rS99 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Rain Misplaced.— We have been call¬ 
ing for the earth and a good share of 
the heavens this week. The potatoes 
needed rain, and the hay needed dry 
weather. At one time, we had nearly 
10 tons of hay down. How is that?— 
you will ask! We have been claiming 
that we never cut any hay. The hay is 
on the new farm. New farm? Yes, the 
Hope Farm folks are branching out a 
little. We have bought a 90-ac.re farm 
about two miles back from our present 
place. But that is another story—we 
will tell about it in due time. We 
blocked out about all the work our fam¬ 
ily could handle at the beginning of the 
season. July 1 we found the potatoes 
pretty well cared for, the bush fruits 
ripening fast, and 25 acres of hay and a 
big cherry crop on the new place! We 
sold most of the cherries on shares, but 
the rain caught some of our hay and 
hurt it badly. The same rain helped 
the potatoes and fruit, so we are not far 
from even after all. 
The Glorious Fourth was celebrated 
in the hay field. It was a fine day for 
hay making. Our folks all packed up 
and held a picnic on the new farm. The 
Madame took along the ice-cream freez¬ 
er and a full supply of boiled ham, 
hard-boiled eggs, bread and butter and 
similar picnic fixings. The men folks 
hauled in hay, and the rest performed 
various odd jobs. The Madame climbed 
a cherry tree, and filled a good-sized 
basket—only to drop it while coming 
down. There isn’t much fun in trying to 
make hay and pick raspberries at the 
same time. One job is sure to be neg¬ 
lected. That is one reason why the 
dairy business and small-fruit growing 
do not always nick well. It’s a good 
thing to get partners that won’t inter¬ 
fere with each other. 
Fruit Observations. —1 wish some of 
those who call the Early Harvest black¬ 
berry too tender for this climate, could 
see our bushes this year. I gave them 
up for lost last Spring, and they had but 
little care. They are now well covered 
with fine fruit. The Kansas raspberries 
have given a good yield. With us, this 
variety averages about 10 days earlier 
than Gregg. The Greggs are of larger 
size this year, and seem better able to 
stand the dry weather. They ship well, 
and our customers speak well of them. 
We have small plots of Miller and Loudon 
red raspberries, but the main crop is 
Cuthbert. Rust has troubled this varie¬ 
ty this season, but ihe yield is fair and 
the fruit is readily salable. We have a 
nice little trade in crate and half-crate 
lots for canning. For example, a small 
family will order 16 quarts each of cur¬ 
rants and raspberries. I should say that 
the practice of home canning is coming 
into fashion again. People are becom¬ 
ing afraid of the cheap stuff that is put 
on the market. When I get to the new 
place, I shall drop out of strawberry 
growing as a business. I shall try to 
keep a good assortment of early and late 
varieties for home use and testing, but 
shall have few, if any, to sell. Wilder 
and White Imperial are all the currants 
I want—not over 250 bushes all told. I 
shall put out a good many blackcaps, 
with Kansas and Gregg for main crop, 
but shall go slow on red raspberries. 
There seems to be fair money in black¬ 
berries, and I shall stick to Early Har¬ 
vest, and set out three other sorts. 
Fruit Disappointments. —Two years 
ago, we bought 600 of what we thought 
were Snyder blackberries. We gave 
them good culture and care, and they 
have now occupied some of our best land 
for three seasons. They turn out to be 
some worthless variety of no value 
whatever. We shall never get a cent 
out of them in return for all our money 
and labor. If we had planted some true 
variety of fruit, or even planted potatoes 
or sweet corn, we would be much better 
off. So we would if we had never turned 
a furrow on that strip of ground. It 
gives me a pretty mean feeling to have 
things turn out this way. I know lots of 
people who have waited hopefully and 
patiently for some tree or vine to come 
into fruit, only to be disappointed even 
worse than we are. Hereafter, I pur¬ 
pose, as far as possible, to raise my awn 
small-fruit plants. When we tip our 
own blackcaps, or dig our own black¬ 
berries, we know just what we are 
doing. I often hear people say that 
plant growing and fruit growing are two 
very different things, and that it does 
not pay to try to mix them up. That 
may be all true enough, but I want to 
know where my plants come from. For 
example, take a man of moderate means 
trying to secure a small but choice 
orchard. Won’t it pay him to start a lit¬ 
tle nursery of his own, and graft from 
trees that he knows are sound and pro¬ 
lific? I’m going to try to find that out! 
Stimulated Potatoes. —Three weeks 
ago, I told how we put nitrate of soda on 
the early potatoes just after a rain. The 
vines were beginning to turn from light 
grden to yellow, and the blight was 
starting in. We scattered the nitrate 
close around the plants. I noticed that, 
when put on the surface, the nitrate 
slowly dissolved, but another shower 
finally carried it into the soil. The effect 
was soon noticed. The plants took on a 
darker color and, evidently, brightened 
up. Before we put it on, we could easily 
see in the field where the chicken 
manure had been thrown, for on these 
spots, the vines were large and dark 
green. A week after the nitrate was 
used, this difference had disappeared, for 
the vines were of uniform color through¬ 
out the field, except in several places, 
where the soil is very dry and open, so 
that the plants had suffered severely. 
So far as the growth of the vine goes, 
there is no doubt that the nitrate has 
helped. We shall know about the tubers 
lqter. I think now that the nitrate has 
made the crop a little later than it would 
otherwise have been. It seems to have 
delayed the ripening and pushed the 
crop into a new growth. 
Potato Varieties.—“The R. N.-Y. 
says that Bovee and Sir Walter Raleigh 
are the best early and late potatoes— 
why, then, do you not plant them at 
Hope Farm?” That question is asked 
by a Michigan reader. We planted about 
45 barrels of potatoes this year, 
including seven each of Sir Wal¬ 
ter Raleigh and Carman No. 3. 
The answer this reader refers to 
was given to a man who want¬ 
ed the best quality of potatoes for home 
use and a very early market. Bovee ap¬ 
pears to be the earliest variety to be 
found. We did not plant it, because we 
have found that June Eating suits our 
soil and market exactly. The price de¬ 
manded for Bovee this season seemed 
to us too high as compared with prices 
for good seed of New Queen, Early 
Norther, etc. We did not think we 
could make up the difference in price in 
increased yield. A few days saved in 
earliness is not of great importance in 
our own market. We do not ship to 
New York. We planted four barrels of 
Rural Blush, but all of our other late 
potatoes are the Carman varieties, i. e., 
Sir Walter, R. N.-Y. No. 2 and Carman 
No. 3. June Eating is not what you would 
call a popular variety. Few dealers 
handle it, and the seed is hard to find. 
On our soil, it makes a well-nigh perfect 
early potato. We do not advise it for 
general culture, as it has not been tested 
anywhere. Bovee has been well tested, 
and reports from it have been uniformly 
favorable. There should be a difference 
between general and specific advice. For 
example, the Black Minorca hen suits us 
very well, yet we would not advise farm¬ 
ers generally to buy eggs or stock of this 
breed. _ l ___ Hr w * c ’ 
The reference on page 527, to the short 
season during which chestnuts retain high 
quality, is a point usually overlooked. 
The high-grade chestnuts are increasing 
in variety; how can we prolong the period 
during which the product is in perfect 
condition for cooking or dessert? 
NOTES FROM THE BEES. 
Before the bees swarm out of the 
hive, they fill themselves with honey, 
and have enough to last them, at least 
three days. Swarms usually weigh from 
6 to 10 pounds; it is estimated that 
there are about 5,000 bees ta a pound. 
The queen lays as many as 2,000 eggs a 
day—about twice her own weight. 
The latter part of June, take off all 
the clover honey, and extract it; replace 
the combs and catch the linden flow, 
extract again the first of August, and 
replace the combs again for the Fall 
How. By this method, you will have no 
trouble in keeping the clover, linden 
and Autumn honey separate and true to 
label. 
To render combs into wax, break 
them into small pieces, and put them 
into a cheese-cloth bag; then put the 
bag of combs into a boiler half-filled 
with cold water. After boiling a half 
hour, remove from the stove, and sink 
the bag to the bottom with a weight; 
cover and let cool off slowly, then you 
will have all the wax on the top of the 
water, and the refuse in the bag. 
There is nothing better than enamel 
cloth over sections, when on the hive; 
the bees do not glue it so tight as they 
do a board, and if you wish to see how 
the bees are progressing, just fold back 
one corner, and peep in, keeping the 
bees back with a little smoke. With a 
board, one is compelled to open the 
whole top at once, and the bees rush 
out all over, and when putting the 
board on, you are liable to kill some of 
them. 
When taking hold of a queen, always 
take her by the wings, never take hold 
of her body; the pressure of the fingers 
may injure her for life. p. o. Herman. 
EVERYTHING. 
An Elephant’s Complexion. — The 
elephants in the Central Park menagerie, 
New York, recently received their Sum¬ 
mer coat of paint. This is necessary to 
keep these thick-skinned beasts in good 
condition. In their wild state, ele¬ 
phants wallow in mud and water until 
their skin is soft and moist, but they 
cannot do this in captivity, and the 
thick hide cracks for lack of the at¬ 
tention. The animals are first thor¬ 
oughly washed with Castile soap, and 
then painted with neatsfoot oil and 
lampblack. About 10 gallons of oil are 
required for each elephant, and when 
the painting is over, the animal has the 
same complexion as a newly-polished 
stove. A good many people used to ac¬ 
cuse P. T. Barnum of kalsomining the 
complexion of his sacred white elephant, 
but it will be a surprise to many to learn 
that ordinary elephants improve their 
complexions by artificial means. 
A Big Country. —I don’t know how I 
could get along without The R. N.-Y. 
When it comes, down go shovel and hoe, 
and down I go until it is thoroughly 
scanned, to be finished later on. Hope 
Farm Notes are especially interesting; 
they take me back my boyhood days 
among the hills and hollows of Penn¬ 
sylvania, back to the old farm with its 
old-fashioned house and barn, its spring 
of pure water, and last, but not least, 
the orchard where grew no Ben Davis 
to disgust our youthful appetites with 
his pumpkin flavor. Our Colorado 
friend can talk about the broad West, 
and America, and God’s country, etc., 
but he doesn’t tell it all. I’ll admit it’s 
a big country; they raise big crops, and 
have big winus, and there are big men 
here, mostly with big heads, and they 
have big farms with a big mortgage on 
every foot of them, and every logging 
camp and post office from Vancouver to 
San Diego expects to be a big city and 
has had big booms, and big liars and 
Impossible for any Liquid that Is Sprayed on 
Cow, to protect her from flies. In sun of 100 de¬ 
grees, '/ 4 as long as "SUOO-FLY” applied with a 
brush. See *■ Shoo-Fly ” adv., page 5110, this paper. 
% 
531 
swindlers have made big money by 
fleecing the over-confident eastern man 
of his hard-earned money. Oh, yes, the 
West is far ahead of the overcrowded 
eastern cities, but let the eastern farmer 
think twice before he breaks up his 
home to begin anew in the broad West! 
Let that free rural delivery come! I 
have to walk two miles to send this dol¬ 
lar, and take off my shoes, rou up my 
overalls, and wade a big slough two 
times in order to get to the post-office. 
Yakima Co., Wash’n. a. l. g. 
Ailing Vines. —Here is an illustra¬ 
tion of the difficulty in securing ac¬ 
curate information. A reader in Illinois 
recently asked what he could do for his 
grape vines. He says they made a good 
growth last Spring, but are now turn¬ 
ing yellow, and one of them has died. 
The under side of the leaves on the dead 
one had a small louse-shaped bug. The 
other vines that are turning yellow also 
had a few of the same bugs on them. 
The leaves were not eaten full of holes. 
The vines are in a yard in town, in good 
soil, and were not in any way affected 
last year. We sent this letter to a num¬ 
ber of experts, but not one of them 
could venture a direct opinion as to 
waat ailed the vine. Prof. Slingerland 
says that the few insects found could 
not have injureu the growth. It is, 
probably, some constitutional trouble, 
and it would be necessary to see the 
vines and study them before telling just 
what to do. Here is a case where it 
would probably pay to call for help 
from the Illinois Experiment Station, at 
Urbana. Our experts must have some 
definite data to work on, or they will be 
powerless in giving help. 
FRAZER c a r «I e 
BEST IN THE WORLD. 
Its wearing qnalities are unsurpassed, actually 
outlasting three boxes of any other brand. Not 
affected by heat. VT GET THE GENUINE. 
FOR SALK BY DIALERS GENERALLY. 
4,000 Pounds 
Is the guaranteed capacity of this wagon. 
It is equipped with 
ELECTRIC STEEL W HEELS 
with stagger oval spokes, broad tires, etc. 
it has angle steel hounds front and 
rear. It’s low down and easy to load. 
One man can load it; saves an extra 
hand in hauling corn fodder, etc. A 
pair of these wheels will make a 
new wagon out of your old one. 
Send tor free catalogue and prices. 
Elccric Wheel Co. Box 88, Quincy,III. 
Largest manufacturers of 
Steel Wagon Wheels and 
Handy Truck Wagons in 
America. Guaranteed su¬ 
perior to any other make 
WRIT! us 
!V1 eta I Wheel Co. 
HAVANA. ILLINOIS 
AN UP TO TIMES 
DAIRYWA60N 
SOLD DIRECT TO 
DAIRYMEN. 
IF INTERESTED IN 
A DAIRY WAGON.wfutl 
THtNATIOHALWAGON GO. CH1LLIC0THE ,0, 
