1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
569 
FRUTO FARM HITS. 
Hit Hard. —When as a boy I attended a 
country school, one of the first lessons 
learnt was that it was the hard hit, and 
especially the hard hitter, who counted 
most. No one seemed to have any regard 
for love pats. That kind of hitter must 
play with the girls. Later, when at the 
age of 18, fortune placed me (much 
against my wishes) on a small, run-down 
New England farm, to dig from its poor 
and neglected soil a living for myself and 
others I soon found that if 1 was to suc¬ 
ceed I must hit that old farm, and hit it 
hard. Some of the most profitable and I 
think pleasant hours were spent swinging 
a pick to improve what was then practi¬ 
cally waste land. Rut as the farm im¬ 
proved and business brought me into con¬ 
tact with others I soon found hitting the 
old farm was but a part of the activities 
and enjoyments of life. Yet, if one were 
to succeed he must still hit and hit hard. 
Now we cannot get over in a moment a 
habit which we have practiced so long, so 
I think it best to say in writing a few 
articles under this heading I have no de¬ 
sire to hit any person or partv. Yet as 
I look at it there are some things which 
need hitting and hitting hard. And if farm¬ 
ers are willing to let others do the hitting, 
and have neither the ability nor courage to 
hit back, they deserve no sympathy if 
others take from them and use for their 
own benefit rights which should belong to 
them. Let any farmer look back and 
count the laws passed since the Civil War, 
and .he will be surprised how year after 
year, some bill has been passed which de¬ 
prived him of rights, enjoyed by his an¬ 
cestors, and in many cases those rights 
have bgen curtailed to add to the enjoy¬ 
ment of others, and yet it has been done 
so gradually he has made no protest 
worthy of the name. To-day the influ¬ 
ence of the farming class plays but a small 
part in influencing legislation which con¬ 
cerns them. I believe that the time has 
come when the farmers as a class should 
exert themselves for an improvement in 
the conditions which surround them, and 
that he who dares not give or take hard 
hits, must be the slave of others, and not 
their equals. Yet hits as well as gifts 
should be given with reason. 
Game Preserves. —Had any one pre¬ 
dicted 25 years or more ago, that most of 
♦ l*>_ llTw StitM wnnlrl have gone 
into the raising of game to add to the 
pleasure of the sporting class, and even to 
sell game through the medium of a license 
tax to non-resident sportsmen, the state¬ 
ment would have been laughed at as too 
silly to be true. Yet the game preserve 
is the most protected industry in New 
England to-day. When I was a boy a 
deer was not to be found in this section; 
to-day they feed our mowings and browse 
our trees, and by our laws it is a greater 
offense to hurt one of them than a human 
being, Chap. 245, 1903, laws of Massa¬ 
chusetts, imposes a fine of $100 for chas¬ 
ing a deer except on cultivated land, and 
then the owner cannot use a dog or injure 
the deer without a similar fine. So the 
Massachusetts farmer, when he sees deer 
in his cornfield or garden, tells his boy to 
put the dog in the barn, go drive gently 
the deer, and under no circumstances 
thrown sticks or stones at them. But the' 
Legislature evidently thought under such 
circumstances, the bov might become a’ 
law-breaker, so a law was passed allowing 
farmers damage for what the deer might 
eat. The effect is the farmers let the 
deer alone, the State is willing to pay 
the damage. For under no circumstances 
must the deer be made wild and hard to 
shoot. Yet men who hold up their hands 
in holy horror and fear the spread of So 
cialism, seem to think the State should 
raise game for them. I do not believe a 
thickly settled community is the proper 
place for a game preserve; that it is not 
good policy to protect that which injures 
the farming class, and after meeting the 
city sport with his high-power automo¬ 
bile, I dread to meet him with his long- 
range rifle. For if men are to come into 
our fields and shoot at every moving ob¬ 
ject the farmer will need a bomb-proof 
for himself, as well as his Jersey calves 
1 am no sportsman, neither could I stand 
beside a wounded deer and see him die 
with pleasure. Tt mav be the duty of a 
State to provide that kind of pleasure and 
entertainment for its sporting class, but 
farmers cannot see it in that light In the 
past I have tried to protect the smaller 
game on my own land. I have found it 
useless to try to do so. The average 
hunter may believe in others respecting 
the game laws; he does nof himself, and 
no matter how well posted land may be, 
no game is safe from his do«- or gun. For 
their selfish interest a law was passed 
against the selling of game -md now the 
farmer boy who by good luck should 
shoot an extra woodcock or partridge 
(ruffled grouse) must not offer it for sale, 
even to a sick person. Yet a city sport 
mav go upon the same hunting ground 
with his trained and high-priced dog and 
practically take every bird, and then hold 
himself up as a good sportsman because 
he got such a large bag full. If our 
States are to be made game preserves, I 
am in favor of a license tax, and that 
they (the hunters) must pass an examina¬ 
tion in marksmanship before one is grant¬ 
ed. For few understand the amount of 
suffering caused by city boys and men who 
shoot at practically every living thing, 
even the farmer’s hens and chickens, 
wounding very much more than they cap 
ture. Unless a man can show he has a 
fair chance of capturing game he should 
never be allowed to shoot it, in the name 
of sport. 
Automobiles. —The daily papers inform 
use that the prospect for this sport the 
coming season is better than ever before. 
Last season as T met many of those bright 
painted cars with their hideous looking 
front covered with brass trimmings I won 
dered were they built that way for beautv, 
or to add to the excitement of the sport. 
Driven in many cases 15 to 30 or more 
miles an hour, nearly always keeping the 
center of the road, very few horses will 
meet them without some liability of an 
accident, especially upon many of our nar 
row country roads. For every driver of 
the horse understands that there he is 
much more liable to an accident than upon 
a city street where horses take less notice 
of what they meet. To-day our country 
people see the roads, built and paid for 
by them=elves. made unsafe bv reckless 
automobilists. and many of their women 
who formerly used the roads in safety 
driven from them entirely, unless accom¬ 
panied by a male escort. None has shown 
them more plainly the arrogance and sel¬ 
fishness of wealth thtin these city men and 
women whose laughter has greeted the 
farmer when his own and his family’s 
lives have been put in danger. Such 
sport may fit city men and women, but not 
the farming class, brought up to protect 
and respect women; not one in 10,000 
would willingly put a woman’s life in dan 
per. Neither can they understand the 
brutal selfishness of others, who, if we 
may judge by their actions, enjoy doing 
so as a part of their sport. Yes, I am 
glad the automobilist has come for many 
a farmer is more of a man to-day for 
having met him on some narrow country 
road. The glamor of wealth is passing 
and the city rich men are losing their best 
friends, and what shall the harvest be? 
More and more will the sympathy and 
help of our country people, go out to the 
laboring men and women in our cities. 
For in a free country wealth and power 
cannot always be kept bv any class who 
do not use it wisely and well 
Worcester Co., Mass. h. o. mead. 
Killing Out Quack Grass. 
A. J. G., "Went Rush, N. Y .—Will you tell 
me if there is any way to kill Quack grass 
on the farm ? 
Ans. —The trouble with Quack grass 
is that it grows from undergrown stems 
or rootstocks. It is not enough to pre¬ 
vent it seeding, as is the case with some 
weeds. The soil must be plowed and har¬ 
rowed and cross-harrowed with a tool 
that will catch the stems and bring them 
to the surface. A spring-tooth will do 
this quite well, but a slant-tooth harrow 
with the wheels set well forward will do 
better work. To do a complete job this 
harrowing must be done four or six times 
during the late Summer or early Fall, 
and the roots that are dug up raked away 
and burned. 
Value of Lightning Rods. 
G. C. W., Akeley, /’«.—Are lightning rods 
any protection from lightning? There is an 
agent trying to sell copper rods through here. 
I do not think he is a swindler, as far as 
his business methods are concerned, as he 
figures on cost before he puts up rod, 
and does not ask you to sign any contract, 
merely pay when the job is done, as for auy 
other work. At liis price if the rods take 
away one-half the risk, they would be a very 
good investment. 
Ans. —We have no doubt as to the 
general protection against lightning of a 
system of rods, well put up and properly 
grounded in moist earth, or in a well. 
Houses have been destroyed, with rods 
properly placed, but the damage was usu¬ 
ally done, in these cases, by ball or 
globe lightning. This is a rare form, in 
which a ball of fire floats through the 
air. It is not always damaging. One 
case is recorded where such a ball of 
fire passed down a chimney, rolled slowly 
across the floor of a room and disanncared 
through a crack in the wall—without in¬ 
jury. Of course, a poorly placed system 
of rods is worse than none. 
“May Chubbie is a friend of yours, isn’t 
she ?” “Only a slight acquaintance.” 
“The idea! How can you say that? Why, 
she weighs 185 if she weighs a pound.”— 
Cincinnati Comercial-Tribune. 
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