978 
RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
July 12, 1924 
The Possibilities of an Acre of Land 
i ^COMFORTABLE LIVING. — Some months 
ago 1 wrote an article under the above head- 
W »\|> ing, trying to tell what an earnest and 
trained worker can do with a small piece 
ApgfC ^ an< t- There have been many questions 
' from readers, and the following is written 
to answer them. What do I consider a “comfortable” 
living, which statement I made, that could be made 
from an acre of ground? My answer is that $1,200, 
with all the fruit, such as apples, pears, peaches, 
plums, strawberries and rhubarb and vegetables, such 
as radishes, green onions, lettuce, spinach, cauli- 
ilower, celery, onions and eggplants, besides all the 
chickens and eggs one can use should be enough for a 
comfortable living for a family of four or five. The 
writer lias cleared considerably more than the figures 
above, and with all the accessories mentioned lias 
found it possible to live very comfortably and lay 
something by for a “rainy day.” 
A YEARLY RETURN.—Can I do it every year? 
Just as'certainly as any other person can in any other 
line of business. The manufacturer, the contractor, 
the merchant, all have years of “famine and plen¬ 
ty,” and it is the same way with the tiller of the 
soil. He is subject to the same thing, but I will 
assert from experience that he is just as successful 
as often as the former classes, and after getting my 
acre in proper condition I have always had more 
than a living at the end of each year. 
THE SURPLUS.—Would there not be a surplus 
of vegetables raised, and prices very low, if all the 
farmers took my advice and went to growing vege¬ 
tables? That question was asked me when I ad¬ 
dressed a Grange a few weeks ago. My answer was 
this question: “Well, how many of you men will 
take my advice and branch out on the lines I have 
suggested?” As there was no reply, I said, “There 
is my answer; there will be such a few that will 
dare to branch out into new avenues (to them) that 
those who do enter need have no fear of a surplus 
or of low prices for the vegetables and fruits that 
are in such great demand here, and are shipped 
from Florida and California by carloads, when they 
could be raised in this locality.” A “doubting Thom¬ 
as,” who had heard my statement about the amount 
I raised on an acre, drove over a hundred miles two 
weeks ago to see my place, and see if the thing were 
possible. He had an idea that my place was all un¬ 
der glass, but when he saw with his own eyes, and 
listened to my method to get the results, he seemed 
to be convinced that the thing could be done. 
GARDEN MIRACLES.—Another man writes The 
It. N.-Y. about the statement they make under my 
picture (page 751), and asks how I work such a 
“miracle.” This man is a doctor. If he has a pa¬ 
tient who is ill and the patient describes his con¬ 
dition, and the doctor gives him some medicine that 
quickly relieves the patient, this may seem like a 
miracle to me, but not to him, as he has made dis¬ 
eases and their remedies a life study, and is able to 
do many wonderful things. Just so in my case; I 
have made the vegetable kingdom my life study, 
and when I apply my knowledge and get wonderful 
results some people think it a miracle, when it is 
only the result of application and knowledge of 
plant life. 
PLAN OF WORK.—The pictures show that my 
place is not under glass, and my method of culti¬ 
vation and irrigation. Head work has just as much 
to with my successful operation as manual labor. 
I plan a year ahead what crops shall be planted on 
certain parts of the acre, and what crops shall fol¬ 
low the same year after they are removed. For 
instance, where my lettuce, followed by cauliflower, 
was raised last year, spinach followed by celery 
will be planted this year, as I find lettuce will do' 
better if it is not planted two successive years on 
the same ground. Again, it would not do to plant 
cauliflower this year on the same plot where it was 
grown last year, as it would all grow “club-footed” 
This house with all modern improvements was built 
with the proceeds from one acre of ground in 10 years, 
besides furnishing a good living and running expenses. 
and would be an entire failure. The planning for 
the most profitable crops with least work attached 
cannot be overestimated; this can be done only by 
studying your market and the work attached to cer¬ 
tain crops year after year. 
THE YEAR’S WORK.—I will give an outline of 
this year’s work, giving a statement of results al¬ 
ready accomplished, and future possibilities. I have 
60 3x6 sashes, of which 20 are used for hotbeds, to 
start my plants under in the Spring, such as tomato, 
pepper, eggplants and cabbage; the other 40 are 
used for cold frames, where the plants from the hot¬ 
beds are transplanted to harden off before trans¬ 
planting to open ground. Fifteen sashes were sown 
to lettuce seed the last week in October, 1923, and 
the sashes were put on the middle of November. 
This April I sold 10,000 plants at $3 per 1,000, and 
set 3,000 for my own use, out of those 15 sashes. 
As soon as the lettuce plants were removed I trans¬ 
planted tomato plants under the 15 sashes, 200 
plants under each sash. They have all been sold at 
$1.25 per 100. That makes $67.50 off that strip 6x45 
ft. so far. Now that ground has been planted to 
Mayflower sweet corn, which will give us an abun¬ 
dant supply for our table the last of July. Then the 
bed will be set full of pansies the last of October, 
to be sold next April. That accounts for 15 of the 
sashes. The other 25 sashes were set to pansy plants 
last October, the seed of which was sown the middle 
of August. The pansies were all sold out of this bed 
in April and May, amounting to $91 worth sold, be¬ 
sides at least $10 worth reserved for our own beds. 
Where the pansies were removed in April, tomato 
plants were set. To date $25 worth has been sold 
out of that bed, with several hundred yet to sell. 
That makes $114 worth out of that strip 6x75 ft. As 
soon as the rest of the tomato plants are sold that 
strip will be planted also to sweet corn, which will 
be off in time to sow spinach the middle of August. 
SELLING PLANTS.—A great many of my plants 
were transplanted in flats from the hotbed, which 
were sold to the stores that sell plants. My sales to 
date (May 21) from these 60 sashes, occupying a plot 
6x180 ft. of ground, amount to $360. The plants in 
the hotbeds consisted of 3 y 2 sashes of peppers, 1 y 2 
of eggplants, three of early tomatoes, five of late 
tomatoes and four of cabbage. My spinach and let¬ 
tuce, as shown by pictures, were planted the last of 
March, but owing to the very backward Spring they 
have not made a very rapid growth. Cauliflower 
and cabbage seed was sown between the rows of 
spinach after the last cultivation on May 14. The 
cabbage plants will be sold, and the cauliflower 
plants will be set where the lettuce is cut off. Then 
celery plants will be set on part of the ground where 
the cabbage and cauliflower plants are pulled, and 
part to Fall lettuce and spinach. The reason I was 
able to get my vegetable seeds planted before the 
rest of the growers in this section was that I had my 
ground plowed last December. It lay in ridges all 
Winter. In the middle of March we had a few nice 
days, and I had a disk harrow run over the ground, 
which put it into an ideal condition for planting. 
Chicken manure was spread broadcast, and acid 
phosphate at the rate of one ton per acre before disk¬ 
ing. The manure was^ from my own pen, and the 
acid phosphate cost $4.50, as I am working only one- 
quarter of an acre this year. I have the rest of my 
plot seeded to clover and am setting it out in fruit 
trees. As stated in a previous article, my produce 
is sold at wholesale in competition with other pro¬ 
duce, and it is my aim to try to grow something that 
will be superior to what the other “feller” can grow 
and to put it on the market so that it will attract the 
purchaser’s attention. 
GARDENING WITHOUT GLASS.—Now the 
question may be asked, could I make the living on 
an acre if I did not use glass, and grew all my pro¬ 
duce in open ground? Positively, yes. Last year I 
grew $202 worth on one-sixteenth of an acre, and am 
positive that if I had put the entire acre in the re¬ 
sult would have been the same, for I could not begin 
to supply the demand for lettuce, cauliflower, spin¬ 
ach and celery that was grown on this plot. But 
to be assured of success one must be confident that 
everything connected with his effort must be in first- 
class working order. For instance, the soil must be 
prepared with enough food so that the plant life will 
have plenty to feed on to keep it in a good healthy 
condition. For as the human body that is robust 
and vigorous is more able to withstand disease than 
one that is not well nourished, so with the plant; 
with the right kind of food to keep it “on the jump” 
it can resist drought and blight better than can a 
plant that does not get the proper nourishment. 
Again, it must be in a fine friable condition to re- 
Big Boston lettuce set last of March; cutting at this writing. June 6; price $1 per 
dozen wholesale. Clover on the left was sowed last Spring, 1923, 2 ft. high June 
6. Was worked for 15 years—am giving it a rest. 
The spinach shown in this field was sown the latter part of 
March, and was all cut when this article 
was written, June 6. 
