1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
23 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Weather.— Through the middle of 
December the cold was severe. Instead of 
getting down to zero and having the thing 
over the mercury hung around 12 and 16 
degrees. . The weaker ones at barn and 
house showed the effects of this long- 
drawn-out cold. There was no snow on 
the ground, but the frost sunk deep into 
the soil. It seemed to strike something 
there that hurt its feelings, for two days 
before Christmas it began crawling out. 1 
came home Christmas Eve through the 
mud. i had an outfit of bundles and pack¬ 
ages that would have done credit to Santa 
Claus. Old Johnnie, who pulled the load, 
evidently called it a case of Christmas 
hauly not quite to his taste. The weather 
continued soft and sticky—the Sunday be¬ 
fore New Year’s bringing a rain that flood¬ 
ed the ponds and streams, and made mud 
pies of the low places on the roads. This 
makes a dreary time in the country un¬ 
less the family is large and contented 
enough to find satisfaction at home. I 
should say that such dreary weather 
would be nuts for a family skeleton. I 
never had much experience with one of 
these home breakers, but I should think 
that the mournful tears of this weather 
would bring him out of his closet and 
make him shake his bones in great shape. 
A wet farm Sunday is cheerless enough at 
any time, but worst of all when it breaks 
into the legitimate season of frost. ,\t’s 
hard to be cheerful—just when you ought 
to be. Even the big rooster under the shed 
hung his head as the water dropped out 
of his tail feathers. He raised his head 
once and started to crow, but at a motion 
from one of the hens crouched down in¬ 
stead. Doubtless his wife told him he 
would take his death of cold if he opened 
his throat, and thus the lady bottled up 
his cheer! When night comes in such 
weather the thing to do is to light every 
lamp in the house. Don’t pull a curtain 
down! You do not know who may be wan¬ 
dering abroad. 
House Building.— This soft weather gave 
the boys a good chance to finish the cellar 
for the new house. By the time this is 
printed the frame will be well up. For 
the cellar walls and foundation the masons 
used stone from our old walls. We hauled 
over 40 loads of stone, and barely made a 
dent on one wall. The children were great¬ 
ly interested in this wall building. The 
thing that startled them was the way the 
lime and cement hardened between those 
stones and held them firm and solid. I 
tried to explain how this was done—how 
the lime rock and cement once stood in 
great useless chunks far away from Hope 
Farm. Those chunks were burned or 
ground until they fell all apart into pow¬ 
der. When mixed with sand and water 
they are soft enough to work in between 
ihe brick and stones, and then they harden 
with a grip that will endure for years or 
ages. The little folks are not old enough 
yet to see the application of all this—how 
human lives must go through the fire and 
the mill of trouble before they can break 
apart and be able to bind their small share 
of the world together with a true grip. I 
hope they will learn this in time, for it is 
one of the enduring truths of human life. 
Stone Wall Musings.— At the risk of 
having some practical old fellow start up 
and say that he wants no preaching 1 will 
talk stone wall again. I picked up a piece 
of stone which the masons had broken oft 
in the new cellar, and threw it back on the 
old stone wall. It was, of course, folly 
for a farmer to think such thoughts, even 
on Sunday afternoon in the rain, but I 
imagined that piece of rock bringing the 
news to his old comrades. Perhaps it 
talked like this: 
“Gentlemen, I bring you good tidings. 1 
lave learned that there is a place for us 
out in this great useful world! We have 
been standing idle here for years. The men 
who dug us up from our quiet beds have 
passed away. We may have caused the 
present proprietor more mental profanity 
than is good for him. We are gray and 
old, but we are not to be useless.” 
“But what is our job?” says an old hard¬ 
head at the bottom of the wall! 
“Foundation stock! We are to hold up 
things. These friends of ours that were 
taken away are now packed in the ground 
in firm and solid ranks. They are the 
foundation of a house—a structure that will 
serve as home, from which people will go, 
let us hope, to help make the world hap¬ 
pier and better.” 
“But that cannot be,” says old Hard¬ 
head. “We cannot hang together to make 
any foundation. We tumble apart. A rov¬ 
ing hunter can throw us down. A dog 
after a rabbit will knock many of our 
small stones away. It is nonsense to tnimc 
of our holding up a house!” 
"That is the strangest part of it all. As 
they piled us together beneath that house 
they smeared between what seemed to be 
a soft, yielding paste. It seemed like a 
ridiculous thing that this soft stuff should 
be expected to hpld us, yet before we knew 
it something caught us in a grasp of iron. 
As that paste hardened it clutched us until 
we were brought together like one rock. 
This soft paste told us that once it was a 
tough hard rock like ourselves. It was 
burned and ground into a powder—losing 
its character and strength. One day it 
found itself mixed with sand, but it took 
little notice until water was poured on. 
Then suddenly its strength came back, and 
it reached out like a blind Samson to do 
the work allotted to it. It seized our 
friends from the old stone wall, held them 
and will hold them still for years. Is it 
not strange that the water that washes our 
face and the dust which blows over us 
should clutch us like a giant?” 
The rock doubtless went on to tell other 
things it had learned, but this will do for 
our New Year’s thought. Thousands of 
us like the stones in the old wall have gone 
on through life almost alone. Perhaps by 
force of circumstances, or because of our 
own failings, all the work of our lives is 
within reach of our own hands—for most 
arms are long enough to reach the pocket. 
We see how the foundations of society 
could be made strong and true if men of 
common mind could be brought together 
In a firm and solid bond. I wish that 
those who have been through the fire 
would come back like my piece of rock, 
and make us understand that dust of love 
and the water of faith can hold us like 
a rock if we will only let them. 
Feeding Problems.— That is more than 
enough sermonizing, you will say; let us 
have something else. Here is a note from 
Michigan: 
“What is the most economical feed for 
young pigs, with grain at the following 
price: Corn, 55 cents per bushel; oats, 35 
cents per bushel; rye, 50 cents per bushel; 
bran, $1 per 100; middlings, ?1 per 100? How 
much would beans damaged by rain be 
worth for pigs? How should they be fed?” 
A. J. D. 
As I am situated I would buy corn, bran 
and middlings, and feed one-third each. 
Last year I might have said two : thirds 
bran, but I have observed that middlings 
seem to improve the mixture, and I do not 
believe in feeding too much bran to young 
pigs. I would not touch rye at 50 cents 
with corn at 55 cents. I could not make 
even a good guess at the value of tnose 
beans. We consider ordinary cull beans 
and cow peas worth about 50 per cent more 
than bran for pigs. We boil them with me 
turnips and potatoes, and thicken the soup 
with cornmeal or middlings. We would 
not feed raw beans to any stock except 
sheep. Boiling them suits us well. 
What about that steamed corn fodder? 
Thus far it is quite satisfactory. The 
hogs are fond of it, and eat about all the 
stalks. The horses do not seem to like it 
so well. We pour the molasses into the 
barrel before adding the hot water. If one 
had a good-sized vat and a steam pipe I 
think the plan would pay. It requires 
much work to handle the barrel or hogs¬ 
head.Our cabbage will last till 
the middle of January, and then the yellow 
turnips will come in. I have heard people 
say that their hogs would not eat cabbage. 
That is strange talk to me, for our pigs 
are very fond of it. Our pigs also eat the 
dried brewer’s grains better than any of 
the other stock. Of course, we keep the 
boxes in the sow’s pens well filled with 
wood ashes! 
Dog Doings.—Do you keep a dog? 
Yes, I do! 
Are you not the man who abused the 
farm dog and said you had no use for him? 
Yes, I must admit it. 
Then what do you mean by keeping one? 
I shall have to admit frankly that when 
I attacked the dog I thought dogs and 
curs were the same. I know better now, 
for Shep has taught me the difference. He 
has proved an antidote for my anti-dog 
talk. 
How did he do that? 
Why. he showed us that a well-bred col¬ 
lie is a natural gentleman. We got this 
dog when a small puppy. He was never 
trained, and no one here pretends to know 
now to train him properly. He has been 
mostly with the children, and I am satis¬ 
fied that they would have spoiled many 
dogs. Shep. however, has always behaved 
himself—in fact, I think the children have 
learned character and self-denial from him. 
The French saying noblesse oblige will apply 
to Shep. He seems to feel obliged to be¬ 
have himself and do what he can to help 
us. I could fill a page with records of the 
things this dog does which may well te 
classed with reasoning processes. 
Could not Shep be made into what you 
call a cur? 
I doubt it—there are too many gentlemen 
in his pedigree. Some man might shorten 
his title and make him a “gent,” but he 
would have a job. I believe that a good 
many men keep a dog because they feel 
that in time the animal will reflect much 
of their own character. And that's just 
what a cur does. He picks out the mean 
qualities of his master and develops them. 
If the man quarrels with his wife, the dog 
will surely run out and bark at a passing 
team! Sometimes a cur man gets hold of 
a gentleman dog! The dog being better 
bred than the man keeps most of his good 
and noble habits. The man observes them 
and imagines they are his own. In time 
he may adopt some of them. Surely I wish 
that every farm might have a dog like 
Shep. 
All Sorts.—A Michigan man wants to 
know various things—here is one: 
“Last year you said that the aphides were 
eating up your cherry trees, but forgot to 
tell us what you did to rid your trees of 
this insect. Please explain fully.” 
1 am obliged to admit that we did not 
touch the trees. Other work pressed us so 
that I did not see how we could spare the 
time. The aphis did not do as much dam¬ 
age as I expected, and I doubt whether the 
trees were badly injured. I was advised 
to use a spray of three gallons of water to 
one pound of whale-oil soap. This, or the 
kerosene emulsion, would probably fix the 
aphis, but it would be a hard job to cover 
our big cherry trees. The same writer asivs 
this question: 
“I have trouble in making Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture. I think you spoke once of a special 
preparation of lime for that purpose. Will 
you repeat your explanation? Some of us 
have to be told the same thing year after 
year, you know.” 
Yes, many of us need to be told again 
and again. You probably refer to the soda 
Bordeaux, which we have found quite ef¬ 
fective. Take a one-pound can of Lewis 
lye and dissolve it in water. Then dissolve 
three pounds sulphate of copper, it can 
be put in a coarse sack and hung in a 
bucket or barrel of water. Add five gal¬ 
lons of water to the lye, and 10 gallons to 
the copper solution. Pour them together 
into a barrel and add enough water to make 
30 gallons. Four or five ounces of lirne 
made into a paste may be added and wc’l 
stirred in. This costs more than the lime 
Bordeaux, but it sprays well and does ef¬ 
fective work. h. w. c. 
HOPEFUL VIEW 
The hopeful view consump¬ 
tives take of their own cases is 
strongly in their favor. Each 
year is showing a larger per¬ 
centage of cures. * 
One of the best reasons for 
good hope is the record of 
Scott’s Emulsion as a medicine 
for consumptives. So long as 
the system is strong enough to 
use medicine of any kind it can 
use Scott’s Emulsion. 
The reason for its helpful-, 
ness in this disease is because 
of its long tolerance by the 
patient; one does not tire of 
it as quickly as other medi¬ 
cines and that is where the 
great benefit comes. 
O 
to those who 
Keep Hens 
Uselessto others. A handsome 
Egg Keconl Cai‘*l to keep ac¬ 
count of the eggs received. 
Start the new year right. State 
how many pens of fowls you 
have and address Dept. 7 
BOWKER’S 
ANIMAL MEAL CO., 
43 Chatham St., Boston, Mass 
From 65 to 148 Per Day. 
After two weeks’ use of Bowker’s Animal Meal 
my hens increased In laying from sixty-flve eggs to 
148 eggs per day. Other food was given them exactly 
the same as previous to its use. Geo. S. Barney. 
ltehoboth, Mass. 
MAKE POULTRY PAY 
by feeding green cut bone. The Humphrey 
Green Bone and Vegetable ('utter is guaran¬ 
teed to cut more bone in less time with less labor 
than any other cutter made. Send for free book 
containing blanks for one year’s egg record. 
Humphrey & Sons, Box 39. Joliet, III. 
D oes it pay?^^x 
hogs, horses, and poultry to become in¬ 
fested with lice, fleas, etc., when a few 
cents spent for Lambert’s Death to Lice will 
keep them clean and healthy. Trial box 10c prepaid. 
Book free. D, J, LAMBERT, Box 307, Apponaug, R.l. 
LEE’S EGG MAKER 
If 
makes fowls healthy and profitable, all the year, 
not sold in your town send 26c for big package, or $2 
for ‘25-pound pail. GEO. II. LEK CO.* Omaha, Nob.* 
or 8 Park Place, New York. 
Use Lee's Lice Killer for lice and mites on chickens& hogs. 
QIIRF-hatch improved 
um mm Incubators and Brooders 
at prices that will bring your order. 6 kinds of 
green and dry bone cutters; alsoclover cutters and 
everything used on the farm. Catalogue Free. 
CASH SUPPLY Sl MFC. CO., 
Dept. 6 kilamaioo, Hick. 
Only a Penny 
To Get Well. 
I ask only a postal, stating which book 
you wish. No money is wanted. 
I want you to know how nerve power 
alone operates each bodily function. If 
some organ is weak, and fails in rts 
duty, I want to tell you how more nerve 
power will correct it. I want you to 
know, as I do, that a permanent cure 
can come in no other way. I have spent 
my lifetime on this problem. 
I will send with the book an order on 
your nearest druggist for six bottles Dr. 
Shoop’s Restorative. Every druggist 
keeps it. I will ask you to accept the 
Restorative and test it for a month. If it 
cures, pay $5.50; if it fails it is free. I 
will pay your druggist myself for it. 
This offer in five years has been ac¬ 
cepted by 550,000 people. Practically all 
of them had difficult troubles, long en¬ 
dured. Most of them were discouraged. 
Yet 39 out of 40 who received those six 
bottles paid for them. They paid be¬ 
cause they were cured, for otherwise no 
druggist asks a penny for it. 
I cannot better prove my own faith in 
this remedy. No physician can do more 
than pay for your treatment if it fails. 
No other does so much. Won’t you 
write a postal to learn if I can help you? 
Simply state which 
book you want, and ad¬ 
dress Dr. Shoop, Box 
570, Racine, Wis. 
Book No. 1 on Dyspepsia, 
Book No. 2 on the Heart, 
Book No. 3 on the Kidneys, 
Book No. 4 for Women, 
Book No. 5 for men (sealed), 
Book No. 6 on Rheumatism. 
MUd cases, not chronic, are often cured by one or 
two bottles. At all druggists. 
INCUBATORS 
Best and Cheapest. For Catalogue 
address G.S.Siuger.Cardington.O. 
$5 
INCUBATORS FREE 
50 EGG 
___SIZE 
Self regulating,' Guaranteed tor‘2 years, 1 latches every good egg. 
Send for catalogue No ‘-'3 Sel 1 six and gat one free. 
INVINCIBLE HATCHER CO., • SPRINGFIELD, OHIO. 
TAR INCUBATORS 
We will send free on request our illustrated cata- 
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Incubators From * goo $ .?- 
Brooders y ‘ ,,,m! * 400 u p ... 
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L. A. BANT A, Llgonier, Ind. 
200-Egg Incubator 
for $I2* 80 
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To be absolutely sure about it use the 
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CALIFORNIA RED WOOD 
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Let us send It to you. Write at once, addreBalug nearest hous*. 
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Butiulo, S. Y., Chicago, 111., Boston, Mass., New York. 5, T, 
