008 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TEE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country an<l Suburban Homes 
Established >sso 
PsblivhtMl weekly by the Rural Publishing Company. 338 West 30th Street, New York 
Herbert W. Com.isg-.vood, President and Editor. 
Jons .1. I)lllon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon. Secretary. Mks. E. T. Koylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. S2.04. equal to 8s. 6d.. or 
8>S marks, or 10 hj francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates fifl cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
‘•A SQUARE DEAI.” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. But to make doubly sure wo 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 wo do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers 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 enlarge¬ 
ments that we are now planning for The R. N.-Y., 
we should have a circulation of 200.000 copies week¬ 
ly. We must depend on our old friends for this in¬ 
crease. To make it easy for these friends to intro¬ 
duce 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 appreciate 
the interest of friends who help make up the needed 
increase of subscriptions. 
* 
A good suggestion from Mr. Todd on page 305 
Each county of New York State can show soils and 
conditions which make it specifically desirable for 
certain definite lines of farming. For example, 
Wayne County and the Hudson Valley are superior 
for fruit growing, central New York for dairying 
and so on. Instead of claiming that every product 
'of (he temperate /.one can be successfully grown in 
each county it would lie far better to state the 
few particular things which each county can pro¬ 
duce in superior quality. This is an age of special¬ 
ties. A man should know what he wants to pro¬ 
duce, and then go where the conditions are right 
for his crop. 
* 
This education in the 35-cent dollar school goes 
merrily on. Collier’s Weekly has got up into frac¬ 
tions after the following example in division: 
Mr. J. M. is foremun of the composing room 
which prints Collier’s. Several weeks ago he bought 
a barrel of Greening apples in Ulster County, 
New York, for $1.50. He had them shipped to a 
suburb of New York City, about one hundred miles 
away. The express bill w as $1.67. These apples cost 
the consumer $3.17, but the farmer got less than 50 
per cent of it. During all this time there were more ap¬ 
ples in Ulster County than could be used there, and there 
were more people in New York who wanted apples 
than could afford to pay for them. The best of farm¬ 
ing papers, The It. N.-Y., talks a great deal about the 
35-e> nt dollar—meaning thereby that 35 cents is the 
portion of the consumer's dollar which the farmer 
actually gets. Isn’t this something we can improve 
upo;. V 
That fanner paid at least 35 cents for the barrel, 
whb h left him $1.15 out of $3.17 with which to 
settle his bills and pay himself a profit. If the 
apples had gone through the regular trade of com¬ 
mission man. dealer and retailer they would have 
cost about $4.50 and the farmer might have received 
$1.25 net! It is a great thing to have these concrete 
examples crawl into city printer's ink. Many of the 
better class of magazines have presumed that the 
blind stupidity and malignant hatred of farmers 
which the city daily papers show were evidences of 
wisdom. Thus the farmer has been pictured as 
responsible for high food prices, and growing rich 
through his extortions. The medicine needed to cor¬ 
rect this bilous view of business is just such ex¬ 
perience as Collier’s relates. 
* 
The supply of limestone in Ohio is practically in¬ 
exhaustible; its manufacture is simple and inex¬ 
pensive; and freight rates for carload lots are often 
less than one dollar a ton. When a high-grade lime¬ 
stone is finely ground, it is as good as the best carbon¬ 
ate of lime on the market, and can usually be secured 
with freight paid for less than $2.5d a ton. However, 
it is not uncommon to find farmers who are paying 
as much as $7 a ton for another form of carbonate 
of lime sold under a fancy trade name. 
That statement from the Ohio Agricultural Col¬ 
lege is correct, and the trouble is not confined to 
Ohio or to lime either. Give us the money which 
farmers have paid for “fancy trade names” and 
many a wealthy citizen would go to work, while 
the National debt would look small. There was a 
man named Jacob G. Brown who tried to do busi¬ 
ness with his neighbors. “Nothing doing,” they 
all knew “Jake Brown.” lie went to another county 
and had a card printed J. Granville Browne, and 
business came to him on the jump. The fancy trade 
name is usually a fake and a bluff. 
THE RURA.L, NEW-YORKER 
The express companies are controlled by what 
one of our readers calls “a smart bunch of men.” 
They are smart enough to work out of a hard 
situation, but were not wise enough to avoid it. 
Had they been able to judge public opinion they 
would have given the public such rates and service 
that parcel post could not have been obtained for 
20 years! Now they are preparing to give parcel 
post a hard jolt. The new express rates are much 
lower for weights over 10 pounds and beyond 150 
miles. Thus the express companies are preparing 
to carry the long hauls and then use the parcel post 
to deliver the goods at the end of the journey! In 
this way they expect to underbid the parcel post 
by making the government work for them on the 
short delivery. It is a very smart scheme and there 
is only one way to meet it. That is lower the parcel 
post rate so that the government can meet the ex¬ 
press companies on all hauls. This is what we must 
work for now. 
* 
My husband passed on last July, and I was obliged 
to give up my little country home and remove to the 
city, therefore did not expect to have any use for an 
agricultural paper. I am fortunate in being able to 
retain a flock of fine fowls, and recently found my¬ 
self in a puzzling situation in regard to disposing of 
the refuse from the pen. While discussing the mat¬ 
ter with the family the carrier left Tiie R. N.-Y., 
and I opened it remarking that “I must stop this 
paper.” At the same time, glancing over the pages, 
I came upon the very subject that was troubling me, 
and my problem was solved. Thus it is with every 
copy. I always find something that I am interested 
in, so have come to the conclusion that I cannot get 
along without The R. N.-Y. ur.s. s. m. f. 
New York. 
Every day brings just such evidence as is found 
in this letter that readers of farm papers consider 
the subscription as a plain business matter. When 
they spend a dollar for food or fuel or clothing they 
expect a full dollar in value. It is right to extend 
the same principle to the farm paper. The editor 
and publisher have no right to expect any man to 
pay his money unless he feels that he receives a 
full equivalent in value. Now and then we are 
criticized for giving space to common things— 
“which everybody ought to know!” Such critics 
say we should discuss only the newer and “larger 
problems” of agriculture. Probably one of the best 
assets we have is a thorough and confidential 
knowledge of what our readers want and need to 
help them in their daily problems. We try to fill 
this need first of all without neglecting the “larger 
problems” as they arise. 
* 
You are the best scrapper I ever knew that claimed 
he didn’t like war. w. A. S. 
Montana. 
There is quite a difference between war and 
“scrapping.” Carlyle’s essay suits us well as a state¬ 
ment of what war means to the common people. 
He pictures 30 stout farmers and laborers taken 
from their families and occupations in an English 
village and carried to Southern Europe. There 
they are matched against 30 Frenchmen taken out 
of productive life in the same way. These 60 men 
take guns and shoot at one another. They have 
absolutely no personal quarrel. As poor men, the 
under dogs of society, they have interests in com¬ 
mon and ought to get together as men and make 
their labor freer and their lives happier. But no 
—they shoot and kill until half are dead. They do 
not know what it is all about, or why they should 
fight, and their lives are made harder and more 
miserable because they fought. A few big men 
pull the strings—out of danger-—and the common 
men face the bullets. That is war. It is always 
“a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” You 
cannot name a war which did not finally assume 
that character. Various ideas or emotions prompt 
men to leave home and fight, but the ultimate benefit 
goes to a few strong and, far-seeing men. Again 
and again, in history “war” has been used as a 
scare to take the mind of the common people away 
from real thought about their wrongs and condi¬ 
tions. In a war the individual soldier can have no 
personal influence upon the question at issue. He 
has no more influence than a card or a checker in 
the game. The “scrapper” lias personal and indi¬ 
vidual influence. It requires more of moral charac¬ 
ter to “scrap” against powerful interests when the 
cause may he right, hut for the moment unpopular. 
Such a “scrapper” risks all he has. and years may 
he required to prove that he was right and that his 
vision was clear. He does not try to kill men, but 
attempts the harder task of trying to make them 
think. Again and again in history the “scrapper” 
has brought people to the point of clear thinking, 
only to lose it all in the bloodthirsty demand for 
war. These are a few of the reasons why we are 
glad to “scrap,” hut have no use for war. 
February 28, 
As usual at this season there le some confusion 
regarding cow peas and Canada field peas. Some 
readers write us that they will sow cow peas with 
oats early in April. This is just the thing they 
ought not to do. The cow pea is a hot weather plant 
and makes its best growth in the hot weather of 
Summer. It is really a bean and very tender. To 
sow it in the Spring when one usually sows oats 
would mean ruin to the cow pea. The Canada field 
pea, on the other hand, is a hardy plant and will 
sprout and grow in cool weather. This Canada pea 
is the one to sow with oats for fodder or hay. Re¬ 
member that the Canada pea is a cool weather plant 
which will not endure hot weather, while the cow 
pea is a hot weather plant which cannot stand the 
cold weather. 
* 
It is announced that Prof. W. A. Henry of Wis¬ 
consin offered a check for $300 to the manager of the 
first cooperative laundry in Wisconsin. This offer 
.vas made by Prof. Henry 18 years ago, and is now re. 
newed by him. In order to meet tiie requirements 
-this laundry will have to be owned and managed by 
Wisconsin farmers or their wives. It may be run 
alone or in connection with a cooperative creamery. 
It will have to be generally patronized by farmers, 
and the prize will not become available until the 
plant has been in operation at least one year. That 
sounds good. In the next magazine number of our 
“Woman and Home Department” we shall tell of a 
cooperative laundry conducted by farmers in Minne¬ 
sota. It is the real thing. It cleans up the cloth¬ 
ing, puts life into the neighborhood and starch into 
the backbone of many another cooperative enter¬ 
prise. 
* 
We have stated several times that some of the so- 
called “molasses feeds” contain what we call sweet¬ 
ened trash. This means that mill sweepings, which 
contain weed seeds, oat hulls, dirt and screenings 
are mixed with grain and smeared with molasses. 
This mixture of grain and trash is used as a carrier, 
so that the molasses can he fed in dry form. Man¬ 
ufacturers have criticized us for saying this—they 
say that no such stuff is used. Suppose we get past 
the manufacturer and the farmer and ask the feed. 
We have with us today Prof. F. C. Minkler of the 
New Jersey Station for a few remarks: 
I would say that by actual count 25% of the material 
found in one of the so-called molasses feeds contained 
nothing hut weed seeds of the very worst sort. This an¬ 
alysis was made two years ago, and since that time those 
dealing extensively in the production of molasses feeds 
have taken the precaution of grinding their weed seed 
products, and thus make it harder to detect their pres¬ 
ence. There is no doubt that screenings are used ex¬ 
tensively in the production of the so-called molasses 
feeds. There is no doubt that molasses makes it possible 
to market a larger amount of wheat screenings, weeds 
and such products that could not be used at all in their 
present form, and certainly you are perfectly safe 
in making such assertions. 
Now we think the honest molasses feed has a 
legitimate place in the dairy business. When we 
want to feed molasses we buy it by the barrel, dil¬ 
ute it in water and pour it over the fodder and 
grain. That is the cheapest way, and you obtain the 
full benefit. There are many farmers who do not 
care to do this. They prefer the dry form of mo¬ 
lasses, and when they can obtain the genuine article 
at a fair price they are well justified in using it. 
When, however, they pay their money for sweet¬ 
ened dirt, weed seeds and trash labelled with some 
fancy name they are victims of a bunco game. 
There is no reason that we can see why the 
manufacturer of a molasses feed should not put a 
label like the following on his bags: 
$1000 REWARD WILL BE GIVEN 
For any weed seed, mill sweepings or indigesti¬ 
ble matter found in this feed. 
There would be nothing illegal about that, and 
they could not make the feed fast enough to sup¬ 
ply the demand for it. 
BREVITIES. 
This is the season when good well-drained walks 
about house and door yard would be appreciated. If 
cement or flagging is too costly, good results are ob- 
tained by drainage, a foundation of stones and surface 
of cinders. 
Has your system of vegetable storage proved satis¬ 
factory during this changeable Winter? House-cellar 
storage which permeates the living rooms with a char¬ 
nel-house smell of dead cabbage and turnips is always 
to be avoided. 
Tiie Philadelphia Quartz Company has offered a 10 
per cent increase in wages to all employees who sign a 
pledge to abstain from intoxicants- The firm considers 
that the improved quality of work resulting, will fully 
make up the increase in wage. 
The death rate ip New York Qjty decreased last year, 
while it incrensed in the remainder of the State. The 
State Health Commissioner urges- establishment of a 
Bureau of Rural Hygiene, which would be helpful, not 
only in controlling epidemic disease, but also in pre¬ 
ventive measures. 
