Stilt. 
•Pie RURAL NEW-YOKK L R 
November 1, t:»r.> 
The Woman’s Land Army 
The Woman’s Land Army has again 
performed a signal service for the fruit 
and vegetable growers of New York. 
Starting as a patriotic movement in 1918, 
and going into action as a war emergency 
measure, it has, with an enlarged organi¬ 
zation, entered the final lap of its second 
year with strong purpose and light hearts. 
Last year it was patriotism that called 
the girl of city ways to the orchards and 
fields of the country. It took stamina to 
make this resolve, and the all-wise pre¬ 
dicted that the movement could be but a 
fleeting one. 
This year the plea of patriotism be¬ 
came one of service. Instead of a wan¬ 
ing spirit there was immediate response, 
anyl many were the same faces on the 
same jobs held last year. When the ar¬ 
mistice was signed the army suddenly be¬ 
came one of the great reconstruction 
movements of the day. Nothing is more 
fundamental than food. The world cries 
for food and the high purpose of the 
Land Army is to help produce it. 
Starting early in the season on berries 
and cherries, the members of the various 
units applied themselves to the crops in 
succession, working on muck farms with 
lettuce, onions, etc., and on fruit farms 
with cherries, peaches, apples and other 
crops Last year tl 1 girls were stationed 
on many fruit farms, where they gave 
the best satisfaction. Manager MacDill, 
of the 600-acre Sodus Fruit Farm, made 
reservations immediately at the close of 
last season for a like engagement this 
year. Over one hundred girls harvested 
the cherry crop on this farm, and no criti¬ 
cism could be made as to their thorough¬ 
ness, care of trees or energy in applica¬ 
tion. In sharp contrast with this is the 
experience of a Monroe County grower 
who last year employed promiscuous help, 
much of it being foreign, with entire fami¬ 
lies, including the children, in the cherry 
harvest. Even ordinary regard for the 
trees was not observed ; limbs were broken, 
entire trees in some instances ruined, and 
when the season closed the orchard was 
in such injured shape that the owner de¬ 
clared he would not have been much out 
if he had let the fruit rot on the trees. 
Fig. 528 shows a 1919 unit at the 
noontime rest. Owing to the small 
cherry crop this year there was employ¬ 
ment for only about one-third the number 
engaged last season. However, with nor¬ 
mal conditions next season a large force 
will be required. Fig. 529 is of another 
unit at dinner. 
Last year there were 27 Land Army 
camps in New York in the counties of 
Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, 
Dutchess, lister. Oswego, Putnam, 
Schuyler, Wayne, Monroe and Orleans. 
Well over 200 camps were organized this 
season in the State. From the start the 
urging of the army has been that the 
farmer plant every acre of tillable land 
be possesses. In turn the organization 
offers to supply groups of strong, healthy 
young women to help him plant, cultivate 
and harvest the food. It houses the young 
women in sanitary, comfortable properly- 
supervised camps, centrally located in a 
district of general farming. Where piece¬ 
work employment is not feasible it offers 
this labor to the farmer at the rate of 
$2 per day and transports the workers 
from the camps to the farms where they 
are employed with no cost to the farmer 
within a three-mile limit. 
In order to give stability to the plan 
of employing young women in this way 
certain easy rules of discipline are pre¬ 
scribed and carried out in practice. The 
rules actually work out for a betterment 
of the service, and are welcomed by the 
young ladies. One member coming from 
a home in East Avenue, Rochester, said 
to the writer: “1 came here just to head 
off' a -selfish streak that was developing 
within me. At home I have four people 
to wait on me, and 1 hardly know what 
it means to have to do things for myself. 
Last Summer 1 went to the Adirondacks. 
This is my first season with the Land 
Army and I am having a glorious time.” 
Some of the rules enforced in all the 
camps are as follows: 
Tin* standard of an eight-hour day is 
remti-ed of till workers. Overtime is al¬ 
lowed at the option of the workers and 
the discretion of the supervisor, but in 
general it is discouraged, except in times 
of dire need. Wages for overtime shall 
be at the rate of time and a half. Work¬ 
ers are permitted each Sunday off and 
also one day off a month. No workers 
are sent out singly. 
Each camp may serve points not ex¬ 
ceeding a distance of 10 miles from the 
site of the camp; the first three miles 
to be free transportation; every mile be¬ 
yond the three-mile limit to be at the 
rate of three cents per mile per girl. 
Each unit has a supervisor in charge 
who deals'with the farmer, collects money 
and pays workers. She also consults with 
the squad captain as to the assigning of 
the gixds to work, taking into considera¬ 
tion their health and strength. Each 
girls is required to make her own bed 
and serve her turn on house duty, com¬ 
prising the following routine : Laying and 
clearing of meals; washing dishes and 
cooking utensils; keeping house clean and 
in order, and the packing of picnic 
lunches. All lights must be out and every 
girl in bed at least eight hours before 
rising bell. Visitors are allowed only on 
Sundays, but cannot be accommodated at 
the camp. Any men frieuds will be wel¬ 
come who are known to the families of 
the girls. With these rules there is a 
definiteness of activity that has always 
been popular with the workers. System 
aud orderliness is manifest throughout 
the day. One of the rules, as faithfully 
followed as those relating to labor, is tlv t 
each evening the unit as a whole is en¬ 
titled to a swim if any bathing grounds 
be available. In some instances I have 
known arrangements being made to trans¬ 
port the girls by motor truck every day 
to a bathing beach six miles distant. 
What is the effect on both the Land 
Army lass and the young rural generation 
from this new acquaintanceship? In the 
first place, it offers opportunities for the 
city girl to enter a fellowship with her 
city companions hardly possible within 
the conventions of urban life. For once 
she is absolved from the artificial atmos¬ 
phere of the city and out in God’s open 
a new chapter in her life begins. Here 
whether it be the phonograph oii the 
lawn, an impromptu dance on the porch 
or a sequestered frolic with leap-frog, that 
vital thrill of spontaneous joy is ever 
present. Thus a living enactment of at¬ 
taining most wholesome pleasure from the 
adjustments of country life is presented 
for the serious consideration of the orig¬ 
inal “land army,” born to this station in 
life, and whose faithful continuance in 
thj same is the deep hope of our fair 
land. 
The Land Army’s assignment for 1919 
is about finished. The work has included 
plowing, planting, transplanting, cultivat¬ 
ing, bunching vegetables, haying, stacking- 
wheat. thrashing, milking, driving trac¬ 
tors, picking and crating fruit, digging 
potatoes, and in fact all sorts of general 
.•arming work. 
Asked about the 1920 prospects. Miss 
! illian Wangmann, in charge of the Sodus 
Fruit Farm unit, said: “The girls will 
surely remember this place. This makes 
the second year for some of them, and it 
looks as though we would have a waiting 
list for the vacancies in 1920.” 
A. H. PTJLVER. 
Up-State Farm Notes 
Protests Attack on Farmers, —The 
Onondaga County Farm and Home Bu¬ 
reau Association aud the Cortland County 
Home Bureau organization have each 
passed unanimous resolutions condemning 
A Land Army Unit Resting at Noon. Fig. 528 
she liuds new ties of comradeship in her 
friends and memories are formed of rustic 
pleasures that will ever kindle into pleas¬ 
urable emotions when viewed in the retro¬ 
spect of years to come. 
To the youth of rural rearing a certain 
ennoblement is placed on farm endeavor 
that the fair sex of the big cities should 
think it their part to assist in the harvest. 
Possibly a submerged longing to leave the 
farm for the shining enticement of the 
city is somewhat dampened by the will of 
the Land Army girls to go out into the 
the unfair and partisan investigation of 
the Department of Foods and Markets 
and the recommendation of the Governor 
that its head, Dr. Eugene II. Porter, be 
dismissed. Farmers understand thoroughly 
that this is a political move by unprin¬ 
cipled men who want patronage from this 
department, and they will carry a long 
memory to the polls some time hence. 
Health Insurance. —The rural peo¬ 
ple are taking their cue on the so-called 
welfare measure to be proposed by the 
coming Legislature as regards health in¬ 
A Land Anna Unit at Dinner. Fig. 529 
country aud emphasize the dignity of 
farm labor at whatever may be the need 
of the hour. 
The Laud Array does not come into 
competition with man’s labor, now at a 
higher premium than ever before. Neither 
does it disturb the industrial conditions 
of the city by drafting labor from other 
industries, but uses labor not otherwise 
employed, as college girls, girls in seasonal 
trades, teachers and those who otherwise 
would be unemployed. If it brings any 
message to the rural population with 
whom it seems to enter competition, that 
message is: “Young men and young 
women, stay on the, farm.” As if to 
help along the adoption of these ends 
each camp has its own formula of adding 
a living present to the set of things; 
taking all the dirge out of day-to-day life 
and making of the little things a string 
of endless comfort. The evening hour 
fairly scintillates with the joys of living; 
surauce from the unhesitating condemna¬ 
tion of it by State extension and real 
welfare workers, also by the similar atti¬ 
tude taken by leading up-State legislators 
and the fact that last week at Oswego 
130 physicians of the Sixth District 
branch of the State Medical Society went 
on record as unalterably opposed to it. 
State’s Cabbage Crop. —Danish cab¬ 
bage is now moving around .$25 per ton. 
The Cortland, Onondaga, Madison and 
Chenango county crops are in excellent 
condition, excepting for some blight. Sep¬ 
tember was a hard month on the crop. 
The Federal crop reporter recently visited 
Cortland and said this county’s crop was 
the best in the State. Cayuga County 
cabbage will average but seven tons per 
acre. The Wayne aud Monroe crop is 
fair, but many fields suffered from aphis, 
and an average five-ton yield is expected. 
Ontario, Seneca and Yates counties will 
average five tons. Orleans aud Niagara 
will run four and three tons respectively. 
Some kraut factories used domestic cab¬ 
bage in western counties, at $20 per ton. 
Winter Wheat Mixed.— Extension 
workers of the State College report that 
inspection of Winter wheat and rye fields 
show a great need of farmers purchasing 
seed of known purity and desirable type 
and variety. Many wheatfields contain 
an undesirable admixture of rye, and on 
an average the stand is less than 70 per 
cent, of one variety, where at least 99 per 
cent should be one variety. Farmers 
should either sow small plots and care¬ 
fully increase pure seed stock, or should 
buy new seed of known purity. The <-ol- 
lege will advise in the matter. 
Cattle Notes. —State breeders of Jer¬ 
seys and Guernseys, also Ayrshires, fig¬ 
ured prominently at the National Dairy 
Show at Chicago. Forty selected Jersey 
cattle sold for a total of $28,125. Quick- 
action chaiacterized this sale, one animal 
being sold on an average of every four 
minutes, averaging $1,453 each. ‘ Hood 
Farm of Massachusetts paid the top price 
for a Jersey cow, $3,500 for Sophie’s 
Emily. 
Recreational Forestry. — A new 
course under this title, the first of its 
kind in this country, has been opened at 
Syracuse University. As part of its work 
the department will instruct students in 
mapping out trails in forests and in other 
recreational life in the woods. Trails 
through the State’s reservations have in¬ 
creased visitation tenfold, and they help 
to control forest fires also. Reforestation 
will receive more attention from now on. 
the college announces. Otsego County’s 
township plan of reforesting is of great 
interest to other counties that will plant 
trees. The college will use the ►Skanca- 
teles forest and the Green Lake reserve 
at .Tamesville as laboratories. Dean 
Baker, of Syracuse College of Forestry, 
is conferring with other State forestry 
leaders, and will address a National For¬ 
estry . Conference in Syracuse Nov. 11. 
advising the forestry policy for the coun¬ 
try. He will also address the American 
I’ulp & Paper Association in New York- 
City a few days later. 
. Potato Situation. Wje the price of 
potatoes 90 cents to $1 a bfishel to Cen¬ 
tral New York farmers it. is of interest 
to note that Dr. Jonathan C. Day, New 
York City’s Market Commissioner, where 
potatoes retail at $3.50 to $6 per bushel, 
says that a Watertown farmer guarantees 
an unlimited supply to New York con¬ 
sumers at prices that will permit retail 
ing them at least $1.50 per bushel 
less than current prices. Central New 
York farmers would make it $2 per bushel 
less than current prices. But this out¬ 
rageous profiteering on the part of mid 
dlernen does not concern the Governor or 
the politicians so much as reducing the 
price still further to the farmer seems to. 
Farmers need to amend the Sherman act 
or take steps to sell their potatoes co¬ 
operatively, and consumers need to clean 
house, putting out of business dealers 
who are combining so ruinously. Con 
sinners should open the way to buying 
direct from farmers’ co-operative organ 
izations. The Federal figures for the en¬ 
tire crop of this country is 284.605.000 
bushels, as compared to 340,699,000 of 
last year, and the very short crop of 
229,415,000 bushels of the year before. 
The Western yield runs low, from 32 per 
cent of normal in Iowa, to 72 per cent 
in Colorado. The higher prices are call¬ 
ing out shipments unusually early. 
Dairy Notes.- —Many sections report, a 
shortage of workers. Results are show¬ 
ing in the dairy business, and in the get¬ 
ting of crops t<> market. Many farmers 
in central counties have been approached 
by a well-known cream-buying concern of 
Buffalo that pays good prices for sour 
cream on a butterfat basis that the most 
conservative dairyman calls two-thirds of 
the price offered by whole milk markets, 
and that the firm calls about four-fifths 
of the Dairymen’s League price of whole 
milk. This necessitates the purchase of 
a separator on the part of the farmer. 
But the shipping expenses are about one- 
half or less than present haulage prices 
for milk are. Shipments are made bur 
once a week in cold weather, twice a week 
in warm, on an evening train, and a 
check is forwarded promptly for each can 
of cream. This offers many advantages 
that have been very conspicuously absent 
this Summer under daylight saving and 
city health department rules. No ice will 
be needed, the work is not so confining, 
and the skim-milk to be fed to poultry 
pigs and calves opens up new lines of 
profit. This is bound to reflect on the 
New York market, where already thou¬ 
sands of babies are nearly without milk. 
But it is the logical result of intolerant 
and domineering methods on part of tin- 
dealers’ milk trust, and others. In Octo¬ 
ber this company,' which has been in good 
standing in this and other States for 35 
years, raised its price seven points, when 
for tin 1 lirst time in history the price of 
whole milk was lower than in September 
General Notes. —The lettuce crop of 
ihe State has passed all previous records, 
and shipments will continue until Novem 
her 30. Last week’s total for tin* country 
was 124 cars, of which this State pro¬ 
duced 113 cars. The week before this 
State produced all but 12 of the total 164 
cars moved. The use of a special crate 
containing 24 select heads has greutlj 
helped the lettuce industry. Growers have 
received as high as $3.75 a crate for fan¬ 
ciest stock, but the ruling price is around 
$1.50. A 540-acre farm in Avon was re¬ 
cently sold for $128,000. >i. o. e. 
