18 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January ”, 1920 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company. 333 West 30th Street. New York 
Herbert W. Collingnvood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. 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. 6&, or 
81* * marks, or 10!* 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 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 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 ad'. „rtiser 
We esteem The R. N.-Y. highly. In Philadelphia 
the trolley company says their five-eent fare is the 
biggest bargain you can get, but I say The R. N.-Y. 
at $1 a year. Best wishes for a prosperous year. 
New Jersey. samxjel hocking. 
ELL, for one dollar The R. N.-Y. offers 52 
rides through the homes and farms of the 
country, with many stops for a pleasant chat. That 
means one cent, nine mills and one-fifth of a mill 
per ride—and the going is still good! We gave you 
1.904 pages last year, or 19 pages for one cent. Ten 
years ago the year’s volume contained 1,120 pages. 
Thus we gave you 70 per cent increase at the same 
old price! 
* 
T HE Orange Co. (N Y.) Pomona Grange leads off 
in the campaign to repeal Lie State daylight 
saving law. 
Resolved, That Orange County Pomona Grange de¬ 
mand that steps be taken for the immediate repeal of 
this State law, in order that we may continue to be in 
harmony with our National legislation, and that we may 
recover the more favorable conditions of which it has 
deprived us. 
The Senator and Assemblymen from Orange Coun¬ 
ty are instructed to vote for this repeal. We think 
this Grange is right in declining to debate or argue 
the matter any further. We went all through that 
long ago. Now simply demand repeal! 
* 
S OMEONE should organize a little team work 
among the various departments at Washington. 
It is needed. The Attorney Genei-al recently in¬ 
formed the public that there had been a general fall 
in prices of food. Now comes the United States 
Department of Labor with the following: 
According to reports received by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics of the L T nited States Department of Labor 
from retail dealers in 50 cities, the average family ex¬ 
penditure for food increased in all but two of these 
cities. In New Orleans and Louisville the decrease was 
less than five-tenths of 1 per cent. In Newark, Peoria 
and Washington the increase was less than five-tenths of 
1 per cent. 
In some cities the increase is over 11 per cent since 
the Government started out io decrease the high cost 
of living. We stated at the beginning of this cru¬ 
sade that the only effect would be to cut down the 
price paid to the producer, and this has proved true. 
The R. N.-Y. has on its list women in every town 
and city of prominence in this country- We wrote 
to many of these housekeepers, asking if food prices 
had changed. Every one reports that with the tem¬ 
porary exception of pork the food they buy is higher 
than ever. Some, who are farmers’ wives, state that 
prices for most farm products are lower! Has any¬ 
one ever seen a more pitiful farce than this big- 
noised effort to kill the lion of high prices by pulling 
a few hairs out of his tail? 
* 
A T this season we naturally think of new things— 
things which promise to change life somewhat 
in the future. A flock of these things are flying this 
way. Some will be shot down by practical experi¬ 
ence, but others will continue to fly away with some 
of our present “fixed” habits. We have been trying 
a little electric grinder. You simply attach it to the 
ordinary lighting wire, pour in a quantity of whole 
grain and turn on the current. The motor does the 
work, turning out a fine quality of entire flour or 
meal. By regrinding and sifting you may have fine 
flour and a coarser bran which makes a fine boiled 
“cereal.” We washed corn, wheat or rye, dried in 
the oven, and with this simple device prepared a 
flour excellent for bread or cakes at one-third the 
price of “patent”flour. The machine is not yet man¬ 
ufactured in large numbers, but we think it has a 
great future. We think the use of this family ground 
grain will increase, especially among town and city 
people and bakers. They will simply buy the entire 
grain, make their own flour, gain the habit of eating 
it, and save half their flour hills. We are told that 
in England many small farmers and gardeners are 
raising small patches of wheat to be used somewhat 
in this way. The yield of wheat on good land with 
hand cultivation is enormous. This is one of the 
changes we must look for in the future. 
* 
W E would like to spend a little time telling 
what we plan to do for 1920. But yon have 
learned to discount promises, and we want no dis¬ 
count in our family relations. It will therefore he 
enough to say that The R. N.-Y. will go right ahead 
giving the best service it can muster. You will have 
all we have got and all we can buy or borrow in the 
way of honest and legitimate help. And we want 
your help, too. We do not pretend to he any oracle 
or great fountain of wisdom. Someone who reads 
The R. N.-Y. can give you an answer to any sensible 
question, or sensible advice in any trouble which may 
come to you. Our work, as ever before, will be to 
find the reader who holds the key to your puzzle 
when you let us know your problem. So come—let 
us start for another pleasant walk together through 
the good year 1920. 
* 
S HALL we revise the common advice about using 
lime on sod or pasture ground and leaving it 
there? There is no doubt that lime is most efficient 
when worked thoroughly into the soil. That being 
true, the best way to use it is to spread on the 
plowed ground and harrow in. Thus the general 
opinion has been that it does not pay to scatter lime 
on pastures or meadows unless it can be worked into 
the soil. We have used burned lime in that way 
and found that it usually forms a sort of mortar on 
the surface—very little of it working down in wlieic- 
it was needed. During the war the scarcity of labor 
forced many farmers into experiments. Some of 
them tried spreading ground limestone over old 
meadows or pastures which they could not plow. 
In many or most of these cases the lime has actually 
given good results. The good grasses and clovers 
have come back, and the yield of hay or pasture 
grass has increased—sometimes to the extent of 25 
per cent. These results did not always appear the 
first year, but they finally came. We still think that 
lime should be worked into the ground for best re¬ 
sults, and we do not believe that it is wise to put 
burned lime on sod or pasture. There is no question, 
however, that finely ground limestone has given good 
results when scattered right on the sod and left 
there. It would have been more effective if it could 
have been worked into the sod. This is not always 
possible in a pasture, but it now seems sure that a 
top-dressing with fine limestone will help. 
* 
A T the Biltmore Hotel, in New York, last month, 
when the community councils of New York City 
met to discuss the strike of city consumers against 
the retail prices of milk, the president of Borden’s 
Farm Products Company, and also the president of 
Sheffield Farms, made the statement that they ac¬ 
cepted all the milk offered in times of surplus supply 
5n order to have a sufficient volume of milk for their 
customers when the supply was short. They both 
alleged that this is one reason for the high prices 
to consumers. 
As a matter of fact, they do not accept all the 
milk produced and offered them, and they have not 
done so in times of full supply for the past two 
years. At the present time we have the milk of three 
co-operative creameries for sale, and neither of these 
companies takes it. The patrons of these creameries 
are members of the League, and are accepting losses 
themselves while supporting the general cause. The 
big dealers are not accepting their milk, as they 
asserted at the Biltmore Hotel meeting. 
* 
“Fair aud cold Tuesday and Wednesday” was the re¬ 
port for today, and putting faith in it, we delayed fixing 
lots and gates and bunching the ewes in the field with 
their Winter quarters’ barn. This evening I had an er¬ 
rand to the cornfield, and the flock in the pasture next 
stopped feeding eagerly and ran, expecting me to throw 
sheaves of fodder over the fence to them. Sure by their 
greediness that they knew there was a storm coming I 
crossed the place to the other cornfield, and the other 
flock gave me the same kind of evidence. It is now 10 
p. m., with four inches of snow, and more coming. To¬ 
morrow we can wade around and fix them. “How much 
better is a man than a sheep?” Man is the only animal 
that make mistakes. Sometimes he does not know as 
much as a rabbit. If any of us find we are taking the 
ailment called “swelled head” a little remembrance of 
the above may allay it. w. w. Reynolds. 
Ohio. 
* 
T HEY" tell us that science is “concentrated sense” 
—using the word with the old-fashioned mean¬ 
ing of instinct or intuition. Surely animals know 
more about the weather than most humans—tlx.ugh 
the latter have all the benefit of centuries of re¬ 
corded observation. We are told of certain.ants in 
the South that bring out their eggs on sunny days 
that they may be incubated on the surface. When¬ 
ever these insects are seen hurrying to take the eggs 
back into the soil, humans may know that a storm is 
approaching, no matter how the weather reports 
read. Mr. Reynolds says that “man is the only ani¬ 
mal that makes mistakes.” Some people we know 
will dispute that—as applied to themselves—but in 
general it may he said that “man” makes mistakes 
enough to provide a fair average for all the animal 
kingdom. 
'* 
I am mailing you a clipping from the editorial page 
of a great daily paper. You will notiee that it states 
the American farmers as a mass are fabulously rich. 
I advise you to call up Bellevue Hospital and have 
them examine this man as to his sanity. I would like 
to see the farmer who has made millions farming. 
A. D. T. 
IIE article referred to contains the following: 
“After several years of incomparable war crops 
ami incomparable prices, the American fanners as a 
mass are fabulously rich. 
There are some very sensible men at Bellevue 
Hospital—a number who were farm-raised. They 
know the symptoms of hopeless insanity, and would 
hardly think it worth while to examine such a man. 
The signs of the disease are too much in evidence. 
And yet this is a fair sample of the brain food which 
is being given out to the city people. The war crops 
have not been “incomparable.” Most of us know 
that for the past two years our money crops have 
been hardly up to the average. Prices for some 
products have ruled high. They are now falling, 
while the retail prices to consumers are increasing! 
The cost of production for all farm products has 
nearly or quite doubled. There is nothing in sight 
to warrant any drop in the prices of fertilizer, feed, 
machinery or labor, while every farmer is haunted 
by the thought that prices for his products may he 
at any time cut down. All this talk about farmers 
being "fabulously rich” is part of a definite plan to 
deceive the public. The object is to make the con¬ 
sumers believe that the farmers are robbers, and 
that every cut in retail prices must he taken out of 
the farmer’s price—while the middlemen get the 
same old share. That is all there is to it, and the 
hopeful part of the situation is that farmers are 
now coming to see the truth. 
# 
A NUMBER of our readers have written to say 
that they think the National Grange turned 
down the suggestion to meet with “organized labor” 
too hard and without enough “diplomacy.” The 
American Federation of Labor asked the Grange to 
send delegates to a labor convention. Of course, 
the object of this was to show the public that far¬ 
mers are willing to unite with organized labor in 
a contest against capital. While that was not openly 
expressed, everybody, including the farmers, knew 
that acceptance of the invitation would mean just 
that. The Grange rejected the invitation curtly and 
with little attempt at explanation. The New York 
State Federation of Farm Bureaus at its annual 
meeting followed the Grange and demanded that 
President Gompers of the Federation of Labor 
publicly retract his statement.that lie was speaking 
for the fanners. The Farm Bureau went beyond 
the Grange in declaring that farmers are fully able 
to speak for themselves—and will do so. While we 
do not believe in any insolent or domineering policy 
for farm organizations, we do think they should he 
firm and straightforward, A vast majority of our 
farmers evidently believe that the American Federa¬ 
tion of Labor has gone too far in its methods and 
passed the limit of fair treatment of the public. 
That being so, 'they prefer to have tlieir opinions put 
on record—straight from the shoulder and in clear 
English. The most necessary thing for farmers now 
is to make it clear that their problem is big enough 
to be carried alone—without any political combina¬ 
tion with either labor or capital. 
Brevities 
What books are you planning to read this Winter? 
Suppose “capital” were to try its hand at “striking"? 
Light the henhouse for the layers. Keep it dark for 
the breeders. 
A good test for “hot air”: See if it can melt the ice 
of experience and still keep hot. 
When any man begins to think himself a superman 
he is merely training for the part of "supe” which he 
is sure to play later. 
They tell us the farmer is both a laborer and a cap¬ 
italist. Right, but usually his hardest labor is to find 
someone to advance capital. 
First the home, then the community, then the town, 
then the country, then the State—then the nation. That 
is the program for the farm organization. 
The scientists figure that one cord of hickory wood 
will produce as much heat as one ton of soft coal. But 
can anyone afford to cut and handle a cord of such wood 
for the price of the coal? 
