42 EARNING CAPACITY REQUIRES STUDY 



increased the dairy to 20 head, and at this time is operat- 

 ing one of the most diversified little farms that anyone 

 could plan. Two hired hands are employed the year 

 around. The 40-acre farm now has 20 cows, 50 hogs, 

 400 chickens, 16 hives of bees, 4 horses and a sufficient 

 variety of young stock to keep the place up to the present 

 basis. An acre of land is devoted to strawberries every 

 summer and another to cucumbers. There also have 

 been some interesting experiments with alfalfa, alsike 

 and such forage crops as rape and artichokes. This little 

 farm returns a gross income of nearly $5,000 a year, less 

 than $2,000 of which is expense. 



In running a dairy of say 30 cows, two men are needed, 

 but this is a sufficient force for much other work along 

 the line of fancy or intensive farming. I have seen it 

 demonstrated over and over that an acre of strawberries 

 will pay the yearly wages of a hired man, and the picking 

 is done at a time when there is no pressure of other work. 

 Cucumbers are a still surer crop and pay enormously. 

 They are harvested after corn planting, and do not inter- 

 fere with the regular work of the farm. It is important 

 to have the work so distributed that the men who must 

 be kept for the dairy shall have profitable employment for 

 the entire day. This is gained by having a diversity. 



The method of management on a 15-acre farm that 

 raises all the roughage for 30 head of stock, 17 of which 

 are cows in milk, can not fail to be of interest to farmers 

 in all parts of the country. The farm in question is situ- 

 ated in southeastern Pennsylvania, near a city. About 

 13 acres are in cultivation, the remaining 2 acres being 

 occupied by buildings, yard, etc. This farm came into 

 the possession of a new owner in 1881 with a mortgage 

 of $7,200 upon it. For the first year the farm lacked 

 $46 of paying expenses. During the next six years the 

 mortgage was paid. 



Upon assuming management of the farm the owner, 



