276 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S TAPER 
A National Weekly Journal l'or Country and Suburban Homes 
Established isso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 888 West 80th Street, Sew Y ork 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John' 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, $2.04. equal to 8s. 6cU or 
8!t marks, or 104 a francs. Remit in money order, express 
orderj" personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 75 cents per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us , and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE PEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising or 
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 confused 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 of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
On renewing my subscription at New Year’s I gave 
jny city address, as I bad left the farm. For two weeks 
I did not receive my copy. This to me is something 
akin to serious. I always looked for it. while I was 
farming, but today it means a whole lot more to me 
than ever before. Here in this great city, it is the smell 
of pines, and hay up in the mow. It is my only recol¬ 
lection of the brown earth. I want it, as it is a part 
of my old home which I don’t ever want to forget. 
GERARD S. JORDAN. 
Any attempt to comment on such a letter would 
be like trying to adorn the rose. 
Y OU may find it hard to believe, but more than 
100 tons of dry wild cherry bark lias recently 
been shipped to this city. This bark is used in mak¬ 
ing cough and cold remedies, and the epidemic of 
influenza has called on the wild cherries as war 
called on the munition factories. This dried bark 
sells at 8 to 20 cents per pound. The wild cherry 
is a nuisance on the farm. It provides a nursery 
for the tent caterpillar and crowds out better trees. 
It has bitten us loug enough. It is a good thing that 
its bark is worth more than its bite. The influenza 
is a sad nuisance. 80 is the wild cherry, but it car¬ 
ries a remedy or relief for the influenza. Thus one 
nuisance may help us get rid of another. 
» 
H ERE we are with our usual plea for Alsike 
clover. The Alsike has the reputation of being 
a “little clover,’’ and has been neglected in conse¬ 
quence. It is smaller than the Red. but it makes a 
finer hay. It is hardier than Red. and will grow on 
land so wet and sour that Red would soon fade away 
if put on it. We have often seeded Red and Alsike 
together on acid land to find in the Fall a good 
stand of Alsike and only a few scattering plants of 
Red. We would always mix Alsike with Red when 
seeding, for no matter how well a field may be limed 
there will always be some sour spots. The Alsike 
will grow on these and make a good stand. There 
are many sour and wet farms where Red clover or 
Alfalfa could not be made to grow without expensive 
draining and liming, yet Alsike would thrive on 
such soils and make a good showing. 
c< 
T HE State of New Jersey has done its duty in 
the matter of that proposed tunnel under the 
Hudson River. New Jersey is ready for the tunnel, 
and will pay her share of fhe cost. New York hesi¬ 
tates, which is the wrong thing to do at this time. 
That tunnel is needed. At present all supplies 
coming into New York from the west side must be 
floated across the river. In case of blockade or 
strike this water passage is interfered with, and 
greatly delayed. East Winter this city came close 
to famine through the difficulty of bringing food 
across the river. The proposed tunnel will be large 
enough to enable wagons or trucks to pass going 
and coming. Thus a truck can he loaded at a farm 
anywhere within 100 miles of the city and driven 
with its load directly to the city markets. Such a 
plan will not only help the New York consumers, 
hut it will prove a great boon to farmers and gar¬ 
deners. It is one of the things needed to bring pro¬ 
ducer and consumer closer together. The present 
ring of water around Manhattan Island does much 
to hold consumer and producer apart, when their 
real interests lie in close communication. New York 
needs that tunnel. 
* 
B ERKSHIRE Co., Mass., seems to be coming 
back as an agricultural section—if it. ever went 
away. A farmer in that county won the prize of 
$300 for the best five acres of corn in the State. 
He averaged 99.24 bushels of shelled corn per acre. 
Then another farmer in this county won a prize of 
*250 for the best two years’ yield of Alfalfa. From 
nne measured acre they took ifl.iio tons of dry 
lhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Alfalfa hay in two seasons. Then still another 
farmer won the State prize for the six best grade 
Holstein heifers to be found in the State. Corn, 
Alfalfa and high grade dairy stock! A three-legged 
stool on which the New England farmer may sit 
and milk prosperity into his pail. 
* 
A GREAT deal of nonsense is being printed about 
the Government’s guaranteed price for wheat. 
We are told that the Government must repudiate its 
contract or lose one billion dollars. Briefly stated, 
the facts are as follows: During the war we were 
told that the world faced famine and must be fed if 
at all by the farmers of this country. Last Summer, 
when seeding for Winter wheat was to be started, 
this country and our Allies expected at least one 
more year of war. They considered it necessary to 
push wheat production to the limit. The American 
farmer was working under the hardest conditions 
of labor, and with increased expense in every line 
of his work. Most farmers had been producing 
wheat at a loss. This nation and its Allies had to 
take a chance on getting a bread supply for the next 
year, and they did what they ought to have done— 
guaranteed a price for this year’s crop that will 
make it a reasonable object for a farmer to seed 
wheat. This guaranteed price is $2.26 per bushel. 
The American farmers never asked for or desired 
“price fixing.” They, were willing to let supply and 
demand set the price, hut the so-called minimum 
price was forced upon them. Regarding this as a 
sound contract farmers seeded wheat last Fall and 
have prepared to seed more this Spring. Now with 
the coming of peace and with the world’s markets 
opened the price of wheat may drop below this 
guaranteed price. Most of the cost of growing it 
has already been paid out by the farmers, and this 
expense was incurred because the Government made 
its definite and solemn contract, to guarantee the 
price. Now comes a group of city men trying to 
arouse consumers to force the-Government to break 
its contract with farmers. Their argument is that 
if the Government is forced to guarantee the dif¬ 
ference between the price it. has made and what the 
wheat would sell for in the market, it will lose at 
least one billion dollars. It is a well-conceived 
scheme to force the Government to repudiate its 
contract—an agreement which should be “as sacred 
as the stripes on the flag.” The scheme will fail, 
'['he United States Government cannot afford to 
repudiate its agreement with farmers auy more 
than It can break its promise to the soldiers. There 
are more hungry mouths for this nation to feed 
than there were last year. The wheat will he needed 
and there will be no billion dollar loss. Even if the 
Government should be forced to spend money to 
sustain its pledge there would be no loss. Every 
dollar of that money going to the farmer would 
come back into trade or into Government securities. 
The only loss which might occur would result from 
a failure to keep up this guaranteed price, since the 
farmers have already paid out so much that even 
this figure will barely leave them a margin of profit. 
* 
H ERE is a good job for Jerseymen! The agri¬ 
cultural college needs a new horticultural 
building at New Brunswick. There is no question 
about this need. It is plainly apparent. New Jersey 
sits by the side of the road between two of the 
greatest cities in the world. Every year an army of 
health-seekers larger than the combined population 
of half a dozen Western States comes out of the 
interior to play along the Atlantic coast—and pay 
for the privilege. With this tremendous home mar¬ 
ket New Jersey is sure to become more and more 
a great garden. Fruit and vegetable growing are the 
chief industries. They will, in time, rank above 
manufacturing in importance. This industry is 
what we call horticulture. It runs all’the way from 
cultivation of the backyard garden up to the 500- 
acre farm or orchard. As years go by this intensive 
culture will bring us new and fierce problems, be¬ 
cause plant diseases and insects flourish and increase 
the more cultivation is crowded. We must have 
trained men right on the job to study these things 
for us. These trained men cannot do their work 
properly unless they have fair equipment and head¬ 
quarters. At present these necessities are not fully 
supplied. That is why every Jerseyman should help 
secure an appropriation for this new building. The 
members of the Legislature are disposed to lie fair, 
and they want to meet the reasonable demands of 
the people. Vast sums of money are called for and 
they are justified in asking for evidence and strong 
popular demand before they spend the people’s 
money. Thus the big army of Jerseymen who are 
interested in horticulture must make it their busi¬ 
February 15, 1919 
ness to help erect this building. Let us make it a 
monument not only to the industry we believe in, 
but also to our industry in giving expression to our 
needs. Will you, as a Jerseyman, write at once to 
your member of the Legislature and ask him to 
work for this appropriation? 
* 
In the early years I put everything I could scrape 
together into tile, and am sorry now that I (lid not use 
my credit to the limit in borrowing, because for the past 
three years our crops have been saved by our drainage 
system. 
HAT comes from a well-known New England 
farmer. It meant a lot in those days to “bury 
money” in wet ground in a State from which farm¬ 
ers were moving in order to get a chance at good 
land. At that time the spirit of farming in New 
England was depressed and anxious. But this 
buried money was not like the talent which the un¬ 
faithful servant bid in the ground. It carried the 
bacteria of common sense and hope and it made that 
soil over into “good ground.” Right now there are 
thousands of farmers in this country who are pros¬ 
pering as the result of this sort of work and invest¬ 
ment. When a farmer lias the courage to invest 
his money in tile or live stock or trees or fertilizer 
which can only work out in the future, no one has 
any right to begrudge his success. 
* 
T HIS seems to be tHe age of “scale of points,” that 
being oue way to prevent it from becoming an 
age of steal. We are all hunting for standards by 
which we may judge and compare-our work. The 
“scale of points” represents an attempt to analyze 
the ideal and reduce it to the dry figures of 100 per 
cent.. So, all the way from an ear of corn up to an 
elephant, the various points are sharpened up and 
classified, so that we may make a fair comparison 
when two or more products are put side by side. It 
is a fine thing to have these standards. They are 
doing much to improve the quality of our farm pro¬ 
ducts. But now we have reached a time when the 
human farm product is to be standardized. We have 
all heard of the 100 per cent baby. Many a young 
mother will claim that her baby will score 105 or 
more, but some hard-hearted “judge” who probably 
never had a child will merely regard this wonderful 
baby as an animated collection of bone, flesh and 
blood, and scale down the score to 98 or less. But 
now we are to have a scale of points for the Farm 
Bureau agent. In West Virginia the “Director of 
Extension” has worked out the proper qualifications 
for such an agent, under four heads. He must have 
good health, with sweet disposition and clean person 
He should have had good technical training and a 
good personality. Experience as a book agent or 
manager of a football team would be useful, but the 
chief requirement is given as follows: 
IT<? should have had good practical experience, have 
been born in a good farm home, performed for many 
years all the routine work of a farm, taught in a coun¬ 
try school, acted as officer of a farmers’ club, married 
a country girl, and operated successfully a mortgaged 
farm, lie should be unmistakably rural-minded. 
Well, sir, that is a great programme and a good 
one. We would not confine it to Farm Bureau 
agents. We would like to see 100 members of the 
New York Legislature receiving 100 on those points 
—and we would include Governor, Congressmen and 
President! Fine! A great “scale of points!” By 
the way. how many of our present agents will score 
95 or over? 
* 
T HERE has always been some discussion about 
the relative healthful ness of country and city 
living. No one denies that the country ought to be 
<he better place to live but, strange to say, some 
people, while living right out in the open, deny them¬ 
selves a breath of fresh air at night. Gen. Crowder, 
who had charge of the draft, says that four per cent 
more of city boys than country hoys were rejected 
because of physical disqualification. The country 
reatli rate is lower than that of the city, but the 
latter is gaining. That seems to be due to the fact 
ihat town and city children have better medical 
attention. The country is the place to live, and 
country people ought to have every chance for life. 
Brevities 
The rat and the egg—page 272. Can you tell? 
The Government has seized several shipments of hog 
cholera “remedies,” calling them falsely branded, on the 
theory that the only effective remedy for true hog cholera 
is inoculation. 
The common barberry is a “host plant” for the black 
stem rust of wheat. That is. a part of this disease is 
passed on to the barberry. Therefore a quarantine to 
prohibit shipments of barberry will be established. 
In Northern New York the country roads have been 
passable for autos through January, something unheard 
of before since the auto cume in. A great Winter for 
getting about. 
