1904 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
111 
A WOMAN FARMER'S BUSY DAY. 
It was one of those days when a good many neces¬ 
sary things are done, but when nothing of great im¬ 
portance is accomplished. It must be explained that 
this particular woman farmer has a family consisting 
of herself, an invalid sister, a brother and his little 
girl of two years, a young woman who comes in to 
help about the housework, and on this particular day 
a young man who did the chores in the morning and 
came again to do them at night, the uncle who 
usually does the work being away on a vacation. 
The woman farmer got up at about a quarter be¬ 
fore five. She built the fire, got breakfast, put up 
her brother’s dinner, and when the child awoke 
dressed her and gave her something to eat. Then, as 
it was a little later than usual, she went out while 
her brother was finishing his breakfast and har¬ 
nessed the horse into the covered wagon. This wagon, 
by the way, was new in her grandfather’s day and 
has been in use for 50 years and is good, everyone 
says, for another 50. Then she carried her brother 
to the electric cars a mile and a half away, taking 
the child also, as she enjoys the ride and it keeps 
her out of the way of the young woman, who comes 
at six and has the separating to attend.to. On the 
way to the electrics, the woman farmer saw the man 
who was to carry away a veal calf that day, and 
found that he had not received the message she had 
sent. When she reached home she left the horse 
harnessed, fed the calves, and ate her own breakfast 
with the rest of the family. 
The man came for the calf and she found that no 
word had been sent to the inspector, so she told the 
man to be ready to kill the calf at two o’clock. Then 
she went over to a back field and gathered 
some sweet corn, and after changing her 
dress she took the corn and the bottled 
cream from two milkings and started to 
the village. She had to leave cream at 
three houses and a store, and she sold the 
green corn to private customers. Then 
she went to notify the cattle inspector to 
go and inspect the veal at two o’clock. She 
came home, unharnessed the horse and 
gave her a pail of water. While she had 
been away the young woman had had a 
busy time. The child was not taken on 
the peddling trip, as there were too many 
errands. She was cutting teeth, and was 
rather fretty, and that hindered about the 
work. The young woman washed dishes 
and separator, swept the kitchen floor, 
made beds, and did quite a large ironing, 
besides making preparation for dinner. 
The woman farmer, upon her return 
from the village, got up the invalid and 
washed, dressed and combed her hair. Just 
as she finished that an aunt and cousin 
came to spend the day, and she sat down 
with them for a little while. By this time 
it was 11 o’clock, and so the woman farm¬ 
er got the child her dinner and after she 
she had eaten it put her to sleep. Then she 
helped about getting dinner and fed the 
horse and calves and hens. As the family were sit¬ 
ting down to the table, three strange cows were dis¬ 
covered to be in the garden. The woman farmer and 
the young woman rushed out and drove them up the 
road. They returned just before dinner was over, 
and had to be driven away again. 
After dinner and dishwashing the woman farmer 
THE CHILD STANDS EXPECTANT. Fig. 48. 
planned the supper and helped the young woman 
gather the vegetables and get them ready to cook. At 
half-past two she harnessed the horse and went to 
the butcher’s to get the veal. It was all ready, the 
inspector having put his stamp on it. She had to 
carry the veal to a market in the north end of the 
town, then she came home through the Center, leav¬ 
ing the calf’s hide at the expressman’s to be carried 
to the city and sold. 
Upon reaching home, she started up the kitchen 
fire, set the table for supper, put the separator to¬ 
gether—the young woman having gone home by this 
“THE CHILD ENJOYS THE RIDE.” Fig. 49. 
time. She changed the child’s dress and was about to 
start to the cars to meet her brother, when she saw 
the stray cows in a field of clover. She hurried out 
and drove up her own cows, putting them in the 
barn. Then with the help of her company she drove 
the strangers into the lane and shut them in. Then, 
with the child, she took the company to the elec¬ 
trics, where she left them, and met her brother and 
brought him back with her. 
When she got home again, her really busy time 
began. She put on potatoes and corn to cook—the 
green shell beans had been on while she was away— 
and cut up the bread and put on the other food. 
When the young man brought in the milk she strain¬ 
ed it into the separator and tended the machine 
while he turned the crank. She washed the milk pail 
and strainer cloth and cooled some milk for supper, 
took the separator apart and put it to soak, set the 
cream to cooling, fed the calves, fried liver and made 
gravy, seasoned the beans, took up the corn and pota¬ 
toes and blew the conch-shell for supper. After sup¬ 
per she bottled the cream and hung it down the well 
in a big pail. Then she washed the separator and 
milk cans and an enormous quantity of dishes, and 
after that mixed bread and kneaded it, and then put 
the invalid to bed. She paid a visit to the barn to 
see that everything was safe for the night. She 
locked the house door and then her day’s work was 
done, it being about nine o’clock. Although the hours 
are longer and the work at time harder than in some 
other callings, the woman farmer would not change, 
for she likes the independence and variety of her life. 
Massachusetts. susan brown bobbins. 
R. N.-Y.—It will be noticed that the farmer who 
thus records a genuinely busy day caters to a retail 
trade among private customers, which entails a good 
deal of work, though with satisfactory returns. When 
we combine this with the responsibilities of nurse and 
housekeeper, we have material for a truly “strenuous 
life.” 
GRAFTING PEACHES; KEEPING SCIONS. 
On page 52 J. D. S., Leavitt, N. C., asks whether 
peach can be root-grafted, and if so, when and how. 
H. E. V. D. answers that it is a practical failure so 
far as he has ever seen, or tried it himself. For J. 
D. S.’s encouragement I would say that I have had, 
in a limited way, fairly good success in crown graft¬ 
ing one-year seedling peach trees by using perfectly 
dormant scions (some of them cut in December), dig¬ 
ging away a couple of inches of earth from the seed¬ 
ling row, putting scion in by cleft-graft method a 
little below original surface of soil, covering all cut 
surfaces with warm grafting wax and hoeing back 
earth to the top buds of grafts, and this just as the 
buds of the seedlings are beginning to start growth 
perceptibly. Earlier or later grafting has not been 
nearly so favorable. My experience is that this par¬ 
ticular period is much the best time to graft chestnut 
and persimmon. With the apple I have no trouble 
in top working from April 1 until middle of June, 
even when the young apples are large enough to cook. 
To J. D. S. I would suggest that he try grafting a part 
of his little seedlings and bud the others. In either 
case he must have perfectly dormant buds. Possibly, 
like many others, including myself, cold storage fa¬ 
cilities are not conveniently at hand, and so for his 
advantage and possibly to many others, I will give 
my method of keeping grafting wood of whatsoever 
kind. Obtain a box (one in which rubber boots have 
been shipped to the shoe store is good), reasonably 
tight, and say about 30 inches long, 14 inches wide 
and 18 inches deep and without cover. Cut three or 
four slender strips, exact length of inside width of 
the box, these should be nailed across the box equal 
distance from each other and the ends, 
and down inside two inches from top 
edges of box all around. Now turn box 
bottom upwards. Close to one end saw 
cut a hole 10 inches square. Also obtain 
a piece of board 12 inches or more square 
for a movable cover to put over hole. In 
a convenient spot of high dry ground dig 
a hole just large enough for this box to 
push down into, having at the bottom for 
it to rest upon a couple of pieces of 2x4 
scantling. Box should come only a few' 
inches above the natural surface and have 
th^ earth filled up to its top around out¬ 
side, so there will be a little downward 
slope in all directions. Put scions through 
the hole on to the slatted bottom, entirely 
filling the box, if you wish so many scions, 
but nothing else. Put trap door over hole 
with a little fine earth around its edges to 
exclude air, then cover all straw or hay 
three feet deep in form of a long stack or 
rick, and broad enough at base to exclude 
frost, also outside heat in Summer, and 
where there is much rainfall there should 
be two board sides, separable, but leaning 
together at top when in use simply to shed 
off rain or snow. To get at scions dig 
away the straw at the end over the trap 
hole, remove cover and your scions are at 
hand. After once removing the straw at this end it 
is afterwards easy to pull away enough to get at box. 
Now as to results. With absolutely no further care the 
scions are in perfect condition; that is to say abso¬ 
lutely dormant for many months. As a matter of 
exact fact, early this Winter, when I began putting 
in new scion wood, I threw out quite a quantity of 
wood which had been in a year, apparently in as 
perfect condition for grafting as it was last April, 
and some still good that had been in two years. I am 
still retaining some old wood in the graft box. Peach 
will not keep as long as other kinds of scions, and l 
“THE WAGON HAS BEEN IN USE FOR 50 YEARS.” FlO 51. 
do not believe it could be kept past the early Sum¬ 
mer, much of it not that long. f. o. h. 
Williamsburg, Iowa. 
R. N.-Y.—We have had fair success in Spring-graft¬ 
ing peach seedlings by the method above detailed, ex¬ 
cept that ordinary waxed cloth strips were used to 
seal the cut surfaces. These crown-grafts make good 
trees but the union is likely to harbor borers for a 
season or two. 
WORKING THE SEPARATOR. Fig. 50. 
