544 
T»t RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 29, 1924 
THE SEED CORN 
Situation is Serious 
TVTOT since the season of 1917-18 when owing 
* to actual scarcity of Seed Corn of high 
germination, prices toward planting time 
advanced to $6.00-$8.00-$10.00 and in some 
sections $12.00 per bushel, have the conditions 
regarding corn for seed purposes, been so bad 
as at the present time. Much of the corn pro¬ 
duced in the great corn states of the Middle 
West was severely frozen in January before it 
was thoroughly dry, when the mercury went 
down during three successive cold spells to 
6-14 and even 22 degrees below zero. 
It is estimated that 90% of the crop of the Corn Belt 
is unfit for seed purposes and that the growers will have 
to buy seed themselves from some other source. The 
severe cold weather coming early in the season reduced 
the germination from above 90% which is our standard 
to 51%, 40%, 26% and in some cases, entire crops 
showed stone dead upon test.. 
Fortunately our Flints and Luce’s Favorite were dry 
enough to be unharmed by the unusually cold weather 
and we have been able to procure limited stocks of the 
Dent varieties from small sections of the Corn Belt area 
that escaped the ravages of the freeze. At this time we 
feel safe in sayjng that we will have a stock to offer our 
customers of not over 25,000 bushels of all varieties that 
is northern grown and of high germination. 
Every lot has been tested in our own Laboratory both 
for germination and moisture content with germination 
tests averaging 90% or better. Every bag has a tag 
showing germination and moisture content and it is sold 
direct to you under our famous 10-day-money-back-if- 
you-want-it guarantee, subject to any test you choose to 
make. The varieties we offer are: 
Mammoth Yellow Flint 
Gold Nugget Flint, Luce’s Favorite 
Drought Proof Early Yellow Dent 
Improved Learning 
Mammoth White Dent 
and White Cap Yellow Dent 
We quote a few of these varieties at the attractive 
price of $3 per bushel, freight paid your station. 
Beware of cheap Seed Corn. We have been offered 
Southern corn showing germination of as high as 98% 
at as low as 90c per bushel in car lots but such corn 
while it will grow, will not produce profitable and mature 
crops under ordinary conditions for Northern Farmers. 
This year, no matter where you buy your Seed Corn 
or from whom, demand germination and moisture tests 
and where the Seed Corn offered you was grown. 
Write today for 
DIBBLE’S FARM SEED CATALOG 
10 Sample* of Dibble’s Farm Seed for testing and H 1C p P 
Special Price List quoting Freight Prepaid Prices * 
Address: 
EDWARD F. DIBBLE SEEDGROWER 
Box B, Honeoye Falls, N. Y. 
HEADQUARTERS for Seed Corn , Oats, Barley, Alfalfa, 
Clover, Timothy, Seed Potatoes and a full line 
of Farm Seeds for Northern Farmers 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
New Jersey Again.— The 1 ’arson has 
been clown in New Jersey again. lie is 
getting to be a regular visitor clown rhere. 
lie is also getting so he can get from the 
Grand Central over to the Pennsylvania 
without such a severe ease of cramps in 
the neck, clue to keeping his eye on that 
green line. While waiting in the Pennsyl¬ 
vania for the 2 :11 he finishes the lunch 
which Mrs. Parson put up for him. lie 
loves to eat on the train—reading and 
eating along for miles and miles. He 
bought three apples for a dime just as he 
took the train, as our apples are entirely 
gone now. Here comes a fellow and sits 
down near the Parson with a grip all 
plastered over with pasters that show 
that he has been “Inspected and Passed” 
by officials. "Been across the pond?” 
asks the Parson. 
What For. —Yes, he has been across 
the pond, decidedly so. He has been trav¬ 
eling since early December. He has been 
to France, Italy, Rumania, Austria, Ger¬ 
many and Belgium. He says little except 
things are bad, bad, very bad, especially 
in Germany and France. He speaks with 
a foreign accent. lie is headed for Chi¬ 
cago. “Back home,” he says. He has all 
the appearance of an unskilled laborer. 
Yet he seems to have plenty of money. 
He doesn’t touch his grips—any of them. 
Parson believes a good deal more in peo¬ 
ple's rights than he does in property 
rights, they might not have come. But 
come they did. and one of them plunked a 
V on the plate, so they must not have 
been too badly shocked. It would appear 
that ministers are long on putting the 
onc-e-over themselves, but when they are 
in the pew and another is talking, the old 
saw about the fitting of c-oats maketh not 
a cheerful countenance. Just as they 
were getting ready to pass the hats, the 
minister and his wife left the room—left 
the building altogether. Such an example 
■—to go out just before the collection! 
How would be like that in his church? It 
was certainly astonishing with what for¬ 
titude the large number of people present 
stood the. blow of their pastor’s leaving. 
Not Primed.— -No, the Parson was not 
primed for that evening, but gave out his 
usual dope. The same dope he has been 
talking all about the country. But as 
some of the people said afterwards, one 
could not have happened to hit local con¬ 
ditions better. Such a good time, how¬ 
ever. as we had afterwards- during a 
social hour . We played tap-on-the-back 
and swat-on-lhe-knee and toss the hand¬ 
kerchief, and tucker. In tucker we would 
“all form around the hall.” Then we 
would “all forward and back,” “forward 
The lAne-n/t al a One-room 
| 
j (The Parson is still able to carry his 
• own handbag.) As he headed for a Pull¬ 
man, the Parson wonders not a little 
about him. Why wouldn’t lie talk more? 
What has he been to those countries for? 
He could hardly have had relations in all 
of them. Above all, who was paying for 
all this travel, and what was it for? It 
may have been none of the Parson’s busi- 
! ness, but he could not help wondering 
about it. 
j That Supper. —But here we are, just 
i out of Trenton. A 10-mile run with a 
Ford driven by a divinity student who 
I has charge of a couple of stations, and 
! we pull up at a big farmhouse. The 
I Parson was all taken up with it—he did 
j not half have a visit out with the people 
and children. Fight children, and seven 
at home. That big kitchen, and the table 
’most as long; such well-behaved children, 
so quiet, and yet with no cowed look. A 
cowed look spoils the savor of good be¬ 
havior. The children looked happy, but 
didn’t run the ranch. And such a sup¬ 
per; they do live well in Jersey. It 
seemed a regular Thanksgiving to the 
Parson. Two roast chickens, brown as 
berries, dressing, and two or three veg¬ 
etables, and celery and relish and pre¬ 
serves and cake, and, above all, such fel¬ 
lowship, and so many things to talk 
about. 
Shy op Gas. —The Parson doesn’t re¬ 
member that he ever ran out of hot air, 
but this time he ran out of gas—or at 
least the church did. For while he was 
gassing away the best lie- knew, and it 
was getting along about time to let up 
on the poor congregation, there came a 
flicker from the lights. Commotion and 
consternation among the audience, and 
then darkness. The Parson quit talking 
with the last flicker. Sometimes as the 
Parson is after-dinner speaking he tells 
of how they build a tire down in the old 
box stove at the country church and put 
on the coffee and the coffee begins to 
steep and the Parson begins to preach 
and every little while lie sniffs the cof¬ 
fee, and when he thinks it’s done he 
stops preaching. But this acetylene plant 
idea beats that all hollow. You just slip 
in a limited amount of the acetylene and 
when the speaker is all through but can’t 
stop, presto! out go the lights, and the 
people escape another half hour of tor¬ 
ture. 
Talked Out the Minister. —But the 
next place the Parson went to it came 
out worse yet. Worse than talking out 
the gas was the way he talked out the 
local minister himself. In this place 
even the directors of the bank put off 
I their meeting one night to come and hear 
the Parson. If they had known that the 
fichoolhouxe in ('onm ■etient 
and leave the ladies in the venter,” “gents 
circle around the outside.” Then we 
would “form basket over ladies’ heads” 
and all go round on one foot. Then we 
would all “form round the hall” again, 
and “grand right and left.” Then “for¬ 
ward and back,” leaving gents in center, 
and so on. The minister essayed to find 
out what one parishioner thought of the 
affair next day. “The children are talk¬ 
ing about it yet,” said he. 
A Lot of Them.— Yes, there are a lot 
of good people in this world, after all 
The Parson kept saying that to himself 
as he came home on the train. He stayed 
with a man at this place whose religion 
penetrated even into his poeketbook and 
set up housekeeping there. A man who 
Placed boys and girls above church build¬ 
ings or church traditions or even church 
history. 1 o stay in this man’s home was 
like those homes where the Parson stayed 
on his Western trip last Fall, about' as 
near being in your own home as anything 
could be. The very atmosphere of that 
house was laden with community spirit 
and sanctified common sense and personal 
forgetfulness. The Parson will always 
he a better man for having spent two 
days in.that home. 
The Third Gathering— At the third 
place we had the largest crowd of all- 
around 200 people. This was in the base¬ 
ment of a schoolhouse—a flue place for 
such a gathering. All it costs for a gath¬ 
ering there of the community is ,$1 for 
the janitor. This is as it should be in 
every town. There is but one church 
there, and there was just about the best 
community spirit, with the best commu¬ 
nity leader in the person of the minister 
that the Parson has run up against yet. 
This man’s life is consecrated to the 
whole community, and wonderful results 
are forthcoming in that place. There is 
an unofficial council of seven men in this 
community who meet frequently to talk 
over local situations. Some out-of-town- 
ers came and put on some dances. A del¬ 
egation from this council attended one of 
the dances at at its close kindly informed 
the players that their presence in that 
town was ndt needed. They promptly left 
and never came back. 
The Waeker-Gordon Plant. —Before 
lie felt New Jersey the Parson had a 
chance to look over the big Walker-Gor- 
don milk plant, the largest in the world 
They were milking around 080 cows, 
many of them three times a day. They 
do not believe in pasteurizing milk, but 
in keeping it so clean that it will not sour 
for a long time. They have been known 
to send a bottle of milk to China and 
have it perfectly sweet when it got there. 
(Continued on page 540) 
