EQUIPMENT

The investment in equipment for muck land vegetable production varies greatly. Some growers with relatively small areas are highly successful though their tools are few and simple, representing less than three or four hundred dollars for say ten acres. The buildings may be very simple, providing merely shelter for tools and a room for preparing products for market. Small and simple green houses are used by celery men for growing early plants. Storage houses for onions are frequently built, but this is really independent of crop production, as the gain incident to holding the crop is expected to meet the interest charges and other costs and to offer a profit in addition. Some men build more elaborate storage houses and expensive tool and work rooms, and so increase their investment rather heavily, not always with increased profit.

DRAINAGE

The care of drainage ditches on the muck land involves special consideration. Two general methods are in practice. Most growers maintain a narrow strip of sod, or rather a strip of sod which they pretend to keep within narrow limits, on each side of the bank. Thus the sides may be kept almost vertical. The other method consists in keeping the banks of the ditches shaved clean, thus allowing no harbor for weeds. Each requires about the same amount of space.

There is a growing tendency toward the use of tile drainage instead of open ditches. The latter are objectionable on account of the loss of space, often as much as 10 per cent. ; the labor of keeping them shoveled out from year to year; their interference with operations, and on account of the harboring of weeds. It has been found that where tile is well laid, placing the line on a board bottom, the plan is satisfactory, even through the fall is very slight.

Muck soils do not form clods as do the heavier upland soils. Even though the material is very light, plowing is not as easy as might be supposed. The smallest spot of rust on a plowshare is sufficient to start an accumulation of muck which prevents scouring, and before long the implement is merely dragged through the soil without turning a real furrow. Considerable care must

be exercised in selecting a plow for these lands, some modeis being much more satisfactory than others, although there is quite a little difference of opinion as to the adaptability of different makes and shapes. Some are using disc plows with a high degree of satisfaction.

FALL PLOWING AND CULTIVATION

Fall plowing is favored by some gardeners, advantages suggested being that the work is done and off the calendar before the rush of the spring months; that the land plows a bit more easily; that freezing in the furrow is useful, and that there is less trouble from weeds. On the other hand, some claim that spring plowing aids in drying out the soil more speedily.

Great emphasis is placed upon the advantage of careful preparation of the soil. A level surface is especially important on account of the delicate seeds and plants. On one of the experimental plots of the College of Agriculture, a small area was found to be deficient in yield. The situation was studied a bit, and it was discovered that a very slight depression existed at this

FIG. 353. PLANK DRAG

point. After this was filled, it was found that the difficulty had been overcome. The plank drag or float is widely used, and some employ a scraper consisting of a plank so attached to a frame that the edge acts as a blade reducing mounds and filling depressions. The roller is regarded as very valuable for compacting loose muck soils. The Acme harrow is one of the favorites for finishing.

This bulletin includes articles on the leading muck land crops, and each deal with their special fertilizer requirements.

The peculiar moisture relations prevailing in muck soils render careful cultivation no less necessary than on other soils, even though the water-holding capacity is exceptionally great. The

capillary movement is so slow that the upper soil may be suffering severely when abundance of water is to be found a few feet beneath. Thus the conservation of the moisture which exists in the parts of the soil where the roots are most highly developed is not to be neglected, and cultivation usually insures sufficiently favorable moisture conditions for high production without irrigation, although some practice artificial watering.

The maintenance of a surface mulch on muck soil is exceedingly easy. The material itself is well adapted for the purpose; in fact, the coarser muck soils would be found effective for the mulching of other soils. Only a very light crust is ever formed, and the lightest tools are adequate. The intensive planting plans practically banish the horse cultivator on many farms, celery being the only important crop for which it is used. Wheel hoes are very widely employed. Different attachments are used at different stages of the crops, among them being sets of small discs, of light, slender teeth, mold boards which throw a considerable amount of soil to or from the row, and also blades which pass just beneath the surface, cutting weeds and leaving a fine mulch. A two-wheeled tool is best for straddling the rows, while a single wheel is better for working in the middles. When crops begin to close the middles, a single wheeled tool, known as the gooseneck, is used. The frame consists of a single bent tube, and it carries a blade which passes immediately beneath the surface.

The most widely used of the hand tools is the scuffle hoe or shove hoe, as it is commonly known. This consists of a handle, a shank, and a flat blade similar to that just described from one and one-half to three inches wide and from six to twelve inches long. The shank is riveted to the blade in such a way that it is pushed in a horizontal position ahead of the worker. This passes readily beneath the foliage and is exceedingly useful in this type of soil. Ground may be covered very rapidly. Another tool that is used for thinning and for working beneath plants in the row is a hoe which consists merely of a narrow strip of metal bent in the form of a triangle and set in a handle. An enormous amount of hand weeding is necessary for closely planted crops. Especially is this true of onions and of celery.

When heavy winds have drifted the muck so that young celery plants are partially covered, the soil must frequently be removed by hand.

IRRIGATION

As just suggested, most growers are able to procure a good crop by the conservation of moisture through good cultivation. However, an increasing number feel that the losses incident to drouth are sufficient to justify the installation of irrigation equip ment. The overhead type of irrigation is but little used. Many control the water table by opening or closing the outlets of the ditches. The water level may be raised quite high before planting a crop, thus filling the soil with moisture. It is then lowered and maintained at a level of say eighteen to twenty-four inches. An occasional grower employs a furrow system, distributing the water from a head ditch through the middles. This scheme is quite satisfactory if the pumping cost is not high. It is a little difficult to secure even distribution of water throughout the whole. length of the ditch. The water ought to be so handled as to flow from one end to the other very promptly. Then it will be gradually absorbed all along the line.

CROPPING PLANS

The arrangement of crops on muck land varies greatly in different districts. In some places single crops are grown almost exclusively. Thus the marshes of the Wallkill river in Orange county are used chiefly for onion production; the same statement may be made of the Canastota swamp; Fulton and Albion have been widely known for their lettuce, and Arkport for its celery. However, there is a marked tendency toward diversification. Except in the warmest parts of the state, it is difficult to grow a second crop after onions have matured, although some are willing to take a chance on securing a good yield of spinach, since the cost is very low. Two crops of lettuce may be matured without difficulty, and in some cases three. Celery is sometimes sowed after a crop of lettuce or vice versa. Occasionally lettuce is planted every fourteen inches apart, but every third row is omitted. In this wide space the celery plants

are set.

Thus the two crops occupy the ground together for a

few weeks. A double row of lettuce is sometimes sown on celery ground after the boards have been placed for blanching, but the removal of the celery renders this more or less unsatisfactory.

MARKETING

Muck lands seldom lie within hauling distance of the market, and the different problems of transportation and of sale through dealers and commission men must be met. The muck land grower seldom sees his merchant face to face, and the long time in transit usually prevents his taking full advantage of the ups and downs of a particular market. In fact, it often happens that on advice of a high market, growers ship just in time for their product to contribute to an over-supply incident to the wide distribution of the information which they have received. It is needless at this point to dwell upon the problems of selling on distant markets. Suffice to say that men who are producing in fairly large quantities and who are using good business judgment in working out their market problems are able to secure fairly satisfactory results. Nevertheless there is something radically wrong when celery that can be profitably grown at one and one-half cents per head costs the consumer eight or ten cents, and when lettuce from western New York makes it way to Boston and back to Syracuse before it even falls into the hands of a retailer.

Some growers have found it profitable to build up a clientele of small jobbers and larger groceries to whom they ship directly. They have given special attention to the growing of a high-class product and to its preparation for market. This plan involves much attention to detail and is for this reason not favored by

some.

Muck land production offers exceedingly favorable opportunity for cooperative marketing. No notable success in this direction has been recorded on any of the muck land areas of New York, although the upland growers of Chautauqua and Erie counties are finding the South Shore Growers' & Shippers' Association exceedingly helpful.