120 
E6e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A Natlonnl Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established ISCO 
Pablbhed weekly by the Rural riibltahliifr Company, 33tt West SOtli Street, New fork 
Hkrbert W. CobLiN'OwooD, President and Editor. 
Jons J. Dibbos, Tre,'surer and Generai Manaffor. 
Wm. F. Diijx)N, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royi.k, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION ; ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
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Sii marks, or lOSj francs. Remit in money order, exjtress 
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"A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every a/lvertisement in this paper is b.acked by a respon¬ 
sible t)erson. We u.se every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make Rood any loss 
to paid sultscribers sustained by trustintt any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible a<ivertisers or misleadini; advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will l)e publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust diffei'ences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
reqionsible hous<;s, whether advertisers or not. We willinRly use our good 
offices to this end, but .such eases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subseril>er8 against rogues, but we will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankru|)ts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the eom)ilaitit must be sent to us within one month of the time or 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
Getting Them Together 
No. II. 
1-^ lire often told that The H. N.-Y. ha!5 made 
iiitni.v eiieinios and some go . so far as to 
claim that entire classes of peojile are after us. 
Here is ;i letter from a dealer and commission man: 
One of the first things I do this new year is to in¬ 
sure myself the i)lea.siire of reading your weekly letter 
for two years to come, provided I am spared to do 
so, and I want to wish you and Mr. Dillon double 
strength to carry out your ideals. I consider your 
work together one of the utmost importance to our far- 
mei'S and fruit raisers, and cannot do enough to en¬ 
courage you. A. C. w. 
And here is another good one from a lawyer who 
sends two snhseriptions: 
I congratulate you on the success of your efforts to 
benefit the farmers, and the fact that you \isually say 
unpleasant things about the profession to which I 
belong, don’t make a bit of difference. “More pow'er 
to your arm.” A. \v. o. 
We find that tlie big men in any business or pro¬ 
fession are able to understand motives and can ap¬ 
preciate fair crtt'cism even though it strikes at 
their own class. 
* 
T Ill'l family garden will be a great institution 
this yeai*. Thou.sands of people, frightened 
and stung by the high cost of living will get hold 
of a piece of land somewhere and ti*?’ their hand 
at raising vegetables. We think there is to be a 
remarkable attempt at food produotion on vacant 
lots and waste places. In some cases there will be 
a crop but in others the workers will not produce 
much more than a good appetite. It is not so hard 
to plow or spade and plant hut the crash comes 
later in the effort to keep these waste places clean. 
The R. N.-Y. will try to tell how to do it, but the 
telling is a small part of it—^it is mostly work. 
* 
O T’R dairymen are much interested in following 
the weekly discussion of feeding problems. 
The higher the prices for grain and feed the great¬ 
er the care needed in hn.ving and balancing the ra¬ 
tion. The College of Agriculture at Cornell sug¬ 
gests a general grain ration for each month of the 
year. It is based on carload lots of feed in Cen¬ 
tral New York State. This might not suit every 
locality in the State but it is a good general mix¬ 
ture. Malt sprouts may be used to take the place 
of part of the bran. 
000 pounds distillers’ dried grains; 500 pounds corn- 
meal; 500 pounds wheat bran or wheat mixed feed; 200 
pounds oil meal; 200 pounds gluten feed. 
T he Pennsylvania farmers are after a strong 
dog law to protect the sheep industry. Efforts 
will be made to work along much the same lines as 
New York. The sheep men are aron.sed—and so are 
the dog owners—hut we might as Avell have it out. 
A I’ennsylvania reader has been looking over the 
composition of our New I’^ork Legislature and he 
W'rites: 
I notice your upper house contains 26 lawyers; ours 
contains 16 and we think this is bad enough. You are 
making a mistake in calling them lawyers. They are 
simply attorneys-at-law. if they were lawyers they 
could not nfford to be in the Legislature. 
That point is well taken when yon come to con¬ 
sider the difference between a lawyer and an at¬ 
torney. Yet we find that every one of these legal 
gentlemen calls hi?nself a lawyer. Each one seems 
to think he goes to the Senate to practice law fol 
himself and not as an attorney for the people! 
* 
M any Western farmers are watching the pres¬ 
ent agricultural movement in New.York with 
deep interest. These men realize how the West is 
drifting away from the East in sentiment. They also 
see the National danger in this. Furthermore they 
realize that the only way to s'top this drifting 
apart is to create a common sentiment of some 
sort among farmers. Yon cannot again hind the 
two sections of the country together with money or 
“business.” There must be some struggle in which 
farmers and country people can take common 
ground. This letter from a Western farmer is typ¬ 
ical of many; 
I would not have troubled yon with this long letter 
if I did not think it was important at this time to 
bring the Eastern and Western farmer together. There 
is also a better chance now when your people have 
cracked their hardshell ideas and actually engineered 
a strike, and perhaps more important of all have car¬ 
ried their country parsons along with them. AVhon the 
churches are lined up with special pidvilege and inter¬ 
ested rights they hinder rather than advance the cau.se 
of reform! 
During the past month %ve have heard from at 
lea.st 50 connti’y pastors who clearly see n-hat the 
unrest among our farmers means. It is not a mere 
ripple on the surface but a strong mfiving of the 
wafers and it would be a National' calamity if the 
iwliticians and “educators” were able to stop it or 
switch it away from its purpose. They will not be 
able to do .so. 
* 
“What do these farmers want anyway?“ 
HE latest game of the politicians is to put out 
that question. They have made a lot of sug¬ 
gestions in the newspapei’s hoping to put the far¬ 
mers on record for some compi’omise. This trick 
has not worked. The farmers know just what they 
want and they are learning how to get it. IMake 
no mistake about that: 
Commissioner .Tohn J. Dillon’s plan for food termin¬ 
als in the large cities is the best and the most sensi¬ 
ble and economical plan that can be worked in interest 
of both producer and consumer. I know that most 
thinking farmers believe in it and have great confidence 
in Mr. Dillon’s proven honesty and ability. There¬ 
fore hecau.se he is too able and too honest to be bribed 
by milk concerns or anybody else, certain robbers of 
the people, through the politicians at Albany, are try¬ 
ing their hardest to sidetrack Dillon for some one else 
who may be their tool. So much for the farmers’ opin¬ 
ions as I get it first hand. What can they do about 
it? They will show you what. Farmers are strongly 
united for a purpose. We are prepared to fight and 
are fighting for fair treatment. We stand ready to 
use our money, our personal influence and our votes 
against onr legislators and others who show favor to 
our enemies. There will be some very sore headed 
candidates next election if they put over on us any 
such scheme as seems to be in sight. Rack John J. 
Dillon and his plans. Consumers, and farmei-s and 
Dairymen’s League members, let us woi-k for our own 
mutiial interests. Jjet this be first. Party politics 
are of small importance against this great struggle for 
our rights. C. w. bellows. 
Raldwinsville, N. Y. 
While the politicians are waiting to think what 
to propose they may well study the answer to their 
question by Mr. Bellows. Go out into any farm 
community in New York State and see what the 
farmers say. We do not ask the “leaders” and poli¬ 
ticians to take our Avord for it yet. That word will 
come wlien they actually get out in the open with a 
definite proposition. The consumers are coming 
too. A prominent city man wrote Gov. Wliitman 
and received a copy of the Wicks report. Was he 
satisfied? Read his reply to the Governor and judge 
for yourself! 
I read with much intei’est the Report on Foods and 
Markets so kindly sent by you, particularly those sec¬ 
tions looking towards a State-granted monopoly of dis¬ 
tribution to private capital under the supervision of a 
Commission. The service rendered the public by onr 
existing regulated monopolies is not such as to create 
much enthusiasm for another except among those 
fortunate enough to have shares of the protected cap¬ 
ital, real or fictitious, or who receive benefits there¬ 
from. Under the present condition of American poli¬ 
tics the public would be much better served by a few 
men of real constructive ability of the Dillon type than 
by a Commission whose powers are thoughtfully lim¬ 
ited by the Legislature. L. A. S. 
The fact is this Foods and Markets Department 
has now as much “kick” in it as a •munition fac¬ 
tory and the politicians begin to realize it. The 
present department has accomplished things. It is 
only fair to give it a fair chance to go ahead and 
do more. The farmers do not want a new depai-t- 
ment. They do not want'the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment to do any swmllowing act. They demand a 
fair chance for the present department and they 
will fight for the demand! 
♦ 
O NE of our readers wrote Senator Elon R. 
Brown, of Watertown, N. Y., about the Foods 
and Markets Department. This farmer told Sen- 
a tor Brown that he did not want to read any “care¬ 
ful consideration” in the reply. He got the fol¬ 
lowing : 
I am awaiting with much interest the report of the 
Wicks Committee in relation to foods and markets, 
and am going to make a careful study of the work of 
the present commissioners, and of their proposals when 
received, and shall take no action without thoroughly 
consulting the agricultural interests of the State, par¬ 
ticularly those of my own district, with a view to ac¬ 
complishing the most for them. 
Now this farmer seems to think Senator Brown 
just took “careful consideration” by the “c” and 
January 27, 1917. 
the “n” and pulled it out, like a mbber band so 
as to say nothing. Gov. Whitman is quicker to 
overcome the “careful consideration” habit. In 
repl.y to letters he merely sends, with his compli¬ 
ments. a cojiy of the Wicks Committee report, which 
Senator Brown does not seem to know has been 
issued ! At any i-ate yon see Senator Brown wants 
to hear from the people—especially in the North 
Country! ' 
* 
That sheep are more profitable than dogs, was the 
prevailing sentiment at a large and enthusiastic gath¬ 
ering of sheep owners at the Courthouse in Canan¬ 
daigua. Friday, Dee. 29. When Ontario County fol¬ 
lowed the lead of Genesee and organized the second 
county sheep owners’ protective a.ssociation, represen¬ 
tatives being pre.sent from nine towns. Lewis F. Al¬ 
len of Farmington was elected president; H. E. Has- 
lett. of Seneca, vice-president; Arthur N. Ketcham, of 
Victor, secretary, and H. L. Howe, 4»f Canandaigua, 
treasurer. A delegate was elected to attend the meet¬ 
ing of the State Sheep Breeders’ Association at Syra¬ 
cuse, Jan. 8-9, and a request made to the Board of 
Supervisors that they adopt Sections 129 to 1.^2, 
Chapter 455 of the Laws of N. Y., which compels 
registi-ation of dogs under a penalty of fine or im¬ 
prisonment for not complying with the requirements 
of the law. Sheep owners in the county are invited 
to join the association -which will meet at Courthouse 
in (.’anandaigua, Friday, .Tan. 26, at 1. P. M. 
L. F. A. 
IIILE the above is a statement of local mat¬ 
ters we print it in tire hope tliat otlier far¬ 
mers will join in. These Ontario County men mean 
business and they need help. No possible argument 
is required to prove that sheep hi-eeding ought to 
he a pi-ominent indnstiy in New York State. There 
are thousands of acres admirably adapted to sheep 
keeping which can hardly be used profitably for any 
other business. We need a law which will protect 
the sheep. There is one before the Legislature now 
and the sheep men of the State should get hack of 
it at once. Since 1886, Ontario County has paid 
$54,000 for killed and mutilated sheep and the num¬ 
ber of sheep has decreased 40 per cent. Do yon 
wonder these men are aroused to protect then- 
property ? 
* 
W E keep learning. When the milk fight was 
on last Fall we thought the producers over 
the State were doing .some pretty lively and etli- 
cient work. We were of the opinion that the lead¬ 
ers in the Daii’ymen’s League had an important 
hand in it. We even had some kind of a faint in¬ 
timation that the State Department of Foods -and 
Markets was in some way connected with the con¬ 
test then going on. But one day it was announced 
that the war was over' and the farmers began to 
ship their milk and we learned by newspaper in¬ 
terviews that the entire fight had been won by one 
Jacob Brill. We promptly corrected our previous 
impressions. Following this we learned by a digni¬ 
fied announcement that a certain editor with the 
title of Doctor had stei»pcd into the breach at the 
last moment and calK-d up a college friend on the 
telephone and said to him: “This thing is all wrong; 
everything is going to the demnition bow-wows and 
yon -and I have to get in and settle it.” And so we 
learned that Dr. Burkett and his college friend set¬ 
tled the whole dispute over the telephone, and being 
credulous people with faith in the veracity of men we 
accepted the last announcement and discredited the 
claim of Mr. Brill. For some weeks we have rest¬ 
ed content and happy in the conviction that at last 
we were waving the American Flag and hurrahing 
over the real hero. Rut we are disturbed again. 
The honorable Chas. W. Wicks, we understand, ap¬ 
peared before the N. Y. State Agricultural Society 
in Albany last week and solemnly asserted that the 
Wicks Committee had conducted the milk fight and 
had won for the farmers several million dollars, 
through Its work in the State. Sadly and grudg¬ 
ingly we again corrected onr history and disci’editcd 
both Mr. Brill and Dr. Burkett in favor of the last 
claimant, the Hon. Charles W. Wicks. 
The next claimant now has the fioor. 
Brevities 
Very few critics are able to take criticism. 
A DRESSING of fine manure scattered over the wheat 
this Winter will help the crops and make a good place 
for the manure. 
The only effective law against chicken thieves is 
the law of cooperative work—when hen men band to¬ 
gether and take the law into their own hands. 
Cleaning hogs with gasoline instead of scalding! 
We have varying reports from those who have tried 
it. Some are moved to ja-ofanity—others to high 
pi'aise. It seems to Le the man rather than the gas¬ 
oline ! 
