1116 
THE RURAIj NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
*■ 1 - - ■■■ - - - - -— ■ — 
In regard to those apple trees (McIntosh) 
here 20 feet would he too near for that 
variety alone; at least that is my experi¬ 
ence. Why not uSe one-half Wealthy? It 
has paid me (jest, as it yields so, hut it 
must be thinned for best results. Duchess 
is all right if it does well there, or Wag¬ 
oner; either is good but Melntosh grows a 
good-sized tree and has proved a rather 
light yielder with me. h. o. mead. 
Worcester Co., Mass. 
This refers to the plan of setting Mc¬ 
Intosh 20 feet apart each way. With 
us, this variety bears early, and I could 
probably get six or seven crops before 
the trees interfered much. My plan 
was to have, finally, a permanent or¬ 
chard of McIntosh 40 feet each way, 
using the others as fillers. This va¬ 
riety does well with us—apparently 
giving better apples when planted in 
sod or well mulched. The shape of 
Wealthy is better for a filler, as Mc¬ 
Intosh makes a broad, large head, 
while Wealthy is slender and 1 more up¬ 
right. From that point of view Mr. 
Mead’s suggestion is a good one. It 
would probably be better in the end to 
plant half Wealthy, preparing to take 
them all out later. The McIntosh is 
by far the better apple with us. I see, 
more and more, the objection to having 
too many varieties in a commercial 
orchard. Far better have three or four 
of the best and stick to them. 
The Milk Record. —In the 31 days 
of October Mollie gave 807 pounds of 
milk, an average of a little over 26 
pounds per day. This makes a total of 
5,600 pounds since she came in April 
19. The frost has hurt the pasture, 
and we are now feeding sorghum fod¬ 
der. This was grown as a second crop 
after rye between row’s of trees. Dur¬ 
ing the dry Summer it gave more 
fodder than corn, but it will not keep' 
as well. During October the cow con¬ 
sumed $4.65 worth of grain. It would 
be hard to put any value on the rough- 
age, as she w f as tied out here and there 
with garden wastes to help out. We 
charge up 20 cents, a day for her care, 
which makes a total of $10.85 for the 
month. Thus, for grain and care, this 
milk cost a little over V /3 cents to pro¬ 
duce, or 2 2 /i cents per quart. When 
you add the cost of fodder, rent of barn 
and half a dozen other expenses, the 
cost will run to four cents or more. 
This milk is worth eight cents a quart 
to us. That is what we must pay when 
we buy milk, and w r e use all the cow 
gives. I think Mollie keeps up her 
flow quite well. For the Winter we 
have a good supply of roots and cab¬ 
bage to make her think of pasture. It 
is a great satisfaction with our big fam¬ 
ily to have this good supply of clean, 
pure milk. ' 
Farm Notes. —People came to buy 
seed rye almost up to election day. 
That is pretty late to make much show¬ 
ing above ground, but the rye will start 
and make a good root growth. In 
Spring up it will come on the run. 
The scientific men and teachers have 
rather discouraged the use of rye as a 
cover crop, but in many places it is a 
great help, and I would throw some 
of it in with most other cover crops. 
. . . The roots are under cover. We 
made no effort to grow a large crop of 
mangels—just enough for one cow. 
Yet I think this would be a “money 
crop” in some places where there are 
chicken men. I think the crop would 
sell well to be used as Winter green 
food. The root seems to be better for 
this purpose than cabbage. . . . When 
we moved the wooden part of our old 
stone house we left a cellar large enough 
to hold 150 barrels of apples. It be¬ 
came a question whether to fill this 
cellar with stones or to put a roof over 
it. We finally decided to put on a con¬ 
crete roof. The walls have been built 
up and an entrance door made, and then 
forms put over the top. First a layer 
of concrete is put on and then stout 
iron rods to reenforce it—then the rest 
of the concrete. This will leave a 
solid and permanent job, and we shall 
have storage for apples and vegetables. 
During the past few years there has 
been great use of concrete on the farm. 
Some of the work has been done by 
amateurs and by careless hands, and 
time has begun to test it. The lesson 
is that if you expect to use concrete 
at all you should do the job right or 
not touch it. It looks as if some of 
the advice about concrete work was 
given by people who used a little of the 
stuff and then judged from the out¬ 
side appearance that they knew all 
about it. I fight shy of the concrete 
blocks made by people who have never 
studied out the operation. ... It is 
very evident to us that farmers who 
are within reach of good markets 
must study out the questions of stor¬ 
age and transportation. In our own 
locality most people have been rushing 
apples and Kieffer pears into market 
because they have no means of storing 
them well. As a result prices have 
been too low—the advantage being with 
the buyers. If we could have put our 
fruit into good storage where it would 
keep fairly well we could have held it 
back and kept the market from being 
overloaded. Before we have another 
large crop at Hope Farm we must have 
better storage. Our plan is to dig into 
the face of the hill and make a room 
partly below ground where we can put 
1,000 barrels or more right from the 
trees. It is only a question of time also 
before most farm neighborhoods must 
have large and rapid auto trucks to 
haul produce and leave the teams free 
for farm work. Something of this sort 
has got to come if we expect to keep 
up with the procession. I think these 
auto trucks are the things finally to set 
us free from the railroad and the ex¬ 
press company. Of course it will be 
out of the question for individual farm¬ 
ers to do these things. We have simply 
got to learn how to get together and co.- 
operate. 
Broad Views. —I have a letter from 
a Jerseyman who gives us this advice: 
Put on your “specs” and take a look at 
things beyond Hope Farm, the consumer’s 
dollar, etc. 
The trouble with me is that I only 
need “specs” for close reading of small 
print. When I want to look at things 
far away the glasses are of no use. 
During half a century I have seen no 
end of people who pride themselves on 
being “broad.” 1 have known women 
to discuss learnedly on the education 
and care of children, while every time 
you saw their own offspring you itched 
to get hold of a shingle. I walked with 
a man once who pointed out the glories 
of the sky and fell into a ditch which 
he did not notice while doing it. You 
will cut ice with the narrow edge rather 
than the broad side of the saw. The 
particular thing which this man has in 
mind is the world’s peace which Presi¬ 
dent Taft is trying to promote. He 
thinks in some way that The R. N.-Y.’s 
opinion about some of President Taft’s 
acts will hold up the peace treaties. He 
gives us credit for a “broadness” which 
we cannot fatten up to. My informa¬ 
tion is that those treaties will be passed 
as soon as the Senate thinks its ruffled 
dignity has been smoothed down. As 
for the other things, we have lived long 
enough to know that the only way the 
average citizen can accomplish anything 
is to pick out something he can reach 
and hammer away at it for a lifetime 
if need be. Our plan is to take a few 
vital things and stay by them until peo¬ 
ple realize that their influence can be 
felt. As a possible illustration we have 
talked rye as a cover crop week after 
week for years. Thousands of farmers 
are now trying it and they will be led 
to better crops and better practice in 
this way. You may call this narrow 
and simple, but it has really accom¬ 
plished more for farming than the same 
amount of “broad” discussion of agri¬ 
culture. It is very much the same with 
public questions. 
“Back to the Land.”— It seems as 
if all sorts of people are trying their 
hand at near (or far) farming. This 
has been a tough season on them, and 
many are ready to quit in disgust. Once 
in a while there comes a game sport 
who takes the butt end of farming as he 
would in any other business. One of 
them writes how he took a small farm 
and started in on a definite plan. He 
had to hire, all work done, and the dry 
weather was so bad that lie finds him¬ 
self $200 behind as the result of the 
first season. Does he growl about it? 
Not much. 
I have bad soma valuable experience for 
one who bad practically no knowledge of 
farming other than that obtained from bul¬ 
letins and books, and expect some day to 
have fruit enough in bearing so that if an 
upheaval conies in my company which my 
12 years of experience has taught me to be¬ 
lieve is bound to happen every so often, 
and I am given the alternative of moving or 
quitting, 1 shall be able at least to make a 
living from what I have this year started. 
1 think the he.st old age pension • or life 
insurance a man in my position can sub¬ 
scribe for is a little piece of land and a few 
trees and vines. h. w. s. 
That man is what I call a game sport. 
He will make that place go and get his 
“old age pension” in due time. Many 
back-to-the-landers want the earth but¬ 
tered, before they learn how to make 
butter. h. w. c. 
November 1^ 
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