J7:8 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
December G, 1919 
“All Big Apple Buyers Say It Is the 
Handsomest, Showiest Apple 
they have ever seen. Furthermore, Stark’s Golden Delici¬ 
ous trees are as hardy as Stark Delicious and Wealthy. Like 
Stark Delicious trees, they set an apple for every blossom!” 
Such is the statement of Silas Wilson, whose 750-acre 
orchards produced a 1919 crop that took 150 big railroad 
refrigerator cars to carry it to market. 
This big glowing, golden apple amazes all fruit-growers and fruit- 
lovers. It’s a cross between a Stark Delicious and a Grimes Golden 
—found some years ago by us on a tree flourishing on a barren 
West Virginia mountainside. We bought the tree for $5,000.00— 
have grown hundreds of 
thousands of Stark’s 
Golden Delicious 
trees from its 
‘wood. 
golden apples in Univ. Arkansas 
orchards. (Photo by J. R. Cooper, ■' 
State Horticulturist.) * v 
Stark’- Golden 
Delicious Apples 
—actual sice—part of crop of 
top-graft only IS months after 
setting. World’s record for 
young, heavy bearing. 
“With a KeepingQualityEqualtoOldWinesap ' 
and Eating Quality Equal to Stark Delicious— 
Stark’s Golden Delicious will surely excel in the world’s 
apple market!” declares J. L. Webster, one of Amer¬ 
ica’s leading orchardists, when sending us some of 
his “$5.00 a box” Stark Golden Delicious. These 
apples, though part of his ‘‘orchard run” (not 
graded for fancy size), averaged 64 to the box. , 
This glorious apple is not only 50 per cent larger than Grimes 
Golden, but is better in flavor. Its beautiful golden skin 
makes an instantaneous appeal to the eve, and its marvelous 
flavor completely entrances the taste.' The crisp, tender, 
creamy-yellow flesh is blessed with a spicy, aromatic flavor, 
savoring close to that of a pear, and is saturated with exquisite 
juiciness. A better market apple—because it retains its 
crisp flavor months after Grimes Golden is gone. 
After years of severest tests in orchards everywhere, we offered 
these trees to fruit growers. Every year since, fruit growers (espe¬ 
cially Eastern growers) have eagerly bought and planted every 
Stark s Golden Delicious we could grow and called for more. 
Great Favorite With Eastern Growers 
Froni orchards in New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia 
and Ohio, as well as Iowa, Illinois, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri Idaho 
everywhere has come the congratulation—“At last! A yellow apple that 
beats Grimes Golden—one that has all the Grimes’ good points and 
none of its weakness. Send your name and address on the coubon—or 
a post card— for Free C opy of pur 1920 Year Book, “Prize Fruits,” and 
get full facts of this apple and all Stark Pro’s Fruit Trees. 
Star 
f Brot 
Nurseri 
,— —— o l iuu j. rctrs. a” 
Plans for Beautifying s' \ 
■ Box 8 Louisiana, 1 
Send me your 1! 
Tree Year Rool 
‘Prize Fruits”—at 01 
- If you also want our F: 
Make your home grounds beautiful by planting Stark Bro’s Book. “Home Beauti 
shrubs, trees, flowers and hedges. Let Stark Bro’s Land- ^ lag,” and information alx 
scape Architects show yo how to place and plant them ^ r I' ro ? . Bandseaping Plat 
in order to seenre best results. Write for Free Coov ^ 1 cheek in square at left. 
' ^S * may war *t.trees this sprinj 
Home Grounds 
/ 
of 1920 Book, “Home Beautifying. 
Address Box 8 
Stark Bro’s Nurseries 
104 Year* of Nursery and Orcharding Experience 
The Only Stark Nursery in Existence— 
at LOUISIANA, MO., Since 1816 
y 
y 
y 
y 
y 
Name. 
St. or R. R. No. 
State. 
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. 
Farmers as Advertisers 
The It. N.-Y. recently mentioned a bul¬ 
letin on farm advertising sent out by the 
South Dakota Experiment Station. In 
that bulletin one farmer is reported as 
saying: 
I toiled. T sweat and I produced—and 
I found that I must sell at the other man’s 
price and for his profit. I produced bet¬ 
ter stuff than my neighbors, only to find 
that theirs set the price, very often, at 
which I must sell in the local market. 
By consistent advertising I have been 
able to secure a fair price. My experi¬ 
ence is that advertising pays. It frees me 
from my neighbors’ limitations. It in¬ 
creases my self-respect and has added 
hundreds of acquaintances and friends to 
my circle. 
Every town recognizes certain farmers 
as good salesmen. They know how to 
talk and display their goods and stand 
firm for their price, and the more they 
sell the more customers come hunting for 
them. Now a good farm advertisement is 
a salesman. It enlarges the market and 
attracts new buyers. Certain things can 
always he sold near home. People know 
them and want them. With other goods 
it is necessary to find a wider market, so 
that more people may know about what 
you have to sell. You might have a jack¬ 
knife, a Leghorn rooster or a barra^ of 
apples to sell. Perhaps you can reach 25 
people on your ’phone. Not one of them 
wants the article. A notice in the post 
office might reach 100 peoule. an adver¬ 
tisement in the local paper 1.000, or one 
in some widely circulated farm paper 
might reach 100,000. Of course the more 
people you can appeal to the greater your 
chance to dispose of the goods. If 10 per 
cent .of the people need jack-knives you 
might find three of them on your ’phone, 
100 in the local paper, and 10.000 in the 
big paper. Farmers do not use good ad¬ 
vertising half as much as they might. A 
good advertisement will introduce them 
to the world, and millions pass h.v like 
“ships that pass in the night” because 
they have never been “introduced.” A 
buyer can be found for anything you have 
to sell if you can attract his attention 
and make him think you are giving him a 
bargain. 
Another Banker on Farm Labor 
A reader sends us the October bulletin 
of the National City Bank of New York, 
in which appears the following letter 
from Mr. Earl Cobb of Amarillo, Texas. 
It is an excellent statement of the 
farmer’s views on labor and prices: 
“What is wanted above everything else 
to relieve the strain under which society 
is laboring all over the world is normal 
supplies of food and clothing materials.” 
And a little further down you say : 
“We have held consistently that a de¬ 
cline in foodstuffs, which constitute the 
largest item of living costs, must lead the 
way in any movement of lower wages and 
general prices.” 
I have lived for a great many years in 
a farming country where production of 
both clothing materials and foodstuffs has 
been the principal occupation, outside of 
a few towns where railroad labor makes 
up a good part of the population. It is 
my opinion that had the farmer worked 
the same number of hours and received 
the same rate of pay as railroad em¬ 
ployees, miners and other similar laborers 
who are usually well organized the cost 
of foodstuffs and clothing materials for 
the past 20 years would have been far in 
excess of the prices that have prevailed. 
Take for instance the cotton farmer; 
in a vast majority of instances he labors 
from 12 to 10 hours a day. and in addi¬ 
tion to his own labor is that of every child 
who is large enough to go into the field, 
and added to this often is the labor of 
his wife for several hours a day when she 
is not busy with cooking and other house¬ 
hold duties. This child and woman labor 
has never been looked upon as a part of 
the cost of production. The same things 
apply to a greater or less extent to raising 
wheat, corn, cattle and farm products 
generally. 
Tt i« my opinion that because these 
foodstuffs and clothing materials have 
been produced in this way that the price 
of them has been such that what we term 
organized labor has been able to provide 
the necessities of life by working much 
shorter hours than the farmer. 
It seems now for the first time farm 
labor is beginning to demand pay some¬ 
thing in keeping with other laborers; for 
instance, this year for the first time har¬ 
vest hands in this section are being paid 
by the hour instead of by the day, and 
are getting 50 cents an hour, and in some 
instances more, together with their board 
and lodging. The harvesting, especially 
of the grain crops, forms only a small 
part of the labor connected with the crop, 
and even at this time farm hands gener¬ 
ally who are working regularly all through 
are being paid far less than what we 
generally call union labor, such as rail¬ 
road employees, miners, etc., and work 
longer hours. 
if the farm laborer is to come in for 
the same hours of work and rates of pay 
that organized labor is now getting I can¬ 
not see how foodstuffs and clothing 
materials can be produced even with most 
favorable crop conditions for as low prices 
as are being paid for these items today. 
I can see no reason why because farm 
labor is not organized it should not be 
paid as well and have as favorable hours 
of work as the so-called organized labor¬ 
ers. Many of the latter call themselves 
skilled laborers, and in a sense they are, 
but any capable farm hand in this day of 
farming with machinery is as much en¬ 
titled to be classed as a skilled laborer 
as the average organized worker, and in 
many cases it takes far more knowledge 
and judgment to do farm work than it 
does to be a first-class workman in the 
average trades. 
Where in your opinion would the cost 
of living go if all farms and ranches were 
owned by corporations and worked by 
union labor on the lines that coal mines, 
railroads and other institutions using or¬ 
ganized labor are now operated? 
In reply to this the banker says: 
“The whole price and wage structure 
should be lowered as nearly simultane¬ 
ously as possible. Farm products will 
come down, because they cannot bo arti¬ 
ficially sustained, and it remains to be 
seen whether the farmer will get a reduc¬ 
tion on what he has to buy. A large 
decline in important farm products has 
occurred in the last two months, but the 
town wage-earners are still engaged in. 
trying to push their wages higher. In 
the long run equity must rule, and we 
commend this letter to careful consider¬ 
ation. The essential truth to be absorbed 
is that the situation is not one of a strug¬ 
gle between capital and labor,_ but be¬ 
tween groups of producers. When this 
is fully comprehended a start will be 
made toward consideration without preju¬ 
dice.” 
This is the same thing as saying noth¬ 
ing. Or it is like the Congressman’s 
“careful consideration.” The fact is 
there is nothing that can he said in reply 
to Mr. Cobb’s proposition, and our city 
friends begin to realize it. 
School Sanitation; Farming Outlook 
I am pleased to note that my interpre¬ 
tation of the law or order tallies with 
that of your lawyer. I have noticed in 
my travels about the rural districts that 
/ery few school districts have as yet made 
.ny change in their toilet arrangements, 
and as I stated before, I doubt very much 
f they will have to, provided the trustees 
eep things in order and have a little 
backbone. 
Now about your second inquiry as to 
lie outlook for farmers, as I see it. Well, 
I have four boys just starting, and I am 
advising them to stick to the game, as I 
fully believe that the outlook for the 
farmer is as good as or better than it 
ever was. I am afraid, however, that if 
the boys wore as fully acquainted with all 
the conditions at the present time as I 
am they would be liable to try some other 
work. I doubt whether farming, or any 
other business for that matter, ever 
passed through a more critical time than 
lias agriculture in this country today. 
Beset one one side with the arrogant 
attitude of manufacturer and capitalist; 
on another side we have the consumer 
doing everything possible to force food 
products down and labor up. Further 
than this, we are facing, as I see it, 
grave competition from abroad With the 
present Administration favoring “open 
markets,” our grain growers will soon 
face competition from South America and 
even Europe. Our cattle men will soon 
have very strong competition from Ar¬ 
gentina. and so on all the way down the 
line. With all these things in sight, I 
still have faith that the American farmer 
will ultimately win out. “What might we 
do to advance our interests?” Well. I 
can answer that with one word, organize. 
As I see it there is no one thing the 
farmer can better do than to perfect tin* 
splendid organizations we have at hand 
now. such ns the Farm Bureau and the 
Grange. The farmer’s motto should not 
be more production, but better and 
cheaper production, and better buying 
and selling • methods. There are forces 
seen and unseen that are working to un¬ 
dermine the great producing interests of 
the land. Again I say we must be thor¬ 
oughly organized, or we will not find 
agriculture in America on a level with 
the rest of the world. I still have faith 
n the American farmer and the future. 
New York. n. s. fuleagab. 
