708 
TH B RURAIv A! E W-YOKKER 
July 30, 
Hope Farm Notes 
1 went off for a two days’ visit to 
Long Island last week, and came back 
Saturday afternoon to find the farm dry 
as a brick, with a thin shaving of dust 
on top of it. Out back of the old barn I 
found Philip, Merrill and Jackson down 
on their knees in the dirt. That is a 
helpful attitude for any man who desires 
to do useful things in the world, and 
these men were engaged in the task of 
setting celery plants. I told you how 
we plowed up that eight-year-old straw¬ 
berry bed after coating it with manure. 
It was a hard job to fit it in this biting 
drought, but it was finally made fine and 
smooth. The celery and cabbage plants 
came before the rain did, and here our 
folks were on their knees laying the 
foundation for a sermon in celery. For 
will it not be a sermon on the possibili¬ 
ties of gardening if they can make this 
old strawberry bed produce a crop of 
celery and then get into rye to prepare 
it for another berry crop next year? The 
soil was so dry that nothing could live 
in it, so they brought water from the 
well and soaked a strip where the plants 
were set. If any man be inclined to be¬ 
little the work done by nature in a good 
steady rain, let him carry the water 
needed to soak through a square rod of 
soil and see what it would mean to soak 
a full acre. The cabbage plants were 
heeled in with water soaked over their 
roots where they might enjoy a Sunday 
rest before starting work in the field. 
This field has been harrowed and is ail 
ready to mark. On Monday, if the 
weather is fit, the field will be marked 
three feet each way and the cabbage 
plants set in the check marks like hills. 
The barn looked almost too full for 
utterance. Bundles of rye were sticking 
out of doors and windows—packed and 
crowded into every corner of space. It 
made me think of a big boy with clothes 
about three sizes too small for him. 
Most of the week had been spent in the 
rye fields, and here was the result. I 
have told how this rye crop is pretty 
much of an accident and almost^ a 
straight gift. My chief object last Fall 
was to have soil covered with some liv¬ 
ing crop, and perhaps get some young 
rye for hay. This great crop of straw 
and grain did not enter our calculation 
at all—yet here it is safely housed at 
last. If I should tell how we used 
cradles, scythe, sickle and even the mow¬ 
ing machine to get that rye down you 
would say we are hardly up to date, but 
rye in closely planted orchards is not a 
thing to handle by machinery, and at $20 
or more per ton it is not a thing to 
neglect. 
But you cannot handle rye in any such 
way as this and keep corn clean at the 
same time. That barn stuffed with hay 
means corn well started with weeds. 
Some of our back fields jump into rag¬ 
weed while your back is turned. As 
they are all intended for orchards a weed 
more or less is no killing matter, but 
in the fields near the house, where ber¬ 
ries are to go, a weed is a true nuisance. 
It is doubtful now if we can hand-hoe 
all our corn, but we plan to clean the 
lower fields anyway. The weeds and 
grass along the tree rows must be cut 
and piled around the trees. Thus far the 
young trees have made a great growth 
and the foliage is rank and green. 
While the wet weather lasted the trees, 
in sod were if anything ahead of those 
in plowed ground, but since the drought 
struck us 1 must confess that the cul¬ 
tivated trees look better. Whether they 
will prove enough better to pay for the 
cost of cultivating is a problem time 
must tell. By July 16 I felt sure that 
our potato crop was large enough to pay 
all the cost of production. The vines 
are for the most part still thrifty, and 
look good for three weeks more. For 
the early varieties this will mean about 
maturity. 
On the whole, it would have done us 
very little good to complain when, at the 
close of day, after baked beans and 
blackberries, we gathered on the front 
porch. It was all right but the drought, 
and even as I put that little blur on the 
picture I felt a raindrop on my cheek. 
Through the afternoon the clouds had 
been gathering; time and again, just as 
they threatened, out came the sun like a 
man driving a pack of boys away with 
a stick. This time, however, there was 
real water dropping. I sat and watched 
the dry road gradually change its color 
from that of light brown dust to the 
darker shade of wet soil. There was no 
great flood, but a gentle shower which 
moistened the soil down below the po¬ 
tato hills. It is a great start in life for 
our cabbage. 
That Long Island trip was a pleasant 
one. It was in the section on the north 
shore. We took an auto ride through 
Oyster Bay where, we are told, some of 
the snarls of American politics are being 
untangled! I did not quite realize how 
country distances are being annihilated 
until we went whirling for nearly 70 
miles along country roads. The latter 
part of this journey on the way home 
was a regular "joy ride.” I am not go¬ 
ing to tell how fast we went—it was a 
rapid pace for a farmer! I am coming 
to the point of wishing 1 had one of 
those lively cars. I think, however, they 
are likely to make a very lazy class of 
citizens—some of whom could scarcely 
walk half a mile through lack of prac¬ 
tice. The farming in this Long Island 
section would make a western farmer 
very thoughtful. Land in the best loca¬ 
tions is held at about $1,000 an acre for 
building purposes. A popular way of 
handling a farm is to sell a large part 
of it to land speculators or agents. A 
fair amount of the purchase price is paid 
in cash, and the farmer can have a guar¬ 
anteed mortgage on the balance. With 
this assured income he is in clover or 
Alfalfa, and can farm the small part of 
his farm which remains unsold to suit 
himself. 
Some of these men who formerly 
handled 60 acres or more have found 
that they can really make a larger profit 
on 10 or 15 acres when worked thor¬ 
oughly. This is actually true even where 
the crops are the same as under the old 
system—corn, potatoes and grain. With 
fewer acres more time can be put upon 
each square rod of land, and the labor 
cost per acre is smaller. It is not un¬ 
common for older men in this section to 
say that if they only had a couple of 
boys to follow them they now see how 
they could work into fruit or garden 
crops with great profit. 
There seem to be few “retired farm¬ 
ers” in this section, and that is a good 
thing. It seems far better for a man to 
retain a part of his farm and his build¬ 
ings and keep up his labor. One prob¬ 
lem connected with this sort of farming 
is what to do with the land which lies 
waiting to be sold as building lots. 
Much of it now stands idle—growing up 
to weeds and trash. If it could be seeded 
to grass or worked into Alfalfa it would 
look better and keep earning something 
for the owner. A good many of these 
farmers are working with Alfalfa, and I 
think they will succeed in time. One 
farmer showed me an oat stubble which 
had gone very much like my rye. He 
expected a dry season and sowed the 
oats to furnish green feed for the cows. 
The season proved wet enough. The 
green oats were not needed, so they went 
to grain. Now this stubble is to be put 
in Alfalfa, and the first thing done will 
be to burn it off. I would rather plow 
it all under and pack down, for I want 
all the humus I can get into the soil. 
When it comes to telling a successful 
farmer that his methods are wrong 1 
resign, and tell myself that here is a 
case where no doubt my theory 7 needs 
to be framed over to make it fit this bit 
of practice. 
Tree Fakers. —The following letter 
tells a tale which needs to be repeated 
over and over: 
On June 5 a pian by the name of W. \Y. 
Pullen called at my house and represented 
himself as coming from the Milford Nursery 
Co., Milford, Del. He agreed to treat two 
horse chestnut trees for insects and pests, 
and gave me a guarantee for two years for 
the sum of $4. Said trees are now en¬ 
tirely stripped of leaves. I have written 
two letters to the company at Milford. Del., 
asking them of what use the guarantee is 
to me, and they are not courteous enough 
even to reply. I learned a few days ago 
that this man treated a number of trees in 
this neighborhood with about the same re¬ 
sult as mine. 1 am now satisfied this man 
or the company or both are frauds. In re¬ 
lating this matter to a friend of mint' in 
the country he said if I would write The 
H. N.-Y. they would let me know what kind 
of people 1 had been dealing with. 
Jersey City, N. J. G. E. H. 
I can inform my fellow Jerseyman 
that he has been dealing with one of the 
slickest fakers in the nursery business. 
I hope Mr. Pullen will see this that he 
may realize the giant size of this com¬ 
pliment. We exposed this impudent 
fake last year, but it still seems to be 
thriving. You can hardly cut it off ex¬ 
cept by something of the same treatment 
which is given the trees. The usual 
method is to bore a hole in the tree and 
poke in some powder—usually salt and 
sulphur—and then plug up the hole. It 
is the old story of having these sub¬ 
stances “work into the sap.” A good 
charge of shot injected into this agent 
or an application of leather in the form 
of a heavy boot will work into his sap 
and possibly effect a temporary cure, but 
even this cannot be guaranteed. It may 
shock you to hear “the philosopher from 
Hope Farm” talk about salting people 
or booting them, but wait until some 
tiful tree which you have watched as 
such fake comes along and ruins a beau- 
you would a child. If I had my way I 
would put them in jail and have them 
fed on prison fare that had no fowl in 
it. h. w. c. 
Permanent 
Agriculture 
Cannot be Based 
on Phosphate 
and Filler 
Field experience all over the world proves that sooner or later a 
well-balanced supply of plant food must be used. Clover and phosphate 
do not make a balanced ration for wheat. 
POTASH 
is needed — the longer bone or phosphate has been used, the greater 
the present need of Potash. We will sell you or your dealer a carload 
or a ton. Write us for prices. Potash PAYS. 
Write for our new pamphlet on Filler-Free Fall Fertilizer, telling you just how to 
supplement your old brand with Potash, and how to mix fiiier-Jree Jcrlilizer at home. 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, Continental Building, Baltimore, Md. 
co, 200 LBS. ^ 
FI LLER 
100 LBS. 
PHOSPHATE 
100 LBS. 
^ 200 LBS.^ 
Tammoniatea 
40 LB S, j 
i 
PHOSPHATE’ 
120 LBS./ 
i MURIATE OF; 
POTASH 
40 LBS. 
Farquhar 0. K. 
Elevator Digger 
If you have three acres or more of potatoes planted, 
? ou should own a Farquhar O. K. Elevator Digger. 
hie is the fastest working, cleanest working digger 
to be had. It gets them all. Saves hours of hard 
work daily. A light draft machine that works in any 
soil. Marvelously simple. Easy to handle. Is based on 
the famous Hallock patents, which we bought three 
years ago and have improved upon. Drop us a postal 
for u handsome free book picturing and describing this 
potato digger, and which also tells of the Success Jr. 
Plow Potato Digger for use by small potato growers, 
A. B. FARQUHAR, Ltd., 
Box SOI, York, Penna. 
It Pays to Plant Right. 
There is a right way and a wrong 
way to plant. Soil conditions vary 7 , 
even in adjoining fields, and no ironclad 
rule can be made to fit every condition. 
It is essential to have the land in proper 
condition for seeding, and no one will 
deny it. There is a time to sow and a 
rime to reap, and the ruler of the uni¬ 
verse has never yet failed to provide a 
time for both. However, some men get 
in such a hurry to seed that they think 
they cannot possibly wait another hour, 
so they get stampeded, mud in their 
crops and then wonder why their more 
successful neighbors get more bushels 
to the acre. Yes, it pays to plant right. 
It pays to have a good reliable grain 
drill to do the work—a drill that will 
not clog, choke or skip—a drill that will 
handle any size seed in any quantity de¬ 
sired—a drill that will sow all brands 
of commercial fertilizers, no matter how 
difficult to handle. That old, reliable 
grain drill, the Farmers’ Favorite, man¬ 
ufactured by The American Seeding- 
Machine Co., Incorporated, Springfield, 
Ohio, is a drill that can be thoroughly 
relied upon to do the work of any 
farmer in any part of the world. Among 
the many styles and sizes of Farmers’ 
Favorite Drills will be found drills ex¬ 
actly suited to the seeding conditions 
anywhere. This drill is guaranteed in 
such a way that the purchaser runs no 
risk. Send for the Farmers’ Favorite 
catalogue. Go to your implement dealer 
and insist on looking over the Farmers’ 
Favorite Drill.—Adv. 
Low-Down Handy Wagons 
Did you ever not Ice how much time two men 
could lose going to the field to load n high wagon 
—one waiting on the other? 
One man with a Low-Down Handy Wagon 
wouldhavethe load hull’ on before the twa 
men get started. Get our free catalogue. 
HAVANA METAL WHEEL CO., BOX 17, HAVANA, ILL. 
JRQNAGE^ 
■ Potato Diggers 
Are built to unit your need*, of the highest grade- of ma¬ 
terials, along the simplest lines. Yon have just enough 
machinery to do your work. Jn>t enough adjustment to get 
all of the potatoes without culling them. Liylu weight. Ah 
light draft ha is eousiatont w iiU 
the work to be doue. All adjust¬ 
ments made from the sent. No 
neck weight. Write today for 
spec lal 
boo klcts 
o u Dig¬ 
gers and 
for “Iron 
Age” 
Cata¬ 
log. 
Prices range from 
$75.00 tu $105.00 
according to 
style and 
equipment. 
BATEMAN M’F’G CO., Bax D- 102 Grenioch, N. J, 
INDRUROID 
ROOFING 
Requires no Coating or 
Paint. 
Acid and Alkali Proof. 
Elastic and Pliable Always. 
Strong and Tough. 
Absolutely Waterproof. 
Climatic Changes Do Not 
Affcdt It. 
Practically Fire Proof. 
Can Be Used on Steep or 
Flat Surfaces. 
Any Workman Can Put 
It On. 
No Odor. 
Will not Shrink or Crack. 
Light in Weight. 
Does not Taint Water. 
Write for samples, prices 
and circulars. 
H. F. WATSON CO. 
ICKIIS, PA. 
Chicago, Boston. 
Mention R.N-Y. 
Genasco 
Ready Roofing 
Cross-section, Genasco Smooth-surface Roofing 
Trinidad Lake Asphalt 
Asphalt-saturated Wool Felt 
Trinidad Lake Asphalt 
No mystery about what it is made of. 
Look for the trademark at your dealer’s. 
Ask him for the Kant-leak Kleet, and save time 
and labor in laying the roofing. Write for' 
samples and the Good Roof Guide Book. 
THE BARBER ASPHALT 
PAVING COMPANY 
Largest producers of asphalt, and largest 
manufacturers of ready roofing in the world. 
PHILADELPHIA 
New York San Francisco Chicago 
HARVEY BOLSTER SPRINGS 
.Soon save their cost. Make every wagon a spring 
| wagon, therefore fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc-, 
bring more money. Ask for special proposition. 
Harvey Spring to., 716,lith St., Kacine, *\U. 
FREE TRIAL TO YOU 
}ROWN FENC 
)* 
% Strongest, most durable fence 
J rnado. Heaviest, closest wires. Double 
galvanized. Practically indestructible. Stock 
roug. Chicken tight 15 to 35 c perrod. Samplofree. 
he Grown Fence& Wire Co.. Deot. 
