1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
727 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Kitxtno Boreks.—H ere is a letter 
like many others which have come 
lately: 
A man from the South has just been 
here, and wants to treat my young (two- 
year-old) peach orchard for borers. He 
puts some preparation around them that 
forms a gas, which kills the borers, he 
says. He charges three cents apiece. Shall 
I let him tcork me? w. P. 
At Hope Farm we would let this “man 
from the South” burn his mouth with 
hot words before we would let him 
work us by playing with the peach trees. 
I don’t know him, and don’t wish to do 
him any injury, but I don’t believe in 
any such theory of killing peach borers. 
Why not—do you pretend to know it 
all? 
No; I know very little about it. I’m a 
beginner in actual peach culture. That 
is why I’m taking advice about borers 
only from those who are in a position 
to know what they are talking about. 
Entomologists who have spent years in 
studying the life history of the borer, 
and men who own thousands of peach 
trees, have no faith in such “gas” reme¬ 
dies. If such men can’t manufacture 
faith out of their experience you can 
hardly expect me to. 
Mr. Van Deman tells me that once at 
a fruit meeting out West a man came 
up with one of these Peach borer cures. 
He hung on so that finally a committee 
was appointed with our friend Van at 
its head to bore into the wonderful 
remedy. The borer-killer led them out 
into an orchard some distance away, 
found a borer’s hole and painted it over 
with some stuff he had in a botfle. 
“There,” he said, “that borer will die 
in half an hour!” 
Our good friend Van couldn’t see any 
advantage in waiting that length of 
time. He took out his knife, dug the 
borer out of his hole, and stamped the 
life out of him. 
“There!” he said, “he’s dead now'.” 
At the South and in California washes 
of various kinds seem to be effective 
against the borer, but at the North I 
think the old-fashioned digging-out 
plan is best. 
Faith ok Obstinacy. —So you be¬ 
lieve in going to headquarters after in¬ 
formation, do you? 
I think I see what you are getting at, 
but I will say yes—at least I ought to. 
Did the best peach growers you know 
advise you to set out those Stringfel- 
low peach trees? 
No, every one of them said that the 
trees would fail—one good man said I 
was crazy to do it. Another—probably 
the best authority in the country—said 
I would only encourage laziness, and 
cause hundreds to lose money and swear 
every time my name was mentioned. 
Ha! Ha! Take your own words about 
the borer! How came you to have faith 
when these masters had none? 
I didn’t pretend to have faith—it was 
just obstinacy and nothing else. Mr. 
Stringfellow’s arguments seemed plau¬ 
sible to me, though, judged by what 
most fruit growers believe at the pres¬ 
ent time, they were all wrong. I know, 
however, that some of these very scient¬ 
ists and practical men have, before now, 
whipped right around when they ran to 
the end of their theory, and started off 
on a new track. I observed also that 
not one of them had ever carried out 
the exact plan urged by Mr. Stringfel- 
iow. They said it would fail because 
their system of planting big trees with 
big roots in big holes and giving them 
high culture had proved a great suc¬ 
cess. It struck me that Nature ought to 
1)6 asked to apply a sort of Babcock test 
to such an argument as that, so I plant¬ 
ed the trees just exactly as Mr. String- 
fellow suggested. If a man pin himself 
to faith in what others have done, he 
has a right to growl and play football 
For th.e land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
with the advice he received if results 
are bad. If a man is willing to foot tiie 
bills, to be silent if he lose it all, and to 
keep still until ihere is something to 
say, don’t you think he has a right to 
be obstinate and ask Nature to check 
off man’s advice? Some great results 
in the world’s history have been 
brought about by obstinacy—yes, and 
some have been held back for years also. 
Faith may remove mountains, but ob¬ 
stinacy will hold them down! 
Shredding Dry Fodder.— A man 
might write half of a large book in re¬ 
ply to the following questions: 
What make of fodder shredders do you 
use at Hope Farm? You spoke of your 
horses eating the fodder so readily. I have 
had some shredded on different occasions 
with an old cylinder, and stock wa.stc<i 
more than they ate, both horses and cattle. 
However, my live stock lives well, always 
fat, and I thought that had something to 
do w’ith it. If I can get a machine to pre¬ 
pare fodder that the stock will eat readily, 
it will be business for me to purchase one, 
if the expense is not too great. I have a 
nice little dairy business here and keep 
about 30 cattle and six horses on 100 acres 
of very hilly land, and buy no coarse feed. 
I must raise wheat and corn for the land¬ 
lord, as I am only a renter. We have had 
as much as 1,800 bushels of corn in one 
year. b. r. b. 
Franklin Co., Pa. 
We use a Leslie or St. Albaus shred¬ 
der. The cylinder in this machine is 
adjustable—the shredding being done 
by 24 sharp, slender knives. The Bliz¬ 
zard is well spoken of, though 1 have 
not tried it. Our machine is a large 
one, requiring strong power. We hire a 
portable steam engine and shred enough 
for six to eight weeks at a time. The 
stalks are smashed, split and crushed. 
'I'he horses leave tne pith and some of 
the butts, but eat the lighter parts of 
me stalks clean. At one time we used 
waste molasses on the stalks, and 
thought it tempted the horses to eat 
more of them. The refuse makes excel¬ 
lent bedding. Of course it must be un¬ 
derstood that this shredder will not put 
value into the stalks if they have been 
ruined in the field. It might pay to run 
moldy and leached stalks through the 
shredder and put them on the manure 
pile, but to make good horse or cow 
feed the stalks must be bright and well 
dried. We expect to husk our corn early 
in November, and get the stalks under 
cover as soon afterward as possible. 
Fodder and Feed. —‘Shredding corn 
fodder is a necessity with us for, with¬ 
out any silo we could not otherwise feed 
our stock economically. I intend to sell 
hay, which as we are situated, is, I be¬ 
lieve good practice. I have explained 
why we have no silo. I do not intend 
to do much with cows, but our stock is 
chiefiy hens, hogs and horses. For this 
class of stock, it is my conviction that 
the grain crib and the hay mow are bet¬ 
ter than the silo. In other words, I 
think it pays us better to husk and 
shred. If, like our Pennsylvania friend, 
I had 30 cows, I would certainly put part 
of my corn in the silo, for silage is the 
best expanded milk one can use in a 
hilly country. D. 0. Lewis grows corn 
and keeps cows. Part of the corn is left 
with five stalks to the hill, and part 
with only three. The five-stalk hills 
are cut for the silo, the others are left 
for grain. If I had a large herd of cows 
I would operate that way. Perhaps our 
friend is under contract to raise dry 
corn for the landlord. I believe that 
can be done and have silage too. We 
have already begun to feed stalks to the 
horses. They have the sowed fodder 
and sweet cornstalks once a day. This 
will last until nearly the middle of No¬ 
vember or later. We shall begin to 
shred about December 1, and from then 
until March 1 little else but shredded 
fodder will be given. Why not cut the 
dry stalks after husking into the silo 
and wet them? I have never been able 
to find anyone who was willing to do 
that twice. 
Weather Notes. —On October 15 the 
Gannas by the house were still in bloom. 
We were still eating sweet corn from 
the garden on the lower part of the 
farm. On the high hill the Evergreen 
sweet corn was in tassel, but it is too 
small to amount to anything. One can 
stand on our hill and look down into 
the valley, wnere the early frost has 
nipped and colored the leaves, while on 
the heights the leaves are still fresh and 
green. We have had a good i'all for 
farm work. The weather has been 
bright and clear most of the time, and 
Jack Frost has been so busy elsewhere 
that our late crops have had a fine 
chance for their lives. The Fall-sown 
wheat and grass have started well, and 
if the weather will continue favorable 
we shall have our work well done in 
time. Where one raises hay in the 
cornfield as we do, bright weather 
makes quite a difference between profit 
and loss. 
Potato Failure. —There isn’t any 
difference between profit and loss in the 
potato field, for there isn’t any profit at 
all. We shall have to value our “ex¬ 
perience” at a price heavy enough to 
sink it out of sight in order to come out 
even. Thus far we are not getting quite 
enough to pay for seed and fertilizer! 
That is the plain truth. I put no lace 
or frills on it, because that would be 
like putting filigree work on a skeleton 
—making it all the more ghastly. I can¬ 
not tell just how it happened, for we 
never used greater care in planting, and 
the seed was good. It cannot be be¬ 
cause we used our own seed, for seed 
from Florida and seed from Maine gave 
a crop so poor that they are not worth 
digging. We did our best, but that 
“best” is hardly good enough to go on 
the books. Nature gave us fine tops, 
but left the tubers out. We had a 
chance to show these tops off and make 
visitors envious all through the Sum¬ 
mer, but as we get below ground we 
realize that fine tops pay no taxes. We 
have plenty of company this year, but 
that doesn’t take the sting out of a 
failure. 
LIME FERTILIZER. 
Special preparation gtrina splendid satisfaction. 
Correspondence solicited THE SNOW FLAKE 
LI .ME CO., Bowling Oreen, Ohio. 
In the old days, under old methods of feeding 
it used to takes years to produceabeef. Improved 
methods, ground feed, etc., now do it in one 
year. “Baby Beef” has come to stay. Better buy a 
^lENTIFlC 6RINDER 
and get ready to make your 
share of It. They crush and 
grind ear corn shucks on or off 
and all kinds of small grain, 
separate or mixed. Send for 
' catalogue R Mailed free. 
FOOS MANFC. CO. 
Springfield, O. 
[A- 
N - 
CRE OF CORN 
and Its possibilities tinder the Sllnge 
1 8Vstem—’ eirg the theme of 
"A BOOK ON SILAGE^' 
I By Prof. F. W. WDLL . . 
I * of the University o£ Wisconsin. Keviseiinnd tui-to-d.ste, nest- 
ly bound Into a volume of 4i!4 pn-cs. Iteinbrtices fullinform- 
ation from planting to feeding the crop, and includes working 
I plansandapecificatlonsforbuildingallsiloa. Also embraces: 
I—SilaeeCrops. II—Silos. 
Ill—Silage. IV—Feeding of SiUge- 
V—Comparison of Silage and other Feeds. 
• VI—The Silo in Modern Agriculture, 
I And illustrations and complete plans for round and 
■ rectangular silos, dairy barns, tables of com- — 
pounded rations, etc. M ailed for 10c. 
coin or atampa. 
SILVER MFC. CO. 
Salem, Ohio. 
G®* 
W ofY. 
all the Good 
of Your Corn Crop 
by grinding cob andall with 
the easiest running, largest A \ 
capacity mill matle. The - r . 
NewHollandiT 
Cob and Feed Mill ^ 
especially adapted for wind 
mills and other light power. 
Onid nn Triol Send it back if S Sizes. 
Oulu Un I rial. It does not do better work than 
others costing twlco as much. Catulogue Free. 
New Holland Machine Works, Box 115, New Holland, Pa. 
Good Stock. —Hope Farm life is full 
of hill and valley. One thing that we 
depend on fails, and another that seem¬ 
ed of little account turns out better 
than we expected. Blossom, our oldest 
heifer, has dropped her first calf. She 
is the first of the Hope Farm heifers to 
begin milking. She looked so rough 
and beefy that I became quite disgust¬ 
ed with ner, and was minded to put her 
down as a robber cow before she bad a 
cnance to prove her honesty. To my 
surprise the actual business of liie finds 
her a smooth, well-rounded cow that 
bids fair to equal her mother. I now 
think it likely that her big neck and 
thick loin will, in time, pass down into 
the milking pail, and leave her pretty 
near to the true dairy type. Why, this 
heifer’s unexpected value will make up 
for a good many of those potatoes we 
didn’t raise! . . . And the colt 
promises to make up for a good many 
more! She’s a beauty! Charlie has her 
now so that she will lead anywhere. He 
can call her up and put her halter on 
out in the pasture. There are possibili¬ 
ties in that colt, but it will take a wise 
and gentle man to bring them out. One 
man might yell at her, jerk her bridle, 
and give her a kick now and then, and 
at three years old few could be found 
to pay $50 for her. Another might coax 
and pet her, and keep her so true and 
hopeful that at three years she will 
leadily sell for $400. Nature knows her 
business. She puts man in charge of 
thousands of natural forces, and pays 
him a premium for patience and skill. 
Yes, and she puts other forces over him, 
which he cannot measure or explain, so 
that he may trust and hope and work 
bravely on. h. w. c. 
You can hurry 
all kinds of feed cutting by the 
use of our 
Hey stone 7ony^' 
GUTTER. 
Two knives, double eecentrics, fast feed, and cuts a 
lot of lengths from K In. up, 
turns easy, high si)eed, guar¬ 
anteed satisfactory all round, 
ideal for the small stockman 
and dairyman. Saves Itseost in 
saving of feed the first winter. 
Send for Illustrated catalog 
and prices. 
KEYSTONE FARM MACHINE CO., 
1547 N. Beaver St., YORK, PA. 
STEVENS 
Anti-frvnioc, driaMtree, # ototrat’e 
j a»ilng,8eT£-Vtian)«A'' 
gears, 
liar d. Sweep, and Pov-er £ar3i 
mills, for ail purp'^iea Wti# 
grind ail grain to any degree o£ 
fiuuness. Thoosands in dally 
use everywhere. Send for fre* 
catalogue C. Agents wmted. 
STEVFN^ MKO. <'0., 
Fibber ilidg.y Chicago,111. 
GATTLEmdHOGS 
and all live stock produce bi tter 
results if fed ground feed The 
small pig and the dairy cow need 
it especially. The best way 
to prepare ground 
feed is with the 
Kelly Duplex 
Crlndlni; Mill 
It grinds anything—car 
cob. husk and all, 
cotton seed and all small 
grains, single or mixed. 
Grinds eonrse.medium or 
One. Takes little power. 
Grinds fast. Send for our free catalogue. 
THE 0. S. KELLY MF(i. CO., Dept. M Iowa City, iowa. 
or The O. 8. Kelly Co., SgrIiigHehl, Uhlo. 
N HAS TO SAY. 
Arizona, Apr. 10th, 1900. 
Dr. r. J. Kendall Co., Gentlemen:—I have the honor to inform 
you lhatyonr Kendall’s Spavin cure is the beet llnhnent, I believe, 
Jn the world. 1 have been a Farrier In the United States Army for 
14 ye.srs, and have never used anything toeiiual it. 1 h^ a horse 
wii hip iomt lameness, a spavin, awelled glands .nd shoulder 
lameness. I used two bottles of yonr Spavin 
sound and well. Yours respectfully, SILAS JOHNSON, Farrier. 
Kfnpmls Spavin Cmi 
There is no use taking chances on a lump. You 
can never teU what it may develop. If you have a 
supply of “Kendall’s” on hand you are safe from 
Spavin, Ringbone, Splints, Curb and all forms 
of Lameness. The U. S. Army knows good things 
and buys only the best. 
On sale at all <lrufrgists. Price SI; 
six bottles for S5* TJnequaled lini¬ 
ment for family use. Book “A 
Treatise on the Horse,” mailed 
free. Address 
DR. B. J. KENDALL CO. 
Enosburg Falls, Vt. 
