C32 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSINESS  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Home* * 
Established  1K0 
rubllfthrd  weekly  by  the  Knral  Publishing  Company.  333  West  30tb  Street,  New  York 
Herbert  W.  Collingwood,  President  and  Editor. 
John'  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Manager. 
W.m.  F  Dillon,  Secretary.  Mrs.  E.  T.  Royle.  Associate  Editor. 
L.  H.  Murphy,  Circulation  Manager. 
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“  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  Nrw- 
Y  orker  v,  hen  writing  the  advertiser.  , 
THE  two  New  York  Experiment  Stations  at 
Geneva  and  Ithaca  have  been  consolidated — 
both  being  put  under  control  of  the  Hoard  of  Control 
;n;  Cornell.  There  was  really  no  opposition  to  this 
move.  The  Board  of  Control  of  both  stations  and 
every  worker  and  member  of  the  faculty  favored 
the  change,  it  will  mean  economy  of  operation  and 
more  efficient  work  at  both  places.  Geneva  will  be 
brought  closer  to  the  people  of  the  State  through 
the  machine  for  publicity  which  Cornell  has  built 
up.  The  new  arrangement  does  not  mean  that  the 
Geneva  Station  will  be  moved  to  Cornell.  Undoubt¬ 
edly  there  will  he  a  readjustment  of  the  work.  For 
example,  most  of  the  studies  in  dairying  may  go  to 
Cornell,  and  most  of  the  horticultural  work  be 
located  at  Geneva.  There  will  be  no  rivalry  or 
trouble  about  it,  and  we  think  the  new  arrangement 
will  prove  to  be  a  wise  move. 
* 
I1E  culture  of  small  fruits,  like  strawberries 
and  bush  fruits,  is  working  back  into  the  coun¬ 
try — removed  from  town  and  city.  Of  course  such 
fruits  have  always  been  shipped,  but  the  best  profit 
G  obtained  when  they  can  be  sold  direct  without 
exjiensive  transportation.  A  new  way  of  selling  is 
helping  consumption  and  also  the  big  problem  of 
finding  pickers.  A  farmer  will  plant  his  crop  and 
give  it  good  care.  Then,  just  before  the  fruit  is 
ready  to  pick,  he  advertises  a  family  trade.  People 
are  invited  to  come  with  their  families  and  do  their 
own  picking  at  a  reduction  of  about  one-third  the 
retail  price.  The  farmer  will  lend  the  baskets  and 
crates.  Usually  several  families  combine,  come  with 
•i  small  army  of  pickers,  and  take  half  a  dozen 
crates  or  more.  By  using  tact  and  judgment  the 
farmer  can  organize  this  group  so  they  will  do  little 
damage,  and  sometimes  they  will  stay  and  pick  his 
surplus.  People  tell  us  they  can  sell  everything 
they  can  raise  by  this  method — from  strawberries 
to  sour  cherries.  It  largely  settles  the  labor  ques¬ 
tion,  and  gives  about  as  much  net  return  as  when 
the  berries  are  sent  to  market.  It  also  advertises 
and  sells  peaches,  apples,  potatoes  and  other  produce. 
Then  again  it  relieves  the  load  in  the  market,  and 
helps  to  relieve  the  surplus.  Of  course  there  are 
farmers  who  never  would  care  to  work  that  way, 
hut  we  know  there  are  others  who  make  the  plan 
succeed. 
MB.  DEVENDORF’S  article  on  first  page  gives 
us  all  something  to  think  about.  While  eveiw 
quart  of  milk  that  Eastern  dairymen  can  produce 
ought  to  find  a  ready  market  in  our  cities,  we  all 
know  that  consumption  is  less  than  it  should  he.  It 
will  be  easy  to  flood  the  market  and  make  a  sur¬ 
plus.  Can  we  help  this  by  planning  to  produce  and 
sell  more  Eastern  beef?  Mr.  Devendorf  thinks  so, 
and  he  has  made  good  on  his  own  proposition.  A 
number  of  cowmen  here  and  thex-e  have  done  the 
same  thing.  We  know  one  man  who  sold  nearly 
three  tons  of  such  beef  last  Winter — direct  to  con¬ 
sumers.  We  had  one  big  chunk  of  this  beef  sent 
several  hundred  miles  by  parcel  post.  It  was  excel¬ 
lent  in  quality — as  good  beef  as  we  ever  tasted.  At 
wholesale  the  usual  buyers  would  not  pay  over  11 
cents  a  pound  for  dressed  beef,  but  when  sold  at 
retail  iu  good-sized  chunks  this  beef  averaged  IT 
cents  a  pound.  We  believe  there  are  many  board¬ 
ing-houses,  hotels  and  large  families  that  would 
gladly  buy  such  beef  in  cold  weather,  when  ship¬ 
ment  will  be  safe.  Or  it  is  possible  to  put  part  of 
such  beef  into  cans  right  on  the  farm.  This  has 
already  been  done  successfully  by  farmers.  A  group 
of  farmers  in  some  community  where  the  people  are 
on  good  terms  can  combine,  put  up  a  small  slaugh¬ 
ter-house  and  do  a  fair  business.  We  think  the 
market  could  be  found.  There  is  a  general  feeling 
among  farmers  that  the  new  merger  of  packers  and 
slaughter-houses  will  result  in  a  market  with  less 
competition  than  ever  before.  We  shall  need  Fed¬ 
eral  and  State  laws  which  will  permit  us  to  slaughter 
and  distribute  without  being  choked  off  with  red 
tape.  It  would  he  easy  to  kill  off  a  small  enterprise 
of  this  sort  if  the  big  packers  are  to  control  or  dic¬ 
tate  inspection  and  distribution.  About  30  years 
ago  our  rural  districts  were  well  supplied  with  local 
slaughter-houses  where  farm  animals  were  dressed 
and  distributed  through  local  butchers.  Slowly  hut 
steadily  they  began  to  disappear — driven  out  by  the 
steady  encroachments  of  the  beef  packing  monopoly. 
At  that  time  The  R.  N.-Y.  interviewed  the  leading 
farmers  of  the  State,  asking  what  could  he  done  to 
save  the  meat  industry  to  our  people.  The  unani¬ 
mous  answer  was  to  keep  up  and  patronize  the  local 
slaughter-houses  and  butcher  shops.  But  there 
came  the  splitting  up  of  New  York  farming  into 
specialties — fruit  growing,  potato  raising,  sheep  in¬ 
dustry  and  milk  dairying.  Many  farmers  becatoe 
specialists,  growing  some  special  product  and  buy¬ 
ing  most  of  their  bread  or  flour,  meat  or  butter. 
The  local  slaughter-houses  faded  away,  and  we  were 
fed  from  the  packing  houses.  Now  the  swing  may 
be  the  other  way.  We  may  be  forced  to  take  up 
beef-making  in  a  small  way  as  a  side  line* 
* 
N  all  the  long  years  we  have  spent  tn  the  business 
of  farm  journalism  we  never  before  saw  the 
time  when  so  many  farmers  seem  to  have  reached 
the  very  end  of  their  rope.  Every  day  brings  new 
stories  of  distress.  They  are  not,  as  a  rule,  old- 
time  farmers  who  have  been  in  the  business  for 
years.  Such  men.  even  if  unable  to  make  any  profit, 
can  usually  make  a  living,  and  are  not  often  sold 
out  except  as  the  result  of  sickness  or  some  sort  of 
unexpected  calamity.  Most  of  the  people  who  write 
us  are  back-to-tlie-landers,  or  people  who  took  a 
speculator’s  chance  on  some  farm  contract.  As  a 
rule  they  started  in  the  early  years  of  the  war,  when 
prices  were  rising  and  prospects  were  rosy.  Some¬ 
one  sold  them  a  farm  and  stock  at  an  inflated  price. 
They  paid  all  the  cash  they  had — perhaps  10  per  cent 
of  the  purchase  price — gave  a  chattel  mortgage  on 
the  stock  and  fixtures,  and  signed  a  contract  under 
which  they  agreed  to  pay  a  certain  sum  each  year. 
They  are  to  have  a  deed  when  they  have  paid  half 
the  price  of  the  farm.  Nine  out  of  10  of  them  never 
should  have  signed  any  such  agreement.  It  is  a  jug- 
handled  contract,  under  which  a  newcomer  does  not 
have  one  chance  in  20  for  paying  out.  As  a  rule, 
such  contracts  are  formed  as  a  definite  part  of  a 
form  of  legal  robbery.  The  farm  owner  takes  no 
risk  at  all,  and  in  most  cases  he  expects  in  the  end 
to  get  all  the  tenant  can  pay  and  then  get  the  farm 
hack  to  sell  once  more.  Given  a  fair  chance,  some 
of  these  men  could  have  paid  out.  They  thought  the 
war  would  last  for  years,  with  continued  high  prices 
for  all  farm  products.  Instead  of  that,  ‘’deflation” 
has  made  it  impossible  for  them  to  make  their  pay¬ 
ments.  Some  of  them  could  keep  going  if  they 
could  obtain  a  loan,  but  under  their  contract  they 
have  no  security  to  offer.  There  is  no  showing  in 
equity  for  the  money  they  have  paid.  A  good  share 
of  the  complaint  about  farm  conditions  can  be  traced 
to  such  cases.  There  are  so  many  of  them  in  the 
East  that  the  problem  looms  up  large,  and  must  be 
considered.  Most  of  these  people,  of  course,  took  a 
gambler’s  chance  on  such  a  contract.  We  may  say 
of  some  of  them,  at  least,  that,  they  ought  to  have 
known  better,  yet  they  were  desperately  in  need  of 
a  home  for  their  families.  No  doubt  some  of  them 
have  been  extravagant  or  even  foolish  in  some  ex¬ 
penditures.  Others  perhaps  never  could  succeed ; 
yet  there  are  many  who  have  made  a  gallant  strug¬ 
gle  and  who  deserve  to  win  out.  Defeat  will  dis¬ 
courage  and  embitter  them  for  life.  YTet,  what  can 
be  done?  With  all  the  money  in  the  world  there 
ought  to  he  some  fund  from  which  such  people  can 
obtain  relief.  Some  of  them  write  us  about  the  bank¬ 
ruptcy  laws  as  applied  to  farmers.  We  shall  explain 
them  fully  next  week,  and  also  tell  the  story  of  a 
typical  case  of  this  sort. 
* 
IIE  United  States  Supreme  Court,  by  a  vote  of 
live  to  three,  has  decided  that  the  minimum 
wage  law  is  unconstitutional.  Its  theory  is  that 
Congress  cannot  fix  rates  of  payment  for  labor.  The 
case  came  before  the  court  from  the  District  of 
Columbia.  Congress  makes  the  laws  to  govern  that 
district.  Under  this  law  it  was  claimed  that  a  board 
of  arbitration  might  set  a  minimum  figure  for  wages 
in  any  industry,  so  that  it  would  not  be  legal  to  pay 
less  than  this  certain  amount  for  a  certain  service. 
The  law  referred  to  women  and  minor  girls,  and 
April  21,  1923 
was  much  like  the  laws  now  being  considered  in 
several  of  the  States.  The  court  decided  that  this 
law  interfered  with  the  liberty  of  contract  guaran¬ 
teed  under  the  Constitution.  It  also  discriminates 
in  favor  of  women.  Formerly  women  did  not  have 
equal  rights  with  men  in  voting  or  making  contracts. 
The  court  holds  that  now  they  are  as  able  to  make 
contracts  as  men,  and  therefore  they  do  not  need 
special  legislation.  This  legislation  for  minimum 
wage  laws  is  usually  based  on  a  desire  to  protect  * 
working  iieople  and  is  usually  promoted  by  the  labor 
unions.  Conditions  in  the  District  of  Columbia  are 
different  from  those  in  the  States,  because  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  the  District  have  no  vote.  Twelve  of  the 
States  have  laws  to  protect  women  in  industry,  and 
this  decision  may  upset  them  all,  on  the  theory  that 
the  Constitution  guarantees  the  right  to  make  labor 
contracts  without  restraint  from  the  Government. 
One  argument  advanced  by  the  court  is  that  if  the 
police  power  is  invoked  to  fix  a  minimum  wage  it 
may  also  he  used  to  fix  the  limit  of  what  a  man  or 
woman  may  receive  for  their  labor. 
* 
I  axn  now  employed  in  a  factory.  I  find  very  few  of 
the  workers  favor  daylight  saving.  The  bosses,  who 
want  to  get  out  in  their  cars,  favor  it.  To  those  who 
have  no  cars,  one  hour  in  the  cool  of  the  morning  is 
worth  two  in  the  hot  and  dusty  late  afternoon  of  the 
city.  Parents  and  teachers  have  stated,  in  letters  to 
our  local  papers,  that  daylight  saving  is  an  injury  to 
school  children,  as  they  do  not  get  sufficient  sleep,  being 
unwilling  to  go  to  bed  while  it  is  yet  light.  n.  M.  p. 
Massachusetts. 
ERE  is  a  city  man,  a  mill  worker,  opposed  to 
daylight  saving.  There  are  thousands  more 
like  him.  If  it  were  put  to  a  popular  vote,  many  of 
the  towns  now  under  daylight  saving  would  prompt¬ 
ly  go  hack  to  standard  time.  In  most  cases  the  new 
time  has  been  fastened  upon  the  people  against  their 
will.  It  is  the  worst  thing  that  has  happened  to 
farmers  in  many  years.  In  our  own  case,  we  esti¬ 
mate  the  loss  in  labor  efficiency  at  15  per  cent  at 
least.  We  cannot  get  our  hands  out  into  the  wet 
fields  on  the  new  time.  They  simply  will  not  go. 
For  many  parts  of  our  work  the  late  afternoon  is  the 
best  part  of  the  day,  and  we  lose  an  hour  of  it.  No 
one  can  show  any  increase  of  business  or  any  gain 
in  efficiency  through  daylight  saving.  In  90  per  cent 
of  eases  the  argument  for  it  is  simply  that  it  gives 
extra  recreation  and  pleasure,  and  this  is  demoraliz¬ 
ing  our  hired  help.  If  anyone  could  show  any  real 
need  of  it,  or  any  aid  to  national  efficiency,  most  of 
us  would  accept  the  hardship  and  say  nothing,  as 
we  have  in  dozens  of  past  cases.  But  this  is  just  a 
plain  demand  for  more  play  time  on  the  part  of  90 
per  cent  of  those  who  urge  daylight  saving.  What 
means  play  for  city  workers  means  labor  and  loss 
for  farmers.  A  writer  in  the  New  York  Tribune 
puts  it  tliis  way : 
Farmers  get  up  at  daylight  anyway  and  all  their  eco¬ 
nomies  is  fitted  to  this  regulation.  Still,  an  hour  earlier 
means  that  they  must  get  to  the  city  markets  an  hour 
ahead  of  time;  food  and  milk  trains  (although  on  stand¬ 
ard  time  perhaps)  are  advanced  an  hour. 
All  the  agricultural  service  that  goes  to  the  city 
mornings  must  start  practically  at  3 :30  a.  in.  instead 
of  4  :30  a.  in.,  and  heaven  knows  the  latter  hour  is  early 
enough.  When  we  rout  the  farmer  out  of  bed  an  hour 
earlier  he  cannot  go  to  bed  an  hour  earlier,  for  Sum¬ 
mer  is  his  season  of  work,  not  play.  He  must  get  in  his 
crops  and  do  his  chores  and  care  for  the  endless  things 
that  go  with  seed  time  and  harvest. 
That  is  true,  and  not  half  strong  enough.  In 
England  and  France  the  same  struggle  between  city 
and  country  workers  is  found.  Play  for  the  city 
worker  means  loss  and  labor  for  the  farmer. 
Brevities 
Too  many  a  country  church  is  left  in  the  lurch. 
Yes,  what  is  known  as  a  ‘‘Smart  Aleck”  may  be  said 
to  have  Bright’s  disease. 
Putting  jazz  on  the  trees  is  what  our  Western 
friends  call  using  nitrate  of  soda  in  an  orchard. 
Is  it  true,  as  often  stated,  that  the  average  family  on 
a  dairy  farm  uses  less  milk  as  food  than  the  average 
town  family? 
The  Hope  Farm  man  thinks  many  country  people 
are  fed  rather  forcibly  on  agriculture  when  their  nat¬ 
ural  taste  is  for  plain  farming.  Do  you  believe  it? 
We  feel  quite  sure  that  inoculated  sulphur  can  be 
used  to  good  advantage  in  dissolving  crushed  bones.  We 
think  the  sulphur  will  give  better  results  than  wood 
ashes. 
The  barberry  is  a  host  plant  for  a  disease  of  wheat ; 
that  is,  this  disease  lives  part  of  its  life  on  the  bar¬ 
berry  bush.  The  national  government  has  appropriated 
$425,000  for  “eradicating”  this  plant,  and  they  say  this 
will  be  only  half  enough. 
Let  us  repeat  it  over  and  over  again,  the  second  wife 
of  a  man  has  just  as  much  right  to  a  share  in  her  hus¬ 
band’s  property  as  the  first  wife.  If  a  woman  is  legally 
married  to  a  man  it  does  not  make  any  difference  how 
many  wives  he  has  had  before.  The  present  legal  wife 
inherits.  Do  not  let  anyone  bluff  or  fool  you  away  from 
that. 
