1046 
September 7, 1918 ' 
IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
(lETTixG Going. —I will confess that 
I .slept half an hour later than usual on 
Saturday. August 24. I wish I could 
have made a full hour, for the hot days 
at the end of Summer do take out the 
energy. We were up at last and got the 
boys started. During these hot nights 
they sleep out on the h'^rcdi—one in the 
hammock, the other on the floor. The 
smaller children came along later, until 
finally our entire family of 1.1 ri‘i)ovted 
for duty. This duty was varied. The 
aunts are visiting. T'hoir duty is to stores 
up a suiiply of energy for next year’s 
work. Th(‘ women had canning and 
hou.sework ahead of them, the little chil¬ 
dren had a day of playing out on the 
.sunny lawn, and the rest of us had our 
choice of a dozen jobs. 
Work. —Thomas had gone to market 
with n truck load of .sweet corn, apples 
and tomatoes, lie started the evening be¬ 
fore for upper New York, and went on 
the market in the early morning. There 
were apples to be picked, sweet corn to 
cut, field corn to cultivate, weeds to cut, 
turnips to be weeded, young peach trees 
to be cleaned up, stubble ground to be 
plowed for rye, and cover crops to be 
.seeded in the corn. No lack of tvork; 
the only trouble to know what to take 
uj) first. We decided to ])ick tlie McIn¬ 
tosh Red apples over in “Westward IIo!” 
This is a field at the extreme west of 
the farm, nearly a mile away from the 
buildings. Nearly 20 years ago, when we 
came here, I found this field abandoned— 
growing up to brush and birch trees. I 
now think it would have been more 
economical to put our work in nearer 
homo, but I wnnted a little pioneer work 
—and we got it! We cleaned that field 
up and sowed cow peas, followed by rye 
and corn. There were fair crops, hut 
the crows and chipmunks got most of the 
grain, so we j)lanted Wealthy and Mc- 
Into.sh apples. These trees have been 
somewhat neglected, but this year they 
came up with a good crop. AVe sold the 
Wealthys early. The McIntosh might 
well hang on longer, but we found wagon 
tracks leading away from the orchard 
and an occasional aj)i)le marking the 
way! With No. 1 McIntosh selling at 
four cents a pound it was time to remove 
all temptation. 
Picking — So the boys put 
Bi'oker into the light apple wagon and 
the four of us .started for “Westwai'd 
IIo!” AVby this name? The adventures 
in clearing it reminded me of ('harles 
Kinghley’s book. No one seems to read 
Kingsley in thest? days, so most i)eoi)le 
get it Avestwobd hoe, which is all right 
jf we take it as a motto. At any 
Tate Broker tt)iled u)) the hill and through 
the woods, and we were soon pulling the 
red beauties from the trees. We do not 
pretend to be expert pickers, _ and very 
likely we do not handle it right, .so I 
shall not tell how we did it. A McIntosh 
must b(! handled like an egg if you ex¬ 
pect to sell it for what it is worth It 
would be better to make three different 
pickings of this variet.v, for the smaller 
ones will grow larger if left on the tree. 
With this sort of picking it re(iuires nice 
judgment to know just which apples to 
take. It would be impossible to describe 
this on paper. In this faraway field we 
made one picking—taking everything— 
large and small, as they came. By about 
10 o’clock we had picked a wagouload in 
large baskets or hampers. The larger 
boy drove this load back to the barn to 
bring more l)askets. and the rest of iis 
kept on picking. It was hoi I This 
“Westward IIo!” lies in a little pocket at 
the foot of a low hill and there is a 
fringe of woods all around it. The sun 
beats down into it and there is little 
chance of a breeze. 
Reflection.s. —It was hot and the 
water jug was in frequent demand. I 
suppose all workers think while their 
arms and feet are busy, and very likely a 
record of these reflection.s would give us 
a good index to character. The boys were 
thinking about the opening of school, 
what Thomas would report from his trip, 
and whether our boys in France were 
still pushing the Germans back._ The 
thoughts of youth naturally lie in the 
future. As I picked I was thinking of 
the history of this orchard and what I 
would do now if tin- work were to be 
done over. To me it was peopled with 
old-time Hope Farmer.s-—T'ncle Kd, Char¬ 
lie, Jack, Old Brent and the older boys! 
I can see noAV that I did not use enough 
lime at the beginning. We missed several 
years of cover crops, and the soil shows 
it. We did not u.se enough Alsike clover 
last Spring. The boy seeded two alleys 
and I thought he was wasting the seed. 
So I did the rest myself, and his alleys 
have a far better seeding than mine. 
Would I plant the same varieties if we 
were doing it over, in view of this year’s 
experience? Would we not h.ave been 
better off after all if w’C had let this field 
go back to the forest? I had not settled 
these questions when the boy came back 
with the empty baskets. AA’’e put on an¬ 
other load and started home for dinner. 
It. was a grateful relief to.pass out of the 
glare and heat of Westward Ho! into the 
cool shade of the woods. When we 
reached the top of the hill and looked 
dow’u to the east the farm and its build¬ 
ings lay stretched out before us. Along 
the road came a streak of tan and black, 
and we knew' the truck had come back 
from New York. It came puffing and 
panting into the yard and up to the barn 
as if to .say: “I have done my job and 
now I will rest—unlike those grafting 
horses, which must be watered and fed 
whether they give any labor returns or 
not.” 
A Goon Load. —Thomas had the re¬ 
turns for his load and also the figures on 
those Twenty Ounce apples which the 
boys sent down. The sweet corn brought 
,$.‘1.50 per hundred, the tomatoes .$1 and 
the apples $2 to .$2.50 per bu.shel. The 
entire load sold for .$90.14. And so we 
responded to the dinner bell in good s]iir- 
its. We had baked hamburger steak, po¬ 
tatoes, beans, b<'ets and sweet corn. The 
war bread was made of rye and entire 
wheat, mixed. Our family seems to think 
that it is a better conservation of food to 
have Mother serve out the meat ration 
and let all hands help themselves to veg- 
etable.s. Each one had an individual pack¬ 
age of sugar. It is near the end of the 
month, and we shall all get through with 
a .surplus. During the forenoon Mother 
and her daughter had been canning corn 
and tomatoes. They have a portable ar¬ 
rangement out on the airy back porch, 
and the odor of their cooking went well 
with dinner. But for that canning we 
should have had an apple dowdy for 
dinner. The one economic objection to 
that is that the daughter insists on using 
Alclntosh for coohuifj. The little girls had 
been helping clean house—^iu fact, it was 
a flushed and industrious crowd which 
surrounded our table and sat for a mo¬ 
ment after dinner, listening while Mother 
read the war news, (.'herry-top got it a 
little wrong when he reported that the 
Germans had been driven back .50 miles. 
There is some difference between a "50- 
mile fronf’ and a retreat of .50 miles. 
However, they are going, and some of our 
folks are helping. We all went out to do 
our share on the farm. 
Afternoon Jobs. — The high-school 
student has been digging potatoes through 
the forenoon. He takes half a day off on 
Saturday, so he rode his wheel away with 
his money in his pocket and a dozen ears 
of sweet corn in a bag. One would think 
Thomas had done a day’s work, but he 
kept going, fitting up the truck for an¬ 
other load Miinday night. The boys went 
back to i)icking apples. We know enough 
to look for the shady side of a hill farm— 
so this afternoon the boys picked in an 
orchard on the east side of the hill, where 
they do not get the direct rays of the 
sun. Philip and I, with the little chil¬ 
dren, went to pulling sweet corn out of 
the strawberries. This Spring we plant¬ 
ed strawberries two feet apart each way. 
Then we dropped two kernels of Golden 
Bantam sweet corn one way. This grew 
and was hoed several times. We had a 
good crop of sweet corn and the berry 
plants have not suffered. Now that most 
of the ears are picked Ave pull up the 
.sweet corn stalks to give the plants a full 
chance. The boys come with the wagon 
and haul these stalks away and pile them 
beside the pig yard. AA’e have the mak¬ 
ings of over .$400 worth of pork, and on 
this farm we recognize the fact that a pig 
is a grazing animal. The entire stalks 
are thrown over to the pigs and they 
chew everything down to the roots. Those 
Red pigs roam about with a sweet corn 
stalk in their mouth like a boy with a 
stick of candy. 
Useful AVeeds. —This job finished. I 
lead my youthful army up the lane for a 
lesson in mulching. On the lower hillside 
we have a young peach orchard with po¬ 
tatoes between the rows. This is what 
we call the “Bible potatoes,” as they are 
grown for the Bible Teachers’ Training 
School. Last year you may reinemoer I 
tried such a patch and introduced a few 
new scientific touches. The plant lice 
cleaned them all up. This year Thomas 
disregarded science and gave them very 
practical treatment. The result is we 
shall have a big crop for the school. Along 
the rows of peach trees and scattered 
through the potatoes are tremendous 
plants of ragweed and smartweed. You 
might call them a curse, but they are just 
what I want around these young trees. 
So I take the scythe and cut along the 
rows. The children are supposed to pile 
these weeds around the trees, but they 
soon get tired and I am left on the job 
alone. It is hot and sweaty work, but 
by the time the boys come down the hill 
with their load of apples I have a weed 
l)ile tlie size of a hay cock around each 
tree. That will do wonders for these 
trees. Through the last terrible AVinter 
we did not have a single tree with a pile 
of this mulch around it. It seems to me 
that I must have cut several tons of 
weeds when the sun over the western 
hills makes fun of the clocks and warns 
us that the end of the working day has 
come. 
AATnding Things Up. —So we all quit 
a little early, have our bath, and line up 
for supper. The canning outfit has been 
l)utting in full time, but now they blow 
out the flame and survey the great moun¬ 
tain of corn and tomatoes. The boys are 
ready for a game of ball on the lawn, but 
(Continued on page 10.5G) 
® Sit Where You Always Sat 
t On the Seat of the Implement 
Y OU wouldn't think of riding on the 
back of one of your horses while at 
work in order to guide your team. 
If you did you would require another 
person to operate the implement, because 
implements require eonstant attention, j 
Then why attempt to operate, a tractor 
in a manner which your experience has 
proven impractical? It is just as illogical 
to ride on a tractor in front of the imple¬ 
ment tmd expect to opierate the imple¬ 
ment from that position as it is to opierate 
the implement from the back of your horse. 
Any way you look at it you are working at a die- 
advantage with the ordinary tractor. To do the 
bett work two operators are required, one on the 
tractor and one on the implement. In these days of^ 
extreme labor shortage this is a tremendous hand-' 
icap. With the operator on a tractor in front of the- 
implement it is manifestly impossible for him to give 
the implement attention and make adjustments for 
varying field conditions without losing time. 
Just Like Driving Horses 
With the Moline-Universal Tractor you 
sit on the seat of the implement and 
have perfect control of both implement 
and tractor. You are in the best posi¬ 
tion to observe the work, make adjust¬ 
ments and manipulate both tractor and 
implement. This holds true regardless 
of the work being done—plowing, disc¬ 
ing, harrowing, planting, cultivating, 
mowing, harvesting, both greiin and corn. 
A Time Tried Principle 
There is nothing new about this, we 
simply apply a principle which millions of 
farmers have demonstrated to be sound. 
The Moline-Universal gives one man 
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doing the work of from .6 to 8 horses. 
Works Day and Night' 
The One-Man feature is just one of 
msmy advantages the Moline-Universal 
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including cultivating. It is the only tractor 
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No detail has been overlooked to give the 
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9-18 H. P. Oil is forced to crankshaft 
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I Valuable Information for You 
' Our catalog tells how you can operate 
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Since 1865 we have been making farm 
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Address Dept. No. 19 
MOLINE PLOAV CO. 
MOLINE, ILLINOIS 
Manufacturers of Quality Farm Implements 
Plow’a, (steel And 
chilled) 
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Since I66S 
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1 —^ 
