1098 
EAe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
l 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  mSI.XF.R8  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  lor  Country  nod  Suburban  Ilomes 
Established  ?W0 
Published  weekly  by  ihr  Rnrol  Pirliliihinx  I  om  [mu  j.  JI33  West  80lh  Street,  New  fork 
Herotrt  W.  CouiSSKnoti.  President  and  Editor. 
John'  J.  Pill, on,  Treasurer  and  Genera.]  Manaie-r. 
Wm.  F.  Dn.r.os,  Secretary.  Mae.  E.  T.  Kovlk;  Associate  Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION  :  ONE  DOLLAR  A  YEAR 
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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  Oils  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  ante,  we  wi LI  make  good  any  loss 
to  paid  subaerlbcrr  rartnlned  by  trusting  any  deliberate  swindler,  irrespon¬ 
sible  advertisers  or  misleading  advert  ments  tn  our  column*,  and  any 
such  swindler  will  bts  publloly  exposed.  We  are  also  often  called  upon 
to  adiu*t  diffCP-'UCcs  or  mistake;  tie?  worn  our  xubo-rll.ei-s  and  honest, 
responsible  bouses,  whether  advertisers  or  not,  Wr  willingly  n  o  our  good 
ofTifen  to  thto  end,  but  such  csso-  should  not  bo  confused  with  dishonest 
trn  nwwtiona.  We  protect  subscribers  against  rogues,  but  we  svtll  not  bo 
re*|*insiblo  for  (he  debts  of  honest  bankrupt*  sanctioned  by  the  courts. 
Notice  of  the  omnplaitif  must  he  tout  t  o  us.  wit  bin  one  month  of  the  time  of 
the  transaction,  and  to  identify  it,  you  should  mention  Thu  Rural  New- 
YORRER  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
THE  Iowa  Agricultural  College  is  doing  groat 
work  in  teaching  farm  mechanics.  There  is  a 
remarkable  equipment  for  the  study  of  tractors  and 
automobiles,  and  Iowa  farmers  make  use  of  it.  At 
the  last  “Farmers’  Week”  the  work  on  automobiles 
was  the  most  popular  thing  offered  by  the  college. 
During  the  year  short  courses  on  this  subject  are 
given  at  various  places  throughout  the  State — al¬ 
ways  with  great  interest.  There  is  one  car  for  every 
10  people  in  Iowa,  and  the  proportion  will  soon  be 
down  to  1 — 10.  No  wonder  then  at  the  interest  in 
these  courses.  There  should  be  similar  education 
in  every  State. 
* 
THE  season  for  identifying  fruits  will  soon  be 
here.  On  every  fruit  farm  there  will  be  trees 
hearing  fruit  out  of  the  ordinary.  These  trees  may 
be  “misfits”  from  nurserymen,  “sports”  or  seedlings. 
In  any  case  the  fruit  should  be  positively  identi¬ 
fied  by  some  one  whose  authority  will  stand.  Send 
fair  samples  of  the  fruit  to  the  TJ.  S.  Pomologist, 
Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.,  with 
a  fair  statement  about  the  tree  and  its  history.  The 
Department  will  furnish  franked  boxes  for  free 
mailing  of  specimens  if  you  ask  for  them.  It  is  far 
better  to  send  such  specimens  direct  to  the  Depart¬ 
ment  for  identification. 
* 
WE  wish  every  parent  who  is  interested  in 
rural  schools  would  read  “The  Brown 
Mouse,”  by  Herbert  Quick.  It  is  the  story  of  an 
awakening  in  a  rural  school  district  brought  about 
by  a  hired  man,  who  by  a  combination  of  joke  and 
misunderstanding  was  put  in  as  teacher.  lie  got 
away  from  the  dry  textbooks  and  usual  routine,  and 
taught  the  children  in  terms  of  their  own  life  and 
the  life  they  would  live  as  intelligent  farmers. 
The  practical  man  will  say  that  .Tim  Irwin  is  an 
imaginary  character.  He  is  called  “The  Brown 
Mouse.”  because  he  is  different — an  educational 
freak — yet  who,  after  reading  this  book,  will  not 
say  that  what  he  tried  to  do  is  the  ideal  :iii  our 
system  of  rural  education?  It  is  a  book  for  par¬ 
ents  and  for  teachers.  It  will  make  them  all  think 
— that  is  the  real  aim  of  all  true  literature. 
* 
ONE  of  the  greatest  of  our  farm  problems  is  how 
to  turn  the  tenant  farmer  into  a  land  owner. 
There  are  many  tenants  and  hired  men  who  would 
make  the  best  of  farmers  if  they  could  only  obtain 
the  credit  or  capital  needed  to  buy  and  stock  a 
farm.  As  tenants  they  cannot  have  great  ambition 
to  keep  up  the  soil  and  improve  the  farm,  because 
most  of  the  benefit  from  such  work  must  come  in 
the  future,  and  someone  else  will  benefit  from  their 
labor.  Let  those  men  have  farms  of  their  own,  and 
they  could  plan  for  the  future,  and  thus  become  the 
finest  of  farmers.  This  country  needs  just  this  class 
cf  farmers  right  now,  and  there  will  he  a  greater 
need  in  the  future.  Where  shall  the  tenant  and  the 
hired  man  obtain  credit,  so  that  they  may  become 
land  owners?  Under  the  new  Federal  farm  loan 
law  a  man  must  have  good  assets  in  land  in  order 
to  borrow.  It  is  a  fine  thing  to  make  farm  land  the 
basis  for  government  credit,  hut  it  does  not  yet 
fully  reach  the  needs  of  the  landless  tenant  and 
hired  man. 
* 
HERE  is  one  great  injustice  in  the  present  sys¬ 
tem  of  selling  milk  in  New  York.  Through 
their  absolute  control  of  price  making,  and  their 
equal  control  of  distributing  facilities,  the  dealers 
have  been  able  to  maintain  a  uniform  retail  price 
for  milk  during  the  entire  year.  This  retail  price 
for  B  grade  pasteurized  is  nine  cents  per  quart,  and 
A  grades  range  from  10  to  12  cents.  The  consumer 
pays  these  prices  in  the  city,  when  the  farmer,  in 
seasons  of  greatest  production,  receives  only  2 y$ 
cents.  This  system  restricts  consumption  when  milk 
is  plentiful  and  should  be  cheap.  If  retail  prices 
were  in  such  times  reduced  to  correspond  to  the 
price  at  the  farm,  the  consumption  of  milk  would 
he  increased  and  the  wholesale  price  on  an  open 
market  would  quickly  advance  again  in  sympathy 
with  the  new  demand.  On  the  other  hand  in  sea¬ 
sons  of  scarcity  there  is  never  enough  milk  in  the 
city  for  the  demand  and  consumption  is  again  re¬ 
stricted  by  this  system  from  necessity,  but  the  farm¬ 
er  under  a  six-months’  contract  gets  no  more  for  it. 
There  is  no  more  reason  why  milk  should  he  sold  at 
the  same  price  every  day  in  the  year,  than  there  is 
for  a  similar  System  for  butter  or  eggs  or  potatoes, 
it  would  be  better  to  abandon  the  contract  system  at 
least,  to  the  extent  of  keeping  a  regular  supply 
to  sell  on  an  open  market  in  the  city  at  a  price  reg¬ 
ulated  by  supply  and  demand.  This  will  give  the 
city  cheap  milk  when  it  is  plentiful,  and  it  will  give 
the  farmer  the  benefit  of  better  prices  when  it  is 
scarce,  and  inspire  him  to  produce  more  when  it  is 
needed. 
* 
ONE  of  the  most  discouraging  things  connected 
with  reform  work  is  the  inborn  inclination  to 
take  petty  graft  which  afflicts  many  of  our  people. 
There  are  some  men  who  do  not  seem  to  realize  the 
meaning  or  the  need  of  real  service.  They  go  into  a 
reform  movement  and  take  a  prominent  part — so 
prominent  that  they  pass  as  big,  disinterested  pa¬ 
triots  who  are  working  for  the  common  good  and 
nothing  else.  Thus  they  are  often  put  at  the  front 
in  leading  positions.  Just  as  soon  as  money  appears 
in  the  treasury  or  the  organization  gains  power, 
these  men  begin  to  show  their  hand.  Few  men  seem 
able  to  stand  the  sight  of  easy  public  money.  All 
sorts  of  hills  are  worked  up  for  time  or  for  sup¬ 
plies,  and  the  money  in  the  treasury  melts  away. 
Then  the  rank  and  file  of  the  association  find  their 
capital  frittered  away  with  nothing  done,  and  of 
course  they  feel  that  they  have  been  duped  or  mis¬ 
led  once  more.  Or  these  leaders  gaiu  reputation  and 
power  in  the  organization,  and  use  it  to  obtain  some 
public  job  or  some  good  place  with  a  corporation 
which  deals  with  farmers.  Most  of  us  know  of  just 
such  cases,  where  men  have  gained  the  confidence 
of  farmers  and  then  abused  it  to  gratify  their  own 
selfish  ends.  Men  who  operate  in  that  way  have 
done  uncounted  harm  to  farmers  by  taking  the 
spirit  and  unselfish  patriotism  out  of  farm  organ¬ 
izations.  This  spirit  of  petty  graft  is  like  a  dis¬ 
ease  eating  into  the  heart  of  most  attempts  to  do 
true  cooperative  work.  It  is  often  said  that  we 
need  great  leaders  to  organize  and  direct  the  battle 
for  marketing  reform.  There  is  a  still  greater  need 
for  humbler  workers  who  will  give,  right  out  of 
their  lives,  free  and  honest  service  for  the  benefit 
of  their  follow  workmen.  We  need  this  more  than 
ever  before  in  the  present  demand  for  fairer  milk 
prices.  These  workers  should  be  found  right  in  the 
ranks  of  farmers,  and  not  among  those  who  have 
retired  or  aspired  to  other  jobs. 
* 
HERE  is  a  new  plan  which  the  farmers  in  West¬ 
ern  Canada  are  trying  out: 
The  Manitoba  Department  of  Agriculture  has  opened 
a  new  department,  known  as  the  farmers’  cooperative 
fattening  station,  at  the  Manitoba  Agricultural  Col¬ 
lege.  The  station  will  be  operated  on  a  strictly  co¬ 
operative  basis,  the  farmers  joining  the  movement  will 
ship  their  stock  to  the  station,  where  government  em¬ 
ployes  will  attend  to  the  fattening  and  marketing,  the 
actual  cost  only  to  be  charged  for  the  service.  This 
amount  will  ho  deducted  from  the  market  price,  the 
balance  forwarded  to  the  farmer  who  must  furnish  his 
own  coops  for  transportation  to  the  poultry  department 
at  Winnipeg.  About  eighteen  days  will  be  consumed 
in  the  fattening  process. 
A  plan  of  that  sort,  properly  worked  out  in  New 
York  would  mean  wonders  to  many  of  our  farmers. 
At  present,  with  small  lots  of  broilers  or  roasters, 
they  are  well  nigh  helpless  in  marketing.  They 
must  take  what  is  offered  them.  If  the  poultry 
could  he  shipped  to  a  central  point,  fattened  and 
sold  under  direction  of  the  State,  the  finished  poul¬ 
try  would  be  better  and  more  uniform,  and  could  he 
sold  so  as  to  save  half  a  dozen  charges  and  tolls.  A 
great  plan — why  can  the  Canadians  put  such  things 
over  while  it  is  impossible  this  side  of  the  line?  The 
answer  is  easy.  Those  Canadian  farmers  have  come 
to  realize  that  they  are  the  State  because  they  rep¬ 
resent  the  foundation  of  society  in  providing  food 
and  fibre  for  the  people.  That  is  not  all  they  pro¬ 
vide — for  the  handling  and  making  over  of  their 
crops  provides  practically  all  other  classes  with  liv¬ 
ing  employment.  Realizing  that,  of  course  they  put 
the  State  at  work  on  their  marketing  problem.  Some 
day  our  New  York  farmers  will  wake  up  from  a 
bad  dream,  rub  their  eyes,  and  realize  that  they  too 
arc  the  State!  Then  one  of  the  first  things  they  will 
do  will  be  to  put  the  State  hack  of  a  great  creamery 
in  this  city  at  which  an  open  and  free  market  for 
August  19,  1916. 
milk  will  he  developed.  Then  the  milk  question  will 
he  on  the  road  to  settlement. 
* 
THIS  milk  question  is  world-wide.  In  London, 
England,  the  dealers  put  the  price  of  retail 
milk  up  to  12  cents  a  quart.  The  consumers  fought 
this  and  carried  the  complaint  to  Parliament.  In 
defence  of  their  action  these  dealers  claimed  that 
the  raise  was  made  necessary  because  the  farmers 
were  paid  “very  liberal”  prices.  It  seems  that  these 
English  farmers  sign  yearly  contracts  on  October 
1.  For  six  months  they  receive  6%  cents  and  for 
six  months  five  cents  a  quart  but  they  must  pay 
all  freight  or  cartage  out  of  that.  For  the  mere 
distribution  of  this  milk  in  London  the  dealers  re¬ 
ceive  over  five  cents  a  quart  in  Winter  and  seven _ 
cents  a  quart  in  Summer!  Through  their  failure  or' 
inability  to  combine,  the  farmers  invest  most  of  the 
capital  dnd  do  most,  of  the  work  and  receive  on  an 
average  less  than  half  the  consumer’s  dollar! 
* 
THE  late  Mrs.  Betty  Green  was  said  to  be  the 
richest  woman  in  the  world,  and  many  stories 
are  told  of  her  financial  dealings.  It  is  said  that 
at  one  time  she  and  her  son  owned  a  railroad,  and 
were  greatly  annoyed  at  the  fierce  demand  for  free 
passes.  Mrs.  Breen  hunted  through  the  Bible  for 
suitable  texts  and  had  the  following  card  printed 
to  be  handed  to  all  graft,  hunters: 
Monday — "Thou  shalt  not.  pass.”  Numbers  xx,  18. 
Tuesday — “Suffer  not  n  man  to  pass.”  Judges  iii.  28. 
Wednesday — "The  wicked  shall  no  more  pass.”  Na¬ 
irn  rn  i,  15. 
Thursday — “This  generation  shall  not  pass.”  Mark 
xiii,  30. 
Friday — “llv  a  perpetual  decree  it  can  not  pass.” 
Jeremiah  v,  22. 
Saturday — “None  shall  pass.”  Isaiah  xxxiv,  10. 
Sunday — “So  he  paid  the  fare  thereof  and  went.” 
Jonah  i,  2. 
This  “free  pass”  nuisance  is  a  petty  graft  which 
gives  certain  people  a  special  privilege,  and  puts 
them  under  obligations  to  a  corporation  which  must 
depend  on  the  public.  One  man  obtains  an  ad¬ 
vantage  over  another  through  his  “free  pass,”  and 
he  is  bound,  in  human  nature,  to  make  use  of  it. 
There  is  nothing  “free”  about,  these  passes  anyway. 
Every  man  who  accepts  one  acknowledges  an  ob¬ 
ligation  of  some  sort  to  a  hard  master,  and  is  no 
longer  free. 
* 
THIS  brief  report  from  Ohio  gives  a  new  thought 
regarding  the  new  Federal  loan  law: 
There  seems  to  he  little  demand  on  the  part  of  farm¬ 
ers  for  the  measure  and  I  think  the  feeling  is  general 
that  farmers  will  be  very  slow  in  forming  the  necessary 
organizations  and  taking  the  steps  needed  to  avail  them¬ 
selves  of  the  possible  benefits.  The  feeding  is  that  the 
measure  is  cumbersome  and  unworkable,  and  that  the 
need  to  be  met  is  not  so  keenly  felt  as  to  compel  the 
meeting  of  requirements. 
However,  is  it  not  possible  that  there  are  other 
agencies  to  reckon  with  which  will  make  the  measure 
of  far-reaching  importance?  If  the  investing  public  be¬ 
comes  convinced  that  compliance  with  the  proposed 
regulations  will  make  farm  loans  secure  and  desirable 
for  long-time  investments,  and  if  it  sees  in  this  a  chance 
for  a  safe  investment,  and  more  remunerative  than  is 
now  offered  by  Government  bonds  and  trust  companies, 
there  may  lie  a  strong  influence  from  this  source  to  set 
the  necessary  machinery  in  operation.  If  long-time 
farm  loans  tit  a  lower  rate  thus  become  a  fact,  it  will 
surely  have  an  influence  on  the  price  of  laud,  and 
the  consequence  will  be  more  far-reaching  than  the  gen¬ 
eral  public  realizes.  A. 
It  will  surely  be  a  fine  thing  if  the  public  can  be 
led  to  invest  savings  in  these  land  bank  bonds.  Such 
investments  are  absolutely  safe,  and  the  investors 
will  take  a  double  interest  in  the  government  and  in 
farming.  Town  people  investing  in  these  bonds 
will  feel  a  personal  interest  In  helping  to  make 
farming  more  profitable,  so  that  the  land  hack  of 
their  investment  will  become  more  valuable.  We 
hope  these  land  bonds  will  in  time  he  preferred  to 
the  wildcats  and  promises  which  have  taken  so 
much  money  away  from  the  people.  One  great 
source  of  strength  of  the  European  nations  is  the 
fact  that  the  people  put  their  money  freely  into 
government  securities.  We  think  the  present  loan 
law  will  in  time  he  made  workable  and  useful  to 
all  farmers,  but  the  principle  now  established  of 
making  good  farm  land  the  basis  for  government 
credit  is  a  great  progressive  step. 
Brevities 
This  is  the  cover  crop  season. 
A  great  experience  “The  Pastoral  Parson”  had  at 
his  combined  funeral  and  wedding! 
A  self-feeder  is  good  for  the  hog  and  for  the  hog 
man. 
A  WORD  fitly  spoken  in  favor  of  Tiif,  R.  N.-Y.  will 
fit  in  well  right  now. 
Bet  the  full  difference  between  self  help  and  self 
hindrance ! 
A  pound  of  borax  dissolved  in  12  gallons  of  water 
makes  a  good  “sprinkler”  for  manure  piles  or  stables 
to  prevent  flies  from  breeding.  It  is  also  good  for  privy 
vaults. 
