288 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BCSISESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Ilomea 
Entablished isao 
rublUbrd weekly by the Rural I'liblUbin); Company, 383 Weal 30ih Street, Xew fork 
IlEBBKRT W. Cobi/iN'GwooD, President and Editor. 
John J. Diu/)N, Trea-surer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. DilI/ON, Seci'etai-y. Mr.s. E. T. Koyle. Associate Editor. 
Description ; one dollar a year 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8 s. 6 d., or 
8 ^ marks, or IOI 5 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New’ York Post Office as Second Class JIatter. 
Advertising rates, 75 cents per agate line—7 word.s. References required for 
advertisers unknown to ns ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
tVc 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 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 honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this end, but such cases should not be confusM 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. 
When are You Going to Resign? 
This question is now a.sked for the second time 
of Charles H. Betts, secretary of the New York Food 
Commission. Tlie W'esteni NeAV York Horticultural 
Society and now the New Yjrk Grange call for Mr. 
Betts’ resignation. They voice the sentiments of 
] 00,000 voters—with more coming every day. How 
much food will Mr. Betts consei've with 100,000 hoots 
aimed at him? W/ien arc you going to resignf 
« 
T he rural NEW-YORKER has been called 
almost every name under the sun, but the 
Rochester Herald has a new one. According to the 
Herald we are “a jounialistic mischief-maker.’' 
That’s good—it ranks with that famous “vain repe¬ 
tition of an economic fallacy.” One seems to grow 
out of the other, fot the “mischief making” which 
the Herald refers to is the fact that we i-efuse to 
accept the guff and foolish figures of farm profit 
which .so many daily papers are printing. We do 
our best to jirick the big stories, throw acid on the 
malignant wretches who are abusing the farmer 
and kick the vain and dignified windbags Avho are 
parading about for “agriculture.” If this is “mis¬ 
chief-making” we shall keep the factory running 
full blast. It is a strange and sad thing about such 
]>apers as the Rochester Herald. Right in a farm 
territory and depending peculiarly upon farmers for 
support, these papers shuffle with vital problems and 
discuss farm questions with an dll-concealed sneer. 
What is the matter with them? They seem to lack 
the vital energy required to “make mischief.” 
Ik 
T here is a general belief that good grain and 
grass crops follow a hard, snowy Winter. That 
is generally true and there is reason for it. We 
know farmers who say “snow is manure” and they 
think the 'big snowdrifts actually contain plant 
food. While the snow caiudes some nitrogen out of 
the air, experiments at Rothamsted showed that the 
entire year’s rainfall brought barely five pounds per 
acre during the entire year. The value of the snow 
is not so much in any plant food which it may add 
as in its moistux'e and mulching effect. As the snow 
melts in the Spring the water penetrates the soil 
and fills it with moisture. It gives a fuller supply 
than the same quantity of water in the form of rain, 
since it remains longer in the soil, and thus has a 
better chance to work in. Then the snow protects 
grain and grass by covering the crop .iust as a mulch 
of straw pi-otects the strawberry plants by prevent¬ 
ing the alternate freezing and thawing which go on 
when soil is exposed. Grain and new see<ling will 
be hurt most in an open Winter when the ground is 
bare, for then the plants are pulled out a little by 
each freeze and left a little exposed by each thaw. 
Ihe snow covers them all Winter and prevents this 
exposure. That is the chief I’eason why big grain 
crops usually follow a hard Wintei*. We may hope 
that the snow which has thus far proved such a 
misery to us may yet prove a blessing by protecting 
the wheat and rye. 
* 
T he following story is going the rounds of the 
papers: 
A farmer went one day to buy a bushel of buckwheat 
for sowing. The man who sold the grain was away, 
and his wife waited on the customer. She took a peck 
measure and they went to the granary. After filling 
the measure twice she poured the contents into the 
bag and began tying it. . 
“But.” remonstrated the farmer, “it takes four pecks 
to make a bushel.” 
“Oh, does it?” returned the woman, untying the bag. 
“You see I never had any experience in measuring grain 
before I was married. I always taught school.” 
Our educators will feel greatly ruffled in feathers 
if we say there is a full bushel of sense in that! 
The fact is that much of modern education and 
school training is not practical. The grammar school 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
graduate is expected to go to the high school and 
wlien he gets through that school he must go on to 
college, and so on. A great proportion of our chil¬ 
dren never will go past the grammar .school, but 
must build their life work upon the education they 
receive there. Nor do we see much chance that 
the proportion of high school and college students 
will be much larger in the future. Therefore \ve 
think most of the money and the best teachers 
should be employed in the primary and graded 
schools. We would make higher education more and 
more a matter of individual investment, and have 
the State put more of its force upon the funda¬ 
mentals. We want four full pecks to the bushel of 
school training. 
T he New York State Grange voted unanimously 
for the repeal of the present school law. The 
Attorney-General assured the Patrons that in case 
of such repeal we shall go back to conditions under 
the old law. There never has been anything like the 
developments of jthe pa.st six week.s. When we first 
took up the matter ofithis sehool law with members 
of the Legi.slature, many of them yv’ere merely at 
the “careful con.sidei'ation” stage. They are now 
falling over them.selves to find some excuse for re¬ 
pealing this law and still save something of their 
dignity. One of the most amusing things that has 
ever happened at Albany is the reported quarrel be¬ 
tween Governor Whitman and Speaker Sweet of the 
Assembly over the demand for a repeal of the law. 
The Governor issued the demand and the Speaker 
Claims that the Governor stole his thunder. At any 
rate, the lightning struck them both, as well as every 
other legislator who has a farmer in his district. 
Lightning is caused by the passage of electricity from 
one object to anothei’, finally making for the earth. 
This school law has wmked our country people up 
to a sense of injustice wdiich has filled their minds 
with moral electricity. Pen and ink have carried 
this in the form of political lightning •which has 
.shocked some of these fat and complacent roosters on 
Capitol Hill as they never were shocked before. In 
former yeai's the electricity came in very small 
shocks—smaller than the current which ran from 
Ben Franklin’s old kite. They Avere not organized 
or concentrated. Now they are. Multiply the light 
shock on that kite string by several million and you 
have the power to split an oak or move a train of 
cars. This organized s-chool campaign has concen¬ 
trated the power and now it can move the Capitol! 
Keep right after them still. The time has gone by for 
argument with 90 p^ cent of country people demand¬ 
ing repeal. Organize I’atrons’ Leagues all over the 
State, and make them permanent. Do not stop work¬ 
ing simply because the Governor and the Legislature 
say they w^ant repeal. Keep right after them until 
the bill is passed and signed and our lawyers tell us 
the work is done. Then take a good breath and go 
on for other needed work. 
* 
M ost men show some characteristic animal 
traits in their thought and behavioi. We have 
all seen men who, Avhen they go back to their natural 
habits, remind us of a snake. Others look and act 
like a rat. Still others are like mules for stub- 
bonmes.s, while others show the noble qualities of a 
lion. Without intending to do so, ve all seem to 
acquire the habits which go with some of the low'er 
fcrms of animal life. On the record of his behavior 
in otiice one would think that Charles H. Betts had 
taken the rhinoceros for his model as an ollice- 
b.oldei’. This animal is noted chiefl.y for his thick 
hide and his appetite. An African hunter once fired 
both barrels of a shotgun at the side of a rhnoc- 
eros. The rhino simply shook himself a little and 
went on eating at a green spot from Avhich he had 
driven other animals away. The Western New York 
Horticultural Society and no^y the State Grange 
have unanimously called upon Mr. Betts to resign 
as secretary of the Food Couimi.ssion. This amounts 
to a command from nearly 150,000 voters and the 
best farmers of the State. Many of them live near 
Mr. Betts, and know him for just what he is. A 
man of ordinary skin and common ideas of jiropriety 
would know what that command is and what it will 
lead to. Betts, however, seems to be true to his 
type. The hide is too thick. Like the rhinoceros, 
he merely flaps his ears and takes a larger bite at 
the $5,000 salary which has been put in the trough 
before him! This appointment "was both a joke and 
a “jolly.” He is not a farmer or a food expert— 
merely a politician. He was put on to please the 
“machine” which is exjiected to grind out a reuom- 
iiiation for Gov. Whitman. He is rapidly making 
such an action impossible. The Governor has been 
ci-edited with great political sagacity, but he will 
lose that reputation if he keeps a rhinoceros at the 
trough. Mr. Betts! When are you going to resign? 
February 23, 1918 
OVERNOR CAPPER, of Kansas, puts it this 
way: 
I believe we should look this menacing sitiiatiou 
straight in the face. Nothing is plainer than that this 
v;ar can most successfully be waged and most safely 
financed by the square-deal plan and the pay-as-you- 
go plan. We cannot dodge an evil. We must grapple 
with it or be mastered by it. If we don’t win this war, 
it will be our dollar^mrshiping traitors, and not the 
Germans, -who will defeat us. 
All the scolding and exhorting and advising in 
die world will never produce a bushel of wheat or a 
pound of meat unless the spirit or morale of the 
larmers can be kept tip. An army that is scolded 
.and criticized and not fairly equipped cannot win 
a war no matter how efficient each .soldier may 
be as an individual. Nor can our farmers be fairly 
expected to “win the war with food” with alternate 
noses of hot air, taffy, scolding, advice and ridicule 
served out to them. This is peculiarly true of New 
York State. On our farms today may be found the 
most loyal and willing army of workers ever seen 
in any country. They "want to help and do their 
share, but they see the great power of the State 
devoted not to make farming most efficient, but to 
build up a great political machine for the politicians. 
Give us men who will lead and do something. 
* 
H ere is something for the housekeepers. What 
.substitute for flour can be used in making 
paste for wall papering? Rye flour has been sug¬ 
gested as a wheat substitute, but can we not find 
.something that will save food? Several w’omen ask 
for this information. It will soon be time for pajier- 
ing. What can you use to make the paper stick to 
the wall without using flour? 
* 
Y OU take that satisfied hired man who tells us 
about it on page 295. The reader may .say he 
gets “the earth” and ought to be satislied. But 
when a man works in and on the earth he is en- 
title<l to a share of it, and good. s<piare treatment 
for the hired man pays well. AVe have had experi¬ 
ence with a small army of them. .Some will take 
advantage of kindness and accejit It as evidence of 
fear or indecision. Most of them appreciate it and 
will show it in their work. We think that Ohio 
farmer with three farms is a wise man. 
T here is an insect pest for every plant and a 
bloodsucker for eveiy animal, and a human 
parasite who tries to live fraudulently on every 
honest enterprise. The latest swindling scheme is 
connected with the Federal farm loan banks. In 
order to borrow money from these banks it is neces¬ 
sary to organize co-operative sociieties, which farmers 
can do under rules sent out by the banks. Now 
comes a man offering to come and organize these 
societies for $500 and to teach others how to do it. 
It is a very slick scheme, but is al.so a violation of 
the rules of the loan boai-d, and a society paying 
money for such promotion would not be chartered. 
'^Ihis scheme is based on the old-time theory that 
farmers will pay others to do the work which tlu'.v 
can easily do themselves. They have done too mucli 
of that, for whenever they tu’/n their own work ovm- 
to lawyers or agents or politicians they have to ]iay 
these ^o-betweens so much tliat there is nothing left. 
Brevities 
There ai-e many farmers who feel that the school hill 
is a cousin of “Kaiser Bill.” 
Those parents who bring up a child on a shingle or 
stick evidently believe in “a pound of cure.” 
Too many men of middle years commit suicide with 
their teeth, and the fewer teeth they have, the faster 
they do it. 
Ip frozen potatoes are put right into hot water and 
boiled they are eatable and may be packed away in 
jars or buckets for future frying. Alash them down 
firmly into the jar. 
In England many potato growers have been buying 
cow manure of the dairymen at a price of $1.75 to .$2 
per ton. Now the dairymen have doubled their price— 
following the lead of other fertilizer dealers. 
Credit follows success. Our old friend ,T. AA^. Stuben- 
rauch of Texas worked for years to make peach growing 
successful. The banks would not give credit, for the 
business was “risky.” Now, after a few good crops, they 
v/ant to loan on the peaches! 
Thousands of country families who felt secure in 
their water supply are now cari-ying water to house 
and barn. The frost has gone far under ground and 
closed the pipes. Go through the dairy districts and 
you will see many strings of .cows wandering through 
the snow to the brook. 
Mrs. Jones, at the Alissouri College “Farmers’ • 
AA^eek,” told how she cured the hired man of leaving un¬ 
used sugar in his coffee cup. She gave him the un¬ 
washed cup for the next meal! AVe have .seen men de¬ 
liberately put six lumps of sugar in a cup of coffee, and 
then never stir it up! 
And now some of the critics are trying to prove that 
fruit is not a food necessity and that the work put into 
growing it should be used for producing grain and meat. 
Nonsense—without fruit, bread and meat would never 
taste right, and food which does not taste right nour¬ 
ishes a poor spirit. 
