1900. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1107 
“$200 AND LIBERTY." 
Paying rent is like buying a place on 
the instalment plan, and then giving it 
back to your landlord without money 
and without price. After treating one 
“bloated bond-holder'’ in this manner 
we decided to cut loose from the thral¬ 
dom of rent paying, and own a home 
of our own. Our nest egg could apply 
as the first payment, and what we were 
formerly paying as rent could be made 
as payments on the balance of the pur¬ 
chase price, and eventually we would be 
independent of flat owners and rent col¬ 
lectors. 
To get the nest egg is usually the 
hard part of getting a start in life, but 
we early learned that it could only be 
obtained by the closest economy and 
self-denial. Endowed by nature with a 
love for outdoor life and all things 
countryward we decided to purchase a 
suburban home and become commuters. 
We planned to start an orchard and a 
berry patch in the shortest possible time. 
Wife and I being in love with this kind 
of work, and preferring the society of 
our plants and flowers to the more ques¬ 
tionable society of the city, we felt sure 
of success if the financial end of the 
business was properly managed. With 
$200 capital and a determination to suc¬ 
ceed we went out to look at a five-acre 
tract of suburban property which the 
owner asked $150 an acre for. Two 
hundred dollars looked like the proverb¬ 
ial 30 cents as compared with this high- 
priced land, but we must purchase close 
to the city if we lived on it and com¬ 
muted to town daily. The owner was 
willing to accept our $200 as first pay¬ 
ment, and take a mortgage for the bal¬ 
ance due in two years at seven per cent 
interest. Our next step was to begin the 
preparation of our strawberry patch and 
set out a small orchard. One acre of 
sod was broken up and covered with 
manure, which was left to leach out dur¬ 
ing the Winter, to be turned under the 
following Spring. Employed in the city 
as agent for an express company, with 
hours from 7 A. M. to 5 P. M., I could 
get lots of work done after office hours 
if we lived on the place and I would go 
to and from work on a bicycle, the long 
Summer evenings giving plenty of light 
to work by We have nicknamed the 
place the “Starlight Farm,” because so 
much work is accomplished after dark. 
It is remarkable how long a person can 
see to hoe, or dig around trees, set 
fence posts or do other work after sun¬ 
down if he makes up his mind to do it. 
We wanted to get a house on the place 
before Spring opened, so as to be on 
the ground early and map out our Sum¬ 
mer work. This required another effort 
at high finance, as we were already in 
debt $550 for the land. However, the 
start was made, so plans were drawn 
for a modest little bungalow of five 
rooms, bath, toilet, cellar and our own 
water system at a total cost of $1,100. 
Wife and I spent many pleasant even¬ 
ings around our Winter fireside discuss¬ 
ing our different plans and figuring how 
we could get maximum results at a min¬ 
imum cost. Our local building and loan 
association agreed to loan the full 
amount of the indebtedness on the place 
upon completion of the house, paying off 
the original mortgage of $550 and tak¬ 
ing a new mortgage for $1,650. This 
loan was secured for five years and cost 
about eight per cent interest, we paying 
$23.50 monthly as dues. After remaining 
in the building and loan association 
about a year we got the opportunity of 
securing a private loan at seven per 
cent interest, with the stipulation that 
we were to pay the interest annually 
and as much of the principal as possible. 
Having reduced our loan to $1,400 in 
the building and loan association we 
withdrew from that, and borrowed the 
private money, as this made it easier 
for us to pay. March 1 found us in 
our new home with five acres of ground 
and a debt of $1,400. 
By working early and late a great 
deal was accomplished the first Summer 
we were commuters. The strawberry 
patch was started in good shape, and 
our young orchard was doing nicely. 
Walks were laid out and flower beds 
established. A small barn was built out 
of the odds and ends left over from 
the house, with the additional boards se¬ 
cured from an old fence that formerly 
stood along the front. Of course a great 
deal of work was hired done, such as 
plowing for the garden, and hoeing 
strawberries, work that had to be done 
in season, and for which we were not 
yet fitted. Arising at an early hour we 
would pick Off runners or hoe in the 
garden and also develop an appetite for 
our breakfast. Getting up at an early 
hour in the country during the Summer 
months can never be appreciated by the 
city dweller. To see the sun rise and 
feel the cOol morning air is refreshing 
and invigorating. Our home stands on 
the highest point of land on the farm, 
and as Southern Indiana is noted for its 
hills and hollows a beautiful panorama 
is unfolded before the eye. Standing on 
our front porch on a misty morning, 
looking over bill and dale, the words of 
that old familiar song cor e to me— 
“When the mists have rolled in splendor 
from the valley and the hills,” and I 
think what a beautiful world we live in, 
and how much splendor there is for one 
to see whose heart is open to receive it. 
Truly “man made the city, but God 
made the country.” I can realize just 
how much enjoyment the Hope Farm 
man gets from his hills on a Sunday 
afternoon. 
We kept a strict account of all mon¬ 
eys paid out on our strawberry patch 
from the breaking of the sod to the 
selling of the berries. This strawberry 
patch was a sort of a bank deposit with 
us, for we felt that all we put into it we 
could draw out the following Spring 
with compound interest, so the patch 
acted as a sort of savings bank, a dollar 
here for hoeing and 50 cents there for a 
horse to cultivate with, till at the be¬ 
ginning of Winter we had a pretty good- 
sized bank account, as it were, for it 
must be remembered that manure costs 
money and straw cannot be had for the 
asking. Expenses that had to be met if 
we were to make it pay. When the crop 
was harvested and all accounts balanced 
it was found that we had put almost 
$100 into our bank account, and drew 
out $140. This is not to be considered 
bad when the drought of 1908 is taken 
into consideration, and that we only 
had about 60 per cent of a stand of 
plants on our acre of ground. This $140 
was applied on our mortgage, and we 
arc that much nearer out of debt. No 
doubt if we had stayed in town this 
money that we spent on our strawberry 
patch would have been spent in other 
ways; so it was a direct saving in the 
end. We have another patch started for 
next year, and our old bed is looking 
fine, we having it cleaned out and 
worked over at a cost of $9.75. Our 
young orchard is coming on, and alto¬ 
gether we are very much satisfied with 
our suburban life. Our garden produces 
more than enough to supply the table, 
and we trade the surplus for staples at 
the grocery store, which lessens our 
grocery bill. We get solid satisfaction 
and enjoyment from working among our 
plants, and it is really as much a diver¬ 
sion from my everyday office work as 
fishing or hunting is to others. My wife 
has her flower garden, and we have a 
horse and buggy to go and come as we 
please. By setting our orchard in the 
sod we raise enough hay each year to do 
our horse, and I buy the grain feed for 
him. I enjoy working in the moist earth 
and seeing the plants grow, and by tak¬ 
ing this exercise instead of punching a 
bag or using a pair of exercisers I am 
turning this extra steam to- something 
useful. The above is written with the 
hope that it may be of some use to 
those who "long for a home, and a little 
place they call their own.” Some day I 
hope to be able to quit my office work 
and devote my entire time to fruit grow¬ 
ing and gardening and become my own 
boss, as it were, with the added pleas¬ 
ure of knowing how we got it from a 
small beginning. s. H. burton. 
Indiana. 
“A LITTLE HOME IN THE COUNTRY.” Fig. 596. 
The German Kali Works have talked Potash and its benefits for twenty-five years. 
They have never sold a pound direct to local agents or farmers. 
You know how hard it was to buy and get Potash. Things have changed. The 
mines are now producing enough to enable us to offer 
POTASH FOR SALE 
in carload lots of twenty tons, to local dealers without interfering with the requirements of those to whom we have 
sold Potash to be used in mixed goods. We have, therefore, established a Selling i\ |« pi j 1 
Agency in Baltimore, Md., and in 1910 will sell all potash salts in carload lots for cash, UGllVCTy VJlIcirtllltGCCl 
direct from the mines to the buyers in original sealed bags, or kainit in bulk, at lower rates than were ever before quoted. 
Potash Pays 
You can buy the real potash salts—plant food without fillers or make-weights—you save all the 
money you have been spending for interest, freight, excessive profits on fillers and mixing charges. 
For particulars and prices zvrite to 
GERMAN KALI WORKS, Continental Building, Baltimore 
