©4 8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 8, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Pnbllahcd weekly by the Karal Publishing Company, 409 Pearl Street, New York. 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royljc, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 8d„ or 8*2 marks, or lO'a francs. Remit in money order, 
express order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 00 cents per agate line—7 words. Discount for time 
orders. References required for advertisers unknown to 
ns; 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 our columns, and any such swindler will be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect suberibers against rogues, but we do not guaranteo 
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. We depend on our old friends to make this 
known to neighbors and friends. 
* 
Now that crops are being sold we want to take up 
the “consumer’s dollar” question once more. What 
share of it do you get? We can find the retail price 
without trouble, but we want to know what you re¬ 
ceive for your goods. Will you send us the figures of 
several shipments, showing the various charges for 
selling your produce at wholesale? That will enable 
us to make fair comparisons. How much of the con¬ 
sumer’s dollar do you get? 
* 
\\ hile the discussion over the so-called “mulch 
method” of caring for fruit orchards may have died 
down it has not died out. The “mulchers” are still 
very much alive. Mr. Grant Hitchings has a good 
crop this year. Mr. Van Deman has recently been 
through a number of mulched orchards in Ohio, and 
reports them as looking well. In Ohio the mulch idea 
has made good progress. The experiment station has 
given it a fair trial—not starting in to prove it a 
failure if possible. 
* 
The plan of confining prize competition in fruits and 
vegetables to New York growers seems to have worked 
v eil at the State Fair. There was a fine exhibit with 
r good chance to study varieties from State-grown 
ccimens. It would be hard to see how fruit brought 
i. from outside the State would have added to the 
display. The prize money all went to State growers, 
and this no doubt encouraged many to exhibit. We 
think the same rule might well be applied to county 
fairs. Give the prize money to local exhibitors, and 
encourage them to bring out their specimens of farm 
products and live stock. Keep the money at home! 
Why not? 
* 
Although the price of milk for the New York mar¬ 
ket, as announced in September, for the six months 
to follow, is a trifle higher than has been offered for 
a number of years, yet the price is disappointing to a 
majority of dairymen in the interior. The retail price 
in the city has been advanced, hoard of health restric¬ 
tions are exacting and feeds are high. The average 
price is about four and one-eighth cents per quart. It 
hardly seems as though the dealers need four and 
seven-eighths cents to handle what they are willing to 
allow less money for producing and delivering into 
their hands at their stations. The prices are: October, 
$1.90; November, $1.95; December, $2; January. $2; 
February, $1.90 ; March, $1.75. These are the prices 
per hundred pounds in the interior district. 
* 
One of the arguments advanced for the “Wonder- 
berry” was that it would make a good substitute for 
the blueberry. It has long been claimed that blue¬ 
berries could not be successfully cultivated, so that the 
suggestion of a substitute always ready in any garden 
was a taking one. It has now been found that blue¬ 
berries can be propagated and grown under culture 
without great trouble. At the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture the plants have been propagated by budding, 
layering, grafting and also by twig and root cuttings. 
A strange thing about it is that the plants fail on 
fertile or garden soils. Like cranberries, they demand 
an acid soil, and no doubt many of the earlier experi¬ 
ments failed because the plants were treated too well. 
This discovery will prove a great boon to many who 
love blueberries, but do not live where they grow na¬ 
turally. We shall tell the whole story in good time. 
We get in now to head off the fakes who will be out 
soon on some “great discovery” which they offer—for 
r. consideration. 
The dairymen of this country must get ready for a 
great battle over oleo at the next session of Congress. 
This battle was put off last Spring, but it is sure to 
come up once more. Mr. Moxley, the oleo maker, lias 
been renominated, while Mr. Tawney, who has been 
the leader against oleo, will not be sent hack to Con¬ 
gress. Every Congressman who represents a dairy 
district should be put on record at once. Pin them 
down and see where they stand. Since the present bill 
passed there has been a change in the dairy business, 
li a number of districts where beef cattle were then 
produced dairying has been introduced. The steer 
favors oleo, while the cow stands for honest butter, 
and the change of sentiment created by this change in 
business will help us. The battle will be a hard one, 
and every friend of the cow must get busy. 
We have had a number of questions about the so- 
called Lava fertilizers. They are offered, we under¬ 
stand, at $15 per ton. Analysis shows that they con¬ 
tain about $2 worth of plant food. In New Jersey 
the Experiment Station called upon the manufacturers 
to file their guarantee of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash. The law requires such guarantee on all fer¬ 
tilizers selling at more than $10 per ton. In reply 
the manufacturers stated that “Lava” contains no 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid or soluble potash whatever. 
This remarkable stuff is “natural product, remedies 
for soil and plant diseases.” Thus, if we take their 
own story the “Lava” people deny that their mixture 
contains any plant food. If any of our readers have 
been offered this material as a fertilizer, we would like 
to hear from them. As for the claims made for Lava 
as a “soil and plant remedy,” no man who is ac¬ 
quainted with the facts that agricultural science has 
demonstrated would pay any attention to them. 
♦ 
Some of us who have been burned up this Summer 
have hard work to understand how it happened. The 
early part of the season was too wet, and many of us 
felt that we had only to cultivate in order to hold this 
moisture. Somehow this did not quite work, for on 
soil that was not heavily manured or full of organic 
matter the water seemed to vanish in spite of our 
work. Last Fall the State Geologist of New Jersey 
was quoted as saying that it would require three years 
to restore the soil water to its natural condition and 
amount. The soil was so thoroughly dried out that a 
single season of heavy rain could not restore it. The 
soil might be waterlogged for a time, but this might 
not fit it to hold the thin films of water between the 
soil particles. When the hot, dry winds followed the 
lains the surplus water was rapidly sucked away, while 
had the soil not been burned out the previous years 
much of this water would have remained. When the 
rains finally come this Fall they will leach the soil 
thoroughly, and that makes it all the more necessary 
to have some living crop on the ground. We should 
get ready for much the same sort of a season next year. 
* 
Tell us what to do with the man who will not be 
reasonable after a fair warning. We have heard from 
him about Sw : eet and Crimson clover, ginseng, cow 
peas, strawberries, hens and a long list of other things. 
Here is the point. We learn from experience or sure 
information that a new crop or a new method has 
value under certain conditions. We tell about it, state 
the conditions and advise a small and conservative trial. 
The man we speak of reads the favorable side of the 
story, magnifies it in his own mind, pays no attention 
to the caution and plunges in on a large scale. Seven 
times out of 10 he fails, and then he puts the blame 
on us because he says we advised him to try the 
experiment. Tell us what to do with such a man! 
Sometimes people who have tried and tested a certain 
thing are impatient because we do not come out and 
endorse it in full, and urge all people to rush into it. 
We know better. There are too many “plungers” now. 
We would rather have our people keep in the middle 
of the road. For instance, next week we shall begin 
to tell about kudzu, a plant which is very promising 
as grown in Florida. Take the news easily—do not 
plunge in over your head. 
* 
At the New York State Fair we met a farmer who 
said he used great care in selecting the reading matter 
that came into his home. He felt that he could not be 
too careful about this. He thought there was greatest 
danger in papers, and before a new one could come 
permanently into his house he read several copies care¬ 
fully. If he found anything offensive in it he threw it 
out and refused to have it in the home. This man said 
his father took The R. N.-Y. before him, and that his 
children would take it. This was one paper that he 
felt sure of, and he was willing to let any member of 
the family tear off the wrapper and read anything in 
it. Some time ago an unknown person begin sending 
him Lewis’s paper, the Woman’s National Daily. He 
never subscribed, but the paper came and, as usual, he 
started in to read it carefully. Here is his report: “I 
had not read three pages before I saw that here was a 
scheme for getting money out of the people. In going 
over new reading matter I have studied many fake 
schemes and I know the ear marks when I see them. I 
saw through this scheme at once, and I knew that if 
this paper kept coming some member of my family 
would be tempted to send good money to Lewis when 
we needed it all at home. None of that for me. I 
will not have such a paper in the house.” This farmer 
saw through the game at once. He sized it up as a 
fake, a gamble or a dream, and not one of these things 
should touch his hard-earned money! We have found 
many people who say this “daily” keeps coming to 
them though they never subscribed to it, and do not 
want it in the house. And yet these enthusiastic Lewis 
worshippers cannot see that what their idol wants them 
for is to collect money to pay his debts. 
* 
In former articles we have given some of the argu¬ 
ments for a State milk commission to regulate the 
price of milk. As it is now neither the producer nor 
the consumer has anything to say about price. One 
accepts and the other pays what the dealers see fit to 
give or charge. Under present conditions there seems 
little chance for any permanent improvement. There 
would be in the case of grain or some product which 
can be held back and stored, but the life of milk is so 
short that it must be sold at once for some purpose. 
Whenever the price of milk is raised to city consumers 
the dealers talk as if they were losing money and can¬ 
not afford to pay farmers their share of the increase.. 
Some facts were brought out at the last investigation 
that need to he repeated over and over. Bordens Con¬ 
densed Milk Co. has a total capital stock of $25,000,- 
000. Of this $15,42S,40S.46 was issued for patents, 
trade marks and “good will," thus not representing 
actual money value. This is what we call “water.” 
During the year endi. <r September 30, 1909, this com¬ 
pany paid a net profit of $2,617,029.40, which is nearly 
28 per cent of the capital invested with the “water” 
squeezed out. In addition to paying good dividends 
for 10 years the company had rolleu up a surplus of 
$8,824,230.59. Other large companies showed similar 
profits, which were the result of a milk monopoly. 
While monopoly and restraint of trade are supposed 
to be illegal, this one could not be broken up, since it 
was the result of a “gentlemen’s agreement” in which 
no written contract is made. While these conditions 
exist nothing short of a complete hold-up of milk 
would help the producers. This is impossible at pres¬ 
ent, and even if it could be done would inflict great 
hardships upon the consumers. A milk commission 
authorized to review the entire business and make fair 
rates for both wholesale and retail milk would come 
nearer to giving a souare deal to both sides than any¬ 
thing else yet suggested. 
BREVITIES. 
Who says “Wonderbcrry” this year? 
The new Borden milk contracts permit the feeding of 
silage. 
When about finding fault with your neighbor sit down 
and eat a baked apple. 
The French walnut crop is short. There is sure to lie 
an increased demand for American nuts. 
One pint formalin to 50 gallons of water for smut in 
small grain. It will hurt germination somewhat. 
Look out for liquid stove polishes. Some of them con¬ 
tain naphtha and explode when put on a hot stove. 
A newspaper despateli from Carlsbad, N. M., says that 
$210,000 of Alfalfa seed has been thrashed in that district. 
The latest is a mosquito-proof steamer operating on 
African rivers. Every opening is provided with lire wire 
gauze. 
There ought to be a great sale for Sweet clover seed 
this season. Our advice is to go slow with it, and try 
only a small patch to begin -with. 
Now it is claimed that if fresh meat or eggSL arc dipped 
into skim-milk and the milk dried on the surface the food 
will be preserved for a considerable time. 
If it will cost $150 or more per acre to clear land on 
the Taeific Coast suitable for apple growing, and $50 to 
fit apple land in New England, why go to the Far West? 
Why do you expect a colt to develop properly without 
good care and feed? We can take a child and ruin its 
teeth and bones by feeding unbalanced food and neglecting 
it. Same way with the muscle and bone of a colt. 
Efforts are being made to induce fruit growers to paint 
peach and apple trees as a protection from mice and borers. 
This advice needs to be well analyzed, and we want all 
the experience with such painting that we can get. 
A reader at Mlllls, Mass., tells of a sunflower which grew 
from a stray seed just outside the poultry yard; it is 12 
feet high, leaves 17 inches across, the stem 10 inches in 
circumference, and the seed head 20 inches in diameter. 
Who can match it? 
The latest we read about is a “Breakfast Bacon Special” 
train run over the Rock Island lines. Various exports are 
to go along and teach farmers how to raise and th- women 
how to cook bacon hogs. The object is to encourage 
hog breeding. This is good, but why not give further 
encouragement by offering better service and freigrt rates? 
