1904 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
i4i 
Hope Farm Notes 
I have had letters enough lately to fill 
several copies of Thu R. N. Y. rhe\ are 
all welcome, and I wish more of them 
could be printed. 
Fruit Thieves. —People have hard work 
to get over the mutila.ion of those peach 
trees. Here is what a man from New 
Hampshire says: 
‘‘If done by human hands it should re¬ 
man an unforgiven sin. We have trouble 
every year with fruit thieves who come at 
night and steal. Many sleepless nights we 
have spent in our orchards but without 
capturing our victims. We ought to have 
a right to stop them, but we hate to shoot 
first. We will have to abide with the law 
and let the others break it. Some seem 
to look at stealing fruit in a different light 
than if they stole from a merchants 
store.” E - B - P- 
I am now convinced that some of that 
work at least was done by human hands. 
The most I care about is that my experi¬ 
ment has been upset. I had these tre t i 
growing in a particular way and want <1 
to see how they would head out. This 
cutting knocks both head and tail off the 
experiment. As for stealing fruit, I have 
known merchants to come into a farmer’s 
orchard and fill a bag with fruit. If the 
farmer had gone to the merchant’s store 
and helped himself to a paper of pins m .1 
handful of peanuts there would have be-m 
a great row. 
‘‘But I have to pay cash for my goods!” 
says Mr. Merchant. The farmer pays labor 
for his, and just why cash should be worth 
so much more than labor is too big a prob¬ 
lem for me. That problem has upset the 
world several times. 
Lime and Corn Growing.— The following 
questions are much like several others 
that have come: 
“I have a piece of new land planted with 
York Imperial apple trees; trees have been 
planted a year. The land was cleaned and 
two crops of corn taken off. Last Spring 
it was sown with oats and a heavy seeding 
of clover. The clover made a good growth, 
and was cut this Fall and left on the 
ground. I intend to let the clover grow up 
in the Spring and plow for corn about the 
middle or after par, of May. The land is 
clay loam underlaid with red rock. Would 
you consider it advisable to borrow money 
at five per cent to pay for lime for this 
piece of ground? If so, what amount 
would you use per acre? Would you apply 
before or after plowing? What analysis 
of fertilizer should be used in order to 
benefit the trees and raise a good crop of 
corn? Can I farm this piece of ground in 
corn for two or three crops without rob¬ 
bing the trees? If so, please explain how.” 
Gettysburg, Pa. h. j. v. 
You will not get me to give direct advice 
about borrowing money wilhout knowing 
all the condi.ions. How do you know that 
soil needs lime? I should make sure about 
that before I signed my name to a note. 
Personally I have so much confidence in 
fruit growing that I might borrow money 
to buy goud fertilizer for the trees, but 
not unless I had the facilities for spraying 
and handling them properly. 1 would bor¬ 
row money to buy grain for good stock, 
but not for medicine unless 1 knew the 
medicines were needed. I regard lime as 
more of a soil medicine than plant'food. 
If 1 had such an orchard I would buy fine 
ground bone and potash and use 400 pounds 
of bone to 125 pounds of muriate of potash 
per acre. In this case I would broadcast 
the fer.ilizer after plowing and harrow it 
well in. This would also be best for the 
lime if you use it—1,500 pounds or more 
per acre— harrowed, not plowed in. 
You certainly can grow crop after crop 
of corn without robbing the trees. Plant 
the crop this year as you intend doing. 
Keep it clean. At the last cultivation, or 
about August 1, sow, right in the corn, 12 
pounds Crimson clover seed and one pound 
Cow-horn turnip seed per acre. Scatter it 
evenly over the ground and follow with 
the cultivator with a plank dragging after 
to smooth down the soil. This will grow 
through the Fall and some of the clover 
will live through the Winter. Plow it all 
under at corn planting time and use the 
bone and potash as before. You can keep 
this up year after year—getting good crops 
of corn and making good growth on the 
trees. 
Where Put Manure? — “1 would lik> 
your opinion in regard to use of manure. 1 
have a field seeded after wheat to clover 
and Timothy. The next Spring I discov¬ 
ered I would be obliged to pasture the 
same field the second season. Where should 
the manure be placed, on the field or on 
one seeded to clover and Timothy that has 
been mown once?” j. w. 
New York. 
Tf I understand the question I would put 
Jhe manure on the field that- has been cut. 
There has been less taken away from the 
pastured field than from the other, and if 
other things are equal, I would put ma¬ 
nure on the field that has given up most. 
Mice and Trees.—I have received sev¬ 
eral notes like the following: 
“As I see it you got the mice-rabbits 
question just wrong way about. Here un¬ 
der a continued deep snow mice—or as 
some call them “meadow moles”—may 
completely girdle an apple tree a foot in 
diameter, while we never put on “pro¬ 
tectors" against rabbits after the tree is 
four inches in diameter. Sometimes, yet 
seldom, a rabbit may take a nip or two 
at a wart or large kernel that sticks out 
from the body of the tree, and, of course, 
any small sprouts that are low enough for 
bunny to reach are his by divine right." 
Illinois. b. b. 
I only gave our own experience. I have 
never found the marks of mice on our 
larger trees. We have had some damage 
this year. The boys reported that every 
tree had been banked, but I found about 
50 young peach trees in one orchard that 
had been left with the Summer mulch close 
around them. Themice had ruined several 
before I found what was going on. We 
took advantage of a few hours thaw to 
scrape away the mulch and draw mud up 
around the trees. 
Hogs in Orchards. —This note of warn¬ 
ing is useful: 
“I have followed with much interest your 
orchard experiments at Hope Farm, and 
at such times as the subject of hog pas¬ 
turing was brought up and advocated I 
have been tempted to give the results of 
my observations (not experience) of hogs 
in the orchard in Washington Co., N. Y. 
During the last three years when driving 
through different sections of the county i 
have noticed several small orchards that 
were ruined by hogs, the trees being bark¬ 
ed nearly the entire length of the trunk, 
and killed or injured beyond recovery. 
This may be exceptional, but growing an 
orchard is too serious a business to take 
any risks with hogs. They seem to be 
more liable or inclined to bark the trees 
in June and July, when they are in full 
leaf, and when the bark peels easily. If a 
drove of hogs gets to barking the trees at 
that time they will not leave a whole tree 
in the orchard. If intending to pasture an 
orchard I should watch it very closely for 
any depredations and on the first occasion, 
however slight, the hogs would have to 
move.” w. 
Sandy Hill, N. l r . 
T know that there is truth in this, though 
we have had little trouble. The orchard in 
which our hogs run is an old one—large 
trees headed 20 feet or more from the 
ground. Our hogs rub against the trees, 
but have never tried to gnaw them. If I 
had them in a young orchard I would drive 
stakes around the trees and put wire net¬ 
ting around them for protection. My ob¬ 
servation is that hogs are driven to gnaw 
trees through lack of water, or a lack of 
mineral food. We keep wood ashes before 
them all the time and provide an abund¬ 
ance of water by turning a little stream 
from the spring through the orchard. The 
hog needs plenty of water. He suffers 
greatly without it. I have known hogs to 
be put in orchards with no water supply 
and only a little slop once a day. Some 
people think that a hog in an orchard 
ought to live and make pork rapidly with 
nothing but poor grass and green apples. 
'That is nonsense. I don’t blame a hungry 
and thirsty hog for gnawing a tree. The 
orchard hog should be fed well and have 
all the water and ashes he wants, he 
should have plenty of watching, too. 
Farm Notes.—As I write a gentle thaw 
has set in and the snow is going slowly, 
'l’he streams are filling, but seem able to 
carry off the water. The roads are icy. 
Coasting is fine. The boys can start in 
front of the house and slide down the road 
to the brook. This hard ice will go last 
of all, and will not willingly give up its 
grip on the soil. There is a great differ¬ 
ence between the sod and the open ground 
in the depth of the frost—all in favor of 
the sod. . . . Thus far it has been al¬ 
most impossible to do any outdoor work 
with satisfaction. We expected to clear a 
piece of brush, but the zero weather has 
prevented it. Spring work will be late. I 
expect to plant some trees right in the 
brush and clear up afterwards. . . Thus 
far our peach trees have not been serious- 
ly hurt. There are some buds still alive, 
but I will not brag about them until 1 
pick the peaches. We are prepared to push 
the fruit hard this year. I shall plant 
about 1.200 peach trees and 350 apple. We 
are covering our hills as rapidly as seems 
wise. . . . Philip writes me from Nor¬ 
way, where he spent the Winter, that he 
wants to come back, and we are glad to 
have him come. I think he found things a 
little dull on the other side. He will be 
liere shortly after March and get the 
Prizetaker onions started. We expect to 
handle a larger crop than ever. . . The 
little boy's three hens have laid 11 eggs in 
10 days. They have table scraps and 
ground corn and oats as a mash. They are 
to have shelled corn in addition. We have 
learned that the clover heads which fall 
out of the hay when we feed the cow are 
good for hens. No scientist told the bovs 
i bat—the hens and the cow told them by 
their actions. That is the how of it—we 
shall get at the why later. h. w. c. 
A LINGERING COUGH 
The cough that holds on 
in spite of all remedies needs 
energetic and above all thor¬ 
ough treatment. A mere 
cough mixture won’t do. 
Root out the cold that causes 
the cough. 
How ? Scott's Emulsion. 
Why Scott’s Emulsion? 
Because it stops the irrita¬ 
tion, soothes the tissues and 
heals the affected membranes. 
When ? Right away. 
Scott’s Emulsion begins to 
help with the first dose. 
We’ll send you a sample free upon request. 
SCOTT & IlOWNF., 409 Pearl Street, New York, 
U' K • 
'*. .*v * v, \ A 
A-V 
■'V 4 * ✓ 
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Wi/wm 
Aman in Rhode Island applied 
the Standard Ammoniate, 
Nitrate 
Soda 
to his field of Timothy, at the rate of 400 pounds per acre. He made 4,800 
pounds barn-cured hay per acre more than from a similar piece next to it, which 
had no Nitrate. The illustration is made from a photograph of the two fields. 
I want a farmer in every county in the United States to make this experi¬ 
ment on a smaller scale. I will furnish the Nitrate of Soda 
ABSOLUTELY FREE 
if the farmer will use it as I direct and report actual results to me. 
My object is to collect information about the value of Nitrate of Soda on hay 
production in every locality. 
Send name and complete address on PostCard for instructions, conditions 
and Bulletins on Grass and other Crops. None but Post Card replies considered. 
WILLIAM S. MYERS, Director, 12-16 John. Street, New York 
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A Planet Jr. For Every Garden. 
No. 25 Planet Jr. is a combination of tools right after the gardener’s own heart. The illustra¬ 
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TWO CROP ESSENTIALS 
are cultivation and keeping down weed3. 
More important than deep cultivation is 
keeping the surface stirred, breaking the 
crust duo to rains, and allowing the light, 
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quickly to the roots of the growing plant. 
. For doing just these things the ideal imple¬ 
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If rYCTIIMr Adjustable Weedei* 
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