1902 
723 
Hope Farm Notes 
Alfalfa Advice.—I have this letter 
from a Pennsylvania man: 
“Would it be advisable to make another 
cutting of my Alfalfa as late as October 
15 or 20? I have cut three times already 
this season, nearly a ton of hay per acre 
each time. It is now about eight inches 
high, three weeks since last cut. Would 
it be better left on the ground as a Winter 
protection?” 
I cannot answer this from personal ex¬ 
perience. I consider that my own Alfalfa 
is a failure. No one goes to a farm failure 
for advice—although some agricultural 
writers fail to recognize this fact! If I 
sort out the advice so freely bestowed 
upon me, I should not cut the Alfalfa 
again for hay. It might pay to clip it off 
and let the clippings lie on the ground. I 
should certainly do this if any of the 
plants showed signs of coming in bloom. 
I think the clippings will make a better 
Winter protection than if you let the crop 
grow till frost kills it. While we may see 
something of our Alfalfa crop in the 
Spring I am prepared for a total loss. 
Storing Shredded Fodder.— I have the 
following letter from Pennsylvania: 
“I want to husk my corn and shred the 
fodder by machine; is it possible to put 
a large amount of the shredded fodder to¬ 
gether in a mow, as soon as the corn is 
fit to husk? I have thought of putting 
either dry straw or salt in it. Which 
would you advise?” "W. s. a. 
We have kept the fodder for about two 
months in good condition by shredding it 
into a mow and stamping it down hard. 
This fodder was very dry when cut, two 
months after husking, kept under cover 
during the time. I should not want to cut 
all my fodder just after husking, as I be¬ 
lieve part of it would spoil. Even after 
the ears are fully hardened and dry the 
stalks will often contain quite a little 
moisture. I like to shred at several dif¬ 
ferent times during the Winter. From my 
experience I should say that salt would 
be far better than straw for drying out 
the fodder. Salt not only acts in such a 
case to kill the germs of decay, but it ab¬ 
sorbs water, drawing it away from the 
damp fodder. The plan of putting layers 
of dry straw througn a mow-full of 
damp fodder is all right in theory, but like 
lots of other theories is kicked to death 
by practice. A barrel of salt will save 
more damp fodder than a ton of straw. 
We shall get our fodder under cover as 
soon as it is well dried out and shred up 
about one-third of it at once. The rest 
will stand in the barn until we need to 
shred again. In this way we expect to 
get full value out of it, although the Fall 
rains are hurting it seriously. 
Jack Frost Arrives.— We cut the last 
shock of field corn on October 8. It was 
just in time, for on the morning of October 
10 we woke to find the first touch of frost 
on the farm. In the valley less than a 
mile away old Jack did great damage, but 
he was cautious about raiding the hill 
folks, tie put his cold hand up^ where we 
were, but as fast as he cooled the air 
most of it rolled down hill to help freeze 
the valley people. The bean leaves were 
crimped, the squash and pumpkin leaves 
turned black and the fodder corn lost its 
green. It was more in the way of a gentle 
hint of what was to follow. The potatoes 
are dug, the corn cut, apples nearly all 
picked—now to house the squash and 
pumpkins and pull the sugar beets. When 
frost holds off till nearly the middle of 
October, no farmer has a right to complain 
at its first finger marks. He should accept 
the situation and get ready for Winter. 
When some old fellow finds that the scales 
will not be denied and that his joints are 
surely growing stiff, he should not go in 
and scold his wife and children, but con¬ 
clude that as he cannot shine as a dancer 
he should put on all the dignity that his 
fat and rheumatism will permit. Our little 
boys went bare footed from choice up to 
October 9. They preferred to wash their 
feet and run the risk of splinters and 
stones, rather than -wear shoes! 
Apple Notes.— As soon as the corn was 
cut the boys went at the apple picking. 
We never before had such fine fruit, and I 
told the boys to handle each apple as 
though it were a new-laid egg. They were 
picked with care and put right under cover 
in a cool, airy place. No piling around the 
base of the tree for us. When we started 
there were quite a good many windfalls 
on the ground. The boys wanted to stop 
and pick these up first but I determined 
to make sure of the first-class fruit. While 
this Fall has been quite free from high 
winds (the boys know that by the way 
they have pumped water), I felt sure we 
would have a gale before we were through. 
Sure enough the tail end of a West Indian 
hurricane struck us on October 12. Had 
we not picked from our highest trees half 
of the fruit would have been blown down 
and badly pounded. T don’t want any 
better evidence of the value of a low-head¬ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ed natural shaped tree than this wind gave 
us. The trees close to the ground with 
thick, compact tops barely shed a good 
apple, while the high, leggy fellows 
whipped aoout and threw their fruit like 
a baseball pitcher delivering a swift ball. 
The windfalls from the low trees make 
good fruit. Could you have eaten a slice 
of Aunt Hustle’s big pie last Sunday you 
would have said that a windfall had cer¬ 
tainly struck you! Hugh will go out and 
see what he can do peddling the windfall 
apples and the squash. No need worrying 
about a market for good apples this year. 
I am thinking of getting some empty Cali¬ 
fornia apple boxes, packing our finest fruit 
in them and then having them put in some 
cold storage house until the price is right. 
We can sell apples easily this Winter in 
baskets, but perhaps the boxes would 
bring more. 
Farm Notes.— Potatoes are selling quite 
readily at $1.75 per barrel. We have just 
made a sale of second sized tubers at 40 
cents per bushel which we call a good 
price as we sort. People who have bought 
our potatoes for five years drive to the 
farm to order a season’s supply. They 
appear to figure on about two bushels for 
each adult and three bushels for a large 
child. Children eat more potatoes as a 
rule than grown folks. They can bo cooked 
in so many different ways that they make 
handy food for children. I know that va¬ 
rious wise people wag their heads solemn¬ 
ly and say that potatoes should not be 
“fed to children!” 
Do they know what they are talking 
about? 
I doubt it! I doubt if some of these good 
people were ever children themselves. I 
should pity the child they brought up as 
an experiment! Potatoes rank well among 
vegetables in bone-forming material—ex¬ 
cept lime. With cabbage and yellow tur¬ 
nips mixed or eaten with them we get a 
better proportion of lime.The 
rye seeding was late this year but the Fall 
rains will bring up the grain and give it 
a good start. The early-sown rye on near¬ 
by farms is excellent; I have never seen 
it better at this season. Hope Farm fur¬ 
nished the seed rye for several fields and 
it does us good to see one of our represen¬ 
tatives jumping so hard to save nitrogen 
for a neighbor.We never had 
better corn—that is, we will have it if the 
weather lets the grain harden. Some of 
it was soft when cut, but with good drying 
weather it would surely harden up. What 
these rains will do to it remains to be 
seen. I ought to be a philosopher like old 
Major, who puts his head on one side and 
seems to say. “Well, if the rains keep that 
corn soft it will be all the easier for my 
old teeth!”.We have consid¬ 
erable cord wood cut and piled in the 
woods. Buyers are now after it since coal 
is so hard to obtain. They are talking 
$2.75 per cord, but at the present price of 
coal it should bring more. Last Winter I 
started to have a lot of crooked White oaks 
cut and split up for cord wood. We never 
got beyond a start, for other jobs switched 
us off, but that is where we made a mis¬ 
take! Suppose I had 50 cords or more of 
dry White-oak wood! Why, the Hope 
Farm man would rank with the coal oper¬ 
ators as master of the fuel situation! 
.We have begun feeding pump¬ 
kins to all stock. We cut them open, take 
out the seeds and let the animal do the 
rest! The hogs are very fond of them— 
but they should not eat too many seeds! 
All Sorts.— Some of you folks may 
claim that you know what is good, but 
until you have eaten a baked Sheldon 
pear with thick cream enough in the dish 
just about to float it, you should decline 
to say that you have really tasted the joys 
that belong to the human tongue. We 
have a cellar at Hope Farm with some¬ 
thing like 150 bushels of Baldwin and 
Greening apples packed away in it. It 
does me good to go down there and just 
draw that fragrance into my lungs slowly, 
again and again! 
How about the cider? 
We never had a gallon of it at Hope 
Farm. We fed the cider apples to the 
stock. I would as soon have a barrel of 
gunpowder in the cellar as to have a bar¬ 
rel of hard cider! On the whole, I’d rather 
have the gunpowder, for that would make 
quicker work of the boys than the cider 
taste would.We were sitting at 
the dinner table last Sunday trying to sur¬ 
round a few Hope Farm products, when 
who should come walking through the 
rain but Uncle Ed. He took advantage of 
the Grand Army celebration at Washing¬ 
ton to get an excursion train from Florida 
so that he might see Grandmother, but 
we did not know when to expect him. The 
rain had made him look like a wet hen, 
but we got him inside and soon had him 
encased in a suit of my old clothes. Then 
he sat down to the table and tried to make 
those clothes a tight fit, but that was too 
much of a job even for him! Down some¬ 
where in the bottom of his big grip he had 
the skin of a rattlesnake, nobody knows 
how long. It is hanging on our wall now— 
to the awe and wonder of the children. 
He also brought some green oranges and 
persimmons so that we may have a taste 
of Florida.There is nobody at 
Hope Farm old enough to belong to the 
Grand Army of the Republic, but we are 
all interested in what the old soldiers say 
and do. I have read about all the Grand 
Army literature, but I do not remember 
anything that equals Secretary Hay’s 
welcome to the old soldiers. Here Is part 
of it which appeals to me: 
“I should not have said your ranks are 
thinned, for the place of each fallen com¬ 
rade is filled with a loving memory. And 
who can ever forget the faces which never 
had a chance to grow old—the brave young 
warriors who fell in battie and gained the 
prize of immortal youth? For them there 
is no shadow of struggle or poverty; no 
trouble of gray hairs or failing strength; 
no care of the present nor fear of the fu¬ 
ture. The unfading light of morning is 
forever in their eyes; the blessing of a 
grateful nation hallows their names. We 
salute them with loving tears, from which 
the bitterness is gone. We hear their 
young voices in the clear notes of the 
bugle and the murmur of the fluttering 
flags.” 
To my mind that is one of the things that 
is only weakened by any attempt to add 
to it. H. w. c. 
The Danbury Fair. 
The thirty-fourth annual fair of the Dan¬ 
bury Agricultural Society was held on the 
grounds of the Society October 7-11. It was 
by far the largest and most successful fair 
in the history of the Society. The total 
attendance probably exceeded 60,000 people. 
The exhibits in all departments were per¬ 
haps better and more extensive than ever 
before. The fruit and vegetable tables 
were filled to overflowing. Cattle, dogs 
and poultry filled all of the space allotted 
to them, and the display of farm imple¬ 
ments, especially farm motors, gasoline 
engines, etc., was probably the largest 
ever made in the State. In connection with 
the carriage department, a number of 
automobiles were shown. It is evident that 
hereafter an automobile department will 
be an important feature of this fair. 
J. II. G. 
Berkshire Litters.—I have just read 
your Hope Farm notes, and wish to re¬ 
mark about those Berkshire litters being 
so small. It strikes me on reading same, 
that people will get the idea that all Berks 
have small litters, which is certainly 
wrong. I have five registered Berkshire 
sows; two are two years old, three are 
one year old last Spring. The old sows 
had 12 and 10 pigs, one dead in each litter; 
the young sows had 10, 10 and five pigs 
respectively, losing only one out of the 
25. I have 24 good pigs from the young 
sows on hand now. You should change 
strains; get a start from prolific stock. 
Jackson, Mich. p. e. l. 
Asbestine 
Jk? Cold Water 
' PAINT! 
beats the (ire fiend every time 
because it is also a fire-proof 
paint. Costs one-fifth as much as 
oil paint and lasts better, because 
it will neither crack, weale nor 
blister. Made in white and all 
colors. Anybody can mix and ap¬ 
ply it. Beware of substitutes— 
Asbestine is the original fire and 
water-proof cold water paint. Ask 
your dealer for the paint, but be 
suret* send direct to us for price 
list and tint cards. 
Tlio Water Pnlnt Company I 
of America, l>ept. A-18, 
100 William St.,New York. 
A KNIFE and HAMMER 
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kit froo with orei^ roll. Send for samples and book. 
Cider Machinery.—Send for catalogue to Boomer & 
Boschert Press Co., 113 West Water St., Syracuse, N.Y. 
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