722 
Hope Farm Notes 
THE RURAIi NEW-YORKER 
Apparently the Hope Farm man is after 
the whole of the consumer’s dollar in his 
milk deal, and he can get it by selling to 
himself. Suppose, however, that he had 
anther cow, an exact duplicate of the one 
ho now has. What would the milk of the 
second cow be worth ? w. c. p. 
Litchfield County, Conn. 
I thought we made that point clear. If 
I had another cow just like Mollie the in¬ 
creased cost of feeding would not be large 
this season. The rains have made good 
grass and the Alfalfa and garden waste 
would provide cheap roughage. We could 
probably sell a few quarts of milk. I 
think there would be a fair demand for 
the cream, and butter is always salable 
here. This milk has not been tested, but 
I estimate that it would give not far from 
10 pounds of butter per week. We are not 
expert butter makers and might not get 
it all. Such butter is worth here 30 cents 
a pound. For feeding pigs and chickens the 
skim-milk would be worth at least one 
dollar, which would mean $4 per week or 
not far from three and one-half cents a 
quart. The skim-milk would probably be 
worth more, but we have no definite figures 
to prove it. If we sold cream we should 
get more, but this would mean an outfit of 
pans and considerable labor. It would very 
likely be possible to make the skim-milk 
into pot cheese and sell it at a fair figure. 
I tried to explain that the possible profit 
on one cow or one hen or one tree is not 
a fair basis for figuring on large herds, 
flocks or orchards. Our cow is earning 
over one dollar per day for us. To be 
more exact, she is saving that amount for 
us. In our case it amounts to the same, 
we have a big family to feed. I might keep 
one more cow this Summer without great 
extra cost. When I got to three cows or 
more the situation would be changed. I 
should then have to buy an outfit for 
handling milk or butter, pay out far more 
for food and take labor now spent on the 
fruit and put it on the dairy. I want to see 
just what one good cow on a fruit farm 
will do for us. I also want to make it 
clear that you cannot take one animal 
kept under the most favorable conditions 
and multiply her income by 10, 25 or 50 to 
prove what a herd would do. It is just 
that sort of figuring which fools city people 
and leads them on to ruin or to wrong 
ideas about farming. As for getting the 
entire consumer’s dollar, Mollie gave in the 
seven days ending June 18, 232 pounds, 
which makes a total of 1,884 pounds thus 
far. I am sure this is worth every cent of 
89.28 in our big family. The men back 
in the hills who are sending milk to New 
York would do well if they got $3 net 
cash for that milk. Last week we sent 
out to one of Borden’s wagons in the city 
and bought a five cent bottle of milk. It 
was no better than ours. The full bottle 
weighed 21 ounces. All the milk was 
poured out and the empty bottle weighed 
12% ounces. Thus we paid five cents for 
eight and one-half ounces of milk, which 
means a little over 19 cents a quart. 
Thousands of these small bottles are sold. 
Compare that price with what the milk 
nets the dairyman ! I figure it about 16 
cents or less on the dollar. You see it is a 
matter of distribution. In the building 
where The R. N.-Y r . is published there is a 
larger working population than most coun¬ 
try towns can show. Suppose I had two 
cows and had some one to carry each day 
50 pounds of good milk to this building. 
It could all be sold in these small bottles. 
Put the price at three instead of five 
cents and you could sell twice as much 
and still get nearly 12 cents a quart. That 
would make a fine job for some office boy to 
try, and would be a help to both milk pro¬ 
ducer and consumer. Eggs might be han¬ 
dled in the same way, but under the present 
system of transportation it is practically 
impossible to do any such direct business. 
In the city of London such trade is not 
only possible but is now carried on, for 
there the parcels post makes such direct 
dealing possible. 
Or look at it in another way to see how 
locality and market makes a difference 
with short-lived goods. Our cow Mollie 
comes from one of the dairy counties in 
Southern New York. The buyer bought 
her on her shape, put her with others in a 
carload and brought her to New Jersey. 
She was tested and trimmed up and given a 
place in a certified milk barn. She was 
there when I bought her and her milk was 
bringing 15 cents a quart. Now look at it. 
Last week she gave 232 pounds. Back on 
the dairy farm where she was born that 
milk would be worth perhaps $3. I call it 
worth $9.28 for feeding my family, while 
as “certified milk” it would bring $17.40! 
Now I want you to think this all out and 
see just what it means. This margin be¬ 
tween the producer’s price and the con¬ 
sumer’s is the great hole into which the 
money of the country is being sucked. 
You may name over the list of evils which 
make rough going for farmers, and when 
you stop for breath I will name the king 
of them all—the one great reason that farm¬ 
ing will not pay. It is the 65 cents of the 
consumer's dollar which the middleman 
takes out. 
No one likes to make record of a failure, 
especially with some pet thing. However, 
that is about the way we must spell straw¬ 
berries this year. The storms I spoke of 
last week were followed by others even 
worse. They caught our big Marshalls 
right at their best—big, ripe and handsome. 
And they faded away—not the storms un¬ 
fortunately. These great red berries could 
not stand the pounding and they went to 
pulp. Of course we got some of them, 
but more than half the great crop could 
not rank as No. 1. It is hard to sec them 
go, but the way 1 reason is that we shall 
have more peaches and apples as the re¬ 
sult of these floods. We still stand by the 
Marshall and shall plant it still more 
heavily. Plants are ready to pot already, 
and our little trade is developing. We do 
not handle any other variety. People have 
told us they had trouble in getting the 
genuine Marshall so we came forward with 
the real thing. One of our old customers 
wrote last week that he had had a little 
discussion over strawberries. Some friend 
claimed that New Jersey could not match 
the fruit he had on the table. Our custom¬ 
er wanted to down his friend, so he came 
to us for two boxes of bouncers that would 
do the trick. We stand for New Jersey, so 
the boys went out and did their best The 
storm had hurt the fruit, but if the two 
boxes we sent cannot hold them the other 
man has some fine berries! But let no 
man buy Marshall plants and think he 
can get the quantity and quality. lie can¬ 
not do it. Mr. Taylor, the Guernsey cow 
man claimed that Missy of the Glen gave 
40 pounds per day of “liquid butter.” The 
Marshall is no “Missy.” It will give a 
medium or light yield of the finest berries— 
and that is all it will do. You can set 
some of the fruit before your friends and 
gloat over them while you dare them to 
find anything better—all this provided you 
handle the plants right. 
Except for the strawberries everything 
on the farm is promising. The rains have 
made the hay crop sure, and will mature 
the earlier potatoes. There is moisture 
WORK OF THE 17-YEAR LOCUST. Fig. 263. 
enough in the soil to fix the peach crop if 
we can hold it there by cultivation. On 
the sod orchards we consider this the 
proper time to cut the grass and rake it 
under the trees. Both sod and grass are 
i A, °A wa ter, and this cutting now will 
hold it. We expect more rain, but it is 
well enough to figure on the record of last 
Year, whon there was no rain to speak 
June 20 - n °t seem possible 
that the soil could lack moisture after the 
soaking we had in the early season, so I 
must confess that cultivation was neg¬ 
lected. Then the hot winds came upon us 
and baked the soil like a brick. This year 
shall keep the cultivators running 
steadily and tear up the soil when it has 
been plowed. Potatoes are looking well— 
I got some Irish Cobblers as large as 
marbles on June 17. How the tubers do 
swell after they start! They ought to 
jump now, as they are 75 per cent water, 
borne of the earlier apples were nearly tlie 
siM of hen’s eggs at the same date. The 
onions have been cultivated twice and are 
taking hold just as we want them. In 
fact Hope Farm looks pretty good to us 
these last days of June—with the red¬ 
heads to add a little color—and noise. 
The locusts have done some damage in 
our neighborhood. Two weeks ago I made 
light of their work but some of our neigh¬ 
bors asked me to come and look at their 
^ees. Pictures of the damage are shown 
at Fig. 263. Ike insects cut into the wood 
and leave it so that the wind will break 
the twig or limb off. These heavy storms 
did great damage in this way. In some 
young orchards these dead limbs hang from 
nearly every tree. The insects do not 
seem to bother pears as they do apple and 
peach. One roan tells me they are more 
active on Ben Davis than on other varieties 
They may be trying to act as friends of 
humanity by trying to put old Ben out of 
business. At any rate they are doing more 
damage than we supposed. Another pecul¬ 
iar thing is the way they are distributed, 
mere are very few on our own farm, and 
practically no damage has been done 
while 1,000 feet or so from our line thev are 
like a plague of Egypt, and badly injuring 
the young trees. I have seen no particular 
increase in the number of English spar¬ 
rows around us. We were told that they 
would come in large flocks as they are 
t ?m, eat the locusts tear them 
apait. The sparrows have not increased in 
numbers here. There never were fewer 
birds around than we have seen this Spring. 
I think the birds were met by a cold storm 
aS /. th Jk y A came dying up from the South, 
and that many were killed in that way 
This has happened several times, and is a 
more reasonable explanation than the state¬ 
ment that the warfare against birds has ex¬ 
terminated them. I do not believe it 
E. W. C. 
A New Business to 
Profit the Farmer 
A NEW channel for profit is pro¬ 
vided the farmer who is awake 
to opportunity in the 
Buckeye 
Traction Ditcher 
a machine of small firil co^l; pays for itself 
in a season’s work. Earn a profit of $15.00 
to $18.00 a day digging ditches by machine. 
Digs 100 to 150 rods a day at a saving of 
25% to 50% over the old method of hand 
labor. 
Farmers everywhere are insisting upon 
Buckeye ditches, because they are truer 
and of perfed grade, and tiling is now placed 
within the reach of every pocket-book. With 
the Buckeye you can work nine to ten 
months in the year. Only two men are re¬ 
quired to operate the Steam machine, while a 
man and a boy can run the gasoline machine. 
Both are extremely simple in construction, 
always ready to run, and thtre is no job too 
difficult. 
Write today for our catalog No. 3 
The Buckeye Traction Ditcher Co., 
Findlay, Ohio. 
July 1, 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R- N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
DAILY 
OUTPUT 
18,000 
BBLS 
YEARLY 
OUTPUT 
OVER 
6,500,000 
ALPHA 
PORTLAND CEMENT 
is absolutely the best that can be made 
for all farm work. Largely used by 
U. S. Government and in State, Munici¬ 
pal and Railroad work—a reputation of 
20 years behind it. Ask your dealer for 
ALPHA 
Send for Booklet and learn why it is the best. 
ALPHA PORTLAND CEMENT CO., 
address 
2 Center Square, EASTON, PA. 
he “C 
'■""King 
— C 
■ S3 Bafler 
Horse 
and 
Steam 
Power 
A train of followers, but no equals. 
Proves its superiority 
wherever it goes. Makes 
tight shapely bales, not 
loose bundles,works 
fast, avoids acci¬ 
dents and endures. 
Little draft, tre¬ 
mendous power: 
The machine that makes competi¬ 
tors tremble. Eli catalogue tree. 
Collins Plow Co.,2044Sampihlre S«.j Quincy. III. 
# 
WHEELS, FREIGHT PAID, $8.75 
for 4 Buggy Wheel,, steel Tires. With RuUbTr Tires, 
U8.45. lterubbing your wheels, $10.30. I manufacture 
wheels to 4 in.tread. Buggy Tops, $6.50; Shafts,?! 10 
beam hour to buy direct. Catalog free. Repair wheels’ 
So.95. Wagon Umbrella runs. yy\ 1{ BOOB, Cin'tl, qJ 
SWAP STUMPS FOR DOLLARS 
v. > 
CLEAR WASTE LAND WITH 
CROSS DYNAMITE 
Drawn from actual photograph 
Stumps blasted out into firewood 
SggKHgfl 
Same field ten months later—$800.00 worth of celery per acre 
To learn how progressive farmers are using dynamite for removing stumps 
and boulders, planting and cultivating fruit trees, regenerating barren soil, 
ditching, draining, excavating and road-making, write now for Free Booklet— 
“Farming With Dynamite, No. 30 
E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS POWDER CO. 
PIONEER POWDER MAKERS OF AMERICA 
ESTABLISHED 1802 WILMINGTON, DEL., U. S. A. 
Dynamite dealers wanted in every town and village to take and forward orders. Not 
necessary to carry stock. Large sale possibilities. Write at once for proposition. 
DU PONT POWDER CO. f DEPT. 30, WILMINGTON, DEL. 
