1904 
427 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
L/UV AND THE ROBIN. 
There can never be a law that will be enforced if the 
enforcement deprives a citizen of the inalienable right 
to protect his property in the only way that it can be 
protected. The State punishes the thief, highwayman 
or burglar, but for obvious reasons refuses to punish 
the robin, or other wild animals. In Ohio we have per 
capita tax on dogs of $1 each. The owner has the right 
to place a valuation on his dog and have it listed along 
with his personal property, but this will not exempt 
him from the per capita tax. The owner must pay the 
per capita tax and the personal property tax before 
the State will recognize the dog as property. Any dog 
that chases, worries, injures or kills any domestic animal 
or person may be killed by any person at any time or 
place, and the owner cannot recover a cent though it is 
listed at $100 as personal property. But if the dog is 
killed or maliciously injured when it is doing no harm 
the owner can recover the amount that it is listed at. 
The dog that is not listed as personal property gets no 
more protection from the law than a rat does. The 
State owns the robin just as the poor man owns the 
unlisted dog. The State if sued for damages will deny 
ownersnip of the robin, and the law of exemption will 
keep you from getting damages from the owner of the 
dog. Your only redress is to kill both robin and dog 
There are, perhaps, good robins and good dogs, but 
they are not alive. The robin is the greatest existing 
menace to the small-fruit grower, and the dog is the 
greatest existing menace to civilization. My greatest 
regret is that 1 was born before they were both exter¬ 
minated. If any reader of 1 he R. N.-Y. is ever arrested 
for killing robins that are destroying his fruit I will 
subscribe at least a dollar for his defense. E. tully. 
THE FARM OWNER AND THE MANAGER. 
Of late a good deal has been said about com¬ 
bining labor and cap¬ 
ital on a farm with 
unsatisfactory results. 
The question often 
arises,whose fault is it? 
The matt upon whom 
the blame falls is nat¬ 
urally the manager. Is 
lie wholly to blame? I 
should say not; nor 
does the fault lie al¬ 
together with the man 
who owns the farm. 
Many of our large 
and successful farmers 
to-day are conducting 
their operations on a 
business basis, through 
a manager. They arc 
on their farms only a 
few hours at a time, 
with the exception, per¬ 
haps, of two or three 
months in the Summer, 
and must therefore 
have the place in com¬ 
petent, reliable hands. Tile price that sonic managers 
command would astonish the average farmer, possi¬ 
bly, but that is where many an owner makes his first 
mistake, lie allows himself to think his farm will not 
support a high-priced manager and gets along with a 
cheaper man, who, although perhaps a good worker, is 
hardly a good second man, and lacking in judging and 
confidence in himself. * 
A manager should be expected at all times to take 
complete charge of the place. Orders from the owner 
should go direct to the manager, and to none of the 
men, as a man cannot work for two masters. It should 
be his duty to see that all orders are strictly carried 
out to the satisfaction of the owner. He should be 
responsible for the orders issued, the welfare of the 
stock, the general appearance of the place and the 
condition of the tools and machinery. He should be 
consulted in the hiring of help, free at any time to lay 
off any man who does not fill his position and replace 
him, and in the absence of the owner to hire extra help 
when needed. He should be free to make necessary 
repairs, and suggest improvements, both on the place 
and machinery; and should always be informed regard¬ 
ing the disposal of salable produce and stock. A man¬ 
ager cannot properly fill his position on a place of any 
size if he has to wait upon the house, do the work of 
the barns, garden and lawns and the dozen other things 
that should fall to the lot of the general chore boy. If 
the owner is on the place he .should make it a point 
every day to talk over with the manager the plans for 
the succeeding day in regard to the putting in of crops, 
laying out of grounds* or anything out of the ordi¬ 
nary routine. I his greatly simplifies matters for. the 
manager, and leaves him in a position to keep things 
running smoothly 
Can such a combination of skilled labor and capital 
be made to work? 
To my mind there is no safer investment than the 
buying of a good farm. Combined with the practical 
knowledge of a competent farmer who is a good sales¬ 
man, it will, if properly managed, make a paying busi¬ 
ness. But an owner is too seldom willing to pay for a 
good manager, as they are few and come high, and in 
many cases the owner expects too much. 
How can a farm be run on a paying basis? 
First, when a man unaccustomed to farming starts 
out to buy his farm let him take with him a practical 
farmer who has no interest whatever in the transac¬ 
tion, preferably one who has seen many farms in dif¬ 
ferent localities and has wide, up-to-date ideas. He, 
being educated to the business, can see almost at a 
glance what a place is worth, and how it can best be 
managed. If he already has the place the specialist 
can inform him what crops would do best on his land 
and be handled to the best advantage in his local market 
or with his transportation facilities. This would save 
him many unnecessary experimental expenses, and start 
him right. 
Second, let the owner decide what per cent of interest 
on money invested he expects his farm to pay, being 
caretul not to expect too much the first few years. 
When hiring his manager let him make it clearly under¬ 
stood that all surplus profit over said per cent is to 
be shared with him* stating definite proportion. The 
profit-sharing plan is no longer an experiment, as it is 
practiced and commended by many of our largest and 
most successful manufacturers. This plan, giving a 
man a definite point to«work up to, and a personal 
interest in the place, will pull him through many hard 
places where otherwise he might become discouraged 
or fail entirely. 
Third, let the machinery and tools be A No. 1, and 
new. Repairs on second-hand machinery soon mount 
up to more than the cost of men, to. say nothing of the 
expense involved in waste of time and hindrance to 
work. 
Last, but not least, buy a good team and high-grade 
stock. It costs no more to raise a well-bred animal 
than a mongrel, and it sells for several times as much. 
In farming as in any other business there should be a 
strict system of bookkeeping. Then at any time a 
man knows just where he stands. " One of the best 
things that any farmer can do is to invest at least five 
dollars per year in the leading agricultural journals. 
The practical knowledge gained thus will put many 
times that sum in his pocket in the course of the year. 
Plainville, Conn. h. b. g. 
RENT FOR A DAIRY FARM. 
I wish to rent a tract of land for dairy purposes, but 
cannot agree with owner on price. What would be right 
and fair for both parties? Said land adjoins my own farm, 
and consists of about 40 acres of pasture on hill; good 
land, some rocks, but no brush ; 20 to 25 acres of meadows, 
cutting a fair crop of mixed hay. Meadows are smooth. 
I am to have use of barn, all of the hay to be fed on the 
place, no laud to be plowed, the manure to be applied on 
meadows as top-dressing. I sell milk at wholesale at the 
door, receiving an average price of three cents per quart 
year around. reader. 
Connecticut. 
I should suggest that the owner of the land should 
have two-fifths and the renter three-fifths of the value 
of the milk produced at three cents per quart. 
Fairfield Co., Conn. e. c. birge. 
We are renting a tract of 40 acres adjoining our farm. 
About 25 acres are good pasture, the remainder good 
meadow land. No building and we fertilize or not as 
we please. We pay $130 per year, which is rather a 
high price, but the land sold for $200 per acre, as it is 
finely located near town. If the land you mention is 
not too near town to affect its value we should think 
$125 a fair price, while $150 might not be out of the way. 
1 he price would depend upon its nearness to market 
and the present cash value of the land. We know of 
good grass farms divided into pasture, wood and 
meadow, a few miles from town, that are selling at 
$5 to $12 per acre, including buildings. 
H. G. MANCHESTER. 
It is hard to give an accurate answer to your ques¬ 
tion. When a whole farm has been rented around here 
the usual custom if on shares has been one-half to each 
and tenant and landlord each furnishing one-half of 
stock. In this case the landlord, as I take it, furnishes 
no stock, and in addition it is natural to suppose that 
the tenant, if in milk business, will feed some grain, 
which, as manure is all put on place, goes to help farm. 
These two items, both in favor of landlord, demand a 
larger share to go to tenant. It strikes me that the 
tenant should have two-thirds of returns if on shares. 
If for cash it is very hard to give satisfactory answer, 
as land in New England varies so much even in the same 
town, but to anyone familiar with rental prices in the 
adjoining neighborhood it should be possible to adjust 
price based on ideas given above. 
Windham Co., Conn. everett e. brown. 
I know of a small farm of 55 acres, first-class build¬ 
ings in every respect, 15 acres in a high state of culti¬ 
vation, 20 acres in fair condition and 20 acres of rough 
pasture, with good water, that rents for $175. The 
location is good and the price seems high enough. 
There is no live stock with it, but the owner keeps the 
buildings in good repair. The land under the rental 
system is improving, as I have had reason to observe 
carefully for seven years. The above amount repre¬ 
sents the whole cost, including taxes. All other condi¬ 
tions being equal, the productivity might make $100 dif¬ 
ference in its value, varying from $100 to $200. If the land 
is worth $40 an acre at 
five per cent it would 
give the owner $2 per 
acre or $130 for the lot; 
or if worth more or 
less the rental would 
be more or less. I am 
not sure that any more 
just or satisfactory 
basis could be agreed 
upon. There might be 
some disagreement as 
to value. A standard 
is, however, usually 
pretty well established 
in every neighborhood, 
and you certainly ought 
to agree within $10 per 
acre, and in so doing 
you would agree within 
50 cents an acre, or 
$32.50 on the lot. The 
fencing expense is al¬ 
ways a problem in such 
cases. It is customary 
here whatever may be 
the consideration for the owner to furnish material and 
the tenant to do the work. Again, if the owner is desir¬ 
ous of continuing the rental a long period he should, 
if you will take it, accept a lower price. If the land 
was mine I should probably consider first of all what 
kind of man the tenant is. If I could feel sure that the 
land would improve, the disposition would be to keep 
him if the rental was not high. If the tenant is, on the 
other hand, a man who gets all he can and then runs, 1 
should feel like going shy or of securing a high value. 
There is perhaps no contract more flexible than one 
concerning land rental. Two cows may to the casual 
observer be just alike, and yet have a value varying 100 
per cent. The whole thing hangs on quality. 
New York. *h. e. c. 
VALUE OF APPLE ORCHARDS.—The price per 
acre for good farms with orchard varies as to location 
and nearness to market. A fair value of orcharding 
alone would be $10 to $12 a tree and there are usually 
40 trees to the acre. There are not many orchards ex¬ 
cept on farms, and these farms are assessed from $40 
to $60 per acre. We have many farms where they pick 
from 1,000 to 1,500 barrels and a few 2,000 to 3,500. 
Many of them would be a good investment from $200 to 
$250 per acre. Good farms with smaller orchards can 
be bought for from $60 to $125 per acre, which would 
be assessed at less figures and would be a good invest¬ 
ment for anyone to buy and to set out trees on. There 
is one eight-acre orchard and another 3>2 acres, each 
assessed about alike—$1,000. The eight-acre has quite 
a number of trees missing; on the other none missing, 
which makes the assessment the satnt. It is a hard 
matter to put values upon orchard lands. I should 
advise the setting of fruit trees as an investment upon 
good soil. j. b. 
Orleans Co., N. Y, 
HENViLLE— A VILLAGE OF HEN SHANTIES. Fig. 185. 
