Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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The hills had been enriched with well rotted manure and we had a tine stand of vines. Only two weeks more of sun and warmth were needed to mature the melons (we had already had several pickings of cucumbers) when on the twelfth of September, an unusually early date for that high section of the country, a white frost ended absolutely the growing season for these vines. Following the frost came three weeks of delightful warm fall days. Naturally we have never tried to grow melons on such an extensive scale again, although we have never had as early a frost since. For three years we planted a large area of potatoes, but came to the conclusion that it required too much hired labor to be profitable for us. Meanwhile I had been extending the vegetable garden each year, growing lima beans and pickling cucumbers on a large scale. We had started a strawberry bed and increased our other small fmits, buying some new ones and increasing from our old stock. The second year I canned some of the vegetables in glass, also made pickles and jam. In this I met with good results and each following year I have enlarged on my production, so that now it has become our chief output from the farm. Even in this work, we have learned that it is more profitable to specialize; that is, to put up large quantities of a few varieties than a small quantity each of many kinds. I have found pickles, of which I make five kinds, jams and the small fruits preserved whole, the most profitable, as I can raise all the vegetables and fruits necessary myself. In growing pickling cucumbers I have met with good success, although I always “rap on wood” when I say it, for I am constant- ly hearing of people who either cannot raise them, or have their vines blighted when they just come into bearing. I always spray when they are seedlings and again when they are larger, and if 1 think necessary, a third time, and have had no trouble with pests. There are a large number of bees about the place (though we do not keep bees) and since I have learned they are necessary for success with cucumbers, that is probably one reason why I can grow them. For my pickling I also raise button onions, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes and horse radish. Not until last year did I feel satisfied with my onion growing. I attribute this success to an earlier start than previously and a richer soil. I shall plant on the same plot again, though I rotate my other crops. The cauliflower, cabbage and tomatoes I raise from seed, starting them in flats. We have two glassed-in porches which have proved good places to start such plants. So far I have had to buy my peppers, but I am still hoping to meet with success in raising them. Each year we are increasing our small fruits, gooseberries, currants, red and black raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. Last year we set out a few ever-bearing strawberry plants, Progressives and Superbs, as an experiment. We were more than pleased with the first year’s crop, picking fruit the last of October. The berries were larger than we had anticipated and of good flavor. We plan to increase this bed from our runners in the spring. I also put out some apple and peach trees. The third year after the purchase of the land, we built a bungalow and pumphouse and garage, so that some of the land has been utilized for lawns and walks. Our flower beds have been increased in size 4

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4 WISE-ACRES 4 JESSIE T. MORGAN. Director of School Vol. ii March, 1915. No. 5 J£0ljere a Resourceful Ionian Rims oob Rruftts Seven years ago, after various trips through the country within a radius ot twenty miles of Boston, father and I decided to go further afield to look for our place in the country. Farming was not in our minds at the time, but a desire to get out of the city for at least the greater part of the year. By chance we spent two days in a small village in Southern New Hampshire in early September, and had not been there a day, and a rainy one, too, before we knew we had found “it.” Early the next spring we went back and with little trouble found a large, comfortable, old-fashioned house for the summer. During that summer we became familiar with the surrounding country and were fortunate in being able to purchase one of the most desirable locations near the town. The “farm,” which consists of -six acres, is situated on a hill overlooking the valley on the east and a low range of mountains on the west. Nearly all the land is on a southeasterly slope and across the western boundary (except where we have thinned for the view) and part way down the northern, and southern, are trees of a good many years’ growth. The land had been grass land for many years previous to our purchase, with the exception of an acre which was in the natural state, uncleared pasture land. We ploughed the sod under that fall to rot and in the spring broke up the clumps and harrowed several times. Commercial fertilizer was broadcasted on three acres, which were planted to potatoes, a small section being planted to vegetables and another to flowers. Manure, with a generous supply of sawdust in it, was used for the vegetables and flowers, and in spite of the sawdust, the results were good. A few small fruits and shrubs were set out, and though the shrubs did well, the small fruits made little growth that first year. The remaining section was planted to field beans, which did not prove a paying crop for us. Our crop of potatoes was a success in every way and we were able to sell them in the nearest large town, five miles away, at a good price. The vegetables and flowers were my first attempts at anything of the kind and I felt well repaid for my efforts in the result. The following year we had a very trying experience. We planted a large area which had been loosened up the previous year by potatoes, to melons and pickling cucumbers. 3

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and number and we are establishing grass walks with hardy borders as fast as we can and not neglect the other work. Last year was our banner year for flowers and they gave much pleasure to ourselves and friends from the first pansy ready to burst into bloom when we lifted off the mulch, the early part of April, until 1 left, the middle of November, when the hardy chrysanthemums were still showing color. In the matter of fertilizers we have been able to buy manure two different years. Except for that we have used commercial fertilizer, mixing our own after the first year. I believe thoroughly in the use of green manure crops and we are planning this coming summer to give up a certain section to the growing of clover, to be turned under in the spring, and by rotating, hope to be able to give the whole area we cultivate such a crop in the course of two or three years. No crop we raise matures early enough to ensure a good stand of clover on the same field before cold weather. After the second summer’s work in the garden, I was desirous of learning more about vegetable and flower growing, so that I could work more intelligently and with better success. Since I could not leave home and attend classes at an agricultural college, I decided to find out how much help a correspondence course would be to me. It seemed best to start with the fundamentals, as the Massachusetts Agricultural College advised, so I took a course on Soils and one on Manures and Fertilizers. It was an entirely new field of study for me, but I found it intensely interesting and was surprised I could derive so much help in this way. One cannot work long in a garden of any kind without making the acquaintance of a great many insects. In order that I might know more about their life histories and how best to fight them, I took a correspondence course in Entomology the following winter. It was a pleasure to learn that there were some beneficial insects. 1 also took a course in floriculture that winter. The following winter Simmons’ College in Boston was offering a short course in gardening—accompanied by greenhouse work, and I found this helpful and interesting. This year the Massachusetts Agricultural College is offering a correspondence course in small fruits for the first time. This is one part of a course of three parts, the other two are Apple Growing and Peach, Pear, Plum and Cherry Growing. I am taking the whole course. Besides these courses, I have read a great many books on the different subjects, Farmer's Bulletins from Washington and bulletins from different State experiment stations. As reference books in my work I use Watt’s “Vegetable Gardening,” “Garden Farming,” by Corbett, “Insect Pests of Farm, Garden and Orchard,” by Sanderson, and have this summer added Sear’s “Productive Orcharding.” Mrs. Ely’s books are helpful for flower growing and I have just finished reading two interesting little books on flowers, “Let’s Make a Flower Garden,” by Hanna Rion and “The Seasons in a Flower Garden,” by Louise Shelton. Every year we have employed a man for the season until last year when we decided to try it without. Securing competent help is one of the greatest problems, for it is next to impossible to persuade them to do the work in our way. After the spring preparation of the soil we did not employ help except for horse cultiva-