1480 RURAL NEW-YORKER 
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 mentai safety valve. 
An ex-Hired Man’s Wife 
Here is another side of the hired-help 
question, this time from a woman—her 
husband formerly a hired man—now a 
renter: 
This is our second year working a farm 
on shares. Last year was a bad year for 
every farmer, but I know we cleaned up 
more this past year of clear money than 
any year we ever worked by the month 
or year. And. oh. that blessed thought 
of not being ordered around weekday and 
Sunday, 12 to 15 hours a day, the way 
the man of this house had been doing for 
the past twenty-odd years! And I can 
say that I am glad that times have 
changed some, and that farmers have to 
use their hired help with respect and like 
men in order to have help, even if they ax*e 
paying them the wages they ask. 
Yates Co., N. Y. MRS. M. B. 
The Tired Child 
In The R. N.-Y. some time ago appeared 
quotations from a leaflet issued by the 
Children’s Bureau entitled “What Do 
Growing Children Need?” Under head¬ 
ing “Education and Work” the following 
rule was listed, with others: “Not 
enough work either in school or out to 
cause fatigue.” Is this a sound principle 
to advance from point of view of the 
child, the family or the State? Is not 
life a scene of struggle, of effort? And 
can an effortless child be equipped to 
meet it with success? Were those who 
uphold society today, many of them un¬ 
tired (and untried), up to 16 years of 
age? 
I do not read history so. or find this 
true from my observation of people and 
families I know. Did Lincoln have an 
easy youth? If the children underdo, 
won't the father and mother need to 
overdo, in the average families of our 
country? Mr. Atkinson, of National 
Grange Committee, noting this quotation, 
tells me the children in his family began 
to be useful (by gathering chips, etc.) 
at two years of age. Is not training in 
usefulness the real end of education, and 
is not the task that calls for real, even 
tiring, effort a part of this? 
A boy in our neighborhood of six years 
took all care of a potato garden after 
planting, and in the Fall dug from it 15 
bushels as result of his work. Appar¬ 
ently he is the better for it in all re¬ 
spects. Generally, perhaps, the children 
of the country are more employed and 
less coddled than those of the city, and 
produce the more responsible members of 
our communities. Is there not a rational 
connection here? What man famous in 
history was not tired up to 16? 
E. F. DICKINSON. 
There are two sides to this—it is not 
entirely a one-sided argument. It is true 
that some children are spoiled by too 
much play. Most boys of 50 years ago 
hated the “chores” which they were com¬ 
pelled to do. but these same chores were 
the making of his character. No “manual 
training” of the present age can possibly 
take the place of the old-fashioned 
“chores.” Most boys now brought up in 
well-to-do families do not have half 
enough to do. They would be far better 
off if they were worked each day until 
they were tired. On the other hand, 
some boys are worked too hard. We 
think this was true of the boyhood of 
Abraham Lincoln. He was overworked 
as a boy and he carried the effects of it 
through life, as many so-called “self- 
made” men do today. There is truth in 
what Mr. Dickinson says, but. there is 
also danger that the argument will be 
carried too far. Too many people are 
willing to overwork their children if 
given any chance to do it. It is a good 
thing for a child to be tired at times, but 
be should never be overworked and 
always have a chance to play. 
Can You Tell Him? 
So many farmers seem to have trouble 
in getting help in the Summer during 
their busy time. Why do they not try to 
get in touch with many of our city men 
who have long Summer vacations, and 
who would be glad to work under proper 
conditions? Personally, I have a long 
vacation, and would be glad to help some 
farmer out, if I could get suitable ac¬ 
commodations for my family in a fur- 
nished cottage, or could get a suitable 
place where I might rent a small tract 
for a tent or portable bungalow for my 
family. It seems difficult to find such an 
opportunity, and the result is that I rent 
a furnished cottage and play golf, tennis 
a row for my exercise, when I would be 
of more use if this energy were applied 
to a hay-fork, mowing machine, cultiva¬ 
tor, etc. If the man had large quantities 
of fruit for sale I would be glad to buy 
and can fruit, if it- could be bought at a 
price as favorable as the city price. You 
will reply that such men know nothing 
about farming. Many of us were raised 
on farms, and would require only a few 
days to work another blister under the 
first one to keep up our end of the job. 
On a number of occasions I have sur¬ 
prised farmers who had an idea that be¬ 
cause I work in the city I would be un¬ 
able to do some of their regular stunts. 
Of course I would blister my hands, but 
I was raised on the farm at a time when 
we took pride in “taking the other fel¬ 
low’s shirt” if we could. That spirit 
does not seem to be much in evidence, 
except in athletics, nowadays. Perhaps 
if the farmers who have this labor trouble 
would make a reasonable effort they at 
least might be able to secure some very 
creditable workers for the vacation sea¬ 
son. There are also many dependable 
school and college boys who would do very 
efficient work on the farm if a suitable 
opportunity offered. E. W. 
Redeeming the Rocky Hills 
What is more important than a crop and 
a rotation adapted to these rocky waste 
hills? Your correspondent from Michigan 
(Mr. Marsh) is treating an important 
subject when he refers to the adaptation 
of Sweet clover to this type of soils. AH 
that he says about Sweet clover taking 
possession of these hills is true here. It 
is evidently not a local fact, but a gen¬ 
eral principle, with capacity for a very 
wide application. .Toe Wing mentioned it 
in the Breeders' Gazette in May, lfilO. I 
called attention to it in an agricultural 
paper last February. Just why the idea 
of Mr. Marsh as set forth in The R. 
N.-Y. does not have a wide if not general 
application is not understandifble to me. 
Sweet clover is the only grazing plant 
thoroughly adapted to a droughty, rocky, 
lime-surfeited soil. By sowing rye in the 
Sweet clover about October 15 the rocky 
soils afford more pasture than any soils 
of any description that do not carry Sweet 
clover. w. n. Arnold. 
Tennessee. 
What Is the “Equinoctial Storm”? 
Some time ago I read an interesting ar¬ 
ticle in The R. N.-Y. concerning the in¬ 
fluence of war and effect of explosives on 
the weather. Now is the time of 
our equinoctial storms. I do not believe 
that we are more likely to have a storm 
at this time than at any other; cannot 
see any scientific reason for it. I should 
like to hear your opinion on the matter. 
Oneonta, N. Y. J. c. s. 
Although there is no connection be¬ 
tween the equinoxes and the causes which 
produce storms, the type of storms known 
as West Indian hurricanes are most fre¬ 
quent in August and September. As 
these storm6 are frequently of extreme 
violence, both as to velocity of wind and 
amount of rainfall, and frequently occur 
at about the time of the autumnal equi¬ 
nox, the term equinoctial or line storm 
has been applied to them. Storms of this 
sort occur in several parts of the world, 
but we shall consider only those of the 
Carribean Sea and West Indies region. 
In this region exists what is known as 
the belt of equatorial calms. This is an 
area of very warm, moist air, with very 
little, wind. This belt, moreover, migrates 
north and south with the sun, so during 
August and September is in the region oc¬ 
cupied by the West Indies. With the ac¬ 
cumulated heat of days of continual trop¬ 
ical sunshine, the air over this region be¬ 
comes superheated, so to speak, and finally 
starts to rise in some part of the belt of 
calms. When once the thing is started 
the hot air over thousands of square 
miles begins going up and around in a gi¬ 
gantic whirlwind. 
Now when we compress a gas it becomes 
hot; when we remove the pressure it 
cools. This is called adiabatic heating or 
cooling. AYhen the moisture-saturated air 
of these tropical seas rises the atmos¬ 
pheric pressure on it becomes much less. 
The air expands, with consequent adia¬ 
batic cooling. Moisture is condensed and 
rain falls in torrents. The wind increases 
to a tremendous velocity, and we have 
what meteorologists call a tropical hurri¬ 
cane. These storm start off in a northerly 
direction, curving to the northeast, and 
generally pass east of our coast. After 
leaving the tropics the storms diminish 
rapidly, though they sometimes are quite 
violent for several days. Sometimes a 
hurricane starts out in a northwesterly 
direction, entering the continent in Mex¬ 
ico or Texas, then recurves to the north¬ 
east, passing across the Qfeat Lakes re¬ 
gion and St. Lawrence Valley. The 
storm which did so much damage on the 
Texas coast last Fall was of this type, as 
was the one which destroyed Galveston 
several years ago. Florida and the At¬ 
lantic coast north to Virginia suffer more 
frequently. These storms are nearly al¬ 
ways detected in the beginning by the 
Weather Bureau, and by heeding the 
warnings the damage to shipping has been 
reduced very greatly. 
September 18, 1920 
For reasons which I cannot go into here 
the South Atlantic is not visited by hurri¬ 
canes. About 75 per cent of these storms 
occur in the months of August, September 
and October, so there is a certain logic 
in attributing them to the equinox. The 
only connection is that this is the time 
of greatest heat in the region in which 
hurricanes originate, and the heat is the 
main cause of the storms. Now, I realize 
that in trying to tell in a few paragraph* 
what is a subject for a good-sized vol¬ 
ume, I have not dealt with the subject 
very clearly or fully. If the correspond¬ 
ent wishes to go into the matter more 
fully, any of the textbooks on meteorology 
will give considerable about it. I con¬ 
sider Davis’s “Elementary Meteorology” 
one of the best. Then there are book* 
with equations and formulas and mathe¬ 
matics galore about the terrestial circula¬ 
tion of air, but most of us are content to 
let the wind blow without inquiring ao 
deeply into its cause. Chester l. mills. 
Dyeing Fur 
On page 546, Mrs. E. B. G. asks for 
instructions in regard to dyeing some furs 
to a black color. One class of the pre¬ 
pared dyes is designed for this purpose, 
and a package can probably be obtained 
at any drug store, or, if not carried in 
stock, the druggist can obtain it. The 
furs are first washed perfectly clean with 
soap and cool, soft water. Better also 
use some good toilet soap. Then, when 
nearly dry. they are rubbed well with 
clean wheat bran until perfectly dry. 
The bran aids in cleaning them. Then 
they are combed and brushed until all the 
snarls are out and the hairs lie smooth 
and straight. Then the skin is stretched 
upon a board with the fur side uppermost, 
and the dye, prepared according to direc¬ 
tions on the package, is applied and well 
rubbed in with a brush, being careful to 
use enough dye to color every hair, but 
not enough to run through to the skin. 
Let the furs dry, and then apply another 
coating, and continue until a permanent, 
uniform color has been obtained. If the 
furs are of a solid color, one or two coat¬ 
ings will be sufficient, but if they are of 
many shades, quite a number may be 
necessary. Common hair dye may be 
used instead of the other dye, if so de¬ 
sired. It is more expensive, but is ready 
for use without further preparation. 
There are brushes made for the purpose, 
but they are of no more value than a 
common toothbrush. c. O. o. 
Robert.” said the hypnotist’s wife. 
“Yes, my dear.” “I wish you would come 
here and tell baby he's asleep.”—Norfolk 
Virginian-Pilot. 
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