1048 
THE K URAI, 
NEW-YORKER 
4, 
Hope Farm Notes 
FARMS FED FROM A BAG. 
Part I. 
I spend my spare time reading history, 
and only wish I had more to spare. I 
like to study the development of man¬ 
kind. It is a record of slow growth 
away from barbarism, with constant 
dashes back again. One thing strikes 
me as peculiar. Most printed history is 
a record of wars and fighting. We get 
occasional glimpses of peaceful life or 
farm development, but for the most 
part histories are written in blood and 
fire. Take New England for example. 
It has had a more varied history than 
any other part of this country. All 
through it the search for food from the 
soil and the sea has been the foundation 
of it all. Yet, while we can obtain tne 
closest details about the wars with white 
men and Indians, historians give us 
mere suggestions about the changes in 
New England farming. As a matter of 
fact the introduction of chemical fer¬ 
tilizers and the use of lime on New Eng¬ 
land soil are doing more to change 
history than any of the wars which 
affected this section. And this applies 
with much the same force to all land 
within 200 miles of the Atlantic coast. 
The truest record of history is not 
written with the sword, but with plow 
and hoe. The wars with Canada great¬ 
ly changed New England history, but 
the industrial contest with the West 
over the price of bread and meat 
changed it still more. The hill towns 
were deserted because the West offered 
cheaper land. The Yankee followed 
what he thought was opportunity as 
water flows down hill. The hill towns 
lost their strongest men and women, 
and with them went something of the 
spirit of the New England home. Prices 
of farm land fell, and capital shunned 
it. Manufacturing gained as farming 
fell away. The little factories at the 
small water powers were given up, but 
great enterprises grew in the towns. 
New England became more dependent 
upon other sections for food than old 
England ever was. Yet with the growth 
of manufacturing “farming” or soil cul¬ 
ture has offered greater and greater op¬ 
portunities. There grew more and more 
mouths to be filled and fewer hands to 
grow the food. East of the Hudson 
River grew and developed the finest 
market on earth. 
But what of it when the New England 
soil was “worn out” while Western soil 
was “virgin prairie?’’ Can land 200 
years old in cropping compare with 
that barely 50 years in cultivation? Eu¬ 
ropean soil over 1,000 years in crops 
still produces more than most of our 
new land. The very corners of the world 
now dump their fertilizing wastes as 
plant food into the Eastern States. 
While Western farmers are sending 
plant food away Eastern farmers are 
importing it. We have learned that a 
full substitute for stable manure can be 
bought in bags as chemicals, and this 1 
knowledge is to change the history of 
New England more than wars have ever 
done. But this new kind of farming 
needs a new kind of man. During t 1 e 
years of “abandoned farms” many New 
England people lost the true spirit of 
farming. There are two classes now 
holding that spirit or gaining it anew. 
Now and then some strong man, last 
of an inbred race, or with some dash 
of new blood, rose above habit and pre¬ 
judice and showed what a Yankee can 
do with a Yankee farm when he tries. 
Again, some foreigner, unhampered by 
traditions, but with a great desire for 
home and competence, has taken an old 
farm and turned it into a new one. In 
those two classes of men appear to lie 
the future hopes for New England 
farming. The way they work out their 
problem will settle the future history of 
that section. I hope to take typical 
specimens of each class, the purebred 
Yankee and the man from outside, and 
examine their plan of farming. On 
August 6 I visited the farm of Joseph 
A. Fagan of Hartford Co., Conn. I went 
to this farm three years ago, and my 
object this year was to see how the 
land was developing. Here was a farm 
that was never sold until Mr. Fagan 
bought it. He had been a dairyman in 
Hartford, but had sold out—not intend¬ 
ing to farm again. Before long, how¬ 
ever, he felt a desire to get into the 
country once more. At that time he 
found it about the easiest thing in the 
world to find a farm for sale, for every¬ 
one seemed anxious to get away from 
the country. The farm that he bought 
had been obtained directly from the 
Indians and handed down through gen¬ 
eration after generation of one of the 
oldest Connecticut families. I have no 
doubt this farm has been cultivated for 
250 years. It had come to a point of 
such low production that the owners 
thought themselves forced to abandon 
it. It was in truth a “worn-out” farm 
as judged by the old plans of farming. 
Yet Mr. Fagan, a new comer, without 
knowledge of general farming and with 
everything to learn has grown this year 
about 5,000 bushels of potatoes and 2,000 
bushels of corn besides hay and a few 
other things. Surely such things indi¬ 
cate a development, and if we can get 
at the essential features of it we shall 
be able to see the making of history, 
for true history grows with the devel¬ 
opment of the soil rather than the 
growth of cities. 
i Mr. Fagan keeps one cow, four horses 
and a flock of sheep. He buys no ma¬ 
nure. His entire scheme of farming is 
based on the theory that one can put 
nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid 
into the ground in the form of chemi¬ 
cals, and take them out again in the 
form of potatoes, hay and corn, so as 
to make a good profit. You will see at 
once that taking a worn-out farm and 
making it pay from the start is a very 
different thing from beginning with 
strong soil and merely trying to keep 
up its fertility. While the chemicals 
paid from the start the soil was not in 
condition to do its btst. The farm was 
wet and sour in part, and neglect had 
put it in bad condition. A system of 
open ditches was dug and filled in, with 
stones picked up in the field. This has 
removed the surplus water and left the 
ground in far better condition for grow¬ 
ing potatoes. At the beginning, the 
fields suitable for potatoes were small 
and scattered, so that it was not profit¬ 
able to start a definite rotation. Mr. 
Lewis of New Jersey, with his level and 
compact farm, can carry on a definite 
rotation of corn, potatoes, wheat and 
grass. We have seen how he keeps a 
small herd oT cows to utilize the corn¬ 
stalks and clover. Mr. Fagan had a dif¬ 
ferent situation entirely. To start with 
his potato fields were scattered here and 
there, at least until the soil could be 
drained. He did not want to raise grain, 
but his plan was to limit his crops us 
closely as possible to potatoes and hay 
and sell them all. The high price of 
corn and ability to sell the stalks have 
led to quite a large acreage of that 
grain (18 acres this year). It has not 
been possible with these crops to develop 
any definite rotation. One crop follows 
another, or repeats as is most conveni¬ 
ent. For example, grass seeding often 
follows potatoes, but if in the Sprinsr, 
the grass does noi prove satisfactory it 
may be plowed up and either potatoes or 
corn planted. The same is true of grass 
seeded in corn—a plan quite satisfactory 
on this farm. The thing we must re¬ 
member is that the base of this entire 
system of farming is a high-grade po¬ 
tato fertilizer used freely on the potato 
crop. Without this such farming would 
be impossible. It has brought about the 
change from nothing but a small crop 
of weeds and coarse hay seven years ago 
to 5,000 bushels of potatoes and 2,000 
bushels of corn this year. h. w. c. 
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