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 his 
own zvay, allowing memory and imagination to lend color to those days of struggle which are now cherished recol¬ 
lections. He preferred to hide his identity under the disguise of another person, but the essential facts are true 
and full of practical information. This installment tells of the early results of the second year on the farm. 
I N spite of all the foresight and planning they had done, the 
Mantells found themselves, with the lengthening days of 
February and March, as busy as ever—busier, if possible. With 
the experience of the season past to guide them, much less time 
was wasted, or used in ways that did not show immediate results. 
They had a pretty definite program to follow out, and that en¬ 
abled them to concentrate and keep pushing steadily in the right 
direction, so that no steps were lost. 
As has already been said, the onion crop had proved the most 
profitable of anything they had raised the first year. The onion 
acreage was accordingly to be increased for this season. More 
than that, Mantell was quietly planning to make it a try-out be¬ 
tween onions and “truck.” At first glance it looked as if the mis¬ 
cellaneous early garden stuff must pay as well as anything could, 
but the amount of time taken in gathering, in cleaning and bunch¬ 
ing, and in marketing such perishable crops as lettuce, radishes, 
beans, etc., which would spoil if they were not attended to when 
ready, made it clear to Mantell that a careful record might show 
a very different result. It seemed clear to him that the precious 
hours of the summer time ought to be used in growing things 
and the cold winter days for trips to market. This of course 
was theory; and his purpose was to ascertain if results would 
prove him right or wrong. 
Work in the greenhouse, in spite of all they could do. began 
to get a little ahead of them. Had it not been for Mrs. Mantell’s 
able assistance, they would have been compelled to get some out¬ 
side help for the work of transplanting, at which March found 
them busily engaged. There were two things that took up a good 
deal of time which Mantell did not consider at all economically 
spent, and which nevertheless he did not know just how to im¬ 
prove. One of these was the sawing up of boxes for flats, which 
even with the hand power they had rigged up took two men's time 
and didn't go very fast then. In addition to this the watering, 
even thus early in the spring, took quite a long time. Mantell had 
looked into this at the Experiment Station greenhouses, but their 
system was much the same as his except that they had a good 
deal more force. 
One evening when these problems formed the subject of con¬ 
versation, the Squire happened in with his usual suggestion for a 
way out of the difficulty. He had heard, only a day or two before, 
of a neighbor who had a gasolene engine, almost new, which he 
wanted to sell. It had given him perfect satisfaction, but he 
found that he needed one of four horse power instead of two, 
which was the size he had got. Consequently, the smaller engine 
for which he wanted thirty-two dollars, made an attractive bar¬ 
gain for somebody. 
“I’ve got a lot of wood to saw up yet,” said the Squire. “Til 
go halves with you if we can find a saw frame.” 
Mantell had quite a good deal of wood to saw yet himself, be¬ 
sides the boxes for flats, so that the offer seemed too good to 
pass by, although the treasury was by no means overflowing. 
They were able to get a saw frame and saw for $18.50 by order¬ 
ing it from the mail order house which Mantell now looked to for 
so many of his purchases. While it was coming Mantell had a 
chance to saw up all the boxes he needed, and Raffles alone could 
cut up three, and do it better, in the time it formerly took them 
both to cut up one box. 
The remedy for the-slow watering also involved some expense, 
but not so much as the sawing outfit. Another set of barrels was 
procured and connected together, similar to those which they al¬ 
ready had, and the three-quarter inch pipe and hose were replaced 
with one inch. This gave them practically double the flow of 
water and meant a corresponding decrease in the time needed to 
go over the benches, beds, and frames; a saving which meant a 
great deal to them as the rush season came on and every minute 
used for watering had to be taken from some other pressing job. 
All these things made for efficiency, and practice too made them 
more expert in the many operations of their business. Fully 
twice as many plants were handled and grown with very little 
more work than they had put in the year previous; and they were 
much better in quality. Raffles took a special pride in all that per¬ 
tained to the greenhouse, and many were the overtime hours 
which he put in looking after some stray box of seedlings that 
were getting too “lanky,” or soaking some corner that showed 
signs of needing water before its regular time. 
The spring, in contrast to most of the previous season’s 
weather, opened up with no end of rain. It seemed as though it 
would never stop and never get warm. Profiting by their ex¬ 
perience of the year before, they were still earlier in getting out 
their early cabbage and some lettuce and beets. Several ensuing 
hard frosts hurt some of the two latter, but the cabbage came 
through finely; although on several occasions they went to the 
trouble of watering it with cold water in the morning to make it 
thaw out before the sun should strike it. This was tedious work, 
but undoubtedly had something to do with bringing it through 
and enabling it to get a good start before any of their competitors 
got around to planting. Some of those who came to get plants, 
considering themselves as early as possible, would hardly believe 
that Mantell’s cabbages in the open field had not been protected 
by glass frames or in some other secret way. 
On all the other garden stuff, too, they got an early start; 
their land was sloping and well-drained naturally, so that the sur¬ 
plus of moisture did not delay them as it did some of their neigh¬ 
bors. 
This early start included the onions, of which they sowed 
three pounds — nearly three-quarters of an acre. Mantell’s friends 
seemed to think that this was the last straw. They had been skep¬ 
tical about his sowing one pound the year before; it simply 
wouldn’t be possible for him to find enough help anywhere around 
Priestly to weed out such a bed as that. But they worked up the 
ground as early as they could, taking the best of wdiat had been 
the vegetable garden the year before, gave it a heavy coating of 
the best manure and a liberal dressing of their own home-mixed 
fertilizer, raked it as smooth as a floor, and went ahead. The 
narrow, even rows, straight as a stretched string, did look both 
business-like and attractive, and served as a new advertisement, 
if any were needed, for “that Mantell Company’s” place. The 
Squire shook his head dubiously. 
“ ’Fraid you're biting off too much, Harry!” he advised. “It’s 
goin’ to be an awful weedy season, I reckon.” 
Another thing which excited new interest on the part of their 
visitors, who became quite numerous as the planting season ap¬ 
proached, was the stuff they had growing in cold frames, which 
were set out to lettuce, beets and radishes as soon as cabbage 
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