1350 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
When this season opened, farmers di¬ 
vided into two general classes or groups. 
One group figured that prices for all farm 
products must be high. It did not seem 
possible that actual food of any kind 
could go down to low figures. Therefore, 
it looked like a good gamble to put extra 
capital into fanning. Every possible ex¬ 
pense, from seeds and taxes to fertilizer 
and transportation, is higher than ever 
before. The group of men I speak of 
decided to plant more than usual and take 
a chance on high prices. Another group, 
more conservative, took exactly the re¬ 
verse course. They planted less and cut 
down every expense. Labor was limited 
to what the family could do. Tattle fer¬ 
tilizer was bought. Many of the cows 
were sold, old horses disposed of, fields 
seeded to grass—every plan laid for a 
smaller crop at reduced expense. I heard 
one man say that the two plans were as 
distinct as the operations of the men in 
the parable of the talents. One speculat¬ 
ed with the money, the other made sure of 
it by hiding it in the ground. That is 
not a true illustration, but many of us 
did bank on high prices and risked our 
capital to produce a large crop. That is 
what we did, 1 confess. Success with 
any such plan depends on high prices for 
the goods, and you may imagine that we 
watch the returns for these early track 
loads with great interest. 
* * * * * 
No man except a practical farmer in 
this year 1920 can realize how farm ex¬ 
penses have jumped. Our seed costs us 
more than twice what we paid before the 
war. Fertilizer, which formerly we 
bought at about $30, now costs $05 or 
more. Tools are out of sight, both in 
price and in freight delivery. In mast 
cases lime cannot be obtained at all. In 
former years we had all the labor we 
wanted at $1.25 per day. Now it is $3.50 
and more. Every item of farm expense 
has been nearly doubled to us, and credit 
it harder to obtain than ever. Of course, 
we cannot hope to double our crop on 
each acre, though most of us do try to 
increase the yield somewhat. The only 
hope for this sort of speculative farming 
is to make a good guess on the crop, get 
it to market as cheaply as possible, and 
get a good price for it. Any mistake or 
slip-up on any of these things will upset 
the plan. For instance, I rather looked 
for a dry season, and so we had half the 
hill orchard plowed. We could, not do 
it all ourselves. Some of the neighbors 
helped, and they charged $9 per day for 
man and team! This means work with 
the same team and man and the same 
kind of a plan for which I paid $4.50 
some live years ago. The reason given 
for the high price is that the town will 
pay that for public work. That little 
incident shows how, in a much larger 
way, labor prices are being forced upon 
us. As it happens the season has been 
wet, and the orchards where we cut the 
grass and left it on the ground are quite 
as good in color and growth and crop as 
where we did this expensive plowing. 
***** 
Many farmers in the East who decided 
to stake their capital against high prices 
have plunged on potatoes and cabbage. 
The potato scheme looked right. The old 
crop was short, and it did not seem pos¬ 
sible that prices could go below $2 a 
bushel. To those who have good potato 
soil (light and well drained) it seemed 
like a fair chance. As for cabbage, our 
country is full of the crop, but I cannot 
sec what induced our farmers to “plunge” 
on it. Just now it is lower than we 
have ever known it. In our own case 
we gave up potatoes as a market crop and 
have put our capital into sweet corn, 
tomatoes and egg plant, and late cucum¬ 
bers for pickles. Our soil is not adapted 
to potatoes, and when you strike an ex¬ 
pense of over $90 an acre for seed and 
fertilizer alone, I retire in favor of those 
who have natural potato soil. I figured 
that sweet corn would bring a fair price. 
It is popular food, and the canners offer 
enough to keep a good share of the crop 
off the market. As for tomatoes, they 
are becoming more popular as food each 
year. Canners pay $20 and more per ton, 
and millions of early plants wex-e de¬ 
stroyed last Spring. Eggplant is being 
used more and more as a meat substitute 
by Italians and others. We considered 
all these cii'cumstances and took our 
chances. As for the apples, there was 
promise of a "fair crop, and for the past 
few yeai-s we have had little trouble'in 
selling them. We have in addition to 
these crops over an acre of potatoes, 
several thousand cabbages, and several 
hundred dollai-s in pork and poultry. 
***** 
So we sent our first truck load to Pat¬ 
erson, N. .7., on July 31. It was a small 
load of early apples—Porters and Nyacks. 
We found the market completely demoral¬ 
ized. Potatoes had “slumped” and cab¬ 
bage brought about 40 cents a barrel. 
The city was full of early apples, most of 
them very low in quality. It seemed as 
if farmers had gone into the orchard and 
picked up bruised and wormy windfalls 
and dumped them upon the market to 
break its back. Of course, this made a 
“glut,” and every dealer used the price 
offered for this poor stuff to beat down 
the selling value of good fruit. Our high- 
class apples brought 40 to 50 cents a 
basket. This would not be .so bad if the 
consumer had obtained any benefit from 
it, but they did not. I saw apples— 
either our own Porters or something just 
like them—selling at five cents each. 
There Was no help for it but to keep good- 
natured and try again. This delicate 
early fruit must be sold at once. Evi¬ 
dently the crop of early apples is larger 
than for some years past. It is hard to 
understand the slump in potatoes. The 
total acreage is less than last year. I 
think the yield per acre is highex-. Most 
farmers, realizing the money they have 
invested, have taken better care of the 
crop. More high-class seed has been used 
and far more spraying has been done. 
In our country, with our small potato 
fields, we are now forced to compete with 
farmers 200 miles, mox-e or less, away, 
who have 100 acres or more, where po¬ 
tatoes are grown -on a sort of factory 
system. It is as hard for us to compete 
with such a crop as for one of the old-fash¬ 
ioned, small mills to compete with a great 
modern factory. Our chance lies in pro¬ 
ducing extra quality and selling as close 
to retail as possible. I think potato 
l’ices will come up somewhat before long, 
ut I fear those farmers who banked on 
$2.50 per bushel, net, will be disappointed. 
***** 
The condition of our early apple market 
showed clearly that there is little chance 
for us farmers, in such a season, so long 
as we act as individuals and ship without 
any standard or agreement. We were 
each competing against the other, and the 
middleman received all the advantage 
without benefit to the consumer. Of 
course tkei-e is no law or legislation that 
will help such a situation. It is a clear 
case, of got to do it ourselves by coming 
together in a co-operative enterprise and 
agreeing to submit to fair discipline in 
keeping the culls at home. For it cer¬ 
tainly was the cull—the poor windfall—- 
that knocked the spine out of our market. 
Just as the strength of a chain is in its 
weakest link, so in a time of glut the 
market is decided by the poor stuff which 
is dumped in with the finer gi-ades. When 
we got home we did some quick figuring. 
Our early fruit is mostly at the top of 
the old-fashioned trees, many of them 
90 feet and more in the air. Now a man 
at modern wages cannot make any profit, 
picking 40-cent apples- up in the air-—not 
when you take out. the price of the bas¬ 
ket. A vei*y simple “example” in arith¬ 
metic will pi-ove that, so we left these old 
high-heads alone and went after the 
smaller trees. Of coui-se, this will mean 
many bushels of fruit falling from higu 
in the air and hitting the ground like a 
baseball meeting the bat. This fruit will 
be fed to the stock or wasted. No doubt 
some of our city friends would call us 
shiftless profiteers if they saw these ap¬ 
ples on the ground. The fact is, that 
with our high-priced labor and the low 
price for the fruit we could not afford to 
pay for picking from these high trees, 
and then paying for the basket. I am 
done working hard to do things at a. loss 
because some outsider thinks we ought to. 
I am going to figure things as well as I 
can. and do that work which promises a 
profit, or at least an even stand-off. I 
notice the American Woolen Mills shut 
down and laid off their workmen because 
they claimed the max-ket was bad and 
clothmaking did not pay. Have I not as 
much right in my little apple business to 
figure in the same way? 
* * * * * 
A few- days later we loaded the truck 
once more and started out-’—this time for 
the larger market of New York. We had 
something over 3,000 ears of sweet corn, 
30 bushels of sweet apples and a few 
others. This load brought over $110, and 
we came right back and took another one 
the next. day. The corn was Cory. 
Everyone knows that- is a small variety, 
and most of the ears are smaller than 
usual, on account, of the wet ground and 
lack of sunshine. Yet it bi-ought 2 V-> 
cents an ear for most of it. That is a 
good pi-ice, and the indications ax-e that 
the market will remain good. The sweet 
August 21, 1920 
apples are not all sold! by the commission 
men, but they seem to bring about $3.50 
per ban-el of three bushels. The same 
brand of fruit bx-ought $4.50 to $5 last 
yeax-. This is the old “Jersey Sweet/’ 
as our people call it—a fruit without any 
acid whatever. I like, them baked, sliced 
up with milk. They ripen early and are 
soft and delicate. Our ti-ees are old- 
very likely 75 years. Of course, I would 
not plant such a variety. Far over the 
hill are two of these trees planted 1 far 
apart, so that the head has spread out 
like an umbrella, and rather low down. 
From one of these trees we picked 15 
bushels, and from the other 17. As these 
big trees are planted there would be about 
25 to the acre. Which would you rather 
have, 25 of these big ones or 40 smaller 
tx-ees—32 feet each way? 
* * * * * 
Our tomatoes have been slow to ripen, 
but the first load will go about August 10. 
Prices were high at first, then they 
slumped badly. Now they are coming back, 
as I think the canners are absorbing moi*e 
of the crop. Our plants are fine—I never 
saw them better—and if. looks now like a 
good crop, with fair prices. I think I 
have told how these tomatoes are planted 
in the field where we tried to kill out the 
quack grass. Some years ago wc had a 
hogyard in the center of this field. Quac-k 
started on it, jumped out of it, and ran 
all over the field Last Spring we plowed 
this quack and dug it over with cutaway 
and spring-tooth. Then we made a heavy 
seeding of oats and peas. These were 
cut early, the ground plowed and worked 
once more, and buckwheat and rye seeded 
togethei-. The buckwheat was cut and 
left on the ground for the hens to harvest. 
The x-ye came on and made a fair growth 
and it was plowed under in Spring. Now 
the quack grass has largely disappeai-ed— 
with only little patches left here and 
there.- The tomato plants wex-e fertilized 
with chicken manure and phosphate, anil 
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