1904 . 
543 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Hope Farm Notes 
Farm Notes.—R ain began falling June 28. 
We had a good lot of hay cut, but managed 
to get it under cover without damage. There 
were hard showers until Sunday, so that we 
did not cut more. Therefore haying will 
mostly come after the Fourth of July, which 
we do not like. However, the grass is all 
later than usual this year, so the quality will 
not be much hurt by the wait. . . . We 
had a good idea from these showers how 
much water is needed to soak into dry ground. 
It seemed as if the rain must have gone far 
down, yet when we came to plow for buck¬ 
wheat we found barely three inches of damp 
soil. In cultivating the potatoes, too, we 
found the soil as dry as powder under the 
vines. This wet upper crust is just the thing 
to hurt the hay when it is cut and left on the 
ground. The moisture evaporates quickly, 
and the grass is stewed. . . . We had 
heen thinking that the Potato beetles had 
surely passed us by when suddenly they ap¬ 
peared In great numbers. We used Paris- 
green and dry Bordeaux Mixture at once, and 
this has cleaned them out. I hear of fields 
where no beetles have been seen except on 
single plants here and there, but our experi¬ 
ence is that it will not do to quit watching 
for them. They will come like a thief in the 
night. . . . We seem to be getting a little 
the better of the Onion maggots, though they 
have hurt the crop quite a little. We went 
by what the experts said, and planted the 
crop on the same ground that was used last 
year. I am convinced that this was a mis¬ 
take. While we do not guarantee to raise 
onions as large as your head this year, we 
shall keep at them and do the best we can. 
. . . The cherry crop turned out better 
than we expected. Prices were good, and 
there was no trouble to sell all we could pick. 
The great trouble with cherry growing is the 
picking. It comes at a time when other farm 
work is calling, and it is slow work for grown¬ 
up people. Some of our best cherries this 
year were quite as large as any of the Cali¬ 
fornia fruit I have seen in the market, yet the 
cost of picking is such that I shall not plant 
cherry orchards. . . . The Alfalfa is still 
jumping. The ragweeds have started, .and 
bid fair to win if they are let alone. The 
whole field will be clipped at least twice. The 
first clipping was maue duly 4. While a rag¬ 
weed with its head on may beat an Alfalfa 
plant, cut the heads off both of them and the 
latter will get in first. In seeding with rye 
and buckwheat this Fall I shall put a small 
quantity of Alfalfa seed in with the Timothy. 
This is done at the advice of those Alfalfa 
growers near Syracuse, N. Y., who have been 
very successful with the crop. ... As 
soon as the showers came late in June we got 
out with scythe and sickle and began cutting 
the weeds and grass to pile around the young 
trees. This was just the time for it. The 
grass cut easily, and by piling it on the damp 
ground we held much of the moisture in the 
soil. Our rains are usually followed by hot, 
strong winds, which blow the water out of 
our hills in short order. It is easy to tell the 
difference where uncultivated trees have not 
been mulched. They are not thrifty. In spite 
of fertilizer the leaves do not look rich and 
green. When the grass and weeds are cut 
and piled urouud the trees you will quickly 
notice a change. ... In spite of all we 
can do, nearly 50 of the young apple trees 
that were planted last Fall have died. Most 
of them put out buds, but the frost had so 
weakened the trunks that the little limbs 
could not grow. I think some of those trees 
were dug from the nursery before they were 
fully ripened. I have had people tell me 
that leaves on a nursery tree may be stripped 
oil' by hand in the Fall, just as well as to 
wait for them to fall naturally. That might 
do if the Winter is mild, but for such a Win¬ 
ter as the last one such green trees will never 
live through. Most nursery trees are forced 
too hard anyway. In their great desire to 
produce a big tree the nurserymen run the 
risk of sending us soft wood which cannot 
stand such cold as we had last W inter. This 
year 1 have seen so many dead trees that 
were forced hard last Summer and frozen 
hard last Winter that I feel better satisfied 
with the moderate growth on my mulched 
trees. 
Cover Crops. —It is now about time to 
think of cover crops in corn or other crops 
in the orchards. I have had many ques¬ 
tions about such crops—what shall we sow r 
In our locality we have found nothing better 
than Crimson clover and Cow-horn turnips to 
sow in corn at the last cultivation. We use 
10 pounds of clover and two of Cow-horn 
turnips per acre. Our plan is to scatter this 
seed evenly over the field either by walking 
through the rows and sowing by hand, or put¬ 
ting a boy with a Cahoon seeder on a horse 
and letting him go through every fifth row. 
In the latter method a good deal of seed is 
left on the blades of corn. After seeding the 
cultivator is run shallow with a plank or 
joist dragging behind it to smooth down the 
furrows. In order to do a perfect job a man 
may follow with an iron rake and scratch 
over the places left between the hills by the 
cultivator. I have known the Crimson clover 
to be above ground in 36 hours; the turnips 
take more time, but they will come and add 
to the value of the crop. Among tomatoes, 
melons, etc., I would use the clover alone. 
Many growers call for a crop to sow in the 
bush fruits after picking. They want some¬ 
thing to cover the ground, smother weeds 
and die through the Winter so that no plow¬ 
ing will be neded in Spring. Rape or cow 
peas are suggested for this. Rape makes a 
verv slow growth at first, and the weeds are 
likely lo get the start of it. When once 
started it will grow rapidly, but does not 
leave much organic matter in the ground, 
and of course adds no fertility. 1 would mix 
Cow-horn turnip seed with it. The rape will 
make a large growth above ground and the 
turnips a deep growth below. The last two 
seasons have been discouraging for sowing 
cow peas. The seed has been scarce and 
high, and the cold, wet weather has been 
unfavorable for their growth. I would, how¬ 
ever, sow them either alone or with rape in 
case I wanted a crop that would die in Win¬ 
ter and save Spring plowing. 
New Times.—T here are more vegetable 
and fruit peddlers in our country than ever 
before. Just now wagons loaded with pota¬ 
toes and other vegetables run along our coun¬ 
try roads and do a thriving business. Twenty- 
live years ago a wagon load of vegetables 
could not have been sold along 50 miles of 
country highway—to-day most farmers buy 
more or less. There are three chief reasons 
for the change: 
Through transportation. 
Changed habits. 
More cash. 
The potatoes now being sold come from Vir¬ 
ginia. There was a time when markets were 
limited, but now there is such a system of 
distribution that when there happens to be 
too much of any product to supply the large 
cities the surplus is sent out into small 
places. Those who handle and distribute 
make more out of the crop than those who 
grow it. 
Young people in these days demand things 
which their parents never dreamed of. They 
go away and see what people have in other 
places, and come home and call for the same. 
In our country almost every farmer’s family 
has some member that works in the city. 
Then again, our section is filling up with 
Summer boarders, who cannot understand why 
we cannot raise early vegetables every month 
in the year. 
There is more cash in our section than ever 
before. Work on the new reservoir means 
labor for many farmers with their teams. It j 
makes a difference in a man’s habits of living | 
whether he gets .$ 4.50 in cash for a day’s [ 
work or gets what he can raise and sell. 
When horses and man have worked hard all 
day they have not much time or energy left 
for garden or farm work. Whenever work is 
exchanged for cash I notice that people take 
on newer habits of living, and buy of others 
many things which their parents did without 
or provided themselves. This is one of the 
changes which cannot be prevented. It seems 
to come to all sections where new industries 
break in to measure the value of man's labor 
by cash. 1 hear some gloomy people say that 
this change of system means the death of 
farming. I will not say that, because who 
wants to admit that farming as a business 
cannot stand a cash basis as well as other in¬ 
dustries? If farming, in order to be succes- 
ful, must be conducted on the old barter 
principle, and if farmers are not to be trusted 
with cash, the sooner we find out the why and 
remedy it: the better off we shall be. I am 
going to stay on record as saying that farming 
in the East is passing through a development 
which manufacturing went through 20 years 
ago. The changes come upon us so rapidly 
that we are sometimes dazed and bewildered, 
but we shall come through all right if we 
can keep certain facts in mind. We must 
find what our farms will best produce, and 
what our markets most demand. Then we 
must study to produce these things as well as 
they can be grown. We must get closer to 
our customers, and must have better rates on 
what we buy of the western farmers. We 
must have a parcels post that will give us 
fair transportation for small packages, and 
we must back up the Interstate Commerce 
Commission in its efforts to make freight 
rates fair. 
You take a hopeful view of life for a man 
of your age! Why not? I have grown 
through many changes in my day, and every 
one of them has given man opportunities to 
do better. You can’t make me sour enough 
to believe that the world is not growing so 
that man does not have opportunities. What 
more do you want? You may say that tlie 
trusts and big corporations will crowd us out. 
They will if we let them. But one of the 
opportunities we have is the chance to make 
t hese big fellows work for us ! 
Home Notes. —Old Major is hobbling about 
in the orchard, much better. He is having a 
line rest. We will give him a chance to grow 
a new hoof. . . . Whenever I go to other 
farms where boys abound I am pretty sure to 
find a' turtle or two in the water tub. A 
small boy loves a turtle. One of our boys 
was crying the other day because his turtles 
had all run away. He had them in the tub, 
and in order to give them a little extra fun 
he put a board on the water so they could get 
the sun. Some one filled the tub with water. 
The turtles mounted the board, floated to the 
edge of the tub—and then for freedom. Too 
bad when you try to make things comfortable 
for him to have a turtle run away. While 
cutting weeds around a peach tree I found a 
box turtle. Now this boy has developed a 
great interest in peach culture, and will cut 
thousands of weeds in the hope of finding one 
turtle. ... I have been surprised to 
learn how much two of the boys know about 
birds and flowers. Last Winter I got a set 
of books which picture and describe such 
things. I find that these boys, while at work 
in the back fields, notice strange animals or 
plants and some back and hunt for them in 
the books. They know far more than I do 
about such things. I mention this to show 
the value of good books when put within 
reach of an observing child. I may also say 
that if good books are a blessing, bad books 
are a curse. 
“You have lost half your life!” 
That is what a man told me not long ago 
when I said I had never drank liquor and 
would not. , , , 
I was once talking with a man who smoked 
a fine pipe. He told of the great pleasure to 
be found in tobacco, and when I said I would 
not smoke he made the old remark: 
“You have lost half your life 1” 
I think it was the same man who pictured 
to me the excitement of a horse race. Your 
money is on a certain horse. He comes into 
the homestretch neck and neck with another. 
There are 50,000 people present so excited 
they dare not breathe. The length of a nose 
means ruin or fortune! I tried to understand 
it, but really the shamble of old Major as 
lie nears home means more to me. It was 
with a tone of pity that my friend said: 
“You have lost half your life!” 
For a nian who has lost three halves of his 
life I seem to have some vigor left, and also 
the capacity for having some fun oitt of life. 
You see life is what we make it, and those 
who put half of it into a cigar or into a 
hottle of liquor or a horse race, in my opin¬ 
ion, narrow life down to a small peg. In 
losing three halves of life I seem to have 
found three more which satisfy me well. 
n. w. c. 
ni 177 ADIl F« e d and Ensilage CutUr or 
DLI4£HllU Shredder with Wind Elevator 
I>oe» better work than an* 
other Knallagc or Fodder Cut¬ 
ter ever made; will elevate to 
any desired height and in any di¬ 
rection. Kernels of corn ground 
into meal, mixed all through the 
silage. Stalks and leaves battered 
and softened, settle quicker, pack closer- 
Silo will take 1-4 more Silage. Less heating, 
fermentation, and souring. Better and sweeter 
silage. Good for all stock; no waste, all palatable and 
—" digested. Does splendid work in shredding and 
cutting dry stalks. Fully guaranteed* 
JOSEPH DICK AGRICULTURAL WORKtT 
Box 69 Canton* Ohls, 
How? Self Feed saves one or two men and increases capacity 33 % per cent. 
The New “OHIO” *!S££Sr 
(patent applied for) Is improvement over old style hood, 
saves men in the silo. Tho man at the cutter does 
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like the No. 10 “Ohio” Monarch, heavier, stronger, 
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goes with evory machine. \Ve continue to manufacture 
ether sizes and styles of cutters and elevators as before. 
The Silver Mfg. Company, Salem, Ohio. 
50th Year. “Modem Silage Methods” ten cents, stamps or coin. 
Ensilage & Fodder Gutters 
sold direct to the consumer. We have no agents— 
therefore save you the middleman’s profits. Every 
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THE KENDRICK 
is the STRONGEST and BEST on the market. 
Manufactured 15 years by 
THE G. J. EMENY COMPANY, Fulton, N. Y. 
Send postal for free catalogue. _ 
"The Smalley” 
Cutters and Blowers 
The only Cutter and Blower containing safety feed device, 
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HARDER MFC. COMPANY, COBLESKILL, N. Y. 
baa 
S 
AVE YOUR BACK 
Save time, horses, work 
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J Low wheels, broad tires. No 
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| Book on "WheelSense”free. 
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SUPERIOR 
DISC DRILLS 
Never Choke in Trash 
^SuperiorD/u/3/on . 
American Seeding machine (o. 
-* CnniiiAvin tv Ouia 
Springfield. Ohio. 
Wilder’s ( 
Whirlwind] 
ENSILAGE CUTTER 
OR SHREDDER 
Will be shipped to re¬ 
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that It will run with I ess power 
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matter. 
WILDER-STRONG IMPL. CO., 
MONROE, MICH. 
Box2Q 
NEW CALEDONIAN BEAN 
HABVESTEB AND BUNCHEB. 
Pays for lfc. 
self with two 
days’ ns®. 
Dumps auto¬ 
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and leaves 
the BEANS 
FREE frotu 
WEEDS, 
DIRT and 
STONES. 
W kite To-P ay 
FOR CATALOG. 
CALEDONIA BEAN HARVESTED WORKS 
CALEDONIA, N. Y 
You Can Save From S30 to $50 
PATENTS “KINODIG 99 PENDING 
BY BUYING 
OUR. 
OUR LATEST PATTERN PITLESS SCALE. 
NO PIT TO DIG. 8 INCHES OVER ALL. STEEL FRAME. 
This Scale is complete when it leaves our factory, with 
the exception of floor planks. Write for free catalogue. 
NATIONAL PITLESS SCALE C0„ Dept. Z, KANSAS CITY, HO. 
UTAWAY TOOLS FOR LARGE HAY CROPS. 
- Clark’s Beversible Bush and Bog Plow, cuts a track 4 ft. wide, 1 ft. deep. Will plow a 
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All these machines will kill witch- - - ■ 
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CUTAWAY MARROW CO., 
A Never Failing Water Supply* 
with absolute safety, at small cost may be had by using the 
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Improved Ericsson Hot Air Pumping Engine. 
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So well built that their durability is yet to be determined, engines which were sold 
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Send stamp for “C4 ’ Catalogue to nearest office 
RIDER-ERiCSSON ENGINE CO., 
35 Warren St., New York. 239 Franklin St., Boston. 
40 Dearborn St., Chicago. 692 Craig St., Montreal, P._ 
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T*nl*nte-B*y 11, Havana, Cake. x. 
