38 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 14, 
Hope Farm Notes 
Both Ends. —New Year’s came to us 
in New Jersey with something like a 
wet blanket. There was a heavy rain, 
followed by one of the mean mists . 
which fill the air with moisture. You 
can have no use for such a day ex¬ 
cept that you can look at your coat and 
see just how the spray should be put 
on the trees! Our country needed the 
rain, yet it will not help the wells much. 
Now the strawberries must be covered. 
Our great hill plants have not been 
hurt. During this warm spell they be¬ 
gan to put out new leaves. Our stock 
has been cut down for the Winter, but 
what we have left looks well from the 
cats to the horses. You remember that 
we began feeding the corn fodder early. 
It is still being fed—the horses have 
no other roughage. The grain is mostly 
bran with the nubbins on the stalks. 
. . . Several people have asked about 
our fireless cooker. It has given good 
satisfaction. It works on the principle 
of confined heat. There are two pieces 
of metal much like a stove cover or lid. 
These are heated on the stove, or over 
a lamp. One is put at the bottom of 
the cooker and the food to be cooked is 
put in a dish over this hot metal. The 
other hot piece is put above the dish 
and then the whole thing is shut up into 
a sort of cabinet. Unable to escape the 
heat goes to work and cooks the food in 
the dish. We can boil meat, cook a 
stew or pudding, make biscuits or do 
any form of baking. The thing is quite 
satisfactory and certainly show« how 
much of the heat must be wasted in 
the average stove. ... As New 
Year’s night came on I built a fire in 
the big fireplace and sat beside it alone 
trying to imagine the room filled with 
the noisy crowd of red heads and yellow 
heads who were at that time running 
about in the Florida sand. For while 
we were in that raw mist and waiting 
for the promised “cold wave” to come, 
our folks in the South were having 
June weather. The air is mild and 
balmy, and they are actually consider¬ 
ing the plan of going in bathing in the 
large lake! With me before my lonely 
fire, the house seemed peopled with the 
six or more generations who have lived 
on our farm. Those little folks in the 
South are not considering the past of 
Hope Farm. That does not concern 
them yet, and I am rather glad of it. 
They are thinking of the blue sky, the 
red sunset clouds, the green hills‘and 
the fruit slowly ripening on the trees 
which they will surely find here in June. 
For in spite of the balm and rest in the 
Florida air they are all looking ahead 
to the hills of Hope Farm when the time 
comes to move back. I have a few 
problems on hand which may well make 
me thoughtful, but the little folks are 
more interested in voting about the new 
dog. Shall it be a big one or a little 
one? That’s an important matter for 
the children to decide. 1 am afraid that 
if 1 got all the different dogs the chil¬ 
dren want, 1 should have such evidence 
of poverty running and barking about 
that no one would extend us credit. 
But I do mean that this houseful of 
little folks shall have a good childhood 
no matter what happens. I have been 
walking about the farm looking at the 
fields and orchards and thinking what 
we can do to have our crops come 
along with the children. The year 
opens well with us. The farm never was 
in better condition or more productive 
than now. This is naturally our fruit 
x^ear, and we think we have things ready 
for a good yield. It may all be upset, 
but we will hope not, and when we 
get these little folks tucked away for 
the Summer life will seem very full. 
Truth and Hens. —I am glad that the 
woman who asked the questions on 
page 1120 has a chance to tell the full 
truth about poultry. I hope she will 
have the nerve to hold on to the job 
through thick and thin, and tell us just 
what the hens do. Does it then require 
nerve to report just what the business 
hen does while she is getting ready for 
business? It does, and we seldom get a 
real slice of it. I have heard men smil¬ 
ing and chuckling over the profit in 
poultry when right at that moment 
their eggs were Costing them eight and 
10 cents each! We have tried poultry 
in various ways at Hope Farm, but have 
never been able to show any wonderful 
profits. We think we can grow big 
strawberries and onions and have hopes 
for apples, but somehow the hen busi¬ 
ness is different. We have come to the 
point where it must be a very strong 
new “system” to start us off into dreams 
of $5 per hen! I will not deny that it 
has been done or is being done, but I 
frankly admit that the people who do 
it are smarter than we are. That is one 
reason why I sincerely hope this woman 
will keep at it and tell us the truth. 
My judgment is that a woman would be 
more likely to do this than a man. 
Florida Dairying. —The trouble in 
getting good milk for the little folks 
and the high price of what we do get 
has set me figuring on the dairy problem. 
There are a good many half-wild cattle 
running in the Florida woods. They 
seem to be small and stunted and wild 
as hawks. Apparently they barely give 
milk enough to bring up a calf prop¬ 
erly. I have not been able to buy a 
good cow in that country at any reason¬ 
able price, and the great proportion of 
Northern boarders must depend on a 
herd of “tin heifers,” or canned milk. 
There is no use taking a good cow 
from the North, or I should have done 
so this year. I think it would be pos¬ 
sible to select some of the best of these 
woods cattle, feed them well and breed 
up from a good Jersey or Guernsey and 
thus have acclimated stock. I have been 
impressed by what Wm. Sinclair has 
written about feeding cactus in Texas. 
I know that he really does what he 
claims. Why could we not work that 
scheme in Florida? Dr. Griffiths, of the 
Department of Agriculture, thinks the 
cactus plant would fail in Putnam Co. 
Along the coast the cactus will do rea¬ 
sonably well, but in the interior it goes 
down, during the hot, moist weather of 
Summer. One reason why I thought of 
cactus was the saving of fencing, which 
is an expense and a nuisance in Florida. 
But leaving out the cactus, there seems 
no doubt that the feed question is easy. 
Bermuda grass makes a fine pasture, 
with grazing nearly the entire year. 
During the Summer sorghum, beggar- 
weed, cow peas and crab grass will 
thrive, and in Winter rye, vetch, Velvet 
bean and Essex rape will all grow. I 
find that a few dairymen in Florida have 
silos which they fill with corn and 
sorghum. Milk sells readily at 40 to 50 
cents a gallon, and dairymen claim to 
make a profit of $100 per cow yearly. 
I can readily believe that a good cow 
could do that with the cheap feed which 
that southern country can be made to 
produce. I believe it will be harder to 
get good cows, but there is no question 
in my mind about the opportunity for 
dairying and stock feeding in that warm 
climate. I think it would pay a man of 
ordinary means better than orange grow¬ 
ing or trucking. There may be many 
drawbacks not in sight; if so I would 
like to know what they are. 
Life in the Navy. —You remember 
that the question about boys in the 
navy recently came up. As we are after 
the facts, I print the following letter 
from a sailor: 
On page 1142 E. M. N. inquires about 
the navy and what chances a young man 
has theire. Having spent three years in 
our navy, I think that I am qualified to 
say a word on the subject. When a man 
enters the navy he loses his individuality ; 
he is no longer Jack or Jim, but simply a 
number. He will be subjected to gibes and 
jests never heard outside a man of war, 
and if his American blood revolts and if 
he strikes a blow in self defence, he will 
get punished with extra work and loss of 
liberty on shore. Now for his great chances 
of seeing the world and of advancement. 
He will see the world from the deck of 
his ship, or if the ship stays long enough 
in port and he is a man without a mark 
against him, he can go ashore from noon 
to 7 a. m. next day. How much can he 
see of the place in that time? As for 
promotions, if you are sober and indus¬ 
trious and turn your right ear around when 
struck on the left, you will have a chance 
to advance to a position of chief petty 
officer, and that is as far as you ever will 
go without political influence. After your 
enlistment expires, you either have to re¬ 
enlist or else commence where you left off 
before your enlistment. You will be like 
a stranger to everything you worked at, 
because the world does not ston and wait 
while you are buried up. Aboard ship 
you are aroused from your bed at 5 a. m., 
no matter if you have been on deck all 
night; you drink a cup of black coffee, and 
then turn to and wash down decks; at 7 
a. m. breakfast; 8 a. m. muster, and then 
drills to 10 and sometimes to 12 o’clock. 
Your work is not very hard, but you are 
always doing something, and you are al¬ 
ways' aware that you are the under dog. 
Your food is the coarsest imaginable, and 
the only way you can get anything fit to 
eat is to stop your ration, get the $9 
allowed for it, put a few dollars from 
your own pocket with it, and give it to the 
steward of the mess, and he will buy pro¬ 
vision from shore. At sea in heavy weather 
all hands stay on deck, in ordinary weather 
at night you*have four hours on deck and 
four below. At night you sleep in your 
hammock ; what little sleep you get in day 
time you will take where you find a shel¬ 
tered spot, no hammock then. This is a 
true story of life in our navy, a * a farm¬ 
er’s boy might well stop and consider be¬ 
fore he enters a service that he cannot 
leave, no matter how distasteful it is to 
him. My advice to the young man is, stay 
on the farm, no matter how hard your 
work; you are not called out from your 
comfortable bed for drill or fire quarters. 
If you have a liking for the sea, take a 
trip in some of our merchant ships, and if 
you like the life you will have a chance to 
advance to a higher position and salary, as 
you never will have if you spend a lifetime 
in the navy. Andrew j. gibson. 
New Hampshire. 
That tallies reasonably well with the 
information I have had from other 
quarters. The farm for me. h. w. c. 
HUBER 
GAS TRACTOR. 
An all-round farm tractor. 
Intended to take the place of 
teams for plowing, and for 
hauling all farm machinery. 
Also a fine belt power for 
running small thresher, baler, 
feed cutter, saw mill. 
Uses a surprisingly small 
quantity of gasoline. 
Built for heavy duty, but in 
construction is equal to the 
finest marine or automobile 
engine. 
Backed by most ample guar¬ 
antee and our forty years’ ex¬ 
perience building traction 
engines. 
Full information on request. 
The Huber Manufacturing Go. 
646 Center Street, MARION, OHIO 
When you write advertisers mention T he 
r. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.’’ See guarantee page 1G. 
and you will have no 
trouble keeping your 
stock supplied with water. 
You can not only lift the 
water but pump it to any 
part of the premises with 
GOULDS 
RELIABLE 
PUMPS 
They are the most dependable, 
easiest, working and longest 
service pumps you can buy. 
Write for our free booklet " Water Sup¬ 
ply for the Home." Ircontains many valu¬ 
able suggestions on pumps and pumping. 
GOULDS MFG. COMPANY 
68 W. Fall St.. Seneca FallB, N.Y. 
THE FARMER’S WIFE 
APPRECIATES THE VALUE OF A GASOLINE ENGINE AS A LABOR SAVER IN THE HOME 
WITH TiaWteasy AIR COOLED 
she churns, does the washing, runs cream separator, makes ice cream, 
has a water supply for sink nud bath room. On the farm iile is worth 
living with THE “HEW-WAT” AIR COOLED FARM ENGINE. 
Just ask your 
wife about it, 
then ask us 
for catalog 5. 
The New-Wa y Herex Compamy 
LAMSf/re, Mkktcah. U.S.A. 
140 
SHERIDAN ST. 
Don’t Strain Your Back With Heavy Lifting! 
You can lift as much as three strong men with but little exertion if you use the 
Burr Automatic Safety Tackle Block 
You do not need the assistance of a hired man to change wagon boxes, stretch 
wire, move heavy stones, lift and move injured or dead animals, when you have 
a Burr Block. Just the thing for the garage for changing auto bodies and lifting 
the chassis for underneath work. 
Burr Automatic Safety 
Tackle Block 
does nil the work of n chain block in n much better way. It is the only rope block that oom- 
pares with a chain block yet does not gouge or chew the rope every time it is locked. 
The Burr Block Is Easily Manipulated 
You can raise or lower the object any distance — the thickness of a sheet of paper if 
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You can buy the smallest size Burr Block (600 pounds capacity) for 75 cents, lhe 
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Think of the time and lal>or you can save with a Burr Block Ask: us to send you 
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BURR MFG. CO.. 136 Viaduct. CLEVELAND, OHIO 
Heavy Fence 
For Economy 
W OVEN-WIRE FENCES must be heavy as 
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FRANK BAACKES, Vice President and General Sales Agent 
American Steel & Wire Company 
Chicago New York Denver San Francisco 
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