1908 . 
THE RURA.I> NEW-YORKER 
603 
Hope Farm Notes 
Cleaning Up. —When Jack came down 
from the hill Friday night he said he 
was ready to sing the doxology. As he 
is solo singer in the church choir that 
ought to come natural to him, but it 
wasn’t an effort to practice merely but 
a pure outburst of thanksgiving, for the 
potatoes had at last been cleaned out! 
These potatoes are planted alongside the 
rows of young trees. The weeds got 
past us during strawberry picking and 
haying and the old sod worked in. Some 
farmers think they never should admit 
giving a ticket of entrance to a weed, 
but we cheerfully confess that we have 
lots of them. We are fighting them 
now in the corn and doing about three 
times as much work to get rid of them 
as would have been necessary six weeks 
ago. At that time more important work 
was needed and now we must pay the 
penalty. One place where we have 
trees and berries thickly planted has 
marshaled an army of weeds. This 
place is destined for the mulch culture 
anyway and before these weeds seed we 
shall cut them off with scythe and sickle 
and leave them on the ground. When 
you are mulching trees weeds are not 
entirely a curse. We get “pussley” and 
red root enough out of the onions and 
garden to make great piles around some 
40 peach trees. And how those trees do 
shine! Well they may, for “pussley” is 
richer in nitrogen than Alfalfa. July 
is the month of hoe and scythe with us 
and we are cleaning up in the midst of 
cabbage setting and sowing yellow tur¬ 
nip and cleaning strawberry beds. 
“I Wish You’d Kill Him !” — One of 
the Hope Farmers looked at me with 
murder in his eye as he said this. I am 
a man of water rather than of blood, 
but here was a case for action, and I 
admit that I killed the offender with a 
single blow. The appeal came from old 
Jerry, and the tyrant who paid the 
usual penalty for cruelty was a big- 
horsefly that had fastened on the horse’s 
flank out of reach of either head or 
tail. We were in our cornfield—back 
by the woods. A perfect swarm of 
greenhead flies came out of the woods 
and settled on the poor horse’s ears and 
neck. The instinct which teaches these 
creatures to get where the horse cannot 
reach them is remarkable. I see many 
horses at work in the woods or near 
them with their heads covered with 
blood where these fearful suckers have 
tortured them. We keep a thick mass 
of green boughs over the horse’s head 
and neck and they soon learn to toss 
their head and brush the flies away. It 
is. a shame to make a horse suffer from 
flies or thirst. I have seen horses work¬ 
ing all through the forenoon through 
the hot sun without a drop of water, 
while their drivers feel compelled to go 
to the spring half a dozen times. Why 
not unhitch the horses and take them 
along? We do, and it pays to do it. 
We had all the children at work in the 
cornfield. The two little boys were 
cultivating and the rest of us hoeing. 
When it became necessary to drink it 
was an easy matter to unhook Jerry 
and Nellie and take them with us. They 
sipped the cool water from the little 
brook and well paid us for the trouble. 
If .Gideon had been there hunting re¬ 
cruits for his band he would have 
chosen all hands, for we were all so 
thirsty we got right down and drank 
out of the stream. I told my boys to 
look around and watch the best plow¬ 
men in town and tell me what they 
found out. They came back and said 
the best plowmen never yelled or scold¬ 
ed at their horses. They proceeded to 
try .that on old Jerry and found that at 
a single word he would turn round at 
the end of the row and go back, while 
when they yelled at him he got con¬ 
fused and all mixed up. I want them 
to learn early in life that noise and vio¬ 
lence are the weakest weapons for com¬ 
mand which man possesses. 
Every year, in fact, every week I get 
letters of protest from good people who 
find fault because our children are 
brought up to work. What can be the 
matter with people of middle years who 
fail to see the blessing of labor? It is 
true that our children work every day 
and they also have time for play. The 
boys are capable of doing all our culti¬ 
vating. They do it as well as two men 
would and take pride in their work. I 
11Q t crowd them out before daylight 
and keep them at it all day. They can 
stop and rest every now and then. The 
httle girls do their share of housework 
and sewing. The larger one is now be¬ 
ginning to make her own clothes. They 
also work in the flower garden. Each 
of the boys has a potato field of his 
own. I helped them cultivate and told 
them how to plant—otherwise they have 
done all the work. They are the best 
potatoes I have seen this year. The 
boys will sell the potatoes in their own 
way and do what they see fit with the 
money. In the lumber camps and on 
the plains I have seen many sweat- 
stained dollars wasted, but I am not 
afraid of this potato money. The boys 
will have cabbage plants twice trans¬ 
planted ready to go in when the potatoes 
are dug and in between they will set 
Marshall strawberry plants on the 
Kevitt plan. Before they are grown up 
they will rank as experts in potato and 
strawberry culture, for it is a part of 
our contract that they must keep their 
crops clean. Where one child is ever 
hurt by work 10 are hurt by idleness. 
Our children have no money except 
what they earn. They realize that they 
must give some fair service in exchange 
for the privileges of home. Above that 
they are paid for their labor or have a 
chance to raise a crop of their own. 
When playtime comes they have all the 
better sport. I should be afraid for the 
future of a boy who didn’t like to play 
ball. Our boys are well pleased to have 
me go out after supper and throw a few 
curves for them to bat. They are kind 
enough to say that all I lack is speed! 
If I will practice and play at the Sunday 
school picnic they say they will clean 
up the corn! I rather think that is a 
good bargain for me. I reason that a 
man can hardly have any higher ambi¬ 
tion than to train a few good citizens 
to leave behind him. He can’t train 
good citizens unless he can control them 
while their habits and bodies are form¬ 
ing. He can’t do that unless he can en¬ 
ter right into their work and play and 
make both interesting and worth while. 
He can’t do that to advantage anywhere, 
except on a farm! There isn’t any use 
writing the Hope Farm man that he is 
doing a wrong thing to see that children 
work. If I can have my way our chil¬ 
dren will do some useful labor as long 
as they live, and they will thank us 
for it, too. 
Farm Notes. —We began planting cab¬ 
bage July 11, and at the same date 
made the last planting of sweet corn. 
The cabbage might well have been 
started earlier, but other work came 
first. We hope to get in about 10,000. 
The soil is in good condition—a Crim¬ 
son clover sod plowed early in June and 
well worked. We use fertilizer in addi¬ 
tion. . . . The first peppers were ready 
for picking July 14, and the crop will now 
come on rapidly. The plants are in fine 
condition. We prefer peppers to toma¬ 
toes chiefly because the crop can be left 
on the vines if need be. Tomatoes must 
be picked when they are ripe or they will 
be a total loss. The peppers do not rot, 
but turn red. When prices are low they 
can if need be left on the vines without 
hurt. Prices do go down out of sight 
sometimes. I have known a sugar barrel 
full to sell for a dollar, yet the price us¬ 
ually rises, and I think, one year with an¬ 
other, they will pay as well as tomatoes, 
with much less bother about picking. We 
have 3,000 plants as fine as I have seen. 
. . . Yellow turnips were seeded July 
11 after strawberries. We plowed un¬ 
der the Glen Mary vines after fruiting— 
never to have another on the farm. I 
know how popular this variety is. I 
understand more of the plants are sold 
than of any other sort, but it does not 
suit our trade. The tip is too green 
and there is a tough core in the center. 
After starting with Marshall our cus¬ 
tomers shake their heads at Glen Mary. 
As a wholesale berry I have no doubt 
it will pay well, but for retailing in a 
high-class market I would cut it out. 
We are trying a new plan this year. As 
the old beds are cleaned out after mow¬ 
ing them over we intend to dig yearling 
roots and transplant them in rows two 
feet apart and one foot in the row. The 
runners will be cut off and the plants 
forced for heavy growth. The two- 
foot spaces will give us a chance for 
horse cultivation. Mr. Kevitt tells me 
this plan ought to work and give us a 
good crop next year—better than if pot¬ 
ted or layer plants were used. I do 
not recommend the plan—we are just 
trying it and taking the risk. That 
close-planted Kevitt patch is booming. 
It is time to weed and cut runners again. 
. _ . . The happiest folks I know of 
right now are the Cheshire hogs out in 
our orchard. We got the oats and peas 
into the barn, leaving the gleanings on 
the ground. Then the hogs went in. 
’1 he sweet apple trees are beginning to 
drop their wormy fruit, and the hogs 
have a feast spread before them. They 
fill on oats and peas and then round out 
any holes or corners with apples. Then 
comes a drink from the cool stream 
running through one end of the orchard, 
a sleep and another feast. They will 
make a lot of cheap pork and come out 
in ample time for seeding the orchard 
to rye. . . . We cut the rye early 
for hay. Most of it was in bloom when 
cut; now comes another crop, which 
was cut July 13, and made a fair lot of 
good hay with some Red-top and Tim- 
; othy mixed with the rye. Our hay crop 
is larger than last year. Through the 
neighborhood generally grass was light. 
Corn looks better at this time that last 
year. So do potatoes—our own crop is 
the best we have ever had. Fruit is 
short in our section—almost half a crop 
of apples and few peaches. ... A 
number of good people have told us 
how we ought to have kept the crows 
out of our corn. The favorite remedy 
is to tie strings around the field. That 
would be mere play for our crows. 
I saw a flock pulling corn right’inside 
a field surrounded by strings and fes¬ 
tooned with white rags. Our crows 
live in the woods close to the corn¬ 
fields and are very bold. As the peaches 
ripen the crows come and peck them 
in pieces. At the same time that these 
black rascals are destroying our crops 
I can see no particular decrease in the 
number of insects. I want more evi¬ 
dence that I have yet had that the 
crows kill as many injurious insects as 
the authorities claim. . . . Somehow 
it seems hard to give all the information 
needed about sowing clover and turnips 
in the corn. Our way may not be best 
but this is how we do it. When corn 
crop is pretty well made we mix the 
clover and turnip seed and scatter it 
evenly over the ground. I usually do 
this by hand, walking through the field 
and covering three rows at a time. It 
is possible to do a fair job with a 
Cahoon seeder by riding a horse down 
a row and working the seeder so as to 
cover three or four rows on each side. 
This does rapid work but wastes the 
seed, as much of it rattles down into the 
sockets where the blades leave the corn¬ 
stalk. After seeding we take a light 
cultivator and wire a piece of plank 
or joist so that it will drag on the 
ground behind the cultivator teeth. This 
dangling board scrapes over the ground 
and levels the ridges made by the culti¬ 
vator so that the seed is well covered 
and the surface left smooth. To do a 
thorough job we should go through 
with a rake and scratch around the hills 
so as to get a full seeding. We rarely 
have time to do this but go twice in a 
row and leave it. Thus there is usually 
a narrow strip along the rows with 
no clover. One of the best tools for 
this purpose is the “diamond-tooth” 
cultivator, which is really a light one- 
horse harrow shaped like a cultivator 
and with sharp, narrow teeth. I need 
not give any further argument in favor 
of sowing these catch crops. I know 
there would be great loss of nitrogen 
in our fields during the Fall if no living 
crop occupied the ground. With us 
Crimson clover and turnips are best. 
I am sure a number of people from far 
north hesitate to sow this clover be¬ 
cause they fear it will be killed dur¬ 
ing the Winter. I think that is quite 
likely, yet I would sow it, fully expect¬ 
ing the Fall growth to pay a good 
profit. Let them remember that while 
rye makes a heavy growth it adds no 
plant food to the soil and sucks out the 
moisture like a steam pump. . . . 
Just a word to the friends who write 
asking me to sell inoculated soil for 
Alfalfa. I have none for sale. I do 
not. want to get into the soil or seed 
business. I sell words and some of 
them not very well inoculated at that. 
There are people who make a business 
of selling such things and I should 
not call it “a square deal” to compete 
with them. Again I cannot guarantee 
the soil of our Alfalfa fields. I fear 
it is pretty well -filled with weed seed. 
It would hurt me to think I had dumped 
a few thousand Hope Farm weeds into 
some clean farm. Also I know that our 
Alfalfa is not a thing to brag about, 
and who would be willing to send off 
something that he knew was not first 
class? When it comes to advice I will 
try to give it or get it for you, but you 
would better go elsewhere for Alfafa 
soil. 
I notice in the Hope Farm notes that 
the surface stones on Hope Farm are used 
in the drains. Do the drains ever become 
clogged and make trouble? d. j. l. 
Not all our surface stones are used 
in this way. We have had no trouble 
from clogging yet, but when making 
the drains we were careful to make 
an open throat of three flat stones at 
the bottom, filling in with smaller round 
stones. This throat carries off the 
water like tile. If a ditch were filled 
with surface stones without any open 
throat I should expect it to fill in a 
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