080 
THE RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
August 'M, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country ami Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 333 West 80th Street, New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wit F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. Gd., or 
SH 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 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. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trilling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we he 
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 or 
the transaction, and you must have mentioned The Rural New-iorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
All sorts of co-operative schemes are coming out 
of tlieWest—the latest from Missouri. The Gov- 
orurrf called upon the people to celebrate “Good 
Roads Day” by turning out to work on the roads. 
It is said that 350,000 men responded. Some of them 
had hands so hard they could not blister, and some 
so soft they were all blister. There were all sorts 
of tools, from a garden rake to a big gasoline grader 
—the latter being handled by Governor Major. And 
the women took care of the inner man—for the outer 
man is a mere shell—of little account without his 
food! “Pali Missouri out of the mud!" That is the 
motto of road day. And the Missouri people will do 
the pulling themselves and not lease the “puli’’ to 
politicians. 
♦ 
I think that your continual urging the growing of rye 
and turnips for helping out in the dressing or building 
up of the land has been one of the greatest helps to 
the farmer who heeds it, and I notice around here how 
it has been helping them. J. g. K. 
Connecticut. 
On many a farm the cover crop question is more 
important than the tariff, war with Mexico or the 
conflict of governors at Albany. We know what 
these cover crops have done for cur own soil, and 
how long we were in realizing the importance of 
this method of renewing the soil. That is why we 
keep at it. Like many other old stories this must 
he told over and over again. In fact, whoever saw 
a really good thing which did not have to grow into 
a man’s mind until it became a part of it? That is 
why we keep at a worthy thing and never let it get 
away if we can help it. 
* 
Does the Department at Albany print any trespass 
notices? There are a number of farmers here that 
are going to post their farms and we shall need about 
50. T. II. K. 
Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
The New York Conservation Commission has tres¬ 
pass notices suitable for private parks, but not, as 
we understand, suitable for farms. On page 750 we 
printed an article which well covers the law of tres¬ 
pass. The following sign will answer: 
“Trespassing on this property for any purpose is 
forbidden under penalty of the law.” Owner. 
Have this printed in large type and post up on 
each side of the farm—on the bound ties where 
people would be most likely to enter. Do not think 
this posting is all that will be required. These 
notices are not for decoration, but they represent a 
fair warning. Arrest the first man who is found 
doing damage and make an example of him. No one 
will do it for you. 
* 
The Department of Agriculture received the fol¬ 
lowing note: 
Secretary of Agriculture, wood this all bee alowed 
in medicen and wood it have to bee Patend before it 
Could bee spald and Arsnic Dovers Powders 
Quineue Epsons Salts and then A number of herbs that 
grows heare such as Mullin and and Rarlcs. how much 
Arsnic wood bee alowed to say a galon of Chill Tonic 
please write mee at once My Mother wants to make 
this Medecin and I want to know the Ituels before 
it is don. Respectfully, 
This man also wants to know how much alcohol he 
can use in his “chill tonic.” A man might have great 
powers as a healer and yet be unable to put letters 
together legitimately, but he ought not to be per¬ 
mitted to throw arsenic around in such a medicine. 
Strange as it will seem to many the U. S. Govern¬ 
ment has no legal power to prevent people from 
making this poisonous stuff. There is strict regula¬ 
tion of the practice of medicine and of prescriptions, 
but patent medicines are practically unrestricted. 
If the manufacturer brands his stuff and tells ex¬ 
actly what it contains without excessive or false 
claims the Federal Government cannot stop its sale. 
It is a shame that some of these nasty compounds 
are sold, and more of a shame that people make the 
business possible by buying them. 
Some of the larger poultry farms find the dis¬ 
position of hen manure considerable of a problem. 
They do not usually grow enough of grain crops to 
utilize the manure. ^Ve think the time is coming 
when the manure will be made into a profitable com¬ 
mercial fertilizer. The pure manure thoroughly 
dried can be crushed fine and mixed with chemicals 
so as to make a good mixture for lawns or gardens. 
We believe a mixture of this sort could be made 
popular. 
* 
Tiie apple crop of the East will be considerably 
less than last year. That is evident now, and there 
will doubtless be further thinning by Fall storms. 
Here and there are sections, like Adams County, I* *a., 
where a heavy yield is in sight, but these exceptions 
are much more than offset by total failures in parts 
of Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan, owing to 
Spring frosts. Virginia will have but few red 
apples, though the Pippin crop is larger than last 
year. Michigan as a whole is short; Iowa, Indiana 
and Arkansas are heavy. The Northwest will have 
less than last year, but in making comparisons it 
must be remembered that the 1913 crop was ex¬ 
cessive. 
* 
Do you realize that you are stirring up discontent 
among many farmers—making them question legal au¬ 
thorities and find fault with conditions which have long 
existed and which could not be changed without serious 
inconvenience? s. b. k. 
We plead guilty at once. For some years it has 
been our highest ambition to induce farmers to 
think, really think, about some of their own hard 
problems. Too many of our farmers had fallen into 
the habit of letting other classes do their thinking 
for them. Others thought only along lines carefully 
marked out for them in books or papers by timid 
or prejudiced writers. As we believe the farmers 
can help themselves best through hard and original 
thought followed by strong action we gladly plead 
guilty to doing all we can to start thought on its way. 
Real thinking is hard and often uncomfortable 
work. It eats into old beliefs and prejudices which 
have grown to be a part of you. The mental surgery 
which cuts them finally away is painful. Again, real 
thought will lead most men to the conviction that 
they have been wrong in much of their view of hu¬ 
man life and their attitude toward society. To set 
themselves right and satisfy that better part of 
them which thought sets free requires moral cour¬ 
age and puts a man face to face with trouble. Yet 
the qualities which strong thinking will develop are 
the essential things in solving the farmer’s problem. 
There must be developed a “noble discontent’’ with 
the conditions which surround most farmers. We 
do not mean small fault-finding or carping criticism 
or narrow prejudice, for we have had too much of 
that. We want, if we can, to induce sound, logical 
thinking and analysis which enable a farmer to take 
a clear and broad view of his position as a man 
and a citizen. Yes, indeed, we plead guilty to 
“stirring up discontent” of that sort. 
* 
One of the remarkable changes in live stock hus¬ 
bandry in this country is the recent popularity of 
the Leghorn hen. This change of sentiment is com¬ 
ing even in New England. For many years it has 
been a popular New England fancy that a hen should 
lay a brown egg and he “fur clad” with a small comb. 
Efforts were made to produce a Wyandotte which 
would lay a large white egg. In olden days the 
great objection to the Leghorn hen was her “lazy 
little brother.” Thousands of the grown-up New 
England “girls” felt themselves obliged to work hard 
to support themselves and also provide for inefficient 
and lazy male members of the family who were quite 
willing to play the beauty act while their sisters 
acted out “utility.” The Leghorn rooster was re¬ 
garded about as these loafers were. Too small to 
provide meat, he was merely a nervous bunch of use¬ 
less feathers in the eyes of those practical Yankee 
farmers. Granting that the Leghorn here would do 
more than her duty at producing eggs, she could not 
lay enough to support that lazy little brother also. 
At least that was the way they reasoned—but it 
was before the present “broiler” had been invented. 
There were too few people who were rich enough to 
eat whatever they wanted without considering the 
price. Now it has been found that this lazy little 
Leghorn brother cuts up into about the daintiest 
morsel that the human tongue can sample. Society 
has found a profitable job for the lazy brother, and 
his sister in white is no longer expected to. support 
him. They have both gone to work for the poultry- 
man, who has also found that Jack Frost has great 
respect for that big Leghorn trade mark—the comb. 
These things are responsible for the Leghorn’s popu¬ 
larity. Other breeds come and go and find their 
place, but Mrs. White Leghorn and her little brother 
have “come back.” 
I have road enough chicken papers to learn to touch 
the line print lightly, but I shall have to form new 
habits with The R. N.-Y. Much of the best part is in 
the fine print. F. R. J. 
In order to know just what our friend has in mind 
we went over considerable of this “fine print.” It 
is mostly thinly concealed advertising—a very poor 
attempt to get readers to think that labored “booms” 
for advertised goods are really genuine expression 
of opinion. Some of this stuff is clearly illegal and 
would justify the Post Office Department in denying 
cheap mail privileges to the publications which use 
fine print for such coarse practice! The folly of 
such efforts to fool the reader is monumental. Every 
subscriber who is worth having knows that the edi¬ 
tor is selling himself at a very small price. It is a 
high compliment when a reader says he has confi¬ 
dence in the “fine print”—especially if his eyes are 
poor. 
* 
I think there should be a law to protect seed buyers. 
We don’t know now when we buy seed whether it is 
one or ten years old. The date should be on every pack¬ 
age of seed sold. I have often planted and not one seed 
sprouted, which caused quite a damage and loss. It 
seems to me a law could be made compelling all seed 
growers, or those who sell seeds, to date all seed the 
year it is raised and avoid great inconvenience. 
Maine F. H. L. 
The law gives fair protection now. The U. S. De¬ 
partment of Agriculture and several of the State 
experiment stations will test your seeds. You can 
buy them early in the season and send samples for 
testing. The testers will tell you if there are weed 
seeds present and what proportion of the seeds will 
sprout. With this official record you can know 
what you are planting and put the case up to the 
seedsman. Our farmers ought to make great use of 
this testing privilege and patronize the seed dealers 
whose goods show up clean and vital. 
* 
Thus far something over 500 licenses have been 
issued to New York commission men. A number 
more have been held up for investigation. In some 
of these cases very likely suit will be brought to 
compel the Commissioner to issue a license after he 
has refused to do so. In such event we think the 
commission men will find themselves face to face 
with their record! Some interesting things are 
being developed in this license business. In one 
case a commission man applied for a license in the 
face of a complaint from one of our readers. Tiie 
R. N.-Y. had already induced this man to pay part 
of what he owed, but there was more to come. This 
money had been due nearly two years, and when 
this man applied for a license he was asked to ex¬ 
plain. For answer he went right out and paid the 
money and sent the receipt for it along with his 
bond! We keep right at our readers with the fact 
that they and they alone can make this new com¬ 
mission man’s law worth the ink used to print it. 
Do not patronize any commission dealer unless he 
can show a State license. Demand it. That is your 
part of legislation—the most important part. 
BREVITIES. 
During a typhoon at Hongkong, China, August 18, 
the wind attained a velocity of 105 miles an hour. 
Do not try to rouse sleeping dogs unless you find it 
absolutely necessary to sic them at some one else. 
As a result of the heat, one of the giraffes in Bronx 
• Park, New York City, died of apoplexy, August 19. The 
animal was valued at $10,000. 
Dry stable manure will not ferment and lose its plant 
food. The plan of spreading on the sod during a dry 
Summer before the Fall plowing is a good one. 
During the recent grasshopper plague in Kansas, one 
farmer is reported to have sacked and dried over 100 
bushels of the insects, which will be used for Winter 
chicken feed. 
The Department of Agriculture states that work 
done for the eradication of cattle ticks in the South 
has increased the annual value of the cattle output 
more than $2,000,000 in a few counties alone. 
There are several reasons why Cowhorn turnips make 
superior “green manure.” They bore down deep into 
the soil. They make use of potash and phosphoric acid, 
which other plants cannot utilize, and their decay is 
useful to the soil. 
It is something of a puzzle to us to know why intelli¬ 
gent people will work at the cheap puzzle pictures and 
expect to win a valuable prize by doing so. These 
puzzles are purposely made easy in order to obtain a 
large number of addresses of people who may send 
money. Never bother with these puzzles. 
Pennsylvania thinks well of her agricultural college. 
The bill just signed by the Governor provides $27o,000 
for maintenance, with $20,000 more for extension work; 
$75,000 for a horticultural building, $20,000 for a dairy 
barn. $30,000 for live stock, judging, and so on. The 
other departments of State College have also been well 
provided for. 
Last year Ireland produced 134,000 pounds of to¬ 
bacco, and there is said to be a considerable acreage 
of this crop in both England and Ireland this season. 
Doubtless tobacco would have become a regular crop 
in parts of the British Islands, had it not been for 
repressive legislation; James I stopped tobacco grow¬ 
ing because he considered smoking objectionable, while 
Charles II prohibited it in the interests of Virginia 
colonists. 
