•822 Tht 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 use<i—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. 
Opinions of a Hill Farm Woman 
Another Viewpoint.— Mrs. Willeox is 
not broad-minded. To state that she is 
not very charitable is to state it modest¬ 
ly. She predicts the hill farms will be 
abandoned in time. When that time 
comes there will be many hungry people. 
The hill farms were settled before the 
valleys, as the first settlers feared fever 
and ague, and they have done their part 
well. Cortland County is mostly hill 
farms. Aside from one river valley that 
goes through the county, the other 
branches are short, varying from one- 
fourth to one mile wide, and that is a 
very small part of the acreage. Suppos¬ 
ing nine-tenths are hill farms, where 
shall these farmers get farms if they 
abandon theirs? Who will produce the 
food? 
Apparent Prosperity. —The prosperity 
of valley farmers is more apparent than 
real. Because the valley farms look more 
prosperous, is it a sure indication of more 
fertile land? By no means. I know 
many men who made their money on a 
hill farm, and after getting in easy cir¬ 
cumstances they wanted a smaller valley 
farm for a home and to be in the swim. 
Also many have made their money in 
other business; in short,, no poor man 
would think of buying a high-priced river 
flat farm. I know a man who tried to 
pay for a flat farm, and for 25 years he 
only made one payment on the principal, 
the amount of interest being so high. 
If the truth were known about many 
prosperous-looking farms, we w 7 ould know 7 
they were only keeping even. 
Money-Making.— -Is money-getting the 
chief end of life? I say no. Mrs. Will- 
cox asks why so many hill farmers fail. 
Because they were so poor to begin with. 
As I said, very few poor men undertake 
to buy a river flat farm; the greatest 
handicap a man can have, other things 
being equal, is to start poor. Which is 
the more important, to know a man is 
riding 00 miles an hour, or to know what 
kind of a man it is that is riding? We 
know many so-called successful farmers 
we don’t want as neighbors or friends. 
Friends they are not in any sense of 
the word. All that some men can say is: 
“Is he making money?” “How much 
money did he leave?” Also there are 
many farmers who misuse their families 
for the sole object of being great land 
owners. 
Advantages of the Hill Farm.— We 
are never troubled with floods, and less 
with drought. Our seasons are longer. 
We escaoe killing frosts for three or four 
weeks after the corn is whitened in the 
valley. Our best land is as fertile as any 
they can show, and they have their share 
of wet land along the rivers. Our land 
will show a greater return from manure, 
because it is not leachy like the gravel 
flat, but holds fertility many years. We 
have the timber and the sugar bushes. 
Where can you fi»d sugar camps in the 
river bottoms? There can be no argu¬ 
ment biit that finer potatoes can be grown 
on upland. Corn, however, is an excep¬ 
tion. 
Labor-saving Machine s. —Valley 
farmers are little, if any, better supolied 
with labor-saving machinery. Mrs. Will- 
cox lays great stress on the fact, that 
modern implements can be used better in 
the valleys, and even says that the hills will 
be abandoned on that account. I can see 
very little in that; in fact, many hill 
farms have the best outfits, tractors are 
used, and no reason why they should not 
be more extensively. In fact, there is 
very little land in this county steep 
enough to be much handicap, after, of 
course, laying off the steepest and rough¬ 
est for pasture. As far as I know these 
same valley farms depend on side hill 
for pasture, and some meadow, and I 
should like to ask Mrs Willeox if there 
is not some of this despised hill land in 
her pasture. Of course, that must be 
tabooed with the rest. 
Arnormal Work and Abnormal 
Profits. —Mrs. Willeox speaks of the 
amount of work accomplished by her hus¬ 
band and one hired man. It is abnormal. 
How many years can they stand up to 
it? She makes the astounding statement 
that every farmer with a farm as good as 
theirs can do as well. or. at least, suc¬ 
ceed. If not, he is either lazy or lacking 
in business ability. Saying nothing of 
business, is every man blessed with the 
same strength and endurance? It is a 
mistake for a farmer to bo°st of the 
profits from a certain crop. He may not 
repeat it again in many years, but the 
city people will think any man can do 
it every year. Do the merchants and 
business men boast of their profits? Of 
course not; they are too shrewd. 
Ordinary Shrewdness Needed.— 
Every Spring some farmer, very short¬ 
sighted to his interests, will go to town 
and boast of the biggest sap run ever 
seen (though it probably is only ordi¬ 
nary). The merchants are quick to catch 
it up and lower the price. The same 
can be said of every crop the farmer 
raises. He is too eager to boast of it, 
only to his own harm, and the buyers 
are only too eager to conclude there are 
big crops, when likely it is overdrawn. 
Who ever heard of the harvester works 
boasting of making a surplus of machines? 
Instead, they cry scarcity. In conclusion, 
money is not the cheif end of man. 
Character is. How many things money 
will not buy! Not the least of these is 
a big thing, but spelled with only four 
letters—L-o-v-e. 
New York. mabel bosworth phelps. 
A Farm Hand Asks Questions 
During the past season The R. N.-Y. 
has had much to say about the high price 
and inefficiency of labor, some of which 
has been very amusing to those who have 
taken any pains to keep informed on 
financial conditions. Our Government in¬ 
forms us that there 1ms been only a 7!).4 
crop of laborers; also that this year’s 
grain, vegetable' and meat production is 
the greatest on record. If those state¬ 
ments are facts, where does the inefficiency 
come in? 
Being employed on a farm adjacent to 
one occupied by one of those world won¬ 
ders depicted on page 1058, and in walk¬ 
ing distance of two of the others, also on 
the same wire with the farm of that 
County Agent, since promoted, who, writ¬ 
ing in the third person, gave the agricul¬ 
tural reading people such a glowing de¬ 
scription of how he by remodeling some 
of his buildings, installing four-horse ma¬ 
chinery in the place of two, and other 
improvements was able to drive bis knife 
into the back of high priced labor and 
give it a quarter turn, I am often the 
recipient of exhibits of the “scientific 
mode” of handling labor and farm prob¬ 
lems. It also gives me an opportunity to 
inform myself as to what they actually 
pay for their labor. Through inheritance 
and settlement of estates, I have been 
able from time to time to acquaint my¬ 
self with conditions at various periods 
back to the time when the coin of the 
realm was counted in pounds, shillings 
and pence. 1 would like to have those 
who have been making so much noise in¬ 
form us when since this Government was 
founded there lias been a time when the 
wages of the regular farm laborer on the 
retajl market would buy him so few of 
the necessaries of life. A man’s wage 
should be judged, by what they will pro¬ 
cure in goods, not dollars and cents. 
When could one buy as little as in this 
year 1920, with the exception of 1795, 
1811 and 1857? By farm laborer I do 
not mean the high-collared affair with a 
sheepskin obtained by a six weeks’ course 
at some agricultural college, but the man 
who is supposed to furnish the brawn, 
contribute or donate the brains, and meek¬ 
ly accept the blame for the errors and ig¬ 
norance of the owner or other high-col¬ 
lared functionary. geo. l. cordon. 
Changes in Farm Labor 
Last Fall I wrote you a letter from 
Milford, Conn., pointing out the fact that 
the settlement of foreigners in New Eng¬ 
land was retarding the sale of farm lands 
to Americans. It seemed that in the East 
many Americans were leaving the soil 
because of undesirable European neigh¬ 
bors with whom they were unable to com¬ 
pete. For the same reason clean-cut 
youug men were not settling on the land. 
Coming out to the West I was under an 
impression that here would be found a 
country occupied only by sturdy Ameri¬ 
can ranchers. 
Here is the history of one of the valleys 
near this city : The land in this valley 
is all irrigated and very fertile, being 
especially adapted to the raising of sugar 
beets. Ten years ago the valley was a 
paradise of prosperous farms averaging 
3GO acres in size. The farm homes were 
attractive and neat. Community life was 
active, towns were thriving, there were 
churches and excellent, schools. A large 
sugar company is slowly buying up the 
land in this valley. They have imported 
trainloads of ignorant, shiftless Mexi¬ 
cans. Americans are gradually leaving. 
Churches, schools and community life are 
dying. There is no one left to support a 
social system. This is, of course, only 
one instance, but there is a growing ten¬ 
dency towards large holdings of laud 
worked by foreign labor. The most strik¬ 
ing thing about this situation is the fact 
that the importation of outside labor has 
been made necessary by the refusal of 
American labor to perform the menial 
tasks, the crawling in the dirt when thin¬ 
ning, weeding and topping the beets. 
This same company brought in Bel¬ 
gians, Hollanders, Filipinos and Rus¬ 
sians before the Mexicans arrived, to do 
the hand work. It is interesting to note 
that the Belgians and Hollanders are 
now farm owners in other sections. Here 
then, we have large holdings of laud 
worked by foreign labor and farms owned 
by hard-working foreigners. Japanese 
on the Western coust, Little Mexico 
here. Swedes and Germans in the Middle 
West, all races in the East, none of them 
being thoroughly assimilated. Draw your 
own conclusions. 
The economic questions affecting farm¬ 
ers and those who want to farm have been 
widely discussed. Why is it that the in¬ 
fluence of the American girl and Ameri¬ 
can woman upon the nation’s greatest 
industry has been so little mentioned? 
They have the key to the entire situation. 
One’s courage is apt to seep away when 
one contemplates the effect of criticism 
on our sisters, hence the abrupt ending 
of this letter. C. L. P. 
Montana. 
A Case of Adoption 
Those of our readers who have had 
experience in adopting children, will be 
interested in a case now being reported 
through the papers. Some years ago 
December 4, 1920 
a man in Brooklyn lost his wife. He 
was left with four children, and found 
it difficult to take care of them all. He, 
therefore, gave the baby of the family 
to his mother, who adopted her, and 
there seems to be no question of the legal¬ 
ity of the act. Later this mother, the 
grandmother of the infant and her legal 
mother, agreed with one of the daughters 
to turn the child over to the latter. This 
woman, who is the child’s aunt, there¬ 
upon adopted the little girl. This woman 
later married a wealthy man, who died 
leaving her a large sum of money. She 
had no children of her own and adopted 
her niece, the little girl in question. Fin¬ 
ally this woman, who was both aunt and 
legal mother to the little girl, died, leav¬ 
ing practically all of her fortune to this 
child. Now, the father of the child comes 
forward trying to break the will, so that 
he may have a share of the money. He 
admits that he gave the child to his 
mother, but he claims that the second 
adoption is void, so that the custody of 
the child and her large fortune belongs to 
him. This is a cur ous mix-up, and will 
interest many people who have adopted 
little children. 
An Outdoor Toilet 
I would like directions for making a 
good outdoor toilet, as we are not able 
to put a water system in the house at 
present on account of cost. Do you 
think the chemical indoor toilets arc all 
right? mrs. e. B. 
Pennsylvania. 
The essentials in the construction of 
satisfactory outdoor toilets for country 
homes nre freedom from danger to health, 
convenience, comfort, privacy, compara¬ 
tive inexpensiveuess and ease of main¬ 
taining in sanitary, inoffensive condition. 
Some, at least, of these essentials are 
usually disregarded, and the toilet facili¬ 
ties of the average farm home reflect, no 
credit upon the occupants.' It goes with¬ 
out saying that the flush closet is the 
most desirable of any type, where run¬ 
ning water is available, and where this 
is not, the modern chemical closet is 
proving an acceptable substitute. This 
latter closet is simply an underground 
chamber or tank in which a solution of 
caustic soda is kept for the purpose of 
liquefying its solid contents. This liquid 
must be pumped out at more or less fre¬ 
quent intervals, according to the size of 
the tank used; not an onerous task. 
Small pail closets of the same kind are 
convenient for use inside the dwelling, but 
should not be depeuded upon for the 7 sole 
toilet convenience. 
Perhaps the most important feature of 
a dry closet, such as most country fam¬ 
ilies are compelled to use, is fly-tight con¬ 
struction. Typhoid fever germs are car¬ 
ried from privy vaults to food in kitchens 
and dining rooms. There are two safe¬ 
guards against this ; making such vaults 
fly-tight and screening windows and doors 
aeainst the entrance of the house fly. 
The former is easily done if attention is 
paid to the matter when the closet is 
built. Vaults should preferably be of 
concrete, and closet doors and seat covers 
Should close tight. Windows and ventil¬ 
ating openings may be screened. 
For the sake of comfort, no member of 
the family should be compelled to go out 
of doors to reach the closet, and conveni¬ 
ence and privacy will bo secured if this 
closet opens directly from a back room or 
woodshed. It is an inexcusable imposi¬ 
tion upon the women of a household to 
compel (hem to go through storm or snow 
to reach a toilet situated some distance 
from the house. In some cases, it may 
be better to build an enclosed vestibule 
leading from a rear room to the closet 
close by. 
A toilet need not be of expensive con¬ 
struction, though it should he well built 
and capable of being painted with the 
rest of the house. It should have the ap¬ 
pearance of being what it is, an essential 
part of the dwelling, of the greatest im¬ 
portance to the well being of the family; 
not an unavoidable nuisance, to be neg¬ 
lected and ignored as far as possible. 
• The vault is best built of concrete, and 
should not extend so far beneath the sur¬ 
face of the ground as to make its cleaning 
difficult. A frame, fitted with a tight 
plank floor, should be built into the rear 
wall, through which the contents can be 
readily removed. When cleaned, a few 
inches of dry loam or road dust should be 
spread over the bottom of the vault, and 
a box or barrel of the same should be 
kept where a few handfuls can be fre¬ 
quently thrown over the vault contents. 
The absorbent powers of dry loam are 
marvelous, and the liberal use of it will 
make an inoffensive chore of an otherwise 
unpleasant job. m. b. d. 
A Thirteen-cent Dollar 
(Continued from page 1818) 
another under liis arm, while his future 
wife smiled at him from a dooryvay. Ben 
bought for more than his immediate needs, 
and he went afoot. 
Ben Franklin tells this story in his au¬ 
tobiography. He came from Boston, where 
food was high and they sold in smaller 
quantities. He gave the baker three pen¬ 
nies and received three big rolls. He ate 
one and gave the other two to a poor 
woman and her child. Surely if we had 
more such spenders in these days the mar¬ 
kets would be better. 
The Hill Farmer and His Family 
