42 
JShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 12, 191S 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
r.LizzAKi) Weatii?:r. —No one living 
nvar the Atlantic coast need be told about 
the fierce combination of storm and cold 
which raged upon us like a belated Christ¬ 
mas present. It hit New York City at 
just the wrong time, with a shortage of 
coal and some forms of food. It takes 
hut a few day-s of such awful weather to 
show the real helple.ssness of the big city 
:ind the actual feebleness and poverty of 
its wealth. For many years the money 
of the nation has been running down the 
valleys and flying over the hills into the 
big towns. There it does great things 
in trade and finance, and creates an aris¬ 
tocracy of wealth with its dependents and 
hangers-on. When .skies are clear and 
transportation is open the money men 
have little use fdi' f.arnu'r.s or workers, 
'riien there will come something like this 
blast out (pf the Noi'thwest and the man 
of money finds that his comfort or his 
life dejxuids ipii the minei-. toiling under- 
grpoiiid. or the fainnc)' and his hired man, 
wading thi'ppugh the snowdrifts far back 
in the country. 
S(jT’.\RE 1 >K.\).s.- In time of calamity or 
trouble jpeojple gp) as near to life’s founda- 
tippijs as nature and education will jtei-mit. 
'riiree hundred years ago a hunter on 
Miinhattan Island caught in this blizzard 
would have spent little time finding fault 
or waiting for others to serve him. With 
his ax he would have made a shelter on 
what is now Fifth Avenue, his flint and 
steel Would have .started a fire, and some 
rabbit or bird would have provided food. 
Then he would have just waited until the 
blizzard got tired of blizzing. The mod¬ 
ern New V<Pi ker has lived out of the store 
so long that he has forgotten where his 
food comes from, and when the transpor¬ 
tation breaks down or the farmer and 
miner get weary, he is helpless as a child. 
pSuch experience would do him good if he 
could only get the right point of view. 
The rich men to whom he looks with 
such envy or fear cannot, with all their 
money, produce one ton of coal or one 
liound of food until their dollars are 
transmuted through farm labor into bread 
and meat and milk. The only dollar 
which can sustain human life is the farm 
dollar, and life is enriched and made free 
from worry and care as the dollars ac¬ 
cumulate on the farm and in the country. 
Events like this blizzard ought to blow or 
freeze this thought into city people, but 
many <pf them are not <iuite ready for it 
yet. They have been taught to find fault 
with the farmers and miners and blame 
them when food and fuel grow short in 
quantity and long in price. So long as 
they hipld that view and feel that the 
farmer is the natural enemy of the con¬ 
sumer. the food problem of the city man 
will grow worse and wor.se. I hear peo¬ 
ple tell of the great need of education 
among farmers, but this need is not half 
as great as that of drilling the city con¬ 
sumers in the first principles of common 
sense in the food supply problem. Every 
blizzard or other interference with trans¬ 
portation of food and fuel should go to 
show these consumers what slaves they 
are to the present system of distribution 
by the lords of industry. When will they 
wake up and get closer to the producers? 
Home Comforts. —I think of these 
things as 1 sit before the fire waiting for 
dinner. Outside we can see the cold, 
snow-covered hills .stretching away to the 
northwest. The blizzard has a great 
sweep down our valleys, and it is doing 
double time as it howls around the house. 
Our folks concluded not to go to church. 
It would mean a four-mile drive over 
wind-swept hills, and we are all safer 
by the fire. I have a great pile of apple- 
wood chunks to feed into the fireplace. 
The children are running in and out and 
the baby sits here pretending to \vrite a 
letter. You may not agree with me, but I 
feel today that the country is the place 
for a home when the farm is promising 
and the house is warm, and you have a 
contented family with a good proportion 
of children. With any of these things 
lacking it would not be so complete, and 
Avith several of them out I realize that 
the farm might be a cold and cheerless 
place. Our ’phone would bring us within 
call of thousands of homes today. I would 
like to try the experiment of calling up 
.50 people' I know well and get them to 
answer this question honestly : 
"Are you couient with life? If not, 
why? 
Suppose we called you up, as we might 
do. and put that question to you on this 
cold and stormy day? Of course, you 
would give an honest answ’er! What 
would it be as you looked out and saw the 
wind trying to gnaw through the windows 
and doors and get at you, and when you 
realized that this is the last of the old 
year? Tell it all. now! As I look out 
across the cold .snow I see a neighbor 
digging logs out of a snowdrift to cut up 
(green) for fuel. The “home fire.s” will 
smoke with such tvood! 
Dixxer 1—But dinner is ready. Here 
comes Cherry-top to tell us. You’ve got 
to come in this time. There will be no ' 
great style here. All we do when you 
drop in is to “boil another potato and fry 
another egg.’’ In the absence of a better 
actor I must play the part of patriarch, 
and now. down to the baby of three years, 
there will be a round dozen of us. We 
have a ham from .Teremiah .Tersey well 
roasted. The father of .Teremiah was a 
noted Red hog known as (’hief .Tustice. 
and both he and his son knew that full 
justice to them could only be done by hun¬ 
gry farmers on a day like this. Then as 
suitable side partners we shall have pota¬ 
toes. turnips and canned beets. See hoAv 
.vou like that thick gravy and that home¬ 
made butter. ’I'hen comes a bread pudding 
that you will rank as purebred. Of course. 
I know that England has prohibited the 
use of cream—but this is New .Ter.sev and 
you can have all you Avant. If the pudding 
does not go around Ave have a pantry full 
of canned fruit. Some of these Cro.sby 
peaches Avouldn’t be half bad! Wha't 
about “meatless days’’ We plan for meat I 
once a day—u.sually at noon. This morn¬ 
ing we had fishballs and tonight there 
will not be much beside crackers or bread 
and milk, with a little cheese. So have 
another piece of this roast ham. That 
yellow turnij) is rich in sulphur—quite 
suggestive of heat on a day like this. 
Re.serae.s. —Why, yes; we could stand 
■something of a siege on this farm. Trin- 
ka. the neAv cow, is pouring out the milk. 
Those Red pullets give us 12 to 1.5 egg.s 
lier day, and the off-color brothers and a 
feAV_ fat grandmothers can slide off into 
“chicken’’ at any time. There is an 
abundance of that hard flint corn to run 
through our little mill for meal, and jiork 
enough on hand for a regiment, and some 
for the soldiers. The pantry is full of 
canned fruit and vegetables, and rtie cel¬ 
lar is well stocked. Out in the barn the 
horses stamp and stretch in comfort. This 
is the crown of the year for old Bob. for 
in these snowdrifts he is king of the road 
and goes snorting by the stalled automo¬ 
biles which give him the dust in Summer. 
This snow is great for the gra.ss and grain. 
I nevi'r knew a snowy Winter which Avas 
not followed by good Avheat and rye. 
Some farmers think the snow’ brings nitro¬ 
gen to the soil. There is not much in 
that, but the suoav does protect the gi’aiu, 
prevents heave and thaw’, and a.s it melts, 
fills the upper soil w’ith moisture. We 
have practically all our land covered Avith 
rye alone or rye Avith clover or vetch. It 
is safe and doing well out there under the 
snow, no matter hoAv the blizzard roars 
doAvn the valley. So why not end the old 
year hopefully, looking for a better one to 
come ? 
The Other Side. —Perhaps. hoAveA’er, 
you are like an old fellow I knoAv Avho is 
determined not to see any bright side. If 
he Avere here he Avould work through that 
dinner and then begin on me: 
“The trouble Avith you is that you make 
everything look bright. This is no time 
for happiness. No sinner Avill repent at 
Avhat you say. I can find a dozen things 
right here that spell calamity. I’ll bet 
this cold Aveather Avill kill your fruit buds. 
I feel sure this blizzard Avill frost the 
combs of those juillets. They Avill stop 
laying. I’ll bet your Avater pipes are 
frozen. That baby is sneezing. IIow do ' 
you knoAv she Avon’t be doAvn Avith pneu¬ 
monia? Now. you are no longer a young I 
man”—and so on ! I listen to him and 
feel sorry—not for myself, but for him. 
Trouble.s' and calamities are quite likely 
to come upon us this year. They Avill be 
hard enough, in any event. Why double 
the burden by Avorrying about them in 
advance? 1 knoAv that this hard Winter 
is bringing sorroAV and suffering to many 
lonely farm homes Avhere battles AA’ill be 
fought Avithout recognition or glory. It 
seems to me that all aa’Iio try to teach or 
lielp Avork out the big problem of farm life 
should remember that the real w’orkshop 
is the farm home, and the light of that 
home is contentment and a hopeful spirit. 
Wie may think or knoAV that Ave are un¬ 
justly treated, and AA’e may fight for our 
rights, but let us keep good-natured in¬ 
side the home at least. But the children 
AA'ant to go out and play or roll in the 
snoAv. Come on Avith them 1 We are too 
dignified to roll, but a good tramp through 
the Avind will do us good before we do 
our chores. Come on! n. av. C. 
Ailing Hens 
What is the trouble Avith our hens? 
Every noAv and then they make a piping 
noise, only once in a while at first, and 
after some time more often ; then their 
heads turn a dark purple. We have 
never lost any yet. Whatever it is seems 
to act A’ery sloAvly. About three years 
ago Ave brought a nice hen into our flock 
that Avas affected in this Avay. Could 
the trouble be infectious? av. E. G, 
Massachusetts. 
1 should judge from your description 
that these birds had some obstruction to 
breathing Avhich produced the sound you 
heard and caused their combs to turn 
dark from choking. A groAvth of some 
kind in the air passages might produce 
this, and such groAvths are not uncom¬ 
mon. as a result of certain forms of fungi 
that live on moldy litter and ai’e taken 
from thence into the air passages of the 
foAvls. So long as the exact nature of 
the trouble is not know’n, it is best to 
remove affected foAvls from the flock. If 
they fully recover, they can be returned. 
M. B. D. 
The Cash Crop 
T he 1917 POTATO CROP of over 439,000,000 
bushels had a farm value of more than $549,000,000. 
This figure is based on the Government’s average 
November 1st price of $1.25 per bushel. Many farmers 
received higher prices for their crops. 
Did you get your full share of this vast amount? 
Potatoes are the most profitable money crop which the 
average farmer can raise. In these days of food shortage, 
every farmer should plan if possible to grow enough po¬ 
tatoes for his own use and should raise a few for market if 
his farm is favorably located. Your potato profits this year 
will depend largely upon your ability to cut down your labor 
costs by securing greater yield from every fiel ’ ” 
L Frank Coe’s Fertilizers 
Reg. U. S. Pal. Off. 
1857 The Business Farmers’ Standard for Over 60 Years 1918 
These Famous Fertilizers will Help You Increase Your Profits 
Make your plans in advance to secure over 300 bushels 
of potatoes on every acre. This involves several questions. 
For example:— 
How far apart will you space your rows ? 
What distance will you leave between the seed pieces 
in the row ? 
What are you going to do to prevent scab and blight ? 
How much fertilizer will you use and how will you apply it? 
The correct answers to these questions and many others 
of equal importance are going to determine your potato 
success this year. You will find this information in our 
practical book entitled **Potatoes, a Money Crop. ** We 
will mail your copy without charge if you will advise us 
promptly the number of acres of potatoes you intend to 
plant this Spring. It is a worth-while book which you will 
want to keep for reference. Ask today for prices and 
order your fertilizer EARLY. 
Address Crop Book Department 
The Coe-Morlimer Company 
Subsidiary of the American Agricultural Chemical Company 
51 Chambers Street New York City 
The Cure for a Billion Dollar Waste' 
^ I 'HIS year—if you own no spreader, you are 
^ not only losing out on the bigger yields 
and profits that should be yours, but you are con¬ 
tributing to a billion-dollar manure waste, and stop¬ 
ping your ears to the Avorld-call for food. 
We have facts and figures to shoAv that in scores of cases 
the use of an International Harvester spreader has added to 
crops more than enough to pay for the spreader in one year. 
The dealer will show you the neAv No. 8 Low Corn King, 
Cloverleaf or 20th Century. This is the latest International 
Harvester spreader, the popular 2-horse, light-draft, narroAv- 
box machine with the remarkable new spiral wide-spread. 
For the small-to-average farm this is bound to be the spreader 
success of the year. Look it over from tongue to spiral, see 
it at work, and you will agree with us. 
In the Low Corn King, Cloverleaf and 20th Century lines 
are larger spreaders too, with disk or spiral wide-spread, all 
of narrow, easy-handling width; low, of remarkably light 
draft, strongly and simply constructed. Write us for cat¬ 
alogues and see the local dealer for a satisfactory money¬ 
making Low Corn King, Cloverleaf or 20th Century spreader. 
International Harvester Company of America 
(Incorporated) 
CHICAGO USA 
