1004 
C'/je  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
TnE  papers  report  that  on  the  Fourth 
of  July  ex-I’resident  Theodore  Roosevelt 
pave  “a  few  remarks”  at  a  celebration — 
in  which  he  said  : 
It  is  with  a  nation  as  with  an  indi¬ 
vidual.  You  mothers  and  fathers  here, 
if  you  bring  up  your  children  to  think 
that  all  you  ought  to  he  concerned  with 
is  a  good  time  in  life,  you  will  make 
them  unfit  to  be  fellow  citizens  of  self- 
respecting  people.  If  a  father  or  mother 
bring  up  a  boy  or  a  girl  feeling  that 
nothing  else  counts  except  the  movies 
and  enjoying  themselves,  tin*  hoy  and  the 
girl  won't,  be  tit  to  be  men  and  women. 
Now  very  likely  some  of  you  do  not 
think  as  highly  of  Col.  Roosevelt  as  I  do. 
We  will  not  quarrel  over  that  and  I 
hope  we  shall  agree  with  what  he  says 
about  the  children  and  their  parents- 
Old  Timers. — I  have  heard  it  put  up 
as  an  argument  that  we  older  fellows  do 
not  understand  the  children  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  day.  because  our  childhood  was  dif¬ 
ferent.  It  was.  Such  a  thing  as  a 
“movie”  had  not  been  dreamed  of  in  my 
day.  The  community  was  too  poor  to 
support  a  circus.  Now  and  then  a  small 
show  would  he  held  in  the  county  town. 
When  asked  if  we  could  go  the  following 
answer  was  considered  ample : 
“No;  but  if  you  will  he  a  good  boy  and 
get  your  work  done  we  will  go  to  the 
cemetery  on  Sunday  afternoon  and  see 
the  family  plot !” 
Tt  was  a  plot  to  keep  me  away  from 
the  circus,  but  that  was  the  way  our 
folks  looked  at  “amusements”  for  chil¬ 
dren.  Many  a  man  of  middle  age  who 
reads  this  will  remember  just  such  things. 
No  one  thought,  in  those  days,  that,  it 
was  the  sole  business  of  a  man  and 
woman  to  keep  their  children  amused 
and  entertained.  We  were  expected  to 
amuse  ourselves  in  the  little  play  time 
allotted  to  us,  and  I  believe  it  was  the 
wisest  provision  of  childhood. 
New  Ideas. — I  have  some  friends  who 
think  such  old-time  notions  are  awful. 
Their  children  must  he  entertained  and 
kept  good-natured.  Father  provides  a 
car  for  the  hoys  to  drive,  often  when  he 
can  ill  afford  it.  Mother  worries  and 
twists  and  turns  in  order  that  the  chil¬ 
dren  may  have  “a  good  time.”  and  not  be 
troubled  with  responsibilities.  I  know 
of  one  bright  and  lively  girl,  dancing 
through  life,  who  suddenly  realized  that 
father  was  growing  a  little  shabby  and 
gray,  while  mother  was  fading  in  the 
struggle  to  keep  the  children  “entertain¬ 
ed”  and  “up  to  date.”  With  my  bringing 
up  T  cannot  think  of  anything  more  fool¬ 
ish  or  more  harmful  to  the  children  than 
this  trying  to  kill  off  their  capacity  for 
entertaining  themselves.  Yet  I  know 
that  argument  is  often  wasted,  for  too 
many  people  are  afflicted  with  what  I 
call  the  knotholes  of  life.  A  knothole  in 
a  hoard  usually  appears  where  some  limb 
was  broken  or  decayed.  In  life  it  comes 
from  some  ingrowing  notion  or  habit. 
Poor  Imitation. — One  bad  knothole  in 
our  country  is  the  futile  attempt  to  ape 
the  manners  of  the  get-rich -quick.  These 
people  sol  tic  in  a  neighborhood  and  pro¬ 
ceed  to  Cut  a  very  wide  swath.  The  chief 
use  they  seem  to  have  for  their  money  is 
to  use  the  wife,  the  children  and  the 
home  as  advertisements  of  their  wealth. 
There  are  men  .who  walk  up  and  down 
Broadway  carrying  advertising  banners 
or  “signs.”  They  are  called  “sandwich 
men,”  and  the  job  is  looked  upon  as  igno¬ 
ble.  I  consider  it  far  more  businesslike 
and  just  as  honorable  as  the  parade  of 
the  wife  and  children  of  some  get-rich- 
quicker  who  uses  the  backs  of  his  poor 
family  to  display  his  wealth.  The  trouble 
is  that  some  of  our  men  and  women  see 
this  foolish  display  and  try  to  imitate  it. 
As  a  rule  Mother  does  not  get  much  of 
it  but  she  and  father  think  their  children 
must  he  brought  up  as  dainty  ladies  and 
gentlemen.  The  result  is  a  set  of  puppets 
and  dolls — too  soft  in  hand  to  work  and 
too  soft  at  head  to  manage  or  command — 
when  there  should  have  been  sound,  sen¬ 
sible,  humble  men  and  women,  capable  of 
doing  honest  work. 
An  Easy  Time. — Another  bad  knot¬ 
hole  in  life  comes  with  those  people  who 
reason  about,  this  way :  “I  had  a  hard 
time  when  I  was  a  child.  I  had  to  work  ' 
and  I  was  held  down.  My  children  shall 
never  he  trained  like  that!” 
Then  the  poor  things,  looking  out  upon 
life  through  this  knothole,  proceed  to  spoil 
their  children  by  making  life  too  easy  for 
them.  It  is  strange,  too,  for  these  people 
are  usually  very  sensible  about,  other 
things,  and  if  you  put  them  to  it  they  are 
forced  to  admit  that  their  own  strength 
of  character  is  due  to  the  firmness  which 
straightened  up  their  own  childhood. 
The  memory  <>f  the  way  they  were  made 
to  "behave”  and  to  work  galls  them,  and 
they  seem  to  think  that  when  they  make 
things  easy  for  their  children  the  chafe 
of  memory  is  easier.  You  cannot  make 
these  people  see  that  the  frequent  shing¬ 
ling  they  had  as  children  has  kept  the 
roof  of  character  over  them  !  So  their 
children  grow  up  without  any  practical  re¬ 
straint — viewing  life  as  one  long  round 
of  amusement*  and  fighting  every  attempt 
at  discipline  or  oversight.  Tt  beats  me 
to  understand  where  this  strange  freak 
of  human  nature  comes  from.  I  have  a 
cynical  friend  who  says  it  is  the  woman 
in  nine  cases  out  of  10.  I  have  not 
found  it  so.  In  the  majority  of  such 
eases  that  I  know  the  man  is  mostly  re¬ 
sponsible.  The  mother  in  such  a  family 
is  more  likely  to  he  an  old  school-teacher, 
and  she  knows  the  value  of  discipline, 
hut  father’s  constant  talk  about  his  hard 
time,  and  his  foolish  plan  of  making 
things  easy  for  the  youngsters  under¬ 
mines  mother's  efforts.  Such  men  do  not 
understand  what  a  fearful  responsibility 
they  assume  when  they  undertake  to 
soften  the  character  of  a  child. 
Selfish  NESS. — There  is  another  bad 
knothole  of  life  which  is  turning  many  a 
tine  stick  of  human  timber  into  a  cull.  I 
have  seen  people  count  up  their  property 
before  the  children  and  tell  the  little 
folks  they  are  a  little  better  than  others 
because  this  money  is  coming  to  them. 
The  children  see  mean  little  tricks 
played  in  business  or  in  social  relations, 
and  hear  them  discussed.  They  are 
taught  to  run  and  jam  into  the  best  seats 
on  the  train  or  in  public  places,  and  get 
more  than  their  share  whenever  they  can. 
Such  households  never  know  and  cannot 
possibly  understand  the  great,  lasting  joy 
which  comes  into  a  human  life  at  real 
self-sacrifice,  or  giving  up  something  of 
value  to  others.  You  can  take  it  from 
me  that,  a  man  or  woman,  a  family,  a 
community,  a  town,  a  county,  a  State  or 
a  nation,  raised  in  selfishness  so  that  it 
cannot  understand  the  true  meaning  of 
sacrifice  is  just  following  the  hearse  to 
destruction.  There  will  surely  come  a 
time  when  the  very  business  life  and 
future  of  a  group  of  men  and  women 
will  depend  upon  their  power  to  go  into  a 
true  give-and-take  co-operation.  Then 
these,  selfish,  sick-souled  people  will  be 
dead  spots  to  prevent  the  enterprise. 
What  Arout  It? — I  see  all  these 
knotholes  and  many  more.  So  do  you  if 
you  look  about  a  little.  Perhaps  you  will 
say  whnt-a  man  said  to  no*  the  other  day. 
We  spoke  of  these  things  and  ho  admitted 
it.  lie  is  a  childless  man,  and  does  not 
like  children.  So  he  said :  “You  are 
right  about  it,  but  what  business  is  it  of 
yours?  You  will  pass  away  before  these 
spoiled  children  can  do  any  damage.” 
That  is  not  exactly  true,  since  we  have 
taken  the  job  of  bringing  tip  nine  chil¬ 
dren  who  will  have  little  beside  character 
and  body  and  brain.  I  look  upon  it  as 
a  poor  sort  of  citizenship  for  a  man  to 
say  that  his  interest  in  the  nation  dies 
out  with  him.  Suppose  a  man  under¬ 
took  to  run  a  farm  on  such  a  system.  ITe 
would  never  plant  an  orchard  or  put  in 
a  drain  or  sow  a  permanent  meadow  or 
build  a  new  barn  after  lie  was  50.  What 
would  be  the  use,  since  all  interest  in 
him  or  in  his  record  was  to  die  with  him? 
Such  a  man  would  lose  the  rarest  joy  of 
farming,  which  is  training  a  child  to 
carry  on  that  farm  so  that  it.  will  grow 
better  and  better,  and  stand  for  years  as 
a  monument  to  him.  There  is  nothing  to 
that.  Any  man  who  has  ever  had  half 
a  chance  in  this  country  knows  better. 
With  all  the  faults  of  our  American  civ¬ 
ilization.  and  with  all  the  dangers  show¬ 
ing  up  ahead,  this  is  still  the  best  land 
for  a  boy  or  girl  to  be  raised  in.  I  think 
there  is  still  a  majority  of  the  plain,  sen¬ 
sible,  humble  people  who  will  train  their 
children  for  good  citizenship.  There  are 
some  others,  but  I  will  not  believe  they 
are  in  the  majority.  This  paper  will  go 
into  at  least  150,000  homes  where  plain, 
old-fashioned  honesty,  sound  thrift  and 
unselfish  character  will  prevail.  All  of 
us  who  are  able  to  put  one  thought  be¬ 
.Tuly  22,  191G. 
side  another  and  connect  them  must  know 
that  there  is  a  great  struggle  for  citizen¬ 
ship  ahead.  Personally  l  do  not  get 
much  excited  over  danger  from  an  invad¬ 
ing  foe.  Our  hardest  battle  will  be  with 
ourselves,  and  the  greatest  danger  we 
have  is  losing  sight  of  that  and  chasing 
off  after  some  political  or  warlike  issue 
when  our  greatest  need  is  the  right  to 
add,  honestly  and  fairly  10  cents  to  our 
share  of  the  consumer's  dollar.  Give  me 
that,  dime  won  justly  and  by  our  own 
energy  and  manhood,  and  I  will  guaran¬ 
tee  the  greatest  run  of  true  prosperity 
ever  known  in  this  country.  I  will  also 
guarantee  a  gain  in  citizenship,  because  it 
will  make  our  farmers  and  country  people 
feel  that  they  arc  sharing  once  more  in  a 
fair  distribution  of  wealth.  Until  that, 
is  started  there  will  be  a  growing  feeling 
among  our  farmers  that  those,  who  get 
the  most  money  out  of  American  society 
should  do  the  most  fighting  for  it.  More 
manhood  and  greater  courage  will  he  re¬ 
quired  to  fight  the  battle  for  this  addi¬ 
tional  dime  than  is  required  to  run  into 
battle  behind  a  brass  hand,  and  no  child 
or  man  or  woman  who  passes  life  looking 
through  one  of  the  knotholes  I  have  men¬ 
tioned  will  endure  the  struggle.  AYhv 
not  train  our  children  to  fight  the  real 
foes  which  lie  in  themselves — laziness, 
prejudice,  selfishness  and  the  desire  to 
take  advantage  of  their  comrades? 
ir.  w.  o. 
Cutting  Wheat  With  Alfalfa 
Y\  ill  you  advise  me  about  a  piece  of 
wheat  I  sowed  with  Alfalfa  last  Fall? 
The  Alfalfa  is  as  high  as  the  wheat,  and 
I  have  a  good  crop  of  wheat.  I  do  not 
know  whether  to  cut  it  green  or  let  the 
wheat  ripen  and  thrash  it.  If  I  do  the 
latter  1  shall  lose  the  leaves  of  the  Al¬ 
falfa.  Which  would  be  more  profitable? 
Leeds.  N.  Y.  h.  m.  v. 
In  this  case  We  should  cut  the  wheat 
and  the  Alfalfa  together,  and  cime  it  like 
clover  hay.  If  you  let  the  wheat,  ma¬ 
ture  you  will  have  difficulty  in  thrashing 
it  out  with  the  Alfalfa  mixed  with  it, 
and  you  will  lose  most  of  the  value  of  the 
first  cutting  of  Alfalfa.  The  next,  cut¬ 
ting  also  will  not  be  as  good  as  if  the 
first  one  were  cut  on  time.  The  wheat 
and  the  Alfalfa  cured  together  will  make 
good  forage  for  any  kind  of  stock. 
-\ 
Beat  The  Hessian  Fly! 
Seed  your  wheat  late  so  that  the  Hessian  Fly  cannot  lay  its  eggs  upon  the  young 
plants  and  injure  them  next  spring.  The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture 
(Farmers’  Bulletin  No.  640)  says: 
“The  application  broadcast  of  some  quick  acting  fertilizer  containing  a  large  percentage  of  phosphate 
(phosphorus)  made  as  soon  as  general  infestation  is  apparent  will  cause  the  plants  to  tiller  more  freely 
and  give  them  sufficient  vigor  to  withstand  the  winter  and  thus  increase  the  number  of  healthy  stems 
the  following  spring. . . .  W hile  it  may  seem  ‘far  fetched’  to  bring  forward  as  a  preventive  measure  the 
enrichment  of  the  soil,  a  jertile  soil  will  produce  plants  that  will  withstand  With  little  injury  attacks 
that  Will  prove  disastrous  to  plants  growing  on  an  impoverished  or  thin  soil . It  is  also  on  the  thin 
or  impoverished  soils  that  the  difficulty  of  sowing  late  enough  to  evade  the  fall  attack  and  at  the  same 
time  secure  a  growth  sufficient  to  withstand  the  winter  is  encountered,  and  whatever  can  be  done  to 
obviate  this  difficulty  will  constitute  a  preventive  measure.” 
Make  Your  Wheat  Pay 
E.  Frank  Coe  Fertilizers  contain  quickly  available  Ammonia  and  Available  Phosphoric  Acid.  They 
will  produce  a  strong  growth  this  fall  and  carry  the  crop  into  the  winter  in  first  class  condition.  Select  a  brand 
containing  not  less  than  2%  of  quickly  effective  Ammonia  and  at  least  1  0 7c  of  Available  Phosphoric  Acid. 
Acid  Phosphate  alone  will  not  push  the  growth  like  an  ammoniated  fertilizer. 
T o  aid  our  farmer  friends  in  securing  the  greatest  profit  from  their  wheat  crops  we  have  published  a  practical 
booklet  entitled  ‘  Winter  Wheat."  1  his  contains  a  chart  showing  the  best  date  for  seeding  in  your  section  and  also 
a  great  deal  of  practical  information  in  regard  to  the  Wheat  crop.  If  you  will  tell  us  the  number  of  acres  you 
intend  to  sow  this  season  we  will  send  you  a  copy  Pee  of  charge. 
The  Coe-Mortimer  Company 
Subsidiary  of  the  American  AgriculturalChemical  Co. 
51  Chambers  Street  -  New  York  City 
WAR  PRICES  FOR  WHEAT  OFFER  UNUSUAL  OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  AMERICAN  FARMERS 
INSURE  THE  SUCCESS  OF  YOUR  CROP  BY  USING 
E.  Frank  Coe’s  Special  Grain  Fertilizers 
1857 
THE  BUSINESS  FARMERS’  STANDARD  FOR  NEARLY  SIXTY  YEARS 
1916 
I 
