1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
931 
Hope Farm Notes 
Thanksgiving. —I feel that I have 
much to be thankful for as night closes 
on Thanksgiving Day. The children are 
employing the last few rays of light which 
linger over the hill at kicking football in 
the road. The women folks are upstairs 
busier than some bees at dressmaking—for 
the little girl is going out West with me. 
Essie is getting the light supper. As for 
me, I am comfortable with a good light, 
an easy chair, a comfortable radiator at 
ni}' back and a plate of Baldwin apples at 
hand. If any man wants greater physical 
comforts than these, he is out of my class 
and I cannot compete with him. Of 
course I miss the big open fire, but we 
can move over to the old house after sup¬ 
per and build a roaring blaze. We have 
had a good day. 
I hoped to be thankful for a late sleep, 
but at his usual early hour the baby con¬ 
cluded that the night was far spent and 
day was at hand. I knew just how. peo¬ 
ple feel who spank little children, but we 
got him a piece of bread and an old mag¬ 
azine and there he sat for an hour in Ins 
crib gnawing his bread and turning the 
pages. He couldn’t see the book, and very 
likely it was upside down anyway, but it 
was surely a cause for thankfulness that 
the child picked up the reading habit 
early in life. I have known older people 
who understood what they read about as 
well as he did. However, reading loses 
its charms in time, and the little scamp 
began to call for material rather than 
mental food. So we began the day in 
good season. It was the coldest day of 
the Fall, and our sausage and fried pota¬ 
toes went to the proper spot. Naturally 
this day reminded me of the time I 
worked with a gang of laborers digging 
a big ditch through a swamp on Thanks¬ 
giving Day. I got as far as “And when 
time came for dinner,” when Mother, who 
has probably heard the story several times, 
rang down the curtain by going back to 
her work. The children, however, were 
eager to hear about it. These old story 
tellers certainly ought to be thankful that 
the younger generation make good lis¬ 
teners !' 
No one is obliged to work on Thanks¬ 
giving at Hope Farm—outside of regular 
chores—but all hands volunteered. There 
was too much trash around the farm— 
old boards and pieces of wood. We put 
Bob in the wagon and collected four good 
loads, which were put on the woodpile. 
'Then I had made a bargain with the little 
boys to dig a ditch to carry the water 
away from the lane. We went up and be¬ 
gan digging, and marked our ditch. It’s 
a good plan to have both hands working, 
so we started a fire along the stone wall 
to burn up the rubbish. While the boys 
were digging Merrill and I started in to 
get the level of the spring field. We set 
a camera tripod and adjusted a spirit level 
on it so we could sight both ways. We 
had barely begun to sight when the signal 
came for dinner. This was sent along In¬ 
dian fashion—the little girls signalling to 
Philip in the middle field and he passing 
it along to us on the hill. I have seen 
more dignified processions than the one 
which responded to this signal. 
You come in from work in the cold 
wind and find a good-sized turkey done 
to a turn, with potatoes, turnips and cel¬ 
ery, cranberry sauce, with mince and 
pumpkin pie to follow, and you will prob¬ 
ably forget to say the grace which the 
mayor of Toledo is said to suggest, 
“Lord, forgive us for eating this food 
while others are hungry.” The plates 
came back lively, and I kept them filled. 
For once the two boys were unable to eat 
all that was given them. They were 
obliged to hold their pie over until sup¬ 
per ! “Champ,” the big white gobbler, did 
not grace the board after all. He was 
able to come with his wives and look in at 
us. Merrill and I had him penned and 
stuffing on corn when Mother saved him. 
“Oh, T hate to have that beautiful bird 
killed!” r I he result was a bargain in 
which I agreed to give “Champ” his life 
if she would manage the turkeys next 
year. 
It would seem hardly right to undertake 
violent exercise after such a meal, but the 
boys followed me to the peach orchard, 
where T pruned a few trees to show how 
I wanted it done. Then we went over to 
a field of about three acres which is grown 
up to White birch and Scrub oaks. .We 
want that for an apple orchard, and the 
little boys are to help clear it this Winter. 
We cut a few trees and studied how best 
to do it. We shall clear it and then try 
the experiment of planting trees close 
together as we do peach trees, keeping the 
heads low and small. Before we knew it 
the sun was behind the woods and the 
best part of the day was done. Now it is 
over, packed away with those gone before. 
We have much to be thankful for, and 
much to hope for, and the basis of both 
hope and thankfulness is home. 
Poisoning Vermin. —Since printing the 
letter about killing woodchucks I have 
had a number of suggestions. Here is 
one: 
If .T. H. L., of West Virginia, will put 
salt and Paris-green in the mouth of the hole 
lie will soon be rid of the troublesome wood¬ 
chucks, as they are very fond of salt, so 
will eat the Paris-green and all. c. d. s. 
New York. 
It is news to me that woodchucks arc 
so fond of salt. Not much chance to try 
it now that the animals have crawled in 
for Winter. Mr. Chas. Waters, who 
claims that he gave the original Seedless 
apple wood to John F. Spencer, tells this 
way of poisoning mice: 
E. S.. page 7">8, asks “Can I place a lot 
of weeds and litter about apple trees and 
feel sure that they will not be attacked by 
mice during the Winter as a result?” I 
answer yes. after a trial of over 50 years of 
orchard and nursery as well. Take one bottle 
of crystal strychnine, place it in a glass 
dish, thoroughly pulverize it with a silver 
spoon, take about four heaping tablespoons 
of flour, mix thoroughly: then'add water and 
mix to the consistency of soft biscuit dough. 
Procure enough shelled corn of the largest- 
sized kernels. With a small-bladed knife 
open the heart of the kernel and insert the 
dough about the size of two kernels of wheat, 
pressing the heart on the dough, dropping 
the™ in a dish with meal or flour to keep 
from Sticking together. Put in an old bake- 
pan, put in hot oven until thoroughly dry. 
If not baked in a few days it turns green 
and the “varmint” will not eat it as I have 
proved, but it will keep in good killing order 
if kept in a dry place, for years. take 
two pieces of lumber about one foot long, 
six inches wide, nail so as to make a trough 
tinder which to place the bait, to keep any 
other thing from getting it. Under these 
hoards (of course you have made as many as 
you need) first put a handful of grain and 
leave it several days before placing the 
poison, as the mice will get used to the bait. 
If farmers would take trouble to go at the 
mice in a wholesale way it would pay well. 
Washington. charges waters. 
It seems safer with us to protect the 
trees. Our boys made a mistake on part 
of the orchard this year in using too much 
sod for banking the trees. With too much 
grass in the mound the mice will some¬ 
times crawl in and gnaw the tree. Some¬ 
thing on the tree to turn their teeth is 
better. 
When Use Fertilizer?— A farmer in 
New York State asks this sensible ques¬ 
tion : 
For next season’s potato crop I ohnll use 
mainly clover and Timothy sod, which will 
not be broken until just before planting, 
pre^'ous to which, as fast from now on as 
I can obtain it. it will be dressed, with eight 
good large loads per acre of stable manure 
from horses, poultry and young calves. I 
shall also apnly broadcast 400 pounds muri¬ 
ate of potash and 800 of acid phosphate. 
ITow about applying the latter or either now 
along with the stable manure? e. a. h. 
On reasonably level sod land I could 
have only one fair reason for not using 
the potash and acid phosphate at any 
time. It could be put on now or when 
the manure is spread with but little loss 
of plant food. I have heard people argue 
that it is better to use muriate in the 
Fall, as the salt is thus washed out of it 
and thus the quality of the crop grown 
from it would be improved. I do not be¬ 
lieve, however, in plowing chemicals un¬ 
der as we do manure. I prefer to harrow 
them into the surface soil, for I believe 
that in this way the crops have a better 
chance at them. I would, therefore, al¬ 
ways broadcast chemicals after plowing 
and harrow the ground. h. w. c. 
Coughs and 
colds are prevent- 
abl e. Increase 
your powers of re¬ 
sistance, and they 
do not attack you. 
Scott's 
Emulsion 
has prevented and 
cured millions of 
coughs and 
colds. Try it 
yourself. 
ALL DRUGGISTS; 
50c. AND $1.00. 
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HERE’S AN EXAMPLE 
of what plant foods can do for 
farmers. The picture on the 
right shows plant development 
and potato yield (55.8 lbs.) of 
a small patch, treated with 
POTAS 
On the left, a patch of 
same size (yield 21 lbs.) 
planted at same time, in 
same soil, but untreated. 
These pictures are taken 
from an experiment sta¬ 
tion bulletin, compiled in 
Our Free Book, “Profitable Farming 
which gives authentic and authoritative accounts of experiments and 
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