1534 
‘Ibe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October IS, 191!) 
NEPDN5ETRDDF5 
Good Old Paroid 
Good old Paroid”—That's what farmers call the best roll 
rooting ever made. 
For more than 20 years Neponset Paroid has protected 
cattle, poultry, stock, tools, equipment, crops, and homes 
from the attacks of rain and sleet, sun and snow—at the low¬ 
est service cost per square foot per year- 
One farmer writes, “Neponset Paroid is the greatest roofing 
investment 1 ever made. Ten years ago 1 decided that to 
keep my prize stock warm and healthy I needed on the roof 
and siding of my barn the best roofing that money could buy. 
I bought good old Paroid. It’s still good old Paroid—it 
hasn c cost me a penny for repairs and it still looks good for 
another ten years.” 
Three Colors—Red, Green, Gray 
Paroid .slate-surfaced comes in 
two colors—natural slate-red and 
slate-green. It is the most beau¬ 
tiful slate-surfaced roll roofing 
made. Just what you need for 
your house or barn—right over 
old wooden shingles. Paroid gray 
comes in two weights. Build and 
repair NOW. You owe it to 
yourself to use Paroid. There’s 
a Neponset Roofing for every 
need and every purse. If you 
do not know who is your nearest 
dealer in Neponset Roofs write 
to us. Send for free booklet, 
“Repairing and Building.” 
BIRD & SON, Incorporated (Established 1795) East Walpole, Ma«». 
. 1 ... ...■'. . .iiiiiiiiniiiiiii 1 :'' 1 !':!!' i: 1 Jirs'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiw 
GRANGERS 
=LIME— 
“ The Standard by Which All Agricultural 
Limes Are Compared ” 
Write for Prices and Commodity Freight Rates 
GRANGERS LIME CO. 
SALES OFFICES: 
Hartford, Conn. 
Danbury, Conn. 
Bridgewater, Mass. 
174 Frelinghuysen Ave. 
Newark, N. J. 
WORKS: 
West Stockbridge, 
Mass. 
Things To Think About 
The object of this department is to give readers a chance to express themselves on farm 
matters. Not long articles can be used—just short, pointed opinions or suggestions. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER does not always endorse what is printed here. You might 
call this a mental safety valve. 
We are getting- more money than ever. 
Lots of farmers are riding in their ma¬ 
chines who haven’t a cent for improve¬ 
ments on the farm. Fences are getting 
poor, bushes growing up, lack of paint, 
etc. Small families with the young gone 
to the cities, with the old fathers and 
mothers just sticking around to save 
funeral expenses. There are more farm 
sales of stock and tools every year, both 
Spring and Fall, at high prices. Maybe 
this is a good sign for the future of agri¬ 
culture, but it does not look good to me 
for cheaper food for the city ones to go 
over roads and see farms where when a 
boy I went, and knew that there lived a 
man called rich in that day and .see them 
today in decay, the young of the names 
gone to the towns. But stop. Every 
generation has taken care of itself in its 
jown way, and I suppose it will. I know 
my father didn’t like it because I didn’t 
do as he did. J. R- H. 
Pennsylvania. 
The City Man’s View 
MY* often have occasion to speak of the 
effective work done by our readers in 
writing their views to the local papers. 
A good example of what we mean is the 
•Yd lowing—which is part of a letter sent 
by Mrs. Lewis G. Cowing to the Mimeie 
(Ind.) Morning Star: 
1 went into a professional man’s office 
the other day to have a little dental work 
done. lie was bemoaning the II. C. of L. 
Asked me if this was not a good year for 
tomatoes. When I said it was. he said : 
‘‘And yet we have to pay high for them 
here in town. One cannot afford to pay 
a dollar a bushel for tomatoes to can.” 
T asked him if he thought, in view of the 
high cost of labor and machinery, a farmer 
could afford to use his ground, set the 
plants, cultivate, pick and deliver the to¬ 
matoes to him for less than a dollar a 
bushel. He answered that he’d better 
take less than to let them rot on the 
ground. I suppose there is no limit to a 
farmer's endurance. If there are any to¬ 
matoes or any other farm products rotting 
on the ground it is because the farmer 
cannot get the needed help or else it is 
owing to weather conditions which always 
cause more or less loss in such perishable 
crops as tomatoes. I was in this dental 
chair about one and a half hours. The 
tooth proved to be tender so he could not 
till it. He treated it. plugged it tem¬ 
porarily with cement, partially cleaned 
my teeth and said he'd better not give me 
any more time then, as he had another 
engagement. I asked him what l owed 
him for what he had done and In* an¬ 
swered: “Six dollars.” I thought he was 
joking and laughed, but T soon saw from 
the aggrieved expression on his face that 
he had not meant to be funny. 
“What,” I said. “Six dollars and no 
fillings?” “I charge for my time,” was 
his answer. Six dollars for one and one 
half hours’ time seemed pretty steep and 
when I thought of my own husband get¬ 
ting up that same morning and cutting 
corn by moonlight because of the scarcity 
of labor, endeavoring to save both fodder 
and tomatoes, I was indignant and told 
the dentist I never wanted him to talk 
to me about 60c tomatoes or dollar po¬ 
tatoes. This same professional man. if 
-given our farm and put out on it to make 
ja living for his family, would come as 
near starving as I would if I should un¬ 
dertake to run his dental shop. The idea 
that so many city people have that any 
fool can be a farmer should he exploded. 
It takes both brain and training to pro¬ 
duce food, and* both are entitled to respect 
and consideration. Be careful that in 
striking at the source of supply you do not 
kill the goose that lays the golden egg. 
The appeal was made to the farmer’s pa¬ 
triotism to raise all lie could during the 
war and lu* cheerfully did his best, lie 
'was not coaxed along by the promise of 
enormous profits hut his chance of profit 
was curtailed by legislation, while on the 
other hand the Government offered ex¬ 
travagant pay to workers in shipyards 
and railroads. 
The farmer can be counted on to stand 
in solid phalanx against Bolsheviki, anar¬ 
chy, the I. W. W. or any organization 
threatening law and order. He is an 
American for the American flag and he 
wants a square deal. 
MRS. LEWIS G. COWING. 
Shorter Hours on the Farm 
During and since the war the farmer 
has speeded up production enormously, 
considering the scarcity of help. He has 
done this through the use of expensive 
machinery, tractors, etc., and by exacting 
longer hours of himself and his family, 
including his wife and daughters. It has 
become a custom in many communities to 
plant and harvest crops on Sunday, and 
few farmers feel they can slack up even 
on a holiday. There are some favored 
ones who have fertile farms, here and 
there, or who derive an income from other 
sources, who do not feel compelled to 
work an unreasonable number of hours, 
but they are in the minority. The Amer¬ 
ican farmers as a class are literally work¬ 
ing themselves to death ! They have no 
time for any recreation, as the increasing 
1 tost of labor, insurance, taxes and all 
farm supplies goads them on to still greater 
efforts to produce enough to meet these 
demands. 
Now what will he the result of this 
frenzied situation? There will certainly 
be a reaction, and much sooner than gen¬ 
erally believed: that is, the law of supply 
and demand will soon operate to reduce 
the farmers’ income. It is even in sight 
now, will no doubt be felt very forcibly 
next year, and the year following will 
most surely see a glut in all American 
if not world markets. We all know what 
that means to the country at large in 
every line of business; it will mean hard 
times, if not a panic. It may be said 
low prices operate to equalize production 
of food, but past experience does not sup¬ 
port this theory. As prices drop the 
farmer will do his best to produce more, 
in order to keep up the income he has 
been accustomed to, thereby making a bad 
situation worse. 
What are our agricultural organiza¬ 
tions douig to prevent this state of af¬ 
fairs? Some are working for better dis¬ 
tribution, which is good as far as it goes. 
Some are spending bundles of money to 
show us how to raise more and better 
crops, which is a doubtful virtue. Is 
there any agency in the United States 
that is really working to uplift the farmer 
from a state where lie must work from 
12 to 16 hours per day, including holidays 
and often Sundays, in order to provide 
for his running expenses and furnish food 
for an ungrateful horde (often at or below 
the actual cost of production) Avho re¬ 
ceive as much as or more for seven or 
eight hours than tin* farmer, including his 
family, receive for their long day? 
There is only one remedy—cut produc¬ 
tion next year; cut it still more the fol¬ 
lowing. A manufacturer would be con- 
s’dercd an idiot who produced more than 
there was any profitable market for, 
simply because there was an overproduc¬ 
tion in his line and his profits were fall¬ 
ing off. . If lie did so he would he obliged 
to sell his products at our own price. The 
manufacturers, exercise ordinary intelli¬ 
gence. They curtail and retrench. Are 
we farmers idiots, or are we going to 
curtail and retrench? There is only one 
possible or logical way to do this; that 
is—shorten the working hours on the 
farm. I have heard it suggested that a 
law he enacted to compel the farmer to 
work eight hours. Such a law could not 
be passed at this time. A cut to eight 
hours would be too radical. I would sug¬ 
gest nine or 10 hours for the season of 
15)20 and eight hours in 1021. 
Why cannot the Farm Bureau. Grange, 
etc., of this or a group of States take up 
this question this Winter, explaining 
what it. means to agricultural life and 
sounding tin* sentiment of farmers in the 
aggregate ? The farmer is a very inde¬ 
pendent individual, hut it might be pos¬ 
sible, when they once understand that the 
more they produce the less will be their 
net profit, to get enough volunteers to 
work on a shorter hour basis, to for a 
nucleus around which others would join, 
nr soon become an object of scorn, or in 
other words, “a scab?” 
In conclusion, I wish to say that some 
dairymen seem to think it would be im- 
nossible to shorten the hours on a dairy 
farm and still have time to milk and 
produce enough feed for the stock, but I 
believe that any dairy farmer who will 
try out a nine-hour day will find that by 
ihe extra hours of leisure and rest that 
he will gain he will la* in such a stimu¬ 
lated condition, both physically and men¬ 
tally. that he will be able to plan and 
devise short cuts and better organization. 
By studying liis herds he can cull out 
enough imperfect individuals so ho- will 
not have to raise much fodder, at the 
same time increasing his net profits. 
Then perhaps we farmers will have time 
to go to church or attend a lecture the 
same as our city brothers. r. o. w. 
New York. * *■ , 
Willow Cuttings for Fence Posts 
On page 1260 S. M. B. asks about 
growing willow cuttings for fence posts. 
We have a line fence, so grown, of the 
common white willow (Salix alba). No 
especial skill or knowledge is required for 
rooting willows, as they emit roots read¬ 
ily whether cut through a bud or not. 
They should he cut from plump wood be¬ 
fore the buds open in the Spring, and if 
y± in. to 1 in. in diameter can be easily 
pushed into wet or soft moist ground, 
where they will soon send out new shoots 
and roots. If the shoots are headed back 
about the last of July a better root 
growth is induced, and cuttings 4 in. long 
when struck usually make growth suffi¬ 
cient to support a wire fence after IS 
months. W“ have known of willow fence 
posts 3 in. in diameter and 6 ft. long be¬ 
ing set in ting holes and subsequently 
making a heavy growth, though mat is 
usually on the sap stored in the post itself, 
and in a dry season the new growth soon 
dies. FRANK .T. m’gregor. 
Massachusetts. 
