Ten Acres Enough

TEN A NOUGH
A PRA CTI CA L EXP ERI ENCE
S H O W I NG
HOW A VERY SMALL FARM MAY BE

MAD E T O KEEP A VERY LARGE FAMILY
W ITH I NT RO D UCTI O N BY
I S A A C P H I LLI P S R O BERT S
ER I T US
EM P RO F E S S OR O F AG R I CUL T URE L A T E D E A N A N D D I RE CT OR
, OF
TH E CO LLEGE O F A GR I CUL T UR E O F COR N E LL UN I VE R S I TY
AUTH O R OF
“
TH E FARM S T EAD ,
! “
TH E H O RS E, ! “
TH E F ARMER S
’
BUS IN ES S HAN D BO O K , !
NEW YO RK
CONSO LID A T ED R ET A I L BOO K SELL ER S
I
9 5
0
“A l l LI BR A R Y-A GR I CULT UI ! m
CO P YR I GH T E D , 1 90 5 , BY
CO NS O L IDAT ED R ETA I L BOO K S ELLERS

P UBL I S H E D ,O CT O BE R , 1 90 5 .
Printed
! in t h e U nite d S ta t e s of A m e rica !
.
I NTROD UCTI ON .
What J e thro Tull did to improve ti llage the ,
author of Ten A cres E nou gh did to prove that

intensified agriculture on small areas could be ma d e
not only to support a family bu t to yield a hand ,
some profit and health freedom and hap piness as

, ,
well It has taken two centuries for the most a d

.
va n c e d farmers t o appreciate Tull and his teachings .
It has taken nearly half a century in this p r og r es

sive age to appreciate and to put in practice in a ,
feeble way the fundamental principles which under

,
l i e all ou r deal ings with Mother E arth as se t forth

in th is modest volume of two hundred pages .
If one totally ignorant of the principles and p ra c

tices of the vari ous operations necessary to bring to
perf ection the many plants W ith which A griculture
has to do were limited to t wo publications I would
, ,
advi se him to pur chase H orse H oeing Husbandry -
and Ten A cres E nough .
The mistaken ambition for own i ng twi ce ! often

ten times !as much land as one can thoroughly
manure or profitably cultivate is the great a gric ul ,
tural sin of th i s country Says the author In,

!
.
Ca li fornia wher e th i s is being writte n, this mistaken

B orn 1 680 , d ie d 1 7 40 .
r2 8 ii f§ b
4 I NT RO D U CTI ON .
amb i tion prevails to an alarming exte nt Too ofte n .

,
farmers have become soil robbers This state ap .
pears to excel all others in its haste to fil c h from the

l and every valuable timber tree every p ound of ni,
trogen, every vestige of humus that can be extracte d

a t a present profit however sm a ll, wi th apparently no
thought of the future productivi ty of the land, the

f uture welfare of the farmer, or the p ermanent pros
D erity of the community .
I have made a careful study of the cond i ti ons of

a gri culture in the S anta C lara S an Jose and S acra
,
mento Valleys and I am i rresistibly led to the con

,
c l u sion that the great ranches must be broken up
in to small holdings before permanent prosperity can

c ome t o the farmers of the Pacific C oast O n a re .
c ent v i sit to a ranch of several thousand acres ,
where things appeared prosperous and the cattle

l ooked well bred and well f e d I could not refrain
,
from asking the impolite question “ Does i t pay ! !

,
The reply was : We have been here ten years

have put in dollars gotten up at two in the morn
,
ing to get th e milk delivery wagon star ted in time ,
have four hundred head of cattle and thirty horses ,

an d if I should sell ou t to day I would not have a
-
,
!
l ollar clear profit.
A few days after I called on my college graduate

,
f
r i end H e has just ten acres all in fruit— peaches
.
,
a p ricots and prunes — all of which he will dry as ,
transportation is uncertain and expensive and the

e astern market for undried fruit precarious A gain .
i asked
!
,
Does i t pay ! H e replied : W ell, we
I N T RO D U CTI ON .
5
have th ree ch il dre n my wi fe an d I hav e worke d

,
hard exce p t in the s i x w e ek s harve st ing ti me we ,
have a comfortabl e l i vi ng, some s p are t im e, and on

an average secur e a p rofit of about three hundr e d a
year after a l lowing a modest intere st on the invest
m ent The orchard is not yet i n full bearing and
.
w e should do somewhat better i n the future and

vastly better when the well is bored and a p ump
!
provi ded for i rrigati ng once or twi ce yearly In .
th i s locality, land suitable f or fru i t i s held at one

hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars per acre .
W here the p lanted orchard has been in bearing for

t wo or three years that is, p roduces t wo thirds of
,
-
a crop, it sells at eight to n in e h undred dollars per

acre I f well and pum p are added the value is in
.
,
creased to one thousand or e leven hundr ed dollars

pe r acre .
These two cas e s are ty pi ca l not exceptional

,
.
A fter becom i ng acqua in te d w i th the i nner life of the

owners O f these hold i ng s— f or there are really only
t wo k inds small fru i t and vegetable holdings , and
,
large cattle shee p , grain and hay ranch e s— one doe s

,
not hesi tate to choose betwe e n them .
It all amounts to th i s N o one should control

more arable land than he can maintain in a high
state O f productivity the four great factors of which
,
are good seed suitable moisture , abundant available

, ,
plant food and rational tillage In a large maj or i ty

, .
of cases where failure , or partial fa ilure of an abun
dant crop is observed the meagre results are due to

a partial lac k of one of th e se fundamenta ls The .
6 I N TRO D U C TI ON .
vicissitudes of weather have little e ff ect if var i eties ,
and species of plants adapted to the locality are

selected i f the p lants are neither hungry nor thirsty
, ,
and if they are comfortably grounded in Ol d Mother

E arth .
Then the j oy of seeing happy plants and an i mals

grow strong a n d produce some fifty some an hun ,
dred f old I — “ Twere w orth te n years of city life ,

!
one look at their array !
“
A gain and again the author of Ten A cres
!
E nough recoun t s the happiness of O bserving Na
ture s m odes of action at first hand the pleasure of
’
,
discovering now on e now another secret of soil or

,
plant H ow he revels i n plain food and p eaceful

.
slumber after a day of intelligent e ffort in G od s ’
first Temple under the open sk y ! H e consulte d

with his neighbors O ften S omet imes he went by
.
the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the

“
man void of understanding and 10 !he saw it , ,
was all overgrown with thorns and nettles had ,
c overed the face thereof and the stone wall thereof

!
was broken down Then he saw and considered
.
it well and looked upon it and received instruction .
It did not take l ong f or him to discover that sloth

fulness and ignorance were the cause O f the untidy
condition and meagre resul t s of these plantations
which were duplicates of the one d escribed by S olo
mon S o he piled his table high wi th the best agri
.
cultural literature and spent hi s evenings at home

reading it F or years he a nd his wi fe and daughter
.
were close students When it c ould no longer be

.
I N TRO D UCTI ON .
7
sai d that they w e re i gnorant ; they a ll p ut on p lain

clothes and worked — worked as only an i ntelligent
servant works for a kind master— and the Master
gave ample reward when the harvest tim e came .
R eader, go and do likewise !
I SAAC P H ILLIP S RO B ER T S .
E m eritu s Pr ofe ssor of A g ric u l tu r e La t e De a n

,
a n d D ir e c tor O f t h e C oll e ge of A g r ic u l t u r e of
,
C or ne ll Un iv e rs ity ; Au t h or of Th e Fa rm
s te a d
“
Th e Fa rm e r s Bus in ess H a n d book
! ’ !
, ,
e tc .
P REF ACE .
TH E man wh o fe eds his cattle a thousand h il ls on
may poss ibly see the title of this little volume p a

ra d e d through the newspapers but the chances are
that he will never think it worth while to look into
the volume itself The o wner of a hundred acres
.
will scarcely ste p ou t of his way to purchase or to

borrow it while the lord of every smaller farm will
,
be sure it is n ot intended for him Few persons b e .
longing to these several classes have been educated

to be lieve Ten A cres E nough Born to greater a m
.
bitiou they have aimed higher and grasped at more

, ,
sometimes wisely sometimes not Many of these

,
.
are now owni ng or c u ltivating more land than their

heads or purses enable them to manage properly .
Had their ambition been moderate and their ideas ,
more practical their labor would be better rewarded

, ,
and this book without doubt would have found more

, ,
readers .
The mistaken ambition for owning twice a s much

land as one can th oroughly manure or profitably
cultivate is the great agricultural sin of this country
,
.
Those wh o comm i t it, by beginni ng wrong too f re ,
9
10 P RE F ACE .
quently continue wrong O wning many acres is .
the sole idea H igh cultivation of a small tract is

.
,
one of which they have little knowledge Too many .
in these several classes think they know enough .
They measure a man s knowledge by the number of

’
his acres H ence , in their eyes the owner of a plot

.
s o humble as mine must know s o little as to be u h
able to teach them anything new .
Happily it is not for these that I write , and hence

,
it would be unreasonable to expect them to bec ome

readers I write more particularly for those w h o
.
have not been brought up as farmers for that nu -
m e r ou s b ody of patient toilers in c i ty tow n and , ,
vil lage who like myself have struggled on from year

, , ,
to year anxious t o break away from the bondage of

,
the desk the counter or the workshop to realize in

, , ,
the c ountry even a moderate income s o that it be a ,
sure one Many such are constantly looking round

.
in this direction f or something which with less men ,
tal toil and an x iety will provide a maintenance for

,
a growing family, and afi ord a refuge f or advancing

age— some safe and quiet harbor, sheltered from the
constantly recurring monetary and political c onvu l
sions which in this country s o suddenly reduce men
to poverty But these inquirers find no experienced
.
p ioneers to lead the way and they turn back up on ,
themse l ves too fearful t o go forward alone Books

, .
of personal e x perience like this are rare This is .
w ritten f or the information of the class referred t o ,
f or men not only willing but anxi ous t o learn O nce

, .
i n the same predicament m yself I know their long ,

P RE FACE .
11
ings their defic iencies and the ste ps they ought to

, ,
take H ence in seeking to make myse l f fully u m

.
,
d e r s t ood some may think that I have been u nn e c e s

,
s ar il y minute But in setting forth my own erudi

.
ties I do but save others from repeating them Yet

, .
with all this amplification my little contribution will

,
occasion no crowding even upon a book shelf which

-
may be already filled .
I am too new a farmer to be the originator of all

the ideas which are here se t forth S ome which
.
,
seemed to be appropriate to the topic in han d have ,
been incorporated with the argument as it progressed

while in some instances even the language of writers
, ,
whose names were unknown to me , has also been

adop te d .
CONTENTS .
P AGE
C HAPTER I — C ity E xpe rie nc e s—Mod e ra te Expe c ta tions

. 15
C HAPTE R II — Pr.ac ti c a l Vie ws— S a fe t y of Investm e nts

in La n d
CH APTER I H — Re solve d to go— Esc a pe from Bu sine ss
.
C h oosing a Loc a t ion

- .
CHAP TER I V — B uy in g a Fa rm — Anxie ty to se ll— For c e d

.
t o q uit
C HAPTER V Ma k in g a Pu rc h
— . ase — Firs t I m pr es s ions .
C HAPTER VI — Pla nt in g a Pea c h orc h a r d— H ow t o p re

.
-
se rve P e a c h t r e e s -
CHAPTER VII Pl a n t in g Ra s pb e rr ie s a nd St r a w be rr ie s
.
-
Tr ic ks of t h e Nu rs e y
-
C HAPT R VIII Bla c kbe rr ie s— A Re m a r ka bl e C oin

E — .
c id e n c e
CHAPTER IX — Th e Ga r de n— Fe m a l e Ma n age m e nt
.
Com forts a n d Profi ts

CHA PT R
E X — C he a t e d in a Co w— A Good a n d a Ba d
.
O n e — Th e Sa int of t h e Ba rn ya r d
E —
C HAPT R XI A C lou d of W e e d s— G re a t S a l e s of
.
Pl a nt s . 98
C HAPTER XII — Pig s a n d Pou l try— Lu c k a n d Ill Lu c k

. . 111
C HAPTER XIII — C it y a n d Cou n t ry Life c on traste d

. . 124
13
14 CON T EN TS .
P AGE
C HAPTER XIV — Tw o Ac re s in Tru c k— Re vol u tion in

.
Ag r ic u lt u r e 132
C HAPTER XV —B ir ds a n d t h e S e r vic e s t h ey R e n d e r
.
, 146
C HAPTER XVI C lose of m y F irs t Ye a r— I ts Loss a n d
.
-
C HAPTER XVII —My S e c on d Y e a r— Tr e n c h in g t h e

.
Ga r d e n— S tr a w be rr y Pr ofi ts
C HAPTER XVIII — R a s p b e rr ie s — Th e La w t ons
.
C HAPTER XIX — Liq u id Ma nu re s— I ll u s tr a t ion

. . .
CHAPTER XX — My Th ir d Ye a r — Liq u id Ma n u r e
.
Th r e e Y e a r s R e su l ts ’
—
C HAPTER X XL A Ba r nya r d Ma u f n a c t or —
y La n d
E n ou gh— Fa it h in Ma nu re .
C HAPTER XXII —P rofi t s of Fru it g r ow in g— Th e Tr a d e

.
-
in B
e r r ie s .
C HAPTER XXIII — G e n t l e m a n fa rm in g— Esta b l ish in g a

.
-
Hom e .
C HAPTER XXIV —U nsu c c es s fu l Me n— R e be ll ion n ot

.
R u in ou s t o Nort h e r n A gr ic u l tu re .
C HAPTER XXV — W he re t o L oc ate— Ea st or W e st

.
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
CHA PT ER I .
C I T Y E X P ERIEN C E S — M O D E R ATE E X PE CTATIONS .
MY life up to the age

,
of
forty had been spent i n ,
my native city of Philadelphia Like thousands of .
others before me I began the world without a dollar

, ,
and with a very few friends in a condition to assist

me H avi ng saved a few hundred dollars by dint of
.
close application to business and avoiding taverns

, ,
oyster houses theatres and fashionable tailors I

-
, , ,
married and went into business the same year These .
two contemporaneous drafts upon my little capital

proving heavier than I expected they soon used it ,
up leavi ng me thereafter greatly straitened f or

,
means It i s true my business kept me but as it

.
,
w a s constantly e xpand ing and was of such a nature

,
that a large proportion of my annual gain was n e c es

sa r il y invested in tools fixtures and machinery I
, , ,
w a s nearly always short of ready cash to carry on

my operations wi th comfort A t certain times also
.
, ,
i t ceased to be profitable The crisis of 183 7 nearly

.
ruined me and I wa s kept struggling along during

,
.
the five succeeding years of hard times , until the re

15
16 T EN ACRES ENO U GH .
vival of 18 42
came round Previous t o th i s c ri si s
.
,
necessity had driven me to the banks for d i scounts ,

one of the sore evils of doing business upon insu ffi
cient capital A s is always the case with these in

.
stitu tion s they compelled me to return the borrowe d

,
money at the very time it wa s least convenient for

me to do s o— they needed i t as urgently as myself .
But to refund them I was compelled to borro w else

where and that too at e x cessive rates of interest
, ,
thus in creasing the burden while laboring to shak e

i t ofi .
T h ousands have gone through the same unhappy

experience and been crushed by the load S uch can
, .
anticipate my trials and privations Yet I was not .
i nsolvent My property had cost me far more than

.
I owed yet if offered for sale at a time when the

,
whole community seemed to want money only no ,
on e could have been found to give cost I could not .
use it as the basis of a loan neither could I part with

,
it without abandoning my business H ence I strug .
gled on through that exhausting crisis haunte d by ,
perpetual fears of being dishonored at bank lying ,

-
down at night not to peaceful slumber but to dream

, ,
!
of fresh expedients to preserve my credit f or to mor -
row I have sometimes thought that the pecuniary

.
cares of that struggle were severe enough to have

shortened my life had they been much longer pro
,
tracted .
Besides the mental anxi eties they occasioned they ,
compelled a pinching economy in my family But .
i n th i s latter e ff ort I di scovered my wi fe to be a

But i n th i s country on e convulsion follows another

wi th d i shearte ning frequency I lived through that .
of 183 7 , pa i d my debts and had managed t o save ,
some m oney My wi fe s system of economy had

.
’
be en so long adhered to that in the end it became to ,
so me extent habitual to her and she still continued ,
to practice great frugal i ty I became insensibly a c .
customed to it myself C hildren were multiplying.
around u s and we thought the skies had brightened

,
for all future time When i n di fficulty w e had often

.
,
debate d the prop ri ety of quitting the city and its

terrible business tr ials and settling on a few acres
,
in the country, where we could raise our o wn food ,
and spend the remainder of our days i n cultivating

ground which would be sure to yield us at least a r e
s p ec ta bl e subs i stence We had no longing f or execs
.
sive wealth a mere competency though earned by ,
daily toil so that it was reasonably sure a n d free

, ,
from the drag of continued indebtedness to others ,
was all we coveted .
I had always loved the country, but my wife pre

ferred the city I could ta k e no step but such as
.
would be lik ely to p romote her happiness S o long .
as times conti nued fair, we ceased to canvass the p ro

p r ie ty of a removal We had children to educate,
.
and to her the c i ty seemed the best and most con

v e nient place for qualifying them for future useful
ness Then most of ou r relations resided near us

.
, .
O ur hab i ts were eminently social We had made .

‘
numerous friends and among ou r neighbors there

,
h ad turned up many valuable families We felt .

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
19
even the thought of breaking away from all these

cord ial ties to be a try ing one But the refuge of a
.
removal to the country had taken strong hold of my

mind .
Indeed it may be said that I was born with a pas

sion for living on a farm It was fixed and strength
.
ened by my long experience of the business vic is si

tudes of city life F or many years I had been a
.
constant subscriber f or several agricultural j ournals ,
whose contents I read as carefully as I did those of

the daily papers My wife also being a great reader
.
, ,
came in time to study them almost as attentively .
E verything I saw in them onl y tended to confirm my

longing for the country while they gave definite
,
views of what kind of farming I wa s fit for In fact .
they educated me f or the position before I assumed

it I am sure they exercised a powerful influence in
.
’
removing most of my wife s obj ections to living in
the country I studied their contents as carefully as
.
did the writers wh o prepared them I watched the .
reports O f crops of experiments and of profits The

, ,
.
leading idea in my mind was this— that a man of

ordinary industry and intelligence by choosing a ,
proper location within hourly reach of a great city

market could so cultivate a few acres as to insure a
,
maintenance for his family free from the ruinous

,
vibrations of trade or commerce in the metrop olis .
A ll my reading served to convince me of its sound

ness I did n ot assume that he could get rich on the
.
few acres which I ever expected to own ; but I felt

assured that he could place himself above want I .
20 TEN A CREs ENOUGH .
knew th at h is peace of mind would b e sure W i th .
me this was dearer than all My reading had s at .
isfie d me that such a man would find Ten A cres

E nough and these I could certainly command
, .
As I did not contemplate undertaking the man age

ment of a large grain farm so my stu di es did not ,
run i n that di rection Yet I read everything that

.
came before me in relation to such and not wi thout ,
profit But I graduated my views to my means and

.
,
so noted wi th the utmost care the e x periences of

the small culti vators who farmed five to te n acres
thoroughly I noted their failures as watchfully as
.
their successes knowing that the former were to be

,
avoided as the latter were to be imitated A s op

,
.
p o r t u n ity ofi e r e d I made repeated

, excursions year ,
after year in every direction around Philadelphi a

, ,
visiting the small farmers or truckers wh o supplied

the city market with fruit and vegeta bles e xam in ,
i ng i nqu i ring and treasuring up all that I saw

, ,
and heard The fund of knowledge th u s acquired

.
was not only prodigious but it has been of lasting

,
value to me in my subsequent Opera tions I found .
multitudes of truckers who were raising large fam

il ies on five acres of ground while others owning , ,
only thirty acres had become rich ,

.
O n most of these numerous e x cursions I was care

ful to have my wife with me I wanted her to see .
and hear for herself and by conv i ncing her j udg

,
ment to overcome her evidently diminishing relue

,
tance to leaving the city My uniform consideration

.
for her comfort at last secured the obj ect I had in

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
21
v i ew S he saw so many homes i n wh i ch a quiet

.
abundance was found so many contente d men and

,
women, s o many robust and bouncing chil dr en, that

long be fore I wa s ready to leav e the city, she was
qu i te i m p ati ent to be gon e
.
2 TEN ACRES E NOUGH .
CHA PT ER II .
P RACTICA L VIE W S — SA F E T Y O F IN VE S TME N TS I N

L AN D .
T HERE was not a particle of romance in my asp i

rations for a farm neither had I formed a single
,
visionary theory which was there to be teste d My .
notions were all sober and prosa i c I had struggled .
all my life for dollars because abundance of them

,
produces pecuniary comfort : and the change to

country life wa s to be in reality a mere continu a
, ,
tion of the struggle but lightened by the assurance

,
that if the dollars thus to be acquired were fewer in

number the certainty of earning enough of them
,
was likely to be greater C rops might fail under

.
skies at on e time too watery at another too brassy

, ,
b u t no such disaster could equal those to which

commercial pursuits are uninterruptedly e xposed .
They have brassy skies above them as well as farm

ers F or nearly twenty years I had been ham
.
pered wi th having note s of my own or of other par

ties t o pay ; but of all the farmers I had visited
only on e had ever given a note and he had made a ,
vow never t o give another My wife was shrewd

.
enough to observe and remark on this fact at the

time, i t was so different from my own experi ence .
T EN ACRES ENO U GH .
23
S he admitted there must be some satisfaction in

carrying on a business wh i ch did not require the
gi vi ng of note s .
Looking at the matte r of removal to th e country

in a practical light I found that in the c i ty I was
,
paying three hundred dollars per annum rent for a

dwelling house It was the interest of five thou
-
.
sand dollars ; yet it af forded nothing but a shelte r

f or my family I m ight continue to pay that rent for
.
fifty years wi thout at the end of that tim e having

, , ,
acquired the ownershi p of e i ther a stone upon the

chimney or a shingle in the roof If the house rose
, .
’
in value the rise would be to the owner s benefit
, ,
not to mine It would really be i nj ur i ous to me

.
,
as the r i se wou ld lead h i m to demand an increase of

his rent But p ut the value of the house into a
.
farm or even the half of it— the farm woul d ha ve a

,
dwelling house upon it in which my family would

-
,
find as good a shelte r while the land i f culti vated as

, ,
industri ously a s I had always culti vated business ,
woul d belie the flood of evidence I had been study

ing for many years if it failed to yield to my e fi or t s
,
the returns which i t was manifestly returning to

others We could live conte nte dly on a thousand
.
dollars a year and here we should have no landlord

,
to pay My wife in p inching times has finan c ie r e d

.
, ,
us through the year on several hundred less I c on .
fess to having lived as well on the diminished

rations as I wanted to Indeed until one tries i t .
,
for himself it is incredible what dignity there is in

‘
an ol d hat what virtue in a time worn coat and

,
-
,
24 TEN ACRES ENO U GH .
h ow savory the dinner table can be made without-
sirloin steaks or cranberry ta rts .
Thus let it be remembered my views and aspira

, ,
tions had no tinge of extravagance My rule was .
moderation The tortures of a city struggl e Without

.
capital had sobered me down to being contente d

,
with a bare competency I might fail in some par .
t ic u l a r s at the outset from ignorance but I was in

, ,
the prime of life strong active industriou s, and

, , ,
tractable and what I did not know I could soon

,
learn from others for farmers have no secrets, .
Then I had seen too much of the uncertainty of

banks and stocks and ledger accounts and prom
, ,
iss ory notes to be willing to in vest anything in

,
either as a permanency A t best they are fl u c t u a t

.
ing and uncer tain up to day and down to morrow

,
- -
.
My great preference had always been for land .
In looking around among my wide circle of c i ty

acquaintances especially among the older families
, ,
I could not fail to notice that most of them had

grown rich by the ownership of land Mor e than .
once had I s een the values of all city p roperty im ,
proved and unimproved , a p parently disappear

lots wi thout purchasers and houses without tenants , ,
the community so poor and panic strick e n that real -
estate became the merest dru g Yesterday the col .
la pse was c aused by th e destruction of the National

Bank ; to day it is the Ta r ifi S herif fs played havoc
-
.
!
with houses and lands incumbered by mortgages ,
and lawyers fatte ned on the rich harvest of fees

i naugu r ated by a Bankru p t Law But thos e wh o, .
26 TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
we are all striving we naturally desire to make a

,
permanent one A s we have worked f or it s o we

.
,
trust that it will work for u s and ou r children Its .
v alue whatever that may be de p ends on its p e rp e

, ,
t u ity — the contin uance of its exi stence A man .
seeks to earn what will support and s erve not onl y

himself but his poste rity H e would naturally de
,
.
sire to have the estate d escend to children and

grandchildren This is on e great obj ect of his toil
. .
What then is the safest fund in which to invest

, , ,
in this country What i s the only fund which the

experience of the last fifty years has shown wi th ,
very few exceptions would be absolutely safe as a,
provision f or heirs ! H ow many men within that ,
period assuming to act as trustees for estates have

, ,
kept the trust fund invested in stocks and when ,
distributing the principal among the he i rs have ,
found that most of it had van is hed ! U nder cor

p o r a t e insolvency it had melted into air N o pru .
dent man accepting such a trust and guaranteeing

, ,
its inte grity would invest the fund in stocks

,
.
O ur country i s filled with pecuniary wrecks from

causes like this Thousands trust themselves dur
.
ing their lifetime to manage this description of prop

,
e r ty confident O f their caution and saga city

,
With .
close watching and goo d luck they may be equ al t o ,
the task but the question still occurs as to the pro b

able duration of such a fund in families What is .
its safety when invested in the current stocks of th e

country ! and next wha t is its safety in the hands
,
of heirs There are no statistics showi ng the prob

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
27
able continuance of estates in land in fam il i es and ,
of estates composed of personal property such as ,
stocks But every bank cashier will testify to on e

.
remarkable fact — that an heir no s ooner inherits

stock in the bank than the first thing he ge nerally
does is to sell and transfer it and that such sale is ,
’
most frequently the first notice g i ven of the holder s
death .
This preference f or investment in real estate will

doubtless be objected to by the young and dashing
business man But lands or a fund secured by real
.
,
estate is unquestionably not only the highest secu

,
rity but in the hands of heirs it is the onl y one

,
l ikely t o sur vi ve a single generati on H ence the .
wisdom of the common law which neither permits ,
the guardian to sell the lands of his ward nor even ,
the court in its discretion to grant authority f or

, ,
their sale e xcept upon sufficient grounds shown

, ,
as a necessity for raising a fund f or the support and

ed u cation O f the ward E ven a lord chancellor can
.
only touch s o sacred a fund for this or similar rea

sons The common law is wise on this subj ect as
.
,
on most others It is thus the experience and oh

.
ser vation O f mankind that such a fund is the safest ,
and hence the provisions of the law .
Th ose therefore wh o acquire personal property

, , ,
acquire only what will last about a generation longer ,
or shorter S uch property is quickly c onverted into

.
money— it perishes and is g one But land is hedged .
rou n d with numerous guards which protect it fr om

hasty spoliation It is not s o easily transferred ; it
.
i s not so secr e tly transferred ; the law enj oins d e lib

c rate formalities before it can be alienated and O ften ,
the consent of various parties is necessary When .
all other guards give way early memories of paren

,
tal atta chment to these ancestral acres or tender rem

,
inis c e n c e s of childhoo d w ill come in to stay the sp o

,
l ia t ion of the homestead and make even the prodigal

,
pause before giv ing u p this p ortion of his i nherit

ance .
Throughout E uro p e a pass i on to become the owner

of land is universal wh i le the di fficulty of gratifying
,
i t is infin itely greater than with us It is there enor

.
m ou sl y dear ; here it is absurdly cheap It is f rom

.
this universal passion that the vast annual immigra

tion to this country der i ves i ts mighty i mpulse A s .
it reaches ou r shores it sp reads i tself over the coun

try ih search of cheap land Many of the most
.
flourishing W estern S tates have been built up by

the asto nishing influx of immigran ts In E ngland .
,
every landowner is prompt to secure every freehold

near him be it large or small as it comes into mar
, ,
k et H ence the number of freeholders in that coun

.
try i s annually diminishing by this process of ab

sorption This E uropean pass ion for acquiring land
.
is strangely contraste d wi th th e A m eri can p ass i on

for p ar ting wi th i t.
TEN ACRES ENO UG H .
29
CHA PT ER III .
RE SO LVED T O GO — E S CA PE F R O M B U SINE S S — CH OO SIN G

A L OCAT I ON .
TH E last thirty years have been prolific great of
p ecun i ary convulsions I need not recapitulate them

.
here as too many of them are yet dark spots on the

,
memory O f some who wi ll read this Their f r e .
queney, as well as their rec u rrence at shorte r inte r

vals than at the beginning of the century are among ,
their most remarkable features baffling the calcula

,
tions O f older heads and confounding those of you ng

,
er ones A s the century advanced these c onvu l

.
,
sions i ncreas ed in number and violence The whole .
business horizon seemed full of c oming storms wh ich ,
burst successively with desolating severity not only ,
on merchants and ma nufacturers but on others wh o ,
had long before retired from bus i ness N o one .
could foresee this state of things I wi ll not stop to

.
argue causes but confine myself to facts which none

,
will care to contradict .
These disaste rs made beggars of thousands in

every branch of business and spread discourage
,
ment over every community I passed through

.
several of them striving and struggling and op

, ,
pressed beyond all power of description H ow .
many more the communi ty was to e ncounte r I did

30 T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
not k now ; but I conceived it the par t of prudence

to place myself beyond the circle of their influence
before I also had been prostrated .
In spite of the losses thus encountered I had been ,
saving something annually f or several years when ,
the stricture of 18 5 4 came on premonitory of the ,
tremendous crash of 18 5 7 Most unfortunately for

.
my comfort that stricture seemed to fall with pe

,
c u lia r severity on a class of dealers largely indebted
to me . Many of them became embarrasse d and ,
failed to pay me at the time while to this day s ome

,
of them are still my debtors My ol d experiences

.
O f raising money re vi ve d and t o some extent I was

,
compelled to go throu gh the humiliations of similar

periods But the stricture was of brief duration
.
,
and I closed the year in far better condition than I

had anticipated .
But the trials of that incipient crisis determined

me to abandon the city I found that by realizing
.
all I then pos sessed , I could command means enough

to purchase ten to twenty acres and I had grown ,
nervou s and apprehensive of the future W h ile .
possessed of a little I resolved to make that little

,
sure by investing i t in land I had worked f or the

.
landlord l ong enough My excellent wife was now

.
entirely willing to make the change and ou r s ix ,
children clap ped their hands with j oy when they

heard that father was goi ng to live in the c ountry
I had long determined in my mind w hat s or t of
farming was likely to p rove profita ble enough to
k eep us with comfort and that was the raising of
,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
31
small fru i ts for the city markets My atte nt ion had .
al ways been parti cularly directed to the berries .
S ome strawberries I had raised in my city garden

with prodigious success My friends when they .
,
heard of my proj ect expressed fears that the mar

,
ket w ould soon be glutted n ot exactly by the cr ops

,
which I wa s to raise but they could not exa ctly a n

,
swer how They confessed that they were extremely

.
fond of berries and that at no time in the season

,
co ul d they afford to eat enough ; a confession which

seemed to explode all apprehension of the market
being overstocked .
But my wife and myself had both examined th e

hucksters w h o called at the doo r with small fruits ,
as to the monstrous prices they demanded and ,
had begged them if ever a glut occurred that they

, ,
would call and let us k now But none had e v er .
called with such information It was the same .
thing with those who occupied sta l ls in the vari ous

city markets They rarely had a surp l us left u n
.
sold and their prices were always high A glut of

,
.
fruit wa s a thing almost unknown to them It was .
a safe presu m ption that the market would n ot be

depressed by the quantity that I might raise .
But here let me sa y something by way of paren

thesis touching this common idea of the danger of
,
overstocking the fruit market of the great cities It

-
.
is a curious fact that this idea is entertained only by

those w h o are not fruit growers The latter never
-
.
harbored i t T heir whole experi e nce runs the other

.
way, they know it t o be a gross absurdity Yet, .

somehow the question of a glut has always been de

,
bated Twenty years ago the nurserymen were a d

.
vised to close up their sales and abandon the busi

ness as they would soon have no customers f or
,
trees — everybody was supplied But trees ha v e .
continued to be planted from that day to this and ,
where hundreds were sold twenty years ago thou ,
sands are disposed of now O ld established nurseries .

-
have been trebled in size while countless new ones ,
have been planted The nursery business has grown

.
to a magnitude truly gigantic because the m arket ,
for fruit has been annually growing larger and no ,
business enlarges its e lf unless it is proved to be pr ofit

able .
The market cannot be glutted wi th good fruit .
The multiplication of mouths to consume it is far

more rapid than the increase of any supply t hat
growers can c fi ec t Within ten years the masses
.
have had a slight taste of choice frui ts and but little ,
more Indulgence has only served to whet their

.
appetites The more of them there I s offered in the

.
market the more will there be consumed E very

,
.
huckster in her shamble every vender of peanuts in ,
the street will testify to th i s The modern art of

,
.
semi cookery f or frui t, and of preserving it in cans

-
and j ars , has made sale for enormous quanti ties of

those choicer kinds which retu rn the h ighest profit
to the growe r It is in the grain market that pani c
.
-
often rages but never in the fru i t market If it

,
- .
ever enters the latter the struggle i s to obta in the

,
fru i t, not to get rid of i t .

By the m e re acc ide nt of a s light re vi val i n bus i

ness in the early p art of 185 5 a p arty came along ,
wh o wa s thus induced to p urchase my stoc k and

machin ery Luckily, he wa s able to pay down the
.
whole amount in cash I received what I cons id e red

.
at the time an excell e nt p rice ; but when I came to

settle Up my accounts and pay what I owed I found, ,
to my extreme disa pp ointment, that but a little over

t wo thousand dollars re maine d .
This s u m wa s the net gain of many years of most

laborious to il Was i t p ossibl e for far m i ng to be a
.
worse bus i ness than this ! I had made ten times as

much b ut my l osses had be en terrible This with
,
.
,
my personal c r edit was all the surp lus I had saved

,
.
I remember h ow that when thus discovering myself

,
t o be worth s o l i ttle , I ha l f regretted having g i ven

u p my business f or what then ap peared to me so in
adequate a s u m When selling I was j ubilant and
.
,
thankful — when settled u p I wa s full of regrets I ,

.
ought to have had more S o d ifli c u l t i s it f or the

,
.
human mind to be satisfie d w i th that which i s real ly

best .
But I little knew what the future was to bring

forth and how soon my want of thankfulness was to
,
be changed into the profoundest conviction that I

had p rovidentially escap ed fr om total ruin and come ,
out com p arati vely rich I had made myself snug

.
upon my little farm when the tornado of 18 5 7 tep

pled my former establishment i nto utter ruin My
'
successo r was made a bankrupt, an d his business wa s

destroyed, leav ing him overwhelmed with debt H e .
T EN ACRES ENO UG H .
35
h ad l ost all wh il e I ha d sav ed all H a d I not sol d

, .
when I di d an d s e cur e d what the sa l e yielded me

,
I too s houl d have b e en among the wrec k s of that

t err ifi c vis i ta ti on .
But I heard its wa rn ing in the quiet of my li ttl e

farm house where it brought me nei ther anxiety nor
-
,
loss My p osition was like that of one sitting p eace

.
fu lly by his w intry fi reside gazing on the th i ck ,
storm wi thout and li stening to the p atter of the

,
snow fla k es as the tem p est drov e them angril y

-
against the wind ow p ane wh il e all w i th i n was calm

-
,
and gen ial Instea d of regrets for what I had failed

.
to grasp my heart ove rfl owe d wi th thankful ness f or

,
the comparative abundance that rema ined to m e .
My p eace of m ind was pe rfect The uns p eakable .
satisfacti on was felt of be ing ou t of business ou t of ,
debt out of dang e r— not ri ch but p ossessed of

, ,
enough The thoughtfu l r eader may well be lieve

.
that subsequent distur bances r ebell ion war and , , ,
even a more wi de s p read ban k ru p tcy— from all

-
wh i ch my humble p osition made me secure— have

only served to i ntensify my g rati tude to that D i v i ne
Provi dence wh i ch so merc if u uy shape d my ways .
36 T EN ACRES ENO UG H .
CHA P T ER IV .
B UYIN G A F ARM— A L ON G SEARCH — AN XIE T Y TO

SE LL— F OR C ED T O !U IT .
As al ready stated I had in round numbers a clear

,
two thousand dollars wi th which to buy and stock a

,
farm and keep my family while my first crops were

,
growing A s I was entirely free from debt so I de

.
,
t e r m in e d to avoid it in the future Debt had been .
the bitter portion of my l i fe not from choice but of , ,
necessity My wi fe took strong ground in support

.
of this resoluti on — what we had she wanted us to

keep I had too long been aided by her admira
.
ble counsel to rej ect it now S he had a singu lar .
longing for se ei ng me my own landl ord H er reso .
l u tion was a p owerful strengthener of my own con

vic tion s .
Thus reso l ved we set ou t in the early part of

,
March to see k a home I was p articular to take my .
wife with me — I wanted her to aid in choosing it .
S he w as to occupy it as wel l as myself S he knew .
exactly what we wanted as r egarded the dwelling

house the land de p artm e nt she left entirely to my
,
-
judgment I was determined that sh e should be made

.
comfortable from the start, not only because sh e de

served to be made so but to make sure tha t no cause
,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
37
f or future di scontent should ar i se Ind e e d , sh e was

.
really the best j u d ge i n th i s matte r S he k new .
what the six ch i ldren neede d ; she was t h e model of

a housekeeper ; there were certa i n little c onveni
e mees indispensable t o d omesti c comfort to be se
cured of which sh e knew more than I did while her
, , ,
j u d gment on most things was s o correct that I fel t ,
confident if she were fully sati sfied the whole enter ,
prise would be a successful one .
I loved her with the fervor of early married life

sh e had consented to my plans — she was willing to
share whatever inconveniences m ight belong to ou r

new pos i tion— was able to l i gh ten them by her nu
flagging cheerful ness and th r ift —and I was un will
ing to take a single step in Oppositi on e i ther to her
wishes or her j udgment Indeed I had long since
.
,
made up my mind from observation O f the good or

,
bad luck of other men that he who happens to be

,
bl essed wi th a wife possess ing good sense and good

judgment succeeds or fails in li fe according as he is
,
accustomed to cons ul t her in his business enterprises .
There is a world of caution shrewdness, and latent

,
w isdom in such women which their husbands t oo

,
frequently disregard to their ruin .
I am thus particular as to all my experiences ; f or

this is really a domestic story intended for the mul
,
t itu d e s wh o have suffered hal f a lifet i me from trials

similar to mine and wh o yet feel u ngra tifie d long
,
i ngs f or some avenue of escap e My O bj ect being to

.
p oint out that through which I emerge d from such a

life to one of certa inty and comfort, the de tail ought
33 TEN ACRES ENO UG H .
to be val uab le e ven i f i t fa i l to be i nte r e sti ng It is

, .
p ossible that I may s ink the p ractical i n the e nth u si

as tic and p rove myself to b e unduly enamor e d of
,
my cho i ce But as i t i s succ e ss that make s th e h ere ,

.
so l e t my exp er i ence h e acc ep ted as th e test .
I had settled i t i n my m ind that I would use a

thousand dollars i n th e purchase of land and tha t I ,
could mak e Ten A cre s E nough This I was dete r .
m i ned t o pay f or at once, and have i t covered by no

man s p archment But wh e n we set ou t on ou r
’
.
search we found s ome di fficul ti es E ve ry county

, .
in N ew Jersey containe d a hundred farms that were

f or sale Most of them we re too large f or my slender
.
p urse though otherwi s e most eligi bly s i tua t ed

, .
Then we must have a decent house even i f we wer e ,
forced to put u p wi th less lan d N ume r ous locati ons

.
of th i s kind were o ff ered The troubl e was — k eep

.
ing my slender p ur se in vi ew— that th e fa r ms were

either too large or t oo smal l My wi fe was not .
fastidi ous about having a fine house O n th e c on .
tr a ry I was often sur pri s ed to fin d h er p leased wi th

,
such as to me looked small an d m e an Inde e d, i t .
seemed after ten days s e ar ch , that th e tables h ad

,
’
been turned — she was more easi ly su i te d than my

self But the same deference wh i ch I p ai d to her
.
wishes she uniformly p aid to m i ne

,
.
It was curi ous to note th e anxiety of so many l and

owners to sell and t o hea r the di scordan t r eason s
,
wh i ch they gave for d e s iri ng to do so Th e quanti ty .
in market was enormous Al l the real estate agents

.
-
had large boo k s fi lled wi th d e scriptions of far ms an d

39
fancy country s e ats f or sale, som e t o b e ha d by p ay

-
ing one fou rt h of th e p ur chas e mon e y down and

- -
,
some wh i ch the owne r s wou l d e xchange f or mer

c h and is e o r t r a p s or hous e s in the city
, , Many of .
them a ppe ar ed s i mpl y t o want something else f or

what they alre ady ha d They w e re t ir ed of holding
.
,
and desired a change of som e kin d bette r if they ,
coul d make i t, an d wors e i f th e y coul d not Ci ty .
merchants or thriv ing m e chan i cs had built country

, ,
cottages and then w e ari ed of them — it was found in

,
convenient to b e going t o and f ro— in fact they had

‘
soon discove r ed th at the city a l one was the i r place .
Many such to l d us that th e ir wi ve s d i d not lik e the

count ry.
O thers had bou ght far ms an d s p ent gr eat sums i n

i mp roving them , onl y to s el l at a loss Farming did .
not pay an own er wh o l i ved away off in th e city .
An other class had ta ke n l an d f or debt and wanted ,
to real iz e Th e y exp ecte d to lose anyhow an d

.
,
would sell cheap Th e n th e r e was another body of

.
owners wh o though born and ra i sed upon the lan d

, ,
were tired of country l i fe an d wanted t o sell and

,
embark in business in the c i ty S ome f e w were de .
sirons of goi ng t o the West C hange of some kind .
seemed to be the g e neral cravi ng A s I discovered .
that much of all this l an d was covered with mort

gages O f greater or l e ss amount, i t wa s natural to
suppose the she rif f wou l d occasionally turn up and ,
s o it really w a s Th e re were columns i n some of

.
th e county papers fil led wi th his advertisements I .
sometim e s thought th e whole country was f or sale .

But yet there was a vast body of owners many ,
of them descendants of the early settlers whom n o ,
consideration of p rice could tem p t to abandon their

inheritances They seemed to k now and understand
.
the value of the i r ancestral acres We met with .
other p arties recent purchasers who had bought f or

, ,
a permanency and wh o could not be i nduced to se ll

, .
In short there seemed to be two constantly flowi ng

,
streams of people— O ne tending from city to country ,
the other from country to city Doubtless it i s the .
same way wi th all ou r large citi es I th ink the .
latter stream wa s the larger If i t were not so ou r

.
,
cities could not grow i n popul ation at a rate s o much

more rapid than the country A t numerous farm .
houses inquiries were made i f we kn e w of any open

i ngs i n the city i n which boys and young men could
be place d The city was evidently the coveted
.
goa l with too large a number .
This glut of the land market d id not d i scourage us

-
.
We could not be induced to believe that land had

no va l ue because s o many were anxi ous to disp ose
of it. We saw that i t did not suit those wh o held
i t and k new that it would su i t us But we cou l d
, .
not but lament over the infatuati on of many owners ,
w h o we felt certain would be r uined by turning their

wide acres into mon e y and e xp osing i t to th e hazar d s
,
of an untried bus in ess i n the c i ty I doubt not that .
many of the very parties we then encounte red have ,
long before this realiz e d th e sad fate we feared and

, ,
learned too l ate that l an d s a r e be tter than m e r

c h an d ise .
ber r ie s ,wh ile r ows of stalwa r t rasp b errie s h el d u p

the ir vi gor ous canes in te stimony of the goodness of
th e s o il A fin e p each orcha r d on the same neigh
.
-
boring pr o per ty, s ee m ed i m p atient t o p ut forth and

b l ossom unto h ar vest The e l even acres could b e
.
no wo r s e l an d than th is and though I h ad a horror

,
of we e ds y et I was not to be frightened by th em

,
.
I k new that w eeds w er e mor e indi g enous to Ne w

Jersey than even water me l ons .
This m ini atur e p lantati on of el e ven acres b e

longed to a me r chant in the city H e had taken .
i t to secure a d ebt of eleven hundred dollars but ,
had p ledge d h i mse lf to p ay the former owner what

ever excess over that sum h e m i ght obta in f or it .
But pl edges of that l oos e cha ra cter seldom amount

to much — the cre di tor consults his own inte rest not ,
that of the debtor The latte r had l ong been try

.
ing t o s e ll but in va i n ; and now the former had

,
become equall y embar rasse d and needed money ,
even more ur gently than the debtor had done The .
whole p rop erty h ad cost the debtor eighteen hun

d re d dol l ars H is vi ews i n founding i t were similar
.
to mi ne H e meant to establi sh f or h i mse l f a home

.
,
to which at some futu r e p eriod he might retire .
But he m ade the sad m i sta k e of continuing i n busi

ness in the c i ty, an d one di saste r succeeding another ,
he had be en compel l ed to abandon his antic i pated

refuge nearl y a yea r before w e came along .
All these facts I l earne d befor e beginn i ng t o

negotiate for the p urchase A s the banished man .
related them to me g oi ng largely into the histo ry

,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
43
of h i s hope s h i s tria l s hi s di sa pp oi ntm e nts I foun d

, , ,
cause f or renewed than k fu lness over my su p eri or

condi tion Wi th a s ingl e exce p ti on h is exp eri enc e
.
,
h ad been th e counte rp art of my own— h e ha d l ost

al l an d was l oaded wi th debt, wh ile I had sa ved
something and ow e d no man But when in l an
.
,
guag e of the tender e st fee li ng he s p ok e of h is wi fe

, ,
whose highest p ass i on had been grati fied by the p os

session of a home s o humb le as even this— when he
described h ow happ y sh e had been in h er gard en ,
and how g r i ef str i cken at b e ing com p elled to le ave

-
it — h i s e l oquence fa irl y made my heart ache . I

am sure my wi fe fe l t the fu ll force of al l he sai d .
H er own attachment to th e s p ot had al ready begu n

to ta k e root, and she coul d sympathi ze wi th th is
r ud e sun dering of a l ong e sta b l ish ed t ie
-
.
CHAPT ER V .
MA K IN G A PU RCHASE — F IRS T I M P RE S SIONS .
TH E o wner of
thes e e l eve n acres had been for
some months in the furnace of pecuniary affliction .
H e was going the way of nine tenths of all the busi

-
ness flesh within the circle of my acquaintance A S .
a purchaser I d i d not seek him, nor to h is rep re

s e nt a tiv e did myself or my wife let fa ll a s i ngle
word indicating that we were pleased with the p ro p

e rt y . Wh en fifteen hundred dollars were named
as the price I d i d indul ge in some express i on of sur
prise think ing i t was quite enough Dis cover ing
,
.
subsequently that the owner was an ol d c i ty ac

quaintance , I dropp ed in one morning to see him ,
and for an hour we ta lk ed ove r the times the mar ,
ke ts the savage rate s demanded f or money and

, ,
h ow the s p ring business was likely to turn ou t On .
real estate I was mute as a mouse, exce p t givi ng i t

as my decided o p inion that some holde rs were ask
ing greater p r i ces than th e y woul d b e like l y to
realize .
This s id e thru st brought my fri en d ou t

-
He .
mentioned his house and e leven acres, and eag e rly

inqu ired if I did not k now of some one who would
buy With as much indiff erence as I could assume ,
.
TEN ACRES ENO U GH .
45
I as ked his te rms He told me with great f rank

.
ness that he was compelled to se ll and that his need ,
of money wa s so great that he might possibly d o s o

,
whether the debtor got anything or not H e urged .
me to find h i m a purchaser and fin ally gave me the ,
re fusal of the p lace for a fe w days .
Now the p lain truth was that my anxi ety to buy

, ,
wa s quite as great as h i s was t o sell During the .
next week we met severa l ti mes when he invariably ,
inquired as to the prospect of a purchaser But I .
had no encouragement to Offer When I thought I .
had fought shy long enough I surprised him by ,
saying that I knew of a purchaser who w a s ready

to take the p roperty at a thousand dollars H e sat .
down and indulged in som e figurin g then for a few ,
moments wa s silent then inquired if the off er was a

,
cash one and when th e money could be had I re

, .
plied the moment his deed was ready for del i very
,
.
I t was evident that the O ffer of instan t p ayment

determined him to sell at so low a p rice — cash was
everythin g Op en i ng his desk he took ou t a deed
.
,
for the p roperty ready to execute whenever the

,
’
grantee s name the date and the consideration
,
shoul d have been ins e rted handed it to me and sai d

, ,
he acce p ted the Offer only let him have the money
,
as qu i ckly as possible .
I confess to both e xultation and surprise I had .
secured an unm i stak able bargain The ready made -
deed surprised me, but it sho wed the owner s ne c e s ’
sities and that he had been prepared to let the

,
p r oper t y go at the firs t decent off e r The natural .

s elfis hn es s of human nature h a s since induced me to

bel i eve that I could hav e bought for even less had I ,
not been s o precipitate Hi s s earches and brief of

.
title were also ready : a s i ngle day or t wo wa s

enough to bring them u p— h e had been determ ined
to sell .
The transacti on s e e m ed to involve a success i on of

surp rises H is turn f or a new one came when he
.
found that I had inse r te d my wife s na m e in the deed ’

.
S o p ay ing him his thousand dol lars I returned with

, ,
the deed to my wi fe telling h e r that she had now a

,
home of her own ; that, come what might the prop ,
e rt y w a s h e rs ; that the laws of N ew Jersey secured
it to her and that no subsequ e nt destitution of mine

,
coul d wrest it from her Th i s l i ttle act of consider

.
ation was as gratify ing a s u rpri se to her as any that

either buyer or se ll er ha d e xper ie nced If rej oi c ed .
at my havin g secured the p lace , i t gave to i t a new

i nterest i n her esti mati on an d fixed and made per
,
manent the attachment sh e ha d spontaneously a c

quired for i t He r gratifi cation onl y served to
.
increase my own .
It i s thus that smal l acts of kindness mak e l i fe

p leasant and des i rable E very dark obj ect i s made
.
light by them and many scal di ng te ars of sorrow ar e

,
thus easily brush ed away When th e heart i s sad .

,
and despondency s i ts at th e entrance of the sou l a ,
l i ttle kindness dr ives des p ai r away and makes the ,
path chee rful and pleasant W h o then wil l re fu se a

.
kind act ! It costs the gi ver nothi ng— j ust as th is

di d ; but i t i s i nvaluabl e to th e re c ei ve r No broad e r .
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
47
acres no more sta te ly mans i on whether in town or

, ,
country, coul d now tem p t my wi fe to leave this

humble refuge H ere s h e has been ever h appy, and
.
here I doubt not s h e will end her earthly caree r

, , .
In a week the house w a s vacated and cleansed and ,
we were in full possessio n My wife was sati sfied .

,
my children were delighted and I had realized the ,
dream O f twenty years ! O ne strong fac t forced itself

on my attention the fir st ni ght I passed under my
new roof The drai n O f three hundred d ollars p er

.
annum i nto the pocket of my c i ty lan dl ord had been

sto p ped My famil y received as safe a shelter for
.
the interest of a thousand dol lars, as he had gi ven

them for the interest of five thousand ! The feeling
of rel i ef from th i s unap p easable demand was inde
scri bable C uriously enough my wi fe voluntari ly
.
,
suggested that the same feel ing o f relief had been

presented to her But i n ad di tion to this huge
.
equiva l ent f or the i nvestment of a thousand dollars ,
there was that wh i ch might be hereafter realized

from the culti vati on of eleven acres of l and .
This lodgment wa s e ff e cte d on the fi rst of A pril,

18 5 5
. When all ou r household fix ings had been
sn ugly arranged and I took my fir st walk over my
,
little plantation, on a soft and balmy morning my ,
feelin g of contentment seemed to b e p erfect I .
knew t hat I wa s not r i ch but i t wa s certain that I

,
w a s not poor In contrasting my condition with

.
that of others both higher and lowe r u p on fo rtune s

,
’
ladder, I found a thousand causes f or congratula

tion, but none for regret Wi th all h is weal th ,
.
.
Rothschild must be satis fi ed wi th the same s ky that

was spread over m e H e cannot order a pr i vate sun
.
ri se that he may enj oy it with a select circle of

,
friends nor add a s ingle glory to the gorgeous spec

,
tacle of the setting sun The m illionaire could not

.
have more than his share of the pure atmosphere

that I was breath i ng while the p oorest of all men
,
could have as much G od only can give all these

.
,
and to many of the p oor he has thus g i ven All .
that is most valuable can be had for nothing They .
come as p resents from the hand of an indulgent

Father and neither air nor s k y nor beauty genius
, , , ,
health, or strength can be bought or sold What

,
.
’
ever may be one s condi tion i n life the great art i s
,
to learn to be content and ha pp y i ndulgi ng in no

,
feverish long ings for what we have not but sati s ,
fie d and thank ful f or what w e have .

My neighbors were extremely ki nd wi th their sug

gestions They had never seen such deep ploughing
.
,
and warned me not to turn up the ol d subsoil and ,
thus bring it to the surface But they were not .
book farmers
-
.
Now this business of deep subsoil plough ing is a

,
matter of in di spensable value in all agric ul ture but ,
espec ially so in the plantin g of an orc h ard N o tree .
can thrive as it ought un less the earth is thor ,
oughly and deeply loosened for the free expansion

of the roots If I could have ploughed two feet
.
deep it would have been all the better In fact, the

, .
art of ploughing is in its mere infancy in this coun

try Too many of us follow blindly in the beaten
.
track The first plough was a tough forked stick

.
, ,
of wh i ch one prong served as a beam while the ,
other dug the earth as a coulter O f course the .
p loughing was onl y scratching It would have been .
’
preposterous to expect the ploughman of H esiod s
or of Virgil s time to turn up and mellow the soil to
’
a depth of fifteen or si xteen inches Down to the .
present age ploughing was inevitably a shallo w

,
affair But iron ploughs steel ploughs subsoil

.
, ,
ploughs have changed all this It is as easy to

,
.
day to mellow the earth to the depth of two feet ,
as it was a century ago to turn over a sward to the

depth of six inches Besides, our fierce trying cli .
,
mate , s o dif ferent from the moist milder one of ,
E ngland Ireland, or even H olland whence ou r

, ,
ancestors emigrated absolutely requires of us deep ,
pl ou ghi ng Drought is our perpetual danger Most

. .
51
crop s ar e twenty to sixty per cent short of what .
they would have been wi th adequate and seasonable

moisture That moisture ex i sts not only in the
.
skies above, but in the earth beneath ou r plants .
Though the skies may capric iously wi thhold i t the ,
earth never will if w e provi de a rich m ellow sub

, ,
soil through which the roots can desce nd f or

moisture .
The hotte r and dr yer the weather th e better ou r ,
plants will grow if they have rich warm earth

, ,
be neath them reaching down to and including

,
moisture We cannot and we need not plough so

.
,
very deep each year to assure this if the subsoil is ,
so underdrained that the superabundant moisture of

the wet season does not pack it Underdraining as .
the foundation and deep ploughing as the super

,
structure with ample man u ring and generous till

,
age , will secure us a m ple crops such as any section ,
of our co u ntry has rarely seen O ur corn shoul d .
average seventy bushels per acre E very field .
should be ready to grow wheat if required E very ,

.
grass lot should be g ood f or three tons of hay per

-
acre Abund ant fruits should gladden ou r fields

.
and enrich our farmers tables S o should ou r chil

’
.
dren no longer seek in flight to crowded cities or

,
the remote West, an escape from the ill paid d ru d g -
ery and intellectual barrenness of the i r fathers ’
lives but find ab u ndance and happiness i n and

,
around their Childhood s happy homes ’

.
I laid ou t two hundred dollars in the purchase of

ol d , we l l rotte d stable manure from the city, spread
-
i t over the ten acres and ploughed up nine of them

, .
I then se t ou t my peach trees on six acres planting -

,
them in rows eighteen feet apart and eighte en feet ,
asunder in the r ows This accommodated a hun .
dred and thirty four to the acre or eight hundred

-
,
and four in all These would not be in the way Of

.
any other crop and in three years woul d be likely

,
t o yield a good return The roots of every tree u n

.
derwent a searching scrutiny before it was planted ,
to s e e that they harbored no members of that worm

family which i s s o surely destructive of the peach
A s trees are often delivered from the nursery wi th
worms in them so many of these were i nfected
,
.
The enemy was killed and the butt of each tree wa s

,
then swabbed wi th common tar extending from ,
where the roots begin to branch out about twelve ,
inch es up It i s j ust about there say bet ween wind

.
,
and water at the surface of the ground where the

, ,
bark is soft that in June and S eptember the peach

,
moth deposits her eggs From these is hatched t h e .
worm which kills the tree unless picked out and ,
destroyed .
To perform this searching operation on a thousan d

trees every year would be laborious and expensive
,
.
There would also be great danger of its being im

perfectly done as many worms might escape the
,
search wh ile the vital power of the tree would be

,
seriously impaired by permitting them to prey upon

its bark and j uices even for a few months Preven .
tion w ould be far cheaper than curing The offen .
sive O dor of the tar wi ll cause the moth to shun the

53
tree and to mak e her deposit somewhere else ; while

if any chance to light upon i t, they w il l stick to the
tar and there p eri sh , li ke flies upon a sheet of fl y
p ap er .
The tar was occas i onally examined during the sea

s on to see that it kept soft and sti cky ; and where
,
any harde ni ng was d i scovered a fresh swabbing ,
was applied The whole operation was really on e of

.
very little trouble while the result was highly,
remunerative Thoughtfulness industry and a

.
, ,
little tar did the business effectually I believe no

, .
nostrum of putting ashes around the butt of a peach

tree to kill the worms or any other nostrum of the ,
kind is worth a copper The only sure remedy is

, .
prevention Do not let the worms get in and there

.
,
wi ll be no effort needed to get them out .
I planted none but the rarest and choi cest kinds .
E conomy of a few cents in the price of a tree is no

economy at all It i s the bes t frui t that sells the
.
quickest and pays the highest profit Yet there are .
still large quantities of fruit produced which is not

worth taking to market The best is cheaper f or .
both buyer and seller H undreds of bushels of a p .
ples and p eaches are annually made int o execrable

pies in all the large cities merely because they can ,
be purchased at les s cost than those of a better

quality But it is a mistaken economy with the
.
buyer as a m i ld good fla vore d peach or appl e

, ,
-
requires less sugar and will then make a better pie

,
.
Many persons have a p ride in and attach t oo much ,
c onsequence to a tree which sprung up spontane

ou sl y their own farm or perhaps which they

on ,
have cultivated with some care and then numbers

of comparatively worthless seedlings occupy the
places that should be improved by finer varieties ,
and which if cultivated would aff ord a greate r
, ,
profit .
It is as easy to grow the choicest as the meanest

fruit I have a relative in O hio who has a peach
.
orchard of eleven acres which has yielded him five ,
thousand dollars in a single season during which ,
peaches were selling in C incinnati at twenty fi ve -
cents a bushel It is easy to understand that his

.
orchard would not have produced him that s u m at

that price N o it did n ot H e recei ved two dollars
.
, .
a bushel more readily than his ne i ghbors got

twenty five cents for the same vari ety of peaches
-
,
and this is how he did it When the peaches had .
grown as large as a hickory nut, b e employed a large

force and put on on e hundred and eighty fi ve days -
’
work in picking O ff the excess of fruit More than .
one half of the fruit then upon the trees w a s care

-
fully removed E ach limb was taken by hand and

.
,
where within a space of eighteen inches there woul d

, ,
be probably twenty peaches but six or seven of the ,
fairest would be left to ripen Thus by careful ly .

,
removi ng a ll but the strongest specimens, and

throwin g all the vigor of the tree into them , the
peaches ripen early and are remarkable for size and
,
excellence of qual i t y .
But this was labor ! S even months labor of one ’
man in a s mall p each orchard ! But be i t so— th e

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
55
net profit was between three and four thousand

dollars If he had neglected his trees the owner s
.
,
’
profits would have been a crop of peaches hardly fit

to f eed the pigs I have pr ofited largely by follow
.
ing his example and w i ll relate my own experience

,
when the returns of my orchard come in .
I inte nd to be p articular touching my peach or

chard as well for the gratification of my own pride
, ,
as an incentive to those who cannot be made t o b e

lieve Ten A cres E nough My s u ccess with it has
.
far outstripped my expectations ; and I pronoun ce a

peach orchard of this size planted and cultivated as
,
it can be , and will be , by an inte lligent man not

essentially lazy as the sheet anchor of his safety
,
.
I was careful to plant none but small trees because ,
such can be removed from the nursery with greate r

safety than large ones while the roots are less mul
,
t ip l ie d and thus receive fewer inj uries

,
ne i ther are
they liable to be displac e d by high w i nds before a c
quiring a firm foothold in the ground Many p er .
sons supp ose that newly planted trees should be

large enough to be out of danger from cattle running
among them ; but all cattle S houl d b e excluded
from a young orchard .
Moreover small trees make a bette r growth an d

, ,
are more easily trimmed i nto proper shape A ll ex .
p e r ie n c e d horticulturists testify to the superior

eligibility of small trees They cost less at the .
nursery less in transportation and very few fail to

, ,
gr ow O ne year ol d from the bud is old enou gh

.
,
and the same , generally may be said of app l es and

,
p ears I dug holes for each tree three feet square

.
and two feet deep and filled in with a mixture of the

,
surrounding top soil and leached ashes a half bushel

-
,
of the l atter to each tree Knowing that the peach .
tree delights in ashes I obtained four hundred ,
bushels fro m a city soap works and am satisfied -

,
they were exactly the manure my orchard needed .
E very root which had been wounded by the spade

in remov ing the tree from the nursery was cut off ,
j ust back of the wound paring it smooth with a ,
sharp knife The fine earth was settled around the

.
roots by pouring in water afte r which the mixture

of ear th and ashes was thrown on until the hole
was filled leaving a slight depression roun d the
,
tree to catch the rain and the tree at about th e

, ,
same level it had maintained when standi ng in the

nursery .
I di d not stake up the trees They were too small .
to need it ; besides I should be all the time on hand

,
to keep them in position Being a new comer I .

-
,
had no straw with which to mulch them to retain ,
the proper moisture about the roots or it would have ,
been applied But the season turned out to be abun

.
dautly showery and they went on growing from the

,
start N ot a tree was upset by storm or wind nor

.
,
did one of them die I d o not think the oldest .
nurseryman in the country could have been more

successful .
This operation made a heavy draft on the small

cash capital which I possessed But small a s it was .
,
it was large enough to S how that capital is ind ispen

58 T EN ACRES ENO UGH .
heavy enough the quantity should have been

,
trebled .
A s I am writing for the benefit of others wh o I , ,
h Op e are not yet tired of peaches let me add that

, ,
this fruit will not succeed on ground where a previ

ous orchard has been recently grown neither can one
be sure of getting healthy trees from any nurseryman
wh o grows his on land from which he had recently
produced a similar crop The seed must be from .
healthy trees and the buds from others equally free

,
from disease The peach , unless carefully watche d

.
and attended is a short lived tree But it returns a

,
-
.
generous income to a careful and generous grower .
O f latter years the worm is its most formidable ene

my But wi th those who think a good tree is as
.
much worth being taken care of as a good horse ,
there wi ll be neither doubt nor di ffi culty i n kee p

ing the destroyer ou t .
Ten well grown bearing trees which I found in

-
, ,
the garden were harboring a hundred and ninety

,
worms among them when I undertook the work of

extermination I bared the collar and roots of each
.
tree as far as I could track a worm and cut him ,
ou t . I then scrubbed the whole exposed part wi th

soap suds and a regular scrubbing brush ; after
- -
which I let them remain exposed for a week If .
any worms ha d been overlooked the chips thrown ,
ou t by the i r operations woul d be plainly visible on ,
’
the clean surface at the week s end H aving .
tracked and cut ou t them also I felt sure th e ,
enemy was exterminate d, and covered up the roots,

TEN ACR ES ENO UG H .
59
but fir st using the swab of common tar applying it ,
all round the col l ar and some distance up

, .
These garde n trees were terribly sacrificed by the

-
worms But the cleaning ou t I gave them was

.
effectual The soap suds purged the inj ured parts

.
-
of the unhealthy virus deposited by the worms ,
leaving them so nice and clean that the new bark

began immediately to close over the cavities and ,
so on covered them entirely I thus saved ten val

.
nable bearing trees Then I shortened in the l ong

.
,
straggling branches for the peach will cer tainly

,
gro w sprawling ou t on every side forming l ong ,
branches which break down under the weight of a

full crop at their extremities unless the pruning ,
kni fe i s freely use d e v ery season A ll this wa s .
the work of less than a day and shows that if ,
p each orchards perish afte r bearing o nly two or

three crops it may be attributed solely to mere
,
neglect and laziness on the part of their o wners .
They plant trees refuse to take care of them and

, ,
then complain if they die early The world would .
soon be without pork , if all the pigs were as much

neglected These ten trees have never fa i led to
.
produce me generous crops of luscious fruit I can .
not thin k of any investment which has paid me

better than the slight labor annually required to
keep them in good cond ition .
I have tried wi th entire success two other methods

of protecting peach trees from the ravages of the
-
worm I have found gas tar equally effectual with

.
-
the common tar, and much more easily obtained .

But car e mus t be taken not to cover a height of

more than four to s i x inches of the butt of the tree .
If the whole stem from root to branch be covere d,

the tree wi ll sur e ly di e Another method is to in
.
close the butt in a j ack et of pasteboard or e ven ,
thick hardware paper kee p ing it in place wi th a

,
string and loweri ng it an inch or two below the

,
ground so a s to p reve nt the fly having access to the

,
soft part of the bark These j ackets will last two

.
or th ree years as they should be taken off at the a p

,
proach of winter to prevent them from becoming a

,
harbor for insects But they are an infallible pr e

.
ve nt ive I have recently procured a supply of the

.
thick tarred fe l t which is used f or making paper

roofs to be cut up and turned i nto j ackets This
,
.
material will l ast for years being water p roof ,

-
,
while the O dor of the gas tar in which it has been

-
steeped i s pe cul i arl y off ens ive to the whol e tribe of

insects .
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
61
CHA PT ER VII .
PL ANTIN G RAS P BER R I E S AN D S T R A W B E RRIE S — TRI C K S

OF TH E N U R S E RY .
MY peach orchard was no sooner finished than I

-
filled each row wi th raspberries setting the roots

,
t wo feet apart in the rows This enabled me t o get

.
seven roots i n between every two trees or five ,
thousand six hundred and fif ty six in all This was

-
.
equ i valent to nearly two acres wholly planted with

raspberries according to the usual plan They .
woul d go on growing without inj uring the peach

trees or being i nj ured by them a nd when the lat
,
ter should reach their full gro wth their shade ,
would be h ighly beneficial to the raspberries as ,
they thrive better and h e ar more freely when half

protected from the burning s un The tops were .
cut off within a few inches of the ground thus pre ,
venting any excessive draft upon the newly planted

roots N o staking up was needed These roots
. .
cost m e s ix dollars per thousan d or thirty four ,

-
dollars for the l ot and were the ordinary R ed A nt

,
w er p The season proving showery they grew finely

.
, .
S ome few died but my general luck was very satis

,
factory I planted the whole lot in three days wi th

.
my own hands .
I am sure the growth of my raspberri es was owing ,
i n a great degree , to the deep ploughing the land had

received The soil they delight i n is one combining
.
richness depth and moisture It is only from such

, , .
that a full crop may be e xpected every season The .
roots must have abundance of elbow room to run -
down and suck up moisture from the abundant

reservoir which exists below Deep ploughing will .
save them from the effects of dry weather, whi ch

otherwise will blast the grower s hopes g iving him ’
,
a small berry shrivelled up from want of moisture

, ,
instead of one of ample size rich , and j uicy H ence

,
.
i rrigation has been known to double the size of

raspberries , as well as doubling the growth of the
canes i n a single season Mulching also i s a capital
.
thing O ne row so treate d by way of experiment

.
, ,
showed a marked improvement over all the others ,
besides keeping down the weeds .
A s a market fruit the raspberry stands on the same

list wi th the best and I am satisfied that on e cannot
,
produce t oo much F or this purpose I consider the

.
R ed Antwerp most admirably adapted There are .
twenty other varieties some of which are probably

,
quite as valuable but I was unwilling to have my

,
attention divided among many sorts O ne really .
good berry was enough for me S ome of my .
neighbors h ave as much as ten acres in this fru it ,
from which they realize prodigiou s profits Like .
all the smaller fruits it yields a quick return to an

,
industrious and p ains taking cultivator

-
.
Imm e diate ly on getting my raspberri es i n, I went

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
63
twice over the six acres wi th the culti vator stirring ,
up the ground some four inches deep as it had been ,
a good deal trampled down by ou r planting opera

tions This I di d myself with a th i rty dollar horse
.
-
which I had recently bought H aving eighteen feet.
between two rows of peach trees I divided this -

,
space into five rows for strawberries giving me very ,
nearly three feet between each row In these rows .
I set the strawberry pla n ts on e foot apart making

, ,
a bout plants p er acre allowing f or the head

,
lands I bough t the whole

. required for 82
per thousand maki ng $ 120 Th i s w as below the
,
.
market price .
In plantin g these I got three of the children to

help me and though it was more tiresome work than
,
they had ever been accustomed to yet they stood ,
bravely up to it E ve r y noon we four went home

.
with raging appetites for dinner where the pla i n ,
but well cooked fare provided by my wi fe and eldest

-
daughter— f or she kept no servant— wa s de vou red

with genuine country relish The exercise in the
.
open air for the whole week which it took us to get

through this j ob did us all a vast amount of good .
R oses came into the cheeks of my daughters to ,
which the cheeks aforesaid had been strangers in the

city ; and it w a s th e general remark among us at
breakfast that it had never felt so good to get to
,
bed the night before Thus honest labor brought

.
wholesome appetites and sound repose Most of .
us complained of j oints a little sti ffened by s o

’
m u ch stooping but an hour s exercise at more
,
stoop ing made us limber for the remainder of

the day .
It occupied u s a whole week to set ou t these plants ,
for we were all new hands at the business But the .
work was carefully done and a shower comi ng on

,
j ust as we had finished it settled the earth nicely

,
t o the roots and I do not think more than two hun

,
dred of them died I i ntended to put a pinch of

.
guano compost or a handful of poudrette into each

hill, but thought I could not afford it and s o let ,
them go trusting t o being able to give them a dress

,
ing of some k in d o f manure the following spring

I much regretted this omission as I w
.
a s fully aware ,
of the great value of the best strawberries and ,
plenty of them My wife though t at first that six

.
acres was an enormous quantity t o have — inquired

if I expected to feed the family on strawberries and ,
whether it was not worth while to se t about raising

some sugar to go w i th them feeling certa i n that a
,
great deal of th a t would be wanted .
’
I forgot to sa y that I had planted Wilson s A lbany
S eedling This was the berry f or which w e had
.
been compelled to pay such high prices while living

in the city E verybody testified to its bein g the
.
most profuse bearer, while its great size and hand

some shape made it eagerly sought after in the mar
ket It was admitted all things considered, to be the
.
,
best market berr y then kn own My experience has .
confirmed this True it is a little tarter than most

‘
.
,
other varieties and therefore requires more sugar to

,
make i t p alatable ; but this obj ection is more theo

observant as myself These plants di d not cost me

.
cash I had intended to plant an acre or two to be

.
gin with But after buying my peach trees and

.
-
raspberries the nurseryman inquired if I did not in

,
tend to plant strawberries also as he had a very ,
large quantity which he would sell cheap H is sa y .
ing that he had a very large lot and that he would ,
sell them cheap seemed t o imply that he found a

,
d ifii c u l t y in disposing of them Besides the selling

.
,
season wa s pretty nearly over I therefore fought

.
sh y and merely i nquired his ter m s

,
This led to a .
long colloquy between u s in the course of which I

,
held off j ust in proportion as he became urge n t A t .
last believi ng that I wa s not d isposed to buy al

, ,
though I went there for that very purpose he O ff ered ,
t o sell me plants for $ 12 0 and to take h i s ,
money out of the proceeds of my first crop This .
Off er I considered fair enough much better than I

,
expected and after having distin ctly agreed that he

should depend upon the crop and not on me for , ,
payment and that if the coming season yielded noth

,
ing he S hould wait for the following on e I confessed ,
to him that his persuasions had overcome me and ,
consented to the bargain .
In other words I did not run in debt— I saved

,
j ust that m uch of my capital and could make ,
a magnificent beginning with ou r favorite fruit .
A s I was leav ing this liberal man he observed to ,
me
Well , I am glad you have taken this lot as I was ,
!
i ntending to plough them in to morrow -
.
67
“ !
H ow i s that ! I inquired n ot exactly under ,
standing his meaning .
“ Oh !
said he
,
I have so many now that I must
,
have the ground for other purposes and s o meant ,

!
to plough them under if you had not bought them .
This was an entirely new wrinkle to me and fully ,
explained wh y he could aff ord to farm them ou t on

the conditions referred to Though a capital bar .
gain for me yet it was a still better one f or him

, .
What he was to rece ive was absolutely s o much clear

gain But then after all that has been said and
.
,
written is it not a truth that cannot be disputed

, ,
that n o bargain can be p ron ou n c e d a good on e unless

all the parties to it are in some way benefite d
H ere now were six acres of ground pretty well
, ,
crowded up at l east on paper But the strawberries

,
.
would never grow higher than six inches the rasp

berries would be kept down to three or four feet ,
whil e the peaches would overtop all E ach would .
be certain t o keep ou t of the other s way Then look ’

.
at the succession The strawberries would be in

.
market fi rst the raspberries w ould follow and then

, ,
the peaches for O f the latter I had planted the ea rli

,
est sorts so that unlike a farm devoted wholl y to

,
the raising of gr a in , which comes into market only

once a year I should have one cash producing crop
,
-
succeeding to another during most of the summer .
O n the remaining three acres I meant to raise some

thing whi ch woul d bring money in the autumn s o as ,
to keep me flush all the time You may s ay that.
thi s was reckoning my chickens before they were

hatched but y ou will please remember that thus far

I have not even mentioned chickens and I pray that
,
y ou will be equally c onsiderate . I know at least

,
I
have some indistinct recollection of having heard that
the proof of the pudding lay in the eating But pray
.
be patient even credulous un til the aforesaid myth

, ,
ical pudding is served up I am now cooking it and

.
,
you ought all to know that cooks must not be hur

ried In good t i me it wi ll come smok ing on the
.
table .
69
CHA PT ER VIII .
B L AC K BERR I E S — A R E M A R K AB L E COINCIDENCE .
I N the course of my agric ul tural reading for som e

years previous to coming into the country I had no ,
ticed great things said of a ne w blackbe rry which

had been discovered in the S tate of N ew York The .
stories printed in relation to it were almost fabulous .
It was represented as growing twenty feet high and ,
as bearing berries nearly as large as a walnut which ,
melted on the tongue with a lusciousness to which

the softest ice cream was a mere circumsta nce whil e
-
,
the fruit was said to be strung upon its branches like

oni ons on a rope A single bush would supply a
.
large family with fruit ! I was amazed at the ex

tr av agan t accounts given of its unexampled produc
t iv en e s s and matchless flavor I had supposed that I
.
knew all about blackberries but here was a great

,
marvel in a department which had been proverbi ally

free from eccentrici ties of that kind .
But I followed it— in the papers — for a long time .
A t last I saw it stated that the rare plant could n ot

be propagated from the seed but only from suckers
, ,
and theref ore very S lowly O f course i t could not be

.
a f f orded for less than a dollar apiece ! It would be

unreasonable to look for blackberries f or less ! It
struck me that the superior flavor claimed for it must

be a little of the S ilvery order— than in berries bought
at that price a touch might be detected even of the
,
most auriferous fragrance S till I wa s an amateur

.
,
—in a small way I rej oiced in a city garden which

.
would readily accommodate a hundred of this extra

ordinary berry especially as it was said to do better
,
and bear more fruit when cut down to four feet in

, ,
stead O f being allowed to grow to a height of

twenty .
It thus seemed to be made for such miniature gar

d e ne r s as myself O ne generous advertiser offered
.
to send six roots by mail for five dollars provided ,
ten red stamps were inclosed with the money I had .
never before heard of blackberries bein g sent by

mail ; but the whole thing was recommended by men
in whose standing all confidence could be placed ,
and who as far as could be discovered had no plants

, ,
to sell Under such circumstances doubt seemed to

.
,
be absurd .
I sent five dollars and the stamps But this was .
one of the secrets I n e ve r told my wife until sh e had

eaten the first bowlful of the fully ripened fruit ,
eighteen months afterwards Well the plants came .

,
in a letter— mere fibres of a greater ro ot— certainly

not thicker than a thin quill not one of them having
,
a top They looked like long white worms with here

.
,
and there a bud or eye I never s aw until then what

.
, ,
I considered the meanest five dollars worth of any ’
thing I had ever bought a n d when my wi fe inquired

what those things were I was planting I replied that ,
71
they were little vegetable wonders which a distant

correspondent had sent me Not dreaming that they .
cost me near a dollar apiece at the very time I owed ,

’
a quarter s rent sh e dropped the subj ect
,
.
But I planted them in a deeply spaded and ri ch

sunny border, deluged them every week with suds
from the fam ily wash and by the close of the season,
they had sent up more than a dozen strong canes

which stood S ix feet high The next summer they .
bore a crop of fruit which aston i shed me From the .
group of bushes I picked fifteen quarts of berries

superior to anything of the kind we had ever eaten .
I then confided the secret to my wife : s h e considered

the plants cheap at five dollars and pr onounced my ,
venture a good on e I think we had more than five

.
dollars worth of satisfaction in showing them to ou r

’
friends and neighbors We ga v e a w ay some pints .
of the fruit and such was its fame and popular i ty

, ,
that I feel convinced we could have readily disposed

of it all in the same way .
O ne of the reporters f or a penny paper hearing of -
the matter called in my absence to see them My

,
.
wife politely acted as showman and being very e l o

‘
quent of speech on any matter which happens to

strike her fancy sh e was quite as commu ni cati ve as
,
he desired S he di d not know that the fellow was a

.
penny a liner whose vocation it was to magnify an

- -
,
ant hill into a mounta in To her e x treme consterna

- .
tion as well a s to mine the next morn ing paper

, ,
contained a half column article describing my black

-
berries even givin g my name and the number of the

,
72 TEN ACRES ENOU G H .
hou se By te n o clock that day the latter w as run

.
’
down w i th strangers wh o had thus been publicly in

,
v ite d to call and see the new blackberry O ur .
’
O pposite neighbors laughed heartily over my wife s
vex a tion and for the first ti me i n my l ife I saw her
’
almost immovable good temper give way The nui .
sance continued for weeks , as the vil e article had been

copied into some of the neighboring country papers ,
and thus new swarms of bores were inflamed with cu

r iosity This littl e vexatious circumstance aff orded
.
unmistakable evi dence of the great inte rest taken by

the public in the discovery of a new and valuable
fruit I could have disposed of thousands of plants
.
if I had had them for sale .
This was the N ew R ochelle or Lawton Blackber ry .
The numerous suckers which came up around each

root I transplanted along my border, until I had
more than two hundred of them This was long be .
fore a single berry had been offered for sale i n the

Philadelphia market though the papers told me,
that the fruit was selling in N ew York at half a

dollar per quart and that the gr e at consuming pub
,
lic of that city, having once tasted of it was clamor ,
O us f or more I am constrained to say that the

.
nurserymen who had these plants to sell did n ot over

p raise them This berry has fully realized all they
.
promised in relation to i t ; and a debt of thank ful

ness i s owing to the men who first discovered
and caused it to be propagated It has taken its .
p lace in public estimation be side the strawbe rry

and raspberry and will henc e forth conti nue to
,
p ro duc e two thousand quarts to the acre S ome .
growers have greatly exceeded this quantity I .
have known a single plant to meld eighteen hun

dred berries an d three plants to produce sixteen
,
quarts Its flavor i s entirely di ff erent from that of

.
the common wild blackberry wh i le it aboun ds i n ,
j uice and contains no core It i s evidently a dis

, .
tinct var i ety It has also long been famous for

.
yielding a most superior wine .
When I went into the country I had two hundred

of the Lawton blackberry to plant all which were ,
the product of my fi ve dollar venture In digging

-
.
them up from my city garden every inch O f root ,
that could be found was carefully h unted ou t They .
had multiplied under ground to a surprising extent

-
some of them being as much as twenty feet in
length These roots were full of buds from which
.
new canes would s p ring Their vital i ty is al most

.
unconquerable— everybody knows a blackberry is

the hardest thin g in the world to kill I cut off the .
canes six inches above the root then divided each ,
stool i nto separate roots and then cutting up the

,
long roots into slips containing one to two eyes each ,
I found my number of sets to exceed a thousand ,
quite enough to plant an acre .
These I put ou t in rows eight feet apart and eight ,
feet asunder in the rows N ot ten of them died as

.
,
they came fresh out of the ground in on e place only ,
t o be immediately covered up some three i n ches deep

in another Thus t his whole fi ve dollar speculation
.
-
was one of the luckiest hit s I ever made because I

75
be gan early be fore the p lant had passed i nto every

,
’
body s hands ; and when i t came in to general de
mand I was the only grower near the c i ty who had
,
more than a dozen p lants V e ry soon every body .
wanted the fruit and th e whole neighborhood

,
wanted the p lants H ow I condescended to supply

.
both classes of customers wi ll app e ar hereafter .
Yet while setti ng ou t these roots several of my

, ,
neighbors , as usual when I was doing anything ,
came to oversee me O n former occasions they had

.
e xpress e d considerable incredulity as to my opera

tions ; and it was easy to see from their remark s and
’
inqu iries now that they thought I didn t know
,
much and would have nothing f or my labor but my

,
pains I always listened good h u m or e d l y to their

.
-
remarks becau se I discovered that now and then

,
they let fall something which was of real value to

me When they discovered it was blackberries I
.
w a s planting some of them laughed outright

,
But .
I re p lied that this Lawton berry was a n e w variety ,
superior to anything known and an incredible ,
bearer They answered me they could find bet ter

.
ones in any fence corner in the township and that ,
if I once got them into my ground I could never get

them out It struck m e the last remark would also
.
apply as j ustly to my peach trees -

.
But I contented myself with saying that I should

never want to get them ou t and that the time would ,
come when they would all want the same thing in

their o wn ground Thus it is that pioneers in any
.
thing are generally ridiculed and discouraged by the

76 ,
general multi tude O f all my visitors , only two ap

.
p e a r e d to have any correct knowledge of the new

plant They off ered to buy part of my stock ; but
.
on refusing to sell , th e y engaged to take some in the
autumn .
I have been thus particular i n writing of the Law

ton be cause O f my singular success with it from the
,
start I thus occupied my seventh acre ; bu t the

.
rows being eight feet apart abun d ant room was l eft ,
to raise a crop of some kind between them E ven in .
the rows between the roots I planted corn which

, , ,
grew wel l, and a fi or d e d a most beneficial shade to

the young blackberries as they grew up I am sat .
isfie d they flourished better for being thus pro

t e c te d the first season from the hot s u n When in .
full maturity, they need all the s u n they can get .
They will grow and flourish in almost any soil in

which they once become well rooted though they ,
are rank feeders on manure Like a young pig feed .

,
them well and they wil l gr ow to an astonishing size

starve the m and your crops will be mere runts It
,
.
i s from the same skinni ng practice that s o many

corn cribs are seen to abound i n nubbins
-
.
I had thus two acres left unoccupied ; on e acre,

as previously stated was most fortunately in clo ver
, .
O n this I put four bushels of ground plaster mixed

with a sprink ling of guano the two costing me onl y ,
five dollars I afterwards devoted an acre to toma

.
toes and the last to parsnips cabbages turnips and

, , , ,
sweet corn This latter was scattered in rows or

.
drill s three feet apart i ntending it for gre e n fodde r

,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
77
f or the h orse and cow when the clover ga v e ou t .
Th e turnips were sowed between the corn rows -
and were intended f or winter feeding f or horse and

c ow O n the acre of blackberries between the rows
.
, ,
I planted cabbage , putting into each hill a spoonful

of mixed plaster and guano and wherever I could
,
find vacant spots about the place there also a cab ,
bage plant was s e t ou t A f e w pumpkin hills were

.
started in suitable places In fact my e ffort was to

.
,
occupy every inch of ground with something The .
cabbage and tomato plants cost me thirty dollars .
These several crops were put in as th e season f or

each one came round The green corn crop wa s
.
-
not all put in at on e time but at in tervals about

,
t wo weeks apart so that I should have a succession

,
of succulent food during the summer The horse .
and cow were to be kept in the barnyard, as I had

no faith in turning cattle ou t to pasture thus r e ,
quiring three times as much land a s was necessary ,
besides losing half the manure The latter was a .
sort of hobby with me I was determined to give

.
my crops all they could profitably appropriate and ,
so soil my little stock ; that is, keep them i n the

barnyard in summer and in the stable in wi nte r
, ,
while th eir food was to be brough t to them instead ,
of their being forced to go after it I knew it would .
cost time and trouble ; but I have long sin ce dis

covered that most things of value in this world
come to us only as the result of diligent unremitted ,
labor The man even u pon te n acres who is c on

.
, ,
te nt to se e around him only barren fields, sc a nty

crops and lean, starvi ng animals does not de

, ,
serve the name of f arm eri Unless he can devise

ways and means for changing such a condition
of things and cease r i diculing all propositions of
,
amendment that may be pointed ou t to him he had ,
better be up and off , and gi ve p lace to a live man .
S uch sk i nning a nd exhausting tillage is on e cause

of the annual relative decline of the wheat crop all
-
over the Uni on and of the frequent changes in the

,
ownership of lands The fragrance of a fat and

.
ample manure hea p is as grateful to the nostrils of

a good farmer, as the fumes of the tavern ar e notori
ou sl y attract i ve to thos e of a p oor one .
TEN ACRES ENOUG H .
79
CHA PT ER IX .
TH E G AR D EN — F E M A LE M ANA G E M ENT— CO MF ORTS

AND P R O F I TS .
I M E NT I ON E D some time ago that the wi fe of the

former owner of this place had left i t with a world
of regrets S he had been passion ately fond of the
.
garden which now fell to us A s daylight can be .
seen through very small holes so little things will ,

’
i llustrate a person s character Indeed character .
,
cons ists in l i ttle acts and honorably performed ;

,
d aily life being the quarry from which we build it

up and rough hew the hab i ts that form it The
.
.
garden sh e had prepared and c u ltivated for s eve ral

,
years doing much of the w ork of planting watching

, , ,
watering and training with her own hands bore

, ,
honorable testimony to the goodness of hers S he .
had filled it with the choicest fruit trees most of -

,
which were now in full bearing There wa s abun .
dance O f all the usual garden fru its currants , ,
gooseberries grapes and an ample asparagus bed

, , .
It was laid out with taste convenience and libe ra lity

, , .
Flowers O f c ourse had n ot be en omitted by such a

, ,
woman . H er vocation had evi dently been some

thing beyond that O f merely cooking her husband s ’
dinners But her garden bore marks of long aban

.
d om nent G reat weeds were rioting in the borders

.
,
grass had taken foothold in the alleys and it stood ,
in need of a new mistres s to work up into profitable

use the store of riches it contained It struck me .
that if on e woman could establish a garden like this ,
I could find another on my own premises to man

age it .
A fter I had got through wi th the variou s plant

in gs of my s tandard fruits — indeed while much of ,
i t was going on— I took resolute hold of the garden .
It w as large en ough to provide vegetables for three

families I meant to m ake it sure f or one With
. .
all the lights and improvements of modern times,

and they are many three fourths of the farm gardens
,
-
in our country are still a disgrace to our husbandry .
A s a rule the most eas ily raised vegetables are not

,
to be found in them ; and the small fruits wi th the ,
exception of currants and gooseberries are uni ,
ve r s al ly neglected Many of ou r farmers have

.
never tasted an early York cabbage If they get .
cabbages or potatoes by August they think they ,
are doing pretty well They do not understand the

.
simple mysteries of a hot bed and so force nothin g

-
, .
N ow, with this article which need not cost five

,
dollars, and which a boy of ten years can manage ,
you can have cabbages and potatoes in June and ,
beans tomatoes cucumbers and squashes and a

, , , ,
host of other d el ic iou s v ege tabl e s a little later ,

.
By selecting your seed y ou can have salad green

, ,
peas onions and beets by the last of June or before

, , , ,
wi thout any forcing A good asparagus bed co v er

.
,
ing two square rods of ground is a luxury that no ,

p ose and pai d him te n dollars for the j ob includ ing

, ,
the hauling and digging in of the great pile of ma

nure I had found in the barnyard and th e clearin g ,
u p of things generally I would have laid out fifty

.
dollars in m anure i f the money could have been

,
spared ; but what I did a ff orded an excellent return .
My wife and eldest daughter Kate then in her , ,
eighteenth year did all the planting I spent five

,
.
dollars in buy ing for them a complete outfit of hoes ,
rakes and trowels f or garden use lightly made on

, ,
purpose for female handl in g with a neat little ,
wheelbarr ow to hold the weeds and l itter wh i ch I

felt pretty sure would have to be hoed u p and
trundled away before the season was over .
They took to the garden manfully I k ept their .
hoes constantly sharpened with a fil e and they de ,
c l ar e d i t was only pastime to wage warfare on the
weeds with weapons s o keen Now and then one .
of the boys went in to give them a lift ; a n d when a
new vegetable bed was to be planted it was dug up ,
and made ready for the m But the great bulk of

.
all other work was done by themselves .
N ever has either of them enj oyed health s o

robust or appetites so wholesome
,
A s a whole .
year s crop of weeds had gone to seed they had

’
,
millions of the enemy to contend with j ust as I h a d ,
anticipated . I did not volunteer discouragements

by rep eati ng to them the old E nglish formula that ,
O ne y e a r s s e e d ing
’
Ma kes se ve n y e a rs w e e d ing
’
,
83
but commended their industry , exhorted them to

persevere and was lavish in my a d miration of the
,
handsome style in wh i ch they kept the grounds I .
infused into their minds a perfect hatred of the

whole tribe of weeds enj oined it upon them not to
,
let a single one escape and go to see d and promised ,
them that if they thus ex terminated all the next ,

’
yea r s weedi ng would be mere recreation .
I w i ll say for them , that all our visitors from the

c i ty were sur p rised at seeing the garden so free
from weeds while they did not fail to notice that
,
most of the vegetables were extremely thrifty .
They did not know that in gardens where the weeds

thrive undisturbed the vegetables never d o A s to
,
.
the neighbors they came in occasionally to see what

,
the women were doing but shook their heads when

,
they saw they were merely hoeing up weeds — said

that weeds did no harm and they might as well at
,
te mpt to kill all the fl ies — they had been brought

“
up among weeds knew all about them and it was
, ,
!
no use trying to get rid of them .
But the work of weeding ke p t on through the

whole season , and as a consequence , the ground about
the vegetables was kept c onsta ntly stirred The r e .
sult of this thorough culture wa s that n early every,
thing seemed t o feel it and the growth was prodi

, ‘
gions far exceeding what the family could consume

,
.
We had everything we needed and in far greater ,
abundance t han we ever had in the city I am .
satisfied this profu sion of vegetables lessened the

consumption of meat in the famil y one half -
.
Indeed, i t was such, that my wife suggeste d that

the garden had so much more in it than we re
qu ire d that p erhaps it would be as well to send the
,
surplus to the store where we usually bought ou r

groceries to be there sold for our benefit
, .
The town w i thin half a mile of us contained some

five thousand inhabitants among whom there was a ,
daily demand for vegetables I took m y wife s .

’
advice and from time to time gathered such as she

,
directed for she and Kate were sole m istresses of

,
the garden and sent them to the store They kep t

,
.
a regular book account of these consignments and ,
when we came t o settle up with the storek e eper at

’
the year s end were surprised to find that he had
,
eighty d oll ars to ou r credit But this was n ot all .
fr om vegetables a good deal of it came from the

-
fruit trees .
A fter using in the family great quantities of

fine peaches from the ten garden trees certainly -
,
three times as many as we could ever a ff ord to buy

when in the city th e rest went t o the store The
,
.
trees had been s o hackled by the w orms that they

did not bear full crops yet the yield was c onsider,
able Then there were quantities of spare c u rrants

.
,
gooseberries an d several bushels O f common blue

,
plums which the curculio does n ot sting

,
When .
my wife discovered there was s o ready a market at

our own door sh e su ffered nothi ng to go to waste
,
.
It was a n e w feature in her experience everythi ng -
seemed to sell Whenever sh e needed a n e w dress

.
for herself or any of the children all sh e had to do ,

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
85
was to go to th e store, get it, and have i t charged

against her garden fund I confess that her success .
greatly exceeded my exp ectations .
Le t me n ow put in a word as to the cause of this

success with ou r garden It was not owing to ou r .
knowledge of gardening for we made many blunders ,
n ot here recorded and lost crops of two or three

,
different things in consequence N either was it .
owing to excessive richness of the ground But I .
lay it to the unsparing warfare k ept up upon the

weeds which thus prevented their running away
,
with the nourishment intended f or the plants and ,
k ept the ground constantly stirred up and thorou ghly

pulverized I have sometimes thought one good
.
stirring up whether wi th the hoe the rake or the

, , ,
cultivator was as beneficial as a good shower

,
.
When vegetables begin to look parched and the

ground becomes dry some gardeners thi nk they ,
must commence the use of the wa tering pot This -

.
practice to a certa in exte nt and under some cir

, ,
c u m s t a n c es may perha ps be proper but as a general

, ,
rule it is inc orrect The same time spent in hoeing

.
,
frequently stirring the earth about vegetables is far ,
preferable When watering h as once commenced it

.
must be continued must be followed up else y ou

, ,
have done mischief instead of good ; a s after water ,
ing a few times and then omitting it the ground

, ,
will bake harder t han if nothing had been done to

it Not s o with hoeing or raking The more y ou
. .
stir the ground abou t v egetables the bette r they are ,
off ; and whene v er y ou stop hoeing n o damage is ,

done a s in w
,
atering Vege tables will improve
.
more rapidly be more healthy, and in better condi

,
tion at maturity by frequent hoeing than by f r e

,
quent watering This result is very easily Shown

.
by experiment Just notice after a dewy night the

.
, ,
diffe rence bet ween ground lately and often stirred ,
and that which has lain unmoved for a long time .
O r take two cabbage plants under similar circum

stances water on e and stir the other just as often ,
stirring the earth about it carefully a n d thoroughly ,
and s e e which will di stance the other i n growth .
There are secrets about this stirri ng of the ear t h

which chemists and horticulturists would do well
to study with the utmost scrutiny and care S oil .
cultivated in the spring and then neglected soon

, ,
settles together The surface becomes hard the

.
,
particles cohere , they attract little or no moisture ,
and from such a surface even the rain slides off , ap

p e r e n t l y doing little good But let this surface
. b e
thoroughly pulverized , though it be done merely
with an iron rake and only a few inches in depth
, ,
and a new life is infused into it ; The surface be

comes friable and soft the moisture of the particles
,
again be comes active , attracting and being attracted ,
each seeming to be crying to his ne ighbor H and ,
W hy
!
over hand over— more drink, more drink
,
.
this elaboration shoul d grow less and less till I n a ,
comparatively short time i t should seem almost to

cease is a question of very d ifii c u l t solution ; though
,
the varyin g compositions of soil s has doubtle ss some

th i ng to do wi th the matter .
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
87
But let the stir ring be carefully repeated and all

,
is life again Particles attract moisture from the a t

.
m osph e r e hand it to each other down it goes to the

, ,
roots of vegetables t h e little suction fibres drink it

,
in and though we cannot s ee these busy operations

.
,
yet we perceive their healthy effects in the pushing

up of vegetables above the surface The h oe is bet
.
ter th an the water p ot My garden i s a s i gnal illus

-
.
t ration O f the fact

.
CHA PT ER X .
C H E ATE D I N A CO VV— A G OO D AN D A B A D ONE — TH E
SA I NT O F T H E B ARN Y A R D .
B OT H myself and wife had always coveted a cow .
A ll of the family were extravagantly fon d of milk .
Where s o many children were about it seemed in ,
dispensable to have on e besides were w e not up on ,
a farm ! and what would a farm be without having

upon it at least one saint of the barnyard A s soon
as we came on the place I made inquiries of two or
,
three persons for a cow The news flew r ound the

.
neighborhood wi th amazing rapidity and in the ,
course of two weeks I was besieged with o ffers

They haunte d me in the street as I went daily to the
,
post offic e even in the evening as w e sa t in ou r

-
,
parlor It seemed as if e v erybody in the t ownship

.
had a cow to sell Indeed the annoyance continued

.
,
long after we had been supplied .
Now though I knew a great deal of milk having

, ,
learned to like it the very day I was born yet I was ,
utterly ignorant of how to choose a cow and at that ,
time had no friend t o advise with But I suspected .
t hat no on e who had a fi r s t rate animal would vol

-
u nt a r il y part with it and s o e xpected to be cheated

,
.
I hinted a s much to my wife whereupon She begged

,
But as it had been agreed that she should choose a

c o w, so sh e was permitted to have her own way .
A t the end of the week the calf was sold for three
dollars — a low p rice ; but then my wife wanted the
milk, and she and Kate were anxious to begin
milking I am sure I was quite willing they should
.
have all they coul d get When they did begin, there
.
was a great time N ow most women profess to u h

.
,
d e r stand precisely how a cow sh ould be milked and ,
yet com p aratively few k now anything about it .
They remind m e of the Irish gi rls who a re hunti ng

places These are all first rate cooks if y ou take
.
-
,
the i r wor d for it, and yet not one in a hundred knows
anythi ng of e ven the first pri nciples of cooki ng .
The first p rocess in the op eration of milking is to

fondle with the c ow, make her acquaintance and ,
thus g i ve her to understand that the man or maid

with the m i lk i ng pail approaches her with friendly
i ntentions, in order to relieve her of t h e usual lacteal
secretion It will never do to approach the animal
.
with combative feelings and intentions S hould the .
milker be t oo impetuous ; should he s wear, speak

loud and sharp scold or kick or otherwise abuse or
, ,
frighten the cow, sh e will probably prove refractory

as a mule and may give the uncouth and unfeeling
,
milker the benefit of her heels —a very pe rtinent ,
reward to which he the uncouth milker, is j ustly

, ,
enti tled E sp ecially in the case of a new milker

.
,
who may be a p erfect stranger to the cow the u t ,
most kindness and deliberation are necessary .
Before commenc ing to m ilk, a cow should be fed,

91
or have som e k ind of fodder o ff ered her in vie w of ,
diverting her at tention from the operation of milk

ing By this means the milk is not held up as the
.
,
saying is but is yielded freely A ll these pre c au

, .
tions are more indispensable when the cow h as j ust

b een deprived of her calf S he is then uneasy , fret
.
ful and irritable and generally so disconsolate as to

,
need the kindest treatment and the utmost so oth

ing The milker should be in close contact wi th
.
the cow s body f or in this positi on if s h e attempt

’
, ,
to kick him he gets nothing more than a push where

, ,
as if he sits OR at a distance the c o w has an opp or

,
tu nity to infli ct a severe blow whenever sh e feels

disposed to do so .
All milkers of cows should understand tha t the

udder and teats are highly organized and c onse ,
quen tly very sensitive ; and these facts should be

taken into consideration by amateur milkers e s ,
p e c ia l l y when their first essay is made on a young

animal afte r the advent of her first calf and that ,
on e just taken from her A t this period the h ard

.
,
tugging and squeezing to which many poor dumb

brutes have to submit in consequence of the appl i
cation of hard fiste d , callous or inexperienced fin gers
-
, ,
is a barbarity of the very worst kind ; f or it O ften

converts a doc i le creature into a vicious one , from
which condition it is extremely d ifii c ul t i f not im ,
p ossible,
t o wean her .
O f every on e of these requisites both wif e and

daughter were utte rly ignorant They went talking .
and laughing into the barn one with a bright tin ,

pail in her hand an obj ect which the cow had never
,
before se e n and both made at her forgetting that

, ,
they were utter strangers to her Besides sh e was .

,
thinking of her absent calf an d did not want to see ,
anything else Their appearance and clamor of

.
course frightened her and as they approached her , ,
s o sh e avoi d ed them They followed but sh e con .

,
t in u e d to avoid and once or twice put down her

,
head shook it menacingly and even made an inc ip i

, ,
ent lunge at them with her S harply pointed horns .
These decided demonstrations of anger frightened

them in turn and they forthwith gave u p the pur
,
suit Of milk in the face of difficulties s o une xpecte d

We got none that night I n the morning we sent .
f or an experienced milker but sh e had the utmost ,
difficulty in getting the cow to stand qui et even f or

a moment My wife was quite subdued about the
.
matter It would never do to keep a cow that no

.
body could milk S he said but little however— it

.
,
was h er cow Longer trial produced no more e n

.
c ou rag ing result as she seeme d untamable and my

, ,
wife was glad to have me sell her f or twenty d ollars ,

at the same time resolving never again to buy a c ow
with her first calf .
It was voted unanimously that another should be

procured and that this time the choice should be left
,
to me Now I never had any idea of buying poor

.
,
things of any kind merely because they were cheap .
When purchasing or making tools or machin ery I ,
ne v er bought or made any but the very best as I ,
found that e ven a good workman coul d never do a

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
93
good j ob with poor tools S o with all my farm im .
p l e m e n t s — I bought the best of their kind that could
be had If my female gardeners had been furnished

.
wi th heavy and clumsy hoes and rakes because such ,
were cheap their mere weight would have disgusted

,
them with the business of hoeing and w eedi ng S o .
with a cow It is true I had become the owner of

.
,
a magni ficent th irty dollar horse ; but it was the-
only beast I could get hold of at the moment when

a horse must be had Besides he turned ou t to be
.
,
lik e a singed e a t a vast deal better than he l ooked

, .
I had repeatedly heard of a c ow i n the neighbor

ing town which was said to yield s o much milk as
,
to be the pri ncipal support of a small fa m ily wh ose

head was a h opeless drunkard S he had cost se v enty .
fi ve dollars and had been a present to the drunk

,
ard s wife from on e of her relati v es By careful

’
.
inquiry I satisfied myself that this c ow ga ve twenty

,
quarts daily and that fi ve months afte r cal ving a n d

, ,
on very indiff erent pasture I went to s e e her and .

,
then her owner told me sh e was goi ng t o lea v e the

place and would sell the cow f or fif t y d ollars I did
,
.
not hesitate a m oment but paid the money a n d had ,
the cow brought home the same evening My w ife .
and daughter had n ot the least d ifli c u l ty in l earni ng

to m ilk her Under their treatment and my im
.
pr oved feeding we kept her in full fl ow f or a long

,
time S he gave quite as much milk as t wo ordi

.
nary cows while we had the expense O f keeping

,
only one This I consider genuine good ma nage

.
ment : the best is always the cheapest .

The cow was never p e rm i tted to go out of the

barnyard A trough of water enabled her to drink
.
as O ften as she needed but her green food was

,
brought to her regularly three times daily with ,
double allowance at n ight I began by mo w ing all

.
the little grass plots about the house and lanes for
-
,
i n these sheltered nooks the sod sends up a hea vy

growth far in advance of fi eld or meadow But .
.
this supply was soon e xhausted though i t lasted ,
more than a week : besides these usually neglected ,
nooks afforded severa l mowi ngs during the season ,
and th e repeated cuttings produced the additi onal

advantage of maintaining the sod in beautiful condi
tion as well as getting r i d of numberless weeds
,
.
When the grass had all been once mowed over we ,
resor ted to the c le ve r This also was mowed and

.
taken to her ; and by thi s treatment my little clover

field held out astonishingly Long before I had .
gone over i t once the p ortion first mowed was up

,
high enough to be mowed again Indeed we did .

,
secure some hay i n addition In this way both .
horse and cow were soiled When the clover gave .
ou t the green corn which I had sowed in r ows was

,
eighteen inches to two feet high and in capital con ,
dition to cut and feed It then took the place of

.
clover Both horse and cow devoured it with high

.
rel i sh It was the extra sweet corn now s o exten

.
siv el y cultivated in N ew Jersey for market and con ,
t ain e d an excess of saccharine matter which made ,
it not only very palatabl e but which sens i bly sti m

,
u l a te d the flow of milk .

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
95
The y i eld of green food which this descr ip tion of

corn gives to the acre when thus sowed is enormous , ,
.
N ot having weighed it I cannot speak as to the exact ,
quantity but should j udge it to be at least seven

,
times that of the best grass or clover E ven wi thout .
cutting up wi th a straw knife the p igs ate i t with -

,
equal avi dity In add i tion to thi s the cow was fed
.
,
morning and night wi th a little bran The u nc on .
sumed corn after being dried where it gr ew was cut

, ,
and gathered for winter fodder and when cut fine ,
and mixed wi th turnips which had been passed

through a sl i cer k ept the cow in excellent condition
, .
S he of course got many an armful of cabbage leaves -
during the autumn and all through the wi nter w i th ,
now and then a spri nkling of sliced pumpk ins from ,
which the seeds had first been taken as they are sure ,
to dim i nish the flow of mil k .
Thus I was obliged to lay out no money f or e i ther

horse or cow e xcept the f e w dollars e xpended f o r
,
bran By this treatment I secured all the manure

.
they made By feed ing the barnyard itself as well

.
,
as the hog pen with green weeds and whatever litter

-
,
and trash could be gathered up th e end of the s e a ,
s on found me with a huge manure pile all nicely ,
collected under a rough shed ou t of reach of drench ,
i ng rain hot sun and wasting winds I cer tainly

, ,
.
secured thrice as much in one season as had ever

been mad e on that place in three In addition to .
this the family had had more milk than they could
,
use fresh rich and buttery E ven the p i gs fell heir

, , ,
.
to an occasional bucket of sk i m milk -

.
When our city friends came to spend a day or two

wi th us we were able to astonish them with a
,
tumbler of thick cream instead of the usual s taple

,
beverages of the tea table My wife evidently felt a

-
.
sort of pride in making a display of this kind and ,
Kate invariably spread herself by taking ou r visitors

to the barnyard to let them see how e x pert S h e had
,
become at milking When they remarked at table

.
, ,
on the surpassing richness of the cream as well a s ,
the milk m y wife was very apt to reply

,
Yes but when your turn comes to go in the coun

,
try be particul ar not to buy a cheap c o w

, .
!
This remark generally led to inquiry and the n ,
Kate was brought ou t with the whole story of ou r

first and second cow which sh e accordingly ga v e
,
with illustrations infinitely more amusing than any

I have been able to introduce Indeed her power .
,
of a mplification sometimes astonished me S he t old .
the story of our having been cheated by the ol d s in

ner with such graphic liveliness my wife now and
, ,
then in terposing a parenthesis that the c ompany in ,
variably concluded it was by far the better policy t o

give a wide berth to cheap cows I am not certain .
’
whether the fun occasioned by Kate s narratives was
not really very cheaply purchased by the small loss
we suffered on that occasion .
This abundance of milk wro ught qu i te a change

in ou r habits as to tea and coff ee A t supper during .
,
the summer we drank milk only but insensibly w e

,
ran on in the same way into cold weather In the .
end we found th at we liked c ofi e e in the morning

,
CHA PT ER XI .
'
A CL OUD OE WE ED S — G R E AT S A LE s O F P L ANTS .
J U NE came wi thout my being obliged to hire any

thin g but occasional help on the farm But when .
the month was fairly set in I found every inch of ,
my ploughed land in a fair way of being smothered by

the weeds I was amazed at the countless numbers
.
which sprang up as well as at the rapidity with

,
which they grew There was almost every variety

.
of these pests It seemed as if the whole township

.
had concentrated its wealth of weeds upon my prem

ise s . In the quick warm soil of N ew Jersey they
, ,
appear to have found a m ost congenial home as they ,
abound on every farm that I have seen C ultivators .
appear to have abandoned all hope of eradicating

them Knowing that the last year s crop had gone
.
’
to seed I confess to looking for something of the

,
kind but I was wholly unprepared f or the thick

,
haze which e verywhere covered the groun d .
I can bear any quantity of snake s but for weeds ,
I have a sort of religious aversion I tried one week .
to ov ercome them with the cultivato r but I made ,
disc ouraging headway I then bought a regular .
h orse weeder which cut them d own rapidly and

-
,
effectually But meantime others were growi ng up

.
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
99
in the rows , and corners and b y p laces, where noth

,
-
ing but the hoe could reach them and robbin g the ,
crops of their support It woul d never do to cul

.
t iva te weeds — they must be got rid of at any cost or ,
my crops would be worthless S everal neighborin g .
farmers who had doubtless co unted on this state of

,
things came along about the time they supposed my

,
hands would be full looked over the fence at my

,
courageou s onslaught laughed and called ou t I t s

, , ,
’
!
no u s e — you can t kill the weeds ! S uch was the
’
sympathy they a ff orded If my house had been on .
fire every one of them would have promptly hurried

,
to the rescue ; but to assist a man in killing his

weeds was what no one dreamed of doing He .
didn t kill his own

’
.
In this dilemma I was forced to hire a young

man to help me contracting to give him twelve
,
dollars a month and board him H e turned ou t .
sober and industrious We went to work courage

.
ou s l y on the weeds I w i ll admit that my man

.
Dick was quite as certain as my neighbors that we

could ne v er get permanently ahead of them and ,
that thus lacking fa i th he to ok hold of the culti

va tor and weeder while I attacked the enemy in the
,
rows and by places I kept him constantly at it and

-
.
,
’
worked steadily myself A week s labor left a most
.
encouraging mark upon t h e ground The h ot sun .
wilted and dried up the weeds as we cut them off .
Two weeks enabled us to get over the whole lot ,
making it l ook clean and nice I c ongratulated .
myself on ou r success and inquired of Dick i f he

,
didn t th ink w e had got ahead of the enemy now

’
.
This was on a S aturday evening Dick looked up .
at the sky which was then black and showery with

, ,
a warm south wind blowing and a broad laugh ,
came over his features as he replied This will do ,
till next time The fellow was evidently unwilling

.
!
t o enc ourage or t o disappoint me .
That night a powerful rain fell with a warm , ,
“
sultry wind being what farmers call,
growing
!
weather .I found it to be even s o good for W eeds ,
at least Monday morning came with a hot clear

.
,
s u n and under the combined stimulating power of

, ,
sun rain and temperature I found that in two

, , ,
nights a new generation had started into line quite ,
as numerous as that we had just overcome A s I .
walked over the gr ound in company with Dick I ,
w a s conf ounded at the sight Bu t I noticed that .
he expressed no astonishment whatever— it was j ust

what he knew was to come — an d s o he declared it
w ould be if we made the ground as clean as a parlor
every week .
H e said he never knew the weeds to be got ou t of

Jersey ground and pr oteste d that it couldn t be
,
’
done H e admitted that they were nuisances but

.
,
so were mosquitoes But as neither in his O p inion .

, ,
di d any great harm so he thought it n ot worth ,
while to spend much time or money in endeavoring

‘
to get rid of them In either case he considered.
the attempt a vain one and this was the whole ,
extent of his phil os ophy H e had in fact been edu .
c a t e d to believe in weeds I was mortified at his .

constant labor as we had gone through , and as was

l ik ely to be ou r experience in the future I submit .
ted this proposition to D i ck— that if we k i lled all

the weeds as they grew the time would come when ,
there would be no weeds to kill It struck me as .
being so simple that even Dick with all his dogged ,
ness could neither fail to comprehend nor a c k n owl

,
edge it H e did manage to comprehend it but as

.
,
to acknowledging i ts force on e might have have ,
argued wi th h i m for a month H e utterly denied .
the prem i ses — h e had no faith in ou r Jersey weeds

ever being killed no matte r how m u ch luck we had
,
thus far had with them and I would see that he ,
w a s right .
But having originated the dogma I fully believed ,
in it and felt bound to maintain it ; so Dick and I

,
went resolutely to work a second time a s soon as ,
the new cr op was well ou t of the ground The .
labor was certainly n ot as great as on the first cr op ,
but it was hot work I carried a file in my pocket

.
,
and kept my hoe as sharp as I have always kept my

carving knife and taught Dick to put his horse
,
weeder in prime order every evening when we had

quit work The perspiration ran in a stream from
.
me in the hot s u n and a few blisters rose on my

,
hands but my appetite w a s rampant and never

, ,
have my slumbers been so undisturbed and

peaceful .
About the third week in June we got through the

second cleaning and then rested From that time
,
.
to the end of the first week in July t here had been

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
103
no rain wi th a powerfully hot sun Duri ng this

, .
interval the we e ds grew again and entirely new ,
generations some few of the first varieties but the

, ,
remainder bei ng new sorts Thus there were wet .
weather weeds and dry weather weeds ; and as I -
afterwards found there was a regular Succession of

,
varieties from sprin g to wi nter and even into ,
December — cold weather weeds as well as h ot

-
weather weeds A gainst each new army as it

.
sh owed itself an onslaught was to be made I was .
persuaded in my mind that the same army which

we killed this year cou ld not S how itself the next ,
and that therefore there ought to be that number

l ess . But Dick could not see this .
I O bserved moreover that each variety had its

, ,
particular period when it vegetated s o that it ,
might have time to get ahead and keep ou t of t h e

w a y of its successor It was evident that the see d s
.
of any one kind did not all vegetate the same s e a
s on
. H erein was a wonderful provision of Provi
dence to insure the perpetuity of all ; f or if all the
rag weed f or instance had vegetate d the first se a
-
, ,
s on of my experience they would assuredly have ,
been killed But multitudes remained d ormant in

.
the earth as if thus stored up f or the purp ose of re

,
pairing another y ear the casualties which their

, ,
forerunners had encountered during the present

on e
. Thus n o on e weed can be extirpated in a s in
gle season ; neither do we have the whole cata
logue to attack at the same time .
My warfare against the enemy continued u m

abated A s the ti me came f or each new variety to

.
S how i tself, so we took i t in hand with h oe and

weeder D i ck and his horse made such admirable
.
progress that I cannot r e frai n from recommending

,
this most efficient tool to the noti ce of every culti

va t or
. With one man and a horse it will do the
work of six men cutting ofi the weeds j ust below
,
the ground and leavi ng them to wi lt on the surface .
It costs but S ix dollars , and can be had in all the

cities It would have cost me a hundred dol lars to
.
do the same amount of work wi th the hoe, wh i ch

this implement did wi thin four wee ks .
Thus aided ou r labors extended clear into N ovem

,
ber In the intervals between the diff erent growths

.
of weeds we l ooked afte r the other crops

,
But .
when the winter closed in upon u s, the whole ground

wa s s o thorou ghly cleaned of them as to be the a d
m ira tion of th e j eerers and croaker s who, early in
the season had pitied my enthusiasm or ridi culed
,
my anticipations E ven Dick w a s somewhat sub

.
dued and doubtful I do not think a single weed .
e scaped ou r notice and went to seed that season

, .
I s a w this year a beau tiful illustration of the idea

that there are specific manures for certain p lants .
I ca n hardly doubt that each has its S pecific favori te ,
and that if c ul ti v ators could discover what that

favorite is our crops might be indefinitely increased
, .
O n a piece of ground whi ch had been sowed with

turnips on which guano had p revi ously been sprin
,
kled during a gentle rain there sprang up the most ,

’
marvellous growth of p urslane that ever met one s
and noticing the peculi arities of particular plants ;

the habits O f destructive ani mals or insects ; the
de p redations as well as the services of birds ; the
when the how and the apparent wherefore of the
, ,
germination of seeds ; the growt h of the stem, the

vine Or the stalk that proceeds from them and the
, ,
formation growt h and ripening of the fruit which

, ,
they bear Let no farmer fruit grower or gar

.
,
-
,
dc h er neglect Observation for an exclusive reliance

,
on book farming -
.
It would be a most erroneous conclusion for the

reader to suppose that all th is long continued labor -
in keeping the ground clear of weeds was s o much

labor thrown away O n the contrary even apart .
,
from ridding the soil of s o many nuisances s o many ,
robbers of the nourishment provided for useful

plants it kept the land in the most admirable condi
,
tion The good conferred up on the garden by h oeing

.
and raking wa s r e enacted here E verything I had

,
-
.
planted grew wi th surprising luxuriance I do .
think it was an illustration of the value of thorough

culture made s o manifest that no one could fail to
,
observe it It abundantly repaid me f or all my

.
watchfulness and care Dick was forced to a c .
knowledge that he had seen no such clean work

done in that part O f N ew Jersey .
My nurseryman came along at the end of the s ea

s on to see how I had fared and walked deliberately
, ,
over the ground with me examining the peach ,
trees H e said he had never seen young trees

.
grow more vigor ou sl v N ot on e of them had died . .

1 07
The ras p berries had not grown so much as he ex

p e c te d,
but the strawberry rows were now filled -
wi th plants A s runners were thrown ou t I had

.
,
carefully trained them in line with the parent

s tools, not permitting them to sprawl right and left
over a great surface forming a mass that could not
,
be weeded even by hand This he did n ot a p

, .
prove of H e said by letting them spread ou t

.
right and left the crop of fruit would be much

greater but admitted that the S ize of the berries
,
would be much smaller But he contended that .
q u a n ti t
y w a s what the publ i c wanted and that they ,
di d not care so much for q u a li ty Yet he could not .
explain the damaging fact that the largest sized

fruit was always the most eagerly sought after and ,
invariably commanded the highest price Though .
he did not approve of my m ode of cultivation yet he ,
could not convince me that I had made a mistake .
From these we walked over to the blackberries .
They too had grown finely under my thorough

, ,
culture of the ground Besides sending up good .
c an es which promised a fair crop the next season ,
each root had sent up several suckers some of them ,
several feet away and ou t of the line of the r ow

,
.
These I had intended to sell and had preserved as ,
many as possible kno wi ng there would be a demand

,
for all The interest in the new berry had rapidly

.
e x tended all round among my neighbors and I very ,
soon discovered that my nurseryman wanted to buy .
In fact I believe he came more for that purpose than

,
to se e h ow I was doing But I talked offish — spoke

.
of having e ngaged two or three lots and coul d ,
hardly speak with certainty F inally he offered to

.
,
give me a receipt f or th e 812 0 he was to receive ou t

of the strawberries he had sold me and pay me $ 100 ,
do wn for a thousand blackberry plants Th ough I

,
.
felt pretty sure I could do better yet I closed with ,
him A s he had evidently come prepared with

.
money to clinch some sort of bargain he produced i t ,
and paid me on the spot H e afterwards retailed

.
nearly all of the plants for a much larger s u m But .
it w as a good bargain for both of us It paid me .
well and was a l l clear profit

, .
I may add that these blackberry roots came into

more active demand from that time until the next
spring ; and when spri ng opened , more suckers came
up as if knowing they were wanted These , with
,
.
m y previous stock amounted to a large number

, A .
seed man in the city advertised them for sale and ,
took retail orders for me H is sales wi th m y own,

.
,
absorbed every root I could spare When they had .
all been dis p osed of , and my receipts were footed

u p I found that they amounted to four hundred and
,
sixty dollars leavi ng me three hundred and forty

,
dol lars clear, after paying for my strawberry plants .
This was far better than I had anticipated It .
may sound cur i ously now when the plants can be

,
had so cheaply but it is a true p i cture of the market

,
at the time of which I write It is the great profit

.
to be realized from the sale of new plants that sti m

u l a t es their cultivation Many men have made for
.
tunes from the sale O f a new fruit or flower, and

1 10 T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
p lants b e tter breeds of animals and in fact every

, ,
improvement connected with agriculture if j udi,
c iou sl y adopted at the earliest moment will gener

,
ally be found to p ay even after allowing for losses

,
on the numerous ch e ats wh i ch a r e conti nually turn

ing u p.
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
11 1
CHA P T ER XII .
P I G S AN D P O U L T R Y — L U C K AND I LL L U C K .
VE RY early after taking possession I invested ,
twelve dollars in the purchase of seven pigs of the

ordinary country breed They were wanted to eat .
the many odds and ends which are yielded by ten

acres a good garden and the kitchen I did not
, ,
.
look for much money profit from them but I knew ,
they were great a s architects in building up a manure

heap Yet they were capital th ings with which to
.
pack a meat tub at Christmas saving money from

-
,
the butcher as well as much r u nning abroad to

,
market They shared wi th the cow in the abundant

.
tri m mings and surplus from the garden eating many ,
things which sh e rej ected and app ropriating all the ,
slop from the kitchen In addition to this w e fed

.
,
them twice a day w ith boiled bran sometimes with ,
a handful of corn meal but never upon whole corn , .
This cooking of the food was no great trouble in the

kitchen but its effect on the pigs w a s most beneficial
,
.
They grew finely except one whi ch died after four

,
months feeding but from what cause could n ot be

’
,
ascertained .
The consequence was that when O ctober came ,
round the six rema ining ones were estimated by

,
Dick to average at least one hundred and fifty p ounds

each and were in p ri me condition for fattening In
,
.
the early part of that month their sup ply of cooked

mush wa s i ncreased I am of op in i on that farmers
.
leave the fattening of their hogs too late and that a ,
month on corn before December is worth three

, ,
months after i t By the tenth of December they

.
were ready for the butcher and on being k illed , ,
were found to average two hundred and twenty four -
pounds or nine hundred and forty four in all This

,
-
.
be ing three times as much as we needed for home

use the remain der was sent to the store where i t
, ,
netted me forty nine dollars -

.
I am quite certain there was a p rofit on these

pigs They consumed quantities of refuse toma
.
toes and devoured p arsnips with the greatest

,
eagerness O ne day I direc ted D i ck to cut up some

.
stalks of ou r green sweet corn by means of the ,
fodder cutter which delivers them in pieces ha lf an

-
,
inch long and mix them with bran for the pigs I
,
.
found they consumed it wi th great avid i ty E ver .
after that they were served twi ce daily w i th the

same mess It seemed to take the p lace of stronger
.
food as well as of grass and was an acceptable

, ,
variety In this way the money cost of food w as

.
kept at a low figure and the labor we spent on the

,
p igs showed itself in the fi ne y i eld of p rime pork ,
which brought the highest pr i ce I n the market .
The yiel d of rich manure was also very satisfactory ,
all which at intervals through the season wa s

, ,
removed from the p en and p ut under cover, f or

over Dick undertook the whole business of cooking

,
f or the pigs and cow himself In fact on one occa .

,
sion I succeeded in getting him to curry down both

cow and pigs They all looked a nd showed s o much
.
better for near a week thereafter that coming on ,
him une x pectedly one day I found him repeating ,
the operation of h is own motion and S O he vol u n ,
ta r il y continued the practice during the whole

winter The pigs seemed delighted with the pro
.
cess and had very little scratching of their own to

,
do Their backs and sides were kept continually

.
smooth while their whole appearance was changed

,
f or the better A s to the cow sh e took to being

.
,
curried with the best possible grace and impr oved ,
under it as much as the pigs ; but whether it in

creased the flow of milk I cannot say as no means ,
were taken to solve that question But as Dick s .

’
devotion to the currycomb excited my admiration ,
s o there was abundant evidence that both pigs and
cow were equally captivated .
This business of raising and carefully attending

to only half a dozen h Og s i s worthy of every sm a ll
,
’
farmer s serious study and attention The hog and .
his food with what is cheapest and best for him is

, ,
really one of the sciences not an exact on e it is

, ,
true but still a science O ne must lo ok at and

,
.
study many things and they can all be made to pay

,
.
The propensity to acquire fat in many anim al s

seems to have been implanted by nature The hog .
fattens most rapidl y in such a condition of the a t

m osp h er e as is most congenial to his c omfor t — not
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
115
too h ot, nor too cold H ence the months of S eptem

.
ber O c tober and N ovember are the best for making

, ,
pork The more agreeable the weather the less is

.
,
the amount of food required to supply the waste of

life
. It has been found by s ome persons that a
clover field is the best and cheapes t place to keep
hogs in during the spring and summer months ,
where they have a ple n ty of water the slop from the ,
house and the sour milk from the dairy

,
A ll .
sour feed contains more nitroge n than when fed in

a sweet state The first green herbage of the spring
.
w orks OR the impurities of the bl ood cleanses the ,
system renovates the constitu t ion and enables the

, ,
animal to accumulate a store of strength to carry it

forward to its destined co u rse .
Many obj ect to beginnin g the fattening process s o

early in the season as the corn relied on f or that
,
purpose is n ot then fully matured But taking all .

,
things into c onsideration it is perhaps better to feed,
corn before it is ripe as in that state it possesses

,
more sweetness Most varieties are in milk in S ep

.
tember when the hogs will chew it s w allow the

, ,
j uice a nd ej ect the dry fibrous matter Duri ng the

, , .
growi ng seas on of the year swine can be fed on ,
articles n ot readily marketable as imperfect fruit , ,
vegetables etc When such articles are used cook

,
.
,
ing them is always economical Most vegetables .

,
when boiled or steamed and mixed wi th on ly an ,
eighth of their b u lk of mill feed or meal whey and -

, ,
milk left to sour will fatten hogs fast In this state

, .
they will eat it with avidity and derive more benefit ,

from it than when fed in an unfermented state .
A rticles of a perishable nature shoul d be used first ,
to prevent waste as it is desi rable to turn all the

,
products of the farm to the best account A nother .
quite important advanta ge Of early feeding is the

,
less trouble in cooking the food C onvenience of .
feeding i s promoted as there is no cost nor trouble

,
to guard against freezing .
Th e more you can mix the food the better, ,
as they will thr ive faster on mixed food t hen when

fed separately In feeding no more should be given
.
,
at a time than is eaten up clean and the feeding ,
should be regular as to time It is of the greatest .
importance t o get the best varieties those that are ,
wel l formed and have an aptitude f or taking on fat

,
readily and consume the least fo od

,
A s to which .
is the best kind there seems to be a great diversity

,
of O pinion some preferring one kind and some

,
another The S uffolks come to maturity earliest

.
,
and probably are the most profitable to kill at from

seven to ten months ; but others prefer the Berk
shire . The pork of both is excellent : they will
usually weigh from 2 5 0 t o 3 00 pounds a t the age of
eight or ten m onths Th e better way is to ha v e
.
the pigs dropped about the first of A pril and feed ,
well until December and then butcher ,

.
From a variety of experiments I am satisfied it is ,
wrong to let a hog remain poor twelve m onths of h is

life when he could be made as large in nine months
,
as he generally is in fifteen ; and I c onceive it a

great error to feed corn to hogs with out grinding .
ing qualities ; nor even a good breed without c on ,
ve nie nc e or proper care A good hog can not be

.
fatted to any profit in mud or filth nor where he ,
su f f ers from cold H is comfort should be consulted

.
as much as that of any other animal It is a great .
error to assume that he is naturally fon d of livi ng

among fil th O n the contrary hogs are remarkably
.
,
neat and those which fatten the best always keep

,
themselves the cleanest O ne farmer assured me

.
that he had made h i s corn bring per bushel by

passi ng it through the bowels O f his hogs besides ,
having the manure clear A nother did much better

.
by cooking his meal .
A s no farm is pronounced complete w i thout poul

try and as both my wife and daughters were e s
,
p e c ia ll y fond O f looking after chickens a t leas t ,

-
they thought they would b e —so to make their new , ,
home attractive I inves ted $ 7 in the purchase of a

,
cock and ten hens They were warranted to be

.
powerful layers and would hatch fifteen eggs apiece

, .
It struck me that this sounded very large but on ,
my wife observing it would be only a hundred and

fifty chickens the first season I gave in wi thout a ,
word The fact is that chickens were not my hobby

. .
I did not think they would pay even after hearing ,
my wife dilate on the luxury it would b e to have

fresh eggs every morning for breakfast f or pies and ,
puddings, and various other things which she enu

m e ra te d and as sh e expressed it, eggs of our own
, ,
laying .
I coul d not s ee how this circle of wonders was to

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
119
be accomplished by only ten hens and insinuated ,
that it would be a good thing if sh e could m ake a

bargain with each of her hens to lay two eggs a day .
In reply to this she astonished me by saying that

,
A mericans did not know how to make the most of

things but that the French did S he said that a cer
, .
tain Frenchman mentioning his name — h e was either

,
a marquis or count of course— had recently d isc ov

,
ered the art of making hens lay every day by feeding

them on horse fl e sh and that he feeds ou t twenty fi ve
-
,
-
horses a day which he obtains among the used u p

,
-
h acks of Paris S he said he had a hennery which

.
furnishes forty thousand dozens of eggs a we ek and ,
that it y i elds the propri etor a clear profit O f five

thousand dollars every seven days A fter hearing .
thi s I felt certain sh e had been readin g some modern

poultry book But as she did not speak O f requiri ng
-
.
me to furnish horse fl e sh f or her pets nor contem

-
,
plate the establishment of a fresh laid egg company -

,
but only suggested the consumption of a little raw

meat now and then I volunteered no obj ections ,
.
H er enthusiasm was such as to make it unsafe to do so .
Why should not sh e and the children be gratified

The hens came home and were put into a cage in ,
the barnyard to familiarize them with their new

,
home But they did not lay so freely as she had ex

.
p e c te d ,
while some did not lay at all Worse than .
that as soon as let ou t of their cage th ey got over

, ,
the fence into the garden where they scratched as ,
violently as if each on e had a broo d of fifteen to

scratch for They made terrible h avoc a m o ng the
.
young flowers and vegetables and tore up the be ds ,
which had been so nicely raked O ne of the girls .
was employed half her time in driving them ou t I .
thought it too great an expense to raise the barnyard

fence high enough to keep them in and s o they were ,
march ed back into the cage It happened to be too .
small f or so many fowls which my wi fe did not sus

,
peet until on e day putting her hand in to draw

, ,
forth a sick hen sh e discovered her w hole arm and

,
sleeve to be swarming with lice H ere was some .
thing sh e did not remember to have been treated of

in her poultry book But the nuisance was s o great
-
.
,
as well as so active soon extendi ng itself all over her

,
person, as to compel her to strip and change her entire

dress, and to p lunge the lousy one in a t u b of water .
I confess the difficulty was a new one to me My .
experience i n p oultry had been limited My knowl .
edge of them wa s exclusively anatom i cal Obtained ,
by frequent dissections with t h e carvi ng knife O n -

.
calli ng Dick however it appeared that he knew

, ,
more about this trouble than the whole family to

gether When m y wife descr i bed her condition to
.
him and how sh e had swarmed with the vermin

, ,
the fellow laughed outright, but said they wouldn t ’
hurt — h e k new all about them for he had been full ,
of lice more than once I H e said he expected this ,
as the fowls had been kept u p t oo close : they would

neither lay thrive n or kee p clear of vermin unless
, , ,
allowed to run about .
But he took the case in hand clipped their wings , ,
satu rated their hea d s with lamp oil provided abun ,

may consult with profit A s an incident of farm life

.
it wi ll always be interesting and with those who ,
understand the art it ought to be profita ble .
Foreigners m u st be more e xperienced in the busi

ness of raising poultry than A mericans j udging by ,
the vast quantities they annually produce for market .
The quantity imported into E ngland is so enorm ous ,
that it is impossible to determine its amount Into .
only two of the prin cipal London markets there is

annually brou ght from France and Belgium ,
000 eggs ,
fowls pigeons
, ,
geese and turkeys and ,

ducks In additi on .
to these the large amount sent to poulterers and

,
private houses must be consi d ered The Brighton .
railroad alone carries yearly tons of eggs which

come from France and Belgium Yet w i th all these .
,
i mmense supplies the London markets are f re

,
quently very meagrely supplied with butter and

eggs The trade i s shown by these figures to be
.
on e of great national value A mericans have strange

.
l y neglected its cultivati on with the method and

precision of foreigners We can raise food more
.
cheaply than they while none of them can boast of

,
possessi ng ou r incomparable Indian corn .
There are several of my neighbors wh o are highly

skilled in the art of ra i sing poultry O ne of them .
is quite a poultry fancier, and by keeping only

-
,
choice breeds h e realizes fancy prices for them

, .
A nother confines his fowls in a plum orchard and -
thus secures an annual crop of plums without being

stu ng by the curculio In general, the female portion
.
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
12 3
of the fa mily atte nd to this branch Of domestic busi

ness and real iz e a snug sum from it annually A
,
.
brood of young chickens turned into a garden the ,
hen confined in her coop, will soon clear i t of de

structi ve i nsects
.
CHA PT ER XIII .
C I T Y AND CO U NTRY L I FE C ONTRAS TE D .
TH E pensive reader must not ta ke it for granted

that in going int o the country we escaped all the
annoyances of domestic l i fe peculiar to the city or ,
that we fell heir to no new ones such as w e had ,
never before experienced H e must remember that

.
this is a world of compensations and that nowhere ,
will he be likely to find either an unmixed good or

an unmixed evil S uch was exactly our experience
. .
But on summing u p the two the balance w a s de,
c id e d l y in ou r favor It is true that though the

.
town close by us had well paved streets yet the

-
,
walk of half a mile to reach them w a s a mere gravel

path which was sometimes muddy in summer and
, ,
sl oppy with unshovelled snow in winter But I .
walked over it almost daily to the post Ofii c e not -

,
even imagining that it was worse than a city pave

ment The tramp of the chil d ren to school was not
.
longer than they had been used to and my wife and ,
daughters thought it no hardship to go shopping

among the well supplied stores quite as frequently
-
a s when living in the city Indeed I sometimes

.
,
thought they went a little O ftener Th e v were cer .
ta inl y as well posted up as to the n e w fashions as

I have S i nce discovered that my prognostications

were much more to be depended on than hers .
Then the walks for miles around u s were e x cellent,

a n d we all became great wal k ers f or walking we ,
found to be good Not merely stepping from shop

.
to shop or from neighbor to neighbor but stretching

, ,
away out into the country to the freshest fields the

, ,
shadiest woods the highest ridges and the greenest

, ,
lawns We found that ho wever sullen the imagina

.
tion may have been among its griefs at home here it ,
cheered up and smiled H owever listless the limbs

.
may have been by steady toil here they were braced

,
up and the lagging gait became buoyant again

, .
However stubborn the memory may be i n presenting

that only which was agonizing and insisting on that
,
which cannot be retrieved on walking among the

,
glowing fields it ceases to regard the former and ,
forgets the latter Indeed we all ca m e to esteem

.
,
the mere breathing of the fresh wind upon th e c om

monest highway to be rest and comfort which m u st ,
be felt to be believed .
But then we h ad neither gas nor hydrant water ,
those two prime lu xuries of city life Yet there w a s .
a pump in a deep well under a shed at the kitchen

door from which we drew water so C
,
old as not at
any time to need that other city l u xury ice It was ,
.
gratifying to se e h ow expertly even the small chil

dren operated with the pump handle In a month -
.
we ceased to regret the hydrants A s to gas we .

,
had the modern lamps wh i ch gi ve s o clear a light ;

,
not s o convenient it must be confessed but then

, ,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
12 7
they did not cost us over half as muc h neither did ,
we s it up near s o long at night There were two .
mails fro m the city daily and the newsboy threw the
,
morning p aper into the front d oor while we sa t at

breakfast . The evening p aper came up from the
city before we had supped We had t wo daily mails
.
from N ew York besides a telegraph station The

, .
baker served us twice a day with bread when we ,
needed it ; the oysterman became a b ore he rang ,
the bell s o often ; and the fi sh wag on with s ea fi sh -

,
-
packed in ice directly from the sh ore was within

, ,
call as of ten as we desired with fish as cheap and ,
sound as any to be purchased in the city G roceries .
and provisi ons fro m the store cost no more than

they did there but they were no cheaper But in
,
.
the item of rent the saving was enormous — really ,
half enough in my case to keep a moderate family

, , .
Many s the time when sweating over the weeds

’
, ,
have I thought of this last heavy drain on the purse

of the city toiler and thanked H eaven that I had
,
ceased to work f or the landlord .
We had books as abundantly as aforetime as we ,
retained ou r share in the city library and became ,
subscribers t o that in the adj oining town It is true .
that the road in fr ont of us was never thronged like

C hestnut street but we neither sighed afte r the
-
,
crowd n or missed its presence We s aw no flash of .
j ewelry n or heard the rustling of e xpensive silks

, ,
except the few which on particular occasions were

sported within ou r own unostentatious d om icile .
O ur entire wardrobes were manifestly on a scale less

12 8 TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
costly than ever O ur Old c i ty friends were ap

.
p a r e ntl y a great way off but as they could reach us

,
in an hour either by steamboat or rail they quickly ,
found us out The relish of their society was

.
heightened by dis tance and se p aration In short, .
while f a r from being hermits we were happy in ,
ourselves I think my wi fe became a perfectly

.
happy woman— what it had been the great study of

my wedded life to make her — the very sparkle and
sunshine of the house S he possessed the magic .
secret of being con tented under any circumstances .
The current of my life had ne v er been so dark and

unpropitious that the sunshine of her happy face
, ,
falling across its turbid course, failed to awake an

answering gleam .
S peaking Of visitors from abroad I noticed that ,
our city friends came to make their vi s i ts on the very

hottest summer d ays when of all others w e were
, , ,
ourselves su fficiently e xhauste d by the heat and were ,
disposed to put up wi th as little cooking and in door -
work as possible But as such visitations were not

.
exactly comfortable to the visited so we could not ,
s e e h ow they could be any more agreeable to the vis
itors . Yet they generally remarked even when the ,
mercury was up to ninety fi ve H ow much cooler -

,
it is in the country ! They did really enj oy either

!
themselves or the heat But my wife t old them it.
was only the change O f scene that made the weather

tolerable and that if they lived i n the country they
,
would soon disc over it to be quite as hot as in the

city F or my part I bore the heat admirably, though
.
,
her p resenc e relie ved my wi fe Af ter that I do .

,
not th i nk she compla i ned quite as much of the hot
weather nor was sh e inclined so frequently to re

,
peat her former observation that the sultry days ,
always brought the most company Indeed I am .

,
certain that on on e or two occasions, when the dog

days were terri bly oppressive she prevailed on ,
dif ferent p arties to p rolong the i r stay for nearly a

week .
N ow th i s taking on of Betty did not imply that

,
my d aughters were to be brought up to do nothing

— or to do everything that is fashionable imper
f e c tl y.My w ife had already educated the m in

domestic duties — not merely to marry to go off ,
w ith h u sbands in a hurry and afterwards f r om ,
them To the two eldest sh e had taught a trade

.
,
and they were both able to earn their salt They .
could not only dress themselves , but knew how to

make their dresses and bonnets and all the clothing ,
for the younger children S he cul tivated in them

.
all that wa s necessary in the position in which they

were born one thing at a time but that thing in
, ,
perfection ; s o that i f parents were impoverished or ,
i f in after life reverses should overtake themselves

-
,
they might feel independent in the ability to earn

their ow n support S he frowned upon the senseless
.
ri valries of social life as destructive of m orals mind

, , ,
and health , and imbued their spirits with a devout

veneration f or holy things S he taught them no .
worship of the almighty d ollar b u t sound practical , ,
econom y the art of saving the pi eces S urely it

, .
must b e e ducati on alone which fills th e worl d w i th

two kinds of girls— one kind which a p pears best
abroad good f or parties , rides , and v i sits and whose
, ,
chief delight is in such things — good in fact, for ,
little else The other is the kind that ap p ears best

.
at home graceful in the p arlor, captivating in social

,
intercourse useful in the sick chamber as in the

,
the dini ng room and cheerful in all the p recincts of

-
,
home They differ wi dely in character O n e is

. .
oft e n the fam i ly torment the other the fam i ly

blessing : one a moth consuming everyth ing about
her ; the other a sunbeam inspiring life and glad
,
ness all along her pathway A s my wi fe embo d ied

.
in h erself all that to me appeared desirable in

woman s o she possesse d the faculty of transfusing
,
her own v i rtu e s into th e cons ti tuti on of her

dau ghte rs .
13 2 T EN ACRES ENO UG H .
CHA PT ER XIV .
TW O ACRE S IN TR U C K— R E VO L U T I O N IN A GRI CUL

TUBE .
I H A D one acre in tomatoes a vegetable f or whose

,
producti on the soil of N ew Jersey is perhaps wi thout

a rival The plants are started in hot be ds where
.
-
,
they flourish until all danger from frost di sappears ,
when they are s et ou t in the open air with a gener ,
ou s shovel full of well rotted stable manure de

- -
p os i te d under each plant A moist day is preferred

.
for this operation ; but even wi thout it this p lant

generally goes on grow i ng It has been observed
.
that the oftener i t is transplanted, the more qu i ckly

i t matures ; and as the great effo rt among growers
i s t o be first in market so some of them take pains
,
to g i ve it two transplanti ngs Having no hot bed

.
-
on my prem i ses and my time be i ng fully occupied

,
with other things I was compelled to purchase

,
plants from th ose w h o had them to spare the cost ,
of which i s elsewhere stated But the operati on .
p aid well .
The quantity produced by an acre of well manured -
tomatoes i s almost incredible When i n full bear

.
ing the field seems to be perfectly red with them

,
.
Those which come first into market even without ,
being perfectly rip e, sell f or S ixpence apiece S o .

For the first few baskets of early tomatoes I sent

to market I obtained two dollars per basket of three
,
p ecks each O ther growers coming in competiti on

.
with me the price rapidly diminished as the supply

,
increased, until it fell to twenty five cents a bushe l -

.
A t less than this the gr owers refused to pick them ;

and seasons have been repeatedly known when te ns
of thousands of bushels were left to per i sh on the
vines When this low price could be no longer

.
obtained they were gathered and thrown to the

,
pigs who consumed them freely But as the season

,
.
advanced the supply diminished and the price again ,
rose to a dollar a basket the demand continuing as ,
long as any could be procured The tomatoes are at .
this seas on p icked green from the vines and placed ,
under glass where they are imperfectly ripened ;

,
but such is the public appreciation of th i s whole

s ome vegetable that when thus only half reddened
, ,
they are eagerly sought afte r by hotels and boar d

ing hou ses
-
.
But of latter years measures have been taken to

prevent to some extent the enormous waste of
, ,
tomatoes during the height of the season by pre ,
serving them in cans E stablishments h ave been .
started at which any quantity that may be offe red

,
is purchased at twenty fi ve cents a bushel ; and -
n ow they can be kept through the whole year and ,
be preserved for winter consumption the same as ,
potatoes or turnip s By hermetically sealing them

.
in cans from which the air has been expelled by

heat they are n ot only preserved but made to
, ,
13 5
reta in their full flavor ; and may be enj oy e d, at a

ve ry moderate cost in the wi nter as well as the
,
summer The demand for them i s constant, large,

.
and increas i ng and putting u p canned tomatoe s has

,
become an extensive business O ne person wh o .

,
commenced the bus iness two years ago is literally ,
u p to the eyes in tomatoe s once a year H e pro .
’
vides for a s ingle year s trade over fif ty thousand
cans all of wh i ch are m anufactured by himself ;
,
and he employs over thirty persons most of them ,
women H e engages tomatoes at twenty five cents

.
-
a bushel a price at which the culti vator clears

,
about a hundr ed dollars an acre , and they come in

at the rate of a hundred and fifty bushels a day ,
requiring the constant labor of all han ds into the

night to dispose of them .
The building in which the bus i ness is carried on

w a s constructed exp ressly for i t A t one end of the .
room in whic h the canning is done is a range of

brick work supporting three large boilers ; and a d
-
j oining is another la rge boiler in which the scald ,
in g is done The tomatoes are first th rown into this

.
scalder and after r e maini ng there a sufficient time

, ,
are thro wn upon a long table on each side of which ,
are ten or twelve young women wh o rapidly divest ,
them of their leathery hides The pe e led tomatoe s

.
are then thrown into the boilers where they remain ,
until they are raised to a boiling heat when they ,
are rapidly poured into th e cans and these are car ,
ried to the tinmen wh o with a dexterity tru ly mar

, ,
vell ons place th e caps upon them and solder them

, ,
down, when th e y are pi led up to cool, after wh i ch

they are labell e d, and are ready for market The .
rapidity and th e system wi th which all this is done

is most remarkable one of the tinm e n soldering
,
nearly a hundred cans in an hour .
The tomatoes thus p reserved are readil y sa lable

i n all the gr e at cities both for home consum p tion
,
and for use at sea T h us few vegetables hav e

.
,
gained s o rap i d and wi de s p read a populari ty as

-
this Until lately, but few persons would even

.
taste them ; and they were ra i sed, when culti vated

at al l more from cur i os i ty than anything else
,
.
Now scarcely a person can be found w h o is not

,
fond of them and they occupy a prom inent place

,
on almost every table .
My single acre of tomatoes produced me a clear

profit of $ 120 I am aware that others have real
.
ize d more than double this amount, but they were

experienced hands at the business My gains were .
quite as much as I had anticipated .
From all the remainder of the three acres but

little money wa s produced It gave me parsnips .
,
turnips and pum p kins Between the rows of sweet

,
.
c orn a fine crop of cabbages was raised of which my ,
sales amounted to $ 82 Thus an abundant su pply

.
,
of succulent food w as provided for horse cow and , ,
pigs during the W inter all wh i ch sa v ed the outlay

,
of s o much cash I admit that a few of my veg

.
etables did not yield equal to the grounds of some of

my neighbors thus disappointing some of m y c al c u
,
la tions But I was inexperienced had much to

.
,
13 8 TEN ACRES ENOUG H .
and w il d as when the native p ines were first cleare d

away A ccess wa s so labori ous , that few strangers
.
vi si ted the regi on through which it passed ; and the

l and was held in large tracts whereon but few ,
settlers had made clearings A ll j udged the soil as .
worthless as the deep sand in the highway Where .
some settler did clear u p a farm , his labors presented

no inviting s p ectacle to the p ass i ng traveller If .
manure w a s known in those days the farmer did not ,
appear to value i t f or h e ne i ther manufactured nor

,
used i t Phosphates and fertilizers had not been

.
dreamed of If he spread any fertilizer over his

.
fields it was but a starveling rati on ; hence his corn

,
crop wa s a harvest of nubb i ns Wheat he never .
thought of raising ; rye was the sole winter grain ,
and rye bread rye mush and rye pie crust, held nu
, ,
-
contested dominion, squalid condiments as they all

are in each equally squal i d farm house R agweed
,
-
.
and pigweed took alternate possession of the fields ;

cultivation was at i ts last p oint of attenuation none
grew rich while all became poor ; and as autumn
,
came on even the ordinarily thoughtless grasshopper

,
climbed feeb l y u p to the abounding mullein top , and

with tears i n his eyes surveyed the melancholy
desolation around him S uch is a true picture of the
.
king s highway up to the building of the Camden

’
and A mboy Railroad .
N o wonder that the great public who traversed it

thro ugh this part of N ew Jersey should think it and ,
speak of it everywhere as being all s a nd seeing that

, ,
in their passage through it they beheld but little

139
e l se H ence , the reputa tion thus early establ i shed

.
continues to the present day and the tradi ti on has ,
been incorporated into th e public vernacul ar The .
sandy r oad alone was seen whil e the green and ,
fertile tracts that lay beyond and around it were

unknown because unseen Like th e traveller from
,
.
Dan to Beersheba the cry was that all was barren

, .
But time improvement education ra il roads and the

, , , ,
marvellous grow th of Ph iladelphi a N ew York and , ,
fifty i nterme d iate towns have changed all this as by ,
enchantment E very mile of the ol d highway is now

.
a splendid gravel turnpike, intersected by a dozen

similar roads wh i ch stretch away up into the
,
country .
A s good roads invite settlement so population the , ,
great promoter of the value of land has come in ,
rapidly and changed the aspect of every farm house

,
-
.
G ood fences line the roadside rank hedgerows have ,
di sappeared new farm houses have been everywhere

,
-
b u ilt l ow lands have been draine d manures have

, ,
been imported from the cities wheat is now the ,
staple winte r grain, rye has ceased to be cultiva ted

-
,
and rye bread is now a mere reminiscence of the ol d

dispensation But chief perhaps of all the whole
.
, , ,
agricultural world of N ew Jersey h a s been educated

by the agricultural press to a high standard of intel
lige nc e and enterprise Its labors have led to the
.
establishment of numerous extensive nurseries by ,
the pressure of a gene ral demand for trees and

smaller fruits whose wilderness of blossoms now
,
annually blush and brighte n upon every farm It .

has taught them to culti vate new vegetables and

fruits for city consumption alone salabl e for cash ,
in each successive month ; in d oing which they ha ve ,
changed from a poverty stricken to a money making

- -
generation It has taught them, wha t none pre

.
v iou sl y believed, that no good farmi ng can be done
without hi gh manuring and banished the ignorance

,
and meanness that prevented them from spending

money to secure it It has introduced to their
.
notice n e w and portable m a nures improved tools , ,
better breeds of stock of all k i nds an d sharpened ,
their perceptions, until they have now be come men

of business as well as farmers and so p roved its ,
value to them that b e upon whose table no agr ic ul

,
tural j ournal can be found may be writte n down as ,
the laggard of a progressive age .
But in addition to all these stimulants to progress

the Camden and A mboy R ailroad came in giving it ,
a vast momentum Terminating at Philadelphia and

.
N ew York it opened u p a cash market among thou

,
sands asking f or daily bread When this road wa s .
first opened its annual way freight yielded less than

,
-
on e hundred dollars a year But its managers wisely

.
built station houses at every cross road, as the farm

- -
ers called f or them To these nucle i the produce

.
of entire townships quickly gathered i n astonishing
quantities Agents from the great cities traversed

.
the country, and bought everything that was f or sal e .
A cash market being brought to the i r very doors ,
where none had previously existed an immense stim ,
ulus to production followed, and a new spirit wa s

spendin g thousands i n manure, while farms have

advanced from $3 0 to $ 100 and $200 per acre The .
last ten years have added thirty per cent to the .
populati on S chools, churches and towns have pro

.
,
p o r t iona te l y increased in number .
The soil of this truc k region conta ins a large pro

portion of sand with loam on which manure acts
,
with an energetic quickness that brings all early

truck into the great markets in advance of the neigh
boring country This secures high prices S outhern
. .
competition has only stimulated the growers to in

creased exertion Though from th i s cause los ing
.
some of the high rewards of former years yet the ,
aggregate of p rofit does not seem to d i minish Bet .
ter cultivation higher manuri ng changing one prod

, ,
u c t f or another, wi th more land brought into tillage ,
enable them t o foot up as large an amount of sales

at the end of th e se ason as aforetime They s e e that
.
the world cannot be overfed and tha t anything they

,
can produce will command a ready market C on .
sumers increase annually, and the public appetite

loses none of its rampant fie rce ne s s H ence , c om .
petition stimulates instead of discouragi ng .
A vast area is planted wi th tomatoes Though .
thou sands of bushels perish every season y e t two ,
hundred and even four hundred dollars an acre is

,
frequently the clear profit Thirty years ago three

.
,
bunches of rhubarb were brought to the London

market f or sale but as no one could be found to buy
,
them they were gi v en away yet London now con

,
sumes seven thousand tons annu ally S o in N ew .

,
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
143
Je rsey — the plante r of the first half acre was pitied

f or his temerity N ow there are hundreds of acres
.
,
of rhubarb The producti on of peas pickles cu

.
, ,
cumbers melons and cabbages is i mmense E arly

, , .
corn i s ra i sed in vast quantities A ll these various .
products command cash on delivery .
The soil of this region has long been f amous for

its growth of melons Formerly they were raised .
by ship loads but S outhern competition has checked

-
,
their production Yet N ew Jersey citrons possess a

.
flavor s o exquisite that they cannot be dri ven from

,
the market Peaches have long since become almost

.
obsolete the yellows and the worm having been great

,
disc ouragements But within three years hundreds

.
,
of acres of them have been planted in N ew Jersey ,
and the nurseries find ready sale in seasons of aver ,
age prosperity for all they can produce N umerous

,
.
orchards will annual ly come i nto bearing ; and the

chances are that this once famous staple wi ll again be
domesticated in its ancient stronghold A mong the .
smaller fruits strawberries occupy an important place

,
in N ew Jersey whose soil seems pecul iarly adapted

,
to t hem . Th e yield per acre i s enormous O ne .
grower has gathered 400 bushels from three acres of

the A lbany seedling H e began his p lantation wi th
.
a single d ozen plants at per dozen N ew , .
York and Philadelphia took them all at an avera ge

of eighteen cents a quart This patch wa s a marvel .
to look at The ground appeared fairly red wi th

.
berries of great size and were so abundant that ,
pickers abandoned other fields at two cents a quart ,

and volunteered to pi ck this at one and a half O ther .
neighboring growers realized large returns The .
two counties of Burling ton and Monmouth are

believed to yield more berries of all kinds than any
di strict of equal area in the U nion, and the cultiva
tion is rapidly extending .
A year or two ago, somebody i nvented and

p ate nted a new box f or taking them to market,
lighter neater cheaper than the ol d one, and sc our
, ,
ing thorough ventilation to the fruit A club of .
C onnecti cut men forthwi th organi zed a company with

a ca pi tal of for manufacturing them ; built
a factory, started an e ng i ne and now have forty ,
hands at work A n agent of the com p any went

.
through the S tate last fall , from M i ddletown to Cam

den, showing sam p les and taking orders H e sold
, .
three hundred thousand boxes many to those wh o ,
had t h e ol d ones but more to others j ust wanting

,
them A s he travelled on foot w i th samples in h i s

.
,
han d he i nquired his way over the country from

, ,
farm to farm and probably discovered every grower

,
of an acre of berr i es O f course he could not fail to

.
visit and supply me H e gave me ma ny cur i ous

.
i tems of i nformation touching the extent of the berry

business There are parties in this country who have
.
fifty acres of strawberries on a single farm wi th a ,
thousand dollars invested merely in the small boxes

in which they are taken to mark et H e reports .
that the two counties of Burlington and Monmouth

produce more berries than all the remainder of the
S ta te S trawberr i es and raspberri es are now the
.
CHA PT ER XV .
BIRDS , AND TH E SE R VIC E S THE Y RENDER .
ONE morning in S eptember, hearing shots fired

repeatedly at the further end of my grounds, and
proceeding th i ther to ascertain the cause I dis ,
covered thre e great overgrown boobies wi th g un s

, ,
i n their hands, trampling down my strawberries ,
and shooting bluebirds and robins O n inquiring .
where they belonged they answered in the ne x t

,
townsh ip I suggested to them that I thought their

.
own townsh i p was quite large enough to keep its
own loafers wi thout sending them to depredate on

,
me warned them never to show themselves on my

,
prem i ses aga i n and then drove them ou t This

, .
happened to be the only occasion on which I wa s

invaded by a ny of the worthl ess l oafing tribe of ,
gunners wh o roam over some neighborhoods e m

, ,
gaged i n the manly occu p ation of k illing tomtits and

catbirds .
F or all such my aversion was as dec i ded a s my

parti ality for the birds wa s strong O ne of the little
.
amusem e nts I indulged in immediately on ta king

p ossess i on on my far m was to put up at least twenty
,
li ttle rough contr i vances about the premises , in

wh i ch the b irds might build Knowi ng their value
.
14 7
as destroyers of insects I was determined to protect

,
them ; and thus around the dwell ing house in the

,
-
,
garden trees and upon the sides of the barn as W ell

-
, ,
as in other places which promised to be popular I ,
placed boxes calabashes and squashes for them to

, ,
occupy The wrens and bluebirds took to them

.
with gratifying readiness built and reared their , ,
families But I observed that the wren quickly took

.
possessi on of every on e in which the hole was j ust

larg e enough to admit h i mself and too small to allow ,
the bluebird to enter ; while in those large enough

to admit a bluebird no wren would build This .
was be cause the bluebird has a standing spite against

the wrens which leads him to enter the nests of the
,
lat ter whenever possible and destroy their eggs

, , .
A lmost any number of wr ens may thus be attracted

round the house and garden where they act as ,
vigilant destroyers of insects .
These interesting creatures soon hatched ou t large

broods of young to provide fo od f or wh i ch they
,
were incessantly on the wing They became su r .
p r is in l
g y tame a n d familiar,
those especially which
were nearest the house and in trees beneath which
,
the family were constantly passing We watched .
their movements through the season with increasing

interest N o cat wa s permitte d even to approach
.
their nests no tree on which a family was domiciled

,
w a s ever j arred or sh aken and the young children ,
instead of regardin g them as game to be frightened

off or hunted , caught and killed were educated to
, , ,
admire and love them Indeed s o carefully did w e

.
,
obs e rve the i r loo k s and motions that many ti mes I

,
fel t almost sure that I could identify and recognize

the te nants of parti cul ar boxes They ranged over
.
the whole extent of my te n acres clearing the ,
bushes and v egeta bles of ins e cts and worms while

the garden, in which they sang and chatte red from
daybreak until sunset, w a s k ept entirely clear of th e
destroyers I encountered them at the furthest
.
extremity of my domain, p eering under the p each

leaves fli t ting from one tomato vine to another
,
-
,
almost as ta me as those at home They must have .
known me an d fe l t safe from harm I am p er

,
.
s u a d e d that I recogn i zed th e m Yet i t was at this

.
class of useful birds that th e boob i es calling them

selves sportsmen were ai m i ng their weapons when ,
I routed them from the prem i ses and forb i d the ,
murderous foray .
Insects are , occasionally one of the farmer s great

,
’
est pests But high thorough farming is a potent

.
,
destroyer It is claimed by British writers to be a

.
sure one W hen the average p roduce of wheat in

.
E ngland was only twenty bushels per acre the ,
ravages of the insect tribe were far more general

and destructive than they have been since the
average has risen to forty bushels per acre Why .
may not the cultivation of domestic birds like these ,
that nestle round the house and garden where ,
i ns ects mostly congregate , be considered an i mport

ant feature in any system of thorough farming
Besides the wrens and bluebirds the robins bu i lt ,
under the eaves of the wood shed and became -

,
50 TEN ACRES ENOU GH .
other birds had also d i scovered her conditi on and ,
hence their lamentati on over a misfortune they were

unable to remedy But they di d all they coul d,.
and were assiduously br ingi ng food to a nest full of

vorac i ous young ones as well as feedi ng the im pris
,
on e d parent I was so struck with the interesting

.
spectacle that my fam il y were called ou t to wi tness

it ; then having gazed upon i t a few moments I
, ,
cautiously approached the pr i soner took her i n my ,
hands carefully untied and then cut away the

,
treacherous string and let the frightened warbler

,
go free S he i nstantly flew u p i nto her nest as if to

.
,
s e e that all her callow brood were safe gave us ,
a song of thanks and immediately the crowd of

,
sympathizing birds as if conscious that the difficulty

,
no longer existe d, flew away t o their respective

nests .
It takes mankind a great while to l earn the ways

of Providence and to understa nd that things are
,
better contrived for him than he can contrive them

for himself O f late the people are beginning t o
.
,
,
learn that they have mistaken the character of m ost

of the little birds and have not u nderstood the
,
obj ect of the A lmighty in creating them They are .
the friends of those who plant and sow, and reap , .
It has been seen that they live mostly on insects ,
which are among the worst enemi es of the ag ric ul

turist ; and that if they take now and then a grain
of wheat a grape a cherry or a strawberry they
, , , ,
levy but a small tax for the immense services ren

dered In this altered state of things legi slatures
.
,
T EN ACRES ENOU GH .
15 1
are p assing l aws f or the p rote ction of l i ttl e b i rds ,

and increas ing the pe nalti es to be e nf orced u p on the
bird killers
-
.
A farmer i n my nei ghborhood came one day to

borrow a gun f or the purp ose of k ill ing some yellow
birds in his fiel d of wheat which he said were eat ,
i ng up the grain I declin e d to loan the gun In

. .
order however to grati fy his cur iosity I shot one of

, , ,
them opened its crop and found in i t two hundred

, ,
weevils and but four grains of wheat, and in these

,
four grains the weevi l had burrowed ! This was a

most instructive l e sson and worth the l ife of the ,
poor bird valuable as it wa s This bird resembles

,
.
the canary, and sings finely O ne fact like this .
affords an eloquent te xt f or sermonizing f or the ,
benefit of the farmers and others who may look u p

on little birds as inimical to their interests E very .
.
hunte r and farmer ought to know that there is

hardly a bird that flies that is not a friend of the
farmer and gardener .
S ome genial spirits have given the most elaborate

attention to the question of the value of birds O ne .
gentleman took h is position some fifte en feet from

the nest of an oriole in the top of a peach tree to
,
-
,
observe his habits The nest contained four young

.
ones W e ll fledged which every now and then would

, ,
stand upon the edge of the nest to try their wi ngs .
They were therefore at an age whi ch required the

, ,
largest supply of food This the parents furnished .
at intervals of two to six minute s throughout the ,
day They lighted on the trees the vines the grass

.
, , ,
15 2 T EN ACRES ENOU G H .
and other shrubbery, cl inging at times to the most

extreme and del i cate p oints of th e leaves in search ,
of insects N othing seeme d to come amiss to these

.
sharp eye d foragers

-
grasshop pers, caterpillars ,
worms and the smaller fli es S ometimes one and

, .
,
som etimes as many as six were p lainly fed to the ,
young ones at once They would also carry away

.
t h e refuse litter from the nest and drop it many ,
yards off A l i ttl e figuring gives the result of this

.
incessant warfare against the insects F or only .
eight working hours it w i ll be 1000 worms de

stroyed by a singl e p air of birds But i f a hundred .
pairs b e d om est ic a te d on the prem i ses, the destru o

'
tion will amount to daily, or a

month
This may seem to be a mere p aper calculation ,
but the annal s of ornithology are cro wded with c on

fir m a t ory facts The robin is accused of appropri
.
ating the fruit which he has protected during the

gr owing season from a cloud of enemies But his
.
.
principal food is spiders beetles caterpillars worms

, , , ,
and larvae N early 2 00 l ar vaa have been taken from

.
the gizzard of a single bird H e feeds voraciously .
on those of the destructive worm In July he takes .
a few strawberries cherri es and pulpy fruits gen

, ,
e r ally more as a dessert than anything else because

, ,
it is invariably found to be largely intermixed with

insects R obins killed i n the country at a distance
.
,
from gardens and fruit trees, are found to conta i n

-
less stone fru i t than those near vi l lages ; showi ng

-
than this bird i s not an e xte ns i ve forager If ou r .

som e birds wh i ch live exc l usively upon insects an d

gr ubs , and the quantity wh i ch they destroy is
enormous There are oth e rs which live partly on
.
grubs and partly on grain doi ng some damage but

, , ,
p rovi d i ng an abundant compe nsation A third class .
—the Birds of Prey — are exce p ted from th e cate
gory of benefactors and are pronounced too pre

, ,
c ip itate l y we think to be nox i ous inasmuch as

, ,
they live mostly upon th e smaller birds O ne class .
is a match for the other A certain insect was found

.
to lay eggs but a single tomtit was found to

,
eat eggs a year A swallow devours about.
5 4 3 i nsects a day eggs and all A sparrow s nest ’

, ,
.
in the city of Paris was found to contain 7 00 pairs

,
of the upper wings of cockchafers though of course , , ,
in such a p lace food of other kinds was procurable

i n abundance It will easily be seen therefore
.
, ,
what an e x cess of insect life i s produced when a

counterpoise like this is withdrawn ; and the statis
tics before u s show clearly to what an extent the
balance of nature h a s been di stu rbed A third and .
,
wholly artificial class of destroyers has been intro

d u c ed . E very c h a s s eu r , during the season kills it , ,
i s said , from 100 to 200 birds daily A single child .
h as been known to come home at night wi th 100

birds eggs and i t has been calculated and reported
’
,
’
that the number of birds eggs destroyed annually
in France is between and
Th e r esu l t is that little birds i n that country are
,
actually dying ou t ; some species have already d is

appeared and others are rapidl y diminishing But
,
.
15 5
ther e i s another consequence The French cro p s .
have suffered te rribly from the superabundance of

i nsect verm i n N ot only the various k i nds of gra in,
.
but the v me s the olives and even forest trees tell

, , ,
the same tale of mischief till at length the alarm

,
has become serious Birds are now l ikely to be

.
pro tected indeed the i r rise in public estimation h a s

been signally rapid S ome philosopher has declared
.
,
and the report quotes the saying as a profound one ,
that the birds can live wi thout man, but m an can

“
!
not live without the birds .
The same results are be i ng experi enced in this

country and ou r whole agricultural press as well
, ,
as the experience of every fruit grower and gardener -

,
testifies to th e fact that our fruit is disappe a ring as

the birds upon ou r premises are p ermitte d to perish .
E very humane and prudent man wil l therefore d o

his utmost to pres e rve them .
CHA PT ER XVI .
C L OSE O F MY F I RS T Y E AR— I TS L OS S AN D GAI N .
h was now the dead of winter E very thing w a s .
frozen u p but though cheerless without it w a s far ,
from being s o within My little library well su p

.
,
plied with books and the literature of the d ay af ,
forded me an intellectual banquet wh i ch never

palled upon the appetite H ere my desk was ever .
open here pen and ink and diary were constant ly

, ,
at hand for entering down my expenditures and

,
receipts, with fac ts and observati ons f or future use .
Thus conveniently p ro v ided and all my life accus ,
t om e d to acc ounts I found no di fficulty at the year s

’
,
end in ascerta i ning to a dollar whether my first

season s experience had been one of loss or ga i n I
’
.
give the particulars in full

C ost of st a b le m a n u re a nd a s h es
Pla s te r a n d gu a no not all u se d
,
Plou gh in g h a rr ow in g a n d d iggin g u p
, , th e ga r d e n
C a bb a ge a n d t om a t o pla nts
Loss on m y fi rst c ow
Gar d e n s e e d s
C os t of s ix pig s
C orn m e a l a n d b ra n
-
D i c k s w a ge s f or s ix m onths
’
only against the curren t receipts . The latte r were

as follows :
S a les of b l a c kbe rr y pl a n ts
c a bb a g e s
tom a to e s
ga r d e n p r odu c ts
C u rr e n t e x p e nse s , a s s ta t e d 5
P r ofi t
This was about per d ay f or the two hun
dred and seventy five days we had been in the coun
-
try from A pril l st to January 1s t and when added

, , ,
to ou r OOp iou s supplies of vegetables fruit pork , , ,
and milk it kept the family in abundance

,
I .
proved this by a very simple formula I knew .
exactly how much cash I had on hand when I b e

gan in A pril and from that amount deducted the
,
cost of all my permanent investments i n standard

fruits stoc k and implements and found that the
, , ,
remainder came within a few cents of the balance

on hand in January I did not owe a dollar and
.
,
had food enough to keep my stoc k till spring The .
season had been a good one f or m e, and we felt the

greatest encouragement to persevere as the first ,
d iff iculties had been overcome and the second s e a ,
s on promised to be much more profitable I con .
s id e r e d the proble m a s very nearly solved .
It will be note d that no cash was rece i ved for

strawberries and here i n i s i nvol ved a fact imp ortant
,
to be known and acted on by the growers of this

TEN ACR ES ENOU G H .
15 9
fruit Most men when planting them say i n March

.
, ,
or A pril are impatient for a crop in June But

, .
this should never be allowed A s soon as the blos .
soms appear they should be removed The newly

, .
transplanted v ine has work enough thrown upon its

roots in re pairing the damage it has suff ered in b e
!
ing remov e d fr om one locati on to another without ,
being comp e lled in additi on to mature a crop of

, ,
fruit To requ ire it to do both is imposing on the

.
roots a ta sk they are many times unable t o perform .
The draft upon them by the ripen ing fruit is more

than they can bear I have known large fields of .
newly planted vines p er i sh i n a d r y season from

-
thi s cause alone The wr i ters on strawberry cul

.
ture sometimes recommend removing the blossoms

the firs t year but not wi th su fficient urgency I
, .
lay it down as absolute l y indi spensable to the e s

tab l ish m e nt of a robust growth Thus believing .
,
my blossoms were all clipped off wi th scissors ;

and hence though stronger p lants were thus pro
,
d u c e d yet there was no fruit to sell

, .
It must also be remembered that my entire p rofit

consisted of the single item of sales of plants ;
hence if there had been no demand f or Lawtons or
, ,
if I h a d happened to have none for sale there woul d ,
have been an actual loss My having them wa s a .
mere accident and my luck i n this respect was quite

,
exceptional Unless others happen to be equally

.
lucky they may s et down their first year as very

,
certain to yield no profit With persons a s inex .
p e r ie n c e d a s I was when begin n i ng no other result ,
should be e x pected .
W i nter i s p roverbial ly the farmer s holidayBut ’

.
i t wa s no i dle time with me I had too lon g been

.
trained to hab it s of industry to lounge about the

,
house sim p ly because no weeds could be found to

kill The careful man will fi nd a world of fixing up
.
to do for winte r A s it came on slowly thr ough a

.
gorgeous Indian summer I set myself to cleaning up

,
the litter round the premises, and put the garden

into the best condition for the coming season The .
verbenas had gone fro m the borders ; the petu ni as

had wi thered on the little mound whereon their red
a n d white had flashed so gayly in captivating con
trast during the summer ; the del i cate cypress vine -
had blackened at the touch of a s ingle frosty night ;

the lady slipper hung her flowery head all the fam
-
il y of ros es had faded ; the morning glory had wi th -
ered ; even the hardy honeysuckle had been frozen

crisp From the fruit trees a crowd of leaves had
.
-
fallen upon every garden walk Plants that needed

-
.
housing were carefully potted, and ta k en under

cover The walks were cleared of leaves by t rans
.
ferring the m to the barnyard Bush es trees , and .

,
vines were trimmed E very remnant of decay wa s

.
removed The December sunshine fell u p on a gar

.
den s o trim and neat, that even in the bleakest day

it wa s not unpleasant to wan d er through its alleys ,
and observe those wintry visitants the snow b irds ,
-
,
gatheri ng from the bushes their scanty store of

favorite seeds The asparagus was covered deeply
.
with its favor i te manure and heavily salted Ten

,
.
der roses were banked up wi th barnyard scrapings ,

to get together a large pile of these fallen leaves ;

and if stowed i n a dry place he wi ll experience the ,
good effects of them in the improved condition of

his stock compared with those which are suff ered to
,
lie down and perhaps be frozen down in their own

, ,
filth The fertilizing material of leaves also adds

.
essentially to the enriching qualities of the manure

heap G ardeners prize highly a compost m ade in
'
part of decomposed leaves The leaf harvest is the .

-
last harvest of the year, and should be thoroughly

attended to at the proper time .
The leisure of the season gave us greater op p or tu

nity for intercourse both at home and abroad
,
The .
city wa s comparatively at ou r door as accessible ,
as ever — w e were really mere suburbans We ran .
down i n an hour to be spectators of any unusual

sight and frequently attended the e vening lectures
,
of distinguished men It was impossible for the

.
world to sweep on leavi ng us t o stagnate H ow

,
.
diff erent this winter seemed to me from any pre

ce din g one l Formerly this long season h a d been
,
one of constant toiling ; now it was on e of almost ,
uninterrupted recreation H ow different the path .
I travelled from that in which ambiti on hurries for

ward — t oo narrow for friendship t oo cr ooked for ,
love too rugged for h onesty and t oo dark f or sc i

, ,
ence 1 Thus if we choose we may sand w ich in the

, ,
p oetry with the prose of life Thus many a dainty .

,
happiness and relishing en j oyment may come be

tween the slices of every day work, if we onl y s o
-
determin e .
163
CHAPT ER XVII .
MY S CON D
E Y EAR — T RE N C H I N G TH E G ARDEN — S TR AW
B E RR Y P R O F I TS .
W I NT E R having passed away the time for labor ,
and the singing of birds again return ed Lon g .
before the land in Pennsyl vania w a s fit to plough ,
the admirable soil of N ew Jersey had been turned

over and pl anted with early peas O ne of its m ost
,
.
valuable peculiarities is that of being at all times fit

for ploughing e x cept when actu a l ly frozen hard
,
-
.
E ven after heavy rains when denser soils require

,
a fortnight s drying before getting into condition f or

’
the plough this is ready in a day or t wo Its sandy

,
.
character instead of being a disad vantage is on e of

, ,
its highest recommendations It is thus two to .
three weeks earlier in yielding up it s ripened prod

u c ts for market Peas are the first things planted
.
in the open fields The traveller coming from the

.
north when passing by rail t o Philadelph ia through

,
this genia l regi on has been frequently surprised

,
at seeing the young pea v ines peeping up above a -
thin covering of sno w their long rows of delicate

,
green stretching across extensive fields and present ,
ing a singular c ontrast with the fle e c y covering

around them Na turally hardy they survi ve the
.
,
c old and as the snow rapidly disappears they i mme

,
d iat e l y renew the ir growth .
H aving been much surprised by the profit yielded

last year from the garden I was determined to give
,
it a better chance than ever and to try the eff ect of

,
thorough farming on a limite d scale I accordingly .
s e t Dick to covering it fully three inches deep with
well rotted stable manure of which I had purchased

- -
,
in the city my usual quantity $ 200 worth though , ,
hoping that I could s o c ontrive it hereafter as n ot

to be obliged to make s o heavy a cash outlay for
this mate rial I then procured him a spade fifteen
.
inches long in the blade and s e t h im t o trenching

,
e v ery inch of it not occupied by standard fru i ts .
These had luckily been arranged in r ows in borders

by themselves thus leaving large open beds , in
, ,
which th e operation of trenching could be thoroughly

practised I estimated the open ground to be very
.
nearly half an acre I began by digging a trench

.
from on e end of the open space to the other thre e ,
feet wide and two deep remo ving the earth to the
,
further side of the open space Then the bottom .
of the trench was dug up with the fif t ee n i nch spade -
and then covered lightly with manure .
The adj oining ground was then thrown in, mixing

the t op soil as we went along and also abundance ,
of manure until the trench was filled A s the earth

,
.
thus used w a s all taken from the adj oining strip of

three feet wide of course when the trench was full
, , ,
another of corresponding size appeared beside it .
W ith this the operation w a s repea te d until all the

The mode of trench i ng must vary wi th c ir cum

stances In small c i rcumscribed pieces of ground
.
, ,
neec c s sity requires it to be done by hand as has been ,
just described In large spaces the subsoil plough

.
may be used but not to equal benefit There are

, .
many reasons why the soils of gardens should be

made better than for ordinary farm crops Most of -
.
the products of gardens are of a succulent nature or ,
wi ll otherw ise bear high feeding such as garden ,
roots in general plants whose leaves furnish foo d

, ,
as salad cabbages etc or those which produce large

, ,
.
,
and su c c u l en t fruits as cucumbers melons squashes , , , ,
etc A s nearly all garden crops are the immediate

.
food of m an while many farm crops are only the

,
-
coarser fo od of animals greater care and sk ill may ,
properly be applied in bringing the former forward

t o a high degree of perfection The great amount .
of family supplies which may be obtained from a

half acre garde n provi d ed the best soil is prepared
-
,
f or their growt h renders it a matter of equal im

,
portance and economy to give the Soil the very best

preparation
It rarely happens that there is much selection to
be made in soils as we find them i n nature for gar ,
dening purposes unless particular attention is given

,
to the subj ect in choosing a site f or a new dwelling .
G enerally we have to take the land as w e find it

,
.
Unless therefore we happen to find it j ust right

, , ,
we should endeavor to improve it in the best man

ner The principal means f or making a perfect
.
garden soil are dra ini ng trenching and manuring

, , ,
.
16 7
Now l et none be startled at the outset wi th the fear

,
of cost in thus preparing the soil

,
The enti re ex .
pense of prepari ng half an acre would not in gen ,
eral amount to more than the amount saved in a single

,
year in the purchase of food for family supplies by ,
the fine and abundant vegetables a fforded If the .
owner cannot possibly prepare his half or quarter

acre of land properly then let him occupy the ground
,
with something else than garden crops and ta ke ,
only a single square rod ! if he cannot attend to

more !and give this the most perfect preparation
,
.
A squ are r od of rich luxur iant vegetables will be

, ,
found more valuable tha n eighty rods or half an ,
acre of scant dwarfed and stringy growth which

, , ,
no one will wi sh to eat ; whil e the extra cost and

labor spen t on the e ighty rods in seeds digging and , ,
hoeing would have been more than sufficient to

,
prepare the smaller plot in the m ost complete m an

ner Let the determination be made therefore at the
.
, ,
commencement to ta ke n o more land than can be

,
p roperly prepared and in the most thorough manner

, .
The ten peach trees in the garden were thoroughly

-
manured by digg ing in around them all the coal

ashes made during the winter first sifting them ,
well N o stable manure w a s added as it promotes

.
,
too rank and watery a growth in the peach while ,
ashes of any kind are what this fruit most delights

in Then the butts were e xamined for worms b u t
.
,
’
the last year s application of tar had kept O ff the fly ,
and the old ravages of the enemy were found to be

nearly healed over by the growth of new bark A .
16 8 T EN ACRES ENOUGH ,
fresh coating of ta r was ap pl ied, and thus every

thing was made s af e .
A s the season advanced, my wife and dau ghter

took charge of the garden as usual and with high , ,
hopes of greater succ e ss than ever They had had .
one year s experience , while now the ground was in

’
far better condition Moreover, they seemed to ha ve

.
forgotten all about the weeds as in calculating the ir ,
prospective profits they did not mention them even

once I was careful not to d o so though I had my
.
,
own suspicions on the subj ect When the planting .
had been done and things went on growing finely

,
as the season advanced, they were sudde nl y re

minded of their ancient enemy The trenching and .
manuring had done as much for the weeds as for the

vegetables Why Should they not ! In her inno
.
c e n c y Kate thought the weeds S hould all have been

,
buried in the trenches, as if their seeds had been

deposited exclus i vely on the surface But they .
grew more r a mp antly than ev e r during the entire

season and to my m i nd they seemed to be i n greate r
,
quantity But the fact worked no discouragement

.
to either wi fe or daughter They waged against .
them the same resolute warfare, early late and i n , ,
the noonday su n until Kate in spite of a capac i ou s

, ,
su n bonnet became a nut brown maid Not a weed

,
-
.
was pe rmitted to flourish to maturity .
The careful culture of the garden this year gave

them even a better reward than it had done the year
be fore The fail ures of the last season were all
.
avoided S everal kinds of seeds were soak ed before

.
A t the mom e nt I regrette d her i nte rference but

, ,
as compl i ance wi th h e r wi shes always brought to

me its own gratification if not i n one way then in , ,
som e other, so it did in this i nstance In the first .
place , the p eaches on the five denuded trees grew

prodigiously larger and finer than those on the other
five I gathered them carefully and sent them to
.
the city where they brought me 84 1 clear of ex

,
p enses whil e the fruit from the other trees sent to

, ,
market with similar care netted only $ 17 and those , ,
used in the family from the same trees estimated at ,
the same rates were worth 89 making on those

, , ,
five a d ifi er en c e of $ 15 in favor of thinning Thus

,
.
,
the ten produced $ 5 8 but if all had been thinned ,
the product would have been 882 .
This unexpected result satisfied my wi fe ever

afterwards that it was quality and not mere quantity ,
that the market wan ted H er own garden sales .
would have convinced her of this had s h e observed ,
them closely ; but hav i ng overlooked results there it ,
required an illustration too striking to be gain say e d ,
and this the peach trees furnished A ll these fig

-
.
’
ures appear in Kate s account book I had pro -
.
vid e d her with on e expressly for the garden oper
a tion s a ni ce gold pen and every other possible con

, ,
ve nie n c e for making entries at the moment any
trans action occurred I had also ta ught her the sim

.
p l e s t form for keeping her acco u n ts and caused her ,
t o keep a pass book wi th the store in which every

-
,
consignment should be entered s o that her book and ,
the storekeeper s should be a check on errors that

’
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
171
might be found i n either S he thus became ex .
tre m el y expe rt at her accounts and as sh e took ,
espec ial i nterest i n the matter could tell from ,
memory, at the week s end h ow many dollars worth

’
,
’
of produce s h e had sold I found the amount r u n

.
ning up quite hopefully as the season advanced and ,
when it had closed S h e anno u nced the total to be

,
863 wi thout the peaches or $ 12 1 by including them ,

.
But S he had paid some money for seeds ; as an offset

to which no cash had been ex p ended in diggi ng as
, ,
D i ck and myself had done i t all .
S o much for the garden this year O n my nine .
acres of p loughed land the re was p lenty of work to

be done O ur old enemy, the weeds did not seem
.
,
to have d i minished i n nu m ber notwithstanding ou r ,
slaughter the previ ous year They came up as thick .
and vigorous as ever, and requi red quite as much

labor to maste r them as the h oe was oftener re
,
quired among the rows of raspberri es and straw

berries My d ogged fellow Dick took th i s matter
.
, ,
with perfect unconcern — said he knew it would be

s o and that I would find the weeds could not be
,
killed — but he m ight as well work among them as

at anything else I ceased to argue with him on the
.
subj ect and as I had full faith in comin g ou t right

,
in the end w a s content to silently bide my time

, .
This year I plante d an acre wi th tomatoes having ,
raised abundance of fine p lants i n a hotbed as well ,
a s egg plants for the garden

-
I set them ou t in .
rows three and one half feet apart each way and
,
-
,
man u red them well, twi ce as heavily as many of my

neighbors d i d This gave me

. plants to the
acre The product was almost incre di ble and
.
,
amounted to 5 01 bushels or about five quarts a b il l

, ,
a far better yield than I had had the first year .
From some hills as many as ten quarts each were

gathered I managed to get twenty baskets into
.
Ne w York market among the very first of the sea

s on where they netted me $ 60
,
The nex t twenty .
netted $ 2 5 the next twenty only $ 15 as numerous

, ,
compe t itors came in, and the next thirty cleared no

more A fter that the usual glut came on and down
.
,
went the price t o twenty and even fifte en cents

But at twenty and twenty five I continued to for -
ward to Philadelphia where they paid bette r than

,
to let them rot on the ground From 200 baskets .
at these low prices I nette d $ 3 5 Then i n the .

,
height of the season all picking was suspended ex

, ,
cept for the pigs who thus had any quantity they
,
could consume But the glut gradually subs i ded as

.
tomatoes perish ed on the vines and the p rice again ,
rose in market to twenty five cents then to fifty -

, ,
then to a dollar and upwards But my S ingle acre

,
.
afforded me but f e w at the close of the season I .
did not manage to realize $40 from the fag end of -
the year, making a total net yield of $ 19 0 .
O thers near me older hands at th e business, d i d

,
much better, but I thought this wel l enough I .
would prefer raising tomatoes at 3 7 cents a bushel

t o potatoes at 7 5 The amou nt reali z ed from an
.
acre far e x ceeds that of potatoes A smart man will .
gather from S ixty to seventy bushels a day The .

In other words I set ou t to raise fruit not plants ;

, ,
and my rows were, therefore composed of single ,
stools sta nding about f ou r to six inches apart in the

,
r ow . The ground between the rows was c ouse

quently clear for the passage of the horse weeder -
,
which kept it nice and clean throughout the season ,
while there was no sort of difficulty in getting b e

tween the stools wi th either the hand or a small ,
h oe to keep ou t grass and weeds

,
The stools were .
consequently strong and healthy and stood up ,
higher from the ground than plants which grow in

matted beds thus measurably keeping clear of the
,
sand and grit which heavy rains throw up on berries

that lie very near the ground The truth is the .
,
ground for a foot all round each stool ought to have

had a covering of cut straw leaves or somethin g , ,
else for the fruit to rest upon thus to keep them ,
clea n as well as to preserve them from drought

,
.
But I did not so well understand the question at

that time as I do now .
The fruit ripened beautifully and grew to prodi ,
gions size l arger than most we had ever seen The

,
.
se v eral pickings of the first week yielded 600 quart

boxes of the choicest fruit which I dispatched by
,
railroad t o an agent in N ew York with whom I had ,
previously made arrangements to rece i ve them .
The greates t care was used in preparing them for

market When taken from the vines they were put
.
directly into the small boxes and these carried to ,
the house where under a large Shed adj oining the

, ,
k itchen my wife and daughters had made prepara

,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
17 5
tions to receive them H ere they were spr ead ou t

.
on a large pine table and all the larger berries sepa

,
rated from the smaller ones each k ind being put ,
into boxes which were kept separate from the other .
The show made by fruit thus assorted w as truly

magnificent and to the pleasure my w ife e xpe ri
,
e n c e d in handling and arranging it s h e was c on ,
s ta ntl y testifying Thus 600 quarts of the finest

.
fruit we had ever beheld were sent the first week ,
to N ew York It was of course nearly ten days

.
, ,
ahead of the season in that region — there could be

no N ew York grown berries in market A t the .
week s end the agent remitted me $ 3 00 clear of

’
freight and commission ! They had netted me half

a dollar a quart I confess to having been greatly
.
as tonished and delighted— it was certainly twice as

much as we had expected When I sho wed the .
agent s letter to my wife she was quite a m azed

’
,
.
Kate who had heard a good deal of complaint about

,
high prices while we lived in the city, after reading

,
the letter laid it down observ ing

, ,
“ I think it wi ll not do to complain

of h i gh prices
!
now !
“
No replied my wi fe
,
“
the tables are turned , .
Half a dollar a quart ! H ow much I pity those p oor

people .
A nd as sh e said this I handed her a quart bowl ,
of the luscious fruit which I had been sugaring ,
heavily wh ile S he was studying ou t the figures in

the agent s letter, and I fee l persuaded no lover of
’
strawberrie s ever consumed them w i th a more

smacking rel ish .
The agent spoke in his letter of the admirable

manner in which our berries we re forwarded— all
alike all un iformly prime large frui t — n ot merely
,
big ones on top of the box as decoys and as the ,
p relude to findin g none but little runts at bottom .
This established f or us a reputation ; our boxes

could be guaranteed to contain prime fru i t all
through H ence the agent could sell any quantity
.
we could send Indeed it wa s impossible to send

.
,
him t oo much Thus we continued to p i ck over

.
ou r vines fro m three to four times weekly A S the .
ripening of the fruit went on the sight was truly ,
marvellous to lo ok at When the season was at its

.
height the ground seemed almost red with berries

,
.
Then the famous doctrine of squatter sovereignty

was e ff ectually carried ou t on my premises for ,
there were twenty girls and boys up on their knees

or hams e ngaged in picking berries at t w o cen t s a
,
quart Industrious little toil ers they were, many

.
of them earning from one to two dollars daily .
S ome pickers were women grown some wi dows , ,
some even aged women It was a harvest to them .
also .
The smal l boxes were packed in che s ts each

holding from twenty four t osixty j ust nicely filling
-
,
the chest so that there should be no rattling or

,
sh aking about, or S pilling over of the fruit The .
lid when shut down and fastened held all snug

, ,
.
These chests were taken to the railroad station close

country enabled growers at all seasons to trans p o rt

,
their products over smooth roads to the nearest sta

tion These numerous feeders to the great railroad
.
caused the income from way t r a ffic to increase enor -
m ou sl y A ll in terests were signally benefited, and

.
a new career of improvement for N ew Jersey was in

a u gu ra te d The farmers became rich on lands whi ch
.
for generations had kept their former owners p oor .
My agents were punctual in advi sing me by the

first mail and sometimes b y telegraph of the sale
, ,
and price of each consignment thus keeping me con ,
s t a ntl y posted up as to the condition of the market .
They paid the freight on each consignment de ,
ducted it from the proceeds and retu rned the ,
chests, though someti mes wi th a fe w small boxes

m 1s s1ng a loss to which growers seem to be regu
,
l a rl y subj ected s o long as they use a box which

,
they cannot afford to give away with the frui t I .
thus fed the northern cities as long a s the price

wa s maintained But as is the case with all mar
.
,
k et produce prices gradually declined as other

,
growers came in for all hands s ought to se l l in the

,
best market A s the end of the season is generally

.
a period of very low prices , it must be counteracted

by every eff ort to secure high ones at the beginning ,
in this way maintaining a remunerative average dur

ing the whole Thus the half d ollar per quart
.
,
which I Obtained for the first and best by equaliza ,
tion w i th lower prices through the remainder of the

‘
season was unable to raise the average of the whole

,
crop above sixteen cents net But this abundantly .

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
17 9
sati sfie d me as I sent to m arket

, quarts , thus
producing
Besi d es these we had the satisfacti on of making
,
generous presents to some particular fri ends i n the

city while at home we rioted upon them daily , and
,
laid by an extraord inary quantity in the shape of

preserves for winter use a luxu ry wh i ch we had ,
never i ndul ged in during ou r residence in the city .
I may add that during the whole strawberry season

it w a s observed that ou r city friends seemed to take
an extraordinary interest in ou r proceed i ngs and
success They came up to see us even more numer
.
ou sl y than during the dog days and no great e ff ort -

,
wa s required no second i nvi tation necessary to

, ,
induce them to prolong their vis i ts But we con .
s id e re d them entirely excusable as the strawberr i es ,
and cream were not only unexcepti onable but ,
abundant H owever I must confess that in th e

.
, ,
busiest part of the season ou r female vi sitors rolled

up their sleeves and fell to with my wi fe and d a u gh
,
ters f or hours at a time aiding them i n assorting ,
and boxing the huge quantities of nob l e frui t as i t

came in from the field .
In or d er to send th i s fruit to market, I was ob liged

to purchase quart b oxes and 5 0 chests to c on ,
tain them These cost me $ 2 00 I could not fil l all

. .
the boxes at each pick ing but as on e s e t of boxes ,
w a s away off in market i t w a s necessary f or me t o

,
have duplicates on hand in which to pick other ,
berries as they ripene d without being compelled,
to wait until the first lot of boxes came bac k .

S om e times i t was a we e k or ten days before they

we r e retu r ned to me accor ding as the agent was
,
p romp t or dilatory Thus one sup p ly of boxes

.
,
fi lled wi th fruit wa s constantly going forward while ,
anothe r of empty ones was on the way back S o .
extens i ve has th i s berry bus iness be come that I ,
could name p arties who have as much as $ 5 00 to

invested in chests and boxes for the trans por
tat ion of fruit to market But the i r p rofits are
.
i n pr op ort i on to the extent of their investment .
W hile on this subj ect of boxes for the trans p orta

t i on of fru i t to distant markets a suggestion occurs ,
to me which some i ngenious man may be able to

work u p i nto profitable use It i s sometimes quite .
a trouble for the gr ower to get his chests returned

at the p rope r ti me S ometimes the agent is careless
.
and inattentive keeps them twi ce as many days

,
as he ought to when the owner really needs them

, .
S ometimes an acc i dent on the railroad delays their

return for a week or ten days In either case the .
,
grower is subj ected to great i nconvenience ; an d if

his chests fail to return at all his ripene d fruit will ,
perish on his h ands for want of boxes in which to

send them off . It is to be always safe from these
contingencies that he finds it necessary to keep s o
large a quantity on hand Then many of the boxes .
,
are never returned the chests coming back only

,
half or quarter filled All this is very u nj ustly

. ,
made the grower s loss ’

.
But a remedy for this evi l can and ought to be

be p rovid ed The trade needs for its use a box so
.
are made from sha vings may serve as the mod el .
H ere is a great and growing want which our coun

,
tr y m e n are abundantly able to supply, and to which

some of them cannot too soon direct their attention .
If the cost of transmitting the boxes to the buyers be

too great for so cheap a contrivance , then let the
shavings be manufactured of the exact si z e required ,
and delivered i n a flat state to the buyer wi th the ,
circular bottom by him to be p ut together during

,
the leisure days of wi nter A S ingle touch of glue

.
will hold the sha vi ng in position and a cou p le of

,
ta cks will keep the bottom in its p lace The whole .
a ffair being for tem p orary use ,

need be nothing
more than tem p o rary itself A portion of the labor
.
of manufacturing being done by the growe r will ,
reduce the cost If constructed as suggested suc h

.
,
boxes would be quite as neat as the maj ority now in

use while they would possess the charm of always
,
being clean and sweet . O ur country is at this

moment full of machinery exactly fitted to produce
them, much of it located in regions where timber
and power are obtainable at the minimu m c ost .
The suggestion should be appropriated by its own

ers at the earl ie st p oss i b le moment .
18 3
CHA PT ER XVIII .
R A S P BE RRI E S — T HE L AWTONS .
To strawbe rries succeeded rasp berries My stoc k .
of boxes w as thus useful a second time But rasp .
berries are not always reliable for a full crop the first
season afte r planting and s o it turned ou t with mine
, .
They bore only moderately ; but by exercising the

same care in rej ecting all inferior specimens the first ,
commanded twenty five cents a quart in market ;

-
gradually declining to twelve below which none ,
were sold I marketed only 242 quarts from the

.
whole netting an average of 16 cents a quart or

, ,
In price they were thus equal to straw

berries In addi tion to this , we consumed in the
.
family as much as all d esired and that was not ,
small I had heard of others doing cons i derably

.
better than this but had no dis p osition to be dis

,
satisfied .
The trade in raspberries i s increasing rapidly in

the neighborhood of all ou r large cities stimulated ,
by the establishment of steamboats and railroads on ,
which they go s o quickly and cheaply to market It .
is probably greater in N ew York S tate than else

where The citizens of Marlborough in Ulster
.
,
c ounty, have a steamboat regularly employed f or

almost the sole business of transporting their rasp

berries to N ew York In a single season their sales
.
of this f ruit amount to nearly The demand

is ine xhaustible and the cultivation consequently
,
increases In the immediate vicinity of Milton in

.
,
the same county there are over 100 acres of them

, ,
and new plantati on s are being annually established .
The pickers are on the ground as soon as the dew is

CH as the berries do not keep s o well when gath
,
ered w e t I have there seen fifty pickers at work

.
at the same time men women and children some

, , , ,
of them aston i shingly expert earning as much as $ 2

,
in a day S everal persons were constantly employed

.
in packing the neat little baskets into crates the ,
baskets holding nearly a pint By six o clock the

.
’
crates were put on board the steamboat and by s u n ,
rise next morning they were in Washington market .
A S many as baskets are carried at a s i ngle

trip The reta il p rice averages ten cents a basket
.
,
on e boat thus carrying $ 8 00 worth i n a single day .
All th is cultivation be i ng conducted in a large way,

the yield per acre is consequently less than from
small patches thoroughly at te nded to There are .
repeated instances of $400 and even $ 600 be ing

m ade clear from a single acre of ras p berries .
The culture in Ulster county though at first view

,
appearing small yet gi ves employment to and dis

, ,
tribu tes its gains among thousands of p ersons The .
mere culture requires the services of a large num

be r of p eople The pickers there as well as in N ew
.
,
Jersey, constitute a smal l army, there being five or

ing $ 11 p er thousand at the lumber yard But the -

.
maj ority did not need this staking up the first

season ; but many of the canes sent up this year ,
for bearers the next, i t was necessary to support

with stakes .
The crop was exce l lent in quality but not large , .
I began p ic ki ng July 2 0 and thus had the third use

,
of my stock of boxes I practised the same care in

.
assorting these berries for market which had been

observed wi th the others k ee pi ng the larger on es ,
se p arate fro m the smallest ones Thus a chest of .
the selected berries, when e xp osed to view p resented ,
a truly magnifi cent sight U p to this time they had .
never been seen by fifty frequenters of the P h ila d el

phia markets But when this rare dis p lay was first
.
opened in two of the princi p al markets it pr oduced ,
a great sensation N one had been picked until per

.
f e c tl y ripe hence the rare and melting flavor p e onl

,
iar to the Lawton pre vad e d every berry They sold .
rapidly and nette d me th i rty cents a quart the ,
smaller ones twenty five cents There appeared to

-
.
be no limit to the demand at these prices Buyers .
cheerfully gave them, though they could get the

common wild blackber r y in the same market at te n
cents N ow it cost m e no mor e to raise the Law
.
,
tons than it would hav e done to raise the common

article But th i s i s mere l y another illustration of
.
the folly of ra i sing the p oorest fruit to sell at the

l owest p rices i nstead of the best to sell at the
,
highest .
The crop of Lawtons amounted to five hundred

TEN ACRES ENOU GH .
18 7
and ninety t wo quarts and netted me

-
,
an
average of twenty seven cents a quart My family
-
.
di d not fail to eat even more than a usual allowance .
A S soon as the picking was done while the plants ,
were yet covered with leaves D ick cut off at the ,
ground all the canes which had j ust fruited using a ,
strong p air of snip shears which cut them through

-
,
without any labor These canes having done their

.
duty would die in the autumn c ou l d no w be m ore ,
easily ou t than when gro wn hard after death and if ,
removed at once would be ou t of the wa y of the new

,
’
canes of this year s growth .
The latter could then be trimmed and sta ked up

f or the coming year the removal of all which super
,
fl u ou s foliage would let in the s u n and air more

freely to the cabbages between the rows The ol d .
wood being thus cut ou t was gathered in a heap

, ,
and when dry enough was burned the ashes being ,
collected and scattered around the peach trees -

.
A fter this the limbs were all s h ortened in to a foot .
They were very strong and vigorous as in July the ,
tops of the ca nes had all been taken off leaving no ,
cane more than four feet high The branches were .
consequently very strong givin g promise of a fine

,
crop another season A fter this such as needed it

.
,
were staked up and tied as the autumn and winter

,
winds so blow and twist them about that otherwise

they would be broken off But subsequent p ra c .
tice has induced me to cut down to only three feet

high ; and this being done in July when the plant ,
is in full growth the cane becomes so stif f and stocky

,
18 8 T EN ACRES ENO U GH .
before los ing its leaves as to require no stak i ng and ,
will support itself under any ordinary storm I have .
seen gro w ers of this fruit wh o neglecte d f or two or

three years either from la z iness or carelessness to
, ,
remove the ol d wood but it made terrible work

f or the pickers as in order t o get at one year s fruit
,
’
they were compelled to contend with three years ’
briers O nly a sloven wi ll thus fail t o remove the

.
ol d wood annually I prefer remo ving it in the

.
autumn as soon as picki ng is over for reasons above

, ,
given a nd also because at that time there is less to

,
do than in the spring .
In the meantime the fame of the Lawton black

berry had greatly extended and the dem and in
creased but the prop agation had also be en s tim u
,
lated A class of growers had omi tted tilling their

.
grounds so as to promote the growth of suckers

, ,
caring more f or the sale of plants than for that of

fruit H ence the quantity to meet the d e mand wa s
.
s o large as to reduce the price but I s old of this ,

’
year s growth e nough plants to produce me
O f this I laid out $ 5 4 in marl which I devoted ex ,
elusively to the blackberr i es I had been advi sed .
by a friend that marl wa s the s p ecific manure for

this plant as of his own knowledge he knew it to be
,
so. A half peek was spread round each hill , and

-
the remainder scattered over the ground A s ingle .
'
row was left unmarled It showed the p ower of .
thi s fertili z er the next season as the rows thus ,
m anured were surprisingly better filled with fruit

than that which rece i ve d none S ince that I have .
Th e re ad e r will not fail to bear in m ind that in

addition to this cash r e ceipt towards the support of
a family we had not laid ou t a dollar for fruits or
,
vegetables during the entire year Having all of .
them in unstinted abundance with a most noble ,
cow, the cash outlay for the family was necessarily

very small ; for no one k nows until he has all these ,
things without p aying for them in money how very ,
far they go toward s making up the sum total of the

cost of keeping a family of ten persons In addition .
to th i s, we had a full six months sup p ly of p ork on ’
hand .
The reader wi ll also be struck wi th the enormous

diff erence in favor of the second year But on d is .
sec ting t h e two accoun t s he will se e good reason for
this d iff erence In the first place, some improve

.
ment was nat ural as the result of my increase of

,
knowledge — I was expected to be all the time grow

,
ing wiser in my new calling In the second place .

,
some expenses incident to the initi atory year were

lopped OH ; and third, three of my standard fru its
had come into bearing The increase of receipts .
w a s apparently sudden but it was exactly what was

,
to be expected I used manure more freely and on

.
,
my acre of clover wa s particular t o spread a good

dressing of solid or liquid manure immediately after
each mowing s o as to thus restore to it a full equiv
,
a l e n t f or the food taken away This dressing wa s .
sometimes ashes sometimes plaster or bone phos

, ,
-
phate or liquid and in the fall a good topping from

, ,
the barnyard In return for this, the yield of clover

.
19 1
w as p robab l y four times what it would have been

had the lot been pastured and left unmanured In .
fact it became evident to me that the more manure

,
I wa s able to apply on any crop the mor e sat isf a c ,
tory were my returns Hence the soiling system .

,
w a s persevered in and we had now become so accus

,
tom e d to it that we considered it as no extra trouble .
The result of this year s operations was appar e ntly ’
c onclusive My ex p enses f or the farm had been

.
while my receipts had be en

l eavi ng a surplu s of for the support of
my family But more than half of their support
.
had been drawn from the p roducts of the farm ; and ,

’
at the year s end when every account had been ,
settled up and every bill at the stores paid off I

, ,
found that of this I had $ 5 67 in cash on

hand — proving that it had required only
,
in
money in addition to what we consumed from the
,
farm to keep us all with far more comfort than w e

,
had ever kn own in the city Thus afte r setting .

,
aside f or the purchase of manur e ther e was ,
a clear surplus of $ 200 f or investment .
I had never done better than th i s i n the city .
’
There the year s end never found me wi th accounts
,
squared up and a clear cash balance on hand Few

,
.
occupations can be carried on in the city after s o

snug a fashion C redit is there the rule and cash
.
,
the exception —a t least it w a s ten years ag o But

, .
in the apparently humbler trade of trucking and

fruit growing everything is cash
-
Manure the .
,
great staple article to be bought can be had on ,

cred i t ; but al l you grow from it i s cash Food .
must be paid for on delivery and he wh o produces

,
’
it will have no bad debts at the year s end but such
as may exist from his own carelessness or neglect .
Thus what a farmer earns he gets H e loses none

,
.
of his ga i ns if he attends to h i s b u sm e ss
,
They .
may be smaller on paper than those real i zed by

, ,
dashing operators in the c i ty but they are infinitely

,
more tangible ; and if, as i n my case they should ,
p rove to be enough , what matters i t as to the

amount The producers of food therefore possess
, ,
this preponderating advantage over all other classes

of business men : they go i nto a market where cash
wi thout limi t is always ready to be paid down for

w h atever they br ing to it A busin ess which i s
.
notori ously profitable thus kept u p at th e cash level

, ,
an d consequently fr e e from the ha z ard of bad debts ,
cannot fail to enrich those who pursue i t exten

s ivel y , and with p roper i ntell i gence and i ndustry I .
could name various men wh o beginn i ng on less than

,
a hundred dollars and on rented l and have in a few

, ,
years become its owne r s and in the end arri ved at

,
great wealth , sol ely from the bus iness of ra is ing

fruit and tru c k.
19 4 TEN ACRES ENO UG H .
he p il ed up i n the barnyard a most astonish ing

quanti ty of leaves There hap p ened to be but little
.
competition in the search for them so that he had ,
the ground clear for himself A ll th i s addition to

.
the manure heap cost me nothing To this I added .
many hogsheads of bones which the small boys ,
of the neighborhood gathered up from p ig pens -

,
slaughter h ouses and other places and c onsider ed

-
, ,
themselves well paid at ten cents a bushel f or their

l abor . These were laid aside until the best and
cheapest method could be devised for reduc i ng them
to powder and s o fitti ng them f or use
, .
In the meanti me , I frequently walked f or miles

away into the country making acquaintance wi th
,
the farmers , observing the i r different modes of cul

tiva tion what crops they produced and especially
, ,
their meth ods of obtai ning manures A s before .
observed, farm ers have n o secrets H en c e many .
valuable hints were obtained and treasured up ,
from which I have subsequently derived the great

est advantage S ome of these farmers were li ving
.
on land which they had s kinned i nto the most
squalid poverty and were on the h igh roa d to bein g

,
-
turned off by th e sher iff O thers were manured at

.
a money cost which astonished me exceeding any ,
outlay that I had made but confirming to the letter

,
all my preconce i ved op i ni ons on th e subj ect that ,
on e acre thoroughly manured is worth t e n that are
starved O f on e farmer I learned particulars as to

.
the history of h i s neighbor, wh i ch I felt a del i cacy

in ask ing of the latter himse lf S ome instances of .
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
19 5
success from the humblest b egin ni ngs wer e truly

remarkable ; but in all these I found that fai th in
manur e l ay at the bottom .
O ne case is too striking to be omitted A G er .
man with his wife and t wo children j ust large

, ,
enough to pull weeds and drive a cow had settled , ,
seven years before on eight acres from which the

, ,
owner had been driven by running deeply in debt

’
at the grog shop -
The drunkard s acres had of
.
course become starved and des olate ; the fences

were half do wn there was no garden and the h ovel
, , ,
in which his unhap py family was once snugly

housed appeared ready to take i ts departure on the
,
wi ngs of the wind E very fruit tree had died

. In -
.
this squalid condition the newly arrive d G erman

took possession with the privilege of purchasing for
,
$ 600
. H is whole capital was three dollars He .
began with four pigs which he paid for in work , .
The manure from these w a s daily emptied into an

empty butter firk in which also served as a family
-
,
water closet and the whole wa s converted into

-
,
liquid manure wh ich w a s supplied to cabbages and

,
onions A gentleman wh o lived near and wh o

.
,
note d the pr ogress of this industrious man assured ,
me that even in the exhausted soil where the crops

were planted the growt h was almost incredible
, .
O n turnips and rutabagas the effect was equally

great Long before winter se t in this hero had
.
,
bought a c ow for while his own crops were grow

,
ing he had earned m oney by working around the

neighborhood H e readi ly obtained credit at the
.
store f or he was soon di scover e d to b e d e s e rving

, .
When away at work h i s wife p lied the hoe and, ,
acted as mistress of the aforesai d butter tub wh il e -

,
the children pulled weeds His cabbages and roots .
exceeded any in the township ; they discharg ed h is

little store bills and kept h i s c ow dur ing the win
-
,
ter wh ile the living c ow and the dead p igs kept the
,
entire famil y, for they l i ved about as close to the

wind as possible .
This man s passion wa s for liqu i d manure If he

’
.
had done s o much wi th a tub he was of course ,
comparatively rich with a c ow Then he sunk a .
h ogshead in the ground conducte d the wash of the ,
kitchen into it, and there also empti ed the drop p ings
from the cow It was water closet for her as well
.
-
a s for the family It is true that few of us would

.
fancy such a smell ing bottl e at the ki tchen door ;

-
but it never became a nuisance f or he kept i t in ,
noxious by frequent app lications of p laster which ,
im p roved as well as purified the whol e contents .
It was labori ous to transport the fluid to his crops ,

but a wheelbarrow came the second year to lessen
the labor There happene d by the merest acc i dent
.
, ,
to be a qu arter of an acre of raspb e rries surviving

on the place H e dug all roun d these to th e depth of
.
e ighteen inches trimmed them u p kept ou t the

, ,
w eeds and gave them enormous quantit ies of liquid

,
manure The y ield was most extraordinary f or th e

.
,
second year of his location there he sol d $ 84 worth

of fruit This encouraged him to plant more unti l
.
,
at the end of f our years he had made e nough, fr om

19 8 T EN ACR ES ENOUGH .
m en c e d were of Course obsolete If it be possible .
to build a monument out of liquid manure here ,
w a s on e on this farm of eight acres I ts owner de .
l
v e op e d another peculiari ty — h e had no desire to
buy more land .
This man s great success in a small way could not

’
have been achieved wi thout the most assiduous hus

banding of manure and this h u sbanding was aecom
,
p l ish e d by soiling his cow A S he increased his

.
herd he continued the s oiling system ; but as it

required more help so he abandoned working f or ,
others and hired whatever help was necessary .
The increase of his manure heap was s o great that

his little farm was soon brought into the highest
possible condition In favora ble seas ons he could
.
gro w huge crops of whatever he planted But his .
progress was no greater than has repeatedly been

made by others who thoroughly prosecute the soil
,
ing system .
A frequent study of th i s remarkable instanc e of

succe s sful industry led me to conclude that high
,
farming must consist in the abundant use of manure

in a liquid state A fresh reading of forgotten
.
pages shed abundance of new light upon the su b

jcet The fluid e x c r e tia of every animal is worth
.
more than the solid portion but some are n ot c on

.
tented with losing the fluid p ortions voided by the

animals themselves but they suffer the solid ,
portions of their manure to un d ergo destructive

fermentation in their barnyards a n d thus to become ,
soluble and part by washing with the m ore valu;

, , ,
199
able portions Now it is well known that the inor

.
ganie matter in barnyard manure is always of a

superior character therefore valuable as well as
,
soluble and this is regularly parted with from the

soil by those w h o permit the washings to be wasted
by running off to other fields or to the roadside .
I have seen whole to wn ships where every barn yard

on the roadside may be found discharging a broad
stream of this life blood of the farm into the public

-
highway . The manure heap must be liquefied

be fore the roots of plants can be benefited by the
food it contains N0 portion of a straw decomposed
.
in the soil can feed a new plant until it is capable of

be n dissolved i n water ; and this solution cannot
occur without chemical changes whose conditions ,
a r e supplied by the surroundings S uch change s .
can be made to occur in the barnyard by saturating

the compost heap with barnyard liquor A ll that .
nature s laws would i n ten years efi ec t in manures

’
in an ordinary state when ploughed into the ground , ,
are ready and occur in a single season , when the

,
manures are presente d to the roots of p lants i n a

liquid form .
A suggestion appropriate to this matte r may be

made f or th e consideration of i ngenious minds .
E very farmer knows that a manure heap when first ,
composted abounds in clods of matted in gredients

,
s o compact that time alone will thoroughly reduce

,
them to that state of pulverization in which manure

bec omes an available stimulant to the roots of plants .
Fermentation the result of composting or turni ng

,
over a manure heap does measu rably d e stroy their

,
cohesion but not su ffi ciently Few can afford to let

,
.
their compost heaps remain long enough f or the p ro

cess of pulverization to become as perfect as it
should be H ence it is taken to the field still c om
.
posed of hard clods around which the roots m ay

,
instinctively cluster b u t into which they vainly

,
seek to penetr ate S ome careful farmers endeavor

.
to remedy this defect by laboriously spading down

the heap as it is carted away The Operation is a .
slow one and does not half pre p are the manure for
,
distribution A year or two i s thus required f or

.
these clods to become properly pulverized, f or they

remain in the soil inert and useless until s u b s e
quent ploughings and harrowing reduce them to
powder .
A s farmers cannot wait for time to perform this

office in the manure heap they should have machin ,
ery to do the work A wooden cylinder armed .

,
with long iron teeth and revolving rapidly in a ,
horizontal p osition with the manure fed in at the

,
t op through a capacious hopper would tear up the ,
cl ods into tatters and deliver the whole in the ex

,
act condition of fine powder, which the roots of al l

plants require To d o this woul d require less ti me
.
and labor than the present custom of cutting down

with either S pade or drag Better still if the man .
,
ure could be s o broken up as it is taken from the

barn yard to the compost heap ; the process of dis
‘
integration thus begun would go on through the

entire mass until, when carted away , i t would be
,
buri ed compost heap unless the latte r has been

,
eff ectually pulverized be fore being deposited either

in or upon the ground .
I was s o impre ssed by the example of the th r iv

i ng G erman referred to, th a t I resol v ed to imitate
'
him . H e had gi v en me a rich lesson in the art of

manufacturing manures cheaply though I thou ght ,
it did not go far enough Yet I made an imm e d i .
ate beginnin g by building a tank in the barnyard ,
into which the wash from stable , pig pen, and yard -
wa s conducte d This wa s pumped up and dis

.
tributed over the top of the manure heap under the

shed once or t wice weekly A huge compost h eap
,
.
was made of leaves each layer being saturated wi th

,
the liquor as the heap accumulated so that the wh ole ,
m ass w a s moist with fluid manure It was never .
suffered to become dry N ow as in the centre of a

.
,
manure heap there is no winter dec omposition went ,
on at a rapid rate especially amon g t h e leaves

, ,
stimulate d by the pecul iar solvents contained in the

liquor Thus when ta ken out for use in the spring,
.
,
both heaps had become red u ced to a half fluid mass

of highly conce ntrate d manure in a condition to be ,
converted under the first heavy rain into imme d iate

, ,
food for plants Though my money cost for manure

.
-
for next season would be greater than before yet ,
my home man ufacture was immense A s I was .
sure that h igh manuring was the key to heavy crops

and high profits , s o my studies this winter were as , ,
dil igently pursued in the barnyard as in the library,

and I flatte red myself that I had gathered hints
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
203
enough among my neighbors to enable me after next ,
year to dispense entirely wi th the p urchasin g of

,
manure .
But I had other reasons for avoidin g the purchase

of manure — none can be purchased clear of seeds ,
such as grass and weeds I have already suffered .
severely from the foul trash that has been sold to

me O ne strong warning of the magn itude of the
.
nuisance was given by the condition of my straw

berries A small portion of them was covered at
.
,
the approach of winter wi th litter from the barn

,
yard and another porti on with corn stalks Th e

,
.
obj ect was protecti on from the c old and it may be

added that the result so far as protection goes was
, ,
very gratifying But when the covering was re

.
moved in A pril the ground protecte d by the barn

,
yard litter was found to be seeded with grass and

other seeds while that protected by the cornsta lks
,
was entirely clean D u ring a whole year I had the

.
utmost difficulty t o get the first piece of ground

clear of these newly planted pests and am sure that ,
the labor thus exerted cost more than the straw

berries were worth From this sore ex p erience I
.
have learned never to cover this fruit wi th barn

yard litter When they are covered cornsta lks
.
,
alone are used They are drawn back into th e

.
balks in A pril where they serve as a mulch to keep

,
down the weeds and ultimately decay into manure

,
.
Though not s o neat to look at n or s o convenient to ,
handle as straw yet they answer qu ite as well and

, ,
at the same time cost a great deal less .

204
'
CHA PT ER XX .
MY THIRD Y E AR— L I !UI D M AN U RE — THREE YE ARS

’
RE S U L TS .
ASusual with me at the openin g of s p ring the ,
garden rec eived ou r first attenti on Dick covered i t .
heavily with manure cleared it u p and made all

,
ready for wife and daughter This year we h a d no.
seeds to purcha se having carefully la id them aside

,
from the last In order to t ry for myself the value

.
of liquid manuring I mounted a barrel on a wheel

,
barrow so that it could be turned in any direction

, ,
and the liquor be discharged through a sprinkler with

the greatest convenience Dick atte nded faithfu lly
.
to this department A s early as January he had

.
begun to sprinkle the asparagu s indeed he deluged

it putting on not less than twenty barrels of liquor
,
before it was forked u p It had received i ts full

.
share of rich manure i n the autumn : the result of

both applications being a more luxuri ant growth of
this delightful vegetable than perhap s even the Ph ila
delphia market had eve r exhibited The S hoots .
came up more numerously than before , w e re wh i ter,

thicker, and tenderer, and commanded fi ve cents a
bunch more than any other A S the bed was a large
.
one and the yield great w e sold to the a m ount of

, ,
$ 2 1 I cer ta inly never tasted so lusc i ous and tender

.
the store as long as it commanded two cents a head ,
after which the cow and pigs became e x clusive cus

tom e r s . The fall vege tables such as white onions , ,
carrots and parsnips having had more of the liquor

, ,
did even better f or they grew t o very large size It

, .
w a s the same thi ng with currants and gooseberries .
The whole together produced $ 8 3 to which must be

ad d ed the ten peach t rees all which I had thinned
-
,
ou t when the fruit was the S ize Of hickory nuts and ,
with the same success as the previous year This .
was in 18 5 7 that time of panic suspension and in

, , ,
solvency That year had been noted even from its

.
,
opening as on e of great scarcity of money in the

,
cities when all unlucky enough to need it were c om

,
p e l l e d to pay the highest rates f or its u se But we .
in the country being ou t of the ring ga v e way to

, ,
no panic felt n oscarcity experienced n o insolvency

, ,
.
Peaches brought as high a price as ever ; as l e t ,
time s in the city be black as they may there is a l ,

’
ways money enough in somebody s hands to ex
change for all the choice fruit that goes to market .
The fruit from the ten trees produced me $ 6 9 ,
making the whole product of the garden $ 15 2 I .
thought this was not doing well enough and re ,
solved to do better another year .
A t the usual season for the weeds to Show them

selves on the nine acre s it very soon became evident
, ,
that two years warfare had resulted in a compara

’
tive conquest It may be safely said that there was

.
not half the usual number and s o it continued ,
throughout the season Bu t no exertion was spared

.
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
207
to keep them under none be ing allowed to go to

,
seed This watchfulness being continued from that

.
day to this the mastery has been complete We

,
.
still have weeds, but are no longer troubled wi th

them as at the begi nni ng The secret lies in a nut .
shell — let none go to seed N or let any cultivator be

.
discouraged no matter how formidabl e the host he

,
may have to attack at the beginning But if he will .
procure the proper labor savin g tools and drive them

-
,
w i th a determined perseverance s u ccess is sure , .
A S usual the strawberries came first into market

, ,
an d were prepared and sent off wi th even more care
th an formerly The money pressure in the cities

.
caused no reduction in price and my net receipts ,
were $ 9 03 A n experienced grower near me with

.
,
onl y four acres cleared ,

the same season .
H is crop was much heavier than mine If he had .
practised the same care in assorting his fruit for

market he would have realized several hundred dol
,
lars more But his eff ort was for quantity not qu ality
.
, .
A portion of the raspberries had been thoroughly

wate red with the liquid manure all through the ,
colder spring months It was too great a labor with

.
,
a single wheelbarro w to supply the wh ole two acres

, ,
or it would have been simi larly treated But the .
portion thus supplied was ce rta i nly three times as

productive as the portion n ot supplied My whole .
net receipts fro m raspberries amounted to $2 6 7 .
The plants were no w well rooted , and were in prime

bearing condition S ince this I have quadrupled
.
,
my fac i liti es for applyi ng the liquid manure A .

2 08 T EN ACRES ENO U GH .
larg e hogshead has been mounted on l ow whee l s the ,
rims of which are four i nches wide, s o as to prevent

them sinking into the ground the whole being con ,
structed to weigh as little as poss ible The spr ink .
ling a p paratus w i ll drench one or two rows at a time ,

as may be desired The dr ive r rides on the c art
.
,
and by raising or lowering a valve lets on or s huts ,
off the flow of liquor at h is pleasure H av in g been .
used on the raspberr i es for seve ral years I can te stify ,
to the extraordinary value of th i s mode of app lying

manure It sti m ulate s an astonishing gro wth of
.
canes increases the quant i ty of fruit while i t secures

, ,
the grand desideratum a prodigious en la rgem e nt in

,
the size of the berries I find by i nquiry among my

.
neighbors that none of them get so h igh p r i ces as

myself E very crop has been growi ng more p rofitable
.
than the p recedi ng one ; and it may be set down that

an acre of raspberries, treate d and attende d to as they
ought to be will real iz e a net p rofit of $ 200 annual ly
, .
The Lawtons were this year to come into stronger

bearing Parties in N ew York and Philad el ph ia
.
had agreed to take all my crop and guarantee me ,
twenty five cents a qu art O n e speculator came to

-
.
my house and off ered $ 200 for the crop , before the
berries were ripe I should have accepted the off er
.
,
thi nking that Wa s money enough to make from one

acre had n ot my obligation to send the fruit to other
,
parties interfered with a sal e But I made ou t a .
trifle better as the quantity marketed amounted t o

,
8 96 quarts which netted me

,
In additi on
to this , the sales of plants amounte d to $ 101 A s the .
force up stronger and more numerous canes Many .
of these came up profusely i n a direct line with the

original p lants When not standin g too close to
.
gether they were carefully p reserved when of vig

, ,
orc us growth ; but the feeble ones were ta ken up

and sold Thus in a few years a row which had
.
, ,
been origi nally set wi th plants eight feet apart

became a compact hedge and an acre supporting
,
full six times as many bearing canes as when first

plante d H ence the crop of frui t should increase
.
a nn ually It will continue to do so if not more

.
,
than three vigorous cane s are allowed to grow in

one cluste r ; if the can e s are cut down i n July to
three or four feet h igh ; i f the branches are cut back

to a foot in l ength ; if the growth of all suckers b e
tween the rows is thoroughly stopped by treating
them the same as weeds ; if the old bearing wood is -
nicely taken ou t at the close of every season ; and ,
finally, if the plants are bountifully supplied with

manure From long experience with this admi rable
.
fruit, I l ay it down as a rule that every S ingle con

di tion above stated must be complied with , if the
grower expects ab undant crops of the very finest
fruit O bserve them, and the result is certain ;
.
neglect them and the reward wi ll be inferior fruit,

,
to sell at inferior p rices .
To the Lawtons succeeded the peaches now their ,
first bearing year We had protected them f or three

.
seasons fr om the fly by keeping the butts well tarred ,

.
and they were now about to give some return for

thi s careful but unexpensive oversight S ome few of .
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
21 1
them p roduced no fru i t whatever but the maj ority ,
made a respectable show I went over the orchard .
myself examining each tree wi th the utmost care

, ,
and removed every peach of inferior size as well as ,
thinn ing ou t even good ones which happened to be

too much crowded together Being of the earlier .
sorts they came into market in advance of a glut ;

,
and though the money pressure in the cities was

-
now about cul minating in the memorable explosi on

of S eptember yet there was still money enough left
,
in the pockets of the multitude to pay g ood prices

for peaches It is wi th fru it as i t is with rum— men
.
are never too poor to buy both My 804 trees pro .
d u c e d me $ 208 clear of expenses with a pretty sure ,
prospect of doing much be tter hereafter I had .
learned from experience that a shrewd grower need

not be apprehensiv e of a glut ; and that i f panics
p alsied or a general insolvency desolate d the cities
, ,
they still contrived to hold as much money as before .
C redit might disa ppear but the money remained ;

,
and the industrious tiller of the soil w a s sure to get

his full share of the general fund which survives
even the worst convulsion .
My acre of toma toes netted me this year $ 19 2 my ,
pork $ 61 my potatoes $40 and the calf $ 3 Thus

, , .
,
as my grounds became charged with m anure —as I ,
restored to it the waste occasioned by the crops that

were removed from it and even more than that
,
waste —so my crops increased in value It was

,
.
thus demonstrable that manuring would pay O n .
the clover fiel d the most signal evidence of this was

-
2 12 T EN ACRES ENO UGH .
ap parent Af te r e ach cutting of clover had been

.
taken to the barnyard the liquor cart distributed ,

-
over the newly mown s od a Oopious supply of liquid

manure thus regularly restoring to the earth an
,
equivalent f or the crop removed It w a s most in .
structive t o se e h ow immediately after each applica

tion the well rooted clover shot up into luxuriant
-
growth I have thus mowed it three times in a

.
season and can readily believe that in the moister

,
cl i mate of E ngland and Flanders as many as s ix

crops are ann ually ta k en fro m grass lands thus
treated with liquid manure Indeed I am inclined .
,
to believe that there is no reasonable limit to the

yield of an acre of ground which is constantly
and heavily manured and cul ti vated by one who ,
thoroughly understands his art .
’
Three years e xperience of profi t and loss i s qu i te
sufficient for the purpose of this volume It has .
satisfied m e as i t should satisfy others that Ten

, ,
A cres are E nough I give the following recapi tula

t i on for conven ie nce of reference
Exp e nses f or t h r e e y e a rs .
Ma nu r e s of va r iou s k in d s
W a ge s a n d l a b or
F e e d f or s t o c k .
S ta k e s a nd t w in e f or Law ton s .
G a r d e n a n d ot h e r se e d s .
C a bba ge a n d t om a t o pla n ts
Lu m be r n a il s a n d s u n d r ie s
, ,
.
Los s on
C ost of pigs .
industriously or intelligently supervised than th i s .
But if the reward was ample it was no greater than

,
others all around me were annually realizing the ,
only difference being that they cultivated more

ground While they diffused their labor over twenty
.
ac res I concentra ted mine on ten Yet havi ng

, .
,
onl y half as much ground to work over I realized ,
as large a profit as the average of them all C on .
c e nt r a t e d labor and manuring thus brought the
return which is always reali z ed from them when

intelligently combined .
F or six years since 18 5 7 I have conti nued to cul

t iva te this little farm S ometimes an u npropiti ous
.
season h as cut down my profits to a low figure , but

I have never lost money on the year s business Now’
.
and then a crop or two has utterly failed as some ,
seasons are too dry and others are too w e t But

,
.
among the variety culti vated some are sure to su e

oecd . O nly once or twice have I failed to invest a
’
few hundred dollars at the year s end A ll other .
business has been studi ously avoided I have spent .
considerable money in adding to the convenience of

my dwell ing and the extent of my outbuildings ;
,
among the latter is a little shop furnished wi th more

tools than are generally t o be found upon a farm ,
which save me many dollars in a year and many ,
errands to the carpenter and wheelwright The .
marriage of my daughter Kate called for a genteel

outfit which S h e received wi thout occas ioning m e
,
any inconvenience I buy nothing on credit and

.
,
for more than ten years have had no occasi on to

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
2 15
’
give a note If at the year s end we are found to
.
ow e anything at the stores it is promptly p aid

,
As .
means increase d my family has lived more e xp e n

,
s ive l y
,
though I think not any more comfortably .
I lie down peacefully at n ight thinking that I do

,
not deserve more than others but thankful that G od

,
has given me more I ri se in the morning wi th an

.
appetite for labor as k een as that for breakfast But .
others can succeed as well as myself C apital or no

.
c ap ital the proper industry and deter m ination wi ll

,
certainl y b e r e ward e d by succ e ss .

CHA PT ER XXI .
A BARN Y ARD M AN U F A C TO R Y— L AN D EN O UG H — F AITH

I N M AN U R E .
AS previously state d there i s no successful farm

,
ing without a liberal expenditure f or manure I .
had proved that high manuring would pay and ,
while anxious to increase the quantity was desirou s ,
of reducing the money c ost I continued every

-
.
season to scour the neighborhood for leaves and t o ,
gather up eve ry available material f or the barnyard .
But in addition to all this in O cto ber and N ovember

,
of my fourth year I p urchased t wenty heifers which
woul d calve in the spring intending to feed them

,
through the winter a nd then sell as soon as they

,
had calved My idea was that they could be sold

.
,
for a profit large enough to cover the cost of keep

ing them thus having the manu r e all clear I con
,
.
s u l te d many persons versed in this business farmers , ,
butchers and others before venturing on i t as it

, , ,
was a good deal ou t of my usual line of operations .
I also consulted all my files of agricultural papers ,
where I found s e t forth a multitude of ex periences

on th e subj ect the most of which led me t o conclude
,
that it woul d be safe to try the experiment There .
seemed to be but li ttle danger of loss even if noth ing ,

vari ed dur ing the season and occa si onally a f ew ,
turnips parsni p s and cabbages were cooked up to

, ,
increase the variety I had no b ay t o give t hem

.
,
and they got none .
But on the other hand Dick gave them four good ,
strong messes every day, that at night be i ng a very

heavy on e H e said they throve as well as any cat
.
tle he had ever seen The gutter behind them wa s

.
cleaned ou t twice a day and sprink led wi th plaste r,

thus k ee pi ng the place always clean and sweet I n .
fact I made cleanliness the order of the day through

,
ou t the entire barnyard The manure was thrown

.
directly from the gutter into a wheelbarrow havi ng

a thick layer of leaves spread over i ts bottom and ,
then emptied in a heap under the manure shed A s .
the cows w e re also littered with leaves these when , ,
too foul for longer use were taken to the same heap
,
.
O thers were added with cornstalks in occasional

,
layers ; and as each layer was deposited th e whole ,
heap w a s saturated wi th liquor from the ciste rn I .
do not think a better lot of common barnyard ma

nure has ever been manufactured Dick entered i nto .
the spirit of the experiment, and carr i ed it through

without once faltering .
A s soon as the cows began dropping their calves

in the spri ng I adverti sed them and plenty of pur
, ,
chasers appeared as a choice ou t of twenty was of

,
some value They had cost me $22 each I had

. .
kept them an average of one hundred and forty days

for each cow at a cost of s ix cents per day f or each
, ,
or making wi th the first cost per c ow,

T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
219
or $ 608 f or the whole To this wa s added $ 60 f or

.
cornstalks and $40 for Dick, making a gr and tota l

of $ 7 08 . I sold them at an average of and
thus realized $ 7 10, or a cash profit of $2 Instead of .
paying D i ck $ 3 0 f or h is trouble I told the fellow ,
that as he had performed h is duty s o satisfactorily ,
he should have $ 40 This little voluntary contri

.
bu tion so gratified h im that I feel assured its value

,
has been refunded to me fourfold by h is subsequent ,
attention a s a professor of the art and mystery of

manufacturing manure .
Thus I made $2 in cash by the Operation besides ,
having a great quantity of cornstalks left over and ,
a pile of manure certainly as ample as any for which

I had paid $2 5 0 Moreo ver it was on my own prem
.
,
ises i t had been most carefully attended to durin g

the whole process of manufacture ; I knew what it
was composed of , a nd that the seeds of noxious weeds
could not h ave been added to it A ll these fac t s .
gave i t val u e over the chance lots which farmers are

often compelled to purchase and from which their ,
fi elds are many times sowed with thousands of

weeds H ere was a clear saving of $2 5 0 added to
.
my profits .
The result was s o encouragin g that I have con ,
t inu e d the practice of thus feeding cattle during the

winter from that day to this increasing the number , ,
however to twenty fi v e I find no difficulty in

,
-
.
making sales in the spring S ometimes I have l ost

.
’
a few dollars on a winter s operations sometimes ,
made a little profit, and sometimes come ou t j ust

even O n the run of four years th e re has be en no

.
profit beyond the manure ; but that much is al l

clear Thus the w inter instead of being a season
.
,
of suspended profits as formerly is now one of posi ,
tive gain The operation of thus feeding cattle is

.
cer tainly attended with t rouble But once provided .
with all the conveniences for carry ing it on it is not ,
only simple and easy , but becomes eve n interesting

!
N 0 one who has not tried it in a careful methodical ,
way can have any idea of the rapidity wi th which

,
the manure heaps grow, nor the S ize t o which they

ultimately attain My neighbors having long since
.
ceased to be amused at what they facetiously called

the novelty of my operations d i d not venture to ,
ridicule even this O n the contrary , they rather ap

.
p roved of it though not on e of them could tell how

,
much it cost to keep a cow pe r week But I impute .
no p art of my success to their approval The p ra c .
tice is int rin sic al ly a good one and only needs be ing ,
carried on properly to make it pay .
Let me add that there is a very cheap and c on

,
ve nie n t mode of covering manure from the weather,
which I have constantly practised thus avoidi ng the ,
cost of building sheds I took inch boards which

.
were sixteen feet long and sawed them in half , ,
making two lengths each eigh t feet The boards

,
.
were as wi de as could be h a d say twenty inches ,

.
Battens were then nailed across each end and the

centre to prevent warping Then to each end a
, .
board of equal w i dth and five feet long was secured

, ,
by stra p hinges The manure heap was then built

.
ground to be merely that of holding a plant in an

erect pos ition while you feed the roots But it is
, .
nevertheless remarkable that the census tables S how

that the product of Ne w Jersey per acre when the ,
whole area of the S tate is taken into account is con ,
s id erab l y greater than i n any of the adj oining S ta tes .
The product p er acre in some of the fruit growing ,

-
counties nearest the two great cities is even more ,
remarkable The average cash value of the prod

.
n ots of all ou r market gardens is $ 20annually while ,
that of the gardens i n N ew York and P ennsylvania

i s only $ 5 each O f our orchards it i s $2 5 while in
.
,
N ew York i t is only $ 10 and in Pennsylvania only ,
$5 . The value of agricultural implements and

machinery i s relatively far greater than in either of
these empire S tates Nothing short of a su perior .
productiveness for truck and fruit, i n the soil of

New Jersey can account for such results
,
.
A farmer in my neighborhood sold from forty

early apple trees occupy i ng about one acre of land
-
, ,
4 00 baskets of fruit which y i elded after deducting

, ,
expenses and ten per cent comm i ssion for selling

,
.
,
I have known pears to be sold at from $ 3

$0 $ 5 per basket and in smaller quantities at $ 2 a
,
half pe ck ; and three cherry trees of the early Ric h

- -
mond variety yielded $3 0 worth of fruit Peach

, .
trees when protected from the worm will bear lux

,
,
u riantl y I O I t w e nt
‘
y y ear s .
I know a small farmer with six acres of rhubarb , ,
wh o has realized $ 600 d ollars annually from it .
A nother h as t wenty acres of asparagus, from whi ch

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
223
he realizes $ 600 per week during the season for

cutting . Bes i des it grows an acre of common
,
gooseberries from wh i ch his annual profit is $2 00

, .
I have kno wn another to sell $ 5 00worth of tomatoes

from a single acre besides having many bushels f or
,
the h og pen I could name owners of very small

-
.
tracts w h o are doing well i n the same business .
A sparagus strawberries rasp berries, blac kberr i es

, , ,
currants grapes and gooseberr ies gro w to pe rf e c

, , ,
tion and y i eld enormous returns when properly

,
attended to far surp assing anything ever obtained

,
from the heavier sta ble crops , such as gra in , grass ,
and s tock .
But it is t o b e noti ced that the greater profi t per

acre i s almost invari ably reali ze d by those who have
very small farms The less they have , the more .
thoroughly it is cultivated ; wh il e the few who have

s u fii c ie nt faith i n manure , and wh o thus convert
the ir entire holding into a garden realize t wice ,
or thr i ce as much p er annum as they had paid f or
the land I knew a strik ing il lustration of the value

.
of this faith in manure It is in the person of a .
Jersey m an who began twenty fi ve years ago upon ,

-
,
a single acre of rente d land with a capital of only ,
$ 5 0 borrowed from a sister wh o had saved i t from

,
her earnings as a dairymaid This man regar d ed .
the earth as of no practical u s e except to receive and

hold manure and his idea was that if he crowded ,
i t full enough every rain would extract fro m it and

, ,
convey directly to the r oots of the plants the liqu i d ,
nutriment which gives to al l vegetation such ama z

in g vigor Thus, the solids if in su ffic i ent supply

.
, ,
would be sure to furnish the liquids on which he ,
knew he could rely Though ful l of original and .
practical ideas this was his absorbing one and he

,
pursue d it with an energy of purpose and a liberality

of e xpenditure that surprised the population of an
entire township .
In Spite of the disadvantages attendant on a neg

l ec te d education t h e force of this man s strong nat
’
,
ural se n se carried him forward with astonishing

rap i dity True to his faith in manure , he bought
.
and manuf actured to an extent far exceeding all his

neighbors H e soon obtained possession of a small
.
farm w i th a mple time allowed for payment ; for his

,
industry and skill established a characte r and char ,
acter served for capital In a few years he monopo .
l ize d the contents of all the p ig pens in the city near -
which he resided, all that was produced by the

S laughter houses all th e lime from the gas works
-
,
-
,
all the spent bark from the tanneries and every tub ,
of night soil which came from the wate r closets of

- -
a large populati on H e created a demand for ma

.
nure so general that the streets were traversed by

,
men and boys with carts and handbarrows wh o ,
dail y picked up the dropping s from the numerous

live stock which passed over the roa ds and piled
-
,
them snugly in fence corners composting them w i th -

,
leaves and rubbish knowi ng that the great manure

,
ki ng would take them all The quantity thus c ol .
l e c te d by these industr i ous scavengers was very

l arge In add i tion to all thi s he p urchase d cargoes
.
,
on hi m for their supplies I have been u p on his

.
th irty acres of this fruit during the height of the

season when fifty pickers were at work on ground
,
which wore a tinge of luscious scarle t under the

astonishing profusion of the crop ; while thousands
of quarts under adj acent sheds were in process of
, ,
being boxed f or market O f this fruit he has sent

.
ninety bushels to market in a s i ngle day distributed ,
$ 3 00 in a week among his pickers wh ile in the ,
boxes to contain them h is investment is On

strawberries alone this man could have grown rich .
But they are scarcely a tithe of what he has pro

d u c ed .
, s m all e r
Raspberries blackberr i es and all th ez ,
fru i ts have been cultivated quite as extensively .
The same courageous in tellig ence which led him to

outstrip all competitors in the ap plication of ma
nure kept him awake to every i mprovement in fruit
,
or vegetable as it came before the public H e not .
only procured the best of every ki nd but bought ,
them early no matter h ow extravagant the price

,
.
Thus keeping in advance of all others s o his profits ,
have exceeded theirs More than once he has be en

.
cheated by the purchase of novelties of this kind ,
besides losing time and money in cultivatin g the m

long enough to prove the cheat ; but the se losses
have been but as dust i n the great balance of his
profit .
A s may be su p posed, such a man could n ot fail

to become rich From his humble beginning of a
.
single acre he has g one on adding farm to farm ,
house to house and lot to lot and is ever on hand

, ,
TEN ACR ES ENOUGH .
227
to p urchase more His p assion i s to own land But

. .
even s o thorough a farmer as he may in the end

acquire too much to be profi tab l e .
The examp l e thus s e t has had a mark ed influence

on the populat i on of entire townships Men who at .
first and wh o even for years were incredulous of the

, ,
propriety of using such vast quantities of manure at ,
length became converts to the example H igh farm .
ing t hus came ex tensively into v ogue Meantime .
the facilities for getting to market were being con

sta ntl y multiplied N ew fertilizers were introduced
.
and kept for sale in all the country towns the facility ,
for obtaining them thus inducing a general c onsu m p

t i on A s crops increased s o the great cities grew in
.
,
size the number of mouths to be fed e nl argin g wi th

,
the supply of food Under the pressure of all these

.
several i nduceme nts fruit and truck have been pro

,
d u c e d in quantities that cannot be estimated .
The fir st great impulse to i ts enlarged producti on

in the neighborhood where the enterprising con
sumer of manure resided to whom reference has been
,
made was the result of his example H is great su c

,
.
cess removed all doubt and disarmed all opposition .
But even his w a s not ach i eved without unremitting

industry and intelligent application of the mind .
N either his hands nor the manure did everything .
But manure lay at the foundation of the edifice

without it he would have to iled in vain to build up
an ample fortune from the humblest of beginnings .
A s he succeeded so let others tak e cou nsel and have

, ,
faith i n manure .
22 8 TEN ACRES ENO UG H .
CHA PT ER XXII .
P R OF I TS OF F RUIT -
G ROW I N G— TH E TRADE IN BERRI ES .
I cannot be su p posed that agriculture is always

T
a successful p ursuit O n the contrary we know it

.
,
many times to be t h e reverse But when one looks .
carefully i nto that branch of it which embraces fruits ,
especially the smaller kinds the evidences i n its ,
favor as a money making business multip ly as w e

-
proceed The reader must have some knowledge of

.
the p rodigious profits reali z ed a few years since by

the p each growers in Delaware where 8 00 acres
-
,
were cultivated i n that fruit by a single ind i vidual .
A t one time he was compelled to ch arter several

steamboats during the entire seas on t o convey his ,
thousands of b a sk e t s t o market From only 7 0 acres.
the owner h a s reali z ed a net p rofit of in

one season Th e instance of my relati ve in O hio
.
,
menti oned i n an earli er chapter aff ords another ,
i llustrati on of what a very small orchard can be

made to y ield I h ave known s i ngle peach trees i n
.
-
gardens in seasons when the general crop wa s short

, ,
producing as much as $ 20 each Those wh o buy .
single peaches at the street corners in ou r cities one ,
or two for a d i me can readily unders tand these

,
figures I could p oi nt ou t a garden belong ing to a

.
230 T EN ACRES ENOU G H .
interest on fifte en hundred per acre Now th is esti .

,
mate is based upon the p rice Of good winte r apples

f or the past thirty y ears in on e of ou r most produc
,
tive districts ; let a sim i lar estimate be made with

fruits rarer and of a more delicate character Ap r i .
co ts and the fin er varieties of the plum are often sold

for three to six dollars a bushel and the be st early ,
peaches from on e to three dollars A n acquaintan ce .
received eight dollars for a crop grown on two fine

young cherry trees and twenty four dollars from
-
,
-
four young p each trees of only four years growth

-
’
from the bud In Wes tern N ew York single trees

.
,
of the Doyenne or Virgalieu pear have often aff orded
a return of twenty dollars or more , after being sent

hundreds of m iles to m arket .
These standard fruits requiring several years to

,
come into bearing are too slow for the maj ority of
,
cultivators who like myself need something which

, , ,
will pay in a year or two The whole berry family

.
is pre eminently adapted to meet this demand f or

-
immediate profit H appily for the multitude e u

.
gaged in its propagation, the business cannot be over

done C ould a n exact calculation be made of the
.
money expended in the city of N ew York merely f or

the small fru i ts the amount would be so enormous
,
as to be scarcely credible and would go far to prove

,
the immense wealth which actually exists in spite ,
of the fact that thousands are s nfi e ring all the stings
of poverty .Take the strawberry as a faint index

of the large sums of money that are annually laid
out in the di ff er ent var ieties of fruit O ne of the .

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
23 1
most ephemeral of all fruits only la sting its brief ,
month the strawberry nevertheless plays no insig

,
nifi c a nt part in the mile of ou r early summer busi

'
ness I n fact this l i ttle berry may be said to be the

.
,
prime favorite of the season O f a d elicious flavor .

,
with j ust su ffi cient of tartness to render it agreeable ,
it commends itself to the taste of you ng and ol d ; .
while its cooling properties render it highly bene

fi c ial in a hygienic point of vie w during the early
, ,
heats of the dog days Then its cheapness places it

-
.
wi thin the reach of the poorest I t is alike welcome .
to the schoolboy wh o h as a few cents of p ocket

money to invest in such delicacies as schoolboys are
wont to ind ul ge in ; to the laboring man after the ,
burden and heat of the day are over ; and to the

wealthy wh o has at h is c ommand the means of e n
,
j y
o m e n t of the most e x pensive kind .
The first strawberries during the season generally

appear at the Broadway saloons about the middle of
May and are sold at the very modest price of fifty
,
cents per pint basket A placard in the window .
announces that a plateful with cream may be had , ,
f or a similar small consideration These early .
strawberries are from Virginia ; but as they are

small with immaturity stamped upon them it is to
, ,
be presumed that there is not a very great rush f or

’
fifty cents worth even by such as feel like boast
,
ing that they had eaten strawberries and cream ere

the frosts of winter had well disappeared S oon .
,
however N ew Jersey begins to gi v e up her stores

,
of the del i cious fruit and prices fall from fif ty to

,
fifteen, from fifteen to six from six to five and, ,
finally from five to three cents per pint .
Al most the entire early crop of the N ew York

market is grown in N ew Jersey, and by far the
largest quantity brought into the city by any one
route reaches N ew York by the Ne w York and E rie
Railroad C ompany The berries are conveyed in
.
carts and wagons from the gardens where they are

grown to the several railroad s tations whence they ,
find their way to the respective ferries G reat .
quantities however are conveyed in wagons di rect

, ,
to the ferries H ence i t is next to impossible to

.
obtain exact information of the actual quantities
brought into the city, and consumed by the inhabit

ants All that can be done is to convey an app r oxi
.
mate idea of the immense extent of the trade leav ,
ing the reader to i magine what must be the actual

quantity since that of which authentic information
,
can be obtained is s o enormous .
The be rries are largely shipped from Burlington ,
Monmouth and Middlesex counties in N ew Jersey

, .
Large quantities are also grow n in Bergen The Ber .
gen C ounty Journ al says that from data furnished

, ,
it considers baskets a low estima t e of the

quantity sent to market in one season from that
county alone This evidently is a mis take, f or after
.
,
a very close inquir y i nto the matter it does not ,
appear that anything like that quantity has reached

N ew York from all places where the berry is grown .
E ven supposing that other markets bes ides that of

N ew York are indicated th e quan t ity named se e m s
,
safel y s e t d own at baskets No business is .
don e in thi s fruit ove r th e H udson o r the Ha r lem

and N ew H aven R ailroa ds .
Besides the r ailr oads the steamboats br ing to

,
marke t large quanti ties of the fruit It is impossi .
b l e to obtain correct stati sti cal inform ation of the

trade from th i s source The quantity brought from
.
Key p or t, N J alone by two vessels has be en

.
, ,
estimated at baskets .
The following is an epitome of the business done ,
as fa r as can b e ascertained
O ve r th e Y or k a n d E rie Ra ilroa d
Ne w
Ra ilroa d of N or th e r n Ne w Je rs ey .
L on g I s l a n d Ra il r oa d
Ca m d e n a n d A m boy Ra il roa d .
From Ke y por t in v e sse l s

,
H ob oke n a nd oth e r p la c e s in w a gons

,
S ay seven m il li ons of baske ts in round numbers

, .
O f the three and a quar ter millions brought over

the N ew York and E ri e R ai l road, somewhat more
’
than one half are from R amsey s and A llendale
-
station and the remainder fr om the stations on the

,
Union R ailroad and the Pi ermont Branch O f those .
brought by the C amden and A mboy R ailroad the ,
great bulk is from Burlington county .
It is difficult to form a correct estimate of the

average price at which strawberr i es sel l ; but by
carefully collating the statements of the principal
whol e sal e dealers and taking the mean O f the sev
,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
2 35
eral prices throughout the season $ 3 per hundred

, ,
baskets by wholesale seems to be p retty near the

, ,
mark Fro m the wholesale dealers the article some

.
times changes hands twice before reach ing the con ,
sumer wh o takin g the average , may be said to h ave

, ,
paid 34 cents per basket or p er hundre d , .
C onsequently it wil l be seen that the retailer makes

,
but a small profit especially in cases where the,
strawberries reach him through the hands of the

middleman , who of course manages to make his
share of g ain in the transfer The wholesale dealers .
generally sell on commiss i on accou nting to the ,
growers for their sales and reserving ten per cent , .
f or their trouble The largest quantity so l d by any

.
on e dealer i s about baskets The freight .
charge over the ra ilr oads i s 12% cents per hundr ed

baskets .
The followi ng figu re s wi ll show what a c onsp ic u

ou s part this apparently i ns i gn ifi can t berry p lays
in ou r soc ial economics
ba ske ts , at pe r h u nd re d
Profi t to t h e l
r e t a i e rs , a t 75 c e nt s p e r hu n d re d
C om m iss ion t o w h ol e sa le d e a le rs a t 10pe r c e n t , .
Fr e ig h t a t 12} c e nt s p e r h u n d re d a l l rou n d
, ,
This is only as far as can be ascerta in ed but there ,
is rea son to believe that thousands of b a skets of

strawberries find their way into the N ew York
markets of which no account can be obta i ned , thus
,
tending to swell the enormous exp enditu re on this

almost the smallest of summer fruits .
It i s equally difficult to ascertain the quantity of

this fruit which pours into Phil adelphia also during ,
the season but i t is probably two thirds as great as

,
-
that wh i ch goes to Ne w York There are numerous .
growers near the former city who dispatch to it ,
from twenty to sixty bushels each d aily , .
A n experienced writer on this subj ect estimates

the consumption of strawberries i n the four great
cities as follows
Ne w Yor k bu s h e ls .
P h ila d e lp h ia
.
Boston
C inc inn a t i
This estimate of the consumption of Philadelphia
i s a very erroneous one as the consumption must
,
ful l y equal that of N ew York In 18 60 no less than

.
,
qu arts of strawberries passed through the

gates of only one of the numerous gravel turnpikes
in N ew Jersey on their way to Philadelphia This
,
.
is equal to bushels more than on e third of

,
-
the quantity estimated as above .
H e says that baskets !

five to the quart!
have been rece ived in N ew York i n a season H e .
adds , that the crop around these four c ities does not
exceed 2 5 to 5 0 bushels per acre although instan ces ,
are reported where 100 and even 130to 140 bushels

,
have been produced on an acre or in that propor ,
tion The returns therefore vary from $ 100to $ 800

.
, ,
per acre and the pr i ces range from

,
down to
cents a quart The form er price is readily ob
.
tained i n W ash ington at the open i ng of the season .

$ 2 15 from strawbe r ri es ra ised twenty five rods

on -
of ground or at the rate of

, per acre A cit .
izeu of Maine has raised them , on a small l ot at the ,
rate of 3 00 bushels an acre A nother in N ew Jersey

.
cleared from three acres and one of the agri

,
cultura l societies in that S tate awarded the straw

berry prem i um to a gentleman whose ground pro
d u c e d them at the rate of an acre clear ,
profit I have seen a crop r i pening on three acres

.
for wh i ch the owner w as ofi e re d $ 8 00 as i t stood ,
the buyer to pick and take i t away a t his own ex

pense The offer was declined and the owner r e
.
,
al ize d clear Mr F uller of Brookly n has

. .
, ,
grown at the rate of 600 bushels p er acre, on a

small plot of the Bartlett ; and by the same mode of
treatment 400 of the Triomphe de G and
,
.
Al l these returns are unquestionably the eff ects of

high culture Those wh o fail to practise i t also
.
,
fail to realize such returns The slovenly cultivator

.
complains that his strawberries run out But th i s .
is because he permits the weeds and gras s to run in

and occupy the ground The plant has no inherent
.
tendency to degenera te F or the last few years im

.
,
mense demand h as exi sted f or Wilson s A lbany ’
S eedling Those at all conversant with the subj ect,

.
know that plenty of room is requisite to get the

greatest quantity of runners from a g i ven number
of plants— the sale being perfectly sure all dealers ,
give this room the consequence is while the plants ,
are worth sa y $ 10 per 1000 all are fine large plants

, ,
and g ive a fair cro p, even the fi rst year a f ter plan t
23 9
in g . S uch p lants te ll their own sto ry , and the de

mand continues In a short time prices come .
,
down ; and the supply increasing beyond the de

mand the dealer no longer thi nks it worth while
,
to give this room expressly for the growth of

plants : the beds take care of themselve s hence
-
bear but little and the plants furnished are always

,
weak and spindling These require the second year .
to fruit ; perhaps in the interim new kin ds are , ,
p ressed into notice and from the ol d beds it b e ,
comes more and more difficult to obta in strong

p lants until the cry is raised that the once cele
,
bra te d strawberry has run its race N ow the ques .

,
tion is whether the same kinds under the same cir

,
c u m sta n c e s that is strong runners from the strong

, ,
ol d plants in good soil and plenty of room wi l l n ot

, ,
continue to be productive .
A s this is not designed to be a treatise on the ar t

of raising strawberries so I shall not enlarge upon ,
the subj ect E very grower seems to have a method

.
of his ow n which he prefers over all others There

,
.
are works upon the subj ect containing numerous ,
facts with which every careful beginner should

'
make himself familiar But even i n these are to be .
discovered the most extraordinary collisions of

O pini on— on e f or instance recommending generous
, ,
manuring another insistin g that poor ground only

,
sh ould be used while a third declares that frequent

,
stirring of the soil w i ll of i tself insure abun d ant

crops A mid all these antagonis ms one great fact
.
stands prominently forth that the strawberry plant ,

.
wi ll continue to live and produce fru i t under every

possible variety of treatment ; whil e another is
equa lly conspicuous, that the better the treatment
the better the return It would be presumptuous in
.
;
a novi ce like me to undertake to reconcile these

unaccountable discre p an cies of the great strawberry
doctors of the country But I have learned enough
.
to be satisfied that s oil has much to do in the s u c

c e ssf u l cultivation of this fruit A variety which . .
flourishes in one soil will be al most barren in

anoth e r H ence in the hand s of on e grower it
.
,
proves a great prize but in those of another it is

,
comparatively worthless Without doub t it is to

.
this cause that much of the di versity of opin i on as

to certain varieties as well as to the mode of
,
culture is to be attributed
,
.
N either wi ll I u ndertake to decide what sort s,

among the cloud of new aspirants for public patron
age which are annually coming into notice are to be ,
adopted a s the best O ne is in danger of being

.
confuse d by going largely into the cultivation of a

multitude of varieties H aving secured a supply of
.
a few which he has p roved to be congenial with his

particular soil , he should adhere to them S mall .
trials of the new varieties may be safely made but ,
wholesale substitutions are many times disastrous

undertakings Hav i ng found out such as suit my
.
soil I am content to keep them The Al bany seed

,
.
ling grows upon it with unsurpassed luxuriance and ,
I shall probably never aband on it Meantime I have .
tried the Bartlett, an d found it a rampant and hardy

manures f or the strawberry and on e of the m will ,
p robably be found in Baugh s Rawbone S u p e rph os

’
phate of L i me This article is manufactured in

.
Philadelphia , and is made of raw, unburnt bones ,
which in the i r raw state contai n one third of animal -
matter and combines ammonia and phosphoric acid

,
in the proper p roportions for stimulating and nour

ish ing vegetable growth I have used i t as freely as
.
I could afford to on turnips celery and strawberries

, , , .
O n the two former its eff ects was very decidedly

favorable My celery unifor m ly exceeds that of my
.
neighbors both in size crispness , an d flavor, and

, ,
consequently commands a higher price But its .
e ff ect on strawberries has been perfectly marvellous .
O n some of them the superphosphate w a s scatte red

on both sides of the row whence by repeated hoeing
, ,
and raking with the aid of sundry rains its finer

, ,
particles found their way to the roots The result .
has been a robust growth of the plants such as ,
cannot be seen on any other part of my ground .
They hold up their heads their leaves and fruit,
stalks some inches higher than any others, while their

whole appearance indic a tes that they have been fed
w ith a more congenial fertilizer than usual Many .
of them have put forth double crown s showi ng that ,
they are prepared to furnish twice the ordinary

quantity of fruit S o impressed am I with the s u
.
peri or value of this fertilizer that I have this a n , ,
tu m n of 186 3 manured as many rows as I could and

, ,
,
Shall hereafter substitute it wholly for all barnyard

m anure . It is applied wi th the utmost facility it ,
T EN ACRES ENO UGH .
43
conta ins the seeds of no pestif erous weeds and its ,
virtues are so highly concentra ted that a small

amount manures a large surface It is quite pos .
sible that it may not do s o well on some soils as

others but no farmer can be sure of this until he
,
has made the trial H ence, as that can be made

.
with a single bag the s ooner it is undertaken the

,
better it will be for those to whose soil it may be

fou nd congenial.
Thousands of dollars worth of the common wil d

’
blackberry are annually taken to the cities and sold .
For these berries the price has within a few years ,

,
actually ri sen one half The traffic in them on some

-
.
railroa d s is immense especially on those leading into

,
Philadelphia f rom Delaware Mil lions of quar ts are

.
annually sold in N ew York and C incinnati A single .
township in N ew Jersey sells to the amount of

and one county in Indiana to that of The
huckleberry trade of N ew Jersey is also very large .
A single buyer in Monmouth county purchases sixty

bushels daily during the picking season All these .
wild berries are gathered by women an d children

who without these crops would find no other em
, ,
ployment But they gro w i n every wood and swamp,

.
in every neglected headland , while u pon the ol d

fields they enter into full possession A s they cost .
nothing but the labor of gathering them so they are ,
the bo u ntiful means of drawing thousands of dollars

into the pockets of the industrious poor The c ran .
berry swamps of N ew Jersey are as celebrated for

the abundance of their products as their owners have
be en f or perm i tting them to b e come the p rey of all

who choose to strip them of their fruit .
Thus the demand for even the wi ld berries con

t inu es to enlarge
. H ence there must be sure sale
f or those of a superior quality In fact the culti va .
,
tion of fr uit is yet in a state of infancy it is just

beginning to assume the character its merits deserve .
Probably more t ree s have been raised m ore orchards ,
planted, wi thin the past ten or tw el v e year s than in

all pre vious time Within a few years past it has
.
received an unusual degree of attention Planta .
tions of all sorts orchards gardens and nurseries

, , , ,
have increased in number and e x tent to a degree

qui te unprecedented ; not i n one section or locality ,
but fro mthe extreme north to the southern limits

of the fruit growing region
-
H or ticultural societies
.
have been organized in all parts ; while exhibitions ,
and N ational , S tate and local C onventions of frui t

,
gro wers have been held to discuss the merits of .
fruits and other kindred topics until i t has become

, ,
the desire of almost every man whether he live in ,
town or country to enj oy fine fruits to provide

, ,
them for his family and if possible to cultivate th e

, , ,
trees i n his own garden with his own hands .
There are now single nurseries in this country

where a million fruit trees are advertised for sale
-
.
If every hundred acre farm were t o rece i ve fifty

-
trees , all the nurseries would be swept bare in a

single year The S tates east of and contig u ous to
.
, ,
the Mississippi river would require ten thousand

,
acres of land for three hundred years to plant ten ,

Jamaica and strawberries to Barbadoes Th e Bal d

,
.
w in apple has been furnished in good condition in

the E ast Indies t wo months after it is entirely gone
in Boston Th e world has never yet be en s u rfeited
.
with fru i t .
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
247
CHA PT ER XXIII .
G ENT L E M AN -
F A RM I N G— E STA BL I SH I N G A H OME .
I A M sure I ought not to be considered as belong

ing to the class of gentlemen farmers They go into .
the country because they are rich— I went because

I was poor Yet they have done good servi ce to
.
the public in various ways They have imported .

,
naturalized and propagated valuable vegetables and

,
fruits They have patronized costly labor savin g

.
-
farm mach ines and agricultural implements, they

have made expensive agricultural experiments in ,
the benefits of which all cultivators have participated .
E specially has this been so in relation to fertilizers ,
foreign and domestic natural and artificial They

,
.
have improved the breed of domestic cattle and im ,
porte d the best blood from abroad including all the ,
fin e woolled sheep
-
They have shown us how large
.
crops can be grown , and have otherwise and in vari

ou s ways radiated good influences around them and ,
contributed science dign ity and encouragement to

, ,
’
the farmer s vocation .
N o one can justly deny the value of the i r servi ces .
Yet it is not by merely cultivat ing new trees and

pla nts and exhibiting larg e vegetables gigantic
, ,
apples or pears c orp u l ative pumpkins and enormous

, ,
general crops that agriculture is to be substantially

,
i mpro ved and made profitable to the farmer who de

p ends u pon it for a l iving S omething m ore than .
prodigious crops or beautiful fruit is necessary for

him H e wants to know the cost of them— to see
.
the balance sheet in which while credit is given for

-
,
the sales of all these fine products deductions are ,
ma de for the expenditures rendered necessary to

secure them A tree may produce splendid fruit
.
,
but the pears may be few the apples may be very ,
perish able and the choice peaches and other trees

,
may bear only every other year or only once in ,
three or four perhaps and then die before another

,
crop The accounts must therefore com p rehend

.
several years before the real p rofits of farmi ng c an

be trul y ascerta ined .
H erein it is that ge ntleman farming is most com -
m onl y in fault The pecuniary results are never

.
either acc u rate ly kn own and stated or are neglected , ,
because of little consequence to the proprietor .
When they happen to be ascertained and divulge d ,
they are often discovered to be far from remunera

tive This disregard of cost has brought this genteel
.
agriculture as it may be called into disrepute

’
,
.
,
C ommon people tur n away from it as inapplicable ,
to the condition of their purses They think they .
cannot a fi or d it ; and doubtless they are really unable

to indulge in this species of agricultural l u xury .
It may thus be assumed that this kind of agric u l

ture so far from being serviceable to many working
,
farmers is really inj urious to them They confoun d

,
.
this uncalculating heedless practice with book farm

,
-
ing They believe the conduct of their wealthy

.
gi ving room f or its display — whether it is wort hy

to enlist th e energies and ambition of a young man
wh o has a good life to live and a career to make !
,
This question may be answered by looking alm ost

anywhere around us N o d oubt a farmer should
.
have some practical familiarity with those facts ,
whether of science or e xperiment, which have a bear

ing on his trade . It would be well f or him t o under
stand chemistry in its application to farming yet he ,
should also assiduously gather up those unexplained

facts for which even chemistry cannot account .
It would be well for him to know wh y the j ohns

wort the wild carrot and the C anada thistle thrive
, ,
s o h e r ioc a ll y in spite of bad treatment, where are
thei r weak points where the heel of these G reeks

, ,
what degree of heat i n the c ompost pile will destroy

the germi nating power of seeds and whether the ,
law of one seed is the law of an other seed H e .
Sh ould be a man of business and of some m eans ,
f or he has his system to decide upon his labor to ,
engage and direct his stock and implements to buy

, ,
and then his crops to sell his bills to pay and his
, ,
books to balance S uperphosphate s certified to by

. ,
on e s e t of gentlemen farmers and the most brill iant

-
,
eulogies on A merican farmers delivered by another,
s e t, will not help him much at these things Money .
may : indeed every farmer ought to have a little of

this commodity to start h i m fairly .
In almost all locations there are di fficulties to

encounte r O ne of these is that of securing efficient
.
laborers A meri can laborers of th e right sort are

.
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
25 1
rarely to be found A merican blood is fast and

.
,
fast blood is impatient with a hoe among carrots .
It is well enough that blood is so fast and hopes so ,
tall These te ll grandly in certain directions but

.
,
they are n ot a vailable f or work ing over a heap of

compost Farm labor to be effective must have
.
, ,
the personal oversight of the master There is .
breadth and significance in the ol d saying of Palla

d iu s ,
If y ou would push a crop through look afte r ,
!
it yourself A nother d ifii c u l ty is the lack of de
.
sirable market facilities The middleman stands .
between the producer and the consumer and m on op ,
ol ize s much of the profit In this respect farmers .
might help each other by j u d icious combination ,
but they lack cohere n cy as a class They have too .
little esp r i t d u c orp s There is too much of isola

.
ti on and isolation will inevitably prey upon the

,
farmer s purse Then Young A merica has a grow

’
.
ing aversion to manual labor H e i s a gentleman ; .
and shall a gentleman take off his coat H e is vain

of his culture and is mortified to find that ordinary
,
sagacity and a rude energy surpass him in success .
H e learns with pain that knowledge is not confined

to books and that the shrewdness which can mould
,
raw laborers into effective helps tells more upon ,
the year s profits than the theorie s of Liebig or the

’
,
experiments of Lawes .
But the d ifii c u l tie s thus referred to are many of

them gradually disappearing The labor question .
,
especially has been wonderfully simplified by the

,
introduction of new and e ffective implements which ,

enable the farmer to reduce the numbe r of h i s hands .
But since they do exist — and I think my representa ,
tions though they may seem to Sho w the shady side

,
of the business wi ll be sustained by the testimony of

,
practical men it is best to meet the whole truth in

,
-
this matter whate v er ugly faces it may wear N o

, .
man conquers a diffi culty until he sees it plainly .
O aks are fine thin gs, and rivers are fine things and
s o are sunsets and morn ing glories and new mown
,
-
,
-
hay and fresh curds , and milch cows But after

,
.
,
all a farm and farming do not absorb al l the

, , ,
romance of life or all its state liest heroics There is

, .
wi dth and beauty and independence i ndeed ; but

, ,
there is also sweat and anxiety about the weather , ,
the crops and the markets wi th horny hands and

, , ,
sometimes a good deal of hay dust in the hair But -

.
i f a man as has been said , i s thoroughly in earnest ;

,
if he have the sagacity to see all over his farm to ,
systematize his labor to carry ou t his p lans punctu ,
ally and thoroughly ; if he is not above econom ics ,
nor heedless of the teachings of science nor u nob ,
servant of progress otherwise nor neglectful of the ,
multitude of agricultu ral lights which shin e every

where around him let him work and he will have ,
his reward But work as he may i t will be im p os

.
,
sible to toil harder tha n thousands in the cities who ,
with all their toil of head and hands end life as pov ,
e r ty stricken as when they began

-
.
S omehow it happens that almost every man wh o ,
has been city bred feels at times a strong desire to

-
settle down among th e trees and green fields from ,

heart enlarged and elevated In short to establish .

,
a home for the family .
I desire no association with the man or b oy w h o

would wantonly kill the birds that sing so cheerfully
arou n d ou r dwellings and ou r farms : he is fitte d
f or treason and murder Who among us does not.
,
wi th the freshness of early morning call up the ,
memory of the garden of his infancy and childhood ;

the robin s nest in the old cherry tree and the nest
’
-
,
of you ng chirping birds i n the currant bush ; the -
flowers planted by his mother, and n urtured by his

sisters ! In all ou r wanderings the memory of ,
’
childhood s b i r d s and flowers is associated with that
of mother, sister, and ou r early home A s y ou .
would have y ou r children intelligent virtuous and , ,
happy and their memory in after life of early home

, ,
-
,
a pleasant or repulsive on e s o make your farms and ,
your children s home as your bus iness of life then

’
,
adorn that business throughout If you would in .
S pire your own children and your neighbors with

the n obleness of your business then draw a bout ,
you such an array of beauty as no one but the

cultivator of the s oil can collect Let every foot of .
your farm show the t ouch of refinement While .
y ou are arrangi n g your fields for convenient and
successful cropping let it be done with order and

,
neatness Wh ile buil di ng the fence let it be beautiful

.
,
as well as substantial While arranging your ve g e

.
table gardens and orchards do not ov erlook geometri

-
cal regularity Do not on any account omit the plant

.
, ,
ing of flowers and the various kinds of fru i t trees -

.
55
CHAPT ER XXIV .
U NS UCCE S S F U L ME N — R E B E LL I ON NOT R UI NO U S TO
NO R TH E RN A G RI CU L T U R E .
L OO K IN G back upon the incidents of my city life ,
I confess that increasing y ears bring with them an

increasing respect for those who d o not succeed in
life as these words are commonly used H eaven
, .
has been said to be a p lace for those who have not

succeeded upon earth ; and it is surely true that
celestial graces do n ot best thrive and bloom in the
hot blaze of worldly prosperi ty Ill success some .
times arises from superabundance of qualities in

themselves good from a conscience too sensitive , a
,
ta ste too fastidious , a self forgetfulness too romantic

-
,
a modesty too retirin g I will not go so far as to

.
say , with a living poet, that
Th e w or ld kn ow s n oth in g of its gr ea t e st m e n
but there are forms of greatness or at least excel ,
lence that die and make no sign there are m artyrs

,
w h o miss the palm but not the stake there are

,
heroes without the laurel and conquerors wi thout

,
the triumph .
It cannot be denied that there is a class of men

wh o never succeed in business With a fair amount
.
of e arnest industry they are still unable to get on

, .
Bad luck seems to be their fate and they are perpet ,
u a l l y railing at fortune In this they are not with

.
ou t sympathy There are hundreds of simple good

.
,
hearte d people wh o regard them as ill starred

,
-
mortals against whom an inscruta ble destiny had

,
se t itself and who are always ready t o pity their

,
!
mischances and help them in their last extremity .
But is not that a very foolish philosophy which re

fers the misfortunes or the prosperity of individuals
to preternatural causes or even natural causes e n
,
t ir el y foreign to the persons S ome people it is ,
true owe a great deal to acci d ent Much of their

,
.
succes s is due to circumstances not of their own

making S o it is wi th others who su ff er disa ppoint
.
ment or disaster But in those cases in which fail

.
ure or success is certainly dependent on no e xtra n e

’
ous agencies but on one s own means and energies
, ,
I am confident that n o little of the complaint of ou r

hard l ot is misdirected and that the charity which
,
helps us ou t of our successive difficulties i s mis

placed In plain words our fail u res in this or that
.
,
thing are often attributable to the fact that we e n

gage in enterprises beyond ou r power The world .
is filled with examples of this truth We see h un .
dreds of men in all professions and call ings who

ne v er achieve even a decent l i ving The bar of .
e v ery city is crowded with them Th e y swell the .
rank s of our physicians and theologians and swarm ,
in the walks of science and literature in short,

they run against and elbow you everywhere They .
be to k eep m ov mg to try it agai n Try it a hun, .
dred times if you do not earlier succeed, and all the

,
while be studyin g to s ee i f you have not failed

through some negligence and oversight of your own .
Do not throw down your c a r s and drift stern fore

mos t, because the tide hap p ens to be against y ou .
The tide does not always run the same way N e ver .
anchor because the wi nd does not happen to be fair .
Beat to wind war d, and gain all you can until it

changes I f you get to the bottom of the wheel
.
,
hold ou — never th i nk of letting go Let it m ove .
which way it will you are sure to go up , .
If i n debt do not let time wear off the edge of the

,
obligation E conomize work harder spend less

.
, , ,
and hurry ou t If misfortune should overtake y ou

.
,
do not s it down and mope , and let her wa l k over

you P ut on more steam drive ahead and get ou t
.
, ,
of the way If you meet obstacles in yo u r path

.
,
climb over dig under or go around th e m — never

, ,
turn back If the day be stormy you canno t mend

.
,
matters by whini ng and compla i ning Be good .
natured take it easy , for assuredly the sun will

,
shine to morrow
-
.
If you lose money on a p romising specu lation ,
never think of collecting a coroner s inquest about ’
y our dead body D o n ot put

. on a long face because
m oney is not so plentiful as usual — it will not add a
single dollar to the circulating medium Preserve .
y our g o od-
humor for t here is more h,
ealth in a single
hearty laugh than in a d ozen glasses of rum Be .
happy, and i mpart happiness to o thers Look aloft .

,
T EN ACRES ENOUGH .
25 9
and trust in God Be prudent as y ou please but d o

.
,
not bleach ou t your hair and pucker your face into

,
wrinkles ten years ahead of time by a self in flic ted ,

-
fit of the dismals .
I went into the co u ntry wi th a determin ation to

succeed A s others had there succeeded I could not
.
,
be induced to believe that failure in so simple a n e n

t e rp r ise could overtake me as I felt myself quite as
,
competent as they A resolute will overcomes all

.
d ifii c u l t ie s
. It was on e of the leading characteristics
of N apoleon to regard n othing as imp o ssible His .
astonishing successes are to be attributed t o his in

domitable wi ll scarcely less than to his vast military
,
genius Wellington was distinguished for a similar

.
peculiarity The entire Peninsular campaign w a s

.
,
indeed but one lo ng dis play of an iron will r esolute

, ,
to conquer di fficulties by wearing them ou t Alex .
ander the G reat was quite as striking an example of

what a powerful will can eff ect H is stubborn de .
termination to subdue the Persians his pers everance

in the crisis of battle and the emulati on to which he
,
thus stimulated his officers and men did m ore for ,
his wonderful career of victory than e v en his great

strategic abilities In the life and death struggle b e
.
tween E ngland and France during the first fifte en ,
years of this centu r y it w a s the stubborn will of the

,
f ormer which carried the day ; f or though Napoleon

defeate d the British coalitions again and again yet ,
new ones were as consta n tly formed until at last ,
the French peop l e if not their emperor were com

, ,
p l e te l y worn ou t The .battle o f l Va t e r l oo which wa s ,

the climax of this tremendous struggl e was also an ,
illustration of the sustained energy, the superior will

of the British In that awful struggle, French im
.
p e t u os it y proved t oo weak for E ng lish resolution .
We will see w h o can p ound the longest said ,

!
WVe l l ington ; and as the British did they won the ,
battle .
It is not only in military C hieftai ns that a strong

will is a j ewel of great price N ations and individ
.
na l s e x perience the advantages of a resolute will ;
and this alike in large and small undertakings It .
w a s the det e rmined will of ou r forefathers to which ,
w ith divine help we are principally indebted for our

,
freedom For the first few years after the declara

.
ti on of independence we lost most of the battles

,
that were fought N ew York and Philadelphia

.
were successively captured by the foe ; S outh Caro

lina fell N ew Jersey was practically reannexed to
E ngland ; almost everything went again st us Had .
the A merican people been feeble and hesitating all ,
w ould have been lost But they resolved to conquer

.
or die . Though their cities were ta k en their fields ,
ravaged and their captured soldiers incarcerated

,
;
in hide ous prison ships they still m aintained the

-
,
struggle making the pilgrimage of freedom with

,
naked feet that bled at every step H ad ou r fathers

,
.
been incapable of Valley Forge had they shrunk ,
fro m the storm beaten march on Trenton we S hould

-
,
never have been an independent nati on There ar e .
pe ople in the O ld World ful l of g enius and e n th u si

,
a s m f or liberty who y e t cannot achieve freedom prin

, ,
2 62 T EN ACRES ENOU G H .
ment only to end in ut ter ruin If y ou do, y ou will

,
.
succeed even though y our abilities be moderate

,
.
A ll this may be viewed as a digression But it .
is not s o I do not write f or the rich and prosperous ,

.
but f or those wh o have been unsuccessful They need .
encouragement and bracing up If their experience .
has been disastrous that of others wh o have su c

, ,
ceede d shoul d be s e t before them S ome fifty years

,
.
ago there lived in this city an old m an wh o by ,
dint of tact with the aid of keen perceptive f a c u l

,
ties had acquired much celebrity with a large class

,
of his neighbors as something between a prophet
and a fortune te ller H e did not however assume

-
.
, ,
the character e i ther of a religious fanatic or of a

crafty disciple of Faustus But he was well read
.
in the S criptures ; he had a good share of common

sense and a voluble tongue and by degrees he at
, ,
ta ine d a fame for wise sayings and for capability to

advise which he owed more to his n atural talents
,
and a loquacious dis p osition than to any less worthy

means Being advanced in years and his lot humble
.
, ,
he turned the good Opini on formed of h i m to the

account of his livel ihood, by discu ssing questions put
to him by h is vis i tors in a frank and manly spirit and
w i thout ever de m anding recompense he was ready ,
to receive any gratuity that was offered by them on

their departure Moreover his advice was always
.
, ,
if not valuable at least good in kind and few quitted

,
his humble dwelling without leaving their good

wishes in a substantial shape or without having ,
also formed a favorabl e O pinion of their mentor .

T EN ACRES ENOU GH .
2 63
At length so extens i ve did th i s good man s fam e

,
’
be come, that many from curios i ty alone were induced

to visit him and hear his wise say i ngs
, H is counsel .
was usually couched in short and terse sentences ;

frequently in proverbs and often in the language of,
the Bible to which he would sometimes refer h is

,
inquirers for passages which he said would be found

applicable t o their case A s these passages were .
us u all y selecte d from the Proverbs and other boo k s ,
of somewhat similar description which conta i ned ,
so me rule of morals or which advocate d the C hri s

,
t ian duties he seldom failed to be right A mong

, .
,
o thers wh o were led by curiosity to this wise man ,
was a young farmer then not long entered upon the

,
threshold of life whom after some of the S cripture

, ,
references adverte d to he di smi s se d wi th the parting

,
advice To keep a smil ing countenance and a good

, ,
!
e xertion . The young farmer l i ved to be come an
O ld man and is now gathered to his fathers But
,
.
for many years I heard him from time to t ime revert

with pleasure to his visit and s ay that th is s im pl e ,
aphorism had frequently cheered him in the hour of

difficulty and that the thought of the old man s con ’
te nted counte nance and encouraging voice when he

uttered it had gone far to make h i m place confidence
,
i n his counsel .
We are all too prone to brood over the clouds

upon ou r atmosphere and t oo feebly d o w e kee p
,
the eye of hope fixed on the first sunbeam which

breaks through as the symbol of their d is p ersion .
In real i ty, most of them are merely p ass ing clouds .

S ome glances at a blacker pi cture still wi ll go far ,
to clothe wi th brigh ter hues the less gloomy picture

which may happ en to be our own Thus with a “ .
,
!
smil ing countenance and a good exertion, let every
one of us whether his lot be cast wi th the plough
, ,
the l oom or the anvil put forth manfully his powers,

, ,
and, thankful to a gracious G od for the blessings

yet s p ared be it our effort in our worl dl y duties to
,
follow the example set us in higher things forget ,
ting those things that are behind and reaching forth ,
unto those which are before l e t us p ress towards ,

!
the mark for the pri z e ; and i f we thus d e mean
ourselves we shall not fail in earthly any more
, ,
than in s p iri tual thi ngs to obtain our reward

, .
All know that one effect of the rebellion was to

paralyze nearly every k ind of business s uddenly ,
enriching the few but as suddenly impover i shing

,
the many O n my quiet little plantation I was

.
entirely beyond the reach of i ts disastrous influence .
It lost m e no money becaus e my savings had been

,
loaned on mortgage It is true that interest was

.
not p aid u p as punctually as aforetime but the ,
omission to pay occasioned me no distress ; hence

I occasioned none by compulsory collection The .
summer of 186 1 however did reduce p rices of most

, ,
of my productions The masses had less m oney to

.
spend and therefore consumed less Yet my early

,
.
consignments of blackberries sold for twenty fi ve -
cents a quart and the whole crop averaged four

,
teen My strawberries yielded abundantly escap

.
,
ing the frost which nipped the first bloo m of all

2 66 TEN ACRES ENO U GH .
CHAP T ER XXV
WHERE T O L O CATE — EAS T O R W EST .
E VERY great nati onal calamity has the e ff ect of

driving men from the cities to engage in agricu l t
u re
. S uch has be en the res ul t of the l ate war f or
the Union I h ave been in a position to Observe its
.
operati on on the minds of hundr e ds whom i t c c v

ered wi th di sa ste r There has been th e usual desire
.
to break away f rom the cities and settle in the ,
country The life long convictions of my own

.
-
m i nd have taken possession of the minds of o thers .
Property in the cities ceased for a time to be , ,
saleable while farms have been in more general

,
demand than for years p ast Foreign immigra tion

.
w as meas urably stopped, because men fly from c on

vu l sion s not to countries where they are t o be
,
encounte red When war desolate s the nations of

.
E urop e the p eop le migrate hither to avoid its h or

,
r or s ; when it desolates ours they remai n at home

,
During the late disastrous experi ences of city

life many of my fri ends u p on whom th ey fell with
,
great severi ty were fr e e in the i r congratulations on

my happy change of life They had be en as free in
.
doubting the p ro p riety of my experiment N ow .

,
however they looked u p to me as possess ing supe

,
rior sagacity ; were desirous the m selves of imita t

i ng my e xample and sought instruction and advice
,
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
267
as to how they Should proceed Three of them are .
already located near me ; s o that instead of cutting ,
entirely loose from ol d a sssoc iate s by coming i nto

the coun try I have attracted them into a closer
,
intimacy than e ver Dear as my home was without

.
them it is rendered doubly dear er by clo se as so

,
c ia t ion with long tried friends

-
.
L ocation is perhaps the most i mportant consider

ation A cash market all the year round for every
.
variety of produce that a man can raise, is of the

utmost importance to secure S uch is invariably to
.
be found in clos e pro ximity to the great cities an d

there singularly enough the wealthiest farmers in
, ,
the Uni on wi ll generally be found When we go .
t o the extr eme N orth where their market is l i mit

,
ed, and where they produce only the heavy grains ,
and grasses farming is so l i ttl e an obj ect that

,
improved places can always be bought f or less than

their cost It is very frequently the same through
.
ou t the W est where so much that is raised upon a

,
farm is valueless ; and where for even the grain s , ,
they have a mark et which barely pays the expense

of li v i ng
. Th e exp ens e incurred in farm i ng can be
regulated by the profit of the crops ; and where
even no manure is required the labor h as to be ,
expended and crops in distant localities often fail

,
to pay the expense of this labor Where lan d will .
pay for a libe ral cul tivation as we l l as fertilizing it

, ,
is much better, as a farmer must work h i s stock ,
and a certain amount of care is indispensable The .
difference in value exi sting between those farms

26 8 TEN ACRES ENOU G H .
near a market and those remote from it is enor; ,
mous If the mind wil l consider the immense

.
amount of produce in the way of fruits and vegeta

bles which near a city, will command the highest
, ,
prices and which at a distance are an entire loss

, ,
a conception can be rea di ly formed of what they

amount to in dollars and cents .
Land in Illinois and Iowa can be purchased for a

dollar an acre but corn i s at times of s o little val ue
,
a s to be consumed for fuel The wheat crop is .
annually decreasing in its acreable product, because

no one values or applies manure The West may be .
the paradise of the E uropean immigrant who, hav ,
ing abandoned friends and home may w i th propri ,
ety settle in one spot as well as in another because ,

go where he will he wi ll be sure to fin d none but
,
strangers But for residents of our cities who go

.
thither, very few acquire property by legitimate

farming even afte r sacrific i ng all the tender associ
,
a tion s of relatives and friends whom they leave

behind and enduring hardships and trials of double
,
severity with those they need encounter if they

would consent to suffer them on lands wi thin thirty
miles of their birthplace If they be come rich it is .
,
by hazardous speculation or by the rise in v al u e of ,
their lan d s S o far as real practical farming is

.
,
concerned it will be found that the E ast is in c om

,
p a r a b l y superior to the West ; but s o far as small ,
farmers like myself are concerned, it would be folly

t o deny this superiority .
I s ay nothin g as to the superior ease w i th which

doubt not there must be many in that region wh o

now wi sh themselves bac k i n the i r ol d homes .
If my example be wo rt h i m i tating land should be ,
obta ined with in cheap and daily access to any one of

the great cities If within reach of two as mine is
.
, ,
all the better, as the location thus secures the choice

of two markets . In Pennsylvania all the land ,
around Philadelph i a is held at high prices Much of .
it is d i vi ded into small hold ings, many of which are

rented to mark et gardeners at prices so high that
none but market gardeners can afford to pay them .
O thers are w ork ed by the i r owners who l ive well by

,
fee di ng the great c i ty G radually as the city ex

.
,
tends in every d i rection these small hol d ings are

,
given up to streets and build ings, th us enriching

their owners by the rise in value The truckers .
move further back where land i s cheaper But the

,
.
m odern facilities for reachin g the city by railroad

have s o greatly multiplied that they are practic a lly
,
as near to it as they were before The yield from .
some of these small holdings is very large But th e .
cost of land thus s i tuated was too great for my sl en

der cap ital when I began .
H ence I sou ght a location i n N ew Jersey There .
unimproved land wi thin an hour of Philadelphia,

,
can be purchased for the same money per acre which

is p aid in Pennsylvania as annual rent F or ten to .
twenty dollars more in clearing up and improving

, ,
i t can be made immediately productive as the soil ,
of even thi s cheap land is far more fertile than is

generally supp os e d Thousands of acres of this
.
TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
27 1
descri ption are always f or sale and thousa nds are ,
annually being bought and improved as railroads ,
and turnpikes leadi ng to the city are be i ng estab

lish e d . Many G ermans have abandoned the West ,
and opened farms on this cheap and admirably lo

c a te d lan d from which they ra i se prodigious quanti
,
ties of fruit and truck for Phil adelphia and N ew

York .
Coloni es of New E ngl an ders , allured by the early

season as compared w i th that of their own homes
, ,
the p roductive soil and the ready access to market ,
have settled upon and around the n e w railroad j ust

opened whi ch leads south from C amden through the
,
town of Malaga where a large tract has recently been

,
di vided i nto farms of var i ous sizes They bring wi th .
them all the surroundings of an advanced c ivilization .
To those wi th no ca p ital but their own labor and

a dete rmination to conquer success , the se lands offer
the highest inducements Most of them can be had .
on credit by men wh o wil l settle and improve at

, ,
twenty to thirty dollars per acre wi thin a little over ,
an hour s ride to Philadelph ia This tract i s distant

’
.
but a few m il es from the Delaware river and p roba ,
bly no bette r could be found A ny number of loca .
tions can be had Many are already i mproved by

.
buildings fencing and all the preliminary comforts

, ,
which clus ter roun d an established home The set .
tler may choose between the im p roved and the u n

improved .
But there is a better country n orth of C amden ,
l ining the shore of the Delaware where any number ,

TEN ACRES ENOUGH .
of locati ons may be found improved by buildings, ,
and at moderate pr i ces as well as on fa vorable terms

,
as to payment Vast progress in improvement has

.
been m ade through all this region within ten ye ars .
N ew towns have been built new turnpikes construct ,
ed while the great railroad p uts the cultivator in

,
constant connecti on with the two overgrown cities

at its termini Land is increasing in value as p op u
.
lation flows in The m argin of th e Delaware from

.
,
Philadelphia upward is being lined with vi llages,

,
between which new farm houses an d cottages a re -
annually erected ; and the young of this generation

will live to see it a continuous settlement of su bs ta n
tial villas peopled by the swarms of educated
,
families which a great human hive like Philadelphia

is annually throwing off A location within such
.
an atmosphere of im p ro v ement must continually in

crease in value The owner wil l find himself grow
.
ing richer from this cause j ust as the trucker on the

,
Pennsylvania S ide has done — not s o rapidly, but

quite as S urely An investment in such land , prop
.
erly manage d and not permitted to deteri orate ,

,
will assuredly pay My ow n little farm i s an illus

.
t ra tion ; for more than once have I been solicited to

sell at d ouble the price i t cost me .
I am now looking at the future as well as at the ,
p re s ent Yet the apparent anomaly of there being

.
always an abundance of land for sale in s o desirable

a district must not be overlooked But it is s o
,
.
throu ghout ou r country ; there are al ways and every

where more sellers than buyers It is the same thing .

Ten Acres Enough

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TEN A NOUGH

A PRA CTI CA L EXP ERI ENCE

HOW A VERY SMALL FARM MAY BE

TH E CO LLEGE O F A GR I CUL T UR E O F COR N E LL UN I VE R S I TY

CO NS O L IDAT ED R ETA I L BOO K S ELLERS

What J e thro Tull did to improve ti llage the ,

author of Ten A cres E nou gh did to prove that

some proﬁt and health freedom and hap piness as

well It has taken two centuries for the most a d

va n c e d farmers t o appreciate Tull and his teachings .

It has taken nearly half a century in this p r og r es

feeble way the fundamental principles which under

l i e all ou r deal ings with Mother E arth as se t forth

If one totally ignorant of the principles and p ra c

advi se him to pur chase H orse H oeing Husbandry -

and Ten A cres E nough .

The mistaken ambition for own i ng twi ce ! often

tural sin of th i s country Says the author In,

Ca li fornia wher e th i s is being writte n, this mistaken

amb i tion prevails to an alarming exte nt Too ofte n .

farmers have become soil robbers This state ap .

pears to excel all others in its haste to ﬁl c h from the

trogen, every vestige of humus that can be extracte d

thought of the future productivi ty of the land, the

I have made a careful study of the cond i ti ons of

mento Valleys and I am i rresistibly led to the con

c l u sion that the great ranches must be broken up

in to small holdings before permanent prosperity can

c ent v i sit to a ranch of several thousand acres ,

where things appeared prosperous and the cattle

from asking the impolite question “ Does i t pay ! !

The reply was : We have been here ten years

ing to get th e milk delivery wagon star ted in time ,

have four hundred head of cattle and thirty horses ,

A few days after I called on my college graduate

a p ricots and prunes — all of which he will dry as ,

transportation is uncertain and expensive and the

have th ree ch il dre n my wi fe an d I hav e worke d

hard exce p t in the s i x w e ek s harve st ing ti me we ,

have a comfortabl e l i vi ng, some s p are t im e, and on

w e should do somewhat better i n the future and

th i s locality, land suitable f or fru i t i s held at one

W here the p lanted orchard has been in bearing for

a crop, it sells at eight to n in e h undred dollars per

creased to one thousand or e leven hundr ed dollars

These two cas e s are ty pi ca l not exceptional

A fter becom i ng acqua in te d w i th the i nner life of the

large cattle shee p , grain and hay ranch e s— one doe s

not hesi tate to choose betwe e n them .

It all amounts to th i s N o one should control

are good seed suitable moisture , abundant available

plant food and rational tillage In a large maj or i ty

of cases where failure , or partial fa ilure of an abun

dant crop is observed the meagre results are due to

vicissitudes of weather have little e ff ect if var i eties ,

and species of plants adapted to the locality are

and if they are comfortably grounded in Ol d Mother

Then the j oy of seeing happy plants and an i mals

dred f old I — “ Twere w orth te n years of city life ,

discovering now on e now another secret of soil or

plant H ow he revels i n plain food and p eaceful

slumber after a day of intelligent e ffort in G od s ’

ﬁrst Temple under the open sk y ! H e consulte d

the ﬁeld of the slothful and by the vineyard of the