1908. 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
709 
Hope Farm Notes 
Farm Notes. —Corn cutting began 
September 21, a little later than I in¬ 
tended. The flint corn will be used 
mostly for seed, so we let it stand until 
quite ripe. The fodder corn planted 
after strawberries stands nine feet high 
in places and will keep the cows good- 
natured this Winter. ... By Sep¬ 
tember 16 all but about two acres of our 
cultivated land was seeded to a “catch 
crop”—either rye or clover and turnips. 
Before the ground freezes there will be 
no bare ground on the farm. Every 
year makes me more a convert to this 
plan of a Winter overcoat for soil. . . . 
We are still clipping the runners from 
those Marshall strawberry plants set on 
the Kevitt plan. This is one job that 
has been thoroughly done. It remains 
to be seen whether it will pay or not, 
but I fully believe in this plan of taking 
comparatively small areas of strong land, 
using manure or fertilizer heavily, plant¬ 
ing close and then giving high tillage. 
On our eastern farms we have got to 
come to this system. . . . Another 
thing that remains to be demonstrated is 
whether it pays to transplant year-old 
strawberry plants. At the end of Sep¬ 
tember I should say “yes, provided you 
can set while the ground is moist and 
get a fair start. The yearlings do not 
transplant well unless the conditions are 
just right. I have some 500 that went 
in under ideal conditions. They are cer¬ 
tainly ahead of potted plants or layers— 
though of course not equal to Spring-set 
plants. . . . Some of these literary 
gentlemen who find fault with a farmer’s 
food should try their luck with us at this 
season. We could keep inside the farm 
and supply eggs, chicken, rabbit, milk 
and cream, peaches, pears, grapes, 
melons, apples, potatoes, sweet corn, 
onions, beets, peppers, cabbage, turnips, 
Lima beans, tomatoes, egg plant and half 
a dozen more. Let me take charge of 
the exercise which would lead to their 
appetite and we would see how they 
sailed into “the poorest food in the 
world.” Our folks seldom have any¬ 
thing more than vegetables and fruit, 
for supper. Take young sweet corn 
right from the stalk and boil it tender. 
Pick Lima beans about five P. M., shell 
at once and boil soft, and then pour in 
thick cream! These with bread and but¬ 
ter and milk and your choice of baked 
apples or peaches make our supper. If 
our literary friends felt the need of 
more muscle makers they could have a 
I>iece of cheese. It is true that all farm¬ 
ers do not use such food, but in this 
section—leaving out the cream and the 
peaches—such meals are common. As a 
rule, our people are in better health 
than the city people who find fault with 
what a farmer eats. The annual doc¬ 
tor’s bill for my family—usually an aver¬ 
age of 12 at least, will not go much over 
$15 per year, including medicines. The 
people who lay down rules for a farm¬ 
er’s living do not usually know what 
they are talking about. To prepare the 
food they want us to eat would require 
more kitchen work for the farmer’s wife 
or hired help in the house. It is next 
to impossible to obtain house help and 
nothing but apprenticeship would ever 
show these critics what a country house¬ 
keeper has to do from sun to sun. A 
capable farmer’s wife can be safely 
trusted to arrange her work so as to 
accomplish most during the day and her 
job is far more complicated than that 
. of the woman who works in town. The 
farmer’s wife deserves every household 
convenience that the farm can afford. 
1 notice that, whenever a farm section 
grows prosperous, water fixtures, gas 
and all modern conveniences come into 
the old houses or else new houses are 
built. This is true, for instance, all 
over the apple section of western New 
York where fruit growers are able to 
get their share of what the crop brings. 
Give to any farm section a rightful share 
of what it produces and the farmers will 
quickly “uplift” themselves without help 
from their town critics. 
The R. N.-Y. recently spoke of farm¬ 
ers who receive 40 cents for what the 
consumer buys for $1. Some people 
think that must be an extreme case, but 
any farmer who deals with middlemen 
knows better. Get the price of meat, 
bread, milk or any other food to the 
consumer and then trace it back to the 
farmer and see how you come out. 
Early in September I shipped 15 half¬ 
barrel baskets of peppers to a commis¬ 
sion man in New York. Here is a copy 
of the returns: 
8 baskets at .40. $3.20 
3 baskets at .35. 1.05 
4 baskets at .30. 1.20 
Commission . 
Freight and cartage. 
.55 
1.56 
$5.45 
$ 2.11 
$3.34 
The baskets cost me $1.50, so I really 
got $1.85 for 15 baskets of peppers. One 
of these baskets contains 75 or more 
large peppers. They retail at three and 
five cents each. In a restaurant I saw 
two peppers exactly like mine stuffed 
with chopped meat and baked sold at 35 
cents. As finally retailed a basket of my 
peppers brought at least $1.50 at a low 
calculation, while it netted me a little 
over 12 cents! I said recently that pep¬ 
pers are low this year and you are now 
probably prepared to believe it. I fol¬ 
lowed this shipment myself and feel sure 
I got the ruling wholesale prices. This is 
the poorest showing I have made in 
some years. I sent 22 baskets direct to 
a local market by a neighbor and he sold 
at about 60 cents. In time of glut I 
could usually get more by giving my 
neighbors 50 per cent than by shipping 
to commission men at 10 per cent! 
When a man gets the reputation of 
being a “genial philosopher” he must 
pay the penalty by standing up against 
all sorts of questions. Every year I 
have a dozen or so much like this: 
There are several bachelor farmers with 
good homes and of good character who 
want an A No. 1 farmer’s wife, “and not 
the kind that sits In the parlor all the time, 
If there are any.” Where will they be 
found ? 
This man lives in Pennsylvania. There 
are any quantity of young women who 
have higher ambitions than occupying 
a continual seat in the parlor. If we 
heard from them they would doubtless 
want to know what inducements these 
bachelors had to offer. These gentle¬ 
men may belong to a very superior brand 
and breed of men, but they would have 
to demonstrate it by hard tests before 
they could induce any woman to make 
sacrifices for them. Like the superior 
hired men, capable women in these days 
have a wide range of opportunity to se¬ 
lect from. My judgment is that the 
time is going when the average man can 
safely hang on to the theory that he 
confers a great privilege upon a sensible 
woman by merely informing her she can 
marry him. 
Last year we had something of a dis¬ 
cussion over the hard-cider question. 
There were many letters about it, but 
I held the following until this year—at 
the edge of the cider season: 
As to the bard cider talk, I have al¬ 
ways felt a little ashamed of an Item In the 
paper that I asked you about in regard to 
keeping cider. We have a large orchard, 
and so many fallen apples that some per¬ 
sons said make them into cider. We al¬ 
ways make vinegar every two years, but I 
do not think we ever used two gallons of 
cider. Several people came and made some 
and kept it until it was hard, and I saw 
the effects of It. Since then we have given 
away all of the apples every morning, so 
no one could ask for them, and no more 
will ever be made on my place. If these 
persons had been young men I would have 
felt it always, but they were men who 
would not think of drinking, as the word 
goes, but liked hard cider. e. w. n. 
A chemist tells me that many samples 
of hard cider contain considerably more 
alcohol than beer. The way some peo¬ 
ple pour it down the stuff becomes more 
dangerous than some brands of whiskey. 
Somebody calls on me to explain what 
I mean by saying that I would rather 
keep a barrel of gunpowder in my cel¬ 
lar than a barrel of hard cider. That 
is easy. I have no doubt I could sneak 
down and drink a quart or more of 
such cider per day and still pass as a 
temperance man. What about my boys? 
I know what’s back of them! After 
they caught me at the cider barrel how 
could you keep them away from it? If 
you were raising a tiger cub as watch¬ 
dog, would you feed him on raw meat 
right from the carcass? I know what 
the rum habit means, and rather 
than leave my children behind me with 
any such curse I would rather have 
them blown up. But it could doubtless 
be proved that hundreds of temperance 
men have grown up from families in 
which the cider barrel was as much a 
fixture as the kitchen stove. Very 
likely—but I won’t take the risk. I’ve 
got this old-fashioned idea that if farm¬ 
ers are to complain or fight about the 
evils of intemperance, extortion or 
monopoly they should be mighty care¬ 
ful how they live. They should try to 
make the little circle of things they can 
touch with their own influence models 
for honorable dealing, or sing small on 
the larger evils. 
Going to Florida.— Here is one that 
proves too much for me: 
I am a farmer, with health requiring 
absence from here in Winter. I want to 
drive to Florida with family and get work, 
self and team if possible, to pay expenses. 
When does .the orange season begin? I 
can start November 1, and figure six weeks 
for trip. Can you give me addresses of 
persons there from whom I might get work? 
Another question : If pigweed, purslane, etc., 
ar<> so valuable, why not saw for swine? 
I draw the line at purslane ; it grew in our 
garden when I was a boy, but I have a nice 
lot of pigweed saved in one corner of the 
beet patch for seed if you say so. 
Yates Co., N. Y. R. d. l. 
Every year this plan of going to 
Florida for work and health comes up, 
and it is hard to give sound advice. It 
is a long trip from Lake Keuka to 
Florida, though I confess I would like 
to take it. If a man were a good ob¬ 
server and a good questioner what a 
loads of facts he could gather for 
President Roosevelt’s commission! Can 
he find work in Florida? It is doubtful, 
and he must remember that sometimes 
northern horses going to the South will 
not do their best until they are accli¬ 
mated. Orange picking will begin in 
Northern Florida as early as November. 
It is wise in that section to get the fruit 
off early, as there is danger of a frost 
in January. Uncle Ed, who lives in 
Putnam County, has been caught sev¬ 
eral times by leaving fruit on the trees. 
South of Orlando or Tampa there is less 
danger from frost, and picking is later. 
If our friend can get say to Orlando 
by December 15, he will be in the sea¬ 
son. I would advise him to make for 
some good-sized town in Southern 
hlorida unless lie can strike a definite 
job on the way. At Jacksonville he can 
get information that will help him lo¬ 
cate. I am talking at long range, 
Florida people are hospitable and kind. 
If any of them can tell this man where 
he can go to find sure work for him¬ 
self and team they may have the floor. 
Remember, he does not want to buy any 
land or donate his services to any char¬ 
ity, but he wants a good job. 
As for seeding weeds—don’t do it. 
There are evils enough in the world 
now without seeding any more. Cut 
those weeds before they seed and pile 
them around young trees. It is true 
that “pussley,” pigweed, etc., contain 
a large amount of nitrogen. They take 
this from the soil and rob other plants. 
If you are going to seed a crop for 
fodder or feed put in clover or peas. 
These crops bring nitrogen to the soil 
by taking it from the air, and they make 
their growth in Spring, while most of 
the weeds you mention come in late 
Summer. If too late for clover and 
peas sow rye anyway, but don’t sow 
weed seed. H . w. c. 
EDWARDS “REO” STEEL SHINGLES 
Are postively guaranteed to be Fire and Light- 
nine: proof and we refund the amount you pay us 
tor .Shingles in easo your roof is struck and dam¬ 
aged by lightning. Your house is thus insured 
against lightning. 
Kasily applied, a hammer and nails all 
that is necessary. 
A boy can do the work. 
Made of best quality Steel in sheets5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 
10 feet long, covering width 24 inches, furnished 
painted or galvanized. 
The cheapest and best roofing ever in¬ 
vented. 
Will reduce cost of insurance. 
Handsome in appearance, the counterpart of the 
finest cut wood shingles at about one-half the 
cost. REO Galvanized Steel Shingles require 
no paint for years. In certain sections they are 
never painted. 
Semi us the size of your roof and we will give you 
exact cost of material delivered f. o. b. your nearest 
railroad station. YVe are the largest manu¬ 
facturers of Iron and Steel roofing. Wo 
make all styles— Corrugated, V Crimp, Roll 
Hoofing, Imitation Stone and Brick, etc 
Painted or Galvanized. 
Catalog No. 42 sent free on request. 
GOOD AGENTS WANTED EVERYWHERE. 
THE EDWARDS MANUFACTURING CO., 
441-461 Lock Street, - Cincinnati, Ohio. 
HARNESS 
By Mail 
You can buy custom-made 
, oak-tanned harness direct from . 
our factory at wholesale prices, 
on save two profits—the jobber’s 
and dealer’s. \Vrite for our new il¬ 
lustrated catalogue anil sec for your¬ 
self just how much money you can 
save. All our harness is guaranteed, 
and we leave you to be the judge, lr 
you’renotsatistied,money back. Every 
farmer should have our booklet. Write 
to-day and ask for catalogue F. 
THE KING HARNESS CO., 
6 Lake St., Owego, Tioga Co., N. Y r . 
SticKney Gasoline Engines 
ARC THE BEST ! 
1 % 
»0 16 
H. P. 
Because the Electric Igniter is 
outside the cylinder where it is 
cool and the spark can be seen, 
because of our 
modern open tank 
cooling system 
and because of 
57 reasons told 
— _ : in — Slickney’s 
Stationary and Portable Free Catechism 
IVe have thousands of engines in successful 
operation because of our years of experience 
in making engines of the best material and 
most accurate workmanship. Send for Catalog. 
Charles A. Stickney Company 
Main Office and Factory, St. Paul, Minn. 
Branch, 55 Batterymarch St., Boston, Mass. 
AGENTS EVERYWHERE SELL STICKNEY ENGINES 
Gasoline 
Engines 
Fewest Parts. Uses 
Feast Fuel. 
Catalogue FREE. 
C. II. CANFIKUI) 
202 West Newell St., 
Syracuse, New York 
A HENDRICKS, HAY 
PRESS for $175 
Our No .0 Upright I’rcss 
. for only $176 is the 
-i greatest bargain in Hay 
-t Tresses ever offered. It 1 
will earn its cost in one 
-WT; season. If not as repre- 
sented money refunded. 
iSSeSS-b Send for free catalog. 
D. B. Hendricks & Co„ Cornell St.,“ Kingston, N.Y. 
LITTER & FEED CARRIERS 
Save Half the 
Stable Work 
Our new malleable iron Star Carrier is going 
into hundreds of stables and barns. 
“Better Thau a Hired Man” 
It runs on cable or rigid track, with auto¬ 
matic dump and return. We want to show 
you what a world of labor and time it saves. 
If you will send us your barn plan, we will draw 
plan to scale, and submit free estimate, and 
will also send you complete catalogue, show¬ 
ing why a Star Outfit is in every way the best 
adapted to your needs. Write us today. 
HUNT-HELM-FERR3S & CO., 55 Hunt St., HARVARD, ILL. 
Let Me Pay li>e Postage 
oifMy Big Free Book, to \ou 
Although It costs me 8c to mall every one of these Books, yet I’ll send you one FREE just 
because I want you to know about my Celebrated SPLIT HICKORY BUGGIES- llaiie to 
Order—Sold Direct from my Factories on 30 Days’ Free Trial—Guaranteed Two Years. 
Over 125.000 Split Hickory Vehicles are now in use—giving satisfaction in every part 
of the country. 
My Direct Factory Trices save you BIG MONEY. My 1908 Book gives descriptions and 
prices of over 125 styles of Split Hickory Vehicles and Full Line of High-Grade Harness—tells 
you how Split Hickory Vehicles are made— and why they are best to buy. Write for the 
Book today. Address mo personally, H. C. PHELPS, President, 
THE OHIO CARRIAGE MFG. CO., Station 290 Columbus Ohio 
