1096 
JShe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
August  19,  1916. 
A  Good  Face. — It  pays  to  fix  up  the 
house  and  grounds — not  extravagantly, 
but  as  far  as  we  can  within  our  time  and 
income.  Not  only  will  this  make  the 
home  more  presentable  and  more  salable, 
but  it  gives  a  feeling  of  family  pride, 
which  is  about  as  good  an  asset  as  any 
farm  can  have.  A  little  paint,  a  bit  of 
lawn,  a  good  selection  of  shrubs  and 
flowers,  will  make  a  great  change  in  the 
face  of  any  farm,  and  it  will  pay.  Two 
years  ago  we  put  out  a  fringe  of  shrub¬ 
bery  around  the  front  of  the  farm  along 
the  road,  and  it  is  growing  into  a  beau¬ 
tiful  necktie.  Somehow  you  notice  how 
when  we  meet  a  stranger  we  glance  at 
the  neck  to  see  how  the  face  is  set  oft'. 
,Xo  use  talking,  the  collar  and  necktie 
frame  the  face.  If  they  are  neat  and  in 
good  taste  the  face  will  get  by,  and  it  is 
much  the  same  with  the  face  of  a  farm. 
A  neat  yard  or  lawn  makes  the  house  and 
its  surroundings  smile,  and  you  look  back 
as  yo,ii  pass  along  and  remember  the 
place  even  after  it  is  out  of  sight. 
The  Old  House. — Fig.  431  shows  a 
picture  of  our  old  stone  house  from  the 
road.  No  one  seems  to  know  how  old 
this  house  is.  It  certainly 
belongs  to  Revolutionary 
times,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
it  was  here  when  'Wash¬ 
ington’s  army  retreated 
from  Fort  Lee  and  passed 
over  to  Winter  quarters 
about  four  miles  from  our 
farm.  We  lived  in  this 
house  for  six  years  or 
more,  until  we  built  our 
new  home.  When  we  came 
here  the  stone  house  stood 
jammed  up  close  to  the 
road,  bare  and  bleak  and 
without  ornament.  The 
first  year  we  came  here  I 
planted  Boston  ivy  near 
the  east  wall  which  faces 
the  road.  A  few  years 
later  we  planted  climbing 
roses  at  each  corner.  On 
the  south  side  there  was 
a  big  Wistaria  vine,  aud 
we  planted  honeysuckle  and 
half  a  dozen  lilacs.  When 
we  planted  these  little 
shrubs  we  had  no  idea  of 
their  power  for  growth  in 
this  hard  soil.  They  have 
had  but  little  trimming, 
and  have  grown  into  a 
great  natural  tangle,  as 
you  see  in  the  picture. 
The  ivy  has  covered  the 
entire  house  front,  while 
the  roses  have  climbed  to 
the  ridge  of  the  roof  and 
crept  for  10  feet  or  more 
around  the  sides.  In  late 
June,  when  the  roses  are 
at  their  best,  this  old  house  is  a  thing  of 
beauty,  and  the  hundreds  of  cars  that  go 
dashing  by  slacken  their  speed  a  little, 
and  the  wayfarers  go  on  with  a  pleasant 
memory  of  a  fine  old  relic  of  bygone 
days  with  its  sturdy  old  homeliness  re¬ 
lieved  by  a  beautiful  “necktie”  of  a 
modern  generation. 
Beauty  Spots. — No  use  talking,  It 
pays  to  let  the  young  people  try  their 
hands  at  a.  little  landscape  gardening. 
Many  a  child  conies  into  the  world  with 
a  love  of  beauty  and  color.  It  is  hard  for 
these  little  ones  to  be  held  down  to  the 
stern,  drab,  gray,  hard  lines  of  many  farm 
homes.  Let  them  try  their  hands  at 
inexpensive  shrubs — encourage  them  to 
train  vines  up  over  the  house,  or  over 
ugly  places,  or  to  plant  shrubs  so  that 
little  patches  of  color  will  show  all 
through  the  season.  “Can’t  afford  it,” 
says  one  of  my  farmer  friends.  What 
will  it  cost?  You  would  hardly  know  it 
had  cost  anything  by  the  time  it  is  done. 
“It.  will  make  the  children  soft !”  There 
you  are  wrong.  It  will  be  the  finest 
thing  on  earth  for  the  children  and  their 
mother.  It  will  make  them  happier, 
make  them  take  more  interest  in  the 
farm  and  the  home,  and  give  them  a 
higher  idea  of  citizenship.  For  what  is 
a  gain  in  citizenship  if  not  a  gain  in 
ideals  and  the;  power  to  put  beauty  and 
love  into  the  plain  common  things  of  life? 
Some  people  think  that  evidence  of  good 
citizenship  lies  only  in  discussing  large 
affairs  and  working  over  the  big  prob¬ 
The  Old  Stone  House  at  Hope  Farm,  with  Its  “Necktie.”  Fig.  431 
lead  to  that  broader  charity  and  true 
understanding  which  we  must  all  have 
before  we  can  “get  together”  to  right  our 
wrongs. 
In  heritance. — I  cannot  say  that  the 
old  timers  who  for  some  150  years  occu¬ 
pied  this  farm  left  us  very  much  of  ma¬ 
terial  value.  Some  three  miles  of  stone 
walls  represents  about  all  their  labor 
now  in  evidence  except  an  orchard  of 
old,  misshapen  trees,  of  useless  varieties. 
The  material  work  over  which  they  bent 
their  backs  and  blunted  their  fingers  has 
passed  on  into  oblivion.  Yet  somewhere 
along  the  way  there  were  children  of  this 
hard  race  who  came  into  the  world  with 
a  love  of  beauty  which  even  the  cm, 
dull  life  on  these  hills  could  not  destroy. 
One  of  them  dug  up  a  wild  grapevine 
and  planted  it  beside  the  old  stone  house. 
It  has  grown  until  it  spreads  out  over  its 
trellis  with  a  thick  shade  which  makes 
a  cool,  outside  room.  Then  others  planted 
honeysuckles,  cherry  trees,  lilacs  and 
roses  here  and  there  about  tbe  house.  I 
do  not.  know  who  did  it. — perhaps  some 
homesick  boy  or  girl  with  a  longing  for 
beauty  and  love  in  tbe  heart,  and  with 
no  other  way  to  give  expression  to  it. 
Whoever  did  it  I  know  that  their  work 
lives  and  is  remembered,  while  about  all 
that  the  Icing  line  of  farmers  has  left  us 
is  a  long  procession  of  useless  stone 
walls. 
The  Cherry-Tops. — Quite  a  number 
of  people  ask  for  a  picture  of  the 
Cherry-tops.  You  will  see  two  of  them 
wish  to  use  drone  excluders,  so  it  is  dif¬ 
ficult  to  say  whether  they  would  be  of 
practical  use  to  you  or  not.  Drone  ex¬ 
cluders  may  he  used  when  it  is  desired 
to  prevent  fertilization  of  queens  by  un¬ 
desirable  drones.  If  the  excluders  are 
placed  over  the  entrances  of  hives  whose 
A  Couple  of  Cherry-tops.  Fig.  432 
drones  are  not  desired  in  mating,  such 
drones  will,  of  course,  be  kept  within 
their  hives,  or  trapped.  Drone  excluders 
are  really  drone  includers,  as  they  trap 
drones  or  keep  them  within  the  hive  and 
thus  prevent  their  mating  with  virgin 
queens  in  the  air.  M.  B.  D. 
Spring-seeded  Crimson  Clover 
Early  in  May  I  had  a  plot  of  nearly 
five  acres  limed  and  planted  to  Crimson 
clover.  The  ground  had  been  well  cul¬ 
tivated  for  at  least  two  years  and  was 
in  good  condition.  Nevertheless  the  field 
is  overgrown  with  weeds,  although  there 
appears  to  be  plenty  of  clover  under  the 
weeds.  Have  you  any  advice  to  offer  as 
to  the  method  of  handling  this?  V.  X’. 
New  Jersey. 
It  gives  us  “strange  thoughts”  to  get 
such  a  question.  We  have  said  more 
than  50  times  that  Crimson  clover  should 
never  be  seeded  in  the  .Spring.  This  do¬ 
er  is  a  cool  weather  plant  aud  cannot 
endure  Summer  weather.  The  hot  sun 
and  July  weather  will  cause  it  to  make 
seed,  ripen  and  die — often  at  only  two  or 
three  inches  high.  This  seems  to  be 
what  your  clover  has  done.  The  only  way 
to  make  Crimson  clover  useful  is  to  seed 
it  in  late  Summer  or  early  Fall.  Then 
it  will  grow  through  the  cool  Fall  weath¬ 
er,  and  in  places  where  it  can  survive  the 
Winter,  it  will  make  a  heavy  growth 
to  plow  under  in  Spring. 
Clover  for  South  Jersey 
J.  B.  S.,  Cape  May  Co.,  N.  J.,  on  page 
5S0  wishes  to  know  how  to  bring  up  his 
sandy  land  to  a  state  of  fertility  so  he 
can  grow  crops  upon  it. 
When  a  boy  I  lived  for  five 
years  on  the  same  kind  of 
soil  common  to  a  large 
part  of  South  Jersey  at 
least  in  its  natural  state. 
Trucker-,  Jr.,  in  his  an¬ 
swer  to  the  above  admits 
that  the  man  who  buys 
this  land  at  $17  per  acre 
grows  and  plows  under 
two  or  three  crops  of  cow 
peas  and  rye,  aud  puts  on 
20  to  30  tons  of  stable 
manure,  along  with  lime 
and  fertilizer,  then  sells 
that  land  for  $100  per 
acre,  is  playing  a  "losing 
game.”  This  is  -correct, 
and  yet  many  South  Jer¬ 
sey  farmers  still  think 
that  is  the  only  way — yet 
if  J.  B.  S.  will  follow  my 
advice  he  will  bring  this 
land  up  for  $5  per  acre, 
and  raise  crops  from  the 
start.  Take  his  entire 
farm,  or  as  much  as  he 
can  afford,  clean  off  all  the 
brier  or  berry  hushes  or 
anything  else  that,  ob¬ 
structs  this  present  season, 
and  burn  it,  and  then  in 
the  mouth  of  November 
when  too  late  for  weeds  to 
sprout  before  freezing,  disk 
this  land  a  couple  of 
times  and  roll  twice,  so  as 
to  make  it  hard  as  pos¬ 
sible  (do  not  plow  it)  and 
between  Dec.  1  and  Jan.  1 
sow  broadcast  (one-half  each  way  so 
as  to  get  it  even)  25  pounds  of  un¬ 
shelled  white  Sweet  clover  seed  raised 
in  some  States  as  far  north  as  possible, 
so  it  will  be  hardy,  and  as  soon  as  the 
first  warm  days  of  Spring  arrive  it  will 
sprout  and  grow  rapidly.  About  Sept. 
1  he  will  cut  a  fine  crop  of  as  good  hay 
as  he  ever  saw,  and  his  stock  will  eat 
it  better  both  as  hay  or  pasture  than  any 
other,  and  they  will  all  keep  fat  on  it 
without  any  grain  whatever.  It  is  the 
only  legume  that  you  can  grow  on  that 
soil  in  its  natural  state  without  manure, 
fertilizer,  lime  or  inoculation.  The  sec¬ 
ond  year  lie  can  cut  it  three  or  four 
times,  but  always  leave  six-inch  stubbles 
except  the  last  time.  Then  in  the  Fall 
after  two  seasons  (it  only  lasts  two  sea¬ 
sons  same  as  Red  clover)  plow  it  up  and 
plant  corn  on  it  the  next  Spring,  or  any 
other  crop,  and  his  crop  will  surprise 
him  as  there  is  no  legume  that  will  fill 
iqi  sandy  soil  with  humus  and  give  it  a 
rich  dark  color  so  quickly  as  Sweet  clo¬ 
ver.  Then  the  third  year  after  corn  is 
gathered  disk  the  land  as  before,  and 
seed  it  again.  Good  unhulled  seed  free 
from  weeds  is  worth  20  cents  a  pound, 
costing  $5  per  acre,  but  when  you  consid¬ 
er  that  the  stubble  and  roots  plowed  un¬ 
der  are  equal  to  20  loads  of  stable  ma¬ 
nure  per  acre  it  makes  $5  per  acre  look 
small.  There  is  no  other  way  to  make 
your  $17  land  bring  $100  per  acre  in  four 
or  five  years  as  cheaply  as  by  using  Sweet 
clover.  A.  BLOOMING  DALE. 
at  Fig.  432,  That  is  about  the  way  they 
run  about  on  the  lawn,  do  their  little 
work  and  their  large  amount  of  play. 
Childhood,  as  I  regard  it,  is  a  time  for 
playing  the  part  of  a  little  human  animal, 
which  should  make  solid  growth  and 
muscle,  be  trained  to  obey  aud  to  do 
some  labor,  but  above  all  drink  deep  of 
the  happiness  of  care-free  and  joyful  life. 
That  is  what  the  C'hevry-tops  do.  The 
other  picture  shows  them  near  our  fire- 
alarm  apparatus.  This  system  is  used 
all  over  this  part  of  New  Jersey.  The 
“sounder”  is  a  railroad  rail  curved  as 
shown  and  hung  from  another  arched 
rail,  the  ends  of  which  are  set  in  the 
ground.  A  hammer  hangs  ready  and  in 
case  of  fire  in  our  section  someone  runs 
to  this  rail  and  strikes  with  the  ham¬ 
mer.  It  makes  a  sound  calculated  to  wake 
the  dead,  and  is  the  most  efficient  fire 
alarm  for  country  neighborhoods  I  have 
ever  seen.  It  will  of  course  be  used  in 
connection  with  the  telephone,  but  this 
noise  quickly  arouses  tbe  neighbors. 
H.  w.  c. 
Drone  Excluder  in  Hive 
Is  it  practical  to  use  drone  excluders 
on  my  beehives?  c.  H.  w. 
New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 
You  do  not  say  for  what  purpose  you 
lems  of  life.  That  is  wrong,  for  all  these 
big  things  are  only  the  unconscious 
growth  of  the  little  things  of  human  life. 
Give  me  the  power  to  put  running  hot 
A  New  Jersey  Fire  Alarm.  Fig.  430 
and  cold  water  with  proper  fixtures  in 
every  farmhouse,  roses  in  the  dooryard 
and  vines  and  flowers  on  every  house, 
and  I  will  quickly  settle  the  big  trouble 
and  problems,  because  these  things  will 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
