112 
THED RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 29, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing: Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York, 
Herbert W. Oollingwood, President and Editor, 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
WM. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8 s. 6 d., or 8*2 marks, or 10*2 francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 50 cents per agate line— 7 words. Discount for time 
orders. 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 
responsible person. But to make doubly sure we will make good any 
loss to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler 
advertising in ourcolumns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect suberibers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trifling differences between subscribers and honest, respon¬ 
sible 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 introduce The R. N.-Y. to progressive, 
intelligent farmers who do not now take it, we send it 
10 weeks for 10 cents for strictly introductory pur¬ 
poses. e We depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
In the tremendous and unprecedented rush of busi¬ 
ness which comes to us this year like a tidal wave, 
there are many satisfactory things. Best of all and 
the thing we prize most is the evident fact that our 
people realize and appreciate what we are trying to 
do. We believe that a farm paper should have honor¬ 
able ideals which are absolutely distinct from its 
advertising rates, and it is evident from this year’s 
business that the great army of country people will 
stand by a paper which they believe lives up to that 
idea. 
* 
At the Virginia horticultural meeting two physicians 
who are also apple growers were standing together. 
It was a cold, cheerless day, and many fruit growers 
were trying to feed a stimulating mental ration to 
their spirits. One man suggested that whenever you 
see a sour grumbling man you will find “spots on 
his liver.” 
“What do you give such a man, doctor?” 
“A dose of calomel ought to fix him.” 
The other physician came in right there. 
“There is a new treatment— tell him to eat six 
apples!” 
That’s good advice. Shakespeare tells us to throw 
physic to the dogs, and we would gladly make the 
amendment—“and eat apples instead.” 
* 
Well sir—we cannot find any fault with the way 
that investigation of “the consumer’s dollar” is work¬ 
ing out. Ohio is the latest State to demand, through 
the Governor, a look into the high cost of living. 
When we began to talk about the 35 cents which the 
producer receives of the dollar paid for food we felt 
lonesome. The way to spread the truth is to talk 
about it, and we have tried to make the farmer’s 
share look like 35 cents. Will you observe that no 
one has yet disproved our figures? The entire 
country is now talking about it. Talk on! The best 
talk we have seen yet is that reported from John A. 
Stewart on page 117 . Mr. Stewart is a trustee of the 
new agricultural school at Morrisville, N. Y. If 
those remarks by Mr. Stewart indicate the spirit and 
purpose of that school it will become one of the most 
useful institutions in the country. 
* 
We believe that the coming investigation of Secre¬ 
tary Ballinger will bring to a head one of the great¬ 
est problems which confronts this country. The R. 
N.-Y. cannot take sides with either Secretary Bal¬ 
linger or Mr. Pinchot as men. Men come and go. 
In a nation’s history the personal work of an in¬ 
dividual may disappear like the foam on a wave. It 
is the principle for which men are willing to fight 
and endure that lives and is handed down. More 
than 90 per cent of Americans know in their hearts 
that a large proportion of the social evils which we 
deplore have come down to our generation as the 
result of giving the right to our natural resources 
and special business privileges to a favored few. As 
the country has grown stronger and richer this policy 
has brought injustice to a large part of our people. 
It is, on a larger scale, much the same thing that 
happens when some favored member of a family is 
petted and pampered on money sweated out of the 
other children! The money and power which that 
favored child acquires came out of the denial of 
others. When he uses it to oppress rather than to 
help them he is a menace to their future. This 
nation must now stop giving away the land and the 
privileges which belong to the people. Whatever the 
outcome of this investigation may be, it will stir up 
a popular demand that will change history. 
The latest agricultural orator is William C. Brown, 
president of the New York Central Railroad. Mr. 
Brown is appearing at many meetings with a speech 
full of statistics. He shows how prices for grain 
have advanced, and argues that production is not 
keeping pace with demand, so that sooner or later 
if present conditions continue, we shall not have 
enough to eat. His remedy is better farming—that 
is, larger production to the acre. In Boston, after 
giving the figures to prove his position, Mr. Brown 
gave this eloquent prophecy: 
In this crisis, which, fully understood, is as grave as 
any this country has ever known, a lantern will again flash 
its message of warning and another Paul Revere will again 
sound tlie alarm—once more arousing the farmers to the 
danger which impends, and, as in all the years of the 
past the farmer has responded to the nation's need, so 
now he will respond again! 
Now, perhaps, we lack sentiment, but this picture 
of farmers rushing to save the country with 35 cents 
of the consumer’s dollar does not appeal to our 
imagination. Does Mr. Brown stop to consider that 
feed, fertilizer, taxes—in fact, everything from baby 
carriages to coffins—have gone up in price, that the 
cost of getting farm produce to market is not decreas¬ 
ing and that on the average the various handlers 
between the farm and the city get 65 cents of 
the consumer’s dollar? Why is he not the Paul 
Revere to light the lantern and show us where the 
65 cents go to and where 10 cents more can be 
honestly given to the farmer? The man who does 
that will make farming so popular that there will 
be no fear of any shortage of food. 
* 
“One of our neighbors, a woman, just ’phoned 
over 7 have received John Lezvis Childs’ catalogue! 
I am going to throw it in the fire.’ I expect that a 
good many people will do the same. He will find 
that he can fool some people some of the time but not 
all of the people all of the time.” h. a. m. 
Ohio. 
That Wonderberry catalogue ought to make good 
fuel, for it certainly contains some “hot stuff.” It is 
the privilege of every American citizen to use his 
own property for fuel. Our correspondence leads 
us to conclude that a large number of Americans 
will exercise their privilege. If we were asked to 
express an opinion (though we have not been asked by 
either of these Wonderberry gentlemen) we should say 
that Burbank is wiser than Childs. In the face of the 
evidence piled up against him Burbank quits in silence. 
We imagine he has read the story of Dr. Cook with 
some edification. Mr. Childs, however, with his large 
stock of seeds, does not imitate the wise example 
of Mr. Burbank. With the Moore Seed Co. on one 
side and seedsman Buckbee on the other, Mr. Childs 
stands like Horatius at the bridge. We wait with 
deep interest to see how many of the farm papers 
will pass over and print themselves with Wonder¬ 
berry ink. The reader may regard all this as an or¬ 
dinary contest over a weed. It is more, for back 
of this stands a clear-cut principle. The farm papers 
know the story of the Wonderberry. It has been re¬ 
pudiated by the Department of Agriculture, and turned 
down by every reputable seedsman in the country. 
Never before has the question been so boldly and 
brutally presented. Will the farm papers sell them¬ 
selves or not? 
Finally, to return to John Lewis Childs. He chal¬ 
lenges us to be “fair and square” and print the state¬ 
ment of an analysis by Prof. Ruddock! In answer 
we print it on the next page and match it with another 
letter from Dr. Greshoff. Now 7 we publicly challenge 
John Lewis Childs to be “fair and square” himself, 
and print this letter from Dr. Greshoff in his cata¬ 
logue and his advertisements. Here is the highest 
authority in the w r orld: “Some day deadly results will 
follow!” Come, Mr. Childs, we put the proposi¬ 
tion up to you straight—how “fair and square” with 
the public do you want to be? 
* 
Doubt is growing to conviction regarding the at¬ 
titude of President Taft and the leaders in Congress 
regarding a parcels post. They appear to be opposed 
even to trying an experiment on some of the rural 
routes. The President wants to wipe out the postal 
deficit. Those of us who believe in the parcels post 
tell him that the way to do this is to increase revenues 
without greatly increasing expenses. There are nearly 
40,000 rural delivery wagons running through the 
country carrying small packages of letters. Every 
family^ on all of these routes would in time, if they 
had the opportunity, make use of a fair parcels post. 
They would both send and receive dozens of packages 
and buy the needed stamps. Within a short time 
this will mean millions of increased postal revenue 
without any further expense on those rural routes, 
since the wagons are now running with barely a 
quarter of a full load. It seems like a fair and busi¬ 
ness-like argument that this parcels post would, in 
time, wipe out the postal deficit by increasing sales 
of stamps. Yet President Taft and Congress appar¬ 
ently pay no attention whatever to it. Why is it? 
Last week we talked with a former post master in a 
large Southern town. He said that when rural de¬ 
livery was proposed the fourth class postmasters all 
fought it bitterly and held it back for some years. 
After one month of actual mail service, if these men 
had used the same arguments they did before, they 
would have been tarred and feathered! The country 
people did not realize what had been denied them 
until they enjoyed the blessing of daily mail delivery. 
It would be just exactly the same with a parcels post. 
Once let the people realize what it means to enjoy the 
mail service which is given in Europe, and they would 
realize as now they fail to do how the U. S. Govern¬ 
ment has permitted the express companies and rail¬ 
roads to rob them through all these years. After 
a month of parcels post the public man who would 
attempt to take the privilege away from us would be¬ 
come the most private citizen in the country as soon 
as the law allowed. There is no use fooling with 
these Congressmen any longer. Tell them right to 
their faces that if they will not work for a parcels 
post you will vote against them and organize to put 
them out of business. 
* 
The convention held in Albany last week under the 
auspices of the New York State Agricultural Society 
was a notable success. No gathering of farmers 
within the memory of the oldest members ever evoked 
more enthusiasm or a more intelligent outspoken dis¬ 
cussion. The principal object of the meeting was to 
give expression to the various theories and prac¬ 
tices of agricultural education throughout the whole 
country, and to evolve from the discussion a general 
plan of agricultural education for the State of New 
York. The discussions were practically confined to 
this subject, and were well nigh exhaustive. The 
sentiment of the meeting was clearly expressed in 
the report of the committee appointed by the presi¬ 
dent of the society to define that sentiment. It recom¬ 
mended that no further provision be made for more 
secondary schools of agriculture at the present time, 
and that provision be made for the teaching of prac¬ 
tical elementary agriculture in the high schools of 
the State. There was only a feeble demand for 
more secondary agricultural schools on the pattern 
of those now in operation at Alfred and Canton. 
The consensus of opinion was that it is best to 
let them work out their plans and demonstrate their 
efficiency and usefulness before others are established. 
Perhaps the committee acted wisely in side-stepping 
the subject of agricultural instruction in the common 
schools, though the society in its annual meeting 
adopted a resolution favoring such instruction. The 
caution of the committee may be approved, from the 
fact that few people have yet given much thought to the 
subject. Even President Schurman of Cornell ap¬ 
proached the subject hesitatingly, and floundered badly 
in his brief reference to it. Call it elementary agricul¬ 
ture or applied nature study, or by what name you will, 
children should be taught to see and to observe some¬ 
thing of the beauty and perfection of the natural 
forms around them. This is Froebel’s kindergarten 
in fact. It is the most fascinating pastime in the life 
of a child. It will be taught by progressive teachers 
more and more as the years go by, but it needs guide 
books and the recognition and encouragement of the 
State Department of Education. To have come out 
squarely for it would have caused some opposition 
to the committee’s report by those who do not uiydcr- 
stand the conditions to which its practice would 
confine it; but the recommendation would have 
rounded out a complete agricultural educational policy 
for the State. In view of the present interest in 
the subject and the fact that 90 per cent of our 
children never reach the high schools, we may safely 
predict that a study of the natural objects and of 
the life-developments within their environment will 
yet share, if it does not absorb, the time given to 
abstract academic subjects that have so long dom¬ 
inated the higher grades of our common schools. 
BREVITIES. 
The Japanese in America are said to send $1,000,000 
of their savings home each year. 
In 1909 $52,017.97 were collected in fines, penalties and 
judgments for violation of the New York agricultural law. 
In 1908 the amount was $34,767.14, and in 1907 $28,911.65. 
A subscriber in Iowa tells how he started: "I was 
induced to take a 10-weeks’ trial subscription several years 
ago by a man I had hired, and I will never regret the 
day that I subscribed.” So the American hired man can 
act as a practical missionary. 
The Monmouth County Potato Exchange (New Jersey) 
is a co-operative organization. There are some 550 mem¬ 
bers, and during the year just closed the Exchange did 
over $500,000 worth of business. It paid five per cent on 
its capital stock and saved probably $50,000 to its mem¬ 
bers. 
Let’s see—the argument for “free hides” was that this 
would make cheaper leather and hence cheaper leather 
goods. Now we are told the price of shoes must go up 
10 per cent at least. The reason given is that automobiles 
proved a new demand for leather! 
