as we had hoped, but like cauliflower this was an off year, entirely too wet and really good melons were 

 as "scarce as hen's teeth." I give you here a letter to Mr. Peters on the subject: 



"Wading River, Long Island, N. Y., 



•■September 10th, 1906. 

 "Mr. Ralph Peters, I'les., Long Island City. 



"Dear Sir: — The weather, which sent the thermometer down to forty and even a trifle helow night after 

 night, held up our melons and further weakened the vitality of the vines to a marked extent. The striped beetle, 

 which has been our hardest nut to crack, true to the usual procedure, appeared late in August in immense num- 

 bers. This was a time when he could only be fought with severe damage, not only to the vines but the melons 

 themselves, and in spite of the greatest of care and most thorough work they succeeded in laying eggs in great 

 quantities. The beetle itself and its 'maggot' not only attacks the vines, but it attacks the melons themselves 

 as it does cucumbers and squashes. While they are seldom able to injure, or, in fact, penetrate the interior, 

 they certainly spoil the appearance of the melon and in many cases where they happen to work close to the 

 juncture of the vino, they partly cut off the sustenance supply and check growth and ripening considerably. 

 We have a big lot of melons of excellent quality, but they do not look right. I went into the city on Thursday 

 afternoon. Friday, and Saturday, and found that, without exception, both .Jersey and Southern melons had been 

 attacked in exactly the same way as melons on No. 1. I also found that Rocky Fords were coming in with 

 mutilated skin coverings. At the Delaware Water (lap, when I went to bring home my family, I found exactly 

 the same state of affairs existing with every melon I could discover. A few of them were native, most of them 

 were coming from Jersey, Colorado, and the South. Nevertheless, in spite of the scientific explanation that there 

 are certain seasons when the natural enemy of our insect pests are entirely absent, or present in numbers so 

 small that they do not exert any apparent influence and man alone cannot cope with them, we have no hesitancy 

 in saying that we will prevent this marking another year and base this egotistic statement on the results of our 

 experiments, which, although started late in the season, will show conclusively that the aftermath of the striped 

 beetle need not be feared if tobacco is used freely, particularly, about the melon hills, etc. 



"Yours truly, 



"II. B. FULLERTON, 



"Special Agent." 



On the 11th "we two" went to the farm for the night, for the following day we were to receive a 

 delegation of dairymen to view the farm's successes and failures. 



For their benefit we placed upon the porch a bale of alfalfa and a bunch of plants (roots and all) 

 from each quarter section. They seemed wonderfully pleased with the successes attained and one of 

 them upon examining the root nodules, said: 



'May I take some of these home with me? We have tried for 3 years to raise alfalfa at our dairj- 

 and we cannot get a nodule or get the plant to live over winter. It is a remarkable showing this section 

 has made and I congratulate you most heartily." 



No less interesting to them were the other fodder crops and they were as surprised at the Virginia 

 horse tooth as any one else had been. By this time it had grown to 15K feet, with the ears, 7 and 8 

 feet from the ground. 



A G-footer stood among it holding an umbrella in his upstretched hand and the tip of the umbrella 

 could not touch the tassel. 



The Suffolk County Fair opened on the 17th and much time was consumed in making ready. A 

 little portable house, the same size as the one we had been living in, was erected on the fair grounds, and 

 for some time we had been preparing and framing photographs of the farm's development, to hang upon 

 the walls. Sunday, the 16th, took us all to the farm again, giving to the children a good treat, for they 

 really had grown very fond of the place, and to us another busy Sunday. 



Being "Suffolk Countyites" we are allowed to enter vegetables for competition and strange to 

 relate, the yearling farm won 11 first prizes, 6 seconds, and an honorary mention. The portable had its 

 miniature sign by the front door flanked by teosinte and backed by Virginia horse tooth, the interior 

 had one room finished as a bed-room, while the others had tables loaded down with vegetables of various 

 sorts. There was a goodly showing for the time of year, lettuce, endive, summer and spring radishes, 

 beets, onions, carrots, parsnips, salsify, beans, sugar corn, tomatoes, squash, marrow, cantaloupes, 

 watermelons, mangels, sugar beets, pe-tsai, and sakurajima, potatoes, sweet and white, cabbage, sprouts, 

 and peanuts, alfalfa, millet, corn, sorghum, and teosinte. 



The little cottage was crowded with visitors every day, some from curiosity, some from real interest, 

 many came back a second and third time, becoming so absorbed in the subject we would often talk for 

 hours. 



"These are scrub oak vegetables, raised in one year without the use of commercial fertilizer," we 

 would say. 



"Oh, I don't know about that," would come the rejoinder. 



"Then I'll tell you," and the whole story of the farm's history would be repeated. No one who 

 heard or saw it as I have tried to rel te it in these pages, but saw the logic in the venture, and many an 

 agriculturist had new heart put into him from the long chat, while without a doubt we received as good 

 as we gave. 



They contended, those who had not farmed, that 10 tons of manure to the acre was "a heap of 

 fertilizer." I would like to quote here from the American Agriculturist of recent date. The extract is 

 from an article on rais'ng melons in another state and the quantities used are for 1 acre. 



"In the fall is spread 20 tons of stable manure free of stalks and straw (this would equal 30 to 40 

 tons of ordinary manure). 



||One thousand pounds high grade Carolina phosphate rock. 



"Three hundred pounds high grade sulphate of potash. 



"This is harrowed in and 1 sow 12 to 15 quarts of crimson clover to be plowed under in April. I 

 then sow 1,000 pounds complete fertilizer (formula, 2% nitrogen,4% phosphoric acid, and 10% potash)." 



This surely dwarfs 10 tons strawy manure into insignificance. 

 _ The second moming of the fair, a carriage full of visitors drove up to the door and an east-end 

 neighbor, who had visited the farm in the early summer alighted, bearing several large bouquets of asters 

 and dahlias. He brought them with the thought they might help brighten our exhibit. In reality they 

 were a peace offering. I relate the incident as one which to us was full of glee. 



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