180 
February 2, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BE SIS ESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established iSso __ 
Pnbllfbrd Tteekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 333 Uosl 301 b Street, New lorlt 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Koyi.e, Associate Editor. 
L. H. Murphy, C irculation Manager. _ 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.01. Remit in money 
order, express order, personal check or bank diaft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 11.00 per agate line—T 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 advcrtismg of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
to paid subscribers sustained by trusting any deliberate swindler, irresimm 
Bible advertisers or misleading advertisements in our columns, and any 
guc h swindler will be publicly exposed. We are also often called RP°n 
to adjust differences or mistakes between our subscribers and 
responsible houses, whether advertisers or not. We willingly use oui 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 . ot the tune of 
the transaction, and to identify it. you should mention Ihk Rlral New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
W E heartily commend the article on our first 
page—written by a rural school teacher. 
For sound logic, good temper and truth we consider 
it admirable. It seems to us that the backers of 
the proposed school bill started oft’ on the wrong 
track to begin with. They undertook to show that 
all the rural schools in the State are poorly taught 
and badly organized. To be sure, they did admit 
that there are some good one-room schools. The 
obvious thing in that case would be to find out why 
these schools were efficient, and try to make others 
better before trying to. scrap the entire system. In 
another way the backers of the bill started 
wrong. They seemed to take the position that 
because the bill was suggested by educational 
experts it must of necessity be right, there¬ 
fore the burden of proof must be thrown upon 
those who oppose it. If these backers have advanced 
anything except plausible theory in favor of the bill 
we have not observed it. They started wrong, and 
have held to their course with more or less skill¬ 
fully veiled contempt for the opinions of rural people 
or for their ability to manage a good school. One 
rural school-teacher, whose article appears on the 
first page, should be thanked for presenting her case 
so clearly and well. We have interviewed some of 
the most rabid of these school men and asked them 
what they have ever done to improve the rural 
school in their own district. Thus far all of them 
have been forced to admit that they have been 
so busy chasing after a change in the law that they 
have had no time to attend to the home school. 
That, we take it, is about typical of the average 
school reformer. If they would devote some of 
their energy to work right among their neighbors 
by improving the home school they would get further 
along the road. But no—they must start the fire 
at the top and let it burn down regardless of the 
fact that all history shows that this will not work. 
W E think that some of the experiment stations 
might easily improve the •quality of their 
correspondence—that is, if they desire to gain a 
popular following. Good letter writers are like poets 
and orators—born, not made. The wisest men are 
seldom good letter writers. They know too much, 
and are so. much interested in knowing more that 
they do not like to stop and give what seems to 
them primer talk. We judge this from the com¬ 
plaints often made by our readers. Sometimes they 
send ns the letters they receive ffom the stations. 
These are often perfunctory and sometimes very 
curt. A good letter writer must understand human 
nature and have the ability to give facts in common 
language. We should think that an expert in this 
line, with power to express himself in his own way, 
could develop a great following for the station and 
do untold good. Our experience is that private cor¬ 
respondence, skilfully conducted, is in the long run 
more effective than any so-called publicity. 
* 
W E have a reported case from New York State 
where a man who owns the property next to 
the schoolhouse grounds put up a roadside stand on 
the school grounds about 30 feet from the school- 
house. At the school meeting, which was poorly 
attended, no one objected to the stand. Experience 
has shown that the stand is objectionable while 
school is in session. The noise disturbs the school, 
and cars driving up close to the stand endanger the 
pupils. The waste and rubbish disfigure the school 
grounds. We are asked if such use of the school 
grounds is legal. We shall probably all agree that 
from a sanitary point of view such a stand so near 
the school is objectionable. Section 455 of the educa¬ 
tion law provides the purposes for which school- 
7be RURAL NEW-YORKER 
houses and grounds may be used. This section does 
not provide for a roadside stand, and any use of the 
property for that purpose is illegal. The trustee has 
custody of the building and grounds, and it is his 
duty to care for the same. The matter can be taken 
up with the. district superintendent. 
T HE building and loan associations of the United 
States, now firmly established on the localized 
plan, constitute the best example of practical co¬ 
operation in the world. This system is the real solu¬ 
tion of the housing problem for cities and towns. It 
puts the savings of the people into a system for the 
building of homes for themselves. It develops their 
ability to use their own funds for themselves and 
places the savings beyond the temptation of pro¬ 
motion sharks and get-rich-quick artists. It helps 
make good citizens. The family that saves to own 
a home in the city or on the farm harbors no 
anarchists. 
To make their work better known the associations 
have announced a “thrift week’’ to encourage new 
members, but every week is a thrift week with these 
frugal self-reliant, industrious people. It is, however, 
estimated that the thrift week drive will add a mil¬ 
lion and a half members and fully a billion dollars to 
the resources of the associations for home building. 
The good of this work cannot be overestimated or 
too much encouraged. It is a national asset in which 
all people share. It is a fine example of plain people 
doing it themselves, and without personal reward 
except the benefits that are shared by all. 
* 
T HERE are very few soils in the upper Atlantic 
slope which show an excess of available phos¬ 
phorus. The limestone soils are naturally rich in 
lime, and the soils originally derived from granite 
rock are fairly supplied with potash. When manure 
or clover or Alfalfa are used the nitrogen supply 
may be large, but in practically every farm that has 
been under cultivation 50 years or more the supply 
of phosphorus is limited. This is particularly true 
where wheat, live stock or milk have been regularly 
shipped away from the farm. The constant drain 
of phosphorus in these farm products will in time 
tap the strongest soil just as constant checking 
against a bank account will reduce it unless addi¬ 
tions are made. The ordinary farm manure adds 
very little phosphorus. A small quantity comes to 
the farm in purchased feed, but there is no natural 
gain, as there is in nitrogen from clover or other 
legume crops. And phosphorus is the most essential 
element in the growing of any crop which pro¬ 
duces seeds. These things being so, and there can 
be no disputing them, it is evident that if we are 
to keep up our farm production it will be neces¬ 
sary for us to use phosphorus in some form. The 
most convenient and sensible way is to add acid 
phosphate or raw phosphate rock to the manure. If 
we will add 40 lbs. of acid phosphate to each load 
of stable manure we will usually double the capacity 
of such manure to produce grain crops. This prac¬ 
tice is especially desirable in dairy farms, where 
oats are grown for hay and corn is used for the 
silo. So phosphate the manure. It will pay. 
* 
P ERHAPS you can help us on this. We want to 
know what we can about feeding apple pomace 
to cattle, especially about putting it in the silo. 
Several readers say they have the analysis of pomace 
and some general advice about feeding it, but they 
lack the practical matter which only experienced 
farmers can give. When and where do you put it in 
the silo? How does it keep as compared with corn 
silage? How long after it comes from the press- can 
you ensile it? What proportion of it is spoiled? Do 
you pack it down hard? How long will it keep in the 
silo? How does it compare with corn in feeding 
cattle? What is the best tool to use in getting it 
out? This makes a large order, but it is a large 
subject when you think how much pomace is wasted! 
Can you help? 
* 
W E have been reading of some farmers in 
France who are now living on the same land 
which their remote ancestors occupied in the days 
of Charlemagne, who died in 814. Thus for more 
than 1100 years this land has been occupied by the 
members of the same human breed or family, ^nd the 
land is now said to be as productive as it ever was. 
The ' chemists sometimes attempt to figure the 
amount of nitrogen, potash and phosphorus in an 
acre of land, and they estimate its possible working 
life by the amount of the plant food they discover. 
Viewed in this way, when the original French farmer 
started on this land the chemists might have said 
it was good for 300 years. Yet 1100 have passed 
on. and the soil is still producing and supporting 
its family. Scattered through New England and 
New Jersey are tracts of land which must have 
produced food continuously for 500 years or more, 
for the Indians farmed them before the white men 
came. The truth is. that land is not meiely a supply 
of plant food tc be taken up by crops. It is also 
the laboratory in which plant food is produced, and 
in the hands of a good farmer, soil cannot be 
worn out. 
* 
O N page 79 we started a discussion of the most 
suitable dog for a farmer. Some of our people 
may be inclined to sniff at the idea of a dog dis¬ 
cussion. They will tell us that all dogs are alike— 
carriers of disease, sheep killers and nasty brutes. 
That is one extreme. At the other we have men and 
women who regard the dog with an affection which 
they have never been able to develop for little chil¬ 
dren. We have seen a grown-up woman weep be¬ 
cause she must be separated from her dog for one 
night! If these two types of human beings will 
pardon us, we will say that they both seem ab¬ 
normal. The real truth about man’s relation to the 
dog lies in between. It is true that the great ma¬ 
jority of country people regard a good dog as a 
useful animal. Undoubtedly a man expresses some¬ 
thing of his own character in the dog he selects, and 
the way he keeps and trains him. There is no doubt 
that the dog, like man, has responded to breeding 
and selection. The different breeds are as well de¬ 
find as those of cattle, and if we must have a dog. 
why not select one that fits 4nto the family needs? 
That is why this discussion is started, and we are 
already assured of a full understanding of what the 
different breeds may be expected to do. 
* 
T HE Land Bank of the State of New York, to¬ 
gether with the saving and loan associations, is 
the best means for providing mortgage credits that 
has yet been devised for both farms and town homes. 
James W. Fleming, State Controller, has been prompt 
to recognize the efficiency of this bank. In addition 
to previous investment of State funds in the bonds 
of the Land Bank, he has just purchased a million 
dollars worth of its bonds fo help the bank in its 
purpose to supply the needs of its members. The 
saving and loan system, of which the Land Bank as 
a part, has possibilities of developing into one of the 
greatest institutions of the State; and the best part 
of it is that it is an institution built up by the plain, 
frugal people of the State, and maintained by them 
for themselves. It puts to rest the argument of lead¬ 
ers who want us to think that the plain people lack 
information and ability to do things for themselves; 
and that their affairs must be managed by the few 
with alleged superior intelligence. 
W E understand that the school bill has been 
introduced in the Legislature—this time by 
Hon. F. L. Porter, Assemblyman from Essex 
County. Before election, Mr. Porter assured his 
people that he would act as they desired in the mat¬ 
ter, and we are sure that a majority of farmers 
in Essex County are opposed to the bill. We believe 
Mr. Porter wants to learn the true rural sentiment, 
and we suggest that our readers write him and tell 
him clearly just what they want him to do. This 
should be done at once. The address is, Hon. F. L. 
Porter, Assembly Chamber, Albany, or Crown Point, 
N. Y. He wants to know the rural sentiment on this 
bill, and our people may be considered past masters 
in the art of telling him. Will you help? 
Brevities 
A bill calling for a bounty of $2 on every crow killed 
is before the New Jersey Legislature. 
There ought to be more geese. We find them the 
most economical poultry to keep and fine eating. 
Ix New York State personal property bought with 
pension money is exempt from levy and sale for taxes 
or under an execution. 
We find that these bonus men rank well with the 
school men in calling hard names. And most of them 
forget to sign names to their letters. 
Ix a case where a man worked part of the year in 
New York State and then moved to another State, we 
think he will be held subject to an income taxe on what 
he earned while here. 
The Hope Farm man’s little essay on Angel Food 
seems to have aroused a demand for fish balls in un¬ 
expected places. M hen'a man in Texas and anothei in 
Quebec come to praise these delicacies we may safely 
call it widespread interest. 
There ought to be more money in growing rye straw 
. on farms near the large cities. Such straw is scarce 
and there is a good demand for it. Rye will make a 
fair growth on poor or waste land. With the grain and 
present price of straw it should be more profitable than 
hay. 
