40 
in education. You seem to assume that no such 
measure has ever been tried elsewhere. 
Such a proposal is on all fours with the notion 
that the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead 
Act were sprung on this country when nobody was 
looking. Do you yourself indorse the nullification of 
prohibition so far as New York is concerned on the 
ground that it was not preceded by local option? 
Do you think New York City now ought to have 
light wines and beer, or something stronger, because 
a majority of its citizens probably never wanted 
prohibition “thrust upon them”? 
You quote our polite and popular Governor Smith, 
of brass-rail memory, as giving away the fact that 
the rural school bill favors consolidation. And all 
the rural demagogues are ranting because Commis¬ 
sioner Graves admits it. There is no secuet about 
that, and I do not personally know of any advocate 
of the bill who affirms the contrary. Do you? But 
you seem very careful not to say that the bill com¬ 
pels consolidation, or even permits it without a ref¬ 
erendum vote of the districts concerned. Are you 
and your “unorganized (?) rabble” afraid to have 
the people vote after this bill is adopted? Do the 
majority of your readers lenow that under the pres¬ 
ent law, which this -bill would supersede, consolida¬ 
tion can be ordered by the district superintendent 
without any vote of the people? Is that why they 
want the law to stand as it is now? 
Do you yourself know of any provision in the bill 
that is not more democratic (not to say Democratic), 
more subject to the influence of popular sentiment, 
than is the existing law; any doubtful issue that is 
not better safeguarded? Does the present law give 
more numerous opportunities for review and rever¬ 
sal on appeal from initial decisions made by the edu¬ 
cational authorities? 
Possibly, it might give better satisfaction if ap- 
jteals that finally reach the Commissioner of Educa¬ 
tion (not the “Superintendent of Education,” as 
Governor Smith names him) were made subject to 
review by the New York Court of Appeals—on the 
ground that the Commissioner is always an inter¬ 
ested party. Why doesn’t one of your advanced, 
progressive champions of education “as is” propose 
such an amendment to the bill? I am sure it would 
be accepted by the friends of the bill—or even an 
appeal to the President of the United States, as was 
recently made by the City of New York so that its 
Comptroller could stay out of jail and transact the 
great city’s business. 
Of course anyone can find objections to this bill; 
but objections are not arguments necessarily. You 
can find 5,000 objections either in city or country 
against any measure that increases anybody's taxes 
five cents (except millionaires’ taxes). All the nat¬ 
ural pinch-penny shrewdness that can be found any¬ 
where can always be mustered against anything that 
the highbrows intend to “thrust” down the throats 
of the poor common people. And any' paper that 
assumes the championship of this always-persecuted, 
inarticulate crowd is of course a great paper! And 
any course of action or inaction that will result in 
keeping our common schools at least as poor as they 
now are will always be favored by sinister influences 
that are inimical to the public schools. 
If the rural people of this great State (which 
ought to lead the nation in education) would send 
for Bulletin 30 of the U. S. Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C. (it’s free for the asking), and 
then read it, some of them would get some new ideas 
concerning the relative position of New York among 
the States in regard to the improvement of rural 
schools. Will they do it, or will they simply stand 
pat and send up resolutions saying “We don't want 
it?" If there is “ nigger ” in the bill why can’t the 
country produce some rural solon to discover it, ex¬ 
pose it, and then write a better bill for improving the 
schools? 
I predict that if this bill, or something better, is 
passed at the coming session of the Legislature it 
will be because city people who now have good 
schools and who would pay seven-eighths of the in¬ 
creased taxation which it calls for (all of which is 
to be spent in rural schools ) are generous enough— 
or selfish enough—to vote it over the protest of the 
unprogressive element in the rural districts. The 
rural people will mostly have to be shamed into sup¬ 
porting it. (They are discrediting their own repre¬ 
sentatives in the Committee of Twenty-one.) The 
farmer would probably never have had good roads 
in this State if city people hadn't wished to ride in 
automobiles out into the open country. Now the 
farmer wants every country cross-road improved, 
provided he doesn’t have to pay any more taxes. 
We lament the lure of the city, but it is well to 
remember that the cities would go to the devil faster 
7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
than ever were it not for the constant influx of new 
blood from the open country. The city is interested 
in the education and the mental and moral out-look 
of those who come from the country, and who have 
the “gumption” to be something in spite of the han¬ 
dicaps of the usual one-room rural school. 
Fit AN K WILLIAM HOWE. 
Joseph Slocum College of Agriculture, 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
It. N.-Y.—We merely call attention to the contrast 
in character and language between these two arti¬ 
cles. Our suggestion was that the friends of the bill 
select their ablest champion and let him state their 
case properly. It does not seem to us that Prof. 
ILowe’s article sizes up to this suggestion. Like 
some other friends of the bid he seems to think that 
sarcasm and veiled abuse will drive us into angry re¬ 
tort, or frighten us from our position. He ought to 
know better than that, but for some reason he and 
his friends keep up this line of attack. It will avail 
them nothing. We cannot see any connection be¬ 
tween this school bill and prohibition. It seems to 
us that local option, high license, State control— 
about everything was tried somewhere before pro¬ 
hibition was finally adopted. We think there is 
every reason why a revolutionary bill like the one 
proposed should be tried out before changing our 
entire system. As for the little sneer at Gov. Smith, 
This is a granddaughter of a R. N.-Y. reader, all ready 
for an outing with her pony. 
it seems in rather poor taste and poor policy when 
we consider that the Governor’s backing gives the 
bill about the only standing it can have at Albany. 
We take Prof. Howe’s word for it that all friends of 
the bill favor consolidation. Some of them have 
tried to keep that fact as carefully hidden as though 
it was a concealed weapon carried without a license. 
Prof. Howe’s outspoken statement shows us a group 
of men all in favor of consolidation, tying their own 
hands and feet with a bill which they say does not 
permit forced consolidation. A curious spectacle, 
that. 
Which is the Business Hen? 
I do not wish to make any trouble for you by start¬ 
ing a breed discussion but I would like to ask the 
opinion of your readers as to the best and most profit¬ 
able breed of poultry for a flock not to exceed 500, as 
a side line to dairying on a farm located about equally 
distant from New York and Boston. As I see this 
matter, leaving out all personal breed preference, it de¬ 
pends entirely on the income*to be expected from the 
sale of eggs, broilers and fowls after deducting the 
cost of feed and labor. In order to arrive at some rea¬ 
sonable decision it is necessary to know about the fol¬ 
lowing : 
1. What per cent of lay can be expected from the 
different breeds in the months of November, December, 
January and February when eggs are high priced? 
2. What price premium can be expected on white 
eggs over brown eggs in New York? 
3. What is the average broiler weight of a Leghorn 
as compared-with a Wyandotte or Rhode Island Red? 
About what is the average price pey,, pQund Tor these 
breeds as broilers? 
4. About what prices can be expected from these 
breeds when sold as fowls? 
It seems to me that question one could be answered 
by the different egg.-laying contests, but I do not re¬ 
January 12, 1924 
member seeing it answered. As to the other questions; 
I understand that the light egg breeds can produce 
eggs at a smaller cost for feed than the general purpose 
breeds, but when the salvage price of the fowls and the 
price of broilers is considered I wonder if*the difference 
in cost is very great for any breed. 
It would interest me very much to see some figures 
for the different breeds where they are kept as side 
lines. I do not think figures from specialized poultry 
farms or backyard flocks would be of much value, as 
under such intensive conditions the results would be 
misleading when applied to a side-line flock. 
Massachusetts. john g. ellis. 
W HAT with the school question and other mat¬ 
ters one would think we had reached about 
the limit of troubles. They do not trouble us. We 
seem to be immune, and a little thing like a discus¬ 
sion of breeds will not matter. These are good ques¬ 
tions, and we shall be glad to have them opened up 
and aired by practical men. 
Orcharding of the Future 
N INTERESTING FIELD.—As one views the 
problems confronting the peach and apple or- 
cliardist regarding the cost of upkeep and the keep¬ 
ing quality, and marketability of the crop, one in¬ 
stinctively recoils and casts about for another ave¬ 
nue whereby to gain a livelihood. The improve¬ 
ment of new varieties of nuts over the old seedling 
trees, the regularity of bearing, and the quality of 
the crop of the grafted nut trees makes it a very 
interesting field of exploration -when seeking the 
profit-producing crop to plant. 
PLANTING METHODS.—A solid nut grove of 
mixed species and varieties makes a very fine col¬ 
lection if one has in mind the least amount of work. 
But if one can obtain the labor, one could consider 
a grove with trees planted 80 ft. apart, as nut trees 
are very wide-spreading; then plant apples every 
40 ft. and peaches or sour cherries or some of both 
as 20 ft. fillers. 
GENERAL CARE.—If a solid grove is considered 
one can remember he will not be pestered to death 
with all the pests allotted to fruit trees, and if he 
makes a mixed planting the nut trees can be sprayed 
with the fruit trees; as the fruit tree spray aids in¬ 
stead of harms the nut tree. After the first few 
years the nut trees require no pruning, which is an 
item of some size in the fruit orchard, and if for 
any reason a grove would be left to shift for itself 
for a period of 10 years it would increase in value 
to a remarkable extent; whereas the fruit orchard 
would be nearly worthless. Nut trees are a wonder¬ 
ful engine of production, therefore they require 
plenty of food in the form of manure mulch. One 
excellent method is to plant the grove in white 
Sweet clover and allow it to gather the nitrogen 
for the trees. It can either be cut and left lying 
or let die down. 
VARIETIES TO PLANT.—The so-called paper- 
shell black walnut, which is finer than many seed¬ 
ling English walnuts, the French varieties of Eng¬ 
lish walnuts grafted on the black, which makes 
them very adaptable to the North Central States, 
and the shagbark hickories and pecans, are all very 
desirable to plant. But the English and black wal¬ 
nut are the most desirable, also the black is inval¬ 
uable for lumber. In planting, be absolutely sure 
of planting grafted trees from a reliable nursery¬ 
man, as one is often deceived in nut trees if one 
does not deal with a thoroughly reliable house. 
JOHN W. HERSIIEY. 
What Varieties of Soy Beans? 
You recently published a very interesting article on 
Soy beans. We have raised them in the corn for silage, 
and think it pays to do. it, or would pay us 
if we did not spend so much time filling that 
the Soys get too ripe and the leaves all fall off. We 
tried a few for hay, but with us they were pretty 
coarse, and nothing would eat them; they were not 
much better than pea brush. Variety was Medium 
Green. What variety should we plant on Eastern 
Long Island for hay, how much seed per acre, how 
ripe should they be when cut, and how best to cure 
them ? GOULD BROS. 
Long Island. 
HE Wilson Soy bean has been very satisfactory 
with us. Our horses and cows eat the hay 
freely. At first sight a farmer •will wonder how he 
can ever induce his stock to eat such a collection of 
coarse sticks and leaves, but with us the stock will 
quickly clean it up. It is possible that you let the 
beans stand too long before cutting for hay, and it 
is true that* some varieties, when over ripe, are 
coarse and woody. We like to cut when the beans 
are just forming in the pod. It is a mistake to wait 
until the beans are fully formed, for then the vines 
are too hard and tough. 
