832 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
august 3, 
Hope Farm Notes 
The horticultural field meeting was a 
success. There were about 400 here— 
as happy and good-looking a company 
as I ever saw. I have been to field 
meetings where there seemed to me two 
weak features. The owner of the farm 
spent long weeks in polishing up his 
place. When the people finally came 
there would be very little contrast of 
how not to do it, and small chance to 
get up an argument. Then they planned 
for several hours of speeches. Under 
the circumstances there could not be 
much besides “taffy” or pleasant com¬ 
pliments, which mean very little. So we 
left the farm rough and ready. I pur¬ 
posely left a number of sick trees so 
that the experts could tell us what 
ailed them. Then there were trees in 
sod, trees with no culture at all, poor 
culture and better culture—all left for 
comparison. I led a long hot walk over 
the hills and every rod seemed to lead 
to a new discussion, which I think is 
the life of such a meeting. There were 
holes dug on the hillside to show how 
the roots of the old crowbar hole trees 
go down. This showed the soil powder 
dry and also that in many places we 
have barely two feet of soil over the 
solid rock. 
Contrasts. —Another good feature of 
such a meeting is to have widely con¬ 
trasted methods shown. After dinner 
this big company piled into wagons and 
cars and were carried to the famous 
Tice farms something over two miles 
away. These farms are remarkable in 
several ways. It is an ideal situation 
for fruit growing. While with us the 
hills run up to a sharp peak, with only 
a thin rind of soil above the rock, at 
Tice’s there is a broad level with just 
enough slope to give good drainage 
without the fearful washing on our hills. 
The soil is deep and mellow and easily 
worked. Three generations of father, 
sons and grandsons live on this group 
of Tice farms, so that fruit growing 
with them is hereditary. They are hard 
workers and know by experience just 
exactly what to do at every turn. Na¬ 
turally with such an outfit they have 
adopted a plan suited to their soil and 
their workmen. Their trees are headed 
farmer or fruit grower must adapt his 
work to his conditions and know what 
he wants to do and what he had to do 
with. 
New Wheats. —Late last Summer we 
seeded buckwheat and Alsike clover in 
one of the back fields. This Spring apple 
trees were planted there. A fair catch 
of clover came on and in June I no¬ 
ticed here and there scattered plants of 
rye and wheat. I presume the seed was 
in the buckwheat. You may have no¬ 
ticed how a single seed of small grain 
THE HOPE FARM WHEAT. Fig. 352 
will develop into a mighty plant if given 
room enough. These scattered plants 
started out tremendously and grew far 
above the average in height. At Fig. 
353 you may see five of these plants, 
and at Fig. 352 is the best plant of 
wheat. One of these plants had 46 stems 
and 986 grains—all having grown from 
a single kernel. We have saved the best 
plant and 1 want to try an experiment 
with it. The grain will be taken out 
carefully and in September we expect 
to fit a piece of land with great care 
and sow this grain by hand in “hills” 
VOLUNTEER GRAIN PLANTS FROM SINGLE KERNELS. Fig. 353. 
up very high—in some cases I should 
say 10 feet or more. In between the 
trees they grow currants and other 
small fruit, tomatoes, peppers, etc., 
everything given the highest culture. I 
understood they can put six or more 
cultivators at work at one time. This 
made just the sort of contrast between 
our rough and ready culture on thin, 
tough land, too dry for much of any¬ 
thing except the trees. Our trees are 
headed down close to the ground to suit 
our conditions, while the trees on the 
Tice farms are high heads designed to 
fit entirely different conditions. The ob¬ 
ject of the contrast was to show that a 
one foot each way. We may even cul¬ 
tivate it a little as we would a garden. 
I would like to see what can actually 
be done with a grain crop under such 
conditions. The Chinese cultivate wheat 
in that way and produce enormous 
yields. They have to do this for they 
are short of land and there is an abund^ 
ance of cheap hand labor. We select 
this particularly good wheat plant for a 
starter out of curiosity to see what it 
will come to. 
No “Miracle.”— We have no reason 
to believe this is a new variety. It is 
doubtless some old sort that was mixed 
in with the buckwheat. It looks well 
and gives a fine stem and large head, 
and we shall see what it comes to. Some 
of our people have heard of the 
“Miracle” wheat—some may have tried 
it. It is said that the variety was found 
growing on a Virginia farm—much like 
this one of ours. There are people who 
seem to believe that the wheat did ap¬ 
pear as a miracle to save the farm and 
the farmer. Great stories are told about 
the yield of this Miracle wheat. You 
can see that we could tell some big 
ones about our wheat. Here is one 
grain producing 986 grains. If they 
stood one foot apart each way they 
would make 42,956,160 grains or about 
73 bushels of wheat on an acre. That 
is the way many of these big yields 
are figured. The truth seems to 
be that “Miracle” wheat is an improved 
strain of Fulcaster and not a new va¬ 
riety at all. Some of the agents carry 
about with them a single plant of this 
wheat. I can put a handful of wheat 
into rich soil and give it hand culture 
and make a tremendous plant, but that 
is no evidence that a farmer can grow 
acres which, will be as good. The 
Miracle wheat men advise using only 
half a bushel of seed to the acre. This 
would be all right if a farmer had some 
way of fitting his soil like a garden and 
putting this small quantity of seed in 
evenly. With ordinary tools and fitting 
this would make a thin and uneven 
seeding and there would be no miracle 
to overcome the effects of it. The truth 
seems to be that Miracle wheat is a 
good strain of an old variety which 
stools out freely and does best with a 
thin, even seeding. The men who seek 
to promote it seem to me fair and hon¬ 
est. I think they believe in the wheat, 
but I doubt if the thin seeding they ad¬ 
vise will prove satisfactory. 
Rain at Last. —It came Sunday, July 
21, in a steady, gentle shower. It was 
just the kind of a drip to soak down 
into the soil and soften it. The day 
before Merrill and I chased cultivators 
through the corn and Soy beans, and 
the soil was lumpy and dry. It made you 
feel like getting out in the rain and 
taking a good soaking. Our folks had 
a little of it on the way home from 
church. Of course we ought to have 
had this soaker a week before, yet we 
are thankful enough as it stands. Now 
we can break up some of our tough 
soil and get in yellow turnips, cabbage 
and even fodder corn. It is late for the 
latter, but we want to try it. Blessed 
be the rain! h. w. c. 
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how to Grow 
ALFALFA 
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