1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
483 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Home Market. —I have known men 
to figure great sales from farm or garden 
by counting in all that is consumed in the 
house. While it may be perfectly fair to 
charge the house at market prices, such 
figures are often deceptive, for cash is the 
only thing that really pays debts. Take 
our own case. Just now there are 16 peo¬ 
ple on Hope Farm. I figured out one day’s 
supply of food from the farm as follows: 
Chickens, 75 cents; eggs, 36 cents; milk and 
cream, 42 cents; potatoes, 20 cents; peas, 30 
cents; strawberries, 75 cents; other vege¬ 
tables, 20 cents; total, $2.98. We were not 
as hungry that day as usual, but had this 
produce been sold to our regular customers 
at the prices we obtain, that is what we 
should have received. That is not a large 
average for 16 people even when the cost 
of fiour and groceries is added. But is it 
fair to figure these things at what they 
will bring in the market? Suppose we 
didn’t have them, would we pay that much 
for them? I can quickly answer that by 
saying that we could not afford it. Suppose 
wo went to a livery stable every time we 
wanted a horse instead of throwing the 
harness on Major or Nellie? What would 
that cost? The children undertook to fig¬ 
ure on all this and the Bud could only say: 
“Father, if you paid yourself for what you 
sell to us, you’d be rich, wouldn’t you?” 
Rich! Why, 1 could go to Europe! I just 
mention some of these things to give farm¬ 
ers an idea of what it would mean to pay 
cash for many of the things which the 
farm provides. 
Pig Points. —Charlie took one of the 
white-faced Berkshires and installed him 
in a small pen as pork-maker for his fam¬ 
ily. This pig weighed 17 pounds when he 
started—at the end of a month he moved 
the scales at 40. “Mapes the hen man’’ 
made his pig gain faster than that, but 
there is another side to it. Charlie keeps 
this pig as a sort of waste basket for the 
kitchen. The pig gets all the swill and 
dishwater from a family of 3V4. tire weeds 
around the house and a handful of mid¬ 
dlings. What do I mean by “a family 
of 314 ?” Charlie, Aunt Emma, the Leaf 
and the Seedling. Who is the Leaf?—he is 
a new one! Aunt Emma’s boy just from 
Florida—I rate the Seedling as one-quarter 
of a citizen. The month’s feeding of mid¬ 
dlings reached barely 15 pounds, so you 
will see that is pretty cheap pork. Would 
it not pay to feed more grain and make 
more pork? Perhaps, but we want to see 
about how many pounds of good meat are 
washed and scraped off the plates of a 
small family. Truly, a good pig is a family 
waste basket. 
After all the advice you have had about 
vermin on hogs what do you do to kill 
them? 
We made an emulsion by dissolving 
whale-oil soap in warm water and stirring 
crude petroleum with it. The hogs w'ere 
washed with this, and all the woodwork 
of the pens painted with crude petroleum. 
This relieves the hogs, but must be re¬ 
peated. I shall try to fix up some sort of a 
vat or tank large enough to hold a big 
sow, and dip the pigs, when necessary. 
Stone Wahl Reflections.—I have the 
following note from a well-meaning friend: 
“This Hope Farm man seems to have a 
liking for the stone wall, cherry trees and 
tough old seedlings. Perhaps that is why 
lie sits on the stone wall Sunday after¬ 
noons and thinks things over. Why nor 
take some strong book or paper there and 
think along with great minds instead of 
dreaming?” 
Now this thinking “along with great 
minds” is all right, but it is not the whole 
story. Some of us are obliged to confess 
that our minds are not as great as those 
that speak to us in books. It’s well enough 
to keep step with them for awhile, but 
sooner or later our legs give out, like those 
of a boy trying to keep up with the pro¬ 
cession. It is better for all to get off some¬ 
where alone and try to think the idea out 
in our own way. My experience shows that 
one book or chapter well thought out and 
reasoned down to an everyday, personal 
basis is worth a whole library of books 
read as most people seem to read them. It 
takes good, hard thinking to separate the 
cream out of a good book. The “skim¬ 
mers” get only a poor quality of skim- 
milk. I suppose few of us stop to realize 
that when an article or book seems to put 
an idea clearly before us it is because it 
stimulates thought and makes us reason iv 
out in our own way. Yes, the stone wall 
is a great place for thinking things over 
and trying to straighten out the cross pur¬ 
poses and tangled threads of life. But here 
is another view of it from a Connecticut 
friend, which I can appreciate: 
“I have just ached to tell the people who 
found fault with the Hope Farm man for 
sitting on the fence admiring his crops 
Sunday afternoon, what I know about such 
evil (?) In a city church you hear an elo¬ 
quent sermon, with more or less heart in 
it, a stylish choir singing, lots and lots or 
stylish hats and dresses, and beauty of ail 
kinds made by man’s hand. Sitting on the 
fence admiring your crops, you are sur¬ 
rounded by beauty and purity made by 
God’s Almighty hand, and in looking at it 
one’s heart is filled with love and grati¬ 
tude, often without words, to near burst¬ 
ing. I do not believe that will be a big sin 
set down against him by his Maker in the 
last day.” e. r. a. 
I shall have to shade that a little by say¬ 
ing that I don’t get a chance to admire my 
crops so often. They are not always as 
good as I would like, though usually bet¬ 
ter than I deserve. I can get a clearer 
grasp on things by just looking off across 
the valley to the big black hills that loom 
up in the north. There are usually shad¬ 
ows from clouds that go crawling along 
the hills. They seem gloomy enough as 
they rest directly over some house, but 
they do not stand still, for the winds blow 
the clouds on and the shadow must follow! 
There is nothing to it—only a flimsy cloud 
which blew in front of the great source of 
light. The shadow passes, but the sun re¬ 
mains. A fellow doesn’t need a “great 
mind" bound in a book to see the point. 
He ought to go back to his six days of toil 
with a braver heart after seeing these 
shadows pass away. 
Wet Sunday.— These people who object 
to that stone wall surely had their innings 
on June 29. Rain? Well, as the Bud and 
I looked through the window at it we 
thought it the wettest rain we ever saw. 
Not a drop of it was needed, and there 
was our beautiful beardless barley in 
windrows on the hill, and an acre of the 
best grass fiat on the ground! 
“Ought to have had it out of the way!” 
Correct, but haven’t you learned yet that 
it doesn’t take the smart out to come and 
rub these oughts in? That barley was just 
right to cut, and we cut it—took the risk 
and got a soaking. The Bud looked at the, 
falling rain and then piped up in her soft 
little voice: 
"Father, isn’t there anythiny on the farm 
that likes this rain?” 
I couldn’t name a thing to save my life. 
Even Major was biting slabs 6ff his stall 
as he thought how the rain was leaching 
the barley. 
“Will it hurt the barley?” 
“I am afraid it is ruined, my little girl.” 
“But won’t the Alfalfa grow?” 
“I hope so—this may make it better!” 
“Isn’t Aifalfa better than barley?” 
What’s the use of a so-called philoso¬ 
pher’s grieving about the weather when a 
child beats him with his own words? 
If she had gone on and asked me if it 
wasn’t more my fault than the rain’s that 
the barley was soaking 1 should have been 
forced to admit it. There I would have been 
without a single valid reason for finding 
fault. 
Hugh got home from church and said he 
heard a good prayer of thankfulness for 
the rain “which revived our fields!” Our 
minister is perhaps more agriculturist than 
farmer. We let it rain, and I’ll tell you 
right now that those clouds improved the 
opportunity. When night closed in it was 
still raining, but the wind was blowing, and 
I felt sure that before morning the clouds 
would scatter and the wind would have a 
chance to blow the wet out of that barley. 
People tell me of lying awake at night to 
listen to the rain beating on the roof. I 
haven’t heard the sound in 20 years, and I 
calculate that this has saved me no end of 
worry and trouble! What would life be 
without compensations? Why, it wouldn’t 
begin to be worth living, if a fellow couldn’t 
believe that in some way in a manner not 
known to him he is bound to get just about 
what he deserves. Sure enough, when we 
opened our eyes in the morning there was 
the bright sun out, with the wind fairly 
dancing on the hill. The boys oitchforked 
the bacteria out of that wet hay as they 
shook it up to the air! 
Around the Farm.— The Potato bugs 
came upon us in a swarm, and the wind 
was blowing so hard that the dry powder 
could not be used. We have had more than 
our usual share of wind this season—except 
when the tank runs dry. The bugs won’t 
wait for the wind to fall—so we rigged up 
the spray pump and went at them. We 
used Paris-green and Fungiroid or dry Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture in the water. This combina¬ 
tion sprayed well and left the plants as 
blue as the Potato bugs were at their first 
bite after spraying. . . . The boys think 
little of my scheme of planting Nott’s Ex¬ 
celsior peas between the rows of strawber¬ 
ries. They claim that the peas prevent 
horse work, give the weeds a start, and 
never produce a full crop under such con¬ 
ditions anyway. . . . The sweet potato 
plants are alive, and that is nearly all that 
can be said for them. This cold season 
pinches these southern fellows, and they 
bunch up about as Uncle Ed used to on a 
frosty Fall morning. We are doing our 
part to give the sweet potatoes a chance. 
We can’t control the weather. . . . The 
sugar beets have made a great start. I 
shall have to admit that the rain which 
caught the barley enabled the beets to beat 
the weeds. The first working was done 
with a wheel hoe. As the beets get larger 
we hope to work them with the diamond- 
tooth cultivator and a steady horse. . . . 
The yellow turnips follow rye this year. 
The rye was cut twice for fodder, then a 
good coat of manure was put on and the 
sod thoroughly plowed and fined. The Long 
Island farmers tell me that they do not 
like to sow yellow turnips too early, as 
they are inclined to grow too long a neck, 
which hurts their sale in the market. We 
sell ours to the hogs, and they care noth¬ 
ing about the shape of the neck. . . On 
July 1 we had our choice of peas, lettuce, 
cauliflower, turnips, beets, spinach, onions, 
radish and parsley all from the garden, 
with string beans and sweet corn nearly 
ready. That’s one way to disappoint the 
beef trust. h. w. c. 
Southern Peaches.— The Fruitmen’s 
Guide says that J. H. Hale came to the 
city to see the first shipment of Greens¬ 
boro peaches sell. “The financial returns 
were good, the peaches getting $2.50 a 
crate, and the trade’s verdict on the qual¬ 
ity of the stock most encouraging. Many 
declared it to be the best early peach they 
had ever seen come to this market. It is 
a large peach, shaped like an Elberta, but 
with very little color. The green hue, 
however, is deceiving, as the fruit is lus¬ 
cious and full of flavor.” The Fruit 
Trade Journal quotes Mr. Hale as saying: 
“It may interest the trade to know dates 
of our first shipments last year. Greens¬ 
boro peaches and Red June plums, June 
21; Waddell and Carman peaches and 
Abundance plums, June 24; Burbank 
plums, June 28; Tillotson peaches, June 29; 
Hiley peaches, July 4; Mountain Rose 
peaches, July 6; Thurber peaches, July 10; 
Belle of Georgia peaches, July 13; Elberta 
peaches, July 16; Stump peaches, July 20; 
Late Crawford peaches, July 30. Move 
these dates ahead just about a week for 
this season, and the trade may reasonably 
know what to expect, although with a 
iittle heavier foliage in our orchard than 
in most others, our fruit is usually two or 
three days later than the average.” 
The Gonzales Plum.—H. M. String- 
fellow sends us from Texas a sample of 
this plum, Fig. 190, page 478, which he 
says was the only one of 52 which hung 
to his two-year-old tree through the 
fearful windstorm. The fruit will aver¬ 
age larger than this sample, which was 
picked when turning in color. The plum 
was ruined in photographing, and we 
were unable to test its quality. It is fa¬ 
vorably reported from the South. Many 
excellent fruits have come from the 
South, but not all of the southern varie¬ 
ties do well here. Generally speaking, it 
pays to test the promising new ones in a 
small way. 
Wagon World Awheel. 
Half a million of these steel 
wheels have been sent out on 
our own wagons and to fit other 
wagons. It is the wheel that 
determines the life of any 
wagon, and this is the longest 
lived wheel made. Do you want 
a low down Handy Wagon to 
use about the place? We will fit 
out your old wagon with Elec¬ 
tric Wheels of any size and 
any shape tire, straight or stag¬ 
gered spokes. No cracked hubs, no 
loose spokes, no rotten relloes, no resetting. Write for 
the big new catalogue, ltis free. 
Electric Wheel Co., Box 88*Quincy, Ills* 
The Gem Full-Circle Baler, lightest, strongest, cheapest 
baler. Made of wrought steel. Operated by 1 or 2 horses. 
Hales 10 to 15 tons a day. Sold on 5 days’ trial. Catalogue 
free. Address CEO. ERTF.L CO., Quincy, Ill. 
FARMERS 
can save money by using and make money 
by selling Hold Fast Corn Binders. 
Pull and it’sfast. Ties itself. Costs less 
than string. Never wears out. Easily 
sold. Liberal terms. Get territory 
quick. Complete outfit nniiled tree. 
T IE CO.. BJ2,Unadilla.N.Y. 
leas *Tgaaaaem 
B.72,Unadnla.N.Y., 
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 
Savo Money. Address 
KING HARNESS CO., _ 
610 Church St., Owego, N. Y. 
TIGHTEN YOUR OWN BUGGY TIRES— No 
heating required; does not mar the paint; any¬ 
one can operate. Machine complete, with 101) Alumi¬ 
num Wasners. sent on receipt of 12. Guaranteed to 
do tbo work. Your money back If not as represented. 
RAPID TIRE TIGHTENER CO., Wauseon, Ohio. 
Original vs. Imitation 
The original patent 
“MILLER BEAN HARVESTER,” 
made by the Le Roy Plow Co., Le Roy, N Y , has had 
such a phenomenal sale in all BEAN RAISING 
STATES, that others are making imitations claim¬ 
ing them "justasgood ’’ Farmers,don’t be deceived. 
The genuine “Miller Bean Harvester" is covered by 
United States patents, and you cannot afford to pur¬ 
chase a machine that infringes on other makers’ 
patents. 
You can buy the original “Miller Bean Harvester’’ 
with 1902 Improvements, as cheap as the Imitations 
of our old machine. If your nearest implement 
dealer cannot furnish you with the genuine “Miller, 
write for catalogue and price and you can then learn 
something also of the now “Le Roy Plows.” 
LE ROY PLOW COMPANY, 
61 Lake St., Le Roy, N. v . 
It’s Almost 
Pa.st Believing 
the amount of time, labor and money this machine saves 
you, say nothing of in- 
y#> ^ 
It spreads all kinds of manure, lime, 
salt, ashes, compost, etc., rapidly, 
evenly and better than it can possibly be done by hand. 
lumpy, caked, coarse, strawy or stalky the manure is, 
It makes no difference how hard, 
Tke Improved Kemp Manure Spreader 
will tear it apart, make It fine ; 
le and spread It just where you want it and In any desired quantity per acre. Greatly improved 
for 1902. Send for our new illustrated catalogue, which describes improvements ii detail, and tells about “How to Grow 
Bi^ Crops.” Catalogue mailed free. 
Kemember that the only original and genuine Kemp manure Spreader is the one 
made hy ourselves. KEMP Sl BURPEE MFC. CO., BOX 38, SYRACUSE, N. Y. 
PEAS are as good as COLD 
this Year. 
OUR LiFTER 
will harvest them for one-tenth of 
what it costs by hand. 
Manufacturers of 
Pea, Bean, Beet and 
Chicory Farm Tools 
and ‘ ‘THE MEAD” Ful 
Circle, 2-Strokt 
Hay Press. 
WRITE FOR 
PARTICULARS 
THE VINE & ROOT MACHINERY COMPANY, Port Huron, Mich. 
