1494 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 23, 1922 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Last week, you remember, 1 quoted 
from F. S. B., who is ready to bet that 
the Hope Farm man “dresses for dinner,” 
is served by butler and waiter, employs 
an expensive cook and eats industriously 
through “ six or seven courses." I am 
quite aware that it doe -‘t make any great 
difference to the world what we eat and 
how we eat it, but perhaps the science of 
home economics may be helped by a small 
example of practical life. Take last night 
as an illustration. I got home long after 
dark, at the end of my daily trip of about 
(10 miles. It was good to come in out of 
the dark and cold, for the house was 
warm and bright, and all were happy. 
As for “dressing for dinner." in the first 
place we are old-fashioned enough still to 
call it supper. As for "evening clothes,” 
I confess that I have worn what my uncle 
called a "switch-tailed" coat on four dif¬ 
ferent occasions. 1 always felt, ou the.. • 
swims into social life that T was wearing 
a bathing suit only a hair’s breadth 
within the law. My daughter, who seems 
to inherit, a love of finery from her mother, 
has tried to encourage me by saying that 
I fill out these evening clothes very well. 
To me that is a doubtful compliment. 
Will at I did was to wash my hands and 
face, brush my hair and put on an old 
grey jacket of knitted wool. That’s on 
old friend of mine. It has been close *o 
me for years. In the days when such 
words were permitted in polite society 
it would have been called a "sweater.” 
It suits me better than any "dinner coat." 
***** 
The table was spread in our big dining 
room, which opens from the small kitchen. 
More than half the food was right on 
the table when we sat down. I was at 
one end and mother at the other, with a 
long view across the cloth between us. 
Half across the table was a fine hunch of 
geraniums, which the. girls had used as 
a table, decoration. Since little Bose and 
Bila have been taken from us again. 14 
people make their home at Hope Farm. 
There are actually nine voters here. If 
our friend F. S. B. had beeu with us, in 
his evening clothes. I should have asked 
him to give thanks for the fund. No doubt 
his remarks would have been interesting, 
if not fervent. On the stove in the ad¬ 
joining kitchen was a good-sized kettle 
of chicken soup. We had roast chicken 
on Sunday, and when our folks finished 
there was lift 13 left besides the skeletons. 
But these made the frame for a good soup. 
Carl was home from college, and ho 
showed us how they do il in his boarding¬ 
house by bringing the soup plates in, 
rigid from thp fire. You may call this 
the first course if you like. Anyway, it 
was good. One of the girls got up and 
carried the plates out when we were 
through. The Japanese boy went to the 
well and pumped a bucket of cold water. 
He walked arouml with a pitcher and 
filled our glasses. Once in a while he 
worked from the Avrong side, but that is 
a small matter. Then came Carl walking 
in from the kitchen with the piece de 
res is ten re — which I understand to mean 
the foundation of the meal. 
***** 
This Avas a great pan of baked beans— 
Xcav York style! There it stood before 
me, hot and brown, with an occasional 
sputter as the heat within it lifted a piece 
of crisp pork. Our folks parboil the 
beans and then bake them slowly in a hot 
oven, Avitb slices of bacon laid on top. 
The true Boston bean is cooked differ¬ 
ently, for Boston ahvays did represent 
the modern Athens, and regards New 
York as an enlarged Carthage. Very likely 
F. S. B.’s butler could have served beans 
Avitb greater dignity than 1 displayed as 
I heaped the (dates and passed them from 
hand to hand. It seems to me that some 
folks have an idea that the chief object 
in serving food is to display their Avealth 
or training in "table tneanners.” My oavu 
view is that the first office of food is to 
provide bulk, nutriuiout and vitamines for 
the body. Take halted beans. There is 
no chance for a poet to exercise his art 
on such food. The dish presents a theme 
for prose ratlien than rhyme. “Jeans" 
is the most appropriate companion for 
beans in a porm. There Avas the young 
woman who went out. to the evening party 
and when the “hand-out” av:is served she 
protested that she never could eat hearty 
food at night. Angel food or something 
similar was all she could endure. She did 
her part well, and the young man avUo 
“ saw her home" actually thought he had 
hold of an escaped angel, come upon earth 
to teach us dainty ways of living. But 
Avhen the girl got inside the house, her 
first words were: 
"Oh, mu ! I'm no hungry. Where are 
the cold baked beans?” 
I AA’orked for a farmer once who said he 
would not hire a man who did not like 
baked beans. He said such a man would 
turn out to he a Jackson Democrat— 
always on the offside. Out West I worked 
for u farmer avIio said if his hired man 
indicated a liking for beans he would 
fire him. It would prove him to be a 
Ueonhlican. and it was not safe to have 
one in his family. The purebred Yankees 
in my family line up solidly at the bean 
dish. I may add that the Japanese hoy 
marches Avitb us. I think mother re¬ 
gards baked beans as a sort of plebeian 
dish, and I realize that it is served in 
our family partly us a form of reverence 
for an old Ncav England custom. It is 
true that many a Yankee of the old stock 
has given up going to church, but cannot 
be broken of the habit of going to the 
beau pot. If you had been with us last 
night at supper, I should have said : 
"Come, now; pass back your plate for 
more beans. See this spoonful all brown 
and f teaming and that piece of crisp 
bacou to go Avitb them. Nothing more 
fragrant can come out of an oven. Come!” 
Aud the chances are that you Avould 
have come, even though at times you 
favor a law vis strict as the Volstead act 
in its attempt to suppress the evil of 
be an-eating. 
***** 
There were only a foAv beans left in 
the pan Avhen the last chord of appetite 
failed to respond to my call. Then one 
of the girls started a plate containing a 
mass of Avhite material around the table. 
It was cottage cheese. Our folks eat 
great quantities of it; it. is about as much 
a part of the meals as bread. Our folks 
make it AA’ell. It seems to be about as 
nutritious as meat and very much better 
for most people, t >ur folks put cream on 
it. Another dish which usually appears 
at our supper is lettuce. For the greater 
tart of the year \ve can raise it ourselves, 
hiring Winter avo buy it and make spe¬ 
cial efforts to get the children to cat it 
freely. Most of our folks like to make 
a salad of chopped lettuce, raw unions 
aud pot cheese. I imagine that F. S. B. 
and his hutler would shake their heads at 
such a dish, but not so with us. I think 
it more profitable in many cases to buy 
lettuce than to buy meat. There are hun¬ 
dreds of families where the money spent 
for candy would buy a full supply of let¬ 
tuce and tomatoes—to the great advan¬ 
tage of the children. Milk and the leafy 
vegetables are essential pacts of food—at 
least, we think so. a.ul Ave live up to our 
belief. Every leaf of lettuce avas eaten 
up. and then the girls dished out the 
baked apples. Apples rank Avith pot. cheese 
on our (able; they are always on deck. 
Our folks cut out the core, sift in a little 
sugar and cinnamon, and cook slowly 
Avith a little Avuter in the dish. Let F. S. 
B. follow his lettuce and pot cheese with 
a couple of baked apples swimming in 
some of that cream from our Jersey cow, 
and he would not care who cooked the 
meal, whether he bad on evening clothes 
or whether his butler Avas off duty. lie 
might even volunteer to wash the dishes 
by w ay of needed exercise. 
***** 
We had two kinds of bread—graham 
and brown—both homemade. The bread 
plates are emptied rapidly, and when 
this happens one of the children Avill go 
to the kitchen and cut new slices off the 
loaf. Our people are tremendously fond 
of butter. They eat it freely, and at 
every meal Ave consume four to five quarts 
of milk. Our coavs are kept busy at sup¬ 
plying dairy products for the family. I 
must confess that the heavy butter bills 
have tempted our folks to buy "oleo” and 
other substitutes, but we have refused to 
eat them, and have encouraged our chil¬ 
dren to use milk and butter freely. As 
a result they are big and strong, with 
good hone and body. Do not. think Ave 
have baked beans every night for supper. 
One night if may he a big dish of maca¬ 
roni and cheese, or canned salmon Avith 
pens in a cream sauce, or codfish and 
cream and halted potatoes, A favorite 
supper of mine is a thick soup and corn- 
meal mush and milk. Each night if pos¬ 
sible AA'e Avill have pot cheese and lettuce. 
Now a ml then there will be a pudding of 
rice or bread, but our folks try to give a 
supper of plain, substantial food, with 
as little fuss and labor ns possible. We 
generally have meat mice a day—at noon. 
I know people who think the ghost of 
famine would stalk in and take them by 
the collar if they did not eat a great raw 
steak or a thick slice of roast every night. 
They Avould think they were at the stake 
if they had to provide such food for our 
big family. You cun easily see how much 
of such food as 1 have described can he 
produced on the average farm. In these 
days of hideous prices I think we may 
Avell go back to old times and lit our food 
needs closer to our farms. 
***** 
Washing dishes after such a meal is 
no infant industry. Our children do this 
Avork. usually singing or chatting as ac¬ 
companiment for the job. I know moth¬ 
ers who think their daughters should 
never be asked to do such work. Dear 
Mary’s hands must never touch dish- 
Avater. Needless to say, we have no such 
ideas at 1 lope Farm. ,\Ve carry out the 
plan of self-service as far ns is prac¬ 
tical. I think the plan of making our 
food and its service attractive and pleas¬ 
ing is a fundamental in improved livuig. 
Fating and resting are the most essential 
things in preparing the body for good 
labor. A neat table and a comfortable 
bed add more tc the joy of living than 
most of us think. There is such a thing 
as overdoing it. Every man to his sta¬ 
tion. Darwin tells of savages in Terre 
del Fuego who slept in a sort of nest of 
moss between two rocks. Something of 
a jump from that to the bedroom of Louis 
XIV of France! I know 7 a man Avho, in 
the lumber Avoods, sat Avith me on a 
frozen log and gnawed at a piece of bread 
and fined sail pork. Years later 1 saw 
him at a great banquet, garbed in "even¬ 
ing clothes” and nibbling through about 
14 “courses"—from oysters to coffee. lie 
was far happier, back in the years with 
his salt pork. I think wo should try to 
make our table time the happiest part of 
the day— Avith plain food, served as we 
like to IniA’e it. and with laughter and 
good humor and family feeling all 
through it. u. w. c. 
An Early Bird 
I am writing in answer to A. E. Marsh, 
who asks on page 1301 Avho can beat his 
White Leghorn cockerel that crowed 
when 27 days old. I have a White Leg¬ 
horn cockerel that eroAved when 20 days 
old. He was hatched from an egg that 
came from a heavy-laying hen. and Avas 
bred from a cock of high egg-laying 
strain. lie developed more rapidly in 
every way than cockerels bred from a 
poorer strain. Would you consider it a 
good method of selecting cockerels for 
breeding by picking out those Avhich crow 
first ? ’ frank; e. moak. 
New York. 
We would not go by the early crowing 
sign alone, but would accept that as an 
indication of vigor and quick maturity. 
Generally speaking, the male bird acorns 
to carry the good qualities of his mother, 
and in developing flocks of extra layers 
that fact is considered. But the “early 
bird" certainly eats up the worm of lazi¬ 
ness or lack of energy, and we should 
select him in preference to a sloAver bird 
of the same pedigree. 
Pullets’ Eggs; Hot Water Heating 
I have heard that in some poultry 
plants the brooders are heated by hot 
water heating systems. In such a Avay 
of heating satisfactory? How are they 
arranged? Is such a Avay of healing ns 
good as or better than I ho small hard 
coal-burning stoves generally used? 
Are the top grade eggs (with respect 
to size) produced at this season of the 
year from this year’s pullets or year-old 
hens? i have no trouble in getting a 
good per cent of eggs, but very few grade 
ns firsts in size. Have only six months’ 
Old pullets laying at present. F. C. 
Sussex Co., Del. 
ITot-water heaters, consisting simply of 
ordinary hot-Avater radiators, such as are 
used in homes, over each of Avliich a metal 
canopy is placed to deflect the heat down¬ 
ward. are successfully used in some 
brooder plants. They are connected, as 
they would he in house-heating systems, 
with a heater which maintains a con¬ 
stant flow of warm or hot water. The 
only objections that I know of to such 
an installation are the first cost and the 
necessity "f using them in fixed buildings. 
They possess the advantage of furnish¬ 
ing easily controlled heat from a central 
source, and of being flexible in the mat¬ 
ter of size of the installation. As many 
or few may be used in a long brooder 
house as circumstances require. Coal or 
oil-burning brooder stoves, however, have 
this advantage, that they may be in¬ 
stalled in portable buildings and moved 
about us occasion requires. A matter of 
considerable convenience upon a poultry 
farm where it is desired to utilize the laud 
to best advantage. 
Bullets’ eggs seldom grade as firsts in 
the matter of size, at least not until they 
have been laying for some lime. They 
are best placed by themselves, aud not 
permitted to reduce the price of large 
eggs from yearling hens or those that are 
older. M. B. D. 
Effect of Breeding for Good Hens 
In making a report of the third week 
in the tAvelftb Ktorrs (Conn.) egg laying 
contest, the managers say: 
The hens at Storrs are laying more 
eggs, and there is every indication that 
they are out for a record-breaking year. 
In the third week of the contest they laid 
nearly 900 eggs more than the average for 
the last eight years, and over 700 more 
than for the corresponding period in any 
previous contest. The total number of 
eggs for all pens Avas 2,104, or a yield, of 
nearly 31 per cent. The accompanying 
table shows the average production for 
previous years in per cent, as compared 
with the production for the first three 
weeks in the current contest: 
Period 
Average 
1922 
First week .. 
. 11.4 
15.8 
Second week . 
. 15.0 
23.3 
Third Aveclt . 
. 17.S 
30.9 
These figures seem to suggest that the 
management of the contest may presently 
have the problem of guarding against ex¬ 
cessive production during the Winter 
mouths. In other words, there is probab¬ 
ly a limit of endurance beyond Avhich a 
hen cannot go. 
Part of this great Winter production 
is probably due to the use of lights at 
night, but without doubt the chief reason 
is the improved breeding of the birds. 
For 10 years or more most of the men 
Avho enter birds at this contest, have been 
selecting pullets from hens noted for 
great, records. These have been trod to 
the sons of superior liens. This course, 
continued through a number of years, 1ms 
Avithout doubt produced strains of hens 
which consistently lay more eggs than 
their ancestors ever did or ever could. 
Copperas for Poultry 
Is copperas beneficial to poultry, and in 
what way? What quantity can be used 
to a gallon of Avater? J- n- 
Copperas is sulphate of iron, a prepara¬ 
tion of iron used in medicine, though not 
Avidely. Its chief action is astringent, 
and it teuds to check some chronic diar¬ 
rhoeas where there is a laxity in tone of 
the intestinal secreting membranes. It 
appears to be a faA'orite drug for admin¬ 
istration to the lower animals, though 
just what it does to them in any dose 
which eau avcII be administered, I do not 
knoAA\ If they need iron for its blood¬ 
building effect, other forms would be far 
preferable. I suspect that its chief claim 
to popularity is the fact, that someone, 
some time, printed a formula containing 
it, and that others, Avith as little knowl¬ 
edge of medicine, copied it. Few follow 
your example of inquiring avTiv a thing 
is useful, aud huAV it. acts; it is easier just 
to give a little medicine and turn the re¬ 
sponsibility over to that. 
Here, however, is a formula, said to 
have been recommended by one of the 
agricultural colleges for Fall and Winter 
colds in fowls: It contains a physic (Fp- 
som salt), an astringent, to counteract the 
effect of that physic (copperas), a stom¬ 
ach sweetener (magnesium carbonate, an 
old-fashioned Spring blood purifier (sul¬ 
phur). aud a good pumpkin-pie spice 
(ground ginger), mixed in the following 
proportions: 4 lbs. Epsom salts. (? oz. 
magnesium carbonate, 12 oz. copperas. 
1 lb. sulphur, 12 oz. ground ginger. Dose, 
one tablesnoouful to on eh 15 hens. Mix 
with moist mash and feed in forenoon to 
liens nut previously given their breakfast. 
Give three morning in succession, skip 
three mornings and repeat. There is 
nothing h: iful in the above mixture, and 
I should expect it to do all that its really 
active ingredient (Epsom salts) would 
do if that drug avus administered alone. 
Still, everyone knows that a really good 
medicine should have a lot. of things in 
it; then, in case of a mistake iu diagnosis, 
one of the drugs might happen to be just 
the thing for the real disease present. 
Whv fiddle on one string? M. b. d. 
Surely there is nothing of "race suicide” about this family of Airedale dogs. As a 
rule, perhaps the families of pure blood in both humans and dogs are likely to be 
small, but this does not always follow. The Airedale is a popular dog for farm 
work. Some readers Avill smile at the idea of a working dog, but au Airedale will Avork. 
