136 
/ 
American Agriculturist, February ?7 ,1923 
Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
Fred W. Ohm .Associate Editor 
Gabrielle Elliot .... Household Editor 
Birge Kinne .Advertising Manager 
H. L. VONDERLEITH . . . Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 
Herbert E. Cook .... Flow Handle Talks 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. . Van Wagenen Corner 
Herschel H. Jones . . . Market Department 
K. J. T. Ekblaw . Farm Engineering Department 
Paul Work .Vegetable Department 
George T. Hughes . . ' . . Investment Adviser 
Dr. S. K. Johnson .... Veterinary Adviser 
OUR ADVERTISEMENTS GUARANTEED 
The American Agriculturist accepts only advertis¬ 
ing which it believes to be thoroughly honest. 
We positively guarantee to our readers fair and 
honest treatment in dealing with our advertisers. 
We guarantee to refund the price of goods pur¬ 
chased by our subscribers from any advertiser who 
fails to make good when the article purchased is 
found not to be as advertised. 
To benefit by this guarantee subscribers must say: 
“I saw your ad in the American Agriculturist” when 
ordering from our advertisers. 
Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or 
subscription departments to 
461 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15, 1922, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Subscription price; payable in advance, $1 a year. 
Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. Ill February 17, 1923 NO. 7 
What Is the Ruhr? 
0 confusing has the present political situ¬ 
ation in Europe become that even those 
who have tried to follow its developments 
closely have been asking: '‘What is it all 
about ?” 
Among the new names which have as¬ 
sumed sudden importance is that of the Ruhr, 
the little valley whence something very like 
war news issues, daily. The significance of 
the Ruhr just now is a much-discussed and 
not always a clearly understood problem. 
The American Agriculturist is fortunate 
in having secured from Mr. James G. 
McDonald the stenographic transcript of a 
recent speech in which he set forth clearly 
the ins and outs of the present Ruhr situa¬ 
tion. Mr. McDonald’s interest in the subject 
is that of a historian, rather than of a parti¬ 
san. He presents the pros and cons of the. 
matter in brief, logical fashion; no one who 
reads his article can fail to reach a better 
understanding of some of the perplexing 
problems now agitating Europe and also in¬ 
volving this country. • 
Mr. McDonald is Chairman of the Execu¬ 
tive Committee of the Foreign Policy Associa¬ 
tion which is strictly non-partisan, having 
as its object the study of questions affecting 
the United States and the dissemination of 
accurate information about them. He thus 
has had a unique opportunity to become ac¬ 
quainted with the different representatives 
of European countries who have visited 
America officially or informally and has thus 
obtained, at first hand, valuable information 
on the present international tangle. 
We should very much like to know whether 
or not the publication of articles on foreign 
affairs and their influence on American con¬ 
ditions is of interest to our readers. We 
welcome criticism and suggestions, and have 
been encouraged to continue the use of such 
material, especially when it comes from re¬ 
liable and, as in this case, impartial sources. 
We shall be guided by what our readers write 
us in planning future feature articles. 
The Way to Gain Confidence 
HIRTY-EIGHT thousand stockholders of 
the Grange League Federation Exchange 
are to be congratulated on the financial re¬ 
port of the year’s operations which has just 
been given them, in spite of the fact that this 
report shows a deficit. 
It costs money to establish any business 
and to build up trade and good will. There 
are few business firms to-day that paid any 
dividends while they were getting on their 
feet during the first years of operation. The 
G. L. F. report shows that this cooperative 
organization's fundamentally right, and that 
it is making all the progress that can be 
expected. Success in the future will depend 
upon the support which it receives from its 
members, who own it. 
The officers have laid all of the cards face 
up about their business on the table, and 
given their stockholders all of the facts and 
figures without any attempt at sugar-coat¬ 
ing. In doing this they have recognized the 
ability of farmers to properly judge a situa¬ 
tion when they have the facts, and they have 
recognized the principle that the permanent 
success of any cooperative organization de¬ 
pends upon the confidence of its members, 
and that the first rule to gain and keep such 
confidence is absolute frankness between 
officers and members. 
Farmers Are Learning to Speak Up 
A FARM leader recently made the state¬ 
ment that farmers just naturally will 
not write letters and he went on further to 
say that because they do not write letters 
their problems have not until recently re¬ 
ceived as much attention as they should from 
legislative and other leaders in public affairs. 
How true it is that most farmers will wait 
sometimes two or three weeks in the hope of 
seeing a man personally so that they will not 
have to write a letter to him. We are sym-. 
pathetic with this attitude for we know from 
experience how hard it is after a long day’s 
work to sit down to a desk, hunt up a rusty 
pen and to write a letter with ink that was 
frozen two years ago last hog-killing time. 
It is this same distaste of desk work on the 
part of farmers that makes it so difficult for 
them to keep necessary records of their busi¬ 
ness transactions. 
But here’s the point. There is not very 
much use of working so hard on the pro¬ 
duction''end of farming unless something 
more is done on the marketing and business 
end. While the farmer delays writing to a ' 
representative asking his support to some 
necessary farm legislation, the city man gets 
there first with a lot of letters and defeats 
the farm legislation. When the farmer de¬ 
lays writing until he can see a man per¬ 
sonally, the other fellow gets there first with 
his letter and gets the business, and while the 
farmer delays to keep any farm records, the 
bad parts of his business which he does not 
know about go on piling up losses until he 
feels like fclosing up and moving to town. 
More and more farmers are learning the 
necessity of being more expressive, and to 
realize that the pen, or better still the type¬ 
writer, is as mighty as the pitchfork in the 
farm business. 
Something to Think Over 
W HEN freight rates were low and West¬ 
ern land was cheap, there was some ex¬ 
cuse for the purchase iDy Eastern farmers 
of large quantities of Western-grown feed. 
But conditions have changed, and successful 
dairyman, large and small, must change their 
business to meet those conditions. Land 
which was formerly cheap in the West has 
become dear. The one-crop systems of the 
West have reduced the fertility of the soil. 
Freight rates are high and are bound to con¬ 
tinue high. 
There was a time when our fathers used 
to produce great quantities of husked corn. 
They stopped growing it because the West 
could do it cheaper, but with present prices 
of feed many Eastern farmers are finding to 
their surprise that they can now grow corn 
at a cost which will successfully compete 
with that purchased from the West. The 
same is true, too, of many of the small grains, 
and much more attention is being given by 
Eastern farmers to legumes like alfalfa, soy 
beans, and clovers which are high in protein 
content that help to keep down the amount 
and the cost of purchased concentrated feed. 
In planting crops for the coming year, this 
changed feed situation is something that 
every dairyman should think about. As one 
farmer recently said: “The time is evidently 
past when Eastern dairy farms can be noth¬ 
ing more than feeding stations for Western 
grain.” 
Take Time to be Sure 
W HY hard-headed and otherwise sensible 
farmers continue to invest their life¬ 
time savings in worthless stocks and other 
get-rich-quick schemes is certainly hard to 
understand. Yet, hundreds of farm people 
are constantly being swindled. Oil stocks 
catch the most, but other ingenious schemes 
and baits for the unwary get their share and 
no amount of warning seems to have much 
effect. 
Recently a smooth talking stranger ap¬ 
peared in Southern New York with a plausi¬ 
ble scheme for selling stock in a big indus¬ 
trial plant to be put up in Syracuse. He 
would take no cash, but took the farmers’ 
dotes which were to be paid when the plant 
was built. The investors heard nothing 
more until one of the notes turned up in the 
hands of an innocent third party and the in¬ 
vestor had to pay it. 
If farmers would only remember a few 
fundamental principles what a world of 
trouble might be avoided. Notes should, of 
course, never be signed for strangers. The 
first place for any surplus cash is in your 
own farm, a business that you know some¬ 
thing about. The second place is in Govern¬ 
ment securities. These are absolutely safe 
and pay a fair rate of interest. Nearly every 
village contains bankers and lawyers whose 
business it is to know about investments. 
These men will give you advice which can 
be relied upon, and there are few business 
deals that cannot wait until you can talk 
the matter over with them. The Service 
Bureau of American Agriculturist will be 
very glad to investigate any proposition for 
you and advise you about it without charge. 
Quotations Worth While 
We rise in Glory as we sink in Pride; 
Where boasting ends, there Dignity begins. 
—Young. 
. * * * 
It may not be quite fashionable to believe 
in common honesty, but it is a good piece of 
furniture and will last a man his lifetime. 
♦ * * 
I have seldom known one, who deserted 
truth in trifles, that could be trusted in mat¬ 
ters of importance.—P aley. 
♦ sic * 
It matters not so much what part we play> 
as it does to play our part well. In a drama 
it is not so much a question who played the 
King or the Peasant, as who played the part 
best. 
