THE RURAL NEW-YORKK«. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Knral Publishing Company. 833 IVast 80th Street, New York 
Herbert W. Collin gw ood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon. Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, Associate Editor. 
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To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. JJ2.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
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‘‘A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person, llut to make doubly sure we will make good any loss to i«tid 
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. 
STROUT LOSES. 
The E. A. Strout Company applied to the U. S. 
District Court to restrain The R. N.-Y. from pub¬ 
lishing or writing complaints of farmers or giving 
advice or information regarding the Strout real es¬ 
tate transactions. They made a muzzle and asked 
the court to fasten it on ! The court has now denied 
their motion. No muzzle for The 11. N.-Y. See the 
next page and next week’s issue. 
* 
Many of our modern rich men trace back to a 
farm or country village. Having made their fortune 
they look back with kindly feeling to the home of 
their boyhood. When they go back it seems narrow 
and small, for people in the old home town have 
had a struggle. There ai’e few, if any, manufac¬ 
turing enterprises there to hold and accumulate 
capital. Usually the farmers have been for years 
living on a 35-cent dollar, and the result may be 
plainly seen. Such men often think they would like 
to do something for the old town. One of the best 
things would be to establish a small, high-class 
manufacturing enterprise. If there is water power 
to be obtained some enterprise in which skill is re¬ 
quired and with labor limited to local workers, 
would prove a blessing to the community. It would 
hold many boys and girls, provide a new market for 
labor and give a new circulation of money. There 
would be a genuine local benefit and the country 
Yvould be better off if the great centers of manu¬ 
facturing could be scattered into smaller groups. 
* 
The action of the New York Legislature ought to 
convince you that New York farmers do not want any 
direct nomination law. What are you going to do 
about it? s. k. l. 
It seems to us that a man who would be con¬ 
vinced by such an argument would have a mind 
somewhat like a windmill. We think it will be gen¬ 
erally admitted that The R. N.-Y. has exceptional 
opportunity for knowing just what our New York 
farmers want. We know that a vast majority of 
them are not satisfied with the present method of 
selecting candidates. They want some form of di¬ 
rect primaries. They believe in the principles of 
the primary bill but the attacks upon Gov. Sulzer 
ahd his action on farm legislation have enabled the 
politician to obscure the issue. We frequently hear 
it stated that if Charles E. Hughes were now Gov¬ 
ernor a strong primary bill Yvould be promptly 
passed. The Legislature did not pass on the merits 
of the primary bill. The issue it voted on was one 
of prejudice against Gov. Sulzer. What are we 
going to do about it? Go right straight ahead advo¬ 
cating a direct nominations law that will be direct. 
We do this because we know that such a plan of 
nomination will prove more useful to our farmers 
than to any other class of workers. 
* 
At Gettysburg, Pa., this week, one of the great 
history-making world epochs is being developed. 
Fifty years ago this little town was the scene of a 
human hell in which strong men struggled and fought 
to settle great, living problems of humanity. When 
the guns grew still and when the dead were buried 
all men knew in their hearts that human liberty 
was stronger and safer than before. Yet for years 
much of what that battle gained for humanity was 
lost through hatred, prejudice and a failure to un¬ 
derstand. So now after half a century Gettysburg 
is thronged once more. The old soldiers who fought 
each other like demons now meet in peace. They 
now can meet as brothers, and at last they under¬ 
stand how much this nation has lost through all 
these years of hatred and political strife. The blood 
of the old Gettysburg made manhood freedom pos¬ 
sible—the peace and tears of the new Gettysburg 
will take human brotherhood out of the dreams of 
humanity into the realm of fact. 
All the hoys and all the fathers whether they are 
progressive, conservative or in any other common 
or uncommon State are invited to read the article 
on page S31. The boy applied progressive ideas to 
the cultivation of his side of the cornfield and beat 
his father by obtaining a better yield. Father came 
to the front and paid the money he promised. We 
have, most of us. known of cases where father gave 
the boy a calf or a. colt. After the boy developed it 
into a fine animal, father sold it and pocketed the 
money. That is a good way to spoil a boy, but the 
father in this case did the right thing and gave more 
than he agreed when the boy beat him. Blest be 
the tie which binds conservative father and pro¬ 
gressive son in this way. 
* 
“I hope and expect to see within the next five years 
:i law on the statute books of this State making it a 
misdemeanor for anyone allowing a male bird of any 
description to run at large in the open country or in 
town. Of course when this law is proposed it will 
cause much merriment; it will be dubbed ‘the rooster 
law’ and provoke some laughter, but it will be passed, 
eventually. And when it is passed it will save the 
farmers of Kansas, estimating it conservatively, a mil¬ 
lion dollars a year.” 
The speaker was Prof. W. A. Lippincott, of the 
Kansas Agricultural College. He ivas talking to 
the Kansas poultry keepers about the surplus 
rooster. Prof. Lippincott may be the first man to 
talk of a law to cut out this feathered nuisance, but 
all over the country hen men agree that the fertile 
egg produces most of the “rots” and “spots” which 
cause so much trouble. The campaign against the 
rooster is now coming to a head. This prompts us 
to walk down to the front of the stage and respect¬ 
fully confess that 25 years ago we were guilty of 
the following: 
“Surplus roosters are misery boosters, 
As all good hen men know ; 
They eat up the feed which laying hens need 
And do nothing else but crow.” 
A wise man once remarked that if he could make 
the songs of a nation he cared not who made the 
laws! In all seriousness the surplus rooster is a 
nuisance and serious damage to hen farmers. After 
the breeding season is over all but the finest male 
birds should be killed or sold. They are of no value 
whatever until the next breeding season and it has 
now been demonstrated beyond all argument that 
fertile eggs decay quicker than infertile, and cause 
a large proportion of the loss in storage eggs. Even 
our gentle friend Cosgrove sends us an article en¬ 
titled “Swat the Rooster.” By all means, swat him. 
Turn him into “chicken” pie. He is not progressive! 
* 
We give you now another thing to think about. 
There was once a man with a large wart on his nose. 
It was so large and ugly that it hurt this man’s 
prospects in life. The girl he loved hesitated at that 
wart. A touch of it on her face would have fright¬ 
ened her. It hurt him in his business. He had a 
friend, a skilled surgeon, who came one day and 
examined the wart. "I can cut it off,” he said, “so 
that there will be only a little scar left. It will 
change your entire expression and give you the 
place in society which you deserve.” Yet this man 
would not let his friend touch the wart. Why not? It 
was a sort of family trade mark. For some genera¬ 
tions past his ancestors carried that wart. One of 
them a century ago had his likeness painted with 
the wart in full view. So this man felt that the 
trade mark of his dead ancestors was more impor¬ 
tant than his own living prospects in the present. 
There may be people who read this who will say 
this man was right in carrying the disfigurement to 
his grave because father and grandfather did the 
same. We do not think so. It seems evident that 
this man could do far more to exalt the memory of 
his ancestor by removing a blemish which placed 
him at a disadvantage. There are men who will 
smile at this false idea of devotion to the memory 
of ancestors, but let them think for a moment. What 
about prejudices of politics, business and farming, 
which came down unchanged from grandfather, al¬ 
though everything else which touches them has been 
changed half a dozen times? Some men say they 
do not believe in direct primaries, or improved 
credits for farmers, or such things as cover crops, 
because they are new and the old party or the old 
family did not need them. The old system of nomi¬ 
nating candidates in caucus and convention is sim¬ 
ply a bad wart on the political face of the State. 
That has been proved in every State where the di¬ 
rect primary has been adopted. The plan of stand¬ 
ing off at arm’s length in growing and selling our 
crops while every interest which handles them is 
organized, is another bad wart on the face of busi¬ 
ness. Most of us know this. Now think a moment 
—are we keeping these warts in their place for any 
sensible reason? 
.Tuly 12, 
People who live in the Hudson Valley and in East¬ 
ern Pennsylvania realize what a curse has fallen 
upon the landscape in the chestnut blight disease. 
It is sad to see the beautiful chestnuts standing 
dead and stripped even of their bark. Most of us 
had become convinced that chestnut culture is 
doomed in the eastern part of the country. We now 
learn of experiments as the result of crossing dif¬ 
ferent chestnut varieties which promise to change 
the outlook. Several varieties of chestnuts' have 
been produced from hardy strains which are appar¬ 
ently able to resist the disease. This will be good 
news to chestnut lovers. W T e hope more complete 
testing will prove the value of these new varieties. 
* 
Among other strict provisions the new tariff bill 
contains the following: 
That no goods, wares, articles and merchandise—ex¬ 
cept immediate products of agriculture, forests and 
fisheries—manufactured wholly or in part in any for¬ 
eign country by convict labor or children under 14 
years of age shall be entitled to entry at any of the 
ports of the United States and the importation thereof 
is hereby prohibited. 
Both provisions are wise. Free adult labor should 
not he forced to compete with foreign convict labor. 
We believe that children everywhere should have 
what we call a God-given right to a fair childhood. 
To force their little bodies into labor before they 
have had their childhood makes the meanest com¬ 
petition which adults can face. 
* 
If the State and Government won’t protect its citi¬ 
zens from a horde of rascals, sharks and leeches, what 
is the use of an individual attempting it? J. P. c. 
This is from a man who has seen neighbors and 
friends robbed by fakers and rascals through fraud¬ 
ulent advertisements. There have been wild-cat 
stocks and bonds and all sorts of games for captur¬ 
ing the sweat-stained dollar. The government is 
trying to help. It shuts the scoundrels out of the 
mails Yvhenever possible, but it cannot act until 
legal proof is obtained, even though the officials knoie 
the rascal is guilty. It denies the cheaper mail 
privileges to the newspaper which “goes whacks” 
with the snide and deceiver by printing a concealed 
advertisement. That is good work, and it will be 
extended and broadened out. But what can the 
individual do? He can let the gilt-edged bait alone 
for one thing, and make himself understand that it 
is not in human nature for him to “get rich quick.’' 
* 
We have been describing the “Ashland plan” of 
financing dairy farmers in their purchase of cows. 
It is claimed that something of this plan has been 
followed for years in Northern Wisconsin. The 
banks and business men have understood that what 
the country needs is contented settlers. No settler 
can be contented unless he can have steady work 
and a profitable business. In Northern Wisconsin 
such a profitable business comes in manufacturing 
clover, grass and grain into milk or cream. Such a 
business requires capital as well as any factory. 
Therefore the banks and the large land companies 
saw that these settlers must have cows, and they 
loaned credit in order to obtain cash. It is' re¬ 
ported that some of the land companies permit 
settled’s to pass their land payments and use the 
money for buying cows. The best part of all this is 
the general recognition of the fact that farmers 
must have fair credit in order to develop their 
business. 
* 
We are told that some New York commission men 
are planning to fight the Cole commission man’s bill 
in the courts on the plea that it is “class legislation." 
That old, bald-headed legal excuse is about all they 
can muster. These men profess to believe that the 
new department of farm co-operative work will 
greatly injure the commission trade. There are two 
things which these gentlemen ought to remember. 
There would have been no commission legislation if 
the commission business had not become a scheme 
for organized robbery. The snide commission men 
are responsible for the law. Let them also remem¬ 
ber that they got through easily and that if the 
abuses continue the present law will lie made much 
more effective. We have seen half-wild horses taken 
off the range and put to work. After loafing and 
playing for some years they did not fancy honest 
labor or earning their food. So they kicked when 
a light cinch was put on them. What happened 
was this—the more they kicked at fair demands, the 
tighter the cinch was put to them. 
BREVITIES. 
Give the pigs a full chance at charcoal and woofl 
ashes. This means stomach regulators and bone formers. 
The National Congress of Alienists and Neurologists, 
recently in session at Chicago, adopted a resolution ad 
vising the railroads not to employ men who use alco¬ 
holic beverages, either ou or off duty. 
