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EVERY back yard garden is potentially 

 a little farm. The man who has a 

 suburban home or a summer country farm 

 of, say, anywhere up to ten acres, can enjoy 

 his agricultural avocation all the more if it 

 is run along sound business lines. 



Quite apart from the mere pleasure and 

 recreation to be derived from cultivating 

 the ground, there is another problem, one 

 that more "vitally concerns most of us, and 

 that is its profitable cultivation. "Does 

 it pay" is the test that, after all, must 

 be applied to many of the problems con- 

 nected with rural life. Small profit is 

 there other than the satisfied personal 

 vanity in growing immense crops or enor- 

 mous specimens if those things are pro- 

 duced at a cost out of proportion to their 

 actual value to the consumer. It has 



been shown time and again that a small 

 piece of ground can be a material factor 

 in helping to solve the problem of eco- 

 nomical living. The bounty of the earth 

 will yield an adequate return under suc- 

 cessful management, and it is this living 

 issue that will be discussed under this 

 heading of "The Little Farm." 



Copyright, igi2, by Dodbleday. Page & Co. 



Rural living and love of the country are 

 not by any means entirely concerned with 

 the esthetics. We can plant trees and 

 shrubs and flower borders for beauty and 

 harmony of landscape design, but we have 

 also got to live; and living can be made 

 even more worth while if one's natural en- 

 joyment and recreation is made a source 

 of actual profit. 



There are many little problems concern- 

 ing the little farm which will find a place 

 from time to time in this department. The 

 experiences of little farmers everywhere, 

 your own experiences in particular, are 

 not without their interest and lesson to 

 others. Tell us, and tell the others, what 

 you have learned; perhaps your effort, laid 

 before another similarly placed, will help 

 much. Tell us the facts. — The Editors. 



Selling Fruits In A Small Way 



THE grower of small fruits in a village or rural 

 community has several advantages over the 

 grower for the general or city markets: his name 

 as a supplier of fine fruits in limited quantities 

 becomes readily known and advertised; the danger 

 of loss from shipments does not have to be faced; 

 higher prices, on the average, are paid; and very 

 small commissions are exacted. No other forms 

 of produce are so popular or so profitable as the 

 small fruits. 



While no great amount can be realized by selling 

 fruits on this modest scale, still enough can be 

 cleared to pay for the outlay incident to planting 

 a garden — the seeds, the tools, the fertilizers, 

 and the extra help that must sometimes be called 

 in. Thus, even if nothing more is realized than the 

 cost of starting and maintaining the garden, it is 

 well worth while; for then all that is consumed by 

 the family can be credited as clear gain. 



In handling the sale of small fruits on a moderate 

 scale, probably the first thing to determine is how 

 much the family will want to use; for then one 

 can count on how much he will have to dispose of, 

 and can take orders for future delivery. A family 

 of medium size will not want to consume, in a 

 season, more than 30 quarts of strawberries; then, 

 allowing 10 quarts" for canning and preserving, the 

 remainder can be disposed of. Last spring I took 

 80 quarts from a small bed; with this quantity 

 I supplied the family and had a balance of 45 

 quarts to sell. The average garden patch — a bed 

 of 150 plants — should yield about 100 quarts; of 

 this amount, 60 quarts can be sold, which will 

 clear $5 to $7. As is the case with all small fruits, 

 but more especially so with those that are liable 

 to perish soon after gathering, it is a good plan 

 to have the strawberries contracted for before the 

 season opens, and to have, if possible, the price 

 fixed. Many good housekeepers like to be able 

 to count on getting the berries they need when they 

 want them; and th:y are quite willing to pay two 

 or three cents higher than the market price. In 

 fixing the price, the gardener may get something 

 lower than the market value of the fruit; but it 

 is a reasonable chance that he takes, for at least 

 it insures the sale of all his crop at a good price. 



If the whole amount of fruit available for sale 

 is not engaged beforehand, the gardener can equal 

 and often excel the best market price by presenting 

 his fruit in as attractive a form as possible. Small 

 quantities should be gathered at a time, and in 



the prospect of an immediate sale, the berries can 

 be picked very ripe. The family grocer is often 

 glad to handle a few boxes, and as a rule he can get 

 a fancy price for them. I sometimes sell straw- 

 berries that way, and again I have a boy sell them 

 through the village streets, giving him a nominal 

 commission on each box sold. It is always better, 

 and in the end more economical, to invest a few 

 cents in clean baskets than to try to use last year's 

 that are stained and moldy. Of course, when 

 selling several quarts to the same person, by a 

 prearranged agreement they may be delivered 

 in bulk. 



While strawberries have a more general sale than 

 any other small fruit, raspberries hold a place of 

 honor, particularly the black varieties. Because 

 of their prolific bearing and their ability to stand 

 a certain amount of handling and shipping, they 

 are the standard market berry. However, they 

 are neither so sweet nor so delicate in flavor as the 

 red raspberries, nor have I found that they ever 

 command so high a price. It is almost impossible 

 to ship red raspberries; and as a rule it is difficult 

 to secure good ones in the markets. For a small 

 select trade, however, they are most satisfactory. 

 In this community, only two or three men sell red 

 raspberries; and they have them all sold at twelve 

 to fifteen cents a quart long before the season opens. 

 This fruit always finds a good sale in the open 

 market, but few fruit-growers care to do anything 

 with it on a large scale because, with only a little 

 handling, it is liable to become soft and to sink in 

 the boxes. For the home garden, red raspberries 

 are much more profitable than blackcaps, although 

 some people do not like their odd musky flavor. 



The sale of currants goes well with the sale of 

 raspberries, for the two fruits together make one 

 of the most delicious of all jellies. Currants, of 

 course, will keep for a week after being picked, and 

 will hang ripe on the bushes for at least that length 

 of time. Currants ought to bring fifteen cents a 

 quart; the red varieties bear heavily and are most 

 popular. 



To me. blackberries in the average man's garden 

 are a problem. I found them hard to control, the}' 

 spread rapidly, and their thorns made the gather- 

 ing of the berries a difficult and disagreeable task. 

 Although I tried faithfully to raise two good rows 

 of "tame" blackberries in my home garden, I could 

 never make very much of them. The sale of them 

 in a small rural community is poor; they have to 

 compete with the wild berries, and the average 

 person is unwilling to pay more than a few cents a 



59 



quart for them. In fact, few people are aware 

 of the existence of the cultivated blackberry. 



Cherries, unlike other small fruits, cannot be 

 counted on to give heavy crops each year; con- 

 sequently, the price varies. During 1010, the few 

 cherries that were for sale brought twelve cents a 

 quart on the open market; during 191 1 they could 

 be had here in any quantity for three cents. As a 

 general thing, the price is seldom either so high or 

 so low, seven cents being about the average. In 

 the small home garden, one is not likely to make 

 much on the sale of cherries. The single tree that 

 the gardener is likely to have, after the birds have 

 had their share, will not yield so many quarts as a 

 strawberry bed, covering the same area as that 

 occupied by the tree's shade. Of course, the 

 cherries that cannot be used might as well be sold; 

 but the gardener cannot count on any high degree 

 of profit. 



Pennsylvania. Archibald Rutledge. 



What I Did With a Half Acre of 

 Land 



FOR about twenty-five years I have been em- 

 ployed in a shoe factory, and until about 

 five years ago I had never worked at anything else. 

 But finally the primitive instinct to get back to 

 nature waxed strong. For a time my cravings 

 were satisfied by reading farm papers and the 

 experiment station bulletins; then came a deter- 

 mination to put some of my ideas into practice. 



I had no experience or other advantage over the 

 average city man, and the results obtained were 

 only such as could be obtained by following the 

 complete and specific directions that are given in 

 seed catalogues, bulletins and the farm periodicals. 

 I did take particular pains to plow and manure 

 the land every fall, and to harrow with great 

 thoroughness in the spring. Every bit of the 

 garden was cultivated at least once in ten days, 

 and the commercial fertilizer was applied in in- 

 stallments and thoroughly cultivated into the soil. 



There was a vacant lot just across the quiet 

 little street on which we lived. The owner gave 

 me the privilege of planting it for a very small 

 consideration, with the understanding that I should 

 have the refusal at a stipulated price. He reserved 

 the right to sell at any time. We came to an 

 agreement late in August, and the first thing I did 

 was to have the lot plowed. Then as soon as I 

 could make a good trade, I bought five loads of 



