The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1109 
The Thoughts of a Plain Farm Woman 
Si mmer Work. —The clays are so busy 
with us through the Summer that we 
can hardly believe there is but one more 
month of hot weather, and then Fall 
again. .Tune started in to be eolrl and 
rainy, but quickly changed its mind and 
ended in sweltering days. We didn't be¬ 
gin haying until the week after the 
Fourth, and are still hard at it. All this 
tardiness with crops at our place is due 
to the war. Of course everything that 
goes wrong can be very conveniently laid 
at the war’s door this season, but in our 
case it can be laid to no other. When 
war offered our hired man double wages 
last Autumn in a nearby mill, he went— 
and no Fall plowing done. Consequently 
the sod had to be freshly turned this 
Spring in great quantity, thorough cul¬ 
tivation following, then the planting and 
all the rest—and here we are, ’way be¬ 
hind our neighbors and wondering if the 
work can ever be caught up. The trouble 
with us was we attempted to put in too 
many crops under belated conditions. To 
plow and tend 12 acres of corn, five acres 
of cabbage, an acre of beets, two of po¬ 
tatoes. 10 of oats and barley, beside the 
big hay crop we harvest here, is really 
too much for two men to undertake in a 
couple of months. 
Carhaoe Plants. —We did a thriving 
business for over a week selling cabbage 
plants. My husband had a very large 
and thrifty bed of Heed Bros.’ plants, 
and as this variety is the best grown in 
this section, the demand was firm. I was 
out in the bed for nearly a week from 
morning to night pulling plants and 
counting them. We sold certainly $100 
worth of nice plants—more than suffi¬ 
cient to pay for the expensive seed and 
fertilizer for all. This is a great cab¬ 
bage section, and practically every farm 
around has an increased acreage this 
year. 
Potatoes.- —The potatoes look thrifty, 
but. dear me! weedy and “quacky” is no 
name for them ! The men simply couldn't 
pct them cultivated and hilled at exactly 
the right time, and now the hoe has to be 
used when grass is crying to be cut. We 
always begin to dig for market August 1. 
and I am resting up preparatory for the 
fray. I don’t see myself mining 10 bush- 
ids in a day as averaged last year, but I 
slnll probably hang up an ordinary rec¬ 
ord and he content. Of course 10 bnsh- 
e’s is nothing for a man. but I found it 
pretty backbreaking work to keep up. 
Potatoes promise to be in good demand, 
end I am hoping I may receive $2 a bush¬ 
el at the roadside for our first lot. You 
forget how your back aches and how hor- 
• : b’v hot it is when fair prices prevail. I 
. ...i; 
The New Porch.—W o have enjoyed 
c—f new porch more than words can tell. 
*vl while s’ttlng on it we have an excel- 
i-oyt view of the working Holstein herd, 
t' o fields, the crops and the passing show 
in "eueral. and so feel quite like lords and 
I (lies of all we survey while resting 
there. Some fastidious folk might object 
to the porch fronting on the barnyard, but 
fortunately it doesn’t bother us at all. 
There is iio more satisfying sight to me 
than our own little herd contentedly 
grouped before us. with a picturesque 
background of thrifty fields which are 
constantly growing into food and money. 
Isn’t the farm view far to be preferred 
to dingy courts and backyards in the city ? 
Mercy, yes! A motor car a minute is 
none too large an estimate for the travel 
past our place, and it increases all the 
time. The State road people have been 
making us a very expensive present of 
two ditches dug the entire length of the 
farm, for which we have been obliged to 
buy nearly $60 worth of tile. It seems 
that the road along here heaves in the 
Winter, and these ditches are supposed to 
relieve it. I hope they do. for it seems 
literally like highway robbery to have to 
out in the tile. Only two or three farms 
have been selected - for these “presents” 
—ours among the lot. We bad six drive- 
v-avs to tile, and then in addition the 
f *ent lawn came in for its share, as we 
< op’d not very well leave the ditch there 
to hop, and it was anything but sightly 
-to the bargain. Personally, there were 
many ways in which 1 should have pre- 
f*»rred to’spend $00 other than for bur.v- 
ijy purposes. 
Roses and Strawberries. —ThD has 
surely been a rose and strawberry Sum¬ 
mer. Neither was ever known to come in 
more profusion. I guess. Our ancient 
yellow rose bush was a magnificent sight, 
and every season it seems to grow larger. 
Mv great-grandmother planted the bush, 
and what a memorial it is to her ! I am 
going to set out dozens of roses if 1 ever 
get the time, for they surely are a com¬ 
fort and joy forever. I can hardly wait 
until another year to see wlmt luck we 
h 've with new and different flowers. We 
planted Lima beans under the porch trel¬ 
lises. but they haven’t grown very well, 
and the other day little Edmond came in 
bearing tin* vines. Alas! alas, is that tin* 
fate my flowers are destined for next 
Summer? Our vegetable garden is a dis¬ 
appointment. as tlie men have no time to 
hoe it. and 1 am a total loss with this 
useful implement. 1 attempted to hoe 
the peas earlier in the season, and suc¬ 
ceeded in digging up most of the vines. 
And yet it requires no such art to dig 
potatoes! A neighbor’s rows got in one 
night and had a bountiful feast on our 
tender young Golden Bantam sweet corn. 
Sugar Shortage. —As I write there is 
said to be no granulated sugar in two 
counties, and without doubt the remain¬ 
der of the United States will soon be in 
the same boat. This hardly seems pos¬ 
sible, however, and perhaps relief will 
have come by the time these words are in 
print. Somewhere the sugar king must 
be fast approaching a billionaire if he 
ships this country’s sugar to Europe at 
record prices. What are we coming to, 
anyway? I believe that peace has draw¬ 
backs in one sense which eclipse those of 
war. Certainly high prices are soaring 
higher and higher, and are getting close 
to out-of-reason. I’d rather be anchored 
to the farm than any other place when 
they drop with a terrible and sickening 
thud. 
Knitted Rugs. —Every spare minute I 
am devoting to rugs—the old-time knit¬ 
ted ones of rags. My big wooden needles 
just fly, and it takes an unbelievably short 
time to create the pretty floor coverings. 
Our old house is filled with them now. 
and I am making a half dozen for an 
aunt who is furnishing her pretty home 
with “antique” furniture. Our guest 
room boasts the family four-poster bed 
and a chest of drawers, the old hooded 
cherry cradle wherein slept the 1” chil¬ 
dren, and a little, odd, corner washstand. 
In front of each I have put homemade 
rugs of blue and white to match the blue 
and white coverlid. In the center is a 
very large round one which took a ton 
(it seemed) of rags and several weeks to 
complete. The floors are of old lS-ineh 
boards, and pretty badly worn, but knit¬ 
ted rugs cover a multitude of sins. Every 
room has its rug quota, and expensive, 
bough ten rugs are consequently unknown 
at our house. The dining room has a 
large woven blue and white rag rug in 
the middle, with my small knitted rugs 
around it. Braided ones are much pret¬ 
tier and more durable, but I lack the in¬ 
genuity to construct them. We can’t all 
live in palaces or White Houses, and I 
for one have no desire to. But it is fun 
to try to make home out of a house, 
and especially a tired-out old farmhouse 
which is filled to the brim with family 
memories and traditions. Someone has 
said that anybody can furnish a house 
who has unlimited means, but the real 
home-maker is she who can transform a 
hovel into a beautiful home—beautiful 
because she has put her heart and herself 
into it. I think there is a lot in that. 
Red Cross Work. —We are hurrying 
here to finish Red Cross work. Our 
county headquarters is to disban 1 def¬ 
initely this September and each branch 
will of course do the same. I have a 
quantity of woman’s refugee chemises to 
make on the machine, and the long knit¬ 
ted stockings for refugee girls must be 
completed and handed in at that time. 
What a stupendous amount of work the 
Red Cross has accomplished, when one 
stops to think of it! To realize that all 
over America, in every little cross-roads 
and hamlet, the women faithfully sewed 
and knit—surely that combined pile of 
clothes would about reach the sky! 
The Great Fourth. —The Fourth at 
our county-seat was a gala day. Several 
thousand dollars was appropriated to dec¬ 
orate for and to entertain the soldiers at 
a great “welcome home” occasion. Many 
thought the money might better have 
been used for a lasting memorial in the 
shape of a public building or something 
of the kind. However, that will probably 
be done, too. Professional decorators 
from the city festooned every building on 
the main streets; a bountiful, free din¬ 
ner was provided for our own doughboys 
and their friends; sports, carnivals, 
speeches, free movies—everything you can 
think of—was employed to amuse and en¬ 
tertain, and never were such crowds 
known as thronged the big town on Inde¬ 
pendence Day. It vyas Vicrory Day in¬ 
deed for those with boys returned safe 
and sound, and how thankful our whole 
county was that the “home again” per¬ 
centage was so great. I can't bear to 
think of the poor women whose boys were 
represented with gold stars. We can 
only hope that somehow they are being 
given strength to bear their sorrows as 
their sons and husbands bore their own 
hardships and sacrifices. If so, it was 
indeed Victory Day for them also. 
H. s. K. \v. 
v V, 
- ... 
A moving’ stream of live stock 
which the packers must buy 
The packer feels an obligation to 
take the live stock that comes to 
market and find an outlet for it. 
Why this obligation? 
It is because the stockman has fed 
his live stock to the point where it 
must be sold or they will get thin 
again and labor and expensive feed 
be wasted. 
If the stockman could not sell his 
shipment and had to take it home, 
he would lose on everything — 
freight, feed and time. 
Several such losses would discour¬ 
age him and he would raise less 
live stock. Hundreds of other 
stockmen also would plow up their 
pastures. The supply of meat 
animals would diminish. 
The packers would not be able to 
get enough live stock and often 
their big, expensive plants would 
be idle. The public would go meat 
hungry. 
In short, for the best interests of 
everybody, the packers believe it 
sound to do their full share to main¬ 
tain an ever open, cash market, 
and this is accomplished at a profit 
of a fraction of a cent per pound. 
This system has encouraged live 
stock feeding. 
Only a policy like this will provide 
a better meat supply for a growing 
nation. 
Swift & Company, U. S. A. 
Founded 1S68 
A nation-wide organisation owned by more than 25,000 shareholders 
