HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 1911 
275 
would hardly be possible to secure similar 
results on an acre of land, nor could two 
seasons be depended upon to yield the 
same results. Moreover, prices fluctuate 
so that $2 to $4 per bushel for onions 
would represent only the unusual years. 
Nevertheless, such paper profits can be 
figured out without stretching the truth, 
but like all paper profits they would prove 
very misleading in actual practice. 
In our Northern States several thou¬ 
sand quarts of strawberries are raised on 
an acre of good land, but around Norfolk, 
Virginia, it is not unusual to raise from 
five to eight thousand quarts to each acre. 
In some parts of the South ten thousand 
quarts have been raised, which if sold at 
10 cents a quart would return a thousand 
dollars an acre, or at 20 cents two thou¬ 
sand. Taking the latter as a standard, it 
is easy to figure out $40,000 gross receipts 
on a 20-acre strawberry farm. If only 
one-fourth of the returns represented net 
profits a strawberry farmer would prove a 
pretty good commercial success. 
But similar remarkable paper crop 
profits can be worked out nearer our own 
homes. Potatoes offer a pleasant solution 
to the question of how to “get rich quick" 
in farming. Ten years ago the average 
yield of potatoes was about 150 bushels 
to the acre; but today through the efforts 
of our agricultural department it is not 
unusual for farmers to average 300 bush¬ 
els to the acre. It is true that there are a 
great many one-hundred-and-fifty-bushel- 
farmers toiling away in the old ruts, and 
it may prove quite impossible to convince 
them that others raise 300 bushels to the 
acre; but they do, nevertheless, and some 
twice three hundred and more. At the 
experimental farms near Ottawa, Canada, 
from 600 to 772 bushels of potatoes were 
raised on an acre, or rather they were 
raised on a small plot of land at this ratio. 
With potatoes at $2 per bushel gross re¬ 
turns of over $2,500 per acre can be fig¬ 
ured out on paper without trouble. 
But if one’s land is not adapted to po¬ 
tatoes, strawberries, or onions, suppose 
we take turnips, mangles, parsnips, peas 
or beans. A little figuring based upon 
what has been done on test plots at the 
agricultural stations will not in any way 
discourage the beginner in his visionary 
schemes. Field beans are sowed in rows, 
and at harvest time they are picked and 
shipped to market. A quart of salable 
beans in tbe pods for every foot length of 
drill is not high, and if drills are two feet 
apart returns of one or two thousand dol¬ 
lars an acre can be shown. At one of the 
experimental stations beans were raised 
on a test plot which at five cents a quart 
would make returns at the rate of over 
$2,500 per acre. At another station 2,000 
bushels of mangles were raised per acre, 
which at the rate of $1 per bushel would 
certainly make a fancy showing for this 
common crop. 
Illustrations could be multiplied show¬ 
ing the possibilities of agriculture under 
the most ideal conditions of planting and 
growth with market rates for the produce 
Like 
Narcissus 
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In writing to advertisers please mention House and Garden. 
