1242 
Wk RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 24, 1920 
HOPE FARM NOTES fl 
When I was a boy they used to Rive 
me now and then what they called “a 
galvanic wash.” That, was bef »ro the 
word “electric” had come into general 
country use. We still went back to Gal- 
vani, the discoverer of dynamic electricity, 
for the name. And the wash surely gave 
us a thrill. In order to do a full job 
they used the liquid part of the soft soap. 
That was rubbed in with scalding water 
and then dried off with an old-fashioned 
towel, made of homespun flax. You got. 
a chemical reaction, and then a mechan¬ 
ical action. The lye in the soft soap ate 
off the dirt (and part of the skin), while 
the rough flax felt, like sandpaper made of 
bits of glass! Sometimes in these mod¬ 
ern days, when riding in the subway cars, 
I study the long line of advertisements. 
j.._ost of them at this season picture vari¬ 
ous kinds of soaps and powders and 
brushes for keeping the skin clean and 
comfortable. I’ll guarantee that not one 
of them could prove half as effective as 
one old “galvanic wash.” Talk about 
“facial massage”—well, try soft soap and 
coarse flax. After the operation I used* 
to go and look in the spring to see if 
there was any of my face left. I am 
not the only country boy who has used 
the spring or the shady pond for a look- 
We felt much the same doubt about the 
face of the earth as we looked out of 
the window on July 10. Day after day 
we have had a series of thunder showers, 
each one seemingly worse than the one 
before. They usually come in the late 
afternoon, following a hot and sultry day. 
Each day we think there cannot be any 
more water, stored above us, and we cut 
down some fresb grass or cultivate some 
hillside field. Then down comes a per¬ 
fect cloudburst. On the evening of the 
!)th the very clouds seemed to open upon 
us. The spout from the roof above us 
seemed to pour straight down on Hope 
Farm. Very likely after about 1)0 days 
on the ark Noah's wife looked from the 
window and watched the rain about as 
our folks did on that soaking afternoon. 
And after half an hour of deluge the 
cloud passed and the sun smiled good 
night over the western hill. Nothing else 
was smiling, except perhaps the big rose 
bushes climbing on tbe old house. They 
can drink more water than an elephant. 
The robins seemed to be laughing as they 
danced over the lawn, for they had filled 
up on the last of the cherries. There 
was little for the humans at Hope Farm 
to laugh about. Most of them had been 
more or less soaked by the shower. There 
were two tons of hay out in the rain. 
The boys had been pulling suckers out of 
the sweet, corn, and in the hill field great 
gullies had been washed out—close down 
to the rock. As for the weeds, let us 
not think about them. The lightning had 
passed through a farmhouse near us, and. 
take it all through, it was a rather ner¬ 
vous and gloomy company at supper. 
* * * * * 
“I think we ought to do something” * 
said the daughter. But what? It was too 
wet to play croquet or tennis, and we had 
all worked and worried to the breaking- 
off point. So we finally decided to pile 
into the car and go out to hunt for a 
movie show somewhere that would ease 
up that “galvanic wash” which nature 
bad just given us. I must not say who 
suggested this brilliant scheme. We will 
leave you to imagine it was one of the 
children ! Of course, I know you will 
be shocked to think of the Hope Farm 
family up to such aindignificd tricks, but 
we are here to tell the truth. Our ear 
was designed for five passengers, but I 
will not say how many of us packed into 
it and went whirling through the little 
towns about us until we found what we 
thought would suit us. And Mother and 
I, sitting there is the dark, forgot our 
troubles as we saw pictured before us, 
as it seemed, some of our own life in 
years before. And then came a ridiculous 
farce. It was silly beyond expression, 
but after the hard and nervous day we 
laughed until most of the people in the 
audience seemed to watch us. After it. 
was over Thomas treated the crowd to 
ice cream, in order to help the dairy busi¬ 
ness ! As we speeded home the stars were 
out, the wind was rising, the storm was 
forgotten. I remembered how this rain 
was putting size on the apples and bulk 
into the grass! Of course, the old folks 
who “brought me up” would be shocked 
or morally paralyzed could they have seen 
us on that little spree. As for ine, I 
have come to realize that if we are to 
live in the country and keep that country 
inhabited, we have got to make use of 
all the reasonable and innocent means fox- 
keeping up our spirits and organizing 
contentment. We cannot leave all these 
pleasant thing's to the city, or think that 
we must chase off to the city to get them. 
Bring them closer to the farm, where we 
can control them. We like to see the 
famous books we have read acted on the 
screen. 
***** 
When morning came the sun was out, 
hot and sticky —for there Avas little Avind. 
It. seemed like another shower by night, 
and so we all took our forks and Avent 
after that hay. It had been cocked up, 
but the flood of water had soaked it to 
the ground. So avo opened the cocks and 
.' book the hay up. The beautiful tea smell 
had left, it, but I knew how hard it is 
to spoil hay. It never could be like roast 
beef again, but Avould be more like beef 
stew. I heard of a woman who bragged 
of having a poetic nature. She demand¬ 
ed a divorce from her husband because he 
was fond of beef stew—Avhich she consid¬ 
ered a degrading food ! Tom and Broker 
will eat almost anything that has bulk to 
it. and. no one wants to divorce them ! 
What is a little dark color and musty 
smell Avhen hay costs $50 a ton? We 
shook that hay up Avith our forks four 
times, and then took a chance on it. and 
hauled it in. Some of you experts will 
ask why Ave did not use a hay-tedder or 
hay-loader. Perhaps for the same rea¬ 
son that you spray your few trees with a 
hand sprayer or let them go. It does 
not pay to stock up Avith a big outfit of 
machinery for a small job. Hay-making 
is only a side line Avith us. We feed only 
five or six head of stock all told, and have 
very little land in grass. In fact, Ave 
usually buy a fen^ pieces of standing grass 
and cut and haul it ourselves. A dairy¬ 
man must have all the hay machinery 
in order to put his hay under cover, just 
as Ave must have a poiver duster and 
sprayer and picking and packing appli¬ 
ances in order to care for the orchards. 
Farmer* often make two big mistakes. 
They do not have enough machinery to 
handle a big job, or they hai-e too much 
machinei-y for a small job. In one case 
the “overhead” is too small to care for 
the investment. In the other it is too 
large to permit any profit. 
* * * * * 
We got that hay in, but the last load 
was a little soggy, and we let it stand on 
the wagon in the barn over Sunday. In 
the South during a ivet season, consider¬ 
able hay is cui-ed on trucks or low-down 
wagons. The half-cui-ed hay is piled on 
them and they are run under cover for 
shelter. Every year, and especially in 
a Avet season like this one, the old ques¬ 
tion about “sweating out” hay comes up. 
Which is the better practice, to fill the 
mows with damp or half-cured hay and 
shut the barn up light, or leave the doors 
open for “cooling”? At first, thought peo¬ 
ple will say open the door and “air” the 
hay. I think that is wrong. The hay 
Avill lose more of its moisture if you shut 
the barn tight and leave only an open Aviu- 
dow at the top. The reason for this 
seems dear to me. The hay Avill “sweat” 
with heat and throw off much moisture 
in the form of steam or vapor. If the 
barn is closed this Avill rise Avith the heat 
and pass out of the Avindow or vexiti- 
1 a tors—which is what you Avant it to do. 
If the barn is left open the air entering 
will at times be much cooler than the 
vapor rising from the hay. The result 
will be that the vapor or steam will con¬ 
dense as it rises, and remain on the hay. 
It is not possible to keep the ordinai-y 
barn where stock is kept closed all the 
time, but a hay barn, where there is no 
stock, Avill be better if the dooi*s ai-e shut. 
***** 
If our boys Avere called on to vote for 
what seems the meanest and most un¬ 
profitable job they would probably sup¬ 
port the tedious occupation of pulling 
suckers from the sweet corn. Hoeing it 
is bad enough, but you can see results 
from it. and pulling out these big suckers 
seems like a Avaste of good material. Cer¬ 
tain varieties of sweet corn throw out. 
loAver shoots or suckers in great profu¬ 
sion. That is good for silo or fodder 
corn, for these suckers are tender and 
make good feed. In SAveet corn the fod¬ 
der is of small importance, compared 
with the ear. You want the stalk to put 
its full strength into a good ear—large 
and well shaped. Evidently a stalk can¬ 
not produce big suckers and big ears at 
the same time—no more than a man can 
talk all the time and still think enough 
to develop a sound head. In such a man 
you try to stop his talking—in the corn 
you pull the suckers out. It is much the 
same as cutting the runners off straw¬ 
berry plants or thinning fruit on the 
trees. I think there is no question about 
the profit in such Avork, but it. is monoto¬ 
nous and about the least interesting of 
anything you can find. I suppose the 
boys ought to see the sermon to be 
preached in such a job. By forcing 
themselves to pull out these suckers they 
get into the habit of industry, and thus 
pull the. suckers of laziness and lack < ' 
application out of their own characters! 
Very fine as a theory. IIow I Avould like 
to have sprue of these moral preachers 
out in tho hot cornfield pruning their 
own characters in this way! Did you 
ever see a boy who liked to be preached n‘. ' 
or who was greatly moved by such preach- I 
ing? 
. ***** 
Both Spot and Blackie have given us 
heifer calves, and Ave find it hard to de¬ 
cide Avhich one to raise. Spot is a little 
(he better ccow, but BlackieVs daughter is 
the better calf. She is larger and rather 
better shape, and I am inclined to raise 
her. in spite of the better pedigree of the 
other. In these days no one lias any 
business to raise a scrub calf. Milk is 
worth too much to Avaste on inferior 
cattle. I think, though, that calves from 
superior cows ought to be raised ivhenever 
possible. Both of these cows of ours are 
above the average, but avc can raise only 
one calf. We shall be in the dairy busi¬ 
ness a little yet., as for a time we are 
likely to have 35 quarts or more of snr- 
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