1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
555 
Hope Farm Notes 
Corn and Crows. —I am informed that 
at a caucus recently held in my county 
the following was unanimously adopted: 
“Resolved—that the person calling him¬ 
self the Hope Farm Man, is a humbug 
and fraud, a despoiler of happy homes, 
willing to take bread from the mouths of 
women and children, a miser and skinflint 
who has proved to all good citizens that 
he is no gentleman!” 
I had some hard things said about me 
in one of my political campaigns, but this 
resolution is as far as I have gone in 
that line. The caucus was presided over 
by Mr. Charles Crow. You see we 
plowed several acres of old sod by the 
woods and planted corn. The crows 
could hardly believe their eyes when they 
saw the children dropping the seed, but 
they began to call the Hope Farm Man 
a great benevolent citizen. When the 
corn began to break ground they sent a 
delegation out to investigate. The chair¬ 
man pulled up a plant and, sure enough, 
there was the grain at the bottom of it. 
“Gentlemen,” he said, “a great blessing 
has fallen upon us—here we have an 
abundance of food for our wives and chil¬ 
dren ! For ourselves too,” he added as 
he put the seed in his mouth. But there 
was something wrong about that seed. 
He spit it out, tried another and another 
with like results! The others did the 
same, but not one swallowed a seed. With 
one accord they flew back to the woods 
chorusing something that sounded very 
much like: 
“Stung!” 
Such corn as that might do to feed to a 
rival or to some neighbor’s child that 
made too much noise in the nest—but to 
gentlemen—never. Those resolutions ex¬ 
pressed the opinions of the woods people 
about tarred corn! We put tar on all the 
seed corn. It is an easy job. A small 
amount of tar is put on top of the seed 
in the bucket and the whole thing is 
stirred and stirred until the seed is well 
tarred. We use more of the tarred corn 
in planting than we would of the clean 
seed. It seems to be slower to start, but 
we have a full stand and I have never 
known the crows to damage it. They pull 
up a few plants, taste the seed and quit. 
I often see people going to the trouble 
of building scarecrows, running twine 
around fields, or putting up pans or wind¬ 
mills to scare the crows. This seems to 
me like nonsense when a little tar on the 
seed will do the business at once. One 
thing about tarred seed, however, is that 
it does not work so well through a corn 
planter. 
Hay Notes. —In former years the slow¬ 
est part of our haying was pitching off 
the load. The barn is arranged so that 
we unload at the center—driving into 
the middle of the bam. I found a solid 
floor built over the center with a square 
hole cut in it, through which the hay 
was forked from the wagon. It was a 
most unhandy arrangement, and took a 
long time to throw off a load. So this 
year I put in a track arid carrier. The 
track is hung at the peak of the barn 
from irons spiked to the rafters. There 
are suitable pulleys at each end and at the 
barn floor for the ropes. The carpenter 
put up the track and hung the carrier. 
When we drove in with the first load all 
hands were on deck to "see if the thing 
would work.” Most of the crowd were 
sceptical—it did not seem possible that 
the small fork could take up a good-sized 
bunch, or that it would drop where we 
wanted it. We pulled down the harpoon 
fork and pushed it hard into the load. 
While I presume most farmers know how 
this fork works I know there are others 
who do not. The “harpoon” consists of 
two pointed double bars connected by a 
curved top. Working inside them are two 
slender rods which when pulled up at the 
top turn two teeth inside. When the bars 
are pushed into the load of hay and the 
rods are pulled up, these teeth turn into 
the bunch held by the bars so that it can¬ 
not fall off. Those of us who could not 
see how the fork could hold the hay for¬ 
got what a mass we can take up with a 
pitchfork as the hay clings together. 
We found out, for when the fork was 
fastened I gave the word, and Bob, who 
was hitched to the rope, started to pull. 
The rope was new and stiff, and there 
was a groan and a shriek as it straight¬ 
ened. Then nearly one-quarter of the 
load slowly rose from the wagon to the 
ton of the barn. There was a click as the 
grip locked into the carrier and the great 
forkful slid along the track over the mow. 
At just the right spot I pulled on the trip 
rope and instantly the bunch of hay fell 
where we wanted it. This trip rope is 
connected with these rods at the top of 
the fork which, when pulled up, turn the 
side teeth into the bunch of hay. By 
pulling sharply on the rope we pull these 
rods back down, the teeth are thus turned 
back and of course the hay falls. Thus 
far this outfit has proved very satisfac¬ 
tory. One man and a boy will take off 
a big load in half the time two men could 
do it with pitchforks. It is not all child's 
play, however. It is something of a job 
to spread the hay as dropped from the 
fork, and it takes all the beef and muscle 
of a good man to drive the fork down 
properly into the load. There is also the 
constant danger that something will break 
and send the fork or track down on the 
heads of the haymakers. When properly 
handled, however, the gain from such an 
outfit is very great. 
Farm Matters. —There were so few 
Potato beetles this year that I did not use 
Paris-green as usual. A few insects ap¬ 
peared, but the vines grew away from 
them. The crop looks well thus far. By 
the Fourth of July the vines were begin¬ 
ning to fall and run over the ground. I 
can get through only once more with 
the cultivators. We shall begin to dig 
as soon as the tubers are large enough, 
as strawberries are to follow. . . . 
The oats were about ready to cut for hay 
by July 4. This is earlier than usual. We 
sowed Golden Fleece oats this year, and I 
like the variety for oat hay better than 
any other we have tried. We do not at¬ 
tempt to let the oats stand for grain. We 
cut when the grain is in the “milk” and 
cure for hay. One object in cutting early 
is to get the land into late cabbage as 
soon as the oats are cut. We plan to give 
a fair dressing of manure, then plow and 
fit and set out cabbage. The cabbage will 
be followed by rye. ... I have men¬ 
tioned a low field on the lower part of the 
farm which was drained last Fall. This 
field was a great eyesore to me. One very 
dry season we plowed it and seeded it to 
grass on the Clark system. It gave one 
fair crop and then became a bgg—sour, 
coarse grasses crowding out the Timothy 
and Red-top. It was of no value in this 
condition, so last Fall ditches were dug 
through it and stone drains put in. I ex¬ 
pected to plant potatoes this Spring, but 
the wet season prevented, and so we plant¬ 
ed corn—rather late. It is making a fair 
growth, and we are giving good cultiva¬ 
tion, so as to clean the field for straw¬ 
berries. In spite of our drains there are 
two wet spots that will not dry out this 
year. There is a great struggle for mas¬ 
tery going on in one of our fields where 
we sowed cow peas and Kaffir corn. This 
season has been all against the cow peas, 
but has been on the side of ragweed. On 
the drier parts of the field the cow peas 
are likely to prevail, but alongside the 
lane, where the crop is most likely to 
be seen, the weeds have the better of it. 
The Kaffir corn is beginning to show up— 
shooting above cow peas and weeds. I 
can well understand how one who never 
saw the cow pea at its best would laugh 
at this crop and deny it any value. Over 
the stone wall is the Alfalfa patch, and 
here we have a very different story. In 
former years this field was a mass of 
weeds when such crops as corn, squash or 
tomatoes were grown. It was almost im¬ 
possible to keep them down. Yet the 
Alfalfa keeps them out of sight. I never 
saw anything grow as this stuff has since 
we made the first cutting. I find it rea¬ 
sonably easy to convince a farmer that the 
first cutting of Alfalfa comes early and 
makes a heavy crop, for he knows the 
life history of Red clover. When you 
tell him how the Alfalfa shoots up again 
and again it is hard for him to believe 
When he actually sees it growing the sec¬ 
ond and third time it certainly comes 
home to him that here is something worth 
working and fighting for. . . . How is 
the garden? What vegetables can you 
pick? At July 4 we had our choice of 
lettuce, beets, peas, string beans, new po¬ 
tatoes, onions, turnips, mustard, with to¬ 
matoes nearly ripe and cabbage almost 
ready. Somebody writes to ask if we 
really make out a full supper without 
any meat? Why, certainly. Many a night 
we sit down to a great dish of Nott’s 
Excelsior or Gradus peas—picked just at 
the proper time and cooked until they fair¬ 
ly melt in your mouth. As I dish them 
out I know how many our folks eat. 
Mother has to interfere and hold up some 
of the children. With these peas there is 
good bread and butter and strawberries or 
red raspberries—more than you can eat 
and smothered in thick cream! If you say 
that a workingman can’t live on that I will 
say that some of us at Hope Farm think 
we put in a fairly strenuous day now and 
then. 
Manual Labor. —I have been having 
my old argument about work with the 
hands with several people. I claim that 
every boy and girl should be brought up 
to do some honest labor. I would have 
them get down into the soil or into the 
kitchen and use their hands. I meet men 
and women now and then who try to 
shield their children from such work. “I 
want to make a gentleman out of John— 
he must not soil his hands or get in the 
habit of wearing rough or untidy clothes.” 
“Mary is to be a lady, and she must not 
do degrading things.” 
Now, I consider such words to be the 
stuff out of which snobs' and misfits are 
made. But why is the willingness to do 
hard or dirty work anything of a test for 
character? Because it takes the strongest 
kind of will power to make a man do it. 
When a young man is willing to shirk 
manual labor and live upon the_sweat of 
some one else rather than sweat himself 
I have very little use for him. When a 
man gets the idea that writing figures in a 
book, or pounding a typewriter or selling 
soda water or tape is a nobler occupation 
than pulling weeds or digging potatoes it’s 
time somebody got after him and stirred 
up his patriotism. There are a great many 
women in this world who seem to think 
their children are wonderful characters! 
Unprejudiced outsiders who know the 
family pedigree in all its straight lines 
and kinks can see no wonder in it, but 
mother knows that Billy and Kate are 
far too good to do hard work. They are 
trained for a soft job, and cannot be made 
to realize what put the soft spot in their 
character. 
“But what an old grumbler you are!” 
people tell me. “Can’t you see that the 
world .has changed since you were young, 
and that your ideas are out of date?” 
Why, it’s easy enough to see that! It 
also seems pretty easy to see what is com¬ 
ing to some of those soft jobbers! 
Once, at a college that I know of, there 
were two young men and a young woman. 
Of course there were many others, but 
these three make up our story. One of 
the young men lived on a farm near col¬ 
lege and on Saturday he went home to 
help his father, who was sick. He went 
to hauling manure. In some way the 
other young man heard of it, and he in¬ 
vited the young woman to drive out and 
“gee Fred at home,” expecting to get him 
at a disadvantage. He did ! Not finding 
Fred at the house he took the young wom¬ 
an right out to the barnyard. Many of 
us know what sort of a spectacle a young 
man presents after several hours’ work 
on a manure pile. The young woman 
was dressed neatly, and of course the 
other young man thought he had his rival 
down and out. The young woman 
thought (and acted upon) one of two 
things. 
She either thought, “What a horrible 
looking man. It is a merciful thing I 
found out about this. I want no com¬ 
panions who do such awful things as 
that!” 
Or else: “This man came home to help 
his father with this disagreeable work. 
He is willing to do what comes to his 
hand to do—and is a better man than 
one who would shirk such a task!” 
I am not saying which thought proved 
stronger. Was it not, however, something 
of a test of character for both the man 
and the woman? Was he less of a man 
for working in the manure? Would she 
be less of a woman for snubbing him in 
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