1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
3oi 
Hope Farm Notes 
Southward Hound. —I am writing (March 
23) on a train—just now passing through 
upper North Carolina. It is never fair to 
judge a country from a car window, and I try 
to remember that as I look over this land¬ 
scape and think of New Jersey. There doubt¬ 
less are reasons why people should be satis¬ 
fied to live as some of these people are living, 
but I don't grasp them. The soil seems to 
vary; there are streaks of light sand and 
then patches of what looks like a red clay. 
Most of the farm land seems to have been 
cut out of the pine woods long ago and then 
abandoned. We pass great holes in the for* 
est, some of them still showing the stalks 
from last year's corn or cotton, while others 
have been so long abandoned that little pines 
and scrubs are growing up. Now and then 
we see a patch of what looks like Crimson 
clover, or the remains of what looks like a 
crop of cow peas. For the most part the 
land lies dead and dull, scarred with gulleys 
and apparently baked hard. Here is a sec¬ 
tion that needs humus far more than it does 
politicians—what section doesn’t, anyway? 
If any large proportion of this land were 
forced to spend its idle time in cow peas or 
Crimson clover the whole character of the 
country would be changed in five years. A 
farm, like a man, can be saved by utilizing 
its idle time. It hurts my feelings to see this 
neglected land, and the buildings and humans 
and stock which that neglect produces, and 
then realize how prodigal Nature has been 
to this section in the way of climate and soil 
opportunities. When you see a colored man 
out plowing with a steer that might weigh 
500 pounds and a plow that scrapes about 
three inches deep you don’t know whether to 
call it farming or “agriculture,’’ but you 
must feel some admiration for a farmer who 
makes a “living” under such circumstances. 
Tne South is increasing its annual farm out¬ 
put each year, but I imagine that the increase 
Is largely due to the few skilled farmers or 
gardeners who locate In the most favorable 
places and can invest capital in the business. 
I am under the Impression that a large share 
of the money made by these skilled farmers 
is sent away from this section for invest¬ 
ment. The South would be far better off if 
agricultural science could be brought in small 
doses to Hiese patching old fields. No man is 
going to rise in wealth or character much 
above the character of his soil. If they don't 
get cow peas or something else into this 
dreadful looking soil the future farm crops of 
tne South will be grown on limited areas 
by those who know how and will learn how. 
This concentration of industry will hurt the 
South socially more than the factory towns 
have hurt New England. I have always be¬ 
lieved that the very life of a country depends 
upon the spirit of the country homes. These 
homes depend upon successful farming and 
good soil. This never came to me with such 
force as it has to-day, when seeing the appar¬ 
ent poverty which comes from this neglected 
soil. It is made all the more forcible by see 
ing here and there prosperous looking homes 
and farms right in the midst of this desola¬ 
tion. No use talking, the experiment stations 
of the South have more to do with the future 
of their section than Congress has. How 
can the farmers who most need help be 
reached? That is tlie largest problem before 
the South to-day. If it cannot be met the lit¬ 
tle farmer is going, like the little manufac¬ 
turer did in New England. The agricultural 
wealth of the South will be produced more 
and more by outsiders. I don't often feel 
like standing up as a prophet, but I cannot 
see how competition will permit the man with 
the steer to live on this land 15 years hence, 
unless the land is given a better chance. A 
young fellow doesn't care much for past his¬ 
tory, but a man of my age can see a story 
written on this land. The South knows how 
to restore these poor lands. It’s up to her to 
show these poor farmers how to do it. Or 
does she prefer to drain the whites out of 
this section to work in the cotton factories 
and leave those old fields to the negroes? A 
man on the train tells me that my reasoning 
is faulty, because I do not realize how easily 
these farmers are satisfied. It is true that 
as night comes on I see lights appear in these 
little bouses and the smoke curls up from 
the chimneys. Workers are going home to 
supper and bed. Possibly there is no other 
place like “home” to them. On the whole, I 
hope so, though I wish they could understand 
that a more comfortable home would grow 
out of a better soil. 
Weather Indications. —I saw the first 
plowing near Fredericksburg, Va. A mule 
with a man to help him was turning up a 
poor looking field. At Petersburg I saw col¬ 
ored children running about barefooted. 
When I left Hope Farm there was still some 
snow on the bills, and we had hardly begun 
to spray. Fredericksburg lias always been a 
place of interest to me since my father was 
killed in the battle fought there in 1802. We 
read in reports of the eastern war how the 
Japanese deliberately sacrifice thousands of 
men in order to carry out some part of their 
plan. Fredericksburg was another such 
slaughter, (hough nothing came from it. As 
I ride through the town to-day few passengers 
seem to care that the battle ever was fought; 
the majority probably do not know that there 
ever was one. A man may have an intense 
feeling about one thing and a very general 
feeling about others. He should remember 
that with other people these things may lie 
reversed, and keep his intense feelings and 
opinions pretty much to himself. 
Most of the older buildings one sees from 
a car window in this section have the chim¬ 
ney built on the outside. Last Winter, while 
in' the Virginia mountains, I asked a man 
why they didn’t put chimneys inside. Ills 
answer was that the inside chimney made the 
house too warm, though at that very time the 
mercury was close to zero, and the majority 
of the teeth left in the town were chattering. 
I think the chimney is going inside of most 
of the new southern houses, but somehow peo¬ 
ple here don’t like to dig a cellar. There are 
not as many wells or cisterns as there should 
be. At one place I saw a nice-looking house 
with a well-lieaten path down to a spring. I’ll 
guarantee that the spring was at least 40 
rous away from the kitchen door. That 
means about a quarter of a mile travel for 
each bucket of water. Either the women in 
that household are first-class pedestrians or 
else there is a lack of water. About 99 per 
cent of men would carry the water for their 
wives—before they were married. Later on 
I imagine that the proportion that would stay 
by would be much the same as of the 10 
lepqrs that were cleansed ! This is true of 
the entire country. When it comes to assert¬ 
ing their political rights there are many citi¬ 
zens who like to allude to themselves as 
“hewers of wood and drawers of water,” but 
just go and look at their own woodpile and 
water bucket! 
My friend on the train had two things to 
argue. First, he said that in most of these 
houses there was a stout colored boy to bring 
water. Why go to the expense of modern 
contrivances when cheap labor can be had? 
Then, as if he knew that his first argument 
would fall down, he said that you cannot 
reach this class of farmers anyway. They 
prefer to live as they do! I think there 
ought to be somebody connected with agri¬ 
cultural education who can feel about such 
farmers as the missionaries do about the 
heathen. 
The first cotton field I saw was below Pet¬ 
ersburg. Cornfields were frequent. The corn 
seems to be mostly planted in drills. Instead 
of cutting the stalk at the ground as we do 
they seem to “top” it, cutting the blade just 
below the ear and leaving the rest in the 
field. I saw large amounts of this fodder 
still in the field. In one place a farmer had 
made a large pile of it, and built a fence 
around to keep off the stock. The fodder 
seemed to have rotted inside the fence! I 
once stood on the campus of Cornell Univer¬ 
sity in M’arch and looked across the valley 
to a cornfield where all the fodder still stood 
in the snow ! The agricultural college had 
not converted its own neighbors. What a na¬ 
tion this will be when all the food is saved 
and all the agricultural implements are 
housed. Yet, even in that day the feed deal¬ 
ers and implement dealers will find fault. 
At Jacksonville I found the fields green and 
trees in full bloom. I will try to tell about 
the farming next week. 
Where Corn Ki.ooms. —I am asked by a 
Jerseyman to settle the following question : 
“We have an argument here with a young 
man from the city. He claims that con* 
blooms in the ear and not in the tassel. We 
keen telling him that the flower or bloom is 
in the tassel, but he won’t have it any other 
wav, asserting that it is in the ear.” 
J. L. P. 
I am not a botanist and my opinion would 
not settle a legal case. I think, however, 
this is one of those rare occasions when both 
sides can say. “I told you so!” The flower 
of the corn is separated. The tassel repre¬ 
sents the male parts of the flower, the pollen 
being the dust or powder which we notice 
when shaking the ripe tassel. The “silk” 
wnieh grows lower down on the stalk repre¬ 
sents the female parts of the flower: each 
strand of “silk" when fertilized by the pol¬ 
len from the tassel forming a kernel of corn 
on the cob. Thus both parts of the flower 
are necessary iu order to produce grain. 
Respect for Farm Laror. —A middle-aged 
man in Illinois writes me that he thinks of 
coming East to take up a farm. Before he 
bought he thinks: 
"I might do better, at least for a time, if 
I could find the right place as manager on a 
moderate-sized farm, the owner of which is a 
non-resident or is disabled iu some way from 
taking the active control. I should want an 
owner who would think as much of having 
his place in reliable hands as of getting the 
last possible dollar out of it.” 
We often have letters from farm owners 
who say they want good men to manage their 
farms. ' They outline a list of good qualities 
such a man should possess. I wonder if they 
ever stop to consider what the man they hire 
will think about them? The owner often 
thinks that because lie pays cash for services 
he has the right to demand high quality. He 
lias, but ..ow about the man who offers all he 
has—his labor? lie has some rights too, and 
it should not be an entirely one-sided bar¬ 
gain. I believe there are plenty of men who 
would appreciate the fact that their place 
•was in the hands of a reliable man, yet we 
must all understand that a place should be 
run as a business enterprise. A dollar, hon¬ 
estly and fairly earned, is a great civilizer, 
and the owner has a right to expect fair in¬ 
terest on his investment. He may take it in 
fun, experience or in cash, but he ought to 
make up his mind which way he wants it, 
and then hold his manager right ud to his 
bargain. The trouble is that lots of men hire 
a farmer and then plan so that, the only divi¬ 
dends they have any right to expect should 
come in fun or experience. They turn what 
ought to be fun into worry, place no valua¬ 
tion on experience, and find fault with the 
farmer because he doesn’t pay cash dividends ! 
This makes me think that I have been 
asked by several if work can be obtained in 
Florida during the Winter. Some elderly men 
who cannot afford to be idle ask that. Yes, I 
believe there is work for all during the Win¬ 
ter. Lfficle Ed has had trouble in obtaining 
help. Good workers earn $1.25 per day. 
Right where we are there are very few ne¬ 
groes. Last Fall some trouble arose among 
the negroes and one was killed. The rest 
simply “got out,” going elsewhere, the cabins 
still standing empty. H. w. c. 
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Potash as Necessary as Rain 
The quality and quantity of the 
crops depend on a sufficiency of 
Potash 
in the soil. Fertilizers which are 
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Every farmer should be familiar with the 
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98 Nassau Street, New York. 
Plow the Hard Spots with 
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Plow Attachment] 
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STEEL 
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For sore or tender feet 
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