1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
643 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
A Fattiifut, Sentinel. —We sold the 
fruit on the new farm on the trees, re¬ 
serving a few each of pears and apples 
for ourselves. The man who bought the 
fruit agreed to look after things for us, 
and he keeps some one on hand all the 
time. Last Saturday afternoon, the 
Madame and I thought it about time to 
pick our Bartlett pears, so we drove up 
and went at it. The Madame stayed on 
the ground and gave directions, while I 
mounted the tree. The apple buyer had 
left a hoy on guard. He looked at us 
for a while, and then I saw him walking 
off down the road. Pretty soon, one of 
the neighbors came marching into the 
yard, with a black frown on his face, 
and (as we learned later) a loaded re¬ 
volver in his pocket. It seems that the 
boy took us for thieves! He had been 
left there to guard the premises, and 
when two suspicious characters came 
in and made themselves at home, he 
thought 'it was time to start for help! 
That was all right—the boy was a faith¬ 
ful sentinel. That’s the sort of Amer¬ 
ican to put “on guard.” It’s hard to 
have a fine, benevolent-looking woman 
like the Madame taken for an apple 
thief, but I suppose the boy thought she 
was under the control of that hard-look¬ 
ing ticket of a man. 
The Pear Crop.— Our Bartletts are 
yielding well, and prices are good this 
season. We shall plant a good many 
pear trees next Spring. Bartlett and 
Bose make a fine pair of pears. Some 
faint-hearts tell us that Bartlett has had 
'its day in New Jersey, because the Cali¬ 
fornia pears are so beautiful and easily 
shipped. Well, now, we shall not be 
afraid of California until the whole cli¬ 
mate of that State is changed, and es¬ 
pecially the night temperature. “Hand¬ 
some is that handsome does!” That ap¬ 
plies with double force to the Bartlett 
pear. We can pack a flavor into 'it that 
the Californians never know except in 
dreams or when they travel 1,500 miles 
away from home. Therefore, the firm of 
The Madame, Bud & Co. will try to de¬ 
velop a first-class orchard of Bose and 
Bartlett pears. 
A Fruit Farm. —In a general way, our 
ambition is to turn the new farm into a 
fine apple and pear orchard, making the 
soil pay as best we can while the trees 
are growing. We have faith in trees, 
provided you have charity enough for 
them to put your works into the ground 
where they stand. 
“But you will never live to sec them 
in full bearing'.” says one doleful friend. 
The Madame, Bud & Co. don’t feel like 
disputing that statement, but all the 
same they will put their trust in trees. 
How we do bless the old-time farmers 
who planted the great cherry trees on 
the new farm. They are dead and gone. 
The money they made, the offices they 
held, the good deeds they did—all have 
been lost, but the trees they planted and 
cared for live, and how grateful we are 
to-day that they were not afra'id to let a 
part of their work pass on to other gen¬ 
erations. Yes, .yes, ■ those who leave 
good orchards behind them do some¬ 
thing for humanity that is worth re¬ 
cording. 
Another Side— It isn’t all sentiment 
either. I know a farmer—old and rheu¬ 
matic—who has barely made a living 
raising corn and potatoes. He is now 
too stiff to do this work well, yet these 
yearly crops must be attended to. It is 
hard and painful for him now. You see 
he has raised nearly 50 crops, each re¬ 
quiring its full year, and each carrying 
nothing ahead to the next season. This 
man says that we will never see our ap¬ 
ple trees in full bearing. He may be 
right, but let us take his own case. Sup¬ 
pose, when he were my age, he had be¬ 
gun to set his farm to good apple trees. 
I am along in years, it is true, but we 
will take an actual case. Suppose he 
had put a fair share of his savings and 
his labor each year into an orchard, and 
cared for it faithfully and well. To-day, 
'instead of grieving at his inability to do 
a boy’s work in the potato field, he could 
sell his fruit on the trees, and rest in 
quiet through the heat and burden of 
the day. I tell you it is pleasant to see 
an old man living in peace on the fruits 
of his young and sturdy days. As I look 
at it, he who plants and cares for a good 
orchard, lays up a share of his youth 
and vigor as 'insurance against old age. 
Banks and bonds are well enough, but 
a good Baldwin apple tree will hold your 
love and your labor and your money se¬ 
curely, and give it back to you in time 
surer than most human beings. At least, 
that is the opinion of The Madame, Bud 
& Co. 
Potato Points. —I didn’t intend to 
say a word about potatoes this week, 
but it’s hard to get away from them. 
The yield is quite satisfactory, in spite 
of bugs and blight and dry weather. 
One piece of New Queens was planted in 
an old chicken yard where, the year be¬ 
fore, over 100 chickens had their run. 
With the same amount of fertilizer, this 
piece ran a close race with a field where 
cow peas were plowed under. I have 
been surprised at the returns from this 
old yard. No use talking, lit pays to 
have portable yards, and move the hens 
about so as to crop after them. . . . 
We used nitrate of soda on the early 
potatoes just when they seemed ready to 
give up. A light shower came, and we 
put on about 200 pounds of nitrate per 
acre. To the best of my figuring, this 
added $30 to the value of one acre’s 
crop. The vines greened up and kept 
growing and produced good tubers. 
Where the nitrate was not used, the 
vines never fully recovered, and pro¬ 
duced mostly small tubers. I am satis¬ 
fied that, if we had put nitrate on the 
entire early crop, we would have gained 
at least $6 for each dollar’s worth of 
nitrate. . . . The Carman varieties 
made a hard fight against bugs and 
blight, but at last, they went down. 
Still they were not conquered, for in 
spite of their poor start and hard life, 
they will give a fair yield. When the 
blight struck them, we dusted the dry 
Bordeaux Mixture on eight rows through 
the field. A blind man could see the ef¬ 
fect. Those eight rows are still green 
and vigorous, while the rest of the field 
is dead as a stake. 
SEEN FROM A WHEEL. 
Farms and Homes in the Suburbs. 
A great change has been going on for 
many years past in the country surround¬ 
ing our great cities, notably New York. 
More and more of the people who work 
and do business in the cities have gone to 
the country or country towns for homes, 
and all over the west end of Long Island 
and in the New Jersey counties within 50 
miles of New York, are found these subur¬ 
ban towns, many of them so close to¬ 
gether that they nearly touch elbows. 
There are large numbers of farms in the 
vicinity of these suburban towns, whose 
owners are, apparently, waiting for the 
towns to absorb their holdings. They say 
“Farmin’ don’t pay,” and from appear¬ 
ances, it doesn’t pay them. But right at 
their doors lie the best markets in the 
world; here and there ampng them are 
prosperous farmers, and one is forced to 
conclude that the difference is in the “man 
behind the plow.” 
Besides these suburban towns, great 
numbers of wealthy people have bought 
large tracts of land on which they have 
erected great mansions, carriage houses, 
greenhouses, laid out extensive lawns, 
planted shade and ornamental trees, and 
on which have been expended vast sums 
of money. In some localities, a great 
change has been wrought by these men 
who have bought up whole farms, and in 
some cases, many farms, and have turned 
these into great estates. As a general 
thing, this has been a good thing for the 
country, for these people want good roads; 
they pay heavy taxes, and contribute 
liberally to the prosperity of the country 
in many ways. Many an old, rundown 
farm with tumble-down buildings has 
been made into an attractive, well-kept 
country home, a pleasure to the eye and 
an attraction to travelers. The builders 
of these places, too, have furnished a con¬ 
siderable market for labor, and in many 
cases, for products of the farms surround¬ 
ing them. 
Large numbers of these suburban homes 
are found through northern New Jersey, 
but not all of the country is given up to 
them, and interspersed here and there, 
one finds many well-cultivated farms and 
gardens. I found one such farm in Morris 
County, about three miles from Morris¬ 
town. It Is beautifully located on one of 
the smooth stone roads for which this part 
of the country is famous. It is the old 
Bockoven homestead, in which family it 
has been for many years. The oldest 
member of the family is Grandma Bock¬ 
oven, now in her 92nd year, and although 
she isn’t quite so spry as she once was, 
and has some difficulty with her sight 
and hearing, she is yet as clear of mind 
as ever. She came to this place a bride 
70 years ago, and this has always been her 
home since that time. Here she has seen 
great changes take place, and has reared 
a large family, of whom two sons and two 
daughters now look after her in her old 
age, and carry on the farm. 
The farm itself consists of 200 acres of 
fertile land, very finely located for farm¬ 
ing purposes. One of the sons looks after 
the farm work in general, while the other 
devotes most of his attention to growing 
fruits and truck, which find a ready sale 
at good prices In the Morristown market. 
A large apple orchard is bearing a fair 
crop of apples this year. The trees look 
thrifty and well-cared for, though I was 
told that they have never been sprayed. 
There has seemed to be with them little 
need of spraying, and as there is an 
abundance of work, especially at the time 
when spraying is usually needed, it has 
never been resorted to. The ordinary va¬ 
rieties are grown, and there are several 
trees of early apples, all of which are sold 
in the home market*. 1 was told that there 
were a few trees of Ben Davis, but that 
the storekeepers to whom most of the 
produce is sold had become acquainted 
with this fruit, and wanted no more of it. 
Now it has to be sold to hucksters, who 
peddle it around in the cities nearby, to 
those who have not made its intimate 
acquaintance. 
There are two large peach orchards, and 
these usu.ally furnish a considerable source 
of income, but this year, the crop is light. 
Trials are now being made with several 
different varieties of Japan plums. The 
trees look thrifty, and are bearing heavy 
crops, though young, but the Abundance 
and Burbank seem to be taking the lead. 
Cherries and pears have succeeded well, 
and have proved extremely profitable. 
Strawberries have received considerable 
care, and have given good crops. The 
narrow matted row is the method of cul¬ 
ture adopted. A large acreage of potatoes 
was remarkably free from bugs, and 
showed but little blight. All the fruit, to¬ 
gether with the truck grown, finds a mar¬ 
ket at the stores at Morristown. The 
point seems to be to grow products of good 
quality, pack them In nice shape, and put 
them on the market in the freshest and 
best condition. 
That the course of farming adopted here 
and the methods employed have been sat¬ 
isfactory, is shown by the condition of the 
farm, size of the buildings, and the gen¬ 
eral air of prosperity that prevails; still, 
one would not have to go far to find farm¬ 
ers who are living in tumble-down houses, 
whose farms are weedy and rundown, and 
who are surrounded by a general air of 
neglect and decay. The latter always say, 
“Farmin’ don’t pay!” Why the differ¬ 
ence? f. h. v. 
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