1906. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
523 
Hope Farm Notes 
Strawberry Matters. —On Saturday 
afternoon the boy was in some trouble. 
You would have been at bis age after tak¬ 
ing orders for 40 quarts of berries and a 
bushel of peas—all wanted for supper— 
and here was the rain falling in a regular 
stream. It is a nice thing to eat straw¬ 
berries' with plenty of sugar and cream, 
and it isn’t so bad to sit in the shade and 
read how some expert grows them. It is 
another story to get down in the dirt and 
make the plants grow, and still another to 
pick in a rain. The vines appear to hold 
more moisture than any sponge you ever 
saw, and they hold it where it will do 
you the least good. The rain will find 
a way down your back in spite of your 
best efforts to hold your head up. Yet 
this is a part of the strawberry business. 
Mother was inclined to let the berries go, 
but I don’t like to disappoint customers— 
so we all got out in the wet and filled the 
orders. The boy drove off with his load 
in ample time. We have had a good 
berry crop, and there has been little 
trouble in disposing of it. We could have 
sold five times as many without trouble. 
One box or crate sold another for the 
berries were large and fine looking and 
there is not much nearby competition. We 
got 12 y 2 cents a quart without trouble. 
Every visitor from town said we ought 
to charge more, for such berries this year 
have brought 15 cents and more per box. 
I saw some in New York not a b.t better 
than ours selling readily at 25 cents. I 
feel that “two for a quarter” is a fair 
price —quite enough for the average citi¬ 
zen to pay. I have never felt disposed to 
make a profit out of a man’s necessities! 
But I am told that this is nonsense, since 
everyone else will force me to pay “all 
the traffic will bear.” Very likely, but 
howl are we ever to have a “square deal” 
as between man and man until we begin 
with ourselves? Most people that I know 
spend a lot of talk and time trying to 
make others liberal. If they would begin 
at home—with their own dealings—the 
world would grow better at a more rapid 
rate. President was the berry that stayed 
by us this year. In former years we have 
depended largely upon Marshall. I want 
them still for our own eating but as a 
market berry President goes far ahead. 
It will outyield Marshall two to one. The 
berries are very large and showy, and 
the season of fruiting is longer, since the 
green berries keep coming in after the 
first picking. Marshall is higher in flavor 
and ships better, but President will give 
more money to an equal space. 
During the past few years the business 
of growing berries for a fancy market 
has been wonderfully brought out. Some 
of the prices paid at wholesale are start¬ 
ling. I have found that picking and pack¬ 
ing are two vital points in handling such 
trade. You must be sure of your fruit. 
Of course the fingers should not touch 
the berry—the stem should be pinched off 
and the berry laid gently in the box. In 
wet weather some of the berries are too 
soft and have a worm hole at the point. 
It hurts one’s feelings to throw away great 
Presidents as large as an Astrachan apple, 
but we did it. We could have cut many 
of them for our own eating, but we don’t 
want to sell them. Mr. Kevitt hires wom¬ 
en for pickers and pays $2 a day without 
regard to the number of boxes they pick. 
In this way he gets something to guaran¬ 
tee. Mr. Hunt, I understand, repacks 
every box. The boxes are brought in 
from the pickers and turned out gently 
on a table with a soft cover. Then trust¬ 
ed packers make up the boxes for sale 
and a solid guarantee is possible. All 
this may look like too much work to the 
people who just take a crate to the field, 
fill it without much examination of the 
berries and ship, but where a man is after 
a fancy, nearby market great care is need¬ 
ed to keep the culls out of the box. 
All Sorts. —The rain came upon us 
unexpectedly. There had been two days 
of hot, dry weather. The government 
report called for rain, but there wasn’t 
a cloud in the sky. Then the report 
changed to “fair,” and sure enough we 
woke up Saturday morning to find the 
rain pouring down. As is usual at this 
time, the rain was doing both good and 
harm. There was the Alfalfa- in wind¬ 
rows taking this soaker. We had turned 
it over several times, and had this rain 
held off a few hours longer that hay 
would have been under cover. It was 
rough, but as soon as the rain stops we 
will shake it out to the sun. I have 
learned that it takes more bad weather 
than we usually get to ruin hay.. One 
thing was sure, the rain was hurrying up 
the second crop of Alfalfa about as fast 
as it cut down the hay. The cherries 
were nearly ripe, and this rain means rot 
for them, but it is just exactly what the 
young strawberries need. The trees were 
just beginning to show the effect of the 
dry weather. Had it kept up a week 
longer it would have been necessary to 
drop everything and cut the grass around 
these trees for mulching. As it is, they 
will not suffer, and the grass will be bet¬ 
ter. Thus while the cow peas did not 
need the rain the grass, trees and garden 
did. So we make no complaint but go 
ahead. . . . My fruit crop will not be 
as large as I expected. 1 here has been 
considerable “drop” of peaches, and while 
the apples are fairly well set the trees 
are by no means loaded. There have been 
early reports of heavy fruit crops, but I 
think later estimates will cut it down. 
In this section I am quite sure there is 
less than usual. ... We have planted 
more corn this year than for several 
years. At one time I argued against 
planting corn, but since that time the price 
has risen to a high point, and we have in¬ 
creased our flock of hens. We can grow 
fair crops of corn on the hills, and as the 
sod in the young orchard runs out it 
seems as if corn were the most profitable 
crop to grow on it before reseeding. I 
have been forced to change my opinion 
regarding the corn crop. 
Changes. —Every year makes it evident 
that as a farming country this section 
has had its day. Sometimes on a Sun¬ 
day afternoon I sit on my favorite stone 
wall with the valley spread out before me 
and seem to see the past unrolled like a 
scroll. Six or more generations of white 
men have lived among these hills. The 
first one came up the valley and traded 
with the Indians for land. Others fol¬ 
lowed, and slowly cleared the forest and 
built their homes. Washington with his 
men camped for the Winter only a few 
miles from where I sit. Our church was 
a prison for Hessian soldiers. All 
through these slow-moving centuries the 
farmers toiled on, cleared the fields, built 
walls—lived what we called narrow lives 
and passed on. To-day their work and 
their influence has about as much weight 
upon our community as the shadows that 
crawl along the valley. For most of us 
who occupy the land to-day are “out- 
landers”—with childhood passed else¬ 
where—coming here at middle life to new 
homes! When land ownership^ skips a 
generation the old plan is upset. The old- 
timers made a living and more at “old- 
fashioned” farming—a few potatoes a lit¬ 
tle rye and straw, hay and corn, but the 
great West finished that and left behind 
a better chance for fruit chickens and 
Summer boarders. It seems like a strange 
thing for me to sit on my rough hills— 
as wild as nature can make them—and 
see in the distance buildings that _ look 
down upon the great city. We are in an 
unexplored corner of the city’s back yard, 
and every Spring they come nearer to 
us with the hoe and spade to ‘clean us 
up.” My neighbor is a hopeful man who 
sees good in every change. Fie pictures 
to me the horde of home-seekers that are 
to swarm up our valley bringing maca¬ 
dam roads electric light and power, trol¬ 
leys and all the other fingers and arms of 
civilization. This will mean, he says, 
great prices for our land, comforts for 
our children and an end of hard toil. 
I cannot doubt it, but will any of us be 
happier for the change? Are we not 
really a part of the silence, and has not 
the daily round of toil become a part of 
our lives? As for me, if this country is 
to become a mere roosting place for com¬ 
muters who rush to and from the city I 
would let them have it and move back 
farther into the hills. And yet I shall 
not sit down and wait for them. They 
must pay the price for the orchards 
and the Alfalfa fields, though they will 
have little use for such things. These 
changes are a part of human destiny. We 
cannot stop them. I realize that some 
farmers, old or tired, discontented or sor¬ 
rowful, would be eager to see their homes 
rise in value so as to sell out and move. 
As for me, I do not like to see the change 
coming, for somehow whenever “civiliza¬ 
tion” reaches its fingers into the country 
the place which it touches is never quite 
the same again. Perhaps these things 
would not strike me in just this way if 
the sun were shining and the wind blow¬ 
ing. As it is the day is dull and gray— 
the windmill stands idle, and the tank is 
low. H. W. C. 
How the “1900” Gravity Washes 
Clothes in Six Minutes. 
H ERE'S a mechanical wonder—our "1900" 
Gravity Washing Machine. 
It runs by the aid of Gravity-Power, 
and almost works itself. 
You give it a start with your hand, and grav¬ 
ity pulls it along . 
A little help is needed from yon each time, 
but gravity does nearly all of the hard work. 
The Tub whirls on wheels that follow the curv¬ 
ing gravity tracks, and as it spins around, first 
one way, then the other, it is raised and lowered 
at every revolution. 
All the weight of the Tub and Clothes rests 
on these light-running wheels. 
That's why the Tub spins as easily when full 
of clothes and water as when it is empty. 
So, a whole tubful of Clothes can be washed 
almost as easily and as quickly with this machine 
as a single garment could be washed. 
* * » 
"How does it wash Clothes?" yon ask. 
Well, it's done by driving the hot, soapy 
water through the meshes of the Clothes as the 
Tub and the water whirl rapidly—and by alter¬ 
nate squeezing and sucHon as the Tub is raised 
and lowered. 
There’s a perforated wooden disk that rests 
on top of the Clothes, which is held so firmly in 
place by the center rod that it can’t move up nor 
down. 
But the Tub moves np and down as it whirls 
half way round and back, squeezing the Clothes 
against the disk when Tub goes up, and forming 
a suction of water through the Clothes when the 
Tub goes down. 
Thus, the swift driving of this soapy water 
through the Clothes at each half turn, and the 
squeezing and suction, washes the dirt out of 
the threads without any rubbing. 
Mind you, without rubbing ..—which means 
without wearing, the Clothes. 
It's the rubbing on washboards, and on 
other Washing Machines, that w ears out Clothes 
quicker than hard use at hard labor. 
That costs money for clothes, doesn't it? 
And the everlasting rubbing is the hardest 
work In washing, isn’t it? Rubbing dirty clothes 
on a metal washboard with one’s knuckles, over 
a tub of steaming hot water, is harder work and 
more dangerous to health than digging coal deep 
down in a mine. 
* * * 
Well, the "1900" Gravity Washer cuts out all 
the slavery of washing, and half the expense. 
It will wash a whole tub full of dirty clothes 
In Six Minutes. It will wash them cleaner in 
Six^Tinutes than they could be washed b.v hand 
in Twenty Minutes. And it won’t wear the 
clothes, nor break a button, nor fray even a 
thread of lace. 
Because Running Water can’t wear the 
clothes, nor break buttons, nor tear buttonholes. 
And, it is the hot, soapy water, swiftly run¬ 
ning through the clothes that takes all the dirt 
out of them in Six little minutes. 
A child can wash a tub full of dirty clothes in 
half the time you could do It yourself—with half 
the wTirk. 
Think what that half-time is worth to you 
even week for Ten years! 
It is worth 50 cents a week to you. That is 
$26.00 a year, or $260.00 saved in 10 years. 
And, a 1900 "Gravity" Washer lasts 10 years, 
Well,—pay us the 50 cents a week our 1900 
"Gravity” WusLer will save you, for a few 
months only. 
Then you will own a Washer that will last 
10 years without any cost to you. But don’t pay 
us a cent until you have tested the ‘ T900' ’ Grav¬ 
ity Washer for a full month at our expense. 
We will ship it to any reliable person free, on a 
month’s trial, and leave the test to you. And we 
will pay the freight both ways out of our own 
pockets. That shows how sure we are that the 
' ‘1900’' Gravity Washer will do all we promise. 
If you don’t find it does better washing, in 
half the time, than you can wash by hand, sencl 
it bacFto us. If you don’t find it saves more than 
half the wear on the clothes, send it back to us. 
If it doesn’t wash dirty clothes in six minutes, 
send it back to us. 
* * ♦ 
Remember, we will pay the freight both 
ways, out of our own pockets. You don't even say 
you 1 11 buy it, till you have used it a full monthT 
and know all about it. Isn’t that a pretty stralght- 
forward offer between strangers? 
How could we profit by that offer unless our 
"1900" GravityAVasher would do all we say it 
will? 
How could we have sold thousands upon 
thousands of "1900” Washers on this plan, if 
they hadn’t ‘ ‘made good?’ ’ 
Don’t slave over the wash-tub any more. 
Don’t pay a washerwoman for eight hours a 
week when she can do the work far better, with 
less wear on the clothes, in four hours, with a 
"1900" <a ravlty Washer. 
The 4 hours a week less labor thus saves you 
60 cents a week for Washerwoman’s Wages. 
Pay us 50 cents a week out of that 60 cents our 
Washer saves you, if you decide to keep it, after 
a month’s trial. Then you own the Washer. 
Write us today, if yon want a month’s free 
use of the quickest Washer in the world. 
Address. R. F. Bieber, Treasurer, "1900' 
Washer Co„ Box 6074 Binghamton, N. Y., or 
355 Yonge St., Toronto, Canada. 
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