836 
Tht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FAB HER S JA PER 
A National H'tetlj Journal for Country und Suburban Home* 
Established tSoO 
I’obllihtd weekly by the Kuril Publliblnf Company, 333 Wrist 80th Street,New Tork 
Hkrbkrt W. Collinowood, President and Kditor. 
.Ions’ J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dilion, Secretary. Mrs. K. T. Koylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04. equal to 8 b. 6 d., or 
8 >i marks, or lO'-i francs, ileinit in money order, e*press 
order, personal check or hank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office 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 ordeis. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We helieve that every advertisement in this paper is hacked by a respon¬ 
sible person. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to |iaid 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 eases should not he 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 Thk Rural Nkw- 
Yorkkr when writing the advertiser. 
I also wish to thank you for answer to my recent 
query concerning Russian mulberry for hedge. The 
information was so clear that I had no hesitation in 
ordering a hedge of mulberry. Previous to writing to 
you I had written to our university. After waiting 
three or four weeks for a reply, the information received 
left me as much in the dark as before as to whether 
the Russian mulberry would be a success as a hedge. 
v. c. THOMAS. 
HAT is one thing we would like to talk about 
seriously. Each year we have close to 50,000 
questions from our readers. We have, as we believe, 
the greatest staff of experts in all lines of country 
life every brought together by any paper. We all 
do our best to give sensible and practical advice, and 
we try to treat all alike. Sometimes the questions 
are of such a nature that no helpful answer is pos¬ 
sible, or it may be that long investigation is needed. 
We recognize this work as a legitimate part of the 
business, and we do our best to obtain the answer if 
it is humanly possible to do so. 
5k 
HE last census shows 20,142,455 horses and 
5,450,623 mules in this country. During the 
past 10 years the horses increased by a little over 
300.000, while the mules increased nearly 30 per cent. 
Thousands of both mules and horses were killed dur¬ 
ing the war. Considering the great development of 
cars and trucks during the past 10 years, this in¬ 
crease is remarkable. Where now are the confident 
prophets who told us the horse was becoming ex¬ 
tinct? It is true that the little driving horse, or 
“chunk,” has little value at this time. There has 
been an increase in the size and quality of work 
horses. There is not much use for the horse now, 
except for work, hut he will still hold his end of 
the farm job. Tractors, both large and small, are 
being developed to a high point of efficiency, but they 
never can drive the horse off the farm entirely. And 
the horse is still holding his own well at city work, 
where you would think the trucks would drive him 
off the smooth pavement. There must always he a 
reserve of horse flesh to carry business through an 
emergency. We still think that a few big colts will 
pay as a farm crop. 
* 
HE “prosperity wave” which rolled .up during 
the war hit the finger tips of the United States 
as well as the main land. In the Philippine Islands, 
for example, the natives seem to absorb American 
vices faster than they do our own natural virtues. 
During the war many of the islanders simply threw 
their money away for cars and other luxuries. Now 
the reaction has come. One correspondent on the 
island writes: 
I know of one native who has four high-priced cars, 
and is now unable to take one out because he has no 
cash to buy supplies, and no one will extend him a 
nickel’s worth of credit No doubt there are many such 
in i lie United States at the present time. 
There are some, and that is one reason for the 
present slump in business. During the war wages 
soared to unheard-of figures. Some of the workmen 
thus suddenly transplanted into prosperity acted 
somewhat like those wild strawberry plants the 
Hope Farm man tells about. They developed “fol¬ 
iage” and not much else—that is, they proceeded to 
“blow” their money for luxuries or the ornamental 
things of life, and they did a full job. It is fair to 
say that some farmers followed this example, hut 
few of them had the chance, since the cost of sup¬ 
plies piled up faster than the prices paid for farm 
crops. Rut millions of dollars were spent foolishly 
on the theory that war prices for labor must con¬ 
tinue. And the various “drives,” one after another, 
helped this insane rush to spend money along. Then 
when it became clear that prices mast drop, these 
spenders could not trim their habits to match their 
income. So they stopped buying, and threw the 
whole business machine out of order. For, if we 
expect to sell our goods, we must buy others. That 
is a law of trade. It is not. possible for any class 
or any country to prosper permanently through sell¬ 
ing alone. We must buy or exchange as well. The 
time for true thrift was during the war, when wages 
and prices were high. A surplus laid aside then and 
spent wisely now would have prevented the present 
business depression. We think the swing has now 
started the other way, and that there will he a 
slow hut sure improvement. There were thousands 
of farmers who saved some money during the war, 
and they will be ready to spend it carefully for 
necessities just as soon as prices are fairly adjusted. 
.Tust now the Eastern farmers are, as a rule, more 
prosperous than those of the Middle West. There 
has been no great inflation of land values here, and 
a large proportion of our farmers have either been 
able to obtain fair credit or finance their business 
from their own resources. There has been less spec¬ 
ulative farming in the East, and while operations 
are not so large, the business is sound, since most 
crops are sold for cash. We do not pretend to say 
that Eastern farmers are in any ideal position, or 
that they are fairly treated. They are, however, 
by comparison, in better shape than most Western 
farmers. We think they will he first to recover from 
the present depression, and that, through co-opera¬ 
tive work, they will he able to develop a period of 
prosperity. 
* 
HAT is the truth about the Massachusetts 
law punishing “auto bogs”? There is no 
definite law about it, but the Registrar of Motor 
Vehicles has been given the power to suspend licenses 
whenever in his opinion the holder is “an improper 
person.” Last year he revoked a number of licenses 
after persons had been convicted of stealing fruit 
and produce. While not as effective as a definite 
law would lie, this helps a little to ring the auto 
hog. We shall evidently have to round him up 
ourselves. 
* 
HE truth-in-fabrics Dill is up before Congress 
once more, and is being backed by wool grow¬ 
ers and farmers generally. The object of this Dill 
is to compel manufacturers to tell the truth by 
printing the amount or percentage of shoddy used 
in making their doth. It follows somewhat along 
the line of oleo legislation by compelling manufac¬ 
turers to state definitely when cloth is not made 
from all virgin wool. The manufacturer will nat¬ 
urally fight this legislation, yet there can he no good, 
honest reason for opposing it. The bill does not 
prohibit the use of shoddy; it merely states that 
when this substitute is used the public must he in¬ 
formed. The result would he to draw the line dearly 
between shoddy and “all-wool” goods. Any man 
desiring to buy shoddy could do so, lint he would 
know just what he was doing and obtain his shoddy 
doth for less than the wool goods would cost him. 
The result would lie a greater use of wool and far 
more satisfactory doth. Legislation of this sort is 
needed, and now is the time to put it over. 
* 
HE other day we had a long talk with a city 
man about farming. He started with a. very 
prejudiced view, saying that farmers were profiteers 
if not robbers. We talked to him about dairying. 
He understood one end of that, since he is buying 
milk for his family. We told him wliat farmers 
receive for milk, and he figured that they received 
less than 30 per cent of his money. Then we spoke 
of the long and monotonous hours involved in dairy 
work. There were no Sunday or Saturday holidays. 
The cows must he milked and cleaned and fed day 
after day without vacation or change. This man 
finally saw the point, and admitted it. What is 
more, he saw clearly that if the town people are 
to be paid high wages and fed for working an eight- 
hour day, someone in the country must work longer 
than that in order to feed them. He agreed with 
that, and promised to do what he could to provide 
fairer conditions in the country. Then he said he 
was thirsty, so he walked up to a soda fountain and 
ordered a “soda” for 17 cents. It never occurred 
t( him that if he and thousands of other men would 
each buy a glass of milk instead of a “soft drink” 
there would be genuine help for the dairy business. 
For what we need most of all is increased consump¬ 
tion, and every extra glass will help. The American 
public* consumes each year an ocean of "soft drinks” 
which costs half a billion dollars. This drink is 
simply colored and sweetened water, inflated with 
a little gas and flavored with chemicals. In food 
value it cannot be compared with milk, which is the 
best protective food in the world. If half of the sum 
spent on this doctored and sweetened water could 
be spent for milk, a great industry would he put on 
its feet, and the health of the people would he im¬ 
proved. But there is little use telling others what 
.Tune 18, 1921 
to do unless we start the procession by ordeiing milk 
for ourselves. 
* 
Can you direct me to any concern that hae xise for 
small green peaches and plums? I understand there is 
a demand for same, and I am about ready to thin 
peaches and plums. Let me hear from you at an early 
date. L. M. H. 
O, we cannot. We think you have been made the 
victim of some practical joker, or else you have 
taken some of the newspaper “yarns” too seriously. 
Each year it is solemnly stated in print that half- 
grown plums and peaches are used to make “imita¬ 
tion olives.” There is nothing to it. Canners tell us 
such a thing is impossible, yet the story is repeated 
year after yeai\ and, what is more serious, actually 
credited by otherwise sensible men. 
NE of the greatest profiteering jobs of this age 
of profiteering is done by the ice cream dealers. 
In most cases their pi’ices are as high as ever, while 
n.ilk and its products have come down. In New 
Jersey this would not make so much difference, since 
Governor Edwards has made it possible to use cocoa- 
nut oil in “ice cream.” He has made it. possible for 
the dealers to sell “ice ci’eam” so made that there is 
nothing honest about it except the ice. But this 
“ci*eam” is selling all the way from .$1.20 to $4.80 a 
gallon! At these pi’ices of course the public will not 
buy freely, particularly in this cool season. The re¬ 
sult is that the dealers are making a profit of 300 
per cent or more, while the lack of demand for 
cream is a serious injury to the dairy business. 
There seems to he only one remedy—that is for farm¬ 
ers to make pure ice cream and sell it at a fair price. 
=k 
AYBE you think we talk too much about this 
Hubain clover. Well, just wait and see. If 
we gave you some sure way of spending about $5, 
and as the result of it taking two to thi*ee tons of 
wheat hi-an off a single acre, you would say it was 
impossible to do too much talking. Or suppose we 
told how, by spending $5, you may have the equiva¬ 
lent of 10 tons of manure all hauled and spread on 
one acre! That would he worth talking about, too. 
Now that is just exactly what we expect this Hubam 
clover will do fox* you. It is a legume; that is, it 
belongs to that class of plants which are able to 
take nitrogen from the air. It does in one season 
\that Alfalfa or the old Sweet clover require two 
years for doing. It will make a faster and stronger 
growth than any other plant yet well tested in this 
country. On a good soil it will take lime and phos¬ 
phorus and make them over into a superior complete 
fertilizer. With potash added it will do the same on 
light land. We firmly believe that this Hubam 
clover is the most useful xnamirial plant ever intro¬ 
duced on the Atlantic slope. Elsewhere it will be 
noted for its performance as pasture or a hay-maker, 
but on most of our farms its chief value will he for 
producing a substitute for manure. It can do that 
to perfection. We like to talk about our friends, 
and we hasten to welcome this stranger as one of 
the best friends our farmers ever had. 
5k 
HE State Bureau of Foods and Markets has 
completed arrangements to send market reports 
by wire daily to the up-State papers that pay their 
share of the telegraphing. At present the quotations 
will lie on New York City sales of farm products, and 
wholesale feed prices from Buffalo. Later on it may 
include other markets available to New York State 
farmers. Six of the up-State papers have agreed to 
cai’ry these dispatches daily. With more genei’al 
publicity of these quotations and marketing news, it 
is hoped to get away from the slower and mure ex¬ 
pensive mimeographed reports mailed daily to indi¬ 
viduals by the reporting bureaus of both the State 
and Federal governments. This is one of the 
original services planned for the State Bureau. Tts 
development should he a source of convenience and 
profit to the farmer. 
Brevities 
The pastures have been full of milk this year. 
I.n order to get a ton of corn to the seacoast from 
the Mississippi River you must pay the price of another 
ton as freight. 
You can register the name of your farm with the 
county clerk, or obtain a copyi’ight from the United 
States Patent Office. 
They tell us in the West that Sudan grass makes 
such a thick, rapid growth that it is better than buck¬ 
wheat for smothering quack gx-ass. 
A horseshoe-throwing contest will he a feature of 
the big agricultural picnic in Illinois. A good thing 
to encourage at the New York State Fair. 
One of our readers asks if the New Jersey legisla¬ 
ture passed a law giving the jury in certain criminal 
cases the right to prescribe the sentence when the person 
is found guilty. In that case all the judge would do 
would be to pass sentence. We cannot find any record 
of such a law. 
