1004. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
6o7 
Hope Farm Notes 
Big Strawberry Yields. —A reader in New 
England sends this question : 
“I was very much interested in Mr. Kevitt’s 
article, ‘Building Up Strawberry Beds,” and 
the results obtained from his Glen Mary va¬ 
riety, and would like to have the Hope Farm 
man tells us what yield (per acre) he ob¬ 
tains from his Marshall strawberries, and 
what he uses as a fertilizer.” c. l. e. 
I cannot ten any big story. As we grow 
Marshalls 100 crates or 3,200 quarts per acre 
would be a large yield. They would all be big 
ones, and would bring the top price. We 
grow Marshalls in hills. This variety does 
not do well in matted rows. Like men of 
genius, it must be free to get away from the 
crowd. We generally use a mixed “fruit and 
vine” fertilizer. When we mix our own 
chemicals we prefer about the following: 
200 pounds nitrate of soda, 400 pounds dried 
blood, 400 pounds sulphate of potash, 400 
pounds of ground bone, 600 pounds acid phos¬ 
phate. We have had fair results from using 
one part muriate of potash to three parts 
ground bone, out I think the more Compli¬ 
cated mixture will pay better for large fruit. 
As to that “building up” a strawberry bed 
we are trying it on a fair-sized scale. While 
it seems a reasonable plan there is no fun 
about it. Our little boys, who took the job 
of hoeing out one large bed, have almost hoed 
out their love for strawberries with the weeds. 
Mr. Kevitt says that a man can hoe out 
half an acre a day. If that is so we have no 
men at Hope Farm. I like to hoe, and can 
cover some ground in a day, but half an acre 
is far beyond my capacity. 
Farm Notes. —We clipped the Alfalfa again 
on July 28. This left a cutting of Crab grass 
and purslane on the ground that most farmers 
would have thought worth raking for hay. 
We left it to rot on the ground. The Alfalfa 
looks better than I expected. The color is 
light, and some of the plants are short. This 
1 think is partly due to the cold, damp 
weather, and I still have hopes that the 
Alfalfa is merely resting—and will start work 
later. . . . Our pepper crop is doing very 
well. Thus far prices have been high enough 
to show some proiit, but I am told that later 
they will slide down almost out of sight. We 
expect to deveiop a fair local trade. We 
have one big plant growing in a flower pot on 
the front fence with the sign : “Peppers For 
Sale” under it. I can tell better about it 
when the season is over, but it looks now as 
if peppers and onions are well suited to our 
conditions while the orchards are coming into 
bearing. ... We began shipping apples 
earlier than usual this year. The commission 
man told me to send them along even if they 
were green—before the rush came. I told 
him he would have to be responsible for the 
colic this green fruit produced. That is no 
great responsibility, since the apples are used 
for making pies and sauce. There has been 
a fair trade in sweet apples this year. . . . 
On July 27 there came a fearful storm of 
wind and rain which blew down many apples. 
Charlie made up his mind to save the largest 
of these windfalls, and so all hands went to 
picking up for shipment. Billy Berkshire and 
his gang have a way of going about to take 
a nip out of the best fruit. We made a good 
shipment, and Charlie, in his desire to be 
honest, marked this windfall fruit “Drops.” 
To my surprise the commission man found 
fault with this attempt to classify the fruit, 
lie seemed to think this word would act like 
‘Knock-out drops” to spoil the price. This 
class of fruit is bought by Jews or boarding¬ 
house keepers who are after bargains. If 
they see such a mark on a package it is an 
argument for them to beat down prices. If a 
man admits that his own fruit is inferior, and 
still puts his name on it, the buyer has the 
best argument to start with. I take it that 
most of us should mark only the finest of out¬ 
produce, and send the rest without marks to 
sell for its face value. Where a man has 
been in the business long enough to build up 
a reputation buyers know what his grading 
means, and will accept his marks. Inferior 
goods should be kept at home or sold without 
marking. ... I have just bought a 
•spring-tooth harrow. I never had one before, 
tuough it was the one tillage tool I lacked. 
On rough, stonv ground the spring-tooth tears 
and kicks at a great rate, and we find it very 
useful in working over an old sod where there 
are many stones. We are sowing a combina¬ 
tion of Canada peas and rye in one field— 
something 1 never did before. It is probably 
too late for the peas to do their best, but I 
think they will help the rye. 
Training Notes. —Merrill has lost five of 
his 203 pounds, and Miss Mabel has gained 
two. A fair share of Merrill’s loss was 
caused by eating too many green apples! I 
shall not try to use that as a new argument 
for apple eating. 1 am not going into the 
business of training fleshy people, though 1 
think we could shape almost anybody up if he 
would follow directions. I don’t pretend to 
have a very elegant shape myself, but I have 
restrained a natural tendency to pack on flesh 
at inconvenient points of the body. Most of 
the cases of excessive fat that 1 have seen ap¬ 
pear to be caused by overeating of fatty 
foods and a sluggish manner of living. Fat 
people are not unlike hens that have been 
cooped in a small yard and fed heavily on 
corn. They take little exercise because they 
“don't have to,” and fat follows. To take 
flesh off a man gently and harmlessly I would 
get him to overhaul his diet. You will prob¬ 
ably find him very fond of butter, bread, 
potatoes, sugar and other starchy foods. Get 
him to cut the butter in two, give up part of 
the bread and potatoes, and substitute baked 
apples and other vegetables, like tomatoes. 
Make mm stop pouring down water at meal 
times and give up all liquor. Put him at 
work in the sun, gently at first, but more and 
more each day within his strength. Give 
him work dike mowing or hoeing in which the 
arms swing. A good share of the lost fat 
must pass off through the pores of his skin. 
At night let him take a full bath with water 
with enough ammonia in it to make it felt. 
Scrub the body well with this and then polish 
with a coarse towel. The next night bathe in 
salt water, and thus alternate ammonia and 
salt. The object of this is to keep the pores 
of the skin thoroughly open and free. Above 
all things keep the fat man stirred up. Nat¬ 
urally when he stands still he looks around 
for a chair to sit on, or a post to lean up 
against! We must keep mental pins in the 
chair and imaginary burrs on the post. Keep 
him going. Fat comes to him while he is 
sprawled out at ease. I feel quite confident 
that I can unpack the bones of almost any 
fleshy person—4 can’t, but they can. When 
it comes to putting flesh on thin bones you 
hit a harder proposition, for the thin person 
finds it hard to drop the nervous energy 
which keei>s him thin. 
Out op an Egg.—T hat leads me to say that 
“Fatty,” the old Brahma hen, has done so 
well 'with her chicks that she is worthy a 
better name. She has watched and worried 
herself thin nursing her children. I call this 
a poor quality in a hen, but the children are 
very proud o*. Brahma. They picked up the 
eggs from all over the neighborhood, and the 
result is very surprising. One of the little 
Ci.ic.vS, scarce larger than your fist, bristled 
up to a Wyandotte three times his size and 
whipped him. lie then tackled a Plymouth 
Rock, but there Is more sporting blood in that 
breed, and the little fellow found that his 
reach was too short. You didn’t catch him 
quitting. lie ran between the other chicken’s 
legs and kept up his pecking until the other 
had enough. That seems to mean a dash of 
Game blood somewhere, and I imagine there 
are other mysteries coming from those eggs! 
To my regret the little boys think more ot 
this Game chicken than they do of the good- 
natured Wyandottes, who begin early to see 
the industrial side of life. The boys think 
we ought to keep the Game, because he will 
drive all other roosters away. lie has cer¬ 
tainly started into training, but I think he 
will do more harm at home than the olliei 
roosters would. I am sorry that (lie boys are 
willing to let Brahma’s sturdy qualities lake 
a back seat the first time this worthless 
youngster feels his spurs. If you ask the 
children what these mongrel chickens are 
worth they will probably say : “Five dollars 
apiece!” That is their estimate. Let them 
enjoy the idea of a fortune until the feed bill 
dispells all the illusion. They will find all 
too soon that it is the cold-blooded estimate 
of the other man that gives selling value to 
property. 
Don’t Cry. —I often hear people say that 
we are fortunate at Hope Farm in never hav¬ 
ing any serious troubles. They seem to get 
an idea that everything goes like a Summer 
dream. Well, now, it doesn’t! I often think 
that fate has turned me down hard, and that 
the majority of my friends have a happier 
and easier time. When I get into them, be¬ 
hind their reserve, I find that they don’t. In 
every life that I know to be worth anything 
I find the scar of troubles auu the sting of 
failure to carry out what is best. I come to 
respect those who put up a good face and try 
to cover up the slings of life with pleasant 
and hopeful words. No ! No ! You folks need 
not think that trouble never broods over Hope 
Farm. We try not to put fertile eggs under 
her. Trouble eggs are fertilized by despair 
and lack of faith. 
The other night a forlorn little figure stood 
leaning up against a post. The smallest little 
girl bad broken her doll. She does not like 
to cry, but this was too much, and two little 
fists were boring into two sad little eyes. 
Every woman who reads this will know how 
the little thing felt. As 1 sat there in the 
twilight that verse of Whitcomb Riley's came 
into my mind. 1 can quote it only from 
memory : 
“Don’t cry, little girl ! Don't cry ! 
You have broken your doll, I know, 
And the strange, wild ways of your girlhood 
days 
Are things of the long ago; 
But love and home will come by and by : 
Don’t cry, little girl, don’t cry !” 
It is the greatest blessing in life to be able 
to look ahead to something better. The doll 
is only a part of the chilli’s development. I 
- paid her 10 cents, which she earned pulling 
weeds, it is to go to that same Indian boy 
I wrote about some weeks ago. The sorrows: 
of childhood are not to be compared with 
those of middle and old age, but we should 
gain self-control as we go on. it. w. e. 
THE FARMER AND THE AUTO. 
Reckless drivers of automobiles are laying 
up trouble for their class. The record oi 
runaway horses and damage to life and prop¬ 
erty is a long one. The Utica Observer says : 
“So much trouble has been caused in Ulster 
Park by runaway horses, which were fright¬ 
ened by automobiles, that the people of the 
village threaten to make it hot for the first 
auto driver that comes in there faster than a 
respectable and decent speed. Several per¬ 
sons have been hurt, some of them seriously, 
through the runaways. Dealers in the town 
will sell the automobile people no more gaso¬ 
line, and one that needed some repairs the 
other day could not find a man who would do 
a stroke of work on the machine, and; it had 
to be towed out of town with a farmer’s 
team.” 
Here is a story from the New York Sun 
about a driver who was held up by a Connec¬ 
ticut sheriff : 
“ ‘How much?' said Sloan to the sheriff, 
pulling a fat roll of bills from his trousers 
pocket. ‘I carry this for you Rubes.’ 
“When told that he would have to turn 
about and drive the sheriff back to the center 
of Stratford and appear before a justice of 
the peace, Sloan protested, but to no avail. 
“ ‘I have an appointment to dine in Boston 
at noon,’ he said, ‘and I will get there in 
this machine if it takes a leg.’ 
“When brought before Justice Charles II. 
Peck he was charged with violating the speed 
laws of the State and was released in $50 
bail.” 
Some of these city drivers think they can 
“buy off the Rubes,” but they run up against 
a great mistake at times. We hear from all 
over the country of the work of these auto¬ 
hogs. Some of them are the most selfish peo¬ 
ple who occupy the road, and their actions 
justify a farmer in holding them up. 
Basement Barns. —I have read C. It.’s 
letter, page 506, in regard to fitting up a 
stable for all kinds of stock, and feel from 
my own experience that it is a very inad¬ 
visable thing to do. I used a basement 42 x 
66, tried keeping stock, especially cows, in 
it, and found it very unsatisfactory. I think 
the basement in question could be used for 
other purposes and with better results. My 
iuea would be to build a new stable adjoin-1 
ing this for cows, using part of the’ base-1 
ment as a place to turn cows through the 
middle of the day for exercise, and have 
water in there to drink. I have recently 
built a stable, frame building, cement floor, 
two silos, water in cement manger, alleyway 
behind so stables can be cleaned with wagoi 
or sleigh each day, and this is proving to In 
very satisfactory, much more so than tw< 
other stables used previous to this. r. 
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