604 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



easily managed for they can be planted in check rows and farmed 

 both ways. Raspberries too can be raised that way but I never did 

 it nor saw it done. 



Our conditions are so different from yours that my remarks must 

 needs be general. Our lands are cheap and we are only a few 

 miles from Philadelphia, over good smooth level stone roads, so 

 that we can get perishable fruits or vegetables in market quickly 

 at a minimum expense. This far from market you might not be able 

 to dio ]u®t as 1 do but such crops as potatoes, cabbage, cantaloupes, 

 tomatoes and the berries you could manage easily and your very 

 distance from market would help you get together and stick together. 

 Asparagus too is a crop that would suit your conditions and if you 

 learn to raise it in its highest perfection you can raise other things 

 from choice, but it will not be from necessity. I have had good 

 success planting apples and asparagus together, but with me, need- 

 ing lots of feed and lots of culture. 



PROF. STEWART: What variety of peas do you plant? 



MR. ROBERTS: We raise the shipping varieties. We want a 

 good yielder that will give large green pods that will still look green 

 and attractive after being on the market three or four days. Alaska, 

 Gradus, Soxton, and Long Island Mammoth. With us, quality is 

 entirely secondary to appearance, a hard dry pea that looks fresh 

 will sell; but a stale looking pod is not wanted in any market. 



MR. C, J. TYSON : Do you find it necessary to spray those crops? 



MR. ROBERTS: Most of them, but not the pea crop. 



MR. TYSON: How about beans? 



MR. ROBERTS: We generally spray at least once. Often more. 

 We think it pays. We aim to have a succession of beans all through 

 the season. They help keep our Italian gang busy and contented. 

 This last year I raised 15,000 baskets of them. Beans are almost 

 always ready to pick, the young ones sell best. The Italians want 

 work every day. They tell us they have all winter to rest up. They 

 work willingly from daylight till dark, Sunday and all if we are 

 pushed. 



DR. MAYER: From what part of Italy do your men come? 



MR. ROBERTS: We only engage one man and he gets the rest. 

 He will get the whole gang from his own part of Italy if possible. 



DR. MAYER : Where do you house them ? 



MR. ROBERTS: We have houses built on purpose. They are 

 not at all fastidious. They are stronger morally than most of the 

 foreigners we meet, and can live happily under conditions not pos- 

 sible with weaker races. 



MR. TYSON: Do your cantaloupes ever blight? 



MR. ROBERTS: Yes, this is a serious trouble. We have often 

 held it in check pretty well with Bordeaux mixture applied early and 

 often. 



MR. CHESTER TYSON : Do you raise cucumbers, also? 



MR. ROBERTS: No, cucumbers and cantaloupes mix in bloom- 

 ing and spoil the quality of each other. 



MR. WERTZ: Do you turn your cantaloupe vines up so as to get 

 the spray on the underside of the leaf? 



MR. ROBERTS : No, we use the Sbangle power sprayer that sends 

 a mist all through, over and under the vines pretty well. 



MR. WERTZ: Do you consider corn a good crop to grow among 

 your trees. 



