560 v 
•Pie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE RVS1SESS FARMER'S TAPER 
A. National Weekly .luurnAl for Country and Suburban Home* 
EfitnbUshed iSSO 
(’nblUbrd weekly by the Rnrul Pnldiuhlop Company. 333 Wont 80tli Street, New fork 
Hi itMotT W. CoiJJbOtvoot), Presiilent and Editor. 
John .1. Dillon, Treasurer ami General Manager, 
Win. F. Dillon, Hex'rotary. Mas. fi. T. Hoyle. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in t he Universe I Postal Union, $2 04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8 !-a marks, or in hi francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, >1.00 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- 
pible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscriber* sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, Irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisement* in our columns, and any 
such swindler will bo publicly exposed Wo are also often called upon 
to adjust dilTerenees or mistakes between our subscribers and honest* 
responsible houses, whether advertiser* or not We willingly use Our good 
offices to this end, but such cates should not lie confused with dishonest 
transaction* We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not bo 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must he sent, to ns within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identity it, you should mention The Kdral New- 
YORKER when writing the advertiser. 
If a woman is truly unable to afford the $1 necessary 
for membership in the Farm Bureau, can she be barred 
from attending the meetings where demonstrations are 
being carried on? There is one sueli poor woman in our 
community who enjoys attending these meetings, and 
some of the “snobs" voted to charge 15 cents a meeting 
to outsiders. This was done solely to keep her at home, 
or from these meetings. I. G. s. 
Maine. 
B UT how do you know this was clone for any 
such purpose? The only reason for existence 
that a Farm Bureau can ever give is the big and 
broad one of serving all country people. It is partly 
supported by public money—which all taxpayers 
help to furnish. Of course the Farm Bureau, the 
Orange or any other similar organization, has a full 
right to charge admission to its entertainments, and 
it does not seem reasonable that this Bureau would 
make a charge just to keep one woman from attend¬ 
ing. There must he something else about this— 
something not reported, for we find it hard to be¬ 
lieve that any Farm Bureau could possibly be as 
small as this statement would indicate. 
* 
N OT long ago we gave a note about the delivery 
of mail to husband or wife. There have been 
many eases of trouble where a wife or husband 
undertook to open mail addressed to the other. A 
correspondent sends us the following section of the 
postal law T s and regulations covering this point: 
Neither husband nor wife can control the delivery of 
matter addressed to the other. When so instructed, a 
postmaster must refuse to deliver letters to the husband 
which are addressed to the wife, or those to the wife 
which are addressed to the husband. In the absence of 
instructions to the contrary, the wife's letters should he 
placed in the husband’s box and delivered to him with 
his own letters, unless they be known to live separately. 
Thus, if either party wishes to control their own 
mail they should instruct the postmaster tor carrier 
to deliver such mail direct to them. 
W E are glad that “A Satisfied Farmer” tells us, 
on page 546, about the hired man. There 
has been so much complaint and fault-finding that it 
seems good to have the other side. We know that, 
there are such men as this farmer tells about. We 
have one on our own farm, who has been with us for 
10 years of faithful service. We are glad, too, that 
this farmer is thankful that the hired man has lit¬ 
tle children. The common plan of regarding such 
children about as you would some disease is all 
wrong. It. is bad for the children, and it is driving 
the best class of hired men away from farming into 
the city. If this outcry against farm children is 
kept up it will be considered something of a crime 
to have a family, and we must resign the future of 
this country to other types of humanity. Now then, 
are you willing to pay the price which “A Satisfied- 
Farmer" pays for his treasure? If you are, you can 
probably get one in time. 
* 
A CENTURY ago most men regarded the atmos¬ 
phere as a source of life and power, but there 
their interest stopped. Air was a life necessity, and 
the wind could turn the sails of rude windmills, 
which, when harnessed to turning wheels, gave pow¬ 
er for light work. But no one at that time could 
dream of the wonderful mysteries which the atmos¬ 
phere was to reveal. By means of the light engine 
man now flies through the air with the speed of a 
bird—in fact, faster than any bird. No one can.tell 
now just what the flying machine will develop into, 
but we believe that In time aerial travel will become 
as safe and as common as that on our present rail¬ 
roads. The air was ever full of the wa-ves of sound, 
spreading out as surely as the ripples on a pond into 
which a stone is thrown. For ages civilization was 
held back because men and women lived in lonely 
places where they could not communicate with 
others. Now thousands of homes are equipped with 
a sensitive mechanical ear which gathers these 
sound waves and puts the family in strange and 
mysterious communication with distant and unseen 
speakers. And the air we breathe is also becoming 
a great source of fertilizer and food. Mammoth 
magnets, like giant fingers, tipped with the lightning, 
reach out into the air and pull away its nitrogen for 
the farmer. And this air is also charged with elec¬ 
tricity. We know this from the hideous power of the 
lightning When one cloud charged with the electric 
current tosses its awful load over to another. Some 
day men will learn the secret of collecting this tre¬ 
mendous power from the clouds and harnessing it t) 
do the world's work. We can hardly realize that 
when this is done and utilized in connection with 
the power of the ocean waves, the monopoly of coal 
and oil will pass forever. The ocean and the air, 
with their unlimited supplies of force, will provide 
us with heat and light and power. These things are 
to come as surely as other great marvels have been 
worked out. and we think the mighty forces which 
are to he harnessed and directed will eventually pull 
the great cities apart and act to develop the country. 
There will be in the future, as the result of what is 
now being worked out, a movement hack to the 
country which is to carry the best the city has to 
offer, and take away the worst that the country now 
endures. 
* 
T HERE ought to lie a chance in many communi¬ 
ties for some enterprising man to work at general 
gardening. Most people now realize that spraying is 
a necessity if we are to have healthy trees and clean 
fruit. Yet the busy man with a few trees will 
rarely do the work properly. He can have his wood 
sawed, his extra plowing done, and usually obtain 
pickers for his fruit, but it is hard to get tlie spray¬ 
ing done properly. It looks as if some man with a 
good outfit for spraying and dusting and a full 
knowledge of how to do it might make a good thing 
at the business. No doubt some of our readers are 
already at it There might well be more of them. 
* 
Yesterday’s issue of the New York Tribune made a 
statement that 80 per cent, of the people in New York 
State would be using the so-called daylight saving time 
after April 30, and that small towns which did not 
adopt such time last year would be urged to do so this 
year; also that there was a bill before Congress to ex¬ 
tend daylight saving to all of Time Zone 1. Will you 
inform me who framed the hill, and if such n bill has 
any khow of being passed? Would it be advisable to 
petition our representative to work against said bill? 
New York. h. b. 
T he New York Tribune cannot prove any sum 
statement. Tt is true that New York City and 
some other places will follow daylight saving as a 
result of local ordinances, but some of the larger 
cities throughout the State are refusing to start the 
new time. In Syracuse a careful vote conducted by 
the Post-Standard shows three to one against day¬ 
light saving. Much the same will he true of Roch¬ 
ester and other cities which are surrounded by farm¬ 
ing sections. On the other hand, our estimates show 
that farmers are nine to one against the new time. 
We understand there are several hills before Con¬ 
gress which would change the clock. None of them 
seems likely to pass. At the same time, it will do 
no harm to let your Congressman know where you 
stand. Our understanding is that Senator Colder 
advocates daylight saving. One thing about this is 
that few of the advocates of daylight saving care 
enough about it to fight, while those who oppose it 
will fight to the last. 
H= 
If I were all-powerful in the land the soldiers would 
he granted a part cash and part time proposition, and 
the war-time profiteers would pay the cash part, and 
the slacker workmen who during that period took ad¬ 
vantage of conditions not to do their part, but to use 
threats continually to force wages higher and higher, 
and each day give less in return, would pay the de¬ 
ferred portion. Nol practical. 1 know, but it would 
only he justice. e. j. 
T hat refers to the plan for paying the soldiers' 
bonus. We might, all of us, just as well face 
the.truth of this matter right now. Whether it he 
right or wrong, wise or foolish, just or unjust, it is 
evident that a good majority of the American people 
are in favor of recognizing the services of the sol¬ 
diers in some practical way. Even those who oppose 
the present bill on principle and who can give solid 
arguments against it will be forced to admit, upon 
investigation, that they are in the minority. They 
might just as well recognize right, now that the 
swing and demand of youth is against them. The 
American way is to let the majority rule. We con¬ 
Aprll 15, 1922 
sider that some form of bonus payment is as sure 
to come as was the pension legislation after the 
Civil War. We would better all begin to consider 
new forms of taxation which will bear lightest upon 
the common people. If. as our friend suggests, we 
could make the profiteers and the slackers pay it 
we should have a practical form of justice. Failing 
in that, we would tax luxuries, amusements and 
vanities to the limit. Dogs and diamonds, cigarettes 
and cut glass, perfumes and powder puffs—all such 
things, used chiefly to exploit or gratify wealth or 
expensive desires, ought to come first iu carrying the 
new burden, and the tax should be levied directly 
upon those who use these luxurious goods, and not 
upon those who do not use them. For example, com¬ 
pel all those who must wear diamonds to pay a 
direct, heavy tax for the privilege of exposing their 
wealth! 
* 
E VERY Spring comes anew the talk about using 
Alfalfa as human food. Some of the city writ¬ 
ers who never saw an Alfalfa plant can tell you all 
about it. They figure out the analysis of Alfalfa and 
read that it contains vitamines. That is enough, and 
they soon have the world’s food habits all made over 
—on paper. The truth is that young and tender Al¬ 
falfa does make tasty "greens’’ when boiled with 
bacon or pork, like spinach. It tastes well and 
makes good food for those who like it, hut that is 
about as far as you can go. Efforts to use Alfalfa 
meal with flour in cooking, or ground Alfalfa as a 
substitute for tea. have not met with great success, 
though they are used to some extent It is about 
time for a new crop of these stories to prove how 
farmers can cut down their living cost by eating 
Alfalfa and thus produce cheaper food. The best 
way to cure such writers of their delusion is to turn 
them loose at an Alfalfa stack and tell them to “root 
hog or die.” 
* 
T HE National Dairy Council reports an experi¬ 
ment in Canton, Ohio, designed to determine 
whether advertising milk will increase sales. Rec¬ 
ords were kept at six places, and the figures show 
an increase of 12% per cent in three months. We 
have no doubt of it. Dozens of foods now sold to 
the public owe their popularity almost entirely to 
advertising. Without such publicity they would 
have gained only a small sale. The road to the 
public stomach runs through the imagination. You 
cannot make a family buy a new food until you first 
make them believe that it is novel and popular. 
There are hundreds of thousands of city people who 
have little idea that milk is a food. They think it 
a luxury—something to give an appropriate color 
to coffee! And that seems to be the truth which 
most people who attempt to advertise milk fail to 
understand. We think such advertising should he 
direct—right to the point—aimed not at the well- 
to-do. but right at the plain, middle class people, 
who have as their chief ambition a desire to raise 
a family of fine children. 
Brevities 
It will soon he time for rhubarb. 
“The Lord helps those who help others”! 
The heavy use of berries may delay your burial. 
It surely looks ns if farming had turned the corner 
and is now climbing up a little. 
New Jersey is promised the biggest, peach crop in 
her entire history, if there is no late freeze. 
And now comes egg-preserving time—against a late 
strike by the hens. 
As a fruit grower, how much would you be willing to 
pay a beekeeper for keeping his bees in your orchard? 
• Silage may be nil right, but the cow knows there is 
good medicine in green grass. 
Ir is remarkable how many patches of peanuts will 
he planted in the North this year. < hi light, sandy soil, 
some of them will get through. 
Let us give thanks—hut also remember that the gro¬ 
cer and the butcher will not accept thanks in payment 
of their bills. 
There is great interest this year in anything tiiat 
will lengthen the life of farm timbers, like fence posts, 
grape stakes, etc. Creosote seems to be the most satis¬ 
factory thing. 
We often have letters from readers who think they 
ran obtain damages when the highway near their prop¬ 
erty is graded so as to make a deep out. The law usu¬ 
ally assumes that an improved highway adds to the 
value rif adjoining property, so that no damages are 
allowed. 
"They are the vultures on the trail that are waiting 
to pick up the dead, once they fall by the wayside, and 
the trouble with the lawyer is that he does not. wait, 
like the vulture, until life is really gone. He usually 
helps in the process and does not even show a vulture’s 
regard.” That is the way one of our readers describes 
the shyster lawyers who. in nearly every town, rob the 
poor and the unsuspecting. 
