64 
January 15, 
Hope Farm Notes 
This is apt to be the dull season on a 
northern farm. Good histories, geo¬ 
graphies and an encyclopaedia will help 
a farm family out if used well. Our 
folks are trained to go to them to hunt 
up facts about what we read in books 
and papers, or what comes to us in let¬ 
ters. This last “cold snap” has given a 
chance for much study. The mercury 
registered two below zero one morning, 
and hovered around the mark for sev¬ 
eral days. The peach buds do not seem 
to be hurt, and we are more concerned 
in learning how far Jack Frost worked 
down into Florida. Among crther letters 
which interested us is this note from 
Prof. W. F. Massey, at Salisbury, Md.: 
We are having a good start for a hard 
Winter down here. Sleighing is now good 
for the first time in three or four years, 
and those young enough to enjoy it are 
having a good time. I rather expected cold 
weather, because we are always apt to 
have it farther south when Winter sets 
in in a drought. If you had had heavy 
rains last Fall up North there would have 
been a vast bank of moist air to take up 
the cold, and to have saved us. But this 
Fall there was nothing to stop the cold 
waves, and they are coming fast and 
sli’ong. The mercury was down to 13 
above zero here this morning, and has not 
got above 16 all day, and to-night we will 
in all probability have it down to zero, 
which I have not seen for a long time. 
Y'e are on the verge of a fuel famihe, as 
the great snow north of us blocked the 
freight trains. Here we had about four 
inches, and it gradually grew less south 
of us, till at Cape Charles there was no 
snow at all. 
When frost does strike the South 
there is greater suffering than in the 
North, for here we know it is coming 
and make ready for it. Our hot water 
pipes gives us great satisfaction as the 
mercury goes down. 
I am not so fortunate as to be a farmer, 
having been born and raised in a city, and 
the thought has come to me that if your 
paper is interesting to a man in the city 
who has access to all kinds of reading, 
what a valuable paper it must be to one 
on a farm, especially when away from the 
lax-ge districts. i. m. 
Ohio. 
Tim R. N.-Y. has made my farm very 
Interesting to me. J. m. k. 
New York. 
Our Ohio friend’s argument might 
not be sound. Suppose he is a book¬ 
keeper and some one starts in to tell of 
the life he passes day by day. This 
might seem pretty dull to him, though 
every word of it were true. Yet to a 
farmer, or man in the country, it might 
prove as interesting as a good story. 
This idea of writing so as to “make the 
farm interesting” gives the keynote for 
agricultural literature. If we can only 
make people interested in the farm which 
gives them home and a living great 
things can be done in the world. The 
heart and the spirit lie where the “in¬ 
terest” is, and these things are what de¬ 
termine life. 
The following is part of a note from 
a woman who has subscribed for a 
neighbor’s boy: 
I know The R. N.-Y. will be interesting 
and helpful to him, although he has been 
for many weeks in bed with spinal menin¬ 
gitis ; his mind is active, and he hopes to 
be able to walk across the floor by next 
Spring. 
I find the world full of those kindly 
people who go quietly about doing good. 
You would be surprised if you could 
know of the thousands of people who 
long for a home in the country. Perhaps, 
right now while they are longing in this 
way some of you are dissatisfied or wish¬ 
ing you were somewhere else. Did you 
ever stop to think that it may be a part 
of your duty to try to see things as 
others see them? Why, if you could 
only regard your farm and your home 
as some of these homesick town-people 
do you would be about the happiest man 
or woman on earth. 
On first page is an article on “Con¬ 
tracts with Women.” The author has 
sent a private letter in which she says: 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The more I see of men in general, the 
more I observe their readiness to take ad¬ 
vantage of Die almost childlike ignorance 
of women in business matters. Women are 
neither protected as in Germany, nor given 
the ballot, so they can protect themselves 
as in some States. 
Now is this true? Suppose you look 
first at yourself and then at the men you 
know and answer the question. I know 
that in the thousands of fake schemes 
which are reported to us the majority of 
the victims are women. They give up 
their money or contract their property 
freely on the promise of some smooth- 
talking faker. It is also true that in 
many cases these same women will not 
listen to the advice of husband or broth¬ 
er, but will take the stranger’s plausible 
word in preference. I think the present 
crusade for woman’s suffrage is based 
on a demand for business protection. 
Unlike most movements of this sort it 
originates in city and town, where thou¬ 
sands of women must work for a living 
and feel that they are not fairly treated. 
The demand for the ballot has not struck 
Hope Farm or our neighborhood yet; 
still I think the'city women will keep up 
the fight until they get some recognition 
at least. 
With the cold weather and snow on 
the ground we are trimming apple trees 
and cutting wood. Should there come 
warm days without wind the instructions 
are to spray with the oil while the sun 
is up. On these bright Winter days the 
water quickly evaporates and leaves the 
oil on the tree. On a dull day the water 
might be left to freeze. As with hauling 
out manure, the great gain from Winter 
spraying is to have the job done and 
out of the way before Spring. . . . On 
bad days we can make root-grafts. We 
have some stocks and have cut scions. 
In the Spring we shall be ready to start 
a choice little nursery of peach and apple 
—using buds and wood from our best 
bearing trees. I am not going into the 
nursery business, but we find it an advan¬ 
tage in many ways to have our own 
trees. ... I told last week how I 
gave our folks a Christmas present by 
sending them to hear “1 he Messiah 
sung. They got back late in the evening, 
cold and hungry, but full of music. “Oh, 
but it was glorious! You do not know 
how much good it did me,” said Mother 
as she went over some of the music 
after supper. I grant that her ideals of 
life are far higher than mine, but very 
likely I know more of human nature. 
So I asked with a grave face whether 
they would rather hear “The Messiah” 
than to see a championship ball game. 
The result was a very indignant lady 
and several doubtful children who hesi¬ 
tated to give a real opinion! That is 
the way of life. As they grow up the 
music and beauty will come to them 
more and more, and the baseball game 
and what it stands for will serve as a 
frame for the picture. If you ask me 
why I keep talking about music, and 
poetry and good books and pictures I 
can easily answer. Silence or darkness 
of body or spirit may come to any of us. 
The blind and the deaf know what it 
means to carry memory or visions of 
beautiful things into their sad prison, 
and so might those with other afflictions. 
If you take my advice you will store up 
with the best you can find of music and 
good literature, and “be ready.” 
H. W. C. 
Handling Manure in Pile. 
On page 10S7, C. P., of Missouri, inquires 
about handling stable manures for garden¬ 
ing, and Allen B. Wells of New York an¬ 
swers his question, but does not state the 
best method by which to keep freshly-made 
stable manure from heating when put in 
piles. Tbe method I have used has always 
worked well. Any level piece of ground will 
do for making the pile, which can be com¬ 
pacted as fast as hauled to it. As soon as 
signs of heating appear take a crow-bar and 
drive it down through the manure to the 
ground, then work the bar around so as to 
make the top of the hole larger than the bot¬ 
tom. If the pile is a large one a number 
of bar holes can be quickly made, and they 
will allow the surplus heat to escape. If 
this is done and the vents kept open, the 
pile will never become overheated. To 
cause the manure so piled to rot more 
quickly, with a hose, or with a bucket, pour 
water in each hole so as to soak the centre 
of the pile thoroughly, and decomposition 
will go on very rapidly and the manure be 
in fine order for any garden purposes. 
Ulster Co.. N. Y. e. c. m. 
Waltham Watches 
A Warning 
Mail order houses in Chicago and 
other cities who list Waltham Watches 
do so in spite of the fact that neither 
the Waltham Watch Company nor its 
customers will sell them our watches 
at all. Mail order houses cannot be 
equipped to sell good watches. If you 
want a watch, go to a retail jeweler; 
he knows how to regulate it, how to 
correct any little damage that may have 
come to it after leaving the factory 
and he will get it started right. A 
watch requires a personal service that 
no mail order house can give. It needs 
the jeweler, who knows his trade, to 
do this. 
Waltham Watch Company 
Waltham, Mass. 
N. B. — When buying a watch 
always ask your jeweler for a Waltham 
adjusted to temperature and positron. 
PERFECT POTATO 
PLANTING 
Every fanner knows tho importance 
of proper potato planting. Here's a 
machine that does it perfectly. Has 
none of tho faults common with com¬ 
mon planters. Opens the furrow 
perfectly, drops the seed 
correctly, covers i t uni 
f ormly. and best of all 
never bruises or 
punctures the 
seed. Send a 
postal for 
our free 
hook. 
Iron Ago 
(Improved Robbinc) 
Potato Planter 
No Misses 
No Doubles i 
No Troubles 
BATEMAN MFG. CO.. Box 102 P 
GRENLOCH. N. J. 
COOK YOUR FEED and SAVE 
Half the Cost—with the 
PROFIT FARM BOILER 
Dumping Caldron. Empties 
ttle in one minute. The simplest 
best arrangement for cooking 
for stock. Also make Dairy and 
ndry Stoves, Water and 
m Jacket Kettles, Hog 
ders. Caldrons.etc.J.-ST'Send 
irticulars and ask for circular J. 
Feeding for Profit 
Cows, horses, hogs and poultry thrive 
best when fed well cooked food 
because such food is easiest as¬ 
similated. For economical farm 
cooking nothing equals the 
F armers’ 
Favorite 
Feed Cooker and Boiler 
For canning fruit, heating water, sterilizing milk 
cans, boiling sugar, rendering lard and endless 
other uses. Costs little, wears long. Write for 
illustrated circular and prices. 
LEWIS MFC. CO., Box C, Cortland, M. V. 
AGENTS $3 to $10 A 
Selling this forged steel 
_ ... - NICKEL PLATED 
IN 1 Combination Hatchet 
.. Durable, low priced. Guaranteed. 
Money back to any purchaser not perfectly ple&Bed. Send today 
for terms of FREE OUTFIT and proof of big profits to Agents. 
II. TlIOMAs MFG. CO. 2BG5 Wayne St. Payton, Ohio 
- -\ 
Its Own Cost on 
Any Farm in 20 Minutes 
There are a thousand and one things a 
Burr Automatic Safety Tackle Block 
can do. You alone can do all the heavy 
lifting about your place with our block— 
shifting wagon boxes, stretching wire 
fences, moving stones, logs, sick or in¬ 
jured animals, etc., and the saving of 
hired help will pay for it on one job. 
The Burr Automatic 
Safety Tackle Block 
is the only rope block made that does 
the work of a chain block. It is the only 
rope block made without teeth, wedges, 
springs, etc., to wear, tear and chew up 
good rope. This block actually 
preserves good rope—keeping 
it smooth. Wet or greasy rope is 
i held just as tight as dry. You 
\ can depend upon this block at 
all times and under all circum¬ 
stances. Yet the prices are 
only 70c up to $4.25, accord¬ 
ing to the capacity of 600 lbs. 
up to 5,000 lbs. Lasts a life 
time. Saves dollars every 
.week. Write for particu¬ 
lars. Learn what it 
means to own one. 
BURR MFG. CO. 
1 36 Viaduct CLEVELAND, O. 
