POSSIBILITIES OF MUCK SOIL 



181 



HUBBARD SQUASH 



Question: May I ask if anyone has had experience with Hub- 

 bard squash on muck land? 



Mr. Greffrath: I can make a little remark on that froni 

 something I saw two years ago. While at Syracuse, I leased some 

 land there to some Italians to be sown to onions. There were some 

 ditch banks and waste land at the end. The Italians asked permis- 

 sion to use that land for their own purposes. They planted squash 

 and many other vegetables. They had one plot which was sod in 

 the spring. They turned it over and about the first of July they 

 planted this to Hubbard squash. It was a little plot a third as big 

 as this room, planted very close. They had the finest squash I ever 

 saw, but they didn't mature. They were nice size, but they all 

 froze. I don't know whether it would have been possible to have 

 put them in early enough so that they would have become ripe. 



asparagus 



I have had some experience with asparagus. About six years 

 ago I put in six acres on muck. The year before I purchased Pal- 

 metto seed, and sowed a seed bed on muck. It grew wonderfully. 

 The second spring, when the plants were one year old, I called them 

 to the attention of men who were familiar with asparagus, and they 

 said they were plenty large enough to plant. I set them at one year 

 old. They were much larger than some two year old roots I bought 

 the following season. The second year from planting some of that 

 grass would measure one inch across the root when cut. The next 

 winter we had a wet season. The next spring fifty per cent of my 

 crowns were rotten. The next year I filled in all I could and the 

 following spring I found about all those I put out the first year were 

 dead. It is my belief that, if you have land where you have perfect 

 control of the water table and can keep your water level down so as 

 never to have it over the crowns any length of time — this bed prob- 

 ably had water above the crowns five months — there is no place 

 where you can grow the quantity of grass you can on muck land. 



Mr. Bonnet: Did you find the grass was as straight in growing? 



Mr. Greffrath: It was beautiful grass, as nice as could be. 

 I had no rust, no disease. I had some slugs, but I found that with a 

 little care, not permitting rubbish to grow around the asparagus, 

 and by spraying, I could take care of them very well. Mr. West of 



