1216 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 23, 
Hope Farm Notes 
As I write it looks like a soft and warm 
Christmas. We had one snowstorm and 
baby blizzard, and one would have thought 
Winter had come to stay. He saw greater 
attractions elsewhere, and after a bite or 
two at the ground off he went, leaving the 
soil mud by day and a thin crust at night. 
Old Winter is a contrary chap, and he is 
likely to rush back at any time and fasten 
us tight. The nights are damp and cool, 
but that makes the open fire more cheer¬ 
ful. When we tacked on that old part of the 
new house we had two fireplaces made. No 
home is complete without an open fire and 
a crowd of children to sit with you before 
it. If you were here to-night you would be 
right here with us. We have no light ex¬ 
cept the little blaze from the old apple log 
on the fire. The room back of us is in 
deep shadow, but I can see the faces of 
one redhead and a couple of towheads in 
the fringe of light. The other redheads 
have gone to bed, and we sit here toasting 
apples and bread and telling of the great 
things to come when the orchards are all in 
bearing and “we run the farm.” There are 
evidently to be great doings then—autdmo- 
bile trucks, irrigation, storage and big 
things generally. 
“Don’t you believe it will be so?” says 
little Redhead as he climbs into the vacant 
place in my chair and holds out a long 
stick with an apple at the end. I should 
have my doubts if I were to go entirely 
by my own experience but here in the dim 
light of the fire 1 can remember when faith 
was just as strong in me, and I cannot re¬ 
call just when I dropped it. So I am 
bound to agree that all these great things 
are surely in the future. Surely a fire¬ 
place is the spot for old friends or new 
ones. The children want stories. Judge 
Lynx and Mr. Wolverine are very real 
when the flame goes down and you glance 
back over your shoulder at the shadows. 
The other night I told how Judge Lynx 
nearly caught Billy Beaver on Christmas 
Eve. One boy had the poker and the 
others sticks of wood, and while the fire 
was bright and they were all close to my 
chair they were very brave, and told the 
wonderful things they would do if they 
caught the old rascal on the road. There 
certainly are very convenient times when 
we are all very brave! 
About midnight, however, while the 
house was very still, there came a scream 
from the brave little Redhead’s crib. No 
monkey ever climbed a tree quicker than 
he climbed out of bed and made a run to 
get hold of Mother. In his dream he saw 
Judge Lynx looking at him with Mr. Wol¬ 
verine coming on the run! That was too 
much like the real thing even tho’ a dream. 
It is well enough to tell what you will do 
when there is no sign of danger, but when 
the enemy comes in sight the time is quite 
ripe to let someone else do the fighting and 
protecting. Mother is not afraid of Judge 
Lynx, but there is a time for sleep and 
other times for screaming, and so there 
was a strong veto of any more of those 
stories before the fire. A thrill has its 
charms, but not when manifested in mid¬ 
night screams. And yet stories of good 
little boys who do such beautiful acts of 
self-denial are all out o-f my personal ex¬ 
perience and knowledge of human nature, 
and they do not sound just right before 
an open fire. 
Yet, as l sit watching the fire eat away 
an old apple limb and a worn-out fence 
rail, it comes to me that little Redhead 
after all but represents the spirit of mil¬ 
lions who have gone before him. All men 
have recognized certain things which repre¬ 
sented “the enemy” with which there could 
be no compromise, no friendship—only cruel 
warfare for self defense. Under favorable 
conditions of safety most men brag of what 
they would do if they met this “enemy” 
ooi the way. I have seen grown-up men 
bristle up in war-like spirit—like the little 
Redhead—as they talked about politicians, 
the liquor power, the monopolies, or a 
dozen other things which thoughtful men 
recognize as far greater enemies of society 
than Judge Lynx ever was to the forest 
people. Yet put those men up where they 
must speak or vote openly and at some risk 
of property and comfort and they see Judge 
Lynx looking at them. As with little Red¬ 
head, one look is quite enough. I want 
my children to understand that the one 
who runs screaming aSvay from Judge 
Lynx is most likely to be caught. If I 
could have the power to give men and 
women a Christmas present it would be 
the moral courage to stand and not run 
when the greater Judge Lynx looks at them 
through some politician or political “plat¬ 
form.” Just think this out before your 
open fire. 
The Nutshell. —Here is a man near the 
Gulf of Mexico who wants more than the 
shell as his share of a commercial crop of nuts. 
“I have just gathered a crop of pecans 
(25 barrels) and I want to get more 
than 35 per cent of the consumer’s dollar. 
I have just read what you say of advertis¬ 
ing in the local papers. The local market is 
pretty well supplied, and I must reach out 
for a market. Can you suggest a way for 
me to get rid of my pecans, avoiding all 
the middlemen I can? joe p. wilson. 
Mississippi. 
This man is down near the gulf coast— 
probably too far away for express ship¬ 
ment. He might advertise for freight ship¬ 
ment, but I fear this would not be attrac¬ 
tive to the buyers he is after. If we had 
parcels post this man would have the trade 
in a nutshell. He could advertise in North¬ 
ern papers, take mail orders and send in 
II pound packages. Pecans retail at 40 
to 75 cents a pound here, and I think 
there would be a large mail trade. If I 
were in this man’s place I would advertise 
in the daily papers of Mobile, New Orleans, 
Birmingham, Jackson or Montgomery, and 
offer 10 or 20 pound lots at a fair price. 
I think there would be a good demand. It 
might pay to work up as far north as 
Memphis and Nashville. That would be 
determined by the express rates. Another 
plan would be to send the nuts in bulk to 
some northern market and get some good 
man to advertise them here. You would 
have to be very sure of your man, or he 
would have the meat and you the shell. 
Florida Facts. —The mails are well filled 
with letters about Florida. Here is an un¬ 
usual one: 
"Can you help me in some way to find a 
home in Florida where we can help pay 
our expenses as companion, home keeper, 
nurse, etc., as we are busy farmers and do 
not care to walk the streets for exercise? 
Mr. II. has weak lungs, must go South for 
tho Winter.” h. 
New York. 
I do not know of any such opportunity. 
Yet there ought to be many of them. Most 
Florida people are not looking for com¬ 
panions, etc., but for people to come and pay 
the price. Winter is to Florida what Sum¬ 
mer is to the seaside resorts at the North. 
“Fish in Summer and Yankees in Winter” 
is the businesslike way of expressing the 
Florida man’s source of supply. Among 
the thousands of northern people who go 
South for the Winter are many who need 
just such help as these friends could give. 
If any such who read this are interested 
they can have the address. 
Here is another typical letter: 
“As part of the Hope Farm man’s fam¬ 
ily has been in Florida and he has been 
there more or less, I wish to ask him if a 
northern man with no business in particu¬ 
lar could spend his Summers North and his 
Winters in Florida and make his expenses 
for self and wife raising strawberries or 
truck in vicinity of Plant City, just east 
of Tampa, with any degree of certainty? 
Work to be done with hired help.” w. 
New York. 
I should call it a risky game. I cer¬ 
tainly could not do it in Putnam Co., where 
our folks spent last Winter. It is strange 
how people get the idea that they can let 
Florida land alone for seven months and 
then go back and work it five. I would not 
attempt any such plan unless I had some 
interested party right on the job all the 
time. For a large proportion of people like 
our friend Florida has nothing but climate 
to offer. It is a beautiful place to spend 
the Winter—but take the price with you 
when you go. 
Hillside Plows. —Here is an old ques¬ 
tion : 
“I wish you or some of the readers 
would give experience with a hillside or 
reversible turning plow. I never saw one. 
Will they work all right on level ground? 
Jackson Co., Ill. d. m. 
We have used these plows considerably. 
They are best adapted to hilly ground. The 
moldboard is hung so that it swings back 
and forth. You plow across the field turn¬ 
ing furrow to the right. As you swing 
around at the end you can trip or swing 
the moldboard over so that it leans to 
the left. Thus when you return the fur¬ 
row is thrown against the last one. Thus 
you can turn all the furrows one way and 
there are no dead furrows in the field. 
These reversible plows (have a heavier 
draught than the others. The shape of 
the moldboard is different in order that it 
may swing over. We have worked our 
plow on level ground, but a good plowman 
will do a better and easier job in most 
cases with the other kind. 
Good Living.—H ere is a question or call 
which might well start up deep reflection: 
“I have not been feeling very well of 
late—have lost my appetite and cannot eat 
well. The Hope Farm man used to de¬ 
scribe various meals, and did it so well 
that it made my mouth water. I wish he 
would describe another good one. Per¬ 
haps it would give me a better appetite.” 
Vermont. C. H. J. 
I wish I could give this man a Christ¬ 
mas present of the appetite I worked up one 
Christmas Day some years ago. I was a 
student at college, and we went into the 
Michigan lumber woods to work and earn 
the price of two college terms. I was 
working in a swamp getting out cedar for 
shingles. We needed water to float our 
logs out, so we went down to the mouth of 
a little stream to build a dam. This was 
done by digging a ditch, putting split logs 
upright and piling the earth against them. 
We were at this job Christmas Day. It 
was very cold, and there was no Santa 
Claus performance in that ditch, but every 
spadeful meant a few moments at college. 
The boss had tried to give us an appropri¬ 
ate dinner and had sent some chickens out 
from town. I always did have my doubts 
as to the ownership of those chickens. The 
driver told of one big rooster that got 
away: 
“If I a ketclied him he’d ’a went!” 
At any rate there was not half enough 
chicken to go around and the cook had 
fried salt pork to help out. He brought 
the dinner down in a basket and the meat 
froze on the way. There was a big roar¬ 
ing fire near our ditch, and* the cook 
thawed out the food while we worked. 
I wish I could have had my Vermont 
friend there knee deep in freezing mud with 
the odor of fried pork and chicken hovering 
around his nose and mouth, and the big 
coffee pot steaming up. That lost appetite 
would have come back grown so that its 
owner would not stop to recognize it. There 
was bread and pork gravy and “fried holes” 
or doughnuts, and the world was surely 
mine as I stood with back to the fire and 
gnawed meat and bread. Nothing dainty 
or fashionable about it, I admit, but of all 
the food I ever tasted that lingers longest 
in memory. My boys toast bread and bacon 
before the fire. I do not care for a taste 
now, but what a feast it would be with 
youth once more and every blow of the 
pick a step nearer college! 
But did you find these hard steps to 
college really worth taking? 
Yes indeed, but that is another story. 
H. w. c. 
Changing Colors in Toys. 
Many of us have seen little so-called 
barometers which indicate changes of 
weather by color change in the dress of a 
doll. The reason for this change has puz¬ 
zled many, but is explained by the U. S. 
Geological Survey, which attributes it to the 
use of cobalt. The principle uses of cobalt 
in the United States are in making glass 
and pottery. A beautiful blue is given to 
glass by the oxide of cobalt. Sympathetic 
inks, according to a report of the United 
States Geological Survey, are made from 
cobalt acetate, chloride, and nitrate that 
are colored when heated or colorless when 
cold. This interesting phenomenon is due 
to the change in color of the salts on the 
absorption of wkter. When dry they are 
blue and easily seen on paper; when damp 
they are pink; and when dilute, colorless. 
A puzzling application of this principle may 
be in a doll whose dress is blue in dry 
weather but changes to pink when sub¬ 
jected to dampness,. as in wet weather or 
when the doll is held in the steam of a tea 
kettle. Artificial flowers are made to show 
the same effect. 
Tiie Hale Peach. —Referring to article 
on page 1175 please use your influence 
toward avoiding “borta” being suffixed to 
any name decided on for Mr. Hale’s peach. 
Rank confusion would surely result with 
those who have to do with “Elberta.” 1 
“Hale” would be good enough for most of 
us. Respecting names, the lack of origin¬ 
ality on the part of average Americans is : 
painful. "STONYCROFT.” 
Orchard Cost. —A demonstration or¬ 
chard of 450 apple trees was started last 
May by the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. These trees occupied 4% acres— 
evidently planted 20 feet each way. Vege¬ 
tables and small fruit were planted be¬ 
tween the trees. The entire cost of plant¬ 
ing, fertilizing and cultivating, etc., for all 
crops was $118.36. The returns from the 
associated crops were as follows: Rea 
kidney beans, $112; sweet corn, $56.82; 
turnips, $12; and the berries from a small 
patch of raspberries, which were already 
in one corner of the orchard, sold for 
$26.01, giving a total income of $206.83, 
which leaves a net profit of $S8.48 or ap¬ 
proximately $20 per acre while the trees 
are coming on. 
It is decided by the General Board of 
Appraisers that mules sent from the United 
States to Mexico for work there must pay 
duty of $30 per head, or 25 per cent ad 
valorem on being brought back to their 
native country. 
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