Ibe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
857 
A Rural School Field Day 
T WO years ago our district superintendent. Prof. 
Clark, started the idea of making a community 
day out of the annual spelling contest, which is 
supposed to he held in all school districts, and 
which eventually ends at the State Fair at Syracuse. 
We have enjoyed two very successful meets, and 
the following are our plans for this year: 
June 6 has heeii set aside as the “Rural School 
Field Day” for the town of Williamson. The school 
at Pultneyville, being near the lake shore* is inviting 
the other 10 schools to bring their dinner and spend 
the day. This means not only the children, but their 
families and their neighbors. At 9.30 begins the 
spelling contest. This is the main fea¬ 
ture of the day. Following will be a 
program which we are hoping will be 
furnished by the teachers. Just im¬ 
agined how tickled every little child 
would he to see his own teacher on the 
stage. At noon there will he the picnic 
dinner. As each school appoints its 
own dinner committee this is easily 
managed, and the Pultneyville Parent- 
Teachers’ Association will be on hand 
to help with the serving. The after¬ 
noon will he given up to games, in 
charge of the physical training teacher 
from the high school, whom we are 
borrowing for the occasion. If the 
weather is pleasant the exercises will 
he held on the beach, which has been 
donated, and where there is a spacious 
pavilion and plenty of picnic tables. 
If it should he cold we will assemble in 
the village hall. 
Now as to the reasons for all this. 
Of course a very obvious one is to give 
pleasure to the children. But there is 
another underlying it all. We believe 
that our schools must turn out good 
citizens. We cannot use the word 
Americanization, as that is used al¬ 
most exclusively as applied to the for¬ 
eign born. But we might call it na¬ 
tionalization. Our own little children, 
though born on American soil, must be 
taught to he citizens. We hope that 
occasions of this sort will teach them 
to work together for the common good, 
will train them in co-operation, and 
strengthen the traits which will make 
good citizens. It is worth trying for. 
Yesterday we had a most successful 
Arbor Day, the second one this year. 
Our school owns very little land, but 
faces on the village park. This park 
contains about a half acre of land, and 
since the year 1847 the school had had 
the use of it for a playground. It con¬ 
tains some beautiful trees, but we 
needed shrubbery. So the children and 
the neighbors brought roots from their 
home gardens, and shovels and hoes. 
One of the ladies is a natural-born 
landscape artist, and under her direc¬ 
tion wonderful results were accom¬ 
plished between 4 o’clock and supper 
time. Lilacs, roses, peonies, Spiraea 
and many bulbs were set out, without 
spending any money. The pupils agreed 
most enthusiastically to take care of 
the growing plants, and if they tackled 
their arithmetic and geography with 
the energy which they used in digging 
they would all win Rhodes scholarships before they 
were 15. Again we felt that we were fostering the 
spirit of citizenship, for the children now want to 
take care of their trees and flowers, instead of tear¬ 
ing them to pieces. This feeling can grow with 
their growth, making them strong in later years to 
take care of things of greater importance in their 
village and national life. Florence cornwell. 
Happy Farmer; How He Got That Way 
[On page 703 Mr. J. D. Mather of McKean Co., Pa., 
told how farming suits him. He said he was GO years 
old and had one wooden leg, yet the run to prosperity 
and satisfaction had been made in record time. There 
are so many discontented farmers that it was some- 
ting of a novelty to hear from Mr. Mather, and we 
print his little story herewith. Sorry we cannot find 
just the hired man Mr. Mather is after, but that rare 
bird may fly over the fence yet.] 
A Farmer; They Call Me “Happy Joe” 
VARIED CAREER.—I will tell you more about 
Uncle Joe and his life. My father was born in 
Orange Co., N. Y., so I have always had a friendly 
Jerseys, and it is not a question of how much we 
can sell, but how much we can get to sell. They tell 
me that I sell the best milk that was ever sold in 
that is one of the things that make 
Since I came here I have bought and 
dressed lambs and sold to the mar- 
cider mill, run it and made it pay, 
and went after a dollar whenever I saw a chance to 
get one. I have bought over $1,000 worth of farm 
machinery, which includes a Ford. With the good 
wife’s help we painted the house inside and out, 
have put on a lot of new roof, have the farm well 
fenced, have put on lots of manure and lime, so that 
I now have the farm in good shape. 
ENLARGING THE FARM.—I saw that I must 
have more pasture, so I bought 47 
acres that adjoined me and I am im¬ 
proving that. The more land I have 
the more cows I can keep. The more 
cows I have the more milk I can sell. 
The more milk I sell the more money 
I can make. How did I do it? Well 
one thing I did was to go to the bank 
and talk so honest to them that they 
thought it safe to trust me, and I will 
say that they have been very kind to 
me and helped me whenever I asked for 
help. And say, you will find lots of 
people that will help you if you are 
straight and treat them right. When 
I came here, men would speak of me as 
“The little old man from the West that 
was going to show them how to farm,” 
and then laugh in derision. Now they 
laugh first and speak of me as “The old 
man from the West that has shown 
them how to farm.” They say that 
this is not a farming country, but I 
have seen big crops of everything 
grown here, and have not seen a total 
failure of any crop in the past five 
years. If they could go through just 
one hot windstorm in Oklahoma they 
would be so glad that they were living 
in the East. 
THE MEANS OF HAPPINESS — 
Well, I have been called “Happy Joe,” 
but I am not always happy. When I 
go out and find most of my clover 
heaved out of the ground, or lose one 
of my best cows, it is hard to smile, 
but I soon think of something that I 
should be thankful for, or something 
that I can do to help someone. Then 
I laugh and go at it again. If you 
want to do something for me that will 
put you close to my heart, find , me a 
single man that will work on a farm. 
Help milk cows, not too nice to clean 
stables, and does not want to own a 
car and he out every night. My great¬ 
est trouble is to get help and make the 
improvements that I would like to 
make. -t. d. matiier. 
Tying cauliflower on a farm in Southern New Jersey 
of hardware in Missouri. I ran the store for less 
than one year and sold it for cash. Then I decided 
to come East and make a home. I was 57 years old, 
without much money, but had not lost my sand, and 
had a big lot of experience. I expected to locate in 
the State of New York, but got across the line to 
McKean Co., Pa., and found something so good that 
I had to take it. I bought the farm of 135 acres, 
with a large, well-built house, and a barn 100x50 ft., 
24-ft. posts and hip roof; also two other good build¬ 
ings. The farm is most all valley land. I bought it 
for $5,500, and got $700 worth of personal property 
incl uded. 
MAKING MILK.—I started to keep sheep, as I 
was an old sheep man, and liked them, but I found 
that the Jersey cows made me more money. I can 
sell milk for from 10 to 12 cents per quart, and the 
cows soon told me that they could not give milk and 
pasture against sheep, so I had to let the sheep go. 
I started to sell milk three years ago; had six cows. 
Now we are milking 21 cows. Eighteen of them are 
Feeding Value in Tomato 
Wastes 
You and your readers seem to be a reg¬ 
ular encyclopedia of information along 
many unusual lines, so I am coming for 
some. In this town there is a big can¬ 
nery that puts up 450 acres of tomatoes 
every season, but instead of putting all 
of the tomato except the skin into the 
cans, they simply strain out the pulp by 
machinery, and can it. after cooking it 
down. The waste seeds and skins come 
from the machines as a moist mass, and 
are dumped onto a scow to be taken out 
into Chesapeake Bay and thrown overboard. Cannot 
some commercial use be made of this stuff? The IJ. S. 
Agricultural Department says that it has a feeding 
value of some 6 or 7 cents per pound, when dry, 
mainly because of the oil in the seed. I can see a 
practical way to dry this stuff, but how about a market 
for it? Is there any, or can one be created? It seems 
to me that it would make a fine addition to present 
poultry food, and possibly sheep feeds, too. I don’t 
know at what price it would have to be sold to yield a 
fair profit on the cost of drying and marketing, but I 
think that it could be done at very reasonable rates. It 
seems a pity to waste such valuable material. This one 
cannery throws away several hundred tons of it every 
season, and of course many others are doing the same 
all through this region. This material can be had for 
less than nothing, for the canners have to pay for hav¬ 
ing it hauled away now. What can you tell us about 
this proposition? Would the big poultrymen be inter¬ 
ested, do you suppose? j. h. t. 
Maryland. 
HERE seems to be no question about the feeding 
value of this product. The problem will be to 
make farmers and poultrymen understand it. The 
same problem has been presented as part of the in¬ 
troduction of other foods. Cottonseed meal is an 
example. We can remember when most dairymen 
feeling for New York State people, and I am glad 
to say that he was a noble man and a kind father, 
and by advice and example taught me to he honest 
and honorable with all men. Until I was 35 years 
old I was on a farm, handling and feeding lots of 
stock. Then I went into the banking business, and 
bought grain, but retained my farm interest. When 
I was 47 years old I sold out everything in Indiana 
and went to Oklahoma. I got in bad by putting my 
trust in people who were not honest, and in seven 
years I found myself without enough to pay my 
honest debts. I. traded for two farms in Kansas, but 
they were mortgaged for all they were worth, and I 
could not get enough off them to pay the interest 
and taxes, so I traded the Kansas land for a stock 
the town, and 
me happy, 
shipped stock, 
kets, bought a 
Slow but steady partners of a Hudson River apple grower. They can haul fruit 
to the packing shed, or handle the sprayer or duster. 
