1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
359 
Hope Farm Notes 
TOE Weateer.— Tt was in March, I think, 
that I thought vve would have an early 
Spring. I thought of this the last Sunday 
night in April. I had found a light over¬ 
coat very comfortable while walking 
through the young orchards, and as night 
came on I built a wood fire and sat before 
it eating russet apples. That's enough like 
Winter to carry one back to January, yet, 
outdoors, instead of being full of snow the 
air was alive with cherry blooms and 
fragrant with a thousand perfumes. Surely 
this is the most remarkable Spring i have 
ever known; yet, in spite’ of the cold and 
rain there has been little damage to the 
fruit—except the earliest strawberries. The 
promise of a fair crop of peaches and 
pears and a big crop of apples has crawled 
through the frosts and now paints the trees 
all over the farm. We are very late in 
planting potatoes, and the onion ground is 
not yet fully fitted, but we are up with 
the season at least. 
The New Horse.— Frank and Nellie did 
the first plowing, but the work was evi¬ 
dently too hard for the mare. She never 
tlinched or hung back, but she never was 
built for that sort of work. There is much 
hard pulling ahead this Summer and a 
larger horse is needed. A man who ought 
to know all about horses told me to watch 
the advertisements in the New YorK 
papers, and finally I saw one offering 
horses because a trucking lease had ex¬ 
pired. I don’t pretend to know much 
about a horse, so I had Hugh and Charlie 
come in to help pick one out. After much 
talk and discussion they found a big gray 
mare. The collar had galled her shoulders, 
and she had other marks which pro¬ 
claimed her no shirk or lazybones. Her 
feet were good and she trotted off well. 
The stableman declared she is seven years 
old—that is what he said about every 
horse in his stable—but Charlie read 11 
years on her teeth. We made an offer for 
the mare, and after much debate and call¬ 
ing us back, the owner declared that he 
was ruined, but that we could have her. 
It was right there that 1 thought he over¬ 
did his part, and I had a gleam of sus¬ 
picion, but the boys could find nothing 
serious the matter with the mare and we 
bought her. Hugh mounted her and rode 
her home. Ali up Broadway and across 
the river he was congratulating himself 
upon the great bargain—but when she be¬ 
gan to climb the Jersey hills his ear first 
caught a quick breath and then the regular 
“wheeze” of a thick-winded horse. It is 
not a case of “heaves,” but what is known 
as “thick wind.” All Charlie and Hugh 
have to say now is: 
“She must have been doctored for fair!” 
The Bud wisely remarks: "Why don’t 
you keep on doctoring her, then?” 
“The Bird,” as 1 intend to call her, will 
do her share at the plow, harrow or wagon, 
but all visions of her flying over the road 
before a light carriage have been rudely 
dispelled. We shall treat her well, and I 
believe we can help the trouble before Fall. 
How much did you pay for her? 
Now, isn’t it enough for us to admit that 
we got the worst of the trade without 
making us tell huw mucht 
Apple Notes. —Last year I tried some ex¬ 
periments to see if Baldwin apple trees 
can be made to bear a fair crop each year. 
With us, the Baldwin is one of the worst 
varieties to do a big job one year and then 
demand a vacation. Several young trees 
winch had borne lialf a dozen crops had 
started this habit wliich, 1 think, is partly 
due to a wrong feeding of the tree. We 
waited until the latter part of July and 
then used a fertilizer rich in phosphoric 
acid. This is the time when fruit buds 
sliould begin to form. If the tree was fed 
early in the season and a large growtn of 
wood is being made the tree can hardly be 
expected to do more than mature a good 
crop of fruit. If the fertilizer is put on 
just when the fruit buds are due the tree 
is stimulated to make its crop of fruit, and 
also to start the buds for next year. This 
is the theory and it has w.orked out with 
me. The trees which were fed in this way 
are putting out a light bloom again this 
Spring, 1 think if one will thin the fruit 
quite severely in the bearing year and use 
fertilizer high in phosphoric acid in July 
or August he will “change the habit.” I 
am speaking of young trees. 1 doubt the 
possibility of doing this with old trees. 
They, as well as old men, are hard to 
change.Out of 200 apple trees 
planted on the Stringfellow system last Fall 
HO are well leaved out. The one was run 
over by the wagon while putting on ma¬ 
nure. These trees were cut back both root 
and top, planted in small holes—which re¬ 
quired barely three blows with a spade— 
and the soil was stamped hard around the 
roots. We have planted nearly 1,000 tree.s 
fins Spring, all in the same way. 
Un May l we still had very fair Baldwin 
apples and good russets in the cellar. Five 
years ago they would have sold at good 
figures, but now the coUl storage fruit is 
so much more plump and fresh that cellar 
f-ruit has a poor chance. 
Farm Notes. —Our first peas were plant¬ 
ed April 17. We use Alaska this year for 
earliest planting. The seed of Nott’s Ex¬ 
celsior is high and scarce. This is late for 
the first sowing, but we should have gained 
nothing by pianting earlier. Some neigh¬ 
bors had peas up when the freeze came. 
What is the use of putting peas up for 
Jack Frost to knock them? .... April 
thus far has been a succession of heavy 
rainstorms followed by high winds. The 
rain may be bad for the plowing, but what 
a wonderful thing this thorough soaKing 
is for the little peach trees! The wind 
blows so that it is next to impossible to 
broadcast the fertilizer, but it is just what 
the cherry trees need to insure a full set¬ 
ting of fruit! .... The first run of 
the incubator gave 93 chicks out of 145 
fertile eggs. We are trying two forms of 
brooders. One has bottom heat, with the 
lamp under the hover, so that the chicks 
gather around a circular guard. The other 
has the lamp in front so that the heat is 
supposed to drop down upon the chicks. 
On the whole I think the latter arrange¬ 
ment is better because more naturai, but I 
should be afraid of it in very cold weather. 
. . . . I have a good many letters from 
people who want to know how the Alfalfa 
is looking. On one field where I had rea¬ 
son to expect most from it there is nothing 
to be seen that even looks like it. On an¬ 
other field the ground is quite well covered 
with a plant that looks to me like a dwarf 
clover. I do not yet know the young Al¬ 
falfa plant well enough to make sure 
whether this is the real stuff or not. I 
hope it is, and a short time now will de¬ 
cide it. I supposed the Alfalfa would be 
far in advance of Red clover in its early 
Spring growth, but this stuff is behind the 
Red. From what I read I am more thaii 
ever satisfied that Alfalfa needs good 
ground with a fair amount of either stable 
manure or lime to start it.Some 
recent writers on strawberry growing laid 
much stress on the cost and trouble of 
fighting chickweed. I read that with rather 
a jaunty spirit, but since then I have been 
fighting chickweed myself. 1 know better 
now. It gives me an extra wrinkle to 
realize that chickweed is roosting all over 
the farm, but there is nothing to do but to 
get a firmer grip on the hoe and go at it. 
H. w. o. 
No Favors. 
Impartial Time bestows none in 
passing on vehicles. Each is 
judged by its fitness and the ser¬ 
vice rendered. It is through more 
than half a century’s duty that 
Studebaker 
Vehicles and Harness 
have acquired the good opinion of all 
users. The verdict is that they are staid, 
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Ma-ke ak.nd Ma.teriaLl. You are entitled 
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Studebaker local dealer. Catalogue and 
particulars sent direct on request. 
Studebegker Bros. Mfg. Co., 
SOUTH BEND. IND. 
UBBER-TIRE TOP BUGGY Jg. 7 Q 
R !___ 
With Top Shafts and A. 
everythlnc complete for ■ ' 
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JfBOM OUR FACTORY 
Ut—Ton ure Deslsn Prelt. 
Sd—Yon (etemtOB-msdcwsrlu 
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4th—SslUbetloB and uf« dellT- 
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ded and we pay freight chargee, 
hngglec $21.60; Bnnabonte $28; Fheatoni $46.60; Harness $4.26. 
Don’t bny • Rls nntU yon see our fhU line of 
CUSTOM-MADE VEHICLES. 
Write today for Money Saving Catalogue. 
U.S. BUGGY & CART CO.. B 227 CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
THE BREAK DOWN 
is usually in the wheel. They receive the strain and 
wear. They dry out. spokes and feloes rot, tires 
come loose. Get the service out of wheels you do 
out of gears by using 
Electric Metal Wheels. 
You have a wagon for a life 
time. Electrics are the staunch¬ 
est, tightest, easiest running 
wheels made. Straight or stag¬ 
gered oval steel spokes, cast in 
the hub.hot riveted in tire. Broad 
tires, no rutting, light draft, any 
height, fit any wagon. 
Write for free illustrated cata¬ 
logue on Electric Wheels and 
Handy Wagons. 
ELECTRIC WHEEL CO., 
Box 88, Quincy, Ills, 
WHY! 
We can sett our 
Split 
Hickory 
SPErCIAL 
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and at the extremely low price of 
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if you keep it. is because we are large manufactnr- 
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OHIO CARRIAGE MFC. CO., 
Station 39, * * Cincinnati, Ohio. 
20-Toii “Goshen” 
Low Wagon 
Wheels. 
Cannot be overloaded. Staml up 
under any kind of hard usage. 
Tires never need resetting. Not 
afi'ectcd by weather, hot or cold, 
wet or dry. No spokes to get 
loose or gather mud. Save half 
the lifting. Fit any style ofskein 
or steel axle. Very durable and 
••sy running. Writeforpricelist 
ftod instructloca for ordering. boBt thing 
you over bought. ManufActured by » 
Tho HIckox, Mull A Hill Co., 
li$4Superior St., Toledo, O. 
HVORAULIC 
: EINCalNE: 
is without question the engine for the farm 
or country residence. Pumps more water 
than any ram and does it without attention. 
Never stops. It pumps w 
ft. high for every foot of fall. 
Sold on 30 Days* Trial* 
Send for free catalogue. 
POWER SPECIALTY CO,, 
126Llb9rtySt., Hew Tork. 
CHARTER 
Gasoline Engine. 
For Grinding, Shelling, Fodder Cutting, 
Threshing, Pumping, Sawing, etc. 
STATIONARIES, PORTABLES, SAWING 
AND PUMPING OUTFITS. ETC. 
Send for Illust’d Catalog & Testimonials. 
State Your Powoa Ifeeda. 
CHARTER GAS ENGINE CO., Box 26 STERLING, ILL. 
The Mletz & Weiss 
Ssrogene Ssgliies. Sizta, 1 to 60 B F. 
OhenpMt Kud Safest Pow«r Knows 
for pumping and oleetrlo lighting, 
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•awing wood and all power 
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for oatalogue. - 
A. MIBTZ, 138 Horn 8v,» Raw Toax 
FAIRBANKS 
(jasoline 
They are the best and most economical power 
for all farm work—pump water, saw wood, 
run separator, ensilage cutter, feed mill or any 
farm machinery. “Fairbanks Junior” is de- 
signed especially for farm work—gives two 
applications of power: vertical with walking 
beam, and belt power with pulley attached. 
Write for free booklet, “FARM HELPS,” which 
gives full information regarding Fairbanks 
Gasoline Engines and Farm Scales. 
THE FAIRBANKS COMPANY, 
416-423 Broome St., New York, N. Y. 
Baltimore, Md. Buffalo, N.T. PhIladelphia,Pa. Boston, Mass. 
New Orleans, La. Albany, N.Y. Pittsburg, Pa. Montreal,P.Q. 
WATER. 
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Our Catalogue “C 4“ will tell you all about them. Write to nearest store. 
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239 Franklin St.. Boston. Teulente-Key 71, Havana, Cuba. 40 N.7th St., Philadelphia. 
22 Pitt St., Sydney, N. 8. W. 
30 YEARS SEUINa DIRECT 
We are the largest manufacturs of vehicles and bar 
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WE HAVE NO AGENTS. 
but ship anywhere for examination, guaranteeing safe 
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Large Catalogue FREE —Send for it 
Visitors are always welroms at our factory- 
EtKHlRT CARRUG8 A BARNKSS HFG. Co., RLKHART, DID. 
No.796Driving Wagon. Prlce$37. Asgoodaaaella 
for $95 mori.. Extra Rin. Kelly Rubber Tire $13. 
manufacturing high-grade YEHICLKS and HARNESS entitle us to 
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where on 30 DAYS* FKEeE, TRIAL. 
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AA lllf- lHI- 
\ 1 9% •Mil 
DOIM*T BUY GASOUIYE EIYGIIYES “TH E^^MASTER^WoIIkMAN,’* 
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