814 
e/,r?  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
May  27,  1916. 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
Blooming  Time. — There  is  nothing 
finer  in  the  history  of  an  orchard  than 
the  first  big  bloom.  The  young  trees, 
after  they  make  their  growth,  may  tune 
up  a  little  now  and  then  as  if  trying 
to  get  started,  but  finally  there  comes  a 
year  when  they  burst  into  a  mass  of 
bloom,  and  you  know  they  are  fully  ready 
for  business.  It  is  a  great  day  for  the 
orehardjst  when  it  comes.  It  came  to 
us  on  Sunday,  May  14.  We  have  had 
some  fruit  from  the  young  trees  already, 
but  the  bloom  was  thin  and  scattered: 
this  year  most  of  the  Baldwins  and  all 
the  others  are  great  masses  of  color. 
Stand  at  the  top  of  the  hill  and  look 
down  through  the  long  rows  and  it  seems 
like  a  glimpse  into  fairyland.  The  clover 
and  rye  cover  the  ground  with  a  deep 
gn-en  carpet,  and  the  wide-headed  trees 
arch  in  white  and  pink  to  the  top  of 
the  branches.  The  end  of  waiting  has 
come:  the  orchard  is  ready! 
Looking  Back. — I  stood  on  the  lawn 
on  Saturday  night  and  looked  up  to  the 
western  hill  as  the  sun  went  out  of 
sight.  It  is  13  years  since  that  orchard 
Mas  planted.  T  well  remember  standing 
here  the  night  after  we  finished  plant¬ 
ing  and  looking  up  the  same  steep  hill. 
At  that  time  vim  could  see  only  a  few 
rows  i>f  slender  stakes  outlined  against 
the  sky.  I  cut  those  trees  back  until 
Charlie  and  Uncle  Ed  were  frightened. 
They  were  beautiful  two-year-old  trees, 
six  or  seven  feet  high  and  I  out  them 
back  to  a  mere  stem — taking  off  all  the 
limbs.  I  confess  that  it  frightened  me 
a  little  as  I  looked  up  at  tkrm  that 
night,  for  I  cut  those  fine  long  roots 
back  too,  until  the  trees  went  into  small 
boles.  They  did  look  small  and  puny 
that  night,  but  here  they  are  now  like  a 
forest  ready  to  deliver  two  to  three  bar¬ 
rels  of  big  red  apples  next  Fall,  and 
then  go  on  doing  it  indefinitely.  It  is  a 
great  thing  to  sec  the  miracle  worked  out 
in  this  way,  and  the  old  hillside  at  last 
(•.•me  back  into  beauty  and  profit. 
No  Easy  Jon. — “Shall  I  be  carried  to 
the  skies  on  flowery  beds  of  ease?"  No. 
you  will  never  get  there  along  the  easy 
lanes  of  life  and  you  will  never  have 
your  orchard  carried  to  fruiting  on  a  bed 
of  apple  blossoms.  It  is  a  long  hard 
struggle  from  the  little  stake  planted  in 
the  ground  to  the  big.  broad  tree  finally 
bursting  out  white  with  bloom.  If  trees 
were  simply  put  in  the  ground  and  left 
t here  to  grow  and  prune  and  spray  and 
cultivate  themselves  apples  would  bo 
about  as  cheap  as  cobblestones.  Years 
ago  on  these  very  hills  I  have  no  doubt 
Indians  were  forced  to  run  the  gauntlet. 
•  They  looked  through  a  double  line  of 
savage  enemies  armed  with  clubs  and 
stones,  waiting  to  give  them  a  fierce  re¬ 
ception  as  they  came  along.  In  these 
days  when  yon  plant  a  tree  on  these 
hills  scale,  borer,  worm,  blight,  scab  and 
a  dozen  other  enemies  stand  waiting  to 
put  tooth  or  germ  into  it.  We  did  not 
fully  realize,  all  of  this  when  we  plant¬ 
ed  the  orchard.  If  we  bad  I  should  have 
made  several  changes  in  handling  it. 
\Y 1 1 AT  Changes ? — First,  varieties.  I 
have  too  many  for  best  work.  We  have 
to  stop  and  pick  Wealthy.  Gravenstein, 
Maiden  Blush  and  others  when  we  could 
be  better  employed  at  other  work.  Mc¬ 
Intosh.  Baldwin  and  Winesap  make  a 
good  combination  for  a  commercial  or¬ 
chard  here.  I  have  too  many  of  the  earl¬ 
ier  varieties  and  too  many  Black  Bens. 
That  variety  is  an  early,  strong  bearer 
and  gives  handsome  fruit,  but  our  cus¬ 
tomers  do  not.  want  it.  Northern  Spy 
grows  well  hero,  but  is  a  (September  ap¬ 
ple — too  early  for  the  best.  If  I  were 
planting  over  I  would  use  40  per  cent, 
each  McIntosh,  and  Baldwin  and  Wine- 
sap  for  most  of  the  others.  V\  ealthy 
grows  well  here,  but  is  too  early  for  best 
sale.  Here,  the  best  profit  will  come 
from  picking  McIntosh  in  September  and 
Baldwin  in  October,  and  putting  them  in 
storage  to  be  sold  not  before  Christmas. 
If  I  were  to  do  it  all  over  again  I  would 
save  much  work  in  cultivation  by  using 
Sweet  clover — plowing  every  two  or  three 
years  and  cutting  the  Sweet  elover  as  a 
mulch.  I  think  this  is  what  we  are  to 
come  to.  Our  soil  is  uot  quite  moist 
enough  for  such  full  mulching  as  Mr. 
ditchings  gives,  but  the  Sweet  clover 
plan  seems  to  promise  right.  1  should 
not  put  in  peach  trees  as  fillers,  as  we  did 
on  part  of  our  orchard.  These  peach  | 
trees  have  been  cut  out,  yet  you  can 
easily  tell  where  they  were  from  the 
shape  of  the  apple  trees.  The  fillers 
drove  the  apple  trees  too  high  into  the 
air.  Where  there  wore  no  fillers  the  trees 
have  made  broad  flat  heads  far  better 
in  every  way. 
Valve  ok  Orchards. — As  our  trees 
shake  themselves  out  for  their  life  work  the 
old  question  of  the  value  of  orchard  land 
comes  up.  I  regret  that  our  labor  and 
expense  records  are  not  complete  enough 
to  show  just  what  an  acre  of  orchard 
has  cost.  We  paid,  originally,  •$•>0  an 
acre  for  the  farm.  I  think  it  safe  to 
say  that  the  yearly  corn  crop  and  the 
five  crops  of  peaches  from  the  ‘'fillers" 
have  just  about  paid  for  taxes  and  the 
yearly  cost  of  plowing,  cultivating,  lim¬ 
ing  and  mowing.  We  have  used  prac¬ 
tically  no  manure  on  this  hill.  There 
have  been  annual  cover  crops  of  rye. 
clover,  turnips  or  vetch.  Each  year  on 
plowing  tlmse  under  about  500  pounds  par 
acre  of  lime  have  been  used,  aud  a  small 
quantity  of  chemicals  in  the  hill  for 
corn.  The  orchard  has  been  developed 
therefore  with  cover  crops  and  lime. 
There  are  about  42  trees  to  the  acre — the 
original  cost  being  about  15  cents  each. 
These  seem  likely  to  give  this  year  an  \ 
average  of  nearly  two  barrels  each,  or 
at  least  75  barrels  per  acre.  Now  then, 
what  is  an  acre  of  such  trees  worth  as 
they  stand — healthy  and  full  of  bloom? 
Some  one  who  beats  me  at  figures  may 
work  it  out.  Of  course  our  outcome  is 
small  compared  with  some  that  you  read 
about,  but  it  is  far  above  the  average 
which  the  back-to-the-lander  may  expect 
after  13  years'  work! 
Estimates. — Most  of  us  go  wrong  in 
estimating  such  things.  We  see  a  tree 
loaded  with  bloom  and  it  is  easy  to  figure 
five  barrels  of  apples  on  it — each  worth 
$4  apiece.  Then  with  40  trees  on  an 
acre  we  have  $800 !  Later  we  find  that 
wo  may  have  the  figures,  but  the  dollars 
somehow  are  missing.  Figures  mean 
much  or  little — the  way  you  use  them. 
Some  of  my  friends  marched  in  the  great 
New  York  “preparedness"  parade.  They 
live  in  the  country,  but  work  in  New 
York.  There  may  have  been  125.000  men 
and  women  in  lino.  These  were  drawn 
from  a  territory  containing  about  5.000,- 
000  people,  so  that  this  great  parade  con¬ 
tained  perhaps  three  per  cent,  of  the  in¬ 
habitants.  Three  per  cent,  of  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  various  counties  in  New 
York  State  would  be  about  as  follows : 
Broome  County  .  2.500 
Chenango  County  .  1.200 
Cortland  County  . ’ .  1.000 
Lewis  County  . .  000 
Orleans  County  . 1.100 
Tioga  County  .  000 
Yates  County  . . .  600 
If  that  number  should  come  otit  at  a 
farmer’s  meeting  or  write  letters  to  Al¬ 
bany  telling  tin'  Governor  or  the  Legis¬ 
lature  just  what  they  wanted  it  would 
be  about  as  clear  an  expression  of  the 
“voice  of  the  people”  as  this  great  par¬ 
ade  was  of  the  voice  of  New  York  !  Tin1 
point  is  that  whether  these  figures  deal 
with  apples  or  ammunition  or  armies  it 
is  well  enough  to  smoke  them  out  and 
salt  them  down  if  you  wish  to  save  your 
bacon. 
Why  doesn't  tlic  Hope  Farm  man  yet 
up  and  shake  himself  a  little  over  the 
record  his  Red  hens  made  in  the  egg-lay¬ 
ing  contest  for  April f  They  seem  to  he 
‘'coming  buck.”  S.  K,  T. 
I  am  a  little  doubtful  about,  this  plau 
of  shaking  yourself.  Better  wait  until 
the  year  is  over.  My  10  Beds  laid  226 
eggs  in  April.  Out  of  100  pens  the  first 
half  dozen  stood  as  follows  for  that 
month  : 
Obed  G.  Knight.  White  AVyandottes  244 
Tom  Barron,  White  Wyandottes.  .  .  238 
Homer  P.  I.eming,  B.  I.  Beds .  238 
Springdale  Poultry  Farm.  B.  I.  Beds  238 
Holliston  Hill  Farm.  White  Bocks.  230 
Pinccrost  Farm.  B.  1.  Beds .  22S 
Hope  Farm.  B.  I.  Beds .  220 
I  think  the  Beds  made  a  good  showing 
for  the  month.  They  ran  behind  during 
their  sickness  and  can  hardly  hope  to 
catch  up,  though  their  mothers  are  very 
good  Fall  layers.  Nothing  to  shake  our¬ 
selves  about,  for  win  or  lose,  good  luck 
or  bad,  we  stay  right  by  the  hens.  The 
blood  is  there  and  it  will  finally  tell  the 
story.  I  banked  on  “Hope  Farm  Beau¬ 
ty”  to  make  a  great  run  of  eggs,  but  she 
has  decided  otherwise,  and  that  holds  us 
back  a  little.  However,  we  look  for  her 
to  make  good  in  September  aud  October. 
H.  W.  C. 
“Corona  Dry”  Used  Here  “Corona  Dry”  Not  Used  Here 
You  or  the  Bugs? 
Are  you  going  to  get  the  fruit  and  vegetables  out  of 
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Bug-killing  is  just  as  important  as  seed-planting  and  cultivation. 
The  commercial  orchardist  or  gardener  knows  this  and  uses  insecticide  reg- 
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