1004. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
6o3 
THE EXPERIENCE OF A WOMAN FARMER. 
Veal Calves and Cream for Profit. 
We often see letters in the agricultural papers from 
women wlio have been left with farms on their hands, 
asking advice about trying to get a living from them. 
Where there is a will there is usually a way, and if a 
woman loves the farm and would rather stay there than 
anywhere else in the world, even if she must live very 
plainly, she ought, unless conditions are very hard, to 
be able to make a living and be healthy and happy while 
doing it. If she has health, enthusiasm and common 
sense she need have no fear but what she can get along. 
Situations vary greatly, and a woman needs to have 
a sharp eye for seeing just what advantages she has and 
what disadvantages she must contend with. She must 
consider what kind of farming she likes, and what her 
farm is fitted for. If she has no man relative who will 
live with her and work for her, the question of hired 
help will be even more serious to her than to a man 
farmer. On this account the woman who has a small 
place, where she can do most of her work herself, 
has the advantage over one who must hire help the year 
round. One mistake the woman farmer is very likely 
to make is that of overworking herself. The tempta¬ 
tion is very great to do so, but she must remember that 
her health, is her capital, and she must 
husband it accordingly. In my own case 
there have been a number of different 
things I have done to bring in money, but 
1 see that it will not pay for me to get 
tired out and run down, so each year 
finds me doing fewer of these things and 
giving more ot my attention to the main 
issue in our business. I have tried these 
“side shows” enough to know that they 
are profitable, but one woman cannot do 
the work of two or three, and so the less 
profitable ones are dropped. 
As usually happens at the approach of 
cold weather, the cream trade increases. 
One would naturally think that the straw¬ 
berry season would be the time when 
cream would be in most demand, but such 
is not the case in my experience. Many 
people do not use ice at all, and cannot 
keep anything so perishable as cream. 
Others, after buying strawberries, do not 
feel that they can afford the further lux¬ 
ury of cream. The vacation season also 
tends to make the trade unsteady. So it 
happens that a part of our Summer cream 
goes to ice cream makers. But when 
school begins and cold weather comes on, 
trade picks up, and is very good all 
through the Winter. We plan to have 
most of our cows, freshen in the Fall; if 
we did not we should run short of cream. 
Our business is small, but it has more than 
trebled since we began, two years and a 
half ago. Besides this we find the demand 
much more steady. The greatest trouble 
we have had is with bitter cows. It is 
very discouraging to find that one of the 
cows is giving bitter milk. It hurts the 
flavor of all the cream, and if one does 
not furnish a first-class article there is no 
hope of gaining trade. So the bitter cow 
has to go, and of course we lose money on 
her. We learn by experience, and if we 
should have a bitter cow this Fall we 
should turn her to good account by fin¬ 
ishing off veal calves on her milk. 
It seems to be impossible to fatten veals on separator 
milk, though I have not yet tried ground flaxseed, not 
having been able to procure it. They grow fast and 
look well conditioned, but the butcher finds no fat in 
them. He does not complain, but we know lie would 
like them better if they were fat. This vealing of 
calves is a profitable way of disposing of the skim-milk, 
but there is little satisfaction in producing anything 
unless it is the best of its kind, and separator milk will 
not make the best veal. When the time comes that we 
can afford to raise our own cows, the separator milk 
wil be just the thing to make the calves grow and thrive. 
We have about come to the conclusion that we have 
never till lately fed our cows enough grain. We have 
also made some changes in the kind of grain we feed, 
and have dropped cotton-seed meal altogether. By 
keeping a daily milk record we can see what the cows 
are doing, and we find that our different feeding has 
increased the yield. 
We hired a man and two horses to work a day pulling 
out stones on our next year’s potato patch. The piece 
was greensward just plowed, naturally well drained and 
rather light soil. I he stones, or rocks, were dug around 
and then a heavy log-chain fastened about them and the 
chain hitched to the whiffle-tree. Two horses can pull 
out a big rock this way, if the chain stays on. When 
we have got out all the stones of this size it will be 
time to dynamite the bigger ones. A good many stones 
were pulled out in that one day. We had them dragged 
off and left beside the new piece of road we have built 
across the muddy, boggy place in the pasture. It has 
been a nuisance for years to cart wood or gravel through 
this slough in Winter or early Spring. This year we 
had a narrow stone bridge built in the lowest place to 
let the water off that runs there, then the hollow on 
each side* of the bridge was filled in with stones and 
these covered with gravel. One end is not quite firt- 
ished, but the rest is high and dry, this muddy time. 
SUSAN liKOWN ROBBINS. 
OWNER AND FARM MANAGER. 
Some of These Relations Explained. 
THE CITY FARMER.—Good managers arc hard to 
find. It is very hard for a city man, especially if he 
lived on a farm when a boy 40 or 50 years ago, to 
understand that he is not a farmer, or that there is a 
vast difference between the way his father farmed then 
and the methods an up-to-date manager would employ 
to-day. There arc many differences between the man¬ 
agement of a farm and factory; the uncertainty of crops, 
changeable markets and prices, and other things beyond 
DWARF JUNEBERRY “SUCCESS,” NATURAL SIZE. 
See Ruralisms, I’age 606. 
the control of owner or manager. But it seems to .me 
the great difference is this: In a factory the owner 
knows his business; probably has built it up from a 
small beginning. On a farm owned by a city man he 
knows very little about the management; still he thinks 
he does. The result is failure. The owner cannot tell 
the reason; everyone else knows the reason very well. 
FARM MANAGER’S DUTIES.—What should be 
expected of a manager? After planning with the owner 
the work to be done, crops to grow and where to grow 
them, he should be expected to see that the work is 
done in the proper manner, and he should be responsible 
for its being so done. He should also ne free to do this 
without interference if capable. If not capable he has 
no business there. He should have absolute control of 
all farm help, and be left to say if a man is good for 
anything or not. If tools, team, stock, seeds, fertilizer 
or anything else needed on the place are to be bought 
he should get it, after deciding with the owner that 
such a purchase is best. This unless, as in some cases, 
the owner is better situated in his place of business to 
get some of these articles. The manager should be re¬ 
sponsible for the good care of all tools and stock, lie 
must keep proper accounts to be rendered to the owner 
of all disbursements and receipts, and the more close 
accounts he keeps With each crop and all stock the bet¬ 
ter. But he should not be expected to do this nights 
and Sundays. 
HOW 11 WORKS.—Flow can such a combination 
be made to work? In the first place, get a man who 
thoroughly understands all branches of his work; a 
modern up-to-date man; one who is not frightened or 
incredulous when hearing of a cow giving 12,000 pounds 
of milk per year, or 500 pounds of butter, or of raising 
four or more tons hay per acre; rather a man who can 
get these results. After getting such a man let him 
alone. The owner is in a new business, even if reared 
on a farm. Times have changed and so has he. He is 
a merchant, manufacturer or professor, but not a farmer, 
and probably never can be. He should not undertake 
to tell a farmer how to raise hay, turnips, corn or calves; 
for him to do this means certain failure. 
CARE OF I HE FARM.—Again, get him good stock, 
not scrubs! Not a herd of purebred cows, but good 
grades, and as good a sire as money will buy, not fancy- 
points, but from solid working stock, and as many 
fancy points as the owner pleases to pay for. The 
owner should not lay out large sums of money on 
buildings, lawns, fences, etc., expecting an old run-down 
farm keeping eight or ten cows (but which could be 
made to keep 50) to pay all the bills. Fie must give 
his manager time to get such a farm on a paying basis, 
remembering this takes time and money. 
But once get land in good condition, and 
good stock on the farm, if well managed 
it will pay, and will be a pleasure to all 
parties. 
NEW ENGLAND CONDITIONS.— 
I have written from conditions as they 
appear to me to exist in New England, as 
I know nothing outside of that by expe¬ 
rience, and more particularly of dairy 
farming, yet the same rules will apply to 
other branches and localities. This is a 
very important question at present. There 
are large sums of money invested in such 
farms, and in too many cases the expected 
profit and pleasure has only proved loss 
and disappointment. There is much more 
which would be invested in this way if 
the owner could be sure of paying even 
the expenses. But from his knowledge of 
the experience of others he hesitates. It 
seems to me there are two prime causes 
for these failures. First, there are many 
men who wish to hold positions as fore¬ 
men or managers who are not capable of 
holding such positions; they are not up to 
the times. They can farm as their grand¬ 
fathers did; probably are capable of doing 
a good day’s or year’s work, or getting 
other men to do so, but come to the proper 
cultivation of old dead soil, raising best 
crops to feed dairy stock, feeding balanced 
rations, or breeding fine stock, they know 
nothing about it; don’t believe in these 
things and don’t wish to. Such men can 
not give satisfaction on a farm of this 
kind. Then the owner is many times at 
fault. He has his own ideas, and they 
must be carried out regardless of results. 
When failure comes the manager or men 
must stand the blame, although they ad¬ 
vised differently. Their farms are nearly 
always old run-down places. The owner 
does not realize this as a farmer does. 
He too often gets poor stock and improper 
tools; then because the manager does not 
make both ends meet the first or second 
year a new manager must be found, or the property is 
left idle or sold. Many times, too, the owner’s family is 
on the place four to six months of the year. This is 
not reckoned as an income when accounts are footed 
up, and is of much trouble to the manager and farm 
help. T his cannot be realized by the owner. 
Walden, Vt. c. n. h. 
CURING ALFALFA.—On page 524 you state that 
Alfalfa leaves shatter badly during curing stage, and are 
largely lost before storing. This is correct when not 
properly cured. Cut the Alfalfa (when about onc- 
eight'i is in blossom) after dew is off and rake next 
day, and put up in shocks at once, allowing it to cure 
in shock. 'The size of shocks should be medium. Bet¬ 
ter to stand a week in shock than become too dry before 
raking, as long exposure to heat of sun is one cause of 
leaves falling. I have sometimes put in barn when 
large bunches at bottom of shock were very green; 
then scattered about two quarts of salt to a load, and 
not the slightest sign of mold occurred when cured in 
this manner. One sack would hold all leaves falling 
from three tons at barn. My stand of Alfalfa is very 
thick and stalks fine. If stand is thin and stalks coarse 
it may be cut and shocked same day, provided it is good 
drying weather. Better to be in shock even if very green 
than allow it to be bleached with- rain- f. a.- G/ 
Jefferson Co., Col. 
Fig. 268. 
