81 G 
Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 24, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established tsso 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company. 333 West 80th Street, New York 
Herbert W. Colling wood. President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wa F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
L. H. SIURniY, Circulation Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, $2.04. Remit in money 
order, express order, persona] check or hank 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 hacked 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 
t he transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural New- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
T HE average milkman does not look like a pro¬ 
fessor of household economy, but some of them, 
in the suburbs at least, are able to talk about food 
values, vitamines and all the rest of it. The deal¬ 
ers are giving their men instruction in these mat¬ 
ters. Dairy experts are employed to lecture to milk¬ 
men until these knights of the bottle can talk bac¬ 
teria. vitamines and grades of milk with any' of 
them, and all this helps to increase trade. Many a 
housekeeper is influenced by such talk and will buy 
more milk as a result of it. This knowledge of food 
values and the ability to discuss them is a good sell¬ 
ing argument. The other day a child stood before 
a fruit stand undecided, how to spend her dime. The 
Italian salesman helped her. 
“Da banan, he maka da fat and da fire go. Da 
raisin, he giva da iron—maka da strong man. Da 
nut, he lika da strong meat.” There was a balanced 
ration. They are all doing it. The apple growers 
should try to educate their salesmen so as to show 
the superiority of Eastern-grown fruit in flesh, 
flavor and juice. There is a big crop coming this 
year, and we must pull every wire in order to dis¬ 
pose of it. 
sic 
FRENCH educator has been in this country 
making something of a study of our schools 
and colleges. He does not think much of our boasted 
system of education for training young people for 
the needed American life. He says we spend too 
much for school buildings and too little for teachers. 
Too much time and energy are given to athletics. 
A “physical director” who can produce a winning 
baseball or football team will often receive three 
times the salary paid an expert teacher. Instead of 
concentrating work and drill upon a few essentials 
the modern tendency is to spread out into a smatter¬ 
ing of many branches. In general, this indictment is 
true. The best educators realize it, but they seem 
to be powerless in the face of the present parental 
craze for something showy and ornamental rather 
than for the old-fashioned digging at a few founda¬ 
tion principles of education. 'During the recent con¬ 
flict over the proposed school bill some of the edu¬ 
cators seemed unable to understand why the coun¬ 
try people were so devoted to their local school. 
They called it obstinate prejudice when in reality, 
it was a sound and true instinct which taught these 
people to retain as long as possible the control of 
their school affairs and the way in which their chil¬ 
dren are to be taught. From the beginning the Com¬ 
mittee of Twenty-one aud those who supported 
them went at the matter in the wrong way. They 
never succeeded in gaining the confidence of the 
real rural patrons, and such confidence is the first 
essential in such a campaign. 
* 
Can a neighbor on his own property plant corn which 
takes away all light from my living-rooms, and grows 
as high as 8 ft. up covering all windows on my side? 
The space is 6 ft. to where he plants his corn. Some¬ 
thing like a spite fence every year. Corn takes away 
all views, darkens the rooms and breeds rats. 
MRS. D. s. 
HIS idea of using a large-growing variety of 
corn as a spite fence is a new one to us. A 
man usually has the right to plant what he likes on 
his own ground. There are cases we think when in 
order to annoy his neighbor a farmer planted turnips 
or cabbage close by the neighbor’s house and then 
let them decay on the ground. In such cases the 
farmer could be fined for permitting a nuisance, but 
we can hardly see how a case can be made out for 
planting corn close to the windows—though the pos¬ 
sible annoyance from it is clearly evident. Of eouise 
a man cannot plant corn continuously, year after 
year, without suffering damage. The worms and 
the corn smut will attend to that, but he might plant 
pole beans, which would be worse. This seems to be 
a case where moral suasion or neighborly spirit 
should be invoked—rather than the law. 
* 
E have been discussing recently the changes 
which are rapidly coming to Eastern farm¬ 
ing. Packed into a narrow strip along the upper 
Atlantic slope there are nearly one-fourth of all the 
people in the United States. The farmers in this 
section, and particularly near the large cities, have 
been giving up the production of meat and bread- 
stuffs on the theory that the West can produce these 
substantiate cheaper than Eastern farmers can. We 
have felt that this theory is not entirely sound. We 
think that many of our farmers could, by making 
greater use of Alfalfa, Soy beans and other acid 
soil legumes, produce more wheat and meat to ad¬ 
vantage. The popular opinion has been that in this 
closely settled territory our farmers snould work 
more into fruit, truck crops, and what may be called 
delicacies or luxuries, for direct sale to consumers. 
There is now developing a competition in these crops 
which could hardly be imagined 15 years ago. For 
example, asparagus. We can easily remember when 
Long Island and Southern New Jersey were sup¬ 
posed to be the limit of transporting distance for 
this crop. Now carloads of asparagus are sent here 
from California. North and South Carolina farmers 
are planting and shipping asparagus as never before. 
From one small point in South Carolina over 50 car¬ 
loads were sent this season. Within five years there 
will be a flood as large as a river in a Spring freshet 
flowing into Northern markets. Then it is figured 
that farmers in the two Carolinas have planted over 
five million plants of the Uucretia dewberry since 
1922. This means another flood of small fruit pour¬ 
ing into our markets. These things are surely com¬ 
ing, and our Eastern farmers must prepare for them. 
We must cut out the crops which do not pay. Prob¬ 
ably all of us have been hanging on to one or more 
profitless crops because we have not figured cost of 
production, or because we have formed the habit of 
producing them. There are many small herds of 
cattle, small patches of potatoes, or little flocks of 
poultry which absorb the labor of a family and pay 
no profit. We have got to learn what crops will give 
us best return for a day’s work, considering locality 
and market. Some men are situated so that they 
can make money at dairying; others will lose money 
every month, and ought to work into something else. 
We think, too, that Eastern farmers have got to 
learn to produce more of their own food and sup¬ 
plies. Of course we know that is against the popu¬ 
lar theory, but most of us have gone too far in the 
matter of paying cash for so much of our own food 
and the feed for our live stock. Some of us at least 
are living too much on the shop and the store. We 
can produce, either individually or co-operatively, 
80 per cent of the necessities we now pay cash for. 
We cannot go on much longer at the present rate. 
AYe have got to save at least a part of this outgo by 
doing it ourselves. 
* 
N spite of all that can be said about it many fruit 
growers are frightened about the report that no 
one is to be permitted to make cider vinegar without 
paying for a license. This report seems to be part 
of the “wet” propaganda against the Prohibition 
amendment. Under the law and government ruling 
any person may manufacture non-intoxicating cider 
for home use, either at home or at a custom mill 
without any permit. The same applies to vinegar 
made from cider, or the fermented apple juice may 
be sold to a vinegar manufacturer who has a per¬ 
mit. A custom cider mill is not required to have 
a permit or bond if the cider is removed immediate¬ 
ly after pressing. No permit is required for manu¬ 
facturing sterilized sweet cider. The law recognizes 
that sweet cider and pure vinegar are legitimate and 
necessary food products, and they will construe the 
laws so as to encourage their production. Do not 
be frightened or deceived by articles in the news¬ 
papers trying to show or suggest that cider-making 
is not lawful. 
* 
N May 9th children of Broome Co., N. Y., 
planted 55,000 young forest trees as their con¬ 
tribution to a future school fund. For some years 
The R. N.-Y. has stated that if 50 years ago the 
waste lands in rural townships had been planted to 
pine and other timber trees the resulting forests 
would now be paying the entire cost of our rural 
schools. We believe there is no question about that. 
Nearly 60 years ago the people who undertook to 
bring the writer of this up bought a comparatively 
small tract of wood land which carried a thin scat¬ 
tering of pine. They cut this off clean and then 
spent some years grieving that they had no property 
of available value to leave behind them. There was 
no value in a dry tract of stunted scrub oaks. W T e 
now know that if these people had gone out with 
“the boy” and interested him in forestry—planting 
seeds and little trees on that waste land—today, 
without great labor or expense the income from that 
tract of pine would have amply provided for “the 
boy.” That is why we feel sure that tree planting 
half a century ago would have solved the financial 
part of our rural school problem. And that should 
teach us to have real vision for the future. It may 
seem like a small thing to plant these little trees 
when men of middle years cannot hope to profit 
from them, but the long tireless years will do their 
part so that these reforested waste lands will in 
the future support our rural schools. 
* 
O UR readers have followed the fortunes of Mr. 
and Mrs. J. C. Berrang in their ox-team ex¬ 
press across the continent. They finally reached 
their destination, Medford, Oregon, on April 17. The 
journey from Connecticut, more than 3,000 miles, 
occupied three years, four months and 16 days. They 
did not hurry, but stopped by the wayside as they 
saw fit. Now they will make their home in the 
West. They had a comfortable little house on 
wheels, a radio outfit, a serene disposition and that 
high brand of philosophy which a few married peo¬ 
ple of this age seem to acquire. The average reader 
of this may well ask himself how he and his wife 
would fare if they were forced to spend three years 
and more in a little house on wheels behind slow¬ 
footed oxen traveling on by inches into an unknown 
land! Would such a journey lead to divorce or to 
devotion? In this impatient, rushing age, it is true 
that husband and wife rarely come to know each 
other fully, for such real knowledge can only come 
through sacrifice and full sympathy A long jour¬ 
ney on the ox-team express might weld together 
many a family group now drifting apart. At any 
rate we congratulate our good friends the Berrangs, 
on the completion of their long trip. We shall no 
doubt hear all about it soon. 
Brevities 
A flock of lively hens will beat the asparagus beetle. 
Now the rural mail carriers are to help collect farm 
statistics. 
We consider beardless barley superior in our sec¬ 
tion to Spring wheat as a grain crop. 
It seems to be true that acid phosphate scattered 
over the manure in the stable and in the heap will help 
prevent fly breeding. 
Some of our Connecticut farmers are using old auto¬ 
mobile tires that are not salable for grindstone covers 
and troughs. They are easily made. 
The hen is surely taking her place in history. Re¬ 
ports show that Europe never had such egg production 
as this year. Central and Eastern Europe never had 
more eggs for export. 
Corrosive sublimate, 2 oz. dissolved in hot water 
and 13 gallons of water added wull make a medicated 
bath for seed potatoes. It kills the scab germs and 
other diseases as well. 
Fowls that “get bald” or lose the feathers on the 
head or back of the neck are usually affected with the 
depluming mite. A mixture of sulphur and lard rubbed 
on the parts will help. 
Something wrong with the child who will not eat 
oatmeal or drink milk. We had one such, and the 
wrong followed her for years in weak bone and body. 
It was said long ago that oats make the finest horses 
in England and the finest men in Scotland. 
Who has ever tried adding salt, to the waterglass so¬ 
lution for preserving eggs? One of our readers says it 
will prevent the breaking down of the whites and yolks 
when broken into a dish. We cannot see what effect 
the salt would have—but has anyone tried it? 
There is some talk about the legality of using a 
strand of barbed wire at the top of a fence in New 
York State. For an inside fence the consent of the 
neighboring owner must be secured or you will be 
liable for any injury to stock caused by the barbed wire. 
For a roadside fence, Section 56 of the highway law 
provides that no barbed wire shall be used on fences 
along the highway. 
We had a note recently about honey vinegar. A 
reader has sent us a bottle of it to show that there is 
such a product. It is well know that honey can be 
fermented into vinegar or intoxicating liquor. There 
is a famous story of an old-time rum punisher who 
was immune to most liquor, who went into the coun¬ 
try and drank metheglin or fermented honey, and it 
proved too much for him. 
The Farmer-Labor party of South Dakota plans a 
spectacular parade at their national convention. Hun¬ 
dreds or thousands of cars appropriately decorated will 
line up at the Minnesota State line and parade through 
the State to Minneapolis. During the first McKinley 
campaign some such parade of railroad cars was car¬ 
ried through. The big apple crop in the Hudson Val¬ 
ley will require spectacular advertising if it is to be 
moved. A great parade of fruit growers in cars up 
Fifth Avenue would help. 
