varieties,  and  the  early  hearers  do  not 
suit  our  market  so  well.  Right  in  the 
same  neighborhood  you  will  find  success¬ 
ful  growers  who  would  add  several  va¬ 
rieties  to  this  list  and  cut  out  one  or 
two  of  our  favorites.  So  who  shall  ad¬ 
vise  the  stranger?  As  for  poaches,  this 
year  we  have  ordered  J.  11.  Hale,  Car¬ 
man.  Belle  of  Georgia,  Salway,  Iron 
Mountain.  Krummel's  Late,  and  a  few  of 
the  following  for  trial:  Arp  Beauty,  R  d 
Bird.  Carman  and  Belle  have  paid  us 
in  the  locality,  but  hereafter  most  of  our 
planting  will  be  of  the  later  varieties. 
Frost  holds  off  late  on  our  hills,  and  the 
late,  peaches  escape  the  fierce  competition 
which  comes  in  August  and  early  Sep¬ 
tember.  As  our  apple  trees  come  along 
we  shall  drop  peach  growing  more  and 
more.  I  can  see  no  great  future  in  it  for 
our  section.  As  for  strawberries,  as  is 
well  known  we  confine  our  plantings  to 
Marshall.  I  do  not  advise  general  plant¬ 
ing  of  this  variety,  but  it  seems  to  be 
well  suited  on  our  soil.  Wo  also  raise 
some  of  the  Fall  or  everbearing  varieties, 
and  shall  increase  the  planting.  Every 
family  should  have  some  of  these  plants, 
yet  I  doubt  if  it  will  pay  to  plunge  on 
them  for  commercial  purposes,  unless 
there  is  a  good  sale  of  plants  in  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  berries. 
The  Old  Folks. — This  extract  from  a 
recent  personal  letter  coming  from  Ver¬ 
mont  gives  me  a  chance  to  repeat  what 
has  been  said  before : 
Father  died,  rich  in  years  and  in  the 
esteem  of  bis  fellow  townsmen — that  was 
all.  lie  had  lived  a  life  unselfish  in  the 
living,  for  he  never  thought  of  himself, 
but  always  of  doing  something  for  some 
one  else.  My  father  was  a  fresco  painter 
and  decorator,  who  was  an  artist  in  his 
line,  and  with  his  going  has  passed  the 
art  of  decorating  in  fresh  plaster — in 
this  section  of  the  country  at.  least.  lie 
was  a  few  months  past  SO  years  of  age. 
but  had  been  in  his  business  (52  years,  and 
actively  engaged  for  more  than  (50  years, 
lie  and  my  mother  had  been  married 
nearlj  .">7  years,  lie  was  a  grand,  good 
old  man — not  old  either,  ll'c  miss  him! 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
April  Snow. — We  had  begun  to  think 
that  Spring  had  really  come.  On  April 
4  one  of  the  neighbors  started  plowing  a 
light  piece  of  sod.  It  seemed  to  turn 
over  fairly  well,  but  I  fear  it  will  be 
sticky  and  lumpy  all  Summer.  That  is 
what  usually  happens  when  soil  is  plowed 
ton  early  and  left  without  prompt  har¬ 
rowing  or  liming.  It  is  doubtful  if  we 
can  do  any  plowing  before  April  15.  Just 
as  we  thought  things  were  getting  in  line 
a  snowstorm  came  rushing  in  upon  us, 
and  by  Sunday  the  snow  was  live  inches 
deep  or  mure.  It  was  the  damp,  watery 
snow  that  bends  down  the  cedar  trees 
until  they  break,  and  melts  finally  into 
mush  and  slush.  Of  course  this  shuts  off 
work  mi  our  heavy  land,  but  pruning  and 
spraying  must  go  on  after  a  fashion.  All 
through  this  country  the  situation  is 
much  the  same,  and  there  can  be  no 
“farming’’  done  for  several  weeks  yet. 
Must  of  us  must  make  a  quick  change  in 
our  plans,  to  suit  the  season. 
Changes. — I  now  see  that  we  cannot 
work  our  the  plans  I  had  made,  since  the 
soil  cannot  be  worked  in  season.  There¬ 
fore  peas  and  oats  will  be  put  in  several 
small  fields  where  we  expected  to  use 
truck  crops.  The  oats  and  peas  will  give 
us  fodder,  and  it  may  be  possible  to  plow 
the  ground  after  the  crop  is  cut  and  plant 
cabbage,  celery  or  even  a  crop  of  late  po¬ 
tatoes  if  the  seed  is  well  sprouted.  Our 
first  duty  is  to  take  care  of  the  fruit,  and 
in  order  to  do  that  we  must  let  some  of 
the  cover  crops  grow  instead  of  plowing 
them  under.  Just  before  this  last  snow 
came  I  had  a  chance  to  look  these  cover 
crops  over.  The  rye  is  thin.  Last.  Fall 
we  seeded  Alsike  and  Sweet  clover  mixed 
in  the  corn.  There  seems  to  be  a  fair 
stand  of  both  clovers.  The  Alsike  leads 
except  where  we  have  used  most  lime.  On 
the  most  exposed  parts  of  the  orchard  I 
fear  there  is  not  enough  clover  to  make  a 
good  stand.  Here  we  shall  plow,  give 
reasonable  culture  and  then  sow  Sweet 
clover.  I  shall  also  sow  Sweet  clover 
seed  right  on  the  rye.  with  the  peas  and 
oats,  with  buckwheat,  and  alone  as  a 
cover  crop  in  order  to  learn  its  best  use. 
The  mails  are  well  filled  with  letters 
from  people  who  want  to  know  just  how 
to  use  Sweet  clover.  I  do  not  pretend  to 
know,  but  I  am  going  to  find  out.  We 
should  have  S00  or  more  apple  trees  in 
bearing  this  year,  as  usually  about  half 
the  orchards  come  in  each  season.  There 
will  be  some  peaches,  but  many  buds  are 
killed.  I  can  tell  better  when  the  bloom 
starts.  We  have  about  two  acres  of 
strawberries.  Most  of  the  plants  are  in 
good  shape,  thanks  to  the  snowy  Winter 
and  the  currants  and  cherries  look  well 
at  present.  Our  chief  cultivated  crop  this 
year  will  be  potatoes — most  of  them 
grown  between  rows  of  young  trees.  Po¬ 
tatoes  are  always  salable  in  our  country. 
We  seem  to  know  something  about  hand¬ 
ling  the  crop  and  with  the  soil  well  tilled 
with  moisture  and  our  cover  crops  this 
ought  to  be  a  good  year. 
Varieties.-  -What  fruits  shall  I  plant? 
That  question  comes  from  hundreds  of 
people.  Most  of  them  are  baek-to-tlic- 
landers  or  beginners,  because  the  old-timer 
knows  that  the  way  to  find  out  is  to  go 
into  his  own  neighborhood  or  the  nearest 
fruit-growing  section,  and  see  what  suc¬ 
cessful  men  are  planting.  It  seems  good 
to  go  to  some  distant  “export”  or  profes¬ 
sor  and  get  a  learned  opinion,  but.  the 
man  in  the  next  town  cau  usually  give 
more  sensible  advice.  When  I  planted 
the  orchard  I  obtained  expert  advice  and 
lost  out  oU  it.  I  learned  later  that  the 
expert  went  to  a  printed  list  and  picked 
out.  what  others  said  were  best  adapted 
to  our  section.  After  watching  our  trees 
for  15  years  or  so  I  ordered  the  following 
apple  varieties  this  year:  McIntosh, 
Wealthy.  Baldwin,  Stayman,  for  stan¬ 
dard  varieties.  We  also  ordered  a  few  of 
King.  Hubbardston.  Opalescent  and  De¬ 
licious.  These  last  are  largely  for  exper¬ 
iment  or  further  test.  The  first  named 
make  the  true  quartette  for  our  section. 
Northern  Spy  grows  well  with  us  and 
makes  a  beautiful  fruit,  but  it  becomes  a 
Fall  apple  here — fit  to  sell  about  with 
McIntosh  or  a  little  later.  Sutton  is  an¬ 
other  good  one — about  equal  to  Baldwin, 
but  not  quite  so  productive.  We  have 
enough  of  Greening.  Russet  and  similar 
No  Rat  Can  Gnaw 
Through  Concrete 
The  brown  rat  probably  steals  more  of  the  farmer’s 
profits  than  any  other  living:  pest.  Every  one  of  the  millions  of 
rats  in  this  country  annually  destroys  many  dollars  worth  of 
produce  and  property.  They  breed  faster  than  the  farmer  can 
exterminate  them  by  traps  and  poison.  To  keep  rats  out, 
you  have  to  build  them  out — with  concrete. 
TTrvixr  -f-n  Ri-nlrl  Build  the  cellar  walls,  of  concrete  —  like- 
wise  the  cellar  floor.  Above  the  founda- 
Your  riOUSG  tion,  fill  the  space  between  sheathing:  and 
Ratproof  lath  with  concrete  to  the  height  of  one  foot. 
**  In  the  same  way  fill  the  space  between  first 
floor  and  ceiling.  Build  steps  and  cellar  hatchway  of  concrete. 
How  to  Malre  Smaller  h*rm  structures,  such  as  milk  houses, 
_  j)  .  1  j  granaries,  silos,  hotbeds  and  cisterns,  should 
Jr  arm.  Jjuilcl-  be  entirely  concrete.  Such  structures  are 
in£s  Ratproof  absolutely  inaccessible  to  vermin  and  rodents, 
**  *  except  through  open  windows  and  doors. 
If  rats  do  enter,  they  can  be  exterminated  easily,  as  concrete 
offers  no  cracks  nor  crevices  in  which  they  can  hide. 
A  farmer  can  do  his  own  ratproofing  with  concrete.  Write  us 
about  any  structure  you  contemplate  building.  We  shall  be 
glad  to  tell  you  why  you  should  use  CONCRETE. 
Wlmt  I  want  to  say  is  that  it  is  one 
of  tin*  blessed  privileges  of  life  to  lx'  able 
to  say  of  these  fine  old  people  that  we 
miss  them  when  they  are  gone.  Some  of 
you  older  people  may  have  seen  Joe  Jef¬ 
ferson  the  great  actor  in  “Rip  Van 
Winkle.” 
“Are  we  so  soon  forgotten  when  we 
ore  gone?"' 
What  wonderful  power  and  pathos  Jef¬ 
ferson  put  into  that  line  as  he  portrayed 
the  puzzled,  sorrowing  old  man  !  Many  a 
selfish  man  and  woman  will  suddenly  re¬ 
alize  when  father  and  mother  pass  away 
that  they  have  lost  the  great,  blessed 
thing  of  life  in  their  impatient  treat¬ 
ment  of  the  old  folks.  It  does  seem  to  me 
that  God  will  finally  judge  men  and 
women  by  the  treatment  they  give  their 
parents.  The  women  are  usually  better 
than  the  men  in  this  respect,  and  many 
a  strong,  proud  man  lias  suddenly  real¬ 
ized  that  be  must  pass  the  remainder  of 
bis  life  in  something  of  a  shadow  because 
he  did  not  do  bis  full  duty  by  his  parents. 
Many  of  these  fine  old  men  take  with 
them,  off  into  the  silent  land,  something 
of  what  we  call  old-fashioned  honesty 
and  sincerity  of  purpose  which  our  mod¬ 
ern  world  needs,  yet  cannot  somehow  sup¬ 
ply. 
As  a  contrast  to  what  I  have  written 
let  me  tell  you  a  “modern  instance.”  A 
man  of  years  and  high  character  has  ac¬ 
cumulated  a  fortune.  1 1  is  son  some 
years  ago  decided  that  as  father  was 
well-to-do  there  was  no  reason  why  he 
should  work.  So  for  years  he  has  simply 
lived  to  get  money  out  of  the  “old  man.” 
Father  has  mistakenly  given  him  too 
much.  The  sou  recently  came  on  one  of 
his  demanding  trips,  and  as  he  returned 
some  one  asked  him  how  his  father  was. 
"Oh,  hr  looks  on  if  he  might  Inst  25 
years  more!” 
This  was  spoken  in  a  disgusted  tone. 
What  a  horrible  old  age  that  son  will 
have  !  u.  w.  c. 
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DELUGE 
What  matter? 
W*  ''  Inside  a  FISH  BRAND 
REFLEX  SLICKER  ‘3 
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WILLIAM  S.  MYERS,  Director 
25  Madison  Avenue.  New  Y ork 
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BOOKS  WORTH  READING 
The  New  GREENWOOD  LIME  and 
FERTILIZER  DISTRIBUTER 
Landscape  Ganleuing,  Parsons . 2,00 
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Agriculture  am)  Chcinlstrjr,  Storer.  5.00 
Fertilizer*  atxl  Crops,  Vim  Slyke -  2.50 
Weeds  of  Fat' tit  ntol  Harriet),  Pummel  1.50 
Pools  of  Wheat,  DoticUInger .  2.00 
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THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
333  W,  30th  St.,  New  York  City 
Bobby’s  mother  had  forbidden  him  to 
fight,  but  he  came  home  one  day,  bruised 
and  battered,  with  the  blood  running 
down  his  face  and  two  front  teeth  miss¬ 
ing.  “Why  Bobby,”  said  the  mother 
sternly,  “you  have  been  fighting  again, 
and  have  lost  two  of  your  teeth.”  “Oh. 
no,  I  haven’t  mother,”  replied  the  young 
man,  “I’ve  got  them  both  safe  in  my 
pocket.” — Kansas  City  Star. 
TOP  FEED  — NO  RUSTING  NO  CLOGGING 
Accurate  indicator  for  luU  to  3,500  lbs.  per  acre,  w fit* t her  mater¬ 
ial  he  >v»*f.  dry.  sticky,  lumpy,  heavy  or  litfht.  Wo  guarantee  to 
distribute  lime  with  unburnt  core  or  small  rocka  In  it. 
Write  for  booklet  A*  to 
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