190S. 
937 
Hope Farm Notes 
1'ilial Duty. —Without counting them 
I presume I have had 50 letters much 
like the following: 
Would you please inform me whether a 
son is bound to support his father, as he is 
old and unable to work? My son is amply 
able to support me, as he is in a good posi¬ 
tion. I am a delicate man, and not able 
to do any hard work. h. J. 
I do not know of any sadder family 
skeleton to pull out of the closet than 
this one. I do not believe human law can 
compel a son to care for his father. 
In fact I know of several cases where 
sons and daughters in fair circum¬ 
stances have permitted their parents to 
live and die in the poorhouse. While 
the law may not touch them the Lord 
surely will. I do not know anything 
about this particular case, but I do 
know that one of the greatest tests of 
character is the way men and women 
care for their parents. If they could 
only realize it, for the man or woman 
of 50 to have father and mother still 
with them is one of the greatest privi¬ 
leges of a lifetime. I have seen such 
old people sent about from one child 
to another, each shirking a responsi¬ 
bility which should have been a holy 
duty. The saddest part of it all is that 
when too late the old folks realize that 
they made a mistake in training their 
chi.dren. These children were not 
taught to respect their parents, nor 
were they held firmly to their place as 
they should have been. In some cases 
the parents have made over their little 
property to the children—the most un¬ 
wise thing they could possibly do. Of 
course there is another side to it. The 
children marry and have homos of their 
own, and sometimes they feel that there 
will be discord if the old folks come into 
this. home. It ought not to be so, but 
I have seen many cases where it hap¬ 
pened. As I have said, it is a case for 
the Lord rather than the law. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
boring farmers wonder why their boys leave 
the home farm. Will they never see? Let 
them read this and they can't possibly miss 
the answer to the unseen cause which 
causes the (question. “IIow can we keep the 
boys on the farm?” to be so often asked. 
This, may be a bold letter from a good 
friend of The It. N.-Y.. but it is undoubtedly 
the answer 1o a majority of the cases of a 
boy leaving the farm. c. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
Trade for a Farm. —The following 
proposition is so novel that I print it 
here. , 
I want one of our York State farms be¬ 
cause they look cheap to me and good; be¬ 
cause I love the life, and because I am 
sick and tired of working in four walls 
for the other follow for enough just to keep 
out of debt and no more, but I have no 
money. I have, however, a library of about 
eight hundred volumes in very good condi¬ 
tion and a piano player with library of rolls 
of a hundred and twenty-five or thirty; all 
this cost me $3,00r> in better days.' My 
wife is farm born and raised; we are both 
active, healthy and young (about 30), but 
have no children. Now, do you think it 
possible to trade above property for a farm 
or for equity in a farm, or could it be 
made to serve the pui-pose of credit or se¬ 
curity toward securing a farm? c. w. e. 
The idea of changing books and music 
for a farm never occurred to me be¬ 
fore. Our folks seem able to crack 
about any hard nut, but this one has a 
tough shell. There may be some one 
with several farms and a good-sized 
family who might be interested. The 
books and the music would relieve the 
burden of Winter. One trouble about 
securing capital is the fact that millions 
of dollars worth of property will not 
be accepted as security when we need a 
loan. This man must realize that if he 
goes to a farm he will not have much 
time to sit under a tree and hear the 
birds sing except on Sunday afternoon. 
If his wife was raised on a farm—she 
knows. 
Sot 
I he Farm Boy.— Everywhere I go 
the old question of why the boy leaves 
the farm comes up. All sorts of people 
rush out to answer it. No doubt you 
have noticed, as I have, that most of 
these people are grown up; you rarely 
if ever hear the boy’s side. It seems to 
me the boy knows more about it than 
anyone else. At least he ought to. So 
I have arranged with a Pennsylvania 
boy of 16 to tell us just what he thinks. 
I think this Country Life Commission 
will fall short of the mark if it contin¬ 
ues to listen to town people, successful 
farmers and college professors. Such 
people cannot properly tell the story of 
those who live back among the hills, and 
who most need the uplift.’ In the same 
way grown-up people cannot well speak 
for the boy. Let’s hear his story. What 
do you think of it? 
llie problem of keeping tbe boy on the 
farm grows greater every day, especially 
- educated boy. The boy who has at¬ 
tended a good school, and who may be sup¬ 
posed to have a good education, is the bar¬ 
est to keep at home. The lot of many of 
those boys is a hard one. At home lie is 
usually satisfied when he has some, interest 
in the farm. That is, when lie receives 
some profit from his labor. When he has a 
good home, good friends and a constant 
companion to share iiis joys and sorrows, 
plenty of reading matter, if he happens to 
be interested in he outside world, I doubt 
that any boy would get the idea of leaving 
llie farm. But, of course, he must have 
profit. Why not? Doesn't his father ex® 
pect profits from his farm? So does the 
boy. He expects profit from his labor. In 
the majority of cases the labor is the only 
pai t of the farm the boy has. Some one 
might say: “Then the farm boy is a la¬ 
borer.’ But we must say “no.” Why not - '' 
Because all the profit of the bov’s work goes 
into the pocket of his father, in the eves of 
las neighbors this man may not seem stlngv, 
but what are the boy’s thoughts, if tlie 
neighboring farmers are of the same nature? 
Don t you think the boys on the adjoining 
farms are of the same nature as this one 
boy? Why not? The boys do not get any 
profits for their work, save their board anil 
clothing. Suppose all those bovs are well 
educated. Suppose they get the best farm 
papers to read. Those boys may know of 
or learn through the papers of conditions 
better than their own existing in another 
part of the State or country. They may 
know of a place where farm labor is needed 
Or they may learn that there is a chance 
for them in a nearby city or town. Don’t 
you all think they would take the first oppor¬ 
tunity that presents itself and take advan¬ 
tage of it? Wouldn’t the educated farmer 
take advantage of every raise in the selling 
price of his products? Why of course, un¬ 
less he was-in unusually poor condition (or 
had no products lie could sell). Well, it is 
the same with the boy. Under favorable 
conditions he will stay at home. It is just 
the reverse of the farmer’s poor condition 
The boy might think awhile over the allur¬ 
ing advertisement and then say quietlv to 
himself, “Here I have a good liome, a kind 
mother, plenty of friends, good clothes, and 
an income of so much per month ($2 
wouldn’t be too much), and everything I 
could wish for; I know all my friends are 
true and my condition of the best; I guess 
I’ll be better oft at home, so I’ll stav.” 
The other boy would say the reverse and 
go, and no one knows what becomes of him. 
It then all depends upon what his new con¬ 
dition is. And yet his parents and ueigh- 
Farm and Home.-— Wc are obliged to 
pay $1.60 per 100 pounds for corn. In 
small lots it is even higher. Oats are 
$1.35 at present, with bran $1.40. Even 
with this awful price some of the corn 
we get is very poor. We do not feed 
our own corn, as that is sold for seed, 
and of course at these prices we change 
the grinding mixture and feed more 
oats. While the dry stalks are being 
fed oil meal is one of the best feeds 
to use—especially to horses. We have 
not fed cornmeal to the cows for years. 
Their roughage is mostly dry stalks, and 
a mixture of bran and oil meal is much 
better. All the stock have cabbage 
every day. The soft heads make good 
feeding, and cabbage would pay us to 
feed to the stock alone. I cannot under¬ 
stand how corn can be so high while 
reports all indicate that the western 
crop is larger than last year. Surely 
there is nothing in sight to indicate low 
prices for corn during the next 10 years. 
All this adds to the chances of success 
for a man who takes a cheap farm. 
He can plow up old pasture land, fertil¬ 
ize it well, plant one of the flint varie¬ 
ties and start at once with paying crops. 
Thus far we have been able to grow 
this flint year after year on the same 
ground by sowing clover and turnips at 
the last cultivation and plowing what is 
left under in Spring. In fact the awful 
prices for western corn may prove a 
good thing in the end by driving us to 
more and better corn culture. 
It is pretty late to plant apple trees at 
Thanksgiving time, but we have done it 
this year. Four years ago we planted 
a small orchard on one of the lower 
fields. The soil proved too wet, and 
while these trees made a fair growth, 
no apple tree with wet feet can prove a 
credit to you. So this year we had 
dug them out and transferred them to 
the hill. The plan was to dig out a 
large ball of dirt around the roots, but 
in practice this did not work, as the 
soil fell off. They were cut back 
severely on top and planted about an 
inch deeper than they stood in the lower 
field. The soil was well packed around 
them and mulch will "be put on top to 
keep the soil from freezing early. . . 
Our people are always interested in 
counting the days which must pass be¬ 
fore we come to the shortest day in 
the year. When we pass that we can 
begin to count to the end of Winter. 
There are still 100 days of cold and 
darkness ahead but we find it a satis¬ 
faction to feel that each day is a little 
longer than the one before it. Still, 
the Flope Farmers do not find the Win¬ 
ter dreary. With our big family, each 
having a share in the home and each one 
certain work to do, we spend little time 
in grief or envy. There are books and 
games and music and, what is better, 
good feeling. I often wonder when 
night comes and the lights shine out of 
the homes around us, what our friends 
all over the country are doing as dark¬ 
ness draws on. I hope contentment 
and faith can sit with them. h. w. c. 
SEl 
What to Give a Boy 
Think how much healthful fun a 
boy on the farm can have with a good 
gun. No wonder the gift a boy will 
prize most is a 
It’s a gift that will give pleasure 
for years. And it’s useful. A boy 
With a Stevens Rifle will soon rid the 
farm of all rats and hawks andsimilar 
thieving pests. And he’ll bag rabbits 
for the family table. 
Every boy should know how to 
shoot. It’s only the boy who doesn’t 
know how to handle a gun, who meets 
with accidents. 
Stevens Firearms are straight-and-true to 
the aim, hard-hitting, far-carrying. More 
marksmanship records have been made 
with Stevens Rifles than with any other. 
Sknd for the Stevens Catalogue. See for yourself 
the superiority of all Stevens firearms—Rifles, Sliot- 
guns, I istols. It will help you to choose the right 
style of gun. 5c. for postage brings it. 
Your boy will also like Dan Beard’s book, “Guns 
and Gunning. He’ll learn about hunting, shooting 
amping, etc. Sent postpaid, 20c. paper, or 30c. cloth 
;over—stamped in gilt. 
If you cannot obtain the Stevens from your dealer, 
jve will ship direct, express prepaid, on receipt of cata. 
logue price. 
J. STEVENS ARMS & TOOL CO. 
2C03rove Street 
Chicopee Falls, Mass. 
The double layer of glass 
- does it - . : 
Lets in the light always. 
Never has to be covered or un¬ 
covered; no boards or mats 
needed. 
Retains the heat, excludes the cold. 
Makes stronger and earlier plants. 
Glass slips in ; no putty; cannot 
work loose; easily repaired. 
Ask for catalog O - It tells all 
about Sunlight sash. 
Spe cial catalog for greenhouse material. 
SAW WOOD 
with one of these this winter' 
none BETTER made 
H ?r2, W ,T’n Frames, Strongly Bolted together; Steel Man¬ 
drels, 1 ulleys and Balance Wheels turned and balanced. 
No. 1 with Saw, 319 No. 2 with Saw. 323 
Mississippi River. Ask for big handsome cat¬ 
alog of Saw Mills, Shmgleand Lath Mills, Drag Saws, Edgers, Planers, Etc. — 
American Saw Mill Machinery Cc., 1 29 Hope St., Hackettstowri, N.J. i-oie s« hN ,. 
One Gallon of Water Per Horse Power 
Is all that is required to properly cool m 
The Abesiacpue 
Gas or Gasoline Engine 
Note those Cooling Tanks. Write for catalog O. 
ABENAQUE MACHINE WORKS. Westminster Station, Vermont 
The 
One man with a Louden Litter Carrier 
on Louden overhead steel track system can 
clean the barns in half the time that two men 
would take without it. That’s Louden econ¬ 
omy. On every up-to-date farm — your farm 
—the Louden Litter Carrier and steel track 
system will earn its cost many times a year. 
Track can be bracketed to barn wall—out ono door 
—in at other, and in this way no switch is needed. 
Manure loaded direct on wagon or spreador— its 
lull fertilizing value thus saved. 
Louden Litter Carriers 
aro made of heavy galvanized steel—wear for years- 
have improved worm gear— i oound on chain lifts 40 
pounds in box; box stands at any elevation — raised 
or lowered any distance up to 25 foot; have many 
special advantages not found in other makes, 
bend today for valuable Iroo book on manure uses. 
^ Ctt t.alog of hay and litter carriers, sanitary steel 
stalls, cow stanchions, etc., for modern barns. 
Louden Machinery Co., 
601 Broadway. Fairlieid, Iowa 
