' y \ 
Vol. LXV. No. 2945, 
NEW YORK, JULY 7, 1906. 
WEEKLY. 11.00 PER YEAR. 
SEVEN YEARS ON OUR TRUCK FARM . 
Progress from Poverty of Soil. 
PART I. 
OPPORTUNITIES AT HOME.—There are many 
industrious tillers of the soil who have always devoted 
their energies to the production of common farm crops, 
advantageously situated for better profits from their 
labor, who have little idea of the great values that may 
be produced on an acre of land planted to the proper 
fruits or vegetables, subjected to high culture and the 
products sold to the best advantage. There is a natural 
tendency when great yields and profits are reported to 
suppose that they are peculiar to some distant or spe¬ 
cially favored location or clime, but that the golden 
harvest is not for us. Those failing to see ad¬ 
vantages at home and feeling disposed to seek 
the gold at the rainbow's end, may well ponder 
the story of the old Persian, who sold his little 
hillside farm and wandered far over land and sea in a 
vain search for diamonds, finally dying a pauper in a 
strange land, while the stranger, watering his flock at 
the stream on the little farm, found a peculiar pebble 
glittering in the brook, which proved to be the first of 
a wealth of gems such as the old man had gone to seek. 
Not so many years ago I read a report of a man in 
Florida who sold cantaloupes for the sum of $000 from 
three acres of land, and 1 thought his situation extreme¬ 
ly fortunate, little dreaming that within a few years I 
myself would grow crops of equal, and in some cases 
much greater, value right here on the hills of the “Old 
Keystone State.” 
FACTS AND FIGURES.—During last season the 
sales from one acre of early tomatoes amounted to $454, 
and from a trifle more than two and one-half acres, in¬ 
cluding the acre of “earlies,” the remainder midseason 
and late plantings, the total sales amounted to over 
$900. From a little less than an acre and a half $555 
worth of strawberries were sold, while the returns from 
early cabbages during the last few years have been at 
the rate of about $500 per acre. These statements arc 
not made in the spirit of challenge. The results are 
gratifying to me, because larger than anticipated; but 
much greater values can be and are produced. In fact, 
the limit of value that may be grown on an acre of land 
no one can tell. 1 have a small plot of ground contain¬ 
ing less than one-sixth of an acre, planted one year 
with radishes and lettuce, followed by egg-plant and 
cauliflower, and the next year to radishes alone, fol¬ 
lowed by egg-plant, and each year the total sales 
amounted to over $200, at the rate of $1,200 per acre. 
Greatly exceeding even this was a smaller plot, measur¬ 
ing 20x65 feet, last year, planted first to pansies, plants 
sold when in bloom, followed by radishes, of which one- 
half proved to be a worthless variety; it lay idle long 
enough to have produced another crop of radishes, then 
half was planted to late lettuce, the other half being 
sown for Winter cabbage, plants yielding no cash re¬ 
turn. Yet the total sales for the season from this small 
plot, less than one-lhirty-sccgnd of an acre, was $86.78, 
at the rate of the surprising sum of $2,780 per acre, and 
■could easily have been raised toi the rate of $4,000, and 
that without the use of any glass whatever. Truly the 
possibilities of the soil are unknown! 
HOW IT WAS DONE.—As I have been greatly 
helped by the reports of success by others and the means 
by which attained, I will risk appearing boastful and 
tell how in seven years on a little run-down farm of 
50 acres the annual sales have been increased from 
$351 to $4,108.23, with still abundant room for further 
development. In fact, the value w’as almost entirely 
produced on about 20 acres. Introductory, I take leave 
to say: I have just passed the fortieth milestone of 
life, was brought up near by, a member of a family of 
10 children, on a small farm belonging to my father, 
which w'as devoted to mixed farming, including the 
growing of poultry, fruits and vegetables in a limited 
way. In these branches of the work I quite early be¬ 
came much interested, and also added bees. On these 
subjects I read all of the scant informaton I could 
find. In my father’s farming books and papers had no 
part. Later I developed a more general interest in agri¬ 
cultural reading. During my “teens” I thought agri- 
DOUBLE HOLLYHOCK. MUCH REDUCED. Fig. 214. 
See Ruralisms, Page 538. 
culture the most interesting word in the language and 
planned to secure a farm of my own. 
SCHOOLMASTER OR FARMER.—With what edu¬ 
cation 1 could secure by home study and in the public 
school I began teaching. I was 20 then. After teaching 
four Winters, the Summers being largely spent in study, 
having saved a few hundred dollars, [ bought a small 
farm for $1,400. This was secured by mortgage and 
some credit kindly extended by my father. I had a 
farm now, and that was something of importance to 
me. The Summers were now spent at work on the 
farm, while the Winters were still spent in the school¬ 
room. I thought I could not afford to lose the income 
from teaching, but the two lines of work sadly inter¬ 
fered with each other. Flowever, during the next four 
years I managed to make slow but steady advance in both. 
About this time a combination of circumstances caused 
a break in my plans. The last two years, having se¬ 
cured advancing positions in the graded schools of a 
distant town, with much better salary than I had be¬ 
fore, the work pleasanter and much more effective, I 
began to wonder if, after all, I might not be worth more 
to myself and others if I gave up the farm and devoted 
my energies to professional lines. Haunted by this 
idea and unable to do any better I sold the farm at 
cost, with nothing to show for improvements. During 
the two following years I learned how completely I 
was attached to rural pursuits. My work grew irk¬ 
some and my studies almost intolerable. While attend¬ 
ing a short term at school, situated in a fine farming 
district, I never had envied anyone as I did those farm¬ 
ers at work in the open fields. Well, such apparent 
lack of perseverance was humiliating, but to avoid 
failure something had to be done. I took account of 
stock and found I had about $250 and—a desire to 
own a farm. Also, a determination that if I ever did, 
financially speaking, I would “sink or swim” by the farm 
alone. These things settled, I began to look around for 
a chance to buy. I knew that slender capital would go 
farther in some other sections, but mine was so very 
slender that it was necessary to “stake” it with my 
credit. 
I HE FARM IS BOUGHT.—I soon found that the 
farm I now occupy was for sale; in fact, that the owner 
was quite anxious to sell. Fie had bought it as an in¬ 
vestment a few years before, spent quite a little on 
fences and repairs, and what with infertile soil and 
unskilled tenants he was losing heavily. The farm then 
contained about 42 acres. I told him of the limited 
condition of my finances and offered him $1,800 for the 
place, $100 to be paid in cash and the balance to be se¬ 
cured by a five-year mortgage. That was a rather 
brazen offer under any circumstances, and especially as 
it was several hundred dollars less than he had been 
paid. However, the proposal was accepted, and I again 
had a farm. With the bit of capital that was left and 
a little credit again given by father, I purchased a 
meager outfit of furnishings and stock for house and 
farm and started in to win. 
A SATISFACTORY PARTNERSHIP.—In my first 
farming operations, as well as in the beginning of this 
new venture, I labored under the disadvantages of lone 
bachelorhood, aided by an elder sister in the capacity 
of housekeeper. Bfy during the first Summer I man¬ 
aged to interest a young Baltimore woman in my lonely 
condition, and in the Fall she consented to a life part¬ 
nership. As she was not strong, had lived in town or 
city since childhood, and had a decided preference for 
city life, it is little wonder that both her friends and 
mine thought there was renewed cause for the time¬ 
worn reflection: “What fools these mortals be.” Hap¬ 
pily this was a mistaken conclusion. With bracing 
country air came better health, and apparently having 
accepted the whole situation “for better or for worse,” 
she fell to perusing the whole array of agricultural 
books, reports, bulletins and farm papers with such 
zeal that it is safe to say, within a year she had ac¬ 
quired a wider and more accurate knowledge of in¬ 
telligent practice in rural pursuits than the majority of 
women, and, I may add, men as well who have lived in 
the country all their lives. Considering this and the 
fact that she risked some capital along with her happi¬ 
ness, and that she was duly endowed with all my 
worldly debts, it will be seen that aside from being a 
life partnerslvp it was a business partnership as weW. 
I took possession and moved on the farm in the 
Spring of 1897. It had always been used for growing 
