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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Lessons From Hens. —In one of our 
henyards, stands a large apple tree. 
For the last two years, the fruit was 
not remarkable. This year, the tree 
seems to have taken on new vigor, and 
the fruit is large and fine. Almost all 
the fruit is on one side. This is the 
side on which 60 or more hens have been 
fed regularly on pleasant days. The 
hens have taken this side for their dust¬ 
ing places. You know how they bur¬ 
row in the ground, and how they stand 
around in their feeding places. They 
have fertilized and cultivated that poor 
old apple tree, or at least one side of it, 
until it has fairly taken a new lease 
on life. A hen, in addition to her other 
virtues, is a living cultivator and a fer¬ 
tilizer bag in feathers. Originally this 
tree stood in a thick sod. The hens 
have torn the sod on one side all out, 
and thoroughly scratched up the soil 
to a depth of five inches. On the new 
farm, there are over 200 sod-bound fruit 
trees. The hens have taught me a les¬ 
son. I shall try to imitate them with 
plow, harrow and chemicals. I can 
feed cow peas and Crimson clover under 
a tree easier than I can feed hens. 
Another large tree has a large limb 
which was torn and twisted by the 
wind so that the top touches the ground. 
The fruit on this twisted limb is the 
best on the tree, larger and more ma¬ 
ture than that on the sound limbs. That 
accords with what they tell us about 
girdling vines and trees. 
Potato Notes.— On at least three 
acres, we planted potatoes this year 
where potatoes grew last year. This 
was a risky thing to do, but we took 
the risk. There is danger from both 
rot and scab. The digging last year 
was not clean, and some small ones 
were left in the ground where, of course, 
they rotted. The season thus far has 
been so dry that rot and blight have 
not been serious, but I find considerable 
scab on last year’s potato ground. 
Grain and grass can stand several 
years of steady cropping, but potatoes 
and cabbage should have a change. 
Does it pay to thin the early potatoes 
down to one stalk to the hill? We tried 
it this year in a small way. It means 
fewer potatoes, but they are likely to 
be of large size, which counts in a sea¬ 
son like tnis. We observe, too, that 
the single stalks seem to ripen or ma¬ 
ture quicker than the hills where sev¬ 
eral sprouts are left. Our earliest po¬ 
tatoes were large enough to sell in the 
first week in July, but we decided to 
let them stand until the vines ripen. 
The crop will be larger, and the price 
seems right this year. It will pay to 
let the tubers reach full size. That 
hateful plant known as Summer grass 
is coming into the potato field. That 
crowds in after cultivation stops, and 
makes a perfect sod. 
WiiAT the Hens Say. —We had 856 
eggs in June. Eggs are a little higher 
in price—1% cent each. Most of the 
heavier hens have had their incuba¬ 
tion fever, and this has interfered with 
the egg yield. The Blacks keep at it 
without a break. Objection is often 
made to the blacks because they do not 
sell well as dressed poultry. It is true 
that large black fowls will not bring a 
high price, but for broilers, little differ¬ 
ence is made. The young Minorca 
roosters are very fine. We killed half 
a dozen broilers last week. Three of 
them were Brahma crosses. It was re¬ 
markable how the Brahma blood in¬ 
creased the size. Some people claim that 
a Leghorn, at x0 weeks, will be as 
large as any other chick of the same 
age. In our experience, that is not true. 
The Brahma chicks are considerably 
larger, but are bony and thin. We are 
trying our first experiment with ducks. 
The eggs were not very fertile, and we 
have only a small flock—enough, how¬ 
ever, to observe and test them. 
Small Fruit Business. —Our local 
trade in raspberries was good. Last 
year, we got a local grocer to handle 
some fruit, but he did not think he could 
do much with it. Ten quarts a day was 
about all he could start with. One day 
this year he took 69 quarts! He got his 
trade started, and it grew. People got 
in the habit of buying fruit. That’s the 
way it goes in many small places. One 
thing that helped us this year is the ab¬ 
sence of peddlers. These are men who 
own some broken-down old wagon and a 
horse that is too weary to fall down. 
When there is a glut of fruit in New 
York, they buy the poorest of it at low 
figures, and start out in perfect swarms 
all over the county among the little vil¬ 
lages. I often see them sitting in the 
dust sorting over their fruit. These 
men hurt the trade of the small farmer. 
This year, there has not been a surplus 
of fruit in the city, and the peddlers 
have not been able to fill their wagons. 
That’s a good thing for us. The Cut¬ 
ting and Uncle Ed have done some 
peddling for Hope Farm, but most of 
our fruit was sold to neighbors or 
through the grocers. I doubt whether 
late blackberries would pay in our local 
market. There is too much wild fruit. 
People organize parties, take a day off, 
and pick great quantities of wild black¬ 
berries. Our Early Harvests came in 
ahead of the wild ones. 
Early Apples. —There is promise of 
a large apple crop on the new farm. 
The Red Astrachans are now ready to 
pick. The market in Paterson, N. J., 
seems to be crowded with early apples. 
Farmers have an idea that the country’s 
apple crop is short, and they are crowd¬ 
ing in about all they can pick up. M/e 
have a number of trees of what is 
known locally as Summer Pippin. 
There is a great demand for them. 
They will be ready about August 1. In 
one three-acre orchard, the ground is 
well covered with windfalls. It hurts 
every drop of the Yankee side of my 
blood to see that fruit wasted. The 
fence is not hog-tight. If it were, I 
would turn in a dozen or so hogs. 
Sheep might be better. If I can arrange 
to sell a carcass of mutton now and then 
to the local butcher, I shall want to try 
a small flock. It seems a shame to let 
these apples go to waste when they 
might make good pork or mutton We 
are not living on the new farm yet— 
only working there a few days at a 
time. When we get up there perma¬ 
nently, we can do things better. 
Behind With Work. —We blocked 
out on the old farm, about all we could 
handle for the season. The new place 
came into our hands just when the corn 
needed cultivating, and the late potatoes 
needed hoeing. There were, at least, 25 
acres of hay all ready to be cut. We 
are not hay farmers, and had only a 
second-hand mower and three forks 
in the way of haying tools. We got a 
second-hand hay rack at an auction, 
borrowed a rake, and started in. At one 
time, we had two mowers and six men 
at work. We got the hay in fair shape, 
but what a start the weeds did get in 
the meantime. In several places, they 
have beaten us, especially in one field 
of sweet corn. About all we shall try 
to do on the old place is to get our 
crops harvested and sold. The soil on 
the new place is naturally much better, 
and work will give permanent returns 
there. It makes great disorder, though, 
when you blocs out your season’s plans, 
and then have to make a liglitning 
change right in the middle of the sea¬ 
son. 
Dog Days. —During the week ending 
July 15, there were several heavy show¬ 
ers, which ended with a soaker on Sat¬ 
urday night. Sunday proven to be one 
of those broiling muggy days, which de¬ 
rive their name from the fact that they 
make one feel like a dog, and drive 
the potatoes to the dogs. It made one 
sweat to wink an eye, and any form of 
clothing seemed like a jail. Worst of 
all, scalding sunshine beat down with 
hardly a ripple of breeze to relieve it. 
It was just the weather for blights and 
rots, but how it did make sweet corn 
grow! Strange how Nature is filled up 
with opposite conditions, b ind condi¬ 
tions of weather or location that are 
death to one thing, and you generally 
find that they form the very essence of 
life for another. Dog days are the 
bane of farm life. You may keep warm 
when frost is abroad, get under cover 
when it rains, and keep fairly comfort¬ 
able when the wind blows, but a dog 
day with its moist, muggy embrace is 
too much. 
The New Place. — I shall have to tell 
about this by snatches. About a year 
ago, the Madame went to an auction 
held at a farmhouse. She came back 
talking about that farm, and has con¬ 
tinued to talk about it on all occasions 
ever since. Something about the loca¬ 
tion and surroundings just suited her. 
I went and looked at it, and found that 
it suited me equally well, but the value 
seemed away out of our reach. As I 
have said before, the little place where 
we now live is rented. This new place 
was in the hands of lawyers, who had 
foreclosed a mortgage on it. They 
grew tired of holding it, and finally 
made an offer for cash which seemed to 
me somewhat like giving it away. We put 
up what we could spare, and borrowed 
the rest of a building and loan associa¬ 
tion, and now the place belongs to the 
Madame. I thought it best to give it 
to her, and let her see what she can do 
about paying off the mortgage. The 
farm is just what we have been hunting 
for. The soil is naturally strong, and 
has never been abused. For the past 
10 years the farm has been used for 
pasturing and boarding New York 
horses. In the barns and sheds, there 
are stalls for 23 horses and seven cows. 
Practically nothing has been taken 
from the farm in the Way of crops. On 
our little place, we were forced to build 
up the soil. Here an entirely new prob¬ 
lem is presented. We expect plenty of 
hard work and study and lots of fun in 
trying to solve it. h. w. c. 
' ■ ■ ' » 
CUT AND SHREDDED. 
‘‘Black Death.” — I bought 100 pounds of 
‘‘black death” for Potato beetles. It is 
claimed that from 25 to 40 pounds will cover 
an acre of potatoes; also that it will not 
injure the plants or the person using it. I 
put it on with a machine or sifter that I 
use for plaster and Paris-green, and man¬ 
aged to get over half an acre. The pota¬ 
toes are in hills three feet apart each way. 
It killed the beetles, but the potatoes look 
as though thev had been struck with the 
blight. My opinion is that the stuff is 
death not only to Potato beetles, but also 
to plants, persons and pocket-books. 
Broome Co., N. Y. C. H. G. 
Melons in Peach Orchards.— I cannot 
learn that Georgia peach growers have 
largely planted either watermelons or can¬ 
taloupes in their peach orchards. In my 
opinion, cantaloupes would not only do well, 
but if one row were planted midway be¬ 
tween the rows of trees, I believe that they 
would do better than in the open ground, as 
our cantaloupes are not as good South as 
farther North, owing to the fact that the 
sun ripens them before they can reach per¬ 
fection or maturity. I believe the shade of 
orchards would retard the period of ripen¬ 
ing, and thereby give an increase in size 
and fruit of finer flavor. The reverse 
would be the case with watermelons. I am 
now gathering them running from 40 to 54 
pounds, though we have had only one rain 
to wet their roots since April 22, and every¬ 
thing else is burned up. a. w. smith. 
Georgia. 
Value of a Life.—A doctor in New 
York State has sued a wealthy man for 
$10,000, which represent medical service ren¬ 
dered at a time when the rich man tried to 
commit suicide. In his suit, the doctor 
claims, among other things, that his patient 
was a man of great wealth, and that in 
case he had died, he would have occasioned 
great loss to himself, family, relatives and 
citizens generally. Therefore, since the 
doctor saved his life, he ought to be paid 
I mi possible for any Liquid that is Sprayed on 
Cow, to protect her from Flies, In sun of 100 de¬ 
grees, as long as •‘8HOO-FLX” applied with a 
brash. See “ Shoo-Fly ” adv., page aUO. this paper. 
more than he would be for saving a poor 
man. In reply, the lawyers of the rich 
man claim that the doctor had no reason 
to make exorbitant charges just because 
his plaintiff was a millionaire. It will be 
interesting to see how the courts decide 
this case. What does constitute the value 
of a human life in the eyes of society? If 
it is not money, what is it, and is not one 
man’s life worth more than that of an¬ 
other? 
Ginseng.— The fact that China offers a 
steady and remunerative market for gin¬ 
seng, and that the price for this commo¬ 
dity is steadily rising, while the native 
forest supply is diminishing, has aroused 
much interest in the cultivation of this 
plant. It has been learned that there is a 
profit in ginseng culture, and we get many 
questions regarding it, from time to time. 
A complete working treatise on the sub¬ 
ject, by Maurice G. Kains, has now been 
published. It discusses the raising of the 
crop from the very beginning, either by 
seeds or roots, discusses all cultural points, 
preparation for market, and sale. Last 
Fall, northern ginseng went up to $5.50 a 
pound, and the lowest price paid for the 
southern root was $2.75 a pound. The price 
of the book, which is cloth-bound, contain¬ 
ing 64 pages and 14 illustrations, is 25 cents. 
Landscape Gardening.— It is evident, 
from the number of new books dealing with 
horticulture and kindred topics, that popu¬ 
lar interest in such subjects is increasing. 
It is only within comparatively recent 
years that it became possible to buy an 
inexpensive, yet instructive, book upon 
landscape gardening. Prof. F. A. Waugh, 
of the Vermont Experiment Station, has 
recently issued a small treatise upon Lhis 
subject, which impresses us as of special 
value to those who desire to make the 
most of an unpretentious country place. In 
addition to the discussion, upon broad lines, 
of the principles of landscape art, specific 
treatment Is given for farm yards, school 
and suburban lots, drives, small parks, etc , 
and there is a useful list of annual and 
perennial plants, shrubs and vines. The 
book Is bound in cloth, contains 150 pages, 
and 35 illustrations which, though unpre¬ 
tending, are uniformly excellent. Price 50 
cents. The book may be obtained from this 
office. ■» 
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