878 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A Notional Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established ffiso 
Pnhllshod week!}' by the Rural Publishing Company, 388 West 30th Street, Hew York 
Herbert W. Colltno'Wood, President and Editor. 
John - J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
YVm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreien countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.01. equal to 8s. Cd., or 
gu marks, or 10 H francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 60 cents per atrate line—7 words. 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 doublv sure we will make pood any loss to paid 
suliscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler a^ertislttE in our 
columns, and any such swindler will tie publicly exposed. ; !£?* *;‘ 1 
seribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trifHng dmerences 
bet iveen subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers Neithei will_»eta 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the com Vs. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within , 
the transaction, and you must have mentioned Tut. Rural New-Yorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
Last week we outlined the case of David D. 
Farnsworth, of Massachusetts—the man convicted 
of manslaughter for killing a chicken thief, in the 
darkness of night Mr. Farnsworth, a cripple, 1-red 
at random and accidentally shot a man who was 
without question robbing the henhouse. Farnsworth 
was sent to jail, hut has just been pardoned by Gov. 
Foss. He comes out of jail to find his business 
ruined and his farm a failure for this season. This 
pardon was well justified, but it seems an outrageous 
law which sent this crippled man to prison for de¬ 
fending his life and property. 
* 
Thus far about 1,000 commission men have ap¬ 
plied to Agricultural Commissioner Huson for li¬ 
censes. At first there was a disposition to hold off, 
but now the applications are coming in rapidly. 
Every case will be investigated with care before a 
license is granted. Many complaints have been made 
and some of the applicants are those against whom 
such complaints are posted. These will be thor¬ 
oughly examined. A few of the snides may get by, 
but not many—none if farmers who have been 
robbed will send the facts to Albany. We cannot 
make it too clear that the success of this law will 
depend largely upon the efforts of the shippers. We 
have no right to expect that Mr. Huson shall do it 
all. He will do his best, but from the very na‘ure 
of this new sort of legislation the shipper must help 
protect himself. It will he much harder to take the 
license away from a snide than to keep it away from 
h:m in the first place. So if you have been robbed 
by any commission man and can prove it, get the 
facts to Commissioner Huson at once. Do it now — 
it may mean driving a wolf out of the sheep barn. 
* 
We have just had a primary election to select a 
candidate for Congress in the Sixth New Jersey Dis¬ 
trict. There was less excitement about it than one 
could find at many missionary meetings. While it 
may be called expensive and cumbersome this sys¬ 
tem is free and clean and the people of New Jersey 
will never give it up. When New York farmers 
once give it a fair trial they will wonder with deep 
amazement why they ever kept the present system 
so long. History states that in the early days of 
Illinois a State treasurer was up before the Legis¬ 
lature for re-election. He was beaten, hut not being 
a good loser he took off his coat, went into the capi¬ 
tal and thrashed, one by one, four men who had 
voted against him! Instead of expelling him the 
Legislature thought so well of this method of cam¬ 
paigning that the members elected him clerk of the 
Circuit Court! That is a long way to travel to our 
New Jersey primary. We ought to be past the 
knock-down and drag-out game in politics, for plain 
working people will always be at a disadvantage in 
that kind of a rough and tumble. They have not 
the time to follow it as a business. In good time 
our people will be forced to see the necessity for 
controlling candidates and representatives. The pa¬ 
pers are just now full of stories of graft and 
trickery—of men who have sold their manhood and 
corrupted men who took an oath to serve the people. 
We spend little time detailing these disgusting 
crimes. They will not be prevented until our public 
officers have in their hearts the fear of God through 
man! We have no thought of irreverence in saying 
that. Our public men, or at least, many of them, 
will listen to the tempter just as long as they think 
the politicians can take care of them. Once let 
them know that they must answer directly to the 
people and such creatures as Lamar and 1 >auterbach 
will be out of a job. You will see that you cannot 
get away from the fact that if we are to have a 
true Republic, those who serve such a Republic must 
realize that they are directly responsible to the 
people. They cannot be held responsible until the 
people control the selection of candidates. That is 
all there is to it. 
'THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Some of the New York commission men, particu¬ 
larly hay dealers, will try to side-step the new law 
by removing their headquarters to Jersey City. This 
is right over the river from New York and several 
railroads center there. As there is no commission 
law in New Jersey such dealers expect to avoid 
supervision or bonding. Our advice is not to pa¬ 
tronize anyone who moves out. to avoid this law. 
Deal only with men who can show a State license. 
* 
We have consistently advised our readers not to 
plant trees which are afflicted with crown pall. Now 
comes Agricultural Commissioner Huson with the 
statement that planting of such trees will not be 
permitted in New York State! This statement is 
made in connection with a nurseryman’s offer to sell 
a large block of apple trees “slightly affected with 
crown gall of a mild form.” The Commissioner is 
right. How would you like to buy hens “slightly 
affected” with vermin or cholera? 
* 
A group of barefooted children were playing on 
the street of a New England town. They were bare¬ 
footed because father was out of work—had been 
out of work for some weeks. What was father's 
business? He was a shoemaker in one of the big 
factories. What had he done that the factory shut 
down? He and other workmen had made too many 
shoes. This made dull trade or hard times until 
this surplus could he disposed of. Thus the chil¬ 
dren could not have shoes because father had xuade 
too many. 
Another group of children on a New England farm 
looked with longing eyes at a box of oranges in a 
store window. They could not have any because 
father had to pay a mortgage and his crop had been 
almost given away. What was his crop? Apples. 
They were not the best but of fair quality. A com¬ 
mission man had handled part of them for about 
the cost of growing and handling. The rest had 
been fed to stock. 
On a Florida farm an old man and his grandchil¬ 
dren sat in the sun longing for such apples as the 
old man used to raise on his Northern farm. They 
could not afford to buy apples because the orange 
crop had barely paid the cost of shipping. A large 
proportion of it would never he shipped at all so as 
to save the cost of boxes. In New England the 
children were denied the fruit which lay rotting in 
the Florida sun, while in Florida the orange grow¬ 
ers louged for the apples which were fed to North¬ 
ern cows and hogs. What about telling these people 
to raise two apples and two oranges where one grew 
before? 
* 
Would the plain, everyday voters of a State sup¬ 
port what is known as higher education if they had 
a chance to vote directly on the question? It is pos¬ 
sible that this will be tested in Wisconsin. That 
State is to vote on a constitutional amendment for 
the initiative and referendum and without doubt 
the amendment will be carried. It will then be pos¬ 
sible to call a referendum upon the granting of ap¬ 
propriations for the University. In that case the 
people would vote directly upon the proposition to 
provide funds for University education. As Presi¬ 
dent Van Hise says: 
Hitherto, the merits of the case of the University 
have always been tried by the Legislature and its com¬ 
mittees. When a Legislature has become acquainted 
with the facts, it has always voted adequate support 
to the University; not only so, but by their own initia¬ 
tive members of the Legislature have enlarged the 
scope of the University’s work. The referendum when 
applied to State universities in this country will be the 
final test as to whether or not a democracy can support 
educational institutions on the highest plane. 
That will not he the only test in such a vote. It 
would also show whether the people were satisfied 
with the form of higher education which the Uni¬ 
versities have been giving them. For example in 
New York State. Under such a referendum what 
would he the fate of that appropriation for the 
Syracuse forestry school or for the appropriations 
for Cornell? As an experiment, suppose you can¬ 
vass your own neighborhood and see how the voters 
really stand on the question of money for agricul¬ 
tural education. If it depended on a popular vote 
it would be necessary to change our present system 
of education. In Ohio some members of the Grange 
are trying to obtain a referendum vote on the new 
plan for organizing the agricultural activities of 
the State. The last Legislature passed a law which 
made a radical change but which was accepted by 
most leading farmers as worthy of trial at least. 
Now the Grange is seeking to obtain a referendum 
or popular vote on this law. The argument against 
this course is that the new system is worth a trial 
at least and should be given a fair chance to prove 
itself. 
July 20 , 
The last potato season ended disastrously, and 
growers are naturally anxious to know what the 
present outlook is. Last year at least 421,000,000 
bushels were harvested, the yield per acre being 
about 113 bushels. This year the acreage is slightly 
smaller, and the probable yield based on estimates 
in early July will be 90,000,000 bushels under last 
year. There is still time, however, for great changes 
in prospect for the Northern crop. The yield in the 
South has been large, good qualities of this new crop 
having sold in Northern markets under $1.75 per 
barrel. This does not necessarily indicate that the 
bulk of the crop will follow a low price level, be¬ 
cause the Southern crop has to be sold quickly at 
whatever price present conditions warrant. The 
Winter price will be made by the Northern crop, 
which can be sold or held as desired. There is 
nothing at present to indicate very low Winter 
prices. 
* 
Where there is an honest dispute no court has ever 
stopped the mouth of one man because it found that he 
had the wrong side of the argument. The utterer lakes 
his chances of the damage he may do, but in English- 
speaking countries he is entitled to have his word at 
least while he believes he is speaking truly. In the 
case at bar I do not say that the defendants have 
uttered any libels or that they mean to continue to do 
so. Their conduct is at least open to the belief that 
they are in pood faith exposing those trho are over¬ 
reaching the simple and abusing the confidence of the 
credulous. One may even so publish libels, but the 
libels will not be enjoined, for truth is too uncertain 
and speech must be allowed utterance. 
That is the heart of the famous decision by Jus¬ 
tice Hand which we printed last week. The Strout 
Company asked the Court to prohibit The R. N.-Y. 
from making any comments regarding them or their 
business methods or records. Think what such pro¬ 
hibition would mean. A newspaper might make re¬ 
marks about a person or company which were en¬ 
tirely justified. Such a party might bring an equity 
suit and then, if they could muzzle the newspaper 
through a court injunction, go light on with a busi¬ 
ness which injured the public. It was unthinkable 
that any court would sustain such a proposition, for 
fair publicity must ever make truth and justice 
clearer. 
In fact, fair publicity is the only defense which 
many country people can have against forms of 
graft or extortion. There are hundreds of money- 
grabbing schemes which many of us know are dis¬ 
honest and cruel. Yet expert lawyers may have 
twisted them about in such a way that under rome 
conditions the courts might declare them legal. Pub¬ 
licity in the form of honest exposure is the only 
defense which the public can have in such cases. 
The government recognizes this in its efforts to keep 
rogues and snides out of the mail, and under the 
pure food laws when it prints accurate reports of 
the composition of drugs and prepared foods. .Such 
publicity is the finest sort of advertising for anyone 
who is doing a satisfactory business. When a man 
tries to shut off such publicity, the inference is clear 
that he knows his business cannot stand the lime¬ 
light. 
There seem to be two kinds of muzzles prepared 
for the press. One is the injunction which Justice 
Hand so thoroughly rips apart. The other is an 
advertising contract. The Strout people have the 
right to expect that when a farm paper accepts the 
Strout advertisement that paper puts on a muzzle 
and denies fair publicity to its readers. That is cer¬ 
tainly true of those papers which “guarantee” their 
advertisements, for under such guarantee the paper 
becomes a partner in character with the advertiser. 
Some of the best farm papers have already refused 
the advertising. Others still continue to run it even 
after the facts and Justice Hand’s decision have 
been made public. Now they will have to stand up 
and take one side or the other. Of course they know 
that after this unsuccessful attempt to muzzle The 
R. N.-Y. the public will regard this advertising as 
a comfortable and profitable and self-fitted muzzle. 
BREVITIES. 
Now begins trouble for the man who started out to 
“show these old farmers how to do it.” 
“When your neighbors’ liens steal across the way do 
not let your angry passions rise, but fix a place for 
them to lay.” 
Ground limestone is giving good satisfaction as an 
absorbent in stables. Never use slaked lime for tins 
purpose. 
Sweet pens are grown extensively for seed in the 
vicinity of Bozeman, Montana. It is estimated that 
20,000 acres are being grown this year. 
The county fair for the county exhibitor ! 1 ,J nn 
petition among home-bred stock will go further than 
“education” from a string of professional show ringers. 
Dig into the soil of a rye field in November and you 
see why this is a fine cover crop. The soil is one tine 
mass of roots. These catch and hold the nitrates wlucn 
would otherwise be drained away. The root growtn 
below ground is far greater than the growth aeovi 
ground. 
