1520 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE RU8INESS FARMER'S PAPER 
\ National Weekly Journal for Country und Suburban Ifomeit 
Established isao 
f’libIWbed weekly l>y the Rural Pul>lislilnir Company, 833 Welt 80th Street, New Yorlt 
llBRBEBT W. COLt.ISO WOOD, President and Editor. 
John J. Druxw, Treasurer and General Manager 
'V't- Dih/i.s , Secretary. _ Mns. E, T . Kovm, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. 82.01, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8>i marks, or IOht francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
'i. Pi jtO KUKAL NEW-YORKER 
more. During the year just closing we have printed 
15-!2 pagas, or 20 pages more than the year before. 
When the writer first came to the paper .‘!0 years ago 
the year’s record was barely 000 pages. We hope 
tliis added space does not represent mere fat or stuff, 
for we have tried to put help and character into it. 
So give us the right “sign” as a “Happy New Year.” 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
a: 
Advertising rates, 75 cents per agate line—7 words. References required fo: 
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 respot)- 
Biblejjejvon. \Y e use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to naid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sibly 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, 
responsiblehouses, 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 by the courts, 
Not ice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
transaction, and to identify it, you should mention Tiik Rural. New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
E'n 
DENTLY Alfalfa growing is 
New England in favored spots. 
working into 
We want to 
know of any successful fields so as to make an Al¬ 
falfa map of the section. We do not know of any 
part of the country where a good stand of Alfalfa 
would prove more profitable. We still believe that 
the new Siberian varieties will prove superior for 
most New England soil. As for transplanting the 
roots, we are not yet prepared to make positive 
statements, but we think it is worth trying. 
* 
T HIS European war will have a marked effect, 
upon American farming. For some years Eu¬ 
rope must look to this country for a large share of 
its draft horses, apples and bread and meat. The 
shortage of potatoes will compel Americans to find 
ways of developing our home supplies. Higher prices 
for nitrogen will compel us to save more sulphate 
of ammonia from our factory chimneys. All sorts 
of economies in saving wastes and using cover crops 
will be taken up by our farmers as the result of the 
necessities forced upon us by this war. In the 
end we shall be better farmers, because necessity 
draws men to experiment and saving. 
* 
T HERE seems no doubt that apple pomace is now 
to have a “boom.” This former waste of the 
cider mills is to go the way of cottonseed in its de¬ 
velopment. Years ago Southern farmers dumped the 
seed into the river in order to get rid of it. Now 
it provides oil, fertilizer, fibre, stock feed and even 
food for man. Even the rough hulls are fed with 
profit and the seed often brings more than the fibre. 
Apple pomace, like beet pulp, is finding new uses. 
It makes a good substitute for silage in feeding, 
or may be used for jelly-making. It is also used 
as a fertilizer with lime to sweeten it. It will soon 
be dried and sold as a stock food. Thus a nuisance 
and a waste is being put into useful service. 
* 
H ERE is another use for the apples—as a vote 
getter. The supervisors of Onondaga County, 
N. Y., recently voted down a resolution to appropri¬ 
ate $.”,500 for the County Farm Bureau. Strange 
as some people may think it, the opposition started 
with country supervisors. When the Board next 
met they had a long session and the supervisors were 
hungry. Then, at just the “psychological moment” 
the county agent brought in a bushel of fine King 
apples. This bushel of fruit became an established 
part of the supervisors in 15 minutes—record time. 
Then while the taste was on the tongue E. A. Pow¬ 
ell reviewed the record of the Farm Bureau and 
the agent told how those apples came from an or¬ 
chard formerly without profit which this year 
turned out $2,000 worth of fruit. Under the spell 
of those apples the supervisors voted the appropri¬ 
ation 26 to 4. Good for the apples—but what is the 
objection to the Farm Bureau work, and who makes 
it? 
* 
M OST of us have some little belief in “.signs.” 
We may not be superstitious, but when a 
thing starts off well we take it as an indication that 
(he entire journey will be a prosperous one. Now 
we feel that way about the subscription business of 
The R. N.-Y.. If the mail remittance on New Year’s 
day can show a steady gain in amount from year to 
year we take it as an indication of renewed and in¬ 
creased confidence on the part of our readers and 
a sure “sign” of progress. So we come now in the 
last issue for 1915 with the hope that the mail on 
January 3, Monday, may be the largest in all the 
history of The R. N.-Y. Will you not help this 
along by renewing your subscription promptly? As 
usual in closing the year we make no great flourish 
or promises for the future. You will have every 
ounce of service we have in us. No one can give 
T 
of 150 members in the next New York As¬ 
sembly 22 call themselves farmers. This in¬ 
cludes several lawyers and merchants who claim to 
be farmers because they own a farm as a side line! 
r J here are 55 lawyers, 20 merchants, 13 manufactur¬ 
ers and 11 real estate men. Thus the lawyers and 
the merchants, or the lawyers, the manufacturers 
and real estate men have a majority. In the Sen¬ 
ate there are three farmers. 23 lawyers and seven 
veal estate men. Thus the lawyers and real estate 
dealers have a majority. The farmers have just a 
scant chance to say “we.” No, these lawyers do 
not all come from New York City: a good share of 
them and nearly all the merchants come from the 
rural districts. Thus, when we are asked why so 
few farmers go to Albany, we shall have to turn the 
question right over to the farmers themselves. Can 
any human being tell us why the Legislature should 
always be stuffed full of lawyers? 
* 
IME flies! Events chase themselves across the 
public view like the characters in a great mov¬ 
ing picture show. Interest is concentrated upon a 
man or an event for a time—then new sensations 
crowd them out of memory. Now and then we must 
call them back to give poiut to a moral or story for 
future use. Thus it is with E. G. Lewis, who with 
his Woman’s League flourished for a time as the 
slickest and most successful schemer of modern 
history. Lewis adopted that meanest and most con¬ 
temptible plan of appealing, with unctuous, fat¬ 
dripping sentiment to emotional women. The most 
plausible talker who ever kept out of jail, he con¬ 
vinced thousands of honest, well-meaning women 
that lie was every part of an angel except for the 
wings. lie drew millions of hard-earned dollars 
from his trusting dupes, and invested them in wild 
and impractical schemes which every unprejudiced 
business man knew must result in failure. The R. 
N.-Y. denounced and exposed the schemes, and the 
schemer, and we had a lively battle. A great host 
of people defended Lewis. There were politicians, 
lawyers, business men and educators—many of the 
latter holding chairs at our leading colleges. Not one 
of all the gang was disinterested. Each and every one 
of them received a share of the graft in one form or 
another. We fought them to the limit. Lewis 
brought libel suits aggregating nearly half a million, 
and finally taking a legal and technical advantage 
meaner in comparison than that of the assassin who 
stabs a man in the back on a dark night, he ob¬ 
tained a snap judgment for $30,000. How they 
yelled and gloated over it! “Now toe have put The 
R. N.-Y. out of business. It. will beg on its knees 
for mercy,” they said. But The R. N.-Y. will not 
go out of business or beg for all the fakers or.bluf¬ 
fers on earth. We fought that judgment up to the 
Supreme Court of Missouri, and we have now won. 
The court has reversed the judgment and denied 
Lewis the right to a new trial. So let us summon 
I.ewis into the limelight once more and pin the 
moral on his back before he passes off into the 
shadow. The meanest, most contemptible faker on 
earth is he who seeks the money of confiding wom¬ 
en, invalids, elderly people and visionary men. Such 
schemes, large or small, are doomed to failure, and 
that means untold trouble and suffering. Not one 
of these schemes can win or deserves to win. They 
offer you nothing but a gambler’s chance and are as 
wicked as a faro game. Get a mental picture of 
Lewis in mind and, right now, at the opening of the 
new year, make a solemn pledge that you will never 
again invest in any “get-rich-quick” scheme or send 
a dollar to any man who merely offers you a pretty 
December 25, 1915. 
by a number of city merchants. The question came 
up of establishing a city market or farmers’ ex¬ 
change where farmers could soil direct to consum¬ 
ers and, in time, learn how to buy cooperatively so 
as to obtain lower prices than retail merchants 
charge. Anyone would say at first thought that 
such things ought to be among the first to be worked 
out by the county bureau. We shall all evidently 
have to think again. The merchants who are active 
in supporting the bureau have ruled that it “cannot 
take up any commercial problems!” Such things 
will be attended to by the merchants themselves. 
The bureau is to “educate” the farmers and tell 
them how to produce more and how to he fully con¬ 
tented as producers—not as sellers. We hear of this 
same thing in other places. There is this same de¬ 
termination to stop the farmers from taking up 
“commercial problems.” They all want him to pro¬ 
duce the crop and then stand back and let them 
handle it for him. What else is he good for? 
* 
A 
FEW weeks ago we told about some “tree dop¬ 
ers” who are working in Niagara Co., N. Y. 
As we understand it these people offer to cure trees 
by what they call “internal therapy.” It seems that 
these “dopers” started working at Geneva, N. Y., 
last Spring, and the following true report is furn¬ 
ished us: 
One of the agents approached a woman of consider¬ 
able wealth and made a proposition to “cure” the 
hickory trees of the hickory borer. Finally he worked 
over to a hickory tree, started to sprinkle some of the 
tree fluid on the ground. She said : “What are you do¬ 
ing that for?” Ho replied, “To kill the borers.” She 
said, “Will that kill the borers?” He replied, “It as¬ 
cends the vascular system.” “Well,” she said, “That is 
a treatment entirely new to me and before I go to any 
expense I will ’phone the Experiment Station.” lie re¬ 
plied, “What is the use of that? There will be no 
hickory trees if you bank on what those Station fellows 
say.” After the conversation the agent left and noth¬ 
ing more has been heard of the operations of the com¬ 
pany until the report from Niagara County. 
Every year we have dozens of such “cures” pre¬ 
sented to us by people who want to advertise. Some 
of these men are unblushing fakes who well know 
they have a fraudulent scheme. 
who 
well-mea ning 
piece of paper for your money. This episode has 
cost The R. N.-Y. considerable money and some gray 
hairs, but it is worth it all to realize that we have 
helped kick a faker off the stage and headed him 
to oblivion. It is also a pleasure to realize that the 
same boot is free for future use. 
* 
Others are honest, 
men who really believe they have a 
sure and good thing. Thse men cannot understand 
why we will not permit them to advertise their 
"cures” without the endorsement of the experi¬ 
ment stations. They think their own tests and those 
of a few personal friends are enough, and on the 
strength of those they expect us to permit them 
to gather all the money they can from our readers. 
Of course we cannot stand for such things until 
they can go through the acid test of scientific and 
practical investigation. These promoters do not like 
the experiment stations! " These stations are jeal¬ 
ous and cold-blooded,” said one promoter here the 
other day. The station is supposed to be the farm¬ 
ers’ watch dog—at least that is oue of its functions, 
and jealousy of his owner’s rights and cold sus¬ 
picion are fine qualities in a guardian. Our stand¬ 
ard advice is to keep away from tree dopers. 
* 
Are you sure that the chemists have not found 
raw ground phosphate rock dissolved by the action 
of manure or green crops? 
F any reputable chemist 
tiling we shall be pleased 
ord. We have seen the claim made that the chemi¬ 
cal action in the manure or the fermenting, green 
crop will dissolve the rock the same as sulphuric 
acid, and thus save the cost of this expensive chem¬ 
ical. We do not believe it, and do not believe that 
any reputable chemist will stand for any such state¬ 
ment. Personally we regret that the raw ground 
phosphates have not given better results on the 
Atlantic slope. The increased cost of sulphuric acid 
makes soluble phosphates expensive, and if we could 
honestly tell our people that the raw phosphates 
will take the place of acid phosphate we would 
gladly do so. We do not intend, however, to lead 
them astray. We do not deny that the raw phos¬ 
phates may have a place in some lines of farming 
but they are not suited to the crops which the 
great majority of our readers are growing. 
I 
S. J. L. 
has proved any such 
to put his proof on rec- 
It was recommended that a produce exchange be 
established. In the event of the establishment of such 
an exchange all the farmers would take their produce 
there and retailers would secure it from the same. The 
department ordered an investigation of what has been 
done in the past along these lines. As the Farm Bu¬ 
reau cannot take up any commercial problems, it would 
have to be established by the Board of Commerce. 
‘HAT is part of a report made by a Chamber of 
Commerce committee in a city which is head¬ 
quarters for county trade. The farm bureau in 
that county is partly financed and largely directed 
To 
Brevities 
A good heifer ought to be a good investment. 
Is good silage as cheap as good pasture grass? 
The Japanese “Loofali” crop is very heavy this year. 
No this is not the same as the American word loafer— 
it refers to snake gourds. 
Who wants to go to Egypt to try the chicken busi¬ 
ness? In 1914 that country exported 150,972,000 eggs. 
The average price at Alexandria was $9.14 per 1000 
eggs. 
Experiments in Vermont appear to show that potato 
scab is a soil trouble rather than one of seed. An acid 
soil is likely to prevent its spread. This is in line witli 
the advice to keep lime and wood ashes away from 
potatoes. 
