New-York tribune., 1907-01-24
THE LURE OF THE LAND.
Mt. Fullerton's Experiment Makes an Arid
Waste Fertile.

Find the worst ten acres on the North Shore
and mako a market garden Of it, was the mes
sage which Ralph Peters president OF the Long
Island Railroad. sent TO H B. Fullerton about
a wear and a half ago Mr. Peters wanted 70
nrove that the land that was then lyinS IDLE
couId be developed into truck farms and fruit
orchards Mr.. Fullerton was 20 be his speetai
agent TO prove It
In the American Institutes free lecture course
Mr. Fullerton yesterday told all about IT, WIN
the aid of a great number Of beautiful IAN
tsrn slides He called his address The Lure OF
the Land" It would have made even Charles
Lamb pine for the country
Fullerton went prospecting TIL no strueA
God-forsaken country at Wad'ng River COW
cred with scrub oak that had been burnt over
SO much It was not even taxable II was ths
worst land on the island the neighbors declared.
He bought ten acres. and. wishing TO keep the
wages In the community hired eight or ten
x,orne fellows Of the place 70 clear and enrich
the land.
.But one wore gloves and spats." said Mr.
Fullerton "and they all wore stand-up collars
and kicked at the meals. so we had TO fah BACK
on the manual maInstay OF the country, the Ital-
ian He brought his own meals. so there was
no kick coming. His one idea was TO put IN
a full days work, and when the days sot snort
he cut down his nocn hour to eight minutes-
We found the Italian honest. industrious ana
decent. Between him and the IrisRman the
native American Is going to have tussle to
Experimental Station No. 1. as the ten acres
was called had the same climate as the adtOin-
ing land, and about the same soil, only worse.
but Il seemed as IL the special agent had only TO
make a hole in the ground and drop seed IN
It and he got country fair prize winner with
'The secret OF gardening" he told his audi
ence yesterday, Els to raise a little better Vege-
tables a little earlier than the other fellow"
In pursuance OF this policy he put empty nail
kegs around his rhubarb. and his rhubarb
caught the first Of the spring market Other
people wait for warm weather before putting
out their tomato plants. He had his growing In
paper pots in a cold frame. and they were a
month ahead of time when he set them out IN
May There was little more than half an acre
OF them and they paid more than ]. 100 per cent
profit. Only the best tomatoes were marketed.
They averaged pound each and some reached
q pound and half.
when every one told him he couldn't get lettuce
to head AS for his cabbages. they weighed
from II TO 10 pounds. and some OF them meas
ured As inches across with the leaves on.
Mr.. Fullerton was always thinking OF nice
new ways OF doing things. Instead OF growing
fence. and they yielded four times as much as
usual. Carrots are no great luxury, but pick
them young, before the other fellow has got
after them, and you can sell them for Just six
times as much as he gets Mr. Fullerton dId
Early In the game they discovered. for Mrs.
Fullerton was his partner. that clean vegetables
ton rigged up a shelf OF wire netting and a
hose and the vegetables were washed In a trice.
How to pack their vegetables was one OF their
biggest problems Mrs. Fullerton got round
that by the use Of paraffine paper. Then Mr..
Fullerton got out what he called family ham
per-three or four small baskets OF soup vege-
tables, salad and table vegetables. only four
hours out of the ground, placed I'm a stout COW
cred receptacle and selling for 81.