854 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S TAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established isso 
Published weekly by the ltnral Publishing Company. 833 V est 30th Street, yew York 
Herbert W. Coxjujjgwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Rovle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8s. (i<L, or 
Si* * marks, or 104 a franca Remit in money or der, 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. Deferences 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. But to make doubly sure, we will make good anv 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 ai-e 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 eonfused 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. 
Well. thou, you know that it doesn’t make any differ¬ 
ence to the farmers what time they get their mail. It 
doesn’t matter whether it is morning or noon or night; 
they read it at night, anyway. And yet I am continually 
getting complaints because some farmer's mail is ail 
hour or so late, and I know perfectly well it doesn’t 
matter a thimbleful to him. 
HAT statement is attributed to Postruaster-Gen- 
eral Burleson, but we find it hard to believe he 
ever said it. An insane man might express such an 
opinion, but it seems impossible that head of a great 
National department could talk in this criminally 
stupid manner. And yet, the action of Mr. Burleson 
in slashing out the rural routes indicates the mind of 
a man who either does not know anything about the 
life of a farmer, or else does not care! The New 
York Grange puts the issue straight: 
We will expend every honorable means to have the 
gross injustice that has been perpetrated rectified, and 
demand unitedly and emphatically that the recent rul¬ 
ings be rescinded and routes returned to as good a con¬ 
dition as they ever were. This the farmer must have, 
and will not be content with anything less. 
The changes in the rural routes have caused our 
readers immense loss and annoyance. Every busi¬ 
ness man who has dealings with farmers is injured. 
•'I'here is no earthly reason why a farmer should not 
have a fair chance at mail privileges. He does not 
have this under the change ordered by the Post Ofiice 
Department. No man should be permitted to exercise 
the arbitrary authority given to Mr. Burleson except 
in case of war or dire necessity. We are now at 
peace, trying to reorganize business to meet new 
world conditions, and the man hack on the farm has 
rights which must be respected. The only way to 
have these rural routes restored is for the farmers 
who have been injured to get together and make such 
a noise That Washington will have to listen. There 
will he a Presidential campaign next year. 
* 
W E expect to make that new department, 
“Things to Think About,” true to name. If 
you like you can call it a mental safety-valve which 
will permit us all to let off some of our feelings 
when they boil over. The B. N.-Y. makes it clear 
that the notes in this department express personal 
opinion. We are not responsible for what our 
people say there. We cannot use long articles. Be 
brief and get right to the point. Cut out person¬ 
alities and bitterness. The “grouch and the 
grumbler” do not get far along the road in these 
modern days. A few strong lines will do more to 
make people think than a page of stuff. 
* 
N EAP Clarksburg, W. Ya.. is the deepest well in 
the world. A year ago the boring had reached 
a depth of 7.363 feet and was still going down. At 
about 7.<XK) feet the temperature was 151 F. and the 
geologists estimate that at 10.000 feet there will he 
found a boiling temperature of 212 degrees. We 
believe that in the future the fierce heat of the 
interior of the earth will he utilized for economic 
purposes. Our grandfathers hooted at the suggestion 
that coal was to become the great source of fuel and 
hence the great master of industrial energy. The 
idea of digging coal out of one spot in the earth and 
carrying it for hundreds of miles to be burned at 
another spot seemed at first crazy and impossible. 
This plan of utilizing the earth’s central heat will 
in time be worked out. and we have no doubt our 
grandchildren will rank the doubters of today as 
we now rank the old-timers who fought the intro¬ 
duction of coal or of railroads. 
* 
T HE fine thing about such articles as Mr. Mills 
gives us this week is their .hopeful spirit and 
plain statement of fact. # Of course we must all look 
the situation right in the face and take farming as 
it eomeN re us. There is no use of putting white- 
•Pk RURAL NEW-YORKER 
wash or varnish over the knotholes and then claim¬ 
ing the wood is perfect. Through causes for which 
we are all more or less responsible farming, par¬ 
ticularly in the back districts, has had some hard 
knocks. The hill farms have felt modern changes 
keenly. They have oeen neglected in the distribu¬ 
tion of public and private benefits. The thing which 
will redeem them is the old-time country spirit of 
the people. You must remember that the people 
who dwell among these hills were the most loyal 
and unselfish members of the Dairymen's League. 
These men and women were the people who. last 
year, worked out the impossible by compelling the 
Legislature to reverse itself on the school law. Now 
that spirit is to be aroused once more over the road¬ 
making injustice and the marketing problem—and 
it will win. Mr. Mills is a good type of that younger 
generation who can view the future with hope and 
enthusiasm. 
❖ 
I T seems that there are undiscovered possibilities 
in plain, ordinary apple pomace from the-cider 
mill. For years it was dumped out to rot and smell 
by the side of the mill. Now we are finding that it 
can he repressed to make syrup, used for jelly mak¬ 
ing, and finally dried for cattle feed. Some years 
ago we stated that dried pomace would become a 
commercial product like dried beet pulp. It was 
hard to believe, yet the time has come. This develop¬ 
ment of pomace follows along the line of cottonseed. 
Years ago the cotton planters dumped the seed into 
the rivers to get rid of it. Then, step by step, they 
found its value for oil, feed and even human food, 
until the seed today brings about as much as the 
lint. It is quite possible that in the future the 
pomace from cider mills will he worth quite as much 
as the apple juice. 
* 
The Sentence of Germany 
O N May 7. 1015, the German Government was 
guilty of one of the most stupid and outrageous 
crimes recorded in all the annals of modern warfare. 
A German submarine sunk the steamer Lusitania 
and caused the death by drowning of nearly 1,200 
civilians. The act was criminally stupid, because 
it brought this country into the war, while through 
it Germany lost the respect and moral support of 
the world. There is something of savage yet sub¬ 
lime justice in the fact that on the fourth anniver¬ 
sary of this shocking act the representatives of 
Germany were compelled to stand up like world- 
convicted criminals and face their sentence as a 
nation. The old palace at Versailles is full of 
haunting memories. If the dead could speak, if the 
palace walls could reveal what they have seen, how 
human nature with all its pride and power and 
poverty and pitiful pretence would parade before 
us. Yet in all the long acts of stirring human 
drama which have here clustered about the heart 
of old France, there never was anything to equal 
the world-moving picture presented on May 7 when 
the pride of Germany was humbled to the dust. 
There is a famous painting representing another 
gathering at Versailles in this very room. It repre¬ 
sents the scene when Bismarck in 1S71 presented his 
terms of peace to beaten France. Bismarck stands 
—a cold-blooded, arrogant, dominating figure—while 
the French representatives shrink away in horror 
at the cruel and ruinous terms imposed upon them. 
These terms were as hard as the hardest man on 
earth knew how to make them. It was expected 
that they would destroy the military and industrial 
life of France, and that is what they were designed 
to do. In passing, it may be said that this result 
would have followed if the farmers and plain people 
of France had not felt that faith in the future of 
their land which induced them to put the last 
coin they possessed upon the altar of their country. 
And now the marvellous swing of the years has 
brought another group to Versailles—presented si 
new picture to adorn the pages v-f history. What 
a picture that, was when Clemenceau of France, with 
President Wilson at his right hand and Lloyd George 
of England at his left, stood before the German 
delegates with the power to say to them: 
( ‘Thc time has come when we must settle our 
account. You have ashed for peace. We are ready 
to (jive you peace!” 
We are not concerned at this moment with the 
exact terms of peace. They are hard and stem, but 
we can hardly tlwnk of anyone outside of Germany 
who will not say they are just and well deserved. 
Consider what such terms would he had Germany 
won and was thus able to stand as dictator. The 
great overpowering thing about this wonderful cere¬ 
mony is the thought that in the contest between 
May 17, 1019 
autocracy and military government and the best the 
world has yet produced in popular government the 
latter has won. This government may not he all 
we desire or hope for, but it is at least an effort 
to give expression to the hope for freedom and a 
fair chance for the individual. The outcome of this 
war will h:lp us all to write that expression of a 
hope into popular government. And as these German 
representatives were forced humbly to acknowledge 
a superior power, there must have been heard above 
all other noises a sound like murmuring of a great, 
far-distant choir chanting an old refrain: 
u IIe hath put down the mighty from their seats, 
and exalted them of low degree!" 
* 
E VER since the close of the war farmers have 
written us about the army motor trucks left 
free at the close of hostilities. It has been thought 
that these trucks would he offered for sale direct 
to private citizens. We now learn that $45,000,000 
worth of these trucks will he distributed to the State 
Highway Departments. They are to be used for 
road^construction and are distributed by the Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture. The various States are merely 
to pay loading and freight charges. These tracks 
run from two to live tons capacity. They are not* 
to he distributed to individuals or counties, hut only 
to the States. Some of our farmers will be dis¬ 
appointed, as they hoped to buy one of these trucks 
at a low figure. Yet if they had been sold there 
would have been charges of graft or favoritism. If 
they can he worked to capacity at road-making, so 
as to give the side roads a fair showing, this dis- 
tribu+ion will he as fair as any. 
* 
W HEN the last New York Legislature met the 
newspapers suggested that the primary elec¬ 
tion law was to he repealed. The politicians have 
long desired to go back to the old plan of nominating 
by convention. These newspaper suggestions are 
usually made to feel out public opinion. In this 
case the politicians wanted to know what the 
farmers thought. They found out, for the scheme 
<o give up the primary died out. When the plan 
was suggested we made a quiet canvass of our 
readers, and found that a good majority of them 
were opposed to giving up the primary election. 
They do not consider it anywhere near perfect, and 
many of them do not vote, hut they do regard it as 
a form of protection which they can and will use at 
times. One of them spoke the mind of the majority 
when he said: 
As I interpret it. the sentiment is to let the law stand ; 
it is not fully utilized by farmers at present, but should 
he around handy in case of need. We don’t get out the 
shotgun very often, for, as the hawks know we have 
one, the necessity does not often arise. n. k. p. 
* 
S EVERAL readers have asked what will be the 
Government’s policy regarding the lower grades 
of wheat. In case of a very heavy crop will the 
lower grades have any sale? Of course it is im¬ 
possible now to tell just what the policy will he, 
since the size of the crop and its quality will decide 
it. The following statement is made by the secretary 
of the U. S. Grain Corporation: 
It has not yet been determined what the policy of 
the Wheat Director will be in reference to low-grade 
wheat. The character of the crop as finally harvested 
will be a very large factor in outlining the policy to he 
pursued. The probabilities are that the low grade will 
be bought when it is offered to the Government on the 
judgment of the Government buyer properly reflecting 
the Government’s guaranteed price. 
Whenever private interests do not pay what the Gov¬ 
ernment believed to he a fair price for this wheat at 
the terminal market then the Government would step 
in and offer to purchase at a price which they thought 
was fair. 
Brevities 
With rhubarb and asparagus a farmer’s supper comes 
to pass. 
The guaranteed price of wheat in Canada is $2.24*4 
per bushel. 
We think safety for the future lies in having as wide 
a distribution of land ownership as possible. The more 
freeholders the more freedom. 
Australian apples are now selling in England at 
12*4 cents per pound. The cost of transportation is 
about five cents. 
We think the farmers of America should have head¬ 
quarters of their own at Washington. The proposed 
“Temple of Agriculture” to be built by the National 
Grange seems like a good thing. 
Some yearn ago a boy in New York was “dared” to 
climb an electric pole. He went up, touched a live wire 
and lost three lingers. In a trail court the boy lost a 
case for damages, as he was declared guilty of “con¬ 
tributory negligence.'’ Now the higher court has re¬ 
versed this because the pole was equipped with steps 
for climbing—this being an invitation to climb. 
