668 
Ihe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 10, 1924 
All Sorts 
Eastern Farmers and California 
In a recent issue of The R. N.-Y. there 
was a short article on the possibility of 
Eastern farmers coming to California to 
take up the work of truck farming, out 
of which the Japanese have been forced. 
I may not be much of an authority, but I 
think I know T a few points which will 
possibly help some in settling the ques¬ 
tion. 
First is the price of land. Of course 
the Japanese did not own, and many 
Americans might contemplate starting 
with leased land. The Japanese wdthin 
HO miles of Eos Angeles have been known 
to pay as high as $125 a year for each 
acre of land. How universal this price 
was within that radius 1 do not know, 
but it is the general rule around here 
not to take any less than the other fel¬ 
low unless one is caught napping. Of 
course, land further away from the city 
would be much less, and if one could own 
a truck it is all right. But I understand 
the railroad shipping is about as unsatis¬ 
factory in this State as can possibly be 
found. 
Price also is as great a drawback to 
buying as to leasing. Many poultry 
“ranches” are being sold at from $500 to 
$1,500 per acre. These “ranches” are 
from one to five acres each, and great 
claims are made for the money made on 
them. But I do not know of any truck 
farms purchased at such high prices, al¬ 
though $300 to $500 per acre is not un¬ 
usual, and many people do well on them. 
The next price problem is water. Near 
all the large cities water can be had from 
pipe lines, and must be paid for monthly. 
Bates for household use run from about 
75 cents to $1.25 per month, and the min¬ 
imum allows enough for an average fam- 
ilv. But irrigation water is much cheap¬ 
er, and is run through a separate meter. 
But care must be taken to find out if 
the location has an adequate supply the 
entire year, or you may have a crop 
needing plenty of water in midsummer 
and be limited to half your needs. 
In settling where there are no water 
company pipes great care must be taken 
to see that a place claiming to have its 
own well has one that really will keep up 
the supply the year through to irrigate 
several acres. These wells are several 
hundred feet deep and pumped by power. 
Usually the lower priced lands are not 
within reach of a water company, and if 
you do not watch out it may not be pos¬ 
sible to reach water with a well drill 
either. 
As to the Eastern farmer being able to 
adapt himself to the conditions of irriga¬ 
tion farming, I cannot see why one who 
understands soil and crops could not. 
Being stuck with poor land must be 
watched for anywhere. The light soils 
here need much the same handling as in 
the East; dobe soil is heavy to handle and 
cannot be worked while heavy with wa¬ 
ter, but, oh, how it will grow things! I 
have seen, and to a small extent partici¬ 
pated in, farming in the Central West 
and in New Jersey, and I can see no 
reason why one could not adapt himself 
here. The high prices of land are partly, 
at least, offset by year-round crops, and 
i here is an increasing demand for all farm 
products. The expense for heavy clothing 
and Winter fuel is much less than in the 
East, but don’t think it is always mid¬ 
summer here. Most nights in the warm¬ 
est weather are cooler than in the East, 
and during the Winter months most even¬ 
ings are cool enough for a light fire. Fur¬ 
ther inland I understand the Summers 
are very hot. 
These prices I have mentioned pertain 
to Los Angeles County, and as this is the 
boom county of the State at present, of 
course other situations would be cheaper, 
but the water conditions must be watched 
everywhere. Each County Farm Bureau 
should be able to give information as to 
local conditions. And watch your real 
estate agent, or he may sell you a piece 
of the Pacific Ocean or the side of a 
canyon, or even the top peak of a moun¬ 
tain. A • c - U 
Shall We Increase Production? 
Beading your editorial page of March 
22 I noticed the paragraph about the 
farmer and his wife spending the Winter 
(and their money) in the national capi¬ 
tal, and your question, “Now are these 
people wise in passing their latter days 
in this way, rather than in working to 
increase production ?” started me think¬ 
ing. and I had to write this to you. Sen¬ 
timentally speaking, I should say they are 
not wise. I would get more pleasure in 
working to increase production, but eco¬ 
nomically I believe they are right. Is 
not the curse of the farmer overproduc¬ 
tion? Take wheat as an exaggerated ex¬ 
ample. Or, as to milk, would not the 
farmer get more if production were de¬ 
creased so that the distributors would 
have to bid enough for milk to pay the 
farmer a fair profit? Not a drop of milk 
may be wasted, but there is overproduc¬ 
tion if the farmer cannot get cost and a 
fair profit. 
Which is the better way for a farmer 
with a competency to help the cause of 
agriculture and his fellow farmers; to 
stay in or get out? The more the mer¬ 
rier, up to'a certain limit, but beyond 
that limit the more the poorer. IIow 
about brother bricklayer or brother plas¬ 
terer? Do they open schools for brick¬ 
layers and plasterers when they wish to 
help their own trades and keep wages 
up? Does not brother capitalist consoli¬ 
date and close down plants to decrease 
production and increase profits? He does 
not encourage more to come in when 
profits are low. 
It would be an ideal way for a couple 
to travel the “home stretch” of life, but 
it would not help the cause of agriculture, 
at least at the present time, to work to 
increase production. Increased produc¬ 
tion and increased costs is about the 
worst combination a farmer can face. 
Now, if that fanner and his wife down 
in Washington could impress upon some 
of the people down there the absolute 
necessity for perfecting the machinery 
for distribution of agricultural products, 
then increased production, with corre¬ 
sponding profits, would follow “as the 
night the day.” A. S. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—The Arkansas House 
adopted by acclamation April 3 a resolu¬ 
tion recommending that some portion of 
the Bible be read in every public school 
and college in Arkansas each day the 
school is in session. An amendment pro¬ 
vided that the reading be without com¬ 
ment or discussion. 
A major blow-out occurred without loss 
of life April 3 when compressed air in 
the south tube of the New York-New 
Jersey vehicular tunnel blew a hole in 
the bed of the Hudson Biver. The blow¬ 
out occurred about 200 feet west of the 
New York pierhead line, directly under 
the deep channel used by ocean liners. 
At this point the tunnel most nearly ap¬ 
proaches the bed of the river, there being 
a layer of silt and clay about 25 feet 
thick above the tunnel. 
One man was reported killed and six 
persons seriously injured in a tornado 
that swept through Bicliardson, Texas, 
April 3. Damage was estimated at $25,- 
000 to $50,000. . 
April 4 six robbers raided the First 
National Bank at Bellmore, Long Island, 
taking $6,000, and killing E. L. Whitman, 
a bond salesman, who entered the bank as 
the bandits were leaving. The robbers 
got away in a car which had been left 
in front of the bank with engine running, 
shooting at the bystanders as they fled 
away. Several men have been arrested 
under suspicion. 
Four New Brunswick youths went 
April 5 to an abandoned chemical plant 
in North Brunswick, N. .T., to steal lead 
pipe. Three were hacking at a coil 
around a tank, while the fourth kept a 
lookout from the window, when there 
came a sudden roar, a flash of flame and 
the three were blown across the room in 
a storm of wreckage. John Mastrana, 19 
years old, died seven hours later in the 
Middlesex General Hospital. August 
Bufogle, 18 years old, is in that institu¬ 
tion, with concussion of the brain and 
fractures of the nose and the right foot. 
He i# expected to get well. So is Angelo 
Mirarchi, 18 years old, in St. Peter's 
Hospital with burns of the face and neck. 
The other boy. Clifford Eden, 18, is in 
the Middlesex County Jail, charged with 
larceny. The police said they had pre¬ 
vious acquaintance with Eden and Bu¬ 
fogle. The cause of the explosion is un¬ 
known. 
Co-operating with Long Island citizens, 
special agents of the Treasury Depart¬ 
ment have joined prohibition enforcement 
agents in a pati-ol of the island’s high¬ 
ways in an effort to check bootleggers 
who have made motoring unsafe by noc¬ 
turnal dashes from their liquor rendez¬ 
vous to New York City. 
Plans for the raising of a $10,000,000 
fund by the National Children’s Welfare 
Committee of the American Legion for 
the care of children of former service men 
who have been left orphans were an¬ 
nounced at a meeting of the Boston com¬ 
mittee April 5. General James A. Drain 
of Washington, D. C., outlining the plan, 
said there were about 6,000 such orphans. 
At Lilly, Pa., April 5, rioting resulted 
from Ku Klux animosities; two men 
were shot dead, 15 were wounded, three 
.seriously, and 32 persons were ar¬ 
rested. 
Mrs. Torney Hill and three children 
were burned to death and Torney Hill 
suffered hurts that proved fatal when a 
gasoline explosion set fire to their home 
at Hillsboro, Ill., April 7. Mr. Hill had 
mistaken gasoline for kerosene. 
All automobile operators in New York 
State not less than 18 years old, will be 
compelled to take out annual licenses re¬ 
vocable for misconduct, under the Stapley 
bill. It was indorsed by the New York 
State Automobile Association. Such li¬ 
censes are at present required only in 
first-class cities. The bill creates a Mo¬ 
tor Vehicle Commission, to be appointed 
by the State Tax Commission. The new 
Commissioner will appoint inspectors and 
deputies to enforce the law. The mam 
office of the commission will be at Al¬ 
bany, but branches will be opened in 
New York City and possibly in Buffalo. 
Licenses will be issued annually for a 
fee of $1, and applicants for them com¬ 
pelled to pass examination. They will 
be revocable by any magistrate, or by 
the Police Commissioner of New York 
City, or the Motor Vehicle Commissioner, 
or his deputy, without trial in court; but 
such a decision may be appealed by the 
automobile driver to the Supreme Court. 
After revocation, no license may be is¬ 
sued to the driver until after six months. 
The licenses may be suspended for any 
period up to six months. Some of the 
misdeeds for which drivers will be pun¬ 
ished are: Driving while intoxicated, 
physical or mental disability or the use 
of narcotics, conviction at any time of a 
felony, wilfully evading prosecution for 
violation of traffic laws in another Slate. 
April 8, 130 American birds sailed on 
the Royal Spanish Mail steamer Mont¬ 
serrat, to attend the international poultry 
congress at Barcelona, Spain. The 
American delegates departed in charge of 
W. C. Thompson of the New Jersey ex¬ 
periment station. The congress will be 
held in Barcelona and Madrid on May 9 
and May 17, under the patronage of the 
King of Spain, the Spanish Ministry of 
Agriculture and the municipality of Bar¬ 
celona. Most of the feathered represen¬ 
tatives come from Connecticut. The 
Single Comb White Plymouth Rocks 
w T ere sent by Willis B. Bonfoey, of Dan¬ 
bury, and E. K. Judd of Montowese. C. 
L. Sibley of Wallingford and H. P. Dem¬ 
ining of Winstead, sent the S. C. Rhode 
Island Reds, and the S. C. White Leg¬ 
horns were sent by F. O. Groesbeck of 
Vernon and Francis F. Lincoln of Mt. 
Carmel. Then there were Black Lang- 
shans, Light Brahmas, R. C. Rhode 
Island Reds and White Wyandottes. All 
the birds had to undergo a physical ex¬ 
amination before they were allowed to 
sail. Inspectors had to certify they were 
healthy. Spain admits them free of duty, 
unless they are sold while attending the 
conference. The breeds also included 
Black Minorcas, Partridge Plymouth 
Rocks, Jersey Black Giants, Blue Andal¬ 
usians, Buff Orpingtons, Buff Wyan¬ 
dottes, Anconas, White Houdans and 
Barred Rocks. 
Vesta Dodge, nine-year-old daughter of 
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Dodge, rescued her 
three younger sisters from the flames, 
when fire destroyed the farm home of the 
family on Point Peninsula, 12 miles 
from Watertown, N. Y., April 8. Vesta 
carried the children down the burning 
stairs. Mrs. Dodge went into the burn¬ 
ing structure and carried an infant to 
safety just before the walls of the house 
fell in. Mr. Dodge, an invalid, was un¬ 
able to assist in the rescues. 
Twelve firemen were injured April 8 
when flames that for a while menaced the 
entire warehouse section of Rochester, 
N. Y„ swept the plant of the Lawless Pa¬ 
per Company in North Water Street. 
Damage was estimated at $70,000. 
WASHINGTON. — Postmaster Gen¬ 
eral New April 7 condemned as unwar¬ 
ranted the postal salary increases pro¬ 
posed in bills before Congress, and sent 
to Chairman Edge of the Joint Subcom¬ 
mittee on Post Offices his suggestions for 
salary increases, with recommendations 
for increased postage and postal service 
fees to meet such a pay raise. Pending 
bills would increase postal expenditures 
$150,000,000 a year, he said, and the 
state of the national budget would not 
permit such expenditures. Mr. New sub¬ 
mitted an analysis of salaries of postal 
employes and similar classes of workers 
in private business and said comparison 
revealed that the advantage rested with 
the postal employes. 
Monopolization of the ether for wire¬ 
less transmission will be impossible here¬ 
after if the House of Representatives, as 
now seems altogether probable, should 
accept Ihe bill of Senator Howell (R., 
Neb.) which was passed by the Senate 
April 7 without dissenting voice. The 
bill provides: “That the ether and the 
use thereof for the transmission of sig¬ 
nals, words, energy and other purposes 
within the territorial jurisdiction of the 
United States, is hereby reaffirmed to be 
the inalienable possession of the people 
of the United States and their govern¬ 
ment, but privileges to enjoy such use 
may be granted as provided by law for 
terms of not to exceed two years.” The 
second section provides that in the event 
of war or other national emergency all 
licenses may be rescinded by the Presi¬ 
dent. No license may be x’enewed until 
the applicant has filed written application 
with the Secretary of Commerce setting 
forth that the purposes are subjected to 
the limitations of the act. 
Dr. Elwood Mead, irrigation engineer, 
of Berkeley, Cal., was appointed by See- 
retai’y Work April 3 to be Commissioner 
of the Bureau of Reclamation. Dr. Mead 
succeeds D. W. Davis, former Governor 
of Idaho, who will become head of a new 
Division of Finance, created to separate 
the handling of receipts and disburse¬ 
ments from the Engineei'ing and Agricul¬ 
tural Divisions of the Interior Depart¬ 
ment. The new Commissioner, Dr. Work 
said, has been granted leave of absence 
from the University of California, where 
he is Professor of Rural Institutions, to 
ttake up his new duties. 
Harry M. Daugherty’s successor as At¬ 
torney Genei’al is to be Harlan Fiske 
Stone. Dean of Columbia Law School, 
member of the New York law firm of 
Sullivan & Cromwell, and before that in 
the firm of Satterlee, Caanfield & Stone; 
Amherst contemporary of President Cool- 
idge and first famous as guard on Am¬ 
herst’s football team. 
Notice of Taxation 
In regard to collection of taxes in 
townships, is the collector obliged to send 
a written notice or filled-out form as is 
done with all private business, like tele¬ 
phone. gas or electric bills? Or do all 
persons keep in mind the possible date of 
maturity and either write him, inclosing 
a stamp, or come to his residence? I 
have been paying taxes on a New York 
farm for five years, and have paid some 
$350 in that time. Both tax collectors 
have been quite grudging about giving me 
the amount due, and I have had to pay 
4 per cent extx-a because I had no notice 
of the date due, and supposed since the 
tax collector had my address and was 
paying from a bank only a few miles 
away, that once having an addx-ess, he 
wouid notify me. I have a building lot 
in a Vermont village. Regularly every 
year comes a filled-out blank, showing all 
taxes, rates, discount if paid before a cer¬ 
tain date, etc. If this Vermont town can 
afford to spend a stamp, why cannot a 
New' Yoi'k township? And if it cannot 
afford the fix*st stamp, add it to the col¬ 
lection fee! Why cannot town business 
be carried oix as up-to-date as a hardware 
store which has some chai-ge accounts? 
New York. J. D. 
The town business is very well taken 
care of by statute. The law pi-ovides ex¬ 
actly the notice which the collector of 
taxes shall give. After complying with 
the required notice to be posted, the law 
further provides that on wi’itten demand 
of a non-resident owner of real property 
and the payment by such owner to the 
eollecter of the sum of 25 cents, the col¬ 
lector shall, within 24 hours after receipt 
of such demand, mail in the postpaid en¬ 
velope to the address furnished the state¬ 
ment of the amount of taxes assessed 
against such property, with a notice of 
Ihe days and place fixed by him for re¬ 
ceiving the same. 
A person or corporation who is the 
owner of or liable to assessment for in¬ 
terest in real property liable to taxation 
in a town in which he is not a resident, 
may file with the town clerk of such town 
a notice stating his name, residence, and 
post office address, a description of the 
property, and if situated in a village or 
school district, the name of each, and the 
number of the school district The notice 
shall continue until cancelled. The town 
clerk shall within five days after the de¬ 
livery of the warrant furnish to the col¬ 
lector a transcript of all of the notices so 
filed, and each collector shall within five 
days after i-eceipt of such transcript, mail 
a statement of the amount of taxes due 
on said property and the time and place 
when the same shall be paid. Upon filing 
such notice the town clerk is entitled to 
receive the fee of $1. If you will comply 
with the statute you will receive notice of 
your taxes when due. N. T. 
A Four'footed Friend and His Master Face the Camera 
