818 
‘Ehe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BU8JXES8 FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Ilomeg 
Established iSSO 
PnblUbrd wrrkl; by the Roral Publiihlne Company, 838 West 80th Street, >ew fork 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Tre,’«urer and (Jeneral Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, equal to 8 s. 6 d., or 
81k marks, or IOI 4 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¬ 
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 tiaid 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 be 
resjwnslble for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us witliiu one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
T hose people who are making such a noise 
about the goA’eriiment taking up great tracts of 
waste land and fitting it for crops are on the wrong 
frail. There is land enough now under cultivation 
or inside fences. Give the owners of this land the 
ciipital and labor needed to work and fertilize it 
jiroperly, and the food question will not trouble. 
The world is not to be fed by amateurs on waste 
land, but by business farmers who are given a fair 
chance. 
* 
T HiE outline of that “Cobb duck case” on page 
MO ought to interest every hen man. The Vine- 
land I’oultry Association does good w’ork in taking 
up this fight. That is what an association is for— 
to associate itself with trouble as well as with 
jileasiire. The bird-killing cat or dog is worse than 
it nuisance. In one town of Neiv Jersey a worthless 
cat came to a neighbor’s yard and killed over .$50 
worth of chickens. Application to the mayor proved 
that it would cost $80 to have the cat declared a 
legal nuisance and then the cat owner could have 
the .same law applied to the remaining chickens. We 
do not often mention the shotgun I’emedy. If we 
did this would be one occasion for applying it— 
to tlie cat. 
♦ 
M any of the large hotels in New York City have 
private incinerators for burning garbage. 
Formerly this garbage, or swill, was cared for by 
the city but it became offensive and for sanitary 
reasons the plan of burning was adopted. Some 
of these hotels burn so much of this garbage that 
they make a ton of the a.shes each day. Now^ this 
ash contains some three per cent, of soluble potash, 
five i)er cent, available phosphate and 20 per cent, 
of lime. It is now thrown away—the hotels even 
paying to have this valuable plant food removed. 
From a single hotel there will be wasted in one year 
as much potash as would be bought in 20 tons of 
muriate, or the equivalent in phosphoric acid of 
100 tons of acid phosphate. It is a shame that this 
loss should be permitted at this time when food is 
needed and plant food is the measure of ci’op yields. 
Every ounce of this garbage ash should be saved. 
.Some farmers’ organization ought to take this mat¬ 
ter up and make arrangements for saving this great 
waste. 
* 
A S no one else seems to be starting in to help 
.solve this big feed problem The R. N.-Y. will 
get going. We shall be glad to cooperate with any 
organization Avhich will honestly try to .settle this 
question. The need is great. Feed is out of sight 
in price. Farmers tell us of single wagonloads of 
feed Avhich co.st $100 or more. There are three 
things which must be done. The first is to pro¬ 
duce more of the protein feed at home in the form 
of clover, Alfalfa, Soy beans, oats and peas and 
similar crops. Good Alfalfa hay is worth nearly as 
much as ordinary wheat bran, ton for ton. The 
liroduction of Soy beans has changed great dis¬ 
tricts of China from poveily to prosperity. Raise 
-\lfalfa and Soy beans to the limit in the dairy dis¬ 
tricts of New York and one-third the cost Of im¬ 
ported feed may be cut off. The next saving comes 
in feeding a balanced ration. A large^proportion of 
the feed now bought is wasted because it is not 
wi.sely fed. When feed became scarce in England 
the army officers found that horses wei’e not fed a 
balanced ration. By changing the feed .so as to get 
a better balance nearly 20 per cent, of the price 
was saved. We shall all have to study out this 
feeding question, just as we have the fertilizer 
question, and .suit the feed to the cow as we have 
the chemicals to the soil. The most important part 
of it all is buying. Business habit and business 
greed have combined to put a dozen or more mid¬ 
dlemen between the farmers who produce the grain 
and other farmers who must have this grain or its 
by-products for feeding. Some of these middlemen 
are necessary—others are no more needed than the 
grubs on a cow’s back. Our big problem is to .sep¬ 
arate the useless middlemen and get rid of them 
by doing ourselves the work which we now pay 
them for doing. This week Mr. Remer and Mr. 
Weaver tell us what farmers in North Dakota and 
Michigan are doing to save this toll. We shall have 
to adapt their methods to oiir own conditions and 
do most of the work ourselves. It can be done, and 
it must be done. 
* 
T his week a farmer in North Dakota and an¬ 
other in Michigan give straight talk about the 
business side of farming. This business side of 
farming is always a move to add a few cents hon¬ 
estly to the .To-cent dollai’. Now is there any rea- 
.son why such an organization as Mr. Weaver tells 
about cannot be developed in your town? If there 
is—tell iis. We want to know why our Ea.stern 
dairymen cannot do these things as they are done 
in the West. Here is an Indiana man who ex¬ 
plains why East and West have not come together: 
It has been because of the lethargy of the farmer 
there and here that a good cooperative ari*angenient has 
not been made between each other long ago. I was in 
Massachusetts last Summer when oats retailed at 60c 
and you could see farmers here selling first-cla.ss oats 
to elevators at 35e. Too many middlemen to wuix fat. 
It has ever been so. Just a little courage, determina¬ 
tion, that is all. Oats look fine now. I have out 1.35 
acres and many farmers have more. I’rospects for 
oats were never better. everett halstead. 
With all these splendid crops of oats and barley 
which the West is producing, cannot our Eastern 
dairymen get together and buy direct? What an 
opportunity for the Dairymen’s League or the 
Grange! 
I WANT to register a mild objection to the way you 
are going after Senator E. R. Brown. You will get 
him in the end all right, but then the man that takes 
his place will be very little improvement. The real 
difficulty lies further back. So long as election ex¬ 
penses are paid from private funds, the men who ])ut 
up the dough are going to give the orders from behind 
the screens. c. Xf. G. 
FR friend does not quite understand the iioli- 
tical exiieriment we want to try. We are not 
trying to “get” Senator Brown in the ordinary poli¬ 
tical understanding. It is for the people of Jeffer.son 
County to decide whether they want to be repre- 
.sented by a man like Mr. Brown or not. If he rep- 
i*esents their standard, even though they defeated 
him, his successor would still be brown —of a light¬ 
er or darker shade. A personal campaign against 
Mr. Brown might defeat him, but unless the people 
of Jefferson County xvant a new and better type of 
Senator there would be only a change of jier.son- 
ality. We do not think M'r. Brown represents the 
county fairly—either economically or morally, but 
we have no i>ersonal campaign to make against him. 
I’olitical circumstances have made Mr. Brown, as 
we believe, a public, open enemy of our farmers. 
Jefferson County must decide Avhether this estimate 
is correct or not. Therefore the first thing to ask is 
—does Senator E. R. Brown satisfy the farmers of 
.Tefferson Co.. N. Y".? If he does not they will say 
so and prove it. 
* 
O NE of our readers sends us a clipping from the 
“Financial World’’ which contains the follow¬ 
ing: 
Verily, these farmers mean to do their bit, and if 
they succeed the country will find itself badly bitten. 
Our farmers are piling up untold wealth and yet are 
not satisfied. Is there no way to make them stop their 
plans to coin fortunes out of the necessities of the 
world and the misery of the poor? Happily, the North 
Dakota farmers constitute an isolated instance of grab 
that is not echoed elsewhere. 
This outburst seems to be caused by the efforts 
of North Dakota farmers to handle their own grain 
business and cut out a few of the leeches who have 
been fattening on them so long. The “untold 
wealth” Avhich these fanners are piling up is Avell 
named, since there is not enough of it yet to tell 
about. What do these financial organs exi>ect to 
make by retailing .such statements? It is the mean¬ 
est .sort of an appeal to prejudice, and is deliber¬ 
ately intended to .stir up feeling between consumer 
and producer, wdien it is the greatest hope for mod¬ 
ern bu.sine.ss that these two classes .should be brought 
closer together. As the other side of this picture 
here is a letter from one of o'ur readers in Penn¬ 
sylvania : 
Forty strenuous years on the farm, 1876-1016. A 
young married couple filled Avith life and hope; Avith 
high ideals. Honest, efficient, economical. Now past 
the earning period of life. Only tAvo positions open 
to us, the poorhouse and the cemetery. The cause, 60c 
wheat, 40c corn. 32e buckwheat, 20c oats, Oc potatoes, 
4c beef, 5c pork, l%c qt. milk, hay $5 ton, 10c but¬ 
ter, 10c eggs, etc. Gouged by the railroads, swindled 
by the commission merchants, robbed bv the life iu- 
June 23, 1017. 
surance companies, burdened Avith extortionate taxes, 
we were drix-en from the farm in our declining years. 
It is now untenanted, going to decay, growing up to 
brush. o. 
That is AA’here the .35-cent dollar runs to. Is it 
OA-erdrawn? Is no relief needed? Let the “Finan¬ 
cial World” find one farmer Avho is “piling up un¬ 
told Avealth’’ as a lesult of plain farming and Ave 
AA'ill find 1,000 in the class Avith “M. O.” 
♦ 
The rumor factories are working overtime. Due 
paper tells of a man w'ho had planted ,$30 or $40 
worth of seed potatoes, and a few days later found 
that some one had taken them all away. A neighbor 
tells that the man w’ho sold him heard from his 
brother-in-law^ that a Government agent seized the 
crop (several hundred bushels) of a groAver Avho had 
refused $9 a bushel for his beans. These may be as 
accurate as the news I had that a certain man had 
.300 bushels of seed potatoes for sale. A fcAv minutes 
later my brother said that this man asked Avhere he 
could get a few potatoes to plant. a. c. 
OST of the I’umor factoiie.s have gone to mak¬ 
ing wind explosives. Now is a good time to 
remember the good old text: 
“Tal'e heed how ye hear!” 
In times like Lhese the man who knoAvs least is 
likely to get the largest audience—if he is a .smooth 
talker. The Avisest plan is to disregard these ru¬ 
mors. The country is at war, and the situation is 
more serious than most of us like to admit. Our 
country has decided upon a definite foreign policy, 
and it is a patriotic duty to get in back of that 
policy and help put it through in the quickest pos¬ 
sible time. We should leaA’e the management of 
the AA'ar to the army and navy and expend our-ener¬ 
gies in demanding that farmers and country people 
have a fair share of income distribution. We knoAV 
that AA'e shall have our full .share of responsibilities 
and taxes, but we must also haA^e our share in the 
distribution of incomes. Don't bother about rumors. 
Keep your mind on tAA'o facts. We have got to feed 
the Avorld and Ave have got to be paid for doing it. 
* 
HE problem of selecting a tractor for Fall ploAA - 
ing and team work is iioaa' staring many an 
Eastern farmer in the face. There AA’ill, Ave think, 
be large investments in tractoi's this Fall. The 
labor problem and the high price of grain Avill 
change farming in many parts of the East. More 
plowing for Avheat and rye will be done this year 
than ever before on farms of 100 acres or more, and 
conditions are such that farmers Avill use tractors 
if they can be made to believe that the machines 
are practical. What tractor shall they buy? Here 
is a typical case from a Penn.sylAninia farmer Avith 
110 acres of land, over half of it in trees, and all 
but a small part of it rea.sonably level. 
Noav, hoAV can I. Avith no mechanical ability, pick out 
the best tractor for my u.se? Hoav can I tell whether 
the one that looks good, and may demonstrate well, has 
good bearings, is properly inclosed against the dust 
which i.s fatal to bearings, ,is economical of gasoline, 
is foolproof, is Avell made, is likely to last? Is there 
any practicable tractor with ploAvs integral with it, to 
be raised or lowei-ed from it.s middle and thus avail¬ 
able for fence corners? Do I need a big three or 
four-bottom tractor for quickest work iu favorable 
weather, or is a two-bottom tractor quick enough for 
60 or 70 acres of trees? Catalogs don’t help us. We 
don’t have tractor demonstrations in my neighborhood. 
Eastern fields are small, and Western-made tractors 
are often designed for Western big field.s. What trac¬ 
tor suits our conditions and comes within our pocket- 
book limitations and is the tractor for us? 
There ,a’ou have the problem clearly expres.sed— 
Avho shall decide for this man and others like him? 
If a man is in doubt regarding the breed of coavs 
or sheep or hogs he should keep he can find out 
about the advantages and limitations of each and 
get the one best adapted to his farm. He can do 
the same about a silo, barn building, A’entilation, or 
an automobile, or an engine, because the A^arious 
points abont these things have been clearly Avorked 
out. When it comes to the most important poAver 
investment—a tractoi-—Avho shall set him right? 
There ought to be in every State some expert offi¬ 
cial mechanic Avho Avill make it his busine.ss to ad¬ 
vise farmers about investments in tractors and other 
farm powers. 
Brevities 
The English government calls for 3,0()0,000 new 
acres in grain for 1918, and they are planning for it 
nOAA’. 
“Patriotisai at the table” means not oA’^ereating, 
aA'oiding wastes and cheerfully taking up some neiv 
diet if nece.ssary. 
“Dehydration” is a fine big mouthful of a Avoid 
AA’hich the experts are uoav tacking onto fruits and vege¬ 
tables. We used to call it drying and everybody un¬ 
derstood it. 
There are men in this world who, when ordered to 
make bricks without .straAv, proceed to find a full sub¬ 
stitute for straAv and turn out a superior brick. They 
are AA-hat the Avorld calls “brick,s.” 
Every crop has its insect pest—or several of them. 
They increase with the crop. In Kansas the clover 
hay-worm has increased greatly Avith the increa.se of 
Alfalfa. The moAA-s should be Avell cleaned out and the 
old stack bottoms burned before the new hay goes in. 
