1902 
355 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
hope farm notes 
The WEATKER.-We are not complaln- 
Ing, because we have found that such com¬ 
plaint does no good. April was mostly 
dry and blowy. We were able to get all 
our grain and Alfalfa in, and the first po¬ 
tatoes and the garden all planted before 
the postponed April showers let loose. On 
April 29 we found that the weather clerk 
had dipped his finger in muddy water and 
written RAIN all over the sky! There 
was an acre or more of ground all fitted 
for potatoes, over 200 fruit trees to set and 
a great bunch of cabbage plants to plant! 
Charlie and I went at the potatoes, Hugh 
tackled the trees and Philip turned cab¬ 
bage for the time being. Before we got 
the seed cut the drizzle began, but we only 
scattered a little more sulphur on the 
seed pieces and made for the field. We 
both dropped until 10 rows were ready, and 
then Charlie began to plow them in while 
I kept on dropping, with the children to 
help. We are covering potatoes this year 
by running a small one-horse plow up and 
down each row so as to throw a ridge of 
fresh earth over the potatoes. About 10 
days after planting, these ridges are 
smoothed down with the Acme. This is 
Charlie’s idea. He has struck a notion for 
plowing all potato ground three times, and 
I believe it to be a good thing. All through 
the day the drizzle kept growing nearer to 
steady rain and by five o’clock down it 
came in a stream. It was pleasant to 
stand in the barn door and watch the rain. 
The potatoes were planted, the trees all 
in the ground and the garden all under 
way! Of course the rain held up the plow 
on that wet field where the last potatoes 
are to be planted and also on the corn 
ground, but it gives Frank’s sore shoulder 
a chance to heal, and what could be better 
for the barley and Alfalfa? I am glad to 
say that we are fixed this year so that 
rain or dry something on the farm will be 
the better for it! May opens wet and cold, 
but I still expect a dry season. 
Fruit Planting. —You speak of planting 
a lot of fruit trees. I thought you said you 
would not plant this Spring! 
I said so and did not intend to. Still, the 
trees have been planted? 
Why do you keep making plans and 
then breaking them? 
Because many of our plans seem to be 
like eggs. I don’t mean that they smash 
if you touch them, but there is something 
inside that hatches out unexpectedly and 
you have to jump to take care of it. Right 
at the tail end of the planting season—the 
most remarkable bargain in a choice lot 
of trees that 1 ever heard of was pushed 
right at me. A man born as close to Cape 
Cod as I was can’t make a plan stout 
enough to resist a bargain like that, so we 
took these trees right in, and will make 
the best fight we can against the locusts. 
Stringfellow method? 
Yes, or as close to it as we can with 
large trees so far advanced. 
What varieties? 
That’s the great beauty of it. We have, 
1 think, as fine a selection of newer and 
choice varieties as you can find anywhere 
near us. There will be all told over uO 
sorts of well-tested apples and a fine selec¬ 
tion of plums. Some of the trees are small, 
and we have started a nursery of over 400 
trees, and Hugh is making many root- 
grafts of such varieties as Sutton Beauty, 
Grimes Golden, Rlbston pippin. Green¬ 
ing and Russet. This thing took us by 
surprise and changed our plans, but the 
trees are all planted and promise to live! 
All Sorts.—How the Orchard grass does 
shoot up! It’s a good second to the rye. 
The seed we sowed last Fall was slow in 
starting, but now promises to make a 
good stand. This is surely the stuff for 
shady places!.Charlie has got 
to be close to a crank on stirring up the 
soil this year, and Philip wants to pick up 
every stone in his garden. Let him alone 
and there won’t be a stone large enough 
for a boy to break a window with on the 
lower farm? Charlie says that, if two 
years ago when we used so much fertilizer, 
we had worked the soil as he is now doing, 
“we would be selling potatoes yet! 
.Speaking of stones, I am asked 
about stone drains. A friend wants to 
know if he cannot dig deep ditches, fill 
them nearly full with loose stones, cover— 
and have good drains! He can use stones 
in this way, but the drains will never be 
satisfactory. They will soon clog up and 
fail. Every drain should have a clear 
“throat” if you expect it to help sing the 
mortgage to sleep. I like to leave an open 
space at the bottom by using three flat 
stones, two for the sides and one laid across 
the top. This leaves a square open throat 
for the water. Above this throat the or¬ 
dinary stones can be piled taking care not 
to break the flat ones. With plenty of 
fall such a drain will nearly equal tile, 
and, on such a farm as mine, would be 
The Pump 
That Pumps 
SPRAY 
PUMPS 
Double-acting, Lift, 
Tank and Spray 
jr pumps 
Store Ladders, Etc. 
EIShaytools 
of all kinds. Write for 
Circulars and Prices. 
‘MYERS STAYON 
Flexible Door Hangers 
with steel roller bearings, 
easy to push and to pull, 
ennnut be thrown off the 
truck— hence its name— 
“Stay on.” Has no equal. 
. Thousands sold. Ask your 
1 dealer or write us for de- 
' acriptive circular!!. 
MYERS & BRO., Ashland, Ohio. 
NITRATE OF SODA 
THE STANDARD AMMONIATE 
♦ FOR 
Money Crops 
The Side Delivery 
Hay Windrower 
and Clover Buncher 
Is the best haymaker on the market. 
Saves all raking and tedding. Fits any 
mower. If your dealer doesn't handle 
It, write us for catalogue. 
The Side Delivery Buncher Co., 
TOLEDO, OHIO. 
IRECT DRAFT 
TRADE MARK REGISTERED 
... . - - £ v 
Roofing is the only covering for poultry houses that keeps the chicks cool iu 
Summer and warm in Winter. Preserves an even, dry temperature always.' 
Ten years without an equal. Never melts or rots. Write for Booklet K. 
THE STANDARD PAINT CO., 102 William St., New York. 
cheaper.The one question that 
is asked oftener than any other just now 
is whether we can kill smut in corn by 
soaking the seed in formalin as we do oats 
or potatoes. No—it will d& no good to soak 
seed corn because the little germs that 
cause the smut enter the corn plant from 
the outside when the ear is forming. 
These germs are on tne seed oats and we 
soak to kill them there. As an illustra¬ 
tion, we sprayed the children’s throats 
when they had whooping cough—it would 
not do to bathe the Seedling in medicated 
water and thus guarantee her against the 
cough. The smut comes to the corn from 
the outside just as much as the cough does. 
Fruit Notes. —The change of plans forced 
upon us by planting those trees prevented 
us from giving the first spraying. This 
should have been done just before the 
trees came in bloom. We found it im¬ 
possible to get at it before the bloom was 
open. That I believe is the worst time to 
spray, so we waited until the little apples 
began to turn down.Our prom¬ 
ise is not good for a full crop of fruit this 
year. For the first time our early apples 
are shy. For the first time also some of 
the Greening trees promise a fair crop in 
the odd season. Last August we put nitrate 
of soda and potash on this orchard to start 
the grass. Can it be that this fertilizer 
helped develop and start the fruit buds 
on the Greening trees? I think so and 
experts tell me that by manuring late in 
the season and thinning out the young 
fruit they have been able to make such 
trees bear fair crops every year! It seems 
to me like one of the greatest triumphs of 
horticulture to be able to feed a bad habit 
out of an old tree!.Our trans¬ 
planted wild strawberries look well. What 
do we expect to gain by digging up these 
wild plants and giving them tame care? 
We may get a desirable variety. I had two 
good ones in this way once—which were 
dug up by mistake. At any rate, we get 
some early fruit of high quality, learn 
something, and have some fun, hoping that 
these wild runaways will put on the har¬ 
ness of civilization and respond to fair 
treatment!.The crab apples for 
some unexpected reason fail to bloom 
freely this year. The very trees which we 
have given the best care are laziest. Are 
crab apples like humans in this respect? 
and thinking. I don’t think it a sin.” 
Michigan. E. H. 
I have never raised willows. On the 
marshes in the lower part of this county 
there were formerly many willows grown 
by Poles and Italians. I notice that most 
plantations have been abandoned. It Is 
pretty safe figuring that when a foreigner 
can’t make willows pay an American would 
surely fail! I learn that most of our 
baskets and basket stock are imported. I 
am shy about giving direct advice about 
most things, but willow culture for profit 
is one of the things about which I hang 
up the Don’t sign. ‘ I shall plant some wil¬ 
lows along the lane and at one low point 
on the hillside, for beauty, not for baskets. 
I conclude that it will pay better to drain 
these wet fields and suit them for crops 
that do not need webs on their fet. 
I fear that the small manufacturing 
business is doomed in this country. I have 
seen cooper, shoemaker, hat maker, cloth 
spinner and miller squeezed out of a small 
individual business by the great concerns. 
I have no desire to match untrained human 
fingers against the great basket-making 
machines that are now coming into use. 
I have some improved chestnuts started, 
but I think peaches and apples will pay us 
better. Our chestnut timber gives a fair 
income now, and I do not want to cut the 
woods all down. From what I have seen 
of chestnut culture by those who claim 
most for it, I conclude that like the ginseng 
business the profit lies in selling trees or 
seeds to those who want to start. I’ve been 
starting for a good many years. Now I 
want something that stands a show of 
finishing! As for the stone wall—I expect 
to pass a fair share of every clear Sunday 
afternoon near it! h. w. c. 
“New Method” for Onions.— In regard 
to the new onion culture, the growers 
around here raised their crop that way for 
several years, principally for green bunch 
onions, but have now gone to raising from 
sets, as they bring about two-thirds the 
price of the Prizetaker and can be grown 
twice as thick. We can also sell five or 
six dozen of the smaller to one of the 
larger, on account of the difference in 
price, the Prizetake” being too large to 
use on the table without slicing. 1 know 
of no one now growing onions by the new 
method. Sets can also be planted much 
faster than the green onions can be trans¬ 
planted. J. L. F. 
Brooklyn, O. 
Stock Notes.— By May 6 the rye was 
large enough to cut and haul to the cows. 
After this date the stalks rapidly became 
too hard for easy eating. We shall cut all 
the rye on the lower farm for green fodder 
or hay. Thus the ground can be manured 
and plowed for sweet corn or squash. The 
wheat comes in after the rye and makes 
better feed both green and cured. 
The oats and peas are excellent thus far. 
The peas were slow to crawl out of the 
soil, but once on top they proceed to shake 
the kinks out of their legs. The oats will 
have a big job to hold these sturdy fel¬ 
lows up. We shall have enough to cure 
for hay!.The field around the 
hog house has been seeded to Essex rape. 
The garden is not far away and all wastes 
from it will be dumped into the pens. Our 
roots are all gone, and the sows eat a good 
hole in the grain bins. From June 1 to 
December 1 the cost of feeding will be 
greatly cut down. May is our most ex¬ 
pensive month for hog feeding. Hugh is 
preparing the ground for sugar beets. I 
want three times as many roots this sea¬ 
son as we have ever grown before. 
.The filly is prospering. She has 
been well fed and is large and strong for 
her age. Charlie has her so that she will 
come to him in the pasture and will wear 
the entire harness, including the crupper, 
without a kick or a nip. You can handle 
her all over, lift her feet—in fact, she will 
need no breaking. I expect a strong, 
swift, gentle horse from that filly. Her 
father is a gentleman on hoofs. He was 
never trained and pushed, but he covered a 
trial mile in 2:19, and his sons have, with 
training, got inside of 2:8! The natural 
tendencies for speed, beauty and good man¬ 
ners are there. Training for a race might 
destroy the good manners. We are satis¬ 
fied with the natural traits. 
Wants to Know.—T his Michigan man is 
after information: 
“Tell us about basKet willow, where to 
be had, culture, demand, profit, etc. Why 
don’t you grow it on your wet land and 
make fancy baskets Winters? Millions of 
baskets are used annually. Why not saw 
your timber and make berry baskets Win¬ 
ters? Why not grow Japan chestnuts on 
your chestnut hills, for market, or Japan 
walnuts? Plant willow where the hills 
gully. It will hold it. Don’t be scared 
about sitting on the stone fence Sundays 
If you want the best, the most im¬ 
proved and the most reliable hinder in 
the world—buy the McCormick—it is 
the unit of measure in harvesting ma¬ 
chines.— Adv. 
WATER. 
Rider-Ericsson Engine Company, 
35 Warren St.. New York. 692 Craig St., Montreal. P. Q. 40 Dearborn St., Chicago. 
239 Franklin St., Boston. Teniente-Key 71, Havana, Cuba. 40 N.7th St., Philadelphia. 
22a Pitt St., Sydney, N.S. W. 
Sugar Beets, Fruit, Wheat, 
Corn, Grass, Truck. 
You get YOUR share of the profit when you use this 
ideal predigested Ammonlate as plant food. 
For intrinsic value costs 20 per cent less than other 
aruinoniates. 
Send post card for formulas and free bulletins. 
WILLIAM S. MYERS, Director, 
13 R .Tolm Street, New York. 
BEFORE BUYING ffiRSfffi! 
A NEW HARNESS aiogue glv- 
———lng full de¬ 
scription and prices of all kinds of single and 
double harness and save 25 per cent. 
King Harness Co. 510 Church St., Ow«go,N.Y. 
Your Water Supply 
can be utilized to raise Itself by the 
R | CT hydraulic 
I r“ ENGINE. 
Best for farms, country rem¬ 
and irrigation. Pumps 30 
high for every foo t of fall. 
Sold on 30 days trial. 
POWER SPECIALTY CO.. 
120 Liberty St., New York 
If you want water only when the wind blows a windmill will do your work 
and cost less money than our Rider and Ericsson Hot-AirPumps, butif you want 
water every day whilo your flowers are growing and do not want your pump blown 
down when the wind blows too hard, no pump In the world can equal ours. We 
have sold about 20,000 of them during the past twenty-five years, which is proof 
that we are not making wild statements. 
Our Catalogue “C 4” will tell you all about them. Write to nearest store. 
BAKER’S TRACELESS HARNESS 
Saves its cost every season. Best farm and field harness. 
Adapted to all kinds of low down work where whiffletrees 
and traces are objectionable or may interfere with work. 
Very valuable for work in orchards or about young trees, 
equally good elsewhere Catalogue free. 
Oil AD AIITCC Give it a week’s trial, and if not perfectly 
UUAnAn I CC satisfied, return the harness to us at our 
expense, and we will return your money. 
B. F. BAKER CO.. 220 Main St„ Burnt Hills, N. Y. 
;oo£ =* 
