1304 
TL' H £C RURAL NliW-VOR R hC R 
December 6, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A Notional Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established ISSO 
Published weekly bv the Rural Publishing Company, 883 West 30th Street, New York 
Herbert IV. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John' J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manaprer. 
Wii. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Boyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. {!2.0f. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8J4 marks, or lOVj 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 Ousting 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 c-ifterences 
between subscriber! 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. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
In order to maintain the improvement and en¬ 
largements that we are now planning for The It. 
N.-Y., we should have a circulation of 200,000 copies 
weekly. We must depend on our old friends for 
this increase. To make it easy for these friends to 
introduce the paper to other farmers who do not 
now take it we will send it 10 weeks for 10 cents 
for strictly introductory purposes. We will appre¬ 
ciate the interest of friends who help make up the 
needed increase of subscriptions.. 
% 
Here is another argument for cooperative work. 
Portage County, Ohio, is a great potato-growing 
country, with potatoes to sell. Greene County, some 
140 miles away, has to buy potatoes, not growing 
enough for home supply. Under the 35-cent dollar 
system four or five middlemen would stand between 
these two counties, helping themselves to potatoes 
as the basket went by. Each county has a county 
agent, and H. P. Miller, of Portage, made arrange¬ 
ments with W. M. Cook of Greene to ship potatoes 
direct. This-has resulted in better prices for Port¬ 
age farmers and a saving of 10 to 20 cents a bushel 
to Greene County consumers. This is'good work for 
the county agents, and only a glance at what is com¬ 
ing just as soon as farmers can learn to get together. 
* 
On page 120S we told of a hen at the Oregon Agri¬ 
cultural College which laid 2S3 eg:s in less than 
a year. Now comes another of the same general 
breeding which laid 303 eggs, weighing 42 pounds, 
in one year. This hen weighs five pounds and is, 
we understand, a crossbred fowl, with the combined 
blood of White Rock and White Leghorn. This line 
of breeding and selecting has been going on for six 
years. It is said that this record hen and four of 
her full sisters averaged 245 eggs each. The best 
five hens in the flock averaged 2$0 eggs, while the 
entire flock of 40 averaged 210. At about the time 
this announcement was made we are told of a Buff 
Leghorn cockerel which sold for $500 on his feathers 
and shape. We would like to see a pen of that bird’s 
daughters entered at a poultry contest. < 
* 
No, we spend very little time or space talking 
about the grafters and political snides now being 
exposed in the papers. We believe the men who are 
now after these rascals may be trusted to run them 
out of their holes. We expect to see rogues of both 
the old parties hung up where they belong, for both 
grew fat on “graft.” We did our talking some 
years ago in demanding direct primary elections 
when such talk was not so popular. A large share 
of the crooked work now being exposed would never 
have been done if Governor Hughes could have car¬ 
ried his direct primary bill through. We tried to 
tell our people clearly at the time that unless they 
took the work of nominating candidates right into 
their own hands the political corruption in New 
York State would grow worse than ever. No use 
shouting against these miserable grafters now, when 
we must all admit, if we are fair, that we had the 
remedy offered us and would not accept it. But let 
us all register one solemn vow: The next Legislature 
must not be permitted to go home without passing 
a genuine and sure direct primary law. 
* 
Tiie opportunity in breeding fine dairy stock is cer¬ 
tainly good. I heard last week of a man who had for 
several years, been breeding up a fine herd of Jerseys, 
taking excellent care of his herd, and putting thought 
and study into his breeding. A buyer came along this 
Fall and offered $3,000 for 12 head, which offer he re¬ 
fused. Five years ago, even, this would have seemed 
u fabulous sum. E. s. B. 
We told you that we shall hammer away at this 
matter of the improved cow until our people see the 
point. Some years ago it did not pay the fruit 
grower or gardener to pay particular attention to 
purebred stock. Meat and milk were both more 
plentiful than now, and plant food in chemicals was, 
on the whole, cheaper. Now the situation is changed. 
Both meat and dairy products are higher and scarc¬ 
er. Population is increasing rapidly and live stock 
production is not keeping pace with it. The cost of 
fertilizers is increasing and the demand is heavier 
Thus the time has come when purebred live stock 
can be made a paying part of most lines of farming 
that our readers have taken up. On orchard farms, 
for example, a herd of choice cows will clean up 
the refuse or surplus of cover crops or corn and give 
a good profit, as well as provide manure. The sur¬ 
plus stock can he sold at good prices, for there 
never was before this time such a demand for high- 
class cows. A herd of good, purebred cattle is about 
as near a “sure thing” as anything we know of in 
life. The dairymen who have studied the matter 
out understand this fully. We are speaking now of 
a large class of well-to-do fruit-growers and farmers 
who have not, before now, thought it would pay them 
to invest in live stock. They are now about con¬ 
vinced. They will make the best possible customers 
for purebred stock. 
* 
As we figure it there will be 20 farmers in the next 
New York Legislature. By “farmer” we mean a man 
who makes the greater part of his living directly from 
the soil. There are also some 15 men who come 
from small country towns. While not farmers, these 
men a re intimately acquainted with farm life, and 
were probably raised in farm homes. There will also 
be a number of lawyers who own farm property. 
Take it all through, there are more farmers and 
near-farmers in this coming Legislature than the 
record shows for many years. This is encouraging 
if these men are of high character and intelligence, 
as we believe they are. It takes something besides 
farming skill to make headway at Albany. Agri¬ 
culture must have effective speakers and honest 
workers who show tact and judgment in committee 
work. We think these farmers and near-farmers 
might well get together and block out a simple and 
fair programme before the Legislature meets, and 
then be prepared to carry it through. 
* 
Tlie R. N.-Y t . seems to have stated several times that 
a childless man with some property should not adopt 
the child of another. Is that correct? j. G. c. 
Not exactly. We have never made just that state¬ 
ment. What we have said and now repeat is this: 
A poor man, or one who must work hard for his liv¬ 
ing, makes by far a better foster father than a rich 
man. We doubt if it would be possible for a wealthy 
man to take such a child for his own and raise 
it in the best way. Unless it were a most uncommon 
child it would come to think more of the man’s 
money than of the man. It is doubtful if real love 
could develop between the two. The ability to really 
get hold of the adopted child seems to he one of the 
privileges or compensations which go with poverty 
or moderate means. We say this after many years 
of observation and experience. The best places for 
making little men and women out of orphan chil¬ 
dren are not to be found in reform schools or 
wealthy homes, but in the country, with sound, con¬ 
scientious people of moderate means. 
* 
My husband when alive tried to get subscribers for 
the paper, but failed. The excuse was “Too far East.” 
When he told them he would like one from Egypt, for 
they could raise better crops than we could and the 
land was tilled hundreds of years ago, they only 
laughed at him. sirs. w. h. r. 
Minnesota. 
In many cases it is a rather short-sighted policy 
for a farmer to say he wants only a local farm 
paper. There are some things which a local paper 
can supply better than any other, yet there are other 
important ones which, from the very nature of the 
case it cannot touch. This is a great world, with 
very broad views of life. The successful farmer in 
these days not only learns how to do the things 
which are done in his own locality, but he thinks 
and reasons from the experience of those who live 
elsewhere. Can a boy learn anything from a man 
even though the man does not go at his job with 
mere brute force? That question is just as sensible 
as to ask if a western farmer can learn anything 
from a study of Eastern conditions. Many of our 
Eastern farms are 250 years old. Once fertile, they 
“ran down” and now have been restored until they 
produce larger and more profitable crops than ever. 
Western farmers are facing the “run down” stage. 
Who among them can claim that they do not need 
the experience of men who farm profitably on the 
older Eastern farms? Their local papers keep 
abreast of local improvement, while the Eastern 
paper, also abreast of its local conditions may he 
50 years in advance. The local paper for what is— 
the other for what is sure to be. 
Some Georgia and California men were out here the 
other day looking at our cactus garden. Their idea was 
to establish a company, $100,000 capital, on a 100-acre 
tract, and distribute spineless cactus iu this section of 
the country. However, when I showed them that spine¬ 
less cactus would uot succeed here, they decided to lo¬ 
cate at Brownsville. Do you know of any case where 
spineless has been grown and fed successfully? I do 
not. So far as I can learn, the demand for the slabs is 
so great that it is all sold. These men made the point 
with us, that in California they raise the cactus, but 
do not feed it. In Texas we feed it but do not raise 
it. Rather a peculiar condition of affairs. 
Texas. wm. Sinclair. 
Here is a chance for some spineless cactus enthusi¬ 
ast to come forward and show not only the faith but 
tlie facts that are in him. Our understanding is that 
spineless is a thing to sell—not to feed or put to 
practical use. It seems to be something like ginseng 
in the early days of its boom. Now, gentlemen, 
come forward with the goods. 
* 
Can you give me the name of the farmers who have 
pure Cobblers to sell? I got some from seedsmen a 
few seasons ago, and they are a horror. I want to 
start again. d. p. 
The Irish Cobbler proposition has certainly come 
to be a horror and a nightmare with many potato 
growers. This excellent variety has been so mixed 
up with other sorts that we know of growers who 
despair of ever obtaining pure seed, and they are 
forced to abandon Cobblers. The original mix-up 
seems to have been made by contract growers who 
supply the larger dealers. In this way the bogus 
seed has been spread all over the country, and has 
thus got away from the trade. A few careful grow¬ 
ers have been doing the only sensible thing under 
these circumstances. They have culled and selected 
true Cobblers until they have developed a true type 
and know their seed is pure. The Department of 
Agriculture helps in this by examining tlie seed and 
certifying to its purity when the conditions warrant 
it. Of course this certified seed is worth far more 
than the ordinary stock. One reason for starting 
our new department of Subscribers’ Exchange was 
to enable our readers to find the goods that they 
want and the customers they need by a business-like 
announcement. 
* 
We have, several times, expressed our opinion of 
the “New Mineral Fertilizer.” These humble efforts 
to please were not appreciated. “Knocker,” “black¬ 
mailer,” “dunce” and “paid hireling,” were a few 
of the comments we received as praise for our well- 
meant efforts. Now comes W. A. McRae, Florida 
Commissioner of Agriculture. Mr. McRae says this 
“fertilizer” has been analyzed at the Florida State 
Laboratory and elsewhere, with this conclusion: 
The “New Mineral Fertilizer.” made by the New 
Mineral Fertilizer Company, of Boston, Massachusetts, 
cannot be classed as either a fertilizer, insecticide or 
fungicide, and that tlie analysis quoted on the tags 
and in the literature issued by the said company is 
misleading and calculated to deceive, the material act¬ 
ually having no nitrogen (ammonia), soluble potash, 
nor available phosphoric acid or sulphur in its composi¬ 
tion ; and on being advised by the Attorney General of 
the State of Florida that the sale of this material in 
the State as a fertilizer, insecticide or fungicide, under 
the laws of Florida, is illegal, notice is hereby given 
that the “New Mineral Fertilizer.” made by the New 
Mineral Fertilizer Company, of Boston, Mass., cannot 
be legally sold in the State of Florida. Therefore, all 
dealers, or agents are duly notified that the sale, or of¬ 
fering for sale, of this “New Mineral Fertilizer,” as a 
fertilizer, insecticide, or fungicide, will subject them to 
the penalties of Chapter 49S3, Laws of Florida. 
Well, sir, if this material cannot be classed as 
fertilizer, insecticide or fungicide, it must be “min¬ 
eral guff.” Frankly, we did not think the Florida 
Department had in it the ability to chase this form 
of guff out of the State. There may be no sulphur 
in this fertilizer, but wait until you see what this 
company, booted out of Florida, has to say! 
BREVITIES. 
Do not hold the corn fodder too long. 
No use talking, there is an opening for fine dairy 
butter. 
Tiie parcel post trade in Thanksgiving turkeys was 
very heavy—and geneially satisfactory. 
First aid to the wounded is self aid—get them to 
stop thinking about themselves if you can. 
Most agricultural colleges have a “farmer’s week.” 
In Arizona it is a farmer’s fortnight, January 5-17. 
As an experiment iu direct dealing we bought a 
hamper of fine sweet potatoes in Delaware for 80 
cents. The expressage was 35 cents. The local price 
is about $1.75. 
The Eastman apple, one of the newer varieties, is 
said to be giving satisfaction in the Upper Mississippi 
Valley, where the long dry Winters, with their low 
temperature, prove trying to many desirable fruits. 
It seems necessary to keep saying over and over again 
that it is not good practice to spread lime on top of 
sod or grain and let it lie over Winter. The better 
practice is to put the lime on after plowing and harrow 
in. 
Nurembubg, Germany, has started municipal fish 
markets. In a little over six months the city retailed 
181.879 pounds of fish, selling at actual cost. It also 
retailed meat and potatoes, selling in one year, 1,931,454 
pounds of meat. 
