1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Hop e Farm Notes 
To Stop Sticking. —On page 763 a woman 
asked liow to prevent a wooden ladle from 
sticking to butter. A number of comments 
have been made, including this from an Ohio 
man : 
“Tell your inquirer to take hot water, 
dissolve sal soda in it and with a stiff brush 
scrub and wash thoroughly bowl and ladle 
(in fact any wooden implement with which 
butter is worked) ; then plunge in boiling 
water, take it out and plunge into ice cold 
water, and an Ohio man will guarantee that 
butter will not stick. Remember, wash good 
first with strong solution of sal soda water. 
I have been through all that making the 
butter, as my wife has enough to do without 
making butter, but don't you dare and pub¬ 
lish my name.” 
Of course I must respect this man s wish 
to keep his name out of print, but why isn t 
he proud of the fact that he helps his wife 
do the housework? If you will answer that 
question I will tell you one reason why society 
seems to he falling apart in some places. You 
stand a man up hy the barn with his tools 
or hens or cows or hogs around him, and he 
will straighten up and make an effort to look 
pretty for a photograph. 1’ut an apron on 
him, roll up his sleeves with a dish in one 
hand and towel in another, and put him 
beside a tired wife who sits in the rocking 
chair, and he will try to smash the camera. 
Why? It requires more self denial and 
patience to help out the tired wife, and these 
are the nobler qualities of life. 
Practical Education. —This leads to an¬ 
other matter. I have visited at several places 
where Mother, often a tired woman, not 
strong at best, did the work while healthy 
boys and girls sat around and did nothing. 
At one place the mother cleared off the S *'PP^’ 
table washed dishes and started some biead 
while two great girls sat about—one reading 
a hook of poetry and the other doing some 
little lace work! Now that woman, attei 
her day’s work, should have sat quietly down 
after supper and told those girls and theii 
brothers to clear off the table and do the 
night work. From the time they were laige 
enough to handle a plate these children 
should have been made to understand that 
this housekeeping is their job. I wouldn t 
have a child in my house who did not under¬ 
stand that home is a little community in 
which each one must perform some little 
duty. Our little girls can to-day get up a 
better meal than many women can—and the 
boys could come near it. No greater wiong 
can be done to a child than to give it to 
understand that it need not work Some 
people offer as an excuse the statement Jhat 
their children are not “mentally lazy, or 
that thev have “fine sensibilities, which 
should not be blunted by ordinary labor. No 
greater nonsense was ever spoken on the 
labor question. 
“You call people lazy just because they 
will not do dirty and sweaty work? 
Yes if rather than do such work people 
shirk and are willing to live upon others. 
I do not know of any better way of acquiring 
strong character than for a person to force 
himself to do manual labor and glorify it 
bv learning to do it as an expert . It seems 
to me there are few more pitiable objects 
in the world than men and women who can¬ 
not do things with their hands. Imagine a 
lawyer, a doctor, a clergyman who has been 
brought up to despise and dodge manual 
labor! No wonder society goes wrong with 
such unsweating leaders of those who must 
sweat! As I think over the people I know 
I cannot recall one who was hurt by being 
forced to work when a child. I can easily 
think of a dozen who have been ruined by the 
loaf which represents the bread of death 
for energy and true ambition. 
Tree Surgery. —But the Hope Farm man 
doesn't like to scold, and really, when some 
fond mother has made up her mind that 
Billy and Mary shall have an easy time you 
might just as well pay closer attention to the 
beam that is in your own eye, for the mote 
in her eye will have to work itself out. Here 
is a question from New York State in a 
different line: 
“I find several large apple trees that have 
some time in the past been barked by plow or 
whiflletree. In some cases the wood has 
started to decay. How can I permanently 
stop this decay? On many the bark has 
seemed to come to a standstill. After the 
wood is treated as you will prescribe, would 
it be advisable to chisel the bark where it 
comes next to the wood, and thereby start a 
new growth of bark?” 
I have had little personal experience with 
such trees but I am told that the chisel and 
cement will attend to them. With a small 
sharp chisel cut all the decayed wood out. 
Then make a thin concrete of sand and 
cement and fill the cavity—taking care to 
leave no air Inside. The cement is something 
•f an antiseptic—that is, stops decay. I 
would try this rather than wash the trees 
with paint or liquid. Get out the old sore 
first. If we could treat the lazy boys and 
girls I have mentioned in this way we might 
have better grown-up citizens, but laziness 
'is not cured in that way, because it is not in 
one part of the body, but all over. 
Did I ever know a true case of laziness 
chiseled out of a man? 
No! I have know such men to he forced 
to work at the sting of necessity, but they 
always hunt for a soft job, and never see 
the real glory of labor. 
Smut on Corn. —A Connecticut man speaks 
for several others in asking this question: 
“I have been much troubled with smut on 
my corn this season. By treating the seed 
the same as for oats will it prevent it an¬ 
other year, or should I change the seed?” 
Tt will do you little if any good to soak 
the seed corn as you do the oats. The germs 
from which the smut develops are in the 
husk or grain of the oat. and go into the 
ground with it. Thus, when we soak the 
oats in formalin we can kill most of the 
therms. We seldom or never, except from 
carelessness, use seed from smutty ears of 
corn, because thev are easily seen and thrown 
aside, so that the chances of planting smutted 
corn are not numerous. The disease usually 
comes to corn from the outside—the germs 
float in the air and settle upon the young 
ears where they develop. All smutty ears 
and stalks should be burned or the germs 
will live over. Raise corn next year as far 
away from this year's field as possible. It 
there was much smut we would, to be doubly 
sure, use new seed. To come hack to the 
subject of lazy boys—our own children are 
much like the corn. If we have sense 
enough to know our own failings we ought 
to start the child pretty free of germs except 
what we let float into him through our own 
folly and example. On the other hand, when 
we take other children from institutions or 
other families they are apt to be more like 
the oats—with germs that we cannot see 
in their husk. I have known people who 
were readv to fight on hearing that one ot 
these institution children was punished with 
a slipper. Yet they would use formalin on 
unknown seed oats to kill the germs of rust. 
Such people never raised a waif ot un¬ 
known parentage. Of course their own are 
beautiful children who are models of behav¬ 
ior, and thev think others are just like 
them. Will this slipper treatment cure lazi¬ 
ness germs? No. I know a good lady who 
was advised to use the slipper on her way¬ 
ward little boy. Her heart failed her and she 
used the soft side of the felt sole instead. 
She didn’t make herself felt 1 
Too Much Humus. —I am always glad to 
have some one who knows criticise our mulch 
method of growing fruit. I know of few men 
better qualified to do this than Benj. Buck- 
man of central Illinois. This is what he 
says: 
“No doubt the mulch you write of, page 
763, is all right in most places, and especial¬ 
ly on the rocky, thin hills found in many 
places, but here—well, I wish I cou rt burn 
all of my orchard ground over to kill tlie 
spores of scab and other fungus diseases, and 
thin out curculio and other insects that make 
fruit raising a burden here. When the In¬ 
dians had control and the face of the earth 
was swept by fire each Autumn, and for many 
years later, orchard fungus and insect trou¬ 
bles were rare. How is it now. ''hat 
is the cause? Let me guess. In this 
mulch never disturbed, insects find a 
congenial dwelling, all readymade, safe 
and warm, in which to pass the Winter, and 
why should they ever leave it as long as the 
orchard exists to supply food? So also the 
fungi live: the spores all ready at the proper 
time in the Spring to take their upward flight 
to their living host. Added to these diffi¬ 
culties, that of depredations by mice and rab¬ 
bits, and I feel like doubting the wisdom of 
the steady, accumulating mulch plan on our 
black prairie soils that already contain per¬ 
haps too much nitrogen for best results. 
—unless we alternate every few years with 
the all purifying fire treatment. The bodies 
of large trees will endure some fire without 
injury, but in shrubbery and small plants (ex¬ 
cept strawberries), of course fire is out of the 
question.” 
This is only extra evidence that we can¬ 
not safely lay down any rule or practice 
for all sections. On our rocky hills, where 
in some places there are barely two feet 
of soil over the solid rock, we cannot well 
get too much humus in the soil. I am 
thoroughly satisfied that a thick mulch on 
top of this soil gives us as good results as 
surface cultivation—at 25 per cent of the 
cost. I am aware that this is a laipje 
statement, but I think it can be demon¬ 
strated. It Is evident that just the re¬ 
verse of this is true with Mr. Bucktnan. I 
sometimes wish I lived in a section where 
the soil is too rich, yet we have some com¬ 
pensations on our hills, and after all there 
is no place like home. 
AMATITE is the tightest ready roof¬ 
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it in the sun, allow cinders to drop on 
it—submit it to any other test you think 
fit. You will find it will go through them 
all with practically no trace of wear or 
tear. Then, the next step is to get 
AMATITE and put it on all your 
buildings. 
It will keep your buildings dry and 
warm. You will have absolute protec¬ 
tion, and a roof that will not leak. 
Another good point is the fact that you 
do not have to hire experienced roofers to 
lay it. It is as simple to put down as a 
carpet. We supply nails and cement with 
each roll, together with directions for 
laying. 
8i i 
DULL TIMES 
DULL KNIVES 
DULL TOOLS 
, do not exist where our Practical H»»d Power 
1 Grinder with Carborundum grinding wheel is 
used. Designed to sharpen anything twin a neeclie to 
an ax in one tenth the tune and much bettei than a 
grindstone. Grinding wheel four inches in diameter, 
ono inch face, made of carborundum, tlie fastest 
cutting abrasive known. Will not draw temper. 
Clamped to a table, turns easily, light pressure "ced¬ 
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agents wanted. 
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3JJ6 E. Walnut Street. .Lancaster. Pa. 
j| 20th Century Wagon Box 
Stock Rack and Hay 
- -— Ladders. Made Better than 
you expect. Thoroughly bo 1 ted, not nailed. Write 
Model Mfg. Co., Box 231 Mancie, Indiana. 
YouCan 
Judge. 
Home and Farm. —Here is a problem 
which I have given our children to figure 
out. From 22 pounds of milk we churned 
24 ounces of well-worked butter. Allowing 
the salt and water to represent 15 per cent 
by weight of the butter, what per cent ot 
fat did this milk contain? Our cows are 
first-class. We are ready to back them tor 
rich milk. One of our own raising is half 
Holstein and half Jersey. She is a coarse, 
beefy looking cow that deceives most judges 
when they look at her. Slie gives a large 
mess of rich milk. The other is a high- 
grade Jersey, nervous and quick, while the 
other is slow and steady. . . . About 
the middle of August we planted 29 plants 
of the Dixon strawberry. As the runners 
came out we rooted, and transplanted when 
the plants were well set. No potted plants 
were tried. On October 28 we had 158 
nice plants well started. No effort was 
made to push the plants. Had they been 
highly fertilized and watered I feel sure 
we could have made 250 plants. People 
are surprised to sec what large plants we 
can grow, and how they tako hold of the 
soil when Fall-planted and worked. I do 
not feel like advising this late Fall setting 
as a general rule but it seems like a wise 
plan to buv some Fall plants. They can he 
set in little beds and covered with manure 
through the Winter. For mulch this year 
we shall use stalks, bean vines and such 
coarse material weighted down with manure. 
When they made those stone drains 
in the lower fields the men tried to realize 
that they were doing a 25-year job. and did 
it right. At one point of tlie ditch they 
struck a place where some one had buried 
a lot of stones. They had been simply 
thrown in without any attempt at order, 
and of course the water course was clogged. 
Nothing could run through it. We lay 
good sized stones at the lxittom of the 
ditch, leaving an open throat about three 
inches by five. Then the small stones are 
packed in above this throat to within about 
18 inches of the top. Why not use tile? 
We have the stones and want to get rid 
of them. In many ways tile is superior 
to stones hilt we wanted to try to drain 
this field in the old-fashioned way, in a 
way quite within the means of any farmer 
who can handle a spade. I feel very 
sure of the value of this work. We plow 
as we ditch, and pick up tlie stones for 
filling so as to leave the soil smooth and 
free. This promises to make the best 
place for onions we have on the farm. A 
peddler passed while the men were at work, 
and rather sneered at the labor. He was 
above such a job! \ r et think what a man 
does who dries out a field and gives value 
and character to a piece of land! . • • 
A man gets a full college education in 
human nature when he walks for an office. 
I struck one man for his vote, and he 
seemed afraid to put himself on record. 
Got me out behind the shed, looked all 
around to see if we were alone and then 
whispered: “I’ll see about it!” Another 
man in a public place fairly roared Of 
course I will!” and much to my embarrass¬ 
ment he dragged me about among his friends 
making them pledge their vote. I have 
many promises, hut I ain banking on just 
two votes in our voting district. Phillip | 
will cast one and T ought not to lie | 
questioned about the other. h. w. c. 
Amatito on a large factory. 
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neither climate nor weather changes affect 
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everywhere are now covered with AMA¬ 
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first complaint. 
Now is the time to put your buildings 
in good shape for the winter. You can 
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Write us, and by return mail we will 
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mm 
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WEIGHT 
llO LBS 
ACTUAL 
TEST 
