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The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
July  7,  192:1 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSINESS  FARMER'S  TAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Hornet 
Established  tsso 
PubHvhrd  wrrfalj  by  the  Rural  Publishing  Company,  333  West  30th  Street,  New  fork 
Herbert  W.  Colling  wood.  President  and  Editor. 
John  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Manager. 
\Vm.  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  N* *w- 
Yorker  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
THE  Anti-daylight  Saving  Association  mentioned 
on  the  next  page  was  started  in  Dutchess  Co., 
N.  Y.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  it  should  not  be 
made  a  State  organization  and  should  give  all  who 
oppose  daylight  saving  a  chance  to  express  them¬ 
selves.  There  are  no  dues,  no  compromising  condi¬ 
tions  and  no  obligations,  except  that  each  member 
will  naturally  stand  for  what  he  believes.  Here  is 
.  a  chance  to  help  do  it  ourselves.  In  order  to  do  that 
we  must  work  through  both  daylight  and  dark,  and 
we  can  do  far  more  if  we  work  as  a  crowd.  We 
often  think  that  our  best  progress  will  be  made  in 
these  organizations  where  men  and  women  of  kin¬ 
dred  mind  can  get  together  regardless  of  occupation. 
* 
The  soul  of  man  can  never  be  enslaved  save  by  its 
own  infirmities;  nor  freed  save  by  its  very  strength  and 
own  resolve  and  constant  vision  and  supreme  en- 
endeavor. 
lllCll  is  just  a  poetic  form  of  saying  we  must 
do  it  ourselves.  At  several  of  the  great  col¬ 
leges  this  year  the  commencement  address  has  con¬ 
sidered  the  question  of  failure  in  human  life.  There 
are  many  men  and  women  who  fail  to  succeed  in 
some  line  of  activity.  The  world  classes  them  as 
failures  and  all  too  often  they  stop  trying,  accept  the 
popular  verdict,  and  drop  out  of  sight.  Some  of  the 
greatest  successes  in  the  world's  history  have  come 
after  repeated  failures,  for  it  is  safe  to  assert  that 
no  man  is  ever  beaten  until  he  admits  defeat  in  his 
own  heart  and  stops  trying.  In  farming,  as  well  as 
in  other  professions,  there  are  thousands  of  in¬ 
stances  which  show  that  so-called  failure  was  merely 
a  case  of  poor  adaptation — trying  to  tit  a  square  peg 
into  a  round  hole.  We  know  a  man  who  failed  as  a 
poultry  raiser  but  succeeded  at  fur  farming.  An¬ 
other  nearly  starved  as  a  grain  farmer,  but  secured 
a  line  competence  at  growing  strawberries.  Success 
in  life  seems  to  depend  on  finding  what  one  can  do 
to  best  advantage  and  then  and  there  putting  every 
energy  into  that  thing — absolutely  refusing  to  admit 
defeat.  There  is  the  old  story  of  the  Irishman  and 
the  Frenchman  who  agreed  to  fight.  Before  they 
started  the  Frenchman  wanted  to  know  what  he 
should  say  if  he  found  himself  whipped.  The  Irish¬ 
man  told  him  to  say  "Enough.”  They  started  and 
things  went  wrong  with  the  Frenchman,  lie  was 
underneath  and  had  all  he  wanted,  but  he  forgot 
what  lie  was  to  say  !  So  he  shouted  "Hurrah  1  Hur¬ 
rah  1”  The  Irishman  pressed  him  harder,  and  in 
desperation  Jlie  Frenchman  rolled  his  antagonist 
over  and  pounded  him  until  he  called  "Enough ! 
Enough !”  "Why,”  said  the  Frenchman,  "that’s  the 
very  word  1  was  trying  to  say,  only  I  forgot  it.” 
The  world  has  great  need  of  men  who  forget  to  say 
"Enough !” 
* 
THERE  are  some  sections  left  where  wheat  fol¬ 
lows  wheat  in  the  rotation.  It  is  not  a  good 
plan  on  general  principles,  but,  in  these  times  of  high 
cost  of  labor  and  fertilizer,  farmers  must  often  do 
the  best  they  can — not  just  as  they  would  prefer. 
In  these  cases  where  wheat  is  grown  after  wheat, 
the  plan  of  seeding  Sweet  clover  with  the  grain  is 
gaining.  The  clover  starts  with  the  wheat  and 
lives  through  the  Winter,  making  a  slow  growth 
through  the  Spring.  After  the  wheat  is  harvested 
the  clover  makes  a  quick  growth,  which  is  plowed 
under  in  preparing  the  soil  for  the  next  crop.  This 
growth  of  clover  will  be  nearly  or  quite  equal  to 
several  tons  of  stable  manure  to  the  acre.  Some¬ 
times  the  Sweet  clover  grows  so  large  that  it  will 
interfere  somewhat  in  harvesting  the  wheat,  but 
usually  it  does  not  make  a  heavy  growth  until  after 
harvest.  By  thus  seeding  the  clover  with  the  wheat 
the  soil  is  kept  in  good  condition  and  quite  a  little 
nitrogen  is  added.  The  Sweet  clover  seems  to  be  bet¬ 
ter  than  most  other  plants  for  this  purpose.  We  are 
told  that  this  use  of  Sweet  clover  has  given  a  great 
improvement  in  the  wheat  yields  of  Dakota  and 
nearby  States. 
* 
WE  have  a  case  on  hand  where  two  people  en¬ 
tered  into  a  business  agreement  to  conduct  a 
farm.  One  was  to  provide  the  real  estate  and  half 
the  personal  property,  and  also  board  the  other  par¬ 
ty.  The  tenant  was  to  do  all  the  labor  and  pay  for 
half  the  personal  property.  One  of  the  parties  drew 
up  an  agreement  which  both  signed.  All  went  well 
for  awhile,  but  finally  trouble  arose.  They  could  not 
agree  personally  and  could  not  disagree  good-na¬ 
turedly.  They  found  themselves  tied  up  in  such  a 
way  that  they  were  like  the  man  fighting  the  bear — 
neither  could  let  go  without  giving  the  other  a  great 
advantage,  so  they  kept  hold  of  each  other.  The 
trouble  with  most  self-drawn  contracts  is  that  they 
will  not  hold — this  one  held  too  well.  Finally  they 
went  to  lawyers  and  made  some  sort  of  a  settlement 
which  satisfied  neither  of  them.  The  mistake  was 
made  in  the  first  place  in  not  having  a  legal  con¬ 
tract.  A  good  lawyer  could  have  started  them  so 
there  could  have  been  no  misunderstanding  when  the 
personal  trouble  came.  Some  people  are  afi'aid  of 
lawyers  and  will  not  go  near  them  until  they  are 
forced  into  court  to  make  a  settlement.  Far  better 
have  the  original  contract  ironclad  and  copper 
riveted  to  begin  with.  Otherwise  it  may  turn  out  to 
be  brass. 
* 
ON  page  SSI  a  strawberry  grower  in  Virginia  told 
of  selling  berries  at  a  ruinous  price.  No  man 
can  raise  berries  and  pay  for  the  packages  at  such  a 
price  and  pay  his  debts.  Toward  the  end  of  the  sea¬ 
son  there  were  many  growers  who  lost  money, 
though  retail  prices  in  the  Northern  markets  were 
high.  The  cost  of  transportation  and  distribution 
ate  up  the  profits  to  the  grower.  Let  it  be  remem¬ 
bered  that  the  industries  which  enter  into  distribu¬ 
tion  are  so  arranged  that  they  usually  pay  expenses 
and  make  a  profit.  At  least  the  handlers  are  always 
paid.  'There  is  another  side  to  this  berry  gi*owing. 
We  have  fold  how  D.  L.  Hartman  of  Southern  Flor¬ 
ida  grows  berries  for  a  home  market.  The  plants 
are  set  out  about  October  and  begin  fruiting  a  round 
about  January  I,  and  continue  four  or  five  months. 
Hartman  tells  us  that  this  year’s  crop  of  a  little 
more  than  10  acres  brought  him  78,425  quarts,  which 
brought  $28,135  gross.  It  seems  incredible,  but  we 
believe  the  figures  are  accurate.  Hartman  is  an  ex¬ 
pert  grower,  who  knows  just  exactly  what  to  do 
and  then  does  it.  lie  has  perhaps  the  best  Winter 
home  market  in  the  world — rich  people,  weary  of 
life  in  a  cold  country  who  go  to  Florida,  willing  to 
pay  the  price  for  anything  that  will  cater  to  some 
bodily  desire  or  comfort.  It  thus  becomes  very 
largely  a  matter  of  marketing;  that  is  how  many 
middlemen  must  the  producer  support?  .  How  many 
people  must  take  a  cut  out  of  the  consumex-’s  dollar? 
Right  up  under  the  shadow  of  the  market  it  will  be 
largely  a  matter  of  individual  salesmanship.  Where 
goods  must  be  sent  hundreds  or  thousands  of  miles 
to  reach  the  consumer  there  must  be  some  sort  of 
co-operative  marketing  so  that  shippers  may  pay 
themselves  something  of  what  they  pay  others  when 
they  sell  separately. 
* 
HERE  are  two  comments  from  readers — brought 
out  by  our  efforts  to  explain  the  proposed 
school  bill : 
No.  1. 
What  is  the  use  of  trying  to  make  these  farmers  un¬ 
derstand?  They  do  not  want  to  know;  they  only  want 
a  chance  to  find  fault.  Let  them  alone  !  Go  ahead  and 
pass  the  bill  and  then  force  it  upon  them.  They  will 
have  to  stand  for  it.  k.  r.  s. 
No.  2. 
Your  attempt  to  make  the  farmers  understand  the 
proposed  new  rural  school  bill  is  a  noble  effort  along  the 
right  line,  and  sure  to  be  highly  appreciated  by  the 
rural  people.  Never  did  an  agricultural  paper  under¬ 
take  a  more  needed  piece  of  education  ;  if  you  can  suc¬ 
ceed  in  arousing  him  from  his  sleep  of  indifference  and 
make  him  feel  that  he  is  still  a  vital  part  of  this  great 
State  and  nation  you  will  have  accomplished  one  of  the 
greatest  achievements  possible  to  be  attained,  w.  w.  R. 
We  may  not  succeed  iu  making  farmers  under¬ 
stand  this  school  bill  in  every  detail,  but  we  are 
going  to  do  our  best.  There  is  a  great  principle  at 
stake,  and  this  school  discussion  brings  it  to  a  head. 
We  firmly  believe  that  one  great  i*eason  why  so 
many  of  our  faimers  are  despondent  and  indifferent 
is  because  they  have  surrendered  more  and  rnoi'e  of 
their  independence  and  local  power.  A  great  army 
has  arisen,  composed  of  people  who  propose  to  do  for 
the  farmer  what  he  formerly  did  very  well  himself. 
We  are  being  managed  and  educated  and  drilled 
away  from  the  sturdy  and  patriotic  independence 
which  made  our  fathers  the  real  foundation  of 
American  citizenship.  In  place  of  this  old  inde¬ 
pendence  there  is  growing  a  stubborn  prejudice  and 
discontent.  It  is  a  popular  thing  to  chai’ge  this  to 
the  farmers  themselves,  but  we  think  the  "leaders” 
are,  in  a  way,  partly  responsible  for  it.  They  have 
tried  to  rush  things  too  fast  by  centralizing  power 
and  removing  it  from  farm  localities.  That  desix-e 
shines  out  all  through  this  school  bill,  and  we  have 
thought  it  desirable  to  make  a  stand  right  hex-e  for 
what  we  may  call  local  rights.  It  stands  to  reason 
that  these  local  rights  can  .be  protected  only  by  the 
local  people.  If  the  rural  people  will  not  take  the 
time  to  study  and  understand  this  school  bill,  and, 
after  they  know  their  rights  under  it,  defend  them, 
they  will  pass  up  just  about  their  last  chance  to 
make  headway  against  centralization. 
WHEN  a  boy  or  man  learns  how  to  swim  he 
never  knows  just  how  he  does  it.  At  first  he 
strikes  out  with  hand  and  feet,  or  keeps  one  foot 
on  the  bottom.  He  woi'ks  hard,  but  somehow  his 
body  does  not  float;  he  is  in  constant  fear  of  sink¬ 
ing.  Then,  all  at  once,  he  gains  a  sort  of  confident 
courage.  His  hands  and  feet  operate  just  as  they 
did  before,  but  there  is  some  mental  power  which 
keeps  his  body  afloat.  Somehow  he  cannot  sink  so 
long  as  he  can  keep  his  limbs  working.  It  is  hard 
to  explain  this  curious  power  which  the  mind  ex¬ 
ercises  over  the  body,  but  what  is  true  of  swim¬ 
ming  is  also  true  of  thousands  of  other  things  over 
which  men  hesitate  or  falter.  It  is  true  of  our  oft 
repeated  slogan,  ‘‘we  must  do  it  ourselves .”  In 
fact,  that  Stands  for  a  form  of  swimming  which  we 
must  all  lea  i'll  if  we  ai*e  to  keep  afloat  in  farming. 
It  seems  bal'd  to  do  it,  foi'  the  habit  of  letting  othei* 
interests  make  laws  and  make  plans  and  regulate 
life  for  us  has  steadily  grown  until  it  is  as  hard  to 
bi'eak  as  the  familiar  habit  of  making  the  left  hand 
wait  upon  the  right.  When  we  “kick”  and  do 
nothing  more  we  are  like  the  man  ti'ying  to  learn 
to  swim,  yet,  with  all  his  strength,  keeping  one 
foot  on  the  bottom.  What  we  need  is  that  con¬ 
fidence  and  faith  in  our  fellow  men  that  will,  like 
the  faith  of  the  swimmer,  give  us  confidence  to  use 
our  own  power — and  float. 
* 
D  IGHT  now  is  the  time  to  throw  out  the  "mis- 
-tv  fit”  nursery  trees.  It  is  a  form  of  crime  to 
wait  until  these  trees  are  sold  and  come  into  bearing 
before  detecting  them.  The  new  method  is  to  com¬ 
pare  the  leaves.  It  has  been  found  that  each  apple 
variety  produces  a  leaf  which  is  as  distinctly  ehai*- 
acteristic  as  the  fruit.  That  is,  the  leaf  of  a  Bald- 
u  ixi  tree  is  as  different  in  shape  and  genei'al  ehai*~ 
acter  from  a  Spy  leaf  as  are  the  well-matured  fi*uit 
of  these  varieties.  This  system  has  been  well  worked 
out,  and  an  expert  can  go  through  the  stock  in  a 
nursery  and  identify  the  different  ti-ees.  If  any 
misfits  are  found  they  can  be  removed  and  the  trees 
found  true  to  name  are  certified  by  experts.  This 
plan  is  being  followed  in  some  nurseries,  and  we 
think  the  plan  will  be  generally  adopted  in  the 
future.  The  nurserymen  should  be  first  of  all  to 
promote  such  a  plan,  for  if  these  “misfits”  continue 
the  business  will  be  sei'iously  injured. 
Brevities 
uc  me  uiusi  prosperous  and  most 
nearly  self-sustaining  country  in  Europe. 
Ix  we  must  have  ?x  hot  dinner  these  boiling  davs,  wbv 
not  cook  it  in  a  tireless  cooker?  *  * 
Waste  oil  from  tractors  and  car  is  used  for  snrav- 
mg  hogs— good  to  repel  lice  and  flies. 
One  of  our  readers  says  he  turned  the  hogs  into  a 
lull  crop  of  sweet  clover.  “I  could  not  find  the  ho^s 
or  any  flies  either.” 
Every  report  from  Europe  is  to  the  effect  that  Aus- 
n  la  is  practically  bankrupt.  Yet  50,000  people  recently 
paid  to  see  a  football  game  in  Vienna. 
Botii  coarse  open  soil  and  fine  heavy  clay  are  helped 
by  lime.  In  one  case  it  binds  the  coarse  particles  to 
gethor,  somewhat  like  mortar  ]  in  the  other  it  separates 
the  fine  particles  and  admits  water  and  air. 
We  seem  to  have  the  proof,  on  page  018,  that  wood- 
ehucks  do  kill  chickens.  Apparently  they  do  not  eat 
much  of  the  flesh,  but  there  seems  little  doubt  about 
the  killing.  Why  should  they  do  it? 
If  your  wife  has  property  in  her  own  name,  she  has 
a  right  to  dispose  of  it  as  she  sees  fit.  Where  husband 
and  wife  have  worked  together  to  earn  and  accumulate 
property,  a  joint  legal  ownership  is  right. 
We  know  a  naturally  thirsty  man  who  takes  a  stalk 
of  rhubarb  into  the  field  on  a  hot  day.  He  drinks  a 
fair  amount  of  water,  but  sucks  the  rhubarb  stalk  to 
overcome  that  dryness  of  the  tongue  and  mouth,  which 
somehow  water  cannot  take  out. 
Tiie  following  will  answer  several  questions  about  a 
mortgage  which  was  signed  by  several  parties :  “In  case 
an  action  is  brought  to  foreclose  the  mortgage  and  the 
property  is  sold,  if  the  property  does  not  sell  for 
enough  to  pay  the  face  of  the  mortgage,  intei-est,  taxes, 
etc.,  all  of  the  signers  of  the  mortgage  are  liable.” 
