3 8 
THE I*URAL NEW-YORKSE 
Hope Farm Notes 
A Tree Census. —One of the last things 
we did in 1911 was to count our fruit 
trees. We went over every field and made 
careful note of all. I knew about how 
many we have planted, but no record was 
kept of the trees that dropped out. The 
scale killed some, others were frozen during 
a hard Winter, some never started, yellows 
and crown gall have captured a few and 
fire swept through one mulched orchard and 
killed over 100 young trees. We finally 
found by actual count 2,828 trees, old and 
young. They run from last Spring’s plant¬ 
ing to old veterans 75 years old. We shall 
plant something over GOO this coming Spring 
and probably end with about 4,000 regular 
trees. If we cut off the chestnut and clear 
the fields there will be some 2,000 more, but 
I am not anxious to have too large a job 
on hand. It is good to know where we 
stand now at least. 
Wit at It Means. —Like most back-to-tin- 
landers, when we came to this farm we 
were not sure what would pay best. We 
started growing potatoes as a main crop— 
buying a set of implements and going at it 
as best wo could. We raised fair crops, but 
it was easily seen that our rocky hills are 
not adapted to potato culture. That is a 
crop for level, easily worked land. A 
farmer would be foolish or worse to try and 
fence out a glacier that moved down his 
hill. So he is to struggle with crops 
which are unadapted to his farm and his 
family. We then tried hay and rye with 
some dairying. There is a living in that, 
but I see little future to it in our section 
with high grain prices. We tried poultry 
keeping and found it good as a side line, 
but I think our soil and section too damp 
for hen keeping as a main business. I 
would take that to the drier hills. Then I 
became convinced that our section has most 
promise as a fruit country. We began as 
best we could to develop an apple orchard 
at moderate cost. Wo have planted some 
peach trees chiefly to obtain an income 
while the apples are coming on, but we 
are more and more convinced that Winter 
apples are to be our standby. 
A Itro Job. —Now that things seem com¬ 
ing our way we can look back and see a 
lot of mistakes or worse. We took the ad¬ 
vice of some experts and lost money by 
doing so. I can now see that we lost more 
money by failing to do as other experts 
told us. Thus I know that final success 
must be fought out by the man himself by 
Independent thinking and judgment. I 
have no doubt another family could have 
done far more for the farm with hens or 
cows or vegetables or some other product. 
Fruit seems to suit us and we stick to it. 
possible to give the standard cost or actual 
value of a tree. If that is so, it is hard 
to see how a safe selling price can be 
figured out, yet from my own experience I 
can easily see how impossible it is to tell 
just what my trees have cost. I have some 
chestnut timber for sale, and I find it hard 
to agree upon a price for the standing trees. 
I paid .$50 per acre for the farm when I 
came here. Suppose a man figured 150 
good trees to the acre and offered the price 
I paid originally, or 32 cents a tree. It 
would seem like nonsense to me, for I 
know that some of these trees are worth 
$3 each as poles. Of course a man with a 
good eye for timber can tell about what 
an acre will cut and what It will cost to 
get it out. lie wants to make this and 
just as much more as he can as profit and 
let the owner take the rest. If it is hard 
to figure standing timber by any exact rule 
it is still harder to tell what living trees 
will be worth if they are well cared for. 
The Future.— I have faith in the or¬ 
chards and shall keep on planting and 
caring for them. This year’s planting will 
represent what we think we have learned 
in varieties and eare. Baldwin is our 
standard market variety with McIntosh next. 
I think Delicious is a comer for our sec- 
cheap, sweatshop goods. Human life is 
cheaper than dirt in the great cities. 
The Other Side. —In many little farm 
communities Winter is a dull and de¬ 
structive season. Young people have no 
way of earning cash. True, you will say, 
they might keep hens or milk cows, but 
many of them have no capital, and are 
better fitted for mechanical work of some 
sort. There being no steady cash employ¬ 
ment many of these young" people become 
discouraged, or drift to the city for a job. 
When I was a boy we made shoes and 
bats and coats or overalls right on the 
farm. It was good work, gave a good job, 
brought in cash and kept us busy and 
hopeful. This work has now gone to the 
city sweatshop where humans are herded 
and robbed of property and life as were 
those girls in that fire. Scatter that work 
once more out among the country people 
and the whole situation will be changed. 
It would make those goods cost more? A 
little, but the humans who do the work 
would bo worth more. It may probablv 
never be done until the buying public will 
learn to reject human flesh and blood in a 
“cheap bargain.” It is one of the most 
needed industrial reforms in the country, 
for many a rural community is dying for 
lack of cash employment. 
Hungry Children.— This question in 
different forms has come to us at least 
a dozen times: 
A Socialist writer in the Farm Journal 
says that 50,000 children in the City of 
New York go to school every morning with¬ 
out any breakfast. If this is true it is an 
January 13. 
Y hen you write advertisers mention The 
It. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
(SPRAYING 
'TRIALS 
tion. When we buy these trees I am going ^be narr| e of this great nation 
to a reliable nurseryman and shall tell him should iVV^llJw^.^AIsS^n^^oSl 
I want good stock. Trees are not plenty Grange we debated the question as to 
this year, and no man can expect good Whether Mayor fihank was justified in buy- 
stock at low prices. It seems to me very i^hfa SS“t*the priS^hJt he^I?® I took 
poor economy to try to heat down a nur- the affirmative and they decided against me. 
esryman on price. There are fakes and 
snides in the trade, but on the other hand 
some of the best and most honorable men 
I know are selling trees. These men are in 
the business for life, and they want to do 
what is fair. My judgment is that some 
of them may have a better run of one 
variety, while another man may have su¬ 
perior stock of another kind. There are 
men who will tell us what they have and 
he fair about it. I am willing to pay a fair 
price for a good tree. I am satisfied that 
a “cheap” tree this year will represent some 
cull or cast-off that ought to be burned. I 
don’t want them as a gift. We have tried 
Pennsylvania. g. g. d. 
In order to settle this I wrote the 
New York City Superintendent of 
Schools. Here is his answer: 
in reply to your letter of December 15, 
I beg leave to say that I know of no evi¬ 
dence in support of the statement that 
50,000 or any other number of children in 
the City of New York go to school each 
morning without any breakfast. A similar 
statement was investigated some five or six 
years ago and found to be without founda¬ 
tion. Truly yours, 
WM. A. MAXWELL, 
City Superintendent ot Schools. 
There you are. What are we to be¬ 
lieve? Some of the little ones 1 see on 
On I' hard thing to decide has been what to 
do with the land while the trees are coming 
on. I know one man who grows potatoes 
and small fruits among the young trees. 
Another grows white beans. Wo have 
grown hay and rye. There are all sorts of 
ways of doing. Some men say “borrow the 
money to fertilize and cultivate and never 
take anything but fruit from the land.” 
It would require groat nerve to wait six to 
10 years for such results. Few of us could 
do it. We have found strawberries a good 
crop for our lower land. Now that results 
seem headed our way I feel like dropping 
everything except berries, peaches and 
apples, and putting all land not in those 
crops to corn, Alfalfa or rye. 
Values. —The children want to know 
what these 2,828 trees are worth. I do not 
know what value can falny be put on a 
tree. The thing has been figured out hun¬ 
dreds of times, but 1 have never been satis¬ 
fied with the figures. Some experts say a 
yearling tree well rooted, is worth one dol¬ 
lar, and it gains in value 50 cents for each 
year's growth up to fruiting. After that 
they say it is worth five to six times the 
value of the crop it produces. I had one 
big Baldwin tree this year that gave nearly 
10 barrels, or at least $28 worth of fruit. 
It seems to me nonsense to say this tree 
is worth $150, or with 30 on an acre, 
$4,500! That may be good figuring to pro¬ 
mote a “unit” orchard, but common sense 
should teach a fruit grower to stop such 
dreams. My trees will be worth what we 
are willing to put into them in the way of 
feed and care. Would I let some one come 
and cut them down for an average of $10 
apiece for bearing trees? As they run that 
would be $420 per acre, but I would not 
look at the money, because these trees mean 
far more to us than any dollar could. You 
would think perhaps that a nurseryman 
ought to know what his young trees cost. 
They are grown like other cultivated crops 
where one can know the exact value of 
labor and fertilizer and rent of land. You 
can also tell how many trees you take from 
an acre. Yet the nurserymen who have 
been for years in the business say it is ira- 
them and have had enough. I shall order the city street do not look well nour- 
early. No end of trouble comes in holding ished, but the school children seem 
back orders until March, and then rushing bright and cheerful at least. A young 
in with a “hurry” call. Why not get out man I knew taught school in a country 
now, make your tree census, figure how district years ago. There was one poor 
many you want, decide on varieties and family—children of a drunkard. The 
begin correspondence with nurserymen? little ones did not have enough to eat. 
Prizes. —You may not think the good ^''. s y° un f? man boarded round. lie 
year 1911 handed you out many, but the *°Id how children were suffering, 
chances are that you got one and did not lc brother who headed the 
realize it. I want to speak of a couple of household declaimed about the sin of 
prizes that we know about. There is a "temperance. None of- my substance 
happy thought in them. One is the “Bur- s ia md'rectly to the rumshop.” His 
pee” prize for short essays. The judges did P r *ictical wife never said a word, but 
not know anything about the writers—they she put up about a peck of food every 
went by numbers entirely. The first prize day for the teacher—and he passed it 
went to a man who,needed it—his wife on tn rh , T l„i 
Millions of Dollars Are Lost Annually by 
Fruit Growers, Because They Do Not Spray 
Persistently With Properly Made Sprays 
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LION BRAND 
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Insure Larger Crops of Firs* Quality Fruit 
“LION BRAND” LIME-SULPHUR SOLUTION 
For Sail Jose Scale particularly, and tho only Spray 
tlmt destroys Scale and does in it injure Trees. Heady 
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“LION BRAND” BORDEAUX MIXTURE 
prevents Blight, Mildew, Rot, etc., from dostro.yinpf 
Potatoes, Beans, Peas and Melons; kt»epH spots* and 
specks off Apples, Peae’ i s and other fruit, and makes 
crops surer and far larger. One gallon to 49 of Water. 
“LION BRAND” PURE PARIS GREEN 
contains absolutely not a particle of tiller or adulter¬ 
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standard. 
“LION BRAND” ARSENATE OF LEAD 
The stickiest arsenate made. Preferable for Codling 
Moth, ( urculio, Kim Leaf Beetle and Chewing Insects 
of all sorts, on trees, shrubs, vines, bushes and vege¬ 
tables, w here it is desirable that the poison remain 
longer on the foliage than is possible with other in¬ 
securities. Does not burn tho most delicate foliage. 
We Also Make Many Other Specialties 
Something to destroy every injurious iuseel and 
protect trees and plants from all fungus disease. 
Wc are the largest and oldest manufacturers of In¬ 
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business exclusively 23 years. We publish a 
FREE SPRAYING BOOKLET 
a copy of which we shall be glad to send you. 
Write For It To Noarost Offlco 
Plnnchard's Products arc, sold by dealers and agents 
evcrytvhere.or direct if your dealer cannot supply you 
THE JANIESA. BLANCHARD CO. 
550 Hudson Terminal 551 Broad Street 
NEW YORK ST. JOSEPH. MICH. 
Factories—New York and St. Joseph 
LIME-SULPHUR HYDROMETER rve Fruit-Growers 
.. 
CARBONDALE INSTRUMENT CO.. Carbondale, Pa. 
them to a solution of the middleman 
H. W. C. 
having been an invalid for some years. ° n du ' se children. That farmer’s 
What a beautiful thing it was that this substance was spent unknown to him 
money could go just where it was needed, in a most substantial way, but I hone 
This thing happened again at the recent ,i,„ _, . ,• 
corn show. A farmer in Connecticut won Jl L tnotue was all credited to lus wife, 
both the Bowkor and the Coo-Mortimer cash ' bey may beat you in that debate, but 
prizes. It turned out that this farmer had Mayor Shank, of Indianapolis, will beat 
for years fought a terrible struggle to save ,t , „ _A. • , ,, 
Ids farm. Those prizes put him ou bis feet Tnc . 1(1 
and will save bis home. It makes the question! 
world seem brighter and sends the old year 
on its way rejoicing to feel that prizes are 
distributed in this way. And here is an¬ 
other thing—better yet. A very worthy 
and able man competed for that “Burpee” 
prize. When he found It is name not even 
mentioned he felt humiliated. When be 
finally found who received this prize he had 
the manhood to write Mr. Burpee: 
“And now that I know that .your benefi¬ 
cence proved to be a God-send to a needy 
fellow man I am heartily ashamed of the 
wail of lamentation I penned to you some 
time ago.” 
That man wins a prize which no money 
can buy. 
WANTED TO PURCHASE 
Orchard Property 
Well developed proposition (situated in Eastern or 
Middle States) and containing bearing and young 
trees; capable of enlargement. Write full particu¬ 
lars and send photographs of buildings, if possible. 
Address ORCHARDIST, Montclair, N. J. 
Republic Ornamental Fence 
combines beauty and utility. 
Never ea £0 or bulged, many 
beautiful pnfteme. Easily put 
op. Also full lino H igb Car¬ 
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Securo Free Catalog. 
Republic Fence 4 Gale Co., 
211 |i. St. North Chicago, Ill. 
Cheap Life. —It was a crowded New 
York street at the end of the afternoon. 
The short day had dropped shadows at 
the door of a great grey building. Two 
men with white, scared faces shrank back 
from the door —even though surrounded 
by a squad of burly policemen. The street 
was thronged with a shrieking, yelliug 
mob. 
“Murderer! lie killed my sister! Kill 
him!” 
' Thin, wild-eyed women and girls, low¬ 
browed sullen men with claw-like hands, 
shrieked and tore until they were beaten 
back by the police. It was the trial of 
the two men who were known as the Tri¬ 
angle Waist-Co. Perhaps you have read 
about it in the papers. These men oper¬ 
ated a “sweat shop.” Fire broke out J — 
the girls found themselves locked In. In 
their madness they trampled and fought 
against the locked door unable to get out 
—and 146 of them burned to death. 
These two men were on trial for man¬ 
slaughter. The trial brought out all the 
hideous details of sweatshop life. The 
girls were crowded like slaves. If they 
dared to look up from their work they 
were docked. The doors were locked—all 
except one narrow passage—and as they 
- passed out through that the girls were 
searched to see that they did not steal 
garments. They were paid but a pittance. 
At tlie trial all these things were shown— 
including the locked door. Tho men were 
acquitted, as the judge charged that in 
order to convict them it must be shown 
that these meji knew tho door was locked ! 
The men are free, hut this trial has shown 
the fearful price which is paid for these 
There Should Be A Copy 
; Of This Book. 
Every E 
arm 
You need it lor the information it 
contains on the care and use of 
saws and tools. It points the way to greater econony 
and satisfaction through the use of 
DISSTON 
TOOLS 
Box J1537 
FILES 
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This book illustrates and describes the saws and tools 
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The DISSTON book is free 
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HENRY DISSTON & SONS, Inc., Keystone Saw, Tool, Steel and File Works, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
