770 
L HOPE FARM NOTES 
On Election Day we elected Ben Davis 
and Stayman Winesap by a good major¬ 
ity. These varieties were left for the 
last picking. They are solid and firm, 
and hang to the trees with a grip which 
our ordinary north wind cannot loosen. 
The weather prophets all said that Elec¬ 
tion Day would bring rain, but the day 
opened dry, but dull and gloomy. The 
children can pick Ben Davis as well as 
anyone—you would better have more 
skillful hands for McIntosh or more deli¬ 
cate varieties. I had a gang of six chil¬ 
dren in the trees. One man hauled the 
apples down to the storage house, while 
Thomas handled the retail trade jyid 
sorted out a truckload for market. This 
retail trade is coming to be a great, fea¬ 
ture. We cannot deliver small orders, 
but people drive up to the farm with cars 
or trucks and carry away their Winter 
supply. On some days this trade will run 
to .$00. I have an idea that this could 
be developed on many farms where there 
is a good road from town. By advertis¬ 
ing in the local papers and making a fair 
reduction in price, I think a farmer might 
develop a good home trade in fruit, po¬ 
tatoes, poultry and eggs and other pro¬ 
duce. 
***** 
A farmer should not expect to get as 
much for such produce as the grocer 
charges. There is no reason why cus¬ 
tomers should drive their cars out to the 
farm unless they feel that they are get¬ 
ting a bargain. It is a great mistake to 
hold them up for a high price. You 
might get a few extra dollars for a time, 
but in the end such a short-sighted policy 
will hurt both you and the general busi¬ 
ness of farming. We cannot, any of 
us, consistently find fault with the 
“profiteers” so long as we follow their 
policy in our own smaller dealings The 
average family in town will need this 
Winter about one barrel of potatoes for 
each adult, a bushel or two of yellow 
turnips, 10 good heads of cabbage and 
squash or pumpkins. It would be a good 
plan to figure close on this outfit, with 
a barrel ot apples added, and offer to sup¬ 
ply the entire order for a lump sum. 
Advertise this freely in the local papers 
and you will be surprised to see how 
many people will come right to your farm 
after the goods. Some farmers make the 
mistake of thinking they must advertise 
in the big daily papers—far from home. 
This is usually a mistake. The local pa¬ 
pers will pay better. The big thing is to 
induce the consumer to come io you for 
the goods. The car and the truck are 
making this possible. 
***** 
1 could tell some great stories about 
this backdoor trade, and I think Mother 
and her daughter could write a book about 
it. That is one thing you must consider 
if you are to start it. A good share of 
the work must fall upon the women 
folks. There are many times when the 
men folks are all away from the house. 
Just at that time there is likely to be a 
.string of cars bringing customers. The 
women or children have to attend to 
them. Most of these customers want to 
see their packages filled, and it will be 
a great job for Mother and the girls to 
satisfy them. I have had several families 
come here together in a truck. There 
will be seven or eight children and their 
parents—all out for a country outing. 
We usually give the children all the ap¬ 
ples they will eat, and send the truck off 
loaded full. That is the best trade we 
have. The working people have been 
earning good wages, and they are what 
you may call good ependers. The mean¬ 
est trade comes from the peddlers and 
small storekeepers along the Hudson. 
They are out for what they call “bar¬ 
gains,” and they work hard to beat down 
your price. We never bother with them. 
We have one price, which we purposely 
make low enough to be fair. If they do 
not like that it is all over. They “may 
take it or leave it.” I find that when 
such people learn that the price is fixed 
they will usually pay it, and have far 
more respect for you than if you gave 
way to them. However else we may feel 
about it, we all have respect for the man 
who can stands up for his side of an argu¬ 
ment. 
the RURAL NEW-YORKER 
But, we elected Ben Davis. While all 
over the country the ballots were falling 
like snowllakes into the boxes, our chil¬ 
dren were pulling these handsome apples 
off the treee. I will not say how many 
of them the Japanese boy ate. lie gave 
a great performance, but it did not in 
any way interfere with his dinner. It 
was easy picking on these low-headed, 
bushy trees, and we soon had a long line 
of filled baskets strung in the alleys. And 
while we were busy a new worker ap¬ 
peared climbing the hill. Mother had 
come to <see about the finish of her apples. 
She owns a row of Stayman Winesap on 
the west slope of the hill. While the tree 
fruit had been gathered, the drops were 
still on the ground. So the Japanese boy 
and I went, to help her. We got nearly 
25 bushels of solid fruit off the ground. 
There is one good thing about the mulch 
System and low-headed trees. When the 
fruit does fall it hits a soft spot, and is 
about as salable as the hand-picked fruit. 
We like Stayman, and I am sorry now 
that we did not plant more of them. It 
was rather dark and dreary on the west 
slope of our big hill. The leaves were 
falling, and there was a dim, misty haze 
in the air. A few crows flew slowly off 
to the woods, as if the election had gone 
against them, and a lonesome rabbit 
peered out from under a bush. In one 
of the empty baskets we found a mother 
mouse with a nest of six babies. And 
here was Mother picking up her apples 
and considering her new duties as a voter. 
***** 
After dinner we left our apple-picking 
long enough to vote. The two new voters 
drove to the polls, and I went along as 
ballast. My daughter got in her ballot 
first, then came her mother, and I fol¬ 
lowed behind. It was a great occasion 
for these two women—they had looked 
forward to it. I do not know how othei 
women regard the ballot, now that it 
has come to them, but in this section 
intelligent women will make better use of 
it than the men have done. I do not 
think their interest will flag. While at 
home we may elect Ben Davis, because 
he happened to be the candidate for that 
day, the women will not vote for hny hu¬ 
man Ben Davis if they are capable of 
sizing him up. As I rode home with 
these new voters the car seemed rather 
small for us! The children stopped pick¬ 
ing about four o’clock and played foot¬ 
ball on the lawn. Thomas had been busy 
selling fruit and packing his load. At 
nightfall he drove off to vote, as bis legal 
residence is in another township. I built 
a big fire, and after supper we all drew 
up before it. 
***** 
Then one of the new voters proposed 
that we all pile into the car about nine 
o’clock aud drive to the county town to 
get the “returns.” That proposition was 
carried with a roar. But when I went 
out to open the door of the apple storage 
that rain promised by the weather 
prophets had put in a belated appearance. 
It was making up for lost time, and the 
wind was rising. So Mother vetoed the 
trip. 
“We would all ^et cold and the car 
would be wet, and we probably could not 
learn anything anyway.” 
So we brought out the nuts and apples 
and settled' down for a dry evening, while 
the elements outside voted “wet.” At 
nine o’clock wo called up our voting place 
for news. They had hardly begun their 
count, aud the same tning was reported 
all over the country. The women’s vote 
had doubled the number of ballots, and 
it looked like an all-night job. It was 
that, but, as everyone knows now, the 
November 20 , 1920 
election was so one-sided that long before 
the votes were counted- the Democrats 
gave it up. But long before that hap¬ 
pened our folks were all asleep, while the 
wind roared on and the rain dashed 
against the windows. 
***** 
We like to be known as good losers or 
fair winners, no matter how an election 
goes. This big country is going to live 
and prosper and do its duty in the world’s 
big affairs. Years ago I was taught that 
if the other party carried the election the 
world was quite sure to come to an end! 
Yet it never seemed to taper off as the 
sore-headed men said. We may now pro¬ 
ceed to elect the cow, the hen, the apple 
or whatever presides on our farms. And, 
of course, you will not forget the children. 
They must be elected to fill the positions 
of good citizens, and we cast the ballots. 
My children are working and playing 
with reasonable energy. I have just been 
paying them for their apple-picking, and 
it is interesting to see what they do with 
their money. The boy at college is doing 
well. The question of joining secret fra¬ 
ternity comes up, and some day I will tell 
about that. One of the little girls has 
just come to say that she has to make a 
speech of one minute on some question 
connected with “civics,” and I must sug¬ 
gest. a subject! Do you know that I had 
to hunt up the word before I knew just 
what it was about? I think, however, 
that the time limit of one minute for 
“civic” speeches is admirable. But what 
an advantage our children have in educa¬ 
tion compared with what men of my age 
had 50 years ago. But is it all an ad¬ 
vantage, after all? I must postpone any 
discussion of the matter, as one of these 
new voters has instructed me to put the 
cats out and go down with her to do the 
heavy work of fixing the fire for the night. 
She reserves the head work or super¬ 
vision for herself. Perhaps I may be 
trusted a little later to do it all. 
H. W. C. 
It might be the finest, strongest harness in the world, but what 
good would that do if the team didn’t get into the collars and pull; 
Just so with the tractor. The motor is the harness and it must 
efficiently apply the power to the work, but the power is produced 
from fuel by ignition. 
It is the magneto which shoots the hot, flaming spark into the vap¬ 
orized fuel, changing it from a simple mixture of gas and air to a 
powerful force which is controlled and applied to farm work by the 
gas engine. Unless the spark burns all this fuel quickly, complete¬ 
ly and at just the right time the tractor will pull like a poor team of 
horses, no matter how well the other parts do their work. 
That is why you should thoroughly study the magneto on any 
tractor you own or intend to buy. 
Many tractors have been on the market for years. What magneto 
do they use? You have neighbors who have used tractors for some 
time. What is their experience with the magnetos? You know 
that a farmer must take care of his own machinery. What mag¬ 
neto is the simplest and easiest to understand? 
The deeper you search for magneto knowledge the surer you are 
to find why K-W Magnetos have been used on the majority of 
power, why 
2827 Chester Av«s 
TRADE 
MARK 
Fires Any Fuel—Gets Maximum Power Out of Every Drop. 
