1913. 
113V 
IIebe is a new name which ought to go in the 
rogues’ gallery; R. J. House, of the Dixie Milling 
Co. of Kansas. The Kansas Agricultural College 
caught this man adulterating stock feed with sand. 
House had to admit that he used the sand to .give 
weight to his feed, and he ought to be fined to the 
limit. “Out there in Kansas” it is the claim of all 
citizens that there is plenty to eat for human and 
brute, that the jails are empty, and the insane 
asylums wasting away. In such a paradise any man 
who will put sand into honest stock feed ought to 
feel the sandpaper of justice well rubbed into him. 
On the Atlantic Coast we are sometimes told of 
people who adulterate ducks. These men get the 
ducks good and hungry, and then feed them a mix¬ 
ture of com meal and line sand. Then when these 
ducks are sold at live weight the sand is worth 
something. It is a meaner trick under the circum¬ 
stances to adulterate stock feed in the rich State 
of Kansas, and we know the character of the house 
in which we think Mr. House ought to be housed. 
* 
Reports from Germany state scientists have found 
that radium and mesothorium rays have given re¬ 
markable success in treating deafness. There are 
nearly 1,000.000 people in this country with more or 
less defective hearing. Of all the afflicted it is prob¬ 
able that deaf people are the most eager for relief. 
Many of them cannot view their trouble with philo¬ 
sophy, or rise above it, and thea mey often be¬ 
come easy victims of the rascals who advertise 
“cures” and treatments. During the past year we 
must have received over 500 letters from readers 
who ask advice about trying one or tnose rake 
“cures.” It is evident that many of these un¬ 
fortunate people are ready to throw their money at 
even the shadow of a promise of relief. There will 
be fakes and snides mean enough to make use of 
this German report of the use of radium, and we 
earnestly warn our readers to pay no attention to 
such quacks. If the new remedy stand final test 
we shall all have a chance at it. It, as is likely, 
there is little to it, we may avoid another heart¬ 
breaking disappointment by letting it alone. There 
is a large band of us who must “go softly all our 
days” in the silence. We can find the compensa¬ 
tions of life in that silence if we hunt for them. 
* 
The train was rushing up a New England valley, 
curving in and out among the hills. Now and then 
through openings in the woods, farm buildings were 
seen, each group in the center of its little clearing 
of smooth fields. Suddenly a swing to the right 
brought us close to one of those homesteads. The 
great house from which broods of children had gone 
out into the world, was unpainted and shabby. The 
big barn had just been “painted.” Upon the weath¬ 
erbeaten boards was this strange legend: 
ACORN BRAND OF BACON 
Best Flavor of All. 
At the next railroad siding we passed three freight 
cars loaded with Western smoked meat We went 
on wondering what had become of the old trading 
spirit which made the Yankee famous. There were 
thousands of acres of ideal range for pigs, hun¬ 
dreds more on which flint corn will give more grain 
per acre than rich Western land, and still hundreds 
for growing rape, Soy beans and other hog pasture 
crops over. Why use the barn to advertise Western 
meat when the majority of those who passed by 
would much prefer the home-cured article of bacon 
and sausage? The man who gave his barn as a sign 
board did not get one cent on the dollar. Can he 
not see that if he would advertise his own farm 
and its products he could in time get the entire dol¬ 
lar? Before you turn the idea down as nonsense get 
up some first-class article and give the plan a trial. 
* 
Milk producers in Orange county are beginning 
to form cooperative companies for control and mar¬ 
keting of milk. One such company has been re¬ 
cently formed at Montgomery, and another is in 
process of formation in the neighboring town of 
Walden. The Bordens have a large condensery near 
Walden ami heretofore the producers have had 
nothing to say about the price to be paid. They 
have simply accepted the price set by the Borden 
company. The price this year has been fixed at the 
same figure as last year. Hay and feed are higher. 
It will cost more to produce milk than it did last 
year, and no farmer got rich making milk last year. 
Now the producers propose to have the satisfaction 
of having a word about the price of their milk 
whether the result is a higher or a lower price. 
This they propose to effect through the Dairymen’s 
League, aided by local cooperative associations. The 
plan of these cooperative companies will be to bind 
the individual members to sell only through the 
association. Then the officers of the company can 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
talk to dealers with confidence: and sell the milk to 
whom they please. It will be to their advantage to 
sell locally if the price is right. Otherwise they 
may ship, or manufacture it at the creamery. The 
companies should store ice, and be prepared to han¬ 
dle the milk, if necessary. 
Heretofore one difficulty in forming cooperative 
companies was the inexperience of farmers in per¬ 
fecting the organization and in getting it under way. 
That difficulty may be overcome now by applying 
to the State Department of Agriculrure for help to 
organize. Last Winter the Commissioner of Agricul¬ 
ture was authorized to appoint a Deputy Commis¬ 
sioner to help organize and conduct cooperative en¬ 
terprises in the State. The deputy has been ap¬ 
pointed and is now ready to help. Farmers who re¬ 
quire his service should write Marc W. Cole, Deputy 
Commissioner of Agriculture, Albany, New York, 
lie will be of great help to the organizers; and they 
will afford him an opportunity to demonstrate the 
service of the Department to the work of coopera¬ 
tive organizing in the State. 
PRINTERS’ INK FOR FARMERS. 
Lake Minnetonka, 16 miles west from Minneapolis, 
is a noted Summer resort. Thousands of people have 
Summer homes on its shores, and other thousands 
spend vacations and week ends there. Well-kept 
roads connect it with the Twin Cities, and a trip 
to the lake is a favorite ride for large numbers of 
automobile owners. The travel on the boulevards 
leading to the lake is always especially heavy on 
Saturday afternoons. On a little farm on one of 
the main roads above mentioned there are living a 
progressive young man and his progressive father. 
The young man is a graduate of the Minnesota 
School of Agriculture. He also spent one Winter 
at Cornell University, where he took the special 
poultry course. A small herd of grade Jerseys is 
kept on the farm, from which bottled milk and 
cream are sold to lake dwellers. A nice flock of 
purebred White Plymouth Rocks is carefully looked 
after by the young man, who has plans for gradually 
extending this part of the farm industry. The land 
under plow is mostly given up to the growing of 
jf COUNTRY VEGETABLES 
jj* - 
Y Stop Your Auto at Tonk&wood Farm, 
n —-- ■ — - ■ - for tile Following Fresh Vegetables: 
LV GoMen Dantnm ami Evergreen sweet Corn, Cucumbers, Cabbage, Turnips, 
(jflj Potatoes, Onions, Radishes and Beets. 
Vj| ALL VEGETABLES FEOM THE GARDEN WHILE TOG WAIT. 
r.4 Tonka-wood Farm is located on the Minnetonka Boulevard, just before 1 
crossing the Ueeplmven Carline at Tonkawood Station. 
vegetables and small fruits, but there is hardly 
enough raised to warrant hauling to the Minneapolis 
market as a regular part of the farm program. So 
these two progressive partners have adopted a 
method of selling which does away with the neces¬ 
sity of spending any time on the road to market. 
Believing that many city people would be glad to 
get fresh vegetables if they only knew how. they 
began to call the attention of Minneapolis people to 
what they had for sale by a little advertising. The 
engraving shows one of their first attempts. This 
was put into the Friday evening papers, to attract 
the attention of those who would be going to the 
lake or out for a ride Saturday afternoon. A large 
bulletin board, with the name of the farm and a 
list of the vegetables for sale, was also placed at 
the road in front of the house to attract the atten¬ 
tion of passers. This plan has worked so well that 
it will be continued, and next year the berries, cur¬ 
rants, Spring chickens and probably all the surplus 
products of the farm excepting the milk and cream 
will be disposed of in this way. 
There must be many farms in the country so sit¬ 
uated that a plan similar to this might be made to 
work well. The automobile, coming into such gen¬ 
eral use by city people as a means of taking frequent 
trips into the country, is bound to bring about a 
closer acquaintance between country and city people. 
Let us try to profit by the acquaintance. 
❖ 
Allow me again to venture the prophecy that within 
the first half of this century the pecan crop of the 
South will be second only to its cotton crop; and if it 
be that there is a life beyond this one, there is happi¬ 
ness in store for the sturdy pioneers who laid the 
foundations of on industry that shall bless our neigh¬ 
bors and our neighbors’ children in the years to come. 
That truth comes from Judge Edwards of Texas. 
Truth? No less. We realize what the wise men 
say about the future of Southern agriculture in 
grain and meat and fruit, but the nut crop is des¬ 
tined to top them all. O.ur children will live to see 
it ranking very close to cotton as a money pro¬ 
ducer for the Southern States. About 10 years ago 
we stated that our exports of fruit would in time 
surpass in value on exports of wheat. “Folly,” 
said the wise men—yet the time has come sooner 
than we expected. Comparatively few people seem 
to realize how the demand for nuts as food is 
growing. There are already thousands who use no 
meat except that which “grows on trees,” and the 
number would be doubled if the nuts could be ob¬ 
tained at a fair price. This nut business must be 
developed by resident growers. The “unit” orchards 
or stock proposition will give you only the shells. 
Ox page 871 you quote from a letter of a baek-to- 
the-land aspirant. He says: “My dream for a good 
many years has been to acquire a competence and then 
settle down in the country on five or ten acres of 
land * * * * not to depend on making a living 
on the produce, but have enough capital to live on the 
interest.” Surely! We all have that bug. But what 
does he call a “competency?” How much money ought 
a man to have, with 10 acres of land and house paid 
for, to go to the country and live, assuming the man 
was entirely ignorant of the processes of farming, but 
desired to live like our quoted friend? E. V. find I 
have been dreaming the same dream, and only common- 
sense advice from a man like you has kept me from 
flying off the handle and tackling the small farm prob¬ 
lem via the small-account-in-the-bank route. So I ask : 
flow much money ought a fellow have to go back with, 
if he was willing to work as well as he knew how and 
was willing to learn what he didn’t know? How much 
money ought he to have if he were 46 years old, unac¬ 
customed to hard labor, but with an ingrowing and 
increasing desire to live in the country, and was willing 
to (io all he could to satisfy that desire? Come on, 
now, with your cold water, and let us see how near 
the amount we have. a c. s. 
Can a man who has acquired the habit of eating 
grape fruit every morning and beefsteak when he 
feels like it find equal satisfaction in a baked apple 
and a fried egg cooked with the sauce of independent 
ownership? Can his wife and daughters make hens 
and the barn people and trees and plants take the 
place of the city with its department stores, the¬ 
aters and crowded streets? All life is a long series 
of questions, and perhaps those which face the back- 
to-the-lander are most puzzling of all. That is be¬ 
cause imagination puts rosy paint over the splinters 
and the knot-holes which you are sure to find later. 
The vision of the average back-to-the-lander is 
surely a “bug.” It looks pretty in the butterfly 
stage, bnt you must work and live with the crawling 
and hideous form. Where a man has a trade and is 
used to hard work, and has a working and harmoni¬ 
ous family, lie can quite safely take a farm if he 
has $500 working capital after stocking the place. 
W T ith economy and working outside at his trade he 
has a fair chance to make good. Such a man as he 
who asks this question should have his farm paid- 
for or settled so as to Fe sure of it, and enough well 
invested property to yield him an income of $500 
per year. Even then it becomes a question as to how 
far he can train himself and his family to live on 
the products of the farm and stop spending cash. 
We shall be called “pessimistic” by some and “cruel” 
by others for not printing a rosy picture, but the 
truth does not, as a rule, fit into a rose-colored dress. 
World Crops. 
The International Institute of Agriculture gives the 
following figures on grains. A quintal is 220.46 pounds • 
a hectare 2.47 acres. 
681 quintals. 4.1 per cent above last year. Russia has 
tlie largest area. 2o,118,t)4;> hectares. Next in order 
United States, 20.073.028 hectares: India. 11.- 
France, 6.544.000; Italy. 4.777.100: Canada. 
3.0<2.401; Spam, 3.800.767; Hungary. 3,500,430: Rou- 
mania, 1.61 <.000; Germany, 1,165,038. 
_ Bye.. total area 40.300.741 hectares; yield. 3S0.19S,- 
<24 quintals. 93.3 per cent of last year’s crop. The 
area in Russia is larger than all other countries to¬ 
gether, 29.092.167 hectares; Germanv, 4.035.574; 
trance, 1.197,000; Hungary, 1.173.970; United States. 
Bariey, total area, 24.633.210 hectares, vield. 266- 
600.762 quintals, 1.2 per cent above last year. Area 
”! Cassia nearly equals sum of all other countries. 
12.21 <.08o hectares. 
Oats, ju-ea, 46,413,043 hectares; yield 497.415.631 
quintals. 5.9 per cent less than last year. Russia leads 
in area, 16,906.775 hectares; United States, 15.516.219. 
Corn, total area, 50,247,908 hectares; probable vield. 
< 03,4< 0. < 12 quintals. United States. 43.254.8S6'hec- 
$ a ™V,™ Ungary ’ 2 ’ 5<J8 ’ 734 1 Russia, 1,705,OSS; Italy, 
Total value of merchandise exported from New York 
during week ending October 4 was: 
To— Value. 
Argen. Repub.. . $1,743,404 
Austria. 10.552 
Belgium . 286.546 
Bolivia. 26.341 
Brazil. 6S4.852 
British Posses... 1,944.264 
Chili . 681.464 
Cent. America.. 162.378 
Colombia . 60.546 
Cuba . 868.250 
Denmark . 2,992 
England . 1.800.873 
France . 749.171 
French Posses... 1,758 
Ecuador. 31.205 
Egypt . 12,919 
Greece . 21,146 
Germany . 803.032 
German Posses.. 10.582 
Haiti . S6.996 
Ireland. 3.899 
Italy . 560.860 
Japan . 43,030 
Mexico . 528,255 
Total .. 
Total since Jan. 1 
To— 
Value. 
Morocco ... 
$245 
Netherlands .... 
1.238,716 
Nether. Posses... 
27,623 
Norway . 
2.197 
Panama ....... 
221.506 
Paraguay . 
5.011 
Peru . 
91.749 
Phillippine Is... 
681,272 
Portugal . 
636 
Portug. Posses... 
66,398 
Russia . 
233,003 
Santo Domingo.. 
157,554 
Scotland . 
276.168 
Sweden . 
41.281 
Siam. 
17.616 
Spain . 
ISO, 613 
Spanish Posses.. 
815 
Switzerland .... 
8.387 
Turkey in Asia. 
6.100 
Turkey iu Eur.. 
1S.422 
Uruguay . 
209,909 
Venezuela . 
3.042 
Wales . 
41.880 
663,841.733 
