1910 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
15eceinber 25, 1920 
A Valley Farmer Goes 
R EGARDING discussion about bill farmers, I 
was much interested in the article by Mabel 
E. Phelps replying to Mrs. Willcox, whose articles 
are generally interesting, but her “thoughts” on hill 
Ben, Bob and the Woman Farmer. Fig. 6S/3 
farmers didn’t contain much thought. A little per¬ 
sonal history to start this off to give all the points 
necessary. At 21 I graduated from an agricultural 
college, was married the same year, and took up the 
management of a large estate for four years, where 
we all wore brass buttons and white suits, silver 
milk pails, white tile floors and ceilings in dairy, 
etc. I saved money enough to buy a hill farm, some 
stock and tools, also a carload of wood ashes. For 
a few months I was soft, having no hard work to 
do for four years. After I got hardened I com¬ 
menced to do things. I paid off a $1,200 mortgage in 
three years, papered, painted, whitewashed and 
repaired until things looked some different. 
I doubt if we put in as many hours as Mrs. AVill- 
cox and husband, for my experience has been that 
a man who has a family to support has to work 3(55 
days a year on a farm, including chores on Sunday, 
which have to be done on a dairy farm, so that T 
am.satisfied to take a reasonable gait and let the 
other fellow do the stunts. I would rather fill my 
silo in two days than rip and tear, break and swear, 
to get it filled to the top in one day. 
I went into the woods every TN'inter from Novem¬ 
ber to April, besides doing my chores. 15 cows, five 
heifers. I cut ties and cord wood, hired some chop¬ 
pers and worked with them, cleaning up about $800 
every Winter from wood and ties. You beginners 
on the valley farms would have a hard time getting 
enough wood for kindling, to say nothing of selling 
any; $800 sounds easy, but try it. some of you would- 
be back-to-the-landers. After you have cut your 
first two cords of wood in a day you would give tip 
in disgust, to say nothing of loading oak 7x9 ties. 
As the place looked pretty good, I had an offer of 
$2,000 more than it cost. I kept my stock and tools, 
as I was sick of farming rough land, and sold, plan¬ 
ning to buy some of that level, heavy valley land 
which was free from stone and would be near good 
markets, roads and schools, which we finally did. 
We are now on one of the best valley farms money 
can buy, two miles from a progressive city. There 
isn’t a stone or a hill on the place, nor a stick of 
wood. I can work it with any kind of farm machin¬ 
ery, but even machinery does not run itself; it must 
be operated. Also don’t forget a very important 
fact: it must be repaired. Our salesmen do not 
remember when they are selling the tractor that it 
will take two hours for every day you run it for 
repairs and general care, the same being true with 
ali machinery in proportion. From Mrs. Willcox’s 
letter you would judge that on your valley farm you 
touch a button and the machine is off till sundown, 
when it is again returned for the night, ready for 
the next day. It may, while new, run that way, but 
Jong life is what counts. You inust spend time*on 
your machinery if you want it to stand up. Having 
a shed full of farm machinery isn’t all glory; your 
troubles are just commencing unless you are a 
mighty good mechanic and take time to take care 
of them every day you run. 
My -15 acres of corn was under water twice last 
year and once the year before, and it. was a week 
before one could get. onto it to cultivate with horse 
or tractor. The bill farmers were cultivating weeds 
next day. and their corn was considerably better 
than mine, although I managed to put up .‘190 tons 
of silage with $9 a day labor. Another joy of the 
valley farmer who lives near city markets is that 
I have to hire armed guards during the growing 
season to have any crops at all. Apples, peaches, 
plums, grapes and potatoes vanish over night; in 
fact, anything that isn’t nailed down or can be 
moved in a two-ton truck. On our hill farm we 
didn’t even lock the doors at night, and never can I 
remember having lost a tool or anything from the 
house 1 . On our valley farm we carry as many keys 
as St. Peter himself, because we are so close to the 
city markets and city toughs. Our taxes, light and 
water bills are as much here as our total income 
from our bill farm. Of course our total income here 
is ’way up. over $20,000 last year, but our expenses 
are something terrible. Our labor the past two 
years, bv day, from 85 cents to $1 an hour—now 
about $.2.50 per day. Our farm machinery takes 
gasoline and oil, grease, paint, repairs, capital, and 
repairs on buildings. Your valley farmer with his 
enormous expenses has got to do a big business—lots 
of barn room, sheds, granary, houses, etc. r I'he re¬ 
pairs each year would pay off your hill farmer’s 
mortgage. It is the expense that counts against 
Good-natured Cattle at FairChance Farm. Fig, CM 
your valley farmer. If lie doesn’t get top price for 
stuff his expenses will eat him up in six months, 
and he fails. The hill farmer hasn't many expenses, 
anyhow, compared to the valley farmer; if things 
don’t sell quite so well he goes into the woods, all 
square in six months again. 
The greatest joy of the hill farm is the neighbors. 
If .Tones or Smith breaks a leg during haying sea¬ 
son all the neighborhood turns out and puts hay in 
the barn. On my valley farm my hay would be 
stamped into the ground'by trespassers hunting for 
dandelion greens if anyone found out no one was 
around. You can have your valley farms, but I 
have bought another hill farm, and we move in the 
Spring. We are going back up on the hills where 
we can see the sunset and get a breath of fresh air 
without eating two quarts of fog and half a dozen 
mosquitoes. Let me say that there is a wide dif¬ 
ference between income and actual profit, and Mrs. 
Willeox or anyone else will not be able to locate all 
of the successful farmers in the valleys, neither will 
they be all found on the hills. But for the'money 
invested there is less work and worry, more real 
pleasure and profit on your good old stony hill farm 
than in your wet, heavy lowlands, h. a. Gillette. 
• Connecticut. 
Some Four-Footed Farm Company 
I WAS born on Fifth Avenue, New York, and 
raised in Philadelphia, and here I am, a back- 
to-the-lander in the hills of Windham County.” 
That is the way Mrs. F. W. Wood talks as she 
sends us the three pictures that are shown on this 
page. It means hard work for a person to become a 
back-to-the-lander after living in the city, but appar¬ 
ently this family is making good work of it. The 
one picture shows Mrs. Wood with her favorite dog. 
Back Home 
This is evidently an Airedale, and we imagine it 
would go hard with a tramp or a stranger who came 
on the farm with an eye to mischief, 'i'he cattle in 
the yoke hauling the load of hay are two bulls which 
are worked together in this way. They arc both 
home-grown: the Holstein, four years old. is a 
grade, while the tliree-year-old Ayrshire is a pure¬ 
bred. This picture was taken on October 1(5 of this 
year. It was the last load of the season, and will 
show how haying is spread out in the Connecticut 
lulls in a season like this, when labor is very diffi¬ 
cult to obtain. The other picture shows Mr. Wood 
riding on the Ayrshire bull and leading the Holstein 
by a chain. These two bulls seem very good-natured, 
and they evidently pay for their board by work. We 
like to get pictures of farm scenes, showing how 
work is done, and the companions which our people 
like to have around them on the farm. This means 
the home side of life in which so many of our people 
are interested. 
Keep Up the Grist Mills 
O N page 1819 I read an article on using bones for 
fertilizer. I have had some experience in this 
line and offer the following suggestion: 
Dry bones can be ground on most limestone pul¬ 
verizers. 'There are also some grist mills equipped 
with feed grinders, which operate on the “swing- 
hammer” principle. These can grind dry bones very 
well. 1 have also ground dry bones by crushing in 
a corncob crusher and then grinding in an attrition 
mill, but the wear on the grinding plates is more 
than the value of the ground bone. The product is 
soft and mealy, and can be used for hog or poultry 
feed. For use as fertilizer the pulverized bones 
would be better. 
Right, here I wish to speak a word about the local 
grist mills. In most farm sections are abandoned or 
almost abandoned grist mills which are a witness to 
the short-sightedness of the farmers around them. 
Farmers might better get together and if necessary 
advance the money to the local mill to put in better 
equipment. No small food grinder can grind as well 
as the large attrition mills or the new pulverizers. 
The cost of grinding your own feed on a small mill, 
all things considered, is generally about twice as 
much as having it ground at the mill. In this state¬ 
ment I assume the distance to mill to be not over 
six miles. 
In our own community the mills are fairly pros¬ 
perous, but so many farmers have tried to “econo- 
Wopsy and Her Mistress. Fig. C.}5 
rnize” on blacksmith work that the blacksmith shops 
are all closed, except a few very remote ones. Econ¬ 
omy is a good virtue, but horse sense and co-opera¬ 
tion are needed in every community. b. t. 
Scotia, N. l r . 
