QUO 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 22, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Established 1850. 
Fablished weekly by tbe Rural 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. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 
8s. 6d., or 8^ marks, or 10 Hs 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 timi 
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 swindlerwill be publicly ex¬ 
posed. We protect snbcribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee 
to adjust trifling differences between subscribers and honest, respon¬ 
sible advertisers. Neither will wo 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. 
* 
We like the spirit manifested by the Virginia Hor¬ 
ticultural Society. The members have complete faith 
ir. the proposition that Virginia apples are the finest 
grown. To prove it they offer a prize of $50 cash for 
the best five boxes of fruit—one of each variety. This 
contest is open to the country—all States and Canada— 
and the judges will be fair. Here is a chance for the 
Pacific Coast or any other section to make good their 
claims for apples. 
* 
Some boy or young man will read the article on 
“Pedigreed Potatoes,” page 984, and make it the start¬ 
ing point of a good business. Take any popular variety 
of potato and handle it in this way, and in a few 7 years 
you will have a breed or strain that will be far supe¬ 
rior to the average. It will be easy to prove this 
superiority, and then will come a demand for the seed 
—first at home, and then from growers in other places. 
A man who will carry such a thing through carefully 
will have what amounts to a patent. 
* 
There is at least one candidate for Congress in New 
York who stands squarely for a parcels post. That is 
Dr. Theron Akin, of Akin, N. Y. Dr. Akin has been 
fighting for a parcels post for the last 10 years. He 
can put up a far better fight in Congress than he can 
at home in Montgomery Co., N. Y. The Twenty-fifth 
District embraces the counties of Fulton, Hamilton, 
Montgomery, Warren and Saratoga, and is just the 
section to be benefited by a parcels post. No more 
practical issue was ever presented to the voters of this 
district. Gentlemen—here is your chance! 
* 
The announcement that the Borden Condensed 
Milk Co. will receive milk from dairies which are fed 
on silage does not mean that the Bordens have entirely 
given up their objection to the silo. They wrote us as 
follows: 
Our superintendents at the country stations have dis¬ 
cretionary powers in regard to silage feeding. They will 
not receive milk from a dairyman who has silage improp¬ 
erly stored, or has filled his silo with material that will 
not make a satisfactory feed. 
We take it therefore that the company will inspect 
siloes as it would stables, make a standard and draw 
the line at a certain quality of silage as they would 
at damaged hay or grain. When milk again becomes 
plentiful they could reject all silage milk if they wanted 
tc do so. 
* 
If you think automobiles are spoiling the horse mar¬ 
ket try to buy a good horse and see what it will cost! 
That is a good test, and you will be surprised to learn 
what is demanded. For the past 10 years this cry of 
death to the horse business has been raised. It fright¬ 
ened many New York and New England farmers out 
of a good opportunity. Some of those eastern farms 
are ideal places for raising colts. The pasturage is 
fine, the soil firm and hilly enough for good exercise, 
feed can be grown cheaply, and the farms are close to 
the finest horse markets in the world. Yet in spite of 
these advantages our farmers have let the horse breed¬ 
ing business go largely to western farms. If that 
western land worth $150 or more per acre can pro¬ 
duce good horses and ship them 1,500 miles at a profit, 
it stands to reason that our eastern land worth $50 or 
less and under the shadow of the market can do even 
better. What we need are the horses and faith in 
the business. There is a great opening for breeding 
and feeding the heavier type of carriage horses or 
horses for the army. 
This dry season will enable some farmers to haul 
swamp muck or black soil for fertilizer. There are a 
good many swamps or dry pond holes where this 
muck has accumulated. Many samples contain as 
much nitrogen as stable manure, but this nitrogen is 
not available because the muck is sour and not fer¬ 
mented. If during the Winter a farmer could have 50 
tons more or less of this muck working out its destiny 
in a compost heap, it would be like making himself a 
present of a yard full of manure. Lime is the thing 
tc sweeten the muck and set it working. Haul the 
stuff out in a pile and scatter through it 300 pounds 
of burned lime to the ton, and by Spring you will have 
a compost nearly as rich in nitrogen as manure. The 
dry weather is an ideal time for hauling muck. 
* 
A few years ago we described a fungus disease 
which was used in Florida to destroy the San Jose 
scale. It did this work well when started on the trees, 
but at that time was not, effective in States farther 
north. There were some reports of success in Georgia, 
but the entomologists were not hopeful that this dis¬ 
ease would prove effective in latitudes where the 
Winters are cold. The Oklahoma Station now an¬ 
nounces that the disease is hardy in that State, and 
can be used successfully. The disease resembles the 
mold which appears on damp bread. It is fatal to 
the scale, but does not injure the higher forms of life. 
While this disease may actually kill off the scale in 
warm latitudes we warn our readers not to give up 
spraying. Pay no attention to fakers who try to sell 
you this disease as a “remedy.” 
* 
The Ontario government loans money to farmers 
for drainage purposes. On page 9S2 are two letters 
from Canadian farmers showing how these loans are 
made. As will be seen they are safe. The state is 
well protected by the town, while the town is pro¬ 
tected, since the drained land increases in value. The 
whole thing works out well, and it is doubtful if the 
public money could be used in a safer or more useful 
investment. As everyone knows who has ever tried 
if. the greatest trouble about following scientific meth¬ 
ods is to find the capital needed to carry them out. 
The agricultural instruction which the State gives out 
so freely cannot be put into practical operation without 
considerable capital. Drainage is one of the most 
needed things on our eastern farms. It is a sure way 
of making farms more valuable and productive, but 
absolutely requires a cash outlay. If the wet farms in 
New York could be drained the value of real estate 
would be increased at once, and the annual supply of 
food increased by 25 per cent at least. Now in what 
other way could public money be invested in gilt-edged 
securities so as to bring about any such result? If 
Canadian farmers can enjoy this privilege of making 
drainage loans on easy terms why should New York 
farmers be denied the right to do so? 
♦ 
“Who suggested that the payment should be made to 
the farmer instead of the manufacturer?" 
“I don't know." 
“Didn’t some one insist that the bounty should go to 
the farmer?" 
“It was never intended to go to the farmer.” 
(Amusement was general.) 
“But who suggested that it should appear on the face of 
it that the bounty was to go to the farmer?" 
Mr. Steigerwald denied that any deception was intended. 
“Did you approve of the idea that the payment should 
be made to the farmer—or to his assignees?” 
“It looked good to me.” 
Although the witness insisted that there was no' inten¬ 
tion to exhilarate the farmer while in reality hoodwink¬ 
ing him, he admitted that Mr. Zimmerlin visited the 
State Grange. 
The above is taken from a report of the beet sugar 
investigation now going on. For years the State of 
New York paid thousands of dollars as bounties to de¬ 
velop the “infant industry” of beet sugar making. 
The Lyons Beet Sugar Company got most or all of 
this money. Its president gave the above testimony. 
It now comes out that this company was systematically 
paying money to keep the bounty going. Two dead 
men and one now alive are named as taking this graft. 
The living man is Chas. H. Betts, of Wayne Co.—a 
member of the Republican State Committee. There 
came a time when this bounty was likely to be held up, 
and the grafters got together in a scheme to hang on 
to it. Formerly it had been boldly given to the manu¬ 
facturer. That had become a little too raw and, as 
ever, the dear old farmer was the man to save the 
“sugar.” A new bill was offered which proposed pay¬ 
ing the bounty direct to the farmer. This looked good 
to the farmers, and arrangements were made to have 
the State Grange endorse the scheme. When the bill 
finally went through it was found that a nice little 
“joker” had been put in, for the bounty went to the 
farmer—or to whoever he assigned it. Then the Beet 
Sugar Company compelled the farmers to assign this 
bounty to them! Only last year we showed up the con¬ 
tract of this company in which they would not pay 
what they fairly owed farmers even after robbing them 
of this bounty. We did this while other farm papers 
were getting a little of this sweet graft by urging farm¬ 
ers to sign the contract. It is a shameful thing that 
this dirty money should have been taken in the name 
of “agriculture.” The R. N.-Y. opposed this bounty 
from the first. There never was such a bounty or 
subsidy which did not lead to graft or dishonest legis¬ 
lation. The farmers never supported such a thing 
without getting the butt end of the stick. They do 
the work, while the other fellows get the “protection” 
and cash. We never believed that the climate and 
conditions in New York are suitable for profitable sugar 
making. In Colorado, California and other Western 
States the industry has a fair chance to succeed, but 
the conditions in the East are against it. We well re¬ 
member the fool stories told about beet sugar, and 
how agents of the New York Department of Agricul¬ 
ture went about working up the scheme. The outcome 
reads like the old, old story. The farmers did the 
work and provided the “influence,” while a few con¬ 
temptible grafters got the bounty. The great lesson 
for farmers is to fight all bounties, subsidies and 
special graft. Not one of these things can he put 
through without farmers’ aid, and in every case the 
other fellow gets the benefits. Cut them all out. And 
the Republican farmers of Wayne County ought to 
bounce Chas. H. Betts off their State Committee, like 
a bounty jumper. How can any man conscientiously 
ask another to vote his ticket when his State repre¬ 
sentative is openly accused of sweetening his cup of 
life with sugar graft? Why not begin with Mr. 
Betts, to show how the crooks and grafters are to be 
handled? If you say that he is a very small character, 
we answer that the way for farmers to prove that they 
can clean up a public park is for them to pull the weeds 
out of their own back yard! 
* 
Not long ago we received the following unusual 
letter: 
I am desirous of locating on a farm in one of the 
New England States, will want to keep some stock. 
Which State would you recommend for a future home? 
I do not want to come in contact with insect pests as 
we have here. J. h. m’c. 
Florida. 
We call this unusual because it is rare, that a man 
from the far South talks of moving North. Practically 
all the “land booming” and expensive advertising has 
been made with a view of inducing Northern men to 
go South. Almost in the same mail comes the follow¬ 
ing: 
I am thinking of selling out and going to Florida. 
I want to get into a warmer climate where we will not 
have so much frost and snow. J. s. l. 
Maine. 
Now here are two men some 1,500 miles apart who 
want a change. One thinks he would like to leave the 
insects and the dry sand, the pleasant climate and the 
middlemen, and live with the frost, the snow, the 
pleasant Summers and the local markets. The other 
wants to get away from the cold. We can assure our 
Southern friend that he will find insects wherever he 
goes, some of them as bad as those he would run away 
from. The Northern man will find that “warmer cli¬ 
mate” so hot at times that a few inches of the ice he 
ran away from would be a relief. The easy-going 
Florida ways will come to grief in the North, where a 
man must struggle hard five months to provide food 
for the other seven. The Northern man who ships his 
produce with a short haul to market will be shocked 
at the long line of middlemen who stand along the 
railroad from Florida. The chances are that neither 
of these men realizes what the change will mean to 
them. As between the two sections we believe the 
North offers the better opportunity to a man in fair 
health and moderate means, but it is a very serious 
thing for anyone to pull up stakes and travel up or 
down the country to a new home. 
BREVITIES. 
Talk about nut markets, Canada alone Imported 
3,210,580 pounds of peanuts last year—and wanted more. 
Why should New York spend money to boom irriga¬ 
tion enterprises in the West, while thousands of our own 
acres need draining? 
Happy is the cow whose owner grew a crop of man¬ 
gels. This root equals silage. The Holstein cattle men 
would hardly undertake to test a cow for great production 
without mangels. 
Experiments in North Dakota show that if the last 
growth of Alfalfa is left without cutting the crop winters 
better. The theory is that this late growth draws water 
from the soil and permits the Alfalfa to harden up for 
Winter. 
A few weeks since we spoke of the last reunion of 
Mexican War Veterans. To show how The R. N.-Y. 
covers the country, we mfly say that the paper goes to 
the neighborhood where one of these veterans lives and 
his sons receive the paper. 
There is one thing which all farmers who use chem¬ 
icals should remember: These chemicals should be spread 
as evenly as possible. They are all concentrated, and will 
burn or injure vegetation if they are dumped in handfuls 
upon growing crops. They should be spread out all over 
the ground. 
