1905. 
Hope Farm Notes 
Drought Broken. —For days the sun 
blazed down, until the crop situation seemed 
hopeless. Potatoes were turning brown, apples 
were falling, corn was drying up, and nothing 
grew but weeds. Then the clouds began to 
gather, only to be blown apart again, until 
finally on Friday night they did manage to 
squeeze out a little shower. There was an¬ 
other on Saturday, which made mud on the 
light soil, but barely got. down into the hard 
soil on the hills. Late Saturday night we 
were all awakened by a tremendous downpour. 
The rain seemed to be coming down in 
buckets. As I went around in the dark clos¬ 
ing the windows it was pleasant to think that 
the soil was drinking its fill at last. The 
flood kept up for an hour, and then followed 
a slow, gentle rain that got ’way down to the 
roots of things. Sunday came clear, and in 
the afternoon Merrill and 1 took our usual 
walk to look at the trees. We walked into a 
soaking shower, and were obliged to crawl 
under a broken shed for shelter. This shed 
has broken down at one end, while the other 
rests against a tree. We crawled under one 
end and watched the flood outside. It held us 
for over an hour, and then while the rain 
stopped for breath we ran over to the house— 
quite dry—to ask if it had been raining ! The 
rain was too late to save some crops. The 
early planted potatoes are badly hurt. They 
were forming tubers when the drought came 
on. They must have water at that time, and 
when they find the soil as dry as powder their 
hopes explode. Many fields of such potatoes 
have turned brown or dark yellow. While 
this rain may revive them somewhat, they 
cannot make a full crop. Our own potatoes 
were planted late, and had hardly begun to 
make tubers. This rain hits them just right, 
and I am now hopeful for a crop. The grass 
quickly shows the effect of the rain, and even 
though the millet has headed out it seems to 
shoot up a little. That rain was a great 
blessing. Many wells were low. We have no 
trouble of that sort, as our drilled well is 140 
feet deep. Old drought never gets down that 
deep. 
Fruit Notes. —The dry weather caused a 
great drop of fruit. In some places near us 
at least two-thirds of the apples fell when not 
more than half grown. We lost some of the 
early fruit in this way, but the Baldwins and 
Greenings have hung on remarkably well. 
Our crop is light. This is the “off year” and 
while the bloom was fair the young fruit did 
not “set” well. Our peach crop is just about 
a failure, although more lhan we have ever 
had before. The Baldwin orchard lias been 
used as a pasture for horses and cow. The 
Greening orchard was cut for hay. but as 
soon as the hay was taken off a good dressing 
of fertilizer was scattered on the grass. I.ast 
year we had hogs running in the early apple 
orchard near the house, and the windfalls 
were eaten as they fell. We have not had 
the hogs tliis year, and many of the apples 
have been left to rot on the ground. Those 
on the lawn and around the house were picked 
up and used as a mulch around young trees. 
They were mostly sweet apples which have 
little value. They fail from old trees which 
were growing on the farm when I came. 
There has been a good market for early apples 
thus far. Even windfalls have brought fair 
prices. I do not like to ship a windfall apple, 
for it seems as if the bruise on the apple is 
sure to bruise your reputation. This year, 
however, there has been a demand for them. 
I suppose they are cut up and made Into pies 
and sauce. Even sweet apples have sold at 
paying prices, an unusual thing with us The 
best way to convert a man In favor of a low¬ 
headed tree is to get him to pick from one 
of our old-fashioned high-heads! in some 
cases the best apples are fully (10 feet from 
the ground. The only way we can get some 
of them is to send the smallest boy to the top 
of the tree, where he can pick the fruit and 
drop it down. When an apple falls from these 
high trees it is badly pounded up. We have 
lost many barrels of windfalls which would 
have been very salable had they fallen 10 feet 
instead of 40 or more. No more high heads 
for me. It is hard to get people to realize 
that apples should be handled like eggs. One 
of my neighbors told ills boy to pick the 
apples into a basket and then pour them gen¬ 
tly into a barrel. The boy put the barrel 
under the ladder, picked his basket full and 
then stood on the ladder and poured into the 
barrel, at least 20 feet above it. Of course 
with ordinary fruit that is to be sold at once 
to pie bakers or restaurants it doesn't matter 
so much, but it is folly to think of handling 
first-class fruit in that way. 
TIIH RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Cultivate ok Mulch. —George T. I’owell 
gives the mulch method of growing trees a 
hard blow on page 598. My experience is 
somewhat different. I really haven’t any 
fields in what Mr. Powell would call thorough 
cultivation, so I cannot make a fair compar¬ 
ison. The best of my young peach trees have 
made 3% feet or more of growth thus far this 
season, and the best of the apple trees over 
two feet. These trees have not been fertilized 
at all. Weeds, trash, manure or straw have 
been piled around them. The grass has been 
mowed once in some cases and twice in 
others. The soil is naturally dry and hard. 
Some of the other trees do not look so well. 
Many of them were badly frostbitten last \\ in¬ 
ter and the one before it. Thus far they have 
grown from four inches to two feet, a fair 
average being about 14 inches. In some cases 
the foliage is not good, borers, dry weather 
and scale being partly responsible. As a 
whole, however, our trees compare well with 
the cultivated trees in this section, and 1 feel 
sure they have not cost half as much. 1 he 
cultivated tree usually looks much better than 
the mulched tree on the first of August. It 
has been forced and stimulated through May, 
June and July. Through August and Septem¬ 
ber efforts are made to “harden up” this quick 
growth. As a rule my mulched trees make 
their best growth through August and the 
first half of September. My observation is 
that they are certainly later In forming the 
new wood than the cultivated trees. I have 
often had trees which looked haggard enough 
in late July recover so that they made a fine 
showing by October 1. Even if we admit for 
the sake of argument that constant cultiva¬ 
tion will make a better tree, there are still 
other things to be considered. I would like 
to have some advocate of thorough culture 
get on my hin and figure with me what it 
would cost to carry out his plans there. Then 
let him compare the growth we now have 
with the growth on his own trees and their 
cost. I-Ie could pick out some places in our 
orchards where no doubt results from his 
methods would be ahead in spite of the in¬ 
creased cost. In other places I doubt it. We 
cannot all do things alike. If you passed a 
law prohibiting people from growing fruit un¬ 
less they gave “thorough cultivation” three 
things would happen. Millions of acres of 
excellent fruit land would be driven out of 
business, there wouldn't be enough fruit to go 
around, and a comparatively few strong, en¬ 
terprising men on well located soil would 
have a monopoly of the business. 
All Sorts. —The veterinarian says he 
never saw anything just like the big bunch 
on Bob’s shoulder. It is too low to be a 
fistula, and too far back to be on the shoulder. 
It doesn’t make much difference to poor Bob 
what it is, as he stands witli his head tied 
so he cannot reach the sore. The hot water 
pack did not bring it to a head, so the vet¬ 
erinarian blistered it. Now we must heal it 
up. It is hard to have horses thrown out of 
commission In this way. . . . Part of the 
old strawberry field was plowed and seeded to 
yellow turnips. In former years we have 
drilled and cultivated this turnip, but this 
year we sowed Yellow Globe broadcast. We 
find the yellow turnips handy. They can 
often be sold at a fair price, I like to eat 
them, and they are good for the stock. They 
keep well. Another part of the old straw¬ 
berries will be carried over. First with plow 
and then with hoe we clean out so as to leave 
narrow strips of plants through the field. The 
runners are kept down so as to fruit the old 
plants. . . . August will be a busy month 
with us. The rest of the early apples must 
be picked and shipped, then the crab apples 
and pears. Peach picking will not bother us 
much this year, but borers must be killed 
and some Summer spraying done. The gar 
den crops are to be weeded, and the weeds 
hauled to the orchards. The brush in our 
roughest orchard is fo be cut, there are two 
fields that ought to be drained, a fence that 
should be built and other jobs that need at 
tention. Not much time to play this year! 
An Educated Butter Maker.—A young 
man in Connecticut sends me these pertinent 
questions : 
“I am a young man, 30 years old, and 
write requesting you to give me a little ad 
vice, as 1 am thinking of taking a course in 
butter making in some good college. Will 
you let me know how many years’ study must 
be given before a man who has had no prev¬ 
ious experience would lie able to take charge 
of a creamery? About what would his tui 
tlon be and expenses while learning? What 
salaries are paid by creameries for No. 1 men 
(butter makers) ? Is this a business that you 
would advise a young man to take up for his 
life work if he is ambitious and has had 
thorough business training, but finds his pres 
ent business uncongenial?” f. w. w. 
Willimantic, Conn. 
I never was a success as a teacher or as 
butter maker. All 1 can give is general ad 
vice. If I were in this young man's place I 
would send to the agricultural colleges of 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine 
New York, Wisconsin and Michigan, and ask 
about the course in dairying. That is the 
best way I can think of to learn how long it 
will take and what such a job is worth. Ilav 
ing picked out my college, I would try the 
“short course” this Winter. Most of these 
colleges give a Winter course of 10 weeks 
If you studied hard for 10 weeks you could 
not hope to learn all there is about butter 
making, but you would know whether you 
thought it worth while to go on and try to 
find out part of it. As for taking butter 
making as a llfework, I do not know about 
that. I am frank to say that it wouldn 
suit me. It depends upon a man’s taste for 
things. I can imagine a butter maker feelin 
as much pride and power in one of his golden 
lumps as a poet would in some strong poem 
certain thing for a "life work” because it will 
give them a soft job. Butter making is a soft 
job, in one sense, but a mighty hard one in 
another. It takes brains to steer a mass of 
cream so that it will end in firm, sweet but¬ 
ter, and not in a lump of grease. Years ago 
it was held that such work as butter makiug 
was not dignified enough to be analyzed and 
classified so as to become a regular part of 
“education.” Now we know better, and so if 
I expected to be a butter maker I would study 
the science of it at some college. The advan¬ 
tage of the college training over the practical 
education in a creamery is that the former 
teaches a man to ask “Why?” This everlast¬ 
ing asking of “why?” can either drive a man 
crazy or give him tin* answer that lifts him 
tip above his fellows. While butter making 
wouldn’t suit me, any more than banking or 
law or life behind a dry goods counter, I real¬ 
ize that it would be an excellent opening for 
a man who can see the possibilities in cream. 
We need good butter, and there is a great 
future in the trade. If a man is to touch it 
at all be should expect to raise that trade to 
a profession. Y’ou see one man cannot well 
advise another about nicking up a life work. 
Most men are obliged to take what life offers, 
and make the best of it. Where a man is sit- 
uated so that he can really choose for himself 
he should never decide on any half investiga 
lion, and never touch anything that does not 
command his entire respect. H. w. C. 
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