942 
THIS RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National M'ceLly .lournnl for Country mid Suburban Homes 
Established ISSO 
I'nl,lUlied ireekli by Ihe Ktirnl Publishing Coinpnny. 833 West 80th Street. New Torn 
Herbert TV. Colwjegwood. President and Editor. 
.Urns' .1. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
tV m. F. PiULON, Secretary. Mss. E. T. Rovle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Tost a 1 Union. * * 2 . 01 . equal to 8s. 6d., or 
sift marks, or 101$ francs. Hemit in money order, express 
order, persona! check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
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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, liut 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 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 by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to ns within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
T HE use of a “cover crop” to save fertility and 
build up the soil has gaiued wonderfully dur¬ 
ing the past few years. Having obtained great re¬ 
sults on our own farm by following this practice we 
have made a business of advising readers to try it. 
The theory of the cover crop is simple enough. You 
make the farm feed itself during its idle hours. 
When a field would otherwise be bare after late 
Summer you keep it covered with a suitable living 
crop. This is plowed into the ground in Spring in 
time for another Summer crop. Many of our read¬ 
ers report great success with the cover crop. Others 
ask all sorts of questions about it. In order to an¬ 
swer these in full time for this year’s crop the Hope 
Farm man begins this week a full story of the cover 
crop idea—its uses and its abuses. If he does not 
make it clear—call for xuore. 
* 
T HAT first page article on New York soils brings 
up the old question of using fertilizers. Ap¬ 
parently some of these Illinois farmers believe that 
it is some sort of a crime to buy and use chemically 
prepared plant food. There can be no doubt that mil¬ 
lions of dollars have been lost through injudicious 
use of fertilizers. On the other hand it is equally 
true that the proper and long continued use of 
chemicals has developed some of the most prosper¬ 
ous and fertile farms in the country. In fact the 
most prosperous farming and the most productive 
soils today are found in the oldest section of the 
Atlantic Coast region, where chemicals have been 
freely used for 50 years. Our advice is to invest in 
fertilizers just as you would in tools or live stock 
or feed or labor. Know what you want and do not 
pay for potash when you need phosphoric acid, and 
do not buy manure when you can plow under vetch 
or clover. The Western farmer seems to regard this 
fertilizer business much as lie would a case of small¬ 
pox—when lie should consider it a business proposi¬ 
tion, the same as a labor or implement investment. 
* 
President Waters decried the tendency to build up a 
distinct rural civilization, asserting that this would be 
the beginning of a peasant class. He advocated the 
same type of civilization in the country as in the city, 
and urged that agriculture be put in the same class 
with other businesses in point of respect, opportunity, 
and income. 
HAT is taken from an address at the Kansas 
Agricultural College. Certainly agriculture 
should have as fair a chance as any other line of 
business. That should not mean building up coun¬ 
try society on the model of city life entirely. “Rural 
civilization” lias a solid, homely goodness which the 
city might well copy. The town has more polish, 
more money and more pleasant attractions but the 
country can show more solid and enduring qualities. 
In the world’s history every effort to make city 
civilization the standard has failed. No one would 
be likely to claim that the entire country should 
be brought to the living standard of either the small 
farm or the crowded city. Both have elements of 
strength in their human life side but when we talk 
of “civilization” let us always remember that the 
solid, enduring foundations are in the farm home. 
* 
W E must go away from home to see ourselves 
as we are. This is what a famous French¬ 
man is reported as saying: 
Public opinion in America does not receive any in- 
pnlse worth considering from Wall Street financiers, 
powerful manufacturers, or clever business men. It 
is the American farmer, in his estimation, who will 
he the ultimate arbiter of the manner in which the 
T’nited States shall engage in peace or war. 
This is sending the farmer “up head” at a great 
rate. There is much truth in it too. The Wall 
Street financiers, powerful manufacturers, and cle¬ 
ver business men know just where to get off when 
the farmer once wakes tip. He has stood for the 
35-cent dollar for many years because other inter¬ 
ests have been sharp enough to attract his attention 
with other and smaller issues. Every thinking 
farmer must now admit that he has in years past 
spent much of his political power on comparatively 
small issues and not had a chance at really vital 
things which concern his own business. The farm¬ 
er has given special privileges in exchange for petty 
favors. Yet no class in this country however rich 
or powerful would ever dare to start war or any 
great change in our Government in the face of 
united opposition from the farmers. The fact is 
that our farmers can have what they want just as 
soon as they decide upon fair demands and then get 
solidly back of them. 
❖ 
A GREAT demand for the Fall or “everbearing” 
strawberries has been developed and we are 
sorry to say that it lias led some of the nurserymen 
into temptation. There was a shortage of plants 
this Spring and rather than decline an order and 
return the money some nurserymen have sent plants 
that were simply an outrage upon unsuspecting buy¬ 
ers. We took a fair sample from one such lot and 
sent to an expert for examination. lie says: 
I have just received the strawber y plants. They are 
simply worthless. There were nine plants in the lot. 
Six wore dead. Three showed some signs of life. All 
were old woody plants having been taken from an old 
bed or else being the mother plants, or parts of the 
mother plants from a new bed. If those plants were 
a fair sample of the lot received by your reader I would 
not have considered them worth the express charges. 
One of the three plants showing life had two live roots. 
The other two had one live root each. 
The purchaser took the nurseryman’s word that 
he would send good plants at a fair price. He re¬ 
ceived poor trash not wortli planting. Now what 
can a man mean by playing such a petty swindle? 
Can he not see that he not only cuts the live roots 
off his own trade, but hurts the general nursery 
trade as well? 
O N the next page will be found 12 reasons for 
the auction sale of New York fruit. Other 
reasons could be given but these are convincing. 
Our fruit growers will never be satisfied until this 
plan has been given a fair, honest trial. There must 
not be any perfunctory, balf-liearted work but a 
strong united effort to put this reform over. In 
order to make it go the fruit growers themselves 
must furnish the power. The Department of Foods 
and Markets has provided the machinery but the 
power must come from the producers. It is coming. 
Local apple shipping associations are being formed 
all through the fruit sections. Every Grange and 
farmers’ club should organize to collect and ship 
a fair proportion of tlie apples produced in its ter¬ 
ritory. The success of this auction system of sell¬ 
ing will depend on the power and patience of the 
men who furnish the fruit. There must be a con¬ 
stant supply, day after day and the growers must 
stay by the plan right from the beginning. The 
fruit trade papers are fighting the auction system 
because they see that if it succeeds the days of the' 
grafter and robber are numbered. The auction sys¬ 
tem will give the producers a chance to help make 
the price—openly and with some regard for demand 
and supply. They are now denied that chance ex¬ 
cept where they have a complete and strong organ¬ 
ization. They must do the work of reform them¬ 
selves and they are going to do it. First of all the 
apples must be guaranteed. Every fruit grower in 
the State should promptly get into correspondence 
with the Department of Foods and Markets. 
* 
T HE following note from a point in Southern 
New York will appeal to thousands of farmers 
who, this year, feel that they know something of 
the feelings of Noah as he looked out of the window 
and calculated the eating capacity of his flock: 
I can look out upon several acres of Alfalfa in the 
cock that bids fair to stay there until it rots. Several 
days ago the weather cleared and gave promise of two 
or three days of sun ; I immediatelv cut my Alfalfa, as 
it was then late, and it began to cure beautifully. The 
next day was also ideal hay making weather and in the 
afternoon I raked and cocked the Alfalfa, congratulat¬ 
ing myself that with but one more day of sunshine I 
could put it into the barn in good condition. Before 
daylight the next morning the rain began to descend in 
floods, and it kept up all day as it has done. I think, 
but once before in the world’s history. The Alfalfa was 
soaked to the bottom; the next day was sultry and 
cloudy but it did not rain; today it is equally sultry 
and has just begun to rain again; no signs of clear¬ 
ing and I’ll bet that eggs would cook in any one of 
those Alfalfa cocks. 
And the grim irony of it all is that this is in a sec¬ 
tion which has been parched by drought for several 
seasons—dried so dry that grass was killed out. This 
drove the farmers to a trial of Alfalfa—the plant 
pump—the leafy camel! Now when they have the 
Alfalfa Nature runs in to make the average of rain¬ 
fall even up. We all know what it means this year. 
As for that Alfalfa it may turn as black as your 
shoe, and yet the cattle will eat it and bawl for 
July 24, 1915. 
more. We have had clover on the ground until it 
seemed as if it was fit for nothing but bedding. Y’et 
the stock nearly broke their backs reaching for it 
and they ate it up clean. Therefore as we look out 
across the wet fields let us remember that tlie soil 
needs it all—and not growl at the wife and children 
because it rains! 
* 
It is almost as difficult to solve correctly some of our 
marketing problems, in theory, as it is actually to test 
out our solutions in practice. w. P. MASSEY. 
Secretary Va. State Horticultural Society. 
E think the marketing problem today is not 
only the most important but the hardest 
of all farm questions. Any intelligent man can 
today, obtain sound advice about produciny a crop. 
If he can get hold of fair capital he can work his 
advice out and apply it on his own farm. When be 
strikes the marketing problem, however, unless lie 
possesses exceptional advantages he finds himself at 
the mercy of a long string of handlers and middle¬ 
men. about half of whom are living on him and do¬ 
ing him no fair service. Now our theory is that 
farmers cannot expect the people who are living 
upon them to reform this system of extravagance 
and graft. Farmers have got to do the reforming 
themselves. The first thing is to put the organized 
thought of the 35-cent dollar right into popular im¬ 
agination. Of course our ci’itics will call that the 
“vain repetition of an economic fallacy" but critics 
never hurt or seared us yet when we were right. 
* 
T HE latest census shows that New York City con¬ 
tains 5.245,S12 inhabitants—a gain of 478.929 
during the past five years. During this period many 
New Yorkers have moved from the city into New 
Jersey, Long Island or other nearby places—going 
and coming as commuters. It is safe to say there¬ 
fore that there are now clustered about the mouth 
of the Hudson at least 7.000.000 humans with barely 
10 per cent, of them producing any food. This vast 
army of mouths must be filled in some way, for 
the city resembles a nest of young birds many 
square miles in extent. The struggle for life among 
these millions is fierce and is made doubly so by the 
fearful cost of rents and the savage and antiquated 
system of food distribution. Thousands of adults 
and children are improperly or half fed. while a 
few miles outside the city limits food spoils on tlie 
farms because under our present system of trans¬ 
portation and distribution the gathering and ship¬ 
ping of this food would cost more than it would sell 
for to the middlemen. Within the lives of many of 
us this crowd of demanding consumers at the Hud¬ 
son's mouth will number 10 and over 15 millions 
and unless some new system of selling and distribut¬ 
ing food is devised the cost of living will be higher 
than ever while the farmer’s dollar will be smaller! 
This is not all, for New York prices become the 
standard for the entire country. The auction sys¬ 
tem of soiling New York apples is the most sensible 
suggestion for marketing reform that has yet been 
made. 
Brevities. 
Cl.TPrjNG the long hairs from horses’ legs and de¬ 
stroying the eggs will help clean out the botfly. 
A max in New York has sued the city for $2,000 
because his bull dog was killed after biting a boy ! 
“Brighten up the corner where you are” is a good 
song to practice during these dull days. 
Italy has declared an embargo on all food products 
raw or prepared. 
Railroad building in Africa is carried on partly at 
night to avoid the day’s heat. A freight car with pow¬ 
erful searchlights is used as a lighting plant. 
Ax evidence of wliat the Panama Canal is to do is 
found in a recent order for 750.000 feet of timber to be 
sent from Oregon to Cuba. 
Has any one practiced dipping hens to clean out ver¬ 
min? The general advice is not to try such a dip hut 
there may be cases where it is desirable. 
This is one of the seasons when a dressing of 125 
pounds nitrate of soda on a good grass sod will be 
likely to give a paying crop. 
There are some good objections to black snakes on 
page 936. In addition it may be said that these snakes 
desti'oy many young birds in the nest. 
While potatoes could hardly be given away in Maine 
they were worth four cents a pound in Alaska. The 
agricultural department suggests hogs, potatoes and 
grain as a rotation for Alaskan farmers. 
We hardlv like to tell how many cases we have had 
where Alfalfa seed was found mixed with Alsike clover! 
Alsike was unsalable last year and great quantities of 
it must have been worked off as Alfalfa. 
Yes. these dogmatic people usually remind us of a 
dog lying on a mat in front of a door which ought to 
lead to a fair and open discussion—but the dog knows 
it all and will not discuss. 
The meal of cocoanuts after the oil is extracted is 
being used in England for feeding cattle with good re¬ 
sults. It is said that these nuts can be produced so 
cheaply that this meal may actually compete with other 
feeds. 
