©92 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKEK 
August 8, 
Hope Farm Notes 
C HILD BUSINESS.—The question of 
children and money is often discussed. 
Some people argue that the child should 
never be paid for the work it does, and 
have no individual property. Such peo¬ 
ple say the child should work (and they 
usually see that he does), but that he 
ought to work as a sort of obligation— 
receiving no money for his labor. At the 
other extreme I find people who say the 
child should not do any work, but receive 
an “allowance” for spending money. Per¬ 
sonally I would reject both propositions. 
I think every child should be taught to 
do some work. The man who grows up 
without being obliged to do some sort of 
labor will be a drone or a parasite all his 
days. On the other hand, no child should 
be forced to work all the time. Every¬ 
one is entitled to a childhood, and that 
means a fair proportion of care-free play. 
The trouble with many a man of 50 today 
is that he never did know how to play, 
and he is now too old to learn. He may 
have reached the condition where he need 
not work hard if he does not care to, but 
he never knew how to play, and that lack 
of knowledge affects his life and cuts 
down its enjoyment. 
I mean that our children shall both 
work and play in fair measure. As for 
telling a child that it is his duty to work 
all day to “pay for his board and cloth¬ 
ing,” I would not do it. You are respon¬ 
sible for the child’s being there in one 
way or another. lie is not responsible 
for his presence, and he is entitled to a 
fair chance. I think every child should 
have certain duties or chores to perform, 
and should be held up to them. He ought 
to do these things as his contribution to 
the home, and if it is put at him fairly 
he will do such work willingly. 
When it comes to real labor I would 
pay the child for doing it, or give him 
some little business of his own. For 
example, in picking fruit, I pay our chil¬ 
dren as I do others. I do not expect the 
little things to pick all day long, but they 
do a fair job and get their money like the 
rest. Out of this money they are ex¬ 
pected to buy a few things they need, and 
they bank the rest. Now I think it much 
better to pay these children and let them 
begin to think out business early rather 
than to have them work for nothing and 
provide all their necessities. When they 
see other children paid for picking or 
similar work while they get nothing, how 
can they take a full interest in the farm 
development? You may say that they 
will get their share later on—but will 
they get it? A dime in the fingers of a 
child is worth a dollar far off somewhere 
in the future. 
Little sums of money earned in this 
way and cemented together by sweat 
make a little bank account that will not 
be easily broken up. J. II. Hale tells of 
one of his boys who worked in this way 
and wanted to buy a new shirt. He was 
cultivating corn on a hot day, and as he 
went on up and down the rows he figured 
out just how many hot steps there were 
in that shirt. There were many more 
steps than stitches. It was far better for 
him to earn it in that way than to work 
for nothing and have the shirt given him. 
Labor is to be a curse or a joy to the 
grown-up man, according to the way he 
was made to look upon it when he was a 
boy. I have started our three small boys 
in a little business of their own. They 
organized a company known as 
The Hope Farm Boys 
One is president, another secretary 
and the other treasurer and general man¬ 
ager. In the Spring they planted 500 
Marshall strawberry plants three feet 
apart each way, with potatoes in between. 
Now they are digging the potatoes and 
potting plants for sale. They advertise 
in the local paper over their company 
name, keep their own accounts and do 
their own correspondence. The treasurer 
handles the money and divides with the 
others as often as he accumulates $3. 
They are likely to do a total business of 
$50 or more this season, as they own sev¬ 
eral apple trees which are well covered 
with fruit. This plan has worked out well 
thus far. These boys are not inclined 
to spend their money foolishly. They 
tie business and want to enlarge it. They 
have now come to one of the great prob¬ 
lems of business. Thus far they have 
done their own work, with such help as I 
have given them at odd hours. Now they 
begin to see that in an hour at potting 
plants they may make $2. With that 
money they could hire an Italian to do 
far more hoeing than they ever could, 
while they kept at the far more profitable 
work of plant production! Thus this lit¬ 
tle company comes up against the prob¬ 
lem of the ages—the relation of capital 
to labor. My plan is to encourage these 
little boys to increase their business slow¬ 
ly, keeping on a solid foundation, paying 
as they go and not attempting more than 
they can handle. 
Still Raining. —The daily showers 
kept up through July. Hardly a pound of 
the hay in our neighborhood escaped a 
soaking. By August 1 large fields of 
grass were still uncut. There are some 
farmers who prefer letting the grass 
stand until it goes to seed. They ought 
to be well satisfied this year—in fact, 
this has been a record-breaker for rain. 
On our heavy soil the long continued wet 
has started a tremendous growth of 
weeds. As we could not work the ground 
properly these weeds got the start in 
some places, and we are up against a 
hard proposition. In some of the peach 
orchards these weeds are waist high. 
For the Summer this is as good a cover 
crop as we want. Cultivating or plowing 
now would be the worst thing we could 
do for the peach crop. It would be a 
direct invitation to brown rot and a lot 
of other diseases. In fact this growth 
of weeds has been about the best thing 
that could happen to some of our peach 
varieties, by stopping the rapid growth of 
wood. We shall cut around these trees 
with a scythe and let the cuttings lie on 
the ground. Then after picking, if it 
seems best, we can work up the soil 
with the Cutaway and seed to rye. The 
truth is that on a number of acres the 
balance of our hoeing and cultivating will 
be with a scythe. The soil is now well 
filled with moisture, and will mature its 
crops. With everything piling upon men 
and horses at once we cannot hope to 
clean up our fields completely. If we 
can cut off the weeds before seeding and 
let them lie on the ground we can work 
faster than with a hoe, save the crops 
and add something to the soil. Rather 
slovenly farming, you will say, but there 
will come times when it is necessary to 
do strange things in order to fit the 
weather. 
she tries to pull back she tightens the 
slip noose around her body and she will 
soon go ahead in order to slacken it. 
Still another scheme is a sort of harness 
used on horses that “back” when they 
are tied. This is a leather strap with 
sharp tacks driven through it put around 
behind the rump. It is held in place so 
that when the eOw throws herself back 
she gets into these tacks. If I were start¬ 
ing with another cow I would put a rope 
around her horns, fasten a blanket over 
her eyes and tie her behind a wagon. 
Hill Strawberries.—H ere is a note 
from an Indiana man: 
I tried your advice given last year 
about strawberries, and this year raised 
berries that made people open their eyes. 
Plants grew a foot high and held berries 
up off ground in a great many instances, 
but they got away from me and grew 
nearly solid. Will try to do better next 
time; the hill system for me. Our berries 
brought 15 cents when others sold for 
eight and 10 in Ft. Wayne. This mar¬ 
ket gets very few fancy berries. ii. H. 
The hill system of putting the plants 
wide apart and keeping the runners cut 
off works well with some varieties, but 
would not answer for all. Some varie¬ 
ties are very free plant-makers, and they 
ought to be grown in matted rows in or¬ 
der to obtain best results from them. I 
advise the hill system only for those va¬ 
rieties which naturally make few runners. 
Even with these it is a great job to keep 
the runners ocA off and only a few patient 
growers will carry the system through. 
No doubt about it, this is the way to 
grow fancy fruit. h. w. c. 
“Aunt Chloe, do you think you are a 
Christian?” asked a preacher of an old 
negro woman who was smoking a pipe. 
“Yes, brudder, I ’speets I is.” “Do you 
believe in the Bible?” “Yes, brudder.” 
“Do you know there is a passage in the 
Scriptures that declares that nothing un¬ 
clean shall inherit the Kingdom of Heav¬ 
en?” “Yes, I’se heard it.” “Well, you 
smoke, and there is nothing so unclean 
as the breath of a smoker. So what do 
you say to that?” “Well, when I go dere 
I speets to leave my breff behind me.”— 
Now Orleans Picayune. 
Victrola IV, $15 
Other styles $25 to $200 
Outdoors as well 
as indoors, the 
Victrola is the ideal 
entertainer. 
On your porch or down on your 
lawn, you can enjoy your favorite 
music at any time. 
Hear the Victrola at any Victor deal¬ 
er’s. Write to us for cata¬ 
logs. 
Victor Talking 
Machine Company 
Camden, N. J. 
Berliner Gramophone Co.. 
Montreal, Canadian Distributors 
ROOFING 
$2.90 PerSq. 
GALVANIZED 
Write for (’at. "C” and price del. your station. 
GRIFFIN LUMBER CO., Box 99. Hudson Falls, New York 
ROOFING 
-85 CENTS ROLL— 108 Feet, 
Nails, Cement. RUBBER ROOFING 
CO., 5 Cortlandt St.. New York 
£ Q ROSE l*' ai ' ra Agency sells farms, 
w “ send for new bargain list. 
STATE S WARREN STS., TRENTON, N. J. ESTABLISHED 1908 
Handy 
Binder 
TUST the thing for pr*- 
** serving files of Th* 
Rural New-Yorker. Dura¬ 
ble and cheap. Sent post¬ 
paid for 25 cents. 
The Rural New-Yorker, 
333 W. 30th St., N. Y. City. 
Potato and Rye. —Those late planted 
potatoes are growing well thus far. They 
make tall upright stalks and grow faster 
than any potatoes I have seen before. 
They have been cultivated twice, and will 
now be hilled up. People who have tried 
this late planting tell me that small un¬ 
cut potatoes are best. I took what was 
left over from the earlier seed. Our regu¬ 
lar crop is the most promising we have 
ever grown. Two acres at the back of 
the farm, planted in a young apple or¬ 
chard, are certainly hiding their talents 
in the earth in a way calculated to win a 
prize. We could not get all our rye cut 
before the rains flooded and some of it 
began to shell out. One big field at the 
back of the farm is in this condition. In¬ 
stead of trying to cut dead-ripe grain 
we shall chop the whole thing right into 
the soil with the Cutaway heavily loaded 
down. This will re-seed the field and 
work in most of the straw. Next year 
the soil will be in good condition for 
planting a peach orchard of new varieties 
which I intend to try out. 
Leading A Cow. —Here is a question 
which certainly appeals to me: 
Can any of the renders of The R. N.- 
Y. tell me how to lead a cow that never 
had a rope on her? j. A. D. 
Eastport, Me. 
I had an experience trying to lead a 
Florida cow some years ago. We got the 
cow home, but I never claimed that we 
did the job in any scientific way. Since 
then a number of good cow men have told 
us how to do it. One way is to blindfold 
the cow. Tie a coat or blanket over her 
head and face. Unable to see she will fol¬ 
low the halter and rope. Another way is 
to use two ropes—one round her neck 
each have a bank account, and when they or horns. Make a slip noose of the other 
are a litle older I shall start them with and put it around the cow’s waist. Bring 
a check book to make their payments by the end up between her front legs and 
checks. They are interested in their lit- fasten to the back of the wagon. When 
E. Frank Coe Fertilizers 
1QC7 THE BUSINESS FARMERS’ STANDARD 1Q1A 
lOO / FOR OVER FIFTY-FIVE YEARS 1 
Are You Planning to 
Increase or Cut Down 
Your Success? 
"VA/ITH the present prospect of bountiful 
▼ * harvests this fall should come a full 
realization of the enormous stores of plant 
food consumed by crops in their growing. 
Successful Crops Can Be Maintained Only 
By the Same Forces or Elements That Have 
Been Growing Your Good Crops in the Past 
To insure better crops in the future and to guard against so-called 
soil-exhaustion ” you should use an abundance of the right kinds 
of plant foods for late summer and fall seeding. 
No doubt your chief interest is in profits from your farm and the 
experience of fifty-seven years has shown thousands of farmers that 
E. FRANK COE FERTILIZERS are real profit makers. Are you not 
willing to have these superior fertilizers prove this on your farm ? 
It will pay you handsomely to give especial 
attention to your grass seeding which should be 
done not later than September 1st, in order to 
get the best results. 
When actual figures show a net gain of $33.33 per 
acre, per year as the result of proper fertilization of 
hay fields, do you not think it is well worth while? 
You ought to have a copy of our booklet, “Seed¬ 
ing to Grass and Clover/’ written by one of the 
greatest farm workers in the country. The illus- 
p trations relative to plowing ought to be worth 
$100.00 to any farmer. 
A copy of this booklet is yours for the asking if you will 
mention the name of your farm paper when you write. 
THE COE-MORTIMER COMPANY, 51 Chambers St., New York 
Business Established 1857 
j 
