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HOME "AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Editorial Page of Home and Farm Magazine Section
Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Following the Trend of World News;
Suggestions of Interests to Readers; Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought
TO ADVERTISERS.
Advertisers In this locality who wish to
fully cover all sections of Oregon and Wash
ington and a portion of Idaho will apply to
local publishers for rates.
General advertisers may address C. Ij. Bar
ton, Advertising Manager of Oregon-Washing-ton-Idaho
Farmer, Oregonian Building, Port
land, Oregon, for rates and information. -
TO READERS.
Readers are requested to send letters and
articles for publication to The ' Editor, Or
egon Washington Idaho Fanner, Oregonian
Building, Portland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions and problems
that bear directly on the agricultural, live
stock and poultry interests of the Northwest,
and on the uplift and comfort of the farm
home always are' welcomed. No letters treat
ing of religion, politics or the European war
ire solicited, for the Oregon-Washington-Idaho
Fanner proclaims neutrality on these nutters.
Comparatively brief contributions are pre
ferred to long ones. Send us also photo
graphs of your livestock and farm scenes that
you think would be of general Interest. We
wish to make this magazine of value to you.
Help us to 4o it.
AFTER SIX MONTHS.
AFTER six months of the world's great
est war, several factors have been
definitely determined. Germany's
marvelous military machine failed in its
march to the gates of Paris because of the
stone thrown in its intricate mechanism by
little Belgium. The damage was far from
permanent, but the halt was long enough to
allow the allies' to prepare for, a firm resist
ance. For the past two months the change in
the battle line of Central Europe has been
comparatively little. The two mighty
armies, with a battle front of more than
200 miles, have swayed one way and an
other, but little momentous advantage has
been gained by either side. The Germans
have failed to break through the allies' lines;
the allies have been able to do little more
than to check the Teuton onslaught. Russian
and German remain clinched in the cast.
Winter is on and an aggressive campaign
has apparently been abandoned by both
sides until Spring. Kitchener is busy
preparing his army of 1,000,000 men; Joffre
is calling on France's last reserves; Wilhelm
is preparing to launch many more well
equipped battalions; Nicholas is sending
hundreds of thousand's of men to the fron
tier. When the snow melts and the,, warm
winds of Spring dissolve the chill that now
wraps the bodies of the soldiers in the field,
the titanic conflict will resume on a more
enormous scale than heretofore,
Will the ability of Germany to equip the
best-trained army in the world prevail
. against the millions of determined fighting
men of the other great nations'
a huge fortune left him by his father. He
couldn't do it. At 30 the effort had made
him worn and world-weary; before he was.
35 he had tasted and tried every sensation
within his reach excepting death ; so in des
peration he shot himself. His was what 1M
call a life of real hardships. Distinctly a
state of mind, you 11 notice. He had the
abundance which I, and others like me, are
so thankful for when we earn it, but he found
it too much for him. A man is master of the
abundance he really earns. It's his. If he
hasn't mastered it that way, it's likely to
master him. That can't content him and
when contentment is left out any life be
comes a hardship.
"There, I think, is the honest philosophy
of it. I might say a lot more about it, but
to pile up words would only befog my point.
You'll understand what I'm driving at. The
sum of it is that farming is a great life for
a man, because, if he is built that way, it
lets him read his title clear to a supreme
contentment. It's, hard- work yes; but
there's a great difference between hard work
and hardship."
THE FARMER'S HARDSHIPS.
IN that most excellent book, "An Old
Fanner's Letters to His Son," the father,
W. R. Lighton, writes his boy, who is
away at the agricultural college, about a! lot
of things connected, with a farmer's life.
Among many other things, he talks to his
son about what arc called the ''hardships"
of a farmer's life. Here is what he said.
Note the fine spirit in which it is said:
"It has always been the fashion to speak
of the life of a farmer as a hard life. That's
as you make it. Hardship isn't a slate of
facts; it's a state of .mind. The man who
takes joy in his work, who finds content
ment in it, makes no complaint about his
hardship. The man, of all men I've known)
who suffered most of hardship was a fellow
who had notlu'ng in the world to do but to
contrive ways of spending the income from
ST. VALENTINE'S DAY.
ST. VALENTINE was a Christian martyr
who was imprisoned, tortured and be
headed during the reign of Emperor
Claudius about 270 A. D. Emperor Claudius
had instructed Arterius, who had a, blind
daughter, to persuade St. Valentine back to
paganism. St. Valentine is said to have
cured Arterius' blind daughter and thus con
verted Arterius to Christianity.
The custom of sending valentines -had its
origin in a heathen practice connected with
t he worship of the Goddess Juno on the same
day as the birth of St. Valentine.
Many a man owes his happiness in this
life to the pretty little custom of sending
valentines.
We may be a little old-fashioned, but we
still persist in believing that the custom
should be encouraged. Any custom and
every custom that tends to warm the heart
by bringing out tender memories and sweet
emotions should be welcomed.
BOOSTING PROSPERITY.
JUST now the awful conflict in Europe
is creating an extraordinary demand
for the products of the farm, but at the
same time it is closing a market for the
products of countless city factories and clos
ing the door of opportunity to thousands of
honest working men. These idle men cannot
buy food the product of the farm as
busy men can. They must have work now
if they are to continue as good customers
of the farm.
We are in the habit of saying thut the
people in the towns and cities would starve
to death if it were not for the people on the
farms and it is true. We are in the habit
of saying that the people on the farms could
live if they were entirely cut off from all
cities and towns and that is true.
But the merchants and manufacturers and
office men in the cities and towns on the one
hand and the farmers on the other are part
ners in the gigantic enterprise of modern
civilization. Any injury to one partner hurts
both. Short crops on the farm cause hard
times in the cities and towns. Poor business
in the cities and towns reduces the prices
for the products on the farm.
If every person living on the farm in this
country would spend an extra $10 with the
merchants and manufacturers in the cities
and towns during the next thirty days, it.
would put thousands of idle men to work
and bring joy to thousands of homes.
You are planning to spend some of your
extra profits from your grain and livestock.
Yon are going to buy new clothes or build
an addition to your Jiouse, or buy new rugs
or build a new barn or a new fence or buy
new machinery. You will keep the money
moving and it will soon come back to you
in better prices for farm products.
, ' SEED CATALOGUES.
NEXt to the old family almanac, &eed
catalogues are associated iu memory
with the most important events on the
farm in our boyhood days, but look at the
difference. In that day a seed catalogue
was a very ordinary - looking pamphlet.
There were no attempts to make it attractive
with colored plates and other embellish
ments of the printer's art.
Now the average seed catalogue "is a
thing of beauty and a joy forever." It is
attractive in appearance and its contents
convey to the purveyor much information
that is helpful and inspiring. Anything that
encourages gardening is a blessing. The seed
catalogue not only lauds old-time favorites,
but it brings, before us a large list of novel
ties and new varieties for the. field, orchard
and garden. It is a very dull and stupid
person that refuses to get enthusiastic over
an attractive seed catalogue.
THE APPLE CROP.
THE apple crop of 19H is probably the
largest ever produced in the United
States, being estimated at 259,000,000
bushels, as compared with 145,000,000 in
1913; about 235,000,000 bushels in 1912;
214,000,000 in 1911 ; 142,000,000 in 1910, and
146,000,000 in 1909, as reported by the
census,
These figures represent the total "agri
cultural" crop and should not be confused
with figures representing estimates of the
commercial crop, which comprises only the
marketed portion of the total production. In
1913 the commercial crop was estimated at
40 per cnt of the. total agricultural produc
tion. The census report of 146,000,000
bushels in 1909 is the basis of yearly esti
mates of total production, being used in con
nection with crop reporters' estimates of
percentage of a full crop produced each year.
Docs the world grow better as it agesf
The story of Demetrius, of ancient Athens,
suggests a negative reply. He was besieging
Rhodes, which possessed the great paintings
of a master artist. The citizens told him that
his military operations against the district
where the paintings were endangered them.
Demetrius declared that he had as lief de
stroy the portrait of his father as injure the
picture, by Trotogenes, and at once shifted
his assault to another quarter. Fancymod
ern masters of the art of war being so con
siderate and self-denying! ' J )
A defeated candidate for Congress in
Massachusetts reports' that he "received
nothing, promised nothing, expended noth
ing and got nothing." Oh, yes, he got "the
hook."
California police have taken pictures of
the footprint of an escaped burglar. At any,
rate they are on his tracks.
Rumors of more trouble among the yel
low men. Wonder who is Cochin China t