418 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE M’StNKSS FARMERS 
\ National Weekly Journal for" Country 
PATER 
and Suburban Horae* 
Established into 
Published weekly hr the Burnl PnblUlilne Company, 838 West SOtli Street,hew 1 ork 
Herbert W. Cou iN'e.woon, I’resident and Editor. 
Jolts .1 Dn.i.ON, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. f. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T- Koyi.e, Associate Editor. 
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
SUBSCRIPTION 
To foreitrn countries in tho Universal Postal Union. $8.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8(i marks, or 10'6 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, U.00 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- 
Bible person. We 
reliable house* < 
to Mild subscribe.» .... ....... . .... . ■ —.r. —_ . . - 
sild- advertisers or misleading advertisemen18 In our columns, and any 
such swindler will be publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust difference* or mistakes between our Subscriber* and lioncst, 
resncm*ible houses, whether advertisers or not. W* willingly iw but-good 
office* to Tbift f»nd, blit such, onxfx should not bo cnnfuxrd wirn dishonest 
tranwu'tiorm. Wo protect 8ubftcrn>om ap-nlnri ropieM. but wo vn\\ not bo 
rexpotiribl* for the debts of homwfc bankrupt* aanutlonod by the courts. 
Notice «»i Uie complaint must be runt to m within mic month of tho time of 
the transaction, and to identify it. you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
You know that wo always sec and hear what women 
can do, but few realize that there are a lot of real old 
“baches" reading The R. X.-Y. who can. and do, ac¬ 
complish a lot. We have to, and our class should not 
be overlooked. Sometimes a man finds himself in queer 
circumstances, hut he should not get faint-hearted; 
take what comes, and make the best of conditions. 
W. R. 
W E arc all prone to rush in to compliment the 
woman farmer who succeeds at farm work. 
It- seems like a tremendous undertaking when a 
■woman can step out of a well-kept house and do a 
good job with farm tools. But is that really any 
more remarkable than the spectacle of a man closing 
up a good day's work on the farm and then going 
into a well-kept house? Is the solitary woman who 
succeeds at farm work greatly superior to the single 
man who does a good job at housekeeping? Doth of 
these remarkable characters are to he found in our 
big family. It is a great pity that some of them can¬ 
not combine their forces and tlieir homes. Xeither 
man nor woman was made to live alone, though we 
grant that some of them do so from choice. For 
example, there are something over 68.000 “old maids’’ 
in Xew York City. 
IK 
I see by The R. N.-Y. that many are troubled by auto¬ 
mobile parties and others stealing fruit and vegetables 
from orchards and gardens, i am having the same 
trouble, and last Summer I had myself appointed depu¬ 
te sheriff, and the sheriff’s star had some effect on peo¬ 
ple; they seemed to think it was more risky to steal 
apples when a representative of the sheriff was around. 
If the people who are troubled by thieves have them¬ 
selves or their nearest neighbor appointed deputy sher¬ 
iff. it tnav kelp them to prevent thieving and to bring 
some of the thieves to justice. In the Spring I shall 
build a barb wire fence that. I expect will keep thieves 
out as long as they don’t use wire cutters. 
J. .7. ESKIL. 
Y OU might think the sheriff's star and a barbed 
wire fence ought to keep the thieves away, hut 
we have some in our county who are smart enough 
to get past even that combination. It’s a good sug¬ 
gestion. though, for many localities, but the most 
effective remedy is a strong organization of local 
farmers, pledged to turn out and help whenever the 
thieves try their games. 
A 
Wre RURAL NEW-YORKER 
country’ home will be brought into closer contact 
with the outside world, and then, we think, our 
young people will realize as never before that the 
country home gives richer opportunity than any 
other spot on earth. What a thought is presented 
when we understand how this “wireless” is stringing 
out new mental and moral wires to hold the world 
together! 
fk 
GOOD proportion of our legal questions refer to 
misrepresentations in buying property. There 
are many sales of live stock. The seller says the 
horse is “sound and kind." or that the cow is a 
• three-gallon" animal and free from disease. After 
the buyer has paid his money or given his notes he 
finds the animals unfit and practically worthless. 
Is the seller responsible? In this city recently a 
case was decided where a racing horse was sold. 
This horse. "Playfellow,” was. so the buyer claims, 
guaranteed as “sound.” He proved to be a wind- 
sucker. and the buyer brought suit to recover the 
price paid for him, $100,000. On the first trial the 
jury disagreed; on the second they awarded full 
damages to the buyer, largely on the strength of the 
judge's charge: 
Alien a horse is sold tho soilin' does not have to tell 
anything about the animal Unless he sees fit. If. how¬ 
ever. lie does toll things about if and does represent the 
horse in any manner and then these, statements are 
found to be untrue (he purchaser is entitled to redress. 
That is probably a fair statement of the general 
law. The trouble in most, ordinary cases is that 
such statements are usually made verbally and with¬ 
out witnesses. It is very difficult to prove that the 
seller guaranteed the stock. 
I 
mm 
lie 1 
now 
come 
wireless 
H 
A 
T HE otfier day (on March o, 1922, to he exact) 
there occurred the most remarkable conversa¬ 
tion between two men that the world had know n up 
to that time. One man, at his home in a Connecticut 
town, spoke into an ordinary telephone. The other 
man stood on the deck of a vessel .><0 miles out at 
sea. and heard the words distinctly. The voice from 
Connecticut traveled by ordinary wire to a receiving 
station on the coast; then it shot out bj aerial 
through the air and was caught by the receiver on 
the vessel, tossing and battling against a head wind, 
far out on the water! Both men heard the words 
perfectly, and, what is most remarkable, some 200.- 
000 amateur radio stations were able to pick the 
message out of the air. Nothing quite like it has 
happened before, but it seems to be only the begin- 
of a tremendous development in the great pub¬ 
lic business of bringing humanity together. We may 
easily and safely expect that the time must 
when, through the great development of this 
communication, it will be impossible for 
anyone with good ears and a reasonable equipment 
to he isolated or lost. Tn these wonderful develop¬ 
ments we are mostly concerned with the effect upon 
country people and farm life. We think these agen¬ 
cies are to help in the desirable work of breaking up 
the big centers of population and scattering the peo¬ 
ple back to the rural districts and, small- towns. The 
strongest social force which has worked to build up 
the large cities has been the loneliness and unrest of 
young people when shut away from communication 
with their kind. It. is evident that with the full de¬ 
velopment u{ this “wireless” communication the 
T' 
* 
ER1\ are some more remarks about that article 
on the first page. No one lias ever reached the 
full possibility of a single acre of land. Many of us 
are trying to work over too much land. The result 
is wo do not get half of wlmt we should from it. 
We would be better off to take a few acres of our 
best land, drain and level it. pick up the stones and 
work it in something nearer garden culture—leaving 
most of the farm to pasture, small grain or forage. 
Too many of us have inherited the idea that we must 
plow the entire farm—or most of it—every year. 
With our short seasons and cold, wet Springs, this 
Is impossible, and the result is we seldom do a full 
job, and usually get behind and keep behind all Sum¬ 
mer. We could just about double the acre crop of 
potatoes or grain if we would lit our laud just right 
and give it the best care. It was no accident when 
Mr. Perkins raised nearly $2,000 worth of produce 
on one acre. It required years of work and manage¬ 
ment to develop such a crop. He knew how to do it 
and he struck just the right combination of good 
crops and good prices. One thing to remember is 
that on the strip of land along the upper Atlantic 
may be found the best opportunities for doing this 
sort of gardening. 
X 
READER sends us a copy of the Daila Xcirs of 
Batavia. N. Y.. containing in one issue 48 dif- 
ferent notices of farm auction sales, to occur be¬ 
tween March 2 and 29. In one case it is stated that 
all tools are new, having been used only one year. 
This, we take it. is a back-to-tlie-lander come to judg¬ 
ment. We understand that these sales are usually 
well attended, and that the goods bring fair prices. 
Apparently it means a redistribution of goods and 
stock among tenants and small farmers. Some of 
these farms will pass out of use. but most of them 
will he worked by new families. It cannot be called 
a good sign, though, when in one community all these 
changes occur. It is part of the readjustment now 
being forced upon all of us. But when and where 
is it to end? 
& 
March 18, 1922 
T is very remarkable how the use of tobacco for 
killing the sucking insects has increased during 
the past few years. Both as tobacco dust and as an 
extract of nicotine, tobacco has conic to be one of the 
necessary insecticides. This use will surely increase 
in the future until the wastes of the leaves and the 
stems are liable to have a new value. Already we 
find people claiming extravagant things for tobacco. 
For instance, we are told that a pile of the stems 
around a fruit tree will keep the mice away. It is 
better to be reasonable about such things. One of 
our readers reports finding u mouse nesting in a pile 
of stems! Personally, we prefer to see tobacco made 
into an insecticide to kill insects, rather than to see 
it in cigarettes to take the life and energy out of 
boys. 
X 
HE unexpected death of G. Harold Powell means 
a great, loss to the organized fruit growers of 
California and to organized agriculture everywhere. 
Mr. Powell was a native of New York, a farm-raised 
boy, who developed a genius for organizing. He was 
thoroughly educated and well trained in the work 
of colleges and experiment stations. He finally went 
to California, and there did a remarkable work in 
welding together the business horticultural interests 
of that great State. Tt seemed like an impossible 
thing to do. for wo must remember that California 
is a long, narrow State, stretching over a territory 
tliat would reach from Boston to Charleston, S. C., 
on the Atlantic coast. Yet in this territory of varied 
industries Powell sueceeeded in developing a great 
co-operative society, which has done great things 
for the Pacific coast fruit business. Mr. Powell was 
not what one could call a fighter in the ranks of 
agriculture. He was an organizer, with great tact 
and wonderful patience. It was not his part to 
smash down opposition or trample over the enemies 
of farming. He wore them down or put forces at 
work which, when controlled by the plain people, 
moved on to accomplishment, llis life is evidence 
of the truth that in the struggle for economic inde¬ 
pendence which our farmers must make the ex- 
1 1 ernes represented by the strong fighter who makes 
his battle out in the open and the organizer who 
puts men at work are both needed. And there is 
another side to this which rests upon the very 
foundation of industrial reform. Harold Powell 
was taught early in life to assume responsibility and 
handle affairs. His father. George T. Powell, tells 
us that his boys were taught to do their share of the 
farm management early in life. At one time Mr. 
Powell was obliged to be away from home during 
silo filling. There were 500 tons of silage to he put 
away. Harold, 14 years old, and his brother, 13, 
organized the work, hired teams, set up the engine, 
and pushed the work so well that when their father 
returned the silo was filled. It was that way all 
through. The hoys did their share of farm work- 
hut their training did not stop there. They were 
taught responsibility, and a fair share of the man¬ 
agement and organization of the farm was thrust 
upon them. No wonder that when these hoys came 
to be men they naturally fell into work of organ¬ 
izing larger fa*rm matters. There are too many 
farmers who make their hoys help produce food, but 
give them no share in the management. One reason 
why it lias been so difficult to organize farmers is 
because so many boys have never been made to face 
actual responsibility. Thus Harold Powell was a 
natural organizer—trained from boyhood to handle 
business, until he felt confident that nothing as 
too large to put in order. An honest and useful man 
has passed away in the prime of life. “Thou 
be missed /” 
I 
shalt 
N 1920 the State of New Jersey adopted what was 
known as the housing law. designed to increase 
the building of dwelling houses. I ndcr this law. 
new dwellings built between October 1. 1920, and 
October 1. 1922, were to be exempt from taxation 
for five years. We felt at the time that this was an 
injustice to taxpayers, but the law went through 
without much opposition—like much other war legis¬ 
lation. Now the Supreme Court of New Jersey has 
declared the law unconstitutional. It gives a special 
privilege to certain buildings which they have no 
more right to enjoy than other buildings of the same 
class. Many of these exempt dwellings were erected. 
Now, under the court ruling, they must he taxed, 
like other property. Some of the owners feel that 
thev have a ease against the State for breach of 
contract, since they would not have built at that 
time if the State had not promised them exemption. 
Brevities 
We have a reader who well says that “teachers have 
to be caught young to endure the captivity well.” 
It is the nature of the clover crop to die after mak¬ 
ing seed. Keep it fully clipped before seed forms, and 
it will grow for several seasons. 
We hear from a reader in the far North who plants 
pieces of sweet potato in pots and uses the vines for 
house plants until if is warm. Then the vines are 
transplanted outdoors—and they produce a small crop. 
The big egg contest has produced many double-head¬ 
ed eggs; that is, a well-formed egg of medium size in¬ 
side of a larger one. We presume the smaller egg was 
first formed, and through some shock to the system, 
never delivered. Then the larger egg was evidently 
formed around it. There are many such, lhcy have 
been noticed since this egg contest started. 
The Ohio Experiment Station advises sowing a per¬ 
manent grass seed mixture on hilly orchard land m 
Southern Ohio. The mixture consists of Red-top. Or- 
ehnrd grass. Sweet clover, Alsike clover and Alfalfa. 4 
lbs each; Timothy. 8 lbs., and Red clover, 12 lbs. This 
mixture of seeds sown in the Spring ou soil well fertil¬ 
ized soon produces a fine covering of grasses, which pre¬ 
vents erosion of the steep hillsides, 
