Tht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
901 
Things  To  Think  About 
The  Home  Dressmaker 
A  Defense  of  the  Farm  Bureau 
L  have  been  very  much  surprised  to 
see  under  the  heading  of  “Things  to 
Think  About”  in  your  paper  that  varied 
writers  in  discussing  the  general  farm 
situation,  seem  to  condemn  the  Farm 
Bureau.  In  fact  Mr.  Cummings  of  New 
York  State,  page  744,  says  that  he  hardly 
knows  that  it  exists.  I  would  like  to 
ask  Mr.  Cummings  whose' fault  this  is? 
The  Farm  Bureau  is  an  organization 
of  farmers,  run  by  the  farmers  through 
their  elected  executive  committee  for  the 
benefit  of  farmer,  both  members  and  non¬ 
members.  It  is  partly  supported  by 
County,  State,  and  national  funds,  and 
it  will  be  just  as  good,  bad,  or  indif¬ 
ferent  as  its  members  can  make  it.  I 
would  like  to  ask  Mr.  Cummings  if  he  is 
a  member  of  the  Farm  Bureau?  Is  he 
in  close  communication  with  the  com¬ 
mitteemen  for  his  district?  M  hen  in 
town  does  he  drop  in  the  office  for  a 
friendly  chat  with  the  County  Agent .  I 
have  known  quite  a  few  of  these  young 
County  Agents  in  New  York  State,  and 
a  brighter  lot  of  hustling,  energetic,  up- 
to-the-minute  young  men  you  could  not 
find  the  country  over.  The  only  trouble 
lies  in  the  fact  that  big  business  finds 
them  out  and  takes  them  away  from  the 
work. 
Do  we  sit  at  home  and  say  that  we 
get  no  benefit  from  the  church  or  the 
school?  We  get  out  no  more  than  we 
put  in  these  things,  the  Farm  Bureau 
included.  ,  , 
The  Farm  Bureau  is  largely  educa¬ 
tional  and  here  in  Nassau  County,  Long 
Island,  it  has  been  the  means  of  untold 
good  to  the  farmers.  We  are  principally 
liotato  growers,  and  before  we  had  a 
Farm  Bureau  not  one  per  cent  of  our 
farmers  sprayed  for  blight.  The  agent 
went  out  and  conducted  tests  on  a  num¬ 
ber  of  farms,  and  proved  right  on  the 
fauns  before  the  men’s  eyes,  _  the  great 
gain  from  spraying.  Today  75  per  cent 
of  our  potato  acreage  is  sprayed  or 
dusted.  The  yearly  gain  amounts  to 
several  hundred  thousand  bushels. 
We  are  large  users  of  high-grade 
chemical  fertilizer.  During  the  war, 
several  of  the  farmers,  assisted  by  the 
Farm  Bureau,  formed  a  co-operative  as¬ 
sociation  to  buy  chemicals  and  to  home- 
mix  them.  Since  then  we  have  mixe.l 
about  2.000  tons  per  year  at  a  saving  of 
from  $9  to  $20  per  ton. 
We  buy  all  our  seed  potatoes  from  the 
North.  About  150,000  bushels  are  pur¬ 
chased  each  Spring,  and  a  sorry  lot  was 
some  of  it.  All  the  farmers  asked  was, 
"Is  it  Maine  or  New  York  State  seed?” 
The  agent  from  the  Farm  Bureau  went 
out  on  some  of  the  farms  and  helped  the 
farmers  to  test  out  different  sources  of 
seed.  Certified  seed  from  all  different 
seed  producing  States  was  tested,  and 
the  farmer  saw  before  his  eyes  a  differ¬ 
ence  of  50  to  200  bushels  per  acre  in  the 
yield  of  seed  from  different  growers.  To¬ 
day  that  same  farmer  who  formerly 
talked  of  State  and  Maine  seed  talks  of 
the  percentage  of  mosaic,  of  leaf-roll,  of 
rhizoctonia,  of  yellow  dwarf ;  he  goes  on 
the  annual  potato  tour,  inspects  the  test 
plots  with  the  plant  pathologists  from 
the  several  States  and  from  Canada, 
meets  and  talks  with  the  men  growing 
certified  seed  in  New  Brunswick,  Maine, 
New  Y'ork.  Vermont,  Minnesota,  and 
Michigan. 
You  will  answer,  “The  Farm  Bureau 
did  not  discover  these  things.  Cornell 
and  Geneva  told  us  about  home  mixing, 
spraying  and  all  the  rest,  long  ago.”  Yes, 
but  who  came  to  the  farmers  on  their 
farms,  and  showed  them  every  detail? 
Who  put  the  whole  thing  across?  The 
Farm  Bureau  and  the  County  Agent! 
A.  THOMAS  POWELL. 
Daylight  Saving  and  Chickens 
I  admire  your  paper  and  read  it  al¬ 
most  religiously  every  week ;  in  fact  I 
think  that  I  devote  more  time  to  it  than 
to  any  other  agricultural  publication 
that  comes  into  our  home.  But  I  can¬ 
not  understand  your  attitude  towards 
daylight  saving  when  you  give  poultry 
keeping  so  much  space  and  due  promi¬ 
nence.  This  because  I  believe  that  this 
advance  of  time  in  Summer  is  the  best 
thing  that  Uncle  Sam  ever  did  for  the 
chickens,  as  well  as  the  poultry  raisers 
themselves. 
Broods  of  growing  chickens  are  gener¬ 
ally  confined  in  small  coops  and  pens  for 
the  night,  this  to  keep  out  marauders, 
such  as  skunks,  rats,  minks,  foxes,  cats, 
stray  dogs  and  all  animals  that  prowl  in 
search  of  food  in  the  dark.  The  chicks 
are  released  in  the  morning,  the  earlier 
the  better,  but  generally  at  the  conven¬ 
ience  of  the  attendant,  if  a  hired  man. 
when  he  comes  to  work. 
The  broods  always  get  in  early,  be¬ 
fore  sundown  and  are  ready  to  get  up 
and  out  the  first  streak  of  dawn.  This 
at  the  present  time,  June  12.  is  not  far 
from  3  o’clock  a.  m.  From  this  time  on 
they  must  stand  and  wait,  perhaps  crowd 
in  ill-ventilated  coops  for  four  or  five 
hours,  or  until  such  time  as  the  belated 
caretaker  gets  around  to  release  them, 
while  the  early  worm,  the  tender,  dew- 
sprinkled  grass  and  all  outdoors  invites 
them  to  spend  the  morning  in  luxurious 
revelry.  Think  what  this  means  to  a 
bunch  of  healthy  growing  chickens.  Any¬ 
thing  that  you  can  do  to  get  chickens  out 
of  their  prisons- one  hour  earlier  in  the 
morning  is  of  more  importance  to  them 
than  whether  or  not  they  will  have  arti¬ 
ficial  light  next  Winter  to  urge  them  in 
egg  production. 
Several  years  ago  the  poultry  depart¬ 
ment  of  an  institution  that  is  now  de¬ 
crying  the  use  of  daylight  saving  was 
losing  a  large  number  of  chickens  and 
looking  for  the  reason  .why.  The  food 
was  good  and  the  feeding  of  it  properly 
done,  the  coops  were  clean  and  comfort¬ 
able,  still  the  mortality  list  grew  and 
grew  as  the  season  wore  on.  The  boys 
who  had  the  care  of  the  chicks  were  good 
sociable  fellows ;  they  talked  about  the 
loss  and  gave  various  reasons.  They  did 
not  retire  early,  neither  did  they  get  no 
and  out  until  they  must  or  miss  their 
breakfast.  As  a  result  when  they  got 
their  working  clothes  on  it  was  often 
around  8 :30  before  the  chicks  received 
any  thought  or  attention,  Sundays  later. 
So  that  from  five  to  six  hours  of  a  chick¬ 
en’s  day  was  gone  when  they  were  let  out 
for  food  and  water.  No  wonder  many  of 
them  became  discouraged  and  died. 
I  know  you  will  say  that  people  hav¬ 
ing  the  care  of  chicks  ought  to  be  made 
to  get  up  earlier  whether  or  not  we  have 
daylight  saving,  but  you  know  too  that 
the  majority  do  not  get  out  of  their  beds 
until  they  must  or  lose  their  job,  and  the 
clock  always  has  the  best  of  the  argu¬ 
ment  with  them.  By  pushing  the  time 
ahead  one  hour  lawfully  is  the  best  plan 
not  only  for  saving  daylight,  but  saving 
many  of  the  chicks  that  will  increase 
Poultry  production  and  result  in  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number 
later  on.  d.  j.  lambert. 
Starting  with  the  Babies 
I  notice  a  woman  teacher  addressing  a 
meeting  of  educators  in  Chicago  a  few 
days  ago  urged  a  change  in  the  school 
system  which  would  send  children  to  kin¬ 
dergarten  between  the  ages  of  two  and 
five  years.  .She  said  that  mothers  were 
quite  untrained,  and  unfit  to  give  the 
scientific  care  of  a  teacher,  and  that  the 
child  ought  to  be  given  over  to  scientific 
educators  from  the  age  of  two.  r. 
Summer  Once  More. — With  the  warm 
weather  of  early  June  Summer  clothes 
blossomed  out,  though  furs  were 
still  to  be  seen.  We  had  wondered  a  lit¬ 
tle  whether  the  sleeveless  dresses  dis¬ 
played  among  the  new  styles  would  be 
worn  freely  on  the  street,  for  which  they 
did  not  seem  suitable,  but  warm  weather 
brought  them  out  everywhere.  These 
low-necked  sleeveless  gowns  are  really  no 
scantier  than  fashions  our  great-grand¬ 
mothers  favored  a  century  ago,  but  at 
that  time  they  were  not  worn  on  the 
street  without  a  pelerine  or  wrap.  They 
do  not  really  look  cool  on  dusty  city 
streets,  for  the  perspiring  wearers  too 
often  look  as  though  they  needed  a  bath. 
There  is  another  class  of  sleeveless  dresses 
intended  for  wearing  over  a  blouse,  and 
these  are  very  pretty  and  sensible. 
Sleeveless  jackets  for  sports  wear,  and 
sleeveless  linen  riding  habits,  are  also 
intended  for  Summer  wear  over  a  blouse. 
Short  skirts  are  dead  for  the  present, 
but  we  are  promised  in  the  future  skirts 
with  a  line  of  trimming  at  the  knee, 
£ 
Some  Attractive  Sport  Clothes 
11  woiuu  ue  interesting  to  learn  liow 
many  children  that  woman  ever  had  or 
how  many  she  has  brought  up!  The 
chances  are  that,  as  they  say  in  the 
South,  " she’s  just  telling  about  it."  Of 
course  there  are  some  foolish  or  even  im¬ 
moral  mothers,  ’but  in  the  great  majority 
of  cases  the  child  should  remain  with  its 
mother  just  as  long  as  possible.  No 
other  person  in  the  world  is  so  well  qual¬ 
ified  to  give  the  little  one  that  human  ele¬ 
ment  so  necessary  in  man  or  woman.  We 
notice  more  and  more  of  this  determina¬ 
tion  to  remove  children  from  home  and 
parental  control.  The  idea  is  to  estab¬ 
lish  education  more  and  more  on  a  sort  of 
communistic  plan.  This  would  tend  to 
change  the  child  into  a  little  machine, 
and  would  go  far  to  destroy  family  life 
as  a  unit.  This  tendency  to  try  to  move 
children  away  from  their  home  life  is 
very  evident  among  many  of  our  modern 
educators,  especially  those  who  have 
never  had  children  of  their  own.  It  is 
in  line  with  the  demand  for  compulsory 
consolidation  of  rural  schools.  For  some 
reason  the  experts  and  educators  seem 
to  want  our  children  away  from  home  in¬ 
fluences  The  woman  who  would  start 
with  the  babies  of  two  years  is  only  a 
little  further  along  the  road  which  mod¬ 
ern  education  is  traveling.  If  they  have 
their  own  way  in  this,  the  coming  genera¬ 
tion  will  not  be  able  to  enjoy  its  children 
at  all.  We  may  have  the  privilege  of 
bringing  them  into  the  world  and  paying 
the  price  of  education,  but  they  will  not 
be  the  simple  and  natural  children  of 
older  generations. 
Sunday  Selling  on  Roadside  Markets 
I  note  the  discussion  going  on  in  The 
i'}-» in  r,e^rd  *0  “Sunday  Roadside 
Markets,  and  the  following  incident  may 
throw  a  little  light  on  the  subject.  I  do 
not  .  know-  of  an  instance  where  Sunday 
business  has  paid  more  than  temporarily. 
A  number  of  years  ago  in  a  Western 
city  one  of  the  largest  druggists  in  town, 
whom  I  know  personally  quite  well,  asked 
me  if  I  could  explain  why  it  was  that  a 
soda  water  department  had  been  produc¬ 
es  greater  profits  since  he  had  discon¬ 
tinued  selling  soda  water  on  Sunday.  lie 
had  one  of  the  finest  locations  in  town, 
and  one  of  the  best  soda  fountains,  and 
kept  a  separate  cash  register  for  this  de¬ 
partment.  He  said  that  his  Sunday 
sales  had  always  been  twice  as  large  as 
any  day  in  the  week,  so  that  it  was  al¬ 
most  equal  to  cutting  off  25  per  cent  of 
his  soda  water  business.  He  closed  his 
soda  water  and  cigar  stand  on  Sunday  at 
the.  request  of  his  wife  on  her  deathbed. 
It  is  one  of  the  things  which  we  cannot 
understand,  except  the  promise  that  “they 
that  honor  Me,  I  will  honor,  saith  the 
Lord.” 
I  was  raised  in  the  most  Puritanical 
fashion,  and  maybe  I  Lave  departed  far¬ 
ther  from  this  training  than  I  should,  do¬ 
ing  some  things  on  Sunday  which  would 
not  be  strictly  approved  according  to 
Puritanical  rules,  but  I  strictly  refuse  to 
do  business  on  Sunday.  ’  n.  s.  v. 
which  will  take  off  the  appearance  oi 
length.  Clothing  manufacturers  ar< 
planning  for  Winter  coats  rather  that 
suits  next  season  without  belts  and  wit! 
plenty  of  fur  trimming.  But  just  al 
present  tailored  suits  take  the  form  oi 
sport  clothes,  and  here  we  find  plenty  oi 
ideas,  both  pretty  and  practical  foi 
country  wear. 
Suggestions  in  Jackets.  —  In  th( 
first  picture,  the  figure  at  the  lefl 
shows  a  little  flannel  coat  that  is  reallj 
a  return  to  the  blazers  everyone  was^ 
wearing,  a  generation  ago.  The  materia 
was  white  flannel  with  an  emerald  green 
stripe,  the  coat  a  loose  box  style  with 
turnffiack  cuffs  and  rolled  collar.  Th< 
only  unusual  feature  was  the  way  tin 
bottom  of  the  coat  was  finished  with  an 
upturned  band.'  This  was  faced  on  at 
the  bottom,  and  left  loose  at  tbe  top 
merely  caught  at  intervals  by  green  silk 
buttons,  forming  a  sort  of  pocket  ali 
around.  There  was  no  fastening.  Such 
a  jacket  is  just  the  thing  to  slip  over  a 
cotton  or  linen  gown,  and  the  stripes  are 
prettier  than  the  vivid  solid  colors  so 
popular  last  year.  These  flannel  coats- 
are  unlined,  and  not  beyond  the  skill 
of  a  home  dressmaker.  As  shown  it  was 
worn  over  a  plain  dress  of  white  linen. 
The  small  poke  hat  shown,  with  a  mass 
of  ribbon  bows  at  the  back,  is  a  style 
now  very  popular.  There  is  a  decided 
tendency  to  put  ribbon  trimming  at  the 
back  in  a  regular  fountain  of  loops. 
Some  of  the  small  poke  hats  now  worn 
are  almost  just  the  shape  of  a  Quaker 
bonnet  without  a  curtain,  though  noc 
worn  at  a  quakerish  angle. 
A  Sleeveless  Coat.— Sleeveless  coats 
and  dresses  .  are  appearing  in  great 
variety,  and  the  figure  at  the  right 
shows  a  typical  sports  suit.  The  sleeve¬ 
less  dresses  are  usually  a  skirt  and  blouse, 
rather  than  the  loose  one-piece  chemise 
dresses  so  commonly  seen  the  past  tw-o 
years.  The  suit  figured  was  a  knitted 
fabric  of  wool — not  jersey  cloth — but 
one  sees  just  the  same  style  in  knitted 
silk.  This  was  rust  color,  and  was  worn 
over  a  plain  tailored  pongee  shirt.  The 
simple  collar  and  tie,  and  plain  Bangkok 
hat  with  a  striped  band,  finished  a  smart 
outing  costume  in  excellent  taste.  Such 
suits  often  include  a  hip-length  cape  of 
the  same  material  which  provides  addi¬ 
tional  warmth  when  needed.  The  girl 
who  is  going  on  some  vacation  trip,  or 
to  spend  a  few  days  at  some  conference 
or  reunion,  will  find  such  a  suit,  in  any 
becoming  color,  exceedingly  desirable. 
Washing  Silk.  —  In  the  second  pic¬ 
ture  the  model  at  the  left  shows  a  dress 
of  the  very  popular  tub  silk  or  silk 
broadcloth  now  featured.  This  was  green 
and  white  stripes.  The  waist,  in  plain 
kimono  style,  had  a  flat  band  of  green 
silk  finishing  the  round  neck,  coming 
down  to  form  a  banding  finished  with 
buttons  in  front.  Similar  green  silk 
edged  the  sleeves  and  formed  a  narrow 
belt.  A  baud  of  green  silk  extended 
dowrn  the  left  side  of  the  skirt  and  bor¬ 
dered  the  hem.  This  was  a  very  pretty 
dress,  cool  and  simple,  and  yet  dressy. 
Such  costumes  are  much  worn  at  the 
Summer  resorts.  The  hat  pictured  was 
black  horsehair,  with  a  frilly  green  co- 
carde  in  front. 
Figured  Foulard.  —  The  model  in 
the  center  shows  another  style  of  silk 
dress — a  blue  and  white  figured  foulard. 
This  also  has  a  kimono  waist  with  round 
neck  and  short  sleeves,  but  the  front  is 
trimmed  with  a  cascading  jabot  of  the 
silk,  and  the  skirt  has  a  similar  drapery 
down  the  left  side.  This  drapery  is 
usually  very  becoming,  and  is  a  feature 
on  many  new  dresses.  The  neck,  sleeves, 
jabot  and  drapery  are  bound  with  d%k 
blue  silk.  A  smart-looking  dark  silk  is 
much  needed  in  the  Summer  wardrobe, 
and  the  one  figured  is  sufficiently  dressy, 
yet  practical.  The  hat  shown  is  a  shady 
type  in  blue  and  white  straw  cloth, 
trimmed  with  white  taffeta  ribbon  with 
a  dark  blue  picot  edge,  which  is  tied  in 
a  large  bow  at  tbe  back.  The  short 
sleeves  figured  in  both  the  silk  dresses 
are  really  quite  long,  ask  sleeves  now  go, 
for  many  dresses  of  this  type  have  no 
sleeves  at  all  !  They  are  rather  startling 
for  street  wear,  and  not  always  alluring. 
One  man  observed  to  us  that  he  had 
never  .  known  before  how  many  women 
and  girls  had  ugly  arms,  which  were  at 
their  best  when  covered  up. 
Cross-stitch  on  Gingham.  —  The 
girl’s  dress  at  the  right  is  not  novel 
in  style,  being  merely  brown  and  white 
check  gingham  with  white  linen  trim¬ 
mings,  but  the  embroidery  on  the  lower 
left  side  of  the  waist  was  so  pretty  and 
effective  that  it  was  well  worth  copying. 
It  was  a  large  dragonfly,  done  in  cross- 
stitch  in  a  green,  rust  and  orange, 
slanting  across  from  the  waist-line.  It 
is  a  simple  matter  to  do  cross-stitch  on 
gingham,  and  such  a  design  may  be  va¬ 
ried  in  color  according  to  the  fabric. 
Notes  and  Novelties.  —  Cavalier 
styles  are  seen  in  broad  brimmed  hats 
with  long  drooping  ostrich  feathers, 
and  costumes  finished  with  a  cape.  A 
favorite  style  is  Georgette  with  a  pleated 
skirt,  long  plain  waist  and  loose  hip  or 
knee-length  cape. 
Bound  buttonholes  in  house  dresses, 
rompers,  aprons  and  similar  garments 
are  attractive  in  appearance,  very  firm, 
and  are  more  quickly  made  than  a 
worked  buttonhole.  The  following  di¬ 
rections  for  making  such  buttonholes  are 
given  by  Azalea  Linfield,  exieumon  spec¬ 
ialist  in  clothing  at  the  South  Dakota 
State  College :  Mark  with  basting 
thread  the  exact  length  of  buttonholes. 
Lay  a  piece  in.  wide  and  1  in.  longer 
than  opening,  over  it  on  the  right  side 
with  the  center  to  the  basting  line.  Baste 
into  place.  Turn  to  the  wrong  side  and 
stitch  the  width  of  the  small  pressure  foot 
from  the  original  basting.  Start  at  one 
side  to  stitch,  turn  square  corners  and 
continue  to  stitch  until  rectangle  is  com¬ 
plete.  Cut  a  slit  down  the  original  bast¬ 
ing  to  *4  in.  from  end.  Then  cut  to  each 
corner,  being  careful  not  to  cut  stitches. 
Remove  basting  that  held  facing  in  place 
and  pull  the  facing  so  that  the  two  edges 
just  meet  at  the  center  of  the  opening : 
secure  folded  ends  of  the  facing  which 
extends  past  the  ends  of  the  opening.  On 
the  right  side  stitch  just  outside  the  outer 
edge  of  binding.  On  the  wrong  side  catch 
Two  Silk  Dresses  and  Cross-stitch  on 
Ghlgham 
the  stitch  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  facing. 
Overcast  edges  together  one  way,  then 
return.  Press  buttonhole  hard ;  remove 
overcasting  stitches  and  the  button  hole 
is  complete.  Set-in  pockets  for  middies 
and  skirts  are  made  in  the  same  way  as 
the  bound  buttonhole,  only  under  the  sec¬ 
ond  step  the  piece  of  material  used  is 
8  in.  wide  and  1  in.  longer  than  the  open¬ 
ing.  Instead  of  finishing  off  edges  of 
wrong  side,  as  is  done  with  the  bound  but¬ 
tonhole,  the  upper  piece  of  material  is 
creased  down  and  the  pocket  cut  the  de¬ 
sired  shape.  Make  a  plain  seam.  The 
raw  edges  may  be  bound  or  overcast,  de¬ 
pending  upon  the  material. 
Peasant  blouses  made  in  Hungary  cost 
from  $2  to  $6.75.  The  material  is  sheer 
Swiss  voile  in  white  and  colors,  embroid¬ 
ered  in  vivid  designs  and  colors  by  the 
women  in  small  Hungarian  villages.’ 
