630 
Tot RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 12, 1924 
1 _ . 
Notes i 
:rom t 
he Ox-team . 
Express 
Cattle Country. —We are now leav¬ 
ing Bakeoven Flats, going down Cow 
Canyon. This is a new graveled road 
just finished, 5 per cent grade, about five 
miles long; brake locks set to wheels, so 
wagon rolls along without any pulling. 
Tires heat up a bit, so we must cool them 
with water about every mile. Not much 
traffic; only three cars passed on the 
whole distance. Plenty of time to see 
the scenery. We stopped to snap a few 
pictures; although a dull day, hope to 
have some good views. Now we are in 
the valley, an irrigated section. Alfalfa 
hay is the main crop ; cattle feeding the 
prevailing industry. Mountains are rocks 
of various colors; veins of brick red and 
some yellow ochre; side hills between 
rocks top-dressed with gray sage. Must 
be some grass between, as we see many 
beef cattle winding their way around the 
brush. How they twist their necks to get 
tjbat tuft of grass under that rock ; must 
t)tste good when they get it. Farmers all 
have feeding corrals with feed racks dis¬ 
tributed about where the Alfalfa hay is 
hauled from the big stacks, and each day 
these racks are filled where the cattle can 
eat, when in the mood. They look sleek 
and fat; suppose they will soon be loaded 
for the market. Sheep have been through, 
;|s the pastures near the highway have 
been nipped close to the ground; likely 
aye driven back further on the ranges on 
the hills. Coyotes howl every night, al¬ 
though the Federal government has men 
o|ut trapping and laying out poisoned bait- 
Posters are distributed along the highway 
notifying people to keep their dogs under 
control so as not to get the poisoned bait. 
We see an occasional dog carcass lying 
about the ranges; evidently they got the 
t^ait. Sheep dogs are muzzled. 
; Mountain Climbing. —We are trav¬ 
eling nominally south along the base of 
the Cascades. We see ahead a big moun¬ 
tain ; now we turn west a couple of miles, 
then north up the grade; now east a mile 
or two, now south again. At last we are 
on top of that big mountain we saw this 
niorning; we were all day winding around 
and around, leaving miles behind, but not 
getting very far between the compass 
points, as the big snow-capped mountains 
on the Cascades are always in view, only 
at different angles. It is up and up all 
the way. XT 
An Abandoned Homestead. —Now we 
come to an abandoned homestead; this 
is dry land, or arid land; do not know 
whether the party got discouraged and 
quit, or if he proved up on his claim and 
sold out. or rents the place for pasturage. 
Shack and barns are vacant, fences are in 
good shape. He surely labored to clear 
the small piece of land below the hill of 
stones and build fences. The wall is 3 ft. 
at bottom, tapered to 2 ft. on top, and L 
ft. high, with a post set into the wall a 
rod apart to hold two wires above the 
stone wall. It looks like labor lost, un¬ 
less he proved up and sold out to advan¬ 
tage. .. , , , 
Now we go down a little and around 
the bend. Off about five miles we see a 
small town; that is Gateway; it is oft 
the main highway on line of railroad. 
There is another homestead abandoned; 
this does not show much improvement; no 
fences, not much cleared land; shack in 
bad repair; windmill in tatters. I almost 
sense this fellow “jumped” his claim. 
Homesteading. — If any Easterner 
wishes to acquire a piece of cheap land, 
get away from the hustle and bustle ol 
city life,' no clanging of the trolley car, 
no steamboat whistles, no grating ot an 
elevated train, so quiet one can almost 
hear himself think, this is the place. Here 
he can get 320 acres, and if married 040 
acres, if an American citizen or made 
declaration of becoming so. Host of tiling 
claim. 10 cents per acre; must live on 
premises seven months in e<ic*h ye<n ioi 
three years; within that time must show 
he has improved the place to the value 
of $1.25 per acre by fencing or clearing 
land and cultivating same. When time is 
up he will get a deed and begin paying 
taxes. He then can keep at it or rent or 
sell out. This is not, however, a good 
proposition for a man along in years. 1 he 
labor involved is sometimes considerable. 
V young man may chance it. There may 
be one chance in 50 that he could cash in 
on a basis of a thousand per year. If he 
.•hose his parcel near one of the large 
ranchers (there are some corporations 
which own 20.000 and 30,000 acres) these 
are glad to buy up these claims at about 
$5 per acre for .grazing, but they are also 
on the lookout to c«tch a fellow and 
freeze him out. Big fish eat the little 
ones applies here. These arid lands, 
when cleared, will only produce a Win¬ 
ter crop, such as rye. wheat, barley, etc., 
and not of good quality at that. Wheat 
heads are 2 and 3 in., straw about 3 ft. 
high at most. Side hills may do well 
with fruit, although I don’t see any signs 
We are now at Madras; elevation 2,463 
ft. Something wrong with agriculture; 
this town once was a thrifty place; evi¬ 
dences show that, but now it looks like 
one of the “has-beens”; dilapidated build¬ 
ings, no improvements except in school 
and court house. A newly painted house 
would look out of place. When we en¬ 
tered the town a woman wished to have 
us arrested, and she seemed very much 
disappointed that no one did it. But 
that's another story. j. c. berrang. 
Contented Farm Women 
We read and hear too much about 
farm women being discontented. For 
myself I cannot understand a farm wo¬ 
man not being the happiest mortal on 
earth, but of course she must make the 
best of her conditions, and better every 
advantage she has. I was born and 
brought up on a farm. When I was given 
a lamb or chickens or anything of that 
kind, when these things were sold it 
was my money to do as I pleased with. 
As a child, from the time I was eight 
years old, I had a plot of ground in the 
garden, and was taught by my mother 
how to sow the seeds and care for the 
crop. Then I sold the vegetables as 
soon as they were eatable, and the money 
was my own. My father always allowed 
me to drive good horses and as I had to 
take my produce 1% miles to market I 
had to have a horse to drive, and I went 
alone too, also was taught to keep an 
account book, and I still have my first 
one. In later years it seemed best to 
leave the farm for a time, owing to fam¬ 
ily circumstances, so when removed to 
town, I went into a city and finished my 
dressmaking trade, which I had begun 
when 16 years old, and for 10 years I 
followed my trade, worked for a fine 
class of people, very wealthy, but I was 
never my own boss, and the clock told 
me when to come and go. While the 
work wlis pleasant usually, and also 
paying, it was nothing like a good farm 
home, and so when I married a real 
farmer we returned to the home of my 
childhood, and after 10 years of hard 
work, careful management and doing 
nearly all our own work, we have a farm 
of 65 acres of our own, which we work 
with the 140-acre farm of my parents 
which we work on shares, besides our 
equipment for two teams. 
I have driven a team all through 
Spring work and haying. I do most of 
the mowing and all the raking, drive off 
on the horse-fork some. We have taught 
one team to draw off alone, so many 
times when my husband is drawing in 
hay alone with his hay-loader and I am 
mowing, he sets his horsefork. the team 
draw off and back up, and he goes in 
the mow and mows away the hay. We 
have a 19-cow dairy and I always help 
with the chores, feed the cows grain, etc., 
but I never do any heavy work, in the 
house or outside, my husband always 
takes up and puts down the carpets, 
moves all heavy furniture, cleans carpets, 
etc., so we always work together. 
But let me tell you some of the little 
extras I have that I think every farm 
wife should have if she does her share 
of the work. We raise purebred poultry. 
Columbian Wyandotte and Bourbon Red 
turkeys. My husband helps with the 
poultry, but I have all his share of the 
money from the breeding stock and hatch¬ 
ing eggs I sell, and I use the money from 
the other eggs sold to run the table. I 
do not furnish any feed. A few years 
ago my father and husband gave me a 
heifer calf for a birthday present; I 
bought my calf meal and they furnished 
what milk I used to raise her. She 
freshened before she was two years old, 
and I was given her calf to fatten. After 
it was fattened I gave them the milk the 
balance of the season. Later I traded 
for another heifer I have had for two 
years, and they board her and let me 
fatten calves on her as long as she gives 
enough milk to fatten them. Sometimes 
I buy her some grain when feed gets 
short, otherwise I do not buy any feed. 
One year I got about $100 for calves, 
but last year I did not do quite so well. 
I buy my calves and some I have to pay 
$5 for, but it gives me quite a bit of 
money at that. Then when I want 
something a little extra I have plenty 
of money to buy it. Last year I helped 
buy our new sugar outfit, and I spend 
quite a bit on flower seeds, garden seeds, 
grapevines and berries, and last year 
my husband bought apple trees and I 
added plum, cherry and pear trees to 
the order. 
We have a nice berry patch, black and 
red raspberries, blackberries, purple 
raspberries and three or four kinds of 
strawberries, and a big asparagus bed in 
our back yard, where I spend a lot of 
time washing milk pails, cleaning vege¬ 
tables, etc. I have a bed of pansies and 
a little way farther on I have a bed of 
asters, usually some Zinnias and Cos¬ 
mos are also in this bed. Just beyond 
these is a clump of Golden Glow which 
grows about 6 ft. and is a profusion 
of bloom for a long time. My table is 
under an old apple tree where it is cool 
and shady. Can’t you imagine how 
pleasant it is to be working out of doors 
with such bright surroundings? A few 
little flower beds that do not need much 
care can help brighten up the work 
hours. And then a bunch of pretty 
flowers on the dinner table always makes 
the dinner taste better. There are all 
the nice fresh vegetables, milk and cream, 
besides all the pleasant surroundings and 
you do not have to answer a mill or fac¬ 
tory whistle and you are your own boss, 
which means a lot to a woman who has 
any spirit. 
I only wish all farm women had a few 
little extras done for them, and the men 
folks would see how much they were ap¬ 
preciated. Do I hear some one say he 
cannot afford to give his wife the whole 
proceeds of a cow for a year. When 
you ask her almost every day to do a lit¬ 
tle extra task, does she say she cannot 
afford to give you that extra time from 
her work? So much is said about chil¬ 
dren not wanting to stay on the farm. 
If mother is contented and has her own 
money to spend any time she wants it, 
she will make those children happy and 
contented on the farm. A few dollars 
means more to a woman than many men 
realize, if she isn’t expected to itemize 
every cent, and the chances are the man 
who gives his wife a cow, etc., will get 
as much benefit as she does. MRS. c. j. d. 
Nature and Ornamentation 
Can anyone tell why the comb on our 
domestic fowls was developed? Had it 
any use originally? “Nature never cre¬ 
ates a pure ornament!” G. 
Before discussing the question of wheth¬ 
er Nature does or does not develop pure¬ 
ly ornamental structures, we must arrive 
at a definition of ornament. Apparently, 
the correspondent has a conception of or¬ 
nament which I am not quite able to put 
in words. The idea comes in mind,' but 
when I try to pin it down to a definite 
form there is always some objection 
which makes the attempt faulty. My own 
idea is that an ornament is any structure 
or part, otherwise useless, which has the 
sole object of attracting favorable atten¬ 
tion or of rendering the appearance of the 
whole more pleasing. This would cut out 
of the discussion a host of brightly col¬ 
ored or oddly shaped parts of fishes, for 
those are designed to make it more diffi- 
cut to see the fish or to recognize it as a 
fish. 
Scientists tell us that there is no sound 
except where there is an ear to hear it. 
In a similar way it is impossible to im¬ 
agine an ornament unless there is an eye 
to see it and a mind to consider it orna¬ 
mental. It is not at all uncommon to 
find structures, which were originally 
useful, developed to so great a degree as 
ornaments that their original function is 
lost. 
Nature seems to have a “one-track 
mind.” When a structure begins to 
change in a certain direction which is 
beneficial to the animal, it is very likely 
to go on until it has reached a point of 
greatest value, and may then continue in 
the same direction until it finally destroys 
the creature that it helped at first. The 
sabre-toothed tiger seems to have been a 
case in point. Long, sharp teeth were a 
great help in getting food. These teeth 
developed to a great size, so that they 
could be driven through heavy fur or 
dense bony plates to reach the vital parts 
of other animals. Still they kept grow¬ 
ing from generation to generation, until 
finally they were so large that we do not 
believe the tiger could open its mouth far 
enough to use them at all. Finally, the 
animal which was especially developed to 
kill the largest animals of its time, must 
have come to the point where it could not 
kill these, or, perhaps, even defend itself 
against them. It must feed on the small¬ 
er creatures that lived near it. Finally 
it died because its special organs for ob¬ 
taining food were too well developed. 
Geological history has many similar in¬ 
stances. 
Among birds at the present time 1 there 
are many cases of the (apparent) loss of 
feathers in warm climates. There is no 
way of telling whether it is of any value. 
It seems likely that similar conditions are 
not found in cold climates, because the ex¬ 
tra exposure may be just enough to cause 
the death of the birds in severe weather. 
When any animal is just at the border 
line of existence a very slight added han¬ 
dicap must be fatal. Where naked skin 
is found in birds it is usually developed 
in some kind of strange shape, and in the 
ancestors of our domestic poultry it took 
the form of comb and wattles. So far as 
I am able to learn, there is no indication 
that it ever had any real use except as 
an ornament. 
I am quite unable to separate the idea 
of ornament from the idea of usefulness. 
If a certain structure, by form or color 
or both, attracts the favorable attention 
of the opposite sex it is surely an orna¬ 
ment. If. because it attracts favorable 
attention, it makes the continued life of 
the species more certain it is just as sure¬ 
ly useful to the animal. If the same 
structure causes fear in an enemy, it is 
still useful to the animal, but, at least in 
that instance, it is not an ornament. 
There seems to be a regular series in 
the development of ornamental (as of all 
other) structures. At first' the structure 
is useful, or. at least, not injurious. As 
it develops, it tends to lose its original 
function and becomes purely designed to 
attract attention. Finally it becomes 
“more bother than it is worth” and may 
ultimately lead to the destruction of the 
species. In the case of the comb and 
wattles of the domestic fowl, the original 
use was probably simply as skin, to cover 
a portion of the body. It has now appar¬ 
ently about reached the most perfect de¬ 
velopment as an advertisement and, with 
a slight change in climate, might easily 
become a liability instead of an asset. 
ALFRED C. WEED. 
Curing Gun-shy Dog 
If L. B., who tells of his troubles with 
his hunting dog. on page 249, can manage 
to kill a rabbit ahead of his dog, and then 
let him pick it up and so get some of the 
warm fresh blood in his mouth, I do not 
believe he will ever have any more 
trouble. Then let him smell of the gun. 
The smell of powder on both rabbit and 
gun will connect the two in the dog’s 
mind. I have known of very bad cases of 
this kind to be cured in the way I sug¬ 
gest, and the dogs to have become the best 
kind of hunters. I would advise L. B, 
not to let the dog hear a gun fired off un¬ 
til at least after trying out this test. 
Ohio. E. L. B. 
I think if L. B. will take his dog to 
some place where there is a shooting 
match in progress, and securely tie just 
back of the shooters, paying him no 
attention whatever, nor allowing anyone 
to speak to or touch him, his dog will 
be cured in a couple of hours. I have 
been successful wnth two in this way 
when about everything else failed. 
Orange, N. J. c. c. D. 
This is an asparagus cart used at Altroek Farm for bringing grass in from the 
field. It is made from an old potato sprayer and will carry 1200 pounds of grass. 
It covers four rows and the horse can walk in the center. 
Cattle Feeding Country Along the Base of the Cascade Range , Oregon 
