1908. 
THE re.UR.A.Iv NEW-YORKER 
877 
Hope Farm Notes 
The Farmers’ Share. —The only- 
farmers I know of who are capable of 
being “uplifted” are those who have 
some solid base of capital to stand on 
when their feet leave the ground. To 
tell a man to do the things which re¬ 
quire cash when he cannot obtain the 
cash is a dangerous thing. It will 
drive a man to bitterness of spirit, or 
make him reckless of credit or ex¬ 
pense. The good and pleasant things 
of life will come to most farmers when 
they get a fairer share of the dollar 
which the consumer pays for what the 
farmer produces. The great problem 
of society now, as I see it, is how to 
get more of that dollar into the farm¬ 
ers’ hands. The average consumer does 
not realize how much of the price which 
he pays goes to middlemen and hand¬ 
lers. Let me give the figures of an¬ 
other shipment of peppers to a commis¬ 
sion man. Here is a copy of my re¬ 
turns : 
8 baskets peppers.<3> .40 3.20 
5 baskets peppers. Ca} .35 1.75 
11 baskets peppers.@ .30 3.30 
1 barrel peppers. .00 
$8.85 
DR. 
Commission .89 
Cartage and freight. 2.73 
- 3.62 
$5.23 
The barrel held a little over two bas¬ 
kets, so that my peppers netted me 
about 20 cents for half a barrel, while 
the packages cost me 10 cents each! 
At about the same time a neighbor 
took 23 baskets of our peppers and 
hauled them in his wagon to market. 
He took out 90 cents for commission 
and returned us $7.96, or nearly 35 
cents per basket! Peppers were low at 
the time, as the market was glutted, 
but before the consumer got them a 
basket brought at least $1.25 at a low 
estimate. I have had calls from peo¬ 
ple who want a dozen or so peppers 
at a time. At 20 cents a dozen our big 
ones would be a fine bargain, and we 
could make good money. We found 
that it will cost at least 16 cents to 
send a dozen by mail, or 25 cents by 
express, and that makes the deal im¬ 
possible. With a parcels post such as 
they enjoy in Europe we could send our 
dozen peppers by mail for about five 
cents, and I could dispose of nearly 
my entire crop in that way, get five or 
six times as much out of it, and save 
consumers money, too. I never studied 
this side of the business as carefully as 
we have been forced to this year, and 
the awful tax which is being paid to 
the handlers never was made so clear. 
A man in Florida tells me that his 
eggplant crop brought him $600 at a 
cost of $800, while the express and 
railroads held him up for $1,500 on 
transportation. Now, I would like 
to have everyone who can produce the 
figures tell me what they get for ship¬ 
ments of produce to buyers or commis¬ 
sion men. Send the returns if possi¬ 
ble, and I will try to find what con¬ 
sumers pay for similar produce. 
P'arm Notes. —A week of rain fol¬ 
lowed the long drought. The clover 
and rye responded and seemed to make 
greater growth during that week than 
they had in the month previous. We 
shall now have a fair growth of all 
the cover crops before the ground 
freezes. On part of the cornfield I 
sowed Dwarf Essex rape with the 
clover and turnips. This rape has done 
better than either of its companions in 
the dry weather, and stands above them. 
In Delaware and some other places 
where green manures are used I find 
that rape is very popular. . . Nearly 
our entire crop is reserved for seed this 
year. I have found that there is a 
great demand for the small flint vari¬ 
eties. During the dry weather we got 
about two-thirds of our fodder under 
cover. Part of the ears were broken 
off without husking, while the balance 
of the stalks were hauled to the barn. 
This gives a good job for stormy days. 
We take the ears off and where the 
ears are fit pull the husk back and 
tie it to wire strung in a dry place. 
We have an order for the best ears 
unshelled—and they will be left on the 
wires until they are thoroughly cured. 
Our corn is a strain of Early Canada 
flint which we have selected for a defi¬ 
nite type. We want a short, slender 
stalk carrying two fair-sized ears, close 
to the ground, and maturing grain in 
from 90 to 100 days of planting. I do 
not select by the ear alone, but try 
to consider the stalks. I would also 
prefer ears from parts of the field 
where all the stalks seem_to.be uni¬ 
formly good, for without' doubt the 
surrounding stalks have much to do 
with the ear. . . . The cabbage crop 
is first rate—one of the best we have 
ever grown. The plants were set in 
two separate fields. One is on the lower 
farm, inclined to be moist, and partly 
drained by stone drains. Here the cab¬ 
bage is extra good—heads large and 
solid. The other field is on top of the 
hill. We used more fertilizer on this 
hill field and gave it thorough culture, 
but the dry weather hurt. The worms 
were twice as bad here as in the lower 
field. The cabbage is smaller. Most 
of the farmers on our hills have had 
a hard season. The potato crop was 
a failure. Some will not dig at all. 
Apples were less than a quarter of a 
crop. . . . When the boys come to 
figure on their potato crops they find 
that they grew more to the square rod 
than any local farmer who has yet re¬ 
ported. The larger boy took a piece of 
strong land near the house, and he is 
thinking over what he can do with it 
next year. He might follow with po¬ 
tatoes, but that means danger from 
scab. That close-planted patch of 
strawberries looks well now, and the 
boy thinks it could be made a perma¬ 
nent investment. There is a dishy or 
saucer-shaped place on this land where 
water sometimes stands. That will 
never do for strawberries, and there is 
no cheap outlet for the water. My ad¬ 
vice to the boy is to make what I call 
a cross ditch and well. To do this 
you dig a large, deep well at the low¬ 
est point—down past the subsoil if you 
can get there. Then you dig four 
ditches so as to form a cross—all drain¬ 
ing into this well. The surface stones 
are then raked and picked up and 
thrown into the ditches and well up to 
just below the point of the plow. Then 
the earth is thrown in and levelled. 
This disposes of most of the surface 
stones, and in the majority of cases, 
will drain the low place and prevent 
water from standing there. If the boy 
will do this, then in the Spring coat 
the land with manure and plow it under 
he will be ready for planting strawber¬ 
ries. It will take many plants and 
great courage and nerve to get these 
plants under way and keep them clean, 
but I believe it will make a permanent 
investment for whoever stays by it. 
Interest. —I have been trying to get 
my children to understand what inter¬ 
est on money means. Let a child real¬ 
ly see what it means for money to work 
and earn more money and he has his 
first great lesson in thrift. We encour¬ 
age our little folks to start small ac¬ 
counts in a savings bank. They put 
their money in and gave it little 
thought except that it was safe where 
they could get it later. After a few 
years they found that instead of hav¬ 
ing $10 they had $12 or more. How 
was that? If a boy put a $10 bill away 
in the trunk or buried it in the ground 
—in three years he would still have the 
$10, provided no one stole it, but not 
a cent would be added to it, or if the 
boy bought a bicycle or a watch with 
his $10 at the end of three years he 
would have less than $10, because his 
property would be partly worn out. Yet 
that $10 in the bank had grown to more 
Khan $11, While the money in the 
trunk was asleep that in the bank was 
at work day and night without stop, 
earning more money which we called 
interest. Now this idea of having things 
work for you appeals to a child. One 
of the boys made $10 out of his pota¬ 
toes. It meant sweat -and toil in the 
sun. Now he figures that if he could 
get $250 in the savings bank at four 
per cent interest it would earn for him 
as much as he made sweating over his 
potatoes without a hands turn on nls 
part. 
“But how can money earn money?” 
asks the boy. 
“Take your own case. You want a 
permanent patch of strawberries. You 
might be able to plow and fit your 
ground, but when you come to buy 
plants and fertilizer you would need 
at least $15 in cash. Now, of you can 
get plants and fertilizer and put 
your labor in them you can see a chance 
to make $100. Unless you can get the 
capital of $15 your labor alone will 
earn scarcely $20. If you come to me 
and ask me to .work hoeing berries you 
would expect to pay me for it. If you 
come and ask me to lend you $15 that 
money is also to work for you, and 
when you pay me interest—say, 90 
cents a year, you pay my money for 
working. Every cent I have represents 
former labor on my part!' 
In this way I think the children are 
coming to realize what interest is and 
what it means. I also want them to 
know what debt means, what a mort¬ 
gage and promise to pay mean, and the 
stern obligation which the latter car¬ 
ries. Let people once fully understand 
how money at interest works for them, 
and how idle dollars are like idle men, 
and you build for them the corner¬ 
stone of competence and home. Yet 
when an amateur financier like myself 
undertakes to teach the principle of 
finance he runs up against the following 
questions from children: 
“Why do you have to pay your debts 
in money T 
“Why won’t people take your ivord 
for it and not demand written papers?” 
“Why not have money enough in the 
world so that poor people could get it 
easily?” 
“Why do people who have money act 
so mean to those who haven’t got any?” 
“If your neighbor is in danger of los¬ 
ing his home and you are not, why not 
help him out without any interest?” 
I confess that I am forced to dodge 
these questions—because it requires 
hard and bitter experience to under¬ 
stand them. I wish we coukl have in 
this country a system of postal savings 
banks—with money deposited with the 
Government. I would go further and 
have this money loaned through spe¬ 
cial agricultural banks on farm prop¬ 
erty alone. h. w. c. 
INDRUROID 
ROOFING 
Requires no Coating cc 
Paint. 
Acid and Alkali Proof. 
Elastic and Pliable Always. 
Strong and Tough. 
Absolutely Waterproof. 
Climatic Changes Do Not 
Affedt It. 
Practically Fire Proof. 
Can Be Used on Steep or 
Flat Surfaces. 
Any Workman Can Put 
It On. 
No Odor. 
Will not Shrink or Crack. 
Light in Weight. 
Does not Taint Water. 
Write for samples, price 3 
and circulars. 
H. F. WATSON CO. 
ERIE. PA. 
Chicago, Boston* 
Mention R.N-Y. 
OUR FREE TRIAL 
AND LOW PRICE 
Sell This Standard 
NEW HOLLAND 
FEED MILL— 
— Because the trial proves 
the unsurpassed quality of the New Holland 
and the price is lowor than is asked for other 
mills of less value. 
The New Holland Is made in 5 styles and 
sizes, adjustable to any kind of power, fur¬ 
nished with or without elevator and bagger. 
Grinds ear corn better than any mill made, 
as well as all grains, coarse or fine. Makes 
excellent table meal. 
TRY IT AT OUR RISK 
and see. Test Its speed, quality and strength. 
Good dealers keep New Holland Mills, 
and will give you a Free Trial, too. They 
also sell New Holland Gasoline Engines, 
suitable for running mills and other farm 
machinery. 
, Gcf Valuable Book, Free. “The 
Right Way'lo Feed Grain.” Telia why it pays to 
grind grain, advantages of cob meal, etc., opinions 
of experts. Write for book anyway, and get our 
libera. Milloffer,and our complete catalogue. We 
ship d Irect when we have no dealer 
„ NEW HOLLAND MACHINE CO. 
Box 13 New Holland. Pa, 
HARNESS 
By Mall 
Yon can bny custom-made 
oak-tanned harness direct from 
our factory at wholesale prices, 
on save two profits— tlio jobber 
and dealer’s. Write for onr new il¬ 
lustrated catalogue and see for yonr- 
self just how much money yon can 
save. All our harness is guaranteed, 
and we leave you to be the judge, lr 
you’re not satisfied, money back. Every 
farmer siiould have our booklet. W rite 
to-day and ask for catalogue F. 
TIIE KINO HARNESS CO., 
6 Lake St., Owcgo, Tioga Co., N. Y. 
CUT ICE 
MADE 
IN 
THREE 
SIZES. 
With the borsch Double Row 
Ice Plow We guarantee it will 
cut more than 20 men sawing by 
hand. Cakes are cutunfiorm, 
of any size and thickness. One _ 
man and a horse will ent more ice In 
a day than the ordinary farmer and dairy 
man can use. Toucan cut for others and 
make the price of our plow in two days use. 
Ask for catalogue and Introductory prices. 
JOHN DORSCH & SONS 226 WELLS ST.. MILWAUKEE, WIS 
When a man telephones from New York to Chicago, 900 
miles, he pays $5.00 for a three-minute conversation. For that 
sort of service only the very best apparatus and equipment will 
do —telephones that work. It is, therefore, a pretty strong argument for 
Western Electric Quality when you learn that every telephone message from 
New York to Chicago, goes over 
Western Electric Equipment 
Whether you want to telephone 900 feet or 900 miles, if you have a 
telephone at all, you want a telephone that will work. A reliable telephone is 
of inestimable value—a poor telephone is worse than none. 
We make a specialty of rural telephone equipment, furnishing specially 
designed apparatus of the same high quality standard as that used by 
the largest operating companies., of the world. 
Write To-day for Our Booklet48 “Rural Telephone Equipments,” Sent Free 
EASTERN 
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CENTRAL 
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Northern Electric and Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Montreal and Winnipeg 
Write our nearest house 
Manufacturers and Suppliers of all 
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