1908. 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
687 
Hope Farm Notes 
Two Strikes !—The umpire had an 
excited audience of over 25,000 people 
as he made that thrilling announcement! 
It was the seventh inning. The New 
York and Chicago clubs had struggled 
through the hot afternoon without a run. 
Now the New Yorks had three men on 
bases, two out and two strikes on the 
next man. Every old ball player will 
realize the gravity of that situation. The 
Hope Farm man and his boys perched 
on a front seat forgot all about the 
weeds and the strawberries. No use 
talking, there are moments of intense en¬ 
joyment which make up for long days 
of sweat and toil. Who would not pull 
a million weeds for the sake of enjoying 
that intense moment during which the 
pitcher prepared to throw the next ball? 
Surely such a person could not claim 
to be a thoroughbred, for the papers 
would not fit him. 
I felt for that pitcher. There were 
25,000 people stamping and howling ad¬ 
vice at him—doing their best to make 
him lose his nerve. There was a case 
where my affliction would prove a bless¬ 
ing. That ball finally came up to the 
batter. He swung his bat and there was 
a smash like striking a slat on a barn 
door. Every runner started for home, 
and a yell went up that might have 
been heard for miles. Did you ever see 
the hand of fate close on the throat of 
joy just as the valves were properly 
opened to let out the sound? The third 
baseman was fate in this case. That 
ball went like a bullet, just inside the 
foul line, and looked good for three 
runs. That third baseman jumped even 
faster than the ball, caught it apparently 
with the ends of his fingers, jumped on 
his base and the side was out! It was all 
done like a flash, and those who had 
brains quick enough to follow it either 
had sore throats where joy died to gloom 
or else were big enough to let the yell 
out in full volume in admiration of the 
play. 
It was a great game and did us all 
good. Of course I realize that some 
good people will say the Hope Farm 
man might be in far better business than 
going to see a ball game. These good 
folks might get more inspiration out of 
a lecture, but I shall have to confess 
that those ball players stirred up the 
fountain of youth in me. The boys 
earned the outing by good work on the 
farm, and I confess that I am glad they 
chose baseball. In my younger days I 
heajjd of a boy who worked like a little 
slave in the hope that he might go to 
the circus. When the time came his 
father said: “No, son, we can’t go to 
the circus, but if you’ll finish your stent 
you can go and see grandmother’s 
grave!” Why, that baseball game will 
find its counterpart on our farm. Right 
now the weeds have three men on bases 
with a good show of getting them all 
in. We must move faster than that ball 
player did to stop the weeds and get 
them around our trees. And the mem¬ 
ory of that great game will help do it. 
Strawberries. —What is to be done 
after fruiting? Either plow up the bed 
and plant some late crop or try to save 
it for another year. I meet a good 
many growers who say it does not pay 
to fuss with the old bed—better plant a 
new one each year. It pays us to keep 
such varieties as President and Mar¬ 
shall going year after year if we can do 
it right. Our plan is about as follows. 
When picking is done we run the mow¬ 
ing machine over the beds, cutting weeds 
and vines close. Most growers who do 
this advise to rake and burn over the 
beds. The object of this is to destroy 
all germs of rust and other diseases. 
People sometimes ask why they cannot 
use the same straw year after year for 
mulching. The main objection to this 
is that the straw is a nursery for 
these diseases. We rake off the 
straw and clippings and carry them 
to the hill, where they are put around 
apple trees. After this is done the ob¬ 
ject is to start with new rows of plants. 
If, as is usual, the plants have run into 
wide matted rows we plan to plow or 
dig out the centers of these rows, leav¬ 
ing a fringe of plants at either edge for 
the new rows. With a steady horse and 
a sharp plow this can be done by going 
through the center of the row and plow¬ 
ing two or more furrows into a ridge. 
Then, when this is broken down with 
a cultivator two narrow rows are left. 
We use fertilizer at this time, and try 
to give good culture, cutting off most of 
the runners as they start. The object is 
to train narrow rows of fresh young 
plants on what ere the middles this- 
year. In this way, by alternating back 
and forth, making this year’s row the 
middle for next year, and so on, a bed 
can be fruited for years, provided dis¬ 
eases are not too bad. Each year I 
think more and more of the hill system 
—that is, single plants close together 
with the runners cut off and fruited 
year after year. That Kevitt patch is 
making very fine plants. It has been 
weeded four times already and still the 
“pussley” comes in. On July 4 I went 
over this patch, cutting off runners for 
the third time. There can be no doubt 
that this cutting is driving the plants 
into excellent growth. 
Farm Notes. —We kept on throwing 
the hay into the barn with every hope 
of having it all there by July 4. The 
weather was hot and dry and on the 
light land pcopl.e were crying for rain. 
On July 2 a thunderstorm swept over 
our valley with a fearful downpour of 
rain. A few miles away there was 
barely a sprinkle, but we had a soaker 
that filled the ground. It caught our 
oats and peas out, and held them there 
for nearly a week. It was just what the 
Alfalfa and young clover needed, and 
they are drinking in the water like a 
thirsty man in the desert. I am glad 
the hay is in the barn, for now comes 
the job of mulching the trees. There 
was little use in putting mulch around 
the trees before the rain came. We 
want the soil well soaked and then the 
mulch put on to hold the water in. 
We have the soaked soil all right, and 
now goes the stuff on top of it. Weeds, 
rakings from the hay, the trash along 
the stone walls, leaves from the woods, 
manure, anything we can get our hands 
on that will rot on top of the ground is 
piled under the trees. It comes just in 
time, for the dry weather was begin¬ 
ning to bleach out some of the peach 
trees. The fruit is about the size of 
a hen’s egg, and two baskets or more 
on a tree will pump water out of the 
soil like a steam pump. That mulch 
will hold the water where the trees can 
get it, so that everything we can get 
will be piled around them. . . . The 
oats and peas were grown in an orchard 
of old high-headed trees near the barn. 
The soil is naturally good, and we have 
had a drove of hogs in the orchard for 
the past four Summers. There is no 
question in my mind about the benefit 
hogs do to such soils. The trees have 
improved in appearance and the fruit 
is better. This year’s crop of oats and 
peas without manure is immense. As 
soon as we get it out the hogs will be 
turned in to glean up what is left and 
eat the fallen apples. At first I expect¬ 
ed to disk up the oats and pea stubble 
and sow Japanese millet, but I think 
the hogs will make more out of it. I 
will let them rip and tear the sod all 
they will, and in September they will 
be taken out and the whole thing disked 
and seeded to rye. I am more and more 
and still more in favor of keeping the 
ground covered with some living crop, 
especially through the Fall. 
Loss of Nitrates. —This brings up 
the matter I started last week. Here is 
a good question: 
Will you ask some of the scientific agri¬ 
culturists (not farmers) among the read¬ 
ers of The It. N.-Y. to explain to a rank 
amateur, the following: How is nitrate of 
soda or any soluble salt washed out of the 
soil when we are told that we must culti¬ 
vate to break up capillary evaporation? 
Massachusetts. f. e. ii. 
I am not in the class this friend calls 
for, but I will give my opinion and ask 
our scientific friends to set me right. 
There can be no question about the fact 
that nitrates and other soluble forms of 
plant food are washed down into the 
soil and out of it through the drain 
waters. We know that water falls upon 
the soil and sinks into it. If we watch 
a drain we can see this water running 
out again. There is very little of it in 
a dry time, and lots of it after a rain. 
We know that sugar, salt and other sub¬ 
stances dissolve in water. Take a 
bucket of ground feed like shorts, bran 
and cornmeal and mix salt freely all 
through it. Then pour on water slowly 
so that every part of the mixture will 
be wet. Draw off a little of the water 
and taste the salt in it. The water has 
dissolved the salt in the grain and car¬ 
ries it wherever it goes. It is more 
evenly distributed than before the water 
was put in. Then close the hole in the 
bottom where you let out the water, and 
set the bucket in a warm, dry place. 
After a while you will find the grain 
dry and a thin layer of salt on top or 
near it. The water evaporated. It rose 
to the surface, and as it changed into 
vapor and passed off it left the salt 
which it carried up on the surface. 
Now these and other movements of 
water are going on in the soil. Drain 
water, brooks and rivers have been 
analyzed, and nitrates were found in 
them. Sometimes the downflow of the 
water carries the nitrates into the lower 
soil, where they may be left out of the 
reach of ordinary crops until the sub¬ 
soil is broken up or some deep-rooted 
crop reaches them. The upward move¬ 
ment of water or capillarity carries the 
soluble salts up to the surface as was 
the case in the bucket of bran. The 
glowing plants, sucking up the water 
for their own use, also increase this 
movement. By keeping the surface 
thoroughly tilled or by keeping a mulch 
on the surface we prevent evaporation 
more or less, so that the water remains 
in the upper surface ready to water as 
well as feed our crops. If we put a 
layer of cut straw on top of the bucket 
of feed, or even keep the surface stirred 
up with a fork we shall keep the water 
in the mass longer and thus keep the 
salt distributed. When the surface is 
not kept well cultivated and sometimes 
when it is there is much evaporation of 
water, and of course, as with the salt 
in the grain, the plant food is left near 
the surface. Should there come a soak¬ 
ing and washing rainstorm, as we had 
the other day, you can see that espe¬ 
cially on rolling land a good deal of 
this plant food will be washed away 
from the soil, not through the drains, 
but over the surface. In the West are 
what are called alkali lands, which in 
places are covered with alkali. The 
trouble with these soils is that there is 
no particular drainage away from them, 
so that the salts are carried to the sur¬ 
face and left there. About the only way 
to fit such soils is to flood them with 
water and wash the 'alkali” out. In 
some cases they put on plaster so as to 
make the alkali soluble, and thus wash 
out better. 
There will not be much loss of these 
nitfates when the soil is well tilled and 
covered with living plants. Of course 
anyone can see that the loss will be 
greatest on soil that is in poor condition, 
either soggy through lack of drainage 
or too open and light through a lack of 
vegetable matter. On most soils well 
cultivated a thrifty crop will use most 
of the nitrates as fast as they are 
formed. The loss, as we have pointed 
out, is greatest while the soil is left 
bare—usually from September to De¬ 
cember, or when the ground freezes. 
That is why I advocate a cover crop 
and why we use Crimson clover and 
Cow-horn turnips in the corn. You will 
remember that during our average Falls 
the weather alternates between heavy 
washing rains and hot dry periods. This, 
as we see, exactly favors the loss of ni¬ 
trates. During the dry weather water 
is rapidly evaporated from the surface 
soil, leaving its plant food on or near 
the surface. Then comes the washing 
rains, and of course much of this plant 
food is soaked out and carried away. 
Now with clover and turnips covering 
the ground this loss would be stopped. 
The living plants would use the nitrates 
as they are formed, and the mass of 
growth on the surface would hold back 
the water and prevent severe washing. 
The objection to using this crop in the 
growing corn comes in a very dry sea¬ 
son, when there is hardly moisture 
enough to supply the corn. The clover 
and turnips demand moisture also and 
the corn is robbed. In such a season it 
would very likely pay to keep on culti¬ 
vating the corn and sow rye as soon as 
the corn crop was safely made. Some 
farmers prefer to Fall-plow the land. 
They reason that the action of the frost 
does more good to the soil than any 
gain of nitrates. h. w. c. 
A HENDRICKS HAY 
PRESS for $175 
OcrNo.O Upright Press 
for only $175 is the 
f reatestbargain in Hay 
resses ever offered. It 
will earn its cost in one 
season. If not as repre- 
sentedmoney refunded. 
Send for free catalog. 
D. B. Hendricks & Co., Cornell St., Kingston, N.Y. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
I t. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See guarantee, page 8. 
THE “NEW WAY” PRESS 
is a horizontal press. It bales 1% to 2tj tons per hoar. 
Feed hole 46x50 inches—easy to feed; no tramping-, 
fork only used. Revolutionizes theloose baling system. 
Makes the very desirable eastern market bale. Beata 
all Bo* and Upright Pressoa by doing 100 per cent 
more work. Stands at work just as you see it in the cut. 
Very portable. Adapted to bank barn work. We also 
make Horse and Belt Power Presses. Write for catalog. 
SANDWICH MFC. CO., 157 MAIN ST„ SANDWICH, ILL. 
11 MAN Hi IF! 
C l TON 
IIhorsedALUv 
) Ihour 
On our wonderful new Daisy SELF-THREAD¬ 
ING, seif-feeding, one-horse hay press. It is 
the only one on the market on which one 
man can do all the work. This first success¬ 
ful self-threading device—greatest time 
saver ever. Condenser and open bars on bale 
lincreaso capacity and prevent 
-fork catching. 
|Flvo days’ 
ree trial. 
W rite today 
a for prices 
and circulars. 
[hopper 
Eli” 
Hay Press. 
HORSE and BELT 
POWER. 
38 styles and sizes off 
Presses. 
For many years the stand- ( 
ard. Lead in character 
of work, speed, easy 
and safe operating, h 
D on’t buy until you* 
seethe Eli catalogue. 1 
Mailed free. Write 
for it today. 
COLLINS PLOW CO., 1111 Hampshire St., Quincy, Ills. 
ANN ARBOR 
MACHINE 
COMPANY 
I Box 80 , 
Ann Arbor, Mich* 
HAY JUMPING 
will soon be a thing of the past. 
Hay Baling made rapid and easy by 
SPENCER’S HERCULES LARGE BALE PRESS. 
Guaranteed capacity four tons an hour or no sale. 
No jumping Every farmer who furnishes Tabling 
and Board should talk this Press, because he does 
not have to pitch hay as high as the Upright. 
Again, the Upright cannot take feed while press¬ 
ing and tying. We can; hence men on the mow, 
not having to wait, are more efficient. Greater 
speed means less board. For Catalog address 
J. A. SPENCER, - Dwight, Ills. 
CUTAWAY TOOLS FOR LARGE HAY CROPS 
Clark’s Reversible 
Bush & Bog Plow 
Cuts a track 5 ft. wide, 
1 ft. deep. Will plow 
a new cut forest. His 
double iiction Cutaway 
Harrow keeps land true, 
moves 1800 tons of earth, 
cuts 30 acres per day. 
DOUBLE ACTIONiV JOINTED POLE CUT/ 
SENDFOB 
CIRCULARS TO THt 
CUTAWAY 
HARROW -33 
CO.. <=J 
higcanum\ 
CONN. 
--, C_3 
6ANUM\ 
Jointed Pole takes all tlie 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, 
hardback, sunflower, milk¬ 
weed, thistle or any foul 
plant. 
A WONDERFUL INVENTION 
CLARK’S DOUBLE ACTION COM¬ 
BINED CULTIVATOR & HARROW. 
Can be used to culti¬ 
vate rowed crops, as 
a listing harrow, also 
when closed together 
is a harrow cutting 4ka 
feet wide. 
CUTAWAY HARROW CO., 
39 Main Si., Hlgganum.Conn. 
OHIO 
3-STROKE 
ALL STEEL 
SELF FEED 
2-HORSE HAX- PRESS 
Send for 
’’Balers’ 
Hand Book” 
free 
The fastest baler made. Lightest draft and easiest on horses and men. Large feed opening. Powerful 
feeder eliminates all danger in feeding. We also build Belt Power and One-Horse Steel Presses. Address 
