1230 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 1", 
Hope Farm Notes 
We surely have no reason to find fault 
with life in our present situation. By 
“we” I mean the one Redhead and three 
Towheads who are eating apples here 
with me. The other two Redheads are 
asleep upstairs. There is a good fire 
roaring in the open fireplace. Redhead 
started it, and thereby got a good glimpse 
at one lesson of life. There are people 
with a fiery top-piece who can see little 
in the small things of the present. Red¬ 
head does not like the slow process of 
multiplying five by three, or laboriously 
digging words with their true letters and 
meaning out of the mine of a great lan¬ 
guage. He wants to jump right into the 
future—when we are to have an auto¬ 
truck, a cold storage house and for all 
I know a Hope Farm variety of apple 
which will pick and pack itself! There 
are others beside Redhead in this list. 
Now our fire sometimes smokes. Moth¬ 
er has told the children how this is 
caused by a column of cold air in the chim¬ 
ney which prevents a quick draft, so 
when we put on wood a little damp the 
smoke cannot fight its way up the chim¬ 
ney. and thus pours out iuto the room. 
Mother taught them to get rid of this 
cold air. So Redhead put a newspaper 
up the chimney flue and set it on fire. 
There was a quick blaze and but little 
smoke, and that cold air found it very 
convenient to get out and it certainly 
went. You could feel the air below 
rushing up to chase this tyrant away. 
Then when Redhead started the fire there 
was a perfect draft, and the smoke 
poured up where it should. Now in the 
fireplace of life Redhead is starting his 
paper fire in the chimney with his little 
struggles with figures and words. That 
starts the draft up the chimney of knowl¬ 
edge, for that is thought and trained in¬ 
vestigation. When the boy comes to auto¬ 
truck and cold storage what he is doing 
now will be the draft up the chimney 
to suck the smoke away from the larger 
fires of life. The trouble with a lot of 
men is that their fires smoke. The lack 
of training and power of thought hangs 
like the cold air in their chimney, and 
no matter how hard they blow the fires 
of life the smoke will not rise, but gets 
back into their eyes. That’s the trouble 
with a lot of men I know—they smoke 
because the light fires of youth were not 
started in the chimney. 
But my four youngsters are more in¬ 
terested in putting apples down the red 
chimney than in sending sermons into the 
future. We have put out the lights, for 
the fire is bright enough. No use trying 
to save fuel when the woodshed is well 
filled and there are 20 acres of dying 
chestnut to be cut. Jack Frost has come 
at last and put his white hand on the 
earth. It may be this cold hand or the 
north wind which shakes our window. 
That is a small matter, as we sit here 
before our fire with our pan of apples 
near at hand. I know nothing about the 
family life of kings or titled personages 
or millionaires, but here you have a coun¬ 
try quintette who would not give up our 
apples and our fire and our share of the 
free joy of life for anything such people 
could offer. But life must have its shade. 
Mother is not a large woman, but she 
throws a big, dark shadow when she 
firmly announces “bedtime.” My boys 
trail off to those pleasant dreams which 
come when one is under half a score with 
stomach well filled with ripe apples and 
eyes full of a snapping fire 
This thing of building a little blaze in 
the chimney to make the fire and smoke 
behave themselves! I cannot get that 
out of my mind. This small wad of paper 
gives but little heat. A brilliant blaze 
up and it is done—yet that little flame 
just in the right place determined whether 
the business-like fire should smoke or 
go free. I can see a dozen applications 
as I sit before this fire, which was started 
right by the little blaze. There are in 
this country, thousands of earnest and 
conscientious men and women who would 
like to improve the condition of our 
farmers. They have helped and have 
done some groat work for farming as a 
business, but as I sit here it comes to 
me forcibly that we have all got to 
learn Redhead’s lesson of driving out 
that cold chimney air. I am afraid that 
many of us start a fire of knowledge 
which smokes because we cannot get rid 
of that cold air of suspicion in the minds 
of our hearers or readers. You may call 
this suspicious feeling what you will, but 
as I reason it out here it is what makes 
our fires smoke. We may pile the dollars 
upon the fire or draw out the years of 
devoted work, but unless we can learn 
little Redhead’s plan of starting a blaze 
in the chimney our fire will smoke and 
lose much of its heat and power. 
Xou~ I have seen this being done. Last 
week I went to Vermont to attend the 
dinner of the Windsor County Rural Y. 
M. C. A. This organization is, I believe, 
starting that fire in the chimney and 
showing us all how to do it. It is a 
local organization financed and directed 
by Windsor County people. The hub in 
the wheel is Archibald C. Hurd, the 
secretary, and he certainly makes the 
wheel go round, very wisely, as I think. 
Mr. Hurd and his workers see their 
opening through the children. The child 
on a poor hill farm will not be very like¬ 
ly to follow its parents cheerfully if 
they are discouraged and discontented. 
Progress follows hope and the hope in 
such communities lies in the children. 
Parents will unconsciously follow the 
child, and working on the farm child is 
like starting that little blaze in the 
chimney. „\nd so the Windsor County 
people are after these children. There 
are corn shows, prize gardens and other 
contests. I heard of one man who was 
ready to sell his farm, as he thought 
farming in Vermont was played out. His 
boy won a prize in one of the Y. M. C. A. 
contests, and now father has concluded 
not to sell. For if the boy can grow 
such corn on a small piece of ground, 
what can father do on the entire land— 
if he tries? That is what I mean by 
starting little Redhead’s blaze in the 
chimney of a human home. Here was a 
smoky household fire. Now the man 
see, through the boy’s work, what he 
can do “if he tries” It is no unkind 
criticism of the college and the station 
to say that they could hardly have started 
such farmers. They build the fire. The 
little Redheads must go ahead and burn 
the paper in the chimney. 
Then Mr. Hurd and the Y. M. C. A. 
organize the children into games and 
play. At the annual games I am told 
that thousands of children come down 
from the hills and take part in contests 
with something of the spirit which 
brought the Greeks together for the 
Olympic games. When these little ones 
come to these festivals or corn shows the 
town people take them into their homes 
and give them a royal good time. These 
children carry back beautiful memories 
of their little outing, which they will 
surely use in the home chimney to make 
a draft. Thus Mr. Hurd and his friends 
are working with both work and play to 
get hold of the boys and girls. Some on.e 
may start up here and tell me this play 
feature is all wrong—children should 
work and not play. Well, sir, whoever 
you are, you are wrong. The chimney 
of your knowledge of human nature has 
a column of ice cold air in it. Organized 
play is the hinge-oil of life. The trouble 
with a whole lot of us is that our par¬ 
ents never knew what it means actually 
to play. I think my children will be 
better off and have a better draft in the 
chimney because I knew how to put 
curves on a baseball and won one or two 
prizes with the boxing gloves. Mother 
will hardly agree with this, as she is not 
an ardent admirer of baseball, but for 
once I feel so sure of my ground that I 
venture an opinion on education. 
I wish I could give you in detail some¬ 
thing of the great work this Y. M. C. A. 
is doing in Windsor County. They realize 
that the work is both moral and mater¬ 
ial. It has got to be slow, and of al¬ 
most unconscious growth. It must be a 
local work too, done by local people 
among home folks and friends. I have 
seen nothing more hopeful in its effect 
upon the people of the hill towns. It is 
the blaze in the chimney and sooner or 
later the fire of improved farming will 
burn clearly and without smoking. A 
man like Mr. Hurd can add uncounted 
wealth to a rural county both in money 
and manhood. He will do it too so grad¬ 
ually and so modestly that 20 years from 
now a dozen people will claim the credit. 
That is the point. Neither Mr. Hurd 
nor anyone else could ever start the blaze 
in the chimney if he were doing it for 
any glory except the glory of God. 
And in the larger chimney of the State 
of Vermont another blaze is beiug started 
by my friend Elbert S. Brigham, the new 
Commissioner of Agriculture. Brigham 
is a dignified man and if I told him that 
he looks like little Redhead lighting the 
paper in the chimney he might not quite 
see the point—yet it is true. Vermont, 
owing to her situation and soil, has the 
best farm possibilities of any New Eng¬ 
land State. It has also the most re¬ 
markable band of exiled “rooters.” These 
are men and women who left the Vermont 
farms years ago. Most of them have 
prospered in their new homes, but the 
more they get the more they see that 
the best of all is the spirit of the old hill 
farms which they could not carry away 
with them or buy. These people, when 
they understand, will, everyone of them, 
work for the worthy things which carry 
the honest name of old Vermont. Brig¬ 
ham knows this and he will, if they give 
him a chance, build a fire in the chimney 
and make a draft of pride in Vermont 
butter, seed potatoes, cheese, sugar and 
a dozen other articles. Give Brigham a 
fair chance and he will do more to put 
Vermont on the map in green ink than 
any Senator the State has had in 50 
years. What the “Bashful State” needs 
is business pride in her human and farm 
products. A few dollars burned in the 
State chimney will set it roaring. 
Truly this starting the chimney jtlraft 
is one of the great little things of life. 
Many of us are denied the power to keep 
the great fires burning. We may be Red¬ 
heads and start the little blaze which 
will open the mind of some one who has 
not thought. For true thinking drives 
out the dead air and gives the fire of life 
a chance. But my fire has gone down to 
a bed of coals. The wind shakes the win¬ 
dow. Outside the night is cold and clear. 
I might build a new fire and go to work, 
but I must be getting lazy, for I con¬ 
clude that a little extra sleep will be the 
best blaze in the chimney. H. w. c. 
are aggravated in changing j 
seasons unless the system is 5 
nourished with the blood- $ 
m ak ing, power-creating \ 
properties of Scott’s Emulsion, f 
which contains the purest cod 1 
liver oil with hypophosphite? £ 
and glycerine, all so medically j 
prepared that they create rich, $ 
active, healthy blood, free from 
excessive acids, and at the same * 
time build healthy tissue and P 
strengthen the entire body. 3 
Scott’s Emulsion alleviates ail- f 
ments due to declining years. 
Scott & Bowne. Bloomfield N. J. 12-122 f 
*~4 
SHORT WINTER COURSES 
in 
HORTICULTURE 
POULTRY HUSBANDRY 
DAIRY HUSBANDRY 
Eight weeks—Jan. 12th to March ; 
6th, 1914. Schedule of courses 
furnished on request. 
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