952 
7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The weather cook seems to have treated 
us about as a good cook handles her veg¬ 
etables. I/iist week we were washed day 
after day by repeated showers. Our 
lower fields were afloat and it was im¬ 
possible to work in them. This washing 
and scrubbing came to an end at last, and 
then the weather cook seemed to hesitate. 
Should she give us a roast or plain boil or 
a stew? She chose the latter, and for a 
solid week we have steamed and stewed. 
There was no rain and but little sun, but 
a thick wet blanket seemed to cover the 
earth. At the top of the hill we got a 
light breeze at times, but in the lower 
fields life seemed one long steam bath. On 
the Fourth of July we shook up the hay. 
It had been on the ground through the 
rain, for a week. We hauled it in Tues¬ 
day, dark colored and a little musty, but 
the cows will eat most of it. We get 
such hay, at times, in the middle of the 
bales, but I have no liking for it. With 
the hay once housed we started after the 
weeds. It was a fierce undertaking. The 
week of rain had given them a great start. 
I have read about the way rubber plants 
grow in Mexico, but I will match our red- 
root and ragweed against them. We had 
two cultivators at work, with the boys 
following with hoes. The tomatoes had 
suddenly sprouted a crop of redroot which 
beat anything I have seen. The tomato 
plants are so large that it is impossible to 
work the cultivators through, and about 
all we could do was to go in with scythes 
and sickles, and cut the weeds down close 
to the ground. Of course they will come 
up once more, but as the vin«s spread out 
they will be kept down. I have often 
tried this plan of cultivating with a 
scythe when wet weather puts the big 
weeds past us. Where a drought follows 
this plan works well, for the cut weeds 
act like a mulch to hold moisture in the 
soil. It is poor farming, however, forced 
upon us this year by the weather. 
* * * * * 
All over this country farm work is far 
behind. I never saw so much grass left 
standing by the middle of July. Rye. too, 
is uncut, and most of it now over-ripe. 
The grain and grass were really two 
weeks ahead of their season, and should 
have been cut and under cover by July 4. 
but in our soction more than half of the 
crop is still standing. There are also 
many fields which have gone out of culti¬ 
vation. They have grown up to weeds, 
with a thin sprinkling of rye. Last year 
these fields gave good crops of corn or 
potatoes, but under our tenant system, 
with a cash, one-year rent, the crop did 
not pay. so the fields have been aban¬ 
doned. They will probably grow up to 
weeds and volunteer rye for several years, 
and then, with better prospects, someone 
will rent them again and make a good 
crop. For all this great growth of weeds 
is not ruining the land. It is adding or¬ 
ganic matter. If in teu years it is plowed 
under and well limed and fertilizer used 
the soil will produce more than ever. It. 
is a poor way to farm, yet it illustrates 
Nature’s way of keeping a heart in the 
soil. Let man use lime and Nature will 
provide the weeds. Then when man gets 
ready let him plow the weeds under, use 
chemicals and keep the weeds in check 
for a season, and he will make his crop. 
Ragweed, redroot and all the rest, repre¬ 
sent a cover crop about as popular as con¬ 
victs working on the road, yet capable of 
doing a useful part. 
***** 
Probably the best thing we have this 
year is half an acre of strawberries. They 
are clean and thrifty—perhaps the best 
we ever had. They have been cultivated 
four times and worked over with fingers 
and hoes five times—so they ought to be 
good. You never can raise good straw¬ 
berries by cutting off the weeds with a 
sickle. That may do with corn or pos¬ 
sibly tomatoes, but berries must be kept 
clean. That is part of the price you pay 
for them. Near the large towns and cities 
I think this berry business is to pay bet¬ 
ter than the old market truck. They 
bring sweet corn from as far away as 
Louisiana to New York, and tomatoes 
come from everywhere. We all know 
what has happened to the potato market. 
I am inclined to think that for the next 
few years the best chance for the subur¬ 
ban farmer will be with small fruits, out¬ 
side of the regular orchards. This does 
not apply to what we may call the nat¬ 
ural market gardeners, who take natur¬ 
ally to growing sweet corn and similar 
crops. It does not pay to try to do too 
much. Many a man is forced to neglect 
his peaches and early apples because he 
must stop to pick and handle tomatoes. 
Strawberry picking comes early and. with 
that out of the way, you are free to care 
for the orchards. 
***** 
When Saturday came we were nowhere 
near cleaned up, but there were two im¬ 
portant public events on hand. One was 
the wedding of an old family friend, the 
other the annual tour of the Bergen 
County farmers. So we left one man at 
home to keep the cultivator moving, and 
sent delegations to both of these events. 
Mother and daughter and the children 
made a good showing at the wedding, 
while I l’epresented the family on the 
tour. This latter was a great affair. 
There were nearly SO cars in line, which 
meant over 350 people. Instead of trying 
to cover a long stretch of territory, the 
committee selected four or five places of 
interest, and spent some little time at 
each. The meeting of the day was held 
on the farm of J. M. Haase, the locality 
known as the Spring Valley Road. The 
first farm we ever owned (in fact the first 
piece of land) was in that locality. This 
is a market garden section. The farms 
are long and narrow, most of them under 
40 acres. The soil is mostly warm and 
light, with some low spots, but. on the 
whole well suited to market truck. They 
crowd this soil hard, one crop following 
another, with no idle ground. The inter¬ 
esting thing about this meeting was a 
trial of light gasoline tractors or culti¬ 
vators. As is common with most of the 
places in this locality, Mr. Haase’s farm 
is about 500 ft. wide. That is character¬ 
istic of most of the farms in our county. 
The land slopes from cast to west, so that 
the rows run from north to south and are 
fairly level. This place is about six miles 
from our farm, yet it would be hard to 
imagine a greater difference in soil condi¬ 
tion. On our rough hills the shale rock 
crops out here and there, and there is 
only a thin rind of heavy soil over it. The 
solid rock close below the subsoil makes 
drainage difficult, and the water lingers in 
the pockets. Our steep hills are covered 
with rocks. In Spring Valley most of the 
soil is warm and light. There are com¬ 
paratively few stones, and drainage is 
good, for the most part. The hills are 
low and with a gentle slope. You would 
hardly think it possible that a few min¬ 
utes’ ride in a car could carry you from 
our rough country into this rich garden. 
***** 
Of course this great difference means 
two distinct types of farming. While we 
raise some sweet corn, tomatoes and 
beans, we cannot hope to compete with 
these farmers. While they can show here 
and there good specimens of apple trees, 
they would not attempt to compare with 
us in apple growing. A mile above us 
our ridge broadens out to a wide plain or 
plateau, with stretches of level land quite 
free from stones. On this strip the Tice 
family have a collection of farms where 
they do a remarkable business in both 
market truck and fruit. Most of us on 
the rougher land find apples most profit¬ 
able. But this Spring Valley farm was a 
good place for testing the gasoline culti¬ 
vators. There were seven different 
makes, from the little Spry-wheel to the 
larger New Britain and Centaur. The 
crowd of farmers who lined up along the 
lane to watch this work were critical and 
very practical men. You would not be 
likely to fool many of them in the sale 
of such a tool. The general verdict from 
this crowd of practical farmers was that 
the gasoline cultivator has come to stay. 
On level land, fairly free from stones, 
where the rows are straight, there is no 
question about the efficiency of these ma¬ 
July 23, 1921 
chines. They work. Had there, been a 
vote as to the first choice, I think each 
one of the seven on exhibition would 
have receive some ballots. Some farmers 
prefer a long, rangy bay or black horse, 
while others prefer a chunky gray or 
white. The larger of these little tractors 
enables a man to ride, and they will work 
both sides of the row at once, or plow a 
good-sized furrow. The smaller ones can¬ 
not be expected to plow deeply, but they 
will work among small plants and in nar¬ 
row rows as well as a little wheel hoe. I 
think every farmer who saw that demon¬ 
stration went away convinced that the 
gasoline cultivator has come. In order 
to make it effective the soil must be 
smooth and level and the rows must be 
straight, yet that is true of any sort of 
culture if you expect to raise the best 
crop. Here in New Jersey a mighty 
force is at work to bring this about in 
spite of all we can do to prevent it. S'low'- 
ly but surely we shall be forced to give up 
our rougher land to fruit and concen¬ 
trate on garden crops bn the smoother 
land where we can make use of gasoline 
and water, in all their varied develop¬ 
ments. 
***** 
From this gardening section the long 
procession of cars whirled away to the 
Bergen County egg-laying contest at Em¬ 
erson. This contest is becoming a great 
(Continued on page 959) 
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