1414 
‘Ibt RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
September 27, 1013> 
Things To Think About 
The object of this department is to give readers a chance to express themselves on farm 
matters. Not long articles can be 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. 
Why We Use Shoddy 
In the first place, there is only enough 
wool and cotton produced to clothe 00 
per cent of the human race, so that 
shoddy, instead of being a crime, is a 
necessity. The trouble is that most folks 
want a pure wool suit for a shoddy price. 
It is no trouble at all to get pure wool 
clothing. Any first-class dealer will sell 
and guarantee his clothing to be pure 
wool. The cost of a man’s suit at present 
a 1 \*r 
The T Itimate Consume)' and Mis Marled 
Basket 
is from .$70 to $90; five years ago it. was 
$45 to $50. Xow let us follow the pure 
wool suit. If it i<s well taken care of it 
will last the original owner three or four 
years, or rather ’sea'sous.' ’ He' lets the 
get them—hut not on things which pay or 
last. It was this class to which 1 had 
reference. 
I imagine F. D. 15. was a grocer before 
he was a farmer, and it is a pity that 1 
mistrust the middleman for whom he 
stands up, while fie equally mistrusts, us, 
the producers. This state of affairs leads 
the two, and the throe, with consumer, 
farther and farther apart to the harm of 
each. I think that the three of us must 
get better acquainted and believe in each 
•other more or else look out for real 
trouble! As we and our customers were 
perfectly satisfied with this potato ex¬ 
periment, we shall try it again next 
year and leave the grocers to their profits 
without hindrance. , 
HELEN* S. EC. WILCOX. 
A Farmers’ Real Estate Exchange 
On the editorial page of The R. X.-Y. 
of Sept. 13.1 notice what the Vermont 
Phoenix (Brattleboro) says in regard to 
organizing : a> farmers’; organization, for 
the purpose of appraising and selling 
farms. The “Farmers’ Co-operative Heal 
Estate Exchange,” of Morrisville. X. Y., 
was organized at Morrisville, X. Y.. Sept. 
1, 1919, for the identical purpose you 
have in mind, to get the farms populated 
by farm families, and to do everything 
possible to help them stick there. The 
business principles of this concern arc 
to advertise collectively and to establish 
local exchanges as needed, that in turn 
will be controlled by their oWn .members. 
It is not a money-making' scheme, but 
rather a money-saving, and to help get 
a permanent population settled in the 
rural districts of the Eastern States. Any¬ 
one interested In the undertaking may 
acquire information by addressing the 
manager. John Anderson. Morrisville, 
X. Y. They are now advertising in the 
Western States for buyers, and in the 
home county for farms to list. 
J. A. 31. 
A dish you II 
always relish 
At breakfast or lunch 
with either milk or cream 
| Grape =Nuts 
fills cT reQuirernervt for 
nourishment not met by' 
many cereals. 
No cooking No waste 
At Grocers Everywhere. 
KILL 
RATS 
NEW WAY 
In Franep, the world’s most famous laboratory 
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by science. Absolutely safe. • Chftmot possibly 
harm human beings, dogs, cats, birds or pets. 
Quickly dears dwellings, factories, storage 
plants, barns, chicken houses, etc., with no 
offensive after-effects, 
DANYSZ VIRUS—FREE BOOK 
Oct our interesting lVeo book ou rats and 
mice, telling about DANYSZ VIRUS and how to 
Obtain some. Address, C. B. VIRUS, LIMITED, 
152 West 14th Street, New York. 
Two Excellent Vegetable Books 
By R. L. Watts 
Vegetable Gardening ..... $1.75 
Vegetable Forcing ....... 2.00 
Clearly written, practical, convenient for 
reference, covering outdoor and green¬ 
house vegetable work. For sale by 
The Rural New-Yorker 
333 W. 30th St., New York 
FEEDS AND FEEDING, by Henry and 
Morrison. Price, $2.E0. Tho best book on 
this subject. For sale by Rural New-Yorker 
“ole do’ ” man have it, aud shortly after 
tile .shoddy man gets it. In a few places 
the fiber is worn out, but 90 per cent of 
the cloth is as good as new. The machines 
in picking the cloth into shoddy break up 
and blow away the weak fibers,'aud from 
a pound of cloth will recover about 12 
ounces of good wool shoddy, not as good 
as wool, but a useful substitute. These 
operations are repeated until the original 
wool may. have been woven into cloth and 
made into suits three or four times, each 
time of a lower and cheaper grade, aud 
the final incarnation will be the making 
of our wool stock into roofing paper, s. 
That Retail Potato Deal 
My innocent “Observations ou Pro¬ 
ducer to Consumer Selling” has raised 
many adverse criticisms. The consumer, 
very strangely, has been the one who 
has taken me to task for this method of 
selling produce, aud thus saving him a 
dollar per bushel on his daily potato. On 
page 1363, F. D. B. says we tried to sell 
the grocer our crop at $3 per bushel, 
thus leaving him but half a dollar up for 
measuring out by the peck. Then, ho 
says, we turned right around aud under¬ 
sold grocers who refused to buy from us 
at this figure, thus undeniably hurting 
trade of the grocer. But as we could only 
get $2 a bushel for potatoes from any 
source, although the grocers kept their 
prices up for some time after at $3.60 and 
$3.85 a bushel, what could we do but sell 
ours somewhere at $2, aud instead of de¬ 
livering them to the city six miles dis¬ 
tant at $2? Why not give the sympathy- 
deserving consumer a chance to come 
after them at $2 and save us the time ami 
expense of delivering? instead of criticis¬ 
ing the fact that we took what we could 
get and saved many people a dollar and 
more for their pains, I should think 
F. I). B., for instance, might think it 
verging ou the hated word, “profiteer,” 
when the grocers bought all the potatoes 
they wanted from other farmers at $2 
(this a number of dealers told us), and 
yet kept the price up to $3.50 and over. 
If it costs a grocer $1.50 up to handle a 
bushel of potatoes, how much should the 
weary producer charge for his seed, labor 
•et al? F. D. B. also thinks a grocer 
should receive a good price for handling 
potatoes because he has to wait for his 
pay. City grocers to whom wi‘ attempted 
to sell carry no charge aecounts on their 
books any more. They get cash every 
time. 
Evidently it was a thorn in the flesh 
of many-when I told about the well-to-do 
patronizing us instead of “tlie-always- 
broke class.” I am sorry if this fact 
displeased our 11. X.-Y. friends, but the 
fact remains. By “alr;ays'-broke-class” 
I did not refer to the very poor who had 
no conveyances to carry them six miles 
to our door-yard, .but to the ever-increas¬ 
ing class of Americans who mortgage 
their last dollar to buy a Ford or the 
like, and then spend their time on the 
roads when they might better be at their 
places of business making aud saving a 
thrifty penny for the future. This too 
will probably be displeasing to many, hut 
in my own community and in every other 
Community, the people who live solely in 
the present are making out-of-reason 
•wages, which they spend even before they 
A S PEC IAL, factory .special 
machinery, aspecial fab- 
’ric mill, a special organ¬ 
ization, n $7,000,000 invest¬ 
ment— that’s the extent 
Firestone has gone to give 
you this tire. 
Firestone Plant No. 2 is de- 
voted exclusively to 3V2-ineh 
tirec. 
Its present capacity is 16,000 
r. day. 
The extreme value in this 
special molded Firestone 
marks a turning point in the 
tire business. 
Dealers know what it means. 
Ask your dealer. 
Let him put thin tire on every 
wheel ami give you the benefit 
of— 
Most Miles 
per Dollar 
F irestone has done the 
thing that must change 
tire buying habits more 
than any other move ever 
made in the tire business. 
A standard brand 314-inch 
tire at a low price; 
A quality that beats any for¬ 
mer tire of any brand; 
A 6,000 mile basic from peo¬ 
ple who mean it; 
A tire that goes on and on, 
without regard to its adjust¬ 
ment basis. 
That’s what Firestone now 
offers to that great majority 
of car owners whousoC^-inch 
tires. 
Buying habits are sure to 
change. Who will now want 
to pay more? Who will want 
to accept less? 
30 * 3 % 
oo 
^[on-Sfyd |g 
6000 miles 
