I 16 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BVSISESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban II onion 
Established, 1850 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 833 West 80 th Street, Sesr rork 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John' J. 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 Universal Postal Union, $2.0i, equal to 8s. Gd., or 
8l£ marks, or 1 OH 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” 
AVe believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. 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 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, 
re.s|K)nsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use our good 
offices to this end, but such cases should not t e confused with dishonest 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not be 
resnonsible 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 Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
The three best things a man ran have—a good wife, 
good character and The I:. N.-Y. eric p. ward. 
New York. 
NI) we would like to think that The R. N.-Y. 
may help to attain the wife and the character. 
* 
Can you tell me where I can secure an agency for 
nursery stock that the grower will guarantee to come 
true to name? There is a good field here for an agent 
who sells that kind of stock. There have been many 
agents through here who have fooled the people. I 
make a business of pruning trees, and have a good repu¬ 
tation for honest work. I would not like to sell poor 
stock, as I expect to stay in the business for some years 
yet. R. b. s. 
Pennsylvania. 
OME now, would you not call that a perfectly 
fair and reasonable proposition? What is 
wrong about it? Who can find fault with it? Would 
you not suppose that a dozen nurserymen would at 
once arise and say “/ am your man"? Yet we have 
sent the letter to several men prominent, in the trade, 
and they all with one accord decline to give any 
guarantee that will really hold water! They all offer 
to do their best to avoid mistakes, and we feel sure 
they would do so, but they will not clinch their guar¬ 
antee with a penalty that is worth anything more 
than refilling the order. There is no satisfaction in 
that to any man of middle years who has wasted 
half a dozen seasons for his trees to hear, only to find 
them “misfits.” 
* 
T HIS problem of “home-mixing” fertilizer or feeds 
comes up this year as never before. It is easy 
to prove by figures that where a number of farmers 
can club together, make up a large order and put up 
the cash, they can buy grain or chemicals to good 
advantage. They can save money by doing it—no 
one doubts that. Tt is a question, however, if a 
single farmer can buy small lots of these goods and 
make a profit. It is a business for combined buying. 
Readers often ask where they can buy a few pounds 
or a few tons at the quoted prices. They cannot 
hope to secure such goods. The low prices are for 
carload lots, and the freight on small lots will add 
greatly to the cost. In spite of the evident economy 
iit buying large lots of chemicals or grain it remains 
true that a large proportion of farmers prefer to use 
the mixed goods if they can be sure of their compo¬ 
sition. You may say, if you like, that this is unsci¬ 
entific and unprofitable, but we are merely stating a 
stubborn fact. It may seem an easy thing to mix 
certain chemicals together so as to make a true mix¬ 
ture. but we once had an intelligent man mix in sev¬ 
eral hundred pounds of concrete in place of dried 
blood! You can imagine what happened when that 
mixture got wet. For orchards, grass or grain, there 
is no need of mixing the chemicals. They can be 
applied separately. In many cases we think the best 
plan is to use the chemicals on the cover crop, like 
clover, rye, peas or beans, and let (hat crop do the 
mixing. Then when this crop is plowed under in the 
Spring, with a little nitrate of soda or sulphate of 
ammonia as a starter, you will have a good system 
of fertilizing. 
* 
F ARMERS all over New York State have decided 
that a revision of the game laws is one of the 
few great necessities which they will fight for this 
season. With them it ranks in importance with “day¬ 
light saving,” and that is enough to say. Our pres¬ 
ent game laws are wrong, and their administration 
is worse. They ignore the basic fact of common 
rights that the game should belong to the owner of 
the land whereon it runs and is fed. We shall not 
stop to argue that proposition. We believe the game 
which feeds and runs on our own farm is as truly 
our own property as the cattle, she ejp yr swin_e wh ich 
Vie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
run in the same pasture or woods. No stranger has 
any more right to come on my property without per¬ 
mission and destroy that game than he has to come 
and shoot my poultry or my tame rabbits. We favor 
a new set of game laws based on that fundamental 
proposition. When we have such laws, fairly en¬ 
forced, we shall see a great increase in the number 
of game, because it will then be to the interest of 
tlie farmer to protect and increase it, as is done in 
Europe, and no decent hunter will suffer. Amend¬ 
ments to the game laws will be introduced at this 
session, and we must all get back of them and push. 
They r may not all be what you or I would put through 
if we had the power. There are many opinions, and 
we must all accept a fair compromise if it includes 
the basic principle of ownership. The passage of 
new laws or amendments will not settle it. The 
teeth of a law are sharpened or pulled out according 
to the way they are administered. The present 
Game Commissioner. Geo. C. Pratt, does not admin¬ 
ister these laws to the satisfaction of farmers. He 
is more in sympathy with the sports and hunters, 
who represent a mere handful as compared with the 
great army of farmers Avho occupy the land. From 
the very nature of the case the game laws should 
be administered on the principle that farmers have 
first consideration. They own the land and pay 
taxes on it. They feed the game and have first right 
to it, since it is produced on their farms. They feel 
that these rights have been ignored in the adminis¬ 
tration of the game laws, and that Mr. Pratt is re¬ 
sponsible for it. Mr. Pratt is, we understand, a can¬ 
didate for reappointment. If he is reappointed our 
farmers cannot expect much improvement, no matter 
what the Legislature may do, for his policy will dic¬ 
tate the enforcement of any game law. We need a 
new Game Commissioner. The only way to get one 
is for farmers to make Governor Miller understand 
that they do not want Mr. Pratt. 
* 
KVERAL schemes for buying grain, fertilizer or 
other supplier co-operatively have been started 
in our own section. Many of them have gone down 
chiefly because farmers have failed to understand 
that such buying involves the payment of spot cash. 
There is no other way to make such buying success¬ 
ful : the money must be put up before the goods are 
bought, or when they are delivered. It is usually 
possible to buy on credit fi*om the storekeeper or 
dealer. You pay more in that way, but the payment 
seems to come easier, and this buying on credit has 
become a bad habit with many farmers. You want 
to remember that the prices quoted as showing what 
can be gained through buying co-operations are cash 
prices on one hand against credit prices on the other. 
Some farmers seem to think they can buy co-opera¬ 
tively and still retain the old credit system. That 
is a mistake; they cannot work the co-operative plan 
with any great saving except through a system of 
spot cash payments. Some of the storekeepers are 
driving trade away into co-operative buying by refus¬ 
ing tu make it any object for customers to pay cash. 
The man who puts down his money at every pur¬ 
chase gets no better price than he who calls for three 
months’ credit or holds off on his payment. The cash 
customers realize that they are not only paying full 
price, hut that the price includes many bad debts. 
Merchants who will not give a fair discount for cash 
are encouraging the co-operative movement. 
* 
I T becomes evident that Governor Miller is to have 
a great fight over his proposal to cut expenses 
down to income duriug the coming year. The job¬ 
hunters and the politicians will line up against the 
plan, and the Governor will need the support of 
every honest man in his efforts to conduct the busi¬ 
ness of the State as we must all conduct our own 
business. The demand for public funds has come 
to be a craze. The departments get a certain sum 
of money, and then proceed to spend more than their 
allowance—trusting to a larger appropriation next 
year to make good. That practice should be cut off 
at once, and every extra expense should be pruned 
down to the quick. Most men are willing that the 
other fellow’s appropriation should he cut down, hut 
they want their own job put through in full. The 
“easy-money lizards” will fight the Governor every 
time he tries to save a dollar. Ilis support must 
come from the earnest men and women who must 
practice economy right in their own homes. We 
hope that every such man and woman in the State will 
write Governor Miller a personal letter and tell him 
they will hack him in his campaign for economy. 
* 
E are beginning to have reports from fanners 
who are making contracts for hired help. 
One farmer in a dairy county has hired at $50. Sev- 
January 22, 1921 
eral more report hiring at $35 to $40, with some com¬ 
petition among hired help. One farmer with a com¬ 
bination fruit and general crops farm has agreed to 
pay a high-class man $1,000, house, garden and pota¬ 
toes for a year. This man is capable of acting as 
manager and doing any work on a farm. Others re¬ 
port hiring at about $35 and board. From several 
localities come reports that men who left for the 
city two years ago are now coming back. Most of 
them are hut little better off than when they left, as 
.high rent and extravagant living has eaten up their 
big wages. Another report is that the men and 
women who are coming back demand better accom¬ 
modations than they had before. The city life has 
made them call for comforts which were not thought 
of in the farm tenant house before. As farm labor 
is as important as any commodity which the farmer 
buys, we shall be glad to hear reports from our 
readers—the same as farm prices. 
* 
A REFERENDUM on daylight saving was recently 
taken in some factories and banks in New 
Jersey. Naturally there was a majority in favor of 
the plan. As a result we have the following: 
Marcus M. Marks, president of the National Day¬ 
light Saving Association, said: 
“If a referendum of this sort was taken in every Sta^e 
of the Union it would show an overwhelming vote, even 
greater than that given to Senator Harding, in favor 
of daylight saving. 
“The vote taken in New Jersey shows that the 
supposed objections to the daylight saving by farmers 
is a myth.” 
It is not likely tha. Mr. Marks ever made any such 
foolish statement. He knows better. In practically 
all the agricultural States people never changed the 
clocks at all. That was true of chi rural counties 
of New York. Mr. Marks might just as W" 11 ?cnduct 
a referendum among brewers and saloon keepers and 
claim that the returns prove that objectors to rum 
drinking are a “myth.” We print this merei.v to 
show our readers that in order to make any change 
in the daylight saving law they must prepare for 
the hardest sort of a fight. The city people want 
that extra daylight hour because it gives them that 
much more play time. You will not catch them 
fighting for a chance to work and thus add to pro¬ 
duction. but they will grapple to the death in defense 
of their play. There are many in the city who do 
not want daylight saving. There are a few noisy 
people in the country who do want it. It will be a 
great fight on both sides. 
* 
S ENATOR HARDING did a good job and estab¬ 
lished a good precedent when he called off the 
elaborate and expensive programme for the inaug- 
eration. The committee would have probably run 
expenses up close to half a million dollars if the 
President-elect had not interfered. As it is, barely 
$5,000 of the public money will be spent. It was a 
good thing to cut out costly parades and grand 
stands, balls and aimless pomp. The nation is stag¬ 
gering under a debt of over twenty billion dollars, 
and for several years government employees have 
been -throwing the public money away in handfuls. 
That thing has got to stop. We all know in our 
private affairs how we are forced to cut down ex¬ 
penses and give up useless display. If we cannot 
master these things in our owu family the nation 
cannot get back to normal expenses. Some will say 
that this big nation should make an impressive dis¬ 
play over the great event of changing the Adminis¬ 
tration. A simple, dignified ceremony will be far 
more impressive than any great pomp and parade— 
and far more in keeping with our present needs. 
Brevities 
One of the soundest arguments is silence at the right 
time. 
The rooster that tries to whip the feeder is usually 
the best breeder in the flock. 
You never saw a man who eats sour apples freely who 
was a heavy drinker of liquor. 
Is your Grange a live huuc-h or a dead squad? Are 
you responsible for the difference? 
When a crop makes good vine or stem, but fails to 
mature seed well, there is evidence that phosphate is 
needed. 
Oue reports indicate that Southern farmers are 
nearer to the point where they are ready to drop ex¬ 
clusive cotton and take up diversified farming than 
ever before. 
