The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Boys and Girls 
By Edward M. Tuttle 
This is our page. Here we meet as friends, telling each other of 
our work, and of our play, of our pleasures and of our troubles. 
I. ' 
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All Aboard and All Happy 
Down the hill! With a will! 
Do not fear the Winter’s chill; 
Swiftly go, all aglow. 
O’er the ice and snow. 
Coasting is the best of fun, 
After work is fairly done, 
Raise the song, clear and strong, 
As we fly along. 
—OLD BONG. 
What a jolly bunch of boys and girls 
the picture shows! Wouldn't you like to 
be with them? I would. They belong up 
in New York State in one of the hilly 
counties. Hills are not so handy when 
it comes to farming, but we know what 
they are good for. don’t we? 
How Many Made This Mistake? 
In a letter from Judith P., New Jersey, 
she says: 
I have been a constant reader of The 
R. N.-Y. One day I noticed the “Roys’ 
and Girls’ Page.” That was the first 
time it was printed. I soon started to 
read it. I was so in a hurry to know 
everything that was there I read it so 
fast that I didn't notice that it was only 
once a month. The next Saturday we re¬ 
ceived The R. N.-Y. 1 looked and looked 
for the "Roys’ and Girls’ Page” and I 
couldn’t find it. I felt so disappointed, 
but a few weeks later it appeared again. 
That certainly surprised me. 
Yes, Our Page comes once a mouth, on 
the last Saturday of the month. Twelve 
times a year we have to • talk to eacli 
other. We must make every mouth count, 
mustn’t we? 
Such a Lot of Letters! 
It was line to hear from so many of 
you last month. Your letters have come 
in from all over the country. One girl 
asks: "Do you have many letters from 
Ohio, or are they mostly from New 
York?” Perhaps you would be interest¬ 
ed to know how some of the States stand 
on the mailing list of The R. N.-Y. Of 
course New York has first place. Nearly 
five times as many copies of the paper go 
to New York State as to any other. It 
will be clearer if I put it this way: 
Every time 100 copies go to persons in 
New York State, 22 go to Pennsylvania, 
19 to New Jersey, IS to Ohio, 12 to 
Massachusetts, 10 to Connecticut, six 
each to Maine and Michigan, four each 
to Virginia and Vermont, three each to 
New Hampshire and Maryland, two each 
to Rhode Island, Delaware. West Vir¬ 
ginia and Illinois, one to Indiana and less 
than one to every other State. 
This is the first month of the new year. 
Why don’t you boys and girls set to work 
to see whether you cannot find other homes 
near you that would enjoy The R. N.-Y. 
Then a year from now I'll tell you again 
how the States stand. If there is an in¬ 
crease in your State it will be partly be¬ 
cause of your help. 
About Printing Letters 
In a good many of your letters I find 
sentences like these: "If my letter is 
published, I will write again”; "Maybe 
I can write again some time if this letter 
is printed”; "As this is my first letter to 
The R. N.-Y. I hope it will be printed”; 
“If you put my letter in the paper next 
time I will write all about the farm.” 
Now, I am sure that if you will stop 
and think a minute you will see that I 
cannot publish all of your letters. Only 
a very few can be chosen each time out 
of hundreds. Rut I should be very sorry 
to feel that any one of you would never 
write a second time just because your 
first letter is not printed. The more let¬ 
ters I have to choose from the better Our 
Page will be. If I could I would like to 
answer every letter that is not printed. 
But I have a big farm to look after and 
it keeps me very busy. I am glad to 
have it, though, for then I live as most 
of you do. and we are interested in just 
the same things. I want you to feel that 
this page is my answer to you all each 
month. There is only one of me. There 
are thousands of you. 
The Right Spirit 
I thought I would write and let you 
know how much the "Roys’ and Gilds’ 
Page” in The R. N.-Y. has interested 
me. My father has taken your paper for 
a long time, but it never interested me 
much until I saw that you were going to 
have a junior page. I think the pictures 
are so nice, because they are natural and 
real. 
Although this is my first letter I am 
not going to let it be the last. I live on 
a 10-acre truck farm iu Ohio. I am 15 
years old and a sophomore in high school. 
We all like the farm and could not be 
hired to go to the city. My sister and I 
have five ponies. We both love animals, 
and especially horses. We certainly get a 
lot of enjoyment out of the ponies and 
hate to think of ever selling any. We only 
have two cows now, but we used to keep 
a lot and sell cream in the city. The 
“Roys’ and Girls’ Page” in the December 
number was very interesting. I think it 
will be fine to have letters from other boys 
and girls. I didn't know whether I was 
too old to write with the rest of the boys 
and girls, but will chance it. JULIA P. 
Ohio. 
Of course Julia is not too old! I want 
this page to be for all of us, older as well 
as younger. Each time I shall try to 
have something interesting to those who 
are smaller, and something worth while 
for you older ones. 
How many of you ever look through the 
rest of The R. N.-Y.? I think you would 
find things to enjoy. Of course we like it 
better now because we have our own page, 
but not all the good things are here, you 
know. For instance. Frances E., Con¬ 
necticut, says: "I would like to ask you 
to put in some hand work, as crochet, 
knitting, embroidery, etc.” Now, I think 
that if Franees and you other girls will 
turn regularly to the department called 
“Woman and Home” you will often find 
many suggestions along these lines. So, 
too, the boys will pick up many useful 
hints about the crops and animals by 
looking through the paper each week. 
The Eoys Took Hold 
I thought you would, and it is fine to 
have your letters. Fully as many have 
come from boys this month as from girls. 
Here is a picture of one: 
w. 
This is exactly as Peter wrote it, ex¬ 
cept that he wrote in pencil. In order to 
print it we had to ink it over, and we left 
out the address and the last name, as we 
do with all the letters, because it seems 
best that way. Peter is a New York 
State boy. I am glad that the first letter 
he ever wrote to anybody was to Our 
Page. 
Here is another boy’s letter: 
I saw in The R. N.-Y. where the girls 
were beating the boys writing letters, so 
I thought I would write a few lines for 
the Roys’ and Girls’ Page. 
I am a boy 13 years of age. The reason 
why boys cannot write as much as girls is 
they have so much more to do. There are 
chores to do, and always some farm work 
to do between times. 
We take The R. N.-Y.. and I read every 
copy we get, and think it is the best farm 
paper. I do a little trapping and have 
caught three skunks, besides helping dig 
out another. We have one calf and a 
dairy of nine cows. We had one hog 
which we killed today. My little brother 
and I walk over two miles to school. I 
am a freshman in high school. We are 
not going to school now because a new 
steam furnace is being put iu our school 
buildings. o. L. 
Pennsylvania. 
What do you think about this, girls? I 
thought you had work to do, too. 
It is always good to hear of an im¬ 
provement in a school building. 
The Children and the Calf 
On this page is an intersting picture 
of two little children and their pet calf. 
This was sent iu by their father, a New 
York State farmer. I wish some of you 
would write me a story about this pic¬ 
ture. Do you think the little folks are 
girls or boys or one of each? What are 
they doing? What kind of a calf is it? 
Is the calf the only animal to be seen? 
What is the calf doing with its tail? 
A Word About Trapping 
The letter above printed from O. L. brings 
up the question of trapping. Many boys 
are trapping this Winter. The skins are 
bringing good prices, and it is a fine way 
203 
to earn a little money to help the bank 
account along. 
Below you will see the picture of 
another Pennsylvania boy, Hiram F. He 
captured the black skunk and his mother 
took bis picture. The skin of this skunk 
brought Hiram $5.75. 
Hiram and nis Skunk 
There is just one thing I would like 
the boys to think about when they are 
trapping. Trapping wild animals means 
catching and killing them. Man has the 
power to kill the animals. It is right 
that he should. Many of these creatures, 
such as skunks, and woodchucks, and 
’possums, and weasels would soon overrun 
us and do much harm if they were not 
controlled. But in all our killing we 
should never torture the animals. They 
should be killed as quickly and painlessly 
as possible. They are not always killed 
by the traps, and they suffer then. We 
should visit the traps early every morn¬ 
ing. Trapping is a business. Only brutes 
take pleasure in killing things. 
Signs of Spring 
Which one of us all will find the most 
signs of Spring this year? I wonder. 
Suppose we each keep a list of the things 
we discover. Don’t you think that would 
be fun? Then on May 1 send the lists 
to me and I will print some of the best 
ones. 
Nature will soon be waking up from 
the long Winter's sleep. Thei’e ax’e many 
signs that she gives. They begin a good 
deal earlier than most people think. Every¬ 
one knows that when the robins and blue¬ 
birds come back it is a sign of Spring. 
But I want you boys and girls to look 
and listen and feel and smell just as hard 
as you can for all the signs there are. 
Farms are fine places to watch for Spring. 
The birds, the animals, the ti'ees. the 
flowers all have ways of showing that 
Spring is coming. So start now to keep 
your lists. Only put down the things 
you really discover yourselves. Keep each 
one with the date when it happens. You 
should have several before next month. 
Hunting 
Perhaps you will think from the head¬ 
ing that I am going to write about shoot¬ 
ing things with a gun. Not this time. 1 
have a better kind of "shooting” in mind. 
Vera T., New York, said in a letter, “I 
have a carneni of my own. I like hunting 
with a camera very much.” This is fine! 
I hope many of you are doing this kind 
of hunting and will send in some of the 
"game” you take. If the pictui-es are 
good and clear they can be used for Our 
Page. 
Next Month 
Next mouth I want to talk about two 
things especially. The first is our gar¬ 
dens for next Summer. It is timo we 
began to plan for them. The other is 
about bird houses. Will any of you who 
have had some intei’ostiug experiences 
with gai’dens or with bird houses iu other 
years write and tell me about them? 
Once more we say good-by for another 
month. Outside the wind is howling and 
it is cold. Within the fire burns brightly 
and we are glad to be alive and to have 
so many interesting things to read about, 
and think about, and do. Be sure to ad¬ 
dress your letters to me at 333 West 30th 
Street, New York City, in care of TnE 
Rural New-Yorker. 
Two Little Girls and a Heifer Calf 
