1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
23 
HOPE PARK ROTES. 
Letters and questions have come rush¬ 
ing in upon us lately. They come from 
all parts of the country, and we may as 
well take some of them this week foi 
discussion. 
Sweet Corn Stalks.—A market gar¬ 
dener in Connecticut asks this question; 
Which is the more economical way to get 
rid of green cornstalks, to plow them under 
oi sell them for $5 an acre standing? We 
raise sweet corn for market, and do not 
keep stock enough to use them. 
As between plowing such stalks under 
and selling them at $5 per acre I would 
sell. It is hard to plow them undei 
right. The whole stalks do not leave 
the ground in good condition for gar¬ 
dening crops. We should want to have 
some other crop, like clover, rye or oats, 
growing in the corn before the ears were 
fit to pick. I am very sure that I can 
buy with $5 in cash more available fer¬ 
tility in chemicals than the stalks on an 
acre will furnish. I would not sell the 
stalks, however, but would feed them to 
hogs. A good pen full of hogs will prove 
very useful on a garden-farm. They w.ll 
make pork out of wastes that would oth¬ 
erwise be wastes indeed. I would cut 
these stalks and throw them whole to 
the hogs. They will do the rest. 
Gathering Leaves. —I had no idea 
that so many of our readers gather 
leaves for bedding. All seem to agree 
that they make good bedding and ma¬ 
nure, and that a chestnut tree may well 
provide fertility for a hill of corn. The 
difference of opinion comes when they 
come to pick the leaves up. Here is the 
way they do it in Alabama: 
Rip the seams of a large bran or burlap 
sack. Get two broom handles or other 
sticks as long as the piece of burlap is 
wide, tack securely to ends of burlap. 
Rake leaves in piles with rake. Grasp the 
loader (described above) one stick in each 
hand, envelop the pile of leaves bringing 
the sticks together under the leaves. You 
will have as many leaves as you want to 
lift at one time, and they are easily 
dumped into large wagon rack. This may 
be too late for H. W. C. and others in the 
Northern States to use this Winter, but 
they can remember and use it next year, 
and your southern readers can use it al¬ 
most any time during the Winter. 
Thorsby, Ala. p. c. s. 
We are having a very open Winter 
and can still pick up leaves. The Ala¬ 
bama plan ought to work, but an Ohio 
man seems to think he can beat it. This 
is the way: 
On page 351 is an interesting account of 
how to handle leaves, but I am sure I can 
go it one better. If you have leaves or any 
other fine stuff of that kind to handle 
that does not work well with a fork, pro¬ 
cure some of the common wire chicken 
netting of two or three-inch mesh, and 
take a piece about 12 to 15 feet long and 
from three to four feet in width. Lay this 
flat on the ground and rake your leaves on 
to it, then commence to roll, and, presto, 
change! Instead of a loose lot of unman¬ 
ageable stuff you have a nice compact bale 
that by a few turns of the loose ends of the 
wire may be secured, loaded into the sled 
or wagon, or carried in any shape. There 
is much material on the farm that would 
make good bedding for stock if it were not 
so difficult to handle. Clover haulm is 
one of these. To handle it is much like 
eating your soup with a fork, but with a 
sieve of wire netting it can be handled 
easily. I have been feeding cornstalks with¬ 
out cutting, and to get them out after be¬ 
ing picked over by the stock is not an 
easy Job, but with a piece of netting I can 
carry ail of it quickly. I do not think any 
one will fuss to crowd leaves into a bag, 
when they can be nicely baled, by simply 
raking them on a piece of wire netting. 
E. c. green. 
It strikes me that Mr. Green does the 
thing right up brown! No use talking 
—it pays to bunch things up if you ex¬ 
pect to utilize them properly. 
Cover Crops. —A farmer in Missouri 
wants to know why we have so muca 
to say auout “cover” crops. Here is his 
letter: 
I notice that what is called a cover crop 
has become a fad with a great many of 
The R. N.-Y. people. What I want to 
know is what crop will It benefit, and how 
and why, as I know from experience that 
it is a positive injury to a wheat crop. If 
wheat ground can be plowed by July 1 and 
left to lie bare in the hot sun until seeding 
time It will produce more wheat per acre 
than any other way. w. a. cowan. 
When I speak of a “cover” crop I 
mean clover, rye, oats, rape or some 
similar crop which grows through the 
late Fall and Winter and covers the 
ground. Most of our money crops grow 
between frost and frost. They are 
planted after the ground warms in the 
bpring, and are killed by the first hard 
frost. We use manure or fertilizer free¬ 
ly, and after frost kills these Summer 
plants the soil still contains soluble 
plant food left by the corn or potatoes. 
We reason i.iiat if the soil is left bare 
this soluble plant food—or at least the 
nitrogen—wiii be washed and leached 
out by the soil and lost to us. On the 
other hand, if we have some live crop 
growing through the Fall and Winter, 
it will utilize and save this plant food. 
You might throw swill from the kitchen 
right into the brook—and lose it. You 
might, on the other hand, build a pen 
by the side of the brook, put a hog in it, 
and pour the swill into his trough. We 
think the cover crop represents the hog 
in the pen. Another use for the cover 
crop is adding humus or vegetable mat¬ 
ter to the soil. Some of the most profit¬ 
able farm lands in the East are light 
and sandy. They are quick and warm, 
and early crops can be forced rapidly. 
Fei’tilizers are used largely and “cover” 
or green crops, grown between money 
ci’ops, supply the humus which else¬ 
where may be supplied in stable manure 
Again, such crops as clover, cow peas 
Soy beans, etc., catch and save nitrogen 
for us. The plan you speak of is ad¬ 
vocated by Mr. Clark, the grass man. 
This “Summer fallow” gives best results 
on heavy, black lands where there is 
plenty of humus. Except when we wish 
to prepare land for grass seeding there 
are few places in Hope Farm where it 
would pay. With us your wheat would 
be a “cover” crop, but we would raise a 
crop of early sweet corn or potatoes in¬ 
stead of working the ground. 
Cow-Pea Values. —Another reader in 
Missouri says he has caught the cow- 
pea fever; 
1 have raised the Whippoorwill pea; with 
me, horses, cattle, hogs and chickens eat 
them. I had six acres this year; we picked 
off most of the pods and now the horses 
spend three-fourths of their time on the 
patch, and they will feed there as long as 
there is a peavine they can find. Some 
have sown them in corn the last plow¬ 
ing, then in the Fall turn the cows in on 
them. They say there is nothing that will 
make more and better butter than a patch 
of such feed. 
That is just what others say who have 
used them for pasture. 1 seldom feed 
them down, but plow the whole mass 
right under. One reason for this is that 
we are using cow peas on the far-back 
fields, where it would not be possible for 
us to turn the stock. We want short 
hauls for the manure and fertilizer and 
cow peas for the distant fields. Perhaps 
we make a mistake when we fail to util¬ 
ize every feature of the cow pea. Some¬ 
times a man is satisfied to look at one 
side of a thing, and make no effort to 
learn about dozens of other sides which 
other farmers have been forced to learn 
about. I thought of this last week in 
watching the children play with one of 
their Christmas gifts. It was a painted 
box with seven other smaller boxes fit¬ 
ting into it. They could be taken out 
and piled one above the other. I was 
curious enough to measure them. When 
all were packed in the larger box 515 
square inches of surface were presented. 
When piled one above the other all the 
boxes gave 268 inches of surface! When 
only the larger box was used with the 
others inside, 212 inches of surface were 
hidden. It is the same way with some 
men. They narrow a good thing down 
to a single view, and thus lose the best 
share of il. Others crowd their powers 
into the smallest compass and never try 
to expand. 
Sawing Wood. —Another good friend, 
wno may have a wife who makes dry re¬ 
marks about green fuel sends this note: 
Know ye of any place I can buy a jig 
saw with frame heavy enough to saw wood 
on for the stove? It is strange to me if 
the inventors have not applied the crank 
in some form at the wood pile. It is a 
good place for a crank, for a bucksaw is 
a little too much for the backbone of these 
present times. It is a good thing to get 
the prophet’s wheels out of the head or the 
heavens into a man’s hands, or under his 
feet, whether the prophet meant it to be 
so or not. If he lived to-day and had to 
saw wood for a stove, he w’ould have sep¬ 
arated the wheels from the wings and put 
them to use. 
We think the folding sawing machine 
.advertised in The R. N.-Y. would eat 
up that wood pile. It will need a bal¬ 
anced ration of fat on the saw and mus¬ 
cle on the handle. One trouble with the 
modern backbone is that it wants to be 
saved by the head. The inventors seem 
to have neglected the hand saw for 
much the same reason that they have 
let the old grain cradle nurse itself 
alone. Wood sawing is now done by 
steam or horse-power. I have bought 
a circular table saw. I expected to use 
a horse-power to run it, but now hope 
to hire a portable steam engine for a few 
days, and get the job done in a hurry. 
I have known good men, who were ac¬ 
cused of having “wheels in the head,” 
but these “’^yheels” often turned into 
wings to float them nearer their duty 
or away from it. The man who can set¬ 
tle the fuel problem without any jar to 
the family wheels is worthy ot wings. 
Woman’s Work. —The Madame recent¬ 
ly found an article in a newspaper which 
tells of a Pennsylvania woman who 
baked 8,303 pies in one year. Her hus¬ 
band, seven sons and a hired man ate 
these pies—and lived to brag about it. 
Here is the pith of the story: 
•'Who ate the pies? Why, we home folks, 
of course. I’m good for three a day, and 
I hope I haven’t raised a son who can’t do 
as well as the old man. Then I have a 
hired man who, I’m sorry to say, can beat 
even me. Why, that fellow will eat six 
pies a day and get fat on ’em. Never had a 
hired man about the place who couldn’t 
eat pies. The last man I had said he had 
stomach trouble and wouldn’t touch the 
nicest tart Mary could bake. He disappeared 
one night with my best colt and I haven’t 
seen him since.” 
Now you don’t catch me printing my 
opinion about people who have been 
mastered by the pie-eating habit. I’m 
too old a bird to stir up anybody who 
holds advanced and pronounced opinions 
on religion, politics or pie-eating. Let 
us have peace! So long as the women 
folks are content to go through life 
bearing a pie-plated chain, the Hope 
Farmers will continue to hope for bettei 
things and say nothing. I don’t believe 
our people ate 60 pies all through 1900. 
We like puddings better. As old read¬ 
ers know. Aunt Jennie kept an accurate 
account of certain kitchen statistics last 
April. I will repeat her flgures: 
HOPE FARM KITCHEN STATISTICS. 
For the month of April, 1900. 
Number of eggs cooked. 269 
“ “ potatoes eaten . 603 
“ “ biscuits baked . 209 
“ “ puddings baked . 15 
“ " cakes baked . 6 
Knives and forks washed.1,21S 
Spoons washed .1,250 
Dishes washed .3,182 
Now my purpose in bringing this up 
once more is to point out to the men 
folks wnat an endless job dish-washing 
is. Just watch some big, fine-looking 
farmer after supper some night. His 
day’s work is about over. He settles 
into his soft chair with a sigh of relief, 
but Mother and the girls bring out theii 
everlasting dish-pan and proceed to give 
the dishes their evening bath. It seems 
like a smaii job, but ii you put enough 
small jobs together you will make ai. 
avalanche. I have spent some little time 
figuring on our dishes. Taking the aver¬ 
age area of cup, saucer and plate I find 
that our women folks washed and wiped 
over 267,288 square inches of crockery 
during April. There were 19,758 inches 
of spoon anu fork, which makes 287,046 
inches all told. Counting two children 
for each adult we find that the daily 
wash and wipe for each adult was 1,290 
square inches. For the entire Hope 
Farm family during 365 days the dirty 
dish area reaches the fearful total of 5.- 
179,350 square inches. Washing and 
wiping thoroughly means tour times 
over or a total surface of 20,717,400 
square inches! Remember that there 
are 6,272,640 square inches in an acre! 
Now then. Friend Farmer, if a part of 
your stent for 1901 consisted in clean¬ 
ing over three acres of crockery and 
metal wouldn’t you quit the job early, 
leave a good share of it dirty, or else 
provide yourself with the best possible 
conveniences for doing the work? It’s 
early in the new year now—so let’s have 
the truth from you! No doubt some 
men will say—mentally ii not audibly— 
“why that's woman’s work and women 
are inferior to men anyway!” Yet these 
same men may know full well that when 
the great Judge of duty comes along 
they will be passed if at all, on their 
wife’s ticket! h. w. c. 
To produce the best results 
in fruit, vegetable or grain, the 
fertilizer used must contain 
enough Potash. For partic¬ 
ulars see our pamphlets. We 
send them free. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, 
93 Nassau St., New York. 
Cyanide 
Guaranteed 98 to 99 per cent., ior generating 
Hydrocyanic Acid Gas 
the most effective fumigating material, to 
destroy scale insects on fruit trees and 
plants. The only positive eradicator of 
the dreaded San Jose Scale. Endorsed by 
all Agricultural Experiment Stations. “ A 
perfect practical remedy,” says Prof. W. G. 
Johnson, State Etymologist of Maryland. 
MANUFACTURED BY 
The Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co., 
No. too WillUm Street. New York. 
Hens mast Uv all yes# 
roand to be profitable. 
KEEP THEM AT IT. 
Feeding plenty of roots and vegetables will do It. Oo* 
lANNEll JUNIOR ROOT AND VEGETAILE CUTTER 
cuts all roots and v^etablea fast and fine. Easily con* 
by chicks and dncklloKs. Send for free booklet. 
THOMPSON & SONS. YPSILANTI. JWICB. 
£> PAY O Red Cedar, California 
^ Redwood. Continuous 
^^11 'V Doors and Ladders. 
Write for special prices. 
REDWOOD AND CEDAR LUMBER CO., Ltd., Kalamazoo, Mlcb. 
FREE 
VEGETABLE GARDENING 
Prof, S, B, Green’s 240 | 
^paire book on Vegeta- ^_ 
~Dle Gardening, used In Ic.tdiog coiieg.s. Is 
given free toevery purchaser of any style 
Matthews'SewUnUenial SeedDrill« 
A valuable book and the best tools 
feSend for catalog; detcrlblng our line. 
Ames Plow Co.,Market St..Boston. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you will get a quick reply and 
"a square deal.” See our guarantee 8th page. 
A GOOD STORY 
A certain young \a.dy in del¬ 
icate health was advised by her 
doctor to take a half-teaspoon- 
ful of Soott’s emulsion of cod- 
liver oil after dinner—once a 
day—and ftjund herself almost 
suddenly growing robust. 
So small a dose is by no 
means the rule; the rule is 
whatever the stomach will bear 
—not more. Another rule is: 
take it on every least occasion, 
but not too much ; don’t over¬ 
do it. 
We’ll send you a little to try, if you like. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, 409 Pearl street. New York. 
THOMP 
CRASS 
Sows aU cloversandaoy other 
ay otnei 
grass, ao mattor bow chafiy. 
SON’S 
SEEDER 
Sows 20 to 40 acres a day. 
Beais ths wind and weU 
Special Hopper for 
wheat, OfitH. etc. 
Weighs only 40 lbs. 
LASTS IS- 
1>KFIK1TELT. 
I>0D’tbuy a seeder until 
you fkrud tor our free iilo^ 
traced catalogue. 
.Thompson & Sons, 
LIGHTNING SEED SOWER 
^-Guaranteed to sow 60 acres per 
day (either horseback or on 
foot) of Clover, Timothy, Mil¬ 
let, Flax, etc. Will be 
tent to any Post Office $ | 0 C 
on receipt of. I 1 /.W 
If not satisfactory, money refunded. 
Circulars free. Agents wanted. 
W. J. BUSS, 53 Day St.. Golden, III. 
CAHOON 
THE 
OLD 
Broadcast 
improved and perfected, 
is really the most prac¬ 
tical seeder made. 
Saves the seed, 1-8 
tlie labor. Examine it 
at yourdealer’s. Take 
no other. Send for 
circulars. 
GOODELL 
CO. 
14 Main St, 
