560 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FAR3IER-S RARER 
A Xalloiml Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban llomeo 
Established iSSO 
riililbhrd nrelily by the Roral I’nblishine Company. SSS «>«i 3 O 1 I 1 Street, New Tork 
IlKBBERT W. CobM.VGWooD, President and Kditor. 
JojiK J. DiLtXiS, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillos, Secretary. Mns. K. T. Kovlk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION; ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8 .«. Cd., or 
8 I 4 marks, or 101 * francs. Kemit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at JTcw York Post Office as Second Class fiattor. 
Advertising rates, 7fi cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advert i.'ers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL-’ 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by 0 respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible prec.autlon 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 bo publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust diirerencoa or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. Wo willingly use onr 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 sanctioneil 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 The Rcbai, New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
The Uco things most earnestly desired hy New 
York country people this season were ratification of 
the prohihition amendment and repeal of the school 
law. These things were spceially desired in Oswego 
and .Jefferson counties. Semitor JJlon It. Brown pre¬ 
vented ratification and did his he,st to defeat repeal! 
J)o the men and iromen of his district want to send 
him hack to repeat? 
ff 
'l'lior<‘ is a inau in onr town 
.^nd he is woiidrons wise. 
'I'liero may have been more liandsome men 
But never v/iser guys, 
lie knows it all; the other men 
Are but a false alarm ; 
lie tells the housewife how to save. 
The farmer how to farm. 
You a.sk him when this war vdll end. 
And he will say, “The signs 
All show the Kaiser will g<‘t out 
When (iiarles II. Betls resigns!” 
«-• 
Within easy hauling distance of every church, 
school or O-range hall there may he found enough old, 
metal, rags and ruhher to hring the price of Liho’ty 
Bonds if collected and properly sold. As it stands 
this stuff is worthless. Handled in small lots it tvill 
hring hut little. Lumped together it will sell for 
enough to huy a Bond. No finer community work 
can he done than that of gathering this refuse and 
turning the tvastc into a patriotic investment. 
■k 
successful farmer friend of mine has a grown-up 
daughter who on account of much mental ability is 
teaching on a big salary. Her father told me his 
daughter bad invested some of her income in stock of a 
gold mine. If that family had been subscribers and 
readers of The R. N.-Y. the daughter -yv’enld not have 
invested good money in a gold mine. b, 
ERIIAPi^ this may be called a fair samjde of the 
impractical side of modern education. We 
know of another educated woman who has thrown 
her money awaj’ on a most impractical real estate 
.scheme. Kv'cry day brings reports of .iust such peo¬ 
ple. They are supposed to he educated and in many 
cases are teaching others—training them for the 
))ractical affairs of life. Y"et the.v seem like children 
when it comes to investing their savings. It may 
or may not be that their education has unfitted them 
to deal with practical things, but at any rate they 
hand out their mone.v to strangers and invest in 
schemes which any bu.siness man woiild know are 
sinphy gambler’s chance.s. .lust what the ruling 
force di-iving them to such investments may be we 
cannot tell, but the.v not only lose their own mone.v 
Imt the.v do great d:ima,ge through the example they 
set for other.s. Tliey are the people who, al)ove all 
other classes, should invest their money in I.iherty 
Bonds, The.v owe their education and their living 
to the Government and through it to the people. 
Thus the.v are douhl.v interested in suppoi*ting the 
Government and influencing others to do so. ]Many 
of them are in the ranks of the “worker.s” now tr.v- 
ing to put the new loan over. First of all. cut out 
the si)eculative investments and invest what you can 
of .vour savings in Liberty Bonds. 
» 
No more fearless uor better paper for the farmer or 
mankind in general was ever published. It doe.s try 
ami does shield the suckers from the sharks. My father 
took the Moore’s Rural New-Y’^obkjcr 6.5 years or more 
ago. then published by D. D. T. Moore in Rochester. 
N. Y. Y'ou cannot force a paper on most i)eoi)le; if it 
could be done I would like to force a few to take The 
li. N.-Y’. OR. ir. A. s. 
Michigan. 
T is true that in a free couutr.v you cannot force 
a man to accept what you may feel sure would 
he to his advantage. That is re.served for a nation 
under .strict military rule. It would not help most 
men if they were forced to read the Declaration of 
Independence or Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech under 
protest. The forcing might make them disloyal. It 
is when they can feel as well as read that the spirit 
is moved. The old idea of teaching was to drive 
Oic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
facts into the child's brain with a chib. Now the 
great teacher puts pictures and visions before the 
child’s mind, and lets him absorb them. 
W F learn of a wealthy milk buyer and dealer 
who does not seem to love The R. N.-T. 
This man’s language in speaking of the paper would 
set the ink on fire if it were put in print. We have 
an idea that if this man could he placed on the battle 
line in Europe, and someone could hand him a copy 
of the paiier, his language would hold up the German 
drive at once. This man Imr. a farm which he under¬ 
takes to run in an arbiti-ary, .selfish manner. A 
workman in his emploj- subscribed to The R. N.-Y. 
and on one occasion left several copies in one of 
the buildings. The boss happened to see them, and 
at once pounced ujion the papers and stuffed them 
into the stove. Take the word “rascal” and frame 
half a dozen unprintable ad.)ectives around it and 
you may imagine his I'emarks. What was all this 
about? This man sa.vs that The R. N.-Y. was in¬ 
strumental in making him pa.v to farmers for their 
milk .something like what that milk was worth. 
That seems to be “the head and front of our offend¬ 
ing.” We feel a little sorr.v for an.v man who thinks 
that by destroying another man’s ])roi>erty he can 
help himself or prevent the growth of an idea. 
Years ago there caine a man with a remarkable 
stone. Whatever it touched revealed the tmth. 
The arbitrai’y, ruling classes of that day had no use 
for the cold truth, so they burned the man and his 
stone. Instead of destroying his iwwer they in- 
• ■rea.sed it, for every tiny atom of the ashes still 
(tarried the power to briiig out the truth. So when 
our arbitrar.v and profane friend stuffed The R. 
N.-Y’. into the stove he defeated his own purjicse. 
Ever.v man in his emjdoy and every m.-ni the.v talked 
with knew that whatever the faults of Tite R. N.-Y. 
)night be, it stood for the exact opi)osite of the 
arbitrary, malignant and stwiudly narrow sjnrit 
which this man di.spla.v<'d. No house warmed in tlmt 
,s])irit can endure*. 
S OME of the very jible men who are organizing 
and conducting our public food campaign won¬ 
der why the farmers do not have more confidence in 
their advice and attempted regulation. They seem 
to forget, if they ever knew it, that men think .and 
reason in their own language. The man who is too 
far in advance of his time or whose busine.ss thought 
is too large to fit the simple minds of plain people 
cannot get hold of the multitude and make them 
understand him. Blain, common people, who must 
work hard for a living, have, ever since this war 
started, felt certain things deeply, hut have not been 
able to express them .iust as they would like. The 
waj^ to enlist these people in the most active and 
loyal .supi)ort of a food ])roducing or saving ))lan 
would be to get down into their own thought ami 
language, so that they would understand why all 
these rules and regulations are proposed. Instead 
of proceeding in that sensible way little or no effort 
has been made to explain to our farmers, so that 
the.v could understand. Thus the very size and gi-eat 
ability of the men who are in charge of the cam¬ 
paign have bellied to puzzle our farmers and make 
them bitter. We are not yet quite under a militai-y 
form of govei-nment, though some of our leaders 
seem to think we are. They have to a large extent 
lost the confidence of a great body of our farmers by 
failing to realize that they are dealing with in¬ 
telligent free men, who from both habit and inherit¬ 
ance will do everything that is asked of them if it 
he explained fairly, but will resent orders and 
regulations which their plain common sense tells 
them are unbusinesslike if not un.i’u.st. 
T he New York Senate finally pas.sed the Martin 
bill, to repeal the present school law, by a vote 
of .34 to 9. Senator E. R. Bi-own exhausted ever.v 
effort to delay or defeat this bill, but public senti¬ 
ment was so strong that it ran over him. He then 
brought up his substitute bill. This retains the 
township unit plan, and provides a payment of 
public money from the State Huid. The wily Senatoi- 
Brown evidently thought the farmers would accept 
this as a bribe on the theory that the cities ))ay 
most of the tax. He could not stop repeal with this 
pretty bait, but by combining with Senators from 
New York City he got this bribe bill through the 
Senate. It will be killed in the Assembly, and we 
now go back to the old law—a course demanded by 
a vast majoi-ity of country people. This law will 
be changed or imin-oved wherever needed, but it 
will be done l)y the people most vitally interested. 
The changes will not be forced lapon them in any 
arbitrary mannei*. This school law campaign and 
what it stood for has proved one of the greatest 
.\piii la, 101.' 
political educators ever known in New Yoi-k State. 
It came at .iust the needed time to give our women 
voters an issue which appealed to them in the 
strongest manner. They became intei’ested, and now 
realize their power. Through full organization and 
careful work our country people have done what 
the politicians said was impossible—that is, com¬ 
pelled the Legi.slature to i-everse its action of last 
year. Now we know what we ('an do when we 
once get together. Nfe must keep up the organiza¬ 
tion and move on to the next public job. 
* 
The politicians put up a howl after the Syracus(‘ 
meeting of the Farm Fetleration that we were trying to 
tear down without offering anything in its ))laee. Don’t 
let anyone discourage yon by telling you you will mak(’ 
matters wor.se. It can’t be done. Things are far worse 
than the Layman knows anything .about at the present 
time. E. o. r. 
W E know, of course, what the politicians arc* 
.saying and doing. If there was no power or 
substance to the present movement among farmers 
these politicians would never bother about it. The.v 
realize now that ,a real struggle is coming. The 
.State Legislature is the true battleground, for ther** 
is where the forces of in.iustice and graft are in¬ 
cubated. A group of .50 actual farmers in the Legis¬ 
lature will .get right at the heart of the matter. 
The executive does not ci'oate and cannot full.v de¬ 
stroy, but the legislative part of government is tin* 
creator of law :ind political change. Therefore we 
want .iO farmers in the. New York Legislature. It 
is time you started in your count.y to help select a 
man who will go to Albany and think ahout agri¬ 
culture. As for getting discouraged: we never felt 
more hopeful over the situation, for we know the 
.spirit of our farmer.s, and we can plainly see the 
forces which are organizing. There never was any¬ 
thing like it b(>for(\ In years jtast these things have 
grown u]) lilce mushrooms only to fade away. After 
all the.se years we suddeul.v come to realize that the 
growth of public sen.iment has been as solid as that 
of an o.-ik trc'e. Nolbing can stop it now. 
* 
1 r('!i(l that there is to he a bou.se-to-hou.se mspeetioii 
to find whether i)eoj)le are hoarding food supplies. Does 
that mean that a person has to let a stranger go through 
his house, and perhaps two or three strangers, who may 
j)rove to be midnight thieves later on? Must not such 
person wear a badge of some sort large enough to be 
seen and easily read? Plea.se answer this so that we 
may know what to do if strangers demand admittance. 
Massachusetts. o. P. M. 
T HLS w.-is explained on p.ago .367. The Food Ad¬ 
ministrator .said: 
.\.s t(» the suggestion that hoarded foodstuffs might be 
taken b.y :i thief or one not entitled to seize the same, 
there (*au be no difliculty on that score, as all Goveru- 
ineut represenfaf ives should cari-y credentials and gladly 
jiroduce the same Jipou request. 
It is not likel.v that anyone will disturb you, but 
if you are visited by man or woman claiming to be 
an :ig(‘nt of the Government, make them show their 
credentials. Do not be satisfied with any “badge.” 
It is your right to see the jiapers before your house 
is entered. If these visitors c:muot show such sigmal 
papers, set the dog on them. 
W E understand there is a good (|uantit.v of .solid 
seed corn in Ylaryland and Virginia and 
other border State.s. Ylost Northern farmers ai-e 
afraid of this Southern corn, as they think it will 
not mature before frost. Yet this Southern .seed 
will make good silage at the North, and can be used 
for that purpose—leaving the Northern-grown seed 
for the .grain crop. In that case the silage corn 
may be idanted first—instead of last, as is usual. 
Brevities 
The wine of life is never found in a whine. 
No u.se talking, the poultry men will raise more coi-n 
than ever before this year. 
Too many people arc trying to hand cnlture down 
fi'oin the top. 
When you cannot work your head it’s time for yon 
to go to bed, for no one ever found much gain fnnn 
working with a tir(>d brain. 
The farmer knows the remedy for many kinds of lice. 
btit_ no one yet has shown him how to kill oft’ fool’s 
advice. 
Mr. IU.ack’s artic-le on page 54S will interest inanv 
who have a single plum tree which will not bear. \Ve 
h.ave had at least 25 questions about this. The trouble 
is usually due to sterile flower.s—a failure to fertilize. 
Driving ru.sty nails into the tree will not “cure” it. 
There will be a heavy planting of sorghum this year 
for the production of sirup. Be sure of your seed. 
One case is reported to us of a farmer who received 
broom corn seed mixed with the sorghum. Broom 
corn may sweep, but it will not sweeten. 
“I TAKE no stock in all this talk of sterilizing the soil 
for plant growing.” said Farmer Brown. Then he fol¬ 
lowed his old, successful plan of burning a brush heaj). 
spading in the ashes and sowing his cabbage seed on 
the .spot. That vas .iust what the fire did to the soil— 
sterilized it. 
