1020 
October 5, 
THE RURAL, NBW-YORKKR 
Hope Farm Notes 
The Woman’s Problem. —As Winter 
comes nearer to us the old problems are 
presented. There are so many families 
who must overhaul their household life 
and arrangements before the cold and 
storm shuts them in. The hardest of 
all these problems are those which con¬ 
cern women farmers. It is astonishing 
how many there are who have been 
left with land and little more. Husband, 
father or brother has been taken away 
and the women are left with the land. 
Sometimes it would not be such a hard 
problem if these women did not think 
so much of the home. They have lived 
their happy life on this farm, and all 
their sentiment and dreams are bound 
up in it. Sentiment and dreams may not 
be very substantial stuff, but they tie 
the world together, and some of these 
women farmers are put to a hard de¬ 
cision when Winter comes in sight. 
What we call ‘’business and common 
sense” would prompt them to sell their 
land and stock and move to some place 
where the income will carry them. Yet 
it is sometimes hard to sell property, 
and when one is along in years it means 
almost as much as life itself to let the 
home go. Dozens of such women come 
to us for advice, and our great regret 
is that we cannot be of much service. 
For it is impossible for a stranger ever 
to put himself exactly into the place of 
another and settle such matters. I would 
not dare to decide a question which in¬ 
volved the plan of giving up a home— 
for that is too often a tragedy. Yet 
there may be a worse one where the 
hopeless struggle is made to hold a home 
together. 
j Every time this subject is mentioned 
| we receive letters from men who offer 
j themselves as home savers. When you 
come to think of it, there is an ideal 
j solution for such troubles. On one hand 
is a woman or group of women with 
farm, home and tools. She lacks the 
strength to work and the ability to do 
the farm’s business. Suppose she could 
find a strong and willing man with a 
fair-sized family, no capital, but skill 
and desire to work. He comes to her 
farm and works it on a fair agreement. 
In theory there could not be a better 
arrangement for both sides, but—— My 
experience has been that something like 
15 theories are required to make one 
successful practice. I have helped make 
several such combinations, but somehow 
they did not work. It seemed as if 
both sides demanded too much. For 
instance, most of the men who say they 
would like to try such combinations are 
“back-to-the-Ianck.-s.” Some of them 
say they never worked on a farm and 
their families were never outside of the 
city except for a vacation! Yet they 
think they can step into the well-ordered 
home of a woman farmer and provide 
smooth motive power for it. Honestly, 
I would not dare advise such a combina¬ 
tion unless I knew both parties and 
could analyze the brand of human na^ 
ture which they have manufactured. It 
will be lonely in some of these farm 
homes this Winter. There will be a 
hard struggle for bread and clothing in 
some of the town homes. In theory 
the occupants of both homes could make 
a great success if put together where 
they could work like a machine. Yet 
what would be the chance of really help¬ 
ing either party? It is a great problem 
•—too large for me. 
Women Helpers. —So is the question 
of woman’s help on the farm.. As Win¬ 
ter comes on we have calls from well- 
to-do country people who offer a good 
home to mature women. They want 
women of some years and experience— 
not young girls. The work would be 
helping the wife do the housework, 
helping with the 'hildren and serving 
as a sort of country companion. As a 
rule such work would not be heavy and 
the wages would be fair. It would seem 
like an ideal position for some widow 
or woman of middle age who knows 
country life. Yet it is nearly impossible 
to find such help. Some years ago we 
needed such a woman and we hunted 
near and far. One woman applied, and 
when asked about herself stated that she 
was “six feet tall, weighed 200 pounds 
and was homely enough to stop a clock.” 
Part of that seemed to me an ideal 
recommendation, but we' learned later' 
that she was capable of bossing a family 
so they would stay bossed. In fact, 
several of such ladies have started in at 
various times to boss the Hope Farm 
household. I could tell some strange 
tales along this line, and it is partly 
because of this experience that we de¬ 
cline to give any positive advice on the 
woman question. The Hope Farm man 
has the greatest respect for these ma¬ 
ture women who would serve as house¬ 
keepers or helpers, but some of them 
have strong and positive ideas as to 
how a household should be run. Yet 
there are such women who need homes 
and could give faithful service and 
beauty of character in return. I would 
like to help fit them into homes where 
they are needed if I could. 
The Lost Found. —While we are near 
this subject, here is another side to it. * 
You remember how, on page 932, we ! 
printed a letter from a New Jersey 
woman asking if we could find her niece. 
This is the sequel: 
I want to thank you for the great kind¬ 
ness which you have shown to me and 
which has had such a wonderful result. 
I had a letter from my niece yesterday, 
and have just finished a letter to her, di¬ 
recting her how to obtain her money. I 
Tost track of her 10 years ago, when my 
husband had both legs broken, and I did 
not correspond with her for some time, 
and when I did write she had moved, leav¬ 
ing no address. I have copied the names 
of Spaulding. Coaly and Phillips from a 
New York directory, and their names are 
legion, with no result, I have advertised 
in the New York World and Journal and 
received no answer, and as a last resort 
determined to ask the Hope Farm man to 
help me, but feared to take such a liberty. 
Many times I have partly written a letter 
to you, only to tear it up in fear of my 
own temerity. But then longing to fiud 
her overcame my scruples, and at last I 
managed to send the letter to you, with the 
result of finding her in a few days. It is 
impossible for me to thank you, your kind¬ 
ness is beyond thanks. 
Within a few days after this paper 
was printed the niece walked into The 
R. N.-Y. office. The best of it was that 
she did not care so much about the 
money, but wanted to see her aunt! I 
can hardly tell what pleasure it gives us 
all to help in this way. You see we 
are justified in calling our readers the 
great Rural family. They are all ready 
to help. A few weeks ago I intimated 
that I coifid not hear well. Within a 
week several strangers wrote to tell of 
a wonderful device for helping the deaf. 
There can be nothing finer than this 
willingness to help 1 . If we can all work 
together we ought to do something with 
our share of the world. 
Farm and Home. —We are having our 
usual race with the frost. First corn 
cutting was started September 24. The 
crop might have stood a 'little longer, 
but at this season Jack Frost is always 
hanging at the corner, and we prefer 
not to take risk on the lower ground. 
The later planted corn should not be cut 
before October 1, and the Eureka should 
have two weeks more. We never had 
better corn. . . . The Soy beans are 
growing and forming little .pods. We 
have the wrong variety in Mammoth 
Yellow to make seed. On September 25 
we scattered rye between the rows of 
Soy beans and cultivated it in. Just 
before frost the bean vines will be cut 
We plan to begin feeding to the cattle 
at once, since this same frost will spell 
ruin to the pasture. What the cattle 
leave will be cured for hay. I cannot 
say that this crop works any wonders 
with us, but it helps out. . . . Sorry, 
but brown-rot is working on our late 
peaches and will get most of them, I 
fear. This continual wet and raw , 
weather has been too much for us. 
However, we can find no fault with our 
peach season and wouldn’t if we could, 
for who ever got fat on fault-finding? 
There are cases, however, where we 
would both kick and strike. Here is 
one. This man lives in southern New 
York, right south of the central New 
York peach district: 
Such peaches as we get are usually in¬ 
ferior, mostly Elbertas, and cost us, when 
we can get them at all, from $1.25 to $1 
per half bushel (?.) basket. I stopped a 
peddler last night and paid him 85 cents 
for a small basket of Elbertas, perhaps a 
little more than a peek, and upon emptying 
the basket found that a couple of layers 
of nice peaches had been placed on top 
and the rest of the basket had been filled 
with very small and rotten ones. I spent 
several hours in trying to find the man 
with the purpose of haling him before our 
local justice of the peace, but he had left 
town and has so far escaped me. 
The red-heads may not be expert 
salesmen, but they never did any such 
tricks as that. Yet it is a fair sample 
of some of the “peaches” who sell 
fruit. It becomes more and more evi¬ 
dent that the great trouble with farm 
crops is fair distribution. Thousands 
of people cannot get good fruit, while 
hundreds of fruit growers can hardly 
obtain living prices for what they grow. 
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Zenith carburetor 
Bosch magneto 
106-inch wheelbase 
32 x 3 }4-inch tires 
Quick detachable rims 
Mohair top with envelope 
Jiffy curtains 
Windshield 
Rear shock absorber 
Prett-O-Lite tank 
Gas headlights 
Tools—horn 
Trimmings black and 
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Magneto and camshaft 
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FLORIDA 
