1208 
Ghe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE Bveufiaa eaemer s paper 
A Xational Weekly J^onnial for Country and Suburban llomei 
Kttahiithed tKO 
l‘iihlt<ih-d w««kl 7 h; the Boral PaMlihlag Oempao;, 88S W«it 80tb Street,Kew York 
Herbert W. Ooujugwood, PreRident and Editor. 
John J. Dnxojt, Trek^eurer and Oeneral Manager. 
Wm. F. Dn-LOM, Secretary. ‘ Mna E. T. B 0 TI.E, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries In the Cnlrersal Postal Union, $8.01, equal to 8s. «d., or 
8}^ marhs, or 101^ francs. Remit in money order, express 
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Entered at l^ew York Poet Office as 6econd Class Matter. 
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**A SQUARE DEAL” 
tVe believe that every advertisement In this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible i>ereon. We uee 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 advertiserB or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be pubBew ezpeeed. We axe also often called upon 
to adjust dilferenoes or mlatakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this end, hnt such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. We proteet ■nhscribere against rogrues, but we will not be 
resjjonsible for the debts ei honest bankrupts sanctumed by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to Identify It, you should mention IRe Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
Another Hero 
The President has told us what the coming (Miuflct mouns. 
He urge.s us to m'obilhse the wheat and corn and beans. 
The hero in the army’s not the only one we’ve got— 
-Another stays at home and plows the eighty-acre lot. 
The fellow with the musket gets the glory and the fame; 
The hired man gets none, but he’s a patriot just the same, 
lie doe.sn’t get the honors and he’s mighty shy on pay. 
And all he has to do is dig for fourteen hours a day. 
There’s little inspiration in the muscle-breaking toil 
That must be done to tease the oats and barley from the 
soil. 
'Tis well to cheer the khaki-clad when they march to 
the front. 
To bear the flag to victory and face the battle’s brunt; 
Put also cheer the farmer lad who works from morn 
till night— 
^\■ithout the stuff that he digs up we couldn’t win a fight. 
—Roy E. Moulton, in New York Evening Mail. 
w 
On the next farm to us is an ai-my caiitaiu who has 
been killing quail out of season. He is also suspected 
of killing deer out of season, but the game protector 
says he cannot arrest an anny man. Is it true that an 
army man does not have to obey the law? h.e. v. 
('olumbia t\)., N. Y. 
O! Tinder the eonservafcion laws of N»‘w York 
the police power applies to every jier.son, and 
■tliLs army man has no more business killing game 
out of season than you have. The only exception 
to the law is with Indians living t>n certain reserva¬ 
tions. The army man may shoot at the Kaiser or 
any of his representatives at any hour of the day or 
night. At such business he may claim the immunity 
which is tagged upon a hero. When lie shoots quail 
or deer out of season he is no hero but a very com¬ 
mon citizen, and a policeman becomes his superior 
ollicer. We should go after this army mau and 
round him up. The discipline will do him good. 
* 
W E hoi>e that J. Clark Nesbitt will lie elected 
as member of the New York Assembly from 
Delaware County, There is something far more 
important than personality or politics involved in 
this election. We have already told how Mr. 
Nesbitt came to lie a candidate. He was .selected 
as a representative farmer by a committee working 
on nou-i>artistin lines. We believe fully that the 
only way for us to get 50 farmers into the r>egisla- 
ture is to work in this way, and select our caudidates 
by means of fanners’ committees. This pohey is 
far more important than any jiarty question, and the 
farmers of Delaware Ceunty have the chance to 
show farmers in other counties that this principle 
of non-partisan work for farming gives them a 
chance. .A.s for Mr. Ne.sbitt’s quaiilicatious one of 
the committee that selected him saj's:— 
We can depend upon him to serve us. He is one of 
the lai’gest dairymen of the county, and is a very suc¬ 
cessful young man. Ten years ago he had just a 
pair of bare hands; now he has a tine fai-m, well 
equipped, and well along toward being paid for. 
A dairyman for a dairy county. 
» 
J UST think of the milk situation in New York, 
Certain experts are claiming that babies are dy¬ 
ing because their parents cannot buy good milk. 
The dealers are boosting up the price on account of 
high cost of delivery and blaming the farmers. They 
til us cut down the consumption of milk in the city, 
and that means reduced demand. Then they shut 
down some of the receiving plants and refuse to 
handle the milk formerly sent to these places. Having 
(lone this in order to break up the farnuws’ organiza¬ 
tion if they can they tell the public the milk sujiply 
i ( short The farmers stand ready to deliver good 
milk direct to consumers at less money than the 
dealers charge. Under this plan the State would 
equip and control a plant for handliug the milk, so 
as to guarantee its quality. This plan would noit 
only serve the public, but it would settle the ques¬ 
tions about the €o.st of delivery. All the committees 
from here to Patagonia will never get an answer 
to that question equal to the experience of one month 
of actual delivery. Why then do th(‘ State and the 
city refuse to try this .sensible experiment? There 
can be only one answer. The politicians know that 
if this plan were once really tried the evidence 
would be complete to show that the present system 
of distribution is simply legalized robbery. The 
cities are so tied up to the present extravagant 
system of distribution that they will defend it and 
try to juit the entire blame for the high prices upon 
the fanner. 
W H.\T do you know about this Winter seeding 
of Alf.alfa which Mr. Shirley talks about so 
confidently? This brings out one of the most linjior- 
tant things in farm journalism. We believe that iMr. 
Shirley gives us the exact facts, yet who would be 
justified in advising all farmers to idiinge in and seed 
.Vlfalfa as they do clever? All “cx]>ert” advice is 
against it, with apparently good reasou.s. Yet here 
is a mau who gets results and gives sound argument 
for it Ls It a matter of soil and climate? We think 
so, to a great extent. On our own tough and W'oedy 
laud we should have little faith in the plan, and we 
surely do not agree that the tap-rooted Alfalfa is 
superior. We have tested that, and found Grimm 
and Oossack superior by reason of their branching 
roots. We feel about this Winter seeding much as 
Ave do about trausplantiug Alfalfa. These plants 
make a good growth with us, but the plan does not 
appeal to the common sense of the average farmer. 
The same-tiling was true when dozens of other meth¬ 
ods, now popular, were first introduced. Therefore 
we offer the good old advice: “Test all tilings and 
hold fast to that which is good.” 
* 
A LITTLE more than a year ago The 11. N.-Y. 
started out to talk sheep persistently. We 
wei’e told that .such talk was useless, since Eastern 
farmers would not bother with sheep, and did not 
want them. Today there is more study of the sheei) 
iudustiy thau of any other class of live stock. Wool 
has junijied up among the stars in jirlce and will not 
come down for years. The shortage of farm labor 
has forctni some farmers to realize that sheep are 
the best we(*d-killors of all farm stock. The new 
(log law is giving luuv encouragoiuent to .slieep men 
and we fully believe that the industry ds coming 
back to New York and New England. It may be 
coming too fast, for many a sore and limjnng sheep 
from the Western plains has boon worked off at a 
liigli figure. It is far better economy to jiay a fair 
price for a few good sheep rather than stock u]t witli 
culls. 
T he two egg-laying coutests which are being 
reported in The It. N.-Y. will reach the (‘ud 
of their year on Nov. 1. The Conuecticut contest 
will close on that date, and a new oiui will im¬ 
mediately begin. The New .Tersey contest will go 
on for two years mor& Each pen contadus 30 
pullets, and they close their first year's record Nov. 
3. Then tliey will begin another year. During 
ne.xt year a cockerel will be put with each pen and 
eggs from each individual hen will bo incubated. 
The plan will be to produ<?e one pullet from each 
heu and enter these 30 pullets for the third year’s 
test. Thus we will shall have a full two-.^■ear record 
fur each bird, and a test of breeding through the 
]»erformauce of a daughter from each hen. It is 
an ambitious attempt to answer some of the leading 
questions which ixiultrymen meet in everyday •work, 
and we shall follow it through to the end. 
O not cross a bridge until jmu come to it! 
Do not criticize ahead of performance! 
Oive a man a chance! 
There are three good principles of journalism 
which we try to k(^ep in mind when dliscussing the 
New York Food Commission, as we are asked to do 
by many farmers who are hot and indignant over the 
matter. This commission is composed of an edu¬ 
cator, a iiolitician and a man who made his great 
reputation as a leader of union workmen. Grant if 
you please that each mau ranks large in his partic¬ 
ular line—the fact remains that HOt oue of these 
men has the experience which alone can give him 
sympathy for the plain working farmer, or under¬ 
standing of his problems. Did anyone ever hear of 
a commission which was to regulate the iirices and 
rules of labor composed of farmei*s, clergymeu and 
educators? Suppose a committee of farmers, black¬ 
smiths and school teachers was appointed to regu¬ 
late banking and money lending. There would at 
once be a roar loud enough to drown the noise of a 
European battle. And why? Because the bankers 
might properly say that no one on that committee 
had any exT>erienee which justified him in regulat¬ 
ing the banking bu.siuess! Just exactly the .same 
thing applies to this food commission. The entire 
hope rests upon increased iiroduction, and that is 
Octt)ber 20, 1017 
impossible unless the farmers can feel that they are 
being treated fairly and with consideration. They 
do not feel that they have been so treated in the 
selection of this commission. They represent the 
most imiiortant indu.strj* which this commission is 
to oversee. All other industries are servants of 
farming, though thpse servants may c-ousider them¬ 
selves greater than the lord. We cannot criticize 
this co'mmission until it does .something Which 
deserves criticism. As it stands it is just one of the 
incidents which have combined to give our farmers 
a certain, concrete issue n State and national 
politics. It must be evident to them that if they 
want fair representation or fair treatment they 
must attend to the job themselves. 
L et no one lead you to believe that rice is n full 
substitute for potatoes. It is au excellent food 
in its way, hut for clear reasons it will net take the 
place of the potato. It does not possess the elements 
iK'cded to neutralize the acids in the meat, fish or 
eggs. An e.xpert at the Colorado College says:— 
“While among fruit.s and vegetables there may be 
quite free substitution, yet rice which contains an excess 
of acid-pr(>ducing elements cannot take the place of the 
potato which gives rise to base-forming elements. The 
substitution of rice, because of its starcli content, 
must be accompanied by the addition of succulent 
vegetables.” 
The potato is one of the most necessary parts of 
our usual American diet, and its mse should be 
encouraged by all. Particularly so now that the crop 
is heavj' ond must be disposed of to advantage. 
U NDER a new English law the government has 
the power to size and operate “badly culti- 
v.ated land,” Wlienever the official who enforces 
this law decides that a farmer is not working his 
farm properly he may order such farmers to quit 
the farm and work it with government help! In a 
number of cases this law has lanm enforced, so that 
the legal owner or tenant was ordered off the laud 
because he did not make it produce full crops. Tu 
several cases when this law was enforced the o\\’ner 
or tenant refused to leave the farm house, on the 
ground that the government could have control only 
of the land—not the buildings. The English courts 
liave now ujiheld this point. 
Y ears ago one of the sliarpest Yankees in New 
England made a prophecy for the future of 
liis country. He lived in a section where inen were 
noted for long-range vision and far-sighted instinct, 
hut he said the world so<^u must go into darkness 
because the whaling business was declining. Tliat 
man could not understand how the night could be 
made endurable without sperm oil for the old time 
lumps! The whales have largely disapiieanal, the 
whaling ships of New Bedford and Nantucket hav(‘ 
long since rotted away, yet instead of moping in 
despondent darkne.ss man lias turned night into 
day. Thi.s shrewd old-timer could not rcailize that 
in the year just closed this country would produce 
over .‘100,000,000 barrels of petroleum. How could 
lie know that the mountain stream wliich went 
tumbling down threugli his pasture would be 
harnessed and Avorked so that it would light tlu' 
distant city and turn its wheels? It often seems so 
strange to us tliat older men should become so 
discouraged and iiessimistic over the future! Their 
very experience and review of life ought to make 
them realize the miracles that have been worked 
out How can tliey think the world has stopped 
gro\\-ing? Sometimes they fall back upon the 
“failure ami deprav'lity of the present generation— 
‘Now when I Avas a boy—.’ ” Every man who talks 
that Avay knows that Avlien he Avas a boy certain of 
the old folks of that day AA-ere pointing right at Mm 
as a good example of the “degenerate generation.” 
Brevities 
“I avondek if I have made a record ou cucumbers? 
Over 1100 cuke.s cut from 23 hills in the greenhouse ; 
running considerably OA'er one dollar per 'hill,” savs ,T. 
A. IL, Ohio. 
The .Jefferson Co., N. Y., Farm Bureau reports that 
Avild oats were included in seed of Spring wheat 
bought last Spring. This may prove a serious weed pest 
unless care is taken to clean such oats out. 
Thus far we have not had many optimistic state¬ 
ments from experienced poultrymen regarding the future. 
Are there such men who see hope and can give 
reasons for it. If so hoAv can we induce them to come 
out of the trap-nest Avith the figures? 
Ip Vermont could groAv velvet beans as Mississippi 
can nature would be outdone. The force of gravity 
wciuld be upset and money AV’ould roll up hill, while the 
pric-e of cottonseed meal Avould be cut in tAA^o. 
W,HAT is this “.50-50 biscuit” they tell us about? IVe 
are told to use two cupfuls of cornmeal, ground Soy 
'beans, ground peanuts or rice and tw.o cups of white 
floor, and mix the same as regular baking-powder 
biscuits. We Avonder sometimes if the people who udA'isc 
those delicaeies re^ally eat them? 
