1614 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Wo spent Columbus Day in our hill or¬ 
chard picking apples. For a wonder the 
da.v was bright and clear, with just 
einnigli snap in the air to make laziness 
unconifort.- bio. The bigred Baldwins shoue 
like crimson balls in the sunlight, and 
they were .ins) ready to come off. It was 
one of those perfect days of Autumn 
which are lii'ed with the joy of living. It 
was one flawless day set in a frame of 
disappointment. For six days before it 
had been rainy or cloudy, and five days of 
storm followed it. Columbus Day is the 
day of discovery. Fourth of July is the 
day for looking backward to see how the 
underpinning of the Government is stand¬ 
ing the years, but. on October 12 we are 
more likely to look ahead and wonder how 
the house is going to look in the future 
when the new bay window and the tower 
are completed, and when the entire house 
is fitted with new fixtures for light and 
heat! Anyone who stops to realize how 
the telephone, the car and the gasoline en¬ 
gine are changing the life of the people 
may well stop on Columbus Day and think 
what all this unrest and all these new de¬ 
velopments are to do to the nation. 
***** 
The boys were at the top of a tree tak¬ 
ing off the big beauties when, far above 
them, they heard the whirr and roar of a 
flying machine. Hope Farm seems to be 
right under the track of the air route be- 
< ween New York and the West. Far 
above us, speeding like a great bird, with 
tm (stretched wings to her nest, was one 
of the machines in the coast to coast race. 
It had flown from the Pacific coast and 
was now nearly in sight of its landing 
place on Doug Island. Like a great eagle 
it flashed along, roaring with power and 
seemingly speeding at more than a mile a 
minutes. Almost before we could study 
its motion it seemed like a faraway speck 
in the east. Within 10 minutes another 
great machine swept out of the West and 
followed the first one at. even greater 
speed, until it. too, disappeared like a 
speck against the eastern sky. The boys 
went on picking, but their minds were full 
of new and strange thoughts. But yes¬ 
terday, as it were, these machines jumped 
into the air near San Francisco Bay. Here 
they were, speeding over Northern New 
Jersey, and the boys could readily under¬ 
stand what that, meant. As for me. as 
that great man-made bird swept over us, 
there came to mind a verse from Bryant’s 
poem: 
“Thou’st gone: the abyss o^lieaveu 
Hath swallowed up thy form; yet ou 
my heart 
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast 
given 
And shall not soon depart.” ! 
* * * * * 
Lieut. Maynard, the winner of the air 
race across the continent, flew from Long 
Island to San Francisco in a little over 2.* 
hours of actual flying time! In 1349 two 
of my uncles, with a company of pioneers 
and miners, sailed from Plymouth, Mass., 
to California. They had organized what 
they called the Pilgrim Mining Company, 
and I had the record of their proceedings. , 
It took six months to make flic trip . 
“around the Horn.” In “Two Years Be- i 
fore the Mast"Daua states that they sailed I 
from Boston to Santa Barbara in 150 j 
days and thought they made good time! 1 
This will l)c read by men and women j 
whose parents or grandparents traveled | 
across the plains with ox teams. Some of j 
them were eight months or a year on the 
journey. Now comes this great man-made 
bird covering the distance in less than 
three days entire time, or but little over 
one day of actual flying. Columbus with 
his crazy and frail vessels sailing on for 
three months thought he made fair speed. 
The leaky and storm-tossed Mayflower 
was above the average in sailing power, 
but compare their performance with one 
of these great airships darting through the 
air at two miles a minute, and picking 
Baldwin apples on a New Jersey hillside 
does seem like a rather slow performance! 
..... * * . * * * 
I have a neighbor who is something of 
an old-timer, lie can see nothing to worry 
about in this air service. “A,novelty 
only,” he says. “Never can he anything 
more than a toy for foolish people to 
break their necks! Never can be of any 
more practical use than one of those long- 
legged race norses. I had one once and 
all he ever did was to run away and 
smash the buggy and run one of my boys 
off the farm. There is a law against rac¬ 
ing now. and these long-legged gambling 
horses have disappeared. It will be the 
same with these useless flying machines!” 
The great answer to that line of talk is 
the good memory with which T was en¬ 
dowed. Do I not remember when this 
same mail declaimed against the automo¬ 
bile? He said, some 20 years ago, that 
the car never could he anything but a rich 
man’s plaything. “It will break more 
necks than the hangman over did.” He 
said they could not get. an engine small 
enough or strong enough to run a wagon 
faster than a horse could walk. The 
whole thing was impossible. Cars would 
be only for tin* very rich men, and would 
simply stretch out tin* difference between 
rich and poor, and help create an aris¬ 
tocracy as bad as that which was respon¬ 
sible for the French Revolution. That’s 
the way he talked 20 years ago. The other 
day I saw him driving his own car, and 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
close behind him was his hired man, also 
driving his own car, taking the family out 
for a spin during the “saved daylight!” 
The fact is that the gasoline engine in its 
application to what we may call popular 
power, has done more than anything else 
of recent years to break down class dis¬ 
tinctions, punch holes through so-called 
“aristocracy” and make this world hap¬ 
pier and more hopeful. 
* * * * * 
Do I think the flying machine is to he 
of any practical value to the world, and 
to the plain working people? I certainly 
do. In its way it will do as much to revo¬ 
lutionize society as the car has ever done. 
It is doing it already. No one doubts the 
wonderful service rendered by airships 
during the war. Its work had hardly be¬ 
gun when the Germans quit. Another 
year would have seen our airships inflict¬ 
ing the most frightful slaughter upon the 
enemy. They would have reached Berlin 
as the German ships reached Paris and 
London. Plans had been perfected which 
would have enabled these flyers to rain 
death from the clouds in the most hideous 
form. Now that war is over the great 
brains which sought to make war frightful 
will work to make peace blessed. And it 
will be done. It. is said that, take the 
world over, about ten 'billion dollars have 
l>eeu invested in aeronautics. That will 
include factories, landing places and 
equipment, in addition to the actual ma¬ 
chines. Few of us have ever realized what 
vast sums are invested in the business. 
Now that it is being understood, many, 
like my old neighbor, will question the 
possible value of any such instrument. 
* * * * * 
Where speed is required the airship 
will be used in the future. For nearly IS 
months now there has been direct air mail 
service between New York and Wash¬ 
ington. About three hours are required 
for the trip. During the first year 7,720,- 
S40 letters were carried. The revenues 
from air mail stamps were $150,700, while 
the expeuses wen* $137,900.06. The air¬ 
ship is being used more and more for car¬ 
rying precious metals from the mines. 
These mines are often located on steep, 
rough mountains, or far off iu deserts. Any 
attempt to freight the metals by land is 
slow aud dangerous, but the journey is 
quickly and safely made by airships. In 
this way gold, diamonds or copper can he 
brought out. of Alaska, South Africa or 
the South American mountains. Great 
deserts like the Sahara, or great natural 
barriers like the Andes or Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, will be made far more accessible by 
the airship. The big balloon ships or 
dirigibles have a lifting power of 50 tons 
or more. I firmly believe that within 10 
years there will be regular service across 
the ocean between this country and Eu¬ 
rope. It will take a little over two days 
for the trip, and the ship will carry 40 
tons or more of valuable freight. It will 
be quite possible iu the future for a man 
in Boston to fly to Detroit or Cleveland, 
transact, business which requires his pei*- 
sonal signature, and fly back home—all in 
one day, as is now done between Boston 
and New York. There will he in time 
smaller machines, capable of carrying at 
least as much in weight as I can get in 
my trunk, and also capable of carrying it 
three or four times as fast. These ma¬ 
chines will, in time, come down to a price 
which will compare reasonably with our 
present cars or trucks. 
***** 
I believe these things fully. Twenty 
years from now they will he so common 
that our present wonder will be lost in the 
grave with the amazement we felt 25 
years ago at the prospect for cars, trucks 
and tractors. But what possible good can 
such development do to farms or farmers? 
Years ago I knew of a man who invented 
a flying device. It was good except that 
he had no conception of a light gasoline 
power. When he presented his idea to 
i wealthy men each and all said: 
“Who wants to fly?” 
Ask that, question now and see what 
answer you get. I can see a dozen ways 
in which a small flying machine of rea¬ 
sonable cost could help us directly on this 
farm. I can see 50 ways in which it can 
help us indirectly. For in the future 
every new application of power to gen¬ 
eral industry is sure to help humanity in 
general. In the past, new applications of 
power have, for the most part, been mon¬ 
opolized by a small part of the commu¬ 
nity. Instead of helping humanity in 
general they have helped humanity in par¬ 
ticular. That is done, I think, and bere- 
November 1, 1010 
after the things which this airship stands 
for will be more reasonably distributed. 
People of our' age may not see so much of 
it, but the seed we have tried to sow is 
coming up. We may not have much of a 
hand in the harvest, hut it is coming. 
jjc j|c jje # ije 
These things were in my mind as, ou 
Golunibus Day. we followed the flight of 
that great man-made bird until it disap¬ 
peared from sight. The boys are young. 
They would if they could spread their 
wings and fly over the hills. They know 
not where, they hardly care. To hoys the 
future lies far away—over the hills. As 
for me, I am quite content to remain 
among these hills and develop this or¬ 
chard. These great things of the future 
will come to me. Youth thinks it must, go 
chasing after them; mature age knows 
they will come to those who wait patiently 
for them. The place for most farmers is 
right where they are now. That is usual¬ 
ly the post of duty. The airship is head¬ 
ed for the great city, but it cannot live 
there without the essential things which 
only the country can supply. Ah, while 
these hills are peaceful today do I not 
know that the world is full of unrest and 
strikes and riot and violence? I know it 
as well as anybody. I also know that 
the same situation has been found hun¬ 
dreds of times before. The present one 
seems worse because our cities are larger, 
and it. is now easier than ever before to 
spread the news. The evil in the world is 
magnified by advertising, while the good 
is seldom heard from. Ever and ever, all 
through the ages, tin* riot and turmoil in 
the cities has been finally overcome by 
the sober, calm thinking of the freehold¬ 
ers in the country. All this row and ex¬ 
citement does not represent the real milk 
of human nature—it is more like the 
froth on the milk pail. Wait! Have pa¬ 
tience! The country people and home¬ 
makers always \,ave the last, word in 
these things. Their thought does not fly 
as fast, as that airplane, but it will get. 
to tin* mark in time. But I’m hungry and 
dinner must be ready. I vet’s go down and 
see if this Columbus day dinner has 
any new discoveries. Personally, I hope 
it’s a couple of baked Red hens, a plate 
of baked red apples and a line of sun¬ 
baked red-heads at. the table to help oat. 
It. w. c. 
In the orchard which less 
than three years ago 
was almost entirely 
15 000 Yellow Transparent Apple Trees 
without a single blighted twig among them 
T HE ORCHARD, a part of which is shown 
in the above picture, consisting of 15,000 
seven and eight-year-old Yellow Transparent 
Apple Trees in Nassau County, Delaware, 
was so badly cut to pieces in 1916 in an un¬ 
successful effort to control Blight that 
pulling out of the entire orchard was se¬ 
riously considered. 
At our suggestion “cutting out” of the 
Blight was discontinued and spraying with 
“Scalecide” was substituted as the re¬ 
medy. Now, after three dormant spray¬ 
ings, the trees are healthy and laden with 
fruit — without a single blighted twig 
among them. 
“Cutting out” to control Blight and Canker 
is not necessary. “Scalecide” meets 
every requirement. It is a perfectly soluble 
oil (if not don’t use it) and penetrates the 
diseased bark. Having both fungicidal and 
germicidal properties, it destroys the disease 
without the slightest injury to the delicate 
plant tissues. 
Whether you have Blight or not, use 
“Scalecide” for your dormant spray. It 
makes a tree outgrow its troubles.” 
One experiment station reported that pear 
trees sprayed for three years with “SCALE¬ 
CIDE” as a dormant spray produced 58% 
more fruit than the same variety alongside 
them sprayed with Lime-Sulphur, and 
showed extraordinary tree growth as a 
result of “SCALECIDE.” 
Scalecide” is easy and pleasant to use 
—and costs less to apply. Write today for 
complete information and name of nearest 
dealer. Ask for copy of our guarantee. 
Address Dept. 16. 
B. G. PRATT CO. 50 Church Street NEW YORK CITY 
Manufacturing Chemists 
THE COMPLETE DORMANT SPRAY 
Makes a Tree Outgrow Its Troubles 
