f 
1004. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
671 
Hope Farm Notes 
- ■■ - -- ■ 
Orchard Grass. —The following comes 
from Connecticut: 
“Peter Henderson’s book on ‘Farming for 
ITottt.’ advocates the use of Orchard grass in¬ 
stead of Timothy and clover for hay, assert¬ 
ing. as points in its favor, its permanency, 
heavy yield, early maturity, also its succeed¬ 
ing on dry sandy soils where Timothy and 
clover fail. This book was published in 1807. 
Hearing of little or no Orchard grass planted 
for hay, I desire to know if time and trial 
have changed this opinion or proved it: true.” 
a. s. 
I have one'field in Orchard grass, an or¬ 
chard in which the trees are headed high. 
We used Red clover with the grass seed, seed¬ 
ed in Spring and obtained a tine stand. When 
well fed the Orchard grass makes a heavy 
growth, though we obtain more hay to tlie 
acre from Timothy and Red-top. For the last 
two years we have used this orchard for pas¬ 
ture, sowing in early Spring a mixture of Red 
clover and rape on the rough ground. We 
call the Orchard grass about the best pasture 
grass for early feeding that we have used. 
The hay is light and bulky, but pound for 
pound is richer than Timothy. The hay is 
not salable in the average market, even though 
it is richer. The great objection we find to 
Orchard grass is its habit of growth. It 
gathers in little clumps or tussocks, leaving 
considerable bare ground around them. Thus 
It crowds out other grasses. I would not put 
this grass in any mixture for meadows. It 
will injure the quality of the hay for sale 
and take more space than it should. For 
orchards or permanent pastures I think the 
Orchard grass very useful. It grows well in 
the shade and gives a very early bite in the 
Spring. 
Hope for Alfalfa. —The following note 
from Oklahoma is encouraging: 
“I wish to say to the Hope Farm man not 
to be alarmed about his Alfalfa. The weeds 
will not be likely to kill it. The first six 
weeks is the critical period. After Alfalfa is 
six weeks old it must be on desperately poor 
land with a tight, hard subsoil it it does not 
come out an easy winner in the battle for life 
with weeds. Keep the weeds cut. You may 
not see much Alfalfa now, but next 
Spring it will be the first green vegetation 
you will see in that field. That is my expe¬ 
rience here in the West and I have 50 acres 
of Alfalfa.” 
I certainly hope that is so, but I haven’t 
quite the faith of our Oklahoma friend. It 
is a long jump from his country to New Jer¬ 
sey, as some of our Jerseymen have found 
when they sold out and went West. My 
Alfalfa is still alive, though small. The weeds 
and Crab grass still beat it. above ground, but 
when I pull up a plant I find a long tap 
root which evidently means business. While 
our case is not hopeless the Alfalfa has cer¬ 
tainly not grown with us as I know it has in 
other places. 
All Sorts. —The hills have now been 
seeded to buckwheat or rye with grass. Clover 
will be added in the Spring. This takes care 
of the young orchards, so that we do not ex¬ 
pect to plow for many years. Of course a 
small space around each young tree will be 
kept clean with the hoe, and all the ^weeds 
and part of the grass cut and piled around 
the trunk while the tree is small. If I can 
get coal ashes, apple pomace, rotted sawdust 
or similar stuff I will put it around the trees, 
making the circle wider as the trees grow. 
. . . It makes me quite weary to see peo¬ 
ple stick small trees into the sod, let the 
grass grow close around them, put on no ma¬ 
nure or fertilizer, cut the grass for hay, and 
then solemnly declare that the “mulch system ’ 
is a failure! ... I know all about this, 
for I have several hundred peach trees grow¬ 
ing under tough conditions. The field has 
never been cleared up. The peach trees have 
not been properly fed or handled. Some ot 
the brush and weeds have been cut and piled 
around the trees, but they have largely been 
left to see if they can hustle for themselves. 
I am forced to admit that they can't do it. 
The birches, cedars and oaks have gone on 
growing, while the peach trees beside them 
have dwarfed and faltered. Where we have 
fed the trees and mulched them in this same 
field we have fair growth and good prospect 
for a crop. Where left to compete with the 
wild things the peaches are not in the tight. 
Does not this prove then that the advocates 
of Intense culture and heavy feeding are 
right? I do not think so. at least not as we 
are situated. 1 lielieve there is a “middle 
course,” which, while not producing the heav¬ 
iest growth, will really mean greater profit to 
us. Merrill picked out a June-bud peach tree 
in the Alabama orchard and put nitrate of 
soda around it. This tree has jumped far 
ahead of the others, but I do not believe it 
will make the most profitable tree in the or¬ 
chard. A gold medal at a baby show may 
mean a leather medal for the same person 40 
years later. A leather slipper well applied 
in youth might have meant the gold medal 
later on. . . . Last Spring I told of our 
scheme to drain a wet piece of ground by dig¬ 
ging a well. The place is shaped like a sau¬ 
cer, with no chance for surface drainage. We 
dug a big and deep hole at the lowest point 
and filled it to within two feet of the surface 
with stones. Drains were cut into it and 
were filled with stones. This scheme has 
proved a great success. In former years this 
saucer was a bog or a brick, according to the 
amount of rainfall. This Spring we plowed 
it earlier than eve# before, and sowed oats 
and peas with clover. There was a good crop 
of hay and now we have a good stand of 
clover. I think the place is now in fit shape 
for planting plum trees. . . . The Prize- 
taker onions are not as large as they were at 
tills time last year, but are growing rapidly. 
They will yet, I think, reach nearly full size. 
We were late in starting them in the hotbed 
and the maggots were bad for a time. We , 
find that the onions started outside and trans¬ 
planted from the rows last of all are larger 
than those started in the hotbeds. The clif 
ference is quite marked, so much so that an- , 
other year we expect to start them all out¬ 
doors. . . , Prices for most of our pro¬ 
duce are still very low. They will soon go 
up as people come back from vacations and 
as the schools open. Peppers have been al¬ 
most given away, yet we continue to pick and 
ship them rather than let the fruit ripen. 
. . . We are preparing to put the pigs in 
smaller quarters, so as to stuff them hard for 
killing. Our best market is in October and 
early November. I do not want a pig on the 
place after Thanksgiving. Our pigs have 
made good size at a low cost. Now we must 
put the meat on their bones and pay for it. 
Several of them are nearly ready for slaughter 
now. From their appearance I judge that the 
cross-bred Berk and Chester shotes have made 
the best feeders. The pure Berks may cut up 
better, but the others have made more growth. 
. . . I am sorry to find the San Jos6 
scale on several trees. Several plum trees 
near the house seemed to be entirely dead, 
but to my surprise they have put out new and 
vigorous tops. I have cut the dead wood 
out and shall try to save the new tops by 
spraying with lime and sulphur. I am told 
by some parties that this Is mere playing with 
fire, and that every tree that shows the in 
sect should be cut down and thrown into the 
fire. On the other hand, I find that good 
growers feel confident that by spraying twice 
a year with lime and sulphur they can keep 
the insect in cheek. In the peach orchards 
I shall cut every badly affected tree down 
when I find it. I also find people who tell 
us to feed the trees heavily, so as to make 
them “grow away from the scale.” Merrill, 
who is a line specimen of a well-fed boy, 
can mow into more hornets’ nests than any¬ 
one on the farm. He thinks it is because he 
“tastes good" to them, and the scale loves 
a juicy tree as well. 
Lessons of Life. —Beauty, the filly, may 
now be said to have entered the ranks of 
“business women.” She has been driven in 
the two-wheeled cart for the past, year, but 
that was play. The other day Charlie hitched 
her with Nellie in the heavy carriage and 
look a company to drive. Of course Beauty 
tried to pull the whole load; she could not 
walk, but went dancing and trotting up hill 
and down. She trotted Nellie right off her 
feet, and gave us quite an idea of what it Is 
to have a lively team. As I saw this beauti¬ 
ful creature wasting her energy in this way 
it seemed as if the two horses were talking 
like human beings. 
“Oh! hurry up. Mother!” said the filly; 
“you are so dreadfully slow !” 
“When you come to my age, my daughter, 
you will see that it does not pay us to hurry 
so. No one thinks any more of you for it.” 
“But I am not as old as you are—come, 
here is a hill; let's show them how we can 
trot right up without stopping.” 
“No, let’s walk when we can. If you trot 
up every hill they will always expect It of 
you, and some day your legs will grow weary 
and then they will urge you on to do what 
you did without urging.” 
“Do you mean to say that you will wait to 
be touched by that horrible whip? Why, 
Mother, can’t you see the disgrace of that? 
Is that a part of the wisdom you learn with 
years? If that is so I do not want to be 
wise. Come on—hurry up !” 
“My daughter, wisdom is usually a substi¬ 
tute for youth and strength. It comes after 
the joints are stiff and after ambition has 
hurt its head pounding against the impossible. 
The wise retain their strength as long as they 
can and do not fritter it away in useless 
things. I once felt as you do about the whip. 
In the hands of a good driver it is not an 
emblem of disgrace, but a form of telegraph 
between the driver and his horse. If you can 
keep wisdom with your strength you will be 
a wonderful horse.” 
“I expect to be a wonderful horse, anyway. 
I ought to be. You could step out If you 
wanted, and Father went his mile in 2.15. 
You are both of you urging me on to make 
this road spin under my feet—not the digni¬ 
fied parent now harnessed to me, but what 
you were 10 years ago. Can't you see that 
the lively young mother is pushing every drop 
of my biood on, while the wise old mother is 
tied to me and holds me back? Come on, 
Mother, drop your wisdom and be young 
again!” 
But Nellie sadly shook her head. She trot¬ 
ted on at a fair pace, and all her ambitious 
daughter could do was to try to pull the entire 
load. The filly came in wet as a sop, think¬ 
ing that when she can leave nor mother at 
home she will show people what. Nellie 
walked sadly away to nurse her youngest 
daughter. It is hard for a woman to realize 
that her lively girls must learn the lessons 
of life in the hard old way ! 
End of Summer. —The early evening, the 
cool nights and ripening crops all tell us that 
Summer is about over. I do not hesitate to 
say that I hate to see it go. The season of 
growth is a beautiful time. There is a sat¬ 
isfaction in a good harvest, and yet we like 
to see things develop, because there is always 
the pleasant hope for something better than 
the actual result proves to be. Some of us do 
not find the figuring of accounts the pleas¬ 
antest. thing in the world, yet it must be done. 
The Summer has given the Hope Farm folks 
all thev deserve and a little more. The farm 
has gained in appearance and value with the 
season’s growth on the orchards. We hope 
we are all a lime bit wiser—and yet I am 
sorry to see the Summer go. No use talking, 
there is a charm about youth. If you want 
to realize this wait till the early evening 
drives vou out of the orchards and you sit 
before an open fire after supper. The new 
and wonderful things that are coming to be 
known by the world ! They are too good, too 
full of promise. Two of the boys on the 
farm are already studying college catalogues 
and planning to work their way through. 
Wouldn’t vou like to do it all over again? 
You think so at first, but suppose one with 
the necessary power came and said: “All 
right, old man, drop your years and along 
with them shed all the things that have made 
your character. If you are going to be a boy 
again you must drop every one of the things 
that make you a man, and earn them over 
again!” 
Would you take the offer? Not a bit of it. 
You will stick to yourself. We would like to 
be young once more and carry back all the 
wisdom and experience we have gained. As 
Nellie Blv says, such things are substitutes 
for vouth, and the man or woman who, when 
past middle life, can show the substance of 
the substitute containing the spirit of the 
original may well thank God and be happy. 
But are old people ever really happy? 
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