998 
7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
k. National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban Home* * 
Established tsso 
Published neeltly by (he lltirnl Publishing Company, 833 West 80th Street.New ?ork 
Hkrhkrt W. Colli no wood, President and Editor. 
John .1. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon. Secretary. Mas. K. T. Koylk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. equal to 8s. 6d., or 
8 f 4 marks, or lots francs. Remit in money order, express 
order,'personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 81.00 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¬ 
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 j>aid 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 bv 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 The Rural New- 
Yorkf.r when writing the advertiser. 
When it comes to downright gambling it is hard to 
pick a greater gambler than the farmer. lie gambles 
on the weather. lie gambles on the rain. He gambles 
on his help, and unless he is raising cotton or wheat or 
something that he can protect himself by selling futures, 
he gambles on the price; but the man who sticks per¬ 
sistently to it, using his brain as in any other business, 
is not only the successful, locally respected citizen, but 
one of that class that has formed absolutely the back¬ 
bone of this great country. k. m. t. 
A ND the gambling is forced upon him. He does 
not engage in it from choice. He takes more 
chances in his work than any other citizen, and has 
least chance to make good when frost or fire or 
blight or drought or business depression hits him. 
Most of the business gambling is done in the pro¬ 
ducts which the farmer raises, and after they have 
left his hands. It is then largely a case of one 
human brain against another, but with the farmer’s 
business, man is pitted against the elements of 
nature, over which no human being has control. 
* 
An auto party went into a man’s field near here pick¬ 
ing blueberries. I don’t know how many they picked, 
but when they got back to the machine the farmer was 
there and took all the berries. It was a case of berries 
or license. Some wise farmer! royg. smalley. 
W E are -picking up information about the best 
way to ring these auto hogs. That was a 
good performance. The usual hog does no work 
unless he is put out to root for a living. Then we 
have known them to clean a field of white grubs. 
This idea of turning them into pickers has merit, 
but it takes a farmer of some size as well as some 
wisdom to handle them in that way. 
* 
You have been making some remarkable statements 
about milk recently. Are they true? What is the ob¬ 
ject of all this talk? J. P. K. 
T HEY are all true and. to quote a famous char¬ 
acter in history, “the half has not been told.” 
Milk comes nearer to being the perfect food, the per¬ 
fect medicine and the perfect farm product than any 
other form of nutriment yet discovered. It is some¬ 
what lacking in iron, but aside from that it con¬ 
tains in abundance every element of food needed to 
nourish the human body. It is bone builder and 
body producer. In addition it contains, as no other 
food does, the vitamines so necessary -to growth and 
health. And the liquid form of milk makes it the 
best protective food, for a glass or two taken with 
our meals provides a balance to the human ration, 
• easily taken and promptly assimilated. There is no 
other food which can so readily and easily correct 
the mistakes of human diet. The “object of all this 
talk” is to try to make people understand that in 
plain, pure milk, they have a liquid which comes 
nearer to being the fabled “elixir of life” than any¬ 
thing else in this world. These may be considered 
strong statements, but they are true. There are 
more than a million people in this country now half 
sick with “nervousness,” rheumatism, indigestion, 
and ail the rest, who could and would he cured by 
following out the milk diet described in the last 
issue. Their ills would fade away—dissolved in 
milk. And here is another tiling: in the economy 
of farm production, dairying fills a place which no 
other industry can quite fit into. It is a business 
for rougher land, where pastures pay better than 
cultivated fields. Dairying restores the soil or holds 
it in good condition. It is a builder of soil. It peo¬ 
ples the hills and back country, spreads civilization 
and enables those who live back among the hills to 
maintain their homes. Dairying is thus one of the 
foundation industries of the nation, if not the most 
important. Any increase in the demand for milk 
will increase the income on the dairy farms, and 
there is no industry in the country in which an in¬ 
creased income w r ould be more deserving or more 
wisely spent. These are the reasons why we con¬ 
tinue to tel! the good qualities of milk. We want the 
public to double its consumption, both for the health 
of the people and the health of the dairy industry. 
* 
I want hand knitting yarn, made of soft long fibers of 
virgin wool, suitable for socks. Can you furnish me 
with the address of any maker or distributor of such 
yarn? I can knit about 000 lbs. a year; not enough to 
help the wool growers very much, 'but. it will be a pull 
in the right direction if T can get high-grade yarn. 
Several years ago I offered socks to a merchant. He 
wanted them at first; then on second thought he refused 
because they would spoil the sale of some he had just 
bought that were very poor in quality, but, with noth¬ 
ing better to compare them with he could get a price 
far in excess of their worth. I prefer to knit good 
articles, so I appeal to you for help in securing good 
material. MARY L. cnuRCH. 
Pennsylvania. 
T is true that (100 lbs. of yarn to one knitter may 
not seem large, but there must be at least 10,000,- 
000 knitters in the country, all of them exasperated 
at the “hold-up” in prices. Let. them have some of 
that cheap wool at a fair price. That action of the 
storekeeper is typical of many. The remedy is more 
direct dealing between the knitters and the weavers. 
That has got to come some day. All the Farm Bu¬ 
reaus or other organizations have to do is to pro¬ 
vide the yarn and let people know they have it. 
* 
T does us a world of good to hear from our old 
friend Mr. Berrang, the ox-express passenger. 
Bead his letter on the next page. lie is on his way 
to California. If it requires seven months to travel 
from Connecticut to Washington, how long will it 
take to reach the coast? It may be four years, and 
it may he forever, but what difference does it make 
to this worthy couple? They are having, literally, 
the time of their lives, and R. N.-Y. readers all 
along the way line up to see them pass. One man 
who read this letter remarked: “Well, he must he 
on remarkably fine terms with his wife!” What do 
you think about it? Could you and your wife travel 
off behind an ox team in this way and live together 
in happy contentment? The chances are that it 
would give both of you a hard test. 
* 
UR reports show that in most localities through¬ 
out the wheat growing section of New York 
State millers and dealers are paying $1 a bushel for 
wheat. Bread flour usually sells at those places for 
about $1.40 for 25 lbs. Thus a farmer must give 
80 lbs. of wheat for 25 lbs. of flour. It is claimed 
that a certain amount of hard Spring wheat must he 
mixed with the softer Eastern wheat to make supe¬ 
rior flour, but even so, the margin between the 
wheat and the flour is too great. Many of these 
wheat farmers must have money with which to pay 
their help, and they are selling wheat for what it 
will bring. Many of us would be better off in pocket 
and in health if we would go back to war bread and 
use more entire wheat flour. That would take care 
of our flour troubles. By the way, have you noticed 
that most of the farm help now demand as prompt 
payment of cash wages as they could get in a town 
job? 
* 
E hope you will attend every picnic or farm 
gathering that you cau reach this Summer. 
There will be many of them now that harvest is 
over and before silo filling starts. The general 
proposition of getting-together is a good one. You 
meet old friends and make new ones. It always 
does us good to talk tilings over. That enlarges life, 
widens the point of view and gives us all something 
new to think about. The human mind needs to he 
expanded now and then. And, in another way, it 
pays to make these public meetings as large as pos¬ 
sible. This is, or ought to he, a land of the ma¬ 
jority. Whether we like it or not. a good-sized 
crowd is accepted as evidence of popularity and 
power. When a big, interested crowd can be assem¬ 
bled with the understanding that it represents farm¬ 
ing. we help our business. It gives us a better 
standing than would be the case if only a handful 
of people turned out. Come out and help make the 
crowd. 
* 
OW comes the old question about weeds in the 
eornficld. Is it safe to cut them into the silo? 
Of course no one should ever let a weed grow in the 
corn, but if all the farmers who have them there 
were to he put in jail there would not be enough 
free men to stand on guard. In some places the 
weeds are bad this year, and inexperienced farmers 
are afraid of them. We should go ahead and cut 
them right in with the corn in case they cannot be 
cleaned out. Some of these weeds rank well in food 
value. Some of them really have a slight medicinal 
August G, 1921 
value. Others flavor the silage, much as fine herbs 
are used to flavor soup or hash. The weed seeds are 
most likely to be killed in the silo. Go ahead and 
cut them with the corn! The plan of using ground 
phosphate rock in the silo seems to be gaining. It 
can do no harm and there is no loss. Probably the 
phosphate, or a part of it, is made available by the 
acids in the silo. At any rate the manure will he 
made richer. Another problem which comes up each 
year is whether it pays to put salt or lime or char¬ 
coal into the silo. It is safe to say that nothing 
will be gained by such practice. We would not do 
it. The plan of cutting sunflowers in with the corn 
seems to be gaining. We have some unfavorable 
reports, but, on the whole, the practice is gaining. 
As for Soy beans, we think it will pay better to cut 
and cure them separately as hay. rather than to mix 
them with the corn in the silo. Silage of clean corn¬ 
stalks is best—with the protein added iu grain, 
clover, Alfalfa or bean vines. 
* 
IIE National House of Representatives passed 
the Fordney tariff bill by a vote of nearly two 
to one. Oil and hides were finally left on the free 
list. There was a close vote on the hide tariff, but 
the conviction seemed to be that the big packers 
have nearly a monopoly in handling hides and that 
a tariff would prevent independent tanners from 
securing enough for their use. The tariff bill now 
goes to the Senate. We think it will be changed 
considerably before its final passage, and delayed. 
There is a demand from many that the tariff bill he 
laid aside until a new tax hill is put through. The 
new tariff Is expected to add about $250,000,000 in 
revenue, and there will be some cuts in expenses. 
The income taxes will he revised to some extent. 
There seems to he a growing sentiment in favor of a 
sales tax: that is, a uniform tax on all gross sales. 
Perhaps the strongest argument advanced for this is 
the fact that it would he the easiest tax to collect. 
At present every man feels that he is being taxed to 
death. Under our present income tax there is too 
much evasion. 
* 
IIE daily newspapers are printing sad stories of 
destitution and disease among tenant farmers 
of the South. The low price of cotton and the loss 
of the cotton market have fallen like ruinous blows 
upon the smaller tenant farmers. They are heavily 
in debt, and merchants or banks cannot extend 
credit on this year’s cotton crop. These people are 
usually improvident, and while they may have 
enough to eat, their food is often so poorly balanced 
that they are undernourished and ill. It is said that 
10.000 or more of them will die of pellagra this 
year. That is a disease of malnutrition resulting 
from a diet which contains few if any vitamines or 
mineral salts. When we think of thousands of 
farmers living day after day on salt pork, corn bread 
and molasses, with acres of idle land around them— 
well, we wonder—those of us who get 80 per cent of 
our living from the garden, the hens and the cow! 
We doubt if the situation is as bad as the news¬ 
papers try to make it. but it is bad enough. We 
shall have our own reports from the South soon. 
The financial situation in parts of the Southern 
States could not he worse than it is today—particu¬ 
larly in the one-crop section, where cotton is the 
only cash product. Those of us who live in the 
more favored sections must see that human life is 
preserved and human miseries relieved. It is a 
curious thought, however, that farmers, with an 
abundance of idle land, should be dying of mal¬ 
nutrition when milk, eggs and leafy vegetables would 
keep them in the best of health. 
Brevities 
I)o you live to cat or eat to live? 
Mr. Grin da way never quits work, so work grows 
to him. 
A definition of the word “hunch” is “a strong intui¬ 
tive feeling that something will happen.” 
After another season with dusting for the apple 
worm we call the results fully equal to those w’ith 
liquid. 
Speaking of comparative season of ripening, we be¬ 
gan selling Wealthy apples of good size July 20. That 
is about two weeks earlier than usual. 
Most of us who raise potatoes know three diseases by 
sight—blight, scab and rot. That is about all we know 
of it. and we lose our crop or part of it from leaf dis¬ 
eases which we never recognize. 
The Pennsylvania State College reports that Alfalfa 
seed is being imported from Europe, shipped West and 
then back East again as Western seed. Better pay the 
extra price for native seed. 
We think the barn is no place for the automobile or 
truck. They should be kept in some outside place, even 
if not dignified by the nam» of garage. Oily rags and 
gasoline have no place near hay or straw. 
