lon?>. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Hope Farm Notes 
I*'sum Notes. —The weather still holds 
trood ;in<l outdoor work cun be done in com¬ 
fort ’ Emma lets (he liens run out every 
ideasant day. and they are happy in the sun. 
Last w eek she sold $3.40 worth of eggs. The 
feed for this cost about 75 cents, but of 
course I do not include the table scraps in 
this With a larger flock tho cost, would be 
greater_and so would the income, because we 
would have more comfortable quarters. The 
old icehouse where the hens now stay has 
few of the features which experienced hen 
men say a henhouse ought to have. It is 
too high, so that the hens must heat double 
the area which is needed. There are only 
(wo small windows on the south side, and 
practically no sun at any other side. The 
hen men tell us to have the roosts down low, 
but Emma saw that (he hens wanted to get 
up high, so she had roosts put up near tfie 
top several very plausible rules have been 
knocked over in this way, yet still the hens 
shell out eggs enough to pay more profit than 
anv birds we ever had before on the farm. 
What is a fellow to do under such circum¬ 
stances but to continue to respect his rules 
but. still have greater respect for the hens? 
I think highly of the White Wyandottes, but 
it seems to upset another rule when a small 
White Leghorn lays an egg 40 per cent larger 
(han one from a big Wyandotte. You begin 
to ask what tnat Wyandotte does with the 
balance of her food. You get your answer 
when you farve one! . . . The Winter 
season *is bad for some persons and families. 
Life becomes stagnant and dull. Selfishness 
gets at work like the San Josfi scale. This 
insect puts a hard shell over itself, and under¬ 
neath that goes boring and sucking away at 
the life of the tree. That’s the way with 
these selfish people and unhappy quitters. 
They build a shell of temper or ugliness 
around themselves, and go on boring all 
through the Winter into the heart of the 
tiome. I thought of this the other night 
when starting my open fire. A lot of little 
twigs were at the bottom. They were not 
very dry. I put some shavings beneath and 
started them. They gave a bright blaze while 
they lasted, and some of the twigs caught. 
When the blaze died out these twigs lingered 
along in a half-hearted way. tine by one they 
went out as though they said : 
“What is tne use of my trying to keep 
bright; I never can start this big tire !” 
One by one they quit until only a small 
piece of an old shingle at the bottom was left 
living. I was interested in watching it. The 
blaze kept bravely on. Twice it sputtered, 
and I thought it had gone, but still the little 
blaze crept on to a place where two other 
splinters crossed it. Sometimes in solitude 
we come to hear these lifeless things talk. 
This is what the splinter said: 
“I don’t amount to much. I served my pur¬ 
pose on the roof as a shingle, and I ain en¬ 
titled to a vacation. It seems to me, though, 
that this blaze came to me for a purpose. 
Something useful is expected of me. Others 
have quit, but I shall try to carry this blaze 
until I can touch my brothers here. Together 
we may do something.” 
So the blaze kept crawling along the will¬ 
ing stick. When ii reached the other splinters 
1 thought it was all over, but. presently a lit¬ 
tle tongue of flame crept up, larger and larger, 
until all were afire. Then the blaze spread. 
Some of the other sticks that quit before 
seemed ashamed of themselves, and took heart 
and fire again. You know how such things 
spread. In a few minutes the whole mass 
was ablaze; the room was full of genial heat 
and light, and the chairs which I had pulled 
up to show where the Madame and the chil¬ 
dren would be could they be here were shin¬ 
ing. Now, members of a farm family are 
like those sticks. Some quit when the dark, 
dull days come. The light goes out of them 
like the blaze on those twigs. Others hang 
on cheerful and bright, and do their best to 
light up the home. You see the point without 
another word. Now, my friend, are you a 
human San Jose scale or a human lamp 
lighter? 
A Wildcat. —-The little boys in Florida 
have strange tales to tell about a wildcat 
which was seen not far from the farm. We 
have some cats at. Hope Farm, which I wish 
were wild enough to take to the woods or 
barn, but i never expected that a wildcat 
would be the means of sending me a gooti let¬ 
ter. One of our readers at a place named 
Whiskey Mountain writes among other things: 
“As I got chawed up by a wildcat and 
can’t do anything. I will write you. I like 
The R. N.-Y. I have read it for lo, these 
many Summers and Winters. I like that 
Hope Farm galoot. I believe he was a good 
square feller before he tuk to politiks. Poli- 
tiks is the bane of the Southerner. Every man 
that can sign his name is a candidate, and 
sometimes one makes his anouncement over 
his X. I have ploud both the land and the 
sea for bread. I like the land the best. I 
like to see things grow. I am running a 
llope-less farm down here on top of a moun¬ 
tain. I am giving a kind of a circus pre- 
formance. I am riding a half dozen hobbies 
at once.” 
It is something of a compliment, this turn¬ 
ing to the Hope Farm man after an encounter 
with a wildcat. Our friend doesn't say what 
he did to the cat. but he does add that if any¬ 
one wants a wildcat for mounting “he might 
have luck by addressing” him. I judge, there¬ 
fore, that the cat will never “chaw” another 
reader of The U. N.-Y. If anyone wants this 
dead cat so as to give it a tenth life I will 
tell where to get it. 
On looking the word up in the dictionary 
I find that “galoot” means “a raw recruit.” 
That hits me. as 1 have never pretended to be 
very well done. As for getting “into politics,’ 
I don’t know about that. I ran for office 
once and got about 300 votes out of some 
13,000 that were cast. I didn’t feel that 1 
got in very deep—in fact, it looked as if I 
was getting, out pretty fast. 1 prefer plowing 
the land to plowing the sea. though on some 
of my land a good mulch beats the plow. As 
for ii Hope-less farm, now that there is one 
less wildcat, I hope our friend will lessen 
those hobbies, get on the best one, and head it 
toward Hope. 
Takixo a (’iiir.D.—I have had quite a num¬ 
ber of letters like the following, but have 
hesitated to discuss them publicly : 
“My wife and I wish to adopt a child in 
New York, and would like to make necessary 
arrangements this Winter. We do not know 
where institutions which furnish such chil¬ 
dren can be found.” 
I once talked about, this matter before a 
gathering of farmers. A man came to me 
later and said about this: 
“My wife and I have no children, and we 
have often talked of taking one. If some one 
would leave a little child at our door some 
night we would not send it away, but we do 
not quite like to go out and get one!’’ 
I think there are many who feel that way 
about it. Many of us will assume an obliga¬ 
tion when it. is put upon us, but we do not 
quite like to run down the road and hold an 
obligation up. One of our little boys came to 
us from an institution of which Rev. M. T. 
Lamb, of Trenton, N. .1., is president. If I 
were taking a child to bring up 1 would get 
it as young as possible—an orphan by pref¬ 
erence. I would ask as little as need be about 
its parents and keep away from its relatives. 
The advantage of this is that the child will 
have few if any acquired bad habits. Habits 
that are inherited are bad enough, but when 
you add to them the tricks which a child 
may learn in an institution you have a hard 
battle on hand. The little thing, too, is more 
likely to grow up to be closer to you, because 
it will never have any memory of another 
home. An older child will remember other 
places where it has lived. This taking of the 
little child means great care and responsi¬ 
bility, and often the baby develops in a way 
you do not like. It may turn out dull or 
unattractive, and you will think that if you 
had taken an older child you might at least 
have found one bright ana handsome ! 
This leads me to speak of the motives for 
taking such a child. Why do you want to 
do it? 
Do you want a mere pet or toy? 
In that case far better buy a toy bulldog. 
Do you want a large child to do your work? 
The chances are that your plan will fail. 
The child will see through your motive. 
Have you an only child, and want a com¬ 
panion for it, or have you lost a child and 
want to patch over the hole in your heart? 
These are worthy motives, and you should 
select a little one with great care. 
Do you want to do something for God and 
humanity? Take a little life that has fallen 
upon stony ground and try to save it with 
your best love and care. Do you want to cor¬ 
rect. some of the mistakes of your own life by 
trying to make a good citizen out of a waif? 
In that case you have the only motive that 
should prompt the average man or woman to 
“take a child to bring up.” Unless something 
of that feeling prompts the act no full bless¬ 
ing can go with it. There is a man in West 
Virginia who has taken 37 such children and 
brought them up during a long and useful 
life. A man in Indiana that I heard from 
had nine such waifs at one time. It is a 
noble work, a great responsibility and a great 
care. 
Florida. —Charlie reports progress on the 
little farm. It is working into shape slowly, 
and potato planting has begun. One has to 
lie careful of the ditches in that country. 
Should the season be extra wet the drains 
must be clear and ready for rapid work, or 
the seed will rot. There are no bugs to fight 
—that is one good thing. The mercury has 
been hovering around 30 degrees several times, 
but thus far no damage has been done. If 
frost lets them alone the whole of northern 
Florida will start up in value, to go down 
again later—for orange culture there is only 
a gamble at best. 
I have received no end of letters from peo¬ 
ple who lived in Florida for a time. You 
should hear these people tell what the natives 
ought to do, and how they ought to do it. If 
we believe these wise men the average Florida 
farmer does little else but neglect opportuni¬ 
ties and make mistakes. I am reading an in¬ 
teresting little book by Prof. D. G. Brinton, 
in which he refers to an expedition which 
came to Florida in 1527. Tho leader, Pam- 
philo de Narvarez, was great on proclama¬ 
tions. He issued one to the Indians in which 
he said: 
“With the aid of God and my own sword I 
shall march upon you ; with all means and 
from all sides I shall war against you. I 
shall seize you, your wives and your children; 
I shall enslave you, shall sell you, or other¬ 
wise dispose of you as his majesty shall see 
fit. Your property shall I take and destroy, 
and every possible harm shall I work you 
as refractory subjects. 
Thus it seems that from the earliest times 
the “Florida native” has had his duty pointed 
out to him in no uncertain terms. I see a 
number of practices in Florida which are 
out of date in New Jersey, but I don’t feel 
disposed to steal any wives or children if 
people refuse to do my way. There surely 
are undiscovered possibilities in the State, but 
I will wait until I get some of them before 
I talk about them. Deeds, not words, for the 
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