1164 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
\ .Nntloniil Weekly Journal for Country nml Suburban Home* 
Established tsso 
Ciitilistiod weekly by tbp Itfirnl Piibli.hlnir Compnny. BliS Wnt 30th Street, New Yorb 
Herbert W. Coi.ungwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
IVw. F . Dillon, Secretary. Mas. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $ 2 . 0 *. equal to *s. 6d., or 
marks, or 10*4 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 this paper is hacked hy 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 bo publicly exposed. We arc 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 
o(!irc.s to this end, but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but wo will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned bv the courts. 
Notice of tile 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 INCE the publication of those articles on “Lime 
and Liming” started, we have had many letters 
about this subject. We felt that most of our read¬ 
ers understood this lime question fully, but every 
day brings additional lime problems to be answered. 
Our readers know what they want better than we 
do, and we shall therefore keep up the lime discus¬ 
sions. There are also questions about phosphorus— 
its use and the action of various forms. In fact 
(lie time seems to have come for a thorough and 
simple discussion of the fertilizer question. 
* 
T HE New York State Fair has become a great 
exposition—all out of the power of the average 
sight-seer to examine the exhibits thoroughly in 
less than a week. A student in fruit growing could 
well spend an entire day in studying the fruit ex¬ 
hibits alone. Another day might well be spent in 
going over the work of the State educational and 
charitable institutions. The crowds are enormous, 
but so well scattered through the large buildings 
that there is little discomfort. There was a spirited 
contest between the fruit growing counties for best 
collection of fruit. It was finally won by Ulster 
County. A remarkable thing about this exhibit was 
the fact that out of 28 parties who contributed the 
fruit, 16 were firms including sons of older grow¬ 
ers. It was a great exposition—too large to de¬ 
scribe properly—and there is already a demand that 
it, he made a permanent museum—open through the 
entire year. 
* 
H ARDLY a day passes without a letter from 
some reader who wants to know the truth 
about a hog cholera remedy. The country appears 
to be full of people who are trying to sell these 
remedies to farmers. Some of them are regular 
rainbow chasers in the stories they tell about their 
own wonders. One of them is largely advertised 
through Central Illinois. We sent the circulars 
about this remedy to the Bureau of Animal Indus¬ 
try, and we received the following note: 
According to information we have, this remedy is a 
drug or combination of drugs. With regard to such 
hug cholera remedies, I would say that as far as we 
know no drug or combination of .drugs can be relied 
upon to protect hogs against hog cholera or to cure 
those animals affected with this disease. 
We believe this is a good basis to work on in 
dealing with these remedies, and our standard ad¬ 
vice is not to bother with them in any way until 
they are fully endorsed by the experiment station 
and the Department of Agriculture. You may say 
what you will about the work of these institutions, 
hut no one will ever accuse them of moving too 
fast, and about the surest thing on earth is the fact 
that they will not endorse a proposition of this 
sort until it is right. 
* 
W E have had many complaints regarding the 
treatment of parcel post shipments of eggs. 
There are frequent breakages and a number of 
readers have written that they have abandoned the 
practice of mailing eggs, as their customers were 
dissatisfied. Several readers ask us to join a gen¬ 
eral crusade for better mail service for eggs. Cru¬ 
sades are in our line, and we immediately wrote 
the Postmaster-General at Washington. As a result 
we have this reply: 
I have your letter of September 3rd stating that you 
are in receipt of complaints by every mail that pack¬ 
ages of eggs sent by parcel post are not properly 
handled, resulting in the breakage of the eggs and com¬ 
plaints from the public. 
You inquire if the Department is making any effort 
to improve the service. In reply I have to say that 
all complaints of damage to parcels containing eggs or 
other articles are very carefully investigated, and the 
proper action is taken to remedy the trouble when 
found to be chargeable in any way to tin 1 postal service. 
It may be stated that eggs are being successfully 
shipped by parcel post and that the complaints which 
reach the Department do not indicate that there is 
THE RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
any general carelessness in the handling of such pack¬ 
ages or damage to the contents thereof. 
I shall be pleased to have you furnish me with de¬ 
tailed information regarding damage to parcel post 
packages containing eggs, in order that an investiga¬ 
tion of the matter may bo made. c. f. stone. 
Acting General Superintendent. 
That puts the matter just where it ought to go. 
Mr. Stone puts up a target and will be pleased to 
have any of you throw broken or injured eggs at it. 
Now gentlemen, come forward with your broken 
eggs if you have them. Eggs have chased many a 
bad actor off the stage. If any of the mail clerks 
have played baseball with your eggs and you know 
it—here is your chance to pitch a few curved eggs 
at Mr. Stone—and hatch out an investigation. 
* 
O VER in Pennsylvania thousands of farmers are 
watching this battle for auction markets in 
New York. Our correspondence sho\Vs that these 
Pennsylvania farmers are asking themselves, “ Why 
can xcc not have such legislation in out' State so that 
a direct fight for better markets can he made?” 
Nothing better can happen to the farmers of Penn¬ 
sylvania than to keep on asking that question until 
it answers itself. In no other way can it be an¬ 
swered. A question oft repeated lives in the minds 
of the people or dies out as it is sensible and worthy 
or foolish and unworthy. That is the only way to 
test it, and if it survives the test it becomes a part 
of popular thought. After that there is no stopping 
or resisting it. We can tell those Pennsylvania 
farmers the two foundation essentials of any success 
in improving marketing conditions. There must be 
patient and persistent men who can make the plain 
people think, and unconsciously put an element of 
sentiment and public service into a business propo¬ 
sition. It may take years to do it, and there will be 
times of depression and disappointment, I but there 
must be men who never lose heart, always keep 
cheerful—always keep inching along with perfect 
confidence and faith in the plain people. These 
men must be educators and must not hunt political 
jobs while they are leading. Such men make sound 
public sentiment, and there will not be much use 
in passing agricultural legislation until people have 
thought out the proposition. And that is only part 
of it. A law without a strong man to enforce it is 
weaker than a license. Thousands of times in the 
history of this country have the politicians been 
whipped into giving laws to the people only to crip¬ 
ple them at the last touch. Sometimes they give 
the law and then kill it by failing to provide any 
means for enforcing it. This has been done in New 
York again and again. Or they will give the law 
and then put it in charge of some “safe” perfunctory 
windbag or some compromiser who is simply there 
to draw his salary and hold on to liis job. Every 
law which aims to improve marketing conditions 
for farmers means that the man who enforces it 
must fight graft and prejudice and make bitter ene¬ 
mies, or fall down and let the middlemen walk over 
him in contempt. Two sets of men are needed for 
work of this sort—true educators and real fighters. 
Both classes can be found for the battle in Penn¬ 
sylvania, and now is the time to find them and set 
them at work. 
* 
T HE Sailor’s Snug Harbor is an institution for 
old seamen—located on Staten Island. It has 
a large income from rentals of city property. Years 
ago, before New York became a big city, a good- 
sized farm was given to the “Harbor.” This is now 
covered by 10 large blocks in the business heart of 
the city. There are at least 100 liquor saloons in 
this territory—yielding a large income as rent. 
The trustees of the “Harbor” have now decided that 
no liquor shall be sold within the limits of their 
property. When the present saloon leases expire 
they will never be renewed! This will lie the larg¬ 
est “dry” area in New York, except possibly Central 
Park! This is the sort of prohibition which, we 
believe, is surely coming. When institutions and in¬ 
dividuals decide to reject money which carries 
the stain aud odor of liquor we have the most ef¬ 
fective form of temperance, because it means sac¬ 
rifice. We have been passing through a period of 
history where people have willingly accepted dirty or 
compromised money with the promise to “clean” it. 
They have seldom done so, and now the idea of 
stopping the circulation of unclean money at the 
beginning is gaining ground. This is the most hope¬ 
ful part of the light against liquor and other public 
evils, and we believe it will grow stronger and 
stronger. 
* 
A T the recent meeting of the New Jersey State 
Board of Agriculture Senator Frelinghuysen, 
president of the Board, made a very clear state¬ 
ment of the legislative needs of New Jersey farm¬ 
ers. At the present time there is no responsible, or¬ 
September 25, 191?. 
ganized head for carrying out or enfoi’cing farm 
legislation. The history of the foot-and-mouth dis¬ 
ease in New Jersey is a good illustration. The last 
Legislature passed a bill for the reorganization of 
the State Board. Had it become a law the farmers 
of the State would have had the power to select 
the men who would direct and enforce farm legisla¬ 
tion. It was the most comprehensive law for the 
regulation of agricultural matters ever proposed in 
this country, and admirably suited to the condition 
of New Jersey. It was vetoed by Governor Fielder 
largely because it took the machinery of the new 
Agricultural Department out of the hands of poli¬ 
ticians and gave the farmers a chance to select their 
own representatives. There should now be started, 
in every rural county of New Jersey, a hot cam¬ 
paign for this new law. Make every candidate for 
the Legislature say yes or no regarding his stand 
on it. Put it through the Legislature with bells on 
it, and then carry the battle right up to Gov. 
Fielder. The New Jersey farmers need to get to¬ 
gether on a stirring issue. Here it is. Let us all 
get behind it. 
* 
A GOOD many apple growers in New York have 
sent us questions like the following. 
Would a person have a right under the present apple 
law to ship apples in barrels other than the size fixed 
in said law? Many small farmers in this section have 
small orchards and they have a fine crop of fruit this 
season. Heretofore we have been able to ship what we 
had for sale in flour barrels if we could not obtain the 
regular apple barrel, which is very expensive up here. 
The flour barrels we could save up from year to year 
and buy a few from the stores. Assuming the shipper 
and buyer were both agreed on the size of the barrels, 
would there be any violation of the law in shipping 
in the flour barrels? 
In order to have a final statement on this point 
the question was sent to the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture at Albany. It seems that the New York law 
regarding the size of packages is to he enforced by 
the Department of Weights and Measures. Now we 
have the following from the superintendent of that 
department: 
Where a “barrel” of apples is sold, the barrel must 
be of the standard size *as fixed by the law of the State 
of New York. The first day of July, 1916, the new 
Federal standard barrel law goes into effect. Under 
the provisions of this law, barrels for fruit and vege¬ 
tables must be of the capacity of 7056 cubic inches. 
Any size container may be used in this State for the 
shipment of apples if the cubical contents are perman¬ 
ently and conspicuously marked on the side or top of 
such container. (I do not refer to the “grade” mark¬ 
ing, which must also appear.) joiin f. farbell, 
Superintendent. 
Thus we understand that if you ship in flour bar¬ 
rels you must mark “conspicuously” on the side or 
top the number of cubic inches which it contains. 
* 
U P to September 12, out of the 1.000 hens in the 
egg-laying contest the leaders were grouped as 
follows—316 days from the start. 
ICgKS 
Rhode Island Rod (Vermont) . 229 
Barred Rock (Connecticut) . 223 
White Wyandotte (“Tilly”) . 220 
White Leghorn (Connecticut) . 220 
White Wyandotte (England) . 216 
White Leghorn (Connecticut) . 212 
White Leghorn (New York) . 212 
White Leghorn (Ohio) . 212 
Thus our “Favorite Hen” Tilly stands third among 
the full 1,000 hens. The Barred Rock with 223 and 
tlie White Leghorn with 220 are both owned by the 
Connecticut Agricultural College, and are not in 
the regular competition. “Tilly” has laid 220 eggs 
in 2S1 days. Is this remarkable lien an “accident,” 
or does she represent a “strain” or family produced 
on a plain farm by a careful lieu woman? We in¬ 
cline to the latter opinion, but we shall know more 
about it next year when Mrs. Stevens will enter a 
full peu of the nieces of Tilly. When we started 
this favorite hen contest some of the experts called 
it a joke. We expected to find in this way one or 
more farm flocks of superior quality. We have 
found at least eight such flocks—very far above the 
average! 
Brevities. 
Tiie middle of September brought a sample of con¬ 
densed Summer. 
Fit yourself to bear the burdens of others by bearing 
your own bravely and silently. 
The great Pan-American is the frying pan. May 
there ever be a chicken for it. 
This plan of killing woodchucks and canning them 
for Winter chicken feed is a good one to consider. 
Thus far 76 of those “stout boys” have applied for 
jobs on the farm and six farmers have asked for stout 
boys. 
You can put it down as a sure thing that more 
peaches and vegetables have been home canned this 
year than ever before. 
The formalin treatment for smut is mostly sug¬ 
gested for oats blit it pays on rye. Sprinkle the seed 
with a solution of one pint formalin in 40 gallons of 
water. Keep the seed in a pile for two hours, then 
spread and dry. 
