The Republican journal., 1913-06-05
Northport Notes.

A Belfast Mans Garden. The Work on
the Cobe Estate.
One of our most successful market gardeners
is MIR j. F. Wilson, and it is pleasure to visit
his we'll titled acre in Northport, just across
the Little River bridge. 1t is a level piece of
four acres standing high above the road, with
the broad expanse of the bay in front. the
reservoir of the Belfast Water Company in
the rear, and fringe of trees along the river
bank. The soil is light and easily worked since
Mr.. Wilson took from it some tons of witch
grass roots and with water on three sides
it is measurably protected from frosts.
On recent May morning. when the garden
er would have needed an overcoat and mittens
+, work in comfort out of doors, the writer ac-
companied Mr.. Wilson on visit to his North
port garden. We first visited the raspberry
patch, and it appears that one difficulty the
grower has to contend with is winter killing.
To provide against that Mr.. Wilson bought of
the Coe- Mortimer Co large number of bags
which had contained nitrate of soda. His
raspberry bushes are tied to stakes and he
covered them with the bags, thus protecting
them from frosts. One row was laid down and
covered with earth and came out all right, but
did not look as forward as those protected by
the bags. When these were removed they
were laid down, end to end, between the rows
and kept the weeds down. Robins very
fond of raspberries and unless kept off would
get away with most of the crop. Mr.. Wilson
had read Of and adopted, a device which keeps
these feathered mauraders at distance. 1t is
a windmill that III revolving rings bell.
II is perhaps hardly necessary to say that to
get his large crops from a comparatively small
area tabout an acre. Mr. Wilson utilities every
foot of space. In setting out new straw
berry bed, he plants early peas between the
rows, which are ready to be pulled up when
the strawberry plants need the room Mr.
Wilson had beets up, showing in well defined
rows. cucumbers growing in cold frames, and
from several of them the glass had been re-
moved and the plants were putting out their
third leaves. His place is an object lesson in
intensive farming In getting into the team
to return to the city Mr.. Wilson suggested
driving to the Cobe place, and as the writer
had not seen the work in operation there he
was glad of the opportunity Mr.. Wilson call
ed attention to the road, saying that from
Little River to the Campgronnd the best work
had been done with the road machine that he
had ever seen, land you know l have done
considerable of that work myself" The
work was certainly all right. The bitches
were where they should be, and graded
to carry off the water, and the road prop
erly crowned We went up the hill over
the old road after passing the Hills farm,
and it was somewhat bewildering to find
the Hillside farm house on the wrong side of
the road, and when we began to see
the work in progress the extensive grounds
and the paiatial summer home in course of
erection for Mr.. Ira M. Cobe of Chicago The
massive concrete foundations, the tons of iron
grdeIs and the big derrick looked as though
Uncle Sam was building fertilization to pro-
teet US from the Japs. There was too much
to be in a few minutes and later we shall
try to tell the story in detail.
AS these notes have been unavoidedly de-
ferred it should be said that the visit to Mr..
Wilson's garden was on May 18th, and there
has of course been a great advance in vegeta-
tion since then