690 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
and with the help of one of the older men, who acted 
as interlocutor, we gave a minstrel show. We went 
into our closets and brought out the cutaway wed¬ 
ding coats and white vests of the earlier days, and 
dressed the boys in them. With the aid of lipstick, 
burnt cork, red neckties and white gloves, we had as 
tine looking colored minstrel troupe as ever went on 
any stage. We did all the rehearsing at night, in 
order not to disturb the school work. What did it 
matter if they did dance the paint off our kitchen 
floors, practicing their jigs, if the boys only had a 
good time? Even some of the grandfathers limbered 
up and taught the boys how to do some fancy steps. 
Everyone enjoyed the show, if one may judge by 
their laughter. And I am sure the boys enjoyed it; 
anyhow, we felt better acquainted with them after 
working together. 
THE GIRLS DO THEIR PART.—The girls and 
the teacher, who were just a little jealous at being 
left out, got up a fishing pond, which brought in a 
nice sum of money the night of the show. W T e have 
raised the money we needed by entertainments and 
socials, and have used this money to purchase vari¬ 
ous things for the school which the district did not 
feel able to include in the tax. We have a very 
small district, and even though we receive more 
public money than the larger districts, still our tax 
rate is very high. We have furnished the school¬ 
room with new window shades, fine bracket lamps, a 
globe, a stone watercooler, a low blackboard for the 
smaller pupils, and a shield for the stove. We are 
now considering the purchase of needed books for 
English and reading. 
THE PARENT-TEACHER’S CLUB.—We hold a 
meeting of our Parent-Teacher’s Club every month 
at the schoolhou.se. We have a short program, which 
is usually followed by refreshments and a good 
social time. The young folks come, and we are glad 
to have them. We have become better acquainted 
with each othex*, and thei*e seems to be a general 
good feeling throughout the* district. We try to visit 
the school as often as possible, and to help the 
teacher in every way we can. We know the children 
appreciate the fact that we are interested in them 
and in their progress. 
IMPROVING THE SCHOOL.—During the year 
we-have made improvements other than those paid 
for by the Parent-Teacher’s Club. We put in single 
desks for the smaller pupils, and got them small 
enough so that the little people can have their feet 
on the floor. The little desks are all on one side of 
the room, and the larger desks on the other side. 
We plan to put in single desks for the older pupils 
latex’. We painted the upper paid of the schoolroom 
a'soft cream color, and the wainscoting a dark tan. 
When we had put up our big flag, tacked some pretty 
colored prints on the walls and hung our white sash 
curtains on their shining brass rods, we hardly knew 
the place. When we think of the years that the 
children attended school with none of these im¬ 
provements we wish that we had done these things 
before. The men of the district have been ready to 
help in every way, and though we had the largest 
tax in yeai's we have not heard a word of criticism. 
Some of them say that the women are the ones to 
look after the school; that it is more in their line, 
and that they have more time, rossibly that may¬ 
be true, but it seems better to keep both men and 
women interested if possible. There is plenty of 
work for all if only time can be found to do it. We 
cannot make any more time; already our day is a 
long one, but let us see if we cannot spare some of 
the time that we are now using for some other pur¬ 
pose, to help solve this school problem. Surely 
there is no crop grown on the farm more important 
than the children, and we want the best for them. 
What that best may be is a question on which there 
is bound to be a difference of opinion. But two 
heads are better than one, and three or more still 
better, and if yoix can gather through The R. N.-Y. 
the ideas of the real country people as to how our 
schools may be improved you will be helping still 
further with the school question. 
MORE SUPERINTENDENTS NEEDED. — Per¬ 
sonally I think we need more supervision, not higher 
salaries for superintendents, but xuore superintend¬ 
ents. It would keep a teacher up to the mark, and 
the pupils also, if they had a visit from the superin¬ 
tendent every week or two, to see if they were doing 
the required amount of work. And we need better 
and older teachers. Wliei-e they are to come from I 
do not know, but I do think that a teacher of little 
children should be more than IS years of age when 
she begins to teach. The country schools have been 
ti-aining schools for experience* long enough. Prob¬ 
ably what we have done in District No. 13 of Oswe- 
gatchie does not seem much to some people, but 
when we look back at what had been done in pi*e- 
vious years we feel that we have at least a good 
start on the right tx-ack. A Parent-Teacher’s Club 
may not solve the problem in evei-y district, but we 
can heartily x-ecommend it. 
MRS. CHARLES M’aRTHUR, 
St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. 
Wood Ashes on Strawberries 
M ANY people seem to think because lime is use¬ 
ful to some crops like clover or Alfalfa, it 
must be good for everything. Some people have bad¬ 
ly injxxred a crop of strawberries by using w r ood 
ashes or lime freely at the time of planting. We 
have a few reports from time to time where wood 
ashes have given fair results on the stx-awberry 
crop, but in the great majority of cases the reverse 
of this has been true. We have jixst been trimming 
an apple orchard; it had been neglected for some 
years, so that there was a large accumulation of 
wood. This made several big piles of brush. Neai-- 
by was the place we have selected this year fox- 
strawberry planting. It is a good location, fairly 
well drained, good loam soil, reasonably clean after 
potatoes last year, and apparently well fitted to the 
crop. The workmen wanted to do a thorough good 
job, and so they hauled the brush out on this straw¬ 
berry land, burned several great piles of it and scat- 
tex-ed the ashes over the soil. This was jixst the very 
thing they should not have done, and the chances 
are that in spite of all we can do, there will be a 
number of spots in this strawberry field where the 
plants will be dwarfed and the crop very poor. Not 
only the ashes, but the action of the fire on the land 
will hurt the growth of the berries, yet we have seen 
a number of people following this practice. We 
have had considerable experience in this, and in 
every case where brush piles have been burned the 
strawberry plants have proved failures, and it seems 
clearly evident that the strawberi-y requires a soil 
at least partly acid and with a reasonable amount of 
organic matter in it. When lime or ashes are used 
freely, the alkaline conditions will not suit the crop, 
and evidently the hot fire burns out the organic mat¬ 
ter to such an extent that the strawberry plants 
will not thrive. We think it best to carry this or¬ 
chard brush for some little distance and burn it on 
corn ground, where the ashes can be well scattered. 
A Retired Jerseyman on Farming 
FTER LONG EXPERIENCE.—On page 411, C. 
O. Warford writes on “Eight-hour Day and 
Labor Pi-ices.” Let me say right here that a condi¬ 
tion and not a theory confi-onts the United States 
April 26, 1924 
farmer. 1 was born on the farm in 1857 and have 
fax-med ever since. The first three years I milked. 
My wife and I are alone now-, the children having 
married and have families of their own. They are 
not farming; they have more profitable occupations. 
Our fai-m of 85 acres in Central New Jersey we have 
not worked in three years, for the simple reason 
that we cannot get efficient help, and at prevailing 
wages could not work the farm profitably. We can 
save dollai-s by not fai-ming. 
COMPARISON WITH OTHER LINES.—Nearly 
all business is done on a sure profit basis. The cost 
of living is decreasing, the cost of labor inci-eas- 
ing. Organized labor, fx-om the lowest to the highest, 
has this nation by the throat, because of the acts of 
our State Legislatures and our National Congi-ess. 
These institutions have been toadying to labor fox- 
years. Because of high wages money is plentiful 
and can be had at old rates of interest. Our banks 
are reaping excess pi-ofits. It would seem that all 
or nearly all conditions are against the farmer. Of 
course he is not to blame; he is mei-ely the goat. 
There is only one thing cheap in the farming line; 
that is rates of interest on loans. It is my belief 
that the more money a farmer borrows the worse off 
he is. 
OVER-PRODUCTION.—At present our markets 
are mostly domestic; we export a small percentage 
of our produce. High tariff and price fixing of farm 
pi-oducts will not help the farmer, for should this 
happen he at once will plant more acres, with the 
result of over-production and lower prices. The 
slogan to grow two blades of grass where one grew 
before is old stuff; better have it, to grow one where 
two grew before. The farmer’s idea of making 
money is that when he makes a profit say on one 
bushel of potatoes, he doubles the acreage in order 
to double the profits. Anybody knows the result. 
THE FARMER’S SIDE.—Organization of farmers 
in the United States has never been perfected. The 
main cause is that so many are not loyal to the obli¬ 
gations of such oi-ganizations. It is my opinion that 
relief for the farmer is through his own efforts, lie 
can limit production; he may also be able to help 
improve the system of distribution of farm produce. 
He cannot change the hours and wages of labor. lie 
must pay the prices imposed on him in taxes, insur¬ 
ance, and on wages and material, in building and 
repairs; also on agricultural machinery, farm imple¬ 
ments, fertilizer, etc. It would seem almost as 
though the sun of the farmer had set, and that he 
is now groping about in the night of adversity, wait¬ 
ing, hoping and praying for the morrow when the 
day shall break, and when the sun of prosperity 
shall rise and shine along his pathway of life; when 
again he can take heart, and as of yore help feed 
and contribute to the comforts of all mankind. 
New Jei-sey. h. j. g. 
Timothy Substitutes in Grass Mixtures 
We have been seeding down for some years with a 
grass mixture as follows: 4 lbs. Red clover, 4 lbs. Al- 
sike, 4 lbs. Alfalfa, 4 lbs. Red-top, 10 lbs. Timothy. 
We have used the Alfalfa in order to inoculate the soil 
for growing of Alfalfa, if possible, and in order to as¬ 
certain to a certain extent which of our fields were 
suitable to that crop. We have used a good deal of 
lime, and have had very good success in growing clover, 
and I am inclined to think on the whole we have got a 
good deal larger tonnage from the Red clover than the 
Alsike, although there are certain spots where Red 
clover does not seem to do. 
We are now up against this proposition. After the 
first year we get very good stands of Timothy mixed 
with some Red-top. We do not like to feed Timothy to 
any kind of farm stock except horses, and we do not 
find a particularly profitable market for baled Timothy 
hay. Is there not some other seeding which we can use 
that will give us a finer hay, more suited to dairy young 
stock and sheep, and which will yet give us a tonnage 
which we can obtain from Timothy, and enable us to 
cut good ci-ops of hay from the same field for at least 
two or three years after the clover is off? I should ap¬ 
preciate any suggestions along these lines. 
Connecticut. eliot d. curtis. 
F course Timothy and Red-top make the stand¬ 
ard combination for grass seeding. With us, 
Red clover gives a heavier yield than Alsike, but hay 
from the latter is finer, and, on the whole, better. 
We will ask our readers to give their experience 
with Orchard grass, fescue and other substitutes for 
Timothy. Doubtless others have worked out this 
same problem. 
A number of readers have complained that wrappers 
on their dairy butter becomes salty. This is caused by 
the evaporation of moisture, and not because of exces¬ 
sive salt. As the moisture evaporates the salt remains 
on the paper. The trouble is due primarily to insuf¬ 
ficient working. As the butter is worked the moisture 
is broken up into small droplets. Each droplet is a 
salt brine solution. As these droplets become smaller 
with proper working they will not “leak” out readily. 
