The Naturalizing of a City Man 
Editor’s Note:—The author of this narrative—begun in the December number— had refused to write the story 
of his experiences in going from business life to a farm. His objection was that the published account taken 
from his closely written diary would contain nothing of the joy and inspiration he felt in getting close to Nature, 
and would be merely a matter-of-fact list of happenings with their message lost. He finally consented to write 
it in liis own way, allowing memory and imagination to lend color to those days of struggle which are now cher¬ 
ished recollections. He preferred to hide his identity under the disguise of another person, but the essential 
facts are true and full of practical information. This is the eighth installment and shows how sensible business 
methods made the man more successful than his neighbors. 
P LEASANT as the summer had seemed to the Mantells, in 
spite of their hard and constant labors, late autumn with 
its harvest time seemed even more joyful. The feeling that they 
had set out to do a big job, had worked hard at it, and were bring¬ 
ing it to a close was, on the whole, very satisfying. 
Their success at the local fair and the flattering comments they 
had received, left them no doubt that they had succeeded better 
than most of their neighbors, and with a bigger variety of things. 
What they had lacked in practical experience, was more than 
made up for by their diligence and study and the very capable 
assistance, especially as far as the garden was concerned, of 
Raffles. 
Getting out the potato crop was, of course, the biggest problem 
that they had to solve in the way of harvesting. Mantell engaged 
a digger several weeks ahead, but a wet fall followed the summer 
drouth and after several postponements on the part of the owner 
of the machine, they finally gave him up in despair and started 
in to do it by hand. The field had been kept clean up to the very 
end of the season, and that was proved to be a great advantage. 
Most of the potato fields which Mantell had seen late in the fall 
were masses of weeds. One large piece in particular, which he 
had noticed several times during the early summer because of 
its fine appearance, he found to be almost a sod of weeds when he 
had occasion to visit it to see the owner of the digger, who was 
working there. The first morning Mantell and Raffles, after more 
than three hours’ back-breaking labor, dug out just four rows, 
from which Robert and Helen picked up twelve and a half bushels 
of first size potatoes. This result did not suit Mantell at all. The 
first thing after dinner they tried plowing them out, but this was 
soon abandoned because they left too many in the ground even 
after going over the ground again with the forks. Mantell went 
over to the Squire to see what he could suggest. He found them 
digging by hand too. They did it a little faster, because his men 
were not green at the work as Mantell and Raffles were; but the 
Squire's three men had only turned out thirty bushels in the 
morning. The Squire’,s crop was a little heavier than Mantell’s, 
but not nearly so nice and clean and there seemed to Mantell to 
be many more second size and small ones than in his own. 
“Is there no easier way of getting this job done?” asked Man¬ 
tell. “How much does it cost you a year to get them out?” 
“I don’t— don’t exactly know,” admitted the Squire. “I never 
figured it out exactly. Some of the field is better than where 
they’re diggin’ now, but some is worse — I guess that’s about an 
average. I pay ’em a dollar and a half a day.” 
“Seven and a half cents a bushel,” said Mantell. “That seems 
a lot, doesn’t it?” 
“Know it,” said the Squire, “but I don’t know what else we 
can do. And they’ll only work nine hours a day now; used to be 
ten and eleven, and for less money. I don’t know what we’re 
cornin’ to.” 
Mantell went home disappointed. But instead of going out to 
the potato field he fussed around for over an hour with the culti¬ 
vator and finally arranged it to his satisfaction. All the teeth were 
taken off except the two side ones, and on these the steels for hill¬ 
ing were put on wrong end too, so that they would plow earth 
away from the row. Next morning they got one of the Squire’s 
horses and with Prince by his side proceeded to the field. The 
horses walked in the furrows and the cultivator, after several 
adjustments, was so regulated that it plowed the earth away from 
both sides of the row, leaving just a narrow strip containing the 
potatoes. By ten o’clock they had been over quite a part of the 
field and the result was that in the two hours remaining they dug 
out over six rows. Allowing for the time spent in going over 
them first with the cultivator Mantell figured that they had got 
them out in just half the time it had taken them the day before, 
or for five cents a bushel instead of ten. Moreover, they found 
that the work was not nearly so tiresome. 
Mantell was naturally much pleased with the result of this ex¬ 
periment. Wherever he could lower the cost of production, make 
a saving, or increase his receipt in a way that showed he was 
making a definite percentage of gain, he felt that he was going 
a step farther in the right direction. One of the things that 
struck Mantell most forcibly about his neighbors was that they 
never figured in percentages, as he had been used to doing in his 
old business. One could find a farmer who knew if he had re¬ 
ceived more or less on a crop than he had the year previous, but 
not one who could say if he had made a bigger percentage on his 
investment of land, seed, fertilizer and time. 
The cleanup in the garden also took many odd hours. One of 
Mantell’s hobbies was to let nothing go to waste and everything 
that could be kept or utilized was religiously saved. They had 
spent several rainy days repairing the house cellar, whitewashing 
it and putting in bins. The house itself stood on a slight eleva¬ 
tion, fortunately for its inmates, and the cellar was always per¬ 
fectly dry. The cellar was a very small one, however, and even 
by utilizing every inch of room, they found that space for a num¬ 
ber of things would be lacking. So most of the cabbage and 
parsnips as well as thirty bushels of potatoes were stored outside, 
the latter in a pit specially made and gradually covered as freez¬ 
ing weather came on, according to the directions Mantell found 
in his favorite volume on potato culture. Carrots and beets, a 
goodly supply of each, and what oyster plants they had left over, 
were stored in clean sand. On top of the bins constructed for the 
potatoes and apples — most of which had been fit only for cider— 
were placed 2x6 planks, and on top of these again barrels of 
onions. The onion crop had been very good, and as they sold 
rapidly at a good figure, they were largely disposed of before 
real freezing weather set in. It had been decided, however, to 
hold over ten barrels as an experiment, and these had been put 
down in the cellar. It was several weeks later before a rather 
strong smell, even for onions, led to an investigation which 
showed that the dampness they contracted, coupled with the 
warmer temperature of the cellar, had started new growth. They 
had to be taken out at once, spread on the woodshed floor and 
dried. Over two barrels were completely ruined and nearly four 
more were badly injured, so that they had to be sold at a reduced 
price. Four barrels of good, sound, dry ones in ventilated barrels, 
were put back into the cellar, where they kept perfectly until the 
following spring and sold for over fifty per cent, more than they 
would have brought in November. 
Every barrel and bushel of stuff they put in the cellar had to be 
carried down a difficult pair of stone steps—worn hollow by the 
countless feet and tons of produce which had passed over them— 
and through a crooked dark passage to the “inner” cellar. This 
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