1384 
The RURAL NfcW-YORKER 
September 20, 1910 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
When I was a boy I lived in the family 
of an inventor who failed. Perhaps there 
is no human life more filled with pathos 
than that of one who creates but canuot 
develop. He stalled things that were 
. worth while, but somehow never had the 
power to put them through. He sowed 
and paid for the fertilizer, but another 
reaped the crop. For example, this man 
made the first cast-iron sink. Up to that 
time kitchen sinks were made of wood 
matched closely and painted. They leaked 
and rotted, and no one could count the 
bacteria which this wood sheltered. To 
overcome this trouble the farmer I speak 
of had a crude box of cast iron made to 
fit into the wooden sink. Since then 
others have learned how to make a better 
iron box, and how to put smooth and 
“sanitary” veneers, enamels, or coverings 
on it, and we have the modern sink. But 
that rough box of cast iron was the be¬ 
ginning. 
* * * * * 
The inventor had no idea of what he 
had done, for he lacked the vision and 
the determination needed to carry an in¬ 
vention on until-it was a part of the in¬ 
ventory of life’s neces sities. Unless you 
can do that your labor is likely to be 
commonplace and poorly paid. The man 
I speak of thought he had a good thing, 
and so did his wife, but it was neic, and 
with some people that is as bad as though 
it carried some disease! The inventor 
took his iron box to the old Mechanic’s 
Fair in Boston. At that time this fair 
was the last and final, resort of practical 
inventions. There he stood beside his 
iron box .waiting . hopefully for the • word 
to put its ingrained practice into the sink 
and wash away the prejudice and intol¬ 
erance. He who stands and waits for 
that will grow gray and hungry at his 
post, for, be it said, that most men find 
prejudice and habit very comfortable gar¬ 
ments, which fit them so closely that when 
they are scrubbed away the skin is left 
raw! That may be why the man who 
changes his religion, his politics, or his 
citizenship may think himself a broader 
and better man, but he is never quite so 
sure of himself as he was before. 
***** 
At any rate the sink builder stood there 
and waited for human nature to use the 
dishrag of life on itself. He waited hi vain. 
There came another man with a shrewd 
brain and a longer head, which usually 
means a character too short to make a 
full cloak for honor. This man saw at 
once the. future possibilities of this iron 
box, and he proceeded to discourage the 
first man. He would stand beside the 
iron sink and drop a plate on it. Of 
course the plate would break. Then he 
would tell the women gathered around 
that the old soft wooden sink did not 
break dishes, and that this iron box would 
smash every plate they had. “ Think of 
riskin'’ grandmother's choice Old dishes in 
this iron box!" He kept that up until 
the inventor was thoroughly discouraged, 
and lost all faith in his invention. He 
went home a disgusted man, and threw his 
new sink out in the chicken yard for a 
drinking dish. The other man took up 
the idea, developed it and made a fortune 
out of the thing he had condemned. This 
record is true, and in my day I have seen 
many a man start an idea that had great 
possibilities for the world—only to be 
bluffed and frightened away from it. 
* * * * * 
This man had another idea—I do not 
know whether it grew from his adventure 
with the sink or not. At any rate he 
argued against, what he called the dish 
tax. He claimed that the average family 
spent too much on crockery. He proposed 
to invent a form of pastry or short cake 
solid enough to be used as a plate, and of 
the shape of a small, deep dish. The food 
was to be served on this home-cooked plate 
and then you heat even Jack Spratt and 
his wife—-who.“licked the platter clean” 
You simply ate up the plate as part of 
the balanced ration. For baked beans 
you had a plate made of “rye and Indian” 
flour, which suited tin* beaus to a tee! 
You may smile at all this, but it was a 
serious and important thing with that 
inventor, aud he had a solid argument. 
Every family had $25 or more invested in 
crockery—ail saved by this invention ex¬ 
cept cups and glasses for liquids. Every 
woman with a large family spent at least 
one hour a day washing and wiping plates. 
That meant a month of 12-hour days all 
saved when you simply ate up the plates. 
Oh, he had a trunkful of unanswerable 
arguments, but the trouble was that the 
world made no effort to answer them. For 
hundreds of years it had been a part of 
recognized good social practice to smear 
food over plates or platters and then pro¬ 
ceed to wash it off and start anew. Noth¬ 
ing but dire necessity or a start on the 
part of those who set the fashion could 
ever put crockery into the discard crock. 
The difference between savage and civil¬ 
ized’ man lay in the use of some sort of 
bread and in cleaning the plate after eat¬ 
ing. How could saving money or saving 
the women hold against habit? 
***** 
Even the inventor’s wife, who had stood 
by him on the iron sink, refused to en¬ 
dorse the-e edible plates, when the min¬ 
ister’s wife, and the members of the sew¬ 
ing circle laughed at her. Oh how human 
progress has ever been held back by a 
laugh ! That old edible plate scheme came 
hack to mind at' the seashore the other 
day, as I walked along the boardwalk 
with myi children. They all, with one 
accord, demanded ice cream cones. Well, 
the ice cream man put his hand in a 
barrel and pulled out several little brown 
tubes or cones, and put a small ball of 
cream in each. That cone was just, a stiff, 
hard shortcake—nothing on this earth but 
the edible plate which that old inventor 
dreamed of. We went on gnawing our 
cream, and when it was gone we pro¬ 
ceeded to eat up the plate just as my old 
friend said people would ultimately do. 
Those who believe that the friends who 
pass on are able to come back and view 
the modern world may imagine the feel¬ 
ings of that old-timer as careless thou¬ 
sands walked down the boardwalk eating 
these cones down to the last crumb. Some¬ 
one tells me that small, harmless quan¬ 
tities of borax and other chemicals are 
used to make these cones hold the cream. 
I have no doubt dishes and plates can be 
made in the same way to hold food aud 
thus make the edible plate possible. Fur¬ 
thermore, if you want my opinion, I think 
it will become reasonably fashionable to 
eat certain foods in this way. There is 
no doubt that the invention of the ice 
cream cone has greatly helped the dairy 
business. It is not at all impossible that 
the chemists and bakers between them 
may evolve a “short cake” bottle in which 
retail milk may be delivered. This bottle 
will finally be crumbled into the milk to 
provide a balanced ration—vitamines and 
all. * . 
* * * * ' * 
Now I have just taken these two simple 
and homely illustrations, that I happen to 
know about, to show how slowly human 
thought changes. It is so not only with 
sinks and edible dishes, but in the larger 
habits and customs of life. ■> We are now 
doing things as a part of common public 
policy which would have been considered 
little short of anarchy when I was a boy. 
At that time a few harmless ‘cranks” 
were talking about such things, but those 
of them who escaped the lunatic asylum 
were laiighed out of society like my old 
friend with his edible plate. Vet here we 
have income taxes, inheritance taxes and 
dozens of other things designed to equalize! 
in BLASTED b 
“I found that trees planted in beds blasted with 
Atlas Farm Powder did twice as well as tnose in 
spade-dug holes,” writes J. J. Funk, Webb City, Mo. 
”1200 trees and 400 grape vines planted i:i blasted 
beds grew more in a year than others in spade-dug 
holes had grown in three years,” writes F. M. 
Reeder; Charles Co., Md. 
Any one can blast beds for trees with Atlas Farm 
Powder. The work is easy, quick and efficient. 
Remember that ordinary explosives will not give the 
same results as Atlas Farm Powder, and insist upon 
having Atlas, the OriginalFarm Powder, for yourtree- 
bed blasting, land clearing and other agricultural work. 
Our book, ‘‘Better Farming with Atlas Farm 
Powder,” will show you how to save and make 
many dollars. The coupon or a post card mention¬ 
ing this paper will bring it by the first mail. 
ATLAS POWDER CO., Wilmington, Del. 
Dealers everywhere. Magazine stocks near you. 
ATLAS POWDER CO. 
Wilmington, Del. 
Send me “Better Farming with Atlas 
Farm Powder.’’ I am interested in 
explosives (or the purpose before which 
I mark "X.’’ 
□ Stump Blasting 
□ Boulder Blasting 
□ Subsoil Blasting 
□ Tree Planting 
□ Ditch Digging 
□ Road Making rn 9 
Name. 
^^ddreaa _____________ 
Fifty years 
the distribution of wealth, 
ago such things would have been rle-| 
nounced as plain daylight robbery. They 
are not efficient yet, because we are still 
hanging tight to our old party prejudices. 
He let politiciaus and lawyers put 
"jokers” and joints into the laws which 
would help us and we let agents of big 
corporations enforce them for us. Some¬ 
one comes along and tells us that the 
republic will bi*«\*ik on some of tb.es 3 new 
ideas just .as the plates broke on that 
first iron sink. Many of us do not stop 
to reason that we do not have to play 
baseball with the Republic any more than 
tfie housewife would purposely throw her 
dishes at the sink. We have got to wait 
for public sentiment to grow up to the 
jdea. Those who start tne idea of an 
edible plate ’ will rarely live to make 
money from the ice cream cone. 
Atlas Farm Powder 
The Safest Explosive 
The Original Farm Powder 
* 
f 
oi' , example, take this idea or the 
tai mer s ,lo-cent dollar —or the share he 
gets of what the consumer pays. A few 
<>f u.-: started that idea some :Y> yens -uro 
Practically every “economist” in the 
world promptly proved from their figures 
and theories that there is no sm-h thing 
as a “35-cent doUar.” And most people 
accepted their statements just as the peo- 
ph acted when those plates were drooped 
Pf 1 iron sink. Yet they have not quite 
mulled us of! as they did the sink man. 
Through all these years the world has 
seen the i>5 cents aecumulatlng in town 
and city, while the 25 cents barely keeps 
the farms going. Wherever tnrough or¬ 
ganization, _business ab.l.ty, accident or 
otherwise, .»() cents remains on the farm, 
the world sees an improved suction, voting 
people remaining, power and independence 
growing. The “economists” now begiu to 
recognize the great mirioial economy. For 
/•> cents ice can bug the power and diur 
acler which will make America the hope 
0 / the world for centuries to -owe! That 
35 cents is the difference between a 25- 
cent and a 50-cent dollar. Make it a 
settled policy of this nation that the 
farmer must receive half the price which 
consumers pay for farm products and you 
will settle half our national troubles. That 
will not be done until we can make the 
idea so plain that it will be a part of 
popular thought. Like the sink aud the 
edible plate it has taken many years to 
gain the thought of the people, but the 
id a is coming. Nothing can stop it now. 
-No party will do it for us until we make 
them. We hare got to do it ourselves! 
H. W. C. 
DRY YOUR FRUIT 
and Vegetables by steam in two hours on the "Ornm.-. r’* 
BTAporator. Cheaper than canning;—No jars—No sugar— 1 
Less work—No loss—Cost #0.00 up. Send for catalog; 
EASTERN MFC. CO.. 259 S. 4th St., PHILA., PA. 
I 
CLEARS 
0 
IHESKIK 
RSi? stunts mu 
Kodakers—Get Acquainted! 
Developing and Printing by our NU-TONE 
Process. Largest laboratory in New York 
Roll Filins: Vest Pkt. 2I»x3J4 2Xx4M 3 %x4X 3Xx5'A 
Devl’g6exp. .05 .05 .05 .10 .10 
Printing ea. .03 .03 .03 .04 .04 
8x10 mounted enlargement 35c. AU work prepaid 
“SCHULTZ” PHOTO SHOr, ui N>i»u at.. New York 
CT A D QWPFP PPIWnp'PS direct from factory to 
A I AK OTVEEr UKlNDtKo you. No dealers pro¬ 
fit. Fully guaranteed. Write for b'Oklet. 
PEliRY MFG. CO., 5 Jeff St., New Lkxixgton, Ohio 
76-paKe Style Book, picturing bun* 
dreds of Dresses* Coats, Suits, Skirts, 
Waists and Corsets—specially designed for 
Mothers-to-be—sent absolutely free. 
Largest Maternity Specialists in the world. All apparel 
made by ourselves. Best materials, workmanship. 
Lowest prices. Send for your Book today, to Dept, SSI 
efl 
orqant 
Dorit buy aPi$ in a Poke 
Value of Silo Corn 
What would he a fair price for standing 
corn for silo? This is Learning and Eu¬ 
reka. The corn will probably not have! 
any ears, to speak of. Hay here is worth 
$40, delivered. We have scales in our I 
barn and could weigh each load handilv. 
South Natick, Mass. w. m. j. 
All sorts of prices have been given for 
standing corn, but they vary greatly with 
the locality aud the distance for hauling. 
The general rule is to consider silage in 
the silo worth about 35 per cent of the 
price of good mixed hay in the haymow. 
Thus, if the mixed hay is worth $40 in 
the haymow, good silage in the silo would 
be worth $14 per ton. On this basis we 
should say that the grain corn ought to 
be worth about 25 per cent of the value 
of hay. at tin* farm ; that would mean .$10 
per ton delivered, and less, of course, with 
a lower price for the hay. 
SEND for THIS 
BOOK 
"it:; free 
If you buy a furnace without finding out what’s 
underneath the cover you are buying more care¬ 
lessly than if you bought a pig in a bag. 
It’s the care and expert knowledge that goes into the parts 
under the cover that make the furnace a successful heater. 
N P ■ Sterling Furnace 
The One Register Furnace 
Is the product of a firm of over 60 years experience in 
building high grade ranges and heaters, and under its 
cover is as high quality a furnace as can be manufactured. 
The NP is designed especially to heat the entire house with one register and 
to do it comfortably and easily with the least amount of fuel. 
Study the cross section and you will see why with the NP the air is forced 
to circulate more rapidly than is possible in any other type of construction, 
and remember the faster the circulation the better the one register furnace 
heats the house. 
A—Scientific Sterling construction insuring perfect combustion, and saving 
of fuel. 
B— Extra large heating dome which heats air passing around it more quickly 
and to higher temperature with less fire. 
C—Outside air passages keep the air cool way to the bottom of the furnace 
and so make the air flow very swiftly thru the heating chambers D, and 
then pours it out with great force thru the register. 
These outside air passages are vital Sterling features. Here are Some 
others: a cool cellar, feed door large enough for chunks of wood, heavy 
grey iron castings (no scrap used), special fire pot where natural gas 
and solid fuel are used, special three point dust and gas proof joints, 
extra large air moistt-ner. 
Send for our free book and find out about this 
grade furnace which is made by the same fii 
who manufactures 
THE STERLING RANGE 
The range that bakes a barrel oi ilour with one hod oi coal 
Send for the free book and your deal¬ 
ers name and find out about furnaces. 
SILL STOVE WORKS, Rochester, N. Y. 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll act a 
quick reply and a “square deal." See guarantee editorial page. 
