1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
341 
Hope Farm Notes 
Home Notes. —When I got back from Flor¬ 
ida the first thing I saw of Hope Farm 
startled me. 1 got to the hill and looked 
across the valley and saw a streak of white 
running through the farm. It was too early 
for apple bloom and for a moment I could not 
think what it was. Then I knew that Uncle 
George and Philip had been spraying with 
limoid and kerosene. It looked from the hill 
as if some mighty hand had daubed a brush 
full of white paint across the farm. They 
did a good job, and plastered those trees well. 
In spite of a heavy two days’ rain the wash 
is sticking still. Now' we shall see what hap¬ 
pens to the scale. We put on some lime and 
sulphur also for comparison. 
Spring came with a running jump when it 
fairly started. The interval between snow- 
drifts and green grass was shorter than I 
ever knew before. One trouble this Spring 
w r as that we could not get into the orchards 
to spray until late, and then the buds jumped 
out so fast that we did not dare continue the 
strong washes. With us this will mean more 
or less Summer spraying with whale oil soap 
and limoid and kerosene. . . . We never 
were in better shape for Spring work. The 
painting is all done and w r ell done, and most 
of the repairing is off our hands. The onion 
plants have been started and the old chicken 
yard fitted for strawberries. We have found 
it a wise plan after keeping chickens in one 
place for some years to move them to fresh 
ground and use the abandoned yard for gar¬ 
den or fruit. I have heard people talk about 
the “golden hoof” of the sheep, but a hen has 
diamonds in her claws. No animal leaves 
ground in better condition than the hen. It 
is a mistake to keep hens too long on one 
piece of ground. You lose too much fertility. 
We are moving our hens to the big orchard. 
The old vard will he well manured, plowed 
and fitted—then Lyon will plant strawberries 
in rows four feet apart and two feet In the 
row. I used to plant onions and Nott’s Ex¬ 
celsior peas between the rows of strawber¬ 
ries, hut we gave that up. This year we ex¬ 
pect to plant Golden Bantam sweet corn be¬ 
tween the plants in the row. This small and 
early corn will get out of the yard in time to 
let the strawberries spread themselves. 
Starting an Orchard.—I have the fol¬ 
lowing questions from Pennsylvania : 
“Our orchard is yet in its prime, hut will 
not remain so many years. I have ordered a 
sufficient number of apple trees, largely Win¬ 
ter varieties of a reliable nurseryman in our 
own county. My plan is to plant the new or¬ 
chard near the farmhouse. Cut the trunk 
hack to two feet or less and head low. Mulch 
from the beginning with shredded fodder, as 
far as the branches reach. It seems to me 
shredded fodder will be an ideal mulch, put 
on about a foot deep. Would it not be best 
to put air-slaked lime directly around the 
trunk for six inches, keeping the shred fodder 
off that distance? I will truck the orchard 
for a few years, then seed it td clover and 
mow it. leaving it all on the ground. The 
ground has a sloping position to the south¬ 
west, free from stones, sandy underneath. 
What do you think of my plan?” it. L. d. 
You are wise to plant a young orchard. 
Now that the scale and other insects are 
spreading so rapidly, I do not believe we 
can depend on many years of full service for 
our orchards. I shall plan to push the trees 
into hearing as early as possible, and plant 
new trees each year. This is not so neces¬ 
sary with apple as with peach ; still. I believe 
it wise to have young trees coming on all 
the time. I would cut the roots off to corre¬ 
spond with the top pruning. I have not 
found it any advantage to dig large holes 
when the roots are well cut hack. Shredded 
fodder makes a good mulch. I have not used 
lime close around the tree. A mound of coal 
ashes is good. If mice are numerous in your 
neighborhood do not leave the mulch close 
up around the trees. Lime may keep the 
mice awav. though I have never tried it. It 
is my belief that the mulch of shredded 
fodder will give those trees a better chance 
than thev would get if you cultivate close 
up a round them. If you feed your truck 
crops well you ought to have a fine orchard 
in a few years. 
A Pt.AYKD-ot'T Pear. —Here we have the 
troubles of a New Hampshire man : 
“I have an old pear tree that sets quite 
full of fruit each year, and after the fruits 
get about grown thev begin to crack all over, 
so that they are utterly worthless. What 
variety Is it and the cause? Would you cut 
the tree down, or is there such a tiling as 
grafting such an old tree, (it must be 30 
vears old), as this so It would pay?” 
o. G. K. 
I imagine this variety is Flemish Beauty— 
it being liable to act in*this way. If I had a 
30-year-old tree of that habit I would cut it 
down unless it happened to be in a place 
where its shade is needed. These old trees 
are hard to graft. They frequently make 
but little new wood. It Is harder to top- 
work them than it is to teach new tricks to 
an old dog. I have some old pear trees that 
seem to think they are entitled to a loaf in 
exchange for the good they may have done 
somebody else in years past. It seems im¬ 
possible to make them grow, and I shall cut 
them down to make room for more vigorous 
trees. I find some people unite a little ex¬ 
cited because Dr. Osier stated that men of (!0 
ought to lie chloroformed! It might not be 
a bad game to give some people just enough 
of the vapor to send them Into a sleep long 
enough to have a good hard dream. Let 
them realize in their dream that while they 
are no longer young in bodv. they are still 
mere infants in wisdom, patience and spirit¬ 
ual power. Let them see that the trouble 
with many elderly men is that they refuse to 
fill the dignified place which Nature reserves 
for old men and try to hold the young man’s 
job too long. 
“Fried Pies” Again.—H ere we seem to 
have the genuine article: 
“If your inquirer about ‘fried pies’ treats 
her husband to fried doughnuts or fried bread 
she will continue to hear “mother” from him, 
I’m thinking, for however good they may be, 
the genuine ones are made like this: One 
quart of flour, one egg, two teaspoonfuls bak¬ 
ing powder, salt, and mix with sweet milk to 
roll out. My father’s mother used to fry the 
dough in flat cakes and spread them with the 
sauce, in layers like short-cake, but I never 
heard of anyone else doing so. If you have 
room please print the recipe, that the poor 
man rnav have a taste once more of a real, 
Rhode Island fried pie.” mahde l. mowry. 
I heard a man make a speech once in which 
he claimed with great eloquence that the 
three noblest words in the language are 
mother, home and heaven! The home In 
which the wife is constantly reminded of 
what mother did can hardly be considered a 
heavenly place—especially by the wife. If 
a fried pie will keep one these gentlemen—- 
who suddenly discover what a great woman 
mother was after they are married—quiet, I 
am glad to give the recipe. Not long ago a 
good friend found fault because we did not 
condemn intemperance in eating. What will 
he say when his wife makes one of these 
Rhode Island fried pies? 
Planting Potatoes. —An Ohio man pre¬ 
sents this question : 
“Tell me how far apart to place the pieces 
in the row, say when they are Early Ohio cut 
to two eyes in a piece? If potatoes are a 
variety making larger growth of top as Sen¬ 
eca Beauty, would you place that kind 
further apart?” u. H. M. 
My observation is that most potato growers 
pay ” little attention to different varieties. 
Where planters are used they are usually set 
to drop 15 or IS inches apart in the drill, and 
not changed for different varieties. In my 
experience it pays to vary the distance. For 
example such varieties as Rural New Yorker 
No. 2 grow with a single upright stem while 
the tubers are crowded close together in a 
bunch. Such varieties can lie crowded close 
in the drill. I have planted: them one foot 
apart and had a fine yield of large potatoes. 
At the other extreme is Rural Blush, which 
gives a heavy vine, while the tubers scatter 
in the soil. I have tried planting them close 
but the result seemed to be a large number of 
small potatoes. While I think the habit of 
forming tubers—below ground—has more to 
do'with it than the size of the vine I should 
expect good results by planting Early Ohio 
18 inches apart and the varieties with larger 
vines too feet apart. I think we use too 
much seed for nearly all crops except grass. 
Florida Potatoes. —We are not going to 
get rich on our first crop, but we didn't ex¬ 
pect. to anyway, and our experience will mean 
cash later on. On the new farm the seed 
lay in the ground five weeks before it got 
through! The rain fell heavily day after 
day, and soaked the ground like a sponge. 
We had rather figured on a dry season, and 
planted the potatoes in drills or trenches, 
expecting in this way to give them a better 
chance. As the season turned out just the 
reverse of this handling would have been 
surer. We would have done better if we 
had thrown up a ridge, then split it at the 
top and planted the seed there. As it is on 
this wet soil there is not far from 75 per 
cent of a stand. Charlie cut the seed into 
good-sized pieces, and this helped, and there 
Is some difference between the seed we bought 
in the North and the lot we got in Florida. 
The Early Manistee is strong and vigorous. 
The R. N.-l\ No. 2 was very slow to come, 
but finally crawled up in its slow, provoking 
way, and'is making good growth. When the 
rain stopped it left the lower soil well filled 
with moisture, and by keeping the surface 
well cultivated we can hold that moisture 
in. I am now satisfied that success in farm¬ 
ing these low flat lands consists in getting 
control of the water. The rains are heavy 
when they do come, the ground is quickly 
soaked, and the flood makes its way off at the 
lowest point. It left a track right through 
our best field in its haste to get into the lake. 
The ditches did not carry it off. Now we 
know how to handle it, and the ditches can 
be cleaned out and built up at one or two 
places so as to take care of the flood. I 
cannot of course tell yet what the crop will 
bring. We seem likely to have a fair crop, 
and the price ought to be good, since many 
fields were ruined. I feel better satisfied 
than even that land of this kind can be 
handled so that in a series of years it will 
yield a fair margin. H. w. c. 
Lime and Clover.—I read the discussion 
of clover on page 230 with much Interest, and 
I think the reason why lime seems to fail in 
Mr. Adams's neighborhood is evident. Lime 
is not a manure in any sense of the term : it 
is only a mechanical agent, sweetening acid 
soil, pulverizing heavy soil, and in all soils 
setting free the plant food that is in them, 
more or less according to the quantity used, 
and I should judge that the latter is the 
trouble with Mr. Adams. lie has used con¬ 
centrated fertilizer and lime till there is no 
more humus in the soil for the lime to act 
upon. Forty years ago lime was extensively 
used in Scotland, and with good results, as 
almost every crop was used on the place, and 
the manure pile large. The farms were leased 
for a long term of years, and when a ten¬ 
ant’s time was nearly up he would use lime 
heavily the last few years, sometimes so 
much that it would take years of good farm¬ 
ing to bring the land back to a full state of 
fertility. So well was this understood that 
the most contemptuous thing that could be 
said ol a piece of land was that it was lime- 
poor. My experience has been that where 
plenty of barnyard manure is used lime will 
put it in a condition for plants to use, but 
can never take its place. As to Alsike clover. 
I sometimes grow it on a piece of muck land, 
but it never cuts so heavy a crop as the Red, 
but I think it is a good mixture for pasture. 
Mr. I’atterson’s idea of Fall sowing does well 
in Michigan on sandy soils, but the Winter 
is too much for it as a rule on heavy soils. 
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