator” often 
reaps a large harvest. We long ago realized the im¬ 
possible task of arguing with such people. Our stand¬ 
ard advice is to let them alone under all circum¬ 
stances. Cut them out. If they had anything worth 
while our trained scientists would have been on the 
track of it long ago. 
* 
Two years ago, during the fruit growers’ meeting 
at Rochester, the writer went to many fruit stores and 
asked for New York apples. There were none to be 
found! Fruit dealers were well stocked with Pacific 
coast fruit, but with one accord they did not care 
to sell the “apples of New York.” This year we 
went over the same route and found the New York 
apples in practically every shop. Some had hut a 
small quantity, while others made a fine display. But 
the point is that these Rochester storekeepers have 
found that there is a genuine demand for home-grown 
fruit. Thej- are wise and follow demand. This is 
very encouraging, for it shows what can be done if 
buyers and growers act. 
* 
The cause of the high cost of living goes straight back 
to the soil. The tariff is not responsible, nor the trusts, 
nor the middleman. These are mere incidents. High 
cost of living is a polite phrase for famine. Famine, 
since the days before history began, has and had its origin 
in the land. 
That is taken from an address by Dr. C. G. Hop¬ 
kins of the Illinois Agricultural College. He goes on 
to state that “brain farming” is needed; that the soil 
is playing out in consequence of poor work on the 
part of our farmers. Grant that all the above is cor¬ 
rect, a little thought will show that it is merely scrap¬ 
ing the surface without getting anywhere near the 
heart of the subject. Such talk does not get near or 
influence 90 per cent of the people who have to do 
the work of improving the soil if anyone ever does it. 
We know that today thousands of tons of food never 
leave the farm at all. Why ? Because the price which 
handlers would pay the fanners would not cover the 
cost of gathering and shipment. Of course, the 
cause “goes straight back to the land” and stays 
there. It will stay there until the plain, ordinary 
farmer can obtain fair credit for conducting his busi¬ 
ness and until a fairer share of the consumers’ dollar 
goes back to the farm. Until these things are worked 
out and started on the way to settlement it is like 
putting whitewash over bad timber to talk “brain 
farming” and “soil improvement” exclusively. We 
fully recognize the need of scientific education in agri¬ 
culture, but the sad thing is that our teachers do not 
seem to know that their teaching cannot be made 
available to those who need it most until they get 
down to underlying causes and acknowledge them. 
Strange that they cannot see how their very failure to 
admit what every practical farmer knows about the 
need of credit and cooperation is the thing which 
keeps them out of touch with the very people they 
want to help. 
In the lower part of the Gulf States a good many 
farmers have been badly frightened over the boll- 
weevil. They feel that they must abandon cotton 
growing. When they begin the change reasonably, 
working slowly into grass and grain and stock, they 
do well. Some of them, however, want to plunge 
desperately into fruit or truck growing, giving up 
cotton entirely. They may not be fitted by nature or 
experience in any way to make such a violent change. 
Truck growing requires long experience and great 
skill, especially when the market is 1,000 miles or 
more away. While the weevil is a menace and a 
nuisance, it is after all a more lenient master than 
an entirely untried business like trucking. 
* 
The commission house bill to be introduced in the 
New York Legislature is an elaborate measure which 
has been prepared with great care. It will be printed 
entire a little later; now we give a fair synopsis of 
its features: Under its provisions commission deal¬ 
ers, whether individuals or corporations, cannot re¬ 
ceive or sell or offer for sale within this State any 
kind of farm produce until they obtain a license 
from the Commissioner of Agriculture. This license 
costs $10. Before such license is issued each appli¬ 
cant must give a satisfactory bond of $10,000 to secure 
payment for farm produce. When a commission ac¬ 
count remains due and unpaid for 30 days the con¬ 
signor may sue on this bond. The Commissioner of 
Agriculture is to have power to investigate complaints 
of interested parties and may, for cause, revoke a 
license. A commission merchant will not be per¬ 
mitted to purchase or cause to he purchased for his 
own account or interest any farm produce consigned 
to him for sale or distribution. Report of sale or 
distribution must be made within 48 hours of such 
sale on forms approved by the Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture. The commissioner is required to establish 
uniform grades for farm produce, which are to be 
published and revised annually if needed. When 
these grades are made known any consignor may 
mark such grade or standard upon his packages. 
When produce marked in this way is received the 
commission merchant must inspect them. If, in his 
judgment, they are not up to grade, he must notify 
the nearest agent or inspector of the Commissioner of 
Agriculture. This inspector shall examine the ship¬ 
ment and give the commission merchant a certificate 
specifying the grade and quantity and condition of 
the goods. If the commission merchant fails to ob¬ 
tain such a certificate he shall be deemed to have 
waived his right to claim that the shipment did not 
conform to the consignor’s statement. The bill also 
aims to protect the rights of the commission men 
fairly. This is a skeleton of much needed legisla¬ 
tion. Expert lawyers have spent much time in study¬ 
ing the legal points involved and have prepared a 
bill that will give protection to shippers without in¬ 
justice to commission men. It now remains for the 
farmers and country people of New York to get to¬ 
gether and put up a mighty battle for this legislation. 
Waste no time, but write at once to your Senator and 
member of the Assembly, urging them to vote and 
work for this commission house bill. 
* 
That is a good question on page 155. Would the 
hens that win blue ribbons at poultry shows also win 
in an egg-laying contest? Why not ask if the young 
women who lead the beauty shows in “society” would 
win prizes at making bread or cake? At an age that 
might be expected to lead to cold judgment we should 
expect to find such beauties a vision of delight, but 
their cookery a horrible fact. A beautiful face and 
beautiful bread might well be as twins, but they will 
not he while the owner has most of her mind on her 
beauty! As for the hen, we have invested in a few 
blue ribboners. They had beautiful plumage, an aris¬ 
tocratic head and tail, but they did not lay as many 
eggs as old Spot and Whitey. How could they, when 
they had been bred to “act like father’s folks?” For 
generations “father’s folks” had been expected to 
strut about and look pretty. We judge that they cer¬ 
tainly were onto their job. We should say that the 
present demand for egg contests is the visible expres¬ 
sion of a protest against the methods of the poultry 
show. The “utility” men rightly conclude that the 
great majority of us eat eggs rather than fine feathers, 
and people want the hen that will pack her food into 
meat and eggs. That we understand to be “utility.” 
The fanciers say that they breed these high scoring 
fowls because people want them and pay high prices. 
They also say that their hens lay as well as any 
others, hut are too valuable to risk in a contest. The 
last statement is the one most of us are interested in. 
If any of the fanciers will put up a “blue ribbon” 
pen against a pen of utility birds and win they can 
make more out of it than they ever could at a dozen 
poultry shows. 
February 
For the present we have agricultural colleges enough; 
a few more agricultural high schools might he well, but 
what we most need is a host of agricultural kindergartens 
where children at their Impressionable age could get that 
love of nature which is worth so much in after life, and 
which would make farming to those who later engage 
in it, something more than drudgery. F. D. h. 
An earnest man states the thing which lives in his 
heart. The man who writes the above has two 
motherless boys. He is busy with large duties, and 
found, as such men do, that the safe place for those 
boys was in the country on a farm. He wants them 
to grow up as farmers, but he hunted long before he 
could find a suitable place. We think this man is 
right in saying that we now have agricultural colleges 
enough. It is fashionable now to speak of farm bu¬ 
reaus and county experts, but why not farm kinder¬ 
gartens? Why not begin with the child? Are there 
not hundreds of farmers’ wives who were formerly 
school teachers? Many of these women are not 
suited to the harder farm work, but they could care 
for children. Why not make it worth their while to 
do this? 
* 
We have given several extracts from the Nczu York 
Times to show the narrow, if not malignant, spirit 
that paper shows when it talks about farmers. There 
are others! For instance, this from the St. Louis 
Republic: 
For back of the city, back of its luxury and achieve¬ 
ments, stands the country. Our tonnage of incoming and 
outgoing freight, our more than four billions of bank 
clearings, our towering sky-scrapers, the beauty of our 
residences, the vast output of our factories, the inarticu¬ 
late clamor of our Gargantuan labors—back of it all. 
determining the measure of our city's glory, is the coun¬ 
try. The welfare of the man who, with anxious eyes, 
looks across the lonely fields basking in a December sun 
and silently hopes for Winter, is of vital import to the 
,-’ty man. For fields must yield and the farmer must 
harvest if the city is to prosper. 
True—true as eternity—and few realize the good 
that a great metropolitan daily can do by printing 
such matter. It is very strange that so many city 
people cannot understand that all there is of the 
future that is worth anything lies in giving the small 
freeholder of land a fair show. Every so-called 
“civilization” which has denied fair dealing to the 
farmer has fallen. 
* 
When Clark Allis, president of the New York 
State Fruit Growers’ Association, got through talkihg 
last week everybody knew where he stood on the 
subject of rum and tobacco. Most people respect a 
man of positive conviction whether they agree with 
him or not. As for liquor drinking, ft is one of the 
worst evils which fruit growers have to contend with. 
In an economic way it interferes directly with their 
business. A large share of every dollar spent for 
liquor ought to be spent for fruit and other food, 
and would be if the rum-seller did not get it first. 
There is no sound reason why a fruit grower should 
advocate the liquor business, and every good reason 
why he should oppose it .As for tobacco, we realize 
that the situation is somewhat different. We can 
hardly expect all fruit growers to agree regarding 
the evils of the tobacco habit as they will regarding 
liquor. They must admit, however, that the money 
that is spent for tobacco is, to a considerable extent, 
lost to the trade in fruit and other food which they 
as farmers produce and sell. They can give no reason 
for the tobacco trade except the gratification of a 
questionable habit. Of course, they know that tobacco 
is our most exhausting crop—with little return of 
plant food to the soil. Looking at it, therefore, with¬ 
out prejudice or passion, we can agree that both 
liquor and tobacco arc connected with vital issues for 
fruit growers. 
BREVITIES. 
Time to think of planting seed of early tomatoes. 
Buy the seeds early. There is always a rush at the end. 
Give the horses a little linseed meal. 
There is much human nature in that diary of a back 
to-the-lander on page 130. 
Many a big flat rock may he split up like kindling wood 
by building a fire on it, and while it is hot dashing on 
cold water. Try it. 
A tiny strip of ground in the heart of London. Eng¬ 
land, was recently sold for a sum which works out to 
about 95,500,000 an acre. 
Parcel post offers an excellent outlet for cut flowers, 
and some enterprising florists are making a special offer 
of parcel post orders, and also sending funeral designs 
in this way. 
Some men who shot deer out of season in Southern 
New Jersey were recently fined $000, on six counts at 
$100 each. As they asserted they had only eaten about 
10 pouuds of venison, their deer meat cost them $00 a 
pound. 
Westchester Co., N. Y., is discussing the wholesale 
killing of all unlicensed dogs running at large, because of 
the prevalence of rabies. During the past year the 
quarantine of different towns where the disease prevailed 
has cost the county $5,000. 
