TShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1 
767 
The Dairyman’s Call 
How Can He Help the Food Situation? 
HAVE received through the Department of Agri¬ 
culture at Washington, President Wilson’s ad¬ 
dress to his countrymen, especially the farmers. 
This in addition to all the other prodding we have 
received. It seems like “line upon line, precept 
upon precept, here a little and there a little.” Surely 
the farmer has got into the limelight. Never before 
has the world realized its dependence on the farmer 
as today. The farmer has been exploited to the 
last degree, and had to take a hack seat while 
others drove the car. P>ut things h.ave suddenly 
{•hanged. The boot is on the other foot. It is now 
“Oh, IMr. Farmer, can't you help iis’/ Provisions 
are getting .scarce, prices going out 
Wo wish to know how to divide the profits (if any) 
on this, a typical Connecticut farm, of 12.o acres. 
IMenty of wood, water, and land around the rocks. A. 
wishes to la; the junior partner, age 24, horn and raised 
in Now .lorsey, deaf in one car. and only one eye, with 
one week’s farm experience. He is single, strong and 
willing to work hard to make this old farm i)ay for 
itself. _ He has .$.“00 to invest now, and possibly $100 
more in the Fall. P. is the senior partner, age .‘>S, 
married, one child 15. He was born in Rhode Island, 
raised on a farm, high school education, has run this 
farm three years with fair success. It retails .nilk, 
his wife does the peddling and her housework with 
as.sistance of daughter, who attends school, lariv. has 
14-room house, milk, wagon and henhouse an 72-ft. 
barn with cellar, all in fair repair; P. i.as .5,000 ft. 
native new lumber for repairing stable floors and mak¬ 
ing chicken coops. It. has two horses, nine head neat 
cjittle, 100 hens, 100 chicks, 40 p.-iirs pigeons, one 
registered Airedale with three male pups. .It. owes 
$100 for feed. There is a mortgage of $2,500 on place 
with interest at (!%. interest and taxes paid. We have 
intere.st and noce.s.sary repair.^ him.self, in order to 
make the real e.state good. The cost of these things 
would not come out of the total before division, hut 
the real e.state owner would be resi)ousil)le for them. 
The next third would be represented by labor. We 
should assume that P.. the owner, his wife and 
daughter together, and A. the new’ partner, are of 
('(pial value as laborers. .Surely the woman who 
does the peddling, all the housework, and probably 
some of the chores, is as useful a worker as either of 
the.se men. That being so. the third which w’ouhl 
go to laoor should he equally divided between these 
three people. That wouh. mean one-ninth of” the 
total to V. one-ninth to B, and one-ninth to R’s 
wife. 
The third share going to the per.sonal proi)erty, 
would he harder to figure out. A 
of sight. Do scratch up a little 
more soil, and raise more food; 
never mind the cost. Work a little 
harder. Put in a few more hours. 
We’ll help.” Yes, every man. wom¬ 
an and child is urged to get into the 
dirt and raise something. 
This is a general call. Put how- 
does it affect me personally? This 
matter must he taken home to each 
one of us if it is to be of avail. 
For myself it .seems to me like. “Let 
the others do it.” I am practically 
retired from active business; my 
time is largely occupied with the 
yard, garden, and henhouse. I am 
not in a position to do much to in¬ 
crease the food supply. What I 
l)roduce is mostly consumed in my., 
own family. Ihit how does it 
strike the farmers of this commun¬ 
ity and others in like situation? We 
are dairymen. This whole country 
(Eastern Dutche.ss Co., N. Y'. i is 
almost entirely given up to making 
milk for the New' York market. We 
don’t know' any other way to farm. 
Our hands have had hold of a cow’s 
teat so long that they have grown 
fast. What effect will the increase 
or curtailment of our milk product 
have on the world’s food supply? 
Any? I don't see that it would. 
Is there any w^ay that we as dairy¬ 
men can augment the food supj<*ly? 
I wotild suggest one way. We can 
conserve; use up less of the coun¬ 
try’s grain supply in making milk! 
We are large buyers of gi'ain. We 
buy more than Ave raise. 5Ve raise 
all the corn and oats the farm will 
stand. We pVt the corn in the silo 
and feed the oats to the hor.ses. 
Then we buy for the cows, carload 
after carload of hominy, cottons{*ed, 
gluten, middlings, brew'ers’ grains, 
distiller.s’ grain.s, molasses feed, and 
various mixed feed.s—it’s buy—buy 
—all the time. 
The dairymen are straining every 
nerve to increase their output. 
They are overstocked. The hay¬ 
mows are empty. There is no grain 
in the country except in tin' feed 
.store. They even have to buy their 
seed. The pastures are gnawed to 
the roots all Summer. It seems to 
me this is a great mistake, especially 
at this time. I should say reduce 
the stock and buy les.s feed, even if 
we reduce the amount of milk to 
some extent. That would thus con- 
.serve not only the grain supiily, but 
labor and other expenses. And we 
might .save in other ways too, nor 
sell our calve.s, and buy our cows, 
not sell our cow'^s, and buy our beef; 
rai.se some pigs and not buy our 
pork, fatten a calf, and not sell it to the butcher 
and buy it back; live a little more off the farm. If 
Ave can reduce our exi)enses in this way it strikes 
me we would be doing a little something to increase 
the available supply of foodstuff. it. v. d. keed. 
1 hitchess Co., N. Y. 
Pitching on a Load of Alfalfa. Fig. 304 
The Hay Loader on a Wisconsin Farm. Fig. 305 
An Indiana Hay Shed Filled with Alfalfa. Fig. 306 
three bu.shels i)()tat{>os planted; shall plant two more. 
We want to plant one acre of beans, slnill inoculate the 
seed; Avant to rai.se till the flint corn we can. We have 
ony acre Winter wheat, oih' ;icr(> Winter rye, looking 
fair, one acre Alfalfti, ti little Sweet clover, two ttcres 
oats in; 42 loads inannro ploAved in. 42 mort' to use 
on corn tind 14 bitgs “fish tind potitsh.” We dipped po¬ 
tatoes in formaldehyde; used sulphur when we cut them 
for seed. a. & n. 
Government Farm Loans 
Nearly 10 month.s ago the Federal 
Farm Loan beciime a law. Farmers in 
many parts of the country fixed to 
raise large crops of wheat, but did not 
get the h)an tin* first of October, which 
has cut the whe A crop .short. Then 
they were pro; .ised this loan thi.s 
>4l)ring, but did not get it; went to 
the expense of '.etting abstracts of 
their land and ."iv d to put out big corn 
crops, but as yet no money, so I 
hardly see hoAV the government can 
exi)ect much help from the farmer in 
his helpless condition. Our bank is 
;it Paltimore, but we cannot even hear 
a word from it. B. P. S. 
Virginia. 
W E think the Federal Laud 
Pank at Paltimore Avill noAV 
reply to your letters. The trouble 
Avith thi.s farm loan busiues.s Avas 
th:it too many Avriters and advi.sers 
tried to pick it before it Avas ripe. 
They ru.slu'd into print Avith glow¬ 
ing accounts of Avhat it would do, 
and. of course, farmers thought it must be 
iill ready for them. Some of these articles 
would make a man think all he had to do was to 
walk into the bank and draAv the money. We tried 
to make it clear that in order to borrow money in 
this way the average farmer would have to sulimit 
better security than when dealing Avith an individual 
fair appraisal should be made of the 
net selling value of P’s stock and 
tools, deducting the hundred dollars 
Avhich he owes for feed. No high 
Aalue should be put on these, but 
rather Avhat it Avould cost to replace 
them in ca.sh. Assuming that P has 
.$000 Avoi’th of personal pnAperty 
after taking but his debt for feed: 
as.suming also that A puts up $450 
in cash, that Avould give A one-ninth 
nmre of the t'dal proceeds, and P 
tAA’o-ninths mor(\ If P’s persona! 
property does not total .$fK)0 at a 
fair basi.s, this persomil pi-operty 
third .should be divided differently 
in proportion to the A’almitnui Avhich 
P puts in. Assuming that P’s 
property is Avorth .$0(H), ami that A 
puts in ,$450, the division Avouhi be 
tAA'o-ninths of the total for P and 
one-ninth for A, or a sum total of 
six-ninths of the Avhole for P, two- 
ninths for A, and one-ninth for P’s 
Avife. In such a division P’s Avife 
.should haA'e her share personally, 
as she Avill fully earn it. There 
shoulfi l)e a contract lUiide betAveen 
A and P, definitely giving to A, 
one-third of the personal proi)erty 
It the end of the ye.-ir, giving him 
poAver to divi<le it if need be and 
obtain Ids share. Fnle.ss this is 
done. x\. may lose all the money 
Avhich he puts in, and he should 
liave this contract by Avay of pro¬ 
tection. In any event, a careful 
contract should be ir.ide out in legal 
rshai)e and properly signeil by both 
partie.s. Tins irrangement may not 
be entirely ‘iir to all hands, but 
Avithout knoAving anything more 
about the i)ersonali.ties involved, 
tlds is the Avay it avouUI be figured 
out by the rule of third.s. 
Fig uring a Farming Partnership 
S DME time ago we gai-e Avhat Ave called “the law 
of third.s” in figuring a basi.s of settlement be- 
lAveen iabor and cai)ital in farm work. Mo.st ca.ses 
" iL fall into this plan, but the follOAving is sent us 
as one Avhich could not be figured that way: 
This seems to bo a case Avhere a man and his wife 
on a mortgaged f.-irin Avill make use of the labor and 
capital of an outsider. I’nder the hiAV of thirds it 
AA'ould figure out about as folloAvs; 
The nml estate Avould repre.sent one-third of the 
income, or three-ninths of the Avhole. The OAvner of 
the farm Avould hav’e to be responsible for the taxes. 
or a local bank, hut it Avas little use to try to make 
this clear. Farmers thought the Avhole thing had 
been Avorked out, yet even noAV it is hardly possible 
to obtain a loan. This Avill come right in time and 
Ave think the s.A’stem Avill linally get doAvn to earth. 
All that can be done at present is to use AA’-hatever 
facilities may be available and aivait deA’elopmeuts. 
A 
