968 
lhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 3, 1922 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Last Spring I told how the class in 
horticulture at Columbia University came 
to Hope Farm one blustering March day 
and trimmed a block of young apple trees. 
They did iheir best, or their worst, in 
showing the young tree how' to shoot, and 
these trees ’ have certainly responded. 
Many of them, as a result of this educa¬ 
tional pruning, are giving their first crop 
this year. These trees are Wealthy, and 
possibly the variety habits have more to 
do with this early fruiting than the wealth 
of learning which these students brought. 
At any rate, the class came again on 
.fuly 22 to look things oyer D was not 
exactly the same group, for naturally the 
Summer classes change each year. There 
was a sculptor, various artists, musicians, 
literary people^—all interested in develop¬ 
ing an orchard. One would surely think 
that a sculptor would he an expert in 
shaping the head of a tree, and an artist 
or a musician surely ought to prune a 
tree to a harmonious top. At any rate, 
they were all fine folks, and. as the sequel 
proved, about the finest “sports” who over 
faced a deluge. 
* * * * * 
We spent some little time looking over 
such "novelties*’ as Hope Farm has to 
show. For example, there is our sawdust 
potato culture. We took a piece of weedy 
old sod hack of the house, put on a coat 
nf manure, and plowed it all under deeply. 
The surface was smoothed over, and po¬ 
tato seed pieces planted about •! in. deep 
and about IS in. each way. M.v neighbor 
has abandoned an old icehouse, leaving 
a great pile of rotten sawdust. We had 
access to this, and after the potatoes were 
planted we hauled enough of that saw¬ 
dust to cover the entire patch M to 4 in. 
deep. The potato plants came up through, 
lint very few weeds or grass .plants have 
made their appearance. While just out¬ 
side this patch the sod is like a weedy old 
pasture, only a few extra adventurous 
weeds have made their way up through 
the sawdust. The vines are big and 
strong, and the potatoes are forming 
under the mulch in great shape. Com¬ 
bined with this sawdust culture is a com¬ 
parison of potato seed. At one side are 
about 15 rows from seed taken right out 
of our cellar. At the other side is 
a patch from certified seed grown in 
Northern Vermont. A blind man could 
tell the difference. The certified seed is 
larger, greener and move vigorous. in 
every way. The contrast is just as strik¬ 
ing as t unt between a purebred, v Ml-fed 
cow and a common grade or scrub. Not 
tmlv arc the vines larger and stronger, 
but 1 am satisfied that more tubers are 
being formed lieluw ground, and that they 
are growing faster. 
*)t :Je # & Jfc 
Our visitors were much interested in 
what we call our Dixie patch. There are 
rows of peanuts, cotton and sweet pota¬ 
toes growing side by side, all vigorous and 
thriving. The peanuts and the sweet po¬ 
tatoes arc quite sure to get through, and 
give us some sort of crop. 1 !i• ‘ cotton is 
now about lx in. high—some of it two 
feet. Southern people who look at it 
sai it will make its (lower and may start 
a little lint. We shall see about that: 
but. of course. 1 am not advocating cot¬ 
ton as a crop for North Jersey. In Smith 
Jersey I think it could be made to pay 
if cotton ever again went to war prices. 
Another thing which greatly interested 
our friends was what I call our fodder 
experiment. Here T have Luce s Favorite 
corn, Sudan grass. Wilson Soy beans 
and Black-eye cow peas gfowin" side by 
side. 1 want to see what crop can be 
grnwoj in our young orchard and give us 
most fodder. On n fruit Uinti with lii&h- 
prio 1 land, it rarely pars to grow hay, 
yt»t there must be some fodder crops, and 
the place to grow them is betwen the rows 
,,f young trees. In this experiment the 
coni started off li’-st and jumped ahead ot 
the oihers. Then the Sudan grass began 
to gain. It is now level with the corn, 
and b\ September 15 will be several feet 
higher. 1 call it “great stuff.’' The Soy¬ 
beans and cow peas will not grow as high 
as the corn, yet they may make stronger 
f.md and thus be worth more. <>f the 
four, however, 1 would lake Sudan grass. 
* $ * * * 
We all went out into the young peach 
orchard, ami I told our friends they could 
practice heading as many trees as they 
liked. So 1 walked off and let them cut. 
They practiced on several trees planted 
uiis year, and on some with two years 
growth. First they lookc l at a bearing 
Tree, to get an idea of how the limbs 
should spread out. and then they under¬ 
took to trim so that Lite young head should 
grow into proper shape. It certainly re- 
11 pirCs a good eye to estimate distance and 
size on a shoot just starting out of a tree. 
That is why 1 should think an artist or 
a sculptor would make a great success in 
shaping a tree. In between two rows of 
v.miig peach trees we. have just planted 
ubnut !M)0 Marshals strawberry plants. 
They average about IN in. apart each way. 
The runners will he cut off, and, ot course, 
the ground will be kept dean. Before 
the peach trees conic Into bearing 1 am 
sure we can pick 2.quarts from this 
small patch. That seemed like a big story 
lo those ('ohimbia students, but il can be 
done. We spent some little time looking 
at a potato experiment at the lower farm. 
Here the land was plowed and fitted and 
marked •“» ft. each way. and furrowed one 
way. At each cross-section, or hill, we 
planted a good-sized potato piece, and 
covered it with a hoe. Then a good sized 
dose of chicken manure was dropped on 
top of each hill. I presume it would 
mean 2 to “> lbs. at each place. After a 
few days this manure was covered by 
running u small plow along the row; then 
it was mixed by running a harrow over 
the field. I should have used acid phos¬ 
phate with the manure, but we did not 
have any left when the potatoes were 
planted, and T just thought 1 would see 
what the manure would do. Well, it has 
made those vines jump up into the air. 
We straightened up several hills, and the 
vines reached above the waist. I never 
saw such vines before. The tubers arc 
forming ill large uumbers. but they are 
small yet, as would be expected. If we 
can have three weeks more of growth, 
there xvill he a big yield, but blight is due, 
and this is just th<> weather for it. It is 
as pretty a race as ever was staged on 
any track. Another thing about the po¬ 
tato crop is the fact that we have certi¬ 
fied seed from three different localities— 
side by side; New York. Vermont and 
Maine have all contributed. One thing I 
wanted to fiud out-—that, is whether 
chicken manure will increase scab. It is 
all of live years since potatoes were grown 
on this soil. The ‘‘certified” seed is, of 
course, guaranteed free from disease. I 
did not “treat” the seed, as the ground 
seemed free, and the seed ought to be. 
Yet. on one part of the field we find quite 
a little scab, while the crop on other parts 
is entirely free thus far. I can. under¬ 
stand that chicken manure might increase 
the scab germs, if any were present, but 
where did they come from in tin's case? 
* * * * * 
Our friends had their box luncheon out 
on the lawn. We just put l he coffee, dough 
nuts, etc., on a table and let them help 
themselves. It was a great, day for our 
children to help. < )iie man wanted to know 
how we managed to keep our little folks 
so well. 1 suppose our doctor’s bill would 
seem ridiculously small. The children 
have milk; that, is the foundation of child 
health. Then there is always plenty of 
fruit and vegetables, entire wheat bread 
and blitter, enough of sleep, not too much 
work and time for play. That takes care 
of the body, and an effort to do something 
worth while for other folks keeps the 
mind healthy. It was hot after lunch, 
and there was a grumble or two in the 
air, but we all started up the hill to see 
how those young trees were recovering 
from their pruning. The Furman peach 
trees were ablaze with their red fruit. 
We all stopped to eat a few. and it was 
a good opportunity for studying brown 
rot. for Carman usually shows that more 
than any other variety we have. Then 
there was this year’s planting nf straw¬ 
berries. They could hardly be better, 
and naturally we had to slop and learn 
how to put down or pot the layer plants. 
Then we all went on slowly over the hill, 
stopping now and then to look at some 
particularly interesting tree. There is a 
long walk through the woods before we 
eome to the orchard where these young 
trees were jiruued. and we were all so 
interested that we did uot notice how 
the sky was darkening overhead. As we 
came out of the woods we stepped right 
into what l believe is to he our best or¬ 
chard. There are McIntosh trees planted 
10 ft, each way. and '‘tillers” of Wealthy 
each 20 ft. The Wealthy trees this year 
are covered with fruit, and as a splinter 
of snn broke through for a moment they 
hung as red as blood. 
***** 
But even as we stood admiring them 
our Jersey weather turned a sudden and 
complete somersault. The light faded out 
and there came a sudden patter of rain. 
We all ran under a dump of big oak trees 
at the edge of the orchard, thinking it 
would soon he over. The thick foliage 
above ns spread out like an umbrella, and 
for a time we were safe, but suddenly and 
without warning something seemed to 
break in one of those big clouds over us. 
the bottom dropped out. and there came 
a Hood of water. Slowly it made its way 
through the oak leaves. First a drop, 
then two drops tied together, then a 
trickle, then a stream of water from a 
spout. It was a liot day. and most of 
us had dressed for a sweaty walk, and 
in live minutes we were all as wet as 
animated mop rags. The sculptor, the 
artist, the scientist and the poet were all 
on even terms in the plain democracy of 
a New Jersey ducking. There was one 
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