IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January fi, 1917. 
'i2 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Other Side. —Tt may be a wise 
thing for us to begin the year by giving 
the “opposition” a chance to talk. No 
man should ride one side of a subject so 
hard that he forgets “there are others.” 
Prejudice and personal opinion are not 
arguments upon which a man should he 
hung, yet there are people who refuse to 
consider “the other side,” until they be¬ 
come incapable of fine and broad judg¬ 
ment. First let us take up the Ren Davis 
apple—or give one of its friends a 
chance: 
I notice you take a knock at old man 
P>en Davis whenever opportunity offers- 
'rids is not fair, as there are many grow¬ 
ing Ren and all such criticism tends to 
make a dent in the price. Personally I 
consider that Ren Davis apples have a 
place in the apple kingdom, and receive 
much undeserved abuse. This year our 
liens marketed in the South brought us 
.$2.7.“) per barrel net. again.st $.‘i for York. 
In view of the fact that they hear 
younger and more prolifically than York, 
they are as profitable to us “F. F. V.’s” 
as York. 
We made apple butter out of Rens this 
year, and it is as fine as we have ever 
made or tasted. There is no better api)le 
to fry than a Ren. Of course, men of 
sedentary habits eat baked apples, but I’ll 
bet a “lien” against a McIntosh “Mer¬ 
rill” eats fried apples—or could, and get 
away with it. Now .seriously, it is un¬ 
fair to growers of Rens to have editors 
of farm papers always harpooning old 
faithful Ren. Look at our side of it. 
Virginia. G. L. rothgeb. 
Now in some respects (not in all) 
this is a free country, and men and apples 
must present their own argument- There 
is no law to prohibit Ren Davis. "You 
can’t keej) a good man down,” and if Ren 
Davis has the desirable qualities our 
friend states all the talking I can do will 
he as so much chaff in the wind. If he 
can sell his Rens at .$2.7.5 Mr. Rothgeb 
can well afford to pocket the money and 
laugh at criticism. If he took these Rens 
to our customers he would receive not 
the glad hand, but the cold shoulder. I 
have lost money by planting too many 
Bens, and I shall have them top-worked 
to varieties which pay us better. Would 
Mr. Rothgeb expect me, with this experi¬ 
ence, to praise the variety and advise 
others to plant it? I have heard South¬ 
ern men growl at Raldwin because it 
fails with them. With us it is very profit¬ 
able—our customers demand it. and this 
being the case it would be worse than 
childish for us to go on raising Ren Davis. 
As for frying apples as a substitute for 
potatoes I have no doubt Ren will shine 
in the frying pan, but our customers 
want the apple flavor rather than the fat. 
“Recommendations.” —I have some 
letters from people who complain because 
we teach what they call “suspicion.” It 
is true that we advise our folks to make 
a stranger show himself before giving him 
money or business. The world has more 
than its share of plausible people who 
want to sell something which is well in¬ 
flated with wind. Sometimes they are 
plain, smooth, varnished rascals, some¬ 
times they are whitewashed knaves with 
the wash flaking off- Again, they are 
good jieople with lively imaginations who 
have fooled themselves into thinking they 
have something of value to offer. Still 
others, and perhaps the most dangerous, 
have a cloak of religion and piety under 
which they work to do business Avith you. 
Some are good and some are bad. and the 
good ones sometimes find fault because we 
tell our people to be on their guard. We 
know hoAv easy it is to fool the people. 
The boys have caught quite a number of 
muskrats this Winter, and Avhen it came 
to .selling the skins they hunted out the 
firm which seemed to make the biggest 
offer. When I asked them how they knew 
this firm is honest. Cherry-top was quite 
aroused. He brought me a circular in 
which was a printed letter like this: 
“7 received your check and am well 
pleOfted.'’ M. M. .TOIINSON. 
“Now,” said Cherry-top. “does not that 
l)rove they are all right?” 
Then he fell to figuring out what he ex¬ 
pected to get for his furs. He finally got 
a small check and, for all I know, thinks 
of writing another “testimonial.” Now 
I think this idea of believing all you see 
in print—especially when it is what you 
W'ould like to have come to pass—is the 
c.'iuse of much trouble and loss. The 
meaner the rogue the more plausible let¬ 
ter or circular he can write, and the more 
convincing story he can tell. 
“Pure Ri.ood.”— Then there is this 
question about the superiority of pure 
blood in stock. We have letters of criti¬ 
cism on both sides- Some say that this 
purebred idea is a humbug; that common 
stock is just as good. Others say that 
nothing but purebred stock should ever 
he kept—that any “common’’ blood is a 
mistake. Of course there is no use talk¬ 
ing to such critics, becau.se not one in 
l(> farmers can afford to keep a flock or 
hei'd of good, pure-hlood animals. When 
it comes to the question of pure blood, 
wi.sely used, there .seems to me no good 
argument against it. Some months ago 
we sold a brood of puppies from our 
Airedale. They were not pure blood- — 
the father being a mixture of shepherd 
and hound. We told people just what 
Ifiey were and before the present litter is 
disposed of I tried to find what the others 
had come to. I find they have made good 
farm dog.s, taking clearly after the pure¬ 
bred parent in color, shape and spirit. I 
think this will hold true of all farm ani¬ 
mals, and the purer the blood the better 
the showing it will make. 
Rreeding and Rusine.ss. —I have 
some friends who claim to upset all this 
argument by some human examples. New 
England, they say. is the place where 
people are suppo.sed to work with tireless 
energy. Therefore, a purebred Yankee, 
with a long pedigree, ought to be a 
“hustler” if there ever was one. Yet, 
they point to certain families whose an¬ 
cestors date hack to the Mayflower in 
which the men are idle. lazy, cynical and 
lacking in public spirit. They are not 
leader.s—not oven good followers. It will 
not do to charge this to “mother’s fam¬ 
ily.” because they are all “juirehred” 
from the same general .stock. What 
about this? 
I know these families and I think I 
know the reason- Years ago .some old an¬ 
cestor made money at fishing, shipping or 
perhaps the slave trade. He invested 
that money and founded a “family” some¬ 
what after the old English plan. This 
old fellow had his picture taken and hung 
it on the wall as a model for coming gen¬ 
erations! Those who followed on came 
to think that red noser and those narrow 
eyes really meant more to the world than 
the Stars and Stripes. The size of each 
succeeding family was regulated by the 
size of the income from the old man’s 
money! Now and then some boy with 
the old man’s energy as well as his nose, 
would come along and go into some busi¬ 
ness or profession. As he usually mar¬ 
ried into some more practical and “com¬ 
mon” family he naturally branched awmy 
from the “purebred” stock, and his chil¬ 
dren learned from their mother that 
there was something back in history be¬ 
sides the old ancestor’s nose ! Thus the 
“purebred” family has usually been lim¬ 
ited to one or two children to suit the in¬ 
come, and these children have mostly 
gone along as genteel loafers. The finest 
ability is in their blood, but they breed 
backward, and they are prouder of what 
some ancestor did a century ago than of 
what their children can and will do in 
the future. Now and then one of them is 
waked up by necessity, patriotism or am¬ 
bition and then he shows the value of 
“pure blood” by doing wonderful or al¬ 
most impossible things when he really 
strikes self-denying Avork. 
Shoaa’^-Room Stock.^ —It seems to me 
that these examples prove just Avhat prac¬ 
tical men have been claiming. Those 
small and lazy families haA^e been bred 
AA’ith the picture of the old man as a 
model. His thrift and energy and skill 
haA’e been left out of consideration. When 
some Avillful daughter or some ambitious 
son cut off family tradition and married 
into a working family there came a strain 
from which the leaders and great men 
have sprung. The old ancestor’s nose and 
eyes represent the “show-room” stock. 
The hustle and thrift of the working 
branch of the family represent the 
“utility” stock. We see this running 
through all classes of live stock. The 
fanciers have their model for tail feath¬ 
ers, horn and tail and other exterior 
markings Avhich pass on through the gen¬ 
erations like the old ancestor’s nose and 
eyes. The “pure blood” carries along as 
it has done with humans until we have 
men in Boston and New York who will 
roll up the bottoms of their trousers be¬ 
cause it is raining in “dear old London.” 
They are “show-room stock,” but this 
same pure blood can he made to carry the 
sound, practical qualities of animals and 
plants along Avith it. 
But I haA'e talked too much and can¬ 
not noAV tell you about the great com¬ 
munity Christmas tree in our neighbor- 
hood- H. AV. c. 
Best and Cheapest Service in the World 
Here are some comparisons of telephone conditions 
in Europe and the United States just before the war. 
Here we have : 
Continuous service in practically 
all exchanges, so that the telephone 
is available day and night. 
A telephone to one person in ten. 
3,000,000 miles of interurban or 
long-distance wires. 
Prompt connections, the speed of 
answer in principal cities averaging 
about 3/4 seconds. 
Lines provided to give immediate 
toll and long-distance service. 
As to cost, long-distance service such as we have here was not to be had 
in Europe, even before the war, at any price. And exchange service in 
Europe, despite its inferior quality, cost more in actual money than here. 
Bell Service is the criterion for all the world, and the Bell organization 
is the most economical as well as the most efficient servant of the people. 
In Europe : 
Nine-tenths of the exchanges are 
closed at night, and in many cases, 
at mealtime. 
Not one person in a hundred has 
a telephone. 
Not one-eighth as many miles in 
proportion to poputation and terri¬ 
tory. 
In the principal cities, it takes 
more than twice as long for the 
operator to answer. 
No such provision made. Tele¬ 
phone users are expected to await 
their turn. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One Policy One System Universal Service 
WET 
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r Only Self*S«tting machine. 
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old.s moisture but leaves 
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114lPartmouth St., Minneapolis, Minn. 
Earn $10 to $140 A Day 
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You can do it Avith the LIMEPULVER—a 
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(41). 
II 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N,-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
