746 
me around so I could learn the different kinds of 
work. That sounded good. 
He put me to work in the milk house and dairy. 
My hours were 3..30 a. m. to 6 p. m. with about three 
hours off for meals and sleep during that time. In 
the hot weather I was up at 3 a. m, so as to get ice 
out of the icehouse and into the cooling machine. I 
got .$.30 and found. l\Iy bed in the farm boarding¬ 
house (the farm employed some 18 men) was a 
broken-down cot, that sagged in the middle, lumpy 
mattress and a decaj’ed pillow. In warm weather 
the pillow became so rank I threw it out. Instead 
I used a sack which I tilled with Alfalfa leaves 
which I got on the floor rf the feed barn. I got 
a day off every month. 
Part of my work was keeping track of the milk 
production of the cows, and the disposal of the 
milk. This farm produced nursery milk which sold 
to the Telling Bros. Co. for .30c a gallon. They 
were then feeding about .30 young calves, giving 
them this same expensive milk, without skimming 
it. At the end of three months, I had become thor¬ 
oughly hardened to the work and surroundings, and 
began to look around. At the end of each month I 
made up a report of the milk production and dis¬ 
posal, which was sent to the banker-owner in Cleve¬ 
land. I was struck by the large quantity of milk fed 
to the calves. So I went over the year’s flgures and 
found that by substituting ordinai*y milk from some 
other farmer, selling at 16c a gallon, a saving of 
$1000 a year on that item could be made. I care¬ 
fully checked my figures and took them to the 
manager. I showed him that in 1915 they could 
save on that plan between $1200 and $1500. The 
manager said that my idea was good and practicable 
and talked it over with the college-gi’aduate herds¬ 
man. 
According to city standards, a worker showing 
such a saving would be entitled to a raise. Did I 
get it? Nodecidedly not. They kept me right 
on the same old job. 
Later I noticed them hauling manure and piling 
it in the open along a road, \inprotected, so it could 
leach and burn. The manager apparently thought 
that he’d make an all-round farmhand of me by 
liri'plng me in the dairy, so I quit at the end of six 
monttig. _ . 
I came to Ne\r York and got a job with a truck 
farmer on Long Island. This intelligent man woke 
you at five. You fed the stock and then ate break¬ 
fast. Immediately after you went to work, right on 
a full stomach and worked hard. At noon you fed 
the stock, ate and immediately went to work. You 
w^ere through at sunset. The farmhands slept in a 
little outhouse with a leaky roof. The beds were 
also filthy, and in addition full of bugs. It was 
early September and very hot. He paid his exper¬ 
ienced help $20 a month and keep. I stayed three 
days and quit, because he worked me^ju-st a little 
too hard. I got paid 50 cents a day or $l5 a month. 
From these two experiences I have come to the 
conclusion that some farmers are ignoramuses. Now 
I am in the city, a clerk, and saving my .$6 a week 
and living like a man and not like a swine. I’ve 
not .vet given up farming, but intend to save enough 
to buy a membership in a cooperative colony at 
Llano, Calif., where 1 shall work and live like a 
man. 
My opinion is that most farmers would better 
use their heads moi’e. They could do better if they 
quit working individually; eight to ten neighbors 
should pool their land and equipment, form a cor¬ 
poration and farm on a big scale. They could then 
use more machinery, more efficiency. They could 
delegate departments to individuals and specialize. 
Farmers should Avake up and follow city methods 
of Avorking. 
In the cities, small stores cannot compete with 
the department stores. Small factories are not as 
eflicient as big ones. Yes, I think farmers would 
better realize they are manufacturers of food and 
folloAV the methods of manufacturers of steel, cloth¬ 
ing and other articles. This basic idea, I believe, I 
got from Herbert Quick or Cobuim of Kansas. 
I am a strong young fellow, 26, and if any farmer 
can shOAV me decent working conditions, and good 
living conditions, Avhere I Avill save what I saA’e 
noAV, I Avill grab the job right off. If he Avill ap¬ 
preciate thought about my work, done by me, he 
Avill get the use of my brains too. H. w. 
B. N.-Y.—One trouble Avith H. W. is that he 
struck the wrong kind of farmers. He could find 
plenty of farms AAdiere he could get just as good 
treatment as he deserved. The large farms, run by 
wealthy men, are notoriously unprofitable. Thou¬ 
sands of men Avho' make fortunes in the city fail 
when they try to apply their business talents to 
farming. It Avould seem as if their experience ought 
636c RURAL N E W^Y o'r K E R 
to silence tho.se who criticize farmers for their lack 
of business methods, for these great business men 
fail when they try to apply “business” to farming. 
The fact is that farming without full capital and 
etiuipment requires the closest figuring and the 
keenest judgment of any business in the world, but 
tbe unfortunate truth is that most of the “advisers” 
do not know it. 
Side Issues on a Fruit Farm 
ART year Ave produced the two blades of grass, 
and as a result Ave cut about half of our crop 
and let it lie on the ground, as it didn’t pay to make 
it into hay and market it. And today we have in 
the baim about 10 tons of choice surplus hay that 
we are either going to carry over or draw out for 
mulching, as the price that we can get for it is not 
equal to cost of pi*oduction. Now comes the ques¬ 
tion, whether or not Ave .shall try to produce two 
kernels of wheat, coim, oats, etc.? 
Yes, by all means, yes! Patriotism alone de¬ 
mands that Ave should raise all the foodstuffs that 
we possibly can this year, whether it pays or not. 
At the same time I am confident that all food pro¬ 
ducts will pay Avell if they can be properly mar¬ 
keted. Don’t alloAv crops to get into the bands 
of speculators eaidy in the year—or better still not 
at any time. And I believe our crops can be 
enormously increa.sed Avith little or no extra help 
if we only do a little planning. Our own plan of 
campaign is this: While not being able to increase 
our oat acreage, Ave, instead, harroAved more inten- 
siA’ely, and used an extra 100 pounds of fertilizer 
to the acre; this Avill undoubtedly give us many 
more bushels for sale. Instead of planting pota¬ 
toes for ourselves alone, Ave put in enough for half 
a dozen or more families. The cultivation and 
spraying of the extra planting will amount to very 
little, while the time required for digging and pick¬ 
ing up will be saved somewhere else. We shall 
also raise our own onions and beans, Avhich we are 
not in the habit of doing. And when it comes to 
corn Ave are going to plant an extra five acres, and 
by picking the corn and leaving the stalks to be 
rolled down, we can handle the 15 aci’es as easily 
as the customary io. This is the “bit” that Ave 
propose to do on a fruit farm of less than 100 acres, 
Avhere the I’aising of grain occupies a very .second¬ 
ary place, and the “bit” looks absurdly insignificant, 
but if only five hundred thousand others will do 
the same thing, it Avould make the grand total of 
over half a billion bushels of surplus products for 
OAir Allies or others Avho might need them. And 
that amount, according to several statements I have 
seen, would be far more than is required. As to 
the employment of green city help in harvest or at 
any time, there is not one in ten who is worth his 
board, Avith perhaps the one exception in the mat¬ 
ter of picking fruit. harvey losee. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
Nux Vomica and Chicken Hawks 
We are told by a neighbor that feeding nux vomica to 
young chicks would keep the lice from them, and should 
a hawk carry any away that it would kill the haAvk. 
What do you think about it, and would*it be safe to 
feed to the chicks? W. z. 
Farmington, Del. 
E have had 30 or 40 letters like the above dur¬ 
ing the past season, and we hardly knoAV how 
to reply to them so as to be entirely fair to the 
subject It is common belief all through the Gulf 
States that haAvks can be and are destroyed by 
feeding nux vomica for a period of time to 
chickens. This is on the theory that the nux 
vomica Avill not be poisonous to the poultry, but 
that it Avill make their flesh x)oisonous to the 
hawk. We know of a number of parties who 
practice this plan regularly. They simply mix a 
good quantity of the nux vomica in Avith the chicken 
feed. They seem to be unable to tell us just how 
much they use. One man says he mixes in a tea¬ 
spoonful of the nux vomica, and then puts in some 
more for good measure. Used in ordinary amounts 
it does not seem to do any harm to the chickens^ 
After a Aveek or 10 days of feeding, tbe chickens 
are turned loose, or several of them are purposely 
put out in sight of tbe haAvks, Avhich pounce upon 
them and carry them off. These Southern farmers 
insist that tbe hawk never comes back, and thus 
they argue that the nux vomica must have killed 
him. 
We are also told that much the same tfling is 
quietly practiced in preventing coloi’ed thieves from 
stealing bogs. The nux vomica is fed to the hogs 
for a week or so, and then they are turned out to 
range. It is claimed that if, shortly after this feed¬ 
ing, the pig is slaughtered and eaten, the eater 
thereof becomes so sick that he quits pork for a 
June 2, 1917. 
long time. Care must be taken not to slaughter tbe 
hogs for home con.sumption for several weeks after 
giving up feeding the nux vomica. The theory of 
this practice is that certain animals are immune 
to the.se poisons, while others are not. Thus the 
Southern farmers believe that chickens and pigs can 
Avithstand the effects of the drug, while hawks, cats 
and some other creatures are killed by it. It is not 
thought that croAvs, being largely vegetable eaters, 
W'ould be seriously affected—but this nux A’omica 
treatment is suggested for cats which .steal small 
chicks. 
There is no use denying the fact that these 
Southern farmers fully believe in this treatment. 
They practice it quite freely and the belief surely 
does not die out. There is another plan of mixing 
strychnine in lard or butter and smearing it over 
tbe head and neck of a good-.sized chicken. Then 
the chicken is left out for the haivks to catch. 
We have heard so much about this nux vomica 
treatment that AA-e submitted the evidence to Dr. 
H. M. Pearl and other poultry experts. They do not 
consider the evidence sufficient. Hoav do you know 
the nux vomica kills the haAvk? they ask. He may 
not come back for more chickens, but that is no 
proof that he Avas poisoned. Until a chicken is fed 
on the nux vomica, and then fed to a haAvk in con¬ 
finement and tbe haAvk’s Imdy analyzed, the scien¬ 
tific men Avill not admit Avhat thousands of Southern 
farmers claim is as plain as daylight. So, there Ave 
rest. We do not feel like urging the “remedy” in 
vieAv of what the learned men say—yet there is no 
doubt that Southern farmers believe that charging 
the chicken Avith nux A^omica is more deadly to a 
haAvk than charging the old gun with poAvder and 
shot. 
Utilizing Carcasses on the Farm 
A man in this vicinity has the use of quite a num¬ 
ber of carcasses each year, and he is at a loss 
how to get these in condition to use for fertilizer. It 
Avould be necessary according to my ideas thoroughly to 
cook these before using them, or there would be a big 
chance of spreading disea.se over the farm. At the 
pre.sent time he knoAvs Avhere he can procure a grinding 
machine Avhich Avill care for about lOflO pounds per 
day. I should be glad to secure any information pos¬ 
sible in I’egard to this matter. One method that has 
been used is that of composting the carcasses after 
they had been cut up by using plenty of quicklime or 
gypsum to cause ready decay. h. t. j. 
NeAvport, Vt. 
E liaA^e often explained about this matter of 
Avoi'king up carcasses on the farm. Where 
the animals have not been condemned for con¬ 
tagious diseases, the most economical plan is to use 
the lean meat for feeding, extract the fat separate¬ 
ly, and Avork up the Ava.ste as a fertilizer. There are 
some diseases Avhich Avould unfit the carcasses for 
Avork of this sort, but animals which have been 
killed or died through accident, and are free from 
contagious disease, may Avell be fed out. The most 
necbssary thing is a steam heater or A'at. Some 
farmers use a large kettle. Others make a stout 
vat or plant and run a coil of steam into it, or force 
the steam in through a pipe. After cleaning the 
carcass is cut up into chunks; these are put into 
the vat Avith .sufficient water and cooked Ainder high 
steam pressure. The fat rises to the surface and 
can be skimmed off at intervals. This gives a .suit¬ 
able fat for soap-making, or grease. The high- 
pressure cooking separates the meat from the bone. 
In .some cases this meat is taken out and put into 
large cans which are cooked and sealed much like 
the meat preserved by home canning. This thor¬ 
oughly cooked meat can be used for poultry feed, or 
kept to be fed to hogs during warm Aveather. The 
chunks of meat saved in this way may be cooked 
into a thick soup, along Avith small potatoes, turnips 
or other vegetables, Avith enough cornmeal to make 
a thick mush. This makes a good substantial feed 
for hogs and AAiiere the carcasses can be obtained 
cheaply it makes an economical ration. The bones 
after steaming thoroughly are broken up with a 
sledge and run through a bone mill, which crushes 
or grinds them fine enough for use as a fertilizt 
Rome of the larger bones are worth more for .se' 
ing to manufacturers for making buttons or knit 
handle.s. There is a good demand for this class ol 
bone now, and it AAmuld probably pay better to sell 
these bones for such pui’poses rather than to try to 
cru.sh them. The softer bones may be crushed quite 
easily in a bone mill. It is probably better to cook 
and feed the lean meat and separate the grea.«e. 
rather than to try to AAmrk these items up for fer¬ 
tilizer. The manufacturers use sulphuric acid for 
cutting or dissolving the bone, but we Avould never 
advise the use of this poAverful acid in ordinary 
farm Avork. Condemned animals are burned with 
quicklime spread over them. After a time the bones 
may be taken up, steamed and crushed in the bone 
grinder. 
