16 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journn! for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established f$JO 
Published w'pkly by Rural Publishing: Company. 333 II>m 80fh Slrsfl. »s York 
Herbert W. Collixgwood. President and Editor. 
John .1. 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 Cniversal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8k marks, or 10k francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, $1.00 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¬ 
sible pei-son. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to i>aid 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 or the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it. you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
God bless The Rural New-Yorker for bolding up 
the things that are pure and true and right. It never 
brings any shadow in your home, but is always an in¬ 
spiration to better living and service. J. H. peters. 
Vermont. 
N these troubled times we want all the sunshine 
we can get. Shadows grow like mushrooms. No 
one should try to fertilize them. 
T HE time is past now for discussion of the milk 
plan or of the contract. While plans and con¬ 
tracts are in process of development they are prop¬ 
erly discussed and criticized. Every member is en¬ 
titled to full information and free discussion until 
policies are fixed, but when a decision lias been made 
it is equally the duty and the interest of every mem¬ 
ber to accept the conclusions and go ahead with the 
common purpose. The Utica meeting ended discus¬ 
sion. There is no longer time for hesitation. A 
large number of members have signed the contract. 
Unity above all tilings must be maintained. Every¬ 
body realizes now that pooling is a necessity, so that 
all members may he used alike, under similar cir¬ 
cumstances. but this could not be accomplished with 
some members in the pool and others out of it. Sub¬ 
stantial members of the board have assured us that 
we will all have a statement of the financial condi¬ 
tions of the business monthly. With this assurance 
no one need hesitate about the language of the con¬ 
tract. The members can make limitations at any 
time, and as things progress the other principles that 
some of us have striven for will c-ome. The thing to 
do now is to sign up the contracts and put it over 
for the beginning of the new year. 
* 
N EW YORK State has a “seed law” which applies 
to agricultural seeds. This law requires that 
all such seeds must be plainly labeled. Such label 
must name the seed, give the per cent, by weight, of 
purity, name the noxious weeds which it contains, 
and give the percentage of each, and also the per¬ 
centage of germination. The law provides for a test 
of such seeds at the Experiment Station at Geneva. 
By addressing the Seed Laboratory at that station, 
farmers may arrange to have samples of seed fairly 
tested. Prof. M. T. Munn. who has charge of this 
laboratory, has done excellent work for us on sev¬ 
eral occasions. We are often asked if a farmer who 
sells his grain for seed is liable under this law. 
When he sells flour grains, like buckwheat, corn, 
wheat, etc., on his own premises, or personally deliv¬ 
ered. the farmer need not use a label, hut he is held 
responsible for any misrepresentations he may make. 
But no grasses, clovers or small seed, likely to con¬ 
tain weed seeds, can he sold in this way. The object 
of this exemption is merely to permit easy sale <>r 
exchange of seed between neighbors. When a farmer 
offers seeds for general sale he must go by the law 
the same as the dealers. 
* 
T HE fertilizer situation on the upper Atlantic 
slope is causing great trouble to all. The great 
majority of farmers seem to prefer the ready-mixed 
goods. The economy in buying the chemicals and 
mixing at home has been explained again and again, 
yet most farmers still prefer to buy some favorite 
brand. They buy with greater discrimination than 
formerly, but the habit of dealing in the mixed goods 
is strong. This year the margin of price between 
mixed goods and chemicals is very wide. It is evi¬ 
dent that most of the fertilizer manufacturers con¬ 
tracted for all or part of their chemicals long ago, 
before any deflation of prices started. In a business 
of that sort it is necessary to make contracts far in 
advance. That will account in large part for the 
high prices now charged. On the other hand, “de¬ 
flation” has struck the farmer earlier than it has 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
most other industries. We well know in our own 
case that fertilizer prices were too high last year to 
permit any real profit on their use. If our prices 
for products are to be no higher this year we are 
frank to say that fertilizers must be considerably 
cheaper if we are to pay expenses. In the past most 
of us have been willing to take a reasonable chance 
on growing a crop. In fact, we have to take a 
chance, for weather and all other conditions affect 
our crops far more than they do other products. 
While every fair man wants to be reasonable, there 
is no sound reason why the farmer should take all 
the risk and thus protect the fertilizer industry from 
loss. This is a time when industry should meet us 
with fair prices and not compel us to assume all the 
risk and all the loss. 
* 
HERE are four big business enterprises now de¬ 
pending on New York farmers for support. The 
organization of the Grange Exchange must be com¬ 
pleted. The Dairymen’s League must be supported 
and strengthened. The State wool pool and market¬ 
ing association must go on. and the co-operative ap¬ 
ple packing houses must build up a selling agency. 
These four big enterprises should be pushed through 
to completion, and they will give our farmers a full 
job for some time to come. There is likely to be a 
demand for many special organizations, each to help 
market some special crop. They will all be worthy 
and necessary, but it will be a mistake to try to go 
too fast and attempt to do everything at once. In 
the past most attempts at co-operative work have 
failed or faltered because they tried to do too much 
at first. It is a favorite trick of the politicians to 
try to get the people to scatter their efforts, and not 
concentrate upon a few important things. Farmers 
have lacked results in public life because they have 
scattered their efforts on too many things. It will 
pay us far better to concentrate upon tbe four big 
propositions above mentioned and make them secure 
first of all. 
* 
HE New York Tribune, in speaking of tbe dis¬ 
aster which has come upon farmers through de¬ 
flation of prices, says: 
Farm products were the first, except a few articles of 
war use. to respond to the upward swing of prices. They 
have led the procession downward. Both movements 
accord with prior experience. Commodities of prime 
necessity are most fluent in price. ’Phis irremovable 
condition their producers at all times have faced and 
must continue to face. The shock of readjustment can 
be softened, but no way has ever been found to escape 
the operation of this natural law. 
Farmers could stand their losses with much 
greater philosophy if consumers had been benefited 
bv the drop in farm products. The maddening thing 
is that while farmers justly feel that they have 
been robbed, tbe consumers have been held up for 
higher prices. We know that is true of all who buy 
flour, meat, vegetables or other food, and it is not 
“in accord with prior experience.” The writer of 
this lias lived through at least four great panics, 
with their accompanying “deflation” of prices. In 
each case farm prices fell out of all proportion to 
other products, but in every ease before this one the 
consumers promptly received some benefit through a 
reduction in food prices. It is only of late years that 
the middlemen and profiteers have been able so to 
perfect their methods that while farmers are robbed, 
consumers are at the same time exploited and held 
up as though a highwayman stood over them with a 
pistol. This condition is the outcome of the extrava¬ 
gant and high-handed methods adopted during the 
war. They have simply enabled the middleman to 
get a strangle hold on the American people. For 
many years the great mass of middle-class citizens 
did not or would not understand what was going on. 
They now begin to realize it as never before. They 
will give the new Administration a fair chance to 
do someth inn. We think the American people will be 
patient and fair, hut they will now demand that the 
cards lie laid on the table and a straight open policy 
of reconstruction he adopted. 
S OME of our readers who are hard hit on grain, 
or live stock, or potatoes, seem to think the 
florists and gardeners at least are in clover. Well, 
here is a report from one of them: 
The last four weeks have shown us the worst weather 
we have ever seen for growing flowers, and what we 
may make on the mushrooms we promptly put back into 
the flower end to keep it alive till the weather clears up 
somewhat. However, we try to keep smiling and un¬ 
concerned. as we know the sun is shining somewhere, 
and will do the same here sometime. 
So you see we are all having our share. Some of 
us probably think we have a double dose, but we 
cannot get rid of it by wishing it off on our neigh¬ 
bors. The “kick back” of all such efforts will only 
make the trouble worse. “The sun is shining some¬ 
where,” and we shall see it again in due time. Just 
January 1, 1921 
at this time no one is buying even up to the limit of 
necessity. There will come a readjustment when the 
swing must go the other way. Those who stay in 
the game with reasonable good nature are the ones 
who will get the trade when it comes back. We can 
growl and find fault as savagely as anyone when 
necessary, but right now we do not need growling as 
much as we do constructive advice. 
W E find a number of complaints this year about 
moldy silage. In most of these cases the 
mold appears in a thin streak within 48 hours after 
the silage is taken out. It is worse where two days’ 
feeding is removed at one time. No one seems to he 
sure what causes these molds. In some cases pour¬ 
ing water into the silo will help, but this is hardly 
practical. It is safer to take out only one feeding at 
a time—evenly dug all over the top of the silo. 
While we have no facts to show injury to cattle, this 
mold should not he fed to horses or sheep. It cannot 
be said to be good feed for any animal. The best 
remedy is to take out only one feed at a time, and 
not dig into it. 
* 
Tin- enclosed clipping appeared in the New York 
World about a month ago. and made me pretty mad. and 
I think our leading farm paper should reply to it. so I’m 
sending it to you. may irwi.n. 
T HE clipping referred to by Miss Irwin fol¬ 
low’s : 
Now the inquiring Department of Agriculture has dis¬ 
covered a “waste of woman-power” on the farms which 
it characterizes as “one of the greatest menaces to the 
rural life of the nation” and will seek to correct it with 
“modern equipment.” If there have been complaints on 
this score they have not been vociferous. And it has 
been a popular impression that war prices for wheat and 
cotton have done a great deal to improve the conditions 
of farm work for women as well as men. 
We wrote at once to the World about this sneer¬ 
ing reference, and the letter was printed without 
comment. It is probably true that the World has 
not received many complaints. Farmers know very 
well that the usual city paper cares little for their 
complaints or their condition. What have war prices 
for wheat and cotton to do with incomes of farmers 
in this section? Most of our farmers buy their flour, 
and no cotton is produced here. High prices for 
these products increase the cost of living for farmers 
on the Atlantic slope. We know that the “popular 
impression” is that farmers and their wives are knee 
deep in wealth. Tt is false, and such papers as the 
World have done most to make the impression “pop¬ 
ular,” while knowing it is not true. 
W E have always felt that the Farm Bureau 
committeemen are the wheel horses in the 
organization. When they are capable and energetic 
they do great work, yet frequently they receive scant 
praise. They are the live wires of the Bureau, and 
deserve credit and support for what is often a 
thankless job. The following statement is made by 
one who has made a close study of this work: 
It is not easy to get the best men to act, for the one 
job they dislike is the annual membership canvass. Few 7 
men are'well qualified to sell an idea or a thing. Some 
men cannot stand a rebuff, so when it came to asking 
their neighbors for $2. whieh was an increase of $1 over 
the membership fee of 1010. many of the committeemen 
turned back home and did not complete their canvasses. 
The result was that for 1020 there was a slight falling 
off in the total State Farm Bureau membership. This 
was not due to the increase in the fee, but to the in¬ 
complete canvasses by the committeemen. Now. this 
year the fees are to again be increased $1 to provide 
funds for the support of the State and National Farm 
Bureau Federation. Curiously enough in those coun¬ 
ties where the fees have been set at $5 the memberships, 
thus far, are the largest. It is not the amount of the 
fee, it is the way the men are asked, that gives results. 
The staunchest supporters of the Farm Bureaus contend 
that a plan must be devised whereby the membership 
fees must be raised to around $5, and provision made 
for signing the men up for a term of years, with mem¬ 
berships due automatically, so as to do away with this 
everlasting canvassing. We have a good illustration of 
this plan in Chenango County. Here something over 
1.100 farmers have been signed up for $5 for a period 
of five years. 
Brevities 
The hornet does not feed humanity—he stings. 
Little use lighting the henhouse if it is not made 
warm. 
The cracks in the henhouse make cold storage for 
the hens. 
IIe who cannot take advice will he forced to take the 
consequences. 
The New Y'ork Experiment Station at Geneva prints 
a list of lime producers in this State. You can often 
save freight by going to the nearest kiln or quarry. 
Now we are told that German students are to be 
taught how to make mince pie. We would like to 
make them eat some of the samples that have been 
served to us. 
What farmer has a right to spend time complaining 
about the potash monopoly while the liquid manure is 
all draining away into the creek? There is more potash 
wasted in that way than can be brought from Europe 
in five years. 
