402 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
The middle of March finds Hope 
Farm with a muddy but expectant face. 
The frost is still below in the ground, 
but the upper three inches freezes and 
thaws every 24 hours. This is what 
plays havoc with the uncovered straw¬ 
berries. They are lifted a little during 
the cold night. The day’s thaw settles 
the soil away from them and night gives 
them another tug at the roots. If this is 
kept up long enough the root is finally 
exposed to the wind and damage is 
done. Where the plants are fully cov¬ 
ered with manure or straw the ground 
does not freeze and thaw in this way, 
and thus the plants are protected. Our 
large hill plants are not likely to suffer, 
since they are firmly rooted. Where 
plants are full of weeds and grass they 
do not lift so much, but this is a poor 
argument against clean culture. Our 
berries all look well except the potted 
plants which were set out late. We did 
not dare put them out during the 
drought. They made but little growth, 
and some of them will fail to show up 
•in Spring. Yet the strawberry plant has 
a strong vitality. We potted some 
plants last August, but the ground was 
so dry they made but a feeble growth, 
and did not seem worth keeping. Some 
of them were left right ,in the pots. 1 
find that these pots were lifted and 
thrown out of the soil. They now lie 
on the surface of the ground; but the 
little plants are still alive—with a mass 
of bright roots inside the pot. 
Prizetaker Onions.— We have 12 
sashes planted to Prizetaker seed. A 
shallow pit was. dug and a fair coat of 
manure put in. Then we took rich soil 
or black muck from a low spot, and 
mixed it with lime. This was put on 
top of the manure, and the onion seed 
sown in drill about four inches apart. 
The seedlings will be kept clean and 
when the bulb is about the size of a 
lead pencil they will be transplanted to 
the open ground. We have a piece of 
strong ground just below the spring. 
For many years this land was wet and 
soggy, giving only a poor bit of pasture. 
Last year we ditched it and put in tile 
and stone drains. Late in the season 
we grew a good crop of cabbage on this 
land. It will be plowed early and limed. 
Then the stones will be picked up and 
put in the open ditches into which the 
ales drain. The soil will be smoothed 
: nd graded, and probably about May 1, 
when the onion seedlings are ready, 
i.icy will be transplanted, about four 
inches in the drill, which will be 18 
inches apart. This will mean over 80,000 
seedlings to the acre. We put them 
close so as to work with hand cultiva¬ 
tors. It is no place for a horse among 
such a crop. This field slopes a little, 
and in order to prevent damage from 
washing we shall build a low dyke or 
terrace at the upper end to carry off 
the water, and probably one or two more 
through the field. Now if I had some¬ 
thing to sell 1 might offer a “system” 
We could say that out of 80,000 plants 
75,000 are sure to grow. We have pro¬ 
duced onions weighing two pounds or 
over—therefore we are sure of 150,000 
' pounds, or 75 tons of onions. As such 
onions are cheap at five cents a pound, 
we have $7500 coming from the acre! 
, Now that is just as sensible as some of 
this poultry “system” figuring. We 
make no claims whatever. We shall do 
out best to attend to the details, but 
sad experience stands at every corner 
with a sharp barb to remind us that 
life is the most fleeting kind of a show. 
We need the money from a prize record 
for the “red heads” and “tow heads” 
and all the rest, but I would not make 
any bet on the outcome. 
Leading Cows. —When I told about 
escorting that Florida cow home you re¬ 
member I said that no doubt the expert 
cow men would have made an easy job 
of it. Sure enough, they come forward 
with various “sure cures.” Here are 
three of them: 
Why did you not put a horse halter on 
her head and to it tie securely a folded 
phosphate sack over her face, and a six- 
year Seminole could have driven her anj 
where, and been home with her at 5.30 
p m A well blindfolded cow is your meat 
to order. When you had her hitched to 
the hind axle-tree of your wagon, had you 
taken a second rope and tied firmly about 
her body behind the shoulder, and then 
passed between the forward legs and run 
the long end through the hitch rope and 
then on to the axle tree, tying it so to be 
six inches shorter than the halter rope, that 
cow would have kept up with the wagon 
and never planted a foot the whole distance, 
and probably pushed the wagon forward 
some and saved the horses, and a vast 
amount of unthinkable thoughts and switch¬ 
ing and she would have given a gallon 
of milk, possibly more. Tie a 15-foot rope 
snugly with a non-slip knot about her horns, 
then slip the long end up under the rope in 
front of the horns and take up all the 
slack, having one ear come in the loop. 
A cow will do anything rather than have 
her ear cut off with a rope, and you could 
have led her home with one hand. 
Well, gentlemen, it is not my place to 
dispute your statements, but it would 
do me lots of good to see you tackle a 
Florida cow with any such contrivances. 
My backing would go on the cow! You 
are figuring on cows that have been tied 
in barns as their ancestors were before 
them. Those Florida cows are too close 
to the jungle. I am willing to let these 
men remain firm in the conviction that 
they can lead a wild Florida cow in any 
such way, but when they get ready to 
practice their theories I will gladly pay 
$10 for a front seat at the exhibition, 
with the privilege of making comments. 
New Garden. —Our folks in Florida 
have had fresh vegetables for some time. 
When they come back they will be ready 
for anything. We believe in feeding 
children on vegetables and fruit rather 
than on meat, and so we are doubling 
up the area in garden. The newest 
place is an old chicken yard where the 
liens • have run for several years. It is 
naturally good soil—sod when the hens 
went in to clean it up. There is a little 
depression through the center. This will 
be the place for a .wide ditch into which 
the stones will be raked./.Phis will make 
the place level. Then it will be plowed 
deep and limed and raked and harrowed 
smooth. Our plan is to crowd this piece 
hard with double cropping, both to see 
how much one can get out of such a 
garden, and also to show the children 
what can be done with thorough cul¬ 
ture. The articles which Mr. Stanton 
Kirkbride is writing for The R. N.-Y. 
are good for farmers to read.. In most 
country families there is some one who 
takes-to gardening and who has a little 
spare time. It may be an elderly man 
or woman, or some one not able to do 
heavy work. If such people could take 
a piece of strong land and carry it 
through as a garden they would be sur¬ 
prised to see how much they help the 
family. They would help the farm also, 
because their garden would be a stand¬ 
ing argument in favor of better culture 
of the soil. Our seeds are all coming 
on ready for transplanting and we plan 
to get at least 50 per cent of our Sum¬ 
mer’s food out of the garden. Another 
way in which we think we are ahead is 
ill the wood pile. It is a great nuis¬ 
ance to be obliged to stop through the 
Summer to cut wood. We hauled down 
some 20 cords of wood and had it cut 
up with a power saw. It will be under 
cover through the Summer, and all ready 
for fuel. When the boys get back from 
the South they will rejoice at this wood 
pile—until they find that the time for¬ 
merly spent at cutting wood will now be 
spent in the onion patch. 
The Fruit. —At this writing prospects 
could hardly be better. The trees are 
crowded with plump fruit buds, and 
there is practically no scale to lie found. 
Our dangers lie in late frost, locusts 
and Codling worms. As we are situ¬ 
ated the frost cannot be fought very 
successfully, since there is such free air 
drainage that we could hardly hold the 
heat around the trees. As for the 
locusts, it is hard to get exact facts 
about the injury they will do. No one 
here seems to be sure what they did 
when they were here before. I shall 
try some experiments in spraying a 
weak lime-sulphur wash with extra lime 
added. This ought to be a good turkey 
year with us, as these birds are very 
fond of the locusts. We shall probably 
increase our flock of White Hollands. 
The Codling worm is the worst pest we 
have. It is harder to fight than the 
scale, especially on our high trees. We 
expect to use dilute lime-sulphur with 
arsenate o'f lead added—giving two 
sprayings at least. This is our apple 
year, and the older trees are alive with 
buds. The younger trees are also com¬ 
ing on, and we know full well that if 
the poison is not properly used there 
will be at least 80 per cent of wormy 
fruit- I plan to get all the help I can 
and put on the spray at once, when the 
time is ripe for it. Our young orchards 
of apple on the hill look thrifty and 
well. Most of them are now seeded to 
rye. I expect to put clover all over this 
rye and then plow a strip about six feet 
wide on each side of the tree rows. 
These strips will be fertilized and kept 
well cultivated. The middles will be 
kept in rye and clover and cut either 
for hay or for piling around the trees as 
needed. The time is now about here 
when we drop out all cultivated crops 
between the trees on the hill, and give 
them all the ground. It has been my 
plan from the first to- do this and then 
crowd a few acres of the lower farm 
hard with such crops as onions, straw¬ 
berries, celery, etc., as we learn how to 
grow them. On the whole, it looks like 
a good season ahead of us. H. w. c. 
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SKIN 
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57 
BUSHELS MORE 
POTATOES 
PER ACRE 
Where Planted Witl* 
IRON ME 
^ d-lu; l Averago results obtained in a careful, thorough test 
(Improved Robbins) egain st a Ticker” planter by Maine State Experimen- 
PfllSilft r*i31’T§4 > l® tat Station, in 1910. Ask ns quick (or the proof—wo 
* v will send you now bona fide copy o their report in 
Bulletin No. 188, which wil I be ready about March 15 th. Shows exact results Also, corn- 4=5 _ 
'parison of level culture, high and moderate ridging. 10 ' per cent, perfect plantingis what 
you want—no doubles, no misses, no injury to seed. Address, Man on rear sent makes 
BATEMAS MT'6 CO. Box 102M Orenloch. N.J. correction, only. 
Refill with Well-Bred Seed 
Raise it yourself or buy it on the cob 
Then remember that the best-bred corn 
can produce only nubbins if it does not 
have food. Supplement the clover sod and 
barnyard manure with 50 to 100 pounds of 
muriate of 
and 200 to 300 pounds acid phosphate 
per acre, broadcasted before harrowing. 
It will pay to also drill in with the 
seed 75 to 100 pounds per acre of Kainit 
to keep away cut-worms and root-lice. 
In this way Potash Pays. 
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