Jjhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
903 
Notes By A Farm Mother 
A Midnight Raid. —The always to be 
e.xpected has happened ; somebody's cattle 
broke out during the night and, as we 
have no fence along the roadside, nothing 
prevented them from destroying our gar¬ 
den. which they did. Several rows of 
golden wax beaus, all in blossom, were 
eaten off clean. Every I'ow of beets was 
mauled over, those not eaten being pulled 
up. Hill after hill of the early potatoes 
were destroyed, a few of the stubs lying 
about, many with potatoes the size of 
walnuts on the roots. All the best hills 
of Golden Bantam sweet com are gone 
and a row of 200 cabbage plants eaten up 
clean. We worked as long as ./e could 
.see setting out plants last evening, and in¬ 
tended to finish setting out this row of 
cabbages tonight, and now there is none 
left. Green peas, radishes and the tur¬ 
nips eaten off, too; nothing was spared, 
except a few rows of carrots, parsnips 
and lettuce. Provoking? Well, rather; 
we were proud of our garden and had 
siient many an hour hoeing and weeding. 
Now it is a wreck, trampled all over, big 
and little hoof marks showing every¬ 
where. 
Pooh Fences. —What’s the use trying 
to raise anything, when the fences all 
about are so rotten that anything can 
break through? We often hear it said. 
“There’s no need of having fences along 
the road here, as nothing is allowed to 
run.” Well, they do run, just the same. 
Three different times so far this Summer 
a drove of stx’ange cattle has been here; 
some pastured on our oats and corn and 
new seeding, while another lot stampeded 
over the pastures, breaking through fences 
and making so much bother that we were 
obliged to put them in the stable and feed 
them some hay until the owners came up 
for them. But this last raid is a strange 
one, because not a sight of cow or calf 
was seen on the place when the boys got 
up this morning. Everything was quiet; 
in fact, no one knew of the damage done 
till I happened to look out at the garden 
after breakfast. At first I thought our 
cattle had broken through some waj’. but 
examination of the fences showed all to 
be as usual. On questioning the boys 
they both declared our cows were down 
the lane, and no tracks can be seen in 
that direction. So whoever the cattle be¬ 
longed to managed to get them away be¬ 
fore we saw or heard anything—only a 
ruined garden remains to tell its mute 
story. I always look to see that the barn¬ 
yard gates are closed before I retire, and 
last night I saw to them as usual : every 
gate was as it should be. so we know our 
cows couldn’t have done the mischief. 
W’ell, there’s no use crying over spilled 
milk, but I can’t help but feel vexed. 
Alas for our hopes of early beets and 
sweet corn; what’s left of the former 
won’t make a bite around the table. Now 
for Winter use we must sow more beets 
and buy cabbage jilants. But of one tiling 
I am sure; a fence goes up along the 
front of this farm before everything is de¬ 
stroyed by runaway cattle. 
Chops. —The field corn looks good, what 
the crows have left of it. and the oats 
are good as any I have seen. The boys 
have just sown a couple of acres to mil¬ 
let. and we are hoping it turns out well, 
as our hay crop will be light. The past 
Winter froze our meadows severely, in 
.spite of the heavy blanket of snow that 
covered them, and the result is a thin, 
short stand of grass. We bought a few 
fields of grass which we intend to mow 
very soon, and by cutting in the fence cor¬ 
ners and the roadside, hope to have 
enough to feed the stock till another June. 
One of our old meadows will have to be 
plowed up this Fall; there is no use let¬ 
ting land lie in grass when you can al¬ 
most count the blades. 
Foolish Geese. —A heavy thunder 
shower came up a half hour ago and the 
little boys got all the young things under 
cover excepting the goslings. Being 
frightened at the lightning and roar of 
thunder they ran for the house and left 
the geese to look after their babies them¬ 
selves. Now I’ve often heard it said, “No 
more sense than a goose.” and surely they 
don’t seem to have much. Instead of 
hurrying their young in out of the storm 
as sensible parents should, or hovering 
the little things themselves, they just 
stood out in the downpour, with head up 
and wings outstretched, seeming to defy 
the storm. Meanwhile the little ones 
were getting drenched through and 
as the old ones wouldn’t be driven or 
coaxed into the shed, the big boys picked 
up the goslings and ran with them to 
the house, leaving the p;pe.se to enjoy their 
shower bath. It has been ('ur exoerience 
that young ducks or geese cannot endure 
getting “wet to the r.'in.” though we 
often hear the saying. “Rain is good for 
young ducks.” 
Late Frost. —Quite a heavy frost vis¬ 
ited this section last week : in some places 
gardens were completely destroyed, even 
the brakes have withered and turned 
brown. Living on high ground as we do, 
frosts seldom do any damage for us, 
though we took care to cover our tender 
plants of all kinds. 
Wild Strawberries. — One would 
think that since the grass roots had 
winter-killed, the strawberries would 
too, but thei’e seems to be more this year 
than last; every day we have had a dish 
of wild berries and nearly every day a 
shortcake. But though some say the 
wild berries are sweeter, always the tame 
ones are my choice, and if only we had 
such berries as Hope Farm raises, we 
would surely agree that “God could have 
made a better berry, but He didn’t.” 
Give Thanks. —How thankful we all 
should be that we are far away from the 
sight and sound of this awful war. that 
no armies are trampling our crops under 
foot, nor burning our houses and barns. 
Even though we must do and eat things 
we do not fancy, aren’t we fortunate to 
have ftomethlmj to eat? I read of wid¬ 
owed mothers who were given eight 
cents a day for themselves and each of 
their children with which to buy bread. 
Bread and .salt, salt and bread, and they 
are mothers with habies in their arms. 
How long can they nourish their babes on 
that fare, how long can they live? 
Wouldn’t they think themselves in Para¬ 
dise if they could have the good things 
called “every-day fare” on the tables of 
our American farmers? We have so 
much to be thankful for, jthough by the 
way some people talk one would think 
they were sadly abused. There is no land 
like the land of your hirth .and when it 
is the land of Liberty you are blessed in¬ 
deed. However, it isn’t the land, hut the 
rulers of the land who make it a heaven 
or a hell. Germany and Austria would 
have been happy and contented if those 
in authority had not had gi-eed .-ind 
covetousness in their hearts. Thanks be 
for the flag of the free. .m. s. 
An Old Friend From Kansas and His Big 
Woodpile 
I take the liberty of writing to the 
good old R. N.-Y.. and also to send you 
a picture of myself, woodpile and spotted 
purp. and. while I have mentioned the 
pup last, I don’t consider him least, for 
he is as loyal a friend as any man ever 
had. Of course, we are still aware of the 
fact that in many i)laces in the East. 
Kansas, and especially Southwestern 
Kansas, is supposed to be a treeless coun¬ 
try, but this picture will prove to the 
doubting ones that there are at least a 
few trees here. The kodak failed to get 
at least 10 feet of the west end of the 
woodpile, which is over 50 feet long, 
eight feet wide and nearly eight feet 
high. Your humble servant, who is in 
his 63d year, did every bit of the work 
from tree to woodpile, excepting a day's 
work with a power saw, besides working 
something over a week in the timber for 
others, and as our timber is rather 
scrubby cottonwood, ash, elm, hackberry, 
willow, etc., it is very plainly to be seen 
that this Kansas woodpile repi’eseuts a 
goodly amount of labor and grit, but 
Kansas people have plenty of the latter. 
As we came to this country in 1S71, we 
have seen the country develop from a 
A Kansas Pioneer and His Work 
'A 
GOVEBNMENT EXPERTS Say 
“THIS IS THE EASIEST WAY:’ 
'pEEL your peaches, pears and plums for pre- 
^ serving with Babbitt’s Lye. The U. S. Board 
of Food Inspection has approved the Lye meth¬ 
od of peeling fruit. It saves four-fifths of the 
time and labor that is usually spent in paring. 
This is the method used by the big California fruit can- 
ners. The hot lye solution peels off the skin without injury 
to the fruit It also prevents waste of the best flavored part 
of the fruit—that next the skin. 
Save the directions printed be¬ 
low. Get a can of Babbitt’s Lye of 
your dealer and preserve this sea¬ 
son the easy Babbitt way. 
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I DIRECTIONS I 
I To 9 gallons cf water add half a can of Babbitt’s Con- | 
I centrated Lye and half an ounce of alum. For small I 
I quantities of fruit use one gallon of water, 4 tablespoons I 
I Babbitt’s and a pinch of alum. Place fruit in a wire I 
I basket or thin cloth and suspend in the boiling solution 1 
I for two minutes. Rinse thoroughly in cold water and | 
I all the skin will come off. i 
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B.T. BABBITT, Inc., 11 Broadway, New York 
CONCENTRATEH 
Send for booklet describing 
man^ other household uses 
for BABBITT’S Pure Con¬ 
centrated LYn. 
