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The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 833 West 80th Street, .ten York 
Herbert W. COHJNGWOOD, 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. JJ2.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
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 accompauv transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is hacked by a respon¬ 
sible 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. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers anti 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 yon must have mentioned The Rural Nkw-Y orker 
when writing the advertiser. 
The Rural New-Yorker has, at its command, the 
largest and most efficient corps of correspondents 
and advisers ever gathered hg any farm paper in 
the world. Thus we can obtain for you the last 
word on any subject relating to the soil, its cultiva¬ 
tion or its products, or the human life of the farm. 
This service is yours for the asking. 
* 
The article on Red-top in New York is first of a 
series of articles on the behavior of the popular 
grasses in this State. There are too many farmers 
who think Timothy is the only suitable grass for 
hay-making. Timothy is the best grass for selling, 
but in many localities Red-top or Orchard grass will 
give more actual feed. We shall have the facts 
about them. 
* 
Anyone claiming to operate a mineral rod on behalf 
of the United States Government is an impostor and 
should be let severely alone, or reported to the police. 
That is the way the U. S. Geological Survey gets 
into the game when fakers try to ride it. A “min¬ 
eral expert” named Wise is working in Alabama 
with a mineral rod, locating minerals. He tries to 
make it appear that the government is back of him. 
Let us all get wise to Mr. Wise and the rest of the 
mineral fakes. The Geological Survey seems to be¬ 
long to that “strong-arm squad” the Hope Farm 
man tells about. 
* 
On April 10th, Governor Glynn signed the bill 
creating a State Department of Foods and Markets. 
No legislation in recent years has been received with 
favor equal to the enthusiasm created by this meas¬ 
ure. The agricultural organizations of the State 
indorsed it. City societies of consumers have ap¬ 
proved it; and individual producers and individual 
consumers have seen in it a promise of closer rela¬ 
tion and mutual advantage. It has attracted the 
attention of economists the country over, and all 
have seen in it a promise of better returns for the 
producer and a hope of some reduction in the cost 
of living for th*e consumer. Heretofore the only 
answer to the farmer’s complaint of low prices was 
the admonition to produce more at lower cost. Now 
for the first time in this country, we have recog¬ 
nized the necessity of an economic distribution of 
farm food products, and have actually provided the 
machinery for a system to distribute at prices regu¬ 
lated by the law of supply and demand. The insti¬ 
tution of this department marks an epoch in the 
economic agricultural conditions of this State. If 
successfully organized and developed it will, through 
adoption by other States, become virtually a national 
institution. Governor Glynn has secured the pas¬ 
sage of other popular legislation, but if he did noth¬ 
ing else his administration would be sufficiently dis¬ 
tinguished by the creation of this important econ¬ 
omic department in the State Government. 
* 
' I noticed what your correspondent from Maine says 
in regard to the bills introduced in Congress to prevent 
the killing of calves and dealing in veal in order to 
increase the supply of beef. Ex-Mayor Fitzgerald of 
Boston, in an address before the Wholesale Beef Deal¬ 
ers’ Association, at their meeting in Boston, was report¬ 
ed as advocating a law to compel every farmer to raise 
at least one beef animal for every two acres of land that 
he owned. It seems to me it would be more sensible to 
limit *the size of the beefsteak that these gentlemen eat 
at their breakfast table if they are so anxious to in¬ 
crease the supply and reduce the cost of beef. 
Massachusetts. w. E. T. 
As a rule, the anxiety of these gentlemen to bene¬ 
fit humanity stops when their own interest ends, 
or when their own self-denial would begin. A man’s 
public argument rarely runs along with his private 
practice. These orators would willingly compel 
farmers to produce beef at a loss in order to lower 
the price of their own beefsteak. If we were to 
the kural new-yorker 
call for a law compelling them to eat baked beans 
and fish balls, so that the market price of beef 
would be cheaper, there would be a frightful howl. 
Yet most of these gentlemen would be better off for 
the bean and fish diet, while such a law would be 
just as sensible as and more useful than the one 
they advocate. 
* 
Thus far at least 50 persons have come asking 
what they cau do to abate the tramp hen nuisance. 
These people have gardens in which they take great 
pride. The neighbors have hens in which they take 
no pride, but let them forage at will. These tramp 
lords, cursed with the. indolence, cupidity or mean¬ 
ness of their owners, come into the garden and tear 
it apart. The trouble lies in the man behind the 
lien. What can we do with him to make him recog¬ 
nize ordinary human rights? Thousands of our 
readers will look at their ruined plants and regret 
that they have too much character and too little size 
to take this lien man out into the road and thrash 
him. Failing in that vent for their feelings, what 
can they do? They can shoot the hens after fair 
warning and then stand the legal consequences of 
carrying a dangerous weapon and destroying prop¬ 
erty. They can be held liable for me value of the 
hens. They can keep a smart, active dog and train 
him to chase these hens whenever they come upon 
the premises. The best thing we know of is to en¬ 
tice the liens into a house and keep them until the 
owner does his duty. The hens will more than pay 
tor their food, while the hen man is getting wise. 
There is no meaner little annoyance than this one of 
the tramp hen. He who can endure it with pa¬ 
tience is a good candidate for the job of Job. 
* 
We have never known the time when so many 
wealthy men in the city were interested in what 
they call “the cause of the farmer.” These gentle¬ 
men profess to be sincerely anxious to help the 
plain man on the farm, and they ask what they can 
do to be of real service to him. We do not need 
to tell them that before one can be of real service 
to another it is necessary to understand not only 
bis condition, but bis point of view, and the way be 
looks at life from his home. It stands to reason 
that one man cannot hope really to help another 
and give him permanent aid until he can under¬ 
stand just how his friend lives, how he works, and 
the conditions under which his life is passed. There¬ 
fore it will be clear to our city friends that they 
cau do the farmer far more good if they understand 
just his point of view and the difficulties under 
which lie works. Naturally a man cannot live and 
work out his life in a great city, and still under¬ 
stand just what it means to work through sunshine 
and through storm upon a mortgaged farm. A 
practical friend has made the following suggestion 
to us. It may not appeal directly to the gentlemen 
who are anxious to help their farmer friends, but 
we give it for what it is worth. 
This man suggests that a good way to get at 
farming from the inside would be for some of these 
philanthropists to disguise themselves as hired men, 
and join one of the excursions of city laborers up 
into the country where farmers come and size up 
the workmen with purely an eye to business. It 
might certainly give some of our benevolent friends 
a new idea of the needs of agriculture, and its 
dignity as well, if they were to present themselves 
in this disguise, let the practical farmers view them 
with an unprejudiced eye, and size up their value 
exactly as they think they would b> able to render 
practical services upon the farm. We should not 
object at all to listening to some of our friends in 
their discussion of the farm problem, and then let 
them hire out in this way as farm hands, and spend 
one month upon a practical dairy farm of an aver¬ 
age type. It would afford us great pleasure again 
to listen to their remarks on the needs of the farmer 
when they return from this very practical experi¬ 
ence in actual farm life. 
* 
“The use or introduction for drinking purposes of 
alcoholic liquors on board any naval vessel or within 
any yard or station is strictly prohibited and command¬ 
ing officers will be held directly responsible for the en¬ 
forcement of this order.” 
That is the text of an order issued by Secretary 
of the Navy Josephus Daniels. That means abso¬ 
lute prohibition of the use or introduction of alco¬ 
holic liquor upon any vessel of the United States 
Navy or within any navy yard or shore station. If 
you would realize the full meaning of this go back 
into history for a century. On August 18. 1813, the 
American brig Argus, cruising in the English Chan¬ 
nel, captured and destroyed a shift laden with wine. 
April IS, 
Guided by the light from this burning ship the 
English brig Pelican came upon the Argus. The 
crew of the latter were noted for their expert gun¬ 
nery, but in this battle they could not hit the side 
of a barn. They were drunk on the wine they had 
captured, and the Argus was pounded into a wreck 
and captured! There is no more need of rum in 
the navy than there is on the locomotive or at the 
railroad switch. For years now the sailors in our 
navy have been punished severely if found drunk 
or caught bringing liquor on board. The officers, 
however, have been able to drink as they pleased, 
and some of them seem to have been “soaked” much 
of the time. What Secretary Daniels lias done is 
to make one rule for both officers and enlisted men, 
and he is right—outside of any moral consideration 
of the matter. There can be no question of the 
fact that year by year public sentiment against 
liquor-drinking grows stronger and stronger. It is 
now only a question of time when rumseller and 
the “rum-punislier” will be regarded by respectable 
people as criminals or men afflicted with a moral 
disease. Our warships do not belong to naval offi¬ 
cers—they belong to the people! 
* 
The efforts to give the American farmer a real 
parcel post have brought out a storm of ridicule 
from a class of people who habitually sneer at any 
effort to bring producer and consumer closer to¬ 
gether. The Postoffice Department is trying to help 
city consumers find farmers who will ship farm 
produce direct by parcel post. A good sample of 
the efforts made to ridicule such a plan is a letter 
from Benjamin S. Dean, printed in the New York 
Sun. Here is one extract; we will take another 
later: 
Just imagine a Chautauqua County farmer wading 
through three feet of snow to feed the chickens and to 
milk the cows and doing up dainty parcels of produce 
for his brother man in New York city and giving this 
brother man the advantage of the reduction in the cost 
of transportation and the elimination of the middleman! 
Imagine it, I say, for you will never hud him doing it. 
The trouble with Mr. Dean is that he either has 
no Imagination or doesn’t know what lie is talking 
about—probably both. Chautauqua County farmers 
are as intelligent as any others. When snow comes 
they must wade through it anyway. Mr. Dean 
wants them to continue wading for a 35-eent dollar. 
They will never get any larger share until they go 
after it. and parcel post shows them the way. “You 
will never find him doing it.” That is where you 
make your mistake. We know a regiment of farm¬ 
ers who are selling sausage, lettuce, maple products, 
poultry, vegetables, meat and a dozen other things 
direct by parcel post. One man has sold over 25 
pigs as bacon and sausage, by mail and netted over 
$6 per pig more than if he had sold to local butch¬ 
ers. Right over the line from Chautauqua County 
a farmer was discouraged because dealers would pay 
him only 65 cents a gallon for maple syrup. A sin¬ 
gle little notice in The It. N.-Y. lias already brought 
calls for over 50 gallons at one dollar. We can 
give hundreds of instances where farriers and their 
wives have developed direct trade, and more than 
doubled the 35-cent dollar by using parcel post. 
Such men as Benjamin S. Dean may sit on the fence 
and sneer and ridicule. They may even discourage 
a few faint-hearted people, but when it comes to 
holding up a useful reform of transportation they 
are just about as useful to society as a kernel of 
grit dropped inside the hub of a wheel! 
BREVITIES. 
If you are thinking of letting the trees go without 
spraying or trusting to parasites—forget it and spray. 
Reports show a great shortage of tomato plants in 
many trucking localities This is due to hot-house 
failures. 
In all this talk about how to keep the boy on the 
farm, why has not some one thought to ask the boy? 
He is the interested party—why not get his views? 
Much time is lost in spraying waiting for the tank 
to be filled. Where a power sprayer is used a “tank 
filler” is a great time-saver, for the power will quickly 
pump the tank full. 
Recently a correspondent told of planting several 
kinds of peas together—mixing the seed so as to have 
a long-continued crop. Have any readers reports to 
give regarding this? 
When it comes to double-cropping a garden, you must 
remember that you cannot reasonably expect to make 
both crops produce full yields. For example, sweet corn 
growing among potatoes. You can only expect a fair 
crop from each. 
A piece of New York property having a frontage of 
27.6 feet on Broadway, and 64.11 feet on 20th St. was 
bought in 1S42 for $3,000. The present assessed value 
of the land is $252,000. It was recently sold, after be¬ 
longing to tin 1 same family for 72 years. 
