1D0S. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
555 
Hope Farm Notes 
On page 507 I see your statement about 
what you are growing on a piece of land 
36x216 and 96x174. This seems marvelous; 
I don't understand how you arrange tho 
land to get this amount on it, without 
shading everything to death. Could you 
explain it so that one would know the 
arrangement? Can you work the land 
so planted with horse, or do you have to 
use hand plows, or hand hoes, which? If 
I could crop my lots that way I could raise 
enough to keep my family. What is the 
Ivevitt plan of planting and working 
strawberries? k. e. e. 
I had no idea that we were doing any¬ 
thing remarkable on this small place. I 
have seen very much more done on an 
equal area. The patch was originally set 
in Fay and Wilder currants—rows eight 
feet apart and 3feet in row. The soil 
was originally very tough and hard, and 
filled with stones. These were picked 
from time to time and put into drains. 
For two years we grew potatoes midway 
between the rows of currants. Then we 
dropped sweet corn every four feet in 
the potato rows, and cultivated with a 
horse. The corn got above the potato 
vines and when they fell down it had a 
clear field and gave a fair crop. Then 
the scale got on the currants and we 
found it next to impossible to keep it 
down by spraying. So we cut the hushes 
back to the very roots and planted four 
or more Marshall strawberry plants 
along the center of every other row— 
thus placing them 16 feet apart each way. 
That year we planted potatoes in the 
open row and along the rows of trees. 
There was a fine growth of everything. 
This year the currants are nearly four 
feet high and well loaded with fruit. The 
strawberries of course made many run¬ 
ners. We set the best of them so as to 
place the plants about a foot apart in 
the shade of the currants and cut off the 
others. The Marshall seems better 
adapted to this sort of culture than any 
other variety I know of. The yield is 
not large, but the berries grown in the 
shade are large and of a rich crimson 
color. 
Most of the peach trees—little June- 
buds planted in May, 1907— now stand 
level with my head. In the rows be¬ 
tween these trees we have set early cab¬ 
bage. In the odd rows, where there are 
no trees, we planted sweet corn. As this 
corn is picked the stalks will be cut and 
late cabbage plants put in. The wide 
rows give us a chance to drive a horse 
between the currants and the peach 
trees, and on either side of the sweet 
corn, hut it requires a slow, careful horse 
and quick work with the cultivator. I do 
this work myself, using a very short 
whiffletree. There is great danger of 
barking the tree. If it were not for 
using the horse I should put three rows 
of cabbage or peppers between each two 
rows of currants, and one on each side 
of the peach rows, and work the ground 
with hand cultivators. The soil is not 
quite conquered yet. We might run a 
row of posts along the open rows be¬ 
tween the currants and string wires high 
up. We could then plant grapes 10 or 
12 feet apart and put tomato plants in 
between, training the vines up on the 
wires with beets or carrots or other low- 
growing crops to fill in. By bagging the 
grapes and training the tomatoes high 
good crops could be grown. As our 
peach trees grow larger we shall trim 
them into a fan shape with the flat side 
along the rows. Then we shall prob¬ 
ably stop cultivating the peach trees and 
keep the ground thickly mulched. As it 
is now we brings weeds in baskets from 
the onion patch and pile them around 
the peach trees. All those things and 
far more are possible on a small patch. 
It is the way to handle small areas. Make 
the soil as rich as possible, prepare it 
thoroughly to begin with, then select 
crops that will interfere least in their 
growth; trim them so as to keep within 
bounds, and give the most thorough cul¬ 
ture you know how. At starting it pays 
us best to plant so as to use a horse, 
hut later we shall probably crowd closer, 
and keep the horse out. Tt is easy to 
tell about this, but the average man 
has no idea of the patience and work 
required to keep such a place clean. 
The best gardens of this sort that I have 
seen are cultivated until about May 15 
and then covered with a thick mulch of 
coarse hay. 
I have tried to explain this Kevitt plan 
of growing strawberries before. The 
field is well prepared and made rich and 
level. Then the plants are set in beds 
one foot apart each way. Four rows 
make a bed. They are separated by al¬ 
leys about two feet wide where the pick¬ 
ers are to travel. Thus the plants in 
those beds occupy one square foot of 
space each. They are kept clean and 
every runner is cut off—not one being 
permitted to root. Thus the entire 
strength of the plant is turned into mak¬ 
ing foliage and fruit buds. We did not 
carry out this plan exactly, as our soil is 
not as clean as it should be, and I 
doubted our ability to keep the weeds 
down with this close planting. We set 
the rows 18 inches apart and put the 
plants 15 inches in the row. Three rows 
make a bed. At this distance we are 
able to use a wheel cultivator to clean 
out the middles, but the weeds near the 
plants must be handled with fingers and 
hoe. We are now cutting off runners. 
A sharp steel at the end of a stick enables 
one to do this standing. I realize that a 
vast amount of work would be needed 
to handle an acre in this way, yet in 
growing fancy berries for a fancy 
market there may be money in it. I 
shall know more about it later. We 
started a trial with about 3,000 plants. 
Just now they are in fine shape. We 
use Marshall and President for this cul¬ 
ture. Kevitt uses Glen Mary and claims 
to average a quart to the plant! I have 
no idea that Marshall can be made to 
give any such average. Perhaps Presi¬ 
dent will. Glen Mary is no doubt a 
great berry for a wholesale trade, but 
it does not suit our customers. The 
other day a man came to the farm and 
ordered two quarts of the largest berries 
he could find. He said visitors were 
coming who had been telling great 
stones about the wonderful fruit they 
were able to buy and he wanted to 
silence them forever “with the genuine 
goods.” We got him two boxes of Mar¬ 
shalls calculated to do the business! 
Cactus. —Here is a Texas man with a 
few thorns from an old subject: 
Some time ago you spoke of the part you 
played in connection with prickly pears in 
fences. I had a high opinion of you before 
but that frank statement put you higher 
yet. However, you believe in justice, and 
I would like to call your attention to tho 
fact that in condemning prickly pear you 
are not fair to it. If you could see it, 
where it grows, and where its value is 
realized, you would change your views with 
regard to it. Under separate cover I send 
you a bulletin, Issued by the department, 
giving results of experiments carried on 
our ranch under its supervision. When I 
say that pear makes it possible to carry 
a cow to the acre, instead of one to 15 
or 20 acres, under old conditions, you 
will see that it means something to us. 
We are planting fences here, too, with the 
natives stuff that grows wild here. Yours 
for fair play, A. J. C. C., prickly pear, 
commission merchants or anything else. 
WILLIAM SINCLAIR. 
That closing sentence certainly covers 
a good share of the world. I knew that 
the cactus is a useful plant where it is 
fully at home. No doubt when the 
thorns are singed off it makes a good 
stock food. I know that in Mexico 
varieties of the prickly pear provide a 
large share of food for poorer people. 
In Mississippi, where these “cactus 
hedge” fellows were working, the plant 
was out of its latitude, and could not 
live up to Texas conditions. When I 
was a hoy I used to eat tansy pudding 
and boiled “pussley.” There is good 
food value in both of them. I can 
prove by figures that purslane is a 
stronger food than cabbage or peas, and 
ranks with meat when boiled. If you 
want me to I will prove that a piece 
of pork boiled with “pussley” will give 
a full balanced ration. Now suppose 
that, armed with this proof I came out 
to sell “a new and wonderful food 
plant,” so cheap that the poorest man 
could afford to grow it and so rich 
that a strong man could live on it. I 
could tell a big story with truth plas¬ 
tered all over it, and hand out in ex¬ 
change for good dollars plants of “puss¬ 
ley,” which our boys, are pulling by the 
millions out of the onions! I am ready 
for fair play to cactus, “pussley” and 
everything else, and that very fair play 
makes it necessary that we should re¬ 
member that this is a great big country 
with all sorts of climates, soils and con¬ 
ditions. We never can afford to argue 
that because a thing is right for one 
corner it must of necessity be right for 
another. 
The following letter comes from a 
young man in California. I give his 
letter just as he writes it: 
I am writing an article about how a 
young eastern farmer came out West and 
tried to do what was right, but after a 
whole load of hardship, gave it up for a 
bad job. then started tramping from one 
place to another throughout tho State, and 
finally turned out to be a tramp or semi¬ 
hobo. Not having a good education because 
mostly ad my days were spent on a farm, 
I come to ask your assistance about this 
nrticle. What puzzles me is the punctua¬ 
tion. I have 30,000 words written al¬ 
ready, with about 50,000 more in view. I 
find what I have written so interesting 
that I can hardly think I am the writer 
of it. I also read a few lines to some 
learned men. and they say: “Young man, 
you are writing something-very interesting; 
Just keep on until you finish it, and I would 
like to read it all.” Now what is your 
opinion about it, meaning about the punctu¬ 
ation? Oh, I'd give a whole lot if I had a 
good education in order to make this long 
article easier. 
Two little books that would help a 
writer are “Punctuation” and “Mistakes 
in Writing English,” both by Marshall 
T. Bigelow. The price is 50 cents each. 
I know just how this young man feels. 
At about his age I had not only “30,000 
words already written with about 50,000 
more in view,” but I had about 60,000 
written and was hunting a publisher. I 
had the same opinion of my words that 
this man has of his, and friends who 
ought to have known better told me I 
was a coming Dickens, and found fault 
with the only honest critic I had. 
Finally I got a publisher to look at my 
“words.” He said that if I could guar¬ 
antee the cost in case of failure to sell 
he would print the book 1 The world 
turned very dark to me when I got that 
letter. It seemed as if all the bitter 
and hateful work of the ages in crush¬ 
ing out budding genius had been con¬ 
centrated upon me. Some 20 years 
later, in going over some old papers, I 
found that MSS. I never was so thank¬ 
ful over anything that the publisher 
killed it with his hard talk about the 
price. I have told this before, but it 
always comes back to me whenever 
young people begin to talk of their liter¬ 
ary work. There may be those who can 
jump over grammar and rules of litera¬ 
ture and land on both feet, but I 
couldn’t. On the other hand, there may 
be people denied education and smooth 
speech who have the very fire of genius 
within them. No doubt this young man 
has the story in his- heart, but to get it 
into a book he must learn how or get 
some one to help him. It is not a bad 
thing that most of us have to fight hard 
for what we get. “This kind can come 
forth by nothing, but by fasting and 
prayer.” 
Farm Notes. —The last year’s seeding 
of Alfalfa was cut June 18. It makes 
a better crop than I expected. As soon 
as it was off we put on a light dressing 
of fertilizer. I notice that the second 
crop is coming up thicker and greener 
than the first. . . There have been 
lively times in the berry field. The crop 
as a whole is fair. A timely rain kept 
up the size of the berries, and the 
later pickings are excellent. A criticism 
often heard of the Marshall strawberry 
is that it makes a few fine berries and 
then goes out of business. This year 
it stays right in trade and keeps hand¬ 
ing out the red bouncers right along. 
. . . I have told how we had onion 
plants sent from North Carolina and 
Florida this year. At present the North 
Carolina plants are ahead, but the others 
are coming. Thus far I think the south¬ 
ern grown plants are better than any 
we have started in the hotbed. It is 
early in the season yet, but I like the 
way our plants start off. There is no 
doubt about the work needed to keep 
such onions clean. The weeds got the 
start of us during berry picking, and it 
meant an awful struggle to keep them 
down. h. w. c. 
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