77 4 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
August «, 
Hope Farm Notes 
Strawberries.— We have been hard at 
work hoeing. As stated before, the vines 
were cut off after fruiting and later the 
cultivators were run between the rows. 
Now we are hoeing between the plants. 
The dry weather lias Kept most of the 
weeds hack, and the ground is too hard 
for vine growth. We will get the field 
clean and be ready when the rain does 
come. You remember I called for re¬ 
ports on the “Kevitt system.” The first 
one comes from New Jersey, and I give 
it below: 
Our "Kevitt system” berries proved an 
entire failure this season. We had about 
10,000 plants set out in Fall of 1008 and 
some in Spring of 1009, 12x12 inches. Ow¬ 
ing to our soil being very rich, and also to 
an excess of rainfall, our plants, like those 
at Hope Farm, made tremendous growth. 
The result was that each bed was really one 
wide matted row with dense foliage. On or 
about June 1, upon going over the beds, it 
was a sight that would gladden any man’s 
heart. The berries just lay there in heaps. 
I never saw anything like it before. On 
several of these plants 1 counted as high as 
00 to 100 berries. One week or perhaps 10 
days later, though, it was a different sight. 
They began to mold and rot, and what a 
few days previous were large healthy ber¬ 
ries, now were great masses of rotten ones, 
i lay it all to the plants being set too close. 
1 cannot, for one, recommend planting 12x 
12 inches. But 1 would advise this system 
planted 18x18 for hand work, and 18x30 
for horse cultivator, cultivator to be run 
one way. I believe it was Mr. Kevitt’s 
idea, by planting 12x12, to get a large num¬ 
ber of plants on a small space of ground 
and naturally get a large crop. But from 
my own experience I will say that I hardly 
think it will ever prove a success. Whether 
planting 18x18 or 1.8x30, will prove as 
profitable as raising them in the regular 
matted row, well thinned, remains to be 
seen. I hope to know more about it this 
time next year. 1 might add that the va¬ 
riety raised by me mostly is Glen Mary. I 
know it has a hard core, has a white nose, 
is rough and ill shaped, bnt for yield it is 
there, and among 10 varieties tried this 
season, and also other seasons as well, Glen 
Mary, though not of high flavor nor “good 
looking,” is the money maker. a. l. v. 
Essex Co., N. J. 
That agrees with my experience so far 
as close planting goes. In a season with 
only medium rainfall there might have 
been a heavy yield. I can only say that 
we could not sell Glen Mary in our local 
market. I have seen city people who 
thought they were “fine.” 
That German Rye. —We sowed a 
patch of this imported Spring rye on 
May 6 and drilled more in on May 13. 
Both lots were ready to cut July 25. The 
straw is not as long as our Winter rye, 
nor does this variety give as much grain 
with us. It makes a very rapid growth. 
It is yet a question whether this Spring 
rye is more valuable than oats or barley. 
The rye gives more straw but less grain 
than oats, and is not as good for feeding 
for hay or forage as either oats or barley. 
If you have a good market for straw 
this Spring rye will pay. I shall show 
pictures of sample heads as we grew it. 
As an experiment we seeded some of this 
rye on July 23 to see what it will come 
to. I think it is true that a crop of this 
rye can be grown after Winter rye is 
harvested, or after early potatoes in time 
for seeding to Winter rye again. As for 
the speltz we were disappointed. It made 
a shorter growth than the oats, and did 
not, with us, show promise of more 
grain. It was finally cut for hay and 
gave less forage than oats and peas. I 
doubt if this speltz will equal either oats 
or barley as a Spring grain in our sec¬ 
tion. The following report on a crop of 
oats and peas may be compared with the 
figures I gave on page 742: 
On page 742 is a statement of the cost 
of oats and peas for hay. Below you will 
find my «ost for a little over one acre: 
Labor at seeding. $5.00 
Seed peas, % bushel.90 
Seed oats, 6 bushels @ 60c. 3.60 
Timothy seed. 2.20 
Harvesting. 5.50 
$17.20 
Cut June 25 three loads, as much as two 
horses could draw. I guess we had three 
tons. This hay was over five feet high 
when cut. G. c. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
I call this record of $5.73 a ton for 
such hay in the barn a good one. It cost 
me more. I paid more for seed, and a 
part of my field was wet and held too 
much water. I believe this fodder of 
oats and peas will pay better than oats 
alone as grain. 
Hay Barracks. —On page 710 there 
was a question about the roof of a hay 
barrack. I now have the following sug¬ 
gestions from a man who calls himself 
“a greasy mechanic”: 
I would ask you to reconsider your an¬ 
swer on topic of hay barracks roof, gambrel 
vs. shed roof. A flat roof never should be 
considered. If the roof load rests perma¬ 
nently on the four corner columns, then a 
shed roof is about as simple and cheap as 
any, but if after the hay is placed in the 
stack the roof load rests upon and follows 
down on the settling stack, I maintain a 
gambrel roof is better. In this matter of 
roof forms we have three common ones, the 
shed, “A,” and gambrel. The constant force 
f gravity is present in the weight of the 
roof, and resistance forces in the shape and 
angle or slope of the roof; a mere question 
of resolution of forces in physics. In the 
shed roof the stack would crowd over to 
one side or become lop-sided. In an “A” 
roof the stack would compress along two 
opposite sides and bulge out at the ends. 
In the gambrel roof all sides will compress 
toward the center and a trim-looking stack 
will result. J. C. 
Norwalk, Ohio. 
I consider these suggestions very sen¬ 
sible. Personally I do not like the idea 
of letting the roof free to settle down 
upon the hay. I like a shed roof that can 
be raised or lowered. If the roof is to be 
used to press the hay down I think the 
suggestions of J. C. are first-rate. 
All Sorts. —We put about 6,000 cab¬ 
bage plants in that field below the spring 
that was drained this year. This was 
formerly a worthless piece of ground 
which made a soft bog in wet seasons 
and caked hard in a drought. Up to this 
year it was well nigh worthless. We 
made a new bed for the flow away from 
the spring, and dug ditches for tile and 
stone through the field. This took out 
the surplus water. The original plan 
was to plant corn, but it was too late be¬ 
fore the job was done, so we marked 
both ways and planted cabbage. The 
tops were well cut back—in fact we 
handled the plants about as we would a 
tree. They have started off wfell. Our 
plan now is to put lime around each plant 
and give thorough culture. On this 
old sod I do not think fertilizer will be 
needed. . . . The potatoes are still 
growing in spite of the drought. It looks 
like a crop somewhat above the average, 
but having in former years counted po¬ 
tatoes before they were dug and had 
nature check off the count, I wait until 
this crop is dug and sold before talking. 
The indications now are that potato 
prices will be low. There seems to be a 
good crop in the ground, and what is of 
more consequence, a general feeling that 
prices will be cut. Usually this public 
feeling has about as much to do with 
price as the supply. Last year the price 
to the farmer was very low, while the 
consumers in town and' city had to pay 
as much as ever before. This criminal 
farce should not be permitted to go on 
this years. Instead of telling farmers 
how to grow more potatoes to throw into 
a crowded market the experts ought to 
tell city people how to cook potatoes, 
and of their high value as food. There 
are dozens of ways of cooking potatoes 
which the average city housekeeper never 
thought of. If we can only get the city 
and town papers interested, and have 
them talk potato, we can increase the 
demand and thus help the price. The 
work of the Apple Consumers’ League 
helped boom the apple trade. Now let's 
organize the Potato Consumers’ Asso¬ 
ciation and help trade and society to¬ 
gether. We want to get all the practical 
recipes for cooking potatoes, and then 
talk potato wherever we go. Get all the 
articles on eating potatoes into print, 
and make a business of urging a potato 
diet. That seems to be what we can do 
to help the potato market. If, in connec¬ 
tion with it, we could have organizations 
of potato growers to put their crop in 
large cities and retail it at a fair price 
we could take practical advantage of this 
potato talk. ... In New York I 
often pass the places where sterilized 
milk is sold Comparatively few people 
realize what a tremendous business this 
has grown to be. The stands or booths 
are portable wooden houses which are 
taken down in Winter. The milk is sold 
at one cent a glass, and placards printed 
in several languages tell all about it. 
During the noon hours there are crowds 
several lines deep waiting to buy tickets. 
The milk has apparently been skimmed 
and sterilized or heated to 156° or higher 
and then cooled. It is cool when sold, 
and makes a very palatable drink. I 
seldom go by the stand without being 
surrounded by a crowd of urchins who 
beg for a drink of milk. The most inter¬ 
esting thing to me is watching the peo¬ 
ple who patronize these stands. Here is 
a poor woman who buys milk for her 
child; here is an elderly man who has 
seen better days; here are threadbare 
clerks or working girls followed by office 
boys or street children. Many of these 
would drink beer if it were not for the 
milk; others would buy expensive soft 
drinks. I do not suppose it would be 
possible to figure out the good which 
has come from this practical benevolence. 
It has not only saved the lives of thou¬ 
sands of children, and served as a prac¬ 
tical temperance lesson, but has also 
taught the value of good milk as food 
and medicine as nothing else could have 
done. I wish some one could start sim¬ 
ilar ways of showing the food value of 
grains and vegetables. The poor need 
lessons in such things. If some philan¬ 
thropist could take potatoes, beans and 
cornmeal, serve them at cost in a variety 
of ways, much as this milk is sold, there 
is no telling the benefits that would come 
from it. H . w. c. 
• v 
„ A well 
Tilled farm 
” fs a well Tiled farm. 
Cyclone on your farm 
"VfU make poor land good—make 
^ good land better. 
p- Every farm would be better if properly tiled, 
and tlie best, quickest, iastest, easiest ditching 
can be done with a 
Cyclone Tile Ditching Machine 
Runs as easy as a gang plow—will ditch from 300 to 
400 rods a day—saves enough in 10 days to repay its 
cost. Tiling carries off excess moisture from wet 
land, and lets moisture reach the roots of grain on 
land naturally dry—makes crops surer and^larger on 
well tiled land. Send today for booklet Ditching 
Dollars," tvith its valuable information about tiling. 
. The Jeschke Mannfaclnrlni Cp. 
Box 113 Bellevue, Ohio. 
A. 
*r> 
LET ME START YOU IN BUSINESS ! 
I will furnish the advertising matter and the plans. 1 
want one sincere, earnest man in every town and town¬ 
ship. Fanners, Mechanics, Builders, Small Businessman. 
Anyone anxious to improve his condition. Address 
COMMERCIAL DEMOCRACY. Dept. D-35, Elyria, Ohio. 
MONTROSS METAL SHINGLES 
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I WANT MY SCALE ON EVERY FARM. 
I will send to the farmer who knows the profit in buying, 
feeding by weight, one of my steel frame Pitless Farm Scales 
have just patented.at the Introductory Price and Entirely on 
This 5 ton scale has new compound beam and beam box, free, 
the first man to offer a reliable high grade scale at a fair ] 
every American farmer is under 
to me, because my fight against 
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believe that 
b ligations 
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irSSS*** 
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Investigate The Record of 
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B EFORE you buy a manure spreader, find out what it has done for other 
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rendered, there are three machines that rank high above all others. 
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I H C Spreaders 
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They have proved their value in actual use in the hands of hundreds of 
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Here are a few “reasons why:” 
The mechanism which transmits the power from the axle to operate the 
apron and beater on I H C spreaders is simple and efficient. It requires 
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The beater is strong and positive in its action. It thoroughly pulverizes 
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The wood in I H C spreader frames is hard, resinous, non-porous, very 
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Wide-tired wheels and roller-bearings insure light draft, making I H C 
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Cloverleaf spreaders have endless aprons. Corn King and Kemp 20th 
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