of Rural Art and Taste. 



209 



learned how to spend money to tlie best ad- 

 vantage, I believe that a larger profit may be 

 made by laying out $300 per acre than with 

 less. But I presume by this time, you are 

 asking if the expenses are so heavy, what are 

 the profits ? For the first year or two, they 

 will be nothing. And if you make it pay ex- 

 penses, you will do better than I have done 

 with any land that I own. After the second [ 

 year, if your land does not pay all of its ex- I 

 penses, and taxes, and ten per cent, on $1,000 \ 

 per acre, there is something wrong somewhere. 1 

 I have some acres of land that did not pay 

 expenses for two years, but for a number of 

 years past have not failed to pay ten per cent, 

 on at least $2,000 per acre. 1 expect my whole 

 garden to do more than that in a short time. 



At present I am aiming to make my land 

 yield 1,000 bushels of onions per acre, and 

 then a crop of carrots or turnips, or 500 bush- 

 els of early potatoes, and then some other late 

 crop ; or if in sti'awberries, 12,800 quarts or 

 400 bushels per acre, and other crops in about 

 the same proportion. I know that these fig- 

 ures seem large, but I am steadily gaining 

 and nearing my mark ; and, gentlemen, if I 

 live, I shall reach it. Do you ask, what then ? 

 Well, I do not know where the next mark will 

 be, but certainly a still farther advance. Our 

 best cultivators have as yet but a very slight 

 idea of the capabilities of an acre of land. 

 Do not think me either wild or enthusiastic 

 upon this point. Such is not the case. For 

 many years I have been satisfied of the truth 

 of the above statement, and every year's 

 experience and experiments bring with them 

 the arguments that convince me beyond all 

 doubt, of the truth of the statement. 



You are so situated that you must of neces- 

 sity raise large crops, or your whole business 

 fails ; hence you ought every season to make 

 a series of experiments, all aiming at some 

 definite point which, if it succeeds, will result 

 in a practical improvement in agriculture. 

 You can do this more easily than most farmers 

 could, and can follow it up for a series of 

 years better than they can ; for you must ever 

 bear in mind that a single experiment, how- 

 ever successful it may be, is, as a general 

 14 



thing, worth ]>ut little. Let me illustrate 

 this by an experiment of my own. Last sea- 

 son I wished to try a number of dift'erent 

 kinds of potatoes, with a view of testing their 

 earliness, yield, quality, etc., with certain 

 kinds of manure. Well, what did I prove ? 

 Why, simply this : That a certain kind of 

 potato, planted at a certain time in the season, 

 upon a certain kind of soil, manured thus and 

 so, cultivated in such a manner with just such 

 a season as the last one was, produced potatoes 

 of a splendid quality and at the rate of nearly 

 500 bushels per acre. Now, what is this 

 experiment worth ? Practically, very little, 

 becaiise very few, and possibly not a single 

 person present, could comply with all the 

 conditions which resulted in that yield. But 

 suppose that 1 follow up these experiments 

 with that same variety for five years, try them 

 upon different soils, with different manures, 

 at diiferent times of planting, etc., and at the 

 end of five years I find that they have been 

 of uniform good quality, and that the yield 

 has averaged say 400 bushels per acre, I have 

 shown that upon a good soil, and with good 

 cultivation, they are a profitable potato ; but 

 suppose the yield only averages 100 bushels 

 per acre, I have shown that either they are not 

 a reliable potato, or that, if they are, I don't 

 know how to raise them. Many of your experi- 

 ments will prove failures to a greater or less 

 extent, and some of them very annoying ones ; 

 but you nmst bear in mind, that when you 

 have made one that is a success, you have not 

 only benefited yourself, but the whole com- 

 munity in which you live. And it surely will 

 be a pleasure to you to know that you have 

 been the means of adding to the wealth as 

 well as the comfort of those about you. If it 

 is not, I hope that you will never enter my 

 profession. 



Home G-ardening. 



BV WESTEKN SUBURUAN GAUDKNER. 



'rpiS not always the writer's fortune to hap- 

 -1- pen on a successful house garden either 

 in city or in country, but I have just now seen 

 a fine specimen and a model of what window 

 gardens should be. Curiosity deepened into 



