88 
American Agriculturist, August 11,1923 
Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. 
E. R. Eastman 
Fred W. Ohm 
Gabrielle Elliot 
Birge Kinne . 
H. L. VONDERLIETH 
Publisher 
• • • . Editor 
. Associate Editor 
Household Editor 
Advertising Manager 
Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING STAFF 
H. E. Cook, Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., H. H. Jones. 
Paul Work, G. T. Hughes, H. E. Babcock 
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 Y ork, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. 
Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. 112 
August 11, 1923 
No. 6 
Warren G. Harding 
O N a Thursday night in the City facing the 
Western Seas, the Chief Magistrate of 
a mighty nation grew weary of his great 
job and without warning laid down his 
sceptre. When the sad news 
flashed across the wings of the 
night, more than three thous¬ 
and miles to a little farmhouse 
near the Eastern Seas, an old 
Vermont farmer aroused his 
son and by the light of an oil 
lamp administered to him, as 
the one next in line, the in¬ 
augural oath of the President 
of these United States. 
Thus does a Democracy 
carry on. 
The sense of personal loss 
that the death of President 
Harding brings to every citi¬ 
zen, without regard to political 
faith, is the best measurement 
of his greatness. Warren 
Harding was not a genius, 
neither probably was he a 
great executive, nor even a 
great statesman. Thousands of 
Americans have as much ability 
and are as good as was Mr. 
Harding; but that is the chief 
reason it seems to us why he 
was a much-loved President. 
He was one of us. He was like 
us. He was “just folks.” lie 
was a farm boy who became 
President, thereby demonstrat¬ 
ing again that it is possible for 
any average boy who works 
hard and . who is sincere and 
good, to rise to any position in 
America, even to the greatest 
one of all. Harding was a 
simple, kind and good man— 
and because he was, he was 
great in the best sense of the 
word. 
But we should not forget 
either in our estimate of the man that his 
was a heart-breaking job. Guiding a people 
through a reconstruction period is an even 
greater task than leading them through a 
war. In war there is enthusiasm, exalta¬ 
tion and glory; but for those who try to 
build again what the war has destroyed, 
there is the constant criticism of a world 
unsettled and embittered by a blood conflict. 
Through it all Harding kept the faith and 
died in the harness. He did the best he 
could, and that best was pretty good. So 
to-day he is mourned by a hundred million 
oi his. people who wish for him rest and 
peace in that unknown Democracy beyond 
the Border where he is now a citizen. 
Bad Threshing 
I T is probably safe to say that at least five 
per cent, or one bushel in every twenty, 
of grain is lost to farmers through poor 
threshing. The loss is particularly heavy in 
the dairy counties where grain is not as ex¬ 
tensively grown as in western New York and 
cential Pennsylvania. In the larger grain 
growing sections, there are better threshing 
machines and more efficiency. 
. How discouraging it is to work hard dur¬ 
ing the whole season to grow a crop of grain 
and then have a lot of it wasted through 
inefficient threshing methods. Time and 
again we have personally seen grain separa¬ 
tors in operation where at least one-third of 
the grain was going over the carrier still on 
the straw or else was falling uncleaned into 
the chalf. Of course, there are a lot of 
splendid machines kept in fine order by men 
who know their business; but there is an 
altogether too large number that waste a 
lot of money for farmers. Many times it is 
not the fault of the machine itself, but is 
due to poor feeding of the grain into the 
cylinder, or to poor adjustment of some part 
or parts of the thresher itself. 
Farmers can often save themselves a good 
deal of money at threshing time by insisting 
that the operator of the separator get his 
machine in shape and keep it so. 
When Is a Hen Not a Hen? 
P IGS may be pigs, but any old bird is no 
longer a hen. The account in a recent 
report of the last Cornell Poultry School 
shows the big strides that are being made 
among real poultrymen to get rid of the 
hens that do not pay. For years we have 
heard much, about boarder cows, but little 
has been said until recently, about boarder 
hens. Yet, they are just as much a liability 
m proportion to capital invested, as are the 
poor cows. 
During the recent hard times, the poultry 
business has been one of the few farm en¬ 
terprises that has paid fairly well. It has 
been especially successful where attention 
has been given to a few fundamental rules 
ot breeding good birds and getting rid of 
the poor ones. . Weeding out the farm flock 
is a much easier, simpler and shorter pro¬ 
cess than, doing the same thing with the 
dairy. With a little study and practice any- 
one can learn in a very short time how to' 
select the hens that do not pay, and a ready 
market is easily found for them. It will 
e time . make such selection. 
Why not get in touch with your county 
agent or your College of Agriculture, or with 
some good poultryman, and learn how to 
pick out and get rid of the hens that the 
good ones have to support before they can 
support you? 
The Prohibition Vote 
S TILL the letters and the votes come. 
Even though this is the busiest time of 
tne year for farmers, hundreds of them are 
realizing the importance of registering on 
the question of prohibition, so they are tak¬ 
ing the time to send in their votes, many of 
them giving us well-written ar¬ 
guments pro and con. Ballots 
will be furnished on request. 
It. you have not voted, won’t 
you do so and get your friends 
interested? Take the matter 
up in the Grange and other 
farm meetings, and help us 
make the farm opinion count. 
Quotations Worth While 
By thrift is .meant simply 
that way of living which sys¬ 
tematically transfers a portion 
of one’s income to one’s capi¬ 
tal.—S hailer Mathews. 
* * * * 
The only man who never 
makes a mistake is the man 
who never does anything.— 
Theodore Roosevelt. 
* * * * 
Provision for others is a 
fundamental responsibility of 
human life.— Woodrow Wil¬ 
son. 
* * * * 
The great secret of success 
in life is to be ready when your 
opportunity comes.—D israeli. 
5jc sjc 
If you would be wealthy, 
think of saving as well as of 
getting.— Benjamin Frank¬ 
lin. 
* 
The best way to accumulate 
money is to resolutely save a 
fixed portion of your income, 
no matter how small the 
amount.— Andrew Carnegie. 
