1616 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 18S0 
Pnbllshed weekly by (lie Rural Pitblisliine Company. 333 > v est 30(b Street. New Torn 
Herbert W. Coli.ingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mils. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION- ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8s. f,d„ or 
8i£ marks, or I 0 L, francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or batik draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 10 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- 
6 “Jle person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Rut. 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 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 Rcral New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
I find more of the reading which enables me to cast 
an intelligent vote in your paper than all others which 
I have access to combined. There are manv ways for 
this dollar, but I think this will bring the greatest 
returns. airs. Florence b. dornan. 
New York. 
E think the best political paper is the one 
which teaches intelligent voting, not the one 
which asks men or women to he the slave of any 
party. We want to give the best, service in our line 
that any dollar can find anywhere. 
T HE retailors refuse to cut prices on their goods 
because they claim their stock was bought on 
a high wholesale market. They refuse to sell except 
at a profit. The milk manufacturers refuse to use 
more milk because they are stocked up with a 
product made when sugar was higher. They will 
not let. this go to the public until they get a price 
which gives a profit. If that reasoning could be 
considered a sound principle it. ought to hold in all 
business. Dairymen have invested their capital and 
labor in hay, silage, grain and cattle. These assets 
have cost more than ever before. If the proposition 
of the merchants and manufacturers is sound, the milk 
made from these costly products ought to sell for 
enough to give a profit. Yet the farmer alone among 
business men is expected to sell his milk for at. least 
40 cents per 100 pounds less than the cost of pro¬ 
duction. When he stands out for what, every other 
interest demands as a moral and business right he 
is called a pirate or a “profiteer.” 
T HE final census returns give New York State 
10,3S4,144 population, a gain of about 14 per 
cent in 10 years. New York City alone has 5,020,048 
inhabitants, a little more than one-half of the people 
in the entire State. Many of the rural towns and 
some of the rural counties show a loss of population. 
In the entire country the returns show a large gain 
in town and city growth—considerably less than 
one-half of the people now living in rural districts—• 
that is. in places less than 2.500 inhabitants. This 
decline in rural population is the most striking thing 
in our recent history. In some sections it is more 
apparent than real, as a number of farmers give a 
residence in town, yet go hack and forth to the farm 
in their cars. In such cases the farms are not being 
deserted, though rural population may show a de¬ 
cline. In many other places, however, farms that 
once supported good families are now passing out 
of use except for pasture and woodland. Some of 
these farms now being abandoned would never have 
been occupied originally if the earlier settlers had 
known what we now know about tiie country. Even 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
crop situation to justify such ruinous prices as are 
doled out to farmers. The consumers are not bene¬ 
fiting, while farmers are being robbed. There is not 
too much food in the country, yet. immense quantities 
of it are being wasted. We believe the big interests, 
having secured control of transportation and distri¬ 
bution, are deliberately working to enable the specu¬ 
lators to obtain the nation's crops for half their real 
value, and then hold up the people for extortionate 
prices. All the politicians and all the political candi¬ 
dates know this, and yet they go on talking airy 
nothings about third-rate or impossible issues, and 
dodging the thing which means life or death to the 
American people. Voters are disgusted with this 
cowardly and perfunctory attitude, yet they are as 
powerless as men with their hands tied in a game 
where the politicians of both great parties have 
shuffled the cards. 
* 
Will you state why you consider it. an ominous thing 
for men and women to the number of 100,000 to vote 
for a woman for Senator? Mrs. Boole is a statesman¬ 
like, earnest, deep thinker and speaker. She has for 
years worked to bring the best things to the people of 
our State. There’s nothing brings such misery as 
the use of alcoholics, both to the user and hi.s family. 
We need someone who will not work to nullify the 
Eighteenth Amendment. If everyone would turn in and 
help enforce the law, what a different world this would 
he. s. n. WOOD. 
Now York. 
HAT we said was this: “It is an ominous 
sign for ilic ‘ machine ’ which has so tong 
ruled Xcw York that a candidate lighting them 
Openlij, without organization or financial baching, 
(an poll 1 (>0.000 rotes as a protest against political 
methods .” 
That referred to Senator Thompson's vote, and 
the same thing is true of the vote of about 125.000 
for Mrs. Boole. One meaning of the word is “hav¬ 
ing a dubious or threatening aspect,” and that is 
just what it means to the politicians. At the time 
of their “convention” the Republicans dodged on 
prohibition, and said it was only a Federal question. 
Since that big vote for Senator Thompson and Mrs. 
Boole, Judge Miller, the Republican candidate, 
comes out. squarely for enforcement, and demands 
a State enforcement law. Does anyone suppose this 
would have happened if Senator Thompson had not 
polled that big vote—or if there had been no pri- 
' mary? As for Senator Wadsworth, he will have 
only himself to blame if 100.000 and more of the 
most determined and unshaken voters in America 
line up against him and vote for-Mrs. Boole. What 
we said is true. When 125,000 voters in New York 
during a Presidential election come out and vote 
for a woman for United States Senator, the tough¬ 
est old political hack in the State knows that a 
tempest is coming. Should there be a close vote 
in New York State, Senator Wadsworth may, well 
consider the following passage from the Scriptures— 
Judges ix :52: 
And Abimelech came unto the tower and fought 
against it. and went hard unto the door of the tower 
to burn it with fire. 
And a certain woman cast a piece of millstone upon 
Abimelech’s head, and all to break his skull. 
Then he called hastily unto the young man his ar- 
niorbearer. and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and 
slay me, that men say not of me. A woman slew him. 
And his young man thrust him through, and he died. 
L AST week we showed how the retail merchants 
intend to meet “the wave of lower prices.” 
They claim they have stocked up at. high prices and 
must keep up the game in order to pay out. The 
fact is they have, as a rule, smaller stocks on hand 
than ever before. Several times in the past these 
same merchants have been carrying stocks bought 
at fair prices. Word came that manufacturers were 
to raise future prices, and these same merchants at 
October 10 , io 2o 
“Endless-chain” enterprises designed for the sale or 
disposition of merchandise or other things of valno 
through the circulation or distribution of “commits ” 
"tickets.” “certificates,” “introductions” and the niA 
are held to embrace the elements of a lottery, and 
io be fraudulent. Matter of every kind relating 
such enterprises should be excluded or withdrawn from 
the mails, and treated in accordance with Section* ru- 
-.74 and 59.8 of the P. L. & R. 
The principle of the “chain letter” is wrong, and 
our advice is to break every chain that comes to you 
by refusing to write more letters. 
A S you ride along our country roads near East- 
XX ern towns you will see many “roadside mar¬ 
kets." Sometimes a little building or tent has been 
erected, where farm produce is displayed. More 
often there is a little table or stand with a sign 
announcing prices. Many goods are sold in this 
way. Passengers in cars speed on until they see 
something attractive; then they stop and buy. In 
many cases a town family will drive out on Sunday 
and gather up a week’s supply of farm produce. 
The theory of this marketing is good, and it. would 
help out the situation if it. were handled right. Two 
tilings are working to discredit it It. is claimed 
that some-of these “farmers” actually buy produce 
on the public market, take it home and sell as “fresh 
goods.” We do not think there is much of this, but 
there is just enough to discredit the system. An¬ 
other thing is that some of these roadside dealers 
charge too much for the goods. In some cases they 
charge as much or even more than the prices de¬ 
manded in the town stores. The only real reason 
such a customer can have for coming to the farm is 
the fact that lie can save money by doing so. We 
think a farmer can well afford to give his customer 
the cost of hauling the goods to market. It is a 
mistake to try to hold him up for all we can get 
out of him. That is what we accuse the middlemen 
of doing, and we can never put them out of business 
by playing their own game. We have never tried 
this “roadside market,” as we object to Sunday 
business, but advertising in local papers pays well. 
We offer a substantial cut in retail prices to people 
who will come to the farm and get the goods. They 
come. Just now we are selling windfall apples to 
people who come and pick up the fruit themselves. 
T WO years ago the poultrymen of New England 
felt that they must increase their home produc¬ 
tion of grain. Prices were so high that the poultry 
business was menaced. The way out seemed to ho 
an increase in the production of wheat and com 
or barley for home feeding. For a year or two 
the plan found favor, and the production of grain 
iu New England was considerably increased. We 
find, however, that this increase was not permanent. 
This year many of the poultrymen have given up 
the attempt to produce extensive grain crops. There 
is an increase in the production of corn, hut the 
wheat crop seems to have gone back to about the 
size of the crop before the war. The poultrymen 
give various explanations for this, each one being 
the inability to obtain labor. Most ol’ them appear 
to agree that, it is on the whole more profitable for 
them to keep the highest quality of stock that one 
man or one man and one helper can handle, and 
continue to buy their grain. It is, of course, easy 
for an outsider to propound a theory about such 
things, hut as a rule practical men know best wliat 
is good for them, and tlie practice generally followed 
by the majority of good farmers is quite certain to 
be the best one for their locality, regardless of what 
outsiders may calculate. 
Brevities 
where fewer acres in State or county are now culti¬ 
vated, the total value of farm products has been 
increased, showing that in many eases it is concen¬ 
tration rather than abandonment. 
All this car shortage and glut in the market has 
been used by the buyers and speculators to drive down 
the price and frighten the growers into selling their 
apples. The car shortage is fierce in the peach deal. 
The railroads are falling down completely in furnishing 
cars for peaches and in iciug them. It is a question 
whether they are re-icing at all, even when so ordered, 
The majority of the telegraphic reports say most of 
the stock is arriving over-ripe and rotten and car-dry. 
Personally, it seems to me a part of a gigantic scheme 
to destroy a large percentage of our crops and throw 
the remainder into the hands; of the speculators and 
profiteers in foodstuffs. At the ’ i-esent writing there 
must be a shortage of at least 2,500 refrigerator cars 
in Western York. n. w. c. 
HAT expresses the conviction of thousands of 
farmers whose business is being bled white this 
year. There are things in life which we know are 
true, yet they are so manipulated by unseen forces 
that we cannot always obtain legal proof. In some 
eases, as with wool and manufactured goods, the 
Federal Trade Commission is showing up a combine 
to bleed the public. There is nothing in the present 
once jumped prices on their low-priced goods. They 
make a killing both ways. A farmer cannot work 
such a game, even if he wanted to. With wool and 
wheat, however, he is learning how to keep these 
products out of the hands of the middlemen or rob¬ 
bers. In the end the consumer will be better off 
for this policy. 
S OME of the politicians are trying to use “chain 
letters” for promoting the chances of certain 
candidates. The scheme looks easy. You get <a let¬ 
ter asking you to vote for John Smith or some other 
candidate. With it comes a request to write 10 
copies and send them to 10 of your friends. You 
can see that if half of those who get the letters 
comply with this request the notes would multiply 
faster than bacteria. One man sends such a chain 
letter and asks if there is any law against contin¬ 
uing it. The attorney of the Postofliee Department 
says that he cannot tell whether such a letter is 
illegal without examining it. Some schemes are 
foolish; others are harmless, and would not he 
stopped. The latest postal regulation reads as fol¬ 
lows: 
We are hearing from a number of hill fanners, and 
their stories are interesting. 
Is anything on the farm today more expensive than 
hand labor? 
Some farmers boro holes in the cobs of seed corn 
to dry it. out; others bury the ears iu dry oats. Arti¬ 
ficial heat is better. 
Our experience with the auto hog is that he can run 
like a razorback when he does damage and wants to get 
away. 
It may he hard to believe it, but every week we have 
letters from people who say they will use lime in 
growing potatoes, and that ice have told them to do so. 
That is one <>f the very few things we have been posi¬ 
tive about; do not use lime on potatoes. It will in¬ 
crease the scab. 
According to a recent legal decision in Pennsylvania 
manufacturers of oleomargarine located outside Penn¬ 
sylvania. cannot conduct a mail order business in that 
State, or ship their products directly from the factory 
to the consumer, even though the orders are secured 
by a legitimate representative of the company who lias 
taken out the necessary State license. 
Ilow many miles in a year of kitc-heu travel? In 
New Hampshire the figures for the average kitchen 
show : It was 4 J /> steps from the work table to the 
sink; four steps from the work table to the stove; 
10 steps from Hie table to the cellar door; six steps 
from the table to the kitchen pantry; and 9V& steps 
to the dining table. The average height of the work 
table was 31 inches. 
