1268 
7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 4, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S TAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established 1850 
rnhliKhrd weekly by the Rural Uublisliinp Company. 883 West 80th Street, New York 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wm. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Roylk, 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 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 
advertisei-s unknown to us ; and casli must accompany transient orders. 
“A SQUARE DEAL” 
We believe that every advertisement in tin's 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. 
F ARMERS’ week at the New York State School 
of Agriculture, Morrisville, N. Y., is the second 
week of October. Thursday, October 9. is dairy¬ 
man’s day. Charles H. Tuck, representing the 
Daiyrmen’s League Co-operative Association will 
speak in the foremoon; John J. Dillon has accepted 
an invitation to speak in the afternoon. 
sk 
lias there been a law passed making the district, 
pay $50 apiece for each pupil that goes to high school 
from that district? H. M. 
Sullivan Co., N. Y. 
E have tried to explain this several times. 
Under the school laws a school district must 
provide suitable education for all children of school 
age. If <the district does not, in the home school, 
provide instruction in the higher grades or high 
school it must pay for outside tuition for children 
who desire such instruction. The State provides 
$50 a year for each pupil to pay for such instruc¬ 
tion. If the local school hoard where the children at¬ 
tend, sees fit to charge more than $50 for each pu¬ 
pil the district must pay the difference. Before the 
war this charge was usually under $50, but the high 
cost of education, like the high cost of living, has 
mounted, and in many cases the town school boards 
are charging $100 for each outside pupil. As the 
State will pay only $50 the district must pay the 
balance. That is the way these charges come about. 
* 
T HE dozens of people w'ho have asked us about 
the cemetery laws of New York are referred 
to page 1250. It seems that the town is made re¬ 
sponsible for the care of these graveyards. The 
town board must provide for the removal of grass 
and weeds at least twice in each year. This is sure¬ 
ly mandatory, and must be done. This law ought to 
make it possible for any body of men and women 
to see that these old cemeteries are kept neat and 
clean—as they should be. It is a part of true Ameri¬ 
canism to show respect for the pioneers who have 
gone before, and it should be a part of local civic 
pride to see that these small editions of “God’s 
acre” are made beautiful. 
tk 
BOUT the year 1750 Jared Eliot, a Connecticut 
preacher and farmer, started seeding clover 
for green manuring in New England. Eliot had 
traveled in Europe even as far as Russia, studying 
agricultural practice. He conceived the idea that 
nature used the swamps and low places as a bank 
for holding plant food. He never heard of nitrogen, 
but observation taught him that when the black 
swamp soil or muck was hauled out and spread on 
the lighter soil there was good response. He also 
saw that lime or wood ashes used with this muck 
made it more effective. He introduced clover seed¬ 
ing, and the practice slowly spread among farmers, 
and it was of great value during the Revolutionary 
War. Much of New England soil, thin and poor at 
the beginning, had been cropped for more than 100 
years. Clover helped to restore its fertility and 
make it productive, so that it might help feed the 
American Army. New England now needs another 
Jared Eliot to introduce Sweet clover and Soy 
beans. Properly handled these crops would double 
the value of thousands of acres of pasture, and re¬ 
store many fields now cultivated at a loss, and thus 
increase the home production of corn, rye and barley, 
if not wheat. Most of the farm leaders of New 
England appear to think that the section should be 
content if it can supply its own needs in milk, po¬ 
tatoes and fruit or vegetables, and buy meat and 
bread elsewhere. We think this is a mistaken poli¬ 
cy. New England should produce more of its needed 
bread, meat and wool, but before that can be done 
much of the soil must be revived and quickened by 
the addition of humus and organic nitrogen. Sweet 
clover and Soy beans properly used will make the 
soil over. There are dozens of cases in history 
where the continued use of Soy beans has turned a 
country of thin soil and pauper-like inhabitants 
into a section of rich land and prosperous farmers. 
Wherever Alfalfa and Sweet clover thrive—'there 
farm prosperity reigns. 
5k 
M AC MI LEAN, the Arctic explorer, is just back 
from a Winter spent near the North Pole. 
After spending a Winter eating seal meal and 
canned goods one would think that a man would 
have some definite ideas about food. Asked what he 
craved most on getting back to civilization MacMil¬ 
lan properly answered : 
“An American apple!” 
It was his supreme desire to bury his teeth in the 
flesh of some mellow, tart fruit, and bite out a good- 
sized mouthful. Of course we cannot send every¬ 
one to the North Pole in order to educate them in 
apple eating. Such education ought to be given 
nearer home. It would be a great thing for humani¬ 
ty if all of our city people could only acquire Mac¬ 
Millan’s desire to bite into an American apple. 
fk 
What is the matter with the Dairymen’s League 
News? It is constantly attacking The It. N.-l r . It 
does not seem to advance any large argument, but is 
constantly picking up some small thing and scolding 
about it. What is the trouble? t. w. k. 
E have had several questions like the above, 
and we are unable to answer them. The 
comparison may not be a fair one, but the News re¬ 
minds us of one of those nervous scolding women 
who keep their household and the community in a 
turmoil. Their home and their family would be far 
better off if they could and would practice greater 
self-control, but they seem bent on picking up small 
things and magnifying them with a sharp tongue. 
We knew one such woman who followed this plan of 
fault-finding and scolding- with her husband in the 
hope that she could finally taunt him into some act 
that would really give her something to talk about. 
A very shrewd friend who has seen much of life 
suggests that the News has some such plan in mind. 
He thinks the News is playing this rather childish 
part in the hope that The It. N.-Y. will be stung into 
some retort that will enable the News to make some 
sort of bluff under the new co-operative law. If 
that is the game the News would better stop scold¬ 
ing right now and save its space for more edifying 
matter; for we shall make no reply in kind. The 
dairy situation is bad enough as it stands. We 
should all try to bear and forbear, and get together 
if possible on some workable plan on which all can 
unite. This policy of scolding and fault-finding never 
will help bring about the needed truce. The most 
careful and unselfish policy must be adopted if the 
present difficulties are to be overcome. No one can 
advance true co-operation by bitterness, scolding and 
strife. Only confidence, mutual help and good will 
can help us now. Our unhappy contemporary can¬ 
not possibly help the present situation by continuing 
its policy of scolding and fault-finding any more 
than such conduct can heal the breach in a family 
circle which has been strained to the breaking point 
by some misunderstanding. 
F ROM the first there has been a curious misun¬ 
derstanding about the feeling of rural people 
over the school bill. The backers of the bill seem to 
think that the country jieople are only interested in 
(he provision of the bill itself. They have satisfied 
themselves that the bill is right and needful—there¬ 
fore all should agree to it. It seems remarkable that 
these educators and school men cannot seem to un¬ 
derstand that the farmers are not fighting the details 
of that bill so much as a fundamental principle 
which they think lies under it. A great majority 
of these farmers honestly believe that this bill is 
part of a well-organized campaign to take the con¬ 
trol of the local schools out of their hands. They 
will not surrender what they hold to be their rights 
in local school government without a struggle. The 
educators do not seem to realize what these school 
government rights mean to these country people. If 
they did understand the working out of a school 
program would be easier. At least the educators 
seem to think that the farmers are incapable of 
handling school affairs properly. On the other hand, 
the farmers are convinced that an effort is being 
made to transfer local school rights to State or 
Federal control. Their plain common sense and 
local patriotism causes them to rebel against such a 
suggestion. It will be comparatively easy to agree 
upon a school bill whenever the educators make it 
clear that they will not usurp local school rights. 
There will be no new general or omnibus bill until 
farmers are convinced of that. 
* 
A T this fruiting season some of our readers wish 
to have varieties of apples or pears named or 
identified. Sometimes it is a case of supposed 
“misfits,” or substituted varieties, or it may be from 
some unidentified tree found growing on a purchased 
place. The way to make sure of these things is to 
send fair samples to the Division of Pomology, Agri¬ 
cultural Department, Washington, D. C. 
That is the court of last resort in such cases. 
5k 
S OMETHING of a new business, if you may call 
it that, is being slowly developed in caring for 
children. There are some cases in the large cities 
where parents are unable to care for their little ones. 
Sometimes both parents must work in order to pro¬ 
vide a living; in other cases their job or position 
will not permit them to keep the child. They do 
not like to turn the little one adrift in the city or 
put it into some institution. The ideal plan is to 
find a country home for the little one where some 
farmer’s wife can keep the child as a little boarder 
until the parents can make a home of their own. 
As a rule such people cannot pay very much for 
board and care, yet there are many farmers’ wives 
who were formerly school teachers, to whom a few 
dollars, earned in this way, would be very helpful— 
to say nothing of the joy in having a little one in 
the home. We have had some experience in this, 
and know that it may be made a great blessing to 
all concerned if it can be done in the right spirit. 
Here is one little way in which city and country 
can be brought.together for mutual benefit. Farmers 
have long been good at fattening a sheep or a Sum¬ 
mer boarder. Many of them might do well with 
these little ones. The suggestion is a new one. and 
we should hardly know how to find the children who 
need this help, yet we think it will develop. 
T HE school meeting held at the State Fair was a 
remarkable gathering in many ways. That fair 
is a tremendous exposition. There is so much to see 
that no one can hope to cover it all. It makes one 
think of what Emerson said about the British 
Museum library. If a young man started reading 
one book after another and kept it up day by day 
until he was SO he would get through only one small 
alcove. That is about the way one feels at the State 
Fair, yet the audience room was crowded with peo¬ 
ple who gave up the exhibition in order that they 
might stand for the district school. The most sur¬ 
prising. thing of all was the way representatives of 
the Board of Regents and the Education Department 
attacked the famous Committee of Twenty-one. That 
committee did not have as many friends as a stray 
cat, and the wonder is, what has happened? The 
New York Rural School Improvement Society has 
proved its strength and usefulness. We venture to 
say that if the Education Department will drop its 
idea of a great blanket bill and come to this society 
in a reasonable way it will be quite possible to im¬ 
prove our district schools without killing them. Any 
attempt to revive the Downing bill of last Winter 
will simply start another fight. 
Brevities 
Look out for the man who uses too many adjectives. 
Y 7 ou can, in this latitude, safely keep on seeding rye 
until November 1. 
Corn has kept ahead of the frost thus far, and has 
'done some fine running. 
Why not let your neighbor’s business alone and de¬ 
vote your time to your own? 
A letter to the home folks once a month is worth a 
dozen celebrations of “Mother’s Day.” 
Have you ever used a hay-fork for getting hay out 
of the mow for baling? 
. It seems to be well settled that people who live in 
New York and nearby will not buy other fruit in quan¬ 
tity while peaches are in market. The season has been 
late this year, and early apples would not sell properly 
until peaches passed out. 
The city of Reading, Pa., has abolished the munici¬ 
pal tax on horses. It is said that there are fewer than 
500 horses in the city—compared with the thousands 
before auto days. In fact there are now so few that 
collecting the tax costs more than it comes to. 
