266 
THE WURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TtTF. BlSt.\ESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Chantry and Suburban Home* 
EstaMtshcd iSoCt 
Published weekly hr the Kiiral Publishing Company, 3,1S West SIKfc Street, [tew Tork 
Hkrbf.rt \V. CoLtJSG-wooD, President and Editor. 
John .1. Ihllon. Treasurer and General Mnn.serer. 
tv M. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mbs. E. T. Rovle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 1*2.04, equal to 8a. 6d., or 
V/i 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. Bid 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 bo 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by tlie 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 enlarge¬ 
ments that we are now planning for The R. N.-Y., we 
should have a circulation of 200,000 copies weekly. 
We must depend on onr 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 intro¬ 
ductory purposes. We will appreciate the interest 
of friends who help make up the needed increase of 
subscriptions. 
* 
There seems to be a good opening for high-class 
canned goods put up on the farm. l>ireet trade is 
springing up everywhere, and thousands of people 
stand ready to buy reliable canned goods when they 
know where to obtain them at a fair price. We 
know several farmers who have tried the experiment 
of putting their surplus fruit and vegetables into 
tans whenever the regular market price goes down 
too far. This has worked well and gives a fair 
profit. There is opportunity in this. 
a 
The movement of Danish settlers into Otsego 
Co., N. Y., is one of the remarkable features of this 
“back to the land” movement. It is said that no 
less than 100 more Danish families are planning to 
come during the year. Their pastor is already here 
—located on a farm. A brotherhood has been organ¬ 
ized and a church will follow. Most of these settlers 
are below middle age, with good families of little 
boys and girls, who will be Americanized by the 
public schools. These Danish people are well edu¬ 
cated, and are surely workers, and their coming is 
a good thing for Otsego County. 
* 
The “Cooperative Egg Circle" is a new Canadian 
farm organization. It seems to have started on 
Prince Edward Island. From 40 to SO farmers will 
organize to sell their eggs cooperatively. The mem¬ 
bership fee for an “egg circle” is 30 cents, with 25 
cents annual dues. Each member pledges himself 
to collect the eggs twice a day in warm weather 
and once daily in cool weather. He also guarantees 
not to send to the business manager any egg more 
than seven days from the hen. The manager col¬ 
lects. sorts and ships twice a week in warm weather 
and once in cool. lie must use a covered wagon and 
is paid one cent a dozen in Spring and Summer and 
two cents a dozen during the rest of the year. This 
manager sells the eggs and makes returns to the 
members. Under this arrangement it is said that 
farmers receive from two to fire cents a dozen 
more than when they sold to dealers or shipped 
without organization. And out of these egg circles 
will hatch other and larger plans for square dealing. 
* 
At the Albany farmers’ convention in January a 
resolution recited that the Western packers drove 
Eastern farmers out of the business of raising meat 
animals by competition and discrimination against 
local butchers who, in years past, when native beef 
was plentiful, attempted to slaughter meat animals 
bought from neighboring farms. A representative 
of one of the railroads rose in the convention and 
questioned the assertion. As proof of the belief that 
was in him. he said, he had heard the same com¬ 
plaint some time back, and had written the secretary 
of one of the packers, whom he knew personally 
asking if the charges were true. Me received a reply 
to the effect that it was not true. 
That certainly is a simple and a confiding way of 
settling disputes. It ought to do away with all con¬ 
troversy in the future, and incidentally with all 
courts with their retinue of lawyers and contingent 
expenses. Ask the thief if he stole a chicken. If 
he says no, we can be sure that the bird is on the 
roost, and it is an optical illusion that the owner 
cannot see it. 
Within the past week ,we have had six cases 
of threatened lawsuits through failure to under¬ 
stand verbal contracts. One case involves two 
brothers, another father and son. The parties talked 
over their business relations and agreed to do cer¬ 
tain things. After a few years conditions changed 
and one party found that he was not getting what 
he expected. Then they could not agree. One re¬ 
membered a certain agreement, the other said it 
was different. There was nothing in writing, and 
neither party had kept accurate books. In some 
of these cases there will be a feeling of resentment 
as long as life lasts. There should always be a 
strong legal contract whenever people make an 
agreement to work together or to transfer property 
or perform some definite service. The expense of 
hiring a good lawyer to tie up the contract securely 
is a trifling matter compared with loss and annoy¬ 
ance which follows a loose and indefinite contract. 
* 
In your article on page 47 entitled “Two Blades of 
Grass,” you advocate short crops and high prices, be¬ 
cause with large crops the farmer may not get all of 
the benefit of the increased quantity. I judge from this 
that you object to the use by the farmers, of anything 
that will produce larger crops. This principle, carried 
out consistently, will approve of restricting the pro¬ 
duction of coal to increase the price; the running of 
factories on short time, for the same purpose and 
generally retrograding in all matters of production. 
This is a very narrow minded view of the subject, and 
one which intelligent farmers will hardly approve of. 
You cannot deny that abundant crops at fair prices 
are best for the country at large, «nd general pros¬ 
perity does favorably affect the farmer. u. 
Your judgment is wrong. We do not object to 
“anything that will produce larger crops.” We 
have done as much as any farm paper to encourage 
the use of such things. Our advice to a farmer is 
to grow his crops on smaller areas instead of 
scattering them all over the farm with inferior 
culture. We do not advise him to double his entire 
crop production until the price minus the cost war¬ 
rants doing so. This principle has been and is 
carried out by the very interests yon mention. If 
it is a narrow view suppose we broaden it out and 
advise all manufacturers to double their production 
of hardware, shoes, clothing, furniture, etc. They 
could do this quicker and easier tnan farmers can. 
Advise the railroads to double track all their lines 
and welcome all possible competition in trollej r s and 
cross roads. One is just as fair as the other, hut 
will the railroads and the manufacturers do it? 
Let them try the “abundant crops at fair prices” 
theory and see what would follow. From your theory 
the world would be far better off. since these neces¬ 
sities of life would he cheaper. Why do you ask 
farmers to do what these other interests refuse to 
do? We never have denied that abundant crops at 
fair prices “are best for the country at large.” The 
35-cent dollar does not mean a fair price. Give the 
farmer more than that and the abundant crops 
will follow. 
♦ 
On page 1GG we mentioned Bradley Bros, as one 
firm denied advertising space in The It. N.-Y. Now 
we get a note from a Western business man: 
We are getting lots of letters from our customers 
about those people; they put up a pretty coarse job 
of work. That is about the rawest game I ever saw 
an advertiser try to put across; it is worse than the 
wonderberry plant. I don’t see how he can expect to 
put it across with any intelligent people. 
The “raw deal” which our friend mentions is 
about as follows: An advertisement states 12 “Pro¬ 
ductive” everbearing strawberry plants will be sent 
“without charge.” When the victim asks for the 
dozen plants he gets this: 
The “Produetives” being a female plant, will not 
fruit or bear a crop of perfect berries, unless planted 
with a male variety like the “Progressive.” Now we 
are very anxious to have you succeed; our gift of 12 
special plants of this wonderful new variety is very 
liberal. We would like to send you the “Progressive” 
without charge, but we cannot afford to do so. Plant 
the “Productive” strawberry that we send you free, 
with equal number of plants of the “Progressive” if 
you have that variety; if not order some “Progressive” 
from us; our special proposition is to send you by 
parcel post, at the same time that we send the 12 
“Productive” for $1.25 the 12 “Progressive” and we 
can send you the 24 plants at the same time by mail 
postpaid. 
That is about as slick a scheme as we have yet 
heard of. The Greeks were about the craftiest 
people of ancient times. When they wanted to entice 
their enemies into trouble they arranged for a 
number of young men to dress in women’s clothing 
and dance on the shore or where the enemy would 
see them. Needless to say these dancers carried 
daggers ready for use and the gentlemen who 
“answered the advertisement” were most effectively 
“stung.” Bradley Bros, must be great students of 
Greek literature. The “Productive” plants are used 
to sell “Progressives” at 10 cents each. It is a 
“raw deal” which well deserves roasting. 
February 21, 
Wk ask you to read every word of that story of 
cooperation by Mr. L. G. Tuckerman. Do not glance 
it over and let it go, but read it over and over as 
yon would a personal letter. For in this story may 
be found the basis for a true cooperative organiza¬ 
tion. These Hudson River fruit growers have struck 
the real thing. See how their little organization has 
grown and branched out into great possibilities for 
selling, handling and financing the local crops. This 
is the way out for farmers in any community 
where the farm products are uniform so they can he 
1 tidied together in large lots. It is cooperation 
with the CO in large type. This word cooperation 
is used to cover a multitude of schemes in which 
a few men get most of the profit and the rest get 
left. The first thing to understand is that coopera¬ 
tion means equal share of benefits based on labor 
or business, with no special privilege to anyone. 
* 
A curious cream situation is reported from Ohio. 
There seems to be no standard defining “cream” in 
the State laws, while milk Is standardized and milk¬ 
men are held up to it. It seems that the ice-cream 
dealers froze up the Legislature and got this "joker” 
through. The trade in selling real cream to the 
people is growing and can be developed into one 
of the most profitable lines of the dairy business 
if a high standard is set for cream and dealers are 
compelled to face it. Selling pure high-grade cream 
compares with handling the higher class fruits or 
other fine products. It is the top notch of good 
dairying, but there will he nothing in it for the 
honest man unless a fair standard is made and all 
are forced to live up to it. Naturally the dealers 
and handlers have an advantage when the is no 
standard. They can buy cream ancr pay for it on 
a fat test and then sell it to their retail customers 
with no test at all. There is where the dairymen 
and farmers of Ohio should get after the Legis¬ 
lature. Work for a law calling for a standard 
definition of cream. This will not help dairymen 
alone, but all classes of farmers as well, for what¬ 
ever helps one is sure to help another. 
* 
During the past year many of our readers have 
seen advertisements of “Black Fox Farms.” some 
having been offered stock in such enterprises. We 
have warned our friends as best we could to let 
such speculations alone. They are gambles pure 
and simple. Prices for breeding stock of these foxes 
have been lioomed past the bursting point. Last 
year promoters secured options on the unborn Spring 
progeny at $10,000 to $12,000 per pair—depositing 
10 per cent, of the price. Then they used these 
options and contracts as assets for their companies 
and on the strength of such assets offered stock for 
sale—the money obtained to pay for tlie young foxes 
later—if they were born and lived! Thus the man 
who bought stock in a Black fox farm invested liter¬ 
ally in an unborn fox and a hole in the nround! 
Speculative gambling could go no further than 
that, yet we actually have jieople argue that the risk 
is fair one and that the business is sure to be 
profitable. The argument is that wild fur-bearing 
animals are vanishing, while the demand for fur 
garments is increasing. That explains tlie present 
rush into skunk fanning and similar enterprises, 
many of which are doomed to failure, since they 
are based upon the proposition of changing the life 
habits of naturally wild animals. One reason for 
the high price for furs is the five-year closed season 
for fur seals. This five-year term will expire at 
about the time pelts of these black foxes would 
come into the market. At present tlie foxes are sold 
for breeding purposes at a speculative figure. There 
is nothing in any such business for those who buy 
stock in these companies. The fox breeders and 
the promoters will get all there is in it. Keep out 
—no matter what big stories they tell you. 
BREVITIES. 
You can root-prune a tree to advantage, but it is 
bard to do the same to a horse, cow, or man. 
There is every good reason why a farmer should 
keep an accurate set of books and not one good reason 
why he should not. 
It is claimed that Kansas farmers buy 50 per cent, 
of the vegetables they consume at home. There’s a 
chance to cut out one “trust” with a lioe. 
A hard man to convince is he who will not believe 
anyone else can do a thing which lie has never done. 
Tell something outside of this man’s experience and it 
“isn’t so” at once. 
Organize a “tin-can club” and get the empty cans 
out of the way. During the Summer a tin can half 
filled with water will breed enough mosquitoes to make 
farm life a nightmare. 
W est_ Virginia is to have a brood of the 17-year lo¬ 
custs this year. We had them a few years since, and 
they did considerable damage to tin- soft, young wood. 
We advise doing no pruning until the locusts have gone. 
