840 
TH EC RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 19, 
Hope Farm Notes 
Failures.— We have made several bad 
ones this year. Perhaps we ought to bury 
them out of sight, but I don't know. I 
think we can learn a lot from them. One 
failure is in raising turkeys. The girls 
had over 20 little things hatched and gave 
the best of care—but there is only one 
left! That was raised in a heatless brood¬ 
er or a small box with a cloth cover. This 
is brought indoors every night. This one 
turkey does not look very strong, but it 
has become a great pet and will chase the 
children about like a little dog. Our folks 
sometimes start off for a walk after supper, 
and if they look around they are sure to 
see the little turkey running after them. 
It will come and jump up into your lap 
like a kitten or puppy. The fine Hock of 
White Hollands which we pictured for this 
Fall has faded away. I can give no sure 
reason except that the parent stock may be 
inbred. At any rate, turkey raising this 
year at Hope Farm is a failure. 
The next failure is more serious and 
more humiliating, for I must stand up and 
admit it is my own fault. A few years 
ago the San Jose scale was bad in part of 
our orchard. We fought it with oil and 
cleaned it out so that last Winter and 
Spring we could not find an insect. There 
may have been a few in one corner, but it 
seemed like a sure thing that the scale 
was weakening and not spreading as it 
once did. Entomologists and practical 
growers both said that under our condi¬ 
tion it would hardly pay to spray, and so 
we did not. I found it easy to be advised 
in such things when work is pressing, and 
you have a somewhat stubborn theory. So 
we did not spray last Winter as usual. 
Now the early apples, the Ben Davis and 
the fruit on the younger trees is as clean 
as it well can be. We have cut doivn the 
wormy fruit to a very small per cent. But 
right where we did not want it the scale 
has come in like an army. The Baldwin 
orchard, which is the mainstay of our fruit 
business, is alive with the insect. By late 
July we could see the wretches clustering 
around the bud end of the fruit, and then it 
came at us like a flash—the great mistake 
we made in not spraying. The Greening 
orchard is not quite so had, but that one 
is plastered, and a good proportion of the 
fruit will without doubt be “stung.” Now 
we might have saved every one of those 
fine apples if we had put on the oil at the 
light time. Here are trees which I have 
been ready to put up as examples of what 
a sod orchard can be made to do, loaded 
with fruit, the value of which will be cut 
in half by its appearance. We can save 
the trees without great trouble, but this 
failure to spray takes all the joy and a 
good share of the profit out of this year’s 
fruit crop. I have no excuses to make, but 
will stand up and take my medicine. Under 
such conditions I find a dose of the essence 
of scale a bitter dose. The object in tell¬ 
ing this is to impress upon every reader 
the absolute necessity of doing your duty 
by your orchard when you know what that 
duty is, and the necessity for it. The 
scale might have attacked our sweet ap¬ 
ples and let the Baldwins alone, but mis¬ 
takes and failures do not act that way. 
They generally know where to put the 
sting where it will go deepest. 
Building.— When I speak of our big 
family people seem to assume that we 
must have a great house. Our house is 
really small, and the family overflows into 
another—the old stone house which we 
found when we came to the farm. This 
Winter will find it necessary for us to get 
mostly under one roof, and it has been a 
problem to know what to do. For there 
have been no failures in the child crop, and 
1 would not like to say how many pounds 
of hard flesh the redheads and towheads 
have put on. At the back end of the 
stone house is an attachment like an ob¬ 
long box of wood. It is in good condition 
except the sills. The plan is to detach 
this, lift it up for new sills and move it 
across the lawn to the rear of our pres¬ 
ent house. It will stand 12 feet away— 
connected by corridors and with a new roof. 
All hands helped haul the stone for the 
foundation, and the job will be done, we 
hope, early in September. This will add 
four good rooms and give us more Winter 
space. Many of you know what it means 
to have a troop of children crowded into a 
small house for Winter. 
The Lost Horse.— The young folks 
drove away in good spirits. Two of them 
had Brownie in the light runabout and five 
more packed themselves behind Bob in the 
surrey. They were bound for church. The 
rest of us from Uncle John to the baby 
sat on the front porch in the twilight anil 
waved them out of sight. I think Bob was 
the only one of the party who regretted 
the trip. Brownie is young, and she can 
hear people say: “What a pretty little 
horse!” Old Bob has neither size nor 
beauty. No one throws any bouquets at 
him. He goes into the harness every day 
and every other night crawls to market 
with a heavy load. Why could not this 
crowd of chatterers let an old working 
horse rest? If Bob ever finds out why 
youth sings on its pleasant journey anil 
scowls on the way to useful labor he will 
be the first horse or man to solve the prob¬ 
lem. My sympathies went with Bob. I 
knew how he felt, but there are times 
when wisdom properly walks with silence. 
Night fell upon us, black and starless. 
With a job blocked out for the next day I 
went to bed and the others followed. 
Mother kept awake to hear the young folks 
come back. Far behind time Brownie came 
trotting home, and the girls invaded our 
room with an exciting story. Bob was lost 
or stolen ! lie had disappeared from the 
shed and could not be found. There had 
been an auto accident in front of the 
church, a tire had been stolen—in fact 
divine worship had been interrupted riot¬ 
ously. The rest of our pilgrims were “hoof¬ 
ing" it home, four miles from church. The 
boy went back with Brownie and picked 
them up. hut there Was no trace of Bob. 1 
knew that if the old horse had started 
home and turned in somewhere we would 
get him. If, however, some one had driven 
him off in the darkness recovery was very 
doubtful. So 1 turned over and went to 
sleep, with instructions to the boy to get 
up early and $et the constable at work. It 
seemed as if 1 had barely fallen asleep 
when my back was taken for a bass drum 
and I heard a familiar voice calling: 
“Here is Bob!” 
It seems that the okl horse worked him¬ 
self free in some way, backed out and 
walked around behind a clump of trees, 
where no doubt he enjoyed a good “horse 
laugh” as our boys hunted and then walked 
home. The sexton found him and drove 
him back. If you ask my opinion. I think 
it likely Bob objected to some point in the 
minister's sermon, and proceeded to break 
away from it. He was stronger than the 
worshippers inside, for he kept his argu¬ 
ment to himself. At any rate here he was, 
glad to get home at midnight. I went out 
to welcome him, and the boys took the 
sexton and his friend home. I wish all the 
the lost sheep could get home as safely. 
Our boys now know what to do in case of 
a lost horse. Notify every one, set all the 
telephones working, and get the constable 
and the sheriff at work. In our country 
the familiar trick with a horse thief is to 
get to Paterson or New York and then 
disguise the horse by staining the white 
marks out of his coat. Then he can be 
taken to the country and sold. 
Let the Swamp Clothe the Hills.— 
I have the privilege of cutting and hauling 
from a field adjoining my place flags or 
cattails as they are commonly known. I 
am in the small fruit business. Will it 
pay to cut and haul them in the Fall to put 
as a mulch along the rows of blackberries, 
raspberries and strawberries, or are they 
worthless? Should they be used green or 
dried somewhat first? J. v. c. 
Take this chance by all means. I wish 
I could get such stuff. I could use tons 
of it to advantage around the trees and 
berries. In some parts of the country fruit 
growers are having great success with ap¬ 
ple and peach on thin, poor land. It is 
usually on steep hills where plowing and 
cultivating would not answer. These men 
cut grass, weeds or trash of any kind and 
pile it on the ground under the trees. This 
mulch makes the trees grow and slowly 
changes the character of the soil. Many 
of the weeds and grasses which do well in 
swamps will not thrive on the hills, so 
there is little danger of bringing in weed 
seeds. 
A Partnership in Pork. —Tell me how 
to divide the profits in a partnership hog 
transaction. One party bought a sow and 
nine one-week-old pigs; the other party 
has paid for all feed and done all work. 
The first cost was .$35. The sow has de¬ 
veloped into a chicken eater, so she is to 
be fattened and sold in the Fall, keeping 
one of the young sows for a breeder. What 
will be a fair division of the profits when 
nil are sold as porkers in the Fall? b. 
Maryland. 
How do you know there will be any 
“profits”? You do not tell all the story, 
for when this partnership was started 
there must have been some sort of under¬ 
standing. What has the feed cost? One 
partner, as 1 understand it, put up $35 to 
start with. Suppose tne other lias paid 
$10 for feed while his labor at fair wages 
amounts to $15 more. if the sow were 
sold now I should think the proceeds ought 
to be divided on that proportion—the cost 
of feed and labor matched against the 
original outlay. Or it would be fair to 
call the labor equal to the original capital 
and divide the cost of feed equally, and 
then divide the proceeds. In most of such 
deals capital has too large a share. 
Potatoes That Run to Vines.— I send 
you a bunch of roots from an Irish Cobbler 
potato, planted the last week in April and 
dug July 15, and no potatoes on them 
when dug. The ground was manured with 
old rotted horse manure and rotted hay 
forked in. Garden soil, eight hills all the 
same. What is the trouble? n. p. 
From the appearance of these roots it 
looks as if the potatoes “ran to vines,” and 
were hit by the blight before they could 
form tubers. I have had this happen on 
very rich land. The rotted manure was 
rich in nitrogen, but did not have enough 
potash. The vines made a rapid growth 
and kept on growing. As we know, the 
“potato” is a tuber formed under ground 
by enlarging the stem—not the root. If 
these vines could have kept on growing 
they would finally have matured and they 
would have formed tubers. Blight is very 
likely r to catch these tender and long 
growing vines and of course that is the end 
of them. We do not need much nitrogen 
for the potato. It cannot stand too much. 
Potash is specially needed for anv crop 
which makes starch rapidly. Such vines 
are not unlike one of those know-it-all 
men. They are always going to do great 
things, but blight gets their large plans 
before there is any “nest egg.” 
Rapid Growth of Potatoes.- —The daily 
papers tell of shipments of 10.802 bushels 
of potatoes in one day rrom Anoka, Minn. 
This report states the following: ‘Fields 
are reported as yielding as high as 200 
bushels to the acre and in one week the 
yield has increased twen'y-one bushels to 
the acre. In other words in seven days 
potatoes have grown enough larger to bring 
in $22 more an acre than they did a week 
to-day.’ Do you believe any such fairy 
tale? f. f. r. 
I do. Many experiments have shown how 
rapidly potatoes grow after they get as 
large as nuts. It is quite beyond belief 
sometimes when the conditions are just 
right. There must be moisture, plant food, 
an open soil and strong vines. The vine 
must be healthy just at the time blooming 
is over. Then is where spraying pays if at 
all. If we can keep the vines alive even for 
two weeks longer during this rapid growing 
period we can often gain 50 per cent in 
yield. Spraying carries the plant on to 
maturity. You cannot have a “mealy” or 
well-flavored potato unless it can mature in 
the field. When the famous R. N.-Y. No. 2 
potato was introduced its reputation for 
quality was injured because many growers 
sold it when half formed. This variety 
makes a rapid growth, and when green and 
half matured is large enough to sell as “new 
potatoes.” It came on the market with or 
even before early varieties and of course it 
was poor and “soggy.” The critical period 
with potatoes is right after blooming. Then 
they will grow like magic if they have a 
chance. 
Values of Ear and Shelled Corn.—I 
would like to find out the exact worth of 
corn on the ear per hundredweight, when 
Shelled corn is worth $1.65 per bag of two 
bushels. j. b. M. 
Connecticut. 
The usual rule is to figure that 70 pounds 
of ear corn will shell out 56 pounds of 
shelled corn—or one bushel. The 14 
pounds represent the weight of the cobs. 
This is not always the true portion, for 
when corn is not fully dry the cobs may 
weigh more.. On this basis, however, your 
problem is about as follows : Two bushels 
of corn weigh 112 pounds. If this is worth 
$1.65 it means 1.47 cent per pound. At 
this rate 100 pounds of shelled corn are 
worth $1.47. It will require 120 pounds of 
ear corn to make this amount of shelled 
corn. Thus 100 pounds of ear corn are 
worth $1.22. I think you are mistaken in 
your price. The $1.65 probably means 100 
pounds instead of two bushels. If that is 
so the ear corn is worth $1.30. 
Wild Cherry Brandy.—I have on my 
place several wild cherry trees, and would 
like to know how to make a good wild 
cherry brandy, or what else use can be 
made of the cherries. I hate to see them 
go to waste. m. r. 
Wild cherry freeware so numerous in our 
country that no one thinks of utilizing 
them. We doubt if it would pay to try 
and make “brandy.” If you made a true 
brandy with the usual amount of alcohol 
you would be liable to trouble. Many peo¬ 
ple write us every Fall about selling cherry 
bark, sumach or other herbs or seeds. We j 
looked this up with great care, and found 
there was nothing in it. The prices paid j 
for such bark and roots are so low that 
ordinary labor cannot afford to collect them. 
Salt is no Fertilizer.—I have lately 
been told that common salt is one of the 
best if not the best fertilizers, sowed at a 
rate of 1 Vi barrel per acre, just before 
using harrow. e. t. c. 
Kentucky. 
Who told you so? Salt is not a fertilizer 
at all, for it adds no plant food which 
most soils do not contain. It may have 
chemical power to set free potash or silica 
the latter to make the straw heavy and stiff, 
or it may hold back crops on very rich 
soil—but it is not what we call a fertilizer. 
H. w. c. 
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