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The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS F ABM EE’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country mill Suburban llomcr 
Established iSM 
Pnhlliihed weekly by (he Rural Publishing Company. 833 West 30(h Street. New Vnrh 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Kditor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. K. T. Rovle. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.01. equal to 8s. (id. or 
8* *£ marks, or 10's francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, 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 DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Rut 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 he confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not bo 
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. 
T HE U. S. Senate left much important, legislation 
unfinished when Congress adjourned, luit it did 
pass the hill which guarantees a price of $2.26 for 
wheat. We felt sure of this, for the U. 8. Govern¬ 
ment cannot repudiate a fair contract made with its 
most useful class of citizens. The Government must, 
now work out a plan for making its guarantee good. 
It has over one billion dollars at its disposal to hold 
the wheat price. Two general plans have been 
suggested. One is to let the price of wheat drop to 
the world’s level and pay the difference, if any. to 
the American farmer. The other is to maintain the 
guaranteed price in this country to the farmer and 
charge’the export price to millers, thus trying to 
reduce the price of flour. In cither case the crop 
would he bought and handled hy the 1'. S. Grain 
Corporation. Our belief is that the coming crop will 
not be large enough to force tin* world price much 
below the guaranteed price. 
* 
T HiE Rhode Island Experiment Station is con¬ 
ducting a good experiment to find out, if possi¬ 
ble, what effect one crop in a rotation may have 
upon another. Most farmers believe there is an 
unexplained effect of this sort. We have many 
letters from people who ask if potatoes will grow 
after cabbage; if buckwheat will not spoil the land 
for wheat, and if rye plowed under will not poison 
corn, or if turnips will not ruin an onion crop. 
Practical men know that corn is one of the best 
crops to follow clover and that potatoes will do very 
well after corn. There are thousands of farmers 
who believe that hog manure will give a line corn 
crop, but will ruin the cabbage. Others feel sure that 
lime freely used will overcome many of the bad (‘fleets 
of one crop upon another. The experiment in Rhode 
Island was-started in the hope of answering some 
of these questions. It has not gone on long enough 
to answer all, but it certainly is a good beginning. 
Buckwheat following turnips gave nearly 64 bushels 
per acre, while under exactly the same conditions, 
except that it followed millet, the yield was about 
414 bushels. Onions following clover in a sod of 
mixed grasses gave from 662 to 515 bushels, lmt 
only 72 bushels after beets, 88 after cabbage, and 00 
after turnips. Other crops are showing differences 
of this sort, although not so striking as with the 
onions. There seems to he no doubt that one crop 
may leave the soil in such <1 condition that another 
crop cannot naturally thrive in it. it may lie that 
a crop like turnips may rob the soil of available 
potash and phosphorus. The cabbage crop may ex¬ 
crete some substance which is a poison to potatoes 
or some other crop. A heavy growth of millet, which 
is a surface feeding crop, may take out most of the 
available nitrogen, or e\ ,i change the physical char¬ 
acter of the soil. Au.yo ie who attempts to work his 
farm in a regular rotation can see the advantage in 
knowing about these things, for no one should fol¬ 
low one crop with another uot friendly to it. That 
would be like trying to work a team of horses that 
hate each other and are forever lighting. We hope 
the K. I. Station will carry this through to a finish 
if possible. We think the free use of lime and 
phosphorus, with the manure or the cover crop, will 
overcome much of this trouble. Is there any good 
reason why a big potato crop cannot be grown after 
cabbage? 
* 
O N page 511 one soldier tells how TheR N.-Y. got 
right up in the front line during that last fierce 
struggle of the war. It does us good to think of our 
boys reading the paper and discussing the chances 
for owning a farm while waiting for the order to go 
over the top! Since we could not go with them ■we 
were glad to go in spirit. Nearly 60 years ago the 
grandfathers of some of these boys fought in the 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Civil War. That war was fought in large part with 
the old muzzle-loading musket. Many of our older 
readers remember how the powder and shot were 
held in the gun hy “wadding” rammed home by :t 
ramrod. We have no doubt that during the war the 
soldiers secured from home copies of the old Moon:'* 
Rural New-Yorker. Very likely in some of the 
famous battles that old paper was crumpled up and 
rammed into the muskets as wadding. Thus in that 
old day The R. N.-Y. was fired at the enemy. The 
modern cartridge has ended that and the paper, tq 
hold its place, must inspire the soldier rather than 
serve as “wadding.” Probably that is a fair state¬ 
ment of the way a farm paper must develop and 
grow. 
* 
Milk Plans 
We approve a plan to handle milk to the end that : 
1. All members of the Dairymen's League lie 
treated alike. 
2. To incorporate local brandies and regional 
organizations, and 
3. To build and operate a number of manufactur¬ 
ing plants to furnish manufactured supplies if need 
he and to take care of surplus. 
These features among others we formulated three 
years ago, and they were formally approved by 
dairymen then. But we do not think it wise to 
organize from the top downwards, so that the cen¬ 
tral organization should own and control local plants. 
On the contrary, we believe that the local branches 
should be incorporated and own their own plants, 
and collect and distribute the money for their own 
milk. The local plants should he federated into the 
central organization to sell the milk and do the 
things that it could do better than the locals; hut 
instead of making the local corporations subservient 
to the central organization it should he controlled 
and regulated hy them. With one good expert 
creamery manager or engineer and a sure outlet for 
milk local plants could be built and managed locally 
cheaper than from one centre, and it would he a 
simple matter to equip the best located of them to 
handle surplus. This plan would he complete with 
a city plant to encourage and supply small dealers 
and to demonstrate a cheaper cost of distribution 
through stores. 
This business plan has been held in check for 
three years. It requires little centralized capital 
and little or uo centralized operation. It must 
come sooner or later. Why not put it in operation 
now, and avoid the possibility of disaster or con¬ 
tinued losses in further delay? 
* 
O NE of the greatest dangers which confronts the 
farmer at this time is the chance that lie may 
lose even his present share of the proceeds of labor. 
All value comes originally out of the soil. From 
bread to beeswax, from wool to water, the products 
of the soil represent the foundation of all wealth. 
All the money in the world simply represents what 
the final consumer is forced to pay for food, fibre 
and fuel. Human society is being separated into 
industrial classes according to the way this con¬ 
sumer’s dollar is being divided among those who 
put their labor into what the eartli supplies and 
who manipulate the dollar in politics and business. 
Now the laborers in town and city who manufacture 
or handle these farm products are demanding a 
larger share through higher wages ami shorter hours 
of labor. They are thoroughly organized, and have 
thus far been able to enforce their demands. This 
means a larger share of the fiugl consumer’s dollar. 
Through organization they are able to monopolize 
their labor and put their own price on it. In like 
manner the capitalists who control manufacturing 
and transportation are also demanding a larger 
share of the consumer’s dollar on the plea that they 
must have it in order to meet labor demands and 
heavier taxes. They are also organized and supplied 
with money, and will obtain what they are after 
through legislation and increased prices. Now if 
both labor and capital, through the power of organi¬ 
zation and money, are able to obtain a larger share 
of the consumer’s dollar, it follows that the farmer 
must take a smaller share. There will come a point 
where this consumer's dollar cannot he increased, 
and with both labor and capital demanding more 
the increase in their share must come out of what 
the farmer now receives. This is the tendency of 
modern business as now conducted. Both labor and 
capital are fully organized, while the farmers are 
unorganized, and cannot therefore enforce their 
rights. This is one of the big dangers now confront¬ 
ing agriculture. The remedy is complete and unsel¬ 
fish organization so as to control farm products as 
March 22, 1919 
completely as the labor unions now control labor, 
or as completely as “capital" now controls money. 
* 
I see the “more daylight law” will stand. Farmers 
will have great difficulty in defeating as well organized 
a group as the National Chamber of Commerce. I 11 
this city the question was submitted to the electors and 
decisively vetoed. The same occurred in another city, 
I think Canton, those being the only places deciding hy 
popular vote, but we got advanced time just the same. 
This looks like a disregard of democratic principles. 
Elyria, Ohio. w. j. M. 
T does look that way—and it i# “a disregard of 
democratic principles” if in spite of an adverse 
popular vote an offensive program is forced upon 
the people. It will do us little good to attempt to 
stand up against these big city organizations as 
individuals. Our only hope lies in a strong and 
fair organization. Some years ago a railroad train 
on Long Island was stopped hy potato bugs! 
Imagine one potato bug getting 011 the track and 
commanding the train to stop! Several million got 
on the track ( at. once and covered it for several rods.' 
As a result the wheels slipped and could not pull! 
Perhaps that incident in many of its details indi¬ 
cates the programme ahead of us! 
* 
W E want you to read that letter from Private 
Clark 011 page oil. Here is a soldier who 
gives us the plain point of view of the army man 
who would like to have a farm. We think this 
expresses the opinion of a large proportion of the 
soldiers who lived on the Atlantic slope before they 
entered the army. These men know this section and 
believe in its future. They have no desire to spend 
their young lives on the desert or in the wilderness 
in a struggle wit 11 waste land. Not while there are 
thousands of Eastern farms unoccupied or half cul¬ 
tivated. If the government can spend money to 
develop a desert in Nevada and Arizona in order 
that our grandchildren may have farms, there is a 
double reason why it should spend money to locate 
the soldiers on the land in New England or the 
Eastern States, it will cost less to locate the man 
in New England than it would to pay them for taming 
the desert. It is good to have this put up so clearly 
by a soldier. When plans were made for “feeding 
the world” everybody was consulted except the 
farmer. It now looks as if they would like to leave 
the soldier out in planning for hi# future. 
* 
T HE Department of Farms and Markets is offi¬ 
cially criticized for a waste of State time and 
money and neglect of State work. Alleged to be 
organized to take agriculture out of polities, it is 
officially charged that a political agent selected the 
members of the council as well as their appointments, 
that these appointees are incompetent, that several 
of them take outside work while paid by the State, 
that others draw pay regularly from the State 
though seldom if ever on duty, and that the State 
work is generally neglected. The charges are cor¬ 
roborated by State officials and others in a position 
to know. Conditions as described are to say the 
least intolerable. 
Surely it requires no new legislation to end a con¬ 
dition of this kind. Til a business house it would 
not survive discovery hy an hour. It is broadly 
hinted that a deal is pending and that agriculture 
is again to be one of the pawns. Anyway, the 
Governor lias power to end the scandal and it is 
his plain duty to do so at once. 
Failing in every other method. Senator Thompson 
of Orleans lias introduced a hill to elect Commis¬ 
sioners of Agriculture and Markets by direct vote. 
If farmers want it, they should get busy with their 
Senators and Assemblymen. 
Brevities 
Save the chicken fat for cooking. 
Here’s hoping the “llu” has flown from your home. 
Why is it that people who are constantly “in hot 
witter” are usually sour? The germs which sour milk 
.Ire kept from developing hy the application of heat. 
It is remarkable how the demand for cottage cheese 
has developed. During the war it was bought as a sub¬ 
stitute for meat Now it will be bought because people 
like it. 
The South Dakota Legislature, by a unanimous vote, 
ordered the barbarous barberry put out of business. 
This plant keeps alive the black stem rust of grain. 
Kill out the barberry. 
Here is another scale report from J. J, K., Clinton 
Co.. Mich.: “Some time ago you asked if the hard 
Winter one year ago killed any San Jos 6 scale. I be¬ 
lieve from close observation that tin* hard AA inter killed 
more scale than half the spraying did.” 
Wh are interested in knowing how the J. II. Hale 
peach has lived up to the claims made for it. We all 
remember that it was to take the place of Elberta as 
a market peach. There should now be evidence enough 
to warrant a fair opinion and we would like to have 
your testimony—whatever it may be. 
