A LIVING FROM A TOWN LOT. 



i6g 



Any one who has had experience in the 

 west knows that ttie hot suns and ahiiost 

 constant summer winds work havoc in or- 

 chards that are headed high. The flat- 

 headed apple tree borer works in the trunk 

 and large branches that are exposed to the 

 sun. I have seen apple trees in Northern 

 Texas that were badly attacked by this in- 

 sect almost ten feet from the ground. In 

 Kansas and Missouri it is not so abundant 

 and destructive, but nearly all the apple trees 

 with tall bare trunks have borers on them. 



Tall heads give the wind greater power 

 over the roots, which strains them unduly, 

 often causing the trees to incline to the 

 northeast or fall to the ground. The fruit 



is much harder to gather from tall headed 

 trees than from those wdth low heads. It is 

 especially important that peach trees should 

 be headed low and then kept pruned back, 

 so that ladders will rarely be needed to be 

 used in gathering the peaches. 



Spraying is much more easily done on 

 low-headed trees, and the same is true of 

 pruning. There does not seem to be any 

 good reason for heading fruit trees high, ex- 

 cept that they are troublesome to cultivate 

 when the branches are very low to the 

 ground. This can be largely overcome by 

 using tools that are made to meet these re- 

 quirements. — Midland Farmer. 



A LIVING FROM A TOWN LOT 



THE TOTAL RECEIPTS FROM THREE 



IN a small western town, some years ago, 

 there lived a man who thought that 

 horticulture could be made profitable on a 

 small amount of ground. This man's capi- 

 tal was limited. The total area of land at 

 his disposal was a little less than one acre. 

 He had energy and ambition and a desire to 

 make his eflForts successful. The man se- 

 lected as his two main crops strawberries 

 and celery. One-fourth of an acre was de- 

 voted to strawberries, one-fourth of an acre 

 to celery, and one-fourth of an acre to mis- 

 cellaneous garden vegetables, to be sold m 

 the town. The problem was to handle these 

 crops as to secure the very highest returns 

 for the outlay involved. No other help 

 than that of the man himself was needed. 

 The soil was ordinary, but was made rich 

 by the application of stable manure. 



The man developed a system which in- 

 volved a shifting of crops each year. This, 

 he gathered from what he could read, was 

 necessary, first to avoid diseases and insects, 

 and second, to rest the land. Eight thou- 

 sand strawberry plants were put out on one- 



QUARTERS OF AN ACRE WERE $1400. 



quarter of the acre, the plants all being 

 grown in small pots so that they could be 

 planted in the latter part of June, leaving his 

 ground free up to that time for his miscel- 

 laneous vegetable crops. 



The strawberries planted in June gave 

 him a full harvest the following May and 

 June, and from these plants the average 

 yield amounted to $500 for his one-quarter 

 of an acre. His celery he planted in the lat- 

 ter part of July on the ground that his 

 strawberries had occupied. This celery was 

 taken oflf in October, and the ground was 

 therefore free the next spring for his vege- 

 table crops. His one-fourth of an acre of 

 celery handled in this way gave him $400 

 average yield. His miscellaneous vegeta- 

 bles, grown in rotation, such as green peas, 

 green beans, beets, lettuce, and crops of this 

 nature, gave him $400 more, making his re- 

 ceipts from his three-quarters of an acre 

 $1,400, of which approximately $40 was ex- 

 pended for fertilizers, necessary help, etc. — 

 The World's Work. 



