THE RURA1, H E W-YOR I< K R 
992 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established iszo 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 323 West 30th Street,5ew Tori 
Hkrbert W. Coli-ingwood, President and Editor. 
.Ions' J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. f. Dittos, Secretary. _ Mits. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8Hj marks, or 10!^ francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, 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” 
We believe that every advertisement in tills paper 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 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 us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention Tuk Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
HE size of the parcel post package has been en¬ 
larged to 84 inches so as to include the com¬ 
mercial crate of eggs or fruit. Fruit and egg men 
have long been working for this reform, as they were 
forced to ship their products in small or inconven¬ 
ient packages. When they can ship a full crate by 
mail they will enjoy a great advantage. Now we 
want to know just how to pack small fruit and 
peaches for mailing. We have received such pro¬ 
ducts in various packages—some in good condition— 
others very bad. This service of crate shipment by 
mail promises to help the housekeeping problem and 
we must all study out the best packages and packing. 
* 
A gricultural commissioner c. l. Wilson of 
Albany, N. Y., has issued a circular to the 
State agricultural societies in which he says: 
With reference to gambling, the law provides that 
any agricultural society, agricultural club or agricul¬ 
tural exposition which “shall knowingly permit the use 
of any gambling device, device, instrument or contri¬ 
vance in the operation of which bets are laid or wagers 
made, wheel of fortune, or the playing or carrying on 
of any game of chance, upon the grounds used by it for, 
or during, an annual meeting, fair or exhibition,” shall 
forfeit its right to any moneys it would be entitled to 
under Article V of the agricultural law. 
The law also provides that any agricultural society, 
club or exposition which shall “knowingly permit any 
immoral, lewd, obscene or indecent show or exhibi¬ 
tion” shall also forfeit its right to moneys. 
Mr. Wilson says be will enforce these provisions 
of the law promptly and without fail. We hope he 
will do so. Keep the gamblers and the snides off 
the grounds. 
* 
T HE Canadian wheat crop is heavy this year— 
an estimated yield of 200,000,000 bushels 
against 158,000,000 bushels last year. Most of the 
surplus will go to England, where it is greatly need¬ 
ed, but a hard problem has now arisen in a short¬ 
age in ocean tonnage. Ships are busy carrying war 
supplies and cannot be spared for carrying this 
wheat. The grain elevators in Eastern Canada are 
limited in capacity. U. S. Consul Williamson at 
St. John says: 
In view of this it is considered probable that there 
will be serious congestion of wheat at the ocean termin¬ 
als by the end of September, and in this case the irnil 
movement to the East will be held up. This may bring 
about an overflow of wheat on the western markets and 
a consequent big drop in price. This will be the effect 
unless the Government succeeds in its present efforts 
to have some of the ships now on war service released, 
and every available tramp steamer pressed into service. 
The whole of Canada is interested in the quick 
movement of this wheat crop and also thousands of 
Americans who have investments in Canadian land. 
# 
W E hope you will study the picture of Alfalfa 
roots on the first page. At the left is the 
root of the ordinary Alfalfa. This plant is eight 
years old. As we see, it has made a big tap-root 
Avith but one side root. On our soil we have had 
difficulty in obtaining a good stand of this kind of 
Alfalfa. When seeded in Spring the rank growth 
of weeds in our humid climate will smother the 
young Alfalfa out. When seeded in late Summer 
we get the plants past the weeds, but find that many 
of them are pulled out by the frost and thus de¬ 
stroyed. That long, single tap-root does not “clinch” 
in the soil, and is lifted out so that the crown is 
destroyed. At the right is shown a root of “Cos¬ 
sack,” one of the new Siberian varieties. A seed¬ 
ling root was brought from South Dakota in May 
and put in like a cabbage plant. The growth above 
ground was nearly four feet, but we wish to call at¬ 
tention to the root system. Instead of the single 
tap-root on the old variety w T e have here a system 
of side roots which brace and hold the plant in the 
soil. We think this root will prevent pulling out by 
the frost and that it gives a better feeding system 
in the upper soil. It is yet too early to make posi¬ 
tive predictions, but we believe these new Alfalfas 
are to revolutionize farming throughout New Eng¬ 
land and the rougher parts of the Eastern States. 
Trials w r ith the old tap-rooted Alfalfa have mostly 
failed in these sections, but the introduction of 
Grimm and other improved sorts has been followed 
by fair success. We think several of these new Si¬ 
berian varieties will prove superior to Grimm, and 
that when we learn how to handle them through 
seeding or transplanting we can make thousands of 
New England acres produce as much Alfalfa as the 
best lands in Iowa or Illinois! It would be easy to 
become excited over the future of these new Alfal¬ 
fas, as we see them growing on our own farm, but 
it will be better for all of us to be conservative and 
test these varieties thoroughly and well. We think 
they have the root system needed to nail them se¬ 
curely to our Eastern soils, and with lime to make 
them feel at home in the ground, and chemicals to 
satisfy their hunger, we shall be able to induce them 
to hand out the equivalent of four tons of wheat 
bran to the acre! Siberian Alfalfa! The gift of 
Siberia, the barren, convict land, to the upper At¬ 
lantic Coast! 
* 
T HUS far nothing has come from that “protest” 
which the New York commission and produce 
dealers sent to Gov. Whitman. The only result has 
been to convince the public that those middlemen 
know that the auction system of selling produce and 
fair marketing reforms would cut out robbery and 
graft in the business. They all admit privately that 
such graft exists, yet whenever any reform which 
gets at the root of the trouble is suggested, they 
fight like tigers to kill it off. This action on their 
part is doing more than anything else to arouse pub¬ 
lic sentiment for marketing reforms. Producers 
everywhere are making themselves heard through 
the papers which are willing to take their part. 
Here is a good example from the Elizabeth, N. J., 
Daily Journal: 
A New York State farmer, writing to a friend in 
Elizabeth, under date of July 17, says: “I had 10 acres 
of peas. Three acres are harvested. Got within $12 as 
much as it cost to pick and market them. They brought 
the fine price of 80 cents a bushel in New York. What 
are they worth in your city?” 
The Elizabeth friend answered, and accurately: 
“Peas seem to be very scarce in the local market. Few 
arc offered by the street vendors. The Elizabeth Jour¬ 
nal each Friday publishes an accurate market report. 
For three weeks has been quoted, ‘peas, 25 cents the 
half-peck.’ ” 
Peas at 25 cents the half-peck means a retail price 
of $2 or upwards a bushel. Yet the New York State 
farmer received only 30 cents per bushel In New York 
for his first marketings. New York is only a few miles 
distant from Elizabeth. 
Isn’t it about time that the Government or someone 
in authority knows some reason why both the producer 
and the consumer are being hamstrung when they sell 
on the one hand and buy on the other? Milk is netting 
the farmers in the Central New York shipping zone 
only about 2 y 2 cents a quart. Fruit is wasting every¬ 
where because it is not bringing the farmers enough to 
hardly pay the cost of picking, yet the consumer pays a 
good price for it. 
It is time—and the time has already come. The 
N. Y. Foods and Markets Department knows the rea¬ 
son and is trying to find a remedy. The first step' 
toward that remedy is a fair trial of the auction 
system of selling apples. That is the first step, 
because it means establishing a price based nearer 
upon demand and supply than anything we have 
had before. After this will come a fairer distribu¬ 
tion. Under the present system those peas were 
dumped into this great market with no one person¬ 
ally interested in distribution or securing fairer 
prices. The beginning of this much needed reform 
starts with this auction method both because it is 
a practical plan and because public interest has been 
attracted to it. The surest evidence that it really 
means a genuine and practical reform is the desper¬ 
ate howling of the middlemen. Let them keep it 
up. They advertise the true merits of the auction 
system by doing so. First of all, therefore, is the 
plain duty of New York fruit growers to provide the 
apples for this auction plan. By doing that they 
help themselves—and more—for they start a mar¬ 
ket reform which will, in time, benefit every shipper 
of farm produce. 
* 
W E have been doing a thing this year that we 
never expected to do—plowing corn—throw¬ 
ing a deep furrow to each side of the row. We ad¬ 
vocate level culture, but this wet season has upset 
all calculations on a hillside field. There was very 
little chance for cultivation at best, and stirring the 
soil in the usual way simply loosened it so that the 
washing rains carried it down hill. The weeds got 
into the rows and grew like debts until it would not 
pay with ordinary methods to fight them. So we 
took a small plow and threw a furrow to each side 
of the row. This buried most of the weeds and 
stopped the flow of water down hill. The soil is 
moist enough so the corn will not suffer. When we 
come to seed the cover crop w r e can work the other 
August 7, 1915. 
way and smooth down the ridges. We have heard 
farmers say they would shoot a man who used a 
plow in their corn, but we probably all say things 
that have to be salted a little when the “excep¬ 
tion” turns up and we have to meet it. There are 
cases where a plow beats a cultivator in the corn 
field, but that does not prove that deep plowing be¬ 
tween the roots always pays. 
* 
T HESE articles on Summer pruning are given in 
response to many questions about this process. 
This matter is not a simple one, and a man can 
easily waste his time and accomplish but little. Yet 
it may be very serviceable in the case of irregular 
trees and over-stimulated trees. We doubt if it is 
on a basis at present where the commercial grower 
can adopt it with bearing trees, and feel certain of 
making a profit by the practice. It too often calls 
for a “gardener’s training” to be successful even 
with dwarf apples. We are not prepared to recom¬ 
mend it to growers except as a practise to correct 
undesirable forms of tree development. This is one 
of the cases where about all we can do is to get 
the facts together and let readers use their own 
judgment. 
* 
Orehardists should be careful to work in rape or one 
of the turnips into all of the cover crop combinations 
this year, as members of the turnip family have a ten¬ 
dency to make available the potash in the soil. 
HAT is good advice from the Hampton Co. 
(Mass.) League. We have urged rape and 
turnips for years. We fully believe that these crops 
can make use of certain forms of potash in the soil 
which some other crops cannot eat. Then the rape 
and turnips turn this potash over to crops which 
follow them. Just now people are urged to invest 
their money in schemes for making the potash in 
rocks available. A dollar’s worth of turnip seed 
will give you greater potash returns than $50 in¬ 
vested in stock of a potash company! 
* 
T HIS wet season has made harvesting a mighty 
job on many low farms. The constant rains 
made mud of the soil, and in many cases the wheels 
mired or slid along and would not turn the ma¬ 
chinery. An extra horse or team was needed in 
some cases. This was where the little “strong arm” 
on the harvester went to bat and made a home run. 
These little gasoline engines are fastened to the 
frame of the machine, and so attached that they 
operate the machinery, leaving only the weight of 
the harvester for the horses to haul. Weighing about 
as much as a light man these little engines have 10 
times his strength and can handle all the working 
parts easily. They have been a great help in this 
wet harvest. They are also fitted to potato diggers 
and manure spreaders—operating the machinery 
and leaving only the dead weight of the load to the 
horses. 
* 
T HE Eastern wheat situation comes up once 
more. Among those who are hit hardest by 
the high prices of wheat are New England poultry 
keepers. Many of them regard wheat as a necessity 
in preparing a full ration for the business hen. Egg 
prices will not stand for the present wheat prices. 
So these men, most of them with large farms and 
some idle land, are considering the wheat crop. 
Years ago New England raised considerable wheat, 
and much of the soil is quite well suited to the crop. 
At present prices it would pay, but some of these 
farmers make the mistake of supposing that Spring 
wheat is what they want. They are wrong about 
this. Spring wheat is not suited to their soil or 
conditions. Fall wheat on good soil, well fertilized 
is what they want. We have coming, in time for 
seeding, some of the best practical articles on wheat 
culture ever printed. 
Brevities. 
The production of brick and tile in this country dur¬ 
ing 1914 was valued at $129,588,822. There were 7,- 
146,571,000 common bricks made! 
Waste fuel molasses is to be shipped from Hawaii 
to compete with fuel oil in California. It should make 
a sweet flame. 
You can cut the clover and feed the hay to the cows, 
or plow the clover under and feed the humus to po¬ 
tatoes. 
One great trouble with irrigation ditches in the 
West is the growth of weeds along the banks. These 
hold back the water and evaporate it, and also seed all 
the surrounding country. The remedy is to fence the 
ditches and pasture with sheep. The sheep are great 
weed killers, and a small flock would pay on most fruit 
farms. 
Several readers write that blight has started on 
their potato vines. What can they do to stop it? We 
spray to prevent blight, not to stop it after it once 
enters the vines. Spraying with Bordeaux should be¬ 
gin early—while the plants are small, and be kept up 
so as to keep a sort of copper plating over the leaves 
and stems. 
