The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1911-07-20
GOLDEN CROP ON
ABANDONED FARM
Scientifically Trained Agriculture
ist Growing Melons on Impo-
verished Soil in Md.
OLD MCCULLOCR FARM REDEEMED
Charles w. Heitmuler Of HyattsviIe,
Grows Canteoupes In Rivalry with
Famous Rock Ford, COL, Product
Wealth for Dsheartened Farmers.

Charles w. Heitmuller, a farmer
living near Hyattsville, Md, about
five miles from Washington, seems to
have solved the problem offered by
the many abandoned farms in the
southwestern part of Maryland. Ho
Is growing canteloupes where they
have never grown before with a sue
cess that, by those who have tried
other agricultural ventures in that
section, Is considered little short of
phenomenal.
Because of the impoverished con-
dtion of the soil the land in Prince
George County, where Heitmuller Is
located, has been for the past 40 years
scarcely able to support the most
economical of farmers. Heitmuller.
who is a practical farmer with a SCI
entific agricultural training, is setting
a pace that promises a canteloupe
raising section outrivalling Rocky
Ford, Col.
On a 250-acre farm, formerly a part
of the country estate of Hugh McCul-
loch, Secretary of the Treasury in the
Lincoln, Johnson and Arthur admins
trations. and which have been a dead
weight on the heirs Of the McCulloch
estate until he took it, Heitmuller
this year raised enough canteloupes
to support an extensive agricultural
establishment, including graduate
scientific farmer, who draws a salary
of 1900 year.
When he bought the property two
years ago Heitmuller knew that other
farmers had failed to draw a liveli-
hood out of that soil. Scores of aban-
doned farms in that locality served as
constant reminders of what others
had been unable to do.
The first year he planted ten acres
in canteloupes. The seed he used was
the result of several years expert
menting in the laboratory of an agri-
cultural college. The experiment was
a great success. The melons throve
as nightly, without the irrigation
that Is supposed to be essential to
their growth and sweetness, as the
same fruit does in Rocky Ford, when
watered by irrigating bitches. He
shipped to New York, Philadelphia
and Washington, beating the shipment
of Western fruit to these markets by
several days.
Last spring he planted thirty acres
of the same fruit. A large force OF
men was engaged to pick and pack
this crop. lie shipped, he says, 10000
crates.
If other agriculturists in that vicin-
ity follow Heitmuller's example in the
choice and treatment of crops, and at
tain anything resembling his degree OF
success, it will mean millions of dol
lars in the pockets of owners of farm
| ing land in that section of Prince
| George County. 1t will turn the vast
idle estates into small, paying farms.
Now that section resembles more the
sections of the South through which
the war passed than section OF a
prosperous State. Formerly the en-
tire country around there was called
Cherrydale, because of the large
cherry orchards that crowded the
hills and surrounded the homesteads.
Now the cherry trees have wasted
away, the fences are down and the
hills and valleys hardly offer oppor-
tunities for an interesting fox chase.
The historic Baltimore and Wash
ington turnpike, famous in Revolution
.ary and early nineteenth century
times, runs along one side of the Heit-
muller farm. A few yards back from
the road may be seen the wreck OF
an old half way tavern where Wash
ington, jefferson, Randolph and 9TH
er Virginia gentlemen stopped for the
night, en- route to or from Baltimore,
Adjoining on the west side is the land
formerly included in magnificent
10000 acre estate of Count Deminue
a French exile, who lost his head by
returning to Paris while the Revolu'
tiOn was on,