1140 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S RARER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country aiul Suburban llomea 
Established isco 
Fnbllsbed weekly by the Rural Publishing Company. 833 Went 30th Street..New Vorlt 
Herbert W. Coli.int,wood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. equal to 8s. Gd., or 
marks, or lOVfc francs, llemit 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 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 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 a' * 1 ,just 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 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. 
I T is wonderful how this plan of using cover crops 
has been taken up by fruit growers. Through 
the Hudson Valley buckwheat is freely used for this 
purpose. In many cases buckwheat and Alsike clo¬ 
ver are seeded about July 1. In a wet season like 
the present the buckwheat can be thrashed and the 
straw put back on the orchard. The clover comes 
on and makes a heavy mat for turning under. Al¬ 
sike clover is excellent for this purpose. Many of 
these growers would get more out of their cover 
crops by using 500 pounds of lime per acre each 
year. Most of them have been driven to this use of 
cover crops by the high price of manure. 
* 
T HOSE Alfalfa growers of Central New York 
have certainly struck the true principle of sell¬ 
ing their goods. This cooperative work is coming 
with a rush. All these years of preparation and ex¬ 
periment are now yielding fruit. The article on 
the first page is one of many which are to follow. 
Y T ou remember that a few years ago we said this 
question of growing Alfalfa was so important that 
we would not let an issue of The R. N.-Y. go 
without some reference to Alfalfa culture. Now we 
say the same of this work of cooperative buying and 
selling. It has at last become a part of popular 
thought, and nothing can ever stop it. And now 
let us ask—what is there in your county or com¬ 
munity to prevent you organizing as these Alfalfa 
growers have done? 
* 
S INCE we printed that article on rainy-day road 
work (page 1053) we have had many letters 
from farmers who say that is a good statement of 
conditions in their town. The State roads and cer¬ 
tain favored tracks are well kept up at great ex¬ 
pense, but the hill roads and those running to back 
farms are in bad shape. What is the trouble? See 
if you can beat this from a New York farmer! 
I am inclined to think that the situation is like this: 
The big politicians from the cities have found that by 
giving the country representatives these road appro¬ 
priations, they can get them to vote for about anything 
that they want them to. Then us country fellows are 
mightly pleased because our representatives comes home 
with a bundle of money to be used in our community. 
There does not seem to be much use in scolding the 
supervisor or road officers under the present system. 
Are they not doing just what the voters and tax¬ 
payers make them do? Who can ever change the 
system except those same voters and taxpayers? 
* 
On August 27 a man came back in the field where I 
was plowing, to see me. lie introduced himself as Mr. 
Whiting, the proprietor, from the Whiting Nursery 
Company. He showed me the orders he had taken 
from my neighbors. Some who ordered have, been farm¬ 
ing for several years. He said that a neighbor who 
knew I wanted to buy some fruit trees, had sent him 
here. As we are in need of fruit trees I gave him my 
order, which amounted to $30.50 at his figures. The 
order consisted of pear, cherry, prune, plum, peach 
and shade trees, averaging about 85 cents each. He 
recommended them to be very choice and fancy, and 
guaranteed every tree to be true to name and all right. 
This is my first year farming, and I did not know what 
the prices should be but have heard since that the va¬ 
rieties are not as good as the more common varieties, 
and that the price is much too high, lie gave me a 
copy of the hill, and it says that the order is not sub¬ 
ject to countermand. I am to receive the trees next 
April or May. Can I countermand this order, or will 
I have to take the trees and pay for them when they 
come? What would you advise? L. c. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
ET us think of this for a moment. Here is a 
farmer close to Geneva, where a dozen reliable 
nurserymen would sell these trees for less than half 
what Whiting demands. We have again and again 
exposed this scheme of Whiting’s, and on the very 
week in which this order was given we had a long 
article describing a case in which Whiting attempt¬ 
ed to deliver an order which had been counter¬ 
manded ! We think that when a farmer signs a 
contract for goods, he should live up to it unless 
lie can show that the order was obtained through 
fraud or misrepresentation, or in case of circum¬ 
stances which make it impossible for him to use 
the goods. Was there any misrepresentation in this 
case? We do not know just what Whiting prom¬ 
ised or what he said about these trees. In former 
cases he has made statements about his stock as 
reported to us, which were clearly exaggerated and 
which could be classed as misrepresentation. If he 
sold you these trees on the claim that they are insect 
or disease proof he misrepresented them. The va¬ 
rieties he has formerly offered have not been su¬ 
perior to others. You could probably buy this out¬ 
fit of trees for $15 less than Whiting charges you. 
The truth is that you never should have signed 
any such contract after all we have said about 
Whiting. We regard him as the slickest proposi¬ 
tion that ever came along the road—the king pin of 
tree agents—the most brilliant exponent of guff 
and gall. We are frank to say that we never did 
think another reader of The R. N.-Y. would be hyp¬ 
notized by Whiting after all the words we have 
printed on his back! 
* 
H ERE is the situation regarding the old, long- 
established apple buyers and the auction sales. 
Last week at the first auction these dealers did little 
bidding and no buying. At the second sale they be¬ 
gan to realize the situation, and bid more and 
bought some fruit. At the third sale in Syracuse 
they kept away. These auction sales will continue 
in New York City and possibly in the orchards. 
These dealers will continue to bid and to buy more 
and more. Necessity will compel them to do so, 
because if they refuse to patronize the auctions 
newer buyers will step in and secure the trade and 
the profits. The older dealers now face the choice 
of buying at the auction or being elbowed out of the 
market for this fine fruit. They must buy where 
the apples are offered for sale, and they will not 
quit the business. Moreover, even if they were to 
obtain a supply elsewhere they must buy in these 
auction markets to protect themselves. They dare 
not let their competitors buy this choice fruit for 
less than they must pay for their own supplies. 
Should they do this by staying away from the auc¬ 
tions the newer buyers, now entering the field, will 
be able to undersell them and take their customers 
away. There is a great wave of advertising for 
New York apples coming, which will cause a mighty 
demand for this fruit which no other apples will 
satisfy. Turn in any way they will, these pouting 
and grumbling apple buyers are defeated in their 
efforts to discredit and stop the auction sales. They 
will have to come out and buy in the open, for they 
now realize that the growers are determined to 
carry this method through. When these buyers be¬ 
come used to the new system they will wonder why 
they ever opposed it. They will realize how they 
might have held the confidence and good will of the 
grower if they had volunteered to help the auction 
plan instead of fighting it. Let the apples flow to 
the auction market and all the buyers, old, new, 
large and small will be floated with the tide and 
forced to follow. The sulkers and hold-backs have 
no choice. They must buy at the auction or step 
out and hand their fruit business over to those who 
will do so. The growers now have the situation in 
their own hands. 
* 
“What i-s their little game anyway!” 
HAT is what people asked us at the time the 
Luther Burbank Society was sending out its 
rose-tinted guff and asking people to join the im¬ 
mortals by becoming a “life member.” We did not 
know what the game was, hut it is being developed 
now. All capital stock in this Burbank Society has 
been assessed one dollar per share! There are lia¬ 
bilities of $73,023.58! Among the “assets” is the 
item of $287,500 as “value of the exclusive right to 
use the name of Luther Burbank and to distribute 
his horticultural productions.” The "little game” 
seems to have been the same as that of the shell- 
game man—a run for your dollar. You had the run 
after the society of Burbank and then you give up 
your dollar! What a farce the whole thing was. 
How they did play on the vanity of hundreds of 
men and women who ought to have known better. 
The Burbank Society! A seat in it has proved just 
about as satisfactory as a seat on a bunch of dried 
burdocks! 
* 
T HE papers are well filled with praise of Senator 
Eliliu Root of New York for his speech before 
the constitutional convention. The Senator paid his 
respects to the “invisible government” which we all 
know existed at Albany and in every other place— 
down to the village four corners. A few strong and 
scheming men get together and dictate politics. 
They pull the strings and the common people dance 
September IS, 1915. 
like puppets. They do not always dance willingly, 
for the hard places on the road hurt their feet, but 
they have danced because the leaders of their party 
either pulled the strings or remained silent. There 
are a few of us who 15 years ago said the same things 
that Senator Root said this week. We did not say 
them as well as he did, and they were not as popu¬ 
lar then as now. but we tried to do pioneer work 
in those days. Here is the question! What would 
have happened if Senator Root had made his great 
speech at the time Gov. Hughes was having his 
desperate fight with the Legislature? The “invis¬ 
ible government” was never more dangerous or 
powerful than at that time. If men like Senator 
Root had come out against it then would the plain 
people have been better off today? We think so, 
even though the man who fought openly might have 
been beaten and driven into political exile. Some¬ 
times the man in exile is greater than the man upon 
the throne. 
* 
N OW comes another story about American po¬ 
tash. This time the statement is that an 
American chemist has discovered a cheap and easy 
way of making feldspar available. There have been 
so many of these reports that when a new one ap¬ 
pears we feel much like the people when the boy 
called “Wolf! Wolf!” It is usually a false alarm. 
This story is the most plausible one yet, but our 
standard advice is to pay no money out for potash 
either direct or as any investment until the experi¬ 
ment stations guarantee it as “water soluble” and 
as cheap as the German salts. 
* 
W E want a full discussion of the Alfalfa hay 
problem brought up by Mr. McCampbell on 
page 1130. Evidently after we learn how to grow 
this crop properly we must learn how to handle and 
cure the hay. In our humid Atlantic coast climate, 
especially in a season like the present, hay-making 
becomes a tough proposition. We know of some 
cases where instead of cutting the green corn for 
Summer feeding, farmers have cut and fed the 
green Alfalfa, because the cornstalks could be cured 
or put into the silo easier. Alfalfa is best for hay, 
and we all want to know how to make high-class hay 
out of it. Therefore we call for experience—not 
theory. The latter can be made out of dreams— 
but experience must come from work. 
* 
“Make a peach of yourself!” 
HAT is good advice for any day of the year, but 
it comes in italics during the week beginning 
September 13. This is “peach week” in New York 
and every effort will be made to induce consumers to 
buy and eat peaches. There is an immense crop in 
the country and much of it will be wasted unless 
consumption can be increased. This peach week 
should not be confined to the large cities. There are 
hundreds of small towns where people rarely taste 
a good peach because these smaller markets have 
been overlooked in distribution. The peach cam¬ 
paign should include these smaller places. And fol¬ 
low your own advice by eating all the peaches you 
can at home. 
* 
T HE U. S. Geological Survey tells how two boys 
at play in an Idaho cave discovered a deposit 
of nitrate: 
In the Spring of 1914 the young sons of George D. 
Huntley, whose ranch lies in the canyon of Sucker 
Creek, were playing in a small cave at the base of 
a cliff in the canyon about half a mile below their 
home. Having started a fire in the cave, they were 
surprised to find that some of the white material at 
the back of the cave and in the crevices of the rock 
took fire and burned vigorously. About the same time 
1). .1. Sullivan, of Ilomedale, recognized some nitrate 
deposits in the canyon of Jump Creek. Only a small 
quantity of the material was found, but a strip of 
brown paper dipped in a solution of the substance and 
then dried and burned indicated by its sputtering the 
presence of a nitrate. 
Investigations show that deposits of these nitrates 
are tucked away here and there in Western deserts 
and mountains. Those thus far discovered are small 
and hard to get at. Few, if any of them, will pay 
to work at the present price of nitrogen, but they 
show what may yet be found in the future and the 
government should never let up in its search for 
nitrogen and potash deposits. 
Brevities. 
Let us try to make this lime discussion complete. 
What more can we give? 
A light frost in Genesee Co., N. Y., August 30. Lit¬ 
tle damage done—but it gives a nervous feeling. 
Pack down the silage hard. Many a batch is ruined 
by leaving it too loose so that air works in. 
The New Jersey Experiment Station suggests the 
following mixture of grass seeds for a permanent pas¬ 
ture : Timothy eight pounds, Red-top four pounds, Ken¬ 
tucky Blue grass six pounds, meadow fescue two 
pounds, Red clover four pounds, Alsike two pounds. 
