772 
■Uhe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
June 9, 1917. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
CoxTRiBrxio.NS.—What is your farm 
doinp for the country? I think before 
this year is over we shall all be asking 
ourselves that question. Of course, I 
know a lot of empty or vapor-headed peo- 
}de are rushing into print to ask it now. 
I would pay no attention to them. They 
are long on advice but very short when it 
comes to actual i>erformance. In most of 
the cases which we have looked into these 
advisers would “accept” a good job under 
the government. To suit them such a job 
must be about .5,0(X) miles from the firing 
line, it must be well paid and consist 
chiefly in giving advice. No, the ques¬ 
tion must be i)ut by ourselves, and we 
must answer it plainly. This war is go¬ 
ing to upset and destroy many of our old 
notions and ways of doing things. The 
most dangerous thing that can happen to 
you and me is to fall into the good-nat¬ 
ured, complacent way of thinking that 
this war is a mere little incident which 
will bhiw over like a Presidential elec¬ 
tion. It is greater than we think—of 
M'<u'ld-wide influence upon those who 
come aft(‘r us. What is your farm doing? 
What does the country need? That is 
easily answered—money, men, munitions 
and mjinhood. 
Money.— It is now an old story how 
Germany had every one of this great 
quartette in hand and well trained. 
France and England had money, men and 
manhood, but they lacked munitions, and 
the men wei-e untrained. As for man- 
calmly. I do not criticize or find fault 
with those who feel differently about 
this, nor will I argue with them. 
Munitions. —The mo.st important of 
these is food. A starving man could do 
nothing with the most effective rifle ever 
made. All through our country the farm¬ 
ers are doing their best to help. Prac¬ 
tically all our farming must be done be¬ 
tween rows of fruit trees, as nearly the 
Avhole farm is in orchards. We cannot 
plant much new land, but we are taking 
better care of what we do plant, and we 
are ahead of last year in work and or¬ 
ganization. My idea is to produce as 
much as possible of our own food, or at 
least the four great staples—meat, pota¬ 
toes. bread and vegetables. This is not 
n wheat country, but we shall have more 
than ever of rye, corn and buckwheat, 
and we shall eat more than ever before of 
buckwheat, and corn meal. No more old 
hens canned through Summer. ’^Tien 
they stop laying they are killed and eaten 
at once or put into cans. Four or six 
hogs will be kept in fair-sized runs—fed 
from self-feeders and given the cull apples 
and garden wastes. We have doubled the 
size of the garden—particularly the space 
in peas, beans, beets and sweet corn, and 
our folks have laid in a great stack of 
cans and jars for the surplus of these 
four vegetables. Then we have planted 
enough to provide for .several families be¬ 
sides our own, and they may come in sea¬ 
son to do their own canning. My idea is 
to provide first of all for the home f.amily 
ami close friends. That leaves the gen¬ 
eral market for bread and meat freer to 
those who must bu.v. About all we can 
contribute to the country's food supply 
will be fruit and potatoes. The fruit 
looks well at present. The potatoes have 
been slow to sprout, but are now start¬ 
ing, and I think they will get through. 
Every one on the farm i.s bu.sy, from the 
smallest child up, and we all realize that 
Hoi»e Farm must do its share in the war 
W’ithout complaint or quarrel. 
Manhood. —The most important of all. 
This nation will get all the money it 
needs. If hard pressed it could go to 
the money kings and give obligations in 
the way of special privileges and laws 
which would tie up indinstry for years to 
come. Something of that followed our 
Civil War because our farmers did not re¬ 
alize what was going on. Man.v of them 
were out on the Western prairies working 
new land, in debt, and in trouble, so that 
they could not make their influence felt. 
The nation can get plenty of men through 
conscription. Unless there be what I call 
manhood, in both the money and the men, 
the results of this war will make it neces¬ 
sary to fight it all over again within 25 
years. Manhood means sacrifice and in¬ 
dependent thought. There are too many 
people, who in times like the.se fall in and 
run like a flock of sheep, though they 
know well that off in the direction they 
are headed is the poorest pasture in the 
country. One of the most thoughtful 
books which this war has produced has 
this singular title: “Mr. Britling Sees It 
Through,’’ by II. G. Wells. It is a study 
of the development of thought in the 
mind of an Englishman as the war went 
on. Here was ,a man who could not con¬ 
sider it possible that war could exist be¬ 
tween two great civilized nations, so that 
his son should be killed, his property 
wa.sted and all the ea.sy traditions of his 
life ujiset. By reading such a book we 
see how slowly but surely the under¬ 
standing and inner manhoocl of the Eng¬ 
lish nation has been slowly ai'oused and 
changed from a rather arrogant confi¬ 
dence to a dogged determination to make 
England a finer place for the living 
through the sacrifice of the dead. I think, 
as the months go on, our farmers will go 
through much of this same thought, and 
out of these troubles and their sacrifices 
develop the manhood neede<l to make 
farming occupy its true place. You will 
see that while I fully realize what this 
war is coming to. I believe that it is to 
offer great opportunity for the plain peo¬ 
ple to win a better place and a better 
chance, h. w. c. 
Tax Laws and the Dog 
The last Ohio Legislature passed a 
law that every tapayer list his own i)er- 
sonal property for taxation and return the 
blank to the county auditor by the first 
of May and if he does not do so he is de¬ 
prived of an exemption of .$100, and may 
be fined also. There was kicking at first, 
but it seems now that it has worked 
pretty well and the returns promise a 
larger tax duplicate than formerly. Each 
person must go to an officer to have it 
sworn to, and there are severe penalties 
lirovided for false statements or omis¬ 
sions. 
The Legislature also passed a new dog 
law, which provided for each person hav¬ 
ing a dog to apply to the county auditor 
before the first of .Tanuary each year for 
a license and tag to be worn on a collar 
and pay $1 for each male and .$2 for each 
female. Any dog not we,.ring a collar is 
subject as an outlaw, and may be killed, 
and other penalties for dogs wearing col¬ 
lars that are away from home or their 
mtisters. u. T. cox. 
A Tomato Bulletin 
This is evidently going to be a great 
year for tomato growing. Stocks of 
c.anned goods are short, prices will be 
high and there is also likely to be quite 
a he.avy demand for the fre.sh fruit. 
Therefore, many farmers and gardeners 
are looking about for information on the 
subject. The Indiana Experiment St.a- 
tion has is.sued a very good bulletin on 
the subject of tomato growing, and es¬ 
pecially regarding the crop intended for 
canning in particulai’. This is Circular 
59, from the Experiment Station at I.a 
Fayette, and we think it will pay our 
tomato growing friends to secure this 
bulletin and make a study of it. 
hood. France knew what to e.xpect and 
was partly ready. Englishmen could not 
possibly bring themselves to believe that 
wjir was possible. Our people are now 
in just the same .state of mind. The 
country must have money with which to 
fit itself for battle. In our Civil "War 
and in the Spanish War money w:is 
smiandered like water, and much of it 
was stolen by contractors. I think this 
war will be conducted on a closer and 
more business-like plan, but there must 
be money. Will your farm lend any 
money to the nation? At Hope Farm we 
shall put part of our savings into the 
Liberty bonds. No. I do not join those 
who are yelling and urging this invest¬ 
ment. I would not advise anyone to put 
needed working capital into these bonds. 
They are for the future. If anyone has 
a little money which he intends, anyway, 
to leave to his heirs, he would naturally 
tie it up in some sound security. Some 
of that money might well go into these 
bonds. I think this w^ar is to be of sjich 
a character that both the investment and 
part of the cost may well be passed on 
to those who are to follow us. Gne great 
source of sti ength in the French nation is 
the fact that government securities are 
largely held by the farmers and middle 
class people. One great objection in the 
past to our national bond issues is the 
fact that biinks and rich men have con¬ 
trolled them. I wish this issue could be 
held largely by small investors. We shall 
not put working capital into these bonds 
nor take them as the best investment, but 
put up part of what we think belongs to 
the future as a patriotic contribution. It 
is true that the plain people are being 
bled aiul held up by peoi)le who are buy¬ 
ing these bonds heavily. Through specu¬ 
lation we are forced to pay outrageous 
lirices for what we buy. It is blood 
money and dollar by dollar, drawn from 
..the common peoide. it is grouped into mil¬ 
lions and put into this bond issue. Thus, 
we, who buy goods at inflated prices, juit 
up the money while others get the credit 
and the privileges which go to the creditor 
class. Still, in .spite of this. I would put 
a part of the savings into the bonds in 
order to make the distribution as wide as 
j)ossible. 
Men.—O ne of our older boys has vol¬ 
unteered for the navy and the other may 
follow. This boy has seen something of 
army life on the INIexican border, and pre¬ 
fers the navy. He would like to get busy 
at once in the mo.squito fleet—after the 
submarines. This boy made his own de¬ 
rision without any advice or suggestion 
from me. He seems to realize what this 
war represents, and he knows that the only 
way to end it is to get right in and fight 
it through at once. We come of a fight¬ 
ing family on both sides, and I think it 
most likely that if I were back at 25 I 
should do the same thing. I hear from 
men and women who are frightened at 
the thought of having their boys con¬ 
scripted or their girls accepted as 
nurses. Some of these people seem 
ready to re.sort to anything in order 
to keep their children out of the service. 
I can put my.self in their places, but 
somehow I cannot feel that way about it. 
It seems to me something of what Ifin- 
coln called “a solemn joy” to feel that 
your children are not, in any sen.se of the 
word, “slackers,” but that they realize 
their obligations and can meet them 
-... 
\ 
KODAK 
on the Farm 
A Kodak fits into farm life from the pleasure side, from the 
business side and as a recorder of the familiar events that are so 
full of interest—the sheep washing and shearing, the haying and 
harvest scenes, threshing time, and apple picking. 
It gives pleasure on every holiday—the grange and Sunday 
school picnics, the fishing and hunting trips, the circus and the fair 
—then there are the familiar scenes around home; the children 
and their friends, the family pets—there is good fun in photograph¬ 
ing them at the time and afterward the pleasure of the pictures 
in the Kodak album. 
And on the business side the Kodak helps to keep the import¬ 
ant records in a business-like way—the building and ditching, the 
live stock, the orchard, the crops. Pictures of these things with an 
autographic record made on the film at the time of exposure are 
invaluable to the business-like farmer. 
It’s all very simple with a Kodak and less expensive than you think. 
Ask your dealer or write us for free Kodak catalogue. 
EASTMAN KODAK CO., 387 State Street, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
