358 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
March 8, 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day. 
THE BREAKING PLOW. 
I am the plow that turns the sod 
That has lain for a thousand years; 
Where the prairie’s wind-tossed flowers nod 
And the wolf her wild cub rears, 
I come, and in my wake, like rain, 
Is scattered the golden seed: 
I change the leagues of lonely plain 
To fruitful gardens and fields of grain 
For men and their hungry breed. 
I greet the earth in its rosy morn, 
I am first to stir the soil, 
I bring the glory of wheat and corn 
For the crowning of those who toil; 
I am civilization’s seal and sign, 
Yea, I am the mighty pen 
That writes the sod with a pledge divine, 
A promise to pay with bread and wine 
For the sweat of honest men. 
I am the end of things that •were, 
And the birth of things to be, 
My coming makes the earth to stir 
With a new and strange decree; 
After its slumbers, deep and long, 
I waken the drowsy sod, 
And sow my furrow with lifts of song 
To glad the heart of the mighty throng 
Slow feeling the way to God. 
A thousand Summers the prairie rose 
Has gladdened the hermit bee, 
A thousand Winters the drifting snows 
Have whitened the grassy sea; 
Before me curls the wavering smoke 
Of the Indian’s smoldering fire, 
Behind me rise—was it God who spoke? 
At the toil-enchanted hammer’s stroke, 
The town and the glittering spire. 
I give the soil to the one who does, 
For the joy of him and his, 
I rouse the slumbering world that was 
To the diligent world that is; 
Oh, Seer with vision that looks away 
A thousand long years from now, 
The marvelous nation your eyes survey 
Was born of the purpose that here, to-day, 
Is guiding the breaking-plow! 
—Nixon Waterman. 
The Angora goat ought to feel proud 
of himself if he could see the fashion¬ 
able spencers of Angora wool now of¬ 
fered as a substitute for sweaters. They 
reach just to the waist, so as to give 
little bulk under a coat, fitting like a 
snug little vest. They are made both 
with and without sleeves, in a variety 
of pretty colors with a contrasting bor¬ 
der.. They come from Vienna, and cost 
from $5 to $10 each. The Angora wool 
gives great warmth with little weight, 
and is used for a variety of vests and 
scarfs for motoring and athletic wear. 
, * 
The New York Academy of Medicine 
recently devoted a session to the discus¬ 
sion of trained nurses. It was said that 
there is now a scarcity of good material 
for the training schools, and a greater 
demand for nurses than can be supplied, 
in spite of fees that are prohibitive to 
people of modest means. The doctors 
in session reported that the greatest 
danger to the public comes from nurses 
trained in correspondence schools. We 
were informed some time ago by per¬ 
sons in charge of a high-class registry 
bureau in this city that they would not 
register nurses who had received their 
training by correspondence, but one of 
the promoters of a correspondence 
school was reported as saying that 90 
per cent of the nurses in the State were 
trained in this way. Let no one imag¬ 
ine that nursing is an easy and luxurious 
life; it involves much that is hard, dis¬ 
agreeable, and sometimes revolting, and 
excellent salaries become small if the 
nurse has several lengthy intervals be¬ 
tween cases. However, it possesses 
many excellent features, and a healthy 
country girl, who has gone through high 
school, and feels drawn to the work, 
will find it the proper opening for an 
honorable and useful livelihood. Fur¬ 
ther than that, the training she would 
receive as a nurse would make her bet¬ 
ter fitted for the emergencies of domes¬ 
tic life, which cannot be said of all the 
occupations open to women. 
Colorado Garden Notes. 
Spring is coming, for here are the 
catalogues, bright, gay, and just bubbl¬ 
ing over with wonderful things in the 
flower and vegetable line. It makes 
our mouths water to look at the pic¬ 
tures, and we begin to speculate and 
plan for the Spring opening. There are 
always the old Eastern catalogues that 
have had a name for honesty and good 
seeds for years, and sprinkled among 
them are various ones from the Central 
and farther West. Our conditions in 
Eastern Colorado are peculiar in some 
ways. The seeds and plants must be 
adapted for the soil and climate. And 
in some years it is almost an impossi¬ 
bility to grow anything, we are told. 
Last year we had splendid beans, Red 
Kidney, Pea bean and Davis Wax. We 
had plenty of moisture most of the time, 
and when dry were well cultivated with 
one-horse garden cultivators, weeds 
kept out. We tried peanuts, but they 
only grew tops, no nuts; will try again 
this year. We think they were not 
planted early enough perhaps. They 
are grown in the country west of us; 
we hear cucumbers do well, as all vines 
do if in early enough. Late plantings 
do not seem to do so well. Tomatoes 
are troubled with the little black fly. 
In one night we lost all we set out the 
day before. Sprinkling with mixture of 
slaked lime and ashes soon as set out, 
or covering each plant with a can or 
box until the plant starts helps, we were 
told, and in later settings proved true. 
The Earliana proves here as in Ne¬ 
braska the tomato if one gets plants 
early and stocky. Some consider 
Ponderosa better in some ways. If one 
can get the fruit early enough they are 
a fine tomato, but when market is to be 
had the early fruit takes the place of 
all others, and so far Earliana has been 
the queen of the garden for earliness, 
smoothness and ripening evenly. In 
flowers we have to look very carefully 
for a spot where winds will not dry or 
whip. As far as wind is concerned we 
do not have as much as in Nebraska, 
but the high altitude and soil being of 
a more sandy nature, often gravelly as 
well as what is called the “hard land,” 
the winds seem to sap the moisture 
quickly in a high altitude. 
A neighbor had most beautiful flowers 
last Summer—such beautiful four 
o’clocks I never saw. I started counting 
the colors and shades, but gave it up; 
there seemed no end. Candytuft was 
immense, pansies so large that they were 
hardD recognized. The plants she 
bought in Denver, but strange to say, 
the seeds of all her finest flowers were 
Government seeds, while we have had 
no success with the seeds, either flower 
of vegetable—although we often before 
coming to Colorado sent the seeds back 
to our Congressman with “not wanted.” 
Here the people are anxious for them, 
and last year requests were sent for all 
that possibly could be had to be given 
Eastern Colorado. My husband said 
he saw in one of the butcher shops in 
Akron, Col., a big pile of seeds in 
packets and packages in one corner on 
the floor, and men, women and children 
were looking them over, taking what 
they wanted, all government seeds. As 
a year ago the times were exceptionally 
hard after crop failures two and three 
years it is perhaps not to be wondered 
at th-’t the government seeds looked to 
many people a godsend. 
In front of the window where I 
write, have been some flower beds; 
some one tried to have a little home 
look to the place. A few wild currants 
< what is called in the East Flowering 
Currant, a double yellow rose, and one 
or two which I do not know yet until 
Spring brings out the leaves; bits of 
rock have been put about them. By the 
water tank where water leaked from the 
pipe are clumps of shrubs and a rose, 
but stock has run over them until they 
look sadly abused. It shows somebody 
tried to improve the place; so very few 
take any pains to set out shrubs or trees 
or take care of them. Too many are 
only homesteaders in the way of being 
on the land just long enough to get a 
title, then skip. In sight are four dif¬ 
ferent homesteads that had buildings on 
and people lived there, but as soon as 
thev could prove up, sold the buildings 
(little shacks) windmills and everything 
except the well, which was filled up, 
and either moved to town or left for 
the East. The land constitutes the 
range now. It is all for sale; as a 
neighbor said it was more thickly settled 
a few years ago than now, although on 
a clear morning I have counted over 30 
farm houses in the sweep of country 
we see from our farm. 
The people seem kindly and hospita¬ 
ble. We got two young men to help in 
unboxing and setting up our piano, and 
they were greatly interested in it and 
the music after. The news went over 
the neighborhood fast that a piano was 
here, so we have had young and old 
come to call and spend the evening, 
drawn no doubt by the sweet-toned old- 
fashioned square piano, which has had 
good care and still responds to my 
touch Avhen there are “Silver threads 
among the gold” as it did when I was 
a girl. “At the school house we have 
an organ and we play noons,” said one 
of our little neighbors. She was wild 
to touch the kevs, but so shy until just 
before leaving the last time she plucked 
up courage and tried a few chords, de¬ 
lighting not only herself but her father 
and all of us. Christmas Eve they had 
a tree at the school house, which they 
told us about; a dead apple tree served 
the purpose and after the branches were 
wrapt in green tissue paper and some 
fringed to hang among the branches, 
with lots of pop corn and cranberry 
ropes, apples, oranges and the presents 
“You never would guess it was an old 
dead tree.” They had singing and 
teacher played the organ, some speak¬ 
ing, and it really was real nice and we 
had a good time. We were asked to 
go but neither husband nor I felt well 
enough to go out that night es it was 
very cold. A year ago they had a de¬ 
bating society at the school house, so 
it looks as if we had found a good class 
of people here. 
I must not forget to tell of the beauti¬ 
ful wild flowers here, more particularly 
the cactus. There are several colors of 
the prickly pear, and each is so beauti¬ 
ful. I never saw anything but shades 
of yellow before, but there are purple 
and white, pink and yellow, dark reds 
and various shades. The globe or ball 
cactus has a pretty flower, and one that 
has several prongs with balls on the 
ends has a flower very delicate, looks 
like silk in the sunshine. About streams 
the soap plant is found, which has a 
large white flower. 
MRS. FREDERICK C. JOHNSON. 
Spraying Shellac on Wall. 
On page 106 Mrs. R. S. wishes to 
know about coating newly-papered walls 
with shellac. If she will dilute the white 
shellac with alcohol she can easily put 
it on with any spray outfit that throws 
a very fine spray. It must be thin 
enough not to clog. Three very light 
applications of spray would probably be 
sufficient for her purpose. The most 
delicate paper would be covered in this 
way if care is taken not to put on enough 
spray at one time to form in drops and 
run. In this way so very little material 
is used that I doubt if it would prove 
expensive. h. b. 
WANTED 
JN EACH TOWN and district to 
ride and exhibit a sample 1913 
Model “Hanger" bicycle 
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Hast. Write at once for full 
lot your bicycle. Wo ship 
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] prepay freight, and allow 
10 DA YS’FREE TRIAL., 
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I any test you wish. If you are 
I then not perfectly satisfied or 
L don’t wish to keep the bicycle 
“you may ship it back to us at 
four expense and you will not 
“be out one cent. 
, LOW FACTORY PRICES 
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Dept. 69, Philadelphia, Pa. 
a 
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