774 
RURAL NEW-YORKER> 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE liVSISESS FARMEIVS PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* * 
Established isso 
PiiMIuhrd weekly by the Raral Publiehine Company, 8SS Weit SOlh Street, New lork 
Herbert W. Coixinowood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, TTecfiurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mk.s. E. T. Rotle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
84^ marks, or 10J4 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 76 cents per 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- 
Klblc 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 publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and hones^ 
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 be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month or the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
I F there are any sceptics on the 35-cent dollar 
proposition left they should read what the Fed¬ 
eral grand jury is doing to the onion gamblers. It 
Is a strong statement. Over 80 of these speculators 
have been indicted, and the way they bought the 
crop for a .song and sold it for a chorus is clearly 
shown. Here is part of the report: 
“For the 1916 crop the producers probably received 
le!5S than two cents a pound. In midwinter many of 
these onions were sold to retailers and through them to 
consumers at 10 to 15 cents a pound. It is claimed by 
the Government that this tremendous margin between 
the price accruing to the producer and the price paid 
by the consumer was largely due to the illegal control 
of the trade exercised by this association.” 
We would refer that .specially to our amiable 
friend Edward S. Bayard of the National Stockman 
and Farmer, who calls the .35-cent dollar “the vain 
repetition of an economic fallacy.” 
* 
T he agricultural census just completed in New 
York State .shows an expected use of .365,163 
ions of fertilizers and 178,169 tons of lime. This is 
an increase for both, but there should be two tons 
of lime used for every ton of fertilizer. Some parts 
of the State do not need ajiidications of lime, as the 
soil is of limestone origin, but most of the State soil 
is sour and incajiable of giving any good account of 
the phosjihates until it is limed. Thousands of 
acres will never come fully back into clover and 
grass until this lime is suiiplied. Eveiy effoi’t should 
be made to develop a new interest in the use of 
lime. There are good deiiosits of lime rock and 
portable crushers will prepare it for fai’m use. These 
crushers are as useful and necessary in their way 
as tractors. 3’here should be one or more in every 
community where limestone is found. 
* 
O NE of our readers says that with the present 
high cost of feed only those poultrymen who 
do not keep books will remain in the bu.siness I He 
say.s, and truly, that many will reason that they 
must be making money, because eggs and poulti’y 
are higher than last year. Orderly bookkeeping 
would show them that while poultiy products may 
be 25 per cent, higher, feed is 125 per cent, above 
former prices. When we bought our present farm 
ground corn and oats .sold for .$28 per ton, and other 
grain in proportion. Now it is close to $65 at lo¬ 
cal prices. There are still people who feed an un¬ 
balanced ration to scrub stock, but they have been 
mostly ground out of the busine.ss. We still think 
that if a man has capital and can keep on improv¬ 
ing his flock and studying how to raise part of his 
feed he will, in the end, i»ay out and make some 
money. Eggs and poultry are sure to be high, and 
we must find a cheaper method of feeding. English 
poultrymen seem to be prospering. We expect to 
have a statement from Tom Barron soon, which 
will tell us how the manufacture of eggshells ranks 
among other munitions, 
* 
W E feel like trying a political experiment .such 
as was never tried before. Elon R. Brown 
reiiresents .Teffeison Co., N. Y.. in the New York 
Senate. This county is agricultural and is a prom¬ 
inent part of the famous “North Country,” a great 
dairy section. Everything in that section (if we 
exceiit Senator Brown) is controlled by the cow. 
Mr. Brown is a lawyer and politician with consider¬ 
able .strength at -Vlbany. The Jefferson County far¬ 
mers have elected Mr. Brown so many times that 
he thinks they have lost the habit of considering 
anyone else. Therefore he will do as he pleases 
and states defiantly that no one can beat him. 
There are several good reasons why Jefferson 
County .should have a new Senator. One is because 
iMr. Brown does not represent that dairy community 
as it should be represented. Another is that the ser¬ 
vant .should never be greater than the master. That 
is as tme in politics as it is in business, and when 
any Senator fails to do what the people of his dis¬ 
trict W'ant him to do either he or the people should 
take a back seat. Now the experiment we feel like 
trying is to put this thing right up to the voters of 
Jeffeuson County—without any abuse, without get¬ 
ting excited—just in the light of pure reason and 
fact. Senator Brown's term has 15 months yet to 
run. That gives time enough to enable every voter 
in Jefferson County to understand eveiy side of the 
question. Such a thing has never been tried be¬ 
fore, to our knowledge, and it would ai’ouse national 
interest in the discussion, for the result would cer¬ 
tainly prove, one way or the other, “if there be any 
faith in men.” 
* 
O N page 7.32 we spoke of the advertisements 
which the bi’ewers are to run in country pa¬ 
pers. .They are very cunning about it The first 
one has very little about beer but is headed “Milk 
Production Threatened.” It undertakes to show^ the 
fearful blow to the dairy bu.siness if brewers’ grains 
are not sold and fed: 
.lust now we are witne.ssing a movement tbroughont 
the countr.v for BETTER BABIES. Good milk is an 
indispensable necessity of ever.v baby’s life, of every 
nursing mother, of every home, of every hospital in 
this country. Our soldiers in the field likewise will 
need pure milk. And the cost of produetioH must he 
kept down. To eliminate brewer.s’ grains for milch 
cattle food will unquestionably lessen milk production 
20 per cent.—will unquestionably increase the cost of 
production to such an extent that the pui’chase price 
of a quart of milk now fixed at eleven cents per quart 
■will unquestionably force the price to twenty-five or 
thirty cents per quart in all great centers of population 
where a piu-e milk supply is most required. 
The liquor men claim that both distilled and fer¬ 
mented liquors require only 100,090,000 bushels of 
grain each year. There were reported in the coun¬ 
try, Jan. 1, 22.768.000 milch cows. If ail The grain 
which the liquor men claim to tise were returned 
as feeding grains, it would mean something like 11 
ounces of feed per day for each cow'! In fact not 
half of it is saved for feeding! At an average price 
of $1 per bushel this grain cost the liquor men $100,- 
000,000. They claim to be quite willing to pay a 
tax of $500,000,000 in order to continue their busi¬ 
ness. That makes the .35-cent dollar look like a 
nickel. A quart of beer retails in New York at 
about .30 cents and has perhaps 70 per cent, of the 
food value of milk. Herbert O. Hoover, ■who is to 
be appointed “food dictator,” says that he vyill stop 
the use of barley in brewing and send the grain to 
France, where it is mixed with wheat to make 
bread. 
* 
While I don’t always agree with you, I waut to say 
it’s a fine magazine you run, and send The R. N.-Y. 
right along. When this is used up send for more. 
Brownfield, Me. E. p, T. 
F a true Y’ankee from the State of Maine came 
sa.ving that he agreed tvith everything we print 
we should feel that something was ■u’rong. We 
should consider that we were either stale or merely 
“interesting” and not giving people the food for 
thought. No man is led to think by simply agree¬ 
ing with others. Only through the contact of flint 
and steel can real thought be fla.'^hed out and such 
thought alone can set man’s ambition on fire. Some ‘ 
people find fault when we print an oidnion which 
is opposed to their own. If they did but know it 
the mental effort required to disprove that opinion 
Avith the facts and with sound logic is the finest 
exercise that could possibly be. 
S OME of the big enterprises at growing potatoes 
and other food by manufacturers are, we think, 
ill advised. In some cases the owners of the fac¬ 
tory hire great tracts of land, have it plowed and 
fitted, and divided among the workmen. .Seed, fer¬ 
tilizer and tools are furnished free, or at low cost, 
and the men are given extra time to do their work. 
T'nder supervision such men Avill produce a fair crop 
—though they could not do it unless they were 
helped by the factory. In some cases this crop 
Avill be large enough seriously to interfere with the 
local markets. This Avill force farmers who depend 
on that market to ship much of their crop away 
and thus accept a Ioav^ price. It would be a far 
more patriotic thing for these manufacturers to 
contract noAv with farmers for Fall delivery rather 
than to compete Avith them in this way and make 
their conditions even Avoi’se than now. If they say 
they have a right to produce this food as cheaply 
as they can. there are tAvo ansAvers. In normal 
times and Avith ordinary prices they Avill not be 
able, by means of .such labor, to produce cheap food. 
They will merely drive more farmers out of the 
business and find that they cannot, as a side issue, 
grow food profitably in this Avay. In the long run 
every indu.stry must haA’e a square deal. The far¬ 
mers pay high prices for what they buy, and do 
June 9, 1917. 
not offer competition to the manufacturers. We can 
easily remember when shoes, clothing, hats, small 
tools and many iron goods and cloth were made in 
small shops and mills scattered through, the coun¬ 
try. Modern indinstry Aviped these little shops out by 
combining them. Mo,st of us have been taught to 
believe this was a fine thing, yet it was not entirely 
so. But noAV suppose the government or some rich 
philanthropists began to organize these little shops 
once more, so that they turned out, in the aggre¬ 
gate, great quantities of goods. The manufacturers 
Avould let out a yell which would lift the roof of the 
Capitol at Washington. And yet it would be no more 
than what is hoav" being done in competition with 
the farmer. Who is to buy your shoes and clothing 
and tools in the future if you reach in and take the 
farmer's market away from him? 
♦ 
H ere is where we start on our fifteenth annual 
campaign for a cover crop on your farm. A 
cover crop is one which covers the ground at a 
season Avhen Avith your usual practice the land 
Avould be bare. For example, after corn or potatoes. 
I'ou generally put a good share of the farm manure 
on corn and most of the high grade fertilizer on po¬ 
tatoes. <iood culture is given and of course that in¬ 
duces nitrification or the changing of nitrogen into 
soluble form. In the ca.se of corn in particular— 
the manure is not at its best until late in the Sum¬ 
mer, when the soil becomes AA’arm and moist. At 
that time the corn is groAving rapidly and uses up 
the nitrates as they are manufactured in the soil. 
Then comes the frost before Avhich the corn must 
be cut and cured or put into the silo. The nitrifica¬ 
tion in the soil goes right on through the Fall. A 
few Aveeds grow along after the corn is cut but for 
the most part the.se nitrates .wash away with the 
Fall rains and pass out of the soil. Probably in our 
latitude the heaviest loss of nitrates is during Oc¬ 
tober and November AA'hen the soil is usually bare. 
The heaviest loss usually folloAA's corn with potatoes 
ranking next. Noav Ave wonder at the folly of the 
old pioneers who thrcAv manure or cottonseed into 
the river to get rid of them, but we do worse wdien 
we leaA'e the soil bare after corn and potatoes and 
let the rain run off with our hard earned nitrates. 
The remedy is to use a coA’er crop and save the ni¬ 
trates. Such crops as rye, vetch, turnips or cloA’er, 
Avill groAV right on after corn or potatoes are killed, 
fill the soil Avith their roots and save these nitrates. 
They do more than this, but one thing at a time is 
enough to talk about. First of all let us plan to have 
every foot of the farm covered this Fall. It is a 
Avar time measure. 
St 
I T is said that a “AvaA-e of silo building” has 
struck Mis.'iis.sippi. , Even cotton stalk.s, it is re¬ 
ported, will be cut into the silo. Here is a neAv u.se 
for the cotton plant. We haA'e belieA'ed for many 
years that the Gulf States will become famous as 
dairy and meat-producing sections. A new adjust¬ 
ment of farming is coming, and part of the old 
cotton fields are to provide meat for the nation's 
sandAvich. But that “silo Avave” should not stop in 
the South, but spread all over the country. The silo 
is the dairyman's cannery. 
Brevities 
No grain beats buckwheat in the short cut of time be¬ 
tween seeding and grinding. 
Potatoes are being shipped from South Africa t<» 
England, Avhere they retail at 12 cents a pound. 
Noav aa'C hear of a scheme for planting asparagus 
roots like coi*n—three feet apart each avra-— and cutting 
both Avays. 
Any roo.ster kept after June 15 i.s a Avaste and a 
fraud unless he is worth $20 for breeding purposes. 
Kill off the surplus. 
In parts of England the government is paying $.30 
per ton for hay in the moAV or stack. Half is paid doAA’n 
on sale—the balance Avheu removed. 
Noav we are all warned against poisonous fly killers. 
Reports of fatal poisoning of children from these fly 
paper are made. “Tanglefoot” or traps are safer. 
Bcckavheat makes a good grain for seeding grass 
and clover. If rye is seeded with it and the Aveather is 
moist, the rye Avill come up, folloAving the buckwheat, 
and make a Fall and Winter crop on the same land. 
East week eight carloads of lettuce and other Spring 
greens were dumped on the New Jersey meadows out¬ 
side of New York. They Avere condemned by health 
inspectors, yet crowds gathered and picked out much 
good food! 
There aaoII be a heavy planting of second-crop potato 
seed this year. The parent seed is kept in storage until 
early in August, and then planted after some Spring 
crop. The fearful price of potato seed this year is sure 
to change the business and drive growers south of New 
I'oi'k more and more to the use of second-crop seed. 
This year there has been a heavy trade in crates of 
eggs by_, housewives who are using waterglass for, egg 
preserving. AVe fear .some of these eggs will not prove 
.sati.sfactory. as the crated eggs are not ahvays uni¬ 
formly fresh. The Avaterglass cannot improA’e a stale 
t‘gg. 
