1928 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 25, 1920 
H 
HlOhiO^iOKiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhi 
Do You Fertilize Your Barnyard 
or Your Fields? 
The manure pile beside the stable door is washed by 
the rain and soaked by the drippings from the eaves, 
and in six months one-half of its fertility is in the only 
soil on the farm where crops are never grown. 
The hauling and spreading of what is left—using the 
old farm wagon—is the sort of work that drives the 
farmer’s boy to city tasks. 
Get a spreader—the kind that is built to last—and 
put it where the manure pile used to be. It will 
double the value of the manure and reduce your work 
by half. 
The Famous Ohio is 
made in two easy-loading 
styles—the Bellevue No. 10 
and the Ohio No. 15. 
Forty years of experience 
in the manufacture of farm 
implements is built into 
every spreader. See your 
dealer today. 
The Ohio Cultivator Co. 
Bellevue, Ohio 
The Famous’ 
OHIO Line 
Cultivators, Listers, Disc 
Harrow*, Lever Harrows, Corn 
and Cotton Planters, Pulverizers, 
Clod Crushers, Spreaders, 
Hay Presses, One - Horse 
Cultivators, Shovel Plows, 
Garden Cultivators, Steel 
Shapes, etc. 
FAf&OUS 
SPREADERS 
hiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhiOhi 
ABSORBine 
TRADE MARK REG.U.S.PAT. OFF. 
will reduce inflamed, swollen 
Joints, Sprains, Bruises, Soft 
| Bunches; Heals Boils, Poll 
Evil, Quittor, fistula and 
infected eores quickly 
as it ii a positive antiseptic 
and germicide. Pleasant to 
me; does not blister or remorc 
the hair, and you can work the boric. 
*2.50 per bottle, delivered. 
Book 7 R free. 
ABSORBINE, JR., the antiseptic liniment for mankind, 
reduces Painful. Swollen Veini, Went. Strains, Bruises; 
stops pain and InSammation. Price *1.2$ per bottle at 
dealers or delivered. Will tell you more if you write. 
Liberal Trial Bottle for 10c in stamps. 
W. F. YOUNG, INC., 88 Temple St., Springfield, Mats. 
I DIGESTER TANKAGE | 
FOR HOGS 
1 Write for prices, feed- 
1 ing directions, etc. 
IDEAL RENDERING CO. 
NORTH WALES. PA. 
^sMllllltllUlil||||||||||||U||||||||||||||iuMllllilMiM|||||i|fflMUillllimMmilllU 
MINERAL 1 
In list 1 
over 
HEAVE war, 
.COMPOUND 
Booklet 
Free 
NEGLECT 
Will Ruin 
Your Horse 
Sold on 
Its Merits 
■ END TODAY 
\ AGENTsVyi 
WANTED 
$3.25 BOX 1 
Cvaranteed to flv# 
t aatiafaction or 
/ money refunded. 
$1*10 Box sufficient 
, for ordinary cases. 
Price includes war tax. • 
1 Postpaid oa receipt of price. 
Write for deacriptive booklet. I 
MINEBAL HEAVE BEMEDV CO.,' 461 Fourth Ave., Pittsburg, Pa. 
WILSON CELEBRATED MILLS. 
No. 1 Mill for prlndinR Dry 
Bones, Oyster Shells, Grit and 
Grain for poultry. 
Phosphate Mills, Green Bone 
and Clover Cutters, Feed 
Mixers for Poultry FoodiriR, 
Mills of all sizes for all pur¬ 
poses. Hand and power. 
Write for illustrated Cata¬ 
logue and prices. 
WILSON BROS. 
Box 15 Easton, Pa. 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
Christmas Preparations. —Probably 
Christmas is over as these words are be¬ 
ing read, but if so. the holiday is so re¬ 
cent that everyone can easily recall the 
leading-up stages in which most of us 
were engaged for a month beforehand. 
Those who gaily went a-Christmas shop¬ 
ping with lightened nurses in the expecta¬ 
tion of getting good things at five-year-ago 
prices, “as advertised." usually discovered 
as I did that tfie assortment early in the 
mouth was far better thau last season, 
but the price tag almost invariably higher. 
I, for one, simply can't get used to paying 
50 cents for an article which once was 
gladly sold at 10 or 15 cents; and like¬ 
wise handing out a whole big^ hard-earned 
dollar for something worth 25 to 85 cents 
but several years ago. You hear on every 
hand that the H. C. L. is quietly fading 
away, and that he is now back to near 
“normalcy.” But I know that the 
women buyers are not deceived for a mo¬ 
ment—'not if they are in the habit of de¬ 
manding value received for their dollars, 
as are most sensible farm women. 
The Retailer’s Prices. —It occurs to 
me that the only persons who are so sure 
that everything is really cheap once more 
are the retailers whose business it is t*> 
shout such tidiugs abroad at the top of 
their lungs, iu hopes, probably, of obscur¬ 
ing the asking [trices and mesmerizing the 
gullible public iuto agreeing. In our lo¬ 
cality throughout November and Decem¬ 
ber the “stupendous, sacrificing, unprece¬ 
dented, giving-away” reduction sales were 
in full swing iu practically every store 
in the valley; 20 and 50 per cent reduc¬ 
tions were widely and wildly advertised, 
and people flocked iu, hoping that the 
long-desired had actually come true at 
last, and that the asking prices in the 
stores were to now correspond with the 
prices the farmer has been receiving this 
Fall and Winter for Ins cabbage, potatoes 
and so on. If they were like me. they 
flocked to these wonderful baits—but they 
didn’t buy. Perhaps some things were 
lower; in fact, here and there they cer¬ 
tainly were, but the graud mass of neces¬ 
sities were and still are sailing loftily in 
the skies, far out of reach of the farmer 
who has been hard hit by the reported 
universal deflation of our dollar. I re¬ 
fused to be bunkoed into buying at the 
same old prices, and as a consequence our 
Christmas was rather slim where “store" 
things were concerned. The big hue and 
cry over falling prices is all pure propa¬ 
ganda iu a large measure, and mostly 
raised by those who have big stocks to dis¬ 
pose of without taking much of the neces¬ 
sary loss themselves. 
The Customer’s View. —When we were 
selling our potatoes at §1 a bushel this 
Fall, for which the seed cost us $4, not 
to speak of the other high expenses, a 
customer said to me: “I am certainly 
glad that potatoes are down to $1 a bushel 
this Fall—right where they ought to be. 
I No one wants to pay more for potatoes.” 
(This customer of ours was a man. ajid he 
| happens incidentally to be a store pro¬ 
prietor. * He is very well-to-do—especially 
since the war. when most retailers suc¬ 
cessfully cashed in on old stocks at the 
expense of the rest of us. and the other 
day he advertised a mighty reduction 
sale, “because he had got to have the 
money,” etc. I went to that store and 
was met with a flourish by the proprietor 
himself. I priced this and that and sat¬ 
isfied myself that they were poorly-made 
war goods mostly, but with great big 
prices camouflaging for “greatly reduced 
ones.” The proprietor finally asked nnx- 
jiously: “But aren’t you going to take 
that pair of sheets, and the press pattern, 
and the. shoes and the blankets you were 
looking at?” “Well, no.” I responded 
j easily, “I guess I won’t today. You see 
jwe only got $1 a bushel for our potatoes 
this Fall, and it cost us nearly $2 to 
grow them, not counting a legitimate profit 
after that. Our cabbage turned out the 
same way, likewise our surplus hay. We 
are making milk at practically cost, and 
we never know when the distributors will 
start something there. You told me the 
other day up at the farm that no oue 
wants to pay more than .$1 a bushel for 
potatoes, no matter whether it costs cor¬ 
respondingly higher to raise them in such 
times as these. Similarly, I do not care 
to pay more than a common-sense price 
for your sheets, the cotton iu which was 
sold at a sacrifice by some brother-planter 
down South. Nor can I see my way clear 
to buy that wool dress pattern, as a neigh¬ 
bor of mine keeps sheep, and 1 under¬ 
stand that he has had oue terrible time 
disposing of his product at anywhere near 
its cost. And take those shoes! Perhaps 
it was a hide from our farm which is iu 
them—and perhaps you know that the 
discrepancy between hides and the manu¬ 
factured shoe is startling in the extreme. 
The blankets are a mixture of wool and 
cotton, so both the cottou planter and the 
wool grower lost heavily, since they re¬ 
ceived a mere pittance of the price I see 
you have placed on this necessary niticle. 
No, I don’t think I shall buy anything 
after all today, as everyone agrees that 
sheets and shoes and wools and so on are 
out of the reach of people who must sac¬ 
rifice their products at $1 a bushel.” 
I walked out. and I hope that man 
who likes low-priced food and high-priced 
I goods to retail was furnished with enough 
food for thought to last him until I come 
iu again. When we farmers get this side 
of our story before the bankers and retail¬ 
ers and consumers in general, perhaps 
there will be less carelessness iu consid¬ 
ering the farmers’ rights to a decent liv¬ 
ing. 
Mashed Totato Candy. — We made 
some new candy and cake frosting at our 
house lately, which is fine for holidays or 
any day. Perhaps The II. N.-Y. readers 
have already seen it in another paper, but 
for those who have not. it is worth re¬ 
peating and trying. Just this: Take 
four level tablespoons of unseasoned 
mashed potato (warm) and mix it with 
one pound of confectioner’s sugar. Stir 
briskly for a minute and the resulting 
paste will he white as snow and of per¬ 
fect consistency for spreading. Add fla¬ 
voring. nuts, cocoa, coeoauut, fruit or any¬ 
thing you wish, and mold for candy or 
pour out for fudge. If chocolate drops 
are to be made, use a trifle less potato, 
or, if preferred, more sugar. The result 
is surely delicious and a great improve¬ 
ment on powdered sugar moistened with 
milk or water. It keeps soft for a week, 
and would seem more nourishing than the 
old kinds. We are enthusiastic over it 
and have voted it next best to white-of- 
,egg sweets. 
A Business in Antiques. — Several 
times in the pages of The R.-N. Y. I have 
seen letters from women desiring to earn 
money at home. If you live in a part of 
the country which is not over-run by tour¬ 
ists, and iu which can occasionally be 
found old-fashioned relics of bygone days, 
a modest little business can occasionally 
be built up by buying these heirlooms or 
antiques where their present owners are 
indifferent to them, and then disposing 
of them in turn to people who are fonder 
of the old than the new and modern. One 
must be well posted on the wanted articles 
and furniture iu order to make a modest 
success of such “trading.” and a careful 
study of books which take up such sub¬ 
jects exhaustively i*> very necessary if 
oue does not want to be left with unde¬ 
sirables on hand which can't be disposed 
of. There are many real lovers of the 
old and aucieut who are always searching 
for early specimens of mahogany, pewter, 
silver or anything else once used by the 
first settlers. Such people will pay a 
reasonable price for the old which pleases 
their fancy, and a country woman who 
may have access to such pieces cau iu 
time work up a small income by this 
means. Some of the tilings always iu 
demand are wooden works, clocks, the 
names of the makers counting in the price 
paid or asked, aud which cau be learned 
by consulting a book on old clocks; cover¬ 
lids in good condition, especially when a 
name and date i* woven iu ; grandfather 
clocks, andirons, shovels aud tongs, brass 
fenders, firebneks and any fireplace uten¬ 
sils of good design, old chests, especially 
carved; tables with slim, graceful legs, 
drop leaves, fanciful drawer pulls or han¬ 
dles, etc.: tine old bureaus and small mir¬ 
rors on swinging standards; liand-liam- 
merod silver, old china, especially cups 
without handles, and blue plates, etc.; 
flag-bottomed chairs aud odd chairs which 
are obviously very old; brass aud silver 
candlesticks, snuffers and trays; brass 
warming pans, homespun linen and wool¬ 
ens. and many other articles which only 
study aud time cau pronounce worth buy¬ 
ing. selling or keeping. 
Some of the furniture and the like 
which should never he bought with the 
hope of agaiu disposing of it include ma¬ 
hogany frame sofas of elaborate design— 
any sofa being risky today unless a con¬ 
noisseur prououuces it a find ; heavy, cum¬ 
bersome tables with thick legs aud ornate 
carving; bureaus of the same description 
in the ugly Empire period : sideboards of 
similar ungainly proportions, the only 
sideboard wanted today being the very 
rare Hepplewhites, which stand on long, 
slender legs; melodeons, four-poster beds 
with coarse, heavy carved posts (beds 
with the line, graceful posts are iu de¬ 
mand always) and mahogany furniture 
of 50 years ago carried out in horsehair 
and the like. 
Again, old quilts of wonderful needle¬ 
work and tasteful and unusual patterns 
are very popular, also braided rugs ia 
good condition. The old-time, simple 
hooded cradles of cherry can he found oc¬ 
casionally. But, on the other hand, a 
spinning wheel can hardly be given away 
any more. 
It is fascinating to learn the good from 
the had iu the house-furnishings of yester¬ 
day, and any farm women who has the’ 
time and a leaning that way would enjoy 
every minute spent in pursuit of the really 
good and elusive. Not everyone by any 
means cares to sell their hand-me-downs, 
hut many are glad to do so for oue reason 
or another, and being very fond of such 
things myself. I am always glad when 
some choice piece finds an appreciative 
home at last. Winter is the time to beg, 
borrow or buy hooks which educate us on 
so many such interesting subjects and 
hobbies, and then in Summer we can 
carry out what is impossible to accom¬ 
plish in the shut-in months. Every 
woman likes an income of her own. and 
the energetic one is apt to find a way to 
provide it somehow. The amateur dealer 
iu old-fashioned things who loves them 
for their own sake*-, should make a fair 
income iu time if she goes about it ef¬ 
ficiently. U- s. K. w. 
