1294 
Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 7, 1920 
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. 
Advice to the “Scenery Farmer’’ 
As to that letter from “City Farmer” 
on page 726, anything anybody can say 
about it must be a guess, more or less, 
as there are three elements entering into 
the case that must be analyzed before 
anything definite can Vie said as to the 
cause of the condition complained of. 
First is the land. It may be the kind 
that you have to be acquainted with in 
order to get results. Then there is the 
hired man. and the third the boss. I 
do not think there is a man who can go 
onto a strange farm and get the crops 
the first year that he can after he has 
seen the farm work one season. Of 
course, there are always some signs and 
guide posts in evidence to tell the prac¬ 
tical farmer something about what he 
can expect of a piece of ground, but there 
is much that can only be learned by 
turning it over and watching the crop. 
“City Farmer” can’t expect maximum 
crops on any foreman's first year. This 
does not excuse the man on the stock 
failure. With good buildings, good foun¬ 
dation stock and a liberal amount of feed 
the cows, hogs and chickens should be 
far ahead of the average, as most of us 
who are farming for a living either lack 
the equipment, the breeding or the feed 
that we know to be essential to get the 
best results. If the time ever comes that 
that condition exists on my farm, the 
right kind of buildings, purebred stock 
of good lines and the making of a bal¬ 
anced ration. I'll not ask for anything 
more. Sixteen hours a day will not be 
long enough for me to do a day's work 
in, look at my purebreds and listen to 
the corn grow. 
Now as to the boss. Does lie expect 
his man to follow his directions and carry 
out liis plans, and shoulder the blame 
if they do not work out right? My guess 
as to the cause of the trouble is that the 
men he has had were a lot more inter¬ 
ested in finance than farming. They have 
been willing to carry out any plan pro¬ 
posed as long as the pay was regular. 
The “City Farmer” should find a crank 
of a farmer, who will resign before he 
will do for anybody such things as he 
knows to be absolutely wrong in farm 
practice. A man who would rather spend 
an hour going through a good piece of 
corn just after it tassels than go to a 
picnic; one who can find music in the 
contented grunts of a thrifty bunch of 
shot os or the moo of the cows, that should 
greet him, and will greet him every time 
he goes near them if he and the cows are 
on good terms. I can hear you say there 
is no such animal. Yes, there is, for I 
have seen some of them, and a few were 
working for other people. Then let the 
boss work with his man ; go over the farm 
and sketch out a workable plan to get 
the results desired, and make estimates of 
the expense. After the plans are laid and 
estimates made, let the man keep within 
those bounds unless unlooked-for con¬ 
ditions demand changes and then talk it 
over with the boss, agree on the changes 
to he made and go ahead. 
The right kind of a man won’t need 
any excuses in case of a failure, as he 
will have done his part, and the adverse 
conditions causing the failure will be 
apparent to the boss. I know a gardener 
working for a rich man, caring for the 
grounds and garden of the city home, 
who said he would not change places with 
his boss, saying: “I have everything fur¬ 
nished to do the things I love to do. I 
have no cares to take my mind from mak¬ 
ing this place beautiful. I can see this 
place seven days in a ^veek. Sometimes 
he only sees it once in seven days. It 
suits him. but it don’t suit me yet. Next 
year I will make it more handsome.” 
“City Farmer,” look for your next man 
trying to buy or pay for a farm. Ge( 
him to talk about farming and lie will talk 
stock, crops and farming a full half-day, 
and never mention money, lie will be 
able to tell you how much he made a veal 
calf weigh, but the chances are you will 
have to ask his wife what he got for it. 
lie will tell you how he gets the biggest 
crop of oats or corn, what breed of hogs 
he can make do the best under him. and 
where he expects to plant his corn four 
years hence. Get him, if you can, then 
keep him and give him a chance. In a 
year or two your farm and stock will be 
to him as much to him as bis family. He 
won’t care whose place the county records 
say it is; it will be his; he will be the 
artist, the land will respond to his touch, 
the stock will be content and thrive. You 
will both be satisfied. f. a. t. 
Orleans, Co., N. Y. 
Our friend probably does not realize 
that “City Farmer” does not pretend to 
know how to run a farm. He probably 
would not. care to spend much time dis¬ 
cussing it. His mind is full of other large 
things and he would not know how to 
advise a farmer, lie just wants an hon¬ 
est. practical farmer, who will take that 
farm and equipment and make it pay 
without bothering the owner. 
The Plans of Mice and Men 
Upon noting the complaints from North¬ 
ern New Jersey of damage to fruit trees 
by mice and rabbits, one is tempted to 
ask whether Mother Nature does not re¬ 
volt sometimes at intensive agricultural 
methods. 
About 1SS7 I was a schoolboy natural¬ 
ist. at Morristown, in Northern New Jer¬ 
sey. At that time there were many prim¬ 
itive nooks in the surrounding country, 
and it could be truly said that: 
“To him who, in the love of Nature holds 
Communion witili her visible forms, she 
speaks 
A various language.” 
There were many neglected apple or¬ 
chards in the vicinity, many of the trees 
having hollow limbs or dead stubs where 
the golden-winged woodpecker drilled h : s 
home. In the smaller cavities nested the 
bluebird, the white-bellied nuthatch and 
the crested flycatcher, all ardent insect- 
hunters. At the fork of a horizontal an- 
ple limb, covered with lichens, there might 
l»e a wood phoebe's nest, a shallow cup. 
6o cleverly draped with lichens that one 
might take it for a knot. Can any apple 
sharp tell me how many insects a family 
of wood phoebes eat per diem? Their 
diet consists entirely of insects. 
The village taxidermist once requested 
me to obtain for him some of the little 
red or gray screech owls for mounted 
groups of birds. .Where did I find them? 
In the hollow limbs and old woodpecker 
holes in the apple orchard, peacefully 
sleeping on their beds of fur and bones 
of field miece. As many as six owls were 
found in one small orchard in a day. and 
these owls’ stomachs always contained 
field mice. Could not the modern apple 
grower improvise shelter in his orchard 
for screech owls? 
In the local forests, in those days. I 
would find the larger owls. viz., the great, 
horned, barred and long-eared owl. nest¬ 
ing in old crows’ or hawks’ nests. All 
these are mouse-hunters. 
In the marshes of the Parsippany re¬ 
gion could be found the marsh harrier and 
the short-eared owl. palustrine birds, which 
lived on the field mice in the marsh grass. 
In one great horned owl’s nest, in March. 
I found the remains of a crow, a rabbit 
and a weasel. And yet there is a proverb 
about catching a weasel asleep! What 
chance has a tree-girdling rabbit, with its 
brown coat silhouetted on the snow of a 
Winter night, against that swift and silent 
messenger of death, the great horned owl? 
Today doubtless the Parsippany mead¬ 
ows are drained, the automobile and pump 
gun are everywhere, and the country club 
and golf links, the Italian garden and 
Wall Street farmer, the tree surgeon and 
eugenic apple tree, have come to Morris 
County, and perhaps the little field mice 
under their warm blanket of snow, in the 
young apple orchard, chortle with glee 
in their discussions of the plans of mice 
and men. morris m. green. 
Game Law Reform 
At the Republican convention at Sara¬ 
toga the following plank was introduced 
into the platform : “We favor legislation 
which will fully protect privately owned 
lands from trespass.” 
This commits the Republican party to 
the passage of the much-needed no tres¬ 
pass law. If the farmers will write to 
their local candidates for the Senate and 
Assembly before they are nominated and 
demand their views on such legislation, 
they will insure the passage of no trespass 
laws which will relieve them from the 
wanton acts of lawless trespassers in pur¬ 
suit of game who have heretofore overrun 
their lands, and will he able to enjoy 
them in peace. Incidentally game of all 
species will be protected and the farmer 
upon whose land it is produced will be 
able to eat it occasionally. 
HENRY M. BRIGHAM. 
Ayrshire Field Day 
August 12 the annual field day and 
meeting of New England Ayrshire Club 
will be held at Glen Hill Farm. Sharon, 
Mass. There will be addresses, oppor¬ 
tunity to inspect the fine herd on the 
farm, and a general social time, including 
a clambake. 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
33.°, West 30th Street New York 
