896 
Hope Farm Notes 
I am anxious to build up the laud as 
soon as possible by cover cropping, as I 
cannot make manure sufficient for pres¬ 
ent needs. s. H. J. 
Day after day come letters asking if 
green manures, like rye, clover or tur¬ 
nips, plowed under and used with chemi¬ 
cals, will make a full substitute for 
manure. There are many fruit growers 
or gardeners so situated that they can¬ 
not keep live stock with profit. Many 
of them do not like to buy stable manure, 
since this fills their soil with the worst 
sort of weed seeds. If cover crops and 
chemicals will substitute for manure 
such people will have a hard problem 
solved. 
The answer is yes—with slight qual¬ 
ifications. Manure contains certain bac¬ 
teria which are not found in the cover 
crops. It stands to reason that if you 
plow under a crop of clover you put 
into the soil all and more than would be 
found if you fed that clover to cattle 
or horses and then plowed under the man¬ 
ure. The animals naturally take some¬ 
thing out of the clover to sustain life 
and produce energy, milk or meat. No 
one ever yet saved all the plant food in 
manure. You get more into the soil 
therefore when you plow the entire crop 
under. The manure, however, will con¬ 
tain certain bacteria which are not pro¬ 
duced in the rotting of the green crop. 
The scientists do not agree about the true 
value of these bacteria, but I think, with¬ 
out question, better results would be 
obtained if a small amount of manure 
could be plowed under with the green 
crop. I would always use lime with 
such green crops except for strawber¬ 
ries, potatoes and a few others. If this 
is done we are safe in concluding that 
“chemicals and clover” will make a 
manure substitute. 
Saltiitg IIay. —Here is another ques¬ 
tion often asked about new mown hay : 
In Canada farmers put salt on the hay 
after it is cocked in the field. Will you 
explain why? A. G. 
There are several reasons why the salt 
preserves the hay. First, it helps dry 
the wilted grass. One action of salt is 
to absorb water. When scattered 
over the damp hay it takes moisture 
from it and thus slackens fermentation. 
Much the same thing happens when salt 
is put on pork or other meat. It is 
something the same effect as applying 
quick heat. The salt contracts the meat 
fibres, forces out the Juices and forms 
a thick brine. Then again the salt on 
the hay will act chemically to hold back 
decomposition. Salt in manure acts 
somewhat the same way. When the 
chimney is on fire salt thrown into the 
stove or fireplace will put the fire out. The 
salt also makes the hay palatable for the 
stock. Some farmers use lime in place 
of salt and claim even better results from 
it, but lime will make the hay dusty. The 
better plan is to use salt in the haymow 
rather than in the cock. 
Varieties. —Every year at this season 
I have trouble with the old timers who 
planted the original apple trees on Hope 
Farm. Some of these trees must be 
nearly 75 years old. They are now 
towering giants, some of them even higher 
than the windmill. Every other year 
they burst into a glory of bloom and pro¬ 
duce eight or 10 barrels of apples each. 
There are about 70 of these big trees 
and if they were Baldwins or Spies you 
can see what would follow. But they 
are all early apples, a good share of them 
sweet. This sweet fruit has very little 
value in these days. Pie bakers will buy 
them when the market is short. They 
slice up the sweet apples, add some sort 
of acid and bake apple pies. A few 
old-time families still enjoy baked sweet 
apple l?nd milk, but the true demand for 
them has passed. I have often wopdered 
why the shrewd old-timers planted such 
apples. They had to work hard and 
make every edge count, why plant useless 
fruit? 
It appears that in those old days the 
sweet apples were not useless. There 
was a strong demand for them. My 
neighbor tells of selling all he could haul 
to the Hudson River at $5 to $10 per 
barrel. You must remember that in 
those days few bananas were brought to 
'TlrTLC KUKAL 
this country, and our despised sweet ap¬ 
ples took the place of that tropical fruit. 
Some of these patriotic souls who are 
shouting against a tariff on bananas 
might well patronize an “infant” or in¬ 
valid industry and boom our sweet apples. 
At any rate the old-time residents were 
like the rest of us—working for them¬ 
selves and not for “posterity.” In those 
days, long before rapid transportation, 
there was little competition in the ten¬ 
der early varieties. The Winter fruit 
could be transported at a profit, but of 
the earlier varieties the nearby farms had 
a monopoly, and so these farmers nat¬ 
urally planted what paid them best. 
What did these Jerseymen know or care 
about me—a Yankee who would some 
day occupy their land? Why should they 
have planted Baldwins in order to ac¬ 
commodate me? Am I planting varieties 
now to suit those who live on this farm 
in the year 2090? Let me say one thing 
more about these veteran trees. They 
are in their way dangerous. We have 
several of them on the lawn and our 
folks like to sit near them on hot days. 
Last Sunday was a windy day. There 
came sudden bursts of wind from the 
north which made the old trees wave 
their arms and toss their heads. Sud¬ 
denly there came a harder puff of wind 
and one of these big lawn trees cried out 
like a man screaming w r ith pain, and 
down came one big limb crashing to 
the ground. It smashed off close to the 
trunk and revealed a hollow heart. There 
was only a thin shell of wood to hold 
up the big branches. No one was hurt, 
but these hollow old veterans are too 
feeble to put on guard. I hear of people 
patching them up and spending much 
money to fill their cavities or band them. 
It is dangerous business. They have 
had their day. 
“Fillers.” —As a man climbs our hill 
into the orchard he will notice an out¬ 
side row of small, open-headed trees so 
loaded with apples that they bend to 
the ground. All around them are larger 
trees with barely a dozen fruits on them. 
The trees are planted 32 feet apart each 
way and there are still wide spaces 
between rows, wide enough for seven 
rows of corn. The small trees loaded 
with fruit are Wealthy, the larger ones 
Baldwin. It is the habit of the Wealthy 
to come into bearing early, and to form 
a small, thin top. This fits it well to 
serve as a “filler” or a temporary tree to 
grow between other and slower trees. 
At first thought the stranger will say 
that we made a mistake in not planting 
a Weathy at the centre of each four 
Baldwins. While the lazy Baldwins 
were dawdling on toward fruiting the 
Wealthy would be paying expenses. This 
year, for example, the Wealthy trees 
will average a barrel each at least, and 
on this single^ block there could be GOO 
of them as “fillers.” It does look like 
a big mistake in planting until you get 
over the hill where peach trees were 
planted as “fillers”—one at the center 
of each four apples. These peach trees 
give fair crops, but the apple trees al¬ 
ready show that they are crowded. Look 
back into the other part of the orchard, 
where the trees are 32 feet apart, and 
observe the difference. The trees sur¬ 
rounded by “fillers” are growing up and 
not reaching out as we want them to do. 
The others are broad-headed and well 
rounded out. An apple man would say 
at once that the open trees are far more 
valuable and that when both lots come 
in permanent bearing they will surpass 
the others. I think, therefore, that this 
question of “fillers” is a larger one than 
appears at first thought. If we want to 
make the orchard pay its way before 
the permanent trees bear the “fillers” 
are right. If we are after the best 
possible orchard I would leave the fillers 
out and give the trees room and air. 
Farm Notes. —We have a small crop 
of Soy beans as an experiment. Last 
year we planted two bushels, half of 
them inoculated with the commercial 
bacteria. I could see no difference in 
yield or appearance and these beans 
gave us less feed than fodder corn. 
Farmers who have stuck to this crop 
say the first planting is often disappoint¬ 
ing but if we will keep at it year after 
year it will grow better. So in order to 
test this we have planted another bushel 
on the ground which had Soy beans last 
year. As they start off to grow it looks 
N EW-VORKliR 
as if the theory was sound, for the 
plants are vigorous and a rich green. 
No fertilizer was used and rye will be 
seeded among the bean vines in Sep¬ 
tember. Personally I doubt if the Soy 
bean is very well adapted to our section 
or plan of farming. , . . We are 
urged to try Sweet clover as a cover 
crop in our hills. This step-sister of 
Alfalfa does well on tough, hard soil, 
provided you give it a mouthful of lime. 
It seems to be a tougher plant than 
Alfalfa with all its fertilizing value but 
not so good for feeding. Some people 
write the most extravagant praise of it 
while others condemn it as a weed. I 
believe it would start on our hills and 
fit the soil later for Alfalfa. . . . By 
July 16 a part of our flint corn was 
forming tassels. This corn was planted 
May 21, and has certainly moved along. 
Can it really form its ear inside of 90 
days with this start? Most “90-day” 
corn that we have tried needs 110 days 
to make solid grain. I think this flint 
comes close to the limit. It is one of 
those varieties which have been selected 
for 200 years or more in New England. 
Two years ago this variety won a $500 
prize. Hope Farm never won any such 
prize, but we have some of the corn 
that made the prize possible. I like 
these flints because they mature early, 
give a good yield and make the finest kind 
of fodder. There is a big proportion of 
leaf to hard stalk, and w T e can usually 
feed our flint fodder without cutting or 
shredding it. . . . Broker, the big 
gray colt, has picked up the bad habit 
of kicking up when you drive him sin¬ 
gle. It is usually because he feels good, 
but sometimes when you least expect it 
up will come those great feet almost 
into the wagon. At last he got one of 
those clumsy hoofs caught. After hob¬ 
bling a while on three feet he seemed 
to think it a good time to lie down and 
think about it, so down he went, smash¬ 
ing the shaft and breaking the harness. 
There is nothing mean about the good- 
natured Percheron blood, but it needs a 
very convincing argument. So we put 
on a “kicking strap”—a stout leather 
August 2, 
band which goes over the rump and 
buckles to the shafts. When Brother 
Broker went out again he thought to try 
liis favorite exercise, but could only 
raise himself about three inches. He 
tried it three times and then stopped 
short to think about it. It finally got 
through his dull brain that here was pro¬ 
hibition which prohibited, and he shook 
his head, went on and quit kicking. It 
is doubtful if he Will try it again, but 
the “kicking strap” will remain a part of 
his harness. 
One year ago we bought 200 Marshall 
strawberry plants and this season the 
berries have been the envy of all who 
saw them, and the delight of all who ate 
them. Will you tell me how to treat 
the bed this Fall? Should the tops be 
cut off or not? Should they be fer¬ 
tilized this Fall or next Spring, or both? 
I have cut off all of the runners and dry 
berry stems. F. E. j. 
Canastota, N. Y. 
The same week I got a letter from a 
man who said the Marshall “failed mis¬ 
erably” with him. I never yet saw a 
variety which could suit everyone. Prob¬ 
ably Gandy for a late ripening sort will 
come as close to doing it as any. Mar¬ 
shall must have good soil—heavy but full 
of humus; it must be started right, kept 
in hills and grown by someone who has a 
genuine strawberry mark on his arm. I 
would not advise everyone to try Mar¬ 
shall—only those who have the soil and 
the patience to stay by the variety. We 
cut the tops off as soon after picking as 
possible and trim off the runners. . . 
. The fruit buds for the next crop 
will soon be making. A mixture of 
chemicals about such as is used for corn 
will answer. Put it around the plant 
and hoe it in. We fruit our Marshalls 
four or five years, but you must remem¬ 
ber that with each year the tendency 
is for the plant to push up a little more 
out of the soil, and therefore the soil 
should be hilled up a little around them 
and the older plant must be well pro¬ 
tected during Winter. Thus far we 
have been very free from diseases and in¬ 
sects which work on strawberries. 
il w. c. 
1857 
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