2i6 How a Small Farm was managed. 



crop. Many farmers raise very much larger quantities. During the latter 

 part of the month of February, we prepared our beds into which to transplant 

 the small tomato-plants that had been growing for some weeks in the seed- 

 bed. The care of our hot-beds, with the other necessary work, took the 

 time of two men besides myself The opening of spring found us well 

 prepared for the work we had laid out to accomplish. The large piles of 

 manure and muck were to be thrown over and pulverized before being 

 used, a few early pease sown for family use, and soon the ploughing of 

 the land that was to be devoted to strawberries. This was not a great work, 

 and we were soon ready to set the plants. The varieties used were mostly 

 Hovey's Seedling, Wilson, and Brighton Pine. The rows were four feet 

 apart, and the plants in the rows some three or four inches, except the 

 Hovey's Seedling, which does not make runners so freely as some, and 

 hence were set in double rows. After the six acres were set, we ploughed 

 between our pear-trees, both dwarfs and standards, where the land had been 

 well manured, and set out strawberries there, — two lows of strawberries in 

 the space between every two rows of standard trees, and one row of straw- 

 berries between every two rows of dwarfs. Then came the planting of the 

 raspberries, which were set in rows some four feet apart, and the hills or 

 stools three feet apart. The varieties set were Franconia for market, and 

 the Brinckle's Orange and Knevett's Giant for home use. The blackber- 

 ries were the next thing to receive our attention. The Lawton and Dor- 

 chester were planted. The rows were put about six feet apart, and the 

 plants some two to three feet apart in the row. The next year, stakes were 

 ch-iven each side of the bushes about three feet high, and wires run along 

 the top of these stakes to keep the plants in place. We had not forgotter^ 

 all this time to make arrangement to raise the necessary vegetables for 

 the use of the family ; for next to fruit on a farm comes the luxury of fresh 

 vegetables. The asparagus-bed was one of quite respectable dimensions ; 

 for we had the impression, which afterwards proved to be correct, that this 

 was one of the most profitable of crops when it succeeded well. Our land 

 was rather too heavy, as it seems to flourish best on a light, gravelly soil. 

 The two acres that we devoted to this crop received a good dressing \ for, 

 as will be seen, we were willing to spend freely for manure, believing that 

 it was money well invested. We run a plough making a deep furrow every 



