240 
February 12, 1021 
The Rural New-Yorker 
the be sis ess farmers paper 
A National Weekly Journal for Country nnd Suburban llomcx 
Established JS.jO 
f'ublbbrd weekly by the Kuritl Pnhliihlng Company, 3*8 Well 30tb Street. New York 
IIKum itT " . Collikgwood, President ami Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
tVj, y Dillon, Secretary. Mas. E. T. Roylk. Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE,DOLLAR A YEAR 
T" foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01. equal to *s. 6d., or 
8% marks, or lots francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal cheek or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 11.00 per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
tYe 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. Bul'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, 
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 "ill 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 of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention Thk Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
QOME of the daily paper* begin to understand 
vj farm problems, and il is a sign of public health. 
The Hartford (Conn.) Courant in discussing day¬ 
light saving says: 
The fact is that tlie project is based on the desire 
of those who eat food to have more leisure and more 
fun. while their project adds to the burdens <4' those 
who raise the food for them. The statement that we 
cannot get along without daylight saving is a declara¬ 
tion that we were a failure until the war came. What 
we can’t get along without is the farmers. 
Right! Though some of our city friends seem to 
think farmers are less necessary than fairies. They 
may receive their education a little later—through 
the stomach. 
D l'RINC the war and while prices were high 
many, city people gave up eating potatoes 
fieely. Instead of a necessity with them, potatoes 
became a luxury. Rice, cornmeal and an extra al¬ 
lowance of bread were substituted. The result was 
that many people formed new feeding habits, and we 
can all understand what that means. The consump¬ 
tion of potatoes fell off. Now that prices are lower 
people are not eating potatoes as freely as they did 
before tbe war. We have all got to consider tliis 
matter of food habits in selling farm products. One 
reason for tbe present drag in tbe potato market is 
that people formed the habit of ** ting rice, macaroni 
and similar foods, and must be enticed back to po¬ 
tato eating. A fdod campaign to make people under¬ 
stand tbe value of tbe potato in the human diet will 
be needed before tbe demand comes back to tha*. of 
old days. In truth, the potato at a reasonable price 
is a better food than rice, but it is now necessary 
to make tbe rice eaters believe it. “Mashed” potato 
is about the most indigestible form in which tbe 
tuber can be served. Roiled or baked potatoes, eaten 
with the skin, make good food, for like the cover 
of the grain, the -minerals and vitamines are mostly 
close under the skin. 
G o into the schools of any town and oily of this 
country and you will find a good proportion 
of the children under-nourished. That means that 
their little bodies are not developing properly, and 
that their minds will be dwarfed—never reaching 
full development. As a result they will never be 
able to do the full work of a man or woman. In 
the future someone must contribute to their support. 
That is one fact—now here is another. Rv drinking 
one quart of milk per day—one pint at each of two 
meals—all these under-nourished children would 
recover, make normal growth and reach good size. 
Tbe milk, better than any other food, will correct 
their diet and feed every part of the body from bone 
to brain. We shall have in the future a great army 
of incompetent degenerates unless they can have 
milk. It is also probably true that right in tbe town 
where these little bodies are starving for milk more 
than enough money is spent for “soft drinks" to 
provide every child with what he needs. Substitute 
milk and fruit juices for the “soft drinks .” The 
State provides millions for education. Much of 
this money is wasted because a brain in an under¬ 
nourished body cannot absorb an education. The 
great remedy is milk 
* 
X bis article this week Dr. Rose shows that, for 
tbe present at least, farmers have little to fear 
from tbe direct competition of what we may call 
chemical food. While it is probably true that an 
expert chemist can put together anything that h a 
can analyze, it does not follow that synthetic food 
can ever become profitable or popular. Tbe chemist 
‘could, no doubt, make a form of starch in bis labora¬ 
tory. but be never can compete with the corn or 
potato plant—that is. with any such forms of power 
as is now available. So far as creating food, as 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
is done by tbe agents of nature, there is little fear 
that tbe chemist can organize any forces lhat can 
compete with sunshine working through plants and 
animals. There is no question, however, about the 
fact that we must expect a mighty development in 
processes for utilizing what are now wastes in the 
production of food. We have seen this worked out 
with cottonseed. It is to follow with apple pomace, 
skins of fruits and potatoes, tops and refuse of veg¬ 
etables. We have no doubt that in tl>e future naan 
will obtain the most nutritious food from Alfalfa 
and other plants long considered fit only for 
animal food. These developments will for a time 
prove injurious to certain branches of farming, but 
in the end there will be an adjustment which will 
men things up and give us all a chance. Few things 
have done more to change the everyday life of the 
average man during the past 10 years than the 
larger development of chemical industry. And this 
development has hardly begun. Our children are 
to see wonders worked out into public comfort or 
convenience which would paralyze ns if they were 
dashed upon us at once. 
jjc 
O NE oi our readers asks a question about chang¬ 
ing his farm methods and signs himself: "A 
Farmer Trying to Avoid Work (is it possible?)” 
No man can run a farm successfully without doing 
much hard work. There is. however, considerable 
useless work done on every farm, and the man who 
plans to avoid that shows wisdom rather than lazi¬ 
ness. The man who uses dust in place of liquid 
spray in an orchard avoids much hard work. So 
does - he who seeds or plants a piece of ground and 
lets the hogs harvest it for him. So. in a way. does 
be who seeds millet or sunflowers for a silage crop 
in place of cultivated corn. And also he who lots, 
an engine do his pumping or improved bay machinery 
do the heavy lifting. Tn city industry many of 
/ 
these labor-saving plans have been worked out. This 
has meant economy of labor and is largely respon¬ 
sible for the industrial advantage which the city 
enjoys. Farmers have got to learn how to avoid 
useless work and concentrate on the work that 
counts. 
* 
What is the highest official record made by any two- 
year-old heifer? It is on a bet. and I have been ap¬ 
pointed stakeholder, and think The R. X.-Y. reliable. 
New York. xnez tyekr. 
HIS thing of settling bets seems to be develop¬ 
ing into a regular part of ihe business. The 
only condition under which we agree to serve is that 
Tnez. the stakeholder, with the consent of both 
parties, turn the stakes over to the committee in 
charge of feeding the starving children of Europe. 
With that understanding we would report as follows: 
The highest record that has been made by a two- 
year-old Holstein heifer was made by Carnation 
Pioneer Segis 451370. with a seven-day record of 
415.6 lbs. of milk and 24.S lbs. of fat. % 
* 
E are told that the apple growers of the 
Northwest had a surplus of Jonathan apples 
last Fall. They got together and spent $40,000 
for advertising llicse apples, and as a result sold 
all of them. Many were sold right here in our East¬ 
ern markets. One recent issue of a popular maga¬ 
zine had seven full-page advertisements of Pacific 
Coast fruit products! New York State produces 
the finest apples that are grown anywhere. They 
are unequalled in color and flavor. < >f this last crop 
millions of bushels of good fruit were given away 
or rotted on the ground. At the same time the six 
million people here at tbe mouth of ihe Hudson 
River were averaging a dozen apples per year when 
they should have eaten at least 300! Outside of 
a few individual growers who do a very small busi¬ 
ness. no one advertised New York apples. Tf they 
could have been advertised as freely as were fruits 
from the Pacifist coast, every decent apple in Re¬ 
state could have been sold at a fair price. Cali¬ 
fornia ships fruit 3,000 miles and sells here at a 
profit. The Hudson Valley, with superior fruit, 
throws away a good share of the crop through lack 
of a market. California lets her light shine before 
nn-n : New York hides her light under a peach basket. 
* 
BOUT the surest thing in all horticultural oper¬ 
ation is that the culture of small fruits is to 
have a great stimulation during the next few years. 
There will be increased plantings of strawberries 
and bush fruits. During the wav these fruits went 
largely out of cultivation. They require careful 
culture and a vast amount of hand labor. This 
could not be supplied, and there was light planting, 
while many fields were plowed up. As a result 
prices went almost out of sight. Now that the labor 
situation promises to improve, many of us are plan¬ 
ning to get back into small fruits, and we think 
planting will be heavy. The prospect in this line 
seems to be good for some years to come, but let no 
man dare to attempt it unless be is prepared to keep 
his fields clean. One result of war operations is 
that there are more weedy fields than ever before, 
and it will mean a job like the labor of Hercules to 
keep a strawberry field clean. 
5|C 
To what extent is a nursery company responsible 
for loss sustained by reason of fruit trees sold by them 
not proving true to name? Apple trees planted 10 
years ago are just coming into fruit, so that it is only 
now I am able to determine that a considerable per¬ 
centage are not of the varieties ordered. You published 
some articles on this subject some time ago. but I can¬ 
not find them. • R. F. 
New Hampshire. 
HERE is no reason why a nursery company 
should not be as responsible for “misfits” as 
any other business men are for selling goods not true 
to name. Some of the nurserymen are quite willing 
to settle, although they put a low valuation on the 
loss. Others refuse to settle beyond replacing (he 
bearing trees with young ones. That is no settle¬ 
ment to a man who has waited years for his trees 
to come into beating. In some cases the nursery¬ 
men will send a man to graft the misfit Irees with 
desired varieties. That is one good way to settle 
the trouble. In New York State the courts have 
settled several of such cases, and laid down a rule 
of damages. Under this the victim is entitled to 
the difference between the value of the land before 
planting and its value if the planted trees wen- 
true to name. We have had a few “misfits.” but 
have never made complaint. In ease of any large 
number of such mistakes we would force a settle¬ 
ment on the above-stated terms. 
* 
I am a West Virginia orchardist. and while I feel 
that one good year’s work must have gone to someone 
who did not earn it. yet we are ready to try it over, 
hoping for better things in 1621. c. w. c. 
Raw Raw, W. Va. 
T HAT is the spirit with which many of our read¬ 
ers are taking tip this year’s work. Among the 
“better tilings” which we shall hope to meet are 
better system and better plans. One trouble with 
most of us in the past has been the attempt to do 
too much. It looks easy in Spring to block out a 
great job, far beyond our powers. <yir labor or our 
capital. Hot weather and weeds generally prove 
too much for these big plans—and they fail. Let us 
not attempt too much this year. At this moment 
there is no hope for very high prices. We seem to 
be definitely headed for further “deflation.” Know¬ 
ing that, it will he nothing short of a gamble to 
increase production <>v branch out into untried 
enterprises. We must keep inside our income and 
inside our physical powers, and lie content with that. 
* 
I N- these days of depression it is good to meet an 
optimist who has full faith in the future of New 
York farming. This is what one of our readers 
writes about the good old State. The bottom has not 
dropped out yet: 
Seven million five hundred thousand people live in 
town, villages and cities of the Empire State, and they 
must all eat off the farms, which makes a big and steady 
iparket for all farm products. Nearly every farm in 
New York State is within hauling distance of a town, 
city or shipping depot. The groat advantage the New 
York farmer has is his nearness to a market, and the 
heart of markets, too. Our crop year begins with straw¬ 
berries in .Tune, followed by vegetables and hay. More 
berries, grain, fruit, and so on, one crop after another, 
till they dig potatoes in October. Five months of con¬ 
tinuous gathering of crops; no other State equals it in 
such a variety of crops, and all of the best quality. If 
you don’t believe it. look at the market quotations in 
New York or Boston papers, and where they refer to 
produce coming from States. New York State farm 
products stand the highest. A New York State man 
is better dressed, better housed, better fed. spends more 
money, sees more of life and is a happier citizen than in 
any other State in the Union. 
Well, why not? Surely we shall all get. more out 
of life by thinking that rather than in hunting for 
gloom. We think the tide is turning. It will now 
come in. 
Brevities 
W 11 y not make yourself a “home demonstration agent” 
by starting at borne- giving the wife an even share? 
Better walk barefoot with your own whistle than 
bang on to the tailboard of some other fellow’s band 
wagon. 
The Ohio Experiment Station tells of a new spray for 
brown rot of peaches. Tt is composed of flour of sul¬ 
phur. hydrated lime and ground glue—the latter serving 
as a sticker. 
Some little trouble is reported, in making eider, from 
the use uf dirty cloth as a strainer. These cloths some¬ 
times contain bacteria which spoil the cider. Clean, 
fine sand, washed with hot water and then baked, will 
make a good strainer. 
At one time California eggs had a poor reputation for 
keeping in storage. They went off in flavor. The hens 
were right and the climate was right, but the eggs were 
wrong. Investigation proved that the trouble was in tin- 
feeding. When substitutes were given for fish meat, 
cottonseed meal and similar feeds, the eggs came back 
and proved successful for storage. 
