688 
q:HE; RUKAIi NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
On Decoration Day it had become a ques¬ 
tion of rain or rye with us. A serious 
drought was on band. With only a few light 
showers and cold, dry winds blowing, the 
soil on our hills was baking. The rock is 
close to the surface in many places. Last 
Fall most of this land was seeded to rye 
late in the Fall. You know how this late 
seeded rye acts. It crawls along through 
April and early May like a boy who hates 
school. Then, about May 15 it suddenly 
Wakes up and grows faster than anything 
else on the farm. When it makes such rapid 
growth it sucks the water from the soil as 
if thousands of little pumps were at work. 
We had planned to plow strips six feet wide 
on both sides of the tree rows and leave 20- 
foot strips of rye to mature. The soil was 
so hard that plowing was difficult and there 
was not moisture enough for both rye and 
trees. It was therefore rain or rye—that is, 
we must have a good rain or cut the green 
rye and bank it around the trees. 
During the past 25 years there have been 
but three times without a rain on Decora¬ 
tion Day. That is a good average to bank 
on. During the day clouds formed and 
perhaps a dozen drops fell upon the farm, 
but night came with a clear sky and it 
looked like “rye.” In the morning, however, 
the rain started. It was a slow, gentle 
rain, just right for getting down into the 
ground. It kept up more or less through 
the day and soaked down below the point 
of the plow. So we let most of the rye 
stand. Some of it is light. The heads are 
small and the grain is poor. Such rye will 
be cut. Part of it will be used for fodder 
or bedding, and the rest piled around the 
trees. Another year we expect to use vetch 
with our earlier rye seeding and plow it all 
under. The young orchards are now coming 
into bearing and they will be pushed along. 
We have not forced our trees yet, as I would 
rather let them make a sound and steady 
growth up to bearing age. When they begin 
to show fruit it is time to crowd them. This 
rain seems to insure a fair grass crop and 
to save the berries. 
Milk Record. —During the week ending 
June 4 the cow gave 234 pounds of milk. 
This makes a total of 1,414 pounds since we 
got her. At four cents a pound this means 
.$50.50. A woman told me once that she 
made half of the living for her family from 
a good cow. She tried all ways and made 
more by selling the cream and using the 
skim milk as food. She was in a town 
where there was a good demand for small 
lots of cream. I have no doubt that cow 
earned $250 a year for that woman. Yet, 
if she had tried to keep five cows, she would 
probably have lost money. I am sure that 
for our children a pound of good milk is 
worth more than a pound of meat. We do 
not let the children eat meat anyway, ex¬ 
cept it may be a piece of bacon or chicken 
now and thep. I know how dairymen feel 
when some one comes up with the record of 
one cow. I have people come and tell me 
how they pick $15 worth of peaches from 
one tree. Then they tell me I ought to 
make that average on 500 trees. I ought to 
do many things. When it comes to figuring 
the cost of things, take our Sunday dinner. 
We had two big Brahma roosters roasted. 
At the Washington Market in New York 
such birds would have cost me $2.50. Six 
quarts of berries at present prices would be 
00 cents. The asparagus, lettuce and po¬ 
tatoes would cost at least 50 cents, and the 
cream, milk and bread and butter would 
have cost at least 75 cents if bought at re¬ 
tail. There you have $4.65 for 10 young 
folks and children and seven adults. Sup¬ 
pose I had taken my gang to an ordinary 
restaurant and ordered the same kind of a 
dinner. It would have cost at least $7.50, 
and less food at that. These farmers cer¬ 
tainly live high ! 
Locusts. —Our folks pay no attention to 
them. A picture of a Hope Farm locust is 
shown at Fig. 244. They come out of the 
ground looking something like a May beetle. 
They crawl up the trees and suddenly split 
up the back—the insect shown in the pic¬ 
ture coming out. In many of our trees you 
may find dozens of those split-back shells 
still clinging to the wood. Those who can 
hear tell me there is a constant humming 
noise where these locusts abound. Thus far 
I have not found any evidence of damage to 
the trees. I would spend no time trying to 
fight them. There seems to be more of them 
on some nearby farms than on ours. In 
order to be on the safe side we did little 
pruning this Spring, but as it has turned 
out we might have handled the trees as 
usual. I will leave word for those who live 
here 17 years hence to go ahead with their 
regular plans and disregard the locusts. 
“Heatless. Brooding.” — Our children 
have tried the new plan of making young 
poultry provide their own heat. Early in 
May we had 56 White Leghorn baby chicks 
come by express. They were simply put in 
a light box with muslin tacked over the top. 
After the trip of nearly 300 miles they were 
in fine condition—all alive. They have 
never been in a heated brooder. At night 
the girls bring them in and keep them in a 
box in a warm room. By day they run in a 
little movable coop on the lawn. A few 
died and the cats got a few that ran out of 
the coop, but the rest are as strong and 
lively as any we ever had. We are also 
raising some turkeys in much the same way. 
One turkey hen started in on a stolen nest 
and stuck to it about three weeks. Then 
she left and started laying again. I found 
the eggs deserted at nightfall. They were 
quite cold and as there was no other place 
we put them in an incubator on top of some 
hens’ eggs. There they stayed, and, strange 
to say, six out of nine hatched. They are 
being raised much like the Leghorn chicks— 
brought into the house at night and yarded 
by day in little coops on the lawn. And the 
foolish and neglectful hen turkey comes 
walking around the coop calling to her chil¬ 
dren. I can imagine her talking about this 
way: “Come on with me. I can show you 
where the fat locusts are. These girls do 
not know how to take care of you. Break 
out and come with your mother where these 
worthless human nurses cannot keep you 
confined.” And they would be silly enough 
to follow her if they could get away. She 
would lead them a long march through mud 
and wet grass and when they draggled be¬ 
hind leave them to cats or wild animals. 
Yet no doubt both mother and children 
curse us for the restraint. I have known 
similar minded humans. 
All Sorts. —The first ripe strawberries 
were found May 28—the first good mess 
June 1. Now let us see how long they last. 
These were Michel’s Early, still the earliest 
variety I have found. In quality and ap¬ 
pearance they would not suit our trade and 
we do not sell them. We just have enough 
for our own early eating and some to can. 
When the Marshalls ripen there is nothing 
else for our people. . . . “Where’s my 
money!” The four younger children are 
hard creditors. They can drop potatoes 
and corn and can hoe or weed for nearly an 
hour at a time. They are paid—sometimes 
THE SEVENTEEN YEAR LOCUST. Fig. 244 
the munificent sum of five cents for what 
they do in a day ! The little four-year-old 
red head was as proud as she was dirty and 
sweaty because she earned two cents for 
dropping pumpkin seed. But they chase me 
all over the farm demanding their pay. 
. . . In spite of dry weather and cut¬ 
worms we never had a better garden at this 
season. Just now we can supply radishes, 
onions, spinach, lettuce, with turnips nearly 
ready. Every year I feel more and more 
inclined to stir up the farmers who have no 
garden. You cannot imagine what you miss 
ana what you might save. A boy or some 
elderly man might take a garden and make 
it the best part of the farm. . . . The 
boy has his acre of potatoes planted. The 
work was done by hand. The crop is on a 
piece of land which was for years a bad 
eyesore. Last year we drained it and put in 
late cabbage. The soil is rich, as all nat¬ 
urally wet land is when you once get it 
drained. The plowing and fitting were done 
as well as we knew how, the seed is good 
and we are sure of the fertilizer. It re¬ 
mains to fight weeds, bugs and blight. Let 
us see how far into a college course these 
potatoes will roll the boy. . . . We got 
a fair seeding of clover in several places 
where we tried before and failed. As this 
clover comes into bloom we find what was 
expected—65 per cent, of it is Aisike! We 
mixed seed oi Aisike and Red together. 
This confirms what I have long believed, 
that the Aisike is much surer than red on 
hard, sour or damp soil. In our country I 
should always mix the seed. 
“A Man’s Job.” —Last week I heard a 
man finding fault because women had driven 
men out of city work. This man is like 
many others—untrained. He can do sev¬ 
eral things quite well as an amateur, but 
when it comes to the things for which peo¬ 
ple must pay a high price he falls out. He 
is not a skilled bookkeeper or salesman or 
lawyer or an expert in anything. About all 
he can do is write a good hand and do fair 
figuring. Now, 25 years ago men of that 
sort found work, directing envelopes or writ¬ 
ing out records or similar clerical jobs. Now 
such work is almost entirely done by women 
and girls. They do it cheaper, quicker and 
are more neat about it than men. They 
have driven men out of the job and the 
employers have made the difference between 
men’s price and girls’ price. Now, this man 
I spoke of complained and said such a con¬ 
dition was wicked. That set me to investi¬ 
gating. We interviewed about 25 girls who 
do this class of work. All but one, or 24, give 
all or the greater part of the money they 
earn directly for the family support. It 
goes to help father and mother take care of 
the family. With 25 single men doing the 
same work and charging 25 per cent, more 
for it, I doubt if 15 per cent, of the money 
would be spent outside of their own wants! 
Women will work more and more into these 
city jobs and drive the unskilled men away. 
It is a hopeless outlook for the boy who 
cannot do some one thing well. The average 
farm boy can be little but a hanger on in 
the city. In the country he has a chance to 
have a business and a home. h. w. c. 
ORCHARD HENS IN MEXICO. 
I have read with much interest the 
production of eggs by a good many 
flocks of hens. I have a flock of 36 
hens and running with them four 
roosters. Thirty-five of these hens are 
purebred Barred Rocks, the other one 
has perhaps a dozen black points of 
feathers. I began a careful and ac¬ 
curate record of eggs produced by these 
hens and the feed consumed. They 
have one acre of ground, one-fourth in 
Alfalfa, one-fourth in Dwarf Essex 
rape, and the remainder in ordinary 
grass. This acre is an orchard and 
has orange, lime, guava and peaches. 
These trees furnish good shade. I have 
no henhouse, but I have a shed closed 
on north and west sides where they 
roost. The eggs produced for the year 
by the months as follows and prices 
ranging here: 
1910 
No. 
Price of egg 
February . 
.... 936 
.05 
March . 
_1,012 
.04 
April . 
_1,008 
.04 
May . 
.... 1,001 
.03 
June . 
.... 1,036 
.03 
July . 
.... 987 
.05 
August . 
.... 951 
.06 
September . 
.... 749 
.06 
< ictober . 
.... 201 
.08 
November . 
.... 142 
.08 
December, . 
.07 
January, 1911 .... 
.... 927 
.06 
Total . 
-9,557 
.05 5-12 
Average per hen 265^ eggs at 5 5-12 
cents each, or $14.37J4 per hen per year. 
This is in Mexican currency. Each hen 
cost me for feed, exclusive of rape and 
Alfalfa, $1.66, or net per hen, $12.71^ 
Mexican currency, which is equal to 
$6.36 per hen for the year, American 
currency. I fed in the mornings gen¬ 
erally wheat and cracked corn in among 
the Alfalfa and rape, and it was scat¬ 
tered pretty thin so that they had to 
work fast and a long time to get it. 
At noon they had a tolerably dry mash 
of bran and shorts mixed with suffi¬ 
cient water or skim-milk to be crumbly. 
In this we put sufficient red pepper to 
make it susceptible also salt and mus¬ 
tard a little. At night the same mash 
and whole corn and wheat; sunflower 
seed, cane and Kaffir corn seed were 
fed occasionally. Every third day they 
had meat scraps. In October and No¬ 
vember, when they were shedding, they 
had plenty of meal and sunflower seed. 
Every day in addition to the regular 
feed, this to encourage rapid growth of 
feathers. They always had abundance 
of clean, fresh water, and once every 
day skim-milk. These hens would have 
done better but for the fact that in July 
and August they were badly infested 
with bedbugs. We used pyrethrum 
powder for this. Does anyone know 
a relief for the common bedbug on 
fowls? These bugs are a scourge here 
every Summer. 
Mexico. geo. w. m'guire, m. d. 
R. N.-Y.—Dr. McGuire is chief sur¬ 
geon of “Department de Hospital/' Re¬ 
member that these figures are in Mexi¬ 
can currency or half the value of United 
States money. 
A KENTUCKY FARMER’S HOUSE. 
I have been giving some thought to 
improvement of the young farmer's 
home buildings during the shut-in days 
of the past Winter, and send you a little 
ground plan. There is certainly room 
for improvement along this line in the 
economy of building and of after use. 
The rectangle is the better shape. The 
floors should be three feet above the 
level of the surrounding ground for dry¬ 
ness, ventilation and health. The foun¬ 
dations should be laid deep and strong, 
and made solid to prevent a lifetime 
fight with the rats. The excavation for 
cellar can be considered after. The 
grading should turn all water from the 
building. The center partition must be 
June 17, 
firm and strong, for on it rests not only 
the weight of the roof, but sometimes 
that of a wet snow. By using nice lum¬ 
ber for the rafters and sheating the ceil¬ 
ing and the supporting joists can be 
left out. The roof should be of the 
modern flat variety, with a fall of one 
inch to the foot. Use a good felt, give 
it on a warm sunny day a coating of hot 
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HITCHEN 3 DINING O 
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tar, and spread on it immediately all the 
cement it will hold. A few coats in after 
years will make a stone roof. Look well 
tc. every source of fire, then carry your 
own insurance. The rafters over the 
center partition can be nailed together, 
then further strengthened by laps of 
strong wire under the sheathing. 
Kentucky. j. A. m'kee. 
SUB-HEADS. 
The Best Fruit. —Here is a form of 
question we often get, and which is 
hard to answer: 
Given the proper attention and care on 
suitable soil, which will give the best finan¬ 
cial returns on such a small piece as one- 
half an acre, dwarf apples, pears or 
peaches? This for northern New Jersey. 
L. w. s. 
I would like to know whether this 
man is an apple, a pear or a peach. 
It will make some difference as to 
which fruit he likes best to handle. I 
should cut out dwarf apples except for 
a few experts who are willing to give 
their crops the very finest care. It is 
doubtful if more than one in 10 will 
succeed with dwarfs. I would not de¬ 
pend on them. If we were sure of a 
crop every year the peaches would pay, 
but there is always the menace of a late 
frost, and five to six crops will be 
about the limit of most peach orchards 
in New Jersey. They will prove profit¬ 
able while they last. The pears prop¬ 
erly handled will last nearly a lifetime, 
but they require great care. An orchard 
of Bartletts, Bose and Anjou at its 
best would give a large income. You 
must remember, however, that the fruit 
must be adapted to the soil. A soil 
well nigh ideal for peaches would not 
suit pears, and might not suit apples. 
The soil at Hope Farm is not suited to 
pears, and they do not pay us. 
Cows and Nails.— It is possible that 
I shall be rated as a cow expert as the 
result of the adventure with the Florida 
cow. At any rate here is a tough one: 
One of our neighbors lost a cow recently, 
and on a post-mortem examination found 
two fence staples two large pins, a hand¬ 
ful of tenpenuy nails and a few old horse¬ 
shoe nails. The cow was not doing well 
last Fall, so the man began to try to fatten 
her with no success. He had used three or 
four hundred of cornmeal and a pail of 
stock food; still the cow grew worse and 
died. Why did the cow swallow the nails? 
Pennsylvania. a. g. k. 
I cannot tell why that cow turned her 
attention to nails. Most likely they 
were in her feed or in chaff or clover 
hulls which she got on the barn floor. 
They tell me that chemists find practi¬ 
cally all metals or elements in ocean 
water. When the secrets of a cow’s 
stomach are made known we shall have 
a long list. The cow first bolts most of 
her food and thus may swallow all sorts 
of trash. I have had a man solemnly 
tell me that he found the greater part 
of an umbrella in a cow’s stomach 1 
When a cow has a “depraved appetite”— 
due to poor food and a lack of bone¬ 
forming material—she will gnaw and 
swallow all sorts of stuff. It does not 
follow that these nails in the cow’s 
stomach were nails in her coffin. She 
might have lived for years and carried 
them around with her. Very likely it 
was another tune that killed her. 
