898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKZER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BU3IXES8 FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
I’ublbbed weekly by the Rural I’ublishlnp Company, 1133 tVsl SOlh Street, New Vortt 
Herbert W. Collinowood, President and Etlitor. 
Jons J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
VVm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koylk. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries In tlie Universal Postal Union. $2.01. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or lots francs. Remit in money order, express 
ordei% personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 75 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“ A SQUARE DEAL” 
NVe believe that every advertisement in this pa|>er 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, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate sw indler, 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 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, and to identify it, you should mention The Ri ral New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
A T a number of suburban towns farmers have 
been prohibited from unloading manure at the 
railroad station. The local board of health pro¬ 
hibits such unloading on the ground that the ma¬ 
nure cars are unhealthy and offensive. There may 
he some cases where the cars stand in the center of 
the town hut usually we do not believe the local 
health board could enforce this rule if farmers could 
unite and light it legally. The farmer’s occupation 
is basic, and no one should have the right to hinder 
the production of food. It has long been settled that 
the use of manure and fertilizers is essential to food 
production. Where farmers can combine and fight 
such rules we think they can win. 
* 
S EVERAL of our readers report the loss of their 
homes through signing a contract containing a 
proposition like the following: They were to make 
certain annual payments on their land. A clause in 
the contract stated that if they failed to meet a 
payment their position changed to that of tenant, 
and all previous payments were to be considered 
as rent. Under such an infamous agreement the 
farmer might come within a few hundred dollar's 
of paying out, and then lose it all through tem¬ 
porary misfortune or sickness. The man who would 
squeeze an unfortunate fellow man in that way 
ought to be regarded by respectable people just as 
the rum-seller is coming to be regarded by sqciety! 
* 
G ROWERS of Alsike clover seed are puzzled to 
know what to do with the crop. There was a 
poor demand for Alsike seed last season, and a good 
stock now on hand. Will it pay to hull the seed and 
add to the present stock, or should they cut the crop 
for hay? Seed buyers are divided in opinion, but 
the majority seem hopeful for an improvement in 
Alsike. The war shut off an export demand, but 
the market has now adjusted itself to that. Last 
Spring was wet in many sections, and in naturally 
moist localities the Red clover was killed out, while 
the Alsike lived. It is well known that the Alsike 
is better adapted to moist, or sour land than the Red. 
The hay season thus far has been very moist, mak¬ 
ing it hard to save the seed crop. The chances 
therefore seem good for a better demand for Alsike 
seed. We consider it a very valuable clover, and al¬ 
ways mix the seed with the Red. 
* 
H ERE is a new one about Alfalfa reported from 
Vermont. Morris Chamberlain, a farmer, 
found a deer eating his Alfalfa. Chamberlain shot 
the deer and reported the act to the game warden. 
Under the Vermont law a deer caught in the act of 
damaging crops can be killed. Chamberlain, how¬ 
ever, was arrested, tried and fined $100, with 
$8.56 costs for killing a deer out of season. It 
seems that the law states that it is unlawful to kill 
a deer found eating grass. The State’s attorney 
claimed that Alfalfa is grass, therefore Chamber- 
lain is guilty! The case has been appealed and it 
is now up to the county court to decide whether Al¬ 
falfa is “grass” or whether it ranks with corn or 
grain as a cultivated crop. Botanically Alfalfa is 
not a grass, but how much botany does the judge 
and the deer know? 
* 
T HE man who can control the price can control 
the market There is no question about that, 
and it follows that the fairest price is the one that 
comes closest to the law of supply and demand. 
The most unfair price is the one dictated by a few 
interested buyers who meet secretly and arrange a 
price which suits them best. This method of mak¬ 
ing prices is worked out now with most farm pro¬ 
ducts. We have shown how it is done with live 
poultry, and articles now coming will show just how 
prices for eggs and dairy products are manipulated. 
A handful of eggs, a few words quietly spoken by 
interested dealers in New York, and a price is made 
which makes the basis for sales all over the country. 
If we do not make the matter clear and prove the 
fictitious character of produce prices, let us know 
and we will try again. Prices have been made in 
such a way that the farmer loses control of his 
goods the moment they pass out of his hands. The 
foundation of any reform in marketing is to change 
the method of making prices so that producer and 
consumer can have a hand at it. The most prac¬ 
tical way of starting such a reform is through the 
auction system of selling State inspected and guar¬ 
anteed goods. This is what the Department of 
Foods and Markets is trying to start in connection 
with sales of apples. Let that he worked out fairly 
and price-making will be taken out of the holes 
and secret places and worked out in the open. 
* 
W E have a number of questions from New 
York farmers regarding interest on pay¬ 
ments for glandered horses and tuberculous cattle 
destroyed by the State. The Legislature appro¬ 
priated money for paying interest on certain claims 
for horses or cattle slaughtered on and after March 
10, 1911/. The item in the law covering this is as 
follows: 
For each and every day the owner or custodian of 
the animals condemned is obliged to keep them, in ex¬ 
cess of seven days from the date of the condemnation, 
lie shall be allowed and paid the sum of 25 cents per 
day per head. The owner of animals condemned and 
slaughtered, as provided herein, shall be entitled to in¬ 
terest on the amount due, as herein provided, from and 
after 30 days from the time such animals are so slaugh¬ 
tered. 
Thus it will be seen that the interest is paid only 
on those claims which have been made since March 
10, 1914. 
* 
“The Farmer Goes Up Head.” 
W ELL, sir, we had no idea that the publication 
of that old doggerel would stir up such a 
wide range of feeling. At one extreme is the intel¬ 
ligent and well-known man who says we are making 
class warfare, ranging one class against another. 
It is a great blunder to tell the farmer to go “up 
head.” He is up there now, has more than he de¬ 
serves, more done for him than any other class in 
the country! At the other extreme is the man who 
writes: “Thank Rod we have some one to put the 
truth right up to them. The only thing wrong about 
it is that in the picture Frank Farmer ought to be 
walking up in front stamping right on their toes.” 
We speak of these as two extremes, neither of them 
entirely fair. Let anyone read carefully the words 
put into the mouth of “Frank Farmer” and he must 
admit that there is nothing revolutionary in his defin¬ 
ition of “justice.” He who would object to that would 
he a singular individual. No one wants more than 
that. Who would he satisfied with less than “Equal 
rights and honest share?" It rather amuses us to 
note the range of opinion regarding these simple 
verses. One man calls it “Too cheap; a poor play 
to the galleries.” Another writes the following 
I wish to commend you for the cover of last week’s 
issue, “The farmer goes up head.” I am going to try 
to have the teacher of the district school of which I am 
trustee, at the next entertainment they give, have the 
boys learn each his verse, and put it on as a play, and 
make special effort to get as many parents to attend as 
possible. If I had the power, I would have that played 
in every county and village, town and city in this 
great nation, instead of teaching the children the so- 
called patriotic and military spirit. With best wishes 
for your clean, practical paper. willard j. dawson. 
* 
T HE State Department of-Foods and Markets is 
making arrangements to sell apples on an open 
auction market in New York City during the coming 
season. Only the assurance of a steady supply re¬ 
mains to complete the arrangements. It will require 
about SOO carloads for the whole season. The plan 
is for growers in different localities to form informal 
clubs to ship in car lots and assure the supply, so 
that apples may be sold at auction every day dur¬ 
ing the season. The shippers will have a repre¬ 
sentative on the block with the auctioneer, with 
authority to make one bid on behalf of the owner, 
so that the fruit will not he ruthlessly slaughtered 
or sold at ridiculously low prices. Arrangements 
will also he made to place fruit in cold storage on 
the request of owners, and the cost of this storage 
to the grower will he the actual rental of space 
and cost of cartage, if any cartage is necessary. 
Engagements are now being made for representa¬ 
tives of the Department to meet growers at their 
clubs and Granges to explain the system and ar¬ 
range details. Growers who are interested in this 
departure should write the Department at 71 West 
23rd Street, and make arrangements for a repre¬ 
sentative to visit the neighborhood and make tlie 
necessary arrangements for future shipments. The 
growers will pay only the actual cost of selling, 
which will probably be no more than one-half the 
July 10, 1915. 
usual commissions, and there will be no cartage or 
other extras. When once fully established, prac¬ 
tically all the apples coming to the New York City 
market will be sold at auction; and the system will 
be worth a million dollars annually to the growers 
of the State. That, of course, is a prediction. But 
it will stand analysis. 
* 
H ERE is another case of that “vain repetition 
of an economic fallacy.” The following note 
comes from a Florida fruit grower: 
I am inclined to go slow in an effort to get good re¬ 
sults. Our grapefruit netted us the past season three 
cents per box on the tree, the cultural charges not 
counted in, so we are not feeling that excessive pressure 
of wealth which is occasionally ours. j. w. r. 
This man wants to buy a tractor, a new lot of 
fertilizer and dozens of other things which manu¬ 
facturers would like to sell, and which workmen 
would like to make. Three cents a box on grape¬ 
fruit makes a very small dollar, which the dealers 
who handle the things this man wants will not ac¬ 
cept as full value. It would not be so bad if these 
three-cent boxes of fruit had benefited the working 
people in town and city, hut we have not heard that 
they had grapefruit for breakfast every morning. 
Supply and demand running freely would have put 
three-cent grapefruit into every cottage or flat. 
As it is, only those benefited by the sale of this fruit 
who were paid fixed charges which were controlled 
by themselves. It strikes us that the “economic 
fallacy” about all this is the claim that there is 
any economy to it. 
* 
T HERE is bitter rivalry between dealers and 
agents in various kinds of silos, and some of 
them are carrying it too far. We have received at 
least 25 letters from farmers who have been told 
that silos made of concrete will poison cattle! Tlie 
story is that the acids in the silage “eat up the con¬ 
crete.” This results in a poison which is sure death 
to the stock. We have taken pains to trace down 
this nonsense, and find that it comes from agents 
who are trying to sell some soi't of a silo, and thus 
attempt to frighten a farmer who is thinking of 
using concrete. That seems to be all there is to it. 
So far as we can learn the general report from 
properly made concrete silos is that they give good 
satisfaction. One of the surest ways to injure your 
own business is to bear false witness against your 
neighbor’s. The chief of animal husbandry at one 
of the Western Agricultural Colleges writes: 
As a matter of fact, the agents for various kinds of 
silos are constantly telling falsehoods to the farmers. 
Other rumors to the effect that they have quit filling 
their silos in the East are a very prominent feature of 
our correspondence with farmers just now. I don’t 
know how many letters I have had during the last 
month in which farmers have written in to me to the 
effect that they have heard that they have quit filling 
their silos in the East since they have been found un¬ 
satisfactory and not profitable and sometimes causing 
tuberculosis. This stuff, of course, is “rot” but never¬ 
theless such foolish information is being spread over 
the country and the press can do much to put the farm¬ 
ers right on this subject. 
It is “rot” and of a poor quality too. As sunshine 
kills some forms of decay, let us turn the light on 
this nonsense. There will be hundreds of new silos 
this year and more silage than ever. Turn the hose 
on these agents. 
Brevities. 
Hereafter no drinking man can get on the pay roll 
of the State of Kansas. 
The Agricultural College of Hawaii graduated four \ 
students this year—three Japanese and one of mixed 
blood. This college is to be made a “university.” 
Why should it be profitable to ship dried Loganber¬ 
ries from Oregon to New England when the finest of 
raspberries grow in the latter section? 
And now Mexico is shipping watermelons to the 
American markets. They are grown mostly by Chinese 
farmers. 
Quite a number of readers ask if they can cure 
Dwarf Essex rape or put it in the silo. No—not with 
any profit. It is intended for green food. 
Most of the railroad fires in the West seem to be 
started on sharp grades where the engines put on forced 
draft. It is now arranged to follow the engines with 
light gasoline cars to watch for fires. 
There is another poultry contest under way at the 
Panama Exposition. The best individual layers thus 
far are cross-bred hens from the Oregon Agricultural 
College. 
Back in 1898 we find an article in The R. N.-Y. 
telling of the great number of bicycles at a farm meet¬ 
ing! These wheels brought people 10 to 15 miles, and 
were considered wonderful. Now there are more mo¬ 
tor cars than “wheels” at such meetings, and the circle 
constituting the audience has been enlarged to 50 miles. 
Did you ever have the pleasure of eating any “For- 
maggio Pecorino di Stagione?” This is really cheese 
made from the milk of sheep, and is imported from 
Italy. The Italians shipped to this country, last year, 
sheep milk cheese to the value of $1,297,893, the usual 
market price being about 23 cents a pound. One would 
think there ought to be sheep enough in this country 
to save that million dollars for Americans, but most 
of our sheep growers would - probably call the job of 
milking ewes as too small to consider. 
