920 
July 17, 1915. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Fourth of July marks the ridge 
pole of the season’s farming with ns. 
While we rarely have a killing frost be¬ 
fore October 10 there is not much growth 
on most crops after September 15. As 
we begin around April 15 you will see 
that the glorious Fourth makes about the 
middle. We begin to slip down a little. 
The days will slowly grow shorter, and 
there are not many things we can plant 
with hope of maturing them. So I take 
the day to figure “where we are at.” 
Perhaps, while the children are “cele¬ 
brating” you would like to walk about 
with me and see how things look. We 
shall have to take an umbrella, for a tor¬ 
rent of rain is pouring down. 
Hay. —We have three loads in the barn 
with perhaps 10 more to go. It should 
have been all cut by rights, but the 
weather has prevented that. There has 
been one long succession of soaking rains 
for weeks. To-day is a genuine ark- 
floater. It is beating down the grass and 
soaking the ground, if you can soak a 
full sponge. I do not recall any season 
quite so unseasonable for hay. These 
rains made the grass grow and we have 
good yields, but it has been impossible to 
cure it. It looks more like sun and wind 
now, and Merrill will start the mower 
and risk it anyway. This wet season 
brings hay making at the wrong time, as 
we shall see, for the crops are alive with 
weeds, which ought to be fought while we 
are busy with haying. 
Re-seeding. —There is a field at the 
lower part of the farm where the sod be¬ 
gins to look like a bald head. It is time 
for “treatment” for it never would pay to 
let that go another year. As soon as the 
grass is cut the big grays will get on the 
plow and turn that sod under deep. The 
“Clark” method of re-seeding would be to 
keep that field all stirred up with Cut¬ 
away and spring-tooth until early Septem¬ 
ber and then after turning and fertiliz¬ 
ing sow new seed. That would give a 
small crop next year, but we want some¬ 
thing this year and also have the Alfalfa 
fever. So, after plowing we shall fit that 
ground well and mark off three-foot fur¬ 
rows. In these will be scattered fodder 
crops. About one-third of the feed goes 
into fodder corn. This means ordinary 
corn seeded about as thick as garden 
peas, and covered about the same. An¬ 
other third goes into Japanese millet, also 
seeded thickly in drills, and the balance 
in Kaffir corn or Early Minnesota cane. 
This latter is a dry weather crop and 
grows good fodder. The Japanese millet 
in drills and well cultivated grows thick 
and high, and gives good cow hay. I put 
this seed in drills and not broadcast, be¬ 
cause I want to tear up and fit the soil, 
and this will be done by the cultivator, 
which will run five or six times before 
September 15. At that time we will sow 
half and half barley and rye as a cover 
crop to cover the ground through the 
Fall after the fodder comes off. 
Alfalfa. —We can see that you ought 
to get some fodder out of this, but where 
does the Alfalfa come in? This plowing 
and cropping and cultivating will tear up 
and fit the old sod. Next Spring we can 
do one of three things. One is to cut the 
rye for fodder or grain, then plow the 
ground and fit it thoroughly and seed to 
Alfalfa in late July. Another plan is to 
plow under the rye in April and seed to 
Canada peas and oats. These can be cut 
in early July for hay and the ground then 
fitted for Alfalfa. Or, we can plow under 
the rye in May, lime heavily, fit the soil 
well and transplant seedlings of our Si¬ 
berian Alfalfa at once. These can be 
cultivated through the season until they 
spread out and cover the ground. I shall 
not decide about this until we see how 
the seedlings which were transplanted 
this year turn out. 
Spring and Fall Seeding. —Why not 
seed the Alfalfa in early Spring like Red 
clover? Come here and look at our seed¬ 
lings. We put in the seed of Grimm and 
other varieties in drill as we would start 
celery or cabbage. Look at them. On our 
weedy soil the rains have started a for¬ 
est of “redroot,” ragweed and “pusley,” 
to say nothing of crab grass. These Al¬ 
falfa seedlings, as you may easily see, 
would have no possible chance if they 
were not in drills and fully hoed and 
weeded. Broadcast they would be srnoth- 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ered and mostly killed out. By treating 
them as we do the asparagus seedlings we 
get them through to good size for trans¬ 
planting. Thousands of failures with 
Spring seeding of Alfalfa have been 
ruined by these weeds. Crops like oats 
and peas or buckwheat can outstrip the 
weeds, but the baby Alfalfa needs a nurse 
and is not a fighter. Now look at those 
roots which we obtained in South Dakota 
and planted in May. Some of them have 
made over three feet growth—far ahead 
of the weeds. In Fall-seeding Alfalfa I 
have had the roots pulled out during the 
Winter by the heave of the frost. That 
tap-root did not get a clinch on the soil. 
These Siberian varieties have prongs on 
their teeth which brace them and hold 
them to the soil. I think they are to rev¬ 
olutionize Alfalfa growing in our sec¬ 
tion but I do not know it yet and there¬ 
fore advise going slow with the seedlings 
until we are sure of them. 
Strawberries. —I am sorry to admit 
it, but our crop was very short. It 
started well, but the berries which should 
have kept up the succession petered out 
badly. The cold, wet nights at time of 
the later bloom seem to have stopped 
fruit formation. That large field was 
fruited five times. As soon as picking 
was done Merrill plowed the whole thing 
right under and seeded at the rate of two 
bushels of buckwheat and two pounds of 
Cow horn turnip seed per acre. _ This 
growth will be plowed under in August 
and strong layer plants put in and given 
good culture up to freezing. That will 
bring the field back into berries next 
year, and if we can have a fair water 
supply we can force the plants on so as 
to get a fair yield. The small patch of 
Fall-bearing plants looks well. We are 
clearing it up and will spend some time 
in taking care of the runners. 
Potted Plants. —I must admit that 
the constant rains have left most of our 
beds so foul that they look as if they 
were feathered. Now we must rip them 
out with the cultivators and clean them 
up at considerable cost. While the rain 
forces the weeds it also gives the potted 
plants a great start. We have some 5,000 
pots already started and they are root¬ 
ing well. Now if we can only have a few 
days of sun and wind so that we can 
clean up these foul beds, we shall all feel 
better. They are bad, and we cannot 
deny it. I expect an unusual demand for 
both potted and layer plants this year. 
This moist season makes Summer and 
Fall planting easy, and if you can get 
the plants well anchored in the soil by 
Fall you are well on the way to a crop. 
Potatoes. —This is our star crop this 
year so far. The wet season has favored 
our crop, and we have put much hard 
work on it. I dug Irish Cobblers to-day 
at least three inches through, and the 
vines are immense. There have been very 
few bugs this year. We used dry Bor¬ 
deaux and poison and the vines are won¬ 
ders for thrift. It looks like the best 
potato crop we have ever had, and this 
will more than make up for the straw¬ 
berry crop. But let us count no pota¬ 
toes until they are dug and sold. These 
potatoes ai’e now mostly “laid by.” Some 
of them will be cultivated twice more, 
but those growing in the peach orchard 
will be left as they are. Weeds and grass 
will come in, but the potatoes are now 
pretty well “made,” and the weeds and 
vines serve as cover crop for the peaches. 
Weeds. —What a crop we have every¬ 
where—large and small, as a result of the 
wet season. We can put up a good fight, 
but unless the weather turns dry we shall 
be beaten in some fields, for it will cost 
more than it is worth to get the weeds 
out. In such case we cut them with a 
scythe and pile around the trees. We 
must clean up the berry patch, the corn 
and the roots, and there will be lively 
days for old Bob and Broker ahead of 
the cultivators. The asparagus seed¬ 
lings are clean after much hard work, 
and part of the corn looks well. On two 
or three old fields the grass is standing 
in the wet soil and we shall have a run 
for our coin before we are done. I sup¬ 
pose we should not admit that we have 
any weeds on the farm, but here they are 
as plain as the flag, and all we have to 
do is get after them. We can make some 
of them useful. Among the peas there 
are big weeds now that picking is over. 
The whole thing, vines and weeds, will be 
turned under and harrowed down, and 
yellow turnip seed drilled in. Then along 
the rows of young trees there are clumps 
of weeds. They will be cut with a 
scythe and piled around the trees. When 
we cannot handle them otherwise the 
plow or the scythe will make them useful. 
Money Crops. —The peaches are fine 
thus far—a good crop, and the trees in 
good condition. People are talking low 
prices, but we shall stay by them yet. 
The apple crop is fair—not as large as 
last year, but trees and fruit look well. 
The asparagus seedlings are coming on 
well; in fact, but for the weeds, Hope 
Farm might perhaps fire off a cannon. 
We will anyway, for even if the weeds 
threatened to run us off the farm we 
would put up a good battle before we 
went. Among other money crops let us 
count the children. They are not for 
sale, and they cost more than they bring 
in, yet they may safely be called an asset. 
They are off in the damp soil of the peach 
orchard shooting fire crackers and making 
as much noise as possible. They will do 
their little share at weed fighting to-mor¬ 
row, and if they were not here there 
would be less reason for the rest of us to 
put up a battle. To sum it up “The 
Fourth” finds us with more crops planted 
than ever before. Some are good, some 
poor, and some on the fence, waiting to 
see whether July is to smile or weep. 
Happily I am something of a philosopher, 
and if the weather continues wet and the 
weeds beat us I know that we can finally 
beat them by cutting or plowing them 
under to the benefit of our trees and our 
soil. H- w. c. 
Destroying Poison Ivy. —I notice on 
page 829 an inquiry by J. R. M. on how 
to get rid of poison ivy. I know of no 
better way than to burn alive; that is 
during the growing season. I have never 
tried it in the walls, but have succeeded 
in killing it by throwing brush upon it 
and burning, and have never been able to 
do it in any other way. If I had it on 
the wall I should get a lot of kerosene 
and a spray pump, spray it thoroughly, 
and set afire, and if any shoots started 
again give them more kerosene and fire. 
Otherwise it would be necessary to re¬ 
move the wall. E. P. 
Massachusetts. 
Standard Sprays 
Paris Green Arsenate of Lead 
Guaranteed Waterproof 
Costs no more waterproofed; and 
goes farther. One spraying usually 
sufficient for an entire season. Not 
washed off by rain. 
Made according to U. S. Govern¬ 
ment formulas regulating the produc¬ 
tion of insecticides and fungicides. 
As already supplied to agricultural 
departments and experimental sta¬ 
tions, to which inquirers may refer. 
Furnished in Dry Powdered Form 
or in Water Paste. 
Inquire of Your Dealer 
International Color & Chemical Co. 
Detroit, Michigan 
for potatoes—4 styles to choose from to suit your 
special conditions. We guarantee them to do the 
work we claim for them. All growers know that it pays 
to use diggers even on five acres—they save much 
valuable time and save all of the crop in good condition. 
IRQHAGE diggers 
No. 155 tf. Wheels, 32 or 28 inch. Elevator, 20 or 
For k 20 * nc h es Thorough separation 
Heaviest [/ without injury to the crop. Best two 
Conditions N wheel fore truck. Right adjustment 
of plow, shifts in gear from the sent. 
Can be backed,turns short into next row. 
Ask your dealer about them and 
write us for descriptive booklet. 
BATEMAN 
M’F'G CO. 
Box 20 
Grenloch, N. J. 
Inoculated Alfalfa Soil 
75c. per 100 lb., or ten dollars per ton, F. O. B. cars. 
Send for free booklet “How to grow alfalfa.” 
Dr. II. Somerville, Chest Springs, Cambria Co.. Pa. 
Before You Sow 
Your Winter Wheat 
—read this: 
“If in some way I could manage the affairs of men for one 
year; if in some way the land and the people were mine and I 
could fix the land and control the thoughts and actions of the 
folks, here’s what I would do: I’d put back into the cold, hard, 
worn-out soils, the leaves and the roots and the hundreds of 
kinds of vegetable growths that have been farmed out in the 
past century. When this was done I would have a rich soil. 
Then on that soil I would put tillers, . . . and enable 
them to know that the soil is a storehouse of plant food and 
that they can’t continually take crops out of it and put little 
or nothing back.”—R. A. Hayne, in National Stockman and 
Farmery June 26th, 1915. 
Although you can’t put back the vegetation and crops of 
the past century, you can put into your soil 
E. Frank Coe Fertilizers 
(The Business Farmers' Standard for over 57 years) 
There is one more thing that you should do before you sow 
your winter wheat. You ought to read “Winter Wheat 
Production,” a practical pamphlet on profitable wheat growing 
by a practical and progressive expert. A copy is yours for 
the asking, without charge, of course. Send a postal card to¬ 
day. This is an opportunity to make one cent earn you in¬ 
creased profits of many dollars. 
THE COE-MORTIMER COMPANY 
51 CHAMBERS ST., NEW YORK CITY 
