1039 
The Small Boy Thief and the Judge 
I submit for your consideration the enclosed clippings 
fiom the Norwich (Conn. I liuUetin. You have advised 
farmers personally to defend their property against 
marauders. This man did so, with the result that he 
is baled into court and fined, narrowly escaping a jail 
sentence. Note the comment of the Hartford paper 
upon the action of the judge. The verdict was a direct 
encouragement to lawlessness and hoodlumism. The 
judge apparently considered that the boys would kindly 
wait until the owner summoned an officer to arrest 
them. The law as it is sometimes interpreted is truly 
a curious thing. A. B. ROBERTS. 
The clipping which Mr. Roberts sends us tells the 
story of a fanner who got into trouble by whipping 
some trespassing boys. The fanner’s name was 
George Perry. It seems that he had been greatly 
annoyed by a gang of children ranging from seven 
to 10 years of age. These children apparently per¬ 
sisted in coming on Perry’s farm, and they stole 
apples from trees which stood near their swimming 
hole. Perry stood this as long as he could, and tried 
to drive the children away by shouting at then, but 
they refused to go. The result was that ""on the 
children came on the farm again to get the apples 
Perry got after them with a stick and gave several 
of them a good whipping. The evidence shows that 
he took a stick such as one would use in driving a 
horse and laid it on well. This stick was described 
as a hazel switch, and it is evident that Perry laid 
about him in good shape, lie was on his own ground 
and was defending his own property. As a result 
of this whipping Perry was brought into court on 
a charge of assault and battery. As evidence of the 
whipping one after another of these children ap¬ 
peared before the judge and took off enough of their 
clothing to show the marks of the whipping, and 
these marks were plainly evident. There was no 
question but that the stick was applied to them. In 
defence of his action Perry testified to having end¬ 
less trouble with these children. They took his fruit 
in spite of all he could do. On the day in question 
he caught five boys in the tree. ITe claims they had 
abused him and hurled insulting remarks at him. 
He admitted that when he caught those boys in the 
tree he used the switch as well as he could, but he 
claims that their bruises mostly resulted from their 
jumping down from the tree when he got after them. 
Other witnesses testified to the size of the hazel 
switch and the insulting remarks and gestures of 
the hoys. The lawyers had it out in their speeches. 
Tl: > State attorney claimed that Perry had no right 
to take the law into his own hands and that he had 
other remedies, though just what remedy a grown¬ 
up man has against a bunch of lively, mischievous 
boys this man did not seem to state. Perry’s attor¬ 
ney. on tin* other hand, claimed that a man had the 
right to protect his property, and that the bruises 
that these children had shown in such a spectacular 
manner did not come from the switch as much as 
they did from falling out of the tree. The judge 
found Perry guilty and said that his mind was made 
up by the sight of those bruises. He said that Perry 
had no excuse for striking those children, nor had 
he the right to take the law into his own hand. Ho 
said that when he was a hoy he stole fruit himself 
and did not think these children knew just what 
they were doing, lie therefore fined Perry $25, 
making the fine large enough so that ho would 
realize he had committed a crime. 
We give these facts at some length because just 
now this matter of stealing fruit and other produce 
is getting to be a serious matter. We do not argue 
with this judge. If our own boys were caught steal¬ 
ing fruit which belongs to a neighbor and acting as 
these children did we would be inclined to thank the 
neighbor for applying a stick or a shingle where it 
would do the most good. It is true, as the judge 
says, that most grown-up men can look back to the 
lawless days when they stole fruit or other produce. 
It never did them any good to do so, and they would 
probably be better citizens today if they had been 
handled as these boys were. We fully agree with a 
Hartford paper which made the following comment 
regarding this matter: 
Let the small boy cheer! A man in Putnam, who 
owned some apple trees, found some youngsters stealing 
his fruit and he whipped them. They deserved it. A 
mistake of these days is the shortage of whippings for 
tin coming generations. 
But the boys, instead of being improved by the treat¬ 
ment. blubbered to their parents and the robbed man 
was taken into court and there tim'd $25. He was not 
smart enough to complain, now that the boys were 
there, against them as thieves, but the judge kindly 
admonished him that, instead of administering punish¬ 
ment, he should have called the police. This is in effect 
a State-wide notice to boys that they can steal fruit and 
at least escape a whipping, however fully they deserve 
one. When they hear the police called, it is up to them 
to pick up as many of the apples that they do not own 
as they can get, and then run. Never mind the owner, 
ho cannot do anything but call the police! 
There is a growing notion that whipping has been 
too much neglected. It is a natural treatment. It 
hurts the body, but it enlivens the memory and bur 
Tht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
direct, relations with conscience. We cannot but feel 
a certain sympathy for the incidental owner of the fruit 
that he could not protect. Cholera morbus is the only 
factor in the robbed man’s favor, and that arrives slowly 
r.nd seldom attacks the wicked. 
Of course this matter of boys does not quite cover 
the problem of the auto thieves. These thieves are 
usually grown-up men and women, and there is no 
such excuse for them as the judge gave for these 
boys. It is possible that, if these men and women 
were handled just as these hoys were that they might 
go to court and win their case. Our advice, how¬ 
ever, would he to use the stick so that they would 
* 
not he likely to display their wounds, and in any 
event, it is doubtful if the court would have such 
compassion for a fat, over-grown adult as it ex¬ 
pressed for those hoys. In any event, we feel in¬ 
clined to repeat our advice with regard to handling 
these auto hogs in about the only way that would 
get through their hides. 
The Difference in Milk Prices 
I enclose you a statement of my milk for June from 
Sheffield Farms Company and the -inrement from the 
League. They have charged me $13.41 for drawing 
milk twice. I have written three times, but cannot get 
tic'T’i to correct it. Will you try to adjust it. for me? 
New York. B. G. 
There have been quite a number of complaints of 
this nature. In none of them have we found that 
the drawing charge was duplicated. The discrepancy 
between the Sheffield statement and the League 
statement is not due to duplicating the cartage 
charge, hut to the difference between the average 
price paid by Sheffield Farms and the average price 
for all the milk in the pool. For example, in this 
case Sheffield Farms reports receipt of 5.304 lbs. of 
4 per cent milk at $2.02% per 100 lbs., making 
$108.02. They deduct $13.41 for drawing, leaving 
a balance which they paid the League of $05.21. 
The League statement accounts for the same vol¬ 
ume and tost of milk, hut its price is an average of 
all ■ the milk in the pool, and when fat test, and 
freight charges were adjusted the price for this 
dairy was $1.80%, making the amount. $00.82. The 
cartage charge of $13.41. certificates $5.30 and official 
expense $1.88 were deducted, leaving net $70.17. 
The producer paid the freight but once. TIis con¬ 
fusion came from trying to reconcile the two state¬ 
ments, which cannot be done as to net returns be¬ 
cause the price pei* 10o lbs. is different. The average 
price paid by oath dealer depends on the amount of 
milk he used in each of the four classes. Tt is 
doubtful if any two dealers pay exactly the same 
average price, because no Hvo of them would use the 
four classes of milk in the same proportion, except 
where two or more used it in one class only. Some 
dealers pay the League more, others less, per 100 
lbs.: but the League pools or averages it all. and its 
returns to the producer are figured on this average. 
The dealers who sell liquid milk pay the League 
more than the i roducer gets. Those who convert it 
into butter and cheese pay the League less than the 
producer gets. The average is the pool price. The 
League statement is figured on this price, and where 
there is a cartage charge it must he deducted, be¬ 
cause the League allows if to the dealer. 
A Census of American Chickens 
The census report gives the following statement 
about the number of chickens in the country January 
1. 1920. The comparison with 1910 is not exactly 
fair, since in that year the census was taken on 
April 15, as against January 1 in 1020. This gives 
3% months for hatching, which in the warmer States 
would make considerable difference in numbers. In 
the table we give the total number and the report 
for the States located on what we call the upper 
Atlantic slope: 
Jan. 1. 1020 
Apr. 15.1010 
United States. 
350,537,385 
280,340.950 
Geographic Divisions: 
New England. 
5.803.507 
0.840.404 
Middle Atlantic. 
27.452 439 
24.448.840 
East North Central. 
84.510.275 
09.4 71.095 
West North Central. 
105.54S.008 
85.102.20(5 
South Atlantic. 
30.407.010 
25.020.505 
East South Central. 
34.001,878 
24.405.050 
West South Central. 
30.01 8.903 
20 1'0.207 
Mountain . 
0.524.240 
5.(07.254 
Pacific . 
1(5.474.575 
0.023.502 
New England : 
Maine . 
1.403.284 
1.704.000 
New Hampshire. 
771 233 
003.413 
Vermont . 
700.707 
011.730 
Massachusetts . 
1.455.103 
1.700.034 
Ilhode Island. 
253.007 
302.704 
Connecticut . 
1.120.305 
1.217.725 
Middle Atlantic: 
New York. 
10 114.000 
10.232.408 
New Jersey. 
2.534.371 
2.320.430 
Pennsylvania . 
14,503,468 
11.805.003 
There are two reasons for the apparent loss in 
New England. The 1920 census was taken more 
than 100 days earlier in the year than that of 10 
years before. During the war grain prices ran so 
high that many poultrymen were obliged to go out 
of business. Several war food orders, which we all 
remember, discouraged growers and prompted them 
to cut down their flocks. The tide is now flowing 
the other way. Poultry keeping is surely coming 
back in New England, and the number of chickens 
will soon surpass that of 1010. In estimating the 
number of eggs produced in 1920 the census puts it 
at 1.050,207.000 dozen, an increase over 10 years ago 
of 5.2 per cent. Of course no human can get the 
exact number. We all estimate in making our re¬ 
turns. but that number will serve to show the tre¬ 
mendous size of the poultry business. It is also 
stated that 473.923, 035 chickens were raised during 
1020. That is an increase of about three per cent, 
and ought to supply “fried chicken” to a good-sized 
army. 
What the Farmers are Carrying 
When the daily papers recognize the farmer’s 
position and are disposed to give him a fair 
showing we like to give them credit. The following, 
taken from the Boston Globe. is sensible and true: 
In the dispatch from Omaha telling of the business 
revival in the West occurs a sentence which contains 
much in little: 
“The formers are pulling out of the hole. And they 
are < •> rying the business men and the banks along with 
them.” 
This last, that the farmers “are carrying the business 
men and the banks along with them.” is literally true 
and always lias been. It is true of more than business 
men and banks. It is true of the whole of human 
society. 
The farmer is the foundation of all community life. 
He produces what vve eat and raises what we wear. 
Without him the race would starve and freeae: cities 
would depopulate; and no car or factory wheel couhl 
turn. Many other forms of productive labor may be 
builded on the foundation of agriculture, but without 
agriculture none of it could go on. 
When the hulk of the country’s population, as ours 
tends to d<>. forsakes the farm for the city, trouble is in 
brew. It takes no very mathematical head to compute 
that the fewer people are who produce food, the more 
food, and everything else, will cost. And the nation 
which ceases to raise enough food to maintain itself 
and must depend on supplies of fond from abroad can 
eas’lv bo seen to have let itself in for a career of 
military domination of sources of that food supply, with 
all the crimes and follies which such a career involves. 
Our values are all out of perspective and proportion. 
The most important group of the nation is not that of 
the bankers, nor the politicians, nor the business men, 
nor the 'Peetwals. The most important group is that 
of tin' f- :*"«rs, for without them none of this other life 
could go on. 
A Sheep Lesson from Chickens 
Nearly one and one-half million more sheep arrived at 
tlie country’s stock yards the first half of this year than 
during the same months last year, while half a million 
feeders and breeders less went back from there to the 
farms. That mean one million fewer in the country by 
stock-yard figures, while hope has been so low and so 
many financially embarrassed that fully another million 
have perished from neglect, and American conditions 
are duplicated in all the foreign countries. 
Consider that loss for six months, and also consider 
why sheep, the most, gentle and defenseless animals, 
should always be reducing and now he practically mas¬ 
sacred. Further, consider that many of the large flock 
owners on the plains are bankrupt, with many others 
discouraged, who will turn to other interests, that the 
settlers arc fencing the trails, the government reducing 
the range and raising the price for it. that taxes are 
padded, and the outlook for the American sheep industry 
is not roseate. 
Now. find the first cause. Pass by the low price of 
wool, parasites, and every annoyance, because they are 
only results. The cause came to me at a chicken con¬ 
ference where whole families came, hopeful to learn all 
they could from the County Agent and each other, hut 
dejection hit all the men when their thoughts reverted 
to wool. “What’s wool going to do. anyhow?” and. 
“Say, I borrowed money to pay my June taxes and I 
can’t si'll my wool.” and such cheerful statements fell 
into my half-dead ears. These ea ni e from men who had 
been telling how much their families made on pouLry. 
If the County Agent had called a sheep meeting for 
that hot day there would have been a yawn extending 
over several townships, anil not a fel’ow of them would 
have arranged his haying and harvesting to come, but 
they cranked up and brought their families, all happy as 
boys in swimming, except when they thought of wool. 
They and the average wool growers ho some sheep stay 
about the place, and when they must be clipped, make 
a present of the wool to most anybody. Thousands of 
tiiem did not show as much concern in this line during 
their lives as the ones at this chicken meet did during 
that d v in poultry. Then look at the disparagement of 
advertishig and reading about sheep called for by the 
readc-s of this paper, compared with the poultry. 
If the dairymen had acted as the sheep men have 
ther** would be but a few old tubercular cows, butter 
would be a beggar, and oleomargarine made from soap 
fat would he se’ling for a dollar a pound. Dairymen, 
by looking after their personal interests, and by edu¬ 
cating consumers, have been public benefactors, while 
slacker sheep men. by neglecting theirs, have encouraged 
troubles for themselves and all humanity, except a little 
class which stands ready to prey on both producer and 
consumer when chance offers, hut like nmv with wool, 
when anything becomes so bad it can get no worse a 
change must come, and it has begun. Publicity work in 
no line has lied the success a few men h ive made trying 
to make a maiket for wool. Fully 10,000.000 are wait¬ 
ing for it. and the clothing industry, which is worse off 
than tin* sheep industry, will languish until they get it. 
Further, these millions will double annually until they 
are aH converted and there will be a clamor fim it. 
Ohio * W. W. REYNOLDS. 
