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07><r RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1582 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Not long ago I visited a farmer—quite 
noted for the great success he had made 
of his business. He was producing grain 
and potatoes and cattle, and everything 
was in the finest shape. The land had 
been well cared for, the buildings were 
in good condition, and all the stock and 
crops were far above the .average. Such 
a man had a right to be proud of his 
success, for I understand he started with 
a poor farm and very limited capital. It 
struck me, however, that this man carried 
his pride to the breaking point. His wife 
had developed flower gardens and a fringe 
of shrubbery around the house. It must 
have taken her long years to do this 
work, but she had added wonderfully to 
the beauty of the place, and she was justly 
proud of it. She started to show me some 
beautiful flowers, when her husband broke 
in with: 
“Oh. he can’t waste time looking at 
those posies! Come on out and see my 
Sweet clover and the way my potatoe's 
grow after a crop of cow peas. We have 
got to spend our time over the important 
things of farming. No time for the things 
that won’t last.” Later he half apologized 
for raising flowers on soil that would 
raise “fine potatoes.” 
***** 
The woman was greatly disappointed, 
and I found time later to go through that 
beautiful garden with her. I have thought 
of that incident many times since. What 
are the important things of farming after 
all? It has come to mind again on this 
rainy Sunday as I look out. across the 
wet lawn at the shrubbery we planted a 
few years ago. At that time we had the 
price of a car, but after some discussion 
we used it for improving the grounds 
about the house and a few household con¬ 
veniences. A landscape gardener came 
and looked the place over and selected the 
plants for us. They have now grown into 
great beauty and we have never regretted 
our choice as we walked or jogged behind 
Rob or Brownie. It seems to us now as 
if the work we have done on these lawns 
is after all an important part of our 
farming, for it has given all of us—old 
and young—a spirit of pride and beauty 
which will ever be one of the richest bless¬ 
ings of life. 
***** 
The cold wind is driving the rain 
against the windows. The hills are wet 
and chilly. I shall hardly care to go 
wandering through the woods after dinner. 
This roaring open fire is more seasonable, 
yet as I look up the steep hill I think 
of what lies in the woods beyond. Yester¬ 
day we were picking those big red Bald¬ 
wins on the hill, and it seemed as if they 
represented about the finest thing that 
this farm had produced. Then I thought 
of two scrubby lilac bushes over in the 
woods, and 1 knew that they represented 
the most lasting and important crop. I 
remember as though it were yesterday 
the day we found them—though it must 
be nearly 20 years ago. That first. Spring 
after we came here I explored every nook 
and corner of our 100 acres. Most of it 
was close to a wilderness, far out of sight 
of human habitation. One Sunday after¬ 
noon in May the children and I went 
wandering about through our woods. I 
walked slowly along thinking of what had 
gone before. The children ranged ahead 
like little human hounds, hunting for new 
mysteries of the woods. Suddenly they 
screamed for joy and ran down an old 
path where once had been a road. Far 
ahead I saw the lilac bushes in full bloom. 
The children picked great bunches of these 
fragrant flowers and carried them back 
to mother. To these little minds the two 
lilacs had no significance, except that they 
had bui’st out with pretty flowers. 
***** 
I knew that you never found wild lilacs 
in this way unless they were originally 
planted by the hand of man. Those two 
bushes told me that in other years there 
must have been a human home on that 
spot. After a long search I found a hole 
in the ground with a pile of stones, well 
obscured by the brambles and brush which 
had grown over them. As I hunted, a 
wild rabbit sprang out of this pile of rub¬ 
bish and a big blacksnake glided away 
into the bushes. These stones had once 
stood as the cellar wall and house founda¬ 
tion until the frost finally threw them 
down. Great trees had grown up all 
around. All evidence of the farm, if there j 
was one, had been blotted out. There was ; 
nothing left to advertise that home but 
those fragrant lilacs—and a hole in the 
ground! The children went home shout¬ 
ing in glee over the flowers—which had 
grown out of the ruins of that home. I 
followed them thinking strange thoughts, 
for it seemed then and seems doubly sure 
now that we had looked upon one of the 
sweet, sad mysteries of Nature. 
***** 
Later we learned all that is known of 
that ruined home. Years ago a man and 
woman, in the strength of their youth, 
went out. into these woods to make a home 
of their own. I presume that like all 
pioneers they were full of hope. The man 
dug his cellar, stoned up the sides, built 
his little house, and the home was ready. 
He gnawed off the woods with his ax, 
sold the timber, burned out the stumps, 
cleared the fields and planted his crops. 
The soil around that place is strong, and 
I have no doubt they prospered, as pros¬ 
perity was reckoned in those days. I have 
no doubt there were days in sunny Sep¬ 
tember when this man looked out across 
his fields of corn or potatoes or young rye 
with great pride in his heart. Perhaps 
he could not give full expression to his 
thought, but like the modern farmer I vis¬ 
ited recently, he felt that he had ma c-hcd 
his human personality against the forces 
of Nature and had won the fight! , 
***** „ 
And the woman inside the home did her 
share. She worked, she was patient and 
kind, silent and true. When trouble 
came she met it with a smile. She taught 
her children and influenced them as moth¬ 
ers do, and I think it. was her gentle hand 
that planted these lilacs in front of that 
little house. Perhaps she bought them 
out of her own slender earnings. She 
nursed and cultivated them with her own 
tired hands and I can well understand 
the glory that was in her heart and soul 
when at last, on just such a May day as 
that >.n which we found them, They burst 
into bloom for her. Very likely her hus¬ 
band and perhaps the older children 
laughed or even scolded at the time given 
to these “worthless flowers.,” but God only 
knows what these lilacs may have meant 
to that lonely woman prisoned in that 
little house in the woods. There are 
times in midwinter when the spirit of 
such lonely women will rebel and cry out 
for relief. I have no doubt that in 'such 
moments this woman, looking out through 
her narrow windows, could take courage 
from these lilac bushes. For she knew 
that though they seemed dead amid the 
ice and snow there was still within them 
the great promise and beauty of the mys¬ 
tery of life, which at the touch of Spring 
would burst once more into beauty. 
***** 
I am told that misfortune fell upon 
that home.. The man died; the woman 
followed him. The children were scat¬ 
tered. the home was abandoned. No one 
cared to live in that lonely place, and the 
house took fire and was burned to the 
ground. Slowly the birches and the 
cedars and the tangle of brush crept in 
upon that little homestead. Frost threw 
down the cellar foundation; the brambles 
choked up the hole; that which was once 
a home, filled with the light, of love, be¬ 
came only the dwelling place of wild 
beasts. And the farm disappeared. The 
wild trees, kept at bay by farmer’s ax and 
lioe, finally jumped over his stone walls 
and occupied his fields. Nature demanded 
her own once more. The man’s labor has 
been blotted out. Great trees now stand 
where the corn and potatoes which he 
viewed with such pride were growing. 
How strong and secure he seemed in those 
days when he thought he bad master d 
the forces of Nature. Now all evidence 
of that mastery has disappeared. All 
that is left to show that here was once a 
human habitation are the poor, dwarfed 
lilac bushes which that feeble, trusting 
woman planted at her door. They have 
finally become the important and lasting 
things of that farm. 
***** 
There may be some who will wonder at 
the great mystery of it all. Why was the 
man’s work blotted out while the useless 
flowers remain? To me there is no mys¬ 
tery about it, but a clear and definite pur¬ 
pose. Those lilacs, poor, feeble, “worth¬ 
less” if you will, stand for the spiritual 
side of that home. We may say that they 
represent the hunger and thirst of the 
heart which has never been satisfied with 
anything less than the best that may be 
found in human nature. 
“Not the labor of my hands 
Shall fulfill thy law’s commands.” 
I doubt not that the man who cleared 
those fields and dared the forces of nature 
felt at times that men would follow him 
and praise or glorify his work. Yet go 
back through all the ages and hunt for the 
things which men remember and it is 
never the material things which thrill 
us, but the spirit which the doers uncon¬ 
sciously put into them. I have no doubt 
this woman felt that she was doing a poor 
and simple thing when she planted these 
lilacs. How small it seemed beside the 
work which her man was doing. Yet 
there were love and faith and an element 
of true religion in her simple work. It 
was evidence of the unselfish, spiritual 
side of that home. Now the years have 
swung around and only the lilacs remain 
to remind the wayfarer that here was 
once a home. And so, as I look off to the 
wet hills and review in fancy all the work 
of those long and toilsome years, I cannot 
quite agree with my prosperous farmer 
friend in his estimate of the woman’s 
flower garden: 
“There are more things in heaven and 
earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” 
October 25, 1010 
Do you believe that inanimate things 
can carry sentiment or purpose with 
them? I do—to an extent—and I would 
like to plant slips from these lilacs in the 
yards of some homes I know. I think 
they would bloom into a blessing. 
H. W. C. 
Durability of Stucco 
We are planning to build a house in 
the near future, and would like informa¬ 
tion in regard to durability of stucco. 
How does it compare in price with .shing¬ 
ling, clapboarding, etc. Are cement blocks 
desirable? d. X). s. 
Westgrove, Conn. 
If stucco is well made and applied over 
a framework sufficiently rigid to prevent 
springing or bending in the wind it makes 
a satisfactory and lasting covering. The 
great difficulty with stucco being to get 
a firm union with the lath to which it is 
applied, this lath must be well supported 
so that the finished stucco sheet is held 
rigidly. Bending from wind stresses or 
other causes cause cracking. When metal 
lath is used the lath must be protected 
from rusting. A dense mixture must be 
used as well to prevent the absorption of 
water. As concrete is a better conductor 
of heat than wood, it is necessary to pro¬ 
vide insulation against the passage of both 
heat and moisture to insure a warm, dry 
interior. Stucco does not lend itself to so 
many different styles of architecture as 
does shingles, but, unlike shingles, it is a 
better fire resister, and requires no after 
treatment, although somewhat higher in 
first cost. 
Concrete blocks, while not lending them¬ 
selves to so many forms of treatment as 
wood, have the advantage of fire resis¬ 
tance and permanency. Where care is 
used to get a dense, waterproof face on 
the block, and the inside of the wall is 
well furred out and insulated before plas¬ 
tering, the house should be warm and dry. 
Correspondence with cement dealers will 
bring specifications for mixing and apply¬ 
ing stucco and making blocks. Like a 
wooden house, a concrete house must be 
well constructed to be satisfactory, and 
as the two materials are so unlike what 
would be good construction for the house 
of wood might be altogether wrong for 
concrete. r. h. s. 
Farm Ycmerfo«YouY Ibid 
At One-Sixth the Ordinary Cost 
^automatic 
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The Knight Metal Products Co. holds Sole License Under 
Gramm Basic U. S. Patent No. 807, 457, Dec. 19,1905. All 
other crankshaft attachments are infringements and 
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Efficiently Operates at Required Speeds: 
Grain Grinder 
Well Drills 
Ensilage Cutter 
Pumps (All Kinds ) 
Wood Saw 
Churn 
Sprayer 
Milking Machine 
Fanning Mill 
Lighting Plant 
Corn Hxisker 
Washing Machine 
Com Sheller 
Concrete Mixer 
Hay Press 
Cider Press 
Cotton Gin 
W ITH this inexpensive power plant for Ford 
cars you can fill your silo, grind your grain, saw 
your winter’s wood, and handle the many belt jobs 
on the farm. 
When you have any kind of work that requires power, you 
simply drive your car into position—and your Ford engine 
and the Autopower do the rest. 
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operates Automatically. A governor regulates the power to 
the load, provides Constant Speed at required r. p. m. and 
prevents stalling or racing of the engine on variable loads. 
The Auxiliary Fan is guaranteed to prevent Overheating 
under all load and weather conditions. Friction Clutch per¬ 
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A few minutes’ investigation will convince you that McGill 
Autopower for Ford Cars will save you many hours of hard 
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to.do more in less time. If you don’t know who the McGill 
Autopower dealer in your town is, write— 
Distributor for New York State 
McGill Autopower Distributing Co. 
MIDDLETOWN, : S : N. Y. 
Manufactured, and Guaranteed by 
KNIGHT METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY 
251 East Willis Avenue Detroit, Michigan 
Canadian Factory: Toronto, Ont. 
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