1907. 
Hope Farm Notes 
, - 
“Sticking Stamps." —That Jerseyman 
who asked people to vote with a postage 
stamp if they wanted the story did not 
realize what he started. The cards have 
been pouring in from all over. There 
are some from Maine and others from 
Colorado. I confess that I did not realize 
before what an effective way of reaching 
and fetching people this is. I am satis¬ 
fied that if a fair number of earnest peo¬ 
ple will stick to this habit of sticking 
stamps they can get almost any reason¬ 
able thing out of a man who deals with 
the public. I do not know of any more 
forcible weapon when properly used than 
a postage stamp. The majority of those 
who write want the story about Cousin 
Woodchuck and Santa Claus. A number 
call for “How Daniel Donkey Lost His 
Voice” and still more say they want all 
three! I have decided to print the stor¬ 
ies—the first one week after next. The 
Horticultural Number comes next week 
and there is some special matter for that 
—then will come the first story. The 
Hope Farm man simply follows the ex¬ 
ample of many stronger and greater char¬ 
acters and bows to the public! 
“Whisky Barrels/' —Here we have 
one straight from the shoulder of a Penn¬ 
sylvania friend: 
On page 08 J. \Y. S. says that dairymen 
are scarce on that end of Long Island. I 
am not surprised at that when he says that 
their “mangers” were whisky barrels cut 
in half. Whisky or whisky barrels will 
never make a success at dairying or anything 
else that I know of. 
Oh, I don’t know about that. When a 
man or a barrel has started into an hon¬ 
orable occupation I am not disposed to 
think of the whisky either may have pre¬ 
viously held. I know that J. W. S. does 
not carry whisky around with him. I also 
know that a whisky barrel well scoured 
out and kept clean is very useful for 
many farm purposes. I think l am fully 
justified in running for office on the Pro¬ 
hibition ticket and using whisky barrels 
for spraying at the same time. I have 
several of these barrels cut in two serv¬ 
ing as water troughs, and they do well. 
Sometimes when old Bob loafs along on 
the road there are people who would 
be almost ready to forgive him if he had 
taken something more stimulating than 
water from that barrel. No. I think an 
honest cow would dignify a whisky bar¬ 
rel by feeding out of it much as a lamp 
or stove would dignify alcohol by 'turn¬ 
ing it into light‘and heat. The whisky 
that upsets dairying comes out of the rum 
shops—or worse yet—from a bottle hid¬ 
den behind the barn. 
Catching Vermin. —Here is a man in 
serious trouble over rats and mice: 
I have both rats and mice in my house— 
they are fearless and noisy and gnaw the 
timbers continuously: yet we cannot coax 
them into the Marti cage traps or the spring 
traps. We have got a good harvest of mouse 
tails, for the hoop of the spring rat trap 
slams down just outside the small bodies of 
the mice, securing their tails, which I sup¬ 
pose they bite off to free themselves. We 
must nave started thereby a new breed of 
mice; but it is of no commercial value to 
us as we cannot catch the curios. The rats 
came in when the old barn was torn down 
a few months ago. Will anything short of 
tearing this (new) house down induce them 
to move on? If I use poison will the vermin 
die in the walls or do they go out and 
decently bury themselves? I packed mineral 
wool around the sills to prevent this catas¬ 
trophe, but the rascals don’t mind it a bit. 
What can I do? a. d. 
We have little trouble now. The 
children keep a good many cats and they 
range freely through the barns. I re¬ 
gard a good hungry cat as the best ver¬ 
min trap you can get. Do not feed the 
cats at the house. Give them a little 
warm milk and make them hunt their 
meat. We have some reports of good 
success with poisons. A cake or biscuit 
is mixed of bran, flour, sugar, white ar¬ 
senic and baking powder. This is baked 
to a crisp crumbled and scattered near 
the holes. You cannot expect a well bred 
rat to “go out and bury himself.” The 
statement “they won’t die in the house” 
seems to be based upon the fact that these 
poisons create a fearful thirst and the 
vermin run out for w’ater and die. A. 
good ferret properly handled would 
be the proper thing for your situation. 
1 have never had one on the place but I 
know they will do terrible execution in 
a rat hole.' 
Losing Plant Food. —The following 
question from a Canadian reader has no 
doubt puzzled others: 
Do commercial fertilizers broadcast on the 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
153 
surface of orchard land and left uncovered 
for 10 days until plowed under, lose any 
of their strength or fertilizing properties? 
I should prefer to put on, with a broadcast¬ 
ing drill, at least 20 acres before commencing 
to plow. And I wish to plow under, not 
work into surface with disk or harrow. 
w. ‘v. B. 
As a general proposition it is safe to 
say there would be little or no loss. There 
could not be loss of potash or phosphoric 
acid since these elements do not under 
these conditions take the form of a gas. 
Rains might wash the potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid into the soil but there is 
where you want them. The only loss 
worth considering would be the ammonia 
which might pass away as gas. This 
would result from the decay of organic 
forms of nitrogen, such as dried blood, 
tankage or cotton-seed meal. In warm, 
moist weather there might be a little 
of this, but not enough. I think, to make 
any particular difference. With bone or 
nitrate of soda providing the nitrogen 
there would be little if any loss. But 
why do you plow this fertilizer under? 
It is hard for me to think of any case 
where it is not better to put the fertilizer 
on the furrows and harrow it in. 
Home Notes. —We are just about 
buried in snow! Where is this man who 
was afraid the ice men could not fill 
their houses? Jack Frost knew his busi¬ 
ness. He fixed up about the b.st ice 
crop known in this country and got a grip 
on the peach buds too. I fear we shall 
know definitely about that next June. 
Until then I am going to hope for a 
peach crop. But just now the snow is 
piled over everthing. The children go to 
bed each night hoping for more snow, 
but as for me I have enough! The 
new sleigh has little time to rest. Last 
Sunday Mother and the three children 
started ahead in the sleigh, the boy fol¬ 
lowed with Peter and Jack and Henry 
hitched Nellie to a big coasting sled and 
followed. The little girl and I stayed at 
home to help see to the baby and get din¬ 
ner under way. The latter was not a 
hard job as the meat was cooked and the 
bread pudding baked. I saw to it that the 
dishes were clean and a big pan of apples 
were baked. Our folks came home with 
the new sleigh bells ringing, with the sun 
bright and warm to report a good sermon 
and a fair-sized hunger. It isn’t pleas¬ 
ant working outdoors these days, but we 
keep on cutting wood as best we can. 
The hens are speaking up well. Down 
under the snow the strawberries and 
grain are all right but the mice may be 
at work at the young trees. We shall 
know all about these things when the 
snow goes. Why worry about them now ? T 
know that this is the dull and gloomy sea¬ 
son for many country people. They bor¬ 
row trouble and then turn around and pay 
interest to themselves on it. Very likely 
some one who reads this will be groaning 
about his sad lot in life, while all the 
time he isn’t half as badly off as another 
who never says a word. These gloomy 
thoughts are like those bacteria we read 
so much about. They grow and grow 
when the conditions are right. I have 
been trying to tell the children how the 
bacteria in a sample of bad milk might 
spread all through a can of good milk 
and ruin it. They want to know what 
those good bacteria are doing all that 
time! Why don’t they clean out and over¬ 
power the bad? They will learn with 
years why and when evil prevails over 
good and that a part of the scheme of 
life is to sterilize the bad and kill the 
wickedness in it. Some of you ccynplain- 
ing and gloomy people may well begin 
this sterilizing at once by building up the 
fires of hope and cheerfulness. 
h. w. c. 
The end of roof- 
troubles has come 
—Genasco Ready 
Roofing. 
The cause of leaks is the 
weather—snow, rain, heat, 
cold, sun, wind. Shingles rot 
and warp; tin rusts; slate 
breaks and blows off; coal-tar 
roofings dry-out and crack. 
Genasco does none of these 
things. It is made of natural 
asphalt from that wonder of 
the world, the Trinidad Asphalt 
Lake, and is proof against all 
weathers. 
Send for the reasonable common-sense 
Book Id, which tells facts and reasons. Also 
samples free. 
The most wide-awake dealers sell Genasco 
Ready Roofing. But send for the book 
anyway. 
THE BARBER ASPHALT 
PAVING COMPANY 
Largest producers of asphalt in the world 
PHILADELPHIA 
New York San Francisco Chicago 
ONE PASSAGE 
Ff»linCO Corn Planter 
kvIlgJdG and Fertilizer Distributer 
Marks out rows, deposits the fertilizer and plants 
all hill or drill crops, 6 to 45 inches apart. Handles 
all kinds fertilizers, In all conditions, 60 to 450 
lbs. per acre. We make a special gear which 
sows 600 lbs. per acre. Strong and durable, light 
draft, almost instant adjustment. Great improve¬ 
ment in row marking. We also make Eclipse Two 
Horae Two Row Planter*. Good terms to live 
agents. Write. 
Belcher & Taylor A. T. Company 
Box 75 Chicopoe Falls, Mass. 
TAlD It ever occur to you that a rake 
_ ought to last for years and years? 
It is a simple tool. There’s no clock¬ 
work about it. 
Just steei and wood— 
And if it is the right kind of steel— 
And the right kind of wood— 
And the steel and wood are put to¬ 
g-ether right — 
There ought to be no wear out to it. 
* * * 
That describes all True Temper 
tools—of which a complete line of gar¬ 
den and lawn rakes is animportant part. 
They are “the best tools you have 
ever bought at the same prices you 
have always paid”— 
Because they are manufactured in 
strict accordance with a well defined 
standard process by the oldest and 
largest manufacturers of farm and ear- 
den Hand-Tools in the world. 
Ask Your D ealer Fop 
TrueTemper 
Tools 
And they must prove true in quality. 
Construction, "hang,” and temper un¬ 
der severe tests and inspections before 
they are permitted to wear the True 
Temper label. 
* * * -C 
True Temper tools are accurately 
constructed, special-purpose hand-tools 
for farming and gardening. 
They help you to do your work with 
the least amount of time and labor and 
produce the best results. 
In the production of crops their use 
means less expense and more profit. 
The line includes Forks.Hoes,Rakes, 
Hooks, Weeders, Cultivators. Beet 
Tools,Floral Tools,Garden Tools. Vege¬ 
table Scoop Forks, Potato Hooks, etc. 
Ask your dealer to show them to you. 
If he does not have just what you want, 
please write to us. 
We have a book for you—“Tool* 
®nd Their Uaea,” which tells all about 
special-purpose tools, and how they 
will save you time, labor and money. 
It is free. Write for it to-day. 
American Fork and Hoe Co. 
® 4 4Am. Trust Bldg., Cleveland, O. 
NO 
going to buy a HARROW 
Want Bsst for least Cass 
iifr make that kind, 
tflf t Fat Fbkibht. Cat¬ 
alogue free. Writefor 
[price. G.H.POUNDER 
17 Ft.Atkinson, Wis 
It pays to get Planet Jr farm and garden tools. No other kind does' 
the work so well or lasts nearly so long, because Planet Jrs are designed by' 
r a practical farmer and manufacturer; built of better steel, with better workmanship.^ 
Planet Jr tools increase a man’s capacity three to six times. 
No. 25 Planet Jr Combined Hill and Drill Seeder and Double-Wheel Hoe, Cultl-' 
vator and Plow. Simple and easy-running. In one operation, it opens the furrow, sows 
the seed accurately in drills or in hills 4 to 24 inches apart, covers, rolls, and marks out the 
next row. The hoes, cultivator teeth and plows are of high-carbon steel to keep keen wearing 
edge and are designed to hoe and cultivate exactly as needed. 
No. 8 Planet Jr Horse Hoe and Cultivator will do more things in more ways than any other | 
horse hoe made. Patented cultivating teeth and reversible hoes work the ground thoroughly, I 
.any depth desired, with perfect safety to plants. Expanding frame combines strength and 
.simplicity ; handles adjustable up and down, and sidewise. Plows to or from row, 
a splendid hiller. 
..Write today for iqo? Catalogue of these implements, also Wheel Hoes, 
. One- and Two-Horse Riding-Cultivators, Harrows, Orchard-and 
Beet-Cultivators —45 kinds in all. No matter if you already 
.have some Planet Jrs, the new models are interesting. 
S. L. Allen & Co., 
Box 1107-V, Philadelphia, Pa. 
View of Mr. I. Newton Swift's 240-acre stock farm, Ypsilanti, Mich 
Absolutely 
Frost-Proof 
Baron DeChamplouis of Dan¬ 
ville, Quebec, says:— 
“One of my neighbors put up 
a large elevated tank guaran¬ 
teed to be frost-proof, at the 
same time I was placing a 
Kewanee Pneumatic Tank in 
my cellar. His whole outfit is 
frozen up in a solid block while 
I am getting an ample supply of 
water at a usable temperature.” 
A familiar sight 
but impossible 
with the Kewanee 
System because 
the Kewanee tank 
is in the cellar or 
buried in the 
ground. 
The Kewanee System 
of Water Supply 
provides every convenience and safeguard of a city water 
supply in your farm home. Always an abundant supply of 
water for use at any moment day or night. 
Gives water tor bathroom, kitchen, or anywhere in house: 
stables, barn, garden or anywhere on /arm. You get this serv¬ 
ice for a lifetime without paying one cent for water bills. 
Here is what one user says:—'Our Kewanee outfit supplies 
kitchen, sink and lavatory on the first floor, and bathroom, 
closet and lavatory on second floor and is giving entire satisfaction.” 
The Kewanee System consists of having an air-tight, steel Kewanee Tank placed in cellar or 
buried in ground into which water from your well or cistern is pumped. No elevated or attic 
tank. No possibility of freezing, leakage or collapse. Absolutely safe. An average pressure 
of 40 lbs. will raise water 93 feet. 
We absolutely guarantee satisfactory results with every Kewanee system installed. Over 7000 
outfits in successful operation. Send for catalog 3 ? which explains everything and tells where 
Kewanee Systems may be found in your state. 
KEWANEE WATER SUPPLY COMPANY, 
DRAWER WW KEWANEE. ILLINOIS 
What Mr. Swift says: 
“Your Kewanee Water Sup¬ 
ply System, installed on my 
farm of 240 acres, supplies 
water for 75 cows and young 
stock, 12 horses, 60 hogs, 
500 chickens. * * Gives tire 
protection for all buildings 
with average water pressure 
of 40 to 50 pounds.” 
