Newport daily independent., 1904-01-04
BIT OF ITALIAN FARMING.
Scene in Connecticut Which Added Flavor to Radishes for the
 BehoIder.

"These radishes," said the speaker, picking up one from dish of the little pink bulbs that stood on the table be- fore him, remind me of some that l saw on a very different table, and in the midst of very different surround ings, on a canoe trip that friend of mine and myself made in vacation time last summer.
 Striking in from Long Island sound, up little river that comes in on the Connecticut shore, we found it to be picturesque stream enough. In some places along it there were little bluffs, ten or 12 feet high, and at some places trees, and along some stretches ot It there were grassy slopes coming down to the waters edge.
 'It was a pretty stream, running through a pleasant country. And padding on we came, at half dozen miles or so above it's mouth, to more of those little ten or 12 foot bluffs, quite appropriate to the size of the river, and over back of these bluffs we saw two or three farmhouses.
 Tt was noon then, and the day was hot and we wanted drink. So we tied I'D the canoe and climbed the bank, coming out at the top upon little ele- vated plateau laid out as truck gar den.
 Every inch of it was cultivated, but the ground had not been plowed throughout in uniform straight fur rows, as in one great field. It was laid out in patches, in which the furrows ran in various ways, giving variety to the appearance of the whole; but in every patch every inch was cultivated. And over at the other side of this con- siderable garden farm were the houses, with barns and trees and the well.
 "While everything about the place gave evidence of constant care, there was, when we started across for that well, nobody in sight anywhere; but when we had come to an old-fashioned grape arbor that stood near one of the houses, and had looked into that, the absence of people from the fields was instantly accounted for. For sitting under this arbor there were 20 or more persons, men, women and children, evidently all the people on the place, eating their dinner comfortably in it's shade.
 "This was apparently their regular custom. Running down the middle un- der this arbor there was a long fixed table upon which the food was placed, the people sitting along the arbor benches on each side, and the dinner that they were eating here in this cool and leafy dining room, which the com pany pretty nearly filled, consisted wholly of bread and radishes-black bread and radishes.
 "There were quantities of the rad ishes, which were contained in two | or three big wooden bowls, like chop ! ping bowls, placed at intervals along 1 the table, and there was plenty of black bread; and of this simple but abundant meal they were all eating with every indication of wholesome and hearty enjoyment.
 'They were Italians, and good-look- ing and healthy looking people. all; two CT three families of them, appar- ently, that had joined forces and set tied down here in this rather out of the way place to make their fortunes, and living here in their accustomed man. ner.
 And to come upon them thus, and all so unexpectedly, was running across, in Connecticut, little bit of Italy; and" the speaker, relates the New York Sun. concluded, as he helped himself to another from the dish "radishes have always had an added flavor for me since"