Ithaca, New York
Saturday afternoon, February 19, 1938
Dear Folks,
I appreciated Papa’s letter very much which I received Wednesday. Farm and Home Week ended this noon and they registered over 15,000 altogether, an increase of 4,000 over last year and an all-time record. The people had quite a time finding a place to sleep around the city.
I managed to get around and see a lot of the exhibits when I wasn’t ushering or helping register, and they certainly were very fine. I hope that in the future some of you will be able to come out and see them and take in some of the lectures on topics which interest you – hundreds of which are given each day.
They had a very big crowd for Mrs. Roosevelt – about five thousand – and the auditorium seats 2500 so we had quite a job keeping the people from forcing their way in. She gave a very good speech and so did Governor Lehman yesterday, some of which you may have heard. On Wednesday, Mr. Tabor gave a very good speech which was also broadcast.
This afternoon I did a Pomology report and tonight all the members who worked on the Farm and Home Week committee have been invited over to Alpha Gamma Rho, which is the agricultural fraternity, to a dance, so I guess I will go.
Do you suppose it will be alright if I go down to Washington over Easter vacation for a couple of days? Both Margaret and her mother have invited me to come down and I would like to go very much if I could.
Tomorrow morning we are having a very good minister from Boston speaking at Sage and I am going up to hear him. I work at 12:00 so I have to rush right down to the coop from there but I don’t have to work Sunday night, which is the only night in the week that I don’t.
I got some bulletins on potato storage and the waxing of vegetables yesterday from a professor and will bring them home when I come. They say that only a light coating of manure should be applied to the piece where one is going to plant potatoes, as too much nitrogen is not good for them. Also the land should be fairly well drained. I think perhaps the place where we had them last year is a little too wet and it would be better to rotate them again. It helps immensely in reducing the number of potato bugs.
I have to go up to work now, but will be looking forward to a letter.
Lovingly, Hall
Gilbert Hall Flint was born August 14, 1918 and raised on Flint Hill Farm in Amenia, New York. His formal education began in a one-room schoolhouse in Smithfield. He graduated from Amenia High School in 1936 and from the Cornell University College of Agriculture in 1940. He taught high school agriculture from 1940 to 1944, served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, taught high school agriculture from 1946 to 1963, and finished his career as a school principal from 1963 to 1975.
Gilbert Hall Flint passed away on December 16, 2009. The letters are published in his memory. To view the letters in chronological order, please click a timeline label from the side bar menu, scroll to the bottom, and read up.
Gilbert Hall Flint passed away on December 16, 2009. The letters are published in his memory. To view the letters in chronological order, please click a timeline label from the side bar menu, scroll to the bottom, and read up.