1286 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 28, 1022 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TUB BUSINESS FARMER'S RARER 
A Notional Weekly Journal tor Country mnl Suburban Homes 
Established is.',a 
I'nblitbtd acrllj bj the Bor»l Fublithfnr Company. ttatt W>»t SOih Street, J«et» York 
Herbert W. Oi.UMj'voot), President mid Ktlitor. 
Jons* J. I'iu.on. Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon. Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hovu:. Associate Editor. 
L. H. MURrnr, Circulation Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.01. Remit in money 
order, express order, personal check or bank deal t. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 11.00 per agate tine—7 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 I be advertising of 
reliable house# only. But to make doubly sure, w.- will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, in ospou- 
Irtblo advertiser* or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such -windier will be publicly exposed. '\ c are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible house-, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use c-ur good 
offices to this end. but Such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions We protect subscriber* against rogue-, bat we will not bo 
responsible for the debt- of bunesl bank root* rain-tinned bv (he courts. 
Notice of tile, complaint must L>< rant to US within One mouth or the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention Tin; Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
1 am enclosing credit bill of a cowhide shipped re¬ 
cently. It will take nearly three hides to buy our baby 
a pair of shoes, and he is only one year old. Someone 
down The line somewhere must make a nice thing out of 
it. KREP At. HAYNES. 
New York. 
HIS cowhide sold for $1.2(1—40 lbs. at 3 cents a 
pound. The express was 63 cents, which left 
57 cents for the cow’s overcoat! And three such 
hides are required to pay for one pair of baby shoes! 
It would require some figuring in higher mathe¬ 
matics to tell what one hide would bring if it were 
all made into these little shoes. And if you ask 
them, the dealers, the tanners, the jobbers, the shoe¬ 
makers, the wholesalers and the retailers, will all 
claim that they made little if any profit. The farmer 
knows he lost money. Where did it go to? Part of 
it paid for lost motion caused by too many middle¬ 
men. 
* 
s it true that dairymen or farmers are buying and 
using any large quantity of oleo? All sorts of 
opinions are expressed, but tlie facts are hard to 
obtain. Wc have gone after them in a new way—by 
writing men who keep grocery or general stores in 
country towns. These men know their trade, and 
they seem to have given us the truth. That seems 
to be that trade in oleo is losing ground in these 
rural towns. Farmers are buying little if any of it. 
while a few years ago there was quite a little of this 
farm trade, where men sold milk or cream and then 
bought oleo. This report, from a grocer in Lewis 
County. N. Y.. is like many others: 
We don’t sell any oleo to farmers now. Some retired 
farmers buy it. I think that the sale of it is decreas¬ 
ing. We used to sell 100 lbs. of oleo a mouth, and the 
same of blitter. Now we sell 50 lbs. of oleo and 150 lbs. 
of butter. 
Many of these grocers say that a few years ago 
there was considerable oleo trade, but now more 
butter is sold. There would be more trade in butter 
if there could be a better distribution of it. As for 
the reason of this change, one grocer in Delaware 
County. N. Y., states it very frankly, as follows: 
To save my farmer trade I had to throw my oleo 
license away and stop selling it, as the farmers will not 
trade with anyone who sells it. 
It is their full privilege to act in that way if they 
see fit. and no one can fairly blame them for doing 
so. They make the town possible. Without their 
trade and their visits the village streets would be¬ 
come as grassy as a pasture. We never could see 
how any dairyman could claim any moral or busi¬ 
ness right to sell milk or cream and buy a substitute 
dairy product 
❖ 
P ROHIBITION as a political issue has come to 
be very much of a contest between city and 
rural voters. The country districts are very largely 
“dry,” while most of the sentiment for liberal en¬ 
forcement or repeal is found in the city. It is unfor¬ 
tunate that the city should he arrayed against 
the country in this way. It. is never a wise thing lo 
develop such an issue between classes, but in the 
present ease it could hardly be avoided. -Tust now 
the “wet” side is making most noise, but. anyone 
who travels through the country will know that the 
other side is working with a silent, grim deter¬ 
mination that is unmistakable. In the Senatorial 
contest of New York we have the curious situation of 
one man. presumably dry, running on a wet plat¬ 
form. and another man, presumed to be personally 
wet, running as the candidate of a dry party! 
* 
MONG the curious questions which have come 
to us is one from a woman who asks if a hus¬ 
band has a right to lock or nail up any rooms in the 
house so his wife cannot get into them! We do not 
know what the husband is trying to hide or protect, 
but be lias a right to nail or lock any room in his 
house which he desires to, but that does not mean 
that the wife has not an equal right to break the 
locks so that she can enter the rooms. We might 
sue est that an ax would be a good key in a case of 
that kind, though we can hardly imagine that any 
readers of The R. N.-Y". would ever have recourse to 
any such operations. 
sk 
H ERE is something that might happen to you. 
What would you do about it if you were in¬ 
volved in the case? A certain school district was 
consolidated with others, and it was necessary to 
transport the pupils. The trustees of the district 
employed a man to carry the children. This man 
has a generally had reputation. It is claimed that 
he drinks heavily at times, and is not of a suitable 
character to have charge of a group of impression¬ 
able children. Several families in the district refuse 
to let their children ride with this man. and they are 
fined by the trustees for not sending their children 
to school. Complaint, is made to the State Depart¬ 
ment, with meager results; they are told that such 
reports are usually the result of some personal feel¬ 
ing or neighborhood trouble. In response. 15 citi¬ 
zens made a sworn statement that they have known 
this driver for years, that he often becomes intoxi¬ 
cated. and is not a suitable person to have the care 
of children. This is met with a demand that these 
people specify tlie day and hour when this driver 
was intoxicated—an almost impossible thing to 
prove in a country neighborhood. This, we take it. 
is one of the possible evils of consolidation, and we 
do not blame country mothers for fighting any plan 
which will take their tender little children away 
from them under the influence of any questionable 
character. Personally, we would go to jail before we 
would submit to any rule or law which would put 
our children under the care of any disreputable char¬ 
acter. 
* 
I T seems now to be settled that we have in this 
country an overproduction of oats. The crop is 
large, and there is little chance of any great foreign 
demand. Oats will be cheap. We doubt if they have 
paid on 60 per cent of Eastern farms during the last 
few years, except when seeded with peas for hay, or 
cut for fodder. From our experience this year with 
Soy beaus, we believe that crop will pay most East¬ 
ern farmers better than oats. For general feeding, 
including poultry, we think barley will pay better. 
Poultry men who are looking for a cheap ration 
would better experiment with oats. Ground and 
used in the dry mash they give good results, and any 
dairyman knows the value of ground oats in cattle 
feeding. If any poultryman fears to feed dry oats 
to hens, the grain car. lie soaked or boiled. At any 
rate, no matter how fed. with the present outlook 
for prices, oats are about the best “buy” this year 
for feeders. 
5k 
NEW trade has been developed in the poultry 
business—that of culling pullets and hens. The 
expert learns how to analyze a lien so he can reject 
the culls. There are certain birds in every flock 
that have been stamped by nature as drones or lay¬ 
ing liars. They can eat and cackle with the best, 
but they never will lay their full quota. You feed 
them, if at all, at a loss. The culler knows how to 
spot them with his eyes and his hands, and his trade 
is useful and legitimate—us much so as that of test¬ 
ing dairy cattle. The trade is so new that no one 
seems to have agreed upon a fair price for doing 
the work. Various experts give us prices running 
all the way from two cents to live cents per hen. 
This trade is sure to develop. In the future it will 
he one of the big things in the chicken business, and 
there ought to he some standard price. We suggest 
three cents per hen. with no job for less than $5. 
* 
HE Hope Farm man’s recent notes on “A Night 
on the Market” have brought out a lively dis¬ 
cussion. Farmers, grocers, peddlers, and all the rest 
of the handlers, have given their opinions. We now 
have an article by D. L. Hartman, which we consider 
the best study of the art of selling farm produce we 
have ever read. Hartman has had nearly 30 years’ 
experience as farmer and salesman. He seems to he 
one of those rare characters who are capable of pro¬ 
ducing a lirst-elass crop and then selling it for every 
dollar it can bring. Most of us seem to fail either 
as producer or salesman, but Hartman can do either 
successfully. No man can tell another just how to 
do it but we shall all get something out of these 
articles, even though we may not agree with all that 
is said. 
W HEN Congress meets once more the farm 
“bloc" will concentrate its efforts on legisla¬ 
tion to obtain long-time credits for farmers. Three- 
year credits with sound security in farm property 
will he demanded, and a full plan has been worked 
out. This farm “bloc” will be stronger than ever at 
the next session. It will gain several new members 
from Western States, and we see that the candidates 
in New York and New Jersey endorse at least the 
“principle” of the organization. This “bloc” has 
great possibilities so long as it is independent and 
fair. That is its only hope. If it ever becomes par¬ 
tisan or demands special privileges for any particu¬ 
lar class, without regard to the rights of all. it will 
break up—and will deserve to. It cannot succeed by 
imitating the tactics of the secret “blocs” which for 
years have pulled wires and influenced legislation. 
5k 
T HE Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association 
announces that the pool price for September 
milk will be $2 per 100 lbs, of 3 per cent milk in the 
200-mile zone. The assessment for capital fund is 
15 cents per hundred, and the net to producers is 
$1.85. for which checks are sent October 25. Dealers 
who get their supply outside of the pool report that 
they paid $2.55 for September milk. Estimates in¬ 
dicate that they furnish about one-half of the met¬ 
ropolitan supply. They report, sufficient volume for 
present needs, but the supply is falling off at this 
season, and is likely to continue so for November 
and December. 
5k 
T HE First Joint Stock Land Bank of New York 
was .recently organized under the Federal Land 
Bank law to loan money on farm mortgages in the 
States of New York and Pennsylvania. Because of 
the operation in the two States the name has now 
been changed to the New York and Pennsylvania 
Joint Stock Land Bank. The main office of the 
bank is at 61 Broadway, New York City. One hun¬ 
dred and thirty-live applications were received by 
October 1, aggregating about a million dollars. The 
first issue of bonds was sold in September at a sub¬ 
stantial premium, and loans have already been made 
to the amount of about $500,000. 
It will be recalled that the law provides for 12 
Federal Land Banks, which have been organized in 
the 12 districts of the United States. These Federal 
Land Banks operate through local associations of 
borrowers who approve or reject claims for new 
borrowers. The law also authorized the organiza¬ 
tion of joint stock land banks, which may place 
loans direct through their own officers and ap¬ 
praisers. Several of these have been organized in 
the West, and have been very successful. The New 
York and Pennsylvania Joint Stock Land Bank is 
the first to appear in this territory. Both classes of 
banks are under the jurisdiction of the Federal 
Farm Loan Board, and both are subject to the same 
general rules in many respects. The advantage of 
the joint stock bank is that it gets in direct touch 
with the borrower and can give quick and direct 
action. The weakness of both is that the amount 
loaned is limited by the law. and the appraisals are 
reviewed by the Federal Board, so that it requires 
considerable equity in a farm before either of these 
banks can make a loan. At the same time the joint 
stock banks have considerable discretion, and fairly 
satisfactory loans should be available on developed 
farms. All mortgages are permanent and amortized. 
That is. they do not need to be renewed. A small 
percentage is paid yearly, and this in time clears off 
the whole mortgage. The bonds are exempt from 
taxation, and form a safe investment for farm sav¬ 
ings. 
Brevities 
Which do you believe should coine first, education 
or agitation? 
If the eye is the window of the mind, the mouth is 
too often its exit. 
“I know my hoy is no angel,” said a friend the other 
day. "But does his mother think he is?” “Yes—or 
nearly so!” That’s the trouble; strange as it may 
seem, some of these women know less about angels than 
the men do. 
Why does a barber adorn the front of his shop with a 
striped pole of red and white? The explanation usually 
given is that in ancient times the true physicians were 
forbidden to shed blood, and all surgical work was 
turned over to the barbers. The old barber’s pole repre¬ 
sented the application of bandages. Even now the 
operation of a barber with a dull razor sometimes seems 
like a surgical operation. 
