152 
TShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Feln'uary 2, 1018 
Send for our practical Corn 
Book. It will help you grow 
more bushels to the acre. 
Order your supplies of 
E. FRANK COE'S 
Reg. U. S, Pat. Off. 
FERTILIZERS 
NOW for IMMEDIATE SHIP¬ 
MENT. For over §ixty years 
they have helped good farmers 
increase their corn profits. Ask 
for pr^es. 
We want more agents. 
Address Crop Book Dept., 
The Coe-Mortimer Company 
Subsidiary of the American Agricultural 
Chemical Co. 
51 Chambers St., N. Y. C. 
I^ive, vigorous bacteria, bred under 
adverse conditions, full of pep, and 
guaranteed to inoculate your plants. 
Soy beans, clovers, peas, alfalfa, 
vetch, etc., yield more, restore nitrogen 
to the soil, and enrich your land only 
when inoculated. 
, We guarantee our bacteria as follows: 
Use as many packages as you wish, 
according to directions. If nodules do 
not appear in a satisfactory manner, we 
will refund the entire purchase price. 
i Will keep.at least a year. Our bac¬ 
teria arejield grown, not parlor bred 
on gelatine broth. Postage paid $1 
per acre; $5 for 6 acres, and for any 
legume. Mention which. . 
Get our FREE BOOK. It’s valuable. 
McQUEEN BACTERIA CO. 
rioX2ll BALTIC, OHIO 
SAVE MONEY by GRINDING 
AT HOME wheat, corn, rlco, 
coffee epicee, etc. Enjoy the na- 
tuial flavor. Freshly ground as 
needed. Grinds quickly coarso 
or flno. Lasts a life time. 
Description and price on 
request. Satisfaction guar¬ 
anteed. Other sizes, largo 
or small. Est. 1879. 
WILSON BROS.. Box 25 Easton. Pa. 
Your 'clianoe is in Canada. lUcli lands and 
Imsin.-ss ..pporlnniliPS offer you independence, 
rarni lands .$11 to .$.S0 an acre; irrigaled lands 
1o .$.'■>0. Twenty years fo pay; $2.01)0 loan in 
iini)rovenients, or rea<ly-inade farms. Loan of 
live.stoek. Taxes average under twenty cents 
an acre; no taxes on Improvements, personal 
pi’tiperty or livestocU, flood markets, churches, 
schools, roads, telephones. Excellent climate— 
croi).s and livestock prove it. Special homeseck- 
ors? fare ccrtlflcatcs. M'rite for free booklets. 
.\llan Cameron, (loncral Superintendent I.and 
Hranch, Canadian 1‘aciflc Railway, 519 Ninth 
.\venne, Calgary, Alberta. 
Do you want a farm where largest profits are 
made? The South’s great variety of crops 
nnd wonderfully productive climate make it the 
most profitable farm section of America. It is 
the i)la<'e for the lowest cost moat product ion 
and dairy farming. It grows the largest variety 
of forage crops. Good lauds, in good localities, 
as low as $1.5 to $25 an acre. Let us show yon 
locations that will give the highest profits, il. 
V. ItICHARDS. Commissioner, Room 87, South¬ 
ern Itallway System, Washington, D. C. 
HaveforSaleSix(6) Farms 
I'l^lE have books on 
gjj subjects of 
farming by rec¬ 
ognized authorities. 
Write us and we will 
quote you prices .*. .'. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th Street, New York 
Things to Think About 
Co-operation in Express Shipments 
The fominorfial flowor growers are hav¬ 
ing more than their share of trouble this 
year. Tlie eoal shortage is enough to 
make them gray before their time, and to 
this is added the general thought that 
flowers are a luxury in these w’ar times, 
fine of our friends writes from the, great 
flower growing di.strict around Lancaster 
f’o., I’a.: 
While the fuel situation is had. the 
market for flower.s is fiir from flourish¬ 
ing, as tlie express and jiarcel post service 
are each so bad that buyers are afi’aid 
to risk either. The result is that mar¬ 
kets like Philadelphia, which depend upon 
reshipping near half of all goods received, 
are swamped with' stock, h’or five days 
preceding ('hrislnpi.s,'all Lancaster C'oun- 
ty flowers were delivered to one P. It. K. 
train from I/ancaster to Philadelphia. 
We arranged with the Adams Express 
Co. for one of oiir members to go in the 
car with the goods nnd see that the flower 
shi])ment.s were delivered to commis.sion 
men in Philadeljjhia without delay. After 
one of those trips I had a pretty clear 
insight into a small part of the express 
situation. Eggs were handled much 
rougher than we handle potatoes. At one 
station a lot of mushrooms wore loaded. 
’I'he me.ss(‘nger stood in the doorway :ind 
threw them into the far corner of the 
car; next station he thrc'W a lot of boxes 
on top of them. One basket I saw 
smashed up completely. The exi)ress 
company is just about in the same condi¬ 
tion in Philadelphia that we are here ; no 
competent help to he had ; all colored ex¬ 
cept a few bosses. 1 never realized that 
any congestion could get as bad as their 
receiving depot at P.road Street Station, 
in addition to which they had over iTO 
cars on siding not opened. T had no dif¬ 
ficulty in getting flower.s straight through 
to the street platform, where the commi^ 
.sion men were waiting with trucks. This 
was a lesson that in any period of con¬ 
gestion where it is pos.sihle for a number 
of shippers to co-operate, go<Kls could be 
sent through without loss and on time. 
Cold Winters and Farming 
Great Need of Winter Work 
I 
Of late there have been a good many 
letters from people in New York or N<‘w 
lOngland asking whei-e they can i go to 
find a warmer climate. The people refer 
to the loss- of hibur and the discomfort 
of the long, cold Winters and they seem 
to think that in a milder climate they 
could iireserve their vigor and work con- 
tinuoihsly. 
I think a great deal of this dislike for 
the long cold YUnters (except on the 
l»:irt of those who are unwell) comes from 
the long period of enforced idleness. 
There is a .shut-down on nearly all farms, 
or at least a partial shut-down. In Hum¬ 
mer a group of 10 or 15 workers may he 
kept busy almost beyond their limit. 
After Deo. 1 most outside work stops. 
Nearly all of the workers must be hiid 
oil’. I’erhajis two ))r three of the best 
will he kei)t through the Winter simply 
to hold them for' the next season. They 
will be i)nt at some unimiiort.-int work, 
which 'both they and the farm owner 
know full well there is no profit in. This 
condition of affairs is more pronounced on 
truck f;irms than Avith some other types 
of farming. In general it holds true. 
It makes our labor problem far more 
troublesome than it would otherwise be. 
Who can blame a man for looking for a 
steady indoor Winter jtd) where he knows 
his work is counting for something? After 
getting a satisfactory Winter job he often 
fails to return to the farm in the Hjiring. 
Hut it is not the farm hand only that is 
affected. 'J'he same thing apidies to the 
owner and the boys. However, thei-e is 
some dilferiMice. Certain work must he 
done. The stock must be fed and it 
must he done regularly. This may not 
take more than two hours a day, yet this 
prevents Imving other outside work that 
reijuires regular hours. If the weather 
is cold the Winter seem.s very long and 
tiresome. This is especially true for men 
who are used to working in high-goar all 
through the Hummer. 
Is there a remedy for all this?- I d6n’t 
know, hut I have wondered many times 
this Winter Avhy some of this war work 
could not be done in farm communities 
on the piece-Avork basis. Certainly it 
need not all be done in the large cities. 
The farm Avorkers are .soon able to get the 
••knack” of things, and surely the country 
would benefit if some of the Avork was 
brought to the Avorkers, rather than have 
the woi'kers all go to the cities in order 
to be near the work. 
Huppose we had in this community a 
government box factory, s;iy. .Suppose, 
also, it Avas run on a piece-work basis, 
so a man of average ability could earn .$2 
in a day of 10 hours, yet have it so ar¬ 
ranged that no regular hour.s need he 
made. I believe in that ca.se Ave could 
hold our entire working force right here 
through the Winter, and I akso belicA’C 
those boxes would be made cheaper here 
than they could be in the cities. I have 
simply n.sed boxes as an illustration. 
Hnrely there are many things that could 
■be made in farm communities, or, better 
yet. right on individual farms, cheaper 
than by city labor, :ind made just as 
good. 
The weak jioint in farming today is the 
lack of jii'otitable AMnter work. If the 
government could “farm out” or divide up 
some of its big war contracts among the 
farmers of the country so there Avould he 
even moderately profitable Winter Avork, 
I am sure it Avoiild do ten times as much 
toAvard .solving the food problem as is be¬ 
ing done by the ever-increasing amount 
of "advice'’ that we arc comstantly re¬ 
ceiving. TUUC’KER, .JR. 
Food Supplies from the Ocean 
Few of us realize the immense resources 
of the ocean in its supply of food fish. 
Not long since, we saw a photograph 
taken on a pier in Her many, showing 
GO,000 barrels of fish waiting to be dis¬ 
tributed through the Herman Empire. 
These fish were caught off the coast of 
Norway, and thus it ajipears that Ger¬ 
many must depend not only upon her sub- 
marimes, but (>eean fish a.s well in her 
clmnce in winning the war. In this coun- 
'try the fish business has never been de- 
A'clojied ;is it should have been, and we 
have not b(*en forced into a diet of fi.sh, as 
is the case in Europe. There are plenty 
of fish in the .sea, but Ave have had no 
e(|uipped fieet capable of utilizing this 
food. .Such a fleet is now building, ami 
it Avill .soon take its jilace beside the Avar- 
ships and the transports, to defend this 
country. 
The Bureau of Fisheries at Wa.shing- 
ton issues ;i .service bulletin, Avhieli con¬ 
tains much information about fish. It 
seems that Avhale meat is being quite 
];irgely consumed on the Pacific Coast. 
The flesh of slmrks is being .smoked ami 
distributed through the Houthern part of 
the country. The .smoked shark is com- 
imred with halibut and salmon, hut is 
said to he superior in tenderness and 
flavor. Probably if this .shark meat were 
sold under .some spectiicubir name, it 
would jirove very popular. ' The gray- 
fish is another new one, now rapidly 
coming into use as a .smoked jirodiiet; it 
is said to be superior to herring and can 
be obtained in large (luanfities at any 
season in fhe watei's of I’uget Hound. 
Without doubt this gr:iyfi.sli will play a 
large part in the diet of the We.stern peo¬ 
ple. 
Alaska is coming forward as a rich 
producer of fi.sh ami seals. It is not gon- 
enilly known that seal meat is fre<iuently 
eaten. From the I’ribilof Islands in Alas¬ 
ka, there Avas shipiied last year !),144 
sealskins. There were also sent .‘IjOflO 
sacks of bones, mostly of seal, collected 
on these islands. There Avas also a good 
shipment of salted or corned si'al .shoul¬ 
ders, gullets and intestines. The corned 
shoulders are used as food, and it is 
hoped to use the intestines for making 
sausage.s. 
Hatun Lake is located in the Canal 
Zone. It was made by damming a num- 
l)('r of rivers, and covi'rs an area of GGO 
square miles. This lake is being .stocked 
Avith fish, such as catti.sh. suiifish, carp 
and black bass. The young fish wei-e 
shiiiped by steamer from New York and 
carried safely, as the temperature of the 
Avater in which they wei-e shipped was 
gradually raised as they traveled Houth, 
until it reached 74 degrees, which is the 
temperature of the Avater in this lake. 
AVe must remember that the ocean con¬ 
tains all the leachings from the earth. 
Every mineral known to man and prob¬ 
ably others may be extracted from sea 
water, and most of the btod wastes are 
eaten by fish. Thus the ocean is a great 
storehouse of food and fertilizer, Avhich 
man has hardly begun to tap. 
In the Tennessee Mountains 
I am fortunate enongh^o own a farm 
in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee, 
the loveliest place in the Avorld. I think. 
The birds sing all the year; the flowers 
bloom from early Hjiring to late Fall. ;ind 
even in the dead of Winter the lovely 
fern.s, cedars and jiines, the mistlet<M*, and 
many vines make the woods inviting to a 
nature lover. We are 12 miles away fi^m 
the nearest railroad, and the whistle of 
the locomotive' is seldom heard here. We 
are old-fashioned, they say, and aivay be¬ 
hind the times, but anyway we love each 
other, and when sickne.ss and sorrow 
comes to one family all others for miles 
around are willing and ready to do any¬ 
thing in their iiower to .show their sym¬ 
pathy, and the .sorrow of one is the sor¬ 
row of all. 
Hur home lies at the base of Chimney- 
top Mountain, which bclong.s to the Ap- 
Iialachian range. We raise corn, oats, 
■barley, cane, both kinds of potatoes; in 
fact, almost any kind of grains and veg¬ 
etables excejit wheat, which does not do 
very Avell. though some raise it, hut it is 
not a pa.\ing crop. Very foAA’ farmers 
hut have a nice flock of hens. Most of 
them raise ducks, geese, turkeys, and all 
raise a few hogs, for meat, and most of 
them have some to sell every year. Cat¬ 
tle, hor.ses and mules are raised on most 
farms; only Ji few sheep now, ■where a 
few years ago there Avas a flock on almost 
every farm. The men folk all claim they 
can’t have gra.ss and sheep, hut I think 
if the farms are jiroperly fenced so they 
can be changed often, there is nothing 
pays better. 
Fruit of all kinds does well here, and 
seldom do you find a farm without its 
orchard. Apples, iieaches, pears, plums, 
quinces, graiies. and all kinds of berries 
and small fruits do well, Avhile the Avoods 
and fields abound in nuts, wild grapes, 
■blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, per- 
.simmons. liaAvs. thorn apples, wild plums, 
etc. All families make apple butter in 
the good old way, in a brass kettle hold¬ 
ing from 10 to .‘!0 galloms, and .stirred six 
or eight hours. 
Most jicople make sorghum for home 
use and some to sell. AVe raise our own 
broom corn, make oiir own soap in most 
cases, HO we are not deiiendent on the 
grocer for everything. On our farm, 
which contains about 05 acres, and is 
steep for the mo.st part, we have kejit 
two mules, one brood mare, four head of 
calvi's. four cows, a brood sow and two 
hogs for meat, and the sow has six fine 
pigs, which are for next year’s meat; ii 
flock of 50 hens. 00 ducks, and a nice 
flock of young chiek-s. 
AVe raised a nice garden and I have 
c;inned tomatoes, apples, berries, besides 
vegetables, ehow-ehoAV and |)iekles, some¬ 
thing like 200 (|iiarts. 'I have dried beans 
to u.se and to sell; these weri* raised in 
the corn. I dried a bushel of beans, hulls 
and all; Ave call them “shuck beans”; I 
j)ut about eight gallons down in salt, be¬ 
sides canning a fcAV. AA’e have sweet ]) 0 - 
tatoes to use and .sell ; akso Irish pota¬ 
toes ; have plenty of sorghum for home 
use, and Imve sold some and Avill sell 
more. AVe have buckwheat and corn to 
do us; will have nearly enough meat and 
lard; have turnips and kraut, apiile but¬ 
ter and onions; in fact, Ave have plenty to 
keep starvation at bay, though this is one 
year that cornhread and luiekwheat will 
have to take the place of high-iiriced bis¬ 
cuits, but our cornhread is delicious, for 
it is ground’ on the old-fashioned buhr- 
inill, turned by Avater-power, and baked 
(often) in the baker before an old-fash¬ 
ioned fireplace of glowing hickory coals. 
There are lots of people poorer than we 
mountain folks, and here you find men 
and women who love the farm and are 
true to their higher ideals. Money is not 
the sole aim of tlieir existence, and folly 
;ind fashion do not tower above truth and 
true manliood. AIKS. ii. 
Tennessee. 
Left-hand Plows 
(Gontinued from page 1.501 
left-hand plow is a different proposition, 
and th(' great majority of our farmi'rs 
never even saw one. 
I Iiave lived on this farm for over 54 
ye:irs, and with the exception of the one- 
horse turn plow we have used only left- 
hand plows, and our plowmen would find 
the right-hand plow quite awkward. AA'e 
u.se only one line, usually a rope one, 
Avith a loop at the end Avhich the driver 
slips over his left hand, the lead horse 
walking in the furrow, which, if the team 
i.s projicrly geared, makes driving much 
easier. Of cour.se, with the right-hand 
plow the leader can be put in the fur¬ 
row, but the driver then would have to 
have the line in his right hand, Avhieh, to 
us old men. would be very awkward. 
Please, Mr. I’low-maker, let us old fel¬ 
lows pass away before our old friend, the 
left-hand plow. WAi. R. DUKE. 
Virginia. 
