1003 
Hope Farm Notes 
An Invitation.—As a good prelude to 
Thanksgiving I received the following 
letter from a friend in Utah: 
“After noting the struggies of the Hope 
Farm man for a good while, I think that 
you wouid better take a vacation during 
next farming season and come on here to 
the Pacific slope, and sojourn a season 
with the rain makers (irrigators) in this 
land of sunshine. You could then easily 
learn how to grow Alfalfa; you would 
also see what a fine thing it is to make 
it rain when you need it, and be able to 
stop it when you had got enough, with¬ 
out waiting for the weather man or Provi¬ 
dence to stop when they get ready.” 
It was pleasant to read this kindly in¬ 
vitation as w'e sat down to supper the 
night before Thanksgiving. My, but it 
was cold! We never before had such 
frost with our turkey. Outside the ground 
was frozen solid, and the wind was rising 
with all the yeast that the Northwest 
could put into it. Charlie and Philip had 
been hauling stalks all day with Major 
and the Bird. Hugh and Frank had taken 
a load of apples to Paterson. It was warm 
enough in the house with logs blazing in 
the big stove. Ida had cooked one of her 
famous Finnish pies—such as they have 
in Finland. It is made of chopped meat 
and onions and something else baked like 
an apple pje. It w'as a high compliment 
to the food of Fiitland that we finished 
that pie. Then there were baked apples 
and cream. Jack came home for Thanks¬ 
giving, and after supper he, with the little 
boys, cracked nuts and all hands took h, 
hand at eating them. With a fat turkey 
in the cellar and a warm nest for every 
living thing on the farm, Utah had no 
inducements for us. We wouldn’t leave 
New Jersey on such a night. 
Thanksgiving.— All hands were up be¬ 
times the next morning, for there is busi¬ 
ness about a Thanksgiving ceiebration. 
Jack is a teacher at a boys’ school. Among 
other things he teaches the boys how to 
play football. He brought a ball for our 
boys and showed them how to kick it. 
If I could only get the little fellows to see 
as much fun in a hoe handle as they do 
in a football there wouldn’t be a weed on 
the farm. I spoke last week of Prof. Lip- 
man’s germ which will work on rye or 
turnips and thus obtain the energy needed 
10 take nitrogen out of the air. Let him 
hunt for the football germ w’hich will en¬ 
able a boj' to imagine he is playing the 
game while actually picking up stones or 
pulling weeds. I will take a dozen such 
germs at a fair price. 
'I’hei steam engine was expected in a day 
or two to saw wood and shred the stalks, 
so Charlie and Hugh hauled down a couple 
of loads of w'ood. Of course I walked all 
over my young orchard. Several rabbit 
hunters were out, and I was glad to see 
them, for a dead rabbit gnaws no trees. 
The Hope Faiun family lined up 15 strong 
at dinner, and there w’asn’t much left of 
either the turkey or the fixings when they 
finished. It w^as too bad, but the Scion 
had to leave the table between turkey and 
pie to rub his chilblains! There wasn’t 
a bit of alum in the house! After dinner 
the children begged me to come out and 
play football. I ought to have known 
better, but finally we lined up in the road. 
After the first run I quickly found that 
my wind is better adapted to telling about 
games of 25 years ago than it is playing 
the game to-day. Some of our dignified 
friends would surely have shaken their 
wise old heads if they could have seen 
the Hope Farm man sitting on the ball 
and holding the entire “other side’’ so 
they couldn’t run with it. When a fleshy 
man’s breath gives out within a few feet 
of the goal there isn’t anything else to do. 
I pa.ssed the ball back to the Scion and he 
ran witli it over the., line. Instead of 
“touching it down” as he should have 
done, he danced up and down to celebrate 
our victory. The result was that the 
other side broke in on him, got the ball, 
ran to the other goal and won the game. 
I may be too old to play football like an 
expert, but I can get as much sport out 
of it as anybody. 
No use talking, Thanksgiving was a 
great day at Hope Farm. Six very tired 
cl'.ildren tumbled into bed at night with 
memories of turkey, football, pop corn and 
open fire jumbled up into a pleasant 
mental picture. My little girl came and 
put her hand on my shoulder as I sat 
looking at the fire and asked: 
“Father, are you t/lud it’s Thanksgiv¬ 
ing?” 
T was just thinking about this Utah 
friend of ours w’ho wants us to come out 
into what he thinks is a beautiful land of 
sunshine! Glad? Yes, indeed! There are 
plenty of sad memories that go with 
Thanksgiving, and I know people w’ho do 
not like to have the holiday come for that 
reason. I do not feel that v/ay about it. 
for no one has a right to leave a legacy 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
855 
of sadness to the hopeful little folks to 
whom the day means so m*uch. 
Going Away.— I presume that our Utah 
friend and others like him cannot under¬ 
stand why people who live in the fog and 
cold are not willing to pull up stakes at 
once and rush to their “beautiful country.” 
’I'he reason is that there are roots on the 
stakes which surround a home. Just as 
it is with a root-pruned tree, these roots 
go deeper into the soil when the home is 
made .under difficulties. It is often ea.sy 
for the young to go away from the old 
home to build a new one. They are home¬ 
sick at first, but they get over it. Not so 
with those of middle age who have put 
their best years into the making of a 
home. When a man has toiled and 
struggled and put his best work and self- 
denial into the soil I am sorry to see him 
put a money valuation upon it and sell 
out without regret. That is why I feel 
like urging a farmer to stick to his farm 
as long as he can. The best years of his 
life are there. If he has been careful and 
thorough the best interest on the invest¬ 
ment of his youth will be paid by the 
farm. I have known men to say that the 
farm was the grave of their hope and 
youthful vigor. No more a grave than is 
the hole in which we plant a tree. While 
the roots are out of sight we know that 
they are still working for us—that the 
hole is not a grave but a place where the 
most hopeful life goes on. When a man 
puts work into a farm in this spirit and 
sees as the years go by, faith growing 
surely into fulfillment, you will not be 
able to pull him aw'ay from his home with 
a steam engine! A man s'nould stay where 
his life’s work has been done. Even if 
that work is so bad that he is thoroughly 
ashamed of it? Yes, because that is all 
the more reason w'hy he should stay by 
the evil root and graft good upon it. I 
will call our L^tah friend's attention to 
the fact that it is more creditable to 
make Alfalfa grow in New Jersey than 
simply to let it grow in Utah. I lived in 
Colorado once, and I noticed that some 
of the best and most prosperous farmers 
often talked about going back to “God’s 
country.” 1 presume they meant the 
tough old eastern farms where God had 
planted the best part of them—the hopes 
and ambitions of early manhood. 
Subsoiling.— 1 have the following ques¬ 
tion from a New York man who has a 
small farm: , 
“Will it pay me to buy a subsoiler at $16, 
hire a man and horse to use it, and follow 
the plowman through each furrow, break¬ 
ing the hardjKin but not mixing it with 
the soil turned up by the plow? My soil 
is shallow and the hardpan lies near the 
surface. I think on most of my land a 
seven-inch furrow reaches clay. It seerns 
to me the problem is to deepen the soil in 
order that the root growth of grass may 
extend downward. Will Alfalfa grow well 
in such a soil as mine?” 
I cannot figure any man’s profit for him. 
There are too many things I know noth¬ 
ing about. Such land is usualiy helped by 
subsoiling. The plow does not turn the 
clay up, but breaks it open and lets air, 
water and sun into it. By subsoiling such 
land you Vv^ill deepen the feeding ground 
for the roots, double the water-holding 
capacity of the soil, and slowly deepen 
the top or dark-colored soil. 'I'here would 
be no use in sowing Alfalfa on such land 
unless you did subsoil it. for the hardpan 
would stop root growth. The price men¬ 
tioned is too high for a one-horse plow, 
and we have little faith in one-horse af¬ 
fairs, anvway. Subsoiling is no one-horse 
job. To do it right will give two good 
horses all they want to do. especially if 
stones abound, as if often the case in such 
soils. 1 have several fields in which sub¬ 
soiling would be impossible for this rea¬ 
son. 
Woman’s Work. —Some of the men folks 
are inclined to make light of the woman’s 
job, and say • that kitchen tools and con¬ 
veniences should come last. It i.s strange 
how good men sometimes get off the track. 
It isn’t always the man’s work that en¬ 
dures. In our Sunday afternoon walks the 
'children and I see some strange things, 
l.ast Spring in wandering t'hrou.gh the 
woods at the back of the farm we found 
two beautiful lilac bushes. I wondered 
how they could have grown in that wilder¬ 
ness. We began to hunt, and soon found 
a pile of stones and a hole in the ground 
where a house once stood. There was evi¬ 
dently a home there once. It seems that 
.vears ago a small house stood in tl is 
lonely place. A road, since closed, ran 
past it. The mother planted these lilac 
bushes in front of her home. Reverses and 
death came. The family w'as scattered, 
the little home fell in, the road was given 
up, bushes and briars clogged up and hid 
the ruins—nothing of the old home influ¬ 
ence was left but the lilacs. No doubt the 
man of the house took pride in his farm 
and thought of what he would leave be¬ 
hind him. He has left nothing. We know 
not to-day whether he ra,lsed corn or 
beans—nor do we care. All record of his 
work has been blotted out by the wild 
growth of the forest. His wife’s planting 
remains. The lilacs still bloom where the 
old dooryard stood. The flowers have with¬ 
stood the forces that overwhelmed the 
man’s work. You gentlemen may well 
ponder before you stamp women’s work as 
feeble and unenduring. h. w. c. 
ANIMAL MEAL MAKES EGGS—Last fall 
1 bought a quantity of animal meal. At 
first the hens seemed to care nothing about 
it. but they soon got to like it. It was not 
long until their combs assumed a bright, 
scarlet color and they began to lay an un¬ 
usual number of eggs. During the latter 
part of January the animal meal gave out., 
and soon the hens lost their appetite, and 
the result was but few eggs. The hens 
moped about and it seemed that there was 
something ailing them. I bought another 
quantity of Animal Meal and began feeding it 
to them. Their appetite soon returned and 
now they lay as well as ever. 
James B. Stephens.—Adv. 
Perry County, Pa. 
FROM LAST TO FIRST 
People used to take plain 
cod liver oil for coughs, colds, 
throat an _l lung troubles after 
other remedies had failed. 
Scott’s Emulsion is the 
modern idea of cod liver oil 
—the first instead of the last 
resort when such ailments 
appear. 
The taste of the oil is not 
apparent and the oil itself is 
partly digested — makes it 
easy for the stomach. Scott’s 
Emulsion is a quick, reliable 
help at all ages. 
We’ll send you a sample free upon request. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, 409 Pearl Street, New York. 
AGENTS WANTED 
'‘MEND-A-RIP.” 
DIDOES ALL KINDS OP LIGHT AND HEAVY 
' STITCHING. DOES ALL KINDS OP 
LIGHT AND HEAVY RIVETING. 
A HAND SEWING 
^NO RIVETER 
—1 COMBIMCO 
WILL SAVE THE PRICE 
OE ITSELF MANY TIMES A YEAR. 
Toshow itmeans a eftle. Agents make from 
^ $3 to 115 a daj. One agent made 120 the 
first day, and writes uato hurry more ma¬ 
chines to him. Write forterms to atrenfs. 
0. Foote Fonndry Co.» Frederlebtown, Ohio. 
A HOT PROPOSITION! 
To introduce our Ball-Bearing Stool Forges, 
Malleable Iron Vises and Blacksmith Tools 
for farmers’ use we will make special prices. 
Ship on approval. Prepay the freight. Write 
today for special offer. We’ll save you 
money. Diplomas from Iowa, Nebraska and 
Kansas State Fairs. ‘ 
C. R. Harper Mfg. Co., Box 123, Marshalltown, Iowa. 
No Smoke House. Smoke meat with 
KRAUSERS’ LIQUID EXTRACT OF SMOKE. 
Made from hickory wood. Gives delicious flavor. 
Oheaper^clesner than old way. Send for cir¬ 
cular. E. Kraaser dt Bro., Milton, Pa. 
EXCEL GRINDING MILLS. 
The Mill that excels them all. Best 
for the farmer. Grinds 6 to 25 bushels 
per hour of ear corn or grain of any 
kind, bone,shell, etc., with from 1 to 8 
horse-power. Makes best feed and good 
meal. Furnished with or without 
crusher. We have larger mills for 
every purpose. Write forCatalogue E, 
Wo pay the freight. 
Excel Manufacturing Co., 
116 Liberty Street, New York 
20 YEARS SUCCESS 
Here is a man who has used our Kendall's 
Spavin Cure for over 20 years with entire 
success. Your experience would be 
the same if you but tried it. 
Fulton, Oregon, Feb. 10, 1903. 
Dr. B. J. Kendall Co., 
Gentlemen:—Will you please send mo your 
book “A Treatise on the Horse and his Dis¬ 
eases.” 1 have used your Kendall’s Spavin 
Cure for over twenty years and know of no 
better Irnimenl for man or beast. Have also 
used one of your books until it Is worn out. 
Very truly yours, 
F. J. NELSON. 
It Is on absolutely reliable remedy for Spavins, 
Splints, Curbs, Ringbones, etc. Removes the bunch 
and leaves no scar. Price SI; six for S5. As a lini¬ 
ment for family use it has no equal. Ask your drug¬ 
gist for KENDALL’S SPAVIN CURE, also “A Treat* 
Ise on fho Horse," the book free, or address 
DR. B. J. KENDALL CO., ENOSBURG FALLS, VT. 
Iln A Barn 
rand many other places 
on the farm such as 
tlie feedroom, dairy 
bam, horse stable, 
etc. you will get great 
satisfaction from a 
good stationary light. 
The best you can get is a 
DIETZ 
Search Light. 
' It is strong,clear and steady, 
fully up to electric light for 
your uses. Perfectly safe 
and most convenient for 
using. 'Write us for lan¬ 
tern book which shows every 
kind to choose from. Local 
dealer carries or will send 
for the one you choose. 
R. E. DIETZ 
COMPANY, 
87 Lalght St., New York. 
Established 18h0. 
DRILL WELLS 
with Loomis’ late improved machinery and 
you can make large profits on capital invested. 
They are leaders in the line. The most effec¬ 
tive and durable Well Drilling MacUlneg 
In America. Address 
lOOMIS MACHINE CO., TIFFIH, OHIO. 
TELEPHONES 
For Farmers' Lines. 
Organize an exchange In your 
community. Fullpartlcnlarsfnr- 
nlshed. Catalogue free. 
THE NORTH ELECTRIC CO., 
162 Bt. Clair Street, 
C* N. 301. Cliifi V t’ j T . AD lDf O, 
STEVEN 
“Yes, that s what the boy wanted— a 
‘Stevens’ Favorite, No. 17 —it’s stamped 
here on the rifle. He said he would 
rather have a ‘Stevens’ than anything 
I could buy. It’s all right. Ihaue been 
shooting a 'Stevens' for almost jo years 
and it has never failed me yet.” 
We make a specialty of these Rifles ; 
“Sfovens-Maynard, Jr.” $3.00 
“Crack Shot” $4.00 
“Favorite” No. IT, $6.00 
Send for Our Free Book 
of 128 pages which tells about the “Stevens” 
—gives pictures and prices. Contains inter¬ 
esting articles on Hunting, Fishing, Canoe¬ 
ing, Target Shooting, etc. 
PUZZLE 
A Clever Rifle Puzzle will 
be mailed postpaid for 4c 
in stamps. It is lotsjof fun—“easy when 
you know how”—but everyone can’t solve 
it. Can you? Try it and see. 
Ask your dealer for the “Stevens” and 
don’t be misled—insist on getting our 
goods. If you cannot obtain them, let 
us know and we will ship direct, ex¬ 
press prepaid, upon receipt 0/ Price}^ 
J. Stevens Arms and Tool Co.,775 Main St., Chicopee Falls, Mass. 
