904 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Where the Parson Sometimes Stops 
they come when least expected, and wlien 
there seems to be the least time to look 
after them. 
Canning. —They had over ,‘500 women 
over at Storrs during .Tune learning the 
canning art, and they expect 200 more in 
.Tilly. One very practical thing we 
learned, for all the conference had a les- 
.son in canning, and that was, that one of 
these high tin hard ca. ; that can .some¬ 
times he gotten at die butcher's makes 
an excellent cold-pack canning outfit. It 
occupies but one griddle of tlie stove, so 
that you can u.se the rest of the stove. 
These big tin coffee cans answer the same 
up in an ordinary yard, or “run.” “The 
latter.” he said, “is supposed to eat about 
fK) to 05 pounds of grain a year, while 
the farm hen ate just about 00 pounds a 
year.” This 80 pounds difference means 
over a dollar per year per hen. .Just 
think what an advantage we farmers 
have here. The hens on the I’arson’s 
farm are the most profitable things we 
have. For some time they have had no 
bran, just only skim-milk, young clover 
sown for them right back of the hen- 
hou.se, and old corn thrown to them from 
the crib. About twice .i week we have a 
fight with the mites. Like potato bugs, 
working man and his two boys, who have 
come back to the land. The little woman, 
always cheerful and hopeful, was too 
busy with the supper. I believe if you 
asked this man what has helped them 
most in the last two years he would say 
the church and Tiik Kukai. Nkw-Yorkkb. 
They never miss any gathering of the 
former nor a single word of the latter. 
What a fine supper we had, followed by 
great saucers of the I'arson’s ice cri'am ! 
This family sold their city store and got 
enough to pay down the whole price on 
the farm. The first year they came out 
even and each year since they do a little 
better. They board the school teacher, 
which is quite a little help. 
That I’artv. —But I was telling of 
that party with 28 to come. Yes, they 
came. It was the chiu-ch night, Saturday 
night, and I suppose people heard there 
was something going on, and .so they 
came—and kept coming. The I’arsoii 
counted G.5 at one time and tliere were 
moi-e besides. What would she have done 
without the extra ice cream? “You lose 
nottings by dis. You lose nottings by 
dis,” .she kept saying as we parted. The 
I’arson and Moms turned in at two 
o’clock next morning, having been uj) 
since five. It was a long day, with three 
services and a 40-mile run for Sunday. 
Savki) ^7,50.—The Par.son and Moms 
have just returned from the annual Rural 
Church Conference at Storrs College. 
Such a fine and helpful time we have at 
these conferences. The speaker of the 
second evening was the Presiding Elder 
of the Methodist Church of this confer¬ 
ence. After getting v.'ell under way he 
suddenly changed his subject on to iiter- 
ature in the country home. “How many 
of you read the Pastoral Parson .articles?’’ 
he shouted. Well, I nearly fell off my 
Ready for the Party 
A Big Day. —After a rushing trip, dur¬ 
ing which he had run over a big gander 
(without any apparent damage) and had 
a fearful blowout, the Parson pulled 
round the corner over the bridge and be¬ 
held his country church. There it was 
surrounded by autos and teams, and the 
inside packed to the doors with people. 
It was the one hundredth anniversary of 
the completion of the church building. 
The good man who came before the Par¬ 
son and had the churcii .8(5 years was 
there, and told with both wit and pathos 
of his many experiences. He, himself, 
with his own hands, had built the belfry 
on the church and had looked after the 
bell’s installation. The bishop was there 
for confirmation and address, and a min¬ 
ister who.se father v. ad service there 75 
years ago, sent us a beautiful flag. These 
big days in the <-ountry church are a 
gre.at help every way. They often bring 
in people who v>-ill keep coming from 
having broken the ice and got acquainted 
and seen what fine times we have down 
there. Our next big time will be Old 
Home Day in the early Fall. 
Swimming Day.— I said the next big 
day was Old Home Day. but really the 
biggest day of all for the boys is Swim¬ 
ming Day. I supjiose that is a queer day 
for a church to have, but it will come for 
us the first Sunday in August—right 
after haying. On that day we will gather 
at the church for a very early and a very 
short service—very short—and then by 
autos and teams we are off for the shore, 
some 10 miles away. This is iv-ally the 
Boys’ Day. Children’s Day in church is 
really a girls’ day. AVhat does a boy care 
for the speaking of pieces and the singing 
of songs and the carrying of posies? And 
then there is Mother.s’ Day and some time 
we may have men enough in church to 
have a real Dad’s Day, but the first Sun¬ 
day after haying is Boys’ Day. ’I’liere 
on the sands of the jniblic beach will the 
lapping waves carry away the memory 
of the heat and the hayseed that went 
with jamming the last load of hay under 
the ridge-pole. Woe be to the old hen 
that makes bold to become a setter that 
week or the cockerel that dares to crow 
too lustily in the morning! 
A “Private” Party.— “Can I have the 
rooms down to the church for a little 
party I want to give?” asked a back-to- 
the-lander the other day. She was a Bo¬ 
hemian woman whose family was noted 
for hard work, and they were getting by. 
She explained that they had invited just 
28 people. Mr. and Mrs. Parson went 
down to the party and stopped at this 
woman’s house on the way. In spite of 
getting everything ready and giving a 
party four miles from home the woman 
and her daughter had spent the whole 
forenoon in the fields with the men— 
they have eight acres of corn. She was a 
little worried for fear she might not have 
ice cream enough. “Never worry,” said 
the Parson, “I rolled in a five-gallon 
freezer full in case you might need 
more.” 
Making Caee.s. —Our next call was 
where a mo.st patient and cheerful woman 
has lived all these years without ever 
walking at all. She is a victim of rheuma¬ 
tism, and you see her in her wheel chair, 
but she is really .somewhat better jiml 
has hopes of walking yet. We left her 
a fine lot of ladies’ magazines to read 
and look at, and had a fine visit, as we 
all ate ice cream under a big hemlock 
tree. 
A Big Pig. —At the next place lived 
one of the very few families of native 
stock. A mother and daughter and little 
grandson make up the family. The 
diiughter is a great farm and stock 
woman, and keeps pace with any of the 
newcomers. Her pig last Fall weighed 
just 40(5 pounds and the clear lard 
amounted to over 40 pounds. 
Making Coon.—At the next stop we 
pulled up for supper, but just before 
eating, although the sun was low, the 
I’arson took the picture of this hard 
She May Walk Yet 
seat. T guess I’m in for it now,’ I 
thought. About half of the people raised 
their hand. Then he went on like this: 
“There are two questions that I always 
iisk every qinirterly conference in the 
country or town. If I’ve asked them 
once 1 Imve sixty times. The first is: 
‘Do you take the Christiiui Advocate, our 
denominiitional paper?’ and the second 
is, ‘Do you take The Rural New-York¬ 
er?” Talk about advertising! If 
this man had been on a ten thou.sand 
a year salary he could not have done bet¬ 
ter. “Every single page of this paper 
breathes a high, moral and Christian 
siiirit,” he exclaimed. 
How The Paper Helped. —He told 
how that he went to one conference and 
asked, as was his wont, about their in¬ 
vested funds. “We are just going to in¬ 
vest .$750 in such a stock,” they .said: 
“You are?” he answered. “Why I just 
read that that concern was a fraud in 
The R. N.-Y.” He drew the paper from 
his iiocket and showed it to them. And 
the money was saved. Another time he 
was too late to iirevent an investment in 
a concern exposed by Th:o R. N.-\'.. and 
the official board was put to the slight 
inconvenience of making ui) the fund lost, 
themselves! 
Farmers and Minlsters. —As a 
grouj) of us were looking over the poultry 
plant, some one raised the question of 
how many were both farming and preach¬ 
ing. A count showed that seven out of 
15 were. One man had a milk route of 
12 COW.S, suiiplying milk to practically 
all of his congregation. He had the farm 
first and was asked by the peojile to 
preach to them. Another iireacher had 
4(X) hens and w.as making good, and still 
another had done quite ;i little in the 
pork line, and was said to have the finest 
brood sow in his county. 
The Fah.mer’s Hen.— The Parson 
asked the expert if there had been any 
accurate data made of the amount of 
grain the farm hen ate with all out¬ 
doors but the garden to run in, as com¬ 
pared to th6 amount eaten by the hen shut 
purpose. A false wooden bottom has to 
be put in of course. Another idea we got 
lyas that of a sort of duplex fork that 
fits right over a jar when under water 
and takes it right up out as neat as a 
pin. 
The Farmer’.s Cannery. —Confiden¬ 
tially, Mrs. Pastoral I’.arson is not throw¬ 
ing a fit over this canning craze. It is 
well and good for those who have no cel¬ 
lars or any iilace to keep anything, but 
the farmer’s cannery is his cellar. We 
eat an abundance of garden things in 
their season, and then in the Winter 
with potatoes and turnips and carrots and 
cabbage and onions we manage to keep 
from starving to dciith. One city friend 
of ours has been canning asparagus. It 
cost her .‘50 cents a jar, not counting the 
gas or labor. 
What We Do Can. —We can quite a 
lot of rhubarb always, not putting in a 
bit of sugar, and, of course, there is no 
loss from spoiling and the rhubarb costs 
nothing. Then we can a good deal of 
apple sauce. We cook it in a big kettle, 
and can hot the old-fashioned way with 
no sugar. It can be sweetened when used 
and according to what it is to be used 
for. 'I'he boys never tire of apple sauce 
and it answers every purpose of peaches 
or plums or other things that cost good 
money. 
The .Tars. —We have always got our 
jars from the drug and ice cream stores. 
They are two quart jars v.’hich contained 
the syrups for (lavoring, and we have 
always bought them for 75 cents a dozen. 
The only objection to these jars i.s. that 
the tops are of various sizes and if 
broken, cannot very well be replaced. 
The Crors.— To-day is the second of 
.Tilly, and we began haying in a small 
way—cutting a piece of clover. Never 
has the Parson known ,a bettm- year for 
things to grow. It rains enough to keep 
the ground soaked, and how things have 
come on ! Potatoes everywhere look fine, 
and very few potato bugs to contend 
with, especiall.v where there has not been 
potatoes for some time. We expect to 
Pcistoral Parson and His Country Folks 
July 21, 1917. 
have new potatoes and peas the Fourth 
of -Tul.v. One of the boys has just come 
in bringing ,80 eggs from 53 hens. 
SoY Beans. —For the first time we 
have put in quite a few 8oy beans. 
While we have planted a few bv them¬ 
selves for seed, for the most part we 
have put them right by the corn hills to 
cut into the silo. They have come up 
well and seem to grow apace with the 
other stuff. The potatoes where the ma¬ 
nure was spread on top and thoroughly 
chopped up and mixed with dirt with a 
disk harrow look much better than those 
where the manure was plowed in with a 
fair application of phosphate along the 
furrow well mixed with the soil. The 
lone goo.se is doing well and mav lift the 
mortgage yet. 
Legal Questions 
Distribution of Property; Non-paying 
Tenant 
1. When a woman dies without .a 
will, and leaves no children but does 
leave a husband, mother and brothers, 
who, by law, inherits her property, both 
real estate and personal? 2. If one rents 
his farm, and tenant le.aves without fully 
jiaying his rent (money rent) and leaves 
Dvo or three tons of baled straw in barns 
without notifying owner, since Novem¬ 
ber. 1910, date of tenant’s removal, to 
Jiresent date, can owner claim such .straw 
on unpaid rent and damages done, if con¬ 
tract reads “all damages repaired or set¬ 
tled for,” and these had been neglected 
by tenant? a a s 
1. In this State a wife dying le.aving no 
children, her husband inherits all of her 
per.sonal propert.v. He also 1ms his cour¬ 
tesy of an interest for his life in all of 
her real property. It then, at his death, 
de.scends to her heirs, which in this case 
Would be her mother. If slie wishes <a 
different distribution .she should make a 
will by which she may distribute all of 
her ixu'soniil and real property as she 
wishes. 
2. The landlord is legally justified un¬ 
der the lea.se in selling the straw and 
apiilying the proceeds ion the unpaid 
rent. 15ut it might be Avell first to get 
the straw in your posse.ssion and then, 
if the tenant’s address is known, notify 
him that unless the rent is paid imme¬ 
diately the straw will be .sold and the 
jiroceeds applied on the account, and 
that he will be held -liable for any bal¬ 
ance. Then if no answer is received 
after a reasonable time proceed to sell it. 
Bankrupt’s Note; Widow’s Share 
1. A gives B a note due in six months. 
A short time after the note is given A 
goes into bankruptcy. How will that 
affect the note seeing it is not due? 
2. How much iier.sonal can a widow 
claim whose husband dies leaving a farm, 
some money and stock? Which of the 
crops are considered personal? Is fniit 
that is not picked personal or real? 
Widow is to have her dower right in 
realty of cour.se. Would she have the 
income of any of the crops this year, 
husband dying 1st of .Tiily? ii. E. w. 
New York. 
1. Tt would affect the note to the ex¬ 
tent that the holder would have to file 
proof of his claim before the referee ap- 
jiointed in the bankruptcy proceedings, 
and he would have to share with the 
other creditors in the distribution of the 
estate. 
2. The statute provides that the crops 
growing on the land of the deceased at 
the time of his ceath and every kind of 
liroduce rai.sed annually by labor and cul¬ 
tivation (except growing grass and fruit 
ungathered) utensils, furniture, cattle 
and personal property generally shall be 
deemed assets and go to the adminis¬ 
trator, to be applied and distributed as 
part of the personal property of the de¬ 
ceased. She would therefore be entitled 
to all the crops except the fruit i ngatli- 
ered and the growing g.Mss at the time of 
his death. The widow’s share in the per¬ 
sonalty would dejiend on whether there 
were any children or other near relatives. 
One-third if there are children, one-half 
if near relatives, and if none she would 
have all the personal property and her 
dower of a life interes In one-third of 
the real property. m. d. 
They are “Making Good” 
