1368 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A Niilloiuil Weekly alotirniil f*or Country and Hiilmrbun llotiicu 
Established tsso 
I'nblUhod weekly by (he Iturnl I'lihlishliip Company, 333 West 801 h Street, New Yorft 
Herbert W. Colli.vgwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mbs. E. T. Boyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8>$ marks, or 10k francs. Remit in money ortler, express 
order, iieraonal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertisinp: rates, 75 cents )>er agate line —7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and ettsh must accompany transient orders. 
"A SQUARE PEAL” 
NVe 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. But 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 be 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 this end, but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not ho 
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 to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
Home, Sweet Home. 
JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. 
A T the request of many readers we print on page 
13S3 a careful article by Dr. Alexander on the 
foot and mouth disease. As will be seen, this 
disease is highly contagious, while not necessarily 
fatal. Every precaution should he taken to stamp it 
out promptly and prevent its spread. It should not 
have been permitted to gain such headway. The 
daily papers, as usual, are widely trying to c'eate 
a scare by talking about increased meat prices. Our 
reports indicate that the quarantine will soon be 
raised and normal shipments resumed. 
A T Toronto, Canada, efforts are being made to 
advertise the apple crop by giving part of it 
away. Farmers, the Salvation Army and own¬ 
ers of auto trucks combine in this work. The farm- 
ers give windfalls, the “Army” provides pickers and 
distributes, and the tracks bring the fruit to the city. 
Business men contribute bags. With the apples 
goes a circular telling how to cook and dry them. 
While thousands of bushels of fruit rotted on the 
ground or brought barely 50 cents a barrel con¬ 
sumers in Toronto were paying $3.50 at retail. If 
this same auto service and distribution could be 
used for selling apples as well as for giving them 
away both producer and consumer would be better 
off. 
* 
C ONNECTICUT dairymen and lienmen have rea¬ 
son to be thankful this year for the work of 
their experiment station. The worst disease af¬ 
fecting poultry is white diarrhoea. There are bowel 
troubles which may result from chills, poor feeding 
<>r other causes, but the scourge of bacillary white 
diarrhoea is a germ disease. It is spread from one 
fowl to another, and the germ may be put into the 
egg from the hen and thus developed into the chick 
hatched from that egg. Some hens are infected with 
the germ—others are not. In a flock of 100 hens from 
five to 50 or more may contain the germs of this 
disease and as long as they remain there is danger 
to both hens and ehiekens. Safety lies in getting rid 
of the infected birds. Now the Connecticut Experi¬ 
ment Station has found the germ and perfected a 
test for detecting it in the hen. A few drops of 
blood are taken from a vein in the wing and a 
simple test quickly shows whether the germs are 
present or not. For a small sum of money the sta¬ 
tion will test the birds in any Connecticut flock 
and thus enable the owner to clean his flock abso¬ 
lutely of the disease. It is doubtful if any station 
in the country has made a more useful or practical 
application of scientific research than this. Perhaps 
THE RURAL NEW-YOKKEF? 
the chief trouble which dairymen have to contend 
with is contagious abortion. This is another germ 
disease—with a certain resemblance to white diar¬ 
rhoea in some of its details. So long as there is a 
cow in the herd carrying the germs of this disease 
there is danger of spreading it. to all the other cows. 
Some cows, like the hens with white diarrhoea, carry 
the germs, while others do not. Some carry the 
germs, yet do not suffer the final results. They 
are like the humans who carry the germs of typhoid 
fever—not themselves sick, yet a constant menace to 
all around them. No dairy herd is safe so long as 
any of the cows carry these contagious germs. The 
only way to make the herd safe is to get. rid of the 
germ carriers just as is the case of white diarrhoea. 
Now this abortion germ has been identified and a 
test devised for it. As with white diarrhoea a small 
quantity of blood is taken from each animal and 
submitted to a laboratory test. If tbe abortion germs 
are present they are promptly identified and this cow 
can be taken out of the herd. If they do not ap¬ 
pear in the blood the cow is free and the disease 
could not come from her. The station is prepared 
to make these tests with hens and cows. It is one 
of the most interesting and useful services ever 
offered by the experiment station and right in line 
with what seems to he the true work of these insti¬ 
tutions. If this work could lie thoroughly followed 
out these fearful scourges of hen and eow would 
disappear from the State. 
* 
W E do not often use pictures on this page, but 
now and then the occasion seems to warrant 
it. Have a look at this apple (exact size, and 
then read about it: 
In this mail I send you a small apple with a large 
scab, which was offered to tempt my palate at a hotel 
last week. Right across the street was a large electric 
sign reading “Get the Apple Habit.” I think the fruit 
growers in the East should get the packer's pride, and 
have signs on their farms reading “Get the Grading 
Habit.” It would be the best advertising investment 
they could make. ir. it. Albertson. 
We omit the name of the city—it is a large place 
close to a great fruit growing section. This dis¬ 
graceful specimen never should have left the 
orchard. It is not even fit for eider, yet in this year 
when growers cannot get rid of their best fruit this 
worthless scab Is used to shock and disgust visitors 
and would-be apple eaters! There is little to be 
thankful for when such things occur. They injure 
the trade and the business of the thousands of 
honest growers and packers who try to give a square 
deal. Such an apple is the worst possible adver¬ 
tisement for fruit growers. 
* 
T HE produce trade, irrespective of partisanship in 
politics, is very much tickled over the election of 
Eugene M. Travis, one of its own members, to the 
important position of State Comptroller, to succeed 
William Sohmer, the present Democratic holder of the 
job. Mr. Travis was bitterly and venomously attacked by 
The R. N.-Y. for his attitude on the original Roosevelt 
bill afterwards amended into the Cole law. The editor 
of that paper called upon the York State fanners to 
rise up and smite the ex-Senator. The funny part of it 
all is that it was the farmer vote that elected Mr. 
Travis.—Fruitman’s Guide. 
It is true that for several years Senator Travis 
fought the bill to regulate the sale of country pro¬ 
duce through commission houses, and because of 
his opposition to the just interests of producers The 
It. N.-Y. did not think Mr. Travis entitled to farm¬ 
ers’ votes. It is no wonder that the Fruitman's 
Guide should think it "funny” that the farmer vote 
should elect Mr. Travis under the circumstances, 
and yet the “funny” part of it is true. The It. N.-Y. 
had no personal fight on Senator Travis. He is a 
pleasant gentleman and a good fighter, but we be¬ 
lieve that if fanners ever hope to get fair treat¬ 
ment, they must show a united front in favor of 
those who treat them fairly and against their 
enemies. We do not assume to tell farmers how to 
vote, but it is our business to furnish the informa¬ 
tion. In this case fanners apparently voted without 
regard to past records, and the organ of the com¬ 
mission men is entitled to make the most of this 
victory. If the Senator who takes Mr. Travis’s seat 
November 21, 
works for the commission men as he probably will, 
be will bo sure of their support when lie asks for it. 
We must take lessons from the commission men. 
They reward their friends and punish their enemies. 
Their papers think it, “funny” that fanners should 
reward the man who fought them so persistently. 
We think so, too. , • 
* 
I T will mean Thanksgiving to this generation and 
those to follow if we can put the business of pro¬ 
ducing hickorynuts on a sound commercial basis. 
To do this we must have superior parent trees. 
These have been discovered and named with pecans 
so that superior varieties can be propagated as 
simply as Baldwin apple or Elberta peach. We 
want hickories of superior quality. Where are they? 
Off in the woods somewhere. He who finds them and 
makes them known lays the foundation for a great 
future business. This may seem to you like “the 
voice of oiie crying in the wilderness,” but some day 
the hiekorynut crop of New England will rank as a 
great asset. 
* 
W ILL you give me the name of the old gentleman 
whose picture appeared (sitting by the corn 
shock husking) on the front cover of The It. N.- 
Y\, October 31, 1914? It seems such a perfect 
likeness of one very near to us. We shall consider it a 
great kindness and favor if you will comply with this 
request, and if our suspicions are correct shall indeed 
treasure the picture very highly. Mrs. f. n. 8 . 
Somehow this picture has attracted unusual at¬ 
tention. One woman in Central New York says it 
looks so much like her dead father that she was 
.shocked on opening the paper. A man in Western 
New York writes thanking the Hope Farm man for 
having his picture printed. There is a citizen in his 
town who claims to have seen the Hope Farm man 
and promptly identifies him in this picture. The 
truth Is that we do not know who the busker is. 
The picture was bought, in company with others, 
and printed because it presented a true and homely 
presentment of farm life. The man husking corn 
by the shock is typical of hundreds of fine, elderly 
farmers to whom an Autumn day brings old memor¬ 
ies which are reflected in their attitude and expres¬ 
sion. No wonder this striking picture made many 
a man and woman think of father or of some old 
friend. 
* 
O F course I want the paper, for reasons that would 
take too long to state here, and would he only a 
repetition of what you have so often heard. But 
one of them is the feeling that you run a paper in 
which the performances of the average man are chron¬ 
icled. and the ones that one can reasonably expect to 
duplicate if lie is careful and on the job. I consider 
that to print the story of the exceptionally expert man, in 
such a way as to give the impression, that any man can 
do as well, is the most insidious kind of lying. b. k. 
West Virginia. 
We have much to be thankful for when we receive 
such notes as the above. This man gives expres¬ 
sion to what we are trying to do with The R. N.-Y. 
better than we can do it ourselves. We do tr.v to 
chronicle the “performances of the average man” 
because in such performance lies the hope of society 
or progress. Men who might be ranked above the 
average give us theory or set us a high example, 
and those who seem content, to rank below the 
average drag at the wheels and pull back. The 
great hope of the world—future as well as past— 
lies in this “performance of the average man” and 
the possibility of constantly adding a little of 
puaHty and power to that performance. True edu¬ 
cation seems to us one long study of human nature 
so that we can graft upon it wlmt it can fairly 
absorb of the world’s legacy of wisdom. The "aver¬ 
age man” is the citizen to be most thankful for. Do 
not for an instant imagine that we would belittle 
the great work of educated and naturally gifted 
men who rank far above the “average.” What they 
do is glorious and worthy of all respect, but the 
world will only receive full benefit from their work 
when it is adapted and simplified so as to become a 
part of this “performance of the average man.” 
BREVITIES. 
How the cows do love carrots, and how the carrots 
return that love! 
Speaking of the fruits of the mind—a grouch must 
bo the citrus fruit. 
Little museums for trees and shrubs are suggested 
for New Jersey schools. 
Putting a dot on the I means letting others tell your 
good deeds—a blot on the I means talking too much. 
Remember that pumpkin pie is a good remedy for 
kidney trouble. Of course you must take frequent and 
large doses to get results! 
The latest is a silo, dairy, and hog cholera train in 
South Dakota. This train carries speakers who talk 
these three important subjects. 
If you can’t afford a turkey—eat a hen. If the hen 
is out of sight, then to poultry say “good night,” thank 
the Lord for what you have and say "Amen.” 
On page 1298 we printed a letter from a man who 
tried to tell the truth about his modest outfit of assets 
ns a farm manager. Already nearly 10 people have 
come to learn more about him. 
