1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
595 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
The Weather. —The shower I men¬ 
tioned last week did us lots of good. 
If the “weather” had stopped right there 
and turned on the sunshine valve, all 
would have been well. New Jersey 
seems great on sticking to things—good 
or uad—and shower after shower came 
drenching us through the week. In ne- 
tween the showers came the hot, scald¬ 
ing sunshine—just the sort of thing to 
take the starch and nerve out of collars 
or crops. Everything suffered but the 
corn. Late in the week there came a 
regular cloudburst. The rain came down 
in sheets—or blankets. The low places 
on Hope Farm were changed into raging 
torrents by the water, which fairly slid 
down the hill. I never dreamed that 
such a downpour could strike us, and 
had made no grades or ditches in the 
lane. That water was so anxious to get 
away from Hope Farm that it moved big 
stones, dug out holes two feet deep, and 
carried pebbles and small stones by the 
bushel into fence corners. Luckily the 
crops were not injured, but that rain 
did have a spite against our road. I 
have learned that it doesn’t pay to put 
all the road work on the public high¬ 
ways. 
Potato Notes. —After much search 
we have found three seed-balls in a nine- 
acre field! We shall save them and try 
to get a seedling some day that will be 
a credit to Hope Farm. Why do we find 
so few seed-balls? That question is 
asked again and again. Years ago there 
were plenty of them. The best explana¬ 
tion I nave heard is that nobody culti¬ 
vates the potato with the idea of getting 
a crop of seed. The desire is 1,0 get as 
much growth below ground as possible. 
The increase in the production of tubers 
has been at the expense of the seed. You 
let a man pay all his attention to serv¬ 
ing his pocket, and he will not sow 
many seeds oj. kindness. Let him neglect 
his pocket and he will die in the poor - 
house! Not necessarily! This is the 
first year I have used the wet Bordeaux 
Mixture on potatoes, and I have never 
had such thrifty vines in the latter part 
of August. We have used the soda- 
Bordeaux thoroughly. Our late potatoes 
were never so strong. I do not know of 
any fields in our neighborhood that are 
not falling down with blight. 
Do the tubers continue to grow after 
the tops are dead? Yes, they do—that 
is, when the ground is open and moist. 
We are well sausfied that our early po¬ 
tatoes increased 10 per cent after the 
vines fell down. Why not, since the 
tubers are really a part of the true stem, 
and deatn usually works down the stalk, 
reaching the tubers last? Rural Blush 
is a tough old variety in this respect. 
I have had them double in size after 
every leaf was bitten off by the bugs, 
and tne plants so shamefully abused by 
weedsand disease thatnoone could have 
complained reasonably if the tubers dis¬ 
appeared entirely. It doesn’t pay to quit 
on a potato crop, any more than i. does 
to fall down over any project when 
things look yellow and dead. 
We have not sold many potatoes yet. 
We supply two grocery stoi’es and a few 
peddlers, but I shall hold off digging as 
long as I can. We sell now at the 
quoted price in New York, with 25 cents 
a barrel added. That is about what it 
would cost to get a barrel out to our 
neighborhood. 
Fall Seeding. —I have mentioned two 
fields on the lower part of the farm. 
They have been used as pasture, but 
gave a mere mouthful of feed. They 
were plowed and harrowed and seeded 
with two bushels of southern Winter 
oats, one bushel of rye and a peck of 
Crimson clover seed per acre. I used 
the Winter oats because they are said 
to give a heavier Fall growth, and may 
possibly live through the Winter. The 
rye will live until Spring, anyway, and 
the clover will be likely to do so. The 
rye sprouts ahead of the oats. It is cer¬ 
tainly remarkable how quickly Crimson 
clover starts. One lot seeded in the or¬ 
chard right after a heavy rain was plain¬ 
ly visible 36 hours after seeding. I wish 
to try a part of the early potato field in 
grass after Mr. Clark’s plan. I cannot 
follow his scheme exactly, but will come 
as close to it as I can afford, provided 
our other work goes right. In the rush 
to beat Jack Frost there is always so 
much to do that plans are often knocked 
off the track. 
Stock Notes. —People are writing lots 
of advice and comment about Nellie Bly 
and her troubles. She is doing better. 
Since her exploit with the buggy she has 
taken a more serious view of life, and 
has given no cause for complaint. As 
she wandered in the dark that night or 
struggled on the ground the words and 
music of “Home Sweet Home” must 
have been printed on her bi'ain. Some 
of the boys and old boys who have tried 
to run away from home and had dark¬ 
ness catch them in lonely places will 
know just how she felt. Nellie is all 
right! .... How are the hens do¬ 
ing? August and September are usually 
bad months for custard pie. Our pullets 
have begun to lay. The old hens grew 
tired, but we have begun feeding some 
of that condition powder made by Mr. 
Holmes. It is too early yet to give re¬ 
sults.The blistering with 
sweet oil and ammonia seemed to help 
the old horse’s leg a little, but you 
won’t catch him dancing any jig yet. 
Charlie gave him another blistering, and 
I can tell you he did a star job for an 
encore.The pigs have made 
good growth. Part of the orchard was 
seeded with rape. We mow this rape 
and throw it over the fence to the pigs. 
At first they did not eat it readily, but 
now they seem fond of it. No use talk¬ 
ing, it is possible to make cheap pork 
in New Jersey—provided you have good 
pigs to start with. 
Early Apples.— I have the following 
letter from Delaware: 
In Hope Farm Notes of August 11 I see 
this question asked: “If there are markets 
where early apples are profitable, I 
would like to know where they are.” I 
commenced shipping Early Ripe on June 25 
to New York City, and am shipping yet, 
and feel very well satisfied with the results; 
have not sold any for less than 75 cents up 
to $1.50 per bushel crate. August 6 my ship¬ 
ment sold at $1.25 per crate; August 9 
report came that the market broke. Aug¬ 
ust 9 shipped the Fanny, and sold for 75 
cents per crate. Philadelphia has been a 
profitable market also. I have found good 
fruit, properly picked and crated, is al¬ 
ways in demand. We would not think of 
putting good fruit in barrels, as fruit put 
up in half barrels here is sold as seconds. 
Will you allow me the privilege of asking 
you a question? What is the matter with 
Hope Farm apples? Are they poor in 
quality or poorly packed? F. m. s. 
Magnolia, Del. 
There are several troubles with our 
apples. The varieties are all wrong. 
The trees were set before the Civil War. 
They are mostly sweet apples with a flat 
weak flavor. The trees have had poor 
care, and are not yet capable of produc¬ 
ing the best fruit. We have sold about 
40 baskets in local markets, but the sale 
for a sweet apple is very slow with us. 
I am told that the Boston market will 
absorb many sweets, but I fear our fruit 
was not good enough this year to ship 
there. Years ago before Delaware and 
Maryland farmers sent many early 
apples north, this old orchard on Hope 
Farm paid, I am told. Now, we feel 
sure that the later varieties are more 
profitable. We may do better, howevex*, 
when we have time to get that old or¬ 
chard into better condition. Our pear 
crop is good this year. The trees show 
the result of the plowing and manuring. 
Everything. —The cow peas are doing 
well. I feel sure now of a good crop of 
seed on the Early Blacks. I shall pick 
the earliest pods by themselves, hoping 
to obtain an extra-early strain. The 
Velvet beans have made a fair growth, 
but New Jersey is not the true place for 
them.Those pumpkins in the 
cow peas have little ambition to shine 
in a pie! A few of them have run out 
among the briers to lay their fruit like 
a hen that steals her nest, but most of 
them have flattened out and quit. 
Really, I thought a good honest pumpkin 
would show more spunk than these have 
done, especially when the seed traces 
back to Connecticut.The cab¬ 
bage crop looks well thus far. We have 
noticed few if any butterflies yet, and 
apparently but few eggs have been laid. 
We are ready for them. If necessary we 
shall try the resin-lime mixture, which 
is said to make the poison stick to the 
leaves until the last worm expires. I 
hope it will not be necessary to use any¬ 
thing on the cabbage—but I hoped the 
same thing regarding poison and Bor¬ 
deaux on potatoes, and was left. Every 
man who comes along shuts an eye, 
looks wise and gives us some new ad¬ 
vice about cabbage. I must confess that 
I don’t feel sure—but these wise men 
have assurance enough to go around! 
. . . . The little Graft got a taste of 
the bitter cup of life last week. He and 
the Scion picked some crab apples. They 
worked hai'd for little fellows, and sold 
their crop on shares. Their share of 
the proceeds was $1. The Graft collect¬ 
ed his money and put it in his pocket 
Uncle Ed and others told him how dan¬ 
gerous it was to carry money around, 
and advised him to put it in a safe place. 
The Graft, like millions who have lived 
since the world began, was a little bit 
smarter than those who have tried be¬ 
fore him, and so he went dancing and 
tumbling about on the hay. When he 
came to settle with the Scion—lo! he 
had lost 75 cents! It was a sad and 
humbled Graft that went to his bank 
and dug into his little store in order to 
pay up! Labor and money and fun all 
lost. Well, well—the chances are that 
you have thi’own away chances and 
money just as the little Graft did. I 
hope he won’t keep up the practice until 
he is gray-haired—as many of us have 
done. 
The Corn Crop is a bumper, and will 
be x’eady to cut soon. I wish to cut it 
early, so as to get the stalks in the best 
possible shape. Moist of uis are inclined 
to let the stalks stand too long. I plan 
to cut into small shocks—notover25 hills 
each—and haul a good share of the crop 
to the barn as soon as it is fit. We shall 
stuff the barn and the sheds, and even 
then there will be tons of fodder left 
over. I ought to apologize to corn. For 
years I derided the grain—said it would 
make i-obber hens and beef cows, and 
that it cost too much for our Jersey 
farmers to grow. You know I claimed 
that we could buy western grain for less 
money. As we are situated now this 
talk was wrong and I feel sure that our 
big corn crop is a blessing. h. w. c. 
SCRAPS. 
The wheels of fortune turn easier If 
ubricated with elbow grease.—Boyd s 
Hustler. 
Profitable Advertising says that a 
jretty picture that does not embody a good 
dea is only an empty shell. 
It is said that a Missouri burglar, to 
ivoid being sent to the penitentiary, ate 
two or three bars of soap, thinking that 
.t would make him sick, and he would thus 
land in the hospital instead. He is now 
beyond the reach of hospitals and prisons, 
as his unique experiment proved fatal. 
When asked in what “sign of the moon” 
he planted certain crops, The Farmer’s 
Guide man replied that it takes so much 
time to get the earth in good “sign” for 
planting that he has no opportunity to 
bother with the moon, which is too far 
away for people in this country to culti¬ 
vate successfully. 
The Hope Farm man complains of early 
apples being unprofitable. We have al 
ways found them more profitable than 
Winter apples. Last year our Gravenstein, 
Nyack Pippin and Blush brought $3 per 
barrel straight through. Over 200 bushels 
Sweet Boughs this season sold on an aver¬ 
age of $2.25 per barrel. h. r. a 
Hightstown, N. J. 
r Home Comfort use the Rochester Radiator, 
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