1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
203 
A HUMBLE SELF-SUPPORTING HOME . 
Wc began our present home six years ago with but 
$100 capital. Wc have II acres of land, which cost us 
$515. .Six acres of it wc use for gardening, and the 
rest is for pasture. We have had a good living each 
year, but our income, of course, has varied with the 
season, market values, etc. This year has been a very 
poor one but our income has been $984.50, besides our 
living. That is, this sum does not include the value 
of the milk, butter, eggs, poultry, meat and vegetables 
we have used, and wc have not scrimped ourselves. 
When we began I knew no more about gardening 
than the average professional man who has a small 
garden in town and works in it mornings and even¬ 
ings. During our first season, in order to learn more 
about the work 1 intended to do, 1 hired to an old 
gardener. The work was light enough so that I stood 
it, but my back used to ache badly. After a few weeks, 
though, 1 got used to it and did not mind it at all. It 
is wonderful what a difference a few weeks’ work in 
the open air will make in a run-down city man if he 
has the grit to tough it out that long. Strength comes 
with exercise and appet te with both. Mow such a man 
will eat, and*eat, and dyspepsia take wings! I he second 
season I intended hiring to the old gardener again, not 
feeling qualified to run a business of my own. How¬ 
ever, the old m in was so feeble that lie had to give up 
his work, and in spite of tny fears lie persuaded me to 
buy his tools, seeds, fertilizers, etc., and go to work for 
myself. 1 had not a dollar to pay down, as our little 
capital had all gone into our land. The reputation I 
had established the first season, of being a steady hard¬ 
working man stood me in place of cash. Mr. Aldrich 
agreed to take my note for everything. I he tools 
cost me less than $50. That much would have bought 
them all new. I agreed to pay $50 for 10,000 asparagus 
roots, $15 for onion sets, and about as much for fer¬ 
tilizers. The seeds 1 needed my grocer 
furnished at wholesale prices, plus 10 
per cent, and agreed to take his pay in 
vegetables. Then T began. 
I put out about two acres of garden 
that season, and bought what more 1 
needed to supply my trade from a market 
gardener about 14 miles away and from 
a large produce firm in the city. Mere, 
too, I was able to buy on credit and could 
sell out and get the money in time to 
pay my bills. Much of our success has 
been due to my method of marketing our 
produce. 1 sell direct to the consumers, 
give good measure, and aim never to 
have a dissatisfied customer. 
Even in such business as peddling vege¬ 
tables 1 have found that advertising pays. 
I have used regular display advertise¬ 
ments even, and find them very advanta¬ 
geous. I have not only attracted custom¬ 
ers in town, but farmers come some of 
them 10 miles, and buy plants, cab¬ 
bages, onions, etc., from me every year. 
Then to let my customers know when I was near I 
used to ring a bell. Now I have a bugle and blow 
regular army calls. Everyone knows what it means, 
or if they do not they run to find out. At first it went 
against the grain to make such display of myself, but 
I put mv pride in my pocket and went ahead. No one, 
whose good opinion is worth having, thinks any the 
less of me, and I have made many warm friends among 
my customers. This business requires that one be a 
good collector. I have never refused credit to anyone, 
and from this season’s business I have less than $5 on 
my books. It takes nerve to ask for small accounts 
sometimes, but it has to be done. 
All our land brings us two crops each year, except 
our asparagus bed and berry patches. 1 buy 2,000 
very early cabbage plants each season. These are 
raised in the greenhouse and carefully hardened off. 
I set them out just as early as I can work the ground. 
About the same time I sow early radishes, turnips, 
beets, onions, etc., and set out several bushels of small 
sets for early bunching onions. It is the early produce 
that pays best. I afterwards set out cabbage, tomatoes, 
cauliflower, and pepper plants upon tin’s same ground. 
Among my early cabbages I plant late sweet corn. 
I begin to sow peas as soon as I can run the drill, 
and raise cabbages, etc., between every other row. In 
my early sweet corn patch I plant my squash, pump¬ 
kins and other vines. 
Now, after five years of gardening, my land has been 
built up so that it produces more than it ever has 
before. T use barnyard manure and the very best com¬ 
mercial fertilizers T can buy. The best is the cheapest. 
The pea vine roots, I think, help the land. My clay 
land I have loosened up with coarse strawy manure. 
The low wet places, lime, drainage and careful culti¬ 
vation have much improved. We raise everything that 
can be raised in southern Michigan, but we have 
learned what pays best and plant accordingly. Accord¬ 
ing to the work and expense involved, cabbages and 
onions pay best. Wc sell large quantities of peas and 
berries, but such crops require much help. As to our 
expenses in running our garden, this year they have 
been about $100 for help and $25 for seeds and plants. 
Wc raise most of our plants in large hotbeds, and also 
save many seeds and plants. We have paid about $10 
for commercial fertilizers. We keep three cows, one 
horse, pigs, and a large flock of hens. These last, of 
course, we have to keep in a park, but they lay well and 
pay a handsome profit. They and the pigs cat many 
of the vegetables that otherwise would go to waste. 
To sum it all up; wc have had a home and a better 
living than anyone can get in ihe city for $1,200 a year. 
Our children have been healthy and happy, and arc 
getting along in their studies as well as, better I think, 
than those who attend the city schools. Our social 
advantages have not been so good in some ways, but 
we have genuine neighbors—something comparatively 
unknown in the city. Some may say it is impossible 
to get a home now as wc got ours. Prices are higher, 
I admit, but one can easily buy land, in any locality 1 
know of, bv paying a small sum down. I hen if lie is 
willing to work hard and mix brains with his muscle 
any family can do as well.as wc have done. Wc are 
not out of debt upon our land yet, having put our 
money into improvements, but our prospects are good, 
and I wish more who are living from hand to mouth 
in the cities could try our plan. w. G. M. 
Michigan. __ 
HINTS ON GROWING HORSERADISH. 
The writer wishes to try growing horseradish for the 
market. I would like U> know what soils are post suited to 
a profitable growth. Most of my land Is heavy loam; about 
no feet to water. I have some white sand about six to 1<> 
I'eet to the water: which of the two Is better? Also, what 
are the best methods of making it grow a straight large 
A LOADER TURNED TO LABOR. Fig. 105. 
root, and best method of manuring and preparing ground 
for planting? b. h. s. 
Calverton. N. Y. 
In well-conducted market gardens the horseradish is 
a very important crop. It can be marketed at a time 
when the other crops are out of the way; thus it 
lengthens the season for the gardener at a time when 
things are generally quiet. It usually sells well in our 
large markets, where there is always sufficient demand 
to class it as a paying crop. It delights in deep moist' 
soil, and on cold black ground where the cultivation of 
other vegetables is quite difficult the horseradish will 
sometimes grow to perfection. It requires but little 
cultivation when established. It makes large tops of 
luxuriant growth, keeping the ground well shaded and 
to some extent is self-protected against weeds and 
grass. It is grown from sets or pieces of small roots 
cut in length varying from four to six inches; the top 
end should be cut on the slant, and the lower end 
square. The top is so cut to prevent the water from 
settling in the center of the root, thus preventing rot 
and decav. The ground should be manured and well 
plowed and harrowed. 'I he rows may be placed three 
feet apart. The roots are then planted about 15 inches 
apart in the rows. The rbots are sometimes set with a 
long steel dibber; a small crowbar, however, is to be 
preferred. With this the holes are easily made, and the 
sets planted in the holes with the square cut end down. 
Firm the soil on top of the roots, which should be just 
below the surface. The soil should be cultivated reg¬ 
ularly until the tops have made sufficient growth to 
shade the ground, when it will then to some extent ex¬ 
clude the growth of weeds and grass. Horseradish 
may be planted any time in Spring and early Summer, 
and it is frequently grown as a second crop with cab¬ 
bage or other strong growing vegetables. Most of its 
growth is made in Autumn, during the cool moist 
weather. The crop is usually dug late in the Fall, but 
like the parsnip, its flavor is greatly improved by al* 
lowing it to freeze during the Winter. For Winter use 
it should be trenched or placed in the root cellar where 
it is easy of access. The small roots arc used for cut¬ 
tings. When these are removed from the large or 
salable size roots, they arc cut, in the proper length, 
tied together in bundles, placed in sand in the cellar or 
buried in the ground until wanted for planting in 
Spring. The new Bohemian horseradish is said to be 
a great improvement and a more rapid grower than our 
native kinds, yielding one-third more per acre without 
extra care or treatment. t. m. white. 
Monmouth Co., N. J. 
MAKING TREES BEAR ANNUALLY. 
It is much easier to start the young tree in the right 
course, and keep it bearing annually, than to break up 
the habit of biennial bearing. I he generally accepted 
theory is this; The bearing of fruit is a heavy drain 
on the vitality of a tree. The young tree sets only a 
few fruit spurs the first year or two, and it is able 
to mature this small quantity of fruit and grow a few 
more spurs for next year’s crop. As long as the tree 
has sufficient nourishment and moisture to carry on 
both, operations at the same time, it will bear every 
year. As soon as it has not sufficient energy for both, 
it will devote all its energy to ripening its fruit, and 
then takes the next season to grow a crop of buds. 
1 succeeded in carrying a young orchard to its thir¬ 
tieth year, with fair annual crops after the tenth year 
by careful fertilization, and by pruning out a large 
number of the oldest fruit spurs each year. I watched 
the growth of the trees closely and applied sufficient 
barnyard manure to secure at least eight inches of new 
growth all over the tree each year; then just before 
the Spring rains came early in .April I applied annually 
<>no pounds per acre of a fertilizer that analyzed six 
per cent of phosphoric acid and 14 per cent of potash. 
Five years ago wc had a long dry spell 
early in the season. The trees failed to 
set the proper number of spurs, and since 
then they have not been so regular. I 
have not yet fully succeeded in getting 
my trees back to regular annual hearing, 
but I hope to do so in another year. We 
are trimming out the fruit-bearing wood 
very close this Winter and shall give 
them the best of care in the way of fer¬ 
tilization and spraying next Summer. I 
would encourage wood growth either by 
cultivation or the application of nitrogen¬ 
ous manure, or both, as conditions may 
require; then give a liberal dressing of 
phosphoric acid and potash, to enable the 
tree to mature its fruit, and in addition 
to this thin out the oldest bearing 
branches. If the trees still set a large crop 
of fruit, pick off three-fourths or four- 
fifths of it about July. This ought to 
give the trees a chance to take care of 
both fruit and fruit buds. If this system 
is carefully followed for two or three years 
1 believe the trees can be brought to regular annual 
bearing, and that they will continue to bear annually as 
long as they are properly cared for. It is understood 
that proper care always includes careful systematic 
spraying to keep the foliage healthy all through the 
season. gabriel* hiester. 
Pennsylvania. _ 
INCREASING DEMAND FOR GOOD APPLES. 
It seems to me, judging from my own experience, 
that a better grade of apples is used in hotels and 
good restaurants now than formerly, and I would like 
to know whether others have had similar experience. 
A few years ago, I got Ben Davis in hotels and on 
dining cars. As a consequence, I gave up ordering 
apples when away from home. During the past year 
I have returned to my old habits, and for months, in 
travel extending over many States, I have had Ben 
Davis offered me only once. This once I asked the 
waiter what kind of an apple he had given me and 
he replied, “Oh, excuse me, I’ll bring you a good one.” 
Baldwins and Kings have been brought to me over a 
wide range of country; but usually the varieties have 
been better than the Baldwins. I recognize that all 
this may be accidental, but it has set me to thinking 
whether there really may not be a noticeable change in 
the demand for eating apples within the past five 
years. As The R. N.-Y has taken so much interest in 
this apple-eating question, it will have a better oppor¬ 
tunity to judge. 
It would be a great thing for fruit-growing if the 
market would distinguish sharply between apples for 
different purposes. Apples that arc not recommend- 
able for dessert may still be verv useful for many other 
purposes. It is not so much a question of not grow¬ 
ing apples of different grades of quality, as of finding 
the proper uses for these grades. I think it is a mis¬ 
take* at the present time, to recommend that certain 
apples be not grown merely because they are not of 
high eating quality. i. h, bailey, ^ 
