049 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Hnnp F'jirm posed, while the water remaining is a some large open ditches, and as soon as 
i Ul 111 nuiUO green, slimy-looking mess. It is filtered the cabbage is out we shall get up the 
---- before the town people use it, but their stones on this field and dump them into 
Our windmill is thrown in or out of h . a PP. ,nesi \ wou!d not f be extended by the ditches. Then next year I plan to put 
work by means of a Wwhich runs ^ ev T g / he s ° urc , e of ^“PPbr J ust ^w. Prizetaker onions on this land, crowd 
down by the pump PuH this wire down ° n the fa T the drougbt has come even them along, get them off early and follow 
and the vane^f the mill swings aronnd ? ea 9 er to „ tbe rccogmzcd spelling of ca- with potted strawberry plants in hills. 
• ■ - - - g lamity. We cannot plow for rye and This has been a great lesson in drainage 
and the wheel stops. Let the wire free 
and the mill swings around to face the 
wind. There has been so little wind of 
late that we have kept the mill, like a 
good soldier, always ready. A sudden 
freak of a breeze sent it to working last 
week with such energy that before we 
realized it the house tank was running 
over. One of the girls ran out to shut 
off the mill, but she pulled the wire down 
with such a sudden jerk that a chain at 
the top gave way and the wheel started 
like a runaway colt. There was no way 
to get it under control except to mount 
to the platform and refasten the chain. 
That looked easy, but half way up the 
ladder the boy saw a gang of big insects 
flying around the wheel platform. Hor¬ 
nets! We know that Hope Farm can 
furnish a breed of hornets that can 
match anything that flies for length and 
sharpness of sting and power to drive it 
in. After once sampling those stings 
it is surely the part of wisdom to come 
down off the ladder and discuss the sub¬ 
ject on the ground. We simply had to 
out the harness on that wheel, for the 
Fall storms are ahead of us. Yet who 
that lias ever felt a hornet’s sting wants 
cure lameness with him 65 feet m the air 
and on a small platform or narrow lad¬ 
der. 1 found no Isaiahs saying “Send 
there is no such thing as a second crop 
of grass anywhere around us. Even the 
clover gives practically no rowen this 
year. That makes the superiority of 
Alfalfa all the more evident, for that 
plant goes ahead with its three crops no 
matter what happens. . . . We got 
the potatoes out of that field where the 
old sod was plowed. The yield was a 
disappointment. It just about paid ex¬ 
penses when we looked for a good profit. 
It was hard to do a good job in the 
drought, but the field was plowed and 
well harrowed. Then the larger stones 
were picked off and put in the ditches. 
The field was marked both ways and on 
and also in the scheme of always having 
a number of large 'ditches open into 
which stones can be dumped. There are 
nearly three miles of stone wall around 
our farm. I would not add a foot to 
them, but would like six miles of stone 
drains. ... I have in times past 
spoken of a sweep grinder. We have 
found it the most useful machine on the 
farm. When it is in operation we buy 
whole grain entirely with the possible ex¬ 
ception of wheat bran. By grinding the 
entire grain we know just what we are 
feeding the stock, and that is more than 
anyone can say who buys ground feed. 
We can now mounted this mill on a con 
October 8, 
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September 20 we began setting potted crete foundation in the barnyard. There 
strawberry plants. It was late in the is a little portable house over it and little 
season to do this, but we had been hold- time is required to take this house away 
and hitch the horses to the sweep. Of 
course when one has steam or gasoline 
power the sweep might be called out of 
date, but with us it is a great help. 
. . . Several people ask how we make 
Alfalfa grow in drills among the trees. 
ing off on account of the dry weather. 
It was get them in now or let them go. 
The pots were thoroughly soaked in 
water; then the solid ball of wet earth 
was thumped out and set deeply in the 
ground with dry dirt pulled over it. If 
we can only get rain these plants will Thus far we only feel competent'to ~teli 
come on and be firmly rooted by Win- how such Alfalfa is started. The soil is 
ter. If there is no rain—well, we did the plowed and well fined. Then a good 
best we could at least. I find that most dressing of lime is worked in, and the 
practical strawberry growers have no soil harrowed once more. We then 
use for potted plants. In our case they stretch lines across the field and set the 
me'” at this crisis l neve'r heard of are used as a second crop. We can grow garden drill for turnip seeds, opening it 
such a situation before Mv Man was to P otatoe f> beans - sweet corn, onions, etc.— a little more. With this two drills about 
Inv, » 1 ,.-:. y.JLL Pet such a crop out, then fit the land and six inches apart are made along the line. 
set potted strawberries. With fair mois- These are put two feet apart, leaving 
ture they will grow so as to give one ” ' 
spray of berries next year and make a 
better growth than Spring-set layer 
plants. Besides this your work is done. 
Last Spring, for example, there was so 
much rain that we could not fit our land 
have a boy protect his face and hands 
and put on a long rain-coat and high 
boots. He was to take up the auto spray 
pumped to high pressure with a strong 
solution of soluble oil. He was to crawl 
gently up until lie could see the hornet’s 
nest. Then with the nozzle at the end 
consisting of a Leader steel tank In your cellar 
—connected with the well, cistern or spring you 
now use—a gas engine — or hand 
pump does all of the work. Give 
this apparatus a few minutes of the 
time you now waste in needless 
drudgery, and you need never carry 
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water again. 
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three or four feet space at the trees. Soil 
from the old Alfalfa field is scattered 
along and worked in. The Alfalfa seed¬ 
ed in this awful drought is growing 
slowly, but I fear it will not be large 
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of a long pole he was to pour a dose of mu J ch , rain that , we 9 ould n ° tbt our land enough by Winter to live through. 1 
the oil right into headquarters. That a " d Plant strawberries until June Some fear this will seem like puttering work 
looked sensible, but while this plan was ° f the pla , nt . S d, , ed ’ a " d ”°" e ? r th ^™ ! ! to many large growers, but it is the way 
5 R. F. D. or Box . 
■ 
1 Town . State. 
being worked out, Merrill started up to 
view the enemy. The hornets seemed 
strangely quiet, and he crawled slowly 
up. He can probably tell you something 
of what men feel as they march into dan¬ 
ger, expecting every instant to be face to 
face with the enemy. He went up inch 
bv inch to the top and then like a flash 
there came upon him, at that dizzj 
height, with little chance for escape— 
the fact that there were no hornets 
there! What the boys had seen were 
evidently large flies, or perhaps a few 
hornets had gone near the mill after 
food. At any rate it was as hollow a 
false alarm as ever stirred the Hope 
Farm folks. It was an easy matter to 
harness the mill when the hornet boom 
was pricked. A country minister might 
well take this incident as a theme for 
his sermon. He could find many suit¬ 
able texts to bring out the idea that most 
of the things which make us hesitate or 
falter are like those hornets—strong only 
in imagination. Face them boldly and 
with good faith and they turn out to be 
stuffed lions in the way. A child can 
kick them over when strong men at a 
distance might tremble at their appear¬ 
ance. 
Peach Questions. — The following 
are asked by a Pennsylvania man: 
In 1906 I planted peach trees 16 feet 
apart each way. Now they almost lock 
horns, so that I can hardly get through 
with two-horse harrow for cultivating. Can 
I start the mulch system and stop culti¬ 
vating? I can get potato vines for the 
asking and hauling. w. c. f. 
In such a case we should stop cultivat¬ 
ing and haul in all the potato vines, 
weeds or other waste that we could get. 
You can hardly get too much of it. Keep 
the trees well cut back to make an open 
top—and pile on the mulch. Where trees 
have made a heavy growth like this and 
are in bearing they can be kept in good 
condition by mulching. It becomes sim¬ 
ply a question of getting enough mulch 
material to put around them. 
When I put fertilizer around peach trees 
by hand how near the trunk of the tree 
do you put it? How far outside of the 
drip of the leaves do you put it? 
w. c. F. 
We go on the principle that when we 
use a soluble fertilizer anywhere in a 
peach orchard the trees will finally reach 
out and get it. We plan to put none of 
the fertilizer within two feet of a good- 
sized tree, and to scatter it evenly about 
a foot beyond the drip of the branches, 
but such exact spacing is not necessary. 
Farm Notes. —The fearful drought 
continues. In our neighborhood there is 
a lake or natural reservoir formed by 
throwing a dam across a small stream 
and backing the water into a long, nar¬ 
row valley. This water is piped down to 
the towns below us. The drought has 
cut off the water supply so that nearly 
one-fourth of the bed of this lake is ex¬ 
now equal to the potted plants set last 
Fall. You may remember that I gave 
the cost of planting 4,000 plants last 
Spring. Up to the time they went into 
the ground this cost was $34.90. Since 
then we have put in about 10 hours of 
horse labor and 60 hours of a man, which 
brings the cost to $47 90. The pots cost 
about $20, including freight. A few were 
broken, but many are left for another 
year. We produced this season about 
$150 worth of potted plants. This could 
easily have been made $400 had there 
been two or three good rains during July 
and August. While experience forbids 
us to make any estimate of a crop I think 
those 4,000 plants will be good for 
nearly 2,500 quarts of berries next year. 
The old plants which were cut off after 
fruiting have made a fair growth in spite 
of the drought. Very few runners have 
been thrown out. The young trees made 
their growth while the rain lasted—up 
to July—and are quite satisfactory. . . . 
The cabbage has grown well. It looks 
now as if this single crop will pay the 
cost of draining that field. We have left 
we operate. 
H. W. C. 
Use of Burnt Lime. 
I l’aye studied the question of liming 
soils quite a little, but ns I have no ground 
limestone on hand I am thinking of using 
ordinary burnt lime, water-slaked, on a 
piece of -sour land which I intend lo sow 
to cow peas the first of June. Do you 
think lo apply the lime just before seed¬ 
ing would have any bad effect on the seed? 
As this kind of lime is caustic in its effect 
I didn’t know but that there would be dan¬ 
ger in applying it just before or at seeding 
time. I expect to get the ground limestone 
in the Fall, but want to experiment with 
the other also. l. e. h. 
Alto Pass, Ill. 
We have used burnt lime freely in this 
way without injury. Plow the land, broad¬ 
cast the lime and harrow it well In if 
possible a week before drilling the cow peas. 
Crabs in a Spuing. —There is a wailed 
spring on the property on which I live 
that is continually cloudy, caused by crabs, 
I think, as there have been quite a number 
of them caught. The water is too cloudy to 
see them. Is there any way to catch them 
or anything that can be put into the water 
that will destroy them? s. k. 
ISP 1 
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