I 130 
workman, and he started in the assembly room of a 
big motor-ear factory quite cheerfully, because, he 
knew that every good draftsman has to serve that 
apprenticeship. He was fearfully in earnest and so 
conscientious that his work excelled in efficiency. 
His boss wanted to get him a raise, but the super¬ 
intendent did not believe in paying extra fast work¬ 
men as much an hour as he did the slow ones. He 
said that Jim was earning enough bonus money to 
make up any difference. So Jim continued at 30 
cents an hour, while the slow, careless fellows who 
rarely made any bonus got 40. 
THE DRAFTING ROOM.—Then he was trans¬ 
ferred to the drafting room, and for a while he was 
quite contented. It was a gentleman’s job, as one 
man put it, and he was learning something new every 
day. But his pay check was now cut in half, and by 
strict economy only could we keep out of debt. Jim 
had promised himself an income of $3,000 a year by 
the time he was 30 years old, and at 28 he was 
earning just $15 a week. There wasn’t prospect of 
a raise here. There were fine positions ahead, but 
Miey were filled by young, capable men, and it could 
iot be denied that they were all perfectly healthy. 
Sometime, if Jim lived long enough, he might be 
promoted. It was at this time that an old friend of 
the family, having been told of Jim’s change of posi¬ 
tion, wrote us that common laborers were earning 
more than he, and asked us why we did not try 
farming again. Jim knew from previous assurances 
that I would as soon think of being buried alive as 
moving out on a farm to make a living. I knew too 
well that there is no money to be made in the type 
of diversified farming we are so often urged to follow 
by well-meaning institute men, though this is called 
the age of specialization. If one is to make a bare 
living he can do it more gracefully in town, I 
pleaded, and the matter dropped. As for the country 
itself, I loved it. 
THE LOVE OF THE COUNTRY.—I think there 
are few city people who will not confess to a yearn¬ 
ing for outdoor life in the country. At a certain 
period of the year the longing is more painful than 
others. In the Spring the country seems like para¬ 
dise to the shut-in, who knows that the grass has 
started, that the violets are in bud and that the air 
is fragrant with the scent of apple blossom. To 
some it comes in Autumn, in Indian Summer, when 
nuts are beginning to fall and the grass under the 
orchard is covered with spicy windfalls. There is 
a tang to the air that whets the brain as well as the 
appetite, and makes life immensely worth living. 
You may often hear a person say that, he would like 
to have a little home in the country, a retreat for 
vacation purposes, but very i*arely, I think, do these 
people, if there is any other trade to which they can 
lay their hand, express a desire to earn their living 
by the land. It is only because the nerves revolt 
from the deadly monotony of city life that we turn 
to Nature, who is perpetually original. 
A TRADE WANTED.—Jim plodded on until a 
kind-hearted official took him apart one day and 
told him that he was beginning 10 years too late. 
“Find some trade that you already know well,” was 
his advice. He pointed out co-workers of IS who 
were still living with their parents, and to whom 
$15 a week was only pocket money. Jim was at a 
disadvantage in competing with them on account of 
his family, and he said he did not like to see him 
making a mistake, because his next 10 years were 
the best in a man’s life. This man was really our 
benefactor, though we could not be said to feel 
gratitude just then. Jim did have a trade. He is 
skilled in making things grow, and is as lucky about 
playing the weather as some men are at cards. He 
is clever in getting things done quickly and in a 
workmanlike manner. We began to search for a 
position in which these talents could be capitalized. 
One day we paid $2 for a bushel of early potatoes. 
A man from the country brought them to the house, 
and we wei‘e very glad of them at that price, which 
was a little less than the groc-erymen were charging. 
We asked him if potato-growing were not very 
remunerative these days. He explained that owing 
to the unseasonable weather it no longer paid to 
grow them. He said that most farmers were dis¬ 
couraged over their return from the crop, and were 
planning on growing only enough for their own use 
in future. We began to watch the potato market, 
which sank lower and lower as harvest reached its 
height. At last one could buy perfectly good potatoes 
for one dollar a bushel, and less, which was rather 
hard on the growers of short ci'ops. It was now that 
I pointed out to Jim that early potatoes were a 
three-months’ crop and that one could go around 
the world in nine months. He understood me, and 
ans-wered that we could have electricity and running 
water just the same! 
STUDYING THE POTATO CROP—Some six 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
years before the N. Y. C. R. R. Co. presented us 
with a book written by Eugene H. Grubb, which is 
an exhaustive study of potato growing. The printer 
had spared no pains, and made it of attractive 
appearance, which is probably the real reason that 
we brought it to town with us, having only a very 
vague idea of what was inside its covers. But now 
I took it from its shelf and opened it at the chapter 
entitled “Cost of Growing Potatoes—Yield—Prices 
—Profits.” We found the figures much too low for 
these times, and as for labor available there was 
none; but we began the study of potato machinery, 
and found that one man could successfully care for 
20 acres after they were planted. The plowing, har¬ 
rowing and planting must all take place before the 
first weeds start, and would involve the work of 
extra men and teams, -which could not be obtained 
at the time we wished to use them, if at all. We 
solved this problem by adding the price of a tractor, 
one of the crawler type, to our expense account, 
which with the cost of the machinery, seed and fer¬ 
tilizer, reached the appalling sum of $4,000. And 
the land itself yet unaccounted for! We pretended 
to give it up as unattainable, while we could not 
resist talking it over at every opportunity. We 
literally lived in air castles built from potatoes, 
devouring everything the book contained, and after 
that sending to Cornell and the Department of 
Agriculture for bulletins. We evolved a system of 
marketing that five years ago would not have been 
possible. mrs. f. h. unger. 
(To be continued.) 
Bringing up Motherless Rabbits 
D URING the cold weather of last December one 
of my does had a litter of young, and was 
killed by a dog that tore down the wire of the run, 
but left the young untouched. Young rabbits de- 
1 The Children and the Hand-raised Rabbits. Fig. 328. 
pend mostly on the mother’s milk until five weeks 
old. I had no other doe with young, nor was any 
aoe due to have a litter soon, and was at a loss 
to know what to do, when it struck me to try to 
feed the orphans with a baby bottle. 
My rabbits are kept out of doors all the year, in 
a ware run 5x2 ft., with a draft-proof box 2x2x2 ft. 
at the end, as a retreating room, and nest box. 
Rabbits will stand any coid weathei', and the proper 
place to keep these youngsters would have been out¬ 
doors in their den. But in trying first to feed them 
milk with a teaspoon they got wet, which would 
have meant death to them in zero weather, so I 
shut off a small room, allowing no heat to come in, 
and let them run around, putting a box with straw 
in a corner, where they could sleep. 
I mixed milk half and half with water, and tried 
to feed them with a spoon, but this did not work 
well. Then I bought two small baby bottles, much 
as children have for their dolls, and succeeded in 
getting some milk into the rabbits; but it was very 
little. After three hours of patient work I had to 
give it up, as they had bitten the small nipples to 
pieces. 
Next I got a regular five-ounce baby bottle, and the 
smallest nipple I could get, and made an eighth-inch 
hole in it. The smallest nipple proved too big yet, 
Did I had to force the round point between the 
rabbits’ teeth, laying them on their backs and hold¬ 
ing heads in palm of the hand. A little milk ran 
into their mouths without suction, and in a few 
minutes they started their milking machines. They 
were 'broken in.” 
June 26, 1020 
That day each one took one-fourth ounce of milk 
in the morning, and the same in the evening. I 
increased the dose gradually to one-half ounce twice 
the third day; three-fourths ounce twice on the 
fourth day, and one ounce twice the fifth day. At 
that time they took the nipple without any trouble. 
Then I decided to give them pure milk, in which 
I mixed one teaspoonful of sugar to seven ounces, 
and fed one ounce twice a day for the next two 
days. The eighth day I fed one ounce three times 
a day, but this proved too much, and one of them 
died. 
When the rabbits were three weeks old, I kept 
catmeal, stale bread, hay and carrots before them, 
and gradually they helped themselves to some of 
this food. Then they were fed one ounce of pure 
milk with sugar twice a day, some taking less on 
account of the other food eaten. 
The mother was killed when they were 11 days 
cld. When two weeks old the seven l’abbits 
weighed 3% lbs., dropped to 2 % lbs. after a few 
days, and fi-om then on gained as follows: Fourth 
day (seven rabbits), 2% lbs.; fifth day, 3 lbs.; sixth 
day, 3Vi lbs.; eighth day, 3 lbs. (only six alive); 
tenth day, 3Vi lbs.; eleventh day, 3% lbs. 
Of course, had the mother lived they would have 
teen heavier 1 , but they were by no means runts. In 
the beginning 2*4 hours of patient work were x’e- 
quired to feed the seven rabbits one meal, and after 
25 days it took about an houi*. The credit of caring 
for them goes to “mother.” Who but a mother 
would be patient enough to do this? 
In case the young had been only a week old, the 
small nipple of the doll’s bottle would have been 
used until a bigger one could replace it. 
I wonder whether any others readers have had 
experience feeding young rabbits in this way. 
F. D. G. 
Facts About Oat and Pea Hay 
Will you give instructions for cutting, curing and 
storing oat and Canada pea hay? I have five aeivs 
seeded to oats and peas to cover Sweet clover and 
wish to make hay of formei’, hoping latter will then 
come on. Is hay likely to be damaged by rats in the 
mow? On account of dry, hot Spring I am facing a 
very small hay crop. Can this be used instead of 
clover and Timothy, in all conditions? C. E. H. 
New York. 
Our own plan is to cut the peas and oats just 
when the little peas begin to appear in the pods. 
Many farmers determine the time for cutting by 
the appearance of the oats, and thus cut the crop 
when the grain is soft or in what is called the 
“milk stage.” Most people let the ci’op stand too 
long in the hope of getting more gi’ain in it. The 
result is that the fodder is too much like straw, 
.and not eaten well by the stock. It is better to 
cut too early rather than too late, and personal 
judgment is required in telling just when the crop 
is ready. Peas and oats must be cured much the 
same as clover or other plants with a broad or large 
leaf. We make better hay by curing in the swath 
or cock. On a good day our plan is to cut early in 
the forenoon and leave on the ground until about 
the middle of the afternoon. Then the hay is raked 
up into windrows, and if the weather threatens the 
hay is bunched up into good-sized cocks. The next 
day, if the weather is right, these cocks are opened 
up and shaken up, so that the dry air will work 
in through them. We plan to turn these cocks over 
three times duifing the day and at night they are 
bunched up again. In case of rain or bad weather 
the cocks are simply turned over and left bunched 
lip. Good judgment is required in telling just when 
the hay is fit to go into the barn. The peavines 
should be so dry that no moisture can be squeezed 
cut of them. A good farmer can usually tell when 
they are fit. The hay will be damaged by rats if 
this vermin is plentiful the same as any other 
stored grain. We usually plan to feed out the 
cats and peas first of all, that is, early in the 
Wintei - , so as to avoid this trouble from rats as 
far as possible. When oats and peas are properly 
cured the hay is a good substitute for fair quality 
clover. 
The following figures show a comparative analysis: 
Peas and oats 
Clover hay... 
Timothy hay. 
Carbo- 
Protein 
hydrates 
Fat 
8.3 
37.1 
1.5 
, 7.G 
39.3 
1.8 
3.0 
42.8 
1.2 
Mice and Young Trees 
Reading with interest so much about the destruction 
0 young trees by mice, and the remedies, I have uevu 
jen this one mentioned: A friend of mine worked m « 
r ell-kuown nursery for a number of years. I asked 
'hat they dill to protect the trees from mice. He sum . 
We distribute 2-iu. tile along the rows and place poison 
i them. It gives the imee a place to hide, amt 
oison is hidden from the birds; 5 cents a tree will &ave 
Why not try it? ^ ^ gressman. 
