I I2IS> 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban IIoiucn 
Established tsso 
Fnblisbed weekly by the Rural Publishing- Compnny, 833 West SOtli Street, New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION ; ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $ 2 . 04 . equal to 8 a 6 d., or 
81.J marks, or 10Vj francs. Remit in money order, express 
order^ personal check or bank draft. 
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 j 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. Hut 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 upoR 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and honest, 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly nse 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 advertiser. 
I T is high time that all of us paid more attention 
to the building up of the little town and less to 
making the overgrown city larger. The little town 
is home—or should be. It. needs our support, and 
we are the people who must give it life and power 
if it is to have either. The lug city cares nothing 
for us. It will if it can pull our dollars away and 
lure our boys and girls into its whirlpool, but that 
is the only use it has for us. The little town needs 
us and we need it. Hall’s Corners may not make as 
large a dent on the map as New York, but it really 
means more to us, and we ought to help make it 
something to be proud of. Why not get over the 
idea that the bright future of America lies in the 
great cities? It does not. The future which lies in 
the cities is shopworn, smoked, dirty and unclean. 
The time future lies in the country and in the little 
towns. Back them up and make them grow. 
* 
H ERE is the way they estimated the attendance 
at a farmers’ meeting in Delaware: 
"It was impossible to count the croud, but then 
destroyed 150 gallons of ice cream!" 
As they usually ladle it out a gallon of ice cream 
makes about 20 plates, or nearly 30 “cones.” But 
that ice cream was not “destroyed,” or if it was, its 
destruction created a demand for dairy products and 
greater satisfaction with farm life. 
. * 
Will you print in The R. N.-Y. warnings against 
feeding millet hay to horses? Clover and Timothy hay 
will be scarce in this country, and a great deal of millet 
will be planted. There are some farmers who insist 
that millet hay is good for horses. They will not take 
advice from friends, but might believe if they read it in 
The R. N.-Y. o. s. 
West Virginia. 
ET us hope they will consider The R. N.-Y. a 
true friend and take its advice. Millet hay is a 
good feed for cattle, but should not be fed to horses. 
There are many cases on record where horses have 
been injured or killed by feeding dry millet. There 
is something about this hay which affects the joints 
and kidneys injuriously. The danger is greater when 
the millet seeds are well formed. Some farmers may 
say they have fed millet without injury, but we be¬ 
lieve that is the exception. Our'advice is not to feed 
it. Another danger is in feeding Crimson clover hay 
to horses when the heads are ripe and hard. These 
ripe heads form little spines or hooks which are likely 
to horses when the heads are ripe and hard. Those 
Man}' animals have been killed by these stomach 
ballsw When the clover is cut early there is less dan¬ 
ger, but over-ripe hay from Crimson clover may 
cause great damage to horses, though safe enough 
for cattle. 
* 
T HE close of the war in Germany found a pes¬ 
tiferous class of people known as liamsterers. 
They go about through the country with bags or 
baskets trying to obtain food from farmers. They 
buy when they are obliged to or steal when they can. 
At the end of the week’s work on Saturday they take 
the road and spend Sunday trudging through the 
country districts seeking for food. They claim that 
they are trying to get past the middleman and deal 
direct with farmers. There are so many of them 
around the big cities that farmers often And it un¬ 
necessary to send any goods to market. Everything 
is sold at the door; but the hamsterer becomes a 
pest and a nuisance after a few weeks. In America, 
near our towns and cities, there has been developed 
a worse nuisance in the crowds of well-dressed men 
and women who literally prey upon farmers. They 
come in cars, and whenever possible strip trees of 
fruit and gardens of vegetables, and are off before 
they can be caught. Earlier in the season they 
break off great branches of bloom from peach or 
pherry or apple. As fruit ripens they make a dash 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
for the cherry trees and break or saw off great limbs. 
There is no way of catching them, except, by keeping 
guards constantly along the road, and, of course, in 
the busy season this cannot be done. They have 
been known to dig potatoes out of fields and gar¬ 
dens. take eggs from henhouses, strip flowers and 
ride off with any plunder they can find. They are 
not ordinary thieves, but look like well-dressed and 
intelligent people who have lost all sense of property 
rights, so far as farmers are concerned. Some of 
them frankly say that farmers have robbed them by 
forcing food to the present high price, and. there¬ 
fore. they are justified in taking a share! When 
asked how they know farmers are such profiteers, 
they say the papers tell them so in print! It. is thus 
partly the result of the mean and wicked campaign 
which most of the daily papers have been conducting 
in the interests of the real profiteers. As for a 
remedy, this seems to be a case where tee have got 
to do it ourselves. We cannot get police protection 
for every farm. Each neighborhood must combine, 
catch a few of these well-dressed thieves and give 
them just what is due them. A few tires blown off 
and a few of these high-toned thieves rolled in the 
dust, and then the dust shaken out of their jackets 
will prove the most effective remedy. 
* 
T HE value of the cover or catch crop is so evi¬ 
dent to us that it. hardly seems necessary to 
argue for it. Yet next Fall we shall see thousands 
of acres of good land slowly but surely giving up 
the nitrates which the farmer has toiled and paid 
for. Next year we shall see these acres shorn of 
half their productive power through a lack of or¬ 
ganic matter. It seems hard to see a farmer pay out 
money for fertilizer or manure and then lose part 
of it through the drainage water. Yet that, is just 
what he does when he lets the corn or potato field 
go bare through the Fall, after the crop has been 
harvested. Probably the greatest loss of all is the 
corn crop. Most of us, if possible, plow a sod and 
use manure for this crop. That means a large quan¬ 
tity of organic matter which does not become fully 
available until late Summer. After the corn crop 
is cut this organic matter goes on changing other 
forms "of nitrogen into nitrates—the most valuable 
and also the most elusive of all plant food. The 
potash and phosphoric acid once made available will 
remain in the soil through chemical changes, but the 
available nitrates do not become fixed unless there 
are living plants to absorb and hold them. Unless 
such a living crop follows the corn, these nitrates 
will be washed out of (he soil and lost. Thus the 
catch or cover crop is a plant policeman, not only 
arresting the vagrant nitrates, but, in the case of 
legumes, adding to the amount of nitrogen. The 
cover crop can be seeded right in the corn at the last 
cultivation, and that is all until the following Spring, 
when it may be pastured or cut for fodder or plowed 
under for green manure. To us the whole thing is 
so simple and the results are so sure that we cannot 
understand how there can he any reasonable argument 
against the method. It is the cheapest and easiest 
way to keep up a supply of organic matter in the 
soil and the only way to prevent the great loss of 
nitrates from drainage and washing. A mixture of 
seeds is best for the cover crop, and on most farms 
rye is the backbone. We should used with rye Crim¬ 
son or Alsike clover, vetch, and rape or turnips. 
The latitude, locality, soil or season will decide the 
mixture, but there should be some cover crop, even 
though it be rye alone. 
* 
T HE rural school conferences now being held in 
New York State are hopeful and encouraging. 
It seems evident that those who are engineering 
them want to know what country people desire. In 
former years the plan seemed to be to work out a 
program and put it through without much consider¬ 
ation. The mighty campaign which the country peo¬ 
ple put over to repeal the school law was a great 
educator, in that it proved that reform and improve¬ 
ment in rural schools must come with the co-opera¬ 
tion of country people—not in spite of them. No 
one can be better qualified to decide what the rural 
school should be than the parents who provide the 
pupils. A very large proportion of these parents 
are old school teachers. The rural conferences are 
bringing out good numbers of farmers, and they 
express themselves freely. We think the result will 
be an agreement for a practical school reform. 
* 
B OTH the great political parties have now held 
their conventions and nominated their candi¬ 
dates. We have felt that in many ways this period 
of history is the most trying and dangerous which 
this Republic has ever faced. The Great War has 
left us with a public debt of nearly $25,000,000,000, 
.Tuly 17, 1920 
or about $225 for each man, woman and child. It 
has also left us a legacy of extravagance, high liv¬ 
ing cost, discontent, class hatreds and many selfish 
ambitions. At such a time it would seem as if the 
great political parties might, if ever, rise above 
petty politics and a struggle for advantage with 
statesmanship and self-sacrificing patriotism. For 
some years many earnest men have struggled to 
introduce progressive ideas and cleaner politics into 
public- life. A newer generation has come with 
higher ideals of public service. Many of us felt 
that all this must react upon the political parties 
and put their control into the hands of the cleaner, 
progressive elements. Now that the nominations ’ 
have been made, we have yet to find a man with 
truly progressive views who feels that this has come 
to pass. Both nominations were clearly dictated by 
the worst and most dangerous elements of the party. 
Both are clearly reactionary. No progressive who 
sees hope in the growth of political independence 
can arouse any enthusiasm over either ticket. That 
is the general feeling among the men who in past 
years have given life and growth to politics. They 
are not talking yet: they are waiting to see how the 
candidates and the issues take shape; but without 
question the disappointment is keen. We now know 
that the political bosses in New York will, if they 
can. work the same trick in regard to State offices. 
They plan to have small, hand-picked gatherings to 
“suggest” candidates, and the names thus selected 
will be rushed through the primary, if possible. 
There is only one way to upset (his scheme, and that 
is offered through our referendum vote. A great 
popular vote given in that way will either compel 
the politicians to give us a superior candidate, or 
enable us to defeat any machine candidate in the 
primary. Tt is the most hopeful experiment -yet at¬ 
tempted in the politics of New York. Let ns hear 
from■ you and your family at once—with the ballot 
printed on page 1231. 
. 
W HEN the pioneers first moved into the Central 
West they thought the land was so rich that 
it never would need manure or fertilizers. All they 
had to do was to t ickle it with a plow and harrow and 
see it laugh with the harvest. As the years went 
by they have been forced to change their opinion. 
Now they must not only tickle the soil, but tackle it 
as well. How could it be otherwise? That Western 
soil was never particularly strong in phosphorus. 
Its chief crops have been grain and live stock— 
both carrying large quantities of phosphorus away 
from the soil and not bringing any back. In 1.000 
lbs. of live steer there are something less than- 19 
lbs. of phosphoric acid and 20 lbs. of lime. In a 
ton of wheat there are 18 lbs. of phosphoric acid. 
Keep up the drain of these products for 60 years 
or more and there can he only one result. The avail¬ 
able phosphorus in the soil will be used up or 
greatly reduced. In that case even though extra 
supplies of clover or manure were used, the crop 
will be measured by the available phosphorus. This 
condition has now come in many parts of the Central 
West. Lime and phosphorus must be used if crop 
production is to be kept up. The lime is needed to 
help fit the soil, and the phosphorus must be used 
as direct plant food. When the use of phosphates 
was first suggested for the West, many farmers said 
it would be a disgrace to use them. Necessity may 
soon dignify a disgrace, and phosphates are now 
necessary. 
Brevities 
M ho is your choice for Governor of New York f 
They who hunt for the good in others will find it. 
The tractor is of little value unless you harness it 
with horse sense. 
Probably the bravest man is the coward who makes 
himself face the danger. 
Is old-fashioned character a back number in this new- 
fashioned age? 
The League of Neighbors is the foundation of co¬ 
operative work. 
Extremes meet. People come to our farm and 6ee 
the water puddles and the washed hillsides and say 
that at home they have a drought which has cut the 
hay crop. 
With potatoes promising the price and costing what 
they do to produce we must keep them growing as long 
as possible. Now, if ever, is the season for using 
Bordeaux mixture. 
Not long ago it was-stated that there are but few 
sugar maple trees in New Jersey. Jerseymen come in 
companies to refute that statement. There are single 
counties with more than 10,000 trees. The sugar maple 
is used in great numbers for shade trees, and is very 
satisfactory. There may be no large groves in the 
State, but there are plenty of sugar trees. 
