1382 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 1, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER'S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban llomeg 
Established 1850 
Published weekly by (he Rural Fnblishlni? Company. 888 West 80th Street, Sew Votfc 
Herbert W. Collingwood, President and Editor. 
John 1. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
Wh. F. Dillon, Secretary. Mrs. E. T. Royle, 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, 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. 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. 
T HEBE will be a great meeting at Atlantic City, 
N. J., in the week of November 11. The Na¬ 
tional Grange, the American Pomological Society, 
and the New Jersey Horticultural Society will all 
meet at the same time. A National Grange meeting 
is always a notable gathering. The fruit men will 
add color and flavor to the affair. It will be an oc¬ 
casion for Americans to see something of the best 
of representative farm life. It is a good thing to 
crowd all these gatherings with an overflow of hu¬ 
manity. That gives the public a larger idea of agri¬ 
culture and what it stands for. 
* 
The American public school is in a peculiar sense the 
product of the locality and the constituency which it 
serves. Its strength has lain in its intimate relation¬ 
ship with home and family, with church and neighbor. 
Cut these ties of local intimacy and interdependence and 
substitute a mechanically operated unit, however effi¬ 
cient, of a huge national machine, and the American 
system of public education will have disappeared. 
IIESE words were spoken by Dr. Nicholas Murray 
Butler of Columbia University in an address on 
“The New Revolution.” Dr. Butler says that the 
child labor amendment and the efforts to centralize 
and put education under Federal control are only 
parts of a well-defined plan to take from the people 
rights of local self-government. He says clearly that 
if these ideas are permitted to spread without check 
our Federal Republic will in time be changed into a . 
form of despotism in which the local rights of fam¬ 
ily, community and State must give way. We have 
had this thought in mind when fighting against the 
proposed rural school bill. We think there is a real 
and dangerous menace in the determined effort to 
take control of child labor and child education away 
from the parent and the local community. Now is 
the time to battle against it—not after it is too late. 
I.et us remember the story of the boy and the dyke in 
Holland. He found the water beginning to break 
through and stopped it with his hand and shouted 
for help. Had he not acted at once when the trickle 
was small, it would have grown to an uncontrollable 
torrent before help could come. Let’s stop these 
things now—while it is within our power to do so. 
* 
HE Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association 
x’eports gross pool price for September milk at 
$1.93 per 300 lbs., with deductions of S.5 cents for ex¬ 
penses and 10 cents for certificates, leaving a net 
cash return to patrons of $1,745. 
Sheffield Farms report net cash returns to patrons 
$2,295. 
Other groups have not yet reported. 
The record for the last 11 months, compared with 
the same period for the year before, indicates that 
the League management was in error when it as¬ 
sumed last November that a reduction of the price 
to producers would reduce the margin between their 
return and the returns made by the other groups. 
For the 11 months ending September, 1923, the aver¬ 
age Sheffield net cash return over the pool was 49.77 
cents per 100 lbs. For the past 31 months it was 
51.38 cents, or a slight increase in the difference for 
the latter period. The League net cash return for 
the 11-months period ending September, 1923, was 
$2.05, and for the 11 months just past, $1.68, or an 
average of 37 cents less. 
The lesson of the record is that whether you take 
it by the month or as an average for the period, the 
lower price does not reduce the margin. The reduc¬ 
tions are made by all, but the relative differences 
remain the same. All producers are hurt alike. If 
there is any better way to avoid price cutting than 
the proposed co-operation between the groups, by all 
means, let us have it, but, if not, all producers would 
certainly profit by group co-operation. 
I have had a dog two years, and he never harmed 
anyone. He is a very good watchman and will not let 
anybody in the house when we are not home. Two 
weeks ago a man came to us and we were not home. 
He opened the door and went in, and the dog bit him. 
Now he has put it in the lawyer’s hands. The dog has 
a license. A. H. 
New York. 
GENERAL statement of the legal aspects of 
such a case would be this: “One who know¬ 
ingly keeps a vicious dog, with knowledge of its 
vicious propensities, is liable for injuries done by the 
dog to a person rightfully on the premises. But the 
owner of a dog kept to guard his property is not 
bound to give notice of the vicious propensities of the 
dog, as against trespassers, and is not liable for 
damage done if he keeps it cautiously and suffi¬ 
ciently confined.” This visitor had no business in 
the house without permission. He took a chance 
when he entered, and the dog was doing his duty, 
* 
HAT has become of that venerable fake story 
about the hired man who got drunk on silo 
juice? Every previous year that impossible tale has 
had a pleasant run through the newspapers, and 
many city people seem to believe it. There is noth¬ 
ing to it, and never was—nothing except the vapor- 
ings from some heated and disturbed imagination. 
There is not and never was enough alcohol in silo 
juice to make it an intoxicating liquor, and no one 
could drink the stuff without being made sick. Per¬ 
haps the funny man who starts this story has sam¬ 
pled it. If so, it is ho wonder he wants to forget it. 
I* * 
T is now 80 years since Sir John Franklin, the 
Arctic explorer, sailed north into the ice to inves¬ 
tigate the “Northwest Passage.” He was never seen 
again. He and his men disappeared in that frozen 
wilderness and died there—far out of reach of civil¬ 
ization. In those days the great frozen North was 
a terrible country of despondency and gloom, and 
all who entered it and managed to return were 
changed men, haunted by shadows and crushed by 
the great white silence. No greater illustration of 
the mighty changes that have come into human life 
can be conceived than when we realize how the 
imagination of man has conquered the loneliness of 
this desolate country. McMillan, the Arctic ex¬ 
plorer, tells how, far up near the North Pole, frozen 
in through the long Winter, his men were able to 
hear music and the human voice by radio—as far 
away as Maryland. Further north even than where 
Franklin and his men met their lonely fate these 
modern explorers were not out of touch with civ¬ 
ilization. Steel fingers reached up into the icy air 
and brought down the sound waves which had sped 
over the miles of ice and desolation which stretched 
between this northern port and home. The human 
mind can hardly conceive of anything more wonder¬ 
ful than this miraculous feeding of the spirit across 
these frozen miles. This represents the spectacular 
part which radio is playing in modern society. In a 
simpler way, as one of many modern conveniences, 
it is changing the life of most Americans. This is 
particularly true of lonely situations in the country 
where formerly people were shut away from the 
world, little thinking that all about them the air 
was vibrating with sound waves, only waiting for 
the delicate instruments needed to give them audible 
expression. Now, with a radio at hand, there is no 
home so lonely and far away that it need be deprived 
of the comfort and cheer which must come through 
the human voice. Probably of all the senses, hearing 
can bring most of comfort and charm. It probably 
has the greatest influence (through music and speak¬ 
ing) upon human character. So that through its 
great distribution of sound the radio is sure to have 
the most profound influence upon society, and par¬ 
ticularly upon those who live in the country. The 
time must come when a good radio will prove more 
of a household necessity than a telephone or a sew¬ 
ing machine. 
HE New Jersey potato growers find themselves 
facing a most serious competition. South of 
them, from Delaware to Florida, farmers are grow¬ 
ing more and more early potatoes. They are over¬ 
doing it, with the result that when the New Jersey 
crop is ready it comes upon a market swamped to 
overflowing. Many of these Southern growers are 
working on credit. In some cases Northern commis¬ 
sion men finance the operations. They furnish 
money for seed, fertilizer, packages and labor, and 
take a lien on the crop for security. Under such a 
system there can be no free market, and growers are 
not only fighting each other but ruining the market 
for farmers in New Jersey and farther north. We 
have been showing for years that the demand for 
potatoes is slowly decreasing. Other forms of food 
are being substituted, so that demand does not in¬ 
crease with population, as is the case with some 
other products. It is a great economic mistake for 
the Southern farmers to keep on increasing the po¬ 
tato crop as they are now doing. The New Jersey 
growers will be driven into new plans and methods. 
Some of them hope to organize the Atlantic coast 
growers as far down as Florida, and thus limit 
production nearer to demand. This hardly seems 
practical when we consider how many of the South¬ 
ern growers are financed. Others would like to 
improve the quality of New Jersey potatoes so they 
will rank in reputation with those.from Long Island. 
Others are inclined to think that new crops must be 
substituted for potatoes in the present state of the 
market. It seems quite clear that farmers in Cen¬ 
tral and Northern New Jersey have been forced to 
the point where they must change their plans, and 
probably their crops. 
* 
OME weeks ago, as an experiment, we printed a 
note from a Vermont man who said he had a 
farm which he would sell on remarkably easy terms. 
More than 125 people applied to us for the farm— 
letters are still coming, after all these weeks. We 
were curious to see what types of people would apply 
for such a chance. The great majority of them 
seemed to be dreamers, or naturally unsuccessful 
people. Very few of them seemed to have the char¬ 
acter and bulldog courage needed to go into a back 
hillside farm and compel a stubborn and rocky soil 
to yield them a home. The trouble seems to be that 
most of these people have an idea that “a farm” is 
like some great benevolent mother, waiting, with 
open arms, to welcome her children and give them 
home and competence without great labor. It is 
nearer the truth to say that an old, unoccupied 
farm is more like some stem step-father, cranky and 
narrow, sour at the world, glad to get new members 
of the family under control where he can make them 
work under the yoke with trouble. Some men are 
strong enough to break the yoke and succeed, but 
they are the exception. 
OME 50 years ago Gen. Pleasanton reported ex¬ 
periments in subjecting human patients to rays 
of light thrown through blue glass. In that day such 
treatment seemed absurd, and the claims made for 
“blue glass” were laughed out of the language as a 
great joke. Since then great advances have been 
made in the study of light, and it is known that the 
violet rays found in sunlight have a definite effect 
upon living things. For what we call sunshine is 
not a fixed and simple thing, but really a compound 
of mixed elements, each probably carrying some def¬ 
inite purpose or reaction. Some experiments recently 
reported from Maine carry us a long step along the 
way to a better understanding. Chickens were 
grown under varying conditions. Some were kept 
out in the sunshine, others under glass, and still 
others were regularly treated with ultra-violet rays 
from lamps fitted with glass made from fused quartz. 
All were fed and handled alike, except for this dif¬ 
ference in exposux*e to light. The chickens which 
received light through window glass all developed 
“rickets,” a form of bone disease, while those re¬ 
ceiving the rays from the lamp were not troubled, 
and grew much lai’ger and faster than the others. 
They were better than those grown in the open sun¬ 
shine. It was concluded that the window glass 
strained these violet rays out of the sunshine, and 
that these rays are necessai-y to a full development 
of young animals. There seems to be no question 
about the reliability of these experiments, and there 
are great possibilities in the subject. We shall try 
to explain it clearly next week. 
Brevities 
The Koreans ai'e starting at commercial apple grow¬ 
ing. They may interfere with our export trade in China. 
We have a Pomeroy English walnut 17 years old 
which is bearing its first reasonable crop of nuts this 
year. 
It is said that the large vinegar factories have presses 
so strong that the apple pomace is pressed so dry that 
it can be used as fuel. 
The “stick” on flypaper is made from a secret for¬ 
mula. A combination of castor oil and resin will give 
something much like it. 
Up to July 1 of this year New York State collected 
$3,897,759.84 for dog licenses and paid $751,813.92 for 
domestic animals and fowls killed or injui-ed by dogs. 
The National Co-operative Milk Pi-oducers’ Federa¬ 
tion will hold its annual meeting at Detroit, Mich., 
November 14 and 15. This is a federation of 27 dairy 
associations. There is an extended list of speakers rep¬ 
resenting largely the member associations. 
