THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
14X1 - 
Notes on Human Life 
A Back-to-the-Lander. 
Mr. John H. Gasser of Connecticat 
sends us the picture which is shown on 
this page. He thinks this indicates what 
can be done with hard work, a little 
cash, and some brains. Mr. Gasser was 
by trade a sign writer, but he got away 
from the city and went back to the 
land. lie bought a little place in the 
Home of a Back-to-the-Lander. 
Spring of 1914. The land was badly run 
down, and partly covered with brush. He 
cleared off those acres, blew out the holes 
with dynamite and planted a young or¬ 
chard of apple and peach. His plan was 
to lay a good foundation for fertility ia 
the hole. So he bought four loads of 
stable manure and put a couple of good- 
sized forkfuls worked into each hole. 
That was last year. Then this Spring 
he planted the trees, cutting them back 
well, and kept in shape by pinching them 
properly. They are now going well, as 
may be seen from the picture. After 
each rain the soil around these trees for 
two or three feet was thoroughly worked 
over. lie says this was done 15 times 
up to the middle of August, and then he 
seeded rye and vetch. He says the build¬ 
ing shown in the picture is his apart¬ 
ment house, while the tent is his sleep¬ 
ing quarters, and to quote from his let¬ 
ter, “The stars and stripes floating to 
the breeze gives me that sense of pa- 
“Love me, Love my Dog.” 
triotism and ambition which I think every 
farm should enjoy and be proud of.” 
Mr. Gasser is evidently no hyphenated 
American, and he is right in saying that 
the American flag ought to float over 
every American farm. There is one thing 
a little wrong about Mr. Gasser, he says; 
he is a young bacheler, and finds his life 
lonesome at times. He is going out to 
work this Winter as an orchardist and 
poultryman, and who knows but that the 
only criticism of his way of living may be 
wiped out this Winter? 
Apple-Eating Dog. 
The picture of this dog is sent by Mr. 
C. M. Shaw of Massachusetts. Mr. 
Shaw says he is a friend of the Airedale 
dog, and also a member of the Apple 
Consumers’ League. He names this pic¬ 
ture “The Duke of Hopkinton Getting 
his Share of Apples,” for it seems that 
this dog is bound to help out the apple 
proposition by eating more than a good 
many grown-up men feel it their duty to 
do. We have had more or less to say 
about the Airedale dog. One fault some¬ 
times found with them is that they are 
roamers, and unless they are thoroughly 
trained they want to go roving about 
the neighborhood. Our own dogs are 
not troubled much in this respect, but 
now and then there are Airedales that 
want to see what the world is like out¬ 
side the farm. This habit is a nuisance, 
for a dog ought to stay at home even 
though his master may be of a roving 
disposition. With all their faults we 
consider the Airedale a first-class farm 
dog, and the one in the picture evidently 
is well acquainted with his master. 
Mr. Shaw says that his dog took up 
the apple-eating habit as naturally as a 
child would. Mr. Shaw is something of 
an apple-eater himself, and he is in the 
habit of sitting down after supper to 
read his paper and eat a few apples. The 
dog would be lying down apparently 
asleep, but as soon as his master took 
an apple up he would get and stretch 
and come over for his share. He liked 
to have the master bite off thin pieces 
and then give them to the dog, and he 
would put away this fruit faster than 
The Boy and the Pumpkins. 
the man could. He kept this apple-eat¬ 
ing up until his death. 
In regard to this habit of running 
away from home Mr. Shaw states that 
there were two hounds that infested the 
neighborhood, roaming about and induc¬ 
ing all other dogs to go hunting with 
them, and that was the way this Airedale 
was led off. This dog was only one year 
old, but he would dig himself far down 
into a woodchuck’s hole after the game 
and killed several down underground. 
Our own Airedale at the farm follows 
the men when they are husking corn. 
The rats and mice gather under the 
corn shocks, and this dog waits until the 
shock is lifted and then she darts under 
like a flash, and it is a rat of more than 
ordinary capacity that ever gets away 
from her. 
Removing Paint Stain ; Floor Oil. 
1. Will you tell me how to take paint 
or furniture stain out of white corduroy? 
2. Can you tell me of some homemade 
preparation to use on floors in place of 
cedar oil, which we find too expensive to 
use each week? F. E. G. 
1. Try this for paint or furniture stain. 
If fresh and washable, use soap and 
water; if not washable, use gasoline. If 
dry and washable, soften with lard or oil 
and then use soap and water ; if not wash¬ 
able, soften and wash in gasoline. If 
color is delicate, soften with oil and rub 
out with ether or chloroform. The most 
effective remedy for dry paint or varnish 
is amyl acetate, or resin spirits; soften 
stain with one of them and wash out with 
gasoline. Ether or chloroform or any 
liquid material that vaporizes easily, must 
be used in daylight and preferably in the 
open air; if in the house, no lamp or 
fire should be in the room and windows 
open to carry off the fumes. 
2. I suppose you have hardwood floors 
and use a few drops of cedar oil each 
week when dusting the floors. Cedar oil 
is expensive if one has many floors to 
go over. I do not know any homemade 
preparations other than those given in 
The R. N.-Y.; but any big department 
store has for sale a special floor oil at 
about $1.25 a gallon that costs about half 
what the cedar oil does in the end. A 
very few drops each week are enough for 
a floor to keep it in good condition, just 
to make a film to cover the wood. 
E. s. K. 
Jack-O’-Lanterxs. —Mr. A. C. Gis- 
mond of New York sent us the photo¬ 
graph from which the picture herewith 
was taken. This shows his little boy, 
three years old at the time. He had evi¬ 
dently tried his art on a number of pump¬ 
kins, and certainly succeeded well in 
producing some hideous looking faces. 
This will appeal to many a country boy 
at this season, for making jack-o’-lau- 
terns at the proper time comes into the 
country boy’s life about the same as 
playing marbles or going through the 
other rounds of play which all boys 
know. Our own children at home have 
had great times this Fall carving these 
horrible faces on pumpkins and squash. 
It is a harmless amusement, except 
where these faces are set near the road 
where they can frighten horses, but it is 
a regular part of boy life, and one to be 
thoroughly encouraged by parents. 
Brighten Up the Kitchen. 
“Brighten up the corner where you are,” 
says Billy Sunday, and we all agree 
that the advice is sound. Here comes 
Mary L. Oberlin of the Colorado Agri¬ 
cultural College with good advice about 
brightening the kitchen: 
One wonders at the housekeepers who 
choose for their kitchen walls and wood¬ 
work a dingy gray or brown or some other 
dark, dull color that will not show the 
dirt. Are they better housekeepers be¬ 
cause the dirt, which is surely there, does 
not show? Would these same women 
wear black dresses and aprons when do¬ 
ing the cooking, and feel that they were 
clean because they did not look soiled? 
The kitchen should be the cleanest, 
sunniest, and most cheerful room in the 
house. It is here the housekeeper spends 
most of her time, and it is here the food 
is prepared and often served. 
It is not always possible to have the 
kitchen located so as to get the best light, 
but a dark room may be much improved 
by using the proper colors. In a Minne¬ 
sota town the school kitchen had win¬ 
dows on the east side only. Half of them 
were on a court and the others against a 
hill; but by the use of a deep cream tint on 
the ceiling, a buff for the walls, and wood¬ 
work of southern pine finished in the nat¬ 
ural color and varnished, the effect of 
sunshine was given even on the dull, 
short days of the northern Winter. 
If there is much sunshine in the 
kitchen white or blue may be used; but 
on the north side of the house use buff 
or warm, yellowish tan. 
Here we come again advocating that 
the most necessary part of the house is 
mother’s room. As father begins to do 
more and more business he gets a desk of 
his own, and finally this develops into an 
office, or a room where he can be quiet 
and do his correspondence and to attend 
to his regular work. The boys too as 
they grow older think they must have 
some part of the house which belongs to 
them. Mother and the girls should have 
the same privilege, and mother’s room 
should be provided for as soon as it is 
possible to fix it up. The whole house¬ 
hold revolves around mothei\ Her job 
is harder than anything that comes out¬ 
doors, and she is entitled to a room of her 
own, which should correspond with fath¬ 
er’s office. Mother and the girls need 
their room, and the whole family should 
strain a point to see that such a room 
is provided for her. 
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