1000 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
575 
in the evening I am through reading The R. N.-Y. 
I wonder whether the Sage of Hope Farm has it his 
own way, and is always as satisfied as he seems to 
be. I hope so. Perhaps if he knew of the qualities 
of the Belgian hare he would put them on his table to 
replace the ducks. He tells us in his last notes that 
his people are well fed. We know he is, judging from 
the back view he gave us of himself some time ago. 
I certainly enjoy his communication and do not re¬ 
member anything just in his line, though I look clear 
back to the old Moore’s Rural New Yorker. 
Massachusetts. l, h. daloz. 
R. N.-Y.—We have read of farmers who have every¬ 
thing just as they want it, and who never make mis¬ 
takes, but we never got into the same township with 
them. 
BERRIES OUT OF THE DUST 
Holding Moisture in a Dry Time. 
PART I. 
On June 20, I found the country around Syracuse, 
N. Y., as drj as a chip. There had been but a few 
light showers, and fruit and vegetables were suffering 
severely. Strawberries in particular showed the 
lack of moisture. I found the fruit offered for sale 
mostly small and poor. Most strawberry patches 
were as hard as a board floor, grass and daisies steal¬ 
ing what little moisture the soil contained away from 
the berries. It was a good time to test the skill of 
a fruit grower. Two days before Mr. Chas. Siddon 
sold to one dealer in Syracuse over 2,700 quarts of 
fine berries. On the day of my visit he picked nearly 
1,300 more. It was like picking strawberries right 
out of the dust and the story of how it was done 
reads like a chapter out of a romance. 
Mr. Siddon’s experience demonstrates what we have 
often claimed—that successful farming is not merely 
a question of gigantic force and over-powering weight. 
with dust. On neighboring farms pickers were tak¬ 
ing a few small buttons of berries out of the grass, 
for the strawberry plants were hidden from view 
by the foul growth. What else could one expect from 
such ground? The sun had baked out all the moisture 
it could and the grass and weeds had taken the rest. 
The pickers were also at work on Mr. Siddon’s 
farm, and there was a constant procession to the pick¬ 
ing shed of large, fine, high-colored berries. What 
an object lesson it was! Here was a man who had 
been able to master, in part at least, the forces of 
nature. On other farms the moisture had evaporated 
and was lost. On this farm it had been held and 
packed away into the strawberries. Surely the rain 
may fall upon the just and the unjust, but it stays 
with the man who is just to his soil and flies away 
from the unjust soil abuser. I hardly know what 
would be the best season for describing some of 
Mr. Siddon’s methods. Do farmers read such things 
and think them over? Are they most impressive just 
when the results of a drought are most in evidence 
or before the drought comes on? At any rate I will 
try to tell about them next week. 
There were many interesting things about Mr. Sid¬ 
don’s farm. He showed me where he used Read’s 
fertilizers this Spring. I have argued that it does 
not pay to apply fertilizers to strawberries in Spring. 
The time for that seems to me to be late Summer 
or Fall, before the fruit buds are formed. Nitrate of 
soda often gives good results in Spring, but I have 
never seen good results from potash or phosphoric acid 
at that time. We could tell to a foot, by the ap¬ 
pearance of the vines, just where this fertilizer was 
put, and Mr. Siddon said the fruit was much better 
on the fertilizer strips. That result is against 
theory, but there is no getting around it. 
Mr. Siddon is, I think, very wise in the way he 
treats his children. They do not go into the field 
One bushel of pure Orchard-grass seed sown on an 
acre would, if evenly distributed, put 186 seeds upon 
every square foot. One and one-half bushels per 
acre sov:n in early Spring and lightly covered by a 
weeder, will probably be as satisfactory as heavier 
seeding. As a mixture of seeds for permanent pas¬ 
ture we would recommend the following in preference 
to Orchard grass alone: Red clover, six pounds; 
Alsike clover, four pounds; Kentucky Blue grass, 3% 
pounds; Orchard grass, 3% pounds; Meadow fescue 
3% pounds; Red-top, 3% pounds; Timothy, five 
pounds. The following table shows the feeding value 
of Orchard-grass hay as compared with some of the 
more commonly-used hay: 
Carbohy- Nutri- 
drates tive 
Protein. and fat. ratio. 
Orchard grass .4.G6 p. c. 43.07 p. c. 1:10.4 
Timothy hay .3.67 41.25 1:12.7 
Clover hay .7.82 40.25 1: 5.6 
Corn fodder .3.00 40.00 1:14 
It will be seen from the above analyses that the Or¬ 
chard grass compares very favorably with Timothy 
hay. To secure best results in its feeding it would 
better be combined with clover, which comes more 
nearly to what is known as a balanced ration. 
l. a. c. 
MONEY IN THE RYE CROP. 
Rye at present price of straw is considered to be 
a fairly profitable crop. There is as much raised 
here as there ever was, being considered the best 
crop on which to sow clover and Timothy; at least 
the best results are obtained by such seeding. At 
present prices it is perhaps not quite as valuable as 
a hay crop. The average yield is from 15 to 18 
bushels per acre. The machines used for thrashing 
are “beaters” or “rubbers,” and are all self-binders, 
keeping the straw straight and in good condition, 
which in the New York market is quoted as “long 
A PATCH OF SNYDER BLACKBERRIES THAT CLOTHES THE GIRLS. 
Fig. 202. 
The light, quick, active man with hard grit and sharp 
burrs in his mind to grind up and make soluble the 
hard facts of science and business will often succeed 
where the big giant would fail. The Siddons first 
raised truck on their farm—and raised it well. Then 
they kept cows and managed so well that they pro¬ 
duced the fodder required by one cow on less than an 
acre. Mr. Siddon says he went out and saw what 
other dairymen were doing and then came home and 
tried to modify their methods so as to adapt them to 
his own farm. Thus, instead of depending on corn, 
Timothy and clover alone, he learned to use many 
other crops, and make the soil work all the time. 
Finally dairying failed to give the profit it once did, 
and Mr. Siddon saw that other crops must be pro¬ 
vided. He hit upon strawberries, bush fruits and 
pickles, and he made up his mind to learn all he 
could about them, and then apply that knowledge to 
the conditions to be found on his own farm. Mr. 
Siddon has always been a great admirer of T. B. 
Terry. If one will read Our Farming he will be sur¬ 
prised to see how closely the methods practiced on 
this New, York farm agree with the Ohio methods of 
Mr. Terry. Clean culture and clover have done won¬ 
ders for both soils. 
“One trouble with us .for several years,” said Mr. 
Siddon, “was that we had too many bosses on the 
farm. Where several people have each a plan which 
is the ‘best’ it is hard to make a success. There is 
no success on any farm except through one careful 
and definite plan worked out through years of hard 
work and constant watching. You can’t keep chang¬ 
ing and shifting about when your plan goes a little 
wrong at times, but you must get the principle of it 
right, and then stick to it.” 
It was evident that Mr. Siddon started right and 
stuck to it. The farm lies in a flat, level section. 
The hot sun beat down as it had for weeks, and the 
surface of the earth was baked like a board, or soft 
to do ordinary picking, but take charge of depart¬ 
ments. The boy can go after the pickers in the 
morning and drive them home at night. One girl 
takes charge of the pickers, punches the tickets and 
keeps an eye on the field. The others can work in 
the shed, fixing up the boxes tastefully, sorting and 
packing. It gives them an interest in the business 
to feel mat they are in charge of a responsible part of 
the work. Mr. Siddon showed me a patch of Snyder 
blackberries which belongs to the girls. They care 
for it—prune, cultivate, hoe and pick—and have the 
money for their clothes and other pin money. This 
is a good arrangement, and I was glad to get a pic¬ 
ture of this clean, vigorous patch, which is shown at 
Fig. 202. I will try „o tell how the berries are grown 
in the dust next week. h. w. c. 
ORCHARD GRASS; A PERMANENT PASTURE 
What is the best time to sow Orchard grass, and should 
it be harrowed, or only brushed in? a. s. m. b. 
Lakewood, N. J. 
Orchard grass is a perennial, lasting, under favor¬ 
able conditions, for many years. It is somewhat 
coarse when given opportunity to grow with abund¬ 
ance of room. One objection to it is its tendency 
to grow in bunches or tufts. If sown by itself it will 
be very bunchy. It is better to sow it in a mixture 
designed for permanent pasture rather than for a 
hay crop. It is among the first grasses to start 
growth in bpring, and will continue growth until late 
Fall. K should never be sown on grounds intended 
for lawns, as it shoots up rapidly, and before the 
main portion of the grass requires cutting the Orchard 
grass is up beyond the reach of tne lawn mower. The 
place where Orchard grass is most valuable is in 
shady woodland pastures. It will grow in the shade 
where nearly ah other grasses will fail. Orchard 
grass weighs 14 pounds per bushel, and when sown 
aloqe from one to two bushels are usually sown. 
rye straw.” Much of the straw, however, goes to 
the paper mills in this vicinity, where it is manufac¬ 
tured into straw wrapping paper. At the local mills 
last year the price got as high as $13 per ton, and 
now they have started at $10 per ton. Furthermore 
it is a crop that seldom fails, as there is usually mois¬ 
ture enough in the ground in Spring to carry it 
through until harvest, although a severe drought 
would affeci. it to some extent. In dairy farming we 
find rye bran an excellent milk producer. 
Columbia Co., N. Y. J. l. v. c. 
POULTRY AND POTATOES. 
For the second year we have planted potatoes on 
the same acre of ground next to the poultry house, 
where we keep from 150 to 200 hens. The potatoes 
do well by our taking good care of the field, and the 
hens keep the tops clean of beetles, or nearly so. 
Twice I have noticed a few hills that were neglected 
a little, but in a day or so the hens found them and 
the “bugs” were no more. The mellow ground and 
the shade of the vines are enjoyed by the hens, and 
strange to say, the potatoes are not scratched out to 
any extent, notwithstanding the fact that we do not 
hill them. A neighbor has practiced this plan for 
several years with good results. I have wondered 
whether the same results would be secured if hen3 
had not been kept on the location before. It seems 
as though there must be fewer bugs and worms 
around after a few years than when the hens are first 
put there, and maybe there would be less reason for 
hens to eat Potato beetles the first year or two. 
H. H. L. 
R. N.-Y.—We tried this plan last year. We did 
not observe that the hens ate the beetles. They did 
but little damage. Near a few plants they mr.de 
dusting holes and thus uncovered a few tubers, which 
were eaten. 
