1056 
IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Septeinbei’ 8, 1917 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Si:j-;i> (\>rn. —I know from (‘xporionce 
tlint pciUgroo is half the performance. 
Som<‘ people agree that this is true of 
animals, and then they seem to think 
that Nature is only half an actor. It is 
liai'il to make such people understand 
tliai corn, wlieat, potatoes and other crops 
are. in a way, tied to their mothers’ apron- 
strings, and will show off their parents 
in the final show-down. AVheu you come 
to think of it, how cjin it be otherwise? 
There could be no fixed or settled law of 
nature if habits of growth or behavior 
were not handed on down the line from 
one gc'iieration to another. Man and the 
lower animals and all living growTh 
would end tip like a collection of mi.sfit 
set'dlings if it were not so. Itact's would 
disaitjieiir. varieties would scatter—there 
would be no jtrogress except ti successful 
gamble in one generation to be lost in the 
next. We .-ill recognize this tis related to 
some things of life, but we do not yet 
I'ealize that it is true of corn—the most 
important food crop in the world. How 
many of us will still go on jtieking niee- 
looKing ears out of the crib in March 
when the seed should be taken from the 
living stalks in September? 
roNSiDER It.—S uppose a dairyman 
jnit at the head of his fine herd of cows a 
scrub bull with the blood of half a dozen 
breeds. Then let him pass his first year 
in some dry iiasture-—fly-bitten and half 
fed, with little milk, scorched in Summer 
and then put on .snow and ice for the 
Winter! As compared with your or¬ 
derly and well-bred herd he would be like 
a living French Revolution bound in 
calf, for all the various lines and blots 
uf breeding which he repre.sents would be 
fighting each other until only the ivorst 
lirute elements could survive in his off¬ 
spring. Keep him at tie head of that 
fine herd five yetirs, and he wottld ruin 
the farm, and so destroy the pride and 
sjiirit of the family that the fields would 
be full of weeds, and every likely boy and 
girl would be driven off the farm. The 
statement i.s not overdrawn, and the ex¬ 
act reverse of it would be true if instead 
of the scrub, a fine, purebred animal could 
be used. In a smaller way much the 
same is true of seed grain. The nation 
i.s now being turned upside down and 
inside out in order to induce people to 
lirodme more grain, and to economize in 
its use. As for production, the soundest 
Ilian will be to use superior seed rather 
than tear up more ground and plant any¬ 
thing that comes to hand. 
.Set.ec'Tixg .'-^eed. —The article on the 
first page i.s very sensible, though of 
course each farmer will have his own 
ideal and ought to be able to select what 
he wants. I have been through our 
fields hunting for the best seed stock. 
'I'lie jiicture on the first page shows what 
we are after in our flint. We want a 
stalk medium high, rather slender and 
with two good ears low down and fpiite 
(•lose together. The picture, Fig. 47.'), 
merely shows how we want the ears locat- 
(‘d. We find large stalks with one good 
ear or with one good, one abortive. We 
find some smaller stalks with two ears, 
but the medium size is best for our use. 
What we want is a flint which can be 
grown among young apple trees without 
ci-owding them, give two fair-s'ized, well- 
formed ear.s and a slender stalk which will 
be all eaten uii by the stock. This corn 
must do that on a cover croj), a little 
lime and about 200 jiounds of fertilizer 
in the hill ! You may say that is a large 
contract, but some of the corn plants in 
our field are doing it. The majority are 
not yet doing it. Year by year, through 
selecting sia-d. the proportion grows 
larger. Ry using for seed only those 
plants which come u]) close to the ideal 
we shall in. time get the entire crop close 
to it. The ears shown on the first page 
were .’s.'i days from planting. We are, 
also, .selecting best ears of Webber’s dent, 
and with this a different plan of selection 
is followed. I want to talk about this 
once more.- when the final selection is 
made, and I am sun' it will pay every 
farmer to get into his cornfield, study un¬ 
til he gets a plant which ju.st stiits him, 
and select seed from such plants. 
Cow Pe.\s Axn Soy Beans.— These 
two crops, side by side, are making a very 
pretty race. My money would still go 
on the Soy beans, though most people 
bulk at the c w peas and consider them 
ahead. Wc had a mess of the cow peas 
for dinner August 2(1. They were green 
—about the condition which we prefer for 
l.ima beans. Our folks voted them “fini*,” 
though some consider the ta.ste “.strong.” 
They make “hearty” food and would fully 
take the pl.ace of meat. The Soy beans 
have just begun making pods, with no 
beans yet formed. The plants are alive 
with bloom, and with .‘50 days longer to 
gi-ow ought to give a heavy crop. Where- 
cver I go through the East I find farmers 
interested in Soy beans. Their use is one 
of the things we should till keep talking 
about. I believe they will do as much 
as anything we can grow to help settle 
the food question. As it looks now we 
are not likely to get great help in the re- 
. duct ion of prices. We have got to change 
our feeding rations and raise more of the 
protein foods. By the way, that Sudan 
grass is now coming on lively. It makes 
a better showing in hot weather, and 
would be a valuable crop in time of 
drought, I would not give it any final 
word until the season is over. 
Cows AND Apples. —Every year we 
have several questions like the following: 
Are windfall apples harmful to feed to 
milch cows? Some claim they make them 
give less milk. If they are benefici.al 
there are thousaTids of jieople who should 
know it. c. couuiN. 
Illinois. 
made sti by the apples. I’ersonally I 
agree with them, though the scientific 
men say this is impossible. 
Personal History. —This is some¬ 
thing of a tender subject with me. I 
have told the .story before, yet this cow 
and apple quc.stion will not down. 1 was 
running for the New .Ter.sey Legislature on 
the Prohibition ticket, and came home 
one night to fiml our fine .lersey cow in .a 
most deplorable condition. She broke 
into the orchard and became a life mem¬ 
ber of the Apjile Consumers’ League by 
full performance. The men finally found 
her lying on the ground greatly bloated, 
with eyes glazed, froth on her mouth, a 
hot head and cold feet. They said she 
was “sun.struck,” and had ice at her 
head. Now I could jilainly smell some¬ 
thing very much like alcohol, and I looked 
at the men with a suspicion born of ex- 
jierience. They surely were sober, and 
I knew I was, and the alcoholic .smell 
surely cami' from that cow. That was 
before the day of telephones and wi* got 
an old “Imrse doctor” who lived near by. 
He promptly called it a case of “apjile 
drunk” and I agi*‘e with him. I admit 
that I have had no personal exiierience, 
but the two men had enough to make 
the average for the three of us far above 
normal. I believe that cow was in the 
condition of a man who is what they 
call “dead drunk !” 
Uncle Sam’s O. K. 
The U. S. Dept, of Agriculture 
gives its endorsement to the 
standard seed disinfectant— 
FORMfriDEHynE 
‘Tsihe farmer’s FfJenct 
Greatest yield secured first by 
ridding seed grains of smuts 
and fun^s growth. Formaldehyde 
is the cheapest and best disinfectant 
for stables, kennels, chicken houses and 
cellars—it also kills flies. Formalde¬ 
hyde in pint bottles, 35 cents at your 
dealer, treats 40 bushels of seed. 
Write for new book reporting U. S. 
Dept, of Agriculture’s experiments in 
seed treatment—FREE on request. 
PERTH AMBOY CHEMICAL WORKS 
100 WILLIAM STREET NEW YORK g 
I have been on dairy farms whei-e 
every day each cow had half a bu.shel of 
apiiles, and all did well. Then I know 
men who would, in spite of the Wicks 
bill, feel inclined to set the dog on any 
man who advised feeding apjiles to a 
cow. The truth is that if you begin with 
a few quarts at a time and gradually in¬ 
crease the feeding, the cow will end by 
eating half a bushel a day and doing as 
well on them as she would ou silage. On 
tlie other hand, if you let the cow go 
into the orchard she will gorge herself on 
the fruit, bloat, fall down in a stupor, 
stop giving milk, and frequently die. If 
she does recover she will not come back 
to her full mess of milk. Most old farm¬ 
ers agree that such a cow is drunk— 
PO.SSIRILITIES. —Not long after that I 
wa.s called in from tin* read b.v two very 
fine ladie.s ivho vere trying their liands 
at farming. They had a very good cow 
named Oiwslip, and unfortunately she 
had been taki'ii sick, 'riiere she lay, un¬ 
der an apple tree in the old familiar wa.v. 
I did not have the he.art to tell the.se 
estimable ladies that dear old Cow.slip 
had made a .‘^lip and was drunk—though 
she certainly was. I told them she wa.s 
tired—and she was. When I told of this 
experience some seientilic men came at 
me hard and proved that I wa.s absolutely 
ignorant. They showi'd by a great dis¬ 
play of wisdom and figures that the cow 
was simply bloated on carbonic acid gas 
and that alcohol could not be produced 
HARVESTER 
1^11 Coi n, Cline and Kanir Corn. Cute 
H M H ■ and tnrowa in piles onhiirvcstcr. 
■ ■ ■ ^P Man and horse cuts and shocks 
™ o<|ual to a Corn Binder. Sold in 
every state Price only S22 witli fodder binder. The only 
self (tatherinff corn harvester on the market, that is giv¬ 
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Creek, N. Y., writes: "3 years ago I purchased your Corn 
Harvester. Would not take i times the price of tlie ma¬ 
chine if I could not get another one.” Clarence F. Hug¬ 
gins, Speei-raore. Okla. “Works 6 times better than 1 ex- 
liectad. Saved 140 in labor this fall.” Roy Apple, Farm- 
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and 2 i-owed machines, but your machine beats them all 
and takes less twine of any machine I have ever used.” 
John F. Haag, Mayileld, Oklahoma. “Your harvester 
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father saying ho received the corn binder and he is cut¬ 
ting coi-n and cane now. Says it works tine and that I 
can sell lots of them next year.” Write for free catalog 
showing picture of harvester at work and testimonials. 
PROCESS MFG. CO., - • Saline, Kansas 
When \ou write advertisers mention 
The Rural New-Yorker and you’ll get 
a Quick reply and a "square deal.” See 
guarantee editorial page. 
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