1913 . 
THE RURAt NEW-YORKER 
1CH3T . 
There are always many weedy cornfields at this 
season. We have one, though we do not like to 
admit it. The weeds creep in where silage com is 
planted in drills and after cultivation is over these 
weeds often grow to gigantic size. What shall be 
done with them? We should cut. them right into the 
silo with the com. Some of these weeds contain 
useful medicinal qualities. Others are of high feed¬ 
ing value. Mixed in with the corn they will improve 
the silage rather than hurt it. But what about the 
weed seeds? Will they not get into the manure and 
seed the entire farm? A good many farmers worry 
about that, and are inclined to go to the expense of 
pulling the weeds by hand. The weed seeds will be 
killed in the silo. Several experiments were tried 
at the Vermont Experiment Station with packing 
seeds of various weeds in the silo and then testing 
them for germination* In each case the weed seeds 
faiIt'd to sprout. A few of the clover seeds were 
alive, but the weed seeds were dead. Go ahead and 
cut the green weeds with the com. 
* 
Wfiat about tariff on potatoes? We get in the Fall 
here many times but 35 cents per bushel. Will the 
25- cents tariff taken off leave us but 10 cents per 
bushel? Of course we cannot raise them for that, and 
do not enow what to do. o. s. n. 
Alpine, N. Y. 
No—the removal of the tariff on potatoes will not 
cause a drop of 25 cents a bushel. Very few pota¬ 
toes are now imported anyway, because this country 
lias established a quarantine against tubers from 
Germany, Great Britain and Canada. This is to 
keep out several new potato diseases, but it acts 
to jirevent imports of large quantities of potatoes. 
The chief reason for putting potatoes on the free 
list seems to have been the belief that this would 
mean cheaper food for the consumers in town and 
city—particularly on and near the Atlantic coast. 
The scheme will fail. Retail prices for potatoes are 
not dictated by any tariff, hut by our unfair system 
of distribution and sale. No donbt dealers will try 
to frighten farmers into selling their potatoes for 
less money than they are worth through the scare¬ 
crow of free trade. In this case it is a scarecrow 
since the quarantine against potato diseases will 
prevent imports of potatoes. There is now every 
indication that the potato crop will be short, and 
prices should rule high. In time we hope that our 
American farmers will have several outlets for sur¬ 
plus potatoes, as the German farmers do. In Ger¬ 
many potatoes are made into starch, alcohol, “flour’ 
and also dried for cattle feeding. Thus the crop is 
never given away, as is the case here in a year of 
abundance. 
* 
Whex we said we did not believe the fees and 
commissions which the St rout Farm Agency was 
demanding’ from farmers could be legally collected 
o*' farmers who signed their contracts without know¬ 
ing their contents, the company tried to scare us into 
silence by filing one libel suit after another until 
they had a record of about a dozen. Failing in this 
they tried to shut our mouth with a court injunc¬ 
tion. Justice Hand’s famous decision cut the 
strings of that muzzle. Then there was nothing left 
for the Strout concern but to go ahead with the col¬ 
lection of the claims on a bluff. They selected a 
favorable ease. Though he had no opportunity to 
know the terms of the contract when he signed it, 
Mr. Reidenbach gave the agency some countenance 
after he discovered its contents. He had moved to 
New York City, and a city jury might be expected 
to give more importance to a written contract than 
a jury of countrymen who might be more inclined 
to consider the misrepresentation of the agent. Be¬ 
sides Mr. Iteidenhach is a poor man and might pay 
a $25 claim rather than go to law with a corpora¬ 
tion when the expense of the defense would at best 
exceed the amount of the claim. So this case was 
pressed. But The It. N.-Y. had promised to bear 
the expense of defending the first suit to test the 
law and the fact. Hence the case was defended, 
and Strout lost. Each and every one of the twelve 
jurymen was convinced that Mr. Reidenbach was 
induced to sign the contract by misrepresentation 
and fraud. They could find judgment for him on 
no other ground. The Strout Company is threaten¬ 
ing other suits all over the territory in which they 
operate. Many of these defendants are ignorant of 
the law, and most of them are poor men. In some 
cases they are foreclosing judgment notes, and forc¬ 
ing the family out of their homes. We would be 
glad if it were possible for us to help them all, but 
it is not possible for us to defend all these suits. We 
have done our part. At its own expense The R. 
N-Y. has demonstrated that these claims cannot be 
collected in the courts where fraud can be shown. 
No deceived farmer need pay a fee or a commission 
to the Strout concern if he has the means and the 
sand to fight for his rights. 
No one thinks of the silo as a thing for making 
the rich richer and the poor poorer. It is more like 
a good farm friend which helps put dairymen on an 
equal footing with the corn crop. Yet here is a 
case for the wise men to ponder: 
My boy wants to build a silo. I do lots of the work 
with the cows, and there is no one here but the boy 
and women. How do the people get the feed out of a 
silo? I can see in my mind’s eye a wamun 50 years old 
climbing up into one of them to get feed for the cows. 
But I want to know how the other women do it. 
Kankakee Co., Ill. MRS. A. w. 
It may be better to turn this over to" some of the 
advocates of votes for women. There are many 
woman farmers who read The R. N.-Y. How do 
they manage in feeding from a silo? A pit silo or 
one partly underground would be more convenient, 
but what is the answer? Is the silo for everyone 
except the woman farmer? We have never yet 
stumped our people with a practical farm question! 
* 
“Radio-activity” is a mouth-filling word used by 
people who sell mineral waters. They try to make 
the public believe that their water has some of the 
marvelous powers of radium. An old Spaniard 
came to Florida some centuries ago hunting for the 
fountain of “perpetual youth.” The Indians lured 
him on into the wilderness. No donbt they gave 
him the Indian equivalent of “radio-activity.” The 
American people—at least part of them—are being 
led on in the same way—through promise of won¬ 
derful cures through these waters. The government 
says they are frauds. Even though there may have 
been some of this quality at the spring it disappears 
after bottling. The government is forced to be too 
dignified to call “radio-activity” evidence of fakes 
and snides, but that’s wliat it is, and we do not share 
the dignity which prevents plain expression of opin¬ 
ion. Even farmers with the purest of water at home 
are tempted to buy these waters. The water in a 
baked apple has more health-giving activity than 
you will find within a five-mile radius of these won¬ 
derful fake waters. 
* 
Shortly after 1830 a wild wave of speculation 
struck this country. The public debt had been paid, 
and a surplus was about to be distributed among 
the States. The nation was at last upon a solid 
foundation, and the people demanded improved 
transportation. Maryland saw other great cities 
passing Baltimore in importance, because they had 
easier access to the produce from strong farm land. 
Then as now the prosperity of the nation rested 
upon the farm. The wealth of the city depended on 
what was taken out of the consumer’s dollar and 
held away from the farmer. So Maryland asked her 
Legislature to appropriate $8,000,000 cor building 
canals and railroads which should bring the crops 
of Maryland farms to Baltimore. Nor was this all. 
The farmers at that early date demanded the same 
privileges for agriculture that were given transpor¬ 
tation. A few far-sighted men saw that not only 
should Maryland make transportation between Bal¬ 
timore and the farms easier, but that the farms 
should be made more productive, so as to send more 
produce to Baltimore. In McMaster’s “History of 
the People of the United States” we find this: 
To aid the planters and farmers it was further rec¬ 
ommended that $1,000,000 be deposited in the treasury 
of the Eastern and a like sum in that of the Western 
shore, to be distributed among the counties and loaned 
on landed security for 50 years at six per cent per 
annum, to be used by the borrowers to drain marshes, 
buy manures and plant mulberry trees as a basis for 
silk culture. 
The scheme was defeated in the Legislature by 
one vote. Then the people of Baltimore made such 
an outcry that the Legislature passed the bill for the 
$8,000,1X10. but left out the money for the farmers. 
The money was to be borrowed in Europe on State 
stock. The transportation lines which the State 
fathered in this way have long since passed into 
the hands of private corporations. If the State had, 
in like manner, loaned its money to farmers the 
agricultural history of Maryland would have been 
very different. Capital would have enabled the 
farmers to improve their methods, compete with 
western land and thus keep the people at home. 
When capital finally came to Maryland agriculture 
it was brought in from outside, constantly sucking 
interest away from the State. It is strange that 
American business men have been so slow to learn 
the lessou. They will vote money and special privi¬ 
leges to transportation and manufacturing, and ask 
farmers to be content with “education,” while the 
farm now as ever before is the real foundation of 
society. We do not want the government to give 
or distribute its money to farmers. Let it. stop giv¬ 
ing cash and privileges to the other interests, and 
make it possible and easy for farmers to sell and 
use their own credit. The farmers themselves have 
property enough to obtuin this credit. Let the gov¬ 
ernment encourage them to organize and do their 
own banking. 
The milk situation throughout the southern coun¬ 
ties of New York State is summed up in the fol¬ 
lowing : 
If the Dairymen’s League were fully organized they 
might do a thriving business to-day. Dairymen every¬ 
where are disappointed that the price of milk is kept 
at the old price of last Winter. These prices as an¬ 
nounced to-day are as follows: October, $1.70: No¬ 
vember. $1.80; December. $1.80; January, $1.75; Feb¬ 
ruary, $1.(55; March, $1.60. To this the Bordens add 
10 cents for a bam score of 68 points, and 10 cents 
for milk testing 3.8 per cent. The flat price averages 
$1.71% cents a hundred pounds, am with the barn 
score and the fat bonus the average is $1.91%. The 
supply of milk is not full aud has not been for some 
time, and the prospect is not encouraging for the Win¬ 
ter. The supply of hay is short and the price of grain 
is high and going higher all the time. It is no wonder 
that almost half of the farmers that I met to-day say 
that they will not produce milk at this price. Were the 
League in position to act it could make such terms as 
might be reasonable. The assertion that these farmers 
will not sell milk at this price is hasty, and most of 
them will go on nearly as before, I think, but there will 
be some cutting off of supply, and occasionally a man 
will dispose of his herd to quite an extent, I am sure. 
It means the curtailing of the supply somewhat. More¬ 
over there will be some shortage of cows for next Sum¬ 
mer and a corresponding smaller supply then. There 
will be less milk produced than usual. Some 
will reason that the Bordens will pay extra month by 
month as they have done the past Summer. This is 
not to be depended upon. They may pay a little extra 
for some months and they may not. The price is too 
low for real profit with the probable price for grains 
and for hay. h. ii. l. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. 
Early frosts have done great damage to the corn 
crop throughout many dairy sections, and the cost 
of feeding cows will be unusually high. 
♦ 
lx 1S09 the Humane Society found in New York 
City 1,800 licensed places where liquor was sold at 
retail. They figured that each place sold $2.50 worth 
of rum each day or $1,642,500 per year. If this were 
spent for flour at $10 per barrel it would mean 
160,000 barrels or “more than enough to supply the 
entire population of the city with bread for one 
year.” What wonld those men say could they come 
back now, 104 yea rs after their report and see how 
the rum-drinking industry has developed. The tax 
alone paid from the licenses of liquor stores in New 
York State last year was $1S,210.0S3.S9. Of this 
$7,001,768.SO came from Manhattan Island, what was 
then New York City. Thus the tax alone is four 
times as great as the estimated total sales of a cen¬ 
tury ago! At that time the rum business was 
charged with creating pauperism and crime and 
hurting the market for farm produce. The same 
thing is true to-day—more than ever before. It has 
a bearing on the 35-cent dollar. If 25 per cent of 
the city’s earnings should be spent for liquor and 
the farmer gets 35 per cent of the balance he is cut 
down lower yet. The trouble with that Humane 
Society a century ago was that most of those be¬ 
nevolent gentlemen wanted the poor to stop drinking 
while the “upper classes” kept up the habit. 
CROP OUTLOOK. 
Cotton Distribution. 
The Government report shows that for the vear end¬ 
ing August 31 the total supply of cotton was 16,156,221 
bales, compared with 17,896.226 the previous year. The 
distribution was: Consumption, 5.7S6.061 bales, com¬ 
pared with 5.367.583 bales last year; exports, 8.800,96£ 
bales compared with 10,681.758 bales last year, and 
stocks held at end of year, in manufacturing'establish¬ 
ments, 776,764 bales, compared with S70.646 bales last 
year; in independent warehouses, 497,650 bales, com¬ 
pared with 556.239 bales last year, and held by other 
holders (estimated) 294,784 bales, compared with 350,- 
000 bales last year. 
Cotton consumed during August amounted to 458.72(5 
running bales. Imports amounted to 7,756, equivalent 
500-pouud bales. Exports were 257.168 bales. 
Cotton consumed included 26.358 bales of linters. 
Cotton growing States consumed 238,933 bales; all 
other States 219,793 bales. 
Cotton on hand August 31 in manufacturing ware¬ 
houses included 60,229 bales of linters. That in cotton 
growing States amounted to 233.271 bales; in all other 
States 543,493 bales. 
Canadian Crops. 
The Canadian Government makes the following esti¬ 
mate of crops in the Dominion ; 
Of Spring wheat the average yield per acre is placed 
at 21.41 bushels per acre, which upon an area of 
8.990.500 acres makes the total yield of Spring wheat 
192,517.000 bushels; added to 18,481,800 bushels of Fall 
wheat, gives the total production of wheat as 210.99S,- 
800 bushels, compared with the final estimate for 1912 
of 199.236,000 bushels and for 1911 of 215,851,000 
bushels. 
Oats with an average yield of 40.98 bushels per acre 
on 9.646,400 acres gives a total production of 395,341,- 
000 bnshels as against an average yield of 39.25 bush¬ 
els aud a total yield of 361,733,000 bushels in 1912. 
Barley, a yield per acre of 31.05 bushels and a total 
yield of 44,440.000 bushels, as compared with an aver¬ 
age yield of 31.10 bushels aud a total of 44.014,000 
bushels in 1912. The estimated yield of rye is 2.425.000 
bushels for 127.000 acres, being a yield per acre of 
19.0(5 bushels as against a total of 2,594,000 bushels in 
1912. 
For the three Northwest Provinces the total yield of 
Spring wheat is estimated at 188,018,000 bushels; oats. 
244,125,000 bushels; barley, 28.156,000 bushels; rye. 
612.000; and tiax. 15,056,000 bushels as compared with 
a total yield in 1912 for Spring wheat of 18ii.322.000 
bushels; oats, 221.357,000 bushels; au<l barley, 2(5.671,- 
000 bushels. 
