1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
835 
A PIONEER OF THE BACKWOODS. 
How the Forest was Trained to Fertility. 
With the great flow of Irish emigration to this 
country about the middle of the last century, came 
Richard Haley, “Uncle Dick,” as we familiarly call 
him. Like many of his couuitrymen, he sought work 
in the tanning industry, which was then being de¬ 
veloped in the hemlock forests of Sullivan County, in 
New York State. But his love of independence and 
of nature soon induced Uncle Dick to turn to the soil 
for a means of livelihood. He bought 50 acres of land, 
and set himself to the iask of making a farm and a 
home. What remains of his first home in America 
after weathering the storms of more than 50 years, is 
shown in Fig. 378, taken from a recent photograph, 
while at Fig. 377 is a picture of the old gentleman 
himself. To make a farm in this wilderness, 40 miles 
from the nearest railroad, was no easy iask. The 
land had to be cleared of timber by hand, as he had 
no team, and no money with which to buy one. The 
timber piled and l)urned, the stones must be removed, 
and finally the vii'gin soil stirred by rude baud imple¬ 
ments, and the crop planted and cultivated amid the 
green stumps and itough rootlets of the recently felled 
timber. From this modest beginning Mr. Haley has 
developed a small farm with suitable improvements 
and a comfortable home, which he still lives to enjoy. 
The efficient partner of his early struggles. Aunt 
Kitty, went to her eternal home about 20 years ago. 
May rest and peace abide her gentle patient soul! 
Four children and numerous grandchil¬ 
dren live to comfort his declining years. 
Uncle Dick has been a man of keen ob¬ 
servation and great imaginative powers. 
He knew nothing of books, but he 
learned philosophy from nature. True, 
his logic is sometimes faulty, and his 
conclusions often misleading, but there 
is an attractive originality about his 
reasoning, and his descriptions are al¬ 
ways vivid and at times decidedly ro¬ 
mantic. As a boy, he terrorized me with 
accounts of spooks that pursued him on 
the road, and of fairies that led him 
astray through a wood and meadow; 
but he found soothing drops for my 
toothache,helped me mount the load for 
a ride, and gave partial evidence, when 
the paternal judgment was about to de¬ 
scend on my youthful pranks. His femi¬ 
nine gentleness won my affections when 
a lad, and his simple life, fearless cour¬ 
age, and sterling honesty commanded 
my admiration and respect in maturer 
years. To the modern readers there is 
little in the subject of this sketch to 
suggest an idea of hospitality. Yet of 
the complete and cosily homes that now 
dot the country, I doubt if a single one 
has ever sheltered so many weary trav¬ 
elers as this rude cabin. Immigrants 
without means came to this strange 
country to seek employment. In this 
humble home, they shared ihe frugal 
meal, and found shelter and welcome. 
It is a tradition of the neighborhood 
that at one time, the representatives of seven families 
made this house their home. Yet with all their hard¬ 
ships and privations, these early seitlers were not 
without their ambitions and their sentiments. In the 
legends of the place, “Dick’s log house” is the center 
of some spicy romances. It is said that hei’e the 
blushing widow pursued and won her timid lover, and 
that here coy maiden stole from ithe glare of the 
tallow dip to the shelter of nearby woods, there to 
lend a willing ear to the awkward but fervent whis¬ 
perings of the rugged swain, who had followed her 
from their native County Cork. j. j. n. 
THE '‘PROMOTERS’ AND THE FARMER. 
Last week we made some remarks about a company 
that is trying to sell shares of stock in a mammoth 
storage concern. Here we have some comments on the 
scheme from a local farmer who has not been victimized. 
Of course, a “well-known resident’! takes the pro¬ 
moter around, thus getting tips on where to call, but 
I must give him the credit of being fully able to blow 
his own horn without even a word from another. 
Somehow the promises he made of being able to sell 
a $5 grade of flour for $3 and other things in propor¬ 
tion, and selling apples for $7 per barrel, etc., for 
the farmers, were so attractive that, coupled with 
his 12 per cent income, they allured or mesmerized the 
farmers about here and they fell into his trap at 
once, and without investigation, before their sober 
second thoughts warned them of the absurdity of his 
statements. “Down the trusts, farmers, by my ideal 
•trust of your own making.” Queer, isn’t it, that babies 
a.nd monopolies are wholly wrong till you have one 
of your own! The point of view makes a lot of dif¬ 
ference. Among farmers he was a prosperous farmer 
near Buffalo, and to others he was a millionaire, sev¬ 
eral times over, desirous of getting stock in this won¬ 
derful company, and to do so he would buy up the 
shares of all dissatisfied parties. Some time in Janu¬ 
ary next a meeting of the shareholders is to be called, 
when ground will be broken for the store (or silo), 
and one-fourth of the subscriptions must be paid in. 
Rather a cold time we fancy for a lot of country lambs 
to be rounded up and shorn. In the Winter, when the 
farmer cannot work, the sharper works the farmer. 
Less than a year ago our village could have secured 
a cash milk-buying creamery at no expense whatever 
if some of these same farmers would agree to sell 
their milk; but no, they were afraid of a well-known 
man and cash payments. Now, a stranger bags all of 
them on an investment scheme. 
OBJECTS TO THE "KID WAGON." 
I saw in a recent issue of 'I'liic R. N.-Y. a short ar¬ 
ticle on centralized schools. The writer did not tell 
all the grievances, nor could he in one paper. My son 
is a patron of such a scho<jl, and we can speak from 
experience which proves a dear lesson. Our little boy 
is nine years old, and we live V/z mile from the 
school, but he is obliged to get up before daylight to 
be ready for the old rickety “kid wagon,” for the 
driver will not wait a minute. Then he is drawn 
around the country five miles to get IVz mile. There 
arc from IS to 20 in the load, mostly large scholars. 
Some are making love to one another, some are down 
on the bottom of the wagon pounding each other, 
some are singing some vulgar song, some are tired of 
riding and are trying it on foot with mud up to their 
knees. This crowd does not arrive home again until 
long after night. Oh, how can anyone think this the 
proper way to send children to school! 1 will admit 
the transportation is the worst thing about it, al¬ 
though who is there that would like to have a little 
one six years old five or eight miles from home sick, 
with no one to care for him? This happens in the 
Winter quite often, but they are obliged to stay at 
school until the “kid wagon” goes at night. I have 
said “kid wagon”; they are drawn in open sleds 
through all the worst weather, with no robes but a 
horse blanket that has been over the old horses 
through the day, stiff with dirt and filth. Some wise 
men say all this decreases our taxes. Please figure it 
right. The transportation costs nearly as much as 
our good old district schools used to, and thalt is a 
very small part of the expense, but I for one care 
nothing for the cost if they would only make the 
children comfortable. If that man or body of men 
who made this law could be placed back in their lives 
at the age of six, and obliged to attend such a school, 
it would serve them right. Yes, attend in this way 
or not at all. There were three frail little children 
who could not go at all last Winter; they lived hve 
miles from school. mother. 
Portage Co., 0. 
Thkuk lias not been much rot among potatoes about 
here. The crop has been good in this county. Some big 
yields have been reported. I see some report very large 
tubers. I will send you weight of sweet potatoes that I have 
this season grown in my garden here in Chemung County, 
N. Y. One weighed 3 pounds 9 ounces, next largest 2(4 
pounds. What is the use of going South to grow sweets? 
Elmira, N. Y. a. n. 
cow CARE AND CATALPAS. 
A Tree that Sows Itself. 
It is a rare thing that I read a copy of The R. N.-Y. 
without congratulating myself that it is on my list. 
Kspecially do I wish to thank Mr. Van Alstyne for 
the article in the November 23 issue upon dairy cows 
and their management. We heard and read so much 
about tying cows to their mangers for six months in 
the year, and some even wanting to keep them there 
the year round, that it is a comfort to find one who 
speaks as one having aiuthority in favor of air, sun¬ 
light and exercise for the poor cows. The man who, 
to save a few pounds of feed, will tie his cows to a 
manger and squirt tuberculin into them to see how 
fast he is killing them may think he is humane, but 
he isn’t. 
Mr. Van Deman failed to answer E. A. G., Norfolk, 
Mass., in the same issue, as fully as he might in re¬ 
gard to the Catalpa tree. What he said was all right. 
It grows large and grows quickly, but once grown it 
becomes a nuisance. A good-sized tree will grow 
thousands of seeds that the wind will distribute, and 
every one will sprout, and instead of dying nut as 
young maples and seedlings of other desirable trees 
will in 99 cases in a 100, the young Catalpa sends 
down a tap root so deep that one trying to pull it at 
the end of the first season would thiuk a Chinaman 
had hold of the other end, while in good soil a single 
stalk will grow up nearly as large as a bean pole. 
The leaves are pretty enough, but the odor is decid¬ 
edly disagreeable. A neighbor living a 
quarter of a mile west of me had a Ca¬ 
talpa tree, and if anyone wants a thou¬ 
sand young Catalpas I’ll donate the trees 
and contribute liberally toward digging 
them up. The old tree, I am thankful 
to say, is done for, and before the young 
ones get to bearing seed I hope to get 
them out of the neighborhood. 
Connecticut. r. s. hinman. 
CENTRAL N. Y. MILK FARMING. 
I am much pleased that the dairy de¬ 
partment of The R. N.-Y. makes the 
production of milk for the New York 
market a prominent feature. This is 
the principal business in our locality. 
We are in the southern part of Madison 
County,on the Chenango branch of the 
West Shore Railroad, and on this road 
there is a shipping station every five or 
.six miles, owned by those who buy the 
milk. At present we are getting 2% 
cents per quart delivered once a day, 
getting our pay the 15th of each month 
for the milk delivered the month before. 
On our street, in a distance of a mile, 
there are 185 cows and nine silos. Al¬ 
most the entire income is from the milk, 
about as much being produced in the 
Winter as Summer. No one raises as 
much grain as fed, and the feed dealers 
are making a good thing, the grain 
bought being gluten feed, bran and cot¬ 
ton-seed principally. Many of the dairy¬ 
men have water in the barn, and all the modern con¬ 
veniences. The cows are nearly all grade Holsteins, 
about every farmer owning a purebred bull. The 
cows are all reared at home on the farm, and there 
«.re a number of carloads shipped from here every 
year to buyers living near New York. 
There is complaint from some of the dairymen 
about the feed bills being so near the size of the milk 
check, but there are many who are making money, 
and, so far as I can judge, the heaviest feeders are 
those that are making the most. There was paid 
through a local bank last year $200,000 for feed, and 
there were two other banks within five miles that 
perhaps did as much. It seems as though there ought 
to be some way to stop this, but no matter how much 
hay and silage we feed, we cannot get the milk with¬ 
out the grain, and if we try to raise all we feed we 
must keep fewer cows. One benefit that we can see 
is the better crops we are raising each year where 
attention is paid to the saving of all the manure. 
While there are some drawbacks to the business, one 
is sure of a steady income during the whole year, and 
also of steady employment. The question as to 
whether the quality of milk can be changed by feed 
comes up every year, the experiment stations not 
having settled it in the minds of all. Those who buy 
the milk say many of the dairies test lower this year 
than last, and as a general thing the corn for the 
silos did not have one-quarter as many ears on as 
last year. Does Mr. Cook think that the difference 
in quality could be accounted for by this? 
Madison Co., N. Y. d. b. utter. 
A L.ANDMARK OF THE LAST CENTURY. Fro. 378. 
