1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
839 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Strawbkkries. —^Thanksgiving came 
with a cold snap on her teeth. The mer¬ 
cury went down to 12 degrees at one 
time, and the ground froze over four 
inches deep on the lower part of the 
farm. On the hills there was merely a 
thin crust. This was much earlier than 
we looked for severe weather. Our 
weakest defence against Jack Frost is at 
the barn, where the water pipe enters 
from the pump. This was well banked 
and so nothing suffered but some young 
roosters that ran out of their coop and 
would not go back. The firm, solid 
crust on the ground decided me to mulch 
the strawberries at once. Usually we 
do not put the mulch on until just be¬ 
fore Christmas, but this year we will 
try it a month earlier. The plants are 
so large and fine that we feel like taking 
every precaution to carry them through 
the Winter well. We use our coarsest 
manure for this work. This contains 
the long cornstalks which have been 
fed while waiting for the shredder. We 
put a thick, heavy mat over the rows. 
. . . The strawberry plants which 
were set between the cabbage plants in 
August have made a good growth with¬ 
out sending many runners. They ought 
to produce a small crop next year. They 
have been well mulched. We plan to 
work up the soil between the rows next 
Spring and sow two rows of onions be¬ 
tween each two rows of strawberry 
plants. . . . After a few days of se¬ 
vere cold the weather moderated, and 
drove Jack Frost out of the ground ex¬ 
cept on the north side of the house and 
under the mulch. That was one reason 
why I wanted the strawberries covered. 
It seemed too early for settled cold 
weather, and every freeze and thaw 
means bad business for the strawberry 
roots. I propose to imprison Jack Frost 
under that mulch from now until next 
April if I can. He won’t teach the roots 
any bad habits, and if I can’t keep him 
I \vill make it so hard for him to get 
away that he won’t have any force left 
to pull the roots out with him. I now 
believe that the settle and heave of 
early Winter are as bad as tl e thaw and 
freeze of Spring. Therefore mulch at 
the first hard freeze! 
Farm Notes. —We are also putting a 
light mulch of coarse manure around 
all the little trees. Those that were set 
this Fall come first in this treatment. 
Unlike the strawberries the little trees 
are mulched while the frost is out of 
the ground. We do not want to hold the 
frost around their roots, but to hold it 
out as long as we can, so that the little 
tree may have as long as possible to es¬ 
tablish itself. The peach orchard is on 
light land near the top of a high ridge. 
With this manure mulch I think the 
trees will be wriggling their toes long 
after the soil in the valley has closed 
round the tree roots like a shoe one size 
too small! . . . For the first time 
in the history of Hope Farm we have 
all the celery we can eat. I feel rather 
ashamed to say that in former years our 
celery crop never got into our mouths 
except in the Spring when we told what 
great things would be done with it this 
year. This year Philip took it in hand 
and staid by it through wet and dry. 
As a result we have a comfortable lot 
packed away for the Winter. One field 
at the lower part of the farm seems well 
suited to such crops as onions and cel¬ 
ery, and I feel tempted to let Philip try 
his hand on a larger scale with these 
crops next year. . . . The boys have 
begun work on the new house. What 
house is that? A little cottage that we 
expect to build at Hope Farm this Win¬ 
ter. Charlie and Aunt Emma are to oc¬ 
cupy it. It is a small house, but will 
be neat and cosy for a small family. 
This will give us a good Winter’s job. 
We dig the cellar with our own labor. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
and haul stones from the old walls for 
the foundation. ’Phe mason does his 
work on contract. I shall buy the lum¬ 
ber and hire two good carpenters by the 
day. They with Charlie and Philip will 
put the house together. Hugh expects 
to take the short course at Cornell this 
Winter and learn how to study a tree. 
Feed Notes.— 1 decided to exchange 
the rye straw for bran and whole wheat. 
I think these give us the best bargain at 
present. The wheat is for chicken feed. 
The dried brewer’s grains have been 
quite satisfactory for horses, hens and 
hogs, buit the cows do not like them. In 
fact they refused to eat them unless 
mixed with bran or cornmeal. They 
fell off in milk when fed the grains 
alone, but when bran was added the 
whole ration was eaten and the milk 
increased. The brood sows eat the 
grains well. We use them in preparing 
a mash for the hens. One trouble with 
all these by-products is the fact that 
they are not uniform. I think they vary 
considerably in analysis. One great ad¬ 
vantage in buying whole grains is that 
you know for sure what you have. I 
have been asked why we do not have 
our corn ground cob and all. In spite 
of what the chemists say I have never 
considered that the cob contains any 
great amount of available food. Young 
and thrifty horses will get about all 
there is to be heard from in the ear by 
gnawing it off the cob. Vigorous sows 
will do the same. I would rather let a 
sow gnaw the grain and then burn the 
cob and feed her the ashes than to grind 
both together into a coarse meal. It 
might be different with fattening ani¬ 
mals, but we plan to sell ours for some 
one else to fatten. 
Chemson Clover. —The following note 
from J. H. Hale is worth thinking over: 
1 have about 100 acres of Crimson clover 
here in Connecticut that nas made a great 
growth this Fall, and looks fine now; don't 
care whether it winterkills or not. I want 
to plow the land early in the Spring, any¬ 
way. and if the clover lives through there 
is an awful temptation to let it grow 
awhile and pump the moisture out of the 
soil. In my nursery work I find I can 
grow more and better small fruit plants 
or better trees after a heavy crop of cow 
peas than any other fertilizer I have ever 
used, and if any of my strawberry propa¬ 
gating beds happen to be left over for 
fruiting 1 find the cow-pea fields retain 
moisture much longer than fields that have 
not had the peas. This applies particu¬ 
larly to sandy loam soil. 
I know how hard it is to plow the lit¬ 
tle clover under when the plowing ought 
to be done. It looks so thrifty and 
green, and grows so fast that it seems 
a shame to put it under. You pull up a 
plant and see the nodules on the roots, 
and get to figuring how many bags of 
nitrogen it is sucking out of the air— 
and the result is you let it go too long. 
From this year’s experience I feel sure 
that it pays to sow rape or Cow-horn 
turnips with the clover. These crops 
are still alive with us, and have made a 
tremendous growth. I expect they will 
be well rotted by Spring, and that they 
will protect the clover. Mr. Hale knows 
far more about cow peas than I do. 
Much of my first information came from 
him. My experience goes to show that 
what he says about cow peas and fertil¬ 
ity is sound as a trumpet. 
Spring Experiments. —Another Con¬ 
necticut man who knows his business 
sends these suggestions: 
When you .sow oats next Spring try a 
little patch with the stable manure, har¬ 
rowed In on top with the oats and grass 
seed, and when you plant your potatoes 
try a good handful of fertilizer on top of 
hill after planting. I got 200 bushels of 
sale potatoes this year from $25 worth of 
fertilizer, and think there is enough left 
in the soil to give me a crop of rye, and 
this in a locality where the potato crop 
was so poor that some of my neighbors 
didn’t dig. I have a couple of acres of 
grass seed sown as advised by Geo. M. 
Clark. One acre I put on stable manure, 
and on the other acre $20 worth of com¬ 
mercial fertilizer. As it is all in one piece 
and about as level a a house floor, I hope 
to learn something, and if I do will report. 
I do not expect to sow any oats next 
Spring—as I feel quite sure that beard¬ 
less barley is a better Spring grain for 
our purpose. I shall try this plan if 
possible. I cannot understand why such 
results should follow putting the ma¬ 
nure or fertilizer on top of the ground. 
However, I have come to the point 
where I don’t care for the way if I can 
.get the potatoes. I didn’t get them this 
year, and there is another lost “why,” 
for I ean’t figure out any exact reason 
for it. I’ll put fertilizer anywhere you 
say if you will guarantee the crop. As 
for the two acres of grass, I should say 
from my own experience that the ma¬ 
nured acre will give the best yield the 
first year, but will gradually fall be¬ 
hind the other in subsequent crops. 
A Good Job. —The following letter has 
nothing particular to do with Hope 
Farm—yet it is a part of the Hope Farm 
man’s correspondence, and the practical 
people will no doubt excuse me if I take 
space for this matter. Mr. Hubbard is 
a New York State boy who went to Cuba 
after the war, and started a school and 
home for Cuban orphans. The Span¬ 
iards did strong work in killing off the 
Cubans, and our own soldiers sent a few 
Spaniards after them. Mr. Hubbard 
went to Cuba not to kill but to help live: 
1 think you can call me a kind of a lat¬ 
ter-day Mormon, even thougn I am not 
married at all, for i have three homes 
with about 80 children in all in one city, 
and now i am thinking of branching out 
into another city. The City Council of 
Cardenas, a city of about 22,000, about 30 
miies east of Matanzas, has leased to me 
for the term of. three years for the nomi¬ 
nal rent of $36 a year the buildings where 
the Government last year maintained an 
asylum for over 100 children. The land 
there is excellent for vegetable gardening, 
and there is a windmill on the place to 
supply water for irrigating. With all my 
other duties I have very little time to look 
after this work myself, and 1 want to find 
a hustling young market gardener or old 
market gardener to come to help us. If 
we cannot find anyone to come permanent¬ 
ly, a man who could come for only three 
o.’’ four months this Winter could have his 
living while here and some valuable ex¬ 
perience, and could do us lots of good and 
give us a good start m the business. The 
second-class fare from New York to Ma¬ 
tanzas or Cardenas, Munson Line, is 
about $20. We could probably arrange to 
give the man a share of the crops if neces¬ 
sary to pay his way coming and going. 
Several men and women who like our kind 
of work fur the pay we are getting could 
find plenty of work with us this Winter 
or longer. The sooner they can come the 
better. ei.mer e. hubbard. 
Matanzas. Cuba. 
Now there is a good job—perhaps for 
you! 
How much is there in it? 
Why, you can pay your own fare both 
ways, put in a few months hard work 
for nothing and make the school a cash 
present when you come away. That’s 
the “going wages” for such a job! 
Do you take me for a fool? 
No, I take you for a wise man, old 
enough to know that the stuffing in the 
most satisfying moral turkey contains 
little gold dust. I picture you as a man 
who has made enough to last you in fair 
comfort through your life. You are wise 
enough to know that if you go on toil¬ 
ing and slaving and saving the money 
will not add to your happiness, and may 
put the stain of laziness or unthrift up¬ 
on your children. You understand the 
gardening business. As you dug and 
pawed in the dirt your ambitions and 
thoughts have soared away from the 
soil, and you have longed for a larger 
and broader field, where you might help 
make history and leave a thumb mark 
on the page of progress. If you are that 
sort of a man—here is your chance. 
How do you make that out? 
The man who helps show those Cuban 
boys something of the dignity of labor 
makes himself a part of the mainspring 
of civilization, ’fhere are some who 
hustle and slave to wring the last dollar 
out of human life. They wring so close 
that manhood and honor follow the dol¬ 
lars. The Spaniards have done this for 
thousands of Cubans. Americans are 
now needed to untwist these wrings, 
shake out the cramped lives and put 
into their hearts the germ of honest, 
self-supporting labor. You go down 
there and help Elmer E. Hubbard in his 
noble work, and Congress will not vote 
you even a leather medal. You won’t 
get your name in the paper and have 
a brand of cigars named after you. That 
is reserved for those who kill their fel¬ 
low men—not for those who try to save 
the pieces of humanity that are left be¬ 
hind. Congi’ess won’t pat you on the 
back, but conscience will tap on your 
vest. 
Why, I have met retired farmers who 
grieved because they “had nothing to 
do!” Here’s your job! This is a fair 
honest call. Do I hear anyone say “Here 
am I?” Come now, we must have Ameri¬ 
can agriculture represented in the up¬ 
lifting of Cuba! II. w. c. 
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