1486 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 18, 1015. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Christmas Ideas.— It is cold ! Win¬ 
ter has certainly jumped out of the North 
. with a running jump, and brought his 
friend .Tack Frost for company. The 
wind is hunting for cracks—and finding 
a few, as we sit here on the north side of 
the house. We have a big, roaring fire 
which roasts our shins, while the cold 
gives a gentle reminder at our backs. No 
use talking—it is a cold night—not cold 
enough to crust over the ground, so we 
can mulch the strawberries, but cold 
enough to nip fingers and ears. The chil¬ 
dren are considering whether they will 
eat some Ben Davis apples or put on 
their coats and go to the cool cellar for 
Baldwins. What they decide in this case 
will be something of a line on what they 
will do with larger things when they get 
out where they must choose between ease 
and ordinary things and exposure and 
labor for better things. As for me, before 
this comfortable fire with the wind roar¬ 
ing outside I have been considering what 
I can say to our folks as a little Christ¬ 
mas greeting. 
Cet Right.— For 30 years now I have 
been talking to our folks at this season in 
one way or another, and now here comes 
another Christmas—as it seems to me 
better than all that have gone before. I 
have a good library here, and letters from 
some large men which ought to provide a 
suitable text, but I feel more like taking 
something the Salvation Army boy wrote 
me recently. We brought this boy up 
from the time he came to us as a waif. 
When he grew up ho tried his hand at 
various things, but finally decided that he 
wanted to join the Salvation Army and 
make that his life work. So he is now 
finishing his course at a training school, 
and will soon go out to fight “the battle 
for the Lord.” In one of his letters he 
says this: 
“I am really very happy in this work, 
even though it is one of the hardest lines 
in the world, for in dealing with men 
about their souls you must be absolutely 
right yourself and exercise a great deal 
of judgment!" 
I think I will take that for my Christ¬ 
mas text. 
Think It Over.—Now, of course, I 
know that some of you have begun to 
smile at this. Very likely you do not 
think much of the Salvation Army. I had 
a friend once—a dignified minister—who 
felt very warm-hearted at Christmas and 
so went to a Salvation meeting. The 
leader called upon Brother Jones to pray, 
and Brother Jones got down on his knees 
and made a good prayer. Just as he made 
one particularly impressive point the 
leader shouted something which sounded 
like “Hurrah!” and one of the “musi¬ 
cians” pounded on his bass drum like a 
bombardment of the walls of Satan. My 
friend was simply drummed out of his de¬ 
votions. Ask him now what he thinks of 
the “Army” and he will give you a far¬ 
away smile! Others who read this will 
say that science has never demonstrated 
that men have any souls, and they will 
challenge you to prove that my toy or 
anyone else can save what a man never 
had ! I know all about this and have no 
argument to put up. Those of us who 
believe in the principles of the Christian 
religion know and feel, as Christmas be¬ 
gins to fill the air, that the thought which 
my boy has tried to express is not only 
true, but is the very foundation of bet¬ 
terment in the world. 
“Right Yourself !” —We shall all 
agree that education is the hope of the 
world. Education is not entirely of the 
schools and colleges. It means personal 
contact, personal example, personal ser¬ 
vice, as well as class-room work or read¬ 
ing and study. Every man or woman who 
reads this is a teacher in some way. It 
may be that your teaching is limited to 
your own family, or to a few friends, but 
if any human being in this world looks to 
you for anything of instruction or exam¬ 
ple you are a teacher, and you are con¬ 
tributing some little thing one way or the 
other to influence what my boy calls “the 
souls of men.” We will not quarrel about 
names, but simply realize what he means 
and go on. Before we get to the more un¬ 
pleasant part of this suppose we stop and 
have an apple. The boys have brought 
those Baldwins. The will power required 
to go and get them is a little contribution 
along the lines suggested by my boy. 
Now with a good taste of Baldwin apple 
in our mouth we may go on with good 
feeling. 
W hat Is "Right.” —We seem to agree 
that education of the right kind is what 
men need. Education can rise no higher 
than the teacher. His words and his acts 
and his motives make the model which 
the student tries to copy. Of course, 
some people rise above the teacher, but 
most of us fall short and are content to 
make a rather poor copy. You now see 
what I am trying to get at in my little 
f hi istrnas talk Some very humble peo¬ 
ple will read this. Their “teaching” is 
limited to the watchful eye or eager ear 
of a few little children. It will also be 
read by men and women in high positions, 
teachers, political leaders, great business 
men—who influence the thought and deed 
of thousands who follow or serve them. 
You man in the mountain hut and you 
man in the palace or university come and 
sit here by my fire to-night, and tell me if 
you can that my boy is not right when he 
says that those who influence that most 
precious thing of human life must be 
“absolutely right” if they hope to work 
directly with God. For .that is what men 
and women do when they influence the in¬ 
destructible things of human life. My 
boy calls them the “souls of men.” Let 
us not argue about non-essential names, 
but agree if we can, regarding those qual¬ 
ities in men, women and children which 
are not taken from the earth and which 
do not return to it. Surely a man should 
be “absolutely right” or as near it as he 
can get before he undertakes to influence 
the spiritual side of a human being’s life. 
Thus it comes to me to-night in the rattle 
of the wind and the roar of the fire that 
the finest Christmas present any man or 
woman can have this year is something of 
a realization of what my boy means. I 
am afraid that if we were to strip the 
disguise from some of our modern 
prophets we should find good specimens of 
the Pharisee. 
ITow “Get Right?”- -Christmas is es¬ 
sentially a holiday for children. Older 
people often try to steal the day by mak¬ 
ing rather foolish and perfunctory pres¬ 
ents to each other. It always looks to me 
as if these people wake up after 364 days 
of indifference to try to “get right” by 
giving some gift. I would scatter the 
gifts through -the year, with some simple 
card or good word for Christmas, and 
make the day what it should be—a hal¬ 
lowed celebration of childhood. For the 
only way to “get right” with the world 
is to get back to childhood, and Christ¬ 
mas of all the days in the year is the time 
for doing that. What are the greatest 
things of life—a clean heart, faith, hope, 
confidence, love, health and pure ambi¬ 
tion. Stand up, yon gra.vbeard with 
honors and wisdom bristling out all over 
you! Get up beside him, you great busi¬ 
ness man, and you big statesman and you 
mighty soldier. Here in the light of my 
fire, with the wind roaring and the little 
children asleep upstairs, and these boys 
with their apples, I challenge you to say 
that all your wisdom and your money and 
your power can give you anything like the 
things I have just mentioned as the great¬ 
est things of life. I further ask you if as 
you acquired money and power and wis¬ 
dom you have not drifted more or less 
away from most of those things. Could 
you get hold of them once more without 
going back to childhood after them? 
Come now, answer. You are not in the 
Senate or court or banking house or on 
the battlefield, but right here in a lonely 
country hojne, where you do not need to 
bluff or put on any mask. No use talk¬ 
ing, if a man wants to be at least partly 
“right” he must get back as far as he can 
into childhood. The entire foundation of 
Christianity is based upon the tender life 
of a little child. If the church has shown 
weakness or lack of zeal it is because it 
has worked away from childhood as men 
and women have done. So Christmas is 
called the children’s holiday—a day of joy 
and happiness if we older folks can only 
get the spirit of it and pick up some¬ 
thing of childhood once more. “Yon must 
be absolutely right yourself.'" Correct— 
though it’s a larger proposition than I 
can cover. That is why I just talk 
Christmas and tell no man what he ought 
to do besides going back to childhood. 
Poor Critics. —The boys have gone to 
bed and I piled some extra wood on the 
fire and took up my book when I chanced 
to see this note from an old friend who 
has written about the recent remarks on 
“Beauty”: 
I will bet if you can furnish a real 
handsome photograph of the Hope Farm 
man it will be when he was a baby, when, 
you know, we are all “such a beautiful 
baby.” I, even I. qualified at that early 
date, before a well-qualified jury of my 
own mother and admiring lady friends. 
w. I.. M. 
My friend would have a walk-over. I 
would not put up any photograph. As a 
Christmas present I think it would be a 
sad disappointment to the public. I 
would, however, enter a contest with this 
friend as he stands. It is very wise to 
“go back to childhood” for his evidence. 
These mothers! They may be poor critics 
in judging their own children, but if you 
want to know what my boy means by 
“absolutely right” remember how mother 
guarded and influenced her children and 
endured that they might have oppor¬ 
tunity ! tr. w. c. 
Rye and Vetch. 
I was interested in your reply (on 
page 1321) to .1. E. K.’s inquiry about 
rye and rock phosphate. Would it not 
be better to sow the rye at the last cul¬ 
tivation of the corn, adding sour Winter 
vetch to the rye? We have followed this 
plan and our cornfields are now green as 
meadows, with few weeds between the 
stubble. The vetch supplies nitrogen and 
acts as a “lime barometer.” Where its 
growth is backward we apply lime. .1 
E. K. must have stable manure because 
he has a silo; we find that it pays to 
manure this cover crop; it helps the cov¬ 
er crop and holds the fertilizing elements 
of the manure for next year’s corn. 
Briefly I feel sure that J. E. K. would 
increase the value of his cover crop by 
adding vetch; and that he would save 
money in planting it, by sowing between 
the rows at the last cultivation. 
New Jersey. .tames mc aLdin pyle. 
Seeding Blue Grass in Maryland 
I have an old meadow, which is cov¬ 
ered with a mass of old grass. Could 
you toll me how to prepare it for seed¬ 
ing Blue grass and when to plant same? 
Maryland. r. m. 
You would better turn the sod now, 
plowing it deeply and well, and let it lie 
till Spring. Then give the land a ton 
of slaked lime an acre, and harrow it in 
well. Then sow a mixture of 15 pounds 
of Orchard grass, five pounds of Red- 
top and 10 pounds of Kentucky Blue 
grass an acre, and brush it in lightly. 
The Orchard grass and Red-top will come 
at once and shelter the slower Blue grass, 
and you will finally get a Blue grass sod 
if you give the land an annual top-dress¬ 
ing of raw bone meal. This is the way 
I got Blue grass in the Piedmont country 
of Virginia. It is far better to sow a 
mixture than one grass of any sort. You 
do not say what part of Maryland you 
live in, and in writing for information 
you should always give your full name 
and address. To maintain a good Blue 
grass pasture it should be annually top- 
dressed, and once in five years have some 
lime brushed in with a smoothing har¬ 
row, the weeds kept mown off before 
seeding, and the droppings of cattle scat¬ 
tered. w. F. MASSEY. 
Healthy Grain! 
Seeds grow faster and mature into good, 
healthy grain when first freed from 
smuts by the use of 
Fo/mmef/ypE 
* *1sFhe Termers Triend 
—the standard treatment in this coun¬ 
try for all seed grains to insure their 
greatest yield by destroying all smuts 
and fungus growth, also for scab and 
black-leg on potatoes. Every up-to-date 
farmer should use Formaldehyde. It has 
the supreme endorsement of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture. Our For¬ 
maldehyde in one pound bottles is 35 
cents at dealers. Big illustrated hand¬ 
book sent free. 
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