1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM ROTES. 
Election Returns. —The Hope Farm 
man was nominated for an important 
office, but the run he made turned out 
to be a slow walk. The citizens of Ber¬ 
gen County decided by a large majority 
that they were not prepared to take hold 
of the ideas he represented. That’s all 
right—it’s all the more reason why he 
should hang on to them tighter than 
ever. There are no sore spots on his 
head I can assure you. All ready for 
another round! I could tell some live¬ 
ly stories about the experiences of an 
under dog in the political fight. We 
hitched up two teams one night and 
drove up among the hills north of Hope 
Farm, where we were to hold a rally 
in a school house. Including our own 
company there were 11 men, eight wo¬ 
men and two boys and a dog. I ex¬ 
plained my principles as well as I could, 
and when I concluded every human 
present applauded, ana the dog barked. 
I presume most men are somewhat con¬ 
cerned as to the opinion their wives 
have about the figure they cut in pub¬ 
lic. The Madame evidently agreed with 
my sentiments but she said: “The next 
time you speak don’t put your hands 
in your pockets!” There are many poli¬ 
ticians and graceful orators who put 
their hands in the pockets of others. I 
am not likely to do that at least for the 
lack of a large audience. Where is a 
farmer to put his hands anyway? If he 
doesn’t hang on to his own pocket he 
is not likely to need any! Perhaps I 
may find space to tell how we went to 
New York on election night to see the 
returns. 
Good Corn. —The picture on the first 
page, Fig. 291, shows a section of our 
large cornfield taken while Charlie and 
Hugh were cutting. When we came to 
the larm last year this field was in sod, 
so poor and full of weeds that we did 
not mow it. The sod was plowed last 
Spring with the sulky plow. This was 
the field where the boys stopped during 
plowing to puli out nearly 150 big rocks. 
We used about 400 pounds per acre of 
corn fertilizer. This was put over 
broadcast with a shovel after plowing, 
and worked in with our Acme. I shall 
never put fertilizer on in that way 
again. The seed corn (Rural Thorough¬ 
bred flint) was soaked in tar water and 
dried out with ashes, and dropped by 
hand about May 20. A few days after 
planting we used the Acme, going both 
ways, and after a little began with the 
weeder. The cultivating was done most¬ 
ly with the one-horse tool, and we kept 
steadily at it. Some of the corn was 
planted too thick. It was thinned by 
hand to three or four stalks in the hill, 
and we gave one thorough hand hoeing 
which, I am sure, paid well. The result 
is a fine yield of corn. The stalks of 
this variety are excellent, since they 
have a great leaf surface. The ears are 
long and well filled, though I doubt if 
the variety will yield quite as heavily as 
some of the dents. The Hope Farm 
corncrib is running over, and we have 
use for all of the grain. This field will 
be planted to potatoes next year. I 
should have had it in rye and Crimson 
clover now if we had not planned to 
work at it this Fall and Winter, blow¬ 
ing out and picking up stones. 
A Loafer Field. —I have had so much 
to say about the loafer fields of Hope 
Farm that we tried to have one photo¬ 
graphed; it is shown in Fig. 292. Most 
eastern farmers know them. They are 
usually at the back of the farm on a 
hillside. No one seems to know just 
why they were ever cleared of timber. 
They are useless for any practical pur¬ 
poses—too full of stones and foul weeds 
to make pasture. I found at least 25 
acres of such loafers at Hope Farm. 
The cedars had begun to come in, and 
the birches and sweet-fern bushes had 
crowded out from the stone walls. In 
a few years more these loafers would 
have been as useless as a desert. What 
could be done with them? One field 
was plowed and harrowed and planted 
to corn—using 500 pounds of fertilizer 
per acre. The yield was fair—I think 
it paid but this requires too much cap¬ 
ital for the average farmer. Besides 
most of these fields were not ready for 
the plow. Much grubbing and cutting 
are needed first. I wanted to try a plan 
that would give us cheap fertility and 
let us do the cleaning up in Winter 
when labor is cheapest. 
Ending tile Loaf. —After corn plant¬ 
ing, early in June, Charlie took the sulky 
plow and plowed furrows across these 
fields so as to make ridges. Two fur¬ 
rows were thrown together, so that the 
soil fell over and met, leaving a little 
ridge or hill. These rows were not 
straight or uniform. They dodged here 
and there around the trees and bushes 
We scattered cow-pea seed along the top 
of these ridges, and then went back and 
forth with tne Acme harrow. No culti¬ 
vating or weeding was done. The pic¬ 
ture was taken late in August, and 
shows how the cow-pea vines have 
grown. It is very difficult to show in a 
picture how this crop covers the 
ground. The varieties shown are Clay 
and Wonderful. They made a few seeds 
this year, but in an ordinary season they 
would not do so. The ground is covered 
with the vines. This Winter we expect 
to cut out the cedars and grub out the 
bushes, so that in the Spring the whole 
field can be plowed and planted to corn. 
I am as sure as I can be of any farm 
problem that this is a practical way for 
putting character into the loafer fields. 
From my past experience with cow peas 
I call those vines fully equal to 10 loads 
of stable manure per acre. If we had 
used muriate of potash and acid rock 
as a fertilizer for the peas the vines 
would have been larger and more valu¬ 
able. I did not use them because I hope 
to show what the cow pea alone can do 
on these rejected loafer fields. I do not 
say that it is the best and wisest plan 
to use cow peas without any fertilizer, 
but I am going to show, if I can, that 
this plant offers a chance to farmers 
who have but small capital to set these 
loafer fields at work. 
Home Notes. —The Madame puts in 
an early bid for clean, firm walks lead¬ 
ing to our doors. Such walks are screens 
to keep mud out of the house. The 
former owner laid down a lot of flat 
stones in various places. Before the 
ground freezes we shall have them taken 
up and put where they will do the most 
good—which means the shortest lines 
from the doors. . . . The problem of 
finding profitable Winter work is a hard 
one for farmers to solve. One can keep 
busy caring for the stock, cutting wood, 
ditching and clearing land, but there is 
no money in it. I have a notion that 
broom-making would pay. It seems to 
me that a fair-sized crop of broom corn 
could be turned to good advantage in 
Winter. Who knows? . . . The wea¬ 
ther continues mild and moist. The 
grass fields look like great lawns, and 
the rye has made a fine growth. The 
cabbage is still growing, and the volun¬ 
teer potatoes have not been cut by frost. 
. . . Aunt Jennie went to a wedding 
last week, and came back with a liberal 
supply of wedding cake. When I was 
a boy we were told that a piece of wed¬ 
ding cake under the pillow would make 
dreams come true. Our children wanted 
to try it, so a piece was fixed for each 
of them. After some thought the Bud 
decided that she might have a bad dream 
and if the cake would make it come true 
she would rather not have the cake 
there. That strikes me like a wise de¬ 
cision. Then the boys wanted to eat 
her piece and then dream on their own. 
but the Madame vetoed that. She might 
risk an overloaded stomach and an over¬ 
loaded imagination if taken one at a, 
time, but she didn’t want them together. 
. . . All farmers know how, in lone¬ 
ly farm homes, little things are made 
much of and serve to provide amuse¬ 
ment or instruction. I have heard 
learned people grieve because things 
which they consider trivial are discussed 
in farm homes. They needn’t worry a 
bit. We often have great sport at Hope 
Farm over simple things that would 
seem silly to our learned friends. Our 
scientist often tries to air his learning. 
For example, take bread making. He 
thought he did his full duty when he 
explained how one part of carbon and 
two of oxygen, or carbon dioxide gas 
formed in the dough under the influence 
of a gentle heat and expanded so as to 
force open or “raise” the bread. “Why 
it can’t help rising!” he said. Our old 
cat Beauty has listened to this lucid 
demonstration. As no one else ven¬ 
tured to dispute it she undertook the 
job. One night Aunt Jennie fixed up 
her dough or sponge and left it on a 
chair in a pan behind the air-tight 
stove. Beauty kept herself dark, and no 
one put her out. When the lights went 
out the wise cat crawled on top of the 
towels covering that “sponge” and with 
a comfortable purr curled up for sleep. 
Carbon dioxide may raise bread, but the 
oxide will die in an attempt to raise 
c-a-t, and in the morning there was the 
dough as flat as a pancake. Beauty 
called at the door to get out, and seemed 
to sing “dough raise met Well I guess 
not!” It doesn’t hurt these scientific 
gentlemen a bit to call them down now 
and then. A cat can look at a would-be 
scientist and live! h. w. c. 
Gettysburg Battle Field. —Few peo 
pie who have not visited Gettysburg, 
Pa., really know what has been done to 
commemorate the great events which 
took place there July 1, 2 and 3, 1863. 
In 1895 the United States Government 
took charge of the Gettysburg Battlefield 
Memorial Association, and made a Na¬ 
tional park of the 35 square miles of 
land on which this famous battle of the 
Civil War was fought. Over $5,000,000 
have been spent in building roads, beau¬ 
tifying the grounds, and erecting bronze 
and marble monuments. From the tops 
of five steel towers, each 60 to 75 feet 
high, located at different points, the 
whole battlefield may be seen. All in¬ 
teresting points are clearly marked, so 
that in three hours the visitor can fol¬ 
low out each important engagement. 
The spring out of which it is said sol¬ 
diers from both armies drank, has been 
well preserved, and a young man gives 
each visitor who desires it a drink of 
this excellent water. A flag floats from 
the cottage in which Jennie Wade was 
kneading bread when killed by a stray 
bullet. She was the only citizen Of the 
town killed during the battle. After 
completing the tour of the field, and 
standing where Pickett made that fa¬ 
mous charge, his defeat being the turn¬ 
ing point of the battle, one is reminded 
of Lincoln’s words: “The world will 
little note nor long remember what we 
say, but it never can forget what they 
did here.” 
CONSUMPTION 
begins and leaves off in thous- 
o 
ands of people, who never sus¬ 
pect it. It isn’t much more 
than a pimple—indeed it is a 
a pimple—lung pimple. 
Health, all round it, stops 
it—just as a skin pimple gets 
stopped. 
How to get that health all 
round it: take Scott’s emulsion 
of cod-liver oil and be careful. 
We’ll send you a little to try if you like. 
'•SCOTT & BOWNE, 409 Pearl street, New York. 
77i 
Before Buying a New 
will Insure the best re¬ 
in quality and price by 
send!in? 4 cents in stamps for 
descriptive catalogue of 100 
styles of single and double 
Oak-Tanned Leather Ifmrneaa. 
Sold direct to the consumer 
at wholesale prices. 
THE KING HARNESS CD. Mfrs., 
312 Church SI.. 0WE00. N.Y. 
New Feed Mill. 
Special Introductory Price. 
SUNDRIES MEG. CO., 3outh Bend, Ind 
lime FOR GRINDING 
IvllLLO Feed or Meal, 
or anything you have to grind. Before 
purchasing a mill for any purpose, 
write us for descriptive cata¬ 
log. We can gl ve you valuable 
points on anything you wish 
to mill. Full line of Flour 
Mill Machinery, French 
Burr and Attrition Mills, 
Corn Shelters, etc. 
SPROUT, WALDRON & CO., Box 13, Muncy, Pa. 
FEEDMILL 
Oldest and Beat Grinding Hill Mad© 
Will crush and grind corn 
and cob and all kinds of 
grain, mixed or separate. 
Grinds faster, finer and with 
less power than other mills- 
Are builtstrong.wellmadeof 
good material, and will last 
a lifetime. Small size adapt¬ 
ed for wind and tread power. 
Made in four sizes for 1, 4, 8 
and 10 H. P. Free Catalogue. 
T1IOS. ROBERTS, 
Box 92, Springfield, O. 
26Bushel«/ ke,sanH#ur 
with the vv olverme Bali Bearing 
TRIPLE GEARED MILL 
Grinds ear corn and all other grain, fine or 
coa-se, grinds finer and a more uniform 
feed than any other sweep mill made, and 
THE ONLY SWEEP MILL 
that gives von as nice feed as a burr stone 
mill. GRINDS FASTER than any other 
geared mill because burrs make 3 lurns to 
each round ot the team, and we use th^ largest burrs of right shape 
to draw the grain into them. PULLS KASIKR because we use ball 
bearings. LARGEST GEARED mill made, yet OUR PRICES ARK 
LOW because we have no agents. We sell to you direct, 
llir PII1D AUTCC this mill to grind 1-3 more than any other 
fit UUAnAnltL geared mill made. TRY IT. andif 
it don’t do as we sav, von return it st our expense. 8 sizes sweep 
mills, $14.2.% and up. Send for fr* c catalogue. 
Marvin Smith Co., 55-57 N. Jefferson St., Chicago, Ills. 
326 
SEND FOR FREE CATALOGUE. 
FIRST 
PREMIUMS 
Prairie Stale incubator Co. 
llomer City, Pa. 
The IMPROVED 
VICTOR Incubator 
hatches all the fertile eggs; is 
simple, durable and easily oper¬ 
ated;^ page catalogue contain- 
1 ng information and testimonial! . 
Rent free. OFO FRTEL CO . QUINCY. ILL 
|| 1Tp 11 with the perfect, self- 
I1A I Oil regulating, lowest 
priced first class hatcher— the 
EXCELSIOR Incubator 
Hatches the largest per cent, of 
fertile eggs at tne lowest cost. 
GEO. II. STAHL, Quincy, III. 
PINELAND 
INCUBATORS Don’t forgetthenama 
have the mostscientiuc system ot ven¬ 
tilation, an d the mostsensitive andshn- 
ple regulator ever introduced. The Pina- 
land Brood erisnotequaledbyanyother. 
Get our free catalog, judge for yourself. 
Pinetand lncubator&BrooderCo.,8oJ Mamesbarg,BJ, 
SPECIAL PRICES 
80 Day. Trial on 
UAUC CIIPU Incubators 
nUHC'OUun and Brooders. 
Self regulating. Automatic egg f 
tray. Perfect ventilation. Price" 
8 10 and up. Fully guaranteed. 
Send 4o. 
for catalog. 
FOREST INCUBATOR CO., Forest, Ohio. 
INCUBATORS ./ FARM 
must be simple in opeiatiou, 
sure in results. Thu’s the 
SURE HATCH INCUBATOR. 
anybody can run it, because it 
runsitself. Send for our free 
catalog and see for yourself how 
very successful it has been on 
the farm. It also describes our 
Common Sense Folding jj 
Brooder. We Pay the Freight. 0—- 1—- 
SURE HATCH INCUBATOR CO., Cl«y Center, Nebrask* 
Satisfaction guaranteed or money 
refunded on every 
MARILLA 
INCUBATOR & BROODER 
we sell. Are not those reasonable terns? 
That shows you how much faith we have 
in our machines. Either HOT WATER 
or HOT AIR machines. A child can work 
them. Eleventh year on the market. 
MARILLA INCUBATOR CO. 
Catalogue 2e. Stamps. OX45Rose Hill, N.Y. 
AREYOU MAKING MONEY? 
—Out of your poultry we mean, li not, thete issomething wrong. May be you didn’t 
start ri*ht. We have a brok called the 20th CENTURY POULTRY BOOK "k ich helps 
losiartpoultry people right and then keens then. nght. Tells all about the business and 
about the best—Reliable Incubators aud Brooders—used all over the world. Book sent 
for 10c. Order ai ouce. Reliable Incubaior and Brooder Co.,Box idol Quincy.ill. 
