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RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER ’8 PAPER 
A National Weekly Jonrnnl for Country nnd Suburban Homes 
Established. (Sso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing; Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Coluxgwood, President and Editor. 
Johs J. Diuon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dittos, Secretary. Mas. E. T. Rotlk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8s. Gd., or 
8 Yi marks, or 10J4 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” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is l>aeked 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 snch swindler wili 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 tis within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and you must have mentioned TnE Rural New-Yorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
“The Apples of New York.” The demand for these 
books increases. People hear that a new edition was 
printed and they write the New York State Agricul¬ 
tural Department for a copy. There have been about 
1,000 such applications. Now this was the resolution 
which passed the Legislature: 
“RESOLVED, that 5.000 copies of Part I of the report 
of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Ge¬ 
neva, for the year 1913, be printed and distributed as 
follows: Thirty copies to each member of the Senate; 
20 copies to each member of the Assembly; the balance 
to the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at 
Geneva.” 
There are 51 Senators. If each took 30 copies this 
meant 1,530. There are 150 Assemblymen, and 20 
each makes 3,000, or 4,530 for the Legislature. This 
leaves only 470, or less than 10 per cent., for the 
Station to distribute. To save your life you cannot 
beat that as an idiotic example of how not to do a 
thing. There should be another edition of 5,000 printed 
at once and every copy given to the Station for dis¬ 
tribution. 
♦ * 
Let us consider that case of Mr. White’s children, 
given on page 392 In the district neighboring Mr. 
White’s there was a new school building with four 
rooms, but only three teachers; one room stood va¬ 
cant. The nearest approved high school was eight 
miles away. Mr. White asked the trustee of this dis¬ 
trict if he would have another teacher and use this 
vacant room as a high school if he and other parents 
would provide the money to pay such teacher. The 
trustee did this willingly and secured a very fine 
teacher—a graduate of Columbia. There are now 20 
children taking this high school work. In Mr. White’s 
own district the State has recently taken a large tract 
of property for an insane asylum. This takes such 
property out of taxation and makes taxes higher. 
This district maintains a district school of 20 to 30 
children, but the parents go into their own pockets to 
maintain the high school just described. Now they 
find that they are penalized as stated on page 392 
Their children are as well and thoroughly taught, we 
believe, as students in any high school, yet, as we 
see, they are handicapped and placed at a disadvant¬ 
age as compared with children in villages who attend 
an “approved” high school. Here is a thing which 
the State of New York should correct at once. 
* 
President Wilson succeeded in keeping the names 
of his Cabinet officers a secret until the last moment. 
The final list is given on page 397. We understand 
that with the exception of Mr. Bryan and Mr. McAdoo 
no man was definitely sure of a place until a few 
days before the inauguration. Our people were chiefly 
concerned with the selection for Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture. Up to within 48 hours of the final announce¬ 
ment most persons on the “inside” expected that 
ex-Senator Gardner of Maine would be named. There 
were nearly 20 “receptive candidates” with friends 
who attempted to develop “booms” for them. Mr. 
Wilson seems to have selected a personal friend who 
did not seek the place and was not the victim of any 
“boom.” It is probable that very few who read this 
ever heard of David F. Houston before. What of 
that, provided we hear well of him in the future? Any 
man who follows Secretary James Wilson has a large 
job cut out for him. The R. N.-Y. offers its best 
support to Mr. Houston in any worthy effort to help 
American farmers or to represent them fairly. We 
think that should be the position of all fair-minded 
farmers with regard to the entire Administration. 
The new President starts off with one first-class reso¬ 
lution at least. He will not talk with candidates or 
job hunters unless he sends for them. There is no 
reason why the President's time should be taken up 
with interviews with people who want places. Mr. 
Wilson could not take such a position had he not 
selected personal friends for the heads of Departments. 
We have called Vermont “The Bashful State.” 
With probably the best opportunity on earth to offer 
the landless man. Vermont seemed content to hide 
her talents under her green mantle. Now she seems 
to be waking up. Gov. Fletcher has appointed E. S. 
Brigham Commissioner of Agriculture. We believe 
this marks the beginning of a revolution in Vermont 
agriculture. Mr. Brigham did net seek the place— 
the place ran after him and had a job to catch him. 
Although still a young man, Mr. Brigham is one of 
the most successful farmers in the State. He is suc¬ 
cessful because he has found new markets and made 
new uses of old materials. That is what Vermont 
agriculture needs. Heretofore the Commissioner has 
done little beyond conducting farmers’ institutes. The 
time has come, however, when Vermont must look 
beyond her own borders both for men and markets. 
The work of education must not stop, but the busi¬ 
ness end of farming must also be considered. The 
new Commissioner will endeavor to relieve the hired 
help problem by bringing desirable foreigners into 
the State. There is no spot of America to-day where 
a strong immigrant from the north of Europe can 
find a better chance to earn a home with his own 
labor than in Vermont Again, the State is noted for 
high quality in seed, maple products, dairy goods, 
fruit and other produce. This ought to be sold to 
better advantage than now, and will be with a system 
of organized cooperation. The new Commissioner 
will take up such work. He cannot be expected to 
do it all at once, or to make more than a fair start 
in the next few years, but, knowing the man as we do, 
we have no question but that he will make a mark in 
Vermont farming. 
* 
THE LEAD PENCIL AND CHEQUE BOOK. 
“Beneath the rule of men entirely great 
The pen is mightier than the sword.” 
Those who have seen some great actor play the part 
of Cardinal Richelieu will remember the dramatic 
scene with the sword. Danger is upon the company. 
The old sword which in younger days the Cardinal 
carried effectively is brought in. The feeble hands, 
lacking the strength of youth, can now hardly lift the 
weapon from the floor. There is the pathos of the 
old man and yet the noble courage of the hero as the 
white-haired Richelieu bids them carry the sword 
away: 
“Take away the sword—states can be saved with¬ 
out it.” 
Thousands of young men have listened to that 
speech and realized what it meant—the power of man¬ 
hood over mere brute force. It seems, however, that 
we are coming upon a time when the newest value of 
the pen is to be clearly defined. The American Asso¬ 
ciation of Commerce in a recent circular prints the 
following as what it intends for brutal truth: 
“The pen is mightier than the sword of to-day, if 
that pen can urite a large cheque 
So it seems states are to be saved, history made and 
manhood restored by the pen which signs a cheque! 
Power is to leave the Bible, the constitution, the 
great poem or story, and crawl under the cheque book! 
That is the way our new “captains of industry” would 
have it, for they have argued themselves into the con¬ 
viction that they and their dollars are all that is 
worth considering in society. 
To come down out of poetry and cheque books to 
right where we live, we have an application of this 
matter in the fight for the commission man’s bill at 
Albany. Here is a bill the principle of which is abso¬ 
lutely sound and necessary. For years and years the 
great army of producers have been held up and plun¬ 
dered by dishonest commission men. There is no 
other business on earth which affords such opportunity 
for plain daylight robbery as the modern sale of farm 
produce on commission. The honest commission men 
who have a reputation for fair dealing know this, 
and yet they join hands with the frauds and snides 
to fight even the principle of this bill. They fight it 
with the cheque book, with distorted statement and 
the meanest and most contemptible political tricks. 
You see they believe in this new theory of the pen 
and the cheque book. Now there is only one way to 
disprove that theory—that is for the farmers who ship 
goods to any market in New York to write to Albany 
demanding the passage of that bill. No matter where 
you live, if your goods are ever sold on commission 
in New York it is now up to you to prove the old 
value of the pen. The man who makes a mark on a 
ballot with a lead pencil can still become just as much 
of a political factor as the man who dictates a type¬ 
written letter. Make no mistake about the effect of a 
strong letter, written in your own words. That is still 
the greatest political force in this country, and there 
has not been in io years a better chance to prove it 
in New York State than right now in connection with 
March 15, 
this commission man’s bill. It is the power of the 
lead pencil on the ballot which may overcome the 
pen and the cheque book. Do not waste a moment. 
Make your member of the Legislature realize that you 
want this bill and also write Gov. Sulzer. Lick a 
stamp for the lead pencil against the cheque book. 
* 
Oitr readers will remember the famous Bellows 
milk case which we have frequently mentioned dur¬ 
ing the past three years. As we see on page 407 the 
court has finally decided against Mr. Bellows. The 
case was pushed through in an effort to determine 
what rights, if axvy, a dairyman has when his milk 
is rejected by order of the New York City Board of 
Health. It now appears that he has no rights what¬ 
ever. He cannot legally sell his milk in the city if 
the inspectors of the Board of Health decide that he 
does not carry out their requirements. “It is the 
law.” 
* 
At this season there are many questions about the 
ownership of farm manure. We have had at least 50 
such questions regarding the right of a tenant to sell 
or remove manure when he leaves a rented farm. 
There is often serious trouble about this. In general 
such manure belongs to the farm, being a part of the 
real estate, especially when made from crops which 
were grown and fed on the farm. When the tenant 
can show that the manure was made from hay or 
grain which he bought and brought to the farm he 
may claim the manure, but as a general proposition 
the manure is considered a part of the farm, not to 
be carried away any more than a building or a tree. 
In England a tenant may obtain compensation or 
payment -for the manure value of the hay and grain 
he has bought and fed* on the farm. In old times it 
was part of the contract between the land owner and 
the farmers that the sheep were to be folded at night 
on the land owner’s field, so that the manure should 
be left there. 
* 
Whatever other shortcomings the Taft Administra¬ 
tion may have had, it must be admitted that the De¬ 
partment of Justice and the Post Office Department 
did good work in the prosecution of rogues and in 
the discouragement of the use of the mails to defraud 
the people. Under the impression that things for 
them could be no worse, the crooks have looked with 
a degree of comfort to the new Administration. Their 
hope is that the new Administration will reverse the 
vigilance of the old one, and shut its eyes to their 
operations. They have already found some portion of 
comfort in the ’appointment of W. C. Redfield to 
President Wilson’s Cabinet on account of his defense 
of mail order schemers while on the Committee of 
Expenditures of the Post Offices and Post Roads in 
the last Congress. E. G. Lewis has promised his 
fellow conspirators that the order of things would 
be changed, and boasts that the indictments against 
himself would be squashed; that he would not again 
be tried on them. 
While the appointment of Mr. Redfield may give 
color to these predictions, we think the hopeful pro¬ 
moters are altogether too sanguine of their early 
privileges to rob the public unmolested. At worst we 
think Mr. Redfield’s attitude was more a policy for 
the time being to criticize the old Department than a 
purpose to favor crooks generally. It is not con¬ 
ceivable that an Administration pledged to reforms 
and consecrated to the interests of the people would 
begin by granting special privileges to an army of 
astute swindlers. The tendency of legislatures, courts 
and administrations is to regulate and supervise the 
institutions and concerns that handle the savings or 
investments of the people. Nation and States are pro¬ 
viding laws for the regulation of banks and stock 
exchanges and corporations. President Wilson has 
already initiated some of these reforms. We are not 
prepared to believe that his Administration will be 
given over to mail order crooks. 
BREVITIES. 
At baby chick time the poultryman needs to be of 
grown up size to attend to his job. 
This seems to be one of the seasons when Crimson 
clover gets through the Winter in Northern New Jersey. 
Tna latest parcel post scheme we hear of is a brick 
building to be erected—every brick coming by parcel post 
mail. 
For those who wish to seed to grass in Spring we 
believe beardless barley will prove better than oats as 
a “nurse crop.” 
Mr. Allen gives sound advice to the man who goes 
hunting for a farm. There will be other articles in this 
line to follow. 
The papers tell of a New Jersey baker who discovered 
after distribution that several thousand pies and loaves of 
bread had been made with a bad sample of cotton oil. Most 
of the stuff was caught before it was used, and taken 
from the customers. 
