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The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S rArER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country «nd Suburban IIotnri 
Established isso 
Publbhrd weekly by the Rqrnl Publishing Oompnny, 333 West 30th Street, New fork 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon. Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wj. 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. (id., or 
81* marks, or 10>t francs. Remit in money order, express 
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Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 90 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 arc also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between onr subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not- We willingly use our good 
offices to this end, but such coses should not he 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 witliin one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
O NE of our readers who suggests the name of a 
good man for Governor of New York gets off 
this bit of wisdom : 
The thing which always gets me i<? this, that no mat¬ 
ter how good a man may be before getting the political 
bee in his bonnet, as soon as he does he forgets all about 
his former life and becomes a politician pure and simple. 
I don’t know why it i.s so, but it is. aud human nature 
seems to be about the same all over this broad land. 
That is true, and “we, the people,” are partly re¬ 
sponsible for it. The average man sees men come and 
go in public life. He observes their rising up and 
their downfall. lie sees honest and sincere men go 
into places of power. Soon there will arise some 
question of principle against political popularity. 
The man in power knows that if he faces the situa¬ 
tion it will he hard to convince the public that they 
must endure before they can be secure. Truth and 
right lie in the future and there must he trouble and 
fight before real improvement is possible. The poli¬ 
ticians know that and they play upon the minds of 
the people with all the arts they possess. The public 
when working as an orderly army with vision and 
hope ahead is the most potent force for good in the 
world. When, however, that same public works as 
an unorganized mob, or a mob inflamed by political 
passion, it i.s the most destructive force that can be 
imagined. The average “good man” is “good” until 
he comes to the crossroads where one path leads to 
political mastery and the other to political martyr¬ 
dom. He doesn’t like the appearance of the latter, 
and he realizes that his material prosperity lies in 
compromising with the politicians! That is largely 
why so many "good men” submit to stoop for the 
“political boss.” There is no remedy save in public 
sentiment. The people must select a strong man, 
make him understand what they want, and then pa¬ 
tiently back him to the limit of their money and 
moral power. 
* 
Q UITE a number of our readers are interested in 
the “bricks” for that orphan hospital in New¬ 
foundland. Mr. S. B. Strong of Long Island, who is 
collecting the “bricks,” says lie had over .$300 of 
them by May 11: 
Among them I have at last had two for children; 
they are for his two grandchildren in Smyrna, with a 
perhaps that he may send some for his grandchildren 
in Shanghai. T am having the association acknowledge 
these gifts. There is one from a lady 74 years of age 
who sends a Libei*ty bond coupon for $1.06, with no 
name or addres. and the postmark blurred. I would 
like you to mention it. 
This bouse for orphan children far in the north of 
Newfoundland is headquarters for one of the wor¬ 
thiest charities we know of anywhere. In these hard 
times of discouragement and uncertainty one of the 
best ways of helping ourselves is to help others. 
* 
A S a rule the “only child” of a family has a hard 
outlook in life. It is very likely to be spoiled. 
Its parents lavish love and ambition large enough to 
cover half a dozen youngsters upon this one human 
chicken. Few mortals are large enough in character 
to stand all this, and the “only child” too often grows 
up like a peach tree which has been fed too much 
nitrogen. As a rule the parents cannot bear to have 
their angel child criticized or trimmed as he should 
be. We remember a case where a woman had a 
dozen peach trees in her garden. They had been pet¬ 
ted and pampered along, but the woman had never 
permitted anyone to touch them with knife or saw. 
You can imagine what a useless head they were 
forming. A famous peach grower visited that, family 
and saw those thrifty hut misshapen trees growing 
up just as they ought not to grow. His hands ached 
to correct the evil, and while the woman was absent 
he went out with a saw and did a thorough job. 
When the woman came back she found her beautiful 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
trees cut back “for business,” with about one-third 
of their thrifty tops lying on the ground. She was 
furious, and cried bitterly at this “destruction,” but 
the trees responded and were famous for the crop 
they produced. That “heroic” treatment was their 
salvation, but the woman never forgave the “expert.” 
Now we see many a child growing up just like these 
trees. They are flattered and fed without correction 
or any practice of self-denial until they become smart 
snobs and nothing more. The old-fashioned “Spartan 
mother” is a rare creature in these days. The aver¬ 
age “only child” needs a combination of shingle and 
sweat to make him really worth while. Both lie and 
his mother will regard that as a treasonable utter¬ 
ance, but that will not change its truth. 
* 
T HE Philadelphia North American is one of the 
few daily papers which have a clear idea of agri¬ 
cultural conditions and what i.s ahead of us as a 
result of the present tendency of farming. It speaks 
of talk about Communism and what is vaguely al¬ 
luded to as Bolshevism, yet it rightly says that some¬ 
thing more ominous than this revolutionary talk is 
found in the announcements of farms for sale. It 
quotes two of such notices from local papers: 
“For Sale—A young, home-raised dairy of 38 cows, 
giving 200 quarts of milk daily. No reasonable offer 
refused if sold before May 1. Selling on account of 
no help. - -, Phoenixville, Route 3.” 
“As my farmer is leaving, will sell without reserve, 
at my farm near Northbrook, my entire dairy, 25 head 
of cows and heifers, etc.” 
They suggest the conditions that prevail in one of 
the richest agricultural counties of the United States, 
close to a great market, a region where, if anywhere, 
farming should be profitable. 
It is in such news as this that we read a menace 
to America more serious than any propaganda of 
revolution; for it shows how rapidly agriculture is 
being undermined, how surely the sources of the 
country's food supply are being diminished. Indus¬ 
trial development and the forcing of production re¬ 
gardless of costs, with the consequent draining of 
labor from farm to factory by the lure of excessive 
wages, are creating a semblance of prosperity that 
threatens paralysis to agriculture and starvation to 
the nation. 
To us it seems one of the most remarkable and 
pathetic things of modern life that our great daily 
papers can spend their energy and space in discuss¬ 
ing trivial or useless things while the menace of 
food shortage or famine is so clearly apparent. The 
extravagant management of the war and Govern¬ 
ment favors to “industry” are now having their 
direct result in the demoralization of agriculture. 
Have we any constructive suggestion? We have. 
In New York State we would have the farmers and 
country people, through the primary, seize control 
of one of the old parties arid nominate and elect men 
to office who will take up the food supply and dis¬ 
tribution problems in earnest. That would be a good 
beginning. 
* 
I T is hard to get the truth of this European labor 
problem. Millions of workmen could find work 
here on our farms and in our shops. Yet the gov¬ 
ernment's policy seems to prevent their coming if 
possible. On one hand we are told that multitudes 
would come if free or even cheap transportation 
were offered. There are said to be millions of wom¬ 
en, whose men were killed or crippled in the war, 
who would gladly come here to do much of our rough 
work. On the other hand we are told that Europe 
has far greater need of these workers than can be 
found in this country, for Europe must he rebuilt. 
The argument of those who say this is that Europe 
cannot recover from the terrible ruin of the great 
war unless her laborers remain, and unless America 
loans the money needed to put them at work. We 
must all remember that there are not as many 
laborers in the world as there were five years ago. 
Several million have been killed or crippled, millions 
more have stopped working, and many more are en¬ 
gaged in non-essential occupations. Personally we 
do not believe it would be possible to bring any great 
number «f Europeans to America at this time. 
* 
T HE dairy show recently held in this city was 
much like those that have gone before. It was 
well staged, the exhibits were attractive, money was 
freely spent. Everything was there except the peo¬ 
ple who are to increase the demand for milk—if it. 
ever comes. As a rule, the well-to-do and middle 
class people of this big city have small families, and 
the small family of adults is hard to Interest in milk. 
Any great increase in the trade must be provided by 
the families w r ith many children, and these families 
•Tu-ne B, 1!)20 
are rarely found at such a dairy show as was held 
last month. “It was too .high-toned,” was the com¬ 
ment made by one man who has five little children 
to feed. What he meant was that this fine show was 
not aimed at his class—did not speak to him in his 
own language or come to his house with a message 
that he understood. That is the truth as we see it. 
yet all criticism should be constructive. We think 
a good share of the money spent on these milk shows 
would be more profitably invested right down in the 
tenement districts where the large families are 
found. There would be far more advertising for the 
milk business in offering prizes for the babies which 
make the greatest gain on a milk diet of 10 weeks 
or more. This would be a novelty, and the daily 
papers would give it wide publicity. There would 
be a rush of women to enter their children for the 
prize contest. Each child could he examined and 
tested and weighed, and the outcome would he a 
wonderful gain in onr knowledge of child nutrition. 
This practical test would he in the language of the 
mothers who have flocks of children to bring up. and 
we cannot think of anything that would show more 
forcibly the wonderful feeding value of milk. Such 
a contest would, of course, shock those who think 
there is only one way to'hold a “dairy show.” But 
have not results shown that they need shocking? 
* 
T HE price of milk for .Tune has been fixed at $2.83 
per 100 pounds for 3 per cent, milk, with the 
usual fat and freight differentials. This is 28 cents 
above the April and May price. June price last 
year was $2.S9. The dealers over-reached themselves 
in forcing the low prices of the last two months on 
farmers. The supply fell off, and the demand for both 
liquid milk and.cream, butter and cheese and con¬ 
densed milk increased, so that on June first they 
were confronted with a shortage of milk, a good 
demand and approximately a 10 per cent reduction 
in the supply for the same time last year. Prices 
hr.ve been fixed to October first: July, $2.95; 
August, $3.35, and September, $3.05. 
* 
G OVERNOR SMITH listened to the plainly stated 
• reasons of farmers for their opposition to the 
daylight saving law; be knew that In a recent farm 
referendum 9Si/> per cent of the ballots were against 
it; hd knew that Congress by a two-thirds vote re¬ 
pealed the Federal law; he knew that the State 
Legislature in both Houses approved the State re¬ 
peal bill; and yet lie was unable to convince himself 
that the restoration of time would reduce the pro¬ 
duction of food on the farms, and so be vetoed the 
Bill. It is doubtful if the merits of the arguments 
had anything to do with the Governor’s action. 
Probably 60 per cent of the city people care nothing 
about it one way or the other. No less than 25 per 
cent oppose it, but the 15 per cent organized a propa¬ 
ganda for it. They naturally got the city press, and 
Governor Smith yielded to the fraction of the city 
population that made the most noise. 
The problem bids fair to be an issue in the Fall 
campaign. Several candidates for Governor have 
already expressed their approval of the repeal bill. 
There will be no opportunity to dodge the questions. 
Any candidate who refuses to come out squarely for 
repeal may safely be regarded as opposed to repeal, 
and the farm A-otc may be trusted to throw the bal¬ 
ance of power against him. We are sure of a show¬ 
down, and the experience may be worth another year 
of the abuse of the clock. 
It is said that Governor Smith thinks his record 
good enough to justify another appeal to the State 
voters. If so, there Is a surprise in waiting for him. 
If Governor Smith’s administration has not been as 
contemptuous of farm interests as that of Governor 
Whitman, it has been no less disappointing. Until 
now it replaced insolent contempt with polite indif¬ 
ference. This last, act lias put him fairly in tlie class 
of his predecessor. If the Governor wants to test 
the temper of farmers after this rebuff that is his 
privilege, but if he does we will all hear something 
drop in November. 
Brevities 
Some men need to imitate a porous plaster. It sticks 
fast and is open to argument. 
Many a New York dairyman believes that sun¬ 
flowers in the silo will give him a place in the sun. 
No combination of men held together only by n 
dollar can help cracking when the dollar changes value. 
Ttie important tiling about a tile system is the out 1« t. 
If that clogs the tiles do more barm than good. It is 
not unlike a man brooding over his wrongs. Unless lie 
has some way of letting it oil, his bruin will show.it. 
