THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
io7 
IllOl 
hope park notes. 
Witch Hazel.— Several weeks ago I pub¬ 
lished a note from a reader who advised 
us to plant witch hazel on our back fields, 
so as to make a Winter job of cutting the 
twigs to sell to the extractors. Here is a 
note from the other side: 
“In regard to the witch hazel business. 
I think the man who has to plant the 
seeds, set the plants and wait for it to 
get big enough, would get tired of waiting, 
as it takes a large amount of small brush 
to weigh a ton, for which we get the sum 
of $4. Of course, small brush is worth more 
than large. 1 am a wagon maker and 
blacksmith; that is the only profitable part 
of the witch hazel business that I can see. 
There is a witch hazel mill, also a Black 
birch mill, within a few miles from here. 
Two years ago my brother hauled about 
300 tons of witch hazel. We kept four 
horses instead of tw'o; we got most of the 
brush off our own farm, but to be honest, 
1 would rather shoe other people’s horses 
and keep their wagons in repair to haul 
witch hazel than my own.’’ l. e. w. 
'i'hat puts a new face on it. I should 
say that our friend would better stick to 
his shop. I have written a number of 
large drug houses and manufacturers. 
’I'hey give little encouragement. It seems 
that bogus chemical mixtures are put on 
the market which injure the sale of the 
pure extract. As is the case with other 
things, the adulterators are injuring trade. 
The outlook for that Winter job is cer¬ 
tainly frosted! 
Silo ok Shredder.— The following sen¬ 
sible letter is at hand from a New York 
State man: 
T see that you have bought a shredder 
and cutter combined for your corn fodder. 
1 have been anxious to hear from some one 
who has had experience with such a ma¬ 
chine. It has been a question with me for 
some time as to which would suit my case 
the best, a silo or a shredder. I only keep 
from two to four cows, as the case may 
be; live horses and 50 sheep, besides some 
Angora goats, and, of course, hogs and 
chickens. While I think the silo all right 
for the dairy, is it profitable for the gen¬ 
eral farmer, including not only the ex¬ 
pense of building, but also of refilling every 
year? While I believe everyone should be 
governed by circumstances and the con¬ 
tents of the pocketbook, yet it is often a 
question that puzzles one as to what is 
best for our own individual use, as regards 
the silo and shredder. I think there are 
cases where a tool works well and gives 
perfect satisfaction to one person; another 
gets disgusted and is in no way satisfied.’’ 
o. B. It. 
1 do not feel competent to settle such a 
question. The silo men have some strong 
arguments, and I have listened carefully 
to them, yet, as I am situated, I do not 
believe that a silo would pay me. I have 
only three head of cattle. It must be ad¬ 
mitted that the silo is most useful for sup¬ 
plying COW' food. Some farmers feed it to 
horses and hogs, but I think the dry grain 
with roots and shredded dry stalks is bet¬ 
ter for these animals. In our country 
there is more profit in boarding a horse 
than in milking a cow, and I also believe 
that hogs pay us better. I think that a 
farmer should consider such things from 
the profit standpoint. How can I get the 
most out of my farm crops? If I had a 
large herd of cows, I think I should build 
a silo. If those cows were sold, I should 
let it stand empty. Not long ago I was in 
a Massachusetts farmer’s barn. In one 
corner was a line silo. When it was built 
the "tie-up’’ was full of cattle. It was 
found that peaches, plums and apples paid 
better than cows, and the latter were sold. 
Instead of buying stock to eat up the silage 
that farmer will turn the silo into a storage 
room for fruit, and it seems to me a very 
wise thing to do so. 
General Stock Food.—I want no quarrel 
with the silo men. Their work has proved 
a blessing to the dairymen of this country. 
It is my opinion, however, that shredded 
dry stalks with the dry grain will prove 
more satisfactory to the stock kept by the 
general farmer than will silage. We have 
not yet fed a mouthful of hay. The brood 
mare has oat hay once daily, but every 
other animal on the place has shredded 
stalks and waste molasses for roughage. 
'The orts make good bedding. For grain 
we are feeding mostly bran and oats—re¬ 
serving our corn until the horses begin the 
liard work of Spring. We shredded nearly 
two months’ supply of the stalks at one 
time. We have been feeding about a 
month and the quality is still good. Of 
course, I understand that where one has a 
silo the work of cutting is all done at one 
time, while shredding means several dif¬ 
ferent jobs. At Hope Farm I am satisfied 
that the shredded stalk is the cheapest 
roughage we can obtain for all our stock, 
and that it will enable us to sell hay, 
which brings $20 per ton! 
The Hen Business.— How are the Hope 
Farm hens doing this Winter? 
So-so! 
What does that mean? 
Not as well as we might liave made tlieiii. 
How many hens have you? 
There are now 52 old hens and pullet.s. 
How many eggs do they lay? 
From 10 to 15 per day the first week in 
February. 
Why don’t they do better? 
Chiefly because they are too crowded. 
We had but one small house available, and 
they were all crowded Into that. They 
have not had a fair chance. 
Why not? We thought you pretended to 
be model farmers! 
We have never pretended anything, and 
I must admit that our hens were neglected. 
Now, Charlie is trying to brace them up. 
How are they fed? 
In the morning he feeds a warm mash 
made of three parts wheat bran and one 
part ground corn and oats. The morning’s 
mess contains a handful of oil meal and a 
small quantity of the condition powder 
made by Henry Holmes. At noon they get 
a small feed of damaged wheat, and at 
night whole corn. Tjiey have oyster shells 
before them all the time, and all the raw 
cabbage they w'ant. 
Do you call this ideal feeding? 
No. There may be too much bran in the 
mash to suit some poultrymen, though we 
regard bran as being useful. I would like 
to feed more meat or cut bone, though the 
oil meal partly replaces it. If we had 
clover hay I would cut it and feed it 
steamed. 
What breed are these hens? 
A mixture. During last year we paid 
little attention to breeding. Other farm 
work was more important, and the hens 
did much as they pleased. We have Leg¬ 
horns, P. Rocks, Brahmas, Wyandottes 
and Minorcas all jumbled together. 
We thought you argued in favor of pure¬ 
bred stock? 
So I do. This very flock of hens is a liv¬ 
ing argument in favor of better breeding. 
What are you going to do about it? 
Confess our sins and then get better 
hens. I hope to get eggs from well-known 
breeders of good stock. Then 1 want to 
select about 20 of our best hens, and cross 
them with good Wyandotte roosters. I 
like the White Wyandotte. I doubt whether 
Hope Farm is well suited to the poultry 
business on a large scale, as the land about 
the buildings is heavy and rather moist. 
The Weather. —We have certainly had 
an open Winter. February came in with 
a light fall of snow and a cold snap. On 
our hills the cold was not severe, but I 
heard reports of much colder weather in 
the valley, I thought this might be due to 
a difference in thermometers, so one 
morning I carried our thermometer along 
with me when I went to the train. It 
registered 13 degrees when I left home and 
gradually fell as I drove down hill, and at 
the railroad it stood at one above zero. 
That’s what you get by living up in the 
air! Jack Frost went coasting that morn¬ 
ing certainly. I w'as surprised to find such 
a difference in temperatures. This might 
occur on a still cold night, but it does not 
seem possible that windy weather could 
show anything like it. While the lighter 
sands in the valley can be worked in the 
Spring earlier than our heavy hillsides. 
Jack Frost attends to their case earlier in 
the Autumn and walks very slowly up the 
hills. We lose about 10 days in Spring and 
gain over two weeks in the Fall, and after 
some years at farming, I am convinced that 
the tail end of the season is freer from 
competition than the front end. The hills 
are good enough for us. 
House Crops.— The Madame’s little brood 
is prospering this Winter. Our house is 
pretty well crowded, but the little folks 
find their way about. What a blessed thing 
it is for children to pass the early years 
of life on a farm! The boys had two little 
chests of tools at Christmas, and the ob¬ 
jects they saw out and hammer together 
are certainly - fearfully made. Grand¬ 
mother teaches the little girls to sew, and 
with their school work their little hands 
and brains are kept busy, iafe is reason¬ 
ably “strenuous” for all hands at Hope 
Farm. Must be getting rich, eh? Well, 
hardly! There isn’t much cash in our Win¬ 
ter’s work, but we are starting one or two 
things which promise well. You can't take 
a farm and turn it into gold in a single 
year. It’s a good thing you can’t, or gold 
would become too common. Life in a 
farmhouse can be made dull and narrow 
enough, if one wills it so, yet great 
thoughts and true ideas of duty may flour¬ 
ish there, too. How should one try to live? 
I have had folks tell me that they worked 
and planned as though they expected to 
live forever, with no thought of death! 
Others say they live for to-day alone, with 
no thought for to-morrow. There you are! 
Near to Nature.— Am I going on to give 
my views about that? I thank you—no! 
When I spoke of certain reflections made 
while sitting on that old stone wall, I 
stirred people up so that they haven’t done 
coming at me yet. The following note was 
written by a Michigan man. I’ll guarantee 
he has wandered off alone many a time to 
be refreshed and strengthened by the 
dumb sympathy of Nature. Just as our 
friend says, it is far better to have it out 
by yourself than to take it out of the 
family and make them all suffer—from the 
Madame down to the family cat: 
“I take a lively interest in the Hope Farm 
man, and my sympathies have recently 
been enlisted in his behalf by the numerous 
criticisms, both just and unjust, which 
have been so lavishly bestowed upon him. 
I have sometimes felt in a critical mood 
myself, but just now I want to extend my 
hand in a brotherly grip, and that eternal 
stone wall is the foundation of this sympa¬ 
thetic demonstration. Now, I admire the 
man, who, when the clouds are hanging 
low (or had been, literally, in this partic¬ 
ular case), can take himself off by himself 
and seek the solitude and comfort of Na¬ 
ture instead of laying the blame on his 
good wife, scolding the children, abusing 
the family horse or old cow, and raising 
Cain generally, as I imagine some of those 
pious critics have done at various forgot¬ 
ten times. I am aware that the Hope Farm 
man rather repudiates the idea that he 
had the blues, but the symptoms were cer¬ 
tainly indicative of that affliction, and it 
is easy to find the cause of his ignorance. 
“I suppose there is many a reader of The 
R. N.-Y, who is having as hard or a 
harder struggle than H. W. C. Let me 
suggest the motto of a clerical friend: ‘Do 
the best you can and then let' ’er rip,’ and 
if you do get the blues don’t scatter them 
around the house or barn, but consign 
them to a stone wall, rail fence, or any 
old thing inanimate that is convenient, or 
write your troubles to The R. N.-Y. and 
remember that ‘Often for each other flows 
the sympathizing tear.’ ” s. D. p. 
Amen! Amen! says the Hope Farm man. 
H. w. c. 
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