f - 
Published  by 
The  Rural  Publishing  Co. 
333  \V.  30th  Street 
New  York 
The  Rural  NewYorker 
The  Business  Farmer’s  Paper 
Weekly,  One  Dollar  Per  Y  ear 
Postpaid 
Single  Copies,  Five  Cents 
VOL.  LXXY 
NEW  YORK,  MARCH  IS.  1910. 
No.  4369. 
Farm  Renter  or  Farm  Owner 
Back-to-the-Landers  as  Dairymen 
OSSTBILlTlES  of  SUCCESS.— I  have  read 
Mr.  Morse’s  article  on  page  1477  with  a  great 
deal  of  interest.  While  I  do  not  wish  to  criticise 
any  of  his  figures,  etc.,  as  without  doubt  they  are 
true  in  his  section.  I  believe  there  is  another  side 
to  this  question.  If  that  article  had  for  its  object 
the  attempt  to  stop  a  city  man  from  losing  his 
money  in  a  farm  I  would  say,  “Amen”  and  keep 
still.  I  don  t  think  any  man  without  experience 
could  hope  to  succeed  on  a  150-acre  dairy  farm. 
Dairying  is  not  simply  an  occupation,  it  is  a  busi¬ 
ness,  a  profession,  and  some  have  it  down  almost 
to  a  sciehCe.  In  my  humble  opinion  the  only  way 
I,.  A.  (}.  could  hope  to  succeed  would  he  to  buy  a 
farm,  stock  and  tools  altogether,  and  hire  a  good, 
fact  two  own  autos,  good  ones  too,  and  could  get 
Help  if  they  tried.  Some  have  one  excuse  and  others 
another  for  not  buying  a  farm,  but  down  at  the 
bottom  of  the  matter  is  the  fear  to  make  the  plunge. 
A  CASE  IX  POINT.- — About  live  years  ago  I  was 
talking  with  a  friend  and  lie  said,  “You  know,  I 
have  worked  farms  on  shares  ever  since  we  were 
married.  I  have  paid  the  other  fellow  money 
enough  to  have  paid  interest  and  principal  on  the 
best  farm  in  this  county.  Now  f  have  a  man  ready 
to  back  me  and  I  am  going  to  buy  the  farm.”  He 
bought  the  farm;  when  April  1st  came  he  moved  on 
it.  Before  they  had  hardly  time  to  turn  around  in 
their  new  home,  the  father  was  taken  sick;  after  a 
few  weeks’  illness,  died  leaving  a  $9*500  mortgage 
besides  sickness  and  burial  expenses.  Now  wasn't 
this  proposition  a  hard  one  for  the  widow  and  three 
hoys,  the  oldest  barely  19  years  of  age,  to  he  up 
a  thousand  dollars  a  year  on  the  mortgage,  and  as 
he  expressed  if  "do  it.  easy.”  At  this  rate,  when  is 
tiie  man  who  holds  the  mortgage  going  to  get  the 
farm?  There  was  a  large  orchard  on  the  farm 
and  a  poultry  plant  large  enough  to  accommodate 
several  thousand  hens;  they  expected  to  make 
quite  a  little  money  from  these  two  lines,  r  do 
not  know  how  much  they  have  made  from  the 
orchard,  hut  the  fact  that  they  have  been  selling 
hens  and  pullets  and  buying  more  cows,  shows  plain¬ 
ly  where  they  believe  the  more  money  is  to  be  made. 
Lest  any  "liack-to-tliodamlcr”  should  think  ho  can 
do  as  well  let  me  add.  that  two  different  members 
of  that  class  had  tried  their  luck  on  the  same  farm 
and  both  failed.  They  sank  quite  a  little  money  to 
pay  for  the  experience  they  gained. 
UBEELEY’S  ADVICE. — Half  a  century  or  more 
ago  Horace  Greeley  gave  this  advice:  “Go  West, 
practical  farmer  to  run  it  for  him  until  he  learned 
how.  But  if  said  practical  farmer  was  any  good 
he  would  be  running  a  farm  for  himself.  If  he 
bought  a  farm,  then  went  out  to  buy  the  stock.  I 
pity  him.  I  think  I  know  what  a  good  cow  looks 
like,  and  as  I  often  get  stuck,  what  wouldn't  they 
do  to  him  when  lie  started  out  to  buy  cows?  He 
wouhln  I  get  many  S,0()()-pound  ones  unless  some  one 
made  a  mistake. 
RENTERS  OR  OWNERS. —  1  can  step  out  doors 
and  count  six  farmers  who  are  renting  or  working 
farms  on  shares.  They  are  good  neighbors  and  good 
farmers;  all  they  lack  in  my  judgment  of  being 
model  members  of  the  community,  is  I  he  fact  that 
they  do  not  own  their  farms.  You  certainly  can’t 
expect  a  man  to  take  the  interest  in  and  keep 
things  up  as  well  on  some  one’s  else  farm  as  if  he 
owned  it  himself.  They  all  have  some  money,  in 
Milking  Time  on  the  Farm.  Fig.  154 
against?  Some  of  their  neighbors  made  all  kinds 
of  gloomy  prophecies  as  to  wlmt  would  happen  to 
them.  The  man  who  held  the  mortgage  would  get 
the  farm,  they  would  lose  everything,  etc.  I  have 
known  those  hoys  since  they  wore  short  dresses ; 
also  knew  that  they  had  begun  to  drive  horses 
about  ns  soon  as  they  could  walk,  and  as  soon  as 
they  Could  sit  oil  a  one-legged  stool  they  began  to 
try  to  milk  and  care  for  cows.  I  don’t  know  that 
T  was  ever  more  anxious  in  my  life  to  have  any¬ 
one  succeed  than  I  was  to  see  those  boys  win  out. 
RESi  El’S  OBTAINED. — Only  last  week  I  saw 
Hie  oldest  boy  and  obtained  the  following  facts: 
On  tills  474-acre  farm  they  are  keeping  42  head  of 
cattle  Winter  and  Summer,  besides  live  or  six 
horses.  They  have  bought  a  milking  machine,  silo 
tilling  rig  and  other  farm  machinery.  In  addition  to 
tiiis  they  have  been  able  to  pay  the  interest  and 
young  man.  and  grow  up  with  the  country.”  I  be¬ 
lieve  if  he  was  alive  to-day  and  understood  the 
conditions,  he  would  advise  a  young  man  to  buy  a 
farm  here  in  the  East..  I  would  like  to  add  to  this 
by  saying:  “If  you  are  going  to  buy  a  farm  buy  a 
good  one,  for  if  you  can’t  pay  for  a  good  one,  how 
can  you  expect  to  pay  for  a  poor  farm?” 
SIZE  OF  FARM  DESIRABLE.— Let  us  consider 
for  a  few  moments  the  size  of  the  farm  to  lie  pur¬ 
chased.  location,  buildings,  etc.  I  have  askecl  sev¬ 
eral  good  farmers,  who  were  familiar  with  the 
possibilities  of  Alfalfa,  silage  and  soiling  crops 
the  question:  “How  many  acres  of  good  land  are 
necessary  to  raise  the  coarse  fodder  and  a  fair 
proportion  of  the  grains  needed  to  keep  15  cows 
and  a  team?  the  answers  varied  all  the  way  from 
50  to  75  acres.  One  man  made  this  remark:  “Keep¬ 
ing  15  cows  and  a  team  on  150  acres  is  not  business, 
