1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
479 
" GOOD ” BOYS WANTED ON THE FARM. 
An Ohio Man's Opinion. 
I notice on page 416 the request for a boy wanted 
on the farm, but it might well be put one hundred 
thousand rather than one, for I believe that number 
could readily find places if they wore “good” boys. 
The fact is that good hoys are not to be had any¬ 
where. Some way or other boys are not made as they 
used to he 50 years ago. I don’t believe it is putting 
it any too strong to say that there is not one in a 
hundred who could honestly be called a good hoy, 
taking them from 10 to 15 years old. They have some 
bad habit or mean trick that is not agreeable. Most 
of them nowadays want very big pay, and then will 
devise every possible scheme to put in the time and 
do the least possible amount of work. Then if by 
chance the hundredth one should prove to be a really 
good boy there is some one in every neighborhood 
who will tell him that he is not getting wages 
enough, or that he is not treated well in some 
way, and thereby make him discontented and get 
him away. I myself have tried it several times, 
and taken boys from charitable institutions, but in 
every case the result has not been satisfactory, and 1 
have known many others with same results. But 
what are the farmers going to do? I could name at 
least a dozen now who would be glad to take a boy 
if a good one could be had, and do well by him, too. 
I fully believe many thousands of good boys could 
find good places right in this State of Ohio alone if 
there were such boys. 1 hear many complaints from 
all parts of the country that farmers cannot get suit¬ 
able help; yet they are paying from $20 to $30 a 
month and hoard. Fifty years ago farm hands made 
more money at $10 to $12 a month than they do now 
at $20 to $30, because then they did not draw their 
wages until the end of the season, and 
then got it all in a bunch, and would 
make good use of it, but nowadays they 
want it as fast as they earn it, and spend 
it as fast as they get it. 
Here comes something that is decided¬ 
ly interesting for the American farmers. 
1 saw in a local paper lately that the 
farm hands about East Liverpool, ()., 
have organized a union of 600 members, 
and are planning to extend the order all 
over the nation. One of their first de¬ 
mands is a work day of 10 hours and 
extra pay for all overtime. Won’t it be 
interesting for a farm hand to help plant 
a crop and cultivate it to maturity, then 
go out on a strike and lot it all spoil and 
go to waste? How docs this strike our 
farmers? a. a. f. 
Brooklyn, O. 
R. N.-Y.—Yes, there are some “good” 
hoys left in the world! We fear that 
many farmers expect too much of a boy 
and want him to work like an old man. 
Too many of us judge a hoy by what we 
think we did 40 years or so ago! It is 
true that the influences which surround 
children in these days are often de¬ 
moralizing. The "institution” child is often cursed 
with bad habits and lack of ambition, which make 
him more or less of a nuisance on a well-ordered 
farm. Still, the work of trying to train one of these 
children for good citizenship is about the best service 
a farmer can do for his country. 
SOWING RYE IN CORN. 
This subject seems to be prominently up for con¬ 
sideration just now, and it is well that it should he. 
There is much attraction in the matter to the farmer 
who has a wish for an abundance of pasture, and when 
he is once thoroughly imbued with the plan, it is kard 
to kill it off. I am a little at a loss, considering my 
own experience in this line,, to understand how the 
plan holds on so well, and the only way I can account 
for it is that the farmer who succeeds tells and writes 
about it, while the one who fails has nothing to say. 
I have sown it in corn at the last plowing, and made 
more than one trial, and had as many failures. 1 
have put it in later with a drill, but never succeeded 
in getting a satisfactory stand, as it would die before 
the corn was cut. If the land is damp, and in proper 
condition for seeding I think it will do to use a one- 
horse drill, and sow in corn a few days before cutting 
the corn; then when the corn is off the rye can grow 
without hindrance, and be nearly as far along as if 
sown early, and subject to the shade of the corn. 
There is one trouble with this early sowing; some¬ 
times the rust strikes the rye, and it does not do any 
good till cooler weather, and then not so well as the 
late sowing. My failures have been so complete when 
the rye was sown at the last plowing of the corn, and 
sometimes later, that I have concluded only to sow 
hereafter after the corn is cut. It is my plan now to 
sow two fields each year. The earliest ripe corn will 
be cut as soon as possible, and the rye sown at once; 
this for pasture and to plow down next Spring. The 
later ripened corn will be cut in good time, but the 
rye sowing will not be rushed, as this will be allowed 
to make a crop. In both cases care will be taken to 
do the seeding in the best manner. The last sowing 
will be fertilized at the rate of about 200 pounds per 
acre of acid phosphate, and I am strongly of the im¬ 
pression that it would pay to use fertilizer on that 
sown for pasture and to plow under. I shall experi¬ 
ment along this line, and know how it is. By this 
plan of sowing there is scarcely any risk o-f the loss 
of labor, and seed, while the plan of sowing in corn is 
always attended with the risk of loss. On my own 
account I am unwilling to take this risk any more. 
Ross Co., Ohio. joirN m. jamison. 
TRAINING BOYS FOR FARM WORK. 
My father, Nathaniel Boardman, a Vermont farmer, 
horn in 1795. was somewhat of an enthusiast in fruit 
growing, especially of the apples of which he planted 
and grafted many hundreds of trees. In his day 
choice apples were not plentiful, so he found a good 
market at Dartmouth College, three miles away, for 
all that he could supply. His neighbors did not al¬ 
ways comprehend the equity when he received nine 
shillings ($1.50) per bushel for his hand-picked apples 
(a large price for those days), when they only realized 
six shillings per barrel for their cider. My father was 
a hard worker, but, perhaps like many other fathers, 
had no faculty for getting work out of his four stout 
boys. He would set them at work, not telling them 
the first thing how the work was to he done, go off 
by himself to work upon another part of the farm, 
and when he returned found his boys gone off fishing 
or to some other equally idle employment. A “jaw¬ 
ing” was then in order, and it was no wonder that all 
four imbibed a violent dislike for farm work. One 
became a teacher, another a lawyer, another a cabinet 
maker. w»ile the wtiler, the eldest of the four, became 
a printer (typesetting and press work). Even then, 
60 years ago, typesetting machine inventors were 
busily at work, and worried the printer’s devil. 
“What’s the use of learning to set type by hand if 
machines are going to throw us out?” queried the ap¬ 
prentices. But the “boss” relieved us by assuring us 
that “until a machine should be invented tnat could 
think, and exercise judgment, hand compositors need 
have no fear.” So for 54 years we did not lack em¬ 
ployment as hand compositors. But the “impossible,” 
so we fondly hoped, “thinking and judgment-exercis¬ 
ing” machine finally came and threw us out, and the 
writer went back to the soil. At 70 his fingers were 
too old and stiff to learn to manipulate a Mergen- 
thaler. None over 35 was advised or allowed to learn. 
My own boyhood experience of farm life suggested 
a “kindergarten department” of farm practice. 1 
think farmer’s boys generally would come to like farm 
work were they intelligently instructed. 1 have lately 
been telling a young girl how to pick strawberries. 
When she commenced she pulled and clawed off the 
berries at a great rate. The consequence was many 
were bruised, some with hulls and stems on and some 
without. Now she picks without even touching the 
berry by grasping the stem with her thumb and finger, 
nipping it off, leaving about half an inch of the stem 
on the Derry, and picking as rapidly as at first. My 
idea of such a department is to have all the little de¬ 
tails fully explained, even the most trivial, so that 
every boy may fully comprehend. The beauties of 
animated nature should be dwelt upon, and the boy’s 
interest enlisted. A little bird story might occasional¬ 
ly be introduced, and the peculiar habits of the small¬ 
er animals described. I once listened to a certain ser¬ 
mon. It kept me wideawake, which not all sermons 
that have been preached at me have succeeded in do¬ 
ing. The subject was “Discontent.” Man’s natural 
condition, the preacher said, is discontentment—never 
satisfied with his lot. Were it otherwise progress 
would cease and inertia prevail. He closed with 
“May the Holy Spirit of Discontent ever remain with 
yOU.” HENRY H. BOARDMAN. 
Connecticut. 
BIRDS AND THE CHERRY CROP. 
In a number of your recent issues I have read with 
considerable interest the remarks regarding destruc¬ 
tion, particularly of cherries, by birds lhat are pro¬ 
tected by game laws; yet none of them what is known 
as a “game bird.” Your issue of June 28, 1902, con¬ 
tains remarks by Monroe Morse, which impress me 
very much. Mr. Morse recites certain losses which 
he has sustained by the depredation of birds, and The: 
R. N.-Y. suffixes remarks: “In this country birds are 
seldom plentiful enough to do serious damage to large 
areas of fruit,” and suggests the protection of same 
by the use at. “mosquito cloth.” Such no doubt is pos¬ 
sible, but on this topic the writer would like to give 
a few facts of recent experience and ask whether it is 
practicable in such as my case. I have 40U cherry 
trees, which came into bearing last year, about 175 
Early Richmond, and 225 Montmorency. Not being 
alive to the tactics of the innocent little birds, and 
being quite busy at the time the fruit ripened, even 
though a fair crop for young trees, I was unable to 
secure enough for a single pie. This I thought a good 
lesson, and made up my mind to enter 
into the contest with birds this year. 
On June 6 I looked over the orchard 
and found the Early Richmond begin¬ 
ning to show color, but hardly any of 
them ripe enough to be gathered on that 
date, so knowing the situation, 1 decided 
to gather them the early part of the fol¬ 
lowing week. I was obliged to pass 
Monday on account of a heavy straw¬ 
berry picking, so on Tuesday, June 10, 
after our berries had been gathered, I 
took about 40 pickers from the berry 
field to the cherry orchard, and was very 
much surprised to find nothing left but 
stems. I renewed my determination to 
get ahead of the birds, and on June 13, 
when the Montmorency were partly ripe, 
I took the pickers into the orchard a 
second time. We gathered all that were 
sufficiently colored, which would repre¬ 
sent about one-fourth of the crop, al¬ 
though these were not fully ripe, in¬ 
tending to gather the remainder three 
or four days later. But upon examina¬ 
tion after this short interval, the birds 
had completely stripped the trees. While 
this is the experience of those with a 
small quantity, it is also the experience of those with 
larger quantities, and while there are laws to protect 
one against destruction by animals that are owned 
by some one, it seems strange that we should be com¬ 
pelled to suffer ravages by birds that are owned by 
nobody, and seem to me utterly worthless (which 
thought is held also by Mr. Morse). It is my opinion 
that there would be as much consistency in protecting 
the silvery-winged Seventeen-year locusts, or the 
beautiful butterflies that are so familiar to the cab¬ 
bage grower. I am a resident of New Jersey, and 
thus far have seen no intimation of the law on this 
subject in this State, and I should very much like to 
know just what view our best authority would take. 
However, it is my intention to gather more cherries 
the coming season, if conditions are such as to pro¬ 
duce them. h. k. h. 
Collingswood, N. J. 
CALF FEEDING.—The scene pictured at Fig. 192 
was sent by a friend in the FarWest without comment. 
The reader is free, therefore, to tell his own story. 
The man has made sure of his own calf by holding it 
by the ear and his eyes are busy watching his com¬ 
panion’s job. When those calves pull their heads out 
of the bucket the young woman’s dress is sure to be 
well covered with milk, in spite of her efforts to keep 
it clean. That is no way to feed a calf. With several 
good calf feeders in place the calves would be better 
satisfied, the milk would not be wasted, and the hu¬ 
mans would doubtless be better satisfied. There is no 
criticism to be made of the picture, however, nor do 
w r e wonder the young man is not looking at the calf, 
but at the other calf feeder. 
