1908. 
86 
Hope Farm Notes 
Hard Cider. —My sentiments regard¬ 
ing this active partner of Satan are well 
known. Several people have sent me 
the enclosed clipping from the Boston 
Herald: 
The latest bloody tragedy up in Vermont 
seems to have been due to excessive indul¬ 
gence In hard cider. Of all the hard drinks 
cider appears to be fraught with the most 
peril, chiefly for the reason that the drink¬ 
ing of it is reckoned a legitimate sort of 
an indulgence in rural communities from 
which ru-n and whisky are banished as 
the only real vipers. 
In my judgment that is as straight as 
a string. You will remember that a 
“Hard Cider Drinker” asked if he could 
join the Apple Consumers’ League. I 
was willing to let him in in the hope 
that good associations might cure him 
of the habit, but here is a New Hamp¬ 
shire brother with a veto: 
Hope Farm Notes, December 28 issue, has 
the letter of G. W. H., asking if he, as a 
hard cider drinker, was eligible to the 
Apple Consumers’ League. Personally, I 
should vote against the admission of any 
user of hard cider to the League. This 
cursed stuff is the ruin of our hill towns 
in New England. It is worse in its effects 
than rum or whiskey. The manufacture of 
hard cider should be prohibited if possible, 
and if this cannot be done, then there 
should be a tax of $2 a gallon imposed by 
Congress, the same as on whiskey. I know 
personally of a small village in Massachu¬ 
setts where the oldest son of a family was 
ruined by the use of hard cider made by 
his father. The latter admitted he could 
not secure the cider cellar by any lock that 
the son could not open, and when asked 
why he did not stop making hard cider, 
said in reply that the money he got from 
its sale was very handy to have. He would 
let his son go to ruin and disgrace for the 
few dollars he got. On the adjoining farm 
was employed a man who was a faithful 
and steady workman, but who had a weak¬ 
ness for hard cider, and when under its in¬ 
fluence became sullen and morose. Mis em¬ 
ployer had done many favors and acts of 
neighborly kindness for the man who made 
hard cider, and asked him as a personal 
favor to keep this beverage away from the 
employee. To his surprise, he caught this 
very man slyly creeping into the barn with 
a bottle of cider for the hired man. Of 
course all friendship between the families 
ceased from that day. This whole neighbor¬ 
hood is cursed by the vile stuff. It has set 
families against each other in many ways. 
On Saturday and Sunday evenings teams 
tilled with workmen from the larger towns 
go up and down the roads, cursing and 
shouting, from the effects of hard cider 
carousals. You well say that you would 
rather have a barrel of gunpowder in your 
cellar than a barrel of hard cider. It is the 
ruin of our small country towns, and its 
manufacture and use is worse than that of 
whiskey. Our agricultural press should 
start a crusade against its being made. 
The It. N.-Y. cannot be too severe on its 
use. HORACE B. PARKER. 
My own observation is that Mr. Par¬ 
ker is justified in what he says. If any 
man can picture any blessings that have 
come to the world through hard cider 
he is welcome to the space in which to 
do it. I know, from the feeling in my 
own neighborhood, what it means to hit 
some people in the cider barrel, yet if 
you are to hit evil at all you would 
much better smash it where the blow 
will be felt. I never saw a man yet 
who would not admit that hard cider 
might be an evil—for somebody else! 
Here is a photograph of a printed poster 
we have at Hope Farm. The original is 
11x16 inches: 
All Sorts. —Questions continue to 
pour in from all over. We do our 
best to answer them all. Some of them 
are evidently in the nature of a “plant.” 
For example these from .Arkansas: 
1. If I should be up in an airship and 
THE) RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
the world came to an end what would be¬ 
come of me? 
2. What is the difference between a man 
setting up and setting down? 
As regards the first question it would 
depend upon the sort of life you have 
been living. As to the second, when 
I was a boy and a man drank too much 
hard cider we said he was “set up.” 
In that condition he certainly needed 
some one to “sit down” on him. 
This man asks another question: 
I would like you or some of the writers 
to tell me how to keep rats away from 
the barn and corncrib. I know all 'about 
how to trap and poison them, but that is 
a very slow and cruel process. I have 
often wondered why some one has not in¬ 
vented some patent to keep them out of 
buildings. Such, an inventor would get 
independently rich soon. 
Our house was at one time full of 
mice and rats—the latter coming from 
the barn. We put concrete floors in 
the cellar. This kept the rats out and 
we caught what were left in the traps. 
A corncrib should be raised two feet 
or more off the ground, with no rubbish 
near from which the rats can jump into 
it. Build on posts and at the top of 
each post invert a large milkpan under 
the frame of the building. The rats run 
up the post, but fall off when they reach 
the milkpan. Keep the posts well tarred 
also. Do not have fixed steps to the 
grain bin, but a short ladder, to be 
taken away when not in use. 
Since I wrote about our flint corn I 
have had many letters from people who 
want to buy. I am not in the seed trade, 
and do not want to be. I do not think 
it would be a square deal with our ad¬ 
vertisers for me to sell seeds or other 
things to our subscribers. I claim that 
a man talking at an institute should not 
have any commercial dealing with farm¬ 
ers who come to him for instruction. 
Few things can break up confidence and 
friendship like a commercial transaction. 
Another thing is that I am not dead sure 
of our corn yet. It does well with me, 
but we have not selected the seed long 
enough yet. Then again, it seems that 
we had some sweet corn on the hill last 
year—a long distance from the flint, and 
yet I see here and there kernels which 
do not look right. I am not prepared to 
swear that the papers will entirely fit 
the corn. Still again I am not an ex¬ 
pert at curing corn, and I might send 
out a lot of seed which would not ger¬ 
minate properly. For all these reasons I 
am not in the seed corn business. 
I am greatly interested in hog raising, 
and want your ‘advice. Which is the more 
profitable, a hog nine months old, weight 
150 pounds, or 18 months old, weight 300? 
Virginia. j. w. w. 
I think it depends upon the locality 
and feed. With us I am sure the smaller 
pigs pay best. Our people like a small 
carcass—not too fat. By running a 
March pig in pasture until September 
and then feeding him well we can get 
him to weigh 125 or more by November 
and the cost is small. If we were to 
carry him through Winter the cost 
would be heavy as we must buy most of 
our grain. I have only four small pigs 
left to eat the soft corn and the cabbage, 
but they will be killed before March. In 
Virginia, where the Winters are more 
open and Crimson clover makes good 
growth, it might pay to feed pigs two 
years. It would not pay me. 
If I wish to seed down a piece of land to 
grass next Fall how would it do to sow 
Japanese millet this Spring, and get the 
crop off so I can seed the land in August or 
September? s. c. h. 
Connecticut. 
You can do that well enough. We 
should sow the millet about the middle 
of May and cut in ample time for grass 
seeding. You must remember that 
millet will not do well unless the soil 
js rich or heavily fertilized. The millet 
is also a “hog crop,” that is a quick¬ 
growing surface feeder, taking a large 
amount of plant food from the soil. It 
does not leave the soil in good shape for 
seeding unless manure or fertilizer is 
used. I would much prefer oats and 
peas used as described last week. The 
oats and peas will, with us, give more 
fodder, can be sowed earlier, can be fed 
to all kinds of stock and leave the soil in 
better shape than the millet. 
At the middle of January the Cow- 
horn turnips were about ready to shed 
their tops. The turnips look like white 
stakes about six inches above ground. 
Most of them will rot down before 
plowing time. The Crimson clover looks 
well in the best soil. This open Winter 
is hard on it—in bare soil. As for the 
Alfalfa—it doesn’t look as well as I 
would like, but much of it is evidently 
still alive. This bare ground with night 
freezes and day thaws would pull out a 
fence post, let alone an Alfalfa root. 
h. w. c. 
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3 
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