Vol. LXIX. No. 4079. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 31, 1910. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE STRUGGLE FOR A FARM. 
From Shop to Garden. 
Twelve years ago I decided to try poultry farming, 
having had very good success with a 
dozen chickens on a city r lot. I made 
the mistake that a good many make by 
reasoning that if 12 chickens made so 
much, 1200 would make 100 times as 
much, a result that has not made good 
in practice. My health was failing, 
which was one reason for my venture, 
and the life of a farmer another. I 
suffered from nervous debility, and the 
outdoor life is certainly a good cure, 
when the worries of paying your bills 
do not figure. But I do not know which 
is worse, the confinement of the ma¬ 
chine shop, or the worries' of a short 
income; both are bad. And when one 
has got unbearable, I have always been 
able to change. I perhaps Would have 
had better success if I could not have 
got a job so easily, or I might have 
gone down and out altogether. 
I bought four acres of land that had 
been let out on shares for a great num¬ 
ber of years, and the fertility was ex¬ 
hausted. I built a shed to store my fur¬ 
niture. My wife went on a visit to 
her folks in England for the Summer 
and I boarded till I put up a bungalow, 
working evenings and Saturdays, which 
I got ready to live in when my wife re¬ 
turned home. I worked very hard, so 
hard that my health did not improve, 
and I had many spells of sickness in 
the Summer months, and at those times 
my poultry did not get the attention 
they ought to have had. I had not 
much money when I started and paid 
for my land on monthly installments. 
Of farming I knew absolutely nothing. I 
had never ever had a garden, having been raised in 
a large city*. I knew nothing but my trade. In the 
Winter I could keep very steady at my work and 
could save a little 
money, but in Summer I 
barely made expenses, I 
lost so much time and 
wages through sickness. 
This continued for seven 
years; each year I man¬ 
aged to get a little more 
towards my farm. But 
I found that keeping a 
large flock of chickens 
was a different proposi¬ 
tion from keeping a 
dozen. Each year there 
was a loss. I thought 
the poultry houses were 
to blame, so I would pull 
them down and build 
some other style. I think 
I have about tried them 
all, including all the dif¬ 
ferent systems, except 
the large 2,000-bird hen¬ 
houses. I have at last 
found a plan which is very good, and I think I shall 
now succeed in the poultry business. It’s an ill wind 
that blows no one any good, for I found where I 
had failed to raise poultry with success made a 
very good garden, and from my land being too poor 
to raise peas more than three inches high, would 
now raise very good vegetables, so I tried my poul¬ 
try on a new piece of land and used the old yards 
for a garden. I also found that my chickens did bet¬ 
ter on the new ground, but dropped back again when 
the grass and weeds were all picked off and the land 
had become foul from droppings. Then I tried portable 
panels of fence, and moved the yards and houses, 
but they were so heavy and awkward it took up too 
much time, and was not practical. Then I tried large 
yards of an acre in extent, but there was always a 
hole that the chickens found before I did, and did a 
lot of damage in my garden. I was not getting much 
success at poultry keeping, but I was in gardening, 
which I did not intend to try when I 
got the farm. The last five years I have 
worked at my trade only in the Winter. 
This year I was drowned out in 
Spring and dried out in Summer and 
Fall, but I have made a living, and 
while I am not a very successful farmer 
yet, the prospects are very good indeed, 
and I am sure of succeeding in the most 
honorable, healthy and useful a life a 
man can have. Before I started I never 
had $L00 at one time in my life; now 
my real and personal property may. be 
worth $3,000. But the value of my 
land has increased a very great deal a; 
real estate, and will raise 100 times the 
crop value it would when I got it, but 
there have been a few carloads of 
manure and quite some fertilizer put 
into it, and quite a good many backaches. 
I think from my experience it is good 
policy for a beginner at farming, es¬ 
pecially if short of capital, to put 
manure two inches thick on as much 
land as he thinks he will need for his 
own family garden; first make sure of 
his own needs; then all he can on land 
to feed his stock; then take one or two 
special crops for the money crop and 
study them exclusively till he knows 
them thoroughly. For instance, I tried 
almost everything I could buy seed for 
the first year, and got nothing; then 
fixed on potatoes, till I understood 
their needs and succeeded ip raising 
some fine crops, but only on half-acre 
plots. I am still experimenting. Then 
sweet corn and cabbage, and have had 
good success after a few failures. 
Strawberries have done fairly, but I expect to im¬ 
prove with them. Asparagus has made a failure 
every time, but my neighbors grow it; so will I, 
when I know how, so I 
am goiijg to keep on 
trying till I do. Celery 
is another crop I am go¬ 
ing to take up now. I 
have had no success yet, 
but I have not tried it as 
I should and mean to. 
But there is one crop 
that has been a complete 
success, and that is the 
children. There are three 
rugged, healthy young¬ 
sters that have every 
chance of being healthy 
a n u strong all their 
lives, and owe it to the 
fresh air and freedom, 
the woods and the brook, 
and the food that is 
raised in the garden and 
chicken yard. The eld¬ 
est, a boy of 13, wants 
to stay on a farm, and 
it is not because he does not have to work. My own 
health is very good indeed, while I am outdoors in 
the fields, though the steady wages of the shop look 
good sometimes when crops are short and money 
A CALIFORNIA CREAMERY IN THE WOODS. Fig. 513. 
A BUSINESS HEN AND HER EGG RECORD. Fig. 514. See page 1211. 
