1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
467 
HOPE FARM /VOTES 
Garden Notes.—Do we understand you 
to say that you advise transplanting 
onions? 
No. Our transplants look well ettough 
and are growing rapidly. I do not think 
we lost one in setting. I doubt the wisdom 
of attempting it on a large scale unless 
one has a glasshouse in which to start 
the sets. I would not try it with only hot¬ 
beds or flats kept in a living room. One 
advantage of the system is that you can 
avoid Onion smut. By putting the seed 
in soil free from disease you get the little 
plants started well. When set out they 
are too large to be seriously injured. 
Can’t you prevent smut when the seed 
is sown outdoors? 
I think it can be largely prevented by 
using lime and sulphur. Some of the drills 
now have boxes for feeding out this mix¬ 
ture with the seed. 
Why do you plant so many Nott’s Ex¬ 
celsior peas? 
It is the best all-around variety we have 
grown. It is a dwarf and will not yield 
anywhere near as much to the row as some 
of the large varieties, yet it can be crowd¬ 
ed close and run in between other crops to 
good advantage. For quality we rank It 
with the best. It is very hardy, rarely 
mildews with us, and can usually be 
planted late in the season with fair chance 
of a crop. 
How late do you plant peas? 
Our last planting of American Wonder 
came through the ground June 21. We 
shall plant Nott’s up to the middle of July 
between the rows of early sweet corn 
where the Alaska peas grew. I have 
found that peas planted directly after peas 
are quite likely to thrive. 
Why do you plant so many peas? 
They sell better than any other vege¬ 
table and are never out of season. Our 
own people are never tired of them. We 
have many a satisfactory meal of peas, 
bread and butter and fruit. 
Marketing.— People may talk all they 
will about cutting out the middleman, but 
they will find that he has to face respon¬ 
sibilities after all. When customers find 
short measure and too many little ones at 
the bottom they don’t hesitate to mention 
it. There is no good reason why they 
should whisper it, either. The Hope Farm 
plan is to give good measure and never 
sell a gold brick. A Berkshire breeder re¬ 
cently found fault with me for talking 
about these white-faced Berkshires. 
“Say nothing,” he said, “but sell ’em. 
A little extra white doesn’t count!” 
“But haven’t you a standard scale of 
points for the breed?” 
“Yes, of course!” 
“What do you have that for if you are 
not to live up to it?” 
Direct selling certainly shows a fellow 
the folly of trying to work off trash for 
first-class goods. You might work that 
awhile on the middleman, but it won’t go 
with the consumer. We guarantee all our 
goods. The big ones are often at the bot¬ 
tom and the only water in the milk is 
what the cow drinks.The Graft 
is learning the business. It was necessary 
for him to give a receipt for his first bill 
the other day. That was a new business 
responsibility. He had written his name 
before, but never when it represented 
money. The Graft has acknowledged only 
two names up to date. He couldn’t see 
the use of any third name, but when he 
saw that signature on the bill it didn’t 
seem well filled out somehow. So he came 
and told me that he had decided to put 
my name between his two and thus be a 
full business man. This little chap will 
learn some day that the size of the name 
doesn’t count, but that reputation does. 
If he gets in a hurry and gives short 
measure or puts old peas in with the good 
ones he’ll find that my name won’t help 
him make excuses. 
Yes, a good reputation is always grati¬ 
fying. 
Not always. When the Cutting was a 
little girl she and her sister were put at 
a field of onions. They got on their knees 
and pulled weeds until their fingers fairly 
ached to get at the throat of the man 
who invented onions! They did such a fine 
job that a neighbor said he must have 
them come and weed out his turnips! 
All Sorts.—T he following note comes 
from New York: 
“In your Hope Farm Notes of May 31, 
in speaking of Bordeaux Mixture, you say: 
‘This test is made by dropping a solution 
of ferrocyanide of potash into the Bor¬ 
deaux.’ How you make your solution is 
what I would like to know.” 
Hugh dissolved an ounce of ferrocyanide 
of potash in a pint of warm water. In 
making the Bordeaux he filled the barrel 
about two-thirds full with water and then 
added four gallons of his solution of sul¬ 
phate of copper—a pound in each gallon. 
Then the gallon of water containing the 
pound of Lewis lye went in and then the 
lime water. It was kept well stirred and 
every now and then a small quantity taken 
out in a saucer for testing. A few drops 
of the ferrocyanide in this saucerful told 
the story. The test with blue litmus paper 
gave about as good results. You are to 
keep adding lime water until the blue 
paper retains its color—does not turn red. 
Do you believe there is any use in going 
through all these motions? 
Yes; if you are to use the Bordeaux 
Mixture at all it pays to have it right. 
There was a time when people decided 
the temperature of cream by sticking a 
finger in it or smelt of it to see when it 
was sour enough to churn. How long do 
you think a creamery would live if the 
butter-maker did business that way, and 
tested the amount of cream he lost by the 
amount of pork the hogs made? It seems 
to me that the most valuable help science 
gives us is the ability to do such things 
right if we do them at all. 
I have these questions from Pennsyl¬ 
vania: 
“I have 15 acres of well-drained hill land, 
mellow and deep. Can I seed it to Al¬ 
falfa? What about Turkestan Alfalfa? 
Can I get seed anywhere, and what does 
it cost a pound?” f. w. g. 
My experience shows that you can sow 
the Alfalfa, and that it will come up— 
what it will finally come to is too much 
for me to say at present. Our own seed¬ 
ing is still light-colored and makes but a 
feeble growth as compared with the clover. 
If you insist upon my being honest about 
it I must say that it looks too sick to re¬ 
cover. However, I have had so many 
things brace up unexpectedly and make 
me ashamed of myself for losing faith in 
them that I refuse to write failure on it 
yet! From what I can learn the Turkestan 
Alfalfa is better for the western plains 
but not so good for us.I have 
never known our potatoes to look as well 
as they do at this season of the year. 
The stems are big and the leaves a rich 
green, with no sign of disease. It surely 
looks like a crop, and the conditions all 
through our section are promising for po¬ 
tatoes. Prices? I bought a barrel of 
southern potatoes for $3. They were good 
size and fine quality. If the price is down 
to $3 thus early in the season, what will it 
be when our crop is ready? Well, we 
won’t worry about that until our crop is 
made, and then we shall probably find 
some bigger thing to absorb our worry. 
Fruit Notes.— The strawberries were 
very satisfactory. We sold nothing for 
less than two boxes for a quarter. Our 
big Marshalls attracted attention every¬ 
where. People say that this variety is not 
a heavy yielder. It has given more than 
an average, crop for us, and a quart of 
big ones will bring 20 per cent more than 
the little fellows.Our cherry 
crop was just about a failure. We banked 
on five large trees to give us over $3 worth 
of fruit apiece. The rot struck the fruit 
before it ripened, and swept it out of our 
reach. These trees are in a field where we 
are growing potatoes and squash, and 
have given good culture. The trees along 
the stone walls at the back of the farm 
are producing fine crops of cherries—free 
from rot, firm and of fine quality, though 
not so large as the cultivated fruit. Now, 
while my experience is limited, thus far 
I am quite sure that on my farm apples 
and peaches show the same peculiarities. 
I believe that the fruit from sod orchards, 
while smaller, is firmer and more likely to 
keep well than that from highly culti¬ 
vated fields. 
Do you pretend to know more about it 
than the experts do? 
No, no! Can’t a man give his opinion 
without being accused of setting up as 
an oracle? To tell the truth I don’t con¬ 
sult the experts half as much as I do the 
growth of the trees on my farm. 
Would you place the evidence of a dumb 
tree before that of a scientist who can 
talk a whole day about it? 
Yes, sir; when a tree growing right 
under my nose pulls the scientific man’s 
theory out by the roots I vote for the 
tree! 
I thought you said that science tells us 
how to do things rightl 
So it does show us now to test things, 
but testing living objects is very different 
from testing dead matter. A scientist 
may stake his life, If he wants to, on the 
fact that when sulphuric acid is dropped 
into lime water a white powder will fall, 
but he doesn’t want to risk any valuable 
life in telling just what a tree will do 
when cared for in any given way! 
Concentrated Force.— I was talking 
with a man recently who advanced the 
novel proposition that no one can make a 
success of farming but a big, strong, 
active man. He claims that the little 
fellows and those with physical defects 
cannot hope to succeed. “Talk all you 
will about science,” he says, “farming is 
hard work, and brute force is required to 
overcome the obstacles.” As I review in 
mind the people of my acquaintance who 
have made their farms really pay, I am 
surprised to see how many of them are 
undersized—light and active men. The big, 
beefy fellows can stand the shock of direct 
contact with work, but somehow the 
slight, steel-eyed chaps get around it and 
take it on the flank. It’s not unlike the 
big dog I ran into a short time since. 
He was a big bulldog with enough of some 
other blood in him to give size and weight. 
When you saw those thick lips curl back 
and those long sharp teeth come into view 
you recognized one of the “forces of na¬ 
ture” over which no man obtains control 
without a shot gun or some personal pull. 
This dog rolled up an eye at me and 
plainly intimated that it was his desire to 
lunch on my leg. Kick him? I would 
much rather kick a steel trap! A young 
girl of scarcely half my weight ran up 
with a stick and hit that dog over the 
nose. lie could easily have eaten her up, 
but instead of showing fight he dropped 
his tail between his legs and went slink¬ 
ing off down the road. He gave me one 
look which clearly said: “You wait, old 
fellow, till I catch you alone!” Now, had 
I kicked that dog he would have had his 
teeth fastened in me like a flash, yet he 
quit the Instant the girl hit him. I pre¬ 
sume you have seen big, stout men go 
sneaking off to do things at a few re¬ 
marks from their small wives, when no 
man twice their size could have driven 
them to it! Does a woman have to weigh 
300 pounds in order to make her husband 
do his duty? When that comes true It 
can also be said that only beef can over¬ 
come the forces that oppose the farmer. 
Why, a little man on five acres without 
a horse and with only a hoe and a wheel 
cultivator can make a better living than 
some big fellows do on 160 acres. It has 
been done! h. w. c. 
STRAWBERRIES IN ROCHESTER. 
CRE OF CORN 
and Its possibilities under the Silage 
system—being the theme of 
“A BOOK ON SILAGE" 
ay Prof. F. W. won. 
j of the University of \\ isconsin. Revised and up-to-date, neat- 
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{ plans and specifications for building all silos. Also embraces: f 
I—Silage Crops. II—Silos. 
Ill—Silage. IV—Feeding of Silage* 
V—Comparison of Silage and other Feeds. 
VI—The Silo in Modern Agriculture, 
I And illustrations and complete plans for round and 
1 * rectangular silos, dairy barns, tables of com¬ 
pounded rations, etc. Aluiled for 10e* 
coin or stamps. 
SILVER MFC. CO. 
Salem, Ohio. 
i 
‘BUZZARD” 
ed and 
Ensilage 
Cutter 
everythin#, cuts hay, 
straw.ensilage, shreds fodder 
and fills the silo toany height; 
all done by one machine. 
Sold on full fmarantee. 
Write for catalogue. 
Joseph Dick 
Agricultural Works, 
Canton, Ohio. 
T 1 
Combined Feed Cutter & 
handles all fodder crops and ensilage. Stationary or 
table. Four sizes—13, 16. 18 and 20 inches. Right, left 
away Swivel and Giant Elevators or special Blower 
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be used mounted or unmounted. 
Send for special Illustrated Cata¬ 
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J K. \VILI>ER & SONS, 
Box 20 Monroe, Michigan. 
For many years my favorite strawberry 
for family use has been the Van Deman. 
Each year I have had a bed of this va¬ 
riety in bearing to furnish early berries 
for my own table. It Is among the earliest 
to ripen, ripens rapidly, colors all over at 
the same time, and picks easily, since the 
berries drop off into the hand without 
having to be pulled from the vines. The 
quality of Van Deman Is superior to al¬ 
most any other variety. It yields liberally 
of its luscious fruit. E. P. Roe once said 
that a perfect strawberry does not exist, 
and he came very near the truth In making 
that remark. Van Deman has its faults. 
Its foliage is not so large and vigorous 
as I would like to see It, but is healthy 
and Is not attacked by fungus. After 
yielding fruit one year the plantation de¬ 
generates rapidly. Our beds bear two and 
sometimes three years, but alongside of 
Corsican, and other vigorous growers, the 
plants look feeble, especially after the 
first year’s fruiting. I desire to speak 
particularly of the superior quality of the 
Van Deman since I do not hear this 
qualification spoken of often by other 
growers. Possibly Its quality Is not so 
good in other localities. I know that va¬ 
rieties differ as to quality In different 
localities. , 
The strawberry crop in this section was 
severely injured by frosts which appeared 
on three consecutive nights just as the 
strawberries were ready to blossom. 
Strawberry growers in this section do not 
expect over half a crop. The first day of 
offering home-grown strawberries ap¬ 
peared plentiful in our market. The price 
opened at 15 cents per quart; this declined 
to 10 and eight the same day, since many 
of the berries offered were only of moder¬ 
ate size. Van Deman suffered more from 
frost than Corsican as it Is a le^s vigor¬ 
ous grower. Varieties that have broad 
vigorous leaves offer more protection 
against frost than less vigorous varieties 
like Van Deman. I received recently two 
remarkable baskets of strawberries, both 
being new varieties, one from Jamestown, 
N. Y., and the other from Stuyvesant, N. 
Y. Both these varieties are of extraordi¬ 
nary size. It is possible that we have not 
yet reached the variety that produced the 
largest specimens, or the largest quantity 
of fruit. At our farm Dunlap gives the 
earliest berries, and proves to be a pro¬ 
lific bearer. From this season’s fruiting 
we regret that we did not plant it more 
largely. chas. a. green. 
DACC ENSILAGE 
IyUwc) machinery 
Before you spend 
your money find out 
what we can do for you. 
Can furnish either 
BLOWERS or 
CARRIERS. 
Fully Guaranteed. 
Write for Catalog No.45 
Send 10c for PROF. WOLL'S BOOK ON SILAGE. 
Address,^ RoSS Co. 
Springfield, Ohio. 
Straight Straw, Rye and Wheat Thrasher. 
Combined with Spike-Tooth Oat 
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Our Machine will 
thrash ltye or Wheat 
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breaking the straw, and 
tie It again in perfect 
bundles.Can be changed 
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spike-tooth Oat, Wheat, 
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attached. Will thrash more grain with less power 
than any Thrasher built. 8eud for catalogue B t« 
the GUANT-FKKBI3 COMPANY, Troy, N. Y. 
HEEBNER’S ENSILAGE CUTTER. 
The best cutter on the market for green or dry corn. 
Leading ensilage cutter made. It not only cuts, but crushes 
the stalks, rendering them palatable. Stock greatly relish 
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shredder. Runs with least power. Used forcuttlnzalllclndsofstock foods. 
Powor can oo applied to pumping, churning,grinding, etc. Catalog free. 
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liftDCC DflUfCDC THRASHERS 
nUnoC rUnCfidf and cleaners. 
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F. L. MAINE, General Agent, Willet, N. Y. 
HIGH GRADE FERTILIZERS 
OUR PRICES LOW. QUALITY PURE. 
Write for Memorandum Book, Prices and Samples. 
The Scientific Fertilizer Co. p - °- ^tts^Sag, pa. 
There is no 
record of a > 
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Catalogue of Kuglnes, Threshing Machinery, 
Saw Mills, Agricultural Implement-, free. 
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YORK, PA. 
