September, 1914 1 
148 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
One acre, in addition to the strawberry and asparagus beds, was reserved for a truck garden; a happy invest- 
vestment, for it yielded a fifth of my total profit—$9.50! 
The investment in a cow proved an unqualified success. She cost only $50 and gave us eight to 
twelve quarts a day 
Five acres were seeded to alfalfa, preceded by soja beans. The latter scarcely matured ten beans to an acre 
and finally was cut for hay — loss, $27.75 
their own farms more manure than they 
produced, and had none for sale for love 
or money. It seemed impossible to beg, 
borrow or steal it, either, and only after 
widely extended inquiry was I able to ob¬ 
tain a few loads at $2 per load for my 
asparagus and truck garden. I read with 
astonishment and envy the reports of gar¬ 
deners putting forty or fifty tons per acre 
on their gardens. Even the small quantity 
that I was able to obtain cost quite a re¬ 
spectable sum of money, and the four tons 
of chemical fertilizers that I bought for 
my potatoes and tomatoes cost over $100. 
It became evident that what the place 
needed most was a good coat of lime, fol¬ 
lowed bv basic slag or rock phosphate, 
and then some green crops turned under to 
supply humus. I found that lime would 
cost $14 per ton, not delivered, and that at 
least one ton per acre would be needed 
and more would be better. Basic slag 
costs about the same price, and ground 
rock phosphate costs about $10 per ton without freight 
or delivery, but of these not nearly so much is required. 
By carload lots, lime is not so high as stated above. 
Early in the spring seeds were started in a cold frame, 
and plants for the garden obtained a good start and 
were duly set out when the weather grew warm enough. 
One thousand additional crowns of asparagus were pur¬ 
chased and planted in trenches, and several long rows- 
of asparagus seed were planted. Thirty peach trees of 
several varieties were set out in the chicken yard. 
When plowing time arrived, as I did not have a team, 
I was obliged to hire it done. To the inexperienced 
person this might appear a simple proposition, but it 
proved difficult. Land can be plowed to advantage only 
when in a certain condition. When my land was ready 
to be plowed, that of all my neighbors was in the same 
state, and all teams in the vicinity were busy and un¬ 
obtainable. By the time a team was available, my land 
was either too wet or too dry to work. Finally I did 
succeed in getting it plowed, harrowed and ready for 
planting. 
So far as I was able to ascertain, the 
planting of my three acres of Irish Cob¬ 
bler potatoes was done in full accordance 
with the best text-books. The seed pota¬ 
toes were soaked in formaline, and the 
rows duly fertilized with the chemicals 
best recommended for potatoes. Of this 
crop much might be written for the en¬ 
lightenment and edification of other 
would-be farmers, but I will make the 
painful tale as short as possible. Almost 
immediately after planting a heavy rain 
set in and kept going for about ten days. 
Only about one-half of the seed started; 
the remainder rotted in the ground. 
Even before the sprouts came above 
ground, Colorado beetles were wandering 
all over the patch hungrily awaiting their 
appearance. How do you suppose they 
knew that potatoes were planted there? 
As soon as the plants appeared we sprayed 
with Paris green and arsenate of lead, but 
