1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
Lively Enemies. —We have fought 
the Potato beetles faithfully, yet they 
are still with us. it is a strange sight 
to me to see the young beetles still 
hatching out in the middle of August. 
The theory of planting late to dodge the 
first crop of bugs does not work with us. 
Our late potatoes have been badly eaten, 
and other work crowded us so that we 
could not put up our best fight. I find 
that every job which comes a little out 
of season is doubly hard to perform. 
Once get behind your work, and how it 
will give you the dust. I used to think 
the hard-shelled beetles laid their quota 
of eggs and then retired from active ser¬ 
vice. I now think they can lay an¬ 
other set of eggs later on, anu thus keep 
up their mischief through the season. I 
can’t prove that u was the same old 
bugs that laid their eggs on tne June 
Eatings, tnen took a vacation and came 
up with a fresh supply for the Carman 
varieties, but that is what I think about 
it. 
“Natural Selection.” —I talked with 
a man last week who advanced the sin¬ 
gular theory that we are, year by year, 
breeding a race of Potato beetles that 
are, in one sense, becoming immune to 
poisons. He thinks the failure to kill 
the beetles may not be wholly due to 
adulterations in Paris-green. It ac¬ 
tually takes stronger doses to kill the 
insects. As we well know there are 
arsenic eaters who have taken the poi¬ 
son for years, gradually increasing the 
dose until they can safely eat a quan¬ 
tity that would kill an ordinary per¬ 
son. Mountain climbers or guides in 
hilly countries have become so far im¬ 
mune to the poison that they safely eat 
it, as it helps their “wind.” The theory 
is that, by means of “natural selection,” 
the beetles best able to stand the poi¬ 
son are left each year for breeders. 
This, kept on long enough, would result 
in a breed of beetles that could eat Paris- 
green without a serious stomach-ache. 
I suppose we all know wives who have 
scolded their husbands until the latter 
have become immune, and never say a 
word back. Some light, indolent man, 
who has been bred and fed for genera¬ 
tions as a “high liver,” would be per¬ 
fectly happy after eating a quantity of 
rich food that would destroy the happi¬ 
ness of a farmer. T.tese “feeding hab¬ 
its” of living things mean much to the 
man on the farm. 
Picking Potatoes. —The large eleva¬ 
tor digger with plenty of power before 
it settles the digging question pretty 
well. As soon as the potatoes are 
thrown out, another problem is pre¬ 
sented. They must be picked up and 
sorted, and this is about the hardest 
job of all. We find potato pickers 
scarce in our country. A number of 
people who are willing to pick berries 
will draw the line at the potato, as they 
don’t like to get their fingers in the 
dirt. A man with a small crop can 
handle a few bushels at a time, and get 
on well with his own family. Where 
one has acres to dig, and a powerful 
machine to keep busy, many hands are 
required. One of these big diggers will 
keep 10 ordinary people busy. In this 
busy season, it is a problem to know 
where to go and find them. Farms 
in our section are usually small, and 
there is no floating farm labor to cover 
a big job. 
Melancholy Days. —About the hard¬ 
est days of the year in our coun¬ 
try come in August. The weather is 
usually moist, sticky and “muggy.” It 
doesn’t rain so much, but the air is like 
a wet sponge half tae time, and Malaria 
comes crawling out of 1' is lair, haunt¬ 
ing the swamps through which the 
men must drive by night to market. 
Everything seems to ripen all at once. 
The tomatoes turn red without warning, 
the sweet corn hangs on the line be¬ 
tween boiling ear and seed, the melons 
611 
are just ready to pick and the Lima 
beans are full in the pod. All these 
things are short-lived, and through the 
hot, scalding days, the workers must 
pick and pack them, and when night 
comes, the horses go toiling off to mar¬ 
ket through the fog and damp with 
their load. In spite of all your work, 
lots of the sweet corn will get too hard 
for boiling, and bushels of tomatoes are 
lost. Farmers are straining every 
nerve to get these perishable crops to 
market, and they cannot dig potatoes. 
Potato Prospects. —This suits the 
folks at Hope Farm, for we have no¬ 
thing but sweet corn, potatoes and early 
cabbage to sell this year. Otners are 
unable to dig potatoes, and so the price 
is higher for the time, and we are rush¬ 
ing out our early crop and putting it on 
the market. b irst-class potatoes sell 
at 75 to 90 cents a bushel, and second 
size at 45 cents. By September 1, the 
rush of other crops will be over, and 
then farmers will all dig together, and 
dig the foundation out from under the 
price. Our crop averages well in yield, 
but the scab is very bad in some parts 
of the field. It will hurt us consider¬ 
ably. It is worse where we had po¬ 
tatoes last year. We made a mistake 
in following with potatoes, and we were 
very short-sighted in not using sul¬ 
phur on the seed. Another mistake we 
made was in using different types of 
potatoes. We have round, chunky var¬ 
ieties, and also the long, slender sorts. 
Most people prefer the chunky tubers. 
In the towns and cities, the servant 
girls do most of ti.e ordering. They 
want the potatoes that peel easiest. A 
chunky potato with firm skin and small, 
shallow eyes suits them well. A few 
customers prefer long, slender potatoes 
of medium size. They say that such 
tubers seldom have a hollow heart, 
while the thick, chunky ones usually do. 
Ambitious Sweet Corn. —For some 
reason which we cannot explain, the 
second early sweet corn all ripened to¬ 
gether. In former years, by planting 
Crosby and Perry’s Hybrid at intervals, 
we have secured a perfect succession up 
to the first of the Evergreen. This year, 
the Perry’s Hybrid fairly stepped on 
the skirts of the earliest Crosby, and 
the Evergreen has come with a rush. 
The corn ripened so fast that several 
thousand ears got past us before we 
could get at them. We shall have to 
use them for feed. The Perry’s Hybrid 
grew in the old “Boneyard,” and last 
year’s crop of cow peas seems to be 
responsible for its great vigor. Where- 
ever I go, I talk “cow peas” for thin 
poor land. There are usually wise men 
who shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh, 
the cow pea may be all right for tne 
South, but with us, the Canada field pea 
is much better!” Usually these men 
never saw a cow pea in their lives. If 
they did grow a crop, they would want 
to measure its value by the amount of 
cow food it would make. There they 
would make a mistake, for this plant 
should be used * tor the lunu’s sake.” 
We used Evergreen sweet corn seed 
of our own saving mis year, and find it 
more satisfactory than what we used 
to buy. 
Potato Barrels. —The New York law 
requiring 180 pounds of potatoes to the 
barrel, plays strange tricks with us. 
Here is an illustration: One of our cus¬ 
tomers went to New York and bought 
some “short” or pony barrels of pota¬ 
toes, at $1.55. When we came to deliver 
potatoes, he quoted this price, and was 
ready to pay 15 cents per carrel more, 
which would about cover the freight or 
hauling from New York. The potatoes 
were not first-class, but we could about 
match them by carefully sorting out the 
best for a choicer ,ot. When we started 
to fill those “short” barrels, however, 
the dealer had a new scheme. He‘said 
the New York law called for 180 pounds, 
and he would buy only by weight. You 
see what a nice scheme this is. He will 
buy a “barrel” of 160 pounds to fix a 
low price, and then demand a “barrel” 
of 180 pounds after settling this figure. 
The New Place. —There are one 
thousand and one ti^ngs to be done 
there, but we can’t get time yet to 
wipe out even the one. I want 
to begin Fall plowing soon,, there is 
wood to cut, and a few repairs to 
be made. I am afraid of the San Jose 
scale on a few trees, and want to 
get at them with kerosene and water. 
The caterpillars are weaving their webs, 
and ought to be cut off and burned. 
There are many odd corners of the 
farm that we have never even explored. 
I would like to get at these things, but 
this year’s crop must come first, and 
these hot broiling days leave scant en¬ 
ergy for new jobs. My first plan was 
to plow up the old pear orchards early 
in August. It seems better on every 
account to let this go until the trees 
have made their growth. There are 
many sprouts coming up from the roots 
of the pear trees. I thought, at one 
time, of digging some of these sprouts 
to use as stock for budding to Bose and 
other fine varieties. The arguments 
seem to be against it, and I shall get 
new trees in place of the sprouts. 
II. w. c. 
BULLETINS BOILED DOWN. 
Beet-Sugar Progress.— The United States 
Department of Agriculture lias issued a 
pamphlet of over 1G0 pages, giving a thor¬ 
ough account of the progress of the beet- 
sugar industry in this country. The mat¬ 
ter is taken up, State by State, and many 
interesting details are given. There is, also, 
a chapter on PorLo Kico and the possibili¬ 
ties as regards its output of sugar. There 
is no attempt to make any argument as to 
the influence of the Spanish Islands on the 
future sugar production in this country, 
but it seems quite easy to arrive at the 
conclusion that Porto Rico is bound, sooner 
or later, to have much to do with our 
sugar production. We do not find much in 
this pamphlet to encourage the growing of 
sugar beets in the eastern part of this 
country. Possibly in California and on the 
western plains, the industry may, in time, 
prove successful, but the chances are that 
our new possessions will make America the 
greatest sugar-producing country in the 
world, without adding particularly to the 
output of the home land. 
Cultivation Experiments.— It is amus¬ 
ing to see that some of the experiment 
stations are wisely reporting experiments 
with shallow vs. deep cultivation for corn, 
just as though this were an entirely new 
thing. Tub R. N.-Y. went all through this 
15 years ago, and demonstrated the value 
of what it named the triplicate method of 
corn growing, viz.: drilling the seed, broad¬ 
casting the fertilizer, and giving frequent 
and shallow cultivation. In many parts of 
the West, farmers have given up drilling 
corn, because they can keep the crop 
cleaner with horse tools when planted in 
Dills or checks. Most of these farmers will 
admit, however, that when the crop can 
be cleaned cheaply, drilling gives the 
heavier yield. In nine cases out of ten, 
the shallow culture comes out ahead. We 
judge from the station reports, however, 
that, in some particularly wet seasons, or 
on low, rich ground, the deep cultivation 
sometimes pays. In one reported case from 
the Maryland Station, deep cultivation in 
potatoes gave quite a little increase in the 
yield. 
Australian Salt-Bush.— Bulletin No. 125, 
of the California Experiment Station 
(Berkeley), gives a thorough discussion of 
the Australian salt-bushes, which have been 
advertised in the East by some of our lead¬ 
ing seedsmen, and which were boomed in 
Europe, although quite unsuccessfully. We 
have had a good many inquiries during the 
past year or two about these salt-bushes, 
and it seems that a good many eastern 
farmers bought the seed expecting large 
returns for their money. The California 
Station gives an excellent account of these 
plants, having tested them for 18 years. 
We judge from the results printed in the 
bulletin that the plants are really worthy 
of cultivation in parts of the West. The 
variety known as Atriplex semibaccata 
seems to be the most useful, thriving well 
on strong alkali soil, and in dry uplands. 
The bulletin states that this plant cannot 
endure too many Summer rains. It can¬ 
not stand the moist atmosphere of warm 
countries. On the desert and in the alkali 
wastes, it is unsurpassed among the gifts 
of Nature, but where other and better 
Impossible for any Liquid that is Sprayed on 
Cow, to protect her from Files, in sun of 100 de¬ 
grees, M as lor g as “SHOO-KLI” apolied with a 
brush. See “ Bhoo- Ely ” adv., page SOU this paper. 
plants will thrive, it apparently has no 
place. 
One singular thing about this salt-bush 
is the vast amount of soda salts which it 
contains. It seems to have the ability of 
extracting injurious salts of soda from the 
soil, and leaving it in time in better con¬ 
dition for following crops. For example, 
there are many alkali lands in the West 
where corn and other grain will not thrive. 
Several crops of the Australian salt-bush 
grown on these soils, cut and removed 
from them, will so drain the soil of the 
alkalies that the other crops will actually 
thrive. It was estimated that five tons of 
salt-bush removed from one acre 112 pounds 
of sulphate of potash, 798 pounds common 
salt, and 471 pounds of carbonate of soda, 
a total of 1,2G9 pounds of the injurious 
alkalies or soda salts; in fact, this salt-bush 
is so rich in these salty ingredients that it 
is often a question as to whether this food 
would not be harmful to stock. Certainly 
no salting would ever be required, when 
this fodder is fed. It certainly shows one 
of the singularly wise provisions of nature, 
that this plant should thrive and grow in 
the desert where other plants cannot live. t 
The plant, too, not only provides cattle 
food on these desert wastes, but it actually 
fits the land, cleaning it, and improving its 
condition, so that the other crops may fol¬ 
low in time, and widen the range of feed¬ 
ing. This bulletin is very interesting to all 
who like to study the question of plant 
economics, and it ought to settle forever 
questions about the true value of the Aus¬ 
tralian salt-bush. 
Russian Spelt.— This grain, new to this 
country, comes from Russia, whence it 
was brought by immigrants who have 
settled in some of the western States. It 
is, also, sometimes called speltz, spills and 
spelch. It resembles barley in many re¬ 
spects; the heads are two-rowed and beard¬ 
ed, and the appearance of the heads is 
somewhat like that of common barley. It 
differs from the latter, however, in that 
each hull contains two berries. The hulls 
are much larger than those of barley, and 
the weight of the grain per bushel is nearly 
the same as that of oats. Botanically, it 
is considered a form of wheat, and the 
berries, to which the husk adheres in 
thrashing, resemble those of wheat when 
hulled. It has been grown at the North 
Dakota Experiment Station for several 
years, and has proved hardy and a good 
yielder. The stock are said to be fond of 
the grain. There are several varieties of 
the spelt. Bulletin No. 39, of the North 
Dakota Experiment Station, contains the 
account of experiments with spelt at that 
Station, and the results obtained. 
( 
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