Zthe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1565 
rule  that  the  welfare  of  the  child  is  the 
inramomit  consideration,  in  pursuance  of 
which  the  mother  may  be  Riven  the  pref- 
i  icnee  over  the  father  where  her  custody 
appears  roost  beneficial  to  the  child.  In 
arriving  at  what,  would  he  considered  the 
best  welfare  of  the  child,  its  age,  sex, 
health,  the  preference  ot  the  child,  the 
competency,  character  and  general  con¬ 
duct  of  the  parent  and  his  financial 
standing  are  all  taken  into  consideration. 
In  this  case  there  seems  to  be  absolutely 
no  reason  why  the  children  should  have 
been  taken  from  the  father  and  he  seems 
to  have  the  paramount  right  to  anybody 
else  in  the  world  to  have  the  children  re- 
'maitt  with  him.  It  is  hard  to  give  advice 
in  a  case  of  this  kind,  because  there  are 
so  many  things  to  be  taken  into  consid¬ 
eration.  Home,  except  in  a  few  extraor- 
dinary  circumstances,  is  always  the  bo3t 
ax  all  year  farm  rciiool.  place  for  children,  but  if  the  father  and 
the  New  England  mother  are  going  to  have  disputes  about 
counties  have  used  their  agricultural  the  custody  of  their  children  and  cannot 
funds  for  bureau,  advisory  and  demon-  agree  as  to  what  is  best  for  them,  it  may 
stration  work.  Norfolk  County,  Mass.,  possibly  be  Hint,  the  influence  of  such  a 
has  preferred  to  Concentrate  more  on  a  home  would  not  he  best  for  them.  From 
county  agricultural  school,  which  has  what  is  said  the  father  seems  to  have  the 
lately  been  started  at  North  Walpole,  interests  of  all  his  -children  at  heart,  and 
Its  pupils  represent  16  cities  and  towns,  it  seems  as  if  he  could  convince  a  court 
ami  number  40  boys,  with  only  one  gill  to  that  effect,  and  under  all  the  eircum- 
student.  The  equipment  includes  a  40-  stances  as  stated  he  is  entitled  to  dispose 
acre  farm  with  a  house  now  used  as  a  of  his  children  as  he  sees  fit.  He  may  go 
school  building,  but  a  new  building  118  and  bring  the  children  home  and  keep 
by  80  feet  is  under  construction.  This  them  there,  and  if  the  children  are  taken 
school  is  “different”  in  several  ways,  from  him,  he  may  obtain  a  writ  of 
are  no  entrance  examinations,  habeas  corpus  to  get  them  back.  This,  of 
The  pupils  have  only  to  convince  the  course,  would  require  the  services  of  a 
management  that  they  have  enough  lawyer,  but  if  bis  wife  does  not  consent 
training  and  ambition  to  make  good  use  to  let  the  children  return  home,  such  ae- 
of  the  instruction  received.  There  is  no  tion  may  be  necessary,  and  if  he  does 
room  for  idlers.  It  is  a  12  months  have  to  go  to  a  lawyer,  he  should  get  the 
in  the  year  proposition.  Lessons  on  an-  services  of  the  best  there  is  in  the  iilaee, 
inial  husbandry,  poultry,  market  garden-  as  this  will  be  most  satisfactory  in  the 
ing,  fruit  growing,  farm  management  end.  , 
and  farm  accounts;  also  arithmetic,  his-  in  Massachusetts  there  are  these  two 
civics,  music  and  physical  educa-  further  provisions  the  inquirer  should 
are  offered  in  Wflntor.  But  the  know  about:  (1)  In  divorce  actions,  in 
work  does  not  end  in  the  class  room,  making  an  order  relative  to  the  custody 
Learn  to  do  by  doing,”  is  the  school  0f  the  children,  the  rights  of  the  parents 
motto  and  the  home  project  work  means  sh!1]lj  in  the  absence  of  misconduct,  be 
carrying  out  on  the  home  place  under  holt]  to  be  equal,  ami  the  happiuess  and 
supervision  of  the  instructor  some  of  the  weifare  0f  the  children  shall  determine 
methods  that,  have  been  studied  in  the.  f,ieir  f.„st.odv  or  possession,  and  (2)  if 
school  hours  Students  may  choose  to  tht;  parents  of  minor  children  live  sep- 
some  extent,  hut  must  work  out  at  home  aratelv,  the  probate  court  shall  have  the 
H".ne  of  the  real  problems  in  dairying,  S!lmc  power,  upon  the  petition  of  either 
poultry,  fruit  or  gardening.  In  Summer  pare&t(  t<>  niake  decrees  relative  to  their 
there  will  be  more  real  work  than  evei,  cnre<  custody,  education  and  mainte- 
for  then  it  will  he  all  farming,  garden*  nance)  aa  relative  to  children  whose  pa- 
under  skilled  dilectioil*  am  •  *inrl  sjlmll  tlt'inrni  itiP 
New  England  Notes 
GARDEN  TOOLS 
An?.w>  r  tho  farmer's bin-questionn: 
Hov/ ,  an  I  have  npood  K^rdi  a  with 
1.^1 -;t  expense?  How  can  the  wifo  V 
I  ■  plenty  of  froth  vesret-Al.i l-is  for 
tho  homo  tablu  with  leant  labor? 
IRON  AGE  SXfS, 
».  ft  solves  tho  garden  labor  problem. 
Taken  tho  place  of  many  tools — 
— .  stored  In  small  space.  Sows,  env- 
n°ni  ers.  cultivates,  weeds,  ridges, 
etc,  .better  than  old-timo  tools. 
tBP.  A  woman,  boy  or  girl  ear 
•trxi  push  it  and  do  a  day  a  band- 
X.  _  work  l»i  « 
Fancy  Fruit  by  Plain  Methods 
Some  of  the  best  Baldwin  and  McIn¬ 
tosh  apples  in  Boston  market,  came  from 
a  plain  farm  orchard  in  Southern  Middle¬ 
sex  County.  The  choicest  of  this  fruit 
sold  in  the  open  market  this  season  ..t  $2 
per  box  packed  Western  style.  It  was 
stacked  in  the  market  stalls  right  beside 
the  fancy  Far  Western  fruit  and  sold  us 
high  as  any  of  it.  Some  other  Eastern 
fruit  did  as  well,  but  it  was  often  from 
orchards  managed  in  snrli  an  expensive 
and  “scientific”  way  ns  to  seem  almost 
out  of  the  farmers’  class.  But  the  fruit, 
of  thp  Cheney  Bros.’  orchard  is  grown  at 
ordinary  cost..  The  story  is  interesting.  While  many 
About  40  years  ago  a  man,  broken  in 
health  and  with  very  little  money,  came 
into  the  country  because  he  felt  he  could 
not  be  well  and  support  bis  family  in  the 
city.  This  particular  farm  was  taken  be¬ 
cause  it  could  be  bought  cheap  and  on 
credit.  It  was  far  from  centrally  located. 
The  land  was  in  poor,  rough  condition, 
and  little  more  than  a  stone  heap.  There 
are  rocks  in  almost,  incredible  numbers  and 
one  might  apparently  cross  a  field  any¬ 
where  by  jumping  from  one  large  stone  or 
boulder  to  another.  To  raise  anything 
was  the  hardest  kind  of  labor,  but  the  There 
man  worked,  regained  health,  and  is  still 
working  moderately  at  a  green  old  age. 
Everybody  helped.  “There  were  three  of 
us  boys,”  said  Myron  Cheney,  “ami  we  all 
began  to  work  at  five  years  of  age.  The 
trees  were  planted  and  a  greenhouse  busi¬ 
ness  started.  We  hud  1,500  barrels  of 
apples  this  year.  The  farm  supports  fam¬ 
ilies  with  eighteen  persons  altogether.” 
IIow  is  that  for  rocky,  bushy  hillsides  tory, 
that  most  farmers  would  have  despised  tion 
even  as  pasture  laud?  There  are  about 
20  acres  of  trees,  some  of  them  oM  and 
some  just  coming  into  good  bearing,  but 
jt  is  all  good  fruit  and  some  extremely 
Rood.  "A  buyer  who  came  to  look  at  our 
orchard,”  said  one  of  the  brothers,  “re¬ 
marked  that  ho  could  find  plenty  of  prize 
apples  even  among  those  on  the  ground." 
The  excellence  of  the  fruit  is  conspicu¬ 
ously  in  its  color.  It  is  not  so  hard  to 
get  a  rich,  even  color  on  the  McIntosh. 
But  the  Baldwins  are  red,  too;  a  bright, 
rich  even  color,  not  on  one  side,  hot  all 
over.  Whole  boxes  of  fruit  such  as  is 
seldom  found  except  on  nti  exhibition 
plate;  perfect  in  shape  and  uniform  in 
size  and  color.  Tho  most  interesting 
point  of  it.  is  that  the  methods  are  simple. 
The  trees  were  cultivated  as  well  as 
convenient  among  so  many  rocks  until 
they  became  of  bearing  age.  They  got  as 
much  manure  as  could  he  spared,  which 
was  no  very  great  amount.  The  soil 
seems  tolerably  good,  but  not  of  unusual 
fertility.  The  bearing  orchards  are  not 
cultivated,  nor  manured  to  any  extent, 
but  nothing  except  fruit  and  trimmings 
are.  taken  away.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  “sod  culture"  method  leads  to  early 
maturity  and  high  coloring,  although 
usually  reducing  the  bulk  of  the  crop. 
The  spray  system  is  the  common  one  in 
this  section ;  once  when  t.be  buds  show 
green,  to  kill  scale,  scab,  aphis,  etc.,  and 
the  other  spray  after  the  blossoms  fall 
to  check  the  Codling  moth  and  the.  fungus 
diseases. 
Tho  only  practice  which  really  seems  to 
account  for  the  high  grade  of  the  fruit  is 
the  pruning.  Much  more  wood  is  taken 
away  than  from  most  other  orchards  of 
this  section.  The  idea  is  that  fine  fruit  is 
produced  by  having  less  bearing  wood, 
but  that,  bearing  wood  must  be  new 
growth  and  on  the  outside  of  the  tree 
with  plenty  of  space  nil  around,  so  that 
sun  and  air  will  get.  at  all  the  fruit  and 
paint  it  with  the  richest  coloring.  Inside 
branches  are  cut  out.  Top  and  side 
branches  are  thinned.  The  trees,  even 
the  old  ones,  respond  by  making  fresh 
new  wood  every  year,  and  this  new 
growth  is  thinned  and  trained  so  hat  the 
tree  is  continually  being  renewed.  This 
hard  and  repeated  pruning  of  course  re¬ 
moves  many  fruit  buds  each  year  and 
practically  thins  out  the  crop.  The  fruit 
itself  is  not  thinned,  because  the  owners 
feel  they  cannot  afford  the  time,  and  they 
do  not  believe  in  eight-hour  days,  either. 
They  believe  fine  fruit  pays  best  and 
they  adopt  the  sod  culture  and  the  hard 
pruning  as  the  least  expensive  way  for  a 
busy  farmer  to  get  high-grade  results. 
They  barrel  much  of  the  crop  and  it  sells 
at  top  prices  for  its  class,  while  the 
fancy  apples  are  packed  in  Western  style 
4(Mb.  boxes  and  sold  at  fancy  prices.  It 
appears  altogether  a  pretty  good  system, 
at  least  for  orchards  on  very  rocky,  hilly 
land.  It  seems  that  the  yield  is  reduced 
at  least  om-third  compared  with  orchards 
where  more  cultivating  and  less  pruning 
is  clone,  hut  the  cost  is  less,  the  color  bet¬ 
ter,  and  the  fruit  being  a  couple  of 
weeks  earlier  to  ripen  may  be  gathered 
before  the  big  blow  that  so  often  dam¬ 
ages  a  crop  timt  must  be  left  late  ou  the 
trees.  Another  point,  the  Cheneys  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  hard  pruning  saves  the 
strength  of  the  trees  and  tends  to  make 
regular  yearly  crops  of  fruit. 
planning  a  state’s  agriculture. 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Massa¬ 
chusetts  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  Dec. 
5,  the  farmer  officials  were  re-elected. 
The  board  recommends  that  a  director 
of  organization  and  markets  be  appoint-  only  a  primary 
<ed  by  law  to  get  facts  and  figures  about  riglit,  which  is  subject  to  the  general 
•  OR  2  yearly  subscriptions 
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IT  Is  not  alone  a  novelty, 
but  It  is  a  good  Pocket 
Knife.  The  knife  has  two 
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point  nn<1  on»  pen.  Half  pol¬ 
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brass  ltnlng,  8%  -Inch  Cellu¬ 
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blade*  helng  mmle  of  highest 
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Each  blade  bears  the  trade 
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in  itself  is  sufficient  guaran¬ 
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but  tile  very  highest  grade  of 
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NEW-YORKER 
PICKERING  FOR  A  MILK  PRICE. 
The  producers  in  Windham  County, 
Vt,.  held  back  their  milk  at  the  time  of 
the  general  “strike.”  They  ship  to  the 
Aldens,  one  of  the  smaller  Boston  con¬ 
tracting  films,  and  hence  were  a  little 
at  one  side  of  the  contest,  but  concluded 
to  take  a  hand  in  bringing  their  market 
into  line.  They  sent  a  delegate  to  Bos¬ 
ton  and  obtained  the  assistance  of  Secre¬ 
tary  Puttee  of  the  New  England  Pro¬ 
ducers’  Association  in  negotiating  with 
the  Aldens.  It  took  time  to  make  the 
terms,  but  results  were  satisfactory. 
They  get  20  cents  per  S^-qt.  can  load¬ 
ed  iit  Brattleboro,  which  is  a  raise  of 
six  cents.  This  price  lasts  until  March 
when  they  get  six  cents  above  last 
Spring’s  price.  g.  b.  f. 
Aroostook  County,  Maine,  is  the  richest  agricultural 
county  in  the  United  States ! 
The  Potato  crop  has  brought  wealth  and  prosperity  to 
this  county.  The  average  yield  of  potatoes  in  Aroostook 
is  about  300  bushels  per  acre  or  more  than  three  times 
the  average  yield  in  the  United  States. 
Did  You  Raise  300  Bushels  of  Potatoes 
Per  Acre  This  Year? 
If  not,  you  have  lost  a  part  of  your  profits.  The  Aroo¬ 
stook  County  farmer  insures  successful  crops  by  applying 
plenty  of  high-grade  fertilizer.  He  plows  and  cultivates 
carefully,  uses  clean  seed  and  sprays  often.  These 
gigantic  crops  are  the  result  of  intelligent  care  and  ample 
supplies  of  effective  plant  food. 
are  the  Aroostook  farmers’  standard, 
For  sixty  years  the  E.  Frank  Coe  brands  have  assisted 
good  farmers  in  all  sections  of  this  country  to  increase 
their  crops  and  their  profits.  Plan  now  to  get  your  full 
profit  from  your  1917  potato  crop. 
Ask  for  your  copy  of  our  book  entitled  “ Potatoes ,  a 
Money  Crop.”  This  book  contains  full  information  in 
regard  to  the  methods  used  by  the  best  Aroostook 
County  potato  growers  and  also  the  story  of  a  profitable 
potato  crop  written 
by  an  Aroos-took 
County  farmer. 
(USE  THISICOUPON) 
Crop  Book  Dept. 
THE  COE-MORTIMER  CO. 
New  /ork.  N.  Y. 
Gentlemt  n  : — 
Flease  send  me  your  special  Potato  Book. 
I  raise . . . . . acres  of  potatoes. 
I  use... . tons  of . ..fertilizer. 
Please  quote  me  prices  on . 
Name . R.F.D.  No . 
Address  Crop  Book  Dept. 
The  Coe-MortimerCo 
Subsidiary  of  The  American 
Agricultural  Chemical  Co. 
51  Chambers  Street 
New  Y  ork  City 
