676 
?3»c RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 11, 1918 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Season. —An idea of the way 
Spring is cha.sing Winter off our hills 
may be had from a few gardening dates. 
We cnt the first asparagus on April 22. 
This was Reading Giant on rather cold 
and backward soil. We expect to keep 
on cutting until early June. By April 
.30 the Alaska peas were three inches 
high and crab apples coming into bloom. 
The first mess of rhubarb came along on 
April 2.3 and will keep coming until 
strawberries arc ripe. The coming of 
rhubarb means more than you think to 
many families, as it gives about the first 
and only fruit acid such families enjoy 
after the long, hard Winter. In the 
earlier days of Colorado, before they 
learned much about fruit growing, I 
worked on a dairy ranch where “pie 
plant” was all the fruit they had. What 
a difference it made in tliat family when 
the first dish of this sour reminder of 
Spring came on the table. You can hard¬ 
ly blame mo for writing a bit of doggerel 
about It. 
“The day that pie plant gives first iness 
Our folks feel bettei*, I confess; 
Pa says, ‘You need a brand-new dress,’ 
‘And you a suit,’ says I, ‘no less.’ ” 
I never was a poet, and have overcome 
the hopeless desire ever to be one. I am 
afraid we do not view some of the effu¬ 
sions sent to us with a very sympathetic 
eye. To the middle-aged, “Spring poe¬ 
try” seems much like the other ailments 
or conditions which our practical grand¬ 
mothers treated with sulphur and mo¬ 
lasses. However, to the family without a 
good supply of fruit, the sour pie plant 
supplies far more poeti'y than the sweet 
Spring flowers. 
Farm Fruit. —In all this talk about 
food saving, “calories” and conservation, 
we want to remember that life is not one 
eternal round of protein, fat and carbo¬ 
hydrates. A wolf has about the same 
analysis as a lazy dog. A vat would 
analyze much the same as a gray squirrel. 
1 imagine hor.se meat would show higher 
food value than a good cut of beef. Yet 
only hunger or the harde.st privation 
would force civilized men to make the 
change. The fact that an Alaskan Indian 
would prefer a roasted dog and straw¬ 
berries sei'ved in fish oil to roast lamb 
and cream merely shows that it is a long 
and crooked way from Fifth Avenue to 
Bering Strait. Famine, fashion and fruit 
are the things which are most likely to 
force changes in diet. Fashion, is largely 
responsible for the fact that so many 
farmers will sell three cents worth of 
grain and then i)ay 1.5 cents for the same 
grain in the form of breakfast cereal. It 
is also fashion or habit Avhich makes a 
man sell milk or cheese at five cents and 
then pay 30 cents for the same food value 
in meat. I think I could easily show 
how fruit and the demand for it has 
changed the history of the world, both in 
conquest and in traffic or commerce. 
Again and again the old-time Huns moved 
out of the marshes and forests of Ger¬ 
many and over-ran Italy and sacked 
Rome. It was not entirely a desire for 
booty, for the.se old savages did not real¬ 
ize the real value of money and plunder. 
One force which pushed them on was the 
story they had heard of the wonderful 
fruit in that sunny country. They were 
after the oranges, apples and grapes, and 
when they came to the orchards their diet 
was changed by fruit. 
Home Sui'PI.y. —Man’s craving for 
fi-uit has done much to bring the world 
together, 'rhe distribution of finiit acids 
has done much to sweeten civilization. 
In normal times you will find bananas, 
oranges, lemons and apples everywhere, 
and after this war is over there will be a 
greater demand than ever before. While 
England is on .short rations the govern¬ 
ment is urging farnier.s to plant more 
fruit and give it good care, while it 
would seem as if every ounce of labor force 
ought to go to raising grain and meat. 
England understands that fruit has a 
value outside of any combination of food 
elements. It makes disagreeable food 
palatable, and it tones up the system and 
thus keeps off depression. “Flesh for the 
fighter” is an old saying, but fruit with 
the flesh makes the fight bear fimit. Now 
the family is the .small unit of the nation. 
Before this great war is over we .shall, 
every one of us, be forced to practice 
economies in our food. It will come hard 
with most of us, but we shall have to 
stand up to it and endure. Nothing will 
help so much to make the change of diet 
endurable as a full family supply of fruit 
and vegetables. That is why I would 
urge every farmer to prepare for what is 
coming by planting a full supply of fruit. 
It is not too late to plant rhubarb, cur¬ 
rants, strawberries and bush fruits, to s.'iy 
nothing of peaches and plums. Do not 
let anyone tell you that fruit growing is 
not essential this year. As for an as¬ 
paragus patch, no family has any busine.ss 
to live in the country without one. 
The Farm. —The first planting of Irish 
Cobbler potatoes was made on April 20. 
They should have gone in before, but the 
rains made the ground too wet. fl’his 
piece is on the lower ground, near the 
house. The last of an old peach orchard 
wa.s pulled out last year, and a thick sod 
plowed under, ‘rhis was in sweet corn 
last year, with rye seeded at the last cul¬ 
tivation. This Spring a good coat of ma¬ 
nure was put on the rye and the whole 
plowed under deeply. Of course I know 
that we have often advised against u.sing 
nianiu’c on potatoe.s, yet here we are doing 
it. We shall have to upset and turn 
inside out many of our pet theories this 
year in order to get a supply of potash. 
The next planting of potatoes was in a. 
young apple orchard where we had cab¬ 
bage last year. A part of this cabbage 
crop never was cut, and what was left 
this Spring was plowed under. In. this 
field chemical fertilizer will be used on the 
potatoes. ’rhe tir.st planting of Cory 
sweet corn was on May 1. We take a 
chance on it, as the soil is cold and a lit¬ 
tle damp. 3’he rye and vetch are fairly 
jumping this year. It seems to me I 
never saw anything gx-ow so fa.st. In 
due time it will be plowed under and 
limed for corn, cabbage and tomatoes. By 
the way, the bees gave up during the 
hard Winter. Out of 10 hives only one 
was left alive. The “bee man” is start¬ 
ing over, however. 
Turkey Raising.— IMy daughter want¬ 
ed to try her hand at this, and so we 
have started from two sides. We have 
one fine White Holland hen and some 
eggs of Bourbon Reds. The girls said 
they wanted the Bronze, but the farm is 
too narrow for such wanderers. We have 
found the Whites more domestic and in¬ 
clined to stay near the buildings. At any 
rate, Mrs. T.onia came by express and wo 
all tried to make her feel at home. Of 
course, all you experienced turkey-raisers 
will say we did too much for her, but you 
probably did the same when you started ! 
In obedience to directions, we shut Mrs. 
Lorna up for a few days in the place as¬ 
signed to her and made several nice nests 
to tempt her into laying. She evidently 
missed her friends, and had a large idea 
of life. Instead of occupying the care¬ 
fully prepared nest as our sensible Red 
hens Avould have done, she seemed to say, 
“The universe is my nest!” So she flew 
to the top of a high fence and laid her egg 
into the air. Of course, when it hit the 
ground, there an end of the egg. It was 
like throwing 50 cents away, to gratify 
some inherited wild feeling. She did this 
twice, and then nature overcame home¬ 
sickness and Mrs. Lorna proceeded to 
business. She ignox*ed the tine, comfort¬ 
able xxest which the girls provided, and 
went hunting with the instinct of a wild 
creature until she found a suitable place 
under the rose bushes in front of the old 
house. There she laid and covered her 
egg skilfully with dead leaves. The chil¬ 
dren found it and put a nest egg at the 
place. Now the wise (or foolish) thing 
goes back day after day, lays her egg and 
covers it as before. The children bring it 
in to keep for hatching. We now have 
eight of these fine eggs with a big fat 
Red hen slowly wax-miug up the life 
within them. When the turkey stops 
laying we will give her a chance at some 
of these eggs, but they are put under 
hens as fast as a “sitting” is laid. We 
conclude that a tux'key is much wiser 
than a hen and also very much more “.set 
in her ways.” 
Poultry. —So far as I can learn there 
will be fewer eggs incubated this year 
than ever before. I should put the short- 
(Continued ou page 0S9) 
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