413 
March 14 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A Notional Weekly Journal for Country an«l Suburban Home* 
Established 1BS0 
Published weekly by the Karel PabllihlnR Company. 3*3 West 30th Street, Hon Tork 
Herbert W. Comjkgwood, President and Editor. 
John* J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
WM. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8W 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 00 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- 
aible 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 exposed. y?e protect sub- 
scribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trilling diff erences 
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-iobkeb 
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. 
♦ 
Did you feel the recent earthquake? Can you give 
any actual facts about it? If so a government ofli- 
cial wants to hear from you. Charles Otis Smith 
of the Geological Survey, Washington, D. C., is 
after all posible data regarding this “quake” If 
you have any real information to report Mr. Smith 
will gladly hear from you. 
* 
Among famous old yew trees in the British Isles 
is one in Gresford Churchyard, North Wales, which 
is supposed to be 1.500 years old. The bole at the 
ground is 23 feet in circumference; five feet up it 
is 31 feet; height 60 feet, and spread of branches 
about 660 yards. The trunk has increased nine 
inches in the past 50 years. 
* 
Here is a strange thing. Not long ago we printed 
an article, and in due time there came two letters 
about it One man said: “That is punk. I have 
never been able to raise that crop; therefore I know 
it can’t be done.” The other man said: “It is ex¬ 
actly right, as I know by experience.” We find a 
number of people who seem to measure the possibil¬ 
ities of a thing by their own performance. There 
may be a big difference between the two, but it is 
hard to realize it. 
* 
I like your paper, but sometimes I read therein 
things that are contrary to my experience and which do 
not seem practical. m. e. k. 
Perhaps that is one chief reason why you like the 
paper, for the quality you mention is one of human 
nature. We recognize the fact that life has many 
angles, and ex]*erience many sides. No man can 
view them all. Our people try to give us what they 
see from their standpoint. You or someone else see 
it from another side and find it different. M e try 
to get our people to believe that this difference is not 
a thing to fight about, but a chance to learn wider 
experience. * 
The dog who once begins at sucking eggs will 
keep it up as long as he has legs. Likewise the cat 
who gets a taste of chicken will hunt for prey until 
she comes to sicken. Yet these dumb brutes who 
chase their nature through are not so bad as that 
mean, hateful crew of fakes and grafters who would 
rather live on “other people's money” than to give 
clean, honest service for their daily bread. They can t 
reform; the poison in their head and in their heart 
makes them a gilt-edged thief. Like dog or eat, look 
only for relief to honest printer’s ink and steel- 
barred jail. Put them behind the bars, give them 
no bail. * 
Both sides of the dog question are up again. No 
use trying to bring the extreme dog haters and the 
dog lovers into any “brotherhood,” for they do not 
care to be brothers. The great majority of us recog¬ 
nize a good dog when we see one, and have no wish 
to exterminate all dogs. At the same time we recog¬ 
nize the damage done by curs and homeless mon¬ 
grels. These constitute a genuine “dog curse.” That 
does not mean that all dogs should be destroyed, for 
the men behind these curs are more responsible than 
the dogs which each year kill over 600,000 sheep. 
That Maine dog law, analyzed on page 420, seems to 
be satisfactory—the only one we have known which 
can be said to be. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
There has not been so much about free seeds in 
the papers this season, but none the less the subject 
has not been forgotten. Secretary Houston is op¬ 
posed to this free seed humbug; but what can he do, 
while Congress is dominated by five-cent men who 
think farmers can be bought by a paper of seeds? 
He may not do much, but you can do more, because 
your Congressman has a vote on this silly graft. 
Mr. Charles F. Crane, of Clear Lake, Iowa, has a 
very clear view of this subject, and he shows us all 
what to do. He received* a package of these free 
seeds from his Congressman, G. H. Haugen. Mr. 
Crane did not waste time or words in settling the 
free seed question. Here is an extract from his let¬ 
ter to Mr. Haugen: 
We consigned this package to the waste paper basket, 
where previous consignments have gone. We are short 
of waste basket room and do not care to have this space 
encumbered with more of such trash. The first two 
years we received your seed we planted it, but found it 
so inferior to the varieties that we could buy at the 
store (undoubtedly not suitable for this climate), two 
packages for five cents, that we have discontinued the 
use of it. 
It is nauseating to us to see the government spending 
millions of good dollars for a worthless article, and is 
surely disgusting to see a Member of Congress trying to 
perpetuate himself in office by handing out such worth¬ 
less sops to his constituents. A match or a toothpick 
might contain some real value, wouldn’t cost the gov¬ 
ernment as much, and we have no doubt would be used 
by a majority of the recipients where not one-tenth of 
the seeds ever get into the ground, and when they do are 
a detriment to the planter. 
Mr. Crane hopes that some day we may have a 
Congress that will not go to seed. Not until the real 
owners of Congress clean it up and make it work. 
Who are the owners? What these Congressmen call 
“Hie common people!” “We, us, and our neighbors.” 
* 
“Which may be harmful 1° health .” 
These six words are responsible for the deadly 
thrust which the Supreme Court has given the T»ure 
food law. This phrase is “not as wide as a church 
door—hut it is enough.” 
The Supreme Court held that this "joker” in the 
law makes it necessary for the Government to prove 
in each case that there is enough of the poison 
present in the food to produce actual harm. Under 
this ruling a manufacturer is apparently left free 
to use poisons up to a point where a jury will decide 
that there is enough to be “harmful.” Children or 
invalids or persons peculiarly susceptible to a certain 
poison, might, under this ruling, be killed by tlie 
hundred until some jury decided that the food ought 
not to injure a strong man. Also consider how hard 
it will be for the Government to prove such cases. 
The poisoners can employ the greatest scientific 
“authorities" in the country to confuse the issue and 
raise doubts in the minds of the jury. Men from 
the great universities are for sale in an effort to 
break down the pure food laws while this phrase of 
six words remains as a loophole. These eminent 
scientific gentlemen will not relish the suggestion 
that their opinions are for sale. Let them tell what 
they call it. We waste no time criticising them or 
the Supreme Court. The direct thing to do is to 
take these words right out of the law and thus pre¬ 
vent the use of poisonous substances in food. Con¬ 
gress can do that—no other power is capable of it. 
Let us therefore get right after Congress until that 
poisonous knothole is plugged up. 
* 
The U. S. Department of Agriculture makes 
this statement: 
The unscrupulous seedsmen are now reaping large 
profits in supplying the demand for acclimatized and 
improved varieties of seed with substituted seed, which 
are in many cases unsuitable to the local growing con¬ 
ditions, and which cost as a rule much less. It is dim- 
cult even for a seed expert to determine the origin or 
purity of tvpe of these seeds, especially if it is well 
cleaned, so that at the present time practically all the 
surety of protection the farmer lias against nnsrepre- 
sentation is the word or reputation of the dealer of 
whom he is buying his seed. 
This charge does not include all seedsmen, for 
there are many honorable dealers who would never 
adulterate their seed. It refers to the frauds who 
rank with the grocer who put sand in brown sugar 
and plaster into flour, or beef fat into “butter. 
The fraud is done in inducing farmers to pay a 
high price for “improved” Alfalfa seed and then 
delivering an inferior grade. The scheme is to acl- 
vestise during the season for “Grimm,” “Montana, 
or other superior strains. This leads people to 
think that such frauds have the seed for sale. 
What they really do is to mix in with the small 
amount of superior seed a large amount of inferior 
stuff and sell it all at the higher price. In this 
way these smart mixers can make a profit of from 
$1,000 to $3,000 on a carload of imported seed. This 
is even worse than mixing lard or suet and cot¬ 
ton oil and selling it as pure butter. The end of 
the “oleo” comes when you eat it, but the damage 
of the Alfalfa fraud may go on for years. - The 
Department calls for a Federal law to stop this 
work. This might be an amendment to the pure 
food bill guaranteeing protection to the farmer in 
interstate commerce. It would mean sampling and 
inspection, publicity and heavy penalty. Such a 
law would be just and fair. We think the Govern¬ 
ment might well mix up with the mixers. 
* 
Can we fight Jack Frost with artificial heaters? 
More than 50 Eastern fruit growers ask that ques¬ 
tion. They have heard of successful frost fighting 
in the West. Can we do it here? Next week we 
shall print an article giving actual experience in a 
Western apple orchard. Later there will be further 
notes on frost fighting in gardens and small fruit 
plantations. The theory of this fight is that small 
aiul smoky fires, 50 or more to the acre, kept con¬ 
stantly burning while the temperature is low, will 
hold warm air and a thick smudge around the trees 
or plants until danger is past. Oil-burning pots 
which give a steady blaze and a thick smoke are 
mostly used. The best results are obtained in pro¬ 
tected pockets of land where the cold air rolls down 
hill, and where the wind is light. In the face of a 
strong wind the oil pots are not satisfactory. Many 
growers now plant wind-breaks for the purpose of 
breaking these high winds and thus giving the oil 
pots a chance to warm up the air in the orchards. 
Most of the success with oil heaters thus far has 
been in the West, largely in small valleys which are 
naturally cold. Not much of this work has thus far 
been done in the East, but our experiment stations 
should take it up and test the plan thoroughly. 
* 
Could you give me any information on the following 
question, or direct me where to get it? How does the 
intelligence of the country people compare with that of 
the city? G. s. 8. 
Vermont. 
We find that this year as never before topics 
relating to farm subjects are being selected by 
debating societies. The above named subject was, 
we understand, debated between students of a good 
country school and a town high school. The classes 
at an agricultural college recently debated the 
baek-to-the-land question. This movement to dis¬ 
cuss publicly these questions of farm life is a good 
one. Such subjects are far more desirable than 
the old, worn-out things which have nothing to do 
with farming or farm life. Nothing can be better 
than to have young people open these subjects and 
analyze them fearlessly and to the bottom. 
As to the question regarding “intelligence,” we 
would from choice argue for the country side. In¬ 
telligence is “the faculty of understanding.” The 
town or city people live within gunshot of great 
libraries and all means of acquiring knowledge. 
Yet the greater number of them rarely look into a 
solid book or do anything that may be called real 
thinking. We told one of them once about a can¬ 
ning plant, and he wanted to buy seeds of it An¬ 
other was sure that potatoes grow on trees. When 
the price of beef went up several city men that 
we know said farmers were fools because they did 
not at once raise cattle and have them ready to sell 
while beef was high. These men seemed to think 
that a steer grows to full weight in about 100 
days. The average city man seems to believe that 
the high cost of living is entirely due to farmers, 
who are all getting rich through holding up the 
public. The best reading and thinking and the 
broadest and most charitable and hopeful views of 
life are to be found in the better class of country 
homes. 
BREVITIES. 
Many a hen has been doctored for all sorts of ail¬ 
ments when the real trouble with her was vermin. 
The tractors are showing us the value of deep plow¬ 
ing. Good judgment is required in this, but without 
turning up too much subsoil we should go as deep as the 
strength of the team will permit. 
“Well, the 12 cords of wood are cut and at the 
door with a few cords sold, icehouse filled and now 
we must prepare for the Spring and Summer cam¬ 
paign. That is the way a Maine man puts it, and his 
condition is hard to beat for February. 
Pine needles will not make good manure as they come 
from the woods. They contain too much acid, and 
should be soaked with stable liquids or mixed in horse 
manure before using. In their raw state such “needles” 
will sew up the plant food in the soil. 
We have never known a season with so many re¬ 
ports of poor grass stand and bare spots in meadows. 
Drought, white grubs and freezing seem to have 
damaged the meadows severely. Many readers ask 
if they cannot scatter grass and clover seed over these 
meadows, and expect in this way to cover the bare 
spots and obtain a good stand of grass. The chances 
are against it. We have never been able in our own 
experience to reseed in this way with any satisfaction. 
By scattering the grass thickly and scratching over 
with a light harrow or weeder when the conditions 
are right, it may be possible to thicken up the stand 
somewhat, but breaking the land and reseeding is the 
only sure way to recover the meadow. 
