1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
755 
HOPE FARM NOTES. 
The New House. —By the time this 
paper is printed we shall be located on 
the new farm. A picture of the farm¬ 
house is shown at Fig. 280. Like many 
of the old farmhouses in Bergen County, 
the original was built of stone. Later 
occupants built on wooden additions. 
The Yankees in New England built 
their houses of logs and put them on the 
hills. The Dutchmen built of stone, 
and pushed the houses close up to the 
road. You will notice that this house 
is about as close to the highway as the 
law allows. This highway, known as 
the old Wearimus Road, runs about 
north and south, so that the stone end 
of the house faces to the east. We hope 
to cover that end with vines, before 
many years. On the south side of the 
house, is a fine Wistaria vine, and a 
mammoth grape vine which runs over a 
great arbor with a board floor beneath 
it. The house had been vacant for 
nearly a year, but we found it in fair 
condition. The flat roof at the back is 
of tin, and it had begun to leak so as to 
stain the walls in several rooms. Two 
heavy coats of the Ingersoll paint have 
made it watertight. I call it a great 
mistake to make these flat tin roofs. 
The Madame presides on the inside of 
now leave the farm twice as productive 
as it was when we took it. On the new 
farm all is different. The soil is nat¬ 
urally strong and moist. It has never 
been abused, and is now covered with 
a thick, tough sod. If you wish to put 
a healing plaster on soil, cover it with 
a good sod. Thus our problem is re¬ 
versed. Instead of trying to build up 
the soil, we are to unload it. It is 
drawing out instead of piling in. We 
must do more plowing, for the Cutaway 
will not do so well on this heavy, stony 
soil. We must use more lime and, I 
think, do more work with the harrow 
and roller. On the old place we were 
tenants, working with a small capital. 
Now we are owners, with a good-sized 
mortgage to pay and larger operations 
which will require more capital and 
hired help. 
“Hope Farm.” —“What shall we name 
the new farm?” said the Madame when 
we first bought it. 
“Hope Farm!” I didn’t need to stop 
a moment to think about it. I don’t 
know but that she had her mind on 
Hill Crest or something of the sort, 
but after all, there is only one name 
for us—“Hope.” There have been 
times when it seemed as though our 
crop of hope was blighted even beyond 
THE FARMHOUSE AT HOPE FARM. Fig. 280. 
the house, and I will not speak of her 
arrangements until they are in shape. 
The Farm runs back west from the 
road, two fields wide, about 90 acres in 
all. A steep hnl rises halfway back, 
with an abrupt climb from the east and 
a gentle slope to the woods at the west. 
The view from the top of this hill is 
grand on a clear day. There are woods 
and great hills in all directions, and the 
frost has marked broad strips of red, 
yellow and brown on all sides. Halfway 
up the hill is a good-sized spring bub¬ 
bling up from under a great rock. The 
soil is mostly a heavy clay loam, in¬ 
clined to be moist and stony. Former 
owners have picked up thousands of big 
stones, which they deposited in a high 
wide wall through the center of the farm. 
There are also hundreds of rods of stone 
drains. There are plenty of “hard¬ 
heads” left in the soil, though—as Uncle 
Ed and Charlie found to their sorrow in 
digging the ditches for the water pipes. 
Uncle Ed says that he can dig three 
miles in Florida and not find as many 
rocks as he can here in three rods. 
Nearer the bone—sweeter the meat. 
Nearer the stone—more to eat. 
I am not much of an authority on 
meat just now, but I am sure that most 
crops like a fair proportion of stones in 
the soil. 
New Problems— Our work for the 
past three years has been in the line of 
restoration. We took a poor little 
abused farm and tried to restore it at a 
profit by using chemicals, Crimson 
clover and cow peas. The soil was thin 
and light. We succeeded—that is, we 
have come out a little ahead, and we 
the power of any moral Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture to restore it. The Madame has 
hung on to her ideals through it all, 
and I have marched alongside or tagged 
on behind at times, and—here we are. 
We thought of these things the last 
Sunday before we moved to the new 
place. It was a balmy, beautiful day— 
a lovely haze in the air, as we looked off 
to the hills, gay with their Autumn 
clothing. Those of you who have 
moved from the old house up into the 
new will know what we were thinking 
about. After all our toil and struggles, 
a home such as we have often dreamed 
of was in sight. This land was ours, to 
improve and beautify and cherish. It 
represented long years of work and self- 
denial. The white is coming into our 
halir. Youth has left every organ but 
the heart, but the little folks will grow 
into this soil and belong to it. Do you 
suppose any rich man ever viewed his 
stately piles of stone with a happier 
feeling than we had for this hilly and 
rocky farm? Hope Farm? Why of 
course; there isn’t any other name to 
suit ‘it. 
Selling Timber. —A friend in Con¬ 
necticut writes as follows, about what I 
said regarding our standing timber: 
Do not fear to cut your chestnut; that 
will replace itself In 15 years from one- 
fourth-inch to 18-inch diameter, and give 
you four to six straight trees where one 
stands now. I am 66 next month, and 
have cut my chestnuts three times, and 
they are now 18 to 20 inches and 30 to 45- 
foot sticks. Do not go crazy on fruit, or, 
if you must, put in the open and let those 
grand old forests have a chance. Your 
new place seems to stand where there are 
markets for everything, and I am satisfied 
that you will get more money for a tenth 
of the work from the timber than from 
fruit. I have had 10 to 12 sprouts on a 
stump cut in November 12 to 18 feet tall 
the next November. 
I have been figuring with some buyers 
for chestnut poles. They offer ?2 each 
for the trees standing in the woods. 
This is for large-sized electric poles, 
which bi’iug over $5 at the place of set¬ 
ting. The smaller telephone poles 
bring less. In our woods there are 
probably 30 of the large poles to the 
acre, with many more smaller ones that 
will be ready in five years. Yes, we 
can sell almost anything in Bergen 
County, except a fat steer. In our 
county town alone there are over 2,500 
poles. That is one of the advantages of 
living in New Jersey. h. w. c. 
Nitrogen for Grass.— Bulletin No. 57 
of the Rhode Island Station (Kingston) 
discusses the question of applying nitro¬ 
gen to the grass or clover crop. There 
seems no question but that nitrate of soda 
is the best form of nitrogen to use on 
meadows because, when put on the sur¬ 
face, it is so soluble that it will leach 
quickly down into the soil, and thus feed 
grass or grain. Prof. Wheeler figures out 
the crop value obtained by the application 
of nitrate of soda. When estimated at 
the average price, 150 pounds of nitrate of 
soda per acre gave an increase of $14.34 to 
the value of the hay crop, while 450 pounds 
of nitrate of soda gave a difference of 
$19.62. On one of the plots where no nitro¬ 
gen was used a large amount of clover ap¬ 
peared. Where nitrogen was added on the 
same soil. Red-top and Timothy crowded 
in. This result would puzzle a good many 
farmers, but it is explained when we un¬ 
derstand that clover and similar plants 
are capable, under favorable conditions, of 
obtaining nitrogen from air. When the 
soil was limed, the clover crowded in, ob¬ 
taining it3 nitrogen from the air and mak¬ 
ing a good growth. The Timothy and Red- 
top were not able to feed in the same way, 
and hence failed to grow for the lack of 
nitrogen. When nitrate of soda was ap¬ 
plied, Red-top and Timothy made their 
growth and succeeded in crowding in, so 
that they had a fair showing with the 
clover. This would not have been the 
case, probably, if other forms of nitrogen 
had been used, at least, the result would 
not have been obtained so rapidly. In 
this bulletin, Prof. Wheeler again points 
out the fact that where lime is used, the 
phosphoric acid in the soil seems to be 
made more available, so that there is not 
so great a need for applying the phos¬ 
phates on land that has been well sup¬ 
plied with lime. 
\\ It’s easy to 
E - I haul a big 
II load up a 
9 1 big hill if 
you grease i 
the wagon 
wheels with 
I MICA Axle Grease 
Getabox and learn why It’s the 
best grease ever put on an axle. 
Sold everywhere. Made by 
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-SOT 
were required to 
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tubular 
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now offer as some¬ 
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Why not “ see it ” on those terms f 
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R. E. DIETZ CO., 
87 Laight St., New York. 
ESTABLISHED III 1840. 
Only good Lanterns are stamped “ DIETZ." 
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Road Carts *8.35, Boad Wagons $20 50. Top 
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212 Church St., Owego, N. Y. 
AGENTS 
WANTED 
to handle our com 
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Boiler Compound, Paints, etc., 
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FRAZER 
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- —^———————————————————■—M——■ 
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Can be Carried in the Pocket, 
