1216 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journul lor Country and Suburban Home* 
Established i8S0 
¥ iblished weekly by the Rural I'nblisliing Company, 333 ffett 30th Street, hew Ftrt 
Herbert 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, $2.04. Remit in money 
order, express ol der, personal check or hank draft. 
Entered at New York Post Office as Second Class Matter. 
Advertising rates, 31.00 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. 'Ve use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. Rut'to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
lo 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 advertiseia 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 w ill 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. 
S EVERAL readers try to tell us that farm chil¬ 
dren would be exempt from the provision of the 
child labor amendment. That is nonsense, and these 
people ought to know r it. While the amendment was 
before the U. S. Senate several efforts were made to 
change it so that farm children or those "engaged 
in outdoor occupations” w r ould not be included. In 
every case these suggestions were voted down. You 
may be sure that if this amendment is ratified Con¬ 
gress will finally make it impossible for a farmer 
to' work his own children before they are IS. After 
they reach that age they will seldom be worth 
working. A lazy boy may refuse to milk a cow 
or saw a stick of wood aud the law would uphold 
him! Farmers may just as well understand right 
now what will happen to them if this amendment 
i.-, ratified. We consider it only one part of a well- 
planned scheme to obtain full control of the educa¬ 
tion and habits of children. Such control will mean 
a collection of smart little puppets with just about 
as much originality as a group of monkeys. 
I have a son who will eoon be 21, whom I would 
like to take as a partner on my farm. lie is married 
and at present lives with us; she and he both work for 
us for wages. My farm is free from debt and is well 
stocked with up-to-date machinery to lake care of an 
orchard. My place is well worth $10,000, as it is to¬ 
day. 1 think by giving this boy a fair chance he will 
stay with me. Could you tell me a fair way to take 
this boy in company? My income i« around $4,000 
a year. What percentage of the income and expense 
should you think was fair to both of us? W. H. 
HESE cases are constantly coming up. They 
involve personalities which make it well nigh 
impossible to suggest terms of contract which would 
apply to outsiders. Many a farmer wants his chil¬ 
dren, or at least one of them, to remain with him. 
He must realize that in these days of abundant 
jobs and high wages he must make favorable terms 
if he expects an ambitious young man to stay at 
home. It will pay you to make a good proposition. 
This will vary with the man and also with the 
locality and conditions. If you intend to work to¬ 
gether with your son one plan would be to make a 
fair inventory of your investment in machinery and 
other working property. I^et him pay a fair in¬ 
terest on that and then divide the proceeds 
equally after deducting the reasonable expense of 
conducting the business. In this connection the 
point will arise as to whether this boy should re¬ 
ceive wages for his labor—to be taken out of the 
proceeds as part of the expense! 
T HE success of the airmen in circling the globe 
calls attention to various other “fliers” which 
have been doing extraordinary things on the track, 
in the barn or elsewhere. Horses, cows, men, wo¬ 
men have been piling up new records so fast that it 
is hard to keep on their track. While we are at it 
let us not forget the 10 Rhode Island Red hens at 
the Connecticut egg-laying contest. In the first 44 
weeks these 10 hens laid 2,200 eggs. The American 
record for 10 hens is 2.352 eggs in 52 weeks. These 
10 Reds have only to lay 94 eggs in 8 weeks to top 
the country. They will undoubtedly do it. Most 
likely these 10 hens will produce on an average 20 
dozen each in the full year! And these birds were 
“made in America.” They represent a genuine 
Yankee product—the blood of various breeds or 
strains put together about as an old-time Yankee 
would make a boat or a machine with a jack-knife. 
True they have had every chance. The ordinary hen 
when the shadows fall puts her head under her wing 
and keeps it there till morning. But these fliers: 
"The houses are all lighted from nine o’clock until 
ten o’clock at night. After an hour in which to pick up 
all the grain they care to consume, the lights are 
Die RURAL NEW-YORKER 
dimmed for 15 or 20 minutes and the birds go back 
to bed.” 
The Irishman said the boss on the dairy farm got 
him “up in the night to eat,” and he had to work 
it off! Anyway, take it as you will, these 10 Red 
hens are a credit to the land that produced them! 
* 
S OME of our readers think that they can sell 
boxed or barreled apples direct from the farm 
to the consumer, and they frequently wonder why 
city people are suspicious and want to be shown 
before they will purchase. It is evidently true that 
some of the stuff which has been sold in this way 
has greatly injured this method of selling. We have 
the record of one man who advertised hand-picked 
boxed apples for sale, and as he made a low price 
ho received a good many orders. There was much 
complaint about the quality of the fruit, and upon 
investigation we found that this man was running 
a cider mill. Of course large quantities of apples 
were sent him, and he had two boys at work pick¬ 
ing out of this cider stock the best fruit they could 
find. These apples -were packed in boxes and they 
represented the hand-picked fruit which this man 
was offering. They certainly were hand-picked 
from the cider apples, but that was not the under¬ 
standing of the customers who wanted good fruit. 
A few frauds of this kind, selling apples in this way, 
can do a vast amount of damage to the entire trade. 
T HE Presidential candidates have begun to dis¬ 
cuss the national policy of spending great sums 
of money for irrigation and reclamation projects in 
the Far West. There is no great need today for re¬ 
claiming these great tracts of land. If they are 
occupied and worked to the limit the result will 
simply be an immense addition to the supply of 
farm products. We are right now producing more 
than the nation can properly distribute. For the 
past few years the chief cause for ruinously low 
prices has been an overproduction of food. At the 
same time thousands or millions of acres of good 
farm land in the Eastern States are abandoned or 
half worked because it does not pay to work them 
in competition with other land. In the face of 
these facts, what is the sense in any government 
policy of spending money for bringing new land into 
cultivation? In no other business that one can 
think of would any such policy be considered. In 
manufacturing and every other line of business ex¬ 
cept farming the wise policy is to reduce operations 
in case of a surplus of goods. How far would the 
government go if it were to encourage the building 
of new woolen factories at a time when no one 
could make clothes at a profit? We would call off 
the reclamation of these public lands until farm pro¬ 
duction is adjusted to consumption. 
* 
E must do it ourselves!” That is what the 
Cumberland Detective Society of Arnold’s 
Mills, R. I., say and they live up to it. It is an or¬ 
ganization of 125 men and women pledged to stand 
by each other in preventing theft and lawlessness 
in their territory. They have a regular constitu¬ 
tion and by-laws, aud an active officer known as 
Chief Pursuer. There are several other pursuers 
and when directed to do so they get right into 
their cars or ride their horses and live right up to 
the title of their office. During the fruit and vege¬ 
table season the roads through the district are fully 
patrolled and many a thief, petty or large, has been 
captured by these pursuers. They make short work 
of these pilferers be they rich or poor. In Rhode 
Island as elsewhere the greatest trouble comes from 
so-called upright citizens who think it no sin to 
rob a farmer’s orchard or garden. One of these 
high-toned robbers was caught in the act and ar¬ 
rested. He was greatly insulted: 
“Why, you poor hayseed,” he said, “I've got money 
enough to buy your measly farm with what I give 
for charity.” 
That made no difference—he paid his fine, and it 
is 10 to 1 he has kept out of orchards and gardens 
ever since. Rhode Island was settled originally by 
a great objector and stickler for human rights. The 
State has done more fighting for what it considered 
its due than any other State in the Union. Natur¬ 
ally these farmers do not intend to sit down and 
let the auto thieves have their own way. The big 
celebration in Rhode Island is a “clam bake.” This 
Cumberland Society recently celebrated its thirtieth 
anniversary with a “bake” attended by 1,S00 peo¬ 
ple ! Some of these folks who want the Legislature 
to pass new laws to control auto thieves, should 
imitate these R. I. pursuers and do it themselves. 
September 20, 1924 
OW we have this from the Dairymen's League 
News: 
The Rural New-Yorkjer predicts the election of 
Elbert S. Brigham, Commissioner of Agriculture of Ver¬ 
mont, to Congress. So do we. From the beginning it 
has been fairly plain that he would be elected. 
This, however, is not the question. The real ques¬ 
tion is why, with scores of Congressmen to be elected 
in the Middle Atlantic and New England States, The 
Rural New-Yorker should single out for its support 
one who many of the large co-operatives of the coun¬ 
try consider as a person friendly to the dealers’ in¬ 
terests. 
The activities of Commissioner Brigham will be dis¬ 
cussed when the New England situation is presented 
to the readers of the Netcs. 
It is quite safe to predict a sure thing—for in¬ 
stance, almost anyone could safely predict that the 
sun will shine tomorrow! Mr. Brigham’s election 
is just about as sure as the sun. We supported Mr. 
Brigham from the first because w r e have known him 
personally for many years. He is one of the few 
men in public life that we know so intimately that 
we are willing to back his honesty and sincerity to 
the limit as we would a member of the family or a 
trusted business associate. We do not know of 
any better plan for improving the quality of Con¬ 
gress than to apply the test 6f long friendship and 
trusted reputation in the choice of candidates. That 
is our answer to the ill-natured and carping criticism 
indulged in by the News. The people of Vermont 
seem to think well of the activities of Commissioner 
Brigham. The belated discussion of them by the 
News can hardly be called up-to-date—under tl|e 
circumstances. 
* 
T HE distance between Boston and New York and 
return is 366 miles. The fastest railroad train 
ever run between the two cities covered the trip 
one way in four hours and 17 minutes! In old 
Colonial days more than a week was required for 
a one-way trip. Last week Lieutenant Moffatt in an 
airship made the round trip in a little over two 
hours including a brief stop in New York! It seems 
incredible that such speed can be attained. At 
times this airplane attained a speed of 185 miles an 
hour. Stop and figure what this means for each 
tick of the clock and we realize what it must have 
meant to sit on the back of this great mechanical 
bird and go rushing through the air. It would seem 
as if there would be very few occasions in ordinary 
life when such speed would be desirable or useful, 
but we must all face the fact that we have come to 
a rapid age in which our young people may easily 
become dissatisfied tvith the slow and severe meth¬ 
ods of our youth. 
* 
F LORIDA! It is a land of sunshine, sorrow, 
saints, suckers and swindlers, pretty well mixed 
into a balanced ration. Recently one of our people 
wanted to know what sort of a fair deal a man of 
moderate means, well along in life, would get dur¬ 
ing a Florida Winter. We have had nearly 50 re¬ 
plies. Of course we cannot print them all. Some 
are openly advertisements for certain localities, 
some are evidently efforts on the part of pessimists 
to get revenge for supposed ill-treatment. A few 
are honest efforts to tell the reasonable truth with¬ 
out extra coloring. If we believe some of these 
stories, Florida is a second and improved edition of 
the Harden of Eden. The next letter may claim 
that Satan has been elected president of this garden, 
with the real estate man as executive officer! We 
judge that the people who condemn Florida are 
usually those who expect too much, and think they 
will be entertained cheaply, or given all the work 
they desire. The truth is that the Winter climate of 
Florida is usually delightful. Florida people regard 
it as an asset. They earn a good share of their 
living in framing the climate and scenery around 
the northern tourist and charging a good price for 
the frame. A reasonable tourist may obtain reason¬ 
able service at a reasonable price, but if he expects 
free board and lodging along with “free air” he will 
be disappointed. If he is not prepared to have 
liberties taken with his poeketbook he should re¬ 
sign as a tourist. 
Brevities 
A high-brow may conceal low brains. 
Poor economy—to save money and waste life. 
Bread made with milk is far more nutritious than 
when water alone is ueed. 
As the nights get colder the race between frost and 
the corn crop gets hotter. 
What shall we say about the claso of men who would 
put high-priced grain into a low-grade hen? 
This country can never become truly the land of 
the free until we make it the home of the brave. 
There is not a wheat field seeded in New York that 
would not be improved by the use of acid phosphate. 
