1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
8i9 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Education. —“Now, Father, you are 
to examine the children to-night and 
see whether they can take up the first 
reader!” That was the Madame’s in¬ 
struction one night last week, and so, 
after supper, the little folks came with 
their primer and entered upon the most 
important literary event of their lives. 
I was surprised to see how well these 
little people have sorted and stored 
away their 500 or more words. “Proud 
as a peacock!” wouldn’t begin to de¬ 
scribe their feelings when after much 
thought and wise head-shaking I de¬ 
cided that they could “pass.” It cer¬ 
tainly is a revelation to an old-timer 
like me to see how the methods of teach¬ 
ing little children have been improved. 
We are satisfied that the Madame 
is doing the right thing in teaching our 
little folks at home. I don't Know how 
long this can be kept up, but cney shall 
have a good start at least. And it is 
not entirely a question of book either. 
Our children are learning how to do 
useful things. The Bud can sew nicely. 
She has made the squares for a big 
quilt. She also made me a pincushion 
out of a piece of her mother’s old dress. 
I wouldn’t sell it if a man were to come 
and offer the mortgage on the farm in 
exchange. These boys shall never grow 
up expecting the women of the fam¬ 
ily to run and wait on them. They 
wait on themselves! Another thing— 
our children are taught to mind just 
exactly when they are spoken to. Their 
knowledge of what will follow if they 
do not obey is so clear that they are 
rarely followed! I agree with a friend 
in Pennsylvania who wrote not long 
ago: 
My wife believes in making children mind, 
and began to teach them obedience in their 
infant days, and has continued it ever 
since. I do not believe any mother or 
father, either, ever had more obedient and 
loving children. They are much easier 
trained if you begin early. 
Of course they are. Among other 
things don’t let children get in the habit 
of saying “Huh?” when they fail to un¬ 
derstand. 
Compensations. —After what 1 said 
last week about dull ears a friend comes 
at me as follows: 
The Hope Farm man generally seems 
willing to give all sides of a matter. Why 
doesn’t he refer to the advantages of being 
deaf? 
Of course there are advantages in 
every affliction if one will only hunt for 
them. A deaf man becomes well 
acquainted with himself. In some cases 
that is not as pleasant as it might be. 
Such a man is left much alone with 
his own thoughts. Instead of discussing 
a problem with others he must have it 
out with himself or read about it and 
then reason it out. In one sense ihis is 
an advantage. The deaf man ought to 
understand himself pretty well, and 
have a large slice ot self control and 
patience. If a man could be deaf for 
five years and then regain ins hearing I 
can see that he would be stronger in 
various ways. I don’t advise anybody 
to try it though. If you or any of your 
children begin to lose hearing, don’t 
wait a day. See some good aurist at 
once. The great majority of cases can 
be easily prevented if they are taken in 
time. It is all very well to tell people 
what they ought to do, but my experi¬ 
ence is that if you judge most men by 
their oughts the result will be both 
orts and aught. 
The Cabbage Crop. —I had no idea 
people were so much interested in cab¬ 
bage. Among many other notes I have 
the following: 
In the Hope Farm man’s talk on cabbage, 
he says he feeds it to every animal but the 
cow. Why not give the cow some? It will 
increase her milk 40 per cent. In our section 
we raise acres of it for no other purpose. 
If fed immediately after milking it does 
not flavor the milk. We have tried it for 
years. H. w. a. 
I must say that is news to me. It is 
true, though, that turnips fed while one 
is milking or just after will not taint 
the milk. The reasons have often been 
given. The taint is due to certain vola¬ 
tile oils. If time enough is given these 
oils work out of the system before the 
milk is elaborated from ihe blood. When 
fed just after one milking they are gone 
before the next one. If fed only a few 
hours before milking they are likely to 
be found in the milk. The amount of 
food found in an acre of good cabbage 
is startling to me. It would feed a big 
drove of hogs for three months. We 
have quite a proportion of soft heads. 
Some growers tell us these will harden 
later, but I doubt it. I think we missed 
it when we failed to use an extra dress¬ 
ing of potash. 
Farm Notes. —I had about given up 
the late-sown rye for this Fall, but when 
the weather turned mild once more af¬ 
ter the cold snap the rye suddenly 
sprouted and quickly greened over ihe 
field. We had a few Winter oats left, 
and put them in with the rye and they 
have made a good start. ... We 
have used one field of Crimson clover 
for a Fall pasture. The more you nibble 
this clover the more it seems to grow. 
I think the pasturing causes the plant 
to throw out more and stronger roots 
which fits it better for the Winter. I 
have never had better clover before. . 
. . We have been having a great deal 
of what I call “wet rain” lately. By 
this I mean the steady, searching rain 
without much wind to divert its aim. 
That is the sort of rain that makes true 
mud, soaks the hens and drives me 
workmen to the barn. The rain is wel¬ 
come though, for many wells and 
springs in our country were dry. In 
such seasons we are glad to realize that 
our drilled well goes down into a part 
of the earth where drought is unknown. 
. . . I am sorry to say that some of 
our stock beets were frozen. At one 
end of the rows no harm was done, 
while at the other most of the beets 
were badly hurt. There are some 
strange things about farming which are 
hard to explain. . . . What a bless¬ 
ing it is to have the corncribs full of 
grain. Our silo friends tell us to put 
the whole crop into the silo. That would 
not answer in our case, with hens and 
horses to feed. 
Hand Preservers. —Last week I met 
a housekeeper who spoke of using a pair 
of rubber gloves for work that keeps 
the hands in water, it struck me like 
a great thing. Certainly when, after 
much waiting and worry, a man obtains 
possession of a woman’s hand, he ought 
to do all he can to keep that hand in 
good condition. That’s what he would 
do with any tool made of wood and 
steel! So I bought a pair of those gloves 
for our women folks. They report them 
good for such work as scrubbing, but 
too slippery for dishwashing. The Mad¬ 
ame put them on, and 1 saw her play 
baseball with a plate and a saucer. She 
finally held both, but it was too close 
a call for comfort and the gloves came 
off. I would rather pay for an extra 
dish or two. That makes me think that 
Uncle Daniel Reed, the old gentleman 
who brought me up, invented the cast- 
iron sink. That is a fact. In his day 
sinks were made of wood. The old man 
had a cast-iron box made at a country 
foundry, and took it, years ago, to the 
Mechanics Fair at Boston. People 
laughed at_him, because they said every 
dish dropped on the iron sink would 
surely be broken. This discouraged the 
old man so that he went home and quit. 
One of those who laughed at him had 
the thing patented and made a fortune 
out of it. That’s what you get by fall¬ 
ing down at ridicule. It takes something 
harder than cast-iron in a fellow’s will 
to resist the biting teeth of a sneer! If 
Uncle Daniel hadn’t been afraid of a 
broken dish your humble servant might 
have sunk into some of that sink money. 
Something must be broken before re¬ 
forms get a firm hold. Progress makes 
its way over a road-bed of broken 
dishes, dollars—or, in fact, anything 
that gets in its way. h. w. c. 
SOME NOTES ON APPLES. 
We have received from C. C. Gray, 
Lestershire, N. Y., a box of very hand¬ 
some and well-grown apples, including 
a new seedling of Northern Spy. The 
seedling seems in many respects an im¬ 
provement on its parent, but is scarcely 
distinct enough for a name. Mr. Gray 
has devoted an acre to apple trials, and 
is constantly getting new varieties, and 
top-grafting the trees which fail to pro¬ 
duce satisfactory fruit. By this method 
he hopes to arrive at an intelligent con¬ 
clusion as to the best varieties for his 
locality. For grafting purposes he has 
invented a pot for carrying melted wax. 
It consists of a tin case containing a 
small lamp, above which rests the wax 
receptacle, in the manner of a glue-pot. 
Provision is made for sufficient draught 
and the escape of smoke and heated air. 
A pound or two of prepared wax is thus 
kept in a conveniently liquid state as 
long as wanted. Most propagators agree 
that better success is attained with melt¬ 
ed or liquid wax than by cold applica¬ 
tions. Mr. Gray’s notes on the varieties 
he sends are interesting, and we give 
them in full: 
Hendrick’s Sweet is very nice for De¬ 
cember and January use. it sells for a 
good price. Northwestern Greening; tree 
a good grower, always thrifty and an 
iron-clad, but the apple is worth little. 
Aiken Red, handsome and sells better 
than Fameusc. Keeps until March. All 
right to sell when King and Snow are 
gone. Black Twig; tree even more 
thrifty than Northern opy; makes a 
good stock to top-graft. Does not 
crotch and split down. Apples sell well 
here. Red Beitigheimer; big and hand¬ 
some, but nearly worthless. Patterson 
or Jersey Sweet, originated here in 
Broome Co., N. Y. Have eaten apples 
from the original tree, which is dead 
now. They are the best sweet apples for 
eating that I know. Arkansas Black; a 
fair apple; keeps late but lacks suffi¬ 
cient acid for cooking purposes. Arkan¬ 
sas Beauty; a good and handsome apple; 
hangs on the tree well and keeps until 
late in the season. 
I was very much pleased with the Car¬ 
man grape; it seems very vigorous and 
bears well. For my part I was very fond 
of the grapes. The seeds separate readily, 
and to my taste the flavor was very pleas¬ 
ant. f. m. w. 
Smithton, Pa. 
It seems to me that there need be no 
controversy in regard to the subject of bees 
and fruit. To the ordinary fruit grower 
they seem to be guilty of the whole job; 
but let us accept the statement of careful 
observers in regard to their puncturing the 
skin of fruits; and still they are the direct 
cause of the loss, as in most cases the 
puncture by the other insect is not suf¬ 
ficient to cause the fruit to spoil before it 
would be marketed. e. w. s. 
FAT BABY 
Fat is the cushion that na¬ 
ture fills out and surrounds the 
little ones with, to protect their 
tender parts—the same with 
kittens and puppies—fat is not 
tender. Fat they must have; 
and fat they must be. 
If your baby is anyway short 
of his rights, give him Scott’s 
emulsion of cod-liver oil. 
We'll send you a little to try if you like. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, 409 Pearl street, New York. 
In every town 
and village 
may be had, 
the 
Made 
Standard 
Oil Co. 
that makes your 
horses glad. 
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