122 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Thing;’. To Think About 
The object of this department is to give readers a chance to express themselves on farm 
matters. Not long articles can be used—just short, pointed opinions or suggestions. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER does not always endorse what is printed here. You mignt 
call this a mental safety valve.___ 
That Eternal Immigration Question 
I observe in your “Safety Valve” de¬ 
partment of the last issue of the paper an 
evidence of excess steam which causes a 
rise in pressure up here in Michigan, and 
a consequent blowing off. Now. my con¬ 
viction is that a more completely un- 
American program could scarcely be 
adopted or conceived than the one sug¬ 
gested bv Theron McCampbell, New .Ter- 
sev (page 28). With the manufacturing 
interests of the country paralyzed, and 
the millions of American citizens out ot 
work, there is an uneasy growl arising 
which promises soon to swell into a sav¬ 
age roar of protest; and if to this must 
be added the plaints of the undernour¬ 
ished children of many of those unem¬ 
ployed men, it will only need a few lead¬ 
ers’to give us a social and economic situ¬ 
ation rivalling that of the Lemne-Trot- 
skv regime. 
I doubt whether Mr. McCampbell has 
had his ear open to the utterances of men 
who are now standing bewildered by the 
sudden drop from “rush order times in 
the factories to the “nothing doing con¬ 
ditions confronting them today. _ Large 
numbers of these men were paying for 
homes and were grudgingly taking the 
biggest dosage of taxation ever choked 
down, when the crash came. Hence, 
th usands did not have their meat and 
grocery bills paid in full when the fur¬ 
naces were cooled by capital s edict, and 
being without money and without employ¬ 
ment, they and their wondering little ones 
are facing Winter conditions with a grow- 
fng dread And this, apart from ‘‘the im¬ 
provident classes who never save. From 
all I can learn, the same conditions obtain 
quite generally throughout the country. 
How soothing, then, the sight of millions 
of foreign intruders, many of them vicious 
and diseased, coming to share the lesson¬ 
ing food supply. . , - fVl „ 
And how about the better class of the 
foreigners themselves, when I am. as 1 
believe, credibly informed that Bolshevik 
propagandists await them at Lllis Is 
land, and in the precious home language 
of the immigrants pour into their ears 
weird tales of American wrongs and 
convince them that all reports concern¬ 
ing the “land of the free ’ were delu¬ 
sions and a heartless fake.' 1 8>o their fits 
lesson in Americanism has treason tor a 
topic, and the hrst music is a Hymn of 
Hate.” . . . . . T 
I would not restrict immigration, but 1 
would absolutely shut if off until we had 
“cleaned house” and rounded up and dis¬ 
armed the undesirables we already have. 
Then, when we get some of our economic 
problems solved, with “justice toward all 
and malice toward none.” let the gates be 
opened with caution, and the honest and 
intelligent seekers for homes be permitted 
to enter America’s kindergarten, and let 
trained men and trained women of proven 
wisdom and tact meet them, and in' their 
own language tell them that they have 
come to’ the best country the sun ever 
shone down upon, and define for them 
the time-tested ideals of civic righteous¬ 
ness and highest Americanism. 
I believe that in some such way alone 
can the tide of immigration be diverted 
from the congested centers and “distribu- 
uted throughout the country,” and with 
any real success meet the agricultural 
need. l. p. richtmeyeb. 
Michigan. 
The Fa r mer and His Rent 
The R.N .-Y. has done grand work in 
calling attention to the fact that the 
farmer only gets 35 cents of the dollai 
that the consumer pays for farm pro¬ 
ducts Here is a question in economics 
that I would like to have The R. N.-Y.’e 
opinion on, and perhaps a discussion in 
the paper might lead to more light, on the 
subject. .... .. „ 
For some time since the question of 
farm profits has been under discussion. I 
note that many credit the farmer with 
house rent as part of the income from the 
farm. This I believe is wrong, as if the 
farm is to be credited with house rent 
for the farmer, then it should be credited 
with rent for the barn and stables, and 
for the use of the land as well, which if 
done would be giving double credit, as 
when a 5 or 6 per cent charge on the in¬ 
vestment is made, 'as is the general ous- 
tome, that is practically the rent for the 
farm, and as land without buildings for 
stock, storage and for the operator to 
live in is not a farm, simply land, why 
should the farmer credit himself •with 
house rent? Sell the land and buildings 
off a farm, leaving only the farmhouse on 
a house lot, and what would the rent be 
worth? . , , 
If the farm is to be credited with house 
rent for the farmer who operates it, why 
should not the sailor who‘operates a ship 
be credited with lodgings as well? In 
order to carry on the farm the farmer 
must live on the farm, the same as a 
sailor must live on the ship in order to 
sail it, and there would be just as much 
sense in crediting the ship with the sail¬ 
or’s passage money as the farm with 
house rent of .the farmhouse. 
I have heard this statement about the 
house rent for the farmer as a part of his 
profit bv “up-lifters,” “doctors of agricul¬ 
ture.” and others, who wished to jolly 
the farmer along and influence him to 
continue to produce farm products at a 
loss so that the cost of living might be 
less for city dwellers, until I am sick and 
tired of it. 
In the News Letter of the Department 
of Agriculture for October 20 is a sum¬ 
mary of a farm profit survey conducted 
by officials of the farm management and 
farm economics department, in which the 
item of bouse rent for the farmer is cred¬ 
ited as part of the farm income. In the 
department Monthly Crop Reporter for 
November, page 123. under the heading 
“Abandoned Farms and Labor Move¬ 
ment in Ohio,” it is stated that a survey 
of the State showed there was an estimat¬ 
ed total of 29,000 vacant habitable houses 
on farms this year in Ohio. Surely the 
owners of these vacant farmhouses could 
not credit the farm with rent for their 
unoccupied houses. 
Here in New England, within the last 
50 years, there have been thousands of 
farmhouses standing empty until they 
rotted down, because there was no one 
who cared to live in them. They were on 
farms that had been abandoned so far as 
farm operations were concerned, hence 
they stood empty until they rotted down 
or were torn down by their owner for the 
lumber they contained, and to save pay¬ 
ing taxes on them. 
In my own town and in adjoining towns 
within‘a radius of 10 miles there are 
many abandoned factory sites where there 
was a whole village of houses in which 
the help that was employed in these fac¬ 
tories lived. Many of these houses are 
still standing, without windows or doors, 
mute reminders of a past. Some of them 
were inhabited by ne’er-do-wells until 
they became uninhabitable through lack 
of repair. 
Had these farm or factory village 
houses been located within a mile or so 
of some industrial center they would have 
been rentable, and would never have been 
allowed to rot down. Is it logical or 
practical to credit the farm with house 
rent for the operator? What Says The 
R. N.-Y. and its readers? Can’t The R. 
N.-Y. get the officials of the Department 
of Agriculture at Washington to give its 
reason for crediting the farm with some¬ 
thing that is not worth anything? I 
hereby make my protest against padding 
up the farmer’s profit account with bunk. 
Massachusetts. f. a. ptttnam. 
In the case of a farmer who has no 
other business we do not think the rent 
should be counted as an asset. In the 
case of a man who has an outside busi¬ 
ness and runs the farm as a side line, the 
rent should be credited to his accoux ,f .„ 
His family must live somewhere, and we 
think he may well credit the farm with 
what it would cost to house his family 
elsewhere. 
Can You Disprove It? 
lake many of your readers, I was very 
much interested in the article by "\ . A., 
page 1665. As a mother of two boys. 1 
am anxious to know if there is opportu¬ 
nity in farming for college-trained young 
fellows who promise to be. good business 
men. I walT disappointed in the answers 
V. A. got. Mr Reynolds and Mr. Waite 
are philosophers; philosophers unites cer¬ 
tain temperaments, while on the other 
hand it is no food for others. We admire 
the wise man who lived in a barrel, but 
that would be a nice world if we tried 
to imitate him or follow his doctrine too 
closely. Our boys want houses, bathtubs, 
lights, heat, servants, books, theaters, 
operas and leisure to enjoy all the good 
things in life. Others got it; why 
shouldn’t they get it? Tell a fellow to 
go to church if he wants to play golf— ■ 
no, Mr. Waite, I am afraid he won’t 
listen. 
Is there no one to show Y. A., your 
boy and mine, a nice home, well-kept sur¬ 
roundings, children guarded _ by a nurse 
playing in the yard? We ring the bell; 
a trim parlor-maid opens the door. The 
mistress of the house, a refined, well- 
groomed woman, who has plenty of time 
to entertain us till dinner is announced, 
introduces us finally to her husband, a 
successsful farmer. A suburban home 
and four servants; the average _ success¬ 
ful city business man can afford it. Why 
not, with some variations, the business 
farmer ? '** 
The city man is not a homeless, friend¬ 
less being, living on artificial food and 
breathing artificial air. In most cases 
he owns a country home and lives in it. 
if not the year around, at least during 
the Summer months. The best of the 
fanner’s products are not in the farmer’s 
cellar, but in the city man’s icebox. 
Friends? He has plenty of them. 
Chances are that he might get so popular 
as to be elected in politics with a ma¬ 
jority of farmers’ votes—a thing that has 
not happened to a farmer yet. 
I am no authority, but I think Mr. 
Triolo is right in stating that farmers 
have no business ability, and instead of 
putting all their time and energy into 
producing they ought to attend to the 
marketing of their products. I presume 
there are plenty of farmers who have put 
that theory into practice and have suc¬ 
ceeded. Men who combine the experi¬ 
ence of the practical farmer, a college 
education, with the shrewdness and skill 
of the middleman or dealer, ought to be 
making money in the line of agriculture. 
Of thousands of successful city business 
men, aren’t there hundreds, or at least 
dozens, of successful business farmers? 
I wish they would speak up and tell our 
boys the truth about the chances they 
have by sticking to the oldest and most 
essential profession on earth. 
Of course, if farming offers our college 
boys only positions as shepherds, cowmen, 
etc., with middlemen or dealers as un¬ 
scrupulous bosses, then I must agree with 
V. A., B. A. “Beware of Agriculture!" 
Windsor, N. Y. mrs. l. r. 
The only trouble with this is that not 
10 per cent of city or towm men have the 
country home, the four servants and the 
other fine things here mentioned. Prob¬ 
ably 95 per cent of us must go through 
life without them, and we are better off 
for the omission. If every city man had 
such things, where would the servants 
come from? If anyone had such things 
on a farm he would not be a farmer. 
Some of us gladly discard such dreams 
from choice. 
January 22, 1921 
pears and other green food thrive better 
if given a little table salt occasionally? 
Do not hogs require a little salt the same 
as horses and cattle? I have occasionally 
given my hogs a small quantity of clean 
salt, and’ they seem to enjoy it. Salt and 
pumpkin seeds are remedies for intestinal 
worms, and hogs are not liable to be 
troubled with these parasites if given the 
remedies in moderation. • 
Hogs running at large so that they can 
help themselves to what they want from 
both above the ground and below, may 
not require salt as do those hogs kept in 
a pen which can get nothing except what 
is given them. It would be interesting 
to learn whether. it is the custom with 
those who keep hogs in confinement occa¬ 
sionally to give them a little salt or not. 
and w T hether experienced hog bi’eeders 
consider it necessarv and beneficial or not. 
New York. ’ F. n. clttm, M. D. 
Do Hogs Need Salt 
I note on page 27 that meat, brine is 
poisonous to hogs. I can readily under¬ 
stand the reason for this, but do not hogs 
that are fed an abundance of apples, 
Wife : “Dear, can you give me some 
money for a poor deserving woman who 
wants to go to church, but who hasn’t 
clothes enough to go?” Husband : “Cer¬ 
tainly. We must do some charity with 
our means. Who is the poor deserving 
woman?” Wife: “It’s me.”—Baltimore 
American. 
ThisTwo-Way Sulky is the 
One Plow for Steep Grades 
and Irrigated Lands 
The E-B Power Lift Two-Way Sulky is built especially 
for side-hill plowing and for irrigated farms. 
Like all E-B plows, it is famed first for light draft and 
easy handling. A very slight pressure of the foot 
engages the clutch in the power lift device. The bottom 
is raised or lowered and locked in place by the turning 
of the wheel as the plow moves forward. 
On steep grades where the furrow must be thrown one 
way and wherever dead furrows or back furrows are 
objectionable the E-B Two-Way Sulky will do the job 
successfully. 
E-B’s many years of success in plow and _ implement 
building has meant many unusual features in the two- 
way sulky—a hitch that automatically keeps the pull in 
straight line; E-B Quick Detachable Shares; large 
chilled Slip Heels on the land side that may be replaced 
when necessary; a lever on the pole that regulates the 
width of cut. 
You can see the E-B Power Lift Two-Way Sulky on any 
E-B dealer’s floor. Ask him to show you what it can do. 
Emerson-Brantingham 
Implement Co., Inc. 
Rockford, Illinois 
Established 1852 
A Complete Line of Farm 
Machinery Manufactured 
and Guaranteed by One 
