1000 
"Uhc RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TJIE FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban lIomcH 
Established iSSO 
Published weekly by <he Knral Pnblishiner Company, 533 IVest 80th Street, New York 
Herbert "W. Collin'Gwood, rropident and Editor. 
John J. Dielok, Treasurer and General Slanaprer. 
Wm. F. Dillok, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreipm countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8^ marks, or francs. Remit in monev order, express 
order, pei-sonal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Cla.ss Hatter. 
Advertisinpr rates. 7o cents per aerate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; aiid cash must accompany transient orders. 
«A SQUARE DEAR” 
. believe that every axlvertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and a/imit the adVertisinpr of 
reliable houses only. Rut to make doubly sure, wc will make prood any loss 
to naid subscribers sustained by trustinp: any deliberate swindler, irrej?pon- 
sible adverti8ei* *s or misleadinpr a<Ivertisements 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 wilJinpi^ly use our ffood 
offices to this end, but such cases should not be confused with dishonest 
transactions. Wo protect subscribers aprainst ropiies, but M'e will not bo 
responsible for the debts of honest b.ankrupts 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 advertise r. 
I T is a little too late now for best results, yet we 
would like to have as many as possible of o\ir 
readers put some Alfalfa seed in with the regular 
cover crop. Most farmers will use rye, clover and 
perhaps turnips in the cover at the last cultivation. 
A small amount of Alfalfa added to the other seed 
will pay. The direct payment will come in a heavier 
growth to cut or turn under next year. The in¬ 
direct help will come in learning what is the best 
way to seed Alfalfa. If it can he seeded as a cover 
crop we shall make a great gain In practice. The 
only Avay to find out is to make hundreds of trials. 
* 
M any farm women will he intei'ested in the ar¬ 
ticle on making cottage cheese on page 1007. 
All sorts of foods are in demand now and many town 
and city people are going back to the simple food of 
youth on the farm. Cottage cheese of good cinality 
is very popular with many, as a substitute for meat, 
and it is pos.sible to sell it to good advantage in some 
markets. We know of several middle-aged people 
who are eating this cheese and finding it a very 
satisfactory source of protein. Every ounce of farm 
milk should be utilized now, and many a farm where 
only a few cows are kept will find a nice little in¬ 
come from good cottage cheese. 
* 
N ot long ago we wrote a prominent man asking 
for an opinion regarding a subject which is of 
great importance to farmers. He replied l»y saying; 
“/ thwlc I K ill give no opinion on the suhjeet since 
I expect to he a candidate for a State offiee!" 
Now one would think that if a man really wanted 
to serve the public he would he eager to tell just 
where he stands on a subject which is of vital im¬ 
portance to farmers! Y"et we iiave come to a time 
when most men seem to think it wiser to dodge and 
comi)romise and try to stand on half a dozen plat¬ 
forms at once. Is there any public character on 
earth more ridiculously pitiful than the straddler? 
lie is worse than the man who talks against his 
convictions because he hears “his master’s voice”! 
There is a very suitable text for the man who waits 
to see which is to be the popular side before ex¬ 
pressing any opinion: 
"'Because thou are neither hot nor cold, I will 
spew thee out of my mouth !" 
* 
I N 1784. just after the war of the Revohition. the 
people of Albany, N. Y., full.v believed that iheir 
city would rank ahead of Boston and rhiladeli)hia 
in .size and importance. Albany was then the sixth 
city in size in all the country. No one could imagine 
the great development of the West. It seemed as if 
the gi-anary of the country, if not of the world, was 
to he located in the valleys of the Hudson, Mohawk 
and Genesee. Albany stood at the upper end of the 
Hudson Yalley, through which trade with the rit-h 
interior country must flow, and so the valley people 
had their dream of greatness. If they had acted as 
well, this dream might in part have come true, but 
they waited for others to do the work which they 
.should have done themselves, and opportunity passed 
by. There is now a possibility that something of 
the old dream may yet be worked out. The future 
is only the past dressed and trimmed up to meet 
changed conditions. There is now a plan on foot to 
dig and dredge out the Hudson so that large ocean 
steamers may pass up to Albany to be unloaded 
there and loaded with freight brought East over the 
canal or railroads. New York City is now crowded 
with freight, and the transfer at Albany would save 
time and freight charges and expense in handling. 
After the war there will be a great increase in our 
export trade, and this transferring freight at Albany 
direct from the ocean steamers will save in many 
ways and also change the history of the Hudson 
Valley. 
A RKPOUT is in circulation that .a woman in New 
.Tpr.sey. who raises her own wheat, has been fined .$75 
for using her own flour in whole wheat bread for her 
own use. J)o you think this could be true? I have my 
own wheat which I want to use for the same purpose. 
New .Jersey. e. 
O. The report is not true. It is etddently one 
of the stories put out by pro-Germans to 
fi'ighten the people and arouse suspicion. In some 
reighborhoods these stories have gone .so far that 
country people are nervous and excited. Pay no 
attention to such foolish stories, and do not, under 
any circumstances, repeat them or pass them along. 
* 
W E are inclined to feel sorry for such men as 
S. .1. Lowell and W. N. Giles of the New 
Y*ork Grange, It. D. Cooper and H. J. Kershaw of 
the Dairymen’s League, S. L. Strivings and others, 
who are going about the State at farmers’ meetings 
trying to sit on the lid and keep farmers from ex¬ 
pressing their true sentiments. These men are es¬ 
pecially trying to discredit the New” Y"ork Federation 
of Agriculture. We have reports of their meetings, 
and it must be pitiful to see these men, all capable 
of giving helpful leadership, standing before in¬ 
telligent fanners and trying to temporize and use 
a feather duster on the strong, basic demands of 
plain manhood. These men know that the organiza¬ 
tions which they at present misrepresent have de¬ 
clared for the principles of the Federation, and that 
01 : a popular vote they tvonld be repudiated two to 
one. Y'et they get up and compromise or “explain” 
or shift the issue or abuse individuals until the 
majority of those who listen say among themselves: 
“This man has sold himself. What did this man get 
for deserting us?" There is no enthusiasm, no life 
in the audience, as these explainers sit on the lid 
like men who begin to feel the heat through their 
clothes, while wiienever some farmer gets up with 
any strong remark about 50 farmers in the Legisla¬ 
ture, you can hear the crowd a mile away! For 
these farmers and their wdves are thinking of their 
hoys over in France, cutting their way through the 
Prussian guard on the way to Berlin. These men 
and women are in no mood to listen quietly to com¬ 
promisers and dodgers who are so fearful for their 
own hide that they never could get the hide of the 
German Kaiser, or of the petty kaisers who pull the 
strings which work these puppets. We feel sorry for 
such men. Down in their hearts they have their own 
faint longings to he free. Agriculture needs leaders 
—not lid-loaders. A sack of bran can hold a lid 
down as well as a man—and do the job wdth far 
more dignity. We feel .sorry for them. 
* » 
T HERE are a few things about the distribution 
of the American wlieat crop jiot generally un¬ 
derstood. Most city people seem to think that all 
farmers raise wheat. The fact is that a large pro¬ 
portion of our Eastern farmers buy their flour. Of 
the 48 States of the Union, only IS produced enough 
wheat for the requirements of their people in 1017. 
Of the North Atlantic Coast States from Maine to 
Florida only two (Delaware and Maryland) raised 
enough wheat to .supply their inhabitants. In New 
England the deficiency in wheat over the local crop 
was 31.417,000 bushels. In New York State alone 
thei'e was a deficiency of 45,002,000 husliels, and in 
Pennsylvania 27,071,000. Yet yeai's ago those States 
were expected to feed their own people and provide 
a large .surplus for others. As we go west Indiana 
is the first State to provide any surplus of wheat. 
A little group of half a dozen States in the North¬ 
west and three more on the Pacific Coast practically 
1 rovide white bread for the nation! Thus, instead 
of being as it once was, one of the most genei’al of 
all farm crops, wheat is now largely a special crop 
belonging to the great Northwest. This condition 
was brought about by falling prices of grain, which 
finally drove wheat raising through an economical 
law to the great Western plains where every econ¬ 
omy of large methods could be employed. Now the 
swing is coming back. It is not desirable to have the 
production of a necessity like bread monopolized by 
any particular section. That throws too much into 
the hands of a monopoly in handling, milling and 
distributing. This season there is a much wider 
distribution of the crop. Tliousands of farmers in 
the East who have for years bought their flour are 
now growing a few acres of wheat for their own use. 
This practice will increase, and it will be a good 
thing for all, for it will save money for farmers and 
relieve the flour shortage. No one will be likely to 
claim that the New England States will produce all 
the wheat their people need, but those States ought 
to produce 10,000,000 bushels. In 1917 Maine pro¬ 
duced 154,000 bushels and Vermont 274,000. This 
year the figures are 602,000 and 274,000, respectively. 
August 24, 1918 
GOOD many copies of The R. N.-Y. go across 
the sea and are distributed among readers 
who serve in the army. Some of our young farmers 
took the paper before they were drafted, just as 
father and grandtather did. One of these men writes 
us from France on receiving two copies together: 
I surely did enjoy reading them. It made me feel 
as though I was back home again, sitting on the porch, 
as my custom was in the Summer, reading it. Your 
article on page 743, “Poison Ivy; the Curse of the 
Fields,” arrived just in time. A good many fellows 
around here never saw poison ivy in their life, and 
being stationed out in the country now, there are quite 
a few cases of poison ivy. I am going to cut this article 
out and post it on the bulletin board in the Y. M. C. A., 
where it may benefit all those who care to read it. 
PVT. A. NEZIN. 
So they have poison ivy as well as the Kaiser to 
contend with “over there”! Here is hoping both will 
be rooted out. Our farm hoys have taken many a 
weedy cornfield in hand and cleaned it up with their 
hoes. Reports from the l)attlefront show that they 
are using the bayonet as well as the hoe. 
* 
N O one will pretend that the country school has 
ever been fully utilized as a community cen¬ 
ter. We hope to see the time when the rural school¬ 
teacher will become the most useful citizen in the 
district. He or she will do more than teach the 
children, but will also play the part of community 
loader. In this country a movement is starting to 
enlarge the work of tlie rural school by .securing per¬ 
manent teachers and making them more a part of 
community life. Mr. H. E. Jackson is organizing 
this work and among other things he says: 
At every school there will be a postoffice box for com¬ 
munity mail, and the people will gather at the school to 
learn the news and make use of the facts. This is ex¬ 
actly what is being done in France. The Department 
of Education in_ Paris .sends bulletins each day to the 
school teachers in the different districts of France and 
the teachers get their communities together each night 
to read the bulletins and discuss them. 
We believe in keeping the control of our district 
schools in the hands of the local patrons, but that 
should not mean any failure to develop the schools. 
They ought to be so improved and made so useful 
to the community that no valid argument for taking 
them away can ever be made. 
* 
T he battle over the New York .school law last 
Winter w’as one of the best things that ever 
happened to New Y^ork farmers aside from an;^ 
effect upon rural education. It brought our farmers 
together into a strong organization—so strong that 
it did the impossible. Never before has any power 
arisen in New York capable of making the Legisla¬ 
ture and Governor absolutely reverse their work in 
less than one year! That work developed a num¬ 
ber of organizers wlio give evidence of remarkable 
skill. One of these is Mrs. H. D. Converse of Clifton 
Springs, N. Y. She is .secretary of the Ontario 
County civic organizations, and evidently one of 
those persistent characters who have a genius for 
organizing humanity into strong and orderly com¬ 
panies. Mrs. Converse has the vision to see that 
the work over this school question has not been 
ended. We nuist not separate and lose onr organiza- 
vtion, but keep on and perfect it. Mr.s. Converse puts 
it this way: 
Some people wonder why we .should do anything 
more now that the township law has been repealed. It 
remind.s me of the story of a boy pounding a dog that 
he had already pounded to death. A man said to the 
boy; “Why do you continue to pound the dog when 
he is already dead?” The boy replied: “This dog lias 
been killing sheep, and I want him to distinctly under¬ 
stand there is punishment after death.” 
The R. N.-Y. is iu full sympathy with tliis plan 
to develop a State civic organization based upon 
district units. We do not know of any better way 
than to make IMrs. Converse the hub of the wlieol, 
if she will consent to hold the spokes together. So. 
let all the felloes and friends get into the wheel at 
once, and help Mrs. Converse organize. 
Brevities 
Sweet apples save sugar. 
When a thing is left to run itself it runs only one 
way—down hill! 
Take any crop you ever saw from cabbage up to 
rice, you cannot cut out work and sweat and substitute 
advice. 
The Food Administrator asks farmers not to kill 
young tui’keys to serve as “broilers.” We find the kill¬ 
ing well attended to for us. 
Now IT is the woman who mixed the packages and 
fed her husband on birdseed instead of his usual 
“cereal.” He went to his work singing. 
What has become of the shouters and advisers who 
last year were advising farmers what to plant? Can it 
be possible they have found that farmers actually know 
what to do without all this advising? It looks so, and 
we cannot resist saying that we told you so a year 
ago. Now what are the advisers to do for a job? 
