1002 
233 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Grain \ni> Grass.—As the farm slowly 
crawls out from under the snow and at¬ 
tempts to dry up the song of the mud, all 
the hard knocks of Winter are quite ap¬ 
parent. The Orchard grass on the lower 
field looks as if it were ready to quit. One 
would say that half of it is killed out, but 
we must remember that this grass natu¬ 
rally grows in bunches or tufts. Once let 
it get a good start and the bare places will 
be hidden. Orchard grass is good for an 
orchard where one must drive in for spray¬ 
ing while the soil is soft or wet. Of course, 
1 refer to an orchard where for one reason 
or another grass seems desirable. We 
keep our orchards in sou for, as we are 
situated, that seems the best plan for us. 
The grass is a nuisance, though, in spray¬ 
ing time.The last hard flood 
killed out some of the Crimson clover. 
March is usually the hardest month on this 
crop. It will go through tne cold weather 
in perfect safety and then die in the cold, 
drying winds of Spring. The daily frost 
and thaw pulls it out and exposes part of 
the root, and then the wind finishes it. 
We shall have a fair stand in spite of all. 
.The best looking grain we have 
thus far is found in the fields of rye. One 
is on tne lower farm and followed potatoes 
which were very heavily manured. The 
oilier is at tne extreme west of the farm 
in one of our ‘‘loafer fields.” We had cow 
peas there in 1900 and plowed them under 
last Fall. It would give a “Philadelphia 
lawyer” a headache to say which field is 
better. I am glad to see the cow peas show 
up with the manure. The wheat doesn’t 
look as well as it might, but there is time 
enough yet for it to come up. The grass is 
fair—in fact, it looks now as though we 
should double last year’s grass and grain 
crop. 
Hungry Beasts.— We shall need to, for 
grain bills surely rub a fellow against the 
grain. Our turnips and cabbage are nearly 
gone and that means more grain for the 
Imgs until the wheat and rye are large 
enough to cut. There are two small fields 
of rye and wheat near the hoghouse and 
the field where the cows are pastured. 
They will be cut and fed out, beginning 
when the grain is a foot high. All will be 
gone before dune. Then, if we can plow at 
once and sow millet, we can get another 
fair crop off in lime to plow again for late 
cabbage, celery or turnips. Of course, this 
will require heavy manuring or fertilizing, 
but I believe it is the way to work the 
rich soil at the lower part of our farm. 
Crowd it hard and put the manure on thick, 
leaving the hill and the distant fields for 
grain, grass and fruit trees, with cow peas 
and chemicals for feeding. I grow fodder 
crops because we have the stock, and it Is 
paying us quite well. Until the fruit comes 
in bearing, I think the hogs pay better 
than crops that must be rusned to market. 
1 am asked sometimes why, in this thickly 
settled country, we do not raise more vege¬ 
tables and peddle them out. On the old 
Hope Farm we did this in a small way, but 
1 found that there are two sides to the 
matter. On our late soil we cannot get 
crops in time for the early market. Our 
roads are rough and it is a long haul to 
market. 1 conclude therefore that, at pres¬ 
ent, it pays us best to raise such money 
crops as cabbage, onions and celery, which 
can be held if need be for weeks. 
Hard Travel,.— I said that our roads are 
rough! You would think so if you went 
over them just now. The frost is coming 
out of the low places and it plays high 
jinks with travel. Nine-tenths of the road 
between Hope Farm and the railroad dries 
out quickly—but the other tenth! 1 started 
for the station one morning with old Major 
and the buggy. The Graft drove and the 
Bud went along for company. The old 
horse did his best on the dry ground, but 
when he struck the mud a turtle would 
have beaten his best. I got out and ran 
for the train, but missed it by about three 
feet. Had 1 been 10 years younger 1 would 
have jumped for it, but that's a bad thing 
for a gray-haired man to do before the 
children. Old Major stood there shaking 
his head as if to say: “If either one of us 
were 10 years younger we would nave made 
that train!” Right you are, old fellow—we 
old-timers must realize that we need a little 
more time than the boys require, especi¬ 
ally when the going is gone. There are 
two good seasons of the year lor looking 
up the value of a farm. Right now, when 
the frost is coining out, you see the roads 
at their worst. Again, in the very driest 
part of Summer, you see the possibilities 
of a water supply. Roads and water should 
always be considered. A farm is not unlike 
a wife—disappointing unless you see the 
worst features before you are securely tied 
to it. 
Fruit Matters.— Hugh will soon be back 
from ihe short course at Cornell. We are 
waiting to see just what a young man can 
get out of 11 weeks of such study. We will 
let Hugh deliver his first lecture out in th« 
orchard with a saw his audience being 
composed of the old apple trees which 
sadly need pruning. We don't expect hint 
to come back with all the tail feathers ol 
a full doctor of horticulture, but he will 
probably understand the principle of doc¬ 
toring those trees. It’s the principle of the 
thing that such schools should be able to 
teach. We want boys who can graft the 
know how into practical things. It’s won¬ 
derful how many back-handed things we 
do because we have palmed off false knowl¬ 
edge on ourselves. We have an illustration 
of this in the case of the little Seedling 
The child suffers greatly with tne whoop¬ 
ing cough. At times it coughs and 
strangles so that what is known as con¬ 
traction of the glottis sets in. No wonder 
the other children all wrote in their diary 
one night: “The little baby nearly died to¬ 
day!" When the little thing strangled and 
turned black in the face and lay liinp as a 
rag, our folks, without knowing what else 
to do, tossed and trotted her and even 
thrust a finger down her throat to relieve 
the choking. “That is all wrong,” §aid an 
expert in throat diseases, when I asked 
him about it. “Don't toss the child, put it 
right down, so that its head will fall back 
and bring the throat up!” Strange, but 
not one of us had noticed that when we 
let the chin drop down the throat was 
partly closed. I speak of this to show how 
the man who knows his business must 
understand all such things and be ready at 
once to apply them. This is true of fruit 
culture. If Hugh has obtained a clear idea 
of some of the essential things that go to 
produce a healthy and well-shaped tree, he 
can work them out in the Hope Farm or¬ 
chards.I shall not set as many 
trees this Spring as I intended. After all 
the information I can get I conclude that 
the 17-year locusts are quite likely to injure 
little trees, and to be on the safe side I 
will do most of our planting in the Fall. 
Stock Notes.—O ur litters of pigs are not 
quite as large as last year, but we do not 
complain since the smaller litters make 
much better individuals. There are very 
few runts or “titinen” this year. I would 
as soon sell a man a “gold brick” as to sell 
him a pig which I knew was a born runt. 
Some farmers who have breeds to boom 
would have us believe that their sows al¬ 
ways raise 12 or more pigs, never kill one 
and never have a runt in the whole batch. 
1 used to believe that, but experience has 
sadly knocked the belief out—at least we 
have not found it true.There 
is evidently going to be quite a contest be¬ 
tween the Berkshires and Yorkshires at 
Hope Farm. We have good specimens ot 
both breeds and we will give them a fair 
chance to show what they can do for the 
pork barrel and pocketbook. Our folks like 
the looks of the Yorkshires pretty well— 
but the Berks, are hard to beat! . . . 
The filly is growing into a beautiful crea¬ 
ture. Charlie has her now so that she will 
mind the rein and not regard the bit as a 
bitter pill. She gives promise of growing 
into a fine animal. As she walks about the 
barnyard picking up bridle wisdom as 
though her mind were a magnet, I can 
imagine the other horses viewing her per¬ 
formance. 
“That's my daughter. I’d have you know, 
says Nellie Bly. “it’s easy to see when 
she got that brain!" 
“Yes, indeed, Madame,” says old Frank. 
“1 always admired your intelligence In 
running home that night and leaving the 
useless buggy behind you!” 
Old Major has seen much of life and In¬ 
puts his head on one side as he remarks: 
“It’s all very well to have brains, but 1 
hope this young person won't have your 
nerves tied to them! it makes my spavin 
fairly ache to see you plunge and dance 
as you do sometimes. One of the saddest 
things in the world is the sight of a brainj 
horse making a fool of himself! More 
brain—greater fool!” 
We have great respect for Nellie Bly, but 
when we hitch up the filly it will be by th< 
side of wise old Major!.One of 
our neighbors is breeding goats. One 
evening just at dusk a little three-weeks- 
old kid came trotting into our yard. It had 
strayed away from iis mother and traveled 
nearly half a mile from home. Our two- 
legged “kids” had a fine time with him. 
After supper the Graft and 1 carried him 
home. It was dark as pitch and as we 
floundered through the mud the kid cried— 
making a sound so like the cry of a heart¬ 
broken child that it startled me. As we 
turned into the yard where it lived we saw 
lanterns moving about. The kid cried out 
and the searchers came running at once. 
r pfioy were boys who had been scouring the 
farm for the little kid. The others were 
all safe and warm but they wanted the lost 
one. They were happy boys as they ran to 
the house with the kid in their arms call¬ 
ing “We’ve found him! We’ve found him!" 
What a privilege it is to help in bringing 
back “that which was lost!” H. w. c. 
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2DO Page 111- 
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