Tht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
595 
Why  Rush  the  School  Bill? 
The  folks  up  our  way  are  beginning  to  think  there  is 
some  darkey  in  the  woodpile  over  this  proposed  new 
school  law.  What  is  the  great  rush  to  pass  it  now, 
when  it  would  not  go  into  effect  until  July  1,  1924?  It 
is  perfectly  true  that  many  of  u§  do  not  understand  just 
what  this  new  bill  will  do  to  us.  We  are  getting  the 
idea  that  this  Committee  of  Twenty-one  does  not  want 
to  stand  for  a  full  analysis  of  this  bill  before  it  is 
passed.  It  looks  that  way  to  me,  and  this  I  regard  as 
only  another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  most  of  our 
so-called  leaders  do  not  seem  to  care  what  the  plain 
“dirt”  farmers  really  want.  The  idea  seems  to  be  for 
the  “thinkers”  and  experts  to  plan  things  for  us  and 
put  them  over,  expecting  us  to  be  good  little  boys  and 
come  right  up  to  the  rack,  fodder  or  no  fodder.  As  we 
are  to  provide  the  children  who  attend  the  rural  schools, 
we  ought  to  have  the  final  say  about  it,  and  I  hold  that 
no  committee  or  other  set  of  men  has  any  right  to  put 
a  new  thing  over  on  us  until  wre  fully  understand  it  and 
agree  to  it.  j.  s.  K. 
E  have  not  seen  one  good  reason  why  this  bill 
should  be  rushed  through  the  Legislature  at 
this  session.  Our  rural  schools  are  surely  not  in 
any  such  desperate  condition  that  this  heroic  meas¬ 
ure  is  needed.  The  bill  contemplates  a  radical 
change  in  our  school  laws,  and  we  feel  that  the  mat¬ 
ter  is  so  important  that  there  should  be  some  form 
of  referendum  among  rural  voters  before  the  law  is 
pushed  upon  them.  The  Committee  may  claim  that 
it  has  given  great  publicity  to  the  law,  yet  go  into 
any  school  district  in  the  State  and  ask  the  parents 
if  they  understand  just  what  would  be  the  outcome 
of  the  plan  to  establish  high  schools  and  feed  them 
from  the  outlying  districts.  We  have  been  unable 
to  find  anyone — even  members  of  the  Committee — 
who  say  they  are  fully  satisfied  with  the  bill.  All 
seem  to  admit  that  it  must  be  amended  in  several 
ways  before  it  can  be  said  to  be  fully  workable. 
That  being  so,  we  think  it  far  more  desirable  to 
change  the  bill  after  a  general  discussion  than  to  try 
to  change  the  law  after  it  has  been  enacted.  We 
may  as  well  tell  this  Committee  frankly  that  the 
opinion  is  gaining  in  the  rural  districts  that  they  are 
afraid  to  submit  their  bill  to  a  full  analysis  by  the 
people  ■who  will  be  most  deeply  affected  by  it.  They 
know  perfectly  well  that  a  good  majority  of  actual 
working  farmers  are  suspicious  and  not  fully  in¬ 
formed.  The  Committee  is  giving  the  impression, 
which  we  hope  is  unfounded,  that  it  does  not  want 
a  full  analysis  of  this  bill  before  its  passage;  at 
least  some  of  the  members  seem  to  give  the  impres¬ 
sion  that  it  would  be  useless  to  try  to  obtain  a  fair 
discussion  of  the  true  merits  of  the  bill.  We  feel 
.  otherwise,  and  we  will  guarantee  to  develop  just 
such  a  discussion  and  have  it  settled  through  a  ref¬ 
erendum  in  the  election  of  the  next  Legislature. 
Direct  Dealing  with  Farmers 
I  will  take  a  minute  on  this  subject.  My  good  wife 
just  hands  me  an  apple,  left  over  from  a  peck  of  them 
bought  from  our  regular  grocer  here  in  the  village.  20 
miles  from  New  York,  at  what  you  would  call  a  high 
price,  in  November  last.  Just  before  we  bought  them 
an  up-State  apple  farmer  had  offered  us  apples.  I  wrote 
back  that  we  could  do  almost  as  well  at  the  local  gro¬ 
cer’s,  as  we  had  done  the  year  before  when  we  had 
ordered  two  bushels  from  that  farm.  We  wrote  the 
man  that  his  apples,  though  somewhat  cheaper,  had  in 
the  past  not  been  exactly  a  profitable  purchase  because 
they  were  not  as  nice.  They  are  supposed  to  be  hand¬ 
picked. 
Well,  we  took  another  chance  at  two  bushels  and  had 
to  do  some  apple  eating  to  get  through  with  them  before 
they  turned  bad.  We  had  to  throw  away  (to  the  hens) 
about  one  quarter  of  the  apples.  The  very  bad  parts 
we  cut  away  and  did  not  even  give  them  to  the  hens. 
All  in  all,  the  apples  bought  from  the  middleman,  the 
grocer,  are  cheaper  in  the  end.  More  satisfaction,  too. 
If  he  ever  did  send  us  something  not  good,  he  will  cheer¬ 
fully  take  it  back.  Paul,  c.  koeber. 
New  York. 
E  well  know  the  trouble  which  often  arises 
from  this  direct  dealing.  We  have  sold  hun¬ 
dreds  of  dollars  worth  of  goods  in  that  way,  and 
have  had  our  full  share  of  complaint.  We  have 
found  some  of  such  complaint  justified — in  other 
cases  not.  From  our  experience  we  usually  decline 
to  sell  perishable  goods  unless  the  buyer  can  ex¬ 
amine  them  and  know  what  he  is  doing.  The  rem¬ 
edy,  as  we  see  it,  is  for  farmers  to  combine  and  open 
stores  of  their  own.  Let  them  ship  in  bulk,  and 
some  resident  manager  do  the  sorting  and  selling. 
Farmer  and  Trade  Workers 
We  have  a  farm  of  175  acres  and  keep  about  50  head 
of  cattle;  have  only  40  now.  My  wife  and  I,  with  two 
boys  going  to  school,  do  our  work,  and  we  cannot  make 
ends  meet.  The  other  night  a  young  man  who  worked 
for  us  two  years  ago  visited  us.  He  is  working  in  the 
car  shops,  and  drew  $100  for  16  days’  work,  and  this 
is  what  he  said  :  “I  can  do  every  bit  of  work  in  four 
hours.”  And  still  people  wronder  why  boys  leave  the 
farm.  I  have  farmed  it  all  my  life,  or  most,  and  like 
it.  but  have  about  made  up  my  mind  that  a  man  is  a 
fool  to  work  on  an  average,  for  the  year,  l1/^  days  to 
the  other  fellow’s  eight  hours ;  that  he  will  receive  small 
pay  for  his  labor  and  investment.  G.  c.  s. 
THERE  are  many  who  feel  just  the  same  way, 
and  they  are  justified.  We  have  a  report  from 
a  large  government  workshop,  giving  wages  and 
hours  of  work.  A  deliberate  system  of  labor  shirk¬ 
ing  is  reported  to  us.  Men  are  drawing  large  wages 
for  a  day's  work  and  giving  only  a  few  hours  of 
service.  We  are  convinced  that  a  good  share  of  the 
fearful  government  expenses,  for  which  we  are  all 
taxed  outrageously,  is  bogus — due  to  deliberate 
shirking  and  falling  down  on  the  job.  There  are 
too  many  government  jobs  which  simply  breed  lazi¬ 
ness,  and  those  of  us  who  are  on  the  outside  have 
to  pay  for  it. 
Controlling  Cabbage  and  Potato  Prices 
What  is  the  matter  with  cabbage  and  potatoes,  or  any 
farm  crop,  which  the  farmers  hold  for  a  better  price? 
In  the  Fall  of  1922  cabbage  was  worth  $6  per  ton, 
delivered  at  the  car  in  Cortland  and  Homer,  N.  Y. 
This  cabbage  has  to  be  O.  K.  in  every  case,  and  you 
take  whatever  weight  the  buyer  wants  to  give;  also 
they  take  what  cabbage  they  desire,  and  throw  back 
the  rest,  to  be  weighed  back,  and  you  have  either  to 
throw  away  or  haul  back  home.  When  cabbage  is 
scarce  all  go  into  the  car,  but  not  so  when  the  farmers 
rush  them  to  the  car.  The  above  will  apply  to  all 
farm  produce.  March  15  cabbage  was  quoted  by  the 
Bureau  of  Farms  and  Markets  at  from  $50  to  $70,  and 
all  the  farmers  can  get  is  $25  at  the  car.  March  5  the 
buyers  paid  $50  at  the  car,  and  in  one  week  they  only 
paid  $25,  and  the  price  wholesale  in  New  York  was 
just  the  same.  The  buyers  on  the  above  date.  March  15, 
were  paying  60  cents  per  bushel  for  No.  1  potatoes ; 
the  wholesale  price  in  New  York  was  $1.20  per  bu. 
The  commission  on  cabbage  and  potatoes  is  from  five 
to  10  per  cent,  and  the  freight  to  New  York  is  $5  per 
ton.  I  should  like  to  see  printed  a  justification  of  such 
methods.  x.  w.  b. 
THERE  is  no  justification  for  such  practice.  It 
is  close  to  highway  robbery.  The  condition  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  middlemen  control  distribution 
and  manipulate  the  markets  for  their  own  profit, 
always  charging  the  consumer  the  high  level  of 
prices,  and  paying  the  producer  the  lowest  possible 
price.  The  system  has  been  built  up  by  the  middle¬ 
men  under  the  influence  of  politics,  and  is  main¬ 
tained  and  protected  by  political  influences.  The 
usual  remedies  proposed  are  mere  expediencies  that 
never  did  and  never  can  correct  the  abuses.  The 
State  alone  can  correct  the  evils  of  the  system  it 
has  helped  create.  This  does  not  mean  that  the 
State  need  go  into  the  business  permanently.  It 
does  mean  that  the  State  should  dissolve  this  part¬ 
nership  between  middlemen  and  its  employees,  and 
provide  and  supervise  a  simple  system  that  would 
make  it  possible  for  the  farmer,  through  his  organi¬ 
zation  or  personally,  to  send  his  product  straight 
through  from  the  farm  to  the  consumer,  intercepted 
only  by  one  wholesaler — which  may  be  his  own  asso¬ 
ciation — and  one  retailer,  and  suitable  regulations 
to  insure  a  return  of  a  fair  share  of  the  consumer’s 
dollar  to  the  producer. 
Farmers  can  get  this  service  from  the  State  when 
they  go  after  it.  Until  they  do,  indignation  and 
complaint  will  do  them  no  good. 
An  Ohio  Pest  Campaign 
AM  inclosing  a  clipping  which  I  took  from  the 
Corey  Times,  and  which  I  wrote.  I  started  this 
campaign,  and  it  ran  for  one  month.  We  had  225 
farmers  and  their  sons  signed  up,  each  paying  in 
50  cents  to  guarantee  the  “feed.”  Points  were  count¬ 
ed  as  follows:  Rats,  10;  mice,  2;  sparrows,  2,  and 
chicken  hawks,  100.  Great  interest  was  manifested 
throughout  the  campaign.  I  thought  possibly  you 
might  be  able  to  use  this  article  to  stimulate  like 
results  among  the  readers  of  the  paper. 
Ohio.  HOWARD  R.  MILLER. 
The  clipping  follows.  We  would  like  to  see  such 
a  “pest  campaign”  started  in  every  county  of  the 
country : 
The  pest  campaign,  which  was  conducted  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Crawford-Ridge  Farm  Bureau,  was  con¬ 
cluded  on  Thursday,  February  15.  The  contest  was 
very  close,  and  the  final  result  was  in  doubt  until  the 
end.  The  East  Side  won  out.  however,  with  a  margin 
of  652  points.  The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  pests 
destroyed  by  each  side : 
East  Side— 4,418  sparrows,  1,923  mice.  737  rats  and 
12  hawks,  making  a  total  of  21,252  points. 
West  Side — 5,838  sparrows,  1,672  mice,  518  rats  and 
four  hawks,  a  total  of  20,600  points. 
The  grand  totals  were  as  follows:  10,256  sparrows, 
3,595  mice,  1.255  rats  and  16  hawks. 
Assuming  that  a  rat  and  a  hawk  each  does  $5  worth 
of  damage  in  a  year,  a  mouse  and  a  sparrow  each  $1 
worth,  a  total  of  $20,206  has  been  saved  to  the  farmers 
of  the  two  townships  through  their  co-operation  in  this 
campaign. 
A  meeting  of  the  leaders  will  be  held  in  the  near 
future  to  decide  on  the  menu  and  place  at  which  the 
banquet  is  to  be  held. 
Is  has  been  suggested  on  account  of  the  close 
finish  and  also  on  account  of  the  fact  that  there  was 
one  more  signer  on  the  East  Side  than  on  the  West, 
that  all  contestants  go  together  and  have  one  big  feed. 
The  Propaganda  for  “Bumper  Crops ” 
Not  long  ago  I  heard  a  man  state  in  all  earnestness 
that  if  the  ground  had  to  be  dug  with  a  shovel  instead 
of  using  horse-drawn  and  tractor  plows,  there  would 
be  plenty  of  farm  help.  There  was  a  great  deal  of 
truth  in  what  he  said.  If  farm  machinery  of  all  kinds 
was  in  as  crude  a  state  of  development  as  his  compari¬ 
son  indicated,  then  of  course  it  would  require  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  population  to  provide  food  for  the 
entire  population,  and  wages  between  city  employment 
and  farm  work  would  quickly  reach  a  more  equitable 
basis. 
Today  the  farmer  is  blessed  or  cursed  (there  are 
many  instances  of  both  conditions  in  every  neighbor¬ 
hood)  with  so  much  labor-saving  machinery  that  farm 
production  is  certainly  far  ahead  of  demand.  What 
does  it  profit  a  farmer  to  follow  the  advice  of  his 
County  Farm  Agent  and  thus  produce  a  bumper  crop 
of  potatoes,  only  to  find  that  so  many  other  farmers 
have  done  the  same  thing  that  as  a  result  potatoes  are 
very  low  in  price  and  extremely  hard  to  sell?  Potatoes 
are,  of  course,  only  one  instance  ;  the  same  applies  to 
practically  everything  the  farmer  sells,  but  seldom 
indeed  do  we  see  anything  of  this  kind  in  print.  Prop¬ 
aganda  of  the  most  insidious  sort  has  been  at  work  ever 
since  the  farmer  had  a  surplus  to  sell.  It  has  encour¬ 
aged  him  to  keep  on  and  produce  just  as  much  as  he 
could,  with  never  a  thought  or  word  of  caution  that 
the  market  might  become  overstocked,  and  the  farmer, 
in  his  interest  and  enthusiasm,  generally  swallows  bait, 
hook  and  sinker,  and  becomes  as  rank  a  propagandist 
as  those  who  profit  most  by  his  work  could  wish.  How 
often  have  we  heard  a  farmer  say,  “That  heifer  is  cer¬ 
tainly  too  nice  for  the  butcher  ;  she  should  be  raised.” 
Yes,  raised,  further  to  glut  a  milk  market  and  to  lower 
the  price  to  all  dairymen.  Many  farmers  will  say  this 
is  an  extremely  narrow  attitude,  but  if  it  is,  what  about 
the  attitude  of  your  recognized  farm  leaders  who  state 
that  the  average  production  of  the  dairy  cows  in  this 
country  could  and  should  be  more  than  doubled,  and 
when  they  consider  what  the  result  would  be  on  the 
price,  state  that  all  dairymen  over  the  country  of  course 
would  not  come  up  to  this  standards,  but  the  individual 
farmer  could  profit  immensely,  as  his  cows  would  pro¬ 
duce  twofold  more  than  his  neighbors.  Their  attitude 
reminds  me  of  a  little  story  read  years  ago  :  The  old 
farmer  had  been  to  the  city,  and  when  he  returned  told 
Maria  that  the  city  cousins  would  be  up  to  spend  a 
week  or  so  the  next  Summer,  and  immediately  Maria 
began  to  worry,  whereupon  Hiram  cheerfully  remarked: 
“Well,  Maria,  don’t  take  it  to  heart  so ;  we  may  be  dead 
before  next  Summer.”  e.  m,. 
New  Hope,  Pa. 
R.  N.-Y. — -Well,  there  has  been  an  even  greater  de¬ 
velopment  in  the  machinery  which  city  men  use  for  pro¬ 
ducing  manufactured  goods.  One  might  say  that  had 
there  been  no  such  industrial  development  most  of  these 
goods  would  still  be  made  by  hand  in  the  country.  The 
nation  would  still  be  fed  and  clothed,  and  there  would 
be  no  army  of  tramps  and  unemployed.  While  the 
farmers  use  their  improved  machinery  to  overproduce, 
the  city  workmen  seem  to  know  when  to  stop  or  ease 
up  on  production. 
Crop  Reports  and  Market  Prices 
,  I  have  thought  and  still  believe  that  facts  regarding 
prospective  plantings  and  estimated  yields  of  our  prin¬ 
cipal  crops  are  of  great  importance  as  a  guide  to  all 
growers  of  these  crops.  For  one  thing,  the  average 
farmer  is  apt  to  make  great  and  quick  changes  in  acre¬ 
age  plantings  if  a  certain  crop  happens  to  show  a  big 
money  return  the  previous  year.  This  condition  results 
from  different  causes,  which  may  not  obtain  at  all  the 
present  season,  and  as  a  rule  the  greatly  increased  acre¬ 
age  results  in  a  loss  all  around.  A  study  of  these  re¬ 
ports  would  result  in  a  great  measure  in  stabilizing 
production.  Still  I  have  heard  farmers  argue  that  we 
would  be  better  off  if  there  were  no  crop  reports,  as 
now  the  speculators  use  these  to  bear  the  markets,  and 
that  it  would  be  better  to  hold  back  these  reports  until 
the  crops  were  disposed  of.  The  food  supply  is  the 
one  great  question  that  affects  all  business,  and  all  the 
people  have  an  equal  right  to  know  in  regard  to  the 
yields  and  totals^of  the  different  crops.  It  was  argued 
that  if  the  increased  acreage  and  yield  of  the  potato 
crop  this  past  season  had  not  been  advertised  consumers 
would  have  laid  in  the  usual  quantity  at  the  usual  price 
and  the  crop  could  have  been  held  back  and  released 
as  the  demand  called  for  it.  I  cannot  see  how  this 
arrangement  would  help  out  the  situation,  as  when  a 
buyer  went  into  a  potato  territory  offering  the  price 
that  exists  under  normal  conditions,  enough  growers 
would  sell  to  supply  the  market,  and  later  when  the 
true  facts  became  known,  there  would  be  practically  no 
market  for  the  bulk  of  the  big  crop. 
I  do  not  believe  that  we  ever  have  a  crop  of  any  kind 
so  large  that  it  could  not  be  absorbed  if  the  consumers 
could  get  it.  It  does  not  seem  right  when  the  grower 
gets  from  a  half-cent  to  two  cents  a  head  for  cabbage 
by  the  carload  that  the  consumer  should  pay  from  10c 
to  25c  a  head  for  it,  and  it  is  the  same  with  potatoes 
and  apples.  It  looks  reasonable  that  all  the  people 
have  a  right  to  know  the  facts  in  regard  to  acreage 
plantings  and  yields,  and  that  the  bridge  structure  carry¬ 
ing  food  products  from  the  mill  to  the  consumer  ought 
to  be  thoroughly  overhauled.  The  fault  is  not  in  the 
crop  reports,  but  in  the  distribution,  and  while  realizing 
this  condition  we  are  waiting  for  some  wise  agency  to 
devise  a  remedy.  A  closer  study  of  our  crop  and  mar¬ 
ket  reports  should  result  in  less  change  in  the  acreage 
of  our  principal  crops,  and  even  when  we  have  done 
this  the  season  still  has  a  big  influence  on  acreage  yield 
Monroe  Co.,  N.  Y.  h.  e.  cox. 
New  York  State  Notes 
It  was  remarked  a  short  time  ago  that  if  10  men 
were  to  be  named  who  had  the  most  to  do  with  the 
progress  of  agriculture  in  this  State  during  fhe  past 
10  years  the  name  of  E.  R.  Zimmer  should  be  in¬ 
cluded.  Mr.  Zimmer  has  been  an  unusually  active 
worker  for  the  advancement  of  the  Holstein  industry 
in  the  State  as  secretary  of  the  State  Association.  His 
death  on  March  20  came  as  a  shock  to  his  many  friends. 
His  work  will  be  particularly  missed  at  this  time  as 
the  New  York  State  breeders  will  be  called  upon  to  act 
as  host  for  breeders  from  all  parts  of  the  country  at 
the  National  Dairy  Show  which  will  be  held  in  Svracuse 
next  Fall. 
The  Wyoming  County  tuberculosis  committee  have 
completed  their  arrangements  for  carrying  on  a  tuber¬ 
culosis  campaign.  They  have  employed  a  licensed 
veterinarian  to  carry  on  the  work.  The  desire  to  carry 
out  a  similar  plan  is  spreading  to  Livingston  Countv 
where  a  number  of  townships  are  already  making  plans 
for  doing  area  work.  One  of  the  largest  producing 
townships  of  the  county,  viz.,  Livonia,  already  has  20 
per  cent  of  the  cattle  under  supervision. 
One  of  the  items  of  interest  discussed  at  the  Finger 
Lakes  Honey  Producers’  Association  at  their  first  an¬ 
nual  meeting  was  the  question  as  to  what  extent  the 
use  of  honey  would  be  followed  next  season  in  auto¬ 
mobile  radiators  to  lower  the  freezing  point.  Reports 
were  given  that  by  using  equal  parts  of  honey  and 
water  no  freezing  occurred  as  low  as  14  below  zero. 
It  also  has  an  advantage  in  the  other  extreme  in  having 
less  of  a  tendency  to  evaporate  when  heated.  E.  A.  F. 
