1476 
The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSINESS  FARMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  tor  Country  and  Suburban  Homes 
Established  IS50 
Publbhed  otrlly  by  the  Rural  Publluhlnf  Company,  333  West  30lh  Street,  New  Tork 
Herbert  W.  Colling  wood,  President  and  Editor. 
John  J.  Dillon,  Treasurer  and  General  Manager. 
W».  F.  Dillon,  Secretary.  Mrs.  E.  T.  Hoyle,  Associate  Editor. 
L.  H.  Morphy,  Circulation  Manager. 
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“A  SQUARE  DEAL” 
We  believe  that  every  advertisement  in  this  paper  is  backed  by  a  respon- 
fible  person.  We  use  every  possible  precaution  and  admit  the  advertising  of 
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to  paid  subscribers  sustained  by  trusting  any  deliberate  swindler,  irrespon¬ 
sible  advertisers  or  misleading  advertisements  in  our  columns,  and  any 
sucli  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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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. 
All  our  family  from  the  oldest  to  the  youngest  (43 
years  to  5* *4  years),  including  nine  of  us,  enjoy  read¬ 
ing  your  paper.  After  reserving  any  important  item 
or  items,  the  papers  are  sent  to  Switzerland  to  friends, 
where  they  eagerly  await  their  arrival.  It  is  needless 
to  say  we  find  lots  of  helpful  information  and  en¬ 
couragement.  MRS.  FRANK  D.  MARGOT. 
Long  Island,  N.  Y. 
T  seems  evident  that  quite  a  number  of  our  read¬ 
ers  are  doing  much  the  same  thing.  They  read 
the  paper  and  then  send  it  to  friends  in  other  coun¬ 
tries.  And  it  does  not  go  like  a  squeezed  lemon, 
either.  We  often  receive  letters  from  Europe,  Asia 
and  Africa,  asking  questions  about  matters  which 
have  appeared  in  The  R.  N.-Y.  Now  we  know  how 
these  questions  start. 
•  * 
THE  R.  N.-Y.  will  support  any  rural  school  bill 
which  commands  the  sympathy  of  a  majority  of 
the  people  who  live  in  rural  districts.  We  hold  that 
it  is  a  fundamental  proposition  that  no  school  bill  shall 
be  forced  upon  an  unwilling  people.  The  school  meet¬ 
ings  called  for  December  4  will  show  the  feeling  of  the 
people  better  than  anything  else  ever  can.  The  pro¬ 
ponents  of  the  bill  may  well  join  in  promoting  these 
public  meetings  everywhere  so  as  to  settle  the  ques¬ 
tion  definitely.  They  have  everything  in  their  favor — 
the  vast  powTer  of  Cornell  University,  the  State  De¬ 
partment  of  Education,  every  farm  paper  in  the  ter¬ 
ritory  except  The  R.  N.-Y.  and  the  official  machinery 
of  every  farm  organization.  With  all  these  advantages 
the  people  who  are  pushing  the  new  school  bill  ought 
to  be  eager  to  show  their  strength  at  public  school 
meetings. 
* 
SECRETARY  MELLON  estimates  that  the  an¬ 
nual  income  of  the  Federal  government  will  ex¬ 
ceed  the  normal  demands  by  $300,000,000  for  the 
next  four  or  live  years.  He  sensibly  recommends  a 
reduction  of  the  national  income  tax.  He  would 
distinguish  between  earned  income  of  wages,  salary 
and  professional  service,  from  income  from  business 
and  investment,  reducing  the  tax  on  the  former 
more  than  on  the  latter.  lie  would  begin  the  sur¬ 
tax  at  $10,000  incomes,  and  increase  it  progressively 
to  25  per  cent  on  $100,000  or  more.  He  would 
abolish  the  telegram  and  telephone  tax,  the  admis¬ 
sion  tax  to  places  of  amusement,  and  a  part  of  the 
so-called  nuisance  tax.  He  suggests  changes  to  in¬ 
crease  the  revenue  in  some  instances,  but  seems  well 
to  keep  in  harmony  with  public  approval  in  all  ex¬ 
cept  in  the  extra  burden  on  husbands  and  wives  in 
personal  incomes. 
The  suggestion  has  raised  the  dominant  issue  be¬ 
fore  Congress.  The  common  sense  of  reducing  war 
taxes  when  the  government  does  not  need  it  has 
appealed  to  the  whole  country,  and  the  force  of  it 
is  sweeping  partisan  politics  before  it.  Politics,  how¬ 
ever,  will  make  its  struggle.  The  more  taxes  are 
collected,  the  more  money  will  be  available  for 
politicians  to  spend.  Members  of  Congress  who 
want  public  money  for  personal  political  fencing 
will  oppose  the  tax  reduction.  Advocates  of  the 
bonus  law  come  largely  under  this  head.  Partisans 
will  jockey  for  party  credit  and  sacrifice  principle 
for  party  expediency.  Farmers  will  be  urged  to  op¬ 
pose  the  tax  reduction  on  the  ground  that  it  re¬ 
duces  rich  men's  taxes;  these  dispersers  of  public 
moneys  will  never  remind  the  farmer  and  wage 
worker  that  the  principal  burden  of  taxation  is  al¬ 
ways  shifted  to  them,  and  that  ultimately  they  pay 
the  large  part  of  all  taxes.  Farmers  will  approve 
a  tax  to  pay  the  economic  expense  of  government, 
and  to  care  liberally  for  injured  soldiers,  but  they 
are  not  willing  to  encourage  idlers  with  public 
money.  Farmers  know  that  they  have  not  escaped 
the  burdens  of  high  taxes  of  recent  years;  and  they 
7ht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
are  economists  enough  to  know  that  they  share  the 
benefits  resulting  from  an  increased  use  of  capital 
and  an  increased  production  of  the  things  they  buy. 
There  will  be  selfish  opposition,  but  there  is  likely  to 
be  a  reduction  of  taxes  because  the  hard  sense  of 
the  people  demands  it. 
* 
THE  daily  papers  are  now  pointing  to  North 
Dakota  as  a  prosperous  State.  A  few  years 
ago  they  were  ridiculing  and  denouncing  the  State 
because  the  North  Dakota  farmers  rose  up  in  polit¬ 
ical  revolution  and  forced  a  change  in  government. 
North  Dakota  is  indeed  far  more  prosperous  and 
hopeful  than  she  was  10  years  ago,  and  the  truth  is 
that  she  is  in  better  condition  because  these  farmers 
did  make  their  fight  against  abuses  of  government. 
They  went  about  their  work  roughshod  and  did  not 
play  the  political  game  according  to  the  rules  laid 
down  by  party  managers.  They  fought  for  things 
that  were  called  visionary  and  unpractical,  and  prob¬ 
ably  in  some  respects  they  went  too  far,  but  the 
truth  is  that  they  saved  North  Dakota  for  the  plain 
people,  wiped  out  many  abuses  and  laid  the  founda¬ 
tion  for  the  present  improved  conditions.  Even  the 
most  immovable  of  the  “stand  pats”  never  would  go 
back  to  conditions  as  they  were  before  the  Non¬ 
partisan  League  started  its  work.  Ten  years  ago  we 
stated  that  this  League  would  not  endure  as  a  po¬ 
litical  group,  but  that  it  would  change  the  history 
of  the  State  for  the  better.  The  same  was  true  of 
the  Populists  and  the  Farmers’  Alliance  and  other 
similar  agrarian  movements.  They  expected  to 
sweep  into  political  power,  but  it  is  not  yet  in  the 
nature  of  most  Americans  to  break  away  from  the 
two  old  parties.  But  while  failing  as  political  move¬ 
ments,  these  various  farm  organizations  have  all 
won  economic  victories  by  forcing  the  old  parties  to 
accept  some  of  their  principles.  We  believe  more 
and  more  that  this  is  the  true  mission  of  agricultural 
organization. 
* 
WE  think  this  question  of  fuel  peat  deserves 
the  best  attention  that  scientific  minds  can 
give  it.  It  is  of  far  greater  importance  to  New 
England  than  many  of  the  questions  which  the  ex¬ 
periment  stations  are  now  puzzling  over.  Fuel  and 
food  are  the  two  great  necessities  of  New  England. 
The  local  food  supply  will  be  increased  just  as  soon 
as  the  New  England  people  realize  that  they  can 
produce  more  if  they  care  to  do  so.  As  for  fuel,  the 
great  peat  bogs  through  that  section  will  slowly  turn 
into  coal  if  we  are  willing  to  wait  thousands  of 
years  for  it;  but  who  now  on  earth  cares  to  wait? 
Necessity  now  raps  at  the  door,  and  man  must  learn 
to  do  in  a  few  hours  or  days  what  Nature,  unas¬ 
sisted,  does  in  ages.  We  are  now  trying  a  fuel  peat 
which  burns  readily  and  gives  off  good  heat.  It  is 
easy  to  handle  and  can  be  made  far  cheaper  than 
coal  can  be  mined  and  delivered.  It  is  taken  right 
out  of  a  peat  swamp,  ground,  dried  and  pressed  into 
briquettes  ready  for  use.  We  think  the  scientific 
men  of  New  England  should  concentrate  their  work 
upon  this  fuel  peat.  They  may  incur  the  bitter  hos¬ 
tility  of  all  who  are  interested  in  selling  and  hand¬ 
ling  our  present  expensive  fuel  supplies,  but  it  may 
well  be  asked  whether  they  serve  the  public  or  the 
“interests.” 
51c 
THERE  is  soon  to  be  a  general  election  in  Great 
Britain.  In  this  country,  when  we  elect  a 
President,  a  Congressman  or  a  Senator,  they  hold 
office  for  a  definite,  specified  time.  The  Administra¬ 
tion,  thus  elected,  may  not  satisfy  the  majority  of 
the  people,  yet  there  is  no  regular,  legal  way  of  get¬ 
ting  rid  of  such  a  “government”  until  the  time  for 
which  they  were  elected  expires.  There  have  been  a 
number  of  cases  when  the  Administration,  for  the 
time  in  power,  failed  to  satisfy  a  majority  of  the 
people,  yet  they  waited,  with  more  or  less  patience, 
until  the  constitutional  limit  of  power  expired.  In 
England  the  real  governing  power  lies  in  Parlia¬ 
ment,  which  represents  much  the  same  as  our  Con¬ 
gress.  Members  are  not  elected  for  any  definite 
time.  In  case  the  party  in  power  meets  a  temporary 
defeat  in  Parliament,  or  in  case  their  policy  is  seri¬ 
ously  questioned  the  party  leaders  may  “appeal  to 
the  country.”  That  is,  they  order  a  new  election,  and 
the  people  of  England  approve  or  condemn  the  gov¬ 
ernment’s  policy  at  the  polls.  This  comes  close  to 
the  so-called  “referendum”  or  “recall”  for  which  the 
Western  people  have  long  contended.  Our  own  sys¬ 
tem  of  government  was  framed  originally  as  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  checks,  the  President,  Supreme  Court,  Sen¬ 
ate  and  House  of  Representatives  each  acting  as  a 
restraining  force  upon  the  other  three  elements  of 
government.  At  the  time  this  union  of  States  was 
December  1,  1923 
formed  there  was  great  danger  that  it  would  not  hold 
together,  and  the  framers  of  the  constitution  planned 
so  that  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to  break  up  the 
union.  Thus  it  may  be  said  that  Great  Britain  really 
has  a  more  representative  government,  and  one  more 
responsive  to  the  actual  temper  of  the  people,  than 
we  have.  One  of  the  things  which  forces  a  new 
election  in  England  is  the  issue  of  protection.  The 
policy  of  the  English  people  has  been  for  years  based 
on  the  principle  of  free  trade.  This  has  meant  free 
imports  of  raw  material,  cheap  food  for  English 
workmen  and  reciprocal  trade  for  English  manufac¬ 
tured  goods.  This  policy  has  made  England  a  great 
workshop,  but  has  sadly  reduced  English  agricul¬ 
ture,  and  the  farmers  have  of  late  been  demanding 
some  tariff  or  bonus  which  will  enable  them  to  com¬ 
pete  with  foreign  food  producers.  The  Conservative 
party,  now  in  control,  goes  to  the  country  demanding 
a  form  of  tariffs  on  certain  manufactured  articles. 
Instead  of  demanding  a  tariff  on  food  products,  the 
proposition  is  to  pay  farmers  a  bonus  of  one  pound 
(about  $5  of  our  money)  for  every  acre  of  plowed 
land,  provided  farm  workmen  are  paid  at  least  30 
shillings,  or  about  $7.50,  per  week.  It  is  thought 
that  this  will  induce  farmers  to  plow  more  land  and 
raise  more  grain  and  food  crops.  This  would  in¬ 
crease  supplies  of  homegrown  food,  and  provide  an 
increased  demand  for  farm  labor,  thus  helping  some¬ 
what  to  settle  the  great  question  of  unemployment. 
It  is  hard  for  an  American  to  fully  understand  Eng¬ 
lish  farm  conditions.  They  are  essentially  different 
from  our  own.  Yet  it  would  seem  that  England 
must,  if  she  is  to  continue  strong  and  prosperous, 
increase  her  crops  and  her  agricultural  population. 
She  cannot  long  continue  drawing  the  greater  part 
of  her  food  from  farms  which  lie  thousands  of  miles 
away,  and  history  proves,  if  it  proves  anything,  that 
a  strong  and  contented  farm  population  is  essential 
to  the  life  of  any  nation.  The  proposition  to  pay  a 
bonus  for  plowing  land  is  a  startling  one,  and  shows 
the  serious  nature  of  the  English  farm  problem. 
With  all  the  real  trouble  of  the  Western  wheat  grow¬ 
er,  we  have  not  yet  reached  the  point  in  this  country 
where  such  a  suggestion  could  be  considered. 
* 
THE  report  is  that  last  week  a  number  of  house¬ 
wives  in  upper  New  York  City  bought  canary 
birds  at  what  they  thought  were  bargain  prices. 
These  little  yellow  beauties  seemed  pert  and  bright, 
and  no  doubt  were  guaranteed  as  being  fine  singers ! 
Of  course,  just  at  the  moment,  they  might  be  rather 
mute,  since  all  singers  have  their  off  periods,  when 
they  are  recovering  from  a  sore  throat  or  “nursing 
the  voice.”  So  these  hundreds  of  housewives  looked 
forward  to  a  happy  Winter  when  the  lonely  days 
would  be  enlivened  by  long  and  shrill  concerts. 
When  Saturday  night  came  these  yellow  beauties 
were  given  a  bath.  It  doesn’t  always  pay  to  bathe 
too  much — no  matter  what  the  soap  advertisements 
may  say — for  the  bath  took  the  fine  yellow  color 
right  off  these  birds  and  left  them — just  plain  Eng¬ 
lish  sparrows.  Some  fraud  had  gold-plated  the  spar¬ 
rows  and  sold  them  for  the  solid  metal.  It  is  what 
you  may  call  adding  insult  to  injury  to  burnish  up  a 
thief  and  nasty  rogue  and  palm  him  off  as  a  royal 
singer,  yet  this  petty  scheme  is  only  a  toy  perform¬ 
ance  of  very  much  larger  injury  worked  off  on  con¬ 
fiding  buyers.  The  remedy  is  to  avoid  buying  un¬ 
guaranteed  “bargains,”  and  deal  only  with  respon¬ 
sible  people. 
Brevities 
The  Home  and  School  Association  in  New  Jersey  is 
doing  great  work  for  the  district  schools. 
Fruit  judges  should  stop  giving  prizes  to  the  big, 
monstrous  fruits  and  vegetables.  They  are  not  wanted 
by  the  public.  Judge  them  by  the  commercial  size. 
There  seem  to  be  more  women  school  trustees  this 
year  than  ever  before.  This  is  one  of  the  places  where 
a  capable  ex-teacher  can  do  fine  work  for  the  com¬ 
munity. 
The  Maine  Station  concludes  from  experiments  that 
a  small,  dwarfed  nursery  tree  will  never  make  as  good  a 
tree  as  a  full-grown  one  of  the  same  age.  It  recom¬ 
mends  the  best  grade  of  one-year-old  apple  trees  for 
planting. 
There  is  one  thing  poultrymen  are  doing  for  dairy¬ 
men — making  use  of  buttermilk,  both  dried  and  semi¬ 
solid.  Few  realize  the  tremendous  extent  of  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  handling  this  prepared  milk.  In  time  not  an 
ounce  of  skim-milk  will  be  wasted. 
A  well-kept  cow  will  usually  reach  the  top  of  her 
milk  producing  power  at  about  eight  years.  Then  she 
will  taper  off.  Many  cows  reach  this  “peak”  at  six 
years,  but  it  will  pay  to  keep  an  extra  good  cow  about 
as  long  as  she  will  breed,  for  her  calves  will  be  superior. 
The  papers  tell  of  a  blind  man  who  put  his  hand  on 
an  American  flag  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
America.  He  could  not  see  the  colors  of  the  flag.  At 
the  same  time  that  this  blind  man  was  accepted,  an¬ 
other  candidate  with  good  eyes  was  rejected  because  he 
had  been  arrested  six  times. 
