228 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S TAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban Jlotnes 
Established JS50 
Fuhlisbed weekly by the Rural Piibliftbtng Company, 333 Went JlOtli Street, New lork 
HERBERT W. Collinowood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
L. H. Murphy, Circulation Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union. $2.04. Remit in money 
order, express order, personal check or bank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, $1.00 per agate 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 ot 
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 adiust 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 Thu Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
F RIENDS of the school bill are font! of saying 
that the various meetings where the bill is dis¬ 
cussed are unfairly managed, because there is no one 
present who knows anything about the subject. All 
ignorance and prejudice, they say. Well, here is a 
typical report of such a meeting: 
At a regular meeting of Henrietta Grange, held Jan. 
19. tlie main business was a discussion of the proposed 
change in our rural school law, as recommended by the 
Committee of Twenty-one. The bill was ably cham¬ 
pioned by an ex-president of our Farm Bureau and who 
was also a member of the Committee of Twenty-one. 
He talked an hour. The opposition was handled by a 
member of our local Grange. At the close of the meet¬ 
ing a rising vote was called for, with the following re¬ 
sult: The vote was unanimous against the bill as it is; 
there were over 100 present. h. e. c. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
We have many reports just like that. In each 
case a champion of the bill was given every chance 
to explain, and after he had done his best the people 
voted against him. In one case the superintendent 
agreed to have speakers on both sides. M hen the 
people came they found only one speaker—one of the 
most rabid supporters of the bill. When she fin¬ 
ished, volunteers from the audience spoke, and the 
meeting voted three to one against the measure. r l he 
truth is that the proponents of this bill seem unable 
to understand the situation. They go on trying to 
explain details, when the people are opposed to fun¬ 
damental principles. 
* 
I attended the large meeting on proposed changes in 
rural school laws at Kingston, N. Y. Among the best 
rbings said at that meeting by Mr. Trueman was in 
answer to our district superintendent, who spoke some¬ 
what in favor of the report of tlie Committee of Twenty- 
. no Mr. Trueman said that if the rural schools were 
as bad as the Committee of Twenty-one made it. why, 
then all our school superintendents should be chased from 
Han to Beersheba. It was also brought out that the 
changes would involve $1,000 additional salary for all 
districts superintendents, which might account for so 
much talking for the proposed changes by these officials. 
SYLVAN US VAN A KEN. 
W ELL, why not? The superintendents are sup¬ 
posed to have oversight of the rural schools. 
If these schools are as had as the Committee of 
Twenty-one painted them, are these superintendents 
to be held responsible? We have a report of a meet¬ 
ing of school men at Albany at which it was decided 
that a bill should be introduced to raise the salary 
of the superintendents to $3,000 per year. They 
now average about $1,800. It is generally under¬ 
stood that this is in the nature of a pull to secure 
backing for the new school bill. At this same meet¬ 
ing it was voted to pay more of the State school 
fund to certain large cities. There are quite a num¬ 
ber of educators and school officials who are ap¬ 
parently doing very little beside roaming about the 
State talking about the school bill. We presume tlie 
State is paying them for this service, but it is some¬ 
thing of a question if they are fully earning their 
salary. 
* 
What has got into the politicians when the farming 
element asks them to take hands off, and they yell theii 
heads off telling the farmer “We are doing this for your 
own good”? II. v.r. 
Massachusetts. 
N OTHING new has worked into the politicians. 
It is the same old game, only bolder and more 
dominating. It is the old idea that tlie farmer is 
incapable of handling his own business, and in¬ 
capable of even expressing a sound opinion as to 
what he needs. The chief trouble seems to be that 
the politicians have succeeded in inoculating most of 
the farm leaders with this curious idea. Who knows 
today of any real farm leader who is not in some 
way tied up to some great political machine? What 
we mean by a “machine” is an institution or organi¬ 
zation which must depend for all or part of its sup¬ 
port on some State or Federal appropriation. Every 
such appropriation is controlled by politicians who 
Jht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
liave the power to cripple or kill the institution or 
organization by withholding funds. Most of the 
present farm leaders know that, and they are quite 
likely to “be good” when it comes to any needed, 
savage tight for farm rights. It has come to the 
point when few of the farm leaders can muster a 
real fighting army behind them. Now and then the 
farmers see some right disappearing and they rouse 
up like a wounded lion aud roar “Keep off the 
grass!” Then the politicians and leaders get in their 
fine work with. “Why, my dear friend, we are saving 
you trouble. We are doing this for your own good. 
You do not quite see the point!” But the farmer can 
see the point of his boot, and some day he will use it. 
* 
I liave a silo filled with good silage of Eureka corn 
and Sov beans, both well developed, but not over-ripe. I 
consider it could not be better. A man wants to buy it 
in loads of one ton. all that I can spare. Will you give 
me a price which you think is right? g. p. b. 
Berwyn, Md. 
HERE are so many questions about the selling 
price of silage that we give this prominent 
mention. There can he no standard commercial 
price for silage, as there is for grain, since it is per¬ 
ishable and bulky, and cannot be kept and handled 
like bay or feed. The value is figured on a compari¬ 
son basis, and usually this is put at 35 per cent of 
the selling price of hay in the stack or mow. Thus, 
if hay is worth $15 a ton, the silage in llie silo 
would be considered worth $5.25 per ton, and so on, 
in proportion to the price of hay. That is figured 
for corn silage. In this ease, where there are Soy 
beans in the silage, we should consider it worth at 
least 40 per cent of the hay price. Many dairymen 
will consider these figures too low, but we think they 
are fair. We have quite a number of reports which 
indicate that at some points considerable silage is 
retailed in small lots and sold to town people who 
keep family cows. The silage is bagged and deliv¬ 
ered weekly in cold weather. 
* 
T has been decided that the State of California 
can legally prohibit the Japanese from owning 
or leasing farm land. There were many Japanese 
growing fruit or garden truck on leased land; now 
they are preparing to leave the State, and their go¬ 
ing will present new problems. It is said that they 
will try to locate on good land near the large East¬ 
ern cities and continue their work of producing 
fruit and vegetables. They are hard workers, frugal 
in their habits, and their coming will mean strong 
and unfair competition with our Eastern gardeners. 
In the course of a few years, if the Japanese con¬ 
tinue to work as they did in California, this will 
have a serious effect upon Eastern farming and gar¬ 
dening. On the other hand, the loss of the Japanese 
workmen will make it necessary for California to 
import white farmers and gardeners from some¬ 
where. Fruit and vegetable growing now represent 
the chief California industry, and the Japanese have 
been almost as necessary for this production as the 
negro has been to the South. With both the brown 
and the black man entering new industries in the 
North and East, a new labor adjustment must be 
made. California is preparing a spectacular hunt 
for white farmers and laborers. Where are they to 
be found? 
* 
S is well known, the State of New York still 
owns certain tracts of land, most of which was 
bought of the farmers when the barge canal was 
built. There are some strips of this State land 
which could be profitably added to farms or used for 
building purposes. Then there are some tracts of 
woodland with fair timber or trapping privileges. 
Readers frequently ask how such land can be bought, 
who has charge of. and what is the method of secur¬ 
ing a sale. We wrote the Attorney General about 
this, and his answer will tell the story: 
In order to obtain a parcel of State property which 
is not being used for any public purpose, application 
may be made to the Commissioners of the Land Office 
for its sale at public auction under the provisions of 
Section 30. Public Land Laws. The application should 
state the present value of the property applied for. the 
amount of taxes now a lien thereon, and the price which 
the applicant is willing to bid for it. You can obtain a 
copy of the rules by writing to Mr. Charles V. Hooper, 
Secretary of the Land Board. Albany, N. Y. 
* 
T HE Hope Farm man is well aware that lie will 
be subjected to violent criticism for his re¬ 
marks about college education on page 22(>. The 
average woman is not just what we would call a 
Spartan mother when it comes to planning the 
future of her offspring. As a rule father is a wiser 
judge of the needs of his boy, but he is generally 
overruled and, if the family finances will permit 
John will go to college whether he is fitted for the 
life or not. Our experience teaches us that if we had 
February 9, 1924 
a large family of girls and boys without the capital 
needed to give all of them college training we would 
make sure the girls had the first chance, It canuot be 
said that there is anything particularly angelic about 
college life at the larger institutions. A boy natur¬ 
ally lazy and of weak character will pick up nasty 
habits and tendencies unless his parents are “on the 
job constantly.” Too many children get the worst 
sort of start in their home. The lives which father 
and mother live are not inspiring, to say the least, 
and the children cannot regard their parents as 
comrades in the truest sense. In many cases it is 
little short of a crime to dump a child with unformed 
character and little or no spiritual training or real 
home influence into the social life of a great college, 
and leave him largely to his own devices. That is 
about what thousands of people do with their boys 
because there is some unwritten law that college 
education is a necessary part of a man’s life. We con¬ 
sider that idea great nonsense. We never would 
send a boy to college just because it seems to be the 
thing to do so. We know young men whose lives 
have been ruined by that practice. They formed the 
idea that the chief aim of school and college is to 
have a good time, excel in sports and social func¬ 
tions and do just enough studying to “pass.” When 
they got through, the habit of playing and loafing 
had become so firmly fixed that they could not re¬ 
cover and face the stern battle of life with a man’s 
full courage. If they could have been put at work 
after finishing high school and held firmly to it they 
would have made useful citizens. On the other hand, 
we liave boys who have gone through college life 
cleanly and with ambition. Their college life lias 
proved a fine investment. The world will be better 
because they took it. If we had children who showed 
this clean ambition, were willing to work and sacri¬ 
fice and keep their faith as they toiled, we would go 
without the necessities of life, if need he, in order to 
give them college opportunity. If on the other hand, 
we had a brood of lazy, indifferent, careless and su¬ 
percilious children we would not spend one cent for 
their college training. They could not touch the 
r obler things of college life, while the ignoble things 
would stick to them like tar. Our colleges have far 
too many of the lazy and purposeless boys whose 
fond parents seem to think that a piece of parch¬ 
ment will make a man. We are in favor of cutting 
down this drone population, so that college life may 
mean far more than it does now. 
* 
T HE new school bill is No. 345 of the Assembly. 
It was introduced in the Senate by Mr. Down¬ 
ing of New York City, and in the Assembly by Mr. 
Porter of Crown Point. It is a long document of 
107 pages—somewhat different from last year’s bill. 
We hope our readers will obtain copies if possible, 
and study it carefully. We understand the Assem¬ 
bly has ordered 10,000 copies printed. As for the out¬ 
look for the bill, the general opinion at Albany seems 
to be that it will not pass this session, yet those who 
oppose the bill should not for a moment relax in 
their work against it. It is recognized at Albany 
that the vast majority of country people are op¬ 
posed to the bill, and the average Assemblyman 
knows just what that means. We take nothing for 
granted, and advise those who are opposed to the 
bill to redouble their efforts against it. As was the 
case last year, Gov. Smith and the New York Senate, 
the Department of Education, the influence of Cor¬ 
nell University and most of the officials of the va¬ 
rious farm organizatious and the small towns favor 
the bill. Opposed to them are the great mass of real 
farmers who are now aroused as never before in the 
history of the State. 
Brevities 
Do not handle it without gloves—poison ivy. 
No one is ever made large in mind, morals or manhood 
by small talk. 
A large-sized bull ring in a cow’s nose is said to pre¬ 
vent self-milking. 
There are very few vegetarians who know that they 
can eat meat without injury. 
The American elm, sugar and Norway maples, scarlet 
and pin oaks, sweet gum, oriental sycamore, and small- 
leafed and silver linden are named by F. H. Ballou, 
associate horticulturist of the Ohio Experiment Station, 
as desirable trees to take the place of Carolina poplar 
and other objectionable species and for new street 
plantings. 
Walter H. Page was our ambassador to England 
during the war, and he had many great experiences. At 
one time he was discussing the seizure of American car¬ 
goes with Lord Robert Cecil. “You must not forget the 
Boston tea party,” said Page. Lord Robert looked up. 
rather puzzled, and answered: “You must remember 
that I never attended a tea party in Boston!” 
