Vol. LXIX No. 4027. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 1, 1910. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
A RAILROAD MAN TURNS FARMER. 
Brushing Up At An Agricultural College. 
I am at the Pennsylvania Agricultural College taking 
a short course in horticulture, so that 1 can more 
fully understand and appreciate horticultural litera¬ 
ture, as spoken of in agricultural journals, and to find 
out whether you folks have been guiding me altogether 
right. I left the city four years last Spring on the 
strength of reading The R. N.-Y. I had been working 
in the Pennsylvania Railroad shops at good wages. 
But having a pretty good-sized family for a young 
man, I thought it best policy to leave the city, and 
trust to country life as you had put it. Although 
leaving the city with only money enough to purchase 
horse and implements, and put up temporary house 
on 10 acres of land, I fell to work, putting in trees; 
sour cherry grove and vineyard, pear and plum trees, 
and following Spring 100 apple and 110 peach. The 
peach trees look very promising for the com¬ 
ing season. Some trees had one bushel of fruit 
on this season, which 
sold for two for five 
cents, or 30 cents a 
dozen in Lewistown. I 
have been raising 
muskmelons in peach 
orchard, and find them 
profitable. I had 3U> 
acres in sweet corn the 
past season, which sold 
readily at fair prices, 
having 200 bushels of 
potatoes besides. You 
need not wonder why I 
don’t envy the foremen 
in the railroad shops 
their positions. The 
children in accompany¬ 
ing picture are, with 
the exception of the 
boy at the head of the 
horse, and two on 
horse, my future berry 
pickers. This is taken 
in my Corsican straw¬ 
berry patch, which is 
close to an acre. As 
you see in picture, I 
plant strawberries four 
feet apart, and first sea¬ 
son raise radish, turnip 
and beet between rows. 
The girl standing to rear of horse is 13 years old, and 
she is my standby as a saleswoman, who is hard to 
be equalled at selling vegetables. The colt in right 
is one of the products of our 10-acre plot. It is 19 
months old and weighs 1,100 pounds, is broken to drive 
single, and I was driving him till I came over here. 
I am in hopes that I may be able to leave here with 
a little science in horticulture and greenhouse work, 
and further, by all indications, the faculty of this 
institution, if they have their will, will send me home 
not only instructed in horticulture, but also along 
the lines of Christian fellowship to one another. I 
cannot speak too highly of the officers of this institu¬ 
tion for the good fellowship) shown, c. M. smith. 
IMPROVING FARMS WITHOUT LIVE STOCK. 
Most farmers in this section would not consider any 
system of farming that did not include the keeping of 
a number of cows. This has always been the custom 
among our farmers, and they could not think of farm¬ 
ing in any other way. Many do not know whether their 
cows bring in sufficient for their “keep.” It is the 
general opinion that cows, or at least some cattle must 
be kept to maintain the fertility of the land. The 
farm dairy will pay just as well as any other branch 
of farming if properly managed, but it is not my pur¬ 
pose to explain why it is too generally carried on at 
a loss. For .many of our farmers, mixed farming is 
probably the safest to follow, for, with their present 
knowledge, to attempt any change might result in 
disaster. I would not advise anyone to make any 
sudden radical change, but I have proved to my entire 
satisfaction that it is possible to improve a farm 
without the keeping of cows or other cattle and at 
the same time make it pay. Farmers are wondering 
why the soil does not produce as it formerly did 
when it was new. In this section a regular four-year 
rotation, which includes clover and. Timothy, is gener¬ 
al!}" followed. The rotation is all right, but every 
year the grass fields are pastured until bare, and the 
ground is tramped hard as a brick. The manure is 
returned to the'land, but in the making of it about 
two-thirds of the organic matter of the feed consumed 
is lost. It matters little how much plant food the soil 
contains; if its mechanical condition is not right it will 
not grow good crops. In this section is a very pro¬ 
ductive farm upon which for the last 25 or 30 years 
many steers have been stable-fed each season, but only 
a small number of cows are kept throughout the year. 
The oats, corn and hay produced are all fed, and the 
manure returned to the land. This farm is pointed 
out as one which has been brought into a high state 
of fertility by the feeding of steers. Right around it 
are farms where everything that is produced, besides 
much concentrated feed that is bought, is fed to cows, 
and the manure returned to the land in the same care¬ 
ful manner, yet they do not compare with this farm 
in fertility. During the hot, dry Summer months the 
cows on these farms are pastured on the grass fields, 
until hardly anything green remains. I have seen them 
plow on this farm where steers are fed when an 
ordinary pastured sod would be frozen solid. The 
growth of clover after the hay crop was removed was 
so dense that frost did not penetrate until very severe 
weather. I think this farm owes its condition to the 
plowing under of enormous quantities of vegetable 
matter rather than to the magical effect of steer 
manure. The soil is thoroughly filled with humus, 
The section in which I live, lower Dauphin county, 
contains a large manufacturing population. Carloads 
of potatoes, apples, cabbage, melons, etc., are shipped 
here. Not so many years ago I came to the conclusion 
that at least some of these crops could be profitably 
grown on my own farm, and the land be improved at 
the same time. I keep several head of cattle besides 
the horses necessary to cultivate the land. In the 
place of oats in the rotation I.grow potatoes. I also 
grow strawberries, such vegetables as the local markets 
demand, and am planting peaches and other fruits 
quite extensively. Usually all roughage not fed is 
plowed under and on most of my land no cattle ever 
set foot. Ten years ago the yields on this farm were 
much below the average of the farms in the com¬ 
munity. One field of 6j/j acres adjoins three neighbor¬ 
ing farms on which cows furnish the chief income. 
In 1907 this field produced nearly 1,500 bushels of 
potatoes. Owing to wet weather, which delayed potato 
digging, the wheat could not be sown until very late. 
The yield, however, 
was 27 bushels per 
acre. This year, 1909, 
the field made 12 large 
loads of hay,' at least 
three times the yield per 
acre of the adjoining 
fields which were also 
in grass. The field has 
received but little man¬ 
ure for many years. I 
use commercial fertil¬ 
izers liberally. To the 
potato crop I apply 
from 1,000 to 1,200 
pounds per acre of a 
3-8-10 article of my 
own mixing. I also 
use fertilizers liberally 
on the truck crops and 
berries. Most of the 
manure that is made is 
applied to the truck 
and berries, as the 
ground planted to these 
crops is not rotated 
with the main portion 
of the farm. I have 
practiced the home 
mixing of fertilizers 
for many years, and in 
this way save a nice 
sum yearly. The neighbors at various times 
predicted all kinds of disaster from my lavish 
use of chemicals, but of late I have heard nothing; 
probably the luxuriant growths of clover have caused 
revised opinions. To furnish that important essential, 
humus, clover is my main dependence. I failed to 
secure an even stand but once, years ago, and that 
was the result of late sowing. Nothing is burned that 
can be plowed under, and all hoed crops receive the 
l est cultivation known to modern agriculture. What 
I have expected to show is that it is not necessary to 
feed a lot of cattle to improve a worn farm; also 
that in nearly every community some special crop or 
crops can be grown that will amply pay for the heavy 
fertilizing necessary to build up a farm quickly. Gen¬ 
erally clover or some other legume should be included 
in a rotation. It must be borne in mind that organic 
matter must be furnished in some way, as no amount 
of fertilizing with commercial fertilizers will take 
its place. An old Flemish proverb says “No grass, no 
cattle; no cattle, no manure; no manure, no crop.” 
We can safely eliminate the cattle, but the “grass” 
we must retain. a. w. s. 
SOME FUTURE BERRY PICKERS AND A PENNSYLVANIA BERRY FIELD. Fig. 1. 
