plant, green and wax beans, pole and bush limas, squash, vegetable marrow, four varieties of tomatoes 

 (pink, red, large and small yellows), cauliflower, one cabbage, weighing when stripped for market, 

 ^teen pounds, beets, carrots, onions, and peppers. 



The Farmer was particularly anxious to see the assistant postmaster and for a greeting had ar- 

 ranged a large perfect eggplant in a peck basket and carried it under his arm to present to him as he 

 alighted from the train. The eggplant lover did not come, but a kind neighbor carried it home to him 

 and he afterward said to me: 



"It's all right, INIrs. FuUerton, I didn't think the 'Squire' could raise them, but that was the best 

 I ever ate." 



"We had plenty of bees," I responded; "they are an absolute necessity where eggplant is attempted." 



The "bees" remind me of everyone's query when they saw the "weather bureau" (where the maxi- 

 mum and minimum thermometers are housed). "0, do you keep bees?" 



"Yes, but not tame ones, we coaxed them by strong colored flowers. They come for them and 

 are daily visitors. We intended having a hive but have not come to it yet. Still our honey friends 

 have done all the work necessary," we would reply. 



For some time the children declared, "we took the weather out" every morning when the ther- 

 mometers were read. 



The "little birthday excursion" (for it was the Farmer's birthday) numbered 94 and we felt as 

 though the good news would travel far when they left the farm. 



I was showing friends over the place and explaining operations how this crop was the second on 

 that ground, that, the third; explaining how it was all done with no commercial fertilizer and but 

 little help. We came to the dairy where we met an old man who had preceded us; he was returning 

 from reviewing the fodder corn, and I said: 



"Well, what do you think of it?" And of course I was swelling with pride. 



"Humph!" he replied. "I don't think much of that there corn; it ain't got no ears." And as 

 he was referring to sorghum, I could but Be amused, as sorghum bears its seeds on its tassel. 



"This here's that there new thing they call alfalfy, ain't it?" he asked. 



"No, sir," I replied, "that is Japanese millet; but this is alfalfa," as I showed it to him. 



"Japanese millet! We didn't raise them new f angled things in my day. I suppose you think 

 this here corn is good too, but it ain't got no ears neither," he said. 



"But that's not corn," I remonstrated, "it's teosinte, a grass, and comes from Mexico." 



But "a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still," and he went away muttering 

 to himself. 



Our other guests were fully satisfied that no one had drawn the "long bow" in regard to the crops, 

 and fresh vegetables from Experimental Station No. 1 became very popular in Huntington after that. 



Our visitors drove to the beautiful Sound beach, (it should be famous as it belongs to the village 

 of Wading River) where they ate their picnic dinners, and on returning to the train, found the car decked 

 with armsful of exquisite gladioli, a gift from Wading River's famous grower of this gorgeous flower. 



Ted had been mowing millet all day. It fell in a golden wake behind the scythe, making as pretty 

 a picture as one could wish to see. What satisfies us to the very core of our beings more than the harvest? 

 Nothing. 



Spinach planted where the early potatoes came out was up in 7 days and immediately irrigated 

 to hasten its growth. 



The secret of all leaf crops is the rapidity with which they grow and nothing can further them more 

 than water coupled with cultivation. Endive needed a little of this medicine, the sprayers were turned 

 into this field. 



Young carrots were somewhat in demand in the market in mid-August, so we decided to dig all 

 of the early planting and ship thtm. The second planting was by this time providing for home hampers. 

 John took the wheelbarrow and fork and went out to the field, he soon returned with the barrow full to 

 overflowing. A second, a third, and a fourth came by and it seemed as though there could not be so- 

 many carrots in all the world. They were taken to the packing shed, which, by the way, was a very 

 quickly improvised affair. Time did not give us a chance to build an ideal one, so a strip of quarter-inch 

 mesh galvanized wire was tacked to the rear of the barn, stretched out to the north and fastened to some 

 stakes driven into the ground. The wire was turned up at the edges and allowed to sag slightly in the 

 center; this admitted of a good many vegetables being placed in it at once, while the spray from the 

 hose of course ran right through. As a protection from the drip underneath some old boards were 

 placed in front of the drain; a table made of old boards (some second-hand stuff left from the barn) 

 laid upon boxes, made the packing table, while an old sail cloth fastened up among the trees with rope 

 made good enough shade. 



Mike washed and John bunched. They were sorted into two sizes and piled upon the table. Young 

 carrots are sold with the leaves on, and nothing could have been prettier than that table ladened with 

 orange and green. Three hundred and thirty-five bunches, 12 carrots to a bunch, was the final count; 

 while added to that 173 bunches of pink, white, yellow, and black radishes made a fair shipment of root 

 crops for one day. 



This plot of carrots covered a space of ground 46 by 67 feet and yielded, all told, 485 bunches, or 

 5,820 perfect carrots. 



I think August 22d a good representative day of work at this season. I give it to you straight from 

 the diary: "Ted finished cultivating celery and celeriac (we also put some Bonora, which had been sent us. 

 by a good friend with an earnest petition that we try it, upon the celer>') in dynamite swale, weeded and 

 cultivated all berries, Udo and peanuts. Mike and Pedro limed the patches where early cabbage, kale, 

 and kohl-rabi had come out, sowing 400 pounds. They also sowed 450 pounds Canada wood ashes 

 on the alfalfa, and 600 pounds old rotted manure on the southwest and southeast quarters (these quarters 

 had given the smallest yield), Pedro and Martin picked tomatoes for 2 hours, Tony all day sprajang. 

 cauliflowers, cabbage, and sprouts with bordeaux and paris green. 



.'54 



