1258 
•Pit RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 22. 1921 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER S PAPER 
K National WtfUy Journal lor Country and Suburban Home* 
Established 4880 
Poblluhrd weekly by (he Rnral I'ubliiblnx Company. 333 Went 30th Street. J(» Vor 1 
Herbert W. Colijnowood, President and Editor. 
Jons J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royi.e, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.0», equal to*s. Cd., or 
marks, or Ib'i francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates. 11.00 per agate line—7 words. References required for 
advertisers unknow n to us j and cash must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in this paper is bncked 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, 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 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 Tiie Ri'Kal New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
I have be<in ;i subscriber to sever til so-called farmers’ 
papers, but when 1 ran across a bundle of It. N.-Y.s 
back in a lonesome Adirondack Mountain cabin, my 
two months’ vacation was complete, and 1 enjoyed them 
so much that when I left that bundle had been clipped 
and I have a bunch of the best data I was ever able to 
procure. I for one will say you sure put the pep and 
punch into reading matter, and your “ads.” are also 
interesting. Robert kimber. 
OU will run upon this paper in the most unex¬ 
pected places—and it is also just where you 
would expect to find it. 
* 
W E have seen public arguments against our 
present country schools based on the assertion 
that illiteracy is very high in the country districts. 
Such orators generally claim that the number of 
country people who cannot read and write is a great 
menace to society. It is much like the gray-haired 
lie that our insane asylums are filled with fanners’ 
wives! The United States census report shows that 
most of the illiterates of New York State are in the 
cities. The number in the rural districts is compar¬ 
atively small. In fact, many of the rural schools are 
today giving their pupils a far more practical and 
useful training than the crowded city schools ever 
can do. We know this to be true in the ease of sev¬ 
eral children who have come out of the city to at¬ 
tend the local school. There are, of course, some 
districts where the school is not what it should be. 
but, taken as a whole, good and bad together, there 
is no “menace” about it. Where local public senti¬ 
ment is dead you cannot give it new life by using 
“strong-arm” methods. This improvement of the 
rural school is a job for rural people. Let the city 
folks reform their own illiterates first. 
Q UITE a number of readers have written us 
about the payment of tlie New Jersey soldiers* 
bonus. Winfield S. Price of Trenton is secretary of 
the claims division. lie writes us that about 122,- 
000 applications have*been received and 00,000 have 
been passed for payment. Payments are being made 
at the rate of 700 per day. November 30 is 1 lie last 
day upon which application may he filed under the 
law, and our readers who are entitled to the bonus 
must remember this date and get in their applica¬ 
tion at once. 
% 
W ORD comes from Paris (not to us direct, how¬ 
ever) that skirts for women’s dresses will be 
worn much longer. Most us have no interest in such 
matters unless it has some connection with eco¬ 
nomies. What Paris says about woman’s garments will 
he the last word to (lie ladies of the earth, whether 
they reside in an igloo in Greenland, a tent in the 
desert, just the warm atmosphere of the South Seas, 
on Riverside Drive, or in the mountains above Jatoez 
Corners. It is estimated that, the lengthening of 
these skirts will make new demand for 25.000,000 
yards of cloth, worth about $2 per yard. That 
should he good news for the sheep quietly feeding 
on a thousand hills—unless they realize, as men do, 
that the patient sheep must share this increase of 
business with the rag bag. That is the way it will 
go unless we can compel legislation which will make 
shoddy wear the proper tag. Rut what a thought it 
brings to mind when a decree of fashion can make 
such an economic change. Years ago most men wore 
top boots instead of shoes. Suppose fashion sent us 
back to boots. There would not be hides enough in 
the world to supply the demand for leather. Right 
now the potato growers need some fashion that will 
compel each person to eat two potatoes a day! At 
least we are putting milk into fashionable society, 
and it will stay there. 
O N page 1182 we spoke of the rural theater and 
the need of good wholesome plays which may 
interpret farm life This has been left, too much to 
the city people, who have put before the public silly, 
grotesque or even malignant pictures of the country. 
This has hurt us. for if we are to put farming where 
it belongs we must, give it something of what our 
children call “class.” Evidently we must do this 
ourselves. Our plays and stage pictures must 
be built in the country. The New Hampshire 
College at Durham issued a one-act. play by Henry 
Railey Stevens entitled “All Alone in the Country." 
There are three characters, and the entertainment 
is provided by Aunt Polly, a city woman, whose 
concrete and brick brain makes her more stupid 
under country conditions than any “hayseed" 
ever was in town. It turns the shaft of ridicule 
very neatly. Tt is sent for 15 cents a copy, and we 
think it, will prove a genuine help in any country 
entertainment. We must have more of these little 
1 »1 a ys. 
C 'iOOl) potatoes sell at retail in New York City 
X “10 pounds for 25 cents.” On some of the 
•peddlers’ wagons you can buy five pounds for 11 
cents! As a rule the farmer rarely receives more 
than one-third of this final retail price. .Tust why 
these good potatoes should bring so little money in 
the face of the crop shortage which all admit is a 
great mystery to most people. The truth seems to 
be that the poorer people are not. eating potatoes as 
they did before the war. We have had occasion t > 
verify this statement recently in helping to provide 
fer some poor people. They tell us that they can buy 
more food for a dollar in oatmeal, rice or corn meal. 
In some cases they have become convinced that their 
children must have milk, so they buy the grains in¬ 
stead of potatoes and serve with milk. The high 
prices for potatoes during the war put them out of 
reach of the poor. Up to that time many of them 
had rarely eaten rice or cornmeal. Now that po¬ 
tatoes have fallen in price, most of these people 
prefer the other food. That is an actual condition in 
many of our large cities. It must he considered in 
estimating the future of the potato market. The 
campaigns for milk and rice have without doubt 
reacted upon the demand for potatoes. It is a mis¬ 
take, because in many ways potatoes are more suit¬ 
able as food than rice or cornmeal. We shall try to 
do our part by organizing a campaign for potato 
eating. 
* 
T IIE present administration was put in power by 
a combination of several classes of citizens. 
There were the hidebound Republicans who consider 
it a crime to vote any other ticket. Then come the 
Progressives or Independents. They are mostly Re¬ 
publicans at heart, but they followed Roosevelt when 
he bolted. Then came the great army of Democrats 
who were disgusted with the Wilson Administration. 
Some of their criticisms were fair, but others were 
net—anyway, they joined the majority as a form of 
rebuke. Then there were thousand^ of foreign-horn 
citizens who did not understand much about it, hut 
“went with the procession.” These groups united 
and elected Harding by a tremendous majority, and 
also a Congress in which the Democrats have hardly 
enough members to say “me too!” This Congress 
has now been in session six months and has greatly 
disappointed the people who made the present Ad¬ 
ministration possible. The people have been unusu¬ 
ally .patient under hard conditions, but as we go 
about and communicate with voters it is evident that 
public opinion is being rapidly formed. Congress 
or its leaders are being regarded as lazy, hesitating 
and slow. There seems to be a lack of leadership, a 
lack of courage, and too much fighting for sectional 
or class advantage. It seems very doubtful if the 
method of electing United States Senators by popu¬ 
lar vote has given us stronger men than those for¬ 
merly elected by the Legislatures. It is high time 
that Congress got definitely busy, or at least two 
of the groups which elected the present Adminis¬ 
tration will quit. 
* 
T may shock some of our readers to hear us say 
it. but we have long held the opinion that many 
farmers do not play enough. “The gospel of hard 
work” is good and true, but there is no “machine,” 
either human or mechanical, that can continue to 
do hard work without oil. Lacking this oil, the 
bearings will begin to grind and sooner or later you 
have a “hot box.” which throws the whole machine 
out of gear and out of good work. Now, play and 
happiness represent the oil of life. The man who 
has lost the ability to lose himself in play becomes a 
grind. There are times when we must all lose our¬ 
selves in order to find the best course. He nniy 
pass for an efficient worker, but he never can accom¬ 
plish as much :is the man to whom honest play gives 
a “joy in the job.” We all know cases where men 
seem to have exhausted practically all their energy, 
and feel that they cannot go any further. Yet sud¬ 
denly their spirits are aroused and they take hold 
with renewed power. What happened to them was 
that some spirit of play or some quick and strong 
desire took their minds away from their troubles 
and fatigue. Then they suddenly discovered new 
sources of energy which they did not realize. It 
was a case of the spirit stimulating the body. The 
overage man does not play half enough. He has 
forgotten how. and that means losing about, the best 
there is in youth. We all agree that too much play¬ 
ing may soften character and make a man into a 
toy. We forget, however, that too little play mav 
petrify character and turn the man into a dry stick 
upon which no one can ever make a live bud grow. 
We think a certain amount of play is essential in 
the life of all young people. Far better encourage 
play in the country than drive the young folks to 
town in search of it. 
W HEN the conference or parley on disarma¬ 
ment meets at. Washington a vast majority 
of Americans will favor some step or arrangement 
that will put an end to war forever. The great war 
has practically put the world into bankruptcy and, 
what is worse, filled the world with hatreds and 
lack of respect for law and for human life that has 
not been known since the Thirty Years’ War in 
Europe. As for this nation, it is saddled with a 
public debt which, if it is to he paid in full, will pass 
a burden on to our grandchildren. As for Europe 
it seems utterly impossible that the nations engaged 
in the war can through any reasonable source of 
income, pay their debts without repudiation or gifts 
from this country. So many of the strong and 
active men have been killed or crippled that there is 
likely to he a severe loss in the next two generations, 
both in quality and numbers of population. And 
practically all of this frightful loss is due to war. 
It. is the result of a contract with evil written in 
blood. And tiie horror of it all is that the exhausted 
nations, instead of laying down their arms and going 
hack to work—their only hope of industrial salvation 
—are holding their weapons, grimly preparing for 
another war. Much the same thing has happened 
before in the world’s history, though never on such 
a murderous scale. In every case the farmer has 
suffered most, both during the actual fighting and 
ir the inevitable payment of war debts. The farmer 
above all other men should favor peace. He cannot 
hope to perfect any of his plans for marketing re¬ 
form or co-operative work while the thought of the 
nation is directed toward war or preparation for 
war. The average man may think lie cannot do much, 
yet public sentiment, which is the thing that; finally 
settles such questions, is only the condensation of 
the opinions of millions of average men. The intlii- 
ence of America in this coining conference will be 
measured by the public spirit of Americans. Con¬ 
gress is the political clinical thermometer to register 
the temperature of human nature on public ques¬ 
tions. Let us all get right after our Congressmen 
and Senators and make them understand that this 
country has had enough of war, and, as the biggest 
hoy in the crowd, will start first at scrapping war 
expenses. 
Brevities 
One man writes us that his daughter’s posies are sun- 
flowers. 
TiiE eggless hen never takes the cake until she is 
fired into the frying pan. 
IIe who to thorough farming would aspire must he 
prepared to practice and perspire. 
There seems to be a good opportunity in most neigh¬ 
borhoods for successful horseradish culture. 
We notice that woodchuck meat is still offered on the 
Johnson City, N. Y., public market at 20 cents a pound. 
Some of our authorities advise burning all weeds and 
trash. We would haul to the orchard and pile around 
the apple trees. 
Experiments show that the common house-fly is 
capable of flying over 13 miles. It has been known to 
make six miles in 24 hours. 
Attempts to patch up a lawn by reseeding the poor 
places alone are not very satisfactory. If the lawn is 
really going, better plow or spade it and give a full re¬ 
newal. 
We understand that Connecticut has a new law 
making auto hogs who steal fruit or vegetables from 
any person’s property liable to a fine of .$500 or three 
years in prison, or both. 
The latest seems to be a honey race or record among 
the bees of Saline County. Mo. There are 453 colonies 
entered. The leader to date is Thomas Landon, who 
with 22 colonies has averaged 127 lbs. each, or one and 
one-third tons. 
