1183 
C’Ac RURAL NEW-YORKER 
More About Those Hill Farms 
Conditions and Requirements for Success 
III'] farms we are writing about are hill farms, 
so called because they are up out of the valley, 
and one must go up hill to get to them: A good 
many of them are as level as any farms in the valley, 
and some are hilly, and cultivation is more diflicult. 
The soil of most of them is good and fertile, and 
with the application of lime, in so'iue form, good 
crops can be grown. There are some stones on these 
farms, but most of them are not stony. The stones 
do not interfere with the cultivation. Some of the 
land ought never to have been cleared. fJrowing 
timber was what it was best htted for. Now it is 
only good for grazing sheep or cattle. The hills are 
too steep for cultivation. 
Travelling through this .section of country a man 
would see many acres of good land that had not 
been cultivated for years. lie would see grass that 
had not been cut or pa.stured, and the rea.son for 
its being in this condition is lack of help, inability 
of some farmers on account of advanced age. owners 
living in village or city and not being able to get any¬ 
one to work the land, and. in some instances, not 
able to get help to harvest crops alre.-ul.v grown. 
I am asked “What kind of crops can be grown on 
these farms?” Almost all kinds of croi)s. This is 
not a limestone soil, and the land needs lime, and 
needs it badly. It is like throwing money away to 
.seed on land that has not been limed. Hut an 
application of one ton of pulverized limestone, or 
half a ton of hydrated or raw lime per acre, will 
’put the land into shape to produce the rankest kind 
of clover growth. I tried a little lime on an old 
meadow, and where I sow<>d the lime the clover 
came in as thick as avooI on a sheep’s back. Hut 
the best Avay to apply the lime is to sow it on 
plowed ground .so that it can be harrowed in .-ind 
thoroughly mixed Avith the soil. This is a dairying 
section, and many herds of tine purebred cattle can 
be seen. The i>rincipal ci'oits are hay. oats, potatoes 
and buckwheat. Since lime has been used good 
crops of Avheat, rye, corn and beans have been 
raised. It is an ideal section for poultry, and fruit 
of all kinds does Avell. A young man buying one of 
the.se farms, and setting out a good-sized orchard, 
Avould, in a few years, have a nice income from 
fruit alone; that is, if he took good 
care of his ti'ces. Hive the trees the 
.same care trees receive in the fruit 
belt and I believe they aa'ouUI yield 
as Avell. and there is always a g(md 
market for fruit. 
I Avould not advise a man Avith no 
experience in farming to buy one of 
• 
these farms, although the i»rice is 
loAV, unless he had ])lenty of caiiital, 
and could secure good help. I Avould 
not advise any man Avith less than 
.$1,000 to buy one of these farms, 
although a man who had grown-up 
children to help him might got along 
lucely on less capital. Hut 1 do say, 
right here is a good chance for an 
experienced farmer \A'ith small cap- 
it:il. I am not a farm agent, or a 
real estate dealer, but T AA’ould like to see this land 
occupied, and the men Avho want farms get the 
benefit of this low-priced land. 
At the close of the war I believe all of 
these loAV-priced farms Avill be in great demand. 
T Avould advise any man Avho is thinking of 
buying a farm to bu.v uoav. I don’t believe that 
CA’er again the price Avill l)e as low as now. I don’t 
advise any man Avho has a good job at good Avages 
to throAV up his job and buy a farm. Hut I do 
ad\’ise farnuM's who do not OAvn farms, and Avant to 
own farms, and IniA'e suflicient capital to .start Avith, 
to buy now. Might here is as good a place for a 
man to start in farming as he Avill find anywhere, 
and, in some respects, much better. We are near 
good markets, the best in the Avorld, and taxes are 
Bay Tedder in TonipJcins Co., y. Y. Fig. 575 
lower than in many other places, for our farms are 
a.ssessed lower. We are not an isolated country. 
The farmhou.ses are as close together as you Avill 
find elsewhere, and Ave are a social people. We 
have our neighborhood gatherings. We have good 
churches, and good schools, and our roads are as 
good as the average country roads. What more can 
a man ask for? geo. av. dell. 
Tioga County, N. Y. 
New York Cider and Vinegar Makers 
T he confusion in the minds of Avould-be prv»- 
ducers of cider and vinegar as to the matter 
of licen.se has A'ery little ground in fact. Any 
pei’son may operate a cider mill Avithout a licen.se, 
and he may sell the sweet juice of the apple without 
Whitewashing the Henhouse. Fig. 51Ji. 
entering the talons of the law. When the ])roduct 
of his mill has so aged that it reaches the legal 
standard of vinegar he may also sell that commodity 
without license. 
Rut if he ventures to sell his product Avhile in 
that stage (»f ferment as to be classifie<t as an intoxi- 
caling drink he is amenable to the excise I'ogulation.s. 
After cider is fermented it cannot be legally .sold in 
any quantity in any State Avithout a liquor license, 
and not eA'eu then in prohibition States. While any 
farmer or other individual may Avithout molesta¬ 
tion ju'oduce and .sell legal standard vinegar, it 
cannot be denied that the standard is one more 
calculat(‘d to confine vinegar production to the large 
commercial producers than to the often irresponsible 
small [)roducer Avho conducted a border-land estab¬ 
lishment, just slipping by prosecution Avhen in many 
cases he deserved the fnll rigor of the hiAA'. 
To this end the definition of “vinegar, cider vine¬ 
gar, aiiple vinegar,” as taken from the Federal 
A'inegar standards is rather iiiA'olved: “Vinegar, 
cider vinegar, apple vinegar is the product made by 
the alcoholic and sidtsequent acetous fermeutations 
of tlie juice of apples, is levo-rotatory, and contains 
not le.ss than four grams of acetic acid, not less 
than l.(> grams of apple solids, of AA’hich not more 
than 50 per cent are reducing sugans, and not less 
than 0.25 gram of apple ash in 100 cubic centi¬ 
meters (20C) ; and the Avater soluble ash from 100 
cubic centimeters of the vinegar contains not less 
than 10 milligrams of idiosphoric acid (1*2 05). and 
retpiires not le.ss than 30 cubic centimeters of deci- 
normal acid to neutralize its alkalinity.” 
IIoAvever. each State has its own legal standard 
for vinegar, and in many cases this differs some- 
Avhat from the Federal standard. For exam]Ale. 
New York State re(iulres 4.5 per cent acidity and 
2 per cent solids. 
Hy this complex definition of legal vinegar it does 
not follow that all the product of years ago from 
individual mills was of a (piality that Avould not noAV 
pass the test. However, much of it avouUI not satisfy 
present reiiuirements. There Avas much lack of 
uniformity as evidenced by the housewife’s tongue 
test before using it. Today it must enter the full 
A’inegar st;ige befoi'e going on the market, and this 
is the exact compass of the statute on the subject. 
Of late years the increasing practice among the 
apple growers of Western New York has been to .'<ell 
first the barreling stock, turning the cjinning and 
cider stock over to the canneries. Many of the can¬ 
neries buy orchards outright, dividing the fruit into 
the proper grades, and, in cases Avhere the cannei-y 
does not operate its own cider plant, the ciders are 
shipited in bulk to the large vinegar plants. The 
commercial plants buy in better than car lots, and 
ha\e superior facilities for vinegar production. 
There is room for both large and small plants, how¬ 
ever, though it is becoming manifest that some curb 
should be placed ou the old-fashioued process of the 
small mill by Avhich a barrel of SAveet cider comes 
back home, ouI.a' to make much trouble and mi.sery 
later in the year. 1‘o.ssibly Avith prohibition Ave Avill 
have this evil cared for. \. ai. culver. 
Fall Pruning Peach Trees 
In CdTinoction Avith the suggestions of M. A. Hlako 
on page DSl. for treatment of ailing peach trees, and 
other such articles recently. I very imich desire to knoAv 
Avhat Avill he the effect of cutting back such trees after 
the fruit is taken from them, before they are dormant? 
With the foliage still on, the condition of the tree, 
and Avhat it needs can so much better be determined. 
It is a principle of floAvering shrubbery that it shonhl 
be pruned immediately after floAvering. Is this true 
of fruit trees, as, for example, early apple and SAveet 
apple trees, and if not Avhat Avill be the ill effects of 
pruning healthy trees at that period? av. o. N. 
H'mnsylvania. 
E.vril trees can be pruned to increase vigor in 
the late Fall as soon as most of the le.'iA’cs 
are loose upon the tAvigs and beginning to fall 
freely. I Avould not advi.se the pruning of Aveak or 
Avinter-injured trees earlier than this for the best 
result.s. Weak trees need all of the foliage possible 
during the groAviug season in oi'der to store up plant 
food in the tree for the beginning of the Spring 
groAvth. Cutting back the tips of the branches just 
after the fruiting of early varieties 
Avould tend to force the tA’ee into 
vegetative groAvth, and it might spe”.l 
its energy in this AA’ay and the amount 
of stored food be greatly reduced. 
It is imj»ortant to liaA’e the Aveak tree 
provided Avith as much stored food 
as possible before Winter in order 
that it may make the best luissible 
start in the early Spring. The re¬ 
duction of the toi) in the Winter then 
i’csults in the distribution of this 
stored food to a limited tAvig .surface 
and number of buds in the Spring, 
and their individual vigor is thereb.y 
increased. 
You state it is a principle of floAv¬ 
ering shrubbery that it should he 
pruned immediately after floAvering. 
Siich is not a plant groAA’th ])rinciple, hoAvever. but 
the suggestion of gardeners in order that tlie shrub 
may present a good sIioav of floAvers at blooming 
time, and then it oidy applies to certain shridAs 
Avhich produce their bloom on the one-year-old Avood. 
Take, for example, Spira'a Van Houttei or For.sythia 
suspensa. The IloAvers are produced freely along 
the one-year-old tAvigs. If these tAvigs are severely 
cut Imck during the Winter. tloAver production is 
greatly reduced, and the shrubs pi’esent a stiff, 
unnatural appearance. IIoAvevev, if the.se pl.ants 
Avere in a much Aveakened condition from old age? 
and lack of attention, they should be scA’erely thinned 
out and cut back in the dormant season to encourage 
a more A’igorous groAvth. As a general rule. Summer 
pruiung is not a good method of increasing the vigor 
of a Aveak plant, but is likely to have the opposite 
Harvest in Tompkins Co., N. Y. Fig. old 
Filling the Corncrih. Fig. 575 
