«08 
Hope Farm Notes 
I wish you could have been with us for 
supper on May 6. The week was ending 
better than we expected. The cold winds 
kept up until Friday, and then the wind 
stopped blowing and the clouds chased 
themselves away and gave the sun a chance. 
Our belated trees came, the soil was dry 
and things began to move. The horses 
were going at good speed. Philip was 
planting potatoes. Merrill was putting in 
peach trees and the hoes were swinging in 
the strawberries when a great pillar of 
dark smoke shot up behind the hill. 
“Fire in the woods l" 
That is what we are always afraid of t in 
a dry, windy time. If fire should work 
into our mulched orchards at this season— 
there the orchard would end. So all our 
folks ran with varying degrees of speed to 
fight fire. We got it out finally, but it 
spoiled a half day’s work ! The firefighters 
lined up at the table with a determination 
to handle supper as they did the fire. If 
you had been there you would have boon 
good for four helps to baked beans and four 
more of rhubarb sauce. Then when you 
were not looking I could have filled your 
plate again. You would have taken slice 
after slice of homemade bread until the 
bread maker trembled between pride and 
fear that her loaves would not hold out 
over Sunday. The sun smiled at us over 
the hill with a face as red as the baby’s 
hair. In the barnyard, Broker, the new 
gray colt who has just made the trip from 
Virginia, scraped acquaintance with the 
baby chicks which came by express from 
Lake Ontario. It was a great ending for 
a good day, and after supper as I. walked 
out through the young peach orchard I 
thought what a fine thing it is to be alive 
here at the season when Nature is renew¬ 
ing her youth. Our peach bloom seems to 
have come safely through the cold wave, 
the apple trees are loaded with buds and 
the asparagus comes in with the first mess 
to-morrow. 
And that takes my thoughts away from 
Hope Farm, for one week ago, on April 29, 
I was at Concord, Mass., at the field meet¬ 
ing of the Massachusetts Asparagus Grow¬ 
ers’ Association. I would like to tell about 
it. Asparagus is to my notion one of the 
most promising crops that a careful farmer 
or gardener can grow. You never yet saw r 
anyone in town who had all he wanted of 
it. At present it is a luxury—more so I 
think than anything else which may be 
ranked as a farm crop. Even if you could 
raise so much of it that it would become 
a necessity, which means that the price 
would be cut in two, it would still be as 
profitable a crop as a man could grow. And 
the crop is not unlike a man taking his 
family through a wolf-infested forest—for 
rust and beetles and half a dozen other 
evils lie in wait to devour it. So that 
asparagus is a crop that w'ill tax the best 
powers of any man before he can succeed 
with it. 
At Concord, Mass., they have worked out 
some things about asparagus which cannot 
be found anywhere else. He would be a 
strange American who does not know why 
Concord is famous. Over 130 yea re ago 
a horseman galloped through the night out 
from Boston, warning the minute men that 
the British were coming. From every farm 
within miles the farmers came running, and 
at Concord bridge and behind some of the 
old stone walls yet standing they “fired the 
shot heard round the world.” Then at a 
later date Emerson, Hawthorne and Tbor- 
eau lived at Concord in person, while in 
word and spirit they lived in the hearts of 
men wherever language is spoken. So we 
may say that Concord changed the world’s 
political history and also changed the 
world's thought. Thus men and women 
’ come by the thousand every year to see 
where the patriots stood and fought and 
visit Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where the 
dreamer and the mystic are buried. Mem¬ 
ory stretches a hand out of the past to at¬ 
tract these visitors. I would like to help 
swell another pilgrimage to view an achieve¬ 
ment of the present day. I think you will 
agree with me that the Asparagus Experi¬ 
ment Station at Concord in its results is 
destined to change both agricultural prac¬ 
tice and some lines of scientific study and 
thought. 
The Massachusetts Asparagus Growers’ 
Association started this work some years 
ago. They were driven to it by rust. You 
may have heard a rusty wheel screaming 
and scraping as it tried to turn under its 
load. Well, the rust disease struck the as¬ 
paragus fields at Concord and threatened to 
wipe out the industry. There are some 
people you know who scream with the 
throat and then faint away. Those Con¬ 
cord men had ancestors who lamed their 
shoulders on the Lexington road with kick¬ 
ing muskets and they screamed with the 
brain and the poeketbook. Their oi’ganiza- 
tion is one of the most remarkable groups 
of farmers ever called together. They are 
never short of funds and do not seem to be 
obliged to issue hurry calls for new mem- 
>5 J i-’ < - V - W SV ■ A V ; > ■ 
THE RURAL NEW -YORKER 
bers. After looking the asparagus situa¬ 
tion all over—sending men to California to 
study the culture on the Pacific Coast — 
these men settled down to the single definite 
object of finding varieties of asparagus 
which will not rust! Worse “dream” than 
hunting for the golden fleece you will say— 
but Prof. Norton, who has charge of the 
plant breeding, says positively: 
“We already have one male plant which 
is immuneF* What is one plant good for? 
Much the same as a purebred bull would be 
on an island filled with scrub cattle! Wait 
and see what is to come from all this. I 
went over to Concord to see what these 
men are doing. It will rank in asparagus 
culture with what those old farmers did for 
independence or what Emerson and Thoreau 
did for liberal thought. There ai’e some ex¬ 
periments which may be dismissed with a 
few words. This is one worthy of a full 
discussion and 1 shall try to give it. This 
Asparagus Association first got strong mem¬ 
bership and funds. The membei’s are solid 
men with influence and character, who 
know that when you get anything worth 
while you must pay the price for it. They 
put up their money cheerfully and went to 
the experiment station and the National 
Department for help. The result was they 
were able to obtain a skillful plant breeder. 
Prof. Norton, who came right to the farm 
and practically lives on asparagus rust dur¬ 
ing the season. Then a definite place was 
wanted for the experiments. Mr. C. W. 
Prescott, one of the best asparagus farmers 
at Concord, bought a tract of land which is 
in itself an experiment in soil redemption. 
This field has been in cultivation for 600 
years or more. Long before the white men 
came the Indians used it for a garden. The 
first settlers used it as a garden or farm 
in common, and as the town grew it con¬ 
tinued to be used for cropping. ' In fact I 
thing there are very few fields in America 
which have seen longer continuous service 
at crop producing. In appearance it seems 
like a level, stoneless, sandy loam. We 
read of “rocky” New England, but in this 
field there is hardly a stone large enough 
to throw at a dog. At the back of the 
field is a narrow strip thus far uncultivat¬ 
ed. This will show what Nature would try 
to do with such soil if it went back to her. 
It looks as if she got discouraged and gave 
up the job, for all she produced was a few 
scrub bushes and clumps of wild grass. 
This field was so poor and mean looking 
that when put up at auction a few years 
ago no one would even bid on it. Mr. Pres¬ 
cott tells fne that there are thousands of 
acres like it in eastern Massachusetts which 
can be bought at .$10 per acre. It is now 
producing asparagus at the rate of $400 and 
more per acre ! These are facts—$10 land 
in use 600 yeai'S producing $400 of a yearly 
permanent crop after three years' culture. 
But let no “back to the land” di’eamer think 
he can duplicate that fact without woi'king 
and studying harder than any lawyer or 
doctor ever did to acquire reputation and 
practice. When 1 was thex’e Mr. Prescott 
was plowing out deep trenches for aspara¬ 
gus. You would have thought this would 
Jeave this light loam covered with yellow 
subsoil, yet there was hardly a yellow patch 
to be seen on an acre. We dug wifh a spade 
down below the bottom of the furrow, and 
the browu upper soil was at least a foot 
deep. It is evident that the agricultural 
value of that soil was figured with the eye 
alone. The “spade test” would have made 
its value apparent. While such land with 
these possibilities lies begging for sale and 
while millions of people barely taste aspara¬ 
gus, thousands of strong and able-bodied 
young men go and come from the suburban 
towns to Boston, where they do an under¬ 
ling’s work at a few dollars per week. 
To some of them these asparagus experi¬ 
ments will prove a revolution. Not to all, 
but to those of whom Emerson said : 
“What tests of manhood could he stand? 
Take him out of his protections. He is a 
good bookkeeper : or he is a shrewd adviser 
in the insurance office: perhaps he could 
pass a college examination, and take his 
degrees: perhaps he can give wise counsel 
in a court of law. Now plant him down 
among farmers, firemen, Indians and emi¬ 
grants. Set a dog on him—set a highway¬ 
man on him * * * and if he have the true 
faculty this may be the element he wants 
and he will come out of it with broader 
wisdom and manly power.” 
The meeting was a "demonstration” of 
how to plant asparagus. Some 150 people 
representing 60 towns and five States at¬ 
tended, driving to the farm in carriages or 
automobiles. There was no hall for hold¬ 
ing a meeting, and that was a good thing, 
for a regular institute or hall meeting 
would have taken much of the force of it 
away. The people walked right down into 
the field where an acre of soil had just 
been furrowed out. There the crowd gath¬ 
ered around Mr. Prescott and Mr. Wheeler 
and listened and asked questions. After¬ 
ward Prof. Norton talked about the breed¬ 
ing experiments, and what is to be expected 
from them. Let it be understood that this 
is chemical farming. Stable manure is so 
costly and hard to obtain that Mr. Prescott 
depends on buckwheat, vetch, clover and 
other green manure crops for organic mat¬ 
ter, and on chemicals for plant fopd. After 
a thorough study of the soil and the habits 
of the asparagus crop both scientists and 
practical men agreed upon a formula for 
this soil. Earlier in the day I saw the mix¬ 
ture put together. The workmen simply 
threw the chemicals out of the bags upon 
a floor space some 10x12 feet. One bag of 
muriate of potash was spread thinly at the 
bottom and alternate bags of tankage, ni¬ 
trate and phosphate poured from the bags 
on top. Then the whole thing was shoveled 
together. This is the formula for one acre : 
Nitrogen P. Acid Potash 
1,000 lbs. tankage.... 
70 
100 
200 lbs acid phosphate 
400 lbs. nitrate soda.. 
64 
28 
450 lbs. muriate potash 
225 
Total . 
134 
128 
225 
This was worked over with shovels until 
it was about as well mixed as sand and 
concrete. Then it was stTeened twice 
through a screen with the lumps crushed 
by a spade. You will see that this means 
about 6% nitrogen, six of phosphoric acid 
and 11 of potash. There are two forms of 
nitrogen. The muriate is considered tin 1 
best form of potash. . The lai’ge .per cent 
of potash is due to the fact that this ele¬ 
ment is the one usually lacking in the 
lighter soils, particularly in New England. 
It is also the element most useful in help¬ 
ing a plant to resist disease. As ‘will be 
seen 2,050 pounds of the mixture are used 
per acre. H. w. e. 
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