624 
£%c  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
April  15,  1916. 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
TUI-:  BCMXESS  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  N at loiml  Weekly  Journal  lor  Country  anil  Suburban  Honien 
Eslabh'shcil  ttco 
I’liMi-sttri]  oerklr  lij  the  llnral  I'nhlahlug  Cuiupniiy.  tlllll  ">sl  30tli  Street,  New  York 
Herbert  \V.  CriLtJxtJWOOb.  President  nml  Edit  or. 
John  ,1.  Piixcin,  Trea-su rer  nnd  u<  n  ml  Maim^er. 
Wsf.  F.  Dillon,  Secretary.  Mas,  E.  T.  Royi.k.  v  -oclate  Editor. 
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“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  Ionises  only.  Rut  t,<  make  doubly  sure,  "»•  will  make  gooi]  any  loss 
to  pah!  suhserlbeiv  •ustsaned  by  tl'Ulstlng  atiy  deliberate  -.windier,  irrespon¬ 
sible  advert l.-cr-;  or  misleading  advertim'mi'tits  in  otip  columns,  and  any 
such  windier  will  be  publicly  exposed,  We  are  al-o  often  railed  tipoll 
to  adfll-t  dllVerenees  or  mi-r.'ike-  between  one  sob-eetbee-  and  lioilest, 
re-.pmi-ible  bouses,  whetbw  advertisers  or  not.  We  willingly  tio-  our  good 
oUlces  to  this  end,  bill  shell  ease,  should  not  be  contused  with  dishonest 
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responsible  for  llie  debts  of  honest  bankrupts  nanetloued  by  tile  courts. 
Notice  ot  the  complaint  must  lie  vent  to  us  within  one  month  of  tie,  time  of 
the  transaction,  and  to  identify  It,  you  should  mention  The  Kcbal  New- 
Yorker  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
HERE  is  Olio  of  th</  greatest  tilings  we  have 
heard  yet.  It  is  from  actual  life1 — no  dream 
or  fable — a  genuine  extract  from  a  letter  written 
to  a  nurseryman : 
I  expected  to  plant  an  orchard  this  year,  but  have  de¬ 
cided  to  postpone  it  until  next  year  on  account  of  this 
being  leap  year.  I  a  in  told  that  if  1  plant  it  this  sea¬ 
son  I  cannot  depend  on  a  crop  except  once  iu  four 
years  after  tlie  orchard  conics  into  bearing. 
No  doubt  about  it — this  man  was  in  earnest  and 
really  thought  this  was  so.  Here  is  a  new  applica¬ 
tion  of  the  leap  year  privilege  which  nurserymen 
will  not  appreciate  in  this  year’s  trade!  Some  one 
says  he  would  like  to  see  this  man’s  wife! 
* 
REV.  GEORGE  B.  GILBERT  says  on  page  634 
that  if  you  want  to  know  the  real  truth  about 
a  man  ask  the  hired  help  rather  than  the  minister. 
There  is  great  truth  in  that.  The  true  character  of 
the  man  comes  out  in  his  behavior  toward  those  who 
are  more  or  less  in  his  power.  lie  must  study  and 
mend  his  manners  when  dealing  with  those  who 
have  authority  over  him.  or  whose  good  will  lie 
wishes  to  cultivate,  hut  the  natural  character  will 
show  where  he  considers  himself  the  master. 
Shakespeare  had  something  of  this  in  mind  when  he 
said : 
“O.  it  is  excellent 
To  have  a  giant’s  strength;  but  it  is  tyrannous 
To  use  it  like  a  giant!” 
If  you  want  to  know  the  real  farmer- — keep  away 
from  the  minister — go  out  in  the  barn  and  ask  the 
hired  man!  The  inside,  unspoken  thoughts  of  the 
wife  might  help  too. 
* 
■ 
WIIAT  is  the  true  economic  place  of  the  Fall  or 
so-called  everbearing  strawberries?  On  page 
525  Prof.  Johnson  of  Missouri  stated  iu  substance 
that  with  him  these  varieties  were  excellent  for  gar¬ 
den  or  home  use — yet  he  doubted  if  they  were  to  be 
recommended  for  commercial  planting.  Several 
nurserymen  who  have  these  plants  for  sale  object 
strongly  to  any  such  conclusion.  They  claim  there 
are  great  possibilities  for  commercial  culture  in 
these  Fall  bearers.  Our  own  experience  with  them 
is  favorable,  yet  we  seriously  doubt  if  large  plant¬ 
ings  for  commercial  fruiting  would  give  the  results 
claimed  by  some  of  the  dealers.  The  acid  test  of 
such  things  is  to  put  the  proposition  up  to  our  read¬ 
ers.  We  prefer  opinions  from  commercial  growers 
rather  than  those  whose  chief  business  it  is  to  sell 
the  plants.  This  is  no  reflection  upon  the  character 
of  the  latter,  but  the  cohl  truth  will  come  from 
those  who  sell  fruit  rather  than  plants.  Will  such 
people  tell  us  just  what  there  is  to  the  strawberry 
business  in  September  and  October? 
* 
AS  the  bare  ground  comes  into  view  from  be- 
neolh  the  snow  it  becomes  evident  that  this  is 
a  season  when  top-dressing  for  the  Winter  grain 
will  pay  good  dividends.  By  “top-dressing”  we 
mean  spreading  a  moderate  quantity  of  soluble  plant 
food  over  flic  grain  fields.  There  are  some  seasons 
when  the  grain  comes  through  the  Winter  in  such 
shape  that  this  top-dressing  would  hardly  pay,  but 
this  year,  the  sudden  cleanup  of  Winter  reveals  the 
need  of  a  little  stimulant  to  start  the  grain  off  quick¬ 
ly.  Much  of  the  wheat  was  late  seeded  last  Fall, 
and  did  nor  have  a  good  chance  before  Winter  set 
in.  Then  came  a  season  of  cold  weather  with  hare 
ground  and  then  ice  and  snow.  Now  comes  a  quick 
thaw  with  a  hot  sun  ou  the  plants  as  they  are  un¬ 
covered.  Add  to  this  condition  the  fact  that  prices 
will  he  high,  demand  heavier  than  ever,  and  the 
total  crop  a  little  short,  and  we  have  every  argu¬ 
ment  in  favor  of  using  available  fertilizer  this 
Spring.  It  will  be  impossible  to  obtain  potash  eco¬ 
nomically  this  year,  but  nitrogen  and  phosphoric 
acid  will  pay  now  if  they  ever  did. 
THE  Hope  Farm  man  finds  himself  in  the  center 
of  it  whirlwind  of  criticism  as  a  result  of  his 
recent  remarks  on  college  education!  Many  people 
seem  to  have  two  curious  ideas  about  college  edu¬ 
cation.  They  think  their  child  must  be  sent  to  col¬ 
lege  on  general  principles  as  a  part  of  culture  or 
training.  So  they  toil  and  economize  and  shorten 
their  lives  with  worry  in  order  (hat  John  and  Jane 
may  have  “a  chance.’’  The  truth  is  that  sending 
most  hoys  to  college  is  a  good  way  to  spoil  them,  for 
the  hoy  who  is  sent  in  this  way  will  rarely  see  the 
importance  of  it.  or  realize  what  he  is  doing.  Let 
the  boy  go  to  college  if  he  wants  to  go  badly  enough 
to  work,  but  do  not  send  him  because  other  parents 
are  foolish  enough  to  do  so!  Willingness  to  work 
and  slave  for  an  education  should  he  the  test  for 
the  poor  man’s  son.  Another  curious  idea  which 
some  fond  parents  have  is  the  belief  that  life  at 
most  of  the  endowed  colleges  is  clean,  democratic 
and  really  inspiring.  There  are  some  notable  ex¬ 
ceptions,  but  at  most  of  the  lug  and  ricll  colleges  the 
chances  are  that  your  boy  will  become  a  snob  and  a 
cynic  unless  he  be  made  of  superior  clay  to  begin 
with,  and  unless  you  and  his  mother  have  given  him 
enduring  habits  and  example.  No  one  can  have  a 
higher  regard  for  education  and  its  enabling  and 
powerful  qualities  than  we  have,  but  its  nobility  and 
power  are  lost  when  separated  from  plain,  humble 
character  and  old-fashioned  faith  in  the  true  things 
<  f  life.  Too  many  of  our  great  colleges  draw  away 
from  these  humble  things  as  they  get  near  to  wealth 
and  independent  endiTwment.  The  boy  who  goes  to 
college  will  dig  the  gold  out  of  education.  The  boy 
who  is  merely  sent  there  will  be  content  with  the 
brass — or  worse. 
* 
WE  have  fought  our  battle  for  the  Foods  and 
Markets  Department  because  of  the  principle 
involved.  The  personality  attached  to  the  office  is 
a  small  matter,  which  concerns  today  only.  The 
principle  of  marketing  reform  has  to  do  with  .the 
future.  Men  may  come  and  men  may  go,  but  the 
question  of  market  rights  and  a  fairer  share  of  the 
consumer’s  dollar  for  the  produce  will  endure  as 
long  as  grass  grows  and  water  runs.  This  great 
question  cannot  stand  still.  It  will  go  ahead  or  it 
will  go  backward.  Ten  years  hence  there  will  not 
be  any  35-cent  dollar.  It  will  be  30-ccnt  or  40-cent. 
We  see  that  clearly,  and  that  is  why  we  have  made 
our  fight  for  the  Department  Men  may  criticize 
and  growl  at  mistakes  or  shortcomings,  but  ibis  fact 
remains:  The  Department  represents  the  only  out¬ 
spoken  and  sincere  effort  to  improve  marketing  con¬ 
ditions  which  official  New  York  has  yet  attempted. 
It  has  .antagonized  some  of  the  commercial  and 
transportation  interests,  but  under  the  circumstances 
that  was  a  necessity.  There  has  never  been  a  farm¬ 
ers’  movement  in  this  State  which  had  a  stronger 
and  more  enthusiastic  hacking  from  both  farm  or¬ 
ganizations  and  individual  farmers  than  this  De¬ 
partment  work  has  received.  The  Governor  and  the 
Legislature  understand  these  things  fully,  for  they 
have  been  told  straight  and  clear  by  the  farmers. 
The  Legislature  is  now  nearly  at  an  end:  the  lead¬ 
ers  must  accept  responsibility  or  take  credit  for  the 
outcome.  No  matter  what  happens  the  fight  will 
go  on  with  redoubled  energy.  There  is  one  thing 
which  you  must  remember.  We  have  all  seen  the 
need  of  an  organized  army  of  New  York  farmers 
tilled  with  enthusiasm  and  fighting  spirit.  Organ¬ 
izations  have  been  started,  but  they  usually  fall  into 
the  hands  of  a  group  of  workers,  because  the  indi¬ 
vidual  members  drop  their  fighting  spirit.  We  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  present  struggle 
for  marketing  reform  has  a  stronger  and  wider  hack¬ 
ing  among  farmers  than  anything  of  the  sort  ever 
before  started  in  New  York,  That  is  the  best  rea¬ 
son  of  all  why  it  should  be  backed  by  every  farmer 
in  the  State. 
* 
ON  page  271  we  told  the  story  of  two  New  Jer¬ 
sey  farmers  who  won  damages  from  a  manu¬ 
facturing  corporation  which  permitted  waste  and 
fumes  from  chemicals  to  destroy  crops  and  con¬ 
taminate  water.  It.  is  not  usual  for  farmers  to  win 
such  cases,  but  these  men  were  well  advised  and 
had  first-class  scientific  testimony.  Damages  were 
paid  them,  but  not  as  much  as  they  should  have  re¬ 
ceived.  Here  is  the  point.  These  men  had  no  reg¬ 
ular  system  of  keeping  hooks,  and  could  not  show 
to  judge  or  jury  just  how  much  damage  had  been 
done.  Could  they  have  shown  from  their  hooks 
what  their  crops  brought  in  before  this  damage  was 
done  they  could  have  obtained  more  than  they  did, 
because  such  a  statement  must  be  the  basis  for 
measuring  such  damage.  They  had  to  guess  and  es¬ 
timate.  and  of  coarse  that  worked  to  their  disad¬ 
vantage.  Every  time  a  ease  of  this  sort  comes  up 
we  have  the  same  story.  The  measure  of  damage 
is  decided  by  the  real  value  of  crops,  and  unless 
the  farmer  can  show  his  hooks  and  figures  lie  cannot 
show  how  much  he  has  been  injured.  Every  fann¬ 
er  should  keep  a  set  of  books,  or  at  least  a  good 
statement  of  what  he  buys  and  sells. 
* 
HE  National  Feed  Dealers’  Association  is  trying 
to  prevent  cooperation  or  wholesale  buying 
among  farmers.  This  association  is  out  to  protect 
the  retail  feed  dealer,  and  if  possible  to  compel  farm¬ 
ers  to  pay  retail  prices  for  feed.  It  is  claimed  that 
some  of  the  farm  bureau  managers  have  helped  or¬ 
ganize  what  is  called  “direct  wholesale  buying 
units,”  and  for  this  grave  crime  the  association  asks 
the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  to  stop  any  such  prac¬ 
tice.  Here  is  part  of  their  resolution: 
It  is  the  understanding  of  the  members  of  this  con¬ 
ference  that  l lie  said  farm  bureau  managers  and  other 
county  agents,  have  no  lawful  authority  to  carry  on  any 
purely  business  undertaking  for  the  members  of  any 
organization,  or  for  the  organization  as  such. 
That  seems  to  bo  the  general  understanding  re¬ 
garding  the  farm  bureau  managers.  They  are  to 
educate,  and  advise,  but  not  to  interfere  in  any  way 
with  business  men.  In  New  York  State  these  man¬ 
agers  receive  the  following  instructions: 
It  is  a  function  of  a  farm  bureau  manager  to  furnish 
information  as-  to  market  conditions  in  different  cities, 
even  quotations  and  shipping  instructions  and  advice, 
in  cases  where  this  information  is  asked  for  and  neces¬ 
sary.  Hut  he  should  never  conduct  correspondence  with 
dealers  or  commission  men  until  any  view  other  than 
securing  information.  It  is  not  his  function  net  nail  y 
to  ship  or  to  sell  and  lit  should  never  agree  to  do  so. 
These  principles  also  apply,  though  perhaps  not  with 
equal  force,  to  a  farm  bureau  association,  whether  in¬ 
corporated  or  not.  While  sneh  an  association  lias  a 
perfect  right  to  buy  or  sell,  it  is  not,  in  our  judgment. 
good  policy  for  it  to  do  so,  since  it  trill  he  impossible  to 
distinguish  'between  the  function  of  such  on  associa¬ 
tion  to  buy  and  to  sell  and  to  conduct  a  farm  bureau,  in 
the  minds  of  the  general  public. 
It  is  true  that  the  general  public  want  to  know 
more  and  more  what  a  farm  bureau  is  supposed  to 
be  for.  Why  call  it  a  farm  bureau  if  the  farmer  is 
to  have  education  and  advice  for  his  share,  while 
the  merchants  and  business  men  are  to  have  the 
business  benefits?  Many  of  the  bright  and  ener¬ 
getic  young  men  who  serve  as  managers  and  ad¬ 
visers  get  close  to  the  farmers  and  know  that  they 
want  business  help  and  business  leaders  and  fight¬ 
ers  more  than  anything  else.  The  great,  domin¬ 
ating  need  of  our  farmers  as  they  are  situated  to¬ 
day  is  some  sort  of  marketing  reform  in  both  buy¬ 
ing  and  selling.  While  it  is  a  wise  plan  for  the 
managers  not  to  handle  money  or  discriminate  in 
favor  of  any  particular  dealer  they  ought  to  make 
it  clear  that  the  bureau  is  a  farm  organization  first 
of  all  and  that  it  stands  for  cooperative  buying  and 
selling — tlie  farmers  themselves  to  do  tlie  business. 
Such  actions  as  the  one  taken  by  these  feed  manu¬ 
facturers  give  the  public  to  understand  that  the  farm 
part  of  the  bureau  is  being  farmed  out. 
* 
HERE  is  an  illustration  of  the  reports  about 
high  prices  for  farm  products  which  get 
abroad.  Several  readers  have  been  told  that  manu¬ 
facturers  of  chewing  tobacco  are  using  maple  syrup 
with  the  “weed”  to  such  an  extent  that  the  price 
has  gone  to  $4  per  gallon!  There  is  nothing  what¬ 
ever  to  this.  One  of  the  largest  tobacco  manufac¬ 
turers  writes  us : 
So  far  as  wc  know,  there  will  be  no  more  maple  sugar 
applied  in  the  manufacture  of  tobacco  this  year  than  in 
former  years.  In  fact,  the  price  of  maple  sugar  large¬ 
ly  governs  the  consumption  in  the  manufacture  of  to¬ 
bacco.  In  years  when  the  price  is  from  seven  cents  to 
eight  cents  per  pound,  a  considerable  quantity  is  used, 
and  when  the  price  is  above  It)  cents,  it  is  not  at¬ 
tractive  to  tobacco  manufacturers,  especially  so  when 
cane  sugars  are  under  seven  cents. 
We  often  wonder  how  such  reports  ever  start. 
Think  of  using  the  delicate  flavor  of  maple  sugar 
and  syrup  in  chewing  tobacco ! 
Brevities 
How  are  the  peach  buds? 
There  never  was  a  season  requiring  more  real  judg¬ 
ment  iu  planning  work  than  this  one. 
Some  people  have  a  hatchet  to  grind  when  they  hold 
you  up.  They  are  worse  than  the  man  with  the  ax. 
Any  high-priced  “treatment”  for  oat  smut,  under  a 
fancy  name  will,  nine  times  in  10  be  formalin  with 
something  to  change  its  color! 
1’itOF.  Carver’S  bulletin  Iin  peanuts  is  n  good  one.  At 
Tuskegee  College  they  served  a  dinner  of  live  courses — 
soup  to  ice  cream,  each  one  containing  peanuts  and  no 
meat ! 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  1ms 
issued  Farmers’  Bulletin  No.  707,  “Commercial  Grad¬ 
ing,  Packing  and  Shipping  of  Cantaloupes,”  freely  il¬ 
lustrated. 
Ox  page  423  we  had  an  account  of  the  auto  truck  de¬ 
velopment  by  the  Massachusetts  gardeners  near  Bos¬ 
ton.  On  page  581  is  the  picture  of  such  a  truck  which 
is  used  for  carrying  produce  from  Concord,  Mass. 
The  first  snowdrops  were  in  bloom  in  a  Northern 
New  Jersey  garden  this  year  March  31,  the  first  Cro¬ 
cus  the  same  date.  In  It >1.0  the  first  snowdrop  bloomed 
in  the  same  garden  March  1,  the  lirst  Crocus  March  5. 
