2«0 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country anil Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Coltjngwood, President and Editor. 
John' .1. Dillon, Treasurer ami General Manager. 
Win. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koylk. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.0i, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8>£ marks, or 10}£ francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates CO 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 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. 
When the breeders and experts tell New York 
farmers what kind of a horse they should raise why 
do they forget the farm “chunk” weighing 1,200 or 
a little more? That is the horse needed to do the 
farm work, and our farmers are buying most of 
their farm horses, usually from the West. Why ad¬ 
vise farmers to breed trotters or army horses or big 
dray horses when they are buying the team they 
need and sending their money away? The farm 
“chunk” is not a purebred, but is there no paid ex¬ 
pert to champion him ? 
* 
We recently received the following note from a 
Long Island reader: 
I have just been informed by the storekeeper to whom 
I sell butter that hereafter I must put up the butter in 
pound molds, which is a new law in government regula¬ 
tions. lie carries the molds to sell. Will you inform 
me as to truth of this statement? e. k. 
New York. 
We felt sure»this was a fake or hold-up game and 
wrote to Washington about it. This note ought to 
settle it. 
You are advised this office has no knowledge of any 
Federal law or regulations containing this requirement, 
and has been informed by the Dairy Division, Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, that it has no knowledge of such 
.requirement in the Federal or State law in respect to 
butter. J. E. FLETCHER, 
Deputy Internal Revenue Commissioner. 
Some of the “laws” quoted to farmers in an ef¬ 
fort to make them give up are fearfully and won¬ 
derfully made. We are glad to prick a hole in them 
when we can. 
* 
I saw it figured out the other day that the peopl<? of 
this country saved to themselves over $300,000 in the first 
month, January, of the operation of parcel post. It will 
be five million a month by the end of this year. This city 
is running about 1500 packages daily, one-half of which 
would have been sent by express, to say nothing of 
quicker and more convenient delivery. Unsatisfactory as 
the law is in some respects, I do not believe anything 
can stop it. j. L. p. 
This is written from a city of about 70,000 people, 
and is a fair statement of average conditions in 
other places. Nothing can stop parcel post except 
the same power that started it going. That is the 
power of popular demand. If that be withdrawn now 
parcel post will lag. If we spend our energy in 
finding fault because it is not all we need we shall 
not get anything better for years. The thing to do 
is to use this privilege whenever possible and agree 
upon just the improvements we need. Bud this 
right to the mail privilege into the body of govern¬ 
ment. Then the blood of trade will circulate through 
it. They cannot cut it off and it must grow. 
* 
The New York Milk Committee recently called a 
conference in this city. The governors of eight East¬ 
ern States appointed delegates, and there was a lively 
discussion. It was agreed that dairy inspection should 
be controlled by the Department of Agriculture or 
other State departments having jurisdiction over live¬ 
stock. This would get rid of the double inspection by 
two or more cities, each one with different standards. 
This conference also advised a registration and grad¬ 
ing of herds, buildings and methods into three classes. 
The most important resolution, and the one which 
caused the hardest discussion, was the following: 
That it is unnecessary and inadvisable to demand 
the destruction of cattle reacting to tuberculin unless 
they show signs of generalised tuberculosis. 
There is a radical element among the “authorities” 
which demands the testing of every cow in the State— 
at the owners’ expense—and the slaughter of all re¬ 
acting animals. These radicals did not have their way 
at this conference. That is a good thing, because this 
meeting will have a great influence upon dairy legisla¬ 
tion. 
TI-IE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
It beats all how many solutions of the food ques¬ 
tion the scientific men can think out in an hour when 
they try. Here is John M. Coulter, professor of 
botany, coming to the rescue. He pictures disaster 
in the future due to lack of food and then says: 
Science is endeavoring to restore the proportions whereby 
food production shall keep pace or increase faster than the 
growth in population, q’he solution is in pedigreed food 
plants, plants that will resist disease and drought and 
show the maximum of productiveness. Much progress has 
been made in this direction. 
That is all right, but suppose some of these 
scientists were to study along the lines of helping 
the farmer of today to realize something over 35 cents 
on every one dollar’s worth of food supplies he 
raises. Would it not be getting at the bottom of 
the question quicker ? Better try to discover a race 
of commission men who are “immune” to trying 
to rake in 65 per cent, of the dollars which belong to 
the farmer. We thin’: the bill now before the 
Legislature at Albany will help make the papers fit 
the commission man. Why not pedigreed scientists 
as well? When a breed or family of animals be¬ 
comes too fine or one-sided an out-cross with some 
strong rugged strain is in order. Many of our 
scientists are getting this food problem down too fine. 
They ought to break- away and try supporting the 
family on 35-cent dollars for awhile. 
* 
W^e have had much to say about the fool game 
laws. There is no subject, apparently, that gets 
quite so close to many of our readers, who hav# 
played the game as dictated by the game “pro¬ 
tectors.” For instance, take this letter from a 
farmer: 
I have noticed several articles in regard to game laws. 
You don't seem to have caught the full cussedness of the 
matter yet. Near my daughter’s school is a man who had 
a small pond that got so low in a dry time that it became 
offensive and he was complained of and fined by the board 
of health. Pie then cleared the pond, after which along 
came the game protector, who had the farmer arrested, 
tried and find to the extent of $25 because some one 
some time had placed a live trout near that pond. Now 
the question is, shall the farmers pay $300,000 to $300,000 
yearly to these game protectors for watching the State’s 
game eat up the farmers’ crops and poultry? 
Well, gentlemen, you may say that is the limit, 
but it isnt; the following taken from the same letter 
comes closer to it: 
Another case is that of a widow who found an animal 
in her henhouse in the night. She called her nearest 
neighbor by ’phone to come and kill it, which he did. The 
game protector lived near and heard the ’phone call. 
When the man came out from killing the animal the offi¬ 
cer was at hand and demanded his hunter’s license, which 
of course he did not have. Result, a fine and some words 
not fit to publish. 
The words are just as fit to publish as any de¬ 
fense the “conservationists” may make for such 
conduct. It is hard to keep cool in the face of such 
records, but the fact is that we shall have these 
things and worse just as long as our farmers per¬ 
mit them, and no longer. Our farmers have it in 
their power to compel the Legislature to reform 
these game laws, so that the owner of the farm shall 
control the game found upon it. 
* 
You may not hear quite so much about the Florida 
land boomers this year, but they are still working. 
The Florida Legislature has tried to shut them off, 
and the United States Government tries to shut them 
up, but the love for a dishonest dollar has more lives 
than a cat ever had. It is easier to buy land at 25 
cents an acre and then sell it for $25 to some “home- 
seeker” than it is to go to work. It is hard to be 
entirely fair to Florida, since the frauds and boomers 
will seize upon every favorable word you may say, 
print it in big letters, and cut out all the shade. Here, 
for example, is a note from one of the best posted 
men in the State: 
Thousands of people are “making good’’ on Florida lands 
and are as happy as they could be anywhere—probably 
more happy than anywhere else. Good communities are 
springing up in many places. In regard to the dishonor¬ 
able character of some of the land sharks I will say that 
I have known one or more that I believe were “skinning 
Yankees” at daytime and leading prayer meetings at night 
It reminds me of the old story of the cracker who when 
asked in the Summer time what he was doing, said he 
was skinning alligators. When his friend met him in 
the Winter time and asked him what ho was doing the 
cracker replied that he was skinning Yankees. Now of 
course this is the mean side of the situation. 
Yet this very mean side of the business is what 
causes sorrow and loss. These land frauds induce 
a man to gamble with his home, and that is the most 
contemptible business that any rascal can devise. The 
man who promotes the average Florida “colony” 
scheme ranks with the “horse gyp” in morals, and the 
damage he does is more lasting. Do not under any 
circumstances buy land in Florida until you have 
spent at least one full year there. 
February 22, 
Do you think it possible to become a professional lawyer 
and counsellor through the instruction of a western corre¬ 
spondence school of law? s. i. 
That is a sample of the questions which come 
from people of apparently reasonable intelligence. 
We cannot understand how such people can ever 
be led to believe that through correspondence with 
same distant party they can become expert lawyers, 
engineers, doctors, artists or farmers. The thing 
appears so childish to anyone of fair experience 
that it is hard to understand why a grownup 
man should think he can become a “professional 
lawyer” by correspondence. Go to any successful 
lawyer and ask him the question. The “correspond¬ 
ence school” will no doubt tell you he is jealous be¬ 
cause he could not have the great benefit of their 
methods, but the trained lawyer knows of the hard 
grind through years of patient drudgery that were 
necessary in order to win out. “A lawyer by corre¬ 
spondence.” Nonsense; and yet no greater nonsense 
than some of the claims made for training editors, 
engineers and farmers. The fact is this “corre¬ 
spondence school” business is being worn out to 
tatters and has about reached the jumping off place. 
* 
The new commission house bill is printed on page 
252. This bill has been prepared with great care and 
will enable the agricultural department to handle the 
situation. Little use giving space to reply to the vio¬ 
lent criticisms of some of the commission men. The 
honest men in the trade know that this law, properly 
enforced, will help them, for it will separate the fakes 
from the reputable dealers and give the latter a better 
chance to obtain trade. This bill is necessary. Prob¬ 
ably 80 per cent, of the farmers of New York sell 
more or less through commission men, and every one 
of such farmers has felt at times that he did not re¬ 
ceive his fair share. This bill will enable such a man 
to obtain what is due him. Every farmer and every 
consumer in New York State should work for this 
bill. Waste no time, but get after your Senator and 
Assemblyman at once, and tell them you favor this 
bill. You can also help by writing direct to Senator 
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Assemblyman Marc W. 
Cole, both at Albany. They have charge of this bill 
and need all the power you can give them to push it 
through. 
* 
Last year a man came to see us full of great things 
he intended doing on a farm. Some years ago he had 
a garden, but had done no real farming. Now he 
had “retired” from business and had bought a farm. 
We shall not soon forget how he pounded on the 
table and said: “I am going to show those old farm¬ 
ers how to do it. They laugh at me, but—watch me— 
I'll show them.” As we sat listening to him there 
came to mind the recorded experience of Ben-hadad, 
who made some record as a man who told what he 
would do before he did it: 
“Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast him¬ 
self as he that pulletli it off.” 
But what was the use? This man had all the faith 
of the inspired back-to-the-lander. Others might have 
failed, but he had a new system and had figured it 
all out. In the Fall he came in again and frankly 
admitted that he had failed to beat those “old' farm¬ 
ers” at their game. “I don’t see how they do it. Their 
methods are not scientific, but they seem to have a 
sort of instinct which tells them what to do. Honest, 
I can’t learn that instinct and I can’t buy it.” With¬ 
out realizing it, this man had got ’way down into the 
foundation fact of successful farming. Your science 
and your study and your capital and your brains 
may be like the solid brick and stone, but this “in¬ 
stinct” is the cement which must hold them together. 
The colleges can teach many things, but the real 
“smell of the soil” must be in the man or he cannot 
make a good farmer. 
BREVITIES. 
The beet belongs to the goose-foot family. That may 
be why the dead beat goes hot-foot after human geese. 
There have been so many fake advertisements of 
veterinary “treatments” and schools that the American 
Veterinary Medical Association will take a hand in 
helping to clean out the fakes. 
Any small town in Kansas can have a week’s “movable 
cooking school” from the agricultural college. A class 
of 20 to 40 women and girls over 15 years must be or¬ 
ganized and provide a class room and pay expenses. 
Let us all try to remember at least two things about 
lime. The most effective way to use it is to harrow thor¬ 
oughly in after plowing. You must use two pounds of 
ground limestone to obtain the active results from one 
pound of burned lime. - 
This sign Is posted in the street cars of Columbus, 
Ohio: “When a man refuses to move forward he is not 
hurting the company or spiting the conductor; he is sim¬ 
ply injuring his neighbor.” There is no community in 
the world where this will not apply. 
