792 
J3»c RURAL NEW-YORKER 
.Tune 15, 1918 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Turkey Tai.k. —I wish you could look 
out of the window with me and see the 
group on our lawn. The center or core 
of it is a big lied hen with six White 
turkey poults. The daughter, with four 
of the smaller children, is introducing 
the.se coming Thank.sgiving dinners to the 
sunny freedom of Hope Farm. The hen 
has found a suitable place near .a tree’, 
and has worked down into the soil to 
take a dirt hath after her month of pa¬ 
tient incubation. The human mother or 
nurse teaches her children to rub the dirt 
away from tliem. This lied nurse' (not 
cross but gentle) is showing her family 
how to rub th(‘ dirt in—and both are 
right! The White poults stand around 
their nurse paying close attention. Soon 
they will be trying to dust their own 
little bodies. When it was lirst itroposed 
to try a .single turkey hen I doubted the 
wisdom of it, but was assured that this is 
quite a common practice. The lirst seven 
eggs this bird laid were put under a hen. 
She h.atched six of the’m. The other was 
fertile, but not strong enough to work out. 
Others Coming. —The turkey is now' 
sitting on 12 more eggs, with a good show 
for hatching the majority of them. So 
this plan of starting seems worth trying 
—safer, I think, than buying eggs, and 
less expensive than buying breeding stock. 
Now will come the harder job of raising 
the young turkeys, and we can offer no 
advice about that until we actually raise 
a few. I think the turkey hen will do a 
better job at nursing than the’ Red bird. 
There is, without doubt, a turkey lan¬ 
guage, quite distinct from the sounds 
made by a hen to convey knowledge. The 
turkey seems to keep up a flow of sound 
to her children, while the hen is less talk¬ 
ative. Of course, the hen cannot teach 
the use of the wings as the turkey can. 
In many humans, language is suixdy used 
“to conceal ideas,” but with the hen and 
turkey every sound must count. The hen 
is more domesticated than the turkey. She 
looks to me somewhat like a wmman who 
has always lived in town trying to train a 
lot of country children without realizing 
that they have been bred to certain habits 
and needs. The turkey is more intelligent 
than the hen, and is many centuries closer 
to nature. You all know how a turkey 
walks about, pushing her head out and 
peering here and there as she goes. Be¬ 
fore those little poults were dry from the 
egg they started exactly this motion of 
peering about and thrusting out their 
heads—just as wild birds do. You sel¬ 
dom see hens attempting it except when 
they are frightened or curious. In its 
small w'ay this is a sort of “call of the 
wild” which I doubt if the hen nurse com¬ 
prehends. 
Wet Weather. —Where is the man 
W'ho predicted a dry Summer? We would 
like to start him at work in the mud of 
our cornfleld. No doubt he would say 
“wait until August,” and then he might 
be vindicated. Up to date, however, we 
have had a series of heavy showers which 
have soaked our lower fields and delayed 
planting and cleaning. While' this rain 
on these heavy soils has ))roved a hard¬ 
ship. I doubt if the water level in the soil 
is high. I think there’ is less re.serve of 
water than usual. These showers ke’ep 
the upper surface Avell soaked, but a few 
weeks of dry weather will, I think, pound 
us hard. This wet May and early June 
has been ideal for the’ trees and the rye. 
I have never known the apple trees to 
make a finer growth. I think we have 
moisture enough in the upper soil to make 
all the wood growth we’ need. If we can 
cultivate up to August first, or get a good 
mulch around the trees, we can ea.sily ma¬ 
ture the fruit crop. Most of the sweet 
corn looks well Up to June 1 we had 
planted no field corn. With our small 90- 
day flint there is still time' enough, though 
it ought to be in. 
Rye Problems. —We have a good crop 
of rye. It will make good grain and 
straw, both of which are needed this year. 
There is one field of over three acresi at 
the' east end of the farm where the rye, 
when in bloom, stood over my head. The 
seeding in this rye is not good, there be¬ 
ing many bare patches, and I have had 
something of a study to know what to do 
with the field. My first idea was to cut 
the rye, and then, if the .seeding is as had 
as we think, plow the stubble, put on 
lime and phosphate, fit the soil well, and 
seed to Alfalfa as well as we know how. 
The other plan is to plow, and fit the rye 
stubble and then seed to buckwheat with 
Timothy and Red-top grass and Alsike 
clover. If we can make the Alfalfa grow 
we shall have nearly hay enough for our 
stock for several years to come. The 
land is quite sour and part of it is wot— 
soggy in a moist se'ason. The Alfalfa, 
under such circumstances, would be very 
much of a gamble. If it went through it 
would be a prize. If, as I fear, it failed 
on that wet land, we should lose the 
lime and money spent on it. On the 
other hand, buckwheat, up in this coun¬ 
try, is i)retty nearly a sure thing, and 
Red-top and Alsike will grow on th.at 
land. Shall I play for a sure thing in 
these war times, or take a chance for high 
stakes on the Alfalfa? I am inclined to 
try the buckwheat. 
WoRKi.NG Machinery. —Last week I 
told of the trouble we had ini getting that 
dusler start(;d. First we nearly broke our 
backs trying to start the engine and then 
we set the fan to working the lorong way! 
We were responsible for this. It was 
pretty much a case of blunderbu.ss obser¬ 
vation. Now comes a reader hooting at 
us for what he calls “dumb judgment.” 
We ought to have known better, he says— 
he never did anything like that. I accept 
the first i)art of the statement cheerfully. 
As for his record—he is surely a wonder. 
There are a few such men in the world, 
but most of them know they are so far 
abnormal that they never paint their own 
picture. I know a good farmer who 
bought a pot.ato planter and declared ab- 
.solutely that it w'as a humbug and fraud. 
We found that he' had put the cut seed in 
the fertilizer hopper. Of course it could 
not work. Another man bought a potato 
planter and geared it up so that it could 
not dig itself out of the soil. A neigh¬ 
bor bought some soluble oil for spi’aying. 
lie knew mo’te about it than anyone else', 
so he used it twice as strong as the man- 
ufarlurer advi.sed, and then added a lot of 
homemade .soft soap! You can imagine 
what happened to the treds, and the man¬ 
ufacturer got all the discredit. We have 
had many complaints about the behavior 
of machinery. Farmers will .sometimes 
claim that the tools are worthle.ss. From 
our experience with that duster and some 
other machines, I am .satisfied that the 
fault is not always in the machine. I 
am no mechanic, and, happily, I know it, 
and I do not attempt to “tinker” with 
machinery. I have known farmers who 
knew less than I do about machinery to 
try to experiment with ne’w adjustments 
and gearing, and then find fault when the 
machine refused to be fooled with. I 
would like to know how it feels to be so 
wonderfully competent that you cannot 
make a mistake'. . 
“(iREEN Food.” —The scientists have 
demonstrated that hens must have green 
food in ^order to prove efficient enemies 
of the Kaiser. It does not need the ser¬ 
vices of any scientist to show the same 
need for a human. The season is 10 days 
or more in advance for fruit and garden 
stuff. We are still eating asparagus and 
could keep on cutting up to .Tune l.fi. But 
spinach, onions, lettuce and little’ turnips 
and radishes are coming on, so the aspar¬ 
agus may now go to top and prepare for 
next year’s crop. Surely it is an eco¬ 
nomic ci’ime for anyone to live in the 
country and not have a good a.sparagus 
bed. It is the e’asiest vegetable to care 
for and will live for years. We hear from 
some of the lots of Reading Giant sent out 
last year. They all seem to be doing 
well. . . . The first i)icking of .straw¬ 
berries came on May 2.S. The'se wei’e 
Campbell’s Early—^the first time we have i 
fruited this variety. It is a strong grow¬ 
er, TV'ith dark, healthy foliage, and a good 
yielde'r. The berries are medium size or 
large, dark color and quite sour. I call it 
a good variety and shall plant more for 
e'arly fruiting. The behavior of the “ever- 
bearers” is interesting this year. The 
idants were set last Spring. During the 
late’ Summer and Fall they gave a crop 
of berries, and this Spring they bloomed 
again freely. Now they are crowded with 
green berries—so many that it does not 
seem possible that the plants can either 
ripe’n them all or mature a Fall crop. 
They have acted much in that way be¬ 
fore, and we conclude that in order to get 
a Fall croi) of any size it will be neces¬ 
sary to transplant new plants each 
Spring. I think everyone should have 
some of these “everbearers” in the garden, 
but I cannot see where they will pay for 
commercial fruiting alone. There ought 
to be a good trade in the plants. As most 
of you know, we still keep to Marshall for 
main crop, though I cannot advise it for 
general planting. I hope to have some 
pictures of Marshall soon to show how 
they look. ii. w. c. 
The Robin Nuisance. —On page 228 
E. C. T. of Ohio hit the nail on the head 
in wbafc he says about robins’ destructive¬ 
ness. Two robins will start business in 
early Spring and turn out two litters of 
five birds each, and by the time cherries 
are half size and a bit pink on one side 
they will give these 10 progeny a thanks- 
givin;; feast for all hands daily from 
4..30 a. m. to dark in cnerry tree.s. They 
and the .starlings will clean out any tree. 
I have tried the turkey red cloth, bright 
tin srips, .stuffed owl, etc., but the robin 
has more nerve than a government mule 
and cares for none of these. I have tried 
putting an electric bell up in a tree and 
run the wire to a switch on the vei’anda. 
Result, the starling would get a cherry 
and leave, but not the robin. They de¬ 
stroy lots of anglewoi’ms that are of 
great value to the soil, but will not eat 
currant worms, tent caterpillars or many 
other i)e,sts. Every owner of a cherry 
tree has a moral right to destroy if neces¬ 
sary any animal, insect or bird that de¬ 
stroys his crop. Under man-made laws 
he is d(‘.prived of this right, and if the 
matter was carefully worked up and 
fought out there is no doubt that this 
moral right would be finally .sustained. 
There should be an open season for robins 
from March 1.5 to April 15. R. v. M. 
R. N.-Y.—With us the I’obin is a nuis¬ 
ance in stealing chernes and strawber¬ 
ries. He will walk through the berry 
patch nipi)ing at 'the larger fruit as it 
b(‘gins to color and, of course, spoiling it. 
We have never seen the robin eat other 
insects than angleworms. 
Intensive 
Production 
T he thresherman to make 
money these days must crowd 
every working hour with pro¬ 
duction of the most intensive 
kind; if his machine lags or 
breaks down he is a loser. When 
the drive is on, his machine must 
work easily and work profitably. 
Adverse conditions must not slow 
his output to the losing point. 
Moving machinery that is over¬ 
worked is liable to trouble. A 
mechanical part that can do the 
same work without power or mo¬ 
tion is not. That is why the “Man 
Behind the Gun,” exclusively 
used in the Red River Special 
Separator, gets results. It re¬ 
quires no adjustment and yet 
accomplishes more clean separa¬ 
tion than other machines can 
get from end to end. 
Save the Farmers’ 
Thresh BiBI 
Investigate the Junior Red River Spe¬ 
cial, the thresher for small power and 
homework. Write for circulars. 
Nichols & Shepard Co. 
In Continuous Business Since 1848 
Builders exclusively of Red River Spe¬ 
cial Threshers, Wind Stackers, Feeders, 
Steam and Oil-Gas Traction Engines 
Battle Creek 
Michigan 
SAVE All Your GRAIN 
Don’t wait for the custom thresher. Do your 
threshing when the grain is right and get the 
full return from your labor. 
The Ellis Champion Thresher and Cleaner 
equipped with self feeder and wind stacker 
makes the ideal small outfit. 
If you have only a very little threshing to do, 
or small power, we can supply you with a 
machine without self feeder or wind stacker 
and at a price that will make your purchase 
a real investment. 
Just vivo us tho size of your enidne and tho amount of irmin 
usually raised and wo’Il submit a proposition on a machine 
that will ho just tho one for your work, 
ELLIS KEYSTONE AGRICULTURAL WORKS 
Pottstown - Pennsylvania 
Ditches 
Terraces 
Prevent crop! 
failure. Re-' 
claim aban¬ 
doned land. 
Getmyintpo- 
duotory offer on 
I Farm Ditcher, Terraccr 
Book and Prices and Road Grader^ 
I p“‘®^®®J“Adja8table —Reversible—No wheels 
' Cuts new fam 
ditches or cleans old ones to 4 feet deeo— 
I grndes roads—builds farm terraces, dykes 
and levees. Does work of 100 men. fev 
larzn needs one. Send your name. 
I Owensboro Oitcher & firader Co., Inc. 
[ Box S34 Owensboro, Ky. 
Lvery 
lODaysFreeTrial 
“QUEEN” 
AUTO LENS 
w/m CONFORMS TO ALL 
HEADLIGHT LAW.'^,- 
but throws lOOjf more light 
than ordinary Lens. Lights 
road from fence to fence. 
Tested, approved and used by United States Army. 
Two colors.^ crystal and amber. Sent charges prepaid with 
understanding, that if not satisfactory in 80 days, return 
and set money hack. Following are prices per pair: 
, , CRYSTAL AMBER 
8 to SiA Inchea, inclusive.81.60 82.00 
85^to9 “ 1.76 2.26 
95^ to 9l’.y “ “ 2.00 2.60 
9J« to 10 “ “ 2.26 3.00 
West of the Rockies 2Sc a pair additional. 
GIvo dlftmeter of old I^ens, also model and make of Car. 
Liberal terms to representatives. 
FLEMINCTON CUT GLASS CO., Inc. 
FLEMINOTON NEW JERSEY 
“BLIGHTY" 
a new shirt with the 
Hilitarii touch and the 
Double-SERVICE cuffs 
^Blighty’" is a stripe pat¬ 
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that shows respect to the 
''''8ervice”yet docs not imper¬ 
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HALimarK 
SHIRT 
with Patented Hynge Cuflp you 
can reverse—wears twice as long. 
Ask for Blighty, the shirt with 
the Quality Kept Up. 
HALL. HARTWELL & CO., Makers, Troy, N. Y. 
CUP YOUR WEEDS 
•witli a COLT 
Ask ler Cat- . Wood Beam 
jnoaNo.274 ^ ^ Cultivator 
The Special ^ 
shape teeth cut 
the weeds close 
to the bill and 
do oot cover 
the crop with 
earth. 40 years 
actual service., 
Rear wheel furnished If desired. 
BATAVIA CLAMP COMPANY, 215 Center St, Batavia, N Y, 
iVE ALL YOU GROW 
Hay Cap. and Kant Come Off 
Cow Blankets our Specialty. 
40” X 42” 8 oz. Hay Caps $68 per 
_ 100. 4’X 4’8 oz. Hay Caps $78per 
100 TieEopes $2 per lOOextra. Larger sizes If desired. 
Send 75e in stamps for sample. Write for illustrated 
catalog. 
Fond du Lnc Awning & TcntC>.»Dopt.l08Fond do Lnc»Wii. 
Your cnance is in Canada. Rich lands and 
business opportunities offer you independence. 
I''!irm lands $11 to $30 an acre; irrigated lands 
$3.5 to $50. Twenty years to pay; $2,000 loan 
in impi’ovements, or ready-made farms. Loan 
of livestock. Taxes average under twenty 
cents an acre; no taxes on improvements, per¬ 
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churches, schools, roads, telephones. Excel¬ 
lent climate—crops and livestock prove it. 
Special bomeseekers’ fare certificates. Write 
for free booklets. Allan Cameron, General 
Superintendent Land Branch, Canadian Pa- 
cifio Railway, 519 Ninth Avenue. Calgary. 
Alberta. 
ASmaD California Farm 
the crops you know, 
also oranges, grapes, olives and figs. No cold weather; rich 
soil; low prices; ea-sy tei'ins. Enjoy lilo here. Newcomers 
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SALESMEN 
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lines will be taken on, that will increase earning power. 
OVERSEAS SaLESCORP.,50UnionSq.,NcwYorkOIty,il,Y. 
OVERLOADED 
Friction means shorter life for 
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MICA 
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Stops friction. Makes permanent 
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Eureka Harness Oil keeps 
old leather good as new. Fills 
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cracking and breaking. 
Standard Oil Company of New York 
Principal Offices 
New York 
Buffal 
Albany 
Boston 
When you tvrite advertisers mention 
The Rural New-Yorker and you’ll get 
a quick reply and a “square deal.” See 
guarantee editorial page. : : ; 
1 
