1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
io9 
Hope Farm Notes 
Home and Farm. —The warm weather still 
continues. There is little or no frost in the 
ground. I learn that in northern New York 
there is but little more than here. This up¬ 
sets our plans. \Ve had a pair of bobsleds 
sent down from Canada, but have been un¬ 
able to use them but once. One good use of 
this open Winter is to take care of surface 
water. We can find the hidden springs and 
surface wash easily now, and a small 
amount of ditching will take care of them. 
There has been a wet spot in the lane that 
bothered us greatly. We spotted it this 
Winter early, and by digging a short ditch 
and laying tile under the road we think we 
have provided for it. . . . Are we to 
have any Winter? People say the average 
of cold weather is much the same one year 
with another. You may take this either 
way. If it refers to each year by itself we 
are going to be frozen solid in February and 
March. If it means a series of years it 
should be mild all through the Winter, to 
make up for the last two years. An old 
peach grower told me the other day that the 
peach buds would stand 10 degrees below zero 
yet. It doesn't seem to me possible. . . . 
We are pruning earlier than usual this year. 
I used to be afraid for the trees, but now 
1 see farmers in western New York pruning 
in January. They do not cut off as much as 
we do. One of my orchards of large, high- 
headed trees has considerable scale. We are 
cutting off some scaly limbs that would not 
otherwise go, both to get rid of the scale 
and also to open the tops so that we can 
blow the spray thoroughly into the tree. We 
all know, how hard it is to spray these old 
high heads at best, and when the top is filled 
with branches that cross and hide each other, 
the job is Impossible. I sometimes talk with 
people who laugh at the plan of heading a 
tree down close to the ground. They can see 
little merit in the plan. Let them once get 
a good dose of the scale, and we shall soon 
see them tumble off their high perch because 
they will find that they cannot coat the 
upper story of their high trees with a scale¬ 
killing wash. . . . It is strange some¬ 
times how things change our views. The 
menace of the scale forces us to change the 
shape and character of our trees. We must 
force peach trees into bearing early, and avoid 
excessive growth of wood, and depend on 
young trees for our fruit. It is not from 
choice that some of ns feel that we shall do 
better with small, quick-bearing dwarfs, but 
because these little fellows give us a better 
chance to fight the enemy. I was talking 
with a first-class farmer last week when he 
pointed at three crows perched on a dead 
tree. “I wish I had my rifle,” he said, “I 
think I could make their feathers fly. I used 
to like a crow, and I know now that they 
destroy many insects, but they steal the tur¬ 
key eggs. Those crows watch, and when they 
see a turkey leave her nest they will pounce 
down and get the eggs." There you have an¬ 
other instance of what I mean. New condi¬ 
tions will force us to change our plans and 
opinions. 
A 1 . 1 . Sorts. —It is too soft to haul manure, 
and almost too warm to slaughter the hogs 
If we expect to keep the meat. The rye is 
starting up green and fresh, and in the low 
places grass is green. Still I imagine Jack 
Frost has an eye on us yet. . . . Do you 
know the exact lines of your farm? * I 
thought I knew mine, but it seems I didn’t. 
Hope Farm is in three parcels, and 1 thought 
they were all about square or oblong. We 
sold some wood on the part farthest from the 
road, and one day we found that some one 
had been cutting on what we thought was 
our land. I followed the wagon tracks and 
found the wood in my neighbor’s shed. To 
my surprise he claimed that the land be¬ 
longed to his farm. Before pulling off my 
coat about it I thought l would look up my 
deed, and there I found from the description 
that a corner of between three and four acres 
had been cut out of this field and actually 
belongs to the other farm. It is a good 
thing to make sure of such things before you 
talk too much. The land has little value—- 
being a swamp far from the road, but I had 
the fun of thinking I owned it for some 
years. . . . People sometimes ask me 
how much land we have. When I tell them 
about 00 acres, they fail to' understand why 
we do not farm as they do with a definite 
rotation of crops. You see it is hard for one 
man to put himself in the place of another. 
A farm with a smooth level tract of 90 
acres can easily make a definite rotation, and 
is sure of certain crops every year. We can¬ 
not do that, for 30 acres of the farm are in 
chestnut timber, and over 40 acres more so 
hilly and rough that we could not possibly 
follow a rotation. Thus the conditions are 
entirely different. I am often asked why 
we do not locate on a <iood level farm. This 
is our home, and I believe in its possibilities 
■—not as level farms are worked, but on a 
system of our own. We have evidently made 
some mistakes, but now I believe we have 
struck pretty near the true plan for such 
a farm—that is, crowding the lower fields 
hard with small fruit and vegetables, and 
letting the hills pretty much alone with 
fruit trees. 
Crops XJnder Wire. —Here is a new one to 
me from a Pennsylvania man : 
“If I make a frame six inches high and 
P- to 14 feet long, and cover it with one inch 
mesh wire, what grains or seeds should I 
plant that will grow up through the wire 
mesh and be nibbled off by my chickens, and 
still continue to prowf” j. n. j. 
I have never seen it done, and rather doubt 
the possibility of the scheme. If I were to 
•i'.v it I should sow some Bed clover and 
Dwarf Essex rape, as most likely to endure, 
borne oats with the other seeds might help. 
Such crops will surely lieat most men under 
ike conditions. Fasten a man down and nip 
him every time he shows his head and he will 
soon quit. Clover and rape have more perse¬ 
verance than most men. Because they sim¬ 
ply obey habit without realizing the conse 
quences? Possibly—yet why does habit drive 
some men to persist in doing mischief, while 
the first bard blow’makes it shirk the good’ 
l he Shot-Gun Argument.-— Here is a 
proposition harder than Mr. Cosgrove's fa- 
uious horse thief ctise i 
“I have several acres of mountain land 
that would produce large crops of blueberries 
nearly every year if it was not for fires be¬ 
ing started by berry pickers to prevent so 
many berries being put upon our local mar¬ 
kets. This is one reason and another is be¬ 
cause I try to keep strangers from gathering 
the fruits on this land, as I wish to harvest 
and market the crop myself. I own the land 
and pay the taxes on it. Now what can I 
do to protect it from fires? Don't tell me to 
find out who sets the fire and have a war¬ 
rant of arrest sworn out for the guilty par¬ 
ties, as I live just over the line in another 
State, and expect I would have to go through 
a lot of red tape before I could have the 
guilty one brought to justice. Even if I 
was living in the same State and hired a 
watchman to guard the property anyone 
could come on the land and set fire to the 
dry grass before the watchman's eyes and 
make good his escape before he could be iden- 
titied or the watchman in charge could gel 
near enough to be sure who the guilty one 
was. If 1 put up several signs on this land, 
warning people not to trespass on the same, 
have I a right to shoot any person caught in 
the act of starting or trying to start a fire 
on the posted land? If you know of any 
better way to protect the crop from fire than 
by shooting the guilty parties if caught in 
the act, I would be very glad to know your 
plan or to hear from anyone who has been 
able to protect his blueberries." 
This is too much for me—I am neither a 
lawyer nor the owner of a shot gun. I never 
thought I had any use for a gun, and I 
never had a case in court except once in my 
foolish days when I was fined for running 
my cow pony through the streets of a Col¬ 
orado town ! Some one else will have to tell 
how to protect the blueberries. My under¬ 
standing is that the law will justify no 
man in shooting another unless he can show 
that his life was in danger. I have known 
cases where people fired coarse salt or bird 
shot at prowlers who were after a henroost. 
There was evidence that some of these mis¬ 
siles hit, but no one ever came back with the 
constable to arrest the shooter! I imagine 
a chicken thief could show his wounds and 
get good damages from the man who fired at 
him, but most people would drop the dam¬ 
ages rather than put on the thief’s reputa¬ 
tion. I am not quite prepared to say what 
I would do in such a case. I would like to 
hear from others. I was quite proud of my 
"trespass" signs until I found that hunters 
had lilled them full of shot as evidence of 
their appreciation. 
. The Dog Tax.— Here is a man on the 
track of a good thing:: 
"I notice in Hope Farm Notes that you 
speak of paying a tax on your dog. In 
Georgia we have no lax, consequently but few 
sheep are raised, as there are at least 200 
worthless curs to every sheep. If we could 
have a tax with some official to collect same 
it would do away with 75 per cent of the 
dogs. The money received from the tax 
could be applied to the school fund, which 
is small enough in Georgia. It would compel 
many a negro whose only property consists 
of dogs to help pay for the schooling of his 
children. Let us know if you can what 
States have dog tax. how the tax is collected, 
and if it is a success." m. r. 
\Ye pay a tax on Shep willingly, though 
he never did any damage that I know of. 
When a man touches the dog tax question he 
stirs up a bad hornet’s nest. We have col¬ 
lected facts from most of the States, and 
they will be printed before long. The lion 
and the lamb will lie down together just 
about the same time that the sheep busi- 
nes prospers in a land of cur dogs. It is 
more a matter of public spirit than of dog 
tax. and you can't enforce a dog tax until 
public spirit is re-enforced. n. w. c. 
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