1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
439 
J-iopeJarm Notes 
Music Hath Charms. —When I men¬ 
tioned Julia, our kicking cow, I had no 
idea there was so much interest in these 
heel-and-toe workers. We have had a 
run of ridicule, advice, suggestion, abuse 
find sympathy. Now comes a man with 
a clipping from Hoard’s Dairyman. Tlie 
cow mentioned was “particularly vi¬ 
cious” (though I will match Julia 
against her): 
it was necessary to tie her in the stall 
while his two boys milked her. Now, Mr. 
Wentworth’s boys are good singers and 
cannot resist the temptation to indulge in 
song, while at their work. One day they 
started up “My Old Kentucky Home” 
while milking Betsy, and were surprised 
to discover that the cow suddenly became 
docile. After that they found it was not 
necessary to tie her, and she would stand 
l)atiently in the yard while the milking 
was in progress, so iong as she heard the 
refrains of “Dixie,” “Take Me Back to 
Old Virginny” and other old melodies. 
I don’t pretend to be much of a singer 
myself. On a few brief occasions when 
I have tried to sing in public, the audi¬ 
ence did not appear to go to sleep. It 
has been suggested that an appropriate 
song to sing while pulling Julia’s teats 
would be “My soul, be on thy guard!” 
That is doubly appropriate, for the best 
way to receive a kick is to hold up the 
sole of the boot and let the shin of the 
kicker strike it! He won’t kick twice 
in the same hour. But we have pretiy 
well conquered Julia. It’s a case of pro¬ 
hibition though—and happily, in this 
case, it prohibits. 
The Bi.ind See. —There are some 
things about farming so clear and plain 
that they would be evident to a blind 
man. We have rye in the old pear or¬ 
chard which fronts on the main road. 
I intended to cut the rye early for hay, 
but the rain prevented that, and it is 
now well headed. Last year we used this 
orchard as a sort of experiment place. 
In one aisle we had cow peas, in another 
Soy beans, in others sorghum, Kaflir 
corn, potatoes, corn fodder, etc. The rye 
clearly shows where the cow peas grew 
last year. This crop will always show 
itself in whatever follows it. . . . 
Another thing with a clear history is 
the strip in the apple orchard where the 
oats were not treated with formalde¬ 
hyde. In sowing the oats Charlie ran a 
little short of the treated seed, and took 
part of a bushel which had not been wet 
with the solution. You can see tue dif¬ 
ference without trouble. This seems to 
prove what the scientific men tell us— 
viz., that the smut germs are in the 
seed. If they are not destroyed, they 
begin their work at once in a season 
like this, and the plant never has a fair 
chance. . . . Another thing that a 
man with a wooden leg could feel as he 
walked over the field is the difference 
in plowing with our heavy reversible 
sulky and the light walking plow. Both 
plows were used in the cornfield. The 
heavy sulky stayed at its work and turn¬ 
ed and crumbled the soil into an ash 
heap. The lighter walking plow jumped 
and danced more or less in the tough, 
sticky soil, and left it cloddy and hard. 
Farm Notes. —Our corn was late, but 
it went in right. I shall keep planting 
corn until June 20, and then finish plant¬ 
ing potatoes. No, I would not advise 
others to do this. 1 shall take the risk 
because there is nothing else to do. . 
• . The rye and Crimson clover were 
well cured. This curing was done in the 
cock, and the fodder turned out green 
and bright. The rye is a little too hard 
for good hay. The horses eat all the 
clover and all the rye heads, and nibble 
a fair share of the straw. What they 
leave makes the finest of bedding. Right 
now is the time when the farm team 
should have a soft bed. They should 
work hard by day and sleep well at 
night. ... As usual, where we cut 
the Crimson clover in the upper orchard 
many heads were left. There are a few 
jobs in which it pays to be careless— 
cutting Crimson clover is one of them. 
I like to let plenty of the heads go to 
seed. Thus the crop reseeds itself and 
comes in year after year—a most wel¬ 
come visitor to me. ... I picked 
wild strawberries at least 10 days before 
any of the early cultivated varieties 
were ripe. We have some of these wild 
or vagrant plants under cultivation to 
see what they will come to. When these 
plants get into so-called civilized so¬ 
ciety I don’t believe they will get up 
quite so early. As they produce larger 
fruit under cultivation they will take 
more time for ic. . . . Hay and hoe¬ 
ing will come together mis year. The 
grass has made a rapid growth, and w.ll 
be a heavy and bulky crop, but the qual¬ 
ity will be low. There can be no heart 
in grass or anyming else without plenty 
of sunshine. My “Clark” grass doesn’t 
grow as I hoped it would. It is very 
thick, but quite short. 
Tub Weather. —The rain finally 
washed out and the sun began business 
in a half-hearted way. After a day 
spent in chasing clouds off the sky he 
took courage and really went at his 
business. Oh! but didn’t the sunshine 
do us all good? The blades of grass had 
begun to turn yellow at the ends. They 
shook themselves and started again. 
Every living thing that could do so 
crawled out of its brooding place and 
just basked in the sun’s rays. After 
three or four days of brightness it was 
a pleasant thing to see the sun go out 
of sight behind the Hope Farm hi.l. 
Great squares and patches of light lay 
along the lawn, and on the oats in the 
orchard, where the sun poked his last 
“good night” through the trees. The 
rye crinkled and waved in the wind and 
every spring and tiny stream in the val¬ 
ley sparkled and glittered whenever the 
water passed out of the shadow. But 
there was little time to stop and look 
at light and shadow pictures, for no one 
knew when the next rain was coming. 
It was jump and get the ground into 
shape! At present the indications are 
for fine weather. We need it, but have 
no time to celebrate its advent. 
Fruit Prospects. —Our apples prom¬ 
ise a fair crop. The Baldwins have 
taken a year off, except in the case of a 
few trees, which seem to bear year after 
year. The Greenings promise well, and 
the early varieties are mostly loaded. I 
hear some complaint about a failure of 
trees to set the fruit even after full 
blooming. I find little of this in our or¬ 
chards—in fact, there is, if anything, 
too much fruit on most of the trees. 
Spraying this year seems a failure. The 
constant rains kept the leaves thorough¬ 
ly washed. I can only hope that apple 
insects will be as scarce as others ap¬ 
pear to be. Pears look well with us. 
The old trees show the result of plow¬ 
ing and manuring, and have put out 
much new wood and have fine foliage. 
Cherries promise well. I had given the 
crop up, as I could not see how the flow¬ 
ers could be properly fertilized during 
the heavy rains. In some way the work 
was done, and the trees are already be¬ 
ginning to bend to the ground. My 
Stringfellow peach trees have surprised 
us all. Not one per cent has died thus 
far, and most of them have started a 
vigorous growth. Some of them, set in 
a damp place, look sick, but it is no 
situation for peaches anyway. I am not 
advocating this method yet—I am 
watching it. 
Stock and Dairy. —The hens laid G42 
eggs in May. About 38 hens did this. It 
is a poor record on paper, but good 
when compared with many actual re¬ 
sults in the yards near us. It is one 
thing to tell what a hen ought to do, and 
quite another to make her go and do it. 
. . . Just two chickens—one Wyan¬ 
dotte and a White Leghorn—remain of 
the $10 outfit of eggs which were bought 
early in the season. These $5 birds 
might well be called (riiiiiea fowls! They 
are both roosters, and we hope to give 
them a chance to hand a few $5 bills 
down to their daughters. We have not 
far from 225 little chicks from Hope 
Farm eggs, as bright and lively as need 
be. They are the children of old Don, 
wlio is ready to fight a horse if need 
be. In former years we have let the 
young roosters grow to nearly full siz?. 
This year I mean to have them picked 
out as soon as possible and put by them¬ 
selves for fattening. The quicker they 
make their way to the frying pan, the 
more likely we are to have something to 
crow over. We may well do our crow¬ 
ing before they do theirs. . . . The 
milk trade is still good. We usually 
find it cheaper to sell milk and buy but¬ 
ter, but of late we have been making 
more or less as cream is left unsold. A 
fine batch of Hope Farm butter appeared 
on the table last week. It was so good 
that I began to investigate to see what 
churn was used. To my surprise I found 
that Charlie made it by shaking up the 
cream in a glass fruit jar! After all, 
that gives the butter globules about as 
fair a chance lo get together as they are 
likely to get in any churn. ii. w. c. 
New York Fruit Display at the Pan- 
American Exposition. 
The fruit dhsplay from the State of New 
York in Horticultural Hall, at the Pan- 
American Exposition, is so remarkable 
that it deserves special mention, and I 
think the people of this State, at least, 
would be interested in knowing about it. 
It has been splendidly managed from the 
first, and great credit is due S. D. Willard 
and his assistant, P. E. Dawley, who are 
at the head of it, and under them others 
who did the work of collecting all over the 
State, manv of whom are unknown to me, 
but their fruit is here to show what they 
have done. Every county in the State is 
represented in the hall at this date, in¬ 
cluding even the county which comprises 
the city of New York. Beginning late in 
the Pall, as they had to do after the ap¬ 
propriation was made and apportioned by 
the board of management, in order that 
those managing the fruit display knew 
Just what they had to depend upon, they 
went vigorously to work and selected ap¬ 
ples, pears, quinces and grapes and put 
them in cold storage in such good condi¬ 
tion that they have lasted splendidly, and 
came out this Spring in some cases with 
only the loss of three or four specimens 
in a barrel. Each specimen was wrapped 
in two thicknesses of paper and placed in 
the Buffalo Cold Storage Warehouse. 
When the Exposition was formally opened 
on May 20 they placed the first fruit on 
the tables, filling 1,800 plates. It was an 
astonishment even to themselves to see so 
tine a showing at so late a date. Even 
the Catawba and some other varieties of 
grapes were in good eatable condition, and 
are so to-day, although they have now 
been exposed for over three weeks; but 
some have rotted and been replaced. The 
coloring of the apples is about as good as 
could be desired, and the flavor of the ap¬ 
ples and pears is about the same as it was 
last Fall or any time during the Winter, 
though some of the earlier kinds are some¬ 
what “off” in this respect. Fall Pippin. 
Rambo and others that are not expected 
to keep very far into the Winter came out 
in good condition. 
As to the future, we have every reason 
to believe that the State of New York will 
be splendidly represented in the fruit line 
at this Exposition. Those who have the 
matter in charge are taking active steps 
to secure every kind of fruit that grows 
within the limits of the State, and if they 
are properly treated by the people at home, 
as they doubtless will be. New York will 
come out with abundant laurels. While 
the fruit already shown has been carefully 
examined, and notes made preparatory to 
awards, the Exposition authorities are not 
ready to publish these awards for a little 
time yet; but everyone who has made 
creditable contributions to the exhibits 
will not be disappointed in what he will 
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