886 
'D* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 14, 1924 
Thirteen Years on a Farm 
Part III 
Close Figuring. —-All that Summer 
we kept thinking “Next month we can 
save some toward repairing the house.” 
Then every month brought us some un¬ 
expected expense. We grew to dread 
“check day”—there was always so much 
to pay and so little with which to pay it. 
It was first one bill and then another 
until we hardly knew which way to turn. 
We had to “keep our credit good.” We 
needed it. If there “threatened” to be a 
small sxim left at any time, there was 
either a doctor bill, or something like 
that, to claim it. We had to laugh some¬ 
times, even if it was no joke, to see how 
close we could run and still “get by.” We 
would borrow of one to pay another, 
and trust that our loans would not all be 
called in at one time. It was one con¬ 
tinual worry ! 
More Cows. —Still we had only the 
one idea, to keep more cows. We kepi 
right on raising the good heifer calves 
until we were “stock poor.” It took 
such a lot of feed for those calves and 
yearlings that the milk cheeks could 
hardly keep in sight of the feed bills at 
all. Our big idea, to have a whole dairy 
of heifers so we could sell the cows and 
pay up those bills, was in our minds at 
all times. But in the meantime, we did 
not dare to add them all up together; 
just to meet the ones that were due, 
kept us worried half to death. Some¬ 
times it took the last cent we had to pay 
Ihe interest on a note we renewed. We 
surely needed every bit of encouragement 
we could find in the books or anywhere 
else. 
A New Interest. — I am not especially 
proud of my history during the Winter 
of 1913-14, but suppose it will be par¬ 
ticularly “good for my soul” to record it 
just the same. I was blue and discour¬ 
aged because we were not getting ahead 
as fast as we had expected to ; there were 
a great many conveniences which I 
thought were necessary for our happiness 
and which we could not afford to get; 
and I was alone most of the time with 
only the little girl to talk to. Bill was 
cutting wood and doing most of the barn 
work early and late, working harder than 
anyone ought to work, and was too game 
to complain. I offer no excuse for my 
state of mind at this time; there is none! 
It was what one of our old friends calls, 
“just pure cussedness.” Then one day 
I saw an incubator advertisement in a 
farm paper. I sent for the catalog and 
began reading all the poultry articles I 
could get my hands on. I had a new in¬ 
terest about the things I lacked to make 
me perfectly happy. Bill read and talked 
poultry with me, and finally we sent for 
the incubator and brooder I had picked 
out. I was jubilant! I just knew I 
could make money if the farm could not. 
In my mind I could see that yard of ours 
crowded with chickens, ducks and tur¬ 
keys ready for market. Bill had his 
doubts, I think, but kept them wisely to 
himself. His idea was to keep me happy. 
Poultry Work. —The incubator came 
in due time, was set up and filled with 
eggs. There was probably never a hatch 
watched more carefully than that one. 
The lli) eggs were turned each day and 
aired and sprinkled just when that in¬ 
struction book suggested. When the hatch 
came off, I had 75 fluffy little peepers 
ready for the brooder. I set the ma¬ 
chine again, and also set several hens 
on duck and turkey eggs and prepared 
to make the place look like a real poul¬ 
try farm. Well, 1 did hatch about 50 
ducks, SO turkeys and 300 chickens be¬ 
fore I quit in July, and I also found 
that when a fowl is hatched, the battle 
is only just started. The ducklings were 
the first to puzzle me. Their hen mother 
absolutely refused to own her odd family, 
and killed several before I took them 
away. (This was the first brood I had 
hatched.) Finally there were two of 
these left, and they refused to own any 
mother but me. They stayed with the 
other ducks all day nicely, but at the 
first sign of dark they would stand 
quacking by the back door to be put to 
bed. I let them stay in the woodshed 
in a large basket and each morning the 
first thing was to let them out with the 
rest. Those turkeys were bound to wan¬ 
der ; I chased them miles and miles. The 
chickens would crawl into the corners of 
the brooders and smother; the tears I 
shed over every bunch I buried! and 
hawks and crows took their toll too. 1 
kept a shotgun handy to scare them with, 
but they knew when I relaxed my vigi¬ 
lance. It was a busy Summer for all of 
us. The little girl was four, and was 
more help and company all the time. 
She was always with me when I fed the 
poultry, and her huge collie was never 
very far away from his little mistress. 
The three of us took a lot of long hikes 
after those straying flocks, but I think 
the business paid. Not exactly in a 
money sense, although we marketed about 
$125 worth of poultry, but more in what 
it taught me. The real thing was a dif¬ 
ferent affair than I had read about in 
the incubator catalog. Making money 
was not such a simple task after all and 
even my own plans had not worked out 
to perfection. It made me a bit more 
reasonable about the plans of others. 
This was especially true because Bill had 
been big enough to refrain from an I 
told you so” when I deserved It. 
Farm Improvements. — But to go 
back to our farm improvements for the 
Summer. We had always been obliged 
either to hire help for haying or else to 
“change work” with someone. It made 
it cost too much to do the first, and take 
too long to do the last. We bought a 
new hay-loader and side-delivery rake, 
and did the work alone. We also put a 
hayfork in the barn, and I drove the 
team on the load and on the fork. It 
was not hard work, and it has solved the 
haying problem for us ever since. The 
work may not go quite as fast as it 
might with another man’s help, but we 
can take our own time, and are not wor¬ 
rying about the expense either. It was 
a good investment but that first cost was 
there just the same. 
Installing a Silo.— That same Fall 
we sold most of the old cows and started 
milking the heifer dairy or Bill started 
milking them for. while I fed calves and 
did many chores around the barn. I never 
was able to milk. Twenty-two proved to 
be rather more than Bill could milk, so 
we put in a milking machine. He made 
it work fine, and we were more than 
pleased with it, but—it was a mighty 
poor way to get out of debt. What we 
got for the cows and poultry had paid 
up some of the most pressing bills, but 
there were more of the old ones and for 
every dollar we crawled out, we went in 
four or five. We would get to looking at 
what we could save by having modern 
improvements and would overlook that 
first cost which we most certainly could 
not afford. There is such a thing as not 
being able to afford to save money. 
Sounds “kinda crazy,” doesn’t it? But 
you get the idea? (We do now, but we 
were slow catching on!) But the soil 
was beginning to show real gains in fer¬ 
tility, and we were raising more and 
better quality hay, and better crops 
everywhere. We had such corn that we 
bought a silo! 
Tiie Inventory. —An old inventory, 
taken the first of October, 1915. shows 
the following stock and farm machinery: 
Two double-unit milkers, a gasoline en¬ 
gine, a manure spreader, a reaper, a 
roller, a mowing machine, two ha.vrakes, 
a hay-loader, a grain drill, a plow, two 
harrows, a low farm wagon, a hayrack, 
two buggies, a new top buggy, single and 
double harnesses, a team of horses, 22 
cows, a bull, 12 calves, two hogs and 40 
hens. It does not seem like so much, 
just written out like that, but at least 
we could see where some of our money 
had been going for those five years on 
the farm. Were we sick of farming? No 
indeed, we were more than ever sure that 
it was the ideal life if we could get our 
buildings in good shape and get out of 
debt. But we knew what that “IF” was, 
somewhat better than we had known. 
A NEW YORK FARMER’S WIFE. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC—Testimony was heard in 
the Federal court at Albany, N. Y.. May 
28, in the case of Harry Forster, former 
captain in the United States army at 
the Watervliet Arsenal, and Louis Miller 
of Boston, charged with defrauding the 
government in the sale of surplus ma¬ 
chinery at the arsenal. The prosecution 
alleges that machinery sold under the di¬ 
rection of Forster and bought by Miller 
for $54,000 as “junk” was actually in 
good condition and worth nearly $500,- 
000. George S. King of Troy, testified 
that while employed at the Arsenal he 
appraised the machinery. He said there 
were about 100 machines in the group. 
They were not of standard design, he 
said, and could not be sold individually. 
Bids, therefore, were requested from junk 
dealers, he said. Colonel James W. Ben- 
et of Kingston, U. S. A., retired, who 
was commandant at the Arsenal at the 
time of the sale, testified that the sealed 
proposals from the junk men were at 
first very low, all being under $50,000. 
The lot was readvertised, he said, and 
Miller was the successful bidder at $54,- 
000 . 
Daniel Sullivan, 25 years old, was 
electrocuted May 30 near Easton, Pa., 
while trying to string radio antennae, 
one of the wires of which came in con¬ 
tact with a live wire. Sullivan and sev¬ 
eral companions had just opened a va¬ 
cation camp along the Delaware River. 
Twenty-three persons, all but two of 
them girls between the ages of five and 
15, were killed and 21 injured as the re¬ 
sult of a fire which destroyed the Hope 
Development School, for sub-normal girls, 
at Playa del Key, IS miles west of Los 
Angeles, Cal., May 31. Thirty-eight im¬ 
becile children were housed in the build¬ 
ing. The injured children were hurt when 
they were either thrown from the build¬ 
ing by rescuers or jumped. The injured 
firemen were severely burned when 
struck by a high tension electric wire. 
The school is on a lagoon more than 
three miles from the nearest fire sta¬ 
tion. Fanned by the ocean breeze, the 
flames spread rapidly over the building, 
which was of wood. Besides the girls, 
one matron. Mrs. J. C. Thomas, and an 
unknown rescuer were killed and their 
bodies recovered. 
A stockholder’s suit in equity charging 
fraud and mismanagement in the conduct 
of the Middle States Oil Company, was 
filed in Federal District Court, New 
York, June 2, by William Shivers, 152 
W. 5Sth St., against Charles N. Haskell, 
chairman of the board and former Gover¬ 
nor of Oklahoma; his son, Charles J.; 
P. I). Saklatvala, president, and Charles 
B. Peters. T. John Leahy, John F. 
Casey, John F. Stevenson and Joseph 
De Wyckoff, whose connections with the 
corporation are not identified. The suit 
alleges that false and misleading state¬ 
ments of the financial condition of the 
corporation were issued to the public, 
that its funds were diverted to and 
wrongfully held by the Reliable Securi¬ 
ties Corporation and the Unity Securi¬ 
ties Corporation ; that dividends were 
paid out of capital, that the corporation 
bought its own stock with its own capi¬ 
tal and that account books and other 
records of the Wichita Petroleum Com¬ 
pany and the Eureka Producing Corpora¬ 
tion. subsidiaries, were ordered destroyed 
by Charles N. Haskell. Haskell further 
is charged with conniving with associates 
to pay $5,000,000 they owed to 25 stock 
brokerage firms with the credit and as¬ 
sets of the Middle States Oil Corpora¬ 
tion. 
Frederick D. Asehe, vice president of 
the Standard Oil Company of New Jer¬ 
sey, died June 3 in Jewish Memorial 
Hospital as a result of injuries received 
in New York City May 31 when his 
limousine was struck by a motor truck. 
Mrs. Asche died June 1 of injuries re¬ 
ceived in the same accident. It was said, 
the Grand Jury probably will be asked 
to indict Eugene Connelly, driver of the 
motor truck which killed the Asches, on 
the charge of murder in the first degree. 
Such a charge would be based on the con¬ 
tention Connelly had stolen the truck, 
and therefore was in the act of commit¬ 
ting a felony when he killed the couple. 
The mangled bodies of Dr. C. Leroy 
Meissinger of the United States Weather 
Bureau. Washington, and Lieut. James 
T. Neely of Philadelphia, who left Scott 
Field June 2 in the army balloon S-3 
for an air test flight, were found near 
Bement, Ill., June 3. Examination of 
the wreckage confirmed the belief that 
the balloon was struck by lightning. The 
flight was undertaken to prepare a chart 
of the air at 1.000 ft. elevantion. Dr. 
Meissinger, one of the foremost Ameri¬ 
can meteorologists, went to Scott Field, 
March 30, for test flights in a free bal¬ 
loon to heights of approximately 20,000 
ft. The fatal flight was the fourth. 
WASHINGTON. — The House, May 
28, by a vote of 106 to 13S passed the 
Butler bill authorizing reconditioning of 
six battleships, construction of eight 
scout cruisers and six river gunboats, at 
a cost of $111,000,000. An amendment 
offered by Representative Britten (R. 
Ill.), to provide $6,500,000 for elevation 
of the guns on 13 battleships wae de¬ 
feated, on the ground its enactment 
would violate the spirit, if not the letter, 
of the Washington Conference Treaty. 
An amendment offered by Representative 
Hull (R., Iowa), and adopted directs 
the Secretary of the Navy to have the 
construction and repair work done in 
United States navy yards, and the Presi¬ 
dent was authorized to use his discretion 
as to employment of the armor plate fac¬ 
tory at South Charleston, W. Ya. 
An appropriation of $131,943,138, to 
meet the estimated cost of the soldiers’ 
bonus until July 1, 1925, is proposed in a 
deficiency bill reported May 30 by the 
House Appropriations Committee. Other 
items bring the measure’s total up to 
$158,196,417 or $1,S98,408 less than 
budget estimates. To carry out the pro¬ 
visions of the bonus law the Veterans’ 
Bureau would receive $1,188,500 for ad¬ 
ministrative expenses, $26,629,398 for 
adjusted service and dependent pay, and 
$100,000,000 for its adjusted compensa¬ 
tion fund. The general accounting office 
would be allowed $75,240, the Navy De¬ 
partment, $450,000, and the War Depart¬ 
ment, $3,600,000 for administration ex¬ 
penses in connection with the act. 
Approval was given by the Senate 
June 2 to a Constitutional amendment 
which would empower the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment to limit, regulate or prohibit the 
labor of children under 18 years of age. 
It previously had been approved by the 
House and now goes to the Senate 
for ratification. The vote was 61 
to 23, or five more than the necessary 
two-tliirds. Under the amendment Con¬ 
gress would have the power of regulation, 
but the enforcing power would be vested 
in the Federal and State Governments. 
The vote of three-fourths of the States 
is necessary for ratification. 
June 2 the President signed the tax 
reduction bill, but expressed his disap¬ 
proval of it, and looks for future legisla¬ 
tion to amend it. 
The public interest would be served 
best by acceptance of Henry Ford’s offer 
for the Muscle Shoals, it was asserted 
in a minority report filed June 3 by mem¬ 
bers of the Senate Agricultural Commit¬ 
tee. Senators Ladd (R, N. D.), and 
Smith (S. C.), Caraway (Ark.), Harri¬ 
son (Miss.) and Heflin (Ala.), Demo¬ 
crats, signed the report, which sharply 
assailed opponents of the proposal as hav¬ 
ing exaggerated objections to it. 
June 3 the Senate voted, 53 to 36, to 
adjourn June 7, the House having voted 
to the same effect June 2. Congress will 
not meet again until the short session in 
December. 
A substitute for the MeNary-IIaugen 
bill is now proposed. The new bill pro¬ 
poses to take $150,000,000 now in the 
War Finance Corporation, and use it to 
purchase surplus wheat and meat prod¬ 
ucts for the crop year of 1924 and for 
the fiscal meat year. These products 
are to be disposed of abroad whenever 
opportunity offers, the Government to 
stand the loss. The MeNary-IIaugen bill 
which provides for a $200,000,000 export 
corporation to regulate the sale of wheat 
and live stock products, was defeated by 
a vote of 224 to 154 following a debato 
of 15 hours. Representative Voigt, a 
Wisconsin La Follette Progressive, said 
that, in effect, it was a price-fixing 
proposition, and should be treated as 
such. 
Coming Farmers’ Meetings 
June 18.-—Annual field day, New Jer¬ 
sey Agricultural College and Experi¬ 
ment Station, New Brunswick, N. J. 
July 14-15.—New York State Vege¬ 
table Growers’ Association, first Summer 
meeting, Mineola, L. I. Secretary T. H. 
Townsend, Waterville, N. Y. 
Sept. 22-28.—Fifteenth annual Dairy 
Cattle Congress, Waterloo, Iowa. 
Sept. 27-Oct. 4.—National Dairy Ex¬ 
position, Milwaukee, Wis. 
Nov. 1-8.—Fourteenth annual Pacific 
International Live Stock Exposition, 
Portland, Ore. 
The first Summer meeting of the New 
York State Vegetable Growers’ Associa¬ 
tion will be held at Mineola, Nassau Co., 
Long Island, July 14-15. T. H. Town¬ 
send, secretary, Waterville, N. Y. 
Boils and Their Cure 
The last time I had boils was in 190S. 
A druggist gave me about 6 oz. of medi¬ 
cine and some good advice. I took both. 
The advice was to chew my food thor¬ 
oughly, drink very little, or still better, 
nothing at all with my meals, but be 
sure to drink plenty of water between 
meals. I did so and have not had a boil 
since. It was sensible advice. Eating 
in a hurry, swashing the half-chewed 
food down into the stomach in a half- 
prepared manner, is bad practice for any¬ 
one, causing either indigestion or boils or 
both. w. c. w. 
A Cemetery for Pet Animals Near New York City 
