132 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



being through a long private road, which enables us to work without an audience, a very 

 desirable thing with the amateur farmer. Its situation is also good because of the ravines 

 which prevent our chickens bothering our neighbors and vice vei-sa, and we have no reason 

 for complaining of near neighbors who do not spray, which seems to us to be a great ad- 

 vantage. 



We are also greatly favored in being near town and upon an excellent road. But all 

 of these things are mere accidents; we thought of none of them until we came to live on 

 the farm. It is only in books that the city farmer is very far seeing. 



Our place had long been in the hands of renters, and it is unnecessary to tell you of 

 the impoverished soil, the peach trees far beyond their usefulness, the sassafras which en- 

 croached upon the outer row of trees until they were lost to sight, the blackberry vines 

 running riot, the endless weeds, with a flourishing crop of Canada thistles, a vineyard 

 hopelessly smothered in sod and on so steep a hill that spraying and cultivation were im- 

 possible. Another hillside which had once been cultivated was an almost impossible 

 thicket of scrub oaks and sassafras with Canada thistles between. The bam was so close 

 to the house that it was about all we could see from our living rooms window, and behind it 

 a mountain of brush from the prunings of many seasons and a huge pile of rubbish con- 

 taining every thing imaginable from an old tar paper roof and a rocking chair to a beer 

 keg and a man's old coat. We recently heard of another city farmer who found the only 

 thing we have not yet plowed up on our place, and that was a set of false teeth. 



The one thing upon the place which was in good condition was the apple orchard of about 

 two and one-half acres, the trees were about fifteen years old, Baldwins, Duchess and 

 Hubbardston, and v.ith the care they have had, have responded very well. The crop 

 was very short this year after the repeated freezings, but we lost no trees, only the fruit. 



The old peach trees were mostly of the white varieties and too old for profit, and were 

 all removed; the trees which replaced them were in their second year, and also survived 

 the October freeze. We have two acres of young pear trees, and about one acre of grapes 

 set out last year, besides half an acre of asparagus; the latter we fe.el very proud of, and 

 look forward to good returns from it. We attribute its unusual vigor to the heavy fer- 

 tilizing from the poultry and we are indebted to the hens also for keeping down the as- 

 paragus beetles, as we have never been obliged to take any measures for getting rid of 

 them. 



AVe early decided that it would be prudent for us to have a diversity of fruit, both on 

 account of the work, which is much easier to spread over the entire season, entailing far 

 less hired help, and because in all of our experiences in other lines we had been impressed 

 with the wisdom of carrying eggs in more than one basket. We have spent four years 

 of desperately hard work getting rid of sod, sassafras and weeds, including Canada thistles, 

 but by sticking to it every single day from daylight till dark, winter and summer, we feel 

 that we are now driving the work instead of the work driving us, and are ready to declare 

 positively that Canada thistles can be exterminated if the farmer really wishes to get rid 

 of them. 



The spraying has been one of the difficult problems, owing to lack of help, but now that 

 we have learned how, we can do it ourselves and feel secure in knowing that eveiy twig 

 and leaf is covered. Our long hospital training made us familiar with germicides, and pre- 

 pared us to resist the temptation to buy all sorts of commercial preparations, and in con- 

 sequence San Jose scale has been controlled; this year we have found none. 



Proper fertilization is a serious undertaking with the woman farmer; a man can take 

 his wagon and pick up good barnyard manure at all sorts of livery stables and private 

 alleys but this is obviously out of the question for a woman and to hire it done, makes 

 an item of expense to be seriously considered for the small farmer. Our experience with 

 commercial fertilizers has been very indifferent, because w"e do not yet understand what 

 our soil needs, but by cover cropping and carefully making use of all that comes from a 

 horse, a cow and two hundred and fifty hens, we are beginning to see some excellent re- 

 sults in the soil which evirlently was good originally, but was suffering from the exhaustion 

 due to forty years of taking off and putting nothing back. 



We yielded to the popular belief that fruit and poultry were an excellent combination, 

 but if we were beginning again we would only keep hens enough for our own use. How- 

 ever there is something to be said upon both sides of the question. First, small fruit is 

 impossible with poultry which has free range, and the poultry suffers if confined. Sec- 

 ond, in a country devoted to horticulture, grain is too expensive to allow poultry to be 

 profitable. On the other hand, if the benefits such as have been spoken of with the as- 

 paragus, and the reallj- wonderful effects of poultrj' manure were to be added to the profits 

 from the eggs, etc., we cannot say poultry keeping is unprofitable in horticultural regions, 

 but as l^efore mentioned, if we were beginning again, we would not go to tlie expense of 

 poultry keeping, nor let ourselves in for so much hard work which is unavoidable if fowls 

 .are properly cared for. 



