AN ANTHOLOGY OF ONE POEM POETS COMPILED BY ARTHUR JOHNSON M UPHILL BY CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI Does the road wind uphill all the way? But is there for the night a resting-place? Shall I meet other wayfarers at night? Then must I knock, or call when just in sight? Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak? Will there be beds for me and all who seek? Year after year, where Andrew came. And still there sits a moonshine ghost Where sat the sunshine maid. I lay my hand upon the stile. Her misty hair is faint and fair. The sorrows of thy line! The stile is lone and cold, Yet, stranger! here, from year to year, O Keith of Ravelston, The sorrows of thy line! Step out three steps, where Andrew stood- The ancient stile is not alone. 'Tis not the burn I hear! She makes her immemorial moan. She keeps her shadowy kine; O Keith of Ravelston, The sorrows of thy line! Harold Hardy (left) and C. E. Hardy (right). These men have built up the splendid orchards described in this article. NEW HAMPSHIRE APPLES AT THEIR BEST W The Orchard of Hardy and Son By G. F. POTTER. THENEVER there is an occasion to exhibit New Hampshire's fruit farms, possibly to some national authority on fruit or to visitors from other states-there is one farm which is always included in the list to be seen, the farm of C. E. Hardy & Son at Hollis, N. H. There are larger orchards in New Hampshire and many of them splendid ones; there are orchards on more promising sites; there may be orchards which pay nearly or quite as well, but there is none where one can rely upon finding finding a higher a higher quality of product or better demonstration of modern scientific orchard management. It is a fruit farm which has been built up through close co-operation of the father, C. E. Hardy, and his son Harold, a farm which has paid its own way along every step in its progress. Moreover, the notable success of this farm has led the way in making Hollis the largest fruit producing com munity in New Hampshire. Through the rows of trees of the Hardy orchard one may look out across the fields of neighbors, dotted with orchard planting. The farm has been occupied by Mr. Hardy's people since 1849. Mr. Hardy's father, who was a cooper, plied his trade in a small shop near the present Hardy homestead. Fifty-seven years ago he purchased the field which is now the site of New Hampshire's most promising orchards and started farming. The land at that time looked little as it does to-day. The field was full of brush and stone and a portion of it was poorly drained. It was used as a cow pasture but here and there were seedling apple trees some of which had been grafted with scions, which, it is of interest to note, interest to note, came almost directly from the original Baldwin tree on the farm of John Ball at Wilmington, Mass. A barrier of boards had been placed around each grafted tree in order to The storage and packing plant. 1200 bushels of fruit were handled here in 1922. keep the cows away. The cooper in embarking in the field of farming made his chief industry that of producing market hay and dairy products, but he continued to graft and protect each seedling tree. Year by year, the brush and stones were cleared away, tile was laid under the low ground until there evolved a beautiful field of shale soil, which in New Hampshire almost invariably denotes a good orchard location. In 1908 the elder Mr. Hardy passed away and the farm came into the possession of his son, Charles, who indeed had been actively managing it for some years previous. At that time Harold Hardy was at New Hampshire College where, from 1906 until 1910, he took the long course in Agriculture, majoring in fruit-growng under Professors Hall and Rane. During his senior year the Chair of Horticulture passed to B. S. Pickett, who took a considerable interest in the farm at Hollis and, after Harold's graduation, visited the place frequently and assisted in planning for its development. Harold Hardy came home with his college education in 1910, and it was in the following spring that he and his father definitely started a fruit planting program. There were at that time about 500 to 600 trees on the farm. About These As compared to many other fruit farms in New Hampshire the proportion of early varieties is high. Gravenstein, an early market variety which succeeds well in some sections and often. fails in others, has been found to be very well adapted to this locality. It forms a considerable proportion of the Hardy orchards. Wealthy, another early fall variety, has been used to a large extent. There are extensive plantings of the well known McIntosh Red. There are a large number of Wagener, a late variety, but one which bears at a relatively early age and for this reason is adapted to planting between the permanent trees of an orchard which are too Hollis is developing into an apple center. Through rows of mature Baldwin trees one may glimpse young orchards on adjoining fields. far apart to need all the space at first. The Wagener variety has proven itself especially well adapted to use as a "filler" because it is of upright habit and can remain a long time without crowding the permanent trees. In the early plantings of the Hardy orchard a good many Jonathan were used; but if planting to-day it is probable that this variety would not be included at all. It is not well adapted climatically to the conditions of southern New Hampshire and has given a great deal of difficulty on account of its characteristic disease known as Jonathan Spot. As in all other New Hampshire orchards the Baldwin is the main late variety. The Hardy farm is one which is well adapted to the system of clean cultivation in the orchards, the plan which is followed in most of the largest producing orchards in this country although it is not the plan best adapted to many of the New Hampshire hills. The ground is tilled early in the spring and is kept thoroughly worked until about the first of July, when a crop is planted to be plowed under the following spring. Crimson clover is used to a consider able extent for planting these so-called "cover crops," and through its ability to fix nitrogen adds considerably to the fertility of the soil. In many orchards where the cultivation system is practiced there are grass and weeds next the trees, but a visit to a young orchard on the Hardy plantation discloses the trees cultivated as cleanly as a crop of corn. The most modern equipment for getting under the branches close to the trees is For the most part the motive power is furnished by horses. The tractor is tried, and where it proves more economical it is used to a certain extent; but in general the best results have been obtained by cultivating with teams. When the first large plantings on the Hardy farm were made, the horticulturists over the entire country were recommending the type of tree which is known as the open-centered or vase-form tree, and this is the type which predominates in these early plantings. Experience here and elsewhere has shown that this type of tree is structurally weak; that it tends to break down under stress of storm and crop. In the later plantings, |