f 1272 
Wm RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 30, 1919 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
This day (August 1(5) lias been, in its 
farm operations, much like a woman’s 
“pieked-up” dinner—a little of everything 
—the last contest between the hens and 
the humans for the table scraps. We had 
intended to pick apples, but last night, 
w thout warning, a sudden thunder¬ 
shower rushed through our valley and 
soaked us once more. The morning came 
gray and threatening, with every tree 
like a sponge and so full of moisture that 
whenever you touched a limb down came 
a shower bath. Of course I know that 
some of the “daylight-savers” say there 
is nothing in the hrgumen'; about working 
in heavy .dew or rain. I could have con¬ 
vinced any of them in less than two 
minutes if we could have got him near 
our apple trees on this or any dewy morn¬ 
ing. After one good soaking he would 
have seen “daylight” as he never did 
before. It wac ndeed a cold and clammy 
outlook as we went out after breakfast— 
too wet to hoe or cultivate, but just 
right for mulching the apple trees. So I 
told tlio smaller boys to hitch Bob to the 
small wagon while I sharpened the scythe 
<>n the grindstone. It was part of my 
job as a boy to turn the grindstone while 
the hired man held on, but now we work 
the stone by foot power, and before long 
we shall have a gasoline engine for it. 
*' $ * * $ 
Just as we finished breakfast the truck 
puffed into the yard. Thomas and the 
larger boy spout the night, in the Paterson 
street market, selling out a load of sweet 
corn and apples. The truck was all ready 
for another run, but the boys were dead 
tired. Thomas went to sleep at once. 
The boy had a little breakfast and then 
felt, that he must try a few of the new 
records on the vietrola—then he turned 
in. Marketing is hard and eager work, 
and it cannot be done properly unless 
the inarketman has sleep enough. Just 
now we go to the New York wholesale 
market on Tuesday and to the Paterson 
market on Friday. In the latter place 
goods are sold at retail, or to grocers or 
butcher®—only one hand away from the 
consumer. Our load last night was the 
third picking of f'ory sweet corn and 
Wealthy and Wolf River apples packed 
in peach baskets. 
* * * $ $ 
You can imagine that such corn is 
little better than “nubbins,” yet it sold 
at $1.50 per hundred! Years ago I have 
known the finest ears of Evergreen or 
Mammoth to sell for 75 cents. The 
apples tire going well. The first quality 
Wolf River sold last night at $1.25. There 
are six baskets to the barrel, so that 
means $7.50. Wealthy brought 75 cents, 
or $4.50 per barrel, and they were second 
size at that. The entire load brought 
$95.05. One best single truck load thus 
far brought $120.50. This was corn and 
tomatoes on the wholesale market in New 
York. Tomatoes started at $4 per basket, 
though we had none early enough to 
bring that; price. Last night they were 
down to 50 cents, though the retail price 
at, the stores was not much reduced. 
Tomatoes were shot down to this low 
price to farmers through reports of the 
sale of canned tomatoes from the army 
supply. This will not provide one week’s 
supply for the country, but the dealers 
have talked about millions of cans until 
the public thinks tomatoes ought to be 
given away. Then, when our price on the 
farm or truck has been cut down low, the 
dealers can buy, sell t.o the eanners, and 
put up tin* price of canned goods when 
this army .supply ha® been delivered and 
eaten. That is the way these things go. 
■it * * * * 
But some one will say that with apples 
at $7.50 per barrel and corn nubbins at 
$150 the Hope Farm people are “prof¬ 
iteers.” 1 will cheerfully submit to any 
Government inspection of our figures. 
When we sell an ear of corn for 114 cents 
the restaurant will charge you 5 to 10 
cents for tlie same ear. Last week we 
sent " some tine Early Mammoth to New 
York, and it brought $3.75 per 100. A 
day '>r two later I saw a man in a res¬ 
taurant order an ear of corn. If' it was 
not. one of our own lot it. was a twin 
sister. The buyer paid 20 cents for it 
and was well satisfied. All the cook did 
was to pull off the husk and, put the ear 
in boiling water. Our apples were sold 
at retail or to grocers who sold by tlie 
dozen or half peck. Such a grocer will 
probably figure on making about 50 cents 
a basket to clear himself. If rot should 
start in and he bad to keep them over. 
Sunday he would probably lose money 
or barely break even. It does seem like 
an extravagant .price, when we are paid 
$7.50 for Wolf Rivers. Honestly I would 
not pay any such price for this inferior 
apitle. As baking fruit, however, it is 
prized by many people, and the market 
is short this year. In a market like 
Paterson the law of supply and demand 
runs true, since we sell direct, or to the 
last hand in the trade, and these prices 
represent what the buyers are willing to 
pay—without extortion or fraud. 
But does it cost anything like $7.50 to 
produce a barrel of apples? You must 
remember that most of these varieties 
bear t every other year. The crop this 
year must pay for the labor and all other 
expenses of two years. Then the grower 
must work and spend money from seven 
to 32 years before he gets any apples at 
all. I have a Baldwin apple tree this 
year which is likely to give some- $30 
worth of fruit. There are 42 such trees 
on an acre. Some follow who is trying 
to make-the farmer out as a “profiteer” 
would say that means $1,200 an acre sure 
—year after year! The truth is this 
tree is 1(5 years old, and this is the first 
profitable crop it has given. On the dozen 
trees around it there are barely five bar¬ 
rels of apples. One is dead and' several 
others were so badly injured by the fear¬ 
ful Winter of two year® ago that they 
may never recover. Thus the one good 
tree must pay all the expenses of these 
other trees for at least 15 years! Very 
few city people ever stop to consider this 
side of farming. They seem to think that 
when a man takes in $50 for farm produce 
it is clear gain, and is merely a matter 
of one season. The fact is that we can¬ 
not sell a barrel of apples or a bag of 
potatoes or a can of milk without being 
forced to pay, out of it, part of the ex¬ 
penses of other years. The city man 
seems incapable of understanding that, 
and I suppose it explains why lie thinks 
farmers must be gettng rich when now 
and then they strike fair prices. 
« # * * * 
But I left myself sharpening the scythe 
while the boys harnessed Boh. They put 
a load of phosphate in the wagon box and 
started ahead, throwing about five pounds 
around each apple tree in the lower or¬ 
chard. Now is the time to put phos¬ 
phorus in the orchard in order to start 
a crop of good fruit buds. In our sod . 
orchards tjie plan is to put. the phosphate 
in the ground and then pile manure or 
weeds or any trash over it. While the 
hoys were throwing on the phosphate, I 
went to cutting weeds in the fence cor¬ 
ners and along the stone walls. I pre¬ 
sume I ought to feel ashamed to admit it, 
hut there were ragweed, pigweed and 
smart weed as high a® my head ! It was 
no place for a hay fever patient or a 
scientific farmer. One would have sneezed 
himself into a fit. the other would have 
had a fit to think of permitting such 
weeds to grow. But listen to my ex¬ 
planation. I can show from the figures 
that these despised weeds contain more 
plant food than most cultivated plants. 
I think I can prove that ragweed is a 
potash accumulator, and that smartweed 
is smarter at getting phosphorus out. of 
the soil than any of the legumes! They 
cry and beg to be fed phosphorus cut 
of a spoon. My friend smartweed merely 
says—let me at it in the soil! Now 
then—the soil is always rich and strong 
in the fence corners, and along the walls, 
but we get little or no benefit from it. 
My theory is to let these friendly weeds 
grow in these place® and thus pull the 
plant food out of the soil. Then, before 
they seed fully cut and pile them around 
the trees. 
tf $ $ # !> 
organic matter. Now I am willing to 
fight a single hornet or bumblebee, but 
when it comes to a thoroughly organized 
nest, there is only one thing to do—run. 
No man ever made 200 yards faster than 
I did down that hill—and the hornets kept 
up with me. Happily the boys did not 
witness the incident, as they were in the 
orchard, and I saw no reason for giving 
in exhibition of speed before them. They 
went back later and cleaned the hornets 
out. but my arm and hand would have 
qualified me for a decoration as we went 
down to dinner. There were 12 of us to 
eat, and I fell to figuring what our dinner 
would have cost, at a respectable restau¬ 
rant. We had a small joint of mutton, 
potatoes, snap beans, lettuce, cucumbers, 
tomatoes, bread and butter, sweet corn 
and a big pan dowdy. That last named 
is a big apple pie, baked in a dish about 
eight inches deep. We had this variety 
of vegetables because some like one kind 
and some another—and we have them all 
in the garden. Several of our folks put 
away three big ears of corn. According 
to my figuring it would have cost, from 
$8 to $12 to provide that dinner for my 
family at a New York restaurant. With 
the exception of the meat, the flour and 
the sugar it all came out of our farm. 
# * * * * 
We come close to observing the Satur¬ 
day half holiday at Hope Farm. At this 
season of heavy marketing and picking 
we all feel like taking a few hours off at 
the end of the week. I think we accom¬ 
plish more by doing so. The young man 
who works by the day was to appear in 
the firemen’s parade, and the younger 
children went along to see the shoiv. The 
truck had a little attack of rheumatism 
and sore throat, and Thomas gave it first 
aid treatment, for next week will see a 
flood of sweet corn, and we must begin 
picking the McIntosh apples, so the truck 
must be ready. The women folks were 
busy—for I presume you have noticed 
that the wife and daughter do not always 
share in the half holidays. As for me, 
I'll confess that I took an hour in the 
hammock, for cutting wet weed® and 
lighting hornets entjtle a man to a brief 
vacation. Finally, I got out my scythe 
and started at the weeds once more. Then 
there came a committee to talk over our 
open-air poultry show we expect to have 
at Hope Farm on September 20. And so 
the afternoon of a day made up of scrap 
work passed away. The children came 
home from the parade hungry and full 
of tales of adventure. The lied pullets 
browsing over the lawn slowly made tlieir 
way hack to roost, and another black 
cloud gathered in the north, half inclined 
to give us another soaking. It was time 
to start up the lights and finish up the 
week’s work. h. w. c. 
In this way 
phosphorus out 
and transfer it 
and 
ices, 
or- 
we get the potash 
of these rough pi 
where needed in tin 
chard. The organic matter in a weed is 
as good as that in Alfalfa or clover, and 
its cost is not over 10 per cent! At any 
rate that is my theory. T don’t care 
where the organic matter and plant food 
comes from so long as we get it. I think 
I can use phosphate and green weeds and 
get the orchard effect of stable manure! 
I grant that it is hard to convert my 
folks to any such theory, for the average 
human is brought up to regard weeds 
and snakes as enemies of mankind—when 
if you leave out poison ivy and a few 
poisonous snakes they are friends with 
undiscovered virtues. Some of the hard¬ 
est work I had to do as a hoy was pruning 
and pulling clover out of a strawberry 
bed! No one calls clover a weed, yet 
that’s what it was among those straw¬ 
berries. A ragweed in the corn may he a 
fiend. Along a stone wall and cut for 
mulching it may he a friend. At least 
that’s my notion, and I cut load after 
load along these walls. The boys fol¬ 
lowed, forked it in the wagon and hauled 
it to the orchard, where they threw 75 
pounds or so around each tree—on top 
of the phosphate if possible. I cannot 
say that they enjoyed this job. The weeds 
were wet and soggy and. being hoy®, it 
was hard to look beyond the fireman’s 
parade for the afternoon and consider 
next season’s apple crop. The man who 
starts and stands for a new idea is likely 
to he regarded as a rebel or a patriot- 
according to his success in showing the 
people that his theory is sound. 
I wa® thinking that idea out in tune 
to the swish of the scythe, when it seemed 
as if a sweat drop had turned to sulphuric 
acid and fallen on my hand. In an in¬ 
stant the air around me seemed full of 
angry hornets! I had out right into their 
nest, and opened up the livest kind of 
Effect of Ashes on New Seeding 
, Wood ashes had accumulated in an ash 
bin in the old smokehouse apparently for 
a long time, until there were two wagon- 
loads of them. Last November these were 
drawn out and spread from tlie wagon 
with a shovel, because there were so many 
nails and other bits of metal among them, 
as the wood used was largely from some 
old buildings and fences. The' strip across 
the wheat field where they were spread 
was marked, but this marking proved un¬ 
necessary, as there was such a marked 
difference in the catch and growth of the 
new seeding noticeable after the wheat, 
wa® cut. There was no noticeable dif¬ 
ference in the wheat on this strip. It 
will he interesting to watch the perform¬ 
ance of this strip in the lmy crop, and 
also the following crops. On many other 
farms there are just such sources of ma¬ 
terials of importance in soil improve¬ 
ment that are overlooked anil neglected, 
that ought to be set to work on the land. 
The waste of manurial elements around 
our farm buildings is entirely too great. 
A little more attention to this feature 
of farm management would tend greatly 
to reduce the fertilizer bills, improve the 
soil, and result in improved conditions 
generally. H. E. Cox. 
New York. 
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