G50 
May 1, 111 10 
TRAINING FARM BOYS FOR ACTUAL CITY 
WORK. 
How They Learn How. 
NK of the greatest problems that confront 
tiie truck farmer today is the question of 
trained help.” 
These are the words with which “Trucker, Jr.” 
opens his discussion on page 400. From personal 
experience with several large corporations. I can 
assure “Trucker, Jr.” that the corporations have 
their troubles. Although a certain per cent, of their 
employees come partially trained, a large number 
are recruited from business colleges and high schools, 
with a knowledge of bookkeeping that is entirely 
theoretical. Some of these recruits come from the 
farms, and usually in that case possess neither the 
theoretical nor the practical qualifications. 
"Trucker. Jr.” says: “The average trucker 
can no more afford to take the time during his busy 
season to train one or more of these young men 
(from the city) than could a business man in the 
city take the time to give young men from the 
country a course in bookkeeping.” Now 1 challenge 
this statement, knowing that in small cities of 10,- 
000 to 20.000 the average business man does take the 
time to train his help and does not “holler.” For 
instance, a young man of my age and of long ac¬ 
quaintance. desired a position in the city where I 
was then living, and with the corporation by which 
I was employed, lie had no training, except in 
making out hills for the milk route owned by his 
father and brother, and could hardly write a letter 
of application. With my help in spelling and com¬ 
position. the letter was written, and he secured a 
position at $50 a month for a start. He had a good 
brain, however, and that corporation doing a busi¬ 
ness of about four million dollars a year, con¬ 
sidered it worth while to train him. Today this 
young man is the local manager of a lumber com¬ 
pany at $125 a month, with a good outlook for the 
future. 
Citing another instance, I have in the past year 
worked as hard as any "overworked farmer who is 
kind enough to sacrifice time and money in order to 
give them an opportunity to learn,” and in addition 
devoted a goodly part of my time to helping two 
young men from high school and business college 
respectively, over the ruts in the early stages of 
bookkeeping, and have considered it only a part of 
my day's work (as I believe every business man 
views such a task). In the meanwhile, I found time 
to take care of my third of an acre of ground, with 
its lawn, small fruits, and garden truck, and to ex¬ 
periment with poultry and keep complete records. 
I think that a little reflection on the part of the 
thinking farmer will convince him that he is ob¬ 
taining the same class of labor from the city, with 
agricultural college training, as the business man 
does from boys with a business college education. 
“Where are the young men who have the train¬ 
ing to take all around places on truck farms?” 
and where are the young men who have the train¬ 
ing to take all-around positions in offices? The 
farmer feels he is not getting value received, while, 
on the other hand, the successful business man 
knows he is not, but meets the proposition squarely 
and sets out to train his help, paying a living wage 
to the learner. accountant. 
Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 
It. N.-Y.—But does “Accountant” take into consid- 
eration the difference between the two lines of busi¬ 
ness. as regards their opportunities and profits? 
Would these business men train the young fellows 
for the express purpose of setting them up in direct 
competition? The truck farmer’s season is but half 
the year—the business is for an entire year. 
THE THREE-HORSE TEAM. 
S I have passed the 60-year milestone on life’s 
journey, and from youth to the present time 
lived in a section of the State where three 
horses working abreast have been the motive power 
in all farming operations pertaining to land prepar¬ 
ation for crops, and often for road teaming, I feel 
as one of a large class of graduates on the subject 
of hitching and handling a three-horse team. I have 
often seen sketches in our farm journals of three 
horses being hitched together by coupling from bit 
to bit with a strap, jockey stick, or piece of rope. 
This method is an insult to the noble horse. Every 
time one of the team moves his head quickly in 
any direction he is bound to give the bit in the 
other horses’ mouths a cruel jerk. Now the horse 
cannot talk, but if you look a horse in the eye 
when subject to such unscientific hitching you can 
see what he thinks. I am giving a simple sketch 
of the old and reliable three-horse hitch, over which 
method I have not been able, after all these years, 
to learn of any improvement. 
THfcD HURAb NEW-YOKKKK 
The near and off horses are harnessed with the 
reins just the same as if they were to work two 
abreast They are then placed far enough apart 
to allow of leading in between them the third horse, 
having no reins at all on the harness; then the 
three-horse cross lines A. A., which are somewhat 
longer than the two-horse cross lines are attached 
to the main lines by a snap and ring with an ad¬ 
justable buckle on the line. These adjustable buc¬ 
kles are necessary, for some horses press harder 
on the bit than others, and their cross line or lines 
have to be taken up or lengthened until all the 
horses are walking naturally on the hit, with heads 
on an even line, and with whiffletrees following in 
the same order. It is said that an expert horseman 
in the saddle so adjusts himself to the horse's move¬ 
ments that he appears as a part of the horse, or 
they appear as one in grace of action. It is the 
same with the three-horse team in the hands of an 
expert plowman. Adjusting a plow and whiffletrees 
so that they can work to best advantage, preceded 
by a team that are properly hitched, is a science 
that can only be mastered by practice. 
I am a little ashamed to confess that football, 
baseball, playing cards, horse races and a lot of 
other sports that most people are interested in. have 
no attractions for me, but a well-matched three- 
horse team hauling a plow that is turning a clean 
straight furrow, all three horses proudly stepping 
in unison, eyes bright—for they are not coupled 
from bit to bit like convicts in a chain gang—driven 
by a young man who shows by his looks, voice and 
actions that he is a prince among men, makes my 
heart beat faster, and causes a sort of hurrah feel¬ 
ing which I dare not give voice to for fear of break¬ 
ing the spell and spoiling the moving picture. 
it. e. cox. 
Regakding Mr. Brc"'n’s advice about endive, on 
page 483, we may add that before it is time to take 
it indoors for Winter use. it may be blanched under 
a board outside. French Moss Curled is our favorite 
variety, but the Broad-leaved Batavian (escarolle) 
should also be grown. 
DERRICK FOR REMOVING EARTH. 
In building my house it is desirable to get the “dirt” 
out of the cellar'and deposit it on a high terrace on the 
lower side. I have thought that the most economical 
way—because of height of the terrace—would be to 
construct a crane out of 2xS’s and 2x6’s; set this on 
top of the terrace, and by means of a tackle (safety) 
and %-inch rope, to hoist a box containing one-third 
cubic yard (the box provided with a trip catch at one 
end of the bottom) deposit the load where desired. 
Is such a contrivance practical? The safety tackle is 
claimed to be able to handle 2.500 pounds. Could two 
men easily run up one-third cubic yard of ordinary 
earth with sand, stones, etc., by such means—say 12 
or 15 feet? What changes would be necessary in pro¬ 
portions of crane, if any? According to my sketch, 
upright is two sticks 2x8 blocked apart, diagonal two 
pieces 2x6 and top horizontal one piece 2x8. As the 
terrace is eight or 10 feet high from where ascent be¬ 
gins and is necessarily narrow, may this be cheaper 
than a team and wagon, making the short turn up and 
out of the cellar and up on the terrace and down and 
around, turning and backing and struggling. Cost of 
team $4 per day. Of course I can use my own horse 
to pull the rope over an ordinary sheave along the hor¬ 
izontal. down over another sheave to the base of the 
crane, but I do not see just how to meet this difficulty 
of the changing direction of the rope when the crane 
swings: I could use a winch, but do not know bow to 
apply most easily. I could reduce the size of load to 
six cubic feet or less but would rather not less than six- 
cubic feet. x. 
New York. 
I IIAYE never seen the derrick used for the pur¬ 
pose mentioned by X, but can see no great diffi¬ 
culty in adapting it to this use. The main draw¬ 
back to the device is the limited area over which it 
will work. I am not sure that I understand the con¬ 
ditions thoroughly, but take it that the derrick is to 
be placed on the bank of the cellar. If this is the 
case it will only take dirt from a half circle with a 
radius equal to the boom of the derrick and deposit 
it within another half circle of equal area. In fact 
the derrick shown will only deposit the dirt around 
one-half of the circumference of this circle. This 
makes it rather limited in its action. It is customary 
here to use an ordinary slush scraper to make the 
excavation for the cellar, and it gives very good re¬ 
sults. Dirt can be removed from any part of the 
cellar and deposited at any point outside by this 
means. Where conditions will permit of its use I 
know of no better method. 
If this derrick is tried I would suggest a few 
minor changes as shown by the sketch. This I think 
would provide for swinging the boom around at least 
half-way. If the lower pulley is attached to the 
side of the derrick mast it would permit an even 
greater swing than when hitched in the manner 
shown. The lower pulley being on a swivel will ac¬ 
commodate itself to the changing direction of the rope 
as the boom is swung. 
I am not familiar with the safety pulley named, 
but with any system of pulleys in which a continu¬ 
ous rope is used, it is customary to figure that the 
weight divided by the number of strands of rope 
supporting it, will equal the pull on the free end of 
the rope required to lift it. In the drawing a force 
of 50 pounds applied as a pull on the free end of the 
rope would be expected to lift a weight of 150 
pounds in the box. Because of friction, stiffness of 
the rope, etc., slightly more force would be required, 
but the above is close enough for our purposes. It 
must be remembered that the distance the force 
is required to travel is also as many times greater 
than the distance traveled by the weight as there 
are strands of rope supporting it. In the system 
of pulleys shown in the cut the force would have to 
travel 45 feet to raise the weight 15. Unless the 
pulleys mentioned by X give a considerable advan¬ 
tage a box containing one-third of one cubic yard 
would be too large a load to handle at one lift. The 
weight of loose earth is given as being around 85 
pounds to the cubic foot; this would make the 
weight of one-tliird cubic yard (765 pounds) too 
heavy for a man to handle. 
The derrick would need to be well supported at 
the bottom, with the lower pulley attached well 
down to secure satisfactory working. The mast 
could be held in an upright position by means of 
guys extending to “dead men” that are buried se¬ 
curely in the ground in the way that X has sug¬ 
gested. If a derrick can be secured similar to the 
ones sometimes used in bridge work, in which a 
winding drum is provided with a large gear on one 
i nd which meshes with a small pinion that is turned 
with a crank, I think that this type would prove 
more satisfactory than the one outlined above, as 
it is more compact, requires less rope, and there is 
nothing to prevent turning the boom in a complete 
circle, provided that the mast is high enough to 
keep the guys out of the way. n. h. s. 
On page 493 you will find the picture of a concrete 
post for rural mail box. This is said to give good satis¬ 
faction. and is surely a novelty in the mail service. 
We find many first-class potato growers who say that 
from choice they would select seed potatoes dug when 
a little green and carefully hardened without breaking 
the skin. 
