1909. 
455 
Hope Farm Notes 
One-Horse. Farming— Older .read¬ 
ers of The R. N.-Y. will remember 
the story of Alfred Johnson, the “One- 
Horse Jersey Farmer.” Mr. Johnson 
was a city watchmaker. His eyes 
gave out, and when past 50 he gave up 
his city job and went to a little place 
of about 20 acres, which he had bought 
a few years before. This place is 
northwest of Paterson. When he 
bought it Mr. Johnson found a low, 
level wet piece of ground—naturally 
strong as low land usually is, but too 
cold and damp for most crops. Mr. 
Johnson borrowed money to buy the 
place and borrowed more to drain it 
and buy manure. Those who could not 
see that he had a definite and rational 
plan thought he was crazy and pre¬ 
dicted the worst sort < ' failure. They 
were more convinced of this as year 
after year Mr. Johnson put all he 
could take out of the farm and more 
added to it right back again in manure, 
drainage, and good buildings. He 
kept one good horse to do his plowing 
and teaming. Thorough drainage made 
part of the land suitable for poultry. 
By plowing the ground in narrow lands 
he got surface drainage which enabled 
him to grow the finest potatoes, and 
he found that the Great American 
strawberry grew to perfection on this 
soil. This variety is almost unheard 
of now, but at one time it was the 
great fancy market berry. 
At last, after a hard struggle, Mr. 
Johnson found his plans working out. 
The soil was fit and stuffed full of 
humus and plant food. It would pro¬ 
duce full crops of anything. His main 
crops were strawberries, potatoes, cab¬ 
bage, hay, eggs and some tree fruits. 
A short rotation put the land in sod 
every few years. He never peddled 
or sold at retail, except a little milk 
or a few hens or eggs for hatching. 
Everything went at wholesale to deal¬ 
ers in Paterson or Newark. In many 
cases he even hired neighbors to haul 
the crops to market. Year after year 
after his plan worked out he sold from 
$3,500 to $4,300 worth of produce, fig¬ 
ured on a cash basis! The mortgage 
was paid, all debts for improvements 
settled, and a good sum put at inter¬ 
est—all from this 20-acre field of 
swamp land. 
Now I know this story is true, for I 
have been on the farm a good many 
times, and I have gone over the ac¬ 
counts. I do not like to tell the truth 
THE RURAL 
about this place, for every time I 
speak of it a number of people start 
up to say they feel disposed to try the 
same thing. I have had men come to 
see me to tell that they expect to give 
up a good city job and go to the coun¬ 
try to “do the same as Mr. Johnson.” 
I know from the angle of their chins, 
the look in their eye, the droop in their 
shoulders and the ease with which 
they sit down that they could not stand 
up against the fight which Mr. John¬ 
son’s successful farm means. Others 
could do it, but it would be no holi¬ 
day trip to competence. The best les¬ 
son from Mr. Johnson’s success is in 
his method of handling land. Take a 
few naturally strong acres and make 
them fit. As a rule they are cold and 
_ wet to start with. Drain them anil 
stuff them full of organic matter. Mr. 
Johnson bought city stable manure to 
do this, but it can be done by plowing 
under green crops and using chemicals. 
Make these acres either of garden or 
farm as rich as you can and keep them 
so. In many cases it will pay to let 
the rest of the farm go for a pasture, 
or as in our case to an orchard with 
the least culture required for fair 
growth. But have at least a few acres 
that are worked up to their canacity— 
or rather to your capacity. 
Some men make money at farming 
and then fail in using it to advantage. 
Trouble came at the heels of success 
to Mr. Johnson's farm. His wife died 
and left him alone. He was close to 
70. The money problem was settled 
by the farm, but what could he do? 
Go on with hired labor crowding 
money from the farm as before, sell 
out and have no settled home—or 
what? I imagine that problem presents 
itself to many an elderly man. Some 
turn their property over to relatives 
and live like hard sand in the ma¬ 
chinery of a home. Others move to 
town as “retired farmers,” and pass 
aimlessly along through a period of 
“dry rot” years. Mr. Johnson found 
that his soil was in such fine condi¬ 
tion that he could if need be seed it 
all to grass and live in great comfort 
on the income from the hay. He de¬ 
cided to spend the rest of his days as 
he saw fit in travel. He found a fam¬ 
ily to run his place. He has his head¬ 
quarters there, and does such work as 
he cares to—planning or at labor in the 
field. When he feels like it he starts 
off on a trip. He has been all over 
this country, to England and through 
Southern Europe already. He came to 
see me the other day more hopeful and 
NEW-YORKER 
vigorous than many a man of 50. He 
had spent the Winter in Florida — 
working up and down through the 
State at his leisure, and through Geor¬ 
gia and Tennessee on his way back. 
1 here are few corners of this coun¬ 
try which he has not explored. He is 
thinking of going to Alaska in late 
Summer, and has already signed for a 
trip around the world next year. His 
yearly proceeds from that little wet 
farm in New Jersey will just about 
pay for all this. You have no idea 
how this travel broadens a man, and 
what a comfort it is to pass one’s de¬ 
clining years in this way. I do not 
know of any better way for a farmer, 
to enjoy the results of his toil than to 
be able and free to travel about if he 
cares to. In one of the letters written 
abut “Nell Beverly, Farmer,” the point 
is made that those Beverly children 
had the advantage of a hopeful and 
cultured grandfather, “ Gramp,” as 
they called him, could hardly be called 
a great success as a soil tiller, yet his 
reading and travel had given him that 
hopeful spirit which is not only the 
crown of old age, but the finest legacy 
one can leave to children. 
Baseball. —“Ca reu! On lau Krix! 
Hay! Z'p! * * * * * , , , , f / Z(r _ 
rah!" I can hardly come nearer to 
spelling the awful cry which startled 
the stilly night. It did not mean mur¬ 
der or fire, but was simply the boys 
practicing their baseball yell. There 
are six grammar schools reasonably 
near together in our valley, and the 
teachers have organized a baseball 
league. They are to play a series of 
games and also have a “meet” for run¬ 
ning and other sports. Our boys are 
on the nine in this district and two 
days before the first game some of 
them met at our house to organize. 
It seems that their first concern was 
to arrange a “yell” for their side. 
Mother would not let them try it in 
the house so they went outside nearer 
the barn. It was voted a success. I 
don’t .know so much about the game 
now. but when I played we depended 
on base hits and good fielding rather 
than “yells.” It may be different now. 
I believe it a good thing for farm 
boys to have some chance at organ¬ 
ized and orderly sport. As for spend¬ 
ing the entire Summer fooling about, 
loafing and playing ball, there is no 
worse thing for a boy to be up to. 
These school ball games are played on 
Saturday afternoon. Our boys are ex¬ 
pected to do their regular work 
promptly and well, or they will not 
play ball. 1 he work they do is not 
too hard for them, and they can if they 
want to get it done in time to practice 
their ball playing. My judgment is 
that farmers would make money rather 
than lose it if they could plan to give 
the boys a Saturday half holiday. 
There are some seasons like haying 
or fruit picking when it would be hard 
to manage, but in most cases it could 
be done. If a farmer would take time 
in Spring to figure out his definite plan, 
and then plan each day and week as 
well as he could, lie would know what 
ought to be done, and contrive to get 
it done by Saturday noon. I don’t be¬ 
lieve in sending a lot of boys off to¬ 
gether to play ball alone without or¬ 
ganization or oversight. I want to 
know where my boys are all the time. 
The teachers of the schools in this 
league are on hand. Jack is an old 
trainer, and he has charge of our nine. 
I consider it a good thing to organize 
country boys for association of this 
sort, provided some responsible person 
can control them. Boys cannot begin 
too early to realize what organization 
and control stand for. Our boys 
thought they were pretty raw material 
when they started out. Jack gave them 
a few lessons in team work, and they 
won their first game—seven to four. 
When the last hand was put out and 
victory was assured—they forgot all 
about delivering their famous “yell.” 
They will live to learn more and more, 
that victory usually makes the workers 
thoughtful rather than noisy. The 
yelling is usually' done by those who 
look on. But wouldn’t it be a great 
thing if you and I could feel the sor¬ 
row which comes to those boys when 
they muff a ball, or the joy when they 
catch it? 
Farm Note. —The first week in April 
was a hard one. It was one succes¬ 
sion of fierce gales. The mercury 
went below 26 degrees two nights. There 
were leaves on the crab apples, yet 
they do not seem to have been injured. 
The peach buds were white and swol¬ 
len, but I do not think they were far 
enough open to be nipped. We must 
wait to find that out. I do not like 
to plow ground in such a wind. The 
up-turned soil dries out even when 
harrowed at once. Of course this kills 
out some weeds and grass roots, but if 
the Spring turn out to be dry soil 
handled in this way will suffer all 
through the season. We got in part 
of the strawberry plants and then I 
quit setting until the wind went down 
and a rain fell. h. w. c. 
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