1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 339 
it for $10, but they do not yet know the 
value in sweat of 100 cents. Now, shall I 
hold them to their agreement and thus 
make them realize the folly of making a 
hasty bargain? There is a little box hang¬ 
ing in our local store in which contribu¬ 
tions are put for the Children’s Home So¬ 
ciety. That is the society that took care 
of the Graft and he has decided to put a 
fair share of his earnings into that box! 
Ai.l Sorts.—I am asked whether rape 
will make a good green manure to plow 
under for late cabbage. From my own 
experience I should say no. What is the 
use of using a crop for manure which 
takes from rather than adds to the soil? 
Rape requires rich soil and is an exhaustive 
crop. Canada field peas are much better 
for the purpose. Cow peas? You cannot 
get them started early enough to benefit 
the late cabbage.What can one 
sow that will make good cow pasture by 
July 15? I have never found it very profit¬ 
able to try to pasture any Spring-sown 
crop. It pays better to cut the green fod¬ 
der and carry it to the cows. Early Amber 
cane sowed broadcast shortly after corn¬ 
planting time on warm soil will make fair 
pasture. We like to soak the seed in warm 
water before sowing. When nibbled off by 
stock the sorghum will grow again. There¬ 
fore it is better to divide up the field by 
portable fences and let one part grow while 
the stock is eating another. A mixture of 
sorghum or Kaffir corn and cow peas 
broadcast gave us good pasture one year— 
but not until August.We are 
giving potato culture a final test on our 
heavy lower soil. The soil was plowed 
early in April. It stood until the little 
weeds started, and then on a bright, blowy 
day it was worked twice with the Acme. 
Then a good coat of stable manure was put 
on. This was the genuine article, black 
and strong with no roughage or bedding 
but shredded fodder. Then the ground was 
plowed again and harrowed twice after 
broadcasting 150 pounds of muriate of pot¬ 
ash per acre. Furrows were opened with 
the plow and large, well-sprouted pieces 
covered with sulphur dropped about 20 
inches apart. They were covered by run¬ 
ning a small plow alongside of the furrow. 
The field was left in the rough about 10 
days, and then smoothed down with the 
Acme. Just as the plants come througli 
fertilizer will be scattered along the rows 
and worked in with the weeder. If this 
doesn't give us a fair crop of potatoes i 
shall drop the crop for good. 
But are you not the man who has had 
so much to say against the use of manure 
on potatoes? 
Yes! 
What do you mean, then, by using it? 
I am forced to admit that the only pota¬ 
toes I had last year were where we used 
manure alone. 1 like theory, but fact hits 
me harder! I believe there is some quality 
in manure which is of especial benefit to 
the heavy soil on the lower part of the 
farm. 
Do you know what it is? 
No, but I make a guess at it, and will 
give my opinion later. h. w. c. 
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12 R John Street, New York. 
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3SC 
hope farm notes 
Spring is Here.— After several false 
starts Spring drove Winter into retirement 
and began housecleaning. Imagine a 
young and bustling housekeeper who went 
away for a Winter’s vacation and left a 
rather careless old man to keep house for 
her! She comes back, puts on her work¬ 
ing dress and stands with arms akimbo 
while she decides what to take hold of first. 
That Is about the way Spring stood in our 
valley early in April. She had a tough 
job, for Winter had left a mess of it. 
There were great gullies on the hills, 
muddy holes in the roads, broken tree tops, 
dead grain and drowned-out grass. I ad¬ 
mired the way Spring went at it. A faint 
tinge of red stole over the maples. Then 
the willows put out a smear of green 
which seemed to jump from one rye field 
to another. Then the grass gave a start 
on the low places, and the color crawled 
up the steep hills. The crab apple trees 
joined in and almost in a single night put 
on their full dress. The peaches and apri¬ 
cots burst into flower, the great cherry 
trees by the old Dutch houses turned white 
with joy, and every living thing came 
rushing with its new dress to welcome 
Spring. It seems to me that Spring never 
came so gently and yet so gloriously be¬ 
fore. I suppose that as a fellow gets older 
these annual earth cleanings mean more 
than they did when life was all ahead. 
Futures are cheap to the young, for it 
seems to them that Nature asks no pay 
for her lavish beauty. As we grow older 
we see the bill that we owe written all 
over the hills and plains, and we realize 
that we must work while the day lasts if 
we are to cancel the claim. Take Sunday 
afternoon in our section when Spring is 
starting things, and you will find whole 
volumes of life history written on the faces 
of those who live on the lonely hills. There 
are sad-faced women who sit with hard 
and stiff hands folded on their laps—look¬ 
ing off—nowhere and everywhere. I drove 
past a man who is stone deaf—hopelessly 
so. He was leaning on the fence near his 
home looking down the valley at the clean 
finger-marks of Spring. There are many 
people who imagine that life has soured 
whenever Spring starts in. The rhubarb 
that is growing out in the garden will 
brush most of their troubles away when 
it gets large enough, but to many farm 
people the Spring does bring sad thoughts 
that for a time are hard to put aside. 
Paying Up.—I know people who feel 
every ache and loss of power when Spring 
comes along. Then they growl—as sav¬ 
agely as their wives will permit! They 
mourn the loss of teeth and temper, eye¬ 
sight, hearing, activity, limber joints and 
dozens of other faculties or powers which 
they know perfectly well are legitimate 
debts which they must pay to advancing 
years. Such men often say in their hearts: 
“Oh, if Spring could only come twice in 
life and give such as I am a new lease 
of power!” Suppose such a man, at that 
moment, were brought face to face with 
the Great Ruler of the seasons and talked 
to In this way: 
“Yes, you may have your youth and 
your full strength again—just like the 
grass and the trees if you are content to 
give your life as they do!” 
“Why, I would give anything to be young 
again! How do they live?” 
“For the glory of Qod alone! Take your 
youth back again—the only condition being 
that you ignore yourself and live to help 
and uplift others alone!” 
I sometimes wonder how many of us 
would accept such an offer! “All/” you 
say? If that is so why do we not realize 
at 50 that physical youth is no longer pos¬ 
sible, but that every force we ever pos¬ 
sessed may yet be devoted to spiritual 
youth? When you come to think of it, 
what can you ever do for yourself that 
wilt really be permanentf 
Grain Notes.— The oats and peas lay 13 
days in the ground before breaking 
through the surface. They came up 
nearly together, though the peas were 
plowed under and the oats covered with 
the Acme. The boys were afraid the peas 
would not get through—but here they are! 
The clover seeded among the oats and 
peas has started nicely. Will it live or 
will the other crop smother it? I think it 
will live! .... The beardless barley 
came above ground in eight days. This is 
nty first experience with barley. It starts 
vigorously and appears to grow faster than 
the oats at first. I have yet to see why it 
is best of the Spring grains for seeding to 
clover and grass. The Alfalfa appears to 
be starting, though I am not familiar with 
the little plant. We did not use lime, but 
otherwise did the best we could to get the 
Alfalfa started on average soil. The 
ground had one good plowing, three times 
working with the Acme, and twice with 
the weeder. At first I wanted to use the 
roller, but was advised not to do so. My 
neighbor’s horses broke into the field and 
rolled in several places. Where the soil is 
thus packed down I notice that the barley 
started a little ahead, but so far as I can 
make out the Alfalfa does not come through 
the crust. This field is at the top of a 
steep hill where the winds are strong. I 
notice that the soil blows worse on the 
packed places than where the ridges are 
left by the harrow. 
Insect vs. Insect.— Those who think the 
17-year locusts cannot hurt a young- tree 
should see an apple orchard in our valley. 
The locusts struck it 17 years ago, shortly 
after it was set out. The branches are all 
snarled and crooked. The locusts stung 
the young twigs so many times that when 
they finally grew they were warped and 
twisted out of shape. Why, the heads of 
those trees start out from the trunk like 
the fingers on an old rheumatic hand, 
where the joints are all stiff and clogged 
up! Prof. J. B. Smith, of the New Jersey 
Station, has sent me a number of egg 
clusters of the Praying mantis, an insect 
that will eat a half-dozen locusts with 
greater relish than you would eat a turkey 
dinner. We have tied these egg clusters on 
low shrubs and twigs all over the farm. 
The scientific name of this friend of horti¬ 
culture is Mantis religiosa, and if we do 
not help populate Bergen County with this 
religious insect it will be the fault of this 
sitting of eggs which Prof. Smith sent 
When you come to think of it—what a 
period of the world’s history we are living 
in! Here is a man in a laboratory who 
breeds these insects and induces them to 
lay their eggs in their own baskets. He 
ties a thread through those baskets and 
sends them by mail to us. We tie them 
to shrubs and—await results. Philip and 
Charlie are a little skeptical about what 
will come from those eggs. Hugh firmly 
believes that we shall hatch out a breed 
of fierce-looking things that will fight like 
tigers to help save our little Stringfellow 
trees. He has tied most of the clusters 
right on to those hopeful experiments! 
Cornell seems to have given Hugh faith 
in man’s control of natural forces! This 
thing of setting bug against bug interests 
us all. What we want most is something 
to kill Potato bugs. Come, gentlemen, we 
don’t want to ask too much, but if you 
can send us any crawling or flying bull¬ 
dog that enjoys putting its teeth into the 
clothes of Potato bugs I’ll guarantee to 
ruise a monument to your memory; 
Labor Notes.—I have been criticised for 
trying to divide our work into three de¬ 
partments, and giving each man one. 
Some farmers think they can accomplish 
more by working all hands together at 
one job and crowding it hard. Tnat is not 
always true. I knew a man who hit upon 
the scheme for working a man and boy 
together. He argued that the boy would 
try to keep up with the man and thus do 
a man’s job. It worked the other day. 
The man slacked up to accommodate the 
boy, and thus did a boy’s job. As we are 
situated, it pays us best to give each man 
the class of work he can do best. Of 
course there are times when they all have 
to work together .... The question 
of how to interest children in work has 
bothered me. I believe that every child 
should grow up with the habit of doing 
some useful work every day. At the same 
time, I can see the danger in having the 
child look upon work as a punishment or 
burden. The following dialogue between 
Philip and the Scion gave me an idea: 
“Philip, do you like to work?’ 
“No—I can’t say that I do!” 
“Well, I don’t—but is fishing work?” 
“Yes, fishermen have to work hard!” 
“Then I guess I like to work after all!” 
There you have it in a nutshell. The 
difference between work and play is that 
one only whets the edge of a desire, while 
the other gratifies it! I see no reason why 
a child should be forced to toil without 
reward or any sense of ownership in the 
proceeds of his labor! I try to make our 
little chaps see that they get something 
for their labor. It seems to me that one 
of the safest things you can plant in the 
heart of a child is the sense of ownership, 
and a feeling that part of his labor is his 
own! The little boys agreed to throw 500 
pieces of wood into the shed every fore¬ 
noon. Their count must have run down 
early! I tried to engage the Bud to keep 
tally, but she was far too busy. 
“Why, I have to sew and set the table 
and hold the baby and help Mother and 
everything!” 
The idea of such a busy little house¬ 
keeper stopping to keep tally on two boys 
who wanted to get through and play ball 
was too much! She is really more helpful 
to society than some grown-up women! 
So I asked the boys what they would 
charge to throw in all the wood and split 
it! After some little thought they said 
they would do it for $2.50. 1 wouldn’t do 
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The Side Delivery 
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TOLEDO, OHIO. jj 
