594 
March 20, 1920 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The weather? 
I would rather not discuss it. I have 
seen a good many Winters come and go, 
but this seems worst of all. On March 5 
there came a thaw, and night started in 
with a thunder shower and rain. When 
I was a boy the old-timers always said 
that meant “the breaking up of Winter.” 
It seemed like it when I looked out just 
before going to bed and saw great rivers 
of water running down every little slope 
and along the road. It did look as if 
Nature was washing the evidence of 
meanness off the face of New Jersey. 
I'll confess right here that I felt like 
waking our folks up and opening a bot¬ 
tle of pasteurized apple juice to celebrate 
the end of Winter. 
It was well I did not, for with morn¬ 
ing light we looked out upon a howling 
blizzard, with the temperature close to 
zero. The rippling and laughing rivers, 
which but a few hours before had been 
carrying the snowdrifts away, now had 
their tongues frozen. There was a glare 
of ice all over Northern New Jersey, 
with great drifts of whirling snow chok¬ 
ing the roads and piling at the doox*. 
And still you keep cheerful? 
What else was there to do? If it 
would have helped any I think I could 
contribute my share of strong language. 
A good memory helps at such a time, and 
as I watched the awful sweep of that 
storm I remembered one much like it 
when I was a boy. We lived in a rather 
lonely place, and the man who “brought 
me up” sold coffins as a part of his 
“farming.” We had a room fitted up in 
the barn where a dozen or more coffins 
were lined up as samples. The storm 
had roared all day. and at nightfall, just 
as the old gentleman and I were doing 
the choi'es. a sleigh containing two men 
and hauled by an old white horse came 
plowing into the yard. The wife ofi one 
of these men had just died of a disease 
which made it necessary to bui*y her at 
once. So they had come toiling through 
the snow to buy a coffin! They got lan¬ 
terns and looked over the stock, and 
finally, after much measuring and dicker¬ 
ing, they selected a second-hand coffin 
which the men thought “might fit.” _ They 
succeeded in beating down the price at 
that. They loaded the coffin on the 
sleigh and both sat on it as they drove 
off into the dark whirl of the storm. I 
remember thinking it very doubtful if the 
old white horse ever lived to get home. 
They finally had to abandon the sleigh 
and carry the coffin on tlieir shoulders 
while the" old horse followed them home! 
After supper the old gentleman found 
that he had left his glasses out in the 
coffin room, and as he had his slippers 
on, he sent me out to get them. So I 
took my lantern and stai’ted. We never 
had to go outdoors to reach the barn; 
there were sheds built all the way along. 
When I got to the coffin room I held up 
my lantern and saw the glasses lying on 
a coffin. As I picked them up I felt that 
coffin move, and there came a most 
unearthly yell out of it. No use telling 
I was nervous or dreamed about it— 
that is just what happened. I wish I 
had the speed in these days that I showed 
in running back through the shed and 
bolting head first into the sitting room 
where the old gentleman was getting 
ready for a nap! We organized a de¬ 
tachment of the Massachusetts militia 
and went out to investigate, probably 
much as our ancestors of 200 years be¬ 
fore did at an alarm in King Philip’s War. 
As I recall it, the farmer had his shot¬ 
gun. his wife carried the tongs and a 
large store of advice, and I had three 
stones and a club. What we found there 
proved that I was right. There was 
something in the coffin, but it was of 
such a character that since that day 
I have never been afraid of ghosts. 
Some day I will tell you what it was. 
It is too long a story for this week. At 
any rate, having passed through many 
storms and seen everyone of them 
finally fade away before the sunshine. I 
have learned a thing or two. Cheerful¬ 
ness hastens the sunshine which follows 
the storm, while growling always de¬ 
lays it. 
But if you had to endure what I do 
you would change your tune! 
Perhaps, but how do you know what 
I or other Hope Farm people have to 
endure? I would not spend the time 
matching misex-ies, for that would breed 
more of them; but I could tell you some 
sad tales of what this Winter has done 
to friends. They cannot get fuel or even 
mail. The doctors cannot get to them, 
nor can they even bury the dead. Great 
drifts fill the hill roads between their 
homes and town, and well they know this 
will mean a new disaster and flood when 
those great drifts finally melt. I know 
very well what this weather means to 
our own work, and how it will cut down 
production; but growling never put oil on 
the axle; it is more like sand. So we 
went out into the storm thankful it was 
no worse. 
Can any good come from it? 
Certainly. You never saw a liai’d, 
snowy Winter that was not followed by 
good crops of grass and grain. I will 
except cases where fields are low and 
undrained, because ice ponds may form 
there and kill out the seeding, but on 
good, well-di’ained land an abundance 
of snow always kelps grass and grain 
crops. The soil will be well filled with 
moisture, and by handling it reasonably 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
we can hold that moisture in. I think 
most of our peach buds are dead, but the 
apple trees look well, and when all this 
snow melts the ground will be in fine 
shape to put early growth on the trees. 
We may lose our peach crop, but the 
growers south of us will be the better 
for our loss, and they need the money. 
You will make this snow out to be a 
blessing before you get done. 
Not quite that, but it has its good 
points. Why ,a city man has just been 
proving to me that this snow lias made 
me a millionaire, or given me a chapee 
to become one if I will only be properly 
“efficient.” He has read that “snow is 
manure.” To his mind that proves that 
a ton of snow contains about 10 lbs. of 
nitrogen—which is the average for ordi- 
nai-y manure. In a Winter like this 
there are easily 500 tons of solid snow 
on each acre of Hope Farm. That 
means 5.000 pounds of nitrogen, or the 
equivalent of over 15 tons of nitrate of 
soda per acre! My friend knows so lit¬ 
tle about such things that he thinks he 
knows it all, and he seems to believe 
that! 
Is there any nitrogen in snow? 
Very, very little. As the snow con- 
geqls and falls it probably washes a lit¬ 
tle ammonia out of the air, and carries 
it to the soil, but there is hardly enough 
of it to worry about. The city man’s 
logic is almost as follows: Some one 
remembered that snow is manure. Chem¬ 
ists state that manure contains 10 lbs. 
of fertilizer to the ton. The snowdrifts 
on an acre of farm land weigh 500 tons. 
Therefore, a farmer is a favored mortal. 
He gets his nitrogen free, while all other 
business men must pay for raw material. 
That is a fair sample, perhaps of the 
way some of our city friends figure out 
great wealth for the farmer. The value 
of snow lies in the protection it gives to 
the soil and in the water which it de¬ 
livers to the soil. Right now, as our 
people struggle through the snowdrifts 
and realize the delay and disaster caused 
by this stonn, they feel they have had 
ail the snow benefit they care for. 
When should we take the mulch off 
the strawberry plants? 
We use the mulch not for protection, 
but in order to keep the frost in the 
ground around the plants. When the 
frost leaves the .ground and there is no 
danger of heavy freeze and thaw, the 
muh-h has served its purpose. We wait 
Until the plants begin to show green and 
then rake the mulch off the rows into 
the middles. In case of manure which 
forms big clods over the plants, play golf 
with them; that is. smash the clods with 
a hoe or heavy stick. 
I have about three-quarters of an acre 
on which I want to raise straw or some¬ 
thing for scratching material for hens and 
mulch for strawberries, potatoes, etc. 
What will give me cheapest returns and 
greatest quality? F. G. 
New Jersey. 
I should say Japanese millet or Sudan 
grass, if the soil is good. Either crop 
should give a heavy yield. Or yoxx can 
sow oats thickly, cut them “in the milk” 
and plow so as to seed buckwheat. The 
lifter may not make much gi-ain, but 
there will be a good yield of straw. 
My potatoes were in the cellar during 
that very hard freeze. They taste street. 
Do you think they will grow if planted? 
J. G. 
You will have to ask the potatoes. 
Nothing else can ever tell you. As a 
rule, when potatoes turn sweet they be¬ 
come sour and will not sprout. Try 
them. Take a few fair specimens and 
cut them for planting as usual. Plant 
them in ixots or boxes and put in a sunny 
window. If the “eyes” or buds are still 
sound, they will send out good spronts. 
That is the only way to tell. The same 
answer to the man who says his seed 
oats were frozen. Ask the oats! 
How are your Reds at the contest do¬ 
ing? 
Somewhat better, but still pooi-ly. 
They are now No. 96 out of 100. Only 
four pens behind them. 
What is the matter? 
T do not know. We never selected 
with greater care; never had better pedi¬ 
gree in the pen. The chief reason seems 
to be that the other pens are better! 
Do you give it up now? 
No. We never give up. We will still 
back them to end among the first 40 and 
among the first 25 in their second year. 
No cold feet up here if the weather is 
cold. These birds will come yet. Why, 
six of them have not laid an egg thus far! 
H. W. C. 
Killing Rats 
After reading of Mrs. J. Kelly’s ex¬ 
perience with rats, I remembered what 
a printer did in the city, who was ovei-- 
run with them. He set a wire rat trap 
with raw oysters, and found it so full of 
rats in the morning that their hair stuck 
out of the sides. This was told me as a 
wonderful secret, but when I hear of a 
good thing like that, I believe in passing 
it along. At another time the same man 
mixed plaster of Paris with ground feed 
and the junkman in the next room hauled 
out a bushel of dead rats, and wondered 
how it happened. Have a dish of water 
near. After drinking, the plaster hardens 
and kills them. Another man put con¬ 
centrated lye in front of the rat holes. 
After walking through it they lick it off 
their feet and that ends them. 
MRS. G. E. ClIALFANT. 
New Jersey. 
Health, and Comfort 
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