1330 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PArER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban llomeu 
Established isso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing- Company, 333 West 30th Street, New Pork 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wk. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.04, equal to 8s. 6d., or 
marks, or 10>£ francs. Remit in money order, express 
order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 1100 per ag^ce 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, 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 The Rural New- 
i orker when writing the advertiser. 
1 am a Jong way from New York, and your paper is 
hardly local enough to justify my taking it; neverthe¬ 
less I expect to renew once more to help a paper that 
tries to be honest with its chief readers, farmers. 
Oregon. * r. e. ciierrick. 
I T is true that our chief readers are farmers. They 
are honest with us. and we try to be honest with 
them. 
5*c 
S OME strange and remarkable things come into 
every human life. We have our share, but one 
of the leaders in this line occurred last week. That 
was when a farmer, milking at least half a dozen 
cows, asked in all seriousness if it would pay him 
to buy and use the vitamine tablets now offered for 
sale. These tablets seem to be made of sugar, with 
gum to bind them together. They are said to con¬ 
tain “cultures” of vitamines such as are found in 
milk, tomatoes, lettuce and other foods. These tab¬ 
lets are sold at a high price, and cannot possibly 
contain as many or as active vitamines as are found 
ifi milk. The tablets are supposed to be taken with 
each meal so as to supply what ordinary food lacks, 
yei a glass of good milk would be far superior in 
every way. What we call remarkable is the fact that 
an intelligent man with an abundance of milk for 
his family should even dream of buying this tab- 
leted stuff to provide what the milk is far better 
designed to do. The truth is that farmers do not 
use half enough milk in their own families. It 
should not be considered a luxury for city folks 
alone—it is a basic food which should be used by 
everyone. 
X 
T IIE New York wool growers are doing a good 
business at manufacturing blankets and cloth 
and selling at retail. This business is a success— 
at least to the consumer. We have bought both blan¬ 
kets and cloth. The quality is excellent, and we 
estimate the saving at 25 per cent at least. It 
seems as if anyone may buy this cloth and have his 
clothes made by a tailor for the price lie would 
usually pay for readymade goods of an inferior 
quality. That is a sort of business to be encour¬ 
aged in every way. We hope to see the same thing 
worked out with hides and leather goods. Let the 
hides be pooled as the wool is now. Let the organi¬ 
zation control a tannery and a factory, so that, in 
exchange for the hides, a farmer may receive leather, 
harness or boots and shoes. That will require more 
action than the exchange between wool and cloth, 
but it can be worked out. We have felt for a long 
■time that this system of exchange must be organ¬ 
ized. There is evidently little use looking to the 
government to regulate the middlemen and handlers 
so that we may receive fair prices for what we sell 
and reasonable rates for what we buy. Why not 
stop fooling with such efforts and do it ourselves? 
We must do it in the end, anyway. Why not start 
now with such articles as we can handle? A large 
share of manufacturing was once in our hands. 
Why not start to get it. back? 
Ihe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
every other form of propaganda and push this vita- 
mine argument to the limit. The manufacturers of 
yeast and of “commercial vitamines” got the start, 
and it will be hard to catch them. The oleo manu¬ 
facturers, too, have had chemists at work seeking 
to find some principle in the materials they use 
which can offset the vitamines in pure butter. They 
will not find it, though they will make great claims. 
The truth is that pure butterfat is superior to any 
other as human food, and dairymen should make the 
world understand that fact. 
* 
November 12, 1021 
A ND now we are to have a State-wide organiza¬ 
tion for marketing maple sugar and syrup. 
For more than a year men interested in maple 
products have been trying to develop a sensible 
plan. Now they seem to have found a way, and 
they expect soon to have the producers of 200.000 
gallons of syrup “signed up” and ready for distri¬ 
bution next Spring. For the present R. .T. Delevan 
of Cortland County will act as organization mana¬ 
ger. The maple syrup makers are widely scattered, 
and many of them are far back from town. A good 
organization will be of great benefit to them, and 
To commemorate your pacific teachings I am sending W1 promote the distribution of pure goods, 
a memento, history unknown, evidently of humble origin. 
I leave it to you to conjecture the years it is in advance * 
of the ages. Hang it where you will, its silent lesson is 
with it still—a sword rusted in its scabbard. 
Massachusetts. f. e. stevens. 
A 
A CCOMPANYING this note came the old sword 
pictured on this page. It is an old-fashioned 
weapon, rusted so firmly into its leather scabbard 
that it cannot be withdrawn. We judge that it 
dates back to the War of 1812 at least, and perhaps 
to the Revolution. Whatever its history—whether of 
bloody action on the battlefield or of some 
peaceful parade, its days of warfare are 
over. The writer of this may be said 
to belong to a fighting family. His 
ancestors have taken part in 
every war for the preservation 
America from King Philip’s 
down. The younger genera 
its share in the great 
Yet we have had enough 
cruelties, its desolation, 
and the wretched de 
of material things, 
butes of humani 
that the coming 
may find a 
tions of 
t r. a 1 
of 
War 
tion did 
World War. 
of war — its 
its broken homes 
struction not only 
but of the finer attri- 
ty. We hope and pray 
conference at Washington 
way through which the na- 
the earth may grow in mu- 
respect and confidence, until 
"The war drums throb no longer, 
And the battle flags are furled 
In the parliament of nations, 
The federation of the world.” 
The old sword will never be drawn from its scab¬ 
bard. Let us all see to it that this condition shall 
also be true of the world’s great armament of 
u eapons. 
* 
T HE President has appointed 21 men and women 
on an advisory committee to act with the Amer¬ 
ican delegates to the disarmament conference. We 
find names of lawyers, army and navy men, business 
men. manufacturers and the labor leaders—but not 
one farmer or any man or woman truly representa¬ 
tive of agriculture. Why? The make-up of the com¬ 
mittee shows that efforts were made to have the 
great industries, commerce, business and manufac¬ 
turing. represented. If the representatives of “or¬ 
ganized labor” had to be appointed, why not at least 
one farmer? 
X 
S we have before stated, the “inoculated sul- 
» phur” now being described in The It. N.-l r . is 
just ordinary ground brimstone containing, in a dry 
ferm, certain germs which when put into the soil act 
to produce sulphuric acid. We understand that these 
germs are carried in the substance known as fuller’s 
earth, which is dry-mixed with the sulphur. Our 
personal opinion is that these sulphur germs give a 
product which is superior to plain sulphur for 
various purposes. This opinion may be wrong, and 
we will cheerfully accept any fair criticism based 
on experience or actual knowledge. We have known 
men to try to condemn such new suggestions without 
a hearing or without evidence. The whole matter 
seems interesting and important to us; we can see 
how the theory, if it be sound, can be worked out to 
great advantage. We print these articles in answer 
to many requests for information about sulphur. 
W 1 
X 
F OR some years the “oleo” men had things pretty 
much their own way. They were able to show 
that by ordinary chemical analysis oleo furnishes 
about the same amount of nourishment as butter. 
This could hardly be denied, and it was difficult in 
many cases to prove to the public that butter was 
superior. When the scientists began to work out the 
vitamine problem they gave the dairymen the 
strongest argument which could be used. We saw 
at once that here was the convincing proof that milk 
and butter are fundamentally superior to any com¬ 
bination of vegetable and animal fats which can be 
used as substitutes. We think the dairy associations 
missed a great chance when they failed to drop 
A NEW YORK court has just ruled that rents 
must be based on the landlord’s investment, and 
not on “values created by profiteering methods.” 
This means that a landlord is entitled to an income 
on what he has actually invested. He cannot claim 
an income based on any valuation that can be fairly 
considered extortionate. Suppose a man has $50,000 
invested in a building for rental. Under this inter¬ 
pretation of the law he would be entitled to charge 
rents which will give him a fair income on that 
amount. Suppose that some new sewer or tunnel or 
some public convenience, or buildings on nearby 
property raise the apparent value of the property to 
$100,000. Under this interpretation of the law the 
owner could not legally increase the rent except 
enough to cover his increased taxes or public ex¬ 
pense. One great injustice in modern society is the 
way some men operate with real estate. They buy 
unimproved land at a low figure, paying only nom¬ 
inal taxes, and covering the property with a mort¬ 
gage. Then they let the property stand idle until 
others improve the land around it, and the public pay 
for the roads and other public improvements. The 
result is that the owner of this idle land makes a great 
profit through rise in values. He has contributed lit¬ 
tle or nothing to this increase. He has, in effect, 
played the part of a leech, working on the labor of 
others. Such an owner should be compelled to pay 
his share in improvement taxes, or put his idle land 
at work and make it productive. There is no justice 
in permitting a man to acquire values on his prop¬ 
erty in that w r ay, and then compel his tenants to 
give him an income based on such profiteering meth¬ 
ods. 
X 
E knew when we. started that this “water 
witching” is about the most popular subject 
in the language. That is, if popularity is measured 
by talking. It seems impossible to bring any really 
scientific facts to bear upon the discussion, so it 
comes down to claims on the one hand and scoffs on 
the other. We have had so many letters about it 
that we cannot possibly print them all. Most of 
these letters come from believers who say the twig 
will turn in their hands, or who have seen it turn. 
On page 1341 are pictures showing how the stick is 
held. One reader says he is surprised that we give 
any attention whatever to a thing which he considers 
a fake and a fraud. Well, every honest man should 
have a reasonable chance to prove his theory if he 
can. Columbus had a theory which was pronounced 
worse than a fraud by the wise men of his time. The 
earlier dreams of the steam engine, the flying ma¬ 
chine, the telephone—all were classed as fakes and 
frauds in the beginning. We do not attempt to com¬ 
pare the forked stick with these other great agents 
of civilization, but common sense and close observa¬ 
tion should convince anyone that there is something 
about it which we cannot explain. Human progress 
is one long course of solving mysteries. To us it 
seems plain that certain persons possess a power or 
“attraction” which causes the stick to turn. We 
have long believed that many of the expert baseball 
pitchers owe much of their skill to some personal 
force which, conveyed to the ball on its delivery, 
causes it to upset the force of gravity and dart off 
at seemingly impossible angles. 
Brevities 
Do not try to store the root crops with damp soil on 
them. 
It is the callus on the hen’s foot that indicates 
activity. 
We find that kudzu will stand about as much frost as 
Lima beans. 
Equal parts of cornmyal, wheat bran, ground oats 
and middlings make a great slop for little pigs. 
The man who fights the liquor habit and is himself 
addicted to the mince-pje-for-breakfast habit should con¬ 
sider the beam that is in his own eye. 
It would be a great work for the subordinate Granges 
to see that the local graveyards are cleaned up and made 
neat. Why work over the dead? They speak to the 
living through their surroundings. 
It is evident that the doctor who prescribes beer as a 
medicine will have a sorry time in most communities. 
Most city people have absolutely no idea of the strength 
for prohibition enforcement in the country. 
There has been some discussion regarding the size of 
sunflowers. W. W. Jeffry, a Jerseymau, reports one 
sunflower head four feet around the brim and 17 inches 
across the top—with a yield of one quart of seed. 
Wiiat is an American? A man in Chicago called for 
jury duty gave his names as J. J. Pershing. He said he 
was a Greek, and when he was naturalized thought that 
the general’s name was good enough for him, so he 
adopted it. 
The Farm Bureau News refers to Vera Busiek Schut- 
tler as a woman who has “taught Latin, milked cows, 
kept house and made speeches.” That is a good quar¬ 
tette of accomplishments, so long as each is kept in 
proper place. For instance, it would not pay to teach 
Latin to cows, or make speeches to members of the 
household. 
