501 
A Talk About Dogs 
A Faithful St. Bernard 
HE question as to what breed of dog is opened 
for discussion on page 79. I do not pretend to 
know a great deal on the subject, so instead of giving 
advice I will illustrate the subject with a true story 
that happened here in Woburn, Mass, about six 
months ago, and this is how it happened An owner 
of a St Bernard dog had imbibed a little too much 
of a fluid we call moonshine to make himself com¬ 
fortable at home, and so -lie decided to take his 
friend Bernard and go for a walk However he did 
not get very far before he became weak-kneed and 
landed on the sidewalk His friend Bernard first 
tried his best to pull him along, but failing in his 
purpose he laid down on top of his master and chal¬ 
lenged the police force. Neither 'cake, candy nor 
meat would change his position. There was a con¬ 
sultation as to what should be done to restore order, 
for by this time a*considerable crowd had gathered. 
Such a faithful animal was a credit to the whole 
town, and shooting was out of the question, but 
finally someone came along that knew 
the party on the sidewalk and so word 
was sent home to the man’s wife, and 
with her arrival the traffic was re' 
stored. Now I will ask the question, is 
such an animal worth having? A St, 
Bernard can be trusted where other 
dogs fail. Bring him up from the start 
to mind, and your property at night as 
well as in the daytime is safe in his 
care. Furthermore lie is the best play¬ 
mate for children, never snarls or bites 
like the collie. Personally I have had 
three collie dogs. The first one was so 
(good-natured that any tramp could 
come along and help himself unmo¬ 
lested. the second one would attack 
children and the third one had fits and 
would attack both me and my wife, so 
I had to finish him with a shotgun. I 
am the proud owner of a St. Bernard, 
but don't link me up with the man of 
the story, for he is an Italian and I 
am a Swede. e. g. carlson. 
Massachusetts. 
A Scotch Collie for Me 
Our preference is for the purebred 
Scotch collie. We bought our dog three 
years ago, when he was six months old, 
and have never regretted our choice. 
A collie is very easy to train, especially 
in regard to taking cfire of the home 
and family. When Laddie was very 
small my husband taught him never to 
allow any stranger to come near our 
daughter or myself by simply taking 
hold of our dress and shaking it and 
saying “I am going to get her,” and we 
would say, “Laddie, don't let him hurt 
us.” It was but a very short time be¬ 
fore Laddie was on guard when any¬ 
one came to the house, I want to say 
right here that our collie has never 
bitten anyone but he always lets us know when any¬ 
one is coming. 
There is a maple tree about 15 ft. from the back 
door, and he never allows any stranger to come be¬ 
yond that. He will bark and growl and then we go 
to the door and call him. It is the same way at 
the front of the house. He will not let them come 
on the porch. He will bark and growl and of course 
anyone with sense would not come on the porch. 
In regard to children I want to relate a little ex¬ 
perience. Laddie had never been near a small child. 
One day a friend came to the house with a child 
just learning to walk. Laddie was not in the house 
when they came, and when he did come in he 
growled at the child, so we promptly chained him 
np, as we were afraid not being used to children 
he might bite the baby. Of course as all friends 
do we got busy talking and baby was fioddling around 
nearby when the first thing I knew my friend looked 
up and screamed, and there was baby pulling Lad¬ 
die's ears, and he seemed to be enjoying it immense¬ 
ly while she cooed and talked baby talk to him. 
After we got over our fright we decided to let the 
dog loose, as he did not offer to harm the baby. 
Later in the day the baby was sitting on the grass 
by rthe back door when some strangers came to the 
house. Instantly the dog was on guard over the 
child, and would not let the strangers come near her. 
1 think this will convince II. S. H. that collies are 
not snappy to children. They can be taught to catch 
a stray chicken and hold it without hurting it—to 
Jfre RURAL NEW-YORKER 
drive then in out of the rain, to drive cows, to catch 
woodchucks and rats (our dog caught seven rats in 
ten minutes), to guard anything which they are 
told to guard, and what better watch dog can anyone 
find for their car? I could enumerate many things 
which our dog does which show almost human in¬ 
telligence. Laddie has always slept in the house 
until this Winter, but we decided it would be better 
for him outdoors chained to his house. Not a thing 
can stir but what he lets us know, and if he con¬ 
tinues to bark long we get up to see what it is. be¬ 
cause we know he will not bark long unless some¬ 
thing is around. mrs. fred schoeefiei.d. 
New York. 
The German Shepherd Dog 
I am interested in German shepherds, so often 
wrongly called German police dogs. As far as we 
know through study and the opinions of fellow breed¬ 
ers, the shepherd is the best all-round dog. He is 
not vicious unless trained for certain kinds of po¬ 
lice or protection work and wrongly handled by the 
trainer. So it is far better to buy an untrained dog 
between eight months and year old. The training 
is simple and depends on what the owner demands 
of him. This particular breed is highly intelligent 
and responsive to training. No need to teach him 
to watch or guard—he does that instinctively. He 
recognizes friend or enemy before you yourself 
have any suspicions. We could write a book on this 
subject alone out of our own experience. I am many 
times alone at night, and never think to lock doors 
or windows. I have had occasion to go alone at 
night along very dark country roads, sometimes 
through storm, and felt perfectly safe with a dog 
by my side. We have used them for sleighing and 
plowing snow and hauling small loads where a horse 
could not go. They work readily and willingly. 
Taken all in all, we find them faithful, steadfast, 
intelligent, willing, obedient and strong. Of course 
some folks may say I am prejudiced, although I am 
not seeking advertisement by this letter. But the 
shepherd has been so much maligned in the past 
because of a few bad individual dogs that I cannot 
help but praise him as I know him. We do not be¬ 
lieve that spayed females are as valuable as normal 
ones. A male dog would be better for H. S. H. 
A watch dog should be chained at night and have 
convenient quarters, and shelter from storm. 
New York. o. e. f. 
He Wants a Great Dane 
On page 79 I notice an inquiry from II. S. H. of 
Maine concerning a good breed of dog to act as 
guard and companion for his farm, wife and chil¬ 
dren. I have gone through this experience of try¬ 
ing out different breeds for just the same purpose. 
After trying out collies, pointers and Airedales, I at 
last got a Great Dane, and find that my problem, re¬ 
garding a companion for wife and children, as well 
as a good guard for the farm, has been solved. I 
bought an eight-weeks-old female in the Fall of 
1922, and now at the age of 15 months she stands 
30 inches at the shoulder and weighs 120 lbs. 
<’on truly to common belief she is not. a large 
eater, and does not eat any more than any other 
dog I have had. She is very easily handled, and 
has more common sense than any dog I ever owned 
and is simply devoted to my wife and children. The 
Dane has the reputation of being savage, but 1 
find that this is not so. as Pal, as we call our dog, 
is very gentle, and when strangers come she always 
lets us know of their coming,- but as soon as they 
speak she is very friendly. Tramps and other un¬ 
desirable passers just take one look and then pass 
on, and the moral effect of one of these beautiful 
is worth considerable. Wherever the 
children go there you will find Pal in 
attendance and I believe it would go 
hard for any stranger to try to take 
them. Even our little two-year-old 
mauls her all over, and on several oc¬ 
casions has wandered some distance 
from the house, and upon being found 
we have always found that Pal was 
right behind him and on guard. 
1 am very much against tying up a 
dog. as this will tend to make any dog 
ugly, I care not what breed they may 
be. Our dog has the freedom of the 
place, and never goes away from home, 
which I consider a big item in the 
favor of the Dane, as they are a home 
dog and do not wander as other breeds 
do. Of course the Dane is a large 
dog. and the place for one is in the 
country. If more country people knew 
just what a wonderful breed of dog 
they were T am sure you would see 
more of them. 1 1 the Dane can be 
taught anything that the other breeds 
can, and I am training my Dane to 
drive and pull the children, which will 
add to her attraction. They can also 
be taught to run machinery, which can 
be operated by a treadmill. Personally 
I will always have a Dane on my farm, 
and think if they were advertised as 
extensively as other breeds, they would 
be as popular, if not more so, especially 
on farms. .ta'tes a. Richardson. 
at 
More Eastern Grown Melons 
HEN avc see in looking through 
the city market reports, in 
Summer and early Fall, how many 
train loads of IWestern cantaloupes 
come to our larger cities every day, 
it makes us wonder why the local 
men do not try to take over more of 
this business for themselves. Of course this trade 
in the shipped melons begins before the home-grown 
melons are ripe, but there are never nearly enough 
of the home melons to supply the cities and large 
towns, as it seems as though the people buy more 
cantaloupes every year. « 
Here is one place where the high freight rates 
help the local man, as they make the price on the 
shipped melons that much higher. It is no trouble 
for a man to build up a reputation for fine melons 
if he will let them ripen properly on the vines. 
That is where the shipped melons lia\’e no chance, 
for they must be picked greener than you need to 
do at home, and so can never de\-elop a really fine 
flavor. Give a city man, who has been eating the 
commercial cantaloupe, a taste of a real, vine- 
ripened. home-grown melon, and see him reach for 
his pocketbook. We sell mostly to grocers and hotels, 
except for our big auto trade at home, but it is the 
same in the end; pleasing the ultimate consumer 
brings repeat orders on a larger scale. 
Probably the greatest mistake of many who grow 
melons for the home trade is in trying to raise a 
late variety. They miss the quick sales at high 
prices that the early melons bring and, if they hap¬ 
pen to have an early frost, often lose part or all of 
their crop. It takes a little more time to raise the 
lute kind, involves much more risk, and never brings 
as much money. Get a good early melon and stick 
it. * B. II. w. 
• Conneaut, O. 
large dogs 
“Gil),” a Kansas Dog and Her Babies 
w 
A Pair of German Shepherd Dogs at Work 
