456 
Jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 25, 1922 
Are Chickens Ever Jealous? 
Have you ever heard of a jealous chick¬ 
en V I think you might call this jealousy. 
I have a Rhode Island Red pullet that is 
quite a pet. I call her Bantz, as she is 
so small. She was hatched on June 29 
from an egg the hen refused do sit on. I 
suppose she was satisfied, having already 
hatched 14 of the 15 eggs, and. by the 
way, she raised them all. I took the 
egg in the house, put it in a basket with 
a thermometer, set it beside the tire, and 
helped her out. of the shell. I bought a 
beautiful Rose Comb pullet from a friend. 
I have called her Rose, and her name 
certainly suits her, as she is a beauty. 
Whenever I go to the henhouse 1 call 
Bantz by name, and she starts to sing; 
then l pet her. As soon as Rose sees me 
petting and talking to Bantz she comes 
up, ruffles the feathers around her neck, 
looks down at Hants;, and gives her sev¬ 
eral hard pecks on the head, of course 
Rose may have a special dislike for Bantz 
and it may not be jealousy at all. Nev¬ 
ertheless, she stops peek!ug Bantz when l 
pet her. EDITH m. Armstrong. 
Maryland. 
R. N.-Y.—Such things are reported to 
us about many farm animals—why should 
it not: be true of a hen? 
The Committee of 21 Report 
Can anyone outside the Stale obtain 
the report of the Committee of Twenty- 
one. and, if so. to whom do I apply? I 
have had the honor, or misfortune, to be 
elected to our local^ school board, and Dr. 
Fineguu’s plans for what seems to many 
of us over-centralization, and his untime¬ 
ly expenditures of public funds, seem 
destined to make things very hard for us, 
and we would like to benefit from the ex¬ 
perience of the people of New 5 ork. it it 
would suit our case. MKS.S. w. S. 
Pennsylvania. 
'We think the report will he freely dis¬ 
tributed. We have not been able to ob¬ 
tain a full copy yet. Prof. Paul M ark of 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N, ^.. is 
chairman of the committee. This report 
should be given out to everyone who cares 
for it. There will be full time for dis¬ 
cussing it. and it should be read so thor¬ 
oughly that before new laws are actually 
started everyone in the State has had a 
chance to know just what it means. 
A Woman and Her Child 
I am a woman 30 years of age. able to 
cook, wash, keep house, make bread, do all 
kinds of canning and preserving, but my 
chief crime seems to bp that 1 have a 
little daughter of seven years to support. 
m\ husband having deserted me. 1 have 
tried agencies in Boston and Portland, 
but at the first mention of a child they 
refuse to even enter my name on their 
books, so I am appealing to you. f do 
not want charity, blit I should like a 
chance to work and have m.v little girl 
with me. She goes to school and is no 
trouble. T am willing to live on a farm 
or in the country anywhere as house¬ 
keeper or cook or anything. I do not 
want to put my little girl in an institu¬ 
tion. but. want a chance to bring her up 
to be a good, loyal American citizen. If 
one of your numerous renders should need 
any help, and would be willing to employ 
a woman with a little girl. I should be 
glad to work for them. I will pay my 
own transportation from here, and would 
surely do all in my power to earn m.v 
wages. Will you help me? 
Maine. MRS. E. P. 
R. N. Y. -We have never had a propo¬ 
sition just like this before. That is one 
reason why we print it here. If this is a 
true presentment of the case, there would 
seem to be a chance for mutual service 
between Mrs. E. P. and some childless 
family where house help Is needed. 
Warning Against “The Knockers” 
My wife and I take pleasure in read¬ 
ing Tiie R. N.-Y. I have hopes of hav¬ 
ing a farm soon, if only to rent it. At 
first m.v wife did not care to hear any 
talk about a farm, as there were some 
“knockers” talking to her. But The R. 
N.-Y. has changed her mind about farm 
life. The R. N.-Y. came today, and she 
was the first to get it. so I had to wait 
until she was done reading it. 
Rhode Island. w. it, host, 
The R. N.-Y feels highly compli¬ 
mented to think that it has prevailed 
against the advice of these “knockers.” 
That Is true, even though our friend must 
sit at the second table. We bad an old 
uncle who said he preferred the second 
table, because the food had a little longer 
cooking, and he liked things well done. 
Trees as Autograph Albums 
The picture on page 280 seems to re¬ 
commend the disfigurement and mutila¬ 
tion of beautiful trees. Tf the editor has 
ever seen the carvings and the disfigure¬ 
ments of the fine trees in the residence 
grounds and along tin* thoroughfares of 
the White Mountains by vacationists, 
who term themselves cultured, he will 
realize the dangerous ground In* is re¬ 
commending. No hoy of the backwoods 
of the Now England States would be 
guilty of such vandalism. There is noth¬ 
ing funny or very sentimental in cutting 
up a tree that, cannot help itself, and 
must bear the scars for ages that are a 
moral stigma to the race as are some 
that are found on the trees. The schools 
are striving to teach the children the 
beauty of wild flowers and the beauty of 
the out-of-doors, and some States had to 
enact laws to gave the remnant of the 
arbutus in the woods. 
K. M. IUTKTSTNGER. 
R. N.-Y.—To us the picture brought 
to mind a young man trying to carve 
the initials of his ideal of womanhood on 
a tree. Perhaps Mr. lluntsiuger never 
tried to do that. Perhaps he never read 
Tennyson's poem. 
A Struggle That Failed 
On page 263 there is an article that 
greatly interested me. as it reminded me 
of my hard efforts, which ended in fail¬ 
ure. Here is the story, which is nothing 
but the truth: Two years ago this com¬ 
ing June my family and T came to Rhode 
Island to live on a farm. We were pen¬ 
niless, or in other words, completely 
broke. We rented a little run-down farm 
of 40 acres, which did not put enough 
hay to feed two animals. 1 bought an 
old horse, harness and surrey for $140, 
paid for it at $25 per month, and planted 
a little garden. I went to work on the 
railroad, which went by the farm, all 
day, and cut my hay and tended my little 
garden by night, with my wife, my eight- 
.sear-old boy and myself. After my horse 
was paid for I bought two pigs, and then 
a Jersey cow, and paid for them. When 
the work stopped Oil the railroad, which 
always does In the Fall, they lay off a 
few men. It practically left me with no 
funds to go through the Winter. f lmd 
to buy most all my food for my family 
of three children, ages three, four and 
eight. m,v wife and myself. I went to 
chopping wood for a nearby farmer, and 
not being first-class at the ax, the best I 
could make wns $8 per week. Just im¬ 
agine $8 per week to buy food and cloth¬ 
ing for five people, buy grain for four 
animals, and pay rent. Well, the result 
was T went in debt, and the landlord was 
the victim. I linalh owed him seven 
months' rent. He wns very good, for he 
never bothered me much for his rent, but 
still it told on me, for I like to pay my 
bills when it is possible. Finally the 
Spring came, and I managed to gel a 
position on a nearby farm by the day 
M.v average wages were about 812 per 
week, because I had to lose all rainy 
weather. I turned over about three- 
fourths of an acre of ground on my place, 
which my boy of eight years, my wife and 
I did the best we could nights and Sun¬ 
days. which made me work seven days 
and seven nights per week, but the worry 
of debts and the hard and long days of 
work for two years laid me flat, so I had 
to sell what I had acquired with my 
hard labor for hardly anything so 1 could 
square my bills and have a little peace 
of mind. If I had had someone to give 
me a little boost just then I would not 
have fallen down, but instead, when 1 
did fall, most everyone in the neighbor¬ 
hood but one all laughed at my failure. 
That is why, when I read that article, 
"Helping the Farmer to Help Himself.” 
it put me back to my hard days. If 
there is a man in the United States who 
wants to back up a man who is ambitious 
and a hard worker, l want to hear from 
him and talk business, 
Rhode Island. a. j. fat.ordeau. 
A New Farm-help Proposition 
Here is a new problem. We have had 
nothing quite like it before in the way of 
fitting a back-to-the-lander for a farm 
job. Yet it is a form of co-operation 
which may appeal to some of our 
readers: 
We are a young American couple with 
one boy. aged seven, husband employed 
daily in Jersey City, and we want to buy 
a small farm for raising chickens, fruit, 
etc. We are both city bred, and know 
uuthing about farming, except what we 
luive learned through growing onr own 
vegetables, fruit and a few chickens on 
the small place we now own. We realize 
to run a farm successfully we have to 
have more knowledge than we can learn 
on this place. 
Do you suppose there would 1** people 
somewhere (within commuting distance 
of New York) on a general farm where 
we could go this Summer. I to help the 
housewife with her regular work, hus¬ 
band to help each morning for three or 
four hours? It would give its an idea of 
farm life, and perhaps there is a farmer’s 
wife who really needs help iu the Sum¬ 
mer and doesn’t feci like teaching an in¬ 
experienced girl housework, and cannot 
afford an experienced one. We would be 
willing to work for our board nnd room 
and the experience we would gain. I 
wonder if there are other folks situated 
ns we are. with a little cash, but afraid 
to take the step because of inexperience? 
I would like to see this thing discussed 
in The R. N.-Y. MRS. c. It. E. 
New Jersey. 
A Friendly Paper 
A boy 17 years of age tells me that 
bis mother and father disagreed. His 
mother left the children in the charge of 
friends or relatives. She went to Kansas 
or Nebraska. She died. No one knew 
where her relatives lived, but The R. 
N.-Y. was taken in the home. The farm 
woman remembered that the young hired 
girl had remarked, when reading The R. 
N.-Y., that a certain article was written 
by her father. I believe the father’s 
name was Cobb, of Cranevillc, Erie Co., 
I’a. The issue of The It. N.-Y. was 
found, and through the paper the parents 
and relatives of the deceased woman were 
located and notified of her death and 
burial. a. 
We feel justified in saying that there 
is no publication iu the world which gets 
closer to the personal affairs of its read¬ 
ers than The R. N.-Y. Some of the in¬ 
cidents worked out through reading the 
paper seem almost miraculous. Some are 
pathetic and some quite embaHissing. 
For example, a few weeks ago we printed 
a picture of a .voting woman holding two 
horses. At least a dozen men have writ¬ 
ten to say that they would like to marry 
this woman. We do not doubt it or won¬ 
der at it. but we do not know any more 
about her than they do. The picture 
was purchased from a photographer, and 
we have no idea where it was taken. We 
often have letters from people who think 
they recognize son or father or husband 
—or some other wanderer—in these pic¬ 
tures. These are usually cases of mis¬ 
taken identity. 
Holding a Child as Security 
About two years ago T look a little 
baby to board. Its mother paid its hoard 
until last June; since then at different 
times she has given me $5, but still owes 
me a large bill. Can I hold the child 
until she pays me, should she come to 
claim it? I have written to her asking 
her to give me so much a week on back 
board. She sent $1, but she has money 
to buy herself new clothes and things she 
doesn't need. C. 
Of course you cannot hold a little child 
as you would a calf nr some piece of mer¬ 
chandise. It is not likely that this young 
mother will demand the little one uuless 
she expects to make something out of it. 
or does it from spite. We have had much 
experience in this line. If, as we imag¬ 
ine. you really want to keep the child, 
our advice is to go to some good lawyer 
and have him draw up papers for the 
mother to sign. 
Killing the Old Horse 
Suine time ago the Hope Farm man 
told about two horses that were no longer 
needed on the farm, and that they were 
then sleeping under the sod. Would he 
kindly tell liow their lives were taken, 
or can some one tell me of a way that 
this can be humanely done? Some time 
ago T remember of hearing an old man 
tell thar there was a certain place in a 
horse’s head where a single shot from a 
revolver would Cause instant death with¬ 
out a struggle. If this is true. I would 
give considerable to know about it, I 
have a horse that I cannot longer keep, 
and nothing could induce me to let her 
go into other hands. I feel that it would 
be the most cruel thing that 1 could do 
to let this noble, faithful friend go where 
she would receive the neglect and abuse 
that so many old horses do. w. n. 
Maryland. 
You are right! It is a cruel and 
heartless thing to sell an old horse that 
has been with you for years with a chance 
that some stranger may abuse him. We 
have been obliged to kill several horses. 
We have tried shooting and the use of 
chloroform. There seems to be a point 
on the forehead, right between the eyes 
and ours, where a well-directed rifle bul¬ 
let will promptly end life. Chloroform 
has not been a success with us. We now 
get a good veterinarian to come and in¬ 
ject strychnine into the horse's veins. 
That seems to bring death quickly and 
with little pain. The Humane Society, 
or Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals, will furnish a diagram show¬ 
ing just where a horse may be shot so as 
to cause immediate death. 
A Personal Visit 
This is what we would say to you, 
should you make us a personal visit : 
You win. We were very glad to give 
our subscription to your Mr. Morgan 
when he culled iu September. 1920. We 
think The R. N.-Y. is quite all right, and 
the best paper of its kind published. We 
hesitated about renewing simply because 
every Winter, when the thermometer 
hangs around 31 below, arid we have to 
dress as tbough we were going on a sleigh 
ride with Doc Cook, we feel the call of 
the city, ami we long for the good old 
days, with their plays and cabarets, when 
we sojourned on West 23d street. New 
York, and were us happy as though we 
owned both sides of the street. A matter 
of health ( which we have recovered) sent 
us back to tin* old homestead in the home 
town in 1919. where we are the proud 
owner of it Ford and few liens, and every 
Spring wear a smile as expansive as our 
backyard, which lasts till the next snow- 
fly and the theater season is on. 
We shall welcome The R. N.-Y. for 
the next 15 months, whether we are "here 
again or gone again.” 
Maine. MRS. It. E. CRACKY. 
We know full well there are others 
who feel much the same. The cabarets 
and theaters have few charms for us, but 
we know enough human nature to under¬ 
stand. We must people the country with 
a race of people who “shall be as a tree 
planted by the river of waters.” 
This is a picture of the Birdsail boys and their calves. These boys live in Otsego 
County. N. Y„ and they are so much interested in the pictures that they have some¬ 
thing of a struggle whenthe paper comes to see which shall see it first. It looks to 
us like a fine quartette of purebreds. 
