666 
SEPT. 12 
A WISCONSIN 40-ACRE GARDEN. 
A Visit to J. M. Smith. 
Oar dev Ing in a sawdust town; business 
gardening; artesian well irrigation; 
bad strawberry season; good currant 
year; not a high oyinion of “ patent 
fertilizers; ” big bill for wages; a fam¬ 
ily partnership; old times and new; 
every gardener his own seedsman; 
gardening chances for young men. 
Having accepted an invitation of Mr J. 
M Smith, of Green Bay, Wis., I spent Sun¬ 
day (16tb) at that saw milling town. The 
high latitude of the country makes the 
product of this 40-acre garden late in com¬ 
parison with that of the gardens round Chi¬ 
cago, but the light, sandy loam makes it 
an early soil for the location. I think the 
aim of Mr. Smith, to have a perfect market 
garden, comes very near realization; in 
fact, as near as perfection is reached here 
below. The house is not in the garden, but 
a short distance from it. Forty acres is its 
extent. On entering, the first thing you 
see is the excavation for the new two story 
packing house to be erected, and the arte¬ 
sian well which is used to irrigate the gar¬ 
den and supply water for household pur¬ 
poses. The well water is carried in pipes 
below the frost line, with faucets at regu¬ 
lar intervals for attaching hose, so that 
water can be applied when and where 
wanted. The onion curing shed calls for 
attention, and is so arranged that by plac¬ 
ing boards on top of posts about two feet 
high and placing on them layers of onions 
12 inches high, a current of air is allowed 
to percolate through the various layers one 
on top of another, which dries the onions 
in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. 
The materials from the excavations for 
the foundations of the packing house are 
being used to fill in the slough round the 
drain, which is usually filled with water, 
but was almost dry when I was there on 
account of the long drought of this dry 
summer. 
The strawberies on the place seem to have 
suffered most and were, next to the rasp¬ 
berries, the poorest crop in the garden. 
The plants seem to have been burned 
up, and only within the past week or so, 
after they had been irrigated, have they 
started to grow. In order to get something 
from the land, peas were sown between the 
strawberry rows, and had been marketed 
and the vines removed, allowing the straw¬ 
berry patch to show its poverty. Growers 
of Wisconsin berries have had a hard sea¬ 
son this year, and prospects seem to point 
to fewer fields of strawberries next season. 
The whole garden is laid out in regu¬ 
lar plots with alleys two rods apart. Dis¬ 
tributed in the alleys are the faucets for 
irrigating. The beds are all of the same 
width, and the planting or sowing is done 
across the width, giving long rows for plow¬ 
ing and narrow ones for sowing and plant¬ 
ing. The hot-bed sashes are round the 
house, also the barn for the six horses, 
eight high grade Jerseys and eight Berk¬ 
shire hogs, with the now famous silo for 
utilizing the outside leaves of cabbages, 
etc. There are three beds of asparagus of 
various ages, the oldest (10 years) being the 
best, and Mr. Smith says it is the best he 
ever saw. I have seen the cabbages in the 
fields round the Union Stockyards at Chi¬ 
cago, but they bear no comparison to the 
cabbages grown by Mr. Smith. The cab¬ 
bage beds are a uniform lot; no missing 
spots are to be seen and no wormy, slimy 
heads greet the eye. The white butterflies 
are very few in comparison with the size 
of the patch. The plants are set out in rows 
two feet apart each way to allow of culti¬ 
vating each way, and Mr. Smith expects to 
get 10,000 marketable heads to the acre if 
no accident occurs. The variety was Hen¬ 
derson’s Summer Cabbage, although a few 
Early Jersey Wakefield and pickling 
cabbages were to be seen in patches by 
themselves. 
The onion beds showed up nice and clean, 
but celery had been started between the 
rows. The onions were almost ripe for the 
curing house and their removal would 
leave the field open for the celery. In grow¬ 
ing onions no thinning is done, the seeds 
being sown as thickly as wanted. Refer¬ 
ence was made to Greiner’s New Onion 
Culture, but Mr. Smith did not think it 
would be profitable on account of the work 
it calls for. And, moreover, the variety 
of onions which it recommends is in his 
opinion never likely to become popular. 
One patch of pickling onions was noted 
which was sown in the hope ot getting 
2 000 bushels to be used by a new pickliDg 
factory just starting in the neighborhood. 
The potato patch is one of Mr. Smith’s 
features; but he does not now think he 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
will get such large yields as were promised 
earlier in the season owing to the dry 
weather, in spite of his irrigation. One 
new varlfty was pointed out which was 
grown for Maule the Philadelphia seeds¬ 
man. Mr. Terry of Ohio, is growing a sim¬ 
ilar lot and Mr. Smith was in the hope of 
beating him, but is not quite so sure of it 
now. He pulled one hill and we got six 
nice large, smooth marketable potatoes, 
but I was told they averaged more. 
A very small patch of cauliflower was 
seen, which was equal to the demand for 
this vegetable. Tomatoes are manured by 
Mr. Smith ; he says that he cannot afford 
the loss of yield he suffers by the earlier 
ripening of the tomatoes without manure. 
He has practiced pruning the tomato vines, 
but does not think the consequent advant¬ 
age pays for the extra labor. 
Red currants gave an enormous yield 
this season, and more are to be set out. 
Raspberries do not thrive here at all, and 
this is the only total failure Mr. Smith has 
had with any crop he has attempted to 
raise. Melons were not quite as good as 
usual, but I saw a fine bed of Hubbard 
Squash. There was also an experimental 
bed of sweet potatoes worked completely 
by hand, each hill being made separate 
from the others, entailing an enormous 
amount of hand work. I was told that this 
patch had been almost destroyed by late 
frost when first set out, and to one accus¬ 
tomed to the Southern fields of this staple 
there was not much hope of a large yield. 
The cucumbers were looking fine, but 
had not been thoroughly picked as too 
many large cucumbers were pointed out by 
the writer who is accustomed to see large 
fields of them round his Illinois home. 
Several patches of sugar corn were seen; 
one patch of young corn was specially 
pointed out as being the third plant 
ing on that patch this season. The first 
was radish, then came peas, and finally the 
corn intended for the silo, and any ears 
formed would help the value of the feed. 
Pie plant is grown as a filler, and several 
tons are sold every year, but there is little 
money in it. A remnant was seen of the 
second lettuce crop. 
The manures used are principally stable 
manure and wood ashes. Superphosphate 
does not seem to give any return, although 
experiments are being made with it; $100 
was invested in superphosphate and he 
does not expect to get his money back, in¬ 
deed he will be surprised if he gets half of 
it. This would show his land is supplied 
with phosphate naturally by the stable man¬ 
ure in sufficient quantity, but the wonderful 
success which is obtained by wood ashes, 
leads one to imagine his soil is defijient in 
potash. Some lime is used, but Mr Smith 
thinks his soil is rich enough in lime. I 
should judge the lime is used with the idea 
of utilizing the inert plant food in the soil 
by rendering it available by natural chem¬ 
ical processes, and in order to make the best 
use of the large amount of stable manure 
used, which contains much sawdust. One 
team is supposed to be hauling manure the 
year round, and is only to be taken from 
this duty by press of other work. 
In the writings of Mr. Smith will be found 
mention of the vast quantities he uses of 
stable manure and ashes, the quantity 
varying according to the crop to be grown. 
I was somewhat surprised to hear a son of 
this eminent gardener mention superphos¬ 
phate under the name of a “ patent man¬ 
ure” disparagingly. 
I saw on the place a Cutaway harrow, 
Iron Age cultivator and Aspinwall potato 
planter; the other tools were not visible, 
but no doubt were there. 
The wages paid laborers are from 50 cents 
to $1 50 per day. Only one man gets $1.50 
the year round, the average hand (man) 
gets $1 25 per day and so on down to boys, 
according to the work done. Last year the 
income from the whole garden averaged 
over $300 per acre; but the expenses are 
heavy. 
During the last two months (June and 
July) $2,500 was paid out for labor, etc. 
Four of Mr. Smith’s sons have formed a 
p rtnershtp for the sale of market produce. 
Mr. Smith himself has been an invalid for 
the last two or three years and simply does 
the planning, leaving the work of the gar¬ 
den and selling to be done according to his 
instructions and ideas to his sons. He sug¬ 
gests, for instance, that a patch of radishes 
should be sold and something else planted, 
that the tomatoes should be gone over and 
the bad fruit given the hogs, etc., leaving 
the filling of the orders to his sons. 
About 20 years ago when Mr. Smith com¬ 
menced this large business, running up to 
from $12,000 to $15,000 per annum, he 
would never have made a start had he bten 
forced to work as he does now. Green 
Bay was then a smaller place, the hired 
help were paid by orders on storekeep *rs, 
arrangements having been made with the 
latter to run him until he got returns 
from his crops. Now he pays cash for 
labor, etc , and makes his arrangements 
with the banker. He has a business, and 
several thousand dollars lying locked up 
in bills outstanding like every other trader. 
In other words, he began in a small way 
and has grown into a big business, and he 
states that any one would now find it diffi¬ 
cult to compete with him unless he had a 
capital of $20,000. 
Mr. Smith does not grow his own seed, 
and he told me that he had lost about $15,- 
000 since he started in business on account 
of bad seed and was giving a good deal of 
thought to this subject and ultimately he 
thought he would be his own seedsman. 
Inquiry also brought out the information 
that he intended to build a hothouse for 
raising his plants in the same way now 
practiced in the East. 
His markets are found all over the coun¬ 
try. He ships to New York, Chicago and 
St. Louis, but his principal market is to 
the north in the Lake Superior mining 
and lumber regions where not many vege¬ 
tables are raised, and a good demand ex¬ 
ists. The market reports the country over 
are watched by Smith Bros, and they issue 
their own circulars and price list to their 
trade, which Is well established. 
In order to get a practical man’s idea as 
to the feasibility of my own plans, many of 
which I saw in practical operation on 
Mr. Smith’s place, I asked him if he 
thought with proper tools I could work 10 
acres. He said yes, if I put, say, about three 
acres in cabbages, four acres in potatoes 
and the rest in regular market gardener’s 
crops, all coming in at different times, but 
not if all were put in one special crop. He 
also stated that there was more chance for 
success with 10 acres than with 20. His ad¬ 
vice was to get near some growing town 
and work into a business, or, if possible, 
get in with some man who knew the busi¬ 
ness, and work into it that way. 
One of Mr. Smith’s sons mentioned a 
place where a regular steam plant was used 
for irrigating. The people operated a steam 
pump and got the water from the creek ; 
he thought that superior to the artesian 
well method on account of being able to use 
more water when needed than their artesian 
well would supply. He uses surface irri¬ 
gation, and the soil of this garden does not 
bake, being too sandy. 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had a large 
family (11). All are doing well and are en¬ 
gaged in farming, and a numerous family 
of grandchildren are crowding around to 
brighten and enliven their declining years. 
Long may they both live to preach practi¬ 
cal lessons of value to their family and 
the world at large. w DOUGLAS KING. 
PtoaattMttjS 
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