668 
May 14, 
Hope Farm Notes 
Wet Days. —Two weeks ago when 
we planted those potatoes we expected 
to harrow the ground over them every 
five days. As it turned out we have not 
been on the ground. Steady rains have 
kept the soil so wet that I knew we 
should do more harm than good with 
the horse and harrow. It was hard to 
let the field alone when the grass and 
weeds were growing, but hoof and foot 
marks six inches deep are worse than 
weeds. I do not think the seed has been 
injured. That field of oats and peas 
needs draining,- and the crop does not 
come on as I would like. At one time 
the upper surface of the farm was well 
dried out, and we went to bed expecting 
to rise up in the morning and do great 
work on the soil. But morning came 
with a deluge of water—the worst long- 
continued rain I have seen in New Jer¬ 
sey. Rivers ran down our hills, and the 
soil was soaked again. It was bad. but 
when we found that the West had been 
frozen while we were merely ducked, 
we had still another reason for being 
glad we live in New Jersey. A wet soil 
can dry out, but frozen fruit is dead. 
Our crop is in five shape yet. To sum 
it up, on May 1 we have our oats and 
peas and potatoes planted, the root- 
grafts out and the trees in, fertilizer on 
and strawberries cleaned up. Perhaps 
eight acres of corn ground are plowed. 
On the other hand, the ground is so 
wet that we cannot work it, those straw¬ 
berry plants are still heeled in, with 
little prospect of planting them for a 
week longer. But how the rain is jump¬ 
ing the rye and grass and the straw¬ 
berries and trees! I consider our hay 
crop safe. Rye never was better, and, 
with another soaking rain, I can safely 
let most of it go for grain. You must 
remember that most of our crops are 
grown among young trees. In a wet 
season there is moisture enough for both 
rye and orchard. When the soil is dry 
in late May I cut the rye early, use part 
for hay and bank the rest around the 
trees. Rye, while forming the head, is 
the worst sucker for moisture that I 
know of. It will rob anything with 
roots in the ground. We are told that 
A lfalfa is a dry plant. So it is, but some of 
those plants (and men) that brag about 
their ability to go dry are awful drinkers 
when they once start. Alfalfa can surely 
handle moisture. On May 1 many plants 
were two feet high, with the majority 
18 inches, while the best of the clover 
was barely six inches. On the same 
date I put a foot rule beside a hilled 
strawberry plant with the stems erect 
and measured 11% inches. 
So there might be worse things thah 
rain. A month hence no doubt we 
shall be worrying about drought. I only 
wish we could follow Solomon’s coun¬ 
sel and “comfort me with apples.” Our- 
barrels are empty, but we make out with 
rhubarb sauce. That’s as good a sub¬ 
stitute for apples as I know of—with 
a slice of gingerbread to go with it. 
And there is hope for apples, for a 
good part of our young orchard has 
suddenly burst out white with bloom— 
the first good crop in sight. 
The Poultry Business. —It would 
appear from letters that people think I 
am an expert hen man. I can claim no 
such honor. The Hope Farm poultry 
trade is entirely in the hands of the four 
larger children. I am merely a silent 
partner. Between them they now have 
120 or more chickens—large and small, 
15 ducks, three adult turkeys and IS 
rabbits. They also have some 350 eggs 
in incubators and under hens—the pros¬ 
pects inside these eggs being the most 
valuable part of their trade. They do 
all the work and I put up the feed 
against their labor, and I hold them 
strictly up to their business and their 
figures. I bought the original stock and 
am to have half the increase. They 
have had some “bad luck” or blunders, 
whichever you see fit to say, but they 
are gaining, and I think laying the 
foundation for a good trade. I mean 
that they shall lay it solidly, without 
any suspicion of crooked work. Some¬ 
how the poultry trade seems a happy 
hunting ground for crooks. You ought 
to see some of the birds which hatch 
out of eggs sold as “purebred.” Xo 
doubt you have seen them. Our children 
have had some local call for hatching 
eggs. They feel sure of the Brahmas, 
because the ‘breed is an old one, and 
those black markings are fixed like in¬ 
delible ink. When it comes to Reds, 
we know that the breed is new and 
quite likely to “wash out.” All we will 
do is to show our birds and guarantee 
that every egg that is sold comes from 
that breeding pen. A majority of them 
ought to be true, but we will not guar¬ 
antee them all. I would not permit my 
children to start any business except 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
upon just that basis. There are great 
temptations in both the poultry and the 
nursery business to get rid of stock 
which you know is inferior. Some peo¬ 
ple do it, and then are prepared to put 
up a bluff or pretend to be "very sorry,” 
according to the way the customer takes 
it. I believe our poultry and straw¬ 
berry trade offers a good business for 
the children. It ought to endure for 
50 years, but it must be done honor¬ 
ably or not at all. No jockeying or 
“misfit papers” if I can help it. 
• The Food Question. —Along with the 
trouble over high cost of living has 
come another old question of eating 
meat. The vegetarians figure out vari¬ 
ous diets. Most of them include nuts, 
which are now so high that the no-meat 
living is expensive. We have a man 
now living on Hope Farm and doing 
my plowing who has not eaten meat for 
20 years or more. He is now- about 70, 
I should say—active and strong as the 
average man of 45. Most men of 60 or 
over are full of aches and pains. If 
farmers, they “retire” if possible, quit 
work and grumble at life. This man is 
never sick, and when at the end of 
day I ask him if he is tired, he jumps 
up and knocks his heels together and 
runs around the driveway faster than 
I can travel. He lives on bread, shred¬ 
ded wheat, vegetables, fruits and oils. 
He makes a sort of thick soup or stew 
of vegetables, while apples, prunes and 
other fruits in season suit his purpose. 
He does not use milk or butter, but 
oils or peanut butter take their place. 
Imagine this man coming in from a 
day spent in plowing a stumpy apd 
rooty field, sitting down to a supper of 
bread and stewed prunes, and then feel¬ 
ing so good that he wants to play 
baseball! That’s what he does—but I 
notice that it takes ’ a tremendous 
amount of bread and fruit to satisfy 
him. One of the boys has eaten no 
meat for three months. He eats butter, 
eggs and fish, but wanted to experi¬ 
ment and see if he could keep up his 
strength without meat. He feels better 
than ever, and can run and jump as 
never before. My vegetarian friend 
claims that the majority of pains from 
which people past 40 suffer are due to 
the meat they eat. This man claims 
that people eat meat not because they 
need it, but because it “tastes good.” 
Anyway, I would be inclined to back 
him for a week’s work against any man 
I know of past 50, and let the other 
man eat all the meat he wanted. In 
such a contest of prunes against meat 
I should expect the prunes to win, yet 
I will frankly say that I don’t think the 
prunes would carry me through. 
This man I speak of might, I pre¬ 
sume, be called a modern “prophet,” as 
his abstinence from meat is due. as he 
says, to religious convictions. He tells 
me that one man wanted to give up 
meat, but could not see how he could 
keep up his strength. Then, according 
to the story, this man had a “vision.” 
The Lord appeared to him and pointed 
to a large, powerful horse. Here was 
an animal with great power and able 
to maintain it by eating grain and hay. 
Meat was not necessary for the horse’s 
strength—why, then, did man need it? 
I am told that this argument was con¬ 
vincing. If any man care to get rid of 
pains and nervousness on the bread and 
prune diet, I offer no objection. 
New Grain. —I have seeded some 
speltz. This grain looks somewhat like 
a cross between oats and wheat. It is 
grown largely in the Northwest, where 
farmers praise it highly. A friend in 
Wisconsin has been anxious for me to 
try it. I do not pretend to be a grain 
farmer, but if there is anything that 
will kill feed bills I want it. We shall 
see what comes of this. Another grain 
is Spring rye. Another friend imported 
seed from Germany, and I took some of 
it to try. My friend says this grain 
can be seeded even late in May. and 
still make a crop. Last year he drilled 
some in on June 1. It came up at once 
and made a good start, and was cut 
about the middle of August, making 
good straw and fair grain, though hurt 
by the wet. It is claimed that this Ger¬ 
man rye can even be seeded after Win¬ 
ter rye is cut, make a fair crop and 
get off in time for seeding to Wintei 
rye again. It is worth trying. I have 
some in already, and shall keep seeding 
up to July. We often have calls for 
some kind of grain that will grow in 
Summer and make horse feed. This 
rye may do it. Straw is now very high, 
and a double crop of it year after year 
would mean considerable money. My 
friend says he cut this Spring rye in 
August, disked the ground and sowed 
Winter rye. A volunteer crop came 
from the Spring seed, which by No¬ 
vember was about four feet high, while 
the Winter rye was six inches. 
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