1909 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
627 
Hope Farm Notes 
A Great Man. —When I read of the 
death of Edward Everett Hale I knew 
that one who might truly be called a 
great American had passed away. 
Nearly 40 years ago I started as an er¬ 
rand boy in a Boston bookstore, and 
there I saw Mr. Hale almost daily. He 
was a familiar figure in Boston—every¬ 
body knew him. I remember that when¬ 
ever some one was needed to stand up 
for a great moral or patriotic issue, Mr. 
Hale was the first man thought of. If 
there could be any such thing as Amer¬ 
ican nobility, Mr. Hale represented it, 
for he came from a long line of history 
makers, and people who hand down no¬ 
bility of character. I remember when 
a monument to Nathan Hale was dedi¬ 
cated in New York. As every schoolboy 
knows, Nathan Hale was hung by the 
British. There on the platform sat 
Edward Everett Hale. Several long 
and tedious orators had their say, and 
then Mr. Hale, in about five minutes, 
said more than all of them put together. 
The Hale of Revolutionary times said 
he was sorry he had but one life to give 
to his country—the Hale of this age 
told how a humble man can make a 
life worth while. An aristocrat, a no¬ 
bleman by birth, Mr. Hale was a true 
common citizen in every-day life. No 
man can do better on hearing of his 
death than to reread “The Man With¬ 
out a Country.” 
I think my mother once nursed in 
Mr. Hale’s family, or at some place 
where she came to know him as thou¬ 
sands did—a friend in trouble. It was 
partly through his advice and inspira¬ 
tion that my mother was eager that I 
should try to work through college, 
though it meant extra privations for 
her. I suppose that if all the men and 
women now living who owe some of 
the best that is in them to little helps or 
suggestions from Mr. Hale could be 
brought together we should have in 
many ways the most remarkable army 
ever mustered in this country. I do not 
think we have had any other American 
whose life influence has organized such 
a host. When I got through college 
without funds and with poor prospects 
I turned in every way that I could 
think of to earn honest money. Among 
other things I wrote some short stories 
based largely upon things I had heard 
or experienced in my days of cattle 
herding, lumbering or school teaching. 
It was hard to dispose of them. I went 
to Mr. Hale for advice. I remember 
how he took me into his study and 
showed me his books and papers. I 
can see him now, a tall, bowed figure 
going about the room with a candle in 
his hand hunting for a book he wanted 
me to look at. There was no busier 
man on earth at the time, yet he took 
my poor stories and said, “I shall en¬ 
joy reading them as I go about.” 
In two weeks he wrote me, enclosing 
a check for $25, with a note about as 
follows: 
“I have just received an order from 
-for a Christmas story. I am- 
too busy to write one and I find one of 
yours really better than I could write. 
So I have sent it to them and have en¬ 
dorsed their check to you.” 
That was just like the man. He 
knew that would give me a chance to 
make good if I had it in me. 
Later I went to Mr. Hale on the sad¬ 
dest errand I have ever known. After 
a desperate struggle which had nearly 
wrenched me away from the founda¬ 
tion of faith I got on my feet and saw 
light ahead. I was just getting into a 
place where I could give my mother the 
comforts she had needed when one 
morning they telegraphed me that she 
was dead. On Saturday evening I went 
to Mr. Hale’s house to ask him to con¬ 
duct the little services at my mother’s 
funeral. I never knew before what it 
can mean to be called “a man of sor¬ 
rows and acquainted with grief.” 
From my hillside this Sunday after¬ 
noon iny eyes look over the sweep of 
the hills, and memory goes with them 
across rhe long years. I can see the 
few toil-worn and troubled mourners 
in our little rooms and Mr. Hale stand¬ 
ing by the door—the November sun 
streaming over him. I can remember 
that he took this little text: In my 
Father’s house are many mansions. The 
ideal mansion he said was a home. 
Then he described a home—how such 
humble, often unappreciated lives as 
my mother’s make the home possible, 
and how, if such natures could have 
their reward, it would be to go on 
with the home spirit without the 
troubles and sin of the life we know. 
Most of the people in that room had 
found life hard and disappointing. They 
were denied the things which they had 
hoped for, yet the common heritage of 
home appealed to them. The idea that 
this dead woman, poor and troubled 
and weary, had served her country by 
home building was enough to glorify 
lives that were filled with silent sacri¬ 
fice. 
That is the sort of life that Edward 
Everrett Hale lived. That is why I call 
him the Great American. Compare such 
a life and its fruits with that of some 
“captain of industry” or some .great 
soldier. We may not be able to make 
our children see it, but we who have 
been through the fire know what really 
counts in laying the true foundation of 
society. The “oil kings” and the rail¬ 
road magnates and the stock gamblers 
may buy with their money the world’s 
envious applause, but the true citizen, 
like Edward Everett Hale, touches 
deeper springs of feeling and makes 
men worthier to live. 
I was and am yet surprised at the in¬ 
terest taken in what has been published in 
The It. N.-Y. about the Kevitt method of 
growing strawberries. Forty-two years 
ago I purchased 100 plants of the old 
Albany Seedling and planted them in a 
bed 18 inches apart each way. I kept 
every runner cut off, and by the time they 
were in bloom a year after they were set 
out, each plant would average as large 
as a common water bucket. I succeeded 
in bringing up to maturity just 80 of 
those plants, and, besides the handfuls of 
berries that were picked and eaten now 
and then, which would have amounted to 
several quarts, we picked a few quarts 
over one hundred. At that time that was 
a very common method of growing ber¬ 
ries ; in fact, it was the usual method. 
Of course, strawberry growing in a com¬ 
mercial way was at that time a small 
matter, and as soon as it attained some 
magnitude the matted-row plan came into 
vogue, because the work of cultivation 
could be largely done by horse power. 
a. w. F. 
It is true that the plan of growing 
single bill plants with the runners cut 
off is old. Some years ago J. H. Hale 
entertained the Connecticut Pomologi- 
cal Society and showed a small patch of 
single plants which beat anything I ever 
saw. If anyone can suggest a better 
name for the system we are all atten¬ 
tion. All varieties will not do equally 
well under this system. With the de¬ 
sire to cultivate large areas by horse 
power there has come a stampede of 
varieties that make runners freely. By 
planting as we do in two-foot rows— 
exactly 15 inches in a row, we work 
with horse one way and wheel hoe the 
other. I make no report until we pick 
the berries, but it looks now as if our 
patch would justify every claim made 
for it. 
Farm and Home. —Our first straw¬ 
berry sales were made June 10. As 
is known, we raise Marshall for main 
crop, and this is a medium late variety. 
We were eating a few berries by June 
5. The crop is very fine in quality this 
year—larger berries than ever before, 
I think. The Marshall is not a heavy 
yielder. That is its chief fault, and it 
cannot be safely advised as a general 
market berry. While some plants will 
give a quart each this year the average 
on the field will be much less than this. 
No one could grow 50,000 quarts 
of Marshall strawberries on an 
acre. If they grew 10,000 they would 
make a phenomenal success. I will re¬ 
port on that Kevitt plot in due time. 
One objection to this method of plant¬ 
ing is trouble in picking. Very careful 
pickers must be used, or they will 
tramp over the berries and ruin them. 
We think so much of it that we are 
planning another acre next year. . . . 
The corn problem is a bard one this 
year. Last season we tarred the corn 
faithfully and the crows pulled nearly 
half of it up. This year with the same 
kind of corn, tar out of the same can, 
and I suppose the same crows, we have 
lost hardly 20 hills. Within half a mile 
a neighbor has been greatly troubled 
with crows, though he used tar. An¬ 
other neighbor didn’t happen to have 
tar, so he planted corn without it. The 
crows have nearly ruined the field. A 
friend in Pennsylvania tells me of 
using a “crow call.” A man gets be¬ 
hind some old tree with his gun and 
sounds this “call.” It attracts the 
black rascals to their death. This “crow 
call” is a hollow piece of wood. At 
one end of the wood is cut out like a 
tongue with a little piece of thin steel 
on the inside. A short, quick blow or 
puff into this produces a sound much 
like the “caw” of an old crow. . . . 
We started spraying potatoes June 12, 
using Pyrox. This leaves a bluish 
white covering over the vines. The 
bugs do not enjoy it, and the fleabeetles 
lose their appetite, I hope it will stave 
off the blight. Our intention is to 
spray about five times during the sea¬ 
son. . . . The last planting of flint 
corn for grain was made June 12. We 
shall sow some fodder corn yet. I 
have, with a very favorable season, 
planted flint corn by July 4 and made 
fair grain, but it is not, by any means, 
a sure thing. P'odder corn can be 
planted in our country up to July 15, 
and make a good yield of excellent 
forage. The price of grain is still 
soaring, and I am glad to know that 
so many eastern farmers have increased 
the acreage of corn. ... I am try¬ 
ing a variety of cow pea, known as 
Mount Olive. It is a brown-colored 
pea, erect in habit, a good grower and 
yielder of vine and seed. It is an early 
pea, and should be, I think, a good one 
to drill in an orchard. We used a 
sample of it for cooking and our folks 
pronounce it “fine.” It is better flavor 
than either Black or Whippoorwill, but 
not equal to Black Eye. A good dish 
of boiled cow peas is good enough for 
us, especially with all the strawberries 
you can tuck to follow the peas. Our 
family is good for from 75 cents to a 
dollar’s worth of berries a day. How 
do we figure values? We know that 
our customers would be very glad to pay 
that money for the berries. This Kevitt 
plan of berry culture proves one thing 
at least. No farmer has any excuse 
whatever for not having all the straw¬ 
berries the family can eat. A few hun¬ 
dred plants grown in this way and kept 
clean will do the trick. A boy can do 
it, and when he once sees the result of 
his labor and selection he will feel like 
improving every animal and every field 
on the farm. • h. w. c. 
What a Dealer Said: 
“ * ’ ’ * But many years ago, from what 
our customers told us about twine, we settled 
down to handling PLYMOUTH TWINE 
only. Since that time we have never had a 
dissatisfied customer on twine, or a word of 
complaint about it; always warrant it, telling 
them to return if it does not work satisfactor¬ 
ily, but have never yet had a ball returned.” 
TRY PLYMOUTH TWINE this 
season, and you will always use it. Guar¬ 
anteed full length and extra strength. No 
knots, no breaks, no delays, no loose sheaves 
or lost grain. Look for the wheat-sheaf tag 
on every ball. Get it at the local dealer’s. 
PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY 
Largest rope makers in the world—oldest in America 
Plymouth, Massachusetts 
Factory Price 
On Empire 
'Big Wire” Fence 
Freight prepaid for everybody far 
aa Ohio and Mississippi rivers. 
Double the life of 
little wire fences. 
High carbon steel, 
heavily galvanized. Fence to turn 
anything and to last. Note the 
crimped tie at crossings. Send for 
sample today toi 
BOND STEEL POST CO., Adrian. Micb. 
All 
Wires 
This 
Size 
«0.9 
RUNNING WATER ON FARM 
THE AERM0T0R GASOLINE ENGINE 
is designed to supply water for the farm 
building. This outllt Insures a si: 
water at all times and the price is 
the reach of every farmer. Pump ca| 
gals, per hour, 15 ft. elevation; 800 
ft.; -100 gals., f»0 ft. Complete outfit 
or del. at It. It. Sta. $42.50. 
Write for descriptive Catalog 
No. 5 giving full information. 
J. H. EDWARDS, 
59 Park Place, N. Y, 
VOUR RAZOR ALWAYS SHARP 
-A- Buy no more razors. Pay no more hone bills- 
Shave in comfort. Send us your name at once. 
SEDELKE & COMPANY, Dept. 17, ELYRIA, OHIO 
10 DAYS FREE TRIAL 
JOU I 
after usinr the bicycle 10 days. 
DO NOT BUY5«£KSS 
.t any prioe until you receive onr Uteri 
art catalogs illustrating «T.rv kind of 
bicycle, and have learned our unheard of 
price* and marvelous new offers. 
nyc ncuT *•»»<* wm C o*t T °u to 
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TIRES, Coaster.Brakes, Built- 
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MEAD CYCLE CO, DeptB 80 . CHICAGO 
“Sweat Pads ’ 7 are Cruelty to Animals 
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Factory, 1980 S. 13th St., Omaha, Neb. 
Factory, 1B3\ Lowe St., Chicago Heights, III. 
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Town. 
R. F. D. No.State. 
Please All In this also— 
Harness Dealer’s Name. 
Town.State. 
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View From the Rear 
HUMANE HORSE COLLAR CO., 
1980 South 13th Street, Omaha, Nebraska 
1831 Lowe Street, Chicago Heights, Illinois 
