752 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
“The first thing J did when T got home 
teas to take on ax and knock out the 
head of the hard cider barrel and then 
pour the stuff on the ground .” 
This is taken from a letter written by 
a young farmer to a probation officer in 
one of the Western States. This man 
and several of his neighbors drank hard 
cider until they became drunk and went 
on a spree. If you are interested in com¬ 
paring the various forms of intoxication, 
you will find that a hard cider drunk is 
about the meanest and most brutal form 
of the whole long range of outrages 
against fruit or grain. A man drunk on 
hard cider may lack something of the 
fierce fight of whisky, and he may not be 
quite so musical or as much of an orator 
as a man drunk on beer. When it comes 
to downright beastly brutality, the cider 
drunk would take the medal. I have had 
no personal experience, but plenty of ob¬ 
servation. This man and his companions 
got their inspiration from the hard cider 
barrel, and then went out on the war¬ 
path, destroying property, fighting, abus¬ 
ing the neighbors and making themselves 
a nuisance generally. They were arrest¬ 
ed, tried and convicted, and were sen¬ 
tenced to two years or more in prison. 
A New C fiance. —The probation offi¬ 
cer, a man who has real sympathy with 
such offenders, and who regards his office 
as a serious thing and not as a joke, sug¬ 
gested that these farmers be put on pro¬ 
bation and not sent to prison. He knew 
that a prison term would ruin them and 
make them unproductive citizens for the 
rest of their lives. The judge was in¬ 
clined to think that these hard cider pun¬ 
ishers ought to go to jail, but he finally 
put them on probation. They went back 
to the farm and the first letter to the pro¬ 
bation officer contained the statement 
printed above. These men have thus far 
lived up to their promise. They have 
gone to work honestly, and the chances 
are that they will live up to it. 
Honest Probation Officers. —There 
is a good deal said about this matter of 
putting men on probation and keeping 
them out of jail, so that they may work 
out their own reform. We hear some 
reports from cynical people who say that 
the plan will not work. They give us 
cases where these probationers have gone 
back arid fallen. In the great majority of 
cases this will be in part at least due to 
the probation officer. Some of these offi¬ 
cers regard their job as a cross between a 
joke and a political graft. Such men can¬ 
not feel real sympathy for prisoners. 
They do not take personal interest in 
them. The prisoners know it, and who 
can wonder that they do not try to be 
Straight? On the other hand there are 
probation officers who honestly take a per¬ 
sonal interest in their “school.” as it is 
called. These men follow up the prison¬ 
ers who are put in their charge, take a 
personal interest, and do their best to 
carry out their obligation to the law and 
to society. When the business is handled 
in this way, a vast amount of good can 
be done through the probation office, and 
it would be possible to give many in¬ 
stances where men who have unfortun¬ 
ately slipped on the pathway, came back 
when given a new opportunity and make 
good. 
Hard Cider Reform. —One thing more 
about this hard cider business. The man 
who wrote that letter made a resolution 
and backed it up with action. There are 
plenty of people who are willing to sign 
the pledge or say that they will never 
drink liquor again, and yet they cannot 
bring themselves to the thought of de¬ 
stroying the liquor in their possession. 
These men would do better to take an ax 
and knock the top out of the hard cider 
barrel and pour the contents into sandy 
soil where it would never be seen again. 
That is a simple form of self-denial or 
sacrifice which should go along with the 
pledge, for the pledge is worth very little 
unless it is backed up with some personal 
sacrifice of this sort. M.v sentiments on 
the hard cider question are well known. 
Many a man and woman have seen their 
boy go wrong and blamed the saloon for 
it. The thing which started the boy was 
the barrel of hard cider open to all in the 
cellar. I would much rather have a bar¬ 
rel of gunpowder down under the house 
than a barrel of hard cider where the 
boys could help themselves to it. If you 
lock it up for your own use and keep the 
boys away from it, what are those boys 
going to think of you? 
Suffrage and Texts. —I have a letter 
from an old friend of The R. N.-Y.. who 
challenges me to a debate on suffrage. 
This debate, he says, must be limited to 
texts taken from the Bible. As I un¬ 
derstand him, we are to quote the Bible 
at. each other—he to show, if he can, that 
the Good Book opposes votes for women. 
Perhaps I do not clearly understand him, 
but that seems to be his rule for the de¬ 
bate. I fear I must decline the challenge, 
for with such limitation of debate I fear 
it would be like some college professor 
arguing with a boy in a district school. 
My friend would have me at a great dis¬ 
advantage, for the truth must be told 
that I am not as strong as I ought to be 
on these Bible texts. I havri no desire to 
argue the question anyway. I am satis¬ 
fied to let it grow as I believe it will. 
Another friend is after me hard because I 
expressed the opinion that this suffrage 
for women is sure to come finally. Ap¬ 
parently some of these good people think 
it is a criminal offense for a man to have 
an opinion which differs from their own. 
An opinion is worth only the knowledge, 
experience and vision which lies back of 
it. Maybe I am short-sighted and not 
well informed on this matter, hut from 
what I can gather the tendency is strong¬ 
ly toward the idea that women should 
have the right to vote if they want to. I 
am going to keep good-natured over it, 
and not get into any argument—especial¬ 
ly when I am limited to texts. 
Farm Notes. —Thus far May has been 
cold, with several raw and chilly rains. 
There have been no frosts and work has 
gone on well. We are ahead of former 
years. You may remember a strawberry 
experiment we tried last year. One bed 
had been picked five years and was too 
foul with weeds to make another cleaning 
pay. So as soon as picking was done this 
field was plowed and potatoes planted. 
This was just before the Fourth of July. 
The potatoes grew on and gave a fair 
crop, which was dug in late September. 
As soon as they were out the soil was 
chopped up with the Cutaway and potted 
plants of Marshall strawberry set out in 
the usual way. As the Fall was late 
these plants rooted well and were mulched 
in December. They all lived through the 
Winter and are now growing in great 
shape, nearly all of them showing one good 
spray of bloom—which should make five 
or six good berries. Of course, this is 
nothing unusual for gardeners, but it 
merely shows what can be done on rich 
soil. Many a man can make more at this 
close planting on a small area than he 
ever could on a large farm. . . . An¬ 
other “condensed garden” scheme is on 
a small patch back of the house. Last 
Spring we set Marshall plants three feet 
apart each way ; in between the plants we 
put Irish Cobbler potatoes. These were 
dug in August and runners from the 
strawberry plants put in pots. These 
potted plants were sold and the parent 
plants left in large hills. This Spring 
the patch was cleaned up and a row of 
Bribetaker onion plants set between the 
strawberry rows. The berries have goad 
bloom and ought to give a crop. We are 
able to irrigate this patch from our spring 
water works and an abundance of water 
will surely be needed to carry these 
double crops through. . . . Our trade 
in asparagus roots ran far beyond our 
plans. We sold out early, and were 
obliged to return money—which. I judge, 
is the hardest thing a nurseryman has to 
do. We are planning for three times the 
supply next year—the seed is already 
planted. We may have some of the seed 
to dispose of also next year. We find our 
soil well adapted to this crop and high- 
grade asparagus roots are in great de¬ 
mand. ... I never saw anything 
grow faster than these Alfalfa seedlings 
after they once start. At this moment it 
seems as if this plan of transplanting Al¬ 
falfa would solve the problem on our farm. 
The Spring-sown Alfalfa has a hard 
struggle on our weedy land, and that 
sown in late Summer does not usually 
fasten itself down into our soil. These 
big seedlings started in Spring, and culti¬ 
vated. ought to make good. Are we not 
wasting space in setting them three feet 
apart? Not if the pictures of fair speci¬ 
mens of these Russian varieties are cor¬ 
rect. The plant seems to broaden out 
and form a hill. One such plant gave 
nearly IS pounds of green fodder in two 
cuttings. If a hill of corn planted three 
feet each way could average 10 pounds 
green weight we should have nearly 25 
tons of silage per acre. I think we shall 
come more and more to this transplanting 
of Alfalfa seedlings. It ought to be a 
good way for poultrymen to provide green 
feed and roughage for their flocks—to set 
out 300 or more of these plants. 
No one but our women folks can tell what 
a blessing the water from our spring has 
proved. This spring is on the hillside 
1.200 feet from the house. We have piped 
the water down so that it runs into the 
house tank and would if need be run 10 
feet above the roof. It is always on tap. 
For a time the pipes discolored this 
water, but now it runs clear. I am think¬ 
ing of connecting this pipe from the 
spring to the hot water boiler and letting 
this cold water circulate through the en¬ 
tire radiator system and then pass off 
through a hose to be used for irrigation. 
I think it would cool the house or parts 
of it on hot days. My folks are inclined 
to scoff at the scheme, but an expert 
plumber says it will work. h. w. C. 
Keeping Nitrate of Soda. 
Can nitrate of soda be kept over a year 
and not lose strength? r. c. h. 
New Windsor. Md. 
If kept under cover and dry so that it 
will not melt, nitrate of soda will not lose 
any plant food. The organic forms of ni¬ 
trogen might decay or ferment and give 
off ammonia. The nitrogen in the nitrate 
is a mineral, and would not ferment in 
this way. If it become wet, or is in a 
position where water will run through it, 
some of the nitrogen would be washed out 
and lost, but if kept dry and reasonably 
cool there would be no loss from year to 
year. The nitrate might lump or “cake” 
Goodrich “Fair-Listed” Prices 
constitute the standard by which the 
prices of other tires must be judged. 
Goodrich Leadership is more 
firmly established today than it has 
ever been in the past. 
Goodrich Tires are better this 
year than we have ever been able to 
make them before. 
May 29, 1915. 
under some conditions, and then it would 
be necessary to crush it before spreading, 
but there will be practically no loss ex¬ 
cept through soaking and leaching. 
Phosphate Rock from Europe. 
Enclosed is clipping from a local paper. 
Has Germany shipped any phosphate 
rock at any time to this country? I ad¬ 
mit Germany ships potash, but not phos¬ 
phate. E. R. 
Ouray, Col. 
The clipping is as follows: 
Before the European war started, Ger¬ 
many was furnishing most of the phos¬ 
phate used for fertilizing in this country 
and did so at a price that made it impos¬ 
sible profitably to work the local phos¬ 
phate beds, which cover an area of about 
5,000 acres in Ouray County. 
It would be hard to think of greater 
nonsense about fertilizers. Germany 
shipped some basic slag phosphate to this 
country but instead of sending us phos¬ 
phate rock imported large quantities of it 
for her own use. 
Making A Good Lawn Quickly.— 
On soil previously well fertilized and cul¬ 
tivated sow oats at the rate of six or 
more bushels per acre, and seed heavily 
with mixed grasses and White clover. 
As soon as oats are up three or four 
inches, begin running the lawn mower 
and keep at. it as long and as often as 
necessary to keep it green. If left to 
grow too long it will begin to turn yel¬ 
low, which should be avoided. When the 
oats are dead, which will be September 
or October, the clover and grasses will 
take their place and keep growing, mak¬ 
ing a good lawn from about May 10. If 
lawn is to be made in late Summer use 
rye instead of oats, about four bushels 
per acre. allen marsh. 
Pennsylvania. 
Little Robert was very bright and at 
the end of his first term at school was 
promoted to the second grade. He was 
much attached to his first-grade teacher. 
“Miss Eva,” he said with tears in bis 
eyes, “I do wish you knew enough to 
teach second grade, so I wouldn't have 
to leave you!”—Woman’s Journal. 
You know the superiority of 
Goodrich Tires. You also know about 
Goodrich “Fair-Listed” Prices — the 
prices that have knocked out the pad¬ 
ding for the Benefit of Tire Buyers. 
You know, too, that the verdict is 
overwhelmingly in faver of Goodrich 
Safety Tread Tires. 
THE B. F. GOODRICH COMPANY, Akron, Ohio 
Makers of Everything that’s Best in Rubber L 
The Verdict 
— convincingly and overwhelmingly 
for Goodrich 
The B. F. Goodrich Company alone through the 
daily press of January 31st gave to the consuming pub¬ 
lic the most sweeping reduction ever made in tire prices. 
This established the only genuine Fair-List in existence 
on non-skid tires today. 
Goodrich prices were dated 
February 1st, in ordinary 
course. Other tires were re¬ 
duced in prices a few days 
later and the reduction dated 
back to February 1st. 
Every real price-reduction 
on tires has followed the lead 
of Goodrich. 
We knew we were right. 
We knew that the dealers 
would know it as soon as our 
plan was put to the test. 
Hundreds of dealers who 
have been dividing their busi¬ 
ness have notified us that they 
have decided to sell Goodrich 
“Fair-Listed” Tires exclusively. 
Tire Standards have from 
the first been set by Goodrich 
Products. 
Goodrich Safety Tread 
Tires are today, as they have 
always been the Standard by 
which the merits of all Non- 
Skid Tires are measured. 
Only 5 % PLUS for the Best 
Non-Skid 
Goodrich Safety Treads give more mileage than 
our own (or My other) smooth tread tires, at only 
the 5 " more cost to you. Note comparative table 
of prices on Non-Skid Tires showing other brands 
costing from 10# to 30 # more than Safety Treads 
Tbit 
is the 
Famous 
Goodrich Safety Tread 
The 
standard by 
which all other 
non-skids are jndged 
Size 
Goodrich 
Safety 
Tread 
OTHER MAKES 
“A” 
"B” 
“C” 
«•£>» 
30x3 
30x334 
32x3)4 
34x4 
36x4)4 
37x5 
$ 9.45 
12.20 
14.00 
20.35 
28.70 
33.90 
$10.55 
13.35 
15.40 
22.30 
32.15 
39.80 
$10.95 
14.20 
16.30 
23.80 
33.60 
41.80 
$16.35 
21.70 
22.85 
31.15 
41.85 
49.85 
$18.10 
23.60 
25.30 
33.55 
41.40 
52.05 
