1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
659 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
The Meat Question. —People in our 
country feel the advance in butchers’ 
meat. Our butchers are nothing but cut¬ 
ters anyway. The Dressed Beef Com¬ 
pany brings them the carcass, and they 
cut it up. There is no chance for compe¬ 
tition or careful buying. Now that meat 
is up, farmers will buy less of it. I would 
like to be one of a million farmers who 
would make a pledge not to buy a pound 
of this western beef until the corpora¬ 
tions are fairer with the people. We 
find that the price of poultry has gone 
up. We sold 11 small hens one night 
last week for $5. Pork, also, is up, and 
our butchers can handle small carcasses. 
They will also buy fat sheep, dressed, 
and I shall try a small flock on the new 
farm. With the uproar now going on 
about the meat trust, I think it will pay 
eastern farmers to feed small animals 
once more, that is, when they have any 
feed. This year most barns are empty. 
Farm Mortgages. —The farms in our 
country are well plastered with these 
financial poultices. We have one on the 
new farm, that is very hungry. It is 
held by a Building and Loan Associa¬ 
tion. We have to pay $1 a month for 
each $100 borrowed. This pays the in¬ 
terest, also a part of the principal. It is 
an expensive way to borrow, yet our ex¬ 
perience is that it is the best way to pay. 
The monthly payments pinch sometimes, 
but after a while, one gets in the habit 
of providing for them. It is a pleasure 
to think that the money you would pay 
to a landlord as rent is really paying for 
your home. It is easier to pay $10 a 
month for 100 months, than it would be 
to try to save $1,000 by holding 100 10- 
dollar bills together in your hand. I am 
always sorry to see people paying in¬ 
terest year after year, and giving no 
thought to the payment of the mortgage 
itself. I would like a law giving the 
mortgagor the option of paying in 
monthly payments if he sees fit. Pay¬ 
ment of debt is largely a habit, and lots 
of us never get in the habit of accumu¬ 
lating large sums by putting together 
little ones. Of course that is one reason 
why the holder of the mortgage wants it 
paid in a lump sum. 
Water PirE.—Iron pipe has gone to a 
price quite out of reach, and so we gave 
up the plan of piping the spring water 
to the house on the new farm. People 
have been writing about wooden and 
fiber pipes, which, I find, are quite large¬ 
ly used for carrying water. I didn’t wait 
for the price of pipe to fall, but had a 
drilled well put down about 150 feet 
from the house. They drilled 140 feet, 
mostly through solid rock. The water 
now rises to within 40 feet of the sur¬ 
face. It was not necessary to go so 
deep, but I wanted an abundant supply, 
and we have it. The Madame says that 
we have spent money for tools to make 
the men folks comfortable, and now she 
wants a few household contrivances; so, 
first of all, we want to pipe the water 
into the house. Our water supply at the 
old place is very unhandy. The pump 
is about 75 feet from the kitchen stove. 
We use nearly 60 gallons of water per 
day, which has meant a daily journey of 
750 feet a day, or 5iy 2 miles a year. It 
represents a yearly lugging of 886 tons 
of water! This may give the women 
folks muscle, but a good share of that 
muscle will be found located on the 
tongue! We hope to put that fine water 
in a tank within handy reach of the 
stove. Such a tank will be a close neigh¬ 
bor to Godliness! 
Irrigation Chances. —With this deep 
well of fine water, we can drench the 
lower part of the farm, provided we can 
get the power needed to lift the water. 
From the “dip” of the rock through 
which the well was bored, I think one 
large field, close at hand, lies like a 
saucer. There seem to be five or six feet 
of good soil, and under that, the dishing, 
solid rock. There can be little loss in 
drainage, either of water or fertility, 
and a moderate amount of water soaked 
into the soil will keep the crops thrifty. 
The well driller puts up a pretty good 
argument to prove that drilled-well 
water 'is purer than that from a flowing 
spring. In our well, he has struck a 
living stream of water, down below 100 
feet of solid rock. I don’t know what 
there can be to contaminate such water 
as that. 
Haunting Habits. —When I was a 
boy, I did a great deal of picking up— 
stones, apples, potatoes and nuts all had 
to be hand picked. My hands were bad¬ 
ly trained at this work. I was taught to 
think that the left hand was inferior, 
somehow, and with me it became a mere 
servant for the right. Even now I catch 
my left hand passing a stone or potato 
on to the right, instead of putting it 
directly where it is needed. It is a com¬ 
mon habit. I find our children starting 
it—it seems to come naturally. I caught 
the Graft last week right in the old, 
familiar trick of passing apples along 
from left to right before putting them in 
the basket. That is one thing i wili 
Break up. Our little folks shall be 
taught to make the left hand something 
more than a slave. 
All Sorts.—W e have tried every way 
to make the draught on the Hoover dig¬ 
ger lighter. In one case, where the po¬ 
tatoes were very deep, we ran the plow 
on both sides of the row, throwing the 
furrows away from the potatoes. This 
helped greatly, but takes too much time. 
The great thing about the Hoover is that 
it will go anywhere you can pull it. But 
on the necessary power, anu the pota¬ 
toes must come out.Complaints 
reach us of many weedy cow-pea fields. 
We have never oeen troubled that way. 
With us, the eow pea smothers out the 
weeds very well. We would mow the 
whole thing off if troubled that way, and 
let the cow peas make a second growtn 
—which they will from every joint. . 
. . . Now is the time to sell off the 
old hens. Ours go about a dozen at a 
time. They will enjoy their vacation in 
a chicken pie, and so will those who eat 
the pie.We are stuffing the 
pigs. The sweet corn that would not 
sell for enough to pay for the pulling, 
will make fine pork about the time of a 
killing frost. h. w. c. 
BULLETINS BOILED DOWN. 
Chestnut Grafting.— In the last annual 
report of the Connecticut Experiment Sta¬ 
tion (New Haven), there is an excellent ar¬ 
ticle on chestnut grafting, by W. E. Brit¬ 
ton. This gives the results of a number of 
experiments in grafting various improved 
chestnuts, and includes the experience of 
such men as J. H. Hale and N. L. Platt. 
The conclusion is that the chestnut cannot 
be grafted as successfully as the apple or 
pear; still, about 50 per cent of good scions 
can be made to grow on proper stocks, if 
the work is well done. The best time for 
grafting in the vicinity of New Haven is 
from May 15 to June 15. The early-set 
scions made no growth until about May 20. 
Mr. Britton advises not to remove the fo.i- 
age from around the graft at first, which 
could be shaded for a time. Many of the 
scions will need supporting after growth 
begins, or they will be broken off by strong 
wind. Whip or tongue grafting on small 
stocks will give the best union. This ar¬ 
ticle contains an excellent illustration, and 
tells the story in a practical and sensible 
way. 
degrees colder in June, less than one de¬ 
gree in July, and three degrees warmer in 
August. The singular fact Is shown that 
a plant in North Dakota will find nearly 
the same soil temperature during the grow¬ 
ing season that it would find in central 
New York. 
Notes on Frost. —Farmers’ Bulletin No. 
104, issued by the United States Department 
of Agriculture, is a very practical treatise 
on frost in its relations to agriculture and 
horticulture. Means of protection from 
frost, in different sections, are detailed, in¬ 
cluding glass, cloth and lath screens, and 
devices for adding moisture to the air. It 
is observed that the danger of damage from 
frosts may be materially lessened by plac¬ 
ing early and tender plants on high ground 
and crests, and hardier plants in low 
ground and hollows. The danger is still 
further lessened where land is selected on 
the south and east of large bodies of water. 
In dry climates, smudge fires were found 
useless, but fires of coal burned in iron 
baskets were found of value, while irriga¬ 
tion was second in point of utility. In the 
more humid' climate of the South, damp 
smudge fires were useful, but irrigation was 
found the most effective protection. Mulch¬ 
ing is used in many sections on a variety 
of crops. Burning stakes soaked in petro¬ 
leum proved satisfactory in Texas; the 
stakes were distributed throughout an or¬ 
chard, enveloping it in a cloud of smoke, 
which effectually prevented damage by 
frost. The Weather Bureau has made pro¬ 
vision for the distribution of frost warn¬ 
ings, which have proved of great value to 
truckers and fruit growers. While warn¬ 
ings and frost-fighting appliances can be 
of little avail during such a severe and 
widespread freeze as that of last Winter, 
their efficiency has been proved on many 
occasions, and study in this line will well 
repay truckers and other market growers. 
FRAZER 
AXLE 
BEST IN THE WORLD. 
Its wearing qualities are unsurpassed, actually 
outlasting three boxes of any other brand. Not 
affected by heat. GET THE GENUINE. 
FOR SALK BY DEALERS GENERALLY. 
A Good Wagon 
begins with good wheels. Unless 
the wheels ore good the agon 1* 
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made to tit any wagon—your wagon 
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Largest manufacturers of 
Steel Wagon Wheels and 
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America* Guaranteed su¬ 
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WRITS us 
Metal Wheel Co. 
HAVANA. ILLINOIS 
Winter Crops 
perish when they lack nourish¬ 
ment. Liberal fertilization 
insures the vigor necessary to 
resist winter killing. 
Potash 
Phosphoric Acid and Nitrogen 
in well-balanced proportions, 
are what they need. 
Send/or our books telling all abou 
composition of fertilizers best adapted 
for all crops. They cost you nothing. 
GERHAN KALI WORKS, 
73 Nassau Street, New York. 
Profits of Farming 
GARDENING AND FRUIT CULTURE. 
depend upon Good Crops and they In 
turn npon Good Fertilizers. The 
uniformly best fertilizer for all Crops 
and all soils is made by 
The Cleveland Dryer Co., Cleveland, O. 
Materials Supplied for “ Rome Mixing.' 
Jadoo Fibre and Jadoo Liquid 
Will give you Early Crops and Large Crops 
of Vegetables or Fruit. Send for Catalogues 
and be convinced of the merits of these 
new Fertilizers. 
THE AMERICAN JADOO CO., 
815 Falrmount Avenne, Philadelphia, Pa. 
LIGHTNING VIELLMACHY 
STANDAR D/ 
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IS THE_ „ 
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gasoline: engines®/^, 
WRITE FOR CIRCULAR Big Ifilgi 
THE. AMERICAN WELL WORKS tT — 
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I 
DAL L AS, T EX! 
WELL BW" 
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Over 70 sizes and styles, for drilling either deep or 
■hallow wells In any kind of soil or rock. Mounted 
on wheels or on sills. With engines or horse powers. 
Strong, simple and durable. Any mechanic can 
operate them easily. Send for catalog. 
WILLIAilIS BROS., Ithaca, N. Y. 
Well Drillers! Use 
LOOMIS' 
“Clipper” 
Driller. 
The Standard 
of America l 
Strongest! Takes least . . 
S ower I Carries heaviest tools I Drills much faster t 
lost convenient to handle I Will last longer and 
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We also make many other machines for drilling welts 
of all diameters and depths. Machines tor Horse, Steam, 
and Gasoline Power. Write for full particulars. 
LOOMIS & NYMAN, TIFFIN, OHIO. 
Soil, Temperature.— Prof. F. F. Ladd, of 
the North Dakota Experiment Station, has 
made some interesting experiments with 
the temperature of soils. He buried ther¬ 
mometers in the soil all the way from one 
inch to eight feet, in order to find how low 
the frost line reached during the Winter. 
The lowest temperature at eight feet was 
3ti degrees, at four feet the thermometer 
went down to 30 degrees in 1895, and at five 
feet in the same year, the temperature fell 
to 32 degrees. He concludes that, in the 
open field in North Dakota, the ground 
freezes solid to between four and five feet 
during the Winter months. It has been 
claimed by some that, in that country, the 
frozen ground gradually thawed during the 
Summer, so as to provide a source of mois¬ 
ture to the growing crop of wheat. These 
experiments show that, with the exception 
of 1893 the frost was all out of the ground 
by May 20. In 1893 the ground at four feet 
deep was still frozen on June 1. Prof. Ladd 
also compared the soil temperature of 
North Dakota with that at Geneva, N. Y., 
Geneva being about 300 miles south of Far¬ 
go. At nine inches in depth, Fargo soil in 
June averaged seven degrees colder; in 
July, three degrees colder; in August, five 
degrees, and in September, six degrees. At 
a depth of one inch, Fargo soil was two 
A GOOD WIND MILL 
Lasts a life time. 
Don’t buy a poor one when 
you can buy the 
IMPERIAL 
with patent internal gear 
and malleable Iron frame. Write 
for full Information and catalog. 
Mast, Foos 6 l Co. 
11 River St. Springfield, Ohio, 
RIFE HYDRAULIC ENGINE 
Pumps Water Automatically by 
Watee Power. Place this engine two 
feet or more below your water supply 
and It will deliver a con¬ 
stant stream of water 30 
feet high for every foot of 
fall. 
WITHOUT STOPPING. 
WITHOUT ATTENTION. 
POWER SPECIALTY CO.. 126 Liberty St., New York. 
Wheels to Order... 
We make all kinds of Buggy, Carriage, Light’ 
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wheel we make as to quality of material and work¬ 
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than repairing the old ones. 
$7.50 buys 4 Buggy Wheels, 7-8 in. Steel Tires. 
$8.00 buys 4- Carriage Wheels, 1 in. Steel Tires. 
$10.50 buys 4 Milk, Mill, Light Delivery or Spring 
Wagon Wheels, 11-8 in. Steel Tires. 
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Send for catalogue No. 38 and rules for measuring. 
WILMINGTON WHEEL CO., Wilmington, Delaware. 
tew/d. 
