1724 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S TAPER 
A National Weekly Journal l'or Country ninl Suburban Homes 
Established ism 
Published weekly by the Rnral Publishing Company. S33 West 30th Street, New fork 
Herbert W. Collwgwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wii. F. Dillon. Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. §2.04, equal to 8s. 6d, or 
8k marks, or 10k 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, 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 uso 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 ad .vatiser 
A reader of your paper recently wrote that the 
articles and arguments that you publish in behalf of 
a square deal for the farmer are all right, but in the 
wrong paper. They should be in the great metropolitan 
dailies, which the majority of our consumers read. It 
occurs to me, as it has doubtless occurred to you long 
since, that you can do the farmer most good, not by 
publishing in The R. N.-Y. this material, and circu¬ 
lating it among the farmers, but by instituting a mighty 
campaign to put The It. N.-Y’. alongside the great 
dailies in the homes of all city people, so that they may 
get the farmers’ problems straight. This ought to be 
easier than trying to convert the general press, and 
would be lucrative to The R. N.-YT and beneficial to 
the farmer. H. H. MOWRY. 
New York. 
T HE same suggestion lias been made by others. 
This is evidently one of the cases where "we 
have got to do it ourselves ” if it is ever done. Each 
reader of The R. N.-Y. must have 10 or more city 
friends or relatives who would respond to a course 
of reading in The R. N.-Y. A good many readers 
have already started the paper in homes of their 
city friends with great results. We just offer the 
suggestion. 
* 
W HILE New Y’ork farmers are exempt from 
most of the provisions of the compensation 
law some of them have been forced to pay heavy 
damages to hired help. Often during a dull season 
a farmer will take an outside job with his team. It 
may be hauling lumber or ice or supplies, and he 
hires a man to drive. If this man is injured while 
doing this outside work the courts generally rule 
that it is not farm labor and the farmer must pay 
for time and medical attendance for the injured 
man. We have eases where these expenses are five 
times as much as the profits from the outside work. 
Farmers should remember this point when they en¬ 
gage to do outside work. They become responsible 
for a hired man’s injuries when the labor is not 
classed as agricultural. 
* 
T HERE are all the elements of the great American 
farm story to be found in that simple recital of 
facts on first page. What a heart-gripping tale a 
Dickens or a Victor Hugo could make out of that. 
The heart-breaking misery of the aged couple, robbed 
and enslaved by designing men; the land shark wait¬ 
ing like a human vulture to tear the home away 
from them; the hopeless outlook for such credulous 
back-to-tlie-landers. It is all there—the pitiful story 
of failure and despair that has been so often worked 
out under our land and credit laws. Then would 
come the happier picture of the men who took ad¬ 
vantage of the Federal Land Bank to hold off disaster 
and pledged their personal credit to carry out their 
worthy plan. A great story it would make. Many 
would regard it as pure fiction—a utopian dream— 
because they have been told that farmers will not 
stand together and sacrifice in order to help the 
needy. This Dutchess County incident gives the lie 
to that cynical thought just as the Wayne County 
election shows that farmers will put principle above 
party. Those Dutchess County farmers who signed 
that joint note in order to protect the old people had 
no thought they were doing any great thing. Really 
great things are always done in that simple, ordinary 
manner. We just want to take off our hat to the 
members of that association! 
* 
W E warn our New York readers once more that 
“daylight saving” is still in the ring. New 
York City has declared in favor of it. and the State 
still has a law under which the “new time” could be 
enforced next Spring. We think the attempt to put 
through a local law in New York City is unconsti¬ 
tutional, but there is no use resting on that. The 
State law must be repealed this Winter if daylight 
saving is to be disposed of. We therefore issue the 
warning in time. Prime up your Senator and As¬ 
sembly members if you want this law repealed. 
W ILL ground limestone increase the scab on 
potatoes? That question interests many po¬ 
tato growers who want to use clover in a short ro¬ 
tation with corn or small grain. The clover will pro¬ 
vide organic matter and about half the nitrogen for 
the potatoes. Through fear of its effect upon the 
scab disease these farmers have not used lime, and 
now the soil is too acid to permit a good stand of 
Red clover. Alsike will make a fair crop, but they 
want the Red, as it produces a heavier second crop 
for plowing under. How can they use ground lime¬ 
stone so as to bring in the clover and still not run 
too much danger from scab? That is their prob¬ 
lem. We think it. will depend on the kind of lime¬ 
stone they use. It seems to be possible to grind the 
limestone so fine that it will have just about the 
same effect as burned lime, while a coarse-ground 
limestone would be much slower in its action. We 
think this very fine limestone would be likely to in¬ 
crease the scab, while a coarse product would help 
the Red clover without materially hurting the po¬ 
tatoes. 
* 
N EARLY every day we read how some victim of 
the high cost of living attempts to “figger” it 
out by comparing the cost of a meal with what the 
farmer receives for the food. The R. N.-Y’. started 
this form of comparison years ago, and was sneered 
at because it was not a scientific method. Now, to 
use the words of a popular song, “everybody’s doing 
it!” No matter who gets the credit, the outcome is 
good. The latest “figgering” reported is by Con¬ 
gressman King of Illinois. He went into the Capitol 
restaurant at Washington and ordered corned beef 
and cabbage and a chicken and lettuce sandwich. 
Here is the story from the New York Sun: 
But the price? Corned beef and cabbage, 50c; chick¬ 
en and lettuce sandwich, 35c! Did the honorable gentle¬ 
man from Galesburg eat his order? He did not. His 
agony of hunger was tackled and downed by his rage at 
the price. He took his savory service plates and carried 
them to a conveniently neighboring drug store, at 201 
Second St., S. E., no further, and had their contents 
carefully weighed on an apothecary’s scale; yea, even 
to ounces, drams, grains. Then from a nearby dealer in 
like goods he learned the going prices, and later, assist¬ 
ed by a well-equipped accountant, soon had the truth. 
The materials of the corned beef and cabbage portion 
cost 8.05c, of the sandwich 4.58c. His further compu¬ 
tations. after allowing the restaurant 100 per cent 
charge for cost of serving, showed that on the corned 
beef and cabbage the net profit was 212 per cent., on 
the sandwich 250 per cent. What a spread was there! 
He got off easy! The profits reported are small 
beside what we can figure here in New York every 
day in the year. Try a small piece of apple pie at 
20c. a small helping of stew at 00c, or corned beef 
hash at 55c, and figure on that! The consumer has 
to pay it, and he curses the farmer for a robber and 
declares that all who live in the country must be 
rich. And the restaurant men declare that they are 
not making any money! They say their profits all 
go to the landlord, and the last-named character says 
the city. State and nation take all he has in the form 
of taxes! The Government says nothing, but keeps 
on paying out the money. 
* 
I have an orchard of three, four and five-year-old ap¬ 
ple trees that has been condemned by the city. Can you 
advise how to arrive at the right price for damages to 
ask on these trees? I can furnish you with list of these 
trees, with their ages. s. T. 
HIS is one of the hardest problems in all efforts 
to estimate values. The usual plan is to figure 
a good apple tree one year planted worth $1. It in¬ 
creases in value $1 for each subsequent year. Thus 
a five-year-old tree is estimated at $5— provided it is 
healthy and has made a fair growth. We do not 
consider this a full price for good trees. A five- 
year-old McIntosh, well grown and in good health, 
has a potential value of at least $20 on our farm. 
However, the values given above are about all you 
can expect to receive in a legal proceeding, and by 
the time the lawyers are paid there will be little left. 
* 
S ENATOR CAPPER of Kansas makes the follow¬ 
ing statement: 
A study of the Congressional Directory reveals there 
are 358 lawyers in the two Houses of Congress. Of the 
435 members of the House of Representatives. 208 are 
lawyers, 00 business men, 21 newspaper men, nine 
farmers, seven teachers, five doctors, four labor organi¬ 
zation men. and the rest are unclassified by occupation. 
Probably an examination of the professional callings of 
the unclassified would show that the majority of them 
are lawyers likewise. 
It is also probable that when you come to investi¬ 
gate the lives of these nine farmers you would find 
that barely three of them could justly claim the 
right to carry the name. No doubt many Congress¬ 
men own farms, and thus call themselves farmers, 
but they make their living in other occupations and 
their farming is only a “side line.” Consequently 
their views of farming and their ideas about what 
farmers need are also side lines of thought. As 
they do not live a farmer’s life how can they fairly 
November 22, 1919 
represent what he needs? It is an old and exploded 
theory that we must send lawyers to the Legislature 
or to Congress because they know how to “make 
laws.” The fact is that the great majority of law¬ 
yers who go to Washington go as paid attorneys for 
some special interest. They will deny this, and it 
would probably be difficult to find legal proof of 
their connection, but the great majority of them are 
paid, in one way and another, for the service they 
render to private business or party. It would be 
far better if lawyers could be kept out of Congress. 
They should not make the laws which they are 
expected to explain or expound. Oftentimes a 
farmer opposes a lawyer at a primary or at an 
election. The argument always is that the lawyer 
is the more useful man because he knows how to 
work in the Legislature. That is not half so im¬ 
portant as it is for the farmers of any district to 
show the State or the nation that they have con¬ 
fidence in one of their own number. If there are 
only nine farmers in Congress it is because more 
than 9,000,000 other farmers will not put their own 
business at the head. 
* 
A GOOD many of our readers seem to have re¬ 
ceived the following card. Naturally they want 
to know what it is all about 
To the Congress : 
Gentlemen:—With Chinese farm labor, under con¬ 
tract for five years at thirty dollars a month and feed 
themselves, food can be produced at low cost; otherwise 
not. 
Agriculturists are tired of being made the goat and 
now pass the buck to Congress. Low cost farm labor 
provided in time to sow the Winter grains means low- 
priced food in one year. It's up to you. 
FOOD PRODUCERS’ UNION. 
We have been unable to locate this “Food Pro¬ 
ducers’ Union” in New York. There does not seem 
to be any such organization outside of a few inter¬ 
ested parties who are trying to bring into the coun¬ 
try a large number of Chinese coolies. They want 
farmers to support a demand that Congress let down 
the immigration bars and admit these Chinamen. 
Back of all this they have some scheme of their 
own, and as usual they try to get the farmers to 
pull their chestnuts out of the fire. It is an old 
game, and will not work. Farmers do not want 
cheap Chinese laborers. What they want and whac 
is their right is a scale of prices for their products 
high enough to enable them to compete with other 
industries in bidding for labor. There is no reason 
why farmers should always be compelled to accept 
cheap labor or cheap goods. 
* 
A T its recent conference in Syracuse the New 
York Farm Bureau took firm and decided 
action against any attempt to line up the farmers 
on the side of “organized labor.” We have been 
making a careful canvass among our readers on this 
question, and it is evident that the Farm Bureau 
voices the sentiments of a great majority of our 
Eastern farmers. They are not ready to combine 
with the labor men in their fight with capital. That 
might as well be understood clearly. There are 
farmers who think such a course would be desirable, 
but they constitute a small minority as far as we 
can find out. Farmers sympathize with working 
people everywhere. They know from experience what 
it means to work for less than living wages, but 
they are not going to blindly hand over their gigantic 
power to aid any conflict of classes. Far better for 
them to wait, organize and drill the great power and 
army which they can muster and use it for their own 
advantage. 
* 
W HAT Mr. Aubry says on page 1732 about one- 
man poultry plants applies to most other 
kinds of farming. We have come to a time when 
fruit grower, gardener and stockman must economize 
on the labor item. We have got to learn how to 
produce most with one man’s labor simply because 
the labor of the other man cannot be obtained. 
Machinery will belli do it and also good management. 
We have also got to find improved plants and ani¬ 
mals which will produce more grain or fruit or eggs 
or milk in return for a certain amount of energy 
and food. One-man farming! The inspired man in 
place of the hired man. 
Brevities 
Advice about teaching a green boy to milk next week. 
The “rising generation” does not seem to need extra 
yeast just now. 
It may seem hard to believe, but in the future China 
will prove the greatest competitor we have in the world’s 
egg market. 
A rat will consume in one year at least one-lmlf as 
much grain as a good hen. The hens turns the grain 
into eggs and meat. The rat turns it into more rats 
and ruin. 
