1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
427 
Hope Farm Notes 
The Farm.' —Every now and then it 
seems necessary to make some sort of ex¬ 
planation. Not long ago a man said I 
must be a fraud. He was willing to bet 
that there is no such place as Hope Farm. 
When I convinced him that my farm is 
real rock and soil he went out and got 
several new subscribers for The R. N.-Y. 
That’s a good way to pay a bet. I will 
say for the benefit of new friends that 
Hope Farm is located in northern New 
Jersey, some four miles south of the New 
York line. We have about 90 acres— 
some 30 of it in chestnut timber. In 
our section the farms are long and narrow 
—ours is two fields wide and nearly 
three-fourths of a mile long. There are 
less than 10 acres of low level land near 
the road—the rest consists chiefly of the 
east and west sides of a steep hill or 
ridge. This hill is very stony, and in 
many places the solid ledge of rock comes 
very close to the surface. I speak of this 
because some 90-acre farmers who have 
strong, level farms all under cultivation 
cannot understand why we do not follow 
a definite rotation as they do. We have 
tried it, but on our rough hills we find it 
impossible. One year we raised nearly 
1,500 bushels of potatoes, and a large corn 
crop on our steep hillsides, but a fair 
computation of labor and cost convinced 
me that it is better for us to leave most 
of these crops to the level land farmers. 
1 therefore figured out the scheme of 
planting orchards of apple and peach, with 
some pear, all over the hills, and crowding 
most of our cropping upon the lower 
fields. In planting these orchards we tried 
to combine two experiments. I wished 
to demonstrate, if I could, either the value 
or the folly of a modification of H. M. 
Stringfellow’s plan of fruit culture. This 
means severe pruning of both root and 
top, and planting in small holes. Mr. 
Stringfcllow wanted me to plow and cul¬ 
tivate for a few years until the trees came 
in bearing, and then to leave the orchards 
in sod. He did not quite understand the 
nature of the soil where we planted the 
trees, or the experiment I had in mind. 
I wanted to see if it is possible to de¬ 
velop an orchard large enough to support 
a family on a worn-out farm with such 
labor and capital as the average family 
can furnish. Thus we planted the trees 
right in the old sod or among the brush 
without plowing or cultivation. They 
have had but little cultivation except what 
was given with a hoe and a brush scythe. 
We have used some fertilizer, but mainly 
depend on our lighter manure and potash. 
Under this system our 3,000 trees run 
all the way from close to a failure to 
above the average in growth and thrift. 
We do not expect any more failures, since 
we think we know now how to do it. On 
the lower ground we have planted about 
five barrels of potatoes, three to four acres 
of corn, some 2,000 pepper plants, a patch 
of transplanted onions, a full supply of 
garden truck to sell to peddlers, about an 
acre of strawberries and considerable cab¬ 
bage. We keep about a dozen hogs, over 
200 hens and a small flock of turkeys. The 
prospects are good this year for a fair 
crop of apples and quite an outfit of 
peaches. We hope to break up a three- 
acre apple orchard and sow to cow peas, 
to be followed by Alfalfa, and we shall 
also try to tear up the soil in some of our 
young peach orchards and start some crop 
for mulching the trees. This may seem 
like small farming to some of our readers, 
but it seems to suit our farm and labor, 
and is part of a definite experiment to 
see what an unskilled family can do. Our 
fields of cultivated crops are small, but we 
crowd the manure on them and try to give 
good culture. 
All Sorts. —The Alfalfa stood nearly 
15 inches high by May 1. I never saw 
anything grow as it did in the last two 
weeks of April. Its growth has encour¬ 
aged me to tackle a tough and stony or¬ 
chard just over the wall from this field. 
Our horses are all light, and the right-lap 
Cutaway is too much for a pair of them 
when it is put down into the soil as it 
should be. I shall try putting Bob and 
Jerry on the tongue with Nellie and Madge 
wearing the Sherwood harness ahead, 
with the chain fast to the end of the 
tongue. Then I think we can weight the 
Cutaway down and tear the sods both 
ways, so that after fitting with the Acme 
we can sow Black-eye cow peas with a 
little sorghum mixed in. I would sow 
Wonderful or Whippoorwill peas if I 
wanted them for green manure, but this 
field is for hay, and that means an earlier 
and more upright kind. I expect to cut 
these peas early in August, and cure for 
hay if possible. If the weather is against 
this I will turn the hogs in for a couple 
of weeks and let them attend to the peas. 
Then I want to cutaway that field all over 
again, fit it as well as I know how, use a 
lot of lime and sow Alfalfa by August 20 
if possible I shall dig soil from the pres¬ 
ent field and scatter it over the orchard at 
the time of seeding. I would not think 
of sowing Alfalfa in a young orchard, but 
this one is at least 20 years old and headed 
high. Properly handled the Alfalfa will 
not hurt these old trees, but will add 30 
per cent to the income from the orchard. 
. . . On April 9 we planted 30 pieces of 
Uncle Gideon’s Quick Lunch potato in a 
large box containing about three inches 
of good soil. They sprouted promptly, 
and on May 2 some of the plants were a 
foot above the soil. They were then 
transplanted outside. We made a furrow, 
took up the potato plants with as much 
soil as possible, and set them about two 
inches deeper than they stood in the box. 
We have about 400 plants handled in this 
way, and since being transplanted they 
have colored a dark green and started 
growing. This is a new variety to me, 
but it certainly made a quick lunch on 
plant food. This plan will not pay on our 
cold soil, though it does in some places 
where the soil is warm,, and where a very 
early potato brings - a high price. I made 
my boxes too large—they are too heavy 
to handle easily. Our first melons were 
planted May 4. The variety is a new one, 
said to be both blight and frost-proof. 
The middle of May is plenty early for 
melons in our country. We are putting 
our main crop of melons and squash this 
year between the rows of currants. We 
have strawberries kept in hills between the 
currant bushes, while in between the rows 
are melons six feet and Hubbard squash 
eight feet apart, with two hills of corn be¬ 
tween each two hills of vines. In late 
July Crimson clover and turnip seed will 
be broadcast among the vines.. In order 
to do this kind of gardening .it is necessary 
to have the soil in good cultivation and to 
feed it heavily. We covered the ground 
thick with well-rotted manure, plowed it 
under with one horse and harrowed about 
10 times until the lumps were smashed. 
We shall use fertilizer in addition from 
time to time. No use trying to grow 
three crops with less manure than one 
crop needs! . . . The strawberry 
plants that were set out up to the middle 
of October last year have done well. The 
loss is very small and the plants look well. 
Those planted after that date cannot be 
called promising. Many died and those 
that lived are spindling. I can save most 
of them by giving good culture, but they 
are not a credit to us. I shall fill in the 
missing places with early cabbage, and use 
strong runner plants to complete the bed. 
Some of our Marshall plants set out in 
late August are very fine, and promise to 
give a fair crop this year. Our entire 
area in strawberries seems to show that 
we know more about handling the crop 
and have lived up to our privilege closer 
than ever before! . . . The disease 
seems to have played itself out. The 
quarantine has been raised, and we are 
fumigating the house. It is a great thing 
to get the Hope Farm family together 
once more. What with rhubarb ready, 
radishes on deck, eggs until you feel like 
bursting your shell, a good bloom on the 
peach trees, the chicks doing well, oats up 
and other blessings too numerous to men¬ 
tion, we are ready to forget a number of 
tilings which it does us no good to re¬ 
member. Let us find a customer for 
Beauty and a good stout man and wife to 
help with the work and Hope Farm would 
surely be in bloom. H. w. c. 
No. 629'4. Combination Top Buf?(?y with Bike 
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As good as sells for *25. more. 
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Elkhart, Indiana. 
No. 689. Banner Spring Concord Style Wagon. 
Price complete, HO. As good os sells for (25. more. 
SAVE $10 TO $20 
In Buying from us at 
WHOLESALE PRICES 
JVo. 221 K. 
SPINDLE SEAT RUN- 64C Eft 
ABOUT, with Shafts QOO-wU 
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A Buggy Bargain 
200 
STYLES 
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BUGGIES and HARNESS 
Direct to user is our way. No 
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Sta, 27, Cincinnati. O. 
TELEPHONE 
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Send for free book 102-A. It contains 
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Buy it on a Plan so You 
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SPENCER’S HERCULES {£»• '“jfijgf 
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d. A. SPENCER, DWIGHT, ILL. 
IN HAY LOADER. 
Tho Dain Hay Yonder is without a doubt the lightest draft loader on the market, 
because its principal working parts are hammock mounted and slow-driven. It 
rakes its full width from the swath without regard to the width of mower used, 
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Stroke over the ground, can be set at any height desired so that it will not gather 
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Lightest 
Draft 
Loader 
On The 
Market 
Dain Manufacturing Co., 
Ottumwa, Iowa. 
WmsSA 
For satisfactory service the 
Dain i.ine leads the van. 
