e-Zic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
513 
The Hired Man’s Children—Another Side 
A fter reading the many articles on the farm 
labor situation. I am prompted to write re¬ 
garding the latest topic, "The Hired Man's Children.” 
page sen This seems to "knock” the farmer rather 
hard, and 1 want to ask; Is the farmer considered 
a brute because he do(‘sn’t want to hire a man with 
a large family of dependent children'? First of all, 
the salary is to be <-onsidered. In these times of 
high prices it takes no small amount of money to 
feed and clothe a family of seven. ]Most advertise¬ 
ments read: “House rent, milk, fuel, and g-arden 
furnished.” Consequently no expenditure in cash 
does the hired man have for that part of his living. 
Is the average hired man willing to allow the farmer 
any credit for the above, or does he want enough 
in cash besides to live, pay up debts which he has 
incurred during the past fiv’C or 10 years, and .save 
money as well? Unless the farmer ha.s an unusually 
profitable business, can he afl’ord the responsibility 
of hiring such a man? The farmer has to ri.'ik all 
weather conditioms, and if the year proves a fruitful 
one, he has a little surplus after paying the running 
expemses of the farm. If, however, the season is 
unfavorable, and crops are light, the hired man 1 as 
to be paid just the .same. Rut what is there left for 
the farmer himself for his Labors, the interest on his 
inve.stmeut, etc.? If he has a dairy, that stock has 
to be fed; and if one or more animals di(‘ through 
the careles.sness of the hiiaal man it is the farmer 
who loses. I believe I am safe in saying that the 
majorit.v of men who hire out to faianers could not 
make their salaries if they were given the use of 
ihe land, etc.; yet the farmer is expecled to pay a 
salary generous enough that a man 
and his wife and several children 
may more than live. 
The distance from school is often 
one of the drawbacks to hiring a 
man with children of school age. If 
there’s no conveyance provided by the 
town for carr.ying the children, they 
must get there in .some other manmw. 
Can the farmer afford fo h‘t his man 
take his time for this purpose? 
The farmer is expected to provide 
a comfortable tenement, pleasiintly 
located, or the family is lonesome and 
dissatisfied. Oftentimes the children 
are allowed to batter the woodwork, 
damage walls, and be destructive in 
many other wa.vs. fi’he parents are 
kindl.v ask(‘d to keep matches out of 
the reach of small children, that they 
may not set fires, as childi'en are 
often inclined to do. This laspiest is 
unhewled. So the farmer has to risk 
his buildings and stock, and considers 
himself fortunate if nothing .serious 
occurs. At the end of a year, if the 
hired man stays that long, he finds it has taken his 
salary to meet his expemses. Surely the fainier 
hasn’t paid him enough for his services, so he asks 
lor a raise or else departs. 
As to the question, “Is it a disgrace, crime, or 
anything else to have five healthy, bright American 
children’?” I do not wish to infer anything of the 
kind, but my idea is that before a man raises a 
family of five children he shonld have stai-ted a 
home for himself, provided he is as capable as so:ne 
of- these men recommend themselves to be. Tlnn e 
are and have been many .snnill farms for sah* jit 
reasonable prices, where a man with the aid of his 
children can make good if lu? has ambition. Man.v 
a farmer started with “ambition” as his only (•ai)itai. 
The cities are burdened with families which might 
live comfortably in the country if the men were 
willing to work. It is money <»r the e(iuivalent. not 
work, that they want. Thus fai-, the pi-ices of farm 
produce have not been fixed .so that the farmer can 
afford to pa.v unlimited w;ig(^s to tin* hired ]nan. 
A’^ermont. o. ii. 
Extending Daylight for the Hen 
P UBLICITY is now being given to a method of 
increa.sing AVintei- egg production that has 
shown marvelous results in the hands of a consid¬ 
erable number of experimenters and commercial 
1 ‘oultrj'men. In fact, so remarkable are the results 
,so far obtained we may soon expect to see in the 
city dailies such .startling headlines as “The Cold 
Storage ‘tAhirehouse Frozen Out” and “December 
Eggs at May Prices.” 
Like most “new” di.scoveries. this one seems to be 
full 5 ’’ entitled to the franchise, .so far as its age is 
concerned, and. like many another startling innova¬ 
tion, it has burst suddenl.v upon the public only after 
a long period of unnoticed incubation. It seems that 
the idea underlying it was hatched more than two 
decades ago. but. lacking the expeid brooding which 
later years have afforded all poultry interests, it 
neai'ly died from want of nursing. I do not know 
who was the lirst to discover that .a lantern hung in 
the ])oultry hou.se at night increased egg production 
in the AVinter month.s. but. whoever he wa.s. he didn't 
curry his (‘mbr.vonic discovery far enough along to 
Getting Uenihj to BUmt the Ohstnu tiiig /tock Fig. 
(h‘nionsti-at(‘ its possibilitit's or to cnnx ince Ids tieigli- 
bors that the <-(iming 'Pom Barron might learn some¬ 
thing iti Atiu'fica that would startb' the egg pro- 
dttcers of his little island. T am not at all sure 
that Providence has not reservtMl th(^ announcement 
of wlnit now iiiijtettrs to be a really great discovery 
for the film' of the worhl's great food need iti the 
.sncond decade of the twentieth cetitury. At an.v 
rate, a great light Inis fallen upon the poultry world. 
Drilling in a Good Dresxing of Lime. Fig. 2H3 
and, if thu rnthle.ss hand of experience does not 
relentle.s.sly turn it down, we may look for something 
like a revolution in the practice of poultry keeping. 
AYinter dairying, which our forefathera knew little 
of, may have a like c'.xten.sion to the poultry industry, 
tind future farm conferences may be the scene of 
lively wrangles over the comparative merits of AVin- 
ter egg production and that of the more natural lay¬ 
ing .season. 
If you were told that you could gel a from "•() per 
The Dock .\ffrr the Ithisf. Fig. .lU.'/ 
cent to 70 per cent egg yield from your flocks of 
pullets all through the AVinter months, commencing, 
sa.v, in early November, would you believe it. or 
would you Just grin? AA'ell. it has been d'ue repeat- 
edl.v, both in small experimental flocks and in large 
poultry plants where they number their birds by 
the thousaiuLs. Suppose that that big tlock of pullets 
that you kept at a lo.ss through the past AVinter had 
laid like that, would your feelings be what they are 
mnv. or would you be out i>olishing no the wind¬ 
shield of that new car with your best hemstltclu'd 
linen handkerchief? 
An article in the “Cornell Countryman'' of last 
.Tanuary and several lectures during Farmers’ AA’eek 
at Ithaca in Februar.v brought this matter to the 
attention of hundreds of poultrymen who had not 
heard of it before. The Poultry Department of Cor¬ 
nell Universit.v does not claim the crislit of origin.it- 
irg the idea, by any means, but it has been seeking 
by ineaTis of carefully conducted expi'riments to get 
at the fundamental facts in the matter and to put 
the new practice upon a rational basis. T’rof. Banta 
of Alfred Thiiversit.v is, T believe, given credit for 
the most thorough original work yet done in investi¬ 
gating the new method’s po.ssibilities. The I’oultry 
Department at Cornell expects to be in ixisition this 
.Summer to publish the results of enough work to 
Iiermit it to speak with .some authority. 
The ability of the hen to produi'e eggs depends 
largely, if not chiefl.y, upon her ability to get, dige.st, 
and assimilate food. Her hohling caT>acity is lim¬ 
ited. and at least one of the rea.sons why she has not 
been in the habit of laying many eggs during the 
cold weather appears to have been that her digestive 
apparatus had nothing to work upon during the 
iatter hours of the long AV'inter nights. E.-iting her 
Slipper and going to bed at four o’clock gavi' her a 
reiaitation for sobriety and, in connection with her 
early rising, unde.served credit for eMicienc.v. Ft 
seems that she arose early, not from any desire to 
put in a full day’s work, but becau.se she was hungry. 
It has now been discovered that if we induce the 
hen to forget what Benjamin Franklin taught about 
early habits and adopt the more dissolute ])ractices 
of licr human masters she will accomplish far more 
than when working under her old- 
time sche<lule. Late .supiiers j.re 
what a hen needs, and, of coiirsi*. she 
can’t eat them without the accom¬ 
paniment of bright lights. The caba¬ 
ret may follow, but, so far, a well- 
illuminated henhou.se, up to about 
nine o’clock in the evening, appears to 
be the essential adjunct to good fee<l- 
ing that has made full AATuter egg 
production more than a ixmltryman’s 
dream. 
In ])r,actice it has been found that 
hens that have been in the habit of 
having a .supper of whole grains will 
not willingly go to roost without it. 
If the henhouse is kept well lit, th.ey 
will wait for it; and what is wanted 
is tluit they shall wait for it until 
such a late hour that their digestive 
organs shall be kept bu.sy through the 
longest hours of darkness. The kind 
of light does not matter, so long as 
there is- enough of it to enable the 
hen to jiick up her grain from the 
litter. Electricity i.s, of courae, the 
safest and mo.st convenient .sourc'e where it is avail- 
Jible, but lanterns would probably do if there were 
enough of them. One poultryman who has tried I lie 
plan declares that he can make a .sufficient additional 
lirofit from SCO hens to pay for installing an inde- 
pendent electric light outfit, both for his iioultry- 
house and dwelling. The lights should be turneil on 
about du.sk and kept ninning until after a full sui> 
per has been picked up at about eight o’clock In the 
evening. They can tlu'u be gradually turned out so 
that till' hens will find their way to the perche.s. 
Lights turned on a short time before daylight in the 
morning to Induce early rising have al.so been tried, 
but the Oornell expertluents. at least, have not shoun 
any gain from this practice. 
This method of marvelously increasing Winter I'gg 
production is as sinqile as it has been found t(t be 
< ffective. but it must not be thought that eggs can 
be iiroduced from light, or that tliey will be laid 
by roosters. Due who wishes to justify the exiienso 
of installing lights in his henhinise must I'xiioct to 
have well-develoiasl pulh'ts to place in his hoii.se in 
the Fall, and he must also Im jirejiared to furni.sh 
them with all the food in well-balanced jiroportii'iis 
that they will consunu'. ’I'lu* eggs emne from tin* 
food: th(‘ lights merel.v enalile the hens to eat it. 
’I'he ]>oulIryman may exiiect results from his arti¬ 
ficial illumination within three week.s. 
Have no drawbacks to this ]>Ian been discovered 
as yet? Alas, and ala.s. you can't hatch any chicks 
from hens fed in this way. At least, you can’t hatch 
enough good cliicks to keep up your tlock. If you 
are going in for AVinter hen dairying, you must jiro- 
vide for a separate iien of breeder.s, kept under more 
natural conditions, to replenish. your herds. Time 
has not yet demonstrated what the ultimate results 
will be. but it is hoiied that no .serious defects will 
develoi* later. m. n. dkan. 
