1909. 
RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
689 
Hope Farm Notes 
Farm Notes. —The last apples were 
picked October 29. It was in time, 
for a “cold wave” came upon us which 
crusted the ground and covered the 
water tubs. For the past two months we 
have been selling about 75 baskets a 
week—mostly windfalls and smaller 
sizes. In our section farmers pick their 
apples and rush most of them to market 
or cider mill early. Very little spraying 
is done, and most of the fruit is more 
or less wormy. With this local supply 
dumped upon the market prices usually 
rule low until Thanksgiving—and then 
there are few to sell. We shall hold our 
best fruit so as to have nearly 1,000 
baskets to sell when prices rise. The 
Baldwins are hard as bullets, and will 
keep. We have them in boxes and bar¬ 
rels piled in the cellars. 
This year’s crop makes me more con¬ 
fident than ever that my orchard plan 
will work out. Looking back, I can see 
several important things I would change 
if I were doing it over. Every one of 
them had to do with a little loss of 
nerve at a place where extra outlay or 
labor was called for. I find it easy to 
plan and start an orchard, but when it 
comes to staying right by it through 
thick and thin—putting up with no re¬ 
turns in sight—great courage and pa¬ 
tience are needed. The hardest pull 
would come when a man’s family and 
neighbors cannot see through the plan. 
As years go by without returns, and all 
the time a constant expense, the wife 
and children will sometimes listen to 
the neighbors and lose faith in the 
scheme. It is hard in such cases for the 
man to buckle up his belt and go on. 
When the trees once begin to make 
fruit there will be plenty of backers but 
while they are growing into fruitage 
many a man must walk alone. . . . Now 
will come the after care. The peach 
trees must all be worked for borers. 
Some old peach growers fairly snort at 
the idea of talking about borers, but I can 
easily remember when I did not know 
what a borer looked like. We get down 
on our knees and examine the base of 
the tree—scraping a little dirt away. If 
the borers are at work there will be 
more or less thick gum, which looks as 
if it were mixed with sawdust. This 
“dust” is the wood which the borer has 
gnawed out. We scrape away this gum 
and find the upper part of the borer’s 
hole. He works down toward the root. 
With a sharp little knife we cut out the 
dead bark until we reach the borer and 
kill him. We have found 20 or more in 
one tree. This is a hard job, but we do 
not know any surer way. After digging 
at all the trees there will be some borers 
left. To get them we have formerly used 
a solution of hot He, but this year I think 
of using the wash given on page 968. 
. . . The apple trees will be well trimmed 
and sprayed this Winter. I have never 
yet found anyone who could write out 
sure directions for trimming a tree. It 
is much like telling a barber how to*cut 
hair. If he had only one way most of 
his patrons would carry a head of hair 
like a blacking brush. Right in my or¬ 
chard are a dozen forms of trees—each 
demanding a particular method of form¬ 
ing the head. So trimming is an im¬ 
portant thing. Unless I can be here to 
boss the job I tell the boys simply to 
cut out the interfering branches. As 
soon as the corn is husked and a few 
other Fall jobs done we shall put the 
oil on every fruit tree we have. No 
more taking chances with me. We are 
often asked what is the best combina¬ 
tion of chemicals for feeding an or¬ 
chard. One particular question is wheth¬ 
er basic slag, potash and nitrate of soda 
will answer. At the Boston fruit show 
I talked with many apple men, and was 
surprised to see how many are using 
this combination. While most of them 
had not gone far enough to be dead 
sure there was a general conviction that 
slag, sulphate and nitrate gave the trees 
a full meal. There is a belief that the 
iron in the slag gives high color. Do 
not, however, use muriate of potash with 
the slag. With this combination chloride 
of lime will be formed and in this form 
the lime will be washed out of the soil 
and lost. ... I have gone on with straw¬ 
berry culture far enough to be satisfied 
that we have four acres or more of soil 
exactly suited to the Marshall variety. 
Now I believe that fruit growing in the 
Fast will finally settle into the proposi¬ 
tion of learning just what your •soil and 
conditions are best adapted to, and then 
pushing that as hard as you can. No use 
fooling with square pegs in round holes. 
If people want to grow Glen Mary or 
other strawberries which give a heavy 
yield of inferior fruit I have no protest 
coming. I •shall stick to the big berries 
of high quality. After testing and study¬ 
ing varieties and methods it appears to 
us that Marshall plants set two feet 
apart each way, well fed and kept clean, 
will pay us best. One of the best fields 
we have on the lower farm is wet and 
soeev. It receives the overflow from two 
other springy fields, and with a wet 
April remains sour and cold until June. 
But for this bad fault it is just the soil 
for Marshall, and the Hope Farm policy 
is to correct faults rather than turn the 
fatiltee adrift. So our November prob¬ 
lem is to drain this field. There is a 
sluggish brook from two springs run¬ 
ning on two sides of the field and a 
swamp on one more side. Our plan is to 
dig out the channel of the brook and 
dig a wide open ditch all around the 
field to carry off the surface water. La¬ 
ter we expect to make a stone throat at 
the bottom of this ditch, and fill in with 
small stones picked from the field. With 
this done I think we can get on without 
tiling the field, as there is a fair slope 
for drainage, and the trouble seems to 
be with the surface water. Then this 
field will be plowed and left with the 
furrows turned up to Winter. In the 
Spring a good coat of manure will be 
put on, the soil well fitted, and 10,000 
Marshall plants put in—to stay there six 
years or more. . . . Corn husking is 
going on and the weather is ideal for it. 
Our crop is coming out of the shocks in 
good shape. The best of it is found in 
two fields which up to last year were 
bad eyesores. One is that “loafer field” 
at the back of the farm—the other a low 
place near the house in which we put 
stone drains. It is a great pleasure to 
see ears of corn as long as your fore 
arm coming out of these places. . . . 
There is great complaint in our county 
over the lack of water. Wells are dry and 
springs are barely running. There has 
been no rain in months heavy enough to 
soak flown through the ground. There 
is a reservoir or lake near us formed by 
banking against a small stream and back¬ 
ing the water into a narrow valley. This 
water is piped down to supply the towns 
and cities below us, and in the present 
drought is rapidly running out. This 
green and slimy liquid is supposed to be 
filtered on its way to those who use it, 
but I am told that at times it looks like 
dish water as it comes from the pipes. 
One has only to see this stuff to under¬ 
stand why such an enormous trade in 
drinking water has been developed in 
our towns and cities. Our own well is 
drilled 140 feet down through the rock 
and there is no lack of water. 
All Sorts. —In our locality, near New 
York, the problem of what young people 
are to do for a living becomes a one¬ 
sided question. Nine out of 10 make for 
the city and take a job as clerk or sten¬ 
ographer. They earn only a few dollars 
a week, but it comes in cash. The com¬ 
petition is fierce. I went into a New 
York building once and found at least 
25 young men in line before the door of 
an office. Some one had advertised for 
a clerk at $6 per week! In our neighbor¬ 
hood lives a large colored woman who 
does washing and cleaning. It is a com¬ 
mon thing to see some of our “leading 
citizens” driving her back and forth 
from their homes. They go and get her, 
pay her cash and drive her home. The 
dozen or more neat young women who 
can work a typewriter or address wrap¬ 
pers walk, while the colored woman 
rides. One is at the mercy of compe¬ 
tition—the other has a monopoly. We 
can get 15 people to write letters or make 
figures or talk pleasantly where we can 
get one to clean house, bake good bread, 
dig a ditch or do the homely things 
which society really needs. The average 
man or woman cannot possibly gain a 
monopoly in the job of the average city 
worker. They will be underlings all their 
lives. There seems to be no use talking 
to young men of 20 or more about the 
chances on a little country place. They 
know far more than you do about it. 
The hope is in taking the children before 
their habits are formed and showing 
them that their only chance for a mo¬ 
nopoly lies in learning how to do things 
with their hands on their own piece of 
land. It does not seem to make much 
difference where the land is, provided 
you will find the crop and learn how. 
When I was a boy the soil around my 
old home was considered mighty un¬ 
promising. The other day I received 
from there a little box of cranberries 
with this note: 
The cranberries were raised within 100 
yards of my house on a piece of land upon 
which the old people used to pick about 24 
bushels. This year T picked 600 bushels. 
I notice that your State is unite up in 
the business of raising cranberries, but T 
seldom see any account of cranberry grow¬ 
ing. Our two counties. Plymouth and 
Barnstable, have harvested this year about 
300.000 barrels, and you know the prices 
they bring. c T. n. 
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