Farming

The noble system of modern agriculture has been constructed almost wholly in countries of abundant rainfall, and its applications are those demanded for the agricultural development of humid regions. Until recently irrigation was given scant attention, and dry-farming, with its world problem of conquering one half of the earth, was not considered. These facts furnish the apology for the writing of this book.

One volume, only, in this world of many books, and that less than a year old, is devoted to the exposition of the accepted dry-farm practices of to-day.

The book now offered is the first attempt to assemble and organize the known facts of science in their relation to the production of plants, without irrigation, in regions of limited rainfall. Continue reading

First, you should know why a maritime Northwest raised-bed gardener named Steve Solomon became worriedabout his dependence on irrigation.

I'm from Michigan. I moved to Lorane, Oregon, in April 1978 and homesteaded on 5 acres in what I thought atthe time was a cool, showery green valley of liquid sunshine and rainbows. I intended to put in a big garden and grow as much of my own food as possible.

Two months later, in June, just as my garden began needing water, my so-called 15-gallon-per-minute wellbegan to falter, yielding less and less with each passing week. By August it delivered about 3 gallons perminute. Fortunately, I wasn't faced with a completely dry well or one that had shrunk to below 1 gallon perminute, as I soon discovered many of my neighbors were cursed with. Three gallons per minute won't supply afan nozzle or even a common impulse

Soil is simply the holder of the nutrients, a place where the plant roots traditionally live and a base of support for the plant structure.

In hydroponics you provide the exact nutrients your plants need, so they can develop and grow. The nutrients are fed directly at the root base, never stressing the plant due to lack of nutrients or water.

Virtually any plant will grow hydroponically, but some will do better than others. Hydroponic growing is ideal for fruit bearing crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, leafy crops, like lettuce and herbs and flowing plants. Most hobby hydroponic gardeners plant crops similar to what they would grow in a soil garden. Continue reading

Lupulin contains the oils and resins that give hops their aroma. Female Hop Cones

Growing hops in the northeast dates back to the colonial era. Hops were first introduced into Massachusetts from Europe in 1629. Commercial hop yards in the United States were reported to have been established in New York in the early 1800s. Commercial hops production was pushed westward during the 1920s by plant diseases encountered in the east, primarily downy mildew. Continue reading

Hops (Humulus lupulus L.)
French: Houblon; Spanish: Lupolo; Italian: Luppolo; German: Hopfen

Crop data

Harvested part: umbels (cones) which develop from unpollinated flowers. Rhizome cuttings, or young plants cultivated in the greenhouse, are used as planting material. Rootstocks develop during the first year, when little or no yield is produced.

Flowers July in northern hemisphere, December-January in southern hemisphere. Harvested late August - early September (northern hemisphere), March - April (southern hemisphere).

Whole plants are removed and then processed in a stationary picking machine; wastes (leaves, petioles, vines) are chopped and, in part, brought back to the field. Because the cones are immediately dried to 12 %

While I was pleased with the way it claimed its little patch of soil, I was not yet inspired. That happened later in the summer, as I happily spent an afternoon weeding my herbs and vegetables. I noted that, when I was at the beginning of one row, the tip of the hops plant had just reached a knot in the fence. By the time I had finished my row that afternoon, the plant had grown a full foot past the knot:

measured. I was entranced - and somewhat nervous! This must have been the plant that inspired John Wyndham's famous novel The Day of the Triffids. I decided that these amazing plants deserved a home with me, wherever I went. Since then, I have discovered that hops are a bit like orchids - not in the beauty of their flowers, but in the obsessions they create amongst growers. Continue reading

It is a perennial with a permanent rootstock called the crown.In good conditions, thecrown can live for over 25years. Each spring, several shoots grow vertically from the crown and can grow more than 30 feet (9m) in a single season. Although often referred to as vines, the shoots are technically 'bines,' which havestout stems with stiff hairs to aid in climbing.

Mature hops are quite hardy plants and grow well in Zone 4, although many varieties require a minimum of 120 frost free days. At the end of the growing season, thick applications of well rotted compostor mulch, such as leaves or hay, will help protect the crown through the winter.

Side shoots fill out the bines once they have completed their vertical rise, and these shoots provide support for the flowers. Continue reading

The word soil occurs many times in this little book. In agriculture this word is used to describe the thin layer of surface earth that, like some great blanket, is tucked around the wrinkled and age beaten form of our globe. The harder and colder earth under this surface layer is called the subsoil. It should be noted, however, that inwaterless and sun dried regions there seems little difference between the soil and the subsoil.

Plants, insects, birds, beasts, men, all alike are fed on what grows in this thin layer of soil. If some wild floodin sudden wrath could sweep into the ocean this earth wrapping soil, food would soon become as scarce as it was in Samaria when mothers ate their sons. The face of the earth as we now see it, daintily robed in grass, oruplifting waving acres of corn, or even naked, water-scarred, and disfigured by man's neglect

This is precisely the predicament in which many thousand people are today. Like the boy, they have skinny purses, voracious appetites and mighty yearnings to make the best possible impression within their means. Perhaps having been "invited out," they learn by actual demonstration that the herbs are culinary magicians which convert cheap cuts and "scraps" into toothsome dainties. They are thus aroused to the fact that by using herbs they can afford to play host

and hostess to a larger number of hungry and envious friends than ever before.

Maybe it is mainly due to these yearnings and to the memories of mother's and grandmother's famous dishesthat so many inquiries concerning the propagation, cultivation, curing and uses of culinary herbs are asked of authorities on gardening and cookery; Continue reading

They know that while plants demand many things for their growth, there are but three elements which are in danger of being exhausted in ordinary cropping. These three things are nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash.

Lime.-Lime is used on the land not for its direct results as a fertilizer, but because it has the ability to break up combinations already existing in thesoil and set free the plant food that previously

was in an insoluble form. Lime sometimes produces almost marvelous results; at other times no visible effects whatever. Hence, it is not a fertilizer, though in actual practice it is sometimes a fertilizing agent of great value. Land that has been much manured or long in sod is likely to be benefited by lime. Continue reading

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Northern and Eastern farms is the home vegetable garden. Even where no orchard has been planted, and where the ornamental surroundings of the home have been neglected, a fairly well kept garden in which are grown a number of the staple kinds of vegetables is generally to be found. In many cases the principal interest in the garden is manifested by the women of the household and much of the necessary care is given by them.

A small portion of the gardenen closure is generally devoted to the cultivation of flowers, and a number of medicinal plants is invariably present. Throughout the newer parts of the country it is seen that the conditions governing the maintenance and use of the vegetable garden are somewhat different, and, while a number of vegetable crops may be grown somewhere on the farm, there is wanting that distinction so characteristic of the typical New England kitchen garden.

Some farmers who make the least pretensions have the best machinery and implements. They may not be good mechanics, but they have an eye to the value of laboursaving tools.
The object of this book is to emphasize the importance of mechanics in modern farming; to fit scores of quick-acting machines into the daily routine of farm work and thereby lift heavy loads from the shoulders of men and women; to increase the output at less cost of hand labour

and to improve the soil while producing more abundantly than ever before; to suggest the use of suitable machines to manufacture high-priced nutritious human foods from cheap farm by-products.

Illustrations are used to explain principles rather than to recommend any particular type or pattern of machine. Continue reading

Abroad, the plan is one which, for various reasons, could not be tolerated here. There he is bound for a certain term of years, and with the prime object of teaching him to become an artisan. More often than otherwise hepays for this privilege, and he knows it is incumbent on him "to make good" right from the start.

He labors under the disadvantage, however, that he has a certain tenure, and in that course he is not pushed forward from one step to the next on account of any merit of his own. His advancement is fixed by the time hehas put in at each part of the work, and thus no note is taken of his individuality. Continue reading