516 
Vhc  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
March  31,  1923 
Hope  Farm  Notes 
fed.  They  have'  made  too  much  wood 
growth,  and  the  limbs  are  meethig  and 
tangling  up  across  the  alleys.  The  trees 
have  been  so  busy  at  growing  that  they 
seem  to  have  forgotten  how  to  set  and 
develop  fruit.  What  they  do  produce  is 
large,  but  light-colored  and  not  of  good 
quality.  A  heavy  use  of  phosphate  would 
help  them,  but  they  have  evidently  had 
too  much  to  eat. 
With  this  late  Spring  and  the  records 
of  the  past  two  seasons  in  mind,  farmers 
in  this  section  may  well  study  the  crop 
situation.  There  has  been  less  fertilizer 
than  usual  bought  this  Spring,  and  I 
think  the  acreage  in  most  of  our  common 
crops  will  be  cut  down.  On*'  by  one  our 
standard  crops,  such  as  melons,  Lima 
beans,  tomatoes,  cabbage  and  sweet  corn 
have  encountered  ruinous  competition  in 
the  markets.  These  products  are  now 
coming  from  all  parts  of  the  country — 
from  sections  where  they  can  be  produced 
cheaper  than  most  of  us  can  ever  hope 
to  grow  them.  On  streaks  of  light,  early 
land  tomatoes  can,  in  good  seasons,  be 
put  on  the  market  so  as  to  bring  high 
prices,  but  when  the  later  crop  comes 
there  is  a  deluge  which  will  wash  away 
most  of  the  profit.  I  am  convinced  that 
on  our  cold  and  heavy  land  we  cannot 
compete  with  market  gardeners  who  have 
more  favorable  soil.  We  might  keep  on 
growing  such  crops  and  selling  them  for 
This  shows  our  Northern  correspondent,  Willet  Randall,  out  in  the  snow 
exercising  his  pack  of  beagles.  Those  who  know  what  real  hunting  is,  say 
there  is  no  music  like  the  baying  of  a  pack  of  beagles,  working  through  the 
snow  on  the  track  of  game.  There  has  surely  been  enough  snow  this  Winter 
to  give  them  every  opportunity  to  sing. 
buckwheat  we  can  properly  handle.  Some 
of  them  will  be  grown  in  drills,  well  eul-‘ 
tivated,  and  rye  and  Alsike  clover  seeded 
at  the  last  working.  This  grain  will 
either  be  cut  for  hay  or  bound  and  fed  in 
the  sheaf  to  chickens.  This  plan  will  give 
us  more  time  to  dust  and  care  for  our 
fruit.  If  we  can  build  or  dig  some  form  of 
storage,  so  that,  our  Fall  apples  can  be 
kept  off  the  market  until  the  rush  of  culls 
is  over,  we  can  sell  to  far  better  advan¬ 
tage. 
Briefly  stated,  that  is  what  I  want  to 
do  this  Summer.  I  do  not  expect  as  large 
or  great  income  as  in  some  former  years, 
but  the  expenses  will  be  less,  and  the 
following  year  will  be  better.  I  shall 
keen  on  planting  trees  until  all  available 
land  is  filled,  but  I  am  not  going  to  spend 
money  planting  crops  simply  because  we 
have  always  planted  them,  or  because 
others  do.  The  fact  is,  that  we  have  all 
come  to  the  point  where  we  have  got  to 
shake  ourselves  free  from  old  habits  and 
ideas.  I  did  not  really  expect  to  get 
back  into  poultry,  but  the  success  thus 
far  of  that  Pen  15  at  the  Westwood  con¬ 
test  seems  to  show  that  we  have,  almost 
without  realizing  it,  developed  a  good 
strain  of  Reds.  It  ought  to  pay  to  follow 
that  up.  On  March  13  the  pens  of  Reds 
at  the  Bergen  County  contest  stood  as 
follows,  our  own  pen  being  No.  15: 
Pen  14 .  70S  |  Pen  18 .  747 
Pen  15 . 1113  |  Pen  19 .  534 
Pen  10  .  932  |  Pen  20 .  004 
Pen  17 . 1025  |  Pen  21 .  030 
Pen  17  is  gaining  quite  rapidly,  and 
may  pass  our  birds,  but  there  will  have 
to.  be  some  good  laying  to  do  it. 
On  March  10  a  fierce  rain  came  soak¬ 
ing  upon  us,  melting  the  ice  and  snow 
and  pouring  the  liquid  into  the  brooks 
and  rivers.  For  some  reason  Spring  lin¬ 
gered  long  in  the  South  this  year,  and 
when  she  made  a  belated  appearance  she 
seemed  disgusted  at  the  snowbanks  piled 
oft  our  hills. 
“Here,  get  out,  you  lazy  reminders  of 
Winter,”  she  seemed  to  say  as  she  came 
on  the  water.  It  was  somewhat  like  the 
labor  of  Hercules  when  he  turned  the 
river  into  the  Augean  stable  and  cleaned 
it  after  3, (XX)  oxen,  in  one  day.  Spring 
let  loose  her  flood  and  brought  the  earth 
into  sight.  According  to  the  fable,  Her¬ 
cules  killed  Augeas  because  he  would  not 
pay  his  wages,  which  was  one-tenth  part 
of  the  herd.  Perhaps  if  we  do  not  do  our 
duty,  now  that  Spring  has  finally  done 
her  part,  she  will  turn  on  us  with  an¬ 
other  late  frost  or  some  other  calamity. 
This  Spring  cleaning  was  well  timed,  for 
on  St.  Patrick’s  Day  a  faint  shimmer  of 
green  appeared  on  the  lawn — the  sleeping- 
grass  has  wakened  at  least.  There  are  still 
a1  few  snowbanks  and  ice  patches  along 
the  stone  walls  and  in  north  corners,  but 
the  worst  of  the  Winter  is  over.  The 
cows  know  it.  They  begin  to  sniff  the 
grass,  and  are  eager  to  get  at  it.  The 
hens  feel  the  sunshine  and  reflect  it  in  the 
nest.  Spring  is  here  at  last.  In  all  the 
years  I  have  lived,  I  never  knew  it  to  be 
so  welcome.  The  children  have  been 
making  maple  sugar.  There  are  no  sugar 
maples  here,  'but  they  tapped  some  soft 
and  ornamental  trees  and  got  a  fair  quan¬ 
tity  of  sap.  When  boiled  down  this  made 
a  light  brown  sugar,  not  very  sweet,  and 
with  a  faint  taste  of  “maple.” 
:Jc  sje  sjc 
One  of  the  first  things  we  attempted 
when  the  snow  disappeared  was  a  journey 
into  the  young  orchards  to  see  what  the 
enemy  had  been  up  to  during  the  Winter. 
It  has  been  an  ideal  Winter  for  mice  and 
rabbits  to  get  in  their  deadly  work.  I 
expected  to  find  many  trees  ruined,  but 
thus  far  we  have  only  run  upon  half  a 
dozen,  and  some  of  these  can  be  saved 
by  prompt  work.  Most  of  our  reports 
indicate  awful  damage  from  mice.  Thou¬ 
sands  of  trees  seem  to  be  completely 
girdled.  They  are  eaten  down  far  into 
the  roots,  so  that  bridge-grafting  is  im¬ 
possible,  and  such  trees  will  prove  a  total 
loss.  I  cannot  understand  how  our  own 
trees  have  escaped.  There  may  be  greater 
damage  than  we  think,  for  1  have  not 
gone  into  our  western  orchard  yet;  but. 
at  any  rate,  we  seem  to  have  escaped 
great  injury.  I  think  most  of  our  injured 
trees  can  be  saved  by  promptly  mounding 
up  with  soil  all  aiound  and  above  the 
bark  injury,  and  cutting  off  about  half  the 
top.  Of  course,  such  a  tree  cannot  sup¬ 
port  its  full  top.  It  may  crawl  through 
and  regain  its  vigor  if  the  top  is  cut 
back.  Bridge-grafting  will  save  some 
badly -injured  trees,  but  in  spite  of  all  the 
experts  tell  us,  it  is  hard  for  an  amateur 
to  do  it  properly.  With  us  the  mice  are 
worse  than  rabbits  in  a  snowy  Winter 
such  as  we  have  just  passed  through.  We 
must  learn  to  poison  the  mice  during  the 
Fall  and  early  Winter,  before  snow  comes. 
I  ant  sure  that  cats,  in  this  country,  de¬ 
stroy  ,  thousands  of  field  mice  and  help 
our  fruit  growers  in  that  way.  Yet  most 
ofi  tiled  ‘sports”  and  city  hunters  will  shoot 
a  eat  whenever  they  find  one  out  in  the 
field.  One  such  “hunter”  told  me  that 
these  cats,  out  in  the  field  in  October, 
were  robbing  birds’  nests,  eating  the  eggs 
and  killing  the  little  birds.  No  doubt  that 
mail"  thinks  robins  and  song  birds  lay  eggs 
all  through  the  Winter.  The  cats  he  saw 
and  killed  were  hunting  for  field  mice,  and 
if  left  alone  would  save  us  great  loss  and 
trouble.  I  do  not  think  a  man  so  fool¬ 
ishly  ignorant  of  animal  and  bird  habits 
should  ever  be  permitted  to  roam  at.  large 
with  a  gun. 
s}:  =>=  S«c  s2e  sje 
But  we  shall  be  obliged  to  get  out  and 
dance  with  Spring,  now  that  the  snow 
is  going.  Many  of  us  must  dance  with 
lii  manure  fork  or  a  spray  rod  for  a  part¬ 
ner.  We  have  a  great  accumulation  of 
stable  manure  and  chicken  manure,  and 
jjt  is  going  out  steadily.  The  heavier 
Stable  manure  goes  on  the  lower  farm, 
&U.h;  short  hauls  from  the  barn.  The 
richer  -chicken”  manure  will  go  around  the 
trees  on  the  hill.  This  ought  to  be  our 
fruit  year,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  fruit 
buds  and  the  partial  failure  of.  the  last 
two  years.  My  idea  is  to  feed  in  a  bear¬ 
ing  year,  and  we  shall,  therefore,  give 
every  tree  which  looks  good  for  a  crop 
about  25  pounds  of  manure,  and,  if  pos¬ 
sible  three  or  four  pounds  of  phosphate. 
Loft^  to  themselves,  most  workmen  will 
pile  such  manure  close  up  around  the 
trunk  of  the  tree.  I  have  never  beep  able 
to  understand  why  they  do  it.  It  affords 
an  ideal  nest  for  mice,  and  a  little  thought 
ought  to  show  that  the  feeding  roots  of 
a  tree  must  be  far  out.  about  as  far  as 
the  branches  extend.  The  place  for  fer¬ 
tilizer  or  manure  is  out  away  from  the 
trunk,  under  the  branches.  We  have 
about  enough  manure  this  year  to  give 
every  bearing  tree  a  fair  supply.  I  find 
it  easy  to  overdo  this  matter  of  feeding 
apple  trees.  We  all  know  that  an  over¬ 
fed  peach  tree  will  prove  a  bad  actor,  but 
most,  people  seem  to  think  an  apple  tree 
can  stand  anything.  I  have  one  block 
of  Baldwins  that  seem  to  have  been  over- 
what  we  can  get,  and  even  figure  some 
profit,  but  in  order  to  do  that  we  should 
have  to  throw  in  our  own  labor  as  a  gift 
to  the  public.  Unless  a  farmer  can  pay 
himself  fair  wages  and  show  some  little 
profit  after  charging  such  wages  against 
his  income,  he  is  not  doing  a  goorl  busi¬ 
ness,  and  ought  to  look  around  for  some¬ 
thing  that  will  pay  him  better.  As  most 
of  us  cannot  get  into  another  line  of  busi¬ 
ness,  we  should  see  if  we  cannot  find 
other  crops  that  will  pay  us  better.  I 
have  no  doubt  there  are  farmers  who 
make  a  profit  of  growing  the  regular  crops 
which  their  father  grew  before  them. 
While  I  have  no  doubt  of  it,  1  would  like 
to  Jook  at  their  figures  and  see  just  how 
much  they  charged  for  their  own  services. 
Did  they  get  as  much  out  of  ft  as  the 
hired  man?  - 
-  In  my  own  citse  I  know  from  my  figures 
that  sweet  corn,  tomatoes  and  similar 
crops  have  not  paid  me  a  cent.  One  year 
With  an  other  our  apples  jiay  a  little;  so 
does  the  small  fruit.  For  years  we 
grew  potatoes  at  a  loss.  Last  year  we 
tried-  a  new  plan,  and  made  a  little*  profit. 
There  has  been  a  little  money  in  poultry. 
In  order  to  break  even,  much  less  figure 
any  profit,  I  must  credit  my  farm  account 
with  rent  and  farm  supplies  for  our  big 
family,  averaging  during  the  year  15  to 
10  people.  My  figures  show  that  we  are 
spending  loo' much  money  trying  to  pro¬ 
duce  unprofitable  crops.  One  remedy 
seems  to  be  cutting,  out  these  unfaithful 
servants  and  trying  to  find  others  which 
will  give  us  better  returns.  I  have  there¬ 
fore  decided  to  seed  down  a  good  part 
of  our  farm  or  grow  fodder  crops.  1 
shall  work  back  into  strawberries  and 
raspberries  and  increase  on  poultry. 
That  will  mean  less- expense  for  labor  and 
for  fertilizer,  a  concentration  of  manure 
and  work  on  fewer  acres,  less  worry  and 
nerve  strain  in  marketing,  and  more  feed 
and  fodder  for  the  stock.  „  I  have  picked 
out  what  seem  to  me  tin-  best  spots  for 
strawberries,  and  they  will  be  covered 
thick  with  manure.  When  plowed  and 
fitted  right  strawberries  will  be  planted, 
a  fair  amount  of  phosphate  being  used. 
We  shall  try  to  give  them  the  best  c-are 
we  know  of.  The.re  will  not  be  much  of 
any  income  from  them  this  year,  but  next 
year  it  will  come.  I  have  one  good  field 
well  suited  for  potatoes.  I  want  to  plant 
in  hills,  with  chicken  manure  on  top  of 
the  hills,  as  we  worked  it  last  year.  I 
shall  raise  all  the  barley  and  oats  and 
The  shortage  of  labor  during  the  war 
drove  us  out  of  strawberries,  but  now 
we  think  we  can  get  back  again.  The 
fact  is  we  are  all  feeling  the  urge  and 
effect  of  a  new  generation,  which  has  come 
in  with  the  greatest  development  of  in¬ 
dustry  the  world  has  ever  seen.  I  find 
that  I  am  what  my  children  call  “a  back¬ 
door  man.”  In  these  muddy  days  I  be¬ 
lieve  in  going  ’round  to  the  back  door 
and  wiping  my  feet  on  the  mat  before  en¬ 
tering  the  house.  I  was  brought  up  that 
way — the  front  door  was  to  be  reserved 
for  Sundays,  funerals  and  holidays.  Why 
tramp  mud  into  such  a  sacred  place  as 
the  front  hall  when  you  can  enter  through 
the  kitchen?  My  children  do  not  see  it 
that  way.  No  back  doors  or  back  seats 
for  them.  What’s  a  front  door  for  if  not 
for  use?  Why  sneak  around  back  to 
avoid  a  little  mud  or  snow?  So,  I  take  it, 
these  children  belong  to  a  “front-door” 
generation — determined  to  have  the  best 
of  life  as  they  pass  through  it.  We  back 
door  folks  may  wear  rubbers  and  leave 
them  outside  when  we  come  in.  it.  w.  c. 
Propagating  Roses 
I  wish  to  make  a  hotbed  for  propaga¬ 
tion  of  some  very  good  varieties  of  roses 
and  fruit  trees  for  stocks  and  scions, 
also  buds.  Can  a  frame  of  this  kind,  made 
large  enough  to  move  around  in,  be  kept 
warm  enough  in  Winter  by  botton  heat  to 
keep  small  cuttings,  seedlings,  and  small 
plants?  C.  E.  AV. 
Roses  can  be  grown  from  cuttings  and 
do  fairly  well,  but  budded  plants  are  pre¬ 
ferred.  as  they  make  more  vigorous 
growth.  Start  roses  from  hardwood  cut¬ 
tings  in  a  cold  frame  in  March.  Wood 
for  cuttings  should  be  cut  before  ground 
freezes  in  Fall  and  stored  in  a  cool,  moist 
place.  Fruits  are  never  grown  from  cut¬ 
tings;  they  are  budded  or  grafted  on  ap¬ 
ple  seedling,  preferably  French  crab.  If 
C.  E.  W.  Avants  a  house  large  enough  to 
work  in,  desirable  dimensions  would  be 
6  ft.  at  peak,  3-ft.  side  walls  and  10  ft. 
width.  That  would  give  a  path  2  ft.  wide 
and  a  bed  4  ft.  wide  on  each  side  of  path. 
Hot  manure  put  in  these  beds  2  ft.  deep 
with  0  to  S  in.  of  sand,  the  first  of  Feb¬ 
ruary,  would  give  all  the  heat  necessary. 
WILLIAM  PEBKIXS. 
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