1914. 
CITY UNEMPLOYED AND FARM HELP. 
A Woman’s Experience. 
I BELIEVE myself to be the pioneer in 
this work, having operated at Pier- 
pont Manor, Jefferson Co., N. Y., several 
years, but ill health and moving here 
among strangers in the hope of bettering 
it in a somewhat milder climate, has pre¬ 
vented the work for two years. I co¬ 
operated with the Joint Application Bu¬ 
reau (C. K. Blatchley), the Immigration 
Bureau (Mr. Green), the Jewish Asso¬ 
ciation and Brace’s Farm School, and the 
men were sent directly to our farm and 
either boarded until placed in the particu¬ 
lar niche which they seemed the most 
adapted to, sent direct to the farmer 
who had advanced the railroad fare, or 
held until employer could arrive in 
answer to telephone or card, as the case 
might be. Every nationality except 
Italians and Orientals were represented, 
and they were picked men ; no “roughs” 
or “scurfs” were supposed to be sent to 
our place, only fine, healthy, honest fel¬ 
lows, but sometimes a man would be 
sent for the season upon request of 
friends who wished him sent out of the 
way of temptation. These, however, nev¬ 
er proved satisfactory, for if they were 
looking for temptation, it could be found 
readily enough in the country as well as 
the city. Always they seemed willing 
and anxious to get to the farm, but out of 
the hundreds of men, boys and women 
who were sent to me, only a comparative¬ 
ly few made good. Almost immediately 
upon their arrival the “wanderlust 
seemed to possess them, and with one ex¬ 
cuse or another and often with none at 
all, they would travel on. Some of them 
returned to me for a better position; 
in fact they called me—on account of my 
white hair I suppose—“the good mother,” 
and they seemed to think I could and 
would look after them as I would a lot 
of little children. I tried to live up to 
their expectations, and even now I re¬ 
ceive occasionally grateful and appre¬ 
ciative expressions of regard, but it cer¬ 
tainly was frightfully trying and no or¬ 
dinary woman could long endure the 
strain. 
Many of these men, in fact the greater 
part of them, especially the New York¬ 
er born and bred, only worked long 
enough to secure a little money, perhaps 
a month’s pay, $15, $20 or $25, according 
to their competency, and then back to 
the city they would go, or if foreigners, 
on to some other city. Syracuse seemed 
to be the great Mecca. Some went West, 
but these in many instances, wrote me 
later, pitiful appeals for “another job 
East.” 
My boys—I called them “my boys’ 
even if they were gray-headed—seemed 
to do much better when placed far apart, 
and even then they would somehow 
gravitate together, walking miles to see 
a “pal” or even a “New Yorker.” If he 
had never seen or heard of him before it 
did not matter. Then always trouble 
would be forthcoming, and they would 
go marching on or beating their way back 
to the city; anything then seemed better 
to them than work on a farm. Their 
excuses were many and varied; too hard 
work; dearth of amusement; lack of 
companionship; not enough, or the right 
kind of food; -and the irony of it, they 
would return to the city to stand in the 
“bread-line” again. 
My experiences, many and varied, 
were often pathetic or were comedy with 
these men. Some wished to earn enough 
to bring their families from “the old 
countx-y” and were really anxious to 
work. There were young inexperienced 
married couples and families of five or 
six, some with new-born babies. The 
memory of it is almost appalling, as I 
recall the work and the responsibility. 
I could fill a book with amusing and 
pathetic experiences. For instance, a 
fine stalwart young New Yorker was 
sent to me upon his own request, that 
he might be free from the temptation of 
strong di’iuk. He hired to a man who 
proved a hard master. He then came 
back to me, and after a few days I placed 
him with an Englishman upon a rented 
farm. He stayed faithfully by this kind 
employer a year; then he hired to an¬ 
other, where he was trusted to drive to 
town and transact business and one time 
he failed to return at the usual time. 
Two days passed, then his employer re¬ 
ceived a letter from him saying that he 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
866 
could not return; that he had fallen 
again and there was no hope for such as 
he, and that the farmer would find his 
team at a certain fai’mer shed. What, 
think you, did this farmer do, let him 
go? Indeed no; he sought him out and 
said: “John, come home with me. If you 
must fight such a temptation, why do it 
alone? Come and we will try to help 
you all we can.” John came home, and 
for all I know to the contrary he is still 
at home at the old place. But this is 
only one instance out of a hundred. Lack 
of sympathy between employer and em¬ 
ployee seems to be one great trouble. 
One young man, a friendless foreigner 
(Russian), a thoroughly good, whole¬ 
some lad, came over to see me every 
Sunday. lie complained that he was 
lonely, and I knew he craved the sym¬ 
pathy which I unstintedly gave. He 
said, in his broken English, that he was 
afraid to eat what he needed; that he 
knew his employer grudged him his food, 
and really from a full-blooded, red-faced 
fleshy boy, he grew or l-ather wasted to 
thinness, pallor and a half-frightened 
man, and fearing a bi’eakdown I was 
compelled to place him with another 
farmer whom I knew to be exceptionally 
kind-hearted. The change was wonder¬ 
ful and in less than a month he was his 
own bright, jolly self again. All this 
goes to show that in the close and con¬ 
stant companionship of the farmer and 
his help, there must, of necessity, be 
much adjusting of things in general, but 
as the govei’nment has taken hold of this 
thing in earnest, with the efficient gen¬ 
eralship of Governor Glynn, no doubt the 
good work may be made fairly success¬ 
ful ; at least we will keep on hoping that 
it may. mrs. f. w. cole. 
Coxsackie, N. Y. 
Keeping Summer Boarders. 
H UNDREDS of city people come to 
Dutchess County to spend their 
Summer vacation. The elevation is high, 
rising gradually from the Hudson; the 
highest point is reached at Stissing 
Mountain, 2,300 feet. The air is dry and 
healthful, water good, fruit plentiful, and 
many other attractions bring people here. 
There are some x’egular boarding houses, 
but many pi’efer the farmhouses. 
Does it pay? This depends much on 
how much you have to hire or buy. I 
live on a large fruit fai’m and have taken 
boarders for 20 years. We do most of 
the work ourselves and raise fruit, vege¬ 
tables, poulti-y, etc. Had there not been 
some financial benefit. I should have 
stopped long ago. It is not a get-rich- 
quick scheme or an easy job, but it gives 
a good home market for farm produce 
that you might otherwise not mai-ket at 
all. 
While a good boarding place is largely 
“advertised by its loving friends,” if one 
wishes to make it a business, it pays to 
advertise. Often it is better to have new 
people. One season with some guests, is 
enough. I have had guests from many 
stations in life; ministers, doctors, 
trained singers, newspaper men, etc., and 
I find that those who live the best at 
home, make the least trouble. In this 
as elsewhere “familiarity breeds con¬ 
tempt,” and while one must be courteous 
to all, there is need of dignity that re¬ 
fuses to he “trodden on,” self-control and 
an aptitude for meeting various phases of 
life—even hysterics. 
I advertise good country board, and 
give it in the customary way. Break¬ 
fast at eight o’clock consists of fruit, 
cereals, eggs, milk, coffee and usually 
some sort of hot breakfast cakes; din¬ 
ner at one o’clock and supper at six. I 
find it pays to give good fare and enough 
of it. It is astonishing how empty some 
of them are when they come. I know 
of no vegetable so universally liked as 
sweet corn. The people not only eat all 
they can, but carry quantities of it to 
the city. Some city people think all 
farmers are ignorant “jays,” fit only to 
wait on them and furnish a mark for 
their wit (?). 
One man who came here said he was 
surprised to find so much intelligence and 
refinement in the country. We did not 
tell him that we were surprised at his 
lack of them. Discreet silence is some¬ 
times wisest. On the whole, taking Sum¬ 
mer boarders has many pleasant features, 
wakes us up, and keeps us in touch with 
the busy city life. 
New York. mrs. Florence iioag. 
Know What It Costs. 
M UCH has been said about figuring 
cost of farm products. There are 
so many things produced on the fai’m 
where the price is ai-bitrarily established 
by outside and hostile influences, that it 
is very important that the farmer should 
make a fair profit wherever possible. 
Thei-e are many cases where farmers and 
farmers’ wives sell for less than cost of 
production through ignorance of the real 
cost. In a recent number of Tiie R. 
N.-Y., under the head of “Farm Manu¬ 
factured Foods,” are some very useful 
hints. Think, however, of the harm a 
woman with the idea that she could 
make pure fruit jellies at a cost of five 
cents a glass for a nine-ounce tumbler, 
might do in a neighborhood where others 
were trying to help out the family pocket- 
book by making jellies. We have made 
from 50 to 100 dozen each season, and 
we find that a scant seven-ounce glass 
costs at the farm 10 cents to produce. 
This is for crab-apple jelly. We sell to 
the stores in lots of two to six dozen at 
a time, and find that exclusive of trans¬ 
portation to town they net us about 30 
cents a dozen when sold at $1.50 per 
dozen. We might just as well have got 
$1.80 a dozen, but foolishly let a neigh¬ 
bor have a few of our tumblers, not 
understanding that they were to sell any. 
The result was that they rushed about 
four dozen in to the local grocers and 
sold them at $1.50, thereby enabling 
them to be retailed for 15 cents each. 
They made rather a poor lot, but being 
in our tumblers and a small town they 
established a price which we had to fol¬ 
low. All they ever made was four dozen, 
but we had to sell several hundred dozen 
at the price thus established for us. 
Currant jelly cannot be retailed for less 
than 20 or 25 cents a glass and show 
any profit to the maker. Pint jars of 
piccalilli should net the maker at least 
20 cents. We sell considerable quan¬ 
tities of cottage cheese, put up in half- 
pound packages that retail for 10 cents 
a package. c. h. 
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312 West Water Street, Syracuse, N. Y. 
Bankers Lend Money Readily for 
Concrete Improvements 
You can obtain money more easily for a concrete silo or 
other concrete structure than for any other purpose on 
the farm. Bankers want to increase the value and produc¬ 
tiveness of farm land in their community. They know 
that concrete buildings are lasting improvements; mean 
greater efficiency on the farm; increase its value. 
When you build, you want to get full value for your 
money. For all your concrete structures use 
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Plants at Chicago and Pittsburgh Annual Output 12,000,000 Barrels 
