(892 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
There is little, if any, profit on ordi¬ 
nary farm crops this year. Most of us 
must face that fact, and make the best of 
it. I cannot see how the Government or 
the politicians or anything outside of 
what we carry around in our own clothes 
can do much to help the average New 
Jersey farmer. I know more personally 
about that farmer than I do others, but 
we are all pretty much in the same boat. 
On December 1 I figured up 11 months 
of business and found that we have sold 
$816.64 more than was sold in the 11 
months of 1919. Our expenses, however, 
are a little over $1,000 greater than last 
year. I hope to make up this difference 
by January 3, and thus equal our in¬ 
creased expense. That is all we can hope 
for now. This extra expense went for 
labor and supplies—most of it for labor. 
In the Spring I could not see how prices 
for farm products could run low. So we 
took a chance and raised the most ex¬ 
pensive crop we ever attempted. Had 
prices held to what we expected, there 
would have been a good profit. As it 
was, all prices slumped, and I think half 
our produce sold for less than cost. That 
is, in brief, the story of a hard season. 
s)e * * * * 
I never was much of a hand to put 
blame on causes for which I am not re¬ 
sponsible. or which I cannot control. In 
hunting for reasons for this year's disap¬ 
pointment I find the fundamental ones 
right in my own house. I took a chance 
and gambled on high prices. Disguise it 
as we may. that is the plain truth. No 
one compelled me to hire extra help at 
war prices, or to buy fertilizer and expen¬ 
sive tools. 1 now see that if I had merely 
seeded my fields, raised a good garden and 
given the orchards reasonable care I 
should be considerably ahead of the game. 
I think the deflation of prices for farm 
produce this year was a crime, but I 
cannot tell just how it happened, or who 
did it. I am thankful I did not plant a 
market crop of potatoes. Our figures 
show that there was little beside work 
and worry about our tomato crop, and 
we are prepared to cut that out next year. 
I am studying to find the best of two 
things. One is the garden crop which will 
give most returns for labor. 4his year 
late string beans paid us most for an hour 
of labor. I think a crop of celery on our 
best laud might pay better than tomatoes. 
It promises, however, to be another 
gamble. I propose to grow apples and 
poultry as economically as possible— 
with less cultivation and greater use of 
grass and weeds. No man can expect to 
run his farm on exactly the old lines. The 
destructive forces set free by the great 
war are knocking at every door. We 
have all got to change our methods to 
some extent, think out new crops, take 
our chances and put the blame for failure 
where it belongs. In most cases that will 
mean shouldering it ourselves. 
'* * * * * 
There is one crop, however, that seems 
to be coming on right and preparing to 
pav dividends. That is the child crop. 
Just now we have two children in the 
district school, three in high school and 
two in college and university. The lat- 
ter might not like to be called “children” 
—but that is what they will always be to 
us. We have taken chances on education 
for these children, and just now they 
promise to pay better than the other farm 
crops. Just what, should a child be 
taught? I confess that I do not 
know. -Mother is an old school-teacher, 
and she tells me that our children are 
getting a good mind training. She keeps 
on the schools, and often talks 
with the teachers, which, as it seems to 
me. is just what every parent ought to 
do/ I look over the text-books now and 
then and am forced to confess that I could 
not answer half the questions. As for 
working out hard problems in algebra or 
arithmetic. I should disgrace myself in 
the eyes of the children, if I attempted 
any such thing. 1 know some gentlemen 
who are great bluffers, and pretend to 
know everything. I have seen their chil¬ 
dren call them down very neatly by ask¬ 
ing them to work out some school prob¬ 
lem. The>e bluffers are usually cornered 
by the children, and they have various 
wave of getting out of the scrape. It 
seems to me that our local high school 
gives a more complete course than the 
agricultural college which I attended 40 
years ago. 1 cannot say the course is 
more useful, but. honestly. I think on the 
whole it is stronger. 
***** 
There are two great things which I 
want my children to acquire in school. 
One is a thorough knowledge of English; 
the other a good musical voice. Unlees 
men or women can express themselves 
dearly and forcibly in clear English they 
will always be at a disadvantage. That 
will be more evident, than ever as the 
years go on, for people are to be thrown 
more together. The world is to become 
more like a family, and it will be more 
and more necessary for the individual to 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
December 18, 1920 
express himself clearly. They tell me 
that at the secondary schools and col¬ 
leges a majority of the students are un¬ 
able to get the full benefit of what the 
school should give them because they have 
never had full drill in elementary English. 
As for a good voice, perhaps I think more 
of that than others who can hear per¬ 
fectly ; but look about you and see how 
many are unable to articulate properly, 
or who have hard, harsh voices—as raw 
as the croak of a crow. Good English 
and a good voice—whatever else the child 
gets, see that he has these two things. 
Of course, there are differences in mental 
capacity. The finest teacher on earth 
cannot put spirit and fire into half-baked 
or unrefined clay. We should not blame 
the teacher for not performing the impos¬ 
sible, even with our own children. The 
Japanese boy and the little girl go to dis¬ 
trict school. They studied about Thanks¬ 
giving, and then were supposed to write 
“essays” about it. I wish you could read 
those essays. The Japanese mind surely 
grasps details, but seems somehow to 
shuffle them.- I learn from these essays 
that the King of England had a fight. 
The Pilgrims tried to leave England, but 
were attacked by the Indians. They 7 left 
Holland because “they did not want their 
children to be Dutch.” There was yel¬ 
low fever on the Mayflower! Miles 
Standish stepped on Plymouth Rock and 
saw the figures 1621 on it! Squanto and 
90 of his “worries” came and ate up the 
Thanksgiving dinner. The boy meant 
warriors, no doubt, but “worries” well de¬ 
scribed them. These are new facts of 
history to me. but many a reporter has 
twisted things worse, and the boy will 
get it yet. 
***** 
The children are all interested, and 
their marks are reasonably good. I can¬ 
not boast of any “top-notehers”—they are 
just plain, healthy children, with the 
makings of good citizens. I have few 
other ambitions for them. They teach 
us many a lesson as they go singing on 
their way. We have had great trouble 
with rats in our house. It has been hard 
to clean them out. They have become 
shy of traps. We tried some “rat virus” 
which contains the germs of a disease 
which is supposed to spread through a rat 
colony and clear them out. It seemed 
to work well when we first used it. and 
evidently killed off most of the rats. Then 
another family came in and stocked us 
up once more. So the boys decided to try 
rat-killing. They soon learned that the 
rats came into the kitchen at night when 
the lights are put out. They came down 
on a water pipe, hunting for food, and at 
the first alarm they run up the pipe and 
get into the wall. The boys planned their 
campaign carefully. They heard the rats 
in the kitchen, and at a signal they opened 
the door and darted in. The Japanese 
boy is very quick. He ran and turned 
on the light, while the other boy. with 
the poker, ran to the water pipe to cut 
off the retreat. The result was that they 
cornered three big rats and killed them. 
Now the lessen I am to refer to was not 
a practical exposition of the art of rat¬ 
killing—though we may have to teach that 
in our schools if the plague of vermin in¬ 
creases. The lesson is more of a mental 
one. 
# * 
It happens that we have .six cats on the 
farm. I am rather ashamed to admit it, 
but the children feed these cats and keep 
them about. They are the descendants of 
a famous rat-hunter, bur education and 
feeding have nearly spoiled them. While 
the boys were killing rats these cats were 
off in the darkness somewhere—some of 
them asleep and others waiting with cruel 
patience beside a rat hole. I can see only 
one useful place for a dead rat. He 
should be buried beside some young tree— 
planted to provide plant food. A dead 
rat might well take hi*, last rest beside 
one of the trees which the mice had tried 
hard to ruin. But the boys took the dead 
rats, went to the door and called the cats! 
Out of the darkness they came running. 
They forgot their hunting and their sloe]) 
in their desire for rat steak, and off they 
went growling into the shadow with their 
prizes. 
well that it is npt. I want these children 
to realize, if they can, the value of the 
essential things of life. Foolish extrava- 
agances are not essential, and yet most of 
the essential things cost money, and con¬ 
siderable of it. I think if a child showed 
a taste for music it might be far wiser for 
him to use his money to buy a violin 
rather than to put it all at interest. The 
great majority of people of my age must 
now sadly realize that there was not 
enough of the family money invested in 
us when we were children. We can now 
easily see what bigger and happier lives 
we should be living if some childish trait 
or fancy could have been carefully trained 
when we were under 20. Many a man 
must walk through his years with dulled, 
hearing or blurred vision or loss of teeth 
or health because a little money was not 
invested in him when a child! 
But here is the call for dinner. We are 
all well educated for that. The girls 
have all had a hand in preparing it. It 
seems as if every other time I have in¬ 
vited you we have had hash. Today 
there are three good-sized Black Jersey 
Giant chickens—roasted to a turn. These 
are young roosters—a little off color, but 
they are not off flavor. Let me give you 
a piece of the white meat, and you will 
vote for the Giants. Then there are three 
big pumpkin pies that would win a prize 
at any cooking show. Of course, you will 
say that these three birds ought to go to 
market to help out our sales. Perhaps, 
but the home market is worth considering, 
too. A little chicken in the child crop 
helps the quality, and that it what we 
are after. . h. w. c. 
Potatoes Sweat in Storage 
Cau you give me any information on 
potatoes sweating in bins? I dried my 
potatoes well before put in cellar. They 
are in bins, about 20 bu. in each bin. 
They seem to be wet on sides; lower down 
they are real damp. My cellar has venti¬ 
lation from south side. Can you give me 
any information on this? G. E. n. 
Roxbury, N. Y. 
From description given. I should say 
the potatoes were affected with late blight, 
which is very prevalent, this season. The 
disease cau be carried iu the tubers, and 
while the temperature is low and the air 
dry, the fungus lies dormant. With 
warm, moist air the fungus becomes ac¬ 
tive and dry rot results. This is notice¬ 
able when small white tufts or fruiting 
spores appear on the tubers. Bacteria 
and rot fungi get into the dead cells 
caused by the dry rot or blight, and cause 
moisture to exude, and the potato takes 
on the appearance of sweating. The 
drops of moisture run from one tuber to 
another, making the entire pile appear 
wet. Such tubers should not be used for 
seed, as they carry the blight fungus, 
and during a wet Spring this will spread 
rapidly. The only remedy I can suggest 
is to sort out all the diseased tubers and 
destroy them. In this way the remainder 
of the potatoes may be saved. Some 
recommend that potatoes should be cov¬ 
ered with lime when storing them, as this 
is supposed to keep the rot fungi away. 
There is nothing to this practice, as sev¬ 
eral farmers found to their sorrow this 
!■ all. One carried out hie entire crop 
after sprinkling with lime. The time to 
control is during the growing season by 
the use of the good old Bordeaux. 
T. H. T. 
Killing Field Mice 
Make A-shaped troughs of any old 
boards about 15 or IS in. long, with one 
closed end, and put them in under rub¬ 
bish in places where the mice are apt to 
run or live. Take a %-oz. bottle of 
strychnine and dissolve it in enough 
water to cover two quarts of ripe sweet 
corn ; let it soak in the corn, and dry the 
corn so that it will not mold or spoil. 
Then put in dean tin cans and under the 
troughs, with the open end the lowest, and 
the mice can help themselves any time of 
the year. elias gales. 
New York. 
. . . and money saved. It’s the 
straight way to thrift, with 
The Rellll Shaving Stick 
Why make a mussy mixing 
board of your face ? 
You needn’t rub the lather 
in with your fingers when 
you use Colgate’s “Handy 
Grip” Shaving Stick. 
It makes you forget that 
your beard is no longer 
downy. 
Add economy to comfort 
by purchasing Colgate’s 
Thrift Package. 
Ask for Colgate’s Thrift Shaving 
Package. It contains one com¬ 
plete “Handy Grip”Shaving Stick, 
and two full sized “Refill” sticks 
of Colgate’s. You refill the Handy 
Grip just as you screw a new 
electric bulb into its socket. 
Sold everywhere—or send 
io for trial size. Stick, 
Powder or Cream. 
COLGATE & CO. 
Dept. 42 
199 Fulton St., New York 
low iu 
$19.50 
eioiGMilt 
BACKS THIS SAW 
For llertzler& 
Zook Portnblo 
Wood Saw 
Frame 
No. 6 
HERTZLER & ZOOK 
Portable C K\U 
Wood uAW 
is easy to operate. Our 
No. 1 is the best and 
cheapest saw made to which 
a ripping table may be at¬ 
tached. Guaranteed 1 year. 
Money refunded if not satis¬ 
factory. Write for catalog* 
HERTZLER & ZOOK CO. 
Box 3 Belleville, Pa. 
Now why should any sensible cat en¬ 
dure the cold, lose sleep and run tin* risk 
of a sharp bite in hunting for rats if 
someone else is ready to do all the work 
of hunting and killing? There may be 
some eats who hunt and kill for the joy or 
excitement of it. but our cats must be 
very ordinary specimens. They are quite 
willing to let the children do the work 
while they sleep and play and eat. I 
think these cats are like most children, 
while the boys are not unlike some par¬ 
ents and teachers I know. These mis¬ 
guided people make things to easy for 
their children. They cannot bear to have 
Billy and Alice forced to work things out 
for themselves. Instead of that, the old 
folks f'o out and kill the rats of trouble 
or work, and make things easy for the 
children when the little folks, like our 
cats, would he far better off if they were 
forced to do their own bunting and killing. 
***** 
We try to keep our children from fool¬ 
ish extravagance or miserly economy 
alike. This thing of trying to ape the 
neighbors and striving to have expensive 
things just because others have them is 
foolish and demoralizing. Our childreu 
have no money except what they earn, 
and that gives them enough for their 
need*;. And I do not encourage them to 
save every penny and make accumulation 
the chief end of life—for 1 know only too 
Finicky Digestions 
disturbed by ordinary 
food, find comfort in 
Grape=Nuts 
Twenty hours of baking make 
this blend of wheat and malted 
barley Quickly and easily con¬ 
vertible into health and strength 
Try a package from the grocer. Test tells 
“ There's a Reason" 
