340 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



customers like action and you may discount the five years' wait quite 

 a bit. 



Let me emphasize again that the site of a house makes or ruins 

 it, and it is imperative to settle the different sites first. 



It takes time to grow trees and shrubs, and he who has set out 

 the right kinds and has them properly located will surely find appre- 

 ciative customers. 



Asparagus Profits. 



In addition to ornamental shrubs, trees, and fruit, I planted an 

 asparagus bed on each site of a tract I thus laid out. The farm 

 asparagus bed of two or three acres will pay for many an improve- 

 ment. The ordinary farmer dodges the three years' wait, therefore 

 he who plants it has less local competition. We never bunched our 

 asparagus, but cut it in haphazard lengths and sent it to the local 

 market. This was our trademark of freshness, and the yearly income 

 from a three-acre bed was over one thousand dollars. Its require- 

 ments were inexpensive, a mulch of manure, cultivation, and once a 

 year a little salt. Manure and salt also worked wonders in the radish 

 bed. 



Farming the City. 



With farm carefully selected, the battle for independence is half 

 won. Sun and rain, with but little cash outlay, and that along the 

 lines mentioned, will do the rest. But in those five years of waiting 

 the head of the family should farm the city, and strict economy must 

 be practiced. 



This is a practical plan for living a helpful and healthy country 

 life. 



With a cash capital of two thousand dollars with which to 

 begin, and an income of from $1,500 to $3,000 a year, let us see how 

 those figures that "cannot lie" line up. 



Absolute Independence on Small Capital. 



From twenty-five to fifty acres of such land as I have described 

 can be found by painstaking search for five thousand dollars. The 

 temptation to buy extensive acreage would increase distance and the 

 additional expense hamper development, and possibly wreck the 

 enterprise. Neighboring banks will loan $2,500 on a fifty per cent, 

 valuation, as per the law of limitations, at five per cent., the usual 

 bank rate. The seller can often be persuaded to take back a second 

 mortgage of say $1,500 at six per cent, for three years, which can 

 be re-sold at a small discount, or the purchaser can with persistent 

 effort find an investor, or some friend might share the profit. A 

 second mortgage where improvements are to be made can always be 

 negotiated. This, with the $1,000 cash paid to the seller gives owner- 

 ship. The first mortgage will stand indefinitely as long as the $125 



