*A-,£ 



Ten Acres Enough*— Chap. VII 



(Continued jrom page 257, May, 1913) 



MY HORSE, and cow, and pigs, all slept in 

 leaves. Their beds were warm and easy, and 

 the saving of straw for litter was an item. The 

 remainder was composted in the spring with the 

 contents of the barnyard, and made a very im- 

 portant addition to my stock of manure. 



The leisure of the season gave us greater oppor- 

 tunity for intercourse, both at home and abroad. 

 The city was comparatively at our door, as acces- 

 sible as ever — we were really mere suburbans. 

 We ran down in an hour to be spectators of any 

 unusual sight, and frequently attended the evening 

 lectures of distinguished men. It was impossible 

 for the world to sweep on, leaving us to stagnate. 

 How different this winter seemed to me from any 

 preceding one! Formerly, this long season had 

 been one of constant toiling; now, it was one of 

 almost uninterrupted recreation. How different 

 the path I travelled from that in which ambition 

 hurries forward — too narrow for friendship, too 

 crooked for love, too rugged for honesty, and too 

 dark for science! Many a dainty happiness and 

 relishing enjoyment may come between the slices 

 of every-day work, if we only so determine. 



My Second Year — Trenching the Garden — 

 Strawberry Profits 



WINTER passed away, and long before the land 

 in Pennsylvania was fit to plow, the ad- 

 mirable soil of New Jersey was turned over, and 

 planted with early peas. The sandy character 

 of the soil, instead of being a disadvantage, is one 

 of its highest recommendations; it is two to three 

 weeks earlier in yielding its ripened products for 

 market. Peas are the first things planted in the 

 open fields. 



A mulch three inches deep of well-rotted stable- 

 manure, was spread over the soil, which cost $200, 

 and every inch of soil not occupied by standard 

 fruits was trenched. The trees had been arranged 

 in rows in borders by themselves; I estimated the 

 open ground to be very nearly half an acre. I 

 began by digging a trench three feet wide and two 

 deep from one end of the open space to the other, 

 removing the earth to the further side of the open 

 space. Then the bottom of the trench was dug 

 up .with a fifteen-inch spade, and covered lightly 

 with manure. 



The adjoining ground was then thrown in, mixing 

 the top soil as we went along, with also an abundance 

 of manure, until the trench was filled. As all this 

 soil was taken from an adjoining strip three feet 

 wide, of course, when the trench was full, another 

 of corresponding size appeared beside it. With 

 this the operation was repeated until all the garden 

 had been thoroughly gone over. The earth re- 

 moved from the first trench went into the last one; 

 I was careful not to place the top soil in a mass at 

 the bottom, but scattered it well through the whole 

 of the filling. On the whole job we bestowed a 

 great amount of care, but it would not require 

 repeating for years. The manure for the trench- 

 ing cost $50. 



-Now, a surface soil of a few inches only, will not 

 answer for a good garden. The roots of succulent 

 vegetables must extend into a deeper bed of fer- 

 tility; and a greater depth of pulverization is 

 required to absorb surplus rains, and to give off 

 the accumulated moisture in dry weather. A shal- 

 low soil will become deluged by a single shower, 

 because the hard subsoil will not allow it to pass 

 downward; and again, in the heat and drought of 

 midsummer, a thin stratum is made dry and 

 parched in a week, while one of greater depth be- 

 comes scarcely affected. 



'Copyright, 1905 by Consolidated Retail Booksellers 



The principal means for making a perfect garden 

 soil are draining, trenching, and manuring. 



The ten peach trees in the garden were thoroughly 

 manured by digging in around them all the coal 

 ashes made during the winter, first sifting them 

 well. No stable manure was added, as it promotes 

 too rank and watery a growth in the peach. Then 

 the butts were examined for worms, but the last 

 year's application of tar had kept off the fly, and 

 the old ravages of the enemy were found to be 

 nearly healed over by the growth of new bark. 

 A fresh coating of tar was applied, and thus every- 

 thing was made safe. 



The failures of the last season were all avoided. 

 Several kinds of seeds were soaked before being 

 planted, which prevented failure and secured a 

 quicker growth. In addition to this, we raised a 

 greater variety of vegetables expressly for the store; 

 and from some, such as radishes and beets, we 

 realized high prices. Then the high manuring and 

 extra care bestowed upon the asparagus were 

 apparent in the quick and vigorous shooting up of 

 thick and tender roots, so superior in quality that 

 they sold rapidly at city prices. The trenching and 

 manuring was evidently a paying investment. In 

 addition to all this, the season proved to be a good 

 one for fruit. The garden trees bore abundantly. 

 My ten peach trees had by this time been rejuven- 

 ated, and were laden with fruit. When as large 

 as hickory nuts, I began the operation of removing 

 from five of them all the smallest peaches, and of 

 thinning out unsparingly wherever they were ex- 

 cessively crowded. The other five were left 

 untouched. 



Profits from Thinning Fruit 



THE peaches on the five denuded trees grew 

 prodigiously larger and finer than those on the 

 other five. I gathered them carefully and sent 

 them to the city, where they brought me $41 clear 

 of expenses; while the fruit from the other trees, 

 sent to market with similar care, netted only $17, 

 and those used in the family from the same trees, 

 estimated at the same rates, were worth $9, making, 

 on those five, a. difference of $15 in favor of thinning. 

 Thus, the ten produced $58; but if all had been 

 thinned, the product would have been $82. The 

 amount running up when the season had closed, 

 the total returns from the garden were $63 without 

 peaches, or $121 by including them. But some 

 money had been paid for seeds; but as an offset 

 to this, no cash had been expended in digging. 



As to the farm, I planted an acre with tomatoes, 

 having raised an abundance of fine plants in a hot- 

 bed, as well as eggplants for the garden. I set 

 them out in rows, three and one half feet apart 

 each way, and manured them well, twice as heavily 

 as many of my neighbors did. This gave me 3,760 

 plants to the acre. The product was almost in- 

 credible, and amounted to 501 bushels, or about 

 five quarts a hill, a far better yield than I had had 

 the first year. From some hills as many as ten 

 quarts each were gathered. I managed to get 

 twenty baskets into the New York market among 

 the very first of the season, where they netted me 

 $60. The next twenty netted $25, the next twenty 



312 



^s^^TsS isfcr;** 



only $15, as numerous competitors came in, and 

 the next thirty cleared no more. After that the 

 usual glut came on, and down went the price to 

 twenty, and even fifteen, cents. But at twenty 

 and twenty-five I continued to forward to Phila- 

 delphia. From 200 baskets at these low prices I 

 netted $35. But as the glut gradually subsided 

 the price again rose in the market to twenty-five 

 cents, then to fifty, then to a dollar, and upward. 

 I realized $40 at the fag-end of the year, making a 

 total net yield of $190. 



Tomatoes vs. Potatoes 



THE amount realized from an acre of tomatoes far 

 exceeds that of potatoes. A smart man will 

 gather from sixty to seventy bushels a day. The 

 expense of cultivating, using plenty of manure, is 

 about $60 per acre, and the gross yield may be safely 

 calculated $250, leaving about $200 sure surplus. 



The other acre was occupied with corn, roots, and 

 cabbage, for winter feeding, with potatoes for 

 family use. Turnips were sowed wherever room 

 could be found for them, and no spot about the 

 farm was permitted to remain idle. But of potatoes 

 we did sell enough to amount to $24. On the acre 

 occupied with blackberries, 4000 early cabbages 

 were planted. Many of these, of course, were 

 small and not marketable, but I sold 3,120 sound 

 cabbages, at an average of two and one quarter 

 cents, amounting to $70.20. 



The strawberries came first into market. I had 

 labored to allow no runners to grow and take root 

 except such as were necessary to fill up the line of 

 each row; thus the whole strength of the plant 

 was concentrated into the fruit. In other words, 

 I set out to raise fruit, not plants; and my rows 

 were, therefore, composed of single stools, stand- 

 ing about four to six inches apart in the row. The 

 ground between the rows was consequently clear 

 for the passage of the horse-weeder, while there was 

 no difficulty in getting between the stools with 

 either the hand, or a small hoe. The stools were 

 consequently strong and healthy, and stood up 

 higher from the ground than plants which grow in 

 matted beds, thus keeping the berries clear of sand 

 and grit. The ground for a foot all round each stool 

 ought to have had a covering of cut straw or leaves 

 for the fruit to rest upon, thus to keep them clean, 

 as well as to preserve them from drought. 



Points on Marketing 



THE greatest care was used in preparing the 

 berries for market. When taken from the 

 vines they were carried to a shed adjoining the 

 kitchen, where they were spread out on a pine 

 table, and all the larger berries separated from the 

 smaller ones, each kind being put into boxes which 

 were kept separate from the other. Six hundred 

 quarts of the finest fruit we had ever beheld were 

 sent the first week, to New York. It was, of 

 course, nearly ten days ahead of the season in 

 that region — there could be no New York-grown 

 berries in market. At the week's end the agent 

 remitted me $300 clear of freight and commission! 

 They had netted me half a dollar a quart. 



The small boxes were packed in chests each 

 holding from twenty-four to sixty. The lid, when 

 shut down and fastened, held all snug. 



The half dollar per quart which I obtained for 

 the first and best strawberries, by equalization 

 with the lower prices through the remainder of the 

 season, was unable to raise the average of the whole 

 crop above sixteen cents net. But this abundantly 

 satisfied me, as I sent to market 5,360 quarts, thus 

 producing $857.60. And in order to send this 

 fruit to market, I was obliged to purchase 3,000 

 quart boxes, and 50 chests to contain them. These 

 cost me $200. 



(To be continued) 



