632 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established isso 
Published weekly by Ihe Rural Publishing: Company, 333 West 30th Street, Now York 
Herbert W. Collingwooo, President anti Kditor. 
Jons J. IHllon, 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. {12.01. equal to 8s. 8d., or 
marks, or 10J4 franc®. 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 p erson. 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 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, ami you must have mentioned Tiik 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. 
* 
The Rural New-Yorker has, at its command, the 
largest and most efficient corps of correspondents 
and advisers ever gathered by 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. 
* 
Does it pay to buy the so-called “natural” potash, 
limes or marls? These limes are usually offered 
with a guarantee of about 50 per cent lime and 
small quantities of potash and phosphoric acid. We 
should figure the price. Usually, a plain lime with 
potash and phosphoric acid bought separately in 
chemicals will prove a better bargain. In one case 
a farmer was about to pay $0 per ton for one of 
these fancy-named limes when he found he could 
buy a good crushed limestone for $2.50. “What’s 
in a name?” Certainly not $6.50 a ton. 
* 
Another agricultural “contest” is suggested by 
A. C. Baer of the Wisconsin Agricultural College: 
While our great national exhibitions of dairy products 
are all very well in their way, there is perhaps nothing 
that will stimulate the local dairymen and gain public 
appreciation like a milk-scoring contest held in the home 
town, where the producer, dealer and consumer can 
meet with common interests and mutual good feeling. 
As we understand it, this means a contest to show 
which producer or dealer furnishes the best milk. 
A “score” could be arranged so as to include sensi¬ 
ble points of cleanliness, freedom from disease and 
filth, and quality, with producers, consumers and 
doctors to act as judges. It would interest the pub¬ 
lic, increase the sale of good milk and make a bet¬ 
ter understanding between dairymen and consum¬ 
ers. It would, of course, mean a great advertise¬ 
ment for the dairymen who scored high, and it 
might be said that this would favor the wealthy 
class, who can afford every sanitary appliance. 
We think, however, that it would reveal men in 
rather humble circumstances who through natural 
neatness furnish the finest of milk. 
* 
The average woman has more sentiment and 
vision than her husband or father. That is as it 
should be, for the man’s place is to provide the 
home—the woman’s to make it. Cooperation is to 
be the great social development of the future. Left 
to the men alone, true cooperation would be a long 
time coming, for the masculine mind must get rid 
of many prejudices and ideas of individuality be¬ 
fore he can cooperate truly. In every country com¬ 
munity you will find that organizations of women 
ai'e more enduring and usually more helpful than 
those of men. It is not strong power or money or 
love of gain which can hold a cooperative society 
together. It is rather sentiment or ideals which 
act like the clinging mortar to hold the bricks or 
stones together. In our country neighborhoods the 
influence of women will be greutly needed to make 
true cooperation a success. In fact, it can hardly 
be brought about without just such help. It is of 
great importance that women study this mighty 
question which, within five years, is to present the 
greatest national problem. We expect to give a 
number of articles from women who have been 
leaders in cooperative work. 
On page 61S will be found a map, showing where 
the regional banks a re to be located under the new 
currency law. This law was fully explained in 
The R. N.-Y. just after the bill was signed by the 
President. For a few days after these locations 
were announced the daily papers were bitter in 
their criticisms, declaring that several financial 
centers hail been neglected. This criticism is now 
dying out. We think the banks were located not 
so much where the bankers wanted them as where 
they could best serve the people. It would be im¬ 
possible to please everyone. If more banks are 
needed to cover business properly Congress can cre¬ 
ate them later. 
* 
Mr. Parsil’s articles on home canning represent 
the real thing. This is the true principle of farm 
management So long as market prices for toma¬ 
toes and other truck are high enough to give a 
profit over labor, it will not pay to put the produce 
into cans. When the glut comes, and the produce 
must he wasted or sold at a loss, the cans come in 
as a friend of labor. It is something on the plan 
of Joseph putting the surplus of the fat years into 
storage to provide for the coming lean years. The 
lean garden months are in Winter, and then the 
home-filled cans find their sale. There are fair pos¬ 
sibilities in this home canning—no great fortune, 
but a good chance to turn waste into profit. That 
is about all there is left in manufacturing to-day— 
turning waste into profit. 
* 
There is no corner of the country into which 
The R. N.-Y. does not go. Here is a letter just at 
hand : 
I got some seeds from-, and he had the seeds 
wrapped in some papers, and the papers were named 
The Rural New-Yorker. I read some of the leaves, 
and I found some good reading on them, so I wish I 
could get a copy to see what the real paper is. Would 
you send me a copy, and also the price of the paper for 
one year? c. E. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
The seedsman here mentioned belongs to the bril¬ 
liant ink, blowliard class—one of the last men you 
would expect to act as agent for The R. N.-Y. We 
met an Alabama reader who said lie found his first 
copy wrapped around a stone in the middle of a 
hale of Michigan hay! A Nebraska woman found 
a few torn pages in a package of nursery stock. 
She has subscribed in order to read the remainder 
of an article which interested her. An American, 
who had lived many years on the island of Java, 
found a torn copy of the paper. “Father used to 
take it," he wrote when he sent his subscription. 
He said he had told his Indian wife about the 
maple syrup and buckwheat cakes lie used to eat 
in Vermont years before, and he wanted to prove 
some of his statements. So we bought him two 
gallons of syrup and some buckwheat flour, and 
in due time, after a long journey, they brought a 
taste of old Vermont to “India’s coral strand.” We 
firmly believe that there is no paper in the country 
more widely distributed among American country 
homes, or more thoroughly read therein than The 
R. N.-Y. 
* 
An unwelcome guest at the banquet this year 
will be our old friend, Musca domestica, the com¬ 
mon house-fly. This filthy and dangerous pest is a 
nuisance and a disease carrier—an enemy of soci¬ 
ety, to be killed at sight. During the Summer this 
rascal is capable of passing through 12 or more 
generations in one season. One individual fly lays 
about 320 eggs, which hatch better than the eggs 
in a hen’s stolen nest. This shows the folly of 
trying to abate this terrible nuisance by killing 
these flies off one by one. We should begin a cam¬ 
paign early—right at the fountain head. This fly 
breeds from choice in horse manure, rarely select¬ 
ing other forms of filth. If the horse manure can 
be kept out of reach of the flics, or treated so as 
to destroy the eggs, the fly nuisance will not be 
serious. Where only one or two horses are kept it 
may be promptly thrown into a room or shed with 
screened doors or windows, where the flies cannot 
reach it. Where there are more horses the manure 
can be hauled away frequently and plowed under, 
or piled at some distance from the buildings. An¬ 
other precaution is to sprinkle chemicals over the 
fresh manure. Equal parts of acid phosphate and 
kainit make a good mixture for this. About two 
pounds per day for each horse will repel the flies 
or destroy their eggs, and make a great difference 
in the numbers which swarm around the house. 
This nasty insect may be called the typhoid fly, for 
it spreads many diseases by wiping its polluted feet 
over our food. In order to fight this nuisance ef¬ 
fectively go right to headquarters and destroy the 
breeding places at the barn. You may kill 10.000 
eggs with the energy required to “swat” one fly. 
April 25, 
There are so many “days” to be observed now 
that one who tries to keep track of them is quite 
likely to be dazed. Now comes “Rooster Day,” 
organized by the Department of Agriculture for 
observation in Kentucky and Tennessee. On that 
day (May 10) poultry dealers have agreed to pan¬ 
tile same prices for roosters that they do for hens 
or pullets. The object is to kill off the surplus 
roosters as part of the campaign for infertile eggs. 
The fact is that after May 15, 95 per cent of the 
roosters in this country are of no value except for 
food, and with the ordinary scrub that is very 
tough value. One-third of the fearful loss in the 
egg trade is due to the fertile egg, and this keeping 
a flock of surplus roosters around is worse than 
robbing your own henroost. “Rooster Day” is all 
right. Call in the friends and celebrate this new 
“day” by serving chicken pie. 
* 
I used to think that I didn’t have time to read farm 
papers, but have come to the belief that it pays to take 
time, especially The R. N.-Y. o. yv. m. 
New York. 
We can remember when a United States Senator 
stood up in the Senate and denounced farm papers 
as grafters and blackmailers. There was no use 
replying to him. There was no reply except that 
of history. The blackmailers were sure to betray 
themselves, the honest papers to be known as such. 
It was necessary for the farm papers to prove that 
they gave sincere and honest service to their read¬ 
ers. The doctor is said to bury his mistakes, the 
lawyer may “lay it on the judge," and the farmer 
can plow them under. The editor must stand by 
his printed record. No man could be a grafter and 
blackmailer very long and escape the clear, critical 
eyes of the half million people who read The Rural 
New-Yorker each week. Surely a paper that can¬ 
not make itself so interesting or forcible that peo¬ 
ple will be forced to read it does not fill any public 
want Farm journalism is steadily gaining in char¬ 
acter. When more of the farm papers get away 
from the dead level of platitudes and mount the 
hills where vital issues are to be found they will 
gain faster. 
* 
In the midst of all this shouting and flag-waving 
over Mexico The Rural New-Yorker sincerely 
hopes that there will be no war. Of course we run 
the risk of being called cowards and “mollycoddles” 
for making that statement, but we can stand that 
with great philosophy. With a Civil War family record 
of three dead and two wounded in the previous gen¬ 
eration, we know just what war means in its effect 
upon children, women and home far better than the 
swashbucklers who fight with their mouths at a 
very safe distance from the front. We also know 
that war and war talk have ever been the means 
employed by politicians and schemers to divert the 
minds of the common people from a study of their 
natural business rights. In this country we are 
now at the beginning of a mighty development in 
cooperation and social education. It will take 
years of patient work and study to reach higher 
ground, hut if the plain iieople give their thought 
to it, blessings beyond calculation will follow. A 
“war scare” is the old trick—hoary as the ages— 
of diverting public attention from the really essen¬ 
tial things which have now come into public 
thought. True, there have been and will be holy 
wars where great questions of human rights were 
and are at stake. There is nothing of the sort in 
this disreputable Mexican quarrel — nothing to 
arouse true patriotism or the higher feelings of the 
human heart. “Let us have peace!” that our plain 
people may win the victory against prejudice and 
political evils which has been started. The war 
screamers might well march out against the polit¬ 
ical evils right at home. 
BREVITIES. 
How shall we bring the Christmas egg to pass? Put 
a May egg down into water glass? 
Bear in mind that very live steam is needed properly 
to cook “canned goods.” Boiling is not enough. 
You probably never saw a crank who did not have 
“Yvlieols in his head.” Yet work without wheels is dead. 
It is now suggested that merely dipping the egg in 
water glass and letting it dry will serve as Yvell as keep¬ 
ing it in the solution. We doubt it. Better stick to the 
old. approved method. 
A GREAT trade in hog Lair lias developed in England. 
This hair is used in making brushes. Surely everythin;; 
about the hog except bis squeal is now utilized, and the 
scientists are at work evolving a squeal-less hog. 
In discussing the price of baby chicks has any farmer 
figured wlmt it costs to batch a chick in the incubator 
or under a hen? Count eggs, time, fuel and care, and 
divide by the number actually hatched. What does the 
chick cost? 
