i4o 
Feb. 25 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
How to be Rich with a Little Land. 
I am going to tell about Caleb Jones. 
He has the best-paying garden within a 
day’s journey, and Mrs. Jones has the pret¬ 
tiest flowers. The farm is a good one, well 
tilled and kept up ; but so are a good many 
others. His land, if you see it after the 
crops are off, is about the same as that of 
other prosperous farmers; but he always 
takes the first prize at the County Fair for 
pumpkins and cabbages—Mrs. Jones for 
pansies and marigolds. 
They live within four miles of the village, 
where several hundred people buy their 
every-day fruits and vegetables. One taste 
of Jones’ sweet corn is enough to secure a 
customer—beans and peas the same. You 
see what a hold he has on the market. 
At home they live like lords. American 
farmers have good things to eat, compared 
with the rest of the world ; but not one in 
a hundred lives like Caleb and Mrs. Jones 
and the little Joneses. 
When two men set out to do the same 
thing, and one succeeds while the other 
fails, there is apt to be a reason for it. So, 
when most of our people have plenty of 
wants and some have money to lend, there’s 
a reason for that. What is it ? 
Caleb has two or three acres of garden 
and forty times as much in farm ; but his 
garden grows larger every year, and his 
farm grows smaller. He keeps more help 
than anybody else along that road ; he has 
more work. His horses are round and 
sleek ; they seem to enjoy life. Caleb says 
the only difference is, between him and his 
neighbors, they are farmers and he is a 
gardener. I say, he grows what he can 
sell to advantage, and grows it so that he 
can. And this is my notion of How to be 
Rich with a Little Land. 
They are all good farmers ; but five or 
six acres of vegetables are worth a hundred 
of wheat, — depends on the vegetables. 
What do they depend on ? 
Caleb buys his seeds of a seedsman. 
He would no more plant poor seeds than 
raise a colt from a scrawny mare. This 
accounts for his taking those prizes. His 
tomatoes, whether a cherry-size, plum-size, 
pear-size, or apple, are solid and rich in the 
pulp, of thin, tough skin, rotund, and pro¬ 
lific. 1 omatoes of ten years ago were 
tough and watery, awkward to peel, and 
not nearly so clear and fair as Caleb’s. 
He buys his seeds of a seedsman. 
1 here are, however, two sorts of seeds 
and seedsmen. Take cabbage, for instance. 
You can’t tell turnip from cabbage. A 
common practice of seedsmen is to mix 
them; and, to prevent your finding it out, 
the turnips are killed before mixing. Car¬ 
goes of poor cabbage seed come from 
hurope at 30 cents a pound; it is grown 
from stalks — they sell the heads. The 
best cabbage seed is grown on Long Island 
and in Bucks County, Pa., from selected 
stalks with the heads on. The seedsmen 
who mix of course have an eye to cost. 
They put in a little good seed, to avoid a 
total failure, which would injure the busi¬ 
ness. Much of the cabbage sold in this 
country is mixed. But most of the farmers 
and gardeners do not suspect it. They 
sow pretty thick. If a third come up, it’s 
enough; and, if half of the plants make 
heads, they are satisfied. While of Long 
Island and Bucks County cabbage ninety- 
six or ninety-seven in a hundred seeds 
come up, and nine out of ten of the plants 
make full, round heads. The difference 
due to the seed is half or two-thirds of the 
crop, besides the quality. Take, for another 
example, tomato seed. The canners save 
the seed in the waste; it is average seed 
and costs nothing. Melon-growers sell 
their best melons and, late in the season, 
save seed from the culls — to sell, not to 
plant. There are tons on tons of seeds 
that are true to name but of common 
quality—honest but poor. They came from 
poor plants and will grow poor plants. 
Do you know what a first-rate seed is ? 
It is bred up, just as a horse or cow or dog 
or hen is. Vegetables and flowers are poor 
in their natural state ; they are fair in their 
usual state ; they are rich in the proper 
seedsman’s proving-ground. And the richer 
they are the more unstable they are ; they 
tend back, as water runs down hill. 
A first-rate vegetable or flower seed goes 
back to a lower grade as soon as it ceases 
to feel the seedsman’s care. This care is 
not cultivation ; it is sorting out and breed¬ 
ing up. 
Caleb trusts no seedsman’s seed in the 
next generation. He gathers no seeds 
himself; he buys of his seedsman every 
year; and so does Mrs. Jones. 
You see, the farmer’s and gardener’s 
first anxiety is, not plows and harrows, but 
seeds. Any plow will plow; any harrow 
will harrow; but first-rate seeds he must 
have, or fail in his crops. Many gardeners 
fail and don’t know it. 
How did Caleb and Mrs. Jones pick out 
their seedsman ? They saw an advertise¬ 
ment—here it is ;— 
BURPEE’S FARM ANNUAL FREE. 
W. Atlee Burpee & Co., 475 N. Fifth St., Philad’a, 
to get acquainted with you, will 
send you for 25 cents four packets 
of named Sweet Peas and one 
packet of Eckford’s “All the New 
Sweet Peas” mixed, with a book, 
“All About Sweet Peas,” how to 
grow and trellis them so as to 
have flowers every day; with 
illustrations. 
Bush Lima Beans: the only 
true large Lima—probably you 
don’t know what a o-oocl Lima is— 
o 
10 cents, to make acquaintance. 
Burpee’s Surehead Cabbage, 
10 cents; and Burpee’s Melrose 
Melon, 15 cents. 
Every seed we sell is to make 
acquaintance. 
Caleb said to Mrs. Jones: “Let’s have 
that Farm Annual.” That’s how they are 
rich with little land ; and you can. 
^“iilardThat Burpec^s Seeds Grow! 
Have you seen how they grow, and what they grow ? If you want the choicest Vegetables 
and most beautiful Flowers in your Garden, you should read 
Burpee?S Farm Annual for 1893, better than ever before. 
It tells ^.1 about the BEST SEEDS that grow. A handsome book of 172 pages ; honest 
description^; truthful illustrations—colored plates painted from nature ; includes rare novelties 
in Vegetales and Flowers which cannot be had elsewhere. A five-page illustrated article, 
“ Where and How Seeds are Grown,” shows the knowledge, enterprise, and skill necessary 
to breed up seeds. Mailed free if you need Seeds ; otherwise for ten cents, which is less 
than cost. You should study it, and not be misled by the exaggerations of the day. 
W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Seed Growers, Philadelphia, Pa. 
P? /\ I About our business, which has steadily increased for years until it is the largest of its kind in the world. We receive as many < 
1. as 6400 letters and postal cards lrom everywhere in a single day; our order books show customers at more than fifty-three 
koo aaa • tb°usand post offices (53,083 by actual count) in the United States alone. The annual circulation of our Catalogues is over 
500,000 copies. We doubt if there is another house in any line of business so thoroughly in touch with every section of every State in the Union. 
