1128 
<Pte RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE B CMS ESS FA JIMEK'S FACER 
A National Weekly .Journal for Country anti Suburban Homes 
Established rs.ro 
Fublbhrd Meekly by (lie Kcmil Publishing foinjisny. S»8 West SOth Street. Now York 
HetiBKliT JV Coi.i.isowoon. I’residant atul Etlttor. 
■Ions .1. Dru.iiN, Trutisiirer anti Oeneral Manager. 
VVm. F. Luixo.v, ttecretar' Mas. K. T. Hoyle. Associate Editor. 
1.. H. MrRplJv, (.'ironlatlon Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in tile Universal Postal Union. $11.01. Hetnit in money 
order, express order. personal check or bank dratt. 
Entered at N. 1 \v York Cost Ottice as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 11.00 pet - agate line—7 words. References required for 
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"A syUAlti: DEAL” 
YVe believe that every advertisement in t his paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible peraon. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Rut to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained l>j IrUhliAg anv deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers, or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be publicly exposed. We arc also often called upon 
to adjust diireivnces or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
olbees lo ibis end. but sucli eases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not be 
responsible for the debts "I honest bankrupts tat.net lotted by the courts. 
Notice or the complaint must lie sent to us v ithin one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, yot should mention Tut.* Kubal New- 
Yorkkk when Wilting the advertiser. 
S OME one asks 11 s to name the most profitable 
line of farming. Which crop gives the best 
investment on capital? During the past 20 years we 
have raised many crops. They run from apples to 
Zinnias. During this period there have been yea> - s 
when we made a little money on all these crops— 
and other years when we lost considerable. We 
have never fried the sort of farming which seems to 
pay best—that is selling farms to suckers. It seems 
to be easy if you know how and possess a leather 
conscience. You get possession of an old farm for 
about $2,000. Then you find some back-to-tho-lander 
with a child-like faith in “agriculture.'' lie has 
about $2,500 in cash, and you sell 1dm the farm as a 
special favor for $9,000. This means $2,000 down 
and a contract mortgage for the balance. He thinks 
it will be as easy as eating cherries to pay $1,000 a 
year out of liis “farm proceeds." The first year he 
will not make expenses; the second year he quits in 
disgust. lie lias the experience and you have $2,000, 
part of the interest and the entire farm, and you 
proceed to sell this real estate to another sucker on 
much the same terms! This is no fairy tale, but 
the saddest kind of a fact, which is being worked 
out time after time. There are cases where such 
farms have been sold in this way half a dozen times. 
Of course no back-to-the-lander has any business to 
buy a farm with little or no capital and expect to 
pay off 75 per cent of the purchase price from the 
proceeds. Still, there are some who seem willing to 
throw away their money in that .way, and so long 
as they are willing to do it ihere are human hogs 
who will do this dirty "real estate” business. 
F OR many years now we have pointed our the 
danger of this “two blades of grass” theory if 
applied to production without equal advance iu dis¬ 
tribution. This year we begin to see where it is 
leading us. Many of us are unable to sell our crops 
for the cost of production, while at the same time 
the Hoveriiment experts say the retail cost of food 
was 5 per cent higher in July. As a concrete ex¬ 
ample. take apples. The census shows a loss of 25 
per cent in number of trees. According to that, 
there ought to lie a short crop, yet this season's out¬ 
put is one of the largest ever known. The loss of 
trees evidently comes from destroying thousands of 
old veterans that have outlived their usefulness. 
The younger trees are being sprayed and cared for 
so that they produce more fruit. That is. we are 
trying to produce “two blades of grass'" when we 
can distribute only one. Dean Swift started this 
theory by saying that he who made two blades grow 
where one grow before did more than all the poli¬ 
ticians. Our agricultural teachers seem to have 
taken Swift right at his word. They seem to think 
that so long as we beat the politicians in good we 
may safely let them alone to practice evil! At least 
that is about what we have done. There is not too 
much food for actual consumption, but there is too 
much for our present distribution. 
* 
VERY report that we can get indicates a 
“slump” in European food markets, much like 
what we face here. Tt seems that the drop in Her¬ 
man marks has had the effect of driving food ship¬ 
ments into the British markets as the most likely 
place for cash return. As a result, potatoes from 
Central Europe, butter from Denmark, surplus milk 
and vegetables from France and Belgium are be.ng 
dumped into England. The English potato crop is 
large, and these great imports have smashed the 
markets. There are many apple orchards along 
through the Danube country. The people in nearby 
countries are too poor to buy much fruit, and the 
crop Is being sent to Paris and London for distribu¬ 
tion. The markets are stuffed, as they are here, but 
\. c understand that consumers are obtaining a fairer 
showing than here. In the old world, methods of 
distribution are better than ours, for most consum¬ 
ers have kept up the old-fashioned idea of market¬ 
ing with a basket. What ire need in this count)'!/ to¬ 
day is not more frciyht cars , hut more market bas¬ 
kets. While there seems in Europe, the same as 
here, an over-production of fruit, vegetables and 
dairy products, there is a shortage of grain and 
meat. France is facing the grain situation by going 
ltack to the use of “war bread" in order to save im¬ 
ports of grain, but it seems as if Europe will be 
short of wheat and corn and to some extent of meat. 
She will be obliged to import these articles in spite 
of any tariff, but the outlook for exports of fruit 
and vegetables is not good. 
* 
E understand that our old friend Charles H. 
Porter is a candidate for State committee¬ 
man for Orleans Co.. N. Y.. in the coming primary. 
Mr. Porter should receive the solid vote of farmers 
and fruit growers and nil who believe in clean poli¬ 
tics. The oflice of committeeman, to serve on the 
State Committee, does not usually receive the atten¬ 
tion which its importance deserves. We all like to 
rail iU the menace of politics and politicians, but we 
will not often get right into the boat and help bail it 
out. The politics of New York are determined by 
the State Committee, There are bosses big and lit¬ 
tle, but Hie final result is usually decided by the 
committee. There, then, is the place for us to get in 
our work of cleaning things up. Why not get up 
close to the spring if we want results? Mr. Porter 
is a progressive farmer: an independent, intelligent 
and courageous man. Put such a mail on the State 
Committee and we will guarantee that the politicians 
will at least know what farmers want. Orleans 
County farmers have a good opportunity here. 
* 
I have never seen or known anything that The R. 
X.-Y. was afraid "f—except oleomargarine and nut 
butter, occasional solace and economy of some of us. 
tired of fishy, cheesy or renovated stuff sold as cow's 
butter at double the price. Bur the vitaminc argument 
gives you an under hold in the wrestle. I shall got the 
'margarine, the nut 'margarine, makers, to offer pack¬ 
ages of vitnmine tablets with each pound. They can 
easily make them front yeast, or tomatoes. Then we 
shall see what pretext The R. X.-Y. and the dairy in¬ 
terests will get up ! w. C. D. 
T is not necessary to wait for that. We know now. 
There can lie no mixture of nut oils or fat and 
extracted vitamincs that will equal pure dairy pro¬ 
ducts—milk or butter. We claim that as a funda¬ 
mental proposition. We further claim that the dairy 
business is the most important industry in the coun¬ 
try. It furnishes the best of food, provides strong 
and efficient homes, gives 1 lie nation sound and intel¬ 
ligent men and women, and utilizes many acres 
which otherwise would produce nothing. Such an 
industry must he protected and sustained at any 
cost. 
* 
Qy EYERAL readers in Xew York ask if a parent 
vJ of school children cannot carry liis children to 
a consolidated school and then collect payment from 
the district! Xot unless he lias a legal contract 
with the district. Under the law a parent of one or 
more children can contract to carry all the children, 
including his own. and be paid for doing so. but he 
cannot simply carry his own child without definite 
contract and then collect. Tt is much like the road 
question frequently asked. Farmers often live on a 
neglected road which the town does not work pro¬ 
perly. These farmers think they can repair this 
road, at their own convenience, and then merely send 
in a I>il 1 for the work. Such a bill cannot legally he 
paid unless the farmer was authorized in writing 
by the town authorities to do the work. 
* 
Is it true that the Xew Jersey State Highway Com¬ 
mission has prohibited all roadside markets in that 
State? J. 8. R. 
O, it is not true. The Highway Commission 
could not do that, even if it wanted to. Any 
farmer has a right to put up a stand on his own 
land and sell his own goods. The thing lie has no 
right to do is to interfere with public traffic. The 
Highway Commission did pass a resolution in which 
they ruled against: 
“The use of the right of way of State highways by 
venders who have not a place of business, for the rea¬ 
son that the use of the highways for the purpose afore¬ 
said constitutes a menace to the traveling public.'’ 
That was a good tiling to do. These “venders" 
handle mostly “roast franks” or soft drinks. They 
are not farmers. In some cases they buy farm pro¬ 
duce in the public markets and peddle it out at 
these stands. As for being “farmers," they are as 
September 1G, 1922 
bogus as the “rubes” who dress up on the stage 
and present a comic presentment of a farmer. It 
is a good thing to drive such folks off the road. 
They do no good to farmers; in fact, they are usually 
a discredit to the business. The genuine farmer may 
still conduct a roadside market in Xew Jersey. If 
lie will charge fair prices and give good measure and 
clean goods lie can help himself and the business, too. 
* 
l’R mails are well filled with letters from farm¬ 
ers who want to know just where they stand in 
the business of making a no selling cider. Older fer¬ 
ments rapidly under some conditions, and it is diffi¬ 
cult to tell just when it works into an “intoxicating 
liquor." The law states that a beverage must con¬ 
tain less than one-half of 1 per cent of alcohol in 
order to be ranked as a lion-intoxicant, and who, 
without a chemical test, can know when this point is 
reached? The best evidence we have is the state¬ 
ment made for Tire R. X.-Y. by Dr. F. D. Crane 
nearly three years ago. Dr. Crane took cider right 
from the press and kept it in an ordinary cellar 
under usual conditions for two weeks. A fair sam¬ 
ple was taken each day and analyzed, with the fol¬ 
lowing result: 
Day 
o 
% Alcohol 
. Xone 
. X„~ -< e 
Dav 
S. 
9. 
% Alcoh 
. 0.44 
. 0.61 
. Trace 
io.: 
0 90 
4. 
. o.os 
ii. 
. 1.00 
. o.os 
12. 
. 1.30 
6. 
. 0.12 
13. 
. 1.50 
7. 
. 0.19 
14. 
. 1.80 
We see from this that ordinary cider under these 
conditions may be kept for about two weeks before it 
develops enough alcohol to be legally intoxicating. 
The cider here noted was better than the average, 
being made, in a clean mill and carefully handled. 
Ol course, the alcohol might develop faster under 
less favorable conditions, blit two weeks may be con¬ 
sidered about the limit of legal safety. As for the 
legal regulations governing the traffic in cider, they 
will be found on the next page. In a general way, 
anyone may make apple juice and sell it in any 
quantity before it develops over one-half of 1 per 
cent of alcohol. What happens to it then is at pres¬ 
ent a subject for controversy. 
XI> now this business of inoculating for the silo! 
It would be hard to make it clearer than Prof. 
Boving has done on the front page. You use much 
the same “starter” that you do in making butter, 
dilute it and spray or sprinkle it over the corn or 
other crops as they pass into the silo. That’s all; 
the bacteria do the rest. How grandfather would 
have snorted at such a proposition. How his father 
ridiculed the very idea of a silo. We have heard 
elderly men make all sorts of fun at the “pickle bar¬ 
rel" or "sauerkraut tub” which John set up in the 
barn. They knew the cows would lose all their teeth 
ard that the manure would make ilie land so sour 
that nothing would grow. Their objections seemed 
reasonable, but “time makes ancient things uncouth,” 
and today 95 per cent of progressive dairymen know 
that the silo is a necessity. This matter of inocula¬ 
tion seems to he only one step along the way to bet¬ 
ter silage. We all know what the same principle is 
developing iu dairying, fertilizing and seeding. The 
fact is that most of what we call life, the pleasant 
and the disastrous, is due to the work of bacteria. 
If we can harness and direct their work, so much 
the better for us. It seems clear that the introduc¬ 
tion of these bacteria may improve the quality of 
poor fodder when fermented in the silo. We cannot 
see that it can possibly do any harm. 
Brevities 
If you want to try grain hay this seasou, barley is 
about the only crop that will suit. 
We never before bad so many calls for advice about 
killing spiders. Whnr lias started this pest up? 
One man says lie gets rid of woodchucks by inviting 
the sports to conic and kill them! 
Is it true that cows pastured on Sweet clover will 
give milk which shows a bad taste? 
Tire “two blades” theory has now come to pass—but 
what shall we do with the Other blade of grass? 
The city of Berlin, Bermuny. grants a subsidy to 
dairymen who keep cows inside the city and bring 
fodder in from the country. 
Why not compel the auto hog to root by working a 
week on the roads? Make him work far back in the 
country on the dirt roads. That will give him an idea 
of the life of a dirt farmer. 
Sei.lino direct to the consumer! Well. sir. the con¬ 
sumer lias got to do liis share, too. He must break the 
habit of wanting everything brought right to tile family. 
His or her grandmother took a basket ou her arm and 
went after the food. 
Sun printing on apples. IIow are letters .or figures 
"printed” on the skins of apples? Usually by pasting 
pieces of dark paper on the fruit, in the shape of the 
desired figure. Thus the rest of the apple is properly 
colored, while the part under the paper is not. 
