Advantages of Farm Telephones.

The advantages of farm telephones! Who can measure them in their entirety or fully appreciate to the greatest extent the good things that they bring upon our farms? A conscious se curity comes to the family through the assurance that they have ever at hand a tireless and trusty servant to run their errands, and, in time of danger or pressing need a messenger as swift as lightning flashes, can be summoned to their aid. One cannot fully comprehend the full value of a telephone in the house until he has had the real experience of it. If people in towns and cities need a telephone, and of this there is no question, how much more so must those who reside in the country, where every little errand means a trip to town, or to one s neighbors, covering probably a distance of many miles. But that little wire runThe telephone is to the farmer what ning from one farm house to another, steamboats and locomotives are to think how much it will do for you; transportation, a medium through that ring of the telephone bell; the which distance is largely annihilated, cheery "hello," and the familiar tone and a closer relationship established of some neighbor's voice in a friendly among the people. With the advent of the telephone on our farms, that lonesome monotony of farm life, of which we so often hear, becomes a thing of the past; and that isolated condition, which has hitherto been one of the drawbacks of country life, beats

Jas. Fisher, Jr.

talk is something that must be fully appreciated before you can thoroughly comprehend the advantages of a telephone in your farm house.

If there is some bit of news, how it flashes over the wire from one neighbor to another, therefore by the use

of the farm telephone we are constant- | complicated and difficult to keep in rely receiving some neighborly news and pair and construct, but such is not the our thoughts are turned into new chan-case. A good 'phone will last for nels; we become brighter and pleas- years; the only thing that gives out anter and have more to talk about about it is the batteries and they can when the family circle comes together be easily replaced at a small cost. at the close of a day's work. It will So far I have only spoken to you of sell hogs and cattle, or other farm the convenience of the telephone in products. You get the market report your homes and perhaps a few hints a day sooner than by mail, often saving and precautions might be of benefit the price of the telephone in one trans- to those who have had no experience action. It will hire help, it will bring in building a line.

the latest news from the town, the state, the country and the world. If a machine breaks down, it will order repairs; it will enable our families to visit with each other.

How to Build a Line.

The first thing to do if you want a telephone line in your neighborhood is for the farmers to get together and The greatest convenience of the farm organize; adopt a set of rules to gov telephone is perhaps felt most in cases ern the company; elect a president. of sickness; the doctor can be im- vice-president, secretary and treasurər, mediately summoned and much tie is and a superintendent and an executive saved, which often means one's life. committee, stating the duties of eacy. Also the trip of a doctor is often | It is better to go at it in a businesslike saved, for when a patient is very sick way; estimate the probable cost and it will equire the doctor seeing him every day, but with the telephone in your home he can at any time find out just how the sick is doing and give necessary directions over the 'phone, thus saving several trips, which would far more than pay for your telephone. I was born and brought up on the farm that I now live on and I can think back of how often I have been obliged to hitch up the tired farm team and go to town for some errand that could be accomplished over the 'phone, or for the doctor, fifteen miles away while now at our home I can do this in less time than it takes to tell you.

If telephones cost more than carriages, they would be far cheaper at the price, because each telephone renders far greater service than any carriage, but it is a fact that telephone service is far cheaper than most household necessities and when it is more generally understood at what small expense every farm and village will be supplied with a complete telephone system, then the life upon the farm will be much more comfortable.

We have those who seem to think that the telephone system is somewhat

fix shares accordingly, and for the good of all, allow each man one vote, no matter how many shares he may hold. This keeps the line from being monopolized by a few. The amount of shares on the line that I am connected with is $10.00 each; the holder pays over to the treasurer $5.00 and agrees to furnish ten poles, but where poles cannot be had and the company will be obliged to buy them, the full amount of stock must be paid in. This way our company has built about sixty miles of line in the last three years and each stockholder who wishes a 'phone buys it himself and all stockholders have the free use of the 'phone. To those who have no stock in a farm line, the sum of ten cents is charged, one-third of which goes to the party who collects the fee, and the balance, two-thirds, goes to the com. pany. Every three months a report is made to the secretary of the amount of money collected and the condition of the line in his vicinity.

Don't make the mistake of buying a cheap 'phone. A good one can be had for $14.00 or $15.00, and such a 'phone, carefully handled, will last a lifetime.

With us we prefer the dry batteries, started them to work. The same kind they have given better satisfaction. of 'phones should be used on a line if The poles should be good size, at least possible. four inches at the top, and firmly set in the ground three and one-half to four feet, and poles, especially where a turn is made, securely guyed by a wire. This prevents them from leaning and loosening the wire. Before a pole is raised, firmly spike a bracket to it. We use a No. 12 wire and for

If you wish good service, don't have more than fifteen 'phones on a line. A line too heavily loaded will not give you good service. If more 'phones are wanted, have a switch. Each station is given its ring, such as "Central" one long ring, next station one short and one long, and so on. In this way

and sixty rods to the hundred pounds.
Considerable attention should be given
to get wire tight. In stringing out the,
wire, a reel is made, a bundle of wire
is placed on the reel in the back of a
wagon, and in this way three good
men with two light ladders can put
up wire quite rapidly. But it will pay
you if an experienced man can be had
to put the 'phones in your homes.
Our line the man we contracted
'phones from put them all up and

On

The Social Side.

We are living in the age of progress and we farmers are entitled to all improvements. In fact, it becomes a necessity in order to keep abreast with the progress of our country, and the telephone on our farms is numbered among the vast improvements that are worthy of the farmer's notice.

Always bear in mind that the telephone is for the whole family, not

alone for business, but there is that | ness? What does pure air, pure food social side to it where the real en- and health count with a young man or joyment comes in. If we wish to keep woman when they find that their our boys and girls on the farms to fill friends in the cities are apparently, if our places, which we will soon leave not in reality, possessed with more vacant, we must make home a pleasure opportunities and certainly more com and a farm telephone offers the very panionship than they? Remember best of inducements for a contented that companionship has a practical as family. There is no question but what well as a sentimental value. Then the farm life is the most independent oc- problem that confronts the mothers cupation offered a young man, yet so and fathers on our farms today is to many flock to cities, and again you provide means to remove this lonevery often find the older generation someness and discomfort from the turning back to rural life with a long-lives of their children and themselves. ing heart.

An Antidote for Lonesomeness. There must be some reason why so many young men and women leave their homes and fathers and mothers, who need them so much in their declining years, to seek a living in the cities when a better living could be had on the farm. Turn to the reason and you will find it is that lonesomeness and the lack of companionship and other similar causes, which, up to the present time, have been denied our boys and girls growing up on our farms.

What does a young man care for independence coupled with lonesome

If they do this the tide of population
will turn and, mark what I say, the
next general census will show that the
flow of population is not to the cities
but back on the farms, establishing
homes upon the broad acrés
of our
glorious land.

There is one way of overcoming a portion of this, establish telephones in your homes, it will abolish that lonesomeness and bring the comforts of city life to the homes of every farm. I feel that the telephone has come to stay with us and must be considered a necessity to all and not, as has hitherto been supposed, a luxury to the rich alone.

FARMERS' TELEPHONES.

GEO. WYLIE, Morrisonville, Wis.

The Telephone a New Departure. This telephone is not such an old concern. It is only about twenty-two years since the telephone was discovered, and the peculiar thing about it is that its possibilities were never dreamed of for a long time after it was discovered. Some fifteen years ago business men began using it as a convenience and then it got to be a necessity, and the last two or three years it transpires that the telephone is adapted to the farm, that the farmer needs it worse than anybody else, and that the farmer can get a telephone cheaper than anybody else. He can build his own line and maintain it cheaper than can the business man in the city, for the simple reason that lines in the country cost far less than lines in the city.

Organization.

Now, a farmers' line is largely a question of organization. I would not advise farmers to forin Personally large companies and go into the business of covering an entire county, because it takes too much time to effect the organization and too much time to run the company after it is organized, but circumstances alter cases, and conditions are different in different locallties.

In our locality we go about it in about this way. A few farmers get together and organize a line.

Our com

tion. We were exercised as to whom we could get to attend to the business in the station. We came to the con

clusion that we would have to buy a telephone there and put someone there to attend to that end of the business. We found when we got to the station that nearly every business man in that station, notwithstanding the fact that most of them had 'phones on line, wanted to be connected with the a toll farmers' line. This was a surprise at first, but it was easy to see why it was. They were there for the purpose of doing business with the farmers and the farmers' telephone helped their trade. First the stockmen wanted the connection, then the man ning the lumber yard, then the elevaThe result was that the line was a tor man, the doctor and the merchant. greater success than we anticipated.

run

Now, you will find in every com-
day people wanting to get onto a line.
munity in the state of Wisconsin to-
get together and form a company, I
If you have more than ten who want to
would advise forming two companies. It
takes less time to attend to the busi-
ness.
A company consisting of six or eight
Make the lines interchangeable.
or ten does not give any more trouble
than attending to the business of an
annual school meeting and none of the
officers get any salary.

Cost of Building a Line.
As to the cost, I find that the farm-

pany was organized by five of us get-ers are very much at sea as to the cost ting together and talking the matter of a line, and they have an idea, ton, over. We organized to build miles of line and after estimating the practical knowledge in order to build ten that it takes some technical skill and cost we estimated what we could af- a telephone line. ford to let anyone else come in for. The fact is that any man that can dig This is a mistake. When we came to build the line we a post hole and set a post and draw a found that nearly everybody wanted wire can put up a telephone line. Any to get onto it. We commenced in the man that ever saw a telephone set tocountry and built in toward the sta- gether and set up can set up tele