64 o 
September 26 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The effect of certain articles of food (not nutritive 
ratios) upon the quality of the butter is better under¬ 
stood. Of a few things here, we are certain. The 
flavors due to the volatile oils of cabbage, garlic, and 
turnips have long been recognized by every farmer’s 
wife, and since the making of fancy butter has come 
to be a study, we are sure of some other facts. Corn 
and wheat products are an excellent grain basis, and 
their effect upon the quality of the butter is favor¬ 
able. Corn gives good texture and flavor Cotton¬ 
seed meal, in too large quantities, makes butter hard, 
so that, when one tries to cut a small piece with a 
knife in cold weather, it will “ dodge,” consequently, 
it is almost unspreadable and the flavor “ tallowy.” 
Linseed meal gives almost exactly the opposite effects. 
The same is true of buckwheat middlings—quite 
probably the cheapest source of protein in the mar¬ 
ket to-day. We have fed a good deal of it, and when 
five or six pounds a day were fed, it would begin to 
show in a sticky, oily, butter, which lacked body and 
flavor. Malt sprouts are said, when largely fed to 
make a distinctly bad butter. As a general rule, 
these effects of various grain foods, are shown more 
in the texture than in the flavor. 
Such are a few of the facts about which we may feel 
pretty sure. They are all subject, however, to modifica¬ 
tions and degrees. jared van wagknen JR. 
AN OPEN LETTER TO FARM HELPERS. 
TRAINING NEEDED FOR FARM WORK. 
The getting of satisfactory help on the farm is the 
most perplexing problem of farm owners. After long 
study of the problem, 1 am convinced that the chief 
cause of the trouble lies in the failure of both parties 
to recognize that farming isa profession to ba learned; 
that to be efficient in it, one must spend years as an 
apprentice in training hand and head. There is an 
all too common sentiment that any one with muscle 
and a will can farm ; that farming is only hard, rou¬ 
tine work of planting and harvesting crops and feed¬ 
ing stock. Farm laborers, in recommending them¬ 
selves, generally say that they can cut as much corn 
or pitch as much hay as any one, such accomplish¬ 
ments being, in their minds, the principal ones de¬ 
sired. This discloses the entirely erroneous notion 
of what constitutes farming. A quarter or a half 
century ago such a conception was much more accu¬ 
rate. Now our farms are, in the main, cleared and 
ditched, and the labor is largely performed by horse¬ 
power through the aid of machinery. Even though 
farming has become specialized, the farm laborer 
must have wider accomplishments and greater skill. 
I speak considerately, when I say that farming 
combined with stock breeding and management, calls 
for the best trained hands, intellect and will. Boys 
speak of learning the trade of carpenter, mason or 
blacksmith, and expect to serve an apprenticeship dur¬ 
ing which they get little pay. During their apprentice¬ 
ship, they expect to acquire skill and speed. A man 
would never think of offering his services in one of the 
trades until he had thus fitted himself. But the boy 
who has not pluck and patience enough to learn a 
trade, expects to go to work on a farm at full wages 
as soon as be has acquired a man's stature. And the 
discouraging feature of his engagement is that he 
does not make it with any thought that he has any¬ 
thing to learn, or that skill and speed are to be ac¬ 
quired. The truth is, that there is no other manual 
labor, except that requiring special genius, in which 
there is room for so great improvement. None of the 
trades offer such constantly varying work where an 
active mind and a prompt decision will figure so 
largely in results accomplished. It is the doing of 
the little detail work about the farm that is the high¬ 
est test of a farm hand. It is the ability to do minor 
things with alacrity and accuracy ; the ability to see 
what ought to be done, and promptness in doing it. 
It is speed in beginning and quitting a task quite as 
much as in performing it; it is judgment in perform¬ 
ance, kindness and thoughtfulness toward animals, 
diligence and devotion to duty, and honesty toward 
the employer, that are needed. 
Your time and energy are your employers, unless 
you have contracted only a certain number of hours. 
No farmer is successful who quits work every even¬ 
ing at some regular hour without regard to the de¬ 
mands of his business, and rushes away to spend 
hours of the night in some amusement. Employees 
usually think that, if they cut their sleep short, or 
even miss a night’s sleep entirely, it is no concern of 
their employers. But no man can thus treat himself 
without greatly reducing his energy and usefulness, 
even though he may be able to put in the usual hours 
the following day. He is a dull, stupid workman, 
until he has regained the hours of sleep lost, and is 
treating his employer as unfairly as though he were 
to shirk willfully his work during the absence of his 
employer. Your employer might as justly reduce 
your wages as you your energy expended for him 
below his reasonable expectation. 
Farm hands generally think that, if they do the work 
they are told to do, they have met all expectations. 
But farm work is not like shop work, or that of the 
trades. In these, the work has a definite limit ; not 
so in farming. There are continually little needs 
arising which, if promptly met, save larger expendi¬ 
tures of labor later. Many of these arise in the course 
of the day’s work, and become known first to the farm 
hand, if he has an eye that sees. The trained eye is 
now, with the large amount of expensive farm ma¬ 
chinery, an important qualification in a farm hand. 
Loose nuts and joints, and lack of oil, occasion an 
enormous expense on the farm. 
Another common incapacity in farm hands is their 
lack of skill in handling a team. The fundamental 
fault lies in the belief that a team is controlled through 
fear of punishment. This belief is radically wrong. 
Fear should never be engendered in the common farm 
team. Again, farm hands are in fault in not culti¬ 
vating accuracy in the use of the terms of command 
used with the team. I have had more trouble to teach 
men to use the terms, “ gee ” and “ haw,” than I have 
to teach horses the meaning of them. 
Not least among the qualifications desired in a farm 
hand, are a good moral character, a pure mind and a 
clean mouth. Even a profane and immoral employer 
respects a man unsullied by his own faults, and where 
there are children to be thrown in contact with you, 
your character is of supreme importance in the esti¬ 
mation of the mother. Farm laborers should recog¬ 
nize these opportunities for improving themselves, 
then insist that their accomplishments receive recog¬ 
nition and deserved compensation. You can help to 
educate farm owners to a recognition of the value of 
skilled labor on the farm. The deserving will get 
their reward. h. p. miller. 
THE BOY THAT STAYS ON THE FARM. 
W1IAT SHALL HE DO ? 
If the man who owns his farm and is out of debt, 
has a hard time, what chance has the young man who 
has no farm, to be a farmer ? There are four things 
he can do—rent a farm, buy a farm, hire out as a hired 
man, or get a position as a farm manager. The tenant 
of to-day has a hard time, unless he has a kind-hearted 
landlord. Just think of it! A man hires a farm, 
agrees to pay so much for the use of it, and goes to 
work. He has to support his family and pay the rent 
with prices where they are. He has a hard lot. lie 
may strike something, if he reads The R. N.-Y., which 
will enable him to make a good living and pay his 
rent. The way it ought to be, is this : If a well-to- 
do man owns a farm which he wants some one to 
carry on, he should hire a man to do it. Pay him 
enough so that he can support his family. “ But,” 
says the owner, “ I cannot get the interest on my in¬ 
vestment.” What right have you to squeeze it out 
of a poor tenant ? “ But the tenant will not do well, 
if I hire him.” Then either get one who will do well, 
or do something with your farm besides use it to 
fleece poor men, women and children. 
Except under certain favorable circumstances, rent¬ 
ing farms is the poorest way to farm. If the renter 
move annually, he becomes a sort of tramp with his 
wife and children. Five-year leases, when the tenant 
has an opportunity of making a living besides paying 
the rent, and, perhaps, being able to lay up something, 
is the only right way of renting. A farm owner 
ought to be satisfied with half interest, or none at all, 
these times. If he isn’t let him carry on the farm himself 
Buying a farm at present, unless you can pay down 
for it, is very risky business. Even the German, with 
his 14 children all (?) at work, finds it hard to meet 
his payments. I should hate to be in the clutches of 
a hard-hearted mortgage holder now, and I would 
not advise any young man to venture it until prices 
rise, unless he has the knack and enterprise and skill 
to take up a paying line and push it to the end. But, 
all the same, it is risky putting all your capital into 
a farm, paying taxes on what you owe as well as on 
what you own, and keeping up interest and payments. 
The great trouble about being a hired man is the 
lack of cottages on farms. Most farmers want a 
single man, and want him to live in the family. It is 
vastly better to have a married man live in a neat cot¬ 
tage and board at home. It saves the farmer’s wife 
lots of trouble, and it enables her to get help often¬ 
times from the hired man’s wife. How much better 
it is to hire a good, steady, industrious, married man 
to work on the farm, than to engage some half-tramp 
character who happens to come along. Think of tak¬ 
ing such men into a family where there are women 
and children, the farmer going away on business, etc., 
and leaving them with such a person, perhaps a day 
or two. 
A nice little house, not too far off, or too near the 
farm house, is a fine trap to catch a good hired man. 
When a farmer’s boy becomes old enough to get mar¬ 
ried and leave home, what could be more attractive 
than such a cottage with steady work for himself, 
and occasional work for his wife ? If the farm needs 
more men, there should be more cottages. This is the 
best solution of the hired-man question, and the 
“What shall the farmer boy do ?” question. If he 
can get steady work, a good home, and fair wages, 
even if he cannot lay up much, he is well off as things 
now are. 
Of course, the best place for the farmer boy, if he 
cannot own a farm, is to manage a farm or estate. 
But this requires brains, knowledge, education ; these 
should command a good salary. Farm superintendents 
and managers are wanted to take charge of large 
farms, and it is well for enterprising boys to fit them¬ 
selves for such places. j. w. newton. 
STRAWBERRIES AT CHATTANOOGA, TENN. 
It was estimated last spring, by the Chattanooga 
Fruit Growers’ Association, that, within a radius of 
30 miles of the city, over 1,000 acres were planted to 
strawberries ; and these are all, or nearly all, grown 
for the northern market. Until the season of 1896, 
Cincinnati had, probably, received nine-tenths of all 
the berries grown at this point, and all had been 
shipped by express. Owing to the prospect of an 
unusually large crop this year, the association intro¬ 
duced the refrigerator freight car, and correspondence 
was had with fruit dealers and commission houses in 
other cities, resulting in our having buyers from 
Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Columbus and Indianapolis, as 
well as from Cincinnati, and in our shipping several 
car-loads of berries to each of these points. The 
demand for Chattanooga berries has opened the eyes 
of our growers to the fact that the market for their 
fine berries is almost unlimited, and that there is still 
room to enlarge the business. 
Of the 1,000 acres devoted to berry culture in this 
immediate section, it is probable that, at least, one- 
half of the whole output are Michel’s Early. Although 
the new early berries are tested and tried alongside 
the Michel’s, up to this time, our best growers have 
found no variety that can take its place, or is equal to 
it, all things considered. For our market, earliness 
is the first requisite, then we would like firmness, 
productiveness and size. The Michel’s is a wonderful 
grower and plant-maker. It requires constant labor 
and watchfulness to keep its runners in subjection, 
but it is perfectly hardy here, both in heat and cold, 
wet or dry It does not produce half the berries of 
the Crescent or Haverland, but it brings double the 
money. If any of the readers of The R. N.-Y. can 
furnish a better early berry than the Michel’s he will 
find a ready market for plants at Chattanooga 
Our berries are mostly grown on the hillsides with 
a southern or eastern exposure. Many of these hills 
have a deep, rich soil, well suited to the growth of 
the strawberry. Black, gravelly soil on the surface, 
with red clay subsoil, is the best for early berries, 
while the red mulatto land holds moisture best, pro¬ 
duces better crops of large berries, and suits the 
Haverland, Bubach, Tennessee Prolific and like varie¬ 
ties. Fifty to seventy-five 24-quart crates to the acre 
are an average yield for Michel’s without fertilizer. 
Our best growers, however, are not satisfied with less 
than 100 crates per acre. This yield would look small 
to our northern and eastern growers, who put large 
expense on small areas, and then expect from 200 to 
400 bushels to the acre. High culture cannot be car¬ 
ried to such an extent on these hills and among 
growers who cultivate from 50 to 100 acres each, and 
with a berry like the Michel’s, that has a tendency to 
run all to vine, even with ordinary treatment. 
The first shipments of Michel’s are usually made 
the last week in April, and if put up in first-class 
order, bring the grower $5 or $6 a crate ; but these 
prices do not last long, and a week later, when Ores¬ 
cent and Bubach come in, S3.50 to $3 is a fair price. 
At the close of the season, the grower is fortunate 
who makes his last few shipments pay more than 
expenses. 
All of Chattanooga’s berries are packed in gift 
crates holding -24 quart baskets, and it is the order 
of the association that all packages be bought of the 
same manufacturer, that there be uniformity of size 
and appearance of all that are loaded in the associa¬ 
tion cars. 
I tested the following this season in my trial bed : 
Arrow, Beder Wood, Barton’s Eclipse, Beverly, 
Brandywine, Bubach, Columbian, Crescent, Cyclone, 
Euormous, Enhance, Epping, Gandy, Greenville, 
Haverland, Iowa, Jessie, Louise, Lovett, Mary, Rio, 
Princess, Saunders, Smith’s Seedling, Splendid, Tenn. 
Prolific, Warfield, Woolverton, Michel's Early, Mar¬ 
shall and Downing. The following were most pro¬ 
ductive of the best berries, and most satisfactory in 
their season. Three best early varieties: Michel’s 
Early, Columbian and Jessie. Six best medium varie¬ 
ties : Haverland, Greenville, Princess, Louise, Bubach, 
and Tenn. Prolific. Best late varieties : Enormous, 
Gandy, and Haverland. o. N. G. 
Jersey, Tenn. 
