1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER; 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
What Ails the Farmer? 
I have read with much interest Hope 
Farm Notes in your issue of July 28, page 
515—in fact your articles are the first read 
on the receipt of each number. The point 
upon which you ask advice is why you are 
not getting paying prices for some of your 
products, and you wish your correspond¬ 
ents to guard against making your failure 
a political Issue. At first I did not under¬ 
stand why you warned those who might 
favor you with their idea against making 
such an issue on your miscalculation in 
farming, yet on reflection 1 am aware how 
prone we are to make everything but our¬ 
selves responsible for our failures, and 
also how delightful is the dream that the 
legislature ought to bring individual pros¬ 
perity. One of our merchants stocked up 
largely with a line of goods for which he 
found but little demand, and he was glad 
to dispose of the lot at cost. I know an¬ 
other who bought his usual amount of a 
staple line after which the market de¬ 
clined, and a competitor who bought later 
undersold him. So far as I know neither 
man claimed that politics had anything to 
do with the results. They thought the 
trouble was with themselves in lack of 
foresight. During all the seventies and 
most of the eighties a small coterie of 
farmers on each side of me were doing 
well with their vineyards, and were each 
year adding to the area planted. I was 
loud in declaiming that the market would 
soon be overstocked, but they kept on 
planting. During a pessimistic mood I 
sold part of my farm, and a few years 
later, when the grape craze was swept 
through the Lake Erie Valley, I got grape- 
phobia, and with the rest bought some 
land, not so good as that which I sold, and 
for which I paid a higher price, and plant¬ 
ed a vineyard. I spent money, or rather 
went in debt on the basis of getting 30 
cents per basket for grapes. When I was 
through croaking about overstocking the 
market I was hit with that very club, and 
I am now doing my best to pay for those 
30-cent air castles with 10-cent grapes. 1 
never thought of blaming my mistake to 
politics. If the Prohibitionists had been in 
power or the women had been entitled to 
vote I would have been a chump just the 
same. If one thinks best to go down in 
Jersey and plant potatoes, doing what a 
host of other men are doing who have 
nothing but muscle to put in a crop, he 
must not complain if he gets only muscle 
returns—one of the cheapest commodities to 
be bought. I fancy some men somewhere 
will make money on their potato crops this 
year. Because one is not able to compete 
with them is no evidence that our govern¬ 
ment is not conducted on correct economic 
principles. 
I am glad you have raised this question 
in this form. There are enough farmers 
to fill several 40-acre lots who feel that a 
market should be created—especially pre¬ 
pared for them, where they can dispose of 
anything they may happen to spare at 
paying prices. When one or two millions 
of men get to feeling that way, then the 
opportunity is ripe for the politician to tell 
them that he has a plank in his platform 
that is a panacea for all their mismanage¬ 
ment, shiftlessness and lack of foresight. 
I know of men who made money from the 
soil last year and the year before, and they 
will this year—and not by proxy either. 
When they go away from home they wear 
creases in their trousers and if they are 
on a train overnight they do not curl down 
in a seat in the smoker, but take a sleeper. 
They are men who will make any business 
pay. At least if it should not pay they 
will know it, and the reason why, about 
as quick as one can say Jack Robinson, 
and plans and methods will be quickly 
modlned. They do not cry aloud to high 
Heaven and the politician to help them. 
They help themselves. I wish you would 
preach this gospel. Successful agriculture 
no longer depends on the farm, but on the 
farmer. Let me pick the man and I will 
show you one who will make farming pay. 
JOHN w. SPENCER. 
Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
Mistakes. —As I understand it, Mr. 
Spencer concludes that the purchasing 
power of my potatoes has been reduced 
because we are not pushing things at 
Hope Farm as wisely as we might, or 
because we located in Jersey. There are 
two things that cut down the purchas¬ 
ing power of farm produce. One is the 
low price we receive for it in cash— 
the other is the high price we have to 
pay when we offer that cash for the 
WE WANT YOU 
to represent The R. N.-Y. at Fairs. Liberal 
terms will be sent on request. Write early 
for appointment, and give place and date of 
Fair you want to attend. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, New Yoke. 
6i i 
things we want to buy. It has cost 
somewhat more than usual to grow po¬ 
tatoes this year. Seed, freight, fer¬ 
tilizer, harness, horseflesh and tools 
have cost more money, while the sell¬ 
ing price is lower. We don’t find fault 
with the season, and we know that we 
made some mistakes, but I do not think 
Mr. Spencer gets down within gunshot 
of the real heart of the question. Hope 
Farm is ready to answer for our own 
blunders—which are many. We don’t 
wish anybody to do our duty for us, 
or to legislate money which we do not 
earn into our pockets. There ought to 
be a fair, honest living in this country 
for all who are willing to work. May¬ 
be there is such a chance now, but 1 
could name a good many folks who 
have somehow lost it. 
“Prosperity.” —That is a popular 
word just now. I have in mind a man 
who can argue you into a profound si¬ 
lence with facts and figures to show 
that this country never was so prosper¬ 
ous. Yet you will find his own over¬ 
alls patched with a flour sack and his 
last year’s taxes are still due. Another 
man I know always yelps “hard times,” 
yet he has money out at interest and 
could sign his name to a good-sized 
check. You get 50 men together, and 
ask all those who believe the country 
is prosperous to stand up, and they will 
shake the house in their eagerness to 
get on their feet. You get one of these 
men off alone and ask him for 50 cents 
for the Sunday school or a dollar for 
some other little thing, and you will 
find that this prosperity is almost as 
hard actually to locate as are the “real 
intentions” of parties or candidates. I 
have no doubt that Brother Spencer 
is right in saying that if you 
will scratch an unsuccessful farm- 
a fellow raises food that can’t be sold 
for the cost, while thousands of hu¬ 
mans haven’t enough to eat, and he is 
taxed to feed or jail thousands more 
he feels like going deeper into this 
question than Brother Spencer has done. 
Agricultural Gospel. —I am no 
preacher. I can only tell the things 
and thoughts that concern the life of a 
farm family among the Jersey hills. 
Brother Spencer says that the Get There 
man is the fellow to hold up before the 
public. Each year of my life makes it 
clearer to me that only by hard, con¬ 
stant unremitting toil and care can a 
farmer hope to pay for his farm and 
bud true character upon his children. 
Life has prospered with me probably in 
greater measure than I deserve, yet I 
have respect and sympathy for those 
who fight as well as they know how— 
and fail. When I see a successful far¬ 
mer—such as Mr. Spencer pictures—I 
hope first that his prosperity was not 
dug out of the rights of others. I hope 
he never took advantage of poor or 
easy-going people to obtain land or 
money. Those who wear “creases in 
their trousers” may also wear creases 
in their conscience and the money which 
pays for a sleeper may represent an 
eternal unrest. I then wonder whether 
he realizes that his obligation to so¬ 
ciety ought to be paid before he dies! 
You will perhaps say that this is strange 
talk for a plain, bread-and-butter far¬ 
mer. This won’t show a man how to 
raise more corn and potatoes. I am 
just telling you some of the things we 
believe in at Hope Farm. It’s all right 
to pat the Get There man on the back 
and lash up the laggard, but did it ever 
occur to you what would happen to this 
good old world if the wise and the 
strong did their real duty to humanity? 
But I will leave the subject right here, 
for first thing you know some hard- 
headed old fellow will pop up and say 
—why doesn’t he practice his own 
preaching? 
I once gave a little talk before some 
farmers and gardeners and told what we 
planned to do at Hope Farm. The min¬ 
ute I stopped up jumped an old man 
who has made thousands of dollars as 
a gardener. 
“How much money did you make last 
year?” he said. He had me, for the 
little sum I named seemed petty to 
those great gardeners. Some day, let 
us hope, a fair price will be put on the 
crop of character which Hope Farm 
has tried to produce. Then we’ll make 
a better showing. 
Practical Stuff. —But this won’t do. 
Few people care for preaching. The 
wet, spongy weather still continues. It 
is great for the cabbage and corn, but 
sad enough for the rest of us. The 
Bordeaux Mixture has carried the late 
potatoes through, but they can’t stand 
much more of it. The melons lack 
flavor, and the Limas refuse to fill. 
The sorghum is heading out, but the 
Kaffir is much slower. Those Soy 
beans have grown well, and are alive 
with pods, but I consider the cow peas 
more useful for our purposes. We tried 
all the stock with the green bean vines, 
but only one horse and the pigs would 
touch them. The rye and Winter oats 
with Crimson clover look well. With 
each shower our spirits would go lower 
and lower, were it not for the cabbage. 
The way they jump and stretch their 
wings is enough to make a fellow’s 
doubts dry up even in this moist spell. 
Every cabbage head is a preacher of 
faith! Good! We need it! h. w. c. 
ARMSTRONG & McKELVY 
con- 
Pittsburgh. 
Pos- 
BEYMER-BAUMAN 
Pittsburgh. 
and 
DAVIS-CHAMBERS 
Pittsburgh. 
PAHNE8T0CK 
was 
Pittsburgh. 
ANCHOR ) 
have 
>• Cincinnati. 
5. 1. 
ECKSTEIN 1 
ATLANTIC 
the 
BRADLEY ) 
per- 
BROOKLYN f 
feet for the one strong man with keen, 
active mind and firm, iron will. 2. If 
it were possible to make every farmer 
so quick, active and accurate that 
Brother Spencer could pick him out as 
a profitable farmer, what under Heavens 
could be done with the tremendous 
crops they would produce? Where 
would he go for a new market? 
“Chump” or Solomon. —Take his 
grape crop for example. Let’s stretch 
our imagination a little. Suppose we 
had in New York and New Jersey, 
honestly and fairly enforced, laws to 
prevent the sale of unnecessary or 
crime-producing liquor! No, I won’t say 
“Prohibition,” because I know from sad 
experience that that is like waving a 
red shirt at a bull. Suppose, though, 
that a law like that in South Carolina, 
with some modification, were honestly 
enforced in New York City. The 
chances are that the thousands of chil¬ 
dren who crave and cry for fruit would 
have all they wanted. You would see 
boxes and baskets of fruit taking the 
place of the “growlers” which now steal 
a good share of the earnings of the 
poor. If we had such a state of affairs 
my own opinion is that there would be 
such a demand for Brother Spencer’s 
grapes that instead of being considered 
a “chump” he would be voted as wise 
as Solomon, for every one of those “30- 
cent air castles” would be worth 100 
cents on the dollar! Which, think you, 
is easier—to make all farmers bright, 
strong hustlers, or to turn the money 
now spent for unnecessary drinking 
into tne purchase of necessary food and 
fiber? The scientific men tell us that 
this is an age for saving wastes. I 
think they are right, and to my notion 
the truly scientific way to increase the 
purchasing power of our farm produce 
is to increase the demand for it. When 
New York. 
Chicago. 
i St. Louis. 
JEWETT 
ULSTEP 
UNION 
SOUTHERN 
SHIPMAN 
COLLIER 
MISSOURI 
RED SEAL 
SOUTHERN 
JOHN T. LEWIS A BROS CO 
Philadelphia 
MORLEY 
Cleveland 
8ALEM 
Salem, Mas. t 
Buffalo. ' 
.KENTUCKY 
Louisville. 
G 
CORNELL 
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The brands in margin are 
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PQPP For colors use National Lead Com- 
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National. Lead Co ., 100 William Street , New York. 
Cider Mills. 
8< Gallons to 8 Barrels 
Send for Circular to 
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IDER 
MACHINERY 
I Best and cheapest. 
‘ Send for catalogue. 
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llfl PRESS CO., 
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SYRACUSE, N- V. 
ELECTRIC HANDY WAGONS 
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I Electric 8teel 
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Havana (III.) Metal Wneel Co. 
If You Want Wire 
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There Is Quite a Difference 
F4---1 - I I E 
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mm 
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Rife Hydraulic Engine 
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4 Buggy Wheels with tire on, 87.25 
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I make all sizes & grades. Send for cat. giving 
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write to-day. W. R. BOOB, Centre Hall. Pa 
