100S. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
401 
Hope Farm Notes 
THE HOPE FARM MAN’S STORY. 
Part VI. 
We raised that First year a large crop 
of potatoes and corn and a heavy crop 
of cow peas. I believe without doubt 
that in any section where there is a 
good market for them potatoes make 
the best crop a man can start with on a 
new farm. They must be fed and cared 
for, but it is easier to follow directions 
in growing a crop of potatoes than with 
most other crops. We made a fair profit 
on our crop, but I was not satisfied 
with it. The stones and rocks ripped 
and tore our machinery, and there was 
no chance for the ordinary rotation on 
these hills. We might have divided the 
field in two, followed potatoes with rye 
and clover, cut the rye for hay, got one 
Fall cut of clover and plowed the 
Spring growth for potatoes again. I 
didn’t like to work those hills. I be¬ 
came convinced that fanning as most 
people understand it has seen its day in 
our country. It can be only a question 
of time before the overflow from the 
city will demand our hills. If this were 
to be a farming section, the soil to be 
used for producing food for 50 years 
more, it would, I believe, pay to dig 
out the rocks and pick up stones on 
these hills, for that would add to the 
value of land for farm purposes. As 
the evident end of this country is to 
provide homes and towns I do not see 
that we can get our money back by pre¬ 
paring the hills for farming. 
Most of us would be better off with 
20 acres, smooth and well cared for. I 
am sure that I can produce a greater 
value without owning any horse and 
working with wheel cultivator and hand 
hoe than many a farmer with a good 
team on a fair-sized western farm. I 
talked with a hoy once who had left the 
farm. He said he helped father grow 
over 15 crops of corn, potatoes and 
rye. Father took the little money left 
after paying expenses, the farm was 
poorer than it was when they started, 
and there wasn’t a thing on it but weeds 
and dead vines to show that work had 
been done there. Now that boy said 
that if 10 years before father had been 
willing to let him begin planting an 
orchard, the farm would now show 
something of their labor. I could never 
forget the point that boy made. A 
farmer must have some definite plan 
and purpose, and not live merely from 
year to year. About that time I be¬ 
came greatly interested in the plan for 
growing fruit advocated by IT. M. 
Stringfellow, of Texas. This method, 
or a modification of it, seemed to offer 
about the only plan, then within my 
means, of planting a commercial or¬ 
chard on my hills. After much study 
I decided to plant all but about 10 acres 
of-the lower farm in trees, to care for 
them in the most inexpensive way that 
would give fair growth, and to work 
the lower fields into intensive culture 
of small fruits and vegetables. That is 
my plan, and with hindrances and draw¬ 
backs we have tried to hang to it. 
About the same time I determined to 
adopt this plan my neighbor decided to 
work out a somewhat similar poliev 
with dairying. He began in a small way 
with a few cows, put up good buildings, 
and has now a purebred bull. He fol¬ 
lows as nearly as possible the plan re¬ 
cently advocated by John McLennan of 
growing green forage crops, without 
much pasture. The milk is sold at re¬ 
tail, and the milk customers also pro¬ 
vide a market for potatoes, apples or 
vegetables. At one time I had six cows, 
but my figures convinced me that with 
the high price of grain my milk cost 
t0 ° rouch. . Then again, dairying did 
not “nick” in with my fruit plan. You 
cannot pasture cattle in a young or¬ 
chard, nor can you grow soiling crops 
to advantage there. We now keep only 
enough cows for our milk. These cows 
are usually staked out to eat green feed. 
My old Alfalfa field gives good feed to 
the cows. They are tied at one end and 
advanced as they eat the grass clean. I 
understand this is the way cows are fed 
on the island of Jersey. By the time 
our. cows reach the end of the patch the 
beginning is again ready for them. 
1 here is often a small patch of clover 
or cow peas to be turned under. If 
possible we let the stock eat it off before 
plowing. There is less trouble from 
souring the ground when the land is 
plowed. A small flock of sheep will pay 
well on such a farm. With portable 
fences or with strap and rope they can 
e pastured in fence corners or other 
places where weeds grow. Of course 
this will look like very small business 
to these great sheep men out west who 
count their sheep by the thousand, yet 
when one sets out to produce as much 
on an acre as the average farmer does 
on 10, even the feeding value of the 
weeds may be considered. We have 
never been very strong on live stock. 
Our best work has been done with hogs. 
At one time I kept purebred Berkshires 
and Yorkshires, and had good stock, but 
the high price of grain in our country 
made the profit doubtful, and I cleaned 
the lot out. I know the temptation of 
substituting good grade pigs when a 
good sow kills her litter. Now we do 
not winter any pigs if we can help it, 
hut usually buy some good sows in 
Spring and let the pigs run in the older 
orchards. With poultry our best money 
has been made at raising a large lot of 
good pullets and selling all but about 50 
in the Fall. There may be good profit 
in Winter eggs, but we have never 
found much of it in our cold and windy 
situation. The most profitable stock we 
have ever had on the place are the Bos¬ 
ton terrier dogs which Jack is breeding. 
Our first start at orcharding was with 
about 75 peach trees. I happened to be 
away when those trees came, and the 
boys set them in large holes without 
trimming either root or top! They have 
grown to suit themselves, except when 
they got too high—when we cut them 
off and let a new top form. Visitors 
laugh at their shape, but they still pro¬ 
duce the goods. They stand in sod. 
When T began in earnest to plant an 
orchard I followed Mr. Stringfcllow’s 
advice, and planted June-bud peach trees 
in an old, uncleaned field. The year be¬ 
fore furrows had been turned in part 
of the field and cow peas seeded. We 
ran our rows across this field, expecting 
to clean out the brush and stumps later. 
Those trees were cut back to mere 
whips, and the roots cut off to one- 
fourth inch stubs. We then punched 
holes with a crowbar, put the little tree 
into a hole and poured sand and water 
around .th,e root until the hole was full. 
'Flic object of this was to obtain a deep 
tap-rooted tree. The roots started much 
like those on a currant cutting from 
around the callus at the bottom and dug 
straight down. Most of those trees are 
still living, having endured frost and* 
high winds. They promise a good crop 
this year, but I do not plant that way 
any more. It may be all right in the 
South with its mild Winters, but in this 
country the lifting power of the frost is 
often enough to pull out fence posts. I 
have seen these stub-pruned trees lifted 
completely out of the ground by Spring. 
Longer stubs on the roots will anchor 
the tree firmly, and also prevent the 
wind from whirling it around and 
around. I have no longer any doubt 
that by close root-pruning we can obtain 
a deeper and better root system than by 
leaving long roots and planting in large 
holes. In fact, root-pruning is a quite 
essential part in sod or mulch culture 
of orchards. 
I have planted all my trees on this 
modification of Stringfellow’s method. 
With a two-year-old apple tree the roots 
are pruned to two or three inches, with 
a slanting cut on the under side. Cut¬ 
ting the top depends on the shape of 
the tree. If the crotch has been formed 
low enough and is suitable otherwise I 
leave it, cutting the limbs back to say 
two buds. If the crotch is not what 
we want I cut below it and start a single 
stem, so as to form the head to suit us 
later. We usually plant directly in the 
sod, digging a hole just large enough to 
hold the roots and pounding the soil 
hard after the trees are planted. On 
the hills we have various ways of hand¬ 
ling the young trees. Some are left in 
sod, part of the grass being cut and 
piled around them. In some parts of 
the orchards the seeding has about run 
out. In such cases we plow or disk the 
middles, leaving a strip of grass along 
the trees. This year we are raising 
corn in these middles and seed to Crim¬ 
son clover and turnips at last working. 
It was a part of my plan to show if I 
could that an orchard can be developed 
on these rough hills at low cost and with 
unskilled labor. You may ask, what is 
the use in trying to prove any such 
thing? The great majority of the peo¬ 
ple in this country can never be classed 
among the strong or put down as ex¬ 
perts. If a college education were 
meant only for the well prepared, the 
well-to-do and the physically perfect I 
should have been barred out. As it is, 
I think too much of our modern educa¬ 
tion has a tendency to help the strong 
and naturally capable, while those who 
cannot quite stand the pace must fall 
behind. I wanted to make my farm like 
a life insurance. I hope it will support 
the girls and provide good business for 
the boys. When I started this orchard 
my mind went back to the time when 
my mother wanted a farm on which to 
raise her family and keep them together. 
Suppose she had tried it on such a place 
as mine, with little capital, less knowl¬ 
edge and feeble help! What is there in 
agricultural literature that would really 
help her make a permanent home and a 
profitable business? I have had such a 
family in mind all through our efforts to 
establish the orchards on our hills. I 
have purposely stuck to my original plan 
when I felt that we would make more 
rapid progress by using other methods, 
and even when I could have afforded 
the capital needed to change. I deter¬ 
mined to sec if an orchard that would 
compel the respect of the experts could 
be produced bv just ordinary methods 
within the reach of poor people or those 
of limited strength. I remember when 
the hill orchards were planted. As the 
sun went down we looked up and saw 
a row of slender sticks outlined against 
the western sky. The boys had little 
faith in them, and agreed with those 
who ridiculed the whole plan. The 
other night as the sun went down I 
looked to the west again. There stood 
the trees in full leaf, broad and fair 
against the sky. We had fought them 
past drought and borer and scale and 
now no man doubted their value and 
their future. h. w. c. 
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