628 
The Rural New-Yorker 
the nrsisESS farmer's taper 
A National Weekly Journal tor i'ountry and Suburban Home* * 
fatabllslied tejo 
Pohlbhrd o»*klj by thr Rornl rnhli»hln|r Company, 383 "cut 30th Strrrt. N»n Tork 
Herbert W. Coi.t.ivownoD, President and Editor. 
John .1. Drt.bON, TreaaUrer and tienoral Manager. 
Wm. F. DlLLOS. Secretary. Mill E. T. Koyi.e. Associate F.ditor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8s. fid., or 
marks, or 10»j francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
F.ntered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 11.00 per ajrate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany tiausjent orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use everv possible precaution and admit the advertising 1 of 
reliable houses only. Hut to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained b.v trusting any deliberate swindler, irrespon¬ 
sible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
such swindler will be publicly ev|»osed. 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 he confused with dishonest, 
transactions. We protect subscribers against rogues, but we will not he 
tesponsihle for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts, 
Notice of the complaint, must he sent to ns w it bin one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention THE Rural Nkw- 
Yorkf.r when writing the advertiser. 
I N a new book entitled “The Seventh Angel" the 
author makes the following remarks, which might 
well be read by radicals and conservatives alike: 
Columbus was rod in his attitude toward the old 
maps, lie was hardshell in his attitude toward the 
north star. I sympathize with tonservalives until they 
stop moving. I sympathize with radicals until they 
curse the compass. 1 sympathize with neither when 
they forget men. Occasionally, I feel like reminding the 
radicals that some things, like gravitation, are here to 
stay. And occasionally I fool like reminding the con¬ 
servatives that nature has a process for things that stop 
growing. There have been Rods since the stone age. 
Some of them started revolutions in laboratories, some 
of them in front of Btstilos. And departments of jus¬ 
tice are quite as old. Nature seems to have decided that 
she needs thorn both. 
“When thru forr/ct men'.'' That is the keynote of 
the whole thing. One great trouble with education 
and “reform"’ generally is that the educators and 
reformers seem to forget that they are dealing with 
human beings who have fixed habits and very unfixed 
emotions. The human race has lived for many gen¬ 
erations inside of rather narrow limits of thought 
and action, and no one makes any permanent prog¬ 
ress with the race by trying to jump children or men 
suddenly into new conditions. 
❖ 
Helen Albrecht of Walnut Tree Hill, daughter of 
Henry Albrecht, picked up a dynamite cap and worked 
at it with a pin. It exploded, injuring the fingers and 
thumb on her left hand. She was taken to the Danbury 
Hospital by Dr. Kingman and had the ends of two fin¬ 
gers and the thumb amputated on her left hand. 
H ARDLY a day passes without the record of some 
such accident. During the year about as many 
people are killed or maimed while fooling with ex¬ 
plosives as were injured in any battle of the great 
war. This thing of a grown-up girl picking a dyna¬ 
mite cap with a pin indicates either a lack of com¬ 
mon education or common sense. There is no such 
thing as fool-proof dynamite, and sometimes it seems 
as if dynamite is needed to blow folly out of (lie 
human mind. The trouble is that it usually takes a 
slice of file body along with the folly. 
* 
VDER ordinary circumstances our farmers 
would take little interest in the National De¬ 
partment of Commerce. Most of us do not pretend 
t< know what its powers or duties are. Thus far it 
does not seem much more than a sort of statistical 
junkshop full of dust and figures. It now takes on 
a new interest from the fact that Herbert Hoover 
has undertaken its management. Mr. Hoover is a big 
man. and no one doubts his capacity for handling 
large affairs. What can ho find in the Commerce 
Department to give him a chance to exercise his 
powers? He probably would not take the job unless 
he saw some chance to develop it What is the idea? 
That is wlmt we want to find out. Can Hoover hatch 
life and useful service out of a nest of figures and 
dry facts? An ordinary man entering this depart¬ 
ment would have been luir'ed there. Can Hoover 
stir up the grave and make it useful? 
* 
H F.NRV MATTHEWS, publisher of the Rochester 
Democrat and Chronicle, recently retired from 
active business at the age of 8*». llis reason for re¬ 
tiring was that he wanted to “give more time to 
play." It is not likely that any man after 00 years 
o? continuous work will he able to “play.” except it 
may he in doing something along the line of his life 
work. Most men who have reasonable health make 
a great mistake in “retiring" and giving up active 
work. They would he far better to remain in the 
marness, doing perhaps a little less of the pulling, 
but still remaining hitched to the job. The most 
unhappy men we know are those who after an 
active life quit their job and propose to loaf through 
their remaining years. They are not only unhappy 
hi-*; usually well-nigh useless, for with the habit of 
•The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
work eliminated they are almost sure to fall into de¬ 
pression and discontent. This is particularly true of 
most farmers who "retire” in middle age and drag 
out a town existence for which they are not fitted. 
We know farmers of 70 or older who have retained 
their health and life interest through work in tlieii 
gardens. When the time came they gave up their 
larms to their children or others, hut retained a few 
acres, and on this small space they have worked won¬ 
ders with fruits and vegetables. In some cases their 
gardens are even more productive than their farms 
ever were, and no one can estimate the solid enjoy¬ 
ment they have had in ibis work. After a man has 
spent a lifetime at creating things it would be mis¬ 
ery for him to sit with idle hands, simply waiting. 
If lie did hut know it. he may find far greiter satis¬ 
faction with the hoe than he ever did with the plow, 
even in the prime of his strength. 
* 
T is reported that the Crown Prince of Spain has 
gone into the chicken business—making a spe¬ 
cialty of It. I. Reds. Well, he has started with a 
good breed, and we hope that this dash of industrious 
Mood will put some of the Spanish Haines at work. 
And the Pennsylvania State .College sent 41 White 
Leghorns to India. After a voyage of 12.000 miles by 
water and 600 by rail these “feathered missionaries” 
arrived at a place called Htali T’p. India. The inhab¬ 
itants looked at the Leghorn hens, hut were not per-, 
mitted to put the name of their town in practice. 
Within a week these I>eghorns were making a “50 
per cent lay." The “Business Hen" makes a good 
foreign representative for America. 
N EW JERSEY has a State Federation of County 
Boards of Agriculture which, among other 
things, will look after legislative matters. During 
the past season this federation conducted a refer¬ 
endum on various laws which the Legislature was to 
consider. This was conducted in 12 agricultural 
counties. On daylight saving the vote was 4,101 
against and 172 in favor, which is a good indication 
o' farm feeling. On the proposal to establish a State 
constabulary the vote was three to one in favor. 
School consolidation brought out a close contest— 
2.(KM) for and 1.891 against consolidation. The ques¬ 
tion of immigration was also voted on. The result 
was 28.“, for free immigration, 828 for prohibitive 
measures, and 3.064 for restricted immigration—that 
is. cutting out all undesirables. The vote for free im¬ 
migration was smaller than expected, since Jersey 
farmers are in great need of labor. We may accept 
this as evidence that farmers are opposed to dump¬ 
ing the scum of Europe upon our shores. 
* 
T HERE seems to he no doubt that consumption of 
milk in New York and other large cities is in 
creasing. We notice it particularly in restaurants. 
A few years ago it was quite unusual for customers 
to call for a glass of milk. Now it is common to see 
people drinking milk in place of coffee. In mane 
private families, too. more milk is being used, both 
for cooking and for drinking. While the consump¬ 
tion is not half of what it should he. it is gaining 
steadily. Various things ay responsible for this 
City people are slowly coming to realize that milk is 
the one perfect food, and that no other food can bal¬ 
ance the human ration so well. This is due to long- 
continued education. If milk could he advertised and 
described as freely as some of ihe breakfast foods 
are exploited, its consumption would be doubled in a 
few years. As in the case of the breakfast foods, or 
oranges or raisins, the parties most interested in the 
sale must do the work of advertising. It would be a 
great business enterprise for the milk producers t< 
put up the money and employ experts to “put milk 
into the imagination of the public.” The food habits 
o:’ city people are changing. That was shown in the 
way they gave up potatoes for rice, and the way 
many of them are substituting vegetables for meat 
People were once guided to their food habits by the 
stomach; now the imagination has more to do with 
it. They can he induced to double their consumption 
of milk if we will go after them right. 
* 
HERE is no question now about the damage done 
by tlio frost, of early April on the Atlantic slope. 
From Trenton. N. .1., south, the l'oss was serious, 
fruits of all kinds being destroyed. The mild season 
lias pushed the fruit buds out so that the chances 
now are for still greater damage before May. The 
loss of their frv.lt crop will force farmers in this sec¬ 
tion to change their plans. They must have an in 
come, and in order to make up for the lost fruit they 
are likely U plant heavily of potatoes, melons, to¬ 
matoes, cabbage and similar crops. The outlook for 
April 23, lf’21 
potatoes and tomatoes at this time is not encourag¬ 
ing. Prices of Southern potatoes are very low. and 
there is little in sight to warrant any increase of 
price. There is no question about the fact that many 
city people have substituted rice for potatoes during 
the past two years. Who would have dreamed four 
years ago that such a thing was possible? It seemed 
as if the potato habit was as fixed as that of eating 
bread, hut the truth is that rice has driven the potato 
out of many a city kitchen. We have got to begin all 
over again and educate the public in potato eating. 
T HE fruit crop in Western New York is skating 
on just about the thinnest ice that ever formed 
on the millpoml. Buds are nearly a month in ad¬ 
vance of normal development, and one night with the 
mercury below freezing will kill most, of them. 
There has not been such a situation in many years. 
Fortunes will la* lost if the icy fingers of Jack Frost 
get busy before May 1 The fruit that does succeed 
in getting through this year ought to be worth its 
weight in gold. 
T HE Bronx Home ,\< irx recently printed llie fol¬ 
lowing “society note": 
While out motoring near Albany recently, Stuart Har¬ 
ris reports finding, much to his surprise, Gustave Glatz- 
meyer. Secretary of the Borough, who was in an out-of- 
the-way country road chasing a young pig. The latter 
was just the right size for roasting, and it is supposed 
Glatzmeyer intended bringing him down to the Elks’ 
Club. The young pig escaped. 
Many a pig and hen. many a bushel of apples or 
potatoes, many an egg. tons of farm produce, have 
gone (he way this pig was headed. The pig had legs 
to carry him and a squeal to give warning, and he 
escaped, but thousands of dollars’ worth of farm 
produce have been deliberately stolen by these auto 
hogs. It looks as if their season was to be more 
“open” than ever before this year, and we advise 
farmers near the large towns to get ready for them. 
The ordinary “process of law” will not get' them. We 
favor organizing committees of citizens in each 
country neighborhood pledged.to turn out on call and 
give these thieves what they deserve. We favor 
application of a horsewhip or a shingle—where it 
will do the most good. 
* 
T has been said that if you want to know what 
line human progress will take in the future 
you should learn what is being ridiculed and sneered 
at today. Through all the ages the satire and ridi¬ 
cule of the world lias been heaped upon the people 
who honestly tried to make the world better, and 
who looked ahead to the time when the future would 
vindicate their work. They were out of step with 
the crowd—a step or two in advance—and thus they 
were laughed at and scorned. The weakest of them 
cannot stand ridicule. They come hack into the 
ranks, and as a result of the discipline are “good" 
for the remainder of their days. Happily there are 
s* me who can stand the ridicule, and they keep on 
ahead. If they can do that and still remain sweet 
and good-tempered they get their reward. But if 
von want to know what the future has in store for 
the world, notice what human society is now trying 
« 
to kill off through ridicule and satire! 
* 
SAD echo of the Charlie Cole fraud in cattle 
testing comes from Illinois. Two men bought a 
hull for $50,000 on the strength of a reported test 
made by this bull’s mother. Then came the Cole 
scandal and the failure of the Holstein people to 
clean up the bad mess, and set the records right. 
The suspicion that this bull’s mother did not make 
an honest test reduced his value to an appraisal of 
$250. His owners went bankrupt, and one of them 
committed suicide. The cream which Cole, the self- 
confesscd fraud, squirted into that milk pail lias 
caused sorrow and loss, and turned to blood and 
tears. And suspicion still lurks over a great family 
of Holstein cattle, while loss and trouble follow hon¬ 
est breeders because one selfish and arbitrary man 
uses his wealth to prevent an investigation which 
would mean simple justice. 
Brevities 
Tell us why bad news has so much greater speed than 
good news. 
Oregon has started a State plant for grinding lime¬ 
stone. 
Transplant a few seedlings of Prize taker onions to 
rich garden soil this Spring. 
The average “high-brow” seldom sweats. That’s bad, 
too, because sweating is a cooling process. 
The best Spring-sown substitute for clover hay is oats 
and Canada peas. It suits all kinds of stock. 
It is hard to sing “Beautiful Spring” with the fruit 
trees all in bloom and the mercury below freezing. 
