was rendy to receive another crop with but small work of preparation. A tiny patch of corn planted 

 Aj>ri! ITtli showed more than ever the effects of R!a>'s frost; an interesting experiment hcwe\cr that 

 should h.ive llie benefit of all the time needed to prove itself. Brussels spicuts L{.d tten set Ictwten 

 the hills, inakiiij; the patch, we hoped, a little more productive. Alas for our hons, thtsc plants came 

 from the same nursery in Maryland as the lettuce, and brought with them blight and cabbage louse, 

 an act thai should no more be tolerated than the shipment of orchard trees infested with San Jcse scale. 



We reitcli the dairy line, John, Ted, and Mike are at work upon acre 1 to the right. The acre is 

 divided into quarters and being prepared to receive alfalfa. The field h::s already been plowed, dressed 

 with Canada wood ashes, harrowed, leveled, rolled, harrowed, and harrowed again, raked and r.gain 

 rolled in ord<'r that the soil might be in the best possible condition. "We have brought with us some 

 Litmus paper, and to test the acidity of the soil, a handful is moistened at a nearby irrigation stand-pipe 

 and the paper applied. Anxious watching and it slowly turns blue. 



".MI right," calls the farmer, "sow that soil carefully John, in the northeast quarter and don't 

 let any lap into the other quarters. \\ hen you come to harrow it in Mike, let Ted go with you and lift 

 the harrow from quarter to quarter so no earth will be dragged." 



The soil? That is from an old alfalfa field up New York State and we are sowing it to inoculate 

 our soil with bacteria. The far or northwest corner is the highest you notice, it is the check quarter, 

 that will have no inoculation whatever. The southerly are V . S. quarters, one will have the seed, and 

 the other both seed and soil inoculated with bacterial culture from the U. S. Government Laboratories; 

 this is a test for Uncle Sam. 



The acre across to the left is divided in half; this was the poor thing that was not plowed until 

 this spring. Isn't it rough and arn't the rows crooked? Teo-smte, the Japanese fodder that can be 

 cut four times in a season, won't care. See, it's breaking ground. Yesterday they sowed the other 

 half of this acre with Japanese barnyard millet. 



And this? O yes, white flint corn, beyond sorghum, and still beyond, Virginia horse tooth. They 

 were planted the 26th and of course are not up yet. 



"Why do we plant in hills?" you ask. Isn't that old fashioned?" Perhaps, but a good fashion, 

 for the crop can be cultivated both ways by horse, saving that tremendously expensive item — hand 

 labor. But why do you raise corn here, you query, you thought that was given up in the East long ago. 



We are not raising corn, we arc raisiag silage. Here at the end of the road in this protected swale 

 will be the cow barns and silo, all these crops will be gathered for the silo, for modern dairymen carry 

 all fooi to the cows in balanced rations. Come and see us again when these crops are growing. 



Here you see the rough unstumped land and there the "Daddy-long-legs" harrow with which the 

 attempt at culture used to be made. We have tried it, the work is tremendous, the strain and liability 

 to injury to horse astounding, while the results amount to naught. W^e are putting in Canada field 

 peas and cow pe.as, but the chances of germination are small, because it is impossible to cover the seed. 



Let me take you b.ack through the south of the farm. Here is the black Alexican corn, the sweetest 

 and weirdest of all the sugar corns. It is already breaking ground. Next are mangel wurzels and sugar 

 beets; some of the seed was soaked over night to see if it would hasten germination. Next is where 

 the sweet potatoes will go. Do we think they will do well here? Yes, but not as well as in the 

 lighter soil on Experiment Station No. 2, at Medford. It is an experiment worth trying however, 

 for they have been grown successfully on the North Shore. We plan to put in nearly an acre. 



Why IS this pirt of the land so very rough, you ask. O, this is the acre that had 797 stumps upon 

 it, all over 18 inches in diameter. Imagine the forest that one day must have covered it. These 

 acres, 8 and 9, are left for late "flowers," cabbage and sprouts; but acre No. 7, down yonder, is thriving. 

 These are a second planting of green pod and wax beans, next squash and pumpkin with cucumber 

 alongside. I know they are supposed to mix, but they never have in our home garden and I see no reason 

 why they should here. 



This is a third planting of corn, there are 5 varieties here and all up strong you see. Yes, limas 

 next, both bush and pole. Beyond you see a space without poles, here we intend placing a section of 

 fence, for we have a theory that the beans will ripen more evenly, while by cutting the runners back 

 we will throw the .strength into the beans. Another experiment you see. 



Stop here a moment and look over the farm, then look beyond to the west and see what it was 

 just nine short months ago. Has the experiment paid, is it already proven that the land is produc- 

 tive, though the harvest is not yet? 



Come through the orchard and you will see the tomatoes in bloom. Look, here is one already 

 formed. 0, there's no doubt but that potted plants pay. 



Here are the strawberries. It's no wonder you are surprised; yes, they are actually in bloom. 

 Did you ask when they were planted? Last November. There is the Tdo, as happy in America as 

 in Japan, and there in the seed-bed are the Pe-tsai, Chinese carrots, and Sakurajima radishes. 



Have I given you, my readers, a glimpse of the farm this first day of June? 



The next day the melons were planted, a furrow run, a big forkful of manure placed in each hill, 

 some earth drawn over and the seed sown. These are greedy fellows and we felt success would be 

 lacking for them in unaided new ground. There wore four varieties of cantaloupes and two of water 

 melons. 



Such busy days as the diary now reveals; potatoes and beans to be sprayed with bord(!aux, lettuce 

 to be cultivited, radishes to be washed, bunched, and shipped to market, lima beans *o be replanted 

 where the germinxtion was poor, peas hand-cultivated and acre 7 horse-cultivated, a thousand and 

 one things the diary does not reveal, including photographs by the score. Thus passes a single day. 



The evenings busy with books and chemicals, to bed late and to rise early, but living in the free 

 and open, close to mother e.arth and her unp.aralleled wonders. 



,' The birds were corning— swallows, thrushes, bluebirds, they were looking for water and well we 

 knew if they found it they would build, becoming neighbors and benefactors in their destruction of 

 insect life. 



