472 
<Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 19, 1921 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE RUS1XESS FARMER'S PAPER 
K National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* * 
Established isso 
Fablbbed weekly by the Rural Publishing Company. 838 West 30th Street, New York 
Herbert W. Colungwood, President and Editor. . 
John j. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
tVu F DILLON, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. ROTlk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. 82.01. equal to 8s. <kl., or 
8 !a marks, or 10^ francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Tost OfTlce as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, tl.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 pa|>cr is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. Wo 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 
Bible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
nicli swindler will be publiely 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 of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorkf.r when writing the advertiser. 
Some time ago 1 wanted some information regarding 
the implements which are being so much advertised 
at present, and I wrote to two State Experiment Sta 
tions. and to the Agricultural Department at Washing¬ 
ton. and also to The It. N.-Y;, also to our ('ounty 
Agent. I think it only fair to tell you this: That I 
received more real practical information from the an¬ 
swering letter of THE Tt. N.-Y. than from all the other 
sources put together. In saying this I do not wish 
to belittle the efforts of the others, as they did the best 
they could. 
I thank you. 
You are at perfect liberty to publish this unsolicited 
testimonial if you so desire. Howard M. gii.i.et. 
New York. 
* 
S OME of our readers were <|iiile surprised recently 
at an announcement that the Government 
among other seeds called for the seeds of thistle. 
Many of us have struggled for years to drive the 
thistle off our premises, and it seems remarkable 
that the Government should now call for the seeds 
of this enemy. It seems that the Department of 
Agriculture had nothing to do with this call for 
thistle seeds. They were demanded by the general 
supply committee, and it seems that they were de¬ 
sired by the Zoological Park in Washington for feed¬ 
ing certain birds. Considerable complaint arose at 
the feeding or distribution of this weed seed, and we 
now understand that the use of the thistle seed 
has been given up, and the birds will have to adapt 
themselves to some more useful diet. This will ex¬ 
plain why the thistle seeds were called for. There 
is unite a Question about the policy of asking bids 
on the seeds of the dangerous weed. 
* 
A S we predicted, President Wilson vetoed the 
emergency tariff hill. The House tried to pass 
it over the veto and failed, since a two-fliirds vote 
is required to do that. The President called this 
tariff “class legislation." He claimed it was designed 
to benefit one class (the farmers) at the expense of 
all consumers. He also said this is no time for legis¬ 
lation which will destroy or decrease trade with 
Europe. The nations abroad owe ns about $51,000,- 
000.000. They cannot, establish private credits, and 
do not have gold enough with which to pay. They 
can only hope to pay their debts and their interest 
ill goods of some sort, or in remittances from for¬ 
eigners now in this country. Therefore President 
Wilson claimed that instead <>f iising a tariff to shut 
off imports, we should do what we can to encourage 
importation of necessities which Europe can furnish. 
The truth is that some of the Republican leaders 
knew that this tariff hill would he killed by the 
President’s veto. Had they not been sure <>f that it 
is doubtful if they would have let it pas-. They 
have gained credit for supporting what the farmers 
demanded, and now the tariff question must wait 
until the entire subject can he fought all over. We 
do not think President Wilson represented the full 
thought of the people. Our reports indicate that a 
majority of the people in the North and East de¬ 
mand a revision of the tariff, with strong protection 
for agricultural products. We are not attempting 
to argue the right or wrong or the need of such leg¬ 
islation at this time. We merely state what comes 
to us from country people, and usually these reports 
are accurate. 
Will vou discuss in The R. N.-Y. the dog laws of 
New Jersey? Has a person a right to kill a dog on 
his property if the owner is with him? e. w. v. 
New Jersey. 
i {JERSEY justice” is proverbial, hut the sad fact 
I remains that in New Jersey the dog seems to 
be above the law. The State has no specific dog 
law. There are various acts and amendments strung 
through a series of years, but nothing as definite 
as the laws of New York or Pennsylvania. Efforts 
have been made to pass a strong dog law, but it 
always sticks in the Legislature. There are too 
many New Jersey communities where the dog is the 
most highly favored citizen in the Stare. Few seem 
to care for sheep, hut the dog is an object of wor¬ 
ship. He is held to he superior to the law. So we 
can only make a guess at your question. It depends 
on what the dog is doing. If one came on our prem¬ 
ises and attacked sheep, or a member of the family, 
we should shoot him and take Ihe consequences. 
Unless you caught him in the act of doing damage 
\on would not be justified in killing him. 
5k 
HE figures from the last census show conditions 
of farming in New England which ought to 
make any Yankee very thoughtful. Here is a table 
showing how population is divided and the number 
of farms: 
Urban. 
Rural. 
No. farms. 
Maine . . . .. 
21)51.565* 
K IS. 4 45 
48.228 
New Hampshire. . 
. . 279.761 
165.522 
20.525 
Vermont . 
. . 109.967 
242.451 
29 072 
Massachusetts .... 
. . 5.650.24S 
202.108 
31.982 
Rhode Island. 
. . 589.180 
15.217 
4.0X4 
Connecticut . 
. . 956.559 
444.292 
22.655 
1.555.855 
156.544 
In this classification “rural" includes all towns with 
less than 2.500 people. There are many little towns 
of 1,000. more or less, where most of the inhabitants 
do no farming. It is probably safe to say that in 
New England, with a total population of 7.400.510s. 
there are not over s00.000 who can he said to live 
on the land at producing food. In the last 10 years 
the number of farms in New England was decreased 
by "2.1.5S. There is now one farm for each 47 per¬ 
sons. Let us imagine what it means when in the 
two manufacturing States of Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island 4.5MI.5S7 persons live in towns larger 
than 2.500 inhabitants, while only 217.525 live in 
the country or in smaller towns. Probably not over 
150.000 people in these two States may he called 
farmers. This condition is had for the section, hut 
is not without its advantage to the farmers. New 
England cannot maintain her former industrial ad¬ 
vantages through water power and skill alone. Her 
people must he fed. and in the race for supremacy 
the food question will determine the future of manu¬ 
facturing. New England cannot keep up the contest 
forever if she is compelled to import most of her food 
at increasing expense. The one tremendous need 
of the New England States is an improved agricul¬ 
ture. h.v means of which the millions of acres now 
standing i< 11 e may he put at producing some sort of 
food. The advantage to farmers in the present situ¬ 
ation lies in the market possibilities which the low 
proportion of farm workers make possible. In the 
ranks of mechanics, bricklayers, carpenters, masons 
or other workmen, the disparity in numbers between 
consumers and producers which we find in New 
England would he welcomed, since it would ensure 
jobs for all. with a practical monopoly to labor. 
With nearly 120 consumers for each farm in Massa¬ 
chusetts. there would seem to he better market ad¬ 
vantages than anywhere else in the country, except 
in Rhode Island, where the proportion is nearly 150. 
In Ohio th«» proportion of consumers to farms is 
15 to 1 : in North Dakota a trifle over one; in Mis¬ 
sissippi less than one: in Michigan. 11: in Iowa, 
less than four. These figures show that New Eng¬ 
land must produce more food, and that there is no 
place on earth where' market possibilities are greater. 
5k 
MEETING of the Committee of Twenty-One on 
rural schools will he held at the Brick Church, 
in Rochester. N. Y.. March 10. We urge all our read¬ 
ers who can conveniently do s<» to attend this meet¬ 
ing and learn just what the committee is trying to 
do. We think these men and women have the best 
interests of the rural schools at heart. We think 
they will welcome suggestions, and that they desire 
the fullest publicity in their work. Let's give them 
a fair chance. Criticism before anything is really 
done to deserve criticism is not helpful to anything. 
* 
1TE other night, while riding along a lonely 
country road, we turned a corner and came sud¬ 
denly upon a building which sedmed ablaze with 
light. Every window fairly sparkled: it seemed 
as if we had come upon some palace in the woods 
brilliantly illuminated for royal guests. It turned 
out to he a henhouse lighted on the modern plan of 
making the hens think that nature has turned day¬ 
light saver. Inside the house the hens were playing 
about, scratching their supper out of the straw and 
singing as only a happy hen can sing. This was hut 
one of many, for all over New Jersey and through 
the East generally the henhouses are now illumi¬ 
nated in a successful effort to fit the capacity of the 
hen’s crop to her hours of sleep. It is now an old 
story how these artificial lights increase the Winter 
laying of pullets. During the past Winter this in¬ 
crease has had something to do with the markets. 
Without question the mild weather and the use of 
lights has increased the egg supply and has had con¬ 
siderable to do with bringing down the price. Per¬ 
sonally, we think if has had more to do with the 
cheapening of fresh eggs in our Eastern markets 
than the imports <»f eggs from China. The latter 
compete with storage eggs or lower class eggs, but 
rarely interfere with the sale of “near-by fresh." 
The lights in the henhouses have certainly increased 
the supply considerably. 
5k 
S we see this week, those fruit growers in 
Nova Scotia are going the limit with dust as 
a substitute for liquid spray. Our policy is to per¬ 
mit correspondents to state what they believe to be 
facts; hut we assume that our readers will use 
ordinary judgment in applying those facts. If is 
: fated this week that lime-sulphur has proved a 
failure in the peculiar climate of Nova Scotia. That 
is not true of our own section, and of many others. 
We go as far as anyone in claiming success with 
the dust in destroying the eating insects. We have 
not considered it quite equal to the liquids for dis¬ 
eases of the apple, though it is effective for brown 
rot in the peach. We agree with the writer on first 
page that we can work live times as fast with the dust 
as with the liquid, considering the time spent in 
carrying water. When it comes to fighting the scale 
and plant lice we do not believe the dust alone will 
prove successful. When scale is found some liquid 
spraying must he done, and we think it a mistake 
for anyone to claim that in any scale-infected or¬ 
chard the dust alone will answer. We shall con¬ 
tinue to dust for the worm and for the scab, hut we 
shall also use the liquids for the scale. 
=k 
T HE New York Senate passed the bill repealing 
daylight saving. 27 to 21—a closer vote than 
was expected. It now goes to Governor Miller. 
The daylight savers demanded a hearing, and 
have had one, hut the Governor has already prac¬ 
tically agreed to sign the hill. It gives what he 
called for in his message. We are still receiving 
arguments on the subject, but with this repeal we 
can see no reason for keeping up the discussion, un¬ 
less it be to help in New Jersey. Our reports from 
that State indicate that the Senate will kill the bill. 
Tt seems to he a dead issue now. Why waste ammu¬ 
nition on dead din ks? 
=k 
W HAT are the prospects for crop planting this 
Spring as compared with former years? 
What we have to say now refers to conditions on 
the upper Atlantic slope—east of the Great Lakes 
and north of Virginia. Tt appears from our records 
that a good proportion of farmers have been talking 
through the Winter of reducing their crop acreage. 
Many of them feel discouraged. They feel that fer¬ 
tilizer and all farm supplies are too high, and that 
labor is too high-priced and uncertain. These people 
will either let their farms go or seed down a good 
share of the land and work a smaller part of the 
farm with the family labor. Most people agree that 
there is nothing in sight to warrant high prices for 
farm goods. Those who reason in this way are 
mostly men with small or medium-sized farms—what 
you may call one man-power farms. On the other 
hand, the larger operators seem to feel that this is 
to be a good year. We know of several who while 
publicly advising others to cut down operations are 
themselves planning to do more than ever before. 
These men figure that many others will stop and 
thus reduce the season’s crop. They also believe 
that the high freight rates will operate like a pro¬ 
tective tariff in hold up prices of Eastern-grown 
goods. Some farmers will find it hard to obtain 
credit or capital for farm operations, and this will 
act to curtail planting. On the other hand, farmers 
with good credit or safe capital will see in the 
financial situation an advantage for themselves. We 
must also remember that the habit of planting and 
working a crop is strong with most farmers, so that 
when Spring opens they will struggle to plant the 
usual number of acres. Therefore we expect to see 
a good many smaller farmers cut down their opera¬ 
tions. while the larger farmers will increase. Crops 
will be better cared for this year, so that on the 
whole, the chances now are for a crop of about 
normal size. 
Brevities 
Mr. Cover Crop is the best home mixer of fertilizer 
a farmer can have on the place. Feed potash and phos¬ 
phorus to clover or vetch or beans, and see them make a 
complete fertilizer. 
Quite a number of readers say they are to use cot¬ 
tonseed meal as a fertilizer this year. It is good, but 
will be greatly improved by adding acid phosphate to 
it. In the South gardeners frequently use equal weights 
of acid phosphate and cottonseed meal with great suc¬ 
cess. 
