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The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban lloraes 
Established ISSO 
I’" Wished weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, S!)3 West 30tb Street, Sew Vork 
Herbert W. Oolt.ingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wh. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Kotle. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01, equal to 8s. 6iL or 
81s marks, or 101 a 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. But to make doubly sure, wo 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 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. 
Here is a rule of life for you: Try to live so as to 
get all there is of the juice of life. Get the juice 
out of everything except sour grapes! 
* 
A T the time Congress repealed the daylight-saving 
law farmers in New York and elsewhere were 
preparing to take the clock right by the hands. They 
were organizing to go back to the old time and 
simply stay there—leaving the railroads and other 
interests to suit, their trains and business plants to 
this time or not—as they saw fit. That movement 
had been started, and it. would have been put 
through. Now comes the report that friends of 
daylight saving in New York will organize to en¬ 
force the new time as a local ordnance or as a 
private arrangement among business men. Why 
not? Who can object? The farmers have no desire 
to interfere with the life habits of city people, and 
if the latter prefer to get up an hour earlier or set 
their clocks ahead they are quite free to do so. And 
why is not this the proper way to settle the matter? 
If it be true, as President Wilson says, that the day¬ 
light saving increases production in town, then it is 
one of the necessary things which manufacturers 
and workmen should adopt as they would any change 
of power or machinery. They should be able to do 
it without invoking a national law which, even if 
it benefits them, unquestionably proves offensive to 
country people. There has been too much tendency 
to rush in and obtain by law the things which society 
should learn to do for itself. 
* 
T HE big race at the Vineland egg-laying contest 
is still on. Those of us who know the brooding 
habits of the American breeds fully expected that 
the Reds would falter and fall behind before the 
middle of August. As a breed the Reds are noted 
for their persistent desire to brood—a most undesir¬ 
able quality in the neck-and-neck finish of an egg- 
laving contest. Contrary to expectations, the lead¬ 
ing Leghorn pen seems to be the first to begin crack¬ 
ing. At the end of the forty-second week the score 
stood as follows: 
Eggs 
Underhill Bros., F;. I. Reds. 2.048 
Pinehurst Farm, White Leghorns. 2.01S 
C S. Greene. White Leghorns. 1.993 
P. G. Platt, White Leghorns.. 1.973 
Laywell Farms, White Leghorns. 1,971 
There were 71 days to go, and there may be many 
changes in that time. October will decide it, and 
we shall see if hen flesh will change to goose flesh 
in the home stretch. 
* 
N OW we have the usual flood of questions about 
cutting weeds into the silo. During this wet 
season it has been impossible to keep many corn¬ 
fields clean. The corn rows contain many big weeds 
in addition to foul grass. We should cut corn and 
weeds together into the silo. Some of these weeds 
have slight medicinal qualities, and a small quantity 
will help rather than injure the silage. Most of the 
weed seeds will be destroyed in the silo. As a rule 
the weeds are more mature than the corn, and are 
often too dry for the best silage. Where many weeds 
are used a small quantity of water should be added. 
* 
T HERE are, of course, two sides to this “misfit 
tree” proposition. A large fruit grower of exper¬ 
ience ordered, some years ago, a large number of R. I. 
Greening trees. He fed them along, and finally about 
75 per cent of them came into bearing. They proved to 
be Northwestern Greening—a very different thing 
from what he ordered. Instead of fighting and bringing 
suit this man feels like thanking the misfitter. The 
Northwestern comes into bearing long before the 
Rhode Island, and puts in its crop when prices are 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 0, 1919 
high. The chances are the trees will be more satis¬ 
factory. A nurseryman once told us how he took 
chances on an order. He could not furnish some 
of the desired sorts, so he substituted others which 
he knew ought to do well in that locality. Years 
went by, and finally there came a letter about it. 
The buyer thanked him for sending such a fine 
selection. lie had found that some of the things 
he ordered were in no way adapted to liis soil. 
These two cases represent the “other side,” but it 
is a very small and dangerous side. When a man 
orders a certain variety he has a right to expect 
that variety. It belongs to him. Anything else is 
a “misfit.” 
* 
W E are waiting for further proof that a man 
can get drunk on silo juice. Thus far there 
is nothing that would hold water in court. A chemist 
who is working on the case for us says: 
I am myself inclined to think that if, as a matter of 
fact, the juices have knocked people out who have drank 
them, the effect has been produced less as a result of 
the taking in of considerable quantities of alcohol than 
by the inhabitation of other toxic materials dissolved in 
the juice. Silage juice contains about three to four 
per cent of dry matter, about one per cent of which is 
ash. I can well believe that there are materials there 
which if drank might have toxic properties. 
Well, sir, very few of us could tell the difference 
between the different kinds of intoxication. We 
take it that the above statement means that the 
silo soakers are drugged rather than drunk. The 
ash seems to send them to the ash can of life. At 
any rate, we shall not permit the silo to be put in 
the class with rum shops and distilleries without a 
struggle. Call the next witness! 
* 
O N page 3241 we gave a report of the remarks 
made by John Arfmann at the Vermont Holstein 
Breeders' meeting. Mr. Arfmann points out two 
minor statements which seem a little misleading. 
So we give here his exact statement in order that 
there may be no chance for misunderstanding. 
1. Cole guaranteed to increase the cow’s former record 
or take no pay ; Hicks said if she gave 90 lbs. of milk 
a day she ought to make 35 lbs. easy, and he would 
not be surprised if she made 40 lbs. 
2. When I got Charlie’s instructions I knew he had 
not told me how the cow made that record, but just 
liow Cole made the record. I made up my mind to go 
to the bottom of this, and clear it all up, but when 
later it came out that Cole was under suspicion and 
my plan was spoiled, then I went to Cole and asked 
him to return my money or go to jail, and I advised 
him to make a clean breast of everything at the proper 
time to our board of directors. JOHN arfmann. 
It is stated that the Vermont experiment people 
suspected Cole, but had only circumstantial evidence 
against him. Mr. Arfmann thinks there were several 
more of those frauds, but when the exposure came 
they could not be convicted. Of course this incident 
has created great excitement among Holstein breed¬ 
ers. There is much bitter feeling expressed by some. 
To show how completely deceived the breeders were 
Mr. Arfmann states that after his cow had been 
given this bogus test, and he knew about the fraud, 
he was offered $10,000 for her on the strength of 
her fraudulent record. We are confident that the 
Holstein authorities will get down to the bottom 
of this bad mess and thoroughly clean it up. They 
will do it. and nothing else will ever satisfy the 
public. Let it be done—and done right! 
* 
I harvested about 300 bushels of small fruit from 
my farm. The season was so forward that I got a late 
start, and because of lack of pickers about half the 
crop was overripe and sold for prices that only paid ex¬ 
penses. Two hundred bushels of fruit was sent to a 
distant market, just paying costs. One hundred bushels 
were sold at the farm and made me a little money. 
•Some fruit was left on the bushes for lack of help. This 
is the first year that help could not be had to do the 
picking. I paid five cents a quart, but automobile fac¬ 
tories in the cities pay three times as much as can be 
earned on the farm. One of my boys of last year, who 
worked for $2.50 per day for me, now works in a plant 
painting autos at $10 per day of eight hours. I paid 
him 25 cents an hour, now he gets $1.25 per hour. The 
farm cannot compete with the factory. Most of the 
fiuit sold at the farm went to people who came in auto¬ 
mobiles from 20, 40 and 00 miles awav. Had I known 
in advance and advertised in the local papers of towns 
inside of 00 miles I believe I could have sold all the 
Innt 1 had and purchasers do their own picking. Whole 
families would come by auto for a day’s outing, pick 
berries on shares and take home all they picked. 
F. N. c. 
^pHIS report is characteristic of many others this 
A year, and it brings out some facts which most 
fruit growers are learning. Railroad shipment, in 
spite of increased cost, is worse than ever before. 
Thousands of dollars have been lost by delayed ship¬ 
ments and poor handling in the markets. A farmer 
near a manufacturing plant cannot compete in the 
labor market When a man can earn five times as 
much at painting cars as he can at planting corn 
there will be more cars than corn, and the farmer 
will suffer so long as farming is thus made an in¬ 
dustry of secondary importance. The most satis¬ 
factory business this year has been where the pro¬ 
ducer and consumer got together and cut out the 
handlers. This fruit grower attracted buyers to bis 
place. They were ready to do the picking, and they 
saved the cost of doing it—which would otherwise 
be added to the price. And this, with variations to 
suit the product and the conditions, is what has got 
to follow in other lines of farm business. lYe have, 
got to do it ourselves. Tf not in one way—then in 
another. 
* 
W ORD comes from Washington that the Mon¬ 
dell bill will be held up. This carries Sec¬ 
retary Lane’s plan for spending large sums of money 
in preparing waste land for the soldiers. Such 
strong opposition has developed to this bill that its 
friends know it could not be passed at this time. It 
will therefore be held up until there is a chance to 
find out what the soldiers want. We understand 
that thus far only about 30.000 soldiers out of 
3.000.000 have expressed- any desire to go to these 
waste lands for homes. The opposition to the 
scheme comes mostly from farmers in the older 
sections of country. They argue, with force, that 
the proposed new land is not needed for present 
production, and that opening these thousands of new 
farms would simply mean increased competition for 
farmers who are already overburdened. The scheme 
was apparently started and put on its way without 
consulting the soldiers or knowing whether they 
favored it or not. Now, as an afterthought, it is 
proposed to find out what they want. It is a singular 
commentary upon American legislation that we came . 
so close to spending about one billion dollars without 
knowing whether the debt was desirable or not. 
Brevities 
Go over the silo and tune it up as you would the 
heater—before you fill it. 
HERE is a bill before Cngress to limit or punish 
profiteering. Generally speaking, the object of 
this bill is to prevent monopoly in producing, trans¬ 
portation or manufacturing, restriction of supply or 
distribution or excessive prices. There are penalties 
of $5,000 or less in fines and two years’ imprison¬ 
ment. The bill contains the following: 
This section shall not apply to any farmer, gardener, 
horticulturist, vineyardist, planter, ranchman, dairyman, 
stockman or other agriculturist, with respect to the farm 
products produced or raised upon land owned, leased 
or cultivated by him ; and provided further that nothing 
in this act shall be construed to forbid or make unlaw¬ 
ful collective bargaining by any co-operative association 
or other association of producers of farm products with 
respect to the products produced or raised by the mem¬ 
bers upon lands owned, leased or cultivated by them. 
The grave diggers have struck for $30 per week and 
the window cleaners strike for $36. 
Some men have their nose pushed close to the grind¬ 
stone, and yet do not learn to smell extravagance even 
vhent it is rank. 
Now they claim that available phosphorus used at 
seeding will push the wheat along so as to help get 
by the Hessian fly. 
The. wet weather came near ruining the corn on the 
lower land, hut how it has put extra size into the apples. 
The gain offsets the loss. 
The scientists claim that one common ragweed re¬ 
quires 948 pounds of water to produce one pound of 
dry matter. It is a moisture robber. 
This is reasonable and only extends the well-known 
principle covering marketing in towns and cities. 
When a farmer sells his own produce—grown on his 
own farm—he may do so without a license. When 
he buys produce from others and sells again lie be¬ 
comes a merchant or peddler and is subject to trade 
regulations. Such a provision in the law will en¬ 
courage co-operative production and sale, and that 
is the most desirable thing in any honest effort to 
reduce living cost. The co-operation will decrease 
the cost of handling, and will also encourage co¬ 
operation among consumers. This will mean more 
direct trading, with advantage to both sides. 
There is complaint about failure to raise pullets this 
year. The boom in poultry will go on for several sea¬ 
sons. Good stock is high and hard to get. 
We read of farmers on the Atlantic slope who are 
losing their crops from drought. Strange reading for 
us with almost continuous rain—day after day. 
Behold the man trying to pat himself on the back. 
The average observer thinks he is trying to scratch his 
hack—an operation not closely connected with dignity. 
When people go looking for trouble—better make 
them work for it. Do not go and hand it to them. 
They will have more respect for it if they work and 
earn it. 
