780 
July 13, 
THE RURAt NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
Education. — I hardly realized the 
possibilities of Hope Farm in the cloth¬ 
ing line until our folks drove off to the 
high school commencement. It required 
three of our horses to transport this 
delegation. Uncle John and I remained 
at home with the children, but a great 
array of white dresses and white ties 
startled the evening air. Naturally it 
was my privilege to tell Mother she 
looked as young as either of the girls, 
but each had the same thought—the 
first batch of the children have become 
young ladies and gentlemen! After 
they disappeared around the turn of the 
road I sat on the porch and thought 
that over. It means more to a man 
than he likes to say out loud. I haven’t 
many illusions left for public use—but 
I hope there are more for private con¬ 
sumption. At 50 a man may well quit 
chasing illusions, for life must have be¬ 
come a series of hard facts with rough 
edges on them. Yet he should let illu¬ 
sions chase him harder than ever be¬ 
fore. What I mean is that while public 
dreaming may stamp an older man as 
a fool a little private dreaming of the 
impossible may give him something of 
the contentment and quiet power which 
ought to go with the last years of life. 
I fell to wondering what my children 
would do if put up against the barbed 
wire fences which held education away 
from their mother and me! Those 
dresses were mighty pretty, and the 
boys were neat. Mother’s graduating 
dress was a “dream”—she had to dream 
that she had one. I graduated in a 
long-tailed coat which came to me after 
some larger man had discarded it. I 
went through college dressed largely in 
Old Plastering. —I never knew the 
time when more farmers were hunting 
for plant food in refuse substance. Here 
is a sample: 
I have a chance to get old wall plaster 
just removed from a house, and would like 
to know of what value it would be to clay 
soil. If you can give me any infqrmation 
it will be greatly appreciated. i\ r. c. 
Such plastering is made of lime and 
sand with a quantity of hair to hold it 
together. The lime if made fine will 
act on the soil much like a ground lime¬ 
stone. The hair adds a little nitrogen 
and phosphoric acid. In some damp 
situations old plastering absorbs a little 
nitrogen, which forms nitrate of lime. 
This refuse does not have great value, 
but is worth hauling. As it is usually 
found such plastering is too coarse to 
mix well through the soil, and its lime 
would not be effective unless the pieces 
were crushed fine. We have found such 
plastering good for use around young 
trees. Unless it is crushed this will be 
about the best use to be made of it. 
Such plastering will probably not give 
over 15 per cent of lime. 
The Cow and Hens. — Mollie’s 
daughter is a fine young barn lady in 
black and white. She appeared June 
26 and I hope she will stay for years, 
as we intend to raise her. Mollie is 
good enough to have her picture taken. 
Humans who do less for the world get 
into print. It is not a good picture, 
for her head is turned so as to make it 
seem out of proportion. Some people 
get an enlarged head from the contem¬ 
plation of their own picture. Mollie 
will not rank among the world’s great 
performers but she suits us. Her year’s 
record was 8,883 pounds of milk. We 
could not or did not dry her off and 
she gave 176 pounds more in April, 525 
discarded clothing. My mother obtained 
various garments—one from a very tall 
man—the other evidently short and fat. 
We tailored them over, and, padded out 
with hope and ambition, they carried 
us on. Sitting on my porch in the twi¬ 
light I could not imagine my children 
happy and hopeful dressed in cast-off 
clothing. I have no illusions about the 
state of mind of these young people. 
Times have changed, and so have ideals 
and desires in education. Yet I would 
not have had it different in my hard 
struggle for all the clothes in a depart¬ 
ment store. I think Uncle John had 
something of the same thing in mind. 
He pointed to a homely old chair—one 
of our few prized heirlooms—and said: 
“My father had that chair made over 
70 years ago. Now they make chairs 
so as to sell new ones in three years 
more.” 
The Cat at Law. —Here is where we 
get. into a neighbor’s dispute: 
What is the New Jersey law in regard 
to stray cats and those of your own neigh¬ 
bors who come and destroy young chick¬ 
ens on your premises? Am 1 within my 
rights to kill a cat outright if I catch him 
at his “game?” Would a neighbor have a 
damage suit against me for killing his cat 
if caught in the act of chasing chickens? 
If the law protects cats (it protects dogs 
here), what is your redress in a case where 
you cannot catch the offending animal in 
order to prove his identity? m. i>. b. 
Cats are not licensed as dogs are. 
Kitty has her rights before the law like 
any other property. If you can catch 
the cat right in the act of killing the 
chickens—say with a chick in its mouth 
•—you can shoot him and be justified. 
You must be careful about this, how¬ 
ever, and be able to prove that you saw 
the cat in the act. You are not justified 
in killing a cat on suspicion or for com¬ 
ing around on your premises. Unless 
you can prove that a certain cat did the 
damage the owner of that cat can col¬ 
lect damage if he can prove that you 
killed the cat. 
in May and 283 in June. This makes 
9,867 pounds in all from the day she 
came till her calf was born. Of course 
we cannot expect her to do as well 
another year, since she did not go dry 
and rest, but her record will be kept 
as before. Keeping this milk record has 
been one of the most useful things we 
ever started. . . . These old hens 
are still moving on, though many of 
them have been anxious to sit. We 
put these would-be incubators in 
an unused hotbed by themselves. 
There is shade for them. It must 
be some sort of homeopathic treat¬ 
ment—this hotbed for a heated sys¬ 
tem, for these hens soon get over 
their notion. They have about all had 
a turn at it, and this has cut down 
their egg record. They laid 317 eggs 
in the month ending June 15, which 
makes a total of 1,702 for four months. 
Two hens have died. Three have been 
busy with chicks, but we figure the 
entire lot, which is now 32. I have not 
believed that the average hen lays over 
60 eggs in a year. I believe there are 
entire farm flocks which average under 
50 eggs and which would be kept at a 
loss if the hens did not run at large and 
get much of their Summer food. 
Substitutes for Manure. —It is sur¬ 
prising how many farmers are in the 
position of this man: 
I have 14 acres; in 1910 found it in bad 
shape, hardly any' grass. I used about 
seven tons of manure with spreader and 
put it in corn, yield about 600 bushels in 
ear. In 1911 I seeded in oats, about 35 
bushels to acre; last Pall seeded to rye. 
I would like to have this field in corn, so 
I can rotate my fields; have had no lime 
in 20 years. I thought of again seeding 
to rve, plowing down in Spring for corn. 
I have no manure for this field this Fall. 
What would you advise under the present 
condition? R - 
Pennsylvania. 
As I understand it, this field is now 
in rye. If I had plenty of time and farm 
power I should work it up at once after 
rye harvest, and sow buckwheat with a 
ton of lime to the acre. In September 
plow the buckwheat under and sow rye. 
The buckwheat crop will help fill the 
soil with organic matter—which corn 
needs. If other farm work is too press¬ 
ing we should cut out the buckwheat 
and seed to rye in August—using the 
lime then. In the Spring plow the rye 
under at 'corn planting time. Roll the 
soil heavily after plowing and plant 
corn—using 400 pounds per acre of a 
good corn fertilizer. After that you 
can do about what you like with that, 
field. 
Millet Hay.—H ere is another old 
time question always coming up: 
Is millet hay bad for horses? I have 
several small plots of a half acre to an 
acre each, in Japanese millet and one piece 
in Pearl millet, all nicely up. I have re- 
centlv been told that it should not be fed 
to horses. As I have nothing but horses 
I feel anxions to know the truth about it. 
I have two or three acres of good land that 
1 failed to get into crop, and as it Is so 
late, thought I would put in Japanese mil¬ 
let. but do not care to if I cannot feed 
it to my horses. Could I sow rye now 
and cut it for hay, or to take the place of 
hay this Fall? H. J. I. 
Connecticut. 
Millet hay is bad for horses. Do not 
take any chances in feeding it. Such 
hay is all right for cattle, but keep it 
away from horses. The fact of its dan¬ 
ger has been often proved. Take no 
chances. Millet makes a first rate green 
fodder and cattle hay, but requires rich 
and moist soil. If I had your three 
acres I should sow fodder corn thick in 
drills with some fertilizer. Do not try 
to make ears of corn but get a fine an'd 
tender stalk by using plenty of seed. 
This will make the best horse fodder 
you can now grow. Rye seeded now 
will not give you enough to cut this 
year. Sow the corn in drills three feet 
apart, and at the last cultivation sow a 
mixture of rye and barley right in the 
corn—ahead of the cultivator. With a 
good season the barley will grow and 
give a cutting in October—the rye will 
follow and give a good crop next Spring. 
Cover Crops In Corn. —Nothing can 
be more important right now than the 
cover crop question. This brings it up: 
I have more land in cultivation than I 
have manure for. and would like to know 
if I can sow Rod clover in the corn after 
the last cultivation, and have it grow with¬ 
out detriment to the corn crop, then in the 
Spring turn it under in time to sow oats. 
Would this benefit the land much? I am 
plowing under old sod every year for corn 
after manuring it. X. M. lee. 
Connecticut. 
Red clover will not give you growth 
eno’ugh for your purpose. In the South 
Crimson clover would pay, but our ex¬ 
perience is that north of New York 
Crimson is a gamble. It will not live 
through over two times in seven. Rye 
is the solid basis for these cover crops. 
A mixture suits us best. We would ad¬ 
vise two pecks of rye, 20 pounds of 
Hairy vetch, and one pound Cow-horn 
turnips to the acre. Scatter on the 
ground before the last working and 
then run the cultivator. If the season 
is reasonably moist the cover crop will 
grow without damaging the corn. In a 
very dry time the corn crop will suffer. 
We shall take all risks of drought this 
year and put in the cover crop. If the 
soil is in fair condition these crops 
should grow well and next Spring will 
give you nearly the effect of a good 
grass sod. The benefit following plow¬ 
ing a sod is easily seen. By means of 
the cover crop you may have this sod 
effect every year. The best informa¬ 
tion we can get is that there will be an¬ 
other short hay crop. All these cover 
crops and drilled corn fodder will be 
needed to help out the feed. 
Farm Notes. —Here we are calling 
for rain when 30 days ago we. were 
ready to complain because there was too 
much of it. It is dry. We have been 
able to cultivate freely and keep mois¬ 
ture in the soil, but we could stand a 
good soaking. By July 4 all but a lit¬ 
tle of the hay was in the barn. It is a 
good crop—rather more than last year. 
As we cut all the rye for hay or plowed 
it under there is no grain harvest and 
we can go right to cultivating and hoe¬ 
ing. The potato bugs appeared at the last 
of June and were promptly poisoned. 
They did not seem as numerous as 
usual this year. Our potato crop this 
year is a side issue—just about enough 
for home use. . . . We picked our 
first Marshall strawberries June 6. This 
was a small picking of a few very fine 
berries. There were still some left by 
July 4. These were not the finest, but 
suitable for eating. With care the 
Marshall will give one month of ber¬ 
ries. I do not know of any other single 
variety which carries its fruiting through 
such a long period. Let it be under¬ 
stood, however, that Marshall is a light 
yielder and would have no place as a 
commercial berry for long shipments. 
It is a good home berry when you can 
plant enough of them and fine for a 
fancy trade. . . . Our oats and peas 
will be ready to cut about J uly 10 The 
peas were in bloom by July 1. Every 
year makes us think more of this com¬ 
bination fodder. It is like a genuine 
ham sandwich for stock—good for 
green fodder or hay. H. w. c. 
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