VoL. LX. 
No. 2687. 
NEW YORK, JULY 27, 1901. 
$1 PER YEAR 
FARMING WITH CHEMICALS AND WATER. 
UTILIZING THE LOWER LANDS. 
Good Culture for Onions and Strawberries. 
On page 466 we spoke of the farm of Thomas R. 
Hunt, of Hambertville, N. J., whose plan of intensive 
farming presents a sharp contrast to that followed 
by D. C. Lewis. The country around Lambertville is 
rough and hilly, with many springs and wet places, 
v^hile at Cranbury it is level and easily worked. Mr. 
Hunt took a poor farm—so poor that for many years 
it yielded no profit, and by hard work and wise plan¬ 
ning has been able to make the farm pay well. 
He may be called a fertil¬ 
izer and water farmer—using 
the Stockbridge fertilizers and 
pumping water from a small 
pond for irrigating purposes. 
On a level farm like that of 
Mr. Lewis at Cranbury a well- 
ordered rotation of a few 
staple crops is possible, but on 
a farm like Mr. Hunt’s—rough 
and uneven—a different plan 
must be followed. Such farm¬ 
ing, to be successful, must be 
divided into two distinct 
classes. On the hills grass and 
grain may be grown in short 
rotation, or the hillsides may 
be planted with fruit trees. 
The lower lands in the valley 
may be smoothed and given to 
such crops as vegetables and 
small fruits. Mr. Hunt has 
followed this plan with suc¬ 
cess. There was a field of 
good wheat on the highest 
hill—“a fruit grower must 
have straw”—as the farmer 
says, and several good fields 
of grass. The money crops, 
and where they are the heart 
of the farm will be found, are 
grown on the lower lands. On 
this farm the money crops are 
onions and strawberries. 
These crops are grown to¬ 
gether. The strawberry plants 
are set in rows five feet apart, 
with several rows of onions 
planted between. Both berries 
and onions receive the best of 
care, being well fed and thor¬ 
oughly weeded. After the 
onions are pulled, transplants 
from the strawberry rows are 
put where the onions grew, 
and thus the ground is fiiled. 
This is not a new way of 
growing strawberries, but Mr. 
Hunt has been very successful 
with it. He also has a plan 
for keeping old strawberry 
beds in bearing which is well adapted to a piece of 
ground suited to this fruit. After fruiting, the mid¬ 
dles of the matted rows are cut out. The outer plants 
send runners into what was this year’s cultivated 
space, so that the heart of this year’s matted row be¬ 
comes the space for the next season’s cultivating. 
Thus we have each season new plants on new ground 
'this year producing fruit on the ground which was 
under the cultivator last year. 
A dam built across a little brook at the lower part 
of the farm has made a small pond for irrigating 
purposes. Mr. Hunt uses a small gasoline engine for 
pumping. This engine can be mounted on a truck 
and carried about from one part of the farm to an¬ 
other wherever work is required. This is not a trac¬ 
tion engine, but a small stationary affair which is 
light enough to be picked up and carried from place 
to place. The water is run through hose and wooden 
troughs, the latter having little metal gates or open¬ 
ings through which the delivery of the water may be 
regulated. As we have already said, the early part 
of this season was so wet that he made no use 
at all of his irrigating plant. Still, even in this un¬ 
usual season, there was a week or 10 days when the 
strawberries fairly curled up with the heat. Mr. Hunt 
says that probably his best returns from irrigation 
have been made on the celery crop. In some very dry 
seasons, when it would be impossible to start celery 
in the usual way, he has been able to flood the ground, 
and thus give the plants a fine start to carry them 
through. I have heard people tell great stories about 
the benefits of irrigation, but few of them will claim 
that flooding the ground is as beneficial as a warm, 
gentle rain. Here it has been found necessary to un¬ 
der-drain most of the soil that is used for irrigating. 
Both tile and stones have been used. Heavy soil, 
when flooded with water, becomes pasty and cold, un¬ 
less there is ample space for drainage. Without tile 
or stones it would be like a flower pot with no hole 
in the bottom for drainage. 
Mr. Hunt raises enormous crops of hay. He gave. 
on page 466, the figures of one crop of clover which I 
saw while being cut. He says that this grass followed 
onions and strawberries, without special preparation 
of the ground or heavy seeding. The ground was 
simply plowed and harrowed once. The Timothy had 
been blown down and smothered out, so that the crop 
was nearly pure clover. Had the Timothy grown I 
think the yield would have been fully equal to any 
that I have seen in Mr. Clark’s fields. Yet this does 
not prove that Mr. Clark’s system of constant and 
thorough tillage is not necessary. This grass of Mr. 
Hunt’s was grown after onions and berries, both 
crops receiving the most careful tillage for years. All 
this working and handling of 
the soil in previous years 
helped the grass crop. Thus 
it is that the results of careful 
work on the soil often appear 
a year or two later in some 
subsequent crop. 
The land that produces 
these great crops of onions, 
strawberries and grass was 
once covered with rocks and 
stones. The fields were like 
the stony old pastures one 
sees in riding about most hilly 
sections. The stones have been 
picked and pulled, and the 
fields made level and smooth 
for the irrigator with infinite 
patience. Formerly a few cows 
nibbled among the rocks, and 
the brook ran idly to the 
river. Now the brook has been 
held up and forced to do its 
share, and the rough fields 
have been smoothed and 
trained for the highest service 
of man. This sort of farming 
is always interesting. There is 
probably nothing in agricul¬ 
ture requiring quite so much 
skill as this work of giving 
character and value to the 
most unpromising parts of the 
farm. What a satisfaction a 
man like Mr. Hunt must feel 
to realize that he has turned 
these rough fields into the 
most productive land in the 
neighborhood! 
To refer again to the fine 
new strawberry President it 
should be said that there are 
no plants for sale yet. In a 
recent letter the originator 
says: 
“Three years ago, when it 
first fruited, the plot was 
probably four feet long by 
two feet wide, and growing in 
a row with a number of other 
seedlings. It was moved and 
distributed along 15 or 20 feet of row immediately 
after the fruiting season, and did quite well that Sum¬ 
mer. Last Summer, after producing a fine crop, the 
plants were again served the same way, and had to 
endure the terrible heat and drought of last July and 
August, so that last Pall they did not look as though 
they could possibly produce any crop at all. Those 
set out last Spring are the only ones that have had 
a good chance, and they are doing finely, having put 
out a great many runners. In another fruiting sea¬ 
son I expect them to eclipse all former efforts, and if 
I am disappointed I can stand it better than the pub¬ 
lic, as I am used to it. Last year, while the yield was 
very fine, they were not so prolific as this year.” 
u. w. c. 
