740 
April 2(i, HUM 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
“I recently noticed iu Tiie R. N.-Y. the 
statement of a man who got rich selling 
milk at five cents a quart retail, and of a 
hired man who went through college on 
the savings from $18 per month. If that 
is true does it not prove that all farmers 
and hired men, with present prices, ought 
to be rich? J. R. s.” 
***** 
That is from a city man, three genera¬ 
tions removed from the farm. It would 
be misery for him to spend 24 hours in 
the country. He reads practically noth¬ 
ing but a daily paper and probably never 
had a single reasoning or analyzing 
thought in his life. He is a fair type of 
the people who are being led in mental 
chains by the big interests and the big 
politicians, and the strange thing is that 
they seem to enjoy the bondage. The way 
such men have been fooled and tied up 
mentally is about the cleverest scheme that 
has ever happened in our history. Instead 
of fighting against the forces which have 
tied them up, they have been taught to 
curse and sneer at the farmers—the only 
class of people who could unite with them 
and bring relief. 
***** 
Just consider this man’s reasoning and 
you have a good idea of the way facts be¬ 
come twisted. We never said any man 
got rich retailing milk at five cents. We 
said a man gained “a modest competency” 
—which was true. We never said a hired 
man paid his way through college out of 
$18 a month. We said he started at col¬ 
lege. The difference between start and 
finish is “wide and deep.” These things 
happened 40 years ago. The contrast will 
interest those who were alive at that time 
and also those who expect to be alive 40 
years hence. It was in Colorado, in a 
town at that time less than 10 years re¬ 
moved from the raw prairie. It is a good- 
sized city now, but then it was a strange 
mixture of human types gathered from all 
over the world and shaken up in a bag 
and dumped out on the great American 
desert. Most of these people had little in 
common ; they were too old to make over 
their habits, but they did know that their 
only hope was to hang together in some 
way until the town could be nailed to the 
landscape. Years before a company of 
trappers and hunters had camped at the 
same spot. They had to keep up their 
group in order to protect themselves from 
the Indians. So while they had little in 
common they knew they would be killed, 
one by one, if they separated. Thus the 
people of this town were hanging together 
in the hope that their children would 
know it as a “home town.” 
* * * * * 
But how could five-cent milk be made? 
The boss had a little place of about ten 
acres near the fence which surrounded 
the town. Just outside this fence the en¬ 
tire State of Colorado stretched away as 
a free pasture! After milking, in the 
morning, we drove the cows out to this 
free pasture and • one of us stayed by 
them all day as a herder, bringing them 
back at night. Along the bottom lands 
beside the streams grew a sort of rough 
prairie grass. We cut this in Summer, 
made it into hay and hauled it home into 
big stacks beside the shed. This hay at 
that time was free. It cost nothing but 
labor. Then, within half a mile of the 
farm was the town grist mill, where thou¬ 
sands of tons of wheat were ground each 
year. There was little or no sale for bran 
and shorts. We bought all we could haul 
away for about $8 per ton. There was a 
herd of nearly 100 cattle, including young 
stock, and a good share of the manure was 
dumped on less than 10 acres, which were 
planted in fodder corn. When irrigated it 
grew about as high as a house. Thus 
pasture was free, hay cost only labor, 
while wheat feed was next thing to a gift. 
Compare that with the overhead expenses 
on a modern dairy farm, and figure the 
cost of the milk ! 
***** 
In those days everyone was resigned to 
the belief that in order to live a loyal and 
legal life each must eat at least “a peck of 
dirt.” “Sanitary” milk had not been 
mentioned. I doubt if there was a milk 
inspector in the entire State. We had 
no barn—just a long, low shed. There 
was just room for two rows of cows to 
stand facing the center, with a narrow 
passage between. We even kept calves in 
this feeding alley during Winter. There 
was no floor except, boards under the 
cows. The manure was just thrown out 
of the windows back of the cows and left to 
“keep the stable warm.” The milk was 
poured through a tin strainer and a cloth 
right into the cans. These were put on 
the wagon and the milk was dipped out 
from house to house. No one had heard 
of a milk bottle except the kind used by 
babies. No one “inspected” milk. Our 
customers were inclined to shut their eyes 
and swallow it. As for pasteurizing, the 
great Pasteur had not at that time con¬ 
sidered his “rizer.” and as for bacteria, 
no one knew what they were. If a dairy¬ 
man nowadays could get his feed for noth¬ 
ing and sell anything that looks like milk 
he could make money at five cents a quart. 
By hard work and pinching the boss laid 
aside some $5,000. which in those days 
was considered “a good stake.” Of course 1 
I know that if we offered such milk for 
sale today we would be arrested and 
jailed, yet. some of the babies who lived 
on that milk grew up into fine men and 
women! 
***** 
On that farm I served as herder part 
of the time, milker and milk peddler. I 
could tell some strange stories of pioneer 
life. In Summer we slept on top of the 
haystack. In that rainless country this 
was the most comfortable place. In Win¬ 
ter we were up at. 4 :30. We used a hay 
knife to cut off the end of the haystack 
and poled the hay into the shed. During 
cold weather and storms this was a job 
at which I would gladly put our city 
friend. The bran and shorts were put 
into a barrel, wet up with water and fed 
out in the darkness to the cows—stumbling 
over the calves in the feeding alley. The 
town was a temperance colony, and quite 
frequently heavy drinkers would come to 
sober up or try to cure themselves of the 
habit. At that time many believed in 
the “milk cure,” and on my rounds with 
the wagon I have often seen these “tanks” 
waiting for me. They would buy a quart 
of warm milk and drink it all down., in 
the belief that it cured their thirst. Our 
method was to drive up iu front of a 
house and ring a big dinner bell until 
someone came out for the milk. Ofttimes 
the door would open a crack and a pitcher 
f^id a hand would appear. The milkman 
was expected to come and pour the milk 
into the pitcher. A nearsighted milkman 
saw at one house what he thought was a : 
tin bucket held out through the door 
crack. He poured a pint of milk into it 
and there was a terrible commotion inside. 
He found it was a deaf man who had 
pushed out his ear trumpet to see what 
the noise was about, and the milk had | 
gone into the trumpet! 
***** 
In milk-making today every expense, 
from feed to overhead costs, will run four 
to eight times what this dairyman had to 
pay. As for the hired man and education, 
the difference between the two periods D 
about as great. In that town a hired 
man was just as good as anyone, because 
human society had not settled into “class¬ 
es.” The town had not decided who or 
what were to constitute the “Upper Ten” 
or the local “Four Hundred.” We were 
all candidates for it. There were few 
chances to spend money, and everyone had 
come West, to save. After about two 
years’ work I had a little less than $100. 
With this I was able to get back to Mich¬ 
igan, buy a few clothes, pay entrance col¬ 
lege fees and my board for at least one 
term. Today it would cost that much to 
travel alone, and the average boy would 
expect twice that amount for his clothing 
outfit. At that time the college boarded 
us for a little over $2 per week! After 
getting once started we paid our expenses 
through our labor. There may be young 
fellows who can and do work like that in 
these days, but, on the whole, I would not 
advise them to try it. I am sure that my 
boys could not do it, and, frankly, I do 
not want them to. Such things belong 
to an olden time. The world and its meth¬ 
ods have changed. While these things 
were possible years ago they no. longer 
represent the best way, and we must real¬ 
ize it. 
***** 
And that is what gets me when these 
city people undertake to talk about farm¬ 
ing. They take some old-time method or 
some incident of a long-forgotten past and 
say it is an exact fit for the farmer's con¬ 
dition. These folks would growl and roar 
if I told them they ought to live and work 
as people in New York did 40 years ago. 
Then mother and grandmother did their 
own washing, and did it well. Father and 
grandfather carried their dinner to work 
in a package and brought home big bas¬ 
kets and bundles of food and fuel. Thus 
they lived on small incomes and saved 
money. What a roar there would be if 
these folks were forced back to these 
“good old times.” The women would keep 
away from the department stores and 
“movies,” and do their own washing and 
ironing and cooking! The men would 
work like father did! Both men and 
women would be happier and better for if 
all and would save money, but there, 
would be open mutiny. Yet. these same 
people expect the farmers to measure their 
needs and their desires by the standard 
of 40 years ago! And the farmers are 
simply not going to do if. They will pro¬ 
vide fi\M^ent milk when the great army 
of middlemen and grafters and health in¬ 
spectors permit them to make five-cent 
milk at a profit There is no law. moral, 
legal or human, which will compel farm¬ 
ers to produce food at a loss except the 
laws of habit, prejudice or ignorance, and 
we are going to repeal these laws. Two 
boys grow up together on a farm. One 
stays at home as a farmer. The other 
goes to the city and prospers. The city 
man strikes the boss for a salary which 
will enable him to live and save something 
without the labor of his wife and children. 
It is agreed that wife and children are not 
to be considered wage-earners. The farm¬ 
er at home finds that lie .cannot make a 
living unless his wife and the older chil¬ 
dren work at the farm job of producing 
food. Thus it comes to be agreed by so¬ 
ciety that the city brother must be paid 
for his labor .so that wife and children 
need not help produce, while the country 
brother’s wife and children must work 
and contribute their unpaid labor! The 
big problem of “reconstruction” is to 
equalize this division of labor and its re¬ 
wards. h. w. c. 
2|||||||llllllllllllllllllllll!lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllimillllllllllllFIIIIII||||||» 
I Means Family Comfort 1 
A 
9 , A 
when the foiling pot of Postum sings its 
song of nealth and satisfaction on the 
kitchen stove. 
THE ORIGINAL 
Postum Cereal 
led the way to comfort for many a family 
of coffee drinkers, for with the coming 
of Postum, away went the headaches, 
nervousness, sleeplessness and irritability 
that so often follow the the use of coffee. 
You can still buy that original Postum 
from your grocer—an invigorating drink 
of rare, delicious flavor—a beverage that 
is really part of the meal, not merely 
something to drink. 
*< 
There’s a Reason” 
| Two sizes, usually sold at 15c and 25c. | 
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4019 "1 LaSalle SL, 
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Name 
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Nearest Shipping Point. 
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277 Store* Building Now York City 
you I 
lay. I 
j 
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quick reply and a “square deal.'’ See guarantee editorial page. 
i 
