1006 
Hope Farm Notes 
How are the redheads? 
That question conies frequently. One 
woman says she is interested in them 
because she has been a redhead for over 
40 years! Perhaps the best way to 
show that the redheads are real things 
in good health is to show their pic¬ 
ture. So here it is. We caught them 
sitting in the barn door with the little 
dog—backed up against a barrel of 
apples. That is a good backing for any 
would-be good citizen to start with. 
We do not put these youngsters for¬ 
ward as any prize packages of human¬ 
ity. Ten to one you will say, ‘‘My chil¬ 
dren beat the Hope Farm redheads out 
of sight.’’ You cannot get me into any 
contest over it. This is our crop, how¬ 
ever, and we' lind that redheads and red 
apples make a good combination. Sit¬ 
ting here in the barn door they are 
ready for whatever presents itself, and 
I hope the door of life will always pre¬ 
sent a sunny outlook and good apples 
at their back. The redheads are all 
right, thank you. They are having what 
belongs to every child, a home and 
care-free childhood, and with the tow- 
heads Ihey make much of it. The older 
children have got past my stories about 
Judge Lynx, Brother Rabbit and Mr. 
Mouse, but these little scamps sit wide- 
eyed and breathless when I tell them. 
My hope is that when this appreciative 
audience gets too wise to believe in 
Judge Lynx, I shall have another crop 
coming on to listen. 
“Substituted Trees.” —A case re¬ 
ported by one of our people is so com¬ 
mon that it ought to be studied. This 
THU RURAL NEW-YORKER 
and Carman that are good. If a man 
put one of them out of business I 
should feel that he owed me $10 for, 
with reasonable chances, we can get 
that out of them with interest in the 
five or six crops for which they are 
sure. They are planted 16 feet each 
way, and at this valuation an acre 
would be worth $1700. If I went to a 
bank to borrow money on any such 
basis they would laugh at me, yet many 
peach growers have paid out on such 
valuation. I have on the other hand 
earlier plantings, not so well treated, 
that were hardly worth two dollars per 
tree at three years. In view of borers, 
disease, scale, high wind and frost, any 
valuation above $5 per trees is a gam¬ 
bler’s chance north of Philadelphia. In 
some cases where the trees have been 
k lied by railroad fires settlement was 
made by calling the yearling tree worth 
one dollar, with 50 cents added for each 
year’s healthy growth up to five or six 
years. The New York courts permit 
the buyer in such cases to prove dam¬ 
ages to the jury in spite of the usual 
contract. The measure of damage is 
the difference between the value of the 
bare land, and that of the same land 
planted in the desired varieties, minus 
the value of the substituted trees. You 
will see, therefore, that it is a compli¬ 
cated mess. I have had very little 
trouble thus far, but if I had a case 
like the one here reported I would 
spend the proceeds of a year’s crop if 
need be in chasing the nurseryman to 
a finish. Why? Because he plainly 
disregarded the buyer’s orders, “substi¬ 
tuted” when he had no business to, and 
led the buyer to suppose he was send¬ 
ing home-grown trees when they were 
really picked-up stuff that he knew 
nothing about. In such cases the nur¬ 
THE HOPE FARM RED HEADS—A GOOD CROP. Fig. 441 . 
man ordered peach trees of a “reliable” 
nursery firm—not a tree agent. He ex¬ 
pected to make his- living from sales of 
fruit, and he knew just what varieties 
he wanted. When he sent the order this 
man insisted that there must be no 
“substitution.” If the nursery could 
not fill his order as he wanted it they 
were to say so and send back his money 
or let him order again. The trees came 
under this arrangement, and were 
planted. Judge of this man’s disgust 
when the trees fruited to find that 50 
of them are a worthless variety, with 
fruit of no value to his retail trade! 
They are three years old and in good 
condition, and this man has put in three 
good years developing them. 
What do you think this nurseryman 
tells him? Of course he is very sorry! 
He seems to think sorrow is a healing 
balm for such wounds. On “looking it 
up” he finds that he ran a little short 
of trees that year and bought some 
from a “very reliable man” and sent 
them out. These trees must have been 
part of that lot, and he is now willing 
to replace the trees—that is, send 50 
more young trees no more guaranteed 
than the others! All this, mind you, 
when it is on record that the buyer in¬ 
sisted that there should be no substitu¬ 
tion, and that the nurseryman should 
either furnish trees that he knew were 
true or send nothing. It looks as if 
they went out to Tom, Dick and Harry, 
bought up any old junk and shipped it! 
Value of a Tree.— Now this victim 
wants to know what good three-year- 
old peach trees are worth ! He is after 
damages, and deserves them. I do not 
know! What is the man worth ? A 
tree is much like a fifth limb of the 
grower, for it reflects his skill and care. 
I have a block of three-year Elberta 
seryman seems to think he has the 
buyer ^ at his mercy. I would charge 
him $5 apiece for these bogus trees, and 
stay by him a lifetime if need be in or¬ 
der to protect others at least. 
Farm Notes.— The first frost hard 
enough to make ice came October 28. 
There had been one or two light frosts 
before, but this one finished the season 
for everything, except cabbage and 
Brussels sprouts and turnips. We have 
a good crop of the sprouts. The man¬ 
gels had been pulled and piled. Some 
50 barrels of apples were piled in the 
orchard. This, I know, is bad practice, 
but we were short of both storage room 
and packages. We shall continue to 
sow rye until a little after election day. 
This is risky, and I would not advise it 
generally, but we still have some bare 
ground which ought to be covered. 
. . . One trouble with us this Fall 
has been the lack of horses to do all 
our farm work. We have sent away a 
load of fruit nearly every night since 
early in August. Peaches and Wealthy, 
Fall Pippins, McIntosh and Greening 
apples must be hurried away during 
late Summer and Fall, and thus the 
horses are more than busy, and Fall 
work suffers unless you have an extra 
team. On most fruit farms this extra 
team would stand idle all Winter—eat¬ 
ing-their heads off several times. The 
remedy, as I see it, is a good auto 
truck to handle produce for a neigh¬ 
borhood. In our place such a truck 
could run off with the loads now 
hauled by eight horses, leaving these 
horses and their drivers to work at 
home. If need be, such a truck could 
make two trips while the eight horses 
were making one. This development 
has got to come sooner or later as a 
legitimate part of farm business. . . . 
Every now and then we read stories 
of small areas of land which turn off 
great sums of money. Most of them 
are no doubt true, but the trouble is 
that people who tell them convey the 
idea that this is an everyday matter, , 
and that all land will do the same. Such | 
an idea is nonsense. I have one field j 
about 200 by 310 feet, or a scant acre; 
and one-half. Around this field are 
Baldwin apple trees perhaps 30 years 
old. There are a few in the center, 
about 30 in all. Last Fall we dug po¬ 
tatoes out of the center of this field and 
set out about 6,000 potted strawberry 
plants in hills. Winter killed some of 
them, but they were replaced this 
Spring with layers. The plants were 
fertilized and given good culture up to 
July, when we began to pot the runners. 
I intended to cut off the runners, but 
we found that the drought was cutting 
off the plant growth all over the East, 
and as this strong soil did not suffer 
much we let the plants run and quit 
cultivating. The apple trees around the 
outside stand in sod. They got a light 
coat of manure and a pile of weeds. 
Now we have picked from this field 
175 barrels of apples, with nearly 25 
barrels more of drops. We sold about 
$75 worth of potted plants from the 
berries, and have close to 20,000 layer 
plants for next year, with the fruit 
from the 6,000 parent plants to come. 
Of course I know that you cannot raise 
plants and get anything like a full crop 
of fruit, but this is the year when plants 
may pay better, for good Marshall 
plants are scarce. You can figure it out 
yourself. Now right across the lane is 
another field of equal size in which we 
have onions, potatoes and sweet corn. 
It is better soil, having been recently 
drained, yet I do not think we shall 
get the value of our labor and fertilizer 
back. Close by are the Brussels sprouts 
following rye. The rye gave a good I 
income in straw and grain, while the 
sprouts seem good for $200 per acre. 
Yet in still another field we barely get 
our money out. I suppose if I wanted 
to sell my farm to some “Back-to-the- 
lander” I should give him the berry and 
sprout figures and tell him to multiply 
by 100 acres! That is the way some of 
them appear to buy, and of course they 
go wrong. h. w. c. 
November 11, 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page 
Right in your own grove— waiting for 
you to take them out. All you need is an 
American” Saw Mill to cut that timber 
into lumber, which you can use yourself or 
sell at a good price. You can belt the 
American” Mill to your farm engine and 
run it yourself, turning out first-class lum¬ 
ber faster and cheaper than any other mill. 
We’ve written a book—“Making Money Off 
the Wood Lot”—which tells a number of 
ways in which you will find an “American” 
Mill profitable. We want to send you a copy. 
Write to nearest office. 
American Saw Mill Machinery Co. 
129 Hope Street, Hackettstown, N. J. 
1582 Terminal Building, Few York 
Chicago—Savannah—New Orleans 
SOUTHEASTERN 
FARM LANDS 
Fertile lands in the Southern States from 
$15 to $50 an acre with abundant rains 
and most favorable conditions for diversi¬ 
fied ; arming. Beef and pork produced at 
3 to 4 cents a pound. Long grazing season 
and diversity of .orage makes this possible. 
Openings for dairymen unexcelled. 
Apple orchards pay from $100 to $500 
an acre. It’s to your advantage to inves¬ 
tigate these many opportunities. Write, 
V. RICHARDS, Land & Industrial 
Agent, Southern Railway, Room $7 
1 320 P enn, Ave., Washington, D. C. 
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For Cribs 
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Annual Output 48,000,000 Sacks 
