1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
771 
Keeping Summer Boarders 
How Farm Women Do It 
The Boarder as a Crop Consumer. 
HEN I read in the “Woman and 
Home” department of The R. N.-Y. 
about experienced information wanted, 
and glanced on down to see that Sum¬ 
mer boarders were one of the items men¬ 
tioned, I remarked to my mother, who 
is my partner, that our information was 
certainly experienced, whether valuable 
or not. We have kept Summer boarders 
fo.r 15 years, and have been intimately 
acquainted with every phase of the busi¬ 
ness. That we have not yet retired 
means that we do not make a fortune, 
but with no extra equipment other than 
an old-fashioned 11-roomed house, com¬ 
fortably but plainly furnished, and a 
large, shady yard on a 15-acre fruit farm 
in Southern Michigan, we make from 
$“00 to $.300 extra each season. 
We consider ourselves successful be¬ 
cause our boarders say they enjoy our 
home and cooking, and return year after 
year, and we find it profitable when 
other neighbors, who charge more, can¬ 
not make it pay. We cater to city peo¬ 
ple, who want a quiet, restful place, and 
receive $7 per week. We find that they 
want just what we like—plenty of fresh 
fruit, vegetables, milk and eggs, and we 
make a specialty of them. We do not 
have a large variety at any meal, but 
an abundance of each fruit in season at 
every meal, and vegetables at dinner and 
supper. 
I believe the secret of our success is 
good management. We never let any¬ 
thing go to waste, and plan our meals so 
that we can utilize what is left from 
dinner for supper. The meat from din¬ 
ner makes croquettes or a souffle for 
supper; only occasionally is it cut cold, 
for that is the most expensive though the 
easiest way. Mother’s specialties in cook¬ 
ing are croquettes, waffles, bread and 
pies, for which she is always sure of a 
compliment from new boarders. It is 
surprising how little baking most city 
people do, and -waffles for breakfast, 
homemade breads and fruit pies for 
dinner, and little extra dishes for supper, 
which require more time than cost, are 
always enjoyed. I try to have the din¬ 
ing-table look neat and attractive, with 
flowers and pretty dishes. And parsley 
—we couldn’t get along without that, 
for, like charity, it covers up a lot of 
mistakes and makes many a dish look 
tempting that would otherwise be passed 
by. 
We work hard during the season; Mon¬ 
day and Tuesday morning we frequently 
have the washing and ironing done be¬ 
fore breakfast. Other mornings we gath¬ 
er the vegetables and fruit to be used, 
or hoe in the garden; there is always 
plenty to be done. But we manage to 
get through by dinner time, and in the 
afternoon we rest awhile. 
We agree heartily with the “Hope 
Farm Man” when he advocates keeping 
the home grounds beautified. There is 
no better advertisement for a farm than 
a pretty yard, aside from the pleasure 
it gives the owner for seven months in 
the year. We are fortunate in having 
fine, hard maple trees for shade. Along 
the south side of the yard we have a 
flower border nine feet wide that runs 
the length of the yard, 150 feet. In it 
we have Spring bulbs and perennials of 
all kinds, that bloom from March until 
November. We are never without flowers 
in bloom, and with very little work, for 
(he plants are close together with little 
chance for grass or weeds to spring up. 
Around the porches we have vines, and 
some shrubbery in the yard. People al¬ 
ways like to look around our yard. It 
is kept clean, back as well as front, and 
fenced against chickens of our own and 
our neighbors. Flowers surely do attract 
boarders. In August there is always a 
group around the evening primroses and 
moon-flowers watching them “pop” open. 
Many wonder how two small people 
can do so much—plant a large garden 
and tend it, care for so many flowers 
and the yard, work with fruit, raise 
chickens, keep Summer boarders and hire 
no help. I notice among my neighbors a 
great difference in the way they manage 
their work. Some are never through, 
and yet accomplish little. There isn’t so 
much in working hard as working to ad¬ 
vantage; doing the right thing at the 
right time and not always be behind with 
the work. 
We have not yet solved the farm prob¬ 
lem of marketing our fruit. We can 
raise it, but very often cannot sell it, 
so that we can even have 35 cents of 
the consumer’s dollar; but if we can 
keep from eight to ten boarders, and 
feed them our vegetables, surplus fruit, 
chickens and eggs, it is the most profit¬ 
able market we can take them to, and 
nets us for our labor a fair profit, M. 
Michigan. 
The Boarders’ Requirements, 
UMMER boarders, especially if they 
come from the city, come to your 
home, usually during the months of July 
and August, for a Vest, and that means 
a change of food, people, surroundings— 
in fact, a change in everything, and see 
to it they are not disappointed. We 
raise all of our own vegetables and have 
all the milk we want to use. We also 
have hens, ducks, Belgian hares, and 
once in awhile the good man of the house 
furnishes fish, as we live right in sight 
of a large river. These with the other 
meats bought from the market insure no 
lack of variety. If possible serve no 
vegetables bought at the grocery, put up 
in tin cans, nor food bought at the bak¬ 
ery, and don’t feed them on baker’s bread, 
for they have that at home the whole 
year round. 
Perhaps your family want breakfast 
at six o’clock. Serve this first, and have 
the first meal for your guests at eight 
o’clock, for they would much rather hear 
you tell about the beautiful sights and 
sounds of the rising sun and singing 
birds than to be obliged to rise from 
their beds to realize it themselves. For 
breakfast we have griddle cakes and 
maple syrup, eggs, potatoes in some form, 
coffee or cocoa, and plenty of good milk. 
This last is on the table at every meal, 
a large pitcher full, so if they care for 
more than one glass they can have it. 
Don’t make the mistake of serving the 
heaviest meal at noon, but instead a sort 
of luncheon, consisting of bread and but¬ 
ter, a salad of some kind, radishes, let¬ 
tuce and fruit, or any light food at one 
o’clock. The evening meal or dinner is 
ready at six o'clock, with meat, potatoes, 
two kinds of vegetables, coffee, and for 
dessert one kind of pie or pudding, and 
quite often ice cream, bread and butter 
and jelly, fruit of some kind, either cur¬ 
rants, raspberries, strawberries or apples. 
See to it that your table presents a 
tidy appearance, and do have a clean 
butter plate, a good tablecloth and nap¬ 
kins, and shining glass and silver. No 
matter how many flies there are else¬ 
where, keep them from your eating-room. 
Keep a strict account of everything 
you buy, and at the end of the week, 
when each pays his bill, you will find 
you are making good wages; at least, in 
my IS years’ exprience it has paid well. 
Last year the board was $7.50 per week; 
children half price. 
At first advertise in some city daily, 
and after that the boarders themselves 
are, or ought to be, the best advertise¬ 
ment. 
In regard to the sleeping-rooms—give 
them plenty of light and air, and make 
them look cool; it matters not whether 
there are carpets on the floor or not. for 
a good coat of paint or matting looks 
equally as well and looks much cooler. 
Muslin or cheesecloth for curtains, 
springs and mattresses, and a good sup¬ 
ply of light bedding, and some plain fur¬ 
niture is good enough, for they will re¬ 
main outdoors most of the time, when 
not sleeping and eating. 
Take your team and go to some grove 
for an all-day’s picnic, not forgetting the 
well-filled lunch-basket, and they will en¬ 
joy the change as well as you, and with 
lawn tennis, croquet, fishing, boating and 
bathing they will not lack for amuse¬ 
ment. With us our greatest problem is 
to secure help in the kitchen, hut since 
we have done what we could, and let the 
rest go undone, we have got along better. 
There are so few kinds of work a 
farmer’s wife can do to earn money that 
I often wonder more do not take some 
guests from the city, for every season we 
turn away more than we entertain. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. E. x. smith. 
LAY THE JANUARY EGG NOW. 
N O, the picture here given does not 
represent the Hope Farm man beg¬ 
ging his scrub hens to improve a little 
upon their egg yield. They are doing 
that now without any such appeal, and 
the gentleman down on his knees in that 
henhouse does not look at all like the 
Hope Farm man. Nor does this repre¬ 
sent Tom Barron, the great English 
breeder; or Geo. A. Cosgrove, or Dr. 
Dean, or any of the other known poultry 
experts, trying a new trick on the hen. 
We know a woman who hung a copy of 
“The Business Hen” in her henhouse, 
and claimed that within a few days the 
egg yield nearly doubled; but this hen 
looks as though she cared very little for 
literature. This picture represents the 
dream of a city artist, as printed in 
Collier's. The man who is responsible 
for this thinks he has given an excellent 
representation of the good old farmer 
and one of the prize hens at the egg 
contest. He is in blissful ignorance of 
the fact that what he has really pictured 
is an escaped lunatic, with a Brahma 
hen who has retained the plumage of her 
breed, the shape of a duck, and the inde¬ 
pendence of a bantam rooster. Under¬ 
neath this picture we find the following 
printed : 
“The farmer has io borrow money 
when interest is highest. His hens al¬ 
ways stop laying when eggs are highest." 
The new land bank is going to take 
care of this interest proposition, and as 
for the hens, the intelligent farmer now 
knows that if he wants an omelet or a 
custard in January, it isn’t necessary for 
him to get down on his knees in the hen¬ 
house when the hen refuses to lay. Far 
better go to the jar of water-glass, take 
out a few good specimens, and dream of 
Summer while you eat the custard pie. 
Just now eggs are rolling into the house, 
so that they seem to be a nuisance. Next 
January the nuisance would lie in the 
fact that the hens have gone on a strike. 
Then you will find the jar of water-glass 
a strike breaker. True, the hen might 
not recognize her own egg in January, 
a-»d she could not hatch it out even with 
six weeks of incubation, but it’s an egg 
all the same, capable of taking its place 
in pie, cake or pudding. So get up off 
your knees and stop wringing your 
hands. Go and buy some water-glass. 
Put the kettle on the stove and boil some 
water. Tut one pound of the water- 
glass into nine pounds of this boiled 
water, and pour the whole thing into a 
wood bucket or stone jar. Then go out 
to the henhouse and get some eggs as 
close to the hen as you can find them. 
By close to the hen we don’t mean an 
egg that has been close to a sitting hen 
for three or four days, but one that is 
only about an hour old. Wash these 
eggs off clean, put them down into that 
water-glass, put on a cover to keep them 
down in the liquid, put the whole thing 
away in a cool dark place, and go to 
business. The hen will stop her laying 
all in good time. Next Winter you will 
not be obliged to go in such a humble 
attitude as we see this man pictured. 
The hen may lay, or not, for all you 
cure, so far as your dinner is concerned. 
Take her eggs out of that water-glass 
bucket, and the chances are 10 to one 
that this old hen, like the great majority 
of other ladies, when she finds that she 
is no longer loss of the situation, will 
get right to work and attend to business. 
Mrs. Dictate —“I am so glad I came 
to visit-my son’s wife. I can teach 
her so much. You see, I am boil¬ 
ing these clothes. You can’t con¬ 
vince me there’s any soap will 
make clothes white without boil¬ 
ing.” 
Anty Drudge —“If you have some 
more soiled clothes, I will con¬ 
vince you in just 30 minutes that 
you can get them clean and white 
without boiling or hard rubbing. 
I know what Fels-Naptha will do, 
and you’re just the kind of wom¬ 
an I like to meet.” 
Be sure to buy 
Fels-Naptha the 
next time you 
need soap. It will 
make all your 
work easy and 
pleasant. 
One of the best 
things it will do for 
you is to get the 
weekly wash on 
the line in half the 
time,with less than 
half the bother 
than ever before. 
Just soak the clothes 
about 30 minutes in 
cool or lukewarm 
water, rub lightly, 
rinse and hang out. 
No boiling or hard 
rubbing is necessary 
with Fels-Naptha. 
Makes cleaning, 
scrubbing and all 
kinds of housework 
just as easy. 
Better buy it by the box or carton. 
Easy directions are on the Red and 
Green Wrapper. 
Fels & Co., Philadelphia. 
