eo 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
January 25, 
that I mean the gasoline-driven, low-wheel vehicle. 
It is a question how much of a load is safe on a 
high-wheel truck; that I can’t answer. This year 
building a new farmhouse four miles 400 feet up hill 
seemed to justify a new two-ton truck, as two-horse 
teams made two loads a day at a cost of six dollars 
per team. From the railroad siding I made the trip 
in 24 to 30 minutes each way, hauling 2^4 to three 
tons and three men, a hard but rough macadam road 
all but one-fourth mile, that piece clay and, when 
wet, dangerous. One load I held the front wheels 
square in the middle of road, but the truck was skid¬ 
ding in the rear wheels; finally stopped with one 
wheel over the bank and opposite front one ofif the 
road in the air. This is the great danger with motor 
vehicles, even on well-paved roads, and do not forget 
you cannot go on soft ground. If a hard bottom, not 
too deep down, chains will give traction, but if soft the 
faster you run the engine to get out the deeper hole 
the wheel digs. On hard roads you can drive easily 
12 miles an hour and not break any speed limits, for 
a farmer when he has his best girl out expects to beat 
three minutes anyway, but tliis horse does not have 
to walk down or up hill. J. R. on good roads can 
easily haul 50 barrels and three loads a day, bringing 
a load back each time. My own opinion is the elec¬ 
tric truck in cost of maintenance, handiness, cleanli¬ 
ness and adaptability is to be soon away ahead of 
the gasoline-driven vehicle. It certainly will pull 
where the other will not. More economy in the end 
will be shown by several farmers clubbing and buy¬ 
ing a good truck. Cheap motors are dear at any 
price; there is too much low-priced material being 
used. One of our great steel plants here had a tre¬ 
mendous order for parts, including axles, and a su¬ 
perintendent of the concern was ashamed to turn out 
such stuff, not how good, but how cheap! Now, is it 
not pertinent to ask the farmers to fill up some of the 
chuck holes they drive into and around every day? 
It will pay. R. f. shannon. 
Pennsylvania. 
TILE DRAINS IN BLUE CLAY. 
On page 1202 you illustrated a plan of drainage for 
a piece of swamp laud, l>.\ Mr. Berlin. In the article 
regarding this plan, it was stated that a portion of this 
land was underlaid by a blue clay. It was stated that 
Mr. Berlin had drained this land with tiles. This was 
particularly interesting to me. as I have eight acres of 
swamp land, the top six inches being rich, black, coarse 
rather granulated soil. This is immediately underlaid by a 
bluish gray clay. The former owner abandoned the field 
entirely to* weeds. I have done nothing with it. but until 
reading the article in question, regarded this clay as 
undrainable. I should be very glad to learn if Mr. 
Berlin did actually run tiles through this clay, making 
it possible for plant roots to penetrate. I would like 
any details that would help me with my own piece. We 
have used this clay with perfect success as fire clay in 
a stove. I have taken some of it when soft, molding 
it to the size of a silver dollar and half again as thick. 
When it hardened it was practically impossible to break 
it with the hands. wm. h. day. 
Ohio. 
The tile drain that Mr. Jas. Berlin used was for the 
double purpose of filling the old river channel and to 
carry away the overflow of his spring. Both were 
successfully done, and at the same time his marsh¬ 
land was rendered dry enough for pasture and fine 
crops of hay. Being flat, drainage of the surface 
water in early Spring was very slow and difficult, but 
the tile carries off the spring flow at all times, so the 
blue clay is comparatively dry, except in Spring and 
long seasons of heavy rains. Then the clay absorbs 
the surface water, until it is saturated, which will 
later rise as capillary moisture when the soil becomes 
dry above the clay and acts as a mulch. Ditches or 
furrows help also to carry off the surface water, and 
sooner dry it after rains. 
When, drying the clay becomes more spongy and 
porous at the upper side, and the plant roots slowly 
explore it to find food and moisture. Each time it 
dries out, in the growing season, the roots penetrate 
still deeper; so after a few years the clay becomes 
greatly changed in texture and to some extent sup¬ 
plied with humus. While saturated the air is ex¬ 
cluded and the clay is lifeless; but as the moisture is 
slowly removed by both drainage and capillary attrac¬ 
tion to the dry surface soil, there will be great activ¬ 
ity and rapid growth of vegetation. It is unwise to 
plow deep enough to turn up any of the clay until it 
has been kept dry several seasons and is rich with 
organic matter. Wood ashes or fine-ground lime¬ 
stone improves the texture rapidly, when the blue 
clay can be kept from excessive moisture in Summer. 
When drained, by open ditches at first, Mr. Berlin 
found that wild marsh grass grew rapidly, replacing 
the weeds that formerly grew in the marshland in 
such profusion. After pasturing a year or two the 
wild grass was mown twice each Summer and used 
for hay or bedding. Then an early crop was not 
cut for a year, and burned over early next Spring, 
to be sown with Timothy seed at once, which there¬ 
after yields mixed hay profitably. The drainage be¬ 
ing carefully attended to the marsh may be planted to 
potatoes after four or five years of hay cutting, and if 
will be likely to grow a prize crop unless it becomes 
a very wet Summer and Fall. When thus tested with 
open ditches or furrows it may be wise to install a 
perfect system of tile drainage that will rapidly re¬ 
move all surface water promptly and fix the water 
table beneath the bed of tenacious blue clay. 
Pennsylvania. j. c. french. 
“STUFFING BIRDS” BY MAIL. 
What do you think of the enclosed letter? Can they 
teach you how to stuff a bird by mail? c. s. l. 
Oxford, Mass. 
The word “bird” is used in slang to describe a 
person of unusual beauty, smartness or other unusual 
quality. Such a “bird" could probably be stuffed by 
mail, and there are guff manufacturers who know 
how to do it. Our friend, however, refers to the 
“Northwestern School of Taxidermy.” This concern 
sends a printed circular which looks like a letter offer¬ 
ing to teach taxidermy by mail. 
Thousands and thousands of the best sportsmen in the 
country are our students, and have decided that taxidermy 
is a necessity for the real sportsman. We have made 
them good taxidermists by our easy correspondence course, 
and we can made you a good taxidermist, or it won't cost 
you a cent. Try it. 
I shall hold your name on my desk confidently expect¬ 
ing to hear from you favorably by return mall. 
Modern taxidermy almost reaches the dignity of a 
plastic art, as the old methods of “stuffing” birds, 
mammals and the larger reptiles have been to a great 
extent replaced by the construction of mannikins or 
substitute bodies of clay, plaster or wood pulp, sup¬ 
ported by metal and accurately moulded to form, over 
which the properly cured skins are arranged in life¬ 
like and often truly artistic attitudes. The successful 
moulding of these artificial bodies requires real ana¬ 
tomical knowledge, and the final arrangement of the 
subject in natural pose implies artistic perceptions 
scarcely to be developed except by keen observation 
and repeated trials, or acquired under the personal 
direction of an adept in the art. Doubtless the me¬ 
chanical portions of taxidermy may be acquired from 
correspondence lessons or learned from text-books, 
just as the bald technique of music, painting or sculp¬ 
ture can be gained from written or printed instruc¬ 
tions, without the pupil being much the better for the 
effort. Practice and personal instruction are needed 
for taxidermy as for other intricate forms of the 
minor arts. There may be instances of personal apti¬ 
tude for the work that may enable the exceptional 
pupil to make considerable progress with the sole aid 
of mail lessons or other sources of impersonal in¬ 
formation, but such methods of instruction in general 
are little likely to prove satisfactory. v. 
STATE ROADS AND AUTO TRUCKS. 
I note your editorial on page 1270 regarding the 
use of State roads by auto trucks. A State road has 
just been built here between Port Jefferson and 
Patchogue. While the road was being built the con¬ 
tractor, after laying the first course of stone, covered 
it with sand and gravel, and for over a year that 
part of the road remained in this shape with the 
coarse stone constantly working to the surface. In 
the town of Port Jefferson the business men’s as¬ 
sociation urged the contractor to put on the remain¬ 
ing stone top-dressing and binder. This he refused 
to do on the ground that by hauling heavy loads 
over it, in drawing his stone to the point further from 
town his trucks and particularly his five-ton auto 
truck would leave the road in a condition unaccepta¬ 
ble to the State. The highways commission also re¬ 
fused to assume responsibility, and the business men 
finally signed an agreement to meet the expense of 
putting the road in an acceptable condition when the 
entire contract was completed, if the contractor would 
lay a certain portion of it in the village, so as to make 
the street passable. The agreement of course cover¬ 
ing that part completed at their request only. Now 
if the road would not stand the hauling referred to, 
what benefit will it be to the farmers for hauling 
their produce to market, and what will be the cost of 
up-keep, for such a road that will not stand a year’s 
usage without damage? 
The attached clipping from a local paper describes 
how people of this county generally feel about the 
action of the board of trustees of the new school 
which is composed of five members out of eight from 
New York City and Brooklyn. They apparently want 
the school in what Mr. Tuttle, our county member of 
the board, describes as almost a suburb of New York 
to-day, which will soon be thickly settled, instead of 
in a section practically the centre of the Island each 
way and which will remain a farming community for 
a long time. 
Wo undorstand that the committee appointed by Gov. 
Dix has decided in favor of the Farminvdaie site for the 
Long Island Agricultural School. This necessitates 
probably an Act permitting the committee to expend fifty 
or sixty thousand dollars more for land, the present ap¬ 
propriation being only $10,000 for land, for which sum 
land can be had at lloltsvilie, fronting the railroad sta¬ 
tion. Why this extra expenditure? Why this discrimi¬ 
nation ? 
One member of this board is a music teacher. 
What he or any other member knows about actual 
farming is, I think, questionable. They seem to 
know how to waste the people's money, though. 1 
understand the site offered at lloltsvilie was 103 
acres free and 100 acres for $8,500 (or 200 acres 
for $8,500) with an option on 100 acres more at $85 
an acre (part cleared and with buildings). The 
board wished to obtain 100 acres or more within 
the amount of the allowance of $10,000. This can¬ 
not be done at Farmingdale. There are, or will be, 
trolleys crossing the Island at both points proposed, 
making them accessible from either shore. 
Suffolk "Co., N. Y. JAMES G. K. DUER. 
THE PROBLEMS OF COUNTRY LIFE. 
Part I. 
One of the remarkable facts developed by the last 
census is that despite the so-called “back to the land" 
movement so widely advertised by many periodicals 
and other sources, the rural population shows a con¬ 
siderably smaller increase, relatively speaking, than 
town and city. In other words the tendency away 
from the country to the large village and city has not 
decreased but rather increased. Evidently the “back 
to the land ’ cry is more empty of significance than 
is generally thought to be the case. Until this fact 
is taken into consideration it is not possible to con¬ 
sider seriously the problems of country life, since there 
must be causes for this condition, and until these 
causes arc understood the situation cannot be ade¬ 
quately realized or remedied. 
There is* an old saying to the effect that where the 
niolasses is there the flies are thickest and that say¬ 
ing well illustrates the situation in regard to country 
life. An economic reason lies at the basis of a large 
part of this failure in the back to the land movement. 
No man is contented to dwell where he obtains only a 
poor living, when by removal he can do better else¬ 
where. To be sure the habits of a generation as to 
habitat are not easily overcome, but the new genera¬ 
tion soon witnesses a change. The best, the keenest, 
the most energetic, soon sense the situation, and thus 
drainage begins until at last stagnation and even de¬ 
terioration results. Such is what has happened in 
many of our rural communities, particularly in the 
East. In the Middle and Far West the situation is 
different, but the principle still applies. 
In some cases this drainage is a good thing. No 
man can successfully fight against Nature and econo¬ 
mic conditions that are fundamentally against him. 
But sometimes these conditions may be changed and 
the situation made bearable and economically sound 
and promising. And until the rewards of country life 
are relatively equivalent to those of town and city 
there can be and will be no deepening and broadening 
of the life in the country and no permanent up-build¬ 
ing there. “Better living” must be one of the ele¬ 
ments of the solution of country life problems. 
That the farmer is better off to-day than 10 years 
ago is probably true in a narrow sense of the word 
Yet the fact still remains, and experts in country life 
assert it, that the rewards of farm life are not ade¬ 
quate nor commensurate with the efforts the farmer 
has to put forth, or the experience and capital needed. 
For example, the investigations of the Department of 
Farm Management of Cornell University covering 
Tompkins County of New York State show that after 
reasonable allowance has been made for the running 
expenses of the farm the income of the farmer, that 
is, what he receives for his work, his planning, his 
thought and experience, is a trifle over $400. That is 
at the rate of $1.37 per day. The ordinary unskilled 
laborer receives more than that. A government bul¬ 
letin tells us that the total income of one of the 
model farms of New York State is only $1,700, and 
from that must be deducted the farmer’s expenses, 
leaving probably less than a thousand dollars for the 
labor income of the farmer. What model business 
runs as low as that? The rewards of country life 
must be increased if it is to compete in any reasonable 
manner with the business, professional or industrial 
life of the town or city. The iiest will inevitably go 
where the best is to be obtained. The country will 
be populated by the strong, the energetic, the reason¬ 
ably ambitious and country life will be built up by 
them and so maintained when the reasonable reward* 
come to them there. 
One of the problems of country life is to bring to 
the farmer this reward. At present he does not re¬ 
ceive this. The cost of living has not helped the 
farmer as much as the city dweller suspects. With 
the increase in the standard of living in the town and 
city has come a like advance on the farm, yet the 
farmer has not secured a corresponding increase in 
his income any more than the laborer or mechanic. 
Good authorities assert that of every dollar spent by 
the consumer for farm products only 35 cents returns 
to the farmer. Scientific agriculture will help this 
situation some but no man will try his best to make 
two blades of grass grow where but one grew lie fore 
when he only gets a third of the advantage from it 
and some one else gets two-thirds. Tt is not sound 
economics or even good morality. The most import¬ 
ant thing to do is to bring the producer and consumer 
closer together that each may have a share in the 65 
cents that now goes elsewhere. It is by far more a 
problem of distribution than a problem of production. 
It is the pressing problem of country life to-day. 
Orange Co., N. Y. [Rev.] Alfred s. clayton. 
