1322 } 
■Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 17, 1917 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
A Fixe Svi’pek. —Tlie I’arson and the 
boys have had a fine sapper. It wyisn’t 
exactly pork chops at 42 cents a [)ound. 
In fact, it cost nothing but great fun for 
the boys. The meat was raised right on 
our own place, eating swamp grass and 
roots and other things that we have 
hardly missed. It doesn’t take as ifnich 
time to dress it as it does chicken, either. 
For it is muskrat. 
The BtTLi.ETiN. —Farmers’ Bulletin 
.“IDG of the Department of Agriculture is 
a most interesting treatise on the musk¬ 
rat. It is more than interesting; it is 
profitable. Of the more than seven mil¬ 
lion killed in this country in a year prob¬ 
ably not a million are used at all for 
food. This is a great waste, and most of 
it among peojjle who can least afford it. 
A good muskrat weighs just about three 
pound.s, and when skinned and dressed 
there is just about a pound and a half 
of fine meat. It would appear to be safe 
to say that from five to six million pounds 
of meat are thrown away each year. 
('atchixo the Me.\t.— But you can’t 
cook him till you catch him. The I’ar¬ 
son has never had any luck putting the 
traps at the mouth of their holes or where 
their paths go down into the water. Of 
couse, you will get one occasionally, hut 
it is a slow process. It is much more 
satisfactory to use bait. But the little 
jump trap right near a bank and just 
under w'ater. If it is on top of a stone 
with deep water around it. so much the 
better, as the muskrat will get drowned 
in the traji and thus iirevcnt any possi¬ 
bility of its getting away. The boys get 
a wire hoop off a barrel ami cut in sev¬ 
eral pieces about a foot long and put the 
bait on this, sticking it firmly in the bank 
so that the bait is right over the trap 
and pretty close to the bank. The Ihir- 
and time in which to tend them. Few 
seem to realize how much this means to 
the country boy, who has so little to 
cheer him. It taxes a boy’s skill and in¬ 
genuity in setting the traps, and the 
thrill and excitement of getting some¬ 
thing goes right to a boy’s heart. Even 
"Sit” has bwn all excited over this trap- 
jdng. These “rushrats.” as she calls 
them, are good. She has her trap and 
each boy has his. She got one night be¬ 
fore last- The boys are up bright and 
early to go over to the brook. After the 
I’arson had several dressed for supper 
the other day, “Sit” informed her mother 
that they were all “peeled” for suj)per. 
Little Potatoes. —The Parson had 
four or five barrels of smallish imtatoes 
The Boy and Old Doll 
in tin* c<dlar which he had i)lanned to boil 
up for the hens next Winter, and occa- 
sif)nally let Old Doll have ti feed. ’I'hey 
were mostly nice and smooth, and such 
as we were mighty glad to get our.selves 
last Winter. It has grown upon the Par¬ 
son that those potatoes had a lot of good 
eating in them. And wasn’t there a f4‘l- 
low the boys call (’harlie t’haplin over in 
town with a big family and the same ohi 
day’s i)ay he used to have? As was to be 
exp('ct(“d. ln‘ hasn't a i)otato or anything 
(dse in the cellai' for tlie Wint<'r. So we 
The Parson and Boys 
son and the boys kept finding corncolis in 
the mouths of the burrows, and while the 
Parson as a boy always used apples for 
bait, w'e decided to try corn as well. Wo 
took about an inch of corncob and put 
too. They preferred tlie corn at once. 
We found them exceedingly fond of car¬ 
rots also. The Government bulletin says 
that, as far as has been observed, they 
seem to prefer carrots to anything else. 
_ The Skins. —We found from the bulle¬ 
tin that the fur is not at its best till 
about the first of December, and so the 
boys will probably bring in their five 
that on the wire, and a piece of apple, 
traps for a while. Last night they caught 
two and have now caught seven right 
near the henhouse. The corn about the 
crib and barn seems to have attracted 
them. It is wonderful what nice fur 
these little animals have! It should be 
stretched well on a pointed shingle and 
hung up till time to sell. As a boy the 
Parson delighted himself with 10 to 12 
cents for a pelt, while last year they 
bi’ought 40 to i)0 cents. Many States have 
a long closed season for muskrats, and 
every State ought to have. 
Cooking the Muskrat. —^The Govern¬ 
ment bulletin gives three different ways 
of cooking this fine meat. All such game 
should be soaked over night in salt water. 
In dressing, keep the fur from touching 
the meat as far as possible, and carefully 
cut away the little flanks or .stomach 
walls and any fatty-looking pieces under 
the fore legs. Then the meat can be 
boiled, fried slowly in deep fat, or roast¬ 
ed. Better send for the bulletin, it is 
wonderfully interesting. 
Trapping. —Let the boys trap this Fall 
and give them the money for the traps 
at the Muskrat Supper 
dumj»(“d the barrels over and will g<‘t nut 
about six busheds for him. 
The Pav.—IL? was to j)ay 50 famts a 
bushel, hut when the Parson delivered 
them at the house and saw the want 
there, even his elastic conscience trouhleil 
him. Why should he ask anything for 
those little potatoes’:' And the woman 
a.sked about a hen for Thanksgiving. 
Were they so awful high? “We haven’t 
had a chicken for several years,” she said. 
This stuck in the I’arson’s crop as Old 
Doll jogged along home. _ Those children 
had never seen a drumstick, never taken 
a chicken bone with them from the table 
to chew on out of doors! The boys say 
there are two Ithode Island roostei-s th.at 
roost on an old hox over at the henhouse. 
They will both lose their heads Thanks¬ 
giving time, and one will be enough for 
us. 
War Thanksgiving. —And that re¬ 
minds the I’ar.son that when this letter 
goes out to many readers, the eyes of the 
farm boys will be upon the hen roosts, 
and the eyes of the housewives upon the 
thickest juimpkin for the pumpkin pies. 
A great mass of foodstuff on the table 
will be out of jdace this year, as in fact, 
it always is. I.et there be the samples, 
the first fj-uit.s, of all the good things 
God has given us. and enough, and only 
enough, for health and hunger’s sake. 
Let the signs of the war appear in the 
things that are missing from the table. 
The apple_ sauce will go just as well if 
not made in .a pie, and .steaming johnny- 
cake will replace the bread. With eggs 
so dear and sugar so scarce, cake will 
soon be a thing of the pa.st. and wno of us 
will not be all the better for it! 
We Fan TTkio.—T oiti‘»'ht a« we sat :\t 
the table, one chair was empty, and tho 
boj’s pushed it back against the wall. To 
be sure, he was no blood relation, but he 
was one of the down county boys that 
came one morning to put up temporarily 
till he found a boarding place, for he was 
to work in town. The Parson thinks he 
never spent much time “looking.” He 
has been here ever since. Ilis coming at 
night was always a great time for the 
children—last night a big bag of peanuts 
went round. 
Short Notice. —^This afternoon his 
people ’phoned that the summons to th- 
war had come and he must leave tomor¬ 
row morning. The Parson took his car 
and went into town after him, and in an 
hour he, and all his things had gone. It 
has been good for all of us, for some¬ 
how we never realize a thing till it comes 
mighty close to home. 
What To Do. —The Par.son heard a 
man talk the other day who had been 
working with the boys up at the big 
camp in Massachusetts. What .seemed 
to be of real help to the men up there? 
First of all, letters and parcels from 
home. Keep the home ties strong and all 
concerned are safer and better. Of the 
fellows up there who were getting and 
writing letters constantly, he had no 
fear. And^ a parcel of goodies and some 
of mother’s cooking! No one knows 
what it means to take a fellow right out 
of the family and his circle of friends and 
soci.al life and put him where he sees 
iHithing in the world but strange men! 
The I’arson had a taste of it in freshman 
days iji college. How we rushed after 
class in the morning to look at that 
cigar box in the hallway! Those letters 
from home _ were the choicest of all. I 
Some ai'e still packed deep down in the' 
bottom drawer of his desk. 
Tho.se Boxes.— The Parson and his 
brother were together the first year at' 
college, and such boxes as we us(‘d to 
bring with us from the old farm. When 
the trunk w.as full we would put rope 
handles in the ends of a drygoods box 
from Fargo’s store and pass that off .as 
baggage. Shall I ever forget the time 
Avhen we had some three week.s’ rations 
packed in a long slim “trunk” box, and 
the baggage man hurled it onto tho truck 
and the thing split clear across both 
ends! I can see those baked b<*ans run¬ 
ning out on that truck as though it were 
yesterday, instead of 2-5 years ago. We 
“OA.ssEn.”—It was lucky that the fat 
baggage master at the old home st.ntion 
was too busy smoking his cob pipe to 
weigh up trunks in tho.se day.s, A bran 
sack of potatoes used to slide quietlv but 
heavily at the bottom of that old Sara¬ 
toga. The next morning, before the men 
were up (it didn’t have to be early for 
that), the Parson used to carry it on 
his biick across the campus to store away 
in the janitor’s cellar. We had a gas 
plate and oven in which we would put po¬ 
tatoes to bake before going to a recitation 
.an hour long. As we came out of recita¬ 
tion one day, I luaird a shouting down 
tow;ird Room 4. Section 1. .And there 
‘ ((’<intinued on jiage LTG2.) 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 333 W. 30th St.. N. Y. 
