1288 
THE RURAIv XEW~ YORKER 
October 30, 1915. 
The New Tax Amendment 
The proposed amendment to the New 
York Constitution is so long and involved 
that it is impossible to give a fair synop¬ 
sis of it in tiie short time before election. 
There is much in the proposition that is 
very desirable. One tiling in particular 
would prove a great help to our farmers 
—that compelling the printing of an ex¬ 
act journal of the Legislature. While 
this would prove expensive, it would put 
every man in the Legislature right on 
record, and we could know where he stood 
on every bill, and what he said in re¬ 
gard to it. Now- it is practically impossi¬ 
ble to pin any man down to his true rec¬ 
ord. It is almost impossible even to 
learn how he voted on any particular 
measure. The journal as proposed in the 
new constitution would be of great ad¬ 
vantage in putting our representatives 
right up against their record. There are 
many other things in these amendments 
that would prove desirable, but they are 
tied up with other things, either not de¬ 
sirable on their face, or else so compli¬ 
cated and obscure that no one except a 
shrewd lawyer could ever tell how they 
will work out. We have had much cor¬ 
respondence from farmers regarding Sec¬ 
tion 10 of this constitution on taxation. 
There w-ill be a separate vote on this 
section. A voter may if he desire vote in 
favor of this taxation amendment, and 
at the same time, vote against the,general 
.constitution. In order to understand this 
Article 10, we print it here etftire. 
ARTICLE X. 
Section 1. The power of taxation shall 
never he surrendered, suspended or con¬ 
tracted away, except as to the securities 
of the state or a .civil division thereof. 
Hereafter no exemption from taxation 
shall he granted except by general laws 
.and- upon the affirmative vote of two- 
thirds of all the members elected to each 
1 house. 
>' Section ft. Taxes shall be imposed by 
general laws and for public purposes only. 
The legislature shall prescribe how tax¬ 
able subjects shall be assessed and pro¬ 
vide ■for officers to execute laws relating 
to, the. assessment and collection of taxes, 
any provision of section two of article 
thirteen of this constitution to the con¬ 
trary notwithstanding. The legislature 
shall provide for the supervision, review 
and equalization of assessments. 
Section 8. For the assessment of real 
property, heretofore locally assessed, the 
legislature shall establish tax districts, 
none of which, unless it be a city, shall 
embrace more than one county. The as¬ 
sessors therein shall be elected by the 
electors of such districts or appointed by 
such authorities thereof as shall be desig¬ 
nated by law. The legislature may pro¬ 
vide that the assessment roll of each 
larger district shall serve for all the 
lesser tax districts within its boundaries. 
Xo such tax district larger than a town. 
except a city, shall be established until 
the law providing therefor shall have been 
adopted by a vote of a majority of the 
electors voting thereon in such proposed 
district at an election for which pro¬ 
vision shall be made by law. The legis¬ 
lature may, however, provide for the as¬ 
sessment by state authorities of all the 
property of designated classes of public 
service corporations. 
The first section was adopted at the 
request of the New York Grange. The 
Grange desired this section because they 
feel that it places a check upon further 
exemptions from taxation, for these ex¬ 
emptions arh working hardships upon the 
taxpayers generally. The present consti¬ 
tution has no tax article. It simply pro¬ 
vides that the object for. which a tax is 
raised must be specified in a law passed 
by the Legislature. There is also a pro¬ 
hibition granting exemption to any per¬ 
son or persons from taxation on real or 
personal property by a private or local 
hill. Under the present constitution 
there is nothing to prevent the Legisla¬ 
ture from requiring the residents of New 
York to list their personal property, and 
return the list to the local assessors. The 
Grange, after a good deal of study of the 
matter, approved this new taxation sec¬ 
tion as a whole, believing it to be a move 
in the right direction, largely because it 
would give the authorities apparently a 
better chance to tax all personal property 
at its fair valuation. Thousands of far¬ 
thers throughout the State have received 
documents from the Home Rule Tax As¬ 
sociation at Albany, attacking this sec¬ 
tion and urging farmers to vote against 
it. The argument is that under this sec¬ 
tion every bit of personal property which 
a farmer owns would be assessed and 
taxed. The same would be exactly true 
under our present constitution if the Leg¬ 
islature saw fit to exercise its right, and 
when farmers made out the list of their 
personal property they would practically 
be their own assessors, the same as is the 
case in making out the returns for the 
income tax. No one seems to know just 
who or what this Home Tax Association 
is. We understand that its officers are 
connected with one of the political party 
associations, and we are told that the 
railroads are back of the association. 
There seems 1 to be no doubt that the in¬ 
terests which are pushing this campaign 
are those who believe in the continued ex¬ 
emption or increased exemption of cer¬ 
tain classes of personal property, by the 
payment of a small tax once for all. 
Then there are certain public service cor¬ 
porations who are opposed to the amend¬ 
ment. Apparently they are trying to 
frighten farmers and make them think 
that their taxes will be largely increased. 
Behind the scene, however, these corpor¬ 
ations apparently do not want their prop¬ 
erty assessed by a State body on a scien¬ 
tific, uniform and equitable basis. They 
prefer the present method, because they 
think they can deal more effectively with 
local assessors than they can with the 
.State authorities. At the present time 
there are billions of personal property 
owned in our great cities which are not 
taxed at all, or else lightly. If personal 
property is assessed at all, all assessable 
personal property should be taxed, and a 
farmer should remember that is he 
is called on to give a statement 
of his personal property, and does 
it fairly, the rich man would be 
compelled to do the same thing. Where 
the farmer added a few hundred dollars 
to his taxable property in this way, the 
rich man would be compelled to add fifty 
or one hundred times as much and pay 
taxes upon it. 
There seemed to be two forces work¬ 
ing in the convention ; one would go to 
the extreme of accepting the single tax on 
land, raising our entire revenues from 
land value. The other tendency was to 
increase the tax upon all personal prop¬ 
erty. and so far as heard from the senti¬ 
ment of the farmers of the State was 
generally in favor of the latter propo¬ 
sition. The amount of taxes raised for 
State and local purposes would not be 
affected, in any way by the adoption of 
the tax amendment. The Legislature 
will have the final say in the matter, and 
it is pointed out that the majority of 
both houses of the State came from the 
country above New York City. It does 
not seem possible that such a Legislature 
would pass bills which would increase the 
tax burden of the farmers in the interest 
of the vast amount of personal property 
owned in our great cities. In a few 
words, therefore, the advocates of this 
tax amendment say that it will help far¬ 
mers, for while his personal property 
would be taxed, billions of personal prop¬ 
erty in the large towns and cities now 
not taxed at all will be forced to share 
the burdens of government. They argue 
that if such property is taxed the tax 
burdens of the farmer will be reduced. 
On the other hand, leaving out the argu¬ 
ments of this Home Tax Association, 
which we believe are prejudiced and 
biased, many farmers are afraid of the 
chance to manipulate the tax regulation 
by people who are not in sympathy with 
the farmers. These men point out that a 
combination of members of the Legisla¬ 
ture from New York City, Buffalo, 
Rochester and Syracuse could not see 
things as the farmers do. They are also 
suspicious of assessors from outside who 
would have the final say on the franchise 
tax. This is a fair statement of the ar¬ 
guments on both sides. As is the case 
with the entire constitution, the whole 
thing has been sprung 100 suddenly upon 
the people, and they have not been able to 
give it a full study. 
Crops and Farm News 
Potatoes, 50c. bush.; apples, $1.75 bar¬ 
rel ; hops. 25c. to 28c. pound ; hay, $11 to 
$14; cabbage, $4 per 100, large. Fresh 
milch cows, $65 to $100; hogs, 100 to 200 
pounds, 9c., live; 200 and over, Sc.; 
calves, 13c. pound, live; chickens, 13c.; 
fowls, 11c. w. c. jp. 
Hartwick, N. Y. 
Good cows are worth from $50 to $75. 
Bandbox cows, per pound. 2% to 3 cents, 
per lb., strippers from $40 to $45. But¬ 
ter 30 to 32 cents; potatoes 50 to 75; 
rye $1 to $1.25; oats 50 to 55; calves 5 
to 8 cents per pound: pork 10 cents light, 
heavy 8 cents. Hay from $10 to $15, de¬ 
pends on quality. Potatoes are a poor 
crop in this locality. s. f. e. 
Franklin, N. Y. 
Oct. 0. Butter fat at the creamery, 
-IV 2 ; lambs, 7c. per pound : pork, 6%c., 
live weight. Eggs, 30 cents. Potatoes, not 
more’than 10 per cent. crop. Apples, 50 
per cent.; not any sales yet. Hay good 
crop, but damaged by rain. Oats. 40 to 
50 bushels per acre; buckwheat, half 
crop. $1.80 per cwt. » M, M. 
Warrenham, Pa. 
Oct. 9. Wheat $1 per bu.; rye . 95: 
barley 50: potatoes 50; best hay $15 per 
ton ; oats 35c per bu. Milch cows $50 to 
$75 per head; veals 10c per lb.: lambs 
l^c; hogs 7c. Apples scarce and no 
buyers yet. About $2.75 to $3 for best 
fruit. Evaporators paying 50c per hun¬ 
dred for windfalls. White beans strong, 
other varieties weak. Cabbage bringing 
$2.50 to $3 per ton. Best butter 28 to 
30: fresh eggs 28. s. 11 . b. 
Hemlock, N. Y. 
Oct. 12. Corn 75c per bushel, none to 
be had at present. Wheat, No. 3 Winter, 
$1.05; oats in small lots, 40c; oats, to 
elevators. 35c. Potatoes, 60c a bag of 
1 14 bu. to elevators; 75c a bag, small lots 
to private parties. Eggs 26c per dozen 
to stores. Milk $1.65 per 100 lbs. at 
creamery. Apples, sprayed, $1 per 
bushel; pears 50c per market basket. To¬ 
matoes, crop just finished, 35c per mar¬ 
ket basket. Onions 50c per bushel. 
Milch cows, poultry and veal cannot be 
sold on account of hoof and mouth dis¬ 
ease. G. K. 
Arlington Heights, Ill. 
We had some very hot weather during 
our fair week in September; we hear of 
some losing horses from heat, and one 
man lost a very valuable bull driving it 
to the fair. Our fair was very well at¬ 
tended, though some of the departments 
were not well filled; almost too much 
“Midway.” Greening apples' are being 
picked, some have fungus and scab; buy¬ 
ers are holding off. The last auction 
sales held did not make any sales, as the 
buyers would not bid. Peaches are so 
plentiful they are given away, and then 
they rot on the trees, as is also the case 
with plums. Wheat ground ha3 been put 
in fine shape. Corn is very backward, 
not much cut yet. Cabbage is a drug at 
$2.50 per ton. Plenty of rain. Beans 
are half a crop; potatoes all blighted. 
Wheat, 95; oats, 50; barley, 70; coni, 
75; potatoes, 30; butter, 26; eggs, 25; 
fowls, alive, 13; chickens, 14; beef, 6*4 ; 
lamb, 8; hogs, 7. E. T. B. 
Canandaigua, N. Y. 
Oct. 5. Farmers here are very busy 
harvesting Lima beans and walnuts. 
Crops are fairly good, about an average. 
Very good prices for seed beans grown on 
contract, at about five to GV 2 cents per 
pound. No sugar beets grown here for 
sugar, as beans are thought to be a bet¬ 
ter paying crop. But very little grain 
grown for thrashing, as it is mostly cut 
for hay. More oat hay than any other, 
worth $15 to $16 per ton. Very little 
corn grown, as the best corn land brings 
a heavy crop of beans, which are thought 
to buy most of the corn used, with no 
more labor and expense. Lemon prices 
are said to be better and growers hope to 
be better paid. Prices have ruled low 
for several months past. Have had no 
rain yet to harm the crops, and it is 
hoped that the weather will remain good 
until the harvest is done. o. N. c. 
Carpinteria, Cal. 
Oct. 1. The season has been very wet 
and cool, if not cold, and corn crop is 
poor, but little of it beginning to show the 
dented kernels, and doubtful if we have 
any fit for seed unless the frost keeps 
away another week or so. The small 
grains fairly good, yields very uneven, and 
the price took quite a drop about_tbrush¬ 
ing time. Oats run from 30 to 75 bushel 
per acre, and price 25 to 28 cents per 
bushel. Barley, 20 to 45 bushels^ per 
acre and price about 44 cents. Wheat 
from 12 to 25 bushels, price 80 to 84 
cents. Not many potatoes raised around 
here. A good crop of all kinds of hay, 
but so much cloudy and wet weather that 
a large part of it was damaged. A good 
many are trying Alfalfa which gives good 
satisfaction, three cuttings being made 
from the same fields this year, with a 
good crop each time. The second crop of 
clover was the best I have seen in many 
years, with Timothy and prairie hay 
above the average in yield and quality. 
Cattle and hogs in good condition and 
the country well supplied, but the pros¬ 
pects are we shall need more to utilize 
the soft corn and roughage. Prices of 
cattle from four to six cents per pound 
and hogs $6.25 to $6.75 per hundred. Not 
much fiuit of any kind raised here, and 
this year it was almost a complete failure. 
Russell, Minn. T. C. J. 
Coming Farmers’ Meetings. 
New England Fruit Show, Mechanics’ 
Building. Boston, Mass., October 23-30. 
Winter Short Course, University of 
Missouri, Columbia, Mo., Nov. 1 to Dec. 
17. 1915; Jan. 10 to Feb. 26. 1916. 
Fifth annual apple show, Indiana Hor¬ 
ticultural Society, Indianapolis, Nov. 6- 
13. 
Chrysanthemum Society of America, 
annual show, Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. Ki¬ 
ll. Special show, San Francisco, Cal. 
Paterson Poultry Association, annual 
show, Paterson, N. .T.. Nov. 16-20. 
Wisconsin State Potato Growers’ As¬ 
sociation, annual convention, Marinette, 
Wis., Nov. 17-18. 
Bergen Co., N. J., Poultry Associa¬ 
tion, annual show, Hackensack, N. J., 
Nov. 24-27. 
International Live Stock Exposition, 
Chicago, Nov. 27-Dec. 4. 
New Jersey State Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, Winter meeting, Freehold, N. J., 
Nov. 30-Dec. 4. 
Auburn Poultry Show, Auburn, N. Y., 
Nov. 30-Decc. 4. 
University Horticultural Society of 
Ohio State University, fifth annual show, 
Columbus, O., second week in December. 
Berks Corn Contest, Reading, Pa., 
Dec. 24. 
Reading Pigeon and Poultry Associa¬ 
tion, annual show, Reading, Pa., Dec. 
6-1L 
Pacific International Live Stock Ex¬ 
position. No. Portland. Ore., Dec. 6-11. 
Annual Corn and Grain Show, Tracy, 
Minn., Jan. 3-8, 1916. 
Vermont State Poultry Association an¬ 
nual show, St. Albans, Vt., Jan. 18-21, 
1916. 
National Western Stock Show, Den¬ 
ver, Colo.. Jan. 17-22, 1916. 
Amherst Poultry Association, second 
annual show, Amherst, Mass., Jan. 1S- 
19. 1916. 
National Feeders’ and Breeders’ Show, 
Fort Worth, Tex., March 11-17, 1916. 
“For the Land’s Sake, use Bowker’s 
Fertilizers; they enrich the earth and 
those who till it.”— Adv. 
! Collins’ Guide includes the 1 
I best apples and pears for Fall planting. No | 
| experimental, unimproved varieties included. 1 
| Moderate prices for most dependable stock— | 
P sturdy rwts, hardy trees. | 
rite today for this Free Book. 
| ARTHUR J. COLLINS 1 
F j Get your copy now of our splendid Fall 
I n © Catalog—a real textbook—the result of 
25 years’ experience \ 1th trees that 
F _ I f succeed. 'Ve have 2,500 acres in fruits 
3 11 and ornamentals—hardy, sturdy and 
having enormous root systems. We sell 
ru.iRUns\S/ on,y tho trces we prow— 
B Ui I X jJ KJ 0 iRt you're protected. Prompt, 
careful packing and 
M _ shipment. Come to Berlin and pick out 
|" ■ 66 your stock. Get your catalog Horn 
“The World's Largest Nurseries” notv. 
J.O.HARSISON 5 SONS 
Box 14 
PROPRIETORS 
Berlin, Md. 
B nCPDIsADQ Big profit-makers, sel- 
v/iJv^ I Ei/VlVkJ ling for S9 a barrel the 
past two seasons. Plant an acre or more 
this fall. I have a prime lot of trees ready 
for shipping, write for special prices. Get 
my Tree Book if you are planning to set Apples, 
Cherries, Plums, or small fruits. Copy free to 
anyone. 
SAMUEL FRASER, 
MALONEY TREES 
Fruit, Nut, Ornamental Trees, Vines and 
8brubs lor fall planting hardy upland 
stock grown In our 400 aero nurseries, the 
largest in New York, and sold at wholesale 
—Send for our big free catalogue, it tells 
why Maloney Quality plus 30 >e»v* *>• 
Nursery Experience means big ffiiure 
profits. It’s free; write today. 
MALONEY BROS. S WELLS CO. 
Box 24, Oansville, N. Y. 
Dansville's Pioneer Wholesale Nurseries 
Hardy Northern Budded Pecan 
And English Walnut Trees 
Boar young. Thin Shell, Large Size, Splendid 
Quality. Special Nut Catalog on request. 
Cherry Trees and General Line of other 
Nursery Stock. 
VINCENNES NURSERIES 
Box 299 _ VINCENNES, IND. 
INTut Trees 
My hardy PENNSYLVANIA GROWN trees will 
succeed with you 
You can’t afford to neglect the planting of NUT 
TREES longer; neither can you afford to 
plant anything but the best BUDDED or 
GRAFTED trees. Write for catalog 
J. F. Jones .Lancaster, Pa. 
Cabbage and Celery Plants 
fine stocky plants, of all the Leading Varieties, $1 
per 1,000; $8.00 per 10,000. J. C. Schmidt, Bristol, Pa. 
For Sale-The Hemingway Farms 
offer their surplus German cattle beets—$0 per ton, 
P. O. B. Less than ear loads at $7 per ton; pur¬ 
chaser to furnish sacks. Poultrynien are our heavy 
buyers. T. E. MARLOW, Sui>t., Auburn, N. V. 
STRA WBERR Y PLANTS-"™.™?;.* 
53 varieties, including the FALL BEAKljiG 
Asparagus Roots, etc. Catalogue free. 
J. lieifl’ord Hall, Route ‘i, Rhodesdale, IMd. 
CTD AIA/RPRDV PI AIITQ— str ic. tl y Thorongh- 
d I nAVVDLnn I r LMR I O i„. e ,i PROGRESSIVE and 
SUPERS, $1.30 per 100; $10, M. Over 100 standard va¬ 
rieties at reasonable prices. Send $2 for our '200) 
garden collection. 20th Century Catalog, mailed FREE, 
tells everything. E. W. TOWNSEND, Box 265, Salisbury, Md. 
40,000 St. Regis Raspberry Plants 
Extra strong-rooted plants at $10 per 1,000. Send for 
full catalogue. T. C. KEVJLTT, Atlienia, N. J. 
MEN WANTED 
in every county to sell 
Fruit Trees, Berry Plants 
Nursery Stock, Seeds, all 
or part time. Clean, profitable business all the year. 
HARRY L. SQUIRES, Itemseaburg, N. Y. 
THE MODERN GAS TRACTOR. Its 
construction, utility, operation and re¬ 
pair. By Victor W. Page. 514 x 7 V£. Cl. 
475 pp. 24 ills. 3 folding plates. 
The latest and most 
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installations, clutches, 
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The above book will be sent postpaid for 
TWO NEW YEARLY SUBSCRIPTIONS 
or Twenty Ten-week Trial Subscriptions 
or Four Yearly Renewal Subscriptions 
or One New Yearly Subscription and Two 
Renewal Subscriptions 
The Rural New Yorker, 333 West 30th St., N. Y. 
