8ie 
THE) RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
T HE STORM.—People sometimes ask 
v.-by we leave ridges along the sides 
of our hills and do not plow up and down 
the steep sides. Could they have been 
here on the afternoon of May 27 they 
would have needed no further argument. 
One of those flooding storms which now 
and then tear down our valley jumped 
out of the west and got to business 
at once. The day had been hot and sul¬ 
try. We had been pushing all the week 
to fiu'sh the spraying. After dinner 
Mother and the girls drove to town to 
do some shopping. The little boys had a 
chance to go fishing. Up on the hill the 
power sprayer was puffing and cougliiog 
with Merrill, Philip and one of the Ital¬ 
ians on the battery. Tom and Broker 
had hauled the big load up the hill and 
were trying to nibble rye as they pulled 
through the cover crops. Suddenly a 
strange darkness began to gather. It 
did not seem to be caused by gathering 
clouds, but somehow the light faded out. 
The air was still and deep mutterings of 
thunder were heard in the west. A 
stranger in these parts would hardly 
have expected more than a passing show¬ 
er from these indications, but those of us 
who know the possibilities of this valley 
realized what was coming. It was no 
time for spraying, and no chance to get 
the machine back to the barn. They just 
unhitched the horses, put the hood over 
the engine and a quintette of horse and 
humanity made a charge for the barn. 
Before they reached it the storm broke. 
That is just what it did. Great floods of 
water seemed suddenly to be let loose. 
Almost before you could think it great 
streams of water appeared on the hill¬ 
side. Suddenly the brook jumped out of 
its course and made a track across a 
plowed field, tearing and gouging as it 
went. In their little coop by the house, 
Redhead’s baby chicks were dancing 
about, proud in the fact .that they were 
past the danger period of babyhood. The 
flood whirled upon them and the little 
things were drowned! The leaves and 
fruit from the cherry trees went flying, 
and here and there a big limb twisted and 
split until it came crashing down. This 
lasted about two hours, then of a sud¬ 
den the rain stopped, the clouds went 
blowing away before the wind and the 
sun smiled upon us once more. 
Goon And Bad. —And it was a very 
wet spot of the earth that reflected the 
sun’s smile. The soil was like a sponge. 
The rye was beaten down, and on every 
plowed strip there was a puddle, or a 
gulley. Had our hills not been covered 
with growing crops great holes would 
have been cut out, and some of the best 
soil carried down to the lower levels 
where we do not need it. The thick, 
matted rye held the flood back and the 
ridges along the tree rows spread it out 
so that it had no chance to form into 
little torrents and cut up the soil. The 
sprayer was all right. The next day a 
turn of -the handle set it working. We 
had to go over the last few rows once 
more, but as a rule when the arsenate 
and lime-sulphur once dries on the leaves 
it is almost impossible to wash it off. 
On the whole our farm is better off for 
the storm. The rye was growing so 
rapidly that it was sucking too much 
moisture out of the ground around the 
trees. This soaker fills the soil once 
more. It will make heavier rye, easier 
plowing and better fruit. 
Behind. —By Decoration Day we had 
not planted a kernel of field corn. Sweet 
corn was up. but we have been unable to 
get the ground ready for the flint. Spray¬ 
ing took a full week, including wind and 
storm, and we decided to fit the ground 
for mangels and carrots first. These 
roots are grown in a young orchard. A 
crop of rye standing nearly head high 
was plowed under. The soil is very sour, 
so we put on about 1,500 pounds of 
slaked lime per acre and worked it thor¬ 
oughly in. Then the mangel seed is 
drilled in rows 214 feet apart and fer¬ 
tilizer used along the drills. It is hard 
to describe just how such work is done. 
One hour’s work at it is worth 10 pages 
of description. 
It is like telling people how to plow 
rye under by hanging a chain on the 
plow. I have taken pictures of our out¬ 
fit which I hope will show up properly. 
It seems like a sinful waste to many 
farmers when these great rye crops go 
right into the ground. Bet any man 
come and see the rye and vetch we are 
turning under and see how the lime takes 
hold of it and he will quickly agree that 
such a crop equals eight to 10 tons of 
manure in its effect upon the soil. Of 
course I know that some of the experts 
say that rye is hardly worth considering 
as a manorial crop. They are welcome 
to their opinion—all I know is what rye 
has done for our soil, and I shall always 
seed it in every cover crop. On a grain 
farm rye might make trouble by mixing 
in with the wheat. It is such a hardy 
and tough crop that it will live under 
hard conditions, and sometimes after a 
hard Winter the farmer finds his wheat 
fields half full of rye. I am speaking 
of a fruit farm where it is necessary to 
keep the soil full of humus. In such sit¬ 
uations rye is the backbone of manuring. 
I know too, that most farmers would 
criticise our plan of plowing this rye un¬ 
der. Why not cut it to feed to stock or 
to sell as grain and straw? It is just 
a question of how you plan to run the 
farm. Selling the rye crop means imme¬ 
diate cash. Plowing it under with lime 
means that your trees, if you take care 
of them, will give this money back with 
interest in the future. It is an invest¬ 
ment. I could probably sell our cover 
crops of rve and straw for $500 this 
year. My belief is that by plowing them 
under I can get three times that in the 
future out of the increased fruit crop 
and this year’s corn crop. You must 
remember that this rye is a pretty cheap 
crop. Last August, while cultivating the 
corn for the last time, we scattered the 
rye, clover and turnips among the corn. 
The last cultivating of the corn worked 
the seed in. Nothing more has been done 
to it. Now it stands shoulder and head 
high. We put it under, use lime and 
plant corn again. Fertilizer is used in 
the hill, good culture given and next 
August in goes another cover crop. Un¬ 
der this treatment year after year we 
have seen our hard soil grow mellow and 
darker colored, our trees come into bear¬ 
ing, our corn crops increase and the rye 
crop start at waist high and improve 
until it stands over my head. 
Do you think it would pay to hill up 
young peach trees to keep out the bor¬ 
ers? Have you ever practised doing that 
in your orchards at Hope Farm? Would 
not the insect that lays the eggs lay it 
just above the mound of dirt? B. B. o. 
Connecticut. 
We mound up the poach trees in the 
Fall after digging out the borers. Coal 
ashes make a good mound. This gives 
protection from mice and helps with rab¬ 
bits, and also protects the roots. At one 
time we left this mound around the tree 
during the Summer, but now we level 
down in Spring. This gives a better 
chance for culture, and we have found 
that in a drought the mound bakes like 
a brick around the trunk of the tree, 
leaving the bark tender and more likely 
to be injured. It is true that when the 
mound is left tight to the tree the borer 
insect lays her eggs above it. Often the 
mud cracks or works loose, so the insect 
can get down lower, and in any event 
the borer does • great damage working 
down behind the mound. I should 
prefer to break the mound down in 
Spring, work around the tree, and paint 
or spray the trunk with a lime-sulphur 
wash. This will prevent some of the 
egg-laying. The borers that do hatch 
should be dug out. 
Would it pay to grow State corn or 
not under these circumstances: We 
have 10 cows, and between 900 
and 1.000 hens. We have always 
grown five and six acres of silo corn and 
put it in silo when mature. But it seems 
to me it might pay to grow State corn 
and husk it and feed the stalks in the 
Winter from the field to the cows, as we 
have engine and cutting box. After husk¬ 
ing could it be put in silo, or would it be 
too dry to keep well? Would it pay 
more to have it put in silo because of 
lateness? h. s. 
Union, N. Y. 
This is a question which a man must 
settle for himself. We cure and husk 
the corn—not having any silo. This is 
because our stock consists mostly of 
horses and hens, neither one doing well 
in silage. We need the shelled corn 
most, so we grow a flint variety, husk off 
the ears, dry the stalks and feed them 
to horses and cows. If I had 10 cows 
to feed I should have a silo, vet witli 
1.000 hens I should try to save the grain 
bill. In such case, from our experience, 
we should plant a few acres of some 
variety like Eureka corn for the silo. 
On rich, well-manured soil, this corn 
gives a tremendous yield, and a few 
acres of it would fill a small silo. The 
quantity of silage is not so high, since 
the ears do not usually develop early, 
but it gives a great bulk of silo filling. 
The rest of the corn ground would be 
planted to some good flint variety, cut 
and husked in the usual way. I would 
not cut the dry stalks all into the silo, 
but would make a box or vat to hold a 
week’s feeding. Cut this full and pour 
boiling water over it and then cover. It 
will steam and partly cook into a good 
“imitation silage” that is better than dry 
stalks cut into the regular silo. A little 
feeding molasses put in with it will lead 
the cows to eat it all up clean. Our 
plan for substituting for the silo is to 
grow a crop of mangels and carrots. 
With good culture on strong ground you 
can grow a large crop of these roots. 
They make a fine combination for feed¬ 
ing with dry stalks, and are better, I 
think, than silage, and are fine for the 
hens during the Winter. Few crops will 
respond to chicken manure better than 
mangels. 
We have at times many eggs which 
have been incubated, and out of which 
the young chicks did not fully mature 
and hatch out. Would such eggs be any 
good as a fertilizer around young trees, 
shrubs, currants, raspberries and the 
like—say, take away four to six inches 
of soil, put around the tree or bush six 
to 10 eggs, smash them with a shovel 
and replace the soil? If this would work 
out all right it would not only get rid 
of the eggs, but help to fertilize at the 
same time. H. G. u. 
Connecticut. 
Such eggs contain lime and the ele¬ 
ments of plant food. Here is a compari¬ 
son between eggs and ordinary stable 
manure: 
Pounds in 100. 
Phos. 
Nitrogen Acid Potash 
Eggs. 2.25 6% oz. 2*4 oz. 
Stable manure. S oz. 4. oz. 10 oz. 
Eight or 10 eggs will not give much 
plant food, but it will be available, and 
will make any currant or raspberry bush 
proceed to lay wood and fruit. If you 
could train the hen that laid the eggs to 
scratch around the bush without injuring 
it you would have a great combination. 
Seriously this is a good way to dispose 
of stale eggs. I have seen grown-up men 
go out with a basket of them and throw 
at a mark. If you could get wood ashes 
to use with the eggs you would have a 
good combination. H. w. c. 
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