838 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 31, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established I8S0 
P.ibltihed weekly by tbe Rural Publishing Company, 333 West SOtb Street, New fork 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wa F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
L. H. Morphy, Circulation Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, S2.04. 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 j 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 delibex ate 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. 
O UT in wliat they call the “open country” you 
will find meetings on Decoration Day much 
like the one pictured on the first page. There will 
be a little gathering in some rural churchyard. It 
is usually a group of serious-minded people, many 
of them elderly folks who belong to the exciting 
period closely following the Civil War. The graves 
are decorated, flags are shown, and usually some 
white-haired comrade tells in simple words the story 
of those old days. It is very quiet in the country. 
There is little stir or bluster or noise, yet in these 
humble little gatherings, rather than in the pomp 
and power of the great city audiences, the real soul 
of the nation is exhibited. 
* 
T HE soldiers’ compensation or bonus legislation 
came out as we predicted. It passed both 
houses of Congress by immense majorities. It was 
then vetoed by President Coolidge in a message 
which we regard as unanswerable. Congress prompt¬ 
ly passed the bill over the President’s veto; the mar¬ 
gin was wide in the House, but with only three votes 
to spare in the Senate. As passed, the biU provides 
paid-up life insurance for the soldiers, and cash com¬ 
pensation for dependents. After two years money 
may be borrowed on the life-insurance policies at 
any bank. There seems no doubt that many of these 
policies will be used to increase the circulating me¬ 
dium. No serious attempt w 7 as made in Congress to 
answer the arguments advanced by President Cool¬ 
idge. Most Congressmen had pledged themselves to 
bonus legislation, and that was all there was to. it. 
The majority evidently knew that the legislation 
was unwise and against sound principles of econ¬ 
omy, but they lacked the courage to stand up against 
a noisy demand for compensation. We understand 
that other similar demands are coming, so that it 
will be almost impossible to carry out any definite 
campaign for cutting down taxes. 
* 
HEN Charles Darwin wrote "The Voyage of 
the Beagle” he found a crude state of society 
in the Argentine Republic. He spent some time with 
an army opex*ating in the interior, and observed how 
it was fed. A herd of horses was driven along with 
the army, and at each camping place a number of 
these horses were slaughtered and cooked for the 
soldiers. That was all they had—a solid diet of 
horse meat—except in places where wild fruits or 
roots could be found. That army surely did not 
travel on its stomach, as Napoleon said was neces¬ 
sary. We thought of this primitive and simple food 
problem the other day when a cargo of 250,000 lbs. 
of grapes reached New York from Argentina. They 
were packed in flat boxes holding about 20 lbs. each, 
and sold for $3.50 to $0 per box. The quality was 
good and there was apparently a profit for someone 
after the expenses of the long journey were paid. 
Nothing could express more forcibly the wonderful 
changes in food transportation which have taken 
place in the last century. Every corner, not only of 
this country, but of the entire world, is striving to 
put its finer grades of food into this great city. The 
competition has hardly begun, and as the great cities 
develop still further the struggle and demand for 
food is likely to become the dominating force in 
public life. 
* 
A FEW w r eeks ago we spoke of certain “side farm¬ 
ers” who often upset life in a country com¬ 
munity without meaning to do so. These men run 
a farm as a pleasant side line or outside occupa¬ 
tion. They do not need to economize—their object 
is to make a show. Sometimes they unconsciously 
make a show of themselves. The greatest harm they 
do in a business way is to ruin the local labor supply 
by paying extravagant wages and encouraging men 
to work in a negligent, uninterested way. A prac¬ 
tical farmer cannot compete with the wages paid in 
this side farming, and his men soon get the habit 
of loafing and waiting for the factory whistle to 
blow. It would be next to impossible for a man 
working for one of these side farmers to take per¬ 
sonal interest in his work. It is too much like a 
factory job. The practical farmer cannot make his 
farm pay unless the hired man takes a personal in¬ 
terest in what the boss is doing. And also in a social 
way the side farmer often exerts a poor influence 
upon the young people of the neighborhood. It 
ought to be possible for a well-to-do family moving 
upon a farm in some good community to give real 
and true leadership, but too often the influence ex¬ 
erted is that of the snob. Add to this the competi¬ 
tion in farm products which the side farmers bring 
and a fair indictment may be made out against 
many of them. They might be a great help to the 
community in which they settle, and sometimes they 
are, but they never can be so long as they exhibit a 
feeling of superiority toward their neighbors. 
* 
HAT story of life on a dairy farm—first page— 
is one of the best narratives of farm life that 
we have ever printed. It is as true in its simple 
details as “The Swiss Family Robinson.” Most 
farm stories run to extremes. They make life 
some long sweet love song, -where men and women 
gently walk through grassy meadows, or they se¬ 
lect some terrible experience of drudgery or disap¬ 
pointment and enlarge upon it. The real fact of 
farm life lies between these extremes, and it re¬ 
quires a courageous and patient soul to tell the 
truth about it. The true farmer would not accept 
the gift of a house on any city drive or boulevard 
if as a part of the contract he w r as forced to live in 
it. In order to be happy he must be “like a tree 
planted by the rivers of water,” and the so-called 
disadvantages and hard struggles of farming are 
just a necessary part of the game. He does not crave 
the world’s pity—he feels sorry for the poor things 
who must pass their days in a prison of brick and 
stone with either money or debt as jailer. Hopeful 
farming is a life of achievement, and it is no small 
victory to take a piece of land and work home and 
competence out of it. Such stories as the one which 
starts this week are good and hopeful because they 
are true. 
* 
T is time we heard about that fine old lie about 
insanity among farmers’ wives once more. There 
are three old stand-bys for the uplifters who seek 
to tear country society apart. They always claim 
that country wives go insane, country children are 
less healthy than city children and that pupils in 
district schools are a menace to civilization. The 
story about insane country wives has been refuted 
over and over again, but when a reformer gets a 
pet idea fixed in his head it is worse than cutting 
out his appendix to get him to forget it. There has 
just been published an interview with Prof. Wil¬ 
liam Fielding Ogburn of Columbia, one of the great 
authorities on sociology. He discusses insanity and 
shows that city life and indoor occupations are 
chiefly responsible for it. He says there are 321 in¬ 
sane telegraph operators or 335 typewriters to 44 
draymen or 92 farm laborers. 
“But,” one says, after hearing that twice as many 
single men go insane as do married men (the same 
ratio is true for women), “but don’t more farmers’ 
wives go insane than do the wives of the cities?” 
“I suppose,” replied Professor Ogburn, “you have 
some statistics to support your question?” 
“No,” you say, slowly, “but if it weren’t true how 
about all these realistic novels?” 
“Well,” said Professor Ogburn, “I believed that 
yarn about farmers’ wives myself until I looked up the 
figures. It seems that there is less insanity among 
farmers’ wives than there is among the farmers them¬ 
selves, not to speak of women married in the city.” 
But will the uplifters and reformers accept this 
and stop their noise about insane farm women! No 
—not if you branded the figures on their skins so 
that they must carry the evidence around with them. 
That would destroy their chief stock in trade. Some 
of them at least must keep the farm women insane 
going or lose their jobs as reformers. 
* 
A FEW years ago we noted something of a com¬ 
motion in the street in front of The R. N.-Y. 
office. A strange equipage stood in front of the 
door in the midst of a crowd of modern cars and 
trucks. An old-fashioned carriage low down and 
high at back and front pulled by a pair of black 
horses which lifted their feet and stepped proudly 
when in action, yet stood like statues when they 
were halted. It seemed as if the years had swung 
back for a third of a century to that good time when 
oats rather than gasoline provided the power for 
road transportation. Out of the old-fashioned car¬ 
riage stepped an old-fashioned man—an old-fash¬ 
ioned cut to his clothes, an old-fashioned high hat 
and something of old-fashioned honesty and common 
sense showing through his grizzled face. It was F. 
D. Coburn of Kansas come to pay his respects, and 
we felt more highly honored than if a king had 
come to see us. “Coburn of Kansas!” Few prob¬ 
ably of our younger people know who he was. He 
was Secretary of Agriculture of the Sunflower 
State, and in that capacity did more for Kansas 
than any other public man the State has ever known. 
He might have been Governor or Senator, but he 
preferred to make the office he held a great, far- 
reaching influence for good. And Coburn did that 
very thing—did it through sheer perseverance, per¬ 
sonality and pertinent writing and speaking. He 
believed in Kansas and he backed that belief wher¬ 
ever he went. Not what you might call a fighter, he 
was the best public advertiser the West ever had. 
He made Kansas people understand how big their 
State really is, and he made the rest of the world 
realize it too. The State was suffering from two ad¬ 
jectives, one was “drought-stricken,” the other 
“bleeding.” Coburn worked both of them out of 
the language through his masterly personality and 
contagious optimism. He died the other day, rich 
in years and honors. Statesmen, rich men, educa¬ 
tors, politicians come and go. Some leave notches 
on the book of time—some must be content with 
mere fingermarks. If we could leave behind us a 
record like that of Coburn of Kansas we should be 
well content. 
W 
R. K. L. BUTTERFIELD, for 18 years presi¬ 
dent of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
has resigned, and will accept the presidency of the 
Michigan Agricultural College. This announcement 
is of great importance to agricultural education. 
Dr. Butterfield ranks among the leading educators 
of America, and is easily at the head of agricultural 
college presidents, in experience and broad culture. 
He built up the Massachusetts College to a high 
point of efficiency, but has been of late years ham¬ 
pered and greatly annoyed by the State system of 
financing and administering that institution. In go¬ 
ing to Michigan he returns to his native State with 
a wonderful opportunity for developing a great in¬ 
stitution. The Michigan College is the pioneer of 
its class. The first agricultural college in the field, 
its geographical position was such that it was for 
many years the acknowledged head of agricultural 
education. Of late years it has been without real 
leadership, and in a State rich in natural resources 
and with powerful friends it has failed to develop 
as it should. It has now found a real leader in Dr. 
Butterfield. He will carry to the Middle West the 
conservative, creative spirit of New England, and 
develop what we believe will be the greatest agri¬ 
cultural college America has yet known. In the 
olden days Michigan was called “Massachusetts 
with a punch.” That peninsula always did have 
vast possibilities for agriculture when its swamps 
were drained and its waste places developed. There 
has rarely been greater significance in the change of 
residence of a single man than in this move of Dr. 
K. L. Butterfield from Massachusetts to Michigan. 
Brevities 
Rain ! Rain ! Rain ! Over the lonely farm ! 
Well, the cows, the ducks and the geese enjoy it 
anyway. 
In a recent New York case a lost mortgage was re¬ 
stored by law. 
No, you are not compelled to take out accident insur¬ 
ance for your farm help, but it is usually as wise to do 
so as it is to insure your buildings. 
The New York Department of Farms and Markets 
has issued Bulletin 157, entitled “The Sheep Industry 
of New York State.” An excellent pamphlet. 
A suggestion to certain city people who are so 
supremely anxious to save the country child from ruinous 
education— ice'll take care of the ignorant country chil¬ 
dren if you'll take care of the smart city children! 
We are often asked if Alfalfa will kill out Canada 
thistles, quack grass and similar pests. When Alfalfa 
once gets well started it is a strong grower, and will 
often smother the weeds, but it is very tender when 
young, and cannot stand weedy competition. 
One of the most remarkable predictions in medical 
science is that of Dr. C. H. Mayo, who says that within 
a short time at least, some forms of cancer will be con¬ 
sidered as a contagious disease. Then will come 
knowledge of the germ and a remedy for it. Do not 
conclude from this that a cure has been discovered. 
We are just on the road to it—further along than 
ever before. 
