1903 
439 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Hope Farm Notes 
Breaking the Drought.— It cannot be 
said that our drought has sustained a 
compound .fracture, but It got a wrench 
at least. Day after day the clouds gath¬ 
ered In the west and the wind blew down 
the valley until we felt that it must rain. 
Still it didn’t or wouldn’t, and the ground 
got drier and drier. We were so used to 
the clouds that even when they were 
blackest we felt as people did when the 
boy kept calling Wolf! Wolf!! There 
came a morning when the sky frowned as 
usual. The Madame was to drive two 
friends to the station, and started in an 
open carriage. When I mildly stated that 
it looked “like rain” she sniffed at the 
idea, but did finally take an umbrella. I 
started for the hill but half way up the 
lane a big raindrop hit me fairly on the 
nose. Another and another came, and 
then a drench that chased me into the hog- 
house for shelter. Oh, how it did rain! 
Every living thing on the farm fairly 
sprouted for joy at that glorious down¬ 
pour. 
“How do you like that?” said Charlie. 
“It’s fine, but if I might be permitted to 
do so I would make two gentle criticisms— 
it is coming too fast to do the most good, 
and the Madame is out in it!” 
“Don’t say a word,” said Charlie, “or 
it may stop!” 
And sure enough it did drizzle off until 
the Madame came dashing into the yard 
with reins in one hand and umbrella in 
the other. Old Major shook his head at 
her driving. It would be more truthful 
than polite for me to say that the Madame 
was as wet as a hen, but she hadn’t a bit 
of fault to find except that the rain stopped 
as she got home and the sun actually 
popped through the clouds. This shower, 
with two others of about 15 minutes each, 
are all we have had, but we are thankful 
for them.This water gave new 
life to the strawberries. The first berries 
were too far along to grow as large as 
they should, but they turned red and 
softened and the smaller ones grew into 
good fruit. The wild plants suddenly re¬ 
vived and made full size, but the fiavor is 
very poor. It is true of strawberries and 
men that they make a sudden spurt to 
size, but true character is only gained 
through slow and steady effort. 
'I'he showers revived the grass somewhat, 
but we still need a long, steady rain to 
mature the crop. The Red clover is going 
to seed 10 days earlier and one foot shorter 
than it ought to. The Timothy is very 
short, and unless we have a soaker it will 
not give half a crop.When that 
shower came our corn land was not even 
plowed. The drench soaked a few Inches 
in one field that I hoped to use for late cab¬ 
bage. but all plans as well as all signs 
fail in a dry time. The country is usually 
full of cabbage when other crops are de¬ 
layed beyond their regular season. So I 
quickly decided to put corn in that field. 
Charlie went at it with the “Bird” and 
Prank, but it was impossible to keep the 
walking plow in the soil. So he tinkered 
up the sulky plow. The “Bird” puffed and 
wheezed, but the plow stuck in the ground 
and ripped that soil over—after a fashion. 
It was tough plowing, but it is tougher to 
have no corn planted by the first of June. 
The Acme crushed and fined the lumps, 
and as soon as the marker started, all 
hands went at dropping corn. Before the 
afternoon of Decoration Day was over the 
corn was planted. That was as lively a 
job as we have tackled in some time, and 
it was a satisfaction on Sunday afternoon 
to think that at least part of our seed corn 
is where it will do the most good. Hope 
Farm wants to get into the seed business 
a little. We have a yellow eight-rowed 
flint which has been selected for many 
years, and which I firmly believe is the 
heaviest grain yielder ever tried in our 
section. I am going to “breed” this corn 
if It possible to do so.The Crim¬ 
son clover proved a blessing this year. 
When everything else but rye stood still 
this clover jumped IS inches high. We cut 
and cured it into fair hay, which the cattle 
and hogs enjoy. This clover seed was 
scattered on top of the ground last Au¬ 
gust in the corn and was not even culti¬ 
vated in. Of course this would not suc¬ 
ceed except in a very wet season like last 
year. 
Rye and Trees.— I now see that I made 
a great mistake in planting young apple 
trees in growing rye. These trees were 
planted last Fall in a cornfield. I seeded 
to rye after the corn was cut in order to 
have a crop to mulch the trees with. I 
did not realize how rapidly rye grows in 
the Spring, and how it sucks the soil of 
moisture. Part of the trees were on 
a stretch of soil where the rock comes 
close to the surface. During the fearful 
drought this soil baked hard and the rye 
sucked what little moisture the winds left 
in it. First I knew the young leaves of 
the trees began to curl and turn brown. 
As soon as possible we cut the rye and 
banked a good share of it around the trees. 
This will save most of them, but they will 
be stunted and hurt at best. Mr. Van 
Deman recently came to the farm and 
picked out those trees as an example of 
how not to do it. Yet, if we had had our 
ordinary season there would have been 
plenty of moisture for both rye and trees. 
My aim was all right; but drought got 
in the way. I have had a lesson, however, 
and that is never to plant trees in a rye 
field. Rye has a thirst like an old toper, 
and has no respect for the rights of others. 
Burning Up Monet —None of the Hope 
Farmers has ever felt that they have 
“money to burn,” but Charlie had the fact 
forced upon him in a forcible way re¬ 
cently. He was plowing a field near the 
house. It seems to be a place where, years 
ago, some misguided student of the agri¬ 
cultural papers took the advice to plow 
under stones. The plan is to plow a deep 
furrow, rake the stones into it, and turn 
the next furrow upon them. That is a 
good way to get the stones out of sight, 
but what a legacy you leave for the next 
plowman! Charlie and the “Bird” will 
swear that they hit 10,000 of those stones— 
some of them several times! Finally the 
plow point hit one sleepy head that didn’t 
want to be disturbed. He kicked like a 
mule. His kick ran down the plow handle 
like an electric charge, and landed on 
Charlie’s ribs. His vest pocket was the 
conductor. There were matches in it, and 
the force of the blow ignited them, and 
the vest was on fire before Charlie could 
divest himself of it. After the flame was 
stamped out Charlie remembered that he 
had some money in his pocket. The bills 
were singed, but will pass yet. 1 have 
heard of tin pans setting fire to a house 
by focussing the rays of the sun, but this 
is the first time I ever knew of a plow 
handle striking fire from a man’s rib. 
.... The other afternoon the con¬ 
stable came to Hope Farm. He was after 
jurymen. There was a case to be settled 
before our local justice, and so this man 
came drafting soldiers to defend the honor 
of Jersey Justice. He took Charlie and 
Hugh, and would have taken Philip ex¬ 
cept that Hope Farm needed a few defend¬ 
ers as well as “Justice.” He called a 
plumber down from a farmhouse roof and 
made him foreman of the jury. Our boys 
listened wisely to the case and decided in 
favor of the plaintiff. He had the case, 
while the other man had to be satisfied 
with their sympathy. It was a trouble 
between land owner and tenant. I put 
this statement under the heading of this 
note because one surely burns up good 
money when he goes to law in New Jersey. 
Child Notes.— I should be sorry to give 
the impression that we have a quartette 
of little angels at Hope Farm, for you 
may rest assured that there are few wings 
in evidence yet. Just before one of our 
little showers I had the children working 
with me in the garden. When the water 
really showed that it was wet the little 
folks ran to the barn, and in less than a 
mfnute were skipping rope on the barn 
floor. After the rain stopped I let them 
play a little longer. Chancing to glance 
up from my work I saw the two little boys 
going at each other like Sullivan and Cor¬ 
bett. Such jparring and dodging made the 
barn look like a prize ring. I refereed that 
fight in short order. It was a draw., for 
I drew them back to their work in lively 
style. They wanted to tell what it was 
all about, but I would not listen then, for 
1 can’t think of any reason that would 
justify anyone on Hope Farm in fighting 
or striking another member of the family. 
If people want to fight they must fight 
weeds or some other enemy of good farm¬ 
ing, and those little boys learned that fact 
thoroughly before their work was done. 
I am aware that all boys have more or less 
desire to fight, but I did not know where 
these little fellows learned how until they 
told me they saw two men fight in the city' 
Those men certainl.v must have been ex¬ 
perts if our boys gave a fair imitation of 
their antics! .... Fighting is not so 
bad as the trick some boys have of getting 
out behind the barn to smoke cigarettes 
or dried grapevine! That business is too 
small for any boy to get into. I don’t 
think our boys will try that, because they 
have agreed that they will not smoke or 
drink until I do.Last season the 
Graft sold milk and vegetables on com¬ 
mission. He made out his last bill for $2.87. 
It appears that the Scion helped him, and 
was entitled to a share. They had no 
definite agreement, but finally decided 
without any help that the little boy should 
have 87 cents. When asked why he offered 
just '37 cents the Graft said: “So I could 
have just $2.50 left.” 1 wish I could settle 
some of my debts on that basis. I know 
just what I would like to keep if the 
other man would be satisfied with the 
balance. It Is unfortunate that while boys 
may desire to fight with their fists over 
things that would not start a man. men 
will fight with a dollar where boys would 
easily agree. H. w. c. 
DON’T WORRY 
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Mrs. Gustave Melcher, of Oak Ridge, had 
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