264 
THE RURAL >J EW-YOR EER 
February 20. 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban Home* * 
Established tsso 
rnblivlif'fl iTcotiy by the Kura! Publishing 1 Conipnny. 33.1 M«l 30th Street. New Vari. 
Herbert tv. Colmxgwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dn.bON, Treasurer and General Manager, 
tv m. F. Dn.bON, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koyi.k. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. 82.01. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8!<j marks, or 10>-.s francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 7; cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us : and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
tVe believe that every advertisement in this paper Is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be pttbliely exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest. 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this end, but such coses should not be eonfused'with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not be 
responsible for tin- 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 to identify it, you should mention The Rcrai, New* 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
6i rjlAKING life loo seriously is Wee licking the 
Ji sugar off a quinine pill.” 
We get that bit of wisdom from an old 
friend. It is a good text for this rather gloomy 
season of the year. We meet some people who take 
life, and themselves in particular, very seriously. 
When a man gets into any such relationship with 
himself he becomes a joke for the rest of humanity. 
We feel sorry for his wife, if lie has one, or for his 
friends who know him for what lie really is. Life 
is not a joke, nor should it be made a solemn 
tragedy. A man is on the road to the latter when 
he begins to think himself a great personage of su¬ 
preme importance to the world. When a man begins 
to think that, he has lost his real usefulness and 
handles ashes rather than living hope. Life during 
a “February thaw” is often hard and dull for coun¬ 
try people. They need all the joy and brightness 
and lnimor they can get. We must all take our 
medicine sooner or later, and a merry heart gives 
ii a better taste than a big head. 
* 
W E are giving some space to a study of Amer¬ 
ican sources of potash. This week we have 
an article on the kelp or seaweed found on 
the Pacific coast. Let it he clearly and distinctly 
understood that we are talking about what the 
future may have in store, and not of any present 
supply of potash. There is nothing for you this 
year in this kelp. It is in the ocean, but not. avail¬ 
able for your farm. Pay no attention whatever to 
men who come and tell you they have this dried 
kelp or other substitutes for the German potash 
salts. There are no available substitutes at this 
time. The situation is such now that all you can 
do is to buy such potash as you can get in the 
mixed goods or not use any. 
* 
A NEW kind of a potato meeting will be held 
in Bangor, Maine, Feb. 23 and 24. The Maine 
Seed Improvement Association expects to show 
the public what has been done at improving po¬ 
tatoes. For the past four years this association 
has been breeding potatoes. Now a number of 
growers can offer guaranteed or certified seed. This 
kind of seed represents in the potato field what 
purebred stock represents in a dairy herd. At this 
meeting potato planters from the South will meet 
the Northern seed growers and have a chance to 
examine this purebred stock. This means selling 
and buying direct right by the sample. It is a new 
idea and a good one. 
♦ 
O N page 276 is found the first of a series of 
articles which will be sure to interest dairy¬ 
men. The manager of a dairy farm finds 
tuberculosis in his herd. lie informs the owner and 
is told to keep quiet, do no testing, give the best 
care, hut to stop talking about it. What now should 
this farm manager do, knowing as he does what 
will follow? Wliat would you do? We are putting 
ibis question to both managers and owners of dairy 
herds, and we shall have their plain, honest opin¬ 
ion since their identity will not be revealed. What 
would you do? 
* 
O NE or two fruit growers come saying that they 
cannot see why they should be expected to buy 
butter if "oleo” colored so as to resemble but¬ 
ter is cheaper. “Why are we under any obligation 
to support dairymen?” they ask. It is a curious 
thing, but right on the same day we met another 
fruit grower very much enraged because drug stores 
and grocers in his town were selling substitutes 
for fruit syrup. This man once had a fine trade 
for his surplus strawberries and small fruits for 
these syrups and jams. Now the chemists have made 
substitutes which never saw a fruit or a fruit farm. 
This man said people ought to be prevented by law 
from using these chemical “fruits” because their 
use ruined his trade. A sheep man put up a fierce 
argument against the use of shoddy goods because 
it injured the sale of his wool, but he said he would 
buy oleo because he had no interest in the dairy 
business! Now these men were intelligent, and we 
can find others like them in other lines of farming. 
Strange how they cannot see the inconsistency of 
their position. They will growl like tigers when 
some one uses a substitute which injures their trade 
in a genuine farm product, yet they will argue in 
favor of consuming another substitute which de¬ 
stroys another farmer’s business. Farming cannot 
prosper as a whole with any such divided house. 
We cannot ruin dairying by encouraging the trade 
in oleo, and expect that as a result fruit or sheep 
or gardening or general farming will pay. 
* 
T HE high prices for wheat and flour and the in¬ 
crease in the price of bread have startled the 
country. In the Eastern States where but lit¬ 
tle wheat is grown these high prices have become 
:i great hardship to all—farmers as well as con¬ 
sumers. The poultrymen have been using wheat 
freely in feeding. Now the price of the grain soars 
while eggs are lower! 
What is responsible for it? 
Wc have been told that the European War has 
caused such a frightful demand for export that we 
are all suffering from a plain and legitimate appli¬ 
cation of the law of supply and demand. Here are 
the figures; which do not show any such thing: 
EXPORTS. 
Since July Same period 
1, 1914. year before. 
Wheat, bushels . 204.416,000 131,472,000 
Flour, barrels . 8,464.000 7,424.000 
Total as wheat. 242,503,000 164,881.000 
Corn . 18,213,000 2,435,000 
Oats . 48,838,000 7,494,000 
Crop 1914. Crop 1913. 
Corn . 2.673.000.000 2,447.000,000 
Wheat . 891.000.000 763.000.000 
Oats . 1,141.000,000 1.122.000.000 
Wheat crop 12S.000.000 bushels more than in 1913. 
Thus we see that this year’s crops were larger 
than ever before. The crop of wheat alone was 
128.000.000 bushels larger than last year and in 
spite of the heavy exports there is now considerably 
more wheat on hand than a year ago, with a heavy 
acreage planted under finer conditions than ever 
before. The high prices are not due to fair rela¬ 
tions between demand and supply, but are the result 
of gambles between speculators. A large share of 
the wheat passed out of the hands of farmers last 
Fall at a low figure. In some cases through co¬ 
operation or where farmers had needed capital and 
facilities the wheat was held, but in most cases 
farmers were forced to let their crop go in order 
to pay their debts and expenses. They have not 
profited by the present high prices except in a com¬ 
paratively few cases. The big “killing” has been 
made by speculators and hoards of trade. Their 
policy is to keep the price as low as possible through 
Fall and early Winter, and thus compel as many 
farmers as possible to sell their grain. Then, having 
obtained control of it. these gamblers force up the 
price and pocket the difference. That is what the 
American public is paying for now. There is grain 
enough in the country and in sight to provide flour 
and bread at a fair price, hut the speculators con¬ 
trol it. In Germany they are doing things different¬ 
ly. The government has established maximum 
prices at which food is to be sold. There are strong 
penalties for charging more than these prices and 
the Government may compel the sale of food if there 
is any inclination to hoard it. No one can wonder 
at the fierce demand for an embargo on wheat which 
is now growing all over the Eastern States. With 
a fair system of distribution such an embargo is 
not needed. 
* 
I T is remarkable how the city wise men have 
always told the farmers what they ought to do. 
In 1816 English farming was in bad condition. 
The men who sat in London clubs and farmed with 
their mouths said among other wise things u Lct 
farmers' wives turn from the piano to the henhouse 
and agricultural distress will he at an end.” A 
century has passed and still these club men talk 
more malignantly than ever if possible. Of course 
we know it is a large contract to pick out the worst 
specimen of “hot air” which human beings can let 
loose upon a patient world. We think, however, it 
is the advice about farming from men who sit 
about city clubs living on the income of the money 
which grandfather worked for and was then wise 
enough to tie up. The farm woman has just as 
much right to own a piano as my lady who never 
saw a henhouse. The farm woman will go into the 
henhouse now and earn the money with which to 
buy the piano. 
A SSEMBLYMAN KINCAID of Syracuse has in 
troduced a bill in the Legislature to abolish 
the new State Department of Foods and Mar¬ 
kets which is only in process of organization. Mr. 
Kincaid may be looking for fame or trouble, or he 
may be in the produce business, but he certainly is 
not a farmer. After working and studying for several 
years the leading farmers of the State without re¬ 
gard to polities developed this plan for the sale and 
distribution of farm products. No new departure 
in this State has ever been hailed with more uni¬ 
versal approval than the plans outlined by this De¬ 
partment to bring producers and consumers closer 
together. With apples rotting on the farms and 
retailing as high as $20 a barrel in the city, the 
politician who gets in the way of a practical plan 
to correct the evils of speculation and middlemen 
might better run into a buzz saw. 
# 
WAS very much interested in the article on page 
93, entitled “A Fraudulent Seed Agent,” O. J. 
Rice. About a year ago he sold a quantity of seed 
in this part of Rockland County. I bought 50 pounds 
of “Australian clover” seed for which I paid $8. That 
also proved to he German millet. A number of farm¬ 
ers in this section of the county purchased also. I had 
intended to write" you of the fraud as soon as we found 
out we had been duped, but as I have obeyed your 
warnings for years and now got caught I thought 1 
would let the matter go. Of course I know' this was 
wrong, as we should warn each other, and The R. N.-Y. 
is the medium through which to do it. I. V. s. D. 
Now York. 
No man likes to admit that lie has been swindled 
and made an “easy mark” at that. It is much more 
fun to tell about some big crop, or of a hen that 
laid 300 eggs in a year. Still we are all duped at 
times and if we pass along the good things we do 
we should pass on the mistakes too. This Rice is in 
jail. Ilis wife tried to get him out by telling what 
a weak heart he has. These wives are strong on 
heart problems, but the judge was heartless, and 
Rice, the “Australian clover” man, went to jail. 
* 
B ACK we come to this campaign to save the 
potato crop. The only way to save it is to 
eat it. We want you and all your friends to be 
responsible for the consumption of one extra bushel 
of potatoes before next May. You remember how we 
developed that old Apple Consumers’ League years 
ago? The same tactics must be now used to boom 
potatoes. Increase the demand in town and city and 
more potatoes will be eaten. The retail price will 
not go higher, yet the growers will receive more 
for the crop now in storage. This extra money 
will pay debts and buy needed supplies which will 
help make trade for city workmen by putting this 
extra money into circulation. As bought in the 
“original package” potatoes rank in food value 
above most other vegetables except beans and peas. 
A comparison with some other foods is given below: 
pounds in 100. 
Carbo- 
Protein. 
Fat. 
hydrates. 
Asb. 
Potatoes . 
. 1.8 
.1 
14.7 
.8 
Baked beaus . 
. 6.9 
2.5 
19.6 
2.1 
Tomatoes . 
. 1.2 
j? 
4. 
.6 
Cabbage . 
. 1.4 
.2 
4.8 
.9 
< )nions . 
. 1.4 
.3 
8.9 
.5 
Celery . 
.9 
.1 
2.6 
.8 
White bread . 
. 9.2 
1.3 
53.1 
1.1 
Salt cod . 
. 16. 
.4 
• • . 
18.5 
Oysters . 
. 6. 
1.3 
3.3 
1.1 
Eggs . 
. 13.1 
9.3 
• • • 
6.9 
Thus we see that the potato is useful chiefly for 
its starchy food. It is the best vegetable to use 
with meat, fish, cheese or similar things which are 
rich in protein or muscle-making foods. The potato 
can be cooked in so many different ways that when 
used with fats or with cheese it becomes a good 
substitute for expensive bi - ead. Aside from its food 
value the potato ranks high as a “food remedy”— 
higher perhaps in this respect than any other vege¬ 
table. Dr. Kellogg states that about five per cent, 
of its dry matter consists of salts—chiefly of potash, 
which do a gi'eat service in preventing an acid condi¬ 
tion of the blood. We shall give a statement about 
this next week in the woman and home magazine 
number. Now we ask you to join with us in pushing 
potatoes. 
BREVITIES. 
The Southern New York Potato Show is held at 
Alfred, N. Y., March 9-12. It will be a good chance 
to look over fine potatoes. 
Speaking of the craze to raise fur-bearing animals 
we are asked if chinchillas have been introduced. This 
animal inhabits the Andes Mountains, and would not 
thrive in our humid areas. It would be difficult to raise 
its food plants. 
Consumers in and around New York express ap¬ 
preciation of the excellent celery obtainable this 
Winter. Good quality and absence of waste should 
induce increased consumption of this excellent vege¬ 
table. 
A correspondent in Warrick County. Ind.. remarks 
that wheat went to $1.50 Feb. 1, but is of little benefit 
to the farmers, the bulk of the wheat being sold at 
70 cents. They were then buying flour at $4.40 per 
hundred. 
