1190 
The Rural New-Yorker 
Tim BVS1KES8 FARMER'S RARER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban IIoinrs 
Established. 18SQ _ 
Published weekly by the Knrnl I’ublishlnK Company, 833 West 80th Street, New Vork 
Hkrbkbt W. Coijjngwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wn. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Ho via:. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04, equal to 8s. Gd., or 
marks, or 101$ francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office ns Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 90 cents per agate line—7 words. Iteferenecs required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
Wo 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, wo 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 cx|>osed. We are also often called upon 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscriliers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this end, but such eases 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 Thk Rural Nkw- 
Yorkeh when writing the advertiser. 
hi these days of unrest and bewilderment, when 
the world is trying to find itself , and when society 
is trying to adjust- itself, ice. cannot think of an/y 
higher service to the country than is shown by those 
ambitious and intelligent young men icho have the 
courage to remain on the farm, and the vision to see 
the possibilities of farm life. They are the true 
constructive element in American society. 
* 
A N amendment to the New York agricultural law 
requires assessors to file the names and ad¬ 
dresses of all owners of bees in their respective 
districts. The object of this is to locate all apiaries 
where the foul brood disease might he found. Bee¬ 
keepers are determined that this disease must be 
located and stamped out The last Legislature made 
an appropriation of .$10,000 with which to conduct 
a campaign against the disease, and every beekeeper 
should help. The first thing to do is fo communicate 
with the Department of Agriculture at Albany. 
* 
T HE Argentine Republic has become rich through 
the production of grain, linseed and live stock. 
The real basis of its wealth is Alfalfa, which always 
brings wealth to a section or country. Exports of 
food and linseed for the past year are four times as 
great as the total of last, year, hut the nation has 
apparently been too greedy and has sold too much of 
Its wheat. The government is now trying to buy 
back part of what it has sold. In order to stop ex¬ 
ports it has levied an export tax of 40e a bushel for 
wheat and $1.89 a barrel for flour. The money 
raised through this export tax will he used for buy¬ 
ing grain or flour, to he sold at a reasonable price to 
the people. It is doubtful if j-ust such event, has ever 
happened before. No nation can afford to export any 
products too heavily. There may he a temporary 
gain, but in the end a failure to keep up a reasonable 
home surplus will develop into a calamity. In a 
smaller way the same thing is true of a community 
or a family. 
• 
Half a billion pounds of shoddy were thrown on the 
American clothing market in 1919. while a billion 
pounds of unmanufactured, virgin wool were accumulat¬ 
ing in the storehouses. Shoddy is made of woolen rags, 
re-spun perhaps as often as eight times. It is woven 
with a small percentage of virgin wool to stick the 
broken fibers together. Of the 020.000,000 yards of 
“all wool” cloth produced by the nation’s mills, the 
amount of shoddy used would have produced 380.000.000 
yards, if straight shoddy cloth had been turned out. 
Mixed with a little new wool, it entered into the com¬ 
position of a vastly greater yardage. 
HERE is no question that the manufacturers of 
shoddy stand between the peoplo who desire 
good cloth and the sheep men who produce good 
wool. Most of us are compelled to pay high prices 
for cloth which consists of shoddy held together by 
strings of real wool. The honest sheep no longer 
clothes us—she only provides the thread or string 
which holds the shoddy to our hacks. The present 
slump in wool prices is caused by the use of shoddy. 
Last year the wool growers got together and. aided 
by public sentiment, forced an increased price for 
their wool. Now, through the use of shoddy, the 
wool buyers are able to kill the market and heat 
down the price. This shoddy substitution is a worse 
fraud on the public and a greater injury to the sheep 
business than the sale of oleo. Both lines of business 
fall naturally under the head of frauds—both de¬ 
ceive the public, and while one is a mean and dirty 
enemy of the sheet), the other is equally an enemy of 
the cow. The present low price of wool is a great 
business game to get control of the wool crop at a 
ruinous figure. It is reported that the Federal Re¬ 
serve Board has authorized Western hanks to advance 
money to help farmers hold their unsold wool! Yet 
the United States Government is doing more than 
any other agency in the world to permit the shoddy 
Vhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
meai In dictate terms. What is known ns the "Truth 
in Fabrics 4 * hill now before Congress would largely 
remedy this evil, yet Congress has thus far refused 
to pass it, and will not do so until it is driven through 
with a club. 
Ik 
N OT long ago we told the si ary of a Virginia ham. 
The wife of a New York hanker ordered a 
cooked ham from a local grocer. It. weighed 12 lbs. 
Later the hanker got a bill for it for $25. lie sent a 
check for $13. lie defended a suit for the remainder, 
and the judge and jury said he paid enough. The 
higher court now confirms this judgment, and after 
denying the grocer’s appeal, charges him $25 for 
costs in the appeal court and $15 in the trial court. 
Hogs were selling at the time at 10c per lb., and the 
farmer’s share was about 15c of the dollar on the 
price paid, or about 7c on the price asked, which is 
generally paid. This is an isolated case and does not 
affect the abuse in our system of distribution, hut it 
does serve to show the costly breach between pro¬ 
ducer and consumer. This is the effect, of the system 
that is being sustained and protected by State poli¬ 
ties. It could not exist a fortnight without the sanc¬ 
tion of the State politics. It, will continue as long as 
the partnership exists between food speculators and 
State politicians. It will stop when the people force 
a dissolution of the partnership. 
* 
I rend the editorial regarding land bank bond emer¬ 
gency bill before Congress, and thank you for this. But 
you erred in your last paragraph, where you advise 
readers that loans are not for increased food production, 
but for mortgage replacement. A survey shows that of 
every $100 loaned through Omaha bank, $46 was used 
in purchase of new machinery, improved live stock, etc.; 
$47 per $100 for farm development in Wichita district, 
with $38 per $100 as average for the remainder of the 
United States. I am of the firm opinion that a system 
that averages an aid of $380 per $1,000 of loans devoted 
to farm improvement is a very material aid in increased 
food production. This has been the case here, aside 
from securing contentment for the farmer on his entire 
loan. EARLE W. GAGE. 
XACTLY what we said was “only a small pro¬ 
portion of tiie money thus far loaned has been 
used directly for increasing crop production. Most 
of it has been used for paying off other mortgages.” 
We had that information from Washington, where 
we were told that in some districts at least 75 per 
cent of the loans went to pay off old mortgages. Any 
part of the money that is invested In farm improve¬ 
ments is an aid in the present troubles, hut we do not 
consider 38 per cent a large proportion. No one 
questions the indirect benefit to agriculture which 
comes when the mortgage Interest is reduced and the 
farmer is made more free from worry. There ought 
to he a system which will give the farmer easier 
credit on both long and short loans and also give the 
hired man or tenant a fairer chance to buy a farm. 
No one seems to claim that the present system does 
that 
* 
A NEW ogg-laying and breeding contest will be 
started this Fall in Bergen County, N. J. It 
will be conducted on about, the same rules that have 
made the Vineland contest so successful. One new 
feature will he added. Those who enter pullets for 
the contest will be required to execute the following 
document: 
I DO SOLEMNLY (swear, certify or affirm) that, the 
birds entered by me in the Bergen County International 
Egg-laying and Breeding Contest are owned and. have 
been bred by ine, and that in making this entry it has 
been my consistent, aim and purpose to comply to the 
letter with the provision of the rules and regulations. 
The object of this is to make sure there are no 
“ringers” or outside performers in the pen. It is 
quite a slick trick to buy a bunch of birds, selecting 
them here and there, and use them to advertise quite 
Inferior birds in the home flock. A few of these 
“ringers” might make a great record at the contest 
and lead the public to think they were just fair 
samples of the home flock. In truth, they might not 
represent the home flock at all, hut their performance 
would induce buyers to pay extravagant prices for 
quite ordinary stock. These contests should not he 
used to help any jockey make use of “lingers” in 
this way. Honestly conducted, they will greatly help 
the poultry industry, and every time a jockey or 
fraud tries to get any unfair advantage of one of 
these contests he should be handled like any other 
bad egg. 
* 
I T cannot he said that New York State has any 
reason to he proud of its representatives at either 
of the great national conventions. The Republicans 
put up a candidate with no serious intention of sup¬ 
porting him. Their only idea was to trade, and men 
like Elon It. Brown, William Barnes and other poli¬ 
ticians simply dickered for political advantage and 
personal gains. The greatest State in the Union 
was made to play just about the smallest part in 
July 10, 1020 
petty politics. At San Francisco, the Democrats 
made an even more ignoble showing. The papers 
report a fist fight, in the delegation over the pro¬ 
posal to show respect for President Wilson. At 
neither convention did New York represent any 
statesmanship or any uplifting or progressive prin¬ 
ciples. In one case it dickered for booty and in the 
other for booze. These exhibitions ought to be 
enough to convince any self-respecting man or woman 
that there is no possibility of real reform from either 
of the old organizations. We are careful to say 
organizations and not parties, for there are great 
possibilities-in both of these parties if they can lie 
cleaned of the human sores and barnacles which 
now afflict them. Thousands of voters have deter¬ 
mined that these parasites must go this year. The 
opportunity lies in the primary, where candidates 
are selected. There is a chance this year either to 
nominate a clean and strong man for Governor, or 
to make such an impressive showing that no man 
or organization will dare to ignore it. The founda¬ 
tion of it all is a big referendum vote for candidates 
in the printed ballot on page 1191. Will you help? 
Who is the man? 
* 
Now the inquiring Department of Agriculture has 
discovered a “waste of woman-power” on the farms 
Which it characterizes as “one of the greatest menaces 
to the rural life of the Nation,” and will seek to correct 
it with “modern equipment.” If there have been com¬ 
plaints on (his score they have not been vociferous. And 
it has been a popular impression that war prices for 
wheat and cotton have done a good deal to improve the 
conditions of farm work for women as well as men. 
HAT, from the New York World, is character¬ 
istic of the half sneer with which the dally 
papers usually refer to farmers and their prospects. 
We presume the World knows perfectly well that 
high prices for wheat and cotton could not possibly 
improve farm conditions on the Atlantic slope. No 
cotton is grown there, and the great majority of 
farmers buy their flour and feed. A rise in the price 
of cotton and wheat simply increases the expenses 
of the Eastern farmer, yet the World would like to 
have the city readers infer that such high prices 
mean increased income. That is a fair illustration 
of the spirit which too many of the city papers show. 
* 
O NE of the things we must all come to in the 
future is the true idea of the real value of a 
farm. A man may take a piece of land and work it 
so as to make a great financial success. He may 
increase the selling or rental value of that, land 
through its power to produce food, and that makes 
him rank as a good farmer. Yet. he may perhaps do 
that at the expense of his family. The women may 
be overworked, the children may he denied child¬ 
hood and fair opportunity. In that case it cannot 
he said that the farm has been truly successful. 
Family and food are the chief products of a farm, 
and while the world cannot endure without food we 
must also remember that civilization cannot endure 
without sound, old-fashioned character. We do not 
think, therefore, that, any farm can be said to he 
truly successful unless it can show children and 
character among its prize crops. 
Brevities 
IIarvest time means a hot kitchen. 
Nervous excitement or haste is not, always speed. 
How did the word “soda-water” get into use? There 
is no soda in the drink. 
The Missouri Experiment Station will test any 
samples of soil for acidity. 
“Quick” silver—the quarter in a boy’s pocket as lie 
passes a soda water fountain. 
They tell us there is enough potash in the French 
mines to supply the world’s normal needs for 275 years. 
Good, but we want a supply this year at a reasonable 
price. 
When you pay for “soda water,” pop or similar stuff 
you do no direct benefit to farming. When you order 
cold milk or fruit juice you help the business decidedly 
and get more for your money. 
The human tongue can build up that finest thing in 
the world—human sympathy and confidence—or it can 
tear down hope and faith and leave the poison ivy of 
suspicion growing on the ruins of faith. Which work 
is your tongue doing? 
One of our readers seems to have planted more than 
an acre of strawberries without understanding the dif¬ 
ference between perfect and imperfect varieties. He 
secured an imperfect variety and practically lost all his 
time and investment. 
“It is true that there is psychological reason for fried 
foods, due to the length of time that they remain in tin 
stomach, which gives a feeling of fullness and satisfac¬ 
tion a longer time than a more easily digested food. 
We lmve found that useful when chopping wood all day 
out iu the cold, hut quite the reverse when working in¬ 
doors. 
