lh* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July o, 1924 
962 
Hope Farm Notes 
When I was a boy the worst jobs on 
the farm were going after the cows on a 
wet mdrning, or shoveling a path *to the 
barn during a blizzard. Of the two I 
think the cow hunt was the more to be 
despised. Old Spot was what I call a 
mean-spirited cow, 'and she seemed deter¬ 
mined to make life a burden to the boy. 
When she kicked the big hired man he 
took a club to her, but she knew the boy 
would be scolded if he threw a stone in 
her direction. Our folks would not keep 
d dog, because he might have a demoraliz¬ 
ing effect upon the boy. So on wet, rainy 
mornings I started bff alone to drive the 
cows up to be milked. On bright, clear 
mornings, when it might be something of 
a joy to get out into the fields, the cows 
would be near the gate, but when the 
rain and fog came old Spot would lead, 
her stupid companions off into the deep¬ 
est recesses of the swamps, where they 
would stand half up to their knees in 
mud, hiding among the blueberry bushes. 
You might call “Co-boss! Co-boss!” un¬ 
til your throat ached, but that malignant 
old leader would hold them in a bunch 
until you waded into the dark places and 
drove them out. There were snakes and 
all sorts of reptiles in there, and everyone 
knew the story about the murderer who 
had hidden his victim’s body in this 
swamp and now came back to haunt the 
place on dark mornings! Just as you 
got the cows started for home old Spot 
would make a sudden turn and run back 
with her stupid companions behind her. 
And at the barn my uncle and the hired 
man were grumbling: 
“What’s the matter with that ’tarnal 
boy? lie's too slow to catch a turtle!” 
They never would accept my story 
about old Spot as a labor strike-leader 
til one night I slipped out and drove her 
back into the barnyard and put up the 
bars. There she stood all night. De¬ 
prived of her leadership, the other cows 
stood close to the gate, without sense 
enough to hide and make me worse 
trouble. The hired man was a little sus¬ 
picious when he found the cows all in the 
barnyard. This prompt arrival inter¬ 
rupted his morning chat with the hired 
girl. 
# i|S Sfc 
Well, anyway, hunting cows in the 
swamp on a wet morning was the worst 
job I remember on the farm. Raincoats 
were not invented, or at least they were 
far from popular. Hunting cows was 
just like going in swimming. There are 
bad jobs in all lines of farming, and our 
folks think they have found about the 
limit in picking strawberries during a 
rain. In some ways that is worse than 
hunting cows in the swamp. In spite of 
all you can do the rain works under the 
neck of your coat. I't is a worse soak 
than what you get churning through the 
swamp. The vines are like a sponge, and 
the big berries are getting soft. You 
must get them off at once, or in 12 hours 
ijiost of them will be unsalable.. A big 
crimson Marshall berry is in my mind 
the handsomest and most delicately flav¬ 
ored fruit ever known, unless it be some 
variety of the mango. When a Mar¬ 
shall is right it must be picked immedi¬ 
ately, or it will be lost. You may per¬ 
haps leave a Chesapeake or a Gaudy 
longer. They are of more enduring fiber, 
but Nature designed the Marshall to 
play the part of aristocrat, and if you 
expect to save it you must accept the red 
color as a call to duty and get right out 
ip the rain if need be and pick the fruit. 
The feeble spot in the chain of straw¬ 
berry culture lies in the picking.. Culti¬ 
vation is not what you may call easy, but. 
if one likes to work with a hoe he can do 
it, and (frost or hail permitting) make a 
good crop. Picking is where many grow¬ 
ers fall down. We cannot find good pick¬ 
ers as we formerly did, and many of them 
will not pick as we want them to. Too 
many of them insist, on catching hold of 
the berry and pulling it off. That 
crushes the berry and tears the vine, so 
that several other berries are ruined. I 
once hired a boy to pick. He said he 
was an old picker, but I found him break¬ 
ing off entire sprays of fruit, picking off 
a few ripe ones and throwing the green 
ones away. The only way we permit our 
pickers to work is to pinch the stem back 
of the berry with the thumbnail so as not 
to touch the berry with the fingers. It is 
handled entirely by the stem. That means 
cleanliness, and does not rip or tear the 
vines. With our finest fruit I prefer tcJ 
pick into milk pans and have some care¬ 
ful hand do the boxing or packing. That 
requires more time, but you are sure of 
thfe pack. When working for private 
customers a careless picker may do con¬ 
siderable damage by putting in too many 
small berries, or those with a green or 
white tip. 
* * if * * 
That troubled us a little this year with 
our Progressives. This is supposed to be 
an “everbearer” or Fall-bearing variety. 
Hast year it failed badly with us, giving 
only a handful of inferior fruit. This 
year, however, it came back as a June- 
bearing variety, and has produced a re¬ 
markable crop. The trouble with it is 
•that there are too many small berries. 
The larger ones are of good size and 
flavor, but a large proportion of them are 
too small to pick, and unless your pickers 
are careful there will be complaint. I 
am curious now to see what will happen 
to these Progressive plants after giving 
this immense crop in June. Will they 
“come back” and give us another in Au¬ 
gust? It does not seem possible for 
plants to do that, yet I am told by straw¬ 
berry men that if the plants are deeply 
and fully cultivated and most of the run¬ 
ners kept, off they will repeat the crop 
after a month’s rest. I shall give them 
the cultivation and the rest, and see what 
they can do.. All in all, Howard is out¬ 
most profitable variety this year. It gives 
us large fruit, of good flavor, and is one 
of the heaviest yielders. Big Joe is very 
good on lighter soil, but for an all-round 
commercial berry Howard stande at the 
head on our farm. Of course for qual¬ 
ity and size Marshall stands at the top. 
We have some great berries this year, and 
I am convinced that the selections we 
have made for 15 years have given us an 
improved strain. I think we have a 
larger and more vigorous plant, produc¬ 
ing a somewhat larger crop, with a bet¬ 
ter proportion of big berries. While this 
is true, it would not be fair to suggest 
Marshall as a commercial variety for 
practical growers. It does not give a 
large crop, and it requires too much work. 
I would not grow it commercially in large 
lots unless I was sure of getting 20 cents 
a quart at least. At an average of 10 
cents, Howard would pay three times as 
well as Marshall. Still, it is a fine thing 
to give some small space to this fine old 
variety if you want to show people just 
what a perfect berry is like. A patch of 
Marshalls out in the garden would re¬ 
mind one of the big Western cattlemen 
who have hundreds of big beef cows in 
their pastures and yet keep a well-bred 
Jersey cow in a corner of the barn, for 
their own milk and butter. 
* * * * * 
Our strawberries have paid this season, 
in spite of the continued wet season. We 
could not get them all, for a half-ripe big 
berry in a mass of sloppy vines often 
gets weary of growing and rots before it 
ripens. Then when the sun is hot the 
berries will often ripen too fast for the 
pickers. You are quite sure to lose some 
bf them in spite of all you can do. Most 
people fail to realize that the strawberry 
really contains more water than milk does. 
It is true, however, for the berry carries 
00 per cent or more of water, while milk 
will average about 87%. That hardly 
seems possible when the berry ranks as a 
solid, while milk is a liquid, yet a crate of 
berries will carry nearly as much water 
as a can of milk. The liquid milk has 
more than twice as much ash as the ber¬ 
ry. We have been getting 15 to ISc a 
quart for berries by the crate this year. 
Ferhaps a fair yield would be 4,500 
quarts per acre. We have raised all the 
way from 2,000 to 7,000. Now the aver¬ 
age cow may give 2,000 quarts, or -4000 
lbs. of milk per year. Of course we hear 
about the 10,000-quart cow, but no one 
brags about the 1,000-quart animals, al¬ 
though there are many of them. Many a 
dairyman is receiving about 3%e a quart 
the year through for milk. You take 
4,500 quarts at 15c wholesale, and how 
many of these average cows will it re¬ 
quire to earn as much as the acre of ber¬ 
ries will bring? Then compare the labor 
reequired to care for those cows every 
day in the year, and the feed required to 
keep them going. In November the berry 
plants are put away under their blanket, 
where they sleep until April. But in 
order to be fair, compare the worry and 
responsibility that go with the two jobs. 
It is probably about even if you take it 
for the entire year, but while it is spread 
over 365 days for the dairymen, most of 
it is crowded into 30 or 40 days for the 
berry grower. Frost may ruin all his 
chances in a single night. A week of 
rain at picking time may cost him half 
his crop. A dairyman may get a milking 
machine to help him milk, but there can 
be no mechanical contrivance that will 
pick berries. That business will always 
depend, in the last analysis, upon rhe 
finger and thumb of the hand which takes 
the berry from the vine. When it comes 
to. selling through the middlemen the 
berry grower probably has the worst of 
it. The best location for him is close to 
some good market or on some good road 
where he can open a roadside stand. It 
is not a business for every man to enter. 
A man must have a regular strawberry 
mark on his arm in order to succeed in it. 
It is more of a gamble than dairying, yet 
where one is sure that he can find pickers 
there is a chance in it. H. w. c. 
Rural School Field Day 
About 300 parents, teachers and chil¬ 
dren, representing nine schools of the 
town of Williamson, N. Y., assembled on 
the morning of June 6 at the beach at 
Pultneyville for an all-day community 
gathering. The occasion was the annual 
spelling “bee” of the rural schools. The 
program in brief was the spelling contest 
in the morning, the picnic dinner, a lit¬ 
erary entertainment in the pavilion, and 
games on the beach. Committees of teach¬ 
ers had made the plans for the day far in 
advance. Committees of mothers in each 
school had made plans for the dinner. So 
efficient were these workers that the en¬ 
tire program was carried through with 
precision, promptitude, enthusiasm and 
enjoyment. It was the best sort of school 
spirit adapted to a picnic. 
The childreif furnished part of the lit¬ 
erary program, and part was furnished by 
the teachers, to the great delight of the 
youngsters. They much enjoyed the mu¬ 
sic and story-telling, and one could hear 
whispers of “That’s my teacher. You 
must clap loud for her.” One of the 
mothers added much to the fun with hu¬ 
morous recitations. Mrs. Cora Ransley 
came from the adjoining town of Ontario, 
where she is a member of the school 
board; her readings, especially “The 
Calf,” by Sam Walter Foss, will long be 
remembered. 
The day was a great success. It not 
only gave a great deal of pleasure to a 
great many people, but was for the chil¬ 
dren a lesson in citizenship. They need 
to learn to work together, and community 
gatherings of this class are the best sort 
of training. 
Making a Box Kite 
(Three years ago we gave directions 
for making a box kite. In response to 
many requests the article and picture are 
reprinted.] 
In the picture I have tried to show 
how a box kite is made, for the benefit of 
the young ones. A box kite sails without 
any bobs or balance string. It is made of 
four light sticks, each 30 in. long, % in. 
wide and % in. thick. Also four sticks 
of same width and thickness notched on 
each end and placed like a letter X in¬ 
side the kite about 8 in. from each end ; 
these brace sticks fit tightly on the 30-in. 
sticks. When you have the brace sticks 
secured to the long sticks, place light 
tough paper around the ends, extending 
from the ends 8 in. toward the center at 
each end. Paste the paper tight on the 
frame. Now you have a rectangular 
frame with paper fast to each end on the 
outside of the frame. Both ends are open. 
The kite when put together measures 30 
in. long, 14 in. square on the ends. Both 
ends are open, as is also the center for 
about 16 in., to allow air to blow freely 
through the kite. At a point marked X 
the string is tied. The kite rides on the 
wind at an angle of about 45 degrees. If 
carefully built square and tight it will go 
out of sight if given enough twine. A 
represents the long sticks, B represents 
Diagrams of Box Kite 
the cross braces. C shows another view 
of short brace fitted to long stick. D 
represents short braces as placed with 
long stick ends showing in notch of short 
brace. E represents the kite when fin¬ 
ished. The dotted ends represent how 
the paper is pasted on. The braces are 
put about 8 in. from end of kite on the in¬ 
side. I trust our young friends will un¬ 
derstand the description. J. G. 
Sorting and Stamping Melons In a ; South Jersey Melon Fateh 
