1908 . 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
475 
Hope Farm Notes 
THE HOPE FARM MAN’S STORY. 
Part V. 
In history the farm dated back to be¬ 
fore the Revolution. I think five and 
possibly six generations lived in the 
stone part of our old house before we 
came. So near as I can tell these hills 
have been noted for producing “Jersey 
Dutch” and fruit. I thought it all out 
that first day on the hills. Here was 
“the piece of land,” and the wife and 
child wanted it more than I did. Farm¬ 
ing in any such place must be more or 
less of a patchwork, for no fair rota¬ 
tion could be carried on among these 
rocks. I reasoned that property situat¬ 
ed as this was must in time increase in 
value. A man should consider all these 
things in buying a farm. The thing 
that decided me to buy would not ap¬ 
peal much to a practical farmer. Here 
was a piece of land thrown out of work 
by competition with richer and more 
level land. If this place could he re¬ 
deemed and made productive once more, 
and at the same time give home and 
character and purpose to those who did 
the saving it would mean an offering to 
society that was worth while. To at¬ 
tempt to save a man while saving a 
farm struck me as about the best use 
one can make of a piece of land. 
You see I am talking very plainly— 
just as if I were sitting down with a 
group of old friends. I have learned to 
go straight at people when there is any¬ 
thing to say. Having come through 
hard places where sin and misery and 
cowardice try to trap the wayfarer and 
found health and hope and home at the 
end, I felt under an obligation to try 
and pay part of the debt which I owe 
to society. I frankly say to you that if 
I had my way I would put this thing 
at you so that in spite of yourself your 
life never could be quite the same again. 
As for me, I have no higher ambition 
than to live the life and do the duty of 
a farmer in comfortable circumstances. 
I thought that all out on the hills that 
day when I decided to cast my lot, in¬ 
vest my savings and put my labor up in 
this stony farm. The land was in the 
hands of lawyers to settle an estate. The 
price was low. I put up my savings, 
gave a mortgage for the balance, and 
when the crops were gathered on the 
rented place the Hope Farmers moved 
to the hills. 
At that time there were 11 of us. We 
have one child of our own, one that we 
took from a children’s home to care for 
and two others that we have brought up. 
I am thankful to say that there have 
always been children at Hope Farm. A 
home without a child or a happy mem¬ 
ory of one would be no place for me. 
I figure that since we started there have 
been 49 different people on the farm, 
everyone of them entirely dependent 
upon this place for home, food and 
clothing. Every Summer we try to 
give several other people an outing—fill¬ 
ing them up with vegetables and milk 
and fresh air and spring water. Right 
now the farm is home for 12, including 
five children. I have part of an old 
vacant house and this Summer I 
wouldn’t mind filling it up with little 
city children with some good woman to 
keep an eye on them. I would have 
them pull weeds an hour or so a day 
and then play under the trees. It would 
do me good to round them up on the 
lawn every night after supper with a 
sort of military review. You would be 
surprised to see how little it costs to 
give one of these little chaps a few 
weeks’ outing. It would do you good 
to see the little frame fill out and the 
little face grow brown and plump. I 
have promised the good lady who 
honors the name of “Mother” that she 
is not to be brought into this story, yet 
I am bound to say that she is chiefly re¬ 
sponsible for such crops of character as 
Hope Farm has been able to produce. 
. We all have ambition. One of mine 
is the right to say that I never took 
unfair advantage of another. When I 
was a herder in Colorado I came riding 
up the river one day. As I got in sight 
of town a mass of smoke and flame 
shot up from one of the best houses in 
town. I met a man on the road who, 
instead of rushing to help put out the 
fire, fairly danced for joy. You should 
have heard him shout! 
"Thank God. Glory! Glory! See 
her burn! ft’s old so per cent Davis 
gets his dues! Thank God!” 
This was not a madman exulting at 
the destruction of property. The house 
belonged to the local usurer or blood¬ 
sucker. He had actually demanded 20 
per cent a month for money advanced 
to keep men like this one from losing 
their little homes. When this man saw 
the flame his nature simply jumped 
hack out of the chains of “civilization” 
thousands of years to the old brutal 
savagery which we all have back of us. 
It would take the joy out of life for 
me to feel that men would act that way 
over the destruction of my home. 
When we came here our problem was 
to know what to raise. The farm was 
all in grass, most of it a tough weedy 
sod that would hardly cut half a ton of 
hay to the acre. The most businesslike 
plan would have been to spend the Win¬ 
ter fencing about 50 acres that are 
fairly well watered. In the Spring I 
could have obtained a good drove of 
horses to pasture through the Summer. 
That is a good business in this country, 
for thousands of city horses are sent 
to farms during the warm weather. 
By feeding some grain we would have 
helped the grass land and found Just 
where the best seeding was. One man 
or a stout boy could have helped me 
with a garden, and also grew forage 
enough for our horses. But we felt 
the need of providing work for a num¬ 
ber of people, and I must also confess 
tkat I had a sort of jaunty idea of 
what I could do with that soil. At that 
time I had not measured the tenacity 
with which old sod will cling to land. 
If any man can kill the sod on such 
tough old soil as this and fit it for veg¬ 
etables in less than five years he beats 
me. 
We had a full set of potato machin¬ 
ery so that Fall we plowed about 20 
acres of that sod, leaving the furrows 
up to the frost. That was a mistake. 
The-land was rocky, and some one had 
tried the plan of plowing a deep fur¬ 
row, raking small stones into it and 
then plowing the next furrow over 
them. That gets the stones out of 
sight, but it will spoil the morals of the 
next man who tries to plow the field. 
If I were doing this over again I would 
find if I could the oldest seeding and 
plow about six acres of it, then spend a 
lot of time harrowing and chopping it 
up. I would let the grass stand, and 
the next Spring give it all a good dress¬ 
ing of fertilizer. That is a good way 
to find whether the sod should be 
plowed or not, for you can quickly tell 
whether there is hay enough to pay. 
As it happened we plowed up some of 
the best seeding on the farm, and I 
have never yet been able to equal it. 
If any man buy a hilly farm my advice 
would be to get the steeper parts into 
grass and let them stay there, using 
every care to keep the seeding up. The 
lower level ground is the place for 
work. I have seen around Syracuse, 
N. Y., steep hills covered with Alfalfa. 
Such hills in our country would hardly 
earn the interest on $10 an acre unless 
they were in fruit, while those Syra¬ 
cuse hills pay interest on several hun¬ 
dred dollars. 
In the Spring we harrowed that sod 
and planted potatoes with the planter. 
There is where we made our second 
mistake. We should have taken less 
ground, cross-plowed it and harrowed it 
fine. We were afraid of turning that 
sod up to the surface—thinking it would 
rot below ground. It acted just like an 
evil which men try to cover up, for just 
when we thought we had those potatoes 
cleaned those old grass roots got in 
their work and put the field into sod 
again. We should have ripped the old 
sod up to the sun and air where we 
could fight it. That was the great secret 
of Geo. M. Clark’s method of reseeding 
a meadow. Instead of turning the fur¬ 
row over so as to hide and protect the 
old sod he used a Cutaway and tore or 
tossed the sod to the surface. Then by 
constantly working it he killed the sod 
out and started with pure grass. I 
seeded a field seven years ago on Clark’s 
plan, and it is to-day the best and clean¬ 
est grass we have. One of my boys is 
growing a crop of potatoes of his own. 
It is an old sod plowed last year and 
seeded to rye and Crimson clover. This 
year we worked it with the large disk 
plow instead of turning plow. This 
brought a lot of sod to the surface, and 
the boy was discouraged because he 
wanted it out of sight. He now sees 
that he can kill it more thoroughly by 
having it where he can see it. H. vv. c 
Allow the door to cling close to the wall,and 
yet it will be able to pass any uneven wall 
surface. Double straps prevent all binding 
on track. Made of unbreakable Malleable 
Iron with roller bearings of chilled steel. 
Prices no higher than the ordinary kind. 
Also full line of Hay Carriers, Tracks, 
Slings, Porks, Stackers, Rickers and the 
famous labor saving Louden Litter Car¬ 
riers. Complete catalogue tree. 
LOUDEN MACHINERY COMPANY 
601 Broadway Fairfield. Iowa 
CUTAWAY TOOLS FOR LARGE HAY CROPS 
rk’s Reversible 
Bush & Bog Plow 
Cuts a track 5 ft. wide, 
1 ft. deep. Will plow 
a new cut forest. His 
double action Cutaway 
Harrow keeps land truo, 
moves 1800 tons of earth, 
cuts 30 acres per day. 
DOUBLE ACTIONiV JOINTEDTOLE CUTA 
OOT W TIP rfSENDFOB —T-; 
f H CIRCULAASTOm 
25 NO ' A, CUTAWAY “ri 
UZ MORE HARROW »E5 
USE. CO- O 
F °R 4=G5k ® VHICCANUMl — 
plow. -^4i_^£g^4aycoNN.u.3.Ay‘ , ^^| 
Jointed l’ole takes all the weight off Horses 
and keeps their heels away from the Disks. 
His Rev. Disk Plow cuts a 
furrow 5 to 10 in. deep, 14 
in., wide. All Clark’s ma¬ 
chines will kill witch-grass, 
wild mustard, charlock, 
hardhack, sunflower, milk- 
weod, thistle or any foul 
plant. 
A WONDERFUL INVENTION 
CLARK’S DOUBLE ACTION COM¬ 
BINED CULTIVATOR & HARROW. 
Can he used to culti¬ 
vate rowed crops, as 
a listing harrow, also 
when closed together 
is a harrow cutting 4*o 
feet wide. 
CUTAWAY HARROW C0„ 
39 Main St., Higganum,Conn. 
ONE MAN DOES 
WORK OF TWO 
With Iron Age Hiding Culti¬ 
vators. You can dolt easier and , 
better, because they aro built on 
lines that mako this possible. 
Hoes are under perfect 
control. Can regulate 
depth and keep hoes 
desired distance 
from growing 
plants. More 
advantag - 
es in our 
Iron 
Age 
BATEMAN MFG.CO.,Box I02C Grenloch, N.J. 
EC 
m 
* . - • 
1 C 
•• 
’ Ttb < V* 
m 
p 
I 
> oSrv 
5 ) 
L 
.0 
Modal and highest award at the Jamestown Exposition 
Economy Silos aro best because t 
™ The doors are continuous, easily j 
opened, without clumsy fastenings. 
The hoops are strong, well support-1 
ed, and form a safe iron ladder. 
The Silo is air tight all over, keeps tho | 
ensilage absolutely sweet. Easy to put up, 
Itilly guaranteed. Write lor froo Illustrated | 
catalogue with experience of ueors. 
Economy Silo & Tank Co. 
Jj| Box 383 Frederick, Md. 
I LOS 
200 SIZES 
3 STYLES 
make dairying profitable because they 
provide the CHEAPEST nillk-producing 
ration; and the BEST, too. Any cheap 
silo will HOl'SB your corn. A Harder 
Silo will PRESERVE It. Write today 
for our free booklet describing tho 
most DPRARLK, the most CONVENIENT, 
the REST silos. 
HARDER ,11FG. COMPANY, 
Box 11 Cohleskilt.. New York. 
The 
Gasoline 
Engine 
Is the all-service engine* 
Simple, powerful, uses little 
fuel for power generated. 
All types and eizes. For all 
kind! of jobs In all weathers. 
Let us send you fine tr <o Engine 
Book with proofs. Poatal us your name. weHl do the rest. 
C. P. & J. LAimONCO., 850 8Qth 8t., Mllwnnfrre, 
Gas and Gasoline Engines 
Stationary, 
and Portable 
for all purposes 
Catalogues on KlequeAt 
W. D. DUNNING, 
331 W. Water St. 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
PORTER HAY CARRIER 
Has wide open mouth and swinging fork pulley. 
Fills hay mow full to the 
roof.Is without exception 
best hay carrier in the 
U. S. Send for illustrat¬ 
ed booklet of PORTER’S 
up-to-date hay carriers, 
forks, hay slings, etc. 
J. E. PORTER COMPANY, 
Ottawa, - - Illinois. 
For Sale by 
Kemp & Burpee Mfg. Co., 
Syracuse, - - New York. 
Stickney Gasoline Engines 
ARE THE BEST 
BECAUSE OF ITS OESIGN] 
OF IGNITER. COOLING SYsJ 
TEM, VALVE MOTION. GOV-J 
ERNOR. THE QUALITY OF 
ITS MATERIAL ANO TMt) 
ACCURACV_ OF^ ITS WORK-J 
MAN SHIR 
BECAUSE OF ITS 57 REA¬ 
SONS WHICH ARB TOLO IN 
OUR FREE CATALOG* ANO, 
CATECHISM 
C/5 
O 
■J 
S 
E 
£3 
Q 
< 
J 
i—i 
E 
eu 
M 
£ 
0.2 S3 
a a 
w « a 
a ’gg ft 
a S§| o 
a e*? Z 
o o a 
ts Sfl’f § 
s *oo a. 
o ~ .O 
rl © ©^ 5 
P rfl J!) H 5 
^ 3 a O 
£ a 2 a 
w 
C/5 
erf 
o 
H 
T3 
C 
>i C/5 
IS 
© 
a 
a 
a 
u 
A 
O o 
—4 f Vi 
E4 H 
A! 
w o 
cl 
o 
v 
o£ 
W 
h 
s 
o 
□ 
33 . 
C_> J 
C/5 W 
. -S 
£ 
•C 
a 
"3 
-3 
2 
o. 
C/3 
WEEDSPORT SILOS 
Our Improved Silo, with removable, slid¬ 
ing and interchangeable doors. Is up-to-date 
in every respect. Our Hay Racks aro models 
of practical farm utensils. 
Write for catalog and prices. 
THE ABRAM WALRATH CO. 
Box 83, WEEDSPORT, N. Y. 
Gasoline 
Engines 
Fewest Parts. Uses 
Least Fuel. 
Catalogue FREE. 
C. H. CAN11EI.D,! 
202 West Newell St., 
Syracuse, New York 
STATIONARY, PORTABLE WOOD SAWING OUTFITS) 
SEND TODAY FOR FREE CATALOG, 
*. -, si - 
CHAS. A. STICKNEY CO,, 55 Batterymarch St~ Boston, Masii 
KEEP THE BOYS 
ON THE FARM. 
One of our Gasoline Engines 
in a small power house will keep the 
boys interested and do away with the 
drudgery that all boys hate. Any boy 
can operate our engines, they aro so 
simple, and easy to start. 
Send for Catalog. 
First engine in county at agents’ price. 
THE MAXWELL & FITCH CO. 
ROME, N. Y. 
O—^——————— ——a—p—■——■raxl 
WATER SYSTEMS - 1 
ANO PUMPING PLANTS 
Pneumatic or Direct 
Ideal Systems for Country TTomes, Factories, Public Buildings, 
not connected with City Pressure, operated with 
ABENAQUE 
GAS OR GASOLINE ENGINES 
Writo For Cataloguo "O 1 *' 
ABENAQUE MACHINE WORKS 
BoBton io onv’er street Westminster Station, Yt. 
