1607. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
89 
Hope Farm Notes 
A Constituent Talks. —This is about 
the first time I have been touched up by 
a constituent. 1 begin to see how Mr. 
Wadsworth and those other gentlemen 
feel when farmers get after them. 1 never 
expected that my advice about “licking a 
stamp” would be stuck to me! 
My Dear Mr. Hope Farm Man: Whllfj I 
think you are a good sort of a follow, and 
enjoy your i,oi>e Farm philosophy more than 
anything I have ever read in that line, st.ll 
i have two “bones" to pick with you and 
hereby proceed to pick ’em. Some years ago 
when i first began to take your excellent 
paper you served us all an awful mean trick. 
We were all anxious to see your smiling face 
—and what, did you do hut sit down on the 
wheelbarrow witli your back to the camera, 
and in a cold unfriendly manner turn your 
hack to all your friends. Now, honor bright ! 
wasn't that using us Just terrible? But I 
forgave you for that however, and while it 
was something new for me to do entirely - 
I voted for you for Congress because I be¬ 
lieved you were the best representative of the 
people on either ticket. And then what did 
you do mi Christmas night hut go down to 
the chinch, r.nd tell about HO of your children, 
young and old, that Christmas' story “llow 
Cousin Woodchuck Played Santa Claus" when 
you know there are eighty thousand of us 
Just crazy to hear it, and we till belong 
to the family, and l think have a right to 
hear it. Why, i have not heard a real good 
story since you told the one about the cow 
and Johnny Bee. And now see here, Mr. 
llo”'* Farm Man, If you don’t tell us that 
story. I am not so sure I ca,n forgive you 
tills time. But. seriously now, and jokes 
aside, everybody that belongs to Hie great 
Hope Farm family, and wants to hear this 
Story will please signify it by sending the 
Hope Farm man a souvenir postal card. 
Come on now, everybody stand up and “lick 
a stamp for the Hope Farm man." I want: 
also to say the red letter Bible you sent me 
for two new subscribers Is a Jewel. I ex¬ 
pected It would he good, as everything you 
send out Is lirst class. Hut Dial was a sur¬ 
prise. Wishing you all the success you de¬ 
sire and trusting you will still continue to 
knock down frauds and help up all honest 
endeavor. a. n. t:. 
I didn’t have tiny money to pay for 
votes, and if I can square the account 
with words—it’s easy for me. Thomas 
Jefferson said that a representative ought 
to do what his constituents desire. When 
Henry George was asked to run for 
Mayor of New York he said that a certain 
number of men must first put themselves 
on record as wanting him to run. That 
was sensible, for while Mr. George had 
theories that he believed in and principles 
that lie stood for, it was not his place to 
attach them to a race for office unless 
a fair number of citizens wanted it done. 
As to my stories, they are designed for 
children, and not particularly for grown 
folks, f have heard people say they 
didn’t want “baby food”—when really 
what they needed most of all was to get 
hack nearer childhood. I will leave it to 
the crowd, ff any of our grown-ups want 
that story or “llow Daniel Donkey Lost 
His Voice” or “llow Lewis Lamb Played 
Lion” they can have their choice! 
Lime Matters. —The friend who writes 
the following thinks he has me in a 
corner. A man out West told me that if 
you corner a Yankee he will proceed to 
corner the corner and make it so useful 
that those who cornered him will pay him 
Itis price. 
In a recent Issue you sny that the water 
from your well contains so much lime that 
the water pipes are stuffed with it. Still 
you go on to sa.v that your soil needs lime 
and you Intend to use If freely. How can 
you explain such statements? 
Not being a scientist T make no attempt 
to explain. All I know is that the water 
pipes were choked with lime, and that the 
water from our drilled well is well 
charged with lime. I also know j'ust as 
positively that when 1 put lime on our 
soil and harrow it in I get better returns. 
Some crops, like Alfalfa, clover and 
wheat or grass are very much better for 
the lime—while corn or rye do not show 
equal gain. My experience induces me 
to go so far as to say that whenever, in 
our section, grass “runs wild” as wc say 
f would put on a good dressing of lime 
before plowing and reseeding. T have 
been told by those who live in strong lime¬ 
stone sections that even there the soil 
sometimes grows sour and will not re¬ 
spond properly to clover until a quantity 
of slaked lime is applied! T am not a 
chemist and can only make a guess at the 
reason. There are evidently two or more 
ways in which lime serves the plant. It 
provides needed plant food and most soils 
seem to contain enough for this purpose. 
Another action of lime, very important on 
many old soils, is that of neutralizing 
acids or “sweetening” so that plants may 
thrive and grow. The baby obtains enough 
lime from his food to nourish and build 
■up his body, but sometimes when his 
stomach is out of order a little^ lime water 
will put it right. 1 understand that lime 
might he present in a form suitable for 
plant food and yet not capable of “sweet¬ 
ening” the soil. Thus I understand that 
the water out of my soil may contain lime 
enough to stuff the pipes, and yet the 
surface soil may be so sour that another 
form of lime is needed to lit ii for crops. 
I observe that old land which has lain 
neglected for a time is usually helped by 
lime. 
Wastes. —In Missouri I met a good 
farmer who said: 
"1 gather from what you say that in 
the East the problem is to make much 
from little. In the West we have thus 
f;ir been satisfied to make little from 
much. A fool or a careless man can make 
little out of much, hut wisdom is re¬ 
quired to make much from little.” 
I lie next day, in speaking of the wealth 
of southwest Missouri as a fruit section, 
a well-known fruit grower said: 
“Wc have a saying that a cow cannot 
walk through one of our orchards with¬ 
out putting one foot on a stone and tin- 
other on a gold dollar!” 
When lie said this I had to think of the 
old New England hills where 1 lived as 
a boy. A good-sized cow would have one 
foot on a rock and the other in the path 
that leads to the poorhouse—for those 
who chose to follow it. Neither the cow 
nor her owner went over it. They dug 
it up and raised crops, banked the pro¬ 
ceeds and sent the money “out West” to 
help develop the country. Gold dollars 
were hard to get in those days, hut we 
1 .anted that it paid to change the road 
through the fields every few years and cul¬ 
tivate the old road—for there we got the 
best yield. The constant stirring of the 
soil by hoofs and wheels gave the “in¬ 
tense culture” that is at the bottom of 
Clark’s grass yield. So that the “road to 
the poorhouse” will he found rich from 
the very travel of poverty. This might 
surely he called taking much from little. 
The western . farmer is inclined to 
smile at us for paying out money for 
plant food. They considered it. remark¬ 
able that a farmer in southern Maryland 
should pay $2 or more a ton for stable 
manure in New York and then be willing 
to pay freight for that long distance. Or 
that farmers should find the manure from 
one city worth more than that from an¬ 
other! The typical western farmer boasts 
that he does not need to go outside of 
his own rich soil for plant food, and yet 
he is doing it—only while the eastern man 
buys nitrogen in blood or bone or nitrate 
of soda the western man gets it for noth¬ 
ing. His great crops of clover bring him 
nitrogen equal to that in tons of nitrate 
of soda every year. He is going away 
from his farm for plant food as truly as 
the eastern farmer does. The latter pays 
money for nitrogen which originally came 
out of the air as surely as that which the 
clover brings. Thus the western farmer 
is already using outside fertility, and be¬ 
fore long he will see that it is no dis¬ 
grace to obtain potash and phosphoric 
acid where he can buy them cheapest. 
I hose western farmers are far ahead of 
us in the use of clover. I fear that the 
habit or fashion of using fertilizers makes 
some men careless in the use of clover 
and peas for green manuring or fodder. 
Wc get in the habit of buying nitrogen 
about as farmers’ wives begin to imy 
bread from the baker rather than make it. 
When I came to see how farming is done 
on those western prairies the loss of plant 
food was not so apparent as I had sup¬ 
posed. Of course, 1 am speaking of the 
level or rolling lands where there is not, 
or did not seem to be, a heavy surface 
wash. The failure to cut and cure the 
cornstalks as we do seems like a great 
waste, but nearly all of it gets back to 
the soil after all. When 1 began to talk 
about the use of potash and phosphoric 
acid in connection with manure I struck 
dull cars because the western people, 
while willing to admit that stable manure 
is useful and possibly necessary, cannot 
see why it is not the whole thing need¬ 
ful. The best illustration 1 can think of 
is what they are finding out regarding 
corn. For years and even now the great 
majority of these farmers were sure that 
corn was the only grain needed to fit 
stock for market. Now. experiment after 
experiment shows that fair quantities of 
wheat bran, linseed oil, dried blood or 
tankage may he profitably bought and 
fed to cattle and hogs with the corn. 
Some of these experiments certainly show 
that it paid to buy these feeds even when 
the farm was loaded with corn. Step by 
step farmers will learn why such things 
pay, and the fertilizer question will come 
easy when it is needed. 1 heard a man 
say that when Towa farmers grow Alfalfa 
as they should, and put most of their 
corn into the silo, Iowa will produce 
butter enough to supply the entire country. 
'I’llat is not such an exaggerated state¬ 
ment as one might think, but even in that 
happy day there would be a chance for 
eastern dairymen. For the greatest west¬ 
ern waste of all is not in plant food or 
stock food, great as these appear, hut in 
the awful tolls paid to railroads and 
handlers, h. w. c. 
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Grooved Tire Wheels to 
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HAYANA METAL WHEEL CO. 
BOX 17 HAVANA. ILL. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
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"a square deal." See guarantee, page 18. 
Gasoline Engine 
HALF-PRICE OFFER 
FOR A LIMITED TIME 
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nnd 7 h. p. gaso¬ 
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W rights villc. 
BEATS THE 
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No pressure, no drawing 
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Practical 
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Far superior to emery* 
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Different sizes. Foot 
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Write for circular of partieu 
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ROYAL foiO. CO.. 226 E. Walnul SI 
Lancaster, Pa. 
Stump and Tree Pullers 
Self-anchoring and Stump. . 
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all kinds of 
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For Illustrated 
catalog address 
Milne Mfg. Co, 860 Ninth St., Monmouth, III. 
$60 
GOES LIKE SIXTY 
SELLS LIKE SIXTY ^ 
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Catalogue on Krqtirnl. 
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331 W. Water St. 
Syracn.se, N. Y 
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WOODPECKER. UtthSt. OUlue. MIDDLETOWN, OHIO. 
THE STODDARD LINE 
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Vertical or Horizontal, Mounted or 
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BOTH CIRCULAR >NT) DRAG SAW 
OUTFITS. 
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Write for Catalog EH. 
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A complete combination circular and drag 
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A Never Failing Water Supply, 
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Built by ns for morn than 30 years and sold in every country in the world. Exclu¬ 
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Ho well built that their durability is yet to bo determined, engines which wore sold 
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Send stamp for “C'4" Catalogue to nearest oftjne, 
RIDER-ERICSSON ENGINE CO., 
35 Warren HI., New Vork. R39 Franklin Ht,, Hanlon. 
40 Dearborn St., Chltngu. UUf ( r»ig Mt„ Went, Moiitroal, I*. U. 
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Ani.i'Kur. OR, llnrana, Culm, 
OHNSTON' 
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Requires least 
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Runs smoothly, 
cuts a clean swarth in 
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man and team. More stood mower fea¬ 
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In passing obstructions, turning cor¬ 
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Mower is built high for power, and 
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The ,10111184011 No. 10 Mower is fully 
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The 
Johnston Harvester Co., 
Boxlil, itutavla, N. Y. 
