1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
551 
Hooe Farm Notes 
Hay Notes.— With a barn stuffed full of 
hay and only one small load out in the 
rain the boys began to figure what was re¬ 
sponsible for the crop. There is far more 
fun in hunting the reasons for a success 
than in facing the evidences of failure. 
were all agreed on one thing—the fertilizer 
that was put on in April is largely respon¬ 
sible for this year’s crop. The strips that 
were left unfertilized show that clearly. 11 
is also a sure thing that the fertilizer 
helped us because it was soluble and acted 
at once. Suppose we had had some tough 
old tankage or some other cheap source of 
nitrogen i-n that fertilizer! All through 
May and early June it lay on the ground— 
too dry to be of any use to the grass. 
When the rains finally came the grass was 
pretty well made, and only a few growing 
days were left for it. Our fertilizer took 
hold at once, and how the grass did jump! 
The difference between its work and that 
of some cheap “phosphate” was as clear 
and unmistakable as the work of our new 
mower compared with the shuffle and halt 
of the old one.There is also 
nearly as marked a difference between the 
grass on the Clark seeded fields and thos-- 
seeded with wheat and rye. In a way it 
is hard for me to admit this, since last 
year I thought the extra work of the Clark 
seeding did not pay. As the field matures 
I find that it carries a thicker and better 
stand of grass, and has fewer weeds. I 
have one small field on the lower farm 
seeded on the Clark method (or as near to 
it as we could get) that I will match 
against anything in the county when T 
can get a couple of drains through it. At 
present it is too wet for best results, but 
the way the hay bunched up on that field 
made even the “Bird” laugh without a 
wheeze. The trouble with Clark’s method 
for our section is that the work ought to 
be done just at the time when men and 
horses are driven to their full limit in 
picking and hauling early crops to market. 
Take a farmer with only one foreign hired 
man and a single team. He has early ap¬ 
ples. IJma beans, potatoes and tomatoes 
to i)ick and haul, and a dozen other things 
to attend to. How is it possible for him to 
work a piece of ground 40 times before 
seeding? 
But if hay brings such prices as you tell 
.about, wily would it not pay better to put 
the entire farm in hay and give up the 
other crops? 
In some cases I think it would. It would 
pay us to do so had we not started in the 
fruit business. Many farmers, however, 
are not prepared to change. They know 
how to raise the other crops, and it is a 
serious matter for a man who has followed 
one line of farming all his life suddenly to 
whip around and plunge into a new busi¬ 
ness. Another thing is that hay farming 
with us requires considerable capital. A 
single mower and a hand fork will answer 
where grass occupies only a part of the 
farm. Increase the amount of grass and 
you will need another mower, a horse fork, 
an extra rake and probably a hay loader 
and possibly a hay press. It will also cost 
quite a little money to increase the area 
in grass. During the past 30 years the 
tendency has been on many of our hill 
farms to abandon the back fields. Farm¬ 
ing was changing rapidly, and while new 
conditions were being adjusted farmers felt 
that the old crops on the old fields would 
not pay. So they have been given up, and 
brush and weeds and little trees have come 
in. It will cost considerable money to fit 
them for grass. If we had the level, 
well-tilled fields which I often find on 
farms back in the interior we could easily 
seed them down and make them net an 
average income of $50 an acre with little 
labor. 
How could that be done? 
By seeding them carefully on the Clark 
method, using fertilizer heavily and cut¬ 
ting hay. A cheaper way would be to 
fence the fields securely and take horses 
to board. These horses run in a well- 
watered pasture, eat a little grain and 
bring in $10 to $12 per month. Instead of 
baling and shipping our hay to middlemen 
we can feed it to these horse boarders or 
sell it to farmers who keep them. Of 
course, where a farmer keeps horse board¬ 
ers the manure question does not bother 
him. If he has a piece of wood land he 
can rake up dried leaves for bedding and 
these, with the hay and feed, will make an 
abundance of manure to go back on the 
grass. 
Can a farmer really keep up such 
nieadows year after year by using fertil¬ 
izers alone? 
Yes. I answer that without hesitation, 
but he must get a first-class seeding in the 
first place, and use fertilizers heavily. It 
n^ay not be the best or the cheapest way 
to keep up meadows, but it can be done. 
I become more and more convinced that 
with such crops as grass and fruit only 
the most soluble forms of fertilizer should 
be used, and that the nitrogen may well 
be put on in two or more applications. 
For grass I would put on the pota.sh and 
phosphoric acid at one time—the Spring— 
and part of the nitrogen with it. 1 would 
put the rest of the nitrogen on as soon as 
the first cutting is off. For orchard fruit 
I would put phosphoric acid and potash 
on in July and nitrate of soda at three 
different times. Some of my neighbors 
cut hay very late—this year in August. I 
like to cut early and force a second crop. 
In former years we have burned off the 
meadows early in Spring. This year we 
let quite a heavy growth of dead grass 
remain. I notice that where it was 
heaviest we had the best yield. Charlie 
claims that this dead growth had some¬ 
thing to do with this year’s big crop, and 
I think he is right for two reasons. Last 
Fall that old grass shaded the soil, and 
aided the formation of soluble nitrogen. 
It also added humus or vegetable matter. 
This Spring it acted as a mulch, and 
checked evaporation during May when the 
grass most needed it. I must say that a 
mulch shows itself on my farm far more 
clearly than cultivation. For some reason 
the Red-top in our grass seeding has made 
a far better showing than the Timothy. 
Our best meadows were about as red as a 
field of Crimson clover at harve.-t. Red- 
top makes fine hay to feed, but Timothy 
is better to sell. 
Fruit Notes. —There is no lack of early 
apples; Astrachan, Tetofsky and Yellow 
Transparent, with others following. Any 
one of these is to be preferred to the long 
keepers. Two varieties of early pears were 
ready for cooking by July 4—but who 
wants a cooked pear of low quality when 
apples are ripe? Who wants a low-quality 
pear anyway? Our apricot trees are alive 
with fruit this year for the first time, and 
the Japan plums began to ripen by July 
18. I see no reason why Jersey men should 
should ever grow the apricot. It tastes 
too much like sawdust and wax to suit 
me, though, like the Kieffer pear, it makes 
fair preserve. Some fruits are like men 
in the fact that we never know what they 
are made of until we get them into hot 
water.Each year makes me a 
greater admirer of the Columbian rasp¬ 
berry. If I were limited to one variety for 
home use I would pick this one. It makes 
a tremendous bush, and a few plants in a 
back yard well cared for will keep a small 
family in fruit. With us it has a long 
season of fruiting—longer than any other 
bush fruit I know of. I often smile when 
people see this raspberry for the first time. 
The dirty, musty color looks like mold on 
the berries, and I have seen people pass 
the fruit aside thinking it was spoiled. 
Get such people to taste this “spoiled” 
fruit, however, and their appetite is 
spoiled for other berries. As I see this 
strange performance go on time after time, 
I am forced to reflect how many worthy 
things of life we reject because their out¬ 
ward appearance belies the popular stand¬ 
ard of what ought to be right. This old 
world would be not far from right if we 
could make people get down into things 
before judging them! .... The trees 
planted this year are faiily climbing the 
air now. The plant lice which were eat¬ 
ing the new wood all through June have 
quit, and now the trees are shaking them¬ 
selves as I have never known them to do 
in July. Of 200 apple trees planted last 
Fall on the Stringfellow method 201 are 
now alive. One has sent up an extra stem. 
Farm Notes.— The cow peas are lagging. 
The man who judges the value of cow, peas 
by what they do in this cold, damp weather 
will put them down as loafers. I have 
never seen a worse July for cow peas. 
They dawdle along and are as shy of put¬ 
ting out their third leaf as a boy is to pull 
off his clothes for an ice-cold bath. Let 
them alone, though. Once let the hot 
weather really come, and how they will 
jump! Don’t measure their possibilities 
by their cool weather work! .... We 
grieved a little over the failure of the Al¬ 
falfa, but Nature heals most wounds. A 
crop of volunteer Red clover sprang up all 
over the field, and gave us a fair cutting 
in June. Now it is booming again, and 
looks good for three cuttings in all. Where 
this clover came from is a problem too 
deep for me.Our first ripe toma¬ 
to was found July 18—an Early Ruby. This 
will give us nearly 90 days of tomatoes, 
and by pulling the last vines before a 
heavy frost we can keep up the supply for 
20 days more. If one is prepared to take 
advantage of it a hot, dry May will force 
many crops to an early maturity. 
The cow peas have been so slow to start 
that the Timothy seed put in with them 
has had a ^ood chance. I believe now that 
1 shall have a fair catch of grass, but it 
will not be safe to say that this method 
of seeding can be recommended. 
We are raising both White and Brown 
lA'ghorns this Summer, and I am much 
interested in seeing them develop side by 
side. A young Brown rooster appears to 
be about 75 per cent comb and tail feath¬ 
ers. The only thing to compare him with 
is one of these smart young fellows who 
strut about and try to convey the idea 
that at 20 they have the wisdom and ex¬ 
perience that one must live 45 years to 
acquire. The Browns have the advantage, 
for their mission was packed away in the 
egg with them while the young human 
sprout must go and dig his out! 
Child Notes.—I have spoken of the little 
school which the Madame wants to start. 
It is not going yet as she wants it, but we 
have a couple of boarders to start with. 
Before the Madame took these girls she 
wanted several things well understood. 
Those who come here are not only expect¬ 
ed to obey but do so. Some people send 
their children away for others to care for 
and refuse to send full authority with 
them. Nothing could be worse for the 
child than this divided authority. None of 
that for Hope Farm! Little folks who 
come here behave themselves, and the 
Madame sets the standard of behavior! 
They eat what we have on the table or go 
without, and each has some little duty to 
be held responsible for. Their mothers 
are asked to keep their fine clothes at 
home. Our own children run about bare¬ 
footed, and are perfectly happy in doing 
so. A child should be taught to be neat 
about its clothes, but the whole spirit of 
Hope Farm is opposed to the “fine feath¬ 
ers” theory. I have seen all I care to of 
mothers toiling and denying themselves in 
order that their little daughters may prink 
and shine! Youth is the time for de¬ 
veloping lung and heart and limb. I do not 
care for the polish that has only another 
polish under it. Overalls and apron make 
a far better fowidation for character than 
lace and milliner’s goods. 
But do you not want your daughter to 
have small hands and feet and an abun¬ 
dance of nice clothes? 
She promises to be a larger woman than 
her mother, and I see no reason why her 
feet and hands should be smaller! If my 
little girl takes hold of her share of the 
world’s burden, as I hope she will, the size 
of her feet will not count. As for dresses, 
L see no reason why she should be i 
dressed than her mother, and I could tell 
some strange stories of what that lady ha 
when she went to college! h. w. c. 
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Farm Fruit. —There is a good deal of 
hapliazard about the fruit business on 
Cherry Mount Farm. There is a small 
block of Marlboro (red) raspberries on 
the place, planted now less than 10 years 
ago. Four years ago it fruited a little In 
the Fall; the next year there was even 
more Fall fruit, and last year it was a 
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bushes are bearing well this year. The 
Anjou is the greatest bearer of any pear 
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When these pears are shipped I put them 
into eight-pound baskets. They are rather 
perishable and are used more for dessert 
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