1546 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal l'or Country and Suburban Homed 
Established 1850 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 833 West 801b Street,New Tori 
Herbert W. Coli.ingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wa. p. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION- ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or 10»* * 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 tor 
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- 
Fible peison. 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 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 bv 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. 
The R. y.-Y. would like to enter a pen of ,20 pood 
R. I. Red pullets in the Westwood Egg-la ping Con¬ 
test. Each pullet is to he donated hg a farm woman. 
IFc have now 13 entries for this pen. Keren more 
are needed at oner. Time is now short, and if any 
of our women readers desire to enter a puhet theg 
should nolifp vs promptly. 
* 
W HEN a man buys a farm it is of importance 
that the manure go along with the land. The 
general rule is that the manure is a part of the real 
estate—jinless a tenant feeds stock on hay and grain 
not produced on the farm, hut brought in from the out¬ 
side. Those who expect to buy tenanted farms this sea¬ 
son should remember the following case: A tenant 
who was a relative of the owner occupied a farm and 
had accumulated quite a quantity of manure. The 
farm was sold, the buyer to take possession in about 
four months from date of actual sale. The tenant 
started to haul away the manure, without any pro¬ 
test from his relative, the owner. The new owner 
tried to stop this removal on the theory that manure 
is part of the real estate. The court decided against 
him on the theory that the buyer did not become 
actual owner,of the land, under his contract, until 
he actually obtained possession. He might even have 
paid for it. but the former owner had authority over 
it until actual possession was given. The old owner 
was the one to object to the removal of the manure. 
As he made no objection, his relative, the tenant, 
was not held in law! This is one of the possible 
tricks of the trade which buyers should provide for 
in their contract. 
EOPEE who drive through certain parts of the 
country often come back wondering where the 
young farmers are. They see the work being done 
mostly by men of middle years or older. In some 
sections a new name, “grandpa farming*’ has come 
into use. This report from one of our Pennsylvania 
readers is not far out of the line: 
In regard to farming conditions, grandpa does the 
farming; grandma helps d<> the chores, while the sons 
are working at the public works, making from $6 to $10 
per day. Yes. the grandpa farmer is going down, hut 
not any faster than his farm, as formerly nearly 
every farmer burned a limekiln nearly every year, while 
now nothing of the kind can be seen. It appears that 
if the farms keep on going down as they are. in a few 
years grandpa and grandma will not be able to raise 
a disturbance on the land. In fact, take the gray¬ 
headed man off the farm and there will be nothing left, 
and to hire is out of reach. S. S. 
Westmoreland Co.. Pa. 
So long as labor on the roads and other public 
work pays twice as much per hour as a farmer can 
earn at farm labor, while city jobs pay even more, 
the younger men will head for the city, unless the 
conditions are such that they can see a good future 
in farming. The world is now being fed and clothed 
largely by men of mature years. Where are the 
boys coming on to take their places? Many of them 
have run off after the false gods of a mistaken po¬ 
litical economy. 
* 
Referring to editorial on page 1440 in regard to the 
cyclone in Allegany County, N. Y.. T would advise 
those storm-beaten farmers to call a meeting of all who 
have stock or other property to cell, and make a list of all 
property, advertise in local papers and in The R. N.-Y. 
for a big auction at some convenient place ,'ijong the 
Erie Railroad, and make a two or three days’ sale, if 
necessary. This would give ail buyers an equal chance, 
and stock would sell at the going prices. f. l. v. 
W E have had many suggestions for those farm¬ 
ers whose barns were ruined. A number of 
people have already written about buying cows. 
Several have asked us to start a collection or fund 
for helping these farmers. As for the taxes on their 
destroyed property, we hope at least to obtain a 
rebate. It is a fine thing to have so many of our 
readers offer to help. One letter with a 'check has 
come from Missouri, and another offer from Massa¬ 
chusetts. The immediate thing’to do is to see that 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
the cows can be wintered at reasonable cost or sold 
at a fair figure. One trouble has been the lack of 
organization among these farmers. It has been hard 
to estimate the exact damage or the number of cows 
without Winter shelter. Tn such a case the indi¬ 
vidual farmer must work at a disadvantage, while 
an organization could handle such a calamity much 
better. So that all the way from building up of 
farm business to its destruction we find the absolute 
need of strong co-operative work. 
5k 
N OW that the women are to vote, we may expect 
something of a return to the picturesque lan¬ 
guage which gave excitement to former campaigns. 
Senator Brandegee of Connecticut opposed suffrage. 
Finally, after it was evident that the nation wanted 
the change, lie advised the Connecticut Legislature 
to ratify. That seems to us the most sensible thing 
a man could do. He was beaten—why not admit 
it and make the most of it? It is different, how¬ 
ever with an “anti." Miss May O. Killrette. who 
leads the opposition, tells Senator Brandegee what 
she thinks of him: 
Is it true, as reported, that you have surrendered to 
suffragists? Last year Southern anti-suffrage women 
took up a subscription to buy a hot water bottle for 
your opponent, Mr. Cummings’, cold feet, and if today’s 
report is true. Connecticut anti-euffrage women, instead 
of going to the polls to vote for you. as the antis did 
for Moses. Barkhnrst and Wadsworth, may stay at 
home and knit wool socks for their intended candidate. 
So we are to have hot water bottles and wool 
socks in politics as a cure or remedy for “cold feet." 
It has seemed to us that these “antis" are very poor 
losers. What they expect to gain by fighting against 
suffrage, now that it has become a part of the Con¬ 
stitution. is ton much for the average man to under¬ 
stand. 
W E have watched the Annual Sweet clover 
grow in our soil until the plants now stand 
over our head—<53 inches on September IS. It has 
been a remarkable growth, steady and rapid—big 
fat plants, not only tall, but branching out thick 
and strong. We have never seen any such growth 
on any legume. We think that this clover will make, 
at the North, a heavier growth than cow peas will 
make at the South. Any man who has ever consid¬ 
ered the power of manorial crops to improve rhe 
soil will realize what that means. We do believe 
that this annual clover will prove the most useful 
manurial crop thus far introduced, and we think 
it will change the entire aspect of farming and 
gardening in many sections. We do not now speak 
of its value as a hay or fodder crop. That will be 
great, but we think its chief value for the next few 
years will be as a cover crop in orchard or garden. 
The seed is scarce, and will probably cost $3 an 
ounce, or even more, for this season. Our advice is 
to buy a small quantity only, seed it early next 
Summer and save the seed for future planting. And 
be careful where you buy. for it will be a terrible 
temptation for someone to mix in seed of the old 
biennial clover. 
O LDER readers know how we have for years 
pointed out the farmer’s 35-cent dollar. We 
have been ridiculed and attacked by economists, 
politicians, middlemen and just plain dunces, but 
we have kept right on offering proof. We have 
felt that in rhe following proposition lies the fund- 
mental trouble with farming. The consumer's dol¬ 
lar is divided broadly into two parts. The farmer 
gets 35 cents and the various handlers and manu¬ 
facturers take 65 cents. All of the latter, and most 
of the smaller, share remains in the town or city, 
adding to its power and drawing the best blood and 
brain of the country along with it. There can lie but 
small progress for real reform in our agricultural 
troubles until the American people fully understand 
just what all this means. They are now beginning 
to understand. At the national convention of Amer¬ 
ican Bakers Mr. Herbert Hoover said that the 
American baking industry sells over one and one- 
half billion dollars’ worth of goods. Commercial 
baking now supplies 60 per cent of the bread of the 
nation. Mr. Hoover then gave the following figures. 
They more than corroborate the figures, we have 
given, and show that the farmer really receives a 
25-cent dollar for liis wheat: 
If we examine the component items in the eo<t of 
t-lie 12-cent one-pound loaf in New York, assuming 
average wheat and flour, we will find it can be divided 
approximately as follows: 
Baker—Flour . 4.30 cents 
Other ingredients. 1.23 cents 
Labor, overhead and general.4.10 cents 
Brofit ............................... .62 cents 
Retailer . 1.75 cents 
Total .12.00 cents 
The 4.30 cents devoted to flour could be further 
analyzed and it would be found that the Mississippi 
October 2, 1920 
Valley farmer receives at the railway station for aver¬ 
age of all wheat about 0 cents from the loaf (and some 
further return from the animal feed produce from his 
wheat). The balance of the flour prices goes to handling 
storage, inland transportation, milling, wholesale dis¬ 
tribution. This should tend to dissipate any notion that 
the farmer is primarily responsible for doubling the 
price of the loaf. In fact, a reduction of 60 cents a 
bushel in wheat would affect the loaf but one cent. 
5k 
Our miller says that the law allows 6 per cent shrink¬ 
age on any grain brought to mill bv a farmer to be 
ground. Is v this true? Even if so. does it p i V( , t }, p 
miller the right deliberately to take that much out? It 
never shrinks (5 per cent when we sec the process’ our¬ 
selves. \> hy is it we farmers so often get the “shrink’’’ 
New Fork. 0 w , ' 
A CAREFUL search of the statutes fails to find 
■am- any such law. It is probably a custom or 
habit agreed upon by millers. Wo can find no legal 
justification for any such “shrinkage." Someone 
should refuse to accept such a habit and make a 
test case out of it. The chief reason farmers take 
the “shrink*’ is because they have done so for years, 
and other interests think they will always do it! 
They will not. 
TN a recent speech at Albany. Hon F. D. Roosevelt 
**■ is reported to have said that one remedy for the 
high cost of living would be to— 
“Increase food prod notion hp opening up at once 
and on a large scale millions of acres of land now 
unproductive.’' 
Ilmv can that be done? A large proportion of 
onr cultivated land is now unproductive because 
farmers cannot obtain labor. On our own farm we 
have not been able to clean up the fence rows or 
kill weeds because every ounce of force has been 
needed to try and market crops. Even with that it 
is evident that we shall barely pay expenses. Who 
is going to work these millions of acres? As it is 
now tons of good food are rotting on the ground 
because prices are too low to pay for harvesting. 
And why not apply the same rule to other indus¬ 
tries? The extortionate prices for shoes, clothing 
and other necessities enter into this high cost of 
living. Why not compel an overproduction of manu¬ 
factured goods in order to force prices down? When 
the cloth manufacturers think there is too much 
cloth they stop manufacturing, so as to hold up 
prices and wages. Why should this policy be per¬ 
mitted or encouraged for manufacturers, while the 
exact reverse is urged upon farmers. 
I T becomes more and more evident that farmers 
and country people must look to men from their 
own ranks for leadership. That is not because we 
want special privilege or class advantage, hut be¬ 
cause we need leaders who understand our problems 
and know our life. Too large a proportion of the 
real human wealth of this country is sliding down¬ 
hill from the farms to the big cities. Two of our 
largest cities now contain 10 per cent of the total 
population. In 58 large cities there are more than 
25 per cent of our people. We have been taught that 
this is something for Americans to he proud of. but 
that is not so. It is, on the other hand, a grave 
cause for apprehension. This padding out of the 
cities is becoming a national disease, and most of 
the men who tire trained in town are incapable of 
understanding or handling it. That is why we say 
that farmers and country people must find and sup¬ 
port leaders who come from their own ranks. The 
result of our referendum vote shows this clearly. 
Few such leaders have thus far appeared because 
we have all been willing to accept the leadership 
wished upon us by the politicians. Here is still 
another case where "ire have got to do it ourselves!'' 
Brevities 
Wisconsin hat an Alfalfa association 1.000 strong. 
The bluing used on wash day should not be of the 
spirit. 
A fair quality of gelatine is being made from sea¬ 
weed. 
Boil the clothesline before using if you do not want 
it to stretch. 
Sav. are you providing comfortable Winter quarters 
for your better half? 
“Broso” is a variety of millet used in the West as a 
silage crop. It has a branching head and wide leaves, 
and can lie planted in Dakota as late as July 1. 
In Massachusetts all auto riders who rob gardens or 
orchards will, if caught, lose their licenses and be 
denied registration in that State. Good! Make them 
walk. 
We fully indorse the following from Cornell: “Don’t 
forget that the first point in table manner* is to be on 
time at meals.” And the next point is to be sure that 
the meals are always on time. 
Reports from Africa show good results from paint¬ 
ing trunks of trees with a mixture containing one part 
each Portland cement, sulphur and slaked lime in sour 
skim-milk. A little tobacco dust may be added. This 
is said to keep vermin from the trees. 
Someone says that rye i* the fool-proof cover crop. 
That is a good name for it. Rye will come as near to 
taking care of itself as anything that grows in this 
country. It will grow on poor land, and when plowed 
under and limed, start that poor land on the road to 
riches. 
