THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
393 
1900. 
Hope Farm Notes 
Home Notes. —When the disease got 
hold of Lyon and Jack it was time for the 
workers to be thoughtful—with very little 
time for thought. Spring was rushing 
upon us, with potato ground to be plowed, 
strawberries to be weeded and planted, 
and over 600 trees on the way. An incu¬ 
bator was just discharging its chicks and 
six hens with their broods needed atten¬ 
tion. The cats were prowling around like 
small tigers (which they are) to get at 
the chickens. Mother took the chicks in 
hand and, with the boy to help her, made 
coops for them without pounding a lin¬ 
ger. The brooders were dusted up and 
put in service, and the hen family pro¬ 
vided for. I took Bob and Jerry to plow 
the potato field. It must be confessed that 
Bob is a lazy Hope Farmer, who will 
throw all the work he can upon an old 
gentleman like Jerry. With the ordinary 
harness, with whiffletrees, this shirk can 
hold back and make Jerry do so much of 
the work that he comes in at night too 
tired to eat. We fitted up the Sherwood 
steel harness for Bob’s benefit. With this 
the horses pull on a single chain which is 
hooked to a curved steel bar which comes 
up under the horses and is held up by a 
belt over their backs. Instead of long 
traces short steel rods are fastened from 
the harness to this steel. There are no 
whiffletrees to drag around and the horses 
are up close to the work. On every job 
where no pole is required we like this 
Sherwood harness, but it is safe to say 
that Bob doesn’t. A horse cannot shirk 
so easily with this arrangement. I often 
wish that some men I know could be held 
up close to their job with hooks of steel! 
I don’t pretend that we did an expert job 
of plowing, but we tumbled the sod over. 
It was the old Alfalfa field, and I under¬ 
stand now what people mean when they 
say that Alfalfa is spiked into the ground. 
It certainly is—spiked and clinched. 
There were roots as large as my thumb, 
and as tough as a new rope. I got so 
that every time 1 hit an extra big one I 
felt more hopeful for the new Alfalfa 
field, which looks well now. I can imag¬ 
ine some “know-it-all” man standing at 
the end of the field and finding fault with 
the work with “You don’t hold that plow 
right!” or “Why don’t you fix that har¬ 
ness?” I should have been very glad to 
let such a man take the plow and finish 
the field while i watched him to learn just 
how to do it. We tumbled it over and 
then started the Acme, but work is crowd¬ 
ing hard, and from the time I crawl out 
of bed and weed strawberries till break¬ 
fast, until Mother takes the candle and 
makes her last round among the brooders, 
there is enough to do. 
The Farm. —The first Alaska peas were 
planted April 17. That is later than we 
like, but the soil was not really fit before. 
The next planting will be Nott’s Excel¬ 
sior. The potato pieces which the boy 
planted in boxes have sent stalks above 
ground, and will soon be ready for plant¬ 
ing out. It remains to be seen whether 
we can gain any time in this way. . . . 
The President strawberry plants came by 
express in fine shape, and we were able 
to plant them at once in what seems ideal 
condition. The soil where they go was in 
fodder corn last year, with rye seeded in 
the corn. In February this ground was 
coated thick with well-rotted manure. As 
soon as fit this ground was plowed deep 
so that all the manure was put under. 
Then we worked it five times with the 
Acme harrow from day to day, crushing 
and fining the lumps and giving a level 
surface. This left about an inch of dry 
soil on top and a deep, moist bed below, 
into which the roots were put by driving 
down a spade or trowel, working it back 
and forth, spreading the roots in the hole 
and firming the soil around them. We 
were careful to scratch a little loose dirt 
around the plant; otherwise, if the weather 
turns too dry the firmed soil may bake 
around the crown. We planted in rows 
four feet apart and two feet in the row. 
With high culture we shall have wide 
rows in the Fall. It would be possible to 
plant peas or even early sweet corn be¬ 
tween the rows of strawberries, but we 
have given up that form of crowded cul¬ 
ture except in a small garden. In the 
rush of farm work the two crops will not 
receive the hand work they need. It will 
pay to leave the space open and use the 
horse. . . . Our plan with potatoes 
this year is to plant in hills. We haven’t 
done that before in years, but we want to 
leave the land cleaner than we have 
before. Tree planting interferes with po¬ 
tatoes, but we shall have to find time to 
harrow that plowed field about six times 
before we mark it. The marker will run 
both ways, making a deep furrow. We 
use good-sized pieces of seed, one piece 
at a place. The dropper kicks a little soil 
over the seed as he goes on. Then the 
Acme harrow is run with a light boy on 
it up and down the rows, thus partly fill¬ 
ing the furrows. A good handful of fer¬ 
tilizer is thrown around the hill, and 
about a week after planting the Acme is 
run again in the same way to keep any 
crust broken and kill out the weeds. We 
shall try to keep the cultivators running 
steadily, and give at least one hand hoe¬ 
ing. . . . The first batch of about 450 
trees came late Saturday afternoon. Had 
I known of what was in store for us I 
should not have planted a tree this year, 
but there they were to be cared for. 
Philip and I hauled them to the hill, and 
got them out of the box at once. They 
were "heeled in” by digging a shallow 
trench, packing the roots in it, and cover¬ 
ing them well with moist soil. By this 
time it was five o’clock, and Philip went 
back to do the chores. I stayed up and 
planted 20 Greening apple trees by a quar¬ 
ter past six. That means that I dug the 
holes, pruned the trees, root and top, and 
got them firmly in the ground. I could 
not keep that* record up for many hours 
in succession, but as we plant trees it can 
be done rapidly. The ground is all staked 
out accurately to begin with. We do not 
dig a large hole; with practice four good 
licks with a spade will give us what we 
want. With apple trees we plant mostly 
“cut-backs,” that is, a two-year-old tree 
cut off so that it sends up a new sprout. 
We therefore have in most cases a three- 
year-old root with a one-year sprout. We 
cut the roots back so that they fit into the 
hole without crowding and cut the stem 
back so as to leave two feet or so above 
ground. I set the tree in the hole with a 
notched board to hold it in place and fill 
in the darker soil around the roots, 
stamping it down as hard as possible. 
The hole is filled with top soil and 
stamped down, and the yellow soil scraped 
around the tree to help kill out the grass. 
This planting is not ideal, but it seems to 
suit our conditions, and the trees make 
good growth. As we are situated this 
year it would take us all Summer to plant 
out trees in large holes. 
Woman’s Work. —We may think we 
are having a struggle to get our work 
done, but it is not a circumstance to the 
way some others are driven. Some of the 
reports I get ought to make a big, stout 
man ashamed of himself for complaining. 
Perhaps the hardest struggles are made 
by women who are trying to hold the farm 
home together. In many cases hired men 
take advantage of them, and I regret to 
say that neighbors sometimes sneer and 
do their best to make life hard. I print 
below a letter from such a woman on a 
large New England farm. She wants a 
one-horse cultivator and a one-horse 
roller, on which she can ride and cultivate 
corn both ways. With such tools she 
can care for a good-sized crop of corn. 
Grass and corn fodder are her crops, as 
she is on a dairy farm, and can do her 
own milking: . 
My plan is to seed down with corn and 
at as little expense as possible for the labor. 
I know it is not the plan usually followed, 
(1. e., to seed with corn), but circumstances 
alter cases, and this is my situation: My 
father helpless in a hospital, and a not over¬ 
strong mother, and no one but myself on her 
feet, you might say, indoors and out, on a 
160-acre farm. I cannot hire much labor at 
present. I do not care so much for the grain 
as I do for the forage- and a good stand of 
grass. Formerly 1 gave one-third for getting 
the hay cut, but last year they demanded 
one-half, and it was the best I could do, and 
I want the corn fodder to feed in the Fall 
before I begin on the hay. There is no 
profit for me to seed with oats, and perhaps 
there will be none with corn, hut I shall try 
it. C. H. M. 
Vermont. 
I would surely try it. I have seeded 
Timothy and Red-top in corn, and made 
a fair stand. It will not be equal to 
Clark’s grass, but under the circumstances 
it is a wise plan to try. If you can use 
a hand rake close around the hills of corn 
after seeding you will get a much better 
stand, for this is where the seed is apt 
to be left uncovered by the cultivator. 
There is an Acme harrow made for one 
horse that might answer or a fine-tooth 
harrow Iron Age cultivator. I think it 
would be possible to fit a seat to either of 
these tools. For such seeding I would 
run the small-tooth cultivator one way 
and then sow the seed, using more than 
for ordinary sowing. Then run the same 
cultivator the other way of the field and 
follow with the roller and the rake if pos¬ 
sible. The roller is not essential if you 
can fit a plank or piece of joist to drag 
behind the cultivator and smooth down 
the ground. You are facing a hard situa¬ 
tion bravely and honorably. Wouldn’t it 
do me good to put some of the members 
of these “Woman’s Clubs” who talk so 
glibly about the rights and dignity of 
women face to face with just such a job 
as this? h. w. c. 
Scraps and Bone Cutters. — I have just 
been reading Mr. Cosgrove’s article, the prob¬ 
lem of beef scraps, page 315. I get beef 
scraps and bones from the market and grind 
them myself. I do not own a bone cutter, 
but one of my neighbors has one and I have 
the privilege of using it whenever I please. 
Many times I have taken a two-hours' grind, 
and it did not kill me either, and I weigh 
only 142 pounds and am past 50 years old. 
but’ I am willing to admit that it is no picnic 
to"run one, and I would not care for it as 
a steady job. The machine 1 use is a Mann, 
the best I have ever seen; it does not clog to 
amount to anything. a, i„ smith. 
WeSTiibotiSODaysTria! 
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