824 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 24, 1022 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
The month of June brings with it 
Our Page again and many new friends 
Bringing in the Bag 
Picture Bent hg Dorothc Wilson, Mew York, 10 Years 
The green and sweetly smelling crops 
They led in wagons home; 
And they piled them here in mountain tops 
For mountaineers to roam. 
* * * £ * ♦ 
O what a joy to clamber there, 
O what a place for play. 
With the sweet, the dim. the dusty air, 
The happy hills of hay! 
From The Bay loft. 
By ROBERT hot-IK KTEVKXSON. 
This picture of the hay harvest is a 
most interesting example of how a farm 
family works together. Only on a farm 
are such combined labors possible, and 
while the work may often be hard at the 
moment, it is lightened and brightened 
by companionship and the feeling of a 
common interest in the task. Slowly but 
steadily, week by week. Nature prepares 
her crops for harvest. Usually we have 
time to care for them while they are 
growing. But when they are ready to 
gather there can be no delay. Then 
comes a rush for a few days to make 
safe the fruits of our labors. At such 
times it Is often necessary to ask every 
person in the household, young and old, 
to take some share of the burden. All 
are glad t<» help when there is care on 
the part of the leader to see that no one 
works beyond his or her strength. T<> 
work until one is thoroughly tired does 
no harm, provided it is followed by a 
proper rest period; 'but to work until one 
is strained or exhausted is a very serious 
matter and may do permanent harm, 
especially in the case of hoys and girls. 
"Many hands make light work" is a 
familiar saying, and where the hands are 
willing and the work properly distributed 
seemingly difficult tasks arc easily mas¬ 
tered. It is such experiences as this that 
bind families together in the country. 
Another point of interest in this pie- 
Ber Weekly Dive raise 
Picture Bent by Grace Ballon, New York 
13 Years 
tore is the fact that Dorothe (who is on 
the left) and her mother and sisters are 
so sensibly dressed for their oiil-of-door 
work. Wo have learned a great deal of 
late about the relation of our clothes to 
health and efficiency. The combination 
of broad straw hats, white middy blouses, 
dark bloomers and canvas shoes is hard 
to improve upon for a girl or woman on 
the farm. 
At the time of writing to you (June ft) 
your editor is in the midst of one of these 
farm 'Tushes" himself. An acre of straw¬ 
berries, to which we have given little 
thought all Spring, has suddenly become 
the 'busiest place on the farm, and every 
.energy is turned to gathering tin* tender, 
luscious fruit before it spoils. By the 
time you read this that rush will he over 
for us, and perhaps another will be near. 
So the farm life goes on with all who live 
on the land and till it—a busy life, but 
The Nature Puzzle 
Drawn by Laura Augstadt, Pennsylvania 
on the whole a wholesome and happy one. 
Few places could be better for boys and 
girls. 
The May Nature Puzzle 
In the few days between the time that 
you received the May Page and the time 
that I sent this June one to the printer 
there come answers to Sylvia Randall's 
“What Is It?” from those whose names 
are given below: 
New York State; Alice Hunt. Clar¬ 
ence Bergli. Tess Tschant r<\ Ruth Smith. 
I.ueile Freeninntle, Isabel liailt, Alice 
Denton. Milda (Iran/., Cora Blasdell. 
Pennsylvania : Louise Fo.ve, Simon 
Snyder, Laura Augstadt, Anna Yearga- 
son, Dorothy Vincent, 
Maine; Dorothy French, Margaret 
Nivison. 
Massachusetts: Auric Kudjma. 
Rhode Island: Kiln Cook. 
New Jersey: Pearl Fisher. 
Delaware: Cecil Marshall. 
Ohio: Ruth Crane. 
Virginia: Ivmyr Stevens. 
Also we have to thank Laura Aug¬ 
stadt for the beautiful little drawing of 
the garden spider on its orb web, and 
Alice Hunt, New York, who sent the 
following write-up oil the spider: 
The spider is sometimes called an in¬ 
sect, but it is riot, although the zoologists 
at one time listed it among the inseHs. 
According to modern classification spiders 
belong to a class called Arnc.lniidn. Others 
i't this class arc daddy-longlegs, mites, 
ticks and scorpions. Spiders have two 
body divisions, a front part consisting of 
a united head and thorax, and an abdo¬ 
men. This part is connected to the other 
with a thin, flexible thread-like stalk. It 
has four pairs of legs witli seven joints 
and tiny claws on the ends. There are 
two pairs of jaws or mandibles. The 
first pair end in pointed fangs from which 
is ejected a poisonous secretion used in 
killing the spider's prey, although if a 
human is hitteu it does not ordinarily 
affect hint more than a mosquito hite. 
The other pair of jaws is used to hold 
tht‘ spider's prey. Most spiders have eight 
eyes, oil the front part of the head. An- 
tennte, or feelers, are lacking. The 
breathing organs sire thin tissues on the 
abdomen; they look something like the 
pages of a hook. Then the spider has 
small glands oti the abdomen from which 
the milky substance is taken to make the 
web. After the spider has woven a few 
webs in succession his materials for some 
time are exhausted. 
What Is It? 
Two boys from different States have 
sent Nature Puzzles about the same well- 
known little animal: 
It is a small animal with fur very 
much like that of a Maltese eat in color. 
The fur is so soft that it can he stroked 
either way. The fotepaws are very tough 
and horny. The tail has no fur on. but 
it has hairs like a rat. The length of 
the animal is about four inches. The 
tail is about ooc inch long. 
New York. FRANK OCKHAM. 
This animal is black and the fur is 
glossy. It has four feet; the front ones 
are Hat. It has no eyes, but can hear 
clearly, and it runs along three or four 
inches under the earth and raises the 
earth as it goes. It is about six inches 
long and inches wide. It also has a 
very short tail. WALTER MILLNER. 
Virginia. 
When you send in your answer to this 
puzzle write something of your own ex¬ 
perience with -; there, another word 
and I would have told you. By the way. 
I wonder whether there is a single one 
of our readers who has kept Our Page 
long enough to be able to go back and 
find all the Nature Puzzles that we have 
had since we began them two years ago. 
Will someone send us the complete list 
to refresh our memories? Also, I would 
he glad to have more puzzles on hand 
front which to choose. Why not try your 
hand at describing some object in nature 
without telling its name so that other 
readers may guess what you have in 
mind? 
The New Wonder 
The following letter brings up a sub¬ 
ject that will probably be of more and 
more importance and value in all our 
lives as time goes on. It would be inter¬ 
esting to hear from other readers who are 
having experiences with (lie radiophone. 
1 live in Eastern Pennsylvania, and 
have heard some music and someone talk¬ 
ing in New York through a radio receiv¬ 
ing set. When the fellow who operated 
the set said that the message came front 
New York I thought of you and Our 
Page, with all the good and interesting 
messages you and lots of hoys and girls 
send me each month I It rough oik* of my 
many friends. Tub R. N.-Y, 1 am very 
much interested in radios, and am going 
to try to make a homemade set. I have 
a circular which I sent for to the States 
Relation- Service, Foiled States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, which 1ms the full 
directions on making a homemade radio 
receiving set. I have never seen anything 
mentioned about radios on Our Page, so 
I think this is enough said about them 
for the first time. From a faithful reader, 
Pennsylvania. SIMON SNYDER. 
Two Young Writers 
I like Our Page very much. I read it 
each month. My little brother and I 
always look at the pictures first. We 
have always lived on the farm, and I 
am always going to live on a farm. My 
daddy was born in the room that 1 am 
writing in. We have MX) purebred cows. 
We milk with milking machines. We 
have a collie dog. The dog is ju«t as old 
as I am and lias a birthday cake the 
same time as T do. 
Last Bummer my brother and I raised 
some geese. When we sold the geese we 
put the money in the bank. I am in the 
second grade at school. I have not missed 
a .word iu spelling Ibis year. Sincerely. 
Ohio. ELEANOR MUM AW (8 years). 
I am eight years old and live on a 
large farm. Big strings of fish have been 
caught at our pond, the water is so low. 
My father has a canoe which is safe to 
sail in. We have two horses, named Dick 
and Dot. and 12 head of cattle and a 
•flock of Rhode Island Reds. We have a 
telephone, but no near neighbors. 
I am in the third grade at school. I 
raised a lot of fancy gourds and sold 
them to schoolmates five for it cent. 
Moose and deer sometimes graze in our 
pastures. I have to go one mile ami a 
half to school. We have a good normal 
school teacher. Howard mallett. 
Maine. 
What About This? 
“Some boys here are killing off till the 
birds. I am wondering what can be done 
about it. Will you please send your ad¬ 
vice, for I am an American bird lover?” 
It must be that these boys are not 
renders of Our Page, else they would 
know so much about birds that they 
would not want, to kill them. How much 
better it is to bunt birds witli a camera 
or a field glass than with a gun! Dow 
ob 
C>4> t’obii'*. 
•’a 
A&jl fsti^ro aJrnvU' • 
rtir .. 0. i 
much more a living bird can add to our 
lives than a dead bird! Of course it is 
against the law to kill most kinds of 
birds, and offenders can be punished, but 
it would be far better to reach them with 
the hand of friendship and to interest 
these boys in their fellow creatures. Who 
will suggest how this might be brought 
about? 
The Two Orioles 
Emilie Skidmore, a 13-year-old New 
York reader, answered the question asked 
last month about the orioles as follows: 
The difference between a Baltimore 
oriole and an orchard oriole is this: The 
Baltimore oriole is it little larger than 
the orchard oriole. While the Baltimore 
is. a bright orange and black, the orchard 
oriole is a chestnut brown and black. 
The orchard oriole has no color on the 
sides of the tail, but is black there. The 
orchard oriole makes a shallower nest 
than ilie Baltimore’s, and usually places 
il near the ground. The Baltimore oriole 
breeds farther north than the orchard 
oriole. 
It is always good to work out things 
like this on Our Page when they are 
•brought up, and if we read them and 
keep them in mind as we go about they 
will help us to know and understand bet¬ 
ter the wonderful world of Nature in 
which we live. 
Mildred, Her Urotliei and the Horse Nell 
Do Borne Guiltivuting 
Picture Bent by Mildred Short, New York 
!) Years 
