r 132 
August 30, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850 
Published weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 333 West 80th Street, New Sorb 
Herbkrt W. Colling wood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and Genei-al Manager. 
Win F. Dillon, Secretary. Mils. E. T. Royle, Associate Editor. 
L. H. Murphy, Circulation Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
To foreign countries in the Universal Postal Union, 82.01. 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. Rut 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. 
Williamsport, Pa., Aug. 8.—Eight of the 60 New 
York tenement children who arrived in Ilughesville on 
Wednesday for two weeks’ vacation through the kind¬ 
ness of Ilughesville people, have returned home. They 
were homesick for the hot pavements and high walls of 
the tenements. 
One little girl carried on a campaign of destruction 
to force her hosts to send her back home. She pul Jed up 
everything in the garden and stripped all the grape¬ 
vines of green grapes and insisted she be sent home at 
once. 
T HIS happens 'Sometimes, for some of these fresh 
air children are certainly very “fresh” heirs. 
It is a fine spirit which prompts country people to 
give these little ones a vacation, hut it often requires 
a patience which Job would have envied to put up 
with their mischief. And what of these uplifters 
who go about quoting figures to show that the city is 
far more healthy for children than the country? 
We do not hear of organizations formed for the pur¬ 
pose of bringing swarms of country children to the 
city for a vacation, nor do we hear of city families 
opening their homes for country little ones. 
* 
Vermont Farmers Resent Action of Rural New- 
Yorker.—The people of Vermont should not be criticized 
for resenting the activities of the Rural New-Yorker in 
the political affaire of Vermont by advising the election 
of Elbert S. Brigham to Congress. 
The people of Vermont have the right to feel that the 
desire of the Rural New-Yorker to have an enemy of 
the co-operative marketing movement elected to Con¬ 
gress is no sufficient reason for a New York paper med¬ 
dling in Vermont affairs. 
HAT seems to be the matter with our sour- 
minded contemporary? Several weeks ago 
it came out with a bitter attack upon Mr. Brigham, 
calling him, as usual, “the enemy of co-operative 
marketing.” This aroused Hoard's Dairyman, which 
printed this dignified and just statement: 
Mr. Brigham, from the time he has taken this office, 
has devoted himself to studying ways and means of get¬ 
ting the farmer in position to process his own products, 
to prepare them for market, and to market them co¬ 
operatively. He has been a true friend of co-operation 
for he has outlined practices which could be followed 
and would succeed and at the same time keep the farmer 
in direct control of his own affairs. 
Apparently Mr. Brigham’s great offense, in the 
eyes of the League Neios, is that he has an inde¬ 
pendent mind and prefers a plan which will enable 
farmers to control their own business. He stands 
for democracy, and in the eyes of privileged autoc¬ 
racy that has always been heresy. But are these 
Vermont farmers so full of 'resentment? We have 
not discovered it. They are an outspoken, honest 
class of people. They know what they want and 
will take no substitute. Mr. Brigham will be nom¬ 
inated without opposition. No one enteied the pri¬ 
mary against him, and we predict that later on 
Vermont Avill send him to the Senate. His election 
is as sure as the sunrise, as sure as any political 
outcome can be. This is Vermont^ answer to our 
ill-natured contemporary. Every farmer in the 
country, from Portland, Me., to Portland, Ore., may 
well take interest in the fact that men like Elbert 
S. Brigham are sent to Congress, for such men rep¬ 
resent honesty and will with fine courage do what 
is best in farming. The League News seems to be 
turning a little sour. Perhaps this dose of ground 
limestone from the Vermont hills will help to sweet¬ 
en the situation. 
* 
I N accepting the principles of the so-called Dawes 
plan for settling the German debt question, the 
governments of Europe seem to have come closer to 
a permanent agreement than ever before. We hope 
that something definite will come from it. It has 
been evident all along that while Europe needs the 
moral power and influence of America, she must also 
have financial aid in credit and cash—and America 
is the only nation capable of giving it. No one can 
reasonably blame this nation for refusing to dump 
its money into European investments until some 
•Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
clear and understandable idea of the exact treat¬ 
ment of Germany, the great debtor nation, is settled. 
With that on the way to settlement, we think Amer¬ 
ican loans will follow. That will mean a revival of 
trade and confidence which will be slowly noticed 
in the business of the world. The European situa¬ 
tion is more hopeful right now than at any previous 
time since the armistice. There is a great lesson 
in the attempt to settle this great trouble Which 
may well be applied to smaller matters. We, in this 
country, can hardly imagine the racial hatreds and 
suspicions which hold the European nations apart. 
Yet the feeling that the preservation of order, even 
of life, made it necessary for these nations to come 
together and drop some of their hatreds or differ¬ 
ences finally led to this agreement. On a much 
smaller scale we have here in the Eastern States a 
market milk situation which must be saved before 
it drifts away from control. Here, as in the much 
larger European trouble, the warring, factions must 
get together, drop some of their prejudices and 
hatreds, and thus serve the common cause of dairy¬ 
men. 
* 
School Meeting at the State Fair 
T HERE will he a meeting of the New York Rural 
School Improvement Society at Syracuse during 
the State Fair. It will be held on September 12, at 
the Coliseum, and all are invited. The plan is to 
have country people come together for an open and 
frank discussion of the rural school question. An 
excellent program will be provided, and anyone who 
has ideas on school improvement may present them. 
The State Fair will attract many farmers, and this 
will give us all a good chance to get together, or¬ 
ganize and arrange a plan of action. If we are to 
improve the district schools the improvement should 
start in the home district and work up, and not be 
forced down from the top. To this end we need a 
State organization of rural people reaching not only 
to every county, but to township and district. That 
is the design of the Rural School Improvement So¬ 
ciety, which we regard as the most important, organ¬ 
ization, covering the most important question now 
before our country people. We make this personal 
appeal to you. Come to this Syracuse meeting if you 
possibly can, and bring your opinions and your facts 
with you. 
* 
HIS year, as in most seasons, many fields of 
silage corn are well filled with weeds. With 
the labor shortage and the thousand things which 
must be done on a farm, it is often impossible to 
keep the cornfields clean. Some farmers try to hire 
extra help so as to pull these weeds, even by hand, 
in the belief that they will injure the silage. We 
should cut them right in with the corn. They can 
do no harm; in fact, some of our common weeds 
contain real medicinal principles. They will be 
blended and mixed with the corn, adding to the bulk 
and value of the silage. We know that several of 
our common weeds are among the most useful plants 
for green manure when they are used before going 
to seed, and we notice that they are readily eaten 
with the hay. They will do no harm in the silo. 
Another thing not generally known: Some farmers 
make a practice of scattering fine bonemeal or 
ground phosphate rock over the corn as the silo is 
filled. The cattle will eat this supply of phosphorus 
as they eat the silage. In some cases it supplies 
what they need. In any event it can do them no 
harm and will be passed in the manure, thus giving 
with least labor the reinforcement of phosphorus 
which all manure needs. The great majority of cat¬ 
tle will be helped by this phosphorus supply. In any 
event it cannot be lost—and what harm can it do? 
* 
HE good old American Pomologieal Sociey 
has come back into the ring with renewed 
vigor. It started long ago in the days when 
Dobbin or old Gray provided the motive power 
on the road, and decided size of the farm gath¬ 
ering. There were no telephones, no experiment 
stations, no agricultural colleges and few farm 
papers in those days. Marshall P. Wilder 
was the power behind the American Pom- 
ological Society, and he, with a few more old war¬ 
riors, kept it going. Most men and organizations of 
the past seem content to get out of the battle and sit 
and tell about their former exploits. That is a mis¬ 
take, for youth needs the experience and example of 
age. It is probably that age is more impatient in its 
relation to progress than youth. At least the old 
Pomologieal Society thinks so, and it gives us all an 
example of keeping up with the procession. Instead 
of pi’ating about the good old times when the horse 
provided limited transportation, the members of 
this society take cars and travel 5,000 miles up and 
down the country preaching and practicing the pleas¬ 
ant advice to “Eat More Fruit!” A great job, that, 
for an old-timer. Too many elderly people are living 
illustrations of the fact that man may dig his grave 
with his teeth, but he who bites into a mellow apple 
or a juicy peach is quite the reverse of a grave¬ 
digger. The pomologists have started two great 
things. The first is a campaign to interest people in 
fruit eating; the second is the fine proof that elderly 
people are not out of it yet. There is still work for 
them. 
* 
O N page 1028 The R. N.-Y. made certain remarks* 
about the rural school bill record of Mr. L. G. 
Kirkland, member of the New York Assembly for 
Cattaraugus County. Mr. Kirkland is now a candi¬ 
date for the Senate, representing the Fifty-first Dis¬ 
trict. Our statements were based on information 
which we considered reliable. Mr. Kirkland now 
writes to a local paper with the following statement 
of his position: 
Believing a large majority of those affected by this 
bill in the Fifty-first Senatorial District are opposed to 
the provisions of this bill, I shall not support this bill 
if I am elected Senator of this district. 
Personally I doubt very much if this bill is intro¬ 
duced again. As a citizen I may believe in many of 
the provisions of the bill and express myself accord¬ 
ingly. As a legislator I endeavor to truly represent 
the majority of those I represent, believing it my duty 
to reflect the sentiment of the people in the district. 
I have worked very close to the heads of the farm 
organizations of the State on matters affecting farmers. 
Having a personal acquaintance with the most of them 
for several years back, I have looked upon them as the 
farmers’ chosen spokesmen on these matters, and if 
their requests were supported by information which I 
was able to gather in the county in my own way, I felt 
that I must be representing the sentiments of my dis¬ 
trict. 
iWe print this statement in justice to Mr. Kirk¬ 
land. We think be is right in saying that in matters 
of this sort a member of the Assembly should repre- 
teent and respect the opinions of his people. How¬ 
ever, we think his judgment about the future of the 
bill is wrong. Its promoters will come back more 
eager than ever! 
* 
T HE daily papers in their sporting columns, re¬ 
port many races or trials of speed. Automo¬ 
biles, men, boats, horses, mules, and even dogs, are 
matched, and the public never wearies of reading 
about it. There is another great race now on, rarely 
reported and but little understood by most people. 
It is the race between Jack Frost and the season’s 
corn crop. There never was another just like it. 
This peculiar season has held the corn back from 
maturity. In many sections it is several weeks be¬ 
hind, and cannot fully mature unless there can be a 
period of hot weather before frost comes. Should 
the cool damp season continue until frost, the grain 
cannot mature. There will, of course, be some corn 
produced in the lower latitudes, but in the great 
producing States of Iowa and nearby States the 
danger is great, and the race is keen. The prosper¬ 
ity of the Central West depends on the outcome— 
and the effect will 'be felt wherever com is used for 
humans or for stock. It is a great race! The hap- 
iness or misery of a great section depends upon the 
speed with which frost makes its approach. Will it 
come with the blighting malignity of old Jack Frost, 
or with the benevolence and patriotism of the lion. 
John Frost? If it were a matter of popular election 
the latter would win, hands down. 
Brevities 
No man gets into the future tense by sitting safely 
on the fence. 
Codliver oil has worked wonders with confined chicks 
suffering from leg weakness. 
The Washington Experiment Station at Pullman has 
issued Popular Bulletin 123 on “Plans for Small 
Barns.” It is a good discussion of a never-ending topic. 
Put it in your scrapbook. In New York State a 
woman may make a will leaving her property as she 
sees fit. She can exclude her husband if she desires to 
do so. 
One of our readers wants to dig out a spring, and 
asks if he should wait till the “dog days” before start¬ 
ing. But what have the “dog days” to do with such 
work? 
It is reported that 12 people on a camping trip, to the 
Adirondacks accepted part of a beaver killed during the 
closed season and cooked and ate the meat. They were 
fined $50 each. An expensive meal. 
In some localities there is quite a little danger from 
early frost. That would mean a calamity with the corn 
crop as backward as it is this year. If the corn is 
frosted it will pay well to use the silo bacteria when 
filling. 
In Brazil they have made a census of cocoanut trees 
and count 3,155,104. We all like cocoanut, and the 
Brazilians should take our apples in exchange. Last 
year South America took less than 1 per cent of our 
crop. Brazil took 84,543 boxes and 232 barrels. 
