894 
Jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
On July 1 I journeyed to Youngstown, 
N. Y.. to attend*a meeting of the Niagara 
County Farmers' Club. If you should 
merely look at the map you might con¬ 
clude that Youngstown is very close to 
the jumping-off place. The town lies 
stretched along the bluff where the Ni¬ 
agara River flows into Lake Ontario. 
There is a sharp curve here, and at the 
end at the edge of the lake stands old 
Fort Niagara. If you had only a glance 
at. the map to guide your mind, you might, 
indeed, call this the “jumping-off place,” 
but if you could see the river and the 
bluff on a bright day, with the sun shin¬ 
ing and a little breeze rippling the water, 
you could u derstaud why no one desires 
to jump off. It is too beautiful to leave. 
The bright river curves in ami out arnoug 
the dark hills. From above comes the 
thunder of Niagara Falls. The great vol¬ 
ume of water goes roaring over the edge 
of the cliff and pounds like a gigantic 
trip-hammer on the rocks below. Then 
the water goes rushing and foaming 
through the rapids and the whirlpool, 
and after that seems somehow to com¬ 
pose itself and pass on to the lake in an 
orderly wav. At Youngstown it Hows on 
as gently as a mill stream—all its wild 
roaring and pounding forgutt«n. As you 
stand on the high bank and watch the 
quiet, brimming river you are somehow 
reminded of the coming and going of a 
human life. Many a man in his wild 
youth has smashed and roared and 
pounded his way along the year, until 
finally this wild energy seemed to burn 
itself out. and through his later years lie 
moved on as calmly as this river moves to 
join the waters of the mighty lake. That 
is the way it impressed me. ami I won¬ 
dered if the men and women who see and 
hear this mighty river day and night 
Ihrnugh the year have something of this 
idea. 
* * * * * 
This section is now producing fruit, 
but it has also produced much of history. 
This was a strategic point on the old 
frontier line. As you stand on the bluff 
you may look across to Canada and see 
Brock's monument standing up like a 
finger of history t<> mark the place where 
in the war of 1812 the Americans at¬ 
tempted to cross the river and establish 
themselves. That campaign has always 
struck me as the one least deserving of 
discussion. Down at the point it is easy 
to study the outlines of the old fort. It 
was strongly placed. It had to be ap¬ 
proached over level ground, and it is hard 
for me to understand how the English 
finally < antured it. Turkman tells how 
the French commander, l'onchut. stood 
on the wall of the fort, apparently just 
where we stood on .lull- 1. and watched 
the fight between the English ami a gang 
of rangers and Indians who were coining 
to save the fort. It must have been an 
anxious time when this .escuiug party 
was driven back. This was but one strong 
point in the old French line which was 
to stretch down the St. Lawrence, along 
the lakes and on down to Louisiana. A 
great, ambitious scheme it was. The 
English stuck close to the Atlantic coast, 
slowly and steadily settling back into the 
country. The French boldly plunged into 
the heart of the continent. They had a 
skeleton of a plan, while the Eng¬ 
lish had the solid body. If the walls of 
this old fort could speak, what stories it 
could toll. The old parade ground seemed 
peopled with the ghosts of soldiers and 
traders and half-breeds and Indians. The 
walls of the old stone building inside the 
fort have unity a story to tell, but they 
are mute, save for the thousands of names 
which have been written all over them. 
The stones in the walls seem to be held 
together by a form of lime mortar, which 
clinches them now as firmly as when it 
started, 200 years and more ago. 
^ 
The Niagara Comity Farmers’ Club is 
a remarkable organization. It was started 
some ”5 years ago, and it is doubtful if 
any other similar organization has held 
together as strongly as this farm club 
has. There are 12 townships in the 
county, and the plan is to hold monthly 
meetings—one in each township during 
the year. The meetings are held in the 
loeal church, and the church women pro¬ 
vide the dinner. The programs include 
music, short talks by local speakers, a 
‘‘question box” and usually some speaker 
from outside. The idea seems to be to 
give as many pocplo as possible something 
to do. so that Jill may take personal inter¬ 
est. The machinery of the club seems to 
fie very simple. It is just understood by 
all that when the end of the month comes 
they will turn out and help make a crowd. 
At Youngstown the church was sur¬ 
rounded by a great fleet of ears, while the 
audience crowded the building. It was 
a hot. sultry day. put in a gro p of long- 
continued thunderstorms, yet the people 
Were bright and cheerful, as if they wore 
determined that on this day at least they 
Would forget, their troubles and enjoy an 
outing. So they came together and talked 
and visited, and went home a little more 
drv in spirit, even if the farm was like 
a frog pond. I do not nnite see how they 
n»'p able to keep it up. I presume in this. 
with most successful tilings, a few 
enterprising men and women do rather 
more than their share, but the club is a 
model in many ways. Its work is differ¬ 
ent from that of the Grange or the Farm 
Bureau, though 1 think most of its mem¬ 
bers belong to these organizations. 1 can 
hardly think of any more useful thing 
that could happen to this country than 
to have just such a simple and neigh¬ 
borly club in every county in America. 
***** 
All this section along the lake is a 
fruit country. It has been all through 
tlie evolution from pioneer farming, grain 
growing, stock raising, general farming, 
to special fruit production. Its develop¬ 
ment is typical of what is working out 
all over the Eastern Stales. As the West 
has shown its ability to produce meat and 
bread in abundance, farms on the Atlantic 
Slope must find new products and special¬ 
ize on them. 1 think this farmers’ club 
has enabled Niagara County to develop 
this change rapidly and well. The club 
has made the better class of farmers like 
a great family, and this has enabled them 
to work out changes and adopt new meth¬ 
ods, which could not have been put upon 
them so welI by any truly business or¬ 
ganization. As it is, (lie strip along the 
river and lakes, and far inland, lias be¬ 
come one of the most wonderful fruit 
sections in the world. Poets may sing of 
the vineyards on the Rhine, or the orange 
groves of California, yet these cannot 
compare in beauty with the orchards of 
Niagara County when the late Summer 
ami Autumn sun has painted the blush 
on apple and peach, and the trees bend 
down with their loads. Here is a section 
where the Buldwin apple is still a prime 
favorite. It grows large and high colored 
and crisp—“all that an apple should be.” 
As one man said: “The Baldwin apple is 
as familiar a figure in the public eye as 
the pictures of Uncle 8am or the Goddess 
of Liberty.” Nothing can really take the 
place of Baldwin with millions of apple 
eaters, and if it fails elsewhere, so much 
the better for the growers where it will 
do well. 
***** 
There have been floods of rain up in 
that country, the same as everywhere 
else in the East. I saw ponds in some of 
the peach orchards large enough for my 
children to swim in. What astonished 
me most was the way some of these or¬ 
chards had been cultivated. In spite of 
the constant downpour there was hardly 
a weed to he seen. Much of the work 
seemed to he done with a Spring-lOoth 
harrow, and what astonishing patience 
and perseverance these growers must 
have exercised all through the long suc¬ 
cession of June thunderstorms. And it was 
worth while, for most of the trees un¬ 
loaded with fruit. Some orchards have 
been neglected, and they show it in ap¬ 
pearance and in crop. The corn that I 
saw was very poor, on the whole, some of 
it on the net spots as yellow Us gold. The 
oats varied. Some fields, well drained 
and smooth, looked well, but most of the 
crop had too much water, ami will not 
do well. I think we are all up against 
a hard weather combination this year. 
July may be dry and clear—we may be 
complaining of drought within a month. 
Bright sunshine for a couple of weeks 
will help us all. and I hope we can have 
it : bill if will hardly he possible now to 
grow what may lie fairly called a “bumper 
crop.” There ought to be fair prices at 
least. Of course. I can easily understand 
that these farmers in Niagara County 
have their troubles like the rest of us, 
hut they also have many blessings which 
those of Us who live 'sewhere may regard 
with envy. I saw one thing which seemed 
true to human nature North of Buffalo 
a gang of Italians were cutting the Sweet 
clover and weeds along Hie road. In 
New Jscrsey we would idle all such stuff 
around our trees. There they were pre¬ 
paring to burn it. and you should have 
seen those Italians swing a scythe. They 
handled it just like a man chopping with 
an ax. Six men did this chopping, while 
another stood with a whetstone to sharpen 
all the blades. Two nr three would stand 
together waiting to have their scythes 
sharpened. Along came an old farmer. 
He stopped to watch this butchery, and 
I knew his fingers itched to get at a 
scythe. Finally he took one and gave 
those Italians a lesson in mowing, swing¬ 
ing his scythe evenly and gently, doing 
more work than any three of them. 1 
knew from the car window what was 
being said : 
"That's the right way to do it!” 
“Alla right. I cutta da wceda right!" 
And while the old man was watching 
them they tried to imitate him. When he 
passed along they laughed and went back 
to chopping. That was the way to kill 
more time and fewer weeds. H. w. c. 
Legal Questions 
Purchase of Mortgaged Property 
A and B (brothers-in-law) bought a 
farm from C with the understanding that 
he had the right to sell, and that, all per¬ 
sonal property was his. After paying 
the amount required by C, it was discov¬ 
ered that (' had never had a deed, and 
that D held a mortgage on the farm (he 
was the owner), and also on the personal 
property. C had sold without his con¬ 
sent, and had removed the ear tags from 
I)'s cattle so A and B would not know 
who owned them. A and B lifted the per¬ 
sonal property mortgage and got deed 
from I> for the farm. Can C, holding 
second mortgage on land he sold without 
having deed and by claiming to own, col¬ 
lect the second mortgage if A and B pay 
off first mortgage to DV E now has chat¬ 
tel mortgage oil A and B’s personal 
property. If A and B let E sell to pay 
off debt and let farm go back to I> lowli¬ 
er), will that stop second mortgage? 
Could F, wife of B, then purchase farm 
from D without having to pay second 
mortgage, or would she have to pay all 
debts left by A and B i f she bought farm 
in her own name? J. P. L. 
New York. 
You do not state facts sufficient for us 
to give an intelligent answer, and you 
must be mistaken in some of The facts 
which you do state. D, being tlie owner 
of the farm, could not hold a mortgage on 
his own farm. It would seem that C had 
probably purchased the farm from D on 
a contract and before he had procured a 
deed that lie sold the farm to A and B 
with a profit to himself. There is no rea¬ 
son why C should not sell all the interest 
which lie had in tlie property to A and 
B : in other words, assign his contract. 
A mortgage procured by a fraud is not 
collectible, hut there are not facts suffi¬ 
cient in your communication to show 
whether or not there was any fraud. It 
is possible that you use the term mort¬ 
gage when you mean contract. 
We never advise any man so to manip¬ 
ulate his property that the title will go 
to his wife for the purpose of attempting 
to avoid the payment of a debt. A court 
of equity will set aside a deed to the wife 
when drawn lor tlie purpose of defraud¬ 
ing creditors. ,\. t. 
Delay in Filling Order 
I am a general blacksmith, and on May 
11 a business man gave me an order for 
IS bars of %-in. round iron, different 
lengths, to he threaded on each end .1 in. 
long, with nut and washer on each end. 
1 told him 1 had to order them by freight 
a distance of 20 miles. He told me to 
get them. 1 ordered IS bars hv ’phone, 
got them next day. 1 finished four bars 
which I had in stock, so 1 cut 14 bars on 
his given length : then I had the remain¬ 
ing four bars which I got with his order 
ou stock again: also the ends which I 
cut off. as the bars usually were 12 ft. 
long, but this lot they sent me Were IS ft. 
long: 12 of the order were to lie 10 ft. 
4 in. I received from the dealer 442 
lbs. and the lot ordered weighed fl.’ltl lbs. 
Two days later customer catue for them. 
I told him they could not he made that 
day, as m.v cutting die was too dull to cut 
so many long threads. I was taken ill. 
and was unable to continue tlie work, 
which was delayed several days. The cus¬ 
tomer stated he got old iron and had the 
July 15, 1022 
job done at another shop. Could I hold 
him for his order, or for the labor that 
was done on his order? 1 have the two 
orders which he gave on cards in his own 
handwriting. It. F. H. 
Ben nsylvunia. 
If .you contracted to perform a piece of 
work within a certain specified time and 
\yerc unable to do so by reason of sick¬ 
ness. and the time was not extended by 
the person for whom you were working, 
you could not recover the contract price 
for your labor, all hough you did all in 
your power to complete it on time. If 
the time was extended for a consideration 
and the work was completed within the 
time, as extended, then you could recover. 
As a matter of ordinary decency, sickness 
should be accepted as an excuse for non¬ 
performance, whenever it is possible to 
accept such an excuse, without serious 
injury to the other. It is possible that 
the man who gave you your order may 
have extended the time, hut that is a mat¬ 
ter of proof, and you will be obliged to 
have someone in your locality weigh all 
of the facts and evidence obtainable. 
N. T. 
Assuming Step-father's Name 
A woman with a son eight years old 
marries. Bo.v is made to go by his step¬ 
father’s name, but is never adopted. He 
grows to manhood and marries under 
step-father's name ; also his child's birth 
is recorded by that name, lias he any 
right to that name? Can he legally do 
business under that name? Can be hold 
property in tiiat name? lie has used this 
name 17 years. If not legal, what is the 
best thing one could do about it? L. B. 
New York. 
There is no reason why the person in 
question cannot hold property and do 
business under the name which he has 
used for a number of years. At common 
law. a person may change his name in 
good faith and for an honest purpose, and 
by transacting business therein and hold¬ 
ing himself out to his friends and ac¬ 
quaintances thereunder, with their acqui¬ 
escence and recognition, for such length 
of lime as to indicate a bona fide intent 
to assume the new name finally and con¬ 
clusively. N. T. 
Verbal Lease; Ownership of Barn 
We rented a farm joining ours, money 
rent, since May 22. 1017. We seeded it 
once, but tlie seed did not come up. We 
bought and paid for all the seed, and 
again last year we bought grass seed and 
sowed, with tlie verbal contract that if 
we seeded it with clover and grass we 
were to get our seed off the place in hay. 
tine of our neighbors rented it this year. 
We put in about $25 worth of seeding. 
Some say we have a right to the crop of 
hay, and if we can. how can we do it? 
1 would like to get. my seed back if it is 
right that I should. We had to let our 
rent run past due on account of close 
times for money, hut we settled all the 
rent, pud the last was by a note for $25. 
("’an we hold the crop of hay? There is 
a barn on the farm which we bought two 
years ago that is owned by another party, 
lias he any right to the barn as it is 
underpinned with stone wall and has 
gone through into third party's hands, 
and has never been moved. Gan we hold 
it or not? It sits on my land, but is 
owned hv another. 1 am using it. as it 
is the horse stable that has always been 
on this place before divided, and after 
divided it has stayed until it must have 
been divided 12 or 15 or more years ago. 
New Y'ork. E. R. s. 
We doubt your ability to hold the hay 
in question. A verbal lease or the rent 
of property is only good for one year. 
You should have had a written lease. 
If you purchased the property with the 
understanding that the burn belonged to 
another, and consented that he might 
remove tin* same, lie would have a reason¬ 
able time in which to remove the barn. 
X. T. 
inheritance Rights of Second Husband 
JIv father died in 11)08, my mother be¬ 
ing left a widow with three children. She 
bought a house in 1909. In 101” she re¬ 
married. still leaving everything in for¬ 
mer name. In 1018 my mother died, 
leaving no will, and estate still being in 
her former name. What share can my 
stepfather claim from this estate, which 
is not in his name? How would this es¬ 
tate be divided by law? There was a 
small mortgage on house, which was paid 
off while my mother was still alive, with 
the help of my stepfather, myself and two 
sisters. Tlie house is now occupied by my 
stepfather and two sisters, which they are 
paying taxes and keeping lmuse up. What 
share is stepfather entitled to by law. 
when estate is not in his name, not having 
any children? What can I and my two 
sisters claim? j. D. 
Now York. 
The stepfather has no interest in the 
real estate left by the mother. lie would 
take one-third of the personal property 
and the residue will go to the children. 
N. T. 
“ETiU'.r.. can’t you tell us the shape of 
the world?” asked teacher, dear, encour¬ 
agingly “Yessum; it’s in a pretty had 
shape just now.” replied the precocious 
child, who hud heard her daddy say a few 
things at home.—Florida Ilerald. 
Mr. G. S. Schrock of Franklin County. Ohio, who sends the above picture, calls it 
Mount Wood. It surely is a mountain of fuel—all split with the ax. The coal 
miners’ strike need not worry the people in one farmhouse at least. How is the wood 
pile on your farm? 
