1050 
Vht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 5, 1020 
The Thoughts of a Plain Farm Woman 
A Strenuous Program. —I am in in¬ 
direct receipt of a letter from AY. F. W., 
New Hampshire, who wishes to know how 
two men are going to turn off the follow¬ 
ing crops mentioned in my “Thoughts” 
of April, viz; four acres of potatoes, 
four of cabbage, two of sugar beets, eight 
of oats, and enough silo corn to fill two 
large silos, in addition to a big hay crop, 
25 tons of which is sold every year as 
surplus. When I gave that* list, it never 
occurred to me but that it was an or¬ 
dinary year’s* work for two young, strong 
ambitious men, but upon further thought, 
perhaps our men are doing a bit more 
than the average farmer thinks he ought 
to get away with. Our farm consists of 
148 acres of fertile, level river land, 
about 80 acres of which is under culti¬ 
vation. An easy farm to work ought to 
get due credit and receives it in our case, 
as naturally hills and hummocks are hard 
on teams and men and retard everything. 
It is true that two men at our farm at¬ 
tend to the previously mentioned crops 
and besides, milk on the average IS and 
20 head of stock twice and three times 
daily throughout the year. 
Txie Day’s Work. —I imagine that the 
only answer to W. F. W.’s question is, 
“Work, and then more work.” Our men 
get up at 5 A. M. Summers and ai*ound 
5:30 Winters, and do the milking with¬ 
out a machine. Our dairy is a productive 
one. and the cows average good messes. 
(We own over 40 head of purebred IIol- 
steins in all). Beginning with the new 
year, we officially tested a number of our 
cows at three different times, which, to 
anyone familiar with the work and extra 
care necessary for record-making, will 
show that the men did not take a well- 
earned vacation through the Winter. In 
addition to regular chores, milking six or 
more animals three times a day for sev¬ 
eral months upon completing each test 
(during which of course there were four 
milkings in 24 hours), my husband took 
a milk-route the first of January, when 
the roads became impossible for a truck to 
run. and this required the services of our 
hired man and the big team until one, 
two or three o’clock in the afternoon, ac¬ 
cording to the condition of the drifts. As 
one can imagine, it was late afternoon 
many days before the man and team 
pulled in—at $5 a trip. Then this Win¬ 
ter the wood supply was got out. and also 
lumber for the annual improvements. 
The Fall plowing had been carried on as 
late as possible, but we raised heavy 
crops last year, and the harvest was un¬ 
duly prolonged, so the usual amount of 
Fall plowing was not done. 
The Spring Outlook. —That brings 
us down to this Spring, or now. when we 
are all working tooth and nail to get in 
the crops. But instead of four acres of 
potatoes, it really amounts to all of five, 
as our man has two acres of ground in 
addition to his $70 a month and “find¬ 
ings.” for his own use. One acre he is 
putting into potatoes along with our 
crop, and so the five acres are being 
seeded together. He furnishes his own 
seed. For the first' time, we hired a man 
with a planter to put in this entire crop, 
which of course saved a good deal of time. 
The ground was fitted very thoroughly 
first, however, which takes time too. The 
oat ground is only just plowed as I 
write, May 1, but next week may see j 
this v crop also in the ground if rains do 
not interfere. 
Extra Help and Tools. —Nothing 
else has been planted, not even the gar¬ 
den which this year we are going to let 
out on shares. The other crops will not 
be in as early as those of many of our 
neighbors, but they will be in the ground 
and then harvested in due course, you may 
be sure. The only help our two men 
will have this year will be a wood-buzzer, 
who is due at any time to make away 
with a mountain of stuff in the wood-lot; 
a boy to drive the hay-loader and to rake, 
and thrashers and silo-fillers, my husband, 
as previously explained, owning the 
blower and another neighbor the engine, 
and about six farmers doing this big job 
co-operatively with the help of all their 
teams and men. The haying will not get 
done quite so soon on the other hand, as 
that of the neighbors who hire extra help, 
but we have about as much grass to cut 
as anybody in the township, and it would 
take time, anyway. The men figure to 
have it all under cover by the middle of 
August, excepting the three cuttings of 
clover and Alfalfa. To facilitate the work 
on our farm, we have a manufe-sprea’der, 
sulky plow, hay-loader and all modern 
hay tools, two heavy teams, corn har¬ 
vester, lime-sower, seeder, and the usual 
equipment of labor-savers which the mod¬ 
ern farmer makes serve him well. The. 
dairy barn is handily arranged—silos and 
feed room opening directly into the main 
part, with the grain-mixing room above 
the feed room with chutes leading below. 
The water-house and new ice-house adjoin 
the entrance-way. 
A Pattern Hired Man. —Probably my 
husband could not do as he does if he 
did not have such a capable, willing man. 
I have mentioned George in previous is¬ 
sues, and few there are like him. He is 
an expensive man, no doubt of it. as we 
pay him top wages and he uses unlimited 
quantities of fuel aud potatoes, but a 
good man is worth his weight in gold to¬ 
day. I suppose, and he who will stay home 
and work when the other fellows are 
taking a day off every now and then is 
not to be sneezed at. In fact, my hus¬ 
band and his man never take a day off. 
They don’t know the meaning of a vaca¬ 
tion. Neither eau really be spared, of 
course, and as we are putting off the day 
of the inevitable automobile as long as 
possible, it is prc tty sure that this year's 
crops will be got in efficiently and on time 
as'usual—but after the car comes. I im¬ 
agine I shall cease to brag! 
The Farm Income. —Perhaps it would 
be of interest to readers to know that 
our very average farm made a profit in 
1 DID of over $4,000 money, not counting 
the natural increase in value of the live¬ 
stock. Farmers have been pretty sure 
that they are getting the little end of the 
horn these days, and until we counted 
up our income and outgo the first of 
March to find out whether or nob we 
should pay an income tax. we felt that it 
was rather sure that the tax would not 
hit us, taking into consideration our ex¬ 
emptions—-but it did ! 
Farm Conditions. —On page 836 Mrs. 
E. M. A. took me pretty strongly to task 
for several remarks in my March 
“Thoughts” with which she disagreed 
quite hotly. One of these was. that in 
my opinion, the 40.000 discontented far¬ 
mers who answered the Post Office ques¬ 
tionnaire were not representative of their 
class as a whole. I admit basing my 
remarks on our own experiences and on 
the consensus of opinion among typical 
farmers who number themselves among 
(lie seven million instead of a paltry 
40,000. Mrs. E. M. A. asked me to come 
across with my usual common sense, and 
admit that a farmer is nothing but a 
poor, trodden-on worm, or words to that 
effect! But I absolutely refuse to ad¬ 
mit anything of the kind, although, good¬ 
ness knows, the farmer’s bed of roses is 
never experienced except in his dreams! 
I do admit that agriculture was most de¬ 
cidedly the under dog for those long hard 
years preceding the great war, but that 
since and during the war, if he were 
worth his salt, the farmer attempted in 
nine cases out of ten and with a good 
deal of success to get on his feet—and he 
is still there—if he really knows his 
trade. 
Successful Farmers. —So I believe 
with all m.v heart that you can make 
money at farming if you want to bad 
enough. It was in another agricultural 
paper ’hat I said we usually get what 
we wait most in this world, whether it 
be turning the country in our car, or 
spending our money not wisely but too 
well, or letting the hard work go when it 
comes time to get into the Spring swing 
around the farm circle again. AH that 
the world wants today is work—aud there 
is so little left of it that the man who 
fills the bill can’t help but cash in for 
his pains. All around us, however, is 
the typically unsuccessful farmer. 
Through no fault of his own, he may be 
incapacitated for hard labor, and so his 
pocket-book suffers accordingly. But 
where one farmer is sickly, nine are just 
plain unambitious, just plain “ornery” 
farmers without the will to do and dare. 
I maintain that the workers aud hustlers 
are in the minority on the farms as in 
the professions aud that you can’t keep a 
good man or a good farmer down—today 
or any other day. So after all, there is 
no secret in successful farming but just 
plain hard work and good judgment with¬ 
out a let-up of either. 
Present Dairy Situation.—A s I 
wrote a month ago, I doubt if this year 
will be as profitable as last, as dairymen 
are being kept, on the anxious seat all the 
time and one does not know whether to 
make a lot of milk as usual or slow up. 
The dealers are giving us many a gray 
hair, and if they win out. those who de¬ 
pend to a big degree on the dairy for a 
livelihood will see their incomes diminish 
shockingly. Our dividends were very 
average last Winter. $500 for each Win¬ 
ter month, but next Winter we should 
hate to be out that $500 when the 15tli 
rolls around. It’s a case of praying and 
holding out good thoughts. I guess! 
Hill Farms. —The article on page 811 
entitled “Mistakes of Farmers Who 
Come East” strikes me as being decidedly 
to the point. Probably most of these far¬ 
mers were regular successes in their own 
environment, but I do believe that many 
a back-hill farm of the old Empire State 
is hardly worth working, aud that is why 
only Westerners are buying them today. 
The original tenants have moved off in 
despair and disgust, and the Westerners 
will mainly follow. You ha to be near 
a railroad, live on a State or improved 
road, and near enough to town to sell 
extra produce in order really to do the. 
best possible at the farming game. Of 
course there are hundreds of hill farms 
whose owners are prosperous farmers, but 
they aren’t too far back and they are fer¬ 
tile. once you reach them. The other 
kind are a snare and delusion, and drag 
down the whole business of farming. It's 
a pity that so much laud is valueless, but 
the fact remains, and some day only the 
good aud profitable farms will be left to 
take care of the world’s needs, and inci¬ 
dentally—only those farmers who can 
make a success at their jobs. h. 8. k. w. 
Drawbar Time— 
and Titan Tractors 
EDR thorough reliability in drawbar time put your trust in 
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for plowing, seed-bed making, harvesting, etc. 
Rely on the good material in Titan construction, and in 
kerosene economy. Be sure of practical details and conve¬ 
niences— such as Titan wide fenders, comfortable platform 
and seat, and adjustable drawbar—making for day-after-day 
satisfaction in the field. 
A little later when the belt-power season looms biggest, such essentials 
as the throttle governor, and the large, wide friction-clutch pulley in 
Titan 10-20 will demonstrate again the wisdom of your choice. 
When you make your power investment, remember the reputation of 
the International Harvester tractors, and the security in International Serv¬ 
ice. Early decision and action is necessary! 
International Harvester Company 
OF AMERICA ,, _ A 
CHICAGO UNoeweiuTwl M /% 
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