156 
Iht  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
February  3,  1923 
All  Sorts 
Meeting  the  Fuel  Shortage 
The  picture  ou  this  page  may  give  some 
of  our  country  readers  an  idea  of  how  the 
suburbanites  living  near  the  big  cities  are 
trying  to  surmount  the  fuel  situation. 
They  go  out  into  the  woods  and  try  to 
make  fuel  out  of  the  fallen  trees.  Many 
of  these  trees  are  dead  chestnuts.  That 
makes  good  kindling  when  thoroughly 
dried  out,  but  when  soggy  and  wet  the 
dead  chestnut  is  about  as  far  from  fuel  as 
spring  water.  However,  these  suburban¬ 
ites  toil  away  at  the  unfamiliar  job  of 
trying  to  cut  up  these  fallen  trees.  Two 
of  them  are  shown  at  work  in  the  pic¬ 
ture.  One  is  a  man  and  the  other  a 
woman,  and  they  are  blistering  their 
hands  trying  to  get  that  log  into  fire¬ 
wood.  The  man  is  tieing  a  rope  to  the 
end  of  the  tree.  Then  they  will  swing  it 
around  into  the  road  and  tie  it  to  the 
rear  of  their  car,  which  awaits  on  the 
road  just  beyond  the  big  tree  at  the  right. 
Then  it  will  be  hauled  home  over  the 
road  and  sawed  and  cut  up  to  fit  the 
furnace,  and,  to  add  to  the  interest  of 
the  story,  it  may  be  said  that  this  pic¬ 
ture  was  taken  on  Sunday,  December  31. 
We  are  not  prepared  to  say  whether  this 
industrious  pair  had  full  ownership  in  the 
tree  or  not.  At  any  rate,  there  will  not 
be  much  left  of  it  beside  ashes  as  soon 
as  they  can  get  it  cut  up  and  dried  out. 
The  shortage  of  coal  is  driving  many  of 
these  suburbanites  to  all  sorts  of  new 
operations  in  order  to  get  hold  of  a  little 
fuel.  We  have  no  doubt  that  fuel  is  go¬ 
ing  the  way  of  fruit  and  vegetables  in 
Summer. 
Feeding  Pheasants  in  Winter 
I  have  about  230  acres  of  wild  land.  I 
cultivate  a  small  piece,  perhaps  an  acre 
and  a  half.  1  post  this;  do  not  allow 
any  hunting.  My  object  is  to  protect  the 
birds,  and  more  particularly  the  pheas¬ 
ants,  and  to  let  them  raise  their  young. 
Some  of  them  may  go  to  other  lands, 
where  the  sportsman  gets  them.  I  would 
like  to  know  what  is  the  very  best  feed 
for  them  in  late  Fall  and  Winter.  I  sow 
a  piece  of  buckwheat  each  year ;  when  it 
is  ripe  I  have  part  of  it  harvested,  tied 
up  in  bundles  and  put  away  in  a  building, 
and  when  the  deep  snow  comes  and  the 
birds  are  troubled  to  find  anything  to 
eat,  1  have  the  bundles  of  buckwheat 
hung  on  the  bushes  and  trees  for  the  birds 
to  harvest  the  buckwheat.  Can  you  tell 
me  if  there  is  anything  better  for  the 
pheasants?  I  want  to  know  what  is  the  . 
best  way  to  feed  them  in  the  Winter; 
what  food  to  put  out  for  them,  and  how 
to  put  it  out  when  the  snow  is  deep  on 
the  ground.  The  buckwheat  that  I  put 
out  is  always  taken  by  something.  The 
birds  can  gather  from  the  bundles  hung 
ou  the  tree.  We  have  flushed  pheasants 
out  of  the  buckwheat  fields,  so  we  think 
they  might  get  a  share  of  it. 
Pennsylvania.  j.  e.  patterson. 
The  buckwheat  is  good  feed,  and  a  crop 
of  Canada  peas  and  oats  seeded  in  August 
would  also  help.  This  could  be  cut  in 
bundles  and  hung  up  like  the  buckwheat, 
or  left  in  the  field  for  the  birds  to  har¬ 
vest.  They  will  get  most  of  the  grain, 
though  the  crows  and  other  winged 
thieves  will  get  some  of  it. 
Poisoned  Pie  Insurance 
As  one  of  your  readers  it  is  not  often 
I  have  an  opportunity  of  picking  you  up 
ou  anything  appearing  in  your  columns,- 
but  when  I  do.  the  temptation  is  so  great 
I  just  cannot  let  it  slip  by.  On  page 
1439,  in  an  article  headed  “Insurance 
Against  Poisoned  Pies,”  you  say:  “Just 
how  an  insurance  company  can  guarantee 
pure  pies  is  too  much  for  the  ordinary 
mind  to  figure  out.”  You  carry  fire  in¬ 
surance.  Does  that  guarantee  you  will 
not  have  a  fire?  You  carry  automobile 
insurance.  Does  that  guarantee  you  will 
not  have  an  accident?  You  carry  life  in¬ 
surance.  Does  that  guarantee  you  will 
not  die?  You  carry  accident  and  health 
insurance.  Does  that  guarantee  you  will 
not  be  injured  or  ill?  Nothing  of  the 
sort,  and  no  company  ever  guaranteed 
“pure  pies”  or  ever  pretended  to.  The 
insurance  most  likely  referred  to  was  a 
liability  form  the  same  as  most  all  res¬ 
taurants  carry,  also  dentists,  physicians 
drug  stores,  and,  in  fact,  about  all  lines 
of  business.  Horace  s.  bull. 
New  York. 
Clearing  Water 
I  note  the  inquiry  of  II.  B.  B.  about 
clearing  water.  I  have  had  experience 
in  artesian  well  and  suburban  water¬ 
works,  and  perhaps  I  can  help  him.  The 
condition  he  mentions  may  be  caused  by 
compressed  air  in  the  water.  Does  the 
water,  upon  being  drawn  from  the  fau¬ 
cet,  sparkle  and  effervescence  slightly, 
like  soda  water,  and  clear  itself  within, 
say  three  minutes  after  being  drawn, 
without  leaving  any  sediment  in  the 
glass?  If  so,  it  is  compressed  air.  Water 
with  compressed  air  in  it  will  sometimes 
be  as  white  as  milk  when  first  drawn. 
If  sediment  appears  in  the  glass  after 
the  water  has  been  allowed  to  stand 
a  while,  the  trouble  probably  is  that  the 
end  of  the  suction  pipe  to  his  pump  is 
too  near  the  bottom  of  his  well.  The  end 
of  the  suction  pipe  should  not  be  less 
than  15  ft.  from  the  bottom  of  the  well; 
20  ft.  is  better.  I  shall  be  glad  to  help 
him  further  if  he  wishes. 
New  York.  george  c.  chase. 
Collecting  Fuel  from  Fallen  Trees 
Kodak  JVelcomes  IV inter 
There’s  a  tang  to  the  air  and  a  zest  to  the  occa¬ 
sion  that  give  life  and  action  to  the  picvt  res  you  make. 
Winter  prints  contribute  prized  pages  to  your 
album. 
And  it’s  all  easy  the  Kodak  way — and  all  fun. 
Autographic  Kodaks  $6.50  up 
Eastman  Kodak  Company,  Rochester,  N.Y. 
The  Bell  System's  transcontinental  telephone  line  crossing  Nevada 
Highways  of  Speech 
Necessity  made  the  United  States  a  nation  of 
pioneers.  Development  came  to  us  only  by  conquer¬ 
ing  the  wilderness.  For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  we 
have  been  clearing  farms  and  rearing  communities 
where  desolation  was — bridging  rivers  and  making 
roads,  civilizing  and  populating  step  by  step,  three 
million  square  miles  of  country.  One  of  the  results 
has  been  the  scattering  of  families  in  many  places - 
the  separation  of  parents  and  children,  of  brother  and 
brother,  by  great  distances. 
To-day,  millions  of  us  live  and  make  our  success  in 
places  far  from  those  where  we  were  born,  and  even 
those  of  us  who  have  remained  in  one  place  have  rela¬ 
tives  and  friends  who  are  scattered  in  other  parts. 
Again,  business  and  industry  have  done  what 
families  have  done — they  have  spread  to  many  places 
and  made  connections  in  still  other  places. 
Obviously,  this  has  promoted  a  national  community 
of  every-day  interest  which  characterizes  no  other 
nation  in  the  world.  It  has  given  the  people  of  the 
whole  country  the  same  kind,  if  not  the  same  degree, 
of  interest  in  one  another  as  the  people  of  a  single  city 
have.  It  has  made  necessary  facilities  of  national 
communication  which  keep  us  in  touch  with  the  whole 
country  and  not  just  our  own  part  of  it. 
The  only  telephone  service  which  can  adequately 
serve  the  needs  of  the  nation  is  one  whi  h  brings  all 
of  the  people  within  sound  of  one  another’s  voices. 
“Bell  System”  1 
American~Telephone_and  Telegraph  Company 
And  Associated  Companies 
One  Policy,  One  System,  Universal  Service,  and  all  directed 
toward  Better  Service 
