1248 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE nr31 NESS FAN.VER S PAPER 
A. National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* * 
Established 1850 
Published weekly by the Rural Piiblisblnte Company, 3.1.1 West 80th Street, New York 
Hkkbkht W. Coluxowood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8 s. 6 d., or 
marks, or 10 V$ franca Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Oflicc 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 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 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- 
Yokkkr when writing the advertiser. 
T AKE a walk over the farm this Fall and see 
how the cover crops are sprouting up. It is 
one of the compensations for this wet season to no¬ 
tice how the clover has taken hold. The buckwheat 
is about done, but the rye is coming on, and the Al- 
sike and Crimson clover have already fully paid for 
the seed. It is comforting to realize that these in¬ 
visible forces are at work in the orchard, so that 
by next May w r e shall have the equivalent in or¬ 
ganic matter of 10 loads of stable manure on each 
acre—put there without fuss or labor. The great¬ 
est need of our soil is organic matter—the next 
being lime—and the cover crop, working while the 
soil would otherwise be idle, is the easiest and 
cheapest way to obtain it. All up and down the 
Hudson Valley and East the cover crop in the or¬ 
chard is becoming as common as spraying. A great 
tiling. 
* 
W HEREVER there is a quarry of limestone 
there should be one or a dozen or more lime- 
crushers put at work. While not as necessary as 
water, lime come next in importance for thousands 
of acres of our Eastern soils. They cannot respond 
properly to manuring or fertilizing until they are 
limed. It will not do to say that lime is all they 
need, but they cannot respond to the best treat¬ 
ment until they have been limed freely and thor¬ 
oughly. Most farmers cannot depend on burned 
lime. The cost of fuel for burning is high, and 
many farmers cannot, or will not, pay the price. 
Crush the lime near them and they will come for 
it, or they will club together and buy a crusher as 
they would a thrashing or silo-filling outfit. That 
is the most sensible way to encourage the use of 
lime wherever there are deposits of limestone. 
There should be no great argument over the merits 
of burned lime or ground limestone. Use lime in 
some form and if the limestone is near at hand and 
fuel not plentiful the crusher shows the way out. 
* 
T HE trespassing season is here and we have 
many requests for a proper sign with which to 
post the farm. Anything which expresses your de¬ 
sire for strangers to keep off will answer. You 
can be polite or otherwise as you please. 
Keep Off The Premises! 
No Trespassing Permitted. 
Private Property—Keep Out. 
No Hunting On This Farm. 
Please Respect My Property. 
This Farm Belongs to Me—Oct Out! 
We have seen these and many more in use—■ 
signed by the owner. Any of them will serve 
as notice that hunters and wanderers are not wanted 
on your property. If possible get all your neigh¬ 
bors to join with you in posting their farms. The 
local printer can print large numbers of such signs 
and sell them at a low figure. It will also be a 
good plan for you and your neighbors to sign a 
short note stating that your farms are posted and 
that you will not permit trespassing. Print this in 
the county or local paper. You will then be ready 
to go ahead as advised in the article on page 1214. 
The thing to remember is that your farm belongs 
to you, and that you will have fewer and fewer 
rights of ownership unless you stand up and pro¬ 
tect those you now have. 
* 
M ANY of the reports from the European war 
contain items like the following: 
“After a heavy bombardment the enemy retired, 
and we occupied a new position in a large orchard .” 
Day after day such reports have been sent over 
the world, and they are particularly interesting to 
our fruit growers. After a modern bombardment 
an orchard would be little but a hole in the ground, 
with all prospect for fruit blasted out. It does not 
TIT ED RURAL NEW-YORKER 
seem to be generally understood that fierce fighting 
has been going on through some of the best apple¬ 
growing sections of Europe. Where once was found 
the great apple barrel of Germany and France may 
now be seen only a wilderness of ruined forts, 
tangled wire and dead men’s graves! It will be 20 
years and more after the war before these apple 
orchards can be expected to provide Europe with 
fruit. In the meantime the other apple growing 
sections of the world must take care of the market. 
Thus the future for the export trade in good apples 
is surer than that of other farm products because 
plain bread and meat are matters for one year 
or a few at most, while an apple orchard means 20 
years of waiting! 
* 
T HE dealers and trade papers are working over¬ 
time to show that the auction market is a fail¬ 
ure. They know better, and if they had a glimmer¬ 
ing of wisdom they would see what their foolish 
policy is leading them to. The “Fruitman’s Guide - ’ 
recently printed the following as coming from a 
commission man: 
Mr. Dillon is getting just enough peaches to un¬ 
balance the whole market, and take the first keen edge 
off trading. A great many buyers wait till Dillon’s 
peaches have been sold and take those prices as estab¬ 
lishing the market, with a consequent detriment to 
values on peaches sold on the docks or out of the stores. 
The strange thing is that such men cannot see 
that such talk advertises the auction and brings 
buyers to it. Men who want fruit come and find 
good produce sold fairly and openly with no “come¬ 
back” or special privilege to anyone. These city 
dealers become convinced, just as the growers do, 
that they can live and do business without the com¬ 
mission men and large buyers. The growers found 
that out at the auctions, and now the retailers are 
learning the same thing. As for prices, on the 
next page are auction quotations of $4.20 and $4.15 
per barrel for fine fruit. Mr. Ditchings made an 
auction sale at $.‘>.40, and others have over $2 per 
barrel in the orchard. One day with another, the 
fruit at auction will bring as much as at private 
sale. Considering the grade it will, in the long run, 
bring a little more, and the expense of selling is 
less and returns prompt. Not only this, but every 
carload sent to the auction is a new declaration of 
independence for fruit growers. This benefit does 
not go to the large growers entirely. We have a 
great volume of evidence to prove what lias been 
done. It is not bluff and bluster, but conservative 
estimates of responsible men like the following: 
There is no doubt in my mind that the auction fixed 
a standard price for the smaller growers, and they and 
not the large growers we.re the most benefited. They, 
I am sure, received a better figure due wholly to the 
auction. josepii e. iiasbrouck, jr. 
We intend to prove this so thoroughly and con¬ 
clusively that no one can deny it The auction sys¬ 
tem, just as an experiment, hurriedly organized with 
little money to work with, lias already saved the 
fruit growers of New York at least $2,000,000! 
* 
O NE of the thoughtful things brought out by v Dr. 
Galloway in his excellent statement on the first 
page is the fact that our agricultural colleges are 
no longer dominated in thought by farm-raised 
hoys. At Cornell it appears that 84 per cent, of the 
students come from town and city—without farm 
training. At the secondary farm school at Canton, 
N. Y., the incoming class contain 20 hoys from cities 
and 10 from towns, while from farms there are but 
10, or but a little over 30 per cent. The Farm Bu¬ 
reau Monthly of Jefferson Co., gives this comment: 
We believe that this condition reflects discredit on 
the fathers and mothers of the farm boys of this sec¬ 
tion. Here at hand we have opportunities for prac¬ 
tically free education along the lines of agriculture and 
home-making, and still our boys and girls grow up to 
maturity handicapped because they have failed to re¬ 
ceive instructions in the rudiments of a profession they 
are to follow for a livelihood. The fault lies with the 
parents. 
Perhaps these fathers and mothers, if they were 
asked about it, might say something about the col¬ 
leges and what they teach, but we are now talking 
about the evident fact that town people rather than 
farmers are patronizing these colleges, and are thus 
likely to dominate them. It is evident that most 
of these town-bred boys do not intend to become 
farmers as we understand the occupation. The 
college gives them a chance to obtain a strong 
general education without great cost. That sort 
of an education will be of service to them in any 
line of work, but it cannot possibly make farmers 
out of them without the foundation of solid, prac¬ 
tical hand labor. Therein lies the danger in filling 
our agricultural collegesvwith town and city boys 
who never milked a cow or harnessed a horse. Iu 
time, through sheer force of numbers and desires, 
they will dominate the spirit and the teaching of the 
institution. That will mean future teachers com¬ 
October 16, 1915. 
ing out of the laboratory, with little sympathy for 
the troubles of actual farming. It may also mean a 
college so sterilized by science that the germ of old- 
fashioned country living cannot develop. Any way 
you look at it, the time has come to sound a dan¬ 
ger signal. Farmers—do not let these colleges slip 
out of your hands! 
* 
W HILE there is nothing yet to indicate that 
the end of the European war is in sight, 
American business men are considering what may 
follow. European nations will, without doubt, 
strive in every way to recover lost trade. This may 
lead to “unfair competition”—that is, dumping cheap 
goods here in an effort to drive our own dealers and 
manufacturers out of business. Secretary of Com¬ 
merce Redfield has written a letter about this in 
which he says: 
If the question arises as to the attitude of the De¬ 
partment of Commerce toward what is called “dump¬ 
ing” after the war shall end, you may say that I shall 
recommend in my annual report that unfair competi¬ 
tion from abroad shall not be .permitted to injure a 
legitimate American industry any more than it is per¬ 
mitted to do so in our domestic field. Especially I 
shall oppose action on the part of any foreign monopoly 
toward controlling the American market by unfair 
competition in an attempt to injure or destroy an 
American industry. The more serious question to 
which consideration is being given is as to the method 
of doing it. I am considering the methods used in dif¬ 
ferent countries, with a frank preference for such as 
have nothing to do with tariffs or duties. I should be 
very glad to receive suggestions from practical com¬ 
mercial men as to the most efficient means of detecting 
and preventing this unfair competition. 
WM. C. REDFIELD. 
This affords a chance for people to tell Mr. Red¬ 
field what they think about it. Is there any effective 
remedy except a high tariff? 
* 
T HIS year a farmer attended the New York State 
Fair after an absence of eight years. Of course 
the immense size of the show impressed him, but 
among other things he wanted to know what has 
become of the windmills, weeders, manure spreaders, 
potato diggers and concrete block machines? The 
last time he went to the fair the air in several acres 
seemed alive with whirling windmills, while manure 
spreaders by the score were exhibited. Now not a 
windmill was in sight and only one manure spreader 
on the ground. What has happened? The gasoline 
engine has blown the windmill into retirement. It 
is strange, too, how this cheap and efficient power 
lias marched off the stage. We have one still at 
work after 15 years’ active service, but it is too 
slow and too dependent on the wind for the boys. 
We think the windmill will come back some day, 
but at present it is in retirement. The weeder, too, 
seems to have taken a back seat This never should 
have happened, for these scratching teeth will still 
make a meal of a million young weeds before break¬ 
fast. As for the manure spreader, manufacturers 
seem to think that no further argument is necessary 
to convince a farmer that the machine is a neces¬ 
sity. Time and trial cuts out the farm tools. They 
will have their “run” like a new fashion, but in the 
end it is a survival of the best. Farmers buy more 
wisely than they used to, and have better facilities 
for deciding what they need. New needs bring new 
machines. See how the practice of seeding cover 
crops has brought out new seeders, and how the 
lime discussions have evolved lime drills and 
spreaders! 
Brevities. 
The oil used for fuel on the California coast equals 
the service of 21,000,000 tons of coal. 
The story comes from England of a man who secured 
free expressage for a goat by writing on the label, 
"Please pass the butter.” 
The State has not the right to take your land, or 
injure it, for a State highway without paying you for 
the damage. You cannot compel them to rebuild what 
they tear down, but the cost of rebuilding it would be 
an element in considering your damage. 
Can anyone tell where Soy bean meal can be bought 
iu this country? It is quite largely used for feeding 
stock in Europe and England, but we doubt if any 
large quantity lias ever been bought here or ground here. 
Most of the Soy bean crop goes into the silo or hay 
mow. 
The general rule is that one who places improve¬ 
ments on real property of which he is not the owner, 
without some understanding or agreement regarding 
payment for them, loses his interest in them when 
he moves off the place, as they become part of the 
realty. 
Here they come again in large numbers asking how 
to measure ear corn in the crib or bin. Find the num¬ 
ber of cubic inches in the bin. Divide this by 2747.7—• 
the number of inches in a heaped bushel! On the 
average 70 pounds of ears will make one bushel of 
shelled corn. 
The North Dakota Experiment Station advises a 
poison for gophers. Complaint was made that this 
poison killed prairie chickens. The station offers $10 
to anyone who can produce evidence that a single 
prairie chicken has been killed by this poison when 
made as directed. 
