528 
'i' I-ilCi:i<A-L NUW-VORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
\ National Meekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established ISSO 
J J nb!i«htd nerily by the Hnral I’nblishinp Company. 333 ITeat 30th Street, Sew York 
Herbert IV. Colukowood, President and Editor. 
Jons - J. DinLOK, 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, $2.04. equal to 8 s. 6 d., or 
Slj marks, or 10V» francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, jiersoua! check or hank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advert ising rates. 75 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us , and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE PEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this pa)>er is hacked hy a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we 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 ttse our good 
offices to tills end, but such cases should not be confusedWith dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not bo 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must lie sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yokker when writing the advertiser. 
I T is like skating on thin ice so far as damage goes 
to turn the cattle out to pasture too early. The 
ground is soft, especially in the wet places where 
the best grass is found. The cattle tramp into this 
wet soil, tear it up and do far more damage than 
the nibble of early grass is worth. Farmers who 
are short of feed, often feel that they must turn, 
the cows out early even though they see the dam¬ 
age done to the pasture. Here is where a few extra 
tons of silage in the silo will help out. This feed 
will take care of the coivs until the soil is drier and 
the grass is stronger. 
* 
M OST of the experts tell us that hogs are usual¬ 
ly raised at a loss in New York State. That 
is our experience when we keep them in pens 
and buy grain for them. Figure on it and you 
find that as soon as the hog gets beyond the limit 
of your waste products he does not pay you hired 
man’s wages. You may deny this, hut keep books 
accurately and you will come hack next year and ad¬ 
mit it. If you have cheap roughage on your farm 
for five hogs you can finish them on grain and make 
something. If you try to crowd in six or seven you 
will lose money. This will go on just as long as 
we treat the hog like what man has decided a hog 
is. When we treat him like a clean gentleman he 
will pay us. Get him out of that nasty pen. He 
does not want to be there. Let him run on a sod, 
or turn him into clover or oats and peas, and let him 
graze like a cow. Give him ashes and charcoal, 
water, a pasture and a clean bed. and he will pay a 
profit on your grain, not otherwise. 
* 
O NE of our readers wanted to buy a farm. He 
looked about, investigated and put his friends 
on the track without finding a satisfactory 
place. Somewhat by accident he saw an advertise¬ 
ment in The It. N.-Y. of a place within seven miles 
of where he lived. It proved to be just what he 
wanted, yet he never knew there was any such place 
until it M'as advertised. The other day a farmer 
wrote asking if we could tell him where lie could 
find a market for mixed rye and vetch seed. This 
is just what hundreds of farmers want for seeding 
to a cover crop, and cannot he bought of the seeds¬ 
men. Almost in the same mail came a letter asking 
why farmers who have such a crop do not let the 
public into their secret! The fact is that some one 
who reads The R. N.-Y. would be only too glad to 
purchase anything you have to sell if you will only 
put it before him and make him think he has a 
bargain. 
* 
W HO is to fight the battles of the farmer? We 
take it as settled that fighting is as necessary 
for farm progress as education or advice. If 
we are wrong in the assumption will some one set 
us right? The country is now well filled with paid 
agents of the government who are expected to teach 
or advise. Did you ever know one of them to get 
out and put up a finish fight against the politicians 
and grafters who rob the farmers through legisla¬ 
tion or direct means? We have seen several of them 
try it and disappear. We have known others to 
“start something” and suddenly stop. They get in 
one good punch and then a gray figure walks out of 
history and touches them on the shoulder. 
“7 am the ghost of political ideals. Just so long 
as politicians can dictate your appointment and con¬ 
trol your place you are at their mercy. Continue 
your fight and you will surely join me in my lonely 
place. Quit and you can hold your office!” 
That is why we cannot expect that under our pres¬ 
ent plan of agricultural education our educators 
will fight for us. Who then? Do you say the 
Grange? The answer is the request that you name 
n few real fighters who will, if need be. face ridi¬ 
cule. loss of place and personal sacrifice for the good 
of our farmers! We want their names to print, so 
that the world may know who our fighters are. We 
do not want a lot of cautious, perfunctory men 
whose first object is to save their own skins. Are 
there any men who will “leave all that they have” 
and fight? 
* 
O NE of the most thoughtful books we have read 
in a long time is “The Lure of The Land,” by 
Dr. II. W. Wiley. It may not interest those 
who want a “story” or some light entertainment. It 
may not show how to produce crops, but it offers 
strong mental food for people who have the courage 
and the patience to think. Dr. Wiley discusses some 
of the great farm problems, such as “Farm Labor,” 
“Prohibition For The Farmer,” “Is the Small Farm 
To Disappear?” and many others which you who 
have gone along with us for years are interested in. 
You should certainly read Dr. Wiley's conclusive 
proof that there is such a thing as a 35-cent dollar. 
As you know, we believe that the only M* *ay out for 
our farmers lies through hard, individual thought. 
This idea of expecting some “educated” class to do 
our thinking for us is worse than folly. When some 
one thinks for you your share will be a 35-cent 
thought—which is M-orse than the dollar of like 
value. We wish most sincerely that the farmers 
of this country could be divided into groups of 20—• 
each group to take I)r. Wiley’s book and analyze it, 
pick his arguments apart and see if they can be put 
together again so as to fit. That would give just 
the mental drill our farmers need. 
* 
The efforts of the “American Agriculturist” to discre¬ 
dit the new Department of Food and Markets have in¬ 
terested me. I am not a farmer, though my father was, 
and I was brought up in the country. Thus I can readi¬ 
ly see what such a Department can do for farmers if 
it can be firmly established and made active from the 
start. From the very nature of the case such a De¬ 
partment should receive the fullest hacking from and 
complete sympathy of all who are interested in pro¬ 
moting the interests of agriculture. Right at this time 
any criticism will justly be considered either very fool¬ 
ish or malignant. I cannot conceive of any such work 
on the part of workmen, railroad men or manufacturers, 
unless the criticism was inspired by enemies who use 
false friends to do their work for them. Already I 
hear the remark that this very thing is an illustration 
of the failure of farmers to get together in support of 
the few things in direct legislation which can be start¬ 
ed. It looks to an outsider that these bitter person¬ 
alities must be buried, or there will be a nickel more 
clipped off the 35-cent dollar. w. g. sr. 
TTTE hardly see how we can add to that. Just 
YY at this time, when the commission men and 
dealers are trying to abolish the Department, 
such uncalled-for personal criticisms were like pour¬ 
ing kerosene oil upon a Maze which honest men were 
trying to put out. The critic could give no facts, 
and therefore fell upon that meanest of all at¬ 
tacks—poorly veiled insinuations. We may say to 
W. G. M., however, that he need not worry about 
the clipped nickel. Before this thing is over we 
shall find that the farmers will stand together bet¬ 
ter than he thinks. Go and ask the men who rep¬ 
resent the rural districts at Albany to count up the 
letters they have received! This fight for market 
rights has only begun. 
* 
In a recent article you state that in ease of future 
nation-wide prohibition if large cities refused to en¬ 
force the law they would be slowly depopulated. What 
about this? J. H. K. 
W HAT we say about prohibition does not neces¬ 
sarily express any personal desire or opinion. 
It is based upon the conviction that American 
public sentiment has become fixed on the subject. 
The matter of liquor drinking and selling has now 
become an economic question. This past Winter 
with its “bread lines,” high city food and ruinous 
price for farm products lias done more to advance 
the cause of prohibition than 50 years of ordinary 
argument. Farmers now’ see that if the money spent 
for liquor could lie spent for food and other necessi¬ 
ties our farms and our factories would immdeiately 
feel the effect. This conviction leads to thought, 
and but little of that is needed to show that the 
liquor business is an economic waste—a useless 
burden which the American people will refuse to 
carry. This question has already been settled, and 
it only remains now for the conservative voters to 
go through the slow, orderly process of legislation. 
When the great cities refuse to obey national laws 
then decay and decline will begin. We can prove 
it by many cases in history. Law-abiding people 
will not remain. Manufacturing will go back to 
smaller towns with water power and cheaper rents 
and workmen will follow. The scattering of popu¬ 
lation in this way will be the best thing that could 
happen to the country. It will bring good markets 
closer to the farmers, increase the price and value 
of farm lands, and make the farm young people 
more contented. The manufacturers will be better 
April 3, loir, 
off. as will their workmen be freer in the country. 
The nation would be stronger and better in every 
way if our towns and cities were left merely as 
places for exchange—with everything made in the 
country. 
❖ 
Y OU cannot keep a good man down—neither can 
you keep a milch goat out of notice. Without 
question we have each year over 250 letters 
from people who say they want such a goat. In 
fact; we hesitate to print the word "goat,” knowing 
well what will follow. The average man seems to 
have a curious notion about a milch goat. He has 
in mind an animal that will live in a piano box in 
the backyard, eat tin cans ai 1 old rubber boots, 
and give as much milk as a small com’— the milk 
being so rich and “sanitary” that a quart of it will 
enable a sick man to get out of bed and run 10 
miles. And this wonderful animal is to cost about 
$5. Now a milch goat is a deserving animal with 
an undeserved reputation. When you get a good 
purebred animal she will cost as much as a good 
com’ and give perhaps one-fourth as much milk. A 
back-to-the-lander came in the other day and said 
he expected to make his fortune selling goat’s milk 
and milch goats. Sincerely, we think there is a 
future for the milch goat—no great fortune, but a 
fair business for a feM* sensible breeders m t 1io can 
forget the big stories. 
* 
S OME time ago we had a note about a clergyman 
in Connecticut M-ho helped farmers dispose of 
their crops. This was the Rev. Geo. B. Gilbert, 
and he is still doing this excellent Christian work. 
He has just had a meeting at the parish house at 
which farmers came and discussed seeds and lunv to 
get them. The Rev. Mr. Gilbert gives us this simple 
statement of Miiat he is doing: 
In one particular section we have several families 
just moved in from New York City, and we know it 
will be very hard for them to make a go of it unless 
they have help. So instead of using them to fill up 
church pews, and pay pew rent, the first thing we shall 
go to work to help them every way we can and make 
life happy and cheerful and profitable. There will be 
no trouble about their coming to church or helping paj 
if they have something to pay with. I consider it a 
reproach to my county mission work if any family has 
to give up and go back to the city. Yesterday I sold 
10 dozen eggs for a woman who lives 12 miles from 
town. I have procured some line stock from Storrs 
College, and we are improving our poultry. I seldom 
actually carry their produce, but when they are not 
getting what it is worth, or paying too much for M’hat 
they buy, then I can be of great help to them. 
That is find We call it practical Christianity 
with a capital l’. C. and true practical Christianity 
is the noblest moving force in the world. Hats off 
to the Rev. Geo. B. Gilbert—may his pews ever be 
filled and may he live long to hack tip the back-to- 
the-landers! 
* 
As I see it. the apple growers of New York State 
are sending their sons to Cornell, are buying expen¬ 
sive machinery and materials for the production 
nf the finest fruit that can be grown; then what? 
They believe in specialization. Their specialty is yrou - 
ing the fruit, and they turn the beautiful crops of ap¬ 
ples over to a specialist in selling and “skinning” and 
too, often, take what they can get. r. 
T HAT comes from a New York grinver. It is his 
way of stating the fact that our apple groM'ers 
have spent a lot of time in learning how to pro 
ducc tine fruit and too little in studying how to sell 
it to best advantage. It puts a new responsibility up 
to Cornell, and we think the college is prepared to 
meet it. Among other college activities we hope t<» 
see at some day in the near future a State-wide or¬ 
ganization at the college for help in buying, selling 
and distributing farm produce. With Cornell as a 
central station there could be lines out into every 
county or section where goods M’ere needed or 
where there was a surplus. As it is some sections 
of the State go without needed things or pay an ex 
travagant price for them M’hile in another part of 
the State such goods are so plentiful that local prices 
are beloM’ cost of production. 
Brevities. 
Have you written those potato articles for the local 
paper yet? 
Has anyone noticed any bad effect from cutting green 
weeds into the silo? 
Several readers report good results from using a 
tablespoouful of nitrate of soda to a waterpot full of 
water when sprinkling the hotbed. 
Soil erosion or “washing” is ruining many a hilly 
farm. Geologists state that the rivers of this country 
carry to the sea each year 783.000.000 tons of soil. 
Cover crops help stop this fearful drain of fertility. 
What can be done with the buildings left by dead 
churches? One New Y ork reader tolls liow it M T as done 
in Wyoming County. “Through onr member of the 
Assembly we had an act of the Legislature passed per¬ 
mitting the trustees to sell the church, the proceeds to 
be placed in the hank and the interest to be paid to 
the cemetery association annually for the upkeep of 
the cemetery. We realized 31100.” 
