786 



CEMENT HOT-BEDS; ETC., FOR EARLY TRUCK. 



On page 589, Aug. 15, I spoke of James 

 Hubert's cement hot-beds or cold-frames. 

 You will gather from the clipping below, 

 from the Grand Rapids Press, that he has 

 made quite a success by starting stuff under 

 glass and carrying it to market with a 

 motor truck. 



HE GETS $400 AN ACRE FROM TRAVERSE FARM; JAS. 



HILBERT, USING JIODERN METHODS, WINS BIO 



YIELD FROM VARIOUS PRODUCTS; HAULS 



WITH THE MOTOR TRUCK. 



Traverse City, Oct. 3. — That intensive farming 

 in western Micliigan pays has been conclusively 

 proved by James Hilbert, who owns a large farm 

 northwest of the city. Last spring he planted an 

 acre of Osage muskmelons, the plants of which he 

 started under glass in order to have them ripe in 

 time for the fall market. 



During the summer the plants secured a good 

 growth, and on Sept. 1 he brought his first load to 

 town and sold them to the merchants. Since then he 

 ha£ marketed a load every day ; and after he had sold 

 his load to-day his figures show, after having kept a 

 careful record, that he has made $300 from the crop 

 from this acre of land, and still has several more 

 loads to market before the total crop is harvested. 



uses MOTOR-TRUCK. 



Good as this record is, he has done still better 

 with a third of an acre of mango peppers from 

 which he has already marketed a product that has 

 brought him $170, and they are not all harvested 

 yet. He is even prouder of the returns he has re- 

 ceived from an acre of Earliana tomatoes, from 

 which he has supplied the local trade during the 

 season. This acre has done better than his acre of 

 melons, for the total receipts for the season reached 

 the $400 mark. 



Mr. Hilbert delivers his produce to the merchants 

 daily, bringing in every morning a motor truck load 

 of all kinds of vegetables and fruit in season, and 

 he is looked up to by the grocers as one of the 

 essentials of their business. His farm is also famous 

 for the onions he raises, and which he keeps in a 

 large frost-proof cellar and brings them to town as 

 tliey are needed by the grocers. Mr. Hilbert pretends 

 to be no more than an ordinary farmer who gets 

 results by knowing his business and sticking strictly 

 to it at all seasons of the yeaa-. In keeping his books 

 he has as perfect a system of accounting as any mer- 

 cantile house, and does nothing by guesswork. 



GARDENING FOR "PROFIT." 



After what I said about gardening for 

 profit in our issue for Sept. 1, I came 

 across the following in the Rural New- 

 Yorker : 



On many farms you may find an old man or a 

 n)an in poor health, or perhaps a cripple. These 

 men are usually unable to go into the field and do 

 a full day's work at hard labor. Some of them, de- 

 nied the power to do this, feel that life has cast 

 them aside, and I have seen them grow unhappy 

 and bitter at their prospect. If these men would but 

 think so they could take a small piece of land, fit it 

 for a garden, and do wonderful work upon it. The 

 labor would be well within their powers, and the 

 results far beyond any thing they ever reached at 

 plain farming. For you see gardening is higher 

 farming ; and many of these older men would renew 

 something of their youth and courage in the thougiit 

 that they can force one acre to produce more than 

 ten acres ever did in their old system of culture. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Not only would tliis garden become a wonder, but 

 it would finally improve the entire farm. It would 

 be an object lesson showing what can be done if the 

 soil is only well handled. Before long the boys would 

 see that garden, and begin to ask themselves why 

 they should work three acres in half-way fashion 

 when, by applying something of garden culture, one 

 good acre would give the same crop. That is what 

 a good garden will do ; and the older man would 

 find that this higher farming has enabled him to in- 

 fluence the farm as he never did before. These are 

 only a few reasons why every farm should have a 

 good garden. Had you been with us for dinner on 

 the Sunday I speak of I could have piled up your 

 plate with a dozen convincing arguments. 



Do you see the point, friends? These 

 old men, after they get through gardening 

 for profit — that is, for dollars and cents — 

 may work (as we read about in the good 

 book) for treasures laid up in heaven; for 

 whenever we get to a point in our lives 

 where we are working for humanity and 

 the coming generations is it not really foi- 

 " treasures laid up in heaven where moth 

 and rust doth not corrupt, and where 

 thieves do not break through nor steal "? 



XOT ONLY A BOYS^ CORN CLUB BUT A GRAND- 

 FATHERS' CLUB. 



We clip the following from the Monthly 

 Bulletin of the Ohio Department of Agri- 

 culture : 



My dear Mr. Sandles .-—I have just been reading 

 your hair-raising report of the " boys' corn-growing 

 contest," and am glad of the " boys' corn-growing." 

 But it pains me to think and know that in Ohio 

 there are hundreds of boys who never saw a hill of 

 corn grow. 



This year I wish the poor and honest lad could 

 be placed on a par with the rich man's son. What 

 do I mean ? Why, I mean this : If a boy produces 

 60 bushels of corn at a cost of 15 cents per bushel, 

 I claim he has achieved far greater results than the 

 lad who produced 100 bushels at a cost of 50 cents 

 per bushel. Let the lad who has nothing to buy 

 fertilizer with stand on the same footing with the 

 boy who has fertile soil and a rich father to back 

 him. Again, why not have a "grandfather's club 

 contest," all over 60 to enter? Give them a chance 

 to see Washington. They will soon pass over the 

 "Great Divide" into the border land. " Oh I " I 

 hear you say, " their lives are almost spent, and 

 they are not worth fooling with." Listen 1 Perhaps 

 they were handicapped. Lack of capital; lack of 

 ambition, hampered by richness, environment, and 

 barren soil, they were not able even to flirt with 

 success, let alone win her approval or favor. No 

 grander, no greater, nor nobler sight could I behold 

 than 88 gray-haired fathers, one from each county, 

 faking their first and perhaps last trip to Washing- 

 ton, D. C, because they had raised the cheapest big 

 yield of corn in their respective counties. What do 

 you say. Brother Sandles 1 And we ought to offer 

 a prize to the dear old grandmothers. God bless 

 them I Let them raise a prize flock of chickens, or 

 be a keeper of the tidiest and neatest home. 



I am only a plain, seven-days-in-a-week farmer. 

 R. B. Carson. 



Amen to the above. But do not forgel 

 the dear old grandmothers while we have 

 the "randfathei's in mind. 



