962 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FABMER'S PAPER 
\ National Weekly .lourin’' t Country nnd Suburban Homes 
EsMbFXhed ibco 
Published weekly by tlie Rural I’tiblishinir Company. 333 West 4oth Street,New Vortt 
Herbert W. Collinowood, President anti Editor. 
John' .1. Dillon', Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. §2.01. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8 y 2 marks, or lo’-t, francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal cheek 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” 
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. Rut to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trust ing 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 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. 
S UPPOSE someone came to you with a proposi¬ 
tion about like this: Pay $2 for seed and scat¬ 
ter it over an acre of cornfield at the last cultiva¬ 
tion. Also scatter one bag of chemical fertilizer. 
That is all you need to do. Next Spring there will 
be all carted and spread for you over that acre, as 
much plant food and organic matter as you could 
buy iu from six to eight tons of stable manure. If 
you knew nothing about the cover crop you would 
think some one tried to sell you a gold brick. Real¬ 
ly it would be a genuine offer of a brick of pure 
gold, for that is just what the cover crop will do to 
your acre of corn land. Read about it on page 960. 
* 
Allen Green, colored, was arraigned in Police Court 
yesterday morning charged with violating a market 
regulation by selling produce in the farmers’ line which 
had been purchased from wholesalers and was not home- 
raised. 
Detective Smith, of the Third precinct, made the ar¬ 
rest, but was unable to produce the evidence, which, he 
explained, he had eaten. The evidence was a head of 
lettuce. Judge Pugh fined the colored man $5. 
HE above from the Washington Herald is like 
many other reports which come to us. The 
general principle of the law in such cases is that 
whenever a farmer sells his own produce he has the 
right to go anywhere on the public highways pro¬ 
vided he does not interfere with traffic. When he 
buys and sells or sells for neighbors on commission 
he becomes a peddler in the eye of the law and is 
subject to license regulations. In some States local 
laws give towns the right to put some regulation on 
a farmer's trade but. in general, when he sells only 
the goods he produces he is free to go anywhere and 
offer them for sale. 
* 
A READER in Western New York sends us this 
statement from a Rochester paper: 
Penn Yan. July 13.—Edward G. Hopkins, of Penn 
Yan, brings up his young incubator chickens by the use 
of a talking machine for which he has records which 
make the machine cluck exactly as a mother hen does 
when calling her chickens. He also puts a stuffed hen, 
which looks just like a live one, in the brooder so that 
all the chicks have to do to enjoy themselves like chick¬ 
ens raised in the old-fashioned way is to look at the 
stuffed hen and listen to the cluck of the talking ma¬ 
chine. 
We have written Mr. Hopkins for further details 
about this. It may be that you can fool little chicks 
with a stuffed hen and a talking machine, but we 
are inclined to doubt it. At any rate science is com¬ 
ing to our aid all along the line. We are told of 
cases where the talking machine is used to play 
soft music in the dairy barn at milking time! Start 
“Ever of Thee I’m Fondly Dreaming” and how the 
cows do shed the milk! It has been proved repeat¬ 
edly that in factories or packing houses when the 
workers begin to flag a little, lively dance or rag¬ 
time music will make things go faster. Who knows 
but that in the future we may have laws compelling 
rumsellers to keep a talking machine over the bar 
constantly giving “Father, Dear Father, Come Home 
With Me Now,” or “The Brewer’s Big Horses!” 
The clucking hen must not monopolize science. 
* 
T HE government reports indicate yields of near¬ 
ly one billion bushels of wheat and 3.000,000 
bushels of corn—the largest yield on record. Most 
individual corn growers would say that the crop is 
backward owing to cold and wet weather, and we 
think the government figures will he shaded quite a 
little before October. There is, however, an abund¬ 
ance of grain in sight, for most farmers increased 
their plantings on the theory that the European 
war would create a great demand for grain. Prices 
at present promise to remain high, though we must 
remember that, in spite of the war. the foreign crops 
will be large. In Germany the hordes of Russian 
prisoners have been put at agricultural labor. They 
are mostly of the peasant class, and instead of eat¬ 
ing Germany “out of house and home,” as was pre¬ 
THE JK U KAL NEW-YORKER 
dieted, they have increased the amount of avail¬ 
able food. In France the German prisoners have been 
put at farm work in like manner, while iu England 
the crops are reported larger than ever before.- Then 
as we have often pointed out, should the Allies suc¬ 
ceed in forcing their way through the Dardanelles, 
millions of bushels of Russian wheat will be free for 
export, and will enter into competition with our own 
supply. Another thing, looking to the future, is the 
fact that this war has forced Europeans into new 
and more economical methods of farming. There 
will be a great increase in the use of improved farm 
implements and new methods of fertilizing are being 
worked out. All these things will affect the future 
of grain growing, but the present outlook is that this 
year’s big crop will be sold at high prices. 
* 
Whatever became of Burbank’s Wonderberry? I 
have not heard of it lately. J. C. S. 
HERE have been a dozen such questions recent¬ 
ly. People remember the anti-nightshade cam¬ 
paign. We think the wonder has been buried, but 
inquiries are respectfully referred to Mr. Luther 
Burbank and Mr. John Lewis Childs. These gentle¬ 
men claimed that the Wonderberry was the most 
wonderful plant ever offered and that in a few years 
it would be universally grown and used. So far as 
we can learn this fake fruit is not grown except in 
a few places where other fruits are about impossible. 
In these unfortunate places it makes a sort of sub¬ 
stitute for berries. No one bothers with it in locali¬ 
ties where the standard fruits flourish. If we are 
wrong about this Burbank and Childs or the papers 
of the nightshade family who advertised the Won¬ 
derberry will set us right This Wonderberry stuff 
was typical of the guff and bluff through which 
money is made from untested “novelties.” These 
nightshade promoters ought to have known the fake 
character of the Wonderberry, yet they undertook 
to work it off on the public at a high figure—through 
the reputation of Mr. Burbank. And the nightshade 
family of papers fell right in line to help along the 
game even after we clearly exposed the character 
of the plant. The game failed, and no one since 
then has had the nerve to start another nightshade 
“novelty.” What became of the Wonderberry? It 
went back to the woods, after performing a big ser¬ 
vice to the American people. It exposed at least one 
humbug and scared at least a dozen more from get¬ 
ting out into print where they could fish for the 
public’s money! 
* 
The Desperate Fight Against the Auction. 
T HE president of the New York Merchants’ As¬ 
sociation made a protest to Gov. Whitman 
against the now famous apple bulletin issued by 
Commissioner John J. Dillon. This bulletin, ac¬ 
cording to this Merchants’ Association: 
In the opinion of the Executive Committee of the 
association contains statements seriously _ reflecting on 
the honesty and square dealing of the city’s commission 
men. These statements, it is contended, are not sup¬ 
ported by evidence. 
If these poor, abused commission men had such 
a saintly reputation and such a pure, white record 
of benevolence and business character, they would 
pay no attention to this bulletin. The very fact 
that they break out in such a storm of opposition 
and abuse through the produce trade papers and 
run whimpering to the Governor is accepted by 
the public as clear evidence that the proposed auc¬ 
tion sale of apples will stop some of the graft and 
robbery from which the producers have long suf¬ 
fered. 
No one expected that the produce dealers of New 
York would approve the new Department of Foods 
and Markets if it ever honestly tried to do the work 
for which it was created. It could merit their ap¬ 
proval only by doing nothing and thus allowing the 
old system to proceed in the good old way—35 cents 
to the producer; 65 cents to the distributor. 
Will these interested advocates of private sales tell 
us how any honest man can be injured by the sale 
of food in an open market to the highest bidder? 
First they said apples could not he sold at auction. 
Next they said the old receivers would be glad to 
reduce their commissions and sell at the auction 
price, and now they rush to Governor Whitman for 
protection of their vested privileges to squeeze the 
producer and hold up the consumer. Their situa¬ 
tion must he desperate indeed when they appeal to 
the Governor for protection. The editors of the 
trade papers put up a pretense of sincerity and re¬ 
spectability for themselves and their patrons, but in 
their hearts they know the records they have made. 
The city, State and Federal courts are full of evi¬ 
dence which is harmless- enough in its dusty files, 
but which speaks eloquently enough of crime, con¬ 
viction and confessed guilt of men yet prominent in 
the advertising columns of the produce papers of 
July 31, 1915. 
this city. Governor Whitman has only to call for 
the record of an investigation not yet completed in 
the Attorney-General’s office to prove corruption, de¬ 
ceit and fraud in the past of men prominent in the 
produce trade of New York. Under these circum¬ 
stances, with this court evidence on record there 
could not be a more foolish move than this public 
protest to the Governor. In New York State today 
there are at least 100.000 farmers who feel that 
they have been robbed by commission men and pro¬ 
duce dealers—with as many more in nearby States. 
These men will be only too glad to “lick a stamp” 
and send their evidence and opinion to Gov. Whit¬ 
man. It will be a small regiment of commission 
men in New York City against a great army of pro¬ 
ducers up the State. These producers know that 
this proposed auction system is the first honest, 
practical effort to improve market conditions that 
has yet been made, and they will fight for it in a 
way that will astonish the administration at Al¬ 
bany. We really ought to thank the combination of 
interests which is responsible for .this protest. 
It is just the spark needed to explode the gunpow¬ 
der which will shoot the Capitol full of letters from 
farmers who have handled 35-cent dollars. 
* 
We are just in receipt of samples of a preparation 
called “No-Blight,” manufactured by the No-Blight 
Manufacturing Company, Indiana, which the manufac¬ 
turers claim will cure or prevent blight on apple and 
pear and other fruit trees. This is used by vaccinating 
the tree. They also claim it will kill scale aud is non- 
poisonous. THE GLOBE NURSERIES. 
Tennessee. 
W E never heard of this particular “tree dope” 
before, hut it has the old familiar earmark, 
and our advice is to let it alone. This old scheme 
of “vaccinating” a tree is a favorite method of get¬ 
ting money out of ignorant or visionary people. It 
has been worked again and again in the Eastern 
States—always with final loss to the victims and 
never with improvement to the trees. We have 
printed pictures of injured trees and the opinion of 
the best scientists in the country. It is true that 
some good fruit growers have, for a time, endorsed 
this method, but sooner or later they are forced to 
admit that this scheme of poking powder or pouring 
liquids into the “sap of the tree” is a failure and a 
fake. Let it alone! 
* 
I have been trying to buy Montmorency cherry trees. 
I only want two; It is not a profitable order for the 
seller. He has not time to go to the back of the nurs¬ 
ery for two small trees and see personally that I get 
that variety. Every year I have tried a different firm. 
I never buy from traveling salesmen. The first two I 
bought have been bearing May Dukes for years, some 
came labeled early Richmond, which I have no use for. 
Year before last, I thought I had them, and budded 
quite a lot of trees from my purchase. This year the 
purchased trees are bearing a pie cherry just like what 
I budded them on; an ordinary sour cherry that has 
been in the neighborhood for 50 years. I saw four 
handsome Montmorency trees last Winter in a near 
neighbor’s plot that he had bought from a traveling 
salesman ; they were full of fruit buds, so I went last 
week to se^ them in fruit, hoping to get buds. Three 
of them were Early Richmond, the other was identical 
with our pie cherries. A. E. R. 
S OME years ago the writer started something of 
an uproar at the nurserymen’s convention by 
asking if small orders were handled as carefully as 
big ones. We did not state that they were not, yet 
at least 50 different men came privately to explain 
that they took even greater pains with the small 
orders. The above experience is unusual, we think. 
It is discouraging when a man buys such trees ex¬ 
pecting to use the buds for propagating. In our 
own purchase of trees there have been but few “mis¬ 
fits” thus far, yet we have been in orchards where 
more than half the trees were worthless. Our ob¬ 
servation would be that the larger orders are usu¬ 
ally more badly mixed than the small ones. Are we 
right? 
Brevities. 
And now comes a scientist declaring that it is a good 
thing to drink an abundance of water with meals. 
The county fair is supposed to be for farmers—not 
for fakers. 
It may not be a sure test, but when the clover is 
full of sorrel our Mend Dr. Lime is needed. 
What do you know about this? At the Minnesota 
State Fair we understand $250 will be given in prizes 
for wool and $900 for dog prizes. 
“Avicultura Americana” is the name of a poultry 
farm in Brazil, where C. E. Iluebner is established 
as the Business Hen. 
To make the chicken grind its grist of life we feed 
it grit. Would we could give the chicken-heart in man 
a dose of it. 
The automobile has about killed the interest in fast 
horses. Years ago when a horse clipped the fraction of 
a second off the record the world knew about it as fast 
as the wires could pass the news. Clipping the record 
now excites less interest than clipping the hair of some 
prominent man. Speed in a man attracts some atten¬ 
tion. Norman S. Taber recently ran a full mile in four 
minutes and 12 3-5 seconds! Going some ! But it does 
not prove that the coming race of boys or hired men 
will get up early to run to their work. 
