1296 
r Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 11, 1924 
Hope Farm Notes 
I have been cutting corn most of the 
day. There are some who say they like 
this job, but I call it hard work. The 
field was quite weedy, and 1 can assure 
you that when ragweed and smartweed 
get a fair chance to grow in our Jersey 
soil they do better than most progressive 
ideas. Their highest ambition seems to 
be to interfere with the cutting knife. 
You can feel their strong fingers trying 
lo hold the knife as you cut down among 
them at the stalk. I could use some of 
these long smartweeds to tie the top of 
the ’Shock. Of course we never should 
have left these weeds to grow this way, 
but from the original plowing everything 
seemed against us. Some people claim 
that plowing has nothing to do with weed- 
killing, but they are wrong. A good 
plowman who knows his business thor¬ 
oughly can tuck under a sod or bed of 
weeds so that the cultivators have easy 
work. A poor plowman will simply give 
the grass and weeds what we may call 
good culture by leaving many plants ex¬ 
posed, or only partly covered. I never 
saw a job at turning under weeds with 
a tractor that could compare with high- 
class horse plowing. We have sure proof 
of this statement in our crop this year. 
Where I cut today the weeds had every 
chance from the start. The land was bad¬ 
ly overrun with quack grass to begin 
with. It was poorly and roughly plowed, 
(hough well harrowed. We made the mis¬ 
take of seeding the corn in drills. It 
should have been in hills, so as to work 
it both ways with the horses. That be¬ 
ing impossible, the grass and weeds start¬ 
ed in the drills and we could not get the 
labor to kill this enemy out. It was 
smart enough to attack us just when all 
hands were having more than we could 
do to pick strawberries and cherries. By 
the time we got these crops off the weed 
situation was nearly hopeless. The other 
field was an old sod on the new farm. 
I think the last seeding was at least 15 
years ago. A very careful plowman with 
a steady team turned this sod over so 
that not a blade of grass or a Aveed could 
be seen. Then it was harrowed four 
times, marked Sy 2 ft. each way, and 
planted to a good strain of Learning corn. 
We put chicken manure in the hill, 
worked it three times with the weeder 
and cultivated four times. This kept 
(he weeds down and no hoeing was done. 
As a result this corn stands 10 ft. or 
more high with very fine ears. There are 
very few weeds in the corn—though some 
have grown outside—along the stone 
walls. I presume you know that for the 
past few years most farmers have been 
unable to keep their fence rows and cor¬ 
ners clean. It has tak tn every ounce 
of strength to partly cdre for the crops. 
:fc * * $ * 
I have been cutting in that weedy field, 
hut always within sight of the clean field. 
That surely is a great crop—one of the 
largest, 1 think, ever grown in this coun¬ 
ty. As I swing my cutting knife and 
struggled with those grasping weeds I 
found myself thinking of the progress 
which the world has seen, or at least, 
some parts of the world, since 1 began 
living on it. Take this very corn grow¬ 
ing. This field in which I am working 
has probably been under cultivation at 
least 250 years. During that time I feel 
quite sure it has produced more than 100 
crops of corn, and I realize that every 
one of these crops has been produced 
with much the same methods. Very like¬ 
ly the first farmer plowed with oxen, 
chopped out the weeds with a very rough 
hoe, and cut the stalks with a stout knife. 
I used a better plow and big horses. Our 
harrows and hoes are lighter and more 
effective, and we use a cutter made like 
a baby scythe. But from start to finish, 
from plowing to shocking and husking, 
with the exception of improved imple¬ 
ments. the methods employed in this Jer- 
sey field have not been essentially 
changed. Various generations picked up 
stones and piled them into useless walls. 
No doubt from time to time men grew 
disgusted with this rock-ribbed field and 
abandoned it so that grass and weeds 
and young cedars came in. Then, later, 
the farmer took new heart, plowed all 
this rank stuff in, and found that the 
loafer had taken on new strength through 
its lazy days. All this and more has hap¬ 
pened during these long years, but the 
point is that when late September came 
the original corn grower went into this 
field and acted just about as I am act¬ 
ing today. I have no doubt he cut the 
stalks with much the same swing of the 
arm, carried an armful to the shock and 
dumped it in just as I am doing. The 
point is that we have improved our 
methods and our tools somewhat, but es¬ 
sentially we are raising corn jusr about 
as the original settlers did. 
* * * * * 
Corn growing is merely a side line 
with us. Farmers in other parts of the 
country have made it their chief business. 
On some of these rich western lands, 
methods have been worked out that 
would astonish our Jersey farmers. There 
are farms in the West where 500^and 
more acres will be put in corn. From 
plowing to selling the grain there will be 
little, if any, hand work. The farmer 
sits on his tractor or horse-drawn ma¬ 
chine and plows, harrows, plants and 
cultivates. How these farmers would 
smile at our hand hoeing. They would 
laugh at me today at my job of cutting 
and shocking corn. Where corn growing 
is a full business, the farmer can turn 
in a drove of active hogs and let them 
harvest the crop. I have seen fields 
where these hogs started with a crop of 
corn averaging 8 ft. high. When the 
hogs finally walked off to market you 
could not find a kernel of wasted grain, 
and the stalks had been gnawed and eaten 
until there was hardly a piece 2 ft. long 
in sight. I am sure that if the writer of 
Proverbs could have seen a western corn¬ 
field properly “hogged down” he would 
have included the hog when he wrote: 
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider 
her ways, and be wise.” If this westexm 
farmer wants grain he drives through 
the standing corn with a team, snaps off 
the ripe ears and throws them into a 
wagon. Then cattle are turned in to eat 
the dead stalks. I have spent many a 
day herding cattle in these big cornfields 
after the huskers had' gone through. Or 
the westeni farmer may cut the stalks 
with a binder, let them dry out and then 
run them through a husker and shi-ed- 
der which will husk and shell out the 
ears and rip and tear up the stalks so 
they may be fed or used for bedding. 
Thus corn growing has remained a side 
line with us ixx New Jersey, and in our 
small fields we have continued to use the 
same methods that our great-grandfathers 
employed. Out West, where corn grow¬ 
ing has become a definite and leading 
business, economic conditions have forced 
fanners to utilize new methods and com¬ 
pletely change their plans. I am think¬ 
ing as I cut away at these stalks how r it 
comes that the eastern eoni-gx*ower, with 
his small field and hand labor, can com¬ 
pete with the big industry of the West. 
The small eastern farmer is being steadily 
driven out of profitable wheat growing. 
We can still grow rye at a profit, be¬ 
cause the sti*aw has mai'ket value. Many 
continue to grow oats, though 1 do not 
think it pays. Evex - y farmer continues 
to raise corn, and Avill say that it pays to 
do so. In our country the dried stalks 
from an acre will often bring $30 after 
the ears have been picked off. I think 
my best field this year will pay a greater 
profit in dry grain and stalks than any 
equa area in sweet corn that you can 
find in the counti’y. Corn seems to be 
the only crop which enables us, Avith old- 
tinxe methods, to compete with other sec¬ 
tions which employ the latest thing in soil 
culture. It ha& been said that a Yan¬ 
kee poultryman can buy a bushel of Iowa 
corn, feed it to hens so as to give a good 
profit, and then raise another bushel of 
corn on the manure from those hens. 
What is there about corn which enables 
us to hold our own against western com¬ 
petition? 
:Js :Jc sjc :*t 
These and similar thoughts come rush¬ 
ing to mind as I keep on cutting this 
corn. Our grown folks have gone to the 
town for a little shopping and I am left 
in charge of the children. The three lit¬ 
tle girls are playing under an apple tree 
as I work. I am thinking of the mighty 
changes which are to come during the life 
of these little ones. We used to think 
that in the coming years money and 
property would be more evenly divided 
so that there would be no poverty class. 
When I Avas young we expressed it in a 
song: 
“There’s a good time coming boys, a good 
time coming. 
We may not live to see the day, but 
earth shall glory in the ray of the 
good time coming.” 
I have not quite seen it yet but it will 
come! I do not see great chances for 
money distribution. It is true that in¬ 
come and other taxes are likely to do to 
society rather more than the Socialists 
of my boyhood ever expected to happen. 
The troxxble seems to be that Avhile vast 
sums of money are taken from the rich 
as taxes this money is not Avisely spent 
if we consider the real needs of common 
people. At least that is the way it seems 
to a plain corn-cutter working in a Aveedy 
field on a cloudy day Avith one eye on 
the corn-knife and the other on the chil- 
dren. It is not likely that in the years 
to come these children will run into any 
great fortune, unless by some unfortunate 
accident someone leaves them property, 
or they show unusual activity or power. 
But I do think that in matters of health 
children of today will, have superior 
bodies tomorrow. Teeth, eyes, ears, gen¬ 
eral health, ought to be better, for con¬ 
sider for a moment how health laws haA r e 
been amended and strengthened. As I 
slash at a pai’ticularly impudent rag¬ 
weed I remember that several doctoi*s of 
middle age, in active practice, tell me that 
they never saw a genuine case of small¬ 
pox, Avhile years ago it was a horrible 
scourge. I have read Edward .Tenner’s 
essay on vaccination printed in 1798. He 
thought that the deviation of man from 
his original state has made him a pro¬ 
lific source of disease. For instance, he 
says: 
“The Avolf, disarmed of ferocity, is now 
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