Ten Acres Enough*— Chap. IX 



{Continued from page JfO July, 1913) 



AT THE opening of the third spring, the garden 

 received our first attention. It was covered 

 heavily with manure and cleared up. This year we 

 had no seeds to purchase, having carefully laid them 

 aside from the last. In order to try for myself 

 the value of liquid manuring, I mounted a barrel 

 on a wheelbarrow, so that it could be turned in any 

 direction, and the liquor be discharged through a 

 sprinkler. As early as January the asparagus was 

 sprinkled; indeed, it was deluged with twenty 

 barrels of liquor before it was forked up. It had 

 also received its full share of rich manure in the 

 autumn. The shoots came up more numerously 

 than before, were whiter, thicker, and tenderer, 

 and commanded five cents a bunch more than any 

 other. As the bed was a large one, and the yield 

 great, we sold to the amount of $21. 



The same stimulant was freely administered all 

 over the garden. It was never used in dry weather, 

 nor when a hot sun was shining. We contrived to 

 get it on at the beginning of a rain, or during drizzly 

 weather, so that it should be immediately diluted 

 and then carried down to the roots. 



Worth of Liquid Fertilizer 



IT brought the early beets into market ten days 

 ahead of all competitors, thus securing the best 

 prices. It was the same with radishes and salad. 

 The latter came early into market in the best 

 possible condition; and as there happened to be 

 plenty of it, we sold to the amount of $19 of the 

 very early; and then, as prices lowered, continued 

 to send it to the store as long as it commanded two 

 cents a head, after which the cow and pigs became 

 exclusive customers. The fall vegetables, such as 

 white onions, carrots and parsnips, having had more 

 of the liquor, grew to very large size. It was the 

 same thing with currants and gooseberries. The 

 whole together produced $83; to which must be 

 added the ten peach trees, all of which I had thinned 

 out when the fruit was the size of hickory nuts. 

 This was in 1857, that time of panic, suspension, 

 and insolvency. That year had been noted, even 

 from its opening, as one of great scarcity of money 

 in the cities; but we in the country, being out of 

 the ring, gave way to no panic, felt no scarcity, 

 experienced no insolvency. The fruit from the 

 ten acres produced me $69, making the whole 

 product of the garden $152. 



As usual, the strawberries came first into market 

 and were prepared and sent off with even more care 

 than formerly. My net receipts were $903. An 

 experienced grower near me, with only four acres, 

 cleared $ 1 , 200 the same season. His crop was much 

 heavier than mine. 



A portion of the raspberries had been thoroughly 

 watered with the liquid manure, all through the 

 colder spring months. It was too great a labor, 

 with a single wheelbarrow, to supply the whole two 

 acres, or it would have been similarly treated. 

 But the portion thus supplied was certainly three 

 times as productive as the portion not supplied. 

 My whole net receipts from raspberries amounted 

 to $267. The plants were now well rooted, and 

 were in prime bearing condition. 



For applying the liquid manure, I mounted a 

 large hogshead on low wheels, the rims of which 

 were four inches wide so as to prevent them sinking 

 into the ground, the whole thing constructed to 

 weigh as little as possible. The sprinkling appa- 

 ratus will drench one or two rows at a time, as may 

 be desired. The driver rides on the cart, and by 

 raising or lowering a valve, lets on or shuts off the 

 flow of liquor at his pleasure. It stimulates an 

 astonishing growth of canes, increases the quantity 



•Copyright, 1905 by Consolidated Retail Booksellers 



of fruit, and secures a prodigious enlargement in 

 the size of the berries. 



The Lawtons were this year to come into stronger 

 bearing. People in New York and Philadelphia 

 had agreed to take all my crop, and guarantee me 

 twenty-five cents a quart. One speculator came 

 to my house and offered $200 for the crop, before 

 the berries were ripe. I did not accept the offer 

 and made out a trifle better, as the quantity 

 marketed amounted to 896 quarts which netted me 

 $206.08. In addition to this, the sales of plants 

 amounted to $101. As the season for the black- 

 berries closed, all the stray fruit was gathered and 

 converted into an admirable wine. Some seventy 

 bottles were made for home use; for which, when a 

 year old, I found ready sale at fifty cents per bottle. 

 Since then we have made a barrel of wine annually; 

 and when old enough, all not needed for domestic 

 purposes is sold at $2 per gallon. 



We raised nothing of value among the black- 

 berries this year. The growth of new wood had 

 been so luxuriant that the ground between the 

 rows was too much shaded to permit other plants 

 to mature. In some places, the huge canes, 

 throwing out branches six to seven feet long, had 

 interlocked with each other from row to row, and 

 were cut away, to enable the cultivator and weeder 

 to pass along between them, and thenceforward 

 the acre was given up entirely to the blackberries. 

 As the roots wandered away for twenty or thirty 

 feet in search of nourishment, they acquired new 

 power to force up stronger and more numerous 

 canes. When not standing too close together, 

 they were carefully preserved, when of vigorous 

 growth; but the feeble ones were taken up and sold. 

 Thus, in a few years, a row which had been originally 

 set with plants eight feet apart became a compact 

 hedge, and an acre supporting full six times as many 

 bearing canes as when first planted. It will con- 

 tinue to increase annually if not more than three 

 vigorous canes are allowed to grow in one cluster; 

 if the canes are cut down in July to three or four 

 feet high; if the branches are cut back to a foot in 

 length; if the growth of all suckers between the 

 rows is thoroughly stopped by treating them the 

 same as weeds; if the old-bearing wood is nicely 

 taken out at the close of every season; and, finally, 

 if the plants are bountifully supplied with manure. 



The peaches, now in their first bearing year, 

 succeeded the Lawtons. We had protected them 

 from the fly for three seasons by keeping the butts 

 well tarred. Some few of them produced no fruit 

 whatever, but the majority made a respectable 

 show. I myself examined each tree with the ut- 

 most care, and removed every peach of inferior 

 size, as well as thinning out even good ones which 

 happened to be too much crowded together. My 

 804 trees produced me $208 clear of expenses, with 

 a pretty sure prospect of doing much better here- 

 after. 



My acre of tomatoes netted me this year $192, 

 my pork $61, my potatoes $40, and the calf $3. 

 Thus, as my grounds became charged with manure 

 — as I restored to it the waste occasioned by the 

 crops that were removed from it — so my crops 



21 



increased in value. It was thus demonstrable that 

 manuring would pay. On the clover-field the most 

 signal evidence of this was apparent. After each 

 cutting of clover had been taken to the barnyard, 

 the liquor-cart distributed over the newly mown sod 

 a copious supply of liquid manure. I have mowed 

 it three times in a season, and can readily believe 

 that in the moister climate of England and Flanders 

 as many as six crops are annually taken from grass 

 lands treated with liquid manure. 



First Crop of Peaches — Balance Sheet for 

 Three Years 



THREE years' experience of profit and loss is 

 quite sufficient for our present purpose. It 

 has satisfied me, as it should satisfy others, that 

 ten acres are enough. I give the following reca- 

 pitulation for convenience or reference: 



Expenses for three years 

 Manures of various kind: 

 Wages and labor . 

 Feed for stock 

 Stakes and twine for Lawtons 

 Garden and other seeds . 

 Cabbage and tomato plants 

 Lumber, nails, and sundries 

 Loss on cow .... 

 Cost of pigs .... 



185S 



S268 



102 



28 



3° 



7 



1856 

 346.00 

 238.00 



7030 

 7.00 



1300 



1857 

 358.06 

 244 00 

 103.00 

 8.00 



14 



81 .00 



Receipts for three years 



Strawberries, 6 acres . 



Lawton plants sold 



Tomatoes, 1 acre . 



Garden, including ten pc^ch 

 trees 



Cabbages 



Raspberries, 2 acres . 



Lawtons, 1 acre .... 



Pork 



Potatoes 



Calf . . . . . . 



Peaches, S04 trees, first bear- 

 ing year 



$455 $ 709.80 $ S06.06 



1856 1857 



$ 857.60 $ 903 00 



213.50 101.00 



190.00 192.00 



S460 



So 

 82 



70. 20 

 38.72 

 150-84 

 58.00 

 24.00 

 2.00 



1 5 2 . 00 



267.00 

 206.08 

 61 .00 

 40.00 

 3 00 



208.00 



$1.734- 86 S2.133.08 

 709 . 80 806 . 06 



$1,025.06 £1,327. 02 



$791 

 Expenses as above stated . 455 



Annual profit $336 



Deducting the income from the sale of plants, the 

 pigs, and the calf, as exceptional things, the profit 

 of the nine acres for the first year will be found to 

 be nothing per acre, for the second year, $83.50, 

 and for the third, $129.10. The ground was 

 crowded to its utmost capacity with those plants 

 only which yielded the very highest rate of profit, 

 and for which there was an unfailing demand. 

 It was cultivated with the most unflagging industry 

 and care. Besides using the contents of more than 

 one barnyard upon it, I literally manured it with 

 brains. My whole mind and energies were de- 

 voted to improving and attending to it. Others 

 all around me diffused their labor over twenty 

 acres; I concentrated mine on ten. Yet, having 

 only half as much ground to work over, I realized 

 as large a profit as the average of them all. 



For six years since 1857 I have continued to 

 cultivate this little farm. Sometimes an unpro- 

 pitious season has cut down my profits to a low 

 figure, but I have never lost money on the year's 

 business. Now and then a crop' or two has 

 utterly failed, as some seasons are too dry, and 

 others are too wet. But among the variety culti- 

 vated some are sure to succeed. Only once or 

 twice have I failed to invest a few hundred dollars 

 at the year's end. I have spent considerable 

 money in adding to the convenience of my dwelling, 

 and the extent of my outbuildings; among the 

 latter is a little shop furnished with more tools than 

 are generally to be found upon a farm, which save 

 me many dollars in a year, and many errands to 

 the carpenter and wheelwright. I buy nothing on 

 credit, and for more than ten years have had no 

 occasion to give a note. 



