Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1915 — Page 3

RECLAIMING ABANDONED FARMS.

By H.A.C TAYLOR

HHE name or “rundown,” farm conjures w the imagination visions of many a dear old place peopled with the memories of days gone by, with large room, beam ceiling, wide, comfortable, open fireplacek, the well of pure water, fruit trees very much neg l lected but quickly brought back to productive vigor, the barn green with age and many storms, sound in its original timbers as of ypre, fence corners ov.ergrown to bush and shrubs, a general air of sad neglect, yet having the appearance of having once been a productive and carefullywtended farm. To others' they signify all that the name im-plies—run-down places abandoned by owners who could no longer make them pay or even furnish enough money to keep them up In repair; places with old, dilapidated houses, disused wells, tumble-down barns and unproductive lands. There are many farms to fit both descriptions, those of the latter description being the true “abandoned” farms, while there are many of the former which, while run down, can be brought back eventually to the “hear” equivalent of their onetime value. These old houses have that peculiarly disagreeable smell of aged wood, and if very old will have those fireplaces of antique pattern, entirely unsuited to present-day needs, but perfect distributors of soot; In most places where these old fireplaces and chimneys exist, It were better far to have pulled down and replaced with chimneys built on approved modern lines, which would be not only safer, more sanitary and more pleasing In appearance, but probably add room to the house to be utilized as a hallway or vestibule, gaining a two-fold advantage. These old chimneys harbor rats and mice, and prove delightfully convenient for these pests to travel at will over the entire structure. I am convinced that the man of moderate means buying a farm should not move dn to the place until early in the spring, for these reasons: The cost of living through the winter with a comparatively small Income, buying vegetables which the land should supply another year, keeping up the payments on insurance, taxes, interest, etc., becomes a serious drain on a small capital, and should be very seriously considered. In my ignorance I thought living on a farm • would be cheap, as compared to that of the city, but 1 found I paid higher prices for all commodities, owing to there being no competition, and'no chance to study bargains. One’s neighbors demand market prices for produce and one pays top prices for all farm stock purchased. The main question was to obtain a monthly Income wherewith to meet expenses through the winter, and my thoughts Iqrned to cows. Here again I lost out. Buying five head of cows for $3lO, I spent con-' slderable money for expensive feed before I saw

FARMING FOR TERRAPIN

• A few years ago, it looked as if the famous diamond back terrapin was doomed to extermination. The supply was rapidly decreasing and the price was becoming prohibitive. Then the experts of the United States bureau of fisheries began their investigations, and as a result of a number of years of study and experiments, a profitable industry has been saved to the South and another source of food supply saved from extinction. This valuable work has been carried on largely at the laboratory of the bureau of fisheries at Beaufort, N. C, It was begun in 1909 with the establishment of a small pound on the shore of an Island in the harbor, in which 65 mature terrapin were placed. In building the pond a very favorable location was obtained, containing the greatest variety of natural environment, Including dry sandy ground, always above water, suitable for crawling and’iaying, grassy ground usually above water, farther down a muddy tidewater marsh, and still farther a soft muddy bottom covered with never less than two feet of constantly changing salt water, with the rise and fall of the tide. During the past five years the pound has been enlarged , from time. to time, to accommodate the ever-increasing family of little terrapin. A house, feet in size, for use in winter, has also been built, with glass side facing the south. Here many of the young are kept in wooden tanks with sloping bottoms, the lower end containing two or three inches of water. These terrapin are fed twice a week, with fish, fresh or salted, while others of the same hatching are allowed to hibernate in certain sections of the pound, as they would do under natural conditions. / From among the first hatchings of 1909 a few have attained a growth of live inches, measuring along the plastron, or lower shell These were turned loose during the past summer among the older ones in the general branding ground. From the hatch of

any returns at all from the sale of the milk. One cow was fresh when purchased, two were to calve the following month, the fourth in two months, and the fifth In four months, though at that time she was giving about eight quarts of milk per day. As a matter of fact, two were fed two months and ten days before calving, the fourth, a heifer, was fed three months, and the fifth six months before freshening. The man I bought from gave me a square deal, as far as he could, but he was uncertain of his freshening dates. The cows were fed liberally, a well-balanced ration, and -three months after purchase milk was sold to the town creamery on contract at 32 cents per can of eight and one-half quarts, and as the maximum of milk production was five cans, the profits, If the five-can production could be maintained, was largely mythical. Had I bought ten t or twelve cows as good as those I did buy, my promts would have been more* tangible, and had I bought cows just fresh, even paying $lO more per cow, I should have sustained no loss. About fifteen tons of hay had been cut the previous summer, which, being stored in the barn, went with the farm, so that only the cornmeal, bran, linseed meal and roots used were paid for in cash. Figuring the feed at the market prices, there was a possible profit of $3 per month per cow during the period of greatest lactation. This is not taking into consideration the cost of the ice during the summer or the labor of caring for even so small a herd as five cows.

JL9IO, 295 young were secured; 420 in 1911, and 960 in 1912. With the close of the breeding season of 1913, 1,450 little ones were taken from the hatchery. As in former years these have been distributed to smaller compartments containing salt water and sand. By protecting the young in this way a very large percentage are saved that, under natural conditions- in a wild state, would have been destroyed, being preyed upon, especially during the first year — when their shells are sost —by all manner of marsh fowl, as well as by rats, crows, mink, hogs, crabs, etc. Information furnished the bureau by fishermen, netters, shell fishermen, terrapin hunters —those who make their living from these and kindred occupations, and who are always on the lookout for the highly prized terrapin, confirm the statement that it is exceedingly rare to find a diamond back terrapin under two years of age 4n a wild state. Owing to their defenselessness during the first and second years, it is fair to assume that a greater percentage are destroyed than survive. In captivity the records of the laboratory show that 96 per cent of the young are saved. Previous to the season of 1913 all terrapin hatched on the laboratory grounds had been from native stock 1 taken in the immediate vicinity of Beaufort. For experimental purposes, during the late summer and fall of 1912, over one hundred adults from widely different sections of the country were added, some coming from the Chesapeake and many large ones from Texas. Among the latter is one female measuring more than eight inches on the lower shell. The addition of this stock accounts sos the great increase over former years In the number of young already taken from the hatching beds. The methods employed by the government have necessarily been along the slow and tedious road of research, investigation and experiment, until the life history and habits of the animals have

tiiv rtVFNING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

been learned. It then became possible to formulate Plaft ß for propagation and cultivation df the species under consideration. By the addition of the new stock, a new terrapin variety has been produced. On emerging from its sandy bed one day in August last, the newcomer proved to be a pink-eyed albino, with upper and lower shells, head, feet and tail a pure white. It’s a wise terrapin that knows its own mother, and all that the officials know about it is that it came from the beds containing the mixed stock. Encouraged by the government’s successful experiments In raising diamond backs, a company- has recently been incorporated in Beaufort, N. C., for a similar purpose. * A short front near the terminus of the Inland Waterway canal, containing about four acres, was obtained, and this was inclosed on three sides by concrete walls. The water front is 340 feet in length, and the depths of the grounds 190 feet Within the inclosure are three - separate pounds, with ample -wire grating on the outer side to insure pure and constantly changing salt water with the tide. Since the completion of these pounds, they have been stocked with 3,200 terrapin. Eleven hundred of these are mature females of laying size and agdf the remainder being from two inches ‘to five Inches in length. These terrapin have been purchased from time to time, many of them out of season by special permit from the state authorities, for breeding purposes and to encourage propagation. It is interesting to learn that 820 young were taken from the hatching beds during the past season. Pursuing the same policy .adopted at the government hatchery, this Company allows the old stock to hibernate, while the young are warmly housed and fed. It has been noted at the government pounds that hibernation usually begins about October 20. This, however, is not a hard and fast rule,, as many of the older ones are seen

pared to feed full rations up to June, or after, and as hay becomes more expensive just before grass time, it is advisable to buy such additional hay as may be needed while the price is low. Bear in mind that a cow needs to be fed liberally of milk-forming foods. Meager feeding will very materially reduce the milkflow and make it difficult, perhaps impossible, to bring the cow back to her former output. • Usually the fences on these old New England farms consist of stone walls considerably out of repair, which afford convenient homes for woodchucks, skunks and rabbits, the lawful prey of the -hunter or trapper. The hunter rarely remembers to rebuild where he has pulled down the stones in his quest for game. These walls are supplemented with one or two strands of wire along the top, fastened to driven posts, and if examined closely will be found to need a great deal of repair before they will effectually turn stock. The walls have such odd lines that they convey the impression of having been the result of a haphazard disposal of the rocks and stones taken from the land, rather than that of a well-defined plan of dividing into meadows and pastures. The wisest plan is to take time enough in the early spring to put the pasture fences in good repair, as at that time one can work to better advantage among bare trees, and can see more clearly where the walls heed extra attention. If this is left until the stock get the lust,” time will have to be taken from planting or haying, and it then becomes more tiresome and expensive.

By A. D. HART

during warm days later in the fall, crawling lazily around, even after they have been for a time in their winter quarters. Another fact in connection with the artificial raising of terrapin is interesting. Whereas the average number of eggs during a season from one female in the natural state has been eight, the females in the government hatchery have averaged fourteen eggs each. It is well known that turtles of "all species can exist for a long time on very little food if -forced to do so. By being well fed and well cared for, not only a larger number of eggs are obtained, but it is found that they oftqn make a double laying; this is especially the case in the Carolinas, where the temperature and the water remain warm much longer than in waters farther north. It will be recognized that, in a private enterprise of this character, to insure success and permanency, abso lute cleanliness is imperative, for it will be seen from the government researches that the natural habitat of the terrapin is on the open, tide-swept marshes, far removed from anything of an unsanitary nature. Every thoughtful citizen will appreciate the fact that broad scientific methods, heretofore used on land rather than on sea, are to be employed to enable us to realize from the water an improved food supply. The waters can be farmed almost as systematically as the land. Man has been farming the land for 5,000 years. Now, largely through the intelligent administration of the bureau of fisheries, coastwise residents of the United States are beginning to discover how to promote Increase of organized life In the adjacent waters. That this can be accomplished by Intelligently directed effort is no longer a matter of theory. Not only through artificial aids in propagation, but a properly arranged protective system for the young, almost every fish that swims,- or that lives in a shell, can be made more abundant.

Where the arrangements for feeding and watering are inconvenient, but little time is left during winter days for any other work, as the milk must be carried to the creamery; the barn and cows thoroughly cleaned every day, feed and roots cut up,' milk cans scalded, and many other small chores to be done. One could handle twice the number of cows with little more work. One must be pre-

FolK We Touch In Passing

By Julia Chandler Mang

THE HEART OF A BOY The Boy lay through the long night ■with wide-open eyes save when some member of his family passed through his small room, whereupon he closed them in pretense of sleep, but when the gray dawn sifted silently through his unshaded window he could no longer endure the stillness he had kept Slipping swiftly into his clothes, he crept through the kitchen door, stole through the enshrouding fog of the soft spring morning to the front of the house and stood gazing silently across the village road to the house on the other side which the mist veiled from his sight. He wondered vaguely if the white roses still hung their drooping heads against the panel o* the front door or if they had been taken in with the rest which kept watch beside Little Girl as she lay among the white satin folds of her lovely casket, her lips smiling bravely in answer to an Angel's call. They had told The Boy the day before that he might go in and his mother had taken his hand in hers to give him courage, when he gently disengaged it and sped away to the woods, following the trail along which he had held back the flapping branches for

At the Foot of the HUI the Boy Stood Coatless.

Little Girl ever since he could remember, and the hour had been twilight when he returned. He had made sure that no one was near Little Girl when he slipped into the room where she lay smiling and left the arbutus he had brought clasped in her stiff little fingers. In his bunt for the trailing flush of scented color he had assuaged some of the anguish that ate into his heart. It had seemed to him often that Little Girl was at his side, pointing out the hillsides where the loveliest flowers hid beneath the pine needlea When he tucked the loveliest of his fragrant blossoms under the stiff little fingers The Boy’s eyes lingered on the quiet face with its tender lips smiling and seeing no one near he stood on tiptoe, kissed the once rosebud mouth and fled again into the woods they both had loved and traversed. And now it was morning; the day of the funeral! The house across the road was shrouded in fog, and vaguely The Boy wondered if the arbutus lived yet in the little dead hand, and if Little Girl still was smiling. Ah, but she would not smile when they put her under the ground! And the arbutus would die without air. All night he had pondered the matter in his mind, and dully he had told himself over and over again that they must not put Little Girl beneath the ground where it was cold and dark and lonely. But even as he said these things to himself he knew in his aching heart that it would be done, and now as he stood in the soft spring fog, his tearless eyes straining across the street, panic seized his young heart—the sort of panic that is born of the utter futility of human purpose in opposition to the will of God. Miserably The Boy crept back into the house, and from a window watched the new day born. As the morning passed and the fog lifted he saw someone come out of the house across the road and take down the white roses that drooped

against the front door. Instinctively he knew the time had come. Hearing his mother’s call, the heart of The Boy contracted strangely. His painstricken eyes swept the room in which he seemed alone. With pulsing heart he left his place at the window. Climbing the narrow steps which led to the attic he threw himself on a pile of old carpets and when Little Girl was being borne away from the house across the road no one missed The Boy save, perhaps, his mother, who if she gave the matter a thought, concluded he had gone ahead. For an hour he lay on the carpets, his heart numb with suffering; his eyes wide and tearless; his mind tortured with the scene in the cemetery he could not bring himself to witness. Later he heard his family stirring in the kitchen below, and once or twice he heard his name called, but he made no answer. All day he lay wondering if yet the arbutus was dying in Little Girl’s hand, and if the smile of the AngeL had left her. lips, and when he could bear the companionship of his thoughts no longer he sat up on the pile of rugs and his eyes wandered to the corner of the old attic where he and Little Girl had played at love and housekeeping

There was the table set with her bits of china just as she had left it, and in a broken chair sat her battered doll. The Boy stumbled to his feet, clasped the make-believe child of his play hours with Little Girl in his strong, young arms, and when the evening shadows fell they found him still sitting on the pile of rugs swaying back and forth to the rhythm of his sobs. In the night, when he had been in bed many hours, The Boy awakened with a sense of calamity. At first be was conscious only that the rain waa pattering gently against his window, a circumstance which usually filled him with a peculiar sense of peace. ' Then, suddenly, he remembered. < Springing out of bed he ran to his window. The dawn of another new day was near, and it had but just begun to rain. Hastily The Boy slipped into his clothes and quietly stole from the house. It was yet dark, but his stout heart knew no fear as hatless he ran through the village street, and into the winding road beyond, coming up pantingly before the gate which opened into the little cemetery which lies over against the lake on a sloping hillside. Softly The Boy let himself in. Instinctively he knew the new-made mound, all covered with flowers, where Little Giri lay, and swiftly he took off his warm coat and with exquisite tenderness spread it over the earth home of Little Girt Not satisfied, he raised the umbrella he had brought for his own protction and left it thus over the beautiful little face framed in its halo of golden curls and wearing its brave smile of youth At the foot of the hill The Boy stood coatless, and as he looked back upon his work his brave heart swelled with the pride of protection; a smile crept into his big brown eyes and he was quite unmindful that he was drenched to the skin.