No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. til 



At 21 1 rented the old homestead. I wanted to plant it in fruit 

 at once but my father was older and wiser than I and quickly told 

 me that to plant our cultivated land in orchard would for the time 

 being cut my revenue off and that if 1 wanted land for fruit I must 

 clear otf more woodland. It was good advice to the boy but a death- 

 blow to the timber. Wheie we cleared in the winter we would plant 

 apples and peaches in the spring and then raise watermelons the 

 first year between the trees. The nfext year we would plant sweet 

 potatoes ou that same ground and have a fresh tract cleared for 

 young trees and Avatermelous. On virgin soil like that one crop of 

 watei melons or sweet potatoes either is worth more than 50 years' 

 growth of timber. Peach trees bear early and soon began to in- 

 crease the income from the farm very much so that I had a little 

 ready money. I then tried to buy the old farm but fafher said no. It 

 was too big a thing, moi e thau 1 would ever be able to pay for. No 

 one member of his family ueed ever hope to own it all. As I could 

 not buy the one I lived on, I bought an old neglected fruit farm, 

 7 miles from ]j,im\ and farmed it in addition to my home farm. The 

 year before I got it the fruit from that farm had averaged 10 cents 

 a basket and the total revenue for the year had been $1,200. The 

 first year as a icsult of trimming, spraying and fertilizing our apples 

 on the new farm averaged 20 cents a basket and the farm sales were 

 11,000. The next year in spite of a severe hail storm our apples 

 averaged 28 cents a basket — and the farm sales were about |o,000. 

 The fourth year our apples averaged 40 cents a basket and the farm 

 sales were over |G,000. All this time, the farm I lived on was also 

 doing a little better each year so that I once more had some free 

 money. By this time father had forgotten that no one of his sons 

 could ever pay for the whole of the home farm and he sold it all to me. 

 After making a settlement for the home farm (largely paper) I still 

 had a little money left and I bought another right away. I engaged 

 an old Irishman as foreman. I felt I could trust that Irishman to 

 raise potatoes for me better than anything else. So we planted a 

 great part of it in potatoes while we were getting it ready for fruic. 

 We had a great ciop of i>otatoes. The sales of the farm the first year 

 were $4,100, the third year were |5,100 and last year the twelfth 

 they were about |10,000 clear of commission. The other farms I 

 have tackled have given me similar results. 



How do we do it, simply by practicing intensive culture in an 

 extensive way, by fertilizing, liming, draining and getting humus or 

 life in the soil. We have taken all kinds of land, giavel, sand, clay 

 and their combinations and we have found none that we have not 

 been able to double the productive value of in 5 years or less. It 

 has been our custom to take farms that were out of condition, whose 

 reputation was poor and that other jjeople did not want and after 

 getting them develop them quickly in whatever direction we think 

 them best adapted for. If it is wet we drain it. If it is too heavy 

 and stifi', Avith lime, draining and cover crops we can soon make it 

 more mellow. If it is too high and loose and inclines to blow away 

 in the spring, by using lime and deeper plowing and keeping the 

 land covered with soirrething it soon gets the habit of lying still. 



We believe in keeping the land busy. If you talk to a corn ex- 

 pert you will find he lays great stress upon early plowing and thor- 



37—6—1911 



