844 
May 31, 1924 
A Farm Woman’s Notes 
The Wet Area 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Rain that was yesterday, is today, and 
will be tomorrow! Wet blossoms tossing 
fragrance into a soft wind against a 
gorgeous green background. Wet brown 
fields once ready for the teeth of the 
drill, and now soaked beyond all drilling. 
A weird froggy sound from land that has 
reached the limit of its aboorption; a 
suggestion with it that sends a queer 
chill through every man or woman who 
lives by the plow. Little pools of wa¬ 
ter coming ghostlike to the meadows, 
v aiting for the ditch channel. Time to 
read the newspapers where an oracle de¬ 
clares that because it rained on Good 
Friday it will continue 40 days. Specu¬ 
lation in weather, wherein lies the ro¬ 
mantic element of farm life. We wonder 
watching the clouds, if these rains will 
have driven off the late freezes. 
The florist telephones. He hae a stock 
of transplanted tomatoes in -blossom. 
These are what he uses to plant his own 
field, but that field is level heavy ground, 
and cannot be plowed for some time. 
“These plants are worth three times 
what I usually sell for truck garden,” 
be pleads, “and you’ve got land that 
sheds water like a duck’s back. Better 
have a look at them.” Daddy gets the 
truck and we go sailing down our 
drenched dirt road, spreading water 
wings from the front wheels at every 
puddle. Of course we brought home the 
plants. We were captured by those 
sturdy rows of stems with the Memorial 
Day flowers bearing down upon them 
from the other end of the greenhouse. 
“These baskets of flowers are worth so 
much more that we can’t afford t:o use 
the space for tomatoes.” the florist s wife 
explained anew, but she touched tender¬ 
ly. “You don’t pull these. Just take 
a knife and cut them out in squares— 
they won’t know they’ve been moved— 
won’t drop their flowers. Just give them 
a good soaking the day before you set 
them out, and the dirt will cut like pie. 
The family is separated on the ques¬ 
tion of setting out green plants on the 
ninth of May. Frost swings a scythe 
both swift and cruel in early May. After 
the fifteenth, say I. But Daddy is ob¬ 
durate. “Tomatoes are a speculation, 
anyhow,” he reiterates. “No use wait¬ 
ing until everybody else begins. I’d 
rather not bother with ’em if they come 
in the glut of the season. Just these 500 
—why if they freeze we’ll just plant 
something else, but if they don’t, we have 
what we’ve tried for so long—some extra 
early tomatoes.” That’s Daddy’s logic. 
The man from Florida is silent with a 
face like a sphinx, and will not cast a 
vote either way. So next morning, I 
cut out the squares, like pie with a tougb 
under crust, and set them in the straw¬ 
berry carriers. It is still raining. The 
man from Florida walks ahead making 
holes, and Daddy follows on one knee 
covering the cubes of dirt that frazzle 
into hungry roots on the bottom in these 
gaps in the sandy loam. I ask myself, 
will a berry basket shield against a cold 
clear sky and the frost that is likely to 
come? Into the valley of death go the 
five hundred! 
School meeting night came after a 
busy day of harrowing weather, and was 
not so large as we had wished. But 
those who came did their duty. . An as¬ 
sessment of $100 was voted for improve¬ 
ments and repairs. This, to us, will 
mean a new porch flooring, a resetting, of 
the tottering flagpole in a new position 
where the tree cannot tear the flag, a 
new school door that will hold against 
ordinary intruders, some new cement be¬ 
tween the bricks under the middle win¬ 
dow on the east side and in the north¬ 
west corner, some oil for the floor, some 
ecru shades for the windows which will 
replace the dark cloth shades already in 
use. now blamed for poor lighting. There 
is a woman in this district who wants 
these light-colored soft-toned holland 
shades for the school so badly that she 
will be willing to pay for them if the 
$100 doesn’t last that long. Anyone who 
has bought supplies in the last year will 
smile at the thought of how that poor 
hundred dollars will have to be pinched 
and pulled into shape to cover the ex¬ 
pense of what's wanted. The large wall 
clock doesn’t tick, the cooler faucet leaks 
so it can’t be used—it needs packing, the 
toilet agitators won’t turn. The best 
plan for our getting these things for a 
hundred dollars appears to me as this. 
Get paint, oil, lumber, everything needed 
together, and hold a working picnic, one 
article of food furnished by each for din¬ 
ner at the school. Let everyone work at 
the kind of work he knows best. There 
is hardly a man in the neighborhood that 
hasn’t a trade of some sort. I am confi¬ 
dent that one day with plenty , of help 
and a prepared time schedule will finish 
the work. “More pleasure.” says one. 
“than just talking until you get talked 
out. After a while you’d get the feel of 
its being your schoolhouse, after all, 
and that’s what brings men to school 
meeting.” 
A hard wind has come from the west 
to blow the clouds away. They linger 
along the edge of the sky like hungry 
dogs. The bulletin promises “fair Fri¬ 
day.” Yet though so much needs doing, 
nothing can be done. “Guess I’ll start 
on the lily pool out there,” muttered 
Daddy. “Might better raise goldfish and 
waterlilies this weather.” The waterlilv 
pool in the pasture is just a little too 
much of a walk to take often. The bulbs 
have multiplied until the vines fill the 
space. So it has been decided to bring 
the water garden near the house. This 
rainy spell has brought some of the 
things we want as well as the things we 
don’t. We can thank the rain for the 
new concrete tank. I hear voices calling 
outside this minute. I understand there 
is a hoe and shovel waiting there for me, 
and blisters and a good coat of tan. But 
there, it takes sun to make the tan. and 
blisters to make the beet concrete. Mark 
is elbow and knee-deep in the sand, and 
the red-headed one is trying to help mix 
with a desperate-looking hoe from the 
shed. The biggest hoe on record is in 
the hands of the man from Florida. 
“All ready now for the cement!” calls 
Daddy, a bag under one arm. and we 
step back respectfully. “We'll put a 
word or two on this to remember by — 
just ‘Memorial Day, 1924.’ ” My mind 
flits over a knoll in a faraway cemetery 
where two dear people who would have 
loved this are lying, hands folded, then 
back again. And by this it is dedicated. 
Magic words. Memorial Day. 
MRS. F. H. UNGER. 
Attention to the Aged and Deaf 
When I was a young girl I had a 
friend whose mother and fatner were par¬ 
ticular friends of my parents. We mar¬ 
ried and were separated from each other. 
Twenty years elapsed before we met 
again in our home town to renew our old 
friendship once more. My friend’s moth¬ 
er, during the 20 long years which had 
passed, had become very old. The sad¬ 
dest part of it, too. she had grown very 
deaf. When my friend and myself were 
together we would often talk of our 
younger days. Mother, who was anxious 
to hear and know all. would often feel 
slighted. Sometimes she would leave us 
to go and cry. 
Shortly after this the old lady died. 
Conscience arose within me so much that 
I made a promise that I would always 
be considerate and give due attention to 
the aged and deaf. It is true our de¬ 
parted friend was surrounded by every 
home comfort, and what would seem com¬ 
fort to us. Yet she was not happy. She 
.wanted attention from younger people. 
Shortly, I stopped at a friend’s house 
and found an aged lady who was also 
deaf. Here was the opportunity to fulfill 
my promise of the past. To my unfor¬ 
tunate friend I gave strict attention, and 
heeded her every desire. Oh, such a dif¬ 
ference! Her face fairly beamed with 
happiness. The farewell which she gave 
was a proof of her happiness. This had 
cost me nothing, but I in turn had re¬ 
ceived more than wealth can buy. I, too, 
had been made happy. I. too, am grow¬ 
ing older, and I trust that I shall have 
some kind friend to help make me happy. 
MRS. w. c. H. 
Balanced Ration for Humans 
I would like to know a properly bal¬ 
anced ration for the human body. We 
are all bothered with indigestion. One 
of our children, a boy of six years, belches 
gas a great deal. I can get medicine to 
relieve it, but both he and I do not want 
to take medicine all of the time; also sug¬ 
gest laxative foods that will stop consti¬ 
pation. 
I would like food figured out ap¬ 
proximately as it should enter the body- 
carbohydrates. fat. protein, and all. and 
the different foods we could get it from. 
Delaware. w. n. 
A balanced ration for the human body 
is one that contains the proteins which 
enter largely into making up the blood, 
muscles and tissue of the body, the carbo¬ 
hydrates, which supply heat and energy 
needed in carrying on the bodily pro¬ 
cesses, the fats, which act as doubly effi¬ 
cient carbohydrates, the minerals which 
are particularly needed in the bony 
framework that keeps us from sagging 
into a shapeless mass, and at least three 
classes of so-called vitamines. “Vita- 
mines” is a new word, artificially coined, 
and not even its inventor seems to know 
how to pronounce it. Some call it “vita- 
meens,” accenting both sections about 
alike; some “vi-tam-eens,” accenting the 
second syllable. This latter pronuncia¬ 
tion has a highbrow flavor that you may 
like, and you can do it, with a little prac¬ 
tice. 
No one has ever seen a vitamine, and 
no one knows how it is made up or what 
it looks like. It has simply been found 
that there are certain unknown sub¬ 
stances present in foods that are needed 
in promoting growth and protecting the 
body against some nutritional diseases. 
They can be removed from foods and the 
effect of their absence noted. This proves, 
negatively, that they are there and. some 
day, the food chemist will find them. He 
may be in for a tremendous surprise 
when he does. For the present, they are 
classed as Vitamine A. Vitamine B and 
Vitamine C, with others possibly lurking 
in the background. 
Don’t get the idea that any of these 
food elements exist alone in certain foods 
and are absolutely fixed in their func¬ 
tions. All foods contain a mixture of 
elements, even though certain ones pre¬ 
dominate, and one can. in a measure, sub¬ 
stitute for another. For instance, if you 
attempted to live upon lean meat, you 
would get too much protein and too lit¬ 
tle cabohydrate. but the body would use 
some of this excess protein in perform¬ 
ing the functions of the lacking carb 
hydrate. It would be an inefficient ami 
expensive job, but it could be done. 
There is a limit, however, to the ability 
of the body to effect these substitutions, 
and a well balanced ration won’t put that 
burden upon it. 
It wouldn’t be worth while, even if 
possible, to figure out just how much 
protein, carbohydrate, mineral and vita¬ 
mine the body needs under varying cir¬ 
cumstances and then attempt to supply 
these by measured amounts of foods con¬ 
taining* them. That may be good exer¬ 
cise for the physiologist and food chem¬ 
ist, and may teach him a lot, but the ef¬ 
fort would give the rest of us indigestion 
and we would better avoid it. All that 
we need to know is how to classify foods 
according to their general character, and 
how to use them so as to avoid becoming 
too one-sided in our diet. The average 
American is in little danger of acquiring 
nutritional diseases through unavoidable 
restriction of his diet; he is in greater 
danger of being over, rather than under, 
or wrongly, fed. Infants may have rick¬ 
ets or scurvy if improperly fed, and it is 
variously estimated that from 50,000 to 
150.000 people in the South suffer from 
pellagra, a disease believed, though not 
fully proven, to be due to lack of proper 
food balance. We are now going through 
a national spasm of finding underweight 
and undernourished children in our pub¬ 
lic schools and elsewhere. When the nov¬ 
elty of this new health drive has worn 
off we shall find that there are some 
children that weigh too little for their 
height and some that don’t have enough 
to eat. 
But there is no question that some 
families get into food habits that should 
be corrected, for the good of both adults 
and children. Unconsciously, perhaps, 
they limit themselves to certain classes of 
foods, when they might as well have a 
variety. Probably the things most often 
neglected are the fruits and the vegeta¬ 
bles. particularly the vegetables of which 
we eat the tops, the leafy vegetables. We 
dig in the ground for too much of our 
food. Then, too, we want the things that 
we eat to look nice, so we throw away 
the outsides of grains and vegetables and 
eat only the pretty, white, interiors. In 
doing this we throw away minerals and 
vitamines that we need. Whether young 
or old, we need the bran of the wheat, 
and for more than one reason. If we 
should try eating the skin of the potato, 
along with the rest, most of us would dis¬ 
cover a new and delicious potato flavor 
that we hadn’t known existed. Meat and 
potatoes and white bread form too great 
a bulk of many meals; no doubt about it. 
They cost more, and are worth far less, 
than a meal that also includes some dan¬ 
delion or turnip-top greens, a dish of 
either raw or canned tomatoes, a glass of 
milk and some cottage cheese and, if the 
children in the family don’t object, a dish 
of ice cream as dessert might better be 
substituted for the customary one-sixrh 
part of a pie. 
Every garden does, or can, supply as¬ 
paragus, rich in iron and taste ; tomatoes, 
in which most of the vitamines known to 
date are stored ; green and dried peas and 
beans, which rival milk in their inclusion 
of about all of the food elements; onions, 
lettuce, spinach, with their minerals and 
their succulence, and turnip top, beet and 
other greens. I'L.nt New Zealand spin¬ 
ach, by the way, if your garden is sub¬ 
ject to Summer droughts. A good Amer¬ 
ican authority upon nutrition has said 
that one should eat a quart of milk, or its 
equivalent in other dairy products, daily ; 
a large helping of some leafy vegetable, 
a salad or other dish containing some 
vegetable or fruit eaten raw. and then 
whatever else his appetite calls for. He 
meant, of course, that a well-balanced 
diet would contain milk or its products, 
one or more of the vegetables whose eat¬ 
able parts grow above ground, raw fruits 
or vegetables, such as apples or celery, 
and then whatever was needed of meat 
and. possibly, pie. Sweets have their 
rightful place and shouldn’t be banned, 
and an apple a day tucks a vitamine 
away. 
For a general classification of foods, a 
“Food Value Chart” is published by the 
State College of Agriculture at Ithaca, 
N. Y., and will be found interesting and 
helpful. It is free, upon application to 
the Department of Home Economics. 
M. B. D. 
Electrocuting Rats 
Can you tell me how to rig up a con¬ 
traption by which I can electrocute rats? 
I set up traps, but they don’t touch them. 
Will electric wires from house kill rats? 
The druggist refused to sell me strych¬ 
nine. D. B. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Electrocuting rats is somewhat out of 
our line. It may be that some of our 
readers have had experience. If so they 
will tell us how they did it. We catch 
some rats by the barrel trap, often de¬ 
scribed. Our cats kill many, and we have 
tried one of the various forms of rat 
virus -or disease germs with fair results. 
BOYS AND GIRLS 
List of May Contributors 
These are the readers who answered the 
April page before this one went to the printer. 
The name itself indicates that a letter was 
received from that boy or girl. Following each 
name is the age, whenever given, and a series 
of alphabetical symbols referring to various 
contributions according to the following key: 
b—Words for the box. 
d—A drawing, 
e—An essay, 
g—A game. 
k—A new book or poem puzzle. 
1—Correct answer to last book puzzle, 
m—A new nature puzzle, 
n—Correct answer to last nature puzzle, 
o—An original poem. 
„ 1 )—A photographic picture. 
*r—A rhyme for drawing, 
s—A story, 
v—A memory verse, 
x—Correct answer to last puzzle, 
z—A new puzzle or riddle. 
Connecticut: Margaret Warren (13, p), Gene¬ 
vieve Krouns (10, x), May Sullivan (1), Nell.v 
Chiszewsky (11, d), Helen Chiszewsk.v (9, d), 
Millard Pierce (12. m. n, x). Belle Wright (12. 
v), Norman Ilailock (16, d, o). 
Illinois: Sarah Graham (9, d), Anna Graham 
(14, d, 1), Charles Graham (12, g). 
Kentucky: Anna Hillenmeyer (10, x). 
Louisiana: Eugenie Davignon (p), Medora 
Davignon (13, o). 
Maine: Marian Grey (12, v). 
Maryland: Alan Thomas (15, z), King Brit- 
tingbam (10, v, z), Cornelia Amoss (12, k, 1). 
Massachusetts: Edward Brown (11, x), Sam¬ 
uel Gadd (9, v), Miriam Tilden (14, b, 1, n, 
V, X). 
New Hampshire: Edith Kelley (8, x). 
New Jersey: Mabel Allatt (17, b, g, n, x), 
Eleanor Davis (14, k, x), Ethel St. Clair (13, 
o), Mae Walder (p), Natalie Rosswagel (12, 
m, n, x), Marie Rouselle (g). 
New York: Alice Evans (10, v), Dorothy Skin¬ 
ner (9, m, n, p), Eloise Skinner (8, m, n, p), 
Annabelle Slauson (o), Ruth Schwartz (12, 
e, x), Margaret Minerley (13, p), Olive Riker 
(14, g), Margaret Pratt (13, x), Charlotte 
Booth (15, b, o, v). Alice Sinsabaugh (13, d), 
Helen Koistinen (12, k), Celia King (8, x), 
Anna Kane (12), Dorothy Denton (13, n, v. x), 
Edith Retliore (12, d. o), Hazel Duntz (17. n. 
p. x), Anna Laffan (13, b, d, z), Eleanor M.ver 
(15, v, x, z), Harriet Pischel (13, p), IsabeEe 
Chamberlain (15, n, x), Eileen Goll (12, n, x), 
Ada Harris (9, z), Erma McDonald (k, 1), Mar¬ 
garet Terrell (11, z), Raiph Harris (4. p). 
Mildred Faulkner (12, b, d, x), Viola Schwarz 
(m, x, z), Unsigned (k. m, v. z), Jenny Olson 
(15, p). E. Barnhart (p), Roy Bergman (13. 
p, x, z), Helen Miller (12, p), Gertrude Thomp¬ 
son (10, p), Amy Hutting (8, p, x), Cecile 
Drumb (b, m, z). 
Ohio: Sarah Smith (12, 1, p). Lola Porter (10, 
n, x), Muriel Smith (12, m, v). 
Pennsylvania: Miriam Kachel (p), Mary Gib¬ 
son (p, x), Aaron Ebling (13, d, m, n), Marion 
Schriver (10, g), Morris Drake (v), Ruth 
Shellenberger (n). 
Rhode Island: Evelyn Bishop (p). 
Virginia: Dorothy Odle (13. x, z). 
Washington: Perl Griggs (11, X). 
Wisconsin: Agnes Helfert (15, d). 
State Unknown: Harriet Milligan (d, x, z). 
