1230 
•Jht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSIXESS  FARMER’S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes 
Establ ished  / sso 
PubllKhtd  n«*«*klj  l»y  the  Knral  I’uMisMng  Company,  333  W«it  80tU  Street,  New  fork 
Herbert  W.  Collingwood,  President  and  Editor. 
John  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Manager. 
Wm.  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,  persona)  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  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  New- 
Yorker  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
ON  page  1227  you  will  find  a  diary  of  a  trip 
across  the  country  in  an  apple  car.  The  trip 
from  Washington  to  New  York  as  nurse  for  a  car 
of  apples  must  have  been  what  one  may  call  a 
“pippin.”  This  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  plain  tales 
about  life  that  we  are  preparing.  In  the  next  one 
a  farm  manager  will  express  his  opinion  of  some 
velvet  farmers  he  has  met. 
* 
Ills  old  world  (and  that  means  the  people  who 
are  grouped  in  it)  has  many  troubles — some 
of  them  as  old  as  mankind.  One  of  the  worst  is  the 
fact  that  most  men  think  they  must  be  one-sided 
whenever  they  take  up  a  public  question.  They 
resort  to  special  pleading  which  means  forgetting 
that  there  can  be  any  other  side  to  the  question. 
They  feel  that  the  other  man’s  opinion  cannot  he 
worth  considering  because  it  does  not  agree  with 
their  own.  Any  admission  that  the  other  side  can 
have  an  argument  worth  considering  is  regarded  as 
a  weakness.  This  one-sided  discussion  of  public 
matters  is  responsible  for  much  of  the  arbitrary 
government,  which  our  people  complain  about.  Fi’om 
the  election  of  President  down  to  that  of  chairman 
of  a  local  committee  there  is  too  much  of  this  one¬ 
sided  work.  Of  course  under  such  conditions  the 
successful  party  feels  that  in  order  to  hold  the  job 
it  must  be  arbitrary  and  narrow.  Any  admission 
that  the  other  side  is  right  might  weaken  it.  A  fair 
discussion;  conducted  on  its  merits,  with  reasonable 
chance  for  all.  and  only  a  desire  to  learn  the  truth, 
would  he  the  fairest  thing  for  any  community  or 
any  country,  since  it  leaves  the  mind  free  to  select 
the  best.  Unfortunately  that  is  one  of  the  hardest 
things  to  work  out — and  there  you  have  one  of  the 
worst  troubles  in  this  old  world — ingrained  preju¬ 
dice  and  the  conviction  that  one’s  own  way  must 
be  best. 
* 
SEVERAL  readers  have  sent  us  this  note  from 
the  Syracuse  Post-Standard.  They  want  to 
know  if  the  statement  is  true : 
The  Committee  of  Twenty-one  has  spent  $75,000  in 
its  examination  of  rural  school  conditions  in  New 
York,  but  not  a  penny  of  it  was  “the  taxpayers’ 
money.” — Ed. 
It  is  and  we  have  explained  it  several  times. 
This  Committee  of  Twenty-one  had  no  State  fund — 
in  fact  no  money  to  pay  for  its  “survey.”  The 
needed  funds  were  supplied  by  the  directors  of  the 
Commonwealth  Fund  of  New  York  City.  We  can¬ 
not  give  the  original  source  of  this  money,  but  let 
us  be  fair,  and  state  that  this  committee  has  not 
spent  the  “taxpayers’  money”  as  that  is  generally 
understood.  The  committee  is  under  no  obligations 
to  the  State  and,  of  course,  has  no  State  authority. 
Any  other  group  of  men  and  women  organized  under 
similar  conditions  would  be  justified  in  making  a 
report.  There  is  no  use  claiming  that  the  people 
on  this  committee  made  any  money  out  of  it.  Some 
of  them  lost  money,  and  were  never  paid  for  their 
time.  There  is  no  wisdom  in  attacking  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  this  committee  personally.  They  are  men 
and  women  like  the  rest  of  us.  We  can  disagree 
with  what  they  propose  without  impugning  their 
motives. 
* 
WE  are  told  that  the  Prince  of  Wales,  on  his 
Canadian  farm,  put  on  a  pair  of  overalls  and 
helped  fill  a  silo.  That  was  good  exercise  for  him, 
and  something  more.  There  are  some  snobs  in  New 
York  City  who  are  said  to  turn  up  their  trousers 
whenever  there  is  a  report  of  rain  falling  in  Lon¬ 
don.  That  is  because  they  think  the  prince  must 
he  doing  the  same  thing.  But  will  their  desire  to 
imitate  their  idol  take  them  to  a  silo  and  offer  to 
help?  We  wouldn’t  mind  putting  one  of  these 
gentleman  in  the  silo,  packing  down,  and  then 
turn  full  power  on  the  blower!  We  could  guarantee 
him  a  royal  time.  But  on  these  unusual  occasions 
when  a  prince  puts  on  overalls  and  starts  at  a  job 
with 
“Once  more  into  the  breach,  dear  friend,” 
the  dear  friends  are  apt  to  hesitate.  They  will 
stay  away  from  the  silo. 
* 
WHAT  right  has  a  cow  to  the  highway  as  com¬ 
pared  with  an  automobile?  Several  readers 
say  cows  have  been  hit  by  a  car.  They  were  either 
crossing  the  road  to  pasture,  or  being  driven  alofig 
the  highway.  The  fact  is  that  there  is  no  excuse 
for  hitting  a  cow.  Every  man  who  drives  a  car 
knows  that  a  cow  will  not  get  out  of  the  road  until 
it  gets  ready,  so  the  driver  might  as  well  stop  his 
car  and  twist  his  thumbs  until  the  road  is  clear.  The 
cow  does  not  stop,  look  and  listen  before  it  crosses 
the  road,  but  simply  stops  and  looks  after  it  is  in 
the  road.  One  may  use  the  highway  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  driving  horses  or  stock.  Such  use  of  the 
highway  is  lawful,  and  a  person  driving  an  auto¬ 
mobile  is  required  to  exercise  reasonable  care  to 
avoid  a  collision  with  such  animals.  Also  the  one 
having  charge  of  the  animals  in  the  highway  must 
use  reasonable  care  to  avoid  a  collision.  The  lia¬ 
bility  is  a  question  of  negligence  and  contributory 
negligence  and  each  case  would  he  settled  by  itself. 
* 
The  sale  of  1.0(K)  tons  of  Yakima  Valley  hay  at  $10.50 
per  ton  for  shipment  to  New  York  through  the  canal, 
has  been  announced,  and  it  is  stated  that  it  is  likely 
30.000  more  tons  will  go  the  same  route.  Transpor¬ 
tation  charges  by  steamer  into  New  York  are  $10  per 
ton  and  the  going  market  there  at  present  on  Alfalfa  is 
$28  per  ton,  so  that  the  deal  is  expected  to  prove  a 
profitable  one. 
HAT  is  taken  from  a  market  report  printed  in 
Seattle,  Wash.  The  hay  referred  to  is  Alfalfa. 
Three  years  ago  we  told  our  readers  that  such  ship¬ 
ments  would  be  sure  to  come  with  canal  develop¬ 
ment.  It  will  be  a  singular  outcome  if  in  the  future 
New  England  dairying  .passes  into  a  condition 
where  herds  of  milk  cows  are  grouped  near  the 
large  cities  and  partly  fed  on  Alfalfa  grown  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  and  shipped  by  water  to  New  England 
seaports.  By  using  Soy  beans,  Alsike  clover  and 
other  acid-soil  legumes  the  New  England  farmers 
could  produce  every  bit  of  this  forage  at  home. 
Except  in  a  few  favored  locations  Alfalfa  is  not 
suited  to  New  England  soil.  And  by  the  way,  in 
California  wheat  hay  (green  wheat  cut  and  dried) 
is  quoted  as  high  as  Alfalfa  ! 
* 
I  have  heard  some  talk  about  the  Government  putting 
men  on  these  abandoned  farms  to  run  them,  and  help¬ 
ing  them  all  they  can  to  build  them  up.  Is  it  so,  or  is 
it  just  talk?  If  it  is,  how  could  one  get  a  farm, 
especially  if  a  man  were  poor  and  had  only  a  hundred 
or  two  to  start  with?  xtRS.  a.  r.  j. 
Delaware  Co.,  N.  Y. 
HAT  you  have  heard  is  “just  talk,”  and 
rather  poor  talk  at  that.  The  Government 
is  not  paying  people  to  go  out  and  work  abandoned 
farms.  Some  offers  have  been  made  to  help  ex-ser¬ 
vice  men  obtain  farms  in  the  West  and  South,  but 
the  Government  is  not  financially  interested  in 
peopling  abandoned  farms.  Why  should  it  be? 
Many  of  these  farms  should  never  have  been  settled 
in  the  beginning.  They  never  would  have  been 
cleared  if  the  earlier  settlers  had  known  what  lay 
beyond  or  around  them.  They  do  not  offer  a  living 
to  any  amateur  farmer  or  Government  ward.  Better 
let  them  go  back  to  forest  so  they  may  produce  a 
useful  crop  for  posterity. 
And  why  seek  to  increase  the  number  of  depend¬ 
ent  farmers  when  we  already  produce  more  than 
we  can  properly  distribute.  Far  better  let  the  good 
land  be  occupied  by  natural  farmers  who  are  con¬ 
tent  to  live  in  the  country  rather  than  bribe  misfits 
and  amateurs  to  take  up  abandoned  land? 
* 
PARADICHLOROBENZENE  or,  more  convenient 
to  the  tongue,  p-d-c-fi  has  forced  its  way  into  such 
prominence  that  it  is  entitled  to  editorial  discussion. 
It  is  a  chemical  with  a  gas  delivering  a  smell  rank 
and  powerful  enough  to  drive  strong  hungry  men 
away  from  their  dinner.  It  has  to  be  rank  and 
strong  in  order  to  do  its  duty  by  the  peach  borer. 
That  insect  is  the  worst  pest  that  peach  growers 
have  to  contend  with.  It  is  more  dangerous  than 
the  San  Jose  scale,  for  that  can  be  fought  with  a 
spray.  The  borer  works  at  the  roots,  and  before 
p-d-cJb  made  its  appearance  we  were  forced  to  get 
down  on  our  knees  and  dig  the  pest  out.  The  ma¬ 
jority  of  men  seem  opposed  to  getting  down  on  their 
September  29,  1923 
knees  until  fear  or  disaster  drives  them  to  that  sup¬ 
plicating  attitude!  This  chemical  will  save  them 
from  this  humiliating  service.  Scattered  around  the 
tree  and  covered  with  soil  it  sends  out  a  penetrating 
gas  which  quickly  makes  life  a  bore  for  the  peach 
borer.  We  think  it  can  also  be  used  in  fighting  the 
white  grub.  When  used  according  to  directions  it 
is  a  help  to  the  peach  grower,  but  it  must  be  used 
with  judgment.  We  do  not  advise  its  use  on  young 
trees;  but  for  older  trees  we  believe  its  value  has 
been  demonstrated.  It  may  be  said  that  in  its  action 
upon  borers  p-d-c-b  is  p.d.q. 
* 
WE  have  discussed  the  plan  of  putting  what  is 
called  an  "inocujant”  into  the  silo  when 
filling  it.  I  he  theory  is  that  good  silage  is  produced 
by  certain  ferments  in  bacteria  working  on  the  corn 
or  whatever  is  used  in  the  silo.  We  think  this 
theory  is  right  and  when  these  ferments  are  started 
ahead  of  others  they  will  make  good  silage.  In 
speaking  about  this  we  have  compared  it  with  the 
plan  of  using  a  “starter”  in  butter-making.  That 
works  well  and  nearly  everyone  knows  about  it. 
8e\ eial  farmers  have  asked  if  it  would  not  answer 
to  scrape  up  some  of  the  rotted  silage  left  in  the 
bottom  of  the  silo  and  scatter  it  in  as  filling  goes 
on.  It  would  be  the  worst  thing  you  could  do,  for 
the  object  in  using  the  “starter”  would  be  to  pre¬ 
vent  this  rotting  by  getting  the  useful  ferments 
started  first.  If  you  scraped  up  some  of  the  rotting 
and  foul  smelling  cream  where  a  can  was  spilled  at 
the  creamery  and  put  that  in  the  churn  you  know 
what  you  would  get.  It  would  be  much  the  same  as 
putting  rotted  silage  in  the  silo.  We  think  this 
plan  of  using  the  right  germs  in  the  silo  is  sound. 
It  will  in  the  future  come  into  quite  general  use. 
* 
THIS  week  Mrs.  Unger  gives  a  typical  dialogue 
between  a  farmer  and  a  school  superintendent. 
We  consider  it  a  model  in  its  way — true  to  life  and 
expressing  the  plain,  homely  sense  of  country  people. 
It  is  good  to  know  that  there  are  some  country 
people  left  who  are  not  so  blinded  by  the  glitter  of 
modern  education  that  they  cannot  look  soberly 
upon  the  other  side.  The  experts  and  uplifters  are 
very  sad  over  the  awful  condition  of  rural  children. 
M  hen  they  blame  rural  parents  for  not  running  to 
accept  a  lot  of  untested  or  experimental  theories 
they  do  not  stop  to  consider  that  these  same  rural 
people  probably  have  a  superior  knowledge  of  their 
needs  and  what  they  desire  for  their  children.  Much 
of  the  so-called  education  which  the  city  or  town 
offers  the  country  is  artificial  and  useless  for  prac¬ 
tical  life.  Those  of  us  who  have  employed  grad¬ 
uates  of  city  and  rural  schools  well  know  that 
while  the  city  children  may  be  more  polished  they 
lack  initiative  and  the  ability  to  take  hold  of  a 
job  in  a  practical  way.  The  farmer  pictured  by 
Mrs.  Unger  has  the  sound  idea  which  is  held  by  the 
vast  majority  of  country  people.  We  are  glad  to 
present  this  sensible  statement. 
* 
LAST  week  we  told  something  of  what  the  Ply¬ 
mouth  Co.  Poultry  Association  is  doing  in 
catching  poultry  thieves.  Parts  of  the  country  near 
large  cities  are  so  infested  with  these  thieves  that 
life  becomes  a  nightmare  and  a  night  watch  for 
most  farmers.  The  poultrymen  took  the  initiative 
and  the  police  are  backing  them  up.  At  Worcester, 
Mass. : 
"The  patrolmen  are  ordered  to  stop  all  cars  carrying 
chickens,  fruits  or  vegetables  after  dark,  learn  the 
identity  of  the  operator,  and  find  out  where  he  got  his 
vegetables,  fruit  or  chickens.  If  the  operator  is  unable 
to  give  a  satisfactory  answer,  the  patrolmen  are  or¬ 
dered  to  hold  him  until  it  can  be  learned  where  the 
produce  was  obtained.  In  case  it  is  found  the  produce 
has  been  stolen,  the  operator  will  be  summoned  to  ap¬ 
pear  in  court. 
That  will  he  hard  on  many  innocent  travelers,  but 
what  else  can  be  done  when  the  hen  and  fruit 
thieves  are  so  bold?  The  swift  modern  truck  has 
made  it  possible  for  the  thief  to  make  a  quick  get¬ 
away  and  the  goods  are  often  eaten  before  the 
owner  knows  where  to  search  for  them.  We  must 
do  it  ourselves,  and  do  it  with  a  trump. 
Brevities 
It  seems  that  the  largest  privately-owned  orchard 
in  this  country,  if  not  in  the  world,  is  in  Vermont. 
A  new  broom  sweeps  cleaner  by  having  it  soaked  in 
hot  wrnter.  Something  like  a  man. 
Better  fumigate  the  vegetable  pits  or  cellars  before 
using  them  for  Winter. 
The  new  name  for  beans  is  “pork's  well-known  com¬ 
panion.” 
In  answer  to  the  question  :  “What’s  the  matter  wirh 
Germany?”  we  are  told  among  othings :  “The  trouble 
with  Germany  is.  that  it  is  entirely  populated  by  Ger¬ 
mans.” 
