©36 
August it; 
Hope Farm Notes 
When I worked as hired man on a 
dairy farm we used to say we were “tied 
to a cow’s tail.” It is no easy job to 
get up before day and milk 15 to IS 
cows and then go out and peddle milk in 
the old style way of pouring it out of a 
can. Dairying is hard and confining 
work, but it is something like play com¬ 
pared with the fruit grower’s job in 
hot, ripening weather. Milk is short¬ 
lived, but it comes along in regular quanti¬ 
ties 365 days in the year. Fruit is short¬ 
lived too, but it will come crowding all 
in a lump, and must be picked and 
handled at once. Thus early August 
found us with blackberries, the first 
peaches and the tender early apples all 
coming at once. The strawberries need 
hoeing, the corn should be cultivated, the 
ragweeds are working into the pota¬ 
toes, and half a dozen other jobs de¬ 
mand attention. It all comes in a 
bunch to the fruit grower. This is one 
of the troubles you get in growing early 
apples. These varieties are tender, and 
they drop badly. They must be picked 
early, and during August we have many 
thunderstorms and high winds which in¬ 
terfere with picking. We are selling at 
retail and wholesale. The wagon goes 
’ to nearby towns nearly every day and 
we also ship some of the early fruit to 
New York. The Fall and Winter fruit 
will all be sold at retail, for that can 
be held, but the early varieties must be 
worked off at once. Uncle George and 
two of the little boys start off with wind¬ 
fall apples and vinegar. A little later 
they will carry tomatoes, Lima beans and 
peaches. Potato prices are low, and I 
expect to get more for our crop later on. 
The sweet appl<*k started afe $2 per bar¬ 
rel in New York—more than I expected. 
We shipped them off first, and got rid 
of them before the sour fruit came on. 
Now for the next 40 days there will be 
one long hustle to get the fruit into the 
hands of customers. There is nothing 
quite like it in any other line of farming. 
The question business is lively, too. 
Our folks are after every conceivable 
proposition. Here is one : 
I would like to know if there is any 
damage to the soil from plowing when it 
is so dry, or if it is a benefit? a. s. F. 
Maryland. 
Soil is in best condition for plowing 
when it is moist all through, so that 
when you take up and squeeze a handful 
of the plowed ground it will crumble and 
not mat into a ball. Plowing dry soil 
is hard on the team, and it will not pul¬ 
verize or make a good seed bed. It will 
break up into clods or chunks which re¬ 
quire three times the labor to break up 
and fit which would be needed with the 
soil in fair shape. We have found our 
big disk plow better on this hard, dry 
soil than the turning plow, but we would 
not touch such soil if we could help it. 
Sometimes a farmer feels that he must 
work in this dry soil in order to get his 
land prepared in time for seeding, but I 
never yet saw soil of this kind that gave 
a full yield without at least three times 
the usual harrowing. 
I am going to build on a plot that is 
now in strawberries. These plants were 
set out last year and fruited this year. 
I would like to transfer them to another 
place. Please advise me how I can do 
that to the best advantage. J. F. L. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
These plants should be reset while the 
soil is moist—just after a rain if pos¬ 
sible. Have the new place ready. Dig 
up the old plants with a spade, leaving 
as much dirt as possible around the roots, 
and set dirt, roots and all in the new 
ground. For some years we used a 
“transplanter” for this purpose. It was 
made like a stout tin pail with no bot¬ 
tom, and the lower edges sharpened so 
they would cut down into the soil. This 
was put around the plant and driven 
down into the soil by stamping on the 
top. Then by pulling on the handle you 
pulled up the plant with a big mass of 
earth around the roots. This entire 
mass is pushed out of the transplanter 
into a large hole in the new patch, the' 
earth firmed around it—and the job is 
done. We would set these old plants a 
little deeper than they now stand. Cut 
off tin* tops close to the crown on the 
principle of trimming a tree when you 
plant it. The less you disturb the roots 
the better, an3 be sure to pack the soil 
firmly about these plants. By following 
THK NliW-VORKER 
this plan you can safely move such plants 
any time between March and November. 
We think it pays to keep the old plants 
fruiting. I can. of course, understand 
that there are conditions which make it 
profitable to fruit beds one year and then 
plow. Not so with us. 
Here is a new-old story of quack or 
witch grass: 
I came across another interesting inci¬ 
dent, to me, regarding quack grass. A 
man had a patch of quack 12x40 feet 
in his yard that he had tried to eradicate 
for several years and failed. He fenced 
it up and put chickens in it for one sea¬ 
son. Up to middle of July there had 
not been a sprout seen. He had another 
plot fenced in this season. s. E. H. 
Illinois. 
We think these hens have proved the 
theory of cleaning out this pest by “thor¬ 
ough culture.” We know nothing more 
thorough than the hen’s foot when it 
comes to working the soil. The old feat 
of the rich man and the needle’s eye 
would be easier that it would be for a 
weed or green blade to get past a hen’s 
eye. What these hens did was to scratch 
out the grass roots and nip off every 
blade that got above ground. With root 
and top destroyed the grass quit the 
struggle. The root cannot grow without 
the top, and the top cannot live without 
any root, and Mrs. Hen got them both 
going and coming. For that is the way 
to kill out witch grass. It has been 
done by turning hungry sheep into a 
badly grassed field and letting them gnaw 
every blade down to the ground. When 
you go after witch grass with plow and 
harrow—remember the hens and be wise. 
The following question convinces me 
that it is easier to raise a reputation 
than to raise a crop: 
A friend tells me that the Hope Farm 
man is a fine singer and that he has 
been successful at concert work. I have 
a good voice and I would like to know 
how to make it profitable. b. j. s. 
Well, sir,' that beats me. This fine 
reputation seems to have grown from a 
statement I made some years ago about 
singing to a very select audience. I was 
hired man on a Western farm. The 
boss had a large family, and his wife was 
not strong. When night came this 
woman would have a mountain of work 
to remove and several restless little chil¬ 
dren to care for. It was too much for 
her. One night when she seemed about 
tired out I took the baby and the “next 
above”—one on each arm. The boss took 
the twins in like manner, and we began 
walking up and down the kitchen floor, 
singing duets. It seemed to me that such 
selections as “Oft in the Stilly Night,” 
“Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming,” 
“Leaf By Leaf the Roses Fall.” were 
very appropriate. At any rate the chil¬ 
dren stopped crying and the boss and 
his hired man had a very appreciative 
audience. This question brings up be¬ 
fore me the picture of a dim-lighted 
kitchen, a feeble woman smiling as she 
made bread, the boss with his big red 
beard and two little towheads nestled 
close beside it. and the hired man, with 
the two babies, trying to sing tenor as 
he tramped the kitchen floor. At that 
time it seemed to me that these concerts 
were quite successful, though “experts” 
in the management of children have since 
told me that we probably ruined those 
babies by singing them to sleep. Accord¬ 
ing to those stern experts, most of whom 
never had a child, and who would prob¬ 
ably scare one into a fit, we should have 
let these little ones howl themselves to 
sleep and “learn to be self-reliant.” Pos¬ 
sibly, but I doubt it—at any rate, I 
would not like to miss the pleasant feel¬ 
ing that comes whenever the hired man 
thinks of his only successful “concerts.” 
And so I would say to my friend with 
the fine voice—use it in that way all 
you can. Do not regard it as a commer¬ 
cial asset entirely—to be opened up only 
for dollars—but put your music where 
it will lighten labor and make joy in the 
heart. A few years ago I was in a 
Massachusetts town and went into a 
barber’s shop. I use an electric device 
to aid the hearing, and carry it in a small 
black case. I hung this on a hook under 
my coat, and in some way the electric 
current was left on, so that the instru¬ 
ment kept up a roaring and whistling. I 
did not hear it, but the barbers did, and 
they became nervous, for they could not 
tell where all these peculiar sounds came 
from. Some men believe places are 
haunted, and one of these men in par¬ 
ticular got a big cane and went hunting 
for the “spirit.” I think he had par¬ 
taken of another form of spirits, but at 
any rate he was frightened. At last I 
realized what the trouble was, and I got 
up and shut off the current, and ex¬ 
plained the little machine. Then the 
man who was cursing the author of that 
noise before became very sympathetic. 
“Sure,” says he, “ye can’t hear good 
music, can ye? Jest put that tail-piece 
to your ear and listen.” 
Then this man sang into the receiver 
of my machine so that I could hear him. 
He had a soft, beautiful voice, just a 
little mellowed by drink, and the thought 
that he was trying to do one of those 
fine, unselfish things which good impulse 
prompts the heart to do stirred a new 
pathos into his voice. I wish you could 
hear “Killarney,” “Come Back to Erin” 
and “Kathleen Mavourneen” as that man 
sang them to me. He told me that he 
was a vaudeville performer, singing comic 
or half vulgar songs to make a hard and 
poor living. I wish that man could only 
go before his larger audiences with the 
power with which he sang to me. 
“They wouldn’t stand for it,” h<» said. 
“Their lives are hard. They must try 
to laugh and be gay. Sure it’s a sin to 
make them think when they have enough 
trouble now.” 
I think he is wrong, but at any rate, 
you young man with the good voice, do 
not regard it as you would a bank ac¬ 
count, but rather as a God-given privi¬ 
lege to lighten the hearts of humanity. 
I have about six acres of new ground 
set out in peach trees that will be two 
years old this Fall. In early part of 
June I sowed one quart of Crimson 
clover seed in a plot by^tself; also one 
quart of Hairy vetch. The Crimson 
clover came up; after it was about 
one-half inch high it turned yellow and 
died. The vetch came up rather scat¬ 
tering. Which would give me better re¬ 
sults, rye or vetch, and how much vetch 
to the acre? t c. ii. w. 
Glassboro, N. J. 
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You seeded the Crimson clover too 
early. It usually acts in this way when 
it grows in hot weather. Crimson clover 
is a cool weather plant. When you 
seed it in Spring it will grow a few 
inches, but when it strikes hot Summer 
weather it forms its head and dies. As 
we know Canada peas will not succeed 
in very hot dry weather, while cow peas 
enjoy the heat and will not grow well 
without it. The time to sow Crimson 
clover is in early August. Then it gets 
well started and strikes the cooler 
weather of September and October, and 
keeps on growing. I find it hard to get 
people to understand that Crimson has a 
a very different habit from Red clover 
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in its growth. I should sow half a bushel 
of rye and 20 pounds of Hairy vetch seed 
per acre in August. The first year’s 
growth of vetch is usually disappointing, 
but keep at it year after year and it 
will come on. H. W. C. 
Killing Wild Garlic. 
Tell me how to kill garlic without 
plowing the land. The land has a fine 
Blue grass sod. Is there any sale for 
garlic in New York City? I was told 
by an Italian that garlic was used in 
flavoring meats and soups by foreign peo¬ 
ple who live in the Eastern States. 
Z. T. B. 
The wild garlic which becomes a 
troublesome weed is not the garlic of 
commerce. If a field is badly infested, 
nothing but clean cultivation will kill 
it. Where there are only occasional 
patches in meadow land, persistent work 
with a sharp spud will clear it out. It 
spreads from both root and top, the lit¬ 
tle bulbels ou the top drying down to 
the size of a grain of rye or wheat, so 
that when harvested with either crop, it 
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kernels of grain, which it closely resem¬ 
bles. The garlic used as food is a cul¬ 
tivated sort grown as a garden crop. 
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