I ‘JO I 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
735 
Hope Farm Notes 
The Early Frost.—F or nearly 40 years 
our section has been tree from a Killing frost 
in September. The danger was always there, 
but we have escaped, and our gardeners have 
grown perhaps a little too confident. This 
year we were caught. 1 woke up ou the 
’morning of September 21 to tind the root's 
white with frost. In the low places you 
could scoop up handfuls of it like snow. The 
next night we had another dose harder than 
ever, and the bright sun followed in each 
case, (treat damage was done in the valleys. 
Fields of corn that stood uncut turned white. 
The stalks were ruined for feeding and the 
grain was hurt. In some few cases, when 
ihe frost seemed likely, about six o'clock, men 
went out and cut corn through the evening, 
throwing it flat on the ground. This saved 
part of it, but it was sad to look at the fields 
of white and shrunken stalks where old Jack 
bad laid his deadly hand. We had no corn 
except a patch of Evergreen sweet. The 
leaves are crumpled, but not badly. On the 
low levels tomatoes, Lima beans and similar 
crops are killed. With us the upper leaves 
of squash, beans, tomatoes and peppers were 
destroyed, while the lower vines and some 
of the fruit seem to be uninjured. The onions 
of course were not hurt. 1 am quite sure that 
our high altitude and steep hillsides gave us 
the advantage of at least five degrees of cold. 
It is hard on the farmers in the valley. Prices 
have been low all Summer, and markets were 
crowded. It was hoped that October would 
help out by cutting down the surplus and 
raising prices. Now comes the early frost 
and kills off the hopes for the October trade. 
For the next few weeks the markets will be 
full of half ripe and partly frosted stuff, 
which will be picked and hurried to market. 
It cannot be said that market gardening is 
“one long sweet song!" Still, who is going 
to let the frost put him out of business? Last 
year it was “the Hon. John Frost"—this year 
it is “that mean old Jack.” We might stop 
to think that our own actions no doubt lead 
people to express a wide difference of opinion 
about us. 
Farsi Notes.—L ast year we made the mis¬ 
take of leaving the squashes in the field too 
long. They were frostbitten and did not keep 
well. Few vegetables are more tender than 
squash. When that first frost blackened the 
upper leaves we knew it was time to get tne 
Hubbards under cover. They are now safely 
in a dry, light cellar. There is poor sale 
for them now, but about Thanksgiving time 
they will go. . . . The onions are not turn¬ 
ing out as well as we hoped. There are too 
many cases of “thick neck.” Still there will 
he a fair yield, with a good proportion of big 
ones. As the price is better than last year 
the income will be nearly as great. We nave 
our “Onions For Sale" sign in front of the 
farm, and it pulls in trade. I notice that 
people who bought the big onions last year 
are coining back for more. . . . The squash 
ground will of course be put into rye at once. 
1 want no more bare ground. It must all 
be covered with some growing crop except the 
one field 1 recently mentioned, which needs 
airing and freezing. . . . We shall put 
up about 80 rods of wire fence this Fall. I 
am buying different kinds of fencing, intend¬ 
ing to put them close together, so that we 
may see which is best. I am sorry to say 
that both single wire and wire fence put up 
since we bought the farm have begun to rust. 
I have some Hat ribbon wire which “keeps' 
better than the other, but the ordinary wire is 
very unsatisfactory. We are forced to pay 
high prices for this wire, yet I am told that it 
does not cost much more than half as much 
to manufacture as it did 10 years ago. It 
doesn’t do a farmer's temper a bit of good 
to see his fences rust away and fall down 
when he was told they would last a lifetime. 
That makes life seem all too short. Farmers 
in our country know the truth of these things 
how can they help it when they see the 
wire?—but they seem hopeless when it comes 
to a remedy. They seem to think they are 
obliged lo take just: what the trusts and cor¬ 
porations are pleased to give them ! That is 
the most dangerous spirit that can come into 
the thoughts of the common people. When 
the small freeholders or farmers of this coun¬ 
try acknowledge that they have lost their 
power, and must take what the corporations 
see lit to give them, we might as well stop 
calling this country a Republic. Some people 
have done that already, but I haven’t, because 
I don’t believe the farmers of this country 
are going to fall down and let the trusts roll 
over them. As for this wire fence, it is sim¬ 
ply a matter of making a great big noise 
about it. Some years ago a wise man 
thought out a scheme for making a great 
noise. At a certain hour, figured out exactly 
for each locality, every person in every civi¬ 
lized nation that could be reached was to. yell 
or make some noise. This it was claimed 
would produce such a volume of sound that 
it would burst the bindings of the world. 
When the time came very few people yelled, 
because all were listening to hear the rest. 
Tom. Dick and Harry all thought the rest 
would yell and make noise enough without 
them. There was silence! It is about so 
with this wire fence business. Nearly every¬ 
body is waiting for some one else to do the 
talking. That won't do! (let out and talk 
about poor wire. Take samples of rusty fence 
and send it to your dealer or to the man you 
bought it from. Tell him you want a guarantee 
on what you buy in the future. That rusty 
wire will be carried “higher up.” till even the 
people who make it will see tin* point. Come, 
gentlemen, don’t let your hope for the Repub¬ 
lic be corrupted by rusty wire. I heard a 
man of ponderous wisdom say once that “the 
individual is merely an atom in the great in¬ 
dustrial development!” We will show the 
mighty that even an atom can keep at ’em ! 
Buying a Farm.—I could make a book out 
of the confidences and strange requests which 
strangers have sent me. I hear from all sorts 
of people—men, women and children in trou¬ 
ble and with hard problems to work out. It 
is not always possible to help them except 
with advice, which 1 know from experience 
does not pay bills or wipe out ill feeling. 
There is a great deal of trouble in this old 
world, pretty evenly distributed between rich 
and poor. Much of it comes to me. The fol¬ 
lowing case is an odd one worth putting be¬ 
fore people. I will print a part of the letter: 
“I am an old man of nearly 70. have been liv¬ 
ing on this farm for about 10 years, paying 
for my board by doing chores, and planting 
a small piece of ground on shares every Sura* 
rare. I have never laid up any money. The 
owner of the farm is going to sell it this Fall, 
and in consequence I shall probably be turned 
adrift. I have thought that perhaps you 
might know of some wealthy man who would 
buy it witli the understanding that I could 
remain here raising pigs, poultry ana potatoes 
on shares.” 
I do not print name or address, but they 
could be furnished to one who really cared 
to help. Here is an elderly man whose home 
hangs by a slender thread. I will ask you 
to put yourself in this man’s place, l'ou 
will then see what prompts him to make a 
suggestion which may seem to many unbusi¬ 
nesslike. I do not suppose that The It. N.-Y. 
appeals to many wealthy people. From those 
whom I have met 1 should say that most of 
its readers are working people, some of them 
forehanded, but few with money enough to 
give the price of a farm for the purpose sug¬ 
gested in this letter. Still all sorts of people 
have been found in The R. N.-Y.’s list; in 
fact, I sometimes think it is only necessary to 
ask for some worthy thing in order to find a 
reader ready to give it. So I will see if there 
be anyone who would risk some money to 
provide a home for the man who writes. Let 
us hold an imaginary conversation with some 
man who has more money than he can ever 
spend. He will say: 
“If I buy this farm what interest will I 
be guaranteed?” 
"1 do not see that you will get any. It 
looks to me as if your money would lie idle !” 
“Why should I let money stand idle?” 
“Perhaps your money needs a rest—where 
did it come from?" 
"A small part of it was left me; the rest I 
made by my own effort.” 
"That is true, but after all is said, is it not 
a fact that but for society and the men, 
women and children who produce wealth or 
demand food, clothing and shelter, you could 
not have grown rich? Put you off' away from 
human beings, and you could not have gained 
your wealth !” 
"What has that to do with it?" 
“I simply want to say to you that no one 
grows rich by his own strength or ability 
atone. lie grows wealthy by organizing the 
labor or catering to the desires of many who 
are poorer than he is. If you have the price 
of a farm with which to buy a home for an 
old man you should remember that dozens or 
hundreds of people at a time paid you that 
price in small amounts.” 
“But what a foolish and unbusinesslike 
thing it would be to buy property you do not 
need for such a purpose?” 
"Why in your case? It would be for a poor 
man who had actual need of the money, but 
why with one like you? To my mind, if you 
bought it to satisfy the motive which would 
prompt you to invest money in such a ‘foolish’ 
way you would make a wise Investment. You 
are not the first rich man to be advised to 
‘sell all thou hast and give to the poor’ !" 
"But. what would the world come to if such 
ideas were really carried out?" 
“To a happier and more hopeful state than 
it. ever knew before, and after they recovered 
from the shock those who did the giving 
would be the happiest. Many of us are 
obliged to die in order to learn that thw 
strong, untiring ability to control affairs and 
accumulate wealth is not a mark of approba¬ 
tion, but a hard test of human character.” 
II. w. c. 
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