1578 
lhe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
December  29,  1923 
A  Farm  Woman’s  Notes 
Christmas 
The  schoolhouse,  snuggling  against  the 
edge  of  a  rise,  bloomed  out  of  the  De¬ 
cember  darkness.  It  was  the  night  tor 
the  Christmas  exercises.  Daylight  would 
have  revealed  it  as  a  one-room  red  brick 
country  school,  built  like  a  church  with 
its  belfry  and  long  windows.  Good  brick 
laid  in  good  mortar  is  well  nigh  im¬ 
pervious  to  the  friction  of  weather,  to 
neglect  by  thoughtless  taxpayers,  to  (^re- 
less  moods  of  spirited  youngsters.  There 
is  a  nice  precision  apparent  in  the  laying 
of  this  brick  that  is  a  monument  to  hands 
long  since  folded. 
The  schoolhouse  seems  to  us  a  gift 
from  those  hands.  If  they  had  chosen 
material  less  durable  and  mixed  mortar 
to  save  money  we  should  have  missed  our 
heritage.  Four  generations  of  school  chil¬ 
dren  have  played  in  its  dooryard,  a  line 
descended  from  Quaker  pioneers  whose 
religion  seems  to  have  succumbed  to  the 
change  in  the  times,  but.  whose  spirit 
goes  on  unshaken.  The  initial  supply  of 
books  is  moldy  and  the  depiction  of  a 
“locomotive  engine”  draws  a  smile  from 
today’s  boys  and  girls.  If  those  first 
hand-hewed  benches  and  desks  had  been 
saved  we  might  have  looked  upon  grand¬ 
father’s  boyish  signature  cut  by  his  own 
hand  and  jackknife  in  the  soft  wood. 
Those  first  desks  were  a  challenge  to  any 
boy’s  jackknife. 
The  new  teacher  is  a  true  descendant 
of  the  old  Quaker  pioneers.  Duty  well 
done  was  known  as  one  of  their  prime 
virtues.  So  after  two  dark  years  tne 
schoolhouse  was  lit  for  an  evening  Christ¬ 
mas  entertainment ;  the  windows 
streamed  forth  light  that  met  us  like  a 
welcoming  hand.  Could  we  have  passed? 
I  think  not.  The  inside  of  the  school- 
house  seen  from  the  road  was  obviously 
dressed  for  a  party — it  is  a  joy  to  enter 
a  place  where  the  welcome  is  genuine. 
Elsie,  Jane,  and  little  Mark  were  passed 
out  to  me.  As  we  came  to  the  steps 
Elsie  murmured:  “We  children  made 
those  wreaths  in  the  windows,  mother ; 
I  wasn’t  to  tell  you  before.”  This  made 
us  feel  as  much  at  home  as  the  open 
coal  fire  and  the  piney  smell  of  the 
Christmas  tree.  Little  Jane  stared  at 
the  ceiling  hung  with  a  web  of  ground 
pine  and  red  paper  ribbon. 
Teacher  was  smiling  across  a  body¬ 
guard  of  excited  bobbing  heads.  I  saw 
instantly,  as  mothers  can,  that  the  chil¬ 
dren  were  loved  and  understood.  I  saw, 
too,  that  Perkins,  with  the  native  shrewd¬ 
ness  of  an  old  Southern  darkey,  had 
spoken  truly  when  he  said :  “That  lady 
is  quality — and  she’s  a  settled  woman. 
She'll  teach  yo’  school,  ma’am  !”  Teacher 
was  alighting  from  her  coupe  to  apply; 
Perkins  wrung  his  dishcloth,  turned  out 
the  dishwater  and  hurried  to  efface  him¬ 
self.  Perkins  never  allowed  quality  to 
catch  him  unawares  and  his  instinct  was 
amazing.  It  is  useless  to  command  this 
old  colored  man  to  sit  at  table  when 
quality  is  our  guest.  .  II is  one  answer  is: 
“I’m  not  hungry,  ma’am.”  Yet  he  is  too 
proud  to  lay  himself  a  plate  at  another 
table.  Is  there  not  a  grain  or  two  of 
quality  in  the  soul  of  Perkins? 
As  the  room  filled,  I  sat  there  musing 
and  analyzing  over  what  constitutes  so- 
called  “quality.”  Broadmindedness  must 
come  first — an  ability  to  perceive  a 
diamond  though  in  the  rough,  to  recog¬ 
nize  true  worth  dressed  in  rags.  Ah, 
but  that  takes  experience.  Y"et,  I  can¬ 
not  bring  myself  to  begin  with  experi¬ 
ence  ;  I  think  I  would  rather  call  it  edu¬ 
cation,  only  this  would  be  misconstrued 
as  book  learning.  Experience  is  the 
medicine.  Education  the  cure.  Experi¬ 
ence  or  book  learning  will  not  always 
cure  youth  of  its  blundering  arrogance, 
but  it  is  the  best  medicine  I  know  of.  I 
am  tempted  to  call  the  cure  humility,  not 
the  inferiority  complex,  but  a  compre¬ 
hension  of  the  scheme  of  hum  am  life  and 
the  solemn  fact  that  we  pass  this  way 
just  once.  To  some,  life  is  a  gay  ca¬ 
rouse.  to  others  it  is  a  grand  puzzle. 
But  there  !  The  room  was  nearly  full. 
I  saw  our  neighbor  who  disapproves  of 
the  cutting  of  little  trees  for  Christmas 
purposes,  looking  mournfully  at  this  tree 
loaded  with  tinsel  and  presents,  and  I 
almost  heard  him  telling  his  wife  what  a 
fine  big  tree  it  would  have  made  if  it 
had  been  allowed  to  live ;  that  it  takes 
50  years  for  nature  to  grow  a  fine  tree, 
but  only  15  minutes  to  cut  it  down.  I 
would  like  to  go  over  and  assure  him 
that  this  tree  was  cut  out  of  the  center 
of  a  thicket,  and  that  its  removal  was 
a  benefit  to  the  other  saplings.  I  think 
he  would  have  been  better  able  to  enjoy 
the  evening.  But  we  were  invited  to  give 
attention  to  the  first  number  on  the  pro¬ 
gram.  which  was  a  play. 
The  gist  of  the  plot  seemed  to  be  that 
Santa’s  wife  had  gone  for  a  ride  and  left 
him  in  charge  of  the  brownies  and  fair¬ 
ies  who  make  toys.  I  had  my  opinion 
of  Mrs.  Santa  for  going  off  in  such  a 
busy  time,  but  some  of  the  Santa’s  pre¬ 
dicaments  were  very  funny.  His  efforts 
to  make  a  dumb  brownie  understand 
made  the  whole  audience  chuckle,  and 
bis  suggestions  to  two  quarreling  fairies 
who  were  disagreeing  on  millinery  made 
us  laugh  and  turn  reminiscent.  But  it 
all  came  out  right  in  the  end. 
There  were  excellent  recitations  by  in- 
div’dual  school  children  with  shy  eyes 
and  blushing  faces,  whose  natural  tone 
of  voice  is  some  degrees  stronger  in  the 
school  yard  than  on  the  school  platform. 
I  have  found  that  some  object  held  in  the 
child’s  hand,  like  a  small  doll  or  book, 
will  help  drive  away  stage  fright.  We 
are  told  that  stave  fright  is  the  outcome 
of  vanity,  the  fear  of  making  a  fool  of 
oneself.  The  best  way  to  fight  nervous¬ 
ness  then,  is  to  fight  vanity.  Think  it 
all  over,  ponder  on  the  fact  that  your 
personality  is  not  a  drop  in  the  bucket 
of  humanity,  and  that  no  matter  how 
well  you  do,  people  will  forget  it  within 
the  week.  Kemember  that  if  you  do 
make  a  fool  of  yourself  a  hearty  laugh 
will  do  people  good,  and  they  will  re¬ 
member  you  kindly  for  it.  You  cannot 
lose  either  way. 
The  finest  thing  on  the  program  was 
the  pageant  of  the  first  Christmas.  We 
saw  Mary  and  Joseph  refused  admit¬ 
tance,  and  the  angels  that  heralded  the 
Christ  Child’s  birth.  There  were  the  as¬ 
tonished  shepherds  in  their  animal  skins 
provided  by  some  of  the  homes  in  the 
district.  Music,  the  hymns  of  Christ- 
mastide,  were  sung  by  children’s  voices, 
marched  to  by  children’s  feet,  while  a 
violin  played  softly  somewhere  high  and 
sweet  to  an  organ  accompaniment.  It 
left  us  all  feeling  like  the  little  tot  who 
recited  the  last  piece  on  the  program : 
“Do  you  suppose  Santa  Claus 
Loves  a  little  girl  like  me? 
Sometimes  when  I  feel  like  pinchin’ 
Sereechin’  and  a  fightin’  mean, 
I  just  wonder  if  there’ll  be 
Somethin’  on  the  Christmas  tree 
fer  me.” 
And  Santa  Claus  walked  right  into 
the  schoolhouse.  It  was  a  genuine  sur¬ 
prise  to  the  children.  ’No  one  knew  what 
particular  member  of  the  neighborhood 
was  masquerading  as  Santa.  Little  Mar¬ 
cus  would  have  given  the  secret  away  by 
his  joyous  waving  of  hands  whenever 
Santa  "stepped  near,  if  anyone  had  been 
watching,  but  everyone  was  looking  at 
the  dispenser  of  gifts.  A  pleasant  bus¬ 
tle  filled  the  room  as  packages  were 
opened  and  children  murmured  happily 
over  their  contents.  It  is  a  precious, 
momentous  time.  Santa  Claus  was  very 
efficient  in  getting  'everything  off  the 
tree.  There  was  one  bag  of  candy  to 
spare  which  was  donated  to  baby  Mark. 
But  instead  of  receiving  the  tiny  net  bag 
he  held  out  both  arms  to  Santa  Claus, 
mask  and  all.  “Da-da !”  he  announced 
for  the  benefit  of  whoever  wished  to  hear. 
Whereupon  everv  one  smiled  and  said : 
“That’s  his  father!” 
Of  course  the  room  must  have  looked 
a  frightful  mess  the  next  morning,  but 
there  were  many  willing  hands  waiting 
for  permission  to  help,  for  the  children 
are  responsive  to  love  and  courage. 
MRS.  F.  H.  UNGER. 
Growth  of  the  Soil 
This  is  not  a  new  book,  but  it  is  a  re¬ 
cent  book,  and  has,  I  think,  been  men¬ 
tioned  in  the  pages  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  be¬ 
fore.  So  great  a  work,  however,  may  be 
noticed  more  than  once.  When  we  con¬ 
sider  that  it  was  written  by  the  greatest 
of  present-day  Norwegian  writers,  and 
was  awarded  a  $40,000  prize  as  being  the 
best  produced  in  the  literary  world  for 
a  certain  period,  we  feel  sure  that  it  is 
a  work  of  merit,  but  I  wish  that  I  might 
have  come  upon  it  by  chance,  not  know¬ 
ing  what  others  thought  of  it.  Would  I 
have  recognized  its  greatness?  I’m  quite 
sure  I  would.  It  seems  hardly  right  to 
call  it  a  novel,  any  more  than  it  would 
seem  right  to  call  the  story  of  Jacob  a 
novel.  It  is  epic  in  its  sweep.  Its  theme 
is  man’s  alliance  with  and  dependence 
upon  Nature.  It  recounts  the  beginning 
and  gradual  development  of  a  farm  home 
in  the  wilds  of  Northern  Norway,  but  it 
might  have  been  true,  with  variations,  in 
any  country  of  the  temperate  zone. 
A  man — a  great  “barge  of  a  man”  the 
translator  calls  him — alone,  with  only 
such  implements  as  he  can  carry  on  his 
back,  probably  an  ax  and  a  spade,  seeks 
a  favorable  spot  in  the  wilderness,  two 
or  three  days’  journey  through  the  forest 
from  the  little  village.  He  makes  his  first 
home  beneath  a  jutting  rock,  his  bed  a 
pile  of  pine  boughs.  We  follow  him 
through  discouragements  and  successes, 
through  unbelievable  struggles  and  hard¬ 
ships,  through  drought  and  despair,  to 
final  triumph  and  prosperity  and  peace. 
At  the  end  we  see  him  with  flocks  and 
herds,  great  barns,  modern  machinery,  a 
comfortable  home  for  himself  and  wife 
and  children  and  servants,  and  building 
another  house  for  the  time  when  his  son 
shall  marry  and  take  up  the  work  of  the 
farm.  All  this  the  growth  of  the  soil, 
won  by  a  man  who  patiently,  persistent- 
lly  strove  hand  in  hand  with  nature,  who 
realized  the  dependence  of  all  human  life 
upon  the  yield  of  the  earth. 
We,  as  farmers,  should  feel  an  added 
pride  in  our  calling  when  we  see  that 
those  who  judge  literature  recognize  the 
worth  of  such  a  book.  Then,  too.  as 
farmers,  we  can  appreciate  the  signifi¬ 
cance  of  the  work.  Everyone  of  our 
farms  was  in  the  beginning  a  part  of  the 
wilderness,  but  most  of  us  have  lost  sight 
of  those  early  struggles,  and  to  only  a 
few  pioneers  is  it  given  to  see  such  grat¬ 
ifying  results  in  their  own  generation, 
but  it  may  and  does  happen. 
It  does  not  require  a  unique  plot  nor 
flowery  language  to  make  a  book  great 
and  give  it  a  large  life.  It  is  the  univer¬ 
sal  appeal  and  application  of  its  subject, 
clothed  in  suitable  words  which  consti¬ 
tute  great  literature.  What  real  farmer 
can  read  the  account  in  his  book  of  Isak’s 
struggle  to  dig  out  the  great  stone  and 
not  sweat  and  grunt  in  sympathv  with 
him,  and  feel  with  him  his  determination 
not  to  be  beaten  by  a  mere  rock  which 
refused  to  budge — and  what  farmer’s 
wife  can  repress  a  smile  at  his  lordly 
pretense  that  he  knew  all  the  time  that  it 
was  flat  on  the  under  side  and  he  chose 
it  for  that  reason  ! 
When  the  bull  was  let  out  by  mistake 
with  the  heifer,  we  know  the  consterna¬ 
tion  which  followed,  but  my  dear  friend, 
who  is  city  bred  and  whose  only  rela¬ 
tions  with  nature  are  by  proxy,  says  a 
book  which  mentions  such  things  is  dis¬ 
gusting.  Maybe  it  is.  but  it  is  part  of 
the  day’s  work  on  the  farm,  and  half  of 
us.  must  endure  these  disgusting  (?) 
things  that  the  other  half  may  eat. 
A  book  often  loses  force  or  beauty  by 
being  translated.  Not  knowing  the  Nor¬ 
wegian  language.  I  cannot  say  about  this 
one,  but  I  imagine  that  the  translator  has 
rather  polished  and  toned  down  for  us 
some  of  the  parts  which  would  otherwise 
shock  our  so-called  refined  sensibilities. 
We  find,  too,  that  people  for  the  most 
part  enjoy  best  to  read  of  what  is  remote 
from  their  experience,  but  close  to  their 
desires.  A  poor  shopgirl  cares  to  read 
only  of  the  life  of  duchesses  and  the  lov¬ 
ers  in  “high  society.”  The  farm  boy  reads 
with  zest  of  city  life  or  the  doings  of 
chore-free  soldiers  of  fortune.  If  this  is 
true.  “Growth  of  the  Soil”  will  not  find 
many  readers  in  the  country,  but  we  all 
ought  to  know  that  such  a  book  exists, 
and  is  so  “well  thought  of”  as  to  occupy 
a  place  of  prominence  in  the  book  world. 
There  must  be  readers  of  The  R.  N.-Y. 
who  could  read  this  book  in  the  original 
Norwegian,  and  some  to  whom  the  scenes, 
customs  and  mode  of  life  are  familiar. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  know  their  esti¬ 
mate  of  the  value  of  the  book  and  their 
opinion  of  the  judgment  of  those  who 
have  given  it  high  honor.  G.  T.  s. 
Countrywide  Produce  Situation 
OUTLOOK  FOR  FAIRLY  STEADY  PRICES — 
FARMER’S  DOLLAR  BUYS  A  LITTLE  MOKE 
— GRAIN  AND  MEAT  PRODUCTS  STILL 
WEAK - SOUTHERN  TRUCK  CROPS  UNDER 
WAY. 
As  the  season  settles  into  Winter  con 
ditions  the  general  outlook  for  leading 
products  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few 
lines.  Corn  ought  to  hold  its  price  on  ac¬ 
count  of  heavy  demand  for  feeding.  This 
demand  depends  on  continued  activity  of 
consumption  of  pork,  lard,  eggs  and  dairy 
products.  Cattle  and  hog  prices  are  un¬ 
certain  owing  to  heavy  supply,  but  pro¬ 
duction  is  using  up  the  corn  surplus. 
Eggs,  butter  and  lamb  promise  to  main¬ 
tain  fairly  good  markets.  Milk  producers 
suffer  from  hay  shortage,  high  cost  and 
over-production,  and  the  situation  is  un¬ 
settled.  Cotton  and  wool  are  likely  to 
stay  high.  Hay  and  potatoes  promise  to 
hold  about  the  same.  Apples  as  usual 
should  advance  slowly  throughout  the 
Winter,  despite  the  liberal  but  steadily 
decreasing  supply.  The  combined  show¬ 
ing  of  leading  crops  is  rather  good,  at  a 
value  of  about  a  billion  dollars  on  the 
farm.  To  get  that  much  out  of  them  is 
another  matter. 
farmer’s  DOLLAR  RISING 
Prices  of  farm  products  have  been  ris¬ 
ing  slowly.  A  dollar’s  worth  will  buy  as 
much  of  what  the  farmer  needs  as  75 
cents’  worth  would  buy  before  the  war. 
This  compares  with  64  cents  at  the  worst 
time  in  1021.  In  other  words,  the  farm¬ 
er’s  dollar  has  advanced  11  cents  since 
1021.  so  far  as  concerns  its  power  to  buy 
what  he  needs.  Farming  regions  are 
fairly  cheerful  except  in  the  wheat  States 
and  the  Pacific  Northwest,  where  farmers 
find  it  hard  to  pay  their  bills  because  of 
high  cost  and  low  net  returns  for  live 
stock,  wheat,  potatoes  and  apples. 
WEAK  SPOTS 
Wheat  is  still  the  weakest  spot,  because 
Europe  is  buying  less  and  paying  lower 
prices  on  account  of  poverty  and  by  rea¬ 
son  of  increased  competition  among  wheat 
growing  countries.  Our  wheat  farmers 
are  shifting  somewhat  to  corn,  live  stock, 
poultry,  flax  and  potatoes,  thus  in  turn 
tending  to  increase  production  in  these 
lines.  Meat  products  are  another  weak 
spot.  Pork  and  lard  have  been  going  to 
Europe  in  great  quantity,  but  present 
prices  Of  hogs  and  cattle  would  have 
seemed  rather  low  even  before  the  war. 
They  will  swap  for  only  about  half  as 
much  in  general  farming  supplies  as  10 
years  ago.  Farmers  who  produce  eggs 
and  butter  are  holding  their  own,  while 
growers  of  cotton  and  wool  still  lead  the 
list  in  purchasing  power. 
How  long  these  conditions  last  must 
depend  considerably  on  the  progress  of 
Europe.  Meanwhile  this  country  is  grow¬ 
ing  rapidly  in  population  and  will  be  us¬ 
ing  more  wheat  and  other  food  products 
year  by  year.  Perhaps  wheat  land  bought 
now  will  turn  out  to  be  a  good  investment 
for  the  long  pull,  regardless  of  foreign 
markets,  but  just  now  the  outlook  seems 
best  for  producers  of  cotton,  wool,  eggs, 
butter  and  fruit.  ' 
POTATOES  IN  STEADY  POSITION 
The  potato  markets  continued  to  sag 
in  price  until  about  the  middle  of  Decem¬ 
ber,  when  they  seemed  to  have  reached  a 
more  steady  position  on  account  of  a  fall¬ 
ing  off  in  shipments.  The  carlot  move¬ 
ment  up  to  the  end  of  the  year  has  been 
just  about  as  heavy  as  last  year.  If  the 
crop  is  much  lighter  than  last  year,  as 
reported,  the  pressure  of  supplies  should 
be  less  severe  from  now  on.  Prices  are 
still  10  to  30  cents  higher  per  100  lbs. 
than  a  year  ago,  and  the  outlook  is  by  no 
means  so  hopeless  as  at  that  time,  be¬ 
cause  the  greater  part  of  the  crop  has  al¬ 
ready  gone  to  market.  Onions  and  cab¬ 
bage  have  given  a  good  account  of  them¬ 
selves.  They  are  mostly  out  of  growers’ 
hands  now.  Probably  three-fourths  of 
the  remaining  supply  of  potatoes  is  held 
by  the  growers  because  dealers  would  not 
take  them  over  at  fair  prices. 
PLANTING  MORE  TRUCK 
The  great  early  trucking  States,  Flor¬ 
ida,  Texas  and  California,  have  their 
crops  well  under  way  by  the  first  of  the 
year.  Early  truck  growers  as  a  class  re¬ 
ceived  fairly  high  prices  last  season,  but 
their  enthusiasm  was  checked  by  heavy 
damage  from  bad  weather  conditions. 
They  are  planting  more  potato  land  and 
a  little  more  land  to  Bermuda  onions  and 
to  early  tomatoes,  and  they  are  going  in 
heavily  for  cabbage  and  lettuce.  The 
boom  in  cotton  planting  is  taking  away 
some  attention  from  vegetable  crops, 
especially  in  Texas.  G.  b.  f. 
What  About  This  Cellar 
I  have  a  house  in  a  small  village.  My 
cellar  is  1%  ft.  deeper  than  those  on  the 
line  of  drainage.  If  I  fill  up  my  cellar 
to  their  level,  it  will  not  be  deep  enough, 
compelling  me  to  lay  a  separate  drain  for 
some  distance,  tearing  up  their  lawns.  If 
I  were  to  put  an  additional  body  of  ce¬ 
ment  on  the  bottom  and  sides,  could  it  be 
made  waterproof,  so  that  I  would  not 
need  a  drain?  Would  plastering  the 
walls  answer?  Why  can’t  you  shut  the 
water  out  of  a  cellar,  as  well  as  shut  the 
water  in  a  cistern?  d.  m.  s. 
Waterport,  N.  Y. 
This  note  is  unsigned,  and  we  do  not 
usually  notice  such  communications.  This 
is  an  interesting  question,  and  we  would 
like  experience  from  people  who  have 
worked  out  such  a  cellar  problem. 
Cow  as  Saddle  Horse 
Mr.  Walter  MacDonald  of  Westchester  County,  N.  Y.,  sends  us  this  picture  of  his 
grandson  riding  his  pet  Jersey  home  from  the  pasture.  He  goes  to  the  pasture, 
catches  her,  leads  her  to  a  stump  or  some  big  rock,  where  he  can  get  on  her  back, 
and  she  at  once  starts  for  home,  followed  by  all  the  other  cattle. 
