1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
22 7 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Florida Potatoes.— Uncle Ed and Char¬ 
lie have had a hard fight for their potato 
crop. They are in Putnam County, Fla. 
As I understand it, most of the soil in that 
county is not well adapted to potato grow¬ 
ing. They struck a fairly good piece. 
They had to fence it with barbed wire to 
keep out the hogs. They had no horse, 
but finally they hired an old mule. Charlie 
writes that our old Major was a star be¬ 
side this mule. They must have harnessed 
him chiefly with ropes and strings. They 
had a plow, a hoe and an Acme harrow. 
The Acme is, on that light soil, about the 
best general-purpose tool on the market. 
They made their furrows with the plow, 
and then dropped the fertilizer by hand. 
Then Charlie took a log and drove spikes in 
it, harnessed himself to it and pulled it up 
and down the row. The potatoes were 
planted about four inches deep. Charlie 
writes that he never did have so much 
respect for the covering disks that run be¬ 
hind our potato planter as he did while 
covering those potatoes with a hoe. 
The Southern Crop.— After many tribu¬ 
lations the crop was planted. The weather 
turned raw and cold—quite unlike the aver¬ 
age Florida Winter. The potatoes were 
so long coming up that Uncle Ed got quite 
annoyed over It, but at last they slowly 
crawled through and now look well. The 
variety is June Eating. They were dug in 
early September and kept in the barn until 
early in December, when they were shipped 
by rail and boat to Florida. They stood 
around until the first week in February. 
That is hard treatment for seed potatoes, 
yet Uncle Ed says that there was scarcely 
a peck of rotten seed in six barrels. We- 
hope to try a good experiment with this 
variety. The boys will let a part of this 
crop ripen. This will be shipped north to 
Hope Farm, and we will plant it—probably 
in May. We hope to send part of this cj • 
back to Florida next Winter, and thus work 
back and forth with two crops per year. 1 
think a second crop of this character will 
be better than a second crop grown in the 
latitude which produced the first one. We 
shall see! 
Winter Lingers.— Just as Winter was 
putting his overcoat in the clothes chest, 
old Brother Blizzard caught him with his 
Spring suit on. On March la the wind and 
snow fairly danced a jig in our country. 
Right on their heels came old Zero 
Weather. He wasn’t quite at his best, but 
close to it. The trees were covered with 
a coating of shining ice. Long icicles hung 
from the porch. A hard crust that would 
almost hold a man formed over the glaring 
snow. It was hard on the first horses that 
went through. With every step they 
smashed through the crust, and in pulling 
out the hoof they were almost sure to cut 
the ankle on the sharp edge. On some 
roads there were bloody tracks which 
showed how the poor horses had been cut. 
The Hope Farm folks were comfortable, 
but this storm puts our work far behind. 
However, what’s the use of growling? 
There’s many a pound of nitrogen In that 
snow. Can we warm up over that cold 
comfort? Well, now, we can try it. After 
all, this snow will find its way into the soil. 
With seed, manure and care, we’ll get it 
out again. That’s farming after all. 
Indirect Earners.— In digging out some 
good-sized apple trees last year I was 
struck, as never before, with the vast 
growth below ground. With some varieties, 
notably Northern Spy in an open soil, this 
root growth is startling. I am well satis¬ 
fied that some of the trees we cut down had 
made more wood below ground than they 
had above! Cut the tree off at the ground 
and weigh it. Then separate out all the 
roots and weigh them. The underground 
part will weigh more. A farmer might 
growl and say that here was a mistake of 
Nature—all this plant food and time re¬ 
quired to produce the part of the tree which 
brings in least returns. If the tree, in¬ 
stead of making all these roots, would only 
make fruit! That’s the sort of a man 
who would go into the house and say that 
the women folks are not fair partners on 
the farm, because their kitchen work 
doesn’t earn a cent, and only represents 
expense and outgo. 
The Mouth Part.— That is a fair com¬ 
parison. That great growth below ground 
is not useless. That’s where the food and 
water must pass into the tree. Nature 
made no mistake in organizing the tree’s 
commissary department on liberal lines. 
It’s just so with kitchen work. Food, fuel 
and good kitchen tools are the roots of the 
family. Some men think it’s their own 
strong moral character and force of ex¬ 
ample that hold the home together! Sup¬ 
pose I announced that at 12 o’clock on a cer¬ 
tain day I would give a lecture in the barn 
on dairying and poultry culture! At the 
same time the Madame and Aunt Jennie 
make it known that they will serve the 
offerings of cow and hens hot from the 
range. How much of an audience do you 
think I would have? If they were well 
haltered, or they couldn’t get away, I 
might have Frank, Dan and Major. Pos¬ 
sibly Uncle Ed, out of the goodness of his 
heart, would come out to try to induce me 
to join the rest at the table! You wouldn’t 
get any larger audience yourself. Yes, sir, 
the commissary department is what saves 
trees, armies and homes, and it should have 
first family consideration. 
Hay and Hogs.— Brent insisted the other 
day that our pigs are eating hay. Sure 
enough they were chewing hay and stalks 
like a sheep or calf. There are many east¬ 
ern farmers who do not realize that a hog 
is a grazing animal. They keep him in a 
box or sty and carry all his food to him. 
In Kansas they fatten or winter pigs on 
Alfalfa hay with little else. That is good 
practice. When 1 get that Alfalfa field 
out of my mind and into the face of Hope 
Farm I want to winter pigs in the yard, 
with open racks around the sides, where 
the Alfalfa can be kept before them. With 
the boiled small potatoes and nubbins of 
corn this will make a cheap ration. People 
say it does not pay to winter Fall pigs. 
The result is that few attempt it, and when 
Spring comes there is a scarcity of small 
hogs. A limited number will bring a fair 
price. 
Hogs and Humus.— It is passing strange 
the way our pigs have pulled over the ma¬ 
nure piles. They burrow down into it like 
woodchucks. On the cold blizzard days not 
a pig would be seen. The pile showed an 
unbroken surface of snow. Rattle an ear 
of corn, however, or call the pigs, and the 
whole top of the pile seemed to fly up in 
the air. Billy Berkshire, Jr., and his 
friends display sense that would be worth 
dollars to humans in making themselves 
comfortable. Hogs and humus go well to¬ 
gether. Whether it is in the barnyard or 
growing in the field, my friend the hog will 
grind it up, and make it ready for the next 
crop. I can tell you, 1 have great respect 
for my friend the hog. He doesn’t know 
his place, however, but you can keep him 
placed better than you can some of his 
human brothers. 
A New Horse.— In our battle for Hope 
Farm we have been not unlike the British 
army in South Africa. Frank and Dan 
have provided the artillery, but Major has- 
represented the cavalry and that doesn’t 
mean great mobility—as the papers say. 
We haven’t been able to “get there” as we 
would like. I have always felt that a 
farmer ought to be able to get out now and 
then. It is a mistake to be tied too closely 
to the farm. Home seems all the better 
for a brief visit. I have wanted a horse 
with more speed and wind than Major will 
ever have, and a little more style than 
Frank can shuffle out. I don’t pretend to 
have much style myself, but I like to see a 
horse hold his head up. So Nellie Bly, our 
new horse, is something of a step along 
these lines. Ah! you say! The old gentle¬ 
man will soon drive Hope Farm off the 
map with his trotter! It isn’t as bad as 
that. Nellie Is the best traveler I have 
owned, but that isn’t saying much. She 
will take us to church in an orderly man¬ 
ner and on the way home will get us in 
time for dinner if she has to pass a few 
other rigs. She will have to do her share 
on the plow and cultivator, for we hope to 
push things this Summer. She can “get 
around” pretty well, and will permit us to 
take several little trips that have not been 
possible before. h. w. c. 
The American Farmer says that the per¬ 
son who frequently goes on a tear is sel¬ 
dom able to pay the rent. 
Farm, Furnace and Factory says that 
a Texas man recently sold his pepper crop, 
consisting of 100 barrels, to a pickle factory 
at Pittsburg, Pa., for $15 per barrel. 
MONEY MAKER 
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‘‘Modern Dairy Feeding,” Bent postpaid on request. 
Scientllic advice on feeding —FBKK. Sciksoe Dkpt., 
THE AMERICAN CEREAL CO. 
1339 Monadnoek Bldg., Chicago, Ill. 
Success Weeder 
and Surface Cultivator 
The opinion of farmers who have tested it: 
“The field trial came off on Wednesday 
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field In which we had the trial. I told them 
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Anti-clog” weeder. I did not hear of any¬ 
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E. I). RUMSEY, Batavia, N. Y. 
Surface cultivation will average 50 per cent, better returns than 
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FANNING 
WEEDER 
as the cut shows, is a weeder attachment for all 
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Edgar Fanning Weeder Co., 
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Good work done quickly will 
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growing where slow 
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the 
mean 
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When yon make a wheel hoe of 
No. 4 Iron Ace combination 
tool you remove the seed drill attach¬ 
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hoe, double or single wheel. All the other 
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