222 
Hope Farm Notes 
W HAT books are you reading this 
Winter? These long nights in the 
country give a farmer a good chance to 
read and think. lie must have a good 
light of some sort and be able to borrow 
or buy some good books. In every coun¬ 
try town there will be found a good col¬ 
lection of books. If you could only get 
them together and pass them around 
they would do untold good. As a rule 
they are locked up in some bookcase 
or library where they gather dust when 
they ought to be wiping the dust off 
dozens of human minds. A good book 
ought to have wings. Too often its very 
feet are cut off by the foolish theory 
that they must be put away to look at— 
as they did the wedding cake when I 
was a boy. I do not have half as much 
time for reading as I would like, but I 
plan to get inside some good book for a 
few moments at least each day. Up on 
the shelves stand an array of the world’s 
great characters. Their bodies have long 
since gone to dust, but the mind, which 
was the best of them, still lives and 
speaks to us in books. I will shut my 
eyes and take a volume at random out 
of Dr. Eliot's “Five-foot shelf of books.” 
It turns out to be Yol. 38, “Scientific 
Papers.” On the first page I find “The 
Oath of Hippocrates.” Here was a man 
who lived nearly 500 years B. C. What 
can such an old back number have for 
us to-day? This “oath” is what he swore 
to when he became a physician. You 
cannot improve on the following: 
‘'Whatever in connection with■ my pro¬ 
fessional practice or not in connection 
with it I see or hear in life of man, ichich 
ought not to he spoken of abroad, J will 
not divulge, as reckoning that all such 
should be kept secret /” 
Now suppose you and I and all the 
rest of us lived right up to that and shut 
off all scandal, back-biting and retailing 
of the poor, mean things of human na¬ 
ture. “The evil one” would be out of a 
job. Others would keep on doing it, you 
say? All the more reason why you should 
take this oath—over 2,000 years old— 
and live up to it. Some of these wise old 
timers had a knowledge of men which 
convinces us that human nature is as 
old and enduring as the rocks and hills. 
The rocks are slowly ground up, and the 
hills are leveled to make fruitful ground. 
The forces of thought do the same for 
human nature. Just now thousands of 
farmers are deeply interested in the po¬ 
tato situation. They know how to grow 
the crop, but their cellars are full, with 
little demand, while hungry people are 
being fed on charity in the cities. The 
problem right now is not how to raise 
more potatoes, but how to induce city 
people to buy and eat more of the pres¬ 
ent crop. A good book to read now is 
‘The Potato,” by Grubb and Guilford. This 
covers the entire subject, and is particu¬ 
larly strong on the food value. I)r. 
Kellogg shows that the potato is not only 
a most desirable food, but in its way a 
“food remedy.” It appears that potato 
well cooked and chewed is useful for peo¬ 
ple who suffer from “bilious” attacks, 
and it also helps in cases of rheumatism 
and similar troubles. Dr. Kellogg says 
that the free use of potatoes in place of 
the excessive use of meat and fish would 
check the great development of harden¬ 
ing of the arteries and other forms of 
heart disease with what develops from 
them. 
There is another strong argument for 
the potato in Dana’s “Two Years Before 
the Mast.” Coming up the South Amer¬ 
ican coast from California the men were 
stricken with scurvy—two of them so bad 
that they had lost hope and could not 
get up. They met a ship from the Con¬ 
necticut River with potatoes and onions 
and were able to buy some of the vege¬ 
tables. One of the scurvy patients 
gnawed the raw potatoes and soon re¬ 
covered. The other was so badly gone 
that he could hardly open his mouth. 
They smashed raw potatoes and gave 
him the juice to hold in his mouth and 
swallow. He was enabled in this way to 
open his mouth and eat first raw po¬ 
tatoes crushed to a pulp and then cooked 
food. In 10 days with no other medicine 
he was at work about the ship. I could 
quote from dozens of books to show what 
potatoes have done in feeding and curing 
TME KL'KAL 
humanity. A number of foolish fad 
makers have been telling the public that 
the potato should not be eaten, and they 
have done us great injury. A campaign 
should be started at once in every town 
and city where there is a newspaper to 
make people see the value of potatoes as 
food and the need of disposing of the 
crop. 
Those who like to read about the 
history of agriculture will be interested 
in “English Farming, Past and Present,” 
by Prothero. This starts with the earliest 
records of soil cultivation in England, 
and traces the development of farming 
to the present time. There have been 
mighty struggles in England over the 
ownership of land and the rights of the 
small proprietor. At the (tart war lords 
or chiefs lived in castles or forts, each 
with his gang of lazy cutthroats about 
him. Scattered about his castle w T ere 
farms on which men worked to grow food 
to sustain the chief and his robbers. In 
return for this slavish service the farmers 
were “protected” from other robbers 
while being robbed by the home gang. 
They had the pleasure of wearing their 
lives out against the soil and raising 
boys to serve as soldiers and girls to 
be sold into worse than slavery. For 
1,000 years or more the English farm 
problem was a struggle to understand 
what this system meant and to get away 
from it. These farmers did not need to 
be “protected.” The “wars” were private 
fights between these war. chiefs, and 
involved no advantage to the farmers. 
The farmers in one section had the same 
needs and desires as the farmers who 
raised food for some other “war lords.” 
Get these farmers together and they 
needed no “protection,” while they could 
have thrown off the lazy fighting drones 
and put them at work. Because they 
were separated and had no way of get¬ 
ting together to assert their rights they 
kept on for centuries supporting their 
“masters” in this way. Finally gun¬ 
powder blew down the strongholds and 
the “man on horseback” came down to 
earth. Long years had made him a part 
of the “ruling class,” and he kept right 
on ruling through politics, business or 
“finance.” You see the changes and de¬ 
velopments of agriculture have mostly 
been forced upon it from the outside by 
other interests. 
I hope that some day there will be 
written the story of American farming 
by a man or woman with great, broad 
mind capable of grasping this same idea. 
What a story that will be! Starting 
with the most independent and self- 
sustaining class of people the world ever 
saw, we shall see how step by step these 
early settlers came to find themselves 
dominated by other interests and de¬ 
pendent upon other classes which have 
grown up at the water powers and rail¬ 
road centres on the very money which 
these farmers dug out of the soil and 
sent away from the farm for investment. 
Then we shall see how men realized what 
had been done and turned about to 
change it. What an opportunity for 
some great historian! 
Another hopeful and useful book along 
this line is “Rural Denmark and Its 
Lessons,” by II. Rider Haggard. Some 
of you may have read the weird romances 
which Mr. Haggard wrote about South 
Africa. In their way the statements of 
what little Denmark has done at co¬ 
operative farming will seem almost as 
fanciful to the average American farmer. 
There are some localities in this country 
where much the same plans could be 
worked out. The great war in Europe is 
likely to change social conditions, and it 
will be interesting to see what <ft'ect it 
will have upon co-operative work. It is 
generally understood that such associa¬ 
tions belong to peace. What will war do 
to them? 
I find more interest than ever this year 
in the study of manures and fertilizers. 
All seem to agree that any grain from 
which bread can be made is sure to be 
high. The same is true of meats, and 
there is a generally hopeful feeling that 
food of all sorts will be in fair demand. 
The present condition of the potato mar¬ 
ket shows that we cannot be sure of the 
law of supply and demand. We have got 
to create a stronger demand. Still. I 
have never known the time when so many 
farmers want to study the fertilizer ques¬ 
tion. The shortage of potash is partly 
responsible. There is no question about 
N E W -VOKKKK 
this shortage. The best way to prove it 
is to try to buy a few tons from any 
fertilizer dealer. You will be charged 
$70 or more per ton, and very f( ’innate 
if you get it at any price. The question 
of how to meet this potash famine has 
sent thousands of farmers to studying. 
I read “Fertilizers and Manures,” by 
A. D. Hall over and over, and get some¬ 
thing new from it each time. It is a 
great book. Another great book is “Fer¬ 
tilizer and Crops,” by Prof. L. L. Van 
Slyke. This is strong on the effect which 
various fertilizing materials have upon 
different crops. There is a fine table of 
analyses and just the data you want for 
comparing various plants or manures. 
Still another good one is “Manures and 
Fertilizers,” by Prof. II. J. Wheeler. 
This gets at the subject from still an¬ 
other point of view, and it is strong on 
the work which our American experi¬ 
ment stations have done. 
There are dozens of other books that 
I would like to speak of and which ought 
to interest a farmer. I get very little 
chance to read fiction. There are some 
great new stories which I would like to 
read, since they give a powerful study 
of human character, which after all, is 
February 13, 
the foundation of society. I cannot get 
time to read them. I presume we all 
have favorite works which have grown 
upon us around some hobby or prejudice 
or affliction. Two of such books which 
appeal to me are “Deafness and Cheer¬ 
fulness,” by Dr. Jackson, and “Lip 
Reading.” by Edward B. Nitchie. My 
correspondence shows that hundreds of 
our readers are deaf or losing their hear¬ 
ing. Every such person should read 
“Deafness and Cheerfulness”—read it as 
often as a pure-blooded Y’ankee reads 
“Snow Bound.” It is a beautiful piece 
of literature and full of good cheer. 
Most of the deaf can never expect to 
hear perfectly again. For many of them 
“Lip Reading” will point a way out of 
their affliction. There are people who 
have not heard a sound for years, yet 
by following the speaker’s lips they are 
able to “hear” all he says. It is a fine 
and interesting study. But here I am at 
the end of my space. I wish I could 
talk to you about some other books, but 
I must turn to the only occupation I 
know of in which two articles can oc¬ 
cupy the same space—draw up to the 
fire and eat a couple of baked apples! 
n. w. c. 
r 
E. Frank Coe Fertilizers 
1857 
THE BUSINESS FARMERS’ STANDARD 
FOR OVER FIFTY-FIVE YEARS 
1915 
YOUR OPPORTUNITY 
The editor of one of our leading agricultural papers writes us under 
date ot January 12th, 1915, as follows 
<( I an} doing all I can to induce farmers to plant grain crops this year. 
Grain is very high and it is going higher. Wheat is going to $2.00 
per bushel and other grains will share in the advance. Wheat costs $2.50 
per 100 pounds now, and pound for pound oats cost as much. 
It .seems to me that the eastern farmer’s salvation is to buy plant 
food and grow Com, Wheat, Oats, Barley and Buckwheat. 
Last fall 1 doubled my acreage of winter wheat and this spring I 
shall triple the acreage of oats. 1 managed to produce 40 bushels of 
wheat to the acre, and sold the straw at $ I 7.00 per ton in the barn.” 
tidir iEunttttg j^utt 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 80, 1915 
SEES $2 WHEAT 
I N TE N DAYS 
Chicagoan Says That Is Senti¬ 
ment on Market There. 
The developments in the wheat situa¬ 
tion to-day were : The prediction that 
the commodity would soon touch $2 a 
bushel ; the introduction to a House 
committee of the Manahan resolution 
for a Congressional investigation into 
the lluctuation of price, and the virtual 
decision of Chicago bakers to raise the 
price of bread to 6 cents a loaf. Wheat 
went to $1.50 to-day shortly after the 
opening on the Chicago Exchange. 
The price of wheat will go to $2 a 
bushel soon, according to S. M. Hast¬ 
ings, vice-president of the Illinois Man¬ 
ufacturing Association. 
Chicago, Tan. 30. —May wheat sold 
on the local Board of Trade to-dav for 
$1.52 per bushel. At one time July 
wheat sold at $1.35 per bushel. 
May corn closed at 82 cents and 
July corn at 833^ cents per bushel, both 
new records for the crop. Oats, also, 
set new high season records by closing 
at 60J6 cents per bushel for May and 
58)4 cents for July options. 
IT WILL PAY YOU TO TOP DRESS YOUR WHEAT 
Be sure that you buy 
E. Frank Coe Fertilizers 
They are Available Plant Foods that more than meet the most 
exacting requirements, giving plump, sound, full heads of grain and vigorous, 
healthy straw. 
Eastern users of E. Frank Coe Fertilizers are raising 40 bushels of 
wheat to the acre. The average for the United States for three years is 
1 4 nr bushels to the acre. 
THE OPPORTUNITY IS YOURS! WILL YOU MAKE THE MOST OF IT ? 
Write us and mention The Rural New-Yorker. 
THE COE-MORTIMER COMPANY, 51 ChambersSt.,N.Y. 
