1912. 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
615 
LARGE PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
[Editor's Note. —Under this heading we intend to 
have discussed questions which particularly interest 
country people. We do not agree with all that our 
correspondents say, but we shall give men and women 
who possess the courage o£ conviction an opportunity to 
say what they think about certain things which interest 
country people!. 
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS IN 
OHIO. 
On September 3 the voters of Ohio will 
vote on 39 amendments to the State con¬ 
stitution. A State convention worked for 
months to get these amendments into shape. 
Mr. W. W. Farnsworth, a well-known 
farmer of Ohio, was a member of this con¬ 
vention. He gives the following advice 
regarding those amendments which farmers 
in particular should vote for. This is fol¬ 
lowed by an article by Chas. B. Wing: 
The Most Important Amendments. 
Among the proposed amendments to our 
constitution which all Ohio voters should 
vote upon September 3, the following seem 
to be of special interest to the farmer. 
No. 12. This simply gives the Legislature 
power to enact laws to encourage forestry, 
to prevent any monopoly in water [lowers 
and to prevent unnecessary waste in coal, 
oil. gas and all natural resources. The 
benefits of this amendment are so appar¬ 
ent that it would seem that every farmer 
would work for its adoption. 
Xo. 16. This allows the use of what is 
known as the Torrens land title system, 
which aims to simplify our present com¬ 
plicated system, and is virtually a system 
of registration and insurance of title by the 
State.' and I believe will be an advantage 
to the farmers. Its use by the individual 
is optional. 
Xo. 23. It may be urged that the ques¬ 
tion of equal suffrage is not particularly a 
farmers’ question, but I believe all will 
agree that few if any of the occupations or 
professions bring the wife or daughter into 
as close touch with the head of the family, 
as in farming, and few appreciate the moral 
and executive worth and ability of women 
as do the farmers, and none are any fairer 
or more ready to grant justice to women. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that Granges 
and other farm organizations of the State, 
are, as far as I know, unanimous in favor 
of giving to woman the right of suffrage. 
We know that woman is now “the power 
behind the throne” in most of our religious, 
charitable, and philanthropic works, and 
we believe we can safely trust the ballot in 
her hands, and that we need her help in the 
civic as well as the domestic "houseclean- 
ing.” 
Xo. 29 provides for a bond issue of $50,- 
000.000 to build a State system of intcr- 
countv roads. I think this measure is some¬ 
what faulty, and still I believe that it will 
be of benefit. I favor paying for these 
roads by direct tax, rather than by issuing 
bonds, but that to my mind is not of so 
much importance as is another provision, 
which I consider unfair, in the measure. 
While there is necessarily nothing in the 
amendment as printed showing just how this 
amount shall be proportioned, yet it was 
generally argued upon the floor of the con¬ 
vention that it should be apportioned equal¬ 
ly per mile all over the State. I believe 
that the counties which pay a large share 
of the tax, like Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Frank¬ 
lin. Montgomery, Lucas and some others 
should receive a larger amount of this 
fuud than should counties whose contribu- 
iton to it is very light. The more populous 
counties contain large cities, and there is 
an enormous traffic around those cities, and 
more is needed to build and maintain such 
roads than in counties with less population 
and less traffic. I think the amendment 
should provide that at least 60 per cent of 
the amount raised in any county should be 
expended in that county, and the remaining 
40 per cent be used to aid the weaker 
counties. Inasmuch as this act is intended 
to apply only to the main roads leading 
from county seat, to county seat, the objec¬ 
tions mentioned are not as strong as if it 
applied to all of the improved roads, and I 
believe it will be of enough benefit to more 
than overbalance any defects it may pos- 
scss. 
No. 30 places mutual insurance compan¬ 
ies on the same basis as stock companies, 
regarding the insuring of public buildings. 
It also gives the State the right to regulate 
insurance rates. This seems to be a matter 
of simple justice to these farmers’ organi¬ 
zations. 
No. 32, taxation. This is the knottiest 
problem which the convention was called 
upon to decide. I believe that every one 
of the 119 delegates felt that the present 
system was defective, but the more they 
studied it, the more difficult it became, 
and we came to have more sympathy for 
the various tax commissions of able men 
appointed by the Governors of Ohio dur¬ 
ing the past, to study this question and 
devise a perfect system. There was a 
strong fight made to allow the Legislature 
to classify property for different rates of 
taxation, ‘and also a feeling held quietly 
by a few, in favor of single tax. The ma¬ 
jority felt, however, that it would be dan¬ 
gerous to give the great interests an oppor¬ 
tunity to go before the Legislature asking 
to have their property favored in the class¬ 
ifying, and also felt that classification 
looked too much like an entering wedge 
for the single tax. The feeling that it 
would not be wise to place such great temp¬ 
tations before the Legislature was perhaps 
emphasized by the fact that during the 
sessions of the convention and only a few 
squares away, Senators were being tried 
and convicted of accepting a bribe, and 
selling themselves for $200 (and this in 
spite of the fact that “before the War” 
colored men brought $1,500 each). Could 
the convention have devoted six months or 
a year to this question alone, it might have 
been possible to construct an entirely new 
system of taxation, but as it was, the only 
safe way seemed to be to make a few minor 
changes to the old system. These changes 
are to provide for taxing all State, muni¬ 
cipal and school bonds, also incomes, in¬ 
heritances, franchises, oil, coal, and gas. 
It will also exempt $500 of personal property 
for each taxpayer, instead of $200 as at 
present, thus helping the small householder. 
No. 33 allows the Legislature to regulate 
the sale of all stocks and securities in 
the State. This is to safeguard all inves¬ 
tors from the schemes of promoters of all 
types. The citizens of Ohio have lost mil¬ 
lions of dollars annually from fake min¬ 
ing companies, orchard companies, rubber 
companies, etc., and this amendment is 
aimed to prevent such loss. 
No. 8S gives the Legislature the power 
to regulate or prohibit the disfiguring of 
the landscape by the use of billboards, etc. 
I think all will agree that such power is 
necessary. 
No. 6, the much discussed initiative and 
referendum. When the convention met last 
January I presume few if any of the dele¬ 
gates favored the form in which this is now 
submitted. During our discussion of the 
various matters which came up for our 
consideration during the session, wo learned 
to realize the value of such discussion in 
clarifying the situation and realized that 
119 men could secure a better view from 
119 viewpoints, than one man could. Hence 
the form in which this measure is now 
submitted provides for securing the bene¬ 
fits of such discussion by the General As¬ 
sembly, and still retaining to the people 
the power safeguarded •-'to prevent any 
hasty ill-advised action. I believe it will 
commend itself to most fair-minded voters. 
There is one matter which the farmers 
of Ohio should remember especially this 
Fall. The Legislature to be elected next 
November will have an unusually great 
amount of important work to do, and you 
should take especial pains to secure the 
right men. I believe nearly all of the 
amendments proposed should pass and I 
feel safe in saying that when in doubt 
concerning any of them, you can safely 
vote yes. w. w. Farnsworth. 
Roads, initiative and Courts. 
As to the Ohio constitutional amend¬ 
ments, it seems to me that the most im¬ 
portant ones dealing with the State as a 
whole are the initiative and referendum 
and judicial reform, while taking a barely 
secondary place are the items of liquor 
control, taxation, woman’s suffrage and 
good roads, and the farmers are particular¬ 
ly interested in the good roads proposition 
only, although, indirectly, they are cer¬ 
tainly affected by all the other points. 
In this State we have gone through 
several periods of road history. Possibly 
we had the best roads and the most money 
for their up-keep when the old toll-gate 
system was used. The system itself was 
decidedly an annoyance, and I presume, a 
trifle expensive, and yet the system of tolls 
did divide the money received with con¬ 
siderable justness; that is, a light rig paid 
a smaller toll than a heavy one, while the 
system of poll tax which replaced it has 
never seemed to me to be anything but tbe 
crudest sort of taxation. It is hard to 
say what we should have been doing during 
the past 20 or 25 years since the toll 
gates were abolished. Certainly we have 
had very incompetent road supervisors, 
poorly paid men who knew nothing at all 
about road building or its care. It is 
certain that the money appropriated for 
the up-keep of the roads has appeared to 
have been used not extravagantly but some¬ 
how wastefully, and it has been nowhere 
near sufficient to keep our roads in even 
decent shape. The past two seasons our 
best pikes have become, practically, no bet¬ 
ter than earth roads, and everybody has 
thoroughly realized the necessity of doing 
something radical, or else we were to be 
practically without public highways during 
the muddy time of the year. A good many 
steam rollers have been purchased. Many 
roads have been thought to a splendid 
grade or crown, and this has helped de¬ 
cidedly when the weather was only a little 
wet, but the fact of the matter is, the 
gravel on our pikes is practically worn 
out. Our gravel pits are ,argely exhausted 
or reduced to a place where we get sand 
instead of gravel, and during the Spring 
months our roads are impassable for weeks 
at a time with anything excepting light 
buggies. On account of this deplorable 
condition State aid in building really serv¬ 
iceable roads is decidedly to be hoped for. 
Our city friends doubtless will feel that 
they should not be taxed to maintain 
these roads, but this does not seem to us 
to be the proper view. In the first place, 
because the modern automobile seems to us 
to be more destructive to the roads than 
our heaviest loads are, and in the past 
the automobile owners have probably not 
paid anywhere near their just proportion 
towards keeping up the highways. In the 
second place, It needs only a moment’s 
thought to show that good roads mean 
easy and economical transportation, which 
will certainly be followed by a lower cost 
of delivery for the product of the farmers, 
and thus an opportunity to lower the cost 
of living to the consumer. It is my opiu- 
ion that uo class of business men work for 
as small a percent of profit on their busi¬ 
ness as the farmers do, and yet they are 
reasonably well satisfied to work for their 
small margins. If they are treated at all 
fairly, lowered cost of their product will 
almost automatically bring a lowered cost 
to the consumer. 
I believe that the initiative and referen¬ 
dum is really as important an amendment 
as has been submitted at this convention. 
I question if it will be necessary even to 
use it frequently, but I think that it being 
possible to use it will enable us to obtain 
legislation which we want, and to prevent 
legislation which we do not want, without 
the necessity of anywhere near as much 
labor as has been required in the past. 
In other words. I think that this reform 
will make our Legislature more truly rep¬ 
resentative than it has been for some time. 
I do not think that Ohio needed this legis¬ 
lative reform any worse than the average 
State, but it has seemed to me that for 
some years the tendency of our law-makers 
lias been to do whatever they pleased while 
in office, almost absolutely without regard 
to what their constituents desired. If we 
wrote to them, possibly we received courte¬ 
ous, non-committal bunches of words that 
meant nothing in particular, and often writ¬ 
ten by our Senator’s or Representative’s 
secretary, and even if we did get the ear 
of our worthy Representative at all. it 
seemed to make no particular difference to 
him what the people ccally wanted. It 
happens that, for a few years. I have felt 
quite an active interest in a good many of 
the measures that were before our Legisla¬ 
ture as well as our National Congress and 
that I have worked pretty hard at times 
to make either our Representatives or our 
National Congressmen and Senators see 
matters in the same light in which I did. 
I did this, not only from selfish reasons, 
but because I was certain that the majority 
of my neighbors felt just as I did ; that in 
the long run, our ideas, if carried out, would 
be for the benefit of all the citizens and 
not of a small minority or of any particu¬ 
lar class. Space does not permit me to go 
into detail on the different questions which 
I have worked over, but in practically every 
case I have found most of our Congress¬ 
men, whether National or State, to be de¬ 
cidedly indifferent as to the opinions of 
their constituents, and in most cases they 
did not even consider it necessary to be 
particularly courteous in their replies. The 
remark which I quote from memory from a 
letter received from Senator Burton some 
time since is representative of this feeling. 
Our worthy Senator said in practically 
these words: “If the farmers would take 
more interest in the matter to which you 
x'efer, there would be less likelihood of 
drastic legislation along the lines which 
yon have discussed.” I do not know what 
interests elected Senator Burton, or what 
interests he was working for on this par¬ 
ticular question. I do know that my own 
protest voiced the opinion of thousands of 
my fellow workers; that large numbers of 
them had protested to Congress, and that 
if Senator Burton had paid any attention 
to the farm press or to the personal letters 
from farmers, he would have been thor¬ 
oughly aware that there was a lot of in¬ 
terest taken in the question by the farm¬ 
ers, and his remark, if he bad paid atten¬ 
tion to this thing, to say the least, would 
have been unnecessary, and coming as it 
did in connection with the rest of his 
letter seemed to indicate that the least of 
his troubles was connected with the farm¬ 
ing industry. It is my opinion, as already 
stated, that with the initiative and refer¬ 
endum, even if it is seldom used as I ex¬ 
pect it will be, our representatives will be 
more truly representative, and it is also 
my opinion that, we cannot hope for much 
of any representative feeling until we do 
have the initiative and referendum. In 
this great reform the farmers themselves 
can probably have an opportunity to bene¬ 
fit themselves more than any other class, 
for the same reaso* that in the past other 
interests have been better represented, both 
in our National and State legislatures, 
than have the farmers, and thus the initia¬ 
tive and referendum will become practically 
a farmers’ instrument. 
On the question of judicial reform I con¬ 
fess to considerable ignorance, and I sin¬ 
cerely hope that it will not be necessary 
for me ever to know too much about this. 
I have never happened to have a lawsuit 
of any kind, and if I had one I know that 
my money would not last long enough to 
carry it to a second court, let alone a 
third. Seriously, however, since this re¬ 
form places the State courts on a similar 
basis to the great Federal courts, it seems 
to me that nothing but good should be ex¬ 
pected from this change. 
On the question of women's suffrage I 
am more or less indifferent. My wife is 
as well qualified to vote as 1 am, and I 
would just as soon trust her judgment on 
any national question as my own, but she 
does not want it. Where the experiment 
has been tried it seems to me that after 
things get to running smoothly fhe reform 
is of some benefit. I have always felt that 
the reform should come when the women 
themselves particularly desired it, and not 
before. It is very possible that it will not 
come now unless the women do desire it. 
If they want it, by all means they should 
have it. If they don't want it, I seriously 
question the advisability of inaugurating it. 
CHAS. B. WING. 
NEW YORK STATE FRUIT GROWERS 
MEET AT ALBION. 
Albion is a bustling little town of about 
7,000 inhabitants, very near the center of 
Orleans County, of which it is the county 
seat. In 1855 it was the leading county 
in the production of beans, and they are 
still extensively in the bean business, many 
being raised in the young orchards, and 
they make a very good crop for this pur¬ 
pose. If an Orleans County man does not 
know beans he has uo valid excuse to offer. 
The Albion Chamber of Commerce got out 
a handsome programme, containing many 
halftone views of Albion and vicinity, pro¬ 
vided a fine concert for the entertainment 
of visiting fruit growers, on Wednesday 
evening, and a neat programme of same 
and a very complete guide to the auto trips 
with routes plainly marked on a road map 
of Orleans County. Before noon it was evi¬ 
dent that the court house, which had been 
chosen for place of meeting, would not hold 
the crowd, so we were directed to the Bap¬ 
tist Church, where the crowd filled aisles, 
gallery and Sunday school room and then 
covered the church lawn ; with little groups 
all over town discussing subjects of mutual 
interest. “The Apple Industry,” by lid- 
ward Vau Alstyne, and “New York’s Agri¬ 
cultural Renaissance,” by R. R. Riddell, 
of the State Department of Agriculture, 
followed by a question box, made up the 
afternoon programme. In the evening we 
went to the High School Auditorium and 
enjoyed a fine concert that was arranged 
for the occasion by the Chamber of Commerce. 
Two automobile trips were laid out for 
Thursday, the most interesting places be¬ 
ing conspicuously numbered and a 12-page 
guide made a key that everyone could fol¬ 
low easily, as beside the printed informa¬ 
tion the guide contained a road map of Or¬ 
leans County, with routes plainly marked 
and the turns at corners were designated 
by arrows on trees and buildings. These 
trips have proven to be the most popular 
feature of the Summer meeting, and early 
Thursday morning the crowds and auto¬ 
mobiles began to gather, and many were 
off before the scheduled time. A stranger 
would at first sight think he had run up 
against an immense Glidden tour, hut 
would soon see his mistake by noting the 
speed maintained and the interest taken in 
orchards by the way. Many places were 
not numbered, the numbering being con¬ 
fined to those the committee thought of 
most interest, and some of these gave only 
the name of owner. Others gave acreage, 
yields and other interesting information. 
For example, in turning to our guide we 
found1. William Spry. 2. F. W. Mason, 
20 acres apples bearing; five acres apples 
not bearing, three acres quinces bearing, five 
acres peaches bearing, six acres peaches not 
bearing, 39 acres fruit; 2200 barrels last 
season ; expect 1200 barrels this year; 200 
Russets which bore heavily last year have 
no apples this season. 3. Robert Densraore, 
24 acres apples bearing or 700 trees, all 
Baldwins excepting 50 trees; three acres 
pears not bearing. The Geneva Experiment 
Station has commenced a fertilizer experi¬ 
ment in this orchard which they expect to 
countinuc for 10 years. Ten acres of 
Baldwin trees have been chosen for this 
experiment.” 
This is the way it ran through 125 num¬ 
bers on the long route which covered SO 
miles. Another route of 25 miles was 
mapped out through a different section, and 
46 points of interest were numbered on 
this short route. Stops were made here 
and there wherever anyone cared to look 
a place over more carefully, and regular 
stops were arranged at the orchards of 
Foster Udell & Sons, S. J. T. Bush, Albert 
Wood, the Clark Fruit Farm, H. L. Brown, 
J. Allis and Clark Allis. Lunch was taken 
at Point Breeze on Lake Ontario, after 
which the trips were resumed. 
To give readers in other sections an 
idea of the size of some of these fruit 
farms we will review a few of them very 
briefly. George Lamont, 71 acres apples, 
pears and peaches. Snyder Bros., GOOD 
peaches, 2050 apples, 1300 pears, 1200 cher¬ 
ries, 400 plums, 600 quinces, 5000 currants. 
W. D. Frost, 60 acres muck land, 30 acres 
in lettuce this year; ships two and three 
carloads per week. Arthur Phillips, 81 
acres in fruit. Foster Udell & Sons, 107 
acres apples and pears, five acres cherries. 
Alfred Kenyon, 106 acres fruit. S. J. T. 
Bush, 225 acres fruit. Albert Wood, 110 
acres fruit. The Clark Fruit Farm, 150 
acres fruit, 100 acres fruit in one block 
under which runs eight miles of tile 
drains; 100 acres beans. H. L. Brown, 102 
acres fruit; 12 acres of this Is quinces. 
John Crowley, 110 acres fruit. Francis 
Hanlon, 105 acres fruit. J. Allis, 2500 
apples, 2200 pears, 12,550 peaches and 375 
quinces. Clark Allis & Son, 150 acres fruit. 
Many of the places not mentioned have 
from 30 to 80 acres in fruit. 
The day was ideal for the trip. Some 
made the trip in the direction mapped out 
and some in the opposite direction, and 
owing to this and to the fact that they 
Started at different times and from dif¬ 
ferent places, and that many x'an independ¬ 
ently regardless of routes, it was impossible 
to get anything like exact figures. Making 
estimate very low and I believe consider¬ 
ably below actual figures, there were 300 
automobiles and 1500 men in these trips. 
Most of the machines were five and seven 
passenger cars and many makes were rep¬ 
resented. Sevei-al large auto trucks were 
called into commission, and one, a five-ton 
machine, carried 52 passengei's. A great 
many growers canxe from home in their 
own machines, bringing their friends with 
them. There were machines from the fol¬ 
lowing counties, and no doubt quite a num 
her of machines from a distance missed 
our attention: Wayne, Monroe, Oswego, 
Niagara, Genesee, Erie, Livingston, Yates 
and even fronx faraway Columbia. There 
was at least one machine from Ontario, 
Canada. 
The trip covered Orleans County quite 
thoroughly, and though there are many 
well loaded orchards, there are many that 
have but from a quarter to half a full 
crop. Most of the apples are Baldwins this 
year, with most other varieties rather 
scarce. Greenings are vei'y short, as is also 
Fall fruit, and this shortage in the early 
fruit will strengthen prices for the Winter 
apples. Most orchards have suffered fi'bnx 
aphis, and in some the injury ii-om this in 
sect is very serious, in fact so much so 
that the percentage of No. 1 fruit will be 
greatly reduced. Apples are showing good 
size for the season, but with the shortage 
on many varieties and aphis injui'y growers 
are looking for better prices than they 
looked forward to early in the season. We 
stopped at one orchard that has had nota 
bly thorough spi-aying for many years, but 
has this year fallen under different man¬ 
agement through the death of the owner. 
A lai'ge block of young orchard appeared 
to have been entirely missed in spraying, 
and although many of the trees were well 
loaded, hardly a perfect apple could be 
fouud. Some of the orchards were so 
badly infested with aphis that the fruit 
on the lower branches was practically 
worthless. 
Pears are a very light crop, and a few 
orchards were practically ruined by fire 
blight. Quinces and many apples showed 
dead tips from this cause. Lime-sulphur 
and arsenate of lead are used almost wholly 
in this section, and nowhere did we see 
any damage to foliage or fruit from this 
spray. Growers ax'e getting interested in 
farm tractors and motor trucks and on 
many of these large orchards with but 
slightly rolling land the tractor should 
prove vei'y serviceable. Much of the apple 
crop iu this section is picked by hobo help. 
From 10 to 15 miles back from Lake 
Ontario from Oswego and Niagara Falls is 
one of the surest peach belts in the United 
States, and even farther inland the crop 
is fairly sui'e. Some very handsome peach 
orchards were found on this trip, and most 
of them were in fine condition. Elberta 
leads. Quite a number are commencing to 
thin their apple crop, and the practice 
seems to be steadily gaining favor, espee. 
ially in the younger orchax'ds. The larger 
trees from 35 to 50 years old that bear 
from 15 to 25 barrels of fruit present quite 
a different problem when it conies to thin¬ 
ning. Iu new settings the tendency seems 
to he to set fillers, at least one way. Corn, 
cabbage, beans and tomatoes are favorite 
crops for the young orchards, while some 
grow small grains and leave a strip each 
side of the trees for cultivation. There 
also seems to he a tendency to start heads 
lower. These Summer meetings give grow¬ 
ers a chance to compare methods and i'e- 
sults that they can get in no other way 
G. K. s. 
