Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1X07 
WOMAN AND HOME 
Good bread and milk makes a balanced 
ration. The milk alone is balanced, but 
the bread adds bulk. It is the present 
business of dairymen to educate the con¬ 
sumer to realize the true value of milk. 
A little poetry will help along, and we 
lind the following floating through the 
papers: 
MILK TOAST 
Let’s put aside tomorrow's roast 
And eat a meal of hot milk toast. 
We’ll make the toast of crusts, you know, 
And use more milk to make it go. 
No waste to toast; we’ll eat it all. 
’Tis good for people, great and small. 
Such simple food makes children grow, 
And keeps the cost of living low. 
Then let us dine on hot milk toast, 
In every State, from coast to coast. 
No one shall hunger, faint or fast. 
So long as good milk toast shall last. 
When we want more we’ll promptly say 
“Please pass the hot milk toast this way.” 
•3 s 
Mr. Weaver says he never met a 
woman who does not love flowers. Such 
a person would be worth going far to see 
as a rare specimen of humanity. We find 
that more and more of our readers are 
starting or enlarging flower gardens and 
planting shrubs about the house and 
yard. That is a fine thing from every 
point of view, and we shall in the future 
pay more attention than ever before to 
flower culture. 
Tub IL N.-Y. has more readers in the 
big cities than any other farm paper, and 
they come to us for all sorts of informa¬ 
tion. For instance: 
Am I allowed to put barbed wire on 
top of a board fence in the backyard of 
a family home where I live here in Brook¬ 
lyn? I know there is some kind of a law 
not allowing it to be used as a fence on 
the street, but where I want to use it is 
on the back fence to prevent persons 
climbing over the 5-ft. fence that is there 
now. F. x. s. 
The corporation counsel tells us there 
is no law or ordinance forbidding the 
placing of barbed wire on a board fence 
in the backyard. Whoever climbs such a 
fence does it at his own risk. Many of 
the city backyard fences are decorated 
with “teasers,” or long, sharp spikes on 
the top. These are to prevent cats from 
crawling along the fence, and are per¬ 
mitted on the theory that neither cat nor 
human has any business climbing the 
neighbor’s fence. 
* 
Miss Hickman, who writes on page 
1034, ought to know how to cook for hired 
men. As farm owner and manager she 
has had long experience. Her theory 
that the hired men should have plenty of 
good, substantial food, clean and well 
cooked, is right. No farmer ever gained 
anything trying to cut down the needed 
ration for a horse or a cow, and he will 
lose money every time he tries to feed 
the hired men on poor or insufficient food. 
<>n the average farm it would hardly be 
possible to follow Miss Hickman's plan 
in full. She has half a dozen or more 
hands to board at times, while most 
farmers have only one or two men. 
Where this is the case the hired man 
should have a fair share of what the 
rest have. If he works hard he needs 
plenty of sustaining food and as a rule 
the hard worker must be a heavy eater 
in order to do justice to his job. There 
are among our readers hundreds of men 
who have served their time as hired 
men. and they know the value of good, 
clean, substantial food. 
Sanitary Toilets in District Schools 
We have had hundreds <>f questions 
about the rules of the New York Depart¬ 
ment of Education regarding sanitary 
toilets. These have been referred to 
Albany, and the Department has now 
i-sued a circular letter stating its case. 
It states the object of the sanitary toilet 
requirement as follows: 
The outdoor watereloset has always 
1 i a the worst feature connected with 
the public school system. Such closets 
are not only offensive, indecent, unsani¬ 
tary, n foe alike to refinement and 
health, but they have always served as 
centers for the cultivation of obscene 
thought, language and representation, 
for the development of coarseness and 
vulgarity, of vicious and immoral habits. 
Inasmuch as the public schools are an 
institution of the State, are written iu 
its constitution, in the statutes and the 
decisions of the courts, the State he¬ 
roines responsible for the existence and 
toleration of such conditions. Inasmuch 
as the State takes the children from the 
home and places them in the school, it is 
obligated to see that they are surrounded 
by proper influences, influences that will 
be helpful and beneficial, and that every 
reasonable provision is made to promote 
their welfare and to ^otect their health 
and morals. * 
We are told that for more than 30 
years New York has had a law known 
as the health and decency act, which 
aims to secure proper toilet facilities at 
schoolhouses. Under this law failure to 
provide the prescribed facilities is suffi¬ 
cient grounds for removing the trustees 
or board of education from office, or for 
withholding public school money. In 
1916 the State school authorities de¬ 
finitely stated what they consider “suit¬ 
able, convenient and sanitary” toilet 
facilities, and fixed a time limit. This 
time limit expires with the current calen¬ 
dar year, except where the schoolhouse 
must be rebuilt, where consolidation is 
to be effected or where the district valu¬ 
ation is below $20,000 and the attend¬ 
ance small. This seems to be the final 
word. Some of the mail order houses 
a miracle, and yet as clear as day when 
we consider what milk is. It contains 
food for the body, ash for the bones and 
vital power for the nervous system. The 
old Spaniards bunted for years to find 
the spring which would restore old age 
to youth. They never found it, but the 
good old cow delivers the magic fluid 
which fits youth to endure old age. Milk 
is the muster-builder of mankind. Tell 
the world about it and make its use 
universal. 
Payment of Soldiers’ Insurance 
Many questions about wartime army 
insurance are coming up. In the case of 
one of our readers the soldier died and 
left the insurance benefits to his father 
and mother jointly. They each receive 
monthly payments. Now in case of the 
death of either father or mother, who 
would receive these payments, and would 
they be continued to the end? We sub¬ 
mitted the question to the Bureau of War 
Risk Insurance, and received the follow¬ 
ing statement: 
You request information as to the dis¬ 
position of any remaining payments of 
War Risk Insurance in the event of the 
death of either beneficiary prior to the 
receipt of the full 240 monthly install- 
"The Mother ” 
offer a cheap toilet outfit, but the Albany 
school authorities refuse to accept it on 
the ground that it is not suitable. 
« 
In a litter of pigs this Spring there 
was one “titman” or runt. The stronger 
pigs pushed this little fellow away, and 
he could not ,£et his share of milk, lie 
ate grain slop as he could, but did not 
grow. Finally we sold the other pigs 
(no one wanted the runt) and he was 
left to enjoy the small milk supply re¬ 
maining. You should have seen that 
little runt fill out and grow, lie knew 
nothing about vitamines, “ash,” protein 
and all the rest—and he never can learn 
,•—but with a full milk supply life and 
vitality tingled every part of his little 
body, and he caught up with the rest and 
passed them. Milk brought him back. 
At about the same time we took two 
children from the city. They were soft, 
putty-faced and rather undersized. They 
had no milk, but had been drinking tea, 
coffee and beer, with bread. We started 
them at drinking all the milk they 
wanted, with vegetables and fruit. You 
should have seen them come back to 
health. The flesh grew firm and hard, 
The eyes grew bright, the bones developed, 
the skin dropped its putty and pimples 
and took on bloom. Milk feeding trans¬ 
formed these children—it was almost like 
merits, and iu reply you are advised that 
any remaining payments would be made 
to those within the permitted class (wife, 
child, grandchild, parent, brother or sis¬ 
ter), who would recover the personal 
property of the insured in case of intes¬ 
tacy. You will, therefore, see that these 
payments cannot be disposed of by will 
of the beneficiary, inasmuch as they re¬ 
vert back to the estate of the insured and 
are disposed of according to intestate 
laws of the State of his residence. 
In the event of the death of the father 
or his wife, any remaining payments 
would, no doubt, be made to tlie surviving 
beneficiary if the soldier was unmarried 
and has no children. 
A Dairymaid Seeks a Job 
I am a young woman interested in 
dairying. I have had a special course 
along that line at Maryland State Col¬ 
lege ; have also had a good deal of the 
practical side of the business. It is a 
new thing, and there is great trouble to 
get a place with good living conditions 
or accommodations for a girl. I am writ¬ 
ing to The R. N.-Y. because I know it is 
noted for answering questions, and I 
thought perhaps you could put me iu 
touch with someone connected with up- 
to-date dairies. E. K. 
This is a new one, and as usual we 
feel inclined to see if we can help. There 
ought to be someone among our readers 
who would like to employ a dairymaid, 
and we can readily see how this young 
woman must be careful about locating. 
M ho wants a dairymaid? 
A Man to Be Tamed 
“The Spirit of the Home,” on page 
919, describes a home where a woman 
rules, and not wisel I wonder if I may 
describe a home i lore man rules, and 
not wisely? ( 
There is in my neighborhood a family 
with .six children, half clothed and poorly 
fed, and the man is surely head of the 
house. More than one neighbor has told 
me they would not go into the house 
while he was there, because he would 
always begin to “show off,” they called 
it, making the children sit in chairs just 
so, ordering his wife here and there over 
the house, just to show that he would 
be obeyed. This Spring the woman had 
only one dress of any kind, and the skirt 
was made by herself from an old raincoat 
that had been given h^r. She said she 
was going to work to earn money and get 
some clothes,; he blustered and said she 
needn't; he was taking care of that fam¬ 
ily. She defied him and took in wash¬ 
ings. two a Week, and went out some be¬ 
side. M'hen school was keeping three 
children were in school, and she took 
three with her. and it would surprise you 
how much she could accomplish with 
three children along. An accident hap¬ 
pened to her only dress skirt, and she 
went to a neighbor iu her petticoat and 
did her day’s work. 
She had nearly enough money together 
to get. some work dresses, at least, and 
planned even the day she was going to 
the store. She was going to a neighbor’s 
to help clean house, and hid her pocket- 
book under some clothes at home. She 
said she just thought there might be. on 
so well traveled a road, some tramp who 
would not hesitate to go into a house 
where no one was at home, and she 
would put it out of sight. Instead, her 
husband got home before she did. hunt¬ 
ed and found her money, and spent it be¬ 
fore she got home. Now if there is a 
woman who can tame a man as tame as 
the one described in “The Spirit of 
Home,” I wish I might just have the 
power to cage this man and ship him 
to her to be tamed. I am afraid they 
might be like the song two little girls 
sang at the school entertainment the 
other night. These are the words, and 
the music was funny, too: 
“There were two cats from Kilkenny, 
Each thought there was one cat too many. 
So they fought and they bit. 
They scratched and' they spit, 
Till but for their toenails 
And the tip of their tails. 
Instead of two cats from Kilkenny 
There—was—not—any.” 
M’ill the former writer tell me why 
she didn't invite fathers, too, to make love 
the keynote of home? Is it only another 
instance of “The woman whom thou 
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the 
tree and I did eat.” g. b. a. 
A Page of Pictures 
On page 1106 this week is a sort of 
moving picture show of farm life among 
our people. The picture of the laundry 
outfit was taken in North Carolina. The 
ox hitched to the two-wheeled cart, and 
driven by the boy. has stopped on the rail¬ 
road track to have his picture taken. The 
boy is delivering a large package from his 
mother’s laundry. It is certainly a clean¬ 
up proposition. That ox would hardly 
hold up a railroad train, but as motive 
power for a laundry outfit he serves his 
purpose and delivers the goods. 
Then there are three good friends 
shown at Fig. 320. and this picture is 
sent by Mrs. Frank Wiley of Kentucky. 
The dog is a good member of the outfit. 
He knows his business, and is a good 
companion for those boys. Some people 
make a great outcry against the farm dog. 
but this one is certainly worth his food, 
and more. 
Then there is a group of farm helpers 
at Fig. 31S. You might call them a good 
herd of fine kids. Mr. Albert Ploetz of 
Cattaraugus Co.. N. Y.. is responsible 
t r this group, and it looks as if they had 
ail decided to be farmers. 
Then the fine-lookipg young women 
with the Light Brahma hens at Fig. 322 
shows us something of what the Massa¬ 
chusetts people are doing to help supnly 
the nation with food. You will see that 
that, henhouse is wired for electric light' 
Last Winter an experiment in supplying 
light to the hens, in order to deceive the'” 
into thhiking day had come, was carried 
on inside that house. It takes a strong 
light to' fbol a Light Brahma, but this ex¬ 
periment seems to have turned them into 
regular daylight savers. 
Then at Fig. 319 we have a coming 
.farmerette getting practice with a pony 
and wheel cultivator among cabbages. 
This picture was sent by Emma Krem- 
mell of Monroe Go., Pa., and it shows her 
taking a course in practical agriculture in 
the school of experience. 
And who will not appreciate the little 
picture at Fig. 317? This reminds us of 
the time we used to take sulphur and mo¬ 
lasses as a Spring tonic. It is evident 
from the boy’s bare feet that this was 
taken in the Summertime. Just what the 
medicine is we do not know, but the boy 
takes it as most boys do. 
And the other picture shows another 
boy who will probably make an entomol¬ 
ogist when he grows up. He is after but¬ 
terflies. and is catching them in his straw 
hat. That’s a good start, and no doubt in 
later years this boy will be fighting insect 
pests for the benefit of the farmer. 
» 
