200 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tssd 
Pnhllihed weekly by the Rural Pnblishlnfr Company, 933 West 30th Street, New fork 
Hkrbert W. Colungwood, President and Editor. 
Jons J. DILLON, Treasurer and General Manager. 
W«. F. Dn-I-ON, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royt.e, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in tlie Universal Postal Union. $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d, or 
8kj marks, or 1014 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.^riiser 
Many years ago, when bicycling through New Jersey, 
I passed a farmhouse just as a young woman was bring¬ 
ing the mail. A young boy ran to meet her, calling out 
as lie did so, “Did The Rural New-Yorker come?” 
That was the first time 1 ever heard of your paper. 
Now I find myself, a middle-aged farmer in Canada, 
asking on Saturday nights, “Did Tiie Rural New- 
Yorker come?” 
Here’s your dollar for 1920. w. D. file. 
Ontario, Canada. 
T HE chances are that this Jersey boy is still read¬ 
ing The It. N.-Y. and will remember the inci¬ 
dent.. Dong may they both live to ask each Saturday 
“Did Tiie Rural New-Y^orker come?” and find their 
old friend still on deck. 
* 
T IIE R. N.-Y. has at least 250,000 adult readers in 
New York State. That will include the wives, 
sons and daughters of subscribers, and also the hired 
help. It means a quarter of a million voters of as 
sound and intelligent a class as we have in the coun¬ 
try. Just consider the possibilities of this great 
group of people in connection with the referendum 
proposition mentioned on the next page. In the last 
primary election the combined vote for all Demo¬ 
cratic candidates for Governor was 232,513. There is 
no such thing at. present as a referendum vote in 
New York State. Fully believing that ive have got 
to do it ourselves, Tiie R. N.-Y. offers its services in 
obtaining a fair expression of opinion. You can see 
at once the possibilities of such a plan. Will you 
help make it a success? Send us the vote of your 
entire family, stating how many voters are repre¬ 
sented. 
* 
Tiie R. N.-Y. has cultivated many fields and widened 
the real farmer’s outlook in many ways. There is one 
crop, however, probably because it is confined to restrict¬ 
ed areas, that so far as I recall, it has never touched—■ 
that is broom corn. Many of us would like to know 
what soils suit it and how it is fertilized, tended and 
harvested. The tomato is grown successfully here, but 
has to be started in March or earlier, and seldom set 
out in the open field before June. If the broom corn 
could he treated the same way, might we not raise at 
least enough for our own use? It would pay, I think, 
to experiment with it, if we know its requirements. If 
brooms go much higher and grow much thinner, we may 
be. compelled to “take to the brush,” as the early set¬ 
tlers did, and make very effective brooms of twigs, which 
even now are fine for stable use. G. s. 1*. 
Winslow, Me. 
HIS is only one instance of the way farmers are 
planning to reduce the cost of goods by provid¬ 
ing substitutes at home. Thousands of families are 
now using small grinders to crush wheat, corn or 
rye, and provide flour and “cereal” substitutes. 
Many more are canning meat for Summer use. 
Thousands will this year plant a patch of sorghum 
in the hope of providing a home supply of syrup. 
Baek to old-time methods! That is the tendency, 
and the movement seems likely to grow if the pres¬ 
ent wide margin between consumers’ and producers’ 
price continues. All this will have the effect of 
forcing more direct dealing between city and farm. 
As for broom corn in Maine, we shall have to ask 
our experienced readers about that. Surely the 
modern price of an inferior broom is likely to sweep 
the pocketbook clean of money. Where broom corn 
can be grown it is likely that some capable farmer 
can learn to supply brooms fer the neighborhood. 
That is what is coming unless there is some relief 
from the present, fearful prices. Years ago farmers 
and their families did a large share of manufactur¬ 
ing. The work was taken away from them largely 
through the concentration of power through steam. 
That power is now being scattered by the gasoline 
engine and the electric wire. We think a good share 
of manufacturing will pass to the country, and the 
nation will be better for it. 
* 
What do you think now? Your old friend Charles 
* : H. Betts introduced thb first' bill at Albany, and it 
7ht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
was a bill to repeal the daylight saving law. What, 
do you know about that? n. f. 
O one will over accuse Charles IT. Rotts of 
ignorance of any part of the game of politics. 
He can get a mark of 100+ at any examination. He 
knows that the farmers want that daylight saving 
law repealed. The events of the past few months 
have made him realize that the days when politicians 
told the people what they need are past and gone. 
Wayne County at least has now reached the point 
where several things will happen. The farmers, be¬ 
ing in the majority, will dominate the county. Any 
man going to Albany from that county will he ex¬ 
pected to serve as agent and advocate for agriculture. 
Mr. Retts has done more than anyone else, in recent 
years, to make New York farmers realize not only 
that they have got to do it themselves, but that they 
ivill do it themselves. 
* 
O CR Prohibition friends should understand the 
following: The new amendment is aimed at 
the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor. 
The Supreme Court has decided that Congress has 
the power to determine what “intoxicating” means, 
and Congress has decided that anything containing 
over one-lmlf of one per cent of alcohol is intoxi¬ 
cating. Tf Congress have this power, it seems evi¬ 
dent that another Congress, to he elected in the 
future, may change the meaning of the word, and 
even decide that whisky is not intoxicating. There¬ 
fore. it. behooves our Prohibition friends to make 
sure, if they can, that no man goes to Congress who 
would be likely to vote for a change. And our “wet” 
friends also have in this their remedy. If. as they 
say, a majority of the people oppose Prohibition, lot 
them elect a “wet” Congress and change the word 
“intoxicating” to suit themselves! 
* 
O N page 18S is a note about the working of the 
New York apple law that is worth leading. 
Here again we have the same old story. If the ap¬ 
ple-growers expect to got a square deal under the 
law they have got to do it themselves. The law 
will not do it for them. We knew there was some¬ 
thing wrong about that barrel of apples—noted on 
page 39. It carried the name of one of the best- 
known and best-respected men in Western New 
York. It seems evident that some buyer committed 
what is practically forgery in marking the barrel. 
* 
T HERE is no use trying to deny the fact that 
tiie practice of using dry dust in place of liquid 
spray in the orchard has come to stay. Thousands 
of good fruit growers are using the dust for 
killing the leaf-eating insects, and thousands more 
will he forced through the labor shortage to do 
likewise. For killing such insects as the codling 
worm we find the dust fully equal to the liquid 
poisons. Tt is also very useful in combating most 
fruit diseases. It is inferior to the liquid in de¬ 
stroying the scale or in fighting plant lice, so that 
where these posts are present the fruit grower will 
he obliged to use some liquid spray. Wo think the 
dust is of sufficient value to justify its use for the 
worm even in orchards where liquids must be used 
for the scale. At present if one would do this he 
must have two separate machines—one a fan to 
blow 'out the dust and the other a pump to spray 
out the liquid. What we need is a combination 
machine. The same power can he used for either 
pump.nr fan. The tank might he made removable, 
or so built that the fan could he fastened on top of 
it. Such a combination machine will have to come 
in the future—for dusting has come to stay with us. 
* 
R UN over the items of woman’s work figured on 
page 190, and see how far they are out of the 
way. Many a woman has done more work than is 
here recorded, and <lie prices for the labor are low. 
When the woman’s labor, at tho lowest cash price, 
comes to more than the value of the farm—and no 
cash income to show for if—we might as well realize 
that the end of the old system has come. For hero 
we have the true reason for most of the trouble in 
farming. In too many cases the farm has kept go¬ 
ing on the unpaid labor of women and children. 
That is not true of all cases, hut there have been 
enough of them to influence the agriculture of en¬ 
tire sections. And such business lias got to stop. 
Hereafter a fair charge for woman and child labor 
must ho included in tho price paid for farm prod¬ 
ucts. When wo buy shoes, clothing, groceries or 
any other cash product we pay for every item of 
labor expended in putting that product on the mar¬ 
ket. The. same thing must he made to hold true of 
farm products. This error of economies has nearly 
wrecked farming in many sections. The correction 
of this error by including a fair charge for woman’s 
January 31, 1920 j 
labor in the price will bring farming back to wliero 
it should ho. 
. * 
L AST year there were used 391,047 tons of agri¬ 
cultural lime in this country. Tt was worth 
$2,098,848. Tn addition there were 1.091.98 tons of 
ground limestone used. This meant a decrease of 
20 per cent in the burned lime and an increase of 
five per cent in the ground limestone. Tho farmers 
of this country could easily use 10,000,000 tons of 
lime to good advantage, and before long they will 
have to use more than that to keep the soil in good 
condition. Year by year we are finding that fine 
lime dust has a value nearly equal to burned lime. 
During the past few years experiments in using 
limestone on old pastures and meadows have dem¬ 
onstrated the value of that .practice. It often hap¬ 
pens that burned lime used as a top-dressing (with¬ 
out being worked into the soil) forms a sort of 
mortar at the top, and does little good. Ground 
raw limestone, if made fine enough, does not seem 
to act in that way, and has given great results in 
many cases. 
* 
W E do not believe that the proposed hills to 
create a commission to make arbitrary prices 
for milk or other farm products will ever get out of 
the agricultural committees of the New York State 
Legislature. Consequently there is not. any imme¬ 
diate danger that any of them will become law; but 
all the same the general condemnation of them 
should lie so prompt and emphatic that the principle 
they represent will he repudiated and put to rest 
for all time. The advocates of tliose measures would 
subject the dairy industry to the most objectionable 
features of State Socialism with the best principles 
of Socialism left out. These hill might well carry 
the caption: “A Rill to Decrease the Milk Supply 
and to Raise the Price to Consumers.” Of all the 
fool legislation that has ever been introduced in the 
State this measure stands at the head. Tf it became 
a law it would cripple the dairy industry and give 
the city a real taste of high milk prices. We call 
on the legislative committees to throw the hills 
down with a quick hang, and while protecting the 
dairy industry also save the city consumers from 
the errors, if no worse, of those who speak for them. 
* 
I notice in your paper several articles from American 
farm wives stating how hard they have worked all the 
years. Hawthorne once said: “Let us thank God for 
our Puritan ancestors—and, also, that we have pro¬ 
gressed one step farther in the way of civilization.” 
The present generation is not going to work so hard—• 
and they are going to get bigger returns for their labor. 
Illinois. SIDNEY averill. 
E believe it, but we must not carry the idea 
from one extreme to the other and quit work! 
Some of us have this idea of continuous labor bred 
into us through long generations. As loafers, both 
we and our children would be as unhappy and 
awkward as any person who tries to overcome a 
natural tendency by artificial means! The old work 
horse trying to play like a colt does not command 
much respect! Most of us have got to learn how to 
play and how to rest. The coming generation has 
got to he educated for recreation. The great big 
problem now is to see that the farmer’s wife and 
daughter are fairly paid for their work, and that 
the value of their labor is put into the price of farm 
produce. This will do most to put them on fairer 
terms with city women, am] will go a long way in 
settling the farm problem. No sensible person wants 
to loaf or pass the rest of his life in idleness, hut 
we all want a fair chance to he comfortable and not 
overworked. That is what farm women must have. 
Brevities 
Procrastination is a lung name for “put off.” Ry 
any name it is “the thief of time.” 
Some of that manure lightly spread over the Winter 
wheat will pay. So would 200 lbs. or more of acid 
phosphate per acre. 
The Ohio Experiment Station pronounces Spring 
wheat an uncertain crop for general culture in Ohio. 
One reason is the damage done by Ilossian fly. 
On the average corn seems to shrink about 20 per 
cent during Winter storage. That means that $1 per 
bushel in November is about equal to $1.25 in early 
Summer. 
In parts of the South where formerly negro laborers 
worked for 75 cents a day. (hey now demand $3.50. Of 
all the labor changes in the country this seems most 
remarkable. 
Oats and wheat seeded together would not. make a 
good combination of either fodder or feed. They will 
not ripen together. Oats and Canada peas make a bet¬ 
ter mixture. 
This idea of punching holes in the pile of hard ma¬ 
nure, putting corn into the holes and then turning in 
hogs to root out' the corn seems t<> do the work. It 
helps both the manure and the hog. , 
When the clover plant has produced its seed it seems 
to conclude that its life mission has ended, and that’s 
all. No man should imitate the clover plant in this 
respect. Do not go to seed ; make the job last as long 
as life dues. 
