636 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 409 Pearl St., New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon. Treasurer ami General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
(,% marks, or 10M francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates 00 cents per agate lino—7 words. Discount for time orders. 
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. Rut to make doubly sure we will make good any loss to paid 
subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler advertising in our 
columns, and any such swindler will be publicly exposed. We protect sub¬ 
scribers against rogues, but we do not guarantee to adjust trifling differences 
between subscribers and honest, responsible advertisers. Neither will we bo 
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 you must have mentioned The Rural New-Yorker 
when writing the advertiser. 
The latest report from Albany is that the Cole com¬ 
mission man’s bill is sure to pass and become a law. 
An effort was made by Senator McClelland to bury 
the bill in committee, but it was put on the order of 
final passage April 24. Gov. Sulzer has promised to 
sign the bill when it reaches him. Then will come the 
work of preventing any of the snide commission men 
from obtaining a license. This is the part wherein the 
public can help. 
* 
Let us all apply arithmetic to the 35-cent-dollar 
proposition. Begin figuring. Every time you take a 
journey or buy a bill of goods, sit down and figure 
how many eggs or potatoes, or apples, or pounds of 
chicken you put into it. For example, if you buy a $15 
suit of clothes how many potatoes did you have to dig 
or how many pounds of hens must you sell to pay for 
it? If you spend $5 on a city trip how many quarts of 
milk or how many eggs did it take at the prices you re¬ 
ceive, to pay for the goods? Sit down and figure these 
things out now and then. There will be some big sur¬ 
prises, and if we can start thousands of farmers at it 
we shall get some remarkable contrasts. This is what 
you may call figuring your way to freedom. It will 
be the most effective demonstration of the 35-cent 
dollar and its present purchasing power that we can 
think of. 
* 
Some of these gentlemen who deny the existence 
of the 35-cent dollar might try their brains on the 
following. The facts are given in the Port Allegany 
(Pa.) Argus: 
A farmer near Coudersport shipped a carload of potatoes 
to New York City for which he received 75 cents per 
bushel. This Spring he desired to secure some seed 
potatoes and answered a New York advertisement, ordering 
a barrel at two dollars a bushel. In due time he received 
the barrel, which was one of the same that he had sent 
out last Fall. lie recognized it by the fact that he 
had lost his glasses while putting his potatoes in the 
barrels last Fall, and found them in his barrel of seed 
potatoes. 
Very likely our benevolent friend ex-Senator 
Travis would have an explanation for this. He 
might claim that the incident proves that the com¬ 
mission men are losing money since this one threw in 
a pair of $5 glasses with a $2 bushel of potatoes! 
But here is the problem. If a man sells a bushel of 
eating potatoes for 75 cents and buys them back for 
$2, what proportion of his own dollar does he re¬ 
ceive? The man raises 160 pounds of potatoes and 
then gives away 100 pounds in order to get 60 pounds 
back for seed! 
* 
The present administration has caused a number of 
shocks and thrills already. The most thrilling shock 
probably came at the dinner which Secretary Bryan re¬ 
cently gave to the “Diplomatic Corps” of foreign rep¬ 
resentatives. The average “diplomat” drops most of his 
diplomacy when he approaches the liquor question. It 
is a part of his job—the ability to drop various forms 
of alcoholized water gracefully down his throat. 
Imagine a group of these doughty bottle punishers 
at a State banquet with nothing to drink but table 
water and unfermented grape juice. For that was 
the only “punch” which Mr. Bryan offered them, and 
it was indeed a staggering punch to an old precedent. 
But what else could one expect from Mr. Bryan ? 
For years he has openly declared for total abstinence 
and lived up to his declarations. Whatever you may 
say of Mr. Bryan, you never knew him to run away 
from an opinion or a principle for which he had 
taken a stand. Who cares for a man whose principles 
are so small that you can hide them under a wine 
glass? It is said that the “diplomats” are “contem¬ 
plating a drought for the next four years.” It will 
do them good, and prove an untold benefit to thou¬ 
sands of young men and women who need just this 
sort of example in high places. 
We doubt if five per cent of the people of New 
York are interested in the study of forestry. As 
part of a complete agricultural course forestry may 
well be taught to those who desire to study it, but 
New York State has less use for two forestry schools 
than a farmer has for two blades of grass where he 
cannot now grow one with any profit. There is now 
a well equipped forestry school at Cornell. It pro¬ 
vides all the instruction which New York needs or 
will need for years to come. Yet the Legislature 
is asked to appropriate $384,000 for the college of 
forestry at Syracuse University in addition to the 
money spent on the Cornell forestry school. We have 
no part in any possible controversy between the two 
institutions over State funds. The simple truth is 
that there is neither need nor demand for this new 
forestry college. Thus we regard it as an act of 
folly to appropriate this great sum of money for a 
useless and unnecessary thing. Should the Legislature 
pass the bill appropriating this money it is clearly 
the duty of Gov. Sulzer to veto it. He is pledged 
to an economical and business-like use of the State's 
money and he cannot possibly claim that there is 
either business or economy in equipping two schools 
when there is little demand and less need of even 
one. * 
As Spring comes on we have another side to the 
cover crop question. Assuming that you sowed rye 
or some other crop on bare ground last Fall, what 
will you do with it now? You may need it for green 
fodder or hay. If so, the problem is easy. Cut it 
when you are ready and plow under the stubble for 
another crop. Most of us want to put the cover 
crop into the ground. The organic matter is needed 
on most soils, and if we add chemical fertilizer we 
have with the cover crop the best substitute for 
manure. On many a back hilly field the cover crop 
and the chemicals will keep the land" in good heart 
and enable us to crowd the manure on the nearby 
fields. We get more out of the cover crop if we 
can chop it up with a disk harrow before plowing 
it under. This chopping and cutting enables us to do 
a better job of plowing. The green mass packs closer 
and better under ground and will decay quicker than 
when the entire plants are plowed under. Another 
thing to remember is that when we plow under a 
great mass of green stuff we must pack or crush it 
down firmly so as to exclude surplus air. Otherwise 
the upper soil will dry out and be unable to obtain 
moisture from below. And something of the same 
thing will happen if we crush down the soil and leave 
a crust on top. The best way to handle a cover crop 
then is to chop it up with a disk, plow it under 
and pack firmly and then harrow so as to leave a 
layer of loose soil on top. 
* 
Our people in the Eastern States read of the re¬ 
ported “war scares” in the trouble with Japan. Few 
of them understand what it is all about. It seems 
impossible to most people near the Atlantic that there 
can be any real question over which Americans and 
the Japanese could fight. Yet without question—along 
the Pacific coast and particularly in California—the 
question of alien ownership of land has become a vital 
one. It is an agricultural problem which threatens 
trouble between the two nations. The small native 
or white land holder in California actually feels that he 
is in danger of being driven away from his land. In a 
published statement we find the following argument 
against the Japanese: 
“The Japanese farm laborer in this State is simply 
a .pawn moved by a propulsive force which the west 
coast American has just begun fully to comprehend. 
First lie comes as a laborer; then he contracts to move 
the crop, underbidding his white competitors, getting a 
foothold. The next year it is easier for him ; he enters 
into a short term contract, working the farm on shares. 
Then a lease is made, and finally comes ownership, with 
the white population moving away, the adjoining prop¬ 
erty, lowered in price, desired only by other aliens. 
Everywhere these colonies are springing up, with the 
same beginning and same inevitable ends.” 
There is another side to this, but we are now 
merely trying to make it clear why Californians seem 
determined to prevent aliens from owning land in 
their State. Should the matter come to a popular 
vote California would, we believe, vote two to one 
against ownership of land by aliens. It is^hard for 
Eastern people to appreciate just what this racial 
labor question means to California. Here, much of 
our land is passing into the hands of Jews and other 
European immigrants. These people are not aliens. 
They have become Americans so far as is possible 
for them, and in the case of the Jews they have no 
possible future in the land from which they came. 
The case is different with Japanese, and California 
has an agricultural problem which we at the other 
side of the country can hardly appreciate. It is 
now a local question, but the Californians in their 
efforts to settle it may turn into a national problem. 
May 3, 
During the past two weeks we have had at least 
15 unsigned letters. Most of them contained^stamps 
for immediate answer to important questions. Evi¬ 
dently the authors wrote in great haste and forgot 
to sign their names. In other cases names are signed 
but no post office is given. Our experience is that 
most of those who write notes in this hurried way 
come again later-—-often finding fault because their 
letters are not answered. It is some satisfaction to 
send these unsigned letters back to them—but it would 
be a much greater satisfaction to be able to answer 
promptly. 
* 
When we wrote the article on “Black Fox Farm¬ 
ing” we wanted only to tell of a strange industry. 
As we expected, stock companies are now being 
formed to conduct such farms. Of course no reader 
of The R. N.-Y. will be foolish enough to buy such 
stock. Your money thus invested would be just about 
as safe as a nice fat pullet locked into a henhouse 
with a fox. The money in this business is now being 
made by selling breeding stock at extravagant prices. 
It is somewhat like the palmy days of ginseng culture, 
when suckers were fighting each other for the chancC 
to buy seeds and plants at a crazy price. Black fox 
farming is a good thing to read about, and a better 
thing to let alone. 
* 
The Legislature of the Canadian Province of Al¬ 
berta has passed what they call the “farm machinery 
act.” This provides: 
Any contract for farm machinery made between a 
farmer and representatives of implement firms shall be 
subject to the decision of the courts as to its reasonable¬ 
ness, and if on the matter being taken into court, the 
presiding judge decides that the contract is unreasonable, 
the farmer shall not be bound by it. The same act also 
makes the implement firm responsible for all representa¬ 
tions made by the agent when selling the machinery, 
whether these representations are contained in the writ¬ 
ten contract or not. 
In this country one great source of trouble be¬ 
tween agent and buyer is the iron-clad contract with 
the rubber joint of the agent’s tongue. A farmer 
may be induced to sign a contract because the agent 
makes certain verbal promises. Later on there is 
trouble over the machinery, but the court holds the 
farmer up to his printed contract. It may be clearly 
unreasonable and the farmer may prove what the 
agent told him, but he is chained to his signature 
on the printed paper. Under this Canadian law the 
buyer will have a fairer chance. 
* 
Gov. Sulzer of New York is making a determined 
effort to give his State an honest and practical prim¬ 
ary election law. Since Gov. Hughes made his great 
fight for this principle Gov. Dix and two Legislatures 
side-stepped and dodged whenever the subject was 
mentioned. Last Fall the politicians woke up to find 
that “reform” was popular, and all the political parties 
declared for primary elections. The politicians know 
how much they meant by this, but Gov. Sulzer takes 
them right at their “pledged” word. 
It is thus apparent that all the political parties in 
our State are irrevocably committed to these salutary 
reforms. As a matter of fact all the members of the 
Legislature are bound by these pledges, and will be false 
to their promises unless legislation is enacted at this ses¬ 
sion for electoral reform and a State wide direct primary. 
There is no getting away from that—but will the 
Legislature stand by these pledges? A pledge is 
something like a contract—there must be two parties 
to it. There is the man who gives the pledge and 
the people who make him do it. These politicians 
never would have promised primary reform had they 
not been afraid of the people—just before election. 
They will not keep their promise if they think they 
can bluff the people or fool them with some bogus 
law. They will keep their pledge, though with sour 
faces if they can be made to know that “the folks 
back home” will hold them up to the mark. Now 
we think Gov. Sulzer is sincere in his demand for 
a fair primary law. Such a law is needed, but we 
shall not have it unless our farmers and country peo¬ 
ple make their representative come up to the rack. 
Should this Legislature refuse to do what it was 
sent to Albany to do we hope Gov. Sulzer will call 
them back to do their duty. During the vacation 
these men will be within arm's length of the people 
who tacked the misused word “Hon.” onto their 
names, and who can drive in larger tacks if need be. 
BREVITIES. 
“Business hours belong to the boss.” 
A man is known by the character of the people who 
“knock” him. 
Wiiat is health without .happiness and what is happiness 
without health V 
Do not load up with too big a job. If you do you will 
be loaded down. 
It seems to us that good literature is putting common¬ 
place tbiugs into an uncommon place. 
