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The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journnl for Country and Suburban Ilomcs 
Established iSSO 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. DILLON, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8>£ marks, or 10>£ francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates GO 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” 
Wo 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, " t protect sub- 
sei'ibcrs 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. 
Now we are to have U. S. Senators elected by 
popular vote. The State of Connecticut has ratified 
the amendment to the constitution and now our 
Senators must give “careful consideration” to the 
people. This ends a long struggle over the question 
of indirect representation of a State through the 
Legislature. Under the old system the Senate had 
become largely a club of lawyers and representatives 
of the railroads and other big interests. Of late 
years the Western States have been sending a differ¬ 
ent type of men to the Senate and it must be said 
that their behavior has made this new amendment 
possible. 
* 
On the next page our old friend J. S. Woodward 
sends a message which young and old alike may well 
read and ponder. We sometimes find men of middle 
age who seriously question the desirability of try¬ 
ing to live beyond 70 years. They look with a sort 
of terror to old age. Yet here is Mr. Woodward at 
83, bright and hopeful; experiencing perhaps the 
greatest joy of life in receiving these sincere and 
loving tributes from his friends. You may read the 
secret in his letter—temperance, a clean, useful life, 
and a willingness to stop in the road and help the 
brother in trouble. 
* 
On April 8 the amended commission man’s bill 
passed the New York Assembly 110 votes to 10. We 
think it is sure to pass the Senate, and we believe 
Governor Sulzer will sign it. We shall print the bill 
in full after it goes through the Senate, so that our 
readers may know just what provisions it contains. 
While the bill as passed is not as strong as we hoped 
for, we shall regard it as we do the parcel post bill— 
a good start. It establishes a principle upon which 
we can build in the future as we learn just what is 
needed. We can all help enforce this law. It has 
been a hard struggle to get any bill through. We 
shall print the names of the 10 Assemblymen who 
voted against the bill a little later. A group of 
workers led by Marc W. Cole, chairman of the agri¬ 
cultural committee, deserve praise and support for 
their efforts. 
* 
There is still no end of complaint about the distri¬ 
bution of the “Apples of New York.” One of our 
readers wrote his member of the Legislature and was 
told that a copy would be sent at once. In about 10 
days he got a circular from the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment stating that there were no more books on hand! 
Now this man wants to know why his Assemblyman 
turned his request over to the Department. It looks 
as if the man did not know anything about the books, 
or else he got rid of the order in the easiest way. 
You may say this is a small matter. Well, we shall 
stay right by it and make it large enough before we 
get through for the Legislature to grow another crop 
of these apples and harvest them properly. 
* 
Gov. Park Trammell, of Florida, has an original 
plan of sending a message to the Legislature. In¬ 
stead of trying to keep his views a secret he sends 
a series of short articles to the newspapers. These 
are printed, and when the Legislature meets they are 
put together to form the message. In this way the 
people know beforehand what the Governor wants 
the Legislature to do. There is time for thought 
and discussion, as there should be. We know a good 
many people who lost about all they ever had in 
Florida orange groves. They may regard the State 
as a land of “darkest Africa,” but this plan of Gov. 
Trammell’s is like a shining light in the political 
world. What nonsense it is for the executive to hide 
his “message” until the last moment. It ought not 
to be covered up, but should be brought out in the 
open early where men may think it over. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
I realize this is a hard question to ask one in your 
position, but I know of no one else to go to. The experi¬ 
ment stations and institute speakers seem to think one 
ought to have ample means or go without. f. h. t. 
The problem brought put in these few lines is the 
first one to take up in discussing the value of our 
farmers’ institutes. Is the statement true? We be¬ 
lieve it is the general conviction among farmers who 
are indifferent toward the farmers’ institutes that 
scientific farming as they understand it, involves con¬ 
siderable outlay of cash or better credit than they 
can command. Our correspondent expresses a general 
feeling in “ought to have ample means or go without.” 
Now if it is true that improved scientific farming is 
only for those who can raise the needed money we 
can easily see how farm education is separating farm¬ 
ers into classes with the smallest benefit to the largest 
crowd. 
* 
A man may attend all the agricultural colleges in Amer¬ 
ica and even farther; he will never be a farmer unless he 
has that other which we call instinct in him. One ought 
to know all soils and conditions do not do for all crops. 
Soil, etc., must be studied ; that is just like a horse. A 
man must first of all study a horse's disposition and not 
work against it, because the horse is an intelligent animal 
and man’s best friend, help to make his money, and as soon 
as a man gets to abusing a horse before he gives the horse 
to understand what he wants him to do. he frightens more 
flesh off that horse than feed can put on. Unless he has 
love for a horse his instinct is not of the sort that will 
make a good horse out of a badly trained one, but a bad 
one out of an otherwise good animal. Same with farming; 
no school in the world will ever make a good farmer; must 
be the love of it that makes an interest. J. r. w. 
Ohio. 
That is one of the most sensible statements of a 
great truth that we have read in years. The trouble 
is that the more plain, crude sense you put into a 
truth the more unpalatable it becomes to the people 
who most need the dose. Yet did you ever know 
sugar coated truths to stick in a person’s system? 
* 
The new tariff bill with its income tax provisions 
is a radical measure. We shall analyze it and try to 
make its terms clear. We think this bill is quite 
sure to become a law. There will be a fight over 
such items as free wool and meat or the general re¬ 
duction on agricultural products,' but we believe the 
Administration has votes enough in Congress to pass 
the bill. President Wilson says he will go right to 
the people for support. Of course he knows that 
this also opens the door for protest from those who 
oppose tariff reduction. When the people of this 
country voted last Fall they knew what Mr. Wilson 
stood for. If they took him at his word they must 
have known about what would be done with the 
tariff. Fie is simply trying to carry out his promises 
—doing what he said he would do before he was 
elected. When Canadian reciprocity was proposed 
the objectors claimed that Canada was right in sub¬ 
mitting the question to the people before deciding it. 
Mr. Wilson no doubt feels justified in assuming that 
the last election was a national referendum which 
authorized him to make his promises good. We think 
this country is now to have an experiment with 
several theories of government which have been kept 
locked up for many years. Time alone can demon¬ 
strate their true value. 
* 
Some of our people who have used chemical fer¬ 
tilizers for years are at a loss to understand the fierce 
outcry against their use in parts of the West. Illinois 
is leading in what seems to us sure to prove a losing 
battle. Without question the use of chemicals has 
saved agriculture in the 100-mile strip along the At¬ 
lantic and given it probably some of the most pros¬ 
perous farms in the country. England and Europe 
would have been practically out of business as farm¬ 
ing sections had it not been for the wise use of chem¬ 
icals. England, Germany and France are developing 
the production of food and cotton in their colonies— 
through the use of chemicals. This means within the 
next few years a direct and strong competition with 
our Western States. It seems strange to many of us 
that Illinois and other farm teachers should suppose 
that their section is lifted out of the rest of the world 
and not to follow universal farm history. The orig¬ 
inal Western protest against fertilizers seemed to 
mean that farmers thought it a mistake even to admit 
that their soil would need help. Every 1,000 pounds 
of live animal that walked off their farm carried over 
25 pounds of nitrogen and 20 of phosphoric acid, while 
1,000 pounds of wheat grain carried 20 pounds of 
nitrogen, 10 of potash and 16 of phosphoric acid. Keep 
this up for 60 years and any soil will cry for help as 
has been the case everywhere in the world. A waste¬ 
ful use of chemicals is a crime and the scientists ought 
to protest against it. The proposition that chemicals 
are not needed and never will be is nonsense to anyone 
who pays the slightest attention to history. 
April XI), 
“I know of no reason why a man who turns a clod 
should lie a clod. I don’t know why a farmer going home 
from his day's work should not he a human being and 
enjoy things equally as well as others.” 
This is taken from an address by P. P. Claxton, 
U. S. Commissioner of Education. We do not know 
why the farmer should not be a human being, cer¬ 
tainly. We do know, however, that it costs money to 
enjoy the things which some “others” possess. In 
fact, no matter what way you start at the proposition 
of “uplifting” the farmer you will find that a whole 
dollar is needed to roll any answer out into view. You 
see most of these answers are mounted on 35-cent 
dollars, and they stick in the mud. The truth is that 
this uplifting proposition is an economic and com¬ 
mercial one. When you make the conditions such 
that the farmer feels that he gets his fair share the 
problem is on the way to settlement. There is no 
other road. 
* 
For a number of years The R. N.-Y. was the only paper 
in which I ever saw parcel post mentioned and I wonder, 
being a paper, it does not claim more credit—the credit 
it really 'deserves for bringing about this improvement. 
Virginia. J. marshall. 
Next in folly to the ostrich with his head in the 
sand comes the man who stands out in public and 
tries to pat himself on the back. The R. N.-Y. did 
its best to arouse public sentiment in favor of parcel 
post. We did no more. The real work was done by 
men like our friend who made their power felt at 
Washington. Just as soon as Congress realized that 
there was to be no more fooling we had a start at 
parcel post. Flistory is said to have been made by 
great speeches. That was because the man who spoke 
had back of him an army ready to go to the end to 
prove that he represented them. “Can” one of these 
speeches and let it out through a talking machine and 
how much power would it convey? Just about as 
much as the paper whose editor thinks he is really 
doing the work. A paper has no power except that 
which is given by its readers. The R. N.-Y. has a 
good band of hard fighters who know what to do. 
* 
Last week we referred to the career of J. Pierpont 
Morgan. Let us take up the subject once more, in the 
same spirit, and see if we can find the underlying 
thing which provided the foundation for all these 
great fortunes. Most of the great American fortunes 
resulted from a rise of values in land, from railroad 
stocks and bonds or banking and financial privileges. 
Search them back to their origin and we find some 
monopoly which the Government protected, some spe¬ 
cial privilege or some actual fraud or bribery. We 
read last week of the first business deal in which Mr. 
Morgan engaged. It would be easy to specify similar 
transactions in the history of the fortunes piled up by 
the Astors, Vanderbilts, Goulds and others. In every 
case these fortune-makers enjoyed some special privi¬ 
lege or graft or took advantage of the powers of 
government to enrich themselves at the expense of 
the people. For example, a good share of the Astor 
estate and several others came from grants of waste 
land in New York City. This land, originally swamps 
or river marsh, would be given away. Then the city 
paid for filling, grading and making streets, until a 
single foot of the frontage is worth $10,000 or more. 
Great tracts of land were given to railroads, great 
subsidies paid to carriers, and in a hundred other ways 
money and property which belonged to the people were 
turned over to the few. This form of organized in¬ 
justice is what we call the “system.” It is nothing 
but a form of private taxation under which 50-cent 
pieces from you or dollars from me or dimes from 
our neighbors are being collected in the hands of a 
ruling financial class. These commanding fortunes 
could not have been built up had the government not 
been “worked” for “graft” and special privilege. The 
thing could not possibly have continued so long if our 
people had not through all these years held up the 
“captain of industry” as the great model for youth. 
Imagine the grim humor of this situation—a body of 
men growing rich through special privilege, taking 
the earnings of the plain people, and still being pointed 
out as models for the next generation yet to be ex¬ 
ploited! The hopeful thing about it is that these same 
plain people now understand that what we write here 
is true. We and our kind are largely responsible for 
it, and we must change the “system”—not as a matter 
of revenge, but for justice. 
BREVITIES. 
It is a temptation to plow the soil too early, when we 
know how work will crowd a little later. 
Cooperation lias gone so far in Australia that the board¬ 
ing house keepers in Sydney have organized. 
TnE Florida Horticultural Society plans a new feature 
of its meeting April 29 at DeLand. As a “wind up" it 
Is proposed to take a trip to view the Panama Canal. 
