1904 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
623 
Hope Farm Notes 
Fakm Notes. —The dog days have put in 
their best yelps of late. There has been rain 
after rain, with close, sticky weather that 
takes all the starch out of man and beast. 
The worst of it is that no one feels like put¬ 
ting any more starch back until August is 
over. Some fields of hay in our neighborhood 
were uncut by August 10. Our own hay is 
making a good second growth, and we expect 
a fair cutting by the middle of September. 
The wild carrot has sprung up like magic 
all over old seeding. We seem to have pretty 
well killed it out of the newer seeded fields. 
. . . Prices are low just now for all pro¬ 
duce. The city is stuffed with vegetables and 
fruits, and as always happens in such cases, 
hucksters load up with cheap goods and ped¬ 
dle through the smaller towns. One would 
think that the meat strike would help pull up 
prices for other food, but it doesn't help much 
now. We keep shipping, for it is hard to say 
how low prices must go to warrant one in 
feeding a first-class article to the hogs. The 
yields are good this year—that's one thing. 
. . . I expect to take advantage of the 
meat strike to sell a fat young cow. She is a 
good one—a daughter of old Jersey—but for 
some reasons not entirely satisfactory. I do 
not need her, and she is tit to make good beef. 
Our local butchers have something of a job to 
get meat for their customers. While in some 
places I hear of people who give up meat 
eating there are not so many of them in our 
country. There are too many here who be¬ 
lieve that meat is absolutely necessary for 
them, and they will go without other things 
or dodge other bills In order to obtain it. 
They would he much better off if they would 
let meat alone—better in purse and nerve and 
patience—hut 1 do not hanker after the job 
of making them think so. Our chief 
work besides picking and shipping and caring 
for the fruit is seeding the few remaining 
acres of the young apple orchards. We plow 
and work thoroughly with Cutaway and 
spring-tooth until the surface is line and open. 
Then we seed about five pecks of buckwheat 
per acre with 12 quarts of Timothy and four 
of Alfalfa. This is late seeding to buck¬ 
wheat, yet on our high hills we can safely ex¬ 
pect grain if we want it. We do not care 
whether the grain forms or not this year. 
The object is to get a seeding of grass and 
provide organic matter. Last year we were 
so successful in seeding to grass with buck¬ 
wheat that we try it again. On the latest 
seeding we shall use rye in place of buck¬ 
wheat. . . . Our potato crop is turning 
out well. The first digging of Irish Cobblers 
was on July 10. They were planted May 6. 
This digging was not, of course, full grown, 
hut the tubers were large enough to sell. 
Early Marquette was just behind the Cobbler 
in reaching salable size. The vines are still 
green and thrifty, and the tubers have dou¬ 
bled in size. In spite of the wet weather 
there is no indication of rot or blight yet. 
We sprayed once with Bordeaux Mixture and 
Paris-green. There were few’ bugs, and I 
think one reason why the potatoes turned out 
so well is because it was not necessary to use 
Paris-green on the young plants. We did not 
intend to raise anything but a family patch of 
potatoes, but we actually have more of a crop 
than we have grown on adres in former years 1 
Fruit Matters. —We have begun shipping 
pears. First came a seedling which cooks 
well, but is poor stuff to eat out of the hand. 
Then comes Clapp's Favorite, with Bartlett to 
follow. Prices have not been high, hut the 
yield is good, and, on the whole, we call the 
pear crop a good stand-by. 1 shall plant more 
of both Clapp’s Favorite and Bartlett. . . . 
Our mulched trees are shaking themselves 
just now. The June-hud peaches in the Ala¬ 
bama orchard make a sight worth looking at. 
There were 378 trees planted in this orchard. 
All hut four are living. We used $30 worth 
of fertilizer broadcast on the grass, and cut 
at least $100 worth of good hay. The scat¬ 
terings and the grass and weeds along the 
rows and the walls have been piled around the 
trees. Not satisfied with this we are giving 
them another mulch. Sylvia is spending her- 
vacation on the farm, and it seems to he the 
height of her ambition to drive a horse. She 
musters the children, hitches old Kate to the 
wagon, and hauls leaves out of the woods. 
The leaves are damp and pretty well decayed, 
so that they handle well with forks. “The 
mulchers” throw about a bushel of those 
leaves around each peach tree, and the dead 
chestnut and oak foliage quickly proceeds to 
start new leaves on the fruit trees. In the 
Stringfellow peach orchard we are doing the 
same with briers, sweet fern bushes, weeds, 
anything we can cut with mower or bush 
scythe. It is all piled around the trees. It 
is quite remarkable how much useful work 
will be done by an old horse and a crowd of 
jolly young folks. When things got a little 
dull I announced a big bonfire and clam bake 
at the top of our bill. The tickets of admis¬ 
sion go to those who mulch and care for 25 
peach trees! . . . The most practical evi¬ 
dence of the value of mulching is found on 
one of the lower fields. I started a small 
peach orchard on a rocky ledge, where in 
some places there is less than a foot of soil. 
The strawberries are nearby. The boys clean 
up the berries and as they pull the weeds put 
them in baskets. Those baskets are emptied 
around the little peach trees. In time there 
came to be a weed pile as large as a small 
haystack around each tree. The weeds rot¬ 
ted slowly, and how those little trees did 
grow ! You ought to see them—some of you 
good folks who have said that you can’t make 
trees grow without cultivation. The culti¬ 
vation that the boys gave those strawberries 
has been grafted upon tlie trees by a weed 
glUiL. 
Water Supply. —The “dog days” always 
bark at a mistake I made when we first came 
to the farm. There is -a good spring part 
way up the farm, n little above the level of 
our house top. There was no drinking w-ater 
at the house, and I had two ways of providing 
a supply. I could have the spring cleaned 
and stoned up, and pipe the water from it— 
nearly 1,800 feet—or have a well stink near 
the buildings. At that time the price of 
iron pipe was so high that the cost of piping 
the spring water frightened me. I had a six- 
inch drilled well put down 140 feet through 
the rock, put a wlnumill over it, and piped 
the wafer to a tank in the barn, and from 
that to the house. Among other mistakes I 
made the tank too small. With wind every 
day the mill can keep us well supplied, hut at 
this season there are days at a time when the 
mill stands still and tlie tanks runs dry. 
There is. also, much trouble with the check 
valves. Sometimes a little sand will work 
up and prevent the valve from closing, or in 
some other way it will fail to close, and the 
w-ater will leak back into the well. A big 
family like ours cannot get through the day 
with much less than 250 gallons of water, 
with more needed on washing days. This 
means a ton of water to he pumped by hand 
to the tank, so that it can run to the house. 
No man feels like going on the stump to 
preach the glories of cold w-ater after tanking 
our big family 1 It is a nuisance, and a big 
one. If we had some small engine to do the 
pumping we would be better off, but in any 
event, tank water is never equal to the pure, 
cold fluid that runs out of the spring. If I 
could pull up the well and plant it on top 
of the hill I would do so, for then with gaso¬ 
lene engine I could pump water steadily 
turough May and June and irrigate the or¬ 
chards and the grass. I have that scheme in 
mind for some day. hut if I ever have another 
chance to let water run down hill to the 
house on its own legs I w-ill surely give it a 
chance. 
All Sorts. —Ilans worked for us a month 
in haying and hoeing and then left to hunt a 
new- job. I got Hans at the Free Labor Bu¬ 
reau in New York, lie may have been a pro¬ 
found student in German, but his knowledge 
Oi. English w-as very limited. I could not 
understand him, but Philip, who is a Nor¬ 
wegian, knew- w-hat he w-as talking about. 
One day Charlie sent him to the barn to get 
a cow. He brought the wrong one, and w-as 
sent back for the other. lie turned the two 
cows together and then asked Philip to help 
linn remember which one he took before! 
Charlie made some forcible remarks about the 
agricultural value of dumb men, and Hans 
made reply much as follows : 
“You go live by Germany, what? Then you 
he the dumb man—yes?" 
Our friend Hans had it about right. If ho 
had us in Germany we wouldn’t be worth five 
cents on his farm, and “dumb” wouldn't begin 
to exnress the show we would make of our¬ 
selves in trying to carry out orders. The 
most eloquent man in the w-orld may he 
classed as a fool If we judge his dumb side 
Entirely. . . . The pigs are prospering on 
sweet apples, clover and a fair feed of grain. 
Billy Berkshire leads the lot in gain thus far, 
hut he has had the best chance. Of the 
crowd of mixed pigs I think the half-bloods—■ 
Berk and Chester White—are the best feeders. 
While the game is not over yet, I expect to 
see these half-bloods beat both pure Berks 
and pure Chesters of about their own age. 
. . . We are picking out the young roosters 
and putting them in a small chicken house. 
They w-ill be fed a mush of cornmeal and beef 
scrap, with all the water they want. In this 
way we expect to pack the fat on them and 
get them into far better shape than they 
would' be running at large. I have not said 
much about our poultry this year, for there 
was not much to say. The incubator went 
w-rong in some way, and while we set over 
050 eggs w-e have now about 120 chickens. 
We shall use the pullets in an effort to get 
into the “chicken business” again. The time 
seems to have come In the development of the 
orchards when hens have a fair place in our 
plans. . . . There can he no doubt now 
that the days are growing shorter. The 
children are quickest to realize this, for their 
piay time after supper is cut short. Some 
one tells me of hearing a katydid sing—which 
is wrong, because the insect doesn't sing— 
he just scrapes one leg against the other or 
against his body. But whether Katy did or 
Kuty didn’t Summer is going and w-e must 
all admit it. With us, on the whole, the sea¬ 
son has been a good one, and we do not feel 
afraid of the lengthening shadows. 
h. w. c. 
Flooded Strawberries. —My Brandywine 
straw-uerry plants, also Rough Rider, did not 
bear enough to pay for the care; fine looking 
hills in Fall, first year. A trout brook flooded 
them in Spring. n. v. h. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
IMPROVING FARM MILK. 
We visited not long since a. plant in one 
of our New England cities devoted to the 
handling of milk and its products, and de¬ 
livering the same to the consumer. The 
plant is an immense one, finely fitted up 
with much apparatus, and a large force of 
intelligent men were working up the prod¬ 
uct. The great claim of the plant is that 
they are furnishing the consumer a better 
article than if they got it direct from the 
farmer. The milk goes through a puri¬ 
fier, which is simply a separator with a top 
so fixed that both cream and skim-milk 
How from the one spout. Of course some 
filth is taken out, but that does not make 
poor milk good by any means. The trou¬ 
ble with this business is that they do not 
control entirely the milk from the cow to 
consumer, and milk once loaded with dirt 
can never be made pure milk, no matter 
how costly a plant it goes through, nor 
how much it has been manipulated with 
machinery. These plants are not an un¬ 
mixed blessing to the farmer, as they must 
buy the milk at a low price to make ex¬ 
penses, pay good salaries and interest on 
so costly equipment. On the train that 
bore us to this city in the baggage car 
were a number of cans of milk consigned 
to this company. The cans were not par¬ 
ticularly new nor inviting, and furnished 
good seats for the crowd that were smok¬ 
ing in the baggage car. h. g. m. 
Eastern New York Notes. —Early in June 
a cloudburst struck us. It turned all the 
small streams into roaring rivers, washed 
away the bridges and did great damage to 
road’s and crops. My potatoes were badly in¬ 
jured. Hay and rye are very light, corn 
backward. Apples are looking well. We had 
no tent-caterpillars, so the trees are in good 
condition. Bears and plums are scarce. 
Columbia Co.. N. Y. g. w. ii. 
flalvaim.ed Steel Tanka 
Guaranteed to the user. Built to 
suit your particular needs at re- 
markably low prices. Also 
manufacture. Corrugated Iron 
steel roo6ng,etc. Write for prices to-day. 
C106S BEOS. IE0N ROOFISG CO, 35 fftdga St, Anderson, ImL 
TOOL OF 
IOO USES 
Every farmer, mechanic or travel-’ 
ler should carry our 6-in. adjust¬ 
able, nickel plated corabn.ation 
wrench, pipe plier, §crew driver, wire cat- 1 
tor, etc. Change Instantly flow to handlol}^ - 
In. nut ortho emalleet pin. Write for clroular No.40. Ask about 
2-wheel Wind Mills and Armsarer huikera. 
GOOD MFC. CO. 0 APPLETON. WISCONSIN. 
Fearless 
Threshers. 
Best far single farmer orl 
■rveal neighbors. With| 
tread powerTt’s all Indoors. 
Suitable for either horse power or engine. Threshes ud 
cleans perfectly. Runs easy. Also 
giDes, Feed Cutt 
catalogue. 
HARDER MFG. CO., Coblesklll, N. Y. 
ngln 
Horse Powers, En- 
Cutters, Wood Saws. Silos, etc. Send for 
ENSILAGE AND FODDER 
CUTTERS 
with Crusher and Shred¬ 
der. Also 1.2 and.*1 Horse Tread 
Powers, 2 to b Horse Sweep 
Powers, 5 sizes Grain Separa¬ 
tors, Feed Mills, Hand and 
Power Corn Shellers, Wood 
Saws, Engines, 3 to 25 H. P. # 
Mounted or Stationary, etc. 
Catalogue free. 
THE MESS1NGER MFG. CO., Tatamy, Pa, 
Ensilage & Fodder Gutters 
sold direct to the consumer. We have no agents-- 
therefore save you the middleman’s profits. Every 
machine fully warranted, and trial of same given 
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 SOUTH SIDE CARRIERS 
FOR PEACHES, PLUMS. GRAPES, APPLES AND TOMATOES. 
SOUTH SIDE IVTF’Gr OO., 
NEW YORK OFFICE, 114 Warren Street. PETERSBURG, VA., U. S. A. 
THE NEW ULTIMATUM GRINDER A "°CRUSHER 
meets every grinding need that comes to farmer or stock feeder. 
It as readily reduces pumpkins and green stuff to feed condition 
as it crushes and grinds dry grain or corn (either shelled or on 
cob). Its simple construction makes it Quickly 
ADJUSTABLE TO EVERY FEED 
It takes but 3 minutes to change the grinding and cutting rings 
to suit any vegetable or grain. The ULTIMATUM is rigid, com¬ 
pact, strong; is easy to understand; seldom needs repairs; is 
convenient, takes up little space, needs little attention. Will 
grind 15 to 80 bushels per hour of corn shelled or on cob, accord¬ 
ing to power supplied. Write for free literature and addresses of 
money-makers who say the ULTIMATUM is a paying investment. 
II. S. WIND ENGINE AND PUMP CO. 
Box 106 Batavia, III. 
DEDERICK’S 
CIRCLE Baling Press 
The only full circle horse press in the world on which 
an automatic feeder is possible. Presses two char¬ 
ges to every round of the horses. Will accomplish 
50 per cent, more work with the same power 
than any other press made. Bales Hay, 
Straw Moss, Husks, Cotton, Wool, etc. 
We manufacture all styles and sizes of presses 
for all kinds of baling, from a hand press to the 
1 argest steam and horse-power presses. 11 lustra¬ 
ted catalogue, sent free 
allows all 
sizes and 
styles 
of wood 
and steel „ . „_._ 
presses. p, k. Dedcrick’s S«ns, S5 Tivoli St., Albany 
Y 
' $5.00 A Day Saved at Silo Filling Time! 
How? Self Feed saves one or two men and increases capacity 33 per cent. 
The New “OHIO” 
(patent applied for) is improvement over oldstylehood, 
saves men In the silo. Tho man at the cutter does 
It all. Two new sizes for 1904. Nos. 14 and 17, built 
like the No. 19 “Ohio” Monarch, heavier, stronger, 
faster and better than ever before. Patented. They 
have deeper throats, largereutting cylinders, more 
clearance. Fill an ordinary silo in one day. Unprece¬ 
dented success in 1903 is proven by innumerable views and 
letters from users, in the new catalogue. An“Ohto’’ Blow¬ 
er will save you the 65.00 a day. Our absolute guarantee 
goes with every machine. We continue to manufacture 
other sizes and styles of cutters and elevators as before. 
The Silver Mfg. Company, Salem, Ohio. 
5Cth Year. “Modem Silage Methods” ten cents, stamps < 
p%J^0S5 ENSILAGE CUTTERS 
YEARS 
EXPERIENCE 
We are tho pioneers 
and largest manufac¬ 
turers of Ensilage Ma¬ 
chinery in the world. 
Write us for any inform!? 
tion you may desire—nc 
trouble to answer your 
questions. 
Write for Free Catalog 
and compare the Ross with others 
THE E. W. ROSS COMPANY, Springfield. Ohio 
BLOWER 
or 
CARRIER. 
Guaranteed 
to be as rep¬ 
resented. 
Prof. Woll’s 
book on Si¬ 
lage, 10c. 
