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

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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-

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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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tion and a boy to help weed. My father has always spent two days a week with me and works on whatever seems most necessary. We have definitely given up the idea of employing help for the season. Naturally our profits are larger and we had more real satisfaction in the summer's work as a whole. From my own experience I think it takes time, perhaps two years, before one can learn what can be raised on her own particular soil and marketed with the most profit. Fortunately for me my father is in the market business in Boston (fifty miles distant), so that the lima and sieva beans I raise for market are sold there and also, in smaller quantities, such other vegetables of which I have a surplus. For these I have been able to obtain a good retail price. The preserves and pickles are also shipped to Boston each fall by freight and placed on sale there. Each jar shows a good profit over and above the cost. We have also sold berries and vegetables to summer people in our own town. A few berries we have sold in Boston, especially the everbearing strawberries, and we are planning on sending more this coming season. Perhaps if I had had the practical experience that is being given at Ambler, before I started in, I should not have had as many ups and downs, though I think the saying “Experience is the best teacher holds true equally well for farming as in other lines of work. The soil, location, climatic conditions, annual rainfall, etc., differ on every farm and it is only by experiments with different crops and fertilizers that a safe conclusion of the best crop or crops can be drawn. I have thoroughly enjoyed the work on the farm and am looking forward to next summer’s work, hoping in every way to improve on methods and results. M. C. 6