848 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 1, lose 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TIIE IWEJNESS FA MIXE S PAI'HR 
A Natlotml Weekly Journal l'or Country mul Suburban lloincf) 
KxInhllAht'it 
rubllslied wefbljr Itv tin. Runil PublidUni Conipnny. S3| Wert ROth Street,Nuw Vork 
IlKKUKHT W. COLUNuWf'l'tl, 1‘rrMiU'lll ami Editor. 
,) uitN' ,l. Ini k'iv, Tro/mnrcv mill ijcm ml MfiTinper. 
Wm. F. Dillon, swreiHiy Mttfc K. T. Kovlk. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countH oh in the t'nivi'isal l v-tnl Union, $2.01. Remit in money 
order, Oppress order, personal cbeoic or bank draft. 
Entered lit New York Post OfllcO as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, $1.00 per agate line—T words. Reference's required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; ami casli must uecoin|Miny transient orders. 
‘•A SQUARE 7>EAL” 
We believe that ©very advertisement in tliis piii>cr ih backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible preenntion ami admit tbe advertising of 
reliable bouses only. But to make doubly sure, \\ e will make good any loss 
to (laid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, Irrespon¬ 
sible advertiser* or misleading advertiM meats in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistake* between our subsoil bens and bonn-t, 
u sponsible bouses, whether advertiser- or not. Wo willingly use our good 
■ Mires to tills end, but such ease- should not be confused with dishonest 
transact,ions. We protect Bubscrlbcrs npntnst roitues, but we will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must lie taut to ns within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identifv if, you should mention Till: Kon.iLNr.w- 
VullKEIt When writing the advertiser. 
I am a very enthusiastic reader of your paper. It is 
about tin- only thing I read outside of the sporting page 
in the daily paper. H. E. 
New Jersey. 
The Rukat. New-Yorker has its regular place beside 
the family Bible on my table. M. E. W. 
Connecticut. 
W ELL, it has ever been om* ambition to use 
enough of the element of human nature so 
that The R. N.-Y. will fit in anywhere with credit. 
T HE pooled price for R grade 3 per cent milk in 
the 301-210-mile zone for May was $1,355, with 
.055 off for expenses and .10 for capital fund, making 
a net price to producers of $1.20. The price for liquid 
or Class 1 milk for July has been fixed at $2.22 per 
100 lbs. 
* 
Y OU see this question of whether a poultryman 
shall buy bis grain or try to raise it comes 
down to a question of what to do with the poultry 
manure. We know of eases where it is sold for cash 
to gardeners, the money being used to buy grain. 
The manure does well on corn, and every poultry- 
man needs a supply of that grain. The work in a 
corn crop comes just at the time when the incubator 
oi brooders are filled, and must have attention. The 
labor required to produce a corn crop must usually 
be hired, and there is but little profit in that. Wheat 
and buckwheat are better, so far as the labor ques¬ 
tion goes, and they can he fed in bundles without 
thrashing. One of the best crops for utilizing chick¬ 
en manure is hay. This crop requires but little work 
if a permanent seeding is started, and harvesting will 
not greatly interfere with poultry work. There is 
usually a good sale for hay wherever poultry farms 
are located, and the money obtained for hay will go 
to buy grain. The great problem on small farms 
nowadays is to do what we can with one man’s labor 
and make that as productive as possible. As a rule, 
grain growing is not a job for the one-man farm. 
W E have some experiments on hand this year 
which surely prove the value of certified po¬ 
tato seed. We have various fields and plots where 
ordinary seed is planted side by side with the “cer¬ 
tified"—the latter from several sources. A blind 
man could readily note the difference in size, color 
and vigor. And why not. when we consider what 
certified seed is! It represents long years of selec¬ 
tion and breeding. The weak and untrue plants are 
rc gued out, the scabby and diseased tubers are re¬ 
jected. and only plants and tubers of standard shape 
and size are used. When you come to think of it, 
this is the way new “breeds" or families of live stock 
are developed, and who does not know that animals 
selected in ibis careful way for generations are far 
more likely to breed true? There never were two 
animals or two plants, including humans and pota¬ 
toes. just exactly alike. The tendency is to vary 
more or less, blit the pedigreed animal and the certi¬ 
fied potato will come the nearest we can get to the 
rule that "like produces like.” 
passing the law again, and in that way put it above 
the court’s power to change it. It is said that the 
radical element in the ranks of organized labor will 
favor such a plan, but we have little thought that it 
will receive much support from farmers. Many of 
us doubt if democracy has yet reached the point 
where we do not need some sort of a cheek-rein in 
driving the chariot of State. It is true that some 
members of the present court are about as liberal in 
their views as a set of clams, yet they may still be 
safer than the other extreme. We think it safer to 
try to reform the court, rather than to cripple it. 
The American people have never yet tried to sug¬ 
gest or nominate men for the bench as they do for 
the Presidency. 
* 
W E have already had asparagus at our house 
for more than 50 successive days, one after 
the other, and it would still be cut if the garden were 
not producing lettuce, spinach, onions, beets and 
half a dozen others. Asparagus and rhubarb are two 
great gifts of nature which no man with a spot of 
land has any business to be without. They are the 
easiest of all to grow. Once started, they require lit¬ 
tle care, but grow year after year, yielding the finest 
Spring tonic and invigorator. We cannot possibly 
understand how any farmer can live without an 
asparagus bed. It is so easy to start, and it comes 
so near to taking care of itself, and for the family 
health it is worth a barrel of any medicine that ever 
was made from drugs. 
* 
T HE other night the Home and School Associa¬ 
tion in our country school district held a festi- 
ial and entertainment. We all "chipped in" and took 
care of the expenses. More than 150 people attended 
and a fair sum was collected for the association. 
The women of the district conduct this association, 
and they do it well. They keep close watch of all 
school matters, investigate cases where charity is 
needed, and do the public work which only interest¬ 
ed women can do. With this association on guard it 
would he well nigh impossible for the local school to 
go wrong,or for any act of real injustice in our dis¬ 
trict to be covered up. We have a stone schoolhouse 
which contains stones brought from practically every 
farm in the community, and the grounds are beauti¬ 
fied with shrubs and flowers. Everyone is interested 
in the school -those who have no children no less 
than the parents. All this has been done by thor¬ 
ough organization on the part of a few women who 
are natural leaders, and have the true courage of 
leadership. The entire community feels the influ¬ 
ence of this organization, not only in school matters, 
but in all public enterprises. It is very doubtful if 
there can be any really successful rural school with¬ 
out some such local organization. It is nonsense to 
expect the teacher and tin* school ollicers to do the 
work alone. Nor can the State attend to such things, 
no matter what laws are passed or how much money 
is appropriated. The school represents the real 
thought and spirit of the district, and it cannot rise 
any higher than the interest which local people take 
in it. Here Is a ease where ire must do it ourselves, 
and the women are far better qualified to manage 
the local school than the men ever can be. And hero 
is another thought right in this connection. There 
are some pessimistic people who are fond of saying 
that individual leadership lias passed away from the 
people. The entire tendency, they say, is to pass to 
group or committee leadership, in which the individ¬ 
ual is crowded out or obscured. It is true that mod¬ 
ern tendency in both business and education has 
been to encourage co-operation or combination and to 
discourage individual leadership. Yet there are still 
in every community men and women who are nat¬ 
ural leaders and who can organize their community 
far better than any agent of a large society can ever 
do In our craze for co-operative work we must not 
crowd out the individual work of the strong and nat¬ 
ural leaders on the farm. 
* 
T the recent great labor convention Senator La 
Follctte made a hitler attack upon the United 
States Supreme Court, and especially upon Chief 
Justice Taft. He said this court is the real ruler of 
the country, through its power of preventing the en¬ 
forcement of laws by declaring them unconstitu¬ 
tional. This outburst was induced by the recent de¬ 
cisions which the labor unions hold are unfair to 
them. Senator La Follette favors a constitutional 
amendment which would put the power of Congress 
above that of the Supreme Court, Under the pro¬ 
posed plan, if tlie court decided that a law is uncon¬ 
stitutional. Congress could reverse such an act by 
A FEW weeks ago we had a note about a group of 
young men who wanted farm jobs. They were 
not white-collar men—they wanted to work, not to 
"manage" or boss. There were 12 of these young 
fellows, and <15 calls from our readers. We find a 
good demand still from farmers. They want work¬ 
ers. as they are quite able to do their own managing 
and keep their own accounts. We think there is a 
full job for every man who is willing to work. Now 
and then we meet a stout man in the city who pro¬ 
fesses to be very anxious for a job. Tell him you 
Lave a good one, and he asks: 
"Where is It?” 
"In the country—on a farm.” 
“Nothing doing! Too far from Broadway!” 
It is true that most of these men would be of very 
little value on a farm. They are big and strong, but 
not very willing, and entirely without experience at 
farm work. They are to a great extent economic 
parasites who do no really productive work, and yet 
must be fed and clothed. Who is to feed them? Ap¬ 
parently the farmers, either directly or indirectly. 
* 
A WOMAN in Illinois writes that she cannot buy 
milk or good butter in her town of 300 people! 
The children have no milk to drink. She lives on a 
farm of 50 acres where they raise Alfalfa and hogs, 
but no one keeps n milk cow! That seems one of 
the most humiliating confessions we ever heard. 
Fifty acres, and no room for a cow! Milkless chil¬ 
dren. because the hogs need all the land! We have 
a little Jersey cow that supplies the family with the 
finest cream and milk. She can be kept almost in a 
good-sized box and will pass the Winter on sweet 
cornstalks and a balanced ration of grain. Put in a 
small box stall with feed before her and sufficient 
water, she requires very little care and keeps the 
milk pans well filled. In Summer she can be kept 
in a small yard with green wastes from the garden, 
and green oats and millet. How she would snort 
and shake her head if she were told that a woman 
with 50 acres lets her children go without milk be¬ 
cause the hogs need all the farm! There are many 
big dairy farms where the women have a constant 
struggle to obtain the milk and cream they need for 
the house. A little cow like ours on such a farm— 
known as “Mother’s cow”—would solve the family 
milk question, and do it right. 
* 
O UR readers have waited long and patiently for 
the report of that Committee of Twenty-one on 
rural schools. Now we make good on our promise 
to rip the subject wide open through this week’s 
article by Prof. Works. Let it be understood that 
iii printing this article The It. N.-Y. does not fully 
endorse this report, nor do we condemn it. The 
rural school question presents the biggest problem 
that our country people have to consider. It is the 
one problem of which it may truly he said "li e have 
got to do it oitrselres,' } If is also the one big prob¬ 
lem which must he discussed without prejudice and 
in a broad, liberal manner. We recognize all these 
things, and we want you to help us in fair and con¬ 
structive criticism. We have decided to start a new 
department. "The Rural School." in which this re¬ 
port will-bo fully discussed. Prof. Works promises 
t > answer any fair questions which our readers may 
ask. We welcome opinions from all, and we will 
try to give all a fair showing, but we decline to 
print, personalities or insinuations regarding motives 
or ill-natured abuse or purely local matters. We 
assume to start with that the members of this com¬ 
mittee are just as honest in their convictions as the 
rest of ns are. If you can show that they are wrong 
bj reason and fair logic, do it. Their recommenda¬ 
tions never can be worked out In law unless the 
rural people of New York agree. 
Brevities 
Satan’s favorite tools are idle hands. 
At US man knows everything. At SO he begins to 
realize how little lie knows. 
Of course you can, if you try, make school rhyme 
with fool. 
And do not forget Japanese millet for a late fodder 
crop for cows. 
The true co-op must hold an option on the eo part 
of it. 
New York has a new "spite fence” law under which 
no one is permitted to build such a fence within 10 ft. 
of a neighbor’s house. 
Who has tried seeding Alfalfa with buckwheat? Did 
you get n fair stand of Alfalfa? Buckwheat for hay! 
When do we cut it to make the best fodder? 
The growers who supply the Emlicotl and Johnson 
City, N. Y„ public markets used 1*5,000 baskets for the 
strawberry crop. 
It is true that a good dog like an Airedale will kill 
many woodchucks, but it is a bad principle to permit a 
dog to go wandering off. hunting for himself. That 
makes a sheep killer. 
The so-called “Enoch Arden” law in New York per¬ 
mits wife nr husband to remarry after desertion for five 
years, during which they have made reasonable search 
for the absent partner. 
We have many questions about killing hair on the 
face or arms. A paste of barium sulphide and water 
will remove the hair, but not the root. A safety razor 
is most sensible. 
