1152 
.The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 23, 1022 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BU 81 XESS FARMER'S r.iJ'EK 
A Rational Weekly Journal tor Country and Suburban Home* 
Established ISSO 
Poblhbtd weekly by the ftnnl Ptiblishlae Coropeuy. tilt b>n SOIh Street, New fork 
Herbert W. Coiailiwwoob, President null Editor. 
Jolts J. Dileon, Treasurer and Qeneral Manager, 
Wm. F. Dili.un, Secretarr. Mbs. E. T. Kovlk, Associate Editor. 
L. H. MtiBWir, Circulation Manager. _ 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01. In uiit in money 
order, express order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at Netv York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, tl.oo per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE I'KAl," 
Wo believe that every advertisement ill this papt'r is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure wc will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers unstained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements, in onr columns, and any 
such ■ovtutller will be publicly exposed lYa are also often railed upon 
to adjust ditlerences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible lion**'*, whether advertisers or not. Wr w illingly use our good 
offices to this end. hut such eases should not he confused with dishonest 
transactions We protect subscribers against rogue;:, but wc will not be 
responsible Tor the debts of honest bankrupts sunotlonod by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must lie sent to us within one mouth of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Hckal Nbw- 
Yobker when writing the advertiser. 
HE following nows note appears in the New 
Jersey papers: 
Trenton. September (i. Motor licenses of Lb ret* resi- 
tlenfs of Newark. Daniel 1 (cover. Douglas Sollty and 
Thomas Brown, were revoked by (’onnnissiuiier Dill to¬ 
day. Brown was charged with speeding, Deever with 
operating while intoxicated, and Kolhy with failing to 
answer a summons issued by a Rahway nutgistrate. 
Other motorists whose licenses were revoked today 
were fail Cook. Camp Dix; James H. Seaman. West 
('reek; Loo Stockloy, Whilesville: John II. DeMott. 
New Brunswick: Harvey Butler, Mr. Holly, and Charles 
"Watts of 'Washington, N. J., all charged with driving 
white under the influence of liquor; Charles Balagli. 
Passaic, stealing apples from :t farm. 
The only wrong thing about that is tin* fact that 
too many auto thieves escape. We are glad to name 
the one man at least who got what lie deserved. Pub¬ 
licity might to help a little. The booze drivers anti 
the auto hogs are well mated. One runs amuck, the 
other is a mucker. 
NL of our Western friends sends us this opin¬ 
ion; 
The chief national menaces tire, labor unions, control 
of prices by capitalists. po/i/irx—as it is. 
We agree on the last two. and we realize that most 
farmers subscribe to the first item. Personally we 
think tin* labor unions have accompli shed great 
things for working people. If, in their miiuagcment, 
consiiler.ition was hail for all the people, they would 
he very helpful. As now organized and directed, 
they seem to us narrow and selfish, arbitrary and 
too highly organized. Like political parties, they 
seem to have come to a ]H>iut where the chief object 
is to keep certain factious in power and serve a 
minority of workers at I he ex pause of the public, if 
need he. As for control of prices by capitalists, that 
has come to he the meanest and most common form 
of robbery. We doubt whether any government can 
entirely prevent it. It is one of the things ire must 
do ourselves. As for polities, we are all in part re¬ 
sponsible for it, and we shall not find men strong 
mid big enough to lend us out until we show that we 
will stand by such men through thick and thin, 
through victory and defeat, and kick our party out 
the hack door if necessary. 
* 
A few days ago I was served with a summons for not 
paying a tax on my dog. who accompanies me here each 
Summer, but who is taxed in rhe New Jersey town 
where we live nine months out of the year. .1 am told 
the law to license dogs is a State law in New York, and 
I am writing you to ask you if you can give me any 
light on this subject. It does not seem quite fair that I 
have to pay the same tax for my dog, who is only here a 
very small part of the year, as the people who live here 
all the time. »• i>- 
1IIS is quite a common complaint from people 
who come into New York for a few weeks or 
months and bring a dog with them. There is no 
State tax on dogs in New Jersey. New York lias 
such a State law. which is under control of the* State 
Department of Foods and Markets. A dog license 
issued in New Jersey is not valid in New York, as 
i here i< no reciprocity in such matters. When a dog 
merely passes through the State with its owner, or 
when it is entered at a dog show, iro tax is required, 
hut when the dog becomes tin actual resident for a 
week or more the owner must take out a license from 
the clerk of the town or city “where the dog is har¬ 
bored or kept. 4 * The license is for one year, and no 
shorter time is acknowledged. 
* 
A RESPONSIBLE and observant man who lias 
just returned from Germany*iuakes this report: 
Germany is cultivating every inch of land, planting 
little vegetable gardens in the cities wherever there is a 
strip of "ground. But there is great suffering through 
lack of milk. Germany has been badly stripped of cat- 
po Thousands of children are ill and suffering for lack 
of ntilk. 
Wo believe there is no question about that. When¬ 
ever the milk supply is restricted the health of chil¬ 
dren will surely suffer. We are sometimes told that 
fresh vegetables will take tlie place of milk. With¬ 
out question many vegetables contain good supplies 
of vita mines, but there is no combination of foods 
that will exactly supply what milk provides for the 
child. We have heard it argued that one may use 
“oleo” with lettuce, tomatoes and cabbage and ob¬ 
tain all the benefits given by pure butter. That 
looks to us like a “device of the enemy.” We will 
not admit that any combination of fats or oils and 
vegetable vitamines can equal millc and its products, 
at least for children and invalids. The same ob¬ 
server makes the statement that Germany is actually 
working toward prohibition. That will sceiu incred¬ 
ible to most of us. hut there seems little doubt that 
a large aud influential party in Germany is working 
against the drink evil. Apparently there is little of 
moral interest in this movement. These men believe 
that labor will be more efficient with liquor cut out. 
The liquor Dill of Europe, if applied to the business 
of rebuilding the country, would insure prosperity. 
W E have, at last, a criticism of the report of the 
Committee of 21—see page 1153. From the 
beginning of this school controversy The It. N.-Y. 
has favored an open frank discussion of the ques¬ 
tion, without personalities or bitterness. This mat¬ 
ter of improving our rural schools is the biggest ques¬ 
tion which the people of New York have to face. No 
school law can ever he enacted or enforced in this 
State unless a majority of the intelligent people who 
live in the country understand it and favor it. No 
one will be likely to dispute that statement, and, that 
being so, we should shake up the subject and air it to 
the remotest corner. We believe that the Commit¬ 
tee of 21 acted in good faith and that its members 
tried to he fair. There may he good reasons for dis¬ 
agreement with their conclusions, hut no good will 
come from impugning their motives. If what this 
committee suggests is not wise or desirable, prove it. 
without resorting to prejudice or personalities. All 
will agree that oill* school laws need revision ill 
some way. As for the distribution of that report, it 
is an expensive volume of about 27.3 pages, and with 
the funds available it could hardly be distributed 
like a cheap bulletin. We think it lias been put out 
so that every interested party can read u copy if so 
desired. As for consolidation, the committee states 
that out of nearly 5,000 opinions on this sub¬ 
ject, 09 per cent were opposed and 31 per cent 
were *in favor—some of them with reserva¬ 
tions. Three pages of extracts from letters on this 
subject are given in the report. It has been made 
clear that, a majority of country people in New York 
Slate are opposed to compulsory consolidation. They 
will not have it forced upon them, and this commit¬ 
tee therefore suggests a change in the school law 
which will grant what they call optional consolida¬ 
tion:—that is, no consolidation without the legal con¬ 
sent of the patrons. And now Mr. Bhmkman gives 
his views. We wait for the other side! 
W E have growing on our farm in Bergen Co., 
N. J., a row of cotton plants about 300 ft. 
long. The seed (of an early variety) was sent by 
a friend in North Carolina and was planted about 
the middle of May. The plants average over 4 ft. 
high and are covered with flowers which began 
blooming late in August. At this time several of the 
earliest bolls look as if they might actually develop 
a little lint. We might safely have planted two 
weeks earlier and the average killing frost with us 
is about October 10. Wo have watched the growth 
of these cotton plants with great interest, hut of 
course no otic expects to mature a crop in Northern 
New Jersey. There is, we understand, a record of 
such maturity in Connecticut during a very favor¬ 
able season. We believe, however, that a fair crop 
can he grown in South Jersey, Delaware and Mary¬ 
land and we shall not he surprised if in the near 
future farmers turn to cotton in parts of these sec¬ 
tions. We have long believed that the light lands of 
Southern New Jersey could he profitably employed 
at producing sugar from sorghum. There is a pros¬ 
pect of over-production in market garden crops and 
to us it seems as if sugar and cotton might actually 
be grown on the Delaware peninsula and across the 
liver in New Jersey. Stranger things than that have 
come about. 
T HIS week our old friend 1). L. Hartman comes 
hack with another “big story” about growing 
strawberries in Florida. The last time we printed 
his statement several readers found a little fault be¬ 
cause we let him tell his story. Granting, they say, 
that Hartman tells the truth, his results are so 
remarkable that they will deceive some enthusiasts 
and discourage others. The R. N.-Y. lias never been 
very much afraid of the truth, and we have found 
that the great majority of our readers are sensible 
people who know how to apply principles and dis¬ 
count conditions. We have known Mr. Hartman for 
many years, and believe that lie gives us a straight 
story. We frankly admit that we cannot match his 
income from strawberries in New Jersey. What he 
took in from that small acreage this year is more 
than twice what we expect to sell from 10Q acres in 
this season of ruinous prices. At the same time, we 
are not going to sell out. move to Florida and go to 
raising berries. There are other years ahead of us 
and we expect to strike a better combination of crops 
and market in the future. Hartman toiled longer 
than Jacob did before he captured Miss Profit. There 
are thousands who are still toiling—many of them 
have quit in disgust. Strawberry growing in Flor¬ 
ida is a gamble and the stakes are high. We prefer 
a quieter game, where we have a little better control 
of the cards, but at the same time we are convinced 
that Hartman tells us the truth. 
* 
Just wait—give the old Baldwin trees time! One 
here on my farm after droning for 2-3 years gave me last 
year 50 bushels worth .$1 each, and from now it will 
keep doing it. E. F. n. 
K find that the Baldwin apple has many 
friends still. The tree seems to he like some 
of those children who develop late in life. Somehow 
they cannot seem to start properly. They dawdle and 
play or loaf until you think they are to be “loaners” 
all their life. Others, of their age and class, settle 
down and work, but somehow these “drones” cannot 
do it. .lust as we begin to think they will he of little 
use to us except to point a sermon or enlarge a text, 
these children suddenly wake up and do some aston¬ 
ishing thing. They were just slow ro develop, hut 
when they once started they outstripped their com¬ 
panions. Very likely we have all seen such eases. 
They fully justify the patience and faith of many 
indulgent parents. And that is the way these Bald¬ 
win men feel over their'trees. The variety has done 
too much for them, and has so many fine qualities 
that they cannot think of discarding it. Most of ns 
can hardly wait 25 years for a tree to start working. 
That may he fine for ilu next generation, but we 
want earlier results. 
* 
E recent y spoke of the rights of a cow on the 
highways of New York State. It seems that 
in Massachusetts, under a now law, cattle owners 
are obliged to put a halter on each animal when 
driving cattle along the road. Any farmer can un-* 
devstaud the trouble and expense such a senseless 
law will subject him to. The drivers of automobiles 
are held responsible for this law. They want every 
cow haltered so as to avoid responsibility for cow 
killing, and put it all on the farmer. The halter 
would far bettor be put on the auto hog. He is 
more dangerous than the cow. and not five per cent 
as useful to society. Massachusetts farmers should 
have that law repealed. 
Brevities 
And the rain still falls. 
We are advised to use boiling hot lye and a stiff 
brush to remove old paint from furniture. 
If you want to get a variety of opinions out of your 
friends aud neighbors just say that you are thinking of 
buying a new car! 
The first market figures we have seen for stove wood 
are quoted on the Johnson City public market—?4.50 
per cord of 1ft. sticks. This means a pile of such 
sticks 4 ft. high and 8 ft. long. 
Readers want to know what “plmspliated manure” 
is! Easy. It is ordinary manure with about 10 lbs. 
of acid phosphate added to each ton. 'dint is about the 
best fertilizing combination a farmer cun make. 
We have had several reports from people who pulled 
up the vines of blighted potatoes as soon as they were 
dead. In this way they seem to have prevented rot in 
the tubers. 
One of the greatest wastes of coal comes from turn¬ 
ing the furnace or the stove over to some irresponsible 
helper who simply shovels in the fuel about as he waters 
the stock. Run your own fires and save fuel. 
“We find it harder than ever to obtain a good sneaker 
for a farmers’ meeting. Most men seem to try and boost 
themselves or advocate some ‘isui’!” We get that front 
a man who manages many of these meetings. What is 
the trouble? 
Well, now, if you could have your choice, which 
would you prefer, a wife who could cook a perfect din¬ 
ner, or one who could write a poem? Put it in another 
way, would you rather have her tell it with flour or with 
flowers of speech? The trouble seems to be that when 
the usual young man selects his wife he is quite in¬ 
capable of making calm judgment. 
