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THE: R URAL N EW-YORKER 
April 9. 
Hope Farm Notes 
Burning Brush. —This is the season 
for burning the accumulation of trim¬ 
mings and trash. Two of our older 
orchards have been well cut out. There 
was considerable dead wood, and this 
made easy burning. The best way, of 
course, is to haul or rake the brush out 
and burn on plowed ground. A garden 
or truck patch is a great place for this. 
The ashes help such ground, and heat 
of the burning destroys insects and 
disease germs. The old plan was to 
start cabbage seed on a place where 
some such fire had burned. In the 
South 1 am told tobacco is started after 
such a “burn.” Most of our brush is 
burned in the orchard or close to it. I 
like Saturday night for this job. With 
the children to help, we can get rid of 
a good many brush piles, and have a 
picnic besides. We like to get a pile 
roaring with a great flame and then sit 
down to watch it. The boy is reading 
history, and he knows the struggles our 
white ancestors had in winning this 
land. As the flames tear through the 
brush this boy will begin to speculate 
as to how this fire compares with one 
built around a man at the stake. This 
opens the door into history, and we can 
discuss the various heroes he has read 
about and the things they did for the 
world. We are obliged to conclude that 
they all had to go through fire in some 
way before they could do anything 
that was worthy. The boy sees that, 
for no one can read history with any 
thought without seeing how the story 
of the world’s progress is built up on 
a solid foundation of self-denial and 
pain. That is what the real study of 
history is for. A burning brush pile is 
a good illustration of this fact. The 
children go down to the house at nine 
and leave me to watch the fire alone. 
Out on the hills beneath the brilliant 
stars, watching a dying fire, is no place 
for a man who is haunted by the mem¬ 
ory of evil or of vital mistakes which 
he might easily have prevented. I 
should think that for such a man the 
shadows, back from the firelight, would 
he populated with very uncomfortable 
companions. But for a man in the calm 
of middle years without great ambition 
and with a touch of philosophy the 
silence and the slowly waning fire give 
comfort and peace. For one has only 
to remember what this brush pile stands 
for. It is the useless part of the tree, 
the dead wood and the neglected 
branches grown through neglect or a 
wrong view of the future. Left on the 
tree they meant failure and death. Cut 
off and burned they give the tfee a 
new chance, while the ashes of these 
very mistakes may nourish it into new 
life. So I had my Easter sermon on 
Saturday night, and it was preached 
by my pile of brush. 
Parcels Post.— I wrote our Congress¬ 
man and both the New Jersey Senators. 
The Congressman has replied in the 
following letter: 
The recent events in the Douse occu¬ 
pied pretty much of my time, and this is 
the first opportunity 1 have had to reply 
to your letter of the 12th instant. It is a 
pleasure for me to state to you that I am 
favorable to the establishment of a par¬ 
cels post, and will use my best efforts to 
secure its adoption at this session of Con¬ 
gress. or, if that is impossible, to secure 
at least a trial for it. Sincerely yours, 
\VM. HUGHES, 
M. C., Cth District of New Jersey. 
That is good, and I hope Mr. Hughes 
will be able to get a chance at the bill. 
Senators Briggs and Kean have not re¬ 
plied at all. The latter comes up for 
re-election next January. In former 
years the people of New Jersey have had 
about as much to say concerning the 
selection of a Senator as they have re¬ 
garding the quality of the water which 
flows by in the Hudson River. It is 
true they defeated Air. Dryden, but the 
politicians picked his successor. Air. 
Kean has had 12 years in the Senate. 
He cannot consider it an offensive ques¬ 
tion for us to ask what he has ever 
done for New Jersey, or for what I 
may call plain Jersey men. It would 
be impossible for Mr. Kean to conceal 
the catalogue of great, unselfish and 
patriotic acts for which he is responsi¬ 
ble. I would like to know what they 
are. I think we may safely run this as 
one of our standard questions: What 
has John Kean ever done for the peo¬ 
ple of New Jersey? 
Bad Fruit. —One of our best trees of 
the Carman peach is a fraud and a 
trouble maker. It is a good tree in ap¬ 
pearance—large and thrifty. I could 
point it out as a fine example of what 
our system will come to. The fruit is 
large and finely colored. A fruit judge 
could easily give it first prize for shape, 
size and color. Yet that tree is one 
of the greatest frauds on Hope Farm— 
and that may be a large statement. Last 
year our boys went off selling peaches. 
A party in an automobile came by, 
caught a glimpse of the fruit, came back 
and ordered two boxes. Then after a 
short time they came whirling back and 
ordered two baskets to be delivered next 
day. Trhe boys went far out of their 
way to deliver the peaches, only to be 
met by an insolent servant who refused 
to take the fruit, saying it was worse 
than good for nothing. At about the 
same time one of our best customers 
made the same complaint, and backed it 
up with a sample peach. No use talking, 
this fine-looking peach was as tasteless 
as beeswax and sawdust. Practically all 
the fruit on this one tree is the same— 
with no taste at all, or a mean and sick- 
ish flavor. That fine-looking tree has 
been injuring our reputation and trade. 
I do not think we have another like it 
in the orchard. I would like to know 
if such things are common. Very likely 
buds from this tree would carry this 
disreputable character to the nursery. 
Yet a man coming to my orchard after 
Carman buds for nursery work would, 
from its appearance, select this tree in 
preference to most others. Here we 
have still another complication in this 
matter of guaranteeing trees. 
Farm Notes. —By the time this is read 
our oats and peas will be in the ground. 
We have told many times how this 
crop is put in, but still the questions 
come. We have taken a field on the 
new farm—a hillside facing the east. 
Last year it produced a crop of buck¬ 
wheat. I took one bushel of Canada 
field peas to the acre and scattered them 
evenly over the ground. Then the field 
was worked with the disk so regulated 
as to chop these peas under about four 
inches deep. Then the oats, 2 V 2 bushels 
to the acre, were broadcast on the rough 
furrows and covered up. running the 
Acme over them. We use about 300 
pounds of a high-grade fertilizer per 
acre. Handled in this way such a crop 
usually gives us a good yield of fine 
fodder. We cut it green and cure the 
same as clover. Every item of cost 
will be charged to the crop. We shall 
see what it costs. '. . . We spray 
when the wind is still and graft when it 
blows. Sundays have as a rule been 
ideal spraying days, but Monday usu¬ 
ally brings a wind which keeps up 
through the week. Grafting is well un¬ 
der way. The seedlings are finished and 
we are now at work on the larger trees. 
There are a good many old-fashioned 
sweet apples on the lower farm. These 
are strong, vigorous trees, but have no 
market value, so we are top-working 
them to Baldwin and Alclntosh. 
The chicken business goes on with great 
enthusiasm thus far. The first report # on 
the boys’ incubator shows 162 fertile 
eggs out of 205. The girls have seven 
Bantam eggs in this incubator. The 
Light Brahmas are here, and the girls 
spend a large share of their time watch¬ 
ing them. The day after they came two 
hens presented us with big brown eggs. 
The eggs will, of course, be marked and 
hatched, if possible, and great things are 
expected from them. I like to see these 
great dignified birds around. “Wait un¬ 
til you pay their feed bills,” says my 
friend the Leghorn man. Well, we are 
waiting, and we like the job thus far. 
The Brahma cockerel weighs over 11 
pounds. The boy’s Pekin ducks laid the 
first egg March 26, later than usual. 
Reports from duck raisers show that 
eggs are hard to find this year. This 
boy thinks the Pekin duck is the wisest 
thing that walks in feathers. Ten of 
the boy’s R. I. Reds laid 57 eggs in the 
seven days ending March 27. Let me 
say to those who write us about eggs 
that we have none to sell for hatching. 
We use all we can get from our breed¬ 
ing pens right here. We believe some 
of the advertisers in The R. N.-Y. have 
better slock than ours, as we are still 
new in the business and have a lot to 
learn. Anyway, Hope Farm would not 
take any unfair advantage of an ad¬ 
vertiser. . . • Alost of the manure 
is out on the land. What there is left 
will be crowded on fields close to the 
buildings, where garden and truck crops 
are grown. It does not pay to haul man¬ 
ure up our steep hills. The Crimson 
clover and rye can be plowed under 
among the trees, and this with chemicals 
will take care of the rough ground as it 
has in the past. . . . Last year I 
planned to experiment with speltz, the 
grain so largely grown on the North¬ 
west. The season was unfavorable and 
the experiment failed. Now I shall try 
it again. Wisconsin farmers tell me that 
this speltz is superior to oats or bar¬ 
ley. I have thought that it would not 
thrive in New Jersey, but I do not know. 
Let’s see if we can find out. 
H. W. C. 
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