DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 203 



but that apprenticeihip necessary for the master workman 

 everywhere. Good farming requires adaptabihty of cro-'S to 

 soil and man to both, better appreciation of soil possibilities, 

 knowledge of food requirements of different crops, as well as 

 of methods of handling, protecting, and disposal of all surplus, 

 and, over all, the certainty daily growing stronger that one is 

 working in sympathy with the laws of God, manifest in growth 

 of blade, twig, tree, stalk, vine and bush. Until one comes to 

 some clear realization of this he is in the primary work of 

 education. From the first there will be income proportionate 

 to the skill, insight and intelligent industry of the individual. 



Pardon a personal note: I know of no other way to carry 

 the lesson so significant to me. I have now been at work nine 

 years upon a field which today covers practically nine to ten 

 acres of rocky, rolling land, which, when purchased, produced 

 little if anything. It is in our field sloping to the lake on the 

 south. Five acres are in grass, carrying 140 young apple 

 trees, every one dug around and hoed until the last of June 

 when a broad swath is cut around each tree and the grass used 

 for mulching. This cuts a circle ten feet across, around each 

 tree and materially reduces the grass area for cropping. Two 

 acres are covered by old trees, all the grass about them being 

 used for mulching, together with the liberal second crop. One 

 and one-fourth acre carries trees set November, 1910, now in 

 process of building up by buckwheat and winter rye as cover 

 crops plowed under in August and May. Three-fourths acre 

 is used for garden, corn and potatoes. One-fourth acre for 

 plum orchard and one-eighth acre in small fruits, and balance 

 covered by bungalow and yard. 



Living on the place but eight months yearly, I sell my grass 

 standing, apples when picked and potatoes when dug. All 

 barn manure must be purchased, costing $6 per cord, spread. 

 All team labor, 50 cents per hour and hand labor, 25 cents per 

 hour. On this basis the work at Inglenook is carried on and 

 experience fully justifies the claim made for possible earnings 

 for others. Given 100 hens to run in the plum orchard, and 

 improve the fruit, a market increase in net returns might be 

 possible. A friend keeping 50 reports for year ending Novem- 

 ber I, average production, 180 eggs per hen; average selling 

 price, 32 cents ; gross income, $4.80 per hen. 



