March 15, 1019 
,482 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
A few weeks ago I spoke of a new book 
which we have been reading. It is “Salt,” 
by Charles G. Norris. As one might nat¬ 
urally suppose, the author takes a well- 
known text, “Ye are the salt of the earth; 
but if the salt have lost his savour, where¬ 
with shall it be salted?” I presume there 
have been many thousands of sermons and 
books written from that text, and, all sorts 
of applications have been made to show 
what is meant by “salt.” In this book 
the author brings out the thought that the 
real “salt” of modern society is a college 
education or college men, and he makes it 
very clear that this salt has lost much of 
its “savour.” He also shows very clearly 
that it can only be “salted” by hard work 
and the proper home life. I wish every 
one of our people who are in any way in¬ 
terested in educating a boy or girl could 
read this book. 
* * * * * 
It is the story of a New England boy 
and his struggle with the problem of “edu¬ 
cation.” This boy’s father was of the bet¬ 
ter type of the old families; rich, honor¬ 
able, highly educated and a student. His 
mother was of the opposite New England 
type—pretty, shallow, selfish and pleas¬ 
ure-loving. Any student of heredity would 
tell you that such a hoy would take noble 
qualities from his father, hut the develop¬ 
ment of them would depend on his sur¬ 
roundings. Such a mother makes her 
child a blotter or sponge. He will absorb 
character from others rather than build 
it within himself. He cannot be blamed' 
for it. Tin 1 thing i.s in his bone. The 
need is to put him where the influences 
will be good. I have known boys who 
picked up the meanest habits and the 
worst language from the hired man or the 
little “toughs” at school, while others nat¬ 
urally rejected much of the filth. In this 
story, Griffith Adams was the victim of 
his mother's laziness and selfish love of 
pleasure. 
***** 
His father died and the mother went 
seeking another husband. The boy was 
put into boarding schools, without love or 
home or that tie of family life which is 
the real foundation of character. If you 
read this book the chances are that you 
will not put your boy into any military 
or private school unless you investigate, it 
thoroughly and know just what, the in¬ 
fluences are. The stern discipline of the 
military school taught this boy to lie and 
cheat. The favoritism of the private 
school soured him and he had no back¬ 
ground of home life or family love to give 
him ambition or purpose. He just drift¬ 
ed along from one school to another—like 
a piece of blotting paper, simply absorb¬ 
ing the ink of life which stronger or nas¬ 
tier minds wrote on the page and present¬ 
ed to him. 
***** 
Then he entered the university; not 
with any definite purpose, but because 
that seemed the proper way to spend four 
years of a young man’s life. They were 
worse than wasted years, because the boy 
had never been tatight, to think or to 
work, and he had never absorbed any 
higher ambition than a lazy desire for 
pleasure. The description of college fra¬ 
ternity life given in 'this book is, I believe, 
tme, and you ought to read it before your 
boy enters one of these fraternities. I 
know something about that from experi¬ 
ence. At an old agricultural college I 
joined one of the Greek letter fraternities. 
Our chapter was really a literary society. 
Not one of the boys drank, and not more 
than one or two smoked. It was a clean, 
uplifting influence—good for all of us. 
Some .10 years later one of my boys went 
to a great college and found a chapter of 
this same fraternity and on the strength 
of my old experience I consented to bis 
joining! Well, I know better now! This 
Griffith Adams played and dawdled 
through the university, hunting for the 
easiest courses and learning absolutely 
nothing that could lit, him for making a 
living. It is true that other boys at the 
same college and in the same class worked 
hard and gained something of character 
as they went on. 
***** 
I talked this over with a college presi¬ 
dent not long ago, and he admitted that 
probably in every institution there are 
boys who are going to be idle and worth¬ 
less, while others are absorbing the true 
spirit of life and getting the true “salt” 
which is to save society. Those boys 
might be found sitting side by side, read¬ 
ing the same books and listening to. the 
same lectures! The president, admitted 
this, and said the college could not control 
it. They must take these boys as they 
were presented to them. Their home 
training represented the foundation of 
education. If that was sound, the college 
work was like building on a rock. If the 
boy was a mere blotter, and his home life 
not what it should be. the college train¬ 
ing was much like trying to build a house 
on the sand or on concrete posts which 
bad no reinforcement of solid steel. I 
rather think this is about the best illus¬ 
tration we are likely to get. With most 
of us education is much like mixing fact 
and fancy and experience (much as we 
mix Jibe sand and cement and water) and 
packing it around a human life. No man 
who knows his business would build his 
big house on posts of concrete alone, lie 
must have the solid steel inside. And so 
with your bov’s education. The facts and 
fancies and all the tricks of learning will 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
crumble under test, unless they are built 
around the solid steel of character and 
home training. 
***** 
Griffith Adams found this out through 
agony and tears. He played and cheated 
his way through college, and then went 
back to his mother. About all he cared 
about her was to wheedle her out. of 
enough money to pay his debts. He found 
her dead and her fortune had all been lost 
'through eJpecuflsationj. There was thus 
“educated” young man, soft-handed and 
soft-minded, thrown against the world 
with absolutely no tool with which to dig 
himself in. What he did and how lie lived 
in the big city is told in this book in a 
way which I know, partly from experi¬ 
ence, to be true. This boy went through 
the experience which all must follow. 
Finally there came into his life the chance 
for real, unselfish sacrifice, and he rose 
to it. Then he finally saw the real mean¬ 
ing of life. He became a father, and the 
problem of training and educating his 
own boy became a vital one. Then he had 
a chance to marry one of two women. 
One was rich, with absolute ignorance of 
poverty and its stimulating power. The 
other was a working woman of plain com¬ 
mon sense and fine ambition. And Adams 
chose the latter, because he had come to 
know the joy of labor and honorable am¬ 
bition, and because be knew that wealth 
and luxury would ruin his boy. 
***** 
In all it is a stimulating book. I wish 
you could read it. It is not likely that 
many of us will have any chance to de¬ 
cide between two such ladies, and per¬ 
haps the problem of education does not 
reach you as it does me, with all these 
children to start in life. This book makes 
several things very clear. Money cannot 
buy character. I know farmers who have 
grown well-to-do through the rise in land 
values who seem to think they can buy 
character and education for the children. 
They cannot do it. They run up against 
one of the limitations of money when they 
try it. They might go out in the woods 
and cut down a beautiful maple tree. 
They cut it into logs and cure it. Then 
they haul these logs to a furniture fac¬ 
tory and say, “I want you to cut these 
up and make a full outfit of furniture. 
My daughter is to be married and 1 want 
to furnish her house. Never mind’ the ex¬ 
pense—do it.” They would do it for him. 
and send back finely polished chairs and 
tables made from the maple logs. But 
you cannot do that with the boy or girl. 
What a fine thing it would be if we could 
take John and Mary to the college and 
say to the president: 
“Here, I want you to take these chil¬ 
dren and send me back a lawyer and a 
poet. I want the finest character, the 
greatest ability and the finest learning. 
Never mind the expense—do it.” 
Would anyone trust his life before a 
jury with that lawyer, or find any poetry 
in the poet? No; unless they had it in 
them, and also the cream of sacrifice and 
love from father and mother, they would 
most likely be poor specimens of man¬ 
made character. This education of the 
children is an awful problem. True edu¬ 
cation ought to be the salt of society, but 
too often it turns out to be a sort of un¬ 
derdone molasses candy. The plain salt, 
of the world is manufactured at home. 
There are several thing at least which 
should be drilled into every child. He lias 
a right to a reasonable amount, of play. 
His Childhood should be care-free.. lie 
ought to be taught that the highest aim of 
all education is to fit. a boy or girl to earn 
their own living honestly and through in¬ 
telligent. labor. The child ought to have a 
base around which the concrete of edu¬ 
cation is to be packed. The true salt bar¬ 
rel of the earth lies in the home. That 
is where we influence the future. One 
thing is sure; this book has settled my 
conviction that I will never send another 
boy to college unless he is willing to work 
out his education. H. w. c. 
A Red Letter Day 
You once wrote me that grape enthu¬ 
siasts like grape gossip. I took up Mun¬ 
son’s Foundations yesterday to quote a 
line to Mr. Anthony of Geneva. Station, 
and I began to think of the visit. Munson 
made to my vineyard and me. I was 
greatly honored, for I hadn’t been visited 
before by a leading horticulturist. I had 
to myself make ealte on Campbell, Corby 
and Copley. We walked up one row and 
down the next and talked of the different 
hybrids ind their originators. The sys¬ 
tem of training similar to his as shown in 
“The Bushberg Manual” (Edition 1895) 
on the sum page interested him and he 
asked me where I got the idea. At that 
moment my uncle, Joseph Eudlam, was 
passing us on the road. I stopped him 
and thou told Prof. Munson that my uncle 
had taken locust jloots crotched at the 
top and laid poles in the crotches; both 
were pleased. My uncle, now 84.years 
old. still grows bis grapes on that same 
trellis. I gave Munson some Elsingburgh 
grapes. He was delighted with them, 
preferred them to all the others, and lie 
asked me to icnd him a. vine in the Fall, 
Which I did, and from that vine he be¬ 
came convinced that that variety was. a 
parent of the Delaware. I drove him 
around jiark-like Oyster Bay, and by tin* 
beautiful house and grounds where Col. 
Roosevelt spent his /boyhood. I frequently 
corresponded with Munson until his 
death, and he sent me many of his finest 
table grapes for testing, several of which 
are lost except to my collection. 
Maryland. ELBERT WAKEMAN. 
© 
High Crop Prices 
Prices will probably continue steady 
and at a high level, according to President 
Thompson of the Federal Commission, 
who recently returned from a study of the 
agricultural conditions in England, France 
and Italy. He also says that crop conditions 
and prospects justify a strong demand for 
food and fibre products from the United 
States. Use 
A*A C* Fertilizers 
Large production means large profits. 
Large yields mean less labor per pound or 
bushel. The best fertilizer pays the best. 
Write to the nearest address given below for 
fertilizer with, or without potash. 
We guarantee soluble potash 
How to Make Money with Fertilizers 
I is the title of a 56 page book containing information every 
farmer needs in relation to the proper use of fertilizers; it shows 
where profit is to be found, and bow to get it. It is different 
from other fertilizer books and is not a catalogue. Anyone of 
our offices named below will send it to you free. Simply 
mention this paper and ask for the book. 
T te American Agricultural Chemical Co. 
Atlanta 
Boston 
Baltimore 
Buffalo 
Cincinnati 
Cleveland 
Charleston 
Columbia 
Detroit 
Jacksonville 
I.os Angeles 
Montgomery 
New Yore 
Philadelphia 
St. Louis 
Savannah, Etc. 
Agents Wanted in Unoccupied Territory 
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Get Your Farm Home from 
the Canadian Pacific 
T HE Canadian Pacific Railway offers a won¬ 
derful opportunity to own a farm, achieve 
independence and grow rich in Western Can¬ 
ada. It offers you farm lands on the rich 
prairies of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Al¬ 
berta for eleven to thirty dollars an acre, 
or irrigated land up to fifty dollars an acre. 
Twenty Years to Pay 
You pay down 10%. Then you have no payment on the 
principal until the end of the fourth year; then fifteen 
annual payments. Interest is 6%. 
$2,000LoantotheFarmer 
Loans are made to approved set¬ 
tlers on irrigated farms—with no 
security except the land itself— 
up to $2,000 in improvements. 
You have twenty years to pay 
back this loan at 6% interest. 
Why This Offer Is Made 
The Canadian Pacific is not a real 
estate dealer, in the ordinary 
meaning of the term. Its pros¬ 
perity depends upon the prosper¬ 
ity of the settlers along its lines 
of railway. To get good settlers 
and to make them keep prosper¬ 
ous, it offers terms and assistance 
which would otherwise be impos¬ 
sible. And this offer applies to 
the wonderful prairie lands of 
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Man¬ 
itoba—the richest grain and stock 
land in North America. 45 bush¬ 
els of wheat, 100 bushels of oats 
per acre, are frequently produced 
on this land. A rerage crops ex¬ 
ceed any average elsewhere in 
America. 
Lands Under Irrigation 
In Southern Alberta the Canadian 
Pacific Railway has developed the 
largest individual irrigation un¬ 
dertaking on the American conti¬ 
nent. The irrigated lands are sold 
on the same easy payment terms— 
prices range up to $50 an acre. 
The Canadian Pacific Rail¬ 
way will not sell you a farm 
until you have inspected it. 
To make this easy, special 
railway rates have been ar¬ 
ranged. Write for particu¬ 
lars and free illustrated 
booklet. 
M. E. THORNTON 
Supt. of Colonization 
Canadian Pacific Railway 
914 First St. E. Calgary, Alberta 
M. E. THORNTON, Sopt. of Colonization 
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 
914 First St. E., Calfary, Alberta 
I would be interested in learning more 
about: 
□ Irrigation farming in Sunny Alberta. 
[ 1 Farm opportunities in Alberta, Sas¬ 
katchewan and Manitoba. 
□ Special railway rates for home 
seekers. 
□ Business and industrial opportuni¬ 
ties in Western Canadu. 
□ Town lots in growing Western towns. 
My Name_ __.... 
Address ........ _....____ 
Town___ ... 
Stat 
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