732 
'l'HK HURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE RUSIftESS FARMER'S TAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Subiirlinn Home* 
Established I860 
I'nliiUliwl weekly by the Rural I'nlilinhinp Company. 333 IVeat 30th Street, New Torft 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dni/nr, Treasurer and General Manager. 
\Vj| F Dii.lon, Secretary. SIRS. E. T. Koyi.k, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.01. equal to 8s. fid., or 
8marks, or 101$ francs. Remit In money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New Tork Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 73 cents pa r agate line—7 words. 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. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Hut 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 publicly 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 cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not 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 to identify it, you should mention The Rubai, New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
W E have printed several garden plans in which 
the various vine plants are put together. We 
consider this good practice in a small garden, 
as these plants require much the same culture and 
“bug fighting,” and we can handle them better in a 
hunch than when separated. But various critics 
come with broad axes to chop at such plans. One 
man says that anyone who will put melons near 
squash or cucumbers never saw a garden! These 
wise men say the vine plants will “mix.” We refer 
these critics to the article on page 723. How could 
“mixing” of the flowers affect the flesh of the 
fruit? 
* 
W HY should this country import $2,801,974 
worth of tomato paste from Italy—as was 
done last year? It is made by crushing the 
tomatoes, straining out the skins and seeds, and re¬ 
ducing the pulp to about one-fourtli its original vol¬ 
ume by evaporation in vacuum boilers, although for 
special purposes it is reduced to as little as one- 
twelfth. It is used in Italy in a great many dishes, 
perhaps the most familiar of which to Americans is 
spaghetti. The demand was created by Italians 
who moved to this country, but has spread among 
Americans. We grow tomatoes enough on this side 
of the water to prepare this paste. 
♦ 
T IE Pittsburgh Tost has a big advertisement 
headed: 
"RADIUM MAKES THINGS GROW .” 
It is a “coupon” scheme for sending out five-pound 
cans of Radium Plant Food. The retail price is 20 
cents a pound, but if you use the “coupon” you can 
get the stuff at 89 cents for five pounds including 
postage! This means $356 a ton for a mixture with¬ 
out any guaranteed analysis and which the P. S. 
Government has advised people not to buy. How 
they do lige to play with this word “Radium!” The 
Post ought to know better than to boost such a 
proposition. If it wants to give people a fair bar¬ 
gain in plant food why not get some reputable deal¬ 
er to mix nitrate, dried blood, acid phosphate and 
potash? That mixture will surely give results and 
could be sold at 25 cents the five-pound can at 100 
per cent, profit. 
* 
S OME of our readers are receiving letters about 
“ground virgin potash rock.” This is feldspar 
or granite rock crushed to a powder. A chem¬ 
ist states that he found over seven per cent, of pot¬ 
ash in a sample of this rock. We do not doubt it. 
The government in efforts to make such rock avail¬ 
able found samples with 10 per cent, or more. Yet 
they abandoned the work because it cost too much 
to make the rock available. There is a bit of dog¬ 
gerel about eating which applies to this “virgin 
rock”: 
“Here is a solid rule of life, 
Learn it and you’ll be blessed, 
It isn’t all the stuff you eat 
But what you can digest.” 
This potash rock has one very strong quality. Jt 
will last. Your grandchildren will be gray-liaired 
before any crop will take it out of the soil. Those 
who like to hide their talent or their potash in the 
soil may buy this stuff. Those who want to raise 
crops will buy available potash. This shortage of 
German potash is starting up all sorts of supposed 
substitutes. Let them alone until the experiment 
station O. K.’s them. 
* 
T WO short, but pointed, expressions have been 
driven solidly into the English language so 
that everyone understands them. One was 
credited to a railroad man who stated in four short 
words his candid opinion of the public. His quar¬ 
tette of words sank into the public mind, and from 
them has grown the popular thought which is surely 
working toward government or municipal owner¬ 
ship of public service. These four words spoken in 
petulance gave the public a popular text The other 
expression is credited to Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, in 
his definition of war. In three words he told the 
entire truth about war, and it is being brought home 
to us as never before in the frightful struggle which 
is now washing Europe in blood.- This war is 
scraping away from humanity the thin crust of civil¬ 
ization which a few centuries have deposited upon 
mankind. If it continue much longer the men en¬ 
gaged in it will become as cruel and barbarous as 
the soldiers of the Middle Ages. It will leave the 
world a legacy of race prejudice, passion and 
brutality which will haunt the entire lives of 
your children and mine—no matter where they 
may live. There is no use talking about civil¬ 
ized or “gentlemanly” war. Sherman was right. 
You cannot expect anything else. It seems to us 
that the American people have an opportunity to 
continue this war indefinitely or until one side or 
the other is exhausted, or to end it in a few months. 
The latter could be done by promptly placing an 
absolute embargo upon all food and all supplies 
which could possibly he used for war purposes. 
Grass would grow in our export cities, prices of 
food would fall, and there would be for a time thou¬ 
sands more of idle workmen! But the war can¬ 
not continue without the food and war material 
from this country. Our country may grow richer 
through the work of supplying the material required 
to prolong this fearful misery, but every dollar will 
be stained with blood and tears. Our country would 
probably grow poorer in material wealth by refusing 
to furnish food and fighting stores, but it would he 
far richer in that moral wealth which alone can 
endure. 
* 
A S we go to press, word comes from Albany that 
the Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction 
of the 13 live poultry dealers mentioned in arti¬ 
cle on “The New York Live Poultry Market,” on 
page 709, and that sentence will now have to be 
served. 
* 
ii T ET us try to find the ache in their lives and 
/ j help take it out." 
That sentiment comes from Rev. Geo. B. Gilbert, 
the “pastoral parson” of Connecticut. We shall hear 
from Mr. Gilbert again next week in an account 
of the social side of the lonely road. Every life has 
its ache. Some conceal it fairly well. In other lives 
the ache is largely imaginary, but we all have it. 
Far better to try and get it out rather than add to 
it—as we go along the way. 
♦ 
Your “potato campaign” would need to be turned the 
other end to in order to fit this “neck of the woods.” 
Top grades of potatoes here are nearly three cents per 
pound wholesale, and way up out of reach of the ordin¬ 
ary pocketbook at retail. We need a good substitute 
for the potato and to curb our appetite for the spud, 
for in truth potatoes are never cheap on this coast. 
While I consider a good mealy potato a prime article 
of food, it has always seemed to me that our people of 
ihe Middle West and Far West eat too many potatoes. 
In some form they usually appear in the menu three 
times a day and 365 days in the year. My grocer, in 
speaking of the high price and poor quality of potatoes 
at this season, remarked that there was no other one 
article in his store for which there was such a steady 
call. Perhaps the taste for the spud is not so highly 
developed in the East. If it were you would not need 
to “talk potato and put potato into the imagination of 
the people.” 1? - JAMES. 
California. 
T ought to be possible to ship millions of bushels 
of Maine potatoes through the canal to California 
ports so as to share this three cents a pound 
rate. That is one trouble with the potato business. 
Our wheat and apples have been carried to the ends 
of the world. The potato markets have been re¬ 
stricted to a comparatively few sections. There 
are thousands of new places where these potatoes 
ought to go. We must not wait for the government 
to do the work for us. Put up the price of a few 
thousand barrels of potatoes and go out for these 
markets. “He also serves who only stands and 
waits!” 
* 
A larger production does not in all cases mean an 
increase of wealth in the community. It is a loss un¬ 
less proper provisions are made whereby this larger 
production can be turned-to the profit of tie producer. 
If, on our $10,000,000 potato crop this year, the 
farmer will suffer a loss of $2,000,000 on account of 
lack of a market, on twice this production, or a $20,- 
000,000 crop, that farmer would have a loss of $12,000,- 
000, and on a $30,000,000 crop he would have a loss 
of $22,000,000. 
HO is this talking? Must be some wild crank 
who has not read the beautiful theories of the 
“two blades of grass” men! No—it is Augus¬ 
tus C. Carton, secretary of the Public Domain Com¬ 
mission of Michigan. The Michigan Legislature re¬ 
quested Mr. Carton to investigate the potato situa¬ 
May 22, 1915. 
tion. He was instructed to find out what he could 
about dried potatoes and potato flour for commer¬ 
cial purposes. Then the Legislature wanted to 
know if the pulp driers in the beet sugar and chicory 
factories can be used for drying potatoes. Mr. 
Carton finds that they can. There is a good com¬ 
mercial demand for the dried potato product. The 
smaller-sized potatoes can be used at the factories. 
This will put a better grade upon the market and 
give a higher price. While it is too late this season 
to do much at this work we should all get ready for 
taking care of the next potato crop by providing 
markets for the surplus. Mr. Carton has sized up 
the situation exactly when he says: 
We do not seem to realize that there should be no 
over-production, when there are thousands of people in 
this country who do not know where they are going to 
get their dinner today nor their breakfast tomorrow 
morning. A situation that will permit a waste of $2.- 
000,000 worth of a valuable foodstuff, such as potatoes 
in this State, while thousands of people are hungry and 
other thousands are paying a high price for the pro¬ 
duct, is not a desirable one. 
Mr. Carton’s report fills 43 pages, and is the best 
statement of the western potato situation we have 
seen. No ammunition for the “two blades of grass” 
men here, but a strong statement of everlasting 
market truths. 
* 
I am up against a proposition of encouraging the 
growing of sheep, as both market and feeding conditions 
seem ideal in my section. The only thing that stands 
in the way is a certain element who are against any 
regulation of the dog pest. For my part, I do not see 
any use of holding an institute, advocating sheep grow¬ 
ing and telling how to handle them, unless I can have 
presented a strong dog law for their consideration. It 
is absolutely no use to try to induce people to take 
up an industry when they are threatened with a serious 
loss or damage to their property from a cause that 
ought to be removed. I expect to get into the fight on 
the dog question, and do all I can to eliminate it. If 
I am advised to restrict my activities to telling people 
how to raise sheep, or what profits may be found in 
the business, then they will have to look for some 
one else to do my work. 
E have been asked what we mean by “fighters” 
in the various public agricultural activities. 
The above is from a young man w r ho is in¬ 
terested in farm educational work. This man evi¬ 
dently does not intend to walk slowly along the 
plausible and pleasant paths of peace, but he wants 
to tell farmers the truth. It will require some cour¬ 
age to tell men with a yard full of dogs that the 
cur is a worse enemy to American sheep growing 
than free trade ever could be. Yet if our educators 
and speakers are not to tell the truth about these 
things, what is the use of their talking at all? Why 
figure out a balanced ration for sheep to make nice 
mutton for a cur dog? 
* 
HAT would be your honest opinion of a 
professor of agriculture who would not 
permit liis daughter to marry a farmer? 
This is asked by a man who seems to think there 
is only one answer to it—and that is condemnation 
of the professor. We call it a good subject for de¬ 
bate and analysis. There are many sides to it. Who 
is the farmer? Is he having a struggle with debt, 
and thus unable to give his wife as good a home 
as she now has? Is he of independent means and 
willing to make a comfortable home? Who is the 
girl? What has been her training? Does she know 
anything about fa inn life? Is she delicate or strong 
—of a happy disposition or inclined to be nervous 
and melancholy when depressed? These things all 
should be considered, and one would think the fath¬ 
er should know most about his daughter. It may 
be that the girl in question is delicate and nervous, 
and has never been trained to economy and the 
labor which a farm woman must face. It may also 
be that the farmer is in debt, and facing a hard 
struggle so that he cannot yet provide the help and 
conveniences which this girl needs. In such a com¬ 
bination it is probable that the father is wise, for 
he must know that his daughter, howevex*, much 
she may love this farmei’, could not endui’e her share 
of the battle which lies before him. On the other 
hand, this girl may be healthy and sti*ong, hopeful 
and capable, and in love with the farmer, who can 
give her a comfortable home with good prospects. 
If in that case, the father’s objection is based on the 
fact that the girl’s lover is a farmer —that professor 
is a snob and we hope the girl will show her spirit 
and marry the man of her choice. 
Brevities. 
What sort of phosphoric acid does a man eat to 
form what is called “bone head?” 
South Dakota last year turned out dairy products 
worth $10,246,184. 
“Extension work,” stretching a plain story about 
farming out to a “yarn.” 
There will be a short course at the South Dakota 
college, beginning May 24, at which farmers and others 
will study automobile operation. 
