Vol. LXIII, No. 2833, 
NEW YORK, MAY 14, 1904. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
A DAY'S WORK ATSPRINGBROOK FARM. 
A Family Firm in Pennsylvania. 
In this locality are three adjoining farms operated 
by as many firms of brothers, (two in each case). 
The writer is one of two brothers who operate a farm 
o* 100 acres in a high state of cultivation, owned 
by our father; also a small place of 10 acres across 
the road which we own, and where I reside. Be¬ 
sides this we farm two places (12 and 23 acres re¬ 
spectively), for an uncle who has more 
than reached the scriptural allotted age 
of man, has no children, and is physi¬ 
cally unable to do his work. 
This is a region of mixed farming and 
dairying, farms averaging 60 to 80 acres, 
few larger, many smaller. We operate 
a thrashing outfit in the community. 
The season only lasts abont eight weeks, 
last year only seven weeks. We have 
thrashed 9,000 bushels Of grain. We 
have a 10 horse-power gasoline engine. 
Wages average anywhere from $8 to $15 
per day, according to yield and amount 
of help. We cut and shred 8,000 to 10,- 
000 bundles of fodder every Winter; also 
saw about 90 cords wood annually. For 
two years we raised truck for whole¬ 
sale trade, but discarded that, as it was 
one “side show” too many, and added 
to the labors of the women folks. 
Thursday, October 22, dawned bright 
and clear. Our assistant jumps on his 
“bike,” goes and brings his younger 
brother, who is a “camera fiend/’ and 
in Fig. 167, he shows us at our first work 
of the day. As this is a day off and all r—-w- 
to. 1 
hands are home, we must thrash oats 
for feed, but some hay must be baled 
first to make room for straw. The press 
is our own; a half-sweep; average about 
one ton per hour with our own help. 
It is not as rapid as the belt-power press, 
but answers the purpose. The baling 
done, we draw the press away, and set 
the thrashing outfit directly by the 
building, and we are ready. While we 
are at work, our camera man is told the 
children are at the wood pile assisting 
in the preparations for dinner. He 
catches them, and Fig. 169, page 394, 
shows what he saw, which we think 
might prove an interesting part of this 
article. They delight in doing this, and 
can do it right when the bird is scalded 
to a turn. Notice the truck on which 
they stand; our own make, of two binder 
trucks securely put together with guide 
pole, etc., and is built to carry loads; 
we use it very often. We continue 
thrashing until 11:30, when dinner is an¬ 
nounced. We find the mail has just ar¬ 
rived; Fig. 168, page 394, illustrates it. 
As it is Thursday, Tiie R. N.-Y. has 
come, and we hasten to scan Hope 
Farm Notes before the carrier leaves. 
The mail to-day contains the usual Philadelphia 
aaily, two local dailies; two weekly religious maga¬ 
zines; literature for the Sunday school; letter from 
the children’s “Aunt Hannah,” sister of the two 
Madames in the city, one for our assistant Our car¬ 
rier tells us we get more mail than any other box on 
the route of 23 miles. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the Madames (we 
married two sisters, raised on a truck farm) are 
cleaning house, they have prepared an excellent meal, 
including the aforementioned chicken, fresh sparerib 
(we butchered a small hog yesterday), sweet pototoes, 
fresh corn, celery, and other extras, which make up 
a farmer’s dinner in the Fall from his truck patch. 
We continue thrashing, and the camera catches us 
at the last sheaf in Fig. 167. In the picture I stand 
with knife in hand cutting bands, while my brother 
does the feeding usually. As the older generation of 
your readers compare this with a mental picture of 
the time when they were hoys, when thrashing was 
done in the dead of Winter on Saturdays, when the 
THE FAMILY AT SPRINGBROOK FARM. Fig. 166. 
ONE PART OF THE DAY’S WORK. Fig. 167. 
children were home from school, they feel that farm¬ 
ing methods are completely revolutionized; when self 
cleaners were unknown; likewise gasoline engines, 
rubber and Gandy (canvas) belts. These "good old 
times” are past, never more to return in the world 
of machinery. We find our oats are much better than 
the average, as both oats and wheat were only one- 
half crop. Ours weigh 27 pounds per bushel; yield 30 
bushels per acre; the previous year 60 bushel yield, 34 
pounds per bushel; no use complaining. Our assis¬ 
tant is shoeing a horse, which has lost a shoe in 
drawing the engine home yesterday, and to-day is 
our chance to look over the horses after the thrashing 
is finished, to have them ready to go again to-morrow, 
when we have 10 cords of wood to saw, which we 
expect to saw in four hours. Notice I do not refer 
to our hired man except as our assistant. He de¬ 
serves this more befitting word. I would further add 
he is “not for sale.” He and my brother are both 
excellent hands around machinery, and all repair 
work, and you farmers who “just farm” and pay for 
the shoeing of seven horses, and repair 
work on wagons and machinery, can fig¬ 
ure what we save by a fully equipped 
shop with vises, forge with upright fan, 
drill press, tire shrinker, wheelwright 
tools, etc. Neither learned the trade. 
Our assistant is under my brother, who 
has been at it for five years; never had 
a lame horse yet, and have exceptionally 
good luck tempering and welding. All 
this work keeps us busy, but we look 
forward to a time when we shall discon¬ 
tinue work away from home, and take 
life easier, as our life’s bark sails over 
the billows and we enter the “harbor 
bar.” 
The afternoon is rapidly waning, so 
we persuade the women folks to stop 
house cleaning long enough to gather 
on the front porch and show in this 
article who are responsible for the faith¬ 
ful performance of the various duties, 
both inside and out, on Springbrook 
Farm. See Fig. 166. We appear hero 
just as we are at the time. The children 
both look sour, as it was cool here, and 
they were uneasy to wait long enough. 
I stand at the right, Will on the left, our 
assistant between; Father in the ex¬ 
treme left. Our picture lacks the pres¬ 
ence of Mother, who died just a year 
ago. 
We finish the evening’s work at the 
barn, and partake of supper, which in¬ 
cluded fresh sausage, also scrapple 
which Chester County farmers know how 
to make. We believe in the old adage 
“Early to bed,” etc., hence we retire feel¬ 
ing grateful for the blessings of the day. 
A farm in the country which we call 
home, within three miles of two thriving 
towns of 6,000 and 10,000 population, 
with excellent wholesale and retail mar¬ 
kets, is the place to live. 
HARRY L. DETWILER. 
Chester Co., Pa. 
JERSEYMEN DISCUSS TILES. 
In Favor of Horseshoe Tile. 
On page 344, discussing round vs. 
horseshoe tile, 0. B. S. takes exception 
to what C. G. Elliott says in Bulletin 
187, published by the U. S. Department 
of Agriculture. I am of the same opinion 
as O. B. S. and his neighbors. While I 
have not used round vitrified tile for draining wet 
land, I have had some experience with horseshoe tile, 
having recently completed about half a mile, and they 
are doing their work perfectly, as well as others laid 
years ago. I know of drains that have been laid 40 
years or more, and are still doing good work. We 
use horseshoe tile from three to six inches in diameter 
(according to the amount of water we have to carry), 
one foot in length. Our tile is laid on boards about 
an inch wider than the tile on each side, and tiles 
are covered with marsh hay to keep dirt from wash- 
