The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-07-04
Joint Meeting of Farmers Clubs.

The Evansville Farmers and the Patux-
ent Planters Clubs held joint meeting
, last Saturday evening at "Stratford, the
beautiful country home of DR.. Richard 5.
, Hill. near this town. There We're also
number of invited guests. The visitors
inspected the hosts well equipped farm,
and the we'll titled fields bore evidence Of
skillful cultivation. 1t has been DIR.
| Hills aim to introduce modern methods
of farming and stock feeding, and "Strat-
ford is in many respects model farm.
After dinner the host announced that the
| routine business of the Clubs would be
dispensed with and the time would be
spent in listening to an address by Prof.
| Nj. B. Waite, of the United States Agricul
tural Department, on "My~EXperience In
Farming In Southe>~' Maryland" This
address prc-eft0 be most instructive, and
the wonderful results in fruit culture that
Prof Waite has achieved showed the
great possibilities of our section, and his
success was revelation to the farmers
who have been accustomed to follow our
ordinary methods of agriculture.
Prof Waite's place is located near
Patuxent Station, Anne Arundel county,
on the Pennsylvania railroad and contains
about Al acres, which was almost wholly
in timber and second growth pine woods
at the time of purchase-December 10th,
1895. The place had been practically
abandoned, and Prof Waite bought it for
the definite purpose of growing fruit.
Prof. Waite spoke of two discoveries he
had made-the Importance of cross polli-
nation in pomaceous fruits and the method
of eradicatine pear blight by destroying
the holdover cases in the winter time.
The first year Professor Waite secured a
collect ion of about 100 varieties Of apples,
$50 varieties Of pears, so peaches, 20 plums,
and the greater part of the nursery was
buddcd to standard varieties. Prof. Waite |
explained in detail his policy of growing
truck crops among the trees, sweet pota.
toes being the principal crop. The gen.
eral policy of farm management by which !
he brought the poor land into orchard |
condition and into fertile state while |
the young trees were growing was out |
lined as follows: There are three distinct |
methods used. First, the use of nurse |
crops; second, the use of green manures,
and third, direct application of manures,
fertilizers, etc. Prof. Waite stated that
he had So acres in sweet potatoes, and
marketed something over 800 barrels
last year. The crop is almost entirely
stored for winter market. Last year he
began to sell at $a.75, and in March $3.50
was the price. About 400 bushels of sweet
potatoes are raised on each acre. Prof.
W ate told how to save cowpea hay by
moving the green cowpeas about the time
the fruit is forming and before the leaves
have begun to yellow and piling it up
around stake set in the ground. There
are about IA, 600 fruit trees on this place.
all the way from 6 years down to 1 year
old. There are about 800 pears, $500
apples, 800 peaches and 500 plums. The
pears are the dwarf, the standard Euro
pean and the oriental pear liberia and
Reeves Favorite are the varieties of
peaches mostly favored by Prof. Waite.
He has grown mainly the japanese varie-
ties. An interesting portion of Prof.
Waite's paper was the discussion of his
system of pruning and the treatment of
orchard diseases.
Those present were: Evansville Farmers
Club. Messrs. Owen Dorsey, George Beall
and DR.. Joseph R. Owens; Patuxent
Planters Club, Messrs. F. Snowden Hill,
Francis w. Hill, William G.. Brooke, E.
E. Berry, Franklin Weems, Eugene
Roberts, George w. Brooke, Upton B.
Brooke, Frederick Sasscer, DR.. Reverdy |
Sasscer and DR.. Richard S. Bill; also the
following guests, Prof. NJ. B. Waite, of
the United States Agricultural Depart
ment; Capt. r. w. Sylvester, Prof. 7. 81.
Spence, DR.. H. B. Mcdonnell and Prof.
T. L. Taliaferro, of the Agricultural Col
lege; DR.. Norman Hill, of Baltimore: Mr.. |
W. B. Jackson, of Montgomery county; |
Messrs. John II. Drury, James c. CLANCY |
and Frank O. Smith, of Calvert county, |
and Messrs Edward Fuller, of Hyattsville; |
Julian Hall, Richard H. Sasscer and Col. |
F. NJ. Hall.