1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
535 
HopeJarmNotes 
Pigs and Poultry. —I have told hOTV 
we arrange our garden. Last Winter 
and until the middle of April the hens 
ran in a large enclosure back of the 
barn. They were fed in different parts 
of this large yard, so as to scatter them 
about. When time for plowing came we 
put a netted wire fence around a large 
adjoining space. This included part of 
a rye field. The houses are built on the 
dividing Tine of these two large yards. 
We closed the doors leading into the 
first place and plowed it for a garden. 
The hens made it strong and fertile. 
The hens and large chickens are now 
running in the other place. The rye 
grew into grain, and as all Jerseymen 
know, with the first of July comes a 
great crop of ragweed, plantain, chick- 
weed and others too numerous to men¬ 
tion and too few to kill each other off. 
We were a little crowded in the pig- 
house and so we turned five little shotes 
in with the hens. 
Earning Thjsir Living. —These little 
children of ham are having a great time. 
They eat the apples that fall from the 
overhanging trees, “hog down” the rye 
—grain and stalk^—^clean out the chicken 
trough before it can sour, eat chickweed 
and grass until their stomachs ache and 
then they cure it by stuffing on ragweed. 
Don’t they kill the chickens? 
No, they are not large enough yet. 
They seem to be on good terms with the 
poultry. I thought they would chase the 
old hens and hurry up their moulting a 
little. I rather think such exercise 
ought to start a hen’s feathers. This 
scheme is working so well that we hope 
to make at once a number of portable 
pens that can be easily moved about. 
With a pair of little pigs in each we can 
thoroughly pig all land that cannot be 
plowed. My friend the pig doesn’t want 
to be a loafer. He will work for his liv¬ 
ing if you will only let him. That’s 
more than you can say of some humans 
who deride the pig. 
The Corn Crop. —For nearly tiiree 
weeks we were unable to get into the 
corn properly. There was more or less 
rain every day, and every energy was 
needed to try to save the hay. At last 
there came a hot windy day—^actually 
without a drop of rain. Then the horses 
began their march up and down the corn 
rows, with the heavy blade at the back 
of the cultivator and the side shovels 
on, so as to throw some soil up to the 
hill. Some of our farmers took plows 
during the wet season and threw double 
furrows up to the rows. I don’t believe 
in that, but in a wet season like the 
present 1 am quite sure that it pays to 
hill up a little. The side wings on the 
cultivator do this about right. Since 
we are putting on fertilizer late 1 think 
this slight hilling is more necessary, for 
I want that fertilizer well covered with 
soil. Some of our corn was so haaly in 
need of tillage that it was turning yel¬ 
low. Some of the hills on our richest 
ground were as pale as straw, yet within 
48 hours after a deep cultivation they 
turned green again. I have had people 
tell me that this shows that the culti¬ 
vator brings fertility to the soil. I feel 
sure that tillage does make the soil more 
productive, but in the case of my corn 
the trouble was that the wet soil had 
packed so close around the roots that 
no air could get to them. Air is neces¬ 
sary to the roots of plants. When we 
ripped up that hard soil with the culti¬ 
vators we let the air in. In New York 
last week a man was locked into a big 
safe by mistake. They remembered and 
opened the door just in time to save 
him. The cultivation of that packed 
soil meant, to my corn, about what the 
open safe door meant to that man. 
Strawbeuries. —This fruit is picked 
in June, but it is saved in July and Au¬ 
gust. I have a fine plot of Gibson and 
Marshall, as well as other newer varie¬ 
ties. What a job it is to keep this fruit 
as clean as It should be. It is horse and 
cultivator, hoe and fingers again and 
again through these hot, boiling days. 
The beds must be kept clean now, or the 
grass and weeds will surely take pos¬ 
session. On our soil we can get the 
weeds all out and do a little honest 
bragging about it. In four days you 
take some friend out to show him how 
it ought to be done, and you find half 
your weeds come to life, and new ones 
starting everywhere. Our weeds are 
such hogs that we have to bring true 
hogs in as a therapeutic agent. It is 
said that in nature every living thing 
generates its own poison. When a weed 
becomes a hog the hog cure is the only 
thing for it. Pull it up, put it in basket 
or wagon and carry it to the hoghouse. 
As it turns into pork its evil days are 
numbered. It is a puttering job to try 
to putty up the escape holes of a weed 
in this way, but I shall keep at it. The 
Marshalls are immense. If each plant 
sets two good runners I shall be well 
satisfied. The other runners will do to 
transplant. 
Farm Notes. —We drilled in yellow 
turnips on July 20. They followed rye, 
whjioh was cut a week before. The 
ground was plowed as soon as the rye 
could be taken off, and well harrowed 
down. We put the seed in with a hand 
drill. I have never obtained good re¬ 
sults from broadcasting yellow turnips. 
P is quite late for sowing this crop— 
but everything is late this year. . . . 
I have bought some seed of Cowhorn 
turnips and shall sow them in the corn 
—mixed with Crimson clover. I think 
this is a fair experiment to make, 
though no one should expect extrava¬ 
gant results from turnips. . . . The 
“Clark” grass has finally been cut, and 
we were all surprised at the outcome. 
We have no platform scales, so I cannot 
give the exact yield, but it was the 
heaviest grass we have yet cut on the 
field. One strip of nearly half an acre 
cut, I am sure, nearly ton. The 
whole field was a great surprise. 'The 
grass was so short that it did not seem 
possible to get the weight. It was so 
thick, though, that the bulk and weight 
appeared. After Charlie cut it the field 
lay so thick with grass that he went 
right out and borrowed a tedder. No 
one could cure such grass ais that with¬ 
out a big shaking up. That experience 
gave us an idea of the value of a tedder 
that we never had before. ... It 
was a shame to see that beautiful grass 
lying knee deep on the field and a black 
cloud mustering its army in the north¬ 
west. We were three days getting that 
hay under cover. The morning would 
dawn clear with good sun. All hands 
would shake the hay out and watch it 
like hawks. Three times the wagon got 
to the field, to be driven back to the 
barn by a furious and sudden burst of 
rain and hail, which soaked the hay, 
fiattened the corn and knocked the 
precious apples from the trees. Then 
the sun would dart out again and the 
hay would stew away through the 
afternoon and night. The boys stayed 
by it as best they could and finally got 
it to the barn. I’he color has been 
bleached out of it, but the stock will 
eat it. The oat hay was so badly stewed 
that we will feed it out at once. I usu¬ 
ally keep it for March feeding. . . . 
The sowed corn has come up well. In 
14 days after sowing the first lot the 
plants were five inches high. Under 
ordinary circumstances I call lit bad 
farming to sow corn broadcast. It 
should be drilled and cultivated by 
rights. This is not an ordinary season 
by any means, and we are forced to 
resort to makeshifts. As it looks now 
I think that sowed corn will give us as 
much and as good fodder as millet, 
sorghum or drilled corn. 
Have a Cigar? —The Hope Farm 
man has spent some time of late pon¬ 
dering over what may seem to many a 
stmnge problem. A man who lis hard 
of hearing has usually a soft job at 
finding themes for refiection! Strange 
things sometimes creep into the mind 
of a deaf man, and the discussiion is 
narrowed down to the personal point 
of view. I have been, for some time 
past, turning this question over in 
miind: 
“Shall I begin to smoke tobacco?” 
Some of my good friends will start 
up in great indignation and say there 
isn’t any possible chance for a debate 
on such a question. I have seen so 
many sides of human life, and so many 
unfortunate results of a refusal to rea¬ 
son out the truth of such matters, that 
I believe in giving all sides a hearing. 
But what can be said in favor of the 
filthy habit of smoking? It does not 
seem to be regarded as filthy by those 
who practice it. Why, some men are 
even led to chew tobacco without under¬ 
standing how perfectly disgusting that 
is to others! 
A skilled doctor goes so far as to tell 
me that the use of tobacco would help 
my nose, throat and ears. He gives 
what seem to me sound reasons for 
this, and points out a minister of the 
Gospel who was helped in this way by 
moderate smoking. I know, however, 
that anything like excessive use of to¬ 
bacco interferes with the action of the 
heart, and thus stimulates a craving for 
liquor. ’There can be no doubt that the 
cigar or pipe is a good social friend. 
Sometimes as I sit alone, after a long 
days’ work, busy with problems that 
will not go to sleep with the sun, I must 
confess that I envy the man with the 
cigar, for his care seems to puff away 
with the tobacco smoke. It seems as 
though tobacco in moderate quantities 
is the special friend of the deaf man. 
Yet, here I have, all my life, protested 
against its use. I have seen its ill ef¬ 
fects. I know that its tendency is to 
make a man selfish, lazy and slow. I 
would not have my children touch it 
The breath and the clothes of the to¬ 
bacco man are offensive—there can be 
no getting around these things. I know 
them well. Would it not be a clear case 
of moral backdown if now, at middle 
age, I turn tail and use the stuff which 
I have always denounced, and with 
sound arguments? As an end lo my 
mental debate there usually arises be¬ 
fore my mind a picture of the Madame 
as I first saw her—a girl of 19 years! I 
made a promise concerning tobacco then 
that has not yet been broken. Gray 
hairs and wrinkles have accumulated 
since then, and so has her objection to 
tobacco. 
Will I have a cigar? 
No, thank you, gentlemen—your to¬ 
bacco is good to spray on trees or to put 
in a hen’s nest, and you may think you 
get some comfort out of It—but I don’t 
care for any! n. w, c. 
Delaware Notes.— The Crimson clover 
thrashing is about over; the hot dry 
weather has been splendid for bright, 
clean seed. Crop not much above aver¬ 
age, as many farmers now seed it with 
wheat in September and cut both for hay. 
The former practice was to seed it with 
rye, but the rye matured too early for the 
clover, while wheat is Just right. The 
talk of the hay balling in horses is all 
bosh, as far as my experience goes; and 
I have fed good horses on it once and 
twice a day for months. It should not be 
used exclusively. One or two feeds a day 
should be something different. Wheat is 
a good crop, and roller-process mills are 
multiplying. Spring oats are injured by 
the drought; so are potatoes. Corn is 
clean and in good shape for growing, 
now that the rains have come. We are 
having our first rain for three weeks— 
gardens and truck patches looked pitiful 
after the extremely hot weather of last 
week. Cow peas just up on sandy land 
were killed by the heat. One farmer will 
lose 18 bushels of sowing. J. c. b. 
Sussex Co., Del. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
In every town 
and village 
may be had, 
the 
that makes your 
horses glad. 
SPECIAL PRICES 
Trial. Guaranteed. QomU 
and Oombination Beam. 
_ OSGOOD lOS GutralSL 
OatalocFre*. Wrltel^w, BINGHAMTON.N.Y. 
“ Neighbor tell me how it Is that you have money 
In the bank and still seem to have everything you 
want?” Well, lor an Illustration, there’s that scale 
1 bought of Jones ot Binghamton, N. V., you bought 
a scale of-at about the same time. I sent 
my money with the order, saved about $10, and J ones 
he pays the freight.” 
IMPERIAL PULVERIZER, CLOD 
8IC2a> FOB 
CIECXTLAKB. 
The Peterson Mfg. Go., 
CRUSHER & 
ROLLER. 
Leads Them 
All. 
KENT, 
OHIO. 
CLARK’S 
DISK 
GANG 
PLOW 
•lizes 2 to 8 feet wide or more for horse or steam 
power. TKA8U CUTTER, perfect turner, light 
draft, strong, durable and cheap. Made Only by 
IHE CUTAWAY HARROW CO., Higganum, Ct. 
Send for Circulars. 
Hench & Dromgold^s 
GRAIN 
..e FERTILIZER Urill 
Positively the neatest, lightest, and stroncest sruln 
drill on the 
market. Many 
I>oints of 
Buperlorltyj 
it is geared 
f>am centre. 
Quantity of 
grainand fer* 
tllizer can bo 
changed i 
while in op¬ 
eration with¬ 
out the use of 
gear wheels. 
Accurate in quantity, A 
trial will convince. Agents 
wanted. Send for Catafogue F 
HEMCH A DROMGOLD. Hfrs.. York, Pi. 
FULLY 
GUARANTEED 
HORSE POWERS 
Threshing Machines. Wood Saw Machines. 
GET THE BEST. Horse Powers for one, 
, or three horses, for running Wood Saws, 
Threshing Machines, Ensilage Cut- 
All who are interested In 
iorse Powers, 
Wood Snws,or 
Threshing 
Machines 
are invited 
to write for 
fifty - page 
pamphlet. 
_ _ It’s Free. 
A. W. CR AY'S SONS, P»t. and Sole Mr.-.. 
P. O. Box SO, Middletown Springs, Vt. 
THE WHEEL OF TIME 
k for all time is the 
Metal Wheel. 
make them In all sizes and vari¬ 
eties, 10 FIT AN V axle. Any 
height, any width of tire desired. 
IJour wheels are either direct or 
•’stagger spoke. Can FIT YOUK 
WAGON p«rfMtly wlthont chug.. 
MO BREAKING DOWN. 
■No dryiag oot. No raHttlng Urea Cheap 
he«an»« they endure. Send for est*. 
ioevo ud pricu. Ftm npon roqnut. 
Electric Wheel Co. 
WHEELS 
-•FARM WAGONS 
any size wanted, any width of 
tire. Hubs to lit any axle. 
No blackHiiiitli’a bills to pay. 
No tires to reset. Fityonr old wagon 
with low steel wheels with wide 
tires at low price. Oar catalogue 
tells you how to do it. Addresa 
EMPIRE MFG. CO., Quincy, III. 
