MAY 26 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
333 
Rural {topics. 
RURAL PRIZE SERIES, 
PROFITABLE FARMING FOR 
A POOR MAN. 
How one Man Proved, it Possible. 
t The above la the title of a series of essays, for the 
best of which premiums were offered by the Rural 
Nrw-YonKRu last year, the object, bclnu to assist 
/hose farmers who have limited means or those liav- 
■nfc a small capital, about to oDgagc In farming. They 
are for the most part written by those who have 
passed thronch the trials of nn impoverished begin¬ 
ning to real success.] 
E. J. BROWNELL. 
(Concluded.) 
In preparing his land for sowing the beets 
and carrots, which he did before his straw¬ 
berry plants were received, Riley drew the 
garden line where the rows were to come 
between the rows of strawberries and merely 
raked down the surface smoothly, as it had 
been previously thoroughly prepared for plant¬ 
ing by harrowing well, and then sowed the 
seeds by hand, opening a trench for the same 
and covering with the hoe. He sowed the 
Long Orange Carrot and Blood Turnip Beet. 
The turnips he, of course, sowed later and 
after the strawberries were planted. Of these 
he sowed the Purple Top Swede, as he sup¬ 
posed they would be more salable than the 
Yellow Rutabaga for table use, and bis ex¬ 
perience proved him correct. Now for the 
results of his first year’s work: His bill for 
plants was about as follows:— 
2,650 Wilson at $4.50 per thousand. $11 S3 
2,650 Crescent " “ 41 ® 
1,350 Sharpless at $6.00 per thousand. 8 10 
,430 Raspberries " “ . 15 00 
Total. * 46 74 
He sold of beets during the Summer by the 
bunch to the amount of. $8 00 
And of carrot*...,.-. 4 00 
Then he harvested of beets 36 bushels from 
the six rows, and of these 20 bushels were of 
marketable size. For these he found ready 
sale at 75 cents per bushel, a total of 315.00. 
He had 20 bushels of carrots, and sold 12 
busheLs at 60 cents per bushel, 37.20. Of tur¬ 
nips he had 45 bushels, and sold 30 for 314.00. 
The remainder of these roots he calculated 
were worth 310 or 312 as feed for bis cow, and, 
besides this, there was a large aruotmt of 
refuse from the garden during all the latter 
part of the season, which furnished a good 
deal of feed for his cow; but in calculating 
the results of his year’s labor he counted as 
the expense' of keeping the cow and horse just 
what he actually paid out for feed; then, on 
the other side of the account, he reckoned the 
profits received from the sale of milk and the 
hire of the horse when he hired him to a 
neighbor, which he did for a large portion of 
the time when he hail no work for him to do 
himself. He had on the three-quarters of an 
acre of potatoes among his raspberries about 
90 bushels. Of those he sold 50 bushels at 
65 cents per bushel, making 382.50, 
During the year he sold plants from his 
strawberries and raspberries to the amount of 
about 343.50, thus nearly counterbalancing the 
cost of the stock in the first place. 
He found time to “work out” it little occa¬ 
sionally duriug the season in addition to taking 
care of his own land, and for this received at 
the rate of 32 per day for garden labor without 
board, and during haying and harvest he re¬ 
ceived 32 a day with board. In alt, he earned, 
in 22 day's during the season, the sum of 344. 
He paid for cow pasture for the season......$10 00 
For feed purchased for cow and horse, includ¬ 
ing hay and grain, he paid. 410 (M 
For 645 quarts of milk sold during the season at 
5 cents he recalved... :? 2 25 
For labor of horse during the year.58 10 
Besides the milk sold, his cow, in addition to 
furnishing milk for the family, made all the 
butter list'd iu the family except for u few 
weeks during the Winter. As will be readily 
seen, a large share of the ’family supplies in 
the way of vegetables, etc., were grown on 
the place, thus reducing the cost of living to a 
comparatively small sum. 
Having a horse of his own with which to 
draw his wood, he managed to obtain that 
with very little cost except his own labor, pay¬ 
ing out during the year for fuel only 38.50. 
Theu iu the Fall he secured a chance of 
gathering allpit's on shares for a neighbor, so 
as to get about 75 bushels of grafted apples for 
his labor alone. Of these he sold 13 barrels at 
32.50 per barrel, briuging 345. Theu in the 
Winter he taught the school in his district for 
a term of 16 weeks at 37 per week, and board¬ 
ed himself. This amounted to 3112. 
One item in the year’s work 1 had over¬ 
looked, viz.: he planted about an acre of pota¬ 
toes on the farm of a neighbor ou shares. He 
kept an account of labor, etc., expended on 
this, as follows: 
Dr. 
May 6—To day’s work planting, at $1.50.$2 85 
“ 8— “ 2 days* " " 3 00 
“ 8— “ 5 bushels potatoes for one-half of the 
seed, at 75 cents. 3 75 
June 2*1—To 1« day’s hoeing, at *1.50. 2 25 
« 29— “1 ” “ . 1 50 
*• 29— “ 1]^ barrel ashes. 75 
July 31—“ labor in hand-picking bugs during 
the month...,. 2 00 
Sept. 30—To six days’ digging and drawing, at 
$1.50. 9 00 
Total.$24 50 
Cr. 
Sept. 30—By one-half of 130 bushels potatoes, 65 
bushels, at 60 cents.$39 00 
From this deduct cost of seed, 33.75, and 
ashes, 75 cents, in all 34.50, which was all he 
expended above his labor, and we have 334.50 
to add to his income for the year, as he sold all 
these, having retained enough from his own 
laud for family use. 
Then we have the following summary of re¬ 
sults for this year: 
Dr. 
To plants purchased....$46 74 
** Interest on the same. 2 80 
“ cow pasture for season. 10 00 
“ feed purchased for cow and horse.110 00 
“ cash paid for fuel during the year. 3 50 
“ Interest on capital Invested. 50 70 
” family expenses during the year. 135 00 
Total.$258 74 
Cr. 
By beets sold during Summer. $8 00 
” carrots •* “ 5 00 
“ beets sold In the Fall. 15 00 
“carrots " “ .. 7 20 
“ turnips " “ . 15 00 
“ potatoes sold from raspberry patch. 32 50 
“ plants sold during the year. 42 50 
“ labor outside during the Summer. 4-1 00 
“ Milk sold. 32 25 
“ cash Tceelved for labor of horse. 58 40 
“ 18 barrels apples, at $2.50 . 45 00 
“ cash received for teaching. 112 00 
“ potatoes sold from piece planted on shares.. 34 50 
Total.$450 35 
Leaving a clear profit on the year’s work of— 91 61 
With this he made a payment of 350 on the 
property and had left for use to purchase crates 
for the next year’s fruit crop and some imple¬ 
ments he needed, etc., the balance of 341.61, 
Besides the above profits for this first year, he 
hail added something to the value of the prop¬ 
erty in the way of fixing up about the place, 
although he hail not gone to any actual ex¬ 
pense for the same, except the labor expended 
at o<ld times. 
I will not enter into the details of actual ex¬ 
penditure auil income of Riley Burton’s fann¬ 
ing, or, perhaps, more properly speaking, gar¬ 
dening enterprise during the next two years, 
but will only give a summary of results from 
the same: 
From his strawberry plantation of half an acre 
the second year he sold plants to the amount 
0 f . -. .$38 25 
He sold the fruit of Wilson’s, 2,l*i quarts,realiz¬ 
ing for the same nn average of 10 cents per 
quart above the cost Of picking, or.210 00 
Of Crescents he obtained 3,150 quart*, but for 
these through the whole season he did not ob¬ 
tain quite so large a price, averaging, above 
cost of picking, nine cents per quart—a to¬ 
tal of..... 247 50 
The Sharptess did not yield quite as well, but 
for those ho received a larger price, averaging 
about 12 cents above the picking on 1,045 qts.. 125 40 
Total Income from strawberries.$621 15 
Tbe sale of plants from raspberries the second 
year amounted to. 27 35 
And of fruit from raspberries, 420 quarts at 10 
cents. 43 00 
ceived 398. He made some repairs and im¬ 
provements on his house this second year in 
the way of a new roof, etc., and when he came 
to close up his account at the end of the year, 
he found that he had received, above all the 
expenses for support of his family, fertilizers 
and implements purchased and improvements 
made, the sum of 3121.45. 
The following year, the third from the begin¬ 
ning, his Income from strawberries was...* 597.25 
From raspberries, fruit and plants... 386.00 
And from other sources. . 115.00 
Total. 1,099.25 
Total expenses this year. 840.25 
Total from raspberries.. $69 35 
This may appear small as compared with the 
income from the strawberries, hut the labor 
required in cultivating these raspberries 
was of course proportionately less. Besides, 
as is well understood by those who have a 
knowlege of fruit growing, the first crop of 
fruit from raspberries is always small in com¬ 
parison to what is expected after the planta¬ 
tion is thoroughly established. 
The total income from fruit and plants this 
year amounted, as above, to 3690.50. 
He purchased this season considerable quan¬ 
tities of fertilizers, mainly of wood ashes and 
bone dust, both of which he found particularly 
well adapted to the requirements of fruits and 
vegetables. Besides, he made use of all the 
manure he could make on his place.composting 
everything which could lie utilized for this 
purpose, and with what he got from his cow, 
horse and pig ;as he kept a pig,thus furnishing 
the family with a considerable share of meat 
required for the year, costing almost nothing 
for feed, as there was refuse enough from the 
house and garden to nearly furnish it with 
food for the whole season,) he managed to have 
a compost heap of considerable size. 
Of course, he found little opportunity for 
work outside of his own place during this 
Summer, for the cultivation and marketing 
of his fruits and vegetables took up most of his 
time, hut he obtained the same chance of 
teaching his district school for the Winter as 
before, anil at the same rate of wages, though 
or a term of only ,14 weeks, for which he re~ 
Proflt left. 258.00 
Thus it will be seen that during the three 
years he had, besides supporting his family 
and adding largely to the value of his prop¬ 
erty, made a clear profit of about 3370. 
Now, this is not a mere fancy sketch, but a 
record of results such as have actually been 
accomplished auil may again be accomplished 
in almost any part of our country by per¬ 
sistent efforts in the right direction, and, 
although I have assumed fictitious names in 
this narrative, I have no doubt there are many 
who, should they chance to see this article, 
will readily recognize the identity of the party' 
here represented as Riley Burton. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
THE INTRODUCTION OF “JAPAN 
CLOVER” (Lespedeza striata) 
INTO THIS COUNTRY. 
HON. H. W. RAVENEL. 
This little leguminous plant, about which so 
much has been said and written in the past. 15 
years, is one among the numerous importa¬ 
tions from the extreme eastern part of the 
Eastern Continent, a portion of the world so 
remote from us, and yet so similar in its flora, 
as to have attracted the attention of botanists 
I first foimd the plant, about 35 years ago. in 
the Paiish of St. John's Berkeley, about 40 
miles north of Charleston. S.C. Afterwards I 
found it again about 10 miles from the city, 
in both cases growing in patches along the 
road-side. A year or two afterwards, speci¬ 
mens were sent to me from one of the interior 
counties of the State above Columbia. It was 
evidently a species of Lespedeza, but certainly 
not one of the several species described in the 
botany books. Some of it was sent to Prof. 
A. Gray for examination, and on comparison 
with specimens from Japan in Dr. Torrey's 
collection aud also in accordance with the de¬ 
scription of the plant, it was ascertained to be 
the Japan species, Lespedeza striata of Hooker 
& Arnott—the Desmodium striatum of Thun- 
berg. 
But how did the foreign plant find its way 
to our shores—and when? I can only offer 
what appears the most probable solution. We 
have many exotic plants which have been 
brought over from distant countries, and have 
become thoroughly naturalized, and their 
number is increasing aunually. They come 
over in various ways—many of them in the 
ballast of vessels discharged on the wharves; 
some as a mixture with other seeds, and some, 
again, of the smaller seeds adhering to pack 
ages of goods. This is all well known, and 
small seeds like these, could readily have been 
brought over in any of these ways. As the 
plants were first found in the vicinity of 
Charleston, the probability is they were intro¬ 
duced through that port. As to the time 
when they were introduced we can have no 
exact proofs. The plant was unknown to the 
earlier botanists. Both Walter and McBride 
lived in the region of country where I first 
discovered it. Walter makes no allusion to it 
in his “Flora Caroliniana.” McBride was one 
of Elliott's coadjutors in the compilation of 
“Sketches of the Botany of South Carolina 
and Georgia,” and would probably have seen 
it if it was then growing in that region. Prob¬ 
ability seems therefore to point to Charleston 
as the port of entrance, and about the begin¬ 
ning of the century as the time of its in¬ 
troduction. 
Nothing more was thought of this new 
plant, except as an addition to tbe list of our 
naturalized exotics interesting only to botan¬ 
ists. when about 1867 it began to attract the 
attention of farmers and others as a new 
forage plant which was unknown to them, and 
had suddenly appeared in great, quantities on 
old fields aud waste lands thrown out of cul¬ 
tivation. 1 had specimens of it seut to me 
by the Agricultural Club in Augusta, Gn., also 
from various places iu Georgia, this State aud 
North Carolina, and even from as far west os 
Alabama. The agricultural and other papers 
were full of it. It was represented as a god¬ 
send to our impoverished country; stock of all 
kinds devoured it eagerly; it was to take the 
place of clover and the foreign grasses, as es¬ 
pecially adapted to our regiou. The most ex¬ 
travagant accounts were published, and expec¬ 
tations raised as to its great value. Like 
many other things which have some merit, it 
was killed by too much praise. When after¬ 
wards a more sober judgment prevailed and 
its merits were examined, it was found to pos¬ 
sess some value, but not to deserve the over¬ 
wrought praise it had received. I wrote an 
account of its early history, and tbe supposed 
manner of its wide dissemination for one of 
our magazines, and as the plant was so well 
known as to need a common name, I dubbed 
it “Japan Clover, "though really, as every one 
knows, it is not a true clover. This was about 
1868. I have seen a great deal of this plant, 
in all kinds of soil, in old fields covering acres 
of ground, at nearly all the railroad stations in 
this State and Georgia. We have plenty of 
it here all around us, and I have examined 
closely its habits and manner of growth. 
It is undoubtedly an annual. The small 
orbicular peds, each containing a single seed, 
are formed in the axils of each leaf. They 
ripen here during September and October. 
The plants then begin to decline like other an¬ 
nuals, and are killed, roots and tops, by the 
first heavy frost. The seeds which are very 
numerous, spring up during November and 
December, grow slowly all Winter, but make 
very little progress till warm Spring weather. 
On poor, sandy soil, it has a branching, pro¬ 
cumbent, spreading habit, and affords but 
little pasturage. On rich, damp soils I have 
seen it growing up thickly to the hight of IS 
inches or two feet. The leaves are very small 
and the stems too hard and woody to make a 
desirable hay. Where grazing animals have 
access, it is kept so closely cropped as to make 
but little show. I have seen horses, cattle, 
hogs and sheep all cropping it, and apparently 
preferring it to the other vegetation. But I 
think it will never be of any value as a crop 
to be cultivated like clover and the grasses. 
It might be found of advantage to scatter the 
seeds over pasture grounds, and thus have 
another hardy forage plant which can take 
care of itself, and add to the value of the 
pasturage. 
There was a good deal of speculation as to 
the wonderful spread of this plant, its sudden 
and simultaneous appearance (as supposed) 
over large areas of country, and at such dis¬ 
tant points. I think this is capable of easy ex¬ 
planation. It seeds very abundantly. The 
seed pods are small and sufficiently hairy to 
cause them to adhere to any rough object, and 
thus be carried from one place to another. 
Once introduced, they spread rapidly by the 
washing of rains and the movement of animals. 
It is probable that the plant was spreading 
slowly and unnoticed before the war. getting 
a foothold, as they usually do at first, about 
railroad stations and other public thorough¬ 
fares. During the four years of war a new 
and more powerful impetus was found in the 
movements of troops, and especially of cavalry 
passing to and fro through the country, the 
transportation of supplies of all kinds, forage, 
gram, beeves and other things traversing the 
country in every direction. It was not until 
the war was over and people began to settel 
down to a more quiet life, and to look about 
for means of subsistence that a plant of the 
kind would be likely to attract notice. It was 
no mysterious advent of a new and valuable 
forage plant, but only the operation of simple 
and natural laws. 
Aiken Co., S. C. 
HOW TWO GIRLS TRIED FARMING. 
“Well, Dot, what are you going to do with 
yourself now that your Alma Mater is done 
wnth you .' Don’t say “teach,” for you know as 
well as I what that means here, a grinding 
life and nTental stagnation. That is what they 
all come to in a couple of years. Look at 
Kate aud Belle; who would ever think those 
worn-out creatures were once as alive and as 
full of interest as you and I are? And yet they 
have been in the Brookvale school but two 
years.” 
Alice Gordon aud Dorothea Carew were af¬ 
flicted with that cast-off feeling that seems to 
come over the newly made alumnus ; that 
feeling which the various brother Joe’s and 
cousin Toms express in the tragic exclamation, 
“What in thunder am I going to do next!” 
The two girls had made plans of course. 
Young people do. But now, something must 
be done, for neither of them, true Western 
girls as they were, thought for a moment of 
living tamely at home, and taking an elder 
daughter’s share in a slender income. “It is 
true enough,” replied Dorothea, “that the 
prospect for teachers, especially in the cities, 
is dismal. No, of course I do not want to 
grind nor stagnate, but what is a girl to do? 
A question that hundreds of girls are asking at 
this moment aud it is as unanswered as ever. 
