T1S 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1S50 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 383 West 30th Street, Hen York 
Herbert W. Collinqwood, 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* *4 marks, or 10)4 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. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us j and cash must accompany transient oi ders. 
“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 “'D' loss to paid 
subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising JRour 
columns, and any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We protect 
scribers against rogues, but wo do not guarantee to adjust trifling dilTei ences 
ifetween subsevihere and honest, responsible advertisers. Ne. her will we bo 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the com ts 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one^ 
the transaction, and you must have mentioned Ihe Rural IsKW YORKER 
when writing the advertiser. ^ 
Every year some one starts the whiskered joke 
about using ground Alfalfa as human food. AN e 
hear of Alfalfa bread and tea and various other deli¬ 
cacies. The worst of it is some people accept this 
joke as the truth, and ask if Alfalfa will not reduce 
the high cost of living. We think a dinner of Alfalfa 
biscuit would reduce a high crop of spirits in a low 
down way. It is recorded that the ancient king lived 
on grass, but he was not in his right mind when he 
did it. So far as we can learn there is nothing what¬ 
ever in this use of Alfalfa as human food. 
The long, dry, cold spell in May threatens the hay 
crop. The grass has not grown as it should, and 
unless the rain comes soon there will be a shortage 
of hay on most Eastern farms. Now comes the last 
call for corn planting. All things considered, good 
com fodder and grain is the most practical substi¬ 
tute for hay. It can he planted for fodder up to 
July 4 in the latitude of New York. There is still 
time to work up some worn-out old meadow and 
plant corn with a fair amount of fertilizer. 
* 
Some of the New York commission men seem to be 
planning to dodge the new law if they can. Jlie 
daily papers announce their scheme! 
Commission merchants have formulated a plan to 
circumvent the Cole law, which requires all commis¬ 
sion merchants dealing in farm produce to take out a 
license at a fee of $10 and file a $3,000 surety bond. 
The plan is to refuse any farm produce on commission 
after July 1, when the law goes into effect. If the goods 
are shipped with the bill for their cost they will be 
accepted by the merchant, but if they come to be sold 
on commission they will not be taken out of the freight 
house. 
This smart scheme will fail. As fast as these men 
refuse to receive such goods their names will be 
printed and the public will be told why they do it. 
When these men drop out it will leave a clearer 
field for the straight commission men who take out 
a license and give the bond. It never did pay a 
grown-up man to act like a child when he is told 
to do his duty. Commissioner of Agriculture Huson 
is organizing plans for operating the law. Commis¬ 
sion men are writing many letters, and shippers all 
over the State are sending information about the 
treatment they have received. The honest commis¬ 
sion men will be made to understand that this law, 
properly enforced, will be to their advantage as well 
as the shipper. On the other hand, the snides and 
fakes want to understand right now that it will be a 
job for them to get any license, and more of a job 
to hold it if they do not play fair. Right now is 
the time for the shippers to help by sending in the 
record of any case where they have been “scalped.” 
* 
Realizing that northern Wisconsin is especially 
suited to dairying, Ashland banks are buying registered 
and grade Holstein and Guernsey cattle and selling 
them to farmers on easy terms. The buyers for the 
banks are at present touring the southern counties of 
the State. This policy of the banks to supply farmers 
with good grade dairy cows is being adopted by other 
towns in upper Wisconsin, which are distributing cattle 
on similar terms. 
We find the above in the “Press Bulletin” of the 
Wisconsin Agricultural College. If these banks will 
handle the cows on a narrow margin and sell on 
reasonable terms they will do a great thing for that 
section. It would pay them to do the work at bare 
cost, for the introduction of these cows will increase 
values of farm land, increase the money in circula¬ 
tion and double the business of each community and 
thus increase the business of the banks. And these 
banks cannot possibly have any safer securities than 
in this growing value of farm property. Here is 
something for country banks generally to consider. 
Too many of them send their surplus away to invest 
in stocks and bonds of large corporations. They 
might find some safe enterprise well suited to their 
home locality, and help develop it so as to give per¬ 
manent value. 
THE RURAli NEW-YORKER 
We did our best to harrow the New York legisla¬ 
tors and thus help cultivate a new crop of the 
“Apples of New York.” The foolish graft of the 
old system of distribution had to be pruned away. 
Now the Legislature and the Governor have author¬ 
ized a new edition. This time the books will not be 
given away, but sold at the cost of production— 
probably $2 for the set of two volumes. The Albany 
book stores have been charging $5 for books which 
were supposed to be given away. 
* 
A number of our readers write to ask if it can be 
possible that Senator Thomas B. Wilson of I-Iall and 
Senator Frank L. Godfrey of Olean, deserve to be 
in the list of Senators who voted against direct pri¬ 
maries. Mr. Wilson was formerly president of the 
New York State Fruit Growers’ Association. Mr. 
Godfrey is an ex-master of the State Grange. The 
members of both organizations are strongly in favor 
of reforms. It is a fact that both Senators voted 
against Gov. Sulzer’s bill. They are Republicans 
and followed their party leaders in this vote. They 
then voted for a bill endorsed by their party much 
the same as Gov. Sulzer’s except that it retained the 
party State convention. They knew, of course, that 
this Republican bill could not pass, and it is gen¬ 
erally believed that all this was a political maneuver 
engineered by Wm. Barnes, the Republican boss. 
We feel sure that our old friends Wilson and Godfrey 
are personally in favor of direct primaries. They 
must know that the people they represent arc in 
favor of this reform. We shall be only too glad to 
put them in the white list, and the sooner the better. 
* 
We have to rub our eyes sometimes and wonder if 
we are not dreaming. Here comes the Hartford 
Courant, usually so “conservative” that any new 
thought is a “rash theory”: 
There was but one lone man to champion a bill be¬ 
fore the railroads committee Wednesday providing for 
the government ownership of the New York, New Ha¬ 
ven & Hartford Railroad. That man was the father 
of parcel post. James L. Cowles, and standing there, 
white-haired, advocating a policy which was far in ad¬ 
vance of the times, he was a pioneer, endowed with all 
the enthusiasm and confidence of the pioneer. It was 
in reality not an argument against a railroad but 
rather an argument for a principle, and the man who 
lias devoted the past twenty-five years of his life to 
such work commanded the attention of those who, per¬ 
haps at first inclined to scoff, were converted to the 
man if not to the principle. And under the sway of 
liis magnetism it is probable that some of those who 
listened were convinced of the justice of his arguments. 
All men who had anything to do with the parcel 
post fight know of James L. Cowles. Year after 
year, in dark days and bright, rebuffed or laughed 
at, Mr. Cowles kept at his work of making the de¬ 
mand for parcel post a part of popular thought. For 
that was what had to be done before the statesmen 
and the “strong politicians" could have any tools to 
work with. Centuries ago, Mr. Cowles, with his 
white hair and dreamy, eager face, would have been 
ranked with the old prophets. He had the spark of 
a great idea, and he kept it alive like a sacred flame. 
We can easily remember when the “Courant” 
sneered or hooted at the work Air. Cowles was try¬ 
ing to do. Then it looked like play. So does any 
great achievement during its infancy! And now— 
think of it—Mr. Cowles goes to rock-ribbed New 
England and talks government ownership of rail¬ 
roads, so that men see behind him a prophetic vision 
of what is to follow! 
* 
There has been a warm discussion over the re¬ 
cent statements regarding high school education. 
One man says our statement is “rot;” another calls 
it “God’s truth.” The majority take about the posi¬ 
tion of Mr. Dow, on page 711. Personally we do 
not think the citizen can fairly expect the State to 
give his children a high school education. We would 
spend more money and hire the best possible teach¬ 
ers for the common schools. These schools will pro¬ 
vide all the education that SO per cent, and more 
of our children will ever receive, and we would, 
therefore, make these common schools as strong and 
useful as possible. The trouble is that some of the 
States, at least, are making so-called “higher edu¬ 
cation” too cheap to he good. There are too many 
fond and foolish parents who cannot see that John 
and Nellie are just ordinary boy and girl fit for the 
plain and humble works of life. Everyone else 
knows this, but father and mother will have it that 
these wonderful children must be “educated.” This 
education peels off them like whitewash since they 
cannot absorb it, and we have the sad spectacle of 
human beings who cannot work with their hands 
and who lack the mind and soul to use the tools of 
education. The case against the average high school 
is that it caters to this mistaken notion of such 
parents and turns out a lot of unpractical misfits 
who will not do common work and cannot do higher 
work. 
May 31, 
Some of our readers ask why we have not takep 
a hand in the tariff discussion. There has been no 
discussion worth the name. A tariff bill was pre¬ 
pared and passed by the House in quicker time than 
ever was known before on an important measure. 
We understand the bill will pass the Senate with 
very few if any changes. Probably it is just as 
well for the country to have this done, as it would 
be to have a long discussion drawn out through the 
Summer. There cannot be any tariff bill that will 
suit everyone. From its very nature a tariff must 
benefit some one and hurt another, or else there is 
no truth in either side of the discussion. From a 
farmer’s point of view the new tariff is based upon 
what we think is a wrong theory. It is claimed that 
free trade in bread and meat products and other 
food will reduce the “high cost of living” by lowering 
the retail price. This will not follow, for the chief 
cause of this high cost lies in the waste of distri¬ 
bution and the enormous share paid to the middle¬ 
men who distribute. Free trade in farm products 
will not reduce this fearful toll. We do not see that 
the consumer will find cheaper food and if he does 
our farmers will simply be offered 35 per cent, of a 
smaller consumer’s dollar. Still there has been 
little use in trying to discuss the tariff. The Ameri¬ 
can people instructed the Democratic party last 
Fall to “revise the tariff downward.” There was no 
question about these instructions, and that party is 
following them. We think it is making a mistake 
in the agricultural features of the tariff, but it is 
bound to try the experiment and must take the 
consequences. 
* 
The argument for direct primary nominations is a 
simple one when we think it out. Let any New York 
farmer ask himself what influence he now has iu 
selecting a candidate for his party. That is a fair 
question, and if you answer it fairly we both know 
what that answer will be. In four cases out of live 
the candidates who have been selected for you have 
not represented your wishes and ideals. They have 
been beyond your influence, and the average voter 
has little chance to influence them as compared with 
the few politicians who now run things for you. 
Now the thing which our farmers need more than 
anything else is what we may call affirmative legis¬ 
lation. That means legislation which goes ahead, 
establishes new principles and gains ground. The 
commission man’s Dill is an illustration of what we 
mean—a definite new principle which means a 
chance to obtain justice. One trouble with us is 
that we are somehow put on the defensive over 
nearly every question, and usually a defense of only 
half a right when the whole should belong to us. 
We are put on the defensive and denied the right 
to affirmative legislation because a few politicians 
have greater influence with officeholders than our 
farmers have. This political influence is greater be¬ 
cause, under our present system of nominating, a 
few politicians control the situation. It is their 
business to see that men are nominated who will 
naturally follow their master. With direct nomina¬ 
tions by the people this power would be taken away 
from the boss. Not all at once, but as soon as you 
and other farmers learned how to use the new sys¬ 
tem. In the contest between Gov. Sulzer and mem¬ 
bers of the Legislature the course of our farmers 
ought to be clear. The Governor’s plan means 
political freedom, affirmative legislation and a 
fairer chance for the individual voter to make bis 
influence felt. If the “folks back home” will do 
their duty these legislators will go back to Albany 
and pass the primary bill. If they had been nomi¬ 
nated by such a primary they would long since have 
done what the people want them to do. 
BREVITIES. 
Charcoal for the lions and hogs. 
The Guernsey Cattle Club decided to try the plan 
of registered records of grade Guernsey cows. 
Whenever a new building is erected it is the owner’s 
duty to make it rat-proof if be can. 
It requires a giant’s strength to separate the average 
man from a fairy tale. 
Makes him feel good! The apple grower when he 
finishes the last tree in a good spraying job. 
Now the Kansas College claims the earliest planted 
corn is least injured by ear worms. The theory is that 
the ears finish “silking” before the worms gets ready. 
In the world search for fertilizers sunflower potash 
has been utilized. The ash of sunflower stalks is ex¬ 
ported at the annual rate of 7,000 tons from southern 
Russia ! 
One of the big humbugs and helps to the high cost, 
of living is the so-called “lithia water” so largely sold. 
There is usually about as much "lithia” in it as there 
is gold in sea water—less if anything. 
We have no record of any professional agriculturist 
who has talked the “two blades of grass” theory for the 
past six months. It’s good work to cut such talk ou 
witli a scythe until the one blade cuts a fair figure. 
