10I& 
JShe RURAL N E W-Y O R K E R 
I liiced. sonio of whom will go South. But the great¬ 
est iiilliix is from the ..Middle au<l Far West, tJie 
reverse movement of a generation ago. Tlie searcli 
lor cdieai) land that led the fathers West is bringing 
the c-hildren Fast. 'J'he Western plains tliat once 
.sucked the blood of the JOastern hills are now .send¬ 
ing it hack in reiientance; their very ]iro.si)erity has 
been their undoing, they cannot house their own 
children. 'I’he Western plains did more to these 
hills than take their brain and hiawn; they forced 
them into a system of agriculture that has been 
their undoing. 'they made single-crop farms of 
them. 'I'he hills could not compete with the plains 
in the itroduclion of grain or meat. There was but 
one thing left to tln'in after lumber cea.sed to he a 
croji—milk. Milk had to be produced near the 
cities that used it. and it was easily j)i\)duced upon 
larnis that were esi)ecially adai)ted to grazing. Such 
grain as could he raised upon the tillable lields of 
these farms was I'eadily marketed through the cows. 
Till-: D.VIKY FACTORY.—The great milk dis¬ 
tributing companies of the cities .sent their cans 
further and further into the hills and olfered a 
cash market, albeit at their own ])r;ce.s. for Iluid 
milk. The making of butter and cheese, once a faim 
industry, became a factory i>rocess, and dairy prod¬ 
ucts becajne factory products. Milk became king, 
and the hill faianer of Southern New York acknowl¬ 
edged his sovereignty as completely as did his 
brother of the South that of cotton. With this con¬ 
centration of ellort 111)011 one ci’op, over the price 
of which he had no control, the hill farmer saw his 
independence slipping iiway from him. It was milk 
or nothing, and, in too many cases, milk and nothing. 
Under the.se circumstances it is not surprising that 
the hill farms of New Y*ork became so notoriously 
cheap as to attract nation-wide attention, and it is 
a splendid thing for the farms that this attention 
has been attracted to them. The .soil is still there, 
the buildings are there, and the home-making ojipor- 
tunity, for those who can avail themselves of it, is 
waiting. The.se fiirms have once supported families; 
they can do it again, hut they Avill supi)Grt only 
those families who can see where the opportunities 
for getting returns from them lie and who have 
the mu.scle and nerve to again beijome pioneers of 
the hills. Thou.sands of acres of improved lands in 
New York State are awaiting !i new ownership, and, 
if not taken by old American families, will be taken 
by those who have become land hungry in the Old 
World and who see in them opportunities for their 
children that the “played-out Yankee" cannot avail 
himself of. m. b. dean. 
R. N.-Y.—In succeeding articles The R. N.-Y. will 
try to tell wl>!it has already been done and what is 
promi.sed in the work of repopulating these hills. 
Finding a Pot of Money 
What do you know about the clairvoyants and their 
ability to find hidden treasure? Would you hire one 
to tind ii pot of money? Is there iiny implement or de¬ 
vice that will locate such metal in the ground? 
Y grandmother in her e.-iiiy womanhood was 
out in their jiasture gathering sweet tla.g or 
roots. While on this trip she stubbed her foot 
against a .saber sticking up out of the ground. She 
pulled it up and took it home. (Irandfather had a 
knife made from it. A number of years after that 
an old man traveled along this river digging in all 
the little streams on the west bank, but he tired 
a)id .gave it up when .some live or six miles from 
grandfather’s farm. This man claimed to have been 
a., member of an army paymaster’s guard ti’aveling 
Jiorth from Albany to some fort to pay off the ti’o.ops. 
when they found themselves sui'rounded by. Indians 
and enemies. They decided to bui’y the money 
in an iron kettle. Across the top they placed a 
saber, another was placed perpendicularly on to)) 
of it, supi)osed to he grandmother’s knife. After 
burying the money they separated each for himself; 
this man thought he Avas the only one Avho escaped. 
Bennington Co., \t. s. D. 
Thi.s quc.stion vvji.s submitted to Dr. F. I). Crane, Avho 
gives the following suggestion : 
You should by no means i)ay anyone any money 
for .guessing where that i)ot is buried. Thei'e is 
nothing in those tales of ma.gic and second sight; 
one man’s guess is as good iis iinother’s. and of 
course there is ;i chance tlnit the finding of the 
sword and the stoi\v of the old man are mere co- 
incidence.s. But chemi.sts deal Avith so many marvels 
that they are p(*rhaps rather too credulous, and so 
I am inclined to think there may he something in 
tlie story, for it certainly Avas a bit unusual to tind 
an old sword in a sAveet flag sAvamp. So let us as¬ 
sume that the tales are true, and that the iron pot 
has not yet Avholly rusted awiiy. That last is not 
probable, ca.st iron usually rusts a little and then 
stays rirotectc'd by the rust. If so, I find that it is 
possil)le to detect the presence of a four-gallon iron 
pot five feet aAvay by means of a free nuignet. 
I am not .iust gue.ssing about thi.s; I took the 
trouble to test it by nuiking a good magnet and 
Ir.vin.g it, and I think I will mail it to S. D.: it is no 
further use to me and ne Avould likely have a lot of 
trouble to make one. I think it is fair to assume 
that the ])ot is not more than three or. at most, four 
feet under ground; folks in a hurry are not going 
to dig very deep, and three feet doAvn is (piite a hole. 
Besides, the sAvord set vertical Avould not be more 
than 2^2 feet long or thei’eabouts. 
So the thing for D. to do is to .get a nither Avide 
hoiird, imiybe tAvo feet loii.g and 1 % feel Avide. and 
a box Avbich has the sides dovet;)il('d. such iis gro¬ 
ceries are often shipi)ed in. The boiird Avill Avork 
better if it has a coui)le of Ioav runners on it )K‘g,gcd 
on, not iiiiiled, and he mu.st look the box over to see 
that there iire no mi iis. The bottoms of those boxes 
% 
are usmilly nailed on. but he does not AA-ant the 
bottom, an.vAA'ay; he must repbice that, and parts 
of the side.s, Avith glass, AA’hich should fit tight, and 
the box sliould set doAvn tight on the board. This 
is to jireAent drafts of air; if they are lu-i'sent the 
needle Avill never come to rest. In the hoard he Avill 
make a little hole and in this he Avill set the heaA'y 
Tropiier Avire. bending it so the needle han,gs free. 
It Avill point to the north and also dip. .lust hoAV 
much I do not knoAA’, and I have not at hand any 
tiibles Avhich Avill tell me Iioaa’ much the m>edle diiis 
in A’ermont. Of course it Avill point to the mag¬ 
netic north, not the pole, and I do not knoAV Avhat 
the A Jiriation is noAV in Vermont, nor does it matter. 
Noav he Avill take this contraption out in the fields, 
and let the needle come to re.st, and then sight along 
or beside it, or both, pasting a hit of iiaiier on the 
glass Avith a slit in it. so that he Avill ahvays sight 
the same place. A bit of looking-glass glued beloAV 
the needle Avill help n lot in si.ghting it. As soon as 
he is sui-e he has his marks set ri.ght he is ready 
to hunt for that pot. for the needle I send Avill .surely 
turn a bit if there is an iron pot Avithin liA'e feet of 
it. I do not mean it Avill turn to the pot. but the 
deviation Avill be an average l)etAAeen the pull of the 
pot and the general imll of the earth, and at tAA'o 
feet it is marke<l. It takes the needle quite a time 
tc come to rest, hut it has to he quite sensitive. A 
thin brjis.s or copper Avire could lie run in throu.gh 
one side to act as a' dami)er. being luilled aside Avhen 
a reiiding is to be made. Of course the next thing is 
to .get the netHlle near the pot, and tluit Avill take 
time, but there must be more or less fiunily triidi- 
tion as to about Avhere the sAvord avsis found, and it 
is a (piestion of systematically covering the sus¬ 
pected area. If he Avill abso get a good hunter’s 
compass, not a mere toy, he can get the magnetic 
north, and by this moi'ns much shorten the hunt, as 
the dii)))ing needle Avill also ha\m a marked side- 
sAving if he passes the ])ot Avithin six or eight feet. 
The regular compass needle Avill soircely shoAv this 
side sAving. as it is hung so as to shoAV north oidy. 
I do not think that it is Avorth AA'hile to Avaste 
much time on it at this .season, but there Avill be 
days Avhen he can drag ^hat little .sled around the 
pasture Avithout (pialms of conscience. I don’t really 
have much fiiith that he ever Avill find it, but that 
Avill not be the fault of the needle, and I have taken 
a chance that his pasture is not streAvn with iiaui- 
bearing rocks, for if that is the case, it is hopeless. 
But such places are rare. 
Putting the Hens On a Ration 
W E Inive had several reports about poultry- 
keei)iug in England. The feed supply has 
been short, and the English Government noAv seems 
te have applied the “Avork-t)r-fight’’ order to poultry. 
Why not? If the human drone must go to AVork— 
Avhy not the same medicine for her laziness in 
feathers? Surely this is no time to encourage fancy 
frills and feathers. Eggs and meat Avill.Avin the 
AA’ar. The Food Administrator makes this announce¬ 
ment about English i)oultry. 'The order naturally 
Avould not apply to tho.se farmers Avho produce their 
OAvn grain and keep small flocks of poultry. It 
Avill, hoAvever, hit the commercial poultrymen Imrd— 
or rather his drone hens. But hoAv is the food ofiicer 
to knoAv Avhether a hen is a drone or not? 
Great Britain has adopted the rationing of poultry. 
So great ha.s become the shortage of feed that it is 
no longer .iustifiable to .support even a hen, if she biils 
to do her jnirt toAvard feeding the mition. lTaT)hiiza’-d 
ltoultry-keei)ing must go. To distribute equitably the 
limited (pnintity of poultry feed and to encourage the 
better strains of poultry, the Ministry of _Eood, acting 
Avith the Board of Agriculture, is putting into practice 
tAvo systems of rationing. 
A daily ration of four ounces of feed per bird Avill 
be jjrovided for birds of the best utility breeds U)) to 
an aggregate amount of .'50.000 tons of feeding stuffs 
for six mouths. Although this seems generous, it must 
August ai, tops 
be remembei’ed that the birds qualifying for the four- 
ounce ration are those Avhich, under careful breeding 
iind selection, have reached a high standard of egg 
ju-oduction. I’he rationing scheme reacts to the ad- 
v:int!ige of the country, because it means the survival 
<if the best fillers of the egg basket. 
OAvners of hens and luillets hatched since January 1 , 
1010, and not receiving rations under the four-ounce 
I)]an, may obtain certificates entitling them to pur- 
chiise a specified amount per head per day. I'his rsition 
is to be fixed from time to time, according to the (juantity 
of foodstuffs available. It will, of course, always be 
le.ss than four ounces. 
In oi'der to obtain the special ration of four ounces 
per day-—half grain and half a dry mash—foAvls will 
b(' classified into first-griide and second-grade bi'eeding 
stock. To come AA’ithin the first categoi’y fowls must be 
c.tility breeding stock for egg production or of high 
utility (juality and of luirebred stock, q’he standard of 
health must abso be high. For a period of at lesist tAvo 
yciirs th(‘ stock must have been bred selectiAU'ly to meet 
the above reciuirements. Second-grade birds, which must 
be bred from ])roved layers, Avill i-eceive riitions only 
;ifter the requirements of the first grade have been 
satisfied. A fair proiioi-tion of the allotted feed will be 
reserved for the best utility stocks of ducks, turkeys 
iind geese. 
The Final Cost of Food 
Your editoriiil on “The Loaf of Bread.’’ on page 1 ) 62 , 
i.s very aj)t. But—it seems pessimistic to us to try to 
compute AA hat is actually due the various interests 
through Avhose hands the grain of Avheat pa.sses to 
r<‘ach the consunuu’. 'The conditions iire so varied. It 
is a broad step from the time the grain of wheat is 
idaced in the ground to the time it is .sei-v(*d jjs a 
sandAA’ich <it the \\ iildorf-Astoria. A pound of iron is 
AA orth, say, fiA’e cents, but a pound of hairsprings for 
.\merican Avatches is worth thousands of dollars. The 
difference is simply due to the value of the hibor Avhich 
places the bread or iron before the consumer. Let the 
filmier forget Avlmt the sandAvich costs the man Avho 
eats it, and be content Avith a fair profit for his Avork. 
It is the .same with milk iind all other jiroducts of the 
farm. The fiirmer must not forget the cost to the niiin 
Avho handles the “stuff,” Avho must conform to all the 
laws and Ciiter to a critical public. ci. ii. guptill. 
Ncav Ilamiishire. 
T3DT suppo.se the fiiriuer doe.s not receive a “fair 
profit for Iii.s Avork'?” 'The great proiiortiou of 
the milk 110 aa’ sent to Noav York i.s produced iit ii 
h)s.s if tlie farmer Avere to aiiply the same rules of 
tost Avhicli the dealer and manufacturer u.se. 'I'he 
only thing AA'hich makes it jiossihle to jiroduce iind 
ship this milk is the “unpiiid labor of AA’omen and 
children on the fiirm.” Our friend Avill prohiihly 
iidmit that both the fiirm and the mition AA'ould be 
lar better off if the farm price Avere such that 
the,se Avomen and children could be paid for their 
labor. 'The fact that they iire not thus paid, Avhile 
.'Similar hihor in the cities /.v paid, is one of the 
basic troubles of fiirming. While it costs tAvice as 
much to distribute ii (pnirt of milk in Ncav York 
iis it doe.s to produce it on the farm our farmers 
are not very lilctdy to he content, and they Avould be 
foolish if they Avere satisfied Avith any .such distri¬ 
bution of the consumer’s dollar. 'The Avriter sells 
SAveet corn in Ncav York. The other day he .sold a 
lot at 2 '^/} cent.s iui eiir. A little hiter lie saAA’ the 
same or exactly similar corn sold at a restiiurant 
for 15 cents. 'Tlie “co.stly preparation’’ con.sisted in 
pulling off the husk and putting the ear in boiling 
AA’ater! We think it one of the most necessary 
’hings in a fiirmer’s business to knoAV Avhat his 
ju’oduce finally sells for. Every manufacturer must 
knoAV Avhat his stuff costs and the selling price, and 
his comstant effort is to cut out useless .selling ex- 
lienses. Why should not a farmer Avoi'k on the 
.same plan? Everyone is after the consumer’s dolhir. 
No other lu-odiuer or manufacturer except the 
farmer is expected to stand back and let the middh‘- 
man decide for him Avhat share he may take. The 
information regarding the timil cost of food is a 
fundiiniental necessity for a farmer. 
Chemical Fertilizers and Live Stock 
TRANGE as it may .seem to .some of our West¬ 
ern readers, the use of chemical fertilizers has 
started many farmers into live stock. We have a 
number of cases Avhere farmers took poor, Avorn-out 
land Avithoiit grass enough on TOO acres to feed six 
coAvs. 'There are many .such jiieces of land riglit 
near toAvn Avhere dairying Avould pay fairly Avell. A 
fair share of the land Avas broken u)) and planted to 
potatoes, millet. Soy beans, corn and oats and peas, 
all being Avell fertilized Avith a complete mixture. 
The potatoes lieliied pay the cost, and the fodder 
crops filled the barn and the silo. The next year 
and the folloAving years tlie manure from this fod¬ 
der, AA'ith i)hos])horus and some nitrogen added as 
(hemicals, took care of the soil. 'Fhe crops increased 
and the soil grew darker and richer. We also 
knoAA’^ of cases Avhere ha.A’ and straAA' are sold year 
offer year from farms Avhere iiractically no stock is 
keiit. CoA'er crops are jiloAved under and lime and 
chemicals used freely. Such things are quite pos¬ 
sible. They are being done. It is not always the 
best practice, but during this war and aftenvards 
many of us Avill haA'e to change the habits and 
methods which have become a part of life. 
