SIS 
TH J3J RU R AL NEW-YORKER 
.Tune 1 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Subiirl>nii Homes 
Established iS50 
Published weekly by the llnral Publisblne Company, 333 West 30tb Street, New York 
Herbert W. Coi.i.iNowoon, President and Editor. 
John" J. Iln.i.os, 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. (12.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8J4 marks, or 10H francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates (iO 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 hacked by a respon¬ 
sible person. Rut 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 wo do not guarantee to nd.1ust trilling 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 wit bin one month oft it 0 time of 
tlio transaction, and you must have mentioned The Ri ral. New-Yorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
N 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 weekly. We must depend on our old friends 
for this increase. To make it easy for these friends 
to introduce 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. 
* 
T HROUGHOUT Southern New York the past 
seven years have been much like the lean 
years in Egypt One disastrous drought has 
followed another, bringing loss and trouble to the 
farms. This year starts in better—ns if there would 
be moisture enough to start us back to the fat years 
once more. We hope so. It fs high time, and the 
outlook is now good for it. A few wet seasons will 
work wonders on the New York hills. As one friend 
puts it: 
I have lost my seeding twice on the same plot by 
sowing in the drought of the Fall, and am now trying 
Spring seeding. All my seeding of last year was killed 
by the drought, and meadows look hard ; we have had a 
seven-year cycle of Summer droughts, just the time that 
I have been on the farm. Seven years of rain now 
would do more to boom farming in this section than all 
the agricultural banks that can be established. 
And yet, there is no fair way of comparing the 
rainy season and the agricultural hank. One is the 
act of nature—the other the act or work of man. 
Neither nature nor man alone can he said to do most 
for humanity. In spite of wet seasons the hills of 
Southern New York declined as farm lands very 
largely because the farmers lacked capital to work 
their farms properly. The very blessings of the 
wet years to come cannot lie properly utilized with¬ 
out some system of banking which will make the 
farm land a more convenient asset. 
* 
T HE talk about a “war” with Mexico has about 
died out—killed by the evident feeling of the 
American people that there is nothing to 
fight about. Let no one think, however, that this 
means that our people are growing weak or cow¬ 
ardly. They have simply grasped the situation and 
realize that the suggested “war” was mainly a 
scheme of promoters and land grabbers to force 
Uncle Sam to handle their hot chestnuts from the 
fire. The following incident, related by a friend at 
Mobile, Ala., gives us a glimpse at the true Nation¬ 
al spirit: 
Yesterday, Esau Frolichstein, the boy killed at Vera 
Cruz, was buried here with a regular military funeral. 
There was everything on the same scale as though he 
had been an officer, the greatest number of stores closed, 
even most of the moving picture shows stopped business. 
These facts are more significant when you get below 
the surface. Erolichstein in the first place was a 
Jew. his people were respected hut poor and retiring, 
his father having run a little cigar factory and failing 
in that I understand is selling goods on the road; his 
aunts, or cousins, run a small millinery store, and 
probably just about make a living out of it. Taking it 
all together, he was in life a very inconspicuous in¬ 
dividual, yet, in spite of the obscurity of his family, 
lack of influence, and the general hut unjust prejudice 
against his nationality by the masses, lie was honored 
to the full measure, the .State sending the Governor and 
his staff, the army and the navy being represented, and 
all the city officials, besides each religious denomina¬ 
tion having its official representatives, even the Con¬ 
federate veterans attending officially. m. a. p. 
In this we see one of the most hopeful indications 
of the times. This humble individual honored as a 
hero because he was ready to serve Ms country. 
Yet that honor is mingled with reserve and self-con¬ 
trol. without revenge or hatred. We call that hope¬ 
ful because it shows that our people are coming 
more to a calmer and reasonable view of public 
matters, and thus learning more of their power to 
control public men by controlling themselves. 
H AY dealers in Virginia and other Southern 
States demand hay put up in small bales. 
Many of their customers buy in very small 
lots, and want bales which can be easily handled— 
say not over 90 to 100 pounds. The Dairy and 
Food Commissioner of Virginia has ordered that no 
damaged hay be sold in that State. This makes 
low grade or discolored hay very unsalable, and 
Virginia dealers will he forced to reject all ship¬ 
ments of poor hay. 
* 
T HE only safe and sure way to sell a crop that 
we know of is to keep an accurate account 
of the cost of production. We may not he 
able to get it down to the hist cent, but we ought to 
know at the end of the season about what the crop 
has cost per pound or bushel. Then we can tell 
whether the price at which we can sell is fair or 
not. As a rule we find that when we can command 
a price which gives us a fair or even a small profit 
over cost, it is better to sell rather than take the 
risk of farm storage. If for two years in succession 
the crop does not sell for more than it costs with 
ordinary production, it is time to produce some¬ 
thing else. At any rate a fair idea of the cost of 
production is the essential factor. 
* 
“DO IT, OR GET OUT!” 
T IIE latest public advocate of government 
ownership of railroads is Chas. II. Mellen, 
whose remarks about sheep and sharehold¬ 
ers were quoted last week. Mr. Mellen ought to 
know. lie drew $00,000 per year as a railroad 
president—$25,000 for railroad work and $35,000, 
we should judge, for “doing it” for men higher up. 
A group of workmen were patching up the road. 
There was one honest man who knew that some 
of the material he was using *was defective. He 
protested to the walking boss and received this ul¬ 
timatum : 
“Do it or yet out!" 
The man had a family and he knew the power 
of the boss. He “did it.” Later this boss ran upon 
the man above him in construction work. There 
came another question about handling the job, and 
the ultimatum was the same. Then there came a 
man from headquarters who commanded the con¬ 
struction boss to do his work in a certain way. His 
words had a familiar sound: 
“Do it or get out!" 
At headquarters a question about bookkeeping 
arose. Great financial deals were going on and 
figures must he juggled to cover up the use of some 
of this money. Then there were men who con¬ 
trolled certain blocks of stock which were needed 
to elect convenient directors. Then there were 
directors who must he shown that it was to their 
interest to sit tight and do what they were told. 
We judge from Mr. Mellen’s testimony that more 
than half the money he received as president was 
paid him for passing along the old, brutal command: 
“Do it or get out!” 
Then, apparently, there came a time when Mr. 
Mellen felt a heavy hand upon his own shoulder. 
11 is time had come for “doing it.” J. P. Morgan 
pointed at the work lie wanted done and gave the 
same old command. “I was practically fired ” says 
Mellen in his testimony. lie certainly was not fired 
by any particular ambition to save the “sheep” 
among his shareholders. And finally Mr. Morgan 
himself faced the old command. What? The finan¬ 
cial master? The railroad king? The man whose 
frown made millionaires tremble? Yes. at last there 
came one, stern, immovable, resistless, who said: 
“I am death! 1 cannot be denied. You have had 
your chance to ‘do itnow ‘get, out!' ” 
M'r. Mellen certainly ranks as an expert. We do 
not wonder that he favors government ownership. 
The history which he has opened up will convince 
thousands that if anyone is to issue the old com¬ 
mand, “Do it or get out,” such power should lie with 
the American people. 
♦ 
W E have a case where a man made a small 
quantity of lime-sulphur mixture, used it 
ou young fruit, trees and injured them. He 
attributed the loss to the lime-sulphur and thus con¬ 
demned it. Investigation showed that the mixing 
was done in an old tar barrel, and that the tar thus 
put on the trees was chiefly responsible for the dam¬ 
age. We know another man who, not content with 
using soluble oil as directed, added a large quantity 
of soft soap. The dregs from this mess injured sev¬ 
eral trees, and the oil was blamed for it. There is 
probably no manufacturer of standard farm pro¬ 
ducts who could not tell a similar story. As a rule 
the people who do these things do not mean to be 
unfair, but they are not careful of their facts, and 
get them mixed up with experiments. The same 
thing is true of much of the work done by our ex¬ 
periment stations. We know of one case where a 
station man stated that a potash salt would benefit 
peach trees on light soil. He was right, but a man 
in the audience understood that one word salt, and 
claimed that the speaker stated that common salt 
would take the place of a complete fertilizer! This 
may he one reason why our scientific men are so 
cautious in stating their conclusions. There may lie 
two safe methods—one to say as little as possible, 
the other to say enough to explain in full. 
* 
S OME years ago there appeared a book entitled. 
“The Fat of The Land.” It was a very op¬ 
timistic story of a baek-to-the-lander who made 
a small fortune on a western farm. For a while this 
hook was held up as a “model” by the people who 
intend to “show these old timers how to farm.” 
Many a woman made life a burden to her husband 
by comparing his humble efforts at farming with 
the great success of this “fat” farmer. It. developed 
later that the whole thing was a pleasant fiction. 
There was no farm at all. The author wrote the 
book to keep up his spirits while recovering from 
a hospital operation—carrying out in imagination 
some of the things he read in the farm papers. That 
was all there was to it. yet the author wrote some 
solid truths which could not he disputed. For ex¬ 
ample, he said that a poor man could start on a 
farm with two brood sows or two sitting liens, and 
b.v constantly laboring to produce the best pigs and 
the best hens in the country, make his farm famous 
and reach success. That is a great truth. A hen 
is a small unit in the animal world, yet she offers 
unlimited possibilities to an observant and patient 
man or boy. Let anyone start today with any breed 
which he really loves. Let him learn what a good 
hen is, and form his ideal, always selecting that 
kind of a hen. Before many years he will win in 
one of the egg-laying contests, and then nothing can 
stop his success. There will always remain this op¬ 
portunity for the patient man with an ideal and 
the courage to work it out. 
* 
I I appears that some of the county agents are en¬ 
couraging experiments with chemicals, lime, raw 
phosphate rock, etc., as against complete fertil¬ 
izers. They also seek to test Alfalfa hay, Soy beans, 
etc., against mixed feeds. Some of the manufacturers 
object to this as interference with their business 
rights. One of them puts it this way: 
“What would you say if these agents advised farmers 
R.NVY H ?” ° r tljG ° ther farm I,ai,ers iu 
That is easy. We should say something like this: 
“Go ahead. The Lord bless you and give you the 
wisdom to select the farm literature which is of 
real service to you.” If The R. N.-.Y cannot be 
made strong and interesting enough to hold its 
readers we have no right to complain. If it cannot 
stand fair comparison with the other farm papers 
it. is our business to learn how to make it so that it 
can. If we cannot give a service different from 
that of (he government bulletins we have no right 
to ask the government to call its bulletins off. We 
want no special privilege or government protection— 
only a fair chance to present our argument. As 
for those who have been selling goods to farmers 
as individuals we have long believed that a busi¬ 
ness revolution is coming. In the future more and 
more buying will he done through cooperative asso¬ 
ciations. r l his is a business-like proceeding and 
should be encouraged fairly by all friends of the 
farmer. We are opposed to the scheme of branding 
manufacturers as leeches or using unfair means to 
discredit them. Give them a fair chance, no more, 
no less. 
BREVITIES. 
To keep the hogs in first-class shape—put in a little 
patch of rape. 
Now they are talking about raising “fur-bearing 
sheep.” It is not likely that any man who has failed 
to grow the ordinary breeds of sheep will be likely to 
succeed with the “furs.” 
Roots and shoes have advanced 50 cents a pair in 
England. “Increased cost of raw materials” is Un¬ 
reason given. Let’s see—the new tariff was to give 
cheaper shoe leather. Have you found it? 
Talking of irrigation, the Egyptian government has 
just awarded a contract for a pumping plant which 
will take every 24 hours 2,000,000,000 gallons of water 
from the Nile and force it where it may run over the 
land and water the crops. 
The skunk earns $3,000,000 each year for American 
trappers. These skunk skins are usually sent abroad 
and come back to us as “Alaska sable.” Many a wom¬ 
an who would nearly faint away at the sight of a 
skunk would do quite the reverse when clothed in 
“Alaska sables” or “black marten.” 
