1426 
Tht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
November  17,  1023 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  DU  SIX  ESS  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  lor  Country  and  Suburban  Homes 
Established  fszo 
I'uMiihed  weekly  by  the  Rural  rublifthing  Company.  333  Went  30th  Street,  New  York 
Hkrbkrt  W.  Colling  wood,  President  and  Editor. 
John  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Manager. 
Wu.  E  Dillon,  Secretary.  Mbs.  e.  T.  Ro yle,  Associate  Editor. 
L.  H.  Murphy,  Circulation  Manager. 
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“A  SQUARE  DEAL” 
We  believe  that  every  advertisement  in  this  paper  is  hacked  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 
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sible  advertisers  or  misleading  advertisements  in  our  columns,  and  any 
such  swindler  will  be  publicly  exposed.  We  are  also  often  called  upon 
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responsible  houses,  whether  advertisers  or  not.  We  willingly  use  our  good 
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the  transaction,  and  to  identify  it,  you  should  mention  Thk  Rural  New- 
Yokkkr  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
OUR  late  apples  were  sold  this  Fall  to  better  ad¬ 
vantage  than  ever  before — most  of  them  right 
iit  the  door.  We  do  not  conduct  a  roadside  market, 
yet  all  through  our  country  these  markets  have  had 
great  influence  upon  farm  trade.  They  have  educa¬ 
ted  town  people  in  the  habit  of  direct  buying.  For¬ 
merly  such  people  felt  in  duty  bound  to  patronize 
the  dealers  and  storekeepers  in  town.  Now  they  take 
their  ears  and  go  out  hunting  for  bargains.  They 
are  getting  to  be  good  buyers  and  they  know  what 
they  want.  They  are  coming  to  know  several  va¬ 
rieties  of  apples  by  the  appearance  and  color,  and 
they  also  know  much  about  other  produce.  Dealers 
in  town  report  that  their  trade  falls  off  consider¬ 
ably  during  Summer  and  Fall,  and  the  peddlers  also 
feel  the  effect.  At  tirst,  when  those  roadside  mar¬ 
kets  appeared,  it  was  thought  that  they  would  have 
only  a  local  or  individual  effect.  Now  we  find  the 
effect  widespread,  and  all  farmers  near  the  large 
towns  feel  it.  Some  of  those  who  are  too  far  back 
oi  a  side  road  to  make  a  stand  pay  can  unite  with 
some  one  on  a  State  road  and  thus  sell  to  better  ad¬ 
vantage  than  by  shipping  or  hauling  to  town.  We 
expect  some  developments  of  this  marketing  in  the 
next  year  or  two  that  will  help  us  more  than  ever. 
We  are  surely  getting  more  than  that  35-cent  dol¬ 
lar  this  year,  and  we  are  preventing  too  much  of  a 
glut  in  the  local  towns. 
* 
WHEN  word  came  that  Western  wheat  grow¬ 
ers  are  selling  their  grain  at  less  than  cost 
of  production  we  tried  to  organize  our  Eastern  poul- 
trymen  so  they  could  buy  more  wheat  and  help  care 
for  the  surplus.  On  the  theory  that  every  little 
helps,  poult rymen  were  willing  to  do  their  part, 
and  they  started  in  to  buy  wheat.  Then  they  found 
that  in  spite  of  the  reports  of  starvation  prices  for 
Western  growers,  the  Eastern  buyers  were  expected 
to  pay  more  than  ever  for  feeding  wheat.  That 
came  near  ending  the  performance,  for  no  one  can 
expect  our  poultrymen  to  substitute  wheat  for  other 
grains  unless  they  can  make  a  bargain  by  doing  so. 
* 
WE  are  now  having  the  usual  aftermath  of 
“misfit”  trees.  Here  is  oue  typical  case, 
Some  12  years  ago  an  elderly  man  planted  what 
were  said  to  be  25  Baldwin  apple  trees.  No  one 
knows  how  carefully  he  watched  and  tended  them 
year  after  year,  or  what  satisfaction  if  not  support 
they  would  give  him  at  fruitage.  This  season  five 
of  them  came  into  bearing.  They  produced  only  a 
poor  quality  of  Ben  Davis,  and  some  worse  than 
useless  seedlings.  There  is  not  a  Baldwin  among 
them.  Here  is  an  old  man — so  bitterly  disappointed 
that  he  cannot  he  expected  to  start  again.  The  best 
of  his  life  has  gone,  and  the  supremely  cruel  in¬ 
sult  comes  when  the  nurseryman  who  is  guilty  of 
this  misfitting  actually  tells  the  old  man  that  he 
Hill  replace  the  trees  with  pearling  Baldwins !  Can 
anyone  think  of  a  more  foolish  or  cold-blooded 
proposition  than  that — after  the  old  man  has  spent 
all  these  years  in  loving  care  based  on  faith  on  that 
nurseryman?  Here  is  a  case  where  the  nurseryman 
should  he  made  to  pay  full  damage  for  the  injury 
lie  has  done — yet  it  would  not  pay  to  sue  him  for 
the  small  amount  which  most  juries  would  give. 
A* *  any  rate  we  would  like  to  graft  into  him  the 
hitter  disappointment  which  this  old  man  feels — 
and  compel  him  to  feel  it  all  his  days. 
* 
OME  of  our  people  are  having  great  trouble  over 
water  rights  in  springs.  The  past  dry  season 
brought  most  of  these  troubles  to  a  head.  In  some 
cases  it  appears  that  old  deeds  and  conveyances 
have  contained  privileges  to  take  spring  water 
which  have  not  been  enforced  before.  In  other 
cases,  neighbors,  deprived  of  the  usual  supply  of 
water,  have  taken  the  law  in  their  own  hands  and 
tapped  these  springs  by  ditch  or  pipe.  This  was 
done  on  the  theory  that  spring  waters  are  free  to 
all.  and  not  governed  by  the  usual  land  laws.  There¬ 
fore  it  seems  right  to  give  a  brief  statement  of  the 
law  covering  such  waters:  As  a  general  proposi¬ 
tion  without  regard  to  grants  and  reservations  the 
law  in  reference  to  springs  is  as  follows:  Under- 
ving  waters  whose  source  are  not  well  defined  are 
deemed  percolating,  and  part  of  the  land  on  which 
they  are  found,  and  are  absolutely  property  of  the 
owner  of  the  land  where  lie  does  not  unreasonably 
injure  the  rights  of  others.  The  right  to  appro¬ 
priate  springs  and  subterranean  waters  is  an  in- 
<  ider.t  of  ownership  of  the  land,  hut  the  absolute 
right  of  appropriation  as  against  other  land-owners 
who  may  be  injured  thereby  exists  only  to  the  rea¬ 
sonable  use  of  the  water.  Ordinarily  percolating 
water  belongs  to  the  owner  of  the  land,  and  his  use 
thereof  to  the  detriment  of  his  neighbor  is  without 
remedy. 
* 
THE  South  Americans  have  a  saying,  “ Wealth 
folloics  Alfalfa!”  It  is  true,  for  where  there  is 
natural  Alfalfa  soil  and  the  crop  is  grown  to  the 
limit,  prosperity  settles  down  in  both  town  and  city. 
Alfalfa  has  built  Buenos  Aires  from  a  small  trading 
town  to  the  second  largest  city  on  the  American  con¬ 
tinent.  In  New  York  State  the  most  prosperous 
fanners  and  the  most  rapidly  growing  cities  are 
found  on  the  limestone  stretches  where  Alfalfa 
grows  to  perfection.  All  this  is  true,  but  there  is 
another  story  to  be  told.  Alfalfa  must  have  certain 
conditions  of  soil,  including  an  abundance  of  lime 
and  an  open  subsoil  in  order  to  succeed.  On  sour, 
damp  or  heavy  land  it  is  inferior  to  Alsike  clover, 
unless  a  small  fortune  is  spent  in  fitting  the  soil 
through  drainage  or  buying  lime.  Prosperity  will 
not  follow  Alfalfa  on  such  soils,  and  we  think  it 
wiser  to  leave  the  crop  to  the  natural  limestone  soils 
anl  substitute  Soy  beans  on  the  more  acid  soils. 
That  is  another  crop  that  has  brought  prosperity  to 
many  farms  and  sections.  In  parts  of  the  Middle 
West  it  is  substituting  for  oats  with  great  success. 
We  have  been  taught  in  the  East  that  about  the  only 
way  to  maintain  our  soils  is  to  use  great  quantities 
of  lime  with  clover  or  Alfalfa.  Tt  is  evident  that  on 
some  soils  this  is  too  expensive  for  the  average 
farmer.  On  our  acid  soils  the  use  of  Soy  beans  and 
phosphorus  in  some  form  is  a  more  practical  plan. 
We  want  to  see  a  great  trial  of  Soy  beans  this  com¬ 
ing  year. 
* 
NEARLY  140  years  ago  a  woman  of  middle  age 
sat  by  an  open  fireplace  in  a  rude  house  in  a 
valley  in  Tennessee  listening  to  a  stranger  who  had 
just  made  his  way  over  the  mountains  with  great 
news.  Something  like  four  months  before  the  great 
Lafayette  had  come  from  France  to  visit  the  country 
which  he  had  helped  set  free.  The  comrade  and 
friend  of  Washington,  he  had  come  with  a  great  mes¬ 
sage  from  Europe,  where  a  few  feeble  kings  and  a 
debauched  aristocracy  were  trying  to  hold  the  lid 
down  on  revolution.  The  message  was  at  least  100 
days  old.  and  there  was  no  way  of  spreading  it 
abroad  except  by  messengers  who  carried  it  through 
the  country  with  such  changes  and  mistakes  as 
always  follow  oral  communications.  And  so  this 
woman  in  her  mountain  wilderness  home  listened  to 
the  message  which  meant  so  much  to  the  world.  A 
few  nights  ago  another  farm  woman,  a  direct  de¬ 
scendant  of  that  old-time  cabin  dweller,  sat  in  an¬ 
other  lonely  farmhouse  at  a  radiophone  listening  to 
another  great  message  to  the  American  people. 
Lloyd  George  was  speaking  in  New  York,  and  far 
over  the  eastern  part  of  this  country  millions  of 
people  were  listening  to  him  as  the  words  came  out 
of  the  crisp  Autumn  air,  caught  by  the  metal  fingers 
reaching  above  countless  homes  and  brought  dewn 
through  delicate  instruments  to  listening  ears.  This 
woman  heard  what  she  called  “a  very  English  voice” 
filled  with  fire  and  deep  earnestness,  shouting  a 
message  to  America.  She  nodded  her  head  in  ap¬ 
proval.  and  involuntarily  clapped  her  hands  as  the 
roar  of  the  great  audience  reached  her.  There  is 
nothing  which  can  more  completely  illustrate  the 
mighty  material  changes  which  have  swept  over  this 
country,  and  also  the  fixed,  immovable  spiritual  duty 
which  confronts  America.  There  is  a  wide  stretch 
of  the  imagination  between  the  messenger  working 
his  perilous  way  out  beyond  the  edge  of  civilization 
with  Lafayette’s  message  and  Lloyd  George  sending 
his  words  through  thousands  of  miles  of  space  in¬ 
stantly  and  without  great  effort.  These  material 
things  have  come  to  America.  They  must  he  used 
for  something  beside  amusement  or  mere  entertain¬ 
ment.  And  ever  since  Columbus  first  sighted  those 
few  islands  of  the  West  Indies  the  people  of  the  old 
world  have  looked  to  America  for  material  help 
and  spiritual  guidance.  Now,  even  as  in  Lafayette’s 
tune.  Europe  is  at  the  edge  of  hideous  revolution, 
and  America  is  the  only  nation  that  can  prevent  it. 
if  such  prevention  is  possible!  The  majority  of  the 
American  people  feel  that  they  would  like  to  help 
Europe,  but  they  want  to  do  it  right.  They  will  not 
stand  for  any  visionary  experiment,  and  they  will 
not  mix  up  directly  in  any  political  quarrels,  but 
they  do  know  that  as  a  part  of  her  great  legacy  of 
independence  America  must  in  some  way  help  settle 
the  great  European  problem. 
* 
May  a  tenant  take  his  strawberry  plants  with  him 
if  he  moves  to  another  farm?  h.  m. 
nT'HE  general  answer  is  yes.  The  strawberry 
A  plants  are  usually  considered  emblements — that 
is  not  permanently  attached  to  the  ground.  In  that 
respect  they  rank  with  wheat,  oats,  corn  or  any  one 
season  crop.  On  the  other  hand  trees,  bush  fruits 
and  shrubs  are  held  to  be  part  of  the  real  estate  and 
may  not  legally  be  removed.  That  was  the  ruling 
in  the  only  Case  we  know  of  where  this  question 
arose.  In  that  ease  the  trial  judge  held  that  a  ten¬ 
ant  who  planted  strawberries  in  the  Spring  and 
was  obliged  to  leave  the  farm  in  the  Fall  was  justi¬ 
fied  in  coming  back  to  pick  the  crop — or  lie  could 
have  taken  the  plants  with  him.  This  ruling  seems 
to  be  based  on  the  claim  that  strawberry  plants  are 
fruited  only  one  year  and  then  plowed  under.  That 
i-  not  true  in  the  majority  of  cases.  We  have  fruited 
strawberries  three  and  four  years  in  succession. 
* 
1  have  read  with  interest  your  editorial  and  Mr. 
Devendorf  s  article,  page  1373,  but  I  fail  to  see  what 
good^  can  come  from  the  meetings  proposed,  when  the 
A.  F.  B.  F.  tells  us  in  a  supplement  to  this  month’s 
harm  Bureau  News  that  they  are  committed  to  the  bill 
and  though  they  failed  to  pass  the  bill  last  vear,  they 
expect  to  fight  the  thing  through.  t  j  kfrr 
Erie  Co.,  N.  Y. 
r  |  '•HE  answer  to  Mr.  Kerr  seems  easy.  The  pro- 
i-  posed  school  meetings  will  decide  promptly 
whether  the  Farm  Bureau  represents  the  plain 
farmers  in  this  matter.  They  would  not  be  con¬ 
trolled  by  any  farm  organization  or  group  of  lead¬ 
ers.  It  would  be  the  most  open  and  free  expres¬ 
sion  of  farm  sentiment  ever  given  in  New  York 
State.  Personally  we  do  not  believe  that  the  of¬ 
ficers  of  the  various  farm  organizations  represent 
what  we  may  call  farm  sentiment  on  this  school 
question.  We  may  be  wrong  in  this,  but  we  have 
here  reports  of  the  canvass  made  in  hundreds  of 
school  districts,  and  they  are  all  one  way — against 
the  bill.  We  do  not  feel  disposed  to  let  the  leaders 
of  farm  organizations  "get  away”  with  the  claim 
that  they  represent  farm  sentiment  until  their 
claim  is  demonstrated.  The  only  way  we  know  of 
to  settle  it  is  to  call  meetings  in  every  school  dis¬ 
trict  in  the  State  and  have  the  voters  free  to  ex¬ 
press  their  wishes  in  their  own  way! 
Brevities 
Will  lights  in  the  henhouse  pay  for  fattening  stock 
as  well  as  for  layers? 
Tite  display  of  McIntosh  apples  at  the  big  fruit  show 
was  the  most  colorful  and  fragrant  exhibit  we  ever  saw. 
AVintering  an  old  hen  for  the  eggs  she  will  lay  next 
Spring  is  about  the  limit  of  folly,  unless  she  is  known 
to  be  the  mother  of  superior  pullets. 
The  neighbors  are  still  seeding  rye  as  a  cover  crop  in 
New  Jersey.  It  will  not  make  much  growth  this  Win 
ter,  but  most  of  it  will  come  up  next  Spring. 
The  best  substitute  for  a  turkey?  Our  choice  is 
about  even  between  the  Toulouse  goose  and  the  Jersey 
Black  Giant.  A  capon  of  the  latter  breed  is  superior. 
Peat  for  fuel !  Over  in  Massachusetts  we  saw  where 
peat  beds  had  slowly  burned  all  Summer,  until  the  Fall 
rains  put  the  fire  out.  Now  if  all  that  heat  could  have 
been  produced  under  factory  boilers ! 
One  of  the  great  American  insurance  companies  has 
recognized  the  value  of  a  clog  in  a  practical  manner.  It 
makes  a  reduction  of  from  5  to  10  per  cent  on  burglar 
insurance  where  a  good  watch  dog  is  kept. 
One  of  our  farm  women,  writing  of  Winter  and  the 
care  of  colds,  speaks  of  the  way  diseases  are  passed 
on  in  schools,  and  says:  "It  is  my  opinion  that  this 
is  a  strong  point  against  consolidation  of  schools  for 
young  children — it  increases  the  chances  of  their  get¬ 
ting  colds,  grippe  and  children’s  diseases.” 
This  is  the  season  for  “sweating”  and  leaking  stove 
pipes  and  chimneys.  A  black,  tar-like  stuff  leaks  out. 
This  is  due  either  to  damp  wood  or  some  defect  in  pipe 
or  chimney  which  permits  the  smoke  to  cool  and  con¬ 
dense  before  it  passes  away.  If  the  draft  can  be  made 
clear  and  quick  this  stuff  cannot  form.  Sometimes  a 
loose  brick  in  the  chimney  or  a  hole  in  the  pipe  will 
cause  the  trouble.  It  is  seldom  found  with  dry  wood. 
