EXPERIMENTAL GARDENING 189 



A Beginner's Success. — Having left a city home 

 and a mercantile business to take up an abandoned 

 farm in Worcester county, Massachusetts, neither his 

 inexperience nor unpreparedness dampened the zeal of 

 F. R. Trask. His success shows that his confidence and 

 courage were not unrewarded, the garden showing a 

 net profit of forty-four dollars and fifty-eight cents 

 from one and one-fourth acres_, and his account secur- 

 ing the seventh Rawson prize. Air. Trask is evidently 

 one of those men who bring from city to country an 

 amount of vim and enterprise largely to offset their 

 want of practice, and which enables them quickly to fit 

 into the new conditions. His summary of lessons from 

 his garden shows that he is taking time to think as well 

 as to work : 



Have ground planted and manured if possible in 

 fall before. Use fertilizer freely. Plant rows apart so 

 as to use horse cultivator, and use it freely. Use a 

 horse weedcr, and keep using it. It kills weeds. It 

 irrigates. Plant the largest variety possible in sufficient 

 quantities for home use, and if intending to market, 

 plant such crops as are sure in large quantities. Plant 

 some of everything as early as possible, and then plant 

 at frequent intervals as late as profitable. I was 

 frightened by some cautious friend crying, ''Frost; 

 wait ! " Had I done as I wished and no frost came 

 (as it does not at least half of the time) I would have 

 been rewarded with early vegetables. On the other 

 hand, had frost come, would not have lost much^ for 

 the second or third planting would have been safe. 



Sell all surplus products. If the family cannot use 

 them, do not let them waste, when many families in a 

 neighboring village or city will gladly take all and pay 

 retail price. To such customers smaller quantities of 

 more varieties may be sold than to the wholesale trade. 



