1007. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
io9 
Hope Farm Notes 
Sou Culture. —So many personal ques¬ 
tions have come of late that 1 will answer 
some of them and let the western notes 
go awhile. Here is one of many: 
I would like to learn the opinion of Tub 
It. N.-Y. on t lie “sod-mulch” system for young 
apple orchards. It is my intention, next 
.Spring, to plant a new orchard, and I had 
intended to follow this system, hut in your 
paper of January 5 the Hope Karin man 
seems to discourage it, as he says that “some 
of his original ideas must be modified.” I 
am following the system on a hearing or¬ 
chard, and find it very satisfactory. Kindly 
advise me. s. 
In my experience it seems to be largely 
a question of mulching material. If I 
can get enough of that I would not 
hesitate to plant the young trees in sod 
and keep them there. They must have a 
good pile of something that will decay 
around them, or they will not make good 
growth without tillage. Every report I 
get makes me feel sure that most failures 
with mulching are title to a lack of mulch 
material. It is absolute nonsense to stick 
a tree into sod and pay no further atten¬ 
tion to it. It is true that several of our 
original ideas must be modified. One is 
cutting off all the side roots and planting 
in a crowbar hole. We can make such 
trees grow with care, but with us they 
are not so satisfactory as those with 
several inches of side root in larger holes. 
Another “original idea” was planting trees 
right in the brush and young growth 
without first clearing the land. Don’t 
do it. Our trees have grown, but the 
land must finally be cleared, and it is a 
nuisance to do it while the trees are 
growing. We also planted some trees on 
poor, sterile land where there was no 
grass. We expected to haul in manure or 
straw or leaves to mulch the trees. It 
does not pay. Either cultivate such land, 
feed the trees heavily or lime it and get 
it into grass at once. You must have 
good grass land in order to make “sod 
culture” a success. 
Raising Farm Hands. —I present the 
following original suggestion for the con¬ 
sideration of the larger Hope Farm 
family: 
I have read the various articles on farm 
help, but no one seems to have a remedy. 
My plan would he this. I am a farmer, 45 
years old. only child married and gone: DO 
acres of land, not all paid for; large farm¬ 
house, no wife. I would take K or 10 boys, of 
10 or 12 years of age, street wolfs, orphans, 
that are freezing and starving In any city, 
give them a home and teach them to grow 
a living from the soil. As they got old 
enough and knew how, let them go to work 
on nearby farms and take others In their 
place . It would take money, but It takes 
money to cultivate any crop, and I think this 
crop worth looking nfter. Tn our school last 
term there were three and four scholars per 
day: :t<> years ago there were from 20 to 
and I have just heard that at the Spring 
term there will he only one Scholar My 
plan would take from three to live years to 
show any results. IIow many are Interested 
enough in boys to help pay tlie expenses? 
Their work would help to feed them, but we 
don’t want to make drudges that would 
hate the word farm, but boys that: In after 
years would stay by, and remember before 
you speak, that it is a matter of years, and 
each year brings its experience. If any 
wealthy man would guarantee the financial 
part, or a number of people of moderate 
means agree to help I will furnish the home, 
time and skill in farming. Now I believe 
that such a farm in every State in the Union, 
In every county in the State, In every 
town in county, and every school district in 
the town, would soon solve the problem of 
help on the farm. c. E. s. 
Oswego Co., N. Y. 
In theory this would be a solution of 
the problem, provided several things were 
sure. You would need a supply of boys 
who have satisfactory pedigree, habits 
and ambition, patient and unambitious 
farmers and moneyed men who care noth¬ 
ing for interest on their investments. 
With my knowledge of life I should say 
we are most likely to run short of the 
first named. A boy of that age who has 
run wild in the city is not likely to de¬ 
velop into a farm hand. T should hesi¬ 
tate to tackle the job of making such 
sprouts grow in the soil. There would be 
great hope in taking little things with 
unformed habits, but of course they would 
not be of any use as workers. This prob¬ 
lem of relieving the city of its poor and 
desperate must be met in time, but I 
do not think our friend realizes what it 
would mean to try to train 10 of these 
little tigers from the city! It is a worthy 
idea though. Is there any wealthy man 
who will unite with him? 
Apple Fixings. —No use talking, apple 
eating is becoming more fashionable every 
year. Wherever T go I find people call¬ 
ing for apple, and what is more signifi¬ 
cant, the women folks are hunting up new 
recipes and mending old ones. Here is 
a sample question from Massachusetts: 
Will some of your many readers tell me 
how lo make an apnle pic so it won't run 
out in the oven? Some one says make a 
tunnel of paper and put It in the crust when 
you put it in oven, but it does not make 
any difference. u. s. 
Of course we don’t want any apple 
pies to “run out” in the oven or anywhere 
else. When an apple pie acts in any such 
way we have the basis 'for a divorce case 
or a family jar. So Aunt Jennie sends 
me the following scheme for keeping an 
apple pic tied down to business: 
Roll out the under-crust large enough to 
fall over the edge of plate, put on desired 
quantity of apples, add a tablospoonful of 
finely rolled cracker crumbs, then sugar, a 
little salt and nutmeg; small bits of butter 
improve it. Fold the crust around edge of 
plate over the apples, wet with cold water; 
put on top crust, press firmly together the 
two crusts around edge of plate before cutting 
off. Juice will not run out unless t.ho oven 
is too hot. 
Another friend in Connecticut asks how 
to make a genuine “pan dowdy.” d hink- 
ing about that brings to mind what I 
shall always call the best meal I ever 
tasted. I never expect to have anything 
taste so good again. It was over 35 years 
ago. I was on my uncle’s farm near the 
sea coast in Massachusetts. It was a 
rainy day, and we could not work out¬ 
doors, so we boys went gunning on the 
salt marshes. I carried an old army 
musket all day. It kicked my shoulder 
black and blue, and I killed one little bird, 
but somehow in those old days that was 
fun, while hoeing corn was work. We 
sat around the kitchen fire and dried our 
clothes and watched my aunt cook the 
“fish dinner” and apple grunt. There 
you have the first principles of prepa¬ 
ration for a meal. Get yourself tired 
with outdoor fun —not work. Then sit 
down and rest while you slowly absorb 
the fragrance from the cooking meal! 
I know how that dinner was cooked, 
though I couldn’t do it myself. Fair¬ 
sized squares were cut from the hig cod¬ 
fish that hung in the cellar-way. These 
were soaked in water just enough to take 
out the extra salt. Then they were partly 
boiled, taken out of the water and toasted 
in a broiler over a hot fire. They came 
on the table with little cubes of salt pork 
browned to a crisp. Then there was a 
great dish of potatoes boiled with their 
jackets on and opening up like flour. 
Well—I have met people who say that 
eating is vulgar any way, and that show¬ 
ing a liking for food is a sign of inferi¬ 
ority ! I wish I could have had some of 
these good people in my uncle’s kitchen. 
They would have hung out the sign board 
in spite of all their training. We passed 
back our plates for the “fish dinner” until 
we happened to think of that apple grunt 
that was in the oven. Then we went out 
in the rain and ran four times around the 
barn. 
“Apple Grunt!” —I cannot tell you how 
it ever got such a name. I regard a 
genuine grunt as the most evident expres¬ 
sion of happiness—perhaps that explains 
the name. My aunt rolled out a thick 
pie crust and put it over the bottom and 
sides of a deep yellow dish. Then she 
hui't up inside layers of sliced Fall Pippin 
apples, dusting each layer over with 
brown sugar and cinnamon. Just enough 
water was put in, and after the pile was 
rounded above the dish more pie crust 
was put over the top, a few holes punched 
in it, and the dish put in a hot oven 
where it baked and stewed into a fat pie 
which made every hoy know he was sure 
to be President some day, and every man 
partly forget that he knew he couldn’t he! 
My friends, the easiest way to carry out 
the injunction to forgive your enemies 
is to go back to childhood and eat a six- 
inch cube of apple grunt! Try the last 
part of it anyway. 
Farm Notes. —Our plowing came to a 
sudden stop. Now we have four inches 
of snow and some eight inches of ice on 
the ponds. The ice men have begun busi¬ 
ness, for eight inches in hand is better 
than 12 or 15 perhaps next Winter. T 
do not think our fruit buds have been 
hurt yet, still, that is a thing which 
Spring alone determines. . . . T have 
had people take me out to show how well 
the gasoline engine worked. Some of 
them did their bragging beforehand and 
when we got on the spot the engine could 
not be induced to start up. I have learned 
that it pays to be silent and humble in 
referring to engines and water systems. 
The water for both our houses is piped 
from the well. There is a place about 
seven feet deep and six feet in diameter 
dug out and bricked up—the six-inch 
drilled well going from the center of this 
place. The pipes to the houses leave this 
bricked space some three • feet under 
ground. 
No water in the tank! 
If you know of any more unwelcome 
statement at the beginning of a hitter cold 
night I would like to have it. The barn 
tank was full of water, but somewhere 
in the 500 feet of pipe tfie frost had 
caught us. My mother taught me when 
a boy that the wrists and the ankles are 
the unprotected parts of the body, so I 
figured that the frost had got into the 
well. The boy and I got down in there 
with lantern and candles and wept at 
these pipes. We covered our fingers with 
tallow, but no water started. So we left 
the lantern down there and covered the 
top. It looked like carrying water to 
keep the tank supplied, but after an hour 
the water began running at the house. 
That lantern at the well did the business, 
and now we know what to do. H. w. c. 
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