1914. 
TUE RURAL/ NEW-YORKER 
023 
THREE BOYS AND $8,000. 
Another Big Story of Apple Profits. 
T HE Boys World is supposed to be a publication 
for boys, and is published by tlie David C. 
Cook Publishing Company. At the head of 
its editorial page it prints the following very ex¬ 
cellent statement: 
“Before admitting any advertisement into the 
columns of this paper, tee have been careful to in¬ 
vestigate the responsibility and honesty of the ad¬ 
vertiser ..” 
A noble sentiment, and one which should be ex¬ 
tended to the editorial parts of the paper as well as 
to the advertising. On the next page following this 
excellent resolution is an article on 
'‘How Three Boys Are Earning $8,000 With An 
Apple Orchard.” 
This article is said to be by Sven T. Olson, of the 
U. S. Agricultural Department. As we have a fam¬ 
ily of boys at home who have not yet shown any 
such earning capacity, we were at once struck with 
the heading of this article, and we went on to read 
it. As nearly as we can make out, three boys in 
Michigan, who are now about IS years old, have been 
for the last few years planting apple trees on several 
small parcels of land. It seems that these boys 
earned money at various kinds of work, and planted 
trees about 20 feet apart each way. The story goes 
on to tell how these boys took care of these trees 
until they have some S00 planted. The article is 
written in such a way that the author of it could get 
out through half a dozen holes in case lie were 
obliged to stand up and face his statements. In 
order to make sure that this article was authorized 
in any way, we wrote to the Bureau of riant Indus¬ 
try, at Washington, for information, and received 
the following letter: 
Replying to yours of the 24th instant, with clipping 
from The Boys’ World, headed “IIow Three Boys are 
Earning $8,000 with an Apple Orchard, by Sven T. Ol¬ 
son, of the United States Agricultural Department,” 
I have to advise you that there is no record in this De¬ 
partment that Sven T. Olson was ever connected with 
the Department. 
As to the accuracy of the statements in the article, 
we appear to have no information regarding the enter¬ 
prise referred to. So many features of the article are 
contrary to general experience that the statements 
would need to be very fully authenticated to be ac¬ 
cepted as true. The $8,000 return from the S00 trees 
that are said to compose the orchard is evidently a 
computation rather than an actuality, judging from the 
following statement in the article: “From what we 
already know of the orchard, and what authorities have 
written or told us, it should yield us in a very few 
years’ time not less than $8,000 profit.” 
It would be interesting to know just what the facts 
are regarding it, and we are seeking information through 
several channels. 
We are also conducting our own investigation, and 
if any one in Southwestern Michigan can give us any 
facts about this orchard, we would like to have it. 
If these boys are really making $8,000 
they are most remarkable boys, and 
many of us who have good-sized fami¬ 
lies would be only too glad to know 
what these boys eat and live upon in 
order to acquire this wonderful power 
to make such wages. There are plenty 
of men who have grown fruit all their 
lives, who would be very glad indeed 
to make $S,000 a year. If there is 
any way of finding out the secret, we 
want to know what it is, and if this 
is a fake, we further want to know 
what the Boys’ World means by print¬ 
ing such stuff as an inspiration for 
other boys. 
A START WITH STRAWBERRIES. 
W E want to set out one or two 
acres of strawberries, but have 
never bad any experience with 
them. We wish to put them in 
so that a good share of the work can be 
done with horses. We have no manure 
on hand now, but have a quantity of 
fertilizer; two grades, one lot of 10-8 
and one of 10—1-0. that we can mix in 
any proportion. We are located in Ot¬ 
sego County, N. Y., about 1,700 feet 
above sea level and the soil is underlaid with hardpan. 
It heaves some in the Winter. We will have both oat 
and buckwheat straw this Fall that can be used for 
mulch. We would like to plow up old pasture that 
slopes to the southwest, if that would be suitable, and 
plant the kinds the best suited for our conditions. There 
is a good market here for the berries, for about all that 
are sold here are shipped in and are selling now for 15 
cents per basket. The questions we wish to ask are: 
The location and preparation of the soil, the distance 
apart the plants should be set, the kind of fertilizer ami 
quantity to use either with the plants or broadcast, the 
kinds of plants to get the best results, how often to cul¬ 
tivate and how deep to put on the mulch in the Fall. 
New York. w. z. 
We would not think of plowing an old pasture 
and planting strawberries the first season. Such 
pastures are usually full of white grubs which would 
SOME GARDEN CROPS 
That Are Profitable in a Small Way. 
UR big brothers, the bonanza gardeners, who 
raise celery, and lettuce, and onions, in 10 and 
20-acre fields, and ship their products in car 
lots only, probably have little love and appreciation 
for such things as Brussels sprouts, kohl.-rabi, bunch¬ 
ing onions, and some others as crops worthy of their 
consideration and efforts. Brussels sprouts, if suc¬ 
cessfully grown, are profitable in a small way, but 
the demand is limited and we cannot grow them 
by the acre with any hope of securing the 20 or 
25 cents per quart of the tiny cabbage heads for the 
5.000 or more quarts which a good gardener might 
grow with ease on the one acre. But the small mar¬ 
ket gardener who has a local trade, selling his vege¬ 
tables directly to private consumers or to local 
stores, or who keeps a stand in the city market, 
will find good returns in the production of the 
limited quantity he can find or make sales for. A 
large proportion of Americans are wholly unac¬ 
quaint with Brussels sprouts: many do not even 
know the name of this vegetable. But if it were 
more freely offered, more people would learn to like 
the little heads of refined cabbage flavor, and be 
willing to buy (or grow) it. I had many plants last 
Fall that gave a plump two quarts of sprouts per 
plant When private consumers pay a quarter per 
quart, one cannot get a half a dollar mueh more 
easily than by picking off one of a plant that only 
requires two feet one way by three the other. 
I have had my best success in growing Brussels 
sprouts when I sowed seed in Spring, and set the 
plants rather early for late cabbage plants, s.\y 
middle of June or before. The seed I sowed came 
from Long Island. The pictures of the Brussels 
sprout plant as often found in seedsmen's catalogues 
probably represent the seedsman’s ideal, or what 
he thinks the plant should look like. The camera, 
however, shows the thing as it is, not as we would 
like to have it. It is an interesting and attractive 
plant, even if it does not come up to the seedsman's 
ideal in regularity and productiveness. 
Kolil-rabi is another of these vegetables, little in 
demand and not appreciated as it really deserves, 
but easily grown and profitable for the grower who 
finds customers knowing how good it is. It should 
be used while young and tender and succulent, and 
will then be sure to please the palate of people who 
like turnip, and especially-refined turnip flavor. Our 
garden books usually teach growing it like cabbages, 
namely starting plants in seed bed or under glass 
and transplanting to stand six inches or so apart 
in the rows. An easier and better way is to sow the 
seed thinly directly where the plants are to make 
the crop, and thinning to a few inches apart. We 
usually do this thinning when the first plants have 
already made some bulb (a ball-like 
thickening of the stem just a few 
inches above the surface of the 
ground). We gather the largest of 
these bulbs for use or for bunching, 
leaving the smaller ones to come on 
later. Seed may be sown very early 
in Spring (the plant being as hardy 
as a cabbage) and at intervals of a 
few weeks for succession. 
T. GREIXER. 
NOT WOMAN’S WORK. 
IIE picture shown at Fig. 384 is 
like many others which at¬ 
tempt to represent the farmer's 
daughter or wife out in the harvest 
field doing a man’s work at raking or 
shocking grain. Some people go on to 
preach a sermon on industry from 
these pictures. We are told how the 
farm woman can be of great service to 
her husband and brother by doing a 
man’s work in this way. 
The fact is that these pictures rarely 
if ever amount to more than a fancied 
presentment of some girl usually fresh from the 
city who wants to be pictured in some unusual way. 
It is a mistake for the average woman or girl to at¬ 
tempt to do hard farm labor. Some of them have 
been obliged to work in this way in order to help 
save the farm, but this kind of labor is not woman’s 
work and the average woman will receive more 
damage than help from trying to do it. An occa¬ 
sional hour spent in the harvest field at such work 
is well enough but the modern American woman 
should not be expected to do a hired man’s labor 
and those who expect her to do so will sooner or 
later regret it. Woman’s work as a home builder is 
her greatest possible service to her family. 
THE GRAIN HARVEST. Fig. 3S4. 
runners as possible from them. You can transplant 
these runners where your crop is to be grown finally 
or you can plant them close together in some con¬ 
venient place where they can be mulched and set out 
next Spring. Our advice is not to think of putting 
the old pasture land into strawberries. While we 
have set out plants in New Jersey all the way from 
April 1 to Thanksgiving and had them live, early 
Spring is the best time. As for varieties—that mat¬ 
ter varies so with climate and conditions that we 
would rather hear from local growers in Otsego 
Co. On strong land not much nitrogen is needed for 
berries—potash and phosphoric acid with a small 
amount of dried blood will answer. We should ap¬ 
ply the fertilizer on a wide strip along the row 
‘FIVE MINUTES FOR REFRESHMENTS.” Fig. 38i 
when the plants are set out. By planting three feet 
apart each way you can work with a horse both 
ways until the runners are active. Then let them 
run in rows one way so as to cultivate the other 
way and leave hills or a matted row as best suits 
the variety. 
Ax expert primer tells of this side of his work: “I am 
making about 70 cents per tree, and prune about eight 
trees per hour, so I don’t have much rest for my right 
arm. All the cutting is done with hand shears (I have 
used the saw three times in two weeks), so you can 
judge the condition of the trees.” Let’s all go to “Sum¬ 
mer pruning. This is only one side of it, for not one 
man in 1,000 could earn such wages. 
make quick work of the berry plants. Then again 
it would require too much hard work to keep such 
land clean. We should crop that land in corn first 
and if possible in potatoes before planting berries. 
The latter should go into the best and cleanest land 
you have. Y T ou cannot hope to plant strawberries 
now and have them yield a good crop next year. 
They should have been planted over two months 
ago for that. You can now set potted plants or 
layer plants from this year’s runners and obtain a 
small crop next Spring, but it would not pay to buy 
enough potted plants to start your fields. It might 
pay you to buy 500 potted plants as soon as you can 
get them, put them out in rich soil and get as many 
