f 160 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
June 10 started as one of those wet, 
soppy days which you welcome in time of 
drought and despise in a season like this 
one. We did not'need a spoonful more of 
rain ; in fact, we have had several barrels 
more than we need. Rain, however, is 
like riches, for it falls upon the just and 
the unjust alike. We were out at a 
school entertainment the night before, and 
came home along a road gleaming with 
puddles and shiny pavements where the 
light fell upon it. I went to bed figuring 
that we have among our children one presi¬ 
dent. two vice-presidents, one editor-in- 
chief, an art editor and one secretary! 
For a school is a little republic, in which 
our children must learn some of the forms 
of government. But at Hope Farm the 
fact that children are presidents and ed¬ 
itors does not exempt them from labor. 
They really ought to do more with their 
hands in order to keep their heads in 
reasonable size! So as soon as breakfast 
was eaten we cast about for the best 
jobs for a wet day. 
' :]c * * * * 
The girls have their share of house-- 
cleaning That job is always with _us. 
It was. no doubt, a part of the routine 
of life in the ark, or in the Arab's tent 
on the desert. From earliest time the 
woman of the house has put her head out 
of the window and called : “A little more 
on the under side!” or “Why don’t you 
move faster with that broom? Most 
young men think certain young women 
are half-sisters to angels. Before they 
are married it would be well to find out 
what the other half is. Perhaps one good 
way to do that is to study the young 
lady’s mother, as she frames her face in 
a window and makes remarks to her hus¬ 
band about his help at housecleaning or 
lawn tinkering. It is easy to find nobs 
for the children on a wet day. but it is 
harder to fit the men into profitable work. 
The potato field ought to be cultivated, 
but working it today would only trans¬ 
plant weeds and work the soil into bricks. 
The sweet corn is clean, and the best ot 
the Corv is nearly two feet high. As I 
looked over the potatoes I noticed a great 
difference in the various lots of seed, b e 
have nine kinds, side by side for compari¬ 
son. At this time there is a greater con¬ 
trast than you have seen in the labor of 
different hired men. The field where we 
were plowing yesterday is too wet to get 
into todav. but on the north side of the 
big orchard is the best part of an acre of 
old sod. high and well drained. It is cov¬ 
ered with old grass and big weeds. It is 
worth trying, and after a round or two 
with the plow we concluded that it is 
safe to take a chance on it. These big 
weeds have sucked much of the moisture 
out of it. So we soon see Tom and 
Broker, the big grays toiling up and 
down the field, turning up the rich, black- 
soil. and tucking the weeds and grass out 
of sight. It will be plowed, chopped up 
with the disk, and smoothed with smke- 
tooth and Acme. Then we shall plant 
that Squaw corn which my friend from 
Massachusetts sent us. This corn grows 
red and blue and yellow ears—the blue 
nredominating. It seems to be one of 
those good old flints which were grown 
bv the Indians when the first white folks 
came. Certain New England families 
have selected or bred this corn for nearly 
300 years. It is not the same as our 
Hope Farm flint, but this colored Squaw 
corn is a novelty. 
* * * * * 
We cut our first hay yesterday. The 
grass is lying out in this wet. It is pretty 
earlv. of'course, but! this is a piece of sod 
that we must plow and plant before 
July 1. There is not much grass on it, 
and in an ordinary year I would plow 
it all under. But it is no ordinary year 
when hay sells at $50 to $00 per to> 
and every pound of grass must be saved. 
So we cut this early and will save what 
grass we can. I never expected to see the 
time when an acre of good grass would 
brin" as much cash as an acre of pota¬ 
toes would, when I came to live here. 
Yet todav two tons of hay would bring 
nearly $1*20. delivered. I have sold po¬ 
tatoes off this farm for 50 cents a bushel, 
and 125 bushels per acre was a large 
crop. I suppose that four generations 
before me on this farm supported them¬ 
selves, and laid up money out of 50-eent 
potatoes, 75-cent rye. $18 hay. S-cent. 
strawberries and similar prices and prod¬ 
ucts. And much of the work was done 
with oxen and hand tools. Well, they 
could not do it now—nor can anyone 
do it. My first thought was to put all 
hands at work with scythe cutting grass 
and weeds around the apple trees in the 
sod. That is the only “culture” these 
trees' receive, the object being to get 
moisture into the soil and then hold it • 
there by piling the “mulch” around them. 
The ground is wet and the trees have 
really made more growth than T like by 
the middle of June, so we will let the 
grass grow longer. We never shall have 
a better chance to clean up the asparagus. 
So we will go at that. 
* * * * * 
We long since learned that pride goes 
right into a bad fall when you begin to 
brag about your children or your crops. 
Still. I would like to see an asparagus 
patch that can beat ours! It was started 
from the seed five years ago. That year 
we grew about 30.000 seedlings, and as 
they were dug out for sale we left perma¬ 
nent roots about 18 inches apart. They 
have grown on ever since with increasing 
size and vigor. Most of them are Read¬ 
ing Giant, with a few Martha Washing- 
Vht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ton, and the way they send up the sprouts 
is a wonder. While we .were in Missis¬ 
sippi the sprouts came so fast that they 
got past the boys, and now the tops are 
four to five feet high. The rows are six 
feet apart, and this year we planted a 
row of potatoes down the middle between 
each two asparagus rows. Of course I 
took a chance on this, for I know how 
fast those tops can grow, but we intended 
to keep cutting asparagus up to August. 
The crop got by us, and any potato to get 
up out of the shade must have the blood 
of a trotting horse and the endurance of 
an ox. So we planted some certified seed 
from Maine, and in the rich soil it is cer- 
taining proving its certificate. Today we 
actually find plants with bloom just form¬ 
ing—41 days from planting. It does not 
seem possible when we remember how the 
seed remained in this cold, moist soil 
longer than usual before starting. Yet 
here is the bloom ! In our tomato field 
are a dozen plants carrying fruit larger 
than walnuts! Thev come from a strain 
of John Baer which a neighboring farmer 
has selected from his best plants. I won¬ 
der if seed fjom ..bese few early fruiting 
plants would have any great value? An¬ 
other vigorous grower is the annual Sweet 
clover. 1 obtained two small lots of the 
seed and planted it in the garden on June 
12. In four days it was above ground, 
and is now clearly in sight. I shall keep 
measurements to show its growth. It 
looks as if a man could raise an early 
crop on our land, then seed this new 
clover and by September grow a crop 
containing as much nitrogen as 10 good 
loads of manure. Then he can plow this 
under and seed rye—and what a crop of 
potatoes or sweet corn would follow ! Or 
think what this clover will do as a cover 
crop in tomatoes, corn or in the orchard ! 
I wish I had saved some of my seed to 
sow at intervals up to September, so as 
to see what late seeding will do. 
I must confess that these rows of as¬ 
paragus were not cleaned out last year. 
We did not have the labor. The grass 
has come in. so there is a regular sod 
along the rows. This is chopped out 
with hoes, and the grass and weeds pulled 
out, shaken free of dirt and thrown into 
piles. Eater these weeds will be forked 
on the wagon and hauled to the hill or¬ 
chard. where they are thrown around the 
apple trees. Years ago, when these trees 
were smaller, I began this practice, but 
found it. almost impossible to get our men 
to do the work. They said the weeds 
should be burnt r l; that it would ruin the 
orchard to fill it with the weeds. I did 
most of the hauling myself, and in a few 
years the trees presented' their own argu¬ 
ment.. That block where we dumped the 
weeds is the best and most productive 
group of trees on the farm. I cannot 
understate why some farmers have such 
hatveo o\ weeds. I tell you that within 
a few years some of the weeds we curse 
so heartily will be considered among our 
i est manurial crops. Of course, a man 
doesn’t want his cow in the parlor or on 
the front steps, but. because she is not 
suited there does not prove that she has 
no place on the farm. I know from ex¬ 
perience that a load of these weeds we 
are ripping out today will do as much 
good on our apple trees as an eoual weight 
of such city manure as we are now able 
to buy. 
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 
It requires the mind of a philosopher to 
see any dignity or profit in such a job as 
we have selected for today. My children 
are not philosophers, in spite of their long 
list of school offices. They like to pick 
Marshall strawberries when the berries 
run the ize of Astrachan apples, but the 
long, dull round of hoeing all through the 
season before fruiting is a penance and 
no pleasure. Everyone wants the crown 
July 3, 1920 
without the cross, beauty without blisters,, 
wealth without work, power without pov¬ 
erty. Who is to teach our young people 
the real meaning of life? Is it better to 
let them alone to pick it up without 
teaching? As I struggle with a big root 
of dock in the midst of a sod of quack 
grass I see coming up the lane a group of 
Hope Farmers who have come near to 
answering the question. We want you 
to meet Mr. Gander. Mrs. Goose and their 
10 fat. children. Here is a case of suc¬ 
cessful education and training. The 
white hen over by the barn has three 
more goslings, and she has done all that 
a hen mother can to bring them up. Yet, 
while practically the same age, these gos¬ 
lings weigh only half as much' as those 
with the geese. The latter have had a 
better education. They spend half their 
time in the brook eating watercress and 
paddling in the water. The hen has been 
brought up to fear water, and she lias 
kept, her goslings away from it. Thus 
they have not been taught the things that 
a young goose ought to know in order to 
live an orderly life. Another thing, that 
gander is at his job of teacher and parent 
all Ihe time—day and night. He might 
have some other business.', but he lets it 
slide until these young ones of his know 
how to care for themselves. They are 
getting an ideal education—for geese. The 
gander might turn this colony over to the 
goose, to a hen or to a brooder, and go 
off on his own hook, but he stays by the 
work himself for the benefit of posterity. 
There they go down the lane—illustrating 
an ideal education. That means a prac¬ 
tical instructor and the parents following 
every move. Would there were home hu¬ 
mans as wise as these geese! 
* * * * « 
There they go across the lawn. They 
have stopped to listen to that robin on 
(Continued on page 1173) 
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