1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
339 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Spring Thoughts.— Sunday, April 29, 
was a beautiful day. It was one of those 
soft balmy days, full of smiles and sun¬ 
shine, that makes the northern farmer for¬ 
get the six rough months that lie behind 
him. The plum trees were in full bloom, 
and the cherries were starting. The crab 
apples were a mass of green, and the pears 
were budding out. Above the barn or¬ 
chard Hope Farm swept like a wave of 
green up to the brow of the hill, where 
the brown potato Held began. The lighter 
green of the sprouting oats and the 
darker green where the nitrate of soda 
had been put made a beautiful contrast. 
It was a lovely view, and I dreamed 
away half an hour looking at it. To stand 
by the barn and drink in all this beauty 
and feel that this sunshine was too bright 
even for the mortgage to throw a shadow 
on us, was inspiring—I can tell you. Hugh 
and Charlie, Grandmother and the Madame 
went to church behind Nellie. Aunt 
Jennie and the Cutting prepared dinner, 
and I wandered and talked with the little 
folks. Frank and Dan, Major, Peter and 
Mrs. Jersey and Blossom greatly enjoyed 
a sermon by Dr. Green Grass in the pas¬ 
ture. “Eat and be filled” seemed to be 
their text. 
Potato Planting.— We are getting our 
seed in faster this year than ever before. 
The weather has been suitable, and the 
work was pushed hard. There are a 
dozen good reasons why we should get 
the crop in early. When the work delays 
and dawdles corn planting and cultivating 
is sure to suiter. North of us corn is 
often planted before potatoes, but it al¬ 
ways pays us to reverse this order. We 
have used sulphur on all seed. It 
makes bad business on a windy day, for 
the sulphur gets into .he eyes and makes 
them smart. I feel sure it will help, how¬ 
ever, though I question whether it will be 
equal to soaking. Our large potato field 
is a long distance from the barn, up a 
steep hill which makes a hard climb for 
the horses. Every time I see them toiling 
up I drive a new nail in the determination 
to put all the manure on the lower part of 
the farm. Fertilizer is good enough for 
that hill. 
Studies In Sod.—I have done some¬ 
thing this year which may shock some of 
our good friends. We have one hillside 
where the sod was tough—even for the 
Jersey article. We plowed it last Fall 
and did our best to destroy it, but it was 
very much alive this Spring. Some things 
in life get worse the more you stir them— 
that sod was one of them. The plow and 
Cutaway just turned it up to the light. 
The best ambition of such sod is to “rise 
and seek the light," but that runs right 
against the desires of a man who wishes 
to raise a good crop of potatoes. After 
some thought I kicked one of my pet 
theories outdoors and decided not to 
Spring-plow that field. We harrowed it 
four times, twice with the Acme and 
twice with a light slanting-tooth harrow. 
This left the upper surface fine as an ash 
heap, but did not disturb the grass which 
had been turned over and pressed down. 
Then we took the Robbins potato planter, 
lifting up the front plow so that the seed 
was put right down into the rotting sod, 
without turning it up. We also lifted the 
covering discs, so that a light ridge was 
thrown over the seed without tearing the 
grass up. I reason that the seed pieces, 
right down in that sod—which has been 
pressed and packed by the Acme—will 
not suffer seriously from drought, and dig 
easily. But now then, some friend with 
a long memory will start up and say, “I 
thought you were the man who said the 
thing to do with sod is to kick it up to the 
surface and kill it!” I shall have to 
admit it. I said that before I actually 
had such a case to handle! As I live and 
learn I am led to conclude that a large 
share of the advice so freely offered has 
“ought to be” instead of “is” for its 
starting germ. After the way this Fall- 
plowing has turned out would I not pre¬ 
fer to have the sod freshly turned in the 
Spring? Why yes. I think the soil would 
be in better shape, but it would put us 
fearfully behind with our work to plow all 
the farm this Spring. 
Good Friends.— I never did have so 
much respect for the Robbins potato 
planter. We worked with it on a steep 
hillside among rocks and stones, and in 
tough old sod. It did its duty from plow 
to disc. It isn’t made to break. After 
this year’s test I know that it's no toy. 
. ... It is always well to have a few 
standard remedies in house and barn. 
The Hope Farmers are not heavy dosers, 
but now and then a linament or some sim¬ 
ple remedy for a pain or a cold comes in 
useful. Horses are liable to Injury. 
Wounds often annoy them and cut down 
their usefulness. Tuttle’s Elixir is a 
remedy that may well be in a farmer’s 
barn. It is soothing and healing. A 
friend of mine used it on a colt that had 
cut its leg, with fine results. ... We 
have begun to cut soiling crops for the 
humans. In the late afternoon you will 
often see Aunt Jennie and the little folks 
walking up the lane with basket or pan. 
They are kitchen scouts after water cress, 
which they pick from the little brook be¬ 
low the spring. A good saucer of water 
cress served with vinegar or salad dress¬ 
ing will put one in such an agreeable frame 
of mind that he will even call for a sec¬ 
ond or third slice of that tough ham of 
ours. The kitchen scouts dig dandelions 
also, so we have little need of “Spring 
medicine.” Putting sulphur on the po¬ 
tatoes gives us all enough of that ele¬ 
ment, I can tell you. . . . Some peo¬ 
ple handle a piece of potato seed as if it 
were some tender delicate thing that 
would die if you looked hard at it. Not 
so. A well-cut seed piece is tough. It’s 
the whole shop—a sprout with its nursing 
bottle fastened to it. It is surprising 
what a seed piece will stand with dig¬ 
nity. In some places the discs jumped 
a stone and left a piece right out in the 
sun. Does it die? Not a bit. The cut 
part dries up, but the sprout talks louder 
than ever. Run over with a weeder or 
cultivator a few days later and these or¬ 
phans may make the best plants in the 
field. 
Ground Feed.— The Madame has now 
seven pupils in her little school. She has 
her eye on a little stone school house 
some day—back by the spring. The Bud 
is proud enough at night when her record 
is 100. “We all got 100,” she said one 
night. “But how much did Mother get?” 
“Why, she got 105!” The little school has 
proved quite a success. We are very glad 
the children have started their educa¬ 
tion at home. . . . Charlie brought some 
roots of cassava back from Florida. He 
has planted it at the end of a row of 
asparagus. They tell great stories of 
what this root will do in Florida, but I 
doubt its value up here. We’ll try it 
though. A failure may have some fun and 
profit in it. ... A blind man could tell 
the difference between the oats where we 
used the nitrate of soda and where none 
has yet been used. No use talking, the 
nitrate is wonderful stuff to force growth 
of stem or leaf. ... I have a bag of 
dried blood which is said to be a good sub¬ 
stitute for meat in feeding poultry. The 
ducks like it, but I do not think the hens 
consider it equal to animal meal. A 
duck may take a prize for fat, but never 
for a display of the finer feelings. Billy 
Berkshire, Jr., and his gang vote unani¬ 
mously for the dried blood. A pint of it 
in a pail of swill will give the pigs many 
of the marks of blooded stock. Strange 
as it may seem, dried blood as pig feed 
will often do more for the pig than the 
blood he obtains from his parents. . . . 
The sweet corn started in pots has made 
an excellent growth. I am afraid the pots 
were too small, and that the root growth 
has been too much cramped. The mel¬ 
ons in the large pots look well. . . . 
We try to keep the work team moving at 
a fair pace every pleasant day. This team 
is really to the farm what the engine is 
to the factory. It mustn’t stand still. 
We can, if need be, hitch Major and 
Nellie as a second team ror light harrow¬ 
ing, and this greatly rushes the work. 
“Work, for the night is coming”—when we 
can only cut potatoes! That’s about the 
way we feel just now at Hope Farm. 
. . . . I am going to plant the Rural 
Thoroughbred flint corn. I do not know 
of any farmer near here who grows flint 
corn, but I have always liked this variety. 
It yields well and suckers, so that the 
fodder is very fine. h. w. c. 
Notes from Kansas. 
Thrashing Corn.— On page 292 you have 
an article on thrashing corn. Every one 
of your readers should send 10 cents in 
postage to Hon. F. D. Coburn, Topeka, 
Kan., and get his latest quarterly report 
of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture 
entitled “Forage and Fodder,” and learn 
all the up-to-date Kansans know about 
the subjects. There is an illustrated ar¬ 
ticle on handling and thrashing corn fod¬ 
der. This may prove of interest to many. 
Dishorning. —When calves are young, 
and the small buttons can be felt and 
are yet loose from the skull, cut them out 
with a knife, and the germ is removed, 
and there will be no horns. The calf 
will suck your finger while you do it. 
What Killed Lice.— On page 292 H. S. 
H. asks what killed the lice on his hogs. 
Cedar shavings are death to lice. Crude 
petroleum will destroy all lice and nits 
also without harming the hog. Put it on 
them, or on a cloth nailed to a rubbing 
post, or pour it in their wallow. 
“Moon Blindness.”— I have a valuable 
mare that goes entirely blind in one eye 
about every three months regularly, then 
recovers her sight perfectly. She has 
done this for three years. I have never 
treated her for it. I expect her to keep 
it up. When her eye recovers, no one 
can see anything the matter with it. 
When at its worst, it looks like a bad 
blood boil and really seems to be a boil 
in the eye, and is very painful. Had I 
used veterinary medicine on her eye, of 
course I should, like S. J. B., on page 293, 
have thought the medicine cured it. 
Kansas. c. Norton. 
JOTASH gives color , 
flavor and firmness to 
all fruits. No good fruit 
can be raised without 
Concord Grape Remembered. — A. 
group of notable people met recently in 
the cottage at Concord, Mass., where E. 
W. Bull lived, and where the Concord 
grape originated. Among the speeches 
was one by F. B. Sanborn, who said: 
Potash. 
Fertilizers containing at least 
8 to io% of Potash will give 
This invention, I day, exceeds in benefit 
to the human race that affair at the North 
bridge, when the embattled farmers scan¬ 
dalized the officers of his sacred majesty 
of England by firing their wretched mus¬ 
kets, our friend, the renowned occupant 
of this cottage, sent his volley of grape 
among mankind—soothing their palate, 
mitigating their ailments and cheering 
their depression. Instead of covering 
these hillsides with minute men, resisting 
the heaven-ordained government of ‘the 
better element’ (meaning the millionaires 
and their sons-in-law, the princes and 
dukes), Mr. Bull covered them with rows 
of the well-ordered Concorn vine. 
The Massachusetts people have erect¬ 
ed a monument in honor of the Baldwin 
apple. They also made Mr. Bull com¬ 
fortable in his old age. 
KENDALL’S 
SPAVIN 
...CURE 
the old reliable remedy for gpnvln*, Ringbones, 
Splint*, Curb*, etc., and all forma of Lamcne**. It 
works thousands of curea annually. Cures without a 
blemish, as it does not blister. 
Searsburg, Bennington Co. Vt., Jan. 26, 'OH. 
Gentlemen:—I have without a doubt used 100 bottles of your 
Spavin Cure In the past ten years on my horses with good success. I 
think it is the best liniment for lameness on the market. 
I have lost your kook, please send me one at once. 
Yours respectfully, W. L. PRATT. 
Such endorsements as the above are a guarantee of 
merit. Price, $1; six for $5. As a liniment for family 
use it has no equal. Ask your druggist for KEN DALE’S 
SPA VIN CURE, also “A Treatise on tho Horse,” 
the book free, or address 
OR. B. J. KENDALL CO.. EN0SBURG FALLS, VT. 
Newton’s Heave, Cough, 
Distemper and Indiges¬ 
tion Cure, Wind, Throat 
and Stomach Troubles. 
Send for dealers and 
users’ letters. $1 per can. 
Express allowed. 
Newton Horse Remedy Co., (Y.), Toledo, O. 
REPUTATION MAKER. 
here is no place where a i 
don Is more valued than in the milk or 
* butter dairy. Good milk and good 
butter make a good reputation,and 
increases demand accordingly. 
he Perfection 
COOLER AND AERATOR 
will make a reputation for you by making your milk 
perfect. Send for catalog of Farm and Dairy supplies. 
L. R. LEWIS, nanir.. Box 12. Cortland. N. Y. 
T TSEthe Champion Milk 
Cooler-Aerator, and 
have sweet, tine-flavored, 
long-keeping milk—Up- 
to-date machinery pays 
in dairying as in every¬ 
thing else. Get our book 
about the Champion. 
CHAMPION MILK 
COOLER CO., 
Milk Dealers’ Supplies, 
39 Railroad Street, 
Cortland, N. Y. 
best results on all fruits. Write 
for our pamphlets, which ought 
to be in every farmer’s library. 
They are sent free. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, 
93 Nas»au St., New York. 
Exhausted Land » 
The first element to become exhausted 
in laud is nitrogen. The application 
of 100 pounds of 
Nitrate of Soda 
per acre will supply this and produce 
astonishing results. It is the cheapest 
and most available source of nitrogen. 
More about it—use and results, iu our 
book, ‘‘Food for Plants;” mailed free. 
Write Joint A. Myers, 12-OJolin St., 
New York. Nitrate for sale by fertilizer 
dealers everywhere. 
Write at once for List of Deaio 
Catalog Free. Write now. 
SPECIAL PRICES Day** 
Guaranteed. Double 
and Combination Beam 
OSGOOD 10*Centriil8tl 
BINCHAMTON.N.Y. 
<( 
SWIMBATH” 
NON-POISONOUS 
Sheep Dipping Powder 
H (PATENTED) 
prevents and destroys fly, lice, ticks and 
all parasites, on sheep, cattle, horses and 
dogs. An Invaluable cure for scab. 
Easily prepared, easily used. Most eco¬ 
nomical. Perfect satisfaction guaranteed 
If used as directed. On receipt of*l 
suflicient powder for 20 gallons of “dip’* 
, will be delivered free. 
Write for full particulars. 
THETOBACCO WAREHOUSING AND TRADING CO. 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 
* Sf V 
DIP 
YOUR 
SHEEP 
COOPER 
DIP 
m 
25-gallon pkt., 50c.; 100-gallon pkt., $2. 
If druggist cannot supply send $1.75 for 100-gallon 
pkt. to J. D. MERCER, 68 Murray St., New York. 
Premiums to Patrons. Get Pamphlet. 
SHEEP-SHEARING REVOLUTIONIZED. 
Chicago Sheep-Shearing Machine. 
Stewart’s Patent. 
Price, $15.00. 
The only Sheep Shearing 
Machine ever invented. 
The day of the old-fash¬ 
ioned hand shears is past 
Over one million sheep 
shorn last season with this 
machine. Thousands of 
testimonials. Saves from 
one-half to one pound wool 
from each sheep. Pays for 
itself the tlrst season. Be 
humane and don’t butcher 
your sheep. Send for large 
Illustrated circular. 
CHICAGO FLEXIBLE 
SHAFT CO., 
158-60 Huron St., Chicago. 
