336 
A Touch of Nature. —It seems to me 
The R. N.-Y. has given its readers the 
best service ever during the year that has 
iust closed. We have found something of 
interest'in every department of this good 
farm paper. We get the real bread and 
butter out of it in the crop, stock and 
garden notes. For relishes we have all 
those bright little sayings thrown in just 
for fun. and the rest is meat and drink, 
at pleasure. The Rural slogan. Hard 
Work and Fair Play.” has been well sus¬ 
tained bv this paper of the farmer, for 
the farmer and by the farmer. 1 he re¬ 
cital of hard work is found everywhere. 
It in the story told by the Hired 
Man’s Wife.” and she did have a griev- 
anee, as well as in the one about the farm 
owner who stood in the brook to cool his 
parched feet after tramping all day in the 
field. Farming is hard work, looked at 
from any side you will. The 1 houghts 
of a Plain Farm Woman” are so full ot 
earnest work one can never read her paju' 
without almost coming to believe you can- 
not put more work upon an ambitious 
farm woman than she will do. 
To Think A holt. —An article m one 
of the November Rukals by a baek-to- 
the-lander. telling how he and his wire 
had left professional jobs to do truck 
farming, and made it pay. was of special 
interest. Since reading the article we 
have learned of the death of tin 1 writer. 
We also learned that the wife is going on 
with the work alone, filling the place in 
the Orange made vacant by the husband s 
(loath and even supplying the pulpit, as 
he had done, for community service in 
the absence of a pastor. 1 he tireless 
labor and self-forgetting love of such 
heroes of the farm is inspiring. 1 he lair 
n i..,v of The It. N.-Y. is its best known 
feature. We like all that if implies. 
Those wives who ‘‘had it out in the 
Rural open court about who was who in 
the use made of tin* family income were 
interesting in that they were contending 
for fair play. It to be hoped that all 
husbands needing ‘‘eye salve.” and wives, 
too. if there are such, will take advantage 
of the course m 
the new ‘‘Primer of 
roads drift full of snow and you have 
hard work to get your mail and your 
groceries through the long Winter months, 
and it if an all-day or all-night job to 
bring in tlie doctor when some one is sick. 
“It takes a lot of loving all the while.” 
You remember how the doctor looks, I 
am sure, when he comes in the door at 
last—smiling out at you through a net¬ 
work of frosty whiskers and eyelashes, 
his cap drawn low. the collar of liis great 
coat standing very high and his trousers 
strapped to his boots. In the story of 
“The Mansion.” by Henry Van Dyke, one 
of the first persons the rich man meets in 
his dream heaven is their old family doc¬ 
tor. A good many of them will he there, 
it in list be. Sometimes the doctor doesn't 
smile when he goes away, and a great 
sorrow settles down upon the home. I 
recall a time when it was upon our home 
the shadow fell. It lacked hut a few days 
of Christmas. The weather was bitter 
cold, and the snow lay deep on all sides 
of us. But our good pastor was helped 
through to the house and preached the 
funeral sermon. My father was the only 
one out of our family who could follow 
the precious remains to the cemetery, 
miles away. Those who went with teams 
carried shovels to open roads, and the 
little procession reached its destination in 
safety. Our neighbors were utterly kind, 
and this surely helped to make the Christ¬ 
mas that followed bearable. A wedding 
party was nearly “held up” at the same 
place in one of the early Spring months 
a few years later by the belated Winter 
snows, and again love triumphed and 
“passed onward the bridal procession.” 
A IIakdy Race. —It is a singular fact 
that no one seemed to think it a hardship 
to. wrestle as we did with the elements. 
A hardy race peopled the hills where I 
was born and grew up. a temperate, fru¬ 
gal. hard-working, liome-loving race jt 
was. Ours were back-hill farms. Wo 
were a good many miles from the rail¬ 
road and village, but we were just as 
‘Ibc RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Round of the Farm Clock 
“The old Doe’s sick. Don’t think he’ll 
ever get out again !” 
That was the word that went round the 
neighborhood, and it brought a sinking of 
the heart to many of us who knew what 
a part the Old Doctor had played in the 
life of the community for well nigh half 
a century. “Old Doctor sick! What will 
we do now?” When any of our folks 
were sick nobody but the Old Doctor 
would do. Be it night or day. sunshine 
or storm, we knew we could depend upon 
him to respond to our call. When the 
youngest laddie came, on one of the worst 
nights of the Winter, with snowdrifts 
many feet. deep, it was the Old Doctor 
who helped us through. The baby who 
came that night is a doctor himself now. 
away out in a Middle West city. Then, 
too. when the master of the house was 
sick nigh unto death, it was the Old 
Doctor who stood by till danger was past. 
When the Tug Was Hard. —The last 
time the Old Doctor came was when the 
Oldest Laddie and his whole family were 
down with the influenza. We did not 
know that lie would he well enough to 
come, but what could we do if he did not? 
T r p through the deep snow, when the mer¬ 
cury was the lowest it had been any time 
last Winter, the Old Doctor came, and 
what a hope came into the hearts of the 
poor sick folks when they saw him push 
his way into the house! Shouldn't have 
thought I could do it if it hadn't been 
some of the old neighbor folks.” he said. 
“I can’t do it any more as I used to: hut 
I just couldn’t let any of the old folks 
go when they needed me!” And lie pulled 
them all through. It seems a bit. tough 
now t<> think of the Old Doctor laid aside. 
Good, kind, true Old Doctor! When will 
we see his like again? 
Down On the Ice Pond. —We have 
come to the time when every farmer who 
keeps cows and sends his milk to the 
creamery needs ice to cool his milk down 
to the temperature required at the fac¬ 
tory. The weather has been so fickle it 
looked for awhile as if we.mivht not get 
Economics,” and find out about (lie dis¬ 
tribution of wealth and the means and 
methods of living well, for the family as 
well as for the individual. It is a good 
conrso. and comes in all right on the tair 
plav side. We have a good teacher. M c 
like to think those rogues under the 
“Publisher’s Desk” are accounted for by 
this advocate of fair play. It some way 
reminds me of the teacher’s desk in our 
old schoolhouse that was built when lum¬ 
ber was cheap, and boarded up on three 
sides. It was nailed to the platform out 
in front and opened back towards the 
wall. Under it the mischievous boys ot 
the school used to be sent to sit and 
think it over” whenever one of them had 
disturbed the peace of the school. And 
I imagine the way those little culprits 
scrambled out. with a sidewise glance 
back at the desk and teacher, after prom- 
ising to be good, and hurried to their 
seats and made a grab for their books, is 
something as the rogues of our ‘Ipub¬ 
lisher’s Desk” get out and away after 
being dealt with and dismissed. 
Among the many suggestions for earn¬ 
ing our pin money the best one <>l all was 
bv that twentieth century young woman 
who has revived the art of spinning. She 
makes the process very plain for us. and 
easy to follow, but she ought to consult 
“granny” once more for instructions about 
the knotting band used with the skein so 
she won’t have to break off her thread 
every time the reel snaps. The old race 
of spinners is not all gone from the earth 
vet. but it is doubtful if there is out' ot 
them left who could tell how to spin equal 
to this new woman. 
Home Life. —Of course, every one en- 
jovs “Hope Farm Notes.” We do. Al¬ 
ways the good man will say when he 
conies bringing in the new paper and 
settles himself comfortably. ‘ Let s set* 
what the Hope Farm man lias for us this 
week ’’ And as many times after the 
reading he wonders how Ibis writer man¬ 
ages to keep something interesting coming 
all the time. I wonder about it. too. when 
I try to write for the editor. Mas it 
Thomas Babington Macaulay who said 
common people liked to see tin* great un¬ 
bend’ Well, anyway, we like immensely 
to see the Hope Farm man get right down 
and dig and sweat, going after those 
weeds in his strawberry hod. And .again 
when he invites us along with him to 
market his produce for the exhibition of 
Yankee shrewdness in dealing with mid¬ 
dlemen at the curb. We like the habits 
of thrift lie is training his children in. 
Even the mistress of the home quietly 
gathers her share of apples to provide 
funds for her own purse, thus avoiding 
any controversy over a dread joint owner¬ 
ship. Good! Wo like those pleasant 
evenings with his family when he tends 
the household baby or fishes up a story 
out of that wonderful portfolio of his. 
And finally this genial, all-round man un¬ 
dertakes before our very eyes the adjust¬ 
ment of a menace, called in common par¬ 
lance “The Yellow Peril.” by the aid of 
one of these veritable strangers within 
our gates. 
The Country Doctor. —A word with 
the hill farmers—then T am done. One 
of them savs 1-o-v-e rules. She is right, 
too. Tt takes a lot of it up where the 
February 20, 1021 
might have been getting more if be had 
done thus and so. The fact remains that 
the price has been fixed at $2.58. We 
cannot help wondering what effect this 
will have on men who have been holding 
back about signing up the pooling con¬ 
tracts. Will they at last see their mis¬ 
take in delaying matters and sign and 
send in their papers? 
Beginning at the Right End. —-The 
way I look at it the farmers have now 
taken hold of this milk matter right. As 
long as they were content to make the 
milk and let somebody else market and 
make it up. really they did not have much 
control of their business. When they 
reach the point where they can handle 
distribution and manufacture, as well as 
production, they will have the milk busi¬ 
ness where they can control it. One other 
thing is certain. If ever anybody gets a 
crown and sits down in Paradise, it 
should be the men who have been so un¬ 
wavering in their support of the League 
and done so much to pull it through the 
Slough of Despond out to clear sailing on 
the other side. And I believe they will 
win out, too. I am proud of these true 
blue farmers. -They are the salt of the 
earth. 
Seeing the Sunny Side. —Our nearest 
neighbor, and the one on whom we de¬ 
pend in every time of trouble, has been 
pretty sick this Winter. Looked doubt¬ 
ful for him awhile, but he is better, so 
that he tries to help out some. Our men 
folks and his were “buzzing up” some 
pole wood the other day. Busy at the 
saw. Laddie did not think of much be¬ 
sides getting poles where the saw could 
bite them off. The neighbor, thin as a 
shadow and far too weak for such work, 
was doing his best to put the polos on tin* 
table. Laddie thought once when he 
caught up a couple of poles that they 
seemed pretty heavy out on the farther 
end. Tie did not think anything about it 
until at last he heard somebody calling. 
“Hi! ITi!” Then looking out that way 
lie saw that he had picked neighbor, poles 
and all up together. The neighbor’s 
trousers had been caught between two 
poles and pulled high above his boot tops. 
He was tiptoeing along and waving his 
hands frantically in the effort to attract 
attention. Laddie quickly let him down, 
but he was all right, though a bit scared 
for a moment. They all had a good laugh 
over it. and life had a new note all the 
rest of the day. E. L. VINCENT. 
happy as the city folks were. We chil¬ 
dren waded snow to school every Winter. 
When the going was too bad my father 
hitched up and carried us and all the 
other children on the road, as our home 
was farthest away. Our horses were as 
well trained to the drifts as we were. 
They wallowed up to their necks some¬ 
times after a fresh snowfall, but they took 
their own gait. When tired they dropped 
down on the snow as they stood, to rest 
and “get their wind.” as father called it., 
then wallowed on. If the sled left the 
beaten track down below and tipped us 
over so much more fun to the day’s credit. 
When we finally drove in by the school- 
house we were quite apt to meet another 
conveyance similar to our own coining in 
from the road beyond. The school room 
was about as full of scholars as it could 
hold, and I believe most of them came 
because they liked to come to school. 
There were singing schools and concerts 
for us besides, and a glorious “exhibition” 
for last day exercises, when the school¬ 
master took part in the play. We had 
some good speakers, and they could sing. 
I have heard trained singers since, but 
no better voices. We had very good 
musicians, too. among the girls. One of 
them developed a genius for painting after 
her marriage, and made some commend¬ 
able portraits of her children, which is 
said to be the most difficult work for an 
artist. She married a farmer, and others 
of the old mates settled on farms. There 
were business men and college graduates 
and M. D.’s. A priest from one of our 
Catholic homes received his call from the 
hills. A fine district attorney went out 
from there, and the present county judge 
is a product of the hills of the old home 
town. 
“Yes, dear old Allegany hills. 
The thought of you uplifts. 
To witness you with rapture thrills. 
To dwell, inspires with gifts. 
I love your quiet glens and nooks. 
Fit temples for Truth’s call. 
Your verdant slopes, your running brooks, 
I love. I love them all.” 
Pearl, ilic Old Elephant Trained by the Eate l>an lHec, Still Making the Circuit 
the quantity we should have for the com 
ing season. Two or three snappy days, 
however, (he forepart of the week_ made 
ice fast; and Laddie was on the job as 
usual. Catch a weasel asleep, maybe, but 
not our boy when it comes time to do 
work of this sort. It is hard, heavy 
work, lifting so much ice. -I never was 
more tired and ready to quit than after 
a day or two of cutting, hauling and 
packing ice. 
“Take Care of Yourself.” —Easy to 
say and hard to obey: and yet I do think 
we are learning a little better bow to 
look out. for health on the farm. The 
time was when very little was thought 
about such matters. The farmer con¬ 
sidered himself well enough and strong 
enough to go through anything and come 
out all right. I remember how my 
father, when he had been out in a storm 
and gotten wet to the skin, (bought if ho 
sat down by a good warm fire and dried 
his clothes on him he would not take 
cold or suffer any inconvenience. I re¬ 
member, too. what a time he had one 
Winter with pneumonia, and cannot for¬ 
get the cough which stayed with him as 
long as he lived after that: but now we 
know that it is a good thing for us to 
get out of our wet clothes, change our 
stockings and put on warm dry garments 
after a day out in the damp and cold. 
We are finding out. too. that it is easier 
to keep health than it is to regain it after 
it is once lost. 
Round to Milk Again. —Speaking of 
ice and cooling milk brings to mind the 
topic which is uppermost with us all 
these days. “What is going to become of 
tlii' milk business?” The price has just 
been fixed for the coming month. We 
are to receive. $2 58. the lowest price in 
several years. Everybody feels hurt that 
we should be compelled to take such a 
price, for we all know it is below the cost 
of production. And yet there is no ques¬ 
tion but the League officials did the best 
for us they could in making the bargain 
with tin* dealers in New York. We have 
all confidence in them, but we cannot help 
feeling that the* dairy farmer certainly is 
not getting a square deal. It. does no 
good to say it is his own fault: that he 
Child Wanted for Adoption 
I was in the hospital all Winter; got 
my foot smashed in railroad wreck, or I 
would have worked for your paper, which 
is the best. I would like to have an 
orphan to raise, buo do not know where 
to write for one. Can you help me? 
Pennsylvania. g. w. s. 
The proper procedure to secure a child 
for adoption would be to write the poor 
directors of your county and request them 
to inform you if they know of any home¬ 
less children. If they do not. they could 
possibly put your request before some 
church society, and in this manner some 
orphan may be found. The first step will 
he to make application to the poor direc¬ 
tors. or whoever may ho the temporary 
guardian, to have the child on parole, 
then later file papers of adoption with 
the court. E. J. w. 
Nature Notes 
ROXY RUSSET. 
In April. 1920, my husband brought 
home a baby snapping turtle, apparently 
just hatched and finding its way to the 
water. It was only the size of a five- 
cent piece. We at first put it in a fish 
globe with a piece of sod in the middle 
and about 1 1 /> inches of water. Wo gave 
him tiny bits of beef, no larger than the 
head of a pin, the bulk of a pea. He 
would burrow in the sod. climb over it 
or swim around it, according to his 
wishes. Feeding him once a day. he soon 
got so fat ho looked too big for his shell. 
At first he nearly choked on the pieces of 
meat we gave him. but learned to cut it 
up with (he scissors to get it fine enough. 
II<* outgrew the globe, and we changed 
him to an aluminum pan with large piece 
of sod. changing sod and water once a 
week. We think lie found insects in the 
new sod. and the grass stayed green. Jle 
is fond of fish roes. 
He is now nearly 2 in. across, and has 
hidden himself under the sod for the 
Winter. Water is added as it evapo¬ 
rates or to freshen it. We had to dis¬ 
turb him once because wigglers appeared 
in it. I have often swatted a fly and put 
it on the water, and it would soon dis¬ 
appear. but now he is resting and fasting, 
although in the house. Next Summer lie 
will probably be turned loose in the creek 
on our farm, and wonder if the youthful 
snapper will he like “little sins.” but per¬ 
haps he will be like a bullfrog my brother 
once put into the suit case of a New York 
City girl as she left the farm visit for 
home. On opening the valise at home 
the frog jumped out, much to her sur¬ 
prise. She put him out in her hark 
yard and fed him : lie became so tame he 
would eat out of her hand. She named 
him “Sir Stephen.” after the one who 
had played the joke on her. When Win¬ 
ter came he disappeared, so she black¬ 
ened the edge of a postal card, relating 
upon it the “supposed sad fate of Sir 
Stephen Frog.” but when Spring came 
once more “Sir Stephen” came forth from 
his hiding place, ready to be fed once 
more. MRS. E. A. RANIOUS-. 
Virginia. 
