g6 Poultry 's Place in a Rotation. 



his place, and was therefore forced to pay off a $3,000 mort- 

 gage out of the profits made on " depreciated prices." When 

 first bought, the farm and house were all out of order. A 

 shed was the only barn. There were no fences, and the only 

 crops were wild-grass, brush, briars and weeds. At first Mr. 

 J.. worked at his trade in Newark and tried to improve his lit- 

 tle place by proxy that is, through the work of a hired man. 

 This was a failure. It took all he could earn to pay expenses 

 without paying off a cent of the mortgage. When his eyes be- 

 gan to fail Mr. Johnson took what seemed a desperate step. 

 He left his trade with its sure and steady cash payments, and 

 went to his little farm to try to make a living and save his 

 home. He knew little about farming, and had for years been 

 used to drawing a good salary in cash every week. He was 

 now called upon to change his entire mode of life and to draw 

 his salary whenever he could raise and sell produce. The 

 farm was low and flat strong soil, but apparently too wet and 

 cold for anything but grass, and too level for under-drainage. 

 Mr. Johnson was a skilled workman. He had been trained 

 to think. The first thing he did on coming to this little farm 

 was to sit down and think out a plan of operation. He kept 

 the thinking up, too. It took him but a short time to see that 

 if he followed his neighbors and produced hay, rye, second- 

 class milk and poor crops of potatoes and truck, the mortgage 

 would fatten on him ; as it was, he wanted to fatten on the 

 mortgage. Without knowing anything about chemistry he 

 reasoned that water is the cheapest thing a farmer can sell 

 particularly from such a wet farm as his. In what form could 

 he best sell water in other words, what crops took most 

 water and least fertility away from the soil ? After studying 

 the matter over, he decided that eggs and strawberries were 

 his best water-crops. Keep the hens busy in winter while the 

 strawberry-plants are asleep, and let the hens take a vacation 

 while the strawberries work like giants. For extra and sur- 

 plus crops, take potatoes, onions, celery and cabbage. They will 

 not interfere with the strawberries. They are all particularly 



