588 
Ghe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE nrsiXEss faemees paper 
A Nutionul Sleekly Journol for Country and Suburban llompn 
Established ISM 
TiiblUhed nrckly hjr th» Rural Pnbliuhlne Company, 333 Wrst 80ih Slrrrl, Non Fort 
Ukkbert yv. CoixiN’GwooD, President and Editor. 
John J. Dielon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Diixon, Secretary. Mr.«. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign eountries in the Universal Postal Union. 82.W. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8^a marks, or lOl* francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Cla.ss Matter. 
Advertising rates, 76 cents per agate line—7 words. Referimees required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
tVe believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon- 
every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subjwribei’s su.stained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible adyertisei's or misleading adverti-sements 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, 
r^Iionsible houses, whether advertisers or not. Wo willingly use our good 
offices to this end, but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. Ye protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not be 
i^siionsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts, 
Notice of the complaint must be .sent to us within one month oi the time of 
the transaction, and to identif" it, you should mention The Rural New- 
F ORKEK when writing the advertiser. 
S ICVER.VL dairymen have told \is how it Nvill bo 
impossible for thorn to milk a full-sized herd 
this year. Tho help has loft them, and the.v are 
no loii^ror youn;?. The pastures are good and well 
loiifod, and it sooms a shame that this good grass 
.s;hould be Y'asted. Those men sa.v that the govern- 
nieiit or .some interested capitalist ought to buy beef 
cattle and turn them into tliese vacant pastures. 
One man can handle a good-sized herd of steers on a 
well-watered jiasture, and the meat made in this 
way Avould jiartly make up for the loss of milk. 
The jiasture and fences are there. What is neisled 
is cajiital to buy feeders. Here is a good chance to 
make a dollar Avork for the nation. 
» 
"('omv Aeroxn or Ihr, KaiHcr Will!” 
H.\T is the latest saying regarding the Liberty 
bunds. Tliere is thought in it. The story of 
the last few weeks as it has dribbled in from Europe 
must convince the mo.st thoughtle.ss American that 
we are now face to face with a desperate situation. 
We all understand what Y-ill haiijien to us if that 
human wall in Europe is broken before Ave can 
strengthen it. Your country needs i/oii. up to the 
limit of your .service. .Tust now it is a matter of 
money. Your country needs your dollars and will 
give you in return for them liberty bonds—the 
surest and nubst jiatriotic investment on earth. We 
are glad to say that our farmers are responding 
nobly. We think there will be half a million new 
bond holders for this loan—most of them from the 
country. 
P ERSISTENT efforts are being made to place 
women on farms as workers. If handled in 
reason there is something in this plan. The Y-omen 
can give help at fruit-])icking, weeding and other 
light .iobs, but there is no u.se expecting the average 
Y’oman to do heavy farm Y'ork. They Y’ill be most 
useful in fruit or gardening di.stricts, Y'here they 
can Y’ork in groujis and live together. Under .such 
conditions the women can and will help out. 
T he members of the Ncav \"ork State Educational 
Deiiartment have been very active in trying to 
kill the bill repealing the pre.sent school bnv. They 
have been holding meetings in sui>port of Senator 
Brown’s bill—the object being to confuse the issue 
and split the country voters into two parties, by 
offering the brilie of State money. At one such 
meeting a corre.s])ondent reports: 
.\ representative of the department gave u.s to under- 
. stand that l>r. Einley would never go back to the old 
law. He said that Dr. Finley could or would use hi.s 
arbitrary power. 
If this is correctly reported Y'e would better begin 
to ask this question—“TFIio /.s Dr. Finlri/ and who 
made him an educational ciiar?” At least 90 per 
cent of the voters in the rural districts demanded 
the reiieal of the present school law. The bill re- 
jiealing it has passed the Legislature and the (Gov¬ 
ernor will sign it. When that happens, what has 
the Educational Department to do except to see that 
the old latv is enforced to best advantage? It does 
not seem that the department has ever tried to make 
the best of the old law. They have been too anxious 
to get I’id of it, and have not made the most of it. 
.\t any rate they are not to force any law upon us 
until the people avIio are mo.st vitally interested 
agree to it. Rural education will not “go to the 
dog.s” under our old school law, no matter what the 
school authorities say about it. They can pick out 
a number of “horrible examples,” no doubt, to prove 
their points, but, on the other hand, we can find 
many cases where good schools are being main¬ 
tained under the old law. The quality of the school 
depends most upon the character and human nature 
of the people yIio live in the district. It may be 
a fair criticism to say that in their eagerness to 
jiut over .some jiet scheme of education the educa¬ 
tors forget that history has no record of a case 
Yhere pi-ogress was driven into a free people against 
the wishes of the majority. 
» 
(In page 454 you published a letter from Mr. (^. 11. 
Betts, stating that Mr. .lohii ,1. Dillon was removed by 
the Council of Farms and Markets for good and suffi¬ 
cient reasons. As Mr. Betts failed to state what these 
reasons Y’ere, I ask that you permit me to do so. Mr. 
Dillon was too active in the interest of the producer 
and the consumer to please the big bu.siness—sort of 
threw a monkey wrench into their machinery. As Mr. 
Dillon could not be bluffed, bribed or scared, he had to 
be removed in order to let big business jday its game. 
The day when a few men can by the aid of a political 
ring control the Empire State is near its end. The 
farmers will see to that. ^ Ai. Y'. b.a.xks. 
(Greene (>)., X. Y. 
R. BETTS Yill correct this statement if he 
does not give the true reason. Next to hi.s 
resignation such correction Y’ould be the most 
interesting statement Mr. Betts could make. The 
lioliticiaus wanted Mr. Dillon to re.sign becau.se then 
they could have issued a .statement telling Iioy' hai'd 
they tried to keep him in oftice, “Cood and sufficient 
reasons” to a bunch of politicians means either 
nothing or much. If the.v have any reasons beyond 
their inability to “bluff, bribe or .scare.” Mr. Betts 
knoY's what the.y are. Come forYard Y'ith them 
and at the same time ansY’er the old question Ydiich 
is noY’ asked for the ninth time— when are, ijou 
ijoinf/ to rrHiftn? 
Of 
T his is the year Ydien the tireless cooker and the 
iceless icebox will do double duty. tireless 
looker is any kind of a box with a thick lining of 
some non-conductor of heat. Y'ou put the can con¬ 
taining food piping hot, or Y’ith boiling water, inside 
this box, cover it closely and Y’alk off about your 
business. As the heat cannot escape it goes to Y’ork 
and thoroughly cooks the food. You come back 
from other Y’ork and find your dinner ready Y’ith- 
out .starting up a ueY’ lire. This, tireless cooker Y’ill 
j'rove a blessing to many a farm Y'oman this Sum¬ 
mer. as it has to thousands in the pa.st. We knoY’’ 
of Y'omen yIio prepareil the. dinner shortly after 
breakfast, ])ut it into the lirele.ss cooker, let the 
kitchen lire go out and had most of the forenoon for 
other Avork. ’I'lie fireless cooker family must leai'iU 
to )-eIish a stoY’ as Y’ell as a broil or fry, but they 
can learn to do that—and it Yill do them good. 
T he jiaiiers have been very busy linding helpers 
for farmers. School boys, Y’omen, college stu¬ 
dents, convicts and clerks have all been suggested, 
on the theory that anyone can quickly learn to do 
farm Y’ork. Why are farmers as a class selected 
to try out this experiment in labor? Due great 
trouble with farming is the fact that other indus¬ 
tries have been able to pay higher Ya.ges, and thus 
drive skilled farm labor from the farm. Why not 
ui'ge these industries to take tho inexperienced labor 
mid send the farmers back to farm York? Why 
not jmt the lioys and .girls and convicts and others 
into the factories and compel the farm helpers to 
.go back to the soil? That would be the surest Y’ay 
to increase food production, but has anyone heard 
the manufacturer proposing it? No. The farmer is 
the citizen Y’ho is expected to make bricks Y’ithout 
straw. 
One suggestion I have to ofl'er is to urge all back¬ 
yard poultry keejiers to jdaut along their fences aud in 
any waste place all the suulioY^ers they can. It i.s good 
feed and Y’ill furnish goml shade, and the hens will not 
be croY’ded on account of it. c. n. 
Vermont. 
HAT is a good su.ggestion. The sunflower is 
coming into use. In England tho food con¬ 
troller urges all to grow sunfloY-ers, and offers to 
buy all ripened seed. The Montana Experiment Sta¬ 
tion has been groY’ing sunfloY’ers for silage. They 
grew 30 tons of green material per acre, and the 
silage made from it substituted for clover hay in a 
milk ration. That is, 34 pounds of the silage took 
the place of nine pounds of dry clover. The In¬ 
dians of the NortliY’est considered sunfloAver seed 
next to meat in food value. They carried a “ball” 
of the crushed seetl and nibbled at it Y'hen great 
endurance Y’as required. Poultry are all fond of 
sunflower. It will grow under trying conditions and 
is a thing of beauty as Y’ell as use. 
»i= 
T he various departments of food or agriculture 
complain because the papers do not use more 
of their printed matter. This matter comes from 
State and National institutions. Some days we have 
at least 50.000 Avords poured in upon us. Every 
editor of a farm paper knoY’s that he receives every 
Y’eek three times as much regular matter as he can 
possibly u.'ie. Who can blame him for opening the 
April 20, 1918 
gate and letting this flood of advice run into the 
Y’aste basket? What else can he do Y’ith it? (If 
course, Y’e have loads of advice about how to con¬ 
duct our business, and we ought to feel di.scouraged 
to realize that after more than .“O years of constant 
work Y’e know' so little about it. (lur estimate is 
that it costs about $1,000 a day to prepare and print 
this vast flood of advice which, for the most part, 
goes into junk. With .$.3,000,000 to sjiend on adver¬ 
tising and market service Ye Y ill agree to increase 
ihe consumption of milk by at least 40 iier cent! 
>}: 
O N pa.ge 004 ^Ir.s. ConiY’all tells of a trip of 47 
miles to bring a farm Y’orker and his family. 
This Y’as on .^pi-il 1. Had such a statement been 
made 25 years ago it Y’ould have been regardeil as a 
joke Y’orthy of tbe day. Then travel over bad 
riRids Y’as limited to tbe Y’alking speed of tireil 
horses. Noy- the i-oads are Arm and hard, and this 
trip is considered just a part of tho day’s Y’ork. 
Dreams have come true—that's all. YMu can have 
about any dream you like uoy’, aud the chances are 
(hat those who ai-e living in 1950 will And it true! 
O N page 001 is a statement show’ing Ydiy a potato 
costing about three cents should .sell for 20 
cents Avhen baked and served at a hotel. Now comes 
the accountant Y’ho figured out this remarkable 
story and says: 
A-ssertion is also made that the overhead should not 
be considered. It i.s undoubtedly due to just such state¬ 
ments as this that there Yerc 2,000 bankrupts in Ncy' 
York State last year—1,500 in Noy’ York (''ity alone. 
The majority of these bankrupts did not provide for 
proper overhead charge.s. Every item of overhead is 
reflected upon the sale of each article in the establish¬ 
ment, regardless of its nature. 
By “overhead” is meant tho fixed and constant 
charges of running a busines.s, whether anything is 
sold or not. It i.s through this “overhead” that the 
big corporations crawl out Y’hen there is any in¬ 
vestigation about iirices. They are usually able 
to make the “overhead’’ look .>50 large that they get 
an increase or hold their high jirices. On the other 
hand, tho farmer is expected to accept tbe blue sky 
as his “overhead.” ’There is little or nothing alloY’ed 
him for this expense, and thus he is ahvays at a 
disadvantage Y’hen comi>aring cost of production 
on the farm as an individual Y’ith cost of distribu¬ 
tion as a corporation. It is the. charge for “over¬ 
head"’ which has made the consumer’s dollar to]i- 
heavy. The only thing Y'bich has kejit thousands of 
farmers from bankruptcy is' the unpaid labor of 
women and children ! 
M any of our readers have read “A Son of the 
Middle Border,’’ by Hamlin (Garland. It is 
one of the best iiictures of farm life in the Middle 
West that ever Y’as printed. (Garland admits that 
he came to hate farm life, luid Y’as eager to get 
a Y’ay from it. His hatred Y’as due, as Ye may see, 
to conditions of home and of labor Y’bich Yere not 
necessary. ’The farm Y’as merely a place to grind 
out a dollar, Avhen if some of the dollars had been 
spent on home comforts it Y’ould have made much 
more. (Garland looks back with hatred to his farm 
life, yet there is another side to it. In speaking of 
ihis book the other day, a friend remarked “(Gar¬ 
land may hate tbe farm, I)ut it gave hinn all he has. 
Had he not been able to paint that picture from 
life—out of his own experience'—the world never 
Yould have heard of him!” That is true, and if 
we were to search the history of the men Ydio leave 
done most to lift and enoble the thought of the 
world Y'e should find that the great majority of 
them took their poY’er and iminilse from farm life. 
Some of us Y’ho Y-ant to see the farmer help himself 
to a fairer showing ai’e called radicals or Y’orse. 
The critics cannot understand that Y’hat Y-e Y’ant 
is to make farm life not only an imsiiiration but a 
condition for Y’orking that inspiration out. We 
Y’ant things changed so that a boy Y’ill not need to 
go to the city in order to develop Y’hat he gains on 
the farm. 
Brevities 
“(G.vrden stuff!” Right. Stuff tbe garden Y’ith 
plant food if you expect a crop! 
Tiious.vnds of peojde .seem to think they are co¬ 
operating when they have left the “co” entirely out. 
We advise all to plant as many garden peas as pos¬ 
sible, and can all that you cannot eat green. 
We advise dusting the potato seed jiieces with dry 
sulphur even when they are soaked in formalin to de¬ 
stroy scab germs. 
Lay’ folloY’s respect for citizenship. Where the cur 
dog is regarded as a better citizen than the sheep the 
latter becomes the criminal. 
Work the cans double time. When emptied of fruit 
and vegetables till with old hens and roosters. Eat 
them as “Spring chicken,” and then fill again Y’ith 
garden stuff. 
