901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
87 
( 
1 
HOPE FARM ROTES. 
Fakm VAt,ui';s.—A friend in New York 
State has this to say: 
I have been interested in Hope Farm 
Notes, especially the rocky fields, as 1 
have worked at clearing off rocks by spell? 
all my life, but not for fun. Whether it 
has paid in the end I don’t know. Thirty- 
three years ago I commenced on the farm 
where I now live; have it pretty welt 
cleared up, have built a house and barn 
that cost $3,500, and if forced to sell now 
it wouldn’t bring what I paid for it, as 
land has fallen off nearly one-half in 
value here. It has always supported the 
family, which at times has been quite 
large, and paid running expenses, but 
whether it has paid my wife and self for 
all the hard work we have done, I don’t 
know. But we have the home, and perhaps 
if we had done something else we might 
not have had anything, as we commenced 
life together with what I had saved in two 
yeans working by the month. 
In many localities the value of farm 
property has come tumbling down. I 
bought Hope Farm at about the lowest 
limit, and it is actually assessed to-day 
for $1,000 more than I paid for it. Some 
farmers say that farm property does not 
pay interest. Years ago, when their 
farm was valued at $5,000, it gave them 
a living. Now when the value has fallen 
to $3,000 it still gives a living! The farm 
next me has recently been sold by the 
sheriff, it has supported the old farmer 
for nearly 50 years. Had he been able, 
20 years ago, to look ahead and antici¬ 
pate the present value of red Winter 
apples do you imagine that his farm 
would have reached the sheriff? No! 
No! I am obliged to admit that even the 
Ben Davis apple would have saved the 
farm. He farmed simply from year to 
year with no crop provision for the fu¬ 
ture. It is pretty hard for an old farm¬ 
er to make out whether the farm has 
really paid wages to himself and his 
wife. I know this, that a home on a 
farm that is paid for and well improved 
is safer than one backed up by bank 
stock or town reputation. It is not so 
easy to turn into cash, but it is safer. 
Ham Cuking. —Some people may love 
a live hog, but most of us feel real affec¬ 
tion for a dead one—after he has been 
cured of his bad qualities and turned in¬ 
to ham. Among the various cures men¬ 
tioned by readers is the following: 
1 notice in Hope Farm Notes an allusion 
to curing hams. It reminded me of the 
method which a relative of mine has fol¬ 
lowed for many years, used before his 
lime by preceding members of the family. 
That they follow it so long Indicates that 
the results are satisfactory, and I know 
from many personal trials of the cured 
hams that they are unusually juicy and 
sweet. The treatment is this: Put in a 
large iron kettle a bushel or two of salt, 
heated until it is as hot as it can be made, 
just sizzling hot. The fresh hams, just 
cut from the pig, are put in this hot, dry 
salt, turned over and drawn around in it 
till the entire outside has been in contact 
with the salt for a few minutes. Then 
they are smoked and are ready for the 
table. They keep well and are fine-flav¬ 
ored. w. 
That is worth trying certainly. This 
cold weather enables us to feast on 
spare rib and sausage and but little of 
our pork has been salted or smoked yet. 
Surely no one would think of following 
a practice of this sort for years unless 
it was a good one—yet sometimes hab¬ 
its are rooted into us so that it is al¬ 
most impossible to pull them out. 
“Living Right.” —The recent note 
from B. Briggs on the proper way to 
spend Sunday has stirred up more dis¬ 
cussion than anything we have printed 
in a long time. People who believe as 
Mr. Briggs does, others who half-believe, 
some who say they don’t believe in any¬ 
thing at all, and others who don’t know 
what they do believe have been filling 
the Hope Farm man full of advice and 
suggestion. I feel as though the dog¬ 
matic discussion of 20 centuries had been 
boiled down and rubbed into my back. 
They come so thick and fast that the re¬ 
maining years of what I may hope for 
as a natural life will be all too short to 
reconcile these various beliefs. I will 
give up the job until I get my farm paid 
for at least. To me it is a source of deep 
regret that good, right-minded people 
cannot come together on some fair basis 
of religious agreement. Of all men the 
farmer should have some deep and true 
religion in his heart. He is close to na¬ 
ture, and every day’s experience must 
convince him that he, and what he calls 
his own, must bow to the will of some 
superior and mysterious power. To me 
it seems no more than reasonable that 
if the natural forces which decide our 
physical destiny are fixed and exact, the 
moral forces which have so much to do 
with personal good or evil must also 
have some fixed measure or law. But 
you can hardly expect a plain farmer to 
strike bottom when able and devout 
scholars have failed. I believe that the 
good Lord gives us the chance to work 
our salvation out of our own lives by 
right living. Some good people narrow 
it down and, as it seems to me, cramp 
themselves into various forms of wor¬ 
ship. Others go to the other extreme 
and ignore all such forms, and have no 
patience with them. I wish the world 
would quit discussing forms and creeds, 
and get together on the foundation prin¬ 
ciples of Christianity. 
Stock Mixtures.—A Jersey friend 
wants to know about the “lick ball” 
which our horses have: 
Some while ago I noted in Hope Farm 
Notes mention made of salt balls for 
horses, in proportion of two parts salt, one 
part lime and one part w’ood ashes or 
charcoal. What kind of salt and lime is 
used, and how much water? 
Charlie makes the ball as follows: 
Take two cupfuls of salt—either table or 
barrel—one-half cupful of air-slaked 
lime and four to five cupfuls of wood 
ashes. Mix them well and add enough 
water to make a stiff mud. Then bake 
in an oven until it is dry and hard. It 
can be made in a cigar box which gives 
it good shape and size. The barn tongue 
that licks this mixture will never tell a 
lie about it, but come for more. For 
sores on horses we like a mixture of one 
part carbolic acid and three parts of 
sweet oil. A mixture of equal parts 
ammonia and sweet oil made a good 
blistering liniment for old Franko’s leg. 
To reduce the swelling we now expect 
to use biniodide of mercury, one dram, 
and cerate of cantharides ointment, one 
ounce, well aiixed. 
Farm Notes. —The shredded fodder is 
keeping well, and the horses clean it 
up. 1 feel sure that the shredding added 
at least $3 per ton to the value of the 
stalks. I hear some complaints that 
this fodder does not keep well. We have 
had no trouble with it. . . . In an¬ 
swer to several questions I will say that 
our waste molasses came from the Bing¬ 
hamton beet sugar factory. We feed 
it to all stock except the bi'ood mare. I 
call it a useful feed. Old Major startled 
me the other day by trotting up hill of 
his own accord—something he nas not 
done in months. He was going away 
from home, too. Strange that cold mo¬ 
lasses should warm up an old horse! . 
. . The chief work on the farm now is 
in clearing up two of those old “loafer” 
fields I have told about. The boys are 
cutting out the cedars and birches, and 
clearing the walls. The cow peas are 
left on the ground, of course. I hope to 
fill these fields with peach trees this 
Spring. * They are well located for 
peaches, and the soil is too light for 
seeding down. Yes, I am going to give 
the Stringfellow method of planting a 
good trial on quite a large scale. J. H. 
Hale tells me that I shall only encourage 
a lot of lazy men to quit needful culti¬ 
vation, and never get a first-class crop. 
Other good men tell me the same thing, 
viz., that this plan is O. K. for the South 
under certain conditions, but no good 
for our section. I suppose I should heed 
these wise men, but I am frank to say 
that Brother Stringfellow has so much 
faith in his scheme that some of it has 
run over into me, and I shall try one 
acre that way at least. . . . We still 
have a good supply of small potatoes, 
turnips and cabbage for the stock. How 
they do enjoy a “green” bite. What 
with shredded fodder, molasses and 
roots I never fed horses so cheaply be¬ 
fore. H. w. c. 
A Farm Beneath the Snow.—I 
thought you would like to hear from the 
Adirondack Mountains, as we are situ¬ 
ated in the very heart of them. Snow 
came November 9; there has been sleigh¬ 
ing since, except about five days. The 
snow in the woods is three to five feet 
deep, so you see we do not nave to sow 
cow peas for a cover crop. I will tell 
you what I sold off my 40-acre farm in 
the past year: 
Milk sold, average 8!4 cows: 
24,648 qts.$1,339.17 
Vegetables and truck. 285.25 
Net proceeds of hens. 50.00 
“ “ “ plg.s. 20.00 
“ “ “ veal . 3.00 
Total .$1,697.42 
Expense running farm.$200.00 
Feed and hay bought. 190.00 
Implements . 102.88 
Milk wagon . 45.00 
Bowen fence machine, etc_ 13.00 
Cutter harness . 40.00 
Total .$590.88 $1,697.42 
590.88 
Total .$1,106.54 
I have made no account of boarding 
help or of any vegetables we use in the 
house, which is a good many, as we have 
a family of from six to nine most of the 
time. I think that is doing quite well. 
I have not figured in a new boy six 
months old, $1,000 at the least. 
Tupper Lake, N. Y. reader. 
R. N.-Y.—That is a good showing for 
the farm, but a very low estimate on 
that new boy. 
Shade Trees.— The Connecticut Station 
(New Haven), has issued an excellent bul¬ 
letin in No. 131. The city of New Haven 
is noted for the beautifui old elm trees, 
which shade its streets. Many of these 
veterans are dying. The causes are old 
.age, lack of air and water, or of plant 
food, mutilations, poisoning, insect ene¬ 
mies and electric currents. The Connecti ¬ 
cut Station made a thorough investigation 
of these troubles and has gathered in this 
bulletin information of great value to 
those who love shade trees. 
HALLOCK’S 
PATENT 
APPLIED 
FOR. 
POTATO HARVESTER. 
Writers 
at once; 
right now 
is the tbne. 
POTATO OKO WERS, this is the digger you have so long 
looked for, hoped for, longed for. The price is right, the draft 
is right (one team), easy to handle, strong and simple, every 
potato taken from its bed by the shovel, and every potato sep¬ 
arated from the soil by the wonderful fork ; dig every row 
straight as you go. In a word, it is hand work done with two 
horses. 
OUR GUAltANTEE. We guarantee the O. K. Digger 
to equal hand work. In other words, you dig a certain number 
of rows by hand, then dig an equal number with the O. K. 
Digger, pick up all potatoes in sight, then harrow, cultivate 
and plow, either or all; if “ O. K.” does not come out ahead, 
you are at liberty to reject it. We know just what it will do 
because we have followed it in a dozen fields in different parts of 
the country. 
WHAT WE WANT. Correspondence with 60,000 potato 
growers before the winter is over, so we can tell them all about 
the digger and the wonderful offer we make for quick 
ortlers and introtluction. 
We know we liave the digger you want. We know 
every potato grower who does not buy one will want his potatoes 
dug with one. This would mean profitable work for you if you 
had time for it, or could spare the digger. 
D. Y. HALLOCK & SONS, Box D 805, York, Pa. 
Please mention box number. 
