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The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 3, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
TIIE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1830 
P iblished weekly by the Kural Publishing Company, 388 West 30th Street, New fork 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
L. H. Murphy, Circulation 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 draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 11.00 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 of 
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 adjust 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 The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
T HESE daylight savers, most of whom never did 
a day’s farm work in their lives, tell us there 
can be no difference in a day’s work, for you take 
one hour more in the morning, .and simply take one 
hour off in the afternoon—how therefore can there 
he any difference in a day’s work? It would do us 
good to get some of these gentlemen out early— 
right into a corn or potato or clover field, with the 
dew making the leaves as wet as a mop, and make 
them put in a full wet hour. Then have them in 
the hayfield in late afternoon on a western slope, 
where the afternoon sun has put the hay in proper 
condition. Just as it is ready have the factory 
whistles blow, and every man on the job quit—to 
save a little daylight! That would show them what 
a patched-up day means. They make us think of 
the man who found the blanket on his bed too 
short. He got up, cut a piece off the bottom and 
sewed it on the top. As he lapped the edges over 
an inch in order to sew he found the blanket two 
inches shorter than before! 
* 
E ask you to read the article on the first 
page this week. This is by a teacher in a 
rural school who has succeeded because she believes 
in her school and knows what such schools mean to 
the nation. One trouble with the backers of the late 
school bill is that they do not seem to think it is 
possible for the local patrons to improve the home 
school. They certainly show a lack of confidence ’n 
the ability or willingness of the home folks to han¬ 
dle the situation. We think the authorities have 
made the mistake of supposing that they can force 
a new and radical law upon the people without full 
understanding and co-operation. Our own plan is 
to begin at the other end and encourage self-help as 
a preliminary to co-operation with the educators. 
That is why we advocate the largest school meetings 
possible, election of the. best equipped people for 
school officers, and full organization of the Rural 
School Improvement Society. We regard that as the 
most useful country organization yet suggested. It 
will he kept free and clean and will be, as its name 
implies, an improvement society. As we have often 
stated, this must he a volunteer movement. Among 
many letters we have the following: 
In the last issue of The R. N.-Y. you ask for vol¬ 
unteers to make the next annual school meeting an 
improvement meeting and make it a success. You may 
put me down as a volunteer from my school district, 
if you think a 19-year-old boy can be of any help. I 
volunteered for the special meeting last December and 
we had the largest meeting in years. 
Any help? Why, this is just exactly the organiza¬ 
tion for young men. We welcome all—from nine to 
90—but vigorous young men are particularly de¬ 
sired. This school campaign has already developed 
several young men who have shown great capacity 
for leadership. There are many others in the State 
who may find great opportunity in this School Im¬ 
provement Society—opportunity which cannot now 
be found in any other organization. 
* 
EVERAL of our readers tell us that they were 
able to obtain colored farm help from Florida 
through a Northern colored man who went down to 
spend the Winter. The Florida Legislature passed 
a law prohibiting workers from leaving the State, 
but the courts seem to have thrown it out, on the 
theory that it interferes with the right of contract. 
In another case a family worked several years on a 
Northern farm and then went South to spend the 
Winter. They quickly spent their earnings, ran in 
debt and under local laws are held until they work 
the debt out, and that seems impossible of accom¬ 
plishment. 
S OME of our readers ask us to name the up-State 
members of the Legislature who A T oted for the 
Downing school bill, or who openly favored it. At 
the conference which settled the matter only three 
members that we know of spoke unreservedly for the 
bill. They were J. Arthur Brooks of Madison Coun¬ 
ty, Fred L. Porter of Essex, and L. G. Kirkland of 
Cattaraugus. Three others were what one might 
call “lukewarm,” evidently wanting the bill, but not 
willing to stand openly for it. In the Senate the fol¬ 
lowing gentlemen from “up-State” voted for the 
bill: William T. Bryne, Albany; John P. Ryan, 
Troy, and Robert C. Lacey, Buffalo. These men are 
all Democrats, and voted solidly with their party. 
They all represent city constituencies. At one time 
it was claimed that 13 up-State Assemblymen were 
pledged to unite with 63 city members to pass the 
bill. On a final showdown only two were left. 
* 
“To he useful to farmers must not the movement 
for agricultural education come from them? Or 
should education be handed down to them from the 
officials?” 
N that brief question, on the next page, Prof. 
Shaw presents the issue clearly. That is what 
we have been fighting about in New York State. 
The school men would have the public believe that 
the entire conflict ranged around the details of the 
Downing school bill. That may be what they were 
fighting for, but they did not seem to be able to 
realize that the country people who opposed them 
had a broader point of view. Our farmers know by 
instinct what will happen to their ‘schools when they 
lose local control. And that does not mean physical 
control only, but mental or psychological control as 
well. While technically the local control might have 
■been left to the home district, every farmer knows 
that the spirit of control and the pattern or example 
for their schools would all come from the town. 
They are not satisfied with this town or city school 
spirit. It does not fit the conditions under which 
they are forced to live. We agree with them that 
improvement of country schools must come from the 
home districts and not be forced in from the out¬ 
side. That is why we shall devote our energies to 
the task of organizing for improvement. This effort 
is entirely sincere and open, and the school men 
would do better to come in and join the movement 
rather than stand back and cry for the moon. For 
the moon is just about as impossible as the original 
Downing bill. 
Dairymen Coming Together 
LARGE flood of approving letters came back 
promptly in response to the symposium on the 
dairy organization problem. This correspondence 
comes from all the dairy sections in the New York 
milk shed. It approves without qualification the 
suggestion for a conference of our best lay dairy¬ 
men to work out a plan for the unification of the 
dairy industry. These dairymen of all groups and 
from all sections appeal to fellow producers every¬ 
where to lend their influence to the success of this 
proposition. They send names of men qualified for 
the work of the committee, and promise any help or 
support they can give it. This spirit is general and 
spontaneous. It is the finest feeling that could be 
desired; nothing could lend greater encouragement 
for success. 
The selection of a committee involves some diffi¬ 
culty, but dairymen who send names for it render 
a good service. These names will he recommended 
for preference. The purpose is to get a committee 
of men, not officially connected with the present 
groups, so as to bring in some new blood, and at the 
same time to enlist the wisest heads in the industry. 
The existing organizations will, it is proposed, be 
represented by two officials for each group. It is 
hoped that arrangements can be perfected so as to 
have an initial meeting of the committe by the mid¬ 
dle of May. 
The success of this movement will depend en¬ 
tirely on the interest taken in it by dairymen. Talk 
it everywhere. Discuss it freely. Write us any 
suggestions that occur to you. The committee will 
get them all. Show that you are concerned, and 
whether it be little or much, that you are doing 
your part to help do it yourself. 
* 
N 17S7, 139 years ago. Arthur Young, an English¬ 
man. made extensive journeys through France, 
and his journal is one of the classics of agriculture, 
He observed a great difference in sections where 
there were many small freeholders of land and 
where tenant farms abounded. He said: 
“(five a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, 
and he will turn it into a garden; give him nine 
years’ lease of a garden and he will convert it into 
a desert.” 
That is a strong way of putting an evident fact. 
Real ownership of land is a great incentive to in¬ 
dustry and patriotism. That nation is always safest 
which has the greater proportion of its farm land 
in the hands of freeholders. France is the great 
modern example. While Paris may be the national 
advertisement, the real heart of the nation is lo¬ 
cated on the small farms and gardens which have 
been cultivated for centuries and held in one family 
through many generations. In America we have 
passed through more than a century of restless 
change. There has always been new land to move 
to when the old situation became poor or cramped. 
There has not been enough of this desire to hold 
land in the family because grandfather cleared it. 
Now we come to a time when there is greater need 
than ever of this sound, land-loving class of men 
and women who would rather live the life of a farm¬ 
er than any other. The greatest political and social 
need of the times is some means by which superior 
hired men and high-class tenant farmers can secure 
farms of their own on terms that will enable them 
to pay out without squeezing all the joy out of life. 
Ownership of land will change the character and 
ambition of many a man who now looks upon life 
with increasing hopelessness. What we need most 
in farm financing is some sure plan of offering land 
ownership to. tenants and hired men. 
E are getting quite a number of questions in¬ 
volving cases of divorce. Some of them are 
evidently “framed”; that is, only one side is given, 
an effort being made to put us on record without a 
knowledge of all the facts. Some of these cases are 
not clean, and in others we can detect an effort to 
take advantage of someone. We have decided that 
in the future we will not advise in divorce cases. 
The only thing we can suggest is to see some local 
attorney, in whom you have confidence. State all 
the facts and be guided by his advice. We shall not 
hereafter pay any attention to such cases. 
* 
E hope our people in New Jersey, Maryland 
and Southern Pennsylvania will keep up 
their experiments with cotton this year. Last year 
we produced a small quantity of lint in Bergen Co., 
N. J. Of course it could not be called a commer¬ 
cial crop, but it was evidence of what may be de¬ 
veloped in the future. Years ago in the Northwest 
corn was regarded as about as much of a gamble as 
cotton now is in New Jersey, yet through patient 
selection and long continued trials, varieties were 
finally developed which have made corn growing rea¬ 
sonably safe in that section. New Jersey, Dela¬ 
ware and Maryland need new crops; all sections 
need to have new crops in reserve, for no one can 
tell how quickly new conditions may transfer stand¬ 
ard products from one section to another. Cotton in¬ 
sects, migration of negro labor and natural changes 
in Southern farming will make it necessary to hunt 
new locations for cotton culture, and the develop¬ 
ment of new varieties. Hundreds or thousands of 
little, experiments here and there will all help to put 
cotton growing into the human mind. It must get 
into the mind before it can get on the map. 
Brevities 
A tint of formalin on the seed oats may mean a gain 
of 500 pints of grain. 
Tiie less you have to say about your local govern¬ 
ment the more you will have to pay. 
Give the Alfalfa a chance. Do not plow it up be¬ 
cause it looks thin to start with. It usually starts 
poorly and may come up. 
Some of our readers seem to think that in settling an 
estate the youngest child has a preference. That is not 
so. All share alike unless the will states otherwise. 
Mr. Winters, on page 745, give us additional evi¬ 
dence that the auto and the ox travel together. On a 
rough hill farm oxen do the work while the car makes 
a quick journey on the road. 
Quite a good many of our legal questions seem to 
come from people who have already hired a lawyer and 
are trying to trip him up or cut him down by getting 
other opinions We do not care to mix into such cases. 
Stick to your lawyer’s advice, or pay him and let him go. 
Shortly after (he buds of the grape have burst the 
flow of sap is-slowed down, hence vineyard grafting can 
be safely done when the new shoots are out 3 or 4 in. 
This will vary with the season; a warm, rainy Spring 
results in a more prolonged active flow of sap, and vice 
versa. 
In regard to building a dam on any of the brooks or 
rivers in New Y'ork. the conservation law provides: 
“Before the construction of a dam shall be commenced 
on any of the inland waters of the State, the plan 
thereof, length and location of the water on which the 
dam is to be built, shall be given to the Conservation 
Commission by the person, or if by public authority, by 
the official directing the work.” 
