1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
567 
//opeJarmNotes 
Questions have been coming in at a 
great rate. 
How did you come out selling wind¬ 
fall apples? 
Here are the returns for a sample 
shipment of four barrels: 
3 barrels @ $2. 
. $6.00 
1 barrel @ ?1.50. 
Total . 
$7.50 
Commission . 
.75 
Freight . 
.64 
Cartage . 
$1.79 
Total . 
$5.71 
Three were large sugar barrels. On an 
average the regular-sized barrels have 
sold at $1.50—netting us $1.09, which 
we certainly consider a double windfall 
under the circumstances. 
Did you pick them up just as they 
came? 
No, indeed; we sent only the best. 
The small or badly bruised apples we 
left for the hogs. 
Would it not pay to send the smaller 
ones? 
No, there were many barrels of such 
trash on the market which could hardly 
be given away. I cannot see what farm¬ 
ers are thinking of to send such worth¬ 
less stuff. 
What proportion of the apples fell? 
At least one-half. The wormy ones 
gave up their grip first, and the storms 
blew others. The old trees are headed 
too high. 
What difference does that make? 
As they sway in the wind the branches 
switch hard and throw down more fruit. 
The apples have farther to fall and are 
damaged more. I shall head my young 
trees down low. 
How about the hand-picked fruit? 
We do not ship them to New York, 
but sell them to men who pack in bas¬ 
kets and peddle In the nearby towns. 
Why do you not peddle them your¬ 
self? 
The fact is that we have more work 
on the farm than can properly be done. 
We cannot spare man and horse. The 
little boys have tried it with fair suc¬ 
cess, but peddlers are like poets in one 
respect—they are not made of common 
clay. The boys went out with apples 
to sell and came back reporting that 
“Everybody wants to seZ/ apples!” A 
born peddler would have avoided such 
folks and found others who wanted to 
buy. 
But what about the advice we hear 
so much of urging farmers to peddle 
more? 
Like all other advice, it is not for gen¬ 
eral application. The man of average 
size and shape will look fairly well in 
a readymade suit of clothes. Take a 
man with three extra inches on his leg, 
or a well developed alderman’s badge, 
and he must have his clothes made to 
order, or wear those designed for a 
larger man. There are some cases 
where it seems to pay to peddle farm 
produce, but as we are situated I doubt 
the wisdom of it. 
You speak of work done by the chil¬ 
dren—is that a joke? 
No. I claim that a child should be 
expected to do some useful work every 
day. Our children have regular jobs, 
and I make it a part of my business to 
see that they are done. It is a shame 
to overwork a child or to make him 
think that he must toil and slave sim¬ 
ply because he is living. At the same 
time I know that the. habit of useful 
labor is one of the most needful, com¬ 
forting and ennobling things that have 
to do with human life. The child who 
grows up with a love for apples will 
drink mighty little liquor, and the child 
who works from habit will keep out of 
much mischief. 
Lo you mean to say that your chil¬ 
dren love to work? 
No; they are as much inclined to shirk 
as other children, but I hope to show 
them that the desirable things of this 
life are to be obtained only through 
work, and that nothing but labor will 
give health to brain, heart or muscle. 
Not one of our children can expect to 
have any great help financially. They 
will have to understand from the first 
that Hope Farm is not a breeding place 
for rich people, and that all I ever can 
or will give them is opportunity, ambi¬ 
tion and good habits. If I were to be¬ 
come suddenly rich I would not let my 
family know of it if the knowledge could 
be honestly kept from them. 
Is not that a ridiculous statement? 
Some people may consider it so, but 
it is my conviction that few things do 
more to dull true ambition and biunt 
honest self-reliance than the idea of a 
young man that money “comes easy.” 
On the other hand, when a man has 
fought his way unaided through poverty 
and hardship, and has made himself 
comfortable, I believe the sweat on his 
honest dollars makes him a beitter citi¬ 
zen all around. 
What have you to say about the sec- 
Dnd-crop grass? 
It appears now that we are to have a 
good second crop on both the fields 
where we tried the “Clark” plan. On 
one field we used muriate of potash and 
nitrate of soda after mowing, and this 
has started a heavy growth. The older 
meadows are full of wild carrot. 
Do you mean to say that you let weeds 
grow at Hope Farm? 
Yes, though we gain on them some¬ 
what each year. That is one thing in 
favor of the “Clark” method of seeding. 
Where we tried that last year hardly a 
plant of wild carrot appeared after mow¬ 
ing, while on the adjoining old meadows 
the fields were white by August 1. We 
clip them off with the mower and rake 
and burn, but I have never been able to 
get rid of this weed without plowing up 
the sod and giving thorough cultivation. 
We are alive with weeds this year—if 
has been impossible to work in some of 
the crops. 
Is it still wet? 
There is more or less rain nearly every 
day. 'Some days we think we can go 
through with a clear record when, lai.5 
in the afternoon, almost without warn¬ 
ing, a cloud will suddenly form and turn 
the hose on us. Then, when the farm is 
as wet as a ducked hen, the sun v/ili 
come smiling out and fairly parboil all 
hands. This sort of thing just suits the 
weeds so that the corn and the old mea¬ 
dows are alive with them. The potatoes 
are quite clean. They are on last year’s 
corn ground where the crop was hoed 
and weeded with great care, and the 
children went through and pulled all 
the little weeds out of the hills. Un¬ 
derstand, though, that we hope to kill 
most of these weeds by September, but 
it will be a big job. 
How does your water system work? 
Well. One hydrant at the barn was 
clogged for a time, but otherwise there 
has been a full supply. We use all told 
about 300 gallons of water each day, be¬ 
sides what the cows get at the spring. 
In a very dry season we could dispose 
of 500 gallons easily. Think what that 
would mean if it all had to be pumped 
through a leaky old pump or lifted in a 
bucket and carried 10 rods to house or 
barn! Our windmill has kept us weii 
supplied with water, except three times 
when we emptied the tank to clean or 
make repairs. As for irrigating witn 
tank and windmili power, I do not be¬ 
lieve it is practical. 
What do you feed your hogs now? 
The sows get cabbage and apples, with 
a small feed of wheat middlings and 
corn. The young stock get more grain 
and all the green stuff they will eat. 
Five young sows run with the chickens 
in a large yard. They eat weeds and 
apples, and pick up cracked corn. The 
children pick up large quantities of 
sweet apples—which are excellent for 
hog food. A boy will work hard at 
handling apples or other objects which 
remind him of a baseball, when pulling" 
weeds with half the force will make his. 
head ache. 
You speak of idle land which could 
not be worked on account of wet wea¬ 
ther. What will you do with it? 
Part will be set in apple trees—prob¬ 
ably this Fall. The rest will be seeded 
to wheat or rye with grass. There is 
now a heavy growth of foul grass and 
weeds on this land. This will be clipped 
off, raked and burned—early in August. 
Then the ground will be plowed and the 
stones will be picked. Up to the mid¬ 
dle of September we shall probably sow 
wheat—after that rye. I hope to have 
a large acreage in grain this Fall. 
Why? 
I missed it seriously last year by hav¬ 
ing too much open land. Had I sown 
grain on all land under crops last year 
I would have had no idle fields this 
Spring. I could have let the grain ma¬ 
ture. In any event I feel sure that such 
soil as ours dries quicker in the Spring, 
and may be worked earlier when there 
is a living crop on it. It stands to rea¬ 
son that the millions of little plants will 
help drain and pump the soil dry. 
Therefore there is every reason for try¬ 
ing to keep soil covered during the Win¬ 
ter with a living crop. Sometimes we 
cannot do this as we would like, for 
there are potatoes to dig, corn to cut 
and other work for September, which 
will not leave the team free for plowing. 
August is often a good month for such 
work. On light land, free from stones, 
the disk or Cutaway harrows can often 
be used in fitting land for small grain, 
but on our tough stony soil the plow 
must be used. Some farmers advocate 
seeding rye, wheat and even grass in 
the standing corn. By reason of the wet 
season our corn is too weedy this year 
to attempt that, and it is also too rough 
since we have been obliged to hill up 
more or less. 
You spoke of having a hoi-se with the 
colic. What did you do for him? 
It was big Frank, who ate too many 
apples. It was not a bad attack and 
Charlie took him in time with a dose 
of cooking soda in water. We now have 
a case of homeopathic veterinary reme¬ 
dies which we find very useful, 'i'hey 
are given through a crooked glass tube 
easily and quickly. ii. w. c. 
The Manager’s Shake. —In regard to 
the question on page 533, I would say 
that when the orchardist is a thorough¬ 
ly practical and profes-sional horticul¬ 
turist, and takes comp'cte charge of the 
plant, we have usually rated his services 
as nearly equal to (the capital invested 
in the business. As your question cov¬ 
ers only the first five years of the or¬ 
chard’s life of course a different ratio 
should be laid down; possibly the one 
side furnishing about two-thirds or 
three-fourths of the capital and the part¬ 
ner doing professional work and fur¬ 
nishing remaining capital. It is a hai*d 
question to give a very definite answer, 
and conditions are so different in dif¬ 
ferent localities, but the above is about 
what in our experience we have found 
the two parts of the business relatively 
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