i^TRY H OjA 
Bp A' pH 
'M 
JK. W*' 
Vol XLII. No 1727. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 3, 1883. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS, 
#2.U0 PER YEAR. 
(Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1S8S, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
RURAL PRIZE SERIES, 
PROFITABLE FARMING FOR 
A POOR MAN. 
T II 1 it D PRIZE. 
MRS. ANNIE I,. JACK, OF CANADA. 
(Concluded.) 
Every business has its pleasure and its dmw- 
backs, but none seems to me so varied as the 
fruit-fanner’s; and he who would count up 
its profit aud loss must go beyond his ledger to 
find it. Does it payi is a question which we 
generally assume to relate solely to money¬ 
making, but I think there are more things tt* 
be considered than a long bank account. All 
depends on location, health and adaptability 
to the business. Soil and market must also be 
as is paid on some other routes for taking them 
several hundred miles. Labor is cheap for 
fruit picking, aud in its season we are be¬ 
sieged by women ami boys and gills willing to 
come to us for fifty cents a'lay without board, 
and to pick potatoes or break corn they obtain 
the same payment with board. But the charm 
of fruit-tasting lures them from our neighbors, 
and gives us our choice of the best workers. 
Does it pay? Look out some fine morning in 
early October and see the grape-pickers on the 
sunsliiny slope among the yellowing leaves 
of the Concord vines. Each has a basket and 
a pair of scissors, and the workers make a mu¬ 
sical rustling as they clip off the rich, purple 
clusters, while above other sounds comes now 
and then a snatch of an old French song. Their 
garments are home-spun, and consist of blue 
flannel loose Garabalrli, aud bright, red petti¬ 
coat-, with coarse straw bat. It is a picture 
money cannot buy. The sunbeams glint 
through the leaves, for the slope gets all the 
morning sun, and two hours before noon are 
I tion.an old journal that was used as a ledger 
1 for debit and credit in those earlier years. 
And I here note that during the first four 
yea is of om- planting there was no money 
saved, for, although the orchard increased in 
value, even so much as to surprise us, the ex¬ 
penses of our household and investments in new 
tools aud plants left us but a nominal surplus. 
But after the fifth year there was a decided 
improvement, and I will transcribe the account 
for that season's crops and expenses: 
DEBTOR: 
To rent. $120.00 
Manure bought. 
Trees am] plants... 80.00 
Labor of hired man. 150.00 
Hired fruit-pickers. 75.00 
Insurance and marketing expenses. 100.00 
Expenditure In household. 300.00 
Wear and tear of Implements used. 15.00 
$830.00 
Our expenses for plants were less than usual 
this seasou, as ,ve hau a fine 1 • u’v in 
: previous years, while the children were able to 
everything was in working order, and we 
thought that a strong hoy, with the help that 
Amos was able to give, would now meet all our 
needs. The proceeds had been ns follows for 
the season’s crop: 
Creditor: 
Strawberries, 2/<IO qt-*., at in cents per at.. $200.00 
Currants, gallons at Mi cents.... 120.00 
Gooseberries, SO gallons, at 40 cents. 20.00 
Raspberries. 100 quarts at 1.5 cents per qt.. 15.00 
Apples In old orchard—200 bnrrels—at $2 
per barrel, net. 400.00 
Apples In new orchard—50 bbls.—at $2.35... 125.00 
Grapes, 1,500 lbs., at 9c. per lb., net. 135.00 
Garden stuff sold. 50.00 
Butter and eggs. 165.00 
$1,230.00 
Debtor . 830.00 
Balance. . 400.00 
1 have given actual expenses and profit, and 
in the household simple outlay of money. No 
one can count the price of living in the house 
of a well-to-do farmer, whose table is supplied 
with the best and freshest, of everything the 
MOONLIGHT SKETCH OF THE HOME OF MllS. ANNIE L. JACK OF CANADA— By C. Palmer.—Fig. 91. 
considered. 1 think that perhaps we here I 
have the advantage of many in a daily boat that 
curries everything to town in the morning, 
binding at the foot of the street on which the 
market is located. Yet in other ways we are 
uot so fortunato as many, said boat having 
a monopoly of the trade and charging as much 
to take one barrel of apples loss than 20 miles 
stronger in heat and ripening power than dou¬ 
ble that time in the afternoon, as the grapes 
can testify that got. the morning rays. But to 
any one who has his bread and butter to make 
by the sweat of his brow, who has land and 
wishes to upplv it to tho best use, this may 
seem somewhat visionary. So from the depth 
of an old drawer I will take out, in eonfinna- 
assist in the fruit-picking, which happens largely 
in the school vacations, and in this way saved 
us many days of hired help. But I would not 
ullow thorn to work without reward find gave 
them payment according to their picking as 
well as to the other hands. The hired man was 
with us 10 months, at $15 per month, and left 
us in onler to rent a farm for himself. But 
market could afford. 1 have sometimes tried to 
estimate this, but always ignomiuiously failed; 
for who eau set a price upon the daily luxury 
of freshly-gathered fruit; of vegetables just 
from the garden; of eggs that need no grocer 
to say they are fresh; of butter that tastes of 
clover, and of fowls that have been fed and fat¬ 
tened upon the sweetest corn—yes, and often 
