1160 
& he  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
the  BuarvEzs  fa  it \i Errs  tapf.u 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  lor  Country  find  Suburban  Ifomen 
B»tabIMu>d  )ISS0 
Published  sieelilj  by  the  Itiiral  Piihlisblnr  t'ampiny,  888  West  30lh  Street.  New  fork 
ITebbrrt  W.  Colt.tngwooik  President  and  Editor. 
•tOHV  .1.  Drtt-OS,  I’reJWTiirr  and  General  Manager. 
"'it.  F.  Dnxox,  Swetaty.  Mas.  E.  T.  Koklh,  Associate  Editor. 
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“A  SQUARE  REAL" 
We  believe  that  every  advertisement  in  this  paper  is  hacked  by  a  respon¬ 
sible  person.  We  use  everv  possible  precaution  and  admit  the  advertising  of 
relia  ble  houses  only.  But  to  make  dual  My  sure,  w  e  w  ill  make  good  any  loss 
to  paid  subscribers  sustained  by  trusting  any  deliberate  swindler,  irrespon¬ 
sible  advertisers  or  misleading  advert  i>emen  Is  u.  our  columns,  a  lid  any 
such  swindler  will  be  publicly-  eiysoeO.  WV  are  also  often  called  upon 
to  adjust,  dliferyneea  or  nustakto  between  our  subscribeni  and  hottest, 
responsible  houses,  whether  advcnlseiw  or  not.  IVe  willingly  use  onr  good 
offices  to  this  end,  but  such  oases  should  not  be  confused  with  dishonest 
trail soetlons.  We  protect  Kubwribers  against  rogues,  but  we  will  not  he 
responsible  for  the  debts  of  honest  bankru  pt‘t  fkAiiPtiiTtn^fl  li y  th* 
Isotice  ot  the  complaint  must  he  sent  to  us  within  one  mouth  of  the  rime  of 
the  transaction,  and  to  identify  it,  you  should  mention  The  Rural  New- 
Yorker  when- writing  the  advertiser. 
QUESTIONS  about  the  new  Federal  loan  bank 
bill  eonliimo  to  pour  in  upon  us,  and  it  seems 
hard  to  make  the  facts  clear.  Apparently  a  good 
many  peoLile  think  they  have  only  to  apply  to  some 
official  in  order  to  obtain  a  loan  on  their  property. 
Others  seem  to  think  that  it  is  unnecessary  for  them 
to  have  good  assets  in  order  to  make  the  loan. 
The  fact  is  that  vo  one  can  borrow  money  net  under 
this  lair!  The  banks  have  not  yet  been  located  or 
established.  The  loan  commission  is  now  travelling 
through  the  country  and  preparing  to  locate  these 
banks.  No  money  will  be  ready  for  loaning  before 
next  Spring.  Then  it  -will  he  necessary  for  the  bor¬ 
rower  to  join  an  association  of  at.  least.  TO  members. 
Send  to  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington 
for  a  copy  of  the  bill  and  study  it.  riea.se  remem¬ 
ber  that  there  is  no  money  available  yet  under  this 
law,  and  probably  will  not  he  for  six  months  yet. 
Do  not  expect  too  much  of  this  law.  Its  principle 
is  sound,  but  there  is  much  red  tape  about  it.  Let 
us  be  patient,  try  it  out  fairly — and  cut  the  red-tape 
later. 
* 
ON  June  13,  1837,  Jeremiah  Mattoon  of  Clinton 
Co.,  N.  Y.,  borrowed  .$17*0  from  the  Loan  Com¬ 
missioners  of  New  York  and  gave  a  mortgage  for 
that  amount.  Tn  1312,  or  To  years  later,  it  was 
found  that  .$715  had  been  paid  in  interest  on  this 
mortgage — with  the  entire  principle  still  unpaid. 
Thus  Mattoon  and  his  heirs  or  other  owners  paid 
nearly  five  times  the  amount  of  this  mortgage  in  in¬ 
terest  without  reducing  the  face  of  it  by  one  penny. 
On  a  system  of  amortization  the  entire  mortgage, 
principal  and  interest,  would  have  been  paid  in  20 
years.  Practically  every  nival  county  in  New  York 
State  has  recorded  mortgages  which  have  been  run¬ 
ning  -10  years  or  more.  In  Greene  County  a  mort¬ 
gage  made  in  T801  for  $500  has  drawn  interest  at 
6%  and  5%  and  is  si  ill  unpaid.  Tn  Otsego  County 
an  unrecorded  mortgage  for  nearly  $200  has  run  for 
nearly  100  years,  is  still  alive  and  interest  lias  been 
paid  regularly.  Much  the  same  will  he  found  true 
of  other  rural  counties.  These  mortgages  gnawing 
at  the  property  for  half  a  century  or  more  may  well 
be  called  wolves.  There  is  one  mortgage  for  $2,000 
given  in  1871.  The  interest  has  been  paid  and  there 
is  still  due  $2,500  of  the  principal !  Those  cases  are 
exceptional,  and  there  are  not  many  of  them,  but 
they  show  what  may  happen  to  a  farm  in  some  com¬ 
munity  where  farming  is  changing  and  land  values 
are  falling.  Under  a  system  of  amortization  or 
yearly  paying  part  of  the  principal  not  one  of  these 
mortgages  would  now  be  alive. 
* 
SINCE  this  discussion  about  express  companies 
and  egg  shipments  has  come  up,  a  number  of 
readers  have  asked  just  what  public  supervision  is 
given  these  carriers.  Who  controls  them  and  what 
does  the  control  amount  to?  The  following  state¬ 
ment  gives  the  answer: 
The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  exercises  the 
same  control  over  the  express  companies  that  it  does 
over  the  railroads,  no  more  and  no  less.  It  has  juris¬ 
diction  over  rates  and  everything  affecting  rates.  It 
does  riot  have  authority  over  the  manner  of  handling 
goods  nor  claims  for  loss  m*  damage.  It  has  jurisdiction 
over  claims  only  when  they  concern  rates. 
Thus  when  the  express  company  smashes  your 
eggs  and  continues  to  do  so  until  your  customer  de¬ 
serts  you  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  can 
do  nothing  for  you.  It  becomes  a  matter  between 
you  and  the  express  company.  If  you  can  muster 
power  enough  in  some  way  you  can  collect  damages 
either  through  a  court  or  by  personal  appeal.  If 
you  could  get  1,000  other  shippers  to  unite  with  you 
and  refuse  to  ship  unless  you  obtained  better  service 
you  could  make  them  behave.  It  has  been  our  ex¬ 
perience  that  several  of  the  express  companies  are 
improving  their  service — slowly  perhaps,  but  surely. 
We  think  they  realize  that  they  must  do  this  or  sub¬ 
mit  to  stricter  regulations,  or  face  a  harder  compe¬ 
tition  through  parcel  post.  Which  do  you  find  more 
careful — the  railroads  with  baggage  or  the  express 
companies  with  packages?  The  It.  N.-Y.  is  out  for 
a  reform  in  express  methods.  We  would  first  give 
them  a  chance  to  reform  their  own  methods — if  they 
will  not,  we  favor  full  government  control. 
* 
Ox  page  102G  Mr.  E.  J.  Baird  of  Pennsylvania  has 
an  article  on  the  farm  bureaus.  Is  it  possible  that  this 
expresses  the  views  of  any  large  number  of  our  farm¬ 
ers?  S.  B.  B. 
1118  question  comes  from  a  city  man  who  is 
greatly  interested  in  “uplifting”  farmers.  He 
has  spent  quite  a  little  money  with  various  societies, 
but  he  knows  practically  nothing  about  actual  farm 
work.  In  answer  to  his  question  we  have  had  a 
large  number  of  letters  from  Pennsylvania  farmers 
regarding  Mr.  Baird’s  article.  Nine  out  of  10  of 
them  endorse  what  he  said — some  say  he  should 
have  made  it  stronger.  Apparently  the  tiling  which 
most  practical  farmers  resent  is  the  theory  that 
they  are  in  great  need  of  “help"  or  that  they  need 
some  one  to  do  the  things  which  they  are  fully  cap¬ 
able  of  doing  themselves.  There  may  have  been 
young  fellows  who  rushed  into  this  bureau  work  ex¬ 
pecting  to  upset  old  conditions  and  pull  old  habits 
of  thought  out  by  the  roots.  These  men  and  a 
class  of  side-farmers,  who  farm  largely  for  fun, 
l  ave  spread  this  idea  that  “these  old  farmers"  need 
help  and  must  he  taught.  It  is  ridiculous  and  gall¬ 
ing  when  college  boys  and  men  who  know  nothing 
of  actual  farm  conditions  undertake  to  think  and 
plan  for  old  veterans  who  have  developed  good 
farms,  raised  and  educated  large  families,  and 
served  as  good  citizens — all  by  practical  labor  on  a 
farm.  These  farmers  are  the  ones  to  do  the  think¬ 
ing  and  the  planning,  and  the  farm  bureau  men  may 
well  fall  in  behind  them  and  help  organize  their 
work  instead  of  offering  advice.  And  that  is  just 
what  many  of  the  farm  bureau  men  are  trying  to  do. 
The  It.  N.-Y.  has  tin*  fullest,  sympathy  for  these 
practical  farmers.  We  know  them — they  are  the 
best  friends  and  supporters  we  have.  We  know 
what  they  have  done  and  their  ability  to  help  them¬ 
selves  and  work  their  problems  out.  No  more  dan¬ 
gerous  blight  can  ever  fail  upon  our  farmers  than 
the  thought  that  some  one  is  going  to  think  or 
work  or  plan  for  them  while  they  merely  keep  at 
work.  What  they  need  is  the  exact  reverse  of  that, 
so  that  they  may  be  led  to  do  more  and  more  of 
their  own  thinking  and  acting.  At  the  same  time 
they  should  be  fair  to  the  farm  bureau  proposition. 
It  is  no  crime  for  a  man  to  lie  young,  and  it  is 
human  nature  for  youth  to  be  enthusiastic  and 
short-sighted.  We  may  as  well  admit  that  the  farm 
bureau  has  come  to  stay  in  one  form  or  another, 
and  we  think  its  future  will  be  very  largely  decided 
by  the  way  our  practical  farmers  make  use  of  it. 
Fair  and  plain  criticism  is  needed,  and  must  be 
given,  but  let  us  treat  these  agents  fairly  and  give 
them  a  square  deal.  If  they  will  not  rise  to  that, 
and  appreciate  the  fact  that  they  are  in  no  way 
bosses  or  masters  of  the  practical  farmers  they  will 
have  to  go,  because  no  false  element  in  farm  educa¬ 
tion  can  ever  stand  long  against  the  plain  and  fair 
common  sense  of  our  farmers.  The  It.  N.-Y.  offers 
space  to  any  farm  bureau  advocate  who  thinks  he 
can  answer  E.  J.  Baird  on  page  1020. 
* 
A  NUMBER  of  our  readers  have  asked  our  opin¬ 
ion  about  the  value  of  ground  raw  phosphates 
for  use  on  the  Atlantic  slope.  80  far  as  we  can 
learn  from  both  scientific  men  and  good  farmers 
the  great  weight  of  testimony  is  that  for  this  sec¬ 
tion  superphosphate  (or  acid  phosphate)  is  more 
profitable  than  raw  phosphates.  By  superphos¬ 
phate  we  mean  the  ground  phosphate  treated  or 
“out"  by  sulphuric  acid  so  as  to  make  it  available 
to  plants.  The  raw  phosphate  is  the  rock  as  taken 
from  the  soil  simply  crushed  or  ground  to  a  fine 
powder.  It  would,  of  course,  he  a  great  thing  for 
our  farmers  if  they  could  he  saved  the  high  cost 
of  treating  this  raw  rock  with  acid.  If  this  chem¬ 
ical  action  could  be  worked  out  in  the  manure  pile 
or  in  the  soil  when  green  crops  are  plowed  under 
there  would  be  a  great  saving  for  our  farmers,  and 
The  R.  N.-Y.  would  advocate  the  method  and  work 
for  it  as  we  have  for  dozens  of  other  reforms.  We 
have  never  denied  the  fact  that  on  some  soils,  par¬ 
ticularly  in  Die  West,  the  raw  phosphates  have  given 
good  results — maintaining  and  increasing  the  pro¬ 
ductive  power  of  the  land.  Our  questions  usually 
refer  to  soils  on  the  upper  Atlantic  slope  and,  so  far 
as  we  know,  practically  all  the  scientific  teachers  in 
this  section,  all  the  agricultural  chemists  and  most 
expert  and  observant  farmers  agree  that  the  super¬ 
phosphate  is  better  suited  to  onr  conditions  than 
September  2.  1916. 
the  raw  phosphate.  Dr.  Hopkins  of  the  Illinois  Sta¬ 
tion  proceeds  to  wipe  this  opinion  off  the  earth  by 
firing  a  long  station  bulletin  at  The  R.  N.-Y".  Now 
when  the  ordinary  layman  is  hit  by  a  station  bulle¬ 
tin,  he  will,  if  he  is  wise,  admit  that  he  is  no  scien¬ 
tist,  and  get,  right  out  of  the  ring  and  hunt  for  a 
substitute.  80  we  frankly  step  one  side  and  intro¬ 
duce  Bulletin  187  of  the  Indiana  Experiment  Sta¬ 
tion.  This  gives  the  results  of  comparison  between 
acid  phosphate  and  raw  rock  and  covers  12  years. 
We  cannot  give  all  the  figures  here,  but  the  follow¬ 
ing  tells  the  story  in  a  nutshell : 
In  a  general  summary  of  all  the  experiments  of  the 
station  during  13  years,  in  which  85  tests  were  made, 
it  appears  that: 
The  per-aere  net  profit  has  been  over  six  times  as 
great  from  acid  phosphate  as  from  rock  phosphate. 
The  per-dollar  invested  profit  has  been  over  seven 
times  as  great  from  acid  phosphate  as  from  rock  phos¬ 
phate. 
The  value,  of  the  crop  increase  per  pound  of  phos¬ 
phorus  applied  has  been  twenty-eight  and  one-third 
cents  for  the  acid  phosphate  and  three  and  one-half 
cents  for  the  rock  phosnhate. 
Indiana  lies  right  alongside  Illinois  and  we  under¬ 
stand  that  much  the  same  conclusions  have  been 
reached  in  Michigan  and  Missouri — also  close  neigh¬ 
bors.  The  R.  N.-Y.  knows  of  a  case  where  raw 
phosphate  seems  to  give  good  results  on  the  sour 
soil  of  a  cranberry  bog,  but  we  shall  continue  to  class 
raw  phosphate  farming  with  the  “novelties”  put  out 
for  sale  each  year.  We  should  try  them  all  in  a 
limited  way,  give  them  a  fair  chance  and  never  find 
any  fault  if  after  fair  trial  they  failed  to  prove 
superior. 
* 
WHENEVER  this  milk  question  comes  up  for 
discussion  the  air  becomes  filled  with  noise 
— most  of  it  contributed  by  the  dealers  and  handlers. 
They  rush  into  the  papers  with  long  interviews  and 
advertisements  trying  to  make  the  public  believe 
they  are  poor,  patriotic  and  much-abused  citizens. 
This  is  going  on  now  as  never  before — the  object 
being  to  keep  the  consumers  quiet  so  they  will  stand 
for  a  raise  in  milk  prices.  When  this  increase  has 
been  tacked  on,  tlie  dealers  will  see  that  half  of *it 
goes  into  their  pockets  and  half  to  the  farmers,  who 
will  also  receive  the  entire  blame  for  the  increase! 
That  is  the  object  of  all  this  present  noise  and  ar¬ 
gument  on  the  part  of  the  buyers.  The  milk  com¬ 
mittee  lias  shown  (wliat  we  all  knew)  that,  farmers 
are  producing  milk  at  a  loss.  Now  they  must  an¬ 
alyze  the  figures  showing  cost  of  distribution  and 
they  will  find  that  everyone  -who  handles  the  milk 
draws  a  larger*  salary  than  the  fanner  and  also  re¬ 
ceives  much  higher  interest  on  the  capital  he  lias 
invested. 
We  think  the  situation  has  now  reached  the  point 
where  noise  and  talk  should  be  counted  out.  We 
now’have  one  of  those  fine  ocasions  when  the  most 
precious  public  weapon  a  man  can  carry — his  bal¬ 
lot — should  he  used.  Any  scheme  of  settlement 
which  does  not  include  an  open,  public  market  for 
milk  and  cooperative  work  by  farmers  will  prove 
merely  a  makeshift.  If  the  dealers  grant  temporary 
higher  prices  the  milk  supply  will  increase  and  then 
these  same  dealers  will  club  down  prices  once  more. 
Wc  must  take  the  price-making  power  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  combination  which  has  so  long  dictated 
to  us.  This  cun  only  be  done  through  an  open  milk 
market  in  New  York.  Under  present  conditions  such 
a  market  will  be  possible  only  through  the  active 
sympathy  and  backing  of  the  State  government.  We 
must  therefore  put  men  at  Albany  who  are  in  full 
sympathy  with  marketing  reform  and  who  will 
pledge  themselves  before  election  to  help  give  this 
milk  market  a  fair  trial!  Let  others  fight  with 
the  voice — let  us  use  the  vote.  The  R.  N.-Y.  is  not 
a  political  paper  and  has  no  use  whatever  for  par¬ 
tisan  polities.  This  marketing  question  is  of  more 
importance  to  New  York  farmers  than  any  other 
issue  now  before  the  public,  and  we  intend  to  go 
straight  to  the  heart  of  it  with  our  vote  and  our 
influence.  The  milk  can  will  make  a  good  ballot 
box ! 
Brevities 
The  recent  article  from  “A  Hired  Man’s  Wife”  lias 
stirred  up  much  comment. 
Barley  is  the  best  Fall-seeded  grain  for  Fall  hay. 
The  barley  does  not  live  over  Winter,  but  makes  a 
good  growth  until  frost. 
Some  men  think  they  belong  to  the  cream  of  so-  \ 
ciety.  All  the  more  need  then  that  they  should  be 
stirred  up  and  well  shaken. 
We  would  not  do  it.  Spread  lime  on  top  of  grass  or 
grain  in  the  Fall.  You  cannot  get  the  full  benefit  from 
lime  in  this  way.  The  lime  should  be  worked  into  the 
soil. 
It  seems  that  more  combination  silage  will  be  made 
this  year — Soy  beans  or  clover  mixed  in  with  the  corn. 
This  makes  a  cow  “ham  sandwich.”  Is  it  better  to 
feed  a  sandwich  or  the  meat  and  bread,  and  butter  sep¬ 
arately? 
