1328 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* * 
Established 1850 
Published weekly hr Ibe Rural Publishing Company, *33 West 30th Street, New Vorti 
Herbert W. Colling wood. President and Editor. 
Jons J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wk. F. Dilion, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koyle, Associa te Editor, 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.01, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or 101* 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 backed by a respon¬ 
sible jierson. 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 alRO often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our go6d 
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 or the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
R EADERS often tell us that they are able to 
buy large quantities of sawdust, ashes, lime 
waste, factory products or other material which 
may be useful as fertilizer. What is it worth? At 
one time a man telegraphed us from Texas to know 
the fertilizing value of several carloads of burned 
wheat. When these lots are small we give an average 
analysis, carefully stating that it must he consid¬ 
ered in the line of a guess—because such samples 
vary greatly. When the quantity obtainable is a 
large one we advise taking fair samples and having 
them analysed by some good chemist. That is the 
only way to know what you are doing when you 
buy. 
* 
P OTATO DAY! Our suggestion is that this hol¬ 
iday be established for 365 days of each year, 
with one day extra for leap year. No use going 
without potatoes 364 days in order to celebrate on 
one occasion. Potato is the great, plain, substantial 
food of the temperate zone. The world wonders at 
the stout resistance which the German nation has 
made. The big potato crop has enabled her to do 
it—for the potato has furnished food for man and 
beast, alcohol for power and light and other ne¬ 
cessities as well. In this country we have not half 
begun to utilize the potato as we should. Begin 
now by making every day potato day! Pass up the 
baked potato and butter and salt! 
* 
T HE farm bureaus can help farmers if they are 
properly bandied. Here is what one in Ne¬ 
braska did: 
Here is a bit of information that may be worth many 
good hard dollars to some of your readers if passed on 
to them. This Summer a gun-stock manufacturer’s 
agent came through here buying Black walnut trees. 
He offered about $20 per thousand feet delivered at 
freight car. Our county agent thought that too cheap, 
so he proceeded to get busy, and soon found a market 
for all that could be supplied at from $40 to $145 per 
thousand, according to diameter and condition of the 
logs. J. ii. tubbs. 
Nebraska. 
The selling problem Is the hardest for farmers to 
work out. They can often take advantage of com¬ 
petition when they are buying, but too often they 
must take just what is offered them. It is a good 
thing when they are able to sell their goods as other 
interests do. 
* 
A NY American who is capable of thought must 
know that at the close of the European war a 
fierce industrial battle for the world’s markets will 
begin. The nations now at war will face terrible 
problems of debt and reconstruction. They must 
provide food for their people and labor for the men 
now fighting in the army. They must all, with the 
possible exception of Russia, build up an export 
trade in raw materials or manufactured goods. 
There will be a fierce struggle for the markets of 
this country, and every means which the human 
mind can devise will be employed in an effort to 
flood this country with European and Asiatic goods. 
Such a revolution as is coming will upset all our 
present trade and tariff laws, and our present meth¬ 
od of changing or adjusting the tariff will he found 
inadequate to take care of the situation. We need 
now, as never before, a strong tariff commission to 
handle this great problem. Our idea of a tariff 
commission is a group of men as strong in their 
way as members of the Supreme Court. All lines 
of business should be represented—agriculture, 
transportation, manufacturing, mining and the pro¬ 
fessions. This commission should have power to 
regulate and adjust the tariff—at least as great as 
that given the Interstate Commerce Commission 
over railroad service. The making of a new tariff 
should be taken out of Congress and placed, as far 
as possible, in the hands of this strong commission. 
In that way tariff changes could be made quickly 
THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
if need be, and one item could he taken at a time 
and settled fairly and scientifically. As it is un¬ 
der the present system, it is never possible to ob¬ 
tain a fair tariff bill, because politics come into the 
discussion, and one interest is played off against 
another for private advantage. The Interstate Com¬ 
merce Commission takes care of the transportation 
problem far better than Congress ever did. No one 
would advocate a return to the old plan of fighting 
all these railroad battles in Congress. A tariff com¬ 
mission would in like manner take the tariff ques¬ 
tion out of Congress and thus out of politics; and 
after a fair trial there never would ho a return to 
the old system. Congress can never frame a satis- 
factory tariff to meet the industrial revolution that 
is coming after the war. A strong tariff commis¬ 
sion empowered to make prompt and needed changes 
or adjustments is the best way of handling the 
situation. 
* 
Among the publications of your State are volumes 
such as “The Apples of New York.” “The Grapes of 
New York,” etc., which are of interest to horticultur¬ 
ists everywhere. It occurs to me that your Legisla¬ 
ture should provide for the sale of these books to im¬ 
mediate users at cost, and prohibit the sale or disposal 
of them to dealers who resell to the public at a profit. 
This method is used in Michigan with regard to “Com¬ 
mon Michigan Birds.” I am buying copies of the 
books on fruit from a hook store at Albany, at $3.75 
per volume, while the bird book, cloth covered, 800 
pages, costs 80 cents. I believe that if more of your 
readers knew about the New York publications with 
their splendid colored plates and descriptions of va¬ 
rieties, there would be a considerable demand, even at 
the dealer’s prices. What can you do to remove the 
suspicion that one cannot help entertaining, namely, 
that there is some profit to the Assemblymen who dis¬ 
pose of books to the dealers? E. n. brown. 
Michigan. 
HERE was no occasion for you to pay such a 
price. The Legislature of 1913 ordered 5,000 
sets of “The Apples of New York” printed. They 
were turned over to the Department of Agriculture 
to be sold at $2 per set of two volumes at the De¬ 
partment or $2.25 delivered. Over 1.100 sets have 
been sold at these prices and there are 3,800 more 
waiting orders. Thus there was no necessity for 
you to pay $7.50 for what the Department charges 
only $2.25. Secretary Wilson now contemplates sell¬ 
ing the “Plums” and “Grapes” of New York in the 
same manner. 
# * 
T HE produce trade papers are constantly at¬ 
tacking the Foods and Markets Department, 
striving in every way to discredit the auction sys¬ 
tem of selling produce. Some of our readers ask 
why we do not reply to these long and hitter at¬ 
tacks. What would be the use in wasting time 
over them? They have only a small circulation 
among farmers, and those who read them under¬ 
stand the situation fully. If you think farmers are 
fooled by such abuse turn back to page 1249 and 
read the letter which Mr. Waite sent, to one of these 
papers. And why should anyone object to their lies 
about the auction sales? With the stupidity of a 
donkey and the blindness of a bat they are doing 
just what the friends of the auction would have 
them do. They do their best to prove that fruit 
sells for less at the auction than at private* sales, 
and of course this brings hundreds of buyers to the 
auctions who would not otherwise come. If these 
papers had kept quiet many buyers would never 
have gone near the auctions at all. but of course 
they go in flocks when they are told that great 
bargains await them. By yelping at the auction 
these papers cut no figure with farmers, while they 
do attract buyers. Reply to them? We would 
rather pay them to keep up their talk. The poor, 
stupid things do not seem to realize the first prin¬ 
ciple of advertising—“// the other fellow will not 
talk about you, hire him to do so!” 
* 
The time has come when the Kansas farmer is ser¬ 
iously interested in some method for securing greater 
economy in the marketing of his live stock, according 
to Theodore Macklin, instructor in rural economics in 
the Kansas State Agricultural College, who advocates 
small packing houses all over the country. 
HAT is true not only of Kansas but of every 
other State in the Union. It is not only true of 
live stock, but of all kinds of farm produce. Mr. 
Macklin makes out a good case for the smaller 
packing house, lie means a plant that can supply 
the local trade within 150 miles. It would cost, in¬ 
cluding the cash for running expenses, from $150,- 
000 to $250,000. The plan does not go back to the 
cld-fashioned country butcher, but to a good-sized 
plant which can take care of local traders and feed¬ 
ers within reasonable distance of it. While such 
plants would be useful in the West, close to the 
cattle producers, they would be doubly useful at 
the East, close to consumers and also close to thou¬ 
sands of acres of idle land—thrown out of business 
by the industrial changes which have monopolized 
meat production. Take for example upper New 
November 0, 1915.' 
England. Maine, in particular, needs diversified 
agriculture—along with dairying and potato grow¬ 
ing—and beef and mutton making could he made 
to pay well with such a packing house as Mr. Mack¬ 
lin advocates organized along cooperative lines. It 
is a good thing to see the colleges waking up to 
help in this great forward movement. If they do 
not get in line they will in the future be ranked 
largely as camp followers and not leaders! 
* 
T HE following news comes from a town in Penn¬ 
sylvania : 
About a year ago one of our local papers established 
a farm department—one page a week devoted to farm¬ 
ers’ interests. The editor of this page had too much 
to say about cooperation, and the better marketing and 
distribution of products, so the retail grocers, etc., 
brought such pressure to bear on the advertising de¬ 
partment that the page was discontinued. 
If any man who deals with the public wants 
to know what fierce opposition means let him advo¬ 
cate any businesslike plan for farmers to get to¬ 
gether and buy and sell cooperatively. The middle¬ 
men and handlers will tear him apart if there is 
any part of him that they can get their hands on. 
The big, general schemes for world-wide coopera¬ 
tion do not bother the handlers. They know very 
well that these big expensive societies will blow apart 
like a sand hill at any real test. The thing that, 
counts is the small, strong, local society cemented 
together by common interest, and fitted with the 
teeth of necessity and the brains of clear under¬ 
standing. Let any local paper, either in New York 
City or Podunk Corners, start any honest and truly 
helpful farm department. As soon as it touches any 
vital problem of saving money in buying or selling 
it must face the storm, go down before it, or open 
its doors and see its very heart blown out. Thus 
it comes that city papers do uot present the farm¬ 
ers’ problem fairly. Nor do they fairly represent 
the city consumers; but they accept the domination 
of the few “business men” who control the city's 
trade in food and other necessities. 
* 
B EING ill the business ourselves we are a little 
shy of all that we read in the newspapers. 
Printer’s ink surely acts like rubber heels on the 
feet of Truth. Not long ago items began to appear 
in the daily papers about some wonderful new va¬ 
rieties of cotton. They grew in natural colors— 
red and bronze with coal black expected. Mr. 
Burbank had nothing to do with this—it was some 
new “wizard.” Our readers began to write asking 
why we did not “boom” this great discovery which 
means so much to the future of the world! Won¬ 
derful things are sometimes done in the brain of a 
newspaper writer, but it is better to dip them into 
the tub of cold facts before recommending them for 
use. This is what the Department of Agriculture 
says about colored cotton. You give the space writer 
in a daily paper some suggestion about farming 
and be will make 100 blades of grass grow where 
none grew before: 
Cotton of many shades of brown, from very light 
buff to a rather deep reddish brown, are found in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the tropics. Some of the varieties of 
Egyptian cotton have a pale huff color, which appears 
in balbriggan underwear. The more deeply colored 
cottons are used for special purposes by the natives 
in Peru and other countries, but there is no large com¬ 
mercial cultivation of any of the deeply colored va¬ 
rieties. The reason is doubtless to be found in the 
fact that the quality of the colored is generally in¬ 
ferior to that of white cotton, being shorter and usually 
weaker. This is also true of variations toward bluish 
or greenish fiber. We have made large numbers of 
selections and hybrids, with a view to securing a satis¬ 
factory colored variety, but so far without results that 
could be recommended for planting. Regarding the 
black cotton, we have only the newspaper reports that 
a South Carolina cotton breeder is undertaking to pro¬ 
duce such a cotton. o. p. cook. 
Brevities. 
Here is a case under our tax laws. Mayor Schieren 
of Brooklyn died, leaving an estate of over two and 
one-half millions. Ills wife died 24 hours later, and 
as she inherited under his will a large share of the 
property the estate was taxed twice. 
The apple seems to be starting up everywhere all 
over the world, wherever it will grow. It seems that 
a fruit growers company at Taiku, China, has received 
a good-sized order of apples for export to Australia. 
The great majority of Americans probably never knew 
that suitable apples were grown in China, yet here we 
have fruit grown in this unknown country for export to 
Australia, which has long been known as a famous ap¬ 
ple section. Surely the Apple Consumers’ League is 
world-wide, and it leads to all sorts of unexpected sit¬ 
uations. 
The Workmen’s Compensation Act specially provides 
that it shall not include farm laborers or domestic ser¬ 
vants. It applies to employes engaged in what are 
termed hazardous employment enumerated in the act. 
It is not necessary to take out insurance for a car¬ 
penter or painter. To keep the buildings in good con¬ 
dition is as much a part of good husbandry as to till 
the soil or run a mowing machine, and a carpenter or 
painter who works on a farmer’s buildings is a farm 
laborer. So runs the reasoning from the wording of 
the act, and the commission lias not yet specifically 
passed on this feature. 
