1264 
<Pk RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 21, 1022 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal l'or Country »nd Suburban Homes 
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HkkbBkt W. t'oi.t.tJtovvooD, (’resident ami Editor, 
jolty J. DiM/ix, Trrnnircr and General Manager. 
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T„ H. Mvnriiv, Circulation Manager. 
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•' A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon- 
niblc person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Bin to make doubly sure, wc will make (rood any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by misting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will !>o publicly exposed. Wc are also Often called upon 
to adjust difference* or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible bouse'., whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
ofliees to this end. but such eases should not be confused with dishonest 
transaction:. We protect subscriber* against rogues, hut wo will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it. you should mention The KriiAL. New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
T IIE first woman to enter the T'nifetl State Sen¬ 
ate comes from Georgia. Slie is Mrs. W. II. 
Felton, S7 years ol<l and still active. < hi the death 
of Senator T. E. Watson, the Governor of Georgia 
offered to appoint Mrs. Watson, hut she refused, 
lie then turned to Mrs. Felton, familiarly known as 
“the grand old woman of the South.” If the shades 
of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Douglas, llenton and 
Cass could gather in some shadowy corner of the 
capitol in Washington, we may imagine their con¬ 
sternation. The sacred precints of the Senate, 
where they reigned supreme, invaded by a woman! 
Looking at it fairly, there seems no good reason 
why a sensible and intelligent woman should not 
take part in any branch of government, legislative, 
judicial or executive. It is not by any means im¬ 
possible that our grandchildren may see a woman 
President of this nation. We find plenty of men who 
are horrified at such a thought, but they base their 
conception of things on what lias gone before. Do 
they realize that we are facing an entirely new 
time in public life? There can be no possibility of 
taking the ballot away from women, and they are 
absolutely sure to use it in their own way. And 
when we read the statement of Senator Felton from 
Georgia (set* page 1263) who will say that she does 
not express the thought that lies somewhere in the 
heart of every man or woman who desires to leave 
a better America to their children? 
* 
R EPORTS are quite conflicting, but it seems safe 
to assume that the grain crops of Europe are 
short this season. The weather lias been unfavor¬ 
able, and many localities have not yet come back to 
the j ire-war production. Germany in particular is 
short of breadstuffs and meat, and one reason for 
holding up payment of war debts is the necessity of 
paying for imports of food. The surplus wheat and 
meat of this country will lie needed in Europe and 
will he bought in spite of the high tariff. Canadian 
wheat is being shipped freely. In former years a 
good share of this wheat would he sent into this 
country, where it was made into flour for export. 
'J'he new tariff will put an end to most of that busi¬ 
ness. In a normal year the high tariff would act to 
cut down our export trade in food, for European 
countries will naturally buy where they can pay in 
trade, and a high tariff never encourages Irade be¬ 
tween two nations. This year, however, Europe 
must buy somewhere, and in the present crop situ¬ 
ation she must come to us. We think wheat prices 
wi:l slowly rise a little later in consequence of the 
foreign demand, beyond the capacity of Canada to 
supply. 
Jj! 
I X one of Jack London’s stories we are told of an 
Alaskan Indian who killed a white man. lie was 
arrested and on some technicality carried to San 
Francisco for trial. In prison he had all he could 
cat. and at his trial, through some strange freak <>f 
justice, ho was set free, lie wandered hack to his 
old home and told great stories of what he had seen 
and the fine time he had had- Another Indian lis¬ 
tened to his stories and liguied out this sort of logic. 
In Alaska the Indian suffers hunger and cold, and is 
the white mail's slave. When he kills a white man 
he is taken on a line journey, gets all lie can eat, and 
does not need Jo work. Therefore, the way to secure 
these tine tilings of life is to kill a white man! So 
lie went out and killed a white government official, 
and he and his friends were greatly surprised when 
he was tried and Imng. promptly and properly. To 
this day the relatives of that man fail to under¬ 
stand the logic of “white man’s justice”! We heard 
of a simple-minded white man tin* othei day who 
seemed to ho equally perplexed over “justice. lie 
was a peddler who formerly worked for a commis¬ 
sion man. It was a common practice in handling 
produce from distant and helpless shippers to report 
part of the goods “worthless.” or make faked sales at 
low prices. It was clear stealing-—the meanest sort 
of robbery. Yet the commission man “got away with 
it." This peddler, starting for himself, tried a sim¬ 
pler and more direct form of robbery. lie lifted 
goods off a farmer's wagon and never paid for them. 
They finally caught him at it and sent him to jail! 
Here we have another form of “white man’s jus¬ 
tice.” 
* 
S EVERAL people complain because in this school 
discussion wepinhibit personalities. These people 
desire to attack the motives of the Committee of 
Twenty-one, and have apparently little other argu¬ 
ment. We can see no possible good from such form 
of discussion. If the report is wrong, or if the sug¬ 
gestions are unsound, it ought to he possible to re¬ 
fute them without attacking the motive of the com¬ 
mittee, “You’re a fraud!” and “You’re another!” 
is a simple and direct form of argument, but it never 
convinces and never gets anywhere. This school 
question is too big and important to be settled in any 
such way. The committee is opposed to compulsory 
consolidation of school districts. Why not accept 
that fact, those of us who agree with the idea, and 
stop questioning the motive which induced the com¬ 
mittee to take this view? Mr. Blankman recently 
argued that the State should pay all teachers. Prof. 
Works replies that such a plan would give the State 
Department even more of a monopoly than it now 
enjoys. We think the State Department has too Arm 
a grip on the system as it is. And let us all remem¬ 
ber that this committee is not a creature of the 
State Department, and that the department does not 
fully favor this report. 
* 
NE of the most venerable fakes known to agri¬ 
culture made a new entrance at some of the 
smaller fairs this year. This is the celebrated plant 
which grows tomatoes uphove ground and potatoes 
in the soil—all on the same vine! There was no 
disputing the fact that a vine was shown with small 
potatoes at the roots and fair-sized tomatoes where 
they ought to be. Neither crop was tied or pasted on 
—you could see that the growth was quite natural. 
The promoters offered seeds at 25 cents each. They 
di<l not say so exactly, hut the inference was that 
such seeds would produce similar plants, produc¬ 
ing both tomatoes and potatoes! Of course this was 
a grafted vine. A sprout or “scion" of tomato was 
grafted upon a potato stalk just about as grafts are 
inserted in grape or apple. This is quite easily done, 
and is a common practice among grafters. The 
plants have no great commercial value, although 
there would be some sale for them for transplant¬ 
ing, since many people like to show off a “novelty.” 
It is of course the worst sort of a fake to claim 
that such plants are produced direct from seed. 
Such seeds would produce tomato plants and nothing 
more. It seems impossible that any of our readers 
should be deceived by such ail old and flimsy fake. 
* 
Comparatively few of the children born in this coun¬ 
try, and who come up through our public schools, expect 
to work ar common labor with their hands. Even the 
children of immigrants, who grow up within this coun¬ 
try, expect to do souicihing else than common, unskilled 
labor. The proportion of unskilled labor is probably 
less now than in former years, owing to the increase of 
machine operations, bur a large proportion of tlie labor 
used in the major industries is still of that class, and 
the industries cannot expand without it. 
HAT statement is made in a circular issued by 
the National (Tty Rank. It will be accepted 
as a general truth by anyone who can look at the 
industrial situation in a fair-minded way. Whether 
this is the result of a wrong system of education is 
not I he point to he discussed now. All evidence 
shows that within 10 years there is to be a great 
shortage of unskilled manual labor unless a fair 
proportion of our school children can be trained to 
take up that class of work. Under our immigration 
laws, more laborers are leaving this country than 
are entering it. In the year ending June 30, 32.724 
laborers entered this country, while 100.058 left it. 
These men who left made money here during the 
war and have now taken themselves and their 
money hack to Europe. Agriculture of all industries 
is most prosperous in Europe, and in many parts it 
is easier than ever before for a man with a fair 
amount of cash to buy land. 'Hint is the great rea¬ 
son why these laborers are going back. In fact, even 
if we had the freest immigration possible, there 
would be comparatively few laborers and farm 
hands to come. Most of the immigrants would lie of 
the class widen prefers to remain in the city. In 
truth, the great industrial question within 1(J years, 
if not today, will he. where ean we obtain so-called 
servants or unskilled laborers? There is likely to 
he a great increase of nou-proilucers or “handlers,” 
hut who is to do the hard work? We can all under¬ 
stand that in spite of the development, of machinery 
a vast share of the work must be done by hand. 
With the millions of young people, even the children 
of immigrants, all hunting for a soft job, where are 
the workers to come from? In the last analysis all 
the wealth of the land and all the handlers of that 
wealth bank upon the man underneath who puts 
Ids hard thumb ami linger on the job. Unless his 
ranks are recruited, industry will topple over and 
stop going. The head workers and the money work¬ 
ers cannot keep things going without the hand work¬ 
ers, It is really an economic problem. Under our 
system of education, or any other, for that matter, 
workers will, from choice, enter the job which pays 
them most money. When the manual laborer re¬ 
ceives a greater reward for his labor than the 
handler people will seek that kind of a job. 
* 
T HE increase of Alfalfa growing in New York 
State is one of the great things of agricultural 
development. We hear various people or institutions 
claiming credit for this. It doesn't matter so much 
who did it, so long as it. is done. All along through 
the limestone ridges Alfalfa is spreading, anil even 
oil the soils where lime must he imported, you will 
find the crop on increasing acres. It is one of the 
greatest things that could happen to New York 
farming. Wherever Alfalfa goes, wealth follows. It 
fattens the land; for when you harvest the crop 
from an acre of Alfalfa it is just like putting two 
or three tons of wheat bran into ymr barn. In all the 
history of the world the introduction of Alfalfa has 
made farmers prosperous and built up the towns 
and cities near which il grows. New York seems 
to have gained in Alfalfa growing faster than any 
other State east of the Mississippi, and the spread 
of the plant has hardly begun. 
ERSEYMEN have built up a great business in 
day-old chicks. Thirty years ago a proposition 
to sell these baby hens would not have been seri¬ 
ously considered for a day. When the business was 
started there were efforts to punish shipjiers for 
cruelty to animals. Now the day-old chick business 
Is about as large as the entire egg trade of New 
Jersey 40 years ago. The business is one of peculiar 
responsibility. You have to take your little chicks 
very largely on faith in the shipper. The baby chick 
reveals little or nothing of its sex or pedigree. You 
feed it to maturity, when it may prove a mongrel 
or a money-maker. This business is becoming a 
feathered paradise for fakers. It is like earning 
money while lying on a feather bed to pick up cheap 
scrubs or mongrels and send them out as pedigreed 
birds. Who can tell what they are during the first 
24 hours of their life? The honest men who attempt 
to sell honest chicks are put at a big disadvantage 
by these fakers. They lose sales by being underbid 
and the business loses reputation when the poor 
birds mature, It is now proposed that the State 
Agricultural Department shall register and certify 
the "hatcheries" which are known to do an honest 
business. That ought to cut out the fakers and put 
them where people must deal with them knowingly, 
if at all. That strikes us as being one true fuuction 
of the State. 
Brevities 
Don’t ride your hobby so hard that you “lose your 
hat.” 
Can you not plan for that open fireplace before cold 
weather sets in? 
A neighbor says that base bawl is played with a 
slipper or shingle. 
The brush of the fox and the comb of the hen do not 
make a good working combination. 
Something like 6,000.000 lbs. of Alfalfa seed from 
Argentine were imported before the new tariff went into 
effect. 
Artichokes may be good feed, and they may give an 
immense yield, but if they ever get to running over the 
farm—good night ! 
“AecuKWTKti hatcheries” is the latest for Wisconsin. 
It means a thorough inspection of “hatcheries” or places 
where eggs are hutched commercially. 
Some time ago we mentioned a supposed law in Mas¬ 
sachusetts. requiring cattle to he haltered before being 
driven on the public road. It now appears that there 
is no such direct, law. 
Here is a good study in geography and economics for 
your children. Go over the list of things used on your 
farm and in your family during the year, and see where 
they all come from, and how many could be econom¬ 
ically produced on your farm. 
Most of our farmers do not need the teaching of 
higher mathematics or psycho-analysis half as much as 
they need new studies in eating potatoes. In a contest 
between potatoes on one hand and rice and macaroni 
on the other, where do you stuud? 
