856 
TShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Life Lessons. —You can get all sorts 
of things out of farm life if you can only 
apply the common happening.s. Our lit¬ 
tle girls .set a hen in early Spring, and 
in due time Mrs. Red marched off with 
four chickens. I doubt if any family in 
feathers ever had quite the care this 
one receive<l. 'Idie girls fitted up a box 
with wire in front and an old rug to 
give protection, and every night they 
drove the hen inside. By day this de¬ 
voted family ranged over the lawn and 
through the flower beds, with plenty to 
eat and drink and two devoted nurses 
to put them under cover wdienever the 
rain started. How those chicks did 
grow! Today they are nearly twice as 
large as a batch of brooder chicks which 
have been crowded into narrow quarters. 
The Red hen did well and safely carried 
her brood past hawks and cats and rats. 
Gkoavn T’p. —There will always come 
a time when both human and feathered 
chicks “grow up” and become ridiculous¬ 
ly large for the nest. The hen mother 
usually has sense enough to realize this, 
but the human mother often does not 
know. These four chicks got so large 
that the hen could not cover them. The 
little girls crowded the five together every 
night, though at the last they had to run 
the hen down to catch her. Those big 
chicks would work under her and nearly 
lift her off her feet. It was ridiculous 
to see her trying to appear like a digni¬ 
fied Red nurse wnth her children so large 
that they derricked her into the air. 
Have you not seen parents in .iust about 
that same position ? One day the little 
girls ran in with an egg which iMrs. Red 
had left in the coop. That told the story 
to a student of hen nature, but the little 
girls still chased the hen and put her 
with the chicks. 
Separation.—A few days later the 
girls found another e^ in the coop, and 
on opening the door the family of five 
w’alked solemnly out and stood in a little 
group by the woodshed. It was evident 
that the hen regarded her children as a 
graduating class and she delivered the 
commencement oration about like this: 
“Now then, the time has come to care 
for yourselves. I have given you good 
body and brain, and taught yen what I 
know about farming and feeding. You 
know your enemies and your friends. 
You know how to balance a ration on the 
range, and you know enough to go home 
w'hen night comes. Now I step down and 
out. resign my guardianship and devote 
my energies to taking care of myself. I 
have other duties to perform. This farm 
represents your world. I have found it 
a good one. I now introduce you to it. 
Good day and good luck !” 
Then the hen turned and walked off to 
the potato field while the four chicks 
started for the lawn. There were no 
tears or troubles. Four well-trained chil¬ 
dren walked off to seek their fortunes 
and a succes.sful nurse and teacher sim¬ 
ply congratulated herself on a good job 
of training and wmlked out to a well- 
merited vacation. The little girls Avere 
greatly troubled, and tried to drive the 
hen back to her chicks, but it was no 
use. Hen nature is not the same as hu¬ 
man nature. I’erhaps it Avould be better 
if there could be a blending of qualities. 
Perhaps it would be better if some of 
these fond mothers could go to the hen 
for an example of Spartan motherhood. 
This would mean two things. You no¬ 
tice that the hen stays right by her chicks 
Avhile they are small—or in the impres¬ 
sionable age. She doesn’t turn them over 
to the rooster for discipline, but she is 
right on the spot her.self. She doesn’t 
ask the other hens to teach her chicks the 
great lessons of hen life, but every hour 
and every minute she is right on the job, 
teaching her brood every trick of the 
trade, eating and scratching, dust bath¬ 
ing and all the rest. She beats any hu¬ 
man teacher because she has no text¬ 
book except her owm body. With the 
average human teacher it is, “Do as I 
my —don’t do as I do.” Every child sees 
the difference and concludes that teacher 
is more or less of a fi’aud and therefore 
concludes that education is much the 
same thing. The hen does not teach her 
children that way. She gives every hour 
of her life to the little chicks, and what 
they finally know is taken right out of 
her life. There are no frills or foam of 
society about it, but the genuine spirit of 
hen life. 
Differences.—B ut w’hat about brood¬ 
er chicks, some one will say. They have 
no personal instructor. Do they know 
less than the hen-raised birds? I think 
they do—as evidenced by their behavior 
this year, I will grant that one hen may 
be more sensible than another, as a 
teacher. The Reds are the best “moth¬ 
ers” and teachers I have yet seen. They 
make me think of the old-fashioned human 
mothers Avho seem Avell content to spend 
their lives Avith their children. I have 
seen other hens. White Leghorns mostly, 
deliberately lead their chicks into a mud 
puddle or go roaming off with other hens 
just Avhen the little ones Avere Avet and 
tired and could not keep up with the 
chase. Are not these like the human 
mothers AA’ho Av’ill go dancing about after 
“a good time” Avdth their little ones left 
for others to care for? Oh, Ave are all 
A^ery much like hens—some of us on the 
AA'hole quite inferior to them in certain 
family traits. But it is Avhen our chil¬ 
dren groAV up that the hen beats us as a 
“Spartan mother.” Does not evei’yone 
know that ninety per cent, of our chil¬ 
dren would be better off if, Avhen they get 
too large to brooil, they Avere calmly and 
plainly turned out to work their Avay? 
It seemed ridiculous to see those great 
chicks under that hen boosting her up so 
that her toes barely touched the floor, but 
you have seen cases where father and 
mother were no less ridiculous Avhen they 
tried to keep Mary and .lohn and Ellen 
and Dick under their Aving, Avhen the 
wing wasn’t half large enough. It is 
probably true that Mary and .Tohn and 
all the rest have not been educated or 
trained for life work as the hen trains 
her chicks—but they would make out, as 
the brooder chicks do if they Avere started 
out Avith a clear, plain understanding. I 
fear, hoAvever, that I shall have few fol- 
loAvers or believers except a few old- 
timers who are not likely to train any 
more children. I can tell you that when 
grandmother or grandfather step in to 
train a child you Have a worse perform¬ 
ance than a Leghorn hen ever gave. 
Reunion.—P erhaps this lesson of the 
hen came at the right time, since it hap¬ 
pened that late .Tune brought all our 
children home together. Both broods are 
here. One boy is AAmiting for the call to 
join the navy and the other reports for 
duty on the Pacific coast soon. So they 
are all back for a reunion. It surely 
puts life into the old farm and lets us 
see hoAV far Ave have travelled since the 
time, now years ago, when Mother came 
back here to attend an auction and said: 
“We must have that farm.” This re¬ 
union and what it stands for wall do for 
a study of character a little later. All 
hands are helping in the field. This help 
comes in AA'ell for clearing up after the 
long rains. One day I hired three school 
boys to help and I led an amiy of eight 
into the cornfield. We shall hear about 
those school boys later. I find that not 
all the school boys had a smart Rod hen 
for a teacher to shoAV them the practical 
side of life. But I Avish you could have 
lined up Avith us for the dinner on Sun¬ 
day, .Tune 24, M’e had a quartette of 
Red chickens, I Avill not say hoAV many 
.Inly 7, 1917. 
strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, pota¬ 
toes, spinach and all the “fixings.” There 
would have been enough for you. The 
Salvation Army captain said grace, and 
as the Hope Farm man glanced over the 
four roasted Reds he saw 11 at the long 
table, with eight more at the little table 
and in the next room. There were three 
generations, for the first of our brooder 
chicks has now a very fine and close sub¬ 
stitute for a grandchild. This was about 
the last of the asparagus—Ave have had 
it steadily since April 12, and now peas 
are ready. The farm looks better, for Ave 
have had several days of hot sun. h. av. c. 
Chicken Manure on Corn 
Can I use dry chicken manure on corn 
now in place of nitrate of soda, corn be¬ 
ing up? It does not seem possible for 
me to put up the money for a ton of soda. 
Rockville Centre, N. Y. A. R. S. 
Chicken manure makes a very good fer¬ 
tilizer for corn. It will not entirely take 
the place of nitrate of soda as the nitro¬ 
gen in the manure is not as available as 
that in the nitrate and of course the 
nitrate is very much stronger than the 
chicken manure. We think, however, if 
you would use enough of it the chicken 
manure would be better '•’or the corn than 
the nitrate. The best way we have found 
to use it is to crush the manure up fine 
and scatter it along the drills or around 
the hills of coni where it can be Avorked 
in Avith hoe or cultivator. You Avill get 
very much better effect if you can use 
acid phosphate or bone in connection with 
chicken manure. 
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