004 
THE RURAL NE W-VORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
The Food Question. — I confess that 
the interest shown in this matter of sim¬ 
ple food astonishes me. We pet letters 
nearly every day from people who take 
one side or the other. The majority 
put up a strong argument against the 
use of meat, and offer their own health 
conditions as proof. A few condemn 
such argument as theories of “cranks” 
and declare that meat is absolutely nec¬ 
essary to them. On man tells me that 
he has tried eating grain, nuts, efc., and 
finds that he cannot do his work unless 
part of his food is in the form of meat. 
One of the most interesting letters is the 
following, which I give simply because 
it gives us much to think about: 
I like your Hope Farm philosopher. lie 
comes to us like a breeze from the pine 
woods. lie is now pondering the meat-eat¬ 
ing problem as we all have done or will 
some day do. 
I would suggest that, as to whether man 
should eat meat or an exclusively veget¬ 
able diet, it may be well briefly to survey 
man's origin, and consider what he came 
from and what he is. Man represents the 
apex of the pyramid of manifest creation, 
and into his making have entered, as nec¬ 
essary elements, all those factors below him. 
In the primeval mineral lay the unde¬ 
veloped vegetable, together with the Di¬ 
vine Urge to develop it. In the course 
of evolution along the plan and in due 
course of time, this was done. 
The vegetable, then, being the developed 
mineral in turn contained within itself the 
undeveloped animal and the Divine Urge to 
develop it. The animal arrived—the new¬ 
er and higher kingdom; but still, contain¬ 
ing the elements, and being representative, 
of thi> two lower, the vegetable and mineral, 
and holding, undeveloped, a still higher 
being, Man, along with the Divine Urge to 
develop him. This, also, was accomplished 
in the course of time, man was created in 
accordance with the Divine plan of evolu¬ 
tion, and man evolved from the three lower 
kingdoms or forms of matter; containing 
within himself, and being representative of, 
the materials of which he was built (as 
surely as a brick house is representative of 
its integral bricks) and also containing—- 
undeveloped—soul, together with the in¬ 
sistent Divine Urge to develop it, by earthly 
experience, into an immortal spiritual indi¬ 
vidual. Thus we lind man to-day as we see 
him every day. As a physical man out of 
the earth he came, of the earth he is, to the 
earth he returns. Of the mineral, the vege¬ 
table and the animal lie is constructed, lie 
represents all below him, as is the manifest 
order in all creation. His physical economy 
requires all these elements for success in 
the struggle for existence; in proportions, 
however, taring widely in different individ¬ 
uals. Man’s intellectual, magnetic and 
electrical attitude to the world vacillates 
from positive to negative as the animal or 
the vegetable dietetic element preponderates. 
Hare individual exceptions prove this a rule, 
but then there are sufficient other proofs to 
make it certain. We are still animals. We 
may as well face it. It is nothing to be 
ashamed of. We came by it honestly. It 
is a necessary stage in the great game. 
There are reasons for it. Hut it is only a 
stage. Progress is the slogan throughout 
creation, and as man grows more refined, 
more spiritual, the proportion of animal to 
vegetable food necessary will diminish ; less 
of all kinds will be needed. As it requires 
to dawn on us generally that love, justice, 
kindness, simplicity, are the only attributes 
of civilization worthy the name, the neces- 
sitv of a positive attitude toward our 
brother will vanish, and with it will go our 
daily meat. Some have perceived this 
dawn already and give unconscious evi¬ 
dence and its benign influence in their 
daily lives. Doubtless the Hope Farm man’s 
vegetarian friend is one of these developed 
souls, these reflections of Heaven on earth 
whose sweet simplicity and serene cheerful¬ 
ness radiate a blessed sunshine into the 
dark corners of this dear old earth with its 
multitudes of ignorant children groping 
blindly for elusive happiness without when 
the source of a’l happiness lies within, 
Maryland. John f. kbenan, m. d. 
I once told the trainer of a prize 
fighter that he could do a great thing 
by feeding his man on a vegetarian diet 
entirely Let him have no meat at all, 
and then if he could whip the other 
man a great demonstration would be 
made. The trainer replied that he 
knew he could fit his man on grains,- 
nuts and vegetables so that his flesh and 
wind and muscle would be perfect, but he 
would be too good-natured to fight! He 
must feed him on beef as nearly raw 
as possible in order to make him savage 
as well as strong. This agrees with 
what Dr. Keenan tells us, and it is prob- 
ablv the foundation of the whole matter. 
As business is now conducted most men 
feel that they must have something of 
the savagery of the prizefighter in order 
to hold their own . 
Farm Notes. —This weather should 
keep one away from meat if the above 
conclusions are right, for you do not 
need flesh to make you feel savage 
when the average record for a week is 
five rainy days, one cloudy and one part 
sunshine. Green peas and strawberries 
are more in line for such weather. The 
Nott’s Excelsior peas were planted 
early and made good vine, but they 
would not fill out until June 17. Then 
they tried to make up for lost time 
by coming all at once. The strawberry 
crop will be less than half what we ex¬ 
pected. The vines never were larger, 
but this very size of vine has proved 
a disadvantage, since the foliage held 
the moisture around the berries. I do 
not see how the fruit was able to rinen, 
but it did color up, though the flavor 
was poor and the berries are soft. Pick¬ 
ing has been done mostly in the rain— 
with rubber boots on. Since we have 
not been able to cut runners or pull 
weeds the field is getting to be a sad 
tangle. As soon as picking is done we 
shall mow off the tops and start the 
cultivators ripping up the middles. 
There will be a great cron of plants at 
least. We are not at all discouraged 
at the loss of our beautiful fruit. That 
comes as a part of the trade. Farming 
or fruit growing is not a business of one 
season but for life. The average of a 
term of years is what we figure on. 
Cherry picking is probably worse than 
picking berries in this wet weather. The 
tree is usually like a sponge, and the 
least jar brings down a shower. I 
doubt if we can get 20 per cent of our 
crops, what with birds, rot and wet. . 
I have told how the rye hay got past us 
this year. We like to cut it when in 
bloom for hay, but this year there was 
no possible way of curing it—so we let 
it go. It looks now like 12 tons or 
more of rye straw, and grain to match. 
As we shall not need the rye hay this 
will be a clear gain in cash—for that is 
what straw and grain mean. With what 
we have in sight for straw, hay and 
fodder, our barns cannot hold the crop. 
We shall not tear down and build great¬ 
er, but make a covered stack outdoors. 
The Alfalfa should have been cut about 
June 15, but there was no way of curing 
it. We are now going ahead with cut¬ 
ting at the first sign of the sun. First 
will come Alfalfa, then the Orchard 
grass in the big orchard and then the 
clover. We intend to cut and follow 
closely with the tedder, shaking the hay 
up thoroughly. It will be raked and 
cocked at night, and if the weather 
threatens a cap will be put on. The 
next day the cock will be opened and 
shaken up whenever the wind blows. I 
realize that hay making this year will 
be an anxious business, but that is all 
the more reason for staying by it. . . 
There is one flow of water that does me 
good, and that is the run out of our new 
drains. That runs freely with a good 
stream. That old “eyesore” which we 
never could plow except in a severe 
drought is now being turned over for 
late sweet corn. It plows up black and 
fine, and will be one of the best fields 
on the farm. This is the best argument 
for drainage I ever ran across. . . . 
We hoped to work those potatoes at 
least twice during the week ending June 
18 and spray once but we were unable 
to get into the field at all. Those pota¬ 
toes are on an old Alfalfa sod and ought 
to be cultivated thoroughly. The grass 
is gaining on us, but if we can only have 
a few days of sun and wind we will 
fix it. The potato vines are fine, but 
they ought to be sprayed. In spite of 
the hard season we never had at this 
time a better outlook for a potato crop. 
. . . The corn grows slowly. We 
planted about four acres more June 15. 
Our flint corn usually makes sound 
grain before frost when planted at this 
date. If we are to have any season at 
all this year it will be tacked on after 
Summer. That is what I bank on in 
planting late corn. We put tar on the 
seed corn as usual this year, and have 
had a curious experience with crows. 
They seem to have left all the corn 
alone except in one field. This is the 
peach orchard where we plowed half of 
the sod and planted corn as a test. In 
this orchard the crows pulled out over 
one-third of the corn. We replanted, 
and Mr. Crow came back, dug up the 
tarred corn and apparently liked it. 
Why these birds should work thorough¬ 
ly in this one field and fly over several 
other cornfields to get to it is too much 
for me. I see no way of handling them 
except to poison a few and hang them up 
as a warning. . . . My mails are 
prettv well filled with letters from peo¬ 
ple who are troubled about wet weather. 
Well, gentlemen, we can’t help it. Most 
of us would have less to trouble us if 
we had spent more time ditching and 
putting in stones or tile. I have had 
my lesson in drainage. Sure as you 
live a drought will follow this deluge. 
Let us get our crops in as well as we 
can and stand ready to keep some of 
this water in the soil for July and Aug¬ 
ust. We shall need it then. Hope 
Farm has lost the berry crop, but other 
things which we hardly expected will 
more than make it up, and you cannot 
induce us to find any fault. 
The following question is sent to the 
Hope Farm man: 
I have a 19 year old Ben Davis orchard 
on sandy gravelly soil with a heavy crop of 
clover. Shall I plow this clover under when 
in blossom, cut and let lie where it falls, 
cure it for hay, or let it go back on the 
ground of its own accord? This orchard 
has had a crop of apples every year since 
it was seven or eight years old. i. S. w. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
I can only answer from our condition 
here in New Jersey. This year is wet 
and we have hay enough. I should 
therefore cut the clover and let it re¬ 
main on the ground as a mulch. I 
should not care to plow under clover 
at this season. It would force too 
much growth on the trees. If I needed 
hay I should take part of this clover out, 
but I think the orchard will be better 
and that it will pay to leave it all on 
the ground. I am speaking of our con¬ 
ditions here. This is no general rule, 
for Wayne County has different condi¬ 
tions, and local practice may be differ¬ 
ent. 
Roys and Farms. —I heard Dean Rus¬ 
sell of Wisconsin the other day say that 
the best part of this “Back to the farm” 
movement was not in calling new people 
from town, but in making sure that 
more boys remained at home. He is 
right, and wherever I go it is evident 
that farmers are thinking this over. 
Here is a letter like dozens of others 
we receive: 
I bought at an auction a marc to drop a 
colt early in .Tunc. Our farm is small; we 
sell all except berries to the people. We 
have at present not more than one-fourth 
acre in grass; will have 1% acre in pas¬ 
ture next year, and we know only very little 
about horse raising. But we have two 
boys 17 and 14 years old who refuse to 
leave the farm. In order to make good 
farmers out of them we would like to raise 
a few colts. Do you think we can do it? 
New York. a. k. e. 
You cannot hope to do much with 
horse raising without good pasture. 
Your farm is small for this work. You 
might keep a team of brood mares, or 
get a couple of Shetlands for the boys, 
but good grass ought to go with colts. 
There is no doubt as to the value of a 
good colt as companion for a bov. He 
could hardly have a better four-footed 
friend. This letter shows what many 
farmers are thinking about. “Back to 
the farm” may be well enough, but 
“stick to the farm” is much better, and 
the right sort of plaster is needed to 
make the stick. n. w. c. 
July 2, 
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