853 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FA EVER S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established HIM 
I'nblluhrd nrrklj by ttar Kurd I'nbliihlnt Company. 833 Went 80th Straef, Saw fork 
Herbert W. Coi.linowood, President ami Editor. 
Jons J. Dnxow, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
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subject up with my administrator. lewis sperry, 
Connecticut. 
I T is our sincere hope that Mr. Sperry may outlive 
the $10 by many years, and may we all be on 
band to help make The It. N.-Y. more and more of a 
human document. 
* 
T HE following eminently wise statement is taken 
from the Monthly Crop Reporter of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture: 
Whether it pays a farmer best in the long run to sell 
grain when harvested or to hold for higher prices de¬ 
pends largely upon two factors, namely, the average ad¬ 
vance in price from the harvest price (usually the low 
price) to the seasonal high price, and the cost of holding 
during this period. If the cost of holding exceeds the 
average seasonal difference in price between the low and 
high period it does not pay. On the other hand, if the 
average seasonal variation in price is greater than the 
cost of holding, it pays to hold. 
Here is a case where the Department may safely 
“defy contradiction.'’ The statement is absolutely 
unanswerable. No one can dispute it. It pays to 
bold grain if it pays. The country is safe while such 
profound wisdom reigns at Washington. But, seri¬ 
ously. to use a common expression, can you beat it? 
* 
E are watching the growth of kudzu in Ber¬ 
gen Co., N. J., with interest. The roots were 
planted much like asparagus, in late April. The 
vines made but little growth during the cool weather, 
hut now they are starting out. By June 10 some of 
them were about 4 ft. long, running out over the 
ground like a Lima bean vine. The plant is a le¬ 
gume, and does not seem to require lime or heavy 
feeding, and is relished by stock. From all that we 
can learn, it makes such a growth as to become a 
nuisance in the garden or in cultivated fields, hut in 
old pastures or waste fields we believe it will prove 
a great addition to our list of forage plants. Some 
farmers call it a weed. That is what many call 
Sweet clover today. Many of our cultivated plants 
were formerly “weeds.” We imagine that 50 years 
from now our common ragweed will be considered a 
valuable manurial crop. It is reported that rnosqui- 
teesare rarely found in places where the common 
smartweed grows heavily. Here is a chance for 
some wise men to develop an ornamental smartweed 
which will serve as plant policeman to chase 
mosquitoes off the place. 
* 
B EFORE the month of June was half gone there 
was trouble over the new immigration law. 
Under it immigration for the next year is limited to 
3 per cent of each nationality figured from the num¬ 
ber of foreign born in this country. Each month 
one-twelfth of this number will be admitted. Be¬ 
fore the first two weeks of June the full number of 
Italians and of several other nationalities had been 
admitted. Several thousand Italians must be sent 
back or kept here for a month at the expense of the 
steamship companies. But for this law there would 
be a great rush to this country from Southern Eu¬ 
rope, and most of those who try to start are not of a 
desirable class. If any large proportion of these 
people were farmers or disposed to country life it 
would be well to welcome them, and even induce 
them to come. As it is, most of them will remain in 
the Atlantic coast cities, already crowded to excess 
and rapidly filling with a discontented and lawless 
element. There are thousands of men here who have 
been out of work for weeks. If it were possible to 
scatter these immigrants and locate them in the 
country it might be possible to assimilate them and 
make them into what we are pleased to call Ameri¬ 
cans. When they crowd into the great cities and live 
in close colonies it will he impossible for them ever 
to get the real spirit of democracy. That we believe 
to be impossible without family contact with the soil, 
and the ownership or the hope of ownership of a 
piece of land. 
* 
We have in our neighborhood a "hunt” modeled along 
old English lines, whose members, accompanied by a 
pack of hounds, ride over our farms in pursuit of a real 
or imaginary fox. To facilitate their passage across the 
fields, they have erected barways, or, as they call them, 
panels, wherever a wire fence intervenes. This is all 
done, of course, with the farmers’ permission, and they 
pay without question all claims for damage arising out 
of their “hunts.” 
Among several such barways on our place are two 
directly opposite, one at the north line and the other on 
the south. On nearly every “hunt” the horsemen travel 
in practically a direct line between these two in cross¬ 
ing the farm. Will such a procedure eventually gain 
for them a permanent right of way? What steps should 
we take, such being the case, to prevent this, without 
shutting them off entirely? b. s. 
N several parts of New York State this question 
has become an important one. These “hunts” 
have become regular institutions. Of course, the 
average man or woman would do far more good in 
the world if they would go hunting for insects or 
weeds—or for opportunity for helping mankind— 
instead of chasing an imaginary fox. Still, while 
there is freedom left in the country, there is no law 
to prevent fox hunting, if the hunters are willing 
to pay for the sport. There is no danger that these 
“hunters” will obtain a permanent right of way 
where they cross your farm with your permission. 
The hunters are licensees, and their license is a per¬ 
sonal. revokable and non-assignahle privilege. 
* 
R. JOHN II. FINLEY, formerly head of the 
New York State Educational Department, is 
now in Europe studying social conditions in the new 
republics. He makes some striking statements about 
Czechoslovakia. We ask no one to try to pronounce 
the name of that country, but it will interest us 
because it is facing great social and agricultural 
problems which may, on a larger scale, arise here. 
Dr. Finley says he reached Prague, the capital of this 
nation, just in time to witness a parade of 100,000 
farmers and their families. It was a protest against 
communism—mostly by small land-owners. They 
inarched “with local pride and national loyalty”— 
the true “backbone of the nation.” In that country 
the small land proprietors are the strongest social 
and political force. There is little danger that the 
nation will he swept into any extreme x-adical pro¬ 
gram like Russia so long as these peasant fanners 
own their homes and feel that they are fairly treated. 
The radical or explosive element is found in the 
cities, and the difference in feeling between these 
two classes is easily understood. One has never 
assumed the responsibility of a permanent home. 
The city workman usually lives here and there, with¬ 
out becoming permanently attached to the soil. The 
farmer or small freeholder owns his piece of land, 
and, therefore, feels that he is a partner with the 
earth. He has his feet in the soil, and becomes at¬ 
tached to it like a tree. lie feels that his partner 
is God-made rather than man-made, and from the 
very nature of his life he becomes a solid part of 
what he conceives to he orderly government. This 
sound and strong, home-loving and land-owning ele¬ 
ment has always been the bedrock upon which a 
strong and righteous government must be built. No 
strong republic is possible without this land-owning 
class. Such a republic will be true to its name only 
as this class may feel that ic is fairly treated and 
not exploited. Dr. Finley is hopeful for the future 
of this republic with the unpronounceable name be¬ 
cause those peasant farmers are to control it Dr. 
Finley tells of his visit to Masaryk, president of 
this republic. lie found the son of a coachman, 
lame and ill, living in the palace once occupied by 
Maria Theresa. And this man of the plain people, 
thrown up as Lincoln was from the lower levels of 
society said: 
Independence will not preserve and save a nation. It 
is only a means to attain the righteous living of a na¬ 
tion. And no nation, as no individual, can live righte¬ 
ously that lives to its self-determined self alone. 
We take that to be another way of saying that in 
a republic like ours icc must do it ourselves. We 
must keep alive the old strength and independence 
of the American freeholder, and take the manage¬ 
ment of our business, under the law, away from the 
politicians and into our own hands. 
* 
HAT is known as the “sales tax” is being ad¬ 
vocated by many business men and manu¬ 
facturers as a reform in our income tax laws. No 
one dreams that the general principle of the income 
tax will ever be repealed, but efforts are being 
quietly made to change it. The proposed sales tax 
June 25, 1921 
would put a definite tax on all gross sales of mer¬ 
chandise, and omit most of the profit charges now 
figured in the income tax. At first thought the 
scheme seems plausible, yet farmers have lined up 
solidly against the plan. Their argument is that 
the operation of such a system would simply pass 
(he tax along to the final consumer. The manufac¬ 
turer would discount the tax by charging enough 
more for his goods to make the jobber pay it. The 
jobber in like manner would pass it along to the agent, 
and lie in turn to the commission man and the re¬ 
tailer. Then the retailer would also add enough to 
the price of the goods to compel the final consumer 
to pay the tax. That is the way much of the present 
“excess profits” tax has been worked off. The plain 
or common people have other uses and other values 
to the nation beside that of playing the part of 
patient beasts of burden or chopping block for taxes. 
Some features'of the income tax are unjust, and 
must be remedied, but not in any such way as will 
permit the rich to shift their honest share upon the 
public. 
* 
A T the recent meeting of the Holstein-Friesian 
Association of America someone aptly said “the 
time lias come for the Holstein men to catch up 
with the Holstein cow.” This association is now 
one of the great national associations of this coun¬ 
try. It came (o Syracuse face to face with the dirty 
scandal of the “Charlie Cole case.” This foul thing 
lias fastened itself upon the association like a loath¬ 
some disease, and all honest men, whether they be 
Holstein breeders or not, had the right to expect that 
this great association would stop its growth, even if 
they had to cut it out! It must be said in truth 
that the association failed to rise to the occasion. 
It compromised and twisted on the subject. Its 
message does not ring clear and true to the thou¬ 
sands of honest men who have practically every¬ 
thing they own tied up in Holstein cattle. But this 
failure to rise up to the heights of moral power was 
not the fault of the real breeders and farmers. At 
the Syracuse meeting practically 75 per cent of the 
members present voted for a resolution containing 
the following: 
We regret the unfortunate situation known as the 
Cole-Cabana controversy and the litigation in connec¬ 
tion therewith. We commend the vigorous action of 
those officers and directors who have fought to preserve 
the integrity of our records, and we urge that this most 
important matter be carried to a successful conclusion, 
realizing that the preservation and integrity of the 
records made by the Black and White cow is the basis 
of the industry. 
The resolution was "laid on the table” through the 
votes of proxies controlled by a little group of law¬ 
yers and professional organizers. The meeting fur¬ 
nished complete evidence that when a farm organi¬ 
zation falls into the hands of lawyers, politicians 
and side-steppers it is headed for nothing but trouble. 
* 
WENTY-TWO Senators at Washington repre¬ 
senting farm States have made an agreement 
to support and push legislation in the interest of 
agriculture. In the House of Representatives an¬ 
other large group of members has been formed to 
act in a similar way. The object of this is to organ¬ 
ize the agricultural forces in Congress so that they 
can not only support but propose suitable farm legis¬ 
lation. This is the first time such an organization 
has been attempted in the American Congress. There 
are big problems of transportation, tariff and taxa¬ 
tion which peculiarly affect farmers, and this organi¬ 
zation will help handle them. This is following the 
example of France. In that country the farmers 
are recognized as the most important class. They 
are well organized and control the French Parlia¬ 
ment, and through it the nation. In this country 
we hear little of the French farmer, yet he is the 
controlling factor in France. The American farmer 
should occupy much the same position. He did in 
what we are now pleased to call “the good old days.” 
Brevities 
There may be a great difference between “hot stuff” 
and “hot air.” 
Business will not greatly improve until the purchas¬ 
ing power of the farmer is restored. 
“Filled” condensed milk is made by substituting 
cocoanut oil for cream in the condensed product. It is 
a fraud, the same as oleo. 
No wonder the supply of stable manure is falling off. 
Last year there were 1,705,011 horses kept in American 
towns and cities; in 1910 there were 3,182,789. 
We have had several requests for the value of mold¬ 
ing sand. Many farmers think they have good deposits 
of it. This sand is quoted in the engineering journals 
all the way from $1.50 to $2.75 per load, depending on 
quality and location. There seeme to be as much differ¬ 
ence in quality of this sand as there is in bread or cake. 
