1014 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established I860 
Pntillihcd weekly by the Knral PuhlUhlnp Company, 833 West 30lli Street, Sew Tortt 
Herbkkt W. Colltnowood, President and Editor. 
Jons J. Dillon, 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. £2.0t, equal to 8s. 6d-, or 
8^ marks, or 10'6 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal chock 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. 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 eases 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 Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
T HERE is a call for “ Favorite Chicken Recipes 
Hundreds of thousands of people in this coun¬ 
try do not know how to cook a chicken as it should 
be cooked. The success of some of the “Favorite 
liens” in the egg-laying contest makes us sure that 
many of our women readers have favorite recipes 
which are time and tongue-tested so that they will 
endure. We want some of these favorite recipes at 
once—so we can print them in the next Woman and 
Home Magazine. Tell us how you cook chicken so 
that your family vote you the queen of cooks. That’s 
Letter than being President. 
* 
T HE New York Commissioner of Agriculture, C. 
S- Wilson, seems to mean business in his cru¬ 
sade against gambling and obscene displays at the 
county fairs. He has given notice to the officers of 
the agricultural societies that if they permit gam¬ 
bling on their ground, they will receive no aid from 
the State. Some of them asked for a clear under¬ 
standing of just what the law means by gambling 
devices, and the Commissioner makes the follow¬ 
ing statement in reply to their requests: 
Games where a prize is offered to the successful, even 
though it be a game of skill, briug in the element of 
gambling and will endanger your appropriation. 
It would seem as if any intelligent man ought to 
know what gambling is, and whether the intent of 
the exhibitor is to play a skin game or not. The 
people who support these agricultural fairs want a 
clean show. They do not want the managers to 
wriggle about and see how close they can come to 
Ihe law and still keep away from it, but they want 
to cut out the objectionable features. We hope that 
Mr. Wilson will stand firm in this matter, and make 
e prompt example of any society which now violates 
the law with this fair warning. 
* 
A FEW weeks ago we spoke of a man who lost 
his farm through signing a contract which 
stated that if he failed to make payments on time he 
was to be considered a tenant, and all he had ever 
paid on the farm was to be considered rent. This 
has called out a number of instances where con¬ 
tracts even more harsh and cruel have been en¬ 
forced. One of our readers says we need new laws 
to cover such cases. We think the need is for more 
humane and Christian enforcement of such laws as 
we now have. Senator Geo. F. Hoar in his “Auto¬ 
biography of 70 Years” tells a story which makes 
our point. President Grant at the time was study¬ 
ing the so-called “inflation bill,” which called for a 
large increase of paper money. Grant finally ve¬ 
toed this bill, but for a long time he was undecided, 
though he personally objected to it. Senator Hoar 
told him this story to help him decide. 
“There was once a jury in Pennsylvania where 
Judge Greer was holding court, who brought in a 
very unjust verdict. The judge said: ‘Mr. Clerk, 
record that verdict and enter under it “Set aside.” 
I will have you know, gentlemen of the jury, that 
it takes 13 men in this court to steal a man's 
farm!' ” 
That is what we mean by the enforcement of such 
laws as we now have. 
* 
“Why don't you give them a fair chance to sell 
their novelties?” 
T HAT question comes from a man who complains 
because we caution readers not to “plunge” on 
high-priced novelties in seeds or plants. This man 
thinks that the “introducer” has the right to charge 
all he can get from the public, through guff or ro¬ 
mantic advertising. It seems that we do not give 
these gentlemen “a fair chance” when we prick the 
wind out of the guff or tap the wine of imagination 
and make the introducer drink cold water. A case 
in point is the “miracle” wheat. This was boomed 
ii'URAIi Sew-yorker 
August 14, 1915. 
in the most extravagant way. It would yield 50 
bushels or more per acre and tiller out so wonder¬ 
fully that only two pecks of seed per acre were 
needed. As an appeal to church members it was 
suggested that this wheat was sent to a poor man in 
direct answer to prayer. We exposed this fake as 
best we could, though it is always hard to obtain 
facts when the “novelty” is too young to make a 
record except in the introducer’s mind. Now comes 
the following from Prof. Clyde E- Leighty of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture: 
This variety of wheat has been extensively exploited 
as one of unusual tillering ability. Extensive tests by 
the U. »S. Department of Agriculture and several State 
experiment stations have shown that it is not at all 
extraordinary in tillering power. It is just an ordin¬ 
ary variety of wheat of the Fulcaster type and has nev¬ 
er given better than average yields in variety tests. 
The results at the experiment stations do not indicate 
that more tillers per plant would be formed by this 
wheat than by other ordinary sorts; in fact, most of 
the experiments indicate that it is hardly so good in 
this respect as several of the other common varieties. 
Attempts have been made to charge exorbitant prices 
on the basis of this statement. I do not believe that 
those who make these statements have any evidence to 
support their claims. 
Now, according to our critic, we ought to have 
kept quiet and let the promoter sell “Miracle” wheat 
at $10 per bushel or change the name to “Marvel¬ 
lous” and charge $5! Not one “novelty” in 500 ever 
shows any permanent improvement over standard 
sorts. When a farm paper is willing to give a man 
“a fair chance” to use an untested novelty like a 
leech to suck the pocketbook dry it is worse than the 
man who walks off down the road and leaves his 
neighbor to be robbed. 
* 
The Auction Argument in a Nutshell. 
W E want you to read and study that statement 
on the next page of what the sheep men of 
Otsego County did with their wool. Here is. on a 
small scale, the true working of the auction system 
for which we have so long contended. By combining 
and selling their wool fairly to the highest bidder 
these farmers made $2,700, while the manufacturer 
made $1,000. This means that if the buyers or 
agents had bought that wool in small lots in the or¬ 
dinary way they would have taken $3,700 which by 
right belonged to producer and consumer. Now, in 
a larger way, that is just what will follow when the 
auction system of selling farm produce is once firm¬ 
ly established in New York City. A little study of 
these figures will show you why the dealers and the 
trade papers in New York are howling and yelping 
so desperately, and running to Governor Whitman 
for help. They do not want producer and consumer 
to get together, for that would mean an end of the 
graft they now levy for the useless job of holding 
the two ends apart. 
An analysis of this wool sale in Otsego County 
will show us how the larger operations must be con¬ 
ducted. These sheep men got together and pooled 
their issues. They put the wool in the hands of 
their committee, and told them to go ahead. That 
is the first principle of successful cooperation. Men 
must put up their property and have full faith in 
their friends and neighbors. Then there must be 
full publicity. You must let people know what you 
have to sell and have it standardized and up to 
grade. Then that committee stood firm for open 
competitive bids. A set of sealed bids might have 
spoiled the whole sale, for it is a favorite trick of 
buyers to get together and arrange for a set of low 
bids. After getting the produce in this way at a 
low figure the goods can be divided up to suit the 
buyers. Nothing will kill off a cooperative society 
quicker than secret bids and sales, for when the 
members do not understand such things they grow 
suspicious. Strong faith in the undertaking, stand¬ 
ard goods and open competitive sales—these are the 
three things which put this successful business 
through. 
This is good work for the county farm bureau, 
for it shows organization, advertising and business 
ability. Those men in Otsego County have done 
more than they realize. They made an average of 
$60 each out of that sale, but that is a small mat¬ 
ter compared with the illustration they have given 
us, right at this critical time, of the possibilities of 
this auction system of selling farm produce. Let 
any man think for a moment and he will realize 
what would happen to our farmers if this same sys¬ 
tem could be applied to the sale of all produce! It 
can he done, but in the very nature of the case the 
development of the business must be solid and slow. 
The first thing to do is to make the coming auction 
sale of apples a complete success. That is the one 
thing to do first of all. In order to do that there 
must be a full supply of apples and interested buy¬ 
ers. Make this auction sale a success, and the rest 
will follow, for nothing can ever stop the marketing 
reform which the success of this auction will start. 
From whom can I find out about small farms in New 
Hampshire or Maine? I was recommended to write 
yon by Mr. Frank Stivers, one of your subscribers, who 
also suggested I send for one of your papers, which, as 
he says, is "the only paper.” tiiomas barton. 
E just print that to show how our readers 
help. If any friend wants information they 
refer him right to us, and throw in a good word or 
two to help out. No paper ever had more helpful 
and loyal friends than The R. N-Y. family can 
show. This man sent enough stamps for the in¬ 
formation he wants to pay for a short term subscrip¬ 
tion, and he will come back as a permanent sub¬ 
scriber because we can make the paper pay him. 
Surely “we are advertised by our loving friends.” 
* 
E x-senator elihu root would never be 
called a radical reformer. He would be con¬ 
sidered a rather cold, hard-headed, far-seeing law¬ 
yer, without the power to mix sentiment with fact. 
Yet, as president of the New York constitutional 
convention he recently said: 
I have been in public life for 40 years, and in all 
that time our State government has been as representa¬ 
tive as the Government of Venezuela. If we don't give 
the people a real cure they will keep on demanding such 
things as the initiative and referendum and the recall. 
They have had abundant cause for complaint. 
When a man like Senator Root talks like that you 
may consider it settled that the demand for reform 
in public life and for a square deal for the common 
man has become a part of human nature. Since 
the last Presidential election the plain people of the 
country have done more real thinking than in any 
25 years that came before. Mr. Root is wise enough 
to see that public opinion has been formed along 
new lines. It is doubtful if, with his training, he can 
agree with what he knows to be popular demand. 
Vet he understands, as smaller men cannot get 
through their hard heads, that these demands must 
be met at least part way, or they will grow into 
commands which cannot be denied. 
* 
L AST year we told the story of the crippled man 
in Massachusetts who shot at and killed a poul¬ 
try thief. Hearing a noise at night this cripple went 
out to the henhouse and heard thieves running. He 
fired his gun at random into the darkness as a 
warning. In the morning a dead man was found by 
the roadside. The cripple was arrested, tried and 
found guilty of manslaughter, but finally pardoned 
by the Governor. This case caused so much talk 
that the next Massachusetts Legislature passed a 
law containing the following: 
Whoever, with the intent to commit larceny, breaks 
or enters, or enters in the night without breaking, any 
building or enclosure where are kept or confined any 
kind of poultry, may be detained or kept in custody ill 
a convenient place by the owner of the poultry, or by 
his agent or employe, for not more than 24 hours, Sun¬ 
day excepted, until a complaint can be made against 
him for the offense and he be taken upon a warrant is¬ 
sued upon such complaint. 
The effect of this seems to be that every hen man 
becomes a policeman whenever his henhouse is en¬ 
tered by a thief. A man in Springfield, Mass., who 
keeps hens was awakened in the early morning by 
a burglar alarm which was fastened to the poultry 
house. He went out with a loaded gun to find a 
hen thief running from the house. The owner 
promptly fired and lodged a load of fine shot in the 
runner's back. The injured man was taken to a 
hospital. The hen owner was charged with assault, 
but discharged. The theory is that under this new 
law the owner becomes a policeman when thieves 
attack his poultry. When the thief runs he be¬ 
comes a fugitive avoiding arrest, and the owner is 
3 ustified in firing at him. That ought to settle at 
least part of the henroost robbery, in Massachu¬ 
setts. The shotgun method is not so safe in States 
where there is no such law. 
Brevities. 
Treat the horse as you would yourself on a hot 
working day. 
Well, they surely do produce some strong evidence 
against the black snake. 
Total cost of conducting all American farmers’ in¬ 
stitutes last year —$447,897.51. 
In the North—do not plant commercial peach or¬ 
chards on low flat land, or plant too many varieties. 
Read the dairy condition reports now being printed. 
They will give you a clear idea of the changes in 
dairying. 
Do not send poor, lean fowls to market They must 
compete with the fat western poultry and will' surely 
lose out. 
There will be more cover crops than ever before this 
year. Also more “catch” crops planted to make quick 
pasture for hogs and other stock. 
Any Indiana boy who thinks he can judge grain and 
live stock can enter the contest at the State Fair, In¬ 
dianapolis, September 7. 
Many farmers are growing millet for the first time 
this year. The time to cut it is while the seeds are 
soft in the head. It is better for green feed than for 
hay. Do not feed it to horses. 
