1094 
^he RURAL NEW-YORKEK 
September 21, 1918 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
School.—()» r childieii have started in 
the public school. Th<* boys have worked 
steadily all Summer, and it takes some 
days for them to settle down into the 
routine of school life. I'lie schools all 
llirough our section have service Hags 
with stars showing the number of gradu¬ 
ates now in the army, and i)atriotic feel¬ 
ing runs high. It becomes more and more 
of a problem to know what to <lo Avith a 
child when he jiasscs out of the common 
.'school. Sure it is that the untrained 
hoy or girl of the future has a hard 
outlook. In the big turn-uj' that is to 
follow this war tin* man or woman who 
can only do ordinary Avork Avill be at a 
tremendous disadA-antage. Yet 1 think 
the old-time training Avill hardly answer, 
for when the soldiers come back they 
Avill bring with tliem about the largest 
l)roblem this nation has ever kno.rn. 
'I'here is .also a gi-eat shortage of good 
teachers. Some have joined tlie army— 
others have gone to Avork at other things. 
I hear of it number of cases Avhere older 
t<*acher.s, Avho retired some years ago, 
have noAV come back into the harness. 
Quite a number of farmers’ Avives taught 
l)efore they Avere married, hut gave up 
the school-room tit jtreside over a home. 
Noav they huA’C children of their OAvn, iind 
Avill go back into the .«chool-room. I do 
not «ee Avhere it Avould be jmssible to 
lind better teachers for the rural schools. 
Open Fires.—-A s the cooler Fall nights 
come on I Avant to get in a good Avord 
for the open lireplace. Many a night avjII 
come with a biting chill in the aii-. It is 
not cool enough to .start a lire in the 
.stove or furnace, yet some little heat is 
needed. Qn .such a night nothing can be 
liner than a gloAviug o))en lire. I Avould 
not be Avlihout a lire))lace. Aside from its 
comforting heat, it gives the finest system 
of ventilation, it makes a rallying place 
for the family and lills the home Avith 
cheerfulness. I <-an tell you noAV, before 
we start, that this AA'inter Avill be a 
hard one for many of us. .Some of those 
lonely homes AA’ill nee<l every spark of 
cheer and brightness than can possibly 
get into them, and there is no more direct 
route fur them into your home than 
through an open lire. Ilurn up the old 
fences and dead trees, and .sec your cares 
go along Avith them. 
Burning Wood. —I think many of us 
Avill be forced to substituti* Avood for coal 
—in part at least. 1 expect to burn more 
wood than ever liefore, and Ave have been 
casting about for .some plan of using 
AVOod under the boiler. Our house is 
heated by hot Avater. Last AVintiu' aa'c 
suffered at times, but Ave kej't the fires 
roaring and had a fair sujiidy of coal. 
lIoAV can Ave usi* Avood undi'r such a boiler 
so as to kee]) up the heat in ordinary 
Winter Aveather? I lind that the manu¬ 
facturers of heaters and boilers under¬ 
stand what is coming, and are planning 
tor it. For examjile, one manufacturer 
Avrites me as folloAvs: 
“It is a very ea.sy matter to use Avood 
in almost any boiler or furnace. A piece 
of slu'et iron with a number of one-inch 
holes punched through, should bo laid on 
top of the present coal grate. These hides 
alloAV the AVood ashes to .sift through. 
'The No. 14 gauge iron ought to be heavy 
enough for this kind of Avork, and almost 
any tinsmith can make one of these in a 
very .short time.” 
That seems easy, but has anyone really 
tried it? AVhat is the best size of Avood 
for .such AVork, and hoAV do you keep up 
the lire? A good many country people 
have become confirmed coal-burners. Noav 
they must prepare to use more Avood, and 
Ave all Avant to learn In av to keep a Avood 
lire over night in zero Aveather. 
Science and Practice.—T hey ought 
to Avork together like a Avell-inatched 
team of oxen, but they Avill not abvays 
do it. Efforts to harne.s.i them sometimes 
inaki.' me think of t’ team I once saAA’ at 
the .South. Some farmer had gained pos- 
si'ssion of a broken-doAvn <dd thoroAigli- 
bred stallion and hitched him up Avith a 
mule. They Avere ploAving, and they 
surely had no common purjiose in agricul¬ 
ture. The stallion hung his head and 
Avent on as if saying: “It is the croAvn- 
ing insult of a proud life to harness me 
Avith thi.s felloAV. My sons on the race¬ 
track today are beating the Avorld. I 
ought to be living on their reputation in¬ 
stead of vainly trying to jiut a little 
spirit into this dull rascal yoked ip) with 
me.” And the mule Avent on Avith an- 
iither tale of Avoe: “Why do they hitch 
me up Avith this conceited old crank? \ 
am doing all the Avork. lie thinks he is 
giving •character’ to it—but you can’t 
jiull a iiloAV on the reenrd of your sons.” 
I Avas thinking of the old <-unte.st betAveen 
si-ience and practice the other day, Avhen 
’riiomas and I debated as to Avhat avc 
should do Avith part of a cornfield. It Avas 
naturally Avet. and the Evergreen seedAA'as 
feeble and did not make a good stand. 
'I'homas favored jdoAving ic. ! A'f it and 
idanting cabbage. I favoi'ed letting it 
stand, and the argument came doAvn to 
theory on my jiart and practical expe¬ 
rience by Thomas. I thought it a good 
plan to let the argument go to the boys. 
:ind after hearing the case they unan¬ 
imously di'cided that Thomas had the 
more sensibh* argument, lie figured on 
Avhat he had already seen done, and I 
expected certain results to folloAA' because 
they ought to’. So Ave jdoAved and 
planted <•abbage. 1 find that most 
farmers Avant tint ju-actical arguments foj- 
doing a thing, r.ather than the thei.ry. 
Some of our younger scientists get too 
large an idea of Avhat science is. It is 
not the master of practice but rather the 
servant. 
KESi’ONSimt.TTY.—And that brings up 
another question about children. IIoav 
much responsibilit.A- should be given 
them? i knoAv pi-ople Avho think it best 
to keep the children doAvn. hold the reins 
in their oAvn hand, and do the jdanning 
and thinking for the boys and girls. .Such 
children groAv up Avithout any real char¬ 
acter or force, and in the cause of a sud¬ 
den trouble Avould not knoAv Avhat to do. 
I think that is a mistaken jxdicy. and I 
think it far better to make the children 
face respon.sibility early in life. On a 
farm J think tlu'.v should understand thi' 
business, have a good idea of Iioav it is 
going, and be giA-en a share of the AVork 
and ri'sponsibility as soon as they are 
able to handle it. That is on(« riaison Avhy 
1 jiay our boys for their Avork. jind leave 
them rea.sonably free to invest th<‘ money 
as they like. l\Iy exiierience is that Avhen 
a boy Avorks hard for bis money he Avill 
not fool much of it aAvay unless such 
fooling is the ruling spiidt of the farm. 
I think boys like to feel that they are 
trusted Avith responsibilities, and that 
such a feeling lieljis tii' them to the farm. 
They also like to find that their Avork is 
helping develop the farm and increasing 
its business from year to yimr. 
IliiiEi) Men and ('ar.s.-^-.V reader in 
Connecticut sends the folloAving ncAVS- 
jiaper clijijiing: 
“At a farmers’ picnic for Essex. Mor¬ 
ris and Union counties, Xcav .Tersey, at 
^'erona Lake, the other day, there Avere 
10.000 peojde present, and more than ilOO 
automobiles Avere parked. 'Phe record of 
the iiicnic for lOOO shoAVS that there Avere 
only six automobiles that year. This 
year many of the farmers’ families came 
in big touring cars.” 
Wliile I did not attend this picnic, T 
have no doubt this statement is about 
true. The Avay the cars line up at these 
farmers’ picnics is remarkable. But our 
friend goes on to say: 
“Ami they might have added that the 
hired man (‘the poor cuss,’ ‘the fool,’ 
‘the recipient of charity’) stayi'd at home 
and lo.st the SAAmat that paid for the gaso¬ 
line.” 
I do not knoAV just Avhat he means by 
that, for in our country the hired man 
is certainly at bat this year. Nobody 
speaks of him in connection Avith “char¬ 
ity.” I do not oAvn a car. I bought the 
truck first. AYhen Ave Avent on the Farm 
Bureau excursion I rode in Thomas’s 
car. and I can find a good many Avorking 
or hired men Avho OAvn their OAvn cars. 
1 do not knoAv Iioav it is in Connecticut, 
but in this part of Ncav .Jersey the hired 
or Avorking man never had a better chance 
than he is haA-ing right now in choice of 
a job, Avages and hours of labor. 
n. w. c. 
The Great War and the Weather 
Ever since this great Avar began peo¬ 
ple have claimed that it has had consid¬ 
erable influence upon the weather in this 
country. On one hand Ave are told that 
the explosions and the liberation of gas 
in the European battles has increased the 
amount of rainfall here. Another class | 
of people claim that these battles are re- [ 
sponsible for the tiu'rible drought in the i 
West, for they claim that so much rain ! 
Is produced in Europe and there is not 
enough of it left to go around here. Of , 
cour.se, both of these theories cannot be ' 
right. ’The U. B. M’eather Bureau states 
that the European Avar has had nothing 
to do Avhatever Avith the American Aveath¬ 
er. 
It has alAvays been a theory that Jiat- 
tles produce rain. Before the invention 
of gunpoAvder the ancients thought that 
rain Avas produced by the clash of the 
SAVord and the SAveat of the fighters. ’Phis 
theoi-y was changed to make the noise of 
battle and the smoke of burning iioAvder 
responsible. ’Phe real cause of rainfall is 
the cooling of the air. Heated air cur¬ 
rents rise and cooler currents rush in to 
take their place. All Aveather conditions 
depend for their origin on the heating 
and cooling of the atmosphere. All the 
poAvder that could be reasonably explod¬ 
ed in any battle Avould not be enough to 
jiroduce any great change of teinjiera- 
ture; certainly not enough to iiroiluce 
rain. 
Some years ago “rain-making” became 
a busini'ss in some jiarts of the South- 
Avest. ’Phis Avas based on the theory that 
an exqilosion high in the air Avould bring 
I (articles of moisture together AA-hich 
Avould make drops to fall as rain. 'Phe 
(ruth is that if the moisture is in the 
clouds and the conditions are right it Avill 
fall. If it is not present all the ex- 
idosions that could be devised could not 
iu'ing it. Observations sIioaa’^ that the 
great battles in France in the Spring of 
1017 did not inti'rrupt the long siiell of 
fair Aveather. ’Phe amount of rainfall in 
Ilngland during the first tAA’o years of the 
Avar gave no supimrt to the theory that 
the.se great battles produce rain. Yet one 
of the favorite beliefs of the human mind 
is that rain ahvays folloAvs a battle, 
Avhen the truth is there is no direct con¬ 
nection betAveen the tAVO. 
She: “You knoAV very Avell that you 
had to a.'^k me three times before I Avould 
con.sent to be your Avife:” lie: ‘’Yes. I 
knoAV; and that only goes to shoAV that it^ 
is sometimes jiossible to be too jiei-sist- 
ent.”— Boston 'Transcript. 
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value and use of Union Carbide, eighteen years ago. 
Following its widespread usehy the farmer, the miner dis¬ 
covered that Carbide miners’ lamjis were a great improve¬ 
ment over oil lamps. Today over 700,000 miners use Carbide. 
Metal workers and machinists in shipyards, on railroads, 
and in machine shojts discovered they could weld and cut 
metals quicker and more economically with Carbide gas 
(when combined with oxygen) than by any other method. 
Contractors, stevedores, and farmers found out its supe¬ 
rior advantages for flare lamps and torches. 
These are some of the uses that have made Union Car¬ 
bide a big factor in all branches of industry. 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKEE, 
333 WEST 30th ST., NEW YORK. 
