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THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
June 20, 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FAB MICH'S PAPER 
A Nallnunl Weekly Journal I'or Country nnd (Suburban Hornet* 
Established tsr,0 
rithlbhed werhlj by tlir Knrnl I *n I>1 i s ti In a Company, JUtlt IVost itOth Stroet. Nr** Vork 
Herbert W. Collinowood, Dreirident ami Editor. 
John .1. Dillon, Treasuror and General Manager. 
Wit. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04, equal to 8s. (id., or 
85$ marks, or 105* francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office ns 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¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Rut to make doubly sure, wo will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will he publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to lliis end, but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned bv the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, aial to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker 'vlien writing the advertiser. 
TEN WEEKS FOR 10 CENTS. 
N order to maintain the improvement and enlarge¬ 
ments that we are now planning for The It. 
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. 
* 
S OME of the Maine potato growers are troubled 
over rumors of what the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment will do to prevent shipment of diseased 
potatoes. The powdery scab has been found in some 
sections of Maine. The Department has prepared 
certain regulations for shipping potatoes: 
They will provide for the shipment after inspection of 
all sound healthy potatoes. No potatoes exposed in any 
way to powdery scab will be shipped out as seed stock, 
but clean potatoes from which all scabby specimens 
have been removed may be forwarded as table stock. 
The inspection of table stock will probably be limited to 
the area known to be infected witli powdery scab, 
which includes Aroostook and a few towns south of that 
county. 
It is not likely that any large proportion of Maine 
potatoes will he confined to the State except those 
actually carrying the disease. Seed stock will he 
carefully examined, and the new regulation will 
probably compel some shipments for table purposes 
which would otherwise go as seed. 
* 
H ERE is a thing for the water-glass egg people 
to think about. There is no question about 
the economy in using this material to pre¬ 
serve fresh eggs. We have several water-glass hens 
in the cellar safely carrying infertile eggs to Thanks¬ 
giving or even Christmas. Now we have always 
advised this plan as a means of holding the family 
egg supply. We would stop right there. We find 
that some of our people are putting eggs into water- 
glass expecting to take them out again in November 
and sell as new-laid eggs. 
Forget it at once! 
Such a plan will ruin any hope you may have for 
building up a good trade. The water-glass egg is 
not fresh. It i.s a good family substitute, hut thei’e 
it stops. Any attempt to sell it without plainly 
stating what it is will hurt you far more than the 
extra price can help you. Water-glass is for home 
use. Cold storage i.s the place for keeping salable 
eggs. * 
O NE of the most valuable bulletins issued by any 
of the experiment stations in many years is 
the recent pamphlet by Dr. G. F. Warren, 
from Cornell. This does not tell how to grow any 
crop, but it will make farmers think about the 
agricultural conditions in New York State. Dr. 
Warren gives us figures and facts showing the size 
and value of farm crops for many years, and the 
prices which farmers have received for them. Here 
we have a clear statement of the 35-cent dollar. 
These gentlemen who say there is no such thing 
ought to study this bulletin. And the “two blades of 
grass” theory! Dr. Warren shows clearly and scien¬ 
tifically that farmers will gladly produce two blades 
of grass as soon as the one blade now grown re¬ 
turns to the producer as fair a profit as now goes 
to the handlers. To try to make the farmer pro¬ 
duce two blades while lie gets 35 per cent, of the 
value of one blade is as fruitless as telling the 
ocean to stop flooding the harbor. We shall give 
a popular study of this bulletin in the hope of 
helping farmers to think out the lessons it teaches. 
It is very encouraging to have our experiment sta¬ 
tions get down to the fundamentals of true farm 
political economy. 
W E understand that *S. A. Martin, the Farm 
Bureau Agent for Onondaga County, New 
York, has started a campaign for testing 
what is called “a permanent system of fertiliza¬ 
tion.” This means the use of ground phosphate 
rock in a rotation containing clover and Alfalfa, 
and also in combination with ground limestone. 
The Geneva Experiment Station will cooperate in 
this experiment. It is a good idea. We have had 
a good many statements about the use of raw phos¬ 
phate. Some were too loose to stand still, others 
were tied too fast to prejudices to he of any value. 
Onondaga County is a first-rate place to test the 
matter out. 
* 
M ANY a farmer will lose money this season 
through not loo lung ahead three months ago. 
The bugs will he at the potatoes before you 
know it. and no poison on hand to kill them prompt¬ 
ly. Just when plowing is most, needed the plow 
point breaks and you find that you did not order 
new ones. The cultivator teeth are worn out. and 
will not fit on securely, but. you did not. lay in a 
new supply. You intended to order a new blade 
for the mower, but overlooked it, and the best part 
of a good hay day will be lost. We are all more 
or less guilty of these failures to look ahead, and 
each one spells loss. Our Northern growing seasons 
are short at best, and apparently growing shorter. 
Hindsight i.s all right to think about, but foresight 
goes walking out with profit 
* 
T HE Supreme Court has decided that the Federal 
or National Government has dominant power 
over railroads which do an interstate busi¬ 
ness. Various States have claimed the power to 
regulate that part of the business of these inter¬ 
state roads, which was carried on inside of their 
territory. What the Court has now decided is that 
an order of the Interstate Commerce Commission is 
superior to State legislation. The case before the 
Court referred to alleged rate discrimination against 
Shreveport, La. This town is 40 miles from the 
Texas boundary line, and is a business rival of 
Dallas and Houston, Tex. The merchants of Shreve¬ 
port complained that they had been shut out of all 
Texas business because the railroad commissioners 
of that State had compelled the railroads running 
through Texas to reduce rates lower than what 
the Interstate Commerce Commissioner allowed the 
railroads running into Shreveport. By means of 
this difference in freight rates of course Dallas and 
Houston were given an advantage over Shreveport. 
For example, 00 cents would carry a quantity of 
merchandise 100 miles east of Dallas, while the 
same amount carried similar merchandise only 55 
miles west of Shreveport. Thus the trade of East¬ 
ern Texas was being monopolized through a State 
law operating on interstate railroads. The question 
was, whether a single State should have such ar¬ 
bitrary power to prevent injury or ruin to a city or 
section through rate discrimination. The Supreme 
Court decides that the Commission is to have this 
final power. The decision is generally hailed as a 
“victory” for the railroads. They will now he, it is 
said, “under one instead of many masters.” The 
final outcome may not he such a victory after all. 
The “one master” may finally he the people repre¬ 
senting government ownership. 
* 
N OW comes the report of a new breed of poultry 
imported into England. This is the Dervish 
fowl—the product, it is said, of 1,000 years 
of breeding. 
The forebears of these fowls were left at Khartum by 
the Dervishes at the time of the rout, and they are of 
pure breed. The more salient <>f the two breeds is rose 
comb, the cock having bright golden yellow points and 
black legs. The pullets look just like water birds, 
black with a sort of gold powdering, black beaks, legs 
and eyes, and a little black tuft on their beads. They 
are quite small and rather long in the leg. 
There is usually a rush for “something new” in 
all lines, hut the chances are that you now have, 
right on your farm, the foundation for something 
far more profitable than this Dervish. One reason 
the Hope Farm man started his scrubs at the egg 
contest was to demonstrate, if he can. the value of 
“grading lip” with purebred fowls. We are all talk¬ 
ing about the great value of purebred dairy sires, 
as if the improvement in our herds must come 
through their blood. Why not (lie same with hens? 
We believe these egg-laying contests are finally to 
give us laying strains of hens with the habit so well 
fixed that we can use their blood for improvement 
as confidently as we now use the blood of some 
celebrated family of dairy cattle. Starting with 
what you now have, and breeding judiciously in 
this way, you can secure the best hen for your 
farm. 
W E intend to follow this “bumper crop' of 
wheat right through. The Government re¬ 
ports indicate a considerable increase in the 
yield. Now let us all watch the prices which are 
actually paid to farmers for their wheat. We do 
not mean the trade prices printed in the daily 
papers, hut the actual figures at which a farmer 
can sell his crop in the local market. Many farm¬ 
ers have kept accurate figures showing prices paid 
for the wheat in former years and also prices paid 
for bran and other mill feeds. With a “bumper 
crop” the prices for feed ought to he lower, while 
if the farmer is to get any profit out of the in¬ 
creased yield, lie should receive as much per bushel 
this year as last year or the year before. Does it, 
not stand to reason that if the wheat crop is in¬ 
creased by 20 per cent, the price of bran and mill 
feed should drop 20 per cent, in price? 1 >oes it. not 
also stand to reason that if the handlers all receive 
as much for carrying one bushel of this mighty 
crop, while the price of bread is not reduced, that 
the price to the farmer should likewise remain the 
same? The daily papers are now filling up with 
statements like the following: 
E. G. Broonniman, vice president of the New York 
Produce Exchange and a prominent (lour man, got back 
to New York from the Southwest yesterday fully con¬ 
vinced from first h id observation that a Winter wheat 
crop of undreamed of proportions lias been successfully 
raised. 
But there will he no dreams about the meaning 
of all this. We shall see the price to the producer 
hammered down cent by cent, while the bread enter 
will continue to pay his old price. Now we do not 
want the trade prices and figures printed in the 
daily papers, but we want the actual figures from 
farmers who sell wheat. You ought to receive as 
much per bushel for your “bumper crop” as for the 
smaller ones of former years. Bran and mill feed 
ought to he cheaper. Now will you send us accu¬ 
rate figures when you sell or buy, showing just how 
this year’s prices compare with former ones? 
* 
T HE honest nurseryman has a few tricks up his 
sleeve, like all the rest. Most of them are old. 
Here is a new one. reported by the Malone 
Telegram. A farmer in St. Lawrence County, N. 
Y., ordered a number of McIntosh Red apple trees 
from the McIntosh Nursery Company in Ontario. 
He did tills because he had been told that the Can¬ 
adian-grown trees are superior. In order to import 
trees from Canada it is necessary to obtain a per¬ 
mit from the National Agricultural Department, and 
also a certificate from the Canadian authorities that 
the trees have been fumigated. This farmer ob¬ 
tained permission to import these trees. To his 
surprise he received a message from a local butcher 
that certain trees had arrived for him. This farm¬ 
er notified the revenue collector, who went to the 
butcher’s house, where lie found the trees, bearing 
what purported to he tags of inspection from the 
Canadian officials. The butcher explained the mat¬ 
ter by saying that the trees were shipped to him 
from Iowa. He was instructed by this Canadian 
nursery to divide these trees into two lots and de¬ 
liver them to two buyers. The Canadian nursery 
had sent him a lot of tags, which he was to affix 
before delivering the trees, and this he had done, so 
as to give the impression that these Iowa-grown 
trees had really been grown in Canada, and in¬ 
spected by the Canadians. This butcher had letters 
from (he Canadian nurserymen which proved liis 
story. lie did not even take the trouble to read the 
tags which were sent him, hut had pasted them on, 
as though this were an everyday practice. The 
collector let this butcher go. upon this explanation. 
He telephoned to the Canadian nurserymen, and 
they promptly saw that they were "caught with the 
goods on.” Not daring to come over the line and 
face the evidence of their deceit, these fellows told 
the butcher to sell the trees for what lie could got, 
and he did so. the result being that the original pur¬ 
chaser got some of these trees at a lower figure than 
lie was expected to pay the Canadian nurserymen. 
This is a new trick of the trade, although it may 
have been played before for all we know. Very 
likely these Iowa trees were just as good as those 
which were really grown in Canada, but what a 
farce this so-called inspection has proved to be by 
such miserable cases as this. 
BREVITIES. 
Some people embrace an opportunity so hard that 
they hug it to death. 
A remark A RLE American cargo recently left Seattle 
for China. There were 60 logs—10 feet long and the to 
nine feet in diameter, and weighing 25 tons or more! 
Last year the brick yards along the Hudson Valley 
turned out over one bilPon bricks valued at $5,030,061. 
These bricks wen* used in New York City. Rather ex¬ 
pensive clay soil! 
