1467. 
623 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Hope Farm Notes 
All Sorts.— The month of August 
reminds me of the view of life held by 
most men of middle age. Trees and 
regular crops have made most of their 
growth} and are now ripening. The 
woods are at their best, with heavy, rich 
foliage. With this evidence of struggle 
and toil, the trees are ready to rest and 
get ready for another season. In the 
midst of all this strength and power 
something hangs over the scene—an inde¬ 
finable something—like a prophecy of ca¬ 
lamity; of the end of things. In June 
Nature seems all full of hope. In Au¬ 
gust it is more like a hopeful melancholy, 
like the thoughts of one who knows that 
all this evidence of strength and beauty 
must pass away. We may still plant fod¬ 
der corn or millet or cabbage or vege¬ 
tables, but we know they will be at the 
mercy of the weather, and it is faith 
rather than reason which induces us to 
plant them. We sow our grain and grass 
for next season hopefully, but this year’s 
crops are about done. A man of 55 on a 
Sunday afternoon looking over an Au¬ 
gust scene of hill, field and wood must 
realize that his life has reached the 
month of August at least. With fair 
health and a clean heart there should lie 
before him at least ten of the strong, dom¬ 
inant years of life, and yet he must real¬ 
ize that from this time on most of his 
work will mean the ripening of life crops 
rather than the sowing. As for me, I 
would not turn the seasons back. August 
is a good month. 
There was once a man who became at 
last convinced that he was growing deaf. 
Most people fight this conviction for a 
long time, but at last they are forced to 
admit it. An aurist told this man that 
there was no cure for him—he might 
remain as he was or become stone deaf 
in time. 
“What, then, can I do?” 
“Nothing, but keep as well and happy 
as you can, and lay up all the pleasant 
memories and cheerful days and good 
deeds you can, so that you can take thou 
into the silence with you!” 
There are different forms of deafness 
—that of the ears is not the worst. You 
may have one. What have you this Au¬ 
gust to carry into the silence as a pleas¬ 
ant companion? 
Work for Vacation. —I have been lis¬ 
tening 'to men and women whb talk “vaca¬ 
tion.” They have some two weeks away 
from work, and I have been amused at 
hearing what they do with it. They want 
to loaf or hunt or rush about as the mood 
strikes them. A good many of them go 
to the country and board. Some claim to 
be all broken down in nerve and spirit, 
so that they need tonics and rest together. 
I would like to try my hand on some of 
these played-out gentlemen with' the work 
cure. They would have to sign a contract 
to do just exactly what I told them with¬ 
out complaint or argument. I would first 
go through their baggage, and if I found 
any liquor break the bottle over the stone 
in the barnyard. They would go to bed 
early, and next morning before six I 
would shake them up. They could lie 
awhile and get the mind steady, and then 
thley would get up jf I had to pour cold 
water over them, for my contract would 
protect me. I would get them into over¬ 
alls and flannel shirt, have them drink a 
glass of milk and eat a piece of bread, 
and then get out with a hoe until break¬ 
fast. Then they could sit on the porch 
half an hour, and then it would be a line 
for the strawberries. Just now is the time 
for getting on your knees and pulling 
weeds with your fingers. Those gentle¬ 
men would do it. As tlfe sun got hot they- 
could have an umbrella mounted on a 
stool to carry along and protect them. 
About the third time they tried to unkink 
their backs I would call one of the boys 
from the cultivator and let the patient 
chase Jerry awhile up and down the corn. 
That would distribute the burden of stiff¬ 
ness from back to legs. I' can tell when 
a man is dry, and at the right moment 
our friend would come to the well. We 
would pump about a barrel of water, so 
as to hit th!e purest part, then I would 
fill a quart measure, with the top bent so 
you can get the water only through a small 
hole. You would see our thirsty friend 
sit in the shade and slowly absorb that 
water. Then I would explain that unless 
he went back to work he would be 
foundered, so he would hoe gently until 
just before dinner. We would let him 
have time to clean up and cool off. He 
could have one good-sized piece of chicken 
and a plate full of vegetables. After lie 
passed his dish three times for peas I 
would reach over and fill it again. Then 
he would have a big bowl full of baked 
apples. They would be Nyack Pippins, 
the cores cut out and the center filled with 
sugar, and baked until the jelly stands 
all over them. After dinner I would have 
a big pile of new hay under a tree, and 
he could lie down and sleep on it. He 
would forget his sunburn and his back 
and h'is “nerves” until I woke him for 
another round of hoeing. Then he would 
talk about taking the next train for home, 
but I would hold him to his contract and 
get him into the sun once more. After 
supper I would make him play ball with 
the boys awhile; then after cooling off 
send him to bed early, first taking a good 
bath in ammonia water. The next night 
he would use salt and the next alcohol, and 
so on. Now give me the power to stay 
by a man two weeks or a month on that 
basis, and I think I could key up his 
nerves, give him the appetite of a horse, 
make him forget most of his troubles and 
become a mighty useful citizen. Accord¬ 
ing to th&t statement farmers ought to 
size up to that description. I can show 
you thousands who do so as the result of 
plain and useful living. 
Blasting with Fire.— I am glad to 
print the following well-written and in¬ 
teresting article, even though it completely 
blows up my theory. Warming up my new 
title in this way may act upon my repu¬ 
tation as a wise man as the fire does on 
those rocks. No doubt about it, we must 
be careful how we use the word “fake.” 
I am anxious to stand corrected, even 
when it’s necessary to “sit down” on me 
to do so, for I would not willingly lead 
any one astray. 
The Hope Farm man is always interesting, 
and Hope Farm Notes are read by our family 
with the keenest relish. Heretofore we have 
esteemed the Doctor as the only genuine one 
in the bunch, hut last week’s issue of Tun 
R. N.-Y. fixed that. His comments on that 
Danish stone cracker’s methods are responsi¬ 
ble for the slump in his stock, which usually 
rules strong at par. Just now we feel like 
quoting that particular issue at a discount. 
He has a remarkably keen nose for fakes 
and swindles, but for just this once he has 
struck a false scent. If that Dane sticks to 
the simple proposition that rocks can be 
cracked with fire he won’t have any trouble 
proving it, notwithstanding the fact that 
the Hope Farm man says : “To say that one 
can crack granite bowlders in this way is 
altogether too good to be true.” He invites 
us to “apply the principles of common sense 
to such things” and “take heed how you 
hear.” He makes it plain that he is “from. 
Missouri,” and is anxious to be shown. 
This is another one of those cases where 
an ounce of practical experience is worth 
a ton of speculation. If we had never seen 
the thing done, or never did it ourselves, we 
would be in the “show me” class, too, but as 
it is, we are positive that granite rock may 
not only be broken by fire, but that under 
certain conditions it is the safest and most 
economical way. We have tried blasting 
powder, but that is slow and dangerous. We 
have seen dynamite use<f, which is very 
quick, but more dangerous. We have also 
tried burying those too heavy to move by 
horse power, but even that is a hard, slow 
job with an element of danger in it. So we 
have fallen back on fire as a sovereign rem¬ 
edy for both stumps and stones. The “why” 
of it is simple enough and is clearly within 
the realm of common sense. A rock heated 
gradually and uniformly will not check nor 
split for the reason that the expansion is 
uniform. Heat a small portion of it quickly 
and you will have an entirely different re¬ 
sult. The heated portion expands rapidly, 
while the remainder of it retains its normal 
temperature and volume, and the same thing 
happens to the rock that happened to your 
water pipe last Winter when it froze; it 
hursts. We might put it this way: The 
heated portion of the stone is a wedge, 
driven in by fire. When the wedge is the 
right size and driven in far enough, some¬ 
thing must break. The writer is hut little 
better than a novice at the business, and we 
frankly say that we have driven a good many 
stone wedges that we didn’t drive at the 
right place, nor hard enough to get results 
the first time, but we have never had to 
abandon one yet without accomplishing what 
we set out to do. We might remark that 
after an abortive attempt it is better to wait 
until the rock cools before trying a second 
time. F - 
Ashland Co., Ohio. 
Clover and Turnips. —This question is 
from New Hampshire: 
I have just been seeking advice about 
what to plant to fertilize sandy loam soil in 
central New Hampshire. Kindly tell me how 
much Cow-horn turnip seed and clover seed 
per acre? If sown the middle of August with 
clover would not a dwarf pea be better than 
turnip? Would not the pea vine be rotted 
out of the way of the rake in case I harvest 
the clover next year? I am preparing a field 
to sow in August with the plant that will 
fertilize it the best. c. k. 
New Hampshire. 
I can only give our own plans and ex¬ 
perience. We use 12 pounds of Crimson 
clover and l l / 2 pounds of Cow-horn tur¬ 
nip seed per acre. It is scattered evenly 
in the corn before the last cultivation, 
and worked under with a light harrow, 
with a plank dragging behind it. I use 
turnips for several reasons. It seems to 
me that we get a surer stand of clover 
when turnips are used. The Cow-horn 
variety roots deep into the soil, working 
it almost like a shallow plowing. I think 
the turnip has power to utilize forms of 
phosphoric acid which- some other cro^s 
do not have. This deep root, rotting 
slowly in the soil, is of very great ben¬ 
efit, and we can pull what we need for 
feeding or sale. The Crimson clover adds 
a good supply of nitrogen to the soil, 
while the phosphoric acid which the tur¬ 
nips secure and the work they do in 
opening the soil lead us to prefer them 
to peas. Our sandy lands are greatly in 
need of humus. I cannot advise for New 
Hampshire—that may be too far north for 
Crimson clover. I should be inclined to 
try Red clover there. I will leave that 
to farmers who know more about it. On 
our soil turnips and clover seem a first- 
class combination. 
Oat Hay. —The Pennsylvania man 
starts a good discussion: 
What would you do if you had a nice- 
looking batch of oats in a young orchard, 
let them ripen and then thrash, or cut while 
in the milky stage and feed as hay? If the 
latter, does it give the same amount of nour¬ 
ishment to the horse, or will we have to feed 
oats beside it for horses doing light work? 
I notice you are familiar with cutting oats 
green on ‘Hope Farm. Do you feed thrashed 
oats when you feed the milky stage cut oats 
as hay? F - J- °- 
What would I do? Well, sir, first of 
all, I wouldn’t have oats in a young orch¬ 
ard. That is no crop to mix with young 
trees. The oat is a surface feeder, and 
demands a vast supply of moisture. Ex¬ 
cept in a very wet season the trees will 
surely be injured. I would never grow 
anything but a cultivated crop among young 
trees. As it is, I would cut those oats 
just as quick as I could, and cure them 
for hay. Some people bind the green oats 
in small bundles and cure that way, but 
we have nothing but a mower. M'y un¬ 
derstanding is that after the oat plant is 
well developed, that is, past the bloom, 
very little more nutriment is taken from 
the soil. In forming the ripe grain food 
is taken from the stem and deposited in 
head. There is about the same amount of 
food in the entire plant at the “milky 
stage” or when the grain is soft, as there 
is when the grain is hard and the stem 
has turned to straw. In feeding “oat 
hay” the entire plant is usually consumed, 
while, as we know, oat straw is not eaten 
clean; we therefore get more of the total 
nourishment in the oat plant when we 
make “hay” of it. At the same time we 
must remember that the hard grain is 
more concentrated than any part of the 
oat hay, and I think it wise to feed some 
corn in addition when we feed oats as 
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