03K 
August 10, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
the BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Wcet-!y Journal for Country anil Suburban Homes 
Established 1S50 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing: Company, 333 West 30th Street, New York 
Herbert TV. COLLINGWOOD, President ami Kditor. 
John .!. Dittos, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Kovlk, Associate Editor, 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. (J2.04. equal to 8s. fid., or 
SU 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 60 cents per agate 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 hacked by a respon¬ 
sibleperson. But t.. make doubly sure we will make good jury loss to paid 
subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler R<1'.I",”® 
columns, and any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We 1”I 
scribe rs against rogttes. but we do not. guarantee to adjust trifling 
between subscribed and honest, responsible advertisers. Ne. her wtlll webe 
responsible for the dehts of lionest bankrupts sanctioned by tlie iiourts. 
Notice or the complaint must he sent to us within moiith ®t the time of 
the transaction, and you must have mentioned THK Rural Yorker 
when writing the adve rtiser. 
Is it not a sure sign of “deepest regard.” when your 
readers write to you when in trouble? At any rate 
I always do. w * * ®* 
We consider it so. When humans, from children 
to graybeards, have trouble, we have noticed that 
they go as if by instinct to the true and tried friends. 
In the easy days when life flows along without a 
ripple it is easy to find friends to share your joys, 
but when the harder times come like storm clouds 
The baby chick business seems to be developing 
into a gigantic trouble. Of all departments of the 
poultry business none seems to cause more com¬ 
plaint and dissatisfaction. The express companies 
are blamed for killing these chicks, and breeders are 
blamed for poor packing and for sending feeble or 
ailing birds. There is so much complaint that it 
seems necessary to get down to the bottom of it, 
and see just where the trouble lies. We find that 
some breeders have never believed in the plan of 
shipping these tiny birds and they refuse to sell 
“baby chicks.” Others claim that this is the only 
true way to conduct the chicken business. All we 
know is that we have more serious complaint over 
these baby chick shipments than from any other line 
of advertised business. There are three parties to 
the trouble—shipper, expressman and receiver, and 
each one points to the others as responsible for the 
trouble. Now we want to find out the cause of all 
this complaint. Suppose we get the buyer’s story 
first. Will those who have bought these baby chicks 
tell us their exact experience? Does this method 
of obtaining stock pay—figuring losses and trouble 
as compared with buying eggs or breeding stock? 
We will have the breeder’s side and the express¬ 
man’s story also, but the buyer’s is most important 
now. What does he say? 
in the sky old friends are the best. There is noth¬ 
ing in all our business anywhese near as satisfying 
as the thought that we can help the troubles of our 
readers. We cannot always straighten them out, 
for some are beyond cure, but we do our best with 
them. 
* 
A striking thing this year is the remarkable at¬ 
tendance at the field meetings held by the associa¬ 
tions of farmers and fruit growers. A few years 
ago if 50 men gathered at such meetings it was 
called a fine attendance. Now it is not uncommon 
to find 1,000 or more on the farm where the meeting 
is held. The general use of automobiles is largely 
responsible for this. Whereas in former years a 
wagon and a quite ordinary road cut the contribut¬ 
ing territory down to a 10-mile circle, now the 
diameter of this circle may be 100 miles. Gasoline 
eats up the miles, and its explosion not only drives 
the ear but blows away the barriers which have kept 
farmers apart. The meetings themselves are differ¬ 
ent. There is little “speaking,” but much observing 
and visiting. This is right, for the revolution which 
is going on in farming is not being fed by the orator 
and teacher, but by plain men who meet and “talk it 
over.” 
On lower Broadway in New York a new res¬ 
taurant has just been opened. On the windows this 
sign is painted in large white letters: 
Baldwin’s Eating House. 
Underneath is a large, gaudy picture of a red 
apple. In truth it looks more like a Ben Davis than 
anything that ever grew on a tree, but it passes 
as a Baldwin, and through the Fall and Winter big 
pans of baked apples will be displayed in the win¬ 
dow. This is encouraging to all growers of good 
apples. For years the New York public knew apples 
only by their color. Many a man has eaten a 
Northern Spy and in his joy tried to identify it by 
the stripes. Then when lie paid good money for 
another striped apple and bit into a Ben Davis he 
went back to oranges! Now apple buyers can iden¬ 
tify several varieties at least, and they call for Bald¬ 
win, Spy or Greening, and go where they know these 
varieties are sold. This is part of an education 
which is slowly coming to the city buyers. They 
know the different brands of manufactured goods 
and buy what they want. They are learning to know 
the varieties of fruit in much the same way. It is 
all to the advantage of our fruit growers who want 
to produce the best. 
* 
* 
Now comes the annual jockeying between the 
apple buyers and the growers. Tlie former are bound 
to report the crop as large as possible, for if de¬ 
mand and supply mean anything a large crop means 
a low price. The growers naturally take the other 
side and they are now better prepared than ever to 
obtain fair estimates of what is coining. Tlie early 
promise was for a large crop, but as tlie season has 
matured this promise has grown smaller. Our own 
reports show that the crop is irregular, but, on the 
whole, below the average. At this writing it ranks 
as a fair crop only as regards the total. Some local¬ 
ities will he very short, while others are up to aver¬ 
age. We have no record yet of what would l>e called 
a heavy crop anywhere. So far as supply and de¬ 
mand go the advantage this year Is with the grower 
if he have capital or credit to enable him to hold 
his apples a reasonable time. 
* 
The discussion of this conservative father and 
progressive son proposition is going on everywhere. 
There may not be so much printed about it, but on 
thousands of farms the thing is being talked and 
thought out. The public has not been told before 
this how some farmers met this problem in years 
past: 
When my bi’otbcrs and myself were old enough to 
go into business for ourselves, and my father was old 
enough to wish to retire, I suggested to him that he 
give us each a lease for our share of the farm, with a 
contract for a deed to be delivered by his executor, 
conditional upon our paying him rent whenever he chose 
to call for it. By this means we were enabled to build, 
plant and improve as though it belonged to us, which 
it really did, and still father was independent, for we 
must pay rent when he needed it or forfeit our rights, 
and it. proved to be very satisfactory to all concerned. 
In my own case I have incorporated my business and 
the whole family are shareholders and officers. 
Ohio. W. W. FARNSWORTH. 
We find that this plan of incorporating lias been 
carried out by a good many farmers and usually 
with success. The farm business is run as a stock 
company, with wife and children holding some of 
the stock. This gives them a sense of ownership, 
and in most cases all work together to develop the 
enterprise as they would not feel like doing under 
other a rrangements. 
We want no better texts for editorials than ex¬ 
tracts from the letters which our readers send us. 
They write freely and let us know just what they 
are thinking about, and what they want discussed. 
An editor can hardly do better than give bis readers 
about 00 per cent of what they want to know and 
10 per cent of what they ought to know. Here are 
a few texts from the letter of a Virginia reader: 
I am glad to see that you are giving our Congress¬ 
man of Virginia a hit about the advertisements he puts 
in his paper. 
This refers to Congressman Glass of Virginia. Mr. 
Glass is the man who as a Congressman is very 
much opposed to grain gambling. As a newspaper 
publisher Mr. Glass is evidently in favor of accept¬ 
ing money for advertisements of “bucket shops”—- 
the meanest form of gambling in grain prices. Vir¬ 
ginia farmers see through this just as they can 
through their Congressman’s name! 
I have taken the matter of doubtful advertisements 
up with our church papers; some of them say they have 
to have money to run the paper. I say they had better 
not be run. 
We told you our farmers were watching this snide 
advertisement business as never before. They real¬ 
ize that such advertisements are muzzles put on the 
editor and publisher so as to keep them silent when 
they ought to warn their readers. The money paid 
for such advertising is simply “graft”—part of the 
robbery which is made possible through the silence 
which is forced by the advertisement muzzle. What 
we want to make clear is that farmers understand 
this game and are telling the grafters that the paper 
had better be dead than openly muzzled. 
Preachers are great men to give their names to all 
sorts of quack remedies; one of them wanted me to buy 
a unit in a pecan grove. 
We think some preachers do this unwittingly. They 
are not business men, and some plausible agent makes 
them think they are doing a work of philanthropy in 
selling stock in lead mines or fruit plantations. The 
pulpit is certainly no place for speculation, and the 
clergyman of all men on earth should be the last 
one to lead his flock up to the financial wolves for 
slaughter. Far better get the church members to¬ 
gether into some form of home co-operation. 
While some of our people are complaining of a 
lack of fodder and telling of selling off cattle here 
comes a cheerful soul from Ontario County, N. Y.: 
I wish you could see the line stack of pea vines that 
I have, and now am in trouble because I have enough 
corn to fill my silo, and a stack of pea vines about 20 
by M0 feet and about 25 feet in height, and so far as 
I can see will have to go and buy more cattle to help 
eat up the feed. IIow one thing does lead to another! 
F. E. R. 
Such a trouble would be easily borne by most of 
our readers. More fodder, more cattle, more plant 
food, more produce. That is the way “one thing 
leads to another.” The leader is usually some 
legume like peas, beans, clover or Alfalfa. We 
never yet saw the farm or the section where these 
crops became permanent which did not grow rich. 
* 
The commission men are up to all sorts of schemes 
to work the new law in their own interests. Some 
of them send a letter to shippers stating that they 
are not commission merchants, but they have con¬ 
cluded to procure a license in order to accommodate 
certain shippers. They send the following card, 
which the shipper is to sign and return: 
Your letter has been received. That letter states the 
terms under which goods shipped by ns to you are to 
be handled by you. If goods are to be handled in any 
different way u special agreement is to be made be¬ 
tween us. 
Let no reader of The R. N.-Y. sign any such card. 
There is no reason why you should sign anything. 
When you sign this you tie yourself up to a nice 
little game in which the commission man has all the 
advantage, for, under it, there would be little chance 
for you to recover in case of any question about 
returns for goods. Do not be fooled by any of these 
tricks. Stand right on your rights. Deal only with 
men who can show a license and direct them to sell 
on commission. This is important. Much of the 
success of this new law depends on your doing these 
things right from the beginning. 
* 
The express companies are now to receive the 
treatment which they have earned by their own 
folly. For years they treated the public as if they 
were mouarchs with the right straight from tlie 
Almighty to rob and hold up the people as they saw 
fit. Had they shown any vision or business sense at 
all they might have prevented the revolution which 
will sooner or later sweep them out of power. Witli 
an investment in tangible assets of a few thousands 
they made millions of profits. They piled up such 
a tremendous surplus that they actually lacked the 
courage to divide it. Even when the American peo¬ 
ple began to understand tlie situation these stupid 
express companies would not see what was sure to 
come. They might have kept back the demand for 
parcel post 15 years if they could have had the 
sense to do what the Government now compels them 
to do. They saw fit to brazen and bluff, and this 
attitude did more to give this country a trial of 
parcel post than any other single thing—for it left 
the “careful consideration” Congressman with no 
possible excuse for delay. Now parcel post is to be 
improved, and tlie Interstate Commerce Commission 
orders the express companies to cut their rates on 
an average about 16 per cent. The express com¬ 
panies argued that the parcel post took trade away 
from them, and that therefore they should have tlie 
right to charge high prices in order to protect their 
business. This is the same thing as saying that 
these companies should be permitted to rob tlie pub¬ 
lic because parcel post has given part of the service 
which belongs to the people. The Interstate Com¬ 
merce Commission answers them: 
The commission’s conclusion is that any losses of 
business for the future may easily be replaced by new 
business if the express carriers are so inclined, and that 
the establishment of the parrel post is not a justifica¬ 
tion for any higher scale of rates. The commission 
condemned the rates of the respondents as unjust, un¬ 
reasonable, and unfair, as imposing an unjustifiable 
burden upon the small packages which the mail did not 
carry and which the railroad did not wish to carry. 
The express companies have only themselves to 
blame for this treatment. The public endured their 
arrogance too long. Now tlie end is approaching. 
BREVITIES. 
“Taice a day off and play.” 
Keep the Red cedar away from the apple orchards. 
This cedar harbors and makes a home for the rust 
disease. 
Pencil manufacturers are buying up old Red cedar 
fence rails, in Tennessee and southward, to be mane 
into lead pencils. 
Water has saved Wisconsin milkman. It did not 
come through the pump into the can, but through me 
cow. The rains saved the pastures. 
Water fowl in Central Park. New York, is being 
filed by an epidemic of spinal meningitis, said to dl 
aused by polluted water due to drought. 
ion there includes white and black swans, , 
nd Canadian geese, mallard and wood ducks, and other 
arieties from Cbiua, the Philippines and other distant 
