THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
343 
I KOI 
Hope Farm Notes 
Tub Sun Shines.— After making a gloomy 
of only two sun.shiny day.s in the 
month, on Aprii 26 the sun a(“tually climbed 
liver the hill and drove the clouds out or 
sight. Those who claim that “like cures 
like” hail an argument right then, for the 
bine sky (|uickly helped the “blues” that 
had been gnawing at us for week.s. It was 
wonderful liow the grass and growing 
things jumped at the sun. The first fruit 
trees at Hope Farm to sliow green were 
the crab aiiples, which leaved out April 22. 
.Some early varieties of pears came next. 
Before the sun came one could see from 
oiir hill clumi>s of red where the maples 
had started. :uul light green where the 
willows woke ui» early. After 21 full hours 
of sun every living thing on Hope Farm 
hi-gan to dance. Fven old Major realized 
that Spring had come, and let go of his 
Winter’s coat of hair, so that he plastered 
those who rode behind him. The grass, 
rye and clover took on the dark, rich green 
wliich means serious business. 1 under¬ 
took to tell how the sun encouraged the 
work and production of chlorophyll. Some 
of the Hope Farmers got it that I said 
ijlwy feel. That was not so bad, considering 
tiow every living plant danced in the sun¬ 
shine. Take it all through. April will go 
on record as a strange month. Some young 
men. and older ones, too, know how a 
sweetheart or a wife may drive them al- 
ineii, and older ones, too, know how a 
tears by turns, and just when he is ready 
to run away turn with a sudden smile and 
make it all up. 
Farm Notes.— The sun brought work as 
well as whitewash for the blues. We were 
at least two weeks behind with alt plow¬ 
ing. thir soil is iiiiturally moist and heavy, 
and days of hot sun are required to dry 
it. The rain Itad given a chance to shred 
all the corn fodder, cut the Summer's wood 
and get ready for the start. The horses, 
too, were ready after their good rest. 
My friend Dc Voe, the weather 
prophet, assured me that 1 could not plant 
(lotatoes until May. He came close to it, 
but we did manage, by hard hustling, to 
get a few in on Aitril 30. We are planting 
in hills this year—mostly early varieties. 
. ... As an experiment we are planting 
Junior Pride potatoes grown on our farm 
by the side of Maine-grown seed (‘f the 
same variety, and also second-crop Florida 
seed. We also have our regular-crop June 
J'Jating seed, and the second crop from 
Florida seed. This sort of testing is an old 
.story, but 1 want to try it for myself. 
.... Prof. 11. H. Hume, of the Florida 
ILxperiment Station, sent us a .aumber of 
l abbage plants for trial. 1 have often won¬ 
dered whether the southern plant, grown 
out doors from the seed, would be better 
than our northern hotbed plants. This 
l>'lorida cabbage was started January 10 in 
ilie open air, and the plants were trans- 
plaiued once at least. They are line stocky 
plants—.some of them having stems as 
large as the thumb. They stood the long 
journey well, tliough some of the outer 
leaves were yellow. We have them all out 
and we shall have a good chance to com¬ 
pare them with tlie “leggy” plants grown 
in the hotbed. At present 1 will back 
Florida against hotbed.If f were 
to put in a new set of water li.xtures 1 
would never again run a pipe direct from 
tlie pump to tlie house. The pipe that 
supplies our house leaves the main pipe a 
few feet from the ptimp. When the wind¬ 
mill is running there is a thump and jar, 
for then the pressure is brouglit against 
tile range and our kitchen water works. 
1 would rather have two pipes—one feed¬ 
ing from tlie tank to tlie liouse. 'This 
would cost more, and we would have to 
use lank water entirely; still, 1 think it 
Would be more satisfactory. 
Ai.i. Sorts.- Various “cures” for a kick¬ 
ing cow are coming in, but 1 will guaran¬ 
tee that Julia will kick the cure out of 
them as fast as presented. She is in a class 
of lier own-witliout rivals. The two 
calves bunt and punch her froni every 
point of the compass. No matter how hard 
they punch and pull she stands meekly by 
and seems to enjoy it. The moment a 
milker’s hand touches her ever so gently 
she is up in arms—or rather legs—and the 
whole thing is changed. If some active 
and wealthy man wants to try some new 
cure for kicking he will find Julia a ripe 
specimen. 1 have known wives to say that 
their husbands were too tame—did not 
’ kick” enough. 1 will positively guarantee 
that Julia's society will remedy tills de¬ 
fect, and 1 will sell her at beef figures. 
■ . . . Uur potatoes follow last year's 
corn. We were noticing how’ clean the 
cornfield is this year, and how much easier 
it will work than last year’s sod. That is 
where we get the benefit of that last thor¬ 
ough hoeing we gave the corn. 1 doubt if 
we got our money back in the corn crop, 
but it destroyed the weeds, kept the 
gioimd ciciiii and this yc.'ir's pottilo crop 
will be better for It. On a farm wc cannot 
live or work for to-day. Sometimes our 
best work must wait for years before, we 
can read the results on Nature’s face! 
H. W'. c. 
HOPE FARM REVISITED. 
\ year’.s work, worry and expense does 
nut always make as much visibU- improve¬ 
ment on an abandoned farm as might be 
imagined, but a recent brief stroil over the 
loafer fields of Hope Farm revealed a won¬ 
derful slicking up in the general aiipear- 
ance of the land. Cow peas and a good 
chemical fertilizer did the work on the 
back fields, and manure, fertilizer and good 
tillage on the nearby ones. Much hard 
work has of course been done in grulibing 
brush and getting bowlders out of the way. 
The unwelcome discovery was made that 
some of the big “hardheads” are cemented 
in rocky union to ver.v ribs of the earth, 
tn other words, there is an occasional out¬ 
crop of bed rock on the slopes. The soil 
is. however, of an excellent natural 
(luality and quickly responds to good 
treatment. Cultivation of the steep slopes 
and thin spots will be given up as soon as 
a good covering of grass can be secured. 
H. W. O. is rather pessimistic as to the 
outcome of the Clark grass-seeding experi¬ 
ment; more so perhaps than the present 
apiiearance of the Held indicates. This plot 
was prepared with the most scrupulous 
care, and an excellent germination of the 
seed followed, making a good close stand, 
but the Winter rains liave since gaslied 
and furrowed the sloping portions in a de¬ 
pressing manner. The prospect remains, 
however, of a sod so thick and tough that 
further pranks of the kind will be pre¬ 
vented. This promises to be a very useful 
experiment even if it only demonstrates 
the limitations of the Clark method. A 
good soil, excessive care in forming the 
seed bed and heavy seeding are essential 
factors, but in addition thorough protec¬ 
tion against floods and untimely droughts 
is also needed to insure reasonable success. 
This is characteristic of all attempts at 
intensive cultivation. The planter may do 
his full duty in any case, but in the long 
run he will find that only narrow areas of 
fortunately situated soil will fully reward 
him for his trouble and expense. Despite 
the keen investigation of many agricultural 
problems now going on in our well- 
equipped experiment stations, very few 
facts of practical value to tlie ordinary 
cultivator are discovered, which seems to 
prove that agriculture is really one of the 
most difticult of all sciences. When hu¬ 
manity emerges from Hie present fog of 
military and commercial barbarism it will 
take its proper place as the most attractive 
as well as useful of all pursuits. 
.V Stringfellow peach orchard was being 
planted with a careful attention to detail 
that should delight Mr. Stringfellow’s 
heart. It did look as though the chances 
for these little stubs of top and root-pruned 
trees to live were slim, but a few weeks 
lime will tell the story. The weather has 
been distinctly favorable for this experi¬ 
ment, as it has since rained heavily 
enougli to settle tlie soil well about the 
little trees. The Hope Farm man should 
certainly be commended for the thorough 
manner he is carrying out the many ex- 
periment.s deemed of possible value in the 
rehabilitation of this long-neglected farm, 
it means no small expense and labor thor¬ 
oughly to carry out experimental work of 
any kind, it is safe to say that any fea¬ 
ture that passes the Hope Farm scrutiny 
wUl be of real value to the everyday 
farmer. If succeeding years bring as radi¬ 
cal improvement in the apiiearance and 
capabilities of Hope Farm as the past one 
it will .soon be a model well worth study- 
SCRAPS. 
The homemade telephone has largely 
gone out of use. The clieap attachments 
sold by dealers are so much better and less 
liable to get out of order that it does not 
liay to bother witli homemade devices. 
The fertilizing value of corncobs may 
best be obtained by Inirning them. The 
little nitrogen they conlaiti will be lost in 
this way, but there is tiot enough of it to 
pay for the exiiense of redtndiig them with 
chemicals. 
(lENERAEEY speaking it will pay to drill 
in and cultivate cow peas rather than sow' 
them broadciist. The grow'th of vities will 
be enotigh greater to pa.v for the extra 
trottble. It is not wise to exepet much 
from this plant in the way of fodder and 
liay so far north as Canada. The better 
way is to plow them under and depend for 
profit upon their fertilizing value. 
Corn Smut and Stock.—A Wisconsin 
reader wlio fed cornstalks througli the 
W’ititer had a sick horse, and tlu* veteri¬ 
narian said tliat Corn smut might litive 
caused the trouble. I'rof. W. A. Henry 
wrote him as follows: “Fxperiments in 
feeding Corn smut to cattle liave shown 
tliat it is not generally at least an active 
poison, even if fed in very large quantities. 
There have been no experiments with 
horses. The quantity which your horse 
(.•ould possibly have got is so small that 
I feel quitt' sure thtit sickness must have 
come from some other cause tliati smut in 
the fodder. Corn forage is a spleiididhor.se 
feed, being quite free from dust and ex¬ 
ceedingly iialatable, as well as more 
economical as comptired with hay. I 
strongly urge that you continue the use of 
corn forage, therefore, looking to some 
other cause for the sickness of your horse.” 
When you write advertisers mention The 
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Send for color card and price 
THE A. E. SWAN CO. 
116 NASSAU STREET. NEW YORK. 
IN A LIFE TIME 
is often to do somo It io ofUn enough to bof 
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ELECTRIC 
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HANDY 
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jELECXKlC AVIIKEL CO.» Box tS Oulnejs Ills. 
I 
Two hundred bushels of po¬ 
tatoes remove eighty pounds 
of “actual” Potash from the 
soil. Unless this quantity 
is returned to the soil, 
the following crop will 
materially decrease. 
We have books telling about 
composition, use and value oi 
fertilizers for various crops. 
They are sent free. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS. 
93 Nassau St.. 
New York. 
SELF 
DUMPING 
S. & B. 
Earth Auger. 
Sample at 
cost to 
introduce, 
3 STYLES. 
8 SIZES 
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Fencing Machines, 
Wc are the largest manu¬ 
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Havana (III.) Metal Wheel Co. 
Send for 
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FARM CARTS, 
Two Wheel and Four Wheel. 
II.VV KIGGINC.S 
To fit our Carts. 
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AMES PLOW CO. 
Boston & Mew York. 
FARM TRUCKS OR 
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28 Years’ Experience 
SELLING DIRECT. 
yfe manufacture 178 styles of vehicles and 65 styles of harness 
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10 ; 
DAYS' 
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Buggy Announcement Extraornmar 
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Box 30, Kalamazoo, Miohlgan. 
