1696 
The Slump in Farm Product Prices 
ITTING TIIE PRODUCER. — Every brick 
thrown at the profiteer lias hit the producer, 
and hit him hard. The cost of growing the 1920 crop 
and feeding the animals for sale warrants prices 
higher than ever paid, hut they have fallen scandal¬ 
ously. Wheat and fat stock should he 50 per cent 
higher, corn and cotton 100 per cent, and wool more 
than 200 per cent above what they are. Every con¬ 
ceivable thing needed by farmers, except sugar and 
automobiles, are higher than they ever were. There 
are all kinds of claims about falling prices, but they 
apply only to food raw materials. Merchants have 
“20 per cent off'’ in their windows, but that means 
nothing. They always have that. 
LESSENED BUYING.—The landowners got the 
bricks in their necks and the profiteers are already 
finding how they feel over it. They have stopped 
buying. Most of them were buying new machines 
or trading for old ones, but the old ones are satisfac¬ 
tory now. Wool, hog, wheat and corn money will 
buy nothing but actual necessities now. Buying has 
suspended. Mail order houses, whose dealings are 
largely with farmers, are an index. Their sales fell 
off ‘50 per cent during last month, while "all wool” 
clothiers canceled Fall orders and are not thinking 
of Spring orders, always given at this season. Their 
stocks are very limited, and they have too much. 
BUSINESS AND POLITICS.—When labor is 
touched the members bunch, but as yet farmers do 
not move in a body. They move individually to 
some purpose, and have moved the wrong way for 
business. They see the bottom out for themselves, 
‘Ibf RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ing here, and the wool manufacturers and dealers 
trying to draw their wool supply from the antipodes 
to teach us a lesson. Why. an importer brought in a 
hunch of goose feathers lately, and they taxed him 
20 per cent ad valorem, gave protection on geese 
while letting wool and shoddy in free. Junkmen can 
ship in all the rags they desire to compete with our 
good wool, while the shoddy manufacturer is pro¬ 
tected by a tariff against foreign shoddy textiles. 
Any government that protects geese while the sheep 
industry is so backward, and while good wool is 
without a market, surely needs adjustment. 
WIDESPREAD INJUST ICE.—The government 
and grain men show large crops of everything. They 
were grown at an awful outlay of bone labor and 
cash. Wages, fertilizers, machinery, repairs and 
supplies cost double their real worth, hut the end 
appeared to justify the risk, and now the producers 
will realize about half on the amount they can save. 
Corn cutting was 25c for 100 hill shocks that will fall 
down, and husking Avill he about that amount, so 
not much will lie paid. The writer has husked at .‘lc 
when corn was higher than now, has cut corn for 5c 
that stood up, has sheared sheet) at 6c when the wool 
sold at $1. This distressed wool packed up all over 
the country cost 25c a head for shearing. Sugar is 
lie and candy high as when it was .“,<><• and threat¬ 
ened 45c. The present worth of the wool for a suit 
of clothes fit for a gentleman to wear is about $3, 
and he would he soaked over $100 if he bought it. 
THE FARMER'S FUTURE.—I am warranted in 
being earnest in this matter AH should realize con¬ 
ditions so they can be adjusted. A great many peo- 
Xovoiuber it, peju 
piped to it, as indicated in (tie sketch, Fig. 549. Tiiis 
has the effect of moving the spring up to the rani 
The pipe leading from the spring to the standpipe 
may be of tile or an open trough if preferred, but 
the drive pipe leading from the barrel to the ram 
should he of iron pipe to withstand the stresses 
brought about, by the sudden stoppage of the water 
at the instant of the ramming stroke. 
INSTALLATION.—It is scarcely necessary to 
state that the drive pipe must lie tight, to prevent the 
entrance of air. with its cushioning effect, and as 
straight as possible, to permit the hammer-like blows 
of its contained column of water being delivered 
with the greatest effect at the ram. For the same 
reason the upper end of the pipe should be so locat¬ 
ed as always to be beneath the surface of the water. 
A screen of ample size is used to prevent the en- 
franee of trash. Valves should be placed in the pip¬ 
ing to permit, repairs and adjustment to the ram 
when necessary. These valves, especially if used in 
the drain pipe, should he of the gate type, to permit 
a free opening and an unobstructed flow of water. 
Where conditions permit, the best location of a ram 
is in a vault. It should be placed on a solid founda¬ 
tion, well above the waste water level, and a good 
drain provided to carry this waste water away. 
A GRAVITY TANK.—In connection with a ram a 
small gravity tank can be installed in the house and 
the overflow piped from this to supply the barns and 
outdoor watering places. As the ram pumps day and 
night a supply of fresh water is always available in 
the house to the extent of the capacity of the tank, 
which need hold only a barrel or so. a large tank do- 
awl are influenced by inflamed an¬ 
tagonism toward the cause. It seems 
that business and politics consider 
farmers a set of chumps: that whether 
they are paid or not they will work 
day and night to grow food for others 
ti* make money with and live on; that 
they will do this and spend the usual 
amount of money if they must borrow 
it for that purpose. The Government 
takes them for chumps also. It set 
and held down their wheat and wool 
when everything soared,- and now, be¬ 
sides granting higher freight on bulky 
foodstuffs, its efforts are directed prin¬ 
cipally toward lowering them still further. 15ns- people are going to be hit awful hard 
fresh water because of the quantity 
held in storage. r. h. s. 
iness and politics are insane enough to think they 
can put anything over on farmers, and they will 
work day and night, Summer and Winter, under any 
conditions. 
NEXT YEAR’S CORN CROl’.—Perhaps farmers 
are equal to other classes. At any rate the govern¬ 
ment and grain dealers will not he exploiting a 
3,000,000,0000-bushel corn yield a year hence. The 
plans for this three billion were made when corn 
was worth $2 a bushel and hogs over 20c. They fig¬ 
ured on -$6,000,000,000 for this corn crop, and are 
not figuring on next year’s any. They will simply 
grow some corn. Also, the returns when this corn is 
husked will not be two billions. At the price of 
labor they will save what they can and not have 
elated spirits to speed up while doing it. With the 
cost of coal and. no wood cutters a large amount of 
it will he jerked to make heat and smoke instead of 
pork and pancakes. 
FALLING PRICES.—-This disturbance of corn 
will hit all other food products, and somebody will 
get hurt. The statistics will be revised and (lie con¬ 
sumer will he surprised where all the glut of food g«>t 
to. Bacon and things will be higher than now. Just, 
study a minute on bacon at 60c per lb., or 50c for 
three ounces in a restaurant, and corn less than 2c 
per lb. This drop on farm products wilL be far- 
reaching. If it were not that merchants had made 
enormous profits, and are still making them on 
smaller sales, they would he falling like Autumn 
leaves are dropping. A lot of them made fortunes 
in the past years, and can afford to retire, but there 
wore 335 failures in the past two weeks against 190 
for the same two last year. 
COMMERCIAL MORALITY. — A well-known 
hanker remarked: "1 have never known commercial 
morality to be so low as it is today.” Many moved 
up by that immorality to a place where they can 
tide over difficulties. A wholesale clothing manu¬ 
facturer said: “The retailers have made more money 
in two years than many expected to make in a life¬ 
time,” but this is a period of suspended buying in 
clothes and everything. The writer dropped in 
where he bought a pair of low shoes at $3.50 two 
years ago to replace them. The price named was 
$8.50, and the advice was, “You can keep them ; I will 
go barefooted first.” Farmers are not saying much, 
hut they know conditions, and see the government 
winking at millions of frozen sheep carcasses coin- 
shortly, and it 
will hurt worse than the bricks thrown our way. 
Until an adjustment comes by better Iittsinoss meth¬ 
ods, and by the force of the strong organization 
promised by farmers, they will cat at the first table 
and know how to keep it full. They will buy care¬ 
fully and not break their necks trying to grow big 
crops like this year to sell to others to make* money 
on. The outlook now is that the cities will get a 
startling lesson on the real relation of city and coun¬ 
try. W. W. REYNOLDS. 
Ohio. 
Pumping Water With Ram 
Will a hydraulic ram supply me with 50 to 100 gals, 
of water a day under flu 1 following conditions? Fall 
from spring t<» ram, 5*4 ft.; distance of .spring to ram, 
190 ft.; altitude of yard to spring, 65 ft.; distance of 
yard to spring, 350 ft. Spring flows 7 gals, water per 
minute. R. I,. A. 
Amherst, Va. 
A GOOD OPl’ORTFNITY.—There are many tine 
springs scattered about the country, some of 
our finest-drinking water, pure, soft and cold, being 
obtainable from this source. An unfortunate thing 
about their occurrence, however, is the fact that they 
are so often situated below the buildings that they 
might serve, making a gravity installation impos¬ 
sible. Where this condition is met with a hydraulic 
ram can he used to advantage. If the supply of 
water is great enough, and there is sufficient fall be¬ 
low the spring to permit its installation, a ram can 
he connected which will pump a steady stream of 
water to the buildings. The conditions outlined in 
the query indicate a good opportunity for such an 
installation. With a flow of seven gals, per minute 
a ram with a drive pipe 1%.in. in diameter and a %- 
in. discharge pipe could he used. Such a ram, if in¬ 
stalled properly, should furnish around 25 gals, per 
hour. This is an approximate figure only, the exact 
quantity being dependent upon many factors. It 
should represent a fair average, however, as one 
manufacturer rates a ram of this size at from 15 to 
35 gals, per hour. 
PIPING.—The drive pipe should lie from three- 
fourths to equal in length to the vertical height to 
which the water is to be raised, in this cast* about 
60 ft. long. As the ram must In* located 190 ft. from 
the spring to secure the fall necessary for operation, 
a barrel or other form of standpipe should be placed 
ut the proper distance from the ram and the water 
Trespassing on Farm Property 
The laws covering the right to trespass 
on private properties are archaic in their 
point of view and cumbersome in their 
application and execution. Why should 
it be obligatory or even necessary for n 
farmer who owns his own farm to he 
required to post his property with iiurner 
oils signs forbidding hunting, fishing and 
trapping? Is not the property of tin* 
farmer private in the same sense and de¬ 
gree as the property of some one who 
lives elsewhere? The peanut vender with his wares 
exposed beside the street is not required to post his 
goods with the sign, “No Trespass,” for custom for¬ 
bids trespass, and the municipal laws against petty theft 
are effectively prosecuted. And yet this same peanut 
vender, or some other pothunter, may take his dog and 
gnu and heat up the farms about the countryside in 
search of rabbits, birds and other things. They seem 
to care little for the rights of private property outside 
of the cities hunts. 
Time was when men were few and our lands were 
almost limitless. In those times men could roam the 
woods and hunt at will. But as population increases 
and the areas of private property become smaller the 
customs of other days, with their six-cent liability for 
trespassing, must be relegated to the past and new 
laws and customs made. 
It is a weak premise that holds that property owners 
should be obliged repeatedly to prove their rights by 
bringing action against each new trespasser who inteii- 
tionally or unintentionally violates the* trespass laws, 
sueh as they arc. Men must he made to feel greater 
respect for the rights of private ownership. If these 
nghts are not respected we are likely quickly to drift 
into that state of mind of a certain class in Russia, an 
irresponsible class, who contend all property should be 
common. Such, a condition can prevail oniy after the 
ideals of Americanism and the right to own propertj 
have been broken down. 
It should not he made incumbent on the farmer, nor 
on anyone else, to bear the expenses and troubles neces¬ 
sary to post liis property with no-trespass signs in order 
to comply with regulations. Let the pothunters and 
sportsmen and others with uncertain intents first ascer¬ 
tain from the property owner whether they may have 
the privilege to hunt on this or that farm. For those 
who have but little respect for private ownership of 
land, stringent laws are needed. 
There may he several ways by which the careless or 
intentional trespasser can he convinced of a farmer's 
rights that go with ownership of land. The laws can 
he made so severe that they will engender respect. Se¬ 
vere laws are undesirable, but sometimes necessary. It 
is futile to try to convince some trespassers that farm 
lands are not common property. For such as these 
firm laws are needed. Licenses to hunt might be with¬ 
held from an applicant pending some practical test to 
ascertain whether the would-be hunter understood tin- 
ethics of property ownership and trespass. As it now 
stands, no matter how irresponsible or ignorant one 
may be. u license may be procured for the payment of 
a small sum. No questions are asked. Armed with 
his license the party feels that hi* can hunt anywhere, 
and take anything his pockets will hold. 
Farm property owners must protect their own inter¬ 
ests in this matter of trespass and petty theft. If the 
present laws are not what they should be, they, and 
no one else, are to blame. To say that other interests 
than the farmers have framed the existing laws cov¬ 
ering this matter is to partially acknowledge a weak¬ 
ness on the part of farmers and their organizations that 
should be remedied at once. The day is past when 
farmers should be willing to admit that they are in¬ 
capable of expressing intelligent opinions on matters 
of law-making. They must do more than simply express 
opinions. They must see to it that the things they 
v ant are secured. This the farmers cannot do as indi¬ 
viduals, but can do effectively by working through their 
organizations. f. e. robkrtson. 
