156 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 24, 1920 
NEPDN5ET R0DF5 
Good Old Paroid 
**Good old Paroid”—That's what farmers call the best roll 
roofing ever made. 
For more than 20 years Neponset Paroid has protected 
cattle, poultry, stock, tools, equipment, crops, and homes 
from the attacks of rain and sleet, sun and snow—at the low¬ 
est service cost per square foot per year. 
One farmer writes, “Neponset Paroid is the greatest roofing 
investment I ever made. Ten years ago 1 decided that to 
keep my prize stock warm and healthy I needed on the roof 
and siding of my barn the best roofing that money could buy. 
I bought good old Paroid. It’s still good old Paroid—it 
hasn't cost me a penny for repairs and it still looks good for 
another ten years.” 
Three Colors—Red, Green, Gray 
Paroid slate-surfaced comes in 
two colors—natural slate-red and 
slate-green. It is the most beau¬ 
tiful 6late-surfaced roll roofing 
made. Just what you need for 
your house or barn—right over 
old wooden shingles. Paroid gray 
comes in two weights. Build and 
repair NOW. You owe it to 
yourself to use Paroid. There's 
a Neponset Roofing for every 
need and every purse. If you 
do not know who is your nearest 
dealer in Neponset Roofs write 
to us. Send for full informa¬ 
tion. 
BIRD & SON, incorporated (Established 1795) 
East Walpole, Mass. 
It is EASY 
to BLAST stumps 
Atlas Farm Powder is prepared especially for 
the use of inexperienced farmers who wish to do 
their own blasting. It is as easy to use as the 
ordinary “gas” engine. Theodore Drake, 
Prattsburg, N. Y., writes regarding his first ex¬ 
perience with it: 
"After readme your book. ‘Better Fannin*.’ 1 am fully 
convinced of tbe value of explosives for farm work. I blew 
out some old apple tree stumps and smashed a rock with 
Atlas Farm Powder, thoueb I bad never shot any dynamite 
before.” 
You, too, will be able to use Atlas Farm Powder 
successfully after you read the directions in 
“Better Farming with Atlas Farm Powder.” 
It tells how to remove stumps, blast ditches, 
6mash boulders, plant trees and increase yields 
by subsoiling. Write for this book. It is free. 
Atlas Powder Company 
Division RN1, Philadelphia, Penna. 
Dealers everywhere Magazine near you 
[ When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you'll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page . 
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. 
A Poultryman and the Land Bank 
T have had a little experience with the 
Federal Land Bank which may be of 
interest to you, and give you some idea 
where certain classes of farmers fit in 
on this supposed fountain of help to come 
of the ones who were hard hit by war 
conditions. For the past eight years I 
have been operating a poultry plant in 
Connecticut. At the time war was de¬ 
clared I had been in the business three 
years, and had built plant and flock from 
the ground up to 2,000 layers, and was 
making $1 per hen profit. With the rapid 
increase in grain prices and very gradual 
raise in price of poultry products my in¬ 
tensive methods of large numbers and 
small per bird profit became impossible, 
and I had to sacrifice my flock and put 
a $2,500 mortgage in a local bank. My 
plant, which is up to date and of such an 
efficient character that, personally with¬ 
out hired help, I have carried 2,600 layers 
and raised 5,000 chicks, had cost me 
$25,000, and I had little trouble getting 
the bank loan. This cost of plant is at 
pre-war prices, and under present con¬ 
ditions it would cost $50,000 to reproduce. 
With the improved conditions in the 
poultry business, I thought I would re¬ 
stock and continue, and to provide for 
such operations I applied for $6,000 from 
the Federal Land Bank. I sent $10 with 
first application, and have just received 
approval of bank’s directors of a loan for 
$1,050, also letter from attorney ap¬ 
pointed by them to make search of title 
at $15 fee, and an additional $5 for 
“putting loan through.” Summing this 
whole proposition up, we find that if I 
accepted this loan I would first have to 
retire the local bank’s first mortgage of 
$2,250; have paid $250 on original mort¬ 
gage. Application, $10; search of title, 
$15; putting loan through, $5, a total of 
$2,280 ; 5 per cent of loan for hank 
stock, $52.50. or $2,332.50. I would re¬ 
ceive from Land Bank $1,050, a difference 
of $1,282.50. In other words ,it would 
cost me $1,282.50 to take advantage of 
this ‘helping hand affair of our Govern¬ 
ment, which forbade us shipping poultry 
during some months of the war, and 
begged us to raise more at the same time. 
My experience may be of some value to 
you in advising other poultrymen who 
are thinking of re-establishing the flocks 
which war conditions swept away from 
them and figuring on loans from Land 
Bank to enable them to bear the burden. 
T. W. M. 
City and County Investments 
Your issue of November 8 carried cor¬ 
respondence between a country banker 
and a New York City banker; and issue 
of November 15 has an editorial about the 
same subject—the investment of farmers 
in city real estate mortgage bonds. Do 
you think that the country banker cares 
particularly about the farmer, except as 
the banker may make something out of 
him? The country banker wants the far¬ 
mer’s money on deposit, so that the bank 
may make the profit. That is the reason 
he opposes the farmer’s buying city real 
estate mortgage bonds, or any other bonds. 
If country people have been keeping their 
money at home and in home banks for 
the benefit of the country people, then 
why the Federal Land Bank? The R. 
N.-Y. knows very well that the country 
bankers have gouged the farmers for 
years, and now that the farmer is in po¬ 
sition to buy a few bonds, after the man¬ 
ner of the French, the country bank 
would discourage this buying—for the 
good of the farmer? Not at all. Know¬ 
ing as you do (none better) the ease with 
which the fake financier fleeces the far¬ 
mer out of his cash, it seems to me The 
R. N.-Y. ought to urge uponfarmers early 
and late to buy good bonds, backed by 
big. reputable banks, and get the habit 
of clipping coupons paid by city people. 
No one is advising the farmers to sacri¬ 
fice needed improvements on the farm in 
order to buy bonds. But after that, buy 
bonds. If the efforts of the Government 
to finance the war have educated the 
country people to buying bonds, the re¬ 
sults will be worth all the cost, in money, 
of the war. 
Let us say that I have, after provid¬ 
ing for the requirements of the farm, 
$1,000 in bank; according to the argu¬ 
ment of your country banker, which you 
seem to heartily approve, I should not 
use that deposit to buy city real estate 
bonds, but should either leave it in bank 
or use it to finance country business only. 
My own experience in these matters has 
been limited, but my observation wide, 
and under the circumstances I would not 
hesitate. I would buy the bonds. Both 
these bankers are selfish. Money is al¬ 
ways selfish; otherwise it soon changes 
hands. In placing his funds, the wise 
financier considers safety, interest rate 
and convenience first. Place has nothing 
to do With it. A. G. SINGLETARY. 
Louisiana. 
R. N.-Y.—We have no particular inter¬ 
est in country bankers, but they are 
nearer country people and know their 
problems better than the city banks ever 
can. The question was whether farmers 
and country people should send their 
money to make the city richer and more 
populous, or invest it at home to make the 
country more attractive for their children. 
A very large part of the money which has 
made the city great came from the coun¬ 
try—originally. That this steady flow of 
money away from the country has been 
an economic mistake is now quite evident. 
We think the money should be kept nearer 
home—not of necessity to benefit country 
banks, but to finance home operations. 
There is money and credit enough in any 
rural county to take care of all opera¬ 
tions of that money, and credit could 
be consolidated and loaned co-operatively. 
We think local use of local money can 
be made wise, safe and patriotic as an 
investment. 
Various Farm Problems 
Daylight saving and high cost of living, 
perennial topics for discussion, are again 
occupying the minds of many who are 
beseeching the various legislatures and 
our represenatives in Washington to do 
something about altering the time by 
which we are now governed, so that some¬ 
body else shall be better suited. The 
question to my mind admits of no debate; 
it is absolutely essential to the most effi¬ 
cient working of our farms that the pres¬ 
ent order of daylight be maintained. 
Every farmer can give good and sufficient 
reasons why lie desires this, but if there 
be those who are not acquainted with 
any of the problems affected by this 
monkeying with the time, they may be as¬ 
sured that there is something real about a 
demand that calls forth such a unanimity 
of opinion from farmers throughout the 
land; and if there is a class of people in 
the country today to whom deference 
may bo shown, it is the farmer, for it is 
he who produces the necessities of life, 
and in so doing puts in more hours, of 
both daylight and dark, of hard work, 
than any man who earns his living by 
sweat of brow. I do not include the gen¬ 
tleman farmer, or the one who has been 
particularly fortunate; but the vast num¬ 
bers of hard-working, patient, honest 
farmers who meet with all kinds of hard 
luck during a twelve-month, and if they 
grumble no one but their nearest neigh¬ 
bor knows; no strike or other asinine 
exhibition on their part, and they do not 
have a month’s vacation every year in 
which to forget their troubles, nor even a 
whole day, without they have made spe¬ 
cial arrangements with someone to do 
their part of the “chores” (my definition 
of “chores” is work). In this connec¬ 
tion is not the scarcity of labor on the 
farms proof of these assertions? Young 
men who have been born and brought up 
on the farm take to other work if they 
can possibly qualify for it, because of 
shorter hours, less work and more pay. 
Now, in order that the high cost of 
living may be appreciably affected, two 
things are necessary: First, pay heed to 
some of the desires of the farmer, to the 
end that his life may be made a little 
more bearable and profitable, thereby af¬ 
fording a little inducement, a ray of hope 
for our boys to remain on the farms. Sec¬ 
ond, everybody stop talking and go to 
work ! Hot air is all right, but it should 
not be generated in the chest of man and 
dispensed as a public benefaction, for it 
never did and never will assist the growth 
of anything but trouble. Let the slogan 
be “Everybody produce or raise something 
other than Hail Columbia!” If our min¬ 
isters in this great church movement 
would first take up temporal blessings 
and preach the gospel of honest toil, until 
they shall have converted this land from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the 
Gulf to the North Pole, they will have 
rendered “first aid” to their fellow man, 
and done that which shall be pleasing in 
the sight of God, if fair and willing to 
subordinate self-interest just temporarily. 
Failing in any of these expedients, I 
would suggest as a means of elucidating 
the gospel of right, that every man or 
woman engaged in producing foodstuffs 
and that which may be converted into 
wearing apparel, adopt the eight-hour 
plan and rif/idly adhere to it! Then after 
12 months all that hadn’t seen a new light 
I would deport or feed to the sharks. 
Yours, for less talk and more work, 
Vermont. waldo w. Clark. 
Ice in Cabbage Storage 
In storing 20 or 30 tons of cabbage in a 
cellar, would you recommend putting ice 
in the same room to keep the temperature 
down? There are some quite mild days 
in November after the cabbage is gath¬ 
ered. The nearer to 32 degrees the cellar 
can be kept the better the cabbage will 
keep. Would the dampness from the melt¬ 
ing ice be a detriment to the cabbage? 
Rome, N. Y. f. c. y. 
Cabbage is best stored at around 32 de¬ 
grees. We certainly recommend using ice 
to keep the temperature even during mild 
days. Farmers are doing that very thing 
in this vicinity, and the moisture keeps 
the heads from shrinking. The cool air 
keeps the fungi from working, so no in¬ 
jury results. It is only when the air be¬ 
comes warm that moisture is injurious. 
Madison Co., N. Y. t. h. t. 
