THE STORY OF A “BACK TO THE LAND” MOVEMENT THAT WAS STARTED BY A MOTOR CAR—CHAPTER IV. 
THE MOTOR EARNS MONEY—HOW THE SPENCES CUT DOWN THE COST OF LIVING—THEIR BALANCE SHEET 
Editor’s Note: The man whose business ties him to the city may feel the call of woods and Helds, but the unpleasant prospects of isolation, lack of transit facilities, 
provincialism, etc., have deterred him from making a change. The automobile has solved these difficulties for many and has made a home in the rural country possible even 
for city business men.. This is the account of an emigration to a rural district make possible by a motor. The automobile was considered part of the plant, and yet even when 
its original cost was included in the price of the home, they found that it enabled them to buy quite extensive lands for the price of a place in a high-class suburban develop¬ 
ment. How a motor served in a variety of practical purposes, brought friends, made the family independent of distance and time-table, is taken from the experiences of a man 
who has proved his experiment. This narrative zi'as begun in the July issue. 
BY C. H. Claudy 
1 V/T R. SPENCE was casting up household accounts. It was the 
beginning of winter, and as gardening activities were at a 
standstill, and chicken farming confined to proper care of care¬ 
fully housed stock, he thought it a good time to find out where he 
stood. 
After half an hour’s work — work rather pleasant, as Mrs. 
Spence judged, from the pleased smile on her husband’s face — he 
spoke. But it was not to his 
wife, but to his daughter. 
“Dorry, as near as I can 
figure out, you have man¬ 
aged to save the family 
about sixty dollars in veg¬ 
etables in your grubbing this 
past spring and summer. 
We’ve had flowers all over 
the house all the time, I 
never in my life ate such 
string beans as you grow, 
and your melons, if small 
and too few by dozens, were 
certainly good. Larry made 
twenty dollars by his chick¬ 
ens in six months. You’ve 
made more, mussing around 
your little quarter acre. Of 
course, Larry’s profits were 
cut down bv the first cost of 
his chickens, while you didn’t 
have to pay a cent for seeds, 
because Mrs. Elkins gave 
you a lot. 
“Now, for next year you are going to grub just as much as you 
want. But I’m going to grub, too. We’ve an acre in lawn, half 
an acre in flower garden and chicken run, a little more than half 
an acre in apple trees, a field of about an acre and a half that 
isn’t anything, and the rest can be all vegetable garden. In fact 
—I don’t know — think we could tackle three whole acres and 
make a big garden?” 
“Just how much is an acre, Daddy?” 
“Depends on how you measure it! A tax collector says it’s 
4840 square yards. If you plough it by hand, it’s two miles long 
and half a mile wide. If someone else ploughs it and you pay 
him by the day, it costs a lot of money. If you pay him by the 
acre, it doesn’t cost but a day’s work!” 
“Dad! Stop fooling. How much is it in feet?” 
“Three acres, my child, would be three times 4840, times 9, but 
with us it would be a plot about 500 feet deep by 250 wide. It 
would take some cultivating for you and Jack — and I might help 
a little. Seems to me it’s a large order for a business man-” 
“Oh, Daddy, please! You don’t know how much I could do! 
And it would be grand having enough vegetables for our own 
table and enough to sell, too! And as for the work—why, Dad, 
didn’t you know that Mr. Elkins uses his Good Fairy in his farm- 
It does all sorts of work on his farm, even cuts the corn 
stalks for the cows to eat in 
winter.” 
“What?” said Spence, 
amazed. “Cuts silage with 
an auto? You are crazy, 
child!” 
“I am not crazy! He puts 
a big belt on one of the 
wheels, jacks the car up, and 
drives a thing like a great 
meat chopper. I saw it.” 
This was but the first of 
many similar conversations. 
And they all ended in inde¬ 
cision on Spence’s part but 
in hopes on Dorothy’s. And 
when spring came at last, 
Spence yielded, though in 
doubt as to whether the 
three acres might not be 
more than his child, his 
hired man and he himself 
could handle in spare time. 
But with characteristic 
energy he set himself to 
solve the gardening problems as they came up, bringing to bear 
a mind which, if untrained in gardening, had at least the ready 
resources of a business training. 
He soon found that Good Fairy did more than cut silage. The 
detachable tonneau which had for long seemed a useless invest¬ 
ment, was taken off, and a box body attached. 
Dorry herself drove to Mr. Elkins’ place for the seed potatoes 
she had been promised — Elkins, an enthusiastic gardener, was de¬ 
lighted with his neighbors’ child’s enthusiasm, and helped her 
greatly with suggestions and seeds, cuttings and advice. 
“And, Daddy, I’m going to try some berries, too — there’s all 
that land in the orchard going to waste — at least it isn’t growing 
a thing but grass and weeds, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t 
use it!” 
A few evenings later, Dorry spread in front of her father a 
neat paper, containing a plot or diagram of the three acres. 
ing? 
With the tonneau removed the motor became an invaluable assistant in all 
sorts of gardening operations 
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