1900 
Hope Farm Notes 
Farm Notes. — I never knew the time 
when so many different kinds of work 
crowded together as they have this year. 
Strawberry picking began earlier than 
usual and stayed late. While it was in 
full blast the weeds climbed into the 
new-set plants with a rush. Just as the 
corn needed cultivating the weather 
changed so as to give us a chance at 
hay making, and about the time the 
mower started the potato beetles hatched 
out all ready for their usual trade. 
We had to pick the berries and kill the 
bugs and we ought to have cultivated 
and got the hay under cover. To make 
it more interesting the worst “hot wave” 
we have known for some years came 
upon us. “Had to” usually comes be¬ 
fore 'ought.” There is more grass in 
the corn than there should be, but we 
will get rid of that in July. 
The strawberry business has been good 
this year. I dug up a plant from the 
Ivevitt patch and had it photographed. 
It will be shown soon with full explana¬ 
tion. That is the way to grow the Mar¬ 
shall strawberry. Our fruit was fine 
and, as usual, we could hardly fill our 
orders. I expected to advertise in our 
county papers, but the berries adver¬ 
tised themselves. As an instance of 
this, Jack started out to deliver two 
crates of fruit and had a few extra 
boxes on the seat. Some people in a 
motor car saw the fruit and stopped to 
examine it. 
“What is the price?" they asked. 
“Fifteen cents or two for a quarter 0 ” 
“Why don’t you give them away?" 
The next day that car rolled into our 
yard and the people bought 12 boxes. 
They came again and again after more, 
and wherever they went they bragged 
about the fruit. There could not be a 
better form of advertising. Many a 
time our boys went out with a load of 
berries and people said they had al¬ 
ready bought. When these people came 
to look at the fruit they took it even 
though they had a stock on hand. 
Those big Marshall berries, dark crim¬ 
son all through and not a poor one in 
the box, advertise themselves if any¬ 
thing ever did! It is a great satisfac¬ 
tion to handle such goods. I should 
have hard work to drive my boys out 
to sell the small and inferior berries 
with which the market has been flooded. 
As it is our folks see the possibility in 
berry culture. We shall increase our 
planting—all on the hill plan—and also 
try our hand at developing a new seed¬ 
ling. We want a berry with the Mar¬ 
shall flavor and color, but more pro¬ 
ductive. 1 here is something 
of human nature to be learned in the 
berry business. I told the little girls 
they could have a patch of berries—per¬ 
haps one-sixteenth of an acre. My 
original plan was that they should pick 
the berries and have all they could earn 
in this way. They soon learned, how¬ 
ever, that they can make money easier 
by hiring others to pick the fruit and 
then selling it. They could pick 10 oi¬ 
ls quarts and hire others to pick 30, and 
then make good sales. Sooner or later 
I observe that certain people either be¬ 
cause they are brighter than others or 
because they have the advantage of land 
or capital learn to make a profit on the 
labor of others. I can find no fault with 
my girls. At first I thought 1 should 
limit them to the berries they pick with 
their own hands, so as to have only the 
fruits of their own labor, but it is after 
all a part of life to learn how to man¬ 
age the labor of others fairly and profit¬ 
ably.I know from former 
experience with them that some of our 
readers will object to this and say that 
no one should be taught to manage the 
labor of another so as to profit by it. 
In the long procession of humanity 
which has passed before me I observe a 
large proportion of men and women 
who cannot handle their own labor to 
THE RURAL NEVV-VOKKER 
059 
advantage. Some are naturally incap¬ 
able through lack of training, careless¬ 
ness, or lack of ambition. Some have 
been taught to do only one thing, and 
that a small part of the machinery of 
life. I knew a man who for many years 
had worked in a shoe factory tending a 
machine which cut boot heels out of 
leather. That was all he could do, for 
he had made no effort to train himself 
in any other form of labor. Another 
man has done nothing but sell fish in a 
market, and spent no time or thought 
studying out any part of the business 
except that of cutting up fish with his 
knife. These men are out of a job, and 
cannot find work, because they do not 
know how to labor. Of course there 
are kind-hearted people who say sugh 
men might work on farms—but what 
could they do to make their labor 
worth what it costs? The problems of 
life are complicated and hard. I think 
we need not only to train children to 
labor, but also to train them to man¬ 
age the labor of others so that not only 
will the laborer be worthy of his hire, 
but the hire be worthy of the laborer. 
Alfalfa.— We cut our first Alfalfa 
patch this year on June 24. This is the 
fifth year, and as I figure it the tenth 
cutting since seeding. Our crop was 
thin and the grass has run into it, yet 
it gave us a good yield and I expect 
2‘/j tons or more to the acre. I knew 
that farm animals of all kinds love Al¬ 
falfa, but 1 had not thought of it as 
food for man. A few weeks ago some 
of the papers stated that students at 
Creighton University in Nebraska were 
using Alfalfa meal in place of flour or 
mixed with it, in making bread, gems, 
pancake and other forms of food. 
1 hinking it might be a newspaper 
fake 1 wrote to many people who 
ought to know. "I he nearest I can get 
to it is the following from Prof. Cot¬ 
trell of Colorado: 
1 do not know of any instance where 
Alfalfa meal lias been used for human 
food, either alone or mixed with other 
foods, but i do expect that sometime meal 
from Alfalfa leaves, the stems rejected, 
will be largely used for human food. The 
dried leaves of Alfalfa contain on an av- 
< rage 24 per cent of protein in an easily 
digested form. Fresh beef usually con¬ 
tains less than 20 per cent of protein. 
Alfalfa leaves contain about (lie same per 
cent of protein as average cheese, and 
probably in a more easily digested form, 
nearly double the protein of white wheat 
Hour, one-half more than oatmeal, and 
from three to four times as much as com¬ 
mon!. The dried leaves are a mild laxa¬ 
tive, aid in the digestion of foods con¬ 
sumed with them. Fed to animals, the 
Alfalfa leaves produce a healthful, thrifty 
condition of the skin and hair. The leaves 
are rich in those mineral substances needed 
by growing children and animals for the 
development of muscle, hone and blood. Al¬ 
tai t a will yield from two to four tons of 
dried loaves per acre, and it seems to me 
that it would be a much easier problem 
to separate the leaves from the stems and 
then to prepare them in some edible form 
than if was to make shredded wheat bis¬ 
cuits. I have Iteen surprised that some 
breakfast or health food man has not un¬ 
dertaken it. It. M. COTTRELL. 
That sounds reasonable. The time 
may come when we can feed the cows 
on the stems and our families on the 
leaves. The old King of Babylon was 
forced to “eat grass like an ox” by way 
of punishment. Very likely some health 
food man will show us that eating Al¬ 
falfa will he a privilege rather than a 
penance. I feel sure, at least, that we 
have come to an end of cheap bread 
in this country. T think grain will be 
permanently high in price and that our 
people are to be driven more and more 
to substitutes for our present bread and 
meat. T cannot see it otherwise, and 
that is partly why I claim that there 
never was a more hopeful outlook for a 
man with a good farm than right now. 
Farm Prospects.— When you find a 
man who is more than prosperous you 
will usually learn that he either has 
what amounts to a patent, or has some 
big trade advantage. Either thing gives 
him more or less right to name the 
Price for the goods he sells, and hold 
them up until that price is paid. When 
a farmer sells a bushel of wheat, a 
pound of wool or cotton or a carcass of 
beef or pork he is usually forced to 
say: “What will you give me?” When 
he buys them back in bread or clothing 
or as a dinner the seller does not ask 
what he? will give, but says: “The price 
is so much !" To reach real prosperity 
as I see it, a farmer must have some¬ 
thing which represents the patent or the 
advantage. Can a farmer secure a 
patent on the goods he produces? No. 
but lie can study and develop the pro¬ 
duction of some one thing until he has 
it in a class by itself. Our boys this 
year found that we had the same thing 
as a patent on our strawberries. Tliey 
werc in a class by themselves. Later 
I am sure that our Carman peaches 
grown in sod will be much the same. 
Let a man take one thing, be it corn, . 
fruit, wheat, cows, chickens or cats, and 
study it to the core and learn how to 
develop it and that man will find that 
he has the same thing as a patent. As 
for trade advantage, I think we are to 
get more of it in two ways. Produc¬ 
tion is not keeping up with demand, 
and before long the farmer will be more 
in the position of one who is selling 
not because he has to, but because peo¬ 
ple must have his goods. We are also 
to have more and more of the advan- 1 
tage which now goes to the middle- j 
men. 
Direct Dealing. —Some months ago 
we had an article about the operations 
of L. FI. Sheldon, a Vermont man. He 
is a good grower and also a good seller, 
for he deals direct with town people. 
Mr. Sheldon’s wife has developed a 
business in baking cake which amounts 
to nearly $3,000 per year. Here I give 
a copy of one of Mr. Sheldon’s adver¬ 
tisements as it appears in the local 
paper: 
POOR ECONOMY 
You have hoard of the man who mixed 
sawdust with meal for his lions. A set¬ 
ting of the eggs hatched out six wood¬ 
peckers, five chickens with wooden tooth¬ 
picks for legs and one yellow-hammer. I?ut 
he was the prince of good managers com¬ 
pared with the one who keeps the family 
on high-priced meats and economizes oil 
fruits and vegetables. We sell to-day 
onions, lettuce, asparagus and pie-plant. 
Peas next week. Tomato, celery, cabbage 
and pepper plants. 
VALLEY FARM 
Here you will see is a man with a 
patent and a trade advantage on his 
farm crops. Why, there never was a 
time in the history of this country 
when skill and wit could count for so 
much, in selling farm produce. There 
are opportunities for all in this line- 
more for some than for others because 
of better location or opportunity. The 
best chances are for men on the smaller 
places who can watch the whole thing 
and mind every detail. We do not be¬ 
gin to realize yet how much a parcels 
post would help us sell goods direct. 
From Oregon.— We had a call last 
week from W. K. Newell of Oregon. 
Mr. Newell came East to look about, 
and see if he could find these apples 
"just as good as the Pacific fruit.” 
These western growers want to know 
just what competition they must face 
in the future. Of course this was not 
the time of year to find the best fruit, I 
but a skilled grower can tell what is 
coming from the appearance of the or¬ 
chards. Mr. Newell says he does not 
sec that the Pacific coast fruit is in any 
danger of being crowded out of mar¬ 
ket. Most eastern growers are content 
to grow “pie fruit” or apples which are 
handled at wholesale. I did not realize 
how carefully those Oregon apples are 
grown until Mr. Newell told me how 
the trees are managed, lie illustrated 
on some of my young trees how they 
are cut back and sprayed. He said my 
trees had too many apples, though I 
know they will develop them into what 
we call fine fruit. He would hire peo¬ 
ple to thin out half the apples. When ! 
it comes to picking and packing it is 
evident that we are far behind. Those 
western people evidently have what 
amounts to a patent on their fruit. I ! 
still believe that some sections of the 
East can produce superior fruit, but the 
job of making the public believe it will 
be a tough one. We had a crate of 
Marshall berries ready for delivery at 
$3. Mr. Newell said he saw the same 
grade of berries selling in Boston at 30 
cents a quart and more. He took a box 
of our fruit and arranged the berries 
on top to show how this fancy trade is 
packed. It is astonishing how much 
there is in the handling. Mr. Newell 
asked me to try Summer pruning on 
some of my trees. 'The idea is to work 
in July and cut back to about half of 
last year’s growth, all around the top. 
This is said to drive the tree to earlier 
fruit bud making. I have let my trees 
go without pruning, believing that in 
this way I can get earlier fruiting than 
by cutting back. Let us see about it 
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