HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
A Page of Editorials for the Home and Farm Magazine Section
4
TO ADVERTISERS
Advertisers in this locality who wish
fully to cover all sections of Oregon
and Washington and a portion of Idaho
will apply to local publishers for rates.
General advertisers may address C. L.
Uurton, Advertising Manager Home
and Farm Magazine Section, Oregonian
Building, Portland, Oregon, for rates
and information.
TO READERS
Readers are requested to send letters
and articles for publication to The Edi
tor, Home and Farm Magazine Section,
Oregonian Building, Portland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions' .and prob
lems that bear directly on the agricul
tural, livestock and poultry interests of
the Northwest and on the uplift and
comfort of the farm home always are
welcomed. Xo letters treating of re
ligion, politics or the European war are
solicited. ' We proclaim neutrality on
these matters.
Comparatively brief 'contributions
are preferred to long ones. Send us
also photographs 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 do it.
DECLARING WAR.
LET'S have a little war of our
own, while the powder burns
and smoke flies on the fields of
Europe. What's the matter with
a campaign started at once against
the foes besieging your farm?
The European war has taught us
the uselessness of depending on sta
tionary fortresses' to repel the at
tack of an enemy. Stationary meth
ods will never do in this little war
we are going to start. We are going
to get out and be the aggressors,
never giving the enemy an oppor
tunity to be safe within our domain.
This is to be a cruel, a relentless
war, and no flags of truce will be
observed. It will be a war of blood
and iron, of sweat and work, and
no compromise will be 'tolerated.
Who is this war to be against?
Our foes are many. There is, for
instance, that obnoxious weed that
is seeking "a place in the sun." We
must deny jts ambition fulfilment.
There is the cutworm that must be
cut down before its career has be
gun. There is the codling moth
that has designs upon the Fall ap
ples. Spray it. There is the sick
hog that must be brought back to
health ere disease advance upon the
remainder of your swine.
Oh, there is plenty to do don't
.forget that. The main thing to
keep in mind is that now is the time
to do it. It must be a war in which
there is no time for parleys, a war
of action, and of results. To the vic
tor belongs prosperity.
TEACHERS AND HIRED MEN.
WHEN a man has more work
than he can do he hires a
man to do some of it for him.
He sets aside a certain portion of
that work for the hired man and a
certain portion for himself. But
after he has made this division, does
he go on about his own work and
pay no attention to the way in which
the hired man does his? Not he!
lie keeps a close watch on that
man to see that he does his share of
the work in the way in which it
should be done. Especially if the
man's work includes the care of live
stock, the employer keeps in close
touch with the way the work is done.
And why shouldn't he? The live
stock is valuable ; the proper care of
it is important.
When our children become old
enough to need an education we hire
somebody to do that work for us;
we do not have time to do it for our
selves. Now surely those children
are just as valuable to us as are our
horses, hogs and cattle. And yet
there is not one of us in a hundred,
or probably even in a thousand, who
ever pays the least bit of attention
to how our hired man or hired
woman is doing this vitally import
ant work of educating our children.
There are, in fact, many of us who
do not even know who these hired
helpers are, let alone knowing any
thing about how they are doing their
work.
Consistency, thou art a jewel !
IDLE TEARS.
ONCE upon a time tears were
woman's strongest weapon.
That they are so no longer is a
wonderful tribute to the stronger
personality of both sexes. Since
women are now the true helpmates
of men, they no longer attempt to
rule them with the weapons of
weakness. Women with personali
ties don't weep, except alone. In
great grief they cannot cry. Weep
ing in solitude restores the balance
of the soul, but the easy weeper has
never a strong personality.
Idle tears belong to weakness and
sentimentality. Tears that are red
with th6 "sweat of anguish are never
seen and never spolcen of. It re
quires a trained will-power and gen
uine emotion to hold back the tears
that gather in the eyes, a stronger
will-power than that that carries the
soldier through a rain of bullets.
TOO MUCH ROPE.
(Kilitoriul in Western Farms, .Spokane!
TWO bold explorers were desir
ous of examining a deep can
. yon that was impossible of ac
cess by any path they could discov
er. They found that the only way
to gain entrance into that coveted
position was to descend the steep,
rocky walls by a rope.
They were cautious. The lighter
man was to be let down, but before
doing so must know that the other
could pull him up. So several times
the larger man let his companion
over the precipice a little way and
pulled him back. Yes, he could draw
him up when the explorations were
finished.
But alas! When the time came
the man at the top could not lift his
companion ! They had not reckoned
on the weight of 800 feet of rope!
He could just raise the man without
the additional burden of many
pounds of rope.
Many a fanner gets into just such
a predicament as that. He can easily
carry on a faim that-involves 1G0
acres. Thinking another section
would increase the income two-fold
he buys, only to find that he has as
sumed a greater burden than he can
bear. The increased fencing, the
need of more help, more machinery,
the mortgage and all, is just a little
"too much rope" and he can't make
it go.
Many a man has become enthusi
astic over some new line of effort
and, unwilling to start in a small
way and gain experience, has dipped
in too deeply. The losses have been .
heavy, the outcome of the venture
discouraging, lie couldn't pull him
self out of the hole because he had
not reckoned on all the points in
volved. Sometimes a man takes desperate
chances on the board of trade, or in
a bucket shop, or on the regular
market. He thinks the matter over
and sees no reason to fear the ven
ture. But he has not seen the lon'g
coil of rope that the other fellows
have slipped about him to weight
him down and hold him while they
fleece him.
You may be strong, you may be
well fixed, but beware lest you be
come "land poor" or fettered by ob
ligations that you could easily avoid.
THE COST OF THE WAR.
STATISTICIANS are busy guess
ing at the cost of the war in
Europe.
It's all wasted effort, for figures
cannot compass nor the human mind
comprehend the appalling cost of
this civilization-wrecking conflict.
The cost of the-war is not measur
able, and even those details of it that
can be estimated will exceed all esti
mates. The cost of the war involves these
items, some calculable, some incal
culable: 1. The cost of equipment guns,
ships, ammunition, unforms, horses,
forts, etc.
2. The cost of maintenance sub
sistence for men and beasts; pay of
officers and men, etc.
3. The cost to industry through
the withdrawal of men of the high
est productive capacity.
4. The cost to society in the loss
of social efficiency through the kill
ing and maiming of men.
5. The cost to future generations
in the loss of those fittest to carry
on -the species, who are those chosen
for war. The Napoleonic wars, mere
skirmishes compared with this holo
caust, had a marked and shocking
effect on the French race because
war took tlue fittest and left the
unfit to breed succeeding genera
tions. 6. The cost in property destroyed
in the process of warfare a cost
measurable by money only in part."
Who shall count the value of a
Rheims cathedral?
7. The cost of human heartbreak,
in the woe of widows and orphans.
8. The cost in brutalizing human
ity, in debasing civilization.
Every item in this list is a definite
charge upon war, a definite count in
the indictment of civilization against
war and militarism.
WHAT SPREADS HOG CHOLERA
THE responsible causes for the
infection of nearly 8000 herds
of hogs with cholera presents
an Interesting angle of the question,
showing how this serious disease is
spread. These figures have been
kept by .the Federal investigators
in their recent studies of the chol
era situation. The largest number
of cases, more than a third, were
carried by men either in exchang
ing labor or in visiting on neighbor
ing farms. Birds are charged with
over 17 per cent of the cases, this
being the next highest figure. In
16V& Per cent of the cases it was Re
lieved that the infection was har
bored on the farm from previous
outbreaks. Dogs carried 9Va per
cent of the cases, and 8'2 per cent
were caused by direct exposure to
sick hogs of the neighbors. - The
bringing in of new stock started
only 3 per cent of the cases.
Cannot farmers develop some sys
tem of guarding their livestock
from infection brought by the
neighbors, since this is found to be
the most serious method of infec
tion? One Illinois farmer keeps a
box of sawdust saturated with dis
infectant at his front gate. Every
visitor is expected to disinfect his
feet before entering. Why isn't this
a practical and thoroughly scientific
method which could well be widely
employed?
With the passing of the old cattle
ranges many changes are taking
place. The contrast is well illustrat
ed by the modern method of .Louie
Dulski, a rancher in McKenzie Coun
ty, North Dakota, who uses an auto
mobile to herd his cattle. Dulski
found that his automobile enabled
him to traverse as much ground as
could be covered by two men with
horses, and he has since used his car
almost constantly on the ranges in
Southern McKenzie County. .
THE FERTILE MIND.
WE ARE all the time talking
about adding to the fertility
of the soil, but how can we
do that unless we have a fertile
mind? Ah! there's the rub. Fertility
must first start in a mind well
stored with sound knowledge of the
laws and principles we are dealing
with, for out of that knowledge
comes the sound judgment that en
ables us to deal wisely with that
mystery of all mysteries, the soil.
No farmer is fitted to grapple with
this mystery unless he has a teach
able mind.
That utterance of the great teach
er, "Exeept ye become as a little
child ye shall in no wise enter the
Kingdom of Heaven," does not apply
primarily to the innocence of the
child. Nor is it limited in its appli
cation to the Heaven beyond this
life. It applies now and everywhere.
Its real meaning is teachableness.
Except as we ai"e as willing to
learn the meaning of things as is a
little child, we can in .no wise enter
into an understanding of them or
obtain mastery over them. It is
such knowledge and such a spirit of
teachableness that gives us the fer
tile mind. With that and only with
that can we cope with the soil and
wisely minister to its fertility.
Starved minds among fanners
have produced starved farms. There
can be no enrichment of the one
without first enriching the other.
We don't see why the newspaper
should make such a noise about the
attendance at the San Francisco
Fair exceeding all previous fairs'
attendance. Everybody expected
it to exceed all others in attendance,
and, in fact, in every way.
"Seattle jitney driver's license re
voked because of six accidents in
twenty-four hours." "Portland jit
ney driver's license revoked because
of five accidents in twenty-four
hours." Portland wins.
A state's popularity is not always
determined by its good laws. With
a six months' divorce law, a twenty
round prizefight law, and legalized
poker, Nevada is said to be the most
popular state in the Union with
some people.
"Kaiser Bill's throat overworked
and seriously affected" yet Bill
Sunday and Bill Bryan are still able
to articulate. Why don't he try
grape juice?