1013. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
IS 
FARM CREDITS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
, No. 1. 
Do we need a system of credits for 
financing farms, mortgages, farm im¬ 
provements and farm business in the 
United States? Don’t answer quickly. 
Let us first examine the subject. We 
have received a few letters saying 
farmers can get all the credit they 
want now, if they have property to 
justify the loan. This is true of some 
farmers in some sections; but it rs not 
true of many sections, and it is hardly 
true of all farmers in any section. In 
well-developed sections close to large 
villages, with banking facilities, pros¬ 
perous and established farmers, carry¬ 
ing a regular account in the local banks, 
are of course able to get short time 
accommodations at the bamc; and they 
would probably have little trouble in 
financing a mortgage on the farm; but 
they are not the rule, but exceptional 
cases, and even such favored borrowers 
in this country must pay from two to 
five per cent, higher rate for the loan 
than is paid by municipalities and large 
corporate interests, under the system 
adapted to their needs. 
Many other farmers write us that 
they are unable to get credit on any 
terms, and still more write that they 
can borrow only on terms that are 
ruinous. In the case of mortgages the 
interest rate runs in some cases as 
high as. 8 to 10 per cent. The mort¬ 
gage is written for one or three years, 
rarely for five years; and usually there 
is 10 per cent, added for “shave money” 
under the pretense of commission or 
service in placing the loan. To this 
must be added the fees of lawyers and 
execution and recording of papers, often 
increasing the expense 10 per cent. more. 
When the mortgage term expires, in 
some cases it is permitted to stand as 
an open mortgage, keeping the owner 
in doubt and often in dread of the de¬ 
mand for prompt payment in bulk. More 
often the owner is obliged to go through 
the original process to get a renewal, 
or he must go out and hunt up a new 
loan with the same burden of expense 
to replace the mortgage. In any case 
the farmer is never free from anxiety 
and worry. The mortgage terms expire 
rapidly, and the borrower no sooner 
recovers from the expense of one than 
he is confronted with the necessity of 
providing a new loan. Again the mort¬ 
gage is payable in bulk. He cannot ap¬ 
ply small savings from time to time to 
reduce the mortgage and save interest. 
This leaves his little savings in his 
hands and he becomes the prey of get 
rich quick promoters and gold brick 
vendors. 
In the matter of personal credits the 
average American farmer fares even 
worse than when he applies for a mort¬ 
gage loan. Practically all the banks 
in rural districts are National banks, 
which are by law forbidden to accept 
real estate security for loans. It would 
be useless for the farmer to apply to 
them personally for a loan. Usually 
he would not know the officers of the 
bank if he met them on the street. 
Their paths do not run in the same 
direction. The National banks are 
organized in theory for the accommo¬ 
dation of the business of the town and 
city. In practice it is utilized for that 
purpose, and for the additional and 
perfectly proper purpose of making 
money for its stockholders. Neither 
in its inception nor in its practice was 
it ever intended to be a means of 
financing the farm mortgage or the 
business of the farm. This leaves the 
American farmer without organized 
means to supply his personal credit. He 
is obliged to resort to such means as 
his environment affords. He has litttle 
choice in his purchases. The local 
tradesman who extends him credit gets 
his trade irrespective of the quality or 
price of the goods. Once that running 
account is started the farmer is bound 
hand and foot to his creditor. I have 
personally known instances where the 
total supplies were purchased from 
such a creditor, and the products of 
the farmer turned iji to him from 
time to time in part payment. The 
farm products turned in were marketed, 
and the returns credited, but the farmer 
never handled a cent of cash coming 
or going. In the South the cotton is 
pledged and sold to secure seed and 
fertilizer before the ground is plowed 
for the crop. The local storekeeper 
is the farmer’s banker, as well as his 
grocer, and supply house. In addition 
lie receives the farmers’ product; and 
exacts his heavy toll on everything that 
goes to the farm or that leaves it. 
Under such conditions it is not 
strange that owners hesitate to mort¬ 
gage the farm for drainage or other 
improvements; nor that young people 
refuse to put their little legacies or 
savings into a mortgaged farm, and 
hasten to the city in quest of better 
conditions. john j. dillon. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The New York City De¬ 
partment of Health announced December 
19, that beginning on January I inocula¬ 
tion against typhoid fever will be per¬ 
formed by the department. Inoculations 
will be made at the home of the applicants 
or at the central office of the department, 
Centre and Walker streets, or the culture 
will be furnished free to physicians. All 
requests for immunization must be made 
or approved by the attending physician. 
United States Judge John M. Cheny at 
Jacksonville, Fla., enjoined the Southern 
Express Company from accepting liquor 
shipments from Georgia dealers consigned 
to interstate points December 19. If the 
decision stands every wholesale liquor 
house in Georgia will have to close up. 
The injunction was asked for by Florida 
whiskey houses, who said that the Georgia 
houses were doing a large jug trade in the 
State in violation of the prohibition law. 
The Southern Express Company will ap¬ 
peal. 
December 21 Judge Foster sentenced 
Samuel Levine, a New York horse poisoner, 
to State prison for not les than three 
years and six months, and not more than 
seven years and six months. For a long 
time gangs of Jewish blackmailers have 
been poisoning horses belonging to small 
business men, chiefly on the East Side, 
arsenic being administered to the animals 
on the streets, and in the stables, when¬ 
ever the victims refused the money. The 
director of the welfare committee of the 
Jewish Committee told the judge: “Not 
only has horse poisoning been general, but 
these criminals were organized and con¬ 
ducted their iniquities in a regular and 
systematic way. Every stableman was 
taxed so much by this gang. The ice cream 
dealers were taxed five cents for every 
bag of salt they used in their business. 
This amounted to $3,400 in one season. 
Milk dealers had to pay their pro rata 
share. The victims were so demoralized 
and cowed that they were afraid to appeal 
for aid to the proper authorities; and 
when there was one who, driven to des¬ 
peration, had one of these wretches ar¬ 
rested for extortion, the other owners of 
horses were held up and made to pay the 
legal expeuses of the criminal.” 
An oleomargarine factory ten miles from 
Albany, N. Y., was raided December 20, 
by agents of the State Department of 
Agriculture and of the Federal Govern¬ 
ment. In addition to 1.000 pounds of 
white oleomargarine, more than 700 pounds 
colored in imitation of butter and packed 
in one and two pound jars readv for de¬ 
livery were discovered. The plant was 
complete with large mixing vats, paddles 
and bottles of color. Everything on the 
premises, including $300 in cash, was 
seized by the United States revenue agents. 
President Taft has granted a full pardon 
to John H. Hall, formerly United States 
District Attorney, of Portland, Ore., con¬ 
victed on June 1, 1909, of conspiring in 
connection with unlawful fencing of public 
lands in Eastern Oregon. The President's’ 
action was based on the ground that Hall 
is innocent. Hall was fined $1,000 and 
sentenced to sixty days in jail. He ap¬ 
pealed to the Supreme Court of the United 
States, but his appeal was dismissed on 
technical grounds the day he was pardoned 
by the President. 
During a furious southwest gale and 
sleet storm the Furness Line steamship 
Florence, from Halifax to St. Johns, N. B.. 
was wrecked near St. Shott’s, St. Mary’s 
Bay, December 20. The captain and 21 
of the crew were drowned. The onlv pas¬ 
senger on board was also drowned. A 
mate and four others of the crew reached 
land and were saved. Captain Barr of 
the steamer and all his men reached shore 
after the vessel struck, but the lofty, in¬ 
accessible cliffs of St. Shotts prevented 
their escape. The big tide, backed up by 
the southwest gale, made it impossible to 
remain there, and all hands were obliged 
to put back to the ship, which was pound¬ 
ing heavily. Captain Barr felt confident 
that the wind would go down, but Second 
Mate J. lledley volunteered to take four 
men in one of the ship’s’ boats and seek 
a more favorable landing place further 
along the coast. In the heavv seas then 
running the captain was unwilling to risk 
more lives and give his consent to the 
second mate's expedition with reluctance. 
These were the only men saved. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Pennsylva¬ 
nia Dairy Union will meet at Harrisburg, 
Pa., January 21-23. This meeting occurs 
at the same time as the meeting of the 
State Board of Agriculture, Horticultural 
Association and the Live Stock Breeders’ 
Association. Speakers of note from various 
sections of the country will discuss present 
day problems, and the meetings will be 
of interest not only to the milk producer 
and the creamery man, but also to the 
milk distributor and the consumer. Prizes 
will be offered for various classes of milk 
products, such as butter, market milk, 
cream, etc. These dairy products will be 
exhibited in conuectiou with the corn and 
fruit show. There will also be a limited 
space available for exhibits of dairy ma¬ 
chinery and apparatus. II. E. Van Nor¬ 
man, secretary, State College, Pa. 
There should be an inspection of all 
dairy herds of cattle at least once a vear, 
declared State Commissioner of Agriculture 
Huson at Albany, December 21. -The 
tuberculosis test is all right as far 
as .it goes,” said the Commissioner, “but 
it is too slow. We should have a legisla¬ 
tive appropriation big enough to employ 
veterinarians enough to make a quick in¬ 
spection at least once a year. There should 
be a change in the method of paying 
owners for diseased cattle destroyed so 
that an owner will receive $15 a head flat 
and permission to dispose of the hide.” In 
his report to the Legislature Commissioner 
Huson will recommend the establishment of 
county farm bureaus to be maintained by 
the Federal. State and county governments. 
At the outset these bureaus will be estab¬ 
lished in about 25 counties. The National 
Government will contribute $1,200 and the 
State $(>00 for each bureau, the remainder 
to be supplied by the counties. Each 
county must act affirmatively first. These 
bureaus are to be in the hands of experts 
and the idea is to lay before the farmers 
the most effective method of farming. 
That the produce trusts have secured 
control of half the cheese output of Wis¬ 
consin without the cheese being recorded 
on the sale board is the claim of E. W. 
Clark, a cheese statistican. Reports of 
sales show a production of nearly 7,000,- 
000 pounds less last year than in 1910 and 
three and a half million pounds less than 
in 1911, or a decrease of 50 per cent, in 
two years. “No one can believe these 
figures,” he says. “Production in this 
State is larger this year than ever before, 
judging from the reports of milk delivered 
to factories.” 
In the proceedings started by William J. 
Palmer, Buffalo, N. Y., to compel the State 
to make an appraisal of plants destroyed 
by the State inspector because they were 
affected, as alleged, by Gipsy and Brown- 
tail moths. Justice Marcus directed the 
jury to find in favor of Mr. Palmer. The 
State plans to appeal from the order. In¬ 
spectors of the State found a consignment 
of Azaleas at Mr. Palmer's Lancaster 
greenhouses infested with the moths and 
destroyed the whole. The .statute under 
which they were destroyed makes it neces¬ 
sary for the owner to start proceedings 
of this character if he wishes to establish 
his claim that the plants were wrongfully 
destroyed. 
Mr. C. R. Orton, of Purdue University, 
has been elected to fill the vacancy at the 
Pennsylvania State College, made by the 
resignation of Professor H. R. Fulton. Mr. 
Orton.will have charge of the teaching and 
investigation in plant pathology which in¬ 
cludes forest pathology as well as the 
other special courses in plant diseases. 
EMIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA. 
Americans Beware. 
The Australian immigration agencies are 
making strong efforts to induce “men with 
money'' to come to Australia by much mis¬ 
representation. The man who goes through 
Australia without an “official leader” or a 
“land jobber” to point out its very imagi¬ 
nary benefits, soon comes to the truth, 
which is carefully hidden when accompanied 
by the “paid porters” aforesaid. The closer 
settlement conditions are iniquitous. The 
land is not worth one-third of the price 
asked for it, and the title very doubtful. 
The men who have been placed on closer 
settlement blocks by government agnts or 
on the irrigation blocks are now finding 
out the true value of the land sold (?t to 
them, and find themselves sold also, as they 
are unable to sell again, and must not only 
forfeit a large percentage of the money 
paid, perhaps all of it, as well as their 
labor. On a government farm the condi¬ 
tions are a disgrace to any civilized com¬ 
munity, and men are unable to earn more 
than three to five shillings per day without 
board. The cost of living is very high, and 
most of the land is worn out and ex¬ 
hausted. There are some thousands of 
farms in the hands of house and land 
agents. Many of them have been “for sale” 
for many years, and in the dairying dis¬ 
tricts land has been used solely for dairy¬ 
ing for a generation, and is now worn out, 
and, being hilly country, cannot be culti¬ 
vated, so that it must pass back to its 
first state or be used for sheep. A land 
boom has been going on for some time to 
induce men with money to buy these 
worked-out farms, which are heavily mort¬ 
gaged to banks, financial institutions or 
money-lending lawyers, and upon which the 
once owner cannot now make a living. The 
Australian farmer is a very poor specimen 
of an agriculturist; his idea is to take all 
out of the land possible, throw it up to 
the mortgagee, and hunt around for more 
land to treat in the same way. Uusing his 
family he secured a block of 320 acres for 
each member in the earlier days of settle 
ment, and having worked it out, gets suf¬ 
ficient political jobbery at work to sell it 
to the closer settlement boards, who retail 
to the innocent newcomer at fancy prices, 
and so the game goes on. “Men with 
money” is the cry because the farm and 
worked-out land will not support the mere 
million or so of people of Victoria, Austra¬ 
lia. Very little search of a file of daily 
newspapers published in Australia will 
show thousands of farms for sale which 
will not support the original selectors, who 
had the land in its virgin state, and is now 
offered at high prices for sale or to let to 
promote a boom in land, which will shortly 
burst and bring the banks to reason. 
Australia. j. h. shaw. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
Virginia State Horticultural Society, 
Lynchburg, Va., January S-10. 1913. 
Ayrshire Breeders’ Association, annual 
meeting. Hotel Manhattan, New York, 
Thursday, January 9, 1913. 
Massachusetts Fruit Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion. Horticultural Hall, Boston, January 
10-11, 1913. 
Sixteenth exhibition Vermont State Poul¬ 
try Association, St. Albans, Va., January 
14-17. 1913. 
New York State Fruit Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, Convention Hall, Rochester, N. Y., 
January 15-17, 1913. 
Fourth Ohio State Apple Show, Zanes¬ 
ville, O.. January 20-24, 1913. 
Cleveland, O., Fanciers’ Show, January 
20-25, 1913. 
Twenty-fourth annual meeting of the 
South Dakota State Horticultural Society, 
Redfield, S. D., January 21-23, 1913. 
Pennsylvania Dairy Union, Harrisburg, 
Pa.. January 21-23. 
Massachusetts Agricultural College, Am¬ 
herst, Mass., school of apple packing. Jan¬ 
uary 23-29, 1913. 
American Breeders’ Association, Colum¬ 
bia. S. C., January 25-27, 1913. 
Northeastern Poultry and Pet Stock As¬ 
sociation. Inc., fourth annual show. Green 
Bay. Wis., January 30-31. February 1-3. 
Fifth National Corn Exhibition, State 
Exposition Grounds, Columbia, S. C., Janu¬ 
ary 27 to February 8. 1913. 
Farmers' Course at Rhode Island State 
College February 5-7. 
New York State Vegetable Growers’ As¬ 
sociation, College of Agriculture, Ithaca, 
February 11-13. 1913. 
Farmers’ Week, N. Y. State College of 
Agriculture, Ithaca, February 10-15, T913. 
New York State Agricultural Society 
convention. Albany, January 13, 14, 15, 
COLORADO NOTES. 
Nature smiled on the great plains of 
Colorado last year, crops were never bet¬ 
ter, and some old timers say such a yeai 
of plenty was never known. It has not 
caused a boom in prices of land as many 
expected: if another good year follows 
this, however, land will advance very fast 
in value. Prices are not what they ought 
to be for grain. Very little corn ripened 
*ully on the hard land, but more or less 
did in the sand. When the great corn 
yields in Colorado are reported by govern¬ 
ment and others it causes a smile, for it 
seems to those who “are on the job” mere 
guess work. In all the crop reports from 
nearly every county it is far less than 
expected and the bulk is soft corn. Cattle 
j are Picked up at big prices to 
feed this soft corn to. It will not pay 
the feeders big at such prices. The cow 
aa ^LiR-h have helped fill the year with 
prqnt. The three year homestead law is 
doing what we thought it would, giving 
hundreds and probably thousands of people 
the chance to prove up on their home¬ 
steads sell if they can. if not rent and 
leave the country for “back East,” which 
m most cases is Iowa, Missouri and per¬ 
haps still farther East. Many have left to 
spend the Winter, sold off their stock and 
Ok° i “shut up shop” and gone visiting 
back home. Two young men were here 
last evening who came from Missouri and 
one is going back this week to the land 
of the “big red apples.” When offered 
some fine Jonathan apples he asked if they 
came from Missouri, and when told they 
were from Eastern Nebraska he declared 
they were not so good as Missouri apples, 
wmie we who have eaten same varietv from 
both States this Fall say the Nebraska 
Jonathans are much superior. The mail 
houses do a great business here; 
?o,0()0 went out of our post office in a 
week to mail order houses in Chicago and 
Kansas ( ity. Now the people have the 
money they do not have to pay the big 
prices charged by home merchants; they 
ship their cream, butter and eggs to Den¬ 
ver. where better prices are realized than 
changing for groceries, dry goods, etc., at 
the home town. Some are still taking 
claims but all the best is taken up; very 
little left of any value save for the range 
Many young women have taken homesteads, 
then spent the six months before going 
on to the land in teaching, clerking, book¬ 
keeping or as stenographers. They build 
a little one-room shack, call it home, vote 
m that precinct, and spend most of' their 
time in town at work. It is almost im¬ 
possible to get help either out or in doors. 
Many have moved into town for the Winter 
to send their children to school, as the 
law gives them five months’ leave of ab¬ 
sence from their homesteads. I have often 
seen this early Fall loads of hay passing 
with man, wife and three or four children 
on top of the load, coming from far out, 
perhaps 10 and lo miles.. No one can 
realize the great difference in all condi- 
Hons of life in these farther Western 
States from the East except those who 
ha\ e Ii\ cd in both sections and are honest 
in t iling why. Except for health’s sake, 
it would be Eastward ho! for us. 
Washington Co., Col. mrs. f. c. j. 
The Ohio Agricultural Department re¬ 
ports as follows, December 1, 1912- 
Wheat—Condition compared with an 
ftverage, 92 per cent. ; amount of crop of 
-912 sold as soon as thrashed, 48 per cent • 
damage to growing crop by Hessian fly, 
four per cent. ; damage to growing crop 
by white grub worm, one per cent. 
Corn—Area planted in 1912 as returned 
by township assessors, 3.213,667 acres; 
estimated average yield per acre of shelled 
corn. 40 bushels; total estimated product 
for 1912, 127,868,844 bushels ; crop of 1912 
put into silo, 9 per cent. 
Clover—Area sown in 1911 cut for seed, 
22 per cent.: average yield of seed per 
acre, 1.33 bushels. 
Apples—Probable total vield compared 
with last year, 66 per cent. Tobacco— 
Trobable average product per acre. 789 
pounds. Cattle—Number being fed for 
Spring market compared with an average, 
68 per cent. Sheep—Number fed for mut¬ 
ton compared with an average. 73 per cent 
State Average Prices. Per Bushel — 
Wheat 99 cents; corn, 49; barley, 65; 
oats. 34; i - ye, 77; potatoes, 54. 
Per Ton.—Hay, $12.91; Alfalfa, $14.81. 
The International Institute of Agricul¬ 
ture reports that the production (prelimi¬ 
nary figures), expressed in bushels, of the 
crops specified below, in the countries 
named, is: 
69^40 000 Germany, 160.227,000 ; Austria, 
-, Germany, 456,608,000; Austria, 
"11 (,114,00. 
, Germany, 5S6.999.000; Austria, 
lb (,42o,000. 
78*384 000 Germany> 159,927,000 ; Austria, 
. I' 1 !*! production of sugar-beets this year 
is 135.9 per cent, of last year's production 
in the following group of countries : Prus¬ 
sia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, 
France, Italy, Roumania, Russia in Europe, 
Sweden and Canada. 
The production of cotton is estimated at 
9.0,2 million pounds in the United States, 
India. Japan and Egypt, or 96.2 per cent, 
of last season's productions in the coun¬ 
tries named. 
The farmers in this section as a whole 
are fairly prosperous. They paid at the 
creamery last month 37 cents for butter 
fat. Lambs bring six to 6% cents live 
weight: good sheep from $6 up; calves 
about eight cents live weight; cows from 
$30 to $60. according to size and qualitv 
Dressed pork from 10 to 11 cents per 
pound; chickens. 12 to 14 cents per pound: 
turkeys, dressed, 23 cents; horses, from 
$100 to $200: some extra ones, $250; 
mules from $350 to $500 per pair; a good 
many Western horses but in here people 
are beginning to raise heavier horses. Po¬ 
tatoes. 55 cents at station seven miles 
away; some considerable rot but a large 
crop, farmers having raised from 200 to 
900 bushels. Two men from Ohio bought 
farms about two miles from here lately; 
one from Milwaukee about three miles 
away. The farms are good. t. b. c. 
Pennsylvania. 
