( 1358 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FABMER’S PAPER 
A Xutlonal W eekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established iSSO 
Poblished neeki j by the Rural PnblUhIni; Company, 838 West 80th Street, New i'ork 
Herbert W. COLLDfowooD, President and Editor. 
JoH.v J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. _ Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.0t. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8 ^ marks, or lOlj francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office a.s Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 75 cents per agate line—7 worda References required for 
advertisers unknown to ns ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
■We believe that every advertisement in this paper Is backed by a respon- 
elble peiwn. 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 t)aid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, liTespon- 
fiiDic advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
^ch swindler vriW be publicly exposed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribei’s and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We wdllingrly u.^^e our 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 
resjwnsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned bv the courts, 
Notice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
the transition, and to identify it, you should mention Thk Rural New- 
Yorker when w’liting the advertiser. 
I can’t spend a dollai* and get a quarter as much enjoy¬ 
ment and knowledge as I can get with The R. N.-Y. 
Enclosed find the one dollar. I enjoy your paper, and 
hope you live forever. I have sent you several new 
customers, my acquaintances; have plugged the paper 
and will keep on plugging for The R. N.-Y. 
New York. geo. w. winniett. 
HAT seems to represent a 400-per cent dollar. 
We wonder if our readers stop to think what 
It means to take this personal interest in the paper. 
Naturally we must look to our old friends to help u.s 
secure new ones, and, of course, we regard Mr. Win- 
nlett’s example as an excellent one for all to follow, 
* 
T he annual meeting of the Dairymen’s League 
will be held at ]0 A. IM. on Tuesday, December 
lOtli, in (Jrand View Auditorium. Ogden Avenue and 
Franklin Street, Jersey City, N. J. This is just 
0 cross the river from New York City. Many mem¬ 
bers will nearly jiass The Rx:ral New-Yokker ofiice 
going or coming. We extend a cordial invitation to 
all members to call. The latchstring is out, and all 
dairymen and dairywomen, too, will be welcome. 
The League meeting is sure to be a rouser. The 
larger the better; beoau.se the great hope for all 
organizations of this .sort lies in a common nnder- 
slanding of the situation. That can only be had by 
coming together to talk it over. 
* 
O N page 1308 is the statement of a poultryman 
who put 22,000 eggs into water glass only to 
find them ruined. Our chemist examined a samiile of 
the water glass and finds it bad. Most likely its 
inferior quality was responsible for the lo.ss of the 
eggs. Yet this chemical testimo.ny will not help the 
chicken man because he kept what was left of the 
gla.ss over in an open pail. In a court case the 
chemist’s testimony would be ruled out, because it 
would be claimed that this exposed glass was not 
what the dealer sold. If the poultryman had kept 
the glass in the original package, well closed, he 
would probably have a case. 
T he Railroad Administration had declared an em¬ 
bargo which would prevent the shipment of live 
stock by express from December 10 to January 1. 
This would have proved a serious blow at the busi¬ 
ness of shipping purebred stock, especially hogs and 
sheep. The greatest demand for breeding hogs comes 
during December, and many farmers and breeders 
wire their orders and demand immediate shipment. 
As a result of a strong protest and clear pre.sentment 
of the ease the Administration finally arranged with 
the express companies to modify the embargo. They 
will now handle shipments of live stock for breeding 
purposes during December. This is right. The pro¬ 
posed embargo would have been a serious handicap 
to the breeding industry. 
m 
I T is no secret that the Government and many 
large manufacturers were unprepared for peace 
when the German defense suddenly collapsed. Most 
of those who figured on army supplies expected at 
least one year more of war, and production was 
being sjieeded to the limit. Now, with the end in 
sight, the War Department finds a vast stock of goods 
on hand with great contracts in force. There are, 
for example, over 12,000,000 pairs of shoes, nearly 
2,000,000 of rubber boots, 4.5,000,000 pairs of stock¬ 
ings, nearly 15,000,000 pairs of gloves, and 5,000,000 
blankets, all new and ready for the Army. There 
are, also, vast quantities of machinery and other 
equipment ou hand, designed especially for war ser¬ 
vice. It will be a great problem to dispose of this 
equipment and turn it to needed use without inter¬ 
fering with private business. After the Civil War 
thousands of men appeared in blue army overcoats, 
so many of them that the clothing trade was affected. 
If the war ox-ders are canceled at once, thousands of 
^/>e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
V’orkmen will be thrown oxit of woi'k at the opening 
of Wintei’. The “xiuskilled” workmen—largely from 
farms or small towns—will go first. Some of them 
realize what is coming, and are already looking 
aboxit for good faim jobs. Exit they want more 
than they were paid when they left the farm. 
T here are some farm women in this country who 
xlecline to be robbed by the woolen yarn gam¬ 
blers, They have gone back to the old-fashioned .spin¬ 
ning wheel and make their own yarn. A number of 
families who never thought of it before are now keep¬ 
ing two or three sheep and using the wool for spinning. 
It may .seem strange to go back into pioneer times for 
relief from extortion, but it is being done, and will 
continue to be done when modern society makes xis 
pay extravagant prices for doing things which we 
can do just as well for our.selves. Most of us have 
fallen into a form of .slax’ery by handing work over 
to lawyers, manufacturers or handlers, and paying 
them any charge they see fit to make. We have got 
to go back to the old way of doing more of it our¬ 
selves. 
* 
T he agricultural committee of the U. S. Senate 
called upon Secretary of Agi-icxiltxii'e Houston 
to give them the cost of pi-oducing wheat. Mi*. Hous¬ 
ton was obliged to say that he had no i-eliable figures. 
He did not know, and could not name anyone xvho 
does kiK”'. He admitted that the expensive methods 
employed by the deixartment for obtaining this cost 
have broken down, and tiiat the figures secxired 
throngii tliose ir.H^mds were of little or no value. 
Yet these figures, nov, prononncexl worthless, seem 
tc have been used in determining the price of wlieat 
to farmers. A.s we all know, practical farmers who 
keep accounts insist that the Government price does 
not give tliem a fair margin of profit. Yet this price 
seems to have been made largely by gxiessx\*oi’k, since 
the Agricultural Depai-tment now admits that its 
own figures are worthless. Here we have an illus¬ 
tration of the whole trouble. It would seem to be 
the most natural thing in the world to go right to 
<he farmers for advice and figures whenever facts 
are wanted about food production! In.stead of do¬ 
ing that the authorities seem to assume that the 
practical farmers are incapalile of xindex'standing 
their own business, hut that “experts” and theorists 
must arrange it for them. 
* 
Citizen, Educator and Friend. 
HE pas.sing of William D. Hoard at the i-ipe age 
of 82 years loaves hut a handful of the fine “old 
guard” who 25 years ago did .so mxich to stimxilate 
farm thought and make faimi education ixopnlar. A 
few of these pioneers, like Dr. W. I. Chamberlain, 
John Gould. Franklyn Dye and others are left, but 
nio.«.t of them have passed on into the silent land. 
I’erliaps they have not carved their names upon the 
rocks of time, hut. what is better, they leave mem¬ 
ories in the hearts of men which will endure through 
three generations. Gov. Hoard stood at the head of 
the devoted band of exhorters, educators and organ¬ 
izers who did their work before the agricultxii’al col¬ 
leges were able to train the men needed to conduct 
our present system of farm education. The farmers’ 
institute was then in its full glory. The colleges 
Avere not strong enough to dominate agricultural 
meetings, and the laboratory men were not sure 
enough of their sxrience to preach it as a commanding 
gospel. This state of affairs gave great opportunity 
to tiiose practical men who had the quick mind need¬ 
ed to absorb the principles of science and the shrewd 
common sense to know that tliese must be translated 
into the language of common people. 
Mr. Hoard possessed this power to a remarkable 
degree. He was not a college-trained man, but his 
experience as a farm boy, pioneer and soldier, gave 
him a knowledge of human life—its frailties and its 
longings, which in turn gave him mastery over his 
audiences. A man of keen humor, and, like Lincoln, 
a good story-teller. Hoard appealed to the imagina¬ 
tion of men who did not know they possessed any 
sncli (piality—and made them think. Some speakers 
and writers do this, and are known, only as “funny” 
men. Imt Hoard was a student and a xvise man who 
made his audiences realize that beneatli tlie laughter 
and tlie wit lay some great truth which was to haunt 
them through life. After all, time is the great tester 
of men and things, and Hoard’s life has stood the 
test of time. It has been years now since he was 
able to meet his audiences face to face and thus 
bring them under the influence of his atti-active pei*- 
sonality. Yet Hoard did not fade out of the lives of 
men as so many have done at the close of active 
lalior. He liad put the things he stood for too deeply 
into the minds of the people, and for many 5 ’ears his 
December 7, 1918 
name will be as.sociated with better daiiying and im¬ 
proved farming. Something of his i* *ecord is given 
elsewhere in this issue. The point we seek to make 
hei’e is that this man, raised under humble condi- 
tion.s, self-taught to study and think, made himself a 
master in his line through steady loyalty to a great 
idea and faith in the intelligence and higher feeling 
of the plain, common people. We are not sxire that 
in these days of organized science and college dom¬ 
ination of farm education a man could do just what 
Hoard did 25 years ago, but he did it, and well de¬ 
served to be called great citizen, true educator and 
loyal friend. 
♦ 
T here win be thousands of beef animals killed 
on the farm and exit up as described on oxir 
first page. The easy years before the war had in¬ 
duced many farm families to give up the old-fash¬ 
ioned plan of home slaughtering. The new way was 
to sell live stock on the hoof and buy meat from the 
butcher. Now many who fell into this plan will 
come back to the home supply. In the past few years 
we have learned the great value of canned meat. 
Instead of putting the surplus into smoke and salt 
we can now keep it in cans and have the best sub¬ 
stitute for fresh meat at any time. In some cases 
this plan has dex'eloped into commxinity canneries 
wliere some enterprising man xvill take a carcass 
from his neighbor and send it back to him securely 
sealed in cans. 
iK 
T he old railroad managers have had a dozen or 
more of the smartest lawj’ei’s in the country to 
pxit up a great legal fight against Government OAvn- 
ership or permanent Government control. The Gov¬ 
ernment is noAv managing the i-ailroads as a war 
measure. We believe that a majority of Ameriean.s, 
in the'ir .present frame of mind, Avould prefer to have 
this Government control continue or finally change 
to OAAmership. We think there is a growing coiiAdc- 
tion that the railroads, the telephone, telegraph and 
express husine.s.s might aa'cII be conducted on the 
principle of the postal service. It will require some 
very strong and reasonable argximents to convince 
the pxiblie that Avhat is nsefxil in war may not also 
he useful in peace. One chief argument adAuinced 
against Government ownership is the fact tliat thou¬ 
sands of people have invested their money in .stocks 
and bonds. No one advocates any confiscation. 
Would not an exchange of Goveimment securities for 
these industrial .stocks or bonds give full protection 
to the holdei’s? We all say and believe that the Lib¬ 
erty bonds are the safest inv^estments on earth. 
» 
O N November 14, when the pi*ice of milk was ad¬ 
vanced to the consumers of New York City one 
cent a qxiart AA’ithont any ad\’ance to the producer, 
it Avas nnofticially intimated tlmt after the dealers 
had their 10 days’ scoop, the advance Avonld be 
shai'ed with the prodxicer. In keeping Avith this in¬ 
timation, the price to pi’odncers for December ha*s 
been fixed at $4.06 per Imndred poxinds for .3 per 
cent milk in the 150-mile zone. The price to con- 
sximers remains the same as during the last 10 days 
of November, 17 to 24 cents per quart. Milk contain¬ 
ing 3.3 per cent fat, AA’hich is about the average in 
NeAv York, costs the dealer .$4.01 per can f. o. h. Ncav 
York. The stores pay $5.30 per can. The dealer 
gets $1.29 per can for carting to the store and col¬ 
lecting his money. The distance averages less than 
ihe farmer’s drive to the station. The dealer Avonld 
make good profit delivering this milk at 20 cents 
a can. 
Brevities 
Remember that the best whitewash is a wash. It is 
not a paint and will wash off. 
The wise man does not attempt to pronounce the 
names of some of these new European republics—like 
Czeeho-Slovak! 
The. war has done great things in shaking up the peo¬ 
ple. Here comes a Georgia man saying “What we 
Yanks can’t do is not on record.” 
The great demand for black walnut passes with the 
cikI of the war. It will still be ueed for veneers and 
other woodwork, but the high prices will he scaled 
down. I’eople are still writing about this timber. They 
are now too late for best prices. 
There will be great feeding of apple pomace this year. 
It is good to turn this former Avaste to use, but do not 
get too large ideas about its value. It is worth some¬ 
what less than good silage. It will not prove a “bal¬ 
anced ration,” but should have hay and grain along 
Avith it. 
Experiments made in Michigan show that the paint 
used on radiators has con.siderable to do Avith their heat¬ 
ing capacity. The poorest coverings are the bronze 
made of copper and aluminum. The best material Avas 
enamel, while white lead and zinc paints gave good re¬ 
sults. The number of coats of paint on the radiator 
made little difference—it was the last coat Avhich told. 
