486 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Then we kept some fine Durcc licgs — pedigreed stock — which, by the 

 way, decs not cost as much to feed as do scrubs, and just a little more 

 to get your first start. If well fed as to growing bone and size, you may 

 depend on them to sell well, as did ours. From the time these pigs were 

 born until the first week in November they did not get ten dol'ars' 

 worth of feed save the waste melons and grass. The melon patch was a 

 field of large stumps in the spring. I blew them out with dynamite. The 

 patch was nineteen rods long and eleven wide, and con'^ained 209 square 

 rods. It was kept free from weeds. I began picking my first melons 

 the last of July, and went over my patch daily; picked every imperfect 

 melon off and fed it to the hcgs. They do not fatten hogs, but when 

 fed in large quantities they carse the hogs to make a snlendid growth. 



From these hcgs, besides the pork we ate, we derived $164.35. We sold 

 ducks, geese, turkeys and chickens, all ef which were full-bloods. The 

 poultry was largely sold as common stock, and not at fancy prices. We 

 also sold a great many eggs. I sold melons during August, September 

 and most of October. The mcst picked in any one day was 298 water- 

 melons and 138 muskmelors. All of these melons during the entire 

 season were sold right at the patch, excepting probably five or six dozen. 

 No melons were sold en Sunday, and many were given away. But of 

 those we kept account of, we sold over $250 worth. During the year we 

 bought $56.38 worth of feed to feed the stock. We kept a little driving 

 team. Almcst one-fourth of this land was covered with timber. 



Two acres of good melons on well-drained, rich soil, whether old or 

 new, should give any boy or man $400, and ten acres of good land can 

 and will support the average family if a man will just give two-thirds 

 the time to the land he would give to eighty acres. The trouble is, our 

 Iowa people, w'th blessings at their door, seek at leant the larger portion 

 of them, the get-rieh-quick methods, and do net try to adapt themselves 

 to their surroundings. I have not the time just now to go into detail, 

 but might suggest that if I was compelled to try, I could make a living, 

 and a good one, too, on ten acres of land. This would be my plan: 



Put out one acre of strawberries and set th?m the distance of corn rows 

 apart. Put an cnion row down be'^ween each row cf berries the first 

 season, thus getting a fine crop of onions. Three acres of potatoes well 

 cared for, and with the use of good judgment one year with another should 

 give you 1.000 bushels. Two acres of r'.uskmelons and watermelons — 

 about one-fourth of this muskmelons vonld be the proper proportion. 

 Then, with two gcod cows, a few hogs, chickens and vegetables, and a 

 man who will work two-thirds as much as on the average eighty acres, 

 will be surprised in the fall. 



Now, right up between the melon rows, if you will plant mangel beets, 

 you will grow enough to feed a gcodly number of hogs, cows and chickens 

 for six months, and not in the least damage the melons, for I work my 

 melon ground with a corn planter, and use every fourth row each way. 

 Last season I put beans in between my melons with gcod results. Early 

 potatoes will get out of the way before the melons reach them. also. 



I wish to add that if our city people will, when spring comes, rent a 

 few acres of ground, if not able to buy, and live in a tent during culti- 



