7*. RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1057 
Yugust lias stolon upon us unawares 
II,is year. The first early apples begin to 
drop’clown into the deep green cushions 
of grass, where Elsie and I iind them, 
fragrant and mellow, just ready to be 
carried home for the first delicious apple 
pie. The cantaloupes have been holding 
off, for we are waiting to let, them ripen 
on the vine, which the Man from Florida 
insists is the only proper way for a melon 
to ripen. , . ., 
“When they begins to show white 
through the net—that’s the time for yo’ 
to eat cantaloupes. But a melon—well, 
yo’ know there’s a little kind o feeler 
grows out from the stem to hold on to 
things with ; when the one next the melon 
turns brown, wait three days and pick 
vo’ melon. Fat as much as yo’ want to, 
yo’ uevah get sick off a ripe melon, m 
fact, yo’ could live on it about two days 
without getting hungry. No. yo don t 
need to be afraid of eating lots o water¬ 
melon.” , , e 
We are an interested audience, but ot 
course when the wind blows like h all we 
must not think too often ot half-grown 
melons. The peanuts are coming out bet¬ 
ter throwing out their lines into the sand 
like fishermen, with the peanuts tor the 
ffsh. and there are already quite a substan¬ 
tial number. Tin* cotton plant is showing 
its fringes, which is the- only word a green 
Northerner thinks of to describe the be¬ 
ginning of tile forms. I his cotton plant 
is an interesting visitor, and it has come 
to be quite the usual thing for people to 
drop in “just to see how the cotton plant 
looks now,” for very few New Yorkers 
have ever seen cotton growing. It. looks 
like buckwheat 1” they exclaim. 
While others are taking their annual 
vacation in travel, here is the form in 
which it has conic to our tainily this . 
We are living the simple life just now. 
Or, as Elsie likes to pretend, we have 
come to live in the Jolly House, which 
some thoughtless people might insist is 
iust a garage and woodshed. Here we 
'•ire beds, stove and table—the three 
necessities of living— while the rest of the 
furniture has been packed out m the 
barn and most of the routine housework 
with it. How pleasant to realize that 
these tilings will not have to lift swept and 
dusted for three mouths, that one may put 
the housework in storage,.which hereto¬ 
fore has seemed so impossible. Just lot 
now it is fun to dine and sleep m the 
garage, to cook in »ho woodsliod. I In 
Floor is of cement, and nothing could he 
simpler than the wood and water question 
out in the kitchen. It has been interest¬ 
ing to discover lu»w many ot our supposed 
necessities can he dispensed with it one 
has a good bed and the facilities for rook¬ 
ing and eating, for I begin to see where 
„ur pioneer grandmother got time to 
weave. We find that the Man has taken 
the old walnut bedstead up to the last¬ 
ness of the barn loft, where he sleeps m 
stately splendor under an improvised bur¬ 
lap ciiuopy (a style which smacks faintly 
,,f old Egypt), and there arc bats, lie says, 
sweeping about all night long. This pend¬ 
ing the rebirth of the little gray house. 
11 was with a certain sense ot awe that 
we began the taking down of the little 
gray house. It hud sneltor • <l so many 
lives and grown old and gray in service. 
Uut there was no question about the need 
for rebuilding. This is a windy slope, 
mid clapboards shou'd be well reinforced 
by sheathing, building paper and air 
chamber. It. is an intrepid housebuilder 
who would not plan for at least two of 
these, yet there was none of them in the 
structure that was. though nnu-li attention 
was given to the size of th • timbers. In 
the last century builders have turned from 
cold floors and draughty walls to study 
the making of a house where the children 
can play on the floor in comfort and it. 
doesn’t matter which way the wind is 
blowing, not losing sight of good ventila¬ 
tion. but considering the coal bill. 
We wish there were someone to tell us 
the year in which this house was built. 
The only man to throw any light on this 
question moved to this neighborhood 00 
rears ago. and declares that it looked the 
same when lie first, saw it as it does now; 
that is, it was spoken of as old even then. 
So every board that yields to Daddy's pry 
is likely to reveal some hidden, forgotten 
store. ’“And are you really going to try 
to build it. yourself?” is the surprised 
question from everyone, for Daddy’s pen¬ 
chant for carpentry is little known about 
these parts. He admits that it is a very 
big job for two men to handle before Win¬ 
ter sets in, but, on the other hand, it 
pleases his sense of efficiency to work 
at a job which one can figure out like a 
game of chess. It gets us out of the rut 
into a new occupation, and the change is 
like a rest. 
Elsie and little Jane are filling in the 
time by riding back from the shingle pile 
in the’ Man’s wheelbarrow, a brand-new 
sensation. “Baby! Baby! Don’t yu’ want 
a ride?” The little bare knees lose no 
time in carrying Jane to the edge of the 
wheelbarrow in which Elsie is already 
seated, and she elmckles on the way up. 
“Whoop-ee,” sings out the Alan, and they 
are off. I must have this with my kodak 
-the tall, smiling black man, a little gray 
at the temples; the new barrow with its 
two youngsters rosy with delight—only 
one can never hope to catch the blaze of 
little Jane’s l-ed hair, the gray-blue flash 
of Elsie’s laughing eyes, the spirit of ser¬ 
vice shining on the face of their friend at 
the handles. These are the things one 
photographs with the memory, a slide in 
the kaleidoscope of the years. 
We find that there are other occupants 
of Jolly House, as Elsie has named it. 
Perhaps a score of. fat. green-jacketed 
bumble-bees are also laying claim to the 
right of way through the door and up into 
the loft, just where no one knows. We 
are inclined to be considerate of them as 
long as they treat us kindly, though they 
are sometimes quite insistent about having 
the door opened on cool mornings. There 
is a cunning little toad who creeps in 
under the door to his corner behind the 
couch leg; there is a puzzled, distressed 
old hen who wants to lay behind the ironing 
board, and once in a while a little brown 
wren drifts in to fly out startled. The 
children are interested in the story of the 
shiny blue mud wasp which the Alan tells 
in this fashion : 
“What you calls the mud wasp up here 
we calls the dirt-dauber down South. 
Didn’t yu’ hear him call out ‘I know—I 
know—I know?’ Well, do yu’ know how 
he come to say that? It’s because! one 
time lie thought he’d like to learn how to 
make honey instead o’ living on old bugs 
and things, and he went to the bees to find 
out how. lie went to stay a day, but as 
soon as the bees started to tell him he felt 
like he knew it. all, and lie started right 
off for home in a big hurry, hollering out 
'I know—I know—I know.’ They tried 
to call him hack, hut he wouldn’t stay. 
When he got home he found out he had to 
come back to ask a. few more questions, 
but the bees nevah would bother with him 
no mo’. And just fo’ punishment lie has 
to keep on sayin’ ‘I know’ just like he’s 
sayin’ now. Hear him?” 
The buckwheat we sowed for grain is 
reaching down after some of the fertilizer 
that the potatoes were cheated out of. 
The cover crop of rye, buckwheat and 
Italian rye grass in separate plots is 
nicely above ground. A shower or two 
has broken the long drought, and given 
new life to the fields, but Central New 
York has fared better than some places 
farther north, whore the countryside still 
looks -brown and parched. 
There is a cricket singing over behind 
the couch, where Elsie sleeps, “(food 
luck, good clner,” says he. “Warm fires 
come with snappy weather.” 
JEKS. F. II. UNGER. 
A Woman Left v'ith a Farm 
1 am a widow who has been left with 
:i large farm. It is an excellent farm, 
well located and from every angle desir¬ 
able, having two very good houses, the 
one in which I live being strictly modern 
and containing three baths. But I know 
nothing of farming and cannot afford to 
conduct the acreage at a loss. Tt should not 
he losing, the previous owner having been 
here .”>0 years, retiring in comfortable, 
modest circumstances. I am alone, and 
know no one to whom to go for sugges¬ 
tions about these farms. 1 am sure, how¬ 
ever, that there must be a solution for 
my difficulties. I have never found my¬ 
self helpless'before, but I am at the fright¬ 
ful disadvantage of not knowing the busi¬ 
ness of farming. Would it be better to 
sell at a great sacrifice, which I would be 
obliged to do, or is it not possible to find 
an honorable person who knows farming 
to help conduct, it, or would it he best of 
all to rent the land, and upon what basis? 
Can you suggest anything or give me in¬ 
formation as to what the average person 
would do in tli ‘sc circumstances? 
Pennsylvania. woman farmer. 
It is a very difficult matter for an out¬ 
sider even to suggest a possible course 
that will work out satisfactorily. Ilf the 
owner is entirely ignorant of the first 
principles of farming, an alternative that 
may pay better than sacrificing the farm 
would be to try to secure a competent 
man to move into one of the houses and 
farm the land' on shares, which is the 
usual practice in Lancaster County, where 
the owner does not wish to work the land 
himself. 
I. do not know just what crops are 
grown in the section mentioned, but pre¬ 
sume they are about the same, as grown 
here, with the possible exception of to¬ 
bacco. The half farmer here owns all the 
stock and farming implements, furnishes 
all the labor for planting, cultivating and 
harvesting the crops, also paying for half 
of all chemical fertilizer used. The owner 
pays for the fitting of the land for the 
tobacco crop only, all other crops being 
planted entirely by the tenant. The ten¬ 
ant receives half of all crops grown on the 
farm, and all of the hay, straw and corn 
fodder, provided the latter three items arc 
used on the farm for feeding and bedding 
stock, and the resulting manure hauled 
back on the land. If any hay, straw and 
fodder are Sold, half of the proceeds of 
such sale go to the owner. The only ex¬ 
pense the owner has is the interest on the 
investment in land and the taxes, and if it 
were possible for this woman to secure 
some reliable man to work her place in 
this manner, it may provide a good income. 
If the farmer wishes ro keep a few cows, 
the proceeds go to hi’a, as he can feed 
half the grain he produces, and all the 
long feed, but, as before mentioned, the 
manure goes back to the land, and no al¬ 
lowance is made for any short feed he 
may purchase and feed to the cattle, as 
an addition to his half, in the working up 
of the hay and straw. & .J, w. 
Proper Heating 
At Its Lowest Cost 
Heating by the EMPIRE PIPELESS FURNACE method 
is proper heating—for it heats every room in the house 
to 70°, even in the coldest 
weather, and provides a per¬ 
fect circulation of clean, pure 
air. It makes homes com¬ 
fortable to live in. Our 60 
years of experience and de¬ 
pendable GUARANTEE are 
your assurance of satisfaction 
with the EMPIRE PIPELESS 
heating system. 
EMPIRE 1 PIPELESS FURNACES 
•re easy to install. They are strongly 
built to last a lifetime, and give more 
heat from the same amount of fuel 
than other furnaces. They are the 
cheapest in the long run to install. 
WRITE for illustrated descriptive 
booklet on the latest and most 
scientific one-pipe heating system, 
and the name of the "Red Cross’' 
dealer nearest to you. 
COOPERATIVE FOUNDRY CO. 
Manufacturer* of “RED CROSS Stovai, 
Ranges and Furnaces 
ROCHESTER. N. Y. CHICAGO. ILL. 
I “RID CROSS’’ 
EMPIRE 
Pipeless furnace 
BOOK OX 
DOG DISEASES 
And How to Feed 
Mailed free te any address by 
America’s 
the Author 
Pioneer 
H. CLAY GLOVER CO., Inc., 
Dog Medicines 
118 Weat 31st Street, New York 
CORN 
IIADUf QTPD cut* and pile?* on har 
IlMn « LJ I l. It venter or winrown .Man 
and horse cuts and shocks equal Corn 
Binder.Sold In every state Only $28 with 
fodder tlelngr attachment. Testimonials and catalog FREE showing 
picture of Harvester. Process Harvester Co., Salina, Kansas 
SAVE PACKAGE COSTS 
FIRST CLASS SECOND-HAND 
Peach Carriers, Berry Crates, Onion 
Crates, Baskets of all kinds, and other 
Fruit and Vegetablel’uekages. Egg Cases. 
All these containers are in as good a- 
new condition and ready for instant use. 
Let us quote you — that's all 
THE EMPTY PACKAGE SUPPLY CO. 
Dept. R. 301-303 Johnson Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
TENTS 
F <) K K F N X 
CATTLE SALES AN1) FAIRS 
THOS. MARTIN 304 Canal Street NEW YORK 
THE STORY OF “LOUSE’’ 
“There is one story in this book which is 
worth double the price of the entire hook 
This is the opinion expressed by ;i business 
man who was in our office a week or more ago. 
He referred to the story of “Louise,” and 
said he considered it the greatest story he had 
ever had the pleasure of reading. 
You, too, will enjoy the story of “Louise,” 
as well as the 25 other stories of farm life which arc container 
in this hook. All these stories are filled with the subtle humor, 
the sound philosophy and sympathetic understanding of human 
nature which has endeared the Hope Farm man to thousands of 
people all over the country. 
The book is well printed, cloth bound, and makes a most 
desirable present to a friend or to your Grange or town library. 
The price is $1.50 a copy, postpaid. Just fill out the coupon below 
and enclose with check or money order. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 333 West 30th St.. New York 
Gentlemen—Enclosed find remittance of $1.50 for which send me 
postpaid a copy of “Hope Farm Notes.’ 
Name. 
Town. 
State.R. F. D. or Street No. 
