1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
4o7 
Hope Farm Notes 
The Drought.— They tell us we have 
had more rain in our section than in any 
other place within 100 miles. If that is so 
1 am very sorry for others. We are cer¬ 
tainly drier than dust, except where we 
have a thick mulch on the ground. On 
some of the lower fields there is a little 
moisture down three inches or so under 
the dust, but this seems to do little good, 
for the best feeding roots of the young 
plant are up close to the surface. The 
soil on the hills is baked hard. We have 
tried to plow the corn ground at the back 
end of the farm, but had tc give It up and 
wait for a soaking rain. This soil is baked 
dry. and is also full of roots and briers so 
that the plow sticks and jumps—pounding 
and bruising the horses’ shoulders. We will 
let that go until we get a good rain, and 
then plow and fit it as rapidly as possible. 
If we had plowed that field about the mid¬ 
dle of April we would have had it in better 
shape .... The worst thing about 
this drought is that it holds up the onion 
transplanting. The plants are ready and 
the ground is fit, except that the upper 
three inches are dry as brick-dust. It 
would be folly to stick those onion plants 
into the dry dust. They are still in the 
hotbed waiting for rain.The 
strawberries need rain, but will make a 
fair crop any way—especially those on the 
lower fields. I notice that the wild straw¬ 
berries on the hills are dried up. To my 
surprise, the wild plants wJiich 1 have 
brought into cultivation give way to the 
drought, while the cultivated plants keep 
on. 1 expected to see my wild plants when 
given good food and care respond and 
make use of their “native strength,” but 
with the same care and soil both Marshall 
and President sail right past them. I 
think our cultivated varieties would al.so 
beat the wildings on the hill where they 
are now burning up. I regret to say that 
my theory concerning the great vigor of 
wild plants doesn’t pan out under the 
roasting May is giving us. 1 imagine that 
many of what I call wild plants are lun- 
aways—that is descendants of the culti¬ 
vated patches which 50 years ago were 
found on our hills. lad’t without c.are or 
guidance they have gone backward lost 
much of their power to produce root, run¬ 
ner and fruit. I have heard of well 
trained shepherd dogs that were brought to 
Patagonia to herd sheep. When kept with 
man and well handled they did well. Fin¬ 
ally some of them were abandoned and 
left to run wild. After three or four gene¬ 
rations of this wildness they forget their 
training and were worse than wolves in 
attacking the sheep. Tliey lacked the 
direction which shepherds gave them, and 
in the great hustle for existence went back 
to nature. Idan was given dominion over 
the force of nature in order that he might 
hold the wild things up to the demands of 
(ivilissation. That is one reason why a 
fanner should try to obtain well-bred 
plants and animals, and keep on breeding 
them up. People scmetimes think that the 
little bits of care and handling do not count 
—that they have little to do with the great 
tilings. George Eliot knew better than this, 
for she wrote in “Romola” that “we pre¬ 
pare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reit¬ 
erated choice of good or evil that gradually 
determines character.” ... In order to 
make this drought harder than ever to bear 
clouds form in the west neariy every day, 
and print a regular advertisement of rain 
ali over the sky. It fools us day after day, 
for all of a sudden the sun pops through 
the clouds and the wind starts up to biow 
a little more moisture out of the ground. 
Yet, in spite of all these drawbacks, there 
never was a better season for killing weeds 
and old sod! 
A Pew “Ifs.”—I don’t like to indulge in 
“ifs,” yet sometimes they are useful. I 
think of three good ones this Spring. If 1 
had spent $50 for lime and fertilizer last 
year when we sowed that Alfalfa the 
chances now are that we would cut a fair 
crop of Alfalfa hay this year. 
You have no Alfalfa then? 
I don’t believe there are 15 plants on over 
three acres. The little plants I referred to 
prove to be a dwarf clover. I wanted to 
see if the crop would grow on our 
hills without help. I now know that it wiil 
not. This information would have cost less 
if I had taken the advice of people who 
knew—but we are not likely to make the 
same mistake again! Alfalfa is not like 
the cow pea—it must be fed and cared for, 
and we will remember that when we try it 
again this year. ... If I had known two 
years ago what 1 now know aboi.t the 
Stringfellow plan of starting trees we 
would pick many high-priced peaches this 
year. As it is we shall have some fruit 
from those trees, but we might have had 
more. I set little June-budded trees and 
tried to kill them to see whether the sys¬ 
tem would stand hard treatment. I fed 
the trees practically nothing the first year, 
and gave them little care. They are now 
small but very thrifty. Last year and this 
I bought larger trees, pruned them to whip 
and stub, and planted in small holes, but 
not with a crowbar. We fed them fair 
doses of fertilizer, hoed around them and 
gave them a mulch. If I had used larger 
trees the first year, and handled them as 
we are now doing, our crop would be sure. 
. . . If I had piped the water down from 
the spring so that it could be soaking down 
through the strawberry patches during 
this fearful drought, we could more than 
double our crop, while everything around 
us is burning up. These “ifs” are costly. I 
presume I could name several if need be. 
I have often noticed that some of our 
agricultural writers take their “ifs” at dead 
of night and bury them in the back yard! 
The children were playing the other night 
when the little Scion made a run for the 
house. Investigation proved that she 
“didn’t want to be it.” Every other child 
had been “it,” but when her turn came, she 
ran from “its” responsibilities. Of course, 
she was sent back to face her duty, but 1 
had to think of the grown-up children w.ho 
refuse to be “it” and try to dodge the “ifs” 
which others can plainly see chasing them 
about. 
All Sorts.— Our russet apples lasted till 
May 16. Now we will see how many days 
must pass before Red Astrachans are 
ready. I said that we shall spray and care 
for the early apples, as frost has had a nip 
at the crop elsewhere. From what 1 now 
learn the damage from frost was nowhere 
near as bad as first reported. There is 
likely to be a fair crop. All the more rea¬ 
son why the apples should be well cared 
for. . . . This is a good season for show¬ 
ing the value of a mulch on the soil. The 
little boys are growing potatoes under a 
mulch of straw and manure. They wjK 
ask you to hold your hand on the soil un¬ 
der their mulch and then to put it on the 
soil where constant hoeing and cultivation 
has been going on. You would be astonish¬ 
ed at the difference in moisture and heat. 
When we came to hoe the strawberries 
early in May the boys found in many places 
a big plant of rye growing near a straw¬ 
berry plant. As an experiment they pulled 
up the rye, shook the roots clean and laid 
the straw around the plant on the ground. 
Then they watched these mulched plants 
with a few that were left with the rye still 
growing.. The difference was wonderful, 
and the little fellows will not forget the 
change that occurs when we stop one plant 
from sucking the water away from an¬ 
other and make it hold the water in the 
soil. Would that all suckers could be made 
holders. . . . This dry, hot weather has 
had the usual effect on the Crimson clover 
and rye—driving them abou't 10 days ahead. 
W’ith us the Crimson is usually at its best 
on Decoration Day. This year it showed 
the best color by May IS. The rye ran to 
head earlier than usual and quickly got too 
hard for good hay. Still w,e are cutting 
most of it, and shall feed it, for this 
drought is worse than a mowing machine 
on the grass. . . . 'The “Bird” is at work 
wheezing and pulling like a sawmill. She 
is full of life and willing, but when a horse 
puts on pants as she does it is only a ques¬ 
tion of time before she will fall back into 
the breeching. I asked Dr. Hatch, The R. 
N.-Y.’s veterinarian, about her, and this is 
what he says: 
“I am somewhat surprised to think that 
you would get ‘soaked’ with a roarer. It Is 
sometimes called whistling; jockeys call it 
thick wind, but they all are bad enougli. 
Roaring is caused by an obstruction to the 
free passage of the air in some parts ol 
the respiratory tract. Nasal polypi, thick¬ 
ening of the membrane, deformed bones, 
paralysis of the wing of the nostril, are 
occasional causes. Many other causes maj- 
occasion temporary, intermitting or perma¬ 
nent noisy respiration, but after all other 
causes are enumerated it will be found 
that nine out of ten cases of roaring are 
caused by paralysis of the muscles of the 
larynx, and the muscles of the left side are 
generally affected. In a normal condition 
the muscles dilate the aperture of the 
larynx by moving outward the cartilage 
and vocal cord, allowing a sufficient vol¬ 
ume of air to rush through. But when the 
muscles are paralyzed the cartilage and 
vocal cord that are normally controlled by 
the affected muscles remain stationary; 
therefore when the air rushes in it meets 
this obstruction and the noise is produced. 
The treatment is very unsatisfactory, but 
try the following: Nux vomica, one-half 
dram, iodide of potassium, one dram; give 
this dose twice a day for two weeks. Feed 
sparingly of hay; wet all hay fed. Give 
slow work on the farm, and if she gets so 
bad that she cannot even do farm work 
have tracheotomy performed on her. 'ITierc 
is an operation on the thyroid muscles that 
is successful, and this operation should 
only be in the hands of an expert.” 
We were certainly “soaked ” to satura¬ 
tion. The “Bird” does farm work quite 
well. A skilled throat surgeon tells me 
that her trouble is much like a severe case 
of asthma in the human. Operations are 
rarely successful. H. w. c. 
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