600 
Tee RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE II r SIX ESS FARMERS PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban Home** 
Esliiblish«d 18Z0 
fubllatied weekly by the Knral Pnbliablng Company. 338 Went 30th Street, New Vork 
Herbert W. Colllyqwood, President and Editor. 
John J. dilion. Treasurer and General Manager. 
W* *. F. DILLON, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Edito r. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries In the Universal Postal Union. $2.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8)4 marks, or 1014 francs, ltemit 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- 
aible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Rut 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 will not be 
responsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts. 
Notice of the complaint must he 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. 
“It serves you. right!” 
What docs? 
The Rural New-Yorker! 
* 
NT MB HR of readers have asked what legal 
right for damages one may have who has been 
injured by an intoxicated person. The New York 
State law just signed by Governor Miller states: 
“Any person who shnll be injured in person, property, 
means of support, or otherwise by an intoxicated person, 
or by reason of the intoxication of any person, whether 
resulting in his death or not. shall have a right of action 
against any person who shall, by unlawfully selling to 
or unlawfully assisting in procuring liquor for such 
intoxicated person, have caused or contributed to such 
intoxication, and in any such action such person shall 
have a right to recover actual and exemplary damages. 
“In case of the death of either party, the action or 
right of action given by this section shnll survive to or 
against his or her executor or administrator, and the 
amount so recovered by either wife or child shall be his 
or her sole and separate property.” 
A number of eases have been reported to us by 
women whose husbands or sons have been ruined by 
people who persistently sold them liquor. Under 
this law such women, on full proof, can obtain 
damages—and they deserve it. 
* 
O N the occasion of his seventy-fourth birthday 
Thomas A. Edison made a statement about 
life as he has found it. Among other things, he was 
reported as saying that unless a young man could 
he vitally interested in some work by the time he 
was twenty-one, he never would amount to anything. 
We wrote Mr. Edison to learn just what he did say, 
and received the following: 
My experience is that if. when a man reaches 21 
years of age. and is mentally dead, taking no interest 
in the world, there is no “come-back.” IIis brain is 
either set or atrophied, and no amount of advice or 
example will ever change him in ihe slightest. 
THOMAS A. EDISON. 
We do not know whether our people will agree 
with that or not. Personally we do not fully agree 
with the proposition. Some children are slow men¬ 
tally. They do not develop normally, and do not 
find themselves quickly. They must he handled with 
great patience. It is evident that they require a 
form of teaching or drill quite different from that 
given the quick-brained and early maturing minds. 
We think some of our children are made to appear 
dull or even stupid by the rush and jam of our 
modern system of education, when if they could 
have had patient and sympathetic care they would 
have developed slowly and solidly. Mr. Edison 
may he inclined to discard the child or young man 
of twenty-one who has failed to find himself, but we 
should not do so. We have seen several “come¬ 
backs” even in men of middle age; in fact, some 
of our most useful men today would have been 
thrown into the ash heap and forgotten if tbis stern 
theory had been worked out on them. But when we 
come to think of it and realize how children vary in 
quickness and mental capacity, what a responsibil¬ 
ity rests upon the teacher who must care for a room¬ 
ful of little ones where are found a dozen different 
types of understanding. 
* 
A CARGO of lemons and oranges reached New 
York from California by water shipment entire¬ 
ly last week. The high cost of rail shipment under 
the new freight rates has forced the California grow¬ 
ers to find new methods. The present rail rate from 
California on lemons is $1.66*4 per 100 pounds, the 
time required being about 16 days. The first water 
shipment carried about 12.000 boxes of fruit at 70 
cents per hundred, requiring 22 days for the trip. 
The fruit arrived in good condition, and it is expect¬ 
ed that the time will he shortened and service im¬ 
proved. There is likely to he a considerable increase 
in this water service from the Pacific coast, not only 
in citrus fruit but in apples, Alfalfa hay and some 
other products. The present horrible freight rates 
are crushing out business everywhere. Unless they 
are changed and made more reasonable there will 
soon be a great demand for new and improved water¬ 
ways. The inside water route from New England to 
Savannah and Jacksonville is still being talked about 
and will have to he worked out eventually. In the 
meantime the great development of truck service is 
going on wherever roads are suitable. We see the 
tmeks rolling into New York City from every direc¬ 
tion. covering a radius of 100 miles or more. All 
this has taken freight from the railroads, and will 
take still more. The effect upon the East will he to 
give our nearby farmers a better chance at the East¬ 
ern markets, and greater independence in selling. 
* 
T takes some little time to determine the damage 
done by the recent freeze. Here is one charac¬ 
teristic report from New Jersey, just south of Phila¬ 
delphia : 
Our peaches are all killed. They are sad looking 
trees, covered with dead brown blooms. Fully half our 
Winter apples and about all early apples are killed. 
We hope yours will go safely through. 
From Trenton. N. .T.. south, reports are much like 
the above. Here and there the buds seem to have 
been delayed in opening, and thus were mostly saved, 
hut in most cases the loss was serious. It is not, 
usual to have the apples destroyed in this way. In 
our own section of Northern New Jersey little dam¬ 
age was done, as the buds had not opened. The 
warm weather is bringing them along rapidly, and 
the season is about two weeks ahead. It will he an 
anxious time for most of us during the next three 
weeks. It is evident already that it will be next to 
impossible for farmers to produce a normal crop this 
year. During the past few years natural conditions 
have been mostly favorable, so that in spite of all 
their handicaps the farmers have produced fair 
crops. An unfavorable reason, coming this year, 
will cut food supplies down to famine proportions. 
- * 
E wish the entomologists would study the 
effect of dusting on the young of the San JosG 
scale. The usual time for fighting this scale is while 
the tree is dormant, during the Winter or early 
Spring. At that time it is necessary to use a strong, 
penetrating material like lime-sulphur or oil. This 
will destroy the scale without injuring the dormant 
tree. It. could not he used after the leaves appear 
without causing great damage. It does not seem rea¬ 
sonable that any dust can he used to destroy the 
scale while the insect is protected by its hard shell. 
While claims have been made for such dust it does 
not seem possible to us that they can be made effec¬ 
tive. During early Summer the young scales crawl 
about and are unprotected. We think that right at 
this time a dust of sulphur, lime and some form of 
tobacco extract would kill many if not all these baby 
scales. We should think that several dustings at the 
usual time for late dusting for the worm would about 
clean the scale insects up. So far as we know, the 
entomologists have not paid much attention to this 
point. We think they ought to study it. 
* 
HERE seems to he no doubt that some potato 
diseases, and especially mosaic, are spread or 
distributed in the field by plant lice. These insects 
not only weaken the plant, but actually carry the 
disease germs about. Where these plant lice are nu¬ 
merous it is evident that some form-of tobacco should 
he used, with other spray or dust materials. Up to 
within recent years a strong extract of tobacco has 
been used. Last week we gave an account of work 
done with sulphate of nicotine as a dust on melons. 
We think it would he useful on potatoes in connection 
with sulphur and dry arsenic, for in most seasons it 
is necessary to fight the plant lice as well as the 
potato beetle. 
* 
OULTRYMEN seem generally agreed that great 
changes are due in their business. As the num¬ 
ber of farms decreases and the army of consumers 
increases, there will, of course, he an increased de¬ 
mand for eggs and poultry. This will evidently he 
met in two ways. There will be an increase in the 
number of “commercial poultry plants.” These are 
generally located close to large towns, and many 
birds are crowded into a small space. From the very 
nature of the case these specialized egg-producing 
plants cannot hope to provide their own laying 
stock. They will he obliged to depend on other farm¬ 
ers for chicks or mature pullets. This will create 
new opportunity for another profitable branch of 
poultry. Men with larger farms on cheaper land, 
where a good range can he secured, will produce 
April 10, 1921 
great flocks of pullets. They can be cheaply raised, 
perhaps in connection with orchards, and sold to the 
“commercial plants” when about ready to lay. This 
division of the business is quite sure to be developed 
more and more in the future. We expect to see the 
dairy business follow much the same line, and such 
a division will lie better for both -the hill farmers 
and the Winter egg men. Such a plan well developed 
will offer new possibilities for poultry keeping. We 
think the prospect is bright except for the menace 
of Oriental competition. All poultrymen seem to 
agree that there are possibilities of danger in the 
heavy importation of eggs from China. We have 
never known such general agreement among poultry- 
men as there is regarding this point, and in any ad¬ 
justment of the tariff the lien men will certainly or¬ 
ganize to demand what others receive. In fact, the 
old-time opposition to a tariff on farm products seems 
to have disappeared for the time, except in parts of 
the South. 
* 
E are getting some letters that are well-nigh 
pitiful in regard to this great rural school 
problem. Mothers are writing about the way their 
.children are being taught. In some eases it is dis¬ 
heartening, for we have the mental picture of some 
young girl trying to handle six or seven grades in a 
one-room school house, without proper equipment. 
Some of these girls are evidently conscientious, and 
are trying as host they can to do their duty to the 
children are being taught. Others are frankly care¬ 
less—too young and irresponsible to have serious 
charge of little ones. And here are mothers, ambi¬ 
tious for their children and realizing how much this 
school drill means for them, yet knowing full well 
that these precious years are being partly wasted. 
These women know just what they want in the rural 
schools. It is a simple proposition —better teachers — 
men or women with training and sympathy, who can 
give their pupils inspiration. 
* 
HE campaign for daylight saving on the Atlantic 
slope has about, ended. New York repealed the 
Jaw. giving local option to the cities. The Pennsyl¬ 
vania Assembly defeated a daylight saving law. 142 
to 56. The New Jersey Senate has killed the pro¬ 
posed law in that State. The Connecticut Legisla- , 
tore has made it illegal for the State to change 
standard time. Thus Massachusetts is left as the 
only State with a daylight saving law\ The contest 
over this plan is developing into a world-wide battle 
between city and country. The English farmers op¬ 
pose it. In France the country people are bitterly 
fighting against “daylight saving,” with a good 
chance of repealing the law. The significance of this 
world-wide opposition from farmers seems to he lost 
upon the “daylight savers.” They have been unable 
to show amv industrial advantage resulting from the 
change. Their argument seems based entirely upon 
the advantage of an extra hour for playtime or recre¬ 
ation. As for the health argument, there is nothing 
to prevent anyone from getting up an hour or two 
earlier if so desired. These people know that the 
j;ian is offensive and injurious to farmers, yet they 
selfishly demand it. chiefly as a matter of pleasure 
'We have too many compulsory laws now. 
Brevities 
Nine times in 10 what the undernourished child needs 
is milk. 
Gentle Spring! We are afraid of her this year. She 
is after something. 
Hides and shoes. The latest report is that Frank 
Herman, an Iowa farmer, sold 22 calfskins for $13.20 
and bought one pair of shoes for .$12! 
We are getting some reports from large families. One 
bachelor starts the list with 0, while a Connecticut 
woman, recently dead, left 77 living descendants. 
In a farm contract where the tenant was not per¬ 
mitted to sell “hay or fodder” from the farm it is held 
that silage is considered the same as fodder, and thus 
could not be sold. 
A number of readers have written lately to ask if a 
debt becomes outlawed if payment is demanded on Sun¬ 
day. No. No blue law is blue enough to whitewash a 
debt in that way. 
The TJ. S. Harness Company was organized to .sell 
ihe surplus harness contracted for by the army at the 
••lose of the war. The various Farm Bureau Federa¬ 
tions are now working to sell this harness direct to 
farmers. 
California people were left with a great prune crop 
on their hands. Papers all over the State are telling 
how to cook this fruit so as to substitute for other food. 
Among other things, “prune doughnuts” are suggested. 
This idea of developing the home market first is great 
business. 
