1904 
117 
Hope Farm Notes 
I have had letters enough lately to fill 
several copies of The R. N.-Y. They were 
all welcome, and I wish more of them 
could be printed. Here is one from Con¬ 
necticut: 
A Neat Capture.— “One of my neigh¬ 
bors who had suffered from the incursions 
of chicken thieves, thought out and applied 
this scheme to protect his poultry. He 
had an electric alarm connecting his hen¬ 
house door with a bell in his sleeping 
room in the house. Late one night the 
alarm bell rang. Seizing his double barrel 
shotgun he went to the henhouse, and 
finding the door open he gave the com¬ 
mand: ‘Come out or I’ll shoot you.' ‘Don’t 
shoot, I'll come,' said the man as he ap¬ 
peared at the door with a couple of hens 
in his hands. He was escorted to the 
house, a constable called by telephone, 
and in a short time the man was behind 
the bars. The next morning a horse and 
covered wagon containing coops enclosing 
75 hens, a lot of hams, beef and other 
provisions was found deserted a mile far¬ 
ther on. Evidently he had a confederate, 
who thought it wise to desert the team 
and escape. The parties who had been 
robbed reclaimed their property, the town 
officials took possession of the horse and 
wagon. The thief, w T ho was a stranger, 
would give no information; he is now 
serving out a two-year’s term in the State 
prison. If chicken thieves should have 
reason to think that the henhouses they 
propose to visit are protected as my neigh¬ 
bor's was, they would not be likely to take 
the risk of entering buildings, so they 
would have to be satisfied with what they 
could take from th» trees and fences.’’ 
Connecticut. G - F - p - 
We have never lost much from thieves. 
Shep is a good night watchman—but this 
device beats him. 
A Catch Crop.— The following question 
comes from Connecticut: 
“I am raising strawberries upon com¬ 
mercial fertilizer alone, and wish to plow 
under some green crop for humus, as often 
as possible. What can I sow after the 
picking season (about July 4), which will 
make enough growth to pay for plowing 
under next Spring, land to be reset with 
plants? Will any of the clovers do it? 
Would Cow-horn turnips and rye sown in 
August be of much benefit?’’ 
In our locality we could do several 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
things. As soon after picking as possible 
plow the ground and sow cow peas in drills 
three feet apart. Give them good cultiva¬ 
tion until about the middle of August, and 
then, just before the last cultivation, sow- 
three pecks of rye and 10 pounds of Crim¬ 
son clover seed per acre right among the 
' cow pea vines. Then let the field alone 
until the following Spring. We usually 
obtain a fair catch of rye and clover in 
this way. The cow peas die down at the 
first hard frost. Another plan is to plow 
after picking and give good culture until 
about the middle of July. Then, if possible, 
just before a shower sow 12 pounds of 
Crimson clover and V/s pound of Cow-horn 
turnip seed per acre, working it in with 
weeder or bush drag. Then let it alone 
except to pull part of the turnips for feed¬ 
ing. We have several times obtained best 
results with the cow peas, clover and rye, 
but the clover and turnips are surer. I 
would not sow rye and turnips together. 
Safe Money.— Here we have a word from 
Kansas: 
“One year ago three smooth and slick- 
talking men came here to catch suckers. 
They had what they called a kitchen cabi¬ 
net or security safe. They got rigs and 
canvassed the county, and had two car¬ 
loads of safes come to fill their orders. 
They made such a good show they got lots 
of farmers and others, to buy counties for 
$300 to $400 each to sell safes in; some paid 
cash, other their notes at eight per cent. 
Some are canvassing their counties. Some 
that paid cash will not do anything; will 
lose all.’’ D - p - N - 
That money is safe now—safe in the 
pockets of those sharpers. What in the 
world does a farmer want a safe for? It 
looks to me like a clear advertisement 
that he has valuables in the house. I 
should think it would attract robbers, and 
in some lonely place it would be no pro¬ 
tection, for the rascals would either be 
able to smash it open or would torture the 
farmer till he gave up the key. No safe 
for me. Why bait thieves? If I get hold 
of any money I intend to keep it in a bank, 
and not in any private safe. There is a 
big white elephant tied to a post not far 
from Hope Farm. Some sharpers induced 
the farmers to take stock in a canning 
factory. They collected their money and 
put up the building at a good profit to 
themselves, and now it stands idle—a loss 
to the stockholders. I have watched these 
sharks at work in many different places. 
They can talk a stone wall into tears if 
need be. The worst feature of it is that 
when a man loses his money in one of 
these wild-cat schemes he is quite likely 
to try to save it out of things that ought 
to go to the women and children. If I 
should see such a man attempt to punish 
himself for his folly by shutting off his 
own beer and tobacco until the amount 
was saved I should feel that the possibili¬ 
ties of the race are larger than I supposed. 
But did anyone ever see that done? 
Alfalfa in Orchards.— Here is a ques¬ 
tion which I find constantly coming up: 
“I have an orchard in corn stubbie 
which I intended to plow and seed to clover 
and Timothy in the Spring, but since hear¬ 
ing you say that Alfalfa is a better or¬ 
chard crop I thought I would sow that. 
Let me know how much to sow per acre, 
and if it will do to sow in Spring. Can I 
work up the ground enough with a Cuta¬ 
way harrow without plowing? I under¬ 
stood you cut the second crop and raked 
it around the trees as a mulch. Am I right? 
New Jersey. F - E - w - 
Considering the fact that my experience 
with Alfalfa thus far has resulted in total 
failure there is some humor in asking my 
advice. I have seen several orchards in 
Alfalfa, and from their appearance I con¬ 
clude that it would be about the worst 
thing for a young orchard, and one of the 
best things for good-sized bearing trees. It 
appears to stunt and hold back the young 
trees. When the trees are 12 or 15 years 
old and the Alfalfa is cut at the right time, 
I believe the orchard would thrive. I have 
two small orchards near the house which 
I shall work into Alfalfa as soon as I can. 
One of them is now seeded to Orchard 
grass and clover and the other to Crimson 
clover. I shall pasture hogs in these or¬ 
chards this year, and next year break 
them up for Alfalfa. This year I expect 
to seed a piece of open ground. It was in 
corn last year. I expect first to give it a 
good coat of manure—from cows that were 
fed on clover hay. Early in May this ma¬ 
nure will be put under with a large disk 
plow. Then we plan to use 400 pounds of 
iron slag per acre, working it in with the 
Acme harrow. I then intend to send to 
the New Jersey Experiment Station and 
get at least 200 pounds of soil out of a field 
where Alfalfa ha s grown. This will be 
scattered over the field after which 20 
pounds of seed per acre will be evenly 
sown and the whole thing worked with 
the weeder. When I come to seed the or¬ 
chards I shall do the same unless the out¬ 
come from this experiment shows that 
something else is needed. Perhaps we 
shall find that lime is needed in addition 
to the manure. Possibly a light seeding 
of oats will pay. We shall learn about 
that. Having started Alfalfa in the or¬ 
chards, I plan to use each year about 300 
pounds acid phosphate and 100 muriate of 
potash per acre. From my present obser¬ 
vation I would use this in August or Sep¬ 
tember. The first cutting of Alfalfa will 
be made into hay, fed on the place, and 
the manure hauled back to put around the 
trees. The later growth will either be cut 
and left on the ground as a mulch or the 
hogs will be turned in to eat it down. 
The appearance of the trees will tell which 
plan is better. I am aware that I must 
first get my Alfalfa—something that I have 
not been able to do yet. It is worth work¬ 
ing hard for, yet I can see that judgment 
is required in using it. By all means keep 
it out of young orchards. We would keep 
away from our boys some of the things 
which might not injure a strong man. As 
to preparing the ground with a Cutaway 
harrow—if I used it alone I would weight 
it down so as to make it cut as deep as 
possible, even if I had to use three horses. 
Alfalfa must have a deep soil to root in. 
Home Notes.— The snow continues; it is 
now piled up higher than ever, and Jack 
Frost has it again in his power to let the 
hills send down a flood or hold it back 
till the rivers can discharge their load. 
Hope Farm makes no great grumble at 
the snow, largely because it would do no 
good. We always have a good grass cron 
after such a Winter. The little boys find 
the snow a source of revenue. They shovel 
off sidewalks and scatter ashes on the ice 
and put a silver lining on their bank ac¬ 
counts.The smallest Doy has 
three hens, and is proud of the fact that 
he often makes them lay two eggs a day 
in this cold weather. Our fishballs were 
certainly much better last Sunday morn¬ 
ing because they contained the big hen’s 
egg! The boy wants more hens, but he 
might not do so well if he got beyond his 
capacity.Aunt Eleanor sends me 
an account of a vote of some school chil¬ 
dren in Chicago. They were asked to vote 
on “Who is the best and greatest person 
that ever lived?” Here is a partial state¬ 
ment of the result: 
Washington, 14; Lincoln, 7; McKinley, 
6; Roosevelt, 4; “my father,” 3; “my 
mother,” 3; Joan of Arc, 1; Columbus, 1. 
Father and mother did pretty well in the 
face of the fact that most of the other votes 
represent father’s opinion! A man may take 
some comfort in the fact that though he 
never could get his fellow citizens to vote 
for him his little children believe in his 
good qualities. Children are easily fooled, 
you say? Don’t you believe too much of 
that. The child has keen instincts about 
such things. Our little folks once sat down 
to discuss the meaning of the word “gen¬ 
tleman” among themselves. They named 
over the people they knew, and I will tell 
you that old Noah Webster himself could 
hardly have made finer distinctions. If a 
grown-up man came and intimated that 
you are no gentleman you might want to 
fight, or rather conclude that he might be 
right—depending somewhat on the moral 
and physical size of the man. When a 
little child sizes you up and puts you down 
as “gent” your conscience ought to ache. 
.... I have had this suggestive note 
from a Canadian reader: 
“I relish the Hope Farm man’s notes. 
True, we had a little grudge against him, 
away in the past, when we thought he was 
too severe on the little boys for playing 
George Washington on the cherry trees, 
but w r e have forgiven him for that long 
ago and are quite sure now that it is all 
right between him and the boys, and tha* 
the true spirit is being instilled into them.” 
R. M. 
I regret to say that the little boys left 
out the best part of George Washington’s 
performance and made much of the worst 
feature. They cut the tree and then start¬ 
ed to say they didn’t do it, though th'' 
very bark was on their hatchets. I have 
always had my opinion of the part Father 
Washington played—though I understand 
that he had an unusual boy to deal with. 
The Hope Farm man and his boys are on 
such good terms that they would vote for 
him. That’s saying a good deal—for New 
Jersey. h. w. c. 
“Hallocks 
Ideal 
POTATO DIGGER 
Plow and Pulverizer 
We have been experimenting for twenty 
years on farm machinery. In that time we 
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famous Hallock Flat Tooth Weeder. It prac¬ 
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their own testimony it has done more for the 
farmers than any other cultivating machine 
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Some of them were not as successful as we 
could wish. Thousands of them are being 
used with the greatest satisfaction by their 
owners. In any event that is 
what they say, and they ought to 
know. But we were not satisfied. 
We wanted a Potato Digger 
which, under all conditions, 
Works Anywhere 
Jand in all varieties of soil. We wanted a 
Potato Digger which was the fit companion to 
our Weeder. We wanted a Potato Digger 
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putting the weeds, tops, etc. under and effectually shake out the dirt and leave the potatoes all the potatoes, on top. Well, we have it 
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