784 
7She  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
How  We  Went  Back  to  the  Farm 
A  True  Story  Without  Frills 
Discouraging  Conditions. — We  have 
owned  the  farm  that  is  our  present  home 
for  eight  years,  but  have  only  lived  on 
it  the  last  four.  When  we  bought  it  we 
Were  only  able  to  pay  down  one-third  of 
the  cost,  price.  The.  place  was  badly  run 
down,  the  buildings  dilapidated,  poor 
fences,  no  fruit  trees,  and  the  creek  wan¬ 
dered  where  it  pleased  over  the  narrow 
bottoms,  while  wild  blackberry  and  pa- 
paw  bushes  were  taking  the  pasture. 
The  place  had  been  rented  for  over  20 
years,  and  surely  looked  it.  We  routed 
it  again  and  for  three  years  the  products 
of  the  field  paid  for  the  fencing  that 
must  ho  done,  for  cutting  the  brush  and 
a  partial  subduing  of  the  unruly  creek. 
Our  tenant,  plowed  a  long,  straight,  deep 
channel  for  the  water  and  piled  rocks  and 
brush  in  the  old  washes  where  now  the 
grass  is  beginning  to  grow.  The  house 
was  painted  for  the  first  time  fit  was 
built  in  1850)  and  a  front  porch  built 
and  the  curling  shingles  exchanged  for 
a  steel  roof  before  we  left  the  town  to 
live  on  the  farm. 
Preparing  Fob  Work. — During  those 
throe  years  we  made  every  effort  to  pre¬ 
pare  for  our  farming  venture.  We  read 
farm  papers  and  government  bulletins, 
and  the  writer,  whose  great  hobby  is  a 
garden,  spent  long  blissful  hours  with  the 
seed  catalogs.  My  husband  is  a  chicken 
crank  (in  a  few  years  we  hope  he  will 
be  a  fancier)  so  an  $8  hot  water  incu¬ 
bator  and  an  indoor  brooder  were  in¬ 
stalled  in  a  vacant  room  in  the  house. 
A  Poultry  Venture. — Wo  sent  away 
and  got  four  bens  and  a  rooster  from  a 
breeder  who  kept  all  the  57  varieties. 
One  of  the  hens  crowed  and  never  laid 
an  egg,  another  wandered  off  down  the 
alley  and  failed  to  come  home,  while  we 
discovered  toward  the  close  of  the  breed¬ 
ing  season  that  the  cock  was  impotent. 
We  then  got  GO  eggs  from  our  grocery- 
man,  who  brought  us  eggs  from  a  farmer 
who  kept  only  Barred  Rocks.  These  we 
trusted  to  the  incubator  and  got  an  80 
per  cent,  batch  of  the  liveliest  little 
blackies.  We  had  good  success  with  the 
chicks  all  along,  and  in  the  Fall  had  19 
beautiful  pullets.  They  laid  too.  right 
through  all  the  changes  we  have  here  in 
the  Ohio  Valley  in  Winter.  Brown  Leg¬ 
horns  kept  alongside  quit  business  at  the 
first  real  cold  spell,  and  were  a  long  time 
recovering  from  the  frozen  combs,  while 
our  heavier  Rocks  sang  and  laid  through 
the  worst  weather.  But  the  broody  fever 
got  them  early  in  the  Spring  and  the 
“boss”  lost  patience  with  them  and  filled 
the  machine  with  White  Leghorn  eggs. 
The  Old  Leaky,  Unpainted  House 
and  was  sorry  ever  after.  The  Leghorn 
strain  we  secured  was  not  extra  good 
to  lay  and  their  nervous  temperament 
grates  on  us  worse  than  the  material  in¬ 
stincts  of  the  Rocks. 
Garden  Work. — The  last  two  years  in 
town  we  also  gleaned  other  experience. 
The  big  backyard  from  house  to  chicken 
park  had  been  filled  in  with  subsoil  from 
excavations  down  town,  and  by  the  aid 
of  street  sweepings,  hen  droppings  and 
advice  from  the  neighbors  that  "it  can’t 
be  did’  we  started  out  to  make  a  garden. 
We  did  too;  our  late  garden,  the  Fall 
we  moved,  was  a  picture,  and  later  the 
owner  sowed  grass  seed  where  had  been 
our  garden  and  had  the  finest  sod  on 
the  square. 
Making  A  Beginning. — We  moved  on 
tlic  farm  in  the  Fall  of  1911  but  even 
then  my  husband,  who  was  a  railroad  en¬ 
gineer,  only  staid  long  enough  to  see  us 
settled  and  went  hack  to  the  road.  We 
had  finished  paying  for  the  place,  and 
bought  a  cow  and  horse  and  feed  for 
them,  and  the  05  Leghorn  pullets  and 
the  Rock  hens  we  brought  with  us  before 
going  broke.  The  horse  was  and  is  yet 
a  beautiful,  easy-kept,  docile  animal,  and 
we  never  knew  he  was  moon-eyed  until 
he  went  blind.  Our  cow  we  found  later 
to  be  badly  affected  with  garget.  We 
were  five  miles  from  town,  short  pleasant 
miles  over  the  shaded  dirt  road  in  Sum¬ 
mer,  but  long  enough  in  Winter.  Weekly 
trips -must  be  made  with  the  eggs  to  sell 
and  to  get  supplies  for  our  table.  Before 
the  holidays  I  found  it  impossible  to  get 
over  the  road  in  the  spring  wagon  with 
only  one  horse.  Even  the  mail  man  used 
two  in  his  buggy.  I  resorted  to  the  sad¬ 
dle.  That  was  an  exceptionally  cold 
Winter  and  the  work  was  hard.  Feed¬ 
ing,  earing  for  the  horse,  cow  and  hens, 
and  keeping  up  the  fires  in  living  room 
and  kitchen  stoves  took  about  till  the 
time  of  the  lady  of  the  house.  The  lady! 
She  wore  gum  boots,  divided  skirt,  red 
sweater  and  a  yarn  hood.  She  cleaned 
stables,  split  kindling,  carried  coal  and 
ashes,  and  peddled  eggs.  My  younger 
sister  who  lived  with  us  was  cook  and 
housekeeper. 
Increasing  Work. — In  April  the 
“boss”  got  six  months  leave  and  came 
home.  We  bought  another  cow.  a  grade 
Jersey  that  was  a  dandy  ;  bought  a  400- 
egg  incubator  and  throe  outdoor  brood¬ 
ers,  and  a  little  later  bought  a  six  mouths 
registered  Jersey  heifer.  We  have  never; 
yet  had  a  good  hatch  from  that  big  in¬ 
cubator.  It  is  a  hot-air  machiue,  and 
holds  its  temperature  well,  hut  eggs  from 
the  same  stock  set  in  the  old  hot  water 
machine  would  do  very  much  better  and 
at  that  the  old  hens  beat  them  till.  This 
year  we  have  a  new  200-egg  hot-water 
machine,  and  are  operating  a  little  50- 
egg  hatcher  for  a  neighbor,  but  shall  use 
all  the  hens  we  can.  The  first  Spring  we 
were  here  we  put  out  05  young  fruit 
trees  and  two  dozen  grapes  and  finite  a 
lot  of  gooseberries;  have  replaced  those, 
that  died  and  added  a  few  each  year  until 
wo  have  about  125  fine-looking  young 
trees.  Some  of  them  bloomed  hist  year 
and  wo  expect  to  get  a  few  plums  and 
peaches  this  year.  Our  gooseberries  we 
have  increased  by  slips  and  rooting  file 
tips  of  branches  until  we  have  quite  a 
plantation,  as  well  as  black  and  red 
raspberries  and  strawberries. 
First  Year’s  Crops. — We  raised  quite 
a  bit  of  crop  that  first  year,  corn,  pota¬ 
toes,  and  onions,  and  tin*  finest  garden 
we  have  ever  had.  until  the  last  of  July 
when  came  one  of  the  sudden  furious 
storms  we  get  sometimes,  when  for  two 
hours  in  the  middle  of  the  night  we  lis¬ 
tened  to  the  heavy  downpour  and  arose 
to  see  by  the  constant  glow  of  lightning 
that  two-thirds  of  our  garden  was  cov¬ 
ered.  We  wandered  from  the  hack  win¬ 
dow  in  the  hall  upstairs  where  we  could 
see  the  water  creeping  closer  and  closer 
to  the  house,  to  the  front  to  see  brush 
piles,  small  sawlogg  and  what  not  float 
blithely  over  the  walk  log  in  the  county 
road,  swung  10  feet  above  the  usual 
creek.  Next  day  while  my  husband, 
with  all  the  masculine  portion  of  the 
community,  searched  in  the  down  stream 
bottoms  for  strayed  belongings,  I  went 
to  investigate  my  garden  and  found  a  sled 
from  a  few  miles  up  the  crock  settled 
down  for  a  long  rest  in  the  soft  coverlet 
of  ooze  where  had  been  my  onion  bed. 
The  sled  finally  went  home,  the  onions 
came  out  and  fine  pickles  they  made 
(they  were  the  little  silverskin  onions), 
but  the  rest  of  my  garden  went  on  and 
on.  We  believe  that  experience  proved 
our  fitness  for  our  chosen  life.  Had  wo 
not  been  so  "sot  in  our  way”  that  Au¬ 
tumn  should  have  found  us  domiciled 
again  in  the  pleasant  little  railroad  town 
while  m.v  husband  still  held  his  rights  on 
the  road.  Instead  when  his  leave  was 
uj)  he  went  hack  alone  and  worked  the 
Winter  through. 
Scrim;  Work.  -Next  Spring  lie  came 
hoim'  to  stay.  We  bought  two  more  cows 
and  a  cream  separator.  The  cows  were 
neither  one  extra  good,  and  as  we  de¬ 
pended  again  on  our  big-  incubator  only 
bad  half  tin*  pullets  we  expected  to  put 
in  the  laying  Houses  that  Fall,  We  sent 
away  and  got  eggs  from  n  hred-to-lay 
strain  of  Rhode  Island  Rods.  We  got  21 
chicks  out  of  a  hundred  eggs,  but  they 
sure  were  lusty.  It  was  too  far  to  ship 
hatching  eggs;  wo  never  felt  any  cause  to 
censure  ti  e  breeder,  particularly  as  the 
eight  pullets  we  got  were  our  breeding 
stock  next  year,  mated  to  a  cockerel  from 
the  same  breed,  and  -were  the  mothers  of 
our  present  laying  stock  that  have  given 
us  good  satisfaction. 
Poultry  Work. — For  the  coming  year 
we  have  40  hens  in  our  pons  and  three 
highly-bred  cockerels  mated  to  them,  be¬ 
sides  a  pen  of  trap-nested  hens  that  are 
bred  to  a  cockered  from  trap-nested  stock. 
Fggs  from  this  pen  we  shall  try  to  hatch 
with  liens,  and  save  for  our  own  flock, 
and  this  Fall  will  do  some  trap-nesting 
ourselves.  Fggs  from  the  larger  pen 
will  go  in  the  incubators  and  to  meet  the 
demand  we  have  for  hatching  eggs. 
We  had  a  small  local  demand  for 
hatching  eggs  last  year,  and  as  the 
eggs  were  fertile  and  did  well,  ex¬ 
poet  more  this  year.  My  husband 
supplied  eggs  to  a  hardware  mer¬ 
chant  in  town  who  is  running  an  incu¬ 
bator  in  the  shop  window,  and  as  these 
eggs  tested  over  Sf>  per  cent,  fertile  at 
the  beginning  of  February  I  think  they 
should  hatch  well  and  of  course  if  they 
do  will  be  a  big  advertisement  for  him. 
We  have  at  different  times  handled  sev¬ 
eral  breeds  <>f  poultry,  but  liked  none  so 
well  as  the  Reds;  besides  -being  good 
Winter  layers  they  are  the  best  table 
fowl  I  ever  bundled.  A  Red  cockerel  at 
tin*  soft  roaster  stage  simply  can’t  be 
beat. 
Poultry  and  Fruit. — Wo  have  three 
grade  Jersey  heifers  to  freshen  this 
Spring,  but  will  sell  them  all  when  pas¬ 
ture  gets  good  and  the  price  is  highest 
and  pay  more  attention  to  chickens  and 
small  fruits,  only  keeping  our  family  cow. 
Whatever  we  have  to  sell  is  retailed  to 
private  customers  and  we  get  the  best 
price  that  way.  Ours  is  a  fine  market 
town,  owing  to  the  mining  country  sur¬ 
rounding  calling  for  so  much  produce  of 
all  kinds.  We  find  opr  ground  well  suit¬ 
ed  to  small  fruits  and  egg  customers  are 
always  anxious  for  them.  It  is  our  ex¬ 
perience  that  if  you  can  sell  one  thing  to 
a  careful  housekeeper  that  she  can  de¬ 
pend  on  she  is  much  inclined  to  buy 
whatever  you  have  to  offer  that  she  can 
use.  This  calls  for  absolute  honesty  and 
a  real  desire  to  be  obliging  as  well  as 
something  to  sell. 
Improved  Surroundings.-  -Since  we 
have  lived  here  the  road  has  been  paved 
from  town  to  within  half  a  mile  of  mu' 
gate  and  there  -where  the  old  walk-log 
hung  the  county  has  bui.lt  a  fine  con¬ 
crete  and  iron  bridge,  so  we  have  hope 
that  the  road  to  the  bridge  will  be  paved 
before  long.  A  gas  main  has  been  laid 
on  the  adjoining  farm  and  as  soon  as  we 
can  do  our  own  piping  we  can  have  gas. 
while  my  husband  has  in  mind  an  engine 
house  and  gasoline  engine  with  open 
plumbing  in  the  house  this  year.  We 
have  daily  mail  service,  so  do  not  feel 
so  far  out  of  the  world.  We  like  this 
May  20.  1010. 
back-to-the-land  business,  but  do  not  pre¬ 
sume  to  advise  anyone  else,  (’ertainly 
success  here  as  elsewhere  calls  for  thrift, 
steady  endeavor  and  a  cheerful  heart. 
MRS.  JOSEPH  A.  MARTIN. 
Making  a  Porch  Frost-Proof 
On  page  (527.  IT.  TL  M..  who  says  he 
lives  in  Illinois,  wants  to  know  if  he  can 
change  his  porch  into  a  bathroom  which 
will  be  frost-proof.  As  he  says  nothing 
about  any  way  of  heating  the  room,  it  is 
presumable  that  his  problem  is  so  to  build 
the  walls  and  floor  of  the  room  that  there 
will  he  no  danger  of  the  water  pipes,  etc., 
freezing  in  the  coldest  weather.  If  his 
place  is  situated  in  Southern  Illinois,  this 
might  possibly  he  done;  but  no  matter 
where  it  is  located.  I  would  like  to  offer 
the  following  suggestions: 
1.  For  the  comfort  of  those  who  are  to 
use  it.  there  should  be  some  way  of  heat¬ 
ing  the  bathroom. 
2.  An  oil  stove  or  a  gas  heater  should 
never  be  used  in  a  bathroom  or  other 
small  room.  I  have  personally  known 
two  people  who  lost  their  lives  in  bath¬ 
rooms  where  such  heaters  were  used. 
3.  If  H.  R.  M.  will  put  an  upright 
water  heater  in  the  bathroom  and  have  it 
connected  with  the  kitchen  range,  he  will 
probably  have  the  problem  solved,  and 
will  also  have  hot  water  always  on  tap 
for  kitchen  use  as  well  as  in  the  bath¬ 
room. 
4.  To  make  the  walls  and  floor  as 
nearly  frost-proof  as-  possible  plenty  of 
building  paper  should  be  used  between  the 
joists  under  the  floor,  and  between  the 
studding  in  the  walls,  put  on  sm-h  a  way 
as  to  leave  as  many  dead-air  spaces  as 
possible  between  inside  boarding  or  plas¬ 
tering  and  outside  boarding.  Several 
such  spares  may  be  formed  by  fastening 
the  paper  to  the  sides  of  the  joists  or 
studding  by  using  laths  for  cleats. 
University  Farm,  Minn.  j.  if.  DREW. 
You  remember  that  two  mouths  ago 
we  printed  a  note  from  A.  E.  F..  who 
asked  where  she  could  find  a  cheap  Sum¬ 
mer  outing  place  for  three  women.  Here 
is  t  lie  outcome  : 
Wo  have  had  54  replies,  chiefly  from 
New  York  State  and  New  England,  and 
have  made  arrangements  to  g<>  to  a  Mass¬ 
achusetts  farm.  The  farmer  offers  ns  the 
use  of  a  live-room  house  on  condition  that 
we  help  pick  berries  at  the  market  price 
of  2c.  per  quart  for  stra wherries,  Me.  for 
raspberries.  Onr  friends  think  it  a  won¬ 
derful  scheme,  and  indeed  it  does  seem 
ideal.  The  outdoor  occupation  is  a  great 
advantage,  and  will.  I  believe,  add  great¬ 
ly  to  the  success  of  mj  daughter’s  vaca¬ 
tion.  She  i.s  vigorous  and  not  tired,  so  it 
would  lie  irksome  to  her  to  be  without 
definite  occupation  after  walking  live 
Inspecting  the  Chicken 
miles  daily,  teaching  a  rural  school,  play¬ 
ing  basketball,  etc.  A.  E.  F. 
Here  is  a  good  suggestion  for  others. 
We  have  no  doubt  there  are  many  such 
women  who  would  gladly  take  up  such 
work  as  picking  fruit  under  these  condi¬ 
tions. 
M.V  father.  Jonathan  (’onklin.  Long 
Island,  has  taken  The  R.  N.-Y.  as  long 
as  1  can  remember,  and  there  Was  always 
a  friendly  rivalry  for  possession  of  each 
copy  as  lie  brought  it  home  from  his  of¬ 
fice  on  Saturday,  When  I  left  home  for 
mission  work  in  the  west.  I  missed  it 
sorely  until  I  decided  t<>  subscribe  fur  it. 
I  hope  to  become  a  liaek-to-the-landor 
some  day.  in  fact,  have  already  filed  on  a 
claim  in  Southeastern  Utah, 
Utah.  S.  LOUISA  CONKLIN. 
Thousands  of  people— located  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  write  us  saving 
“father  used  to  take  it.”  Tiik  R.  N.-Y. 
has  come  down  through  three  generations 
in  many  families. 
The  Improved  House  and  Surroundings 
