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The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
.Tune 17, 1922 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE aUSJXRRS FA liMEN'S PAPKE 
A National Weekly Jniirnnl Cor Country ami Suburban Homes 
Established tSso 
Published neekl) by the liurjil Publishing Company, SSS West SOlh Street,New Fork 
lltritui j:r V enLLinivwoort, rretnJent and Editor. 
Jeniv J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Mannp-cr. 
Wm. P. Dillon. Secretary. Mrs. K. T. Kovi.ic, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. SU.td. Remit in money 
Older, express order, personal check or hank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. $1.(10 per agate line—" 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¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Rut to make doubly sure, wo will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, itTeepon- 
nble adverUserr or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust dilfercmoev or mistakes between our subwillM-rs nud honest, 
respousitde houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly uwi our good 
office** to this end, but such eases should not be eon fused with dishonest 
t ransact tons. We protect subscribers against rogner. but we will not he 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupt- sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must, be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and lo Identify it. you should until ion Tint Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
W HEN we started this idea of naming the farm 
and having the name copyrighted, we had no 
idea there was so much interest in it. The State of 
Minnesota in 1909 passed this law: 
The owner of farm lands in the State of Minnesota 
may designate a specific name for his farm lands, and 
the said name, together with a description of said farm 
lands, affording to the government survey thereof, may 
be filed with tlie register of deeds of the county where¬ 
in the said lands or a part thereof ore situated, nnd the 
said name, together with the description of said lands, 
shall he recorded by the register of deeds in a book to be 
provided for such purpose, upon payment of a fee of 50 
cents therefor, but no two names so designated ami re¬ 
corded shall be alike in the same county. 
This is the simplest law we have seen, and might 
well be used in other States. As to the advantage of 
having a farm name, legally protected, we do not 
think any further argument is needed. 
Why doesn’t someone remind the soldiers that we 
farmers worked long hours during the war, with prices 
so fixed that there was no profit in the most important 
crops? No one is suggesting a bonus to help us out. 
Having some experience with more than one who would 
get such a bonus, we can easily imagine just how long 
they would keep it—men who must go on a spree the 
first of each month to use up their pay. would do little 
good with more. s. i\ n. 
E know plenty of farmers who, right on the 
war record of their farms, are more entitled 
to a pension than plenty of young fellows who joined 
the army but never left the country. We also know 
just what many of these soldiers have done with the 
money given them as their share of a State bonus. 
Probably no one has made the suggestion because the 
universal idea has been that the farmer will do any¬ 
thing and stand anything. That is what he has done 
in the past, so why worry about his rights? The 
theory lias been that a farmer will always spell 
patriotism p-a-r-t-y and take whatever is handed out 
to him in order to preserve that form of spelling. 
You see the bonus boomers do not work that way. 
They do not chase after any party—they make the 
party chase after them. 
5k 
The whole curse of tlic farmer is “loans.” What he 
needs is his own cash, earned by his own labor on a 
product sold on a fair market, and not at forced sales, as 
most of the Fall sales of farmers are. The vicious circle 
of notes coming due al harvest, and market prices fall¬ 
ing at the same time, forcing the farmer to sell on a de¬ 
pressed market, is not a natural condition, but a created 
condition. 
HAT statement is made by Henry Ford in the 
Dearborn Independent, and there are very few 
farmers who can or will attempt to deny it. Give 
the farmer a fair share of the consumer’s dollar and 
he will not ask for loans, lie will take care of his 
own finances. There are always a few speculators 
who, whenever they can obtain credit, will gamble in 
land speculation, or with some special or risky crop, 
but the great bulk of the farmers will he satisfied if 
they can sell their crops on a fair market. There 
never would be any trouble about- credits if the 
farmer could get a fair share of the consumer’s dol¬ 
lar. You can easily prove that statement by looking 
over the accounts of a man who is placed so that he 
can sell direct—without half a dozen middlemen in 
between. The banks are only too glad to give such a 
man all the credit he needs, because they know that 
he controls his own income, That is never true of 
the man who must lake what the handlers see fit to 
give him after selling his goods on a market which 
has been manipulated in their favor. We regard 
most of the propositions for government loans and 
credits as part of a plan to draw attention away 
from the line issue—which is the control of the mar¬ 
kets by a gang of gentlemanly highbinders nnd laml 
pirates. What galls us most of all is the fact that 
the farmers on (lie North Atlantic slope have abso¬ 
lutely no representative in the United States Senate 
who will stand up and fight for their business inter¬ 
ests. And think of this! The farmers of New York 
State have a chance, this year, to force the nomina¬ 
tion of a candidate for the Senate who will put up a 
real battle for them. The politicians and “mana¬ 
gers" are banking on Hie belief that New York 
farmers may growl a little, hut in the end walk up 
like sheep and vote for any hand-picked candidate! 
Is it not possible to find a few buck sheep who will 
butt this idea out of the politicians for good? 
sk 
E gave our opinion of the future of the Bald¬ 
win apple :i few weeks ago. Thus far no one 
has arisen to dispute it. Continued reports show 
that Baldwin is acting like some human beings who 
think they “have done enough work" and are entitled 
to a rest. The severe cold of several years ago 
seemed to weaken many trees, and they have never 
fully recovered. Some have died outright. In other 
cases we think the trees may have been budded from 
inferior specimens, for they are shy and will not 
produce fruit buds. We regret to see this standard 
old sort showing these failings, which we had hoped 
were largely confined to long-established families of 
the human race! We think it well settled that the 
Baldwin apple must give way to hardier and more 
profitable varieties. It is like the passing out of 
active use of an old friend. We always wish he had 
gone before his failings became so evident. 
5k 
T has been said that the average city man eats with 
his eyes and digests with his mind! That is one 
way of stating the fact that the diet of the middle 
class in this great city is changing. Before long it 
will change so much that farm crops will he affected. 
Not long ago a friend visited a big manufacturing 
plant during the noon hour, lie found a large crowd 
of men and women assembled to listen to an orator 
who was talking with great earnestness. The meet¬ 
ing had nothing to do with politics or industry—the 
orator was explaining the great value of spinach, 
raw cabbage and tomatoes as food—and the people 
were listening and taking notes! During the last, 
few years a new system of nutrition has been taught. 
This shows that it is not a matter of how much we 
eat as is what, the quality of our food may he. A 
man might eat all he can of white bread, beefsteak 
and potatoes, and be poorly nourished, because this 
food does not furnish the needed vitamines. A 
small piece of meat, a glass of milk and a vegetable 
like lettuce or spinach would do him far more good. 
There can he no doubt that many city people are get¬ 
ting this idea. The evidence is clear at most of the 
restaurants where far more milk is consumed, while 
hundreds make a complete meal of vegetables and 
bread and butter. This new system is gaining, and 
before long it will have a decided effect upon the 
market. There is coming a lighter demand for meat 
and an increased call for the leafy vegetables. The 
public will be better off for the change. 
% 
HAT ails farming? There are a good many 
things, some of them requiring a full genera¬ 
tion to solve. Here is one which we have noticed— 
easier to settle. There are too many sour and dis¬ 
contented old men in farm homes. Some of them 
have “retired" and moved to town—not to live, but 
to die. These men were hard, active workers in 
their day, but they made two mistakes. They never 
learned to play and they never cultivated a "hobby” 
or some outside thing to interest their mind. Finally 
there came a time when they could not work as hard 
as formerly. The pool* old body broke down under 
the strain, and with the failing of physical power 
came a death of interest in life. Ai d so these men 
pass what should he the most helpful years of life 
scolding and fault finding. You never hear them say 
one good thing of any fellow man or of any human 
efforts to improve things. It is all hitter criticism— 
tearing down rather than building up. You cannot 
think of any worse influence upon the lives of young 
people, for what young man cares to end his days 
playing the part of “grouch”? Out of their experi¬ 
ence and active’lives these men ought to he leaders 
and teachers. But. what can such a man do? He 
can no longer plow all day, or pitch or bind; lie 
knows nothing luit tending the soil. Well, here Is 
what he can do; he can take a good piece of land 
and turn it into a garden that will give him greater 
joy and reputation than his farm ever did. He may 
not he able to handle 120 acres of corn or milk 15 
cows, but what strawberries and roses and celery he 
can produce! Years ago. as he followed the plow, 
there came to him the great thought that he stood at 
the foundation of society—the maker of bread and 
meat. Now, with his hoe in the garden he may feel 
that he is not rejected, hut that he has gone on up 
the scale amoujr artists who add beauty and grace 
to the world. Let these old men bury their “grouch" 
in a garden. The world is not helped by their bitter 
discussions of the League of Nations, the Adminis¬ 
tration or the money question. But the world would 
be improved through themselves and their families 
if they would forget their troubles and find their tri¬ 
umphs in a garden. 
5)C 
HO has not seen a high school building in 
some little dingy town? It squats down in 
some ugly backyard, with no opportunity for beauty, 
and small chance for fresh air. The town itself 
never was properly built. It. is often ugly and bleak 
—and the new schoolhonse matches it. Out in the 
country a few miles it would have been possible to 
find a 10-acre lot with trees and hills, a spring or a 
brook—all the things which children love, and which 
add so much to their youth. The school house, erect¬ 
ed on this open space, would have been a thing of 
beauty and the pride of the county. True, the town 
children would have been obliged to journey to it, 
but that would have been to their advantage. The 
school would have attracted more pupils, the ex¬ 
penses would have been lower, and every child who 
attended would have left school with a finer outlook 
on life. It seems strange that these high schools 
should he dumped into the little towns, to serve a 
country neighborhood, when they could he made so 
much more effective out in the country. Such a 
school must of necessity take much of its character 
from its Surroundings. The future of our rural com¬ 
munities demands fresh air and open space training 
for children if our farms are to retain anything of 
their old-time vigor and power. 
UR people often ask how much money is taken 
in as motor vehicle revenue. What, do Amer¬ 
icans pay State or Federal government for running 
cars and trucks? In 1921 the total gross revenue 
was $122,478,654.33. The 10 States ranking highest 
in these payments were: 
New York . $10,288,858.25 
Pennsylvania. 9,470.174.31 
Iowa . 7,719.127.47 
Ohio. 6,894,159.73 
t'nlifornia . 6.834,089 52 
Illinois . 6.803,556.21 
Michigan . 6,751,924.51 
Minnesota . 5.672.424.61 
Massachusetts . 4.717,389.30 
New Jersey . 3,914.063.75 
There were, all told, in this country 10.448.632 
cars and trucks—there being 965,241 trucks and 241,- 
781 motorcycles. The distribution of the truck has 
hardly begun. The number of cars will be doubled 
in a few years, and it is likely that both Federal and 
State governments will try to raise more revenues 
from taxing cars, on the theory that they are used 
chiefly for amusement. 
5k 
T HE Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association, 
Iuc., announces its annual meeting for June 15 
in the State Armory at Utica, New York. The offi¬ 
cial meeting, composed of delegates, opens at one 
o’clock; but an attendance of dairymen besides the 
delegates is expected, and the unofficial meeting will 
open at 10 o’clock a. m. The organization is now one 
of poolers only, and the newly organized local asso¬ 
ciations throughout the milk producing territory 
have taken the place of the locals of the old Dairy¬ 
men’s League. 
Brevities 
The rural sehoolhouse should he the community cen¬ 
ter. 
Has any man who cannot control his own family 
much right to tell ns how to run the government? 
'The New York school laws require 15 square feet of 
floor space and 200 cubic foot of air space for each 
pupil. 
One of our readers recommends soot dusted on the 
vines and bushes 1«> destroy currant worms and encum¬ 
ber beetles. Who has tried It? 
The man who has had a fair income, yet has never 
been able to save a dollar, is either not quite a man or 
very much more than a man—it depends on what he did 
with the money. 
One objection to using plant boxes to protect melon 
vines is that they are very bulky to pack away. Make 
them of six varying sizes and they can he packed in half 
dozen lots—one inside the other. 
Many people consider it vulgar even to mention the 
word “sweat." hut every human being would be healthier 
and better if he would irrigate the pores of his skin 
every day—and drink more pure water. 
TITEMS never would have been any “agricultural bloc” 
in this country had there not been for years “blocs” 
formed for the benefit of bankers, manufacturers and 
other interests. The only difference is that the agri¬ 
cultural ‘bloc” is open, while the others were hidden 
and mysterious. 
