No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. S61 



always safe to follow the rules we hear given too closely, for a man 

 must work these things out for himself. I bought a farm of 90 acres, 

 though I didn't need over thirty, yet this farm could not be sepa- 

 rated. Ten acres is about our limit for gardening, the rest being 

 hill land is planted to peach and apples in sod. I don't hesitate to 

 say that our plan is to avoid work on most of the land, not entirely 

 because we are lazy, but because the hired help question is a hard 

 one, and we have tried to do what we can within the limit of our 

 present family. I observe that mauy excellent men can do a good 

 day's work alone, but cannot manage the labor of others to good ad- 

 vantage. As a rule hired labor does not pay them and they will do 

 better to handle what they can with their own family. One great 

 advantage I have found in growing two or three specialties is that 

 any surplus from the retail trade will find a good market at whole- 

 sale. There will be enough to make a good shipment and it will be 

 good There are some good partners that will help out a small 

 grower in the sale of culls or inferior. It is usually a mistake to 

 try and sell poor stuff to your regular customers, or to ship it away; 

 better sell it at home. A small canning outfit can be made to pay 

 well. A neighbor of mine puts up fruit aud vegetables when the 

 price goes down, selling the canned goods at a fair profit in winter. 

 For a long time commercial canned goods were so plentiful and cheap 

 that it was hard to dispose of the home made article. There is now 

 great distrust in the cheaper canned goods and people are afraid 

 of copper and salicylic acid aud this feeling makes a possible market 

 for honest goods. It often happens that good tomatoes, lima beans, 

 sweet corn or small fruits are so low just when the goods are ripe 

 that it is like giving them away to haul them off for sale. They 

 can be put into cans if a fair outfit is provided and held until winter. 

 A man in my neighborhoood had a big crop of peppers, which could 

 hardly be given away. The family made a dressing and stuffed 

 thousands of these peppers, selling them in the local city for sev- 

 eral times the price of green peppers alone. Many of us have no 

 idea of how markets and methods are changing. I know a man 

 near New York, who was driven out of business, as an old farmer. 

 There was a good spring of water on the farm, which for years had 

 run uselessly away. This man's son dug out the spring, built it 

 up and is selling the water to-day for more than some farmers back 

 from the railroads get for their milk. There are other partners 

 on the fruit farm. I find the hog and the hens useful. We keep 

 hogs in the old orchard, which is in sod and headed high. These 

 hogs tear up the sod and root and eat most of the wind-fall apples. 

 I would rather have the hogs get them than to patronize the cider 

 mill. We must feed the hogs some grain and keep wood ashes or 

 bone before them or they will gnaw the trees. It is astonishing 

 how much pork can be made out of the waste of the garden and 

 fruit. A man who has worked up a retail trade for fruit and vege- 

 tables can easily dispose of sausages and small joints to his cus- 

 tomers. We find the hog a most useful citizen in working over the 

 manure. This winter we are using a good deal of sawdust for 

 bedding and unless this is thoroughly worked over it will sour the 

 land. We shall use lime wherever it goes. I know some small 

 growers who combine pure bred stock with their crops. As they 

 36—6—1905 



