1616 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S FABER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban Homes 
Established IS30 
Published weekly t>y the Rural Publishing Company, 833 West 30th Street,\eu VorU 
Herbert W. Coi.i.ingwood, President and Editor. 
John' J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
W». P. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, equal to 8 s. 6 d, or 
8 I 4 marks, or IOI 4 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 bouses, 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 time of 
the transaction, and to identity it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the ad. ^rtiser 
If you will accept this, written in haste at our Fair 
office. I will try to tell you that I thank you for your 
editorial, page 1548, on Charlie Cole and fraudulent 
prices for purebreds. You hit the nail squarely on the 
head. Bravo for The R. N.-Y. I am a Guernsey breed¬ 
er and as such shall always labor with all my might to 
keep “bogus prices” out of our breed. 
Virginia. J. carleton courter. 
HE bogus price is a fraud and deception; an 
injury to any honest, breeder, an insult to the 
breed and an ignoble evidence of the power of money 
to tie a tin can on the tail of truth! 
v 
D R. J. G. LIPMAN of the New Jersey College has 
returned from a trip to Europe, where he stud¬ 
ied farm conditions. He says that very little work 
has been done in restoring the farm lands in the sec¬ 
tion where great battles were fought. There seems 
to be a belief that the shell holes and gas have in 
some way injured the soil for farm purposes. The 
New Jersey Station is to have samples of such soil 
for examination. Dr. Llpman says that the experi¬ 
ment stations in Europe do not have the direct con¬ 
tact with farmers which is such a strong feature of 
agricultural work here. These European stations 
seem to make “research” work their chief concern. 
The great strength of our American system is that 
farmers take direct interest and tell the scientists 
what they want. That is much better than a system 
under which the scientists tell the farmers what 
they ought to have! 
* 
W HAT Mr. Weaver says about local markets is 
sensible. In Lancaster, Pa., the business of 
buying food direct from the producer has become a 
habit. It is the result of a century or more of fam¬ 
ily dealiug. People do not drive to the market in 
their cars with a servant to help. They go them¬ 
selves, and carry a big basket home. In this mar¬ 
keting, as in everything else, it is the spirit which 
people show that carries the enterprise through. 
There will always be snobs who consider Themselves 
too good or too “fashionable” to do such things as 
common people do them. As a rule the plain work¬ 
ing people and really well-to-do classes are best 
patrons of a public market. Almost any group of 
farmers, almost anywhere, can organize and carry 
on such a market if they can get together and show 
enterprise and determination. This is another case 
where we have (jot to do it ourselves. One great 
thing about this Lancaster market is the way it dis¬ 
poses of waste and culls which would otherwise be 
lost. There are always people who will buy this sec¬ 
ond grade produce if they can get it at a bargain. A 
failure to dispose of it often makes the difference be- 
tween profit and loss to a farmer. 
* 
T HE Gaiiadian farmers did several notable things 
at the recent election in Ontario. They voted 
about 10 to one for prohibition, thus overcoming the 
vote of the cities. They elected 45 or more members 
out of 111 in the local parliament, so that by com¬ 
bining with the Liberals they can control. The 
farmers perfected an organization known as the 
United Farmers of Ontario. This organization was 
forced upon the rural people by the failure of parlia¬ 
ment to give Canadian agriculture a fair showing. 
The legal machinery of the province fell into the 
hands of lawyers and monied interests—most of them 
elected by the farmer themselves through the work¬ 
ing of the old party machinery. The result was a 
steady decay of agriculture and abandonment of 
farms, in spite of the fact that Ontario is an agri¬ 
cultural province with farmers largely in the ma¬ 
jority. Despairing of ever obtaining relief through 
the old party machinery, the farmers determined to 
grasp the machine themselves. This they seem to 
have done to some extent at least. Their program 
includes easier credits, more available money, re¬ 
Jbe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
adjustment of land laws, full legal rights in co¬ 
operative work, easier access to markets and a gen¬ 
eral readjustment of business opportunity. They 
know that unless the people of Canada can realize 
that any needed sacrifice must be made to bring con¬ 
tentment and prosperity to country life, the bottom 
will fall out of things. Our American farmers may 
well heed the lesson taught by their Canadian broth¬ 
ers. Our problem is larger and more complicated, 
but it can be solved. We cannot do it with the old, 
worn-out machinery of the present political parties. 
We must either fit out one of these parties with a 
new machine or install one of our own. Up in Wayne 
Co.. N. Y., this year we see the first real effort in the 
Eastern States to do this very thing! 
* 
O NCE more this plan of using some form of phos¬ 
phorus with the manure. Now is the time to 
consider it, when the manure saving season is open¬ 
ing. The proposition is that practically all our East¬ 
ern soils are deficient in phosphorus. A few soils are 
not so, but most of them are. Anyone growing corn 
or other seed-producing crops must provide a full 
supply of phosphorus or fail to get a full crop. The 
feeds we buy contain comparatively little phosphorus, 
and manure carries far less of this element, than of 
nitrogen and potash. These facts show that if we 
are to keep up the needed phosphorus supply we must 
add it to the manure in some form—either acid phos¬ 
phate or some form of raw phosphate. As well think 
of feeding the energetic hired man on a vegetarian 
diet, with a lack of vitamines, as to skimp your crops 
on phosphorus. How can you use it better than to 
mix it with the manure as made? 
* 
T HE death of Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins of the 
Illinois Agricultural College means a great loss 
to American agriculture. It is a special loss to the 
Middle West, for in that section Dr. Hopkins de¬ 
veloped a system of farming which is changing the 
character of the country. As Dean Eugene Daven¬ 
port says: 
He saw more clearly than either his predecessors or 
his associates not only the problems of the farmer in 
getting results, but also the ultimate effect upon the 
fertility of the land and, therefore, upon the generations 
that should follow. Gradually and with confidence, 
step by step, he built up his ideas of a profitable and 
a permanent agriculture, and in season and out of sea¬ 
son, whatever the expense of labor and strength, he 
proved many doctrines that he had abundantly estab¬ 
lished by experimental fields scattered over the different 
types of Illinois soil. 
Dr. Hopkins was a pioneer in agricultural science. 
He worked out a plan for using ground limestone, 
clover and phosphate, and then took up the difficult 
task of educating farmers to the use of lime and 
phosphate—-products brought in from outside the 
farm. One can imagine the size of such a task in 
a section where for two generations farmers had 
been stubbornly convinced that the farm itself must 
supply its own fertility. It, was a job for a master 
mind, and Dr. Hopkins proved himself a master. 
His life was given to service. Long past the age 
when men are accepted for the army, he tried in 
every way to enter the service. He finally went to 
Greece to help study the worn soil of that country. 
He worked himself to death. A soldier of the soil, 
he takes rank in service with any soldier in the 
trenches. 
* 
S OME of the wool consigned by New York com¬ 
munity associations has not yet been sold. There 
was a slow demand for one-fourth and three-eighths 
blood wools, and while this condition lasts it will 
be hard to get, full value. We believe that the mills 
will, before long, exhaust their supply of fine wools 
and thou call for the coarser grades. This coarse 
wool cannot be forced upon the market at full price, 
but we do not blame the sheepmen for their impa¬ 
tience. We believe the market will still come right. 
* 
W E are glad to see that the public market idea is 
spreading in New York. One of the best is at 
Johnson City. This market issues a little paper, the 
“Public Market News” with full particulars and 
prices, and little advertisements by farmers. During 
the week ending Saturday, October 11, three mar¬ 
kets were held with a total of 277 loads and sales of 
$8,945.81, or $5,281.20 on Saturday alone! The 
News prints this characteristic report of the big day: 
Yes. it looked like rain and it tried to rain, and it did 
rain, but that did not stop Saturday’s market, for every¬ 
body came there to do business, and business they did. 
You can’t stop a Johnson City market doing business 
any more than you can stop a Texas mule from kicking. 
You can do it, but one is as hard as the other. There 
were 108 rigs of various kinds, loaded to the brim ready 
for business at 10 a. in., and there were plenty of buyers 
to take all they laid and all you lutd to do was to give 
the buyers time enough to count out their money and 
put their purchases into their market baskets, and it was 
gone, and the producer was soon gone also. 
Kicking is bred into the mule by nature, and suc¬ 
November 1, 1910 
cess is put into the market, by man. Few people 
realize the patience and tact and courage required 
to establish such a market and keep it going. It 
pays, as a combination of patience and tact and 
courage always do. The farmers who patronized 
that market were at. least $2,000 better off for the 
week than if they had sold their goods through coin- 
mission men or buyers. 
* 
A NEW department is. started this month—de¬ 
signed for our young people—the farmers of 
the future. Mr. Edward M. Tuttle, who will assist 
in this, is already known to thousands of our people 
for his connection with extension work at Cornell. 
He knows boys and girls, what they want and what 
they are trying to make of themselves. This depart¬ 
ment, will be a place where our young folks can get 
together and talk things over, The entire world 
is taking on a new form of democracy, and the 
leaders of the future are just going to be directors 
of popular thought. In a small way we hope to 
work out this idea in the new department. It will 
represent the thought, and wish of our young people, 
properly directed and made clear. 
* 
A rents 15 acres of pasture from B for an agreed 
price between both parties. On this land is one hickory- 
nut tree, also some blackberry bushes. B claims both 
the nuts and berries when they are ripe. No mention 
was made of them at time of renting. Who do the nuts 
and berries belong to, A or B? A. R. 
O our surprise, we have received 30 or more 
questions like this one. Many of them come 
from women who hired a pasture for the season and 
turned in one or more cows. They paid full price 
for the pasture during the season. Now comes the 
landlord and says they shall not pick the few nuts 
or apples or berries which grow in that pasture. 
His theory seems l<> be that “pasture” means grass, 
and nothing more. It is rather hard to conceive of 
these bitter quarrels arising over such a small mat¬ 
ter, but the number of complaints reaching us makes 
it clear that there is too much of it. Of course in a 
strictly legal sense the owner would have a right to 
whatever grows on his field aside from wlmt the 
cattle would naturally eat. yet if we hired a field for 
the season and paid fair rent for it we should expect 
to pick whatever grows there—nuts, apples or ber¬ 
ries—unless we agreed definitely by eoutraet to leave 
them for the owner. If we rented such a field we 
should either make it clear at the beginning that 
we reserved these crops or give the renter the right 
to pick them. 
* 
F IVE delegates representing agriculture on the 
Industrial Commission at Washington issued a 
statement of what the farmers stand for. Among 
other points is the following; 
The farmer cannot profiteer. His product, raised 
after a twelve-month gamble in which he stakes the 
cost of seed, fertilizer, equipment and land and the la¬ 
bor of himself and all his family, against the weather, 
the elements, and all plant and animal pests and dis¬ 
eases, is sold in market in competition with the products 
of six million other similarly placed producers. Many 
thousands of farm surveys have proveu the generally 
inadequate labor income of the farmer. 
It is true, and this point, must be repeated over 
and over. The average city man has been educated 
to believe that the farmer is the profiteer. And the 
education has been given by the real profiteers. A 
moment’s thought ought to show that there is no. 
possible machinery now by means of which the scat¬ 
tered crop of the farmers an be monopolized, rt 
is only when the farmer has paid for concentrat¬ 
ing that crop, and passed it out of his hands, that 
it is possible to monopolize it. or use it to rob the 
people. 
Brevities 
Grease painted on the metal implements keeps off 
rust. 
Tiie market basket may be the ballot box in which 
we defeat high cost of living. 
We consider roots worth about 40 per cent of the 
selling price of good mixed hay. 
Alfalfa or clover hay makes good “roughage” for 
wintering brood sows. Corn and barley go well with it. 
Shipment of Pcrcherou horses from America to Great 
Britain has begun—the first shipment going from 
Canada. 
Have any readers tried the plan of sowing oats, mil¬ 
let or sorghum in the strawberry field to make a Win¬ 
ter mulch for the plants? 
The Wisconsin Experiment Station finds that when 
horses have their teeth kept in good shape, crushing or 
grinding oats before feeding wes not over five to six 
per cent. 
Mark Smith, secretary >tf the New York Federation 
of Sheep Growers, states that there is an opportunity 
to buy paper wool twine direct. Those who want it 
should notify the secretary. 
