988 
Iht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
July 12, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S TAPER 
A Nntlonul Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established iSSO 
P iblished weekly by the Knral Pnbliching Company, 333 West 30th Street, New fork 
Hkrbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Hoyle, Associate Editor. 
L. H. Murphy, 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 ; 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. 
A S the season grows it becomes more evident that 
Nature is taking care of the big surplus crop 
of fruit. The “June drop” was very heavy, and this, 
added to the poor set of fruit following the bloom, 
makes a great difference in the outlook. In May, 
judging from the heavy bloom, it did not seem pos¬ 
sible that half the apple crop could ever be sold. In 
July the prospect is for a fair crop and reasonable 
prices. A “bumper crop” is seldom satisfactory to 
a farmer. It always means a heavy surplus, and as 
a rule the consumer is not benefited, while the pro¬ 
ducer is held up and unable to dispose of his goods 
except at a sacrifice. This year Nature seems to 
have done what law and legislation never can do for 
the apple crop, and that is cut it down so as to bring 
it nearer demand. This ought to be a good year, on 
the whole, for fruit growers. 
* 
IIE Democratic National Convention in New 
York afforded convincing proof that something 
has come which will upset many social habits of the 
jieople. Scattered about the city might be seen little 
groups of people standing in a listening attitude— 
apparently doing nothing. They were listening, for 
at hundreds of radio shops the instruments were 
combing the air and bringing out the medley of 
sounds arising from the great convention. These 
people on the street heard the nominating speeches 
and the wild sounds of the demonstration which 
greeted the names of favorite candidates. And far 
away from the hot and noisy convention—out in the 
cooler, silent country—farmers and their families 
sitting at ease in the front room heard the speeches 
and the noise almost as if they were close at hand. 
This has of course been done for years, yet the great 
wonderful meaning of the service was never brought 
home to us so forcibly as right now. We may well 
stop to ask what the effect of this wonderful dis¬ 
tribution of sound will be. It will evidently have a 
powerful influence upon human life if the system is 
developed as rapidly as it has been during the next 
few years. With man’s ability to conquer the air by 
riding safely through it, and by taking out floating 
waves of sound and putting them together in co¬ 
herent speech and music, must come in time a new 
social world in which many of our old habits and 
methods can have little place. Verily, our children 
are growing up into what seems to us an industrial 
fairyland. Of one thing we may be sure. There 
will be greater need than ever of the old-time solid 
character if the human mind is not to be dazzled and 
turned by these overpowering changes. 
* 
OW we must consider the cover crop—seeded in 
the corn or after potato digging. The story is told 
on page 980. Rye and vetch, or rye and clover, 
seeded right in the corn at the last cultivation, will 
often mean the equivalent of eight to 10 loads of 
manure per acre—in return for the mere cost of 
seed and labor. The soil is protected during the 
Fall and Winter, and nitrates which would otherwise 
be leached out of the land and lost are held in the 
cover crop for next year's plant food. None of us 
can afford to throw nitrogen away, or let it run 
away—yet that is just what we do Avhen we leave 
the soil bare in September and October. There is 
every good reason for seeding the cover crop, and no 
sound argument for not using it 
* 
E confess to a genuine sympathy for that 
Pennsylvania boy (page 999) who wants to 
own and keep a dog. This boy’s father is an alien 
and under the State law is not permitted to own a 
dog or keep one in his own name. That may be a 
wise provision. We do not know how just it is in 
this case, but the boy writes a letter which seems to 
stamp him as a dog-lover, and it will awaken mem¬ 
ories in the mind of many a man who looks back 
through the long years to childhood and remembers 
some little mongrel dog who seemed more than 
human in friendship and love. Yes, indeed, we are 
glad that the Pennsylvania law enforcers seem to 
realize what a dog means to a boy. This boy will 
be a better American, in spite of his alien parentage, 
if he can have the privilege of learning patience 
and love and loyalty from a dog. Of course we 
know how this will strike those who sincerely be¬ 
lieve that a dog is nothing but a malignant carrier 
of hydrophobia, tapeworm and kindred ills, but ask 
the larger number of humans who have really known 
the sympathy and companionship of some little gen¬ 
tleman in fur! 
P to July 4 we were able to go out any time and 
cut a good mess of asparagus—and we took 
advantage of the privilege freely. We might have 
kept it going a month longer, but other vegetables 
are here, and we want the asparagus to have a full 
chance for next year. Only a Chinaman, who gets 
half his food from bamboo tips, can realize what 
this constant supply of asparagus means. We can¬ 
not help expressing wonder that so few farmers 
enjoy this vegetable. It is the easiest edible plant 
to grow. Once started it is good for 20 years. Com¬ 
ing, as it does, in early Spring it is one of the most 
useful vegetables of all the long list. We have 
repeatedly asked for any sensible reason why any 
farmer should not have all the asparagus his family 
can eat. There has never been an answer. 
* 
T WO weeks ago we said that before long a license 
system for roadside markets will be worked out. 
Several readers say that this would be an invasion 
of individual rights—an unjust penalty levied on 
farmers. On the whole, we think it would be a 
protection for farmers by keeping out of the busi¬ 
ness many who should not be permitted to sell. 
License and regulation of cars and trucks does not 
give a perfect system, adds to our expenses, but 
imagine what would happen if there were no regu¬ 
lation of auto traffic! Abuses have come into the 
roadside market trade, and genuine farmers have 
been hurt by the actions of some snides and fakers. 
Fair regulation will clean this crowd out, and such 
a cleaning is necessary. 
* 
GOULD public institutions which maintain a 
farm be permitted to compete with local farm¬ 
ers in the sale of farm produce? This is a vital 
question in some places. A good many of the ex¬ 
periment stations and agricultural colleges have 
quite a surplus of fruits and vegetables. Some of 
them raise considerable nursery stock, or tomato, 
cabbage and celery plants. These often go into the 
local market and compete disastrously with local 
gardeners or nursery men. We understand that this 
matter got into the courts in one State—the decision 
being that the college was denied the right to com¬ 
pete in the local market. It might sell produce to 
employes or to those who came and got the goods, 
but it must not engage in regular local trade. It is 
a hard question. Naturally taxpayers expect these 
institutions to pay their own way, and waste of food 
is wicked. On the other hand, the local grower has 
rights, and should not be forced into unfair com¬ 
petition. 
* 
N a recent address before the National Association 
of Real Estate Boards, James R. Howard, for¬ 
merly head of the National Farm Bureau, said: 
Today the era of settlement and territorial expansion 
is past. Agricultural production and agricultural 
wealth will grow in future not by the pre-emption of 
free lands, but by the application of brains and energy 
and capital to the land we have. The stage needs re¬ 
setting. New programs are to be put in operation. In 
the solution of the nation’s perplexing farm problem— 
and it is permanent solutions and not expediencies that 
we are interested in—lies a great opportunity for service. 
If this solution is to be achieved, all men of all vocations 
must give careful study to America’s agriculture as it 
affects every calling and industry, and to constructive 
thought and action in the formulation and carrying out 
of definite land policies in the interests of the whole 
people. 
For years The R. N.-Y. has pointed out that we 
have gone past the time of free land. Uncle Sam 
lost the ability “to give us all a farm” many years 
ago. There are still lands off in inaccessible places 
which may be bought cheaply, but it would require 
a lifetime to clear them, and this is no longer a 
pioneer age when a man can go into the woods with 
an ax, a rifle, a bag of salt and wife and develop a 
home. This is an age of money and credit, and the 
man who would start farming needs good credit as 
badly as he who would start storekeeping or manu¬ 
facturing. What we need most is a financial system 
w T hich will enable superior hired men and tenants 
to become land owners without at the same time 
becoming financial slaves. The government seems 
afraid to start any such system. It remains for 
farmers to “do it themselves.” If farmers would 
follow the labor unions and establish or control 
banks of their own they could soon finance every 
needed farm operation. 
* 
COMPANY of women went on to Washington 
to see President Coolidge. He told them, 
among other things: 
If you have come here expecting to find the real seat 
of power here, I know you will be disappointed, for the 
seat of power does not rest in Washington—it rests 
back in those homes that you really represent, and if 
your coming here is to have any effect, it will be on ac¬ 
count of the message that you take back. 
The same thought was beautifully presented years 
a »° by Gen. J. A. Garfield at a great, stormy conven¬ 
tion. He told that angry, fighting crowd that the great 
national questions are not settled amid such wild 
scenes, but rather before ten million firesides in the 
quiet places, where men and women judge such 
questions by the rules of their family lives! All of 
which is absolutely true; more than ever so since the 
telephone, the car and the radio have broadened out 
the life of the common family. If we could only get 
the plain people to realize their power and act upon 
it thousands of politicians who now make a living by 
holding people apart, would be obliged to go to 
work! 
t* * 
O N page 987 you will find presented, side by 
side, the agricultural “planks” in the two great 
party platforms. When the third, or Progressive 
party, states its platform we will print what it has 
to offer. Our readers will know how to size up 
these promises by the practices of the political past. 
It is somewhat unfortunate that our American 
political system does not always permit a clear-cut 
contest for definite principles. There is no doubt 
that the great majority of the American people feel 
that both the great parties are dominated by pol¬ 
iticians and selfish interests who have very little 
use for the common people except in the matter of 
attracting and controlling their votes. This is par¬ 
ticularly true of agriculture. Farmers are not well 
organized, and they have for many years stuo- 
bornly held to their heritage of political faith on one 
side or the other without giving full reasons for do¬ 
ing so. Naturally this has given the politicians on 
both sides a feeling of ownership—one party for the 
Southern farmer’s vote, the other feeling that it 
has a mortgage on the Northern farmer’s ballot. 
Thus these two groups, which have much in com¬ 
mon, have been unable to work together for economic 
reforms. This sad fact was made clear during the 
last Congress in the efforts to carry through legisla¬ 
tion for the relief of Western grain growers. This 
year’s platforms of the old parties do not give much 
hope that farmers throughout the nation can “do it 
themselves” by acting together on great economic 
questions. They are still to be held apart by poli¬ 
ticians. 
* 
HE “auto hogs” and car thieves are more active 
than usual this year. We have many reports of 
their depredations. They steal flowers, fruit—any¬ 
thing they can find. Next week we shall try to give 
an account of a typical case, which will state the 
side of the farmer and also the defense of the man 
who helps himself to what he finds. In some sections 
farmers are organizing to defend their property. 
Brevities 
No use trying to kill insects on beans or wheat by 
fumigation unless the bin or barrel is airtight. 
Remember that the poison ivy plant has three leaves. 
We have seen people carefully avoid the harmless five- 
leafed plant and dig up the poison vine for planting 
near a house! 
A woman is acting as Governor of Arizona during 
the absence of the regular Governor. Another woman 
is a candidate for Governor of Texas, in an effort to 
vindicate her husband’s character. 
The total yearly value of canned and preserved food 
produced in this country is more than one billion dol¬ 
lars. The most widely distributed product is canned 
peaches, which go to 100 different countries. 
As a hay grain for seeding with grass seed after the 
middle of July, we consider barley better than oats. In 
some parts of the North barley is seeded with clover in 
August, and will give a ton of hay to the acre before 
frost. 
