740 
07/ RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
the business farmers taper 
A National Weekly Journal l'or Country and Suburban llonira 
Established tsso 
ruhlUhrd nerkly 1 >j thr Knral Piibli«hln|r ( onqmnj. 333 tVrst 3()lh Slr<-* *«. »w York 
II f.rbkrt W. Colunowood, President and Editor. 
Jons J. Diu/js, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm V. Dit.bos, Secretary. Mbs. E. T. Koyi.k. Associate Editor. 
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»)(, marks, or JOVfc franca Remit in money order, express 
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advertisers unknown to us ; and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that cverv advertisement in this paper is backed by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But’to make doubly sure, in; 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 out 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 ns within one month of the time of 
the transaction, and to identify it. you should mention Tim Ki'kal New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
T I1E following note conies from a clergyman in 
New York State: 
1 will take this opportunity to express m.v high ap¬ 
preciation of tin* sterling worth of The It. X.-Y. My 
congregation is 85 per cent farmers, and this paper helps 
me to see tin* farmer’s problems and talk to him with 
intelligent sympathy. Yesterday the “wrinkled brow of 
care” was on my wife’s face, so after church while she 
was getting dinner 1 read the last installment of Hope 
Farm Notes. It smoothed the wrinkles and gave an 
added relish to our meal. A, B. T. 
We are glad that we can help provide the relish. 
Our good friend, instead of reading aloud, might have 
peeled the potatoes, sliced the bread and set tin* 
table—but perhaps liis wife would much rather do 
those things herself! 
* 
/■jp 11E following story is going the rounds: 
A new story is going around the financial district 
about an old Southern negro who was asked by the 
proprietor of a store how he happened to need credit 
when lie had such a good cotton crop, says the Boston 
Transcript. “Do ducks got ’bout all dat cotton, sab.” 
was the mournful reply. “What do you mean, the ducks 
got itV” “Well, you see,” explained the old man. “I 
sent dat cotton up to Memphis an’ dey deducts the 
freight, an’ dey deducts the storage charges, and dey 
deducts the commission, an’ dey deducts the taxes —yes. 
sah, de ducts got ’bout all dat cotton, an* flat’s why I’m 
here.” 
And the middlemen and the handlers control all 
the “ducts.” The farmer never gets a chance 1<> work 
one, except perhaps when he milks a cow. Under 
our present system of distribution the farmer is 
inducted into a system of deduction which plays 
ducks and drakes with his crop! 
5k 
I T is now conceded that milk and its products are 
the best “protective foods”—that is. foods which 
furnish a large supply of vitamincs. The leafy veg¬ 
etables also supply these vita mines, luit not in the 
quantities which appear in milk. From its form, 
milk proves to he the best food for mixing with other 
foods, so that it stands as the best “protective” 
which nature can supply. Just imagine what would 
happen if any reputable scientists could he hired or 
induced to find these vitamincs in bacon fat, cocoa- 
nut oil or other substance now used as butter substi¬ 
tutes. Within a month the entire country would he 
plastered with advertisements announcing the fact, 
ami sales of bacon grease and other fats would he 
multiplied by four. Vast sums of money have been 
spent by manufacturers in an effort, to find scientific 
authority for the statement that these ordinary fats 
contain vitamines. All this searching only makes it 
more clear that the good old cow remains the stand¬ 
ard manufacturer of vitamines, the producer of the 
most important of all human foods. Yet probably 
7o per cent of city people know nothing about this. 
Who is to tell them? Surely we cannot expect the 
oleo or the bacon fat men to do it for us. The “soft 
drinks” and near-beer folks sell each year over half 
a billion dollars worth of their stuff. They will not 
make milk drinking fashionable. On the street where 
this business is located are at least 50 little children. 
We will guarantee that not 10 of them have even one 
glass of pure milk each day. Here is a great unde¬ 
veloped market, and the facts about vitamines give 
dairymen tin* most effective argument ever thought 
of in the sale of a food product Sooner or later 
dairymen must get together, put up a fair-sized fund 
and hire some advertising expert to sell their milk! 
;k 
1 have seen in The R. N.-Y. a good deal about freight 
rates lately. Let me give you a little experience I had. 
The last car of hav I bought was a car of clover from 
Michigan, and the freight was .$210. or $15.40 iter ton. 
The County Agent was here the day 1 paid the freight, 
and lie wanted me to find out how much the farmer re¬ 
ceived at the farm for it. I wrote to the shipper., asking 
the price the farmer received, the expense of baling and 
hauling to the railroad. He wrote back saying prac- 
ticaily all the farmers owned their own presses and 
hauled it to the railroad themselves. The farmer raises 
it. bales and hauls it to Ihe railroad for $15 per ton. 
The railroad gets $15.40 to haul it from Michigan to 
New Hampshire. Is it any wonder the railroad busi¬ 
ness is going to the dogs? TIARVEV T. COREY. 
New Hampshire. 
O. it is no wonder, and this incident is only one 
of thousands. These Michigan farmers can 
hardly expect to halo and haul a Ion of hay for less 
than $5 worth of labor. They would get that much 
at least if their capital was invested and their labor 
expended in some other enterprise. How is it pos¬ 
sible for farming to prosper when it is necessary to 
spend more than the price of one bale of hay simply 
to carry another bale from Michigan to New Eng¬ 
land? There are thousands who absolutely refuse 
to buy goods, even when needed, because they con¬ 
sider the present railroad service a form of daylight 
robbery. That is the chief reason why business is 
poor—distribution is at fault. 
5k 
HE article on the next page points out the first 
step for us to make in our campaign for better 
rural schools. Wo should all he well convinced by 
tliis time that no one at Albany—or anywhere else— 
is going to do much for us except in their own way 
—unless they are made to do it. That is true of all 
who have made up a certain program and desire to 
work it out after their own plans. We have all got. 
to take a hand in this school work, and the first 
thing which comes to hand is this election of district 
school superintendents. If we all turn out and vote 
and express our opinion we can make an impression 
that will make a dent in the capital at Albany. It 
is the best chance we have had this year to give 
some public expression of what we want in the rural 
schools. We hope every parent in the rural districts 
will turn out and vote. 
5k 
O far as it can he determined at this time the 
outlook is for a decrease in the number of poul¬ 
try for next season. Our reports vary. In some 
localities there has been an increase in chicks, but on 
the whole we think fewer will he matured than in 
former years. Most of the people who supply baby 
chicks seem to have had a fair season, since they 
showed good judgment as to number and time of 
hatching. For the Eastern section, where many com¬ 
mercial plants are located, there will he. if anything, 
a shortage of pullets next Fall. Hood birds ought to 
bring fair prices. The low price of eggs has discour¬ 
aged some poultrymen, but most of them feel dis¬ 
posed to go on. They have a feeling that prices and 
business will eome hack. The menace of the foreign 
egg trade will he relieved to some extent by a tariff. 
The California egg trade must he met by organiza¬ 
tion for superior quality and packing. 
5)4 
HE last New Jersey Legislature passed a bill 
which would establish a standard for butterfaf 
in ice cream. This hill prohibited the use of fats 
other than butterfat in any compound sold as “ice 
cream.” Tt required that such “cream” must con¬ 
tain at least 8 per cent of milk fat. except in the case 
where fruits or nuts are used. Then it must contain 
not less than <i per cent. The object of this hill was 
to prevent the great adulteration of ice cream now 
practiced in New Jersey. That State now manu¬ 
factures the lowest, grade of ice cream of any of the 
Eastern States. There is a low standard and little 
or no uniformity. Cocoanut oil is being largely used, 
and those who order “ice cream” usually receive a 
product which never came near a cow. There may 
lie a little skim-milk in it. hut it is mostly composed 
of water, cornstarch, cocoanut oil and sugar. To 
label such stuff “ice cream” is a great fraud upon 
the consumer and a great injury to the dairy busi¬ 
ness. It is estimated that 4.500.000 gallons of milk 
would be required to manufacture the ice cream 
made in New Jersey in 1920. supposing it to he rea¬ 
sonably pure. The substitution of cocoanut oil for 
all or part of this real cream means a serious injury 
to the dairy business. This is coming to he a more 
serious menace than the use of oleo. All the sur¬ 
rounding States have laws to cover a standard pro¬ 
duction of ice cream, but New Jersey has none, 
’therefore that State becomes a dumping ground for 
all sorts of sweetened and cooled stuff which may he 
called “ice cream.” It is hard when New Jersey cows 
must retire in favor of cocoanut trees growing on 
some far-off Pacific island ! The Legislature passed 
a bill which would have corrected this food fraud, but 
Governor Edwards vetoed it. It is hard to conceive 
of any sound reason why such legislation should he 
rejected. The health of the people, common hon¬ 
esty and the support of the most important industry 
in tlie State all demanded this law. It seems that 
New Jersey will stand for prize fights but not for 
pure food! 
May 21. 15)21 
TIE American Farm Bureau Federation called a 
meeting of representative dairymen which met in 
Chicago last week. The most important problem was 
how to dispose of the surplus. A more complete 
organization was proposed. President Howard of 
the Farm Bureau is to appoint a committee of 11 
men—six to be chosen by the National Milk Pro¬ 
ducers’ Association. These 11 men are to proceed 
to organize those milk producers who are now unor¬ 
ganized. The expenses of this campaign are to be 
fiorno equally by the federation and the milk pro¬ 
ducers. The great need now is to promote a greater 
consumption of milk. Never, in the history of any 
food product, has anything received more powerful 
scientific advertising than milk lias received in the 
past few years. That should be followed up by pop¬ 
ular appeals. 
5k 
N our investigation of the oleo business we have 
found some dairymen who are actually selling 
milk and buying oleo for family use. The usual ex¬ 
cuse is that they do not like to bother with taking a 
small quantity of milk from the cows. They want to 
sell it all. Due way to overcome this trouble would 
be to keep an animal to bo known as “Mother’s cow.” 
We have on our farm a little Jersey which plays this 
part well. It does not cost much to keep her, and 
she is a regular pet. Our cow is tied out here and 
there, and trims up grass along the road or on the 
lawn. She gives a good mess of rich milk, fully 
enough for the family supply of milk, cream and but¬ 
ter. and the way she is fed you could hardly find any 
particular cost. A cow like that—owned and cared 
for by mother and the children—would not interfere 
with the regular dairy herd or make any great 
“bother.” She would supply the family with a great 
luxury, and save it from the disgrace of helping to 
support the oleo business—an industry which is eat¬ 
ing the heart out of dairying. 
5k 
HE “emergency tariff” bill passed the United 
States Senate by a vote of 63 to 28. It was 
not exactly a party division, as tariff votes usually 
are. Seven Democrats voted for it and one Repub¬ 
lican against. The negative vote was almost entirely 
from the Southern States. The bill is openly an 
attempt to satisfy the Western farmers by putting a 
high tariff on imported food products. It also con¬ 
tains what is known as an “anti-dumping” clause to 
prevent the heavy importation of cheap foreign 
goods. This tariff is to continue six months, at 
which time it is expected that a regular tariff law 
will be enacted. We doubt, personally, if this tariff 
bill will benefit our farms as most of them think it 
will. There is no question about the fact, however, 
that practically all farm organizations and a great 
majority of individual farmers in the North and 
West demand this legislation. It is fair to say 
therefore that the Administration is giving the 
farmers what they have called for—so lar as their 
wishes can be expressed through their organization*. 
sk 
I might mention that quite a few nfour annual Sweet 
clover plants here in Ohio, after hearing a fair crop of 
seed, wintered over and now have tremendous clumps 
of beautiful green, some of them pretty near a foot high. 
If one little seed will do so much in three or four 
months, what will a great lusty plant- with big. stout 
roots do in three or four months of Summer? 
Ohio. A. I. ROOT. 
HAT is a new experience, and we would like to 
hear from others about it. Our own Sweet 
clover plants were plowed under this Spring, so we 
cannot report. If these plants will winter over and 
produce a new crop of seed, wo shall have a new 
use for this wonderful plant. We still believe it 
to he the most useful maimrial plant ever discovered 
for our Eastern farms. 
Brevities 
We need more milk drinkers. 
Good fences make good neighbors. 
Vitality without vitamines is impossible. 
Not much use feeding a balanced ration to an unbal¬ 
anced cow. 
In jail—the man who does more than he ought to 
and gets less for it than lie should. 
Thousands of men know that their money is spoil¬ 
ing their children, but they cannot let the money go. 
What about the man who is all ready to run the na¬ 
tional government, but cannot run his own household? 
If you had to help the woman with her washing a 
few times, it’s a sure tiling that she would have a ma¬ 
chine. 
Here’s a little information that will help to save this 
nation if you want to make this country clean and fine: 
Do not leave the job to others; do not. criticize your 
brothers, but get right out and put yourself in line. 
