The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Tramps for Farm Work 
The associations which have been furnishing food 
and lodgings for idle men and liohoes generally in 
the city of New York during the Winter are looking 
hopefully to the Spring operations in the country 
with the hope of finding work for these men on the 
farms. Some of the associations are reported as 
having fed and housed from two to three thousand 
homeless men a night for some months. Without 
going into the effects of liberal voluntary charity, 
the service as a whole is a work of mercy. It re¬ 
lieves want and suffering. It is a worthy service 
to humanity, and it is quite natural that the good 
people concerned with the burden should seek to 
throw the objects of their charity upon their own 
resources as soon as possible. 
It will, however, serve no good purpose to send 
tiie.se men to the farms. The purpose to do so comes 
from a failure to appreciate the capabilities of the 
men and an utter failure to understand farm work. 
The great majority of them never worked on a 
farm, and know nothing about it. A small number 
probably had some little experience sometime on the 
farm, hut they are out of practice, and it would take 
weeks and months to harden them into the work. 
More serious yet, the great bulk of these people have 
no serious purpose to work any place. They are 
the riff-raff of society. They are the product of the 
city. They have no place in the country. They will 
go for (lie sake of the change and (he travel; hut 
to send them to the farms can only result in expense 
and disappointment. If carefully selected, some 
acceptable help may be found in this big burden of 
homeless men and idle loafers; but if sent to the 
farms without careful and rigid selection by com¬ 
petent authorities they promise to he a nuisance to 
country communities and a source of annoyance and 
expense to Individual farmers. A recently published 
book, “Emmett Lawler,” gives a strong story of life 
in the “underworld,” where many of these men live. 
A Discussion of the Bonus Question 
We have received various letters regarding the 
proposed bonus to he paid the soldiers. These let¬ 
ters divide into three classes. Many of them arc 
from men of middle age. who commend The It. 
N.-Y.’s position in the matter. A few are from hot¬ 
headed young men, who are certainly direct and 
forcible. Here is an extract from a letter which 
one young soldier wrote his father. We are not in 
the habit of printing such language in The It. N.-Y., 
but in no other way can we show our people just 
how these young fellows feel. This is the exact 
language of a genuine letter: 
The Rtral New-Yorker has evidently^ boon bought 
in body and solo by the same self centered interests that 
run the Wall Street Journal. They are evidently capi¬ 
talists opposed to ex-service men. The editor (spelled 
from now on in small letters) has lowered himself three 
inches below dirt level by his attitude toward tlie men 
that kept the Hnn.s from telling HIM what to print in 
THEIR paper, now, thanks to the men who served, 
still his own source of dividends. * * * If yon are. 
any kind of a Dad at all, you will write this damned 
editor—upon whom I invoke the curse of every man 
who really fought, and enclose this letter with it. 
We have boys of our own and can remember our 
own youth, and do not therefore take this seriously. 
Our own hoys would never write us like that! 
The above extract shows how some of the soldiers 
feel. Here is another letter which, we think, is a 
fairer statement of the ordinary soldier’s opinion: 
I note with a good deal of surprise that yon seem 
confident that the gnat majority of our people an- in 
favor of providing for the soldiers in some way. Yon 
base your assumption on the fact that many of the 
States have voted to do so. Is it not possible that a 
nationwide vote taken at this time would have an 
entirely different result? The war is not. so close to 
us as it was at that time and we have a better per¬ 
spective. And. further, 1 doubt if those who are now 
paying taxes for a State bonus would he anxious to 
superimpose on these a further tax for a Federal bonus. 
The soldiers were men who were young and chosen 
because of their fine physical condition in other words, 
those of the population who are best fitted to earn their 
own living. Does it seem fitting to impose a tax burden 
on the whole community for the sake of making a 
present to that part of it which is best aide to iook 
after itself? 
When I took up arms for the Dili tod States 1 was 
prepared to give everything 1 had for the cause. That 
I did not lay down my life for it was purely a matter 
of chance. The whine of those soldiers who are de¬ 
manding a bonus seems to me similar to the whine of 
a small child who wants to eat Ids rake and have it. too. 
1 ask you, in the name of the men. women and ehil- 
dien who will have to pay this bonus, to come out 
strongly against it. reoi.vai.ds, Parker. 
The It. N.-Y. tries to give its readers the truth 
about public matters—not any distorted view or 
attempt to prejudice the public. From what we can 
learn we believe that the bonus bill will he enacted 
into law. It passed the House of Representatives 
by a great majority. We think the Senate will add 
some plan for raising the money, and then pass it 
on to the President. Here is a typical letter from a 
man of middle age who represents the thought of 
thousands more like him : 
The giving of a bonus Is not only wholly wrong in 
principle, blit it would mark the entering wedge of an 
attempted exploitation of the sacrifices which they made 
which would dishonor the present generation of young 
men to the end of their ilnys. While these young men 
• an say much truthfully with regard to the selfishness 
of some who stayed at home, that selfishness cannot 
justify an attempted commercialization of the duty 
which was laid upon them when the world—their world 
—had need of their youth and strength. It. would 
probably he difficult for many of these young men to 
understand -the sacrifices which others, unable, to bear 
arms, made at the same time, but it is a pity that some 
of them who are not in sympathy with the bonus- 
seeking efforts of their leaders do not express them¬ 
selves publicly. 
And now, in order that our readers may have the 
whole story, we print the following from an ex- 
sol dler: 
Your editorial on the bonus is too evidently the voice 
of a man who had no active part in the war. I 
mean nothing derogatory by this, but when one has 
come to understand your kindly attitude to the world 
from reading your works it seems worth while to try to 
give you the attitude of the soldier who served in 
France. 
Those Americans who rest in consecrated ground 
after paying the supreme sacrifice are the only men 
America has paid for their part in the war. lint it is 
more than a bonus that the living deserve. What (’di¬ 
gress now is trying to do is to satisfy viith cash in 
return for political prestige—the debt of gratitude 
which this nation has left unpaid. 
Now, only a little more than three years after 
Pelleu and the Argonue, no man is so without caste in 
this country its the ex-soldier. Particularly is this true 
of the ex-soldier who is without employment and in 
need. All the ex-soldier ever has received since his 
return from France was the flutter of a few handker¬ 
chiefs at the dock when his ship landed. 
Patted on the back, pampered and praised when the 
war cloud loomed a menace, these citizen soldiers of 
ours sailed from tho_ shores of their country with a 
high ideal of citizenship and patriotism glowing in their 
hearts, and this ideal made those hearts strong to en¬ 
dure hardships and trials such as those of you who did 
not go will never he able to conceive. They fought 
knowing the nation depended on them—and they fought 
well. I could name you more heroes in my own batta¬ 
lion than all of those who were decorated. 
They came hack expecting gratitude. They did not 
get it. Even the maimed among them are still clamor¬ 
ing for relief. That caused a reaction. The logic of 
their expectancy was there, hut it failed of achievement. 
Why the surprise when that, logic gave place to the 
sophistry which demands: 
“These people were not worth fighting for. All they 
can think of is money. They made enough of it while 
we were fighting on $30 a month. I.et us collect.” 
Five billion dollars cannot pay these men. They 
would forfeit all claim to a penny of it just to get back 
the consideration, the kindness, the attention, the stand¬ 
ing they had in the training camps. 
No soldier wants the bonus. All soldiers want grati¬ 
tude. Unfortunately mnu.v soldiers have come to think 
that the bonus is the nearest the nation can come to 
gratitude. And their hungry hearts are yearning to 
be satisfied with that. 
Do you know that comparatively few veterans of the 
war are enrolled in the American Legion? The major¬ 
ity are trying to forget that they ever served. 
T. A. PRICE. 
The Apple Crop; Atlantic and Pacific 
Slopes Compared 
We have had nnr attention called to an article en¬ 
titled "Raising Apples Where Only Sage Brurti Brew” 
in the Dearborn Independent of February 25. Some 
people think that this article, as well as some others 
relative to apple production in the Northwest, hardly 
fair to New York State and Eastern growing interests, 
although there is considerable truth in Ilnur statements. 
They did not. however, include the figures for the year 
1020 in their report. 
Last year and this year, tit the New York State Hor¬ 
ticultural Society meeting at Rochester, I gave a report 
upon fruit statistics and marketing, and have compiled 
the following from these two reports, together with a 
few additional comments. Both years I have compared 
the State of Washington with New York State. This 
might well be entitled “A Comparison of the Apple In¬ 
dustry of New York State and the State of Washing¬ 
ton.” 
In 1020 the total apple crop of New York State was 
55.650.000 bushels, comprising slightly more than 23 per 
cent of the total apple crop of ihe United States, and 
i xeeediug the total production of all the States west of 
the Mississippi by 5.100,000 bushels. This ex<-ess 
equalled the total production of all of the New England 
States except Maine for that year. 
New York Stale’s commercial crop (that is, crop 
barreled I for 1020 was 0.275,000 barrels, which was 
over 25 per cent of the commercial crop of the United 
States, and exceeded the combined commercial (top 
production of all of (he States west of the Mississippi 
for the year 1020 except Iowa, I would also call your 
attention to the comparative estimated yields in bushels 
of the States of New York. Washington and the United 
States for the 
past 11 years 
, which is as 
follows: 
Total for 
New York 
Washington 
United States 
1911. 
39.000.ft00 
3.500.000 
214,020.000 
1912. 
44.000.000 
7.700.000 
235,220.000 
1913. 
19.5fHl.n00 
0.900.000 
115,410,000 
1914. 
49.600.000 
8.300.000 
253,200.000 
25.5S5.000 
7.300.000 
230.011.000 
1916. 
37.300.000 
14,853.(100 
201.532.000 
1917. 
1(5.266.000 
19,830.000 
166,749,000 
1918. 
40.373.(tOO 
16.491.000 
109,625.000 
1919. 
16,800.000 
25.313.000 
153.238.0tt0 
1920. 
55.(550.000 
13,420.000 
240.442.0(H) 
1921. 
14,340,000 
28,325.000 
102,290.000 
Note that From 1010 to 1021, inclusive, the State of 
New York produced 182,234,000 bushels, an average of 
30,372.233 bushels per year. In the same years the 
State of Washington produced 113,272,000 bushels, an 
average of 10.712.000 bushels per year. 
For the five year period of 1011 to 1015 the average 
yield for New York State was 25,537,000 bushels, and 
for Washington 6,740.000 bushels. In 1020. New York 
527 
State produced more apples than all of (he States west 
of the Mississippi combined, whereas, in the year 1021, 
the State of Washington grew 7 2.3,325,000 bushels, or 
more apples than the States of Maine. New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts. Rhode Island. Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware. Mary¬ 
land and West Virginia. The estimated combined yield 
of these States for the past year was 23,253.000 bushels. 
The year 1021 came the nearest to being an apple 
crop failure that New York lias experienced in a great 
many years, and even in that year New York State 
produced more than one-half as many apples as did the 
State of Washington. The 1020 census gave the State 
of Washington credit fnr having 7,004,167 bearing 
apple trees, whereas the same census credited New York 
With 9.0.'•(J.OOS hearing apple trees. The non-bearing 
apple trees credited to Washington in the 1020 census 
were 755.303, whereas the 1010 census credited Wash¬ 
ington with 4.302.702 non-hearing trees. The 1020 cen¬ 
sus credited New York State with 2,932,2*1 nun-bear¬ 
ing apple trees, as compared with the 1010 census of 
2,323.575 non-bearing apple trees. 
This would indicate that the State of Washington is 
rapidly falling off in its planting of apple trees, while 
New York State shows si slight increase and is appar¬ 
ently in a fair way to keep up its apple production and 
its supremacy as an apple growiug State. Through in¬ 
creased interest in co-operative packing organizations 
and improved grading, our pack is being gradually im¬ 
proved, and at no time, since Western box apples have 
been upon the market, has the margin in price and 
value between good quality barreled apples and good 
quality box apples been so small. 
Our apple growers in the commercial apple produc¬ 
ing sections of New York State are prosperous and ex¬ 
pect to be able to hold their own as against this West¬ 
ern competition. Well informed men state that many 
apple growers in the Northwest are not prosperous and, 
further, that many orchards there have been set upon 
land unsuitable for apple growing, and it is doubtful 
if owners of many orchards will ever harvest a profit¬ 
able crop. Further, many people give an incorrect 
interpretation of the wide discrepancy between the total 
production of apples in some of the Eastern States and 
the commercial crop, which is based upon the number 
of barrels packed and *old. In New York State and 
many of the Eastern States a very large percentage of 
the crop, which is of the best quality, is sold locally in 
local markets by the open barrel, box and bushel. 
Hence the wide difference between the total and com¬ 
mercial Crop. B. 0 . VAN BtTREN. 
Assistant Director, New York State Bureau of Plant 
Industry. 
New York State Notes 
Representatives of the State-wide co-operative asso¬ 
ciations of farmers engaged in buying or selling farm 
supplies or products of members held a get-together at 
Syracuse on March 24. the definite purpose being to 
draft regulations governing a central body, the purpose 
of which will be to correlate activities of the various 
co-operatives. It will serve to pass on the experience 
of one co-operative for the use of another, in order that 
mistakes in organization and growth may be eliminated. 
Results of the session will be reported back to organi¬ 
zations for approval. 
The grape men of New York State met March 28 in 
Buffalo to continue plans for co-operatively marketing 
their grapes. It is the opinion of the leaders in the 
grape sections that a central selling organization should 
be formed to handle the grapes of Ontario, Canada, 
Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well as New York. The 
New York State Farm Bureau Federation is promoting 
this project. As the New York crop is approximately 
152,000.000 lbs., this is a man’s size undertaking. 
Northern New York has had two good maple sap 
runs and one fair run. The amount of sap in Franklin 
County is much larger than was expected early in the 
season. The initial order of steel drums, which hold 50 
gallons, for the Maple Sap Producers’ Association of 
Franklin County was for a capacity of 10.000 gallons. 
The flow has caused a doubling of the order. Maple 
sugar is retailing locally in the north country for 30 
cents a pound. 
One of the Syracuse daily papers is holding a ballot 
on the daylight saving plan. Some of the reasons for it 
are amusing, especially coming from some groups who 
for a number of seasons thought farmers were unrea¬ 
sonable for opposing this law. A voter writes: “Let the 
big fellows quit early if they want to play golf. They 
don't have to get up and report for 7 o'clock under this 
system. It’s a fake, and we all know it.” A house¬ 
wife writes: “My husband has to get up at 4 o’clock by 
our time in the city to get to work at 7 o'clock by his 
shop time. It isn’t fair. I say they should start fac¬ 
tories earlier, if they want to, and let the clocks alone.” 
A banker writes: "Daylight saving was a war measure. 
The war is over,” A manager of a corporation gives a 
bit of humor in liis reply: “The idea of saving day¬ 
light grew out of the necessities of the war and originat¬ 
ed in England. No other country attempts it now. 
with the exception of some cities and small towns in 
this State and some of the New England States. It is 
merely an attempt to make 25 hours out of a day. and 
some people think that they really get an extra hour 
of sunshine. They are like the mule that the old 
darkey was trying to keep on shavings, lie thought if 
he put green goggles on the mule’s eyes the mule would 
think he was eating grass. He tried, hut the mule died. 
So some people think that by setting the clock ahead 
they are getting an extra hour of sunshine. They don't 
know that the sun shines only so many hours each day; 
that it rises and sets with the utmost regularity, and 
that it never varies its movement the millionth part of 
a second.” A hotel manager says the new time is not 
popular, and conflicts with train schedules. And so it 
goes. Ilmv fickle we mortals are. Last year and the 
year before the system was fine. This year it is no 
good. The same people and the same system. The 
farmers* point of view remains the same. 
Farmers are getting ready for Spring plowing. Some 
talk tractors, some talk horses. Both groups are posi¬ 
tive of their position, and support their arguments with 
interesting proof. This plowing question also involves 
the pro and con of the use of steel points or east points. 
The fact that we differ gives more people varied occu¬ 
pations. A. 
