THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
759 
loo;^ 
Hope Farm Notes 
Killing An Oi,d Horsk.—H ere is a letter 
from an Indiana man which hits ns hard: 
“How can I dispose of an old liorse long 
jiast his usefulness? I cannot shoot him 
myself, and there is no one whom I could 
trust to do it. I will not sell him to a 
stranger, but I must get rid of him. Do 
you know of some drug that I could give 
him that would cause his death without 
much suffering?” 
I know just how that man feels. Old 
Major and Johnnie are nearly at the end of 
their usefulness, and they must be put out 
of the way before very long. You take 
an old horse that has been in the family 
for years, faithful and true, and it seems 
like killing an old friend to end his days. 
Yet this must be done by somebody, for 
when the old horse has outlived his use¬ 
fulness it is a mercy to kill him. We have 
had to kill two such horses, and I am 
satisfied that the most humane w'ay is for 
some good marksman to shoot them in the 
head. Next to that is a strong blow with 
a sledge or ax on the head. It seems cruel 
and hard, but death is apparently painless 
when the aim is true. I tried to chloroform 
one horse, but made a poor job of it. We 
were told to put a sponge saturated with 
chloroform in a bag and tie the bag over 
the horse’s nose. I got the horse asleep, 
but he woke up again! I should think a 
horse could be quickly killed by “treating” 
him with the gas they use for fumigating 
trees. To do this you will have to put him 
into a room or box stall that c.an be made 
airtight. The method of preparing this gas 
has often been given. Sulphuric acid and 
water are put in a jar and into this is 
dropped a package of cyanide of potash. 
The gas starts at once and instantly fills 
the room, causing instant death to every 
animal that breathes it. For a room con¬ 
taining 600 cubic feet you should use six 
ounces of the cyanide dropped into nine 
ounces of acid and 12 ounces of water. The 
loom must be airtight and the opening 
through which the cyanide is dropped 
instantly closed. This will without doubt 
kill the horse, but it is dangerous for a 
novice to attempt it, and you will bo 
obliged to haul the horse out of the room. 
If any reader can tell a better way of do¬ 
ing this .sorrowful job I wish he W'ould 
do so. 
Cellars and Drains.— A common sight 
in our county of late has been some good 
citizen trying to pump the water out of 
his cellar! As a rule, the man does the 
pumping, while his wife looks out of the 
window and tells him that if he had taken 
her advice the cellar would not hold water. 
The man who can preserve his dignity 
under such circumstances and keep pump¬ 
ing ought to go to Congress. We have had 
no pumping to do, for our cellar is dry a.s 
a bone. When we came here it was wet 
all the time. We dug a drain away from 
one corner and put in a four-inch tile. 
Then we put cement on the cellar floor with 
:l gentle slope to the hole. Water may 
come in, but it runs out again. When i 
had this job done the Mnd.ame s.aid it 
wouldn’t work! A wet cellar is a mighty 
dangerous institution. If a man is build¬ 
ing a hou.se or buying one he should see 
that there is a hole somewhere to drain 
the w'ater off, for it is quite sure to come 
in at times. Our own plan works well, as 
there is a slope away from the house, but 
even on level ground I would try to ditch 
in some way so as to let the water out. 
. . . . We have a drain away from the 
kitchen sink which empties alongside the 
road. Before we got into the pig business 
our women folks emptied dishwater and all 
isito the sink. In time it clogged the drain, 
and began to make a bad mess along the 
road. I got a barrel on wheels and had it 
kept near the kitchen door, and after much 
persuasion the kitchen folks began to put 
all dishwater in this barrel. It is carried 
off twice a day, mixed with bran and mid¬ 
dlings, and fed to the hogs. This relieves 
the drain. There is one thing about water 
conveniences in the country which most 
women folks do not like to realize. Such 
things are makeshifts at best as compared 
with city waterworks. In the city there 
is high and constant pressure, and a groat 
.sc-wer which quickly takes everything 
away. In the country the pressure varies 
and the drainage system is usually small. 
The women ought to realize this and see 
that a small country system cannot be 
fairly expected to do what the city work.s 
do. In most farmhouses I think it is wise 
to separate the greasy dishwater and not 
run it down the drain. There is a difference 
between a necessity and a convenience. 
All Sorts.—T hese are busy days at Hope 
Farm. The weather is still wet and windy, 
and the ground so soggy that it is hard to 
get our rye seeded. Frost stili holds off- 
even the cow peas were green by October 
20. I have never knowm that to happen 
before. We are shipping onions and pick¬ 
ing apples. Philip put up a sign “Onions 
For Sale” with several good-sized bulbs 
tied to it. People are coming from all over 
to buy onions. The rural mall carrier 
bought a bushel and went around showing 
them. If you have never tried It you have 
no idea how much trade there is right 
among your neighbors if you will only let 
them know what you have to offer. . . . 
Our Greenings and Baldwins are first class, 
and there is little trouble in selling them. 
1 expected to ship them all early, but I 
think there is more in our scheme of sell¬ 
ing to private customers in large baskets, 
l.tist year I held some of the Baldwins too 
long. They were a little wninkled, and 
made a poor showing beside the fruit.^’hich 
came out of cold storage fresh and plump. 
'J'en years ago this w'ould have made little 
difference, because then onl.v a small pro¬ 
portion of the crop was put into stortige. 
Now, the wrinkled cellar fruit, wiiile jiist ! 
as good for eating, fails like a wrinkled 
human beside some fresh and plump speci¬ 
men that never knew an hour of trouble! 
• . . . I did not supitose we had any : 
Crimson clover on the farm until we began 
to pick apples in the Baldwin orchard. We 
find that it is thicklv seeded with clover 
from this year’s crop. What stuff this , 
Crimson is for keeping itself going! We 
shall use this orchard next Spring for hog 
pasture while the oats and peas are grow¬ 
ing-then turn the hogs out and sow sor¬ 
ghum and rape for later pasture. 
The pigs are doing well. We get 10 cents 
a pound, dressed, for carcasses under 110 
pounds. The larger hogs bring eight and 
nine cents at present. There is more profit 
in the smaller pork, for one pound of the 
100-pound cf>rcass costs less than one pound 
from the 200-iiound hog. We c.an pay $3 for 
a pig, feed him $2 worth of grain, let him 
run in a good pasture, and .sell him for $10 
to $11. That, of course, is not all cle.ar 
profit, because the green stuff which, he 
eats might be cured and fed or sold. We 
think th.at all things considered the pig 
pays us more for it than anythin.g r-Bc 
would.Frost has hung off so lon.g 
that the nuts have not ripened as they 
usuall.v do. The crop is light anvw.qv, .and 
the squirrels get most of it. I like to 
w'ander off for a nut hunt with the children 
now and then. They have sharp eyes and 
can see a chestnut or ,a hickorv at a long 
distance. It is the tendency of most chil¬ 
dren to run and struggle and push at the 
sight of a nut tree. I have known them 
to fight over the sfioils—which wont, as 
they often do, to the stronger. I do not 
want that among our children. There will 
be no might .about it if I can prevent it, 
but a fair showing for all. Since we all 
live and w'ork together there is no reason 
why one should crowd another aside and 
grab a larger share because, he is stronger. 
We divide up and give all a chance, not 
only at the fun of picking hut at eating as 
well. If I had my way I would have the 
world’s opportunities and rewards divided 
in much this way. We often find <a place 
where a squirrel has hidden a pile of fine 
nuts. Our children do not touch them. The 
squirrel w'orked hard to get them and they 
represent his Winter’s food. Would you 
like to have some stronger man come .and 
steal all you have to show for your labor? 
But how about the lazy ones? 
It depends upon what you mean by 
“lazy.” I'he true .shirk who wall not use 
his own powers and who wall knowingly 
steal the l.abor and benefits which belong 
to others is a thief, and should bo treated 
as such. Others who are called lazy are 
not really shirks, but onl.v need a fair 
ch.ance to win back ambition and energy. 
A Change Coming. —Our country seems 
:it the beginning of a great change! I have 
said that a great water company has 
bought the land in a long valley through 
which runs a little stream. They will build 
;i dam, sci'ape out the v.alley and turn it 
into a groat lake or reservoir. I Imagine 
that this will be the beginning of the end 
of actual farming in our section. It will 
advertise the country, and bring people out 
to look at our hills. Trolleys will be built 
and I think our steep ridges will be taken 
for building fiurposes. 'I'liore is no other 
place within 25 miles of New York where 
land is still cheap. I think it is the destiny 
of our country to supply pure water for 
the city and cheap homes for those who 
like to have their families in the country. 
'I'o me it is a strange thought that one can 
sit here on a farm and wait for others to 
settle around it until its value is doubled, 
fi'he v.alue Is created by others, and not by 
any w'Ork that the farmer does himself. 
'I'hat is a forcible illusti’.ation of the way 
values are created, and how much we owe 
to society or the mere presence of human 
brings near those of us who own real es¬ 
tate. As for me, I do not hesitate to say 
that I am sorr.v to see the change coming 
in our neighborhood. It is good to think 
that property is to become more valuable 
and more sal.able, but I do not like to see 
my home changed. I would much rather 
h.ave this section remain a part of the 
<■ 1 ,untry. I would like to have my farm in¬ 
crease in value throu.gh its reputation for 
l)roducing^more and better apples, onions 
;ind pork, for that would mean a value 
created by the labor of our own hands. 
As for the value cre.ated by those who 
come and settle about us, I do not feel that 
we give the world any fair return for it. 
[ shall not be s.atisfied to sit here and let 
the farm go, but. no matter w’hat happens. 
I shall w’ork to make the orchards the best 
of their kind. ii. w. c. 
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