513 
The RURAL NEW - WORKER 
Second Year on Arrowhead Farm 
Another year has rolled around and 
still finds us here upon the ground. It 
seems but yesterday that we were work¬ 
ing and sweating in harvest, and now we* 
are having a balmy Indian Summer in the 
middle of Winter. This last month has 
seen very little work done. We have 
been all bound round with the milk strike, 
and are just now emerging from the bat¬ 
tle. victorious, but a little weak from the 
loss of mik ; ! '-Want to say right here 
that, if there hadn’t been another thing 
accomplished on any of the farms of New 
York State for the past year except the 
milk strike, it would have been worth 
while. We are in the midst of a revolu¬ 
tion here at home: a social, bloodless rev¬ 
olution ; the farmer is revolting against the 
practice of being robbed by both the buy¬ 
er and the seller, and for the first time in 
the history of this country lie has stood 
lip squarely for a price for milk which 
would cover the cost of production, not 
asking a profit, and the combined efforts 
of the milk trust, New York City officials, 
the weather and the misunderstanding of 
of milk all the year. The horse problem 
has been ours; Jimmy has been laid away 
from old age; his successor, Jinny, de¬ 
veloped a royal case of side bones in her 
front feet and failed us when we wanted 
her most. A horse jockey played us a reg¬ 
ular David Harum trick when he sold us 
Dan, another successor to Jimmy. If he 
has any good points they have not yet 
shown themselves; the only points he has 
are bones, and they stick out fyom all 
quarters. I imagine it costs at least a 
million a month to keep him. and from 
advice I get from all hands we would be 
money in if we killed him regularly on 
the first of each month. 
Another serious problem we have not 
yet fathomed is how to make money on 
cows when we buy them for $100 and sell 
them for $40, and when calves cost at 
least $150 to raise from bj’-th to a two- 
year-old. But we are working on it. 
We have found the good old Summer 
time to be better for the farmers than the 
new-fangled hour-earlier time. If they 
want it in cities they may hav'e it. 
As nearly as we could figure, the brand 
The Chicken House is Bciiuj Whitewashed 
the consuming public li ive not been able 
to dislodge him from this platform. I 
think he has gotten it into his head that 
if they can stand together and name tlie 
price they are to get for milk, it is only 
a question of time when he will set the 
cost of production price on all the other 
products of his farm. The people of this 
country little realize how near the verge 
of disaster farming has come in this coun¬ 
try. For years there has been no class of 
labor where a man could get so little re¬ 
turn for his services as on a farm, and 
the realization of this truth has driven 
thousands upon thousands away from the 
farm. If the time ever comes when, with 
reasonable effort, a farmer can make 
good living and a fair profit, there is 
better vocation on this earth in which 
man may engage himself than in tilling 
the soil; it is an ideal way of passing the 
time we spend on this, our Mother Earth. 
With this off my mind I can proceed with 
the farm work. 
Anyone who thinks that the farmer 
who did his duty by his farm this year 
did not put in as nr. di hard labor as the 
a 
no 
a 
or 
soldier or the sailor who was overseas 
that he did not do as much for the coun¬ 
try as either of these, should think about 
twice again, and then should follow the 
work of one of these farmers for a good 
haying week in harvest. 
W e have had good crops. We. have put 
new stables in the barn, new gutter! 
the barn, put up a litter carrier, built 
combination chicken and woodhouse. cut 
considerable brush: all in addition to the 
regular work. Inside the house we have 
put in stationary tubs and finished con¬ 
creting the cellar bottom. We have set 
out an asparagus bed and some grape¬ 
vines. We find it harder to make fruit 
trees grow here than it was for the old 
Israelites to make brick without straw. 
If is curious how young stock, when they 
get out of bounds, start for a young fruit 
tree and either rip off the grafts or buck 
it down entirely. They seem to have a 
wild aversion against young fruit trees. 
We think we have somewhat lessened 
the ravages of contagious abortion in our 
cattle, and they have given a good flow 
on 
a 
of hogs we kept this past year took twice 
as much feed and put on half as much 
flesh as any other breed known to civiliza¬ 
tion. but what flesh they did produce has 
been turned into the best pork, sausage, 
head cheese, etc., that .it has been our lot 
to come upon. The chickens have laid re¬ 
markably well, but we cannot say too 
much on this line, for they are taken care 
of by the folks inside the house, and to 
dwell too much on this subject would 
only increase the flighty feeling which 
now holds forth in the minds of this class 
who have but recently come into the 
vote. I can’t help but . i though, that 
whatever they have done around here has 
been done well, with this exception; these 
self-same chickens, tended by this class, 
have dug up all the flower bed located in 
these parts, so that this class has been 
put to the election of choosing either 
flower beds or chickens, and we are not 
sure yet whether we are to have chickens 
or roses for our dinners this Summer. 
Our taxes are paid, the interest on the 
mortgage is paid, a goodly share of tin* 
current bills are paid, and unless some 
dire calamity utterly unlooked for comes, 
we look forth hopefully to another year 
without too many misgivings. Hope and 
our plans for the future are still with us. 
The farm looks a little better than it did 
last year this time. Our faith in farmers 
as a class is heightened, and as we face 
the coming year we have no doubt but 
that farming in general, and this farm in 
particular, is improving little by little, 
and the hope we came here with has been 
strengthened by the experience we have 
had here, and looks ahead a little more 
confidently to the future. The middle¬ 
man has not driven us off the farm as 
yet. 
Done before an open fireplace on Arrow¬ 
head Farm this 2Gth day of January, 
1019. m. D. 
‘‘Doctor, why is it that some people 
who are perfect wrecks live longer than 
others who are strong and well?” “Er— 
well von see the others die first.”—Bos¬ 
ton Transcript. 
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