Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid I 
Single Copies, Five Cent# 
Vor,. LXXYII. 
NEW YORK. MARCH 2.'^, IMS. 
No. 1474 
The Story of a Day 
How it Was Spent on a Florida Farm 
ROPS AX’r> ACRE.VGE.—It is February 15. ami 
no doul>t some readers of The R. N.-Y.. while 
anxiously waiting for tlie first signs of Siu'ing in the 
frozen North, would be interested in a glimpse of 
country life in this land Avhere Y'inter is “tabooed" 
and Spring and Autumn meet. The farm consists 
of only 26 acres, five acres having been sold to good 
advantage last year. About 2.6 acres are under cul¬ 
tivation, and of that 2i/4 acres are occupied by grove, 
leaving about 20 ticres devoted to truck crop.s, juainly 
tomatoes. Resides the tomatoes there were planted 
1% acres of strawberries, acres of cabbage, about 
1/4 acre in lettuce and “bunch crops." beets, carrots. 
with red spider, an almost microscopic ])arasite on 
the underside of the leaf, where they could not be 
effectively reached with .spray. The.v are a total 
loss, as against the record crop of last season some 
readers will remember, reported last Summer. So it 
is apparent the work proceeds handicapped by 
wrecked hopes of extraordinarily promising crops 
and a totally inadequate labor supply. 
REGIXXIXG THE DAY.—At 4:15. Central time, 
the faithful little alarm clock sounds the call to ac¬ 
tion. and there is no thought of au after nap. for 
there is a big day's work that looms up insistently 
above a dozen other tasks that call urgently for at¬ 
tention. but must wait. The job in hand is the pre¬ 
paration of a shipment of cabbage, already a week 
01 more delayed. The caltbage. of course, smiled at 
for the many people who insist that they have little 
ai)petite for breakfast. My wife and I both consider 
it the most zestful meal of the day. and as usual do 
it full justice. After breakfast I have au appoint¬ 
ment with a neighbor near by. who is going with his 
family to a new farming development opening up a. 
hundred miles or .so to the north. 
MAKING GARBAGE CRATES.—The busine.ss in 
hand .settled and good-byes exchanged, I return 
home. Ry this time daylight is well advanced and I 
take up the work of the preceding evening, nailing 
cabbage crates. I am not a lightning operator in 
this line, like some of the e.xpert crate nailers on this 
coast, who, with a special device for handling the 
nails, have records of upwards of 100 tomato crates 
per hour. Cabbage crates require about three time.-t 
They fly about and ehnnye their eourae with jioor bewildered win I. 
Aud yet nowhere, for they have left the pih/t far behind! 
turnips and radishes, and about one-tenth acre of 
celery. 
.kllORT HELP AND FRDSl'.—Ordinarily the reg¬ 
ular hired force consists of three or four men, with 
fre(iuent additional help of transients, but. alas, due 
to causes every farmer knows but too well, the force 
now consists of one lone hired man, and apparently 
no more to be had. transients or othei’wise, for love 
nor gold, and that. too. after having had the usual 
force to plant the crops. On the night of January 6 
“Old .Tack Frosf’ paid the whole State a visit, and 
we bid the tomatoes good-hye. The whole acreage 
had to be replanted, with the exception of a few 
acres not totally destroyed pruned back to new 
shoots. The total loss of tender crops in two suc¬ 
cessive years is rather an unusual record. The straw¬ 
berries were planted as insurance against just such 
a contingenc.v. l)ut this time they did not insure. 
They failed to start off with their usual vigor, and 
later it developed that they were houelessly infe.sted 
Jack Frost's attack, and is a bumper crop, the small 
part now ready easily running at the rate of 20 tons 
per acre. Having dressed. I light the three-burner 
oil stove, put the kettle on. and facetiously call to my 
wife that it is time to get up. perfectl.v aware that 
she is as Avide awiike as I. Next I take my Avheel 
and ride over smooth rock road a qiiarter of a mile 
to feed the mules. They have already come in from 
their three-acre inclosure, and “George." as usual, 
greets me with his Ioav whinnying call for breakfast. 
As I ride I note just the faintest hint of <lawn in 
the east, and the soft, slightly moist tenq)er of the 
atmosphere, as being the exact ideal <.>f a trucker’.s 
dream. The temperature is about 70 degrees, run¬ 
ning in^o the low eighties at mid-day. It has been 
something near that continuously for some weeks 
past. 
BREAKFAST.-The mules fed and tied in for 
Avork, I get the daily supply of water for the house, 
by that time breakfast is nearly ready. I feel .sorry 
as much n.iiling ond the material is not so conve¬ 
nient to handle, and speed the best i can, about one 
every five minutes is the best I can do. After nail¬ 
ing a few my Avatch indicates six o’clock, time for 
Mack, the hired man, to begin operations. Looking 
across the strawberry patch. I see him coming out 
of the little house provided for him in the grove, 
and as he is to use mule and cultivator, aud stable is 
beyoiul. I go over and give Instructions for the morn¬ 
ing’s work, namely, to adju.st a cultiwitor to go be- 
tAveen roAvs of okra and corn interplanted among the 
ruined .strawberries, and just showing aboA'e ground, 
and harrow out our cherished strawberry plants; 
78,000 of them. Returning. I go to the post ottice, a 
few hundred yards distant, glance over the mail, 
then go on Avith the nailing: but soon Mack, having 
encountered rusted bolts, needs assistance. I help 
with the adjustment, try the imi)lement. find it sat¬ 
isfactory. aud return to my task. During tlie morn¬ 
ing hours the passage of the cultivator and the tap- 
