1352 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 25, 1024 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S rAPER 
A National Weekly Journal lor Country and Suburban Homes 
Established fsso 
iMhltshed weekly by the Rnral Publishing Company, 333 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. Royle, Associate Editor. 
L. H. Murphy, Circulation Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION : ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
T.i 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 
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 )H‘raon. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable houses only. But to make doubly sure, we will make good any loss 
l-i |laid 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 
the transaction, and to identify it, you should mention The Rural Nkw- 
Yorker when writing the advertiser. 
esponsible for the debts of honest bankrupts sanctioned by the courts, 
lotice of the complaint must be sent to us within one month of the time of 
W I0 need more good rural plays for Grange and 
other country entertainments. There is 
10 reason why the drama should not be used in the 
effort now being made to present the farmer’s side 
ol the great industrial question, and bis general at¬ 
titude toward society. Such plays should be short, 
with a simple plot, and easily and naturally acted. 
East year at the farmers’ meeting at the University 
of New Hampshire a short one-act play entitled 
“City Rubes,” was given. It was voted a great suc- 
< ess. and may well be repeated at many country en¬ 
tertainments. The play was written by Henry Bailey 
Stevens, and gives a very laughable account of the 
iridiculous performance of two city people who 
thought it easy to serve as hired man. This play 
will give a half hour of great fun and underneath 
the fun is a good lesson. This play can be obtained 
from the Extension Office of the University of New 
Hampshire, Durham. The price is 25 cents. 
5k 
Do you suppose any of your readers can tell me how 
New England rum is made? If so I would like to have 
details. J. M. h. 
W E have no doubt some of our people can tell 
how to make rum. Perhaps more of them 
can tell how it affects the human system. The liquor 
is distilled from fermented molasses or sugar, but 
under the Volstead law it is not permitted to give 
information about making any intoxicating beverage. 
In the early history of New England, rum-making 
played a large part in the business of that section. 
Yriginia had a profitable export crop in tobacco, and 
ether parts of the country exported wheat, indigo, 
rice and other agricultural products. The New 
England States had no special farm product for ex¬ 
port. and so the following business was developed. 
Ships loaded with salt fish, cornmeal and butter 
would sail to the West Indies, and there exchange 
their cargoes for sugar and molasses. These were 
brought home and distilled into rum, and this was 
used in trading with the Indians for furs. These 
furs were a cash product in Europe, and were ex¬ 
ported to keep up the trade balance. The work of 
shipping, fishing, distilling and trading developed 
well-paid classes of people not found in most of the 
colonies, while this interfered with the agricultural 
development of New England, and was partly re¬ 
sponsible for the great rush of New England people 
when the West was opened. The business cycle, re¬ 
volving around the manufacture of rum, undoubt- 
cbly laid the foundation for that section’s great de¬ 
velopment in manufacturing. The salted fish of New 
England fed the slaves who produced sugar in the 
West Indies, and it is undoubtedly true that some 
of the present New England fortunes now used for 
benevolent purposes, were founded on this curious 
cycle of salt fish and rum. 
* 
T HERE are some half dozen candidates just now 
running for President of the United States. 
Something like 200 are running for Governor and 
perhaps 2.500 more are panting in their race for 
Congress. Most of them are making more noise than 
a steamboat, and firing out words by the million— 
all struggling for the front page of the newspapers 
while the American people go -through the crowning 
act of this great Republic at election. But last week 
all these iron-jawed and concrete-cheeked candidates 
took a back seat and stood in the shadow as a plain 
man with an arm of steel and heart like a gasoline 
engine, walked on the scene. It was Walter Johnson, 
pitcher of the Washington baseball club. It is doubt¬ 
ful if Mr. Johnson could make a speech, write a 
book, make a fortune in Wall Street, discover per¬ 
petual motion or tell the world just how to regulate 
its affairs. He is a plain, honest man who can throw 
a baseball like a flash of lightning, and he stands 
up straight as a flagpole in this age of crooks, 
gamblers and lounge lizards. There was genuine joy 
throughout the country when Washington won and 
Walter Johnson went up head. The truth is that 
baseball has come to be one of the great public 
institutions of America. Pessimists may deride the 
game and figure the loss in time and money it repre¬ 
sents, but from Alaska to the Philippines, from Porto 
Rico to Newfoundland, every house in every com¬ 
munity has its baseball “fans.” The game provides 
a great National safety valve through which energy 
and thought which might easily turn to revolution 
is permitted to escape. The great point about this 
tribute to Walter Johnson is that the people regard 
him as clean and honorable, and this is their way 
of making it clear that they want honest sport, with 
crooks and gamblers put out at first base. The heart 
of the nation is sound and honest. It will stand 
for honesty in all things. 
Play Ball! 
Melbourne, Australia, Oct. 14.—-The Legislative 
Assembly today passed a bill providing for a com¬ 
pulsory wheat pool. According to the latest estimates 
of the Australian wheat crop, the yield will be ap¬ 
proximately 119,000.000 bushels, or about 4.000.000 
bushels less than last year’s crop. 
HE above item appears in the daily papers. For 
some time past the Australian papers have been 
advocating some such plan of giving the government 
control over the wheat crop, or at least the full 
management of its export sale. Apparently the Aus¬ 
tralians have come to the conviction that private co¬ 
operation alone, without government oversight, cannot 
properly handle the export trade. The home market 
for Australian wheat is comparatively small. The 
grain represents an export trade very necessary 
to maintain a trade -balance with Europe. This 
“government pool” is designed to hold the wheat off 
the market until prices are satisfactory, the growers, 
in the meantime, being carried by the government 
through the pool. The effect of this will be-to steady 
prices on the English market, and to that extent 
benefit wheat growers everywhere. We think the 
wheat crop of the world has about reached its peak. 
There is likely to be a slow falling off in the world’s 
supply, while improved conditions in Europe will in¬ 
crease the demand. 
5k 
As I have been interested in the articles in reference 
to child labor, this thought came to me. How many 
of our legislators are fitted by circumstances of birth to 
pass on it? I speak as one who at the age of 12 years, 
left school and entered business life. As one of 10 
children, it became necessary, through the intem¬ 
perate life of my father, to help maintain the family, 
which has grown to be useful members of our com¬ 
munity, and my mother took in washing every day 
to help. Why should children be denied at least some 
of the influences that tend to elevate them, for they 
learn to fight their own battles, and help to earn the 
food and clothing that is necessary to keep them pre¬ 
sentable. Why not go ahead of this, and compel the 
lazy intemperate ones to work and do their part, and 
thus lift them to a higher plane of citizenship? W. 
Oil will find that many members of the Legis¬ 
lature are self-made men who were obliged to 
work hard when they were young. They will ap¬ 
preciate the need of systematic labor in the life of 
young people, and we shall depend on them to pre- 
\ent ratification of this amendment. It is true that 
many of such men and women are not bringing up 
their own children to labor and save, but every one 
of them knows they they make a mistake in this, 
for they are not giving their young people the train¬ 
ing needed to fight their own battles. Consider the 
case of a wilful girl. At IS she would be a woman, 
and in most of the States could marry regardless of 
the wishes of her parents. Under the proposed 
amendment it mignt be quite possible for her to 
come to her marriage without any experience in 
work or housekeeping at all. Let the folks of mod¬ 
erate circumstances consider what that would mean! 
Did you ever obtain control over your children with¬ 
out labor? 
I N figuring the difference in income between a 
town job and one on the farm, some of our 
people are giving an unfair advantage to the city 
job. The point is w T ell brought out in a recent letter 
from a farmer: 
One of my sons works in town and receives around 
SI500 per year. My other son works for me and I pay 
him $000 per year. On the face it looks like quite a 
difference, but the first pays $8 per week for board, his 
washing is extra, and there are a few more small mat¬ 
ters I presume he has to take into account. The other 
lives in part of our house with his wife. Their rooms 
are warmed, they have all the milk and eggs they want, 
house rent is nothing. When they want a chicken it 
costs them nothing. What fruit and vegetables they 
wish they are free to use, and when we kill pork or a 
beef, which we do everv Fall, they have all the fresh 
meat they can use, and what they wish to can. Prob¬ 
ably even then the first is a little ahead, but the dis¬ 
crepancy is not very great. 
That way.of figuring the matter is not often pre¬ 
sented, yet it is quite faif. It can often be shown 
in this way that the man in the country is really 
“doing better” than the city man, yet it is a hard 
job to convince him. We must remember that with 
some people it is not entirely an economic question, 
for there are some restless sports who crave the ex¬ 
citement and “go” of the city. It takes considerable 
character to give a man real satisfaction with simple 
and quiet country life. When a man is not a “born 
farmer” it is hard to give him a rebirth. 
W ILL those northern readers who planted cot¬ 
ton this year tell us what the plants come 
to? Our own cotton in Bergen Co., N. J., made 
bloom and boll, but no lint. In several cases we un¬ 
derstand the plants were started in the greenhouse 
and transplanted like tomato or pepper. How did 
they turn out? We have never succeeded with trans¬ 
planted cotton plants. Perhaps there is a way of 
making them grow. At any rate the first step 
toward working cotton up a little nearer the North 
Pole is to talk about it and compare notes. 
5k 
W HATEVER may happen when the nation votes 
on November 4. we sincerely hope that there 
may be a clean election by the people. We hope one 
candidate or the other will receive a straight and 
decisive majority in the Electoral College. Un¬ 
der present circumstances it would be a form of 
calamity -to have the election thrown into Congress 
for decision. Many of us are old enough to remem¬ 
ber the election of 1870. There was a bitter con¬ 
troversy in that year, and Congress finally created 
the Electoral Commission. The excitement, and 
worry over the situation practically destroyed public 
confidence and credit. No one would buy goods be¬ 
yond the merest necessities. Money was hoarded 
and credit was impossible. The nation simply stood 
still and waited for some sort of settlement, and the 
effect upon general business was felt for years. 
Much the same thing would follow this year if, 
with the present make-up of Congress, the election is 
not clearly decided by the people. No possible good 
could follow such a failure to elect, while the dam¬ 
age to general business would be immense. The 
American people will accept a clear-cut decision and 
go on about their work, but a failure to elect would 
upset all our present conditions. 
5k 
N Wednesday morning, October 15, the people 
of New York City plainly saw a monstrous ob¬ 
ject floating like a bird above them. It was the 
great airship ZR3, just in from her great voyage 
across the Atlantic. The bright sunshine playing 
on this great bird of passage made it appear like a 
silver palace floating in the sky. A beautiful sight, 
and those who witnessed it can never forget the 
strange emotions which it aroused. For here was a 
conqueror of the air. This vast vessel of the clouds, 
weighing 91,000 lbs., had in her great balloon a lift¬ 
ing power of 153,000 lbs. tier engines roared with 
2.000 horsepower, and were capable of pushing her 
on at a speed of 76 miles an hour. On her voyage 
from Germany she traveled 5,066 miles in 81 hours 
and 17 minutes. That represents an average of more 
than 62 miles aji hour, more than one mile per min¬ 
ute, or nearly 90 feet for each tick of the clock. It 
is difficult for the human mind to realize the tre¬ 
mendous force required to push this 45-ton ship 
forward at such speed. And when we think of the 
slow, painful voyage which our ancestors made in 
the old days! “Time makes ancient things uncouth.” 
This wonder of today will be commonplace tomor¬ 
row, and we may well ask what seemingly uncon¬ 
querable law of Nature will 'next be tamed by the 
restless energy of man! 
Brevities 
This from one of our Florida readers: “The Scrip¬ 
tures tell us what to do but ‘we must do it ourselves.’ ” 
It is a late frost, but the “signs” indicate a severe 
Winter. 
We have had a succession of peaches this year from 
early in July to the middle of October. 
Almost a miracle has been worked out with the corn 
crop by the delayed frost. 
One public trouble is a private one. Too many men 
have a wishbone in place of a backbone. 
That is a great race at the Connecticut egg-laying 
contest between the Leghorns and the Reds. On Oct. 
9 the Reds were only 15 eggs ahead. 
Now it is claimed that calcium cyanide may be used 
to kill moles. That will be a blessing to gardeners if 
it proves true. 
There is a great call for doctors—to settle in rural 
neighborhoods. We have calls nearly every weuk. 
Where do these doctors keep themselves? 
Remember that any person using a motor vehicle to 
transport passengers for hire must give a liability bond. 
This refers to the driver as well as the owner. 
