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643 
Hope FarmNotes 
Looking Things Over.—As the chill 
gets into the September air a fellow must 
realize that his season’s work is nearly 
over. It is time to see how we are coming 
out. As I look around my mind goes back 
three years to the time when we came to 
the farm. Have we made any real pro¬ 
gress? If so—what? If not, why? It is 
not a bad time to balance things up. We 
moved here late in October, 1899. I bought 
the farm in June, but we had a big crop 
of potatoes to dig and sell at the other 
place, so we stayed and finished up. When 
we came here the farm was all in grass- 
most of it very poor. There were a few 
acres of new seeding, but the greater part 
was in weeds and old sod. There was not 
a rod of plowed ground on the place. We 
cut about 10 tons of hay that year, and 
sold the ?ruit for $50! When we came we 
had one cow and a calf, three horses, one 
pig and a Hock of hens. Now we have 
live cows and a heifer, five horses and a 
filly, 10 brood sows, two boars and about 
30 little pigs and the hens. Three years 
ago we had ho feed but the hay and a few 
stalks. This year we have about as much 
hay, eight acres of good corn, about 80 
bushels of small grain and four tons of 
straw, 10 tons or more of pumpkins and 
half an acre each of sugar beets and yel¬ 
low turnips. So far as the stock goes we 
have gained. The cows and hogs are all 
well bred and could easily be turned into 
cash if desired. 
THE Farm. —We came here just after 
making quite a success with a potato crop. 
The old farm was level with light, easily 
worked soil. We made a mistake in tnink- 
ing we could handle these tough old hills 
as we did the lighter soil. That first Fall 
I had Charlie break up acre after acre of 
the old sod. I bought a heavy sulky plow, 
and the old meadows were turned up to 
the weather. Having now arranged the 
hindsight on the Hope Farm gun T am 
sure this job was in one -way a mistake. 
It nearly killed Dan—the bay horse. Had 
1 known then what I do now I never would 
have ripped up that old sod. Instead of 
pruning Charlie’s ribs with the plow- 
handles I would have planted apple trees 
with a little modification of the String- 
fellow method and let the stony hillside 
alone! We plowed it and planted potatoes. 
They were well fertilized and cared for, 
hut we dug only a moderate crop. We 
think we know how to raise potatoes when 
the natural conditions are right, but we 
are satisfied that the soil on those hill¬ 
sides was not built for tubers to grow in. 
I am too old a man to attempt the impos¬ 
sible, and so with regret we admit that 
the hills must go back to grass. Had we 
known that three years ago—or rather had 
we been ready to admit it, I should 
be better off. We have a fine crop of 
corn on part of that hillside this year. 
This field will be seeded to rye and grass 
in October. The grass and clover seeded 
in the wheat look well. Just now the 
Alfalfa looks as though it would have to 
he plowed up next Spring. In that case I 
shall plant corn where the Alfalfa is now 
struggling, and follow with rye and grass 
until the hills are all in sod. 
So after three years you come back to 
where you started? 
Yes, in one way, yet we have gained 
something by doing it. The seeding of 
grass is far better than ever, and the soil 
has been greatly helped by the shaking 
and stirring. The white grubs have been 
about killed out. We have had two good 
corn crops and a heap of useful experi¬ 
ence. If instead of plowing the whole 
thing at one time we had plowed one- 
third each year we would have been better 
off. 
Would you not have been better off if 
you had followed the advice of your neigh¬ 
bors who do not pretend to give a scien¬ 
tific reason for plowing hillsides? 
Yes, but they couldn’t give me their ex¬ 
perience by word of mouth. We have to 
work that out! 
The Fruit.— I found some 250 apple and 
pear trees on the lower part of the farm. 
Most of them were old timers headed far 
up in the air, sod-bound and unthrifty. I 
was in favor of chopping 75 per cent of 
them down, but the Madame vetoed that! 
She didn’t care so much for the fruit but 
she wanted shade! So we did our best to 
brace the old fellows up. The sod was 
plowed in the Fall t a fair amount of ma¬ 
nure and fertilizer put on, the old branches 
cut out and the worst of thfe suckers re¬ 
moved. We have done considerable graft¬ 
ing each year. The way these old trees 
have responded settled the future of Hope 
Farm for me. Every tree that we have 
really cared for has scratched a little hole 
in the mortgage! Why raise small pota¬ 
toes on soil that will produce big apples? 
As most readers know, last year I became 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
interested enough to start a peach orchard 
on the Stringfellow plan. I have never 
described this in detail, for I must be sure 
of my ground before putting others in the 
way of risking too much on an experi¬ 
ment. I shall talk about it in time. I 
have now planted over 1,200 peach, apple, 
quince and plum trees, and expect to plant 
at the rate of 1,000 per year until all avail¬ 
able land is occupied. Those trees will be 
root-pruned and will live or die on the 
plan of culture practiced by Mr. Hitch- 
ings—with some little changes which I 
think our local conditions demand. 
Garden and Small Fruits.— The lower 
part of the farm is strong, heavy soil. It 
starts late, but makes up for lost time 
when dry weather bakes the sands and 
hills. While we have always had vege¬ 
tables we never had a satisfactory garden 
or really first-class strawberries until this 
year. To-day we can have our choice of 
the following: Lima beans, sweet corn, 
celery, onions, beets, turnips, string beans, 
parsnips, carrots, parsley, cabbage, three 
kinds of squash, tomatoes, kohl-rabi, pota¬ 
toes and lettuce. You can imagine what 
this great supply means when I say that 
there are 18 people at Hope Farm to-day! 
We had for breakfast on Sunday oatmeal 
and cream and fish balls, with fruit; for 
dinner three fat hens, Lima beans, pota¬ 
toes, tomatoes, and for supper bread and 
milk, cheese and fruit. Every housekeeper 
knows w r hat small demand this makes 
upon butcher and grocer. The garden has 
been very profitable. We have sold a fair 
amount of vegetables, besides what has 
been eaten, and great quantities of refuse 
have gone to the pigs. The Marshall 
strawberries this year gave us an idea of 
what the real strawberry business is. We 
are planting quite heavily, and shall keep 
on increasing the area in this fruit. There 
is no use in a farmer’s trying to grow fine 
strawberries and at the same time try to 
produce the average farm crops. T. C. 
Ivevitt claims that it would pay a farmer 
better to let the back of his farm grow 
up into weeds and put all his time upon 
a few of his best acres in small fruit. 
This may be true of some, but I have 
worked these three years to get the back 
farm into grass or trees before turning the 
lower farm into fruit. We are now ready 
to go ahead. It has taken some time to 
pull out the roots of a plan that would not 
work and start a new one from the foun¬ 
dations. I can see many mistakes that we 
have made, but on the whole there are 
evidences of progress. I cannot think of 
a field that is not more productive than 
it was when we came here. But has all 
this time and money and labor gone on the 
fields alone? Are the barn folks the only 
ones that show development? I hope not. 
As I write our four little folks are gath¬ 
ered about the Madame singing their 
hymns before going to bed. The twilight 
comes early now. From the hill I some¬ 
times see the lights as they twinkle out 
of the windows of our two houses. I think 
that Hope Farm is sheltering all these 
people—representing nine different families, 
a dozen types of breeding, half a dozen 
States and two foreign countries! Yes, I 
think we have made some progress in 
citizenship during the past three years. 
There are very few angels here, however! 
The mortgage? 
Part of it is still left, though we have 
wiped out a piece of it. 
The Fair.— Our local fair at Hohokus 
promises to be a good one. Hope Farm 
will be well represented. We shall enter 
Billy Berk and members of his family, 
Rose of Meadowbrook and her young 
Yorkshires, and also try our luck with 
squash, potatoes, pumpkins, corn and ap¬ 
ples. Philip will show big transplanted 
onion? and other garden stuff, and we hope 
to show samples of sugar beets. The two 
little girls have each made a quilt of many 
pieces. I want to take a great pile of big 
pumpkins—I think they will sell to town 
people for jack-o’-lanterns. This offering 
prizes for farm products is all right, but I 
would like to see other contests encour¬ 
aged. Charlie will take Frank and Dan 
and fit a piece of ground. Hugh will pick 
and pack a quantity of fruit, and Philip 
will make a garden with anybody in the 
county. Hope Farm would back the 
Madame for straightening out a crowd of 
unruly children. The Hope Farm man? 
Why, if some one will start a contest 
among portly fellows who are to sit in 
comfortable chairs and tell how to do 
farm work, he might stand a fair show! 
Or, if more active work is required, I will 
guarantee to drive 500 flies out of an aver¬ 
age-sized room in quicker time than any 
man of my age and size! I claim to h ive 
studied the habits of our common house 
fly until I can handle them. 
convey the germs of numerous diseases 
from one person to another. Aside from 
the annoyance of having them about they 
are sure to spread disease. They breed 
in horse manure, and one of the first prin¬ 
ciples of fighting them is to keep them 
from the manure or prevent their leaving 
it. Where there are few horses this can 
be done by keeping the manure in a room 
or large box made of very fine wire netting. 
The manure is thrown inside this enclosure. 
The wire netting keeps the flies from go¬ 
ing in to lay their eggs and holds those 
that do hatch inside. It will astonish 
any one to see how this keeping the ma¬ 
nure covered or carried away will thin out 
the flies. We have millions of flies at 
Hope Farm, and in spite of screens at 
doors and windows plenty of them work 
into the house. To catch them I darken 
the room, with the light at only one 
screen door. Then with the children to 
help we take long boughs with leaves on 
and drive them to the light. One child 
will open the door while the rest of us 
shake our leaves. This will either chase 
them out or cause them to settle on the 
upper walls. This is the best place to 
catch them. I take a long stick with a 
small tin can tacked to the end of it. Into 
this tin can fits a glass. It is filled about 
half full with hot soap suds with a little 
ammonia or kerosene. This can be pushed 
quickly up so as to surround the fly, and 
in nine cases out of ten you have him, for 
in his efforts to escape he flies right into 
the liquid. I catch hundreds of them in 
this way. When the flies are disturbed 
on the side walls they usually light over¬ 
head. The glass is better than a can, be¬ 
cause you can have it around the fly be¬ 
fore lie knows it is coming. Small busi¬ 
ness, you will say, for a grown-up man 
to be shooting a glass at a fly! Weil, I 
don't know—take those men who go off on 
some big hunt. Do they really accom¬ 
plish more for society when they kill a 
deer or a bear than I do when I bag my 
flies? 
Potato Points.— I am sorry to say that 
rot has appeared in our fields. We dug 
the first week in September and housed 
the tubers about as was mentioned last 
week. I now expect to sell early, even at 
the low price. We have orders for a num¬ 
ber of barrels to be sent to friends in 
Florida. Just now they are paying 35 and 
40 cents a peck, it being impossible in that 
warm country to store any large quantity 
or raise them in Summer. At that price 
I should think potatoes would be as scarce 
as Florida oranges in a northern family. 
H. w. c. 
A Frog Market.— The National Pro- 
visioner gives some facts from a “frog 
expert,” who refers to the Chicago mar¬ 
ket: “It has been customary to ship the 
frogs to market alive crated up something 
like chickens, the fact that some of them 
are almost as large as hens making this 
quite feasible. Chicago and St. Louis are 
the heaviest consumers of frogs. Recently 
some genius hit upon the plan of putting 
blocks of ice in the crates for the frogs to 
sit upon. I don't know whether the frogs 
like this or not, but they are not killed 
by it and arrive in much fresher condition 
than before, I am told. The industry has 
grown to little less than mammoth pro¬ 
portions, and the festive frog is only sec¬ 
ond to the M ssouri mule as a wealth 
producer in southwest Missouri, the hen 
having dropped to third place.” 
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