1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
235 
4 CITY MAN TURNS FARMER. 
At Work on the Farm. 
Part III. 
Landed on the farm in the middle of 
September, I began to look around and 
see what preparation must be made for 
the coming Winter. It was self-evident 
that a cow barn must be built at once. 
The large barn formerly on the place, 
had burned to the ground a year pre¬ 
vious and a temporary barn 18x21 feet 
put up, and part of the eight tons of hay 
I had bought was stored in the unused 
barn of a neighbor, one-eighth mile away. 
The question to be solved was whether 
I should run in debt for a large, con¬ 
venient barn, or put up an attachment 
to the one we had, with the, money at 
hand. My family is a unit in one thing 
at least, we all detest debt, and I was 
not long in deciding to adopt the latter 
course. So the cow barn, 16x21 feet, was 
built on the south side of the horse barn 
of tight matched stuff, double-planked 
under the cows, with an air space be¬ 
tween so they would not have to lie on 
frosty boards. The arrangement as 
completed is so convenient that it is 
worthy of description. The floor of the 
COW' barn is two feet lower than the 
horse stall in the main barn, and the 
horse droppings are swept through a 
hole, closed with a sliding door, into a 
box on wheels, and this Is rolled about 
10 feet and dumped into the trough be¬ 
hind the cows, and the contents of the 
trough are thrown every day through 
another sliding doorway back of the 
cows, into a hogpen 12x25 feet which is 
roofed over. Thus there is no flre- 
fanged horse manure, none exposed to 
rains, no fumes arising into cow barn 
from a manure cellar under the cows, 
and the least possible amount of hand¬ 
ling required to get it out of the way. 
buggy was pressing against him from 
his heels to the root of his tail, and he 
was trembling with fear. Standing on 
the hub of the hind wheel I could not 
reach high enough to undo the traces, 
and had to unbuckle them in front, and 
after unfastening the holdback straps I 
took him by the bridle and said, “Come 
Ben,” The old darling jumped 10 feet 
and wheeled around to see what he had 
been holding up. If he had started to 
run, as most horses would, my skull 
would have been crushed in a minute. 
Going down a steep hill in the night 
I have had him stop and refuse to move, 
and getting out And the belly-girth un¬ 
fastened and the shafts over his ears. 
Coming from an evening party with 
three in the buggy, I found thh breast 
collar down around his knees, and he 
had pulled us up a steep hill and one- 
quarter mile, while I wondered why he 
kept stopping and looking around at us. 
He will come to the dining-room door, 
take the doorknob in his mouth and rat¬ 
tle the door for some of us to come and 
give him a cracker or piece of cake or 
candy. I could All pages about Ben, but 
must hasten to other matters. 
The rheumatic boy was discharged, 
and a man hired who agreed to work 
for $8 a month and his board. We all 
had good appetites, but it was a daily 
wonder to me where that man could 
stow away all the food he ate. He was 
a loafer, too; he was handy with an ax, 
and could cut more than a cord of wood 
a day,I afterward learned, but he hardly 
cut enough to keep the flres going. I 
was too green then to know what he 
ought to do, and he took advantage of 
it. G. A. c. 
We had not been on the farm many 
days before we found that a horse must 
be had immediately; and the horse deal¬ 
ers were aware of that necessity, for 
scarcely a day passed that some more 
or less dilapidated specimen of the 
equine species was not displayed and of¬ 
fered for sale. But I did not want any 
“crow bait;” a good horse reflects credit 
on his owner, and gives him the respect 
of men. I had tried to get a horse for 
the Winter for his keeping, but could 
And none. Going to Willimantic at “fair 
time” I was offered a three-year-old 
“Goldbeater” colt for $125, with a writ¬ 
ten guarantee that if I did not like him, 
and wanted to return him in the Spring 
the owner would return the money and 
pay $25 more for his keeping, if he was 
not injured. Of course that proposition 
suited me exactly, and I paid the money, 
also bought a second-hand two-seated 
top carriage (altogether too heavy for 
the horse), a new farm wagon and har¬ 
ness, the latter to be delivered at the 
farm, and started to drive 14 miles at 
5 P. M, over unknown roads with a 
young and untried horse. But my lucky 
star must have been in the ascendant 
that day, for Ben, as we named him, 
brought me safely home, and has been 
the pride and pet of the family ever 
since. He can trot a mile in three min¬ 
utes if I am in a hurry, or can go slow 
enough for the most timid old woman. 
Always, when I go to put on his bridle, 
he puts his head on my shoulder and 
presses his warm nose up against my 
cheek. Little children can do anything 
with him. I have seen three on his back 
at a time, riding him up from the pas¬ 
ture lot, though how they got on him I 
don’t know. Once, when driving out of 
a strange yard at night, a wire clothes¬ 
line caught the top of the buggy and 
turned it over so the front wheels were 
up in the air directly over the hind ones, 
andT I was on my back, heels up, with 
nothing between the back of my head 
and the ground, but the hack curtain of 
the carriage top. 
I instantly called out “Whoa, Ben,” 
and with difiBculty managed to get out, 
and then saw that the bottom of the 
0 "’ 0 ’*' 0 **' 0 '** 0 '*' 0 '*' 0 ’** 0 '*' 0***0 0 ’* 0 **’ 0 **’ 
WM. 
JONES HE PAYS THE FREIGHT. 
JONES OF BINGHAMTON. N. Y. 
Estab. 
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It is a great comfort to have your barns, cattle sheds, etc., well 
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■VX/nte to ANDREW 
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Crates and Berrymen's 
Supplies generally. 
ANDREW REASH. 
New Sprlngtleld, O. 
STONEBOATHEAD 
A G REAT THING. 
Write for Prices. 
WM. BA TES, 
Portland, Mich. 
sclways produces tKe ;5 
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