1208 
lhe  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
September  22,  102:! 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSINESS  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  llome« 
Established  I860 
Pnbllshrd  wrrkly  by  the  Knrml  Pnbliihlng  Company,  838  Wait  SOtb  Street,  N»w  Fork 
Herbert  W.  Collingwood,  President  and  Editor. 
Joint  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Manager. 
Wm.  F.  Dillon,  Secretary.  Mas.  E.  T.  Hoyle,  Associate  Editor. 
L.  H.  Murphy,  Circulation  Manager. 
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“A  SQUARE  DEAL” 
We  believe  that  every  advertisement  in  this  patier  is  backed  by  a  respon¬ 
sible  person.  We.  use  every  possible  precaution  and  admit  the  advertising  of 
reliable  houses  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  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. 
THE  State  of  New  Hampshire  has  an  auto  hog 
law  with  wolf  teeth  in  it : 
Section.  1.  Whoever  wilfully  or  without  right  enters 
the  orchard,  nursery,  garden,  or  upon  the  improved  land 
of  another  and  destroys  or  injures  any  tree,  shrub,  vine, 
or  steals,  takes  or  carries  away  live  stock,  poultry,  fruit, 
vegetables,  or  other  product  there  growing  or  being, 
shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  not  less  than  $25  or  by 
imprisonment  for  not  less  than  30  days,  or  both,  and  if 
the  offense  is  committed  by  any  person  with  the  aid  of 
a  motor  vehicle  to  convey  away  him  or  them  to  or  from 
the  premises  above  described  or  to  convey  away  any  of 
the  material  stolen  or  taken,  the  license  of  the  owner, 
unless  proved  to  be  that  of  an  innocent  party,  shall  be 
revoked  for  a  period  of  one  year  in  addition  to  the  fore¬ 
going  penalties. 
Any  '‘sheriff,  deputy  sheriff,  constable,  police  offi¬ 
cer,  any  conservator  of  the  peace,  watchman,  or  pri¬ 
vate  citizen"  has  the  power,  upon  viewing  any  such 
offence,  to  arrest  the  offender  without  warrant  and 
commit  him  to  jail.  The  law  also  punishes  by  a  fine 
of  not  more  than  $25  anyone  who  wilfully  tears  down 
or  defaces  any  trespass  sign.  Under  this  law  the 
New  Hampshire  farmers  can  do  it  themselves. 
* 
We  have  bought  our  farm  on  contract,  and  for  about 
three  years  we  did  very  well,  but  now  we  are  on  the 
point  of  losing  everything.  We  have  to  give  half  of 
the  milk  checks,  and  we  cannot  make  a  living  and  pay- 
expenses  on  half  of  this.  We  have  to  pay  $3,000  yet 
before  we  get  the  deed,  and  then  we  can  make  smaller 
payments.  We  have  a  good  farm  and  it  represents 
many  years  of  saving.  My  husband  is  a  hard-working, 
industrious  farmer,  but  owing  to  fhe  hard  times  of  the 
past  two  years,  we  are  facing  most  trying  times,  and 
now  my  husband’s  health  has  gone,  owing  to  overwork. 
M.  w.  R. 
URING  the  year  we  have  dozens  of  letters  like 
the  above.  They  represent  the  tragedy  of  the 
contract.  We  can  realize  how  hopefully  these  people 
went  out  to  this  farm.  It  represented  the  first  real 
home  they  ever  had.  Here  was  the  God-given  priv¬ 
ilege  of  carving  home  and  competence  out  of  their 
hard  labor  and  self-denial.  They  paid  down  all  the 
cash  they  had  accumulated,  and  signed  a  slavish  con¬ 
tract  which  gave  them  no  real  rights  to  the  property. 
We  know  how  such  people  feel  when  the  hitter  truth 
comes  home  to  them.  The  man  lias  sweat  blood  in 
the  hopeless  struggle;  the  woman  lias  shed  bitter 
tears  straight  from  the  fountains  of  despair  as  they 
see  ruin  and  loss  of  home  stealing  upon  them  with 
the  terrifying  footsteps  of  fate!  It  is  a  shame  that 
here,  in  New  York  State,  a  man  and  woman  should 
be  crushed  out  of  their  home  through  their  failure 
to  raise  a  sum  so  small  that  hundreds  of  us  will 
throw  it  away  for  the  pleasure  of  a  brief  vacation. 
“The  tragedy  of  the  contract"  indeed — and  there 
are  hundreds  of  others  going  through  this  mental 
torture  right  now. 
ii'- 
RS.  BERRY  on  tlie  proposed  school  law.  Her 
idea  of  holding  a  meeting  in  every  school  dis¬ 
trict  is  good.  AYe  promised  to  keep  at  the  discussion 
until  no  rural  citizen  of  New  York  could  rightly  say 
that  he  did  not  understand  the  bill.  It  is  a  hard  job. 
Some  of  the  district  school  superintendents,  even, 
write  us  that  tlie  hill  is  so  complicated  and  far- 
reaching  that  they  do  not  feel  competent  to  discuss 
it.  If  that  is  so,  think  of  trying  to  jam  through  the 
Legislature  a  hill  which  even  the  school  superintend¬ 
ents  do  not  understand.  It  is  not  likely  that  anyone 
now  questions  tlie  wisdom  of  holding  this  hill  for 
further  discussion.  Airs.  Berry  shows  that  it  is  pos¬ 
sible  to  maintain  a  good  rural  school  under  tlie  pres¬ 
ent  law.  There  are  many  such  where,  without  great 
expense  for  building  and  equipment,  country  children 
are  well  taught,  and  where  a  fine  community  spirit 
lias  been  kept  up.  It  is  not  necessary  to  scrap  tlie 
present  system  in  order  to  develop  a  good  school. 
As  for  consolidation,  it  is  evident  to  us  that  tlie 
framers  of  this  bill  have  set  up  tlie  machinery  for 
bringing  about  consolidation  wherever  such  a  tiling 
is  possible.  We  think  it  would  be  better  if  the  Com¬ 
mittee  of  Twenty-one  were  to  state  frankly  that  their 
plan  involves  consolidation  wherever  possible.  It 
may  be  that  consolidation  would  prove  a  good  thing 
in  many  districts.  AVe  cannot  dispute  that  without 
knowing  the  conditions,  hut  it  will  be  simpler  for  all 
of  us  if  we  admit  fairly  that  the  proposed  law  is 
built  on  tlie  theory  of  consolidation.  As  to  the  in¬ 
creased  cost  of  this  method,  we  are  not  inclined  to 
accept  estimates.  Several  States  in  the  West  have 
established  the  system  and  the  taxation  facts  are 
known.  Our  readers  in  the  West  tell  us  without 
exception  that  taxes  have  greatly  increased  with 
consolidated  schools.  Opinion  is  divided  as  to  wheth¬ 
er  the  new  system  is  worth  what  it  costs.  AAre  repeat 
what  we  have  often  said,  that  this  school  hill  repre¬ 
sents  tlie  most  important  legislation  for  farmers  that 
lias  been  suggested  for  years.  AVe  do  not  intend  that 
it  shall  be  fastened  upon  our  rural  people  until  it  is 
fully  understood.  If,  after  such  fair  understanding, 
our  farmers  want  it,  we  will  cheerfully  accept  their 
verdict.  We  are  glad  that  the  Committee  of  Twenty- 
one  intends  making  a  vigorous  campaign  for  the  bill, 
and  we  shall  see  that  they  explain  every  part  of  it. 
>jc 
THE  Middletown  (N.  Y.  )  Herald  recently  printed 
an  item  about  training  pigeons  for  war-time 
service : 
Adolph  Ilirscb  of  New  York  City,  who  last  Sunday 
released  a  small  flock  of  homing  pigeons  from  the  Erie 
depot  here,  yesterday  released  a  flock  of  1,1(50  birds 
from  the  platform  of  the  Erie  station  at  Port  Jervis. 
Air.  Ilirseh,  official  conveyor  and  liberator  of  the  United 
Homing  Pigeon  Concourse  of  New  York  and  New  Jer¬ 
sey,  is  training  the  birds  for  possible  use  in  war  time. 
Air.  Ilirseh  stated  that  the  pigeons  which  he  released 
at  Middletown  last  Sunday  reached  New  York  in  less 
than  55  minutes.  He  expected  the  flock  yesterday  to 
reach  home  in  about  an  hour.  Some  of  the  birds  are 
capable  of  covering  TOO  miles  in  one  day’s  flight,  he 
said.  Another  flock  of  approximately  5,500  birds  will  be 
released  at  Hancock  Sunday. 
Quite  a  business  is  being  done  with  these  birds. 
They  made  good  time ;  the, distance  between  Aliddle- 
town  and  New  York  by  rail  is  about  00  miles!  Some 
of  our  readers  are  quite  interested  in  this  work. 
They  frequently  report  banded  pigeons  which  drop, 
exhausted,  on  their  farms. 
-s 
W10  understand  that  at  one  time  during  the 
Great  War  the  Germans  referred  to  the 
United  States  as  “a  nation  of  ice-cream  eaters.” 
Year  by  year  this  title  seems  to  become  more  and 
more  appropriate,  for  tlie  quantity  of  ice  cream  now 
consumed  by  our  people  is  enormous.  A  good  thing, 
too.  In  spite  of  the  German  sneer,  our  ice-cream-fed 
soldiers  proved  a  husky  lot.  Why  not?  Cream  is 
full  of  vitamines,  and  they  are  not  injured  by  sweet¬ 
ening  or  freezing.  Cream  beats  beer  for  nourish¬ 
ment,  or  influence  upon  industry.  Tlie  more  cream 
consumed  the  greater  demand  for  dairy  products 
and  the  greater  help  for  the  hardest  worked  and 
most  important  member  of  the  great  farm  family — 
the  dairyman. 
* 
N  the  old  Greek  mythology  Prometheus  was  the 
benefactor  of  mankind  because  lie  brought  to  the 
earth  fire  and  the  arts  depending  on  fire.  Some  en¬ 
thusiastic  people  seem  to  regard  Gov.  Pinehot  of 
Pennsylvania  as  a  modern  Prometheus  because  lie 
acted  to  settle  the  coal  strike.  For  fire  and  fuel 
mean  life  to  tlie  great  majority  of  our  people.  The 
countryman  can  manage  somehow  with  wood — thou¬ 
sands  have,  before  now,  kept  comfortable  by  burning 
grass  or  weeds.  Out  on  the  Western  plains  men  have 
spent  blizzard  days  tying  marsh  liay  into  knots  to 
serve  as  fuel.  To  most  city  and  town  people  coal  is 
an  absolute  necessity,  and  the  settlement  of  this 
strike  is  regarded  as  a  great  achievement.  It  is  said 
that  the  working  miners  forced  their  strike  leaders 
to  accept  the  proffered  terms.  Well  they  might,  for 
the  increase  in  wages  under  the  new  scale  will 
amount  to  $32, 000, (XX) — practically  all  of  which  will 
he  paid  by  consumers.  The  miners  earn  more  per 
hour  of  labor  than  our  farmers  do,  yet  the  latter  do 
not  strike  and  imperil  tlie  comfort  and  lives  of  those 
who  buy  food.  This  strike  found  a  new  spirit  among 
tlie  people.  They  are  learning  to  demand  not  only 
personal  rights  but  natural  rights  as  well.  Air, 
water,  fuel  and  transportation  are  tlie  great  com¬ 
munity  needs  of  town  and  city  people,  and  each  year 
they  are  coming  more  and  more  to  regard  these 
things  as  a  common  privilege  which  must  not  be 
monopolized  or  held  up.  The  American  people  will 
not  again  permit  any  quarrel  between  labor  and  cap¬ 
ital  to  deprive  them  of  fuel.  They  are  willing  that 
both  sides  be  fairly  paid  for  their  services,  but  in  tlie 
last  analysis  the  coal  in  the  earth  belongs  to  the 
earth,  and  the  earth  belongs  to  fhe  people.  We  think 
the  miners  realized  this  spirit  when  they  forced  their 
leaders  to  agree  to  a  settlement.  They  knew  that, 
on  liis  record,  the  silent,  determined  man  in  the 
White  House  would  not  hesitate  to  use  every  power 
of  the  government  to  work  the  mines  rather  than  see 
the  people  suffer. 
HOUSANDS  of  men  are  drawn  away  from  farm 
labor  by  the  fierce  competition  of  public  work, 
both  Federal  and  State.  Public  buildings,  roads, 
parks  and  other  public  jobs  are  being  rushed 
through  at  great  speed.  Prices  offered  for  labor  are 
far  above  what  any  farmer  can  afford  to  pay,  and 
there  is  usually  an  eight-hour  day  with  sure  pay¬ 
ment.  The  result  is  that  farmers  find  themselves 
unable  to  compete  with  this  public  work,  and  men 
and  boys  go  where  they  can  sell  their  labor  at  the 
highest  price.  It  would  not  be  so  bad  if  prices  on 
farm  products  would  enable  farmers  to  compete  in 
the  labor  market,  but  we  are  now  up  against  the  sin¬ 
gular  condition  of  short  supplies  and  low  prices  for 
farm  goods.  As  a  result  the  farmer  must  stand  and 
see  his  boys  and  the  hired  men  taking  up  some 
public  job  where  they  can  earn  more  money  than 
father  can  afford  to  pay.  And  this  competition 
from  public  jobs  affects  all  other  lines  of  industry, 
and  thus  reacts  indirectly  upon  farming.  The  fact  is 
that  the  Federal  and  State  governments  as  well  as 
communities  are  attempting  too  much  public  work 
at  this  time.  They  are  spending  so  much  money 
that  laborers  are  drawn  away  from  productive  en¬ 
terprises  to  an  extent  which  must  mean  loss  or  ruin 
to  the  very  people  who  are  taxed  to  pay  for  the  pub¬ 
lic  work  which  in  turn  robs  them  of  labor.  There 
ought  to  be  a  prompt  slow-down  on  these  public 
jobs.  Many  of  them  can  safely  wait.  The  result 
would  be  a  fairer  adjustment  of  labor — giving  the 
farmer  a  chance  to  obtain  bis  share.  It  would  also 
mean  a  reduction  of  taxation.  It  is  no  time  to  push 
public  work  to  the  limit  while  the  labor  situation  is 
as  it  stands  today.  It  should  be  pushed  in  time  of 
labor  stagnation,  when  idle  men  are  plentiful,  but 
it  should  not  be  permitted  to  draw  men  away  from 
needed  productive  industry  as  it  is  now  doing. 
* 
E  do  not  know  how  it  happens,  but  during  tlie 
past  few  months  we  have  had  many  ques¬ 
tions  about  the  marriage  of  first  cousins.  It  seems 
that  in  several  cases  such  cousins  desire  to  marry, 
but  have  been  told  it  is  criminal,  both  legally  and 
physically,  to  do  so.  It  is  true  that  many  or  most 
of  the  States  prohibit  such  marriages,  and  in  some 
cases  tlie  church  also  forbids  them.  The  State  of 
New  York  permits  such  a  marriage.  As  to  the 
physical  effects  or  results,  Dr.  (’ail  B.  Davenport  of 
the  Department  of  Genetics  of  the  Carnegie  Labora¬ 
tory  for  Research  on  Long  Island,  gives  this  opinion  : 
The  result  of  genetieal  work  for  rhe  past  20  years 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that  first  cousin  marriage  does 
not  necessarily  lead  to  defective  offspring,  but  such 
marriage  increases  on  the  average  the  proportion  of 
such  defectives,  owing  to  the  fact  that  if  a  recessive 
defect  occurs  in  the  strain  there  is  an  especially  high 
probability  of  its  coming  in  from  both  parents  and  re¬ 
sulting  in  a  gross  defect  in  the  offspring.  Accordingly 
one  cannot  advise  generally  in  regard  to  cousin  mar¬ 
riage,  but  every  case  has  to  be  considered  by  itself. 
AVe  assume  that  this  means  that  where  the  two 
parties  are  of  practically  the  same  type,  with  some 
prominent  defect,  such  marriage  would  not  be  desir¬ 
able.  For  example,  suppose  the  parents  of  these  two 
parties  were  sisters  and  they  both  “took  after” 
mother,  with  her  prominent  nose,  or  defective  heart 
action  or  weak  bone  formation,  such  a  marriage 
might  not  be  well  considered.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  one  of  the  parties  “took  after"  father,  with  a 
different  type  and  form  of  constitution,  the  case 
would  be  different.  AAre  discuss  the  matter  here  be¬ 
cause  there  is  so  much  inquiry  about  it  that  we 
know  it  must  be  important  to  many  of  our  readers. 
AA’lien  young  people  feel  that  they  should  marry  it  is 
difficult  to  get  them  to  listen  to  cool  or  scientific 
discussion. 
Brevities 
Co-operation  is  not  all  grab — it’s  give. 
AA'iiat  is  the  thing  that  hurts  most  and  heals  most? 
The  truth. 
The  children  go  back  to  school  like  lively  young  colts 
getting  into  the  harness. 
No  use  talking — the  line  fence  is  the  cause  of  many 
offensive  lines. 
AVe  may  think  we  show  respect  for  grandfather 
when  we  insist  on  doing  just  as  he  did.  but  we  might 
show  greater  respect  for  wife  and  family  if  we  threw 
out  some  of  grandfather’s  methods. 
The  New  York  Experiment  Station  has  found  many 
mixtures  of  lawn  grasses  unfit  for  seeding.  It  sug¬ 
gests  two  parts  Kentucky  bluegrass  to  one  part  Red- 
top,  with  a  little  AVhite  clover  added.  This  is  properly 
called  the  “red,  white  and  blue”  mixture. 
In  several  cases  of  late,  judges  have  decided  that  a 
married  woman  with  an  independent  income  may  be 
obliged  to  give  alimony  to  her  husband,  or  support  him 
in  case  of  illness.  It  has  been  supposed  that  this  was 
a  special  privilege  accorded  to  the  husband,  but  equal 
rights  will  involve  equal  burdens. 
