1905. 
395 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Hope Farm Notes 
Getting Home. —Mother and the children 
finally got back from Florida on April 2'J. 
It was a raw cold day—for which I was 
sorry as I wanted them to strike the farm 
\> i■ 1 1 .he sun shining and the air moving tae 
new leaves so that they sparkled. We 
couldn’t have it just as we wanted but our 
folks were glad to get. back anyway and any¬ 
how. They came back by boat and the fog 
shut down upon them so that the steamer 
fairly crawled up the coast, i have always 
said that when you go away from home it is 
good to travel as slowly as you can. When 
you come back you feel like hurrying at full 
speed—that is if your home is what it ought 
to be. Jack and Lyon did the honors by 
decorating the horses and carriages with the 
bloom of apple and plum and peach. We 
had planned for mother and her little girl to 
ride home together behind l’eter, the pony. 
Mother said she wanted to get home as soon 
as she could and so she chose Nellie Bly who 
comes close to being a trotter. The farm 
looked wet as we first caught sight of it 
across the hills but it was a pleasant thing 
to come home to. A great sweep of green 
from the road to the top of the hill. Here 
and there a patch of brown showed the 
plowed ground. There were dots and masses 
of white where cherry trees had burst into 
bloom and the crab apple bloom and peaches 
showed the first touch of scarlet and pink. 
You may talk all you want to about your 
tropical scenery, but where on earth can you 
find anything more hopeful or more beauti¬ 
ful than a Northern hillside farm washed > 
clean by the rain as the apple bloom is com¬ 
ing ouV 
Mother didn't say much until she got into 
the house. Then she told me about a good 
woman who had been obliged on account of 
family health to spend many Winters in > 
Florida. "She told me," said Mother, "that 
the first thing she did when she got back to 
the Northern farm was to get right down on 
her knees and than God she was home 
again!” I have no doubt that there are 
many Southern people who spend a season in 
the North and are just as glad to get back to 
what is home to them. I wouldn't argue 
with them for a million dollars for 1 feel 
that this love of home is the strongest force 
in society. I am aware that Hope Farm 
would seem dull and common-place to many 
but to Mother and the rest of our folks It is 
the best place to come to and the last place 
to go away from. 
A Good Start. —We were not considering 
our troubles and hard problems as we u.e.. 
our chairs to the supper tabje. The baked 
beans and rhubarb sauce that Emma had 
cooked tasted a little better than anything 
of the sort we had had in a long time. They 
don’t keep much stock in Florida and "tin 
heifers” are the breed most in use. Mother 
and the children made mighty inroads upon 
the milk and cream. Our family has changed 
somewhat. Charlie, Aunt Emma and the 
baby will stay in Florida. The little boy 
whose lung was threatened stays with his 
parents in Alabama. Jack and Lyon are here 
and the two little girls and the boy helped 
fill up a good sized table. Right here 1 vyi.ll 
stop and answer a question which a reader 
has asked, “You used to refer to ‘The Madam’ 
—now you speak of Mother! Why the 
change?” I found that some boys and girls 
were alluding to their mother as "the Mad¬ 
am,” in a way and in a spirit which seems 
to me disrespectful. I regret to think that 
1 suggested any such title. There is no better 
word in the language than “Mdther.” I had 
a boy working for me once who said as I 
came in the gate: "Ah! Here comes the old 
man !" He didn’t intend any insult at all 
but the little girls were greatly shocked. 
Whenever I hear young men address their 
parents as "the old man” or "the old woman,” 
I know something is wrong with their bring¬ 
ing up. “Mother” and "father” are best 
words 1 know of to use in the family. After 
supper we had a chance to look over the 
lower part of the farm. The cats were pro¬ 
nounced "all right" ; Shep never did look so 
well; the colts are about the best in the 
country if you can believe our folks; old 
Major' has fairly renewed his youth; there 
never were quite such hens! As night came 
on we built a roaring fire in the fire-place 
and spent our evening before it. Too bad the 
last of the apples have been eaten but really 
there wasn’t much chance for an apple after 
that supper. The fog crept down and wrapped 
the old house in its thick blanket ! All the 
shapes that people the night came listening 
at the doors to tell of trouble or sorrow- 
ahead. Nobody knew they were there that 
night. We shall doubtless have to listen to 
them later but “home again" was too mu oil 
for them. 
Farm Notes. —By May 1 we had planted 
300 apple, 400 peach and too pear trees, wi ll 
about 200 grape vines and some other things 
still to go. The early potatoes were planted. 
The late potatoes are to follow rye. This rye 
is looking well and will be cut about May 10 
and cured for horse feed. Then the ground 
will be plowedtand the potatoes planted with 
as little working of the soil as possible. The 
way we planted the early potatoes was to 
plow the ground carefully, run lines across 
the field, open small holes with a hoe, cover 
the seed and then level down with an Acme 
harrow run without weight on it. This is 
a slow way to plant but I believe we can get 
more potatoes in this way than by packing 
down the soil so hard by horse work. Of 
course this would not pay on a large scale, 
but we are running tin* lower part of the 
farm as close to garden culture as we can. I 
am satisfied that nine-tenths sod and trees 
and one-tenth garden pays us better than half 
farm.lack and Philip planted one 
block of apple trees over near the woods with 
many misgivings. The trees were well 
pruned—top and bottom—and planted in 
small holes right in the midst of brush and 
briers. In some places the trees are entirely 
surrounded by birches and cedars, 1 have 
satisfied myself that the peach under such 
conditions will not do well but I believe apple 
and pear will make a profitable growth. \Ye 
shall first give each tree two or three pounds 
of lime scattered thinfy around it, and then 
about three forkfuls of good manure around 
each tree as a mulch. The briers, brush, 
coarse grass or anything else that will rot 
will he cut with a hush scythe and thrown 
around the trees. Lime seems to 'be the 
great thing needful in growing trees in the 
brush. . . With the exception of the 
sun scalded trees the vouug orchards are 
waking up from their long sleep in good con¬ 
dition. The mulch wil be raked hack 
around them at once. I expect to give them 
all a dust of lime. The manure will be used 
to mulch as far as it will go and we expect to 
use about a pound of muriate of potash for 
each tree where the manure goes. When the 
manure fails we shall use fertilizer and mulch 
with forest leaves, weeds, brush, anything 
we can find. My object is to keep the young 
trees well fed and also to keep the ground 
around them shaded. I have some 
strange comments about the “mulch" method 
of caring for trees. The way people insist 
on failing to understand what we mean by 
“mulching" ought to be discouraging. One 
man cut the roots off the young trees and 
left all the tops on ! He says the String 
fellow method is a fraud ! Another took me 
to look at his young orchard. Bart of it 
which he said was "mulched" was evidently 
not as good as the other. Upon investiga¬ 
tion I found that part of the orchard was in 
sod. No fertilizer or manure was used—the 
grass was cut and all taken out. Potatoes 
were grown in the other part-—highly culti¬ 
vated and well fed with fertilizer! Yet in 
this trial our friend condemns the “mulch 
method.” 
All Sorts.—T he following question comes 
from Massachusetts: "tin visiting a large 
dairy farm near here I found that in repair¬ 
ing the tools in the winter they had painted 
the teeth and disks of the harrows. l»o you 
think this l>est or necessary?" The object of 
the paint is to keep tin* tools from rusting. 
We have used paint for this purpose when the 
tools are cleaned and put away for winter. 
I do not like paint Us well as a coat of 
grease. The painted tools do not scour well. 
Hot grease rubbed or painted on the bright 
metal saves much rusting in winter. I think 
some rust protector needed but paint is not 
the best. . . . The “fried pie” question 
is about as warm as the fat in which these 
delicacies are fried. Here is the way In 
which another mother used to make them. 
Let’s try them all : 
“In the R. N.-Y. for April 22, your corre¬ 
spondent does not give the rule for fried pies 
as my folks always made them. Make a 
dough like piecrust with baking powder, but 
less shortening. A quart of flour, two tea¬ 
spoons of baking powder, salt and a big 
spoonful of lard, mix to a stiff dough with 
cold water. Roll out thin, cut out rounds 
with an Inverted saucer or pall cover. Put 
a spoonful of sauce-—apple or cranberry, on 
one half the round, wet the edge of the crust, 
fold over the outer half, punching the edges 
tight and making two air holes in the upper 
side. Fry in hot fat like doughnuts. The 
sauce miist be cold and not too juicy.” Mrs. 
A. B. The Hope Farm man will 
never willingly do injustice to tree or man. so 
I print this good word for the Flemish 
Beauty pear: 
“Noticing in Hope Farm notes your answer 
to the New Hampshire man’s queries with re¬ 
spect to his 30-year-old pear tree, I would 
like to say that I can state from personal 
experience that it is not always age of tree 
that causes the Flemish Beauty pear to crack. 
We have an old Flemish Beauty pear tree, 
planted a three-year-old, 33 years ago this 
Spring. For several of its early bearing 
years it was considered worthless because 
of its cracked fruit. Gradually this fault 
became less pronounced, and finally ceased 
to trouble us. For a long time we sold yearly 
from this tree from ten to twelve bushels of 
large, smooth beautiful fruit besides having 
an ample supply for our own use. No bit 
of our farm has paid so well—counting in 
the barren years —as that occupied by the old 
Flemish Beauty pear tree. Two years ago it 
was struck severely with blight, and last 
Spring half the tree was cut away, but the 
part left gave us all the pears we wanted last 
fall, with a few to spare. They were smaller 
than usual, but were not cracked. The only 
treatment the tree ha* ever had lias been a 
very little pruning now and then and a liberal 
supply of hard wood ashes. It has had no 
cultivation for many years.” l. a. w. 
Clare Co., Michigan. 
Of course I am glad to know that old pear 
trees as well as old men can continue to do 
their duty. I would not advise grafting old 
trees or urging old men to learn new jobs. 
h. w. c. 
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