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The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
November  10,  1923 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSINESS  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  and  Suburban  Homes 
Established  1850 
1‘ubllihed  nrrkly  by  the  Rural  PubliihitiK  Company,  333  Wet t  80tb  Street,  New  York 
H  HUBERT  W.  COIXINOWOOD,  President  and  Editor, 
John  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Manager. 
Wm.  r.  Dillon,  Secretary.  Mits.  E.  T.  Royi.k,  Associate  Editor. 
I,.  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 
j-eliable  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. 
I  want  Tiie  Rural  New-Yorker  on  my  reading  table 
again,  and  the  first  thing  I  did  after  paying  for  my  farm 
\<ms  to  renew  my  subscription.  H.  w.  \v. 
HIS  man  goes  back  to  the  farm  for  the  second 
time,  and,  as  we  see,  his  first  investment  was  in 
The  R.  N.-Y.  That  is  what  you  may  call  next  to  the 
land. 
* 
Persons  who  want  to  work  well  are  advised  by  a 
physician  to  eat  apples.  It  was  through  eating  an  apple 
that  our  first  parent  (on  the  maternal  side)  started 
manual  labor. 
HIS  item  from  a  city  paper  starts  a  new  line  of 
endeavor.  We  thought  we  kn?w  all  about 
apple  eating,  but  as  a  cure  for  laziness  the  fruit 
starts  on  a  new  career.  And  yet,  why  not?  What 
could  be  a  greater  social  blessing  than  some  “new 
discovery”  that  will  make  lazy  people  jump  for  joy 
at  the  thought  of  labor?  When  husband  goes  to 
sleep  in  his  chair  instead  of  filling  the  woodbox,  all 
you  have  to  do  is  to  give  him  an  apple.  When  wife 
refuses  to  cook  a  good  dinner  because  it  is  too  much 
work,  we  may  be  saved  from  a  meal  composed  mostly 
of  thought  by  inducing  the  lady  to  eat  a  good  Bald¬ 
win  or  Greening !  We  read  some  time  ago  that  lazi¬ 
ness  is  caused  by  a  germ.  Very  likely — and  if 
apples  will  destroy  the  germ  let  us  vaccinate  every 
lazy  person  with  apples  until  laziness  becomes  as 
rare  as  smallpox.  And  one  more  point  of  interest 
to  fruit  growers.  It  has  been  estimated  that  there 
are  90,000,000  more  or  less  lazy  people  in  this  coun¬ 
try.  The  full  treatment  will  require  two  apples  a 
day  for  each  one.  Now  let  someone  good  at  mathe¬ 
matics  figure  the  “boom”  that  will  come  to  fruit 
growing  with  this  treatment  in  full  swing. 
* 
EYERAL  of  our  Presidents  were  born  on  a  farm, 
and  as  boys  were  well  acquainted  with  farm  life. 
Washington  was  an  aristocrat,  one  of  the  largest 
landiowners  of  his  time.  It  could  not  be  said  that  he 
represented  the  typical  farm  life  of  his  age.  Lincoln 
was  a  farm  boy — the  exact  opposite  of  Washington 
in  social  standing.  It  cannot  be  said  that  his  log 
cabin  and  rough  boyhood  surroundings  represented 
the  ideal  country  home.  The  fair  type  of  what  we 
consider  the  true  rural  American  home  lies  between 
the  lordly  estate  and  the  rough  cabin,  and  we  think 
the  boyhood  home  and  the  early  life  of  President 
Calvin  Coolidge  come  close  to  the  ideal  of  what  we 
shoufld  consider  typical  farm  surroundings.  It 
means  something  to  maintain  a  New  England  farm 
through  four  generations  from  the  original  pioneer, 
keep  the  land  clean  and  in  good  tilth,  hold  the  thrift 
which  follows  wise  economy,  and  preserve  the  solid 
independence  which  gave  such  character  and  power 
to  the  old-fashioned  farmer.  This  seems  to  be  what 
has  been  worked  out  on  the  Coolidge  farm  in  Ver¬ 
mont,  and  the  more  we  hear  of  the  President’s  farm 
life  and  the  character  of  his  parents  the  clearer  it 
seems  that  he  has  come  from  about  the  finest  start¬ 
ing  point  a  man  can  have;  that  is,  a  practical  farm, 
where  hard  labor  and  clean  living  are  essential  to  a 
livelihood. 
* 
HAT  is  a  thoughtful  article  on  page  1391  by  a 
school  trustee.  We  know  this  school  official. 
The  statements  made  carry  authority.  They  come 
from  an  old  teacher,  a  parent  with  children  in  school, 
and  a  school  officer  who  really  wants  a  good  school. 
One  great  thing  about  this  discussion  is  the  fact  that 
it  is  making  people  think  about  school  matters  as 
never  before.  If  the  Committee  of  Twenty-one  had 
succeeded  in  jamming  through  its  bill  last  Winter 
we  should  now  find  our  rural  people  in  open  rebel¬ 
lion  against  what  they  considered  an  invasion  of 
their  rights.  As  it  is,  there  is  now  more  real 
thought  and  argument  over  the  rural  school  than 
we  have  ever  known  before.  Out  of  this  will  come 
a  fair  and  reasonable  plan  for  school  improvement 
within  the  means  and  comprehension  of  country  peo¬ 
ple.  Such  an  outcome  means  evolution,  while  the 
proposed  new  school  bill  spells  revolution.  Another 
thing  will  come  as  a  result  of  all  this  discussion ; 
we  shall  have  better  school  officers.  People  in  town 
and  city  are  beginning  to  understand  that  the  great 
trouble  with  our  courts  is  that  men  of  character  and 
reputation  have  been  shirking  jury  duty.  That  has 
resulted  in  a  lower  type  of  juryman  and  a  weakening 
of  justice.  The  remedy  does  not  lie  in  new  laws, 
but  in  individual  exertion  and  willingness  to  serve. 
The  same  will  work  out  with  our  rural  schools.  Men 
and  women  of  strength  and  character  will  be  willing 
to  serve  as  trustees,  and  they  will  change  that  office 
from  a  joke  to  a  serious  business. 
* 
I  wish  you  would  tell  me  what  I  can  do  about  the 
hunters.  They  come  by  carloads  every  Sunday.  As  I 
have  my  land  posted,  they  stand  on  the  line  and  run 
their  dogs  on  my  land,  and  when  I  tell  them  to  keep  off 
or  I  will  kill  their  dogs,  they  laugh  at  me,  and  tell  me 
I  dare  not  kill  the  dogs.  What  can  I  do  about  it? 
Chenango  Co.,  N.  Y.  R.  J. 
HIS  seems  to  be  a  favorite  trick  of  these  “hunt¬ 
ers.”  They  reason  that  if  they  do  not  go  on  the 
farm  they  can  safely  send  their  dogs  to  drive  the 
game  out.  We  would  not  shoot  the  dogs — the  real 
brutes  walk  on  two  legs.  Section  335  of  the  conser¬ 
vation  law  provides  that  no  person  shall  take  or 
disturb  fish,  birds  or  quadrupeds  on  any  private 
land  which  has  been  posted  in  accordance  with  the 
statute.  Therefore  anyone  standing  outside  of  the 
boundaries  of  posted  lands  and  sending  his  dogs  upon 
posted  lands  and  disturbing  or  driving  out  birds 
which  are  shot  outside  of  the  boundary,  does  so  in 
violation  of  the  statute  and  may  be  prosecuted  and 
convicted,  although  he  does  not  personally  invade 
the  posted  property,  and  the  word  “disturb”  was 
placed  deliberately  in  the  statute  to  cover  just  such 
a  case.  The  proper  course  is  to  notify  the  State 
police  and  have  them  make  the  arrest  and  prosecute 
the  offenders.  Of  course,  if  the  owner  so  wishes  he 
has  the  right  personally  to  make  the  arrest  and 
deliver  the  persons  arrested  without  delay  to  the 
nearest  constable  or  police  officer. 
* 
The  little  stories  of  back-to-the-landers’  mistakes  re¬ 
mind  me  of  another,  told  me  when  I  was  in  the  chick 
hatching  business.  A  glass  worker  became  infected 
with  the  “chicken  fever”  and  bought  an  old  hen  and 
chickens.  He  shut  them  all  up  in  a  box  and  fed  the 
old  hen  whole  corn.  In  a  few  days  his  chicks  all  began 
to  die.  lie  asked  my  friend  to  come  and  see  what  was 
wrong. 
“What  have  you  fed  them?”  said  my  friend. 
“Fed  them?  Why,  I  supposed  the  hen  gave  milk 
enough  for  them.”  mrs.  r.  m.  c. 
II,  they  are  not  all  as  bad  as  that,  and  many  of 
them  will  learn  and  make  good.  But  we  liafe 
known  such  people  to  go  “back  to  the  land”  saying: 
“You  wait  till  you  see  me  show  these  old-timers  how 
to  do  it.  I’ve  read  bulletins  and  farm  papers,  and 
I’ll  show  ’em  how!”  They  do  “show  ’em  how,”  but 
the  knowledge  comes  by  the  negative  route. 
* 
BOPLE  still  come  to  ask  about  “Turkhens,”  the 
bare-necked  fowls  which  are  said  to  represent 
a  cross  between  a  turkey  and  a  hen.  People  who 
would  rank  high  in  common  intelligence  actually  be¬ 
lieve  this  yarn,  and  they  descend  to  the  credulous 
faith  of  little  children  at  the  glowing  stories  told  by 
some  “tu rk lien”  breedei* *.  The  fact  is  that  this  fowl 
has  no  blood  of  the  turkey.  The  bare  or  naked  neck 
comes  from  a  bi'eed  of  poultry  long  known  in  South¬ 
ern  Europe.  It  was  carried  to  most  of  the  West 
India  islands,  wliei*e  a  large  share  of  the  poxxltry 
show  this  bare  neck.  The  birds  are  hideous  crea¬ 
tures  and  have  no  points  of  supeifiority  that  we  can 
see  over  our  standard  American  breeds.  We  import¬ 
ed  some  of  the  best  specimens  to  be  found  in  the 
island  of  Jamaica  and  gave  them  every  chance  to 
make  good.  We  have  just  one  left,  and  he  goes 
into  a  chicken  pie  next  week.  That’s  the  only  place 
where  the  Turkhens  shine  for  us,  and  other  breeds 
will  make  a  better  pie,  at  that. 
* 
RTIFICIAL  light  for  greenhouse  plants!  That 
is  the  latest  development,  and  there  seems  to  be 
some  promise  in- the  idea.  It  is  now  admitted  that 
using  lights  in  the  henhouse  stimulates  the  hens  to 
increased  egg  production.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
of  it,  in  view  of  the  facts  which  pi-actic-al  men  have 
worked  out.  The  report  on  page  1391  shows  that 
when  strong  lights  were  kept  burnixig  in  the  green¬ 
house  for  several  hours  during  the  night,  certain 
plants  wei’e  stimulated  into  more  active  growth.  It 
does  not  seem  to  affect  all  plants  alike,  but  it  does 
apparently  drive  such  plants  as  lettuce  into  action. 
Just  how  far  this  will  go  in  practical  gi'eenhouse 
work  remains  to  be  demonstrated,  but  there  seems 
no  question  about  the  possibilities  of  this  plan  of 
keeping  plants  awake  and  up  on  their  toes.  So 
many  strange  things  are  happening  now  that  we  are 
not  surprised  at  any  report.  We  will  not  accept 
them  without  sti-ong  backing,  but  it  seems  as  if  all 
things  are  possible. 
* 
HERE  are  some  cases  where,  years  ago,  a  high¬ 
way  was  laid  out  by  the  township.  It  was 
never  improved  or  used  as  a  highway.  Readers  ask 
how  many  years  must  elapse  before  such  land  ceases 
to  be  a  road.  Does  it  revert  to  the  landowners,  or 
does  the  town  still  own  it?  We  have  had  sevei*al 
such  cases  referred  to  us.  The  town  will  be  held  to 
own  the  property  until  it  is  actually  abandoned  by 
some  legal,  recorded  proceeding.  It  cannot  revert 
to  the  owner  until  the  town  government  acts. 
* 
E  are  convinced  that  the  time  has  come  to 
make  a  strong  campaign  for  a  greater  acre¬ 
age  of  Soy  beans  on  the  North  Atlantic  slope.  Many 
of  our  farmers  do  not  x-ealize  how  these  beans  have 
worked  into  the  farming  system  of  the  Central  West. 
In  parts  of  Ohio  and  Michigan  Soy  bean  growing 
has  changed  the  character  of  farming.  This  bean 
will  do  well  on  soil  too  acid  to  produce  clover  or 
Alfalfa.  It  will  respond  to  lime,  but  will  make  a 
fair  growth  without  it,  and  on  many  of  our  New 
York  hill  farms  the  Soy  beans  will  give  twice  the 
yield  of  clover.  We  do  not  advise  mixing  the  Soy 
beans  with  corn  in  the  silo.  We  think  they  are  more 
pi-ofitable  when  grown  by  themselves,  cured  like  hay 
and  fed  as  a  dry  fox*age  with  corn  silage.  Handled 
in  that  way  they  will  surely  give  surpi-ising  results. 
We  advise  evei-y  farmer  to  experiment  with  them. 
The  desex-iption  and  picture  of  a  great  ex-op  of  Sudan 
grass  and  Soy  beans,  shown  on  the  fii-st  page  this 
week,  is  true  to  life.  Why  should  not  New  York 
fanners  work  for  some  of  these  results?  We  need  a 
full  campaign  for  Soy  beans. 
* 
The  wages  paid  on  the  road  construction  work  seem 
to  set  the  price  of  labor  here.  We  pay  $9  per  day  for 
man  and  team  for  filling  silo  and  $25  per  week  for  a 
teamster  who  boards  himself.  In  many  places  the  farm¬ 
ers  find  that  the  only  way  they  can  pay  their  taxes  is 
to  get  out  and  work  on  the  road,  and  it  seems  that 
many  of  them  are  planning  to  borrow  money  from  the 
Federal  Farm  Loan  Bank  up  to  the  limit,  and  then 
let  the  farm  go.  c.  G. 
Columbia  Co.,  N.  Y. 
E  have  other  reports  of  about  the  same  na- 
tux*e.  The  point  is  that  wages  for  labor  are 
determined  by  what  the  contractors  on  public  con¬ 
struction  will  pay.  In  their  stnxggle  to  obtain  help 
they  bid  high,  and  make  it  impossible  for  farmers 
to  compete  with  them.  In  the  nish  for  money  among 
working  people  hired  help  will  naturally  follow  the 
highest  bid  for  labor.  Thus  we  see  how  the  great 
rush  for  public  construction  is  killing  the  business 
of  general  farming.  It  doubles  taxation  and  cuts 
the  fa  i‘m  labor  supply  in  two. 
Brevities 
No  use  trying  to  fumigate  unless  you  make  the  room 
or  package  airtight. 
We  would  not  use  forest  leaves  for  mulching  straw¬ 
berries,  even  if  we  could  afford  to  gather  them.  They 
mat  down  too  close  and  smother  the  plants. 
When  you  find  a  better  “cereal”  than  boiled  wheat 
cooked  until  it  is  soft,  let  us  know  what  it  is.  Far 
better  eat  more  of  this  and  less  of  white  bread. 
Where  for  some  reason  taxes  on  property  are  omitted 
one  year,  the  assessors  have  authority,  under  the  tax 
law,  to  enter  such  property  and  collect  back  taxes. 
This  country  has  renewed  its  money  order  business 
with  Germany.  We  should  not  like  the  job  of  figuring 
the  values  of  American  dollars  worked  out  into  German 
marks. 
The  mildest  and  sweetest  love  poem  and  the  most 
vindictive  hatred  may  both  be  expressed  by  the  same 
fountain  pen.  It  is  not  the  hand  but  the  mind  which 
directs  the  fountain. 
We  have  a  letter  from  a  farmer  who  says  he  is  only 
88  years  old,  just  out  of  the  hospital,  where  he  lost  most 
of  his  foot,  yet  he  “laughs  heartily”  at  somethin^  he 
recently  read  in  The  R.  'N.-Y.  There  is  what  we  call  a 
cheerful  soul. 
A  few  weeks  ago  we  printed  a  note  about  Scotch 
heather  growing  in  New  England.  A  number  of  readers 
want  to  know  where  it  can  be  obtained.  One  woman 
writes :  “My  husband  passed  away  seven  years  ago 
He  was  Scotch,  and  what  a  little  of  the  heather  would 
be  to  me  you  cannot  know.”  But  we  do  fully  under¬ 
stand. 
The  daily  papers  are  reporting  a  remarkable  matri¬ 
monial  puzzle,  said  to  have  been  worked  out  in  Ger¬ 
many.  “The  puzzle  started  two  years  ago  when  a  68- 
year-old  widower  wooed  and  married  the  village  belle,  a 
maid  of  22,  who  thus  became  the  stepmother  of  her  hus¬ 
band’s  40-year-old  son.  Emboldened  by  his  father’s  ex¬ 
ample,  the  son  married  the  mother  of  his  stepmother  by 
which  his  own  father  became  his  son-in-law.  Then  ’the 
22-year-old  wife  presented  her  husband  with  a  daughter 
and  the  elder  bride  did  the  same  thing,  and  so  the  first 
bahy’s  grandmother  is  also  her  ,sister*in«law,” 
