1908. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
310 
Hope Farm Notes 
The Tramp. —One day in January a 
young man came to Hope Farm. He 
had very little besides his clothes and 
a very plausible story. I was not at 
home, but he struck a tender audience 
in Mother and the children. Somehow 
I confess that this story of the Prodigal 
Son has two or even three sides to me. 
At any rate, this young man told of 
living with his father on a farm in Co¬ 
lumbia Co., N. Y. He thought he knew 
more than his father did, and the farm 
looked a little dull to him, so he took 
his savings and started out to seek his 
fortune and a good time. As usual, he 
missed both. He had lost his money, 
was two-thirds sick, and could get no 
job except ditching or digging on the 
road. 
“1 will arise and go to my father!” 
That is the great cry of the down and 
out when they have a father who is 
glad to see and to shelter them. I ob¬ 
serve that this call does not come to 
those who find some soft job, but is 
more likely to be heard when a fellow 
is in a ditch on a cold day with wet 
feet, an empty stomach and a sore back. 
At any rate, this man had evidently had 
enough. His story was that he had no 
money, and wanted the price of a ticket 
to get him back home. He told such a 
good story and stuck to it so well that 
Mother was impressed. She offered him 
food, but he said he was too sick to 
eat. The children had a long talk with 
him, and when he finished he had them 
thinking more of home than they ever 
did before. I suppose every boy at 
some time thinks he would improve his 
condition by going away. You could 
not have driven our boys away with a 
stick after listening to that young man’s 
tale. The result was that Mother and 
the children made up the $4.20 this man 
asked for. The children went into their 
little savings and thought they were 
making a sure investment in practical 
benevolence. The young man went off 
with many thanks and many promises to 
return the money as soon as he got 
home. We have never heard from him 
again 1 Fie may have been a faker—if 
so, he was a master at it. He may have 
been taken sick before he got home— 
perhaps father was not inclined to play 
the part so well taken by the farmer in 
the Scriptures. His reception may have 
been bulldog rather than fatted calf. 
I hope not, because just such a situation 
as this often gives a father the chance 
to get hold of his boy right. I am sorry 
this young man defaulted on his promise 
to the children. If he could not pay he 
should have told them so at least. The 
children worked for their money. It 
was a real sacrifice for them to give 
it up. I do not like to see them lose 
faith in human nature or human prom¬ 
ise. They will get so much of that later 
on that I wish they could believe in 
people as long as possible. Had I been 
at home I should have probably given 
him a ticket to the place he named or 
offered him work to earn the price. It 
is a hard thing to know what to do with 
these plausible tramps. Years ago I 
tramped many a mile without home or 
friends or money. I know some things 
about the “business” which most people 
do not seem to realize. After a few 
days of tramping the loneliness and 
worry and lack of sympathy will so af¬ 
fect a nervous disposition that you can¬ 
not do yourself justice at work or in 
any way. The feeling that most hands 
are against you makes the heart very 
bitter. In my experience I found all 
sorts of people. Some drove us away. 
I he majority were full of suspicion, but 
there were always those who were ready 
to give what they could of real help. 
I hose who had most troubles of their 
own were usually most full of sympathy. 
I have learned that trouble rather than 
prosperity is what links society together. 
I here is no particular chance for the 
old, hardened tramp, but I would go far 
to set a young fellow on the right road 
if I could. 
The Cripple. —Stung by pain and tor¬ 
tured by fever one of the best of the 
Hope Farmers lies on his bed of straw 
™ a broken leg. It is Shep, the faith- 
nil old shepherd dog. We cannot learn 
how he was hurt. The smaller boy was 
beating the rugs in front of the house 
when he heard a crying down near the 
brook. Fie ran to see what it was, and 
there lay old Shep with his hind leg 
broken in two places. He may have 
been attacked by other dogs, perhaps a 
stone fell on him as he climbed over a 
wall—we shall probably never know. 
'We got. him to the house and held a 
council. Usually when an animal is 
badly hurt the instant verdict is to kill 
him. No one at Hope Farm could kill 
old Shep—it would be like killing one of 
the humans. It was decided to save him 
if possible. So Jack took him to the 
doctors and now the leg has been set 
and tied up in splints. The old dog 
barely whined. He knew we were try¬ 
ing to save him and we will get him 
through without lameness if we can. 
Some of the older readers will smile at 
this and say: “Can this be the man 
who, a few years ago, said he had no 
use whatever for a dog?” Yes, it is the 
same body, but I trust with a little dif¬ 
ferent spirit in it. I have come to know 
old Shep in my lonely tramps with him 
over the hills on Sunday afternoons. 
Only two weeks ago we were walking 
up the hill together, when Shep stopped, 
looked at me a moment as if he wanted 
to explain and then ran back to the 
house. The children had called him for 
his dinner, and I did not hear them. 
I went on sadly, thinking how the call 
for the material things of life so often 
proves stronger than ties of friendship 
and affection. I was at my old place 
on the stone wall when suddenly there 
came a brush of soft hair at my side, 
and there was old Shep, trying to ex¬ 
plain and tell how hungry he was and 
how the cats would have had his din¬ 
ner if he had not gone back for it. 
There never was any of this fawning 
folly about Shep. His brand is pure 
affection. No man, especially one of 
middle age, has any business to reject 
love and affection even from a dog. 
He will have need of all he can get. 
Farm Work. —We have been spraying 
steadily whenever the wind permits. 
I like a certain amount of wind, for 
under high pressure and with a good 
nozzle we can send out a very line mist, 
and a breeze sifts this all through the 
trees. We use about 90 pounds pressure 
and the “Friend” nozzle. On our smaller 
trees this nozzle does far better work 
than a combination of several Vermorel 
nozzles. It is the best thing we have 
tried. Spraying with the oils is a sim¬ 
ple operation with us. I have a mark 
on the sprayer to indicate the amount 
of water needed. We fill by attaching 
a hose to a faucet below the tank at the 
pump. When the mark is reached we 
pour the proper quantity of oil into a 
tub and add about as much water to 
mix it. Then this strong mixture is 
poured slowly into the tank, the agitator 
working while it is going in. It is then 
ready to spray out. We use a gas 
sprayer—a steel tank which we have 
mounted on a low-down truck. The 
power is supplied from liquid carbonic 
acid gas, which we buy in steel tubes or 
“drums.” With this outfit spraying is 
an easy job. We attach a tube between 
the tank and the “drum” of gas, let in 
enough gas to indicate a pressure of 90 
pounds, and let the spray blow out. We 
use two lines of hose and spray one side 
of each row at a time, the team walking 
down the middle. The only objection to 
our sprayer is that the tank is too small 
and requires frequent filling. We find 
an advantage in our mulched orchards 
this Spring. We can drive into them 
without great trouble, while on the 
plowed or bare ground the horses mire 
and tear the surface up. We plan to 
give every tree a good soaking. I know 
from experience that when we leave a 
few yards of wood unsprayed the whole 
tree will be peopled with scale before 
Fall. We are now far ahead of our 
work in spraying compared with last 
year. ... I do not see how un¬ 
mulched strawberries can stand the lift 
and settle of this March weather. I 
have a few left uncovered, and the roots 
are exposed. It now looks as if the 
Crimson clover would get through. I 
notice that the Cow-horn turnips have 
helped the clover. They have decayed and 
flattened out like a mulch. That clover 
means much to us. As for the vetch 
which was seeded in the rye, I can find 
every little of it. The experts tell me to 
wait and see it come later. I am wait¬ 
ing. ... I hope to use young onion 
plants this year from two points at the 
South. Charlie has sown Prizetaker 
seed in Florida, and if the plants live 
he will ship them up here early in May 
for transplanting. Then I shall try some 
from North Carolina—that were sown 
outdoors last Fall and are now about 
as large as a lead pencil. I think, al¬ 
though it must yet be demonstrated, that 
these southern-grown plants will beat 
those started in our hotbeds. We shall 
see. h. w. c. 
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