I 182 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A, National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Home* 
Established isso 
Published weekly by the Bnr»l PtihliOifox Company, 333 West 30ib Street, Sew fork 
Herbert W. C'orringwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dirlon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Rovrk, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Vnirersal Postal Union, $2.01, equal to 8s. 8d., or 
8 Sa marks, or 10 t 4 francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or hank draft. 
Entered at Netv York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. »1.00 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 paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, jrreepon- 
eible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and anv 
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 by the courts. 
l*otlce 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 Rcrar New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
I would hate to miss your paper. I picked that little 
‘trial” envelope up* on the road and put the money in 
it; thought that would be the last of it. But I got the 
paper and am glad to have it come as long as I am on 
the farm, so I am sending a dollar, and when it is up 
again don’t forget to let me know. j. h. Rogers. 
Ohio. 
HIS was seed which fell upon good ground. Re- 
eruits come into the family from the most unex¬ 
pected places, and they are all welcome. 
9 
W E think it a good thing to develop small the¬ 
aters in rural districts, and to encourage the 
production, of clean plays, dealing sensibly with coun¬ 
try life. It is true that the theater has, in many 
cases, fallen into evil hands, so that it is not an 
uplifting feature of social life. That is not the 
fault of the theater itself. Properly conducted, the 
stage may rank with the school, or even the pulpit, 
in its power to portray human nature and the truth 
of life. And that is what we need now most of all; 
the power to put the true story of the farm into the 
minds of city people. We cannot leave this work to 
others, for we all understand what a caricature upon 
honest country living is presented when some city 
man presents “Uncle Josh” or “Aunt Sally.” This 
is one of the things we must do ourselves, and it is 
a necessary thing to put before our city friends a 
faithful picture of the country home. Make it 
natural, with all the joy and pathos, all the real 
comedy and tragedy, which human life on the farm 
can show. The plays needed to present this properly 
Will naturally be written by country people and 
acted by country folks. There are great springs of 
talent in our country communities waiting to he 
opened. They should he developed. They will find 
one forcible way of telling our story. 
?!< 
S OME of the sheep men are learning how to have 
their wool turned into blankets and cloth, with 
few hands in the deal. There seems to be general 
satisfaction with the goods. Now, is there any way 
to make a somewhat ■ similar connection between 
hides and shoes? Of course the hide must go through 
mure motions- than the wool before it can come back 
as leather goods, but is there no way of cutting out 
part of the spread? Shoe leather means almost as 
much to most of us as sunshine and air. Can’t we 
make closer connection between the hide and the 
shoe? 
W E need a big shake-up in our large markets. 
Xo doubt about that. The present distribu¬ 
tion system is organized robbery on a tremendous 
scale. This robbery is made possible because we, as 
farmers, have formed the Uibit of throwing our farm 
Produce into the great cities for sale and distribu¬ 
tion. This gives the dealers and handlers the ad¬ 
vantage, for they are a bio to obtain a monopoly. 
We hand them this monopoly by shipping them about 
all we raise. The result often is that the very goods 
we send to New York and other big cities are sent 
back to supply our own local markets! The con¬ 
sumers who live within a few miles of our farms 
pay transportation both ways and several useless 
charges for handling. We pay for it all, for this use¬ 
less charge is taken out of our prices. The best 
remedy is a development of our nearby retail mar¬ 
kets. That would give us a direct trade, and re¬ 
lieve the pressure in the big cities. People in our 
nearby markets would be better served, while a re¬ 
duction in the volume of goods sent to the big cities 
would take away much of the middleman’s power 
by breaking his monopoly. Every extra quart or 
bushel or ton of farm produce sold in the home mar¬ 
ket will help to relieve the situation. 
7ht R LI R A L N E W-YO RK E R 
OME years ago when we were trying to interest 
the public in eating apples, we stated that 
dilute vinegar makes a good mouth wash. Of 
course if that is true it follows that a good sour 
apple ought to make an excellent toothbrush. In 
the new book by Dr. Thomas J. Ryan, entitled 
“Teeth and Health,” we find the following: 
“An apple eaten in the evening will mechanically 
and chemically clean the teeth, and protect them 
from bacterial ravages in the night, when the most 
damage is done.” 
It seems that the acids of fruit juices really do 
help to prevent decay, and also prevent tartar from 
forming. Dr. Ryan says that the practice of eating 
raw apples out of the hand cannot fail to have a 
beneficial effect upon, the teeth. There are many 
people who tell you they eat an apple just before 
going to bed, on the theory that in some way it 
makes them sleep better. The chances are that if 
they think so, slumber will follow apple eating or 
milk drinking. There seems to be no question, how¬ 
ever, about the useful service which the raw apple 
renders to the teeth. A good McIntosh or Northern 
Spy ought to make the Ideal toothbrush. Even a 
Ben Davis might operate like a tooth powder. 
* 
I X A\ estern Canada every candidate who runs for 
Parliament must deposit a fee. Unless such a 
candidate can obtain one-third of the votes cast he 
loses his deposit! The idea seems to be that of 
keeping out “undesirable” persons, or those not 
backed by some organized party. Therefore few 
men run for office unless they know they can poll a 
reasonable vote, or represent a certain section. At 
first thought this plan does not seem helpful. We 
should say it is directly in the interests of political 
parties, and that it would discourage independence. 
* 
I N the article on agricultural legislation iu On¬ 
tario, Canada, the point is made clear that farm¬ 
ers and labor representatives do not make a good 
combination. In theory such a combination of pro¬ 
ducers and consumers ought to he ideal—each giving 
up something to help the other. In fact, it seems 
impossible to unite these two elements in any polit¬ 
ical movement. The representatives of organized 
labor want too much. They have never shown any 
willingness to bring the price of a day’s labor for 
city workmen down to the figures which show what 
a farmer receives. In any such combination about 
the first thing “labor” would attempt would he to 
organize the farmer’s hired help. In such ease the 
farmer would be an employer with the labor ques¬ 
tion brought home to him iu its most irritating 
form. A combination for the purpose of delivering 
food cheaply could he made very useful, but a polit¬ 
ical combination would fail, since the aims and meth¬ 
ods of organized labor are very different from* those 
of farmers. 
* 
E have just been looking over an old copy of 
Moore-s Rural New-Yorker for September 19, 
1863. There is a report from the Vermont Wool 
Crowers’ Convention, held at Rutland. It seems that 
the secretary of the society, Col. Needham, made a 
report of his trip to the World’s Fair at Hamburg, 
(.’errnany, where the Vermont sheep owned by George 
Campbell “beat the world.” It is said of Col. Need- 
Iic.m that “being a small man he stood on a table.” 
‘Small but mighty” he seems to have been. In tell¬ 
ing how the American Merinos beat over 1,700 com¬ 
petitors, Col. Needham said: 
The Emperor Napoleon had 40 sheep on the ground 
competing against Campbell’s. The agents of the Em¬ 
peror were not suited with the pens assigned to them 
and built splendid ones at the Emperor’s expense. “He 
beat us,” said Col. Needham, “on pens—but we beat 
him on sheep.” After the fair was over. Campbell sold 
his 12 sheep to a Prussian count for $5,000, while the 
best other ram sold brought hut £40, or $200. 
Those were the happy days when Vermont Merino 
sheep were as far ahead of the procession as was 
the yacht America in the famous boat race. The 
America ended out of sight of the rest of the racers. 
The story goes that Queen Victoria asked which boat 
was second. The reported answer was, “Your 
Majesty, there is no second!” During our Civil War 
it seemed as though the Merino sheep was just about 
the surest thing among live stock. It was a com¬ 
bination of mutton sheep and shoddy that side¬ 
tracked him. 
❖ 
In the January, 1921, number of “Our Tuberculous 
children published by the Children’s National Tuber¬ 
culosis Society, I find the following .statement in an 
article entitled “Living the Life”: 
“There are many people who dream of the simple 
farm life as the place best suited for them to recuper- 
rate that lost nerve control. They will be surprised to 
learn that the farms of our country contribute more 
inmates to our insane asylums than the cities. For the 
October 1, 1021 
farm life has troubles of its own, the seclusion and 
drudgery of the daily life is as wearing on the nerves 
as the grind and turmoil of the city.” 
V hat do you think of that statement? Do statistics 
show that this is true with reference to inmates in 
insane asylums, or is the writer ignorant of what he 
is talking about ? john l. horst. 
Pennsylvania. 
Op HE statement is a lie, plain and stupid. It lias 
A been proven such again and again, hut it suits 
the purpose of some farm-haters to repeat it. We 
ha\e investigated this matter several times, always 
with the same result. The inmates of insane hos¬ 
pitals are usually classified as “urban” and “rural” 
as regards their origin. The dividing line between 
the two classes is made at towns containing 2,500 
population. All towns under that size are classed as 
rural, and all are grouped with true farming sec¬ 
tions. Iu every investigation we have made 60 per 
cent or more of insane patients have been reported 
from cities. Of the remaining 40 per cent nearly 
one-half come from the little country towns and not 
from the farms. The conditions of life in the little, 
stagnant towns are far more conducive to insanity 
than is life on a farm. It is strange that this old 
lie should be thus repeated over and over in this 
way. No good can come from it; it seems to he part 
of some malignant purpose to discredit the country. 
X 
What is the law in regard to running a tractor along 
a State road, where a man’s farm is located on said 
road.' Our place is located on both sides of State road 
and it is often necessary to cross this road, and occa¬ 
sionally to run along it a short distance to get to our 
different, fields. Is it necessary to have a license for the 
tractor? Our tractor is a caterpillar type, and so far 
as I can see does not damage the road, as the marks 
cannot he seen two hours after rho tractor has passed, 
or no more than chains would make on an auto. 
New York. ii. d. o. 
npHE general law is that commercial registration 
A is necessary in the ease of a farm tractor oper¬ 
ated over public highways. The State Tax Depart¬ 
ment is firm in claiming that a commercial license 
must be had “whenever a tractor is operated on the 
road. It seems like nonsense to claim that merely 
crossing the highway from one field to another 
should he considered “use of the highway.” If, how¬ 
ever, the tractor is driven along the highway for any 
distance the license will he necessary. 
* 
A T the New York State Fair immense quantities 
of milk and ice cream were sold at retail. For 
the first time in the history of the fair, we think, it 
was possible to buy milk as freely as “pop,” root 
beer or soda. It was sold at 5 cents a glass, and 
there was a great demand for it. The ice cream was 
served in paper dishes with, little paper spoons. In 
one building, at one time, we counted over 250 peo¬ 
ple scattered about eating ice cream. For years The 
R. N.-Y. has been advocating just this sort of plan. 
We have always known that the public will buy milk 
if it can be put where people can easily reach it. 
The present great demand for “soft drinks” is pretty 
much a matter of habit, developed by the parties 
who are interested iu* the sale. The people who are 
interested in the sale of milk must meet these soft 
drink advertisers on their own ground. As a drink 
the milk is superior in every way, and it is our busi¬ 
ness to make the city people realize that fact. It can 
he done. There are great possibilities in the trade. 
Brevities 
Revolution does not always permanently help evo¬ 
lution. 
These supermen that you read about generally turn 
out to be superficial. 
That blight-proof potato we have been talking about 
is still green and growing. 
All varieties of apples seem to he ripening at least 
two weeks earlier than usual this year. 
Many a horse gets the whip when kindness would 
get the horse! Same is true of some boys. 
A good looker is not always a good layer, and the 
rooster always on the roost would better be roasted. 
All Connecticut beekeepers must register with the 
town clerk before October 1, or be liable to a $5 fine. 
A good way for farm worn™ to help the local school 
is for them to takes their work to school some afternoon 
and sit right there, looking and listening. This is a 
case of educational stop, look, listen! 
^ ery likely there are some, men who are keeping 
sheep and would do well to get rid of them. As a gen¬ 
eral proposition, however, we think the sheep men 
should hoM on to their flocks. 
Beware how you go down into an unused well. Car¬ 
bonic acid gas may settle there, as it often does in a silo, 
and such gas is a deadly poison. Before you go down, 
lower a lighted candle or lantern. If it goes out, keep 
out of the well until you can stir in fresh air. 
We find farmers here and there who are using Tim¬ 
othy grass as a cover crop, seeded in corn after harvest. 
Timothy gives a good growth above ground as well as 
below, and is easily killed in the Spring. We also find 
some fruit growers who actually praise quack grass as 
u cover crop. 
