356 
THE RURA.L NEW-YORKER 
March 0 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE IWaiNESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Ilomca 
Established ISM) 
I’tililSkhcd weekly liy the Kural rnblijchinfr Company, 8311 IVest 301 li Street, New Vorlt 
ITkubeht W. Cou, 1ST, wont), } ‘resident and Editor. 
Jons J. Dii.t/ts, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dili.'i. v, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, Associate Editor, 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign rot!ill l ies in the Universal Postal Union, 82.01. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
Sk, marks, or 10 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal clteck or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office ns Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 7.7 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must, accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL" 
'Ve 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 bouses only. Hut 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 bo 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 subscribei-s against rogues, but we will not 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 to identify it, you should mention Thk Rural N'kw- 
Yokkkk when writing the advertiser. 
L ET us call attention to tlie White Wyandotte 
pullet “Tilly,” entered as one of the “Favorite 
liens.” During seven weeks or 42 days, "Tilly” 
laid .‘10 eggs and is still laying. She may be a 
“dumpling” in shape, hut she is a daisy at the nest. 
Some of the wise men sneered and hooted at this 
“Favorite Hen” contest. Can any good come out of 
the Nazareth of a farmer's backyard where the 
women folks .lust keep hens? Well, gentlemen, per¬ 
mit us to introduce “Tilly.” Never mind her pedi¬ 
gree or points—count her eggs! 
* 
Fit readers have done some wonderful things for 
us in the past. We have found lost children 
and lost friends, and located property or need¬ 
l'd information by simply stating the need and leav¬ 
ing (he rest to readers. Now let us see if our folks 
can properly locate the “fowls of (he air!” Here 
comes (he trial in the following letter. 
Whore can I find where pigeons, doves and birds are 
recorded? We have a carrier pigeon that got wounded 
and fell in our garden last May, and we have been try¬ 
ing to find an owner. II(> has a record number on one 
foot and a private mark or a message on the other, and 
if I can find out the owner he can have him. He is 
a valuable bird if we could find the owner. A. G. R. 
Connecticut. 
You may not consider this a very important mat¬ 
ter—this locating a carrier pigeon—but it is a good 
lest for the intelligence department of The It. N.-Y. 
What do you say? 
* 
T HE “free seed” humbug in Congress bobs up 
now and then. The report is that Hon. .Tames 
It. Mann of Illinois wrote one of his constitu¬ 
ents that he would send a nice lot of Government 
flower seeds. Mr. Maun says he gets great personal 
pleasure and benefit out of giving flowers, lie cast 
his Government seed on the stony ground of Itev. 
Charles 15. Mitchell. He probably gets more 
benefit than pleasure from this crop of words: 
In reply to your note just received about the flower 
seeds, I want to say that your constituents would be 
better pleased with you if you would keep your flower 
seeds and give us your influence for driving out the 
liquor traffic, which allows no flowers to grow where 
its curse blights. We do not want your flowers. Give 
us your influence and vote for our homes. Very frankly, 
CHARLES BAYARD MITCHELL. 
The only comment we care to make about this is 
(hat there are more and more people who will not 
accept a handful of seeds as a “jolly” or a bribe. 
“We do not want your flowers.” Correct! We want 
(he flour out of which the bread to go with our 
butter can be made! 
* 
A S president of the Now York State Potato Associa¬ 
tion I highly commoml the attitude you are tak¬ 
ing toward the greater consumption of the potato. 
I have felt the need of such an effort for some 
time, and especially at this time when other foodstuffs 
are so high the need of such effort is opportune. I be¬ 
lieve a well-written article comparing the nutritive val¬ 
ue of the potato with other foods is in order. People 
should know that the nutritive value of a pound of 
baked potato is equal to nine ounces of beans, or eight 
eggs, and one pound of chicken, etc. The farmer lives 
on potatoes quite largely. Encourage the greater con¬ 
sumption of the potato. No reason why we should not 
make as many uses of the potato as the German and 
Belgian people. Mucilage, flour, flake, starch, motor 
power, etc., are also in or lor as well the greater use of 
the tuber as food. Just this line to commend you in 
your attitude, and to encourage you toward further 
publications and effort. e. r. smith. 
We do what we can in this line and have written 
letters to daily and weekly papers which circulate 
among consumers. Every such paper in the country 
should be asked to print matter on the food value 
of potatoes. Such articles should come in the form 
of letters from readers—farmers if possible. This 
is a strong part of the campaign. Why not a letter 
from you to your county paper at once? You will 
find tne facts on page 370. Right now is the time 
to put them before the consuming public and stand 
by the worthy potato. 
(( GT^O spray or not to spray—that is the ques- 
y tion .” Every year at this season the fruit 
grower finds himself face to face with that. 
The businesslike grower settles it quickly. Spraying 
represents insurance. It must he done to insure 
good fruit. So he overhauls the sprayer and orders 
his supplies. It must he admitted that some men 
hesitate. They read that the scale and other insects 
are “dying out,” parasites are at work, the season 
may he very favorable, the war has hurt trade and 
(he crop may bring little—therefore why not save 
the cost of spraying? We went through this one 
year, listened to the tempter, let the spraying go and 
lost, the best part of a fine fruit crop! Never again! 
No use ever planting a tree if you do not intend to 
care for it as well as you can, and spraying lias lie- 
come as important as fertilizing or cultivating. Take 
it from us! Pay no attention to any advice about 
neglecting to spray. Put on the needed application 
for insect or disease as well as you know how to do 
it. 
* 
K EEP in mind Assembly bill (‘04 in the New 
York Legislature. This is the bill which would 
abolish the Food and Markets Department. Do 
not lose sight of the clear-cut issue involved in this 
fight. It is very simple. The commission men and 
dealers in New York are fully organized. From Ni¬ 
agara Falls to Montauk Point they control prices 
and distribution of farm produce. They are respon¬ 
sible for (he system which clips 05 cents off the con¬ 
sumer's dollar and turns 35 cents over to the farm¬ 
er. They cannot be expected to give up this graft 
and extravagance without a struggle. They never 
would have said a word if the new Department had 
been willing to slumber or “investigate” or do a 
lot of ornamental or harmless things. In such case 
the commission men would have desired to keep It 
going like a. fat, ornamental and lazy dog asleep 
while thieves rob his master! The trouble is that 
this Department has really started to do some¬ 
th ivy. It. is not asleep by the backdoor, but is 
awake, actually on guard, and ready to use its 
teeth where they will get the most useful bite. The 
commission men see that such a department, con¬ 
ducted with courage and determination, will in time 
make the wickedness of the present system of food 
distribution so evident that the public will compel a 
change. That is all there is to it. The commission 
men are simply trying to save their graft and mon¬ 
opoly. They can do it quickest by putting this hill 
through the Legislature, for that will kill off (he 
new department before it can accomplish anything. 
The plain, naked truth is that they will succeed in 
doing this unless the people of New York fight them 
to a finish. The commission men are organized, they 
have an abundance of money, and they have some 
of (lie slickest politicians who ever pulled wires at 
Albany. Let us not for a moment deceive ourselves 
about any of these things. Money and organization 
will appeal to (he Legislature, but there is a strong¬ 
er power which all politicians recognize. That is 
“the voice of the people.” The man at Albany knows 
at the last analysis that he owes his place to the 
plain man on the farm. He will serve that man 
just as soon as he recognizes his master's voice. 
Our hope Ibis year is to meet the dollars of the 
commission men with votes of farmers. We ask you 
to have faith in what we tell you. that (his new de¬ 
partment. will, if given a fair chance, find a way 
to improve market conditions. If you let these com¬ 
mission men kill it, you will put progress in market¬ 
ing back 10 years. Now or never'. Lick a stamp 
for the 50-eent dollar. Write your member of the 
Legislature at once and tell him to vote against As¬ 
sembly bill (1C4. 
* 
D URING the past few weeks a number of people 
have come with specimens of apples which they 
wish to identify. Most of this fruit grew on 
“misfit” trees, that is, trees bought for certain 
varieties which when fruiting prove untrue to name. 
The singular thing about it was that a good many 
of these “misfits” from different orchards were evi¬ 
dently the same variety. In order to he sure a speci¬ 
men of this apple was sent to Washington for iden¬ 
tification. We receive this report: 
This is a splendid specimen of Stark. We have had 
the Stark from a great many sections of the country 
lately, and it has been used as a substitute for other 
varieties by nurserymen more than any variety to which 
our attention has been called this season. There have 
been a great many complaints about nursery trees not 
coming true to name. I presume the nurserymen had 
a heavy stock of Stark a few years ago which they 
wished to get rid of. 
The tree on which this Stark grew was bought for 
a Baldwin! The buyer seems to he reasonably sat¬ 
isfied. as he likes the apple, but he did not get what 
he ordered. This habit of calling upon the Agricul¬ 
tural Department to identify these misfits is grow¬ 
ing, and it is a good thing. The trouble with a case 
like this is that it discredits all nurserymen, as a 
“stove pipe” in a barrel of New York apples hurts 
all growers in that State. 
❖ 
O I’Il campaign for increased consumption of po¬ 
tatoes has started things up a little already. 
Several parties have written asking for figures 
on carload lots, and we know that many families 
are buying and eating more potatoes. Keep it up 
and spread the work. Bead the article on page 
370 and go out to talk about potatoes as food and 
remedy. 
* 
D O not get a wrong impression from that article 
on certified potatoes—page 342. The United 
States Agricultural Department does not issue 
any certificates and has no authority to do so. It 
helps organize agencies for doing so. Let the plant¬ 
ers of a State or district get together and arrange 
a standard for potato seed. The Department will 
help organize and inspect. Potato growers are do¬ 
ing this very thing in Maine. Vermont, New York, 
Wisconsin and other States and it pays. 
* 
B Y the way, two of your advertisers use the same 
cut in their catalogue this year. One says the 
spray is Wagoner, the other American Blush; poor 
proof-reading, not for the deception of the farm¬ 
er, but it looks bad. j. j. 
Michigan. 
This merely goes to show how carefully intelligent 
people are reading the catalogues. In years past we 
have had people tell us that such things make no 
great difference. “Anything goes,” as buyers do not 
observe closely. They make a great mistake in that. 
Buyers who are worth anything are reading adver¬ 
tisements and catalogues as never before. They 
compare notes, discuss pictures and statements, and 
buy where they can make the best honest bargain. 
The campaign for clean advertisements is not only 
cleaning out the fakes, but making customers more 
critical in their analysis of honest statements. 
* 
O NE of (he great new things in horticulture this 
year is nut culture. Comparatively few persons 
realize what a nut represents in the great fu- 
(ure problem of feeding the world. Nuts contain 
more muscle-making food than meat. It is cleaner 
food, carrying none of the blood and nerve troubles 
with which meat eaters are afflicted. As surely as 
you live our grandchildren will pick a good share 
of their beef and ham from nut trees—and be the 
better for it. Nut growing has been developing 
slowly—now it is coming with a jump as superior 
“parent” trees are being found and methods of prop¬ 
agation are being worked out. Make no mistake 
about the nut future. It seems to be necessary to 
introduce the “sporting” element in order to quicken 
up interest. Perhaps we can arrange a few endur¬ 
ance contests between nut eaters and meat eaters. 
* 
S EE here now, some of you men of middle years 
or older, who are finding fault with your boys. 
Your favorite argument seems to he that you 
and the boys of your young manhood were very 
much i uperior to the present generation. Think a 
irn n:ent and you will see that this is as much an 
argument against yourself as it is against your 
boys. Where did they ever get these habits which 
you find fault with if not from you? Be sure you 
do not advertise your own shortcomings when you 
show up your own boys. 
BREVITIES. 
Si-ELL “luck” ! Bulldog ! 
If your muscle you would harden go and make a 
hack yard garden. 
Doing business with a snap is all right, but it depends 
<>n which side has the “snap.” 
“It’s a queer world.” you say. Correct, and probably 
we have all helped queer it a little. 
Which is worse—a small man trying to do a big 
iking or a big man doing a small one? 
Putting tin* * weary stranger into the “guest’s cham¬ 
ber” is like putting a hot frame into a cold bed ! 
When the husband spends his money for a tool that 
saveth sweat—let him not forget his wife may need 
a kitchen cabinet. 
Wiiy not have the Department of Agriculture try 
a practical experiment in organizing a better food dis¬ 
tribution in Washington, D. ('.? There is an enormous 
food waste there. 
Western Canada is learning the trick of protecting 
home products. Sheep breeders demand a law com¬ 
pelling dealers to label all Australian and New Zealand 
mutton sold in the provinces. 
“After reading the recent article on apple pomace 
I hauled some from a nearby cider mill and find it to 
be all right. Feeding one ration a day (of about 
three pecks) in addition to my regular feed, my cows 
are now making one pound each more butter per week,” 
says C. M. M. We believe this pomace will some day 
be all saved for feeding and prove a boon to dairymen. 
