1008. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
661 
Hope Farm Notes 
I have been crowded with questions 
lately. They come from all quarters 
and some of them seem of general in¬ 
terest. In answer I say what seems best 
from my own experience. This answer 
may not cover it all, and if there is 
more to be said I want some one to say 
it. Here is one about Florida: 
Would it. be possible for a northern man 
who lias had experience raising vegetables 
to go to Florida this Winter and clear 
enough from a small tract, say five acres, 
to pay expenses of small family. If so 
what section, what crops, etc., would you 
advise? w. C. F. 
Otsego Co., N. Y. 
No. I do not consider it likely that 
such a man could do it the first time. 
All things are possible, but sometimes it 
seems like a 1,000 to 1 chance. Condi¬ 
tions under which things are done in 
Florida are very different from what we 
find at the North. From my experience 
I should call Florida an excellent place 
for a man with some capital who want¬ 
ed a mild climate for Winter. If he 
is shrewd and industrious he may learn 
how to make more than a living. For 
a poor man without much capital or ex¬ 
perience, but with good health, I think 
the chances are better in a colder 
climate. 
Here is an old call from western 
New York: 
My neighbor is trying to induce me to 
try tiie culture of mushrooms in my cellar, 
as I have a large uncemented cellar 
which he thinks suitable, though he, like 
myself, lacks practical experience in the 
business. Do you think the business, 
properly conducted, would pay me here in 
the city? E. c. B. 
No. I do not think mushrooms would 
pay you. It seems about as easy as 
rolling off a log to fit up beds and bins 
in a dark cellar, fill them with soil and 
manure and then plant the spawn and 
then—pick the mushrooms. It looks 
easy to see grass grow, yet it requires 
long years to make a successful hay 
farmer. You will find that trying to 
grow mushrooms without “practical ex¬ 
perience” is much like finding a needle 
in a haystack with your eyes blindfolded. 
You can pay for your education that 
way, but don’t expect to make a profit. 
I fear you and your neighbors have 
been reading some of those wonderful 
circulars from people who have spawn 
for sale. Generally speaking this “mush¬ 
room in the cellar” game will rank with 
gold bricks and mining schemes. 
Here comes a Kentucky man with a 
proposition which has stirred up many 
a brain: 
I am trying to grow the cow pea rank 
with the use of commercial fertilizer, but 
fail to do so at limes and on some kinds 
of land especially on a clay. This land 
Is not wet. I think the trouble is the 
lack of lime in the ground, and will give 
my reasons for thinking so. In the year 
1905 I experimented with a complete fer¬ 
tilizer; one plot had an application of 
lime. This was (lie only plot that made a 
rank growth. The lime was applied about 
a month before tho peas were sown. In 
1907 I had this land in cow peas again. 
1 used 300 or 400 pounds of fertilizer to 
the acre. The growth was not rank by any 
means .except on the limed plot, which was 
limed in the year 1905 the growth was 
very rank. We have never used lime but 
once witli this experimental work. Hut 
there is one tiling certain that I do not 
get a rank growth of the cow peas by the 
use of these commercial fertilizer and will 
have to quit their use unless there is some 
other means brought around to help them 
out. I think the help needed is lime, at 
least what experience we have had with 
lime in connection with these fertilizers 
with the pea shows that lime is needed. 
Now one is slow to take the opposite view 
from these scientific fellows, in this mat¬ 
ter, but, our experience shows we must do 
so or hung up and quit on tin- pea ques¬ 
tion. What does The R. N.-Y. know about 
the use of lime with the cow pea? I will 
say further about this limed plot, that 
the peas soon took on a dark rich green 
color and were thrifty looking, while on 
the other plots the peas had a pale color 
and didn’t look thrifty. What effect had 
the lime to do with this work? Did the 
pea use it or did the lime change conditions 
in tiie ground so that the pea might flour¬ 
ish? I would like to use lime, but to take 
tiie advice of these scientific fellows I 
must not and witli our own limited ex¬ 
perience 1 must. There is one thing sure 
I don’t get the growth that I ought to. 
We have lots of limestone here. o. a. c. 
I am frank to say that if the “scien¬ 
tific fellows” told me one thing and my 
repeated experience told me another [ 
should hang right on to experience. In 
many cases true science and experience 
fully agree. If they do not the bread 
and butter man must yoke up with ex¬ 
perience and let these “scientific fellows” 
explain the situation. Our friend is 
after cow peas. If lime makes the cow 
peas grow his duty to his farm is to' 
use lime, though all the “scientific fel¬ 
lows” on earth tell him not to. Prob¬ 
ably, however, what these scientists have 
said is that in the majority of their ex¬ 
periments the cow pea does not respond 
to liming as clover or Alfalfa or cab¬ 
bage or grass does. In our experience 
we have not found that cow peas or 
beans or corn respond to lime as other 
crops do. If we went by results here 
we should advise lime after the cow pea 
crop and not ahead of it. Still there is 
no getting around the results of our 
Kentucky friend. Probably the soil is 
very acid. The cow pea did not need 
the lime so much for plant food, but it 
was able to make a stronger growth be¬ 
cause the lime changed the nature of the 
soil. The cow pea depends for its best 
growth upon bacteria, which work on 
the roots. These bacteria need lime in 
order to work to best advantage. In a 
sour soil they would be nearly as much 
out of place as the larvae of mosquitoes 
where there was little or no water. The 
lime sweetens the soil and thus the bac¬ 
teria are able to do their work. That 
is probably the explanation and the “sci¬ 
entific fellows” would, no doubt, fully 
agreee with it. 
Here is a new sort of appeal for help: 
I have certainly got the Hope Farm man 
stranded, I have observed for years his 
ability to answer questions of all kinds in 
such satisfactory ways, but now he will 
have to appeal for others to rescue him 
or go down. The trouble is nothing more 
than a “smell” in our house. Now of 
course he will want me to explain all I 
know first and so get him started on the 
right scent. We built the house ourselves 
30 years ago; have always occupied it 
since. It is kept in repair, painted, papered 
every year and, what is just as much or 
more to my way of thinking, the better 
half is one who demands and has order 
and absolute cleanliness throughout. 
There is not a rat or mouse in the build¬ 
ing. I have good cats, a dozen or more 
but they have ho access beyond the kitchen. 
For two or three years during this month 
and next we are simply tortured with a 
“ratty” smell in the sitting room and our 
sleeping room, which open out of the sit¬ 
ting room, the windows are always up 
day and night, also the outer door, but 
all are well screened. Some evenings the 
“smell” is so dense you can bite it in 
mouthfuls. Can any one help me discover 
the cause? The cellar Is under these rooms 
but windows open always and there are 
positively no vegetables decaying down 
there and the smell is not down there. We 
have plenty of shade, but not so much but 
the sun shines full on two sides of the 
house. The bedroom is on the west side and 
has all the afternooon sun. 
A CHENANGO COUNTY SUBSCRIBER. 
Yes, you have me stranded at once. 
The evidence against rats or mice is not 
conclusive. There may be a dead one 
now and then in spite of you, but they 
would not all die in July and August, 
There may be a colony of toads nearby. 
We have one under a stone in front of 
the house. One or two dead toads or 
a dead mole close to the surface might 
do the business. While soil usually ab¬ 
sorbs such smells the gases from a dead 
animal might find their way up through 
a hole made by a mole or rat or even 
worms. My best guess is that some¬ 
where about your house is growing one 
or more of those awful mushrooms 
(phallales) known as “stinkhorns.” 
There is probably no more terrible odor 
known than what those disgusting 
things send out. At Summer hotels 
where the greatest care is taken to have 
the surroundings clean all of a sudden a 
horrible smell arises which (hives the 
guests away. This mushroom is very 
handsome. It grows in obscure places 
and often baffles the most careful 
searcher for its hiding place. The spores 
are carried about by flies. My belief is 
that in some crack or cranny around 
your house there is a colony of these 
“stinkhorns” and that they are respon¬ 
sible for the trouble. We have known 
several cases like yours where people 
were sure there could not be any chance 
for such a thing to grow and yet a 
thorough search found the offender. 
What I like about our Hope Farm 
friends is that they come and say what 
they think without any ceremony. Some 
of us make a poor showing when we 
stand on ceremony for what with large 
feet and small ceremony there isn’t much 
left of the latter. The writer of the 
following note tells me he is quite hard 
of hearing and thus has to use his eyes 
more. What he says would make a 
good subject for a Sunday afternoon 
thinking: 
I am far too busy a man with the prac¬ 
tical jol> of making new a run-down farm 
and making it pay all the expense and the 
mortgage, to write for the press, but an 
occasional article will chase me around 
for weeks. On Page 508, The It. N.-Y., 
June 13, a young man asks for directions 
as to bis future course and certainly gets 
very good advice, but with this proviso, 
“Maybe you will not like gardening.” 
Where has the editor’s phrenology gone 
to? The first thing an undecided man 
needs is a phrenologist’s opinion. Me can 
always tell in what direction a person can 
succeed best, even if. ns is often the case, 
it is hard to assign him to a definite trade 
or study, but what phrenologist is there 
that cannot pick out an editor or a farmer. 
Some time ago the Hope Farm man was 
asked if sharp temper was the heritage of 
all women. I read ills answer but did not 
know then that he was a phrenological lec¬ 
turer, certainly he knows, as an observer of 
humanity, that all peculiarities are indi¬ 
vidual and that girls are more apt to be 
like their father’s side of tiie house and the 
boy’s more like the mother’s, I will venture 
at this distance that the Hope Farm man 
is much more like his mother than he is 
like his father. In fact there are too few 
really pleasant people. In the worries of 
life we need pleasant words, and three 
such occasions stand out in my memory, 
when tired and worried with financial diffi¬ 
culty, men that were strangers to me, and 
one of them was an railroad ticket agent, 
said something so pleasantly as to cheer 
me for days afterward, and these men 
looked most like their mothers, too. I 
know many pleasant women, I meet them 
in my daily rounds with farm produce. 
They have “hope” well developed, are broad 
at the top of the head, have round wide 
open eyes and pleasant faces. They make 
me feel that life is worth living. Last 
Spring when Mary Sidney clubbed the 
whole masculine gender ! n Farm Journal, 
the paper was handed me after I had 
done a full day’s work out from home, and 
then done the farm feeding and milking 
and obediently taken the milk to the house 
to be made into butter and I was tired. 
It did not seem just that all men must 
come under a ban because some of them 
smoked, spent their evenings at the store 
or took their milk to the creamery, but 
if your husband must be scolded do it in 
the morning when he is fresh and can bear 
it. He comes in from the field at night— 
the weather has been too wet, his corn is 
looking yellow and the weeds are getting 
too far ahead and he has done his best all 
day (14 hours), ids wife’s sharp voice 
meets him at the door with his shortcom¬ 
ings after which he don’t feel hungry, he 
eats a little, quietly and goes to bed to 
dream of the pleasant girls he used to 
know. The Lord bless and multiply the 
pleasant women. a. e. b. 
Delaware. 
Amf.n ! say I to the last sentence in 
particular, as well as to most of the rest. 
As a phrenologist I fear I was some¬ 
what of a fraud, though any good ob¬ 
server can tell much about character by 
studying a person’s face and head and 
actions. As for the scolding woman or 
man, in the great economy of Nature 
all things are useful and needed. Our 
friend must remember one thing—all 
sounds are discordant and jangled to the 
deaf man, especially when he is tired. 
At such times the voices of friends 
seem all out of tune. They may try to 
convey sympathy and friendsh'p in the 
voice only to have it sound like a boy 
beating on a tin pan before it reaches 
the ear of the sufferer. Very likely the 
scolding is more apparent th(in real! As 
for the proper time to administer it 
no doubt the scolder’s view would be 
to deliver it so as to be most effective. 
Some 40 years ago at a country school 
house near Cape Cod a bad boy was 
to be caned before the entire school. 
He was a Yankee and put a codfish 
on his back under his vest. As the 
STRONG TESTIMONY. 
Backed by the Test of Time Given 
Carey’s Roofing. 
“I believe we were the first to use 
Carey’s Roofing in Youngstown, O.,” W. 
E. Baldvvin wrote The Philip Carey Co. 
last April. “We were unable to procure 
it from agents at that time and bought 
it direct from you in 1887. We put it 
on our three-story business building, 
and after twenty-one years of service we 
have never had a leak, and the roof in 
its .appearance looks as well to-day as 
it. did the day we put it on.” 
Doesn’t that sound good? And yet 
Mr. Baldwin’s roof is in the infancy of 
its usefulness, for a Carey roof lasts 
as long as the building stands. 
Progressive farmers are learning 
(some from sad experience) that in 
buying roofing, it doesn’t pay to figure 
on first cost. A “cheap” roof means a 
leaky roof every time—an expensive 
“white elephant” on your hands as long 
as it lasts. 
Carey’s is a one Standard Roofing. It 
is the national roofing, best alike where 
sun shines hottest or winters are cold¬ 
est. Enough testimonials—voluntary 
tributes to the enduring worth of 
Carey’s Roofing—have been written to 
fill a book as big as a dictionary. All 
that is claimed for a Carey roof has 
been verified by actual experiences. Far¬ 
mer John Hunn, of Wyoming, Del., af¬ 
ter ten years of satisfaction with Carey’s 
Roofing, writes: “As far as I can see, 
the roof is good for twenty years 
longer.” 
Carey’s Roofing is made of Carey’s 
special process Asphalt Cement, with the 
best woolen felt as a base and East In¬ 
dia burlap imbedded in the upper sur¬ 
face of the cement—all compressed into 
flexible sheets. The Carey Patent Lap 
completely covers and protects nail 
heads. 
Carey’s Roofing ranks in value with 
an insurance policy. After the great 
Baltimore fire, City Inspector Louis S. 
Wilson wrote officially: “Burning em¬ 
bers seem to have no effect whatever 
on Carey roofs. Buildings covered with 
this roofing, directly in the path of the 
fire, are in no way in need of repair.” 
blows fell he howled, but they didn’t 
hurt the codfish. Finally one well ap¬ 
plied blow knocked a piece of the cod¬ 
fish off and it fell to the floor. The 
teacher pulled the rest out and after 
that the howls were genuine. The 
teacher made the saying that one lick 
on the back was worth 25 on the cod¬ 
fish. When we go out fresh to the 
morning fields we carry a mental cod¬ 
fish over the feelings. A certain amount 
of scolding is good for the character— 
still I repeat our friend’s last sentence— 
“The Lord bless and multiplv the pleas¬ 
ant women/’ 
Farm Notes.— The work of weeding 
out the old strawberry beds is now on 
deck. Every year I figure, or try to, 
whether it really pays on our weedy soil 
to fruit matted-rowed strawberries more 
than one season. Where the plants are 
kept in hills we can do most of the 
work with a horse, but to clean up old 
beds where the plants have run means 
no end of finger work. This year we 
took the large disk plow and ran it 
back and forth through the beds so as 
to chop out a wide path and leave a 
narrow row of plants. The disk did 
this better than the turning plow and 
then the cultivator worked back and 
forth day after day broke up the sods 
torn by the disk and killed out most 
of the weeds. The weeds among the 
plants must be pulled with the fingers 
and this is the dullest and least hopeful 
job that I know of! The plants in that 
Ivevitt patch are still growing and we 
are still chopping at the runners. I 
believe more and more in this method 
as we keep on with it. . . . The 
blight started at our potatoes, but some¬ 
how it seems to have stopped. At one 
time I feared that the vines would be 
dead by August 1. Now they seem 
good for two or three weeks longer. 
The work of cleaning up the corners 
and along the fences has begun. We 
pile these trimmings around the trees, 
but I wish I had a small flock of sheep 
to eat the weeds. h. w. c. 
Write the Philip Carey Co. direct and 
they will send free booklet, sample, tes¬ 
timonials, prices and information how 
to get their roofing. Address The Philip 
Carey Mfg. Co., 20 Wayne avenue, Cin¬ 
cinnati, O. 
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