Vol. LXIV. No. 2898. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 12, 1905. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
NEW LIFE TO A RUN-DOWN FARM. 
A Dairyman Turns Chemical Farmer. 
FERTILIZER FARMING, or the use of chemicals 
as a substitute for stable manure, has been developed 
greatly during the past 20 years. We have told from 
time to time of various ways in which the chemicals 
are used. Mr. Lewis, of New Jersey, for example, uses 
them on the potato crop in a five-year rotation, and 
finds that his farm grows more productive each year, 
even when all crops except corn arc sold. We know of 
cases where fertilizers were used to start farmers in 
the stock business. In these cases the farms were poor 
and badly run down, so that they could not carry many 
head of stock. It was necessary to grow forage crops 
before the stock could provide manure for the farm. 
By using fertilizers judiciously good crops of grain and 
fodder were grown the first year. These, fed to stock, 
provided largely for the plant food later. In other cases 
we have seen how swamps and low places naturally rich 
in plant food, and still unproductive, have been turned 
into gardens and celery farms by the wise 
use of fertilizers. Now we have a new 
line of fertilizer farming to record—the 
restoration of an old farm with immediate 
results. 
FROM COWS TO FERTILIZER.— 
For a number of years Joseph A. Fagan 
ran a milk dairy in Hartford, Conn. He 
fed a herd of cows of his own and bought 
milk in addition. This confining business 
broke down his health, and he found that 
he must give it up. So he sold out and 
rested for a couple of years. Then he 
felt that he should be at work again, and 
as farming was his business, he began 
to look about for another farm where he 
could make a living without such hard 
work as the dairy business required. Mr. 
Fagan says he advertised for a farm, and 
had about 50 offers as the result of 
spending less than one dollar. It seemed 
as if every other farm in Connecticut was 
for sale. This readiness to sell, and the 
sight of stout men standing about ap¬ 
parently without making even a good liv¬ 
ing, was almost enough to make a man 
hesitate and feel that perhaps, after all, 
those who say that New England farming 
is done for were right. That feeling, 
probably, comes to everyone who goes 
to New England hunting a farm. They 
learn later that it is not the character 
of the land or the farm’s location that 
makes the price, but rather the lack of spirit and faith 
on the part of the owners. In some parts of Connecti¬ 
cut excellent farms are passing out of the hands of 
“old families” into the possession of people from Euro¬ 
pean countries or their children. The “New England 
stock” may live too much in the past, and perhaps lack 
the incentive to work and plan which is forced upon 
the European. It is not at all unlikely that after two 
or three generations of the new blood some vigorous 
descendant of the “old stock” will again secure the farm, 
driven by necessity to an incentive for home building. 
Such things are always possible in a country like ours, 
where property is not entailed. It is one of the safe¬ 
guards which surround the republic, for the love of 
the home which means a struggle is deeper than that 
for inherited property. New England farming did not 
“decay” so long as men worked to make new homes. 
Mr. Fagan finally found a farm of some 200 acres, 
which he bought for less than the cost of the buildings. 
It was a typical New England bottom land farm, with 
some naturally strong soil, and natural grass land— 
needing drainage. The large barn showed that it had 
been a stock or pasture farm, but Mr. Fagan wanted to 
get away from stock keeping. He became a fertilizer 
farmer, and his yearly sales of potatoes and hay average 
a larger sum than the purchase price of the entire farm. 
He started at once, simply plowing up the fields that 
were most suitable and planting potatoes. As other 
fields are cleaned and fitted they are put into the short 
rotation of potatoes and hay. As Mr. Fagan says, he 
was nearly “scared off” when he saw big, stout men who 
said they had left the farms because farming did not 
pay. Then he thought it might be more in the men than 
in the farms. The soil is naturally strong, and has had 
a good “rest.” There are local markets in the manu¬ 
facturing towns all about. Probably 75 per cent or more 
of such produce as hay, potatoes and straw consumed in 
these towns is brought from some distance. Mr. Fa¬ 
gan figured that fertilizers judiciously used would en¬ 
able him to work the farm successfully. 
A SHORT ROTATION.—Unlike Mr. D. C. Lewis. 
Mr. Fagan does not care for the corn crop or for small 
grain. He figures that it costs him too much to cut and 
husk corn. It would also mean extra work to feed out 
the stalks, and he did all the work of feeding stock he 
cares to years ago. A younger man who likes stock 
feeding could doubtless make a profit by growing a 
crop of corn between hay and potatoes, but Mr. Fagan 
is a fertilizer farmer because he wants to make one 
man’s labor count for all it is worth. Rye would prob¬ 
ably pay for the straw better than wheat, but Mr. Fa¬ 
gan cuts it out for much the same reason that he does 
corn, and simply plows up the sod after the second crop 
of hay, and plants potatoes. He says he has tried to 
imitate Mr. Clark’s method of seeding grass, but has 
not been able to obtain Clark’s results. One reason 
for this is that he is late in seeding after late potatoes. 
The early varieties give a better chance, but after a crop 
of Green Mountain has matured in Connecticut it is 
often October before the grass seed can be put in. With 
Irish Cobbler, the other variety of potato which Mr. 
Fagan grows, earlier seeding is possible. Mr. Fagan 
leaves out all Red-top seed, as he says that grass hurts 
the sale of hay. I saw him hauling in a crop of ex¬ 
cellent Timothy, which looked as if it might run 2J4 
tens to the acre. It is the custom of many New Eng¬ 
land farmers to seed to grass in the corn. Mr. Fagan 
grows only corn enough to provide grain for his horses. 
He showed me a grass field seeded in corn that looked 
well, and the stalks had about disappeared. With only 
two crops grown—hay and potatoes—it is not possible 
to adopt any settled rotation. Of course there are Some 
other crops—this year Mr. Fagan has 12,000 cabbage 
and corn for his stock—but the chief crops are potatoes 
and hay. Usually as he clears up a piece of rough land 
he puts it directly into potatoes. Mr. Lewis or other 
corn farmers would begin with corn, as that seems to 
be the best crop for “taming” or breaking rough or 
sod land. Mr. Fagan does not find corn profitable— 
labor is expensive, and be does not want to feed out the 
stalks. So as a piece of ground is cleared of brush and 
roots it is plowed in Fall or Spring, as most convenient, 
and planted to potatoes. 
POTATO CULTURE,—His method of planting is 
different from anything I have seen. After the land 
is well fitted the seed is dropped with an Aspinwall 
planter, with the covering disks removed. One man 
drives this planter, which has done very accurate work 
at dropping. The seed is left by the ma¬ 
chine at the bottom of a shallow furrow. 
A boy follows with rake or hoe and cov¬ 
ers the seed to just the right depth. Then 
the fertilizer is dropped by a fertilizer dis¬ 
tributer, which puts a narrow strip of 
chemicals over each row, covering three 
rows at a time. Then the whole field is 
thoroughly worked with a spike-tooth 
harrow again and again before the plants 
start. This constant harrowing and weed¬ 
ing keeps the soil open and kills the 
weeds. As a result the crop starts even¬ 
ly, and never stops growing, for it is 
given constant level culture. Many potato 
growers are content to let the planter do 
all the work of dropping seed and fer¬ 
tilizer, and also covering, but Mr. Fagan 
believes that it pays him better to use the 
machine only for dropping. He thinks he 
has better control of depth of covering 
and placing of the fertilizer by doing this 
hand work. On the average Mr. Fagan 
uses about 1,700 pounds of Mapes potato 
fertilizer per acre. This year he is spray¬ 
ing thoroughly with Bordeaux Mixture, 
and the vines are thoroughly healthy 
thus far. Mr. Fagan uses the Hoover 
digger, and sells from the field or pits for 
Winter as seems best at the time. One 
object of this kind of farming is to get 
the season’s work over before Winter. In 
a little over six months after starting 
Spring work the season is over and crops are sold. 
Owing to the character and location of the old pasture 
lands of which the farm is composed the potato fields arc 
small and scattered. This year there are about 20 
acres of potatoes all told. It seems almost incredible that 
such wild land can be cleared and put into potatoes the 
first season—yet here are complete evidences of it. In 
good seasons such land has given nearly 300 bushels 
of potatoes per acre when well fertilized. These New 
England soils seem specially adapted to the growing of 
hay and potatoes—two crops which the New England 
States largely import. 
HAY GROWING.—To show the condition of the 
farm when he bought it Mr. Fagan says there was not 
enough hay or straw left on it “to set a hen.” Possi¬ 
bly $75 worth of hay was sold from the farm the season 
before’he bought, yet the very first year of his farming 
he sold nearly enough to pay the price of the farm! 
This shows how quickly these soils will respond to high- 
grade fertilizer. Old meadows not too far gone will 
respond at once, and potatoes give a fair yield the first 
season. When the potatoes are dug the soil is fitted 
for grass. Mr. Lewis, in central New Jersey, can grow 
