ToQ 
THE R XJ t-i-A.lv NEW-YOKKKK 
June 14, 
Hope Farm Notes 
In plowing under the cover crops we 
found some of the rye six feet or more in 
height. There are three ways of putting 
such stuff under. Most of us fasten a 
heavy chain from the whiffletree so that 
it drags along on the ground ahead of the 
plow. This bends the rye down flat so 
that the furrow slice is turned over on 
top of the crop. In order to do this right 
there must be a good plowman and power 
enough in the team to turn a deep fur¬ 
row. A poor plowman would do more 
harm than good at work in a field of 
heavy rye. 
Another way is to roll the crop down 
with a heavy roller. We work around, 
as the plow is to follow and crush the rye 
down flat. Then by plowing around in the 
same way the rye goes under even better 
than when dragged down with the chain. 
Still another way which takes more time 
is to cut the crop with the mower and 
let it wilt before plowing it under. If 
you could have a good rain on this crop 
and put it under while wet it will decay 
quicker, and what you want in such a 
crop is as rapid a decay as possible. 
We have cut some of the young rye for 
hay and more of it as the heads were 
forming for bedding. The rest went un¬ 
der—dragged down by the chain. I do 
not care to let this rye mature grain 
among the trees. The hard straw makes 
the poox-est sort of humus, since it is so 
slow to decay, and the maturing plant 
sucks a vast amount of moisture out of 
the soil. The point about this cover crop 
proposition is to plow while the soil is 
moist if possible and then pack down the 
soil and haiTOW over the top as quickly 
as possible. That holds the moisture 
where you need it—in the soil. 
I find some farmers who figure that it 
is the best to put the lime on top of the 
ground and plow it under so that it will 
go right down with the green crop. The 
ai'gument is that this lime put right in 
with the green material, will start decay 
quickly and prevent souring the land. 
I should like to see the theory worked 
out, but our plan is to put the lime on 
the rough furrows and then work it into 
the soil. We want this lime all over and 
through the soil—into every part of it. 
I do not know r any better way to do this 
than to put it on top and let it work 
down. The lime is heavy and will not 
be brought up in the water rising through 
the soil as some other elements are. At 
any rate, the plan of using cover crops 
with annual applications of lime is, I be¬ 
lieve, one of the most economical ways 
of handling an orchard. It is a wonder 
to me that so many farmers let their soil 
go barefooted through Fall and Winter 
—just at the time when plant food is 
most likely to run away. More and 
more do we believe in the only applica¬ 
tion of the title LL.D. that means any¬ 
thing— lime, legumes and drainage. That 
is the only honorai'y title that will give a 
prophet honorable profit right in his 
own country. And stick on the It also 
in big black-faced letters. Our old friend 
rye is no “legume.” lie must walk on his 
own stout legs without any “bacteria” 
on his toes stealing nitrogen to make him 
rich. Yet he is a tough old citizen who 
comes up with the goods under any and 
all conditions. Clover, vetch, Alfalfa ox- 
peas may quit and fade away. Rye will 
step into the place where they died and 
with lime fix up the soil so that later 
these tender and faint-hearted “legumes” 
will come back and make a great show¬ 
ing. Count rye right in among the farm¬ 
ers’ friends. 
Of this year’s “legumes” Crimson 
clover has made the best showing. It 
stood two feet and more high over sev¬ 
eral acres of orchard. It is only about 
three years out of 10 that we can hope 
for any such crop—this was one of the 
three. We got this crop going early in 
August and used rye with it. Thus the 
plants got a good clinch oxi the soil and 
the rye gave them some protection. I 
now think that a seeding of barley in 
late Summer with the Crimson clover 
will help. This barley dies during Win¬ 
ter and mats down on the ground. I 
think it will protect the clover somewhat 
as the mulch cares for the sti - awherries. 
The Hairy vetch cannot be called a great 
success with us. There are patches here 
and there which show what would hap¬ 
pen with a full stand. On these patches 
the growth is thick and long. The usual 
experience is that the first crop of vetch 
is often disappointing. The second one 
on the same ground comes in with a rush. 
The same thing is often true of Soy beans 
—all of which is further evidence to 
prove the theory that there must be the 
special bacteria in the soil before these 
crops can do their best. 
Several friends write to ask if we are 
greatly interested in Mr. Roosevelt’s libel 
suit against the paper which accused him 
of getting drunk. Not particularly! We 
have had some 50 reports from people 
who made similar charges. I never be¬ 
lieved them and when we came to run 
these stories down we found a long stx-ing 
of mental middlemen who had all put a 
finger on the story. When it got to us it 
was a 10-cent moral dollar. The thing 
I am interested in is the testimony of the 
doctors who say that had Mr. Roosevelt 
been a drinking man or a heavy user of 
alcohol he could not have recovered as he 
did from the effects of that shooting last 
Fall. I have lieax-d the same thing from 
many other people who have been stricken 
with pneumonia or some other wasting 
disease. Nothing saved them except their 
clean bodies. Ilad they been full of the 
poison of liquor and tobacco they could 
not have recovered. That is the univer¬ 
sal testimony. Whisky and other liquor 
will surely ruin the man physically, mor¬ 
ally and every other way if they get a 
hold on him. Whisky makes weaklings 
and wickedness—and nothing else. 
As you have to tell people over and 
over not to use lime on soil where pota¬ 
toes ax*e to be grown, nor wood ashes, ns 
they contain lime, it may be a relief to 
you to know that in this locality lime 
put on the soil does not interfex-e with 
the production of as smooth and nice a 
crop of potatoes as you ever saw. I have 
raised them, splendid ones, smooth as any 
ever could be, after liming the soil heav¬ 
ily the same year, and did it again on the 
same ground the second year. Neighbors 
here tell me they pay no attention to the 
no-lime-for-potatoes rule and I don’t 
think better potatoes grow anywhere than 
on neighboring farms. o. K. w. 
Cecil Co., Md. 
It will be more of a relief to know 
why this is so when in 99 other cases 
such use of lime would mean a scabby, 
unsalable crop. I know of cases where, 
when land was cleared, great piles of 
wood were burned and the ashes scat¬ 
tered. Potatoes grown for a few years on 
such soil were smooth and clean. After 
a few years it was found that scab had 
come in—marking the crop badly. In 
one case some of this soil was examined 
and no scab germs whatever were found. 
Later they were bx-ought in upon seed 
potatoes, and then the use of lime and 
wood ashes increased the scab. I would 
like to have some of this Maryland soil 
examined for scab germs. I would also 
like to have an experiment tried of plant¬ 
ing scabby seed in that soil and using 
lime! I know people who break out into 
a “rash” whenever they eat strawberries. 
I know others who can handle poison ivy 
without dangex-. Without disputing the 
facts we could hardly advise all people 
to give up strawberries or to go out and 
play with poison ivy. 
I have just had a very sensible letter 
about concentrating labor and learning 
to do in one hour what under ordinary 
systems would run into 90 minutes. Here 
is pax-t of it: 
When “Trucker. Jr.” told about trans¬ 
planting sweet potato vines I made his 
appliances and 1 can now set 400 cab¬ 
bage plants with less fatigue than I ex¬ 
perienced setting 100 with the old method. 
Then there was the man who snatched 
feathers from a chicken in a marvelous 
fashion. His speed is partly a personal 
matter, no doubt, but in fact, any man 
can increase speed if the right system 
of motions is used. It would be possible, 
I have no doubt, to work out a system of 
motions that would reduce greatly the 
time now used in doing many kinds of 
farm work. joiin a. spears. 
Mi-. Spears wants us to try to develop 
systems of labor which will make our 
work more efficient. An excellent idea, 
and I will try to help out in some way. 
We all know cases of useless or misap¬ 
plied energy. Take the average man or 
boy picking potatoes or stones. He makes 
his left hand remain the slave of the 
right. You will see him picking a potato 
with his left hand and passing it to the 
right instead of direct into the basket. 
And there will be dozens of other equally 
useless cases where one organ or faculty 
simply plays the part of a slave. If we 
can help set these slaves free to work for 
themselves we can nearly double our 
efficiency. Here is a thing that ranks in 
importance with the 35-cent dollar. Let 
us all see if we cannot help. EE. w. c. 
ONE DAY’S WORK. 
Spraying Apple Orchards 
Tuesday, May 0, was our first day out 
spraying apple orchards for the control 
of Codling moth. The power sprayer had 
been run into the barn at our last job 
spraying for scale this Spring, so we be¬ 
gun at the same place to make our 
rounds spraying for fruit. I had a drive 
of about seven miles from home to this 
farm, and a little business in town en 
route, but reached there shortly after 
seven o’clock. Two hands whom we had 
previously employed to help with the 
work were there before I was, and had 
started the gasoline engine to see if it 
was in running order. The men had 
little or no previous knowledge of spray¬ 
ing, but were experienced farm hands, 
and soon learned to handle the nozzles. 
We paid them $1.75 a day, which is more 
than they pay here for any kind of farm 
labor. But then the work is not pleas¬ 
ant, and we kept at it from daylight till 
dark, almost. Also I consider good 
hands are worth a little extra, especially 
in the spraying business. We soon had 
the team hitched up, which consisted of 
my mule and a mare owned by one of the 
men and for the use of which we paid 
him 50 cents a day extra. My partner 
in the spraying business was busy farm¬ 
ing with the horse which had been a part 
of the sprayer team on previous trips. 
Driving to the water trough the men 
quickly dipped 100 gallons of water into 
the tank with 10-quart buckets. Mean¬ 
while I weighed out enough Bordeaux- 
arsenate (we used a commercially pre¬ 
pared article) and mixed it with water, 
mashing it with a paddle till dissolved. 
The drive up grade to the orchard was 
without mishap, but the team, not being 
accustomed to pulling together soon 
“stalled” in the orchard. We had begun 
to spray the lower rows, but as they re¬ 
fused to pull us up into the next row we 
finally drove to the upper side and 
worked down, which plan worked very 
well. I opex-ated one lead of hose (two 
nozzles) from the top of the cab while 
the men took turn about spraying from 
the ground and driving the team. This 
farm has several orchards of various 
sizes, and we sprayed till 11 o’clock to 
put on 200 gallons. 
After dinner we moved about a mile 
to the next farm on my list of jobs. By 
this time it looked quite rainy, and did 
sprinkle a little, but soon passed over 
with a little more wind than is con¬ 
venient for spraying. Here we put on 
100 gallons in about an hour besides the 
time it took for filling up, mixing, etc. 
The third job, one-quarter mile farther 
on, also took 100 gallons and was sprayed 
till four o’clock, supper, which is the eus- 
tomary supper hour here in Summer. Our 
team pulled fine now and gave us no 
more trouble during the entire trip. After 
supper we sprayed several small jobs 
about town which hardly pay us. but we 
try to accommodate the man with a few 
trees whenever we have time. It was 
nearly dark when we pulled up to the 
farm of my partner, who has a large 
farm orchard which we sprayed the next 
forenoon. One of the men went home 
(five miles) while the other stayed all 
night with me at the farm mentioned. A 
few minutes’ talk over the farmer’s tele¬ 
phone assured me that all was well with 
my home folks, a privilege which is per¬ 
haps never quite so much appreciated as 
when one is obliged to be away from 
home for several days and can talk home 
whenever he chooses. The three of us 
sat up and talked spraying and other 
problems till rather a late hour for men 
who have been spraying all day. We had 
put on 4S8 gallons that day, which we 
called good for the first day. Our daily 
average for 5^ days’ spraying was about 
520 gallons. We hauled the outfit over 
about 15 miles of road during our trip. 
Pennsylvania. DAVID PLANK. 
R. N.-l r .—Why not use a power “tank 
filler” and save dipping and lifting? 
I 
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Other styles $25 to $200. 
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Berliner Gramophone Co., Montreal 
Canadian Distributors 
Victrola IV 
Oak $15 
It pays to bale your hay in 
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