1909. 
THE RURA.I> NEW-YORKER 
80 © 
Hope Farm Notes 
THE LAKE COUNTRY. 
A few weeks ago I spoke of the “grape 
belt” along the eastern shore of Lake Erie. 
That country seemed in many ways like an 
ideal place for a farmer to live. Yet I 
know that the same thing might be said of 
any place where you can plant a crop or 
build a house, for ideals come from develop¬ 
ing the beautiful things that we love to 
do. I thought of this again on August 
2G when I visited the Trumansburg fair in 
Sereca County, N. Y. Ix>ok at your map 
and .see how this county nestles between 
the lakes. The hills roll up abruptly from 
the lakes on either side, leaving the narrow 
strip of blue water between them. 
Morning of the day I speak of came 
with a heavy rain which had worked in 
from the East without much warning. It 
must have been a great disappointment to 
the people back on the farms who had 
planned for a day at the fair. Yet it had 
been a season of dust and drought and 
central New York needed the rain far more 
than oratory or fairs. I drove out to 
the fruit farm of T. H. King on the west 
shore of Cayuga Lake to look at the 
peaches and see what the weather intended 
to do. This is in several ways one of 
the noted farms of New York. Mr. King 
has three sons, all college graduates and 
all living here growing fruit. It is a time 
for combined thought and action on a fruit 
farm with the rain coming, the weather 
turning warm and 10,000 baskets of Elberta 
peaches getting ready to leave home. But 
this fruit farm is another story; now I 
want to speak of the country. 
By 10 o’clock the clouds began to break 
and the rain stopped. The sun finally 
struggled out and the grass and leaves 
dried. Then along the road by the lake 
side started a long procession of farm 
wagons on their way to the fair. I no¬ 
ticed that these people all looked ahead. 
The glory of the lake and the hills was 
an old story to them and they were eager 
for the crowd and excitement of the fair. 
Vet I question if man ever looked upon a 
more beautiful scene than that which 
spread before us when the sun finally drove 
the clouds away. At North East, we saw 
on one side the level stretch of the lake 
and on the other the gently rolling ocean 
of vineyards. From the front of Mr. King’s 
house we looked down upon the narrow 
ribbon of water sparkling and glimmering 
in the sun. Two miles across the water 
the hills of Cayuga County rose to the 
east. Green pastures and cornfields, brown 
harvest fields, dark patches of plowed 
ground and thick clusters of orchards or 
maple groves mingled in pleasing harmony 
as far as the eye could reach. Here and 
there white farmhouses and red barns 
showed through the trees, and dusty roads 
wound like narrow ribbons along the hills 
or boldly over them until they climbed the 
summit and disappeared. There was not 
a town or city in sight, not a factory 
chimney or a sign of industry save that of 
the farm. The few remaining clouds were 
crawling away before the lazy wind, and a 
pot of shadow followed each one in slow 
progress along the hills. Now it would rest 
upon a farmhouse dark and somber while 
all around was bright and clear. Slowly it 
would travel on till at last the shadow 
was lifted from the house and farm and 
the sunshine burst in once more. Here 
amid the silence of the hills with the glit¬ 
ter of fresh water and the glory of sun¬ 
rise and sunset is the place to raise a child 
and fill him with those things which give 
substance and tangible form to the great 
secrets and mysteries of life. I should call 
it a privilege to be raised in such a coun¬ 
try. I do not see how people can go away 
from it without regret. I asked many of 
the people I met there if they appreci¬ 
ated what it meant to go about their daily 
toil with this glorious picture spread out 
before them. 
"Indeed we do,’’ they all answered. “It 
Is a part of our life and we rejoice that 
we can work in the midst of this beauty.” 
In spite of the wet morning there were 
over 5,000 people at the fair in the after¬ 
noon. Here was a rural neighborhood. 
I here is only one large town anywhere near 
by, and farming of one kind or another is 
’he chief or entire support of the people, 
i he crowd at the fair grounds indicated 
’his, for I do not think there were three 
per cent of them from town or city. I 
wish that some of the sneering city people 
who can see no hope for the country and 
'ittle for the nation could have spent the 
lay at this fair and talked honestly with 
hese farmers. They would have found a 
new meaning in the movement which is 
"-lowly and silently gaining headway all 
through the country. These clean and well 
dressed people have been going to school, 
listening to the great ’schoolmaster who 
teaches human nature. The outcome is a 
growing spirit of independence. Less and 
less aping of city people in dress, habits 
er thought, less and less paying tribute to 
middlemen and politicians; more and more ! 
of a desire for standards of society and 
business that are characteristic of the coun¬ 
try and farm. It is coming as sure as you 
are alive and no one seems to know just 
where it comes from or what started it— 
but the improvement of the man is going 
on with improvement of the soil. 
Seneca County is in one of the “John and 
I” congressional districts. The “I” of this 
combination is Congressman Fassett, who 
appears to think lie carries Seneca County 
in his pocket. One farmer told me how 
he wrote Mr. Fassett about a parcels post 
and ended as follows; “Now tell us what 
‘John and I’ think about this.” 
The Congressman got angry at this when 
lie ought to have felt pleased to think that 
his people recognized the power of “John 
and I.” He would not be so well pleased 
if some candid friend went and told him 
the truth about the situation. I am sure 
I talked with forty farmers at least. 
Every one of them said they did not want 
Mr. Fassett to “represent” them in Con¬ 
gress. There were perhaps 1500 voters on 
the fair grounds. Various estimates were 
made, but a fair average of them was that 
1200 of these men would vote against Con¬ 
gressman Fassett if they had some way 
of doing it freely and without prejudice. 
Yet most of those with whom I talked 
sadly admitted that under present political 
methods Mr. Fassett could force himself 
upon the people. With a fair direct prim¬ 
ary nomination, I feel sure that both 
“John and I” would be unable to see, for 
a time at least, the great beauty of life in 
the lake district. In this country the 
singular fact is developed that, while the 
farmers do not like the direct nomination 
bill advocated by Gov. Hughes, they yet 
stand by the Governor through thick and 
thin. They do this simply because he rep¬ 
resents what the political “bosses” do not 
stand for. There is no such thing as head¬ 
ing them off or changing their belief, for at 
last they have struck the rock bottom 
fact upon which the business side of a 
republic is' built. So long as laws are 
made by Congress that class will get its 
rights or more than its rights which is 
able to influence Congressmen. Through¬ 
out the country the common people have 
been electing Congressmen while the rich 
and powerful have influenced them. There 
is little use for farmers to try to defeat 
Congressmen after they are nominated or 
to influence them after they are elected. 
The thing to do is to pick out our friends 
and nominate them by direct primary. That 
is what these men among the lakes and 
hills are slowly thinking out. They will 
never forget it. It is only an indication of 
what is going on all over the country. 
In order to make sure that I got the right 
idea of the feeling regarding Hon. “I” we 
looked up the figures. Last year Seneca 
County gave Taft 3749 votes; Hughes 3732 
and Fassett 3524. Put another way, while 
Taft had 613 majority “I” got only 157! 
These figures are more hopeful than an 
increase of value in the peach crop! 
The peach orchards and vineyards are 
planted on a fringe of soil along the lakes, 
but fine apple orchards are scattered 
through this country. If men with good 
courage and clear sight could plant apple 
trees through this section as they have 
been planted along Lake Ontario their chil¬ 
dren would one day come into a marvelous 
burst of prosperity. Mr. King has the best 
orchard of Elberta peaches I ever saw. 
They have been cultivated thoroughly this 
year but for three years previous they 
were in clover sod ! But I will try to tell 
the mulchers and cultivators about this 
later. At the time of my visit Mr. King 
was picking and shipping Carman peaches. 
As it happens we were handling the same 
variety at Hope Farm. Our peaches were 
about the same size but a little higher in 
color and of course we picked them riper 
than he did. Mr. King uses the same 
package that we do—the flat box tray. 
Ilis peaches are sold at wholesale, while 
ours are retailed. For a six-tray crate he 
did well to get 90 cents to $1. With 
freight out the returns would be less. With 
ours at retail the same peaches will bring 
$2.50 to $3. While I was there several calls 
for peaches came over the ’phone. They 
were from grocers or dealers in towns or 
cities 50 miles or less away—some calling 
for daily shipments. One man said he had 
bought some California peaches and must 
get rid of them before the Carmans came 
or else they would be a loss on his hands! 
It certainly would be a person with a 
perverted taste who would eat a California 
peach when he could get a New York Car¬ 
man. Of course Mr. King had a chance to 
ask him why he patronized California 
while New York stood ready! There is 
one thing about the people of Seneca 
County, which if stated without explanation 
might make trouble. Living on their nar¬ 
row strip of land between the lakes, they 
ought to be, and are the most neighborly 
people on earth. Yet suppose I say that 
some of them do not even know the neigh¬ 
bors who live two miles or less away. In 
the country generally we know whatever 
of joy or sorrow occurs within five miles of 
us but here in this glorious land men may 
live and die, work through their life task 
within cannon shot and yet these big- 
hearted Seneca County farmers may not 
even know their names or what they suf¬ 
fered or won ! You must remember that I 
am speaking of those who live on opposite 
sides of the lake with a strip of deep water 
between them. The Seneca farmers may 
watch the dwellers in Yates or Cayuga 
through spy glasses but the water holds 
them apart. I think m.v children would 
want to explore this pleasant land and see 
what lies over the hills, but the lakes seem 
to stretch like great gulfs between and 
there are fetv who go across. It surely 
is a great country. T can shut my eyes 
and see that blue water and the piled-up 
hills shining in the sun. A goodly land and ; 
yet we all come away with the pleasant pic- ’ 
ture in mind and conclude after all I 
“There’s no place like home!” ir. w c. ' 
1 
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Read His Letter 
Read of the economy 
and profit in this farm¬ 
er’s potato-digging,— 
how he gets every 
potato in the field,— 
how he avoids loss from 
scarred and crushed 
potatoes,—how he has 
made the work easy 
and fast. 
It Tells You 
how the V 
Acme Hand Digger 
ATTACHMENT 
proved out under hard, practical actual field use: 
Potato Implement Co., Traverse City, Mich. 
GentlemenTwo yearsago I bought one of 
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giving It a short trial intho Held, my sons, 
who were digging the potatoes, were so 
E leased with the Acme Digger that I now 
ave live In use on my farm. 
The Acme Is just the digger we needed. Un¬ 
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men work easily, yet quickly,and don’t get so 
tired as with ordinary fork or hook digging. 
I know from my own experience that the 
Acme Digger does better, easier and cheaper 
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the best recommendation I can give anyone 
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I am, yours truly, 
F. LAUTNER, Leelanau County. 
SMC- Send $1.00 Today. Let the Acme 
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Send now. Address Box 525. 
Potato Implement Co., Traverse City, Mich. 
THE EMPIRE WAY VST 
. _ . _ay _ . _ 
r cient in a short trial. But the 
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A customer writes: “Enclosed find 
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Buyers 
I Want to Send 
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_ before you buy a rod of 
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Send me a card or letter for book right away. 
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Address FARMER JONES, Fence Man for 
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23 E. Maumee St. Adrian, Mich. 
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iROWN FENCE, 
B l 
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