Three acres and liberty

THREE ACRES
AND LIBERTY

BOLTON HALL

I UBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA

U SAN DIEGO

G/C

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.

TORONTO

A SIMPLE MANSION AT FKBE ACKES

THREE ACRES

AND

LIBERTY

BY

BOLTON HALL

AUTHOR "OT~
"THINGS AS THEY ARE," "THRIFT," ETC.

REVISED EDITION

"A sower went out to sow, and he sowed that which was in his heart
— for what can a man sow else ! " From " THE GAME OF LIFE."

Or, as the Vulgate has it, —

"Exiit qui seminal seminare semen suum."

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918

All rigfitt re»erv«d

OOPTKISHT, 1907 AND 1918,

BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1907.
Reprinted April, July, 1907; March, 1908; June,
September, 1910; April, 1912; April, 1914.

New edition, revised February, 1918.

NortaooB

J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick <fe Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

FOREWORD

WE are not tied to a desk or to a bench ; we stay there
only because we think we are tied.

In Montana I had a horse, which was hobbled every
night to keep him from wandering ; that is, straps joined by
a short chain were put around his forefeet, so that he could
only hop. The hobbles were taken off in the morning, but
he would still hop until he saw his mate trotting off.

This book is intended to show how any one can trot off
if he will.

It is not a textbook ; there are plenty of good textbooks,
which are referred to herein. Intensive cultivation cannot
be comprised in any one book.

It shows what is needed for a city man or woman to sup-
port a family on the proceeds of a little bit of land ; it shows
how in truth, as the old Book prophesied, the earth brings
forth abundantly after its kind to satisfy the desire of every
living thing. It is not necessary to bury oneself in the
country, nor, with the new facilities of transportation, need
we, unless we wish to, pay the extravagant rents and
enormous cost of living in the city. A little bit of land
near the town or the city can be rented or bought on
easy terms ; and merchandising will bring one to the city
often enough. Neither is hard labor needed; but it is to
work alone that the earth yields her increase, and if, although
unskilled, we would succeed in gardening, we must attend
constantly and intelligently to the home acres.

Every chapter of this book has been revised by a specialist,

vi THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

and the authors wish to express their appreciation of the aid
given them, particularly by Mr. E. H. Moore, Arboricul-
turist in the Brooklyn Department of Parks ; Mr. Colling-
wood of the Rural New Yorker and Mr. George T. Powell ;
and to thank Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, and also Mr.
Joseph Morwitz, for many valuable suggestions; also all
those from whom we have quoted directly or in substance.

We have endeavored in the text to give full acknowledg-
ment to all, but in some cases it has been impossible to credit
to the originator every paragraph or thought, since these
have been selected and placed as needed, believing that all
true teachers and gardeners are more anxious to have their
message sent than to be seen delivering it.

In truth, teaching is but another department of gardening.

Practical points and criticisms from practical men and
women, especially from those experiences in trying to get to
the land, will be welcomed by the authors. Address in care
of the publishers.

The Report of the Country Life Commission, with Special
Message from the President of the United States, is especially
important as showing the connection of Intensive Cultiva-
tion with Thrift for war time.

It tells us that :

"The handicaps (on getting out of town) that we now
have specially in mind may be stated under four heads :
Speculative holding of lands; monopolistic control of
streams; wastage and monopolistic control of forests; re-
straint of trade.

"Certain landowners procure large areas of agricultural
land in the most available location, sometimes by question-
able methods, and hold it for speculative purposes. This
not only withdraws the land itself from settlement, but in

FOREWORD vii

many cases prevents the development of an agricultural
community. The smaller landowners are isolated and un-
able to establish their necessary institutions or to reach the
market. The holding of large areas by one party tends to
develop a system of tenantry and absentee farming. The
whole development may be in the direction of social and
economic ineffectiveness.

"A similar problem arises in the utilization of swamp lands.
According to the reports of the Geological Survey, there are
more than 75,000,000 acres of swamp land in this country,
the greater part of which are capable of reclamation at prob-
ably a nominal cost as compared to their value. It is im-
portant to the development of the best type of country life
that the reclamation proceed under conditions insuring sub-
division into small farms and settlement by men who would
both own them and till them.

"Some of these lands are near the centers of population.
They become a menace to health, and they often prevent the
development of good social conditions in very large areas.
As a rule they are extremely fertile. They are capable of
sustaining an agricultural population numbering many mil-
lions, and the conditions under which these millions must
live are a matter of national concern. The Federal Govern-
ment should act to the fullest extent of its constitutional
powers in the reclamation of these lands under proper safe-
guards against speculative holding and landlordism.

"The rivers are valuable to the farmers as drainage lines,
as irrigation supply, as carriers and equalizers of transporta-
tion rates, as a readily available power resource, and for rais-
ing food fish. The wise development of these and other uses
is important to both agricultural and other interests ; their
protection from monopoly is one of the first responsibilities

viii THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

of government. The streams belong to the people; under
a proper system of development their resources would remain
an estate of all the people, and become available as needed.

"River transportation is not usually antagonistic to rail-
way interests. Population and production are increasing
rapidly, with corresponding increase in the demands made
on transportation facilities. It may be reasonably expected
that the river will eventually carry a large part of the freight
that does not require prompt delivery, while the railway
will carry that requiring expedition. This is already fore-
seen by leading railway men; and its importance to the
farmer is such that he should encourage and aid, by every
means in his power, the large use of the rivers. The coun-
try will produce enough business to tax both streams and
railroads to their utmost.

"In many regions the streams afford facilities for power,
which, since the inauguration of electrical transmission, is
available for local rail lines and offers the best solution of
local transportation problems. In many parts of the coun-
try local and interurban lines are providing transportation
to farm areas, thereby increasing facilities for moving crops
and adding to the profit and convenience of farm life. How-
ever, there seems to be a very general lack of appreciation
of the possibilities of this water-power resource as governing
transportation costs.

"The streams may be also used as small water power on
thousands of farms. This is particularly true of small
streams. Much of the labor about the house and barn can
be performed by transmission of power from small water
wheels running on the farms themselves or in the neighbor-
hood. This power could be used for electric lighting and
for small manufacture. It is more important that small

FOREWORD ix

power be developed on the farms of the United States than
that we harness Niagara.

"Unfortunately, the tendency of the present laws is to
encourage the acquisition of these resources on easy terms,
or on their own terms, by the first applicants, and the
power of the streams is rapidly being acquired under condi-
tions that lead to the concentration of ownership in the hands
of the monopolies. This constitutes a real and immediate
danger, not to the country-life interests alone, but to the
entire nation, and it is time that the whole people become
aroused to it.

"The forests have been exploited for private gain not
only until the timber has been seriously reduced, but until
streams have been ruined for navigation, power, irrigation,
and common water supplies, and whole regions have been
exposed to floods and disastrous soil erosion. Probably
there has never occurred a more reckless destruction of
property that of right should belong to all the people.

"The wood-lot property of the country needs to be saved
and increased. Wood-lot yield is one of the most important
crops of the farms, and is of great value to the public in
controlling streams, saving the run-off, checking winds, and
adding to the attractiveness of the region. [Taken up in a
special chapter of this book.]

"In many regions where poor and hilly lands prevail, the
town or county could well afford to purchase forest land,
expecting thereby to add to the value of the property and
to make the forests a source of revenue. Such communal
forests in Europe yield revenue to the cities and towns by
which they are owned and managed."

These revenues would furnish good roads even in the
poorest and most sparsely settled districts.

x THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

There are a number of other reasons why people do not
like to live outside of cities — or do not succeed in farm
work. There is the difficulty of finding help. This, how-
ever, rejoices the heart of the modern sociologist. Consider
— we first teach our children independence and train them for
everything but farm help or household services. Then we
degrade the "help" below a mill "hand" so that people will
not even sit at table with them at an hotel. Next we fix
a theory of conduct for them that keeps them constantly
under orders and pay them wages that make it hardly pos-
sible for them to rise above the station to which we have
appointed them.

Finally, when we move away from the haunts of men out
to Sandtown-by-the-Puddle we blame them that they do not
rush to join us. Most of them would be happier in penal
servitude than in the country. The work is as hard and re-
quires as much skill as a mechanic's work, besides personal
qualities that are demanded of no mechanic, and commands
half its wages.

Those who, like Henry Ford, can afford to pay mechanics'
wages for help can get all they want.

Many people go to the country without plan, preparation,
or vocation, to make a living. They usually start to build
a bungalow but seldom get further than the bungle. Don't
build anything without plan. Get a comfortable house
proof against cold and heat as soon as possible and, above
all, well ventilated. At present the air hi the country is
good, because the farmers shut all the bad air up in their
bedrooms.

They say

" The farmer works from sun to sun
For the summer's work is never done."

FOREWORD xi

We might add, it's never even half done — naturally. A
donkey engine can work like that, but then it hasn't any
brains. No man can work from sun to sun all summer and
think at all or be good for anything at the end of it.

Above all things don't work long hours, even in learning,
with the idea of saving that way. All up-to-date employers
are agreed that an eight-hour day produces more and better
results than a ten-hour day and that a twelve-hour day brings
sheriffs and suicides instead of profits.

That's just as true of the individual worker as it is of the
factory "hand." Yet most men and a few women proudly
say that they "work like a horse" (it's usually not true).
They don't ; a horse won't work and can't work over eight
hours a day steadily. Neither can you : you may keep
buzzing around much longer — but the best work requires
the best conditions and the best hours. You think, or you
flatter yourself that you think, that it is necessary; but
nothing is necessary that is stupid and wrong. It is hardly
too much to say that when we are tired out or ill either we
have been doing the wrong thing or doing it wrong.

There is besides, as an anti-rusticant, railroad discrimina-
tion in favor of long hauls, but the main reason that the small
farms of the Eastern Coast are less settled than those farther
west is the great difficulty in getting farm loans or loans on
farm buildings. New York companies and others hi the
great cities will loan on farms west of the Alleghenies, but
even the otherwise excellent eastern Building Loan Asso-
ciations usually restrict themselves to places within twenty-
five miles of a city. The Jewish Agricultural and Industrial
Aid Society will help approved Jewish farmers to buy and
build : and there is a Federal Land Bank in Springfield,
Mass., which lends to some Fanners' Associations, of which

xii THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

some four thousand are already formed. It is hoped that
the State Land Bank of New York City may improve the
situation in New York for Farmers' Organizations, but
" generally nearly all available funds of the local banks seem
to be drawn off for investments in Wall Street."

However, it is not to be forgotten that this difficulty is
reflected in the lower prices of eastern Land.

One more thing that keeps many people from the country
and drives some people back to the city is the mosquito (of
course there are mosquitoes in town, but we are not out as
much, so we notice them less). Mosquitoes breed or rather
we breed them, in still water in which there are no fish, in
pools, hollows in trees, wells, etc., and above all hi old tin
cans. They can no more breed without water than sharks
could.

Mosquitoes do not breed in grass, but rank growths of
weeds or grass may conceal small breeding puddles, and
form a favorite nursery for Mamma Skeet. A teacupful
of water standing ten days is enough for 250 wrigglers;
their needs are modest.

Different species of mosquitoes have as well-defined hab-
its as other birds and are classified as follows : Domestic,
Migratory, and Woodland.

The common domestic or pet species breed in fresh water,
usually in the house yard, fly comparatively short distances,
and habitually enter houses. They winter in cellars, barns,
and outhouses. Some of them are conveyors of malaria.

The Migratory Species breed on the salt marshes, fly long
distances, do not habitually enter houses, and are not carriers
of diseases so far as known.

Certain varieties of Woodland Mosquitoes breed only in
woodland pools, appearing in the early spring, and travel a

FOREWORD xiii

greater distance than the domestic species. They are not
usually troublesome indoors.

It has been proved that malaria is transmitted only by
certain species of Anopheles, one of which is the domestic
mosquito. Eliminate this one species of mosquito and the
disease will disappear as a direct consequence. So if you
hear that pretty little song in the house, don't swear, thank
the Lord that effects always follow causes. You need never
be without a bite in the house if you have a nice cesspool
handy for Sis Mosquito, for each one will have a first-class
feed with you every second or third day.

They are needless and dangerous pests or pets. Their
propagation can be prevented by draining or filling wet
areas, by emptying or screening water receptacles, and by
spraying with oil where better measures are not available.
Oil should be sprinkled in any cesspools, sewers, and catch
basins, rain barrels, water troughs, roof gutters, marshes,
swamps, and puddles that cannot be done away with. All
ponds and large bodies of water should have clean sharp
edges, because in shallow, grassy edges larvae of the malarial
species are commonly found. Large ponds with clean edges,
inhabited by fish or predatory insects, are safe ; smaller ponds,
if wind swept, and all ponds in the " ripple area " are safe. All
rain pools, stagnant gutters, overgrown edges of large ponds,
and all receptacles holding water not constantly renewed, are
dangerous. You raise most of your own mosquitoes.

Now a word specially concerning this revised edition.

The farm papers are supported mainly by men with large
acreage, it is the rise in value of these acres more than the
rise in farm products that has pulled the land-owning farmers
out of the hole that they were in up to about the year 1900.
Farmers' knowledge, liking, and equipment was for big

xiv THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

fields, half cultivated, and at first they did not like to hear
that they had been wasting so much of the labor that had
bent their backs. Nor did they want to hear that it would
have been far more profitable to them to have cultivated a
few acres and left the goats and hogs or sheep to attend to
the rest as wild land until the long-expected settlers came
along to buy the land at dreamland prices.

Consequently, all the faults in the book there were, and
some more besides, have been picked out by these critics. It
is surprising as well as a notable compliment to the agricul-
tural experts who revised the first edition that, with one ex-
ception, no material error or omission has been pointed out.

The more so because there is absolutely no limit to the
advances in methods and results in doing things, and in
growing things, all born of intelligent toil. Your suggestions
may help the world to better and bigger things. If you will
listen at the 'phone you may sometime hear a conversation
like this :

"Hello, this is Mrs. Wise, send me two strawberries,
please." "You'd better take three, Madam, I've none
larger than peaches to-day." "All right; good-bye."

You may sometime see that kind of strawberry in New
Jersey at Kevitt's Athenia, or Henry Joralamon's, or in
the berry known by various names, such as Giant and dif-
ferent Joe's. But lots of people have failed in their war
garden work even on common things; lots more ought to
have failed but haven't — yet. Years ago, we, the book and
its helpers, started the forward-to-the-land movement which
has resulted in probably two million extra garden patches
this war year. I have had carloads of letters, at least hand
carloads, about the book, but not one worker who even
tried to follow its counsels has reported failure.

FOREWORD xv

So don't let us have a wail from you because your " garden
stuff never comes up." Of course it doesn't ; you have to
bring it up, just like a baby. That's what I've been crying
for long years in the wilderness ever since the first edition
of this book. The Three Acres may be bought on credit
but eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty and crops. To
raise good crops costs time and attention and sweat of body
and of brains.

Here is a chunk of wisdom out of the excellent Garden
Primer (which you can get free by asking me for it) :

"One hour a day spent in a garden ten yards long by
seven wide will supply vegetables enough for a family of
six" ; but the value of this remark lies in the application of
it. If you figure a bit on that you will find that ten minutes
a day will provide enough for one person, but six hours once
a week won't do. Six hours a day will bring up a baby;
but two days a week is criminal neglect for the other five
days. If you once let the weeds get a good start, say after
a rain, they will make even the angels swear. It's regular
attention that the baby and the garden and your education
and your best girl will require.

If you want more minute instructions about how to grow
each vegetable, put in words that anybody can understand
without getting a headache or a dictionary, look up "The
Garden Yard" by the Author. It is in nearly all libraries
now, and it is the only book that makes perfectly plain every-
thing that a plain man needs to know about growing plain
things.

So there is little to add in this new edition except to rein-
force what was not strong enough. In the present jumping
market to revise the prices quoted would be absurd, but it
may be noted that, as in the prices of flowers, the minimum

xvi THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

prices are still about correct, but the maximum prices have
jumped almost out of sight. Every year there are more
and more very wealthy people who will pay nearly any
price for the very best. The world seems to be dividing into
those who have to count their pennies and those who couldn't
count their thousands. Of course, where war has prohibited
the importation of the strong bulbs and roots needed for
forcing flowers, the prices are about what any one who has
any chooses to ask. Monopoly can always get its own price.

This New Edition does not attempt to bring prices quoted
up to date. In these times not even a stock exchange tele-
graph ticker can do that. Prices of goods in general have
advanced at least 80 per cent. By the day that this book is
off the press they may have decreased, or more likely ad-
vanced some more. The next day they may slump. Prices
of labor advance more slowly and do not slump so fast.
Wages of men gardeners have risen perhaps 50 per cent in the
last ten years, but women and children have learned to do
much of the work. They do the work cheaper because
most of them have some one on whom they can partly depend
for support.

Similarly, when an example of total product given in the
earlier edition is still typical and has stood investigation, it
is not discarded in favor of a more modern instance.

It would have been easy to have revised all the figures,
but of little advantage to our readers. For example, it is
encouraging to the citizen to know that the average wheat

'There is a chance for big money growing those vigorous stocks at
home. Many a woman could learn to do it in her room. Don't
try to sell the bulbs, grow the lilies and sell those ; a few at ten dol-
lars per dozen will go a great way. When you know all about it,
then go to the country to do it on a commercial scale. Wait till you
have learned : it won't take all your time.

FOREWORD xvii

yield per acre has increased more than two bushels since the
first edition of this book, but it would not help the garden
maker. The increase of possible products tends to counter-
balance the increased cost of labor. So only the musty
parts have been cut out of the book, which is more needed
now than ever.

CHAPTER I

MAKING A LIVING WHEKE AND HOW

The necessity of teaching better methods in agriculture to relieve
the problems of our day. The drift toward cities. Natural con-
ditions.

The possibilities of an acre — in potatoes. Large acreages a
mistake. Labor and expense of cultivating large areas. Culti-
vation contrasted with Bonanza farms.

Small acreage farms in Japan, Denmark, etc., and what they
produce. Small acreage in school gardens and vacant lots. Gentle-
men farmers. City and country coming together.

CHAPTER II

PRESENT CONDITIONS

America an agricultural country up to the Civil War. Attracted
to the West by Government lands. South the center of slave
agriculture. Cheap land kept up wages. War and hard times —
changed conditions. South crushed — Central West growing.
Railways — forcing people from the land to the cities — aided by
competition of western land. Climax now ; must find remedy for
alienation.

Where land is idle — in the East. Result of railroad discrimina-
tion shown in values. First step is railroad control. Cause of
relegation, railroad rates. Affects Pennsylvania and Ohio. Gross
inequalities in freight charges; Mississippi Valley better. In-
creasing market in South. These furnish opportunity of getting
people to land. New fields.

CHAPTER III

HOW TO BUY THE FARM

Principles. Points. Low and high-priced land. Conserva-
tive investment. Suburban lands. Real estate agents aid — un-
explored opportunities.

zfz

xx TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

VACANT CITT LOT CULTIVATION

Lessons for the intensive cultivator — of poor land. The effect
upon physical, mental, and moral health — illustrated. A farm
educator — in voluntary cooperation. In Europe. School gardens.
Patriotic gardens. Preparing them. Wonderful production.
Your opportunity.

CHAPTER V

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED

Overproduction not to be feared. Dr. Engel's "law" in scien-
tific farming. Fallacy of this. The information needed as to
prospects. Eastern or western land. The area required. A be-
ginner's experience. Necessity of intelligence and personal appli-
cation. How to use a small area. The poet's "little farm."
Classical examples. Price changes since the first editions of
"Three Acres." The returns from small acreages. In the United
States — in Scotland. Schoolroom boxes. A new winter plan.
A garden on a tray. Standards of yields needed.

CHAPTER VI

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE

Truck — the most advanced farming experience. Time required
to work an acre. Product of it. U. S. instances in various places.
Average crops. Product of an acre in specialties. Good products
compared with averages. A living and more.

CHAPTER VII

SOME METHODS

Safety in diversified crops. When to plant. Times for selling.
Realizing cash. Cultivation in rows. Companion crop plan.
Cultivation raises price of your land. Profits. Produce in Europe.

CHAPTER VIII

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

For domestic use. Location: treatment. Begin in fall. Size
and arrangement. Fruit. Reasonable results. Cost and profit.

TABLE OF CONTENTS xxi

CHAPTER IX

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

Implements needed and cost. How to care for them. Books as
a part of the outfit. Bucolic advice inefficient. Must get our own
experience. Specializing. Seed. Preparation of land. Thorough-
ness.

CHAPTER X

ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL

Small capital can compete with large. Manure. Commercial
fertilizers. We waste and then buy. Cost — and increase of re-
turns. Soil inoculation. Irrigation. Use of water abroad — pros-
pects for the United States. Sewage utilization better than irriga-
tion. Cultivation is irrigation.

"The American desert." Dry farming and its new crops.
Spraying.

How much money is necessary. Tropics not so good a field as
'home. Facilities here. Available lands attracted first develop-
ment. The markets.

CHAPTER XI

HOTBEDS AND GREENHOUSES

An early start. How to make simple hotbeds. An old-fashioned
way. Artificial heat. Use of frames. Instances of production —
returns. The best greenhouse — a substitute. Estimated cost.
Methods of heating.

CHAPTER XII

OTHER USES OP LAND

Poultry and its difficulties as a business — the reason. Profit-
able on a small scale. Ducks — growing in favor — don't need a
pond. Belgian hares — fluctuation of the business. Pigeons. Bee-
keeping and the returns. Small capital required. Yield. Xabor
and area required. Method — results — how to start.

Mushrooms in America. Better done in Europe. Where grown.
Causes of failure. A little land for pleasure.

xxii TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIII

FRUITS

Specializing or diversifying. Money in the best. Apples, con-
ditions. Peaches, grapes, plums, etc. Yield of cherries, currants,
etc. Strawberries. Animal free lunchers. Wild berries. Nuts.

CHAPTER XIV

FLO WEBS

Popular flowers: glass. The capital needed. Shipping.
Chances of success. A woman's violet farm — its methods —
enemies. Chrysanthemums. Poppies. Street sales of flowers;
common flowers.

Orchids. Ferns. Shrubs, etc. Bulbs. The prospects.

CHAPTER XV

DRUG PLANTS

Gathering wild drugs. Scarcity of some. Ginseng. Difficulties
of growing these plants. Preparing them for market — roots,
leaves, flowers. Selling. Demand and variable prices — for vari-
ous sorts. New branches. Edible weeds.

CHAPTER XVI

NOVEL LIVE STOCK

Frog culture — product and value. Carp — ease of raising.
Bass ; how raised. Pheasants — bred like poultry. Home birds.
Table-snails — treatment. Silkworms — methods.

Dogs. Cats a better venture. Wild fauna — for our own eat-
ing. Hunting skins. Raising "wild" animals. Foxes, etc.

CHAPTER XVII

WHERE TO GO

Near the market — for intensive cultivation. Swamps or worn-
out farms profitable. Opportunities in "York State" — descrip-
tions — prices. Wages there. Long Island — opening up for
cultivation — character. Openings in New Jersey — abundance.
Soils — uses. Cheap land. Exceptional transportation facili-
ties. In Delaware: for fruit. Land coming into market.
Soils — description — wages. Arresting fruit pickers. Fauna.

TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii

In Maryland : Bureaus of Immigration. Varied types of land —
productivity. Prices at canneries. Tobacco land. Virginia —
changed aspect. Attractions to acre cultivators, fertile soil.
Transportation. Produce — instances. New England — some of
the cheapest lands. Availability.

CHAPTER XVIII

CLEARING THE LAND

The ax. Don't destroy recklessly. Shade. Stump extracting.
How it has been done. Good management. Expense saving.
Product. Hemp as a weed extirpator. The man with the wheel
hoe. Goats also.

CHAPTER XIX

HOW TO BUILD

Start cheaply. Tents — shacks — cost. A log house — de-
tails. The American bungalow — description and cost. Ad-
vantages. A finer house — at a low price — details. Ready-
made houses.

CHAPTER XX

BACK TO THE LAND

The landless man. Corporate aid — still new to the farmer.
A change coming. To supply small farms on a large scale. Plan
and prospects. Advantages. The present obstacles to getting
farms. Necessity of keeping families in the country. Buying
farm tracts to sell at retail. Texas plan.

CHAPTER XXI

COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS

Authorities. Country life for children. The natural bent. A
boy's own farm, his instruction. Growing facilities. Opportuni-
ties, as teachers and experts. Their influence. Rewards of pre-
eminent excellence. "Murray's fools." The needs of the farmer.

Discoveries and then- opportunities — examples. Experimen-
tation. Fancy potatoes — for fancy growers in England. Value
of fine seed — of fine education in farming. A clergyman's refuge

xxiv TABLE OF CONTENTS

in fanning — results. The rewards of labor and thought put into
land.

CHAPTER XXII

THE WOOD LOT

Possible income from improving. Preserving its character.
Setting out trees. Value as pasture — shade. Fire ; burning leaves.
State nurseries. Taxation of forests.

CHAPTER XXIII

SOME PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS

Agricultural Department bulletins — get knowledge. The
mysteries of potatoes. Roof gardens. Mint. Raising seeds.
Warm bath stimulation. Overhead irrigation. The coming sub-
stitute for the horse.

CHAPTER XXIV

SOME EXPERIMENTAL FOODS

The law of necessity. Novel menus. Substitutes for "garden
sass." To lower cost of living. Soy beans — vegetable milk.
Fresh salads. Wild food at home. Increasing need of food. Select-
ing new varieties — adaptations to climate.

CHAPTER XXV

DRIED TRUCK

Food conservation. Revival of old ways. New methods of
canning. Home dried vegetables and fruits — the how and why.
Blanching, etc. Frozen potatoes. Saving and sales. Tank ice.

CHAPTER XXVI

HOME COLD PACK CANNING

War economy. The easiest way. Its use. No "boughten"
outfit needed. Cheap containers.

CHAPTER XXVII

RETAIL COOPERATION

Farmers ahead. Cooperation in selling in U. S. Delivering
milk. The New Orleans stores. Plan and scope. A proved

TABLE OF CONTENTS xxv

success. Good business chances waiting for you. Distribution
neglected — the remedy.

To promote wholesale return to the land — on a business basis.
Project of the plan. For invalids.

CHAPTER XXVIII

SUMMER COLONIES FOB CITY PEOPLE

Our Department of Education's report on "Arbor Gardens."
Private enterprise. Necessity the mother of institutions. Berlin
and our cities. Collective action. Vast extent of the Bower
plots. Results. Alleviation of German poverty. Forest schools.
England's advance to the land — a war fruit. The Spirit in the
Garden.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A Simple Mansion at Free Acres Frontispiece

OPPOSITE PAGE

A Real (-estate) Argument 20

These Kiddies Have to Go Shares 44

The Wheel-hoe in Action 190

A Roof Garden — Strawberries 226

" Overhead Irrigation " by Pipes 230

The Smallest Farm Tractor 231

A Drying-frame 244

xxvii

THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

CHAPTER I

MAKING A LIVING — WHERE AND HOW

BY thought and courage, we can help ourselves to own
a home, surrounded by acres of fruit and vegetables, flowers
and poultry, and learn the best methods so as to insure
success.

In olden times any one could "farm," but it is necessary
to-day to teach people to obtain a livelihood directly from
the earth. Scientific methods of agriculture have revealed
possibilities in the soil that make farming the most fascinat-
ing occupation known to man. People in every city are
longing for the freedom of country life, yet hesitate to enter
into its liberty because no one points the way.

Most sociologists are agreed that the great problem of our
day is to stop the drift of population toward the cities.
Seeing the overcrowding, the want and misery of our great
towns, the philanthropist chimes in with "Get the people
to the country, that is the need."

But there is no such need. Man is a social animal, he
naturally goes in flocks, he earns more and learns more in
crowds. To transport him to the country, even if he would
stay, which happily he won't, would be to doctor a symptom.
As in typhoid, what is needed is not to suppress the fever,
that is easy, but to remove the cause of it.
B 1

2 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

It is not the growth of the cities that we want to check,
but the needless want and misery in the cities, and this can
be done by restoring the natural condition of living, and
among other things, by showing that it is easier and making
it more attractive to live in comfort on the outskirts of the
city as producers, than in the slums as paupers.

We know already that the natural and healthy life is, that
in the sweat of our faces we should eat bread. We observe
that everything we eat or use or make comes from the earth
by labor; but no one knows how abundantly the Mother
can supply her children. It is well said that no man yet
knows the capacity of a square yard of earth.

The farmer thinks that he has done well if he gets a hun-
; dred and fifty or two hundred bushels of potatoes from an
1 acre ; he does not know that others have gotten 1284 bushels.1

Let us realize what an acre means. An acre is a square
about 209 feet each way, 4840 square yards of land. A
New York City avenue block is about 200 feet long from
house corner to house corner. It has eight city lots 25 X
100 in its front ; about double that space (17f lots) makes
an acre.

An ordinary one-horse cart holds twenty bushels, so then
a full crop of potatoes from that space would fill 56 carts.

To raise potatoes as an ordinary farmer raises them, re-
quires him to go over the ground not less than a dozen times,
plowing, harrowing, marking, planting, cultivating, three

1 "Mr. Knight, whose name is well known to every horticulturist
in England, once dug out of his fields no less than 1284 bushels of
potatoes, or thirty-four tons and nine hundreds weight (about 34
bushels to the ton), on a single acre; and at a recent competition
in Minnesota, 1120 bushels, or thirty tons, could be ascertained as
having been grown on one acre." (P. Kropotkin's "Fields, Fac-
tories and Workshops," page 114.)

MAKING A LIVING — WHERE AND HOW 3

times weeding, three times for bugs, and digging; it would
pay him to go over it much oftener.

If he plants his rows of potatoes three feet apart, to allow
for horse cultivation, he has 69 rows of 200 feet each ; which
makes him walk at least thirty-three miles over each acre.
If he has a twenty-acre lot in potatoes, he walks each year
more than 650 miles over the field and gets, let us say, 150
bushels of poor potatoes per acre, or 3000 bushels off his
twenty-acre field.

Now suppose he cultivates the soil, instead of just "rais-
ing a crop," and gets 600 bushels of fine potatoes to the
acre, he need plant only five acres, walk only 200 miles,
and, because his potatoes are choice and early, get many
times the price that his pedestrian neighbor gets. It is much
easier to grow 200,000 Ib. of feed on one acre than to grow
them on ten acres.

To cultivate is to watch the soil as you would watch your \
cooking and to tend the crop as you would tend your annuals. ^
The crop is as alive as the stock and as easily gets sick.

If an ordinary farmer rents 60 acres at $5.00 per acre, a
moderate rent for good land, he pays out in cash $300, be-
sides farm wages. If he buys it, his interest and taxes will
amount to nearly as much ; but if he tills but five acres in-
telligently, he can get as much out of it as out of an ordinary
farm, and even if his rent be as high as $30 per acre for well-
situated land, he is $150 to the good ; besides, doing the work
himself, he has no drain of capital for wages.

Large barns and shelter for help being unnecessary, he can
live in a cheap shack till he accumulates enough for proper
buildings. Many of the successful vacant lot farmers live
in a tent or in shanties made of old boxes and such like.

Of course, if we have the knowledge and ability and the

4 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

capital and can give it the attention, it is more profitable to
cultivate on a large scale than on a small one, because in that
case each worker necessarily produces more than he gets as
wages — and we pocket the difference.

Most American farmers are holding land that somebody
ought to pay them a bonus for working, else they must come
out of the little end of the horn. They get poor or poorly
situated land, because it costs less, and then put three or four
hundred dollars' worth of labor and money a year into the
land and take out four or five hundred dollars' worth of
crops.

The farmer thinks he must have big fields to feed his cattle,
and that he must have cattle to keep the big fields fertilized,
so he raises hay.

In that he makes two mistakes ; hay, like most other low-
priced crops, is risky — the cost of harvesting is high and the
margin of profit small. A week of wet weather at cutting
tune or the impossibility of getting enough men and machines
in the week when it should be cut, may make a loss.

But the scientific dairy man does not take that risk, nor
let his cattle use up this fodder by wandering over the fields
in search of tid-bits of grass or clover, or, goaded by the flies,
trampling more grass than they eat and wasting their manure.

He keeps the cows in cool sheds, feeds them on cut fodder,
and saves every ounce of the manure.

The modern cow is a ruminating machine for producing
milk and cares little for exercise and needs little. To exploit
the cattle as employers exploit the factory hands, he gives
the cows a cool, shady place and food, and they stand there
all day long to their profit and his.1

1 United States Agricultural Bulletin No. 22 says: "The
New Jersey Experiment Station has been conducting a practical

MAKING A LIVING — WHERE AND HOW 5

Although we can feed a cow on less than an acre by raising
forage crops, she needs to be milked every day at regular
hours, and the milk, as well as the cans and the cow, need to
be cared for — and she cannot wait.

The stock-raiser has a different proposition ; he needs fields
and grass ; but if time and available labor is limited, we had
better specialize on the garden — unlike the farmers.

The farmers are not to blame that they do not usually cul-
tivate the land intelligently. They are mostly cut off from
the educational advantages of the cities by distance and by
bad roads.

Usually, that is because, desirable land being held at spec-
ulative prices, they are forced to places where the farm itself
is worth less than the good improvements on it cost. Some-
times it is because, also, the land is poor or worn out ; more
often because it is thoughtlessly managed, nearly always be-
cause the land-hungry farmer has taken ten times as much
land as he needs for farming. In the hope of a rise that
often does not come, nearly all have bought more land than
they can take good care of with limited capital and scarcity
of help.

trial in soiling dairy cows for a number of years past, and finds that
complete soiling is entirely practicable, i.e. that green foliage crops
may serve as the sole food of the dairy herd, aside from the grain
ration, without injury to the animals and with a considerable sav-
ing in the cost of milk.

"Under the soiling system a large number of animals can be
kept upon a given acreage, and by allowing open-air exercises in
a large yard or pasture the practice has been demonstrated as en-
tirely feasible for dairy animals.

" One acre of soiling crops produced sufficient fodder for an equiv-
alent of 3£ cows for six months. Rye, corn, crimson clover,
alfalfa, oats and peas, and millets have been found to furnish food
more economically than any other green crops in that locality. A
grain ration was always fed in addition to the soiling crops."

6 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

In addition, the farms have held out such poor prospects
of fortune that the smarter and more enterprising boys and
girls have left them for the towns, leaving behind the duller
and more conservative to the mercy of the railroads and
other monopolies. What wonder, then, that the overworked
and struggling farmer finds little chance to study, or to in-
vestigate and invest in fertilizers or even in modern methods
of agriculture.

No wonder farming does not pay if a "farmer" means a
stupid man with neither training for, nor knowledge of, his
business. Those who have the knowledge seldom have the
experience and those who have the experience seldom have
the knowledge.

The bonanza farms of the West are other samples of great
areas of the most productive land in the United States being
used most unscientifically. By the methods used, the land
produces less per acre than land in the East which is not so
good. Accordingly, we find that the bonanza farm plan,
where great areas of wheat are worked by machines with
labor employed only in the seed time and harvest, is rapidly
breaking up. As the land becomes valuable and is taxed,
such wasteful, wholesale methods do not pay as well as it
pays to rent or sell the land to farmers, who each for them-
selves attend to details of the business. Consequently, most
of those farms are being sold off. The whole amount of
wheat ever raised on them, however, is small compared to the
rice, millet, and wheat raised in China, India, and Russia, and
is insignificant compared to the amount of produce grown on
the myriad little farm plots.1

1 A comparison of productions as taken from the 12th and 13th
United States Censuses in the bonanza farm states shows that the
yield of wheat was

MAKING A LIVING — WHERE AND HOW 7

"The average extent of land tilled by one family in Japan
does not exceed one hectare" (2.471 acres), less than two and
a half acres. ("Japan in the Beginning of the Twentieth
Century," page 89. Published by the Department of Agri-
culture and Commerce of Japan.)

"Farm households contain on an average 5.8 persons, of
whom two and a half persons per family may be regarded of
an age capable of doing effective work."

"So that here we have more than one person working on
each acre and each acre supporting more than two persons,
notwithstanding that their 22,000,dtK) tenant farmers pay
sometimes four fifths of their product as rent." (Same,
page 103.)

Denmark, one of the best agricultural countries and prob-
ably one of the happiest communities on earth, reported

1900 farms of 250-300 acres,

74,000 farms averaging 100 acres,

150,000 farms averaging 7 to 10 acres,

1050 cooperative dairies, and so on.

And so impressed has the ruling class there become with
the advantage of this that the Government will supply the
poor worker nine tenths of the means necessary to buy a
small farm.

Says Kropotkin, "the small island of Jersey, eight miles
long and less than six miles wide, still remains a land of
open field culture; but, although it comprises only 28,707
acres (nearly 45 square miles), rocks included, it nourishes a

IN 1899 IN 1909

Minnesota 14£ bu. per acre 17.4

North Dakota 13| bu. per acre 14.3

South Dakota 10J bu. per acre 14.6

while New England shows 23.5 bu. per acre.

By 1917 these largely increased, but the differences remain.

8 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

population of about two inhabitants to each acre, or 1300
inhabitants to the square mile, and there is not one writer
on agriculture who, after having paid a visit to this island,
does not praise the well-being of the Jersey peasants and the
admirable results which they obtain in their small farms of
from five to twenty acres — very often less than five acres —
by means of a rational and intensive culture.

" Most of my readers will probably be astonished to learn
that the soil of Jersey, which consists of decomposed granite,
with no organic matter in it, is not at all of surprising fertility,
and that its climate, though more sunny than the climate of
the British Isles, offers many drawbacks on account of the
small amount of sun heat during the summer and of the cold
winds in spring." *

In a small plot the character of the soil is of little conse-
quence. We hear of one garden in New York City on the
roof of a big building where the janitor smuggled up the
needed soil in baskets.

The school gardens in New York City, some in a space
as small as a hearth rug, one yard by two, show how to use
a very small patch of land to the best advantage. Nor need
it take more time than you can afford.

1 "The successes accomplished lately in Jersey are entirely due
to the amount of labor which a dense population is putting on the
land ; to a system of land-tenure, land-transference, and inheritance
very different from those which prevail elsewhere ; to freedom from
State taxation ; and to the fact that communal institutions have
been maintained down to quite a recent period, while a number
of communal habits and customs of mutual support, derived there-
from, are alive to the present time." ("Fields, Factories and
Workshops.")

"It will suffice to say that on the whole the inhabitants of Jersey
obtain agricultural products to the value of $250 to each acre of the
aggregate surface of land." (Same, page 113.)

MAKING A LIVING — WHERE AND HOW 9

"Some of the cultivators of city lots on Long Island who
kept count of the number of days they worked, show the sur-
prising conclusion that they earned, not farm wages (seventy-
five cents a day with board and lodging for the worker), but
mechanics' wages (four dollars per day) for every working
day ; as, for instance, a stone cutter, assisted by his two boys,
worked fifty hours and made $120.23." ("Cultivation of
Vacant Lots, New York," page 12) ; and four city lots is a
very little farm.

But though one may not own even a little farm, almost
any one who wants to can have a home garden — it needs
but a small plot of land. Nor need we be discouraged be-
cause acquaintances who play at gardening tell us that their
vegetables cost them more than if they bought them.

They naturally would, with thoughtless methods of culti-
vation, with the selection of crops and the purchase of seeds
left to an uneducated man who does all his work the way he
saw his grandfather do it.

Nor are we to be discouraged even by the "gentleman
farmer" who runs a model farm, a model of how not to do it,
for, notwithstanding its large capital, it seldom pays.

I am passing such a farm now as I write in the train — it
is surrounded by a cut stone wall. Do you suppose the
owner's business would pay if it were run in the same way
that his farm is run? We know the story of the white
sparrow to find which would bring luck to the farm — but
it was out only at daybreak ; the farmer got up each morn-
ing to find the sparrow and found a lot of other things to at-
tend to, which did bring luck to the farm. I don't think
the owner of that wall worked at it, at daybreak.

The time is not far distant when the builders of homes
in our American cities will be compelled to leave room for a

10 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

garden, in order to meet the requirements of the people.
In the mad rush for wealth we have overlooked the natural
state, but we see a healthy reaction setting in. With the
improvements in steam and electricity, the revolutionizing
of transportation, the cutting of the arbitrary telephone
charges, it is becoming possible to live at a distance from
our business. May we not expect in the near future to
see one portion of our cities devoted entirely to business,
with the homes of the people so separated as to give light,
sunshine, and air to all, besides a piece of ground for a garden
sufficient to supply the table with vegetables ?

You raise more than vegetables in your garden : you raise
your expectation of life.

Life belongs in the garden. Do you remember — the first
chapters of Genesis show us our babyhood in a garden — the
garden that all babyhood remembers, and the last chapter of
the Apocalypse leaves us with the vision of the garden in the
Holy City, on either side of the river, where the trees yield
their fruits every month and bear leaves of universal healing.
Just so will it be in our holy cities of the future — the garden
will be right there " in the midst."

CHAPTER II

PKESENT CONDITIONS

UP to the Civil War and for some years after, our people
were almost wholly agricultural. National activity con-
tented itself with settling and developing the vast areas of
the public lands, whose virgin richness cried aloud in the
wilderness for men.

The policy of the government, framed to stimulate
rapid occupation of the public lands, had attracted hordes
of settlers over the mountains from the older states, and im-
migration flowed in a steady stream into the valleys of the
Ohio and the Mississippi.

A system had grown up in the South almost patriarchal,
based upon cultivation by slave labor of enormous areas de-
voted exclusively to cotton. In the North, New England
had developed some few centers of industry, drawing their
support from the manufacture of the great Southern staple.
New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were growing as outlets
for foreign commerce, but as yet manufacturing flourished
but feebly and in few localities.

Such manufacturing and commercial enterprises as existed
had been laboriously built up by long years of honest work-
ing. The free lands of the government, by giving laborers
an alternative, kept up wages, forcing employers to bid
against each other for labor; and monopoly thus being
checked, individual equality was possible.

11

12 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

The mineral resources of Pennsylvania and Ohio were all
but unsuspected, and the calm of a people devoted to the
peaceful pursuits of agriculture rested over the country.

Railroads were few and inefficient: telegraph lines but
in their infancy. Intercourse among the people, outside of
a narrow fringe on the Atlantic coast, was cumbersome,
and impeded by many obstacles. Primitive conditions
everywhere prevailed, and communities brooded in silence,
growing stragglingly in sluggish indifference, content with
coarse food and coarser living.

Such, in general, were the conditions up to 1861. Then
came the storm of shot and shell, the rain of blood, the ele-
mental rage of passion called the Civil War. There was a
total upset of business. Such periods of hard times as had
occurred prior to that time had been caused by the tinker-
ing of untrained minds with the money system or by land
speculation, and not by lack of access to the riches of nature.
After four years our people awoke, as from a nightmare, to
find the old life swept away forever. In the South, the Con-
federates, bitter and sullen, groping amid the ruins of their
institutions, sought to find some substitute for the agricul-
tural despotism exercised for generations by their slave-
holding families. In the East, the first families of the
Revolution, secure in their preeminence, assumed again the
manufacturing-banking-social prestige. The far West was
still almost unknown, and remained in possession of the
buffalo and the Indian. Settlers poured, in increasing
numbers, on to the unappropriated lands still left in the
states of the central West, and the center of political power
shifted rapidly to this fertile region.

Already men of keen insight foresaw a time when oil, tim-
ber, coal, and iron must become the stay of a vastly expand-

. PRESENT CONDITIONS 13

ing industrial system, and bent their energies to secure the
chief sources of supply. From the nature of their work the
men who built railways first became aware of the riches of
nature, and aided by an enormous public sympathy with
their efforts, monopolized all the natural opportunities of
value. Coupled with industrial development was the grad-
ual appropriation of the land. The time soon arrived when
the late comers either stayed in the manufacturing centers
at the railways terminals or were pushed farther and farther
away from the centers. As the landowning families multi-
plied, the young men were confined to the same choice.
Forced off the land, the tendency has been to crowd the brain-
iest blood of America into the cities. In addition, the compe-
tition of the new Western lands, brought into use by railway
development, has exiled the youth of New England, who
found in their rocky acres no incentive to toil. They, too,
joined the ever-increasing flow to the cities, and entered into
the savage competition of our great towns.

In our time the pendulum has swung to its extreme. At
every depression of business, armies of the unemployed perish
in sight of the land they abandoned in the hope of a brighter
future. Their children have forgotten the traditions of the
soil, and the energies of our people must now be concentrated
to reverse the aimless tide of human sufferers, which under
stress continues to flow city-ward, and to send it to repeople
the silent places whence it came. The fight will not be easily
won. Changes in the national land policy are imperative.
To give one generation privileges which enslave all who
succeed it, is intolerable and will not be permanently endured.

It is easy to determine upon a policy in the quiet of the
study ; different is the problem of applying a comprehensive
scheme to repeople the idle land. In the first place, where

14 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

is the idle land? In all parts of our country it exists in
abundance. Almost every state in the Union has lands
which either have never been alienated, or which have re-
verted to the state through nonpayment of taxes. In the
East, particularly, the competition of Western lands, aided
by discriminating freight rates, now so notorious, has resulted
in the abandonment to the mortgagee of vast areas in New
York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and to some
extent in New Jersey. These are now largely resold.

Declining fertility and exorbitant and oppressive trans-
portation charges have helped to keep these lands out of use,
and some still lie idle and neglected, to excite the wonder
of the social and economic student. To use the abandoned
lands of the East, equal rates on agricultural products is a
basic necessity.

The first step, now well under way, is railroad control by
the Government. Equal access to transportation is as es-
sential as equal access to land, for transportation is indeed
an attribute of land.

Extending the inquiry westward, the coal and oil areas of
Pennsylvania and Ohio are all controlled by a few hands.
The original fertility of the farming areas of these states, to-
gether with the fact that they have been producing for only
about a century, has enabled them to hold their own until
recently, but now only the best located tracts are in maxi-
mum production, and this can be maintained only by the
most advanced agricultural science. In spite of greater
advantages, the crowded cities and deserted country districts
are beginning to repeat in the fertile alluvial valleys of the
interior, the tragic story of the East.

In the Mississippi valley, conditions seem better. Values
of farming lands are increasing rapidly ; the farms are rich

PRESENT CONDITIONS 15

and growing richer ; food products are cheap and abundant ;
certain staples are produced in enormous quantities and sent
to feed the cities of the East and the industrial population
of Europe. The railroads transport these products nearly
one thousand miles for the same prices as they charge in the
East for transporting them one hundred miles. Wealth,
activity, and political power concentrate at the inlet and out-
let of the railway funnel, leaving vast areas of unused and un-
usable land between the terminals. Access to markets deter-
mines value. That is why the favored lands of Illinois, Iowa,
Kansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin, one to two thousand miles
from market, have risen in value to as high as three hundred
dollars per acre, and the lands of New England, New York,
and New Jersey go begging at twenty to sixty dollars per acre,
unless they lie within the artificial prosperity of the cities.

Farther west in the irrigated regions of Colorado and Utah,
restricted areas are held for special fruit crops, at prices rang-
ing from three hundred to two thousand dollars and up, per
acre. But here, again, monopoly, now a monopoly of natu-
ral opportunity, is a factor in creating prices ; on this, how-
ever, the vast irrigation projects of the government, bringing
into use larger and larger areas of these favored lands, were
expected to exercise a check. Up to 1918 little has been
sold. Their reclamation cost too much.

The willingness of the Southern planters to sell their lands,
and so to release them for intensive cultivation, has partly
turned the tide of immigration from the Eastern ports to
the South, and the market garden system is reaching increas-
ing areas. The development of factories to make cotton
fabrics and to utilize the formerly wasted cotton seed by turn-
ing it into meal for cattle and other animals, as well as into
the various food products, such as cotton-seed oil, cottolene,

16 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

etc., has stimulated the use of the waste land around these
budding factory centers, thus tending to encourage intensive
use of small, well-located tracts.

With a climate much milder and more equable than that
of the Northern states, with a potential fertility of soil,
equally great under proper management, the South is making
greater strides than any other part of the country.

The foregoing shows that in every section opportunities
of getting the people to the land exist. Where a man should
go is determined by a variety of things. If he be a newly
arrived immigrant used to land work in Southern Europe,
he would find his best chance in the South ; if a German or
Russian, or from any of the Northern European countries,
he would find the beet-sugar sections of Michigan, Colorado,
or California more to his liking ; if American born, without
much knowledge of out-door work, and feeling the need of
social life, the cheap farms of New York, New Jersey, and
New England would probably be most attractive.

Many persons write me that I say it is necessary to get
good land near population or with cheap and assured trans-
portation facilities — and that it must not cost more than it
is worth for gardening. " I find," they say, "that such acres
are held as 'lots' at wildly speculative prices" and they ask
"Where can I find such land?" But this is a book on agri-
cultural use of land. Why land costs too much and where
the remedy lies are other questions, dealt with in my "Things
as They Are."

However, probably the best chances now for intensive cul-
tivation are in New Jersey, in the backwoods of the Middle
states now made accessible by cheap autos — and in the South.

What can be undertaken with good prospects of success
will be outlined in the following chapters.

CHAPTER III

HOW TO BUY THE FARM

BEFORE the purchase of the land for a home in the country,
some consideration ought to be given to probable increase
in land values. Even if you are primarily interested in your
early sales of produce, you will not object to reaping an addi-
tional profit from the presence of other people.

Inasmuch as density of population determines land values,
it follows that vacant land near a large city at $100 per acre
may be cheaper than similar land at a distance would be at
$10 per acre. If you buy real estate, you become a silent
partner who does nothing, but takes most of the profits of
the business of others.

Some persons see so clearly that money is often easily gotten
by investing in land, that sometimes they make mistakes, in
trying to get in. It is as easy to be a lamb in the real estate
market as it is in the stock market.

Foresight, judgment, and experience or luck are essential
to success in real estate dealing, but help, at least in keeping
out of danger, may be had by following a few simple rules,
if one can command a little capital, borrowed or owned.

The following points, suggested by a professional land
shark, will certainly be of interest and possibly of profit to
the intending buyer. I believe myself that they contain the
whole philosophy of land speculation.

For a sure profit buy low-priced land, keeping as near the
"raw material" as possible; high-priced property is risky
c 17

18 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

and expensive to carry. An acre which costs one or two
hundred dollars, or ten dollars per lot, will cost but six to
twelve dollars per year to carry and half a dollar for taxes,
and if a stable does come next you, why, you can sell your
land for a blacksmith shop.

Besides this, a ten-dollar lot, if restricted for residence or
available for business, often advances to $100 in a year;
one good house which some one else built near it may raise
its value that much.

If the land is high priced, see that there is some kind of a
building on it ; even a shanty will usually bring in enough
or save you enough by its use to pay the taxes ; so you will
have that working for you whilst you are away.

If possible, buy at auction and of reputable people who
are not boomers, or at least buy at forced sale ; that is how
real estate is sold when it must be sold. Choose lots level
with the curb and on high ground, lest the expense of grad-
ing and sewering eat up your profit.

Keep in mind that in buying land for speculation one really
buys the opportunity to tax other people, by taking part of
their earnings in the shape of rent or price. Do not then be
deluded by boom schemes in inaccessible or desolate places ;
choose rather that land which in the natural course of events
others must have in order to work or to live.

Home buying in small communities is safer than in the out-
skirts of a large city, because public improvements are much
less costly. If you put $500 in a $5000 home and carry the
balance on mortgage, an assessment of $1000 for streets or
sewers, which helps the vacant lots, will probably put you
out of business. Whether for use or speculation, buy in an
established neighborhood .or where the circumstances and
neighbors are such that restrictions or expenditures will make

HOWJTO BUY THE FARM 19

its character sure. The increase in your land value depends
first upon the presence, then upon the efforts, of others;
it is by their labor you hope to profit.

Therefore, buy property on leading thoroughfares ; except
in a very small section devoted to the residence of millionaires,
the price of residence property has a limit; even there the
merest accident or the whim of fashion may destroy the value,
but there is no telling what figure business property may reach.

Do not build unless you have to. It is rare that a build-
ing pays five per cent net on the value of the land and the
cost of the house. "Who buys a house already wrought,
gets many a brick and nail for nought." If, however, you
can get a piece of ground in a growing neighborhood and
live on it till you can sell at an advance, that is the safest,
and surest of investments. It delivers you from the power
of the landlord.

Lastly — in real estate — don't bite off more than you can
chew.

Most of these rules apply to the purchase of suburban
land. In farm buying, keep as close to your market as you
can. See that railway facilities are all right ; get land likely
to be needed for other purposes. The best way to begin is
by securing all information possible from state agricultural
departments. Write to the industrial agents of important
railroads traversing the section hi which you want to locate.
They have detailed information regarding land, markets, so-
cial conditions, etc. ; get from the United States Agricultural
Department a map showing the soil survey of the section of
your choice. It must be borne in mind that personal aid is
not to be expected from State Agricultural Departments,
Bureaus of Immigration, railway companies, or any public
agency.

20 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

From the big farm agencies run for profit you can get lists
of thousands of properties for sale. Some State Agricultural
Departments cooperate with real estate men in their own
states, by referring inquiries for farms to them. Some states
issue from time to time lists of "abandoned farms," but these
change so constantly that they help but little except in the
way of suggestion.

When you start farm-hunting take along a good map.
Then you will know a few things on your own account.
Verify railroad maps and " facts," as they are often biased.
Don't waste your time wandering around a strange
locality by yourself. The local real estate man knows more
about his community than you can learn in five years. In
trying to find out things for yourself you will waste in aim-
less journeys, undertaken in ignorance of real conditions,
more tune and money than a real estate man's commission
amounts to.

The only way to form a correct idea of the production of
any given section is to examine a particular farm in detail.
Within well-recognized limits, all the farms thereabouts
will be found of similar character. Before spending money
to look at land, learn all you can by correspondence. Whether
it is more profitable in the long run to buy that good plot of
land in a high state of cultivation with good buildings on it,
at a high price, than to buy this exhausted piece of land with
poor buildings or none at all, is a question for the individual
to decide. It depends on your energy, grit, age, and how
much money you have. It is much easier to take advantage
of what the other fellow has done, than it is to build from
the stump. You must bear in mind, however, that well-
kept land in a high state of cultivation seldom goes begging
in the market. On the whole, if you have the capital to do

HOW TO BUY THE FARM 21

it, you can make the biggest wages by buying rough or neg-
lected land, and hewing it into shape.

If you have a knowledge of soils, you may be able to find
land that will grow something that no one supposes it will
grow. This will be particularly useful in the case of land
thought to be valueless. The lands about Miles, Michigan,
were considered sterile until some one found out that they
would grow mint, a valuable crop, which made the land sal-
able at high prices.

Get hold of a desirable bit of the earth. All that men
wear or eat or use; everything — shelter, food, tools, and
toys comes from the land by labor. Even the capital used
to make more of those things is taken from the land. The
employer and the capitalist are, at bottom, only men who con-
trol the land or its products, who own rights of way, mining
rights, or the fee of valuable lands. Thousands have " made "
money by finding unexpected products in their land or of their
lands, oil, coal, mineral, plants; thousands more because
their land was needed by some one else, and they were paid
to get out of the way.

To speculate on these chances is risky business; to keep
land that enables you to make good pay while you wait, is
profitable.

CHAPTER IV

VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION

IN this book, necessarily, we have to take much upon
the reports of others, checking them by our own judgment
and experience. The startling accounts of what has been
done and is being done on plots of about a quarter acre to
each family, however, can be easily re-verified by any one
who will go or write to Philadelphia, or examine any present
experiment or model gardens. These show what can be done
even by unskilled labor, with hardly any capital, on small
plots where the soil was poor, but which are well situated.

The directors say : "The first Vacant Lot Cultivation As-
sociations were organized when relief agencies were vainly
striving to provide adequate assistance for the host of un-
employed. The cultivation of vacant city lots by the unem-
ployed had already been tried successfully in other cities.
The first year we provided gardens, seeds, tools, and instruc-
tion only, for about one hundred families on twenty-seven
acres of ground. At a total cost to contributors of about
$1800, our gardeners produced $46,000 worth of crops."

The applicant is allowed a garden on the sole condition that
he cultivate it well through the season, and that he do not
trespass upon his neighbors. He must respect their right
to what their labor produces. A failure to observe these
rules forfeits his privilege.

22

VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 23

During twenty years, more than eight thousand families
have been assisted, many old people who could no longer
keep up the rapid pace of our industrial life, cripples whose
physical condition held them back in the race for work,
persons who on account of sickness or other misfortunes have
been thrown out of the competition in modern business, and
unfortunate beings who, though clear in mind and strong in
muscle, have been forced to the ranks of the unemployed —
these have all had an opportunity opened to them : oppor-
tunity to enjoy all of the fruits from nature's great storehouse
which their own labor and skill might secure.

The war has forced France, Italy, and England similarly
to utilize natural opportunities for subsistence in their
enormous tracts of unproductive lands. In Mexico all
proprietors will be required to designate what they propose
to cultivate and the remainder will either be allotted tem-
porarily for agricultural purposes to those desiring them or
it will be cultivated under government management. There
is no remedy like that for poverty.

The first man who applied for a vacant lot garden came
to the Philadelphia office after the announcement in the
papers, so weak and emaciated that the doctor was afraid the
poor fellow would be unable to get out of his office without
assistance. He was a widower with three girls and a boy,
the oldest girl about seventeen.

He received a garden which contained only about one fifth
of an acre. Later he observed that a part of another little
farm was left untouched on account of being very rough,
full of holes, and covered with stone and bricks. Part of this
farm was below the street grade and subject to overflow, but
it was larger than the others — nine tenths of an acre. He
offered to exchange, saying he did not mind the extra work.

24 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

His offer was accepted. In a few days the stones and bricks
had been thrown into the holes and covered with dirt. The
low places had been filled in. It was a work in which the
whole family joined. A small house was rented in the im-
mediate neighborhood in lieu of their one room near the
foul alleys of the city slum.

Every inch of the soil was utilized. A rosy hue took the
place of the pale, wan cheek of a few months before. And
now the harvest has come, and the winter's store can be
enumerated. Thirty bushels of potatoes, four bushels of
turnips, one bushel of carrots, thirty gallons of sauerkraut,
fifteen gallons of catsup, five gallons of pickled beans, one
hundred quarts of canned tomatoes, fifty quarts of canned
corn, twenty quarts of beans, one thousand or more fine
celery stalks, and many other things. Warm clothing has
replaced the badly worn garments of nine months ago. A
few pieces of furniture have been added. The boy has been
provided with a small capital for his little business. ("Va-
cant Lot Cultivation," Reprint from N. Y. Charities Review.}
Better labor would of course get even better results.

The personal benefits that have come to a few individual
cases, are largely the same that all the gardeners enjoyed in
New York and elsewhere.

An old colored woman — a grandmother — who had just
been released from one of the hospitals where she had been
treated for a long time for pleurisy, asked for a garden. It
was more than a mile to the nearest plot, but she was quite
willing to go even that distance if she could get a garden.
At first, owing to her weakened condition, she was forced to
work slowly and for short periods only, but a little assistance
enabled her to get a garden started. The work proceeded
so well that more land was added to her small holding, and

VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 25

most of her waking hours were now spent either in or near
the garden, working among the tender plants or watching
them grow. Before the season was half spent she had devel-
oped one of the best gardens in the whole plot. Her surplus
produce became so large that she had to devote most of her
time to gathering and selling it. Finally she rented a small
shed on a prominent street and passers-by often stopped,
and regular customers came to buy the freshly gathered
produce, the supply being not only abundant, but of great
variety.

One of the best gardens, from the standpoint of value of
produce as well as for the varieties of products it contained
and the artistic arrangement, was worked by a man who had
but one arm. Many other successful and profitable gardens
were cultivated by men and women of an age when we gen-
erally expect them to depend entirely upon others for support.

Many incidents were found where such habits as drinking
and loafing around saloons and clubs and abusing the family
have been checked on account of the gardener's time and
attention being occupied in the little farm.

One of the workers came for work in a condition of mind
and body which rendered his services almost worthless.
He was scarcely able to carry on his work for a minute be-
yond what he was shown. Each new move had to be ex-
plained constantly, and even then he was often found doing
the work in the wrong way only a few minutes afterwards.
Before long, however, he began to see that his place had
its responsibilities and that the work of Mother Nature
depended on his doing his part and doing it well. By the
tune the crops were ready to gather and market he came to
realize that the cost of production must come under the
amount received from the sale of the produce so as to

26 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

prevent loss. By the end of the season he had learned so
to utilize his time and to organize his work and execute
our plans that we were able to recommend him to a farmer
who was looking for a handy man about the place.

In twenty years our Associations have made demonstra-
tions of the following facts, each demonstration proving more
clearly than the former ones :

First. That many people out of employment must have
help of some kind.

Second. That a great majority of them prefer self-help,
and many will take no other. Nearly all are able and willing
to improve any opportunities open to them.

Third. That to open opportunities to them does not pau-
perize or degrade, but has the opposite effect of elevating
and ennobling. It quickly establishes self-respect and self-
confidence. The best and most effective way of helping
people in need is to open a way whereby they may help
themselves. The most effective charity is opportunity ac-
companied with kindly advice and a personal interest in those
less fortunate than ourselves.

Fourth. That the offering of gardens to the unemployed
with proper supervision and some assistance by providing
seeds, fertilizers, and plowing accompanied with instruction,
is the cheapest and easiest way of opening opportunities yet
devised.

Fifth. That it possesses many advantages in addition to
providing profitable employment; among others, that the
worker must come out into the open air and sunshine ; must
exercise, and put forth exertion, — all of which are conducive
to health, and, most important of all, he knows that all he
raises is to be his own. This is the greatest incentive to
industry.

VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 27

The Vacant Lot Cultivation system is a school wherein
gardeners are taught a trade (to most of them a new trade),
farming, which offers employment for more people than all
the other trades and professions combined : a trade suscep-
tible of wide diversification and offering many fields for spe-
cializing. But little capital is required ; any other field would
require large outlay. Its greatest advantage, however, is
that the idle men and the idle land are already close to each
other — the men can reach their gardens without changing
their domiciles or being separated from their families.
1 It was not until after several years that the full effect of
the work was realized. A few gardeners each year from the
beginning have, after one or two years' experience, taken
small farms or plots of land to cultivate on their own account,
or have sought employment on farms near the city ; but the
number is quite small compared to the whole number
helped. Now more than ten per cent of those that had
gardens previously have for the last two years been working
on their own account. Out of nearly eight hundred garden-
ers, more than eighty-five either rented or secured the
loan of gardens that season and cultivated them wholly at
their own expense, and many others would have done so
had suitable land been available. The number of gardens
forfeited on account of poor cultivation or trespassing was
only two out of 800 plots given out.

The first important advance was early in the spring of 1904,
when it became known that a large tract of land that had
been in gardens for several years would be withdrawn from
use. A number of the gardeners came together to talk over
the situation. One proposed that they form a club to lease
a tract of land and divide it up among themselves. The plan
was readily agreed to, and a nine-acre tract on Lansdowne

28 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Avenue was rented at $15 per acre per annum. Some sixteen
families became interested, and Mr. D. F. Rowe, who had
been one of the most successful gardeners, became manager.
They had the land thoroughly fertilized and plowed, and then
subdivided. Some took separate allotments, as under the
Vacant Lot Association's plan, and others worked for the
manager at an agreed rate of wages per hour. The whole
nine acres were thoroughly well cultivated, and a magnificent
crop harvested.

As soon as there was produce for sale, a market was es-
tablished on the ground and a regular delivery system or-
ganized, which later attracted much attention. It was
carried on by the children, of nine to twelve years of age,
from the various families. Each child was provided with a
pushcart. There were many and various styles, made from
little express wagons, baby coaches, and produce boxes.

The children built up their own routes, and went regularly
to their customers for orders. They made up the orders,
loaded them into their little pushcarts, charged themselves
up with the separate amounts in a small book, and at the
end of each day's sales each child settled with the manager
and was paid his commission (twenty per cent of the receipts)
in cash. These little salesmen and salesgirls often took home
four to five dollars per week and yet never worked more than
three to five hours per day. The work was done under such
circumstances that to them it was not work but play. You
can get the full report from the Philadelphia " Vacant Lot
Cultivation Associations." It's interesting.

"The greatest value that our little garden has brought us,"
said a French woman, mother of a goodly number of rather
small children, "has not been in the fine vegetables it has
yielded all summer, or the good times that I and the children

VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 29

have had in the open air, but in the glasses of beer and ab-
sinthe that my husband hasn't taken." " Quite right, mother,
quite right," came from a man near by. "The world can
never know the evil we men don't do while we are busy in
our little gardens."

Further, pillage of crops, which was always urged as an ob-
jection to raising fruits or truck on open grounds, has proved
to be a baseless fear. Where any of the gardeners are allowed
to camp or put up shacks on the patches, theft does not occur
and various superintendents repeat that " the few and trivial
cases of stealing from vacant lot plots or school gardens were
almost all at the places that were fenced."

Perhaps our locks and bolts tend to suggest breaking in.

The Garden Primer issued by the New York City Food
Supply Committee gives simple but incomplete directions for
planting and tending a vegetable garden. For those who
need that sort of thing, these are just the sort of thing they
need. They will be useful if you do not follow them. The
Primer tells you how to get some kind of parsnips, chard,
spinach, common onions, radishes, cabbage, lettuce, beets,
tomatoes, beans, turnips, peas, peppers, egg plants, cucum-
bers, corn, and potatoes.

Don't grow these things, unless it be for your own imme-
diate use. Every one grows them and ripens them all at the
same time. In many places these are given away or thrown
away this year. Grow anything that every one wants and
has not got, like okra, small fruits, etc. ; you can get a much
better return in cash or in trade than by spending your time
"like other folks" who do not think.

So I refer to these directions for their instruction, and for
your warning. However, they give the following admirable
injunctions.

30 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

"Help Your Country and Yourself by Raising Your Own
Vegetables."

As we will likely have to send to Europe in coming years
as much or even more food than we did last year, there is
only one way to avoid a shortage among our own people, that
is by raising a great deal more than usual. To do this we
must plant every bit of available land. (Of course, we
can't ; the owners won't let us. Ed.)

If you have a back yard, you can do your part and help the
world and yourself by raising some of the food you eat. The
more you raise the less you will have to buy, and the more
there will be left for some of your fellow countrymen who
have not an inch of ground on which to raise anything.

If there is a vacant lot in your neighborhood, see if you
cannot get the use of it for yourself and your neighbors, and
raise your own vegetables. An hour a day spent in this
way will not only increase wealth and help your family, but
will help you personally by adding to your strength and
well-being and making you appreciate the Eden joy of gar-
dening. An hour in the open air is worth more than a dozen
expensive prescriptions by an expensive doctor.

The only tools necessary for a small garden are a spade or
spading fork, a hoe, a rake, and a line or piece of cord.

First of all, clear the ground of all rubbish, sticks, stones,
bottles, etc. (especially whisky bottles).

Choose the sunniest spot in the yard for your garden.

Dig up the soil to a depth of 6 to 10 inches, using a spade
or spading fork. (Deeper for parsnips and some other
roots. Ed.) Break up all the lumps with the spade or
fork.

If you live in a section where your neighbors have gardens,
you might club together to hire a teamster for a day to do

VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 31

the plowing and harrowing for you all, thus saving a large
amount of labor.

After your garden has been well dug, it must be fertilized
before any planting is done. In order to produce large and
well-grown crops it is often necessary to fertilize before
each planting. Very good prepared fertilizers can be bought
at seed stores, but horse or cow manure is much better, as it
lightens the soil in addition to supplying plant food. Use
street sweepings if you can get them.

The manure should be well dug into the ground, at least
to the full depth of the top soil. The ground should then be
thoroughly raked, as seeds must be sown in soil which has
been finely powdered.

Lay out the garden, keeping the rows straight with a line.
Straight rows are practically a necessity, not only for easier
culture but for economy in space.

After you have marked off your rows, the next step is open-
ing the furrow. (A furrow is a shallow trench.) That is
done with the hoe. (Best and quickest with a wheel hoe.
Ed.) After the furrow is opened, it is necessary that the
seed be sown and immediately covered before the soil has
dried. In covering the seeds the soil must be firmly pressed
down with the foot. This is important.

In buying seed it is best to go to some well-established
seed house, or, if that can't be done, to order by mail rather
than to take needless chances. With most kinds of seeds
a package is sufficient for a twenty-foot row.

Begin to break up the hard surface of the soil between the
plants soon after they appear, using a hand cultivator or hoe,
and keep it loose throughout the season. This kills weeds ;
it lets in air to the plant roots and keeps the moisture in the
ground.

32 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

By constantly stirring the top soil after your plants appear,
the necessity of watering can be largely avoided except in
very dry weather. An occasional soaking of the soil is better
than frequent sprinkling. Water your garden either very
early in the morning or after sundown. It is better not to
water when the sun is shining hot.

The planting scheme can be altered to suit your individual
taste. For instance, peas and cabbage are included because
almost everybody likes to have them fresh from their garden ;
but they occupy more space in proportion to their value than
beets and carrots. Therefore a small garden could be made
more profitable by omitting them altogether, or cutting
them down in amount and increasing the amount of carrots,
beets, and turnips planted ; or any of the vegetables men-
tioned which may not be in favor with the family can be
left out.

The kind of season we have would change the date of
planting. In raising vegetables, as in everything else, one
should use one's common (or garden variety of) sense. A
good rule is to wait until the ground has warmed up a bit.
Never try to work in soil wet enough to be sticky, or muddy ;
wait until it dries enough to crumble readily.

Gardening is not a rule of thumb business. Each gardener
must bring his plants up in his own way in the light of his
own experience and in accordance with the conditions of his
own garden. A garden lover who has a bit of land will
speedily learn if his eyes and his mind, as well as his hands,
are always busy, no matter how meager his knowledge at
the beginning.

There is plenty of land — if you can only get it.

Says Carl Vrooman, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture,
in regard to the food problem :

VACANT CITY LOT CULTIVATION 33

"Millions of acres of farm land are being held out of use and
other millions of acres are being cultivated on a wasteful and
inefficient basis. Land values have risen at an unprecedented rate.
They are based not upon what the farm will earn at the present time,
but on an expectancy of what it will be worth in the future. The
farmer's son or the tenant farmer, with little or no capital, cannot
hope to acquire possession of a farm when the price of land is so
high that his earnings would not pay the interest on the invest-
ment. The result is that land remains idle or in the hands of ten-
ants, and thousands of farmers' boys desert the country for the city.

*******
What we need, and need badly, is a program of taxation which,
without throwing additional burdens on the bona fide farmer, will
place land now idle within the reach of men of limited means who
possess the ambition and the ability to cultivate it."

You can see that poor ignorant people, women, boys,
cripples, old men, often on less than 100X150 feet each,
not only in Philadelphia, but as war gardeners in New York,
and most other towns, -have been able to support themselves
by their work on the land. You can do much better.

To be sure, they had valuable land and often seeds free,
but for such little pieces of land these are small items, and
many of them had no certainty of having the land even for a
second year, consequently they could not have hotbeds or
any permanent improvement. You can make all these
things.

Then what can you do ? Only remember they had intelli-
gent instruction and did the work themselves, and got the
whole product ; often the children helped — they thought
it fun. It does not pay to farm a small piece of land where all
the workers have to be hired. Nor does it pay if one calcu-
lates merely to stick in seeds with one hand and pull out
profits with the other.

CHAPTER V

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED

" IF we get every one out on the farms, then there will be
an over-production of farm products and a fall in prices."

True, but there are farmers who could do better in towns ;
what we want to do is to make it easy for people to get on
the land about the cities, then it would be equally easy for
those farmers who are better adapted for city life to get near
the cities.

Under present conditions, where the worker is forced out
fifteen or twenty miles from the town by the high price of
land and the large amount of land required, the farmer is
as much cut off from the city as the city dweller is cut off
from rural life.

We need not be afraid to teach men better ways ; there
will always be plenty too stupid or too old or too isolated
to learn; these will remain a bulwark against too sudden
change.

Dr. Engel, former head of the Prussian Statistical Bureau,
informs us that " Scientific farming succeeds because a given
amount of effort, when more intelligently directed, produces
greater results. Inasmuch, then, as the amount of food
which the world can consume is limited, the smaller will
be the number of farmers required to produce the needed
supply, and the larger will be the number driven from the
country to the city. It has already been observed that if

34

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 35

scientific methods were universally adopted in the United
States, doubtless one half of those now engaged in agricul-
ture could produce the present crops, which would compel
the other half to abandon the farm." This is "Engel's
Law."

This " argument " assumes that we are now utilizing all the
land possible and that every one is fully supplied with food.
But when we consider the great masses of people in the slums
of all cities who are always underfed and whose constant
thought is about their next meal; when we see hundreds
of able-bodied men waiting in line until midnight for half
a loaf of stale bread, surely it seems that there is a possi-
bility of keeping all of the present farmers at work, if not
of finding new fields for others, if we make our conditions
such that there will be opportunities for every able-bodied
worker to labor at remunerative employment.

Professor L. H. Bailey, a most industrious and accurate
observer, says : " Dr. Engel's argument rests on the assump-
tion that agriculture produces only or chiefly food ; but prob-
ably more than half of the agricultural products of the
United States is not food. It is cotton, flax, hemp, wool,
hides, timber, tobacco, dyes, drugs, flowers, ornamental
trees and plants, horses, pets, and fancy stock, and hundreds
of other non-edible commodities. The total food produce
of the United States, according to the twelfth census, was
$1,837,000,000. The cost of material used in the three
industries of textile, lumber and leather manufactories
alone was $1,851,000,000."

"Dr. Engel thinks that the outlay for subsistence dimin-
ishes as income increases ; but comforts and luxuries increase
in intimate ratio with the income, and the larger part of
these come from the farm and forest. Dr. Engel, in fact,

36 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

allows this, for he says that ' sundries become greater as in-
come increases.'"

We have already abundance of information about almost
every county in the Union, published by Boards of Trade
and land boomers, like the following about " Oxnard, Ventura
County, the center of the famous lima bean district in Cali-
fornia. For a year the returns from farm products alone,
in this vicinity, are estimated at over $2,000,000. The sugar
factory, which uses 2000 tons of beets every twenty-four
hours, requires the yield of about 1900 acres every season.
The beet crop is rotated with beans, and the factory's supply
is kept good by systematic methods. Two thousand head
of cattle are being fattened at the present time in the com-
pany's yard on the beet pulp. Much of the pulp is also
sold to local stockmen, who value it highly for feed. The
factory turns out 5000 bags of sugar every day." And
again :

"Eastern farm lands steadily declined in price up to
about 1902, so that Eastern land sold for less than Western
land of the same quality and of like situation ; but the tide
seems at last to have turned, and much money is now being
made in buying up cheap farms and especially in sub-dividing
them for small cultivators."

That sort of thing is interesting ; but it is not what a man
wants to know — he is anxious to learn how much he can
make and where and how to do it.

The man who seeks a comfortable living will do better
to rent on long lease or buy a few acres convenient to trolley
or railroad communication with a city ; besides the returns
which will come to the farmer from the use of a few acres,
if he is the owner he will get a constant increase in the value
of the land, due to the growth of the city. If the city grows

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 37

out so that the land becomes too valuable to farm, he will
be well paid for leaving.1

The amount of product to be grown for one's own use
depends on the size of the family and its fondness for vege-
tables.

"An area of 150X100 feet [about two fifths of an acre]
is generally sufficient to supply a family of five persons with
vegetables, not considering the winter supply of potatoes;
but the acres must be well tilled and handled." (Bailey,
"Principles of Vegetable Gardening.")

"The produce that could thus be obtained from an acre
of land well situated would abundantly supply with nearly
all the vegetables named, nineteen families, comprising in
all 114 individuals." (Same, page 43.)

In our garden we must know what we want and know
how to get it.2

"The things to be considered in the home garden are :
(1) a sufficient product to supply the family ; (2) continuous
succession of crops ; (3) ease and cheapness of cultivation ;
(4) maintenance of the productivity of the land year after
year.

" The ease and efficiency of cultivation are much enhanced
if all crops are in long rows, to allow of wheel-tool tillage
either by horse or wheel-hoe."

1 Although progress is continually forcing laborers back upon
less desirable land, their loss, unless they are the owners, is the land-
owner's gain.

1 It is impossible to treat exhaustively of the various crops in
a book of this kind. On onion culture alone there are four standard
books, besides seven or eight recent experimental station bulletins.

"In a family garden 100 X 150 feet (which equals six New York
City lots), the rows running the long way of the area, eight or ten
feet may be reserved along one side for asparagus, rhubarb, sweet
herbs, flowers, and possibly a few berry bushes. A strip twenty feet

38 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

The experience of the Vacant Lot Gardeners (Chapter
IV) shows that if the land be near a large market where the
product can be peddled or sold by the producers or by those
(as in Mr. Rowe's case), with whom he directly deals, more
than twenty-five dollars capital is not necessary, but Peter
Henderson ("Gardening for Profit") estimates that to get
the best results, $300 capital per acre is required for anything
less than ten acres.

Where the land is favorably situated a fortune may be
made in cultivation of a few acres — with brains.

Quinn says ("Money in the Garden") that he knows a
large number of market gardeners worth from ten to forty
thousand dollars each, none of whom had five hundred dol-
lars to begin with.

If one has not enough money to get all that can be gotten
out of his plot, it is best to put part of the land into clover
to fit it for later use or to use it for raising grass.

Results undoubtedly come from hard work ; but it is not
necessary, in order to cultivate a little land successfully,
that you should work all day on your hands and knees ; if
you can raise fruit or nuts, this is not needed at all.

But for vegetables a certain amount of it is necessary —
when there is a large job of that kind of weeding to be done,
you can hire Italians or other foreigners to do it better and
cheaper than you can do it yourself. Those who will read
this book can earn more with their heads than their hands ;
but when weeding is needed after a sudden shower and there

wide may be reserved for vines, as melons, cucumbers, and squashes.
There remains a strip seventy feet wide, or space for twenty rows
three and one half feet apart. This area is large enough to allow
of appreciable results in rotation of crops ; and if it is judiciously
managed, it should maintain high productiveness for a lifetime."
(Bailey, "Principles of Vegetable Gardening.")

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 39

is no one else, you must do some of it yourself ; the weather
will not wait for you to "get a man," and if you are not will-
ing to do such things, your chances of success are greatly
lessened.

Here is the experience of one who "got a man" :
"My garden, to begin with, was in the most rudimentary
condition, having been allowed to run to grass. After
digging up a spot about ten feet square in the turf, taking
the early morning for the work, I decided that it would re-
quire all summer to get the garden fairly spaded up, so I
hired a stalwart Irishman to do the work for me, which he
did in a week, charging me nine dollars for the job. As he
professed to be also an expert in planting vegetables, I
bought a supply of seeds in the city and intrusted them to
him, assuring myself that once in the ground the rest of the
work would fall to me ; if I could not keep a garden patch
fifty feet square clear of weeds, I had better abandon the
business at once, and all hopes of making a living out of
scientific gardening. The beginning was an unfortunate
one. The weather happened to be first very wet, and then
so dry and hot that my vegetables were unable to break
their way through the baked earth. When my peas and
beans still gave no signs after being in the ground for two
weeks, I discovered that the whole work would have to be
done over again. A Presidential campaign was beginning,
which kept me in town often late at night, so that the chief
labor of the garden fell to my faithful Irishman, who got
far more satisfaction out of it than I did. The vegetables
finally did come up above the surface, and many an evening
I finished a hard day's work by pumping and carrying hun-
dreds of gallons of water to pour upon potato plants, toma-
toes, beans, and other things which a friend of mine, an

40 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

expert in such matters, assured me were curiosities of mal-
formation and backwardness. My Irishman told me that
it was all for want of manure, and by his advice I bought
six dollars' worth of manure from a neighboring stable, and
had it spread over the ground. The bills for my garden
were meanwhile mounting up. I had begun the spring
with a garden ledger, keeping an accurate account of every
penny spent, and hoping to put on the other side of the page
a tremendous list of fine vegetables. The accounts are
before me now, and I presume that every one who has
been through the same experience has preserved some such
record." (Naturally, if he began that way.) ("Liberty
and a Living," by P. G. Hubert.)

If your idea of farming is to bury " some seeds " in untilled
ground, regardless of suitability, and "wait till they come
up," you will wait in vain for a decent crop.

Says Professor Roberts in the "Farmstead" (Macmillan),
"Mushrooms sell at fifty cents per pound; maize for one
half cent per pound. Why? Because anybody, even a
squaw, can raise maize, but only a specially skilled gardener
can succeed in mushroom culture."

But enough has been said to show that you must cultivate
with brains. The Germans say, "What your head won't
do, your legs have to."

"We'll have a little farm,

A pig, a horse and cow,
And you will drive the wagon
While I drive the plow,"

is very pretty. The horse and the pigs are practical, if you
can take care of them yourself ; pigs are good farm catch-alls.
If you have to pay a man to do it, you had better hire your
horses and buy your pork.

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 41

Two well-groomed, healthy cows, one calving in the
spring and one in the autumn, can be made a source of profit,
and of valuable manure, if you have land enough in a neigh-
borhood where up-to-date parents are willing to pay ten
to twenty cents a quart for pure milk for their infants or
even for family use. But your land and your own baby's
care and milk will probably be enough for you to attend to
promptly and thoroughly every day — and night.

It is an age-old experience that if we take care of a little
land, the land will take care of us. In Ferrero's " Grandezza
e Decadenza di Roma" is an interesting account of Marcus
Terentius Varro's "De Re Rustica." Varro wrote in the
year 37 B.C., and as he was then eighty years old, he had
seen the transformation of Italy from an agricultural to a
manufacturing, trading community and the accompanying
wreck of the old agricultural system, which, of course, he
laments.

The growth of vast landed estates largely held by imperial
favorites, as Pliny said, destroyed Italy. So fearful has the
destruction been that it is only in our generation that the
Campagna at Rome, which was once an intensely fruitful
quilt of garden patches, has been reclaimed from the fever-
smitten swamp to which vast landlordism had reduced it.

In the third book of "De Re Rustica," Varro recom-
mends as his remedy, intensive cultivation close to the
cities, and the breeding of "fancy stock," including
pigeons, snails, peacocks, deer, and wild boars.

He tells how an aunt of his made 60,000 sesterces ($3000)
in one year by raising thrushes for the Roman market, at
a time when an excellent farm of about 200 acres only yielded
30,000 sesterces per annum. He quotes another case of
one who made 40,000 sesterces per annum from a flock of

42 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

one hundred peacocks, by selling the eggs and the young.
Those old Roman women weren't so slow.

Ferrero calls Varro's work one of the most important
for the history of ancient Italy and says historians have made
a mistake in not reading it.

At the time of the migration of the barbarians (350 to
750 A.D.), the lot of each able-bodied man was about thirty
morgen (equal to twenty acres) on average lands, on very
good ground only ten to fifteen morgen (equal to seven or
ten acres), four morgen being equal to one hectare. Of this
land, at least a third, and sometimes a half, was left uncul-
tivated each year. The remainder of the fifteen to twenty
morgen sufficed to feed and fatten into giants the immense
families of these child-producing Germans, and this in spite
of the primitive technique, whereby at least half the produc-
tive capacity of a day was lost. (From " The State," by
Franz Oppenheimer, p. 11.)

In the Orange Judd prize contest, merely for the clearest
account of a garden, not for results at all, a number of the
contestants raised produce at the rate of $150 to $400 per
acre and over, even in semi-arid regions ; for instance, L. E.
Burnham says that he raised on his first garden of about
one third of an acre in eastern Massachusetts, garden stuff
which he sold to summer cottagers for $61.69.

This took about eight days' work, nearly all with a wheel
hoe.

Remember about the present increased and changing prices
and costs ? At the present writing, 1917, the advances in costs
and prices would probably average about three quarters, and
those of common labor perhaps one third over those given in
the text. In other respects, the instances and authorities,
still pertinent, have been retained in this revision.

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 43

It would have been waste, not thrift, to get a new authority
to tell us that straw makes the cleanest mulch for straw-
berries; that's the reason they were called strawberries,
and they grew just the same way ten years ago.

L. E. Dimosh of Connecticut raised on one quarter of an
acre $146.21, of which over $85 was profit.

In other cases the profits were $142 (Gianque, Nebraska)
per acre ; and over $295 (Dora Dietrich, Pennsylvania) ;
with the rather exceptional profit at the rate of $570 (Mrs.
Hall, Connecticut). Some showed a loss.

Some of the town or city lots yielded very high profits;
one of a third of an acre gave a profit of $224.33 (Edge
Darlington, Md.).

The summary "based upon the reports of five hundred
and fifteen gardens in nearly every state and territory and
in Canada and the provinces, may be considered accurate
and reliable. Covering such a vast territory local con-
ditions are avoided." It shows that "the average size of
farm gardens was 24,372 square feet, or about half an acre,
the average labor cost $26.34, the average value of product
was at the rate of $170 per acre, and the net profit over $80
per acre."

To get results we must first learn and then teach what we
know. The finest game in the world is to teach. No one
ever knows anything thoroughly till he tries to teach it.

When you tell a person how to do a thing, he doesn't
know how to do it himself. When you show him how to do
it, still he doesn't know that he could do it himself. But
when you get him to do it himself, then he knows.

Country boys will believe that early tomatoes can be raised
by starting them in the house ; but like the rest of us they
don't know how to do it, and when spring comes and it is

44 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

time to do such things, they are busy on the farm. There
are several schools trying the experience of allowing the
children to plant in window boxes in early April and are show-
ing them how to do it. But as there is not room for all the
children to plant in these window boxes, there is a new idea
which originated in the country, where the children are en-
gaged in the fall and the spring assisting their parents at
agricultural work.

It was hard to get up any interest in school gardens, but
it was all the more important that they should have agri-
cultural instruction in the winter time.

At Berkeley Heights, N. J., we devised this simple plan,
and it works. We made a number of wooden boxes, one
foot wide, two feet long, so they will just fit on the ledge
of a school desk. They are only three inches deep, with a
bottom of tin, turned up at the edges, or of well painted pine,
white-leaded at the joints. There is no drainage, since we
discovered that if they are not watered too much, they do
better without drainage. The holes usually made in the
bottoms of flower boxes carry off a lot of plant food with
the water that runs through.

Now, how to store these boxes when they are not in the
sunny places near the windows ? Why, we set up four posts
of one-inch stuff at the four corners, so that the box looks
like a kitchen table turned upside down (see illustration).
Now the boxes filled with earth and with the young plants
growing can be stored at night, one on top of the other, by
the wall of the schoolroom.

If it is going to be cold, and over Sundays, the pile of them
can be covered with newspapers, which keep them from get-
ting chilled and from drying up, or the boxes can be covered
and carried home by the children. We found that for most

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 45

plants nine inches is high enough for the posts, and that
well-seasoned one-inch lumber is heavy enough not to
warp if it is painted inside and out, and it is not too
heavy to lift.

By the way, better paint the joints before the sides are
nailed together. It makes them more water-tight. Four
screws at the corners will make them still tighter.

The scholars raise lettuce, parsley, onions, and strawberries,
and all kinds of small plants, as well as flowers, in the winter ;
and when the plants get too big or two crowded for the boxes,
they are separated and transplanted into other boxes to be
taken home.

This was so successful that we devised a big window box
which is suited for home use also ; it is just as wide as the
window and half as long again as it is wide. But this box
does not stand outside on the window sill ; if it did, the plants
would freeze. One end only rests on the inside window sill
where it gets the sun ; the end is supported by two legs of
the same height that the window sill is from the floor.

When a nice warm day comes, the other end of the box
is pushed out of the window and the sash closed down on it
to keep it from falling out. A couple of cleats or nails in
the window jamb help to hold it in place.

Of course, the box has to be watched and taken in if it
turns cold, but it's astonishing how much can be raised and
how much more can be learned out of season by the school
desk boxes and the home window sliding boxes.

Try it and see for yourself.

The children can learn as much about some things from a
box 2X1 ft. as they can from a children's garden. Here
are a couple of samples of what the kids themselves in a city
school think of it.

46 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

"DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

" Office of the Principal of Public School No. 7
" VAN ALST AVE., ASTORIA, QUEENS

" I inclose a few compositions that were written by some of
our boys and girls of the Fourth Year. You will recognize
the descriptions of your Garden Trays for classroom use.
Unfortunately the free space in the classroom is limited, so
we have found it necessary to allow each pupil only part of
a box.

"The children themselves are delighted, as you can see
by their compositions.

" Very sincerely yours,

(Signed) "AGNES A. CORDING
" Asst. Principal"

P. S. No. 7

Grade 4 A — April 21, 1915.
Arthur Miller, Age 10

OUR GARDEN

At first we planted radishes then onions and lettuce and
beans and sunflowers. Each one of us have i of a box.
When we had finished that we brought them up to the front
of the room and then watered them and went home.

Anna Duerr, Age 8

MY GARDEN

I have a garden. It is a box. I have a quarter of a box
for my very own. My garden has five rows. In the first
there are radishes, in the second lettuce, in the third onions,
in the fourth beans, in the fifth sunflowers. I hope my
garden grows up.

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 47

Of course these are only preparatory for profitable work.
We have cases in which $2000 has been recorded from sales
in one year from one acre, and many cases in which at least
$1000 worth of produce has been sold from an acre. These
are sales, not profits.

Such results are not due to the boundless and fertile soil
of the new world nor to small farming alone — they are due
to intelligence.

Professor Ronna gives the following figures of crops per
acre at Romford (Breton's Farm) : 28 tons of potatoes (say
952 bushels), 16 tons of marigold, 105 tons of beets, 110 tons
of carrots, 9 to 20 tons of various cabbages, and so on.

It was suggested to the Agricultural Department that it
might fix standards of what is a good attainable crop.

On every golf links we have what is called a Bogie score
posted up. That is a score that a certain mythical Captain
Bogie, supposed to be an average good player, could make
on those links. On one typical club course, for instance,
the Bogie score is 42. Though it has been done in 37, the
ordinary player congratulates himself when he gets down to
the Bogie score.

Now, if there were standards attainable to ordinary in-
telligent and good cultivation set in each section, it would
enormously encourage farmers to reach them, which may be
of great importance.

One of the heads of the Department replied as follows :

"In regard to fixing a standard for each farmer to strive
to attain, I think that a very good idea ; but the standard
for each crop in each particular locality would necessarily
be somewhat different from that in every other locality.
Persons who have had experience in experimental work
keenly appreciate these points. The work which is done

48 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

upon one soil formation under different climatic conditions
in one season, does not necessarily find a duplicate in any
other locality, and the experience is that what is accomplished
in one year would not be duplicated on the same soil and
under the same management again in several years, for the
conditions under which agriculture is carried on are so many
of them outside of the control of the operator that it is very
difficult to predict results or to attain any fixed standard.
This is necessarily so with an operation which has so many
uncertain factors to deal with as agriculture. Humidity
of the atmosphere and of the soil, the available plant food
in the soil, methods of tillage, fertilizers used, recurrence of
frosts, amount of sunlight, the altitude and latitude of
different localities, all have a bearing upon crop production.
It is, therefore, very difficult to fix any approximate standard
or average production for any particular locality without
basing it upon a long series of years. I think, however,
that it is a subject worthy of agitation, and it might inspire
agriculturists to better work were such an ideal fixed upon."

This indicates that each experiment station or progressive
farmer or teacher of agriculture might advantageously estab-
lish the local "Bogie score" of what might fairly be expected.

We know how misleading averages are. The man who
tried to wade across a stream whose average depth was two
feet, was drowned. "The writer used to go to a fishing
club of which Cornelius Vanderbilt was a member. One of
the standard jokes there was that the thirty members are
worth on an average over two million apiece, that is, Cor-
nelius sixty millions, and the rest of us (comparatively)
nothing. Which are you to be? A Vanderbilt among
cultivators, or the other fellow who makes the 'average'?"
(" Money Making in Free America, " by the Author.)

RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 49

But even making all allowances we see that we must
cultivate much better than the " average," to make anything
more than the farmer's hard living off the land. Peter
Dunne tells us what kind of a grind that is.

"This pa-aper says th' farmer niver sthrikes. He hasn't
got th' time to. He's too happy. A farmer is continted
with his farm lot. There's nawthin' to take his mind
off his wurruk. He sleeps at night with his nose against
th' shingled roof iv his little frame home an' dhreams iv cinch
bugs. While th' stars are still alight he walks in his sleep
to wake th' cows that left th' call f'r four o'clock. Thin
it's ho ! f'r feedin' th' pigs an' mendin' th' reaper. Th'
sun arises as usual in th' east, an' bein' a keen student iv
nature he picks a cabbage leaf to put in his hat. Break-
fast follows, a gay meal beginnin' at nine an' endin' at nine-
three. Thin it's off f'r th' fields where all day he sets on a
bicycle seat an' reaps the bearded grain an' th' Hessian fly,
with nawthin' but his own thoughts an' a couple iv horses
to commune with. An' so he goes an' he's happy th' live-
long day if ye don't get in ear-shot iv him. In winter he
is employed keeping th' cattle fr'm sufferin' his own fate
an' writin' testymonyals iv dyspepsia cures." ("Mr.
Dooley Says.")

CHAPTER VI

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE

WE have shown what an acre has produced. You must
figure out for yourself what you can make your acres pro-
duce and what the product can be sold for.

All progress hi agriculture has come heretofore through
experiments, made mostly by uninformed and untrained men.
What may not be done by practical learning and applied
intelligence ?

The wonderful recent advances have been made in just
that way.

"The modern unproved methods in agriculture, known
collectively as intensive fanning, have nearly all had their
origin in the hands of truck farmers and market gardeners.
No class of the rural population is more alert hi utilizing the
newest researches and discoveries hi all lines of agricultural
science, and none keeps in closer touch with the agricultural
colleges and experiment stations." ("Development of the
Trucking Interests," by F. S. Earle.)

Still, it is not advisable for the ordinary city dweller, how-
ever intelligent, without other means and without either
experience or study, to cast himself upon a small patch of
ground for a living ; but if he can give it most of his time
mornings and evenings, or if he sees, as many do, that he
will be forced out of a position, it would be well for him
seriously to consider intensive cultivation as a resource.

50

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE 51

It would be the greatest blessing to our day laborers if
they could secure an acre of land which they could till in
conjunction with their other labor. If time and change so
works upon society as to put the laborer out of a job, he will
be safe in his acre home and can live from it and be happy
and contented.

The time required to cultivate an acre is much less than
is generally supposed.

The maximum tune required seems to be that given in
the University of Illinois Experiment Station at Urbana,
Bulletin 61, by J. W. Lloyd, at the rate of 140 hours (say
14 days) with one horse and 250 hours (say 25 days) for
hand labor. With a great variety of crops, or with poor
labor add one half to this time allowance. The results vary
greatly.

An acre of northeastern Long Island will produce 250 to
400 bushels of potatoes at a selling price of fifty to seventy-
five cents per bushel, which wholesale, at those figures
much below present prices, bring an income of $125 to $300
to the grower. The actual cash outlay in one instance was :

Seed Potatoes $10.00

Commercial Fertilizer 13.00

Spraying for blight and pests 4.00

$27.00

250 bu. selling at the minimum price $125.00

Less the cash outlay 27.00

Income to the grower from an acre $98.00

A production of 400 bushels costs no more cash outlay
per acre, while the income is big wages to the farmer.1

1 If but one acre be grown and hand labor is used, the labor might
cost an average of $40 per acre, with wages at $1.35 to $1.50 per
day, and if the produce is shipped any distance by rail and con-

52 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

An acre will bear if devoted to each crop, of :

Blackberries, 10,000 qt., which at 7c. a qt. would bring . $700.00

Dewberries, 9000 qt., say at 7c. a qt 630.00

Gooseberries, 250 bu. at $2.00 a bu 500.00

Strawberries, 8000 qt. at 5c. a qt 400.00

Currants, 3000 plants yield 6000 bu 200.00

Raspberries, per acre $200.00 to 600.00

Peaches, per acre 200.00 to 400.00

Pears, per acre 200.00 to 500.00

Apples, per acre 100.00 to 500.00

Grapes 100.00

Five, or even three acres will give a good living if this
can be approximated :
An acre will produce in vegetables — either

Asparagus, 3000 bunches at 20c. a bunch, would be . . $600.00

Cauliflower, 100 to 300 bbl. at $1.50, say 450.00

Onions, 600 bu. at 75c. per bu 450.00

Cabbage Seed, 1000 Ib. at 40c. a Ib 400.00

Brussels Sprouts, 3000 qt. at lOc. a qt 300.00

Celery, 6000 bunches at 5c. a bunch 300.00

Parsnips, 300 bu. at $1.00 a bu 300.00

Lettuce, 9000 heads at 3c. a head 270.00

Lima Beans, 50 bu. at $5.00 a bu 250.00

We may hope to get from an acre, respectively, in

Potatoes, 300 bu. at 75c. a bu., would be $225.00

Cabbages, 20 tons at $10.00 a ton 200.00

Carrots and Beets, 200 to 400 bu 150.00

Tomatoes, 200 crates at 75c. a crate 150.00

Early Peas, 50 bu. at $2.00 a bu 100.00

Turnips, 400 bu. at 25c. a bu 100.00

Spinach, 100 bbl. at 50c. a bbl 50.00

signed, it would cost $40 to $50 to pay selling charges, leaving you
a profit of about $30 per acre on this crop. Other crops in the rota-
tion might not be so profitable, hence it is not fair to figure an in-
come on one. But, of course, in the above estimate, we are consid-
ering mainly the cases where the gardener does the work and earns
the wages himself.

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE 53

Mr. D. L. Hartman, whose experience in the North is
given on a later page, has since moved to Little River, Florida.
He writes in 1917 :

"I have recently sold the last strawberries of a small
plot. Owing to a combination of circumstances it pro-
duced, I think, the largest value per area of any crop I have
ever cultivated. The main factors were high prices realized
and heavy yield.
Area of plot, a trifle over one fifth acre. Total yield, 2295

quarts, total receipts, $4703.80.
First berries picked January 2nd ; last berries picked June

26th; Variety, Brandywine.

"This shows a yield of 11,107 quarts per acre worth at
the same rate, $3398.00.

" The fruit was all sold to stores in Miami (five miles dis-
tant) and brought an average you notice of 30f cents per
quart for the crop, the highest bringing fifty cents per
quart. The average price during the ordinary seasons is
about twenty cents per quart. My ordinary average yield
is less than half of this yield or about 5000 quarts per acre,
and that is much above the average of most yields of other
growers. The crop was started with northern plants, set
just as for matted rows in the North, then early in November
plants were dug up and set out in order in rows 12 inches
apart and 8-3- inches apart in the row, leaving every fifth
row vacant for paths. It is super close culture; one plant
per square foot for the total area or a little more.

" I often think that if I were operating in the North again
I would like to try strawberries the same way, except that
I would do the transplanting September 1st instead of No-
vember 1st as here, since I would expect them to grow larger
and of course I would plan to mulch them during the winter.

54 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

It would take a lot of planting but I think it would insure a
tremendous yield. I find that the digging and planting
including watering of 1500 plants makes ten hours' work,
with elimination of all waste motion."

You will not get as good results as Mr. Hartman's average,
unless you learn as much as he has learned ; he has succeeded
by well-directed work in different places and circumstances.

The South and West are not the only places in the United
States where a man can live on one acre of ground, by in-
tensive culture and with irrigation. The Eastern and
Middle States can present just as good, if not better, op-
portunities, especially where land in small tracts is available
near the large cities.1

At Hyde Park, a little village three miles north of Read-
ing, Pa., there is a small farm owned by Oliver R. Shearer,
who may be said to be one of the most successful farmers in
the United States. This farm contains 3£ acres, only 2£ of
which are cultivated, but they yield the owner annually
from $1200 to $1500. From the profits of his intensive
farming, Mr. Shearer has paid $3800 for his property,
which, besides the land, consists of a modern two-story brick
house, with barn, chicken-yard, and orchard, the whole
surrounded by a neat fence. He has also raised and educated
a family of three children.

1 The Farmers' Advocate (Topeka, Kansas) says of lands which
ten years ago were among the much advertised "abandoned farms"
of the eastern states: "All over the eastern states where farming
twenty years ago was pronounced a failure under western competi-
tion, there has sprung up this intensive cultivation. Violets are
grown in one place and tuberoses by the acre in another. Celery
is making one man's large profit near Williamsburg. Special fruits
are cultivated. Currants are grown by the ton and sold by the
pound, yielding a profit. This is in progress over the entire range
of farming."

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE 55

There are no secrets, Mr. Shearer says, about his method
of farming. A study of conditions, the application of com-
mon-sense methods and untiring energy, he asserts, will
enable others to do what he has done, but that most men
would kill themselves with the work.

In an agricultural exchange a small farmer tells that he
makes a living and saves some money from a ten-acre farm.
Before he was through paying for his land, which cost $100
an acre, building his house, fences, and outbuildings, he went
in debt $1300, having about the same amount to start with.
He is near a good market, and in five years has paid off the
debt, and has been getting ahead ever since. He raises poul-
try and small fruits, and says that it is a good combination, as
most of the work with poultry comes in winter, while he can do
nothing out of doors. He maintains that a ten-acre farm
rightly managed will bring a good living, including the com-
forts and some of the luxuries of life, and says : " This I have
fully demonstrated, and what I have done others may do."

Maxwell's Talisman says :

"E. J. O'Brien of Citronelle, Alabama, received $170 clear
from an acre of cucumbers shipped to the St. Louis market.
He was two weeks late in getting them on the market. He
says those two weeks would have meant nearly double the
net returns. He does not consider this an extraordinary re-
turn and hopes to do better next year."

"Professor Thomas Shaw writes of a plot of ordinary
ground in Minnesota comprising the nineteenth part of an
acre, which for years kept a family of six matured persons
abundantly supplied with vegetables all the year, with the
exception of potatoes, celery, and cabbage. In addition,
much was given away, more especially of the early varieties,
and in many instances much was thrown away."

56 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

"In the market-gardens of Florida we see such crops as
445 to 600 bushels of onions per acre, 400 bushels of to-
matoes, 700 bushels of sweet potatoes; which testify to a
high development of culture." (Same, page 101.)

We select from Bailey's "Principles of Vegetable Garden-
ing " the following general estimates :

Beets — Average crop is 300-400 bushels per acre.

Carrots — Good crop is 200-300 bushels per acre.

Cabbage — 8000 heads per acre.

Potatoes — The yield of potatoes averages about 75
bushels per acre, but with forethought and good tillage and
some fertilizer the yield should run from 200 to 300 bushels,
and occasionally yields will much exceed the latter figure.

Rhubarb — From 2 to 5 stalks are tied in a bunch for mar-
ket, and an acre should produce 3000 dozen bunches.

Salsify — Good crop 200-300 bushels per acre.

Onions — A good crop of onions is 300-400 bushels to the
acre, but 600-800 are secured under the very best conditions.

The price per ton for horseradish varies from ten to fifty
dollars, and from two to four tons should be raised on an
acre, the latter quantity when the ground is deep and rich
and when the plants do not suffer for moisture.

Averages are very misleading and it would be better to
pay little attention to them. They are like the average
wealth possessed by a class of twenty schoolchildren. The
schoolmaster who had $20 asked what was the average
wealth of each, if the total wealth of the class was $20. The
brightest boy answered, "One dollar." The schoolmaster
asked Tommy at the foot of the class if he did not think they
would be a prosperous class. He answered, " It depends on
who has the 'twenty.'"

But, all the more, good averages imply some wonderful

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE 57

yields. The following are actual averages in the United
States Twelfth and Thirteenth Census Report, respectively.

Flowers and plants, $2014 and $1911 ; nursery products,
$170 and $261 ; sugar cane, $87 (4 tons per acre) and
$5540; small fruits, $81 and $110; hops, $72 (885 Ib. per
acre) and $175 ; sweet potatoes, $37 (79 bu. per acre) and
$55 ; hemp, $34 (794 Ib. per acre) and $54 ; potatoes, $33
(96 bu. per acre) and $45; sugar beets, $30 (7 tons per
acre) and $54; sorghum cane, $21 (1 ton per acre) and
$23; cotton, $15 (4-10 bale per acre) and $25.70; flaxseed,
$9 (9 bu. per acre) and $14; cereals, $8 and $11.40.

Specialties, however, often do much better. For example,
R. B. Handy, in Farmers' Bulletin No. 60, United States
Department of Agriculture, tells us that a prominent and
successful New Jersey grower says :

" I cannot give the cost hi detail of establishing asparagus
beds, as so much would depend upon whether one had to
buy the roots, and upon other matters. Where growers
usually grow roots for their own planting the cost is prin-
cipally the labor, manure, and the use of land for two years
upon which, however, a half crop can be had.

" The cost of maintaining a bed can only be estimated per
acre as follows:

Manure (applied in the spring) $25.00

Labor, plowing, cultivating, hoeing, etc 20.00

Cutting and bunching 40.00

Fertilizer (applied after cutting) 15.00

Total $100.00

"An asparagus bed well established, say five years after
planting, when well cared for should, for the next ten or
fifteen years, yield from 1800 to 2000 bunches per annum,
or at 10 cents per bunch (factory price) $180 to

58 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

"If the rent, labor, etc., for a crop of asparagus is $200
per acre, and the crop is three tons of green shoots at $100
per ton, on the farm, the profit is $100 per acre. If we
get six tons at $100 per ton, the profit, less the extra cost of
labor and manure, is $400 per acre." ("Food for Plants,"
by Harris and Myers, page 19.)

Around Bethlehem, Indiana, the farmers raise hundreds
of tons of sunflower seed every year, and the industry pays
better than anything else in the farming line. A good deal
of the seed is made into condition powder for stock, occa-
sionally some is made into so-called " olive oil " which is
said to surpass cotton-seed oil. Large quantities are used
for feeding parrots and poultry, or consumed by the Rus-
sian Hebrews who eat them as we would eat peanuts.

A careful investigation made in 1898 of the value of cer-
tain productions taken from farms in New York State shows
that the culture of apples is very profitable. From twenty
adjoining farms in one neighborhood in western New York,
the report gave an average annual return of $85 per acre at
the orchard, covering a period of five years. Another
report gave an average of $110 annual income per acre for
three years, and these results were obtained where only
ordinary care was given to the orchard. But note this. —

One orchard, where the trees had been well sprayed to
protect the fruit from insect injuries, and the soil well cul-
tivated and properly fertilized, gave a return in one year of
$700 per acre, and for three years an average income of $400
per acre.

One man bought a farm of 100 acres in Central New
York with a much-neglected orchard upon it of SO^acres,
paying $5000 for the whole. He cultivated the orchard,
pruned and sprayed the trees thoroughly, and in seven months

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE 59

from the time he purchased the farm, sold the apple crop
from it for $6000 cash.

"Peanuts: Culture and Uses," by R. B. Handy in Far-
mers' Bulletin No. 25 of the United States Department of
Agriculture says:

"According to the Census the average yield of peanuts
in the United States was 17.6 bushels per acre, the average
in Virginia being about 20, and in Tennessee 32 bushels per
acre. This appears to be a low average, especially as official
and semiofficial figures give 50 to 60 bushels as an average
crop, and 100 bushels is not an uncommon yield. Fair
peanut land properly manured and treated to intelligent ro-
tation of crops should produce in an ordinary season a
yield of 50 bushels to the acre and from 1 to 2 tons of ex-
cellent hay. (Of course better land with more liberal treat-
ment and a favorable season will produce heavier crops, the
reverse being true of lands which have been frequently
planted with peanuts without either manuring or rotation of
crops.) Besides the amount of peanuts gathered, there are
always large quantities left in the ground which have es-
caped the gathering, and on these the planter turns his herd
of hogs, so that there is no waste of any part of the plant."

Tobacco is a paying crop if the soil is just right. Two
thousand pounds per acre can be raised on favorable sites.
Connecticut tobacco brings, in ordinary times, from twenty to
thirty cents a pound ; from four to over six hundred dollars
being the possible return.

Some Connecticut soils raise Sumatra tobacco equal to
the imported crop that sells in this country at fancy prices.
The Department of Agriculture claims that the Cuban
type of tobacco can be closely approximated in Pennsylvania
and Ohio.

60 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

But it must be remembered that the soil is of paramount
importance in tobacco raising. The Department has pre-
pared soil maps of most of the important tobacco districts
of the United States. If you think your land may be suited
to tobacco, apply there for information. You may make
your land invaluable.

D. L. Hartman, Rural New Yorker, gave the following facts
and figures : " During last season the sales from one acre of
early tomatoes amounted to $454, and from a trifle more than
two and one half acres, including the acre of 'earlies/ the
remainder mid-season and late plantings, the total sales
amounted to over $900. From a little less than one acre and
a half $555 worth of strawberries were sold, while the re-
turns from early cabbages during the last few years have
been at the rate of about $300 per acre. These statements
are not made in the spirit of challenge. The results are
gratifying to me, because larger than anticipated ; but much
greater values can be and are produced. In fact, the limit
of value that may be grown on an acre of land no one can tell.
I have a small plot of ground containing less than one sixth
of an acre, planted one year with radishes and lettuce, fol-
lowed by eggplant and cauliflower, and the next year to rad-
ishes alone, followed by egg-plant, and each year the total
sales amounted to over $200, at the rate of $1200 per acre.
Greatly exceeding even this was a smaller plot, measuring
20 X 65 feet, last year, planted first to pansies, plants sold
when in bloom, followed by radishes, of which one half
proved to be a worthless variety (it lay idle long enough to
have produced another crop of radishes), then half was planted
to late lettuce, the other half being sown for winter cabbage,
plants yielding no cash return. Yet the total sales for the
season from this small plot, less than one thirty-second of an

WHAT AN ACRE MAY PRODUCE 61

acre, was $86.78, at the rate of the surprising sum of $2780
per acre, and could easily have been raised to the rate of
$4000, and that without the use of any glass whatever.
Truly the possibilities of the soil are unknown."

The cooperative features used by Northeastern Long
Island intensive farmers are worthy of imitation. In the
community of Riverhead a club buys at wholesale rates
commodities which the farm and household require. The
club does a large business, and has a high rating in the com-
mercial agencies. In another instance at Riverhead an
association markets the crop of cauliflower, sending cars of
such produce to Cincinnati and Chicago. These are the
best forms of cooperation.

"In the market-gardening sections the banks show pros-
perity. In the towns of Riverhead and Southold there are
savings banks with deposits of $4,000,000 each, and five
business banks which are doing a thriving business. In
this stretch of thirty miles on eastern Long Island the farms
are mostly free from encumbrance of any kind.

"It should be noted, however, that their towns have the
open Sound with its bays which furnish open ways for trans-
portation and an unowned field for work." (From circular
of the Long Island Guild of New York City.)

CHAPTER VII

SOME METHODS

WE must not put all our time into one crop unless we are
rich enough to do OUT own insurance ; for drought, or damp,
or accident, ill-adapted seed, or general unfavorable con-
ditions may make failures of one or more crops. But in
variety and succession of crops is safety and profit. In
order to succeed, crop must be made to follow crop, so that
the ground is used to its full capacity. To leave it fallow
for even a week is to invite weeds and to lose much of the
advantage of tillage, as well as so much time.

In the North, seeds of many kinds should be sown from
the first of March to the first of August ; in the South they
should be sown in every month.

By following the simple time tables for planting you will
find work ready and crops maturing and ready for sale in
every month in the year.

There is an admirable table of the time to plant, given in
"How to Make a Vegetable Garden," though it does embrace
some weird vegetables, explaining, for instance, that "Pats-
choi is used like chards," and that "Scolymus is sowed like
Scorzonera."

One can live while waiting for the crops to come up, for
many crops mature rapidly.

Specialties give employment only during a few months
of each year and bring returns only at periods of the year,

62

SOME METHODS 63

but the returns can be made almost immediate and the work
almost continuous.
Long Island and Jersey farmers in marketing their crops sell

Spinach and Radishes in April

Peas, Early Onions, and Lettuce in May

Asparagus and Strawberries in June

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, and Cabbage Seeds ... in July

Early Potatoes, Peaches, and Beans in August

Onions and Potatoes in September

Celery in October

Cauliflower in November

Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts in December

Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts in January

Brussels Sprouts in February

Brussels Sprouts in March

This order of crops can be varied to suit conditions.

"The old practice of growing vegetables in beds usually
entails more labor and expense than the crop is worth ; and
it has had the effect of driving more than one boy from the
farm. These beds always need weeding on Saturdays, holi-
days, circus days, and the Fourth of July. Even if the
available area is only twenty feet wide, the rows should
run lengthwise and be far enough apart (from one to two
feet for small stuff) to allow of the use of the hand wheel-
hoes, many of which are very efficient. If land is available
for horse-tillage, none of the rows should be less than thirty
inches apart, and for late growing things, as large cabbage,
four feet is better. If the rows are long, it may be neces-
sary to grow two or three kinds of vegetables in the same row ;
in this case it is important that vegetables requiring the same
general treatment and similar length of season be grown to-
gether. For example, a row containing parsnips and sal-
sify, or parsnips, salsify, and late carrots would afford an
ideal combination ; but a row containing parsnips, cabbages,

64 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

and lettuce would be a very faulty combination. One part
of the area should be set aside for all similar crops. For
example, all root crops might be grown on one side of the
plot, all cabbage crops in the adjoining space, all tomato
and eggplant crops in the center, all corn and tall things
on the opposite side. Perennial crops, as asparagus and
rhubarb, and gardening structures, as hotbeds and frames,
should be on the border, where they will not interfere with
the plowing and tilling." ("Principles of Vegetable Gar-
dening," page 31.)

Usually where large acreages are worked there is a tendency
to devote a greater portion of the land to one crop and some-
times a failure in this crop will mean ruin to the farmer,
whereas, where small areas are used, there is generally a
diversity of the higher-priced crops and a failure in one is
not so likely to be disastrous.

To get the greatest production from the soil two crops can
be grown in the same soil at the same time — one of which
will mature much earlier than the other, thereby giving its
place up just about the period of growth when the second
crop would need more room. This is known as companion
cropping.

"In companion cropping there is a main crop and a
secondary crop. Ordinarily the main crop occupies the
middle part and later part of the season. The secondary
crop matures early in the season, leaving the ground free
for the maui crop. In some cases the same species is used for
both crops, as when late celery is planted between the rows
of early celery.

Following are examples of some companion crops :

Radishes with beets or carrots. The radishes can be sold
before the beets need the room.

SOME METHODS 65

Corn with squashes, citron, pumpkin, or beans in hills.

Early onions and cauliflower or cabbage.

Horseradish and early cabbage.

Lettuce with early cabbage." ("Principles of Vegetable
Gardening," page 184.)

If fruit trees be planted, vegetables may be grown in
rows. As soon as the early vegetables mature they are
removed, and a midsummer crop planted. These are fol-
lowed by a fall or winter crop.

Radishes, lettuce, and cabbage grow at the same time
and on the area formerly used for one crop. Early potatoes
and early cauliflower are followed by Brussels sprouts and
celery, two crops being as easily grown as one by intelli-
gent handling. The best beans are grown among fruit
trees.

The principles of "double-cropping" are summarized by
Professor Thomas Shaw, hi The Market Garden.

"Onion sets may be planted early hi the season and onion
seeds may then be sown. Between the rows cauliflower may
be planted. Later between the cauliflower, two or three
cucumber seeds may be dropped. The onion sets up around
the cauliflower may be taken out first, and the cauliflowers
in turn may be removed in tune to let the cucumbers
develop.

"Midway between the rows of onions grown from seeds,
we can plant radishes, lettuce, peppergrass, spinach, or some
other early relish, which will have ample time to grow and
to be consumed before harm can come to the onions from
the shade of any one of these crops. When the onions are
well grown, turnips can be sown midway between their
rows."

So we get two crops of onions, besides cauliflowers, cu-

F

66 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

cumbers, radishes, and turnips off the same place. Weeds
won't have much chance in soil treated like that.

"Multum in Parvo Gardening" (Samuel Wood) claims
£620 ($3100) from one acre by the expenditure of con-
siderable capital in growing fruit against brick walls — it
cost over $3100 to prepare the land, of which the walls cost
$2300. In this system the fruit trees are pruned and
trained till they look like firemen's ladders.

" In the suburbs of Paris, even without such costly things,
with only thirty-six yards of frames for seedlings, vegetables
are grown in the open air to the value of £200 per acre."
("Fields, Factories and Workshops," page 80.)

"At the present tune, for fully 100 miles along the Rhone,
and in the lateral valleys of the Ardeche and the Drome, the
country is an admirable orchard, from which millions' worth
of fruit is exported, and the land attains the selling price
of from £325 ($1625) to £400 ($2000) the acre. Small
plots of land are continually reclaimed for culture upon every
crag." (Same, page 133.)

In California we hear (from George P. Keeney) that while
good truck and fruit lands usually sell for $25 to $350 per
acre, the land with full-bearing fruit or nut trees often sells
at $1000, and even up to $2000 per acre. There is no
reason why any intelligent persons should not make their
land increase in the same way.

The London Daily News reports that in one year, which
was not a good season for all crops, on a half acre of land,
Mr. Henry Vincent, of Brighton, England, raised the fol-
lowing products:

2660 cabbages, 70 bushels spinach, 950 cauliflowers,
parsley, 1460 lettuces, 660 broccoli, 16 bushels potatoes,
191 bushels Brussels sprouts, 106* gallons peas, 120 gallons

SOME METHODS 67

artichokes, flowers, 267 vegetable marrows, 2976 carrots,
264 bundles radishes, 14 gallons French beans, 12 gallons
currants, 95? punnets mustard, 27 pounds mushrooms,
rhubarb, 948 bushels sprout tops, 38 dozen leeks, 1150 plants,
11£ gallons broad beans, 97 bundles sea-kale, 978 bundles
of asparagus-kale, 504 beet roots, 2913 gallons gooseberries,
219 bundles mint, 20 bundles sage, 18 bundles of fennel,
thyme, besides one cartload of stones.

Mr. Vincent explains how he came to go into intensive
cultivation : " A few years ago the doctors said if I did not
go out more I could not live. Very well, just at that tune
there was an outcry about the land not paying for culti-
vation. I could not understand this, for as a boy at seven
years of age I had to go out to farm work, therefore I never
went to school. Anyhow I thought something was very
wrong if the land would not pay; so, to compel myself
to go out in the fresh ah*, I took an allotment on the
Sussex Downs to work in the early morning before my
daily duties began. I might say that I am a waiter, and
have been in my present situation forty years, so you can
understand I could not know much of land or garden
work. I could not see my way clear hi the few spare
hours I get to take more than half an acre of land to
garden early, especially as I started knowing practically
nothing about such work, but I can manage to do my half
acre all alone.

"My garden is situated on the Brighton Race Hill ridge,
and twelve years ago it was but four inches of soil on chalk,
but I now have a foot of soil on the whole of the half acre,
and year by year my profits increase.

"Yes, get the men to stop on the land in this country.
We ought not to have workhouses. Every man could live,

68 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

and live well, if he could get the land, and would work it as
it should be worked.

"Farmers and landowners grumble because the land does
not pay. Now for the fault. It is quite evident it is not the
land, therefore, it must be the fault of the man. Very well,
get the land from these landed proprietors, by sale preferred,
and let it out to men, not by 1000 acres, as no man can farm
well a thousand acres in England ; let the farms be greatly
reduced, and then the land can be treated as it should be.
Most of us have children, and we all know how we love and
treat them. Treat the land in the same manner, feed it,
and keep it clean, and you will have no cause to complain.
The land of old England is as good as it ever was.

"I have serious thoughts of opening a kind of school for
people who would like to make $500 a year off an acre. It
is to be done, and done easily. I do know that one man
alone can manage two acres, and at the end of this year I
shall be able to tell how much more he can manage alone,
so under my system one can gain £4 a week off two acres
and do all one's self.

"If the land will produce over one hundred pounds per
year per acre, is it not wrong for a man to have, say, 500 or
1000 acres which in no way can he properly manage ; as, in
the first place, he cannot feed such an acreage, let alone keep
it clean and gather in his crops ? "

In truth, what an acre may produce depends on time,
place, and circumstance. The product of the best acre of
land so situated that its product could be sold at retail in a
near-by market, and which has been cultivated under the
best management for a term of years, would provide a very
comfortable living. The product of other acres, measured
by what they produce to the cultivator in living, declines

SOME METHODS 69

through various grades down to almost nothing on the acre
far from railroads or difficult of access.

While in quantity and quality the least favored acre
could be made to produce as much as one best situated, yet,
almost none of its production would be available to sell,
while the product of the favorably located acre could be
sold as rapidly as grown.

CHAPTER VIII

THE KITCHEN GARDEN

THE aim of the kitchen garden is to provide an abundance
and variety of food for the family. As the object of the
cultivator is to get the largest product for his labor, he
ought to produce all that he can consume on the least pos-
sible area. Though one may go into mushrooms or frog
raising as a money crop, the kitchen garden is the first in-
dispensable and should first be given attention.

For a garden choose a piece of land with a southern ex-
posure, sheltered on the north and west by woods, buildings,
hedge, or any kind of a windbreak. This arrangement
will give the earliest garden, for it gets all the sun there is.
By running the rows north and south, the rays of the sun
strike the eastern side of the row in the morning, and the
western side in the afternoon.

The best time to take hold of a piece of land is in the fall,
because then it can be plowed ready for the spring planting.
The alternate freezing and thawing during the winter breaks
up the sod and the stiff lumps thrown up by the plow, so
rendering the soil pliable and easily worked. This is espe-
cially true of land that has been reclaimed from the forest, or
which has not been farmed for many years.

Before the plowing is done, the land for the garden should
be manured at the rate of twenty-five large wagon loads

70

THE KITCHEN GARDEN 71

to the acre. If you can get a suitable plot that has been in
red clover, alfalfa, soy beans, or cowpeas, for a number of
years, so much the better. These plants have on their
roots nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which draw nitrogen from the
air. Nitrogen is the great meat-maker and forces a pro-
longed and rapid growth of all vegetables.

After manuring and plowing, harrow repeatedly with a
disk or cutaway harrow until the soil is as fine as dust. Then
you have a seed bed which will give the fine roots a chance
to grow as soon as the seeds sprout. Too much stress can-
not be laid upon the importance of thoroughly working the
soil at this time. Every stone, weed, or clod that is left
in the soil destroys to that extent the source from which the
plants can get their food.

A quarter-acre garden, which is big enough to supply the
whole family with a succession of vegetables for summer and
fall, as well as some potatoes and turnips for winter, will
take a diligent workman about four days to dig over and
three days to plant. The four days' work of digging will
need to be done only once. The time spent upon planting
succession crops will depend upon the amount of the garden
reserved for rotation. The part kept for lettuce, radishes,
spinach, beets, Swiss chard, peas, string and wax beans
may be digged over in a favorable season for three successive
plantings, while the part devoted to early potatoes would
need to be digged only twice — once when the planting is
done, and again when crop is gathered and the ground be
prepared for a crop of late cabbage or turnips. A planting
table for vegetables, which is complete and comprehensive,
is distributed free by the National Emergency Food Garden
Commission at Washington, D.C.

It is far more important to plant seeds at the proper depth

72 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

than that they should be planted thinly or thickly, for if
they are planted too thin, it makes a sort of advantage by
giving the individual plants ample room to develop to large
size ; and if planted too thick, the evil can easily be remedied
by thinning or transplanting.

After the seeds come up, the size of almost all the vege-
tables can be increased by transplanting, in favorable soil,
which gives each plant room for complete development.

It is too expensive to risk part of the land being unused
or half used on account of seeds dying, or to put in so many
seeds in order to insure growth that they will crowd one
another. Where possible, therefore, seeds should be sprouted
and planted, not "sown."

Luna beans planted on edge with eye down will come up
much sooner than if dropped in carelessly so they have to
turn themselves over. In a small garden the time saved
by such planting will repay the extra trouble.

In some things like onions and radishes, however, it is
better to sow them thick, and then thin them out, so as to
get the effect of transplanting without so much labor. In
others, like lettuce and all the salad plants, transplanting
gives new life and energy and develops the individual plants
in a way that will astonish those not familiar with what
free development means.

It is wise to plant corn after lettuce and radishes are
gathered, and more lettuce, corn, or salad, after the beans
are picked. Then late crops, cabbage, cauliflower, or spinach,
can go where early corn grew, so that the small patch may
earn your living and pay big dividends.

Do not let two vegetables of the same botanical family
follow each other. For instance, lima beans should not fol-
low green beans or peas, as all the family draw about the same

THE KITCHEN GARDEN 73

elements from the soil, and are likely to have the same in-
sects and diseases.

Do not plant cucumbers, squash, or pumpkins too near
each other, as they will often inter-impregnate and produce
uneatable hybrids.

Decide what you are going to do with your crop before
you plant it, whether to sell it, at wholesale or at retail, to
eat it, or to feed it to stock.

• C. E. Hunn, in the Garden Magazine, gives the following
arrangement: "For the beginner who wants to get fresh
vegetables and fruits from May until midwinter, a space
100 X 200 feet is enough.

" 1. Plant in rows, not beds, and avoid the backache.

"2. Plant vegetables that mature at the same tune near
one another.

"3. Plant vegetables of the same height near together
— tall ones back.

"4. Run the rows the short way, for convenience in cul-
tivation and because one hundred feet of anything is
enough.

"5. Put the permanent vegetables (asparagus, rhubarb,
sweet herbs) at one side, so that the rest will be easy to
plow.

" 6. Practice rotation. Do not put vines where they were
last. Put corn in a different place. The other important
groups for rotation are root crops (including potatoes and
onions) ; cabbage tribe, peas and beans, tomatoes, eggplant
and pepper, salad plants.

" 7. Don't grow potatoes in a small garden. They aren't
worth the bother.

"The following small fruit garden requires 100 X 100 feet.
Small fruits planted this year will yield next year.

74

THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

FBUITS

LENGTH OF Rows
TO PLANT

DISTANCES BE-
TWEEN PLANTS

Strawberries, early

100 feet
100 feet
100 feet
200 feet

e last for canr

200 feet
100 feet
200 feet
100 feet
100 feet
100 feet

li X 4 feet
H X 4 feet
14 X 4 feet
3X5 feet

ing.)

6X6 feet
3X4 feet
8X8 feet
15 X 15 feet
15 X 15 feet
15 X 15 feet

Strawberries, mid-season ....
Strawberries, late

Raspberries

(Red, black, yellow and purple ; th
Blackberries

Currants

Grapes ' .

Peaches (6)

Plums (6)

Pears, dwarf (6)

" By training on trellis or wire, the smaller fruit plantings
can be made much closer.

"If fruits are wanted in the garden, plant a row of apple
trees along the northern border, plums and pears on the
western sides, cherries and peaches on the eastern side.
Next the apple trees run a grape trellis ; and then in succes-
sion east and west, run a row of blackberries, raspberries,
gooseberries, and currants. These rows, with the apple trees,
form a windbreak, and besides adding to the income, pro-
tect the vegetables. Next to the bush fruits, between them
and the ends of the vegetable rows, put rhubarb, asparagus,
and strawberries."

Insect pests must be watched for and their destructive
work checked. Ashes, slaked lime, or any kind of dust or
powder destroy most insects which prey on the leaves of
plants. The reason for this is that the dust closes the pores
through which the insects breathe. It should therefore
be applied when the leaves are dry.

Cutworms can be destroyed by winter plowing. Rotation

THE KITCHEN GARDEN 75

of vegetables will reduce the damage from insects, because
each family has its peculiar bugs. By constant change to
new soil, the pests have no opportunity to get a foothold.

With bugs, as with boys, only those who are interested
in them and therefore understand them can manage them.
It is fun to study the insects — and it pays.

It is difficult to give any fixed rule as to how much one
may expect to produce on land devoted to the kitchen garden.
As an example of what the most unskilled may do, the Ninth
Report of the Vacant Lot Cultivation Association mentions
a sample garden of one hundred square feet of Philadelphia
land cultivated by school children ten to twelve years of
age as producing the f ollowing :

String Beans, 1£ pints $ .10

Lettuce, 40 heads 2.00

Lima Beans, 2$ pecks 75

Tomatoes, 2| pecks 1.00

Beets, 6 bunches 30

Cabbages, 3 heads 15

Radishes, 20 bunches 1.00

$5.30

See how we can learn from our children. The values in
money are given to show what can be saved in household
expense by raising our own stuff.

This rate of production carried out on a quarter-acre
garden would have a money value of more than $500. The
Superintendent believes that with care and good market
facilities a quarter acre could easily be made to produce
an average yield of that much or more.

W. F. Fairbrother, of New Jersey, in the Garden Magazine,
gives the following cost and product from a garden 22 X 34
feet, before the war:

76 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Debit

Manure, 1 double load $2.50

Fertilizer, 50 pounds .75

Poultry wire, 50 yards 2.50

Posts, 12 at 12£c 1.50

Tin strips, 4 .25

Seeds 1.55

Tomato and Pepper plants .40

Total $9.45

Credit

Lima Beans, 7 qt. at 12c. per quart ] $ .84

Brussels Sprouts, 12 qt. at 25c. per quart 3.00

Onions (white) 15 qt. at 15c. per quart 2.25

Peas, 3 qt. at lOc. per quart .30

Beans, 38 qt. at lOc. per quart 3.80

Cucumbers, 200 at Ic. each 2.00

Peppers, 150 at l|c. each 2.25

Muskmelons, 19 at 8c. each 1.52

Turnips, 96 at l^c. each 1.44

Beets (425), 106 bunches at 3c. per bunch 3.18

Radishes, 75 bunches at l£c. per bunch 1.13

Lettuce, 81 heads at 5c. per head 4.05

Tomatoes, 6 bushels at 50c. per bushel 3.00

Parsley estimated at .75

Total $29.51

On this 748 square feet of land the net profit is shown to
be about three cents per square foot or $300 for a quarter-
acre plot.

Here's another use of "land." Maybe a pool in your
garden or a dam in a little brook in it may help out your
home garden bank account. Of course a pond a few square
yards in extent will give even better returns if you can sell
its produce at retail near by.

W. B. Shaw, a seventy-year-old veteran who lost his right

THE KITCHEN GARDEN 77

arm during the Civil War, lives in Kenilworth, D. C., and
clears $1500 an acre every year out of mud puddles — if
mud puddles can be measured by the acre.

Mr. Shaw is a pond lily farmer, and despite his lack of his
good right arm, he poles his boat about his mud puddles
and gathers in the pond lilies. His is not exactly a "dry
farm" and neither wet nor cloudy weather bothers him.
Furthermore, the demand for his pond lilies in Baltimore,
Washington, Philadelphia, and even New York, and Chicago,
is greater than he can supply.

Mr. Shaw secured this swamp for almost nothing, as it
was considered worthless. He divided it into fifteen pools
with little dams between them, and rollers on the dams to
enable him to drag his boat from one to the other. From
May to late in September he is busy every morning gathering
lilies. His average is about 500 a morning, which he ships
in little galvanized iron tanks with wet moss.

Many school children know how to get results on a little
land. Mr. Mahoney, Superintendent of the Fairview Gar-
den School, Yonkers, New York, estimates that the total
value of produce grown on the 250 gardens, composing the
school plot, in all about one and one quarter acres of land,
was $1308, or at the rate of more than a thousand dollars
per acre. When it is taken into consideration that all the
labor was done by boys ranging in age from eight to twelve
years, this result is truly astonishing.

What may not adult skilled labor produce when applied
freely to the land?

Mr. Julian Burroughs, in the Garden Magazine, reports
that on two strips of land measuring 20X100 and 10X50
feet, 2500 square feet in all, he secured the following
results :

78 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Cost

Seed $2.10

Manure (3 loads ; not enough) 3.00

Ashes (3 barrels of wood) 1.20

One half bag of potato fertilizer 1.25

150 ft. of wire netting for peas 1.20

$8.75

Receipts

Melons, 100 at lOc $10.00

Squash, 20 at 20c 4.00

Peas, 4 bushels at $2.00 8.00

Beets, 4 barrels at $1.00 4.00

Lettuce, 100 heads at 5c 5.00

Corn, 400 ears at Ic 4.00

Beans 1.00

Tomatoes, 3 bushels at $1.00 3.00

Cabbages, late cauliflower, radishes, onions 2.00

$41.00

Net profit $32.75, or about one and one third cents per
square foot. As we have shown above, this may be doubled
and trebled.

CHAPTER IX

AND EQUIPMENT — SPECIALIZING CROPS

To subdue the land with an ax, a plow, and a spade is
possible; millions of acres have been so subdued. This
method, however, is the most expensive of all, as in our times
markets won't wait, and the man who wants to get on must
produce as quickly as possible. To do so, he must have the
best tools. They will pay for themselves many times over in
a single year. For the farm, the following list, in addition
to a well-stocked tool chest (hammer, saw, plane, ax, etc.)
covers the indispensable :

1 team horses (these may be hired) $200.00

1 walking plow 10.00

1 disk or cutaway harrow 25.00

1 farm wagon 50.00

1 cultivator (2 horse) 25.00

1 one-horse cultivator 8.00

Shovels, pick, mattock or grubbing hoe 10.00

Work harness for two horses 25.00

$353.00

These things you must have to get the land in proper shape
for seeds or plants ; but special crops require special tools.
A scythe is good to keep weeds away from the fences. A
sickle is handy to keep down rank grass. To reduce living /
expenses, a cow for $60, and fifty hens at fifty cents each,
say $25, will supply a large family with milk and eggs. Most

79

80 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

people make the mistake of buying too many things and
these poorly selected. It is better to have too few tools
than too many, for tools are often dropped where last used,
and so are lost. Then if money is scarce, you may not be
able to make a shelter for your machines and tools, and they
will rust through the winter. Many farmers, through neg-
lect, have to replace their tool equipment every four or five
years, but with attention and care, the original equipment,
even to the team, ought still to be in use twenty years after
their purchase. I know many instances where this is true.
The above equipment is the minimum for beginning work.
The character of additions to it will depend much upon the
crops which you select as the money getters.

For general market gardening and the kitchen garden too,
the following tool list, together with the above, will include
everything absolutely necessary.

Wheel hoe $6.00

Spade and fork, each $1.00 2.00

Push hoe .65

Watering can .60

Rake and common hoe 1.00

Bulb sprayer .25

Trowel .10

$10.60

The wheel hoe is a great saver — of backache, especially
to the beginner; as Warner says, "at the best you will con-
clude that for gardening purposes a cast-iron back with a
hinge in it is preferable to the ones now in use."

The dibble, an old tool handle, or a bit of broomstick
sharpened, and garden lines to get the rows straight, labels,
tomato supports, plant protectors and stakes can all be home-
made out of old material. The full outfit Would include the
following :

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT 81

Roller $8.00

Wheel-hoe with seeder 8.50

Sprayer 3.75

Wheelbarrow 4.00

Crowbar 1.50

Weeder 35

For such crops as admit of horse cultivation a horse hoe
will save a great deal of time.

The weeder is a cousin to the push hoe and has a zigzag
blade for cutting off young weeds which are just starting
above ground. It is pushed backward and forward and
cuts both way&. It is very good for soft ground; on a
harder patch use the push hoe.

A market garden is really a big kitchen garden, from
which the cultivator supplies not only his own family, but
his neighbors, the public. To run a successful market gar-
den for profit, land suitably situated near transportation
and markets, a large supply of stable manure, hotbeds for
raising plants, crates for shipping, wagons for delivering,
and a complete outfit of tools are necessary. You must raise
all sorts of vegetables and salad plants in quantities suf-
ficiently large to justify you in giving your whole time to
the work. An acre devoted to general market gardening
could be attended to by two men with some extra help for
marketing.

To get a place fully established on new, rich land requires
two or three years. On worn-out land it would take longer
to build it up to the high fertility needed for maximum pro-
duction. Crops like asparagus and rhubarb take two years
to establish on a remunerative basis. If bush fruits are
raised, three years are required to get maximum results. So
in starting, land should be bought outright or leased for ten
years.

82 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

In market gardening for profit, one acre might be devoted
to vegetables, one acre to small fruits; strawberries, rasp-
berries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, etc., and one
acre kept for buildings, poultry, etc. An energetic man could
clear one thousand dollars a year besides his living, after he
got a start, and be absolutely independent; that is, unless
some predatory railroad corporation could confiscate his
profits before his product reached the market.

Some persons are just naturally so successful with plants
that if they stuck an umbrella in the ground we should ex-
pect to see it blossom out into parasols — but they don't
know why it does, and they can't teach any one else how to
do it.

Any fool can sneer at "book farming" or at anything else,
but you can hardly succeed without the best books by prac-
tical men. Do not let some experienced ignoramus talk
you out of experimenting under their guidance. You will
learn little without experience, and unless you have the
grower's instinct, you will learn less without books.

Don't be hypnotized by long experience or by success.
Hardly anybody knows his own business. You must have
noticed that few of the people you buy of or sell to, know
any more of their goods than you do.

It is just the same with trades. Hardly a barber knows
that he should not shave you against the grain of the skin.
Even the cat won't stand being rubbed up the wrong way ;
but the barber never thought of that.

We lawyers and the doctors are supposed to be thorough
in our own field — I said lately to one of the ablest men at
the New York Bar, " About one lawyer in a hundred knows
his business." He said, "That is a gross overestimate."
Shortly after I talked with three Judges, one of the City

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT 83

Court, one of the Supreme Court, and one of the United
States Circuit, and they each agreed that my friend's remark
was about true, and that in most cases litigants would
do as well without lawyers as with them.

If that is true, what chance is there that an uneducated
man who has "raised garden sass ever since he was a boy,
and seen his father do it before him," can teach you cor-
rectly ?

Men learn very slowly by experience, because no two ex-
periences are exactly alike, unless they perceive and apply
the principles under the experience.

An intelligent man accustomed to investigation can learn
more about a specialty in a week's study than an untrained
practitioner can believe in a year.

What the untrained teacher can tell us is of little account ;
what he shows us is another matter.

Therefore get help who know that they don't know
anything about a garden and who consequently will do with
a will exactly what you tell them to do ; such labor is cheap
— why should you pay extravagant prices for skill to a man
who has succeeded so poorly that he can only earn day's
wages ? You can get much better knowledge at less cost
from a book. Study and put your knowledge into practice
yourself, where you see promise of a profit.

Almost every crop can be made a specialty. In proportion
as special crops are profitable when conditions are right, so
are they sources of loss when things go wrong. If, after your
first season in the country, some special crop takes your
fancy, give extra space and time to it the second year and
see if you are successful in handling an eighth or a quarter
acre. If so, you may extend your operations as rapidly as
purse and market permit.

84 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Before concentrating upon any crop as the chief source of
income, a careful study must be made of all the conditions
surrounding its production; a crop is not produced in the
broad meaning of that term until it is actually in the hands
of the consumer.

Potatoes, for instance, are grown by the hundred acres in
sections adapted to their growth, and special machinery
costing hundreds of dollars is used in planting, cultivating,
and harvesting the crop. The good shipping and keeping
qualities of the potato enable it to be raised far from mar-
kets and so brings into competition cheap land worked ^in
large areas, with large capital. In spite of this, however,
the small cultivator can usually make money if he can sell
his potatoes directly to the consumer.

If your land is so situated that you can put your indi-
viduality into the crop and can control all the circumstances,
preparation of land, planting, cultivation, harvesting, and
marketing, your chances of success are immeasurably in-
creased. As soon as any important part must be trusted
to some one beyond your control, danger arises. Assiduous
care in planting, cultivating, and packing will avail nothing
if the product falls into the hands of transportation com-
panies or commission merchants indifferent as to what be-
comes of it. It is therefore better to be quite independent,
sell your own crop, and have the whole operation in your own
hands from the very beginning.

Generally speaking, seed growing for the market is a
highly developed special business which is usually carried
on by companies operating with large capital, able to em-
ploy the best experts, and to avail themselves of all the ad-
vantages of scientific methods in culture, regardless of ex-
pense. So uncertain is the business, that even with all

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT 85

these facilities, they rarely guarantee seeds. It is obvious
that the amateur has little chance of succeeding in such a
difficult business. Nevertheless, he will be able after a few
seasons of increasing experience to gather seeds from selected
plants and so furnish his own supply. It must be borne in
mind, however, that plants can be improved by cross breed-
ing and that by keeping a variety too long on the same
ground its quality deteriorates, and the plant tends to re-
vert to the type natural to it before domestication.

When land is cropped every season, the nitrogen, potash,
and phosphorus removed from the soil must be replaced in
some form, otherwise you have diminishing returns, while
the expense for labor is the same. In farming small areas
for specialties you cannot easily invoke the principle of ro-
tation by enriching the land with legumes, to be plowed under
while green, the bacteria on the roots of which gather nitro-
gen from the air, but you must get stable manure or buy
chemical fertilizers to maintain the fertility.

Special crops divide themselves naturally into two classes :
those raised for immediate shipment to market, and those to
be hauled to canneries. The first type are generally prepared
in a more expensive way, and need more care and attention.
Each class requires its own special forms of packing to con-
form to market peculiarities fixed by the taste of consumers.

For the cultivation of all specialties, many items of prep-
aration are identical. Land must be well drained, it must
contain a sufficient amount of humus, or decaying vegetable
matter, to make it loose and porous; it must be free from
sticks and stones or any foreign matter likely to impede cul-
tivation or obstruct growth. The proper formation of a
seed bed is a prime prerequisite to successful cropping.
After the land is manured and plowed it should be gone over

86 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

in all directions with a disk and smoothing harrow, until it
is of a dustlike fineness.

In thorough cultivation before the crop is planted, lies
the secret of many a success, and in its neglect the cause
of many failures. Intelligent handling of crops is in a large
measure knowledge of the influence of wind and rain, sun-
shine and darkness, on the particular nature of the plant.
Delicate plants, for example, ought to be grown where
buildings or forests break the force of prevailing winds.
Sheltered valleys in irrigated sections have proved the best
for intensive cultivation. For thousands of years in China
and Japan the conditions of successful intensive cultivation
have been well understood, and to-day the most efficient
gardeners are the Chinese. In some parts of Mexico, for
the same reasons, intensive cultivation has reached a high
development. In our own West we are catching up on vege-
tables and fruits.

CHAPTER X

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL

WE have seen what a worker with very little money can
do and how he can succeed. A small capital, however, can
be used to increase the returns to as great advantage on a
small farm as large capital can be used on a large farm and
with much less risk.

Stable manure is still the favorite article with the masses
of gardeners. One ton of ordinary stable manure contains
about 1275 pounds of organic matter, carrying eight pounds
of nitrogen, ten pounds of potash, and four pounds of phos-
phoric acid.

When thoroughly rotted, the manure acquires a still larger
percentage of plant food ; it is more valuable, not only for
that reason, but also on account of its immediate avail-
ability. Further, the mechanical effect of this manure
in opening and loosening the soil, allowing air and warmth
to enter more freely, adds greatly to its value.

It is easily gotten and often goes wholly or in part to
waste. On the outskirts of some towns may be seen a col-
lection of manure piles that have been hauled out and dumped
in waste places. The plant food in each ton of this manure
is worth at least two dollars — that is the least Eastern
farmers pay for similar material, and they make money
doing it. Yet almost every liveryman has to pay some one
for hauling the manure away. This is simply because farmers

87

88 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

living near these towns are missing a chance to secure some-
thing for nothing — because, perhaps, the profit is not
directly in sight. But from most soils there is a handsome
profit possible from a very small application of stable manure.

While writing this, I saw a man in New Rochelle, N. Y.,
dumping a load of street sweepings into a hole hi a vacant lot.
It would have been less wasteful to have dumped a bushel
of potatoes into the hole.

Commercial fertilizers are coming more and more in use
by market gardeners, and with reason. If we examine a
good fertilizer, analyzing five per cent available nitrogen, six
per cent phosphoric acid, and 8 per cent potash, we shall find
that one ton of it contains, besides less valuable ingredients :
100 Ib. nitrogen, 120 Ib. phosphoric acid, 160 Ib. potash.

Such fertilizers probably retail at forty to sixty dollars per
ton, and are fully worth it. All this plant food, and perhaps
one half more, can be drawn in a single load, while it will
take ten such loads of stable manure to supply the same
amount of plant food.

There is no reason to be afraid of too much fertilizer, pro-
vided it is evenly distributed and thoroughly mixed through
properly prepared soil. Stinginess in this item is poor
economy.

Nitrogen is the most essential food for plant growth. It
is an important element of plant food in manure. In ordi-
nary manure most of the value is due to the nitrogen, al-
though phosphoric acid and potash are also present. It is
found in the most available form in nitrate of soda. Nitrate
of soda will benefit all crops, but it does not follow that it
will pay to use it on all crops. Its cost makes it unprofitable
to use on cheap crops; but on those that yield a large re-
turn nitrate of soda is a very profitable investment.

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 89

"It is shown in the experiments conducted with nitrate
of soda on different crops that in the case of grain and forage
crops, which utilized the nitrate quite as completely as the
market garden crops, the increased value of crops due to
nitrate does not in any case exceed $14 per acre, or a money
return at the rate of $8.50 per 100 pounds of nitrate used,
while in the case of the market-garden crops the value of the
increased yield reaches, in the case of one crop, the high
figure of over $263 per acre, or at the rate of about $66 per
100 pounds of nitrate." (New Jersey Agricultural Ex-
periment Stations, page 8, No. 172.)

Professor Voorhees, of the same station, experimented
with tomatoes, with these results :

MANURE AND FERTILIZER USED PER ACRE

COST PER ACRE

VALUE OF CROP
PER ACRE

No manure

$271.88

30 tons barnyard manure ....
8 tons manure and 400 Ib. fertilizer .
160 Ib. nitrate of soda alone . . .

$30.00
15.00
4.00

291.75
317.63
361.13

Such common crops as tomatoes, cabbage, turnips, beets,
etc., in order to be highly profitable, must be grown and
harvested early; any one can grow them in their regular
season ; their growth must be promoted or forced as much as
possible, at the time when the natural agencies are not
active in the change of soil nitrogen into available forms, and
the plants must, therefore, be supplied artificially with the
active forms of nitrogen, if a rapid and continuous growth
is to be maintained.

It is quite possible to have a return of $50 per acre from
the use of $5 worth of nitrate of soda on crops of high value,
as, for example, early tomatoes, beets, cabbage, etc. This
is an extraordinary return for the money and labor invested ;

90 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

still, if the increased value of the crop were but $10, or even
$8, it would be a profitable investment, since no more land
and but little additional capital was required in order to
obtain the extra $5 or $8 per acre.

The results of all the experiments conducted in different
parts of the country and in different seasons, show an aver-
age gain in yield of early tomatoes of about fifty per cent,
with an average increased value of crop of about $100 per
acre. The rest of the report shows similar results with other
crops. (New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Bul-
letin 172.)

Joseph Harris says, " Some years ago we used nitrate of soda
cautiously as a top dressing on the celery plants. The effect
was astonishing. The next year, having more confidence, we
spread the nitrate at the time we sowed the seed, and again
after the plant came up, and twice afterward during a rain.

" Instead of finding it difficult to get the plants early enough
for the celery growers who set them out, they were ready
three weeks before the usual time of transplanting.

"At the four applications, we probably used 1600 Ib. of
nitrate of soda per acre, and this would probably furnish
more nitric acid to the plants than they could get from five
hundred tons of manure per acre, provided it had been pos-
sible to have worked such a quantity into the soil. Never
were finer plants grown. As compared with the increased
value of the plants, the cost of the nitrate is not worth
taking into consideration."

As a means of fertilization without the use of artificial
fertilizer, soil inoculation has come. It has grown out of
the discovery of the dependence of leguminous plants on
bacteria which live on their roots. The discovery is one of
the most important of those made in modern agriculture.

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 91

It has received its greatest impetus in America, under the
experiments of Professor Moore of the United States Agri-
cultural Department.

The Department supplied free to farmers the bacteria
for inoculation. Now they supply it only for experimental
purposes. A laboratory has been fitted up for the work.
The method is to propagate bacteria for each of the various
leguminous plants such as clover, alfalfa, soy beans, cow
peas, tares, and velvet beans. .All of these plants are of
incalculable value hi different sections of the country as
forage for farm animals. In the West, alfalfa is the main
reliance for stockraisers. The fanners of the East are
trying to establish it, but meet with difficulty chiefly for
want of the special bacteria which should be found on the
roots.

The function of these bacteria is to gather the nitrogen of
the air and supply it as plant food. Without the bacteria
the plant can get only the nitrogen which is supplied from
the soil in fertilizers. With the aid of the bacteria the grow-
ing plant can derive the greater part of its food from the air.

Here is one of the results of the use of inoculated seed as
reported by the United States Agricultural Bulletin No. 214.

G. L. Thomas, experimenting with field peas on his farm
near Auburn, Me., made a special test with fertilized and
unfertilized strips, and stated that "inoculated seed did as
much without fertilizers of any kind, as uninoculated seed
supplied with fertilizer (phosphate) at the rate of 800 pounds
and a ton of barnyard manure per acre."

This seems to be only in its infancy. The Department
warns us that nitrogen inoculation is useless where the soil
already has enough nitrogen and where other plant foods
are absent.

92 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

The experiments are most important, and we are probably
on the eve of as great advances in agriculture as in electricity,
but the human race has a great love for " inoculation, " and
indeed for all unnatural processes.

You remember the story of the wonderful coon that Chand-
ler Harris tells? No? They were constantly seeing this
enormous coon, but always just as they almost got their
hands on him, he disappeared. One night the boys came
running in to say that the wonderful coon was up in a per-
simmon tree in the middle of a ten-acre lot ; so they got the
dogs and the lanterns and guns and ran out, and sure enough
they saw the wonderful big coon up in a fork of the tree.
It was a bright moonlight night, but to make doubly sure
they cut down the tree and the dogs ran in — the coon
wasn't there.

"Well, but, Uncle Remus," said the little boy, "I thought
you said you saw the coon there."

" So we did, Honey," said the old man, " so we did ; but it's
very easy to see what ain't there when you're looking for it."

Another method of increasing fertility at increased ex-
pense deserves notice. The vacant public lands are for the
most part desert-like, and their utilization can come about
only through irrigation.

This land can be made to produce the finest crops in the
world; and the tremendous volumes of water that flow
from the mountains to the sea, once harnessed and piped or
ditched to this land, will transform it into beautiful gardens
and farms.

With the work being done by the United States Govern-
ment, and that of the various states, we may look forward
in the not distant future to this land being made habitable
to man.

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 93

It is well known that with the dry, even climate and with
an abundance of water applied as vegetation needs, this
now arid waste is far more productive than the Eastern
states, where the crops are at the mercy of the elements,
sometimes having too much moisture and at other tunes not
having enough.

"Irrigation offers control of conditions such as is found no-
where except in greenhouse culture. The farmer in the humid
country cannot control the amount of starch in potatoes,
sugar in beets, protein in corn, gluten in wheat, except by
planting varieties which are especially adapted to the pro-
duction of the desired quality. The irrigation farmer, on
the other hand, can produce this or that desirable quality
by the control of the moisture supply to the plant. He can
hasten or retard maturity of the plant, produce early truck
or late truck on the same soil, grow wheat or grow rice as
he deems advisable."

"On the irrigated fields of the Vosges, Vaucluse, etc., in
France, six tons of dry hay becomes the rule, even upon
ungrateful soil ; and this means considerably more than the
annual food of one milch cow (which can be taken as a little
less than five tons) grown on each acre."

"The irrigated meadows round Milan are another well-
known example. Nearly 22,000 acres are irrigated there
with water derived from the sewers of the city, and they
yield crops of from eight to ten tons of hay as a rule; oc-
casionally some separate meadows will yield the fabulous
amount — fabulous to-day but no longer fabulous to-mor-
row — of eighteen tons of hay per acre ; that is, the food of
nearly four cows to the acre, and nine times the yield of good
meadows in this country." ("Fields, Factories, and Work-
shops," pages 116-117.)

94 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

" If irrigation pays " — and no one now questions that —
"the whole Western country of rich soil, which asks but a
drink now and then, will be turned into a Garden of Eden."
(Maxwell's Talisman.)

Agriculture may be revolutionized with the advent of
irrigation.

A new method of disposing of sewage and at the same time
irrigating the soil, has come into use recently, and will be
found valuable to those who are situated so that they can
make use of it.

The sewage from buildings is drained into a large tank
where the heavier matter can settle to the bottom. When
the water rises nearly to the top of the tank it is siphoned
into another tank, and from there it is piped about the
field.

The piping is very simple — ordinary drain tile conveys
the water. Beginning at the highest point of the field to be
irrigated, a six-inch (or larger) line of tile should be laid
along the highest ground with a fall of not over one inch
to each ten feet. From this main trunk should be branch
lines of "laterals," laid from eight to twelve feet apart, as
they would be laid for draining a field. These branch lines
may be laid at an angle to the main trunk as may be most
convenient; all the joints must be covered so as to keep
out the dirt. The whole system should be laid deep enough
in the ground to be secure from frost ; but to be most effec-
tive it should not be over fourteen to sixteen inches below
the surface, hence sub-irrigation cannot be used very suc-
cessfully in the Northern states. In a sandy loam soil with
a clay subsoil it works best at sixteen to twenty-four inches.

This is substantially Colonel Waring's method of sewage
disposal. To get the best use of it for plants, the water should

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 95

be assembled and kept in the sun for ten to twelve days,
then turned into the pipes until the ground is well soaked,
and then shut off and not allowed in the pipes again for ten
to fifteen days, according to the weather and condition of
moisture in the soil. The crop should be cultivated between
each watering.

However, as Bailey says, "Evidently in all regions in
which crops will yield abundantly without irrigation, as in
the East, the main reliance is to be placed on good tillage."

"Most vegetable gardeners in the East do not find it prof-
itable to irrigate. Now and then a man who has push and
the ability to handle a fine crop to advantage, finds it a very
profitable undertaking." ("Principles of Vegetable Gar-
dening," page 174.) Bailey, however, was not thinking of
" overhead irrigation."

The late J. M. Smith, Green Bay, Wisconsin, was one of
the expert market gardeners of his region. "The longer I
live," wrote Mr. Smith, then in the midst of a serious drought,
"the more firmly am I convinced that plenty of manure
and then the most complete system of cultivation make an
almost complete protection against ordinary droughts."
(Same, page 330.)

If the soil is cultivated carefully and intensively, it will
hold water within itself and carry a storage reservoir under-
neath the growing crop. Finely pulverizing and packing
the seed bed, makes it retain the greatest possible percent-
age of the moisture that falls, just as a tumbler full of fine
sponge or of birdshot will retain many times the amount of
water that a tumbler full of buckshot will. The atmos-
phere quickly drinks up the moisture from the soil unless we
prevent it. This we do by means of a soil "blanket," called
a "mulch." This finely pulverized surface largely prevents

96 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

the moisture below from evaporating, and at the same time
keeps the surface in such condition that it readily absorbs
the dew and the showers. Water moves in the soil as it
does in a lamp wick, by capillary attraction ; the more deeply
and densely the soil is saturated with moisture, the more
easily the water moves upward, just as oil "climbs up" a
wet wick faster than it does a dry one. One can illustrate
the effect of this fine soil "mulch" in preventing evaporation
by placing some powdered sugar on a lump of loaf sugar and
putting the lump sugar in water. The powdered sugar will
remain dry even when the lump has become so thoroughly
saturated that it crumbles to pieces.

"We have no useless American acres," said Secretary
Wilson. "We shall make them all productive. We have
agricultural explorers in every far corner of the world ; and
they are finding crops which have become so acclimated to
dry conditions, similar to our own West, that we shall in
time have plants thriving upon our so-called arid lands.
We shall cover this arid area with plants of various sorts
which will yield hundreds of millions of tons of additional
forage and grains for Western flocks and herds. Our farmers
will grow these upon land now considered practically worth-
less."

In this way it has been estimated that in the neighborhood
of one hundred million acres of the American desert can be
reclaimed to the most intensive agriculture.1 Frederick V.
Coville, the chief botanist of the Department of Agriculture,
does not hesitate to say that in the strictly arid regions
there are many millions of acres, now considered worthless

1 See a study of the possible additions to available land in Prof.
W. S. Thompson's "Population, a Study of Malthusianism," Col.
U., 1915.

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 97

for agriculture, which are as certain to be settled in small
farms as were the lands of Illinois.

Land that was thought to be absolute desert has been
made to yield heavy crops of grain and forage by this method
without irrigation.

Macaroni wheat will grow with ten inches of rainfall,
and yield fifteen bushels to the acre. This however is less
than the average wheat yield in the United States.

Much can be done by dry fanning ; that is, by plowing the
soil very deep and cultivating six or eight times a season,
thus retaining all the moisture for the crops and reducing
evaporation to a minimum.

There are thousands of acres in different sections of Mon-
tana that grow good crops without irrigation. In Fergus
County, for instance, the wonderful yield of 45 bushels of
wheat per acre is grown without irrigation. Heavy crops
of grain and vegetables are grown in the vicinity of Great
Falls by the dry farming system.

The money and time spent in spraying is also well in-
vested. The New York Agricultural Experiment Station
began a ten-year experiment in potato-spraying to determine
how much the yield can be increased by spraying with
Pyrox or with Bordeaux mixture.

In 1904 the gain due to spraying was larger than ever
before. Five sprayings with Bordeaux increased the yield
233 bushels per acre, while three sprayings increased it 191
bushels. The gain was due chiefly to the prolongation of
growth through the prevention of late blight. The sprayed
potatoes contained one ninth more starch and were of better
quality.

The average increase of profit per acre from spraying
potatoes was figured to be about $22 on each acre. The
H

98 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

result was arrived at from experiment, two thirds of which
was by independent farmers. (Particulars will be found in
Bulletin No. 264, issued by the Department.)

In fourteen farmers' business experiments, including 18
acres of potatoes, the average gain due to spraying was 62|
bushels per acre, the average total cost of spraying 93 cents
per acre; and the average net profit, based on the market
price of potatoes at digging time, $24.86 per acre.

"One class of gardeners," Burnet Landreth explains,
"may be termed experimental farmers, men tired of the
humdrum rotation of farm processes and small profits, men
looking for a paying diversification of their agricultural in-
terests. Their expenses for appliances are not great, as
they have already on hand the usual stock of farm tools,
requiring only one or two seed drills, a small addition to
their cultivating implements, and a few tons of fertilizers.
Their laborers and teams are always on hand for the work-
ing of moderate areas. In addition to the usual expense of
the farm, they would not need to have a cash capital of be-
yond 20 to 25 dollars per acre for the area in truck."

"Other men, purchasing or renting land, especially for
market gardening, taking only improved land of suitable
aspect, soil, and situation, and counting in cost of building,
appliances, and labor, would require a capital of $80 to $100
per acre. For example, a beginner in market gardening in
South Jersey, on a five-acre patch, would need $500 to set
up the business, and run it until his shipments began to
return him money. With the purpose of securing informa-
tion on this interesting point, the writer asked for estimates
from market gardeners in different localities, and the result
has been that from Florida the reports of the necessary
capital per acre, in land or its rental (not of labor), ferti-

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 99

lizers, tools, implements, seed and all the appliances,
average $95, from Texas $45, from Illinois $70, from the
Norfolk district of Virginia the reports vary from $75 to
$125, according to location, and from Long Island, New York,
the average of estimates at the east end is $75, and at the
west end $150."

I have before me now one of the roseate advertisements,
which we so often see in the newspapers, telling how fortunes
can be made by investing a few dollars in a tropical planta-
tion in Mexico.

It gives what are supposed to be startling yields per acre,
and yet the returns, which must necessarily be taken with
considerable allowance, are only from $580 to $1087 per
acre on various plantations.

There are market gardeners and nurserymen near New
York City who are making their acres produce better returns
than this. It is not necessary to go off into the tropical
wilderness seeking a fortune which is usually a gold brick
that some fellow is trying to sell you, when as good results
can be secured right at home.

Market gardeners in and near Philadelphia pay $25 to
$50 an acre and upwards rent for land, and work from five
to forty acres. This is as much as similar land in many
parts of the country could be bought for. But it is not a
high rent when they are right at the market — one man
makes the round trip in two and one half hours — manure
costs them nothing — for years they have been using the
excavations from the old style privy wells, which has been
hauled to their farm and deposited where they wished it,
free. They have modern facilities, such as trolley and tele-
phone, and are as much city men as any clerk in an office.
They clear far higher profits from an acre than the average

100 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

farmer, raising never less than two, and often three crops
in a season. They employ several men to the acre, and at
certain times many more, working the men in gangs. Only
the difficulty of getting good help at their prices prevents
them from using twice the number.

However, the possibilities of putting capital into land at
a profit are still infinite.

What chiefly attracts the gardener to the great cities is
stable manure; this is not wanted so much for increasing
the richness of the soil — one ninth part of the manure used
by the French gardeners would do for that purpose — but
for keeping the soil at a certain temperature. Early vege-
tables pay best, and in order to obtain early produce, not
only the air, but the soil as well, must be warmed ; that is
done by putting great quantities of properly mixed manure
into the soil ; its fermentation heats it. But with the present
development of industrial skill, heating the soil could be
done more economically and more easily by hot-water pipes.
Consequently, the French gardeners begin more and more to
make use of portable pipes, or thermosiphons, provisionally
established in the cool frames.

Competition that stands in with the railroads can be met
only by being near the market or having water transporta-
tion. Indeed, the effect of water transportation in getting
manure, and in delivering the produce from the railroads,
appears in the early history of trucking. The railroads
often crush out boat competition by absorbing docks and
standing in with the commission men. This could be met
by such cooperative selling agencies as the flower growers
already have.

"One of the earliest centers for the development of truck
farming in its present sense was along the shores of Chesa-

THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 101

peake Bay, where fast sailing oyster boats were employed
for sending the produce to the neighboring markets of Balti-
more and Philadelphia. In a similar way the gardeners about
New York early began pushing out along Long Island, using
the waters of the Sound for transporting their produce. The
trucking region on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is
another sample of the effect of convenient water transpor-
tation in causing an early development of this industry. The
building of the Illinois Central railroad opened up a region
in southern Illinois that was supposed to be particularly
adapted to fruit growing." ("Development of the Trucking
Interests," by F. S. Earle, page 439.)

If one goes into the trucking business on so large a scale
as to be able to make deals with the railroads, such as The
Standard Oil Company has made, of course additional prices
could be gotten, owing to the possibility of putting competi-
tors at a disadvantage. That business is a large one.

In doing business on this scale, much will depend on your
ability as a merchant.

"It is useless to grow good crops unless they can be sold
at a profit; yet it is safe to say that ten men grow good
truck crops for one who markets them to the best advantage."

CHAPTER XI

HOTBEDS AND GREENHOUSES

WHETHER to get an early start on the garden or for raising
plants for field crops, a hotbed is all but indispensable. In
making a hotbed what we seek to do is to imitate Nature
at her best, so get the best soil and the sunniest spot you can
find.

In all hotbeds the underlying principle is the same :
They are right-angled boxes covered with glass panes set
hi movable frames and placed over heated excavations.
The bed may be of any size or shape, but the standard one
is six feet wide, since the stock glass frames are usually six
feet long by three feet wide. You can have any length
needed to supply your requirements. "Tomato Culture,"
by A. J. Root, tells us that the cheapest plan is to get some
old planks, broken brickbats or stone, and piece together a
box-like affair in proper shape: to provide drainage, the
front should be at least ten inches above the ground and the
rear fourteen inches. A hotbed knocked together in this
way is all right to start with, if you cannot do any better,
but will last only two or three seasons. For a permanent
bed, probably the best way is to make cement walls extend-
ing to the bottom of the manure. The bed ought to face
south or southeast and be well protected on the north. It
should be banked all around with earth or straw to keep out
the cold, and mats or shutters should be provided for extra
cold weather. The best material for heating the bed and the

102

HOTBEDS AND GREENHOUSES 103

most easily obtained, is fresh horse manure in which there
is a quantity of straw or litter. This will give out a slow,
moist heat and will not burn out before the crops or the
plants mature. Get all the manure you need at one tune.
Pile it in a dry place and let it ferment; every few days
work the pile over thoroughly with a dung fork ; sometimes
two turnings of the manure are enough, but it is better to
let it stand and heat three or four tunes.

"You can make a hotbed also on top of the ground with-
out any excavation. Spread a layer of manure evenly one
foot in depth and large enough to extend around the frame
three feet each way. Pack this down well, especially around
the edge, put on a second and third layer until you have a
well-trodden and compact bed of manure at least two and
one half feet in depth. Place the frame in the center of this
bed and press it down well." A two-inch layer of decayed
leaves, cut straw, or corn fodder, spread over the manure
in the frame and well packed down, will help to retain the
heat. Ventilate the bed every day to allow steam and
ammonia fumes to pass off.

"The soil inside should be equal parts of garden loam
and well-rotted barnyard manure. Tramp well the first
layer of three inches. To make it entirely safe for the plant
seeds in the hotbed, add another layer of the same depth.
Use no water with garden loam and manure if you can pos-
sibly help it."

"Before sowing any seeds put a thermometer in the bed
three inches deep in the soil. If it runs over 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, do not sow. If below 55 degrees it is too cold ;
you will have to fork it over and add more manure. If the
bed gets too hot, you can ventilate it with a sharp stick by
thrusting it down into the soil."

104 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Another way that the old gardeners have to make a hot-
bed is with fire. On a large scale this is cheaper, though
more complicated than the fermentation of manure. In
making this kind choose your location and build the frames
as before. "Cut a trench with a slight taper from the east
end of the plot to the end of the hotbed, and on under the
ground to about four feet beyond the end of the bed. This
taper to the outlet will create a draught and so keep a better
fire. Arch this over with vitrified tile. The furnace end
where the fire is should be about six feet away from the bed.
When the trenches are completed, cover over with the dirt
that was taken out of them. Two such trenches under the
frames will make a good hotbed. Any one can do this sort
of work."

A hotbed can also be heated by running steam pipes
through the ground, but unless you happen to be where
exhaust steam could be used, this method is not economical
except for big houses. The care and expense of a separate
steam plant would be too great to pay, unless for growing
winter vegetables for market or flower culture. If you go
into that on a scale large enough to pay, new problems at
once demand solution.

Vegetables under glass have kept pace with other crops.
Within fifteen miles of Boston are millions of square feet of
glass devoted to vegetables, chiefly lettuce. There are
more than five million feet in the United States used for
other crops. Ordinarily, under favorable conditions, glass
devoted to this work will yield an average of fifty cents
per year per square foot.

About the lowest estimate of cost per sash is five dollars ;
this amount includes the cost of one fourth of the frame and
covers. There are usually four sashes to one frame. A

HOTBEDS AND GREENHOUSES 105

well-made mortised plank frame costs four to six dollars.
A sash, unglazed, costs from one to two dollars. Glazing
costs seventy-five cents. Mats and shutters cost from fifty
cents to two dollars per sash, depending upon the material
used. Double thick glass pays better hi the end as being
less liable to breakage. These prices vary greatly, however.

The following sample estimate by a gardener is for a mar-
ket garden of one acre, in which it is desired to grow a gen-
eral line of vegetables. It supposes that half of the acre
is to be set with plants from hotbeds.

One eighth acre to early cauliflower and cabbage, about
2000 plants, if transplanted, would require two 6 X 12
frames, from two hundred to two hundred and fifty plants
being grown under each sash.

These frames may be used again for tomato plants for
the same area, using about 450 plants. This will allow a
sash for every 55 plants.

One frame should be in use at the same time for eggplants
and peppers, two sashes of each, growing fifty transplanted
plants under each sash.

Two frames will be required for cucumbers, melons, and
early squashes ; for extra early lettuce, an estimate of sixty
to seventy heads should be made to a sash. It is assumed
that celery and late cabbages are to be started in seed beds
in the open.

In the fashionable suburbs of Boston " one hotbed 3X6
feet was used in which to start the seeds of early vegetables.
Plantings were made in the open ground as soon as the
weather permitted, and were continued at intervals through-
out the season whenever there was a vacant spot in the
garden. The following varieties of vegetables, mostly five-
and ten-cent packets, were planted : Pole and wax beans,

106 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

beets, kale, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, cu-
cumbers, corn salad, endive, eggplant, kohlrabi, lettuce,
muskmelon, onions, peppers, peas, salsify, radish, spinach,
squash, tomatoes, turnips, rutabagas, escarole, chives,
shallot, parsley, sweet and Irish potatoes, and nearly a dozen
different kinds of sweet herbs."

"In the larger garden, tomatoes followed peas, turnips
the wax beans, early lettuce for fall use took the place of
Refugee beans. Corn salad succeeded lettuce."

"The spinach was followed by cabbage, while turnips,
beets, carrots, celery, and spinach gave a second crop in the
plot occupied by Gardus peas and Emperor William beans."

" Winter radishes came after telephone peas, Paris Golden
celery was planted in between the hills of Stowell's blanching.
The plot of early corn was sown to turnips. The hotbed
was used during the late fall and winter to store some of the
hardy vegetables, and the latter part of October there was
placed in it some endive, escarole, celeriac, and the remain-
ing space was filled up by transplanting leeks, chives, and
parsley." (Bailey, "Principles of Vegetable Gardening,"
page 38.)

"If spinach is grown hi frames, the sash used for one of
the late crops above may be used through the following
winter.

"This, like the last case, makes a total of five frames,
the cost, depending on make and material, from one to five
dollars ; twenty sash and covers, at, say, $2.75, $55 ; manure
at market price, calculating at least three or four loads per
frame. This is a liberal estimate of space, and should allow
for all ordinary loss of plants, and for discarding the weak
and inferior ones. It supposes that most or all of the plants
are to be transplanted once or more in the frames. Many

HOTBEDS AND GREENHOUSES 107

gardeners have less equipment of glass." (Same, pages
49-50.)

Growing vegetables under glass gives smaller returns
than flowers ; as, for instance, a head of lettuce brings much
less than a plant of carnations, and suffers more from the
competition of southern crops. Nevertheless, the green-
house-grown vegetables have come into prominence lately
because they can be raised in houses that are not good enough
for flowers. Lettuce and tomatoes are the principal crops ;
some growers raise thousands of dollars' worth each year.
The greenhouse is also used for forcing plants which are
afterwards transplanted to the open air. This develops
them at a tune when they could not grow outdoors and gives
them such a start that they are very early on the market,
thereby realizing the highest prices.

"Nearness to market is the most important feature in
a greenhouse. In large cities, manure, which is the chief
fertilizer, can be had in most cases for the hauling. The
short haul is an important item, and, most important of all,
the gardener who is near the market can take advantage
of high prices, if the grower is near enough to the city to make
two or three trips; in such a fluctuating market as New
York, it is to his advantage."

Some land of a greenhouse is necessary, but one large
enough to produce a living would cost a very large sum.
Vegetable raising under glass has been made profitable in
special localities where nearly the whole community gives
its tune to building up the industry, but complete success
can be attained only by having absolute control of all the
conditions entering into production, and giving assiduous
and undivided attention to detail.

Leonard Barren, in the Garden Magazine, says: "The

108 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

best type of greenhouse for all-round purposes is unques-
tionably what is known as the even span — that is, a house
hi which the roof is in the form of an inverted V, so as to be
exposed as much as possible to sunlight, and having the ridge-
pole in the center. All other types of houses are modifica-
tions from the simplest form, and are designed in some way
or other to fit some special requirements. These require-
ments may be : the cultural necessities for some particular
crop; a desire to have the atmospheric conditions inside
more or less abnormal at given seasons (as in a forcing house) ;
or an adaptation to some peculiarity of the situation, as when
a greenhouse is built as an adjunct to other buildings."

"It is plain common sense that the ideal greenhouse is
one in which the light is most nearly that which exists out-
side, and in which the heat is as evenly distributed. It is
practical experience that a structure with as few angles
and turns in it as possible and with a minimum of woodwork
in its superstructure, best answers these conditions. . . .
Greenhouse building has developed into a special industry,
and the modern American greenhouse is the highest type of
construction. It is built with as careful calculation to its
situation and its requirements as is the country dwelling-
house. Such a thing naturally is not cheap."

"The low-priced 'cheap greenhouse' is a makeshift of
some sort. Perhaps its roof is constructed of hotbed sash,
a perfectly feasible method of construction, which for or-
dinary, commonplace gardening will answer admirably.
Or, its foundation is merely the plain earth. Such a build-
ing does admirably in the summer tune, and even in the late
spring and early autumn ; but woe betide the enthusiastic
amateur in winter, who, being possessed of one of these
light greenhouse structures, has indulged in a few costly,

HOTBEDS AND GREENHOUSES 109

exotic plants. They will be frozen, to a certainty! It is
economy to pay a fair price in the beginning to secure a prop-
erly built greenhouse that will withstand the trials of winter."

"If iron frame is used instead of wood, there is greater dura-
bility, and the structure being more slender, will admit
more light, but the cost will be increased."

" It makes very little difference in cost what shape of house
is to be erected. The cost per lineal foot for an even span
is practically the same as for a lean-to of the same length
and width. In the lean-to, in order to get the sufficient
bench and walk space inside, it is necessary to carry the roof
to a point much higher than in the even span. The extra
framework and material for the roof cost a good deal, yet
add practically nothing to the efficiency of the house."

"Heating of greenhouses is best done by hot water, and
in a small house the pipes may well be connected with the
heating system used for the dwelling, if the greenhouse and
the home are within any sort of reasonable distance from each
other. For large houses, or ranges of several houses together,
the independent heating plant is necessary. Steam is used
for heating by commercial florists, but it is economical only
on a large scale."

"As a uniform temperature must be maintained in the
house, the fires, where steam is used, need watching contin-
uously during cold weather, for the moment the water
ceases to boil, the pipes cool off, and a considerable time is
consumed in starting the heat running again. With hot
water there is much more latitude in attention, for though
the fires dwindle, the water which fills the pipes will carry
heat for a long time, and it will circulate until the last degree
is radiated. But a hot-water system costs in the installa-
tion about one fourth more than steam. Very small houses

110 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

may be successfully heated by kerosene stoves, which may
be placed inside the house. A much better way would be to
use oil heaters for an inside water circulation, carrying off
all products of combustion by means of a flue. Coal stoves
should never be installed inside the house. It has been
done successfully by some amateurs, but the danger of coal
gas being driven back into the house by a down draft in the
chimney is too great a risk. Coal gas and illuminating gas
are two virulent poisons to plants."

It is obvious that the amateur must proceed with great
caution in undertaking intensive cultivation under glass.
Build at first the simplest and least expensive kind of hot-
beds or greenhouses. It takes three to five seasons to
train even an experienced farmer along these special lines.
Separate crops require special treatment. Do not experi-
ment, but follow well-tried procedure. It is comparatively
easy to farm an acre under glass, but it should be worked
up to, each step being taken only after a solid foundation
is ready to build on. Learn by your mistakes. Don't get
discouraged by failure. By not making the same mistake
twice, you will soon learn by experience just what is essential
to production. The more you learn about the way nature
does things, the more likely you will be to succeed when you
seek to imitate her.

CHAPTER XII

OTHER USES OF LAND

WE had intended to write an interesting chapter on the
use of a few acres of land for poultry, and another on rais-
ing a vast drove of rabbits, both from practical men, but a
good average man, just such as this book is written for, sent
the following :

" I am very sorry that I cannot comply with your request
to write a chapter on poultry for your new book. It is true
that I am physically and mentally capable of performing
that feat, and it would be possible for me to prepare an essay
that might entertain the reader, and even make him believe
that there is money in commercial poultry. I prefer, how-
ever, to leave that sort of romancing to the poultry journals
who, by much practice, are adepts in the art. The fact is,
I did not make poultry raising pay, and had I remained
on my chicken ranch, I would have gone broke. I do not
mean to say, however, that there is no money in poultry,
but merely that I could not get it out. Perhaps others who
are better equipped for the work can make a success of such
an undertaking, but I could not. The numerous poultry
journals are filled with instructions how to do it and with
letters from people who assert that they have done well
with poultry ; but, really, during the four years that I was
in the business I cannot recall a single case of success, and,
on the other hand, I learned of failures without end. I had

111

112 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

the reputation of having the best planned and most com-
pletely equipped plant in this part of Washington, and per-
haps in the entire state. My stock was thoroughbred and
healthy, and they seemed to attend to business strictly. I
devoted about all my waking hours to them, did everything
that seemed necessary that was suggested by my own suc-
cess, and yet I could not make it go, am glad I am clear of
it, and have no desire to try it again. I am perfectly willing
to admit my possible unfitness for the business, but I am also
compelled to admit that I could not succeed and that no
advice of mine could help others."

Although many, either under exceptional circumstances
or because of exceptional ability, have made a success of
wholesale poultry raising, it seems on reflection that Mr.
Wolf's ideas are in the main correct.

The price of chickens is fixed, like all other prices, by
supply and demand, and toward the supply every farmer
contributes his chickens and their eggs which cost him
practically nothing; at least he counts that they cost him
nothing.

Now it is clear that if you considerably increase the sup-
ply at any place, the price will fall, and the farmer, whose
chickens and eggs cost him almost nothing in money, will
sell them low enough to command a market and will continue
to raise them, however little he gets for them.

So you are against inexhaustible competitors who can
neither be driven out nor combined with. It is worse than
competing with bankrupt dealers. To make much money
you must have at least some monopoly, and even a little
bit of the earth that is well suited to your purpose where
there is no unreasonable and unreasoning competition, will
give you a chance.

OTHER USES OF LAND 113

But while it is true that the farmer's subsidized hens
have a very disastrous effect at times upon the market, the
fact is that, notwithstanding the tariff, we import millions
of dozens of eggs laid each year by the pauper hens of Canada
and often of Denmark.

Another fact to be considered is, that it is when eggs are
most plentiful that the farmers depress the market. With
their ways of handling their poultry, their hens lay only
when conditions are most favorable, and in the winter when
eggs are as high as fifty cents a dozen in cities, they have
no eggs to market. Like the market gardener, to be timely
in market is to succeed. A week may mean an annihilation
of profits.

It is a different proposition to raise a few chickens as a
side line as the farmers do.

A workman at the Connecticut place of one of the experts
who has revised this book had a bit of land not more than
100 X 200 feet, and for several years cleared $100 a year by
raising eggs and broilers, doing the work together with that
of a little garden of small fruits before and after working
hours. The chickens fed largely on green food in summer.

In selling your surplus at a profit, the same principles
apply as in raising a surplus to sell at a profit.

While poultry and egg raising does not require that you
must be first, it does require that you market your produce
at a time when the prices are highest.

You must hatch at a time which will allow the young
hens to begin laying as winter approaches; the food must
keep up animal heat and the house must be warm enough
to make the hens comfortable, and the conditions must be
such as to keep them laying.

As an experiment, we once raised six pullets. They were

114 THREE AJRES AND LIBERTY

hatched in May, and in December they began laying. All
during the winter they laid never less than four and some-
times six eggs a day, and kept this up until spring.

They were fed on wheat and corn and plenty of meat
scraps and green food. They were kept in what was prac-
tically a glass house, receiving the benefit of the sun during
the day, and were protected from the winds. The effect
was to bring as near as possible the condition of the warm
months; these paid very well.

Ducks are less frequently raised than chickens and often
realize good returns.

The popular fallacy that ducks require a stream or pond
is gradually passing away. There was a time when nearly
all ducks were raised in this way, feeding on fish as the prin-
cipal diet, but experience has proved that ducks raised with-
out a stream or pond tend to put on flesh instead of feathers,
and they have not the oily, fishy flavor of those raised on
the water. Nearly all of the successful duck raisers now
use this method.

This is bringing the duck more into prominence as an
article of food; as James Rankin says in "Duck Culture,"
"People do not care to eat fish and flesh combined. They
would rather eat them separate."

The white pekins are the popular birds, because they are
larger, have white meat, and are splendid layers. They
lay from 100 to 165 eggs in a season and are the easiest to
raise. They can do entirely without water; and Rankin
tells of selling a flock to a wealthy man, who afterwards
wrote asking him to take them back, because he had bought
them for an artificial lake in front of his house, so that his
wife and children could watch them disporting in the water.
He complained that they would not go into the water unless

OTHER USES Oi^LAND 115

he drove them in and would remain only so long as he stood
over them.

Ducks are easier to raise than any other fowl and are
freer from disease. They are ready for market when eight
weeks old.

The industry is assuming large proportions, and ranches
are now raising ducks by the tens of thousands and are
finding better markets each year.

In starting any poultry business, it is better to begin
with twenty-five fowls and master details with those, then
double the number as fast as they have been made to return
profits.

The Atlantic Squab Company, of Hammonton, N. J.,
says " it is a simple matter for the beginner to figure out on
paper net profits of four or five dollars per year from each
pair of breeders, but we doubt if it can be made. It is,
however, 'pigeon nature' to lay ten or eleven times a year,
but hardly natural to presume that each and every egg will
ultimately mean a Jumbo squab in the commission man's
hands.

"A loft [that is, a pair] of high-class Homers, properly
mated, should average six pair of squabs per year. For
one year our squabs averaged us a fraction over 60c. per
pair ; say $3.60 has been the returns from each pair of breed-
ers. It has cost us 90c. per pair to feed for twelve months ;
remember, we buy in large quantities; it would cost the
small breeder $1 a year per pair to feed. It would be well
to allow 60c. a pair for labor and supplies, such as grit,
charcoal, tobacco stems, etc., although the bird manure,
which we find ready sale for at 55c. per bushel, has covered
these incidental expenses for us. The inexperienced begin-
ner, with good management and close attention to details,

116 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

should clear $2 a year from each pair of birds, provided he
starts with well-mated pure Homer stock." Pigeons are
particular about their mates, and will rather go single than
take a disagreeable partner.

Raising Belgian hares at one time promised to be a most
profitable industry. The Belgian hare is a distant relation
of the ordinary rabbit. Its flesh is white, close-grained,
and tender, resembling the legs of the frog, and has a very
savory flavor. It is considered by many superior to poultry,
and the rapidity with which they breed gave promise of
fortunes. The doe brings forth a litter of about eleven
every sixty days, and with prices ranging from $1.50 to $2.50,
as they were about the year 1900, with the cost of raising
from thirty to forty cents, the reason for this promise is
evident. In Southern California thousands turned their
attention to it, and some firms entered the business with
equipment to the value of fifty thousand dollars.

Besides the ordinary market prices realized for the hares,
some went extensively into breeding fancy stock, and real-
ized from $50 to $250 apiece for them.

This industry had indications of becoming extensive
and enduring, but by 1900 so many went into the business
that the markets became glutted and prices fell with dis-
astrous effect.

Whether it will pay you depends largely on the attitude
of your customers toward the hare as a food product.

Bee-keeping offers an interesting and remunerative field
of employment. More than the average living awaits those
only who will make a careful and intelligent study of bees
and their habits and will give them the proper care and
attention.

One need not be a practical bee-keeper to enter this field.

OTHER USES OF LAND 117

He can purchase even one hive and, while increasing from
this, he can gain an experience that he could get in no other
way.

How shall one start bee-keeping?

Get one hive or a few hives. If you have no room in the
yard, put them upon the roof. One man in Cincinnati,
Ohio, makes his living from bees kept on the roof of his
house.

Wm. A. Selzer, a large dealer in bee-keepers' supplies, in
Philadelphia, established many colonies on the roof of his
place right in the heart of the business district, where it would
seem impossible for bees to find a living.

Very little space is required for bee-keeping; hives can
be set two feet apart in rows, and the rows six to ten feet
apart. No pasture need be provided for them. There
are always fields of flowers to supply the nectar.

White clover produces a large yield of nectar of very fine
flavor. The basswood or linden tree blossom produces a
fine nectar which some consider better than white clover.
Buckwheat also gives a good yield of nectar, but it is dark
in color and brings a lower price for that reason. There are
other plants which yield large quantities of nectar, and it
would be necessary to know the locality to say what would
be the best plants; but as white clover is found almost
everywhere in the northern states, it is safe to say this will
be the best producer in the spring, and goldenrod, where
found, the best for the fall supply.

Frank Benton, in United States Department of Agri-
culture Bulletin 59, says : "It may be safely said that any
place where farming, gardening, or fruit raising can be suc-
cessfully followed is adapted to the profitable keeping of
bees."

118 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

There is always a farmer here and there who keeps a few
hives of bees. These often can be purchased at a very
reasonable price, but unless they are Italian bees and are
in improved hives, it would be better to purchase from some
dealer. He may sell you a very weak colony, but after the
first year these ought to be as strong as any. Start in the
spring; when you have your bees, read good literature on
the subject. A. I. Root's "A B C of Bee Culture" is good
for beginners; subscribe for the American Bee Journal, of
Chicago, or Gleanings in Bee Culture, Medina, Ohio. They
are full of the latest ideas on the subject.

A yield of fifty pounds of honey in a season can be ob-
tained from one hive of bees in almost any locality. In
fact, this is often done where bees are kept in built up cities.
One hundred pounds would be considered a very small
yield by many apiarists, and twice this amount is often
gathered in favored localities where up-to-date methods are
followed.

One man can take care of two hundred hives or colonies,
as they are termed, if he is w.orking for comb honey, and
perhaps twice that number if for extracted honey.

Comb honey is stored usually hi one-pound boxes set in
a super or small box over the main hive body, which is itself
a box about seventeen inches long, eleven inches wide, and
ten inches deep into which frames of comb are slid side by
side. These combs are accessible and can be lifted out,
exposing to view the inner workings of the hive. It is in
these combs that the queen lays as many as three thousand
eggs some days, and in which the young bees are hatched.
They are also used for storing honey for winter use.

The extractor has been invented to remove this honey
without damaging the comb. The economy of this can

OTHER USES OF LAND 119

readily be seen, as ten pounds of honey can be stored while
one pound of comb is being built. '.

This leaves the bees free to gather honey instead of using
a portion of their force to build comb, as is necessary when
comb honey is desired.

The extractor is a round tin can on a central pivot with a
revolving mechanism. Into this the full combs of honey
are placed and are whirled around, throwing the honey out
into the can by centrifugal force. It is then run out at the
bottom into bottles or barrels, and the empty combs are
replaced in the hive for the bees to fill again.

Twice as many pounds of honey can be produced by this
method ; but the price of extracted honey is much less than
that of comb honey. Adulteration of extracted honey with
glucose is becoming so prevalent that it threatens to ruin
this branch of the industry. But there will always be a
good market for honey sold direct by the producer to resi-
dents, or even through storekeepers, in medium size towns,
where customers can be sure that the honey is pure.

The average wholesale prices of honey are about fifteen
cents a pound for extracted and twenty cents for fancy comb,
so if the apiarist with two hundred hives produces the small
average of fifty pounds of comb honey and sells it at fifteen
cents a pound, he will receive $1500 for his season's work.
If he goes in for extracted honey and produces one hundred
pounds per hive, he will receive even more. Of course,
expenses will have to come out of this.

That this has been done over and over again is proved
by men who started in with only a few hives and have ac-
cumulated considerable property from the business.

But no one need expect to do this unless he is willing to
give the bees the attention which they will require. To

120 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

neglect them once means often a total loss. Most of the
work will have to be done during the swarming season in
May, June, and July. There has been so much written on
the subject and so many inventions and improvements made
in the hives that bee-keeping more than any other branch
of similar employment has been reduced to a science, and
any one can thoroughly master it in two or three years. It
is because its possibilities are not generally recognized that
so few are now engaged in it.

The fear of stings will always deter many from entering
this business and so check competition from forcing prices
down.

The price of honey makes it a luxury, and there will be
an unlimited opportunity in the crop as long as the price
does not get near the cost of producing, which is far below
the present prices.

To use land directly is to open almost infinite opportuni-
ties. Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin 204,
says: "In the United States the term 'mushroom' refers
commercially to but a single species (Agaricus Campestris)
of the fleshly fungi, a plant common throughout most of the
temperate regions of the world, and one everywhere recog-
nized as edible."

It is unfortunate that the commercial use of the term
"mushroom" restricts it to a single species. There are
about twenty-five common varieties of edible fungi hi the
Northern states.

The successful cultivation of mushrooms in America has
not been so general as in most European countries. It is
in France and in England that the mushroom industry has
been best developed. France is the home of the industry.
Unusual interest has been shown in the United States in

OTHER USES OF LAND 121

the growth of mushrooms within the past few years, and
it is to be hoped and expected that within the next ten years
the industry will develop to the fullest limit of the market
demands. The demand will, of course, be stimulated by the
increasing popular appreciation of this product. In some
cities and towns there is already a good market for mush-
rooms, while in others they may be sold directly to special
customers. This should be borne in mind by prospective
growers.

While many American growers have been successful, a
much larger number have failed. In most cases their fail-
ures have been due to one or more of the following causes :

(1) Poor spawn, or spawn which has been killed by im-
proper storage.

(2) Spawning at a temperature injuriously high.

(3) Too much water either at the tune of spawning or
later.

(4) Unfavorable temperature during the growing period.
It is therefore important to the prospective grower that
careful attention be given to the general discussion of con-
ditions which follow.

Mushrooms may be grown in any place where the con-
ditions of temperature and moisture are favorable. A shed,
cellar, cave, or vacant space in a greenhouse may be utilized
to advantage for this purpose. The most essential factor,
perhaps, is that of temperature. The proper temperature
ranges from 53° to 60° R, with the best from 55° to 58° F.
It is unsafe to attempt to grow mushrooms on a commercial
basis, according to our present knowledge of the subject,
in a temperature much less than 50° or greater than 63° F.
Any severe changes of temperature would entirely destroy
the profits of the mushroom crop. From this it is evident

122 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

that in many places mushrooms may not be grown as a sum-
mer crop. With artificial heat they may be grown almost
anywhere throughout the winter. Moreover, it is very
probable that in this country open-air culture must be lim-
ited to a few sections.

A second important factor is moisture. The place should
L»< c be very damp, or constantly dripping with water. Under
sucn conditions successful commercial work is not possible.
A place where it is possible to maintain a fairly moist condi-
tion of the atmosphere, and having such capability for ven-
tilation as will cause at least a gradual evaporation, is neces-
sary. With too rapid ventilation and the consequent neces-
sity of repeated applications of water to the mushroom bed,
no mushroom crop will attain the highest perfection.

Even a little iron rust in the soil is reported as fatal to
the Campestris, the only fungus so far successfully propa-
gated.

If other fungi than the Campestris come up wild, don't
throw them away as worthless. Many are better eating
than the one you seek, and you can avoid the risk of poison-
ous ones by learning to recognize the dangerous family —
send for the Agricultural Department's Bulletin No. 204.
Meanwhile, (1) all mushrooms with pink gills, (2) all coral-
like fungi, (3) all that grow on wood, and (4) all puffballs,
are good to eat if they are young and tender — only don't
mistake an unspread Aminita for a puffball.

An ingenious person may find other sources of income in
the country. A young hotel porter in Ulster County, New
York, bought seventy acres of mountain woodland four
miles from the railroad for two hundred and fifty dollars,
and puts in his winters cutting barrel hoops, at which he
makes two dollars a day. Meanwhile the land is maturing

OTHER USES OF LAND 123

timber. That is hard work, but to gather wild mushrooms
or to cut willows, or sweet pine needles to make cushions,
or to catch young squirrels for sale, is lighter, if less steady
employment.

And with all our uses of land, we must not forget a little
corner for the hammock and the croquet hoops for the wife
and the children. In the Province of Quebec, where the land
is held in great tracts under the Seigniors, I have seen croquet
grounds no bigger than a bed quilt in front of the little one-
room cottages.

The Frenchman knows the importance of such things as
that, has meals out of doors in fine weather, goes on little
picnics, and keeps madame contented in the country.

A swing, or a seesaw, and a tether ball (a ball swinging
from the top of a pole eight feet high) for the children will
help to keep the family peace.

CHAPTER XIII

FEUITS

FRUIT raising can succeed in either of two ways. Either
planting the orchard in some one fruit and specializing
thereon, or diversifying the operation to cover many va-
rieties. In the first way it is usual to establish orchards in
favorable localities without special regard to nearness to
market ; because in these days of refrigerator car lines the
product of an orchard in any part of the country can be
sent to market quickly enough to avoid loss. Where many
varieties are grown, the best site is usually near a large city
where the grower can market his own product on wagons
and get the benefit of retail prices.

Remember that it is far more profitable to raise twenty
baskets of fine, well-shaped, clean, handsome apples or
peaches or any other hand-eaten fruit, than to raise a hun-
dred barrels of stuff that is good only for the common
drier or for the mill or hogpen.

Care and common sense are the jackscrews to use in
raising fine fruit.

The apple is the great American fruit for extensive orchard-
ing. The question is whether there is a profit in apple
growing. The answer is, where the conditions are favor-
able and when the business is well conducted there is.
Under average conditions, with poor business manage-
ment, there is little or none.

124

FRUITS 125

As Professor S. T. Maynard in Suburban Life tells us,
"In a suburban garden of one of our Eastern cities are
seven Astrachan trees, about twenty years old, from which
have been sold in a single season over one hundred dollars'
worth of fruit. A friend near Boston put three thousand
barrels of picked Baldwins into cold storage. None of the
fancy apples sold for less than three dollars a barrel, and the
others netted more than two dollars. They were the prod-
uct of less than forty acres of trees which had been planted
about twenty-five years. Another fruit grower showed me
several returns of commission men of five, six, and even
seven dollars a barrel for fancy Baldwins. At such prices,
and under such conditions, there is a large profit in apple
growing."

"The other side of the picture, however, is the more
common one. A friend sent fifty barrels of fancy Bald-
wins to a commission house, to be shipped to European
markets, the returns for which were just enough to pay for
the barrels. The majority of apples grown in the United
States are sold to buyers, one buyer in each section, for a
dollar to two dollars for No. 1 quality, and a dollar for No. 2.
With the cost of barrels at about forty cents, labor for pick-
ing, sorting, and packing, these prices leave little or nothing
for the use of the land, cost of fertilizers, spraying, thinning,
etc., all of which are necessary for growing fruit of the best
quality."

Holmes further says, in substance, that we must make
the trees grow vigorously, whether upon poor or good soil.
Growth is the first requirement. To do this, we need a
strong, deep, moist soil, — good grass land well under-
drained makes the best. If this is on an elevation with a
northern or western exposure, it will be better than a south-

126 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

ern or an eastern one. While apple trees will grow on a
thin soil, so much care and fertilizing is required that the
crop will be of little or no profit upon such land. Lastly,
we must protect our fruit from insect and fungous pests.

On land that is free from stones and not too steep, thor-
ough and frequent cultivation will give the quickest and
largest returns. On such land hoed garden or farm crops
may be profitable while the trees are small, but after five or
six years it will generally be found best to cultivate it en-
tirely for the growth of trees. Organic matter in the form
of stable manure or cover crops will be needed, and must
be applied in the fall or very early in the spring to keep up
the supply of humus in the soil.

Stony land that cannot be plowed or cultivated except
at a great cost may be made to grow good crops of fruit.
While the trees are young, the soil should be worked about
them for the space of a few feet and then the moisture re-
tained by a mulch system, making use of any waste organic
matter like straw, leaves, meadow hay, brush, and weeds
cut before they seed. Most of the first prize apples at the
Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo were grown under the
"turf-culture" system.

Unless you have trees already on your land, it is too long
to wait six or seven years for a crop. We can graft good
fruit on almost any tree, though the new dwarf trees will
bear much sooner, and if we have trees we need not even
wait for the harvest of our crop, since the windfalls will
keep us in apple sauce, jellies, and pies, for no apple is too
green for apple sauce, not even the ones that the boys can't
bite.

The greatest difficulty in the profitable growth of the
apple is the market. Much of the profit in apple growing,

FRUITS 127

whether in the East or the West, will depend upon the
extent of the business done, especially if one is a consider-
able distance from markets. The above are the essentials
noted by this practical scientist.

Next to the apple crop, perhaps the most important fruit
crop for shipping is the peach. The locality is perhaps the
most important consideration in a peach orchard. In the
Eastern and Southern states, and in Connecticut, Delaware,
New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and, of late years,
Georgia, peaches flourish and produce enormous crops.
As a general rule, the nearer the orchard is to large bodies
of water, the more likely one is to get a crop, as the temper-
ature of the water prevents a too early budding out in the
spring and delays killing autumn frosts.

Generally speaking, a sandy, porous soil is best for peaches,
but they may be raised on clay lands if provided with plenty
of humus.

Another fruit which is profitable in districts suited to
its growth is the grape. Bulletin No. 153, Cornell Exper-
iment Station, says: "Grapes are a dessert fruit. They
are not used to a large extent in the kitchen (though they
might be), so there are few incidental or secondary prod-
ucts ; that is, they are not dried, canned, made into jellies,
and the like, to any extent, that is, in the United States."
The grape is peculiarly a sectional product. Central New
York has a large area devoted to it. In northern Ohio, a
strip along Lake Erie, and some of its islands, are devoted
almost exclusively to grape vineyards. In districts where
grapes are intensively grown, a great part of the crop is
used for wine, and American wine is extensively sold in our
home markets, although it frequently has foreign labels.

Any one purchasing a farm should plant some grapevines

128 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

for home use. Grape juice is easily made and kept and is
a pleasing beverage. Grape jelly is excellent and could be
readily marketed in any nearby town, since there is very
little, comparatively, on sale. A grape arbor gives shade,
needs little care, and can be planted near the house where
it will not interfere with the crops. For you cannot cul-
tivate all of your land; some grassy space must be left
around the house if only for drying clothes. But if ground
is scarce, vines or lima beans can be trained up the back
porch or up the sunny side of the house ; or a few climbing
nasturtiums will give decorations without care, while the
young leaves make a good salad.

Of home orchard fruits, the plum, pear, and quince are
all profitable specialties, especially for intensive acre rais-
ing. In general, the same remark may be made of them as
of the other fruits, that they need careful selection of land
to get the best results. The cherry has recently come to
be recognized as a good commercial specialty. Mr. George
T. Powell, in The American Agriculturist, says : " The crop
is a precarious one to market. . . . The risk and loss may
be largely reduced by making a proper selection of site for
the orchard. This should be on high ground where the air
generally circulates freely. This is especially necessary for
sweet varieties. The soil should be rich, with naturally
good drainage."

He says : " I have had Rockport trees produce four hun-
dred pounds each and the fruit net ten cents a pound for
the entire crop. The English Morello trees may be grown
fifteen feet apart each way, which will allow two hundred
trees to the acre. The larger trees ought to be planted
somewhat thinner. . . . Cherries are packed largely in
eight-pound baskets and in strawberry quarts. Each bas-

FRUITS 129

ket is filled with carefully assorted fruit, every imperfect
specimen being taken out, after which they are faced by
placing the stems downward so that the cherry shows in
regular rows upon the face. Girls and women do this work.
The Eastern fruit grower must bear in mind that he has to
meet hi his market the competition of the Pacific coast
growers, who excel in fine packing; and although our
Eastern grown cherries are of a finer flavor, they are sent
to the market in such a crude manner and in such unat-
tractive condition that they sell for much less than the Cali-
fornia fruit."

Regarding bush berries, he says, you will get a small crop
the second year after planting and for the third and subse-
quent years a full crop. The important thing is to keep the
dead canes well pruned out, as the cane borer is one of the
worst insect pests. When they appear they can be stopped
by cutting off the shoot several inches below the puncture
as soon as it begins to droop, and burning the part cut off.
Again, Mr. Powell says, "Currants require rich soil. A clay
or heavy loam is better than a heavy dry soil. They should
be planted in the fall. The average from ten thousand
bushes should be about four quarts each. The cherry currant
is perhaps the largest in size, but not so prolific as some
others. Currants are shipped and sold in thirty-two quart
crates and have to be carefully packed to get to market in
good condition."

Gooseberries are raised by the acre. Mr. A. M. Brown,
Kent County, Delaware, in The American Agriculturist,
tells of a plantation in Central Delaware where over twenty-
four thousand pounds were gathered from a scant four acres.
The product was sold to the Baltimore canners for six cents
a pound, making $1440 in all. In addition to the goose-

130 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

berries grown on six acres, a large crop each of apples and
pears were grown on the same ground. Like currants, the
gooseberry must be sprayed to destroy the worms, and cut
back and burnt to destroy the cane borer.

There is little special knowledge required, however, in
raising this fruit, and it is well adapted for growers with
small acreage and little money.

In going into the cultivation of bush fruits, it is usually
best to grow them in great variety near the market where
they are to be sold. The bush fruits are then uniformly
profitable. In Suburban Life Mr. E. C. Powell tells us that
the spring is the best tune for planting raspberries and
blackberries, just as soon as the ground is dry enough to
work. The first season the plots should be well tilled. It
is possible to grow vegetables between the rows the first
year before the berries begin to bear, but unless pressed for
space, it probably doesn't pay.

Perhaps the best of small fruits, however, and most
largely used is the strawberry. The strawberry can be
planted by the acre. The ground must be rich loam and
plenty of humus, well drained, with a southern exposure.
Well-grown plants set out in the open will bear a small
crop the first season, but will not become of maximum bear-
ing till the second year. After the crop is taken off in the
fall a mulch of straw or leaves should be placed over the
plants to protect them during the winter. The strawberries
are picked by boys and girls.

The strawberry is an exceedingly profitable crop if prop-
erly handled, and is one of the best small fruits for people
with little capital. While the price in the general market
varies from fifteen to thirty cents per quart, they sometimes
run as high as fifty in the early spring ; yet it is possible to

FRUITS 131

grow strawberries worth six dollars a quart by intensive
culture in greenhouses. Mr. S. W. Fletcher, in Country
Life in America, says : " The forcing of strawberries is a
specialized industry of the highest type. Everybody can-
not make it pay everywhere. . . . Strawberries are forced
in pots or in benches. The pot method is preferred by those
who find a demand for the highest quality of fruit regard-
less of expense. ... If fruit is desired for Christmas,
the plants are not checked to any extent, but are kept in
continuous growth. The conditions of springtime are
simulated as far as possible. At Christmas time a quart
box of forced Marshall strawberries sells at from one-fifty
to eight dollars per quart, averaging about four dollars."

Our most valuable allies against the insect armies are
toads, bats, wasps, dragon flies, and birds; they enjoy the
battle.

There cannot be too many toads or bats. Toads will
eat all sorts of flies, potato bugs, squash bugs, rose bugs,
caterpillars, and almost anything that crawls.

If the wasps become a nuisance, it is easy to poison them ;
but the birds are often a nuisance — the robins eat the
strawberries and cherries the instant they are ripe. They
soon get used to scarecrows; and to cover the fruit with
nets gives the insects a free hand. Some growers raise
sweet cherries or other fruits specially to feed up the birds
so that they will let the rest alone. Early rising and a
plenty of cats is about the best remedy. A man, or even a
woman, working on the land is the best scarecrow.

There are a few other fruits that grow wild in certain
sections and are gathered and sent to market. Among
these the cranberry is the most important. It grows in
nearly inaccessible bogs, principally in New Jersey, and the

132 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

usual custom is for owners of land on which there are cran-
berry bogs to let out the bog to pickers on a percentage
basis. Cranberries can be cultivated, and there is a con-
siderable profit in the business. The swampy nature of
the ground needed, however, will deter all except the most
persistent from this industry. Some cranberry bogs bring
as high as a thousand dollars an acre.

The blueberry or huckleberry, or, as we call it in Ire-
land, the bilberry, or frohen, grows wild in the northerly
states, and is much sought after in the market. Many
efforts have been made to grow the blueberry commercially ;
but, as is well said by Mr. J. H. Hale in the Rural New Yorker,
" The blueberry proved to be a good deal like Indians — it
would not stand civilization, and was never satisfactory,
although I monkeyed with it for a period of about ten
years." Mr. Fred W. Card, of Rhode Island, in the same
issue reports a similar experience. With our present knowl-
edge of the blueberry, it is doubtful if it can be made a
commercially cultivated crop. Lately, however, it is claimed
that it can be grown in very poor, non-nitrogenous soil.

A variety, however, called the Garden Blueberry, gives
almost incredible yields, five bushels being reported from
sixty plants. It keeps all winter on the branches, if stored
in a cellar, and is of fine flavor and especially good for pre-
serves. A little frost improves it.

But wild berries, crab apples, and elderberries and others,
are good to preserve and find a ready sale if attractively
put up; they also help out the table greatly. Then think
of the fun I

In recent years, certain varieties of nuts, like the English
walnut, the pecan, and the hickory nuts have been grown
commercially. In the South particularly, the pecan has

FRUITS 133

been found a good crop to plant on cotton plantations which
have been overworked. In the Rural New Yorker, Mr.
H. E. Vandevan gives an account of an old cotton planta-
tion of 2250 acres lying on the west bank of the Mississippi
River hi Louisiana. The pecan tree was indigenous to the
land, and the wooded portion of the plantation has thou-
sands of giant pecan trees growing on it. The previous
owners of this plantation had done all in their power to
destroy these trees, but they flourished in spite of that.
Mr. Vandevan, however, saw in the pecan a large profit, and
he has planted ten thousand trees on six hundred acres,
all in a solid block. The trees are set fifty feet apart both
ways, except where a roadway is left. Between the pecan
trees Mr. Vandevan has planted fig trees for early returns,
with the intention of canning the fruit.

The English walnut is grown principally in California.
Its value has been recognized only recently, as all of the
nut crops take a good many years before the trees begin to
bear. Nut growing on a small scale is not of much value
to a man with a little bit of land, except as an additional
source of income.

If you find a sweet chestnut tree or a shell-bark hickory
or two in your wood lot, they will well repay protection and
careful cultivation.

If you don't, why — there are great promises in quick
maturing nut trees. There is now an English walnut which
is claimed to bear the third or even the second year after
setting out. My own small experience with these in New
Jersey, however, has not been a success.

CHAPTER XIV

FLOWERS

EVERY city in the United States affords an opportunity
for flower gardening and nurseries, but a study must be
made of the market in order to know what is best to raise
and where to raise it.

The choice of crops depends on the popular taste. The
flowers which are now in greatest demand are the rose,
carnation, violet, and chrysanthemum.

Near every large city there are hundreds of florists with
glass houses, some covering twenty acres or more. There
were over 2000 acres of flower land under glass reported at
the last census. As almost all industries to-day are spe-
cialized, so is floriculture ; in one place we see ten acres of
glass given over to the rose, in another thousands of dollars
devoted to the carnation or the violet, while one grower in
Queens, Long Island, has 75,000 square feet of glass for
carnations.

The specialist who devotes his thoughts and energies to
raising one flower can produce better results than if he
raised a variety. He has only one crop to market, and can
do it more successfully than with a number of crops. If he
raises enough to make himself a factor in the market, he
can sell direct instead of sending his product to a commis-
sion man, thereby receiving better prices.

134

FLOWERS 135

Little capital is required to start; intelligent effort is
the road to success. Very few, indeed, who are now leaders
in floriculture, started with more than $500 capital, and
many with much less. One of the largest growers of roses
in the United States, whose plant covers more than ten
acres, did not have $500 when he started, and many others
not so well known are making handsome livings and have
accumulated thousands of dollars of property from a start
of less than $500.

But practical knowledge is much more necessary than in
raising vegetables, as small mistakes will have more serious
results. Therefore, if you have some capital and wish to
go into flower raising, it will pay you, if circumstances per-
mit, to hire out to a florist, even at small wages, till you
have learned the business — even though you have raised
flowers successfully in a home garden.

Mr. Frank Hamilton, manager of C. W. Ward's of
Queens, tells of at least a dozen men, who have been in their
employ during his twenty-five years' experience, some of
whom got only twenty dollars a month at first, and after-
wards started in a small way for themselves, who are now
making a substantial living.

Although the market depends largely on the wealthy
class in the large cities, many florists devote considerable
time and space to flowers which are bought by the poorer
class of city dwellers who have no space or time to raise
their own.

There are always good markets somewhere for the crop,
and it is not an uncommon thing to ship flowers from New
York to Chicago, Buffalo, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore,
and Washington, or vice versa. The chances of success
for a lover of flowers are better in this business than in any

136 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

in which one with a like amount of capital can engage. If
the business at first is not large enough to use all his time,
he will find no trouble in securing employment in his imme-
diate vicinity. There are always some who want such a
person to care for their lawns or to give some time to their
conservatories.

In the last ten years the business has doubled, and while
many have gone into it, the profit they are making indicates
that supply has not kept pace with demand, and that it is
not likely to be overdone in the near future.

Professor B. T. Galloway, in an article in The World's
Work, says, "An acre of soil under glass pays fifty times as
much as an acre outdoors. There are annually sold in this
country six to seven million dollars' worth of carnation
flowers. There are no less than eight to ten million square
feet of glass in the United States devoted to this flower
alone."

Although Mr. Rockefeller's place at Tarrytown is the
largest competitor in the New York market for violets,
there is no local monopoly in that, and the local producer
with personal attention can do well.

In the Country Gentleman an account is given of a violet
farm on the north shore of Illinois, where two women are
supplying local florists. One of them says : "We started our
farm last spring in the face of most discouraging prophecies
from our friends and the keenest competition of violet
growers of New York. But we believed we could be suc-
cessful. We had studied the best scientific methods of
growing the plants, had imported the best soil obtainable,
and built a greenhouse fully adapted to our needs, so we
just went ahead and we found it to be a paying proposition.

" Our first experiment was in using cuttings from the violet

FLOWERS 137

farm of a lady at Lansing, Michigan, who has been a most
successful grower. These did not thrive, and we next
imported 3000 cuttings from the Tarrytown neighborhood,
where violet culture has been most successful.

"The first rule is to keep the temperature of the green-
house between forty-five and fifty degrees. Violets are
spring flowers, and wither and droop if the temperature is
not at the right degree. Most people think the double
violets have no fragrance because most of those that we get
lose their fragrance in transit.

"We supply 2000 flowers a week, and as they reach our
patrons within two or three hours at the most from the
time of cutting, they retain their fragrance. They are also
larger and of a deeper color than the New York flowers.
Next year we hope to go in on a much larger scale.

"While the work is not hard, it requires infinite care and
vigilance when the little plants are growing. As a career
for a woman, violet growing offers greater inducements
than anything I can think of."

Then, surely, others can succeed in other flowers at other
places. While there is little choice between the standard
styles of greenhouses for violets, there should be abundant
provision for supplying fresh air, either from the sides or
top, whichever is chosen. The system of ventilation should
admit of operation either from the inside or the outside of
the house, as fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas is some-
times necessary, in the fumes of which it is impossible to
enter, unless with a gas mask.

The arrangement of the house should secure the greatest
possible supply of sunshine in December and January,
and the least possible during the growing season, when,
as Miss Howard points out, it is necessary to secure as low

138 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

a temperature as possible, so as to obtain good, vigorous,
healthy-growing plants. The best site is a level piece of
ground, or one sloping gently to the south.

Of the diseases to which cultivated violets are subject,
Mr. P. H. Dorsett, of the Department of Agriculture, names
four as especially dangerous : Spot disease, producing whit-
ish spots on the foliage; root rot, apt to attack young
plants transplanted in hot, dry weather; wet rot, a fungus
apt to appear in too moist air or where ventilation is in-
sufficient; and yellowing, of the cause of which little is
known. Any of these diseases is difficult to exterminate
when it once gains a foothold. The best thing to do is to
get strong, vigorous cuttings, and then to give careful
attention to watering, cultivation, and ventilation, and the
destruction of dead and dying leaves and all runners as fast
as they appear.

Among insect enemies, the aphids, red spiders, eel worms,
gall flies, and slugs may be mentioned. Most of these can
be easiest controlled by hydrocyanic acid gas treatment.

Chrysanthemums, especially of preternatural size and
bizarre colors, — the college colors at football games, for
instance, — are in great demand. They are extremely deco-
rative, and their remarkable lasting quality insures their
permanent popularity. I have heard that the unexpanded
bud can be cooked like cauliflower for the table ; but we have
not learned to use them in that way. In Japan and China
the leaves of the chrysanthemum are esteemed as a salad.
One attempt has been made by English gardeners to intro-
duce this use of them into England, but it was unsuccessful.

The annual shows of chrysanthemums and of roses indi-
cate the importance of the business.

It is not generally known, but the poppies are coming

FLOWERS 139

into favor for cut flowers in spite of the fact that they do
not keep very well. Miss Edith Granger avoids this diffi-
culty, as she explains in the Garden Magazine, "by picking
off all blooms that have not already lost their petals in the
evening, so that in the morning all the open flowers will be
new ones. These are cut as early as possible, even while
the dew is still upon them, and plunged immediately into
deep water."

You need not be discouraged by the low prices at which
flowers, especially violets and roses, are often offered in
the streets. Those flowers are the discarded stock or de-
layed shipments of the swell florists. You will find that
those flowers are fading, or revived with salt, and will not
keep.

That they are so peddled, shows that everybody, at hotels,
dinners, funerals, weddings, hi the home, and the young
men for the young women, want flowers, the loveliest things
ever made without souls. We have only to supply such a
want to find our place in life.

Fleischman, of Fifth Avenue, estimates cut flowers, not
cut prices, since the war in the New York winter market : —

Violets, $1 .00 per hundred ; Carnations, Killarney Roses,
Brides and Maids, Richmonds, $1.00 per dozen; American
Beauty Roses, $1.50 to $5.00 per dozen; Valley Lilies,
$3.00 per bunch of 25; Chrysanthemums, choicest, $2.00
to $5.00 per dozen.

These prices continue indefinitely. The winter wholesale
figures are :

Violets $ .35 to $1.00 per hundred

Carnations, common 1.00 to 1.50 per hundred

Carnations, selects 1.50 to 2.00 per hundred

Carnations, fancies 2.00 to 5.00 per hundred

Killarney Roses 1.00 to 6.00 per hundred

140

THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Brides and Bridesmaids, Special
Brides and Bridesmaids, Extra
Brides and Bridesmaids, No. 1
Brides and Bridesmaids, No. 2

Richmond

Beauties, Specials ....

Beauties, Fancy

Beauties, Extra

Beauties, No. 1

Beauties, No. 2

Lily of the Valley ....
Chrysanthemums, Ordinary
Chrysanthemums, Fancy . .

$3.00 to $4.00 per hundred

2.00 to 6.00 per hundred

1.00 to 1.50 per hundred

.25 to .75 per hundred

1.00 to 6.00 per hundred

15.00 to 20.00 per hundred

10.00 to 20.00 per hundred
8.00 to 10.00 per hundred
4.00 to 6.00 per hundred
2.00 to 3.00 per hundred
3.00 and upward per hundred
6.00 to 10.00 per hundred

20.00 and upward per hundred

As a side line the common flowers will bring good prices ;
mignonette, bachelor buttons, cosmos, and even nasturtiums,
which you can't keep from growing if you just stick the
seed in the ground, or lilies of the valley, which you can
hardly get rid of once they start, never go begging, if they
are fresh.

A favorite flower with many is the sweet pea, which can
be grown out of doors in the summer time where you have
a good depth and quality of soil.

I have seen May blossoms and autumn leaves on the
branch and even goldenrod brought into town and sold at
good prices.

Enterprises often look attractive at a distance; for in-
stance, raising orchids, especially as some of the flowers
remain on the plants ready for market for weeks and bring
high prices. But to ship flowers at a profit they must be in
quantities, else the expenses eat up the returns, and they
must be shipped with considerable regularity, else you lose
your customers. To get such a supply of orchids would
take a very large capital and involve so much labor that it
is doubtful if more than good interest could be realized on it.

FLOWERS 141

Many florists make money by keeping constantly on hand
ferns, palms, and other plants like rubber trees, which they
rent out for social functions, weddings, and other occasions.
Most florists in the larger cities have also quite a thriving
business in tree planting, which is everywhere on the in-
crease. A highly specialized department of horticulture
is that of raising young trees and plants to sell for improv-
ing grounds, planting orchards, or similar uses. The nurs-
ery business bears much the same relation to the commercial
florist or orchardist as seed growing does to the market
gardener.

Certain communities, through favorable soil or climate,
are best adapted to the production of nursery stock. Conse-
quently, one finds this industry most highly developed in
scattered localities. It is true that people with small
capital should not tackle a business so technical as this.

The business of bulb production is another highly spe-
cialized department. In certain sections of Holland large
areas of the rich lowlands are given over to bulbs of various
kinds of lilies, nearly all of which are propagated in that
manner. To attain perfection, at least in the North, most
bulbs require deep, rich, warm, and highly manured soils ; and
assiduous attention at every stage. In many plant spe-
cialties, the gardeners of Europe still far surpass our own,
because conditions there have forced them to make use of
every available means to increase production. The im-
mense price that European gardeners have to pay for land
has been a most potent factor in forcing them to seek out
and apply the most ingenious forcing methods. The time is
upon us here in America also when we must find out the
highest use of land and apply it to that use.

As the aesthetic qualities of our people become more

142 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

highly developed, the business of raising flowers must be-
come of increasing importance, and will readily reward
any one who goes into it conscientiously. Flower growing
is peculiarly adapted to women, since the work is light.
There are few disagreeable features, unless it be the han-
dling of the manure incidental to the best results.

Still, the enjoyments of agriculture depend upon individual
tastes. I have seen "lady gardeners" picking strawberries
with the footman holding up an umbrella to screen them
from the sun.

Some women would like that, some not.

CHAPTER XV

DRUG PLANTS

A SOURCE of profit from land to which little attention has
been given in the United States is collecting or raising plants,
some part of which may be used for medicinal purposes.
We condense from Farmers' Bulletin No. 188, United States
Department of Agriculture :

Certain well-known weeds are sources of crude drugs at
present obtained wholly or in part from abroad. Roots,
leaves, and flowers of several of the species most detrimental
in the United States are gathered, cured, and used in Europe,
and supply much of the demands of foreign lands. Some of
these plants are in many states subject to anti-weed laws, and
farmers are required to take measures toward their extermi-
nation.

The prices paid for crude drugs from these sources save in
war time are not great and would rarely tempt any one to
this work as a business. Yet if in ridding the farm of weeds
and thus raising the value of the land the farmer can at the
same time make these pests the source of a small income in-
stead of a dead loss, something is gained.

One rather alluring fact contained in an article by Dr.
True, is that a shortage has become keenly felt in " Golden
Seal," which the early American settlers learned from the
Indians to use as a curative for sore and inflamed eyes, as
well as for sore mouth. The plant grows hi patches in high

143

144 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

open woods, and was formerly found in great abundance in
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, but is now so
rare that its price has risen from thirty-five cents wholesale
in 1898 to over seventy-five cents a pound. Persons in
different parts of the country have undertaken the produc-
tion of Golden Seal on a commercial scale. More than six
hundred dollars' worth can be grown on an acre : so a crop
this year would be a fortune. The methods of raising it can
be ascertained upon application to the Department of Agri-
culture.

Ginseng is one of the drug crops which paid handsome
returns a few years ago, perhaps because it takes from five
to seven years to grow from seeds ; but so many went into
that line that few men to-day make anything at it. Further-
more, the Chinese, who use a large part of it, will buy only
the wild roots — and they know the difference. Those who
control the trade have burned quantities in the effort to keep
up the price.

There are some drug plants which might be raised with
success by those who would specialize in one plant, but the
lesson we learn from ginseng should act as a warning.

Raising drugs is one of those things that seems to be more
profitable to teach others to do than to do yourself. A well-
known Professor said to me : " If I were twenty-five and knew
what I know about drugs and the market for them, I should
go into the drug-raising business. But I should expect to
lose money for some years. If I were a small clerk, say, or
an old man who wanted to get out of city life, and I had $500
I really wanted to venture in drug raising, I should divide
it in half — half I should put in the bank and the other half
I should throw into the Hudson River. Then I should be
sure of $250 instead of being drawn on to spend it all."

DRUG PLANTS 145

"Most of the people who have been in the business, notably
the Shakers, who used to do the most of it, are gradually
getting out of it. The few men who make money raising
drugs keep it to themselves."

In many cases when weeds have been dug the work of
handling and curing them is not excessive and can readily
be done by women and children.

Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the importance
of carefully and thoroughly drying all crude drugs, whether
roots, herbs, leaves, barks, flowers, or seeds, and putting
them under cover at nightfall. If poorly dried, they will
heat and become moldy in shipping, and the collector will
find his goods rejected by the dealer and have all his trouble
for nothing. Leaves, herbs, and flowers should never be
washed.

It is important also to collect in proper season only, as
drugs collected out of season are unmarketable on account
of inferior medicinal qualities, and there will also be a greater
shrinkage in a root dug during the growing season than when
it is collected after growth has ceased.

The roots of annual plants should be dug in the autumn
of the first year just before the flowering period, and those of
biennial and perennial plants in the fall of the second or
third year, after the tops have dried.

After the roots have been dug the soil should be well
shaken from them, and all foreign particles, such as dirt, roots,
and parts of other plants, should be removed. If the roots
cannot be sufficiently cleared of soil by shaking, they should
be thoroughly washed in clean water. Drugs must look
wholesome at least. It does not pay to be careless in this
matter. The soil increases the weight of the roots, but the
purchaser is not willing to pay by weight for dirt, and grades

146 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

the uncleaned or mixed drugs accordingly. It is the bright,
natural looking root, leaf, or plant that will bring a good
price.

After washing, the roots should be carefully dried by ex-
posing them to light and air, on racks or shelves, or on clean,
well-ventilated barn floors, or lofts. They should be spread
out thinly and turned occasionally from day to day until
completely cured. When this point is reached, in perhaps
three to six weeks, the roots will snap readily when bent.
If dried out of doors they should be placed under shelter at
night and upon the approach of rain.

Some roots require slicing and removing fibrous rootlets.
In general, large roots should be split or sliced when green in
order to facilitate drying.

Barks of trees should be gathered in spring, when the sap
begins to flow, but may also be peeled in winter. In the case
of the coarser barks (as elm, hemlock, poplar, oak, pine, and
wild cherry) the outer layer is shaved off before the bark
is removed from the tree, which process is known as " rossing."
Only the inner bark of these trees is used medicinally. Barks
may also be cured by exposure to sunlight, but moisture must
be avoided.

Leaves and herbs should be collected when the plants are
in full flower. The whole plant may be cut and the leaves
may be stripped from it, rejecting the coarse and large stems
as much as possible, and keeping only the flowering tops and
more tender stems and leaves.

Both leaves and herbs should be spread out in thin layers
on clean floors, racks, or shelves, in the shade, but where there
is free circulation of air, and turned frequently until thor-
oughly dry. Moisture will darken them.

Flowers are collected when they first open or immediately

DRUG PLANTS 147

after, not when they are beginning to fade. Seeds should be
gathered just as they are ripening, before the seed pods open,
and should be winnowed in order to remove fragments of
stems, leaves, and shriveled specimens.

The collector should be sure that the plant is the right one.
Many plants closely resemble one another, and some "yarbs,"
contrary to the popular impression, are deadly poison —
nightshade (belladonna) and the wild variety of parsnips,
for instance. Therefore, where any doubt exists, send a
specimen of the entire plant, including leaves, flowers, and
fruits, to a drug dealer or to the nearest state experiment
station for identification.

Samples representative of the lot of drugs to be sold should
be sent to the nearest commission merchant, or drug store,
for inspection and for quotation on the amount of drug that
can be furnished, or for information as to where to send the
article.

In writing to the different dealers for information and
for prices, which vary greatly, it should be stated how much
of a particular drug can be furnished and how soon this can
be supplied, and postage should always be inclosed for reply.
The collector should bear in mind that freight is an important
item, and it is best, therefore, to address the dealers acces-
sible to the place of production. The package containing
the sample should be plainly marked with contents and the
name and address of the sender. When ready for shipment
crude drugs may be tightly packed hi burlap or gunny sacks,
or in dry, clean barrels.

Burdock root brings from three to eight cents per pound,
and seed five to ten cents. About fifty thousand pounds of
the root is imported annually, and the best has come from
Belgium.

148 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Of dock roots, about 125,000 pounds are imported annually,
at from two to eight cents.

The field for the sale of dandelion root is large.

Of couch grass, the roots of which cause much profanity in
this country, there are some 250,000 pounds annually im-
ported at from three to seven cents per pound.

A common weed with which there is a considerable trouble
is the pokeweed, the root of which brings from two to five
cents per pound and the dried berries five cents per pound.

Forty to sixty thousand pounds of foxglove are imported
from Europe. Analysis has shown that the leaves of the
wild American foxglove are as good as the European article,
the price of which per pound ranges from six to eight cents.

Of mullein flowers about five thousand pounds used to be
imported, chiefly from Germany. The leaves are also im-
ported.

Dried leaves and tops of lobelia bring from three to eight
cents per pound, while the seed commands fifteen to twenty
cents per pound.

Of tansy about thirty-five thousand pounds have been
imported annually at a price ranging from three to six cents.

The flowering tops and leaves of the gum plant are used as
a drug. They bring from five to twelve cents per pound.

Boneset leaves and tops bring from two to eight cents per
pound. Catnip tops and leaves two to eight cents per pound.

Of horehound about 125,000 pounds are imported annually,
prices being three to eight cents per pound.

Blessed thistle is cultivated in Germany, and it is imported
to a limited extent.

Yarrow is a weed common from the New England states
to Missouri. It is imported in small quantities, and brings
from two to five cents per pound.

DRUG PLANTS 149

Canada fleabane brings from six to eight cents per pound.

Of jimsonweed, leaves are imported, from 100,000 to
150,000 pounds annually, and 10,000 pounds of seed. Leaves
bring two and one half to eight cents per pound, and seeds
from three to seven cents per pound.

Of poison hemlock, seeds are imported from ten to twenty
thousand pounds annually. Price for the seed is three cents
per pound, for the leaves about four cents. The flowers
are also used.

The American wormseed has been naturalized from tropi-
cal America to New England ; the seed commands from six
to eight cents per pound ; the oil distilled from this seed brings
one dollar and a half per pound.

Black mustard, which is a troublesome weed in almost
every state in the Union, is nevertheless imported in enor-
mous quantities, the total imports of the seeds of the black
and white mustard amounting annually to over five million
pounds, the prices being from three to six cents per pound.
All these prices and quantities were before the war and may
greatly change after it.

In studying the wild drug plants, one may learn the im-
mense variety of field salads and greens. On a visit to the
Spirit Fruit Society at Ingleside, Illinois, one of the girls took
me out to gather wild vegetables for dinner. We pulled up
about a dozen varieties out of the corners of a field ; two or
three of the nice looking ones that I gathered the young lady
threw out, saying she did not know them ; but it seemed to me
that she took almost anything that was not too tough. The
following are commonly used as salads : Dandelion, yellow
racket, purslane (pusley), watercress, nasturtium; and the
following as greens for cooking : narrow or sour dock, stinging
nettle, pokeweed, pigweed or lamb's quarters, black mustard.

150 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Young milkweed is better than spinach, and also makes an
excellent salad. Probably all the salad leaves could be
cooked to advantage. Rhubarb leaves and horseradish tops
are garden greens usually neglected most unfairly.

Osage Orange (maclura aurantiaca) is generally supposed to
be poison, and is described in Webster's dictionary as "a hard
and inedible fruit," but I have found one kind, at least,
superior to quinces.

Capsicum or red pepper, licorice (the imports of which have
all been in the hands of one person), camphor, belladonna,
henbane, and stramonium are possible fields for culture ; but
they are all experiments.

If you are growing poppies for the flowers it might be worth
while to gather some opium, especially if the new process
succeeds in separating morphine directly from the plant.

Caraway seeds, anise, coreander, and sage are common
garden plants that may be sold as drugs.

CHAPTER XVI

NOVEL LIVE STOCK

OCCASIONALLY we hear stories of the wealth which is
being made on a frog farm here or there. But as a rule
little commercial success has attended attempts in this
direction.

The difficulty lies in feeding them. A single frog can be
fed by dangling a piece of meat before it, but it would be
impossible to feed thousands this way. There are so many
enemies that few tadpoles become adult frogs ; besides, the
frog is a cannibal and will eat not only the larvae or eggs,
but the tadpoles and young frogs as well.

Frog culture is successful in some places where ponds are
large enough to be partitioned, separating the tadpoles and
young frogs from the old ones, and where insects are abun-
dant enough to supply food naturally for them. Near San
Francisco there are a number of frog ranches. Even in
1903, according to Mary Heard in Out West, one ranch sold
to San Francisco markets 2600 dozen frogs' legs, netting
$1800. This was considered poor. Frogs' legs are sold to
hotels and restaurants, and bring in New York, according
to size and season, from fifty cents to a dollar a pound.

Tons of frogs come to New York markets each year from
Canada, Michigan, and from the South and West. Few
people outside of the cities eat them. The United States
Fish Commissioners reported the product in one year:

151

152 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Arkansas, 58,800 lb., valued at $4162; Indiana, 24,000
lb., valued at $5026; Ohio, 14,000 lb., valued at $2340;
Vermont, 5500 lb., valued at $825, etc. — a total of $22,953.

The enormous and increasing prices of large diamond-
backed turtles, and the cheapness of little ones shows that
maturing, at least, if not actually breeding them, would be
well worth investigation. Many wealthy New Yorkers
send direct to Maryland for their supplies. Where turtle
meat is bottled or canned, the snapping turtle and the com-
mon box tortoise are sometimes used as "substitutes."
Both are capital eating.

The carp is one of the most excellent fresh water fish, and
is of great value on account of the facility of culture and
the enormous extent to which this is carried on. "In Eu-
rope some artificial ponds comprise an area of no less than
20,000 acres, and the proceeds amount to about 500,000
pounds of carp per annum.'-' (Hessel, in "Carp and Its
Culture.")

It attains the weight of three to four pounds in three years
without artificial feeding, and much more under more favor-
able conditions. It lives to a great age and continues to grow
all the while.

"In Europe it is common to see carp weighing from thirty
to forty pounds and more, measuring nearly three and one
half feet in length and two and three quarters feet in cir-
cumference."

It lives on vegetable food, insects, larvae, and worms, and
will not attack other fishes or their spawn. It is easy to
raise, and, provided certain general rules are followed, suc-
cess will attend its culture.

The localities best adapted to a carp pond are those in
which there is sufficient water at hand for the summer as

NOVEL LIVE STOCK 153

well as the winter. A mud or loam soil is best adapted for
such a pond. A rocky, gravelly ground is not suited for
carp; the water should be the same depth all the year, as
variation has an injurious effect on the fish.

Carp spawn in the spring. In stocking a pond three fe-
males are calculated to two males. The females lay a
great number of eggs, but only a small number are impreg-
nated. The most liberal estimate will not exceed from 800
to 1000 to one spawner, the aggregate per acre amounting
to from 4000 to 5000.

The large cities containing large numbers of Europeans
furnish the principal markets for carp. The Jewish people
will not, as a rule, buy carp unless they are alive, so it is not
an uncommon thing to see fish dealers in the Hebrew quar-
ters pushing through the streets carts constructed as tanks
and peddling the carp alive.

Some years ago carp ponds were quite a fad among farmers
of the Central West. Americans have been slow to adopt
the German carp as a food fish.

Trout, of course, can be raised, and the high prices which
they bring, both in market and for fishing privileges, make
them very attractive; but the cold running water needed
makes opportunity for breeding them with access to a good
market generally unavailable to owners of five acres.

There is another fish, famous for its eating qualities, which
well repays effort put upon its production. I refer to the
black bass. It is indigenous to the waters of the Eastern
states, where it is usually found in creeks or rivers. It can
be successfully bred in properly constructed ponds.

Mr. Dwight Lyell, in Forest and Stream, has this to say
about a breeding place for the small-mouthed black bass.
"The pond should be six feet deep hi the center and two

154 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

feet around the edge ; the bottom should be of natural sand ;
water plants should be growing in profusion, particularly
such aquatic plants as the Daphnia, Bosmina, and the
Corix, to furnish food for the young bass. A good size for
a breeding pond is 100 X 100 feet." For spawning, artificial
nest frames are built in rectangular form. They are made
two feet square without bottoms. On two adjoining sides
these frames are four inches high and on the other two ad-
joining sides sixteen inches high. These frames are made
because the bass needs a barrier behind which the spawning
may be done and which will protect the nest when made.
For raising the fish to a size large enough for food, ponds can
be of any convenient size. In order to keep the water in
healthful condition the pond must be fed by a flowing brook
with some provision to prevent the water being disturbed
by freshets. This can usually be arranged by a sluice to
cany off the surplus water during heavy rains. Black bass
raised in shallow ponds will take the fly all summer, so that
considerable may be made from fishing privileges.

In the absence of minnows, which are the food of the
bass, they must be fed on fresh liver cut in threads like an
angle worm to tempt the fish. Even then the liver diet
must be varied by feeding minnows from September until
the bass goes into winter quarters. In no other way can
fertile eggs be assured for the spring hatching. Minnows
left in the pond all winter will breed and so furnish fry on
which the young bass can feed the next summer."

What has been said refers particularly to the small-
mouthed black bass. The conditions are substantially the
same for the large-mouthed bass (which grows to a much
larger size), except that the bottom may be made of Spanish
moss imbedded in cement.

NOVEL LIVE STOCK 155

There is a growing market for the young bass or finger-
lings to stock streams and ponds. The relation between
the producer of stock fish and those who expect to raise
bass of a marketable size is about the same as exists between
the professional seed grower and the market gardener. It is
much better for the small farmer who has or can make an
artificial pond to buy his fingerlings from the professional
breeder, who has facilities which are too elaborate to be
duplicated on a small scale.

Fish culture, except under government auspices, is little
known in the United States.

American Homes and Gardens has an account of the
breeding of pheasants, which is of interest. That it is pos-
sible to breed pheasants, even around an ordinary suburban
home, is shown by Mr. Homer Davenport, the famous car-
toonist, who succeeded in breeding and raising some of the
choicest pheasants on his place at Morris Plains, New Jersey.

A great variety of species are commonly bred, but all of
them came from China or India. The pheasant can be
tamed by careful handling, but cats and dogs and other
small animals must be kept away. The pheasantry should
be placed on high, well-drained ground with a southern ex-
posure, where the soil is good enough to raise clover, oats,
and barley. The quarters for pheasants and the manage-
ment are very much like those for fancy chickens. The yard
should be inclosed by wire netting both on sides and top to
keep the birds from wandering away ; and there should be
houses for roosting and breeding with nesting quarters at-
tached.

In Central Park, New York, the running space allotted
to three or four birds is not more than ten by twenty feet,
and Mr. George Ethelbert Walsh tells of a case where sixty

156 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

pheasants were kept in excellent condition in a house ten
by fifty feet, with five yards attached, averaging 10 X 25
feet. However, with pheasants, as with all the bird family,
especially turkeys, the more ground they have for ranging
the less liable they will be to disease. The chief difficulty
in breeding game birds like the pheasant is to secure the
insects, such as flies, maggots, and ant eggs, which are the
natural food of the young. Sufficient green food like lettuce,
turnip tops, cabbage, etc., must also be provided. There is
always a market at fancy prices for more of the matured
birds than can possibly be supplied.

Some people make money in breeding or training fancy
birds like canaries, mocking birds, finches, parrots, and so
on; but this industry can be carried on almost as well in
rooms in the city as in the country. Specializing on any
kind of animal rearing must be gone into with extreme
caution, because in the breeding of animals there are many
factors to be dealt with which do not confront the breeder
of plants. Make haste slowly, and before branching out be
sure that you master each step in its turn.

An industry which is practically unknown in this coun-
try, but which flourishes in Burgundy, France, is the raising
of snails for food. Those who are shocked by this will be
surprised to learn that snail culture was practiced by the
Romans at the time of the Civil War between Csesar and
Pompey, as Jacques Boyer says in American Homes and
Gardens. The snail lays from fifty to sixty eggs annually.
They are deposited in a smooth hole prepared for them in
the ground and hatched within twenty days. So rapidly
do they grow that they are ready for market six or eight
weeks after hatching. The snail park is made by inclosing
a plot of damp, limy soil with smooth boards coated with

NOVEL LIVE STOCK 157

tar to prevent the snails climbing out, and held in place by
outside stakes strong enough to withstand the wind. The
boards must penetrate the soil to the depth of eight inches
at least, and at a level with the ground they must have a sort
of shelf to prevent the snails from burrowing under them.
When the snail encounters an obstacle in its path, it lays
its eggs, sensible beast. Ten thousand snails can be raised
on a plot of land one hundred by two hundred feet. The
ground is plowed deeply in the spring, the snails are placed
on it and covered with from two to four inches of moss or
straw which is kept damp. They must be fed daily with
lettuce, cabbage, vine leaves, or grass ; as they eat at night,
they are fed shortly before sunset. Aromatic herbs, like
mint, parsley, etc., are planted in the inclosure to improve
the flavor of the snails.

In October, the snails having become fat through the
summer, retire into their shells, the mouths of which they
close with a thin gelatinous covering. They are now ready
for picking, and are put on screens or trays which are piled
together in storehouses, where they remain several months
without food. When the fast has been sufficiently prolonged,
the shells are brushed up and the snails cooked in salt water
in a great pot holding about ten thousand. When cooked,
they are immediately sent to the consumer in wooden boxes
holding from fifty to two hundred. The business is a very
profitable one, as the snail is considered a great delicacy by
epicures.

Perhaps the silkworm is not exactly in place in a chapter
on Novel Live Stock. It is at present not much more than
an interesting experiment, but there will be money in silk-
worm culture as soon as a market for the product is de-
veloped. The main difficulty is lack of food, as the worm

158 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

thrives best on the leaf of the white mulberry tree. Until a
substitute is found, it will be necessary therefore to set out
young trees, which in two years will bear enough leaves to
supply food. The labor of silkworm rearing all comes in
one month. It can be carried on in any large, airy room.
The eggs are hatched by the summer heat, and the worm
does not become a heavy eater until the last two weeks. It
sheds its skin four times, and after the final moult it climbs
into loose brush prepared for it and spins the cocoon. These
are then dried and shipped.

At the South, where the climate is well suited for silk cul-
ture, an obstacle has been found in the unadaptability of the
cheap labor, particularly colored labor, to the delicate han-
dling, and especially winding of the silk from the cocoons.

Many people make money by breeding dogs. Not much
land is required and very little capital, as kennels can be
multiplied as demand increases. There is always a profit-
able market for dogs, and some of the lap species, like the
King Charles spaniel, bring fabulous prices. Hunting dogs,
such as setters, pointers, retrievers, really require a game
country and a practical hunter who can train the puppies,
to make much of a success of it; with these, if properly
handled, the business is a safe one, as there is little other
technical skill required beyond ordinary care, such as is
given to domestic animals.

Cats are a better venture than dogs because they are
sold to women who will pay any price for what strikes their
fancy. Fashions in cats change about as fast as fashions in
coats, but cats breed faster than coats wear out, so it is
quick business.

Just now, coon cats, tortoise-shell cats, and bizarre colors
of Persian cats are mostly in vogue, but the tailless Manx

NOVEL LIVE STOCK 159

cat, and even freaks like the six-toed cat and lynx cats
always find a ready market.

Of course, these can be raised in the city, but if it is done
in a large enough way to make a living out of it, the Board
of Health and the neighbors will raise — something else.

Fishing and hunting are primitive industries of which we
think only in connection with wild land. But every bay
and pond and wood will supply at least some subsistence or
profit to the intelligent seeker.

Oysters, clams, crabs, mussels, frogs, and common fish
are found in abundance in many places, and help out with
table expenses. Even English sparrows are delicious.

Almost any wild animal is much more wholesome to eat
than pork. Squirrels and even weasels are cleaner feeders
than pigs, and the Indians eat them with great relish, while
everybody knows the keenness of the darkies for "coon."
Most snakes are better eating than eels and not near so re-
pulsive — when you get used to them.

The woodchuck is a nuisance to the farmer, covering his
field with loads of subsoil from the burrow and then eating
the tender sprouts; and the farmer does not know enough
to eat his tender corpse, but he is good to eat. If a rabbit
and a chicken could have young, it would taste like a wood-
chuck.

Muskrats, mink, raccoons, and gray and fox squirrels are
easily trapped ; and the skins of those killed in that way find
a steady market. Skins of poisoned animals do not sell so
well, as they are rough and dry.

In order to be profitable, these do not need to pay very
well in proportion to the time they take, since they are
hunted as recreation and at odd times.

But there is a larger field in raising wild animals, which

160 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

our Western people have not been slow to avail themselves
of, and we hear of men being prosecuted for breeding wolves,
coyotes, and bobcats, a kind of lynx, to get the government
bounty for the snouts or scalps.

In a legitimate way profit may be had from such animals.

Ernest Thompson Seton has an article in Country Life in
America, on raising fur-bearing animals for profit; this
offers a good chance for small capital and large intelligence.
He suggests the beaver, mink, otter, skunk, and marten, and
says that whoever would begin fur farming is better off with
five acres than with five hundred. He describes two fox
ranches at Dover, Maine. They raise twenty to forty silver
foxes a year, on a little more than half an acre of land.
The silver fox's fur is one of the most valuable on the market
and sells at an average of $150 a pelt, that is, $3000 to
$6000 gross for the year's work. Foxes are not expensive
to breed, their food consisting chiefly of sour milk and corn-
meal or flour made into a cake, and a little meat about once
a week.

The capital required is small. A fence for the inclosure
should be of one and a half inch mesh No. 16 galvanized
wire, ten feet high, with an overhang of eighteen inches to
keep the foxes from escaping, and is about the only outlay
except for purchase of stock.

Stakes should be driven close to the fence to keep them
from burrowing out.

They are naturally clean animals, and with careful atten-
tion are free from disease. Mr. Stevens reports that in his
two years' experience he has had twenty to thirty foxes and
lost none by disease, while Mr. Norton, with five years'
experience, carrying thirty to forty, reports that one to two
die each year.

NOVEL LIVE STOCK 161

They breed as well in captivity as in their wild state,
usually bringing forth a litter of six or seven in the spring.
These breed the following spring and then* fur is ready for
market the following December. And now breeders sell
fine stock to other breeders who are entering the industry,
sometimes getting three to four hundred dollars per pair.
Mr. Seton remarks, "I am satisfied that any man who has
made a success of hens can make a success of foxes, with
this, advantage for the latter — a fox requires no more
space or care than a hen, but is worth twenty times as
much, and so gives a chance for returns twenty times as
large."

This is an infant industry, but if others can get the same
results, it will pay handsomely. To get the best furs,
however, requires a district where the winters are cold
and long.

There are a few skunk farms in the West. It is said that
the scent gland can be taken out, though that is not neces-
sary, and that the farms do well. Their oil is also said to be
valuable. But while skunks are so common there cannot
be much in breeding them.

If your fancy goes to "critters" rather than crops it is
much better to raise game birds. Wild turkeys raised under
a hen or in an incubator and made pretty tame (if too tame
they do not thrive so well in a small area), "wild" ducks,
grouse, partridges, quails, even wood ducks which build
their nests in trees are no longer experiments.

All the common enemies you have to contend against are
foxes, dogs, cats, rats, mink, skunks, hawks, owls, crows,
frogs, turtles, snakes, poachers, game legislators, and
disease.

It has been calculated that one pair of quails and its

162 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

progeny would produce five or six million birds in eight years
if there were no losses. But so would chickens ; and prob-
ably you will not get that many.

All about these game birds is set forth in an advertising
booklet called, "Game Farming" of the Hercules Powder
Co., which has offices in a dozen cities, so we need not en-
large.

CHAPTER XVII

WHERE TO GO

INTENSIVE cultivation, raising a big crop on little land, can
be carried on most profitably near areas of dense population ;
for perishable products, like fruits and vegetables, can be best
marketed near the consumer. The limit for delivery by
auto is about fifteen to twenty miles, and then only if roads
are good; if the land selected lies on the line of a railroad
which gives equal terms to way freight and to through freight,
you will fare nearly as well. Railroads control agricultural
development. Sparsely settled regions always practice ex-
tensive cultivation, raising light crops on big farms, because
only such crops can be grown as can be raised on large areas
by machinery, and are not perishable. Staples like corn,
wheat, pork, and beef are transported at low prices for long
distances by the railroads. This forces the settlers in newly
opened portions of the country to sell in a market created by
the railroads, in competition with what is produced within
the areas of intensive cultivation, that is, with access to
adjacent markets.

So we find the bonanza wheat farms of California, the
Dakotas, and the Canadian Northwest, the pampas of the
Argentine, the Steppes of Russia, and the Indian uplands
devoted to wheat raising; in the United States corn belt,
fields of from five to twenty thousand acres are still not un-
common.

163

164 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Conversely, intensive cultivation is most advanced in
China, where a dense population forced the people long ago
to bring into use every foot of tillable soil that is left open to
them.

Near the towns of the United States a few market gardeners
supply such vegetables as the people do not raise for them-
selves. The states along the Atlantic seaboard have all the
facilities for successful intensive cultivation — a dense popu-
lation and idle, cultivable land. In choosing a location, the
home crofter should well consider his experience, and try to
enter a community where he can engage in analogous pur-
suits. Dairy regions never have enough men who under-
stand cattle and horses ; fruit-growing districts always need
experienced pickers; market garden regions need men who
understand rotating crops and making hotbeds, transplant-
ing, etc.

If you have a little money, you can probably do best by
buying and draining some swamp land, which is the most
productive of all, as it contains the washings of the upland
for centuries. Swamp land can usually be cleared and
drained for from thirty to forty dollars per acre. It can be
bought very cheap and when ready to cultivate will have
increased many times in value.

The next best is the " abandoned " or worn-out farm.
Proper methods of cultivation will bring it back to more than
its original fertility. The Eastern states from Maine to
Virginia abound with them at from five to twenty-five
dollars per acre. In many cases the buildings are worth
more than the whole price asked.

The nearest land easily available in the East is in the
state of New York. The writer believes it is true that " there
are twenty thousand farms for sale in this state, and nearly

WHERE TO GO 165

all at such low prices and upon such favorable terms as to
make them available for any one desiring to engage in agri-
culture or have a farm home. The soil of these farms is not
exhausted, but on the contrary is, with proper cultivation,
very productive. Nearly all have good buildings and fences,
are supplied with good water and plenty of wood for farm
purposes, and in nearly all cases have apple and other fruit
trees upon them." (List of Farms, occupied and unoccupied,
for sale in New York State. Bureau of Information and
Statistics, Bulletin, State of New York, Department of Agri-
culture.)

These farms are distributed all over the state, some in
nearly every county. In Sullivan County, for example,
there are farms for sale ranging in price from ten to one hun-
dred dollars per acre. These can, almost without exception,
be bought by small payments, balance on long mortgages,
and it is wonderful how cheap they are. In Ulster County
thirty farms, some of which I have seen, are offered for sale
at trifling prices.

Of course, many of these farms have been sold since the
first editions of this book, and the prices have advanced, per-
haps on the average doubled ; but cheap automobiles have
improved roads and have made others available that were
useless ten years ago. The development of the Southern
states, with eradication of the cattle tick (the cause of
"Texas Fever") and irrigation and rotation of crops, has
opened up new countries. N. O. Nelson writes he has
bought many Louisiana farms for his cooperative enterprise
for about what the improvements are worth.

Cut over woodlands which we have learned to make pro-
duce incomes of about five dollars each year per acre by in-
telligent forestry, as well as swamp lands which we now know

166 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

how to make healthful by drainage and by the extinction of
mosquitoes, can still be had at low prices in New York and
other states. Numerous others are in the market from five
dollars per acre up, and so it goes through the state, from
Wyoming County in the extreme western end, where farms
ranging from thirty to three hundred acres are in the market
at from thirty to forty dollars per acre, to St. Lawrence
County in the north, where land can be bought as low as
fifteen dollars per acre.

When it is considered that these lands are within easy ac-
cess to established markets with transportation and mail
facilities, rural delivery, and telephone a proper idea may
be formed of their value in opportunity. The authority
quoted further states that "probably fifty thousand agri-
cultural laborers can find employment on the farms of New
York at good wages. Families particularly are wanted to
rent houses and work farms on shares." Wages for new
hands run from twenty to thirty dollars and upwards per
month with board. Men who know how to milk are es-
pecially in demand throughout the dairy regions. These con-
ditions make it possible for experienced farmers, although
entirely without money, to get to the soil.

Over three hundred thousand aliens annually settled in
the cities of New York State during some years in the last
decade. These people could be got out of the cities, where
in normal times they are little needed, into adjacent country
districts where they are much needed.

In the Real Estate Record and Guide, Mr. A. L. Langdon
says : " It is most remarkable that there are on Long Island,
within from thirty-five to seventy miles of New York, thou-
sands of acres of land which have never been cultivated, which
have for years produced nothing but cordwood, and which

WHERE TO GO 167

the owners allow to be overrun with fire almost every year.
A large part of this land has soil two or three feet deep under-
laid with gravel. The best water in the world is abundant
and the climate is more equable than on the mainland, and
in each locality where any reasonable effort has been made
to cultivate the soil, it has produced plentifully of all fruits
and vegetables which can be grown in this latitude."

Long Island should produce all the fruit, vegetables, poultry,
eggs, and milk needed by its own residents, with a large sur-
plus for the city markets, instead of getting, as it does, a
large part of its supply of these things from the city.

When it is considered that about a quarter of a million acres
of this land so close to the city is now scrub oak and uncul-
tivated waste, and that there are about a million adult
workers in the city, the importance of the experiment is ob-
vious ; especially as we learn from the United States census
that over ten thousand of these workers are already in agri-
cultural pursuits within the city limits.

" Here midway on Long Island, and just beyond the limits
for a man to locate who expects to earn his living by daily
work in the city, is a territory about forty miles long and ten
miles wide which by intensive farming would yield a good
living for more than two hundred thousand inhabitants.
In this agricultural section, a man of small means who ex-
pects to live on the land the year round, should purchase a
plot not too small to produce enough to support himself and
family and a surplus to sell, not less than six acres. Probably
all men have more or less land hunger — a desire to own land
— and it is a worthy object to encourage to the extent of in-
ducing a man to purchase what he can pay for and be satisfied
with, but it is a shameful thing to induce a poor man, who has
to earn his living hi New York, to buy on the installment

168 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

plan a small lot so far from his place of employment that he
cannot live on it and travel to and from his work every day,
and where there is the strongest probability that he will never
make more than two or three payments, and will consequently
lose what he does pay." The writer hears of one plot which
was sold nineteen times and the contracts defaulted on after
payments, before any one took title.

If the seeker is not satisfied with the opportunities which
the state of New York offers, he may turn to New Jersey,
equally accessible and equally rich in chances.

New Jersey Year-Book : " There are in the southern part
of the State large tracts of land which are still uncleared, or
covered with brushwood, and which are adapted to tillage
and capable of producing large crops of small fruits and mar-
ket garden vegetables. The wood on them is mainly scrub
oak, with some dwarfed pitch pine and yellow pine, and hence
they are called oak lands to distinguish them from the more
sandy lands and tracts on which the pitch pine grows almost
exclusively. The latter are known as pine lands. The total
area of cleared (farm) lands in the southern division of the
State, southeast of the marl belt, is about 450,000 acres. The
pineland belts have an aggregate area of 486,000 acres, mak-
ing at least 800,000 acres accessible by railways from the
large cities and also near to tidewater navigation. The
maps of the Geological Survey show the location and the
extent of these lands, their railway lines, and their relation
to the settlements already made and to the cities.

"The soils of these tracts are sandy and not naturally so
rich and fertile as the more heavy clay soils of the limestone,
the red shale, and the marl districts of the State, but they
are not so sandy and so coarse-grained as to be non-produc-
tive, like some of the pineland areas. The latter are often

WHERE TO GO 169

deficient in plant food and are deservedly characterized as
pine barrens, being too poor for farm purposes. The growth
of oak and pine, as well as chemical analyses, shows that the
oak-land soils contain the elements of plant production.
They are not so well suited to pasturage or to continuous
cropping as naturally rich virgin soils ; they are better fitted
for raising vegetables, melons, sweet potatoes, small fruits,
peaches, and pears than wheat, Indian corn, hay, and other
staples. The eminent superiority of this kind of farming in
New Jersey over the old routine of wheat, corn, hay, and po-
tatoes is well known. These South Jersey soils are easily
cleared of brushwood or standing timber, and of stumps,
with a hand or horse-power puller which is a cheap affair,
and the wood is salable in all this part of the State at remu-
nerative prices, often bringing more than the original cost of
the land. The long working season and the short and mild
winter favor the arrangement of work, so that all is done
with the least outlay for help. They also favor the mos-
quitoes.

" The success of Hammonton, Egg Harbor City, Vineland,
and other places is notable, and equally good results are to be
had at a hundred or more places as well situated as they are.
These lands are sold at low figures, and the settler saves in
capital and interest account. Only the difficulty of getting
money to help in building interferes with rapid settlement.

"The West Jersey Railway, the Pennsylvania, and the
Philadelphia and Reading's Atlantic City Railroad, the Phil-
adelphia and Seashore Railway, the New Jersey Southern
Railroad, and other branch roads afford excellent facilities
for access to New York, Philadelphia, and the cities of the
State. The Cohansey, Maurice, and Mullica rivers head well
up near the northwest limits of these lands, and their navi-

170 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

gable reaches run for miles across them. The waters of the
Delaware Bay and the ocean are within a few miles of a large
part of this oak-land domain.

"The advantages of an old settled and Eastern State,
within easy reach of these large markets, of land which is
easily tilled and generous and quick in its response to feeding,
and at low prices, make them equal to, if not better than, the
rich prairie soils of a new West, or the low prices and cheap
lands of the abandoned hillsides of New England."

Wages for unskilled farm labor are about the same as for
New York — twenty to twenty-five dollars per month. The
canning and fruit industries make room for a large number of
people in the late summer and fall, who may thus, by taking
a temporary place, find some permanent location where
they may improve their health and fortunes.

"Delaware also offers unequalled opportunities to immi-
grants. It is ideally situated on the Atlantic Ocean and the
Delaware Bay, and is penetrated by numerous creeks and
rivers.

"The railroad, steam, and electric facilities of the State
are developing steadily year by year, while every section of
the State possesses easily navigable streams, with vessels
for carrying freight and passengers.

" Over fifteen millions of people live within a radius of three
hundred miles ; the large majority reside in cities and towns
and furnish the finest markets in the world. Within five
hundred miles are more than one third of the people of all
North America.

"Wilmington is a city of seventy-five thousand people, is
growing rapidly, and is becoming a great manufacturing place.

"These people may be reached in one day by the luscious
fruits that grow in Delaware, and every one of them is per-

WHERE TO GO 171

fectly happy when he gets a Delaware peach. Many other
Delaware products are as good as the peaches.

"As cattle and wheat raising developed in the great West,
Delaware people thought that they were ruined. They did
not change at once, but slowly discovered that the light
lands are wonderfully productive of fruits and vegetables,
and that they pay much better than cattle and grain ever
could. But these new methods have not been adopted
in all parts of the State, so that land neglected and unprofit-
able is for sale. The tides of immigration have swept west-
ward and left Delaware untouched. Men, money, and
enterprise are needed.

"There are few unoccupied or 'abandoned' farms in
Delaware." The land is mostly held by descendants of the
early settlers, who form a species of landed aristocracy.
Lately, owing to the younger members of these families
having become established in the newer states and on ac-
count of the death or incapacity of the older members left
in possession, there has been a marked tendency to sell off
these farms. However, "a large proportion of the farms
in Delaware are not for sale at any price. - Some of them
have been hi the same family for generations, and if put
on the market would sell for from one to two hundred
dollars per acre."

The soil is all the way from a heavy white oak clay, which
is too stiff and too sticky for most crops, to very light sand.

The heaviest clay is made lighter and more porous, and
the lightest sand is readily made retentive of moisture and
extremely productive, by plowing hi different kinds of crops
as green manure, such as cow peas, soy beans, the vetches,
etc. ; crimson clover, winter oats, rye, turnips, and numerous
other crops may be sown in August or later, and produce a

172 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

fine crop for turning under early in the spring. Crimson
clover grows nearly all winter. Pure cold water is reached
at from twenty to fifty feet by dug or driven wells.

The climate is good; there are no cyclones. There is
some damp weather in winter, but there are no malignant
fevers, and there is little or no malaria, except in a few marshy
places. There are some mosquitoes and flies, but they are not
especially troublesome, and there are no poisonous reptiles.

The population is mostly native, five sixths white, one sixth
colored. The white population is almost entirely of Anglo-
Saxon descent.

"Perfect titles may be secured, but all titles everywhere
should always be searched by a competent lawyer, the usual
fee for which is ten to twenty dollars.

"Farm hands receive from twenty to twenty-five dollars
per month and board, for a season of nine or ten months,
sometimes for the whole year. Day hands receive from
seventy-five cents to two dollars per day and board
themselves."

Those who are tempted by the advertisements for fruit-
pickers should beware. Delaware, like some other states,
allows fees to constables and to the " squires " — Justices of
the Peace they would be elsewhere — for arrests, and it is
a common practice to advertise for fruit pickers, then ar-
rest them as tramps when they come, and the next day re-
lease them on condition that they will leave the county at
once — and leave the trap open for the next comer.

Delaware peaches have made fortunes for many, but will
make still greater fortunes in the future for the owners of
the land.

Pears, plums, grapes, watermelons, and cantaloupes thrive,
and find an ideal home, and small fruits all flourish. Sweet

WHERE TO GO 173

potatoes yield bountifully and are of the finest quality.
Asparagus and early white potatoes pay handsome profits.
Tomatoes, the great canning crop, are grown by the thou-
sands of acres.

"The grasses and clovers grow hi luxuriance, and hence
dairying and beef production are profitable. Poultry pays
as well as anywhere else ; chickens often run on green clover
all through the open whiter.

"The game consists of various species of ducks, quails,
reed birds, hares, marsh rabbits, and other small creatures.
Shad, trout, herring, crocus, black bass, pike, white fish,
rock fish, oysters, clams, crabs, and terrapin are abundant
in Delaware waters."

The tax in the rural counties is generally sixty cents on
the hundred dollars. Besides this there are taxes on business
and a very light school tax. There is no state tax, yet the
state makes large appropriations for the support of the public
schools, which are free to everybody.

Maryland has established a State Bureau of Immigration
in Baltimore to give information to home seekers, and advise
them as to choice of location, opportunities for getting started
in agricultural production, and aid them in any way consist-
ent with a State Bureau. Most of these facts are taken
from such reports.

Southern Maryland and the eastern shore are especially
adapted to gardening and trucking, as well as fruit growing.
Land is cheap and can be purchased in tracts of any size
from an acre upwards, at from ten to fifty dollars per acre.
Farms from twenty acres to seven hundred acres and up
are for sale in nearly every county in the state. The removal
of a large part of the negro population from the country to
the cities has resulted in the partition of the large estates

174 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

into smaller farms, thus affording an opportunity for home
seekers who are seeking cheap land amid congenial surround-
ings. Nearly all of these farms have buildings, some in
need of repair, others in very good condition.

For those who wish to avoid the hard work of breaking
woodlands, the eastern and western shores offer abundant
well-cultivated lands with buildings, orchards, and woods,
in the immediate vicinity of navigable rivers and railways,
on good roads at from twenty dollars per acre upwards.
That seems cheap.

For settlers who are accustomed to mountainous regions,
western Maryland has land for sale at even cheaper rates.

"There are many large tidal marshes in Maryland, as might
be expected in a territory watered like this state. They are
of the richest soil to be found, because the Chesapeake Bay
is a great river valley, receiving the drainage of a vast area
of fertile land, comprising nearly one third of New York
and nearly all of the great agricultural states of Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland, and Virginia. Every year this drainage
brings down a black sediment, called oyster mud, which is
deposited on the marshlands and enriches the soil, making
it, with proper cultivation, of productivity like that of the
rice and wheat fields of Egypt. These unreclaimed lands
are used chiefly for grain."

Proper drainage of small tracts of this land would bring
unsurpassed and absolutely untouched fertility.

The Chesapeake River valley is not so large as that of the
Nile or Ganges, but is of enough consequence to play an im-
portant part in human affairs and to support in comfort and
prosperity a population as large as that of many famous states.

"The eastern shore is uniformly level, with good roads.
The proximity of the ocean and the bay greatly modules the

WHERE TO GO 175

temperature. It has a great trunk railway, with connections
along its entire length, called the Delaware Division of the
Pennsylvania railroad, which furnishes direct transportation
to Philadelphia, New York, and other northern cities."

"On the eastern shore there are many thousand acres of
land devoted to garden truck, and the strawberry crop has
of late years become of importance. Over one hundred
carloads of strawberries are shipped daily during the season
to the Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston
markets."

Land properly cultivated will yield four thousand quarts
of strawberries to an acre.

The canning of various fruits and vegetables has grown
to be larger than that of any other state and is one of the
most profitable of the industries of Maryland. The prin-
cipal articles canned are peaches, peas, and tomatoes.

The tomato crop is also profitable to the grower. The
young plants are set out hi the spring ; many do this with
a machine, but two persons can easily plant seven acres
in a day by hand.

An acre will produce from six to eighteen tons of tomatoes,
according to the quality of the soil. All such products bring
better prices now in Maryland markets than they did be-
fore canning was resorted to. The Maryland tin can is
known wherever civilization reaches.

Tobacco is extensively produced only in southern Mary-
land, although it can be raised in any section of the state.

In the neighborhood of the larger cities trucking and
fruit growing are profitable, combined with poultry raising,
often on farms of not more than five or ten acres.

Many farmers devote part of their time successfully to
bees, and there is nowhere a better climate for flowers than

176 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

that of Maryland. Two English florists who have settled
in Baltimore County, ten and thirteen miles northeast of
the city, daily send to all parts of the United States and
even to Canada many large boxes of beautiful roses, car-
nations, violets, and other choice flowers. Both of these
men began on a small scale and have prospered.

The farmer who has a couple of thousand dollars to pay
cash for a small farm in Maryland is assured of a good
living. But also a less favored settler, if he has only from
four to eight hundred dollars, can have a good start in Mary-
land, and probably as good a chance for independence and
prosperity as anywhere.

Families of immigrants when traveling to the Western,
Northwestern, and Southern states of America have to spend
from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars for rail-
road tickets from New York to their destination ; by going
to these adjoining states they can save all that money, and
invest it in land.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Immigration
also publishes information for the home seeker.

To most people the name Virginia carries with it limitless
vistas of tobacco fields covered with darkies plying the hoe,
or picking off the ubiquitous worm. Before the War this
picture would have been a true one ; but since the awaken-
ing of the younger generation to a better understanding of
her resources, together with the withdrawal of large numbers
of the colored people into industrial occupations, no state
offers more attractive inducements to the homecrofter than
Virginia. In climate, diversity of soils, fruits, forests, water
supply, mineral deposits, including mountain and valley,
she offers unsurpassed advantages. Truly did Captain
John Smith, the adventurous father of Virginia, suggest that

WHERE TO GO 177

"Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for
man's habitation."

Virginia lies between the extremes of heat and cold, re-
moved alike from the sultry, protracted summers of the
more southern states, and the longer winters and devastating
storm and cyclones of the North and Northwest. Its limits
north and south correspond to California and southern
Europe.

The climate is mild and healthful. The winters are less
severe than in the Northern and Northwestern states, or
even the western localities of the same latitude, while the
occasional periods of extreme heat in the summer are not
more oppressive than hi many portions of the North.

Tidewater Virginia, or the Coastal Plain, as it is some-
times called, receives the name from the fact that the streams
that penetrate it feel the ebb and flow of the tides from the
ocean up to the head of navigation. It consists chiefly of
broad and level plains, while a considerable portion, nearest
to the bay, has shallow bays and estuaries, and marshes
that are in most instances reached only by the ocean tides.
These marshes abound with wild duck and sora. Tidewater
is mainly an alluvial country. The soil is chiefly light, sandy
loam, underlaid with clay. Its principal productions are
fruits and early vegetables, which are raised in extensive
"market gardens," and shipped in large quantities to North-
ern cities. The fertilizing minerals — gypsum, marl, and
greensand — abound, and their judicious use readily restores
the lands when exhausted by improvident cultivation.

Middle Virginia is a wide, undulating plain, crossed by
many rivers that have cut their channels to a considerable
depth and are bordered by alluvial bottom lands that are
very productive. The soil consists of clays with a subsoil

178 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

of disintegrated sandstone rocks, and varies according to
the nature of the rock from which it is formed.

The principal productions of middle Virginia are corn,
wheat, oats, and tobacco. The tobacco raised in this sec-
tion and hi Piedmont, known as the "Virginia Leaf," is the
best grown and the best known in the United States. In
this section, as in Tidewater, the low bottom lands formed
by the sediment of the waters are exceptionally productive.

The Piedmont section is diversified and surpassingly pic-
turesque. The soil is heavier than that of middle Virginia,
the subsoil being of stiff and dark red clay. On the slopes
of the Blue Ridge grapes of delicious flavor grow luxuriantly.
These produce excellent wines, and the clarets have a wide
fame. The pippin apples of this section are of unrivaled
excellence.

The " Great Valley," as it is descriptively called, is in the
general configuration one continuous valley, included be-
tween the two mountain chains that extend throughout the
state ; it is one of the most abundantly watered regions on
the face of the globe. Deep limestone beds form the floor of
the Great Valley, and from these beds the soil derives an
exceeding fertility, peculiarly adapted to the growth of grasses
and gram, and it bears the name of the "garden spot" of
the state.

Five trunk lines of railroads penetrate and intersect the
state. The lines of steamboats that ply the navigable
streams of eastern Virginia afford commercial communica-
tion for large sections of the state with the markets of this
country and of Europe. Norfolk and Newport News main-
tain communication with the European markets by steamers
and vessels, while from these ports is also kept up an exten-
sive commerce along the Atlantic seaboard. The seaports

WHERE TO GO 179

are nearer than is New York to the great centers of popu-
lation, and areas of production, of the West and Northwest.

Market garden crops of every description can be grown.
The following result was obtained on a four-acre patch near
Norfolk :

j "The owner stated that in September he sowed spinach on
four acres. Between Christmas and the first of March fol-
lowing he cut and sold the spinach at the rate of one hundred
barrels to the acre, at a price ranging from two to seven dol-
lars per barrel — an average of $4.50 per barrel. Early in
March the four acres were set out to lettuce, setting the
plants in the open air with no protection whatever, [175,000
plants on the four acres. He shipped 450 half-barrel baskets
of lettuce to the acre, at a price ranging from $2 to $2.75 per
basket.

" Early in April, just before the lettuce was ready to ship,
he planted snap beans between the lettuce rows; and to-
day, June 2d, these are the finest beans we have seen this
season.

"The last week in May he planted cantaloupes between
the bean rows, which, when marketed in July, will make
four crops from the same land in one year's time. The
cantaloupes will be good for 250 crates to the acre, and the
price will run from $1 to $1.50 per crate. A careful inves-
tigation of these 'facts, figures, and features ' will show
that his gross sales will easily reach $2000 per acre ; his net
profits depend largely upon the man and the management;
but they surely should not be less than $1000 clear, clean
profit to the acre."

"This is for farming done all out of doors. No hothouse
or hotbed work — not a bit of it, with no extra expense, for
hotbeds, cold frames, or hothouses."

180 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

"Intensive," thorough tillage and care of the soil will
probably pay as well here as at any point in the United
States.

Apples are the principal fruit crop of the state. There is
a yearly increasing number of trees. In one of the valley
counties a seventeen-year-old orchard of 1150 trees pro-
duced an apple crop as far back as 1905 which brought the
owner $10,000, another of fifty twenty-year-old trees brought
$700. Mr. H. E. Vandeman, one of the best-known horti-
culturists in the country, says that there is not in all North
America a better place to plant orchards than in Virginia;
on account of its "rich apple soil, good flavor and keeping
qualities of the fruit, and nearness to the great markets of
the East and Europe."

The trees attain a fine size and live to a good old age, and
produce abundantly. In Patrick County there is a tree nine
feet five inches around which has borne 110 bushels of apples
at a single crop ; other trees have borne even more. One
farmer in Albemarle County has received more than $15,000
for a single crop of Albemarle Pippins grown on twenty
acres of land. This pippin is considered the most delicious
apple in the world.

The fig, pomegranate, and other delicate fruits flourish
in the Tidewater region.

New England, from Maine to Rhode Island, is suffering
from one disease — lack of intelligent labor. Thirty
years ago the sons and daughters who, in the natural course
of events, would have stayed to cultivate the home acres,
left to form a part of the westward throng making for the
level, untouched prairies of Illinois and Iowa.

The old folks have died or become incapacitated. New
interests chain their children to adopted homes. Result,

WHERE TO GO 181

— unoccupied lands by the hundred thousand acres,
awaiting energy, skill, and faith.

Ten dollars an acre is a common price for the rocky hills
of New England. The choice river bottoms, and land near
the larger cities is as high priced as similar land anywhere
else. Intending settlers can buy small areas for little money ;
usually the smallest farms have good buildings worth in
many cases more than the price asked for the whole farm.
Climatic conditions are not favorable to single cropping.
In the old days general farming, grain, beef, sheep, and hogs
were the rule; nowadays, special crops, dairying, fruit
growing, etc.

Tobacco is the great staple in the rich Connecticut River
bottoms, and even on the uplands, if properly manured, it
pays from one to three hundred dollars per acre. Tobacco
can be raised on small areas far from the railroad, as, when
properly cured and packed for shipment, it is not perishable.
To many the worst feature of New England is the climate

— long, cold winters and short summers. Maine being
farthest north suffers most in this respect, but that does
not prevent her producing hundreds of thousands of tons
of sweet corn for canning and vast quantities of eggs and
butter. Fruit does well on the lower coast ; a small orchard
of peaches or plums will in three or four years from planting
make a comfortable living. Bush fruits grow in abundance
and give never-failing crops.

Poultry is peculiarly successful on the rocky hills, because
they are nearly always dry or well drained. Dairying can
be made to pay if near a creamery, or where milk can be
sold at retail. The prospective settler here should bear in
mind that wherever he goes, the first year will produce
little more than a kitchen garden; the second enable him

182 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

barely to pull through, and the third give him a start at a
permanent income. In farming, as in all other businesses,
only those will succeed who know what they want and how
to get it; who have selected with care the locality best
suited to the special crops they intend to raise; and after
having once made a selection, stick until they have com-
pelled success.

The lure of the vast West and of the new South is not
forgotten; but the time has passed when the young man
could go West to take a farm of Uncle Sam's. Desirable
land is too expensive for the pioneer, and the constant toil
and comparative isolation of the prairie farm offers but a
poor sort of liberty, though it still affords a living.

But close to the growing towns in those states small plots
of land can still be had to work with the same bright pros-
pects that are offered near the great metropolis.

In nearly all the sections within the area of intensive cul-
tivation, timber is still plentiful enough to make it the cheap-
est building material ; and persons who really want to get to
the land can contrive a sufficient shelter, like a pioneer's,
for from two to five hundred dollars.

CHAPTER XVIII

CLEARING THE LAND

IT is pretty good fun to hack at bushes and to chop trees
down and then to chop them up. If there is only a small
part of the land to be cleared, a man can easily learn skill
with the ax and do it at odd times, but he was a wise old
man of whom his little girl said, " When grandpa wants any-
thing, that moment he wants it." It is now that we need
the land ; but even if it is covered with trees, there is no
cause for discouragement. Lumber is so high that the
local or portable sawmill men will buy the timber by the
acre. They will cut the trees and haul the logs.

If you decide to cut a tree yourself, a little inquiry will
show for what purpose it will bring the highest price. Lo-
cust sticks, for example, four to six inches thick, will bring
in New York ten or fifteen cents a running foot for insulator
pinions. If a maple proves to be either "curly" or "bird's-
eye" (this depending not on the variety, but on the acci-
dental undulations of the fiber), it will be in demand for the
manufacture of furniture.

Sugar maples ten or fifteen feet high can be transplanted
or sold. Nut and fruit trees will nearly always be worth
keeping.

Cedar sticks fourteen feet long will bring twenty cents in
most places for hop and bean poles. See what can be sold
instead of burned, and don't cut down recklessly ; an unsal-

183

184 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

able tree may be valuable as a windbreak or as shade for
your house. The wrong tree for shade is the dense foliaged,
low-branched tree which forms a solid dome from the ground
up. The right tree, in the opinion of Henry Hicks (in Country
Life in America), is the American elm, which ought to be
called the umbrella tree. Pliny speaks of the plane tree,
our sycamore or buttonwood, as excellent, because of the
horizontal branches which, like window blinds, allow free
passage of the breezes while intercepting the heat of the sun.

The ideal shade tree is a canopy like a parasol over the
house, with high, leafy branches that do not shut off light
and air from the windows. This cools a house by keeping
the sun off and cools the air by the rapid evaporation from its
leaves, and will make it ten to fifteen degrees cooler in sum-
mer. It will be cheaper and more effective than a com-
bination of awnings, piazza, and eaves. Woodman, spare
that tree.

Stumps may be burned out To get a good draught,
bore a hole in a slanting direction far down among the roots.
The smoke goes through the hole first and then the flame,
boring the body to the roots deep enough to plow. Land
can also be cleared by dynamite. We condense from Edith
Loring Fullerton in Farming on what has been done.

To go into the desolate, uncultivated, burned over " waste
lands" near a great city and put ten acres under cultivation
in the shortest possible space of time was our problem. We
undertook it at short notice in an uncertain season — the
autumn — with the determination to get at least a portion
of the land seeded down to winter rye before cold weather
prohibited further work.

United to this problem was that of working a small farm
to its utmost capacity rather than half cultivation of a

CLEARING THE LAND 185

large one, which is difficult to handle from lack of time
and labor and an unwise proposition for the East under the
most favorable circumstances.

Ten acres of scraggy-looking woodland was purchased,
sixty-eight miles from New York City on the north shore of
Long Island. The plot had a few second and third growth
oak and chestnut trees and "sprouts" along the borders.
All else had been burned, and the center of the acreage
exhibited the mangled and blackened remains of a once
thrifty woodland.

We proceeded to choose as our helpers native Long Is-
landers whom we were desirous of allowing to work. We
succeeded by strenuous efforts in getting together a "gang"
of both colored and white men to the stupendous number
of eight. They fell to work with a right good will, at first
cutting down here and trimming up there as directed. How-
ever, after giving them a fair trial, we decided that they
must be replaced by Italians. The question of housing the
eighteen Italians soon came up. Tents might be adopted
or even the unsanitary "dugout" be allowed to mar the
landscape. A shanty was entirely too ugly to suit our tastes,
and also expensive, and useless when the men were through
with it. Tents were too airy, as we knew the work would
continue until freezing weather, and perhaps well into the
winter. We "passed" on the "dugout." The ideal was
something that would be of use after the work of clearing
was completed, and for that purpose we decided upon " con-
demned" freight cars. They cost but ten dollars each, the
railroad being glad to get rid of them. We bought two,
ultimately using one for a chicken house and the other as a
barn. In the meantime it was decided to remove the stumps
by dynamite, as trying to yank them out by stump pullers

186 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

or by mattock and plow was both slow and brutal. The
ordinary custom of allowing nature to work six years at the
stumps and gradually eliminate them by decay was not to
be thought of.

Dynamiter Kissam, a Long Island expert, arrived and
set to work, using fuses for small stumps up to two feet in
diameter.

With the advent of the Italians work began in earnest;
they cleared out every useless tree, cutting cord wood where
any could be obtained and burning the branches and charred
trees as they went. They also cleared out all underbrush
thoroughly.

The dynamiter with his helper followed them up. This
is the most exciting and interesting part of clearing land by
modern methods.

The dynamite is put up in half-pound sticks. They are
a little larger than an ordinary candle and are wrapped in
heavy yellow paraffined paper. One folded end of this
paper is opened up and a hole made by a wooden skewer into
the dynamite stick, which is plastic and resembles graham
bread in color and consistency.

For magneto-battery work where several charges are re-
quired, a copper cap in which is a minute quantity of ful-
minate of mercury, and which is exploded by a spark, is at-
tached to fine electric wires and sealed by sulphur. This
cap is placed in holes in the sticks of dynamite, and then
securely tied by drawing string tightly around the paper
which is raised to admit the cap.

In preparing a charge for fuse ignition, the cap is crimped
to the end of a piece of mining fuse and this is inserted
in the dynamite stick and securely fastened as previously
described.

CLEARING THE LAND 187

These prepared charges are placed in a basket and carried
very tenderly to the stumps which have been prepared by
the dynamiter's assistant. All the work is handled very
carefully, for while there is not much danger of an accident
unless fire is placed near the explosive, nevertheless ex-
treme caution is used at all tunes. It requires a nature
serene, calm, and deliberate.

Deep oblique holes were then made with a round crowbar
under the stump singled out for execution. This hole should
be as nearly horizontal as possible and directly under the
stump so that all the explosive force may be, expended
on the wood and not on the earth between the dynamite
and the stump. The earth acts as a cushion and the natu-
ral tendency of dynamite to exert force downward is coun-
teracted.

As soon as a small strip was blown, the Italians, gathering
up all the stumps, roots, and fragments, removing any pieces
that were loosened but not completely torn out, and piling
them at intervals, immediately burned them. This cannot
be done when stumps are removed by any other method, for
by the digging process the earth must be picked and scraped
from them and ultimately the stump hacked in pieces before
it will burn.

By our method the stump is burned and the finest kind of
unleached wood ashes — containing lime to "sweeten" and
potash and phosphoric acid to furnish plant food — are
spread upon the ground a few hours after the stumps are
blown out. These ashes would under other circumstances
have to be purchased at a cost of perhaps two dollars a
barrel, and as five barrels at least to the acre are required
for good fertilization, these ashes gave us the first credit
upon the books.

188 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Following the burners came the manure spreaders; five
carloads of manure had been purchased and was delivered
before it was needed. When the manure was spread upon
the land (one half carload to the acre), the plow started its
work smoothly and with none of the strain and jerk on man
and beast usual in new land. The soil was turned over
with the greatest ease, for the explosions had shivered and
torn out even the smallest roots, so the plow ran through
the ground much more easily than in sod land.

Our friable, sandy loam, with a light admixture of clay,
pulverized and aerated by the explosions, was in market
garden condition at once and without the year's loss of
crops assured by old methods.

A tooth harrow was next run over the plowed section,
and gleaners followed the harrow, picking up the fine roots
as they were brought to the surface. As piles of these fine
roots grew, they were burned and the ashes immediately
spread upon the land. The tooth harrow was run again
across the rows, the disk harrow following chopped and pul-
verized the earth into the finest possible condition. Thirty-
five and one half working days after Larry and his gang
arrived, rye was drilled into three and one half acres.

The condemned freight cars were placed upon skids and
drawn to the desired position over soaped planks. They
were raised from the ground to give good under ventilation.
The north and east sides are filled or banked up with sand
which came out of the well. This keeps out the cold winds,
and, in the case of the chicken-house car, allows the fowls a
shaded shelter on hot summer days.

The chicken-house car was placed facing the southeast.
The western end has a large glazed sash placed on it, and
two in the southern side. One half the car was partitioned

CLEARING THE LAND 189

off for roosting quarters, while the other half serves as a
laying and scratching house. This farm keeps only a few
chickens for family use.

The artesian well was started in October. The well was,
naturally, a necessity, but there was much to be considered
in regard to the method of pumping. Under ordinary cir-
cumstances a windmill would do, and is generally a good
auxiliary; a ten-foot iron tower and a ten-foot fan wheel
cost about fifty dollars, but our farm is not to be allowed to
be a failure for lack of water in a dry season. In case of
drought (and every summer brings one of greater or less
duration) water must be on hand, and as a drought usually
is accompanied by windless weather, the windmill could not
be depended upon. An engine was obviously necessary.
Both gasoline and kerosene engines were closely investi-
gated, with the result that a kerosene oil engine was decided
upon. (The new style of heavy oil engine is better and
cheaper to run. Ed.) An advantage of the engine over a
windmill is that it will furnish power for cutting wood,
grinding grain, or lighting the buildings, a two and one-
half horsepower engine running twenty-five 16 c.p. lights
easily.

The rye was turned under green in the spring to furnish
humus, the greatest and only vital need of this particular
spot of virgin soil.

Since that was written an excellent and cheap stump
puller has been introduced, but the account of work is
still typical. Dynamiting is still the modern way to clear
land as well as to break up a stiff subsoil or hardpan, so as
to loosen the earth to let deep roots like trees or alfalfa go
down and to secure drainage.

Primitive American man regarded trees as "lumber" in-

190 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

stead of as timber and still destroys countless millions in
valuable wood as he "clears the ground."

After it is cleared, it is vital to keep it cleared of weeds,
which are worse garroters of crops than trees. To do that
we don't need to bow to the Earth, nor to hammer her with
a hand hoe.

"The Man with the Hoe" began to be a back number
when Arkwright invented the ark or the mule or whatever
he did invent. The man with the wheel hoe is the man that
is " It." A wheel hoe costs from $6 to $12, and will do the
work of several men without breaking the heart or even
the back of one of them. It has as many attachments as a
summer girl and is equally versatile. It must be run be-
tween the rows as soon as the ground is dry after every
rain, so as to slay the weeds before they are born. If you
don't they will slay your profits, if not yourself.

Crops grown on that experimental farm are : Asparagus,
berries, beans, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, carrots,
cucumbers, corn, eggplant, endive, fruit trees, kale, kohl-
rabi, lettuce, limas, melons, martynias, onions, okra, parsley,
parsnips, peas, potatoes (sweet and white), pumpkins,
radishes, rhubarb, salsify, squash, tomatoes, etc. Marketed
strictly choice radishes May 18, peas June 10, lettuce
June 21, beans June 29, beets July 8, carrots July 10,
cabbage July 11. Surely a rapid result.

Hemp is hardly worth your growing for itself under ordi-
nary circumstances ; the returns per acre are not sufficient.
But Charles Richard Dodge, in one of the United States
Yearbooks of the Department of Agriculture, says that as
a weed killer it has practically no equal.

In proof of this, a North River farmer stated that thistles
heretofore had mastered him in a certain field, but after

CLEARING THE LAND 191

sowing it with hemp not a thistle survived; and while
ridding the land of this pest, the hemp yielded him nearly
sixty dollars an acre, where previously nothing valuable
could be produced.

As it grows from Minnesota to the Mississippi Delta, its
value for this purpose is considerable.

But there is a way easier and cheaper of clearing land
than by blasting, if we can afford to wait a little ; and Mr.
George Fayette Thompson, in Bulletin No. 27, Bureau of
Animal Industry, tells us how, giving some interesting facts
about Angora goats, of which the following is a condensation :

To people taking up raw land, particularly where there is
a heavy undergrowth to be cleared away, goats of some
kind are an invaluable aid. In its browsing qualities the
common goat is as good as any, but, aside from the clearing
of the land, the profit in his keep is very little, though some
demand is growing up for goat's milk for infants and for
some fancy cheeses. A much better animal from the stand-
point of profit, while in use as a scavenger, is the Angora
goat. Their long, silky hair has been used for centuries in
making blankets, lap robes, rugs, carpets, and particularly
the "cashmere" shawls, formerly a great luxury in this
country. Much of the camel's hair dress goods is in reality
made from the hah- of the Angora goat, or mohair, as it is
called. Angora goats thrive best in high altitudes with dry
climates. They exist in greatest number in the United States
in California, New Mexico, and Texas. They have been
used successfully in the Willamette Valley of Oregon to eat
the underbrush off the land, doing for nothing that for
which the farmers pay Chinese laborers twenty-five to forty
dollars per acre. The cost of Angora goats is about ten to
thirty dollars each for does, with bucks at fifty to two hun-

192 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

dred dollars, so that even with a small area of land to clear
it would pay to buy a little flock for that purpose. Dr.
Shandley, of Iowa, says that two to three goats to the acre
is sufficient for cleaning up land, and that in two years the
goats will eat all of the underbrush from woodland, such as
briers, thistles, scrub oak, sumac, and, in fact, any shrub
undergrowth. They need no other food than what they can
secure from the woods themselves. Consequently, the in-
come from the sale of mohair is nearly net.

The more nearly thoroughbred the goats are, the better
the mohair and the higher the price. The meat of the An-
gora goat is superior to mutton, although if sold in the market
under the name of goat meat, it commands only half the price
of mutton.

As an example of the Angora's utility in cleaning up land,
the Country Gentleman says: "Mr. Landrum exhibited ten
head at the Oregon State Fair. In order to demonstrate
their effectiveness as substitutes for grubbing, he left them
on three acres of brush. At the end of the second year the
land was mellow and ready for the plow."

It might be possible to build up a business in clearing lands
for others by means of a herd of Angoras.

CHAPTER XIX

HOW TO BUILD

IF you find an "abandoned farm" on which the buildings
are worth more than the whole price asked, as frequently
happens, you are all right. Even if the buildings are some-
what dilapidated, you can fix them up for a few dollars.
But in buying small plots of ground, larger farms have to
be broken up. If you buy from the resident owner, he may
sell you five acres off" his larger tract, and keep his house
to live in. Certain it is that if a farm of 100 acres is sub-
divided into twenty five-acre farms, at least nineteen new
houses must be built, although sometimes an old barn can
be made into a fair residence.

If you can do no better, it is possible to start by tenting.
An outfit large enough for a family of six would be about as

follows :

1 wall tent with fly, 10 X 14, for sleeping
1 wall tent with fly, 10 X 14, for dining

1 old cook stove (to be erected outdoors)

2 floors, 10 X 14, at $5 each

Brown tents, at least for the sleeping rooms, are best;
they last longer, are cooler, and do not attract the flies;
though indeed we need not have house flies if we keep the
horse manure covered up — they are all bred in that. If
the tents are in the shade, the cost of the cover or fly can
be saved in the dining tent ; but it is necessary in the living
tent, because wet canvas will leak when touched on the inside,
o 193

194 THREE ; ACRES AND LIBERTY

To make the tent warm for the winter, we must bank up
to the edges of the platform with earth and cover the whole
with another tent of the same shape, but a foot larger in
every dimension. These are commonly used in Montana.

It is to be presumed that no one would attempt moving
in without household utensils, which may be as simple or
elaborate as you please. If there is a sawmill in the vicinity,
a temporary shack for winter, say 22 X 30 feet, could be built
for from $400 to $600, depending on the interior finish.
Partitions can be made very cheap by erecting panels covered
with canvas, burlap, old carpet, etc. Such a building does
not need to be plastered, but can be made warm enough by
an inside covering of burlap, heavy builders' paper, or com-
position board. Tar paper laid over solid sheeting makes a
roof that will last for two or three years. For such a shack
draw the plans yourself. All you really need is a living
room, bedroom, and kitchen.

A cheap and effective water supply can be gotten from a
driven well, which in most places costs about one dollar per
foot. Have it where the kitchen is to be, so that the water
can be pumped into a barrel or other tank over the stove.
With a good range you can have as good a supply of hot and
cold water as you had in the city.

If so fortunate as to find a piece of land with a good spring
on it, you can lay pipes and draw the water from that. If
you can get twelve or fifteen feet fall from the spring to the
kitchen, you don't need a pump at all.

For a toilet closet, build a shed four feet wide, six feet
long, and eight feet high. Use a movable pail or box. Lime
slaked or unslaked or dry dust or ashes must be scattered
every time the closet is used. Always clean before it shows
signs of becoming offensive : keep it covered fly tight and

HOW TO BUILD 195

mix the contents with earth or litter, and scatter on the
garden.

A shack can ' ' built of logs which will do for comfort and
will look dignified.

Horace L. Pike, in Country Life in America, says : " The
lot on which we meant to build our log house stood thirty-
five feet above the lake. The problem was how to build a
cabin roomy, picturesque, inexpensive, and all on the ground.

"The ground dimensions are thirty-two by thirty feet out-
side. This gives a living room sixteen by fourteen; bed-
rooms twelve by twelve, twelve by ten, and nine by seven ;
kitchen eleven by nine; a five- by four-foot corner for a
pantry and refrigerator ; closet four by six, front porch six-
teen by six feet six inches, and rear porch five by five — 705
square feet of inside floor space and 130 square feet of porch.

"A dozen pine trees stand on the lot, and maneuvering
was required to set a cottage among them without the crime
of cutting one. The front received the salutes of a leaning
oak, the life of which was saved by the sacrifice of six inches
from the porch eaves, the trunk forming a newel post for the
step railing.

"We closed the contract immediately for 120 Norway
or red pine logs, thirty feet long and eight by ten inches
diameter at butts. The price was low — one or two dollars
their like should have brought. We used, however, only
eighty-one logs; forty thirty-foot, fourteen eighteen-foot,
thirteen sixteen-foot, and fourteen fourteen-foot.

"Work was begun on April 22. Two days sufficed for
the owner and one man to clear and level the ground, dig
post holes, set posts, and square the foundation. The soil
was light sand with a clay hardpan three feet down.

"Twenty-seven days each were put in by two men from

196 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

start to finish, with assistance rendered by the owner. There
were seven days by the mason, eight by carpenters, and four-
teen and one half by other labor. On June 4 the cabin
was ready for occupancy, and the family moved in. The
prices, as in most cases cited, are higher to-day. Cheaper
transportation or lower tariff may reduce them again.

"Making allowances for increased cost of logs and differ-
ences in any of the material cost, this cabin can be duplicated
for less than $700 by any one who has the ground, a few tools,
and some building ability. It is compact, convenient, and
more roomy than a superficial glance reveals, and it can be
occupied (slight care is required) from April to November
with only the kitchen stove and the fireplace supplying the
heat. The same plan can be used for an all-frame struc-
ture, perhaps at less cost. It could be sheathed and slab
covered in a locality where slabs, edged to six or eight inches
wide, could be had ; or slabs could be used perpendicularly
in the gable ends and on the outside of the rear extension."

We must not overlook the differences in cost of lumber
and labor in different places, sometimes more than doubling,
nor the fact that different contractors will vary often twenty-
five per cent in their bids.

A mere cabin, like a wooden tent, 12 X 10 with a plat-
form adjoining, will accommodate one or even two persons
and can be built by a contractor even at war prices for
about fifty to one hundred dollars. This will serve for a
tool house or storeroom when a more convenient residence
can be afforded. A number of such can be seen at " Free
Acres," New Jersey, an hour from New York City on the
D. L. & W. Railroad.

Thoughtful provision and planning will go far to reduce
costs. A stove pipe which should run up inside the house,

HOW TO BUILD 197

not outside, so as to conserve heat and fuel, serves as chimney
and fireplace. A Franklin stove, practically an open fire-
place set out entirely inside the house, is a practical device,
though it costs from $18 to $30. It gives a cheerful open
fire to burn wood or coal and has a flat top to keep things
hot, a dutch oven of sheet iron, and a hob can be attached
to the front of the grate.

But remember that though you may have trees or fallen
wood for the cutting it takes a lot of time to cut it. A
cylindrical self-feeding coal burner is most economical for
heating and a lined sheet iron cooking stove for the kitchen.

A fireless cooker, which retains the heat all day by means
of soapstone or insulation and slowly cooks the food without
losing the juices, is an economical device. It can be made
at home by copying what you see in the stores or by getting
directions from the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Don't forget double windows at least toward the north;
and on all windows have heavy holland shades which make
an air space between the cold windowpanes and the atmos-
phere of the room.

Portable houses sound attractive, but they do not pay
unless you will need to move them. Manifestly it costs
more to make a house like a trunk than like a shed. The
houses shipped ready made of the "Aladdin" type, with all
the parts ready marked to be nailed together by unskilled
labor are a much better investment and are not shaky.

It is true that living is expensive in the train suburbs,
when almost all that is eaten comes from the city, with
freight and monopoly rates added. But one can raise most
of what the family eats, and save besides in car fares and
doctor's bills.

The rent, perhaps a quarter of the income, that was paid

198 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

for a place so small that the cat had to jump on a chair when
the baby sat down, will be a clear gain.

Mrs. Warrington's cottage at Rose Valley, Pennsylvania,
forms a very interesting subject, and is built from designs
of well-known architects of Philadelphia, who have taken up
building small, inexpensive modern houses in a practical
manner. The house is built with a stone foundation and
a wooden superstructure with exterior walls covered with
metal lath and cement stucco which is stained a cream color.
The trimmings are stained a soft brown and the sashes are
painted white. The roof is covered with shingles, and is
left to weather finish. The front porch, from which a ves-
tibule leads into the house, has a hooded cover formed by
the main roof sweeping down sufficiently to form a protec-
tion. The vestibule forms an entrance to both the living
room and the kitchen ; the kitchen is at the front of the house,
allowing the main rooms and a private porch to be at the
south side. The interior throughout is trimmed with cypress
and stained a soft brown. The second floor joists are ex-
posed to view and are stained in a similar manner, while the
ceiling space between the joists is plastered. A broad
archway separates the living and the dining rooms, and while
it forms a separation, it does not preclude the possibility,
when desired, of throwing the two rooms into one large
apartment. The large, open fireplace is built of clinker
brick, and its facings extend from the floor to the ceiling;
it has a wooden shelf supported on corbeled brackets. A
semi-boxed stairway rises out of the living room to the second
floor. There are three bedrooms with good-sized closets,
and a bathroom on the second floor. A cellar, under the
entire house, has a cemented bottom, and contains a laun-
dry. This house costs about $2000 complete.

HOW TO BUILD 199

Houses built of cement blocks are growing in favor.
Cement blocks can be made anywhere by unskilled labor.
All that is needed is a competent foreman to direct the mak-
ing and seasoning of the blocks and laying them in the walls.

The cost of concrete compared to frame or brick structures
is, if anything, all things considered, in favor of concrete.
Houses built of wood are likely to become increasingly ex-
pensive because of the deforesting which is going on in all
parts of the United States.

There are abundant books of plans and costs published,
showing what may be built, and several responsible publishers
recklessly offer to refund the cost of the plans if the expense
of building the house exceeds their estimates.

There are also a number of manufacturers of ready-made
portable houses, running in cost from about three hundred
dollars for four rooms, upward. Some of these are adapted
to all-the-year-round use and may be used where land is taken
experimentally.

CHAPTER XX

BACK TO THE LAND

"LiFE, to the average man, means hard, anxious work,
with disappointment at the end, whereas it ought to mean
plenty of tune for books and talk. There is something
wrong about a system which condemns ninety-nine hun-
dredths of the race to an existence as bare of intellectual
activity and enjoyment as that of a horse, and with the added
anxiety concerning the next month's rent. Is there no
escape? Through years of hard toil I suspected that there
might be such an escape. Now, having escaped, I am sure
of it, so long as oatmeal is less expensive than flour, so long
as the fish bite, and the cabbage grows, I shall keep out of
the slavery of modern city existence, and live in God's sun-
shine." (Hubert, "Liberty and a Living.")

The wealthy class are taking up farming as a healthy and
beautifying diversion, and we may expect others to follow,
as it certainly promotes happiness and adds to the attractions
of those who adopt it. With the aids which science has
given, a farmer can now make good profits with less labor
than was formerly necessary to get a bare living. The
amount that a single well-managed, well-tilled acre will pro-
duce in a season is simply incredible. This accounts for the
increased demand for farming lands wherever they are to be
had on reasonable terms. The wage earners are learning

200

BACK TO THE LAND 201

this, and it is only a question of a little time when manu-
facturing plants will have to be convenient to lands where
the families of the hands can have a small tract of land to
cultivate. This requires good transportation facilities from
the homes to the factories.

Corporate operation has been a great aid to human prog-
ress. Organization is man's orderly way of following the
Divine Plan for his economic salvation, yet the farmer has
profited less by organization than trades unions. Where
farmers have organized to aid each other to buy and sell,
they have gained wonderfully, but a beginning in this direc-
tion has but served to show how much more is needed.

To the individual farmer with large area and small means,
the improvements in machinery that cheapen his produc-
tion are not at present available. The discoveries in methods
of fertilization of the soil only make it more difficult for him
to earn a living in competition with those whose ample
capital increases production by its use. Improvements in
fruits and vegetation, by hybridization and various methods
that add wealth to those of means, only add to the troubles
of our present small farmers.

Hitherto corporate operation has been mainly for the
benefit of stockholders. The cases where those whose labor
creates dividends get more than wages have been rare. " A
living wage" has been the ambition of labor itself : all profit
beyond this is supposed to be the right of capital. There is
with some persons an unconscious reluctance to share profits
with labor lest the laborers become independent, and thus
reduce then* number to an extent to raise the labor market,
so that it is difficult to get fair consideration of any business
proposition that promises better conditions for the producer
or independence for the laborer. This is undoubtedly short-

202 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

sighted, as the higher intelligence of the people who have
land increases production and gives enlarged opportunities
for the profitable employment of money. However, if capi-
talists persist in this narrow view, the money of the people,
when they learn and think, can be applied to this purpose,
instead of being deposited in savings banks, where much of
it is used in increasing the wealth of those who already have
abundance.

The idea of "helping others to help themselves" finds a
responsive chord in the hearts of many wealthy people.
But the question is, how can all be helped? No business
method by which this can be accomplished has, as yet, been
practically demonstrated.

In no field does corporate operation promise more for the
betterment of human conditions, for a higher standard of
morals and of education, or great certainty of profit for capi-
tal, than by systematically aiding men to obtain farms.

Progress proceeds on the line of returns for expenditure.
When a man's economic condition permits, his first thought
is to give his children an education and a better chance in
life than he had. Those who extol the simple life as the ideal
condition of happiness do not mean that want and depriva-
tion of necessities is the ideal condition. If they did, they
would put then* children in that condition to make them
happy. Both extremes of wealth and of poverty are burdens
and retard mental and moral progress. The ideal condition
is to be found on a farm where the land is paid for and ample
means are at hand to supply the necessities for physical
demands, with leisure to learn and enjoy those pleasures of
the mind which come with knowledge of Nature's laws, and
wisdom to live in harmony with them, and in a measure
comprehend the purposes of creation.

BACK TO THE LAND 203

Mr. G. W. Smith, founder of the Hundred Year Club,
suggests that there is an opening in intensive farming for
the benevolent but canny wealthy who are interested in the
soil and want to combine philanthropy and percentage.

His plan is to get capital to secure land and all the neces-
sary means, give to each approved applicant perpetual leases
of land for a small farm and a lot in a village site convenient
thereto, with a house merely sufficient for shelter, requiring
as a first payment sufficient to secure capital against loss in
case the farmer forfeits his contract, say $100. Let the
company provide scientific supervision and conduct the
operation mainly as though the farmers were employees, all
the necessaries to be charged to each with only sufficient
profit to pay the expense and a fan* interest on the capital
empjoyed. Through a purchasing and sales department all
products should be sold in the best market and each farmer
credited with the net result of his productions until the agreed
sale price is received, when title should pass in fee to the
farmer, who, during the time, has become scientific so far as
that piece of land is concerned, and in future can operate it
with the advantages which progress has made. A public
building would be necessary for a storehouse, in which rooms
for meetings of various kinds should be provided, also such
shelter as might be necessary for assembling and storage of
products for shipment.

The expense of public buildings and other utilities could
be paid for out of the increased value that they bring to the
land. The company should have a nursery to provide fruit
trees, etc., the growth of which, with the increase of popu-
lation, would make the farms, when paid for, worth far
more than their cost. Such opportunities as this, opened
to all, would do away with the tramps who are now able to

204 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

live on the charitable, only because of the known difficulties
of finding work.

The farmers should be utilized as far as possible in the
purchasing and sales department, and should divide into
committees to try various experiments connected with their
business, that through their reports all may be benefited
by the knowledge gained. Dairying and large orchards on
land suitable and not of use in the general farming plan could
be conducted by the community, each farmer being a stock-
holder. The labor performed on these cooperative under-
takings should be paid for and charged to cost of production,
each one who performs a share of the labor participating in
the profits as near as may be. As money is received by the
company from products, it can be used in similar operations.
When the farms are paid for, the farmers can continue the
cooperative features that experience has proved useful and
extend the business principle to other fields, such as heating,
light, and power by electricity, machinery for preparing prod-
ucts for market, drying, canning, etc., as well as for the culti-
vation of the soil.

Where the land is level the farms can be laid out on a
general plan that will admit of the use of steam plows to
reduce the cost of plowing, save hard labor, and reduce the
number of work animals.

Among the multitude of advantages the individual would
have in these communities, social, educational, and economic,
health and physical development appear as not the least.

The farm, as it is, still furnishes a horde of recruits for
insane asylums ; its isolation and monotony of everyday life,
with its lack of social intercourse and educational advantages,
nearly counterbalance the strain and poverty of the cities.

But the greatest difficulty is the growing inability of the

BACK TO THE LAND 205

farmers' sons to secure land and the means to cultivate it
when they arrive at a marriageable age. Those who have
seen for threescore years the ever-increasing flow of boys
and girls from the farms to the cities, greater in proportion
to the rural population than in any other age, realize the
necessity for aid in this direction. While it is true that the
farm has contributed largely to the numbers of our success-
ful city men, the fact remains that the mass of boys who
come to the cities as well as the city born, lack the faculty
to grab or save, and fail, while the healthy girls swell the
ranks of prostitution, where an average of eight years lands
them in a pauper's grave.

Our soldiers, as well as those of other countries, are not
up to former physical standards. Degeneracy, disintegration
is apparent in every direction.

The power of a nation depends on the physical and mental
condition of the great mass of people, and to leave the people
in ignorance that they may be controlled by the intelligent
few who understand their needs and may have their welfare at
heart, is a mistake that other nations than Russia have made.
The law of the survival of the fittest has wiped out races
and nations who have ignored this fundamental law, that
all men must progress together.

A race or civilization with such a basis of farmers as this
plan would create would be enduring.

The nation or race, like the individual, must have intelli-
gent organization and live in harmony with the laws of
nature in order to survive. Opposition to them means
destruction. Cooperation is constructive.

If we are to profit by this lesson, it is necessary that we
improve the conditions surrounding our lower classes. That
this is recognized by a large number of leading minds is

206 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

proved by the efforts of the many who are engaged in edu-
cational and other social movements, most of which result
in little net good to the wage-earners.

Obstacles to small farming near large cities are that farms
of three to ten acres with buildings are not plentiful, and
that mortgage loans are hard to get in the East and loans
to help in building are hardly to be had at all.

Land is either held intact as large farms or is sold entire
to speculators who hold it until it can be divided into city
lots. Here, it would seem, is an opportunity for those who
are interested in bettering the condition of their fellow men
by wholesale, and can invest large capital, but little time, in
the work.

Let them buy up land in large acreages and cut it up into
small plots of from one to ten acres, charging enough ad-
vance to return interest on the money invested and to meet
the necessary expenses in such operation. Then make liberal
building loans to buyers. Inquiries among real estate men
show that they always have a larger demand for small acre-
age than they can meet, so an immediate market with
large profits would await those who are first in this field.

There is no use in blaming people for not leaving the cities
to go to the farms; they don't know enough to go, they
don't know enough to make a living if they do go, and they
don't know enough to enjoy it. Besides this, they have not
the capital. We must teach them and help them.

George H. Maxwell's Homecrofters' Guild at Watertown,
Mass., where boys are taught what to do with the earth and
how to do it, is worth whole shelves of books on "The Exodus
to the Cities" or the "Prosperity of the Settler."

It is reported that the state of Texas offered six million
acres of land for sale to settlers, at one dollar per acre. It

BACK TO THE LAND 207

has been suggested that it would be better that the states
should rent out the land at four per cent of the sale price.
This would leave more money in the hands of settlers and
enable many to get farms who cannot pay the price and have
enough left to raise a crop. In reality it would be better for
the state to help farmers get a start rather than to tax them
one dollar per acre to begin with. However, under our
system of government, we permit only those who have
money to have land.

There can be no doubt that the state of Texas and her
people would be better off if the land were leased than to
have it sold. Probably a tax on the value of the land
instead of a rent would be the best for all the people, especially
as it would check speculation.

CHAPTER XXI

THE COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS

IN order that as little as possible may seem to be taken
for granted or as mere expressions of the opinions of the
author, we cite the views of specialists as to the possibilities
of this field, so new in this country, of intensive agriculture.

These will show that the conviction has become general
that, as workers, as teachers, and as discoverers, there is no
career more inviting or more lucrative or more dignified
than that of the skillful foster-father of plants.

"Children brought up in city tenements tend to become
vicious and sickly, but if transported to country homes they
may grow up strong and self-respecting men and women.

"There are hundreds of applicants for every position in
the cities, and competition forces the pay down to the lowest
level. Living expenses are heavier. The risk to health
from sedentary occupations, long hours in ill-ventilated
offices, stores, and workshops is serious.

"There are few inducements to out-door exercise. Even
if he lives at home, the boy who is forced to the street or into
the factory before he has the strength or education to do good
work remains an unskilled worker all his life.

"Manufacturing is upon a larger and larger scale. The
division of labor is greater and greater. Not only does the
gulf between capitalist and laborer widen, but with it the
gulf between skilled and unskilled labor." ("What Shall
Our Boys Do for a Living?" Charles F. Wingate.)

208

THE COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS 209

It is the city that breeds or attracts most of the pauperism
and crime. The country has its own healthy life.

Every one is born with some natural gift, and it is a good
thing to discover early in life what one's natural gifts are so
that each may be educated in the direction suited to natural
capacity.

How are you to treat a lad who has naturally an inclination
for the work on the farm ? In the first place do not provide
him with any spending money unless he earns it. The prime
thing necessary is to give the boy a personal interest in what
is going on upon the farm. Give him a plot of land as his
own, let him understand that anything he may grow upon
this land shall belong to him, but do not give him this plot
and say, "There, take that; do as you like with it," he will
wonder what to do with it. He will need somebody to help
him by teaching him what he is to do. Enter into a partner-
ship with him at the start, give him some instruction as to
what it is best for him to do with his plot. Find out his in-
clinations; give him sympathy and help. Bring out his
natural aptitude for farming life, teach him method in his
work ; teach him to think his way out ; and, best of all, teach
him to work for definite results ; that is what is wanted in
any line of life, especially in farm life.

Let the work of the boy have a meaning and a purpose.
Let him understand that certain results cannot be accom-
plished in any other way, and give him chances to go outside
and see what other people are doing. Let him see good
scientific agriculture and be encouraged to pursue such
methods.

Provide for him the very best reading that can be found in
agricultural journals and books. Let him have three or
four years at an agricultural college. All the influences

210 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

there point to agriculture as the best calling for a young
man who is fit for it, whereas in other colleges the influences
are all in the opposite direction. At our agricultural colleges
a youth has all the necessary advantages of general education,
and also an education in the lines fitting him especially for
the calling he has selected. (United States Department of
Agriculture, Bulletin 138, condensed.)

"Among farmers and gardeners not enough thought is
given to the whys and wherefores, or cause and effect; as
a rule, they go on year after year without profiting by the
personal opportunity afforded them of observation, or by
the results of experiments at scientific stations.

"With rare exceptions the young farmer and gardener
takes up his work, not from the scientific side, but strictly
from the labor side ; and he begins at the bottom, meeting
the same difficulties as did his father and too often not ac-
quiring information beyond what his father possessed.

"This should not be; agriculture should be taught in all
our public schools in country districts, as it has been taught
for years in Germany and Austria. It should be elevated
as an art; in its higher estate it is already an art. No
pursuit possesses a greater scope for development ; the field
is almost unoccupied by leaders, scientific and practical."
(Burnet Landreth, in 999 Queries and Answers.)

In accordance with these ideas, the Baron de Hirsch Agri-
cultural School at Woodbine, New Jersey, is giving practical
courses in agriculture to Jewish boys, on the principle of
individual plots — all free where necessary.

The trustees of the State Agricultural College of New
Jersey, at New Brunswick, have established winter courses
in agriculture, open to all residents of New Jersey over
sixteen years of age. Courses will be for twelve weeks, and

THE COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS 211

only a small entrance fee is required; few books will be
needed.

Other states are doing likewise; all will need many
teachers and experimenters. At present all who know any-
thing about intensive agriculture are snapped up by the
numerous government experiment stations at good salaries.
The land like that of the Rockefellers, the Paynes, the
Cuttings, on which farming is carried on by unnecessarily
expensive methods, needs the services of trained agriculturists
and professional foresters. The Division of Forestry at
the start employed eleven persons, but now it has in the field
as many hundreds of employees, including a lot of trained
foresters.

The railroads also see the profit in teaching farming, and
are devoting more and more money to experiments and lec-
tures to show the farmers that they can get more and better
crops with the same effort by intelligent selection of seeds.

The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railway Company
ran its first Seed and Soil Special over the entire system in
the winter of 1904-1905, and has lectured to hundreds of
thousands of farmers since.

They report to us that " there is no doubt that the lectures
did a great deal of good, and necessarily the larger increase
of crops which followed is due to the scientific methods of
farming expounded by the various professors." The late
President James J. Hill wrote much about the small farms'
large yields.

The hundreds of thousands of "war gardens" unskillfully
conducted and glutting the local markets with crops all
matured at about the same local time will unreasonably
disgust many with intensive cultivation, especially those who
work but do not think. The remedy is more instruction.

212 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

The effect of the agricultural colleges and experiment
stations is plain to the eye in the better appearance of farms
as we near the centers of instruction.

Some years ago a clergyman published a book upon the
Adirondacks ; it was full of poetry, and he sent men up there
who afterwards became known as "Murray's Fools." They
knew nothing about the life and had no suitability and little
preparation for it. We do not wish to bring out a crop of
"Three Acres and Liberty Fools." We are telling what has
been done and what can be done again. It does not follow
that every man can or will do it, much less teach it or ad-
vance the art, but the field is a large one and holds out great
promise to those who persevere and excel in it.

If any one thinks that the profit of the earth will come to
the cultivator without very intelligent and steady work, he
is mistaken. No owner of land, unless others require it to
live upon, can make money by neglecting it.

Says Maxwell's Talisman: "The greatest good that can
be done to the American farmer to-day is to teach him to
make the greatest possible profit from the smallest tract of
land from which a family can be supported in comfort. A
great influence operating to-day against keeping the boys
in the country is that the boy does not have money enough
to buy a farm. It is unfortunately true that in some places
there is a trend in the direction of absorbing farms into still
larger farms with a consequent diminution of population,
as in Iowa and other sections. The remedy for this is to
demonstrate that if the value is in the boy rather than in the
farm, and the boy is taught intensive, diversified, scientific
farming, a good living with a surplus profit that will provide
amply for old age, may be made from a comparatively small
tract of land. The tract may be, say, ten acres, with ample

THE COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS 213

cultivation, irrigation, and fertilization, or even without irriga-
tion, because a hoe and a cultivator in the hands of a scientific
farmer may bring as good and better results in providing
moisture for growing plants as can be had from a ditch and
unlimited water in the hands of an ignorant farmer."

The field of discovery is always limitless, and it is to those
boys or girls who devote their attention to this that the great-
est return will come. "What a fine thing it would be to
find even one plant free from rust in the midst of a rusted
field. It would mean a rust-resistant plant. Its off-spring
would probably be also rust resistant. If you should ever
find such a plant, be sure to save its seed and plant in a
plot by itself. The next year again save seed from those
plants least rusted. Possibly you can develop a rust proof
race of wheat! Keep your eyes open." ("Agriculture for
Beginners," by Burkett, Stevens, and Hill, pages 76-78.)
So you may pluck gain out of loss.

If you want to do experiments, the influence of ether on
plants is one new and wonderful field. It seems to induce
artificial rest, so that lilacs, for instance, can be made to
bloom twice by a treatment, the last time near Christmas.

E. V. Wilcox says in Farming that in 1899 a small quantity
of durum or macaroni wheat was introduced into this country
for trial. It was found profitable in localities where there
was too little rain for ordinary wheat. Six years later,
20,000,000 bushels per year of the wheat was grown in the
United States. Its production has increased greatly every
season and has added materially to the total of the wheat
crop. Thorough fall cultivation has been found to increase
the yield, and in some parts of the wheat belt one in five of
the farmers has already adopted the practice. In certain
states where manuring has been thought unnecessary, ex-

214 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

periments have demonstrated that the yield may be in-
creased 60 per cent by this simple practice. The wheat
production of Nebraska was increased more than 10,000,000
bushels by the introduction of a hardy strain of Turkey
red wheat. Swedish select oats in Wisconsin have greatly
augmented the oat yield of the state. In 1899 six pounds
of the seed was brought to the state and from this small
beginning a crop of 9,000,000 bushels was harvested five
years later.

"Mr. Gideon, of Minnesota, planted many apple seeds,
and from them all raised one tree that was very fruitful, finely
flavored, and able to withstand the cold Minnesota winter.
This tree he multiplied by grafts and named it the Wealthy
apple. It is said that in this one apple he benefited the world
to the value of more than one million dollars. You must not
let any valuable bud or seed variant be lost." (" Agriculture
for Beginners," page 61.)

"This fact ought to be very helpful to us next year when
planting corn. We should plant seed secured only from
stalks that produced the most corn. If we follow this plan
year by year, each acre of land will be made to produce more
kernels and hence a larger crop of corn, and yet no more ex-
pense will be required to raise the crop." (Same, page 71.)

The World's Work tells how the country got a new industry.

Mr. George Gibbs, of Clearbrook, Wash., has made his
"stake" by growing tulip and hyacinth bulbs. He had a
little place on Orcas Island, in Puget Sound. He did not
know anything about growing flowers, but he did know that
certain varieties of bulbs brought good prices in the East.
He was observant enough to see that the moist, warm
climate and rich soil of the Puget Sound country were
peculiarly favorable to flowers.

THE COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS 215

He had bad luck with his bulbs ; that only meant that he
still had something to learn. He kept his nerve even when
he went bankrupt. His friends told him he was wasting
time, but they could not shake his faith.

In twelve years he found that he was right. His wonderful
gardens were making him rich. Other men have gone into
the business, but he was first and has kept his lead. He has
made the Puget Sound country the greatest rival of Holland
in the sale of flowering bulbs.

Quantities of wild herbs, fruits, and roots that no one eats
are good ; the Jesuits had a list of over two hundred kinds
that the Indians ate, but it was lost. Some one can do a
great service by making it up again by research and experi-
ment. Thousands more of the wild things must be good for
dyes, fabrics, and fodder.

Fame like Burbank's and fortune awaits the one who is a
good self-advertiser and can find the use of the poetic daisies,
goldenrod, and thistle, the all-pervading "pusley," and such
other vegetable vermin.

An interesting experiment is conducted in growing tea
with colored child labor, at Tea, South Carolina, by the
aid of education and machinery and the cooperation of the
Agricultural Department at Washington, who will furnish
particulars. Whatever may be its outcome, this will give
an opening to some intelligent cultivators, and it points the
way to other fields.

Those who are first in raising new or improved plants find
a waiting market for them.

The Market Growers Gazette, of London, England, reports
that Mr. A. Findlay, Mairsland, Auchtermuchty, Scotland,
sold one season to five leading growers whose names are
given, five seed potatoes at £ 20 each (which would be, per-

216 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

haps, $500 a peck). He says enthusiastically: "It is as
perfectly round-shaped a potato as can be imagined. There
is a slight dash of pink on the outer rim of the eye. My stock
of it is very small, only 126 lb., and I do not care to sell
any. If next year's crop yields as well as this year's, we
shall have twenty times that quantity." Mr. Findlay has
other seed potatoes, just as high priced, for which he wants
$125 per lb., which, he says, "means that I do not want to
sell any."

This shows what progressive people think of the real
value of good seed.

It is worth mentioning that " The land on which these are
grown is not highly manured ; the only artificial manure that
it has received is about 200 lb. of potash per acre. It has
the drawback of being rather stony."

Of course this is "a fad" ; it is doubtful if it will pay any
one to give such prices for seed except to sell to some bigger
fool than himself. Of course, also, the market for a particular
fancy thing may soon be overstocked, but it seems to be a
nice thing for the Findlays meanwhile, and it does good in
teaching people to appreciate good things.

Yet the average potato patcher prudently saves his small
potatoes for next year's seed, which is just as if a breeder were
to keep the colts that were too poor to sell, to be the parents
of his herd.

In the dark ages of farming — to wit, in 1881, for this is
a true story — a minister of the Gospel came into possession,
by inheritance, of a fifteen-acre farm a short way from Phila-
delphia. He found the soil a reddish, somewhat gravelly
clay, and so worn out from years of cropping that it did not
support two cows and a horse. City born and bred, he was
encumbered with no knowledge of agriculture which had to

THE COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS 217

be unlearned. He began a careful and systematic study
of the agricultural literature, and ultimately developed a
novel system of dairy farming to which he adhered religiously.

The farm lying near the city is high-priced land ; for this
reason, and because of the limited acreage, the cows were kept
in the barn the year round. For six years his bill for veteri-
nary services was $1.50, while the income from the milk of
his seventeen cows was about $2400 a year. In addition,
from four to six head of young cattle were sold annually,
netting about $500 a year. As the stock on the farm was
stall fed every particle of plant food contained in the stable
manure, liquid as well as solid, was utilized. No fertilizer
was ever purchased. Yet all of the "roughage" for thirty
head of stock was raised on the thirteen acres of available
soil. Only $625 a year was expended for concentrated feed-
ing stuffs. The net earnings of the farm for the period
averaged more than $1000 a year. And this was during the
early days of his experience ; later he made more.

Professor W. J. Spillman, of the Agricultural Department,
visited him in 1903, and studied the methods employed.
Then, he says, the rush to see the farm became so great
that the owner had to give it up.

Few people who know nothing about it, and won't learn,
can take even three acres and make anything off it. To get
the phenomenal yields takes capital — sometimes large
capital, wisely spent. Sometimes we read of immense prod-
ucts "per acre"; this often means the product of a single
rod of ground, this gives at the rate of so much "per acre,"
or might, if extended.

But any one can take a little bit of ground and use it
thoroughly and increase his borders and his knowledge as he
goes on. He will find plenty to pay him for doing or teaching

218 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

whatever he has learned to do that no one else has done.
"If a man make but a mousetrap better than his fellows,
though he makes his tent in the wilderness, the world will
beat a path to his door."

The mission of this book is accomplished if it interests
you to consider the possibilities of making a living on a
few acres and leads you to investigate. It is not written
as a textbook, for, as has been shown, there are authorities
enough cited to supply all the technical information needed.

Its sole object is to show what has been done and what can
be done on small areas and to show that life in the country
need not be so laborious if the same methods are used which
make successes of business in other lines.

If it does this and is the means of checking in any degree the
reckless trend of people from the country to the cities, the
author will feel that his efforts have been well repaid.

CHAPTER XXII

THE WOOD LOT

IF you have a bit of woods on your little farm, take care
of it. By intelligent thinning you can make an average
income of five dollars per acre from ordinary second growth
wild woods. The cord wood, barrel hoops, fence posts, and
so on will decrease your expenses, while the timber will in-
crease in value. That lot is the place to start your boy as
a forester.

Instructions how to treat the trees can be obtained from
your State Forestry Department or from the National
Forest Service at Washington : the care of growing timber
is a big subject and requires study, but don't sell your stand-
ing timber without their advice. Forestry can hardly be
made to pay on a small lot with hired labor or hired teams,
— and you must not pay much for your wood lot, else
interest and taxes will eat up the returns.

To be of high quality, timber must be, to a considerable
proportion of its height, free of limbs, which are the cause
of knots ; it must be tall ; and it must not decrease rapidly
in diameter from the butt to the top of the last log. In a
dense stand of timber there is very great competition for
sunlight among the individual trees, with the result that
height growth is increased. Trees in crowded stands are
taller than those in uncrowded stands of the same age.
When the trees are crowded so that sunlight does not reach

219

220 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

the lower branches, these soon die and become brittle;
they then fall off or are broken off by the wind, snow, or
other agencies. By this process trunks are formed which
are free from limbs, and hence of high quality.

It is evident, therefore, that trees in the wood lot should
be so crowded that the crown or top of each individual
tree may be in contact with those of its nearest neighbors.
A crowded stand of trees produces not only a larger number
but also a greater proportion of high quality sawlogs than
an uncrowded stand. So vital a matter is their forest shade
that it does not do to set out young trees which have grown
in the forest. Ordinarily, the exposure to the sunlight
stunts them and often kills them. Nursery trees are best;
the next best are trees that have grown at the edge of the
woods.

The actual value of woodland as pasture is small. One
dollar per acre per year is probably a liberal estimate of the
value of its forage. Thrifty fully stocked stands of timber
will grow at the rate of 250 or more board feet of lumber
per year. Adopting only 250 board feet as the growth and
assuming the value of the standing timber to be from $5 to
$8 per 1000 feet board measure, the value of the timber
growth is from $1.25 to $2 per acre per year.

If the timber is given good care, moreover, the growth
should be as much as 500 board feet per acre per year. The
larger value of the wood lot for growing timber, as compared
to the value of its forage only, is therefore apparent.

It must not be thought possible to secure this growth of
timber and utilize the wood lot for pasture at the same time,
because the stock eat the seedlings and damage the trees.

If shade, however, rather than forage is the wood lot's
chief value to stock, it can doubtless be provided by allowing

THE WOOD LOT 221

the stock to range in only a portion of the lot. The remain-
der can more profitably be devoted to the production of wood
alone.

Owners are doubtless in some instances indifferent about
fires in their wood lots, because they do not realize that these
may do great harm without giving striking evidence of the
fact. They burn the fallen leaves and accumulated litter
of several years, thus destroying the material with which
trees enrich then* own soil. The soil becomes exposed,
evaporation is greater, and more of the rain and melted
snow runs off the surface. The roots may also be exposed
and burned. The vitality of the trees is weakened and
their rate of growth decreased. Don't burn leaves or waste
growth: it is dangerous and they are valuable for mulch
and for manure.

It has been found in the prairie region that through the
protection afforded by the most efficient grove windbreaks,
the yield in farm crops is increased to the extent of a crop as
large as could be grown on a strip three times as wide as
the height of the trees.

At present the following states maintain nurseries and
distribute young trees either free or practically at cost to
planters within the state : Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North
Dakota, and Kansas.

The names of nurseries which handle stock of certain
trees and their quoted prices for all the more important
species can be secured from the Forest Service, Washing-
ton, D. C.

Whether your wood lot pays a profit or not, like the
profit from the rest of your land, depends largely on how it
is taxed. The higher it is taxed the harder it is to make it

222 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

pay. In most states timberland is assessed on the basis
of its value, timber and land together. Woodland assessed
on this basis is overtaxed as compared with land assessed
on the basis of what it produces each year. The value
of plowland for farm purposes is established by what it will
earn. If the owner can make $10 an acre a year over all
expenses by growing say wheat, corn, cotton or alfalfa on
it, his land will have a value of perhaps $150 an acre. If it
took two years to grow a crop, the land would be worth
only half as much. Its owner in that case would kick vigor-
ously if he could not get his assessment lowered. He would
kick still more vigorously if he had to pay a tax also on the
value of the standing crop, after having to pay too much on
the land. "The Lord loveth a cheerful kicker."

With woodland the case is still worse. Each year the
owner may have to pay a tax on the merchantable crops
of many past years. It is as though the owner of plowland
had to pay a tax on the value of his field crops twice a week
throughout the growing season. When a full-grown tree
is cut down or burned up in a forest fire, it may have been
taxed 40 or 50 times over. Each year the land on which it
grew has been valued not on the basis of its earning power,
but on the basis of what it would bring if sold, timber and all.
A tax levied on the income-earning value of the land would
be much more equitable.

Certain states have applied this principle by legislation
under which land to be used for growing timber can be
classified so that the timber can be taxed separately from the
land. The land there is taxed annually on its value, without
timber. The tax on the timber is not paid until the crop is
harvested. It is therefore a tax on the yield. In New
York this yield tax is 5 per cent of the value of the crop

THE WOOD LOT 223

harvested; Michigan 5 per cent of it; Massachusetts 6
per cent; and Vermont, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania
10 per cent, with different provisions for forests already
established.

Such a method is much better than that adopted by a
number of states which exempt, under certain conditions,
reforested or reforesting lands for a term of years, or allow
rebates or bounties on such lands.

The profit of a growing forest crop will depend largely
on relief from excessive taxation. It is unthrifty public
policy to discourage putting waste land to work. (" The
Farm Woodlot Problem," by Herbert A. Smith, Editor
Forest Service — from Yearbook of Department of Agri-
culture for 1914.)

CHAPTER XXIII

SOME PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS

THE Department of Agriculture at Washington, also
Cornell University and various other schools publish special
studies and monographs of different branches. For some
a small charge is made, but they are mostly distributed free.
Many of them are very valuable. The United States De-
partment's pamphlet on the Diseases of the Violet is a no-
table example. The average person does not know how these
can be obtained or even that they exist.

The Department's Year Books are most interesting read-
ing, and both its Professors and the state colleges will answer
particular questions of citizens.

These and the various United States and State Experi-
ment Station publications will serve instead of most books
(except this one), if properly filed, indexed, and cross-
indexed so that you can readily turn to all the information
on a given subject — on bugs, for instance, before the insects
have harvested your crop.

I am trying only to suggest things, not to advise, nor to
induce my readers to try to do anything that they don't
like or have no capacity for. It is difficult to make people
understand that.

One reader of this book, a dear creature, wrote her experi-
ence for a Crafts magazine. She got the acres, built her
house, and raised one fine crop of — swans ? nuts grafted
on wild trees ? partridge berries ? No — three tons of hay !

224

SOME PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS 225

She called it "Three Acres and Starving" ; I called it "Three
Acres and Stupidity." She didn't eat the hay, and the Edi-
tor wouldn't publish my reply.

Everybody raises hay and potatoes ; so don't you raise any
unless for your own use.

Potatoes are a laborious crop, requiring constant care,
manuring, cutting the seed eyes (on which there is much
uncertain lore), hilling up or down according to drainage
and rainfall, spraying with Pyrox or dusting with Paris green,
and, neither least nor last, bug hunting.

The seed is expensive, but for your own use you may
plant from whatever seed, otherwise wasted, may grow on
the potato vine, on the tops of the plants. The crop will be
small potatoes and all kinds of varieties, which won't sell
in the market but which make each dinner a surprise party.
You may strike a new and improved strain, though there are
over a thousand varieties of potato listed already. New
creations of merit bring good returns, and 'tis the enter-
prising experimenter that reaps the honor and the harvest,
and he is worthy of his reward.

To select the most productive plants and breed again
from these is, however, a more promising profit plan. Even
then don't plant the tubers unless you will take the pains to
soak the seed potatoes in scab preventer. If you won't,
likely you will raise mostly scab, and the spores thereof will
spoil your ground for potatoes for years.

It costs little in money to make it — half a pint of formalin
to fifteen gallons of water. Not guessed but measured
gallons. Then soak for an hour and a half by the Ingersoll.
Don't reckon that one little hour or a few will do just as well.
With one hour they will be under-done and spotty, with
three over-done and weakly.
Q

226 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

There is lots to be discovered yet about "the spuds."
Sawdust is reported an excellent mulch for them, as for
small fruits. When you store any seeds to plant, put car-
bolic moth balls with them : it checks insects and mice
and helps to protect the planted seeds from birds.

In a general way, with potatoes and with other things
that you want good and plenty, get specific directions and
follow them. Most people won't read directions; more
can't follow them. Those people have their knives out for
"book farmers and professors," but you can't improve on
experience and experiment by the light of laziness or of
nature.

A delicate jelly is made out of the red outer pulp
of rose berries. It would be romantic to develop a Rose
fruit from those seed pods, as the peach was developed from
the almond. We have invented stranger fruits than that,
such as the logan-berry and the pomato.

But there is better chance for profit in doing the old things
better, especially when the experiment costs little or nothing.

Yout can have a strawberry garden on your roof or even
on a balcony. This need not be costly. Clinch all the nails
on the inside of a stout barrel. Bore half a dozen two-inch
holes in the bottom, or put in a layer of stones, for drainage.
Bore a row of eight holes about eight inches from the bottom
of the barrel and about eight inches apart. Eight inches
above this bore a second row of holes "staggered," and a
third eight inches above those. Pile several old tomato
cans with perforated bottoms one on the other in the center
of the barrel : these should be the height of the barrel and
placed upright in its middle. This is the conductor down
which water should be poured at intervals before the soil
gets quite dry. Fill the barrel with soil made of one half

SOME PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS 227

loam and one half well-rotted manure. Be sure the manure
is not fresh. A little bone meal is a good addition.

Now plant the first row of strawberry plants ("ever-bear-
ing" are best, though they don't ever-bear). Put each plant
inside, spread the roots, and pull the leaves of each out
through one of the holes. Press the soil down firmly around
each root. Repeat the process for the other two rows;
fill the barrel and set say six plants on the top. That will
give you thirty plants, which should grow ten to twenty-
five quarts of fine berries, or more. The illustration makes
the holes twelve inches apart — for big leafy plants.

If there are any more, those will be you. Anyhow, you
will know a lot about strawberries at the end of the season.
Other things can be grown in the same way.

Better than growing vegetables, or where dry land can't
be obtained, is to raise some crop like water cress that usually
comes from a distance.

Often an otherwise poor season will help a specialty.
One year wet weather jumped the price of mint and it
sold at double prices. Hot, dry weather is required to
make it produce its best.

Most of the mint produced in this country for peppermint
oil is grown in Michigan. More than 4000 acres are reported
from a single county. Mint oil is worth about $3.50 a pound
and costs about a dollar to produce. Nice bright dried leaves
sell for about 15c. a pound.

The production of mint is sometimes as high as fifty pounds
of oil to the acre. The bulk of it is grown on marshlands,
which a few years ago were nowhere worth more than a few
dollars an acre. The mint is sent to the manufacturers,
where it is purified and made into flavoring extract or used
in chewing gum, etc.

228 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Why should we, with our infinite variety of climates, soils,
and labor, import from England the coarser varieties of seeds
of the cabbage family, savoy, Brussels sprouts, kohl-rabi,
or kale? We owe England enough already for the seed of
Liberty we got from her. California now supplies some seed
for onions, carrots, parsnips, and a few others. The finest
cauliflower comes mostly from Denmark now.

Turnip seed, too, mangel-wurzel and swedes, onion, pea,
bean, carrot, parsnip, radish, and beet seeds could be grown
here by the same skill, care, and training as they are
grown abroad.

An interesting method of forcing plants by the use of hot-
water baths is described in La Nature (Paris), by Henri
Coupin. The process is much simpler than others now in
use and may be employed by any one who has a small green-
house, no expert treatment being necessary. Says Mr.
Coupin :

"Most trees in our countries undergo a period of rest,
during which all growth appears to be suspended.
Branches do not enlarge and the buds on them remain as
they are. They do not arouse from their torpor until spring,
first, because they then find the conditions necessary for
their development, and again, because, during the period
of rest, chemical changes have taken place in them. These
are indispensable, because if they did not occur, the trees,
even in the most favorable conditions, would not open their
buds. For example, plant branches that have quite recently
dropped their leaves, in a warm greenhouse. They will not
bud ; but make the same experiment at the end of several
months and the buds will appear.

"There are several ways of shortening this period of rest,
some of which are rather odd. The best known is the pro-

SOME PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS 229

cess of etherification, which has been so much discussed
recently, and which consists in placing the plants to be
forced in the vapor of ether or chloroform for twenty-four
to forty-eight hours. Afterwards when placed in a hot-
house, the branches begin to develop almost immediately.

"A very ingenious botanist, Hans Molisch, professor in
the University of Prague, has devised a method of forcing,
simpler still and quite as effective. It consists in plunging
the branches into warm water during a time that varies with
the species. The best method is to plunge the plants in a
reservoir of warm water, head downward, without moistening
the roots, which would injure them. After a certain time,
the plants are withdrawn, turned right side up with care,
and placed in a greenhouse, where they develop at once.

"The duration of the warm bath should be nine to twelve
hours at most. The best temperature is 30° to 35° [86° to
95° F.]. . . . That is to say, in the majority of cases, one
may simply employ the water available in hothouses, which
is just at the proper temperature. The process is thus at
the disposal of all gardeners.

"It should be said that the good effects of the hot baths
are confined to the parts actually immersed and do not
extend to the whole plant. Thus, on the same stem we may
see developing only the branches that have been treated
with the bath, while the others remain torpid. This is easy
to verify with the lilac or the willow.

"If Lobner is to be believed, we may substitute for the
water bath one of steam. He has obtained good results
with the lily of the valley. The thing is possible, but the
method used by Molisch is more practical.

"How shall we explain the good effect of warm water on
branches in a resting state ? We are absolutely ignorant of

230 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

its mechanism, as we are also in the case of etherification.
But if we knew everything, science would be no longer amus-
ing I" — Condensed, from THE LITERARY DIGEST.

There are many new uses for water: It will not be
Jong before every truck and every commercial flower
garden will have overhead irrigation. This is merely
gas pipes ("seconds" rejected for blow holes or po-
rosity are usually used) supported on posts say six feet
above the ground. They are usually placed parallel about
fifty feet apart, which will make four to the acre square,
and have a single row of holes and a handle on each pipe,
so that the spray can be turned in either direction ; with a
high-water pressure, often supplied by gravity, they may be
farther apart with larger holes.

These not only have saved us from fear of drought, but
they supply the moisture in the natural manner and at the
right time and increase fertility to an astonishing degree.

When you take a shower bath yourself, that is overhead
irrigation.

The gasoline, kerosene, or heavy oil one man farm tractor,
so made that it can be used to plow, to climb a side hill,
to run a saw or a pump, is the coming factor in garden and
farm advance. Huge fortune awaits the first manufacturer
who will standardize it, cheapen it, and specialize on it. The
horse is the greatest care and the greatest risk on the little
farm. He costs more than a tractor would, he is eating his
head off hah* the time, he can't be worked overtime without
injury, not even as much as a man can be ; all too soon he
dies, more missed than any member of the family.

When this is popularized the "Three Acres" can well be
extended to five.

By permission of House and Garden Magazine.
THE SMALLEST FA KM TKACTOR

CHAPTER XXIV

SOME EXPERIMENTAL FOODS

FIFTY-EIGHT years ago Abraham Lincoln said :
"Population must increase rapidly, more rapidly than in
former times, and ere long the most valuable of all arts will
be the art of deriving subsistence from the smallest area of
soil. No community whose every member possesses this
art can ever be the victim of oppression in any of its forms.
Such community will alike be independent of crowned kings,
money kings, and land kings."

The future, it seems, has many strange dishes hi store for
the American stomach. Whether you are rich or one of
the plain people that have to work, whether the idea of new
fantastic food appeals to your palate or to your pocket-
book, you will be attracted by the array of foreign viands
with curious names which have already been successfully
introduced and are now beginning to be marketed in this
country. Mr. William N. Taft, in the Technical World
Magazine, presents the following wild menu for the dinner
table:

Jujube Soup

Brisket of Antelope

Boiled Petsai Dasheen au Gratin

Creamed Udo
Soy Bean and Lichee Nut Salad

Yang Taw Pie

Mangoes Kaki

Sake.
231

232 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

This, he assures us, is not the bill of fare of a Chinese eat-
ing house, nor yet of a Japanese restaurant, it is the daily
meal of an American family two decades hence, if the De-
partment of Agriculture succeeds in its attempt to introduce
a large number of new foods to this country for the dual
purpose of supplying new dainties and reducing the cost of
living. Uncle Sam has determined to decrease the price of
food as much as possible, and, for this purpose, delegated
Dr. David S. Fairchild, Agricultural Explorer in charge
of the Foreign Plant Section of the Bureau of Plant Industry,
in particular, to see what can be done about it.

More than 30,000 fruits and vegetables have been tested
by Uncle Sam's experts and, according to Dr. Fairchild, a
goodly portion of the foodstuffs which have been regarded as
staples since the days of the first settler are doomed. Con-
sider for example "Jujube Soup!" Mention that to the
average person and he will answer : " But I thought the ju-
jube was a fruit, like an apple. How can you make soup of
it?" The average person is right. The jujube is a fruit —
but a most remarkable one.

"It is about the size and appearance of a crab apple, but con-
tains only a single seed. It grows on a spiny tree, long and bare of
trunk, with its foliage cropping out at the very top like a royal
palm of the tropics. The jujube itself has been used for years to
flavor candies and other confections. But the essence is very
expensive and comparatively rare, despite the profusion with which
the fruit grows in its native habitat.

"Dr. Fairchild, however, imported several specimens for the
Department's gardens in California, where they are bearing pro-
liflcally. The arid sands of the southwest, where nothing but cactus
and sage-brush formerly would grow, have been found to be excel-
lent soil for the jujube, and it is the hope of Uncle Sam's food ex-
perts to see the entire Arizona and New Mexico deserts dotted with
jujube orchards, with income to their owners. The jujube is deli-
cious eaten raw, but it may be cooked in any manner in which

SOME EXPERIMENTAL FOODS 233

apples are prepared, used as a sauce or for pie, preserved or dried.
Finally, its juice may be used as a delicious and highly nutritive
fruit broth."

Petsai, or, as the Chinese have it, Pe-tsai, is a substitute
for the cabbage. In appearance it is as different from
cabbage as can be imagined. It is tall and cylindrical and
its leaves are narrow, delicately curled, with frilled edges.
The petsai can, however, be grown on any soil where the
ordinary cabbage could be cultivated and in many sections
where the native vegetable would languish. We are told
it is no uncommon thing for a petsai to reach sixty pounds
in weight. Department of Agriculture officials, however,
advise that it be plucked when about eight pounds in weight,
its flavor being then the most delicate and appealing.

This new importation, Uncle Sam's experts hope, will
cause a drop in the price of dinners. Cabbage long ago
ceased to be a cheap dish. But petsai requires none of the
care which has to be lavished on cabbage and will thrive in
almost any climate and any soil.

The soy bean, once started, grows wild and yields several
crops a season. It can be prepared in a multitude of
ways, from baking to a delicious salad. According to
Doctor Yamei Kin, the head of the Women's Medical
School near Pekin, milk can be made from it to cost about six
cents a quart and equal to cows' milk. It would be a bless-
ing if we could get rid of the sacred but unclean cow. One
of the state dairy inspectors told me, "We consider milk a
filthy product."

It may be remembered that, only twenty years ago,
almost all the dates consumed here came from the oases
of Arabia and the valley of the Euphrates. To-day there
are more than a hundred varieties successfully produced

234 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

in California and Arizona. The wonders of to-day are
the commonplaces of to-morrow, and there is no telling to
what apparently impossible lengths science will go to re-
jlieve people of the burden they now bear in the price of
food. It has scoured the ends of the earth for new deli-
cacies and now experts will do their best to teach the people
to use them.

Have you ever heard of "Whitloof" or "Belgian Chicory"
or have you ever dined in one of the better restaurants of a
large city where they have served during the winter months
a salad composed of golden blanched oblong leaves about 2
inches wide and 5 inches long, only the outer edges showing a
faint green? It is as delicate as the perfume of roses, as
crisp as young lettuce, as delicious as asparagus, and as
ornamental upon the table as the freshest fruit.

In former years this salad had to be imported and you had
to pay dear for a portion of it, a good reason why so few
people know it. A Belgian farmer located near New York
has grown many thousands of these plants this past
summer.

How would you like to grow this dainty salad right in
your living room and cut several crops from a single plant-
ing lasting nearly three months ? Secure an 8-inch pot and
plant in it 12 roots packed in light sandy soil or pure sand.
Invert another but empty 8-inch pot over this to keep out
the light, place in a heated room, water daily, and in from
three to four weeks you will find full-grown crowns, beauti-
fully blanched ready for cutting. Six of such crowns make
a large portion, sufficient for an entire family.

In cutting, do not cut too close to the root, for another
growth is made directly after the cutting, which matures in
from three to four weeks, and still two other crops can be

SOME EXPERIMENTAL^ FOODS 235

grown in this way, so that from a single planting four full
crops can be had. Considering, then, that eight such treats
can be had for the cost of a single dozen roots, we can all
now enjoy what was formerly a luxury. This method is
most interesting, for you can watch the daily progress of the
growth of the roots, fascinating to young and old, and with
three weekly plantings of a pot each this treat can be en-
joyed twice a week from the 1st of February until May.

For those who wish to enjoy it more often or in larger
quantities, we suggest the following :

Prepare a bed of soil 12 inches deep in your cellar in a
dark place where the temperature is always above freezing.
Plant the roots as close as their size will permit and cover
the crowns with at least 3 inches of soil. On top of this put
straw so that when the crowns come through the soil they
will not strike the light. When ready to cut, remove the
soil as far back as the original root so that you can intelli-
gently cut the growth to produce the crops to follow.

As a substitute for the potato of commerce the "Dasheen"
long ago passed the experimental stage. It has been served
at a number of banquets in Washington, Philadelphia, and
New York.

While the tops of potatoes are useless as food, the tops of
the dasheen make delicious greens, and tests indicate that
good growers can depend on a crop of from four hundred to
four hundred and fifty bushels per acre.

The Udo is the plant intended by the Department of
Agriculture as a substitute for asparagus, a delicacy which
it closely resembles. It is more prolific than asparagus,
grows in the same soil, and requires less attention.

Not only plants but animals are experimented with by
Uncle Sam's experts. Officials of the Bureau of Annual

236 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

Industry claim that before long we will partake of antelope
steak. For the antelope has been found to be particularly
adapted to the more arid western sections of the country.
And beyond that the gastronomist of the future will have to
reckon with loin of hippopotamus ! The lower valley of the
Mississippi is admirably suited to these huge beasts, the
flesh of one of which equals a score of cattle. African-
traveled epicures maintain that hippopotamus steak is as
tender and inviting as the choicest beef. "For those who
like that sort of thing, it is just the sort of thing they would
like."

It seems a bit remote to urge hippopotamus on us who
do not yet know enough to eat sharks, tortoises, painted
turtles, or even English sparrows. Anyhow the small
gardener is more likely to succeed raising pheasants than
to muss with a hippopotamus, at least in the suburbs. Pigs
are more practical and make prettier pets.

Our population bids fair to approximate two hundred
million within the next fifty years, and, because of the exi-
gencies of business, an increasing number of people will be
engaged in non-food-producing vocations. These people,
however, are all consumers and must be fed and clothed,
and even now America offers the greatest market for the
produce of the farm that any farmer in any country has ever
had in all history.

One of the coming ways of feeding them is the discovery
and use of new foods. As in other things, after the war,
whether we live in a better world or not, we shall live in an
entirely different world, new ways, strange thoughts, and
other foods. For the most of the following, Business
America and Current Opinion are responsible.

For the creation of new crop varieties or the improvement

SOME EXPERIMENTAL FOODS 237

of those now in use we must depend upon the practical
scientists who are engaged in plant breeding. The work of
one of these, Professor Buffum, has been accomplished in a
region that is apparently sterile and where plants grow
only by coaxing through artificial moisture.

His plant-breeding farms near Worland in the Big Horn
Basin of Northern Wyoming lie at an elevation of 4000
feet, in a region of almost total natural aridity.

After twenty years' work in Western agricultural colleges
and Government Experiment Stations, Professor Buffum
chose his present location because nowhere in the United
States could he find conditions of soil and climate that induce
to such a remarkable degree the breaking up of species, and
mutation or "sporting" of plants.

When the modern plant breeder seeks to produce some-
thing new by cross-fertilization a problem is encountered.
For many years we were ignorant of the principle upon which
nature operated in these hybrids or crosses. Finally a
Bohemian priest named Mendel discovered the law. The
central principle is that when the seed produced from a
cross between two different species is planted, the progeny
breaks up into well-defined groups. A certain percentage
of the plants resemble one of the parents, a smaller per-
centage are like the other parent, and the rest seem to be a
blend of both parents. These intermediates will not breed
true to themselves, however; if seed from them is planted
the progeny will split up into groups, showing the same
percentages as the first generation to which they belonged.
This has been generally accepted by scientists.

In many of his productions Professor Buffum apparently
has set the Mendelian law at defiance, for, by cross-fertiliza-
tion, he has evolved plants which breed true to themselves,

238 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

and their progeny does not break up into groups, according
to the accepted theory. They show specimens resembling
each parent, with the third composed of seemingly, but not
really, blended specimens.

These results are particularly vital in the development of
plants adapted by selection for semi-arid agriculture. The
Professor believes that the great areas of high plain country
to be found from Canada to Mexico can be made more pro-
ductive through planting crop varieties that have been bred
to withstand the existing conditions which produce meagre
returns from the vast expanse of territory under the present
methods.

In place of corn, which is difficult to mature even at
moderate elevations, Professor Buffum has introduced un-
proved emmers and the various hybrids resulting from
crosses with other grains.

Emmer itself is not a new grain, having been grown for cen-
turies in Russia and southern Europe, and it is believed to have
been the corn of Pliny, which he said was used by the Latins
for several centuries before they knew how to make bread.

Several years ago emmer began receiving attention as a
stock food. The first planting of the grain at Worland re-
sulted in some exceptional "sports," seemingly of a different
type, with coarse straw and very large heads. With this as
a basis, the seed was replanted and subjected to many experi-
ments to increase its drouth and winter resisting qualities.
Continued selections have shown, a yield of from a third
more to twice as much as corn, that it is thirty per cent
more valuable than oats for feeding horses, and that for
stock fattening it is equal to corn, pound for pound. It
is the most drouth-resistant and prolific of small grains,
has been successfully raised from Montana to Mexico, and

SOME EXPERIMENTAL FOODS 239

is being planted in Louisiana to replace oats because it is not
affected by rust.

Some of the yields recorded are enormous, varying from
40 to 104 bushels per acre under dry farming, and as high
as 152 bushels under irrigation.

One stalk of Turkey red wheat was noticed as differing in
many ways from all varieties, principally that the head was
over eight inches in length, whereas the ordinary Turkey
red wheat commonly used in the West has a head of only
four or five inches.

From this one stalk has been developed the Buffum No.
17 Winter wheat. The heavy beards were eliminated and
the grains or kernels in each spikelet increased from the nor-
mal number of three to five, seven, and even nine. The
hardiness of the new variety, together with its remarkably
large head, means that when it is placed on the market the
farmers who sow it need not fear winter killing and will
have a splendid flouring grain, which will produce nearly
double the average crop per acre.

It is said that if a single kernel could be added to each
head of wheat, the increase in annual production of this
country would amount to over fifteen million bushels.

If fodder crops can be substituted for a part of the corn
now used for stock, it will be a great gain.

In his alfalfa-breeding garden, Professor Buffum is raising
over seventy different kinds, gathered from all parts of the
world, showing that the plant is capable of wide variations.
One hybrid has been obtained by crossing sweet clover with
alfalfa ; the clover grows wild in every state in the Union.

There seems to be no limit to man's ingenuity and skill in
plant improvement. Perhaps sometime we will try it with
our children.

240 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

In thirty years an exceptional ear of dent corn, through
continued planting and careful selection each succeeding
season, resulted in a few days' shortening of the growing
period and an increased resistance to the cool nights of the
higher elevation where it was under improvement; to-day
this corn matures about the middle of August at an altitude
of 4000 feet, and has been yielding forty to sixty bushels
per acre.

CHAPTER XXV

DRIED TRUCK

As a war measure the surplus vegetables in many city
markets have been forced by the governments into large
municipal drying plants. Community driers have been
established in the trucking regions and even itinerant drying
machines have been sent from farm to farm drying the
vegetables which otherwise would have gone to waste.

The drying of vegetables may seem strange to the present
generation, but we are very young; to our grandmothers
it was no novelty. Many housewives even to-day prefer
dried sweet corn to the canned, and find also that dried
pumpkin and squash are excellent for pie making. Snap
beans often are strung on threads and dried above the stove.
Cherries and raspberries still are dried on bits of bark for
use instead of raisins.

This country is producing large quantities of perishable
foods every year, which should be saved for storage, canned,
or properly dried. Drying is not a panacea for the waste
evil, nor should it take the place of storing or canning to
any considerable extent where proper storage facilities are
available or tin cans or glass jars can be obtained cheap.

For the farmer's wife the new methods of canning are
probably better than sun drying, which requires a somewhat
longer time. But dried material can be stored in recep-
tacles which cannot be used for canning. Then, too, canned
fruit and vegetables freeze and cannot be shipped as con-
R 241

242 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

veniently in winter. Dried vegetables can be compacted
and shipped or stored with a minimum of risk. String
them up to the ceiling of the storeroom or attic.

A few apples or sweet potatoes or peas or even a single
turnip can be dried and saved. Even when very small
quantities are dried at a time, a quantity sufficient for a meal
will soon be secured. Small lots of dried vegetables, such
as cabbage, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and onions, can be
combined to advantage for soups and stews.

In general, most fruits or vegetables, to be dried quickly,
must first be shredded or cut into slices, because many are
too large to dry quickly, or have skins the purpose of which
is to prevent drying out. If the air applied at first is too
hot, the cut surfaces of the sliced fruits or vegetables become
hard, or scorched, covering the juicy interior so that it will
not dry. Generally it is not desirable that the temperature
in drying should go above 140° to 150° F., and it is better
to keep it well below this point. Insects and insect eggs
are killed by the heat.

It is important to know the degree of heat in the drier,
and this cannot be determined accurately except by a ther-
mometer. Inexpensive oven thermometers can be found
on the market, or an ordinary chemical thermometer can be
suspended in the drier.

Drying of certain products can be completed in some
driers within two or three hours. When sufficiently done
they should be so dry that water cannot be pressed out of
the freshly cut pieces, they should not show any of the natural
grain of the fruit on being broken, and yet not be so dry
as to snap or crackle. They should be leathery and pliable.

When freshly cut fruits or vegetables are spread out they
immediately begin to evaporate moisture into the air, and

DRIED TRUCK 243

if in a closed box will very soon saturate the air with mois-
ture. This will slow down the rate of drying and lead to
the formation of molds. If a current of dry air is blown
over them continually, the water in them will evaporate
steadily until they are dry and crisp. Certain products,
especially raspberries, should not be dried hard, because if
too much moisture is removed from them they will not
resume their original form when soaked in water.

The rotary hand slicer is adapted for use on a very wide
range of material. Don't slice your hand with it.

From an eighth to a quarter of an inch is a fair thickness
for most of the common vegetables to be sliced. To secure
fine quality, much depends upon having the vegetables
absolutely fresh, young, tender, and perfectly clean ; one
decayed root may flavor several kettles of soup if the slices
from it are scattered through a batch of material.
High-grade "root" vegetables can only be made from peeled
roots.

Blanching consists of plunging the vegetables into boiling
water for a short time. Use a wire basket or cheesecloth
bag for this. After blanching as many minutes as is needed,
drain well and remove the surface moisture from vegetables
by placing them between two towels or by exposing them
to the sun and air for a short time.

A mosquito net is thrown over the product to protect
the slices from flies and other insects. Fruits and vegetables,
when dried in the sun, generally are spread on large trays
of uniform size which can be stacked one on top of the other
and protected from rain by covers made of oilcloth, canvas,
or roofing paper.

A very cheap tray can be made of lath three fourths of
an inch thick and 2 inches wide, which form the sides and

244 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

ends of a box, and smoothed lath which is nailed on to form
the bottom. As builders' laths are 4 feet long, these lath
trays are most economical of material when made 4 feet in
length.

A cheap and very satisfactory drier for use over the
kitchen stove can be made by any handy man of small-mesh
galvanized-wire netting and laths or strips of wood about
$ inch thick and 2 inches wide. By using two laths nailed
together the framework can be stiffened and larger trays
made if desirable. This form can be suspended from the
ceiling over the kitchen range or over a clear burning oil,
gasoline, or gas stove, and it will utilize the hot air which
rises during the cooking hour. It can be raised out of the
way or swung to one side by a pulley or by a crane made of
lath. When the stove is required for cooking, the frame is
lowered or swung back to utilize the heat which otherwise
would be wasted. Still another home drier is the cookstove
oven. Bits of food, left overs, especially sweet corn, can be
dried on plates in a very slow oven or on the back of the cook-
stove and saved for winter use.

Where the electric "juice" is not monopolized, an electric
fan in drying is economical, especially for those who already
have a fan.

Many sliced fruits placed in long trays 3 by 1 foot and
stacked in two tiers, end to end, before an electric fan can
be dried within twenty-four hours. Some require much
less time. For instance, sliced string beans and shredded
sweet potatoes will dry before a fan running at a moderate
speed within a few hours.

The dried fruit or vegetables must be protected from in-
sects and rodents, also from the outside moisture, and will
keep best in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place. In the more

DRIED TRUCK 245

humid regions, moisture-tight containers should be used. If
a small amount of dried product is put in each receptacle,
just enough for one or two meals, it will not be necessary to
open a large container.

Your American ingenuity and the American practice of
reading will show you a lot of ways of saving waste : for
example, frozen potatoes are not necessarily spoiled, we are
told by Mr. de Ronsic, a writer in the Receil Agricole. They
may be dried and then cooked as usual. The Revue
Scientifique (Paris), abstracting the article in question, says :

"The potatoes must be dried to prevent decomposition,
which takes place very rapidly after they have thawed out. . . .

"The oven should be heated as for baking bread. Then,
when it has reached the necessary temperature, which is
easily recognized, the potatoes are put in, cutting up the
largest. They are spread out in a layer so that evaporation
may easily take place, the door of the oven being left open.
From time to time the mass is stirred up with a poker to
facilitate the evaporation. When the drying has gone far
enough, the potatoes having become hard as bits of wood,
they are withdrawn to make room for others.

" Potatoes thus dried may be boiled with enough water to
make a paste similar to that which they would have furnished
if mashed in the ordinary manner, and which will answer
very well, at least to feed stock. The potatoes will be found
to have lost none of their nutritive value."

Even if you haven't any acres — yet, there isn't any law
against drying in the city. Either in sales or in saving it will
help to pay for the country place later and the country place
can be made to pay it back again.

Call your product say "Landers' Desiccated Beans" or
"Glory's Dehydrated Corn." They will sell better, they

246 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

may even taste better, trying to live up to the description.
There's dollars in a name.

As a preservative ice must not be neglected. The Country
Gentleman says:

While the temperature is below the freezing point we
should take advantage of even short frosts to lay up ice for
next summer. The man without an ice pond need not be
without ice — he can freeze it in pans outdoors. An ice
plant of this sort will cost from fifteen to twenty dollars.

A double tank should be made of galvanized iron. The
inner compartment of this tank should be ten feet long,
two feet wide, and twelve inches deep. The top of the tank
should be slightly wider than the bottom. The inner tank
should be divided into six compartments by means of gal-
vanized iron strips. The double tank should be placed near
the outdoor pump, or stream, where it can easily be filled.

Being exposed on all sides, the water will freeze in from one
hour to three hours. A bucket of hot water poured into the
space between the tanks will loosen the cakes of ice, each
weighing 200 pounds. Four tons of ice will last the average
family a year. The cakes may be packed away in the ice-
house as they are frozen.

CHAPTER XXVI

HOME COLD-PACK CANNING

To save vegetables and fruits by canning is a patriotic
duty. The war makes the need for food conservation more
imperative than at any time in history. America is mainly
responsible for the food supply of the world. In this way
the abundance of the summer may be made to supply the
needs of the winter.

By the modern cold-pack method it is as easy to can vege-
tables as to can fruits. Some authorities say it is easier.
At any rate, it is more useful.

In the cold-pack method of canning, sterilization does
away with the danger of spoilage by fermentation or "work-
ing." Sterilization consists in raising the temperature of
the filled jar or can to a germ-killing point and holding it
there until bacterial life is destroyed.

The word " container " is used to designate either the
tin can or the glass jar.

Single-period cold-pack canning, as distinguished from
old-fashioned preserving, offers a saving in time, labor, and
expense, and satisfactory results. As the foodstuffs are
placed in the containers before sterilization, they are cold
and may be handled quickly and easily. Then the steri-
lization period is frequently short. This is tune-saving.
Finally, no rich preservatives, such as thick syrups or heavily
spiced solutions, are required. Fruits may be put up in

247

248 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

thin syrups. Vegetables require only salt for flavoring and
water to fill the container.

Another advantage of this method is that it is practicable
to put up food in small quantities. It pays to put up even
a single container. Thus, when there is a small surplus of
some garden crop, or something left over from the order
from the grocer's, one can take the short time necessary to
place this food in a container and store it for future use.
This is true household efficiency — the kind which, if prac-
ticed on a national scale, will conserve our war food supply
and will, after the war, cut heavily into the high cost of living.

There are five principal methods of canning : (1) the cold-
pack, single-period method; (2) the intermittent, or frac-
tional sterilization method ; (3) the cold-water method ;
(4) the open kettle or hot-pack method; and (5) the
vacuum-seal method. Of these the one worked out on sci-
entific lines by leading experts and used by many com-
mercial canners is so much the best method for home canning,
because of its simplicity and effectiveness, that it is recom-
mended by the National Emergency Food Commission and
the details are explained in then* manual.

The cold-water method can be used effectively in putting
up rhubarb, green gooseberries, and a few other sour berry
fruits. The process is simple. The fruit is first prepared
and washed and then blanched, and finally packed practi-
cally raw in containers, which are next filled with cold water
and then sealed. Some sour fruits packed in this way will
keep indefinitely.

A serviceable outfit may be made of materials found in
any household. All that is necessary is a vessel to hold the
jars or cans — such as a wash boiler or a large tin pail.
This should have a tight-fitting cover. Provide a false bot-

HOME COLD-PACK CANNING 249

torn of wood or a wire rack to allow for free circulation of
water under the containers.

While suburban gardeners with large surplus of vegetables
find it desirable to use tin cans, being more easily handled
for commercial purposes, most of us find glass jars the more
satisfactory and economical containers for canned vegetables
and fruits. This is especially true when there is a shortage
of tin cans. All types of jars that seal perfectly may be used.
Use may be made of those to which one is accustomed or
which may be already on hand. The rubbers must be
sound but the glass jars may be used indefinitely. Glass
jars are adapted for use in any of the cold-pack canning out-
fits. Be sure that no jar is defective.

For use in the storing of products which are already steri-
lized, such as jellies, jams, and preserves, and the bottling of
fruit juices, housewives may practice effective thrift by saving
all jars in which they receive dried beef, bacon, peanut butter,
and other products and bottles that have contained olives,
catsup, and kindred goods.

Blanching is important with most vegetables and many
fruits. It consists of plunging them into boiling water for a
short tune. Spinach and other greens should be blanched in
steam. To do this, place them in an ordinary steamer or
suspend them in a tightly closed vessel above an inch or two
of boiling water.

Blanching should be followed by the cold dip, plunging into
cold water after removal from the hot water. Cold dipping
hardens the pulp and preserves the original color, enhanc-
ing the appearance. Blanching cleanses the articles and
removes excess acids and strong flavors and odors. It also
causes shrinkage, so that a larger quantity may be packed
in a container. After blanching and cold dipping, surface

250 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

moisture should be removed by placing the vegetables or
fruits between two towels or by exposure to the sun.

All this is so simple and the directions so easily followed
that the average 12-year-old may successfully can vegeta-
bles or fruits. The steps and the precautions are :

1. Select sound vegetables and fruits. (If possible can
them the same day they are picked.) Wash, clean, and pre-
pare them.

2. Have ready, on the stove, a can or pail of boiling water.

3. Place the vegetables or fruits in cheesecloth, or in
some other porous receptacle — a wire basket is excellent
— for dipping and blanching them in the boiling water.

4. Put them whole into the boiling water. The Com-
mission gives a time-table for blanching. After the water
begins to boil, begin to count the blanching time; this
varies from one to twenty minutes, according to the vege-
table or fruit.

5. When the blanching is complete, remove the vegetables
or fruits from the boiling water and plunge them a number of
times into cold water, to harden the pulp and check the flow
of coloring matter. Do not leave them in cold water.

6. The containers must be thoroughly clean. It is not
necessary to sterilize them in steam or boiling water before
filling them, as in the cold-pack process both the insides of
containers and the contents are sterilized. The jars should
be heated before being filled, in order to avoid breakage.

7. Pack the product into the containers, leaving about a
quarter of an inch of space at the top.

8. With vegetables add one level teaspoonful of salt to
each quart container and fill with boiling water. With
fruits use syrups.

9. With glass jars always use a good rubber. Test the

HOME COLD-PACK CANNING 251

rubber by stretching or turning inside out. Fit on the rub-
ber and put the lid hi place. If the container has a screw
top do not screw up as hard as possible, but use only the
thumb and little finger in tightening it. This makes it pos-
sible for the steam to escape and prevents breakage. If
a glass top jar is used, snap the top bail only, leaving the
lower bail loose during sterilization. Tin cans should be
completely sealed.

10. Place the filled and capped containers on the rack in
the sterilizer. If the homemade or commercial hot-water
bath outfit is used, enough water should be in the boiler to
come at least one inch above the tops of the containers, and
the water, in boiling out, should never be allowed to drop to
the level of these tops. Begin to count processing time when
the water begins to boil.

At the end of the sterilizing period remove the containers
from the sterilizer. Fasten covers on tightly at once, turn
the containers upside down to test for leakage, leave in this
position until cold, and then store in a cool, dry place. Be
sure that no draft is allowed to blow on glass jars, as it may
cause breakage.

11. If jars are to be stored where there is strong light,
wrap them in paper, preferably brown, as light will fade the
color of products canned in glass jars, and sometimes de-
teriorate the food value.

That's the whole trick.

CHAPTER XXVII

RETAIL COOPERATION

COOPERATION in buying supplies at wholesale, in
standardizing and shipping crops, in keeping grain in eleva-
tors, and fruit and some meats and poultry in cold storage
has reached a high development among the farmers largely
in the Northwest, much ahead of us "city folks."

There are more than five thousand active Farmers' Co-
operation Associations in the United States. Minnesota
alone has over six hundred cooperative creameries, some of
which have a laundry annex. The associations have six
hundred and sixty thousand members and do a business of
nearly a thousand dollars a year for each member. These
are the people that we call "hayseeds"; if we could plant
some more such "seeds," it would be a good job. But in
cooperative retail domestic supply we are far behind England
and other countries, even behind Russia. That is partly
because our better retail business methods leave less room
for the savings.

A simple and easy but important beginning of cooperation
was where each one took turns in delivering the milk and
fetching supplies. One farmer might do it all every day for
a small charge.

The new South is developing a great business in this line.
When you go to New Orleans look up the stores whose letter
head reads:

252

RETAIL COOPERATION 253

NELSON CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, INC.

Food Suppliers

OFFICE, 506 SO. PETEES STREET. CREAMERY, ERATO ST.

WAREHOUSE, 511 SO. PETERS ST. BAKERY, ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE.

61 RETAIL STORES
4 MEAT MARKETS

In August, 1917, N. O. Nelson of the above concern
writes in answer to my request :

"It does not take 2500 words to tell all I know about
Cooperation. I trust the inclosed may be serviceable for
your book, and shall feel proud if it is.

" I am doing my job here for two very practical reasons ;
first, the immediate service of reducing the cost of living
to say 15,000 families, mostly poor; second, to introduce
economy in retailing.

" The readers of such a book as yours are well aware of the
wasteful ways of retailing goods. In every town and city
there is a multiplication of stores, advertising clerks, teams,
and other incidentals.

"Likewise there is a lot of middle men and drummers, the
buyers at the producer's end, the wholesalers or middle
men at the consumer's end, with speculator and landowner
at both ends. All of these have to be supported by the
system, and the dear consumer pays for it.

" The Cooperative store system, which was started in Eng-
land 73 years ago, eliminates most of these waste expenses.
The system has kept spreading at an astonishing rate ; in Great
Britain there are now 3^ million members, and more than a
billion of sales a year. Other European countries are full
of these stores. Many of the retail stores have from twelve
thousand to fifty thousand members; their sales run into

254 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

the millions. They are federated in a wholesale agency
which buys for them and manufactures on an extensive
scale.

"By the economies thus introduced they are able to save
regularly about 15 %, besides paying interest on the capital
employed, and accumulating a liberal surplus. It is simply
a question of people getting together (all civilization is),
contributing their own money and their trade, and thus
avoiding all the waste expenses.

"It is a very democratic plan; anybody is welcome to
join it ; every member has one vote and no more, they elect
then* directors, the directors elect the managers, and the
managers employ the clerks. They sell at the market prices
and every three or six months take account of stock and re-
bate the profits in proportion to each member's purchases,
with half rate to non-members.

" It appeals to the economical sense of the ordinary house-
keeper, and to the ethical sense of those who want no advan-
tage of their neighbor. It prevents some from getting unduly
rich and it helps to keep many from being unduly poor.

"The same principle has spread into farmer's work, espe-
cially Creameries. In Cooperative Creameries and Stores
Russia has grown faster in the last 15 years than any other
country, having at last reports over thirteen million
members. This orderly getting together for common social
needs has much to do with the orderliness of the Russian
Revolution.

"The United States has made large progress in producers'
cooperative associations, but not much in stores.

" I have in New Orleans a system of 65 stores on a modified
system ; it is a cooperative association but we sell at as low
prices as can be afforded, for cash in hand. The sales amount

RETAIL COOPERATION 255

to about 2^ millions, the most of it in the winter. The Asso-
ciation owns a Bakery, a Creamery, Condiment Factory}
and Coffee Factory, and a 1550-acre plantation. We are
able to undersell the market about 20 %.

" People anywhere can make a cooperative store if they take
it seriously. There should be about 200 members and $2000
in cash to start with : then get an honest and intelligent
manager ; start with a grocery, buy and sell for cash, either on
the Rochdale plan of selling at full market prices and dividing
the profits periodically, or on my plan of selling as cheaply as
can be afforded. In either plan it works out into producing
a large part of the goods sold, thus eliminating entirely the
superfluous middleman.

" Three acres and Liberty is the correct way of producing
a living; with the adjunct of a cooperative store to do the
selling'of the surplus produced and the buying of goods needed,
the small farmer is free from all the waste and trammels of
trade."

Now what's the matter with your helping your county
and country and humanity by organizing those two hundred
waiting buyers in your own town ? You can be the " honest
and intelligent manager" at a decent salary. If, later, the
cooperators want another manager, why you can easily
organize another store. The best information on this subject
is the Cooperative News, Manchester, England; subscrip-
tion two dollars.

Evidence is daily accumulating that the food and farm
problem is not so easy as many thought it to be a few months
ago. This is made clear when economists say : " The really
important question in the food problem is not distribution,
it is production." It is unfortunate that this statement
should gain belief at this time, when those who prey upon

256 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

the 'producer are watching for any support from whatever
direction.

Passing by the obvious fact that production must precede
distribution, notice that, with all the energy that has been
devoted to production of farm products by the government
experts, it is clear that not only is there a shortage, but
that it has required all kinds of inducements, from the
President down, to get the farmers to increase their output,
the most potent of all being the cry of patriotism.

Some explain this by showing how land monopoly prevents
men going back to the farms. While this is perfectly true, it
does not answer the question why farmers now in possession
of farms are not working them near their capacity.

The answer of the ordinary man to this is inefficiency on
the part of the farmer, and up to the present this idea has
passed as sufficient to account for the situation. The
publicity given the whole farm question during the past six
months, however, has to a large extent dispelled the in-
efficiency answer, as the farmer has responded so completely
to the call, and the amateurs are beginning to realize that
there is something in farming besides tickling the earth with
a feather. All the facts so far brought out show the farmer
abundantly able to produce all the foodstuffs needed, pro-
vided he has a reasonable certainty that he will be able to
dispose of his produce at a price that will give him a fair
return for his labor. This being the case, it is easy to see that
putting more men back on farms would not remedy the condi-
tion we are now in ; but would rather increase the difficulty.

The fact is, the two blades of grass theory has been exploded,
the increased production cry has been tried out, carried to its
logical conclusion, and found wanting, and the inefficiency
explanation has been proved a falsehood on its face. It is,

RETAIL COOPERATION 257

therefore, obvious that with a proper system of distribution,
the entire question of production will take care of itself;
but just so long as the producers find it unprofitable to pro-
duce food, just so long will they have to figure carefully not
to grow too much, or it would be better for them had they
grown nothing at all.

The reason why we have such divergent ideas on this sub-
ject is that so many people write about it who have had no
experience in farming, while on the other hand there are few
farmers who can state the case so the public can grasp the
most obvious facts.

Finally, it is a question of the government doing what it
ought not to have done and leaving undone those things
it ought to have done. It has granted to a few monopolies
transportation and terminal facilities which enable them to
hold up deliveries and thus control prices. The remedy
lies in seeing that the government attend to its own busi-
ness, which is securing equality of opportunity for all, and
special privileges to none.

It follows that cooperation should not stop either at
production or at distribution. It must embrace the source of
both, nor even stop at governmental plans of small holdings.

As a business enterprise, combining philanthropy and
percentage, capital has an opportunity.

Accordingly an option should be secured upon a large
piece of land not over forty miles from a large city, near a
railroad station. The transportation at first is not im-
portant, as the new commuters will make a demand for it,
and cheap autos will largely fill the gap ; it will improve
rapidly.

If possible it should have a lake or a fair stream on it for
irrigation and small water power ; the soil should be examined

258 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

by experts, to see that it is suitable for trucking and market
gardening.

The object should be to make a sort of vacant lot gardening
plan on a grand scale. Heretofore the trouble has been that
we have been unable to get land where there was any assur-
ance that we could have it again the second year, and that
the limited amount of land makes it impossible to give the
men as much as they ought to have. They do not need much
land, because a man working at intensive culture with only
the rough plowing done for him cannot take good care
of much more than one acre of land. He will probably make
as much money out of one acre of land as he will out of two.
Those who are willing to work should be given one acre of
land, with the assurance that they can have it as long as they
work it faithfully and comply with the simple rules which we
have found so effective in the Vacant Lot Gardening work, —
which are practically, that a man should attend to business
and not annoy his neighbors. No contract or lease should
be given the men, or indeed the women, for both work such
gardens, as they have been doing for the past twenty years
in several large cities, making at least a living upon the land
and often a very large return.

There must be a competent superintendent, for everything
depends upon him, who would show the men what land they
should use, what they should put in, instruct them how to do
it, and market their products cooperatively. Experience
in Philadelphia, and in some score of other cities where they
have established Vacant Lot Gardens, shows that about ten
per cent annually of the people prefer to work for others,
and consequently take places in the country after they have
learned to do market gardening. Some others, being dis-
satisfied with so little land, and wanting to own their own

RETAIL COOPERATION 259

place, go off and buy land or lease it for themselves. This
makes a constant drain from the gardens, leaving openings
for others who will learn in time their trade ; it is possible to
make in this way a steady drain out of the cities to the coun-
try, and what is better still, an automatic drain.

The land must be so near to a center of population that
it may be possible to take a gang of men down there in
the morning, show them what it is, and send back those who
do not seem likely to make good, or who are dissatisfied ; and
that when men get then* gardens successfully running, they
may be able to bring then* friends there to see what they
have done, and say to them, "Go thou and do likewise."

I have been at Trudeau, Saranac Lake, and at Stony Wold,
the consumptive sanitariums, and found there both by
observation and by testimony that to send back the convales-
cents to the bench or the workshop from which they came is
practically to repronounce upon them the sentence of death
from which the sanitarium has offered them a reprieve. The
only practical thing to do with such convalescents, and with
such persons who are not capable of their ordinary avocations,
is to get them in some way upon the land. There is a large
demand for persons who understand the new intensive garden-
ing, and places can be found for more than we can hope
to educate in that line.

There should be buildings upon the land sufficient to bunk
one hundred to one hundred and fifty men ; accommodations
could be made with the small timber for a considerable
number. Many of these men would need some help, but
most of them would shift for themselves if only they could get
the opportunity to build upon the land and to have a secure
tenure of it. A mere tenant knows that it is bunkum
when he says "Our Country."

260 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

It is perfectly practicable to sell about one half of the land
in a year or two, and have a thousand acres or more left free
and clear, which will cost the promoters nothing. Renting
this out or selling it will repay the whole cost, and probably
bring a large profit besides.

This is no experiment, it is only to do the thing that we
have been doing under various conditions with various
sorts of men in different localities for the past twenty years
in the Vacant Lot Gardens : namely, to give men the oppor-
tunity of living upon and cultivating land, putting up their
own tents, shacks, or bungalows, and giving them such in-
struction and such help as does not cost anything more
than the salary of the superintendent. There are abundant
men who can make good and shift for themselves under those
circumstances ; the men who are available are single men,
such men as those for whom Mr. Hallimond, a clergyman
working in the Bowery, has been finding rural employment in
the past ten years. Also many families will come to us through
the Vacant Lot Gardens and the Little Land agitation.

People such as these will increase the land value, for every
decent man carries around with him at least five hundred
dollars' worth of increase in land values which his presence
adds to somebody's holdings of land. The struggle to pocket
this increase accounts for much of the human drift from the
field to the factory.

God made the country ; man made the city — and the
devil made the suburbs, by the aid of the speculator.

Alpha of the Plough says in the London Star: "I was
walking with a friend along the Spaniards-road the other
evening talking on the inexhaustible theme of these days,
when he asked, 'What is the biggest thing that has happened
to this country as the outcome of the war?'

RETAIL COOPERATION 261

" ' It is within two or three hundred yards from here/ I
replied. ' Come this way and I'll show it to you.'

" He seemed a little surprised, but accompanied me cheer-
fully enough as I turned from the road and plunged through
the gorse and the trees towards Parliament Fields, until we
came upon a large expanse of allotments, carved out of the
great playground, and alive with figures, men, women, and
children, some earthing up potatoes, some weeding onion
beds, some thinning out carrots, some merely walking along
the patches, and looking at the fruits of their labor springing
from the soil. 'There/ I said, 'is the most important
result of the war.'

" He laughed, but not contemptuously. He knew what I
meant, and I think he more than hah0 agreed.

" And I think you will agree, too, if you will think what
that stretch of allotments means. It is the symptom of the
most important revival, the greatest spiritual awakening this
country has seen for generations. Wherever you go, that
symptom meets you. Here in Hampstead allotments are
as plentiful as blackberries in autumn. A friend of mine
who lives in Beckenham tells me there are fifteen hundred in
his parish. In the neighborhood of London there must be
many thousands. In the country as a whole there must be
hundreds of thousands. If dear old Joseph Fels could
revisit the glimpses of the moon and see what is happening,
see the vacant lots and waste spaces bursting into onion
beds and potato patches, what joy would be his! He
was the forerunner of the revival, the passionate pilgrim
of the Vacant Lot: but his hot gospel fell on deaf ears,
and he died just before the trumpet of war awakened the
sleeper.

"Do not suppose that the greatness of this thing that is

262 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

happening can be measured in terms of food. That is
important, no doubt, but it is not the most important thing.
I am confident that it will add more than anything else to
the spiritual resources of the nation. It is the beginning of a
war on the disease that is blighting our people. What is
wrong with us ? What is the root of our social and spiritual
ailment ? Is it not the divorce of the people from the soil ?
For generations the wholesome red blood of the country
has been sucked into the great towns, and we have built
up a vast machine of industry that has made slaves of us,
shut out the light of the fields from our lives, left our children
to grow like weeds in the slums, rootless and waterless,
poisoned the healthy instincts of nature implanted in us,
and put in their place the rank growths of the streets. Can
you walk through a working-class district or a Lancashire
cotton town, with then* huddle of airless streets, without a
feeling of despair coming over you at the sense of this enor-
mous perversion of life into the arid channels of death ? Can
you take pride in an Empire on which the sun never sets
when you think of the courts in which, as Will Crooks says,
the sun never rises?

" And now the sun is going to rise. We have started a
revolution that will not end until the breath of the earth
has come back to the soul of the people. The tyranny of
the machine is going to be broken. The tyranny of the land
monopoly is going to be lifted. Yes, you say, but these
people that I see working on the allotments are not the
people from the courts and the slums ; but professional men,
the superior artisan, and so on, That is true. But the
movement must get hold of the intelligentsia first. The im-
portant thing is that the breach in the prison is made ; the
fresh air is filtering in; the idea is born — not still-born,

RETAIL COOPERATION 263

mind you, but born a living thing. It is a way of salvation
that will not be lost, and that all will travel.

" We have found the land, and we are going back to possess
it. Take a man out of the street and put him in a garden,
and you have made a new creature of him. I have seen the
miracle again and again. I know a bus conductor, for example,
outwardly the most ordinary of his kind. But one night I
mentioned allotments, touched the key of his soul, and
discovered that this man was going about his daily work
irradiated by the thought of his garden triumphs. He had
got a new purpose in life. He had got the spirit of the
earth in his bones. It is not only the humanizing influence
of the garden, it is its democratizing influence too.

' When Adam delved and Eve span
Where was then the gentleman ? '

You can get on terms with the lowliest if you will discuss
gardens."

CHAPTER XXVIII

SUMMER COLONIES FOR CITY PEOPLE

(Condensed from the Annual Report of the U. S. Depart-
ment of the Interior of the Commissioner of Educa-
tion. Vol. 2, now out of print.)

BERLIN has not been boastful of a new sociological feature
which it has developed within the last fifteen years, a feature
so revolutionary in its bearing upon education and upon the
general health of future generations, that it should be made
known to the world. As yet little has been said about this
new agency. It may be because it is not a governmental in-
stitution, but the result of self-help and of the recognition of
a plain necessity. It may be assumed that if the summer
colonies had been instituted by the government for the
great majority who are poor it would not have succeeded so
well as it has.

The teachers, seeing that the horizon of their pupils was
limited by brick and mortar (for open park spaces are rare
in Berlin), came to the conclusion that only by giving their
pupils opportunity to live in the open air could they lay a
sound foundation of knowledge of natural objects and pro-
cesses as a basis for school studies. The teachers of them-
selves, however, could apply only palliative remedies, such
as having sent to them, from the botanical gardens, thousands
of specimens of plants, twigs, flowers, fruit, etc., for nature
study in the schoolroom; planting flower beds around the

264

SUMMER COLONIES FOR CITY PEOPLE 265

schoolhouses ; also, brief excursions into parks, and hanging
up before the class colored pictures of landscapes and rural
scenery.

While in many cases, especially in large cities, the neces-
sity was recognized of getting the children out of the great
desert of brick and mortar into the open air and into com-
panionship with life in the field, the garden, the brooks, and
the woods, it had nowhere resulted in a systematic effort
to aid the children of an entire city in that way until it was
tried in Berlin. Of course it is well understood, not only
abroad, but in New York and in other large cities of this
country, that something must be done to alleviate the want
of space and fresh air, and so recreation piers and roof gar-
dens are provided, excursions of schools into parks are un-
dertaken, open-air playgrounds are instituted, and similar
efforts are made tending to mitigate the evil effects of city
life ; but all these efforts are merely sporadic or temporary ;
they do not attack the evil at the roots ; moreover they are
only drops in the bucket when compared with that which
is necessary.

This tendency to cooperative and collective action has re-
sulted in this particular case in thousands of the children's
" Arbor Gardens " round about the city. It is an experience
"en gros," one of such dimensions that cavil ceases and ad-
miration rises supreme.

The German poor are very poor indeed, but parents were
induced to rent, at a price of 4 marks ($1) or about 20 cents
a month from May to October for the summer season, a
patch of land in the suburbs of Berlin unfit for farmland
because cut up by railroad tracks and newly laid-out streets.
On one of these patches a family might erect an arbor, or a
small structure of boards with a wide veranda and a cor-

266 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

rugated iron roof, for housing themselves and children dur-
ing the summer months. The dwellings are of the most
primitive kind and rather flimsy; no permanent structure
can be allowed, for at any time the owner of the land may
give notice to vacate for the purpose of erecting a row of
houses, railroad buildings, or other permanent structures.
The tenants themselves build fences of wire or plant hedges
to keep the different plots apart. On these patches the
children, under the guidance of teachers, parents, and ap-
pointed guardians, began to sow flower seeds, plant shrubs,
vines, and trees, or raise kitchen vegetables, each group
or family according to its own desires and needs. Since
the "arbors" are small they do not decrease the arable land
of the allotments much, and there is still room left for swings,
gymnastic apparatus, and similar contrivances, as well as
bare sandy spots for little tots to play in. The various al-
lotments are mostly uniform in size and are reached by nar-
row three- or four-foot lanes, on which occasionally are seen
probationary officers or guardians who keep the peace and
settle cases of disturbance.

The "arbor gardens" are established on every square rod
of unused land round about the city, on vacant lots, far out
to the borders' of the well-trained woods and royal forests.
Small tradesmen, laboring men, civil officials of low degrees,
etc., have found it profitable to forsake their tenements in
the city and move kith and kin into those "arbor colonies."
The tenements in Berlin are as bad as in our own big cities,
only better policed.

Not all of these arbor gardens are occupied by families
during the night. Thousands return to their city homes
evenings. Some parents, unable to free themselves from toil
in town, send their children under guidance of servants,

SUMMER COLONIES FOR CITY PEOPLE 267

and spend only occasional Sundays and holidays with
them.

The people, especially the children, getting some infor-
mation concerning the treatment of the crops from compe-
tent advisers in school and out in the arbor colonies, derive
great good from their horticultural and floricultural work.
Families who are aesthetically inclined devote their space to
flowers and trailing vines exclusively; others, utilitarians
from necessity, plant potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, beans,
strawberries, and the like. The feeling of ownership being
strongly developed in the children in seeing the results of
their own labor, the crops are respected by the neighbors
and pilfering rarely occurs, except perhaps in a case of great
hunger.

Several hundred or a thousand of such patches of land, or
gardens, situated in close proximity to each other, form an
arbor colony, which has a governor, or mayor, who is an un-
paid city official. He arranges the leasing of the land, col-
lects the rents, and hands them over to the gratified land-
owners who don't even have to collect them. There is
always a retired merchant or civil officer to fill the office, to
which is attached neither title, emolument, nor special honor.
He is assisted by a "colonial committee" of trustees selected
from the colonists, who act as justices of the peace, in case
disturbances should arise. If colonists prove frequent dis-
turbers of the peace or are found incapable of living quietly,
their leases are not renewed. Of course there are such cases,
but they are rare.

Since the size of an " arbor garden " is from about two six-
teenths to three sixteenths of an acre, say two or three New
York City Lots, those forming a colony make a considerable
community, in which the authority of the committee, or

268 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

board of trustees, is absolute, and the few cases they have
had to adjudicate have generally been caused by nagging
women. It is claimed in the press that these colonists are
literally without scandals, and that the life led by young
and old is a most peaceful and happy one. People who are
hard at work are not likely to be quarrelsome : good whole-
some food, much exercise in play and labor, and an abundance
of fresh air and sunshine are conducive to happiness, es-
pecially as the clothing may be of a primitive kind, or need
not conform to the dictates of fashion.

A teacher remarked : "It is noticeable that since these
school children are engaged in lucrative work which does
not go beyond their strength, and since they see with their
own eyes the results of their labor, a sense of responsibility
is engendered which has a beneficial influence upon school
work also. Respect for all kinds of labor and a decrease in
the destructiveness so often found among boys are unmis-
takable effects of the arbor gardens. It is not easy work
which the children perform, for spade and rake require mus-
cular effort; but it is ennobling work, for it leads to self-
respect, self-dependence, and respect for others, as well as
willingness to aid others. The most beautiful sight is af-
forded when, on a certain date agreed on by the members of
a colony, a harvest festival is held. Then flag raisings and
illuminations and singing and music make the day a mem-
orable one."

Most of the families had not the means to buy the lumber
and hardware to erect an "arbor," and yet they were the very
ones to whom the life in the open would be of the greatest
benefit. Hence philanthropy erected the structures. The
Patriotic Woman's League of the Red Cross built half of all
the "arbors" of the colony found on the "Jungfernheide."

SUMMER COLONIES FOR CITY PEOPLE 269

Many colonies reach into the woods, and naturally are of a
different character from those in the open, for there tents
are used instead of wooden structures. For protection during
the night watchmen pace up and down the lanes; this
before the war entailed a cost of 1\ cents a month to each
family. The season lasts from May 1 to October 1.

The school-going population meanwhile attend their
schools, which used to be reached by means of the elevated
cars or surface tramways for 2§ cents and much cheaper
if they have commuters' tickets. Many schools are near
enough to be reached on foot. The children do not loiter
on the way, but when school is out they hurry "home" to
begin work in the garden, or to sit down to a meal on the
veranda, which is relished far more than a meal in a city
tenement house filled with fetid air and wanting in light.
Nearly every one of these gardens has a flagpole, and at
night a Japanese paper lantern with a tallow dip in it il-
luminates the veranda. These, with flags by day, make a
festive appearance. The teachers find that city children
who spend the five months in the open air are well equipped
with elementary ideas in physical geography and astronomy.
Their mental equipment is better, indeed, in all fields of
thought, their physical health is unproved, as well as their
ethical motives and conduct.

To realize the full extent of these wholesale efforts (for
put children into close contact with nature and they will
improve in all directions), it is well to take a ride on the
North belt line (elevated steam railroad), the trains of which
start from the Friedrich's street depot and bring one back
after a ride of an hour and a half. Then one may do the same
on the South belt line. On these two trips one will see, not
hundreds, but tens of thousands of such "arbor gardens"

270 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

full of happy women and children at work or play. The men
come out on the belt line when their work in town is done.
The writer was riding through the city on an open cab, and
seeing hardly any children on the streets and in the parks,
he asked, "How is it that we see no children out?" "Ah,
sir," was the reply, "if you will see the children of Berlin you
must go out to the arbor colonies outside of the city. There
is where our children are." Subsequent visits to these colony
gardens showed that Berlin is by no means a childless city.
To judge from the multitudinous arbors to be seen from the
windows of the belt line cars there must be 50,000 to 75,000
of them. As far as the eye reaches the flagpoles, the
orderly fences, and the little structures can be seen; and
since the city has 2,000,000 inhabitants, it is very likely that
an estimate made by a city official of several hundred thou-
sands of children thus living in the open air, is not excessive.
The most beautiful and best-arranged gardens are not found
in the vicinity of railroads, but several miles out toward
the north and the south of the city. Here, where the soil
is better, fine crops are raised.

If we turn our eyes homeward and contemplate the many
thousands of small efforts made in this country toward the
alleviation of city children's misery, we can say truthfully
that we in America are perhaps fully alive to the necessity
which has prompted the people of Berlin to action ; we only
need to be reminded of Mayor Pingree's potato patches on
empty city lots, our children's outing camps, our occasional
children's excursions, and the like. Still, there is nothing in
this country to compare with the thousands of Berlin
" arbor gardens " and their singularly convincing force.
Like a circus, all this is supposed to be for the children,
though it usually seems to need about two grown people

SUMMER COLONIES FOR CITY PEOPLE 271

to escort each child. The elders enjoy the gardens even more
than the circus.

The arbor gardens of Berlin should not be mistaken for
the numerous "forest schools" (Waldschulen) in Germany.
These schools "in the woods "are for sickly children, both
physically crippled and mentally weak. The pupils have
their lessons in the open, and the teachers live, play, and
work with them ; long recesses separate the various lessons
and a two-hour nap in the middle of the day out in the
open is on the time-table of every one of these schools.
These special open-air schools for weaklings and defectives
are now found in many parts of Germany, notably in Char-
lottenburg, Strassburg, and the industrial regions of the
Rhineland.

The example of Berlin has been followed in other German
cities, such as Munich, notably in Diisseldorf on the Rhine,
where the arbor gardens are called "Schreber gardens" in
honor of the man who promoted their establishment. There
is a large colony of such gardens along the Hans-Sachs
street, where Lima beans, peas, lettuce, cucumbers, potatoes,
and many other garden vegetables are raised ; even straw-
berries, raspberries, and fruit trees are found here. But the
city being more lavishly provided with parks and open
spaces than others of its size, the necessity for open-air life
has not made itself felt as forcibly as in Berlin.

And think of the cleansing influence of all this. Light
and air and labor — these are the medicines not of the body
only, but of the soul. It is not ponderable things alone that
are found in gardens, but the great wonder of life, the peace
of nature, the influences of sunsets and seasons and of all
the intangible things to which we can give no name, not be-
cause they are small, but because they are outside the com-

272 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY

pass of our speech. The God that dwells in gardens is suffi-
cient for all our needs — let the theologians say what they
will.

" ' Not God ! in gardens ? When the eve is cool ?

Nay, but I have a sign —

"Tis very sure — God walks in mine.' "

INDEX

Acre, rented, 2

size of, 2

yields, 43, 47, 52
Agricultural Colleges, 210

Department, Ass't Sec'y Carl

Vrooman quoted, 33, 47
Agriculture for Beginners, 213
Alfalfa, 222, 239
Animals, wild, as food, 159, 235
Apples, 124-180

culture, 124, 180

seed experiment in Minnesota,

214

Asparagus, 57, 81
Atlantic Seaboard, 164

Squab Co., quoted, 115

Bacteria, nitrogenous, 91

Bailey, Prof. L. H., quoted, 35, 105

Balls, carbolic moth, with potato

seeds,

Barrel hoops, 122
Barron, Leonard, 107
Bats, as mosquito destroyers, 131
Beans, green, 72

Lima, 72

snap, 179

soy, 233

Bee-keeping, 116
Beets, 36, 89

Berlin's Sociological Bowers, 264
Birds, fancy breeding, 156
Blackberries, 130
Blueberries, 132

J. H. Hale quoted, 132
British Isles, vegetation drawbacks, 8
Buffum's, Prof., plants, 237, 239
Buildings, sufficient on land, 193, 259
Bulbs, 214

experience in Puget Sound coun-
try — hyacinths and tulips
Burroughs, Julian, his garden ex-
perience, 77

Cabbage, 89
Canning, 241

cold pack, 247

five principles of, 248

in Maryland, 175
Cantaloupes, 179
Carp, domesticated, 152
Cart, capacity in bushels, 2
Cat breeding, 158
Cattle, on small holdings, 4
Celery, profit and loss, 90
Cherries, 128, 241
Chicory, Whitloof or Belgian, 234
City drift a mere symptom, 1
Clearing land — dynamite, 183, 191

away useless trees, 186
Colonies, summer, for city people, 264
Containers, glass and tin, 249
Cooperation, retail, 252
Corn, 72, 222

matures, 240

planting, 214
Cottage, complete, 198
Cotton, 222
Coupin, Henri, on hot water baths

for plants, 228

Coville, Frederick V., on grain, 96
Cows, 41

Cranberry bogs, 131
Creameries, 254
Cropping, companion — main and

secondary crops, 64
Cucumbers, 55, 73
Cultivation, intensive, compared, 2

best place to carry on, 163
Currants, 129

Dasheen — substitute for potato, 235
Dates, 233
Delaware, 170

climate, 172

game, 173

home of small fruits, 172

273

274

INDEX

Delaware, soil, 171

tax, 173

Denmark, small holdings, 7*
Diminishing returns, Engel, 34
Dogs, breeding, 158
Drier, homemade, 244
Ducks, 114

white Pekins for dry sites, 114

Electric juice, 244
Emmer in place of corn, 238
Engel, Dr., on scientific farming, 34
Ether on plants, 213

Fairbrother, W. F., on costs and

products of a garden, 75
Fairchild, Dr. David S., experi-
ments in foods, 232
Farm-hunting, 20

Farm, minister's, near Philadelphia,
216

Bonanza, 6

worn out or abandoned, 164
Farmer, Successful, quoted, 54
Farming, book, 82

fox, 160

fur, 160
Fertilizers : manure, 87

nitrate of soda, 89, 90

nitrogen, 88
Fish, bass as food, 154

bass as game, 153

shell, 159

trout, 153
Flowers, 134

bulbs, 214

Maryland, 176

prices, 139

Foods, experimental, 231
Forestry information, where avail-
able, 219
Fox fanning, 160
Free Acres, 196

Freight rates, competing, 14-15
Frogs, feeding for food, 151
Fullerton, Edith Loring, 184

Garden Primer, 29

Gardens, arbor, in Germany, 265

products, 271

workers, 270
Gardens, beginner in market, 98

kitchen, 70

Gardens, market, 81, 82

requisites for, 9

roof, 8

vacant (city) lot, 9

war, 211
Ginseng, 144
Goats, Angora, 191

clearing the land, 191
Golden Seal, medicinal weed, 143
Gooseberries, 129
Grapes, arbor, 127
Green beans, 72
Greenhouses, cheap and dear, 107

Hares, 116

Hartman, D. L., on strawberries, 53

on various products, 60
Hemp, as land clearer, 190
Herb, importation, 148

report, 147

time for collecting, 146
Hiring help, advantages of, 38
Homecrofters' Guild, Watertown,

Mass., 206

Honey, a business, 118
Hotbeds, 102, 103

cost of, 104-106
Houses, Aladdin, 197

cement blocks, 199

portable, 197

Huckleberry, the untameable, 132
Hundred Year Club, G. W. Smith,

203

Hunn, on garden advice for beginner,
73

Ice, procuring and preserving, 246
Immigrants, advantages by remain-
ing East, 176

Immigration to the South, 15
Irrigation, costly, 92

overhead, 230
Italy, destruction of agricultural, 41

Japanese intense culture, 76
Jelly, pulp rose berries, 226
Jersey, wonders of Island of, 7, 8
Jujube (fruit), 232 -

Labor, lack of, 180
Land, amount of space needed to feed
family, 37

INDEX

275

Land, back to the, 200
fertility, 85
idle, abundance of, 14
low priced, 17

Landreth, Burnett, quoted, 210

Langdon, A. L., in "Real Estate
Record and Guide," on Long
Island, 166

Lettuce, 179

"Liberty and a Living," quotation
from, 39, 40

Lima beans, 72

Living conditions before the Civil
War, different, 12

London Daily News, report of crops, 66

Long Island, northeastern, coop-
erative features, 61

Lumber, prices, 183

Macaroni, introduction of, to this
country, 213

wheat, 213

Maine, climate — products, 181
Manure, 103
Maryland, 173

canning, 175

flowers, 175

State Bureau of Immigration, 176
Maynard, Prof. S. T., quoted, 125
Maxwell's Talisman, teaching farmers

to profit from land, 212
Milk, to be rid of, 233
Milkweed, its use, 150
Mint, production and sale, 227
Mississippi Valley transportation, 15
Montana, good crops without irri-
gation, 97
Mushrooms, varieties, 120

National Emergency Food Com-
mission, 71, 248

Nelson, N. O., on "The Cooperative
Store System," 253

New Jersey, fertile, 168

New Orleans, codperative stores, 253

Nitrogen, meat marker, 71
fertilizer, 88

Nuts, grown for commercial use, 132

Onions, 72

Oppenheimer, Franz, on equal di-
vision of land, 42
Osage Orange, edible, 150

Peanuts, culture and uses, 59

Farmers' Bulletin 25, U. S. Dept.
Peas, 72

Petsai, substitute for cabbage, 233
Pigs, profit in, 236
Plant breeding, 237
Planting fruit trees, 74
Plants, delicate, 86
Pleasures in rural homes, 123
Pond lilies as a crop, 76
Potatoes, advantages, 84

dried, 245

sawdust as mulch, 226

scab prevention, 225

Scotland, 215

spraying, 97

walks to cultivate, 2

yields, 2
Poultry, feed, 114

raising, 111
Powell, Geo. T., quoted, on cherries,

128

Practical experience, 224
Profession, coming, for boys, 208
Publications, miscellaneous, 224
Pumpkins, 73

Quails, barnyard, 161

Radishes, 72

Railroads, teaching fanning, 211
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy

Railway Co. lectures, 211
Raspberries, 130, 241
Rhubarb, 81
Roberts, Prof., on advantages of

study, 40
Ronna, Prof., on figures on crops per

acre, 47
Roots, burdock, 147

Sawdust as mulch for potatoes, 226
School window garden boxes, 44

at Yonkers, 77
Shack of logs, 195
Silkworm, a possibility, 157
Skunk farming, 161
Snail, raising for the table, 156
Snakes as food, 159
Soil inoculation, 90
Southern States, development, 165

276

INDEX

Spinach, 179
Squab for profit, 115
Squash, 73
Sterilization, 247
Stock, live, 151
Stove, Franklin, 197
Strawberry, 53, 130

garden on roof, 226

yield, 175

Stumps, to burn out, 184
Sugar factory, 36
Sunflower, seed industry, 58
Swamp land uses, 164

Taft, Wm. N., "Technical World

Magazine," Menu, 231
Tea, experience in So. Carolina, 215
Tents, as a makeshift, 193
Texas, land offer, 206
Thistles, riddance of, 190
Timber, 219

miscellaneous state taxes, 222
Time for sowing seed, 62

crops are ready, 63
Title, perfect — secured, 172
Toads, their value, 131
Tobacco, 181

Connecticut, 175

Maryland, 175

Ohio, 59

Pennsylvania, 59
Tomato, 60, 89, 175

culture, 102

Tools and equipment, 79
Tractors instead of horses, 230
Trees, 219

advantages, 184

pine, 195

States that distribute young trees,

221

Trout, domestic, 153
Truck, dried, 241
Turtles, profitable, 152

Udo as substitute for asparagus, 235
U. S. Fish Commissioners' report, 151

Vacant lot cultivation, 9, 22, 75,
258, 260

Vacant lot experience, 38

gardeners, 259
Vegetables, blanching, 243, 249

cabbage, 32

drying, 241, 242

miscellaneous, 89

peas, 32

principles of vegetable gardening,
105

wild, 149
Virginia, 176

climate'. 177

tobacco, 179

War, result to land, 261
Water supply, 194

transportation, 100
Weed killer, hemp as, 190
Wells, artesian, 189
Wheat, 97, 163, 222, 239

Buffum No. 17 Winter wheat, 239

Turkey red wheat, 239

yielded in various states, 6
Wheel hoe, a blessing, 80, 190
Wilcox in "Farming," 213

durum or macaroni, 213
Wild herbs, fruits, and roots, 215
Windows, double, 197
Wood, Samuel, quoted, "Gardening,

Multum in Parvo," 66
Woodchuck, a dainty, 159
Woodland, products in board meas-
ure, 220
Wood lots, 219

fires, 221

taxes, 221, 222

Yield, apples, 180

beans, snap, 179

cantaloupes, 179

emmer, 239

lettuce, 179

mint, per acre, 227

spinach, 179

strawberries, 175

tomatoes, 175
Youth, in tenements, 208

on farms, 209

Printed in the United States of America.

*T*HE following pages contain advertisements of a
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together unique. The garden is truly a home garden, an intimate
part of the author's life." — Countryside Magazine.

" The book is well printed. The many pictures, some of them
finely colored, are of unusual quality. The book smells of the
garden. A record of unflagging enthusiasm and successes and
failures. Admirably written, good to read aloud, and brimming
over with love of flowers and vegetables and trees. It carries the
feeling of being written by a man rather than a woman, and yet a
man who has all a woman's sensitiveness to beauty. For sugges-
tiveness and the inspiration of joy hi the garden this book cannot
be surpassed in the long list of garden books. It has the unusual
merit of a very full index. The author knows what the garden
supplies that is good for the table, as well as the wealth of flowers
it affords." — The Independent.

" The pleasures of amateur horticulture have seldom been so
alluringly depicted as by Mr. J. Horace McFarland in this chatty
and familiar record of his own experience on a modest urban, or
perhaps we should say suburban, estate at Harrisburg, Pa. It is
a natural growth, this book of his, rather than a product of cold
calculation. 'I have written it,' he says, 'but my family have
lived it with me, and the print-shop which bears my name and
enjoys my garden has made of the book much more than a per-
functory item of work. The publishers, too, have let down the
bars, so that in a very special sense the book has been lived, writ-
ten, designed, illustrated, printed, and bound as the work of one
man and those about him.' " — • The Dial.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avonue Hew Tork

The Farm Woodlot

BY E. G. CHEYNEY

Director of the College of Forestry of the University of Minnesota

AND J. G. WENTLING

Associate Professor of Forestry of the University of Minnesota

Illustrated. Cloth, i2tno, $1.75

The whole subject of raising forests and producing
timber as a part of a farming business is covered in this
book. Here will be found fully treated such topics as
the rise of forestry knowledge in relation particularly
to agriculture, forest influences, forest economics, the
growth of the tree, the kinds of trees and the means of
distinguishing them, the regeneration of the woodlot, the
practical propagation of trees, methods of planting and
thinning, the production of the forest, the best utilization
of forests, the durability and preservation of timber.
There are also included tables of interest to lumbermen
and a chapter on ornamental planting. The volume is
well illustrated, the illustrations alone largely explaining
forest practices and making evident the differences in
trees.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue Hew York

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

EDITED BY L. H. BAILEY

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF OVER 500 COLLABORATORS

New edition, entirely rewritten and enlarged, with many new features; with
24 plates in color, 96 full-page half tones, and over 4,000 text illustra-
tions. Complete in six volumes. Sold only in sets.

Set cloth, $36.00 Leather, $6000

" The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture," pronounced by ex-
perts to be an absolute necessity for every horticulturist and of
tremendous value to every type of gardener, professional and ama-
teur, is completed. " An indispensable work of reference to every
one interested in the land and its products, whether commercially or
professionally, as a student or an amateur," is the Boston Transcript's
characterization of it, while Horticulture adds that "it is very live
literature for any one engaged in any department of the horticultural
field."

" This really monumental performance will take rank as a stand-
ard in its class. Illustrations and text are admirable. . . . Our
own conviction is that while the future may bring forth amplified
editions of the work, it will probably never be superseded. Recog-
nizing its importance, the publishers have given it faultless form.
The typography leaves nothing to be desired, the paper is calcu-
lated to stand wear and tear, and the work is at once handsomely
and attractively bound." — New York Daily Tribune.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New Tork

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