•The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Things To Think About 
An Eight-hour Farm Day 
On your “Things to Think About’’ 
page of Feb. 9 issue, you have an article 
on the eight-hour day, and you ask what 
is the answer, so here it is in one sen¬ 
tence. Farmers, go and do likewise. 
These carpenters you tell about have put 
their heads together and stick together, 
;md in consequence they have to work 
but eight hours to earn $10 to $12 per 
day, and they are quite well satisfied 
with the arrangement. At any time that 
they become dissatisfied they demand that 
conditions be changed, and by sticking 
together they generally get them changed 
to suit them. If they worked as you say 
the farmer does, day and night, there 
would not be jobs enough to go around, 
and they would have to bid against one 
another in order to get a job. Under 
that arrangement they would have to 
work longer hours and for less money per 
day. Now the farmer may “holler” his 
head off about the eight-hour day, but he 
will never be able to convince the car¬ 
penter that it is not a good thing. So, 
instead of “hollering” about what the 
other fellow is doing, why not go and 
do likewise? 
There is a surplus of most all farm 
products, and the surplus fixes the price 
of the whole crop. The greater the sur¬ 
plus ffie lower the price. The farmer, 
when he finds that he cannot live off the 
returns from his acreage, works a little 
longer and a little harder, and plants a 
few more acres, and when he markets his 
crop he finds that he has further in¬ 
creased the surplus, and in consequence 
he gets less money for his crop than he 
got for a smaller acreage. Until the 
present time he has about got to the limit 
of his power to produce, and has gone 
broke doing it. So it seems to me that 
it is about time to change the system 
Why not take a lesson from the carpen¬ 
ter, and adopt the eight-hour day on the 
farm? Can you think of any better way 
to cut down production? I am one of 
those who believe that all the work in 
the world could be done if people will 
work but eight hours a day. Most all 
other industries are on the eight-hour day 
basis but the farmer, so the answer to 
your question is the adoption of the 
eight-hour day on the farm, and I could 
fill your paper with arguments in favor 
of its adoption. A. H. klesi. 
Madison Co., N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—How 'would the farmers 
finance their business while they are mak¬ 
ing the change? The labor union men 
have great sums of money laid aside for 
self-support in time of need. A change 
to an eight-hour day on the farm could 
not be made without some loss during the 
readjustment. Who would take care of 
the loss? 
Uncle’s Interest in Abandoned Children 
About 13 years ago my sister, a widow, 
decamped and left a family. At the time 
I was sick and in poor circumstances, 
not able to care properly for my own 
family. I did not know of this until five 
years after, as I lived out in New Jersey 
on a farm and they lived in New York 
State somewhere. When I did hear, some 
had died and others married, but two 
whom I am now interested in, a boy and 
girl, were supposed to have been adopted, 
the older i girl of the family having 
signed papers she was told were adoption 
papers, but since found these children 
were committed to a home. About two 
months ago my wife took an interest in 
this; case, and made inquiries at the office 
where these children were sent away, and 
the agent there would not give her any 
satisfaction as to where these children 
were or what they were doing. When 
she asked permission to write them or io 
visit them this was also denied. I would 
like to know whether these people can be 
compelled to release these children. The 
boy is 19 years old and the girl 22 years. 
j. w. A. 
Of course, the first question will be why 
you have waited all this time in order to 
get possession of these children. The in¬ 
ference will be that you have waited un¬ 
til they were large enough to be of some 
value in the way of service, and that they 
were neglected while they were small. 
This may not be a fair inference, but. it 
is what you will come a gainst when you 
make an effort to obtain them. Under the 
circumstances we think the courts would 
hold that since you paid no attention to 
the children all these years, and they are 
now probably located in good homes 
where they will be cared for, therefore, 
by not approaching them before, you have 
forfeited your hold upon them. That, 
we think, will be the way the courts and 
the authorities will look at such a matter. 
If the children are now well located and 
happy, it would be fnr better to let them 
alone at this time. 
What Shall We Raise? 
The dilemma (). L. S. expresses in his 
letter headed, “How to Run This Farm.” 
on page 21(5, is asked undoubtedly in a 
desire to find a more profitable plan than 
the usual rotation of corn, oats, Winter 
grain and hay or dairying, as practiced iu 
the locaality he mentions. 
The weakest spot in the plan proposed 
is that there seems to be no main crop to 
carry the always-present load of expense. 
Without doubt each one of the items he 
mentions could be profitable, but with so 
many irons in the fire, could a man have 
lime to care for and find a profitable mar¬ 
ket for them? With the right tempera¬ 
ment, ability arid experience, one could 
become wealthy by growing bullfrogs or 
goldfish (as a neighbor says), I suppose, 
but personally I would not care lo fry. 
To be profitable, articles must be pro¬ 
duced in quantity and. above all, above 
the average in quality, and the skill to do 
either of which can be acquired only by 
actual experience. The idea of home¬ 
canning is undoubtedly good inasmuch as 
it produces a finished rather than a raw 
article, which commands .a corresponding¬ 
ly higher price, but has anyone succeeded 
in marketing their farm products to any 
appreciable amount in this way. and how- 
have they found their market? I be¬ 
lieve it could be done. 
I am familiar with the hills of North¬ 
ern Hunterdon Uo.. N. J., and know that 
.at times in such situations as (). L. S. 
describes the “air drainage” is at zero 
temperature and about GO miles an hour. 
New Jersey. o. ir. k. 
Truck License for Farmers 
Have you ever considered the question 
of truck licenses for us farmers? Do you 
know that it costs every farmer wt>o 
owns a Ford truck, here in New York 
Stale, $24 to run that truck and carry 20 
barrels of apples or an equal load? 
Is it right that those of us who have 
trucks for hauling our farm produce to 
market should be so penalized, and that 
the man who drives a team of horses shod 
with 32 sharp iron calks, and carrying 
his load on a wagon with iron tires, 
should not pay anything? 
Is it reasonable to believe that I, with 
my rubber-tired truck, am doing as much 
and more harm to the roads than the man 
with a team? 
I don’t think so. And I think that the 
tax of $24 on truck owners is too much. 
While it is undoubtedly right that the 
truckmen, the men who are trucking for 
a living and doing nothing else, ought to 
pay well for the maintenance of our State 
roads, yet I do think it is wrong to make 
farmers pay at the rate of $8 per ton 
total truck and load weights. 
Together with several other truck-own¬ 
ing farmers, I took this matter up with 
our Assemblyman, but got no results, so I 
am writing to you, asking that you use 
your influence in the matter. If you 
think it important enough, stir up discus¬ 
sion of this matter, and if we could get 
the Oranges throughout the State to work 
for the lowering of this tax. I think and 
hope that we might get some relief. 
WHITNEY P. HOWES. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—Well, we can “stir up a dis¬ 
cussion” at least. Let us see what other 
farmers say. 
America Owes Much to Modem 
Farm Equipment 
D URING the winter of 1778, when General 
Washington was in command of the first 
army of American independence, the little 
band of patriots nearly starved to death at 
Valley Forge. Only 10,000 men, and the 
colonists could hardly feed them! 
Yet the great American army of 1918 did not know the 
smallest fear of hunger. Here were four million soldiers, 
two million of them on foreign soil 3,000 miles away, and 
America could feed them and nearly all the other armies, 
too. Besides, she could man the industries which turned 
out the greatest quantity of manufactured supplies ever 
produced in a like period of time. 
Something had wrought a w-onderful change in the 
power of the nation. It had not been done by skyscrapers, 
or railroads, or electricity. It was something deeper and 
more elemental. The simple fact is that the nation had 
improved its agriculture, the basic industry of life. 
In colonial days, with the crude hand tools of farming, 
it took ninety out of every hundred of the population to 
raise but the barest of food essentials. Today farm 
machines have released two-thirds of the people for 
other industries, and the remaining third are feeding 
the world. 
Wherever modem labor-saving farm machines are in 
general use, there you will find the benefits of civilization 
—cities, industries, modern improvements, education 
and contentment. Take away modern farm machines 
and you have primitive life, ignorance, poverty and 
famine. 
That Is Why No Industry Stands 
Ahead of the Farm Equipment 
Industry in Service to the Nation 
Farm machine manufacturers have always sought to 
lighten the burdens of the farmer, to shorten the time 
required for a given operation, and to increase crop 
yield. Length of service is another important factor. 
Twenty to twenty-five years of life in the hardest kind of 
work, under the widest variety of unfavorable conditions, 
is not exceptional in farm machines — it is what the 
farmer expects. 
The industry has always built for rugged strength and 
utmost simplicity, providing adjustments for varying con¬ 
ditions and supporting all with an extraordinary service 
of repairs. It has been ready with repairs for every 
machine and implement, no matter how old. Having 
sprung from the farm and grown up with farming the 
industry has worked in intimate relationship with the 
problems of field and farmstead. 
The crude farming tools of colonial 
days t he wooden plow, the cradle, 
the flail, the sickle, and the hoe. 
Of late years the era of mechanical power has come 
into farming. Tractor and engine power has been linked 
with field and belt machines, adding tremendously to the 
producing capacity of men, machines and land. Farm 
machines today are conquering obstacles which appeared 
insurmountable twenty years ago, and they are at the 
same time helping our farmers support an increased 
population of thirty million more Americans. The stamina 
that is built into farm machines—coupled with the ever- 
ready service of the farm machine dealers—has kept 
agriculture abreast of the times. 
During the advance of efficient farming, it has been 
absolutely necessary that liberal service be furnished by 
men who knew the machines. Service as rendered with 
farm machine sales has a very positive , definite, cash 
value from the fanner's point of view and should be so 
considered by him. To begin with, he pays less money, 
pound for pound, for the machines that do his work than 
he pays for any other similar manufactured article he 
buys. On top of this great advantage in favor of his farm 
equipment investment, he receives service of more use 
and value to him than he finds among all the other lines 
with which he is familiar. 
As these words are being read, farm operating equip¬ 
ment, embodying the latest improvements for conserving 
labor and time and increasing yield, is being shipped to 
dealers everywhere so as to be ready when needed. 
These dealers, thousands of whom handle the McCormick- 
Deering lines, are quietly laying in a carefully selected 
variety of spare parts, totaling for the entire nation a 
value of many millions of dollars. Machines, repairs 
stocks, and facilities for expert, rapid handling during the 
rush of the harvest season are being made ready many 
months in advance. This is a vital work of great mag¬ 
nitude, yet it is but a part of the everyday service the 
farmer has learned to depend upon from the industry. 
International Harvester Company 
606 So. Michigan Ave. 
of America 
( Incorporated) 
Chicago, Ill. 
r 
Agriculture, with its labor-saving machines, 
is the foundation upon which industries and 
higher civilization are built 
The National Association of Farm Equipment Manufacturers has issued several bulletins on subjects 
similar to the above. We will be glad to see that the full set is sent to those interested. Drop us a line. 
