1965. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
635 
Hope Farm Notes 
Fruit Sales. —The early apples and Clapp s 
pears are about gone. Some were sold on the 
farm, and others were sent to New 1 ork. 
Here is one commission return: 
0 baskets apples at 7.5 cents. ........ $4.50 
It) baskets pears: 
6 at 75 cents.... 
4 at 02Vi cents. .. 7.00 
18 baskets pears: 
4 at 75 cents,................ 
12 at 00 cents...* 
2 at 50 cents................ • 1L-Q 
$22.70 
Commission .*2.27 
Freight, etc. 3.84 6.1.1 
when site 
bother with 
No 
$16.59 
one will get rich on this business of 
giving one-third for selling, yet this is much 
Letter than many fruit growers do. I know 
plenty of cases where 50 per cent ana 00 
per cent must be given to the handler, i had 
one such case this year. The market was shv 
of apples, and we were told that good wind¬ 
falls would bring a fair price. I told the 
bovs to use their best judgment and pick up 
what they could. They made a big shipment, 
rather suspiciously large I thought, when I 
came home at night and saw it at the station. 
The next morning I went to the city and 
thought I would' walk by and see how tine the 
apples were. The commission man saw me 
coming: 
"Say. we must keep an eye on these Jersey 
farmers.” lie said. 
tage of a washing machine is that a stout 
child can turn the crank and relieve Mother 
of from one-half to two-thirds of the hand 
rubbing. That is the theory, but the fact is 
that our machine has been used but little since 
the lirst necessity. The various women who 
have washed for us have mostly looked with 
scorn upon the machine. One of them ex¬ 
pressed tlie sentiment of the rest 
said: "I ain't got no time to 
that!” 
She preferred to double over tiie tub in the 
old-fashioned wav. but then she had back and 
arms like an oak tree. I think a machine 
would be a Help in the average farm family. 
During this hot weather I would make wash¬ 
ing and ironing as easy as possible; in fact, 
I would let most of the ironing go. I have 
seen a case lately where a hard-working 
woniafi, jiot strong naturally, toils and' sweats 
every week standing and ironing her daugh¬ 
ter's white clothes. This girl is strong and 
hearty, and she ought to be made to do this 
work herself. Her mother is making a great 
mistake in thus adding to her own burdens 
at tlie washtub and ironing board under the 
mistaken idea that the girl really appreciates 
such service. Ii.v all means, let the girl do it. 
The exercise will d'o her good, the soapsuds 
will make life sweeter, and the starch will 
stiffen character as well as clothes. 
All Sorts. —I am often asked if one 
will not poison the ground for another, 
example, a reader in Georgia says he 
hear a that oats wil poison the soil for 
bags so that the two crops should never 
so that he would grow up to respect and 
trust you, there could lie no tiner combination. 
The problem is to find him. Most of the 
children of whom we hear are little things 
unable to give much beside annoyance and 
care in return for wbat you offer. When a 
child gets large enough to work and earn 
something his parents or guardians suddenly 
see that he is of great value. I wish I could 
be the means of placing 50.000 boys in good 
country homes. u. w - c. 
crop 
For 
has 
cab 
some 
•What's the matter now? 
of 
show 
up 
you,” and he called a couple 
•I'll 
men . , , 
•Now,” he said, “pick out any package of 
your fruit that you like!” 
‘ I picked out two that looked well, 
men opened the packages 
apples into a tub. Now. my 
package, and it was Hope 
am sorry to admit that it 
The 
and poured the 
name was on tlie 
Farm fruit, but I 
was the worst lot 
of stuff I ever saw. There were rotten 
wormy apples mixed all through the good 
ones. In their desire to make a big shipment 
the boys had plastered my reputation all over 
with rotten fruit. 
There wasn't a thing I could say. It was 
one of those solemn occasions when silence is 
eloquent. You can imagine my feelings as I 
stood tliere and saw customers come along 
and inspect my apples! They would shako 
their heads, say " 
name on the tag ! 
The commission 
and all I could do 
in the field. 
“I have heard 
men.” he said; 
farmers?” 
He finally sold 
package and the 
No! No!" and look at the 
man was at bat that day. 
was to chase long Hies out 
about these commission 
"how about these honest 
11 baskets for $3! The 
freight cost as much for 
these 27-cent baskets as for those he sold at 
$1. and now. for a long time, he will examine 
every Hope Farm basket before he sells it! 
1 toid th<> boys what it meant to graft rotten 
apples on my reputation. Now. when they 
make a shipment I want to know if it is safe 
for me to go down and see them unpacked. 
They say “Yes!” and I have been sovera. 
times, and though the commission people 
would like to catch us again they haven t: 
done it yet. I often hear farmers say that 
commission men cheat them. I wonder i.f 
sometimes there isn't something like our rot¬ 
ten apple experience back of it. I have no 
doubt that if they hadn't held that fruit right 
up in my face where I could see it the boys 
would have stoutly claimed that it was all 
right when it left the farm ! It is human 
nature to take the credit, and hand the dis¬ 
credit to some one else. It is a blessing in 
disguise to have the rotten apples in your 
package strung right around your neck now 
and then. They do not make a fragrant neck¬ 
lace, but they are a useful reminder. It now 
looks ns if apples will bring lots of money 
this year. There will be an unusual tempta¬ 
tion to put small and rotten fruit in the pack¬ 
age. Don’t yield to it! 
Alfalfa. —If we don't get a good and per¬ 
manent stand this time—we will get up and 
try it again. As soon as the Japanese millet 
was off the ground we hauled about 15 loads 
of good manure to the acre and plowed it 
well under. Then the field was harrowed five 
times. Then lime at the tyte of 1.000 
pounds per acre was broadcast and harrowed 
in. Then Alfalfa seed at the rate of 30 
pounds per acre was broadcast evenly and 
covered with the Acme, the blades .being put 
down fiat. Not satisfied with this, we dug 
soil out of the best parts of the old Alfalfa 
field and scattered it over the new; then 
rolled it all smooth. Later if need be, 1 am 
prepared to use 400 pounds of a »ood fer¬ 
tilizer in addition to all tills. It would seem 
as if this ought to make the stuff grow, but 
I am not a betting man, even on a sure thing. 
I want the Alfalfa though. If I can' get five 
acres of it well started my stock will 
be pretty well insured for a Winter’s dinner. 
I am satisfied of one thing. These people 
who claim that Alfalfa wil! grow anywhere, 
no matter what kind of soil you have, don't 
know what they are talking about. Again 
those people who say that Alfalfa will re¬ 
store worn-out land without being fed ought 
to be made*to do hard farm work on on° meal 
a day. 
Indoor Machinery. —It seems that we all 
have our labor troubles. I supposed it was 
easier at the South to find indoor help, but 
here is evidence from South Carolina : 
“I see that you too have been having times 
with the cook problem. I am in the same 
fix just now. Mv wife is a good cook, but it 
is too hard on her these hot days, with all 
her sewing to do. She was a schoolma'am too 
before she decided to cast lots with a farmer. 
What I wish to ask you most of all .just now 
is what kind of a washing machine you use; 
we never have had one.” t. p. p. 
No use talking, the washing problem dur¬ 
ing these hot days is a tough one. The 
starch put into the clothes represents starch 
taken out of the laundress. Our washing ma¬ 
chine is called the St. Louis. I got it some 
years ago. when we had scarlet fever in the 
house, and no one would come to help. The 
rubbing is done by two curved boards fluted 
so that the ridges rub the clothes when put 
between them. A crank when turned gives a 
peculiar motion to those hoards—a good imi¬ 
tation of the human hand against the wash' 
board. I suppose it is fair to say that about 
the limit of this machine’s work is to take 80 
per cent of the dirt from the clothes. The 
neckbands and wristbards must all be done 
by hand, and some hand rubbing must be done 
to all the clothes. We may fairly compare 
the work of a washing machine to that of a 
two-horse cultivator. The manufacturers 
sometimes sav that no hand hoeing is needed 
with their machines. Farmers know that 
some hand work pays, no matter how skill 
fully the cultivators are used. The advan- 
together in this way. Another says Unit you 
cannot get a good crop of potatoes after cab¬ 
bage. My opinion is that suoh observers mis¬ 
take poverty for poison. The oat crop is a 
surface feeder, and makes a quick growth in 
a short time. Therefore this crop will be 
sure to get about all the available fertility 
I here is in t lie land. Now cabbage is an¬ 
other crop that makes a strong, hearty growth 
in a short time, and it must have a rich sup¬ 
ply of plant food. Few cases of the big heat 
are developed on thin opportunity. When 
you follow oats with cabbage and do not fer¬ 
tilize or manure heavily of course the cab¬ 
bages fail because there is nothing to make 
them succeed. I know from experience that 
if you will manure an oat stubble you can 
raise a fair crop of cabbage. Suppose a renter 
named Brown took a farm and skinned it. 
plowed up all the sod and got all he could out 
of the soil. Another man named Smith 
takes the farm and finds that the soil will 
not produce anything. We would not say 
that Brown always curses or poisons the soil 
for Smith—while men named Jones or Whitt 
might succeed on it ! We mustn't mix up 
poverty with poison—though one may seem 
as bad as the other. . . . Since the rains 
came the strawberries are jumping. We 
plowed out part of the old Marshall, field, 
leaving strips of plants about IS inches 
wide. These have been cleaned out, and we 
shall thin out the plants so that they stand 
almost one foot apart all over. This requires 
great finger work, but we expect to be paid 
next year in big. red berries. We are trans 
planting large layer plants in various parts 
of the farm. We make the planting place 
clean to begin with. Then on a strip about 
two feet wide a good dressing of fertilizer 
is scattered r-r.d well raked in. Then two 
lines are run along this strip—18 inches 
• apart. We (Vig big layer plants from the 
rows set out last Spring, keeping a ball of 
dirt around the roots. These plants are set 
on the lines I have mentioned—two feet 
apart—alternating so that there is a plant 
each foot of the double row. By laying down 
the two strongest runners from each plant 
and keeping the weeds all out we have a 
fair crop next year and a big one the year 
following. These double rows are placed 
four feet apart. We are also setting plants 
in the rows between the currant bushes as 
fast as the potatoes are dug out. These 
plants, well fed and kept free from runners, 
will produce beautiful fruit, for the Marshall 
colors to perfection in the shade. All this 
hand' work is in line with our plan to crowd 
such crops on the lower farm—giving the 
hills to fruit . . . Our own onion crop 
is not equal to last year's. The maggots 
hurt, and the dry weather kept the onions 
from growing Now they are doing better, 
and we shall have some good ones after all. 
During the dry weather the ragweed 
made but a feeble growth, but when the 
showers came the weed spread like magic 
all over the lower fields. We shall clip this 
growth about the middle of August and let 
it lie on the ground among the young trees. 
I regard! ragweed as a good thing for a 
fruit grower. It appears to gather potash 
and. when cut before it seeds and left on the 
ground, it makes good mulch. I wish I 
had more of it in the orchards. ... I 
have very few things to brag about at Hope 
Farm, but T would like to have some of our 
cultivating friends see a little block of Car¬ 
man peach trees planted on a rocky ledge. 
There is barely a foot of soil over the solid 
rock in manv places. The trees were planted 
last May in small holes without cultivation 
or manure. All they have had is a heavy 
mulching of weeds taken from life onions and 
strawberries. Those have been piled in some 
cases two feet high around these trees, and 
you ought to see them now. They were little 
.Tune buds when planted, but now some of 
them stand higher than my head, though 
they are headed only a foot or so from the 
ground. The color of the leaves and the 
thrift of the trees must be seen to be appre' 
ciated. T regret to say that other peach trees 
on the farm are much inferior to these, yet 
they show the possibilities of mulching, and 
I now know that we should have trees grow¬ 
ing near the garden. 
Boy Labor. —The 
Pennsylvania states 
expressed : 
“I want, a boy from 13 to 15 years old (or 
one strong enough to lift a can of milk from 
a wagon to milk block) to work on farm. 
He must be able to speak and understand 
English, one whom we can take in our fam¬ 
ily. (We have no “servants’ quarters.”.) 
I want to hire until December 1. The right 
kind of a boy will be allowed to work for 
board and go" to school through the Winter. 
At present I am paying $8 per month with 
board.” L. w. m. e. 
I think vou will find it harder to get such 
a boy than it would be to find a man. Yet 
here‘is a good chance for some stout boy to 
find a good home and save a little money. 
At about the age of such a boy I was sent 
to work as errand boy in a city store. If 
I could have spent the growing years in some 
such homo as I take this one to be I would be 
better off now. I fear, however, that you 
will have a job finding the boy. If you take 
one of that age out of an institution the 
chances are that he will bring habits to the 
farm that will blister your ideas of morality 
If vou take one from a private home his 
parents or friends will be in constant fear 
that you will work him too hard. If you 
could "find an orphan with hope and ambition 
still left, in him. and give him a good home. 
following letter 
a want which is 
from 
often 
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