1038 
Ihe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A Farm Woman’s Notes 
And so the farmer’s wife gathered her 
needles and thread, her shears and her 
patterns together, and went up into the 
attic. We all understand why she went. 
Apparently the fine Red Astra eh an apples 
that were t<> have bought daughter’s Fall 
clothes are lying under the trees in the 
orchard. No doubt the grocers have too 
many early apples. We hope that the good 
lady can reach down into the old trunk 
and bring up the light overcoat that 
father never liked and only wore two or 
three times. It would cut over fairly 
well, especially if father was a big man. 
The Now York farmer is puzzled to 
discover the great crop surplus so much 
commented on at this time in the news¬ 
papers. He wonders if the cause is a 
lack of demand, due to the strikers’ 
empty poeketbooks and dull industrial 
conditions. The floods have wiped out 
the hollows in the late potato field, and 
spoiled much of the early crop. 11 is hay 
is poor, and his oats, though a good 
stand, were flattened out and drenched 
until they could scarcely be cut. It has 
not been corn weather. Even the bees 
seem pressed for their Winter honey. 
There is nothing much to sell but apples 
and potatoes, and perhaps cabbage, for 
the Fall harvest. But people tire simply 
not buying these, or they have become 
economical minded and are making a lit¬ 
tle go a long way. No longer will the 
buying public consume what we have 
been calling a normal crop. Even low 
prices do not effect much increase in con¬ 
sumption. and they lower very quickly 
when sellers attempt to force the market 
with cut-under competition. 
l.et low prices do with us what they 
will, nothing can rob us of our great, 
splendid outdoors. There are just as 
many chestnuts as there ever were, and 
the trees are hanging full of hickories. 
We have some watermelons and canta¬ 
loupes to look forward to. and if those 
husky sweet potato vines fulfill their 
promise we will have proved that you can 
get Nancy Halls as far North as Cent nil i 
New York. There is some doubt as to 
this among Northerners who claim to j 
know, but the crop has been engineered | 
by skilled Southern bands, and certainly 
it seems 1o have responded in kind, for 
the ridges are well covered with the vine¬ 
like branches. To us they look like 
morning-glory vines aud. strange to say, 
the sweet potato does belong to the morn¬ 
ing-glory family. 
Another stranger in our garden is the 
okra plant. For a while it seemed to 
feel a bit doubtful about making an ef¬ 
fort. but finally opened up a great yellow 
blossom and started to grow. "Is it 
something to eat?’* was asked b.v visitors, 
and we nodded confidently. There came 
a day when the man from Florida went 
out into the garden with a basin and it 
knife and brought in a collection of 
strange pods similar to the milkweed seed 
pod. 
"Now the best way yo’ can cook this.” 
he said, "is to get your bacon fryin* in 
the pan ; about two slices will do. Then 
yo’ wash off those pods aud cut 'em off in 
slices. I don’t know how yo’ all will like 
this—see how it’s stringin’ up a'ready— 
but it sure makes a mighty fine dish when 
it’s cooked right. Now yo’ just take 
those slices and puts 'em right in with 
yo’ bacon, and then po’ hot water over 
it. That’s the way. Now in about 10 
minutes it will be done. T know yo’ all 
can eat it if it ain't too slick.” 
\Yo were all fairly curioiis as to what 
was meant by slick. The juice from the 
okra pods acted like- starch and united 
with tiie hot water and bacon grease to 
form a thin gravy. This gravy was pos¬ 
sessed of the peculiar habit of s.ringing 
down from the spoon as it was lifted from 
the dish, and was extremely slippery. A 
beginner should, by all means, avoid scru¬ 
tinizing his spoon in its transit from dish 
to mouth until he gets the hr hit. And a 
few tomato slices added in the cooking 
will decrease the stringiness, as well as 
Improve the flavor. It really is fine—if 
you can get used to it. 
Never. I think, have the children been 
more healthy or in finer spirits than this 
past Summer. Elsie is as swift of foot 
as a young deer, and many are the lifts 
she gives me at the wiping of dishes, set¬ 
ting table or mending her own clothes, 
for she is an inveterate seamstress. Then, 
too. she is accepted as second mother by 
the philosophical little Jane who, by the 
way. is little no longer, and insists on 
being called her own name instead of 
"baby.” You can find them now squatted 
down beside the house, each with ;t tame 
Red pullet under the left arm. Next to 
the children, these gentle young birds ap¬ 
pear to be about the best crop on the 
farm. The. man from Florida loves to 
fuss with chickens. The curd from the 
sour milk makes them sturdy and large; 
they have had nothing else but cracked 
corn and raw potatoes stolen from the 
field, but they scent to la 1 extra fine in 
development. Perhaps the earthworms 
and bugs picked up from behind the 
potato digger have helped to balance their 
ration. 
The potato field will soon be dug. It has 
beciv the most grilling selling season of our 
'•ypelience. Wc read iu the Spring that 
New York was planting a great many 
carlies, but i( almost appears as if the 
major crop is being dug early also. There 
is a feeling of unrest over the rapid de¬ 
cline of prices, and people who have pota¬ 
toes with dead vines are getting them on 
the market without delay. And it is re¬ 
markable liow much of the May planted 
percentage is being got out at this time. 
Most growers made the mist tike of 
holding off last year. They were influ¬ 
enced by the Federal crop report, which 
set the crop estimate at a surprisingly 
low figure. It can usually be counted on 
that when the yield is less than 850,000.- 
000 bushels potatoes will he dear, and 
everyone felt that if the report was cor¬ 
rect he was fully justified in putting his 
stock down cellar. Now. with the August 
report in hand, it seems that there will 
be more potatoes than we know what to 
do with. But thinking growers will do 
a little reporting for themselves this 
time. They will keep an eye on the 
amount of stock being laid away in col¬ 
lars. A stampede of selling in the early 
part of the year means that ft large per¬ 
cent of the supply will get into dealers’ 
warehouses, and dealers are not in the 
habit of taking low prices, even when 
they have little invested. It is notable 
how few farmers realized the scarcity of 
potatoes iii the Fall of 1010. and sold 
from the field at SO cents a bushel. It 
seems almost to boil down into a matter 
of psychology at times. Just now every 
hit of potato news is valuable, and there 
is no better place to gel such information 
than from The R. n.-y. Where arc the 
crop reports we used to find in small bits 
of space at the foot of columns? We seem 
to have missed them lately. If one 
person from each State would send in a 
record of prices and conditions in his 
locality we would all lie better able to 
tell how things are going. Lack of pro¬ 
per information, I believe, is responsible 
for most of our mistakes. And we can 
get it by giving it ourselves. 
L is in such times as the present that 
i lie farmer most feels his independence, 
lie does not have to break up house 
keeping because the coal has given out. 
and if the trains stop running for a little 
while lie might even be benefited. These 
are the ogres that squat on city dwellers’ 
doorsteps. His sense of enjoyment is not 
blunted by repetition — he can get as 
much pleasure from his music and his 
magazines as lie has capacity for. IIis 
house is his castle, his work an appetizer 
for play. Why worry about prices? 
MRS. K. it. UNGER. 
Helping Dad in Haying 
The hay harvest is over for this season, 
except with those who may have Alfalfa 
or those who do not have good help. The 
farmers who have grown-up sons or sons- 
in-law are fortunate or unfortunate in 
proportion to the inclination these sons 
and sons-in-law have toward helping him 
in the hay harvest. For the son who has 
left and take an office job as soon as he. 
was old enough, it is a tine thing to help 
dad during vacation with a few loads of 
hay and then brag to all his city friends 
that he worked a month on the old farm 
helping get in the hay. Dad’s version of 
the story might be quite different. 
Son doesn’t tell you that he rested com¬ 
fortably in bed while dad worked from 
four to seven iu the morning doing the 
chores. And then dad does chores again 
at night, while son nurses his blistered 
arms and hands and reads a story maga¬ 
zine while dad cocks up an acre of clover 
hay after supper Iu the forenoon dad 
cultivates corn or "bugs” potatoes while 
son easily rides the mowing machine, or 
else sits on ilie porch reading the papers 
while lie waits for the hay to dry. 
Now the lmy is dry. S,.n goes out with 
a big straw hat, a silk handkerchief about 
bis neck, gloves on his hands, and pre¬ 
tends to take the hardest place in the 
field. lie will probably try to pitch on 
and toll dad to take it easy on the load. 
Son pierces the bunch of hay with the 
fork and conveys it to the wagon with 
great energy. The bunch is l kclv to fall 
to pieces as it Laves son’s fork. So dad 
gathers it tip into a new forkful and 
places it on tile load in proper position. 
If dad is loading on the front of the 
wagon, son is quite likely to pitch on at 
the rear. If dad were pitching on. the 
forkfuls would he laid on in perfect shape 
and order. It is the difference between 
August 2G, 1922 
long practice on dad’s part and no prac¬ 
tice on son’s part. 
But for all of that, dad appreciates the 
hell) and tolls son lie is doing fine. As a 
matter of fact, the father probably likes 
to have the hoy home with him again, 
and wonders wherein lie failed to keep 
him on the old farm in the first place. 
Son tells with modest pride that he pulls 
down $15 a day in the city, and dad con¬ 
fesses that farming hasn’t paid so well 
lately, and that lie made a net income of 
$1.75 per day for the last year. 
As the harvest progresses, son’s hands 
blister, his muscles ache aud he perspires 
profusely; but look at dad his muscles 
never seem to tire, his tough hands never 
blister, and he pitches load after load as 
just part of an ordinary day’s work. The 
boy has been brought up to use his brain 
and gets $15 a day*. The father has 
trained muscles and gets $1.75 per day. 
But dad is proud of son. Do not for¬ 
get that. Or, if you do forget it. listen to 
what mother hears after the sop has re¬ 
turned to bis city home after the vacation 
has ended. And son is proud of dad, too. 
lie likes the old farm, he loves his father 
and mother who have toiled there so many 
years. lie knows that dad has made good 
in farming, and that competition and 
conditions have prevented motley returns 
comparable to city incomes. And as son 
grows older and gets a family of his own. 
he comes to realize that success isn’t 
measured by so much wages per day. and 
he comes to see that maybe, after all. dad 
has done much ill inking and lias brought 
about success, with mother’s help, on the 
old farm. And dad, for his part, forgets 
all the hard days in the harvest fields, 
his labors and disappointments, and says, 
if you ask him, that he has done it all 
for the success of the boy who comes home 
at vacation time to help in the haying. 
May son or daughter come home often to 
cheer father and mother on the farm 
where life lias lost some of the cheer it 
had when the children were- growing up. 
It doesn’t matter so much how well 
son d"es in the hay harvest as it. does how 
well lie sympathizes with dad’s problems. 
Money doesn’t rnalter so much. It is the 
loving kindness and frequent contact be¬ 
tween parents and children that make life 
on the old farm worth while after the 
younger generation has leFt it. 
R. F. POI.LARD. 
fl\ 
PISTON PIN 
mtk-mSs 
TON 
PIN 
*-- ‘ 4 
' Da[ J ' 
Is your gas power machinery wasting money 
that could be saved by installing them ? 
Every motor —whether it is your auto 
mobile, tractor, truck, engine or pump—has 
three vital units. They are the piston rings, 
pistons and pins. It’s the condition of these 
three units which determines the motor’s 
power and economy. 
If they are worn, full power and economical 
operation in that motor are impossible. 
Wear in these three units many times 
causes farmers to sacrifice a good car or 
tractor or engine, when, if they had renewed 
them, the machine would have given satis¬ 
faction for a long time more. 
When you realize the load these three units 
carry, it’s easy to understand why they 
wear. They have to seal the combustion 
chamber, withstand the force of every 
explosion and the stopping and starting of 
the pistons as they shoot up and down 
their cylinders. It is not strange that they 
wear and when they do the motor gets 
noisy and wasteful. It frequently causes 
sacrifice of a good car or tractor that would 
have given much longer satisfactory serv¬ 
ice if these worn parts had been replaced. 
Send for our Free Booklet, “To Have and 
to Hold Power,” which explains the whole 
subject of motor wear and its correction. 
ADDRESS DEPT. AR 
McQuay-Norrjs Manufacturing Company, St, Louis, U. S. A. 
Pistons and Pins 
McQuay-Norris Wainwright 
Pistons and Pins—gray iron 
pistons as light in weight as 
safety permits—specially de¬ 
signed for replacements — 
available in standard sizes and 
over-sizes — also in semi-fin¬ 
ished form 75 - thousandths 
over-size—pins of special hard¬ 
ened steel, ground to ex¬ 
ceptional accuracy. 
$125 \ — 
far ring eX f lusi ; e 
two - piece de¬ 
sign preventing loss of 
gas and compression. 
Gives equal pressure 
at; J1 points on cylinder 
walls. For all piston 
grooves except top, 
which should have 
Superoyf. Each ring 
packed in a parchment 
container. 
$100 
Per rirue 
Supercyt- Keeps 
lubricating oil 
out of combus¬ 
tion chamber. Collects 
excess oil on each down 
stroke of piston and 
empties on each up 
stroke, which ordinary 
grooved rings cannot 
do. Each ring packed 
in a parchment con¬ 
tainer. 
Cfi f JIFFY - CRIP 
—a one - piece 
Per rim: ring. Non- 
butting joint, which 
• ,n be fitted closer 
than ordinary step cut 
— velvet finish — 
quick seating. "Seats 
in a jiffy." To keep 
them clean and free 
from rust, each ring is 
packed in an individual 
glassine envelope. 
Snap —of the highest 
d;_„, grade. Raised 
Kln 8® above the 
average by McQuay- 
Norns manufacturing 
methods. Their use 
insures all the satisfac¬ 
tion possible for you to 
get from a plain snap 
ring. They arc packed 
twetve rings to the car¬ 
ton and rolled In waxed 
paper. 
IU 
1 
H«QUAY-NOORlS 
Ills «U* 
SNAP RinCS 
»•.<«-•«< 
2306-F 
