The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
959 
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. 
To Rent or Run the Farm 
I have a farm in Pennsylvania, just 
bought it last Spring, valued at $9,000. 
There are 111 acres, 90 acres farm land, 
the rest in pasture and timber; can pas¬ 
ture 15 head cattle. I had to borrow 
$4,500 on this farm. Do you think it 
would be more profitable for me to go on 
this farm April 1, 1921, or to retain my 
present postion and rent the farm for the 
shares, for one-half of the grain raised on 
the farm? I am superintendent of an 
orphans’ home. I receive $625 a year and 
all my living expenses. I have been a 
farmer all my life until the last five years, 
and am overseeing a small farm here. We 
have a boy 12 and an orphan boy 14, one 
girl eight and an orphan girl 11 years old. 
My wife and I have good health and en¬ 
joy farm work.. The farm has fair build¬ 
ings. I should have to go in debt for all 
my stock and machinery. I would like to 
have your opinion as to which would be 
the best for me to do. Should I be in debt 
too deep? I am anxious to get on my 
farm: think I can raise better crops and 
look after the farm to better advantage 
than through a renter, but do not want to 
starve before I can make good. 
Virginia. w. J. b. 
No human being cau answer such a 
question for another. We know nothing 
of the personalities of man or family. Our 
guess is that it would be better to rent 
the farm to begin with and hold the pres¬ 
ent position for a while, saving as much 
money as possible for needed capital. It 
will depend much on the age and health 
of this man. that is, how many years he 
may reasonably expect to live on this 
farm. If not too old he can safely wait 
a few years until he has capital enough to 
start out of debt. 
A Wife’s Poultry Business 
Before marrying I was a nurse, but of 
course, as I am the mother of three cbil- 
iren it is impossible for me to take any 
rases, so a year ago I took a small sum of 
nonev and invested it in poultry. My 
iiusba'nd and I made the agreement that 
1 was to pay all bills, feed, incubators, 
brooders, baby chicks, etc. Now. if I fur¬ 
nish one-half of poultry and eggs for the 
bouse, take care of my poultry, etc., am I 
using my husband fair? I would like to 
educate my children. As this is money I 
bad when a child, is it any more than 
l ight for me to conduct this business un- 
ler my own name? T. o. 
Of course it is impossible for us to 
rive any definite opinion without knowing 
ill about it. It seems to us that the ar¬ 
rangement is more than fair to your hus¬ 
band, and we have no douht he will agree 
to it. and feel proud that his wife is so 
helpful and so ambitious for her children. 
A Precocious Peach Tree 
The Arizona Experiment Station at 
Tucson reports the following: 
Thirty peaches on a peach tree only 
12 months old is a record reported by 
F. .1. Crider, horticulturist of the College 
of Agriculture of the University. This 
precocious peach tree is of the Palles va¬ 
riety, and is growing upon the experiment 
station orchard near Mesa. It is a re¬ 
minder that those in Arizona wishing to 
grow fine peaches in their own gardens for 
their home use will not have to wait long 
for fruit if they will but plant out the 
peach trees. 
Can any reader match this story with 
facts? We are beginning to learn more 
about the possibilities of the great South¬ 
west. Man has learned that the connect¬ 
ing link between the rainless desert and 
paradise is water. For the sun-lit desert, 
once irrigated, blooms like the rose. 
Why Poultry Illumination Pays 
During the past Winter season hun¬ 
dreds of poultrymen tried lighting the 
henhouse to increase Winter laying for 
the first time. We are beginning to re¬ 
ceive reports from them, and they gener¬ 
ally show that the lights did induce extra 
laying. The following statement from 
1’rof. J, E. Rice of Cornell gives some 
reason why this illumination pays: 
In the tropics, where the domestic fowl 
originated, the length of the nights and 
tne days are essentially equal. As a re- 
°* tln „ s the reproductive and digestive 
• j stems of the fowl were developed to fit 
15* environment of the 12-hour night and 
in -'hour day. The fowl, therefore, is 
alarm clock. She must be wound 
time^ fn° V, £ y VI 5 oms - T " the Winter 
•ihont 1 ^ *e North her stomach strikes at 
E At 0 4 0 ( ‘ lot ‘h in the morning. Not 
dark t eyes au 0W 1 to see in the 
nark, she has no alternative but to shiver 
and wait, until daylight, or when the care¬ 
taker gets around to feed her. Carrying 
the domestic fowl from the tropics to the 
north temperate zone, where the nights 
during the Fall and Winter are from 13 
to 15 hours long, changed her habits, but 
uot, her nature. She merely tucked her 
head under her wing and hibernated until 
Spring. She still takes her vacation 
when she has the least to eat and to do. 
She acts from necessity rather than from 
choice. She is an “opportunist.” She 
lays when she has an opportunity to eat, 
exercise and enjoy herself. 
> Overcoming the long nights by the 
right kind and amount of artificial light, 
feed, water and exercise starts the egg¬ 
making machinery and automatically feeds 
it, lubricates it and keeps it in repair. 
a fine, large muskrat caught in the 
chicken wire and quite dead. He had 
evidently been trying to get: into the yard 
and caught his hind legs in such a way 
he could not extricate them, but he <Jid 
not die of starvation, as he was certainly 
not caught even the day prior to bis being 
found. I thought muskrats had their reg¬ 
ular habitat in streams or lakes. There 
are neither streams or lakes within a 
couple of miles of this place. We skinned 
the animal and buried the carcass by the 
grapevine. c. H.‘ N. 
Last Winter was bad enough to compel 
humans to change their lifelong habits— 
why not animals? We would like a dis- 
cussiou of these things. 
Are These Animals Nature Faking? 
I am wondering if the animals about 
this place are nature faking, or whether 
the actions. I am writing of are quite com¬ 
mon. During last Winter, in time widely 
separated, we caught two moles in a 
mouse-trap located in a kitchen closet. 
They were both small, about the same 
size, and apparently quite young. The 
kitchen is over a regular cellar, but there 
is a room adjacent that stands over 
ground with a clearance of about two 
feet. I thought moles hibernated, retir¬ 
ing to their underground galleries in the 
early Fall. Also. I did not. understand 
that their breeding season was in the 
Winter. How about it? Later my 
wife, on going to the chicken yard, found 
Reform the Game Laws 
The article, page 071, on the foolish 
game laws of our State, by Edw. G. 
Whitaker, is to the point. We should 
have the law making it necessary for the 
hunter, or any person, to have written 
consent from the owner of lands before 
trespassing thereon. This law would 
have all the effect, claimed for it by Mr. 
Whitaker, and would meet the approval 
of 99 per cent of the land owners. I 
have land on a macadam road which is 
natural cover for pheasants, and a num¬ 
ber of such birds have been here for some 
years past, but are now extinct. On the 
first legal day last Fall to shoot pheas¬ 
ants. 19 automobiles stopped within 15 
rods of my house and within 10 rods of 
a legal trespass sign, and from two to 
five men with guns and dogs unloaded on 
my land. When I called their attention 
to the signs, they invariably informed 
me that I could do nothing. They shot 
the birds, and also the window from my 
house and stable. Are not a farmer’s 
fields and fences as dear to him as a city 
dwellers’ lawn and garden? c. D. 
Montour Falls, N. Y. 
Coming Live Stock Sales 
May 14-15—Holsteins, Abbott & Clai’k, 
Cortland, N. Y. 
May 15—Sheep. Patriotic show, shear¬ 
ing and sale, Fair Grounds. Perry, N. Y. 
May 17 — Holsteins. W. H. Mace, 
Cortland. N. Y. 
May IS—Holsteins. .Taboz Smith & 
Son, Newark Valley, N. Y. 
May IS—Holsteins and Ayrshire®, 
Branford Farm, Groton, Conn. 
May 19—Guernseys and Berkshires, 
Branford Farm, Groton, Conn. 
May 20—Ayrshire Cattle Breeders’ As¬ 
sociation of New England, consignment 
sale, Springfield. Mass. A. H. Sagen- 
dorph. Spencer. Mass., sales manager. 
May 20—Holsteins. Tri-County Hol¬ 
stein Bleeders’ Association Sidney. N. Y. 
May 20 — Ayrshires. New England 
Ayrshire Breeders’ Association, Spring- 
field. Mass. 
May 22 — Holsteins. Niagara Maid 
Farm, East Aurora, N. Y. 
May 26-29—Holsteins. A. W. Green, 
Middlefield, Ohio. 
May 31—Jerseys. T. S. Cooper & Son, 
Coopersburg. Pa. 
June 1 — .T e r s e y s. Inderkill Farm, 
Staatsburg. N. Y. 
June 1-2 — Holsteins. Purebred Live 
Stock Sales Co., Brattleboro, Vt. 
June 3—Jerseys. Hood Farm, Lowell, 
Edmond Butler, Mt. 
W. R. Spann & Sou, 
Mass. 
June 3—Jerseys. 
Ivisco. N. Y. 
June 4—Jerseys. 
Morristown. N. ,T. 
June 10—Hosteins. .T. B. Sissons’ 
Sons. Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
•Tune 10—Ayrshires. Second national 
Ayrshire, sale. Springfield, Mass. Arthur 
H. Sagendorpb, Spencer, Mass., treasurer. 
June 12 — Jerseys. Eugene F. Wells, 
Tnlly. N. Y. 
June 19 — Berkshires. Piping Rock 
Farms, Greenwich, Conn. 
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January 
Corn-shelling, feed-grinding, 
baling, wood-sawing. 
February 
Corn-shelling, baling, feed¬ 
grinding, wood-sawing, stone- 
crushing. 
March 
Feed-grinding, stone-crush¬ 
ing, corn-shelling. 
April 
Corn-shelling, feed-grinding. 
May 
Baling, corn-shelling, feed¬ 
grinding. 
June 
Baling, pumping. 
July 
Baling, pumping, 
threshing. 
August 
Baling, pumping, 
threshing. 
September 
Silo - filling, 
threshing, bal¬ 
ing. 
October 
Silo-filling bal¬ 
ing, clover- 
hulling. 
November 
Clover-hulling, 
feed - grinding, 
wood - sawing, 
baling. 
December 
Corn - shelling, 
feed - grinding, 
corn-shredding, 
straw - baling, 
wood-sawing. 
Use Your 
Fordson 
Every Month 
To get full value from your Fordson tractor, 40% 
of its working time should be spent in operating 
belt driven machinery—this is the verdict of 
leading agricultural authorities. 
You can profitably use your Fordson for belt 
work every month from January to December. 
Study the “Belt Calendar” at the left. 
But there is one vitally important thing to re¬ 
member—to assure the most satisfactory results 
you should use the belt especially designed for 
the Fordson tractor—the Little Giant tractor belt. 
The Little Giant tractor belt has a clinging grip 
that conquers pulley slippage. It has a unique 
construction that withstands the effects of ex¬ 
posure to all sorts of weather conditions neces¬ 
sary in farm work. It is made of four-folds of 
a single piece of extra quality, heavy weight can¬ 
vas duck, closely stitched and specially treated 
to increase the toughness and wearability. The 
edges are double stitched to increase the resist¬ 
ance to edge wear. 
See the Little Giant at your local Fordson 
dealer’s place of business, or write us direct. 
United States Rubber Company 
Chicago, Ill. 
Distributed by 
GASH-STULL & CO., Philadelphia, Pa. 
THOMAS J. NORTHWAY. Rochester, N. Y. 
HOOPER MOTOR CO.. Youngstown, Ohio 
LIVINGSTON MOTOR CO.. Worcester, Mass. 
For tale by all authorized Fordson Dealer• 
