124 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



ing had resulted in germination. Our rhubarb, or pie plant which 

 had shot up into the snows before their departure was large enough 

 for use, and the promise, made to the Jerseymen present on the 

 occasion of our address before the Farmers' Club of the American 

 Institute had been made good, the present season finding us ahead 

 of New Jersey in planting our garden. When we say that Alle- 

 gany County, N. Y., is usually a fortnight, and not infrequently 

 three weeks behind New Jersey in the opening of the spring, it 

 will not be questioned that water in trenches at spring water tem- 

 perature produces wonderful results. That the producing season 

 will be lengthened from forty to sixty days on lands fitted under 

 our system, may be therefore set down as a fact. 



The virtues of " The New Agriculture," was most severely tested 

 on the morning of April 28th. The wind was in the southeast, 

 and the mercury at 10 A. M., stood at 50 above zero, and 

 reached 65 at noon; the day was one of spring balm. It began 

 raining about 3 P. M., the wind south, and the shower was one 

 more of May than April. Shifting suddenly into the north, 

 Boreas put on the lion in earnest and a violent snow storm en- 

 sued. The night was one of severe coldness and when we awoke 

 at 4 A. M. on the 29th, we made up our mind that if there was 

 virtue in cold water, this was the time to test it. Repairing to 

 our garden, the frigid condition of the ground all around, out- 

 side of our two acres, was about as hopeless as in dead of win- 

 ter. Beneath our feet, however, the soil yielded, and upon mak- 

 ing examination we found no frost. The "noses" of our peas, 

 sticking out of the ground, had a look much more nearly blue 

 than green. Only the day before, meeting friends in Elmira, 

 we had boasted of our pie plant, challenging comparison with 

 any grown in open grounds either in New York or New Jersey. 

 These, however, to our discomfiture, next morning were found 



