1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
i73 
HOPE PARK MOTES. 
The Catalogues.— The Hope Farm 
people have spent some time in studying 
tne catalogues. It has been time well 
spent. I am surprised to see how much 
useful information some of these pam¬ 
phlets contain. Of course the man be¬ 
hind the book wants to sell seeds and 
plants, and I don’t blame him for that. 
I would like to have something good 
enough to sell myself, but simply as 
books for study and reference these cata¬ 
logues are well worth examining. There 
is a good deal of character about these 
pamphlets. Some of them are mere wind 
—full of extravagant pictures and 
stories which any farmer ought to know 
are false. I would no more buy seeds of 
people who make such a wild use of 
printer’s ink than I would give money 
to some overdressed fellow who talked a 
yard of bad grammar per minute. To 
my mind some of the smaller circulars 
issued by the little fellows offer sound 
bargains. It will certainly pay to spend 
a few postage stamps on catalogues. 
“Novelties” and Breeds. —These cat¬ 
alogues offer various “new” things 
which are pronounced superior to most 
old ones. Some of the claims are too 
ridiculous to notice, while others evi¬ 
dently have some basis of fact. Of 
course we hear a good deal of loose talk 
about “breeds,” but many of us never 
Slop to realize what we are talking 
about. On every farm we can pick out 
the marks of various breeds in the cat¬ 
tle, poultry or horses. Certain shapes, 
colors and habits become fixed by long 
continued “breeding” until they are sure 
to appear in our crops and animals. In 
one sense habits may be said to be good 
or bad breeds. Their characteristics are 
fixed, and unless we exert the will for¬ 
cibly we are sure to do ihings in the 
wrong way, because the habit asserts it¬ 
self. A study of some of the “novel¬ 
ties” named in the catalogues tempts 
me to go over our Hope Farm plans, and 
see what “breeds” we have taken up. 
Farm Crops. —The Clydesdale oats 
have given us good satisfaction. I have 
tried various so-called “new” varieties, 
but to my mind they are not new at all. 
I suppose I could take any good variety 
and grow it for a number of years, using 
lots of manure or fertilizer, and selecting 
best heads for seed, and have a “new” 
sort. We like a rank-growing stem, as 
we cut most of the crop for hay. I don’t 
expect to try any new varieties. I have 
become satisfied that the Beardless bar¬ 
ley may do better than oats with us, and 
I shall try a few bushels. Last year 1 
raised the Thoroughbred fiint corn en¬ 
tirely. It gave a tremendous yield of 
stalk, and is, I think, the best silage 
corn for the North. It does not yield 
as much grain as I like, and the corn 
is too hard for young pigs to crack. I 
shall plant one field to Huron dent, and 
another to a local dent, which the neigh¬ 
bors praise highly. A variety that has 
succeeded for years in a certain locality 
is pretty likeiy to do better than some 
new “breed” produced elsewhere. After 
all, a “new breed” is quite likely to turn 
out to be a “local favorite.” For pota¬ 
toes I shall plant mostly early varieties. 
After several years of careful observa¬ 
tion I must say that June Eating suits 
our farm better than any other variety 
we have tried. Junior Pride is earlier, 
and we shall plant a few barrels of it, 
as it comes in ahead of June Eating. I 
have become a little weary of testing 
new “breeds” against our old stand-by, 
but this year I expect to plant Dewey, 
The Gem, Scotch Rose, Early Pingree, 
and possibly others by its side. Late po¬ 
tatoes are not very satisfactory with us, 
but Carman No. 3 and Rural Blush have 
been our best. I sent a few samples of 
Rural Blush to a farmer in Ohio, and 
he said that they gave a soggy, miser¬ 
able lot of tubers. With us this potato 
is the best in quality. For cow peas I 
would use Early Black or Whippoorwill 
if seed was desired, or Wonderful or Red 
if vine only is wanted. We shall sow 
considerable Dwarf Essex rape and 
Early Amber cane for hog feed, and a 
small lot of Kaflir corn. 
Living Animals. —As a rule the live 
stock on the farm is not so purebred 
as the vegetables, fruits and grains. We 
have four purebreds at least. Hugha, 
the Berkshire sow, is full of the bluest 
of blood. The old cow is a Jersey of 
pedigree, but not registered. Shep, the 
dog, is a well-bred Scotch collie, and 
a gentleman in fur, if there ever was 
one. Dick, the Wyandotte rooster, is of 
royal blood, but the hens are a mixed 
lot. They have worked up to 20 eggs a 
day, however, which performance makes 
up for their lack of pedigree. The two 
heifers from the old cow have a Hol¬ 
stein father. The result of this cross is 
disappointing thus far. I think less of 
these heifers the larger they grow, for 
they are coarse and beefy. I now find 
that several years ago a Holstein was 
brought into this county—his owner 
having about the same theory that 
I had. Almost all his daughters from 
Jersey cows have proved disappointing. 
That’s what you get by riding a theory 
when facts are right at hand. These 
heifers may surprise me yet, however. 
I hope they will, but hereafter I shall 
try to breed as close to type and form 
as I can. Horses are usually a mixed- 
up lot, for purebred animals are scarce 
among them. This is because farmeis 
buy most of their horses, and when they 
do breed have little option as to pedi¬ 
gree. Frank and Dan are western 
horses, Frank showing traces of one 
of the English draft breeds. Major is 
an ex-car horse—one of the workers 
thrown out of a job by steam power. 
Nellie Bly, the brood mare, has good 
blood, and may raise the standard of the 
Hope Farm stable yet. Give us a year 
or so and we will have better animals 
in yard, pen and barn—that is, we will 
have them more uniform, at least. 
Home Notes. —No use trying to give 
the pedigree of the Hope Farm folks. It 
is too much mixed up. Go back two 
generations in our household, and you 
will find English, Irish, Scotch, French, 
German and Dutch. The little Bud, for 
example, is a mixture of Massachusetts 
and Mississippi—a combination of sev¬ 
eral nations. What a mixed-up “breed” 
your American is. He certainly hasn’t 
much to be proud of in the way of pedi¬ 
gree. He had better hustle about and 
establish a record for performance, and 
let pedigree take care of itself. 
Our children are gaining words at a 
rapid rate. Almost before I knew it 
they were picking up books and papers 
and reading to me. The Bud came to 
me in great trouble the other night. 
She had found a paper in which some 
foolish fellow, trying to be smart, had 
misspelled a lot of words and thrown in 
a lot of slang. The Bud could not under¬ 
stand those wrong letters in the printed 
words, because Mother and the book left 
those letters out. It was a serious thing 
to that little mind, for she had been 
taught to believe that a word is a true 
and important thing. It rather shocked 
her to think that a person should fool 
and play with a printed word! . . . . 
I have never known the cold weather to 
hang on as it does this year. A year 
ago our roads were deep mud; now they 
are still frozen solid, and deep snow¬ 
drifts line them. The grass and grain 
are only partly covered with snow, but 
they look better than I expected to find 
them. The keen, bitter winds delay out¬ 
door work and make life miserable for 
the thin-skinned people. After all, it 
isn’t so much the thickness of the skin 
as it is the layer of fat that keeps the 
cold out. Take a Short-horn and a Jer¬ 
sey steer, well fed and healthy, and turn 
them out in the cold. The Short-horn 
will lie down in the snow and chew its 
cud in genuine cold comfort. The Jer¬ 
sey will hump its back in sorrow. How 
is this? Nature has fixed in the Short¬ 
horn the habit of depositing fat on the 
outside of the carcass. The steer really 
has an overcoat of fat. Nature has made 
the Jersey differently, and its fat is 
mainly deposited on the inside, along 
and around the vital organs, so that it 
has no overcoat. h. w. c. 
Potato 
Machinery 
THE 
ASPINWALL 
LINE 
Churns 
Lawn Swings 
Hand Sprayers 
Post-Hole Augers 
Pea Shelters, Etc. 
Potato Cutter 
The use of the Potato Cutter effects much saving of labor. The work of cutting enough seed to plant from 
ten to thirty or forty acres of potatoes is tedious and tiresome, and to do away with this enables the crop to be 
put in at a time when tne ground is in proper condition and when the season and opportunity for planting 
presents itself. 
Potato Planter 
(PLAIN). The Aspinwall Potato Planter being Automatic 
requires but a Team and Driver in its Operation. There are 
no pockets or feeding attachments required to handle the 
various sized seed .cuttings; nor is it necessary to depend upon an additional operator perched on the machine 
or walking in ttie lear to complete the work the machine itself should do. Our planter does not cut or Injure 
fingers or in any way endanger the safety.and comfort of the operator. The planter marks the row, opens 
the furrow, drops and covers the seed, either shallow or deep. 
ALSO ■■■■ ■ m mm ■ ■ It is provided, when 
WITH rGrtiiizGr and Corn Attachments desired,wmiafertm/er 
attachment, with which fertilizer can be sown underneath the seed after the most approved method. A corn- 
planter attachment is also provided which plants corn, peas, beans and corn>for ensilage. The fertilizer attach* 
ment can be u«ed when planting corn, in the same manner as when planting potatoes. 
The head is eight feet long. The weeder, therefore, covers eight feet wide. It has 
forty-eight oil tempered steel teeth arranged in three rows which cover the surface 
of the ground thoroughly. The teeth are so arranged that any number may be 
removed to straddle rows in such crops as cauliflower and the like. 
Growers prefer the Aspinwall 4-Row Sprayer because: 
1. The pump, governed Oy the pressure required at nozzles, 
is automatic, and can be changed instantly to increase or 
decrease the pressure without getting orf the scat. There 
is no pumping back into the barrel, or waste of force in any direction. 2. The pipe connections are all in front 
of the machine. The nozzles are underneath and set to spray backwards, are in easy range to be seen by the 
driver, and can be adjusted to suit any width tf planting. 3. Each pair of nozzles, or each single one, as in the 
Instance of spraying two rows, can be easily adjusted to meet any irregularity in the rows, by foot pressure. 
Tne adjustment for different growth and height of vines can also be quickly made. 4. Twenty-five to thirty acres 
per day can be gone over. One barrel of the mixture will cover from four to six acres. 
The Aspinwall Potato Digger embodies the most novel 
features of anything of the kind heretofore made, and may be 
said to be a companion machine to the world-famed potato 
planter. The digger is adapted to all kinds and conditions of 
digging, on hillsides and level fields, among green or ripe tops, and wet or dry ground. It works in a'l soils in 
which potatoes can be grown; does not clog and reasonably small loose stones and trash do not phase it. 
Weeder 
4-Row Sprayer 
Potato Digger 
Potato Sorter 
We have made a new departure in Potato Sorters, using an 
elevator with long distance travel, which enables very Rapid 
Sorting combined with excellent work. In the construction we 
gain another admirable feature in having the hopper down low, making Easy Work in Shoveling and Feeding 
the Machine. The entire work is under control of the operator, and any poteitoes which are decayed or ill¬ 
shaped may be removed while tlje work is progressing; there is no Bruising or Injuring the Potatoes in the 
least. The machine makes a separation or sorting into three sizes. 
I I— . a Awarded Bronze Medal, Paris Exposition, 1900. 
L.Mnilir n Tluschumpossessesquite an ad vantage over 
AClIOn %^mU m I I I wl III anything heretofore made. The action, instea<l 
of being purely rotary, has an oscillation from side to side which increases the churning or stirring action of 
the cream. There are no projections to catch sediment. The churn is easily cleaned and does not become foul. 
It is simple in construction, with no cranks to turn. Little or no strength required. A child can operate it. It 
can be wheeled about at pleasure, being mounted on small truck wheels inside of frame base, and the barrel 
attached to the frame by a simple device. It makes a creamery grade of butter. Our churns are used by 
thousands of butter mak.trs in all parts of the world, receiving their unqualified endorsement. 
Lawn Swing 
Hand Sprayers 
Great advantage is derived by the use of our sprayers 
in exterminating Potato Bugs. Tobacco, Tomato, Cabbage, 
and Currant Worms, and all Plant Insects; also in Killing 
Lice in Poultry Houses. They are used etleetively on 
Horses, Cattle and Swine, and for spraying Clothes, Carpets, Cigar Wrappers, etc These sprayers are furnished 
in all Tin; Tin Air Chamber, with Galvanized Iron Tank; Tin Air Chamber, with Brass Ta:ik, or all Brass, as 
desired. 
Post Hole Auger 
1st. The Aspinwall .Auger works successfully in 
hard or soft ground, sand or gravel, sticky clay soil, 
through stiff sod, smail roots, etc. 2nd. Owing to 
the ease with which the auger is operated, no back-breaking work is required. Made in 3 sizes, 6, 8 and 10 inches. 
I 
I 
I 
I 
$ 
I 
i 
I 
I 
i l 
I 
! 
i 
I 
ii 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
$ 
it 
I 
I 
I 
I 
it 
TWO AND FOUR FASSENCER, f 
'• 
it 
it 
it 
it 
It 
Twenty Years on the Market. 
Thousands of Enthusiastic Users. 
If interested m amj of the above goods,, write for our 1901 catalogite,, wliicli is nom readij for 
distrihution. We have an established reputation, which is world-wide. Address 
Dept. K, ASPINWALL MFC. CO., Jackson, Mich., U.S.A. 
