il 116 
33lw RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Juae 19, 1920 
Things To Think About 
The objeot 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 mentai safety valve. -_ 
The Level-Headed Farmer 
In an article in the Financial World . 
Benjamin F. Harris, a Western banker, 
makes the following sensible statements. 
Mr. Harris goes on to protest against the 
present tax system: 
The Middle West is full of diminutive 
dollars, many of them going as easily as 
they came, though the farmers are more 
saving and thrifty than our city folk. 
To get down to the basis of this great¬ 
est of industries—agriculture—we must 
remember, first, that of all the men in 
America, farmers are the only ones who 
have not a thing to do or effectively to 
say with reference to setting the price of 
what they buy or sell. 
Remember, also, that farmers are the 
only class or group that has maintained or 
increased its pre-war per capita produc¬ 
tion—this, too, to its own detriment, if 
you only take things from selfish view¬ 
point, and selfishness is organized today 
in more than one instance. 
Remember, too, that agriculture repre¬ 
sents almost 50 per cent of our popula¬ 
tion; that actually 13,000.000 people are 
employed in the field, and that it repre¬ 
sents by far the greatest amount of capital 
and labor in the country in any one group. 
In return for all this, the only reces¬ 
sion of prices that I know of since the 
war has come in connection with farm 
products, and to practically all the meats 
and most of the grains—except the price- 
fixed ones. This in spite of the fact that 
farm labor is higher and scarcer than it 
was during the war, with the farmer pay¬ 
ing higher prices for everything he needs 
or uses. 
The great thing that pulls this situa- ! 
tion through for the agricultural section 
is that the farmers are on the job all 
the time; they have no idea of what a 
five-day week or a six-hour day means. 
They realize that the world can’t live 
under present conditions today, or read¬ 
just as promptly as it should on a 44- 
hour week of indifferent and inefficient 
work. 
The Cost of Farm Labor 
pasturage from these traders. Now we 
are afraid to trust our animals out of 
sight. We must tie out by the roadside 
or backyard. We must raise green stuff 
and feed in the shed or cow yard. I do 
just that. Where will the new conditions 
lead us? Must we have herdsmen to 
guard the pasture? Could we pay them? 
Could we even find a man in these dif¬ 
ficult times that could be trusted day 
after day to stay awake and not set the 
v oods atire with his pipe, all the while a 
mile or two i.wav from any possible over¬ 
sight? ' u. s. B. 
Massachusetts. 
Frank Talk by a City Buyer 
Replying to your invitation to the “city 
man” to state his side of the II. C. L. 
case and other things, there are some 
things which may be said regarding buy¬ 
ing direct from producers. A great 
many city folks have from time to time 
tried to co-operate with the farmers by 
buying directly from them through the 
parcel post and express companies, and 
have not obtained satisfactory results. 
Why? 
The farmer sending goods to the city 
has to compete with local dealer's. A 
local dealer will sell oue apple at a time, 
or one barrel, as desired. Can the farmer 
do this? A local dealer has the finest 
produce that the country can raise, 
packed by ex terts. and sent by carload 
lots under ideal conditions at minimum 
cost. He can buy whatever grade of 
goods his customer wants, and let the 
customer look over his stock and pick out 
what suits him and take it home with 
him, or send it home for him. Can the 
farmer do this? 
A local dealer can store his goods care¬ 
fully and reduce his spoilage to a mini¬ 
mum, and can and does sell with but a 
small additional chai'ge to cover this risk. 
City dwellers, with few exceptions, have 
no room in their homes for storage, and 
very few would know how to care for a 
surplus of any commodity if they had the 
room to store it. Yet the farmers ad¬ 
vertise goods by the bushel, barrel or 
box, enough to last a city family perhaps 
a month. If a local dealer by chance (?) 
sells goods which are not as they should 
be. the customer has a “come-back,” as we 
say. Usually within about 10 minutes 
he can either have his money returned or 
exchange the bad for good material. This 
is not the case when buying by mail. 
When a customer goes to a local dealer 
he pays cash or has his goods charged. 
This requires very little time. But when 
buying by mail he has first to write a 
letter, and sometimes two or more, then 
procure and send seme sort of money 
order, and then wait a considerable time 
for the delivery of the goods by mail or 
express. It. usually requires as much 
time to . mail the letter, neglecting the 
other things to be done, as it does to go 
to the store anl get the goods. 
How often do the goods sent by the 
farmer meet with delays in transit due 
to an unlimited number of causes? A 
local dealer can guarantee delivery on 
time. Why does the farmer, in view of 
the above, expect to receive, net. the fancy 
prices he reads about in some of the city 
papers for goods which are seldom as 
good as can be had around the corner for 
reasonable prices? Are these obstacles 
insurmountable? They should not be. 
and it seems as though with a forum such 
as The It. N.-Y. ha3 thrown open to. the 
people full and honest discussion of the 
problem should point the way to a solu¬ 
tion. One such solution may even be 
found in these very columns. A system 
of guaranteed advertisments might be of 
the greatest value to alL concerned. At 
any rate, either better prices or better 
goods must be offered the city man to 
compensate for his added trouble, or the 
troublesome features of the transaction 
eliminated. w. e. p. 
R. N.-Y".—We called for a frank state¬ 
ment from city buyers, and here we get it. 
Let it come; we want to know just what 
the trouble is with these people. 
A Buck-to-the-Land Problem 
I am a city or rocking-chair farmer 
at this time, but I have not always lived 
in the city, and the country appeals to me 
tremendously. However. I do not want 
to jump into something that I shall regret, 
and so I am trying to find out. Assum¬ 
ing that I had a place free and clear, and 
tried to raise all that my family would 
want, kept a cow or two and a couple of 
pigs and some chickens, etc., could I live 
as well and as comfortably in the country 
on $25 as I do now in the city on $50? 
I have no schemes to go to the farm and 
get rich, or even to make anything over 
and above feeding my family and the 
stock, but I would like to know if by giv¬ 
ing most of my time to the farm the thing 
is feasible or no. Will some one who has 
tried it tell us about it? F. o. 3. 
No doubt there will be plenty to try 
to tell him. We can tell him that it will 
depend quite largely on his family. If 
the women are satisfied in the country, 
the man can usually work it out, but if 
the wife and daughters find the country 
lonely and miss what the town gives theui. 
it' will be hard to make it go. 
May I take advantage of your “safety- ! 
valve” column and express some views 
that mav at first seem heretical? There 
appear from time to time complaints about 
the high price of labor. Instead of com¬ 
plaining farmers should rejoice, for the 
farmer himself is a laborer, and the basic 
law of economics is that the wages of all 
branches of labor in the long run keep 
together and if the wages of labor came 
down to their old" level, the farmer would 
be hurt. The farmer is paid as wages 
the products of his farm; for a year’s 
labor he gets just so many pounds of 
farm produce, regardless of its price, and 
when the prices are high, he gets corre- 
spondin, ly high wages. 
Suppose that the old wages of 20 years 
ago were in force, and a man could be 
hired for a dollar or a dollar and a quar¬ 
ter a day, but the prices of farm produce 
were as at present. So many laborers 
would turn farmers that in a short time 
farm produce would sell at a price corre¬ 
sponding to the old rate of a dollar a 
day for labor. But you say: “I cannot 
work my farm alone. I have 300 acres.” 
Is there any law compelling you to work 
more land than you can work alone? 
California. * p. b. ckosby. 
Cattle Thieves in New England 
Here is a condition that may compli¬ 
cate the production of milk: Within 
five miles of me there have been three 
auctions of cows, 50 to 00 in each case. 
To be sure the owners were all traders, 
trading being their profession as much as 
milk production. This is a commuting 
section, less than 20 miles from Boston. 
These dairymen did not send to the large 
distributors in the city, but maintained 
milk routes in the village or supplied 
peddlers. Now the reasons given for go¬ 
ing out of business. It is bandits ar 
the pasture. A cow will be separated 
from the rest, killed, such cuts of meat as 
can be carried away or safely disposed 
of will be taken, and the rest of the car¬ 
cass left to decay. I recall that last 
Summer one of the above dairymen ad¬ 
vertised in our local paper: “Lost, 
strayed or stolen from pasture,” but only 
yesterday I heard it given as a reason 
for going out of business. In connection 
with these reports it is said to be a wide¬ 
spread condition in Eastern Massachu¬ 
setts. In one instance I heard a sheep 
man give the same reason for going up 
sheep. Our pastures have been allowed 
to grow bushes, there are many ledges 
and small swamps, and also they are re¬ 
mote from travel and residence, so butch¬ 
ers can work undisturbed. The pastures 
were formerly in hands of small farmers, 
who used them for their own strtek. As 
conditions changed, the only ones to use 
them were owners of large herds. Trad¬ 
ers would hire large adjoining binds, 
largely abandoned, let all division fences 
go. and finally their cattle have a square 
mile of range. 
There are still some of us who keep a 
family cow, and if we have two neigh¬ 
bors buy milk and the children come for 
it. We raise a heifer once in a white 
and for first and second Summers hired 
4 
iimnninninmniimninmniinniinni 
W ITH a Garford truck you 
can make added profits 
by hauling for your neigh¬ 
bors. The all-round service¬ 
ability of Garfords in farm 
work gives you the time for 
these extra profits. 
Lima, Ohio 
The results of a recent investigation among 4,000 
Garford owners show 97.6% are 100% satisfied— 
proof of Garford Low Cost Ton-Mile. 
