1022 
^he RURAL N E W- YORKER 
August 31, 1018 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Late Summer. —The closing days of 
August may well make a farmer thought¬ 
ful. The season is reaching the end of 
the rope. Now and then there will come 
a chill in the air at night, and in the late 
afternoon you have, in spite of all you 
can do, a little feeling of sadnes.s—for the 
Summer is going. About all you can seed 
now with any hope of n harvest is barley 
or peas or turnips. It is time to begin 
taking some account of stock. We cannot 
complain this year—and we would not if 
we could. The labor shortage has hurt 
us. and in .some fields the weeds are bad. 
If we could only get them cut and piled 
around the trees they would prove an 
asset, hut every hand is more than busy 
picking corn and tomatoes and apples. 
The truck will go snorting and puffing to 
market four times this week loaded to 
capacity. In spite of all our handicaps 
and discouragements this promises now to 
be about our best yea?-. This result is 
due to a combination of good prices, fair 
crops and the ability to get the i)roduce 
promptly into market. But Summer is 
going, and I am sorry to see it go. It 
has been wet and hot and di.sagreeable 
at times, yet there is nothing quite like 
the “good old Summer time” among the 
Xew Jersey hilhs. 
Keeping Contracts. —We have just 
had a sort of ])artnership case which will 
interest some of you who have children. 
When we pljuited the orchards I put in 
seven Twenty Ounce apple trees. Two 
were grafted on wild seedlings and five 
were from the nursery. I never cared for 
the variety, but planted these trees more 
as a novelty or variety experiment. The.se 
trees come into bearing early, but as we 
were limited to a local market the fruit 
never sold well, and I began to consider 
these trees as drones. Now my boys say 
that some years ago I gave them those 
trees. I do not remember the incident 
clearly, but evidently I did not consider 
the gift as a princely one. The boys 
have stayed by those trees (which are in 
sod). They were dusted this year and 
have had loads of weeds piled around 
them. Perhaps they heard Secretary 
Baker’s “work or fight” order, but at any 
rate they came up with a great crop of 
bouncing big apples. 
Good Trees. —And now come the boys 
holding me to the agreement. If I gave 
them the trees the fruit belongs to them! 
The first picking of this fruit brought 
$.’) no per barrel, and there must be nearly 
■STO worth on those trees! Now what 
about it? Shall I stand up to the agree¬ 
ment and turn the money over to the 
boys, or shall I consider that it was not 
a contract after all but merely talk ! I 
think it a mistake for boys to fall into 
“easy money” which they get without 
working reasonably, and they surely have 
given no fair equivalent for tho.se trees. 
Yet if I broke my agia'ement, .ns they un¬ 
derstand it. as so many people have done 
over the ownership of colts or calves or 
sheej). both the boys and my.self would 
he injured far more than (he money can 
hurt or help either of us. So they-are 
to pay a fair price for marketing the 
ai)ples, and then take the balance of the 
money. It is theirs, and they will buy a 
Liberty bond with it, and at the same 
time will lake more interest in the or¬ 
chard than ever before. I’liat alone 
ought to be woi-tli the price of the apples. 
they ai-e masters of their choice. Thus, 
when you can easily reach that trade 
the.se big, spongy, tasteless' apples are in 
demand, and they really become the most 
l)rofitable varieties you can handle. I 
hate to admit it, but I am here to give 
the facts, and in the face of them I think 
iny bo.vs would plant eight out of ten 
frees of Wolf River and Twenty Ounce 
instead of making that proportion of 
McIntosh, as I would. At the same time 
they would not eat these big ones. 
Truck Service. —We have now used our 
truck long enough to get a good estimate of 
its value. It is true that with such a truck 
on hand an^y farmer will push himself to 
provide work for it. He will find loads 
of produce where with the horses there 
would be little to go. This quick and 
ready service is sure to broaden out the 
market. The sale of these big, co,ar.se 
apples is a case in point. There is but 
little sale for them in the local market, 
because people who buy fruit direct come 
to know the varieties, and they demand 
good quality. Our old customers demand 
McIntosh and Baldwin, and they would 
never buy Wolf River the second time. 
In the big city most people cat with their 
eyes, and those big ones bring the money. 
The truck enables us to reach the mar¬ 
ket and find those customers. Another 
thing I find is the fact that a truckload 
of good fruit put right into the wholesale 
market will actually bring us more net 
money than an equal number of baskets 
I)eddled out to private customers. I did 
not .suppose that could be possible, and it 
may not be .so in ordinary .seasons, but 
(his year my figures show it. That would 
not be true where the fruit was sent by 
freight or express, but it is true tlu’s 
season with the goods swiftly and prompt¬ 
ly delivered. I see all sorts of figures 
given as to the value of a truckload of 
produce. Our best single load thus far 
brought about .$110. It was a combina¬ 
tion of sweet corn, tomatoes and a few 
apples. 
only make surer the peace which must be 
made in Germany. We shall have a little 
honey to help out. and the sugar beets 
will give us a so-called syrup and we will 
try to keep sweet-tempered, anyway. It 
is quite likely that we shall be cut off 
from a part of our coal supply this Win¬ 
ter. Well, there is a fine chance to util¬ 
ize some of those peach and apple trees 
that were killed last Winter. That fruit 
wood is nearly as hard as coal. And 
speaking of food—we have 10 purebred 
Red pigs that I must tell about and an¬ 
other family of halfbreeds. There are 
six of the young turkeys left—now past 
the age of danger. We shall be prepared 
Crops and Farm News 
for Thanksgiving! 
u. w. c. 
Groi’s. —On the whole they are ahead 
of other years. The earliest sweet corn 
was good and sold to good advantage. The 
ground has now been plowed and seeded 
to turnips and clover. The early potatoes 
did well. Beans are now growing where 
the potatoes were dug. The later sweet 
corn is coming along and will be quite 
up to estimate. Brices have kept up re¬ 
markably well. Our first Evergreen corn 
sold at .$2.00 per hundred. At any such 
l)rice sweet corn gets to be a great money 
crop, for the stalks can be utilized to 
good advantage. We think our tomato 
plants will stand comparison with any 
other patch of their size. Prices thus far 
have kept up well. One of our barns is 
stuffed with rye and the apple crop gets 
larger and larger as it develops. The one 
thing short with us is hay. I shall have 
to huy some, and a few of us would like 
to talk with some hay farmer who 
.ship over the Erie Railroad. 
can 
Proeitari.e Varieties. — But nearly 
.$1(1 each from trees which I did not con¬ 
sider worth keeping ! Everyone knows how 
I stand on such varieties as Wolf liiver 
and Twenty Ounce. I would not care to 
eat one. Yet what am I to say when we 
get .$.^..'10 per barrel for No. 1 and .$.‘).75 
for No. 2? And they are bought by as 
shrewd a class of people as you ever dealt 
with—^peojde who run restaurants in New 
York . Those men want an apple that 
will “bake and stand up”—that is, come 
out of the oven plump and full. Bake a 
McIntosh or Sutton and it will fall down 
into a sort of jelly. Some of the poor 
things v.dio jiay from 10 to 25 cents for 
a baked apple actually think they are 
cheatcfl when they get this fine, .soft apple 
jelly. The tough, springy Wolf River 
suits them better, and in this free country 
. Food Gon.servation. —I have told how 
Dlother is the food administrator in this 
local district. We all try to live up to 
the regulations regarding sugar. I am 
.satisfied there is a genuine shortage, and 
we have also found that two pounds per 
month for edch person is no great hard¬ 
ship. When I think of our boys on the 
other side and what they are doing it 
seems like a very small thing to growl 
about sugar. The way we do is to I)uy 
a two-pound package of sugar for each 
member of the family. Each iiackage is 
marked and each person uses his own day 
by day. We have .22 ounces, or a little 
more than one ounce each i)er day. By 
starting fair and using rea.sonahle self- 
denial we shall all have a little sugar left 
at the end of the month, and we have 
some quiet fun over the contest. In this 
family we try to teach the i)rincij)le of 
seivice and patriotic sacrifice. I think 
there is need of saving in both sugar and 
flour. I am satisfied that the administra¬ 
tion tries to be fair. Some people prob¬ 
ably take and use more than their share, 
but that is not the fault of the adminis¬ 
tration but more of per.sonal selfishness. 
In this household, all through from little 
Rose up, we realize how small and puny 
all these little personal inconveniences 
are compared with the frightful work 
which our boys must do. We will eat 
war bre.-ul with a thankful heart if it will 
th.'it 
huge 
order 
That Cosgrove Woodchuck 
As some return for help George A. 
Cosgrove of Connecticut has given me, I 
should like to aid him in getting rid of 
the woodchuck which is successfully 
springing his most powerful bear traps 
and in other ways eluding capture. We 
have woodchucks in this State, but evi¬ 
dently nothing that can compare in size 
and power with the Connecticut species. 
If the animal whose exploits are de¬ 
scribed by Mr. Co.sgrove is possessed of 
ferocity in measure with its strength, I 
.should dislike to meet it in the open un¬ 
less armed with a rifle of large bore. 
Naturalists who are interested in 
studying the elTect of their surroundings 
upon the development of the lower ani¬ 
mals should find these Connecticut wood¬ 
chucks worthy of close observation. Those 
(hat burrow in the mellow soil of my 
State are small, timid animals whose only 
defense is their S])eed and agility, but, 
from Mr. Cosgrove's st.-itements, I judge 
the effort required in moving the 
boulders of Connecticut fields in 
to make room for their burrows has 
so developed the muscular power of Con¬ 
necticut woodchucks as to make them 
comparable in strength with the redoubt¬ 
able grizzly of the RocKies. At any rate, 
this woodchuck beneath Mr. Cosgrove’s 
chicken coop will evidently have to he 
destroyed by some other method than cap¬ 
ture in a bear trap, and I want to de¬ 
scribe one that I have found both simple 
and efficient. 
This method is the cmploj’ment of bi¬ 
sulphide of carbon, an inexpensive liquid 
oDtainable through any drug store. Most 
woodchuck homes have several entrances 
and exits, at lea.st in my State. Perhaps 
(he more formidable, and probably fear¬ 
less, Connecticut woodchuck is content 
with one. To destroy the family occupy¬ 
ing one of these homes, take a hoe and 
close all but the evidentlj' most used 
opening with tamped earth. Do this at 
a time of day when the family is likely to 
be at home. Then wrap a pledget of ab¬ 
sorbent cotton about the size of a small 
lemon about the end of a flexible sprout 
cut from an old apple tree. The sprout 
serves as a convenient hamlle, while the 
size and shape of the pledget of cotton be¬ 
come symb(dical of the fruit which you 
are about to hand the woodchuck. If lime 
presses and you wish to kill two birds 
with one stone, you will jtrohably be able 
to locate .some handy vein of underground 
water by using a forked twig from a peach 
tree instead of the apple tree sprout, but 
if dealing with Connecticut woodchucks 
you had better keep j’our mind on the one 
job in hand. 
Now })our out two or three ounces of 
the liquid into an open di.sh and soak it 
uj) Avith the cotton pledget, then thrust 
this as far into the burrow as it will go 
and quickly close that opening with 
tamped earth. Odie li(iuid will immedi- 
ar.d the fumes, being 
, will sink to the bottom 
That is all; only don’t 
an artificial light about 
(i’ounecti- 
suddenly 
at(dy evaixirate 
heavier than air 
of the burrow, 
smoke or have 
when doing the work, and, if in 
cut, and a woodchuck should 
appear at the mouth of its burrow Avhile 
you are preparing to kill it, you will, of 
course, carefully avoid comin,g within 
reach of its powerful forearm. The fumes 
of bisulphide of carbon are not only de¬ 
structive to all animal life but highly ex- 
Itlosive as Avell. If you do not wish to 
])recede the woodchuck to the happy 
hunting grounds, do the work by daylight, 
and. if you must use tobacco while doing 
it, chew. M. B. D. 
Hay is very light. Old hay is in no 
demand. Oats are very good; corn back¬ 
ward ; rye and wheat fair. The price paid 
at the store for butter is 42c; eggs 44c. 
Ijambs, IG to l<Sc per lb.; pigs, eight 
AA-eek.s jold, .$S to .$10; cows, fresh, $100 
to $125, and are in demand. There is not 
much fruit. ii. s. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
The crops raised in this locality are 
mostly fruit and truck. New Brunswick 
the local market. The prices have been 
unusually good this season. Red rasp¬ 
berries sold for $!).G0 per crate of .22 qts. 
right through the season. Blackberries 
were a very short crop and sold for $.S 
per crate. Apples, $2 per bu.; sweet 
corn, $2 to $2.50 ])er hundred; Lima 
beans, .20c per qt., shelled ; potatoes, $1.00 
to $2 per bTi. ; onions, $2 per bu. There 
are no peaches in the neighborhood. Corn 
is looking fairly good, although it had to 
be replanted in many places. Hay was 
short. Oats .a fair average crop. Whejit 
and rye were good. In many cases here 
(he .sons and younger men have been 
taken in the draft, but those left on the 
farms have done their bit by working 
harder .and thus made up for the shortage 
of help, and I think the result will he a 
season fully up to the average in produce 
and prosperitv. e. c. m 
Middlesex Co., N. .T. 
The harvest here is almost completed ; 
a few oats that were cut with the binder 
to put in the barn yet. The wheat crop 
is not up to the .average yield, but a very 
good quality. Rye is a fair crop, but was 
rather thin on the ground. Some of the 
oat fields Avill make a good yield. Hay 
crop got up in good order, but the ton- 
n.age Avill not be up to the average. Corn 
bids fair for .a good cron, although owing 
to the scarcity of seed corn last Spring 
some of the farmers had to send oil for 
their seed, and this corn, although mak¬ 
ing a good groAvth, is at lea.st 10 days 
late in coming into tassel. An early frost 
would be likely to injure it. Fniit not 
plenty; many of the apple, plum and 
peach trees were injured by the cold Win¬ 
ter. The prices are for the curb market 
at Indiana : Roasting ears, .2flc per doz.; 
ajiples, $1.50 per bu.; potatoes, GOc per 
peck ;tomatoe.s, 12c per lb.; eggs, 44c 
per doz.; young chickens, .2.2e per lb., live 
weight. jr, 
Indiana Co., Pa. 
Harvesting about done, but a few oats 
stilt remain to be ctit. Grain and hay 
crops fair. Gur fr.'iin will average about 
25 .bu. per acre. Early cabbage a good 
crop, but early potatoes were almost a 
failure. Late cabbage was hit very hard 
hy the midsummer drought, but we are 
now having rains, and it is recuperating 
very rapidly. Corn and late potatoes look 
])romising. Sweet corn is good, and is 
noAv being marketed. Pa.sture is short, 
owing to the dry weather, and we now 
have to feed our cows on Winter rations. 
Pittsburgh is our market, and prices as 
a rule are high and in most cases .satis¬ 
factory to the farmers. A few complaints, 
but taken as a whole conditions seem to 
be satisfactory. Encle Sam can depend 
upon the farmer every time, so long as he 
get.s a .square de.al. Prices are about as 
folloAvs: AVheat, .$2.20 per bu. iwe, 
.$1.05; corn. .$2; oats, .S,5c. Potatoes, 
$1.50 to $1.75 per bu.; cabbage. $1.25 per 
bu. ; sweet corn, 2,5c to 40c per doz.; to- 
m.atoes. $1 per bu. ; butter, .5.5c per lb.; 
milk, 14c per qt.; eggs. .50c. Spring 
chickens, 4,5c iier lb.; hens, .2.5c. F.at 
hogs, 20c to 21 (Af* lu'r lb.; sucking pigs, 
$15 per pair for good ones. Milch cows, 
$100 to .$1.50. s. I.. F. 
Allegheny Co., Pa. 
The grain harvest in Franklin County 
is well under way witi'i a splendid yield; 
a noticeable increase in the wheat acre¬ 
age is seen in this section and many more 
bushels of wheat will be thraslud by 
farmers in this county tlnui for a great 
number of year.s. Corn Is not as good as 
usual, but many fields are making con¬ 
siderable growth, and if .ihe warm 
weather continues until the Ifitli of Sep¬ 
tember. nearly an average crop will be 
secured. Potatoes look very well, not 
much if any blight has affected fields in 
this locality. A number of new silos are 
being erected in Franklin County. Hired 
help on the farm seems to be one of the 
greatest problems for our farmers to solve. 
Butter, 4.Sc per lb. ; cheese, 24Vic per lb.; 
l»ork. 2Sc per lb.; new potatoes. $1.75 
per bu.; eggs, 40c per doz.; milk at the 
stations about .$210 per cwt. ii. T. j. 
Franklin Co., N. Y. 
My business is small fruit and garden¬ 
ing, which is .good this year. Sour cher¬ 
ries .sold at ISc to 20c; red raspberries, 
2.5c to 2Gc per qt. ; early potatoes, .$1,7.5 
per bu., but in bad condition on account 
of the blight.^ We have had but little rain 
since the middle of .Tune, and very dry 
now. Gur princip.al crops in this part of 
the State are potatoes, oats, buckwheat, 
hay, beans, some wheat and rye. Dairy¬ 
ing is also a leading indu.str.v. Butter, 
47c; milk, 12c i)er qt.; hay. .$20 per ton ; 
oats. 00_c per bu.; wheat, $2 20. Beans 
are_ looking good and promise a good ci'op. 
It is hard to tell what late potatoes wjll 
do. owing to insects and dry weather. 
Gats are looking good; hay was light. 
Tell that man who is having such a hard 
time trapju'ng woodchcucks to wet a good 
piece of old rag with gasoline and stuff 
it in the hole and tramp the end of the 
hole full of dirt, and see if he comes out. 
Steuben Co., N. Y. l. w. 
