‘Ibe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
5 
Issues of Tax-Exempt Bonds 
Will you inform me. if you can, if any concerted 
effort is being made to abate the unfair practice of float¬ 
ing issues of public bonds under the tax-free induce¬ 
ment? This practice is one which is well known to fur¬ 
nish a place for the wealthy to invest their earnings in 
a way to escape taxation, thus throwing more of the 
burden of taxation on so many who are less able to 
bear it. At this time, when so much is being said about 
the reduction of taxation, it does not seem amiss to re¬ 
advocate the enactment of laws to prohibit the exemp¬ 
tion of such securities from their fair share of the tax 
burden. 
I think that, in most instances, these bonds draw as 
much interest or more than is paid by savings banks 
and, if offered in the right way, and in small enough 
denominations, the public would buy them readily Even 
though it were necessary to pay a little more interest 
in order to make them readily salable, it would be a 
fair deal all around, instead of making a gift to one 
class at the expense of another, as it is now. Do you 
not think that this matter might be taken up in such 
a way as to put the influence of the Grange and the 
Farm Bureau behind it? Would it be a matter to be 
taken up by each State, or by Congress? 
New Hampshire. iiakold l. brown. 
W E have already spoken of this several times. 
We think both the National Grange and the 
Farm Bureau Federation favor laws 
This eastern farmer really made a profit out of mud, 
but the farmer in Missouri whose story is told be¬ 
low' found it anything but a profit. There was no 
question about the loss. The point to remember in 
all these things is the fact that no one should ever 
sign a paper delivered by a stranger without reading 
it carefully through, and if there is anything about 
it which seems wrong or unfamiliar refuse to sign 
it under any conditions whatever. That is the best 
advice that can ever be given to a farmer. 
Jefferson City, Nov. 7.—An Audrain County farmer, 
a few days ago, told B. T. Hurwitz, State‘blue sky 
commissioner, it cost him $4,000 to pull a Kansas City 
motorist from a mud hole in front of liis farm. 
Hurwitz has been unable as yet to establish the 
identity of the J. Itufus Wallingford who recompensed 
the good Samaritan with 4,000 shares in a defunct oil 
company that lost its Delaware charter in 1920. Hur¬ 
witz is investigating the deal, which, at first, he be¬ 
lieved might be a hoax. A small Kansas City bank, it 
was found, holds the farmer’s 00-day note for $4,000. 
The bank officials say they bought the note in good 
faith at the regular 15 per cent discount. 
“The bank informed me the note was made payable 
to E. II. Pittenger,” the blue sky commissioner said. 
ground. Some people tell me they ought to be trimmed. 
Could you advise me how to trim them? Is chicken ma¬ 
nure good for them for fertilizer? mrs. t. j. p. 
New Jersey. 
N our own planting we never think of putting 
chicken manure in the hole near the roots, and 
we do not fertilize the tree during the first year of 
its growth. It is usually a great mistake to put 
manure in the hole. We have ruined a good many 
trees by doing that. We think it better to let the 
tree grow' naturally without being stimulated for the 
first year. After that it w'ill stand considerable feed¬ 
ing, but for a permanent tree we should prefer to 
use very little fertilizer—not more than enough to 
make a fair growth until the tree comes to bearing; 
then we should feed it well. Of course those trees 
ought to have been trimmed before they were plant¬ 
ed.. Our own plan is to cut off the roots of the tree 
all around up to within about eight inches of the 
lower roots. When this is done we plant in a small 
hole and pack the soil firmly around the roots. As 
for trimming the top of the tree, that depends some¬ 
what upon the size of the tree when 
to prohibit the issuing of tax-exempt 
'bonds, but thus far little concerted 
action has been taken. Some people 
feel that such a law' would hurt the 
sale of Federal Land Bank bonds, but 
if all exemptions were removed 
these bonds would stand on equal 
terms with others. Some advocates of 
a soldiers’ bonus would oppose such a 
law, because they feel that government 
bonds needed to provide money for 
such a bonus would not sell readily un¬ 
less they were exempt from taxation. 
In other cases, people who live in small 
tow'ns or cities favor great sales of 
bonds to build schools or other public 
buildings. These bonds are usually 
exempt and could not be sold to advan¬ 
tage unless they w r ere. In many cases 
people w'ho pay no taxes, or at least 
very small taxes, vote these bond is¬ 
sues and saddle the payment upon real 
estate ow’ners. This process is driving 
more and more of the nation’s capital 
out of productive business. Without 
question, many wealthy people are in¬ 
vesting more and more of their money 
in these tax-exempt bonds. To that ex¬ 
tent they evade payment of part of 
their just obligations to society, and 
remove capital from needed enter¬ 
prises. Thus more and more of the 
burden of financing the nation is 
crowded upon a portion of taxpayers. 
These bonds mean an unceasing in¬ 
crease in public construction. This 
takes labor from legitimate industry, 
and creates a standard of wages with 
which farmers cannot compete. The 
R. N.-Y. has been savagely attacked for 
calling attention to these things, but 
we shall continue to point them out, 
for w'e believe that they are partly re¬ 
sponsible for the agricultural depres¬ 
sion which has now' hung over us for years, 
tax exempter must be made to do his share." 
n is pianteci. tor yearling peach trees 
w'e cut back to the top to about 2 ft. 
or a little more, so as to put a short 
stem into the ground. The side branches 
are cift back to about two buds, cut¬ 
ting, of course, so as to leave the out¬ 
side buds at the top to throw its 
branches out away from the trunk. 
With older trees, wiiere a top or crotch 
has been formed, w r e usually cut to six 
or eight inches above this crotch, leav¬ 
ing the outside buds all around. If 
these trees were not trimmed when 
they were planted it will be compara¬ 
tively easy to trim them now. Chicken 
manure is good, but we would use acid 
phosphate or ground bone with it. 
George A. Cosgrove of Connecticut 
Readers will be glad to see the above picture of Mr. Cosgrove, a well-known poultry 
man, and contributor to The Rural New-Yorker for many years. 
The 
Money in a Mud Hole 
F OR many j'ears now The R. N.-Y. has been tell¬ 
ing stories of the way farmers give up their 
money on “blue sky” or fake propositions. All kinds 
of schemes are worked. Here is a new one from 
Missouri, telling how it cost a farmer $4,000 to do 
a friendly job of hauling a stranger out of the mud. 
Last year we told of an eastern farmer who used 
a mud-hole to advantage. This man had a yoke of 
oxen, and he kept his boy with these cattle sta¬ 
tioned near a low place in the road, not far from 
the house. It was surprising how w r et this place 
W'as, even in the time of drought. Cars would at¬ 
tempt to get through it only to find themselves 
stalled and unable to proceed either way.. Then the 
boy would appear with his cattle, just as if he w'ere 
on the way home, or going to work, and after some 
bargaining he would agree to pull the car out of 
the mud for about $5. This turned out to be one 
of the most profitable jobs on the farm, and the 
profit was largely earned at night, for it was found 
that after dark this boy spent on hour or two in 
hauling barrels of water from the spring and pour¬ 
ing it into this wet place, so as to make it a bank 
of perpetual mud. It was really a mud trap In 
which the automobile victims were caught, so that 
they were quite willing to pay for being hauled out. 
The story told by the farmer rivals anything related 
by fiction writers on high finance. 
About the middle of July the farmer, who lives near 
4 andalia, was accosted by a man driving a motor car. 
“Can you give me a little help, neighbor?” asked the 
motorist, whose car was standing in a ditch in front 
of the victim’s farm. According to the farmer, he 
agreed readily. A team was hitched to the car, and it 
was extricated. 
The stranger, to show his gratitude, offered the 
farmer a $10 bill. The farmer refused. He might get 
in the same predicament sometime, and desire help 
himself. 
“That’s mighty kind of you,” the stranger said. “By 
the way, have you any children?” 
The farmer said he had two. 
“Well, when I get to Kansas City I will send them 
some presents to repay for your kindness.” 
The stranger handed the farmer a piece of folded 
paper, which he fumbled over a minute. 
“Please sign your name and address,” said the 
stranger, “so I will know where to send the presents.” 
The farmer says he wrote down his name. 
When several days passed and no presents came for 
the children the farmer gave scant notice. He thought 
the big-hearted stranger probably had lost his address 
or the promise had slipped his mind. 
One month later he received a large envelope from 
Kansas City. Opening it, he found 4,000 shares in an 
oil company later discovered to be defunct. Another 
month passed and he received a notice from a Kansas 
City bank saying his note for $4,000 was due and 
payable. 
Then he remembered the stranger he had pulled from 
the mud hole and the piece of paper. 
More Experience With Soy 
Beans 
I N regard to Soy beans, we planted 
them for two years with good suc¬ 
cess, both for seed and for hay. The 
yield as hay varies from one to two 
tons per acre. It takes about one 
week’s good sunshine to dry them. We 
had ours lying about two weeks, and 
they were badly discolored by rain, but 
the cows liked them just the same. 
Last year we had a fair test at feed¬ 
ing them. When we commenced our 
cows increased in milk flow, as well as 
in test. At corn shredding we covered 
all our bean hay with shredded fodder. 
The results were that the milk supply 
went back, and the test dropped three 
points. The very same thing hap¬ 
pened to my neighbors. 
Our experiment station at Lafayette 
tested a sample of Soy bean hay and 
found it to contain, pound for pound, 
as much food value as wheat bran. 
This year we had 25 acres in beans, of 
which we cut six acres for seed. The 
yield was about 19 bushels to the acre. We used a 
coin shiedder to thrash them. We are at present feed¬ 
ing them to our hogs instead of tankage. The price of 
Soy beans is $2.50 per bushel, so I think it pays bet¬ 
ter to grow them than wheat, as the yield is about 
the same. I say plant more Soy beans, which will 
cut the price of bran, tankage and cottonseed meal, 
and iai.se the price of wheat, besides improving your 
SOi1- S. HARTMAN. 
Indiana. 
Planting a Peach Tree 
I planted 20 young peach and apple trees. Have I 
planted them the right way? The ground is sandy, and 
I dug the holes about 18 in. deep, and at the bottom of 
them I put chicken manure and then filled up and 
tamped same, and hilled them up above the ground. 
Then I put old leaves and chicken manure on top of 
The Free Seed Nuisance 
npHE last Congress did its best to kill the old free 
A seed distribution. It was killed and buried, but 
anything which carries even a small amount of 
graft has as many lives as a cat. We are not sur¬ 
prised that Representative Langley of Kentucky is 
bringing it up in the new Congress. He wants 
free seeds back, and we may say plainly that he will 
get them unless the people generally bestir them¬ 
selves and tell their Congressmen to kill Langley’s 
bill. The entire business is a piece of petty graft, 
kept alive by a group of Congressmen who think 
their people are so small that they will actually sell 
their vote for a few cheap packets of seeds. It is 
haid to believe that a majority of Congressmen real¬ 
ly hold their constituents so cheap, but unless you 
and the rest get busy we shall have free seeds once 
more. 
