1156 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSISESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A Natlonnl Weekly Jouriiul for Country and Suburban Home* 
Established isso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishinir Company, 888 West gOlh S(reef..\ew Fork 
Herbkrt W. Colrinowood, President and Editor. 
3ohS J. Da.iX)N, Treasurer and General Manacrer 
Wm. F. Dillo.v, Secretary-. Mrs. E. T. Uoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, ^2.01, equal to 8s. Cd., or 
8^ marks, or 10>4 fra7ics. Kemit in money order, express 
^ order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Claas Matter. 
Advertising rates, 76 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must a<.*comi7auy transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon- 
Bib e i>eraon. W e use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any Toss 
to paid sub^rlbers sustain^ by trusting any deliberate swindler, irre.spon- 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
™ch swindler will be publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our sub-scribers and hone.st, 
r^ponslble houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. \\ e preset subscribers ag*ainst rogrues, but wo will not be 
lysponsible 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 oi 
^e transaction, and to identify it, you should mention Tub Rural New-, 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
Is it true, as I have been told, that the entire legal 
jirofession has been exempt from military service, both 
young and old, married or unmarried? J. B. D. 
N O. The lawyers, very properly, must go to tlie 
front with the rest. They will be exempted 
only for the same reasons granted to others. Why 
should not lawyers fight for their country? Tliey 
should be 'first-class hands at fixing up the barbed- 
wire entanglements we read about, for .surely they 
put many such eiitnnglements around the trenches 
of Justice. 
* 
I N England the government has fixed the price of 
superphosphates, or, as we say in this country, 
acid phosphate. This price is .$22.50 per long ton of 
2,240 pounds of phosphate between 15 and 16 per 
cent available. This would mean a little under $20 
for tlie ton of 2,000 pounds, as sold here. At iires- 
ent the price in New York for ton lots is $24, with 
six per cent, off, or not far from $22.50. Jlost fer¬ 
tilizers have always sold for less money in England 
than tlie same grade brings here. 
S OME years ago, when we went out after the 
‘‘uuit orchard” promoters, some fruit growers 
asked how this could benefit them. “Why bother 
about these bluffers?” they asked. ‘“The schemes 
will not hurt us.” Our answer was that any fake 
or fraud played upon the public through deception 
regarding farming or farm profits will surely injure 
the general business of fanning sooner or later. 
Now Mr. Powell’s article on page 1149 shoivs how 
this works out, MTien orchard men try to borrow 
money from the Federal Land Bank they find that 
orchard land has low borrowing value. It has been 
discredited liy these unit orchard fakers. 
* 
A new word comlug freely into use is “camou¬ 
flage.” It means an imitatiou of nature or of 
common objects so as •to di.sguise some military 
operation. For example, in .the European war all 
sorts of devices are used to disguise camion xir forts 
or marching men. Ships are painted ^o represent 
ocean waves. Iii some cases great fences or stretches 
of cloth are painted to represent -trees or even 
streets, and behind them soldiers pass in safety. 
This word is likely to grow into .the English langu¬ 
age, and will soon be applied to politicians who use 
their arts to disgui.se themselves as friends of tlie 
farmer. We think Senator E. B. Browu has well 
earned the right to the new word “camouflager.” 
His attack upon Geo. W. Perkins seems to us like 
an effort to paint a scenery of words around his own 
record, so he may pass as a friend of the farmer. 
It may be a very clever “camouflage,” as,such things 
go, but it is too thin, and the paint is too gi’een. 
Hoes it really fool the people of Jefferson and Os¬ 
wego counties? 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
It .seems to have failed even in Germany, where the 
military authority is very strict. It might be pos¬ 
sible for the government to go so far as to control 
the output of coal, steel or oil, because the produc¬ 
tion of these things is organized and easily regu¬ 
lated. The case is entirely different with wheat, 
meat or dairy products. Their production is un¬ 
organized and it would he impossible to regulate or 
control hundreds of thousands of farmers. The 
English are tiding to do it, hut this case of the po¬ 
tatoes .shows the result. IMr. Hoover admits that 
the onlj’ reason for attempting a minimum price on 
wheat is the fact that the government must buy at 
least one-third of the crop for its Allies. 
* 
T here is stlll time to seed rj’e after digging po¬ 
tatoes or cutting corn. This crop will go thrdugh 
the Winter and give a good crop of grain and straw. 
Rye is one of the best of crops for holding the soil 
together and saving the loss of fertility by drainage. 
It has a strong, heavy root growth, which fills the 
.soil during the Fall. Even if you do not care to cut 
lye for the grain, the crop plowed under in ,Spring 
will i^ay for labor and seed three times over. Sow 
rj'e up to the middle of October. As u.sual, people 
are asking about seeding Spring wheat. We would 
not advise such seeding south of Albany, N. Y., 
though .some reports are favorable. We think that 
rye .seeded this Fall, or barley seeded next Spring, 
will pay better. 
♦ 
T he R. N.-Y'. has gone to the limit with this thing 
of exempting drafted farmer.s. It is a delicate 
matter to discuss, since one may lie accused of “dis¬ 
loyalty” or worse for any sugge.stion or criticism re¬ 
garding war plans. We do^not feel that the army 
otficer.s, who a]iparently settle this matter, appreciate 
the situation. They take an extreme view, and do 
not realize how absolutely inconsistent their de¬ 
mands are with the increased food supply which the 
government has demanded. No one has asked that 
all farmers or laborers be exempted. The demand is 
confined to tlio.«e ca.ses where the taking of the work¬ 
ing member of a family will throw a farm out of 
production. We have .given several instances where, 
if the strong young farmer is taken, the whole pro¬ 
ductive enterpri.se v/ill fall like a hou.se of cards. 
The army men do not seem to realize the situation. 
It would be senseless to deny that serious uurest aud 
dissatisfaction is growing among farmers as a result 
of the government’s divided policy. On the one hand 
they are being urged aud driven to produce larger 
crops and do more woi’k, wiiile at the same time 
their skilled meu and essential helpers are being 
taken away. Farmers will surely cut down their 
field operations and plant less, of crops which require 
least labor. The.se things are inevitable. There is 
no “disloyalty” in referring to them. It would be 
more truly disloyal to remain silent when we .“^ee 
what is surely comiug as a re.sult of this mistaken 
liolicy. 
♦ 
T hese ought to be good days for the Socialists. 
They see the government, under stress of cir¬ 
cumstances, forced to take up one after another of 
the things which they have been condemned for 
advocating. As one member of the party puts it: 
You know there are Socialists and others, who will 
protest against the management of New Jerusalem, 
if they get there, aud against the- janitor if they 
land in the other place; but the great majority see 
their theories coming into practice a little too fast to 
be properly assimilated. 
Yes, there are other.s. There always will be 
“kickers” and critics. We should miss them if they 
stopped kicking and went to pushing things along. 
Just now the world seems to be getting an over¬ 
dose of nitrogen. Ve need more phosphorus and 
potash—which means more cold judgment and pa¬ 
tience. 
October fi, 1917 
this Florida bureau and buy a few tons of these 
beans for a feeding test. We think it would pay 
better to grind the beans at the North. 
* 
The Coming of the Tractor 
Many years ago (within the memory of this 
writer) a New England farm family spent the large 
part of one Winter debating whether it would pay 
to buy a sewing machine. It may seem sti*ange. now 
that these machines are household necessities, but 
these old family debates have come at the begiuniug 
of every new development of industry. Father he.si- 
tated. The price looked large, and he would like to 
put the money In the bank. He thought the women 
were doing pretty well with their fingers. Grand¬ 
mother supported this. Her hands were tireless, and 
no one thought of these “newfangled” things when 
she was a girl. Grandfather claimed that the sew¬ 
ing machine would make life so easy that the women 
would get lazy and “go gadding about.” Besides, 
there was nothing about it in the Bible! The boys 
wanted a buggy and a fast colt. The overworked 
mother, ivith the endless chain of mending and 
clothes-making running through her tired fingers, 
should have been an unanswerable argument for the 
machine, but no one thought of that! The girls 
finally won the debate by showing how much money 
they could earn doing piecework on the machine. It 
was bought, and tlie girls kept it running from day¬ 
light until far into moonlight, seiring aiuny coats 
for a contractor. Father had to admit that it 
earned more than any two cows on the farm. Thus 
it won an honorable place in every fai’m household, 
beside the clock and the stove. Now the farm trac¬ 
tor is going to make its way into use in much the 
same manner. It must translate its muscle and its 
merit into money. Something of the same family 
arguments which settled the question for the sewing 
machine, the ear and the gas engine, will finally put 
a tractor upon every farm -which can show 20 acres 
of level land ! Why not? We have learned that the 
gasoline hired man has a strong arm, but he is 
lame, and we must cariT him to his work. The trac¬ 
tor gives this same gasoline hired man a fine pair of 
legs, so that he can walk or run to his work. Tlie 
tractors mentioned on page 1154 may not be the limit 
of power or efficiency yet, but the principle has been 
settled and the tractor is climbing up to the shelf 
upon -wffiich rest tlie farm necessities. 
Brevities 
Now come sad days of reckoning 
To many city men. 
Who chased a rainbow to the farm 
And tied it to a hen. 
It was a pretty theory, 
That every hen will lay 
A five-cent egg—and never stop 
On every working day. 
The truth has struck these city men 
And they<have learned through pain. 
That hens will sometimes shirk their job. 
While feed men charge for grain. 
The vegetarian does something besides vegetate. 
Loose statements never tightened up any situation. 
Most men do not “eat to live,” but because they like 
the food. 
Land plaster used in v.^e stable will help plaster the 
land with prosperity. 
Cows, clover and cover crops ought to coax any soil 
into good nature. 
TiiE nian \yho keeps a dozen surplus roosters around 
fines himself if the government does not. 
Ip any reader has had experience with hand stump 
pullers will he unload a little of it this way? 
Little drops of liquid from the barnyard heap carry 
off the potash which you ought to keep. 
The latest ruling is that draft exemption appeals 
from the local draft board must not be sent to the 
President. They should go to the district board. 
Mr. Harrison on page 1127 says that “moth balls” 
will keep off the rats, but do not repel mice. Is this 
your experience? 
Herewith you will find clipping from Overseas edi¬ 
tion of London Daily News, that confirms your state¬ 
ment that “price-fixing” by European governments is a 
failure. It seems from this clipping that English po¬ 
tato merchants are willing to take chances aud sell po- 
tiitoes at what “the trade will stand,” the matter of a 
$27,500 fine not standing in the way of trade for “all 
the trade will stand.” Fi-om the average amount per 
deal (800 bushels) it seems Thompson must have •been 
selling to dealers who again must have taken similar 
chances. Great “price-fixing” ! WM. s. eowell. 
Pennsylvania. 
T he clipping states that George Thompson, an 
English farmer and merchant, sold potatoes at 
$60 per ton while the legal maximum price was 
$43.50. In all this man sold 1,320 tons of potatoes 
in 55 separate lots, and tlie government fined him 
$500 for each lot thus sold. This fine amouuted to 
just about -ndiat Thompson made by selling at the 
higher price. The government took all this profit 
away from him. We have not been able to find any 
case where this price-fixing has Avorked out right 
* 
NUMBER of our readers haA-e expi-essed their 
desire to try a quantity of velvet beans for feed¬ 
ing. We think every experiment station in the 
North should promptly begin feeding tests to learn if 
possible how these bean compare with cottonseed 
meal or bran. In order to help locate the beans we 
print this note from J. J. Sechrest, county agent for 
Holmes Co., Florida: 
In this aud adjoining county east there could be, I 
think, fully 50 cars of 30,000 pounds of A^elvet beans 
bought at $20 to $22 per ton, f. o. b. loading station. 
The mill here will grind, sack and load the bean meal 
at $7.50 per ton, and this, I believe, is the better way 
to feed them with silage, the same as cottonseed meal. 
Without silage I would not grind them; they are 
best fed in the hull, soaked for 12 hours before feeding. 
Any mill that Avill grind corn aud cob meal will grind 
the beaus all right, with a little extra power. Our mill 
claims the sacks cost $2.50 per ton of bean meal. 
Bonifay, Fla. J. J. securest. 
Some Northern farm bureau might Avell deal Avith 
Green corn and hog cholera. The corn does not pro¬ 
duce the disease, but if fed too freely at first it makes 
the hogs more subject to it. 
Those army officers Avho determine the draft rules 
may be very fine fighters, but they knoAv very little 
about farming. 
What shall it profit a man if he gets $2 for a bushel 
of Avheat which costs him $2.01 to produce? Will pa¬ 
triotism pay taxes? 
Cornell advises Fall spraying with lime-sulphur for 
peach leaf-curl. The strength is 1 to 15. The time 
when the leaves fall and the weather is suitable. 
It has been claimed that the muskrat lives upon veg¬ 
etable food entirely. Two German writers show that 
this animal eats fish and the eggs and flesh of birds. 
A new series of articles entitled “The Story of a 
Day’s Work” begins in this issue of The R. N.-Y. 
Others Avill follow, and they will cover most lines of 
farm work. It will pay you to read them all. 
The total production of sunflowers in Russia runs 
oyer one billion pounds per year. They are used for 
oil and stock food, and scientists are at work developing 
new varieties specially rich in oil. 
