100S. 
THE RURAL 
NKW-YORI-CRR 
-art 7 
Hope Farm Notes 
THE HOPE FARM MAN’S STORY. 
Part IV. 
I did one thing while on that paper 
that I shall always he ashamed of, yet 
it was a good lesson. Two men came 
along selling “cactus hedge.” They 
claimed to have a patent on some new 
process of cutting and planting the 
prickly pear or cactus so it would grow 
up into a fence. They had pictures 
showing a fence that would turn an 
army of elephants. They brought about 
100 plants from Texas and planted them 
in light, warm soil, where, of course, 
they grew. They went about selling 
“farm rights” to use their patent system 
of planting cactus. They offered to ad¬ 
vertise with us if we would give them 
a “write-up.” I went out and saw a 
negro hoeing the cactus, and my imag¬ 
ination did the rest. I had a cactus 
hedge around every plantation in the 
Gulf States, and millions in prospect 
from the sale of cuttings. The story of 
the Seedless apple was nothing to the 
fairy talc I wove over that colored man 
hoeing cactus. I. am afraid those ras¬ 
cals sold many farm rights on the 
strength of my story. Winter ended 
the cactus before it could become a nui¬ 
sance, and the promoters got away with 
their money and even left part of their 
advertising hill unpaid! To-day, when¬ 
ever I sec a fraud working that old 
moss-eaten game I feel the thorns of 
that cactus hedge pricking me. The 
Scheme is always the same—a little of 
the real thing to make a showing and 
a barrel of wind for every real cactus 
thorn. There is no meaner trick on 
earth than for a newspaper man to help 
such rogues lleccc their victims. At 
another time I felt that a poor man had 
been unjustly treated, and 1 denounced 
the game in hot language. I am afraid 
I threw words around regardless of the 
facts, but every one smoked with honest 
indignation. There was a great rumpus, 
The owners of the paper were fright¬ 
ened and wanted to retract, but I kept 
pouring out words, and the Colonel, being 
a fighting man, set them up and they 
were printed. The very audacity of it 
finally aroused public sentiment and no¬ 
body was hurt. I know that people who 
are worth anything appreciate straight 
talk. The/ might be Quakers, yet still 
they would back up the man who has 
blood enough in him. to work up an 
honest wrath at injustice. 
At another time I umpired an impor¬ 
tant baseball game, gained the title of 
“judge” and a great reputation for 
bravery. The crowd came on the field 
so as to get in the way of players, and 
I took a baseball bat and chased them 
back. One man with his back to me 
didn’t move quite fast enough, so I took 
him by the collar and ran him out. I 
never knew until the next day that he 
had a big knife in his hand, and was 
muttering threats to carve people— 
which I did not hear. 1 lad T seen his 
knife I wouldn’t have gone within a rod 
of him. As it was I gained a reputa¬ 
tion for bravery that has made me feel 
like a faker every time I think of it. 
Kvery man of my age ought to know 
that nine-tenths of the dangers of life 
arc imaginary. I have no particular 
praise for the man who faces danger as 
a matter of course without knowing 
what timidity is, hut I take off my hat 
to the man who is naturally timid and 
goes past half a dozen stuffed lions be¬ 
fore lie gets to the real danger. 
One thing I did learn’way down to the 
core—the folly of that sort of jour¬ 
nalism which is based upon handing out 
taffy. People would come and ask us 
to give them “a few kind words,” and 
we would forthwith proceed to mention 
‘the beautiful and accomplished Miss 
Smith” or “our honored and highly re¬ 
spected townsman.” I found that the 
more you handed it out the less they 
thought of you and the more they ex¬ 
pected. When your supply of adjectives 
ran out you were a back number. No 1 
No! Phis “taffy” and all those bou¬ 
quets of “kind words” simply soften the 
soul. 1 would not praise a man unless he 
did something so worthy that lie com¬ 
pelled praise. At last I managed to 
earn the price of a ticket North and 
came back with a load of experience, a 
fair knowledge of southern farming, a 
lot of respect and patience for the 
southern people and 1 heir hard problems 
and the promise of a southern girl— 
whom I now speak about as “Mother.” 
As she declines to enter this story we 
shall have to leave her out. While I 
a7* S i .Aching and milking through the 
Michigan College she went through a 
normal college on the slender stipend 
of the Peabody fund. 
1 did not stay in Mississippi, because 
there did not seem to he opportunity 
there. Several good herds of Jersey 
cattle had been started near where I 
was, hut only a few long-headed men 
saw the dairy possibilities of the South. 
Alfalfa has now come in and the cane- 
brakes or low places give good pasture. 
A great business is being done in sell¬ 
ing grade Jersey cattle. Had l stayed 
there and bought cheap land I might 
have grown rich with the development. 
As 1 look hack now I find that in every 
place where 1 have ever lived or worked 
some one has, during the past 25 years, 
grown prosperous. Knowledge * has 
brought in opportunity from the out¬ 
side, and those who arc able to master 
it and reason it out have succeeded. The 
place for nine out of to farm hoys is 
right at home if they can muster up the 
courage and nerve to stay there and de¬ 
velop a new thing on the old place. 
You may roll all the unhappy feelings 
of life into one (leaving out the mem¬ 
ory of crime) and you will have a fair 
idea of how it feels to realize that you 
are something of a failure. You can 
often put on a good face and tell what 
you arc going to do, but at heart you 
feel that something is wrong. I began 
to be haunted with the belief that my 
college course had been lost time. One 
of my old teachers advised me to go to 
work in an iron foundry and learn the 
trade. The mechanical departments 
were being started at college, and he 
reasoned that there would he great op¬ 
portunities for teaching. I knew that 
I had just about as much mechanical 
ability as a cat, and 1 had suffered 
somewhat myself from the ministration 
of untrained teachers. My ambition was 
to own a farm and a home. I took the 
first job that offered and stuck to it. 
After a time the home was started 
and the farm became more than a 
dream. Our plan was to save until we 
could buy a good farm—that is, one 
with good soil, level, well located and 
with an assured income from the start. 
I am still convinced that such a farm 
is the most economical one to buy if you 
can raise capital enough to float it. Hut 
all things seem possible for the man 
with capital—the poor fellow without 
money must take his chances. Our 
plans exploded like a cannon about two 
years before we were ready. All of a 
sudden, and with little warning, events 
for which we were not responsible 
changed all our plans. We felt under 
moral obligations to provide home and 
labor for live people. 1 have no doubt 
these tragic problems force themselves 
into many homes. In some cases I fear 
they are met with clubs and broadaxes. 
As for me, I felt that here was where I 
stayed on the main road or went off to 
join the “moral dead men” of whom I 
spoke last week. 
We left our comfortable home and 
went hunting for a farm, for the coun¬ 
try was the only place where our prob¬ 
lem could be worked out. It was late 
in the season, and farms were mostly 
taken, but at last we found a light, 
sandy tract of some 25 acres with an 
old-fashioned stone house and a poor 
barn. We rented it for three years, and 
started in. T remember laughing with 
my face and groaning at heart as I 
looked over that poor weedy place, and 
remembered our plans for buying a 
good farm. There was little money to 
spend, and some of that was not spent 
wisely. When it came to buying horses 
we went to New York and bought a big 
sorrel from the West. I think that even 
those jockeys thought he was wrong 
and we got him for $H<). A week after 
we bought him we found him down 
with rheumatism, unable to get up. It 
looked like a dead loss, but we doctored 
him, and after a few days turned him 
to pasture. First we knew he limbered 
up and kicked like a colt, and from that 
time till his death Frank ranked among 
the most faithful members of the fam¬ 
ily. As a mate to him we bought 
Major—an old ex-car horse with split 
hoofs and one big foot, but game and 
faithful to the core of liis heart. The 
risk in buying these old plugs is too 
great. I wotdd advise a man to buy 
good horses if he can give them good 
care. They will gain in value like other 
property. 
We wanted a name for the farm, and 
there was quite a discussion over it. I 
knew that with that poor and weedy 
soil, our limited capital and lack of 
skilled labor, a strong anchor of 
Hope was a necessity. That word rep¬ 
resented what our folks needed. It had 
kept my feet up all along the hard jour¬ 
ney and that was the name for the farm. 
And so we started on our little rented 
place. We began with small fruits, 
sweet corn, potatoes and hens. The 
soil was so poor that heavy fertilizing 
was needed, hut we used cow peas and 
Crimson clover and got results at once 
in that light soil. We bought a large 
outfit of hens in New York and fed 
them carefully through the Winter. Had 
we quit by April L we would have been 
$75 behind. At is was, when we sold 
them in July they were about $10 ahead. 
The second year I bought a full set of 
potato machinery and put in about 10 
acres. There was a good crop and it 
paid a profit. Hut this farming rented 
land is never satisfactory. It was not 
the home we were looking for. 
One day Mother drove old Major off 
to an auction held at a farm some two 
miles back among the hills. She had 
never been in that section before—it 
was like a neglected backyard for the 
little towns strung along the railroad. 
Mother saw the place first in apple 
bloom time and she had not seen before 
a more beautiful or peaceful place. 'Flic 
sweep of the hill, the little brook glis¬ 
tening down the slope, the great burst 
of bloom on the trees near the barn, and 
the old-fashioned stone house were all 
so much like what we had had in mind 
that she came home and said: “I have 
found it—the place we want for our 
home!” 
When T went to look it over every 
business instinct told me that it was not 
a farm, hut a piled-up collection of 
scenery. There were H7 acres all told, 
in three separate parcels, two of them 
without entrance from the public road. 
These tracts Were long and narrow— 
two fields wide, the larger one climbing 
up and over a steep hill—so steep that 
that a team is forced to zigzag across 
the face of it to get to the top. About 
half way up the hill is a spring with a 
little stream running from it through a 
wet valley. Here and there on the hills 
and also near the house the rock ledge 
cropped out and I found that on most 
of the cleared land there were barely 
two feet of soil above the solid rock. 
The surface was covered with large 
bowlders and cobblestones in spite of 
the fact that nearly three miles of stone 
wall had been built along the lines and 
across the fields. T do not think a fur¬ 
row had been turned on the farm for 
some years, except possibly a small gar¬ 
den. 'Flic lower land was fairly well 
seeded in grass, hut the hills were cov¬ 
ered with weeds. There were two short 
fences and a fringe of broken rails 
hanging in the old stone walls. 
H. W. C. 
CUTAWAY TOOLS FOR LARGE HAY CROPS 
Cla 
rk’s Reversible 
Bush & Bog Plow 
Cuts n truck 5 Ft. wide. 
I ft. deep.. Will plow 
i* now out forest,. liis 
double action Cutaway 
lllirrow keeps Itmd true, 
moves 1800 tons of earth, 
cuts :t0 aoros por day. 
His Rev. Disk Plow cuts a 
furrow 5 to 10 in. deep, It 
in. wide. All Clark’s ma¬ 
chines will kill witch-grass, 
wild mustard, charlock, 
hardback, sunflower, milk¬ 
weed, thlstlo or any foul 
plant. 
A WONDERFUL INVENTION 
CLARK'S DOUBLE ACTION COM¬ 
BINED CULTIVATOR & HARROW. 
Can ho used to culti¬ 
vate rowed crops, as 
a listing harrow, also 
when closed together 
is a harrow cutting 4*a 
feet wide. 
CUTAWAY HARROW CO., 
39 Main St., Hlgganum.Conn. 
RnrtK CSJC’C' Write atoncoforourmoney-1 
D VJ x\ ■ IlCiEi Hiivlnu plan on buying the! 
latest styles of Orn.mon- 
tal Fonoo at the lowest 
prices, saving all middle¬ 
men's profit. Write—, 
Anchor Fence & Mlg. Co, 
Stn. O, Clove*land, O. 
DON’T RUST FARM FENCE 
Bold dlreot to farmers at man- 
ufaoturoni* prlooa. Catalogue 
free. Krolght prepaid. 
THE WARD FENCE CO. 
Box 885 Dooatur, Ind. 
HAY JUMPING 
will soon be a thing of the past. 
Hay Haling made rapid and easy by 
SPENCER’S HERCULES LARGE BALE PRESS. 
Guaranteed capacity four tons an hour or no sale. 
No Jumping. Kvery farmer who furnishes Tabling 
and Board should talk tills Press, because liodoes 
not have to pitch hay as high as the Upright. 
Again, the Upright cannot take food while press¬ 
ing and tying. Wo can; hence men on the mow, 
not having to wait, are nmro ofllciont. Greater 
speed moans less board. Por Catalog address 
J. A. SPHNCHH, - Dwight, Ills. 
BinderTwine 
lb. Sample free, 
Parmer ng'ts wanted. 
Theo.Burt A. Sons.Mulraso.O 
WHITMAN’S BALING PRESSES 
The standards of the world for 35 years. Victorious in every contest. Miulo in 31 stylos 
and sizes, for horse, sieam or other power. Most rapid and durable machines made. Pully guaran¬ 
teed. tur Complete Illustrated descriptive Catalogues sent on rcQuest * 
Address: The Whitman Agricultural Company, Saint Louis, Mo., U. S. A. 
Wseb 
Maggy 
mum 
Every Moline Is 
Sold on a 
SIGNED 
Guarantee 
THE NEW 
This makes tho buyer (lonbly safe 
in his purchase. wo don’t consider 
our obligation ondod ns soon as tho salo 
is made. Wo stand back of every Oak 
and Hickory Iron Clad Moline Wagon 
witli a signed gimrn.iitee that insures they will 
uako good every claim wo make for thorn. In ad¬ 
dition every Moline dealer stands liaok of 
every Moline Wagon ho soils. Ho signs this 
Guarantee to you which is made out porHou- 
ally to the buyer, in triplicate form. You 
got tho original, the dealer keeps a dupli¬ 
cate and tho third copy is sent to us. 
This Guarantee covers every point of 
construction, material, workmanship, 
etc., in such a manner that tho buyer 
takes no risk whatever of making an 
unsatisfactory purchase. It is one 
of the best evidences that It pays 
to put your money Into 
MOLINE 
Oak and 
Hickory 
Iron Glad 
You not only avoid wanting money on an inferior wagon but you insure iret- 
tiiiK a WHKon which will fflve you mo much hotter Horvioo and one that will 
last, so many years lonfft»r. Tho Now Moline in made mo well that it 1m prac¬ 
tically IndoMtructiblo under reasonable use. An ordinary wagon iroos down 
in 3 to 5 yoarM. Many Mollnes are in umo today that wore houirnt 30 and 40 
years ftffo. Thun you mo© the economy of buying Moline. We’ve boon mak- 
JnK them for 53 yoarM and over Mince wo Mtartod nothing but tho bent alr- 
MciLMonod Oak and Hickory timber has been used. Affair* we “hot-set” 
all our tires insurinff Ionic life to our wheels. Kvery place whereIwoar 
and strain eomes we protect it with iron—that’s why farmers oali 
them the Iron Clad Moline. Write forour book toulnff, “How 
We Make the New Moline.” Ask your dealer to show the waffon. ~ 
_MOLINE WAGON CO., Moline, III. 
HandMomo Watch Fob Free for thin and our 5 other udn spelling 
tho word “Moline.” Send 10 contH to cover jwickiiiK and pohCuko. 
