1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
4o3 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
All Sorts.—I have made remarks at 
various times about the beauty of our 
water system. Beauty fades like every¬ 
thing else. The time came when the pump 
refused to take a full mouthful of water. 
The wind died down to a dead calm and 
the tank ran dry. The plumber had more 
work than he could do; it was washing 
day and the Madame was in full posses¬ 
sion of her vocabulary. There are times 
when a man has to be as dumb as an 
oyster in order to preserve and not jam 
his dignity. The most provoking thing 
about it was the way the water continued 
to run down hill from the spring. Had I 
piped the water from the spring in the first 
place, there would have been no drought 
at the house. Let water run on its own 
legs and it will beat all the pumps that 
ever were made. At the time we put up 
the windmill the price of iron pipe was 
all out of reach. I do not regret my well 
and mill. As for the spring I expect to 
find use for all its water another year for 
a pond and for irrigation.The 
weather through May was cold and dry. 
Lven on our heavy soils the grass and 
grain suffered. A few showers in late May 
helped somewhat, but the chances now 
are for short grass. I may have to cut 
one field of wheat for hay in order to carry 
all the stock through.The beard¬ 
less barley thus far has made a better 
growth than the oats, and, if we can have 
rain enough it will give us a fair crop of 
hay. I shall cut it early, as this will give 
the Alfalfa a better chance. Side by side 
on the same hill Red clover makes a better 
showing thus far than the Alfalfa. It is 
stronger and has a better color. The little 
ragweeds are giving the young Alfalfa 
a good race. We will cut their hair with 
the mower in good time, and they will lose 
their strength like Samson, while the Al¬ 
falfa will grow at a faster clip the more 
it is clipped. I am not bragging about Al¬ 
falfa yet, but it is growing!. 
The egg clusters of Praying mantis have 
not yet hatched. Some of them have dis¬ 
appeared. The boys think the crows have 
eaten them, but it is more likely that the 
woodpeckers have a taste for eggs. There 
are enough left to populate the county. 
.It is claimed tnat a spray of 
whitewash on the little trees will keep the 
locusts from laying their eggs. I find peo¬ 
ple who are daubing whitewash on the 
trunks of trees to kill locusts. You might 
just as well vaccinate a man’s rubber boots 
to protect him from smallpox. The eggs 
are laid on the tender young twigs. Why 
whitewash a tree trunk at all? 
Potato Points. —We are now eating im¬ 
ported potatoes at Hope Farm. I bought 
a sack of Magnums brought from Bel¬ 
gium. That’s pretty business for an 
American, you will say. I sold seed pota¬ 
toes at $1 a bushel, planted some and 
bought these Belgium tubers at 67 cents. 
1 don’t know why it isn’t good business to 
sell at $1 and buy at 67 cents. These Eu¬ 
ropean potatoes are good, far better than 
1 expected. They are really better for eat¬ 
ing than those of our own which we sold for 
seed! How they can be grown in Bel¬ 
gium, sent here, and sold at a profit at 67 
cents a bushel beats me. With ocean 
freights, handling and commission out, the 
grower cannot net over 25 cents. I bought 
this sack as an experiment. I wanted to 
see just what this foreign product is. I 
am frank to say that I doubt whether our 
own potatoes could be shipped to Europe 
and turn out of the pot as dry and mealy 
as these do. As for selling them on the 
other side at $2 per barrel we should lose 
money on every tuber we dug. Now how 
can the Belgian farmer grow potatoes for 
our market while we cannot do it for his? 
1 am told that land values and rents are 
far higher with him than with us, and 
that taxes and all public burdens are 
higher. Labor, i take it, is cheaper, but 
the soil is centuries older in cultivation 
than ours, yet I understand they get 
double our yields per acre. How is it 
done? . . . We never had a better start on 
potatoes. The sprouts show above ground 
as thick as your thumb, and start right 
into business. We never spent so much 
time in preparing the ground and picking 
out the nest seed. The crop is many days 
off, however. ... I am asked why and 
how we use sulphur on the potato seed. 
We formerly soaked the seed in formalde¬ 
hyde and then dusted it with sulphur. We 
have found that the sulphuring alone gives 
us a clean crop. In cutting seed we try 
to throw out the scabby tubers. We 
cut them into peach baskets, throwing 
a handful of sulpnur when the basket is 
one-,third full and repeating it as more 
seed is cut in. The basket is well shaken, 
and this gives the seed a good dusting. 
This is quicker, cheaper and handier than 
soaking. It suits us, though several have 
reported failure with it. I feel sure that 
the sulphur keeps the seed piece from rot¬ 
ting and is particularly useful in wet soils 
or seasons. I think the sulphur also sours 
the soil in the hill slightly and thus holds 
back scab germs which may be in the 
soil. My observation indicates that in 
some way the sulphur gives a healthier 
plant, though the scientific men ^ay this 
is nonsense! 
Making Bordeaux.— Judge Blowhard 
says that everybody ought to know how 
to make Bordeaux Mixture. I might agree 
with him, but the questions I get indicate 
that lots of people fall short of their 
oughts. I have heard people call it the 
Borducks Mixture, never having heard 
the word pronounced. At the risk of shock¬ 
ing Judge Blowhard and his scientific 
friends I will answer a few of the ques¬ 
tions. What is the theory of the Bordeaux 
Mixture? Plant diseases are caused by 
tiny germs or fungi. Copper kills these 
germs or prevents their spreading, some¬ 
what as sulphur will destroy or weaken 
a disease on the skin. The object is to 
dissolve the copper and spray it, so as to 
give a thin coating all over the foliage. 
If the copper does the business why use 
the lime? 
The copper alone would burn or scald 
the plants. Dissolve it in a metal dish, 
and it will eat its way out! The lime neu¬ 
tralizes the acid, so that the copper can 
be sprayed over the leaf without biting it. 
Lime pulls its teeth! Mother might feel 
that the family situation demanded a few 
words from her! She barbs a few verbal 
arrows and lets them go! That would be 
pure sulphate of copper, for they might 
scald things raw. Father puts in a soft 
word or two, or, what is harder still, says 
nothing and goes and feeds the hens! That 
represents the lime, and the whole be¬ 
comes a helpful family Bordeaux Mixture. 
How much copper shall we use? 
Hugh uses four gallons of his stock so¬ 
lution to a barrel of water. 
What do you mean by “stock solution?” 
A liquid in which one pound of sulphate 
of copper is dissolved in one gallon of 
water. The barrel is filled about two- 
thirds full of water. Then the four gal¬ 
lons of solution are put in. Then we add 
a pound of Lewis lye dissolved in a gallon 
of water, and add lime until the test shows 
that the copper has lost its teeth. 
What good does the lye do? 
Less lime is required and it makes the 
Bordeaux sticky, so that it holds to the 
foliage better. 
Nice, easy job to spray it? 
No. If you hear any one say so tell 
them they don’t know what they are talk¬ 
ing about and cnarge it to me. It is a 
hard, dirty job. It is hard work to drive 
the stuff through a fine nozzle and it gets 
into your mouth and all over you. It pays 
though, if you have a strong pump and 
can make time to use it. 
Questions.—H ow long did you feed 
green rye? 
About 12 days. After that it was too 
hard for green fodder and we cut and 
cured it for horse hay. 
Did the horses like it? 
We didn’t ask them. That was all they 
had and they cleaned it up. 
Is it safe to feed oats that were treated 
with formalin to kill smut? 
Yes, we have found them harmless. The 
poisonous gas evaporates and leaves the 
oats free. As ordinarily used there would 
not be enough poison in an average feed 
to do any harm. 
What did you do this year with Crimson 
clover? 
We began feeding it to the cows May 24. 
It was then in rich bloom and remained 
good for eight days. As soon as it was 
cut the ground was plowed and put in fod¬ 
der corn and pumpkins. 
So you are planting pumpkins? 
Yes, we have them in about five acres of 
corn and a few by themselves. When 
planted in the corn I regard them as about 
as near to a stolen crop as a Jerseyman 
can get and not deserve punishment. 
I do not see that they take much 
from the corn, tnough they do not make 
a hard job of cutting. They are very use¬ 
ful on a farm where hogs and cows are 
kept. The children will try to raise a few 
big ones to show at the fair. 
How will they do it? 
Plant in hills with plenty of manure. 
L'hen cut to the strongest plant and pick 
off all but one good flower. Make extra 
roots by covering some of the joints with 
dirt. Keep the hill well watered with 
liquid manure. 
What liquid manure do you use? 
Philip keeps a barrel of it. Fine ma¬ 
nure is put in first, then water enough 
to make a thick liquid. Slops from the 
house with more water are added, and 
several big handfuls of muriate of pot¬ 
ash. This makes a fertilizer that sends 
plants up into the air. 
How large litters do your Berkshires 
give? 
Thus far this year they have run from 
six to twelve. The average Is about 
If you want a harvesting machine that 
is reliable—one that will work success¬ 
fully in all conditions of grain—buy the 
McCormick.— Adv. 
eight. In breeding purebred pigs I do 
not care for large litters. The best speci¬ 
mens I have are from small families. We 
are troubled more than we like with too 
much white on the face, otherwise the 
Berks are good ones. 
Do you find it true that a good sow 
will give as much profit as a cow? 
Our sows will eat on the average not 
far from $6 worth of grain in a year at 
present prices. The rest of their food is 
coarse stuff from the farm on which one 
can hardly put a price. They ought to 
raise on an average 15 good pigs in a 
year. At weaning, which is when we sell 
most of our pigs, the purebreds will bring 
at least $5 each and the grades $3. As a 
rule the grades have the larger litters. 
When killed the sow will pay for her last 
year’s food in pork. 
Meat Prices.— I am asked by western 
readers what their meats costs when sold 
at retail. Our butcher charged 22 cents 
a pound for a piece of beef which but a 
few months ago would have sold for 16 
cents. It was not the best cut. In some 
cases I know that city people pay 35 cents 
a pound for prime steak. All through our 
country farmers buy western meat. Last 
Fall, when grain went so high, there was 
a rush to sell off stock. Even now some 
of these farmers have not bought pigs, 
because they think it will cost too much 
to keep them, when the fields and fence 
corners are full of grass and weeds! The 
big prices for meat have certainly stopped 
people from buying. They will eat eggs, 
cheese and old hens. Great crops of corn 
are being planted in the East. My opin-- 
ion is that more meat animals than ever 
before will be fed on eastern farms during 
the next few years. Right or wrong, our 
farmers have an idea that the wholesale 
meat dealers are getting more than their 
share of what the consumer pays for meat. 
For my part I like to see good prices foi 
all farm produce, and, if the farmer js to 
get his fair share of it I am satisfied to 
pay well for what I have to buy. The 
methods of the wholesale meat dealers 
are calculated to kill off all competition. 
I think they are doing great injury to the 
western tarmer s business, for they will 
surely drive us into competition, and we 
shall find ways of selling our meat stock 
without having their finger marks on it. 
_ H. W. C. 
In every town 
and village 
may be had, 
j^-9 the 
that makes your 
horses glad. 
Before Buying a New Harness 
Send 4c. postage for Illustrated Catalogue; full 
description and prices single and 
double Oak Leather Harness direct 
to consumer at Wholesale Prices and 
Save Money. Address 
KING HARNESS CO., 
610 Church St., Owego, N. Y. 
For the Roofs and 
Sides of your Bams* 
and Poultry-Hoi 
NITRATE OF SODA 
Canker Worms.— It seems quite difficult 
in this vicinity seriously to affect these 
pests. Spraying with the arsenites or dust¬ 
ing with the new-fangled blowers does not 
exterminate them. The only satisfactory 
method that I have found after a six years 
siege is to put on the poison strong enough 
to burn up all the foliage and thus starve 
them to death. The foliage will grow again 
while the Canker worms will not. I have 
sprayed from their first appearance to the 
day of their exit—using one-half pound 
Paris-green or its equivalent, sometimes 
three-fourths to one pound, to 50 gallons of 
water. They run their three weeks course 
and then depart, taking the foliage with 
them. If we do not spray or dust until 
they are about fully grown we are quite 
likely to be well pleased with our work, 
as they then disappear in a few days, and 
we think we have done it. I think our 
Canker worms are different from those we 
read about, where they say it is only peo¬ 
ple that are too lazy to spray that are 
troubled by them. o. d. h. 
Table Rock, Neb. 
THE STANDARD AMMONIATE 
FOR 
Money Crops 
Sugar Beets, Fruit, Wheat, 
Corn, Grass, Truck. 
You get YOU It share of tho profit when you use this 
local precligested Ammonlate as plant food. 
For intrinsic value costs 20 per cent less than other 
ummoniates. 
Send post card for formulas and free bulletins. 
WILLIAM S. MYERS, Director, 
12 R Jolm Street, New York. 
cu m s a t d°e m vehicles 
.Manufactured at our OWN FACTORY and Sold Direct to YOli. 
SAVE JOBBERS 
PROFITS 
| 26° 5 
X- SUPPLY 
HOUSE 
$40.00 RUNABOUT, - $26.10. 
$35.00 OI»KN BUGGY, $22.00. 
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Repairs lowest prices. Harness $3.95. 
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