676 
■She RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Asparagi’S Aftermath. —We finally 
sliii»iR*tl the last bundle of roots. Total 
shipnient.s ran nearly to 17,000. The 
total calls ran to about 125,000, so you 
may imagine the number of stamps and 
coins which were returned. We did our 
best to handle them all properly, but, of 
course, in such a rush there may have 
been a few to get by us. Thus far every¬ 
one seems to be good-natured about it 
and to understand the situation. Even 
now, nearly a month after the announce¬ 
ment, letters are still coming at the rate 
of a dozen a day. I never had any idea 
there could be such a rush for the roots. 
Had we dreamed of it wo could have 
modified the offer somewhat, but as it 
was we took the letters as they came. 
This gave an advantage to people who live 
nearby and could get to us quickly. It 
seemed the only thing to do, however. 
One remarkable thing about this distribu¬ 
tion was the great number of people over 
75 years old who sent for the roots. 
'Pbere were at least 50 who say they are 
over SO and still want to start an aspar¬ 
agus bed. I surely hope that you will 
not wait until you are as old before you 
start one. Asparagus, properly handled, 
will last a lifetime, and I hope that every 
one of our friends will get roots some¬ 
where and start. We had our first cut¬ 
ting on April 24, and we expect to keep 
it up until after Memorial Day. 
Troavding The Son..—These roots 
grew on a piece of land near the house. 
Now this is a year for doing things and 
duty in doing is due first of all to the soil 
close by the buildings. Our plan first ] 
Avas to dig those roots, sciitter on ma- | 
nure, plow and fit Avell for sti'awberries. | 
This Avould mean setting the plants 18 
inches apart each Avay, and giving them 
good hand culture—then putting on a 
mulch of strong manure to keei) the 
weeds doAvn. We have done that before 
Avith great success. We got the manure 
on—all ready to plow Avhen along came 
Mother Avith a now plan. It seems that < 
she has contracted to raise a crop of po¬ 
tatoes for the Bible Training School, and 
the five children have agreed to help. 
She had her eye on this asparagus patch. 
It looks like good soil and (Avhat means 
considerable) is Avithin sight of the house, 
and but a fcAV steps from the door. The 
gofKl lady can reach it easily Avhen there 
is time for a little hoeing, and it will be 
easy to see hoAv thoroughly the little girls 
carry out their part of the conti-act. So 
we gave up our plan for a prize straw¬ 
berry bed—and transferi'ed it ehseAvliere 
—and got ready for potatoes. 
A Potato Patch. —This soil Avill be 
Avell ploAved and thoroughly harrowed. 
Then, as it is not a large tract, avc shall 
not make furroAvs but put lines across 
and plant by hand. Roavs Avill be tAVO 
feet apart and plants one foot in the row 
put doAvn about four inches into the soft 
ground. No horse culture—but we may 
use the pony hitched to a small Avheel | 
hoe. ^Most of the Avork Avill be done by ! 
.scuffle hoes—slicing off the Aveeds Avhile ' 
they are small, and we can probably turn 
on the Avater if the season prove dry. 
Seed of Green Mountain will be used— 
cut to good-sized one-eye pieces. Now 
let us see Iioav many potatoes the Bible 
School Avill get. 
Gardex Work. —We have some letters 
from people Avho say “Why do yon not 
tell us just Avhat to do in our gardens?” 
One reason is that we do not kuoAV Avhat 
they ought to do, and Ave doubt if any¬ 
one can tell them. We should have to 
knoAV all about the soil, the size of the 
garden, how it is situated; who is to run 
it, and what the household most desires. 
About all that books and papers can ever 
do is to offer general advice or suggestion. 
The gardener must Avork out the details 
himself. There are certain things which 
evei'y student must Avork out for himself, 
with his lingers or through common 
sense. No teacher can ever give him 
these things—he who pretends to do so 
is a fraud. A man gets to be an expert 
gardener when he learns the habits and 
limitations and special needs of his plants, 
and who can ever get these out of print¬ 
ers’ ink? 
Successions. —Our folks make heavy 
use of peas, Lima beans, sAveet corn and j 
tomatoes. These are standard vegetables 
and all others are grouped around them. 
I do not include potatoes, for they repre¬ 
sent a farm crop. Our plan is to manure 
the garden .soil heavily and use lime— 
then plan for a full succession. For ex¬ 
ample, peas; our idea is to put all peas 
together in long roAvs at one side of the 
garden—Alaska, Nott’.s, and others of 
later bearing. Various “successions” 
may be Avorked out. One year we gave 
.several cultivations and then made hills 
in betAA^een the pea roAvs and planted 
squash in every other row, Avith .SAveet 
corn betAA’een the squash hills. After 
final picking the peavines were pulled 
and fed to the cattle and the spaces be- 
tAA'een tho squash vines broken up and 
cultivated. This gave too much hand 
work to keep the squash rows clean. This 
year Ave shall pick the peas, then ploAV 
under vines and all and plant late cab¬ 
bage, or drill in yellow turnips—scatter¬ 
ing rye and clover all through in Septem¬ 
ber. All sorts of combinations can be 
made in this Avay to keep the garden 
ground occuiiied all through the season, 
but you must knoAv the habits of your 
plants in order to do it right. 
A Peach Orchard.—O n the lower 
part of the farm there is a rough piece 
of land Avhich has always been an eye- 
soi*e. The rock comes clo.se to the sur¬ 
face ; the soil is poor and no one likes to 
Avork on it. Therefore it has grown into 
Aveeds and a tough sod AAfflich, from June 
to November, is a nuisance and a re¬ 
proach. This year Ave determined to 
change that spot from tears to smiles— 
and I think a peach orchard will do it. 
Tlie boys are noAv large enough to do 
business-like Avork, and I told them they 
could have this orchard if they Avould 
plant it. .So I ordered some Crosby peach 
trees Avith the other varieties, and Ave 
started in on Saturday afternoon to plant 
the orchard. As soon as the trees came 
by exprc.s.s they Avere “heeled” in—that 
is a trench was dug, the roots put dOAvn 
into it and covered with soil. By meas¬ 
uring carefully we found that this rough 
and rocky spot measured 52 feet each 
Avay, which would give 25 trees—13 feet 
apart. 
Planting.—Noaa' hold on a moment. 
Do not ri off saying the Hope Farm 
man advii. Tirge planting of the Cro.sby 
peach 13 fee. each Avay. My experience 
show.s thaj commercial planting IS 
feet it rat-ier too clo.se. As for Crosby 
it is a tough, hardy variety—not a hand- 
.some peach. ")Ut fine quality and the best 
canning ooacli I know of. I use it on 
this tougii lopot because I think it can 
endure ardtihips better than any other 
peach I knoAV. We croAvd the trees close 
on this spot in order to make a thick 
patch to hide an eyesore and Ave can cut 
back in order to drive the trees up in the 
air. This is Avhat Ave call an abnormal 
case. Many a man has come to grief 
because he never learned his a, b—Avhich 
means cutting the ab off abnormal ad¬ 
vice. The boys made their measure¬ 
ments and then started their first line at 
one side. They stretched the tape be¬ 
tAA’een the tAVO end stakes and drove 
stakes at 13, 2G and 30 feet. Then they 
found the other tAvo corners of the 52 foot 
squaiH; and by sighting across got the 
other stakes in line. They Avould lie on 
the ground and shut one eye and “sight” 
May 12, 1917. 
as if they were handling a machine gun. 
After the holes were dug the same 
“sighting” across got the trees in line. 
This was not so necessary, as this “or¬ 
chard” Avill not be cultivated, but it is 
good practice. My job was to trim the 
trees. I cut off all the roots to within 
four to five inches of the stem, and cut 
the top back about half. That is about 
as far as I can explain without having 
a tree in my hand. In planting the boys 
learned to put the tree doAvn about an 
inch beloAV Avhere it stood in the nursery 
row and to stamp the soil hard around 
the roots as the hole was filled. We had 
our job done by supper time. Later we 
will go to an old hotbed and get rich soil 
to put around these trees. 
Playing.—II oi>e Farm has fallen into 
line to help feed the Avorld, and AA’e are 
all Avorking hard. We have not given up 
playing either, for play is the oil of life 
and the machine Avill surely scream if 
there is no oil. Children should have 
flieir fair share of play time—it should 
not be all play any more than all Avork. 
If you had no time for play when you 
Avere a boy, I Avill guarantee that you 
shoAv the effect of it noAv. It would be 
better for you and better for the boys. I 
you could get out and play Avith them. I 
am not as young as I Avas 40 years ago, 
but I can stand a feAV innings at base¬ 
ball yet. And Cherry-top is full of en¬ 
couragement. “I’ll bet there isn’t a man 
of your age in this tOAvn who can throAv a 
hall like that!” he says. I feed the boys 
a fcAV of my old-time cuiwes and they are 
kind enough to say, “You, have everything 
hut speed." I don’t knoAv about that, 
but I find myself trying to figure out just 
hoAv valuable “speed” really is in tliis 
age. I know people who tell their chil¬ 
dren that Avork is “play” if they Avill only 
think so. I knoAv better than to ti-y to 
make my children think so. ii. w. c. 
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