200 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
of all the many thousands of R. N.- 
y. readers, there is probably not one but 
would like to express to you a word of 
sympathy because of the death of 
“Jyouise.” Yet there is no real s-adness 
when father and mother can say, “It is 
well with the child.” My sympathy is 
most sincei-e, and personally, I wish to 
thank you for those few words about 
public funerals. It takes courage to 
speak out against a long established cus¬ 
tom. for so many people seem to think 
that little word “custom” should decide 
all questions. I have long felt a great 
dislike for the almost vulgar display at 
many funerals, and it seems to me that 
attendance on such occasions should be 
“by invitation only.” If we<Idings ore 
private, why should not funerals be the 
same? Why exhibit to the gaze of cur¬ 
ious people the beloved body which has 
been wasted by illness, or maimed by 
accident, or greatly changed by the. bur¬ 
den of many years? E. s. w. 
Illinois. 
Api’ipxi.vtiox. —All the Hope Farmers 
desire to thank the friends who have 
written us about Louise. There have 
been many of them—.so many that we 
have not been able to reply personally 
to all of them. So I take this i)ublic 
way of thanking all who have written. 
There have been some most beautiful 
letters. The writers have not only given 
us great comfort, but have let us into 
the secret of great personal sorrows, 
which seem to have been opened anew 
by our loss. We did not realize before 
what strong friendships have been made 
through these years at Hope Farm. 
iSome of tlijcse letters might well be 
printed, yet it seems better not to do 
BO. But they show how grief and sor¬ 
row may mellow and insi)ire character, 
even though those who must carry the 
burden do not realize it. This old world 
surely has trouble enough of its own 
without adding to the binaleu. And yet, 
our experience for the past few weeks 
proves to us that these troubles may be 
used to add to the go(Kl and the gain of 
the world if we can only view them 
rightly and without regi-et.s. 
Hope Faiof People. —Dn the cover 
page this w<‘t‘k you will lind three 
prominent cliara<ters—'rom, “Tow-head” 
and Brownie. This jncture was taken 
two ye.irs ago, and I use it through the 
kindne.ss of t'o/oitrv Life In Anicriea. 
Since that time Tom, the big Peicherou, 
has filled out, and tin* boy has grown, 
but Bi'ownie remains .Mbout the same. 
Tom came from Virginia. For some 
years we tried to do our farm work with 
1 ‘athe)' clieaii and inf<“rior hor.ses. It did 
not pay and so I deteiunined to get as 
good a faiin team as I could find. At 
one time the farmers in our neighbor¬ 
hood looked for rather light, active 
horses, or the class knoAVU as “chunk.s.” 
Such hors(‘s can walk off with the light¬ 
er farm tools or with a good-.sized lojid 
and then trot away with buggy or car¬ 
riage. The coming of the low-priced car 
has taken most of our horses off the road 
except for hauling, and we have found 
that the heavier farm tools prepare our 
land bett(‘r. So there has been a change 
to the heavier horses, and the I’ercheron 
grade has become popular. 
Two ViKCiiMA Gentlemen. —So some 
years ago on a visit to Loudoun Co., Va., 
I saw a good three-year-old colt, right 
in harness—pulling his share of a big 
load. I bought him and had him sent 
up by rail. Broker did so well that I 
wanted a mate for him. A good Virginia 
friend got on his horse and rode about 
until he found a big awkward two-year- 
old colt plowing beside an old horse. 
'Phis colt had been wiutcre<l on corn 
fodder, and he was rough and gaunt, but 
my friend bought him for me and sent 
him up. I do not pretend to know nuurh 
about a horse, and when 1 first saw this 
fellow he did se<*m to me a great shape¬ 
less mass of feet, bone and head. That 
was all 1 could see in him. A truckman 
went into enthusiasm over this c(dt and 
wanted to buy him. You see this truck¬ 
man was enough of an artist to see what 
this raw-boned colt would look like when 
that great body was rounded out with 
muscle and meat! AVe put Tom right at 
work with Broker, and they have done 
service. AVhile they both wear the 
they have shown no inclination to 
again.st the farm authority. Such 
horses require a haystack to keep 
filled with food, but when the time 
for work they are there with over 
great 
gray 
rebel 
great 
them 
comes 
3,(X)0 pounds of weight and vigor. 
Temperament.— AVhen I bought Bro¬ 
ker my friend advised me to get a horse 
with as much draft blood in him as pos¬ 
sible. I had been thinking that a dash 
of some warmer, trotting blood would 
help, but my horse friend said, “No— 
you want a horse that knows nothing 
but work. He should have no dreams 
about going on the road as a trotter, for 
he will be unfit for that. The Percheron 
knows he is a worker and nothing else— 
stick to that! The car will be developed 
so as to cai ry you along the road. Keep 
farm horses that have no ambition above 
working.” 
Broker is of this slow peasant-like 
blood, but Tom is different. His father 
is of better bree<ling than BrokeFs, and 
his mother had a strong dash of ti-ot- 
ting blood in her. Far back, several gen¬ 
erations away, one of Tom’s ancestor’s, 
on his moth»>r’s side, kicked up a great 
dust on the I'oad. As true as you live, 
Tom has a few ideas above his station 
in life. He is faithful and true at his 
work and would try to pull the house 
down if we hitched him to it and told 
him to go, but at times the spirit of his 
mother comes whispering vain things 
about speed. He will see Brownie trip¬ 
ping n<;atly down the road and then he 
will raise his head, point his ears and 
consider making a dash to advertise his 
speed. I can imagine the spirits of his 
parents debating over him. His mother 
may put it this Avay. 
“My son, Avhy do you spend ycur days 
iit this menial labor? My grandfather 
had the speed of the wind and was hon¬ 
ored more than most men. Shake off 
that galling harness, get out on the road 
and show them hoAv— arch your neck and 
lift your feet and be a credit to my an¬ 
cestors.” Then his father will talk: 
“Tom—be sensible and realize your 
limitations. Y’’our mother is a fine char¬ 
acter but she does not knoAv your limi¬ 
tations. Your feet and legs are too big 
for a trotter and you Aveigh too much. 
In that harness, straining at the load, 
you are a poem. Out on the road, try¬ 
ing to trot, you Avould be a fool. My 
ancestors for years have been plain solid 
farmers or business horses. As for trot¬ 
ting—-forget it. You never could keep 
up with a car and you Avill have a job to 
hold your oavu with a tractor!” 
Broker has no dreams about running 
races, and Tom has thus far limited his 
activities to kicking up his heels and a 
few clum.sy dashes for freedom around 
the orchard. They make a fine team. 
The Avorld might be better off if more 
human beings listened to the advice of 
the more practical parent. We might 
have fewer poems, but more good pics 
and bread and useful labor. 
Broavnie. —She is a Hope Farm pro¬ 
duct—borji and raised here. I look upon 
Tom as just about the type of horse a 
farmer .should have, while Brownie rep¬ 
resents about the poorest clas.9 that the 
modern farmer can keep. W’e started to 
develop an ideal carriage hor.se—of good 
size, good temper and fine endurance and 
speed. That Avas before anyone really 
believed that a Avell-made car could be 
bought for the price of a farm team. 
AA'e had a good mare in Nellie Bly. She 
Avas a bay horse of good size and endur¬ 
ance and fair speed. She was nervous 
and high-strung, but very serviceable 
with a careful driver. The father of 
Brownie was a noted horse, well formed, 
good size and Avith a record close to 
2 :20. He had a complete pedigree of 
trotting blood. Now Brownie has de- 
A'eloped into an undersized sorrel, Avith 
fair speed, good temper but too small to 
be of great practical’ use. As a girl’s 
driving horse—in some light A-ehiclc— 
she AA’ould shine as a star, but as a prac¬ 
tical form horse she seems more in the 
toy class. We shall always keep hei-, 
for she means a lot to us, but no one 
could ever think f>f advising farmers to 
raise this type of horses. Their day is 
done, and I can see little chance for 
them in the future. A fcAv of them will 
be wanted as ornaments, but as prac¬ 
tical animiils I think they are done. It 
is good to liaA'C Tom and Brownie pic¬ 
tured side by side that we may notice the 
contrast. 
Thus we have seen changes in horse¬ 
flesh forced upon us by the development 
of gasoline power. More changes are 
coming. The time must come AA’hen 
practically every former will own a car 
for driving, and a truck; either a sep¬ 
arate vehicle or an attachment to the 
car. This wnll set free more and more 
of the driving horses. The tractors will 
develop. The other night we passed one 
on _ the road hauling tAvo loads of ice. 
This is the same machine which I told 
about some AA'eeks ago as operated in our 
neighborhood. On .some lands I think 
the.se tractors Avill do much of our ploAV- 
ing and harroAving and Avithout doubt 
they will be more fully developed—yet 
I think there Avill ahvays be woi'k for 
such hors<‘s iis 3'om and Broker. They 
will be needed in spite of all the tractois 
and trucks c.an do and I am sure that 
colts of this type Avill be profitable stock 
to raise for the next quarter of a cen¬ 
tury. ii. w. c. 
February lo, 1917 
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