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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 10, 
Hope Farm Notes 
Hunting a Farm.—I am sure we have 
had 300 letters much like this one: 
I am thinking of buying a small farm 
within 20 miles radius of Boston. I know 
nothing of farm life or what to look for 
in buying. Any book on the subject of 
buying a farm or any advice from you, I 
would like very much. I have been think¬ 
ing of raising poultry, also fruits and 
vegetables for the market. I hope to be 
able to start this prospect and still work 
in Boston for awhile, as my salary is nec¬ 
essary to the support of the family. 
Massachusetts. j. b. p. 
Now, any man who has ever lived on 
a farm will see the folly of buying land 
in any such way. You cannot learn out 
of a book, nor can strangers advise you. 
This farm is to be your home, where you 
hope to make part of your living, and if 
you ever did anything carefully in your 
life you should do the best job in select¬ 
ing land. The average “back-to-the- 
lander” seems to think all land is alike, 
the same as all ocean water. Do not 
trust to books or distant advice, but hire 
some good farmer to go along with you 
and look at the soil. He can tell, and 
while if he is honest he may drive some 
spikes into your notions, listen to him. 
There ought to be good opportunity for 
many such farmers to go out and give 
sound advice about soils and farms. In 
many cases such a farmer would be bet¬ 
ter than an “expert." 
Curing Sunflowers. —Here is an¬ 
other question that will not dry up: 
I have raised quite a lot of mammoth 
sunflowers this season, and have spread 
them one deep on a floor. They are all 
rotting. Will you inform me how to tatce 
care of sunflowers another season? I 
think they are a good crop to raise. 
New Hampshire. c. p. g. 
I am afraid you will have to go to 
others for expert advice. We have had 
just the Experience you relate. We can 
raise the sunflowers without trouble, but 
in an average moist Fall the heads de¬ 
cay. If you let them stand too long the 
birds will get most of the seeds or shell 
them out. I have heard of one man 
who claimed to get a crop. He had a 
very dry Fall, let the heads stand until 
the seeds were falling, then cut and put 
them on slatted shelves so the dry air 
circulated up and around them. I have 
had people tell me they expected to start 
farming with 20 acres of sunflowers! 
In theory this crop ranks with mush¬ 
rooms, ginseng and Belgian hares, but I 
do not believe it is suitable for our 
humid sections. The place for sun¬ 
flower seed is in the dry or arid lands. 
At this season of the year many kind- 
hearted people make up Christmas bar¬ 
rels for destitute strangers. The women 
of our church made up such a barrel 
for a minister in Minnesota. They put 
in clothing and shoes and all sorts of 
necessities, and it hit that community 
like Santa Claus in staves. I am sure 
it was a fine thing to do, and there were 
tens of thousands like it. It is hard to 
think that fakes and frauds work into 
such things to pick the pockets of Santa 
Claus, but such rascals are everywhere. 
Last year some women in a New Jersey 
church worked hard at one of these 
barrels of love and good will and sent 
it- to a Mrs. Pruden in South Carolina. 
This party claimed to have a mission 
school, and that she gave clothing to 
poor people. You certainly would have 
put her down as a white-winged cousin 
of Charity at least. Those church 
women had their barrel all packed and 
ready when the whisper came that this 
benevolent creature was a fraud. We 
had subscribers in the region named, 
and I asked several of them to tell us 
about it. The following is a fair sample 
of replies: 
In answer to your letter asking about 
this person and her supposed mission 
school at this place, 1 will say that there 
Is no mission school located here. Tins 
woman does not live here, but somewhere 
In North Carolina. She came here ana 
stayed a few months and ran a kind or 
boarding house. 1 understand that she re¬ 
ceived clothing and other articles from 
somewhere, the majority of which she sold, 
but she did give away a few pieces. There 
is no field here for public charity, as the 
people are prosperous and all can get em¬ 
ployment. B. B. M. 
Cow pens, S. C. 
Now, it is too bad that we are com¬ 
pelled to think of such things at Christ¬ 
mas, but there are fakers mean enough 
to take advantage of the purest senti¬ 
ment if they see a chance to make a 
dollar. What some of those people will 
do to make a dollar is past belief. Now 
there are thousands of deserving poor 
people who at this Christmas time need 
the food and clothing and money that 
you can spare. One of the most de¬ 
serving forms of charity is that con¬ 
ducted by the Salvation Army. Money 
or goods sent them will be wisely used 
and blessed. I would like to have you 
write to Miss Maud E. Booth, Salvation 
Army, New York, and tell her what you 
can do. 
The Ghost Walks. —Speaking of 
these things makes me think that last 
week a man walked in upon me and 
handed out this note: 
I have been out of work six weeks, bud 
now I am nearly starved with hunger. 
Will you please help me out with enough 
to get a meal. I have not been in bed 
for two night, and I can stand it no 
longer. 
I worked with this man 25 years ago. 
It was like a ghost walking out of the 
past to see him standing there ragged, 
trembling and disreputable. He was a 
drunkard—no doubt about that—and had 
reached the stage, I fear, when no physi¬ 
cal treatment could bring him back. He 
always was a drinker—a bright and 
capable man, but with a will as weak as 
sand. Unless such men can mix the 
cement of worthy ambition to harden 
their shifting sand they are lost. I 
looked at this poor wretch and won¬ 
dered what I should do. Money would 
have sent him to a saloon. Food would 
probably send him out to get some sort 
of a job. Perhaps.as fair a plan as any 
was to take him out to a restaurant 
where they give a full meal for 30 cents, 
hand the proprietor 40 cents and tell 
him to heap up the plate. It is a fearful 
problem to know what to do with old 
friends or associates in such cases. The 
Salvation Army can handle such people 
far better than you or I can, for they 
know the nature of the “bum” and the 
discouraged man. It is likely that we 
cannot have patience with them. 
Milk Records. —During the month of 
November Mollie gave 813 pounds. This 
makes a total of 6,413 pounds since 
April 19. She gets 10 pounds of grain 
per day, which means $4.50 for the 
month, and at one hour per day for care 
we have a total of $10.50. Her milk is 
worth four cents a pound, or $32.52. 
This record runs as follows to date: 
Net 
Earnings 
April . $7.70 
May . 30.01 
June . 29.91 
July . 27.79 
August . 18.92 
September . 20.18 
October . 21.43 
November . 22.02 
Total.$178.32 
There is no use going over the rea¬ 
sons why we credit this milk at four 
cents a pound. It is worth that to us. 
At a cent and a half a pound, which 
many farmers receive in December, this 
cow’s milk would be worth $12.19. Fig¬ 
ure that she eats the equivalent of 15 
pounds of good hay per day, or 450 
pounds for the month. Then add a 
fair rate of interest on values, taxes, 
etc., and the owner would have to work 
for nothing in order to show much, if 
any, profit. The roughage does not cost 
us much. It is sweet corn stalks, with 
the ears picked off, and mangels. We 
are feeding these roots out early. Bet¬ 
ter get rid of them before they freeze 
badly. The cow is very fond of them 
and they keep up her yield. Thus the 
actual cost of this milk is low, yet if 
we had six cows it would run up close 
to or beyond the limit of profit. If we 
bad more Alfalfa or oats and peas we 
could cut that grain cost down. As it 
is, 1 do not know how to figure the cost 
of the stalks which will make nearly 
half this cow’s food for the Winter. 
She is holding out better than we ex¬ 
pected. Grain prices are high this year 
and our sweep mill will come in handy. 
We have quite a supply of rye on hand 
and I shall grind it with corn and oats 
for general stock feed. Every year there 
are many questions about feeding rye. 
Some people seem to be afraid of the 
grain, having been told that it will 
“poison” stock. We have fed hundreds 
of bushels. Most stock do not like this 
grain. There is a peculiar taste to it, 
and it makes a sort of paste in the 
mouth. It has good feeding value, how¬ 
ever, and when mixed in the corn and 
oats it will all be eaten. We shall grind 
equal parts of rye, oats and corn as a 
sort of basic ration for the stock. Then 
by adding wheat bran or linseed meal as 
needed we can fit about any case. Every 
time the grain proposition comes up we 
think of Alfalfa. I am sure that an 
acre of good Alfalfa will produce the 
feed equivalent of four tons of wheat 
bran. The time is coming when a stock 
man can hardly afford to keep cattle 
unless he has a good supply of Alfalfa. 
Advertising: —You will remember that 
on page 1149 there was printed a sam¬ 
ple advertisement of apples. This was 
printed merely to show how such things 
are done. We purposely left off the ad¬ 
dress. Yet in spite of all people have 
written asking for apples, one man send¬ 
ing the money! This is further evidence 
of the way things are moving. No use 
talking, there are thousands of people 
who want to do a direct business with 
producers. If they can get sound and 
uniform goods they will gladly pay the 
price. Our little advertising in the local 
paper has been very successful. We 
have sold apples, turnips and cabbage, 
and now we begin on rye straw in bun¬ 
dles. The fact is, few fanners realize 
what a market there may often be 
found within a few miles of their farm. 
I would work this market for all it is 
worth before branching out to ship 
goods away._* H. w. c. 
Lime on Old Land. 
A. Af. Y., Xorth Carolina .—Would you 
advise the application of pure slaked lime 
as a fertilizer for corn and potatoes, to 
be applied during the Winter or early 
Spring? There is a moderate growth of 
vegetable matter on the land this Fall, 
having been planted to corn last season. 
Ans. —We would not use the lime on 
potato ground. That would increase 
the amount of scab on the crop. Corn 
does not respond to lime as other grain 
does. It would be better to use the 
lime on clover, grass or small grain or 
when planting cabbage or truck. Gen¬ 
erally speaking, the place for lime in a 
rotation is at grass seeding. You thus 
get the desired effect upon the soil and 
increase the amount of humus or vege¬ 
table matter. If you plan to use lime 
do not fail to understand its real func¬ 
tion. It does not, on most soils, supply 
plant food which the crops need. Its 
action is to fit the soil so it can give up 
its plant food more rapidly. Thus you 
will see that while, for a time, lime may 
increase the crops, it does so at the soil’s 
expense, and sooner or later you must 
use fertilizers or manure to supply what 
is taken away. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll got a quick reply and a 
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