848 
T*r RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Things To Think About 
Thf objeot oi this department is to give readers a chance to express themselves on fa/rrn 
matters. Not long articles can he used—just short, pointed opinions or suggestions. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER does not always endorse what is printed here. You might 
call this a mental safety valve. 
Figuring Prices tor Crops 
1 see no chance for food prices to come 
down at present cost of labor, except 
through better distributing methods. 
Farmers have always sold their produce 
below cost, and they will not do so much 
longer. They would, 1 thiuk, be glad to 
sell at actual cost, the same to be deter¬ 
mined by our State Agricultural Depart¬ 
ments under farm conditions. I would 
suggest that each county agent be placed 
<m an average farm, and let him give first¬ 
hand demonstrations of how a farm should 
be conducted, keeping accurate accounts 
of same. There would he no expense 
whatever connected with suck an experi¬ 
ment. The rent of such a farm, the 
agent’s salary and other expenses, would 
In charged to emt of production and be 
paid by the sales from farm. This should 
satisfy the consumer that he was getting 
a square deal, for he surely could not kick 
if he got his produce at actual cost, espe- 
pially under expert supervision. The dif¬ 
ferent county agents would be pitted 
against each other and the farmers to 
keep their costs down would be forced to 
compete against them all. The average 
coeds as determined by the different dem¬ 
onstration farms would constitute the 
market price. Hours of labor on the 
demonstration farms should he the stand¬ 
ard eight hours, aud any help the agent 
may need of course must be paid sufficient 
to obtain same in competition with other 
lines of business. C. M. moore. 
Mas sa '-ho setts. 
A Roadi Problem 
Why do we have the ancient mud traile 
to “the hill farms”? Why can some com¬ 
munities have highways that every per¬ 
son helps to pay for, aud other commu¬ 
nities. under heavy taxes, only have mud 
trails? Oknnot each locality (or zone) 
put up a sum aud receive an addilioual 
sum from the Government, thus build ac¬ 
cording to their needs and means? What 
would be the result, if Liberty bonds were 
sold in selected localities? Suppose rural 
routes were in some counties, only? A 
square deal, please. R. s. heisey. 
Pennsylvania. 
In some cases we thiuk there is an 
unfair discrimination against the back 
districts. In other cases the chief trouble 
is with the farmers themselves. There is 
a lack of community spirit, and no "team 
work” among the people. Most.of the im- . 
prpvement on the dirt roads will have to 
be worked out by the people who live on 
these roads. 
Farmers and Their Dirt Roads 
Surely you must admit that the farmers 
are responsible for the present condition 
of the back roads. They are worked- and 
controlled by the farmers, and not by the 
Albany politicians. If you want to know 
what is the matter with them I can tell 
you iu two words: ignorance aud politics. 
First, ignorance on the part of.the farm¬ 
ers of bow to build a decent road: sec¬ 
ond. their ignorance in electing year after 
year men who don’t know any more about 
building roads than they do. And then 
on top of that, our intelligent American 
way of putting a man in office heeause 
he is a good party man. and not because 
be knows something about the job, aud 
then he gives all his friends a job. They 
would he horrified if you accused them of 
stealing, but if you can show me any 
difference between stealing and loafing on 
the job. “the town has plenty of money, 
why should we hurt ourselves?”—go to it. 
To improve the situation, let every farmer 
in the State send for Farmers’ Bulletin 
No. 321, and then build and learn to use 
a split-log drag, and then be patriotic 
enough to use it on the road on 1 is farm, 
and his neighbor’s, if he has no team. 
That would improve the roads 50 per 
ceut. Then elect town superintendents 
who know something about roads; have 
the State provide one or two weeks of 
intensive training in the best methods of 
caring for earth roads at various places 
on the plan of the tractor schools, and re¬ 
quire all persons who have charge of the 
roads to attend. Spend the money now 
us<*d on the road-destroying scraper on 
drains and culverts. h. m. m. 
We have followed his advice several years 
and find it usually true, unless there is 
a high wind or rain so no frost comes. 
This year, for instance, it was very cold 
in the last quarter of the moon in April, 
and we shall bo very apt to have a frost 
in the last quarter in May. although it 
was cool also in the new moon, April 29. 
It is not usual for it to he cold iu two 
successive moon changes. This may not 
be scientific, hut it has helped us to avoid 
having our cucumbers, beans, etc., nipped 
by a late frost. MBS. w. 
Vermont. 
Do the Job Ourselves 
I am interested in the letters to your 
paper regarding agricultural organization. 
One of the greatest obstacles to such or- 
ganization is that it cannot be done on 
the boss’s time. If we farmers are to 
form a co-operative company of any sort 
we must do it in our own time, and at 
our own expense. In the matter of the 
had pulling between city and country, I 
think it would be well to ask the city man 
to look over the running expenses of the 
large city dealers in food and provisions, 
heat, light and ice. advertisements of all 
kinds, rent, taxes, and find the selling 
prices of the land they cover and how 
much real estate the proprietors are ac¬ 
quiring. Then try to figure out just how 
cheap food would be provided it was laid 
down iu those stores for nothing. 
Massachusetts. rii hard rawson. 
Moon and the Weather 
We have never planted our crops “in 
the moon,” but one successful potato 
grower near us likes to plant his in the 
old of the moon in May, as then he avoids 
a late frost aud the earth is warm, so 
seed starts readily. Another neighbor al¬ 
ways said if it was cold in one phase of 
the moon in April it would be cold iu 
the same phase in May aud .Tune, also 
if it came before the Summer solstice. 
Workers and Daylight-saving 
From personal interviews with different 
classes of laborers, miners, railroaders, 
oil men and miscellaneous laborers. I 
have not found anyone who is in favor -of 
the daylight-saving law. for the simple 
reason that as applied to the laboring 
classes it is a physical energy-wasting 
law. Rest and most work can he done 
when the body has had complete rest. 
During the warm Summer months it is. 
difficult to sleep during the forepart of 
the night; the best time to rest is during 
the early morning hours. An extra hour’s 
rest, in the morning will be of more value 
than the extra hour of time grained be¬ 
getting up one hour earlier. The class of 
people who favor this law do not do 
physical labor and have to get up at 3 
or 4 a. m., old time. A. a. cogley. 
Pennsylvania. 
Our experience is that during the 
month of April we consumed more illumi¬ 
nating oil at our barns than eve would 
have done had the time not been changed. 
During the next three or four months no 
light will be required in the morning. 
Our experience thus far is not satis¬ 
factory and not profitable. It is hard for 
our men to be ready for field work at 
7 o’clock, hut they are ready to quit at 
or before 5. We are supposed to get nine 
hours a day field work, but we now rarely 
get more than 8% hours. I am not in 
the habit of anticipating trouble, but I 
fear there may be a great many heat pros¬ 
trations among farm laborers during July 
and August. It is not practical for farm¬ 
ers to take a two-hour nooning, so the 
four hours in the afternoon will be from 
12 until 4. old time, the hottest and most 
trying hours in the day. 
Pennsylvania. howahd a. chase. 
May 17, ID 10 
reason : The interesting articles published 
recently in The R. N.-Y. in regard to ad¬ 
vertising farming as a whole have been 
to the point. This dollar I offer as a 
“starter” for this purpose. It seems ns 
though enough farmers can be interested 
to he willing to donate at least a quarter 
a year— no limits — and possibly by adver¬ 
tising in the city papers, not only in Eng¬ 
lish but in the foreign language papers 
as well, the people could be educated in 
this most important phase of human life 
and living. Anyway, “it pays to adver¬ 
tise.” MRS. W. E. HOLCOMB. 
Connecticut. 
Several other readers have expressed 
the same thought. They see that, the city 
papers are not inclined to give the farmer 
a fair showing. As the consumers usually 
read nothing except the daily papers they 
cannot get a fair idea of the farmers' 
life. Many country people have written 
letters to these daily papers, but naturally 
only a few of them are ever printed, and 
these few are not usually the strongest. 
Therefore it is becoming clear that if 
farmers are to reach the mind of the con¬ 
sumers they must do it as many other in¬ 
terests do—through the advertising col¬ 
umns. Strong and sensible advertise¬ 
ments run in the daily papers would in 
time get into the mind of the city man 
and show him the truth about the farm¬ 
er’s life. In the future we believe this 
plan will he developed. Tt will he better 
to have it done through the various farm 
organizations. We have no doubt that a 
fund for the purpose could be easily 
raised. It would not be so much for the 
purpose of advertising any particular 
product, hut for the very much larger pur¬ 
pose of bringing the truth about farm life 
home to the consumers. A good many 
readers of The R. N.-Y. are working on 
the principle that one first-class way of 
bringing country and town people together 
is to increase the circulation of this paper 
among the consumers. Thus we find that 
many country people are subscribing for 
a friend in town. We have already suc¬ 
ceeded iu interesting some of these con¬ 
sumers so that they begin to realize the 
situation. 
Want to Know 
We Must Advertise Our Business 
Being so wholly interested in this great 
question of the rehabilitation of farms 
and what can he done to bring it. about. I 
am enclosing this check, an insignificant 
amount, for this great cause. This is my 
Good post timber is scarce in this part 
of Ohio and we have been reading about 
steel posts as advertised in the farm pa¬ 
pers. Of course everyone has the very 
best post made, hut we would like the ex¬ 
perience of users, if readers of The H, 
N.-Y'. have used them. How about their 
durability and practicability? There must 
he some readers who can tell us about 
them. HIRAM COPE. 
Ohio. 
Rural Carriers and Holidays 
Jesse Holt of Pennsylvania asks in 
The K. N.-Y. for delivery of mail by rural 
routes on holidays. Your reply to’ him is 
that the carrier is entitled to his holidays 
same as anyone else, aud add that if he is 
not, you want to know why he is not. I 
am very glad this subject has come up, i 
aud I believe it is no hard task to show 
that rural routes should be run every 
week-day in the year. Mail and passen¬ 
ger trains, both steam aud electric, are 
run holidays. City and large village post 
offices receive and deliver mail holidays, 
arid my argument is that the real neces¬ 
sity for rural delivery is greater than any 
• if the above. Many hundred post offices 
along the rural routes have been closed, 
aud in many cases patrons of the route 
would have to go as many as 12 miles 
from their box to the office that receives, 
their mail. When a holiday comes close 
to a Sunday, as has recently happened, 
perishable commodities are likely to spoil 
and an “accumulation of material alwayS 
increases the loss through careless hand¬ 
ling.” No carrier can.qualify without a 
substitute, aud it seems to me the strain 
would not he too terrible if the subsitute 
should drive these few days, and he would 
be encouraged, if not compensated, as he 
drove out among the farmers, to see all of 
them at work except the hired men. Some 
20.000 post offices have been discontinued, 
an- 1 today about 50,000 rural carriers are 
driving over a million miles of roads. 
These people who really constitute the 
backbone of the nation are asking for no 
more than a square deal when they insist 
on their mail every day. 
( Connecticut. t i as. q. eldredge. 
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ITTTTi 
TRACTOR - EQUIPMENT 
T HAT such a large majority of this year’s 
tractor production is so designed that the 
farmer may have the advantages of com¬ 
plete electrical equipment is a definite recogni¬ 
tion of the economic necessity of electric starting, 
lighting and ignition for farm tractors, 
i There is only one system of this kind that has 
been proved a success by actual use on thousands 
of tractors—and this is Remy Tractor Equipment. 
Remy Electric Lighting makes it possible to 
double the daily working capacity of the tractor— 
to work a night shift on the farm when neces¬ 
sary to overcome the handicaps of lost time due 
to bad weather or break-downs that threaten 
the safety or size of the crop. 
I Remy Electric Starting is not only a great con¬ 
venience for the operator, but it makes it possible 
for a boy to run the tractor. In addition it per¬ 
mits the saving of wasteful hours of motor idling 
—you can promptly shut off the engine when 
the machine is temporarily stopped and start it 
again by a turn of the switch. 
Remy Equipment is also distinguished by an electric 
Governor-Generator that keeps engine speed constant 
under all loads and prevents waste of fuel. 
You will be interested in the new Remy booklet, “An 
Easier Day's Work.” Write for it. 
<• 
REMY ELECTRIC COMPANY 
Tractor Equipment Div., Chicago 
Motor Equipment Dir.. Detroit Factories; Anderson, Indiana 
