1412 
‘Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 8, 1924 
The Rural New-Yorker 
THE BUSINESS FARMER’S PAPER 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
Established ISSO 
P iblishcd weekly by the Rural Publishing Company, 333 West 30th Street, Sew Still 
Herbert W. Colling wood, President and Editor. 
John J. Dillon, Treasurer and General Manager. 
VVm. 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, $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 (tei-son. We use every possible precaution and admit the advertising of 
reliable bouses 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 ini just 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 HE “dry” election in Ontario, Canada, proved 
something of a surprise to many of our people. 
The daily papers had, for the most part, predicted a 
victory for the “wet” element. It was confidently 
claimed that the Ontario people were tired of Pro¬ 
hibition, and would vote against the present law. 
The issue was quite clear: Should the present dry 
law be abandoned and a law giving government con¬ 
trol of liquor selling substituted? The Province of 
Quebec has such government control, so the voters 
had clear object lessons on either side. The election 
turned out to he a straight contest between city and 
country, in which the latter won. The large cities 
and towns ran up a majority of 70,000 against Pro¬ 
hibition, but the rural districts overcame this and 
gave a final majority of nearly 50,000 dry. It is un¬ 
fortunate that this question of Prohibition has be¬ 
come a sectional issue; that is, a contest between the 
city on one hand and the rural districts on the other. 
There are, of course, some Prohibitionists in the 
city and some opponents in the country, but in gen¬ 
eral the cities are “wet” and the country is “dry.” 
Ii is an unfortunate division on this important ques¬ 
tion, for it gives the demagogues and radicals on 
both sides too much of a chance to prevent moderate 
and sensible people from coming to some sort of fair 
agreement about law enforcement. 
* 
0 the fruit growers of New York State want to 
spend enough of the public money to erect a 
suitable fruit laboratory at the Geneva Experiment 
Station? That is a question which we submit for 
public discussion. For several years past efforts 
have been made to induce the Legislature to appro¬ 
priate money enough for such a building. It has 
thus far been refused, principally on the ground of 
economy. There has been talk of a new horticul¬ 
tural building on the State Fair Grounds, but the 
disposition of the fruit exhibit this year makes it 
doubtful if such an expensive building is needed for 
only one week in the year. The money spent in 
erecting such a building at Geneva would be a better 
investment. Do fruit growers want such a building 
badly enough to put up a battle for it? Nothing will 
come out of Albany except on demand. It is true 
that the fruit growers’ associations have “resolved” 
in favor of such an appropriation, but usually “reso¬ 
lutions” are not cashed in by the gentlemen who 
handle the State’s money. Do fruit growers want 
the building? Can they show that it is necessary? 
If the answer is “Yes,” they can get it by doing 
some hard work, for fruit growing is a great indus¬ 
try in this State, and the Legislature will invest in 
necessities—when they are made evident. 
* 
B Y the time this paper is distributed our readers 
will know the result of the election. It has 
been a comparatively quiet campaign. We have been 
unable to get excited over any of the candidates or 
parties. They have all promised much, but have not 
in the past been' noted for unselfish performance. We 
do not believe in the nonsense persistently advanced 
that unless some certain man or party succeeds the 
ci untry will be lost. We have too much faith in the 
common sense of the American people to believe that. 
Our farmers and country people are yet strong 
enough to exert a conservative and controlling influ¬ 
ence upon the government. In New York State the 
late campaign has meant very little to agriculture. 
It has been largely a scramble to retain power or to 
climb into it. Now will come the real opportunity 
for our country people to control the Legislature. 
This they can do if they care to do so, but it will 
require more efficient and more disinterested organi¬ 
zation than anything we have at the present time. 
We advise every one of our country readers to make 
a business of cultivating the acquaintance of his rep¬ 
resentatives in Senate and Assembly. At least let 
these gentlemen know that you are alive—and, if 
need be—kicking! 
T HE death of Henry C. Wallace, Secretary of 
Agriculture, came as a shock to the public. 
Our private reports were that he was quite likely 
to recover, but his malady took a sudden turn for 
the worse and he could not rally. Mr. Wallace was 
an able man, plain, quiet and energetic. He did 
what he could for farmers. The powers of the Agri¬ 
cultural Secretary are limited, and perhaps the most 
effective work of the department will be done 
through the influence of the Secretary in inspiring 
confidence among the farmers. Mr. Wallace was a 
good organizer. He was respected by all classes 
and he gave the best that was in him to the service 
of American farmers. He was a worker; not a bril¬ 
liant personality, but an honest man, with a lifelong 
intimacy with country people. A brief record of his 
life will be found on page 1405. 
VERY report shows that seed corn of good qual¬ 
ity will be scarce and high next Spring. While 
frost held off longer than was expected, the season 
was so late that many fields did not fully ripen. 
Much of the corn is hard enough for feeding, but 
will not be vital enough to make good seed. Farmers 
who dry their own seed ought to take special pains 
with it this year. Husk early and select the best 
and most mature ears you can find. Do not leave 
them in some open shed, but if possible keep them in 
some dry place where it will be possible to protect 
against hard frosts. The great object is to dry the 
corn as quickly as possible and keep it dry. There 
is no question about the fact that seed corn will be 
high next Spring. 
* 
ERE seems to be the latest claim made by the 
backers of the Child Labor Amendment: 
Leaders of the fight for ratification state that many 
of the farm journals, which depend largely upon indus¬ 
trial advertising, have been brought into line by the 
manufacturers and are actively opposing the amend¬ 
ment. 
That is a serious charge. We notice that some of 
•the farm papers have not even mentioned the sub¬ 
ject one way or the other. Some of the others are 
about as strong as dishwater in favoring the amend¬ 
ment, while a few are fighting it openly. The R. 
N.-Y. began its campaign against the amendment in¬ 
dependently. It was, we believe, first in the field, 
and will be the last to retire. No one has attempted 
to tell us what to do, and it is generally known that 
it would not be a healthy job to start such dictation. 
It is very “cheap stuff” to talk about farm papers 
being “brought into line.” They could not possibly 
serve country people fairly unless they worked 
against this amendment. 
OR some time now chemists have been trying to 
prevent “knocking” in automobile engines. This 
trouble is not due to the striking together of metallic 
parts of the engine’s mechanism. It is rather due 
to an instantaneous explosion of the highly com¬ 
pressed fuel and air mixture in the compression 
chamber. O. C. Ilain, in his recent book, says: 
The objectionable feature about it is that when the 
motor gets to going at such a high velocity that it de¬ 
tonates, its sudden explosion catches the piston as it is 
coming up and forces it back before it is over dead cen¬ 
ter and ready to return on its explosion stroke. Thus 
the engine is working against itself and destroying its 
own power. 
The chemists have been trying to work out what 
we may call an anti-knock compound; that is, some¬ 
thing to put into the gasoline to slow up the velocity 
of the combustion just enough to permit the engine 
to work without this “knocking.” This has been 
found in a compound of lead. It seems to work well, 
and promises to save some little fuel by preventing 
the loss of power through this “knocking.” But now’ 
comes the other side. It is claimed that this lead 
compounl may develop a gas which under certain con¬ 
ditions may be extremely injurious to humans. It 
has been called “insanity gas,” and several persons 
are reported to have been injured by it recently. It 
is a new’ thing, and has not yet been fully worked 
out, but we warn our readers not to experiment with 
any of these “anti-knockers” until the risk has been 
w T ell knocked out of them. It is just about as dan¬ 
gerous to fool with gasoline as it would be to try all 
sorts of untested drugs in bread making. Better 
stand the “knocking” a little longer rather than run 
the risk of a knock-out by gas. Wait until the chem¬ 
ists pronounce it safe. 
W E find many dairymen looking about for some 
side line—some crop w’hich they can work 
into while slowly reducing the size of the dairy. It 
is evident that the production of milk is too large 
for present demand and present system of distribu¬ 
tion. If the territory naturally supplying New York 
and other cities on the Atlantic slope were free from 
distant competition there would be little fear of over¬ 
production. Modern methods of caring for and 
transporting milk have enabled the cities to reach 
far out into distant territory and obtain part of their 
supply. On a very much larger scale the dairymen 
in New York and New England find themselves in 
much the position as the potato grow’ers in New Jer¬ 
sey. These farmers formerly did well with their 
potato crop. Some of them made small fortunes by 
specializing in potatoes. Now r , however, all along the 
coast south of them farmers are “plunging” on po¬ 
tatoes—often financed by New York commission men. 
The result is a flood of Southern potatoes and a glut¬ 
ted market during the season when Jersey potatoes 
should be sold. That means loss or ruin all along 
the line. With this over-production the Jersey farm¬ 
ers on high-priced land cannot compete with the 
cheaper land south of them. If all these growers 
could get together and agree to limit production so 
as not to overdo the market, all would be well. That 
seems impossible in the present condition of human 
nature, and thus the Jersey-men will be forced to 
take up new crops. They are considering grapes, 
beans and half a dozen other things. In a slightly 
different way the position of Eastern dairymen is 
coming to he much the same. They cannot control 
the immense supply of milk which can be poured in 
from outside territory, and with their present organ¬ 
ization they are unable to control production. There 
will always be some dairymen so situated that they 
can make milk to better advantage than any other 
farm product. Others, less favorably situated, will 
he obliged to find some other crop or product to use 
either alone or with their dairy. Some of them talk 
of planting a good-sized apple orchard to go with the 
cows. Our advice is to be very careful »bout mixing 
apples and cows. The two do not work well to¬ 
gether. In most cases the orchard or the dairy will 
be neglected. The cows must be cared for and 
milked every day, and such jobs as spraying, picking 
and packing are just as insistent as milking. They 
cannot both be done together to advantage. There 
is also much the same danger of over-production in 
apple growing. We all realize that only late frosts 
and a poor season at blooming saved us from a glut 
of apples this year. The truth is that safety for 
dairymen, as well as other groups of farmers, lies 
in their ability to get together like a well-disciplined 
army, and limit production to suit the market. 
* 
QME of our friends are getting quite excited over 
The R. N.-Y.’s recent remarks about the so- 
called “garden huckleberry.” It seems that a num¬ 
ber of seedsmen have listed this plant, and they are 
up in arms to defend it. Before we go any further 
let us ask these gentlemen a pertinent question: 
Why do you call this plant a “huckleberry,” when 
you must know that it is entirely different botanical- 
ly from the hucklebeiTy which the American people 
know? The matter of its botanical place is dis¬ 
cussed on page 1402. The plant is known in some of 
the western prairie States as stubbleberi’y. Why do 
you not list it in catalogues by that name? What 
moral right have you to try to sell it under the good 
old-fashioned name of huckleberry, when you know 
perfectly well that it is not a huckleberry at all? 
Brevities 
We believe in the League of Neighbors. 
Seed corn is not properly dried by hot air. 
Have you ever known of a case where bees have killed 
a large farm animal? 
Dairying is increasing wonderfully in New Zealand, 
Australia and Argentina. The effect will be felt in im¬ 
mense quantities of butter put into the world’s market. 
The great need in handling seed corn is to keep it 
dry. This is more necessary than to keep it warm. 
Low temperatures will not greatly injure the seed corn 
unless it contains too much moisture. 
Several readers ask if it is against the law for a 
creditor to demand payment of his bill over the tele¬ 
phone. We do not know of any law to prevent this. It 
is often done—sometimes with good effect. 
At law an infant is a person not of full legal age. It 
is a settled ride in New Jersey that a purchase made by 
an infant of real property is voidable. It must be 
proved that the purchase made by the infant was not 
for his benefit in order to set aside his conveyance. 
One of the best plans for protecting young trees 
from mice or rabbit injury is to trim the trees during 
the Winter and leave the trimmings on the ground. 
The animals will usually make use of this prepared 
lunch and let the trees alone. 
