1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
687 
Hope Farm Notes 
Sea Farming. —The boys and I have 
just come back from a sort of farming 
that would leave most of our readers 
literally “at sea.” Many of us who plow 
and cultivate the dry land do not realize 
that the ocean also yields its crops to 
those who know how to get it. We went 
out of old Plymouth harbor with the tide 
at five in the morning. I thought the lit¬ 
tle boys would back out when it was nec¬ 
essary to get up at four o’clock, but 
though it had been raining all night and 
the sky was still overcast they were still 
eager to go. So we piled on all the old 
clothes we could well carry. At home, in 
the strawberry patch, the overalls cover 
about as little clothing as society will 
stand for, but when you strike the deep 
water in the face of a September breeze 
you want the space between yourself and 
the overalls well padded. The fisherman 
was waiting for us, and anxious to be 
away, and we lost no time in starting for 
the outer harbor. While at high tide Ply¬ 
mouth harbor looks as if it could shelter 
the navies of the world, it is as treach¬ 
erous as some kinds of dark-colored soils, 
which look as if they could provide food 
for the nation, yet when put to the test 
prove sterile and sour. When the tide 
goes out the harbor is left a great stretch 
of flats and eel-grass with a narrow 
channel running through it. When I was 
a boy fishermen had two ways of getting 
to their water farms. In a breeze they 
put up a sail and blew on with it, or in 
a calm they pulled at the oars. The man 
we were with had no sail, though he car¬ 
ried a pair of oars. He reached into the 
little cabin at the stern and turned a 
crank and away went a gasoline motor 
turning a screw, which drove us through 
the water like a race horse. Poets and 
others may say that shedding the sails 
from these boats has taken the romance 
from fishing, but the motor has certainly 
made it far more of a business. One 
who goes winding out of Plymouth har¬ 
bor past Beach Point, Saquish and Gurnet 
Point with Captain’s Hill at the left and 
Manomet Point at the right will have 
something to remember all his life. To 
me it was like coming back to look at a 
well-remembered picture. The' boys saw 
it, too, but the spray was dashing into 
their faces, and there were lobsters off in 
the deep water. As we left the harbor 
the little boat seemed almost to stand on 
end as it jumped over the waves. Strange 
to say, we were not seasick through all 
the shaking up. Now and then we 
shipped part of a wave, but it rolled off 
our oilskin jackets. Here was fierce, real 
life. Standing there in the spray I did 
not care whether Jack and Henry at 
home were cleaning the berry patch, 
whether apples were high or low or 
whether the Alfalfa was growing or not. 
When one stands face to face with strong 
forces of nature that could crush him like 
an eggshell if they got hold of him he 
cannot think of the small things of life. 
At home when we go to harvest a crop 
we know from the vines or stalks just 
where to go for potatoes or corn. If 
some one had told me that off in that 
boiling ocean the vines of the sea crop 
were just as evident I could not have be¬ 
lieved it. Yet it was so, for right on top 
of a wave the skipper stopped his engine 
and made a dash with his boat hook at 
a block of wood that went floating by. 
It was a buoy marking the spot where a 
lobster pot or trap had been sunk. We 
caught the block and pulled it aboard, and 
we found that a rope was fastened to it. 
This rope he pulled in hand over hand, 
some 50 feet of rope, until finally the trap 
came in sight and was hauled aboard 
over the side. This trap is like a three- 
cornered chicken coop with the sides 
curved so that instead of a triangle the 
ends form a rounded top. The ends are 
covered with netting except a small hole 
in the center formed by fastening a 
wooden hoop to the net. At the center 
of the trap hung a large hook on which 
dead fish were hung for “bait.” This 
trap rests upon the bottom, or near it, at 
the end of the rope, the buoy floating on 
the surface to show where it is. The 
lobster enters the hole at the end, lured 
by the bait. Sometimes after eating it he 
makes his way through the hole again, 
but generally he stays inside and is 
caught. The lobster seems more like 
some men than I thought. These men 
will certainly crawl through a very small 
hole when ambition is attracted by some 
definite “bait,” yet they often miss oppor¬ 
tunity to escape disaster when there is.no 
definite incentive to get away. At any 
rate, there were two lobsters in this first 
trap. They were taken out and three 
fish, strong enough to drive some people 
out of a house, were strung on the hook. 
Then the trap was closed and thrown 
overboard and we were on to the next 
one. I soon saw that this sort of farm¬ 
ing was about as regular as our own, for 
we began to see lines of these buoys float¬ 
ing at regular distances apart. Each man 
had a special color—the ones we were 
after were blue and white, and we fol¬ 
lowed from one to another in long lines. 
There were 45 traps in all to be hauled 
aboard, emptied, baited anew and thrown 
over again. Each trap weighed over 100 
pounds, and a dry-land farmer can figure 
whether hauling and lifting this weight 
while the boat was dancing about in the 
sea was harder than ordinary farm work. 
The boys thought they preferred fishing 
to hoeing corn or strawberries, but I will 
work on dry land. The total catch was 
58 lobsters, worth about $8. We had 
stopped on the way out to pilot a vessel 
loaded with lumber. I say “we,” but all 
we did was to climb up the side and stand 
about while the fisherman marked out the 
channel. The lobsters were wanted for 
dinner, and so we had no time to fish that 
day, but puffed back into the harbor wet 
through and covered with salt. I am to 
go out after codfish to-morrow, and we 
may or may not have big fish stories to 
take back to Hope Farm. We shall see. 
Fruit Trees. —I have trees growing 
under all sorts of conditions this year. 
Near the house we planted 50 peach trees 
with vegetables around them so that clean 
culture must be given. They have been 
cultivated 10 times and hand hoed twice, 
and they show it. Most of them have 
made over 40 inches of growth already. 
As cultivation stops I pull the weeds and 
pile around the trees. One block of three- 
year-old apple trees was plowed and 
planted to corn. It was well fertilized 
and well cultivated. Weeds grew in the 
tree rows and these were pulled before 
they formed seed and thrown around the 
trees. When the corn is cut we shall put 
at least one shock near a tree. Another 
part of this same orchard we plowed 
about five furrows on each side of the 
tree rows and planted squash and pump¬ 
kins between the trees with a forkful of 
manure at each hill. Four feet away from 
the trees a row of corn was planted and 
the space between has been fairly culti¬ 
vated. As the weeds grew large they were 
pulled and thrown around the trees. Then 
we have both peach and apple trees in 
sod which has not been plowed for years. 
In some places the grass was cut and 
hauled out for hay, in others part of it 
was left. Where the grass was taken we 
have hauled back weeds, manure, trash 
from the fence corners and even brush, 
and piled around the trees as mulch. 
Thus we have all sorts of conditiorls and 
this dry season has given a good chance 
to study the mulch system at its weakest 
point. I have trees in sod which an ex¬ 
pert would justly criticise. They have 
not grown as they should and up to the 
last of August the foliage was not dark 
enough. The reason for this is that I did 
not put enough mulch around them. I 
needed the hay and took it out of the field. 
Now we are cutting the weeds and trash 
and piling it heavily around these trees 
and the effect is evident within a week. 
The foliage becomes a darker green and 
the lighter color of growing wood appears 
at the top. Close by these trees are others 
which have been fairly well mulched with 
manure or weeds all Summer. I think 
any one will agree that these are very 
satisfactory in growth, color and shape. 
They compare well with my cultivated 
trees and have not cost one-fourth as 
much to produce. This Summer has 
convinced me of the possibilites of mulch 
culture. Without question plowing and 
cultivation have forced my trees into 
growth, but where the mulching has been 
fairly done we have good business-like 
trees which cost less and put far more 
within reach of one man’s labor. The 
great drawback in the mulch system on 
most farms is the shortage of mulching 
material. h. w. c. 
DOUBLE BARREL HAMMERLESS 
FOR $8.95 
we furnish this genuine New England 
12-gauge Double Barrel Hammerless 
Breech Loading Shotgun, the exact same gun that 
has been sold everywhere at $25.00 to $30.00. 
2 07/ filllK all we have on 
)Oi l uuno, hand> wiU b0 
eland ant at the heretofore unheard 
of price of $8.95. Our 
special closing out price 
ft 
MM on these guns Is $8.95 with steel 
^^L barrels, $10.95 with genuine lm- 
ported twist barrels, $12.95 with 
genuine Imported Damascus bar- 
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in 12-gauge only; barrels taper choke bored by the celebrated Taper 
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are familiar with hai 
_______ _ _ Understand, it’s a himmerletj gun and not a hammer gun, and if you 
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WE FURNISH 
full checkered, full pis¬ 
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andfullflnishedforeend, 
everyup to date feature, 
every high grade modern Improvement of everyoth- 
thls A. J. 
Aubrey 
hammerless double barrel breech loadin 
genuine Armory steel barrels for $13.85, or witn me 
highest grade, genuine Imported Liege, full finished twist 
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SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO., Chicago 
Steel Wheels 
WITH GROOVED TIRES 
4 in. wide. The Groove protects 
the heads of spokes from wear, 
which makes wheel good and 
strong till tire is worn out. We 
make plain tire wheels in other 
widths. We make wheels to fit 
any thimble skein or straight 
steel axle. Getour free catalog 
of Steel Wheels and Low Dowi 
Handy Wagons. 
HAVANA METAL WHEEL CO., 
Box 17 Havana, Ill, 
Monarch 
Hydraulic 
Cider Press 
Great strength and ca¬ 
pacity; all sizes; also 
gasoline engines, 
steam engines, 
saw mills, thresh¬ 
ers. Catalog free, 
■onarch Machinery Co.. Room 161.39 Cortlaodt St., York. 
DRILLING & 
PROSPECTING MACHINES. 
Fastest drillers known. Great money earners I 
LOOMIS MACHINE CO«TIFFIN, OHIO. 
FIX YOUR ROOF 
Cm Par Cmmra — Wo will guarantee lo- pul 
TCI dtfUalB, an y old leaky, worn-out, 
maty, tin, iron, steel, paper or felt roof in perfect 
condition, and keep it in perfect condition for So 
per square per year. 
- — The Perfect Roe! Preeerver, Bakes old, 
worn-out roofs new. Satisfaction guaranteed 
or money refunded. Our fro* roofing book 
k tells all about it. Writ* for it today. 
the Anderson Manufacturing Co.. Oept. 35. Elyria. Ohio. 
per square per . 
Roof-Fix: 
, IT MAKES A 
E [JALE THAT 
VERY HAY 
m buyer 
f Wants 
THE “NEW WAY” PRESS 
t? *!?°iT 1 ^ 0n tV ?!'?*•. 14 bales l’Ato2H tons per hour, 
beed hole 46x50 inches-easy to feed; no tramping, 
fork only used. Revolutionizes theloose baling system. 
Makes the very desirable eastern market bale. Beals 
all Box and Upright Presses by doing 100 per cent 
more work. Stands at werk just as you see it in the cut. 
Very portable. Adapted to bank barn work. We also 
FERTILIZER LIME 
WALTON Ol! A It It IKS, Harrisburg, Fn. 
WIT I I drilling 
W L/LfLf MACHINES 
Over 70 sizes and styles, for drilling either deep 
shallow wells in any kind or soil or rock. Mounted 
- yf j 
or 
__on 
wheels or on sills, with engines or horse powers. Strong, 
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easily. 8end for catalog. 
WILLIAMS BROS.. Ithaca. N. Y. 
HARNESS MADE TO ORDER 
Our goods arosold on their merits alone. Thousands 
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KING HARNESS COMPANY, 6 Lake St., Owego, Tioga Co., N. Y. 
m _O—- 
-M 
— r 
11. 
; 
1 
/n<JL ‘ -1 
Page Poultry Fence 
is woven of strong, high oarbon, spring steel wire of 
great tensile strength. Every horizontal strand is a 
coiled spring and acts accordingly under strain. The 
stay wire is one continuous piece—wrapped three times 
around every horizontal. The whole fence is strong— 
durable—elastic and long lived—your poultry is safe be¬ 
hind a Page Fence. It will hold cattle, too 1 Write for 
folder and catalog. 
PAGE WOVEN WIRE FENCE CO., Box 710, Adrian, Mich. 
WE BUY OLD BAGS 
Don’t throw away your second-hand bags. Perhaps you do not know you 
can sell them. YOU CAN. We will buy all the old sacks you have or 
can get. We pay top-notch prices for them. 
WHITE TO-DAY, telling what you have and we will gladly Quote prices. 
WE PAY FREIGHT CHARGES. 
St. Louis Bag & Burlap Co., 327 N. Main St., St. Louis, Mo. 
FASTER AND EASIER THAN THE OLD WAY 
Run 
, It to any part of 
the building or 
yard over 
switches and 
around curves. 
Keep 
your stable clean 
with little effort. Easy to 
operate and saves time. 
Will dump a load and re- , 
turn to you. Don’t have 
to ge with It. The most prao- 
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FEED AND 
LITTER 
CARRIER 
LOUDEN’S 
It’s all steel. Nothing to break or wear out. Can be . 
raised or lowered at will. Box Is water tight and tips over t 
to discharge. Let us show you the Innumerable uses of 
this labor and money saving device. A valuable book on the care and 
valae of manure sent free with our catalog. Write today. 
Louden Machinery Co^ 39 Broadway, Fairfield, Iowa, 
