1008 . 
eeo 
THE RURA.Lv NEC W-YORK EC R 
Hope Farm Notes 
The New Jersey Horticultural Society 
held its field meeting August 18 at the Repp 
farm at Glassboro. I went to Philadelphia 
and then across the river some 12 or 15 
miles into New Jersey. Here was a section 
a little nearer to Philadelphia than we are 
to Now York. I presume our country was 
settled a few years earlier. While we live 
in a rough country with high hills covered 
witli rocks the country in South Jersey is 
level or nearly so. The soil varies, hut on 
the whole is much lighter than ours, and 
far better adapted to farming. The main 
growlli of Philadelphia seems to be to the 
west—in Pennsylvania—while New York 
sends its residents out in all directions. 
The land boom does not seem to affect the 
country around Glassboro as it does us— 
thus farming or gardening is the main in¬ 
dustry, not as with us a sort of half-hearted 
occupation while people wait for a raise 
in values. I judge that it would be lined 
to find a more prosperous farming section 
than that part of South Jersey and eastern 
Pennsylvania, which drain into the Phila¬ 
delphia market. Yet even here farmers 
have their troubles and complaints. Judg¬ 
ing from the crowd at this meeting the 
South Jersey boys and girls are staying on 
the land fairly well. The Repp farm, where 
this meeting was held, means a good deal 
to the State in what it stands for. John 
Repp, now dead, had in his early days a 
hard struggle, lie fixed upon a definite 
plan for conducting his farm, and as this 
was different from what most of the people 
in that section thought best, naturally he 
was laughed at and failure was predicted. 
Mr. Repp was one of those strong, enduring 
characters fitted to do pioneer work. He 
stuck to Ids plan through all sorts of time 
and seasons, and won out, as most farsight¬ 
ed men do who develop a sensible plan and 
then stay by it. Ilis sons, who follow him, 
have an enormous fruit business, witli cold 
storage of their own, and every facility for 
making the most of their crop. There are 
very few farms in the country where one 
can learn more of practical fruit growing, 
yet. I told Mr. Repp that if I were to bring 
my boys to see Ids place I fear I should 
ruin them as fruit growers! 
How can that be? 
Two weeks ago we had a visit from an 
expert fruit grower who groaned and hooted 
at our weeds. We huve a cleaner farm 
than ever before, and huve pulled and cut 
load after load of weeds and piled them 
around the trees. Yet tlds man laughed at 
us, and stated that we could not find a bas¬ 
ket of weeds on his 20 acres! 
Now when 1 first went into (lie Repp or¬ 
chard 1 was forced to say that it looked 
like (lie most slovenly looking place 1 ever 
saw. Our old enemies, smartweed, rag¬ 
weed, red root and dozens of others stood 
waist high and in full seed, while crab grass 
was everywhere. I never saw so many 
weeds—even in my back orchard--and that 
is a tremendous statement. I called that 
slovenly farming until I looked at the fruit 
on those trees—then I called it about tlie 
best fruit growing 1 ever saw. One orchard 
of Duchess pears where the weeds were spe¬ 
cially rank was a sight to behold. The 
trees were loaded witli great shapely fruit. 
Those trees were 14x14 feet, and the way 
the trees were running there must .,ave 
been over $800 worth of fruit to (lie acre! 
The apple trees carried great strings of 
fruit. The limbs were propped up, yet they 
bung down into Hie high weeds with their 
load. 
Now if my boys had seen that forest of 
weeds and yet noticed that this fruit is far 
better than anything we have yet grown, 
they would have been justified at: lirst sight 
in arguing that all our toil at linger pulling 
and cutting was thrown away. Why didn't 
we go fishing and let the weeds go the way 
Mr. Repp did—and get some good fruit? 
That would have hurt my boys, because they 
would not have dug below the surface to 
find out just whv those weeds were there 
and what they stand for. I will give Mr. 
Repp’s story of his operations so that we 
may get the philosophy of it. 
While the soil varies most of it is light, 
what we would call sand. I can imagine 
an Iowa farmer laughing as lie compared 
this light sand witli his heavy soil, and then 
becoming very silent when he learns how 
much tlds sand produces to ttie acre. Mr. 
Repp uses a combination of muriate of pot¬ 
ash, dried blood and meat and acid phos¬ 
phate. He lias tills mixed frr him by a 
manufacturer, and uses 100 tons a year, i 
SLiould think some nitrate of soda would 
pay, but on this warm soil tlie organic ni¬ 
trogen answers. This mixture is spread in 
the orchards as early in Spring as the 
ground is warm enough at the rate of 800 
pounds per acre. It is then plowed under 
about four inches deep. Our advice lias 
been to plow first and then spread tlie fer¬ 
tilizer on tlie furrows and harrow it in, but 
Mr. Repp knows li is business and puts the 
fertilizer four indies down. Then begins 
tlie most thorough culture largely witli rid¬ 
ing cultivators. This is kept up until early 
in July, by wiiicli time the tree has made 
all the growl li needed, and is usually well 
set witli fruit. No more growth is needed, 
and tlie theory is that the tree should stop 
growing and “mature its wood.” That is 
wliy cultivation is stopped and tlie weeds 
encouraged to grow. And they-surely do 
grow. They save any loss of nitrogen from 
tlie soil, and they check tlie growtli of tlie 
trees as desired. So, if you saw these or¬ 
chards in June you would consider them 
models of culture. If you waited until Au¬ 
gust you would think some lazy farmer 
owned them—until you saw (he fruit, for 
you would know that Nature never gives 
any such rewards to lazy men. I should 
think it would pay to cut those weeds two 
or three times witli a mowing machine and 
let tlie trash lie on tlie ground. This 
would make more weed growth than ever 
witli fewer seeds, and keep tlie soil cooler 
and more moist. But what is the use of 
talking in tlie face of such a fruit crop as 
Mr. Repp is picking? When you come to 
analyze ids plan you find it is studied out 
with care, and based on scientific principles 
as well as profit. 
But here we have been talking Crimson 
clover and turnips or some other “catch” 
crop when cultivation is done. Mr. Repp 
lias tried those and gone back to weeds. 
Seeding 250 acres or more of orchards costs 
time and money, and means extra team 
work at a time when picking and hauling be¬ 
gins. Mr. Repp, as I understand it, grows 
nothing but orchard fruit. He buys all his 
hay, milk, butter, etc., content to put all 
the energy of the farm into fruit produc¬ 
tion. I presume he figures that the cost of 
seed, labor and time of seeding to clover and 
plowing under in the Spring would offset 
tlie gain In nitrogen. The weeds seed them¬ 
selves, prevent any loss of nitrates from tlie 
soil and die in Winter, so that they are 
easily plowed under in Spring. Any farmer 
can see the difference it would make in 
plowing if there was a foot or more of Crim¬ 
son clover all over those great orchards. 
Twice tlie team force would be required to 
get I lie growth under, and it would be nec¬ 
essary to plow much deeper with a chance 
of injuring tlie trees. Then again, the 
clover would probably add too much nitro¬ 
gen. On this light soil vegetable matter is 
rapidly used up. The mass of rich clover 
plowed under in Spring would force more 
growth than is safe, and the young clover 
following after cultivation would keep this 
growth up through tlie late Summer. Tills 
would give a lot of tender unripe wood at 
tlie season when blight and other fungus 
diseases are most prevalent, and the orchard 
would suffer. These diseases are far more 
dangerous in that level country than upon 
our hills. They are obliged to spray tiiree 
or even four times with Bordeaux Mixture 
through tlie season. Some of the trees were 
blue witli copper plating, and yet there were 
plenty of blighted limbs. In one part of the 
orchard a thick mulch had been put on tlie 
ground to prevent the growth of weeds. It 
would require a careful weighing to detect 
any difference between this and tlie weed- 
covered part. 
You will now see the philosophy of Mr. 
Repp’s system. This warm, open soil yields 
up its plant food rapidly. A dressing of 
800 pounds per acre of a fertilizer contain¬ 
ing 2'/> per cent ammonia, 10 per cent pot¬ 
ash and eight phosphoric acid is a heavy 
dose for fruit. Mr. Repp puts it, on whether 
tile trees carry fruit or not. ilis object is 
to control the plant food supply by knowing 
just what tlie trees receive. Ilis judgment 
and long experience tell him when the trees 
have made growtli enough. Then lie stops 
cultivating at once and leaves the weeds to 
stop further growth of wood by utilizing the 
available plant food left in the soil. You 
would say that this would mean a lot of 
small fruit, especially in a dry season'. For 
this reason I would think it better to cut 
those weeds with a mowing machine in order 
to hold moisture in tlie soil. Yet this lias 
been a very dry season and the trees are 
loaded witli fine fruit. No one can put up 
a theory against a fact. 
It is quite likely that a plain statement 
about: tins orchard without any explanation 
would do more harm than good. It isn’t tlie 
method or the fertilizer or the variety that 
counts, hut the man back of it all. As 
President Black of tlie Horticultural Society 
said, the Repp hoys were brought up to work 
and t li ink. What they have done is to 
adapt their methods to suit their conditions. 
On tills warm light soil, with a long, late 
season and natural conditions for tree dis¬ 
eases this plan of scientific fertilizing and 
late checking of the trees by weed growtli 
pays, it would not pay so well in our 
couutry, since our seasons are shorter and 
our soil is heavier. We cannot get the 
rapid growtli during tlie early season—In 
fact, our best growtli for trees comes in July 
and August. I should be sorry to have 
any man give up the use of Crimson clover 
or cow peas because Mr. Repp gets such re¬ 
sults without them. For all other crops ex¬ 
cept orchard fruits you can hardly have too 
much nitrogen. Mr. Repp says lie lias no 
use for cover crops or humus, and yet that 
is just what, he gets in that growth of 
weeds. They hold Hie plant food in llie soil 
and supply organic matter, without which 
I do not, think it would lie possible to grow 
such crops. Another way in which harm 
might bo done would lie to give an exact 
account of Mr. Repp’s spraying. A few 
years ago ids trees were well plastered with 
San Jose scale. It seemed as if many of 
them could not be saved. To-day tlie insect 
lias been about cleaned out, with only a few 
marks here and there on tlie fruit. Tills 
was done by the use of crude oil. Now 
thousands of trees have been killed by crude 
oil, and if we were to advise its use exclu¬ 
sively thousands more would be destroyed. 
I have a number of trees killed by too much 
water ! The only safe way to use the crude 
oil is through a very fine nozzle with over 
200 pounds pressure. This makes a very 
line mist, and with good judgment a thin 
film of oil is left on tlie tree. Pure kerosene 
can be used in tlie same way, while if the 
trees were ducked or soaked with low pres¬ 
sure which squirted tlie liquid the trees 
would lie killed. 
If we were to judge by tlie 500 people 
who attended this meeting farming is a bet¬ 
ter business in South Jersey than with us. 
Such n judgment, however, would not he 
fair. I should say that the labor question is 
not so hard. I was told that Mr. Repp em¬ 
ploys about 20 men tlie year around, with 
•10 at present—all Americans. The glass 
factories usually shut down for a couple of 
months in Summer, and this makes help 
for picking and shipping. This is a strong 
temperance section, so that tlie liquor evil 
is not so bad as witli us. The farms are 
larger and level, so that a regular crop rota¬ 
tion can be followed. Socieiy and business 
seem to he dominated by farmers to a far 
greater extent than witli us. There are sev¬ 
eral dead sure tilings which we shall find at 
the very beginning of an investigation of 
farm conditions. You don’t seem to find 
anything like a prosperous agriculturist 
until you got into a section where farming 
is the principal business or trade. It has 
got to lie good enough to make an enter¬ 
prising hoy see that it offers him as good a 
chance as lie can have anywhere else. Many 
boys must go away from home to find this 
out, but in order to he successful a farmer 
must feel that he is getting his share of 
what lie produces; that Ids property is fairly 
negotiable, and that it is as easy for him 
to get working capital as for the business 
man of similar standing in town. In spite 
of their apparent prosperity these South 
Jersey farmers have their troubles, and 
make vigorous complaints about conditions. 
We shall analyze them later. h. w. c. 
Hundreds of 
Barns Burn 
some of them held the entire crop of grain 
and hay—all a total loss. Barn, hay, grain, 
wagons, implements and stock. 
You may never have lost a barn, but your 
neighbor did. It is a terrible blow to see 
your buildings, the result of years of labor 
and saving, go up in smoke as the result 
of a lightning stroke. 
Write Today For Our 
Free Boo klet 
Our Trade-mark 
D &S 
protects you against 
fake rods and fake 
agents. 
Look for 
tho 
Trade-mark 
MAKERS OF LIGHTNING RODS THAT KEEP 
protect 
your buildings and 
make them safe 
from damage by light¬ 
ning if you will only do 
so. It is no longer a 
matter of theory. It 
has been demonstrated 
that the Dodd & Struth- 
ers Lightning Rods will 
make you safe. 
Drop ns a lino and toll ns 
liow many bullillngs yon 
liave and we will write 
you frilly about protect. 
Ing them. It will cost you 
nothing to Investigate. 
DODD & 
STRUTHERS 
DES MOINES. IOWA 
OUT THE LIGHTNING 
CLARK'S DOUBLE ACTION "CUTAWAY” HARROW 
a "IT 11 EXTENSION HUAI) is made especially for Orchard work It 
‘"vreaso your crops 25 to 50 por cent. This machine will cut from 
to .ill acres, or will double-cut 15 acres in a day, It is drawn by two 
medium horses. It will move 15,000 tons of oartli ono foot in a day. and 
can be sot to move tho oartli but little, or at so groat an angle as.to movo all 
the earth one foot. Runs true in lino of draft and keeps tho surface true. 
All other disk harrows have to run in q —_ ^ BIG 
half lap 
The Jointed Pole takes all 
tho weight off the horses’ 
necks, and keeps their heels 
away from the disks. 
We make ISO sizes and styles of Disk 
PnMr fa f °Vt Lilly warranted 
Jhiitire siili.sfaction guaranteed. 
H«n<f to-day for KUEE llooklot with fail portionl»r«. 
CUTAWAY 
DOUBLE 
ACTION v 
_ _ Harrow 
HARROW COMPANY, 8 39 Main St., HIGGANUM, CONN, 
STAR 
LITTER & FEED CARRIERS 
Save Half the 
Stable Work 
Our new malleable iron Star Carrier is going 
into hundreds of stables and barns. 
“Better Than a Hired Man" 
It runs on cable or rigid track, with auto¬ 
matic dump and return. We want to show 
you what a world of labor and time it saves. 
If you will send us your barn plan, wo will draw 
ni n V* scale> antl submit free estimate, and 
will also send you complete catalogue, show- 
in8T why a Star Outfit is in every way the best 
adapted to your needs. Write us today. 
HUNT-HELM-FERBIS Sc CO., 55 Hunt St., HARVARD, 
-We Want to Tell You About This Simple 
Powerful Gasoline Engine Before You Buy 
It’fl an engine that’s all service, built for people who 
don’t want to he bothered “coaxing" their engines to run. 
It’s tho result of many years’ experience In engine building 
—so simple and positive It cannot give you trouble. Write 
for book and let us show you why 
The BADGER 
f rasollno engine Is the engine for you. We’ll show you why 
t is so powerful, why It uses so llttlo fuel, why It is so 
durablo ami runs so smoothly anil dependably In all 
weathers. It’s a power for a hundred jobs. Wo build station¬ 
ary, portable and seml-portablo types engines. Saw rigs and 
pumping plants a specialty. to 50-11. 1’. A postal brings 
our lino, largo Badger Catalog. Write l or It now. 
THEC. P. Sc J. LAUSGN CO., 856 30th St., Milwaukee, Wis. 
V 
on Louden overhead steel track system can 
clean the barns in half tho time that two men 
would take without it. ThatV* Louden econ¬ 
omy. On every up-to-dato farm- your farm 
—the Louden Litter Carrier and steel track 
system will earn its cost many times a year. 
Track can bo bracketed to barn wall—out ono door 
—in ut other, and in this way no switch is noodod. 
Manure loaded direct on wagon or spreader—its 
full fertilizing value thus suvod. 
Louden Litter Carriers 
are made of hoavy galvanized steel—wear for years • 
have Improved worm gear— I pound on chain lifts 40 
pound. In box] box stands at any olovution — raised 
or lowered any distance up to 25 foot; havo mauy 
apodal advantages nob found in othor makes, 
bond today for valuablo fra. book on manure usos 
and catalog of hay and littor curriers, sanitary stool 
stalls, cow stanchions, etc., for modern barns. 
Louden Machinery Co., 
601 Broadway. Falrlleld. Iowa 
I 
