746 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country ami Suburban Homes 
Established 1S50 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing: Company, 323 We*4 30tb Street, New York 
Herbert W. Co lluwwogd, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manaprer. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. £> 2 . 04 . equal to 8s. 6d., or 
$¥j marks, or 10$^ 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. 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 bo 
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 Tite Rural New-Yorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
Tn order to maintain tlie 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. 
* 
Now gentlemen, let’s organize a compaign to get 
people to stop calling cattle, sheep, swine or poul¬ 
try thoroughbreds, and to stop tlie absurd spelling 
of cliix and dux. The word “Thoroughbred” refers 
to a distinct breed of horses—racing animals. It 
would be just as sensible to call a cow a Berkshire 
or a Wyandotte as to call her a thoroughbred. If 
she is eligible to registry she is purebred , which is 
the right name for her. As for that fool spelling, 
there is no excuse for it whatever. 
* 
Commissioner Calvin J. Huson of New York has 
issued a proclamation against the tent caterpiller: 
Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority conferred 
upon me by sections 304 and 305 of the Agricultural 
Law, I do hereby declare that tent caterpillars are a 
nuisance and a menace to the horticultural interests of 
the State and that all owners or persons in possession 
of any land or premises on which there are trees or 
plants infested by tent caterpillars are hereby required 
and commanded to destroy the nests or webs, including 
caterpillars, on their premises on or before June 1, 1914. 
No question about the nuisance and menace part 
of it. In our part of New Jersey the wild cherry 
trees are alive with this pest, with tents at nearly 
every crotch. On Lang Island the insect may be 
found everywhere. There will be fearful damage 
to trees and fruit if these insects are not destroyed. 
Every wild cherry tree should be cut out and burned 
as thoroughly as poison ivy. Talk about the tented 
enemy—these caterpillers a re worse than any Mexi¬ 
cans on either side of the quarrel. 
* 
The new tariff has now been in operation for six 
months, and the import and export figures are avail¬ 
able. There should be at least one full crop year 
under this tariff before we may fairly draw definite 
conclusions. Thus far the result has been an in¬ 
crease in imports of manufactured goods, a de¬ 
crease in imports of articles which go into Ameri¬ 
can goods and a decrease in exports of American 
manufacturers. This indicates heavier imports of 
manufactured goods for the future and to that ex¬ 
tent increased competition for American manu¬ 
facturers. As to the effect of these imports upon 
retail juices for such goods it is too early yet to 
give any exact figures. Broadly speaking there has 
been little change. We doubt if retail j)rices fall, 
though the goods will probably be of a little higher 
quality. One economic fallacy has been exploded. 
We were told that the remedy for the high cost of 
living lay in wiping off the tariff on food products. 
The argument was that if meat, for example, were 
admitted free, there would be such heavy imports 
that j)rices must fall. During the six months since 
the new tariff went into effect 83,000,000 pounds of 
beef ha ?e been imported. This is about 12 ounces 
for each unit of our population, or two ounces j>er 
month. We must remember too that Canada rushed 
her surplus stock over the line at once. We doubt 
if even this two ounces of meat will be equalled in 
the f iture since all over the world the meat supjjly 
is short. The It. N.-Y. predicted just this outcome, 
for the prices of food and purticularly of meat are 
not determined by any tariff .but by the conditions 
which are controlled by the monopolies which buy, 
handle and carry our food. Make it possible for the 
owners of medium-sized farms in the Eastern States 
to raise and sell meat animals at a fair profit and 
the meat question will he provided for. To make 
this possible there must be a change in the buying 
and distribution of meat. Tn former years when lo¬ 
cal butchers were also slaughterers there was some 
profit in raising beef on these farms, because there 
was some competition among local buyers. There 
are two ways of helping this situation. One is 
through cobjierative associations for slaughtering 
and selling local grown stock. The other is through 
Federal slaughter houses where stock can be 
slaughtered and sold under government supervision. 
It will be one of these things or enforced vegetar¬ 
ianism for the next generation. 
* 
“ABSOLUTELY FALSE.” 
That is what Tom Barron cables in reply to the 
suggestion that his Wyandottes at the egg-laying 
contest are hybrid or cross-bred birds. Thus far 
there is no evidence to prove that these laying won¬ 
ders are mongrels except the statement that they 
would be sealed very low at a poultry show as 
“standard” Wyandottes. The fanciers will have to 
do better than that if they exjiect practical poultry 
men to take them seriously. We are simply coming 
to the point which we predicted when these egg- 
laying contests started. Now all can understand 
why the fancy breeders and the poultry papers 
sneered at these contests and refused to report them. 
For these contests put up fact against fancy, success 
against shajie, eggs against extravagant claims, 
figures against feathers. The old “black tongue and 
switch” of the Jersey cow had to get out before the 
scales and Babcock tester. Cows did not give milk 
and butter with their tongue or tail, and practical 
men forced the breeders to give them a utility type 
of dairy cow. The same thing is working out for 
the hen through these egg-laying contests. It has 
come to a head through these Tom Barron birds. 
They may not score 75 jioints by the “standard,” 
but they make the “ideal” birds look like English 
sparrows on the nest—which Is a better tester for 
performance than the exhibition coop. We invite 
the fanciers to come forward with the evidence to 
show that these hens in question are hybrids or 
eross-breds, or better yet. to come out with 10 
“standard” hens that can equal their record. Come 
gentlemen—it’s up to you ! 
* 
THE “BUMPER” CROP OF WHEAT. 
The reports generally agree that the wheat croi) 
promises at this time to be a “bumper” or record 
breaker. A dozen things may interfere to cloud this 
prospect, but today the prospect is good for the 
largest crop of wheat this country has ever known. 
It is amusing to see how the great daily j>ai>ers rush 
into double-leaded italics to tell the world about 
this. The farmer, tramping his dusty way behind 
harrow and drill last Fall did not look like a hero 
to these city financiers. Last Winter, as he looked 
with anxious eye across his lonely fields he received 
little sympathy. lie gets little of either credit or 
sympathy now, though the great financial interests 
intend to mount the product of his labor in order to 
reach their fingers into prosperity and good times. 
The big wheat croj) will mean rich tolls for the rail¬ 
roads, good business for the banks in providing money 
to move the croi>s, good trade for manufacturers of 
everything that touches the wheat, and hope for the 
bread eaters, who think that a surplus of wheat 
will mean cheaper flour and thus a lower cost of 
living. They all see prosperity in sight as the re¬ 
sult of this great wheat croj). but none of them 
seems to include the farmer, who has made all this 
great prosperity possible in the coining good times. 
On their own records the railroads, the bankers, the 
business men and the manufacturers have failed to 
bring “prosperity.” They all had to wait until the 
plain man behind the team on the lonely farm got 
his chance from Nature and thus made the big 
crop possible. All, every one of them, is on the run 
to get a share of what the fanner produces. They 
will take and take until out of every bushel of wheat 
which the farmer produces they will leave him about 
12 quarts'with which to pay his expenses and get 
ready for another crop. The remaining 20 quarts 
will go to the handlers who pass on the wheat until 
it is handed to the consumer as flour or bread. Now, 
since the last “bumper eroj)” in this country our 
people have learned a few things, and now we can 
put a few of them to the test. We have claimed 
that in case of a bumper crop the railroads, the 
handlers and the dealers will be paid just as much 
per bushel as when the crop was short. We have 
also claimed that in case of such a crop the farmer, 
unlike these handlers, will receive a smaller price 
per bushel, so that in the total the part of the 
money for this crop remaining cm the farms will be 
May 23, 
no more or even less than when there were fewer 
bushels at a higher figure. Another claim is that 
with this bumper croj) the price of bread and of 
flour is not materially reduced to the consumer, 
while the price of feed does not drop in proportion 
to the drop in the price of grain! In other words 
our claim has been that under our present system 
of distribution of the crop and the consumer’s dol¬ 
lar a big croj) means a large gain to those who 
never produced it, and no particular advantage to 
the farmers who did all the work and who would 
stand all the loss in ease of failure. Now this com¬ 
ing big wheat crop will give us all a chance to test 
these claims. We welcome the opportunity of show¬ 
ing what becomes of this big croj). 
* 
Mr. Weaver’s article on mushroom growing is 
about the most sensible statement of the subject 
that we have seen. This mushroom proposition is 
a wonderful magnet for the city man’s money. It 
seems so easy to push mushroom spawn into a pile 
of compost and then wait until it grows into dol¬ 
lars! Mr. Weaver had several crops that seemed 
just like finding money, but when he cut out mush¬ 
rooms he was about $2,500 behind. When this hap¬ 
pens to an experienced grower what chance will an 
amateur have with mushrooms? Not quite as much 
as the young mouse who went out to fight the kitten 
and found the old cat. 
* 
Is it tr,ie that a law has been passed, going into 
effect July 1. 1914, holding a farmer responsible for all 
injuries to his hired man, whether it was through 
farmer’s neglect or not? For instance, if the hired 
man working in woods, cut his foot, and crippled it, 
would his employer be held responsible? Could a con¬ 
tract that would be legal be made releasing the farmer 
from all obligations? ». w. p. 
We have explained this several times but the New 
York law seems to have been confused with that of 
New Jersey and Connecticut. In those States farm¬ 
ers are liable for injuries to hired men. In New 
York the law states directly that the liability “shall 
not include farm laborers or domestic servants .” 
Thus farmers are exempt and cannot be held legally 
responsible for such injuries. 
* 
There will soon be great stories about mummy or 
cave wheat offered at high figures. Usually the 
story is that a few kernels of gi-ain were found in 
a mummy. When planted these grains made a won¬ 
derful growth—developing new qualities during 
their l,buu year’s sleep. They are now offered for 
stile at say 10 cents a kernel! Tn truth the actual 
life of wheat is short. There are no authentic rec¬ 
ords that mummy wheat has ever been known to 
sprout. It is a good story to sprout in mummified 
braips, but that is all. Prof. C. F. Wheeler has 
given us some records of wheat testing: 
In 1844 wheat three years old gave 163 germinable 
grains out of 300 sown. The same wheat tested in 
1849. after eight years; none germinated. The same 
wheat tested in 1850, after nine years; none germin¬ 
ated. Another sample of wheat tested in 1844. three 
years old. gave 139 germinable grains out of 300. 
Another sample tested when it was three years old 
gave 140 germinable grains out of 300. 
If this season, you hear the old story of “mum¬ 
my wheat” set it down as a fake at once. We think 
two years is the limit for safely keeping any wheat 
for seed. 
BREVITIES. 
Every day should be “rooster day.” Make him into 
pie! 
No—do not trust to the lime-sulphur spray for kill¬ 
ing tent caterpillars. 
Son culture for the pigs. Give them a chance at an 
old sod and see their roots grow. 
Cure the oats and pea hay about as you would clover 
—in the swath and cock. It does better cured in the 
shade. 
The water-glass hen is as important just now as 
any prize winner. Get the infertile eggs into water 
glass now ! 
You might not think it, but the business of packing 
shrimps in this country amounts to $1,000,000 per year. 
Most of this work is done along the Gulf of Mexico. 
“Father finds his tall step-ladder more useful 
sinee lie fixed the legs on eye-bolts at the side of the 
top, so the legs would swing either forward or back,” 
says E. 
Tiie latest proposition is a bird census for the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture. The object is to find out how 
many pairs of birds nest within a given area. Volun¬ 
tary bird observers are wanted by the department. 
The highest ambition of a farmer should be to make 
his farm “a garden spot.” The way to start this is to 
start a tine fruit and vegetable garden. That saves 
health and meat hills and also shows what you can do 
with soil when you try. 
The South Dakota Experiment Station claims to 
have a variety of sugar beet which is one-quarter sugar. 
This variety was produced by testing hundreds of beets 
and discarding all except the sweetest. Seed was ob¬ 
tained from the best.and beets from this seed were in 
turn tested. The result is a variety actually carrying 
25 per cent, of sugar. 
