848 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Donation Day. —June 11 was dona¬ 
tion day at Hope Farm. Some years ago 
I had a little experience inside the works 
of politics. • The day before election was 
then known as “dough day,” when money 
for “election purposes” was given out! 
That is a form of “donation” which 
seemed very sour to me, and so we now 
use strawberries. As soon as we begin 
to say the strawberry crop escaped the 
frost Mother comes forward with a list 
of parties who are to have a crate or so 
free. I think she waits until we begin 
to tell about the great superiority of the 
Marshall variety. Naturally the anti¬ 
dote to a tendency to use “guff” in ad¬ 
vertising is a gentle call for a donation. 
Have I not seen various blowhards who 
began to crow about their prosperity sud¬ 
denly chilled by a request to head a sub¬ 
scription list to pay the minister’s sal¬ 
ary? At any rate, this was donation day, 
with three crates wanted for the Old La¬ 
dies’ Home and half a crate for the Sun¬ 
day school festival. 
Willing Workers. —Merrill had gone 
away to attend a wedding—not his own, 
however—and I had been selected as the 
proper person to boss the donation job— 
for I find that donations need bossing as 
well as duns. The berries are late this 
year, as the cold weather has held them 
back, and I knew it would be long pick¬ 
ing to get good ones. Some folks think 
it good business to run in the culls and 
small ones for a donation, but that will 
act on your fruit trade about as flat 
dough without yeast would affect a hun¬ 
gry man. Your customers, who pay for 
berries, do not always advertise your 
goods, but those who buy berries at a 
charitable “supper” will go home and 
tell about it. Suppose a man paid 25 
cents for an oyster stew at a church sup¬ 
per and found eight big fat oysters in it! 
He would go and spread the good news 
wherever he went, and the fishman who 
provided those oysters would have a 
great run of trade. I think it good busi¬ 
ness to put the finest Marshalls we can 
grow into these donation crates. I was 
up a little after five and got out the three 
hoys. They were very willing to come. 
No use rousing Mother out. She will do 
her part at the other end of the day, 
waiting on the table and looking dignified 
as one of the managers. We all got a 
piece of bread and a good drink of water 
and started for the field. 
Picking. —There are several ways of 
picking berries. Some people grab the 
berry and pull it off as they would milk 
a cow. That smashes the berry and 
often rips out an entire spray of fruit. 
We make our pickers nip off the stem 
with the thumb and finger nails and put 
in the box without touching the berry at 
all. That saves both plant and fruit. 
Other pickers seem to think berry pick¬ 
ing is a sort of foot race—the prize go¬ 
ing to the one who gets to the end first. 
On one row I got only two boxes—the 
rest were slower to ripen. Right near 
me Redhead picked seven boxes on his 
row and missed some at that. So I made 
sure that the boys picked carefully and 
slowly, hunting into the thick tops for 
fruit and turning the big berries over be¬ 
fore nipping them off. Frequently the 
outside will be dark crimson in color 
while the underside will be white. An¬ 
other day would color it all over. About 
six o’clock the Italian army came march¬ 
ing up the lane. I hire these Italians by 
the day when we need extra hand work, 
and they came an hour earlier today to 
help pick. I started them in another 
field. They have been well trained and 
know what to take. They went up and 
down those rows as steadily and thor¬ 
oughly as the Italian army seems to be 
working into Austria. When the war 
started I asked them if they intended to 
go back and fight. “No! No!” They 
are well content to fight, weeds and pick 
fruit in New Jersey. That suits them 
better than fighting Austrians and pick¬ 
ing a soldier’s grave. Better a hoe on a 
Jersey hillside than a musket on a Euro¬ 
pean battlefield. And here comes our 
Belgian neighbor to look at the berries. 
He samples a few gravely and says they 
beat anything in the old country. I ask 
him if he will go back to fight, but he 
shakes his head and grins. He is an¬ 
other man satisfied with fruit and grain 
and flowers rather than cannon and pow- 
THE RURAL, 
der. Personally I do not blame him. 
Figuring Up. —When we go down to 
breakfast it is evident that we are to 
have more than enough for these dona¬ 
tions. You might not think we would 
care for more berries, but breakfast 
would almost make a false start without 
a (fish of big beauties with milk and 
sugar. Then there was oatmeal, bread 
and butter and a few R. I. Red eggs done 
to a turn. I noticed the little boys en¬ 
gaged in some sort of debate, and finally 
little Redhead, the spokesman, ap¬ 
proached me with the great burning 
question : 
“Do \ee get paid for picking these ber¬ 
ries?” 
You see these boys are paid like the 
other pickers, but they are not sure about 
these donations. It’s a fine thing for the 
Old Ladies’ Home to have 100 quarts 
of berries—but “Where do I come in if 
I pick 20 quarts?” says Redhead—and 
the others look wise—as to say “me too.” 
The Hope Farm man tries to explain the 
situation by telling what a fine thing it 
wouSd be for him to give the berries and 
the boys to give their labor. But the 
Hope Farm man doesn’t want to ride a 
wheel, and he is not obliged to earn the 
price of the wheel cent by cent before 
he can buy it. Besides, as Redhead 
points out, the Italians are paid for pick¬ 
ing and no one asks them to donate their 
labor. So I tell the boys they can go out 
and sell all the fruit left after these “do¬ 
nations” are filled and I will let them 
keep half the proceeds. 
Tiie Fruit Business. —Here comes 
Mother and the little girls to see how 
things are going. I have begun to pack 
the crates, and the boys are bringing the 
boxes in like a red streak across the 
field. Mother is a little afraid we can¬ 
not get 3% crates of first-class fruit, but 
here we have nearly five crates already. 
“Ah,” she says, “that’s fine. Now we 
can send a full crate to the Sunday 
school instead of half a crate!” Hard 
news for my little boys that. If you 
were around 10 years old and saw half 
a crate of fine berries which you had 
picked headed for the Sunday school 
when you needed them for a wheel, what 
would you think about it? Honest, now, 
would you admit that “It is more blessed 
to give than to receive” without a mur¬ 
mur? But our boys are taught to be 
good sports as well as good soldiers, and 
they know there are other days and other 
berries to come. So the donations were 
all filled, and later the boys sold about a 
crate of fruit and took orders for more. 
A fifty-eent dollar, you say, came to the 
Hope Farm man? Well, these little mid¬ 
dlemen will take good care of the other 
50 cents. Our fruit business has been 
better than ever thus far. We cannot 
take care of all our orders, and could 
easily sell double the quantity if we had 
it. Potting has begun, and it looks like 
a fine season for that trade as well. As 
usual we sell nothing hut Marshall. I 
have given the poor qualities of this var¬ 
iety many times. It is a shy bearer, a 
critical grower and a dainty feeder, and 
must have just the right kind of soil. 
It is a born aristocrat, but when you get 
it right—nothing beats it. 
Dry Bug Fighting. —The potato bee¬ 
tles do**hot seem as numerous this year 
as in other seasons. Let us not be too 
sure, however. I have before now count¬ 
ed blessings and discounted calamities be¬ 
fore they were hatched, and never hit it 
right. We may have a flood of bugs yet. 
It is always wisdom to be prepared for 
them. This year we find it hard to use 
the big sprayer for fighting bugs. Our 
potatoes are nearly all planted between 
rows of trees—mostly peach, and these 
spread out so that the sprayer cannot 
well be used. So we are using the pow¬ 
der blown on with a Paris green gun. 
A dry Bordeaux mixture with Paris 
green in it will surely get the bugs if 
put on promptly and properly. I doubt 
if it is quite as effective in fighting blight 
as the liquid spray, but it will help. The 
best time to put on the dust is in the 
morning when the wind is still and the 
vines are wet with dew. We use a pre¬ 
pared mixture. As many readers have 
asked how to make this dry Bordeaux I 
will print the formula here: 
Materials. —One barrel quicklime, 10 
pounds copper sulphate, two quantities 
of water of four gallons each, one wire 
sieve with 25 to 30 meshes to linear inch, 
three vessels, two holding five gallons 
each and one 10 gallons or more. I)is- 
NEW-YORKER 
solve the copper sulphate in water, about 
four gallons. From the barrel pick five 
pounds of the whitest lump lime. Slake 
the remainder to a fine dust and spread 
on a floor. From the selected five pounds 
of lime and four gallons of water make a 
good milk of lime. Pour this and the 
cold copper sulphate into a third vessel 
at the same time, stirring until evenly 
mixed. Pour all of this liquid into the 
lime dust and mix with a rake thorough¬ 
ly. While somewhat damp press through 
the sieve and mix again. Then spread 
out to dryi. 
Our own potato crop is, at this writ¬ 
ing in fine condition. One piece in par¬ 
ticular on an old, wornout Alfalfa sod 
is in great shape. The plants are big 
and strong and a deep, rich green. We 
have given them good care and ought to 
hare a big yield. Somehow, though, we 
do not always have just what we think 
we ought. h. w. c. 
School Signs for Autos. 
If you have ever gone darting along 
the country roads in an automobile, you 
have frequently seen the warning signs 
along the road stating that there is a 
school-house just ahead. We notice that 
general inclination on the part of car 
drivers to obey the invitation to slow 
An Auto School Sign. 
down for a schoolhouse, when they are 
not inclined to check their speed for 
much of anything else. The little pic¬ 
ture shows such a sign in Illinois. One 
of our people has interested himself in 
hunting for auto signs of this kind, either 
those already put up by the roadside, or 
those which have been suggested for use, 
and here are a few of them, which may 
perhaps prove a novelty in your neigh¬ 
borhood. Nothing like being original in 
matters of this kind. 
Hey there! You auto men. 
Slow down for Our Chil-dren. 
It’s recess. They’re at play, 
Some of tliem’re In your way. 
Put on Your brake. Toot your Horn, 
Don’t make Any parent Mourn. 
Careful there! ’S’no place To skid, 
’Twoukl be Cruel To hit A kid. 
Ah! There’s The bell, 
See them Run and Hear them Yell. 
Now Ain’t ye glad 
Ye didn’t Make A mother Sad. 
Ain’t Ye glad Ye ’beyed The sign ! 
Thanks. Qood-by! Good luck Be 
thine! 
The Woman at Law 
Infant’s Right to Her Own Wages. 
How long can a parent collect or con¬ 
trol his child’s wages? I have a maid 
in my employ who has only a father, a 
very hard man, and he takes all of her 
wages most of the time. During the 
Winter he let her have half, but part of 
that had to be divided with a sister at 
home. She will be IS the 12th of May, 
1916, hut her working year with me 
ends October 5, 1915. She wishes to 
work for me another year, and I wish to 
employ her. Can her father compel her 
June 26, 1915. 
to leave me and work somewhere else, 
where she will get more wages but work 
much harder? She gets good wages with 
me. I have been informed that her 
father could not compel her to work for 
him if she would not, and that she could 
contract to work for me for her board 
and clothes until the time when she could 
have her own wages. Is this so? She is 
a good hard-working girl and willing to 
let her father have her wages until she 
is 18, while her father is not good, but 
she wants to choose her place of work. 
New York. k. b. m. 
As a general proposition the authority 
which a parent has over a child is not 
limited, except that it must not be so ex¬ 
ercised as to endanger the child’s safety 
or morals. The parent is under a legal 
duty to support the child, and in his turn 
is entitled to the services and earnings 
of the child so long as the latter is legally 
under his custody or control and not 
emancipated. So it is probably true 
that the parent can change this child’s 
work to something harder so long as it 
does not endanger the child’s safety or 
morals. Unless the father had turned the 
child out or refused to support her, she 
must yield to his wishes, and cannot, re¬ 
fuse to work where he sends her, subject 
to the above limitations, and she cannot 
refuse and then work merely for her 
board and clothes. If some one im¬ 
presses on this father’s mind in a tact¬ 
ful way that lie is bound to support and 
educate the daughter till sh^ become^ of 
age, and that the work she is now at is- 
a help to him and best for all concerned, 
he may change his mind and let her alone. 
Divorce and Remarriage. 
If one should obtain a bill in some 
State or county outside of New York 
State, could she remarry in some other 
State? Could the party return to New 
York State, or would she be subject to 
the laws of the State for bigamy, or 
would she have to live out of the State 
of New York and not return to State on 
any account? g. e. r. 
New York. 
By bill it is presumed you mean de¬ 
cree of divorce. It depends on the law 
of the State the parties are married in. 
In New York no defendant who has been 
divorced may marry again ip the State, 
but he or she may go to a State where 
a divorced person may legally remarry 
and there marry and then return to New 
York and live here without molestation. 
In other words, if divorced persons le¬ 
gally marry anywhere they may return 
to New York or to any other State to 
live. 
Property Held Jointly by Husband and 
Wife. 
What is the law in New York State 
where a man and his wife have joint deed 
to property, and joint bank accounts? 
What share does the wife hold and what 
share does the husband hold at the time 
of death if there are children and no will 
is made? 
If the real estate is held by the hus¬ 
band and wife as tenants by the entirety, 
then whichever one of them survives is 
owner in fee and the children do not have 
any claim ; but you must be sure that the 
property is held as tenants by the entire¬ 
ty and not as tenants in common. Prop¬ 
erty can only be held as “tenants by 
the entirety” between husband and wife. 
Their bank account they probably own as 
tenants in common, but if the deposit is 
in the name of both, and both make de¬ 
posits and either can and do draw on 
it, then the survivor would be entitled to 
the balance on the death of the other, and 
the children would have no interest in it. 
M. D. 
Life Tenant and Mortgage 
Wife leaves property valued at $10,- 
000 with mortgage of $800 odd, to hus¬ 
band for life, remainder to three daugh¬ 
ters. Daughters sell their rights to A. 
who also buys in mortgage and wants 
to obtain the life estate, which husband 
does not want to sell. Husband pays 
interest on mortgage. Tenant of hus¬ 
band has number of acres in wheat and 
land prepared for beiins, and has been 
warned by A not to proceed to put in 
crops, as A will foreclose mortgage. 
What are rights of husband and the ten¬ 
ant? F. II. 
New York. 
A probably intends to buy in the mort¬ 
gage and then foreclose and try to get 
the property from the husband this way. 
If the husband wishes to protect his life 
interest he must either buy in the mort¬ 
gage now or redeem when foreclosure pro¬ 
ceedings are started. In either event he 
can thereafter call upon the remainder¬ 
man for his, A’s, ratable share of the 
sum. In other words the husband as life 
tenant need not pay it alone. The ten¬ 
ant relied upon his lease with the hus¬ 
band and has put in his crops. The hus¬ 
band at the time the lease was made 
had good right to make it. A certainly 
has not got title now and cannot tell 
you to do or not to do anything, and 
he cannot get present title until the 
mortgage is foreclosed. The interests of 
the husband and the tenant are so ex¬ 
tensive and valuable that to protect their 
rights properly they should consult a 
trusted lawyer of that neighborhood who 
can sec that this is dope. A may not 
keep within legal limits if left unwatched. 
