90 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A N atlonul Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Vublhhed weekly by the Itnral I’ablishinfr Company, 333 West 30th Street, Sew fork 
Herbert W. Coi.linowood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. P. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, Si04. equal to 8s. fid., or 
8U marks, or 101ft 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 person. 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, 
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 by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the timeof 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
This is my twelfth renewal, I think, and, with the 
exception of the issues of 1008 and 1009, I have every 
copy on file. Wg have burned probably a tou of papei 
tor kindling fires during this time, but not a leaf of The 
K. X.-Y. Does this mean anything to you? 
Bowling Green, Ky. habvisord. 
I T does. It means more than you think, and we 
appreciate it. We well understand how papers 
and magazines come pouring into every home like a 
flood, and how, now and then, in very self-defense, 
the housekeeper must burn them up or be crowded 
out of the house. The fact that The It. N.-Y., 
through all these years, has come through Spring 
cleaning and Fall bonfires without a scratch or a 
scorch, is proud news for us. It makes us think that 
perhaps, after all, we may be doing something that 
will have permanent value. 
■k 
That was a prettv direct question you put to me, iu 
connection with the letter of R. D. Spencer ou page 
1429. The letter was fiue aud I indorse every word or 
it ~ i have been an Independent for 30 years. I early 
saw that it was the ouly safe ground. Those "fixed and 
immovable” voter* get no attention from politicians; 
it is the ones they are not sure of that, worry them. 
This is so obvious that I often wonder more voters do 
not see it, but the number that do see it is growing, and 
conditions are bound to improve. N. n. kirk. 
New York. 
This is what Mr. Kirk refers to: 
“So long as we thinli more of a party emblem than 
ice do of our business or our families, we will yet 
scant favors from officials because me are not worth 
cultivating:' 
T HE Scripture tells us “as a man thinketh so is 
he.” We find many citizens who are bold as 
lions up to the time they take up the lead pencil to 
mark their ballot Then they decide to wait until 
next year before beginning. The strange thing is 
that these men cannot see that by rubbing tlieii lead 
pencil a few times over that party emblem thej 
might change its brass into pure gold. No one can 
ever accuse the average party politician of any fail¬ 
ure to size up all brands of human nature except 
one kind. lie has been accustomed so long to see 
men stick to their old party unless they are bribed 
to desert it that he cannot understand the motive of 
any man who will honestly put principle above party. 
There are more and more of such men. The numbei 
grows every year. The last election in New York 
developed more than 50,000 of them! 
* 
W E understand the National W ar Department 
proposes to sink in the ocean a very laige 
amount of high explosives. Much of this would be 
very suitable for blasting rocks or blowing out hills 
for leveling roads. It could also be very useful in 
clearing land, breaking up rocks or blasting out 
stumps. Many farmers have great use for such ex¬ 
plosives. Why should this “concentrated power” be 
sank in the ocean when it is needed on land? If 
no longer needed to destroy life it is needed to sup¬ 
port life. 
* 
I N the New York Sun Mr. G. F. Shepard of Con¬ 
necticut puts the dairymen’s case in a nutshell: 
Is it any more reprehensible for the farmers to unite 
and fix the selling price of their products than for the 
workmen to unite and fix the price ot their labor. 
if labor unions are allowed collective bai-gainmg, whj 
should not farmers be allowed the same? 
Is there any way, except by slavery, whereby one man 
can be compelled to raise food for another man. 
There are certain fundamental facts about this 
situation which the consumer has not been made to 
understand. The farmers ask for their milk nothing 
but actual cost price figured out in a way which 
cannot he disputed. No man has any right to ask 
them to sell milk for less than cost. The distributors 
charge an extravagant price for their service, hut 
no one has asked them even to scale down this ex¬ 
cessive price. They pretend to save the consumers 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
one cent a quart, but through no sacrifice or economy 
of their own. They simply propose to rob the far¬ 
mers of one cent a quart and present it to the con¬ 
sumers without changing their own profits in any 
way. They pose as philanthropists with the spoils 
of attempted highway robbery. In the milk strike 
of two years ago the dairymen had the confidence and 
support of the public. The sympathy of New York 
consumers was with the farmers and the city offi¬ 
cials did not dare to interfere. They follow public 
opinion. In the present trouble public opinion has 
been turned against the dairymen when if the facts 
were clearly understood it should have been with 
them—as it was two years ago. This has given the 
city officials opportunities to come out openly against 
the producers and in favor of the middlemen. Thus 
we see these officials going to Albany trying to get 
laws which will class the farmers as robbers and 
criminals. At the same time there is a strike of 
freight handlers who demand an eight-hour day at 
90 per cent increase per hour. These city officials 
make no effort to declare these strikers criminals by 
law. That is reserved for the farmers who dare to 
use an effective weapon in defense of their common 
rights. 
* 
L ONG before this paper can be read by our people 
everything that could be stated about Theodore 
Roosevelt will have been printed. Roosevelt is for¬ 
ever safe in history. The world knows his story 
aud will never forget it. He takes his place among 
the great figures, who from time to time, in the 
world’s history, step out from the ranks and through 
some great sacrifice, some supernatural courage or 
some divine inspiration rise to great things and 
shine forever like stars in the vision of men as the 
world climbs slowly upward. Theodore Roosevelt 
will live among that glorious group, and we know 
enough of the man to know that he will not remain 
in the shadows of history. The story of his life has 
been told over and over, and we do not seek to-add 
any perfunctory words. He was not like Lincoln, a 
self-made man of common family and denied the ad¬ 
vantages of education and gentle nurture. Roose¬ 
velt was by birth and education and training more 
of an aristocrat who never knew the sting of poverty 
or the handicap of hard conditions. Yet lie made 
himself the loved and trusted leader of the plain, 
common people as no man has done since Lincoln. 
We think it is, on the whole, harder to rise up from 
wealth and become a genuine leader of men than to 
come out of poverty to the same position; for the 
rich man must make more of personal sacrifice and 
change even more of personal habits. It was said at 
the time of the French Revolution that no revolt 
against the practices of organized society can perma¬ 
nently succeed unless it he led by a man of-family 
of aristocratic breeding. Be that as it may, as we 
look back over the years to Roosevelt’s real election 
as President we may now see that he started a 
social and legal revolution which has changed the 
entire character of the nation. It did not seem 
revolutionary to most of us when it started, but the 
spirit of it has grown and developed. Years ago the 
Populists attempted a social and agricultural revo¬ 
lution, working from the bottom. The fire blazed 
for a time and then died out. but it helped dry the 
fuel for a later fire. We now know that while the 
rank and file of a party may be changed from the 
bottom, the party machine must be reformed from 
the top. Roosevelt came to the Presidency at per¬ 
haps the most corrupt and material point in our 
history. The radicals cursed him because he did not 
do more, and the conservatives cursed him because 
he did too much, hut we now see that Roosevelt 
tried to start reforms at the top when the Populists 
started at. the bottom. They did not meet then, but 
as the years have gone by we have seen the popular 
thought of the nation grow until what would have 
been considered political insanity 25 years ago has 
now become the policy of the great political pal ties. 
The Populists could not reach and change the 
thought of the great conservative middle class of 
small property-holders. Roosevelt was able to do 
that as perhaps no other man of his time could 
bave done by showing the dangers of undivided 
personal aud corporate monopoly. We know of our 
personal knowledge that this will be read by people 
who regard Roosevelt as the greatest man America 
has produced since Lincoln. They will even consider 
him above criticism—liis word a law. This will also 
be read by others who believe Roosevelt to be merely 
a politician, a champion of the great interests, and 
as one man has written, as “a national humbug.” 
That is true of all really great men. It was true of 
Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Robert Lee—of every 
oian who has put the power of his personality into 
January IS, 1919 
any cause which he thought was true. It is useless 
to try to reconcile such differences. They are a part 
of the penalty demanded of power. No one ever 
says these things of a colorless, bloodless compro¬ 
miser. They are reserved for those who strike out 
at what they believe to be evil and wrong. There 
will, however, be no one in the nation to deny that 
Theodore Roosevelt was a big two-fisted fighter, 
ready for battle, fearless and outspoken, with a big 
heart full of love for his country and a big brain 
which served humanity well. There has passed 
from our midst a great American, a loyal soldier, a 
fine father, a lovable, inspiring leader—a great man. 
and there is no one in sight who can exactly take 
his place. 
* 
T HE Agricultural College of New Jersey needs a 
new Horticultural Building. This need is ur¬ 
gent, and there can be no use in attempting to deny 
it. It cannot be built without a suitable appropria¬ 
tion to be made by the Legislature. Those of us who 
grow fruit and vegetables in New Jersey know bow 
our industry is growing, and how it is adding to the 
wealth and varied industries of the State. From its 
peculiar position and the character and size of its 
markets, the soil culture of New Jersey must pass 
more aud more into intensive lines. It will be in 
(he future a garden and orchard State, rather than 
a farming section. Everyone knows that as the 
culture of the soil becomes more aud more inten¬ 
sified, problems of plant disease, insect troubles and 
soil handling become harder, and they get far beyond 
the point where the practical man can handle them. 
We need more and more the services of trained work¬ 
ers who can help us with our plant and soil troubles. 
In all matters relating to human health and welfare 
taat fact is recognized, and it is entirely true of mod¬ 
ern horticulture. We need a new outfit at New 
Brunswick. Everyone recognizes the fact that a 
Legislature must face many demands, and that only 
those most necessary and most persistently demanded 
x\ ill be granted. We cannot hope to obtain this 
building by merely asking for it. We must prove 
the necessity for it, and make the demand for it so 
strong and popular that it cannot be denied. Every 
farmer, fruit grower and gardener in the State 
should start at once and tell his member of the Leg¬ 
islature that he wants that building. 
L AST week we printed a statement of the prin¬ 
ciples advocated by the New York Federation of 
Agriculture. We ask our readers to study that state¬ 
ment carefully and then tell us if it is not fair, con¬ 
servative and right. What objection could you pos¬ 
sibly have to identifying yourself with a movement 
to put through and enforce these things? The situ¬ 
ation in New York State is critical. Nine-tenths of 
our farmers agree that unless we can all get together 
back of some definite proposition we shall be left 
behind, and, as usual, take the dust from other in¬ 
terests. Hundreds of good men are talking and writ¬ 
ing as individuals, but most of them are firing into 
the air through a lack of organized effort. There is 
no single farm organization in New York which can 
speak powerfully for all our farmers. One organi¬ 
zation speaks for one class of farmers—another for 
others. What we need is a compact aud solid feder¬ 
ation which will speak for combined agriculture. We 
can have this in the New York Federation of Agricul¬ 
ture. We need it. Can you name any other plan for 
making ourselves heard? Will you come in? 
Brevities 
The waste from acetylene gas machines contains lime 
of about the same value agriculturally as ground lime¬ 
stone. 
There have been several calls for information about 
building a septic tank for disposing of house wastes. A 
good description of one next week. 
A hen does not lay eggs with her comb, but when 
Jack Frost is permitted to pinch the top of her head it 
will require a fine-tooth comb to find the eggs. 
The British Agricultural Seed Trade Association has 
decided to buy no more seeds from Germany or Germans 
for at least five years. The seeds formerly imported 
from that country "will be produced at home. 
The Ohio Experiment Station claims that manure 
drawn direct from the stable and spread on the sod gave 
a good gain over similar manure left in piles iu the field 
and spread later. There was a loss from the piles both 
iu fermenting and in leaching. 
A SURPRISING number of people write this season 
telling of fruit trees afflicted with woolly aphis. They 
notice the little bunches of wool on the limbs and the 
marks on the roots. Tobacco extract sprayed ou the 
tops of the trees and tobacco dust at the roots is the 
remedy. 
Many fruit farmers seeded to clover aud turnips as a 
cover crop. Some of them have not been able to harvest 
all the turnips. They need not worry. These turnips 
will turn up this season in the fruit crop. The turnip 
gives a plant food result all out of proportion to its 
analysis. 
