1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
643 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Heavy Weight. —Since the Hope 
Farm man had his picture in The R. 
N.-Y. people have been setting him 
down as a heavyweight. One man writes 
that the back view indicates that tho 
Hope Farm man eats more pork than 
beans. As a matter of curiosity I have 
figured the weight of the members of 
our family. Here they are: 
Grandmother (estimated) . 175 
Aunt Mary . 184 
The Madame . 115 
Aunt Jennie . 169 
Hope Farm man. 170 
Uncle Ed. 139 
Charlie . 148 
Hugh . 150 
The Cutting . 126 
Aunt Patience . 155 
The Graft . 56 
The Bud . 43 
Older Scion . 41 
Younger Scion . 32 
Total .1,703 
Let’s hear from some other heavy 
R. N. Y. families. Aunt Jennie knows 
that it requires a good many pounds of 
food to feed this company, the Cutting 
will guarantee that acres of dishes must 
be washed and wiped, and the Madame 
and Grandmother are prepared to testify 
that much patching and darning aro 
needed to keep their clothes in shape. 
I fear Hope Farm can show more beef 
than beauty, but that isn’t our fault— 
besides beef is more useful. 
Who's Who?—“W ho are all these peo¬ 
ple anyway?” That is a question re¬ 
cently asked and I may properly answer 
it, since our peculiar family circum¬ 
stances have much to do with the name 
and the methods of Hope Farm. Grand¬ 
mother is the Madame’s mother. She is 
the Hope Farm man’s mother-in-law, 
but he doesn’t see any point to the 
stories often told about that character. 
Aunt Mary is the H. F. man’s sister—a 
Boston schoolmarm on her vacation. 
Aunt Jennie is the Madame’s younger 
sister. She is chairman and physical di¬ 
rector of tne Hope Farm kitchen and 
food department. Everybody knows who 
the Madame is. She is the mistress of 
Hope Farm—a graduate from the pub¬ 
lic schoolroom. Some people have pic¬ 
tured her as a big portly lady—like her 
mother or Aunt Mary. She may become 
an expansionist yet, but at present she 
has more faith than fat. No use talking 
about the H. F. man—he talks too much 
now. Uncle Ed and Charlie are the 
Madame’s brothers. Hugh is a Michigan 
boy—brother of the Madame’s best 
friend. The Cutting is a young woman 
who has lived with us so long that she 
is about like our daughter. She is now 
a school girl—training for the hard busi¬ 
ness of life. Aunt Patience is Uncle Ed’s 
wife. The Graft is a little waif—I have 
already told his story. The Bud is our 
own little girl, and the Scions are Aunt 
Jennie’s little children. Now then, per¬ 
haps the story of Hope Farm will be 
clearer. It takes hard and tight weav¬ 
ing to bind such strongly assorted ele¬ 
ments into one household. It would be 
folly to say that we have an ideal house¬ 
hold. We just do our best to be indus¬ 
trious, cheerful and full of hope—and 
let the Golden Rule rule. Some folks 
work the Golden Rule on the standard 
ratio. That is, they want others to do 16 
things for tnem for every one thing they 
do in return. 
All Over. —That grass seed is in 
among those apple trees. The soil was 
worked and worked until Charlie, Frank 
and Dan were about dizzy. Probably Mr. 
Clark would say it wasn’t fitted right, 
but I’ll guarantee there never was a field 
fitted so well in our neighborhood. 
Really it took the horses away from 
other necessary work. That is the rock 
the average farmer will run against 
when he tries to follow this Clark meth¬ 
od exactly. With only one team there 
are a dozen jobs on hand. . . . The 
Kaffir corn and sorghum are heading out 
nicely, and will make quite a little grain. 
Still, I see no reason why we should 
grow them again. By actual test our 
flint corn gives more fodder and more 
grain than either the Kaffir or the sor¬ 
ghum. They are all right in Kansas, but 
in New Jersey we can do better with our 
own folks. . . . The orchard where 
we sowed oats, rye and Crimson clover 
is a beautiful sight. The oats and tho 
clover have outgrown the rye and cover 
the ground with a thick mat. It will 
make very fine Fall pasture. 
The cabbage is still stretching its wings 
and growing. It is a cheering sight. The 
outlook for it is better than I expected, 
and the price will be right, too, I hope. 
The grass seed was sown by hand. 
Some people start out with all the seed 
needed on an acre or more. They can¬ 
not possibly gauge it right, and the re¬ 
sult is that some parts of the field have 
twice as much as others. We divided 
the field into about 20 parts, and sowed 
fertilizer, Red-top and Timothy separ¬ 
ately by measure, so that each space had 
an even share. This takes far more time 
but it pays to have it even. 
Horse Habits. —Horses have many of 
the traits common to humans. Dan is 
our fighter. He kicked old Franko, and 
recently he let out at old Major and laid 
him up with a lame leg. Recently we 
used the Hoover digger and as Major 
was lame hired another team. One of 
this team was a white horse which was 
like some folks you know—nipping and 
snarling at its mate. He stood next to 
Dan with the pole between them. When 
things went wrong old White would get 
mad and reach over to bite at Dan. You 
have all seen horses act that way. Our 
Dau was very brave when old Major was 
near him, but old White had a chip on 
his shoulder, and Dan, like many a hu¬ 
man bully, never said a word back. At 
last Charlie changed the horses so as 
to put big Frank next Mr. White, who 
apparently sized him up as a big, good- 
natured coward. Old White kept up that 
nipping, and Frank stood it just as long 
as he could. At last he lashed out with 
both hind feet. He hit the pole, and I’ll 
tell you right here that it’s mighty 
lucky for White that he did. It would 
have been a black day for White if those 
big hoofs had hit him, as Frank meant 
they should. Under such circumstances 
a man might turn the other cheek to a 
citizen like old White, but my judgment 
is that most of us would have used boot 
or knuckles before we offered the cheek. 
From Calf to Cow. —A reader sends 
us the following note: 
I have a young calf five weeks old Sep¬ 
tember 1. The mother a most remarkable 
grade Jersey and sire an Ayrshire bull. 
How can I make the calf a most excellent 
milker? I mean, what is the proper feed? 
We stake her out in medium pasture. 
Should she have cornmeal and bran night 
and morning? m. e. m. 
Our own calf, Daisy, is about the same 
age. I don’t pretend to be an expert 
dairyman, but this is about what I shall 
try to do: Examine most of the good 
milking cows you know .and you will 
find that they are not, as a rule, inclined 
to put on fat. You cannot fatten them 
readily. They have large, prominent 
stomachs and udders, and do not look 
like steers or beefy cows. The parents 
of the calf may give it good intentions 
and tendencies, but unless these are de¬ 
veloped and directed the calf must go 
wrong. The cow will do one of two 
things with her food, either put fat on 
her bones or deliver it into the pail. If 
the little calf is fed and handled so that 
she begins early to lay fat on her bones 
it is my opinion that she will never 
make a first-class cow. She should be 
induced to eat large quantities of bulky 
food to give her a big stomach and she 
should have plenty of room to exercise 
and run about. I feel sure that running 
and skipping is good for the calf. 
Daisy now has all the skim-milk we 
can spare. This milk is warmed and she 
drinks it out of a pail. She has a large 
clean box-stall to run in, and on pleas¬ 
ant days is tied out where she can 
eat grass. She has learned to eat quite 
a little. We shall keep a box containing 
whole oats before her all the time and 
later mix wheat bran with them. 
There is no grain equal to oats for put¬ 
ting spirit into a horse or bones into 
young animals. I do not like oatmeal 
for cows, for I think it is apt to make 
light-colored butter. For roughage this 
Winter we shall feed coarse hay and 
crushed cornstalks—all the calf will eat. 
John Gould tells me that silage and 
whole oats, with about enough clover 
hay for the calf to clean its teeth, is an 
ideal calf ration. I don’t doubt this, but 
I haven’t any silo. We may try the plan 
of steaming the cut stalks to soften them 
before feeding. The skim-milk will be 
fed all Winter. There will be less of it 
later, and the calf will be bigger. If 
Charlie begins soon to mix the clear dish 
water with the milk I shall find no 
fault. We do not wish to feed cornmeal 
under any circumstances, we do not 
think it pays to mix grain of any sort 
with the calf’s drink. Far better feed 
the grain alone dry. The calf should be 
kept warm, but it is a good plan to turn 
it out in the sun every day for a little 
while. Use the brush frequently, espe¬ 
cially on its neck and back. Do not let 
it become lousy. Give it a room of its 
own. We would never tie up a family 
cow. A dairyman is, of course, forced 
to do this, but where one keeps a single 
cow he should give her a box-stall or 
room and never tie her head. I believe 
that it is desirable to handle and manip¬ 
ulate the call's udder. This will get her 
accustomed to her future business of 
giving down milk, and will to some ex¬ 
tent help develop the udder. Keep the 
caif ’’•igoicus, thriving and raw-boned. 
Do not let her get fat. Keep her gentle 
and good-natured, and if she does not 
make a good cow it will be the fault of 
her parents and not yours. Do not be 
too sure that this breeding will produce 
a good cow. These cross-bred animals 
are often disappointing even when both 
animals aye good individuals H. w. o. 
OVERHAULING AN OLD ORCHARD 
I have had a good many trees in the 
condition that your old orchards prob¬ 
ably are; dormant so far as making 
much new wood is concerned; useless in 
regard to their crop of fruit; lacking 
good limbs into which to graft other 
varieties. Sometimes they have stood 
where I did not like to tear up the turf, 
and surface fertilization had little effect. 
I have cut off nearly all the large limbs, 
perhaps four or five feet from the body, 
taking care to saw the under cut first, 
so as not to split down the stump. These 
cuts have been smoothed and oiled and 
the tree left to sprout freely, as it pretty 
surely will. Sometimes, if the sprouts 
are too numerous, I out off some of those 
nearest the body, but I like to leave a 
good supply of foliage to carry on the 
natural processes of growth. The sec¬ 
ond year I thin these sprouts, leaving 
the strongest and best placed for making 
a good head to the tree. At the begin¬ 
ning of the third season I put in scions 
freely, and keep down all sprout growth 
as far as it is safe to do so. At the end 
of the fifth season, sometimes at the end 
of the fourth season, I have a large, 
well-shaped tree, capable and ready to 
bear a full crop of superior fruit. I can 
see one now from my window as I write, 
its limbs bending beneath a weight of 
mammoth Fall Wine apples, that for 30 
years simply cumbered the earth. Such 
trees are invaluable to top-work with 
slow-growing varieties. Some would 
chop them down and begin over again. 
But I have a decided aversion to destroy¬ 
ing that which has taken so many years 
to build, and I think my way is best. 
Try it on a tree or two. I have a num¬ 
ber of those old trees ready to graft next 
Spring, and I am going to put in some 
varieties that seem to me to be worth 
giving a chance. The Tuttle is one, a 
handsome dark-red apple, large as Bald¬ 
win, and always smoother and fairer 
thau that variety. It was common here 
50 years ago, but the newer kinds have 
nearly crowded it out. The Hoel, a na¬ 
tive seedling, is another; a large cook¬ 
ing apple that comes just as the early 
apples are going out. It is almost an 
August Pippin, and though yellow, it is 
a very handsome and salable apple. 
There is another late Winter apple that 
is found in old orchards here, but I can 
get no name for it, except that each one 
who has it, has some name of his own 
for it. It is large, red, of the Pearmain 
type, yellow-fleshed, sprightly, and keeps 
remarkably. Another seedling is the 
Beardsley or Huntington Sweet, a seed¬ 
ling originating in Huntington, Conn., 
and of which the original tree is still 
standing, or was a year or so ago. This 
apple is the best Winter sweet apple I 
know. It is very large, dull-red and an 
abundant bearer. Its quality is nearly 
best, and while it can be eaten in late 
October, it will keep under favorable 
conditions until March, c. p. augur. 
It Saves Five Times Its Cost 
iii a single Winter—the Rochester Radiator.— Adv. 
The Prosperous 
Farmer ^ ^ 
Farming is a science. To 
f«a.rm with profit, the farmer 
must thoroughly inform him¬ 
self on the subject of fertilizers. 
If he does this, success is 
assured. Potash is essential 
to every crop. 
We have valuable books telling all about the 
use of fertilizers and Potash which should be in 
the hands of every farmer. We gladly mail 
them FREE. A postal will do. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, 93 Nassau St., New York 
