'30 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 22, 1915. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
A Tree Census. —Evpry Spring at 
about this time we take account of work¬ 
ing stock in our orchards. After a care¬ 
ful count I find that we now have the 
following trees—old and young: 
Apple trees .. _ _ 1,605 
Peach trees . 075 
Cherry trees . 143 
Pear and quince trees. 127 
Total.2.920 
Some of these trees were planted this 
Spring, others were here when we came, 
and must be 75 years old. We have per¬ 
haps 1.300 currant bushes and something 
under two acres of strawberries. The 
“fillers” of peach trees and about all the 
plums have been cut out. Had these 
been left we would have over .3.000 trees 
all told. The “fillers” might have given 
two more crops of peaches, but they were 
interfering with the apples, and it was 
the time for them to die. Now that they 
are out we can compare the apple trees 
with those on the same hillside planted 
without fillers. The latter are at least 30 
per cent larger and are of much better 
shape. It is evident that the “fillers” 
drive the apple trees up in the air when 
they should have spread out. As for the 
plums, this fruit has never paid us. What 
with brown rot and a market which 
greatly prefers peaches I can see nothing 
to the plum business. Half a dozen for 
home use will be about all for the plum 
with us. 
Cover Crops. —Every year at this time 
we have many hurry calls for information 
about cover crops. There are a dozen 
questions about how rye is plowed under. 
We had this all pictured last year. 
Where the crop is to go under early it is 
a good plan to chop it over first with a 
disk or Cutaway harrow. This cuts up 
(lie young rye and then when the ground 
is plowed everything goes under out of 
sight. When the rye is very heavy some 
farmers use a roller. This crushes the 
rye down flat. Then when the plow fol¬ 
lows the roller a clean job can be done. 
I have known cases where a very heavy 
rye crop was cut with the mower and left 
on the ground a couple of days to wilt 
before being plowed under. This made a 
good job with little danger from sowing, 
but a heavy chain dragging in front of 
the plow suits us. There are two ways 
of hanging the chain. You may fasten 
one end to the double-tree and the other 
to the plow beam with the chain long 
enough to drag in a long loop over the 
ground ju,st ahead of the plow. Another 
way is to fasten one end of the chain to 
each end of the double-tree and let the 
loop drag behind. This catches and pulls 
the rye down ahead, while in the other 
case the pull is a little to one side. A 
good plowman will soon learn how to ad¬ 
just the chain so as to get the rye out of 
sight 
This Year’s Crop. —Our cover crops 
this year are not as thick and large as 
usual. Last Fall was very dry, and the 
seed did not start well. When it did 
come there was poor growth, and the rye 
went into Winter with a poorer root than 
usual. The mild Winter with little snow 
and much thaw and “heave” to the soil, 
pulled out many plants and Spring found 
a thin stand. Then April was dry and 
the crop grew slowly. So there will not 
be as much as usual to turn under. We 
are plowing earlier than usual this year, 
as I expect a dry May. You cannot ex¬ 
pect to hit it every season. The only 
thing to do is keep right on seeding the 
cover crop each year. We use lime each 
year—about 500 pounds per acre after 
plowing. I believe these annual applica¬ 
tions pay better than heavier dressings 
every few years. 
• 
Prospects. —The baek-to-the-lander in 
his first year of farming will tell you in 
May what great things will follow in Sep¬ 
tember. My ticket to great prosperity 
has been punched several times, and we 
fight shy of promises in May. At this 
moment it looks like a fair apple crop. 
The bloom is heavy all through our coun¬ 
try. but it is not a commercial section. 
Our older Baldwin and Greening trees 
have plenty of bloom. The McIntosh and 
Wealthy have more than they need. The 
younger Baldwins are rather shy. Most 
<>f them will give perhaps a basket of 
fruit, but not over one-fourth of them are 
loaded for what we call a crop. I judge 
that we may have about as many apples 
all told as last year—with at least one- 
third Nyack Pippins and early varieties. 
The peach trees are well budded, and dan¬ 
ger from frost is past. We should have 
more peaches than last year. It was a 
rough Winter on berries. Some of ours 
were on a side hill, which washed con¬ 
siderably and ruined part of the plants. 
There is good bloom, however, and if we 
can have a reasonable amount of moisture 
we shall have our full supply. The grass 
looks better than I expected. The fer¬ 
tilizer was put oji early and a few good 
showers carried it down. The grass is 
coming in green and strong, and I look 
for about the usual hay crop in spite of 
the dry Spring. We shall have more corn 
than ever before, planted earlier and bet¬ 
ter. The potatoes were put in as well 
as we knew how, and the garden crops 
are well started. Asparagus and rhu¬ 
barb are adding to the comforts of life, 
and they make a great, combination. 
Baked apples are still on deck. We can 
usually carry Black Ben through until 
Yellow Transparent or Bed Astrachan 
come in fresh. Not much taste to it. per¬ 
haps. but it loolcs like an apple at least. 
Labor. —This is surely the working 
season on the farm. Tom and Broker are 
at it day after day, ripping over the sod 
and putting the cover crops out of sight. 
Merrill puts the big plow down deep, but 
these massive grays walk briskly along 
with it like a child with a baby carriage. 
It is a great satisfaction to have a strong 
team when there is big work to be done. 
We plow and lime and harrow and fit the 
orchard soil for corn. The fertilizer can 
go on later. Then Merrill keeps an eye 
on the apple bloom for at just the right 
time he must stop fitting the land and 
spray out the poison. The strawberries 
were cultivated early, and the mulch 
worked away from the plants. In the 
five-year-old beds there was quite a show¬ 
ing of grass and weeds. These were hoed 
out by hand, doing a thorough job. which 
must last until picking time. Then there 
are cabbage and transplanted onions to 
set out. asparagus roots to clean up and 
a dozen jobs calling at once. A great 
nuisance this year is the scourge of tent 
caterpillars which wintered over on the 
wild cherry trees. In some sections it 
would rank with the 10 plagues of Egypt. 
Along our roads in many places the 
cherry trees present a hideous sight. Our 
own orchards are comparatively free, and 
spraying for the Codling worm will get 
most of these caterpillars, but every wild 
cherry tree in the country should be cut 
and burned. H. w. c. 
Purifying Beeswax. 
I have a quantity of honeycomb which 
can be made into beeswax if I can succeed 
in purifying it, which so far I have not 
done. I tried putting the comb into a 
thin cloth and boiling it up, letting the 
wax run into the water and retaining the 
impurities in the cloth. But when the 
wax was cold there was considerable im¬ 
purity left in it. I tried boiling it up 
again and letting it settle, but the result 
was no better. Cannot you or some of 
your numerous family of readers help 
me? s. w. 
Wax is refined by the use of sulphuric 
acid, which acid should be handled with 
extreme caution, as it is a violently cor¬ 
rosive poison. The “A. B. C. of Bee 
Culture” gives the following directions: 
Fill a large earthenware, or iron, kettle 
about half full of water slightly acidu¬ 
lated with sulphuric acid (one part acid 
to a hundred, or more, of water) and set 
it over a slow fire. When nearly boiling, 
add the wax that is to be purified, allow 
the wax to melt, keep hot for a few min¬ 
utes, and then allow the fire to die down. 
As soon as all the particles of dirt have 
settled in the water, dip off the wax on 
top, being careful not to stir up the dirt 
in the water. Where large quantities of 
wax are to be refined, a steam coil is 
placed in a barrel of acidulated water and 
removed after the contents have been 
brought to a boiling point; small quanti¬ 
ties can be handled as above, however, 
not forgetting care in handling the sul¬ 
phuric acid (oil of vitriol). Mr. Doolit¬ 
tle is quoted as recommending the use of 
a pint of strong vinegar in one quart of 
water for every ten pounds of wax. 
Doubtless this would answer where but a 
small quantity of wax was to be refined. 
M. B. D. 
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