1150 
rooms and social isolation that ho usually gets. T 
know this from n r own experience. In the city his 
employer has no interest in him except as concerns 
his work. He is free to live as he pleases after 
working hours. This is something that he usually 
cannot do on the farm. Working in the city he 
often belongs to a union or lodge. He has tli good 
fellowship of men doing the same thing as he does, 
and who consider themselves no better than lie. 
lie often knows that he belongs to an organization 
that is able and does look after his interest. I do 
not want to talk about the evils and advantages of 
labor unions, as I know them, but I know that not 
one man in twenty would work willingly on a farm, 
even if they conld be shown that they would be as 
well off financially as in the-city. It is a feeling of 
social and financial superiority that many farmers 
have and show to the men who work under them 
that keeps many workers from the farms. It mat¬ 
ters nor that the city employer has this feeling even 
accentuated, but he is content to leave his men’s 
private family affairs .alone, a thing that many 
farmers do not. There are farmers who think their 
men only work on farms because they cannot do 
anything else, which is .lust as bad as the belief 
of many city people that it takes more brains to 
keep books than to run a farm properly. 
THE FAMILY SIDE.—Now that I am married I 
feel that I would not act fairly to my wife if I 
went back a> a farmhand, for fear that she. 
and often the children, too. would be made to feel 
the .same things that T was made to feel.-Here in 
the city she would not have to take the back seat 
from any other woman; in the country, as a farm¬ 
hand's wife, it would probably not be long before 
she would know about it from others, and when the 
children sro to school it would be the same with 
them. Moreover, the farmers who provide their 
married help with decent, liveable houses are very 
much the exception. These things made me go hack 
to the city and keep me now from going hack to 
farming, except perhaps in a wistful, faraway man¬ 
ner. through farm papers, let I feel that 1 would 
not be fair to myself if T aid not try again for them. 
I would have to ^tay. I am one of those who can 
only find happiness and satisfaction of lile in farm 
work, and ultimately the family would be happier, 
too. Why don't I plan to buy a farm? Because I 
bought one once when young and unsophisticated 
with woefully insufficient capital, and though the 
results were disastrous I learned. I am young yet 
and able to profit from it. 
GAINING EXPERIENCE.—Those who like farm¬ 
ing and have not the money to buy a farm should 
work for others on a farm. After they have exper¬ 
ience and acquaintance in a particular neighborhood, 
and have some capital. They can rent. Certainly it 
lias been proven often enough that a sum of money 
invested in renting a farm will bring a larger return 
than the same amount invested in the ownership 
of a farm. Yet who shall say that ownership, even 
a smaller farm, and lesser returns, are not more 
than made up by the feeling and satisfaction of 
ownership and ability to profit by the rise in value? 
It certainly make- the best antidote for Bolshevism. 
WILLIAM HUBERT. 
Boost the Farming Profession 
ERPETUAL BLUES.—Let's stop grumbling and 
growling about the trouble and vicissitudes of the 
poor, downtrodden farmer. We all know and admit the 
chief drawback is the scarcity of labor, but aren’t 
we to blame for that? Does any young man of incen¬ 
tive and ambition want to start an apprenticeship 
to a profession that he hears knocked on all sides 
of him? There is the grumbling on the price of 
milk, the weights given us at the shipping station, 
the cost of compliance with New York Board of 
Health regulations, etc*., ad infinitum. And if we 
don’t dairy it. there's the unjust profits of the 
middlemen, the high price of hen feed and the 
enormous prices of fertilizers Oh. we are all to 
blame! I’ve done it myself as loudly as anybody, 
for the past seven years, but let's get out of the 
habit. These tilings may all be true, and I firmly 
believe they are. to a certain extent, but let's get 
busy and find a way out. and stop this useless, con¬ 
tinuous harping -m the subject. 
POOR BUSINESS—Make our children realize we 
are the most independent class on earth, the favored 
of fortune, and we won't have this paralyzing exodus 
to the cities on the part of our most promising young 
people. I can hear a gasp go up from those who 
think it good business to tell our troubles and keep 
still about our joys, but I’m ready for them. I'll 
stick to it that as a business proposition for a man 
with no expensive education and little if any capital 
there’s nothing equal to farming. 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
opportunities For working.—W hat boy 
of is can earn $40 to $50 per month, besides Ins 
board, room and laundry anywhere except on a 
farm? And I can name several hoys who are doing 
it right in this town. Or take the married farm¬ 
hand. The average wage hereabouts is $40 to $50 
per month, with house rent, garden, milk, fuel, fruit, 
potatoes and privilege of keeping hens. I have a 
brother who earns $50 per week in a village, and I 
know by the time he pays his rent and buys milk, 
eggs, fuel and the rest, he has less in his pocket 
than the average farm laborer. 
BUSINESS PROFITS.—“Oh, well,” I can hear the 
confirmed grumblers say, “that’s all right for the 
farm laborer, but where does the poor farmer come 
in?” On one side of my farm lives a man who rents 
a farm on halves, lie is a drinking man, of a low 
order of intelligence, absolutely uo education, no 
capital except a team, a few cows and a meager 
outfit of second-hand machinery. Yet last year he 
cleared above all farm expenses $1,200 for his share, 
besides his rent and all perquisites. Show me a 
man in any other business that can do as well. The 
Poultry Drinking Vessel, Fig. 337. See Next Page 
man on my other side, with a capital of perhaps 
$7,000, put $1,500 in the bank, besides supporting 
his family in a manner no $2,000-a-year man in a 
city could do. Recently I was offered $9,000 for 
what I own in a farm stocked and equipped. Six 
years ago I started out with a $7,000 mortgage and 
a $1,500 equity. And I’m no wonder at farming, 
either. I work to live—not live to work. I “laze” 
around Winters and I average one day a week 
during the Summer on the road. I’d rather run a 
six-cylinder car than clean out stables. But I've 
got to live, and farming is the most interesting and 
profitable job I could get. 
FARM POSSIBILITIES.—None of these instances 
is anything wonderful or phenomenal, but they lie 
within the range of every farmer. I’m not taking 
into consideration the men of “inherited wealth, 
successful business or superior ability,” as your 
editorial puts it. Not a one of us whom I have men¬ 
tioned could get $1,200 a year in a city if we tried 
our lifetime. I’ll admit I can find nine unsuccessful 
farmers to every successful one right here in my 
own neighborhood. But isn’t that true of every 
profession? And I'd rather be an unsuccessful 
farmer and be sure of my home-grown bread and 
butter, meat and potato, than an unsuccessful clerk 
or mechanic, and wonder where my next meal was 
coining from. There is a “screw loose somewhere” 
for every failure, be he farmer or something else. 
It isn’t the profession—it’s the man! 
A WHOLESOME VIEW.—So let’s perk up. fellow 
farmers, boost up the farmer and the farmer’s joys 
and get back some of our boys and girls who have 
left us to journey cityward. My highest hope for 
my children is that they will be farmers and farm¬ 
ers’ wives, and I’m working to that end uTtlrCall my 
might. Give us some articles on keeping children 
on the farm, successful farm budgets, comfortable 
farm homes, farm labor-savers, household conven¬ 
iences, study of agriculture in the rural schools, and 
the like. Get more advertisements of heating plants, 
August 2, 1910 
i ' , 
lighting equipment, wafer systems, furniture, and 
put them on the women's page where the farm wives 
will get the “bee in their bonnet” to make hubby 
buy them. Print a few pictures of beautiful farm 
homes and surroundings. Give us an architect's 
advice on our special building problems. Start a 
boosting campaign; you are the paper to swing it 
if any can. Then, when we get back our boys and 
girls who have left us for greener fields, let’s give 
them an agricultural course at a good school, imbue 
them with the love of farming, and thus change the 
ratio of successes and failures. farm booster. 
The “Profiteer” Gives His Figures 
On page 805 you print an article entitled “Confes¬ 
sions of a Profiteer.” We have been discussing the 
article at our local “Farmers’ Club,” but decided we 
lacked facts to thrash the matter out in a satisfactory 
manner. As near as we could decide from the letter 
printed there must be either some mismanagement or 
very poor natural advantages of soil or location. As 
we understand it, he paid for the farm, but mortgaged 
it for $1,500 to buy stock and tools. It is not strange 
that a man of his age did not acquire wealth on a run¬ 
down farm, but it does seem unusual that a man who 
works as hard and has such frugal habits should need 
to borrow more, especially as he seems to have such 
few tools and says those he has are badly in need of 
repair. If you could answer the following questions it 
would help very much to dear up the subject: 
How far is he from market, and how large is said 
market? What is the soil? Was it completely run out 
when he bought it? Has he put money into the build¬ 
ings during the seven years, and if so. how much? He 
admits an income of $2,000. This was proha hi v for 
last year, and not for each year? What was his inven¬ 
tory of stock and tools when he began young, and what 
is its fair value at present? What was the value of 
farm and buildings when he started in work, and what 
is it now? What was purchased with the money bor¬ 
rowed after the first mortgage of $1,500 was given? 
Could you give us an itemized account of when* the 
$2,000 income all went? What cash crops, if any. did 
he raise, and what other kinds of livestock besides’dairy 
COWS? KEX.XETT II. ATWOOD. 
Secretary Prosper Farmers’ Club, Vermont. 
M Y article, “The Confessions of a Profiteer,” lias 
called forth much comment and a desire for 
further information that may indicate the reason 
for my lack of success. This I would very much 
like to know, whether the fault is in myself, a pure 
case of mismanagement, or whether conditions be¬ 
yond my control are such that the average farmer 
does not have a fair chance. I was not a failure 
in other lines, but held my jobs and earned my 
$100 per month at a time when that amount meant 
twice what it does now. Why, then, do I have such 
a struggle to succeed at farming? 
I am four.miles from a county seat town of 2.500 
population, a fair local market, and only a short 
distance from the improved State road leading to 
it. A shipping station on a railroad direct to Wil¬ 
mington and Philadelphia is at the corner of my 
farm. No. the fault is not in the location. My soil 
is called by the soil survey a sassafras loam, and 
dwellers along this Atlantic coast plain know it as 
the best soil type for general farming, being reten¬ 
tive of both fertility and moisture, and yet self- 
draining. so that crops are not seriously damaged 
by excessive rainfall. Neither was it absolutely 
worn out when I began, but grew the average crops 
for this locality. No, the fault is not in the soil. 
But some of my critics suggest that the fault lies 
in the expense side of the ledger and would like to 
know where the money went. The first two years 
on the farm I did not keep books. Since then I have 
a record of my receipts and expenditures, and I 
submit a summary for the year 1917, which is a 
fair sample year. As you will notice, my income is 
from varied sources. In the clear light of hindsight 
I have missed several golden opportunities to “make 
my pile” by plunging, but all this moves me not, 
and I pursue the even tenor of my way. Now what 
think you from the figures submitted? Am I guilty 
or not guilty? If there is a gentleman in this par¬ 
ticular woodpile, I am interested in knowing his 
color. 
SUMMARY FOR THE YEAR 1917: 
R rcei pis Expcn <1 i 1 u res 
Butter . $485.51 Interest . $244.47 
Kggs . 157.04 Literature . 19.05 
Hogs . 08.00 Personal expense 12 51 
Breeding . 48.00 Clothing . 49 52 
Poultry . 200 80 Stationery . 5.45 
Grain . 444 1.8 Kitchen neces- 
Fruit . 122 25 saries . 12.74 
•Tomatoes. 15.80 Notes paid .... 445 00 
Incidentals .... 87.25 Taxes . 40 44 
Cattle . 18 05 Life insurance.. 81.85 
Potatoes . 042 80 Barrels . 54 25 
-—- Thrashing . 24.80 
$2,279.S9 Farm equipment 109 50 
Groceries . 100 07 
Feed . 178.48 
Seeds . 185.18 
Labor. 810 08 
Hardware . 85 84 
General expense.. 100.07 
Dairy expense.. V0 70 
Fertilizers . 28904 
$2,279.02 
PROFITEER. 
