1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
5i5 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Potted Sweet Corn. —We had our 
first mess of sweet corn on July 9. 
Nearly 50 ears were required to satisfy 
our family. This was the corn which 
was started in pots April 6. We filled 
little strawberry pots with rich soil, 
planted two seeds in each, and sunk 
them in the soil of a hotbed. They were 
kept well watered, and grew rapidly. 
They were set out in the garden May 16. 
This was later than we intended, hut 
the season was cold and backward. I 
feared that this experiment would prove 
a failure, because the corn was so large 
when transplanted that it seemed as 
though the roots must be cramped and 
dwarfed in those little pots. The corn 
stood still for 10 days—poor and yellow 
—and our folks had a good chance to 
poke some fun at my experiment. The 
more you poke fun at some things the 
more business you stir up in them. All 
at once that corn jumped up and started, 
and finally gave a good crop. It was the 
Sheffield, a variety originated by Dr. 
Van Fleet. It is larger and better than 
Cory, and pinches the husk closely and 
firmly around the end of the cob. Cory 
hustles so fast to get in ahead that it 
seems to forget to close up the husk, and 
this lets in the Corn worm, which is 
worse in this variety than in any other 
I know. 
Garden Notes. —We let one row of 
Nott’s Excelsior peas go to seed, so as 
to use for late planting. We enjoy peas 
at all times, no matter what other vege¬ 
tables are to be had. Since the first 
picking on June 10, there has been but 
one period of three days when we could 
not have peas.Just now we 
are potting strawberries for September 
planting. I have told how we had no 
strawberries on the farm this Spring. I 
bought small lots of choice varieties. 
They have grown well, and now we are 
prepared to pot and plant some of the 
best. I like the looks of Rough Rider. 
It is a very vigorous grower. The few 
fruits matured on our plants were excel¬ 
lent. I still think highly of Gladstone, 
though it is not so early as I thought. . 
. . . Our first table potatoes were dug 
June 15. They were Early Michigan. 
The seed was sent me last Winter by a 
good friend in Canada. They were a 
long time on the way, and when they 
got here they seemed frozen solid. I 
thought that they had been thrown 
away, but this Spring a few of them 
turned up, and we planted them, with 
little faith. It’s hard, I can tell you, to 
kill off these Canadians. They have too 
much frost in their blood. 
Farm Politics. —I haven’t time to be 
much of a politician. The month of July 
reminds me of the afternoon of a busy 
day with dozens of jobs which will not 
keep after sundown. The Hope Farm 
voters know how they are to vote, and 
I judge that t^ree parties will be repre' 
seated at the polls. We don’t talk poli¬ 
tics much, but now and then some neigh¬ 
bor rolls a wave in upon us. I hear of a 
farmer who wanted a hired man, and 
about the first qualification was that he 
must be a Republican. I should hire a 
man for ins brain and muscle, and not 
for his political opinions. I know of a 
boy who went to Sunday school and lis¬ 
tened to a lesson about Judas. The 
teacher rightly pictured Judas as about 
the sum of all villainy. When she came 
to this boy she asked who Judas was. 
“I reckon Judas must have been a Demo¬ 
crat!” was the answer. Probably that 
boy merely reflected the talk and opin¬ 
ion of his home. It strikes me that such 
bitterness is all wrong. You can’t make 
me believe that the working people of 
this land have not ideas and needs in 
common, if we can only get together 
fairly and honestly. We farmers on the 
Jersey hills want to know why the crops 
we raise this year are, with one excep¬ 
tion, lower than for four years past, 
while the articles we have to buy are 
with few exceptions higher. The pur¬ 
chasing power of a bushel of potatoes 
has been nearly cut in two. Hope Farm 
would like to know why? If we can get 
the answer without any politics in it, 
so much the better. 
The Potato Crop. —The prospect is 
excellent for yield but prices are dis¬ 
couraging. There is no sense in trying 
to dig for the early market this year, 
and I shall wait and put the time into 
other crops.This year we are 
growing three early varieties, Junior 
Pride, June Eating, and Bovee. The 
Junior Pride is ahead in ripening. It is 
not a heavy yielder with us, but the 
tubers are nearly all large. It is a round 
or chunky potato of good quality, and 
would, I should think, be very useful for 
southern growers. We still regard June 
Eating as the best early potato for our 
use. It is a vigorous grower, healthy 
and strong, and, I think, the heaviest 
yielder of all early varieties. 
For late varieties we have Rural Blush, 
Carman No. 3, Sir Walter Raleigh, and 
Orphan. For our own trade we have 
found nothing better than Rural Blush, 
although few growers care for it. . . 
. . We are doing our best with those 
Florida potatoes that were planted July 
7, but I fear it’s much like raising a calf 
that has made up its mind to die. The 
ground has been worked with the weeder 
carefully. We have done our part. New 
Jersey has done her best to welcome 
Florida.Most of the potato 
ground is baked too hard to suit me. 
The boys still think we should go in 
with a small plow and hill up more, so 
as to throw dirt over the rows. I’m 
going to try it on a few rows, anyway. 
No use talking, you can’t lay down any 
cast-iron rules for farming.in 
spite of all we hoped to do, a part of the 
potato iiela was not hoed properly. The 
tall weeds jumped up above the vines, 
and put a patch on the eye of the patch. 
No use pulling up these big fellows by 
the roots. That would do the potatoes 
more harm than good. With a sickle or 
sharp knife they were cut off close to 
the ground. This sickle cultivation is 
pretty poor farming, I know, hut it was 
better than rooting out these big weeus. 
All Sorts.— We have put nitrate of 
soda on the meadows, and a timely rain 
has washed it in. The meadows aie 
greening up, and I hope for a good sec¬ 
ond cutting.The oat stubble 
was plowed and planted to a variety of 
crops—fonder corn, sorghum, Kaffir 
corn, Soy beans and rutabagas. We used 
up the seed we had left from the former 
planting. Rye will follow, and next year 
potatoes, after which we hope to get this 
field seeded to Alfalfa. In the apple or¬ 
chard near the house we hope to sow 
Orchard grass and Alsike clover. . . . 
I have told how we sowed cow peas and 
pumpkins in two fields at the back of 
the farm. Both crops are now vigorous 
and thriving. We put fertilizer around 
the pumpkin plants and both crops now 
promise to run out and fully occupy the 
unplowed ground.The Velvet 
beans grow slowly. I think our season 
is too short for them. The crop of pea¬ 
nuts is making progress, but I don’t ex¬ 
pect to get rich out of the nuts. I guess 
most farmers have decided that they 
won’t get rich this year anyway. . . . 
The pigs stuffed on apples the other day 
until I feared that they would get as 
badly ' corned” as old Jersey did two 
years ago. Her condition was a sad dis¬ 
grace to a cold-water man. I fed the 
pigs cornmeal at once. I think this a 
pretty sure cure for drunken quadru¬ 
peds.’i here is one thing I am 
going to have next year, and that’s a 
good supply of ice. An icehouse is in 
order, and we must have it. H. w. c. 
A commercial paper is authority for the 
statement that the United States uses on 
an average $1,000,000 worth of tropical pro¬ 
ductions. 
It is said that 2,000,000 railroad ties were 
shipped from Duluth, Minn., during the 
past year. This trade has distributed 
$800,000 among the farmers, contractors and 
teamsters. 
An American Abroad. —The Span¬ 
iards may not think highly of the aver¬ 
age American, but their neighbors, the 
Portuguese, have a very high opinion of 
one American, namely, Mr. Novius car- 
dinalis. This insect was brought to 
California, and practically saved the 
orange industry of that State by de¬ 
stroying the White or Fluted scales, 
which were playing havoc with the 
orange trees. The same scale appeared 
in Portugal, and this country was ap¬ 
pealed to for help in saving the trees. 
Accordingly, specimens of Novius car¬ 
dinal^ were shipped to Portugal, being 
carried all the way from California. Of 
the first shipment, only five reached Por¬ 
tugal alive. The next shipment was 44 
days on the trip, and only one male and 
five females survived. From this stock, 
however, vast numbers were propagated, 
and now, in a year from the first ship¬ 
ment, millions of these insects are being 
distributed daily to farmers and garden¬ 
ers. Wherever they go, they do their 
work, killing off the scale insects and 
thus saving the trees. This idea of 
sending an insect from one country to 
another will, probably, be new to many 
of our readers, and yet, in this case, it 
seems remarkably successful, and has 
proved of great benefit to Portugal. We 
are sorry that we cannot send insects to 
Spain that will eat the scales off the 
eyes of the Spaniards, and make them 
see themselves as others see them. 
Mr. D. Bell, of Rockland Co., N. Y., says 
that he still has samples of the Springdale 
apple which were kept in an ordinary cel¬ 
lar. The apples have, of course, lost much 
of their flavor, but still hold up firm and 
solid. The Monmouth Pippin keeps nearly 
as well. 
Corn doing well; oats are heavy. Grass 
is good; rather catching weather for curing 
it. Wheat is a failure in some places; then 
it is very good . Much of it was plowed 
this Spring. Fruit of all kinds about half 
a crop. Apple trees badly infested with 
tent-caterpillars. G. a. s. 
Hubbardston, Mich. 
Tomatoes on Stakes.— I have cultivated 
tomatoes the past four years by training 
and tying them to poles six to eight feet 
from the ground. They are certainly great¬ 
ly improved in color and flavor and, I 
judge, in quantity. Our neighbors are en¬ 
thusiastic in their praise, and the plants 
are sought by persons of different towns 
and cities. Possibly they are all the more 
thought of as I charge nothing for them. 
I recommend this kind of cultivation for 
single family use. t. allen. 
Massachusetts. 
To Peach Growers.— The importance of 
the peach industry, and the evident need 
of a catalogue with full uescription of the 
varieties grown in America, leads me to ask 
the cooperation of peach growers in a sys¬ 
tematic study of the subject. Samples con¬ 
taining three or four specimens of each va¬ 
riety of ripe fruit, together with a twig 
and a few leaves, are necessary in order 
to carry on the work. Such samples will 
be greatly appreciated if sent to the under¬ 
signed. They should be accompanied by a 
concise history and description of the tree 
from which they were taken, and a report 
of the success or failure of each variety in 
the locality for the last few years. 
H. C. IRISH. 
Mo. Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo. 
Hay and Fodder.— There has not been 
any hay cut in this section until July 1, and 
the crop around here is very light indeed. 
One man tells of cutting a piece which 
usually cut six or seven loads, and getting 
only about three-fourths of a load; but I 
think that was exceptionally poor. I do 
not think that there will be over two- 
thirds, and perhaps not more than one- 
half as much hay as there was last year. 
We have had good showers the past week, 
which will help some pieces, especially the 
newly seeded, but the rain has come too 
late to do much good to the hay crop in 
general. I don’t know that there is much 
more corn planted than usual right around 
here on the hills, but on the rivers and 
along the creeks there is probably a good 
deal more sown. Corn has been rather 
backward, but has grown well lately; in 
fact, we have not had any good corn 
weather until the past week, when it has 
been hot enough for anything. Some farm¬ 
ers sow millet, but the large majority of 
them sow or plant corn, which, in my 
opinion, is the staple fodder crop to use in 
place of hay. Oats are looking well, but I 
hardly think that there will be as large a 
crop of straw as there was last year, as 
they are heading out now. G< M. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
New Varieties.— The varieties that stand 
at the head of the list are Clyde, Haver- 
land, Glen Mary, Brajidywine and Sample. 
New York was planted where water stood 
last Winter, so it was not fairly tested. 
No other variety except a local seedling, 
Howard No. 4, has shown superior merits. 
Mr. Howard has several seedlings of great 
merit, and we think his No. 4 the most 
promising variety thus far tested, though 
he thinks he has some superior to this. 
We have an exceedingly large crop of all 
the fruits, especially plpms and peaches, 
but not large quantities of any variety. 
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