121C 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
I would like to know where you are 
tonight, and what you have been doing all 
through this “laberty Day.” With us the 
day has been cloudy and wet. and just as 
the sun went down Nature took the lib¬ 
erty of sending a cold, penetrating rain. 
So here I am before my big fire with a 
copy of Washington Irving's “Life of 
Christopher Columbus.” That .seems the 
proper way to end Columbus Day, for in 
trying to tell the children about him I 
found that I did not really know much 
more than they do about the great dis¬ 
coverer. So here I am back some 400 
years in history wondering if any of 
these pompous and bigoted ways of seek¬ 
ing for new worlds or new methods can 
be applied to jnodern life in New'Jersey. 
* ♦ * * ♦ 
My back aches, for I have been digging 
potatoes all day—and I thought I had 
graduated from that job some years ago. 
I’erhaps you will say that we .should have 
been out selling Liberty bonds or parad¬ 
ing. Per.sonally, I am a poor salesman, 
and we all subscribed for our bonds some 
days ago. There are eight bondholders in 
this family. The influenza has left us 
without labor except for the children, 
while the school is closed. There are 
still over ItK) barrels of apples fo pick, 
potatoes to dig, plowing and seeding to be 
done, and a dozen other jobs all pressing. 
So I decided to celebrate Liberty Day by 
digging those Bible School potatoes. We 
planted a i)atch of potatoes between rows 
of young peach trees and promised the 
crop to the Bible Teachers’ Training 
School. Last year we tried this, and I 
put in a few of the latest scientific 
touches which the experts told us about. 
The plant lice came in a swarm and 
ruined the patch. We had a few potatoes 
about the size of mai-bles. This year we 
avoided .scientific advice, and just planted 
potatoes in the old-fashioned way. They 
were not cultivated in best possible man¬ 
ner, but they made a good crop. So 
when Liberty Day dawned with a thick, 
gray mist over the land I decided to get 
those potatoes out instead of going on the 
march or singing the Star Spangled 
Banner. From what I read of Colum¬ 
bus I imagine he would have chosen the 
parade and left the digging to others. 
The world has taken on new ideas about 
labor .since then. 
So, after breakfast. Cherry-top and I 
took our forks and started digging. The 
soil was damp and the air full of mist 
and meanness which made me sneeze and 
cough as we worked on. Happily, out 
on our hills we are not finjed $20 for 
sneezing outside of a handkerchief, as is 
the case in New York! If anyone has 
discovered any poetry or philosophy in 
the job of digging potatoes he may have 
the floor. I call it about the most 
menial job on the farm, and therefore fine 
discipline for “Liberty Day.” While we 
were working Philip and the larger boy 
went by with the team to s<jed rye. They 
have thrashed out enough grain by hand, 
and this is not only ideal weathei’, but 
about the last limit for seeding. The land 
was plowed some two weeks ago, a big 
crop of ragweed and grass being turned 
under. If we only had the labor this 
ground would have been disked twice and 
then harrowed. As it is, we can only 
work it once with the spring-tooth. Then 
Philip goes ahead seeding in the rye by 
hand, while the boy follows with the 
Acme harrow to cover the grain. It is 
rough seeding and would not answer for 
wheat, but rye is tough and enduring, 
and it will imitate Columbus and discover 
a new world in that decaying mass of rag¬ 
weed. So I watch the seed sowers travel 
slowly along the hillside as I dig, and 
wonder what was doing on this farm 427 
years ago, and w'hat wll be doing here 
100 years hence! Such reflections were 
the most cheerful mental accompaniment 
I could find for digging potatoes. They 
are impractical, while digging is the most 
practical thing on earth! 
As we dug on a man and woman came 
up the lane. They came after apples, 
having engaged them before. The boy 
went down to attend to them, while I 
kept on digging. Then the boy came 
back with two more apple customers. 
The trouble Avith us is that we have more 
customers than apples this year, but these 
were old patrons, and they were served. 
The boy finally came back with $41.80 as 
a result of his trading, and we Avent at 
our job Avith ncAv vigor. As we dug along 
Ave noticed a curious thing about those 
potatoes. Here and there was a vine 
large and strong, and still perfectly green. 
The great majority of the hills Avere dead, 
but those green ones were as vigorous as 
they were in June. The variety Avas 
Green Mountain, and Ave soon found that 
on the average these big green vines were 
pi-oducing twice as much as the dead 
hills. Some of these living vines carried 
three or four big potatoes. Others had a 
dozen, Avith seven or eight of market size, 
Avhile others had about 16 tubers, mostly 
small. Just Avhy these vines should act 
in this way I do not know. There are 
so many possible reasons that I should 
have to guess at it. as Columbus did when, 
as his shii) sailed on and on into the 
west, the compass began to vary. The 
boy and I decided that hei-e Avas where 
we might discover a good strain of Green 
Mountain on Columbus Day. So we have 
IShe RURAL P 
selected 15 of the best hills. They will 
be planted, hill by hill, next year and 
still further selection made. We discarded 
the hills Avith only a fcAV big potatoes 
and akso those with many small ones, and 
selected those with a good number of 
medium-.sized tubers. It may come to 
nothing, but avc will try it. Experience 
and careful figures show that an ordinary 
crop of potatoes in this country does not 
pay. The same is true of a flock of or¬ 
dinary poultry, or a drove of scrub pigs. 
There is no profit except in well-bred, se¬ 
lected stock. That’s what we think we 
have in pigs and poultry—perhaps we 
may get something of the same thing in 
potatoes. 
4i * * ^ 
_ But there is one sure thing about dig¬ 
ging potatoes—you Avmrk up a great appe¬ 
tite. At noon there came a most wel¬ 
come parade up the lane. It was not a 
woman suffrage procession, but Mother, 
Aunt Eleanor, Rose and the little girls, 
bringing the lucnic dinner in baskets and 
pails. The boy had built a fire up above 
the spring and piled stones up around it. 
By the time I had Avashed my hands and 
face in the brook Mother had a frying 
pan over this fire Avith slices of bacon 
sizzling and giving up their fat. "SYben 
this bacon was brown the slices Avere 
taken out and the fat kept on bubbling 
and dancing. Then Aunt Eleanor cut up 
slices of Baldwin apples and dropped them 
into this fat. They tell me Ben Davis is 
best for this fried-apple performance, but 
I found no fault Avith Baldwin as it 
jumped out of that fat. The chemist Avill 
no doubt explain how the bacon fat com¬ 
bined with the acid of the apple, etc., etc., 
etc. Let him talk ; it does him good— 
but have another fried apple! Men may 
come and men may go, but they Avill 
seldom find more appetizing food or a 
more perfect balanced ration than the 
Hope Farmers discovered around that 
fire. There was bread and butter, fried 
bacon, fried apple, pot cheese and several 
of our choice Red hen’s eggs boiled hard 
and chopped fine with a little onion. Of 
course, eggs are worth good and great 
money just now, but nothing is too good 
for an occasion like this. And so, on that 
I EW-YO R K E R 
cheerless day, .sitting around our fire, we 
all concluded that Columbus did a great 
thing when he discovered America. I 
knew a man who went to a picnic and 
groAvled hard becau.se his butler was not 
there to w.’.it on him. If I had a butler 
on the premi.ses I would put him at dig¬ 
ging potatoes. 
♦ ^ 
But our job Avas not to be ended by 
eating fried apples and bacon, pleasant as 
that occupation is, and when I put out 
my hand I Avas obliged to admit that the 
first faint evidence of rain was beginning. 
The larger boy Avent back to his rye seed¬ 
ing, and vei-y soon Tom and Broker could 
be seen on the loAver farm pounding back 
and forth over the field like gray giants 
hauling up the guns. All hands went to 
picking up potatoes. Mother picked tAvo 
bushels and then had to go back to her 
housework. Little Rose claimed that she 
picked up 20 potatoes. Her chief job was 
to hold on to her throat and ask if it was 
not time to eat one more of those SAveet 
throat tablets I had in my pocket. The 
rain sloAvly developed from mist to good- 
sized drops. I know Avhat it means to 
get Avet, and in any other cause I aa’ouIJ 
have left the job, but aa’o were there to 
finish those potatoes, and Ave stayed by it 
until they were all picked up. The last 
barrel or tAvo came up out of the mud, 
and our hands and feet were surely plast¬ 
ered with common clay—but we finished 
our job. Then came the boys Avith Broker 
and the fruit Avagon to carry the crop to 
the barn. One of these boys had on a 
rubber coat—the other a sack over his 
shoulders. They Avent on up the hill to 
get a load of apples and on their AA’ay 
back brought doAvn the Bible potatoes, 
Avhere they will dry out and be ready for 
delivery. When aa’c got to the barn there 
was another party after apples. 
* 4 : « 4 : 4 : 
We finished it all at la.st, dried off be¬ 
fore the fire and found ourselves none the 
worse for the day. In the present condi¬ 
tion of my back I Avould not from choice 
go to a dance tonight, but that will limber 
out in time. The fire roars away, the 
rain taps at the AvindoAV, and we are safe 
and warm. We have had our supper, and 
October 26, 1918 
I suppose I could tell where Aunt Eleanor 
has hidden a pan of those famous ginger 
cookies. I Avill make it a one to five 
chance that I can also find a pan of 
baked apples. I think I will not reveal 
the secret publicly at this time. The Food 
Administrator might accuse her of using 
too much ginger or sweetening! School 
has been closed on account of the influ¬ 
enza, but the children are still Avorking 
their “examples,” and I give them a fcAV 
original sums to work out. Little Rose 
li.stens to all this, and finally proposes 
this one of her oAvn: 
“If a Avoman paid three cents at a 
ho.spital for a baby, how much would a 
horse cost?” 
I’ersonally, I Avill give that up, and go 
back to the “Life of Columbus.” The 
most interesting thing to me is the ac- 
wunt of the council of wise men to whom 
Columbus tried to explain his theories. 
They told him that since the old philoso¬ 
phers and wise men had not discovered 
any neAV Avorld, it was great presumption 
for an ordinary man to claim that there 
remained any great discovery for him to 
make. Seems to me I have heard that 
same argument ever since I was able to 
read and understand. Perhaps it is well 
that all Avho came, like Columbus, with a 
theory and vision of new worlds must 
fight and endure and suffer before the slow 
and prejudiced public will give them a 
chance. But here comes a message for 
me to come upstairs and see a strange 
thing. Little Rose cannot have her own 
way, and she has gone into a passion al¬ 
together too big for her little frame. She 
Avill not even let me come near her, and 
back I come a little sadly to my book 
and my fire. They are not quite .so sati.s- 
fying as before. But who comes here? 
It is Mother carrying a very pink and 
repentant morsel of humanity—little 
Rose. She hunts up my electric hearing 
device and Avith the ear piece at my ear 
I hear a trembly little voice saying: 
“/’s awful sorry!" 
And that is a fine ending for Liberty 
Day. Perhaps, like Columbus on that 
fateful night at the end of his voyage, 
this little one sees the first faint light of 
a new world! Who knows? ii. w. c. 
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