464 
■Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TUE EUSJNE8S FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly <lournal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established I8i>0 
Published weekly by the Rural Pablishine Company, S33 West 80th Street, New Fork 
Herbert W. Colmngwood, President and Editor. 
John J. DilIiON, Treosurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. DiiJXtN, Secretary. Mit-s. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
81^ marks, or lOlj francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 7.5 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us j and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper Is backed by a respon¬ 
sible peison. 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 also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
resjionslble houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly uso our good 
olliees to this end, but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not bo 
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 identif.v it, you should mention The Rubai. New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
All Trades Represented • 
O T7R readers found in every known trade or 
profession. Here is a knight of the razor: 
I am a barber and have a little shop of my own, but 
.some day I think I’ll be a back-to-the-lander, and the 
mure I read The R. N.-Y. the more I want a farm, 
and to be a farmer. I am not very good in American 
writing, but it certainly needed only this little re¬ 
minder to get my small dollar for your big paper. I 
•say big, because I never saw a more honest paper 
than The R. N.-Y. which tells the people the real 
facts, and some day I’ll drop in your office and shake 
hands. JOHN WEISSMULLER. 
New Jersey. 
We hope Weissmuller will realize his ambi¬ 
tion in time. As a barber he should be able to pro¬ 
duce and raise an improved variety of Hairy vetch 
and thus raise a full beard of useful crops on his 
farm. 
* 
I T seems remarkalile to think of importing pota¬ 
toes into this country from Australia, but al¬ 
ready a jiermit has been issued for sending GOO tons 
of Victorian potatoes here. Under the present regu¬ 
lations potatoes may be imported under permit from 
the following countries: Denmark, Holland, Bel¬ 
gium, Cuba, Bermuda, the Dominion of Canada, 
and Victoria, Australia. What would our fathers 
have thought of this plan of bringing Australian 
potatoes thi'ough the Panama Canal? There are 
greater surprises yet to come in the world-wide dis- 
ti’ibution of food! The firesent high places will 
jml] the products of the world together in our 
great cities. 
* 
D uring the past week we received over 20 
letters signed by “Anxious Reader,” “Sub¬ 
scriber,” “One Who Knows,” and various fictitious 
initials. Most of these letters contained questions 
more or less important and personal. We are un¬ 
able to answer them, since the writers have made 
it impossible to do so. Our rule now is to pay no 
attention to these anonymous communications. 
There can be no valid reason that we can think of 
why our readers should refuse to disclose their 
identity when they write us, if they are really after 
information. Please remember that hereafter these 
unsigned, or disguised, letters will not be noticed! 
Some time ago we had a hot letter from a man who 
said his letter had been ignored. We happened to 
have his letter here—unsigned and with no possi¬ 
ble chance for identification. Even with that our 
friend came back and said we ought to know Mm. 
* 
N ot many of our readers realize that Maine is 
coming to be a Spring wheat State. Spring 
wheat has been grown successfully for many years 
ill Northern Maine, and the acreage is increasing. 
There are five roller mills in Northern Maine and 
another just completed in the central part of the 
State. Not much of this grain is gi’own in the 
Southern part of the State, but Aroostook County 
produces its own bread. As for varieties, Dr. 
Woods of the Experiment Station says: 
\ 
Like all of the Eastern grown Spring wheats, with a 
wet August, the wheats are starchy as compared with 
the wheats of the Northwe,st—that is, will not make 
as strong flour, so there is a good deal of wheat im¬ 
ported which is used in these roller mills to blend with 
the Maine-grown wheat. The Maine Station is trying 
to breed a wheat that will be hard under our climatic 
conditions. Several years ago we proved by successive 
trials that it .was not practicable to take one of the 
hard strong wheats from the Northwest and produce a 
hard strong wheat in Maine. We would get the same 
amount of gluten per kernel, but our kernels would 
be so much heavier, because of the increased starch 
content, due to the wet August, that the percentage 
would be lower than in the parent wheat. 
It will be a great thing for Maine if a desirable 
variety can be bred in this way. We can see noth¬ 
ing in the immediate future to justify any belief 
tliat grain prices will come back to what we may 
call lo\v figures. The Eastern farmers must learn 
to produce more of their grain and feed. The fact 
that Spring wheat does well in Northern Maine is 
no argument for seeding it in Southern New Eng¬ 
land. Oats or barley will give more food in most 
localities south of Augusta, Me. 
* 
A BUSINESS man was obliged to go to the coun¬ 
try and try farming. He drained a swamp 
and started raising celery. He knew little about 
it, but read and .studied what he could find on the 
subject. One day he was frightened to find his 
young plants just I’eady to tran.splant covered with 
an insect which looked like some sort of plant lice. 
He could find nothing like it in his book, and he 
telegraphed at once to four different experts who 
were paid good salaries to study insects. One re¬ 
plied that he Avas ■working on the life history of 
the insect, but had not finished. Another' was on 
his vacation and away from all his records! An¬ 
other asked for samples of the insect so he could 
study it. The last one frankly said he did not 
know, but suggested spraying with kero.sene emul¬ 
sion to see if it would injure the plants. In despair 
the owner telegraphed to a practical grower in 
Michigan and received this answer: 
“Let them alone. Whey will disappear in a cou¬ 
ple of days!*' 
And they did—without special injury to tho 
plants. The scientists happened to be four labor¬ 
atory young men wdio bad never grown a crop of 
celery in a business way, while the grower bad nev¬ 
er been inside of a laboratory. 
♦ 
F rom Judge Ward’s remarkable letter—on the 
next page—^we conclude that he needs a guard¬ 
ian. If the Wicks bill had any life left in it this 
evidence of temper and petty spite ought to kill it. 
Think of this from Judge Ward, the counsel of this 
Wicks Committee: 
“The figures you sought and seek are those on 
a hank check, which you hoped to receive from the 
joint committee, and a covering up hy the committee 
of past frauds. Go to it! You will receive neither!'^ 
The writer never held any public job and never 
looked to this committee or Judge Ward for any 
hank cheeks. Judge Ward is drawing a fat fee, 
and is evidently looking for more. Let him write a 
few moi’e letters and even the Wicks Committee 
will be forced to agree that he costs more than he 
is worth. But who is this man who decides so 
positively what the Legislature and his committee 
will do? We thought the people of New York rep- 
re.sented the State. We must be wrong. Over two 
centuries ago the pompons little French King Louis 
XIV patted himself on the chest and said: “I Am 
The State!” Judge Ward seems to think we are 
living back in those humiliating days, and that he 
is the State! It is the same old, brutal, arrogant 
spirit which in years gone by enabled the “classes” 
to keep down the plain people. Judge Ward has 
apparently put this old, sneering, dominating .spirit 
into the Wicks bill, and that is the best reason why 
it should be buried a mile deep. Do not imagine 
for an instant that those bluffs and threats of 
Judge Ward will frighten anyone, or lossen the 
grip which our farmers are gaining on the political 
.situation in New York. Those who try to work 
out a reform must always go through a period of 
blackguarding, lying and bluff. That is the com¬ 
mon fate of all who try to help humanity, and we 
go right on choerfnlly and serenely in spite of all 
the Wards and guardians between here and the 
jumping-off' place. So we advise Judge Ward, in 
his own classic language, to “Go to it!” He has 
surely been highly successful in chasing himself off 
the political map! 
<= 
I N proportion to its size and population New Jer¬ 
sey probably .spends more money on roads and 
bridges than any other State. The work is well 
done and permanent. New Jersey may be called 
the roadside State. It is the great highway be¬ 
tween two of the greatest cities in the world, and 
with a great Summer playground along its co/ist. 
Some of the best and most prosperous farming in 
the world is done in New Jersey. Thus the people 
are peculiarly in need of good I’oads—and the State 
realizes it. Anot*her thing: New Jersey is just a 
thumb of land merely connected with the mainland 
by a narrow strip at the northern end. In order 
to reach the great cities of New York and Phila¬ 
delphia passengers or freight must cross the Hud¬ 
son or the Delaware. As a part of its great road 
system New Jersey is now planning bridges or 
tunnels which will permit farmers to drive direct 
into these great markets and deliver goods at a 
March 21, 15)17 
public market. It is a great conception and the peo¬ 
ple of New Jersey realize it, for Gov. Edge is en¬ 
deavoring lo secure as State Engineer Col. Goethals, 
the man who made the Panama Canal possible! 
This plan, if carried out, will have a great effect 
upon all the country within L50 miles west of New 
York City. It will give increased value to millions 
of acres and help to relieve the food situation in 
the city. 
* 
C OUNTRY people have heard of the so-called 
“bread riots” in New York, and various good 
people have gone out to ask the farmers to con¬ 
tribute money to help the city poor. Most of the 
farmers do not take kindly to such appeals while 
farm help is .scarce or impossible to find. The fol¬ 
lowing note from one of our readers in Seneca Co., 
N. Y., shows how they talk: 
Country people have little sjwnpatby for all of this 
cry of starving in the city. The reasons are many, 
and plain farm help is scarce and' very high, birt it 
seems people much prefer to starve or be fed by 
charity than go to the country where no one goes 
hungry. Here is a case in point: A young fellow 
drifted here with a lot of railroad employes, ragged and 
■ft’earing one shoe and one slipper. A farmer employed 
him and he informed them he had a wife in the city 
.starving, when the farmer and his good wife sent the 
funds for _ her to come to their home. The couple 
worked fairly well and seemed contented, being well 
fed and clothed, when in the dead of Winter they dis¬ 
covered they had the magnificent sum of eighty dol¬ 
lars due them, when they packed their belongings and 
departed for the city on first train, soon again to be 
starved out and again tramp to the land of plenty. 
This is only one of many that come to light every 
day, yet how seldom can one of these be induced to 
stay in the country? Then why have we sympathy 
for them? They will go to the country only when 
starved; and return as soon as they have a few dollars 
ahead. c. s. f. 
Yon can hardly blame a farmer with such an 
experience, fi*om feeling as this one does. Not all 
the poor people in this great city are of the type 
here described. Some of them would like to find 
homes in the country, but they seem afraid to ven¬ 
ture. The farmer has his idea of the city poor 
man, and that man has his idea of the farmer. 
Both are partly wrong and they must understand 
each other better before they can be mutually 
helpful. 
♦ 
S ENATOR ELON R. BROWN made the principal 
speech in the New York Senate against submit¬ 
ting the question of woman suffrage to a popular 
vote. Then he voted for the bill because it was a 
party measure. Here is one of his points: 
Who fights for the fatherland? The men of Germany 
or the women of Germany? ^V'ho fights for France, the 
men of France or the women of France? Who for 
Belgium? And what happened to home and wife and 
children and opportunity there because the fight was 
lost? Who will fight to protect our hearthstones and 
the honor of the nation? 
It is generally admitted in Europe that the war 
will be lost or won—not in the trenches—but in 
the factories or on the farms. -The women are do¬ 
ing even more than the men at making munitions 
and growing food! At the time of the Civil War 
a New York man enlisted and went to the front. 
He left a wife and three children unprovided for. 
This man was a good soldier, but in the army he 
acquired the drink habit. After the Avar he came 
home a drunkard. There were four more children. 
The man did practically nothing to support the 
family. The -n^oman. earned home, substance and 
education for her children. “Who will fight to pro¬ 
tect our hearthstones?” a.sks Senator Brown! The 
woman was the fighter in this case. Doe.s Senator 
Brown think she could vote intelligently? 
Brevities 
q’liE head of a political party must be its slave. 
You might call potato alcohol a potation from po¬ 
tatoes. 
We should rarely use more than 125 pounds of ni¬ 
trate of soda to the acre. 
Say nothing but saw wood; that advice is always 
good. But to cut any ice you must—saw something 
besides dust. 
It is wonderful how many uses for petroleum oil the 
people who live in the oil countries find. It is used 
for all sorts of animal ailments, and every farmer keeps 
a barrel of it on hand. The latest report is that it 
cures scaly leg on poultry. 
Last year agents of the Agricultural Department 
destroyed currant and gooseberry bushes in the Hudson 
Valley. An item to pay for this destruction has been 
put into the regular appropriation bill, and soon after 
that bill passes the Legislature and is .signed by the 
Governor the.se claims will be paid. 
Seed potato growers practice what they call “rogue- 
ing” when the vines are at good size. They go through 
the field and pull out every hill not true to type. We 
need a lot of “rogueing” done at Albany. Members of 
the Legislature should be marked by their behavior 
when the farmers’ bills come up and “pulled” if they 
ai-e not true to type. 
