

HENRY FIELD’S 
Yn, 2 
Vey bly, leg 
ey 
LU, of 
Y a a 
ee “FOR THE MAN BEHIND THE HOE” 


Published by Henry Field in the Print Shop 








Ten Acres Enough 
5 2 ED OST BOA ARERR CULT IES A eA p 
__ Somewhere I have read a book with that title, “Ten Acres 
_ Enough.” It was years ago and I don’t remember very much 
_ about it now, but I do remember that it impressed me very much 
_ at that time, and the longer I live and the more I see of farming, 

_and that if we would put as much work on a less number of acres, 
we would get along better. 
_ This picture is one that proves what you can do. on a small 
space. We have a big garden in the Ozarks, but I doubt if it’s 
over one acre in all. And we get enough truck off it for ten 
families. And our garden in Shenandoah is just a little bigger 
_ than a postage stamp and we canned stuff from that all summer. 
A little hard work, patience, and perseverance is all it takes. 
Good seed goes 
without saying. 
 You’ll be blessed 
with plenty, you’ll 
be healthy and 
happy. Of course, 
- you might not get 
rich off a’ small 
farm, but you’ll 
have plenty to eat, 
plenty to wear, a 
comfortable home, 
happy children, 
and who could 
Spe richer: than 
that? 
You know it 
- mnever was my am- 
_ bition to have a 
big farm or a big 
business.s5 From 
the time I was a 
little boy, my am- | 
_ bition was to have 
a nice little truck 
farm of my own 
- where I could raise 
vegetables and 
fruit and some 
flowers and just_~ 
make a nice com- 
fortable living. I 
got started at this 
seed business 
/ partly because I 
wanted something 
t : 






















ter time when I 
ouldn’t be work- 
ing in the garden 
and partly because 
JT enjoyed breeding improved strains of vegetables, and so on, 
and partly because the neighbors keep pestering me for seeds 
like I used myself. And when I did get started in the Seed 
business, I never intended to make a big business of it. I just 
wanted to have a nice little hand-made, personally conducted 
wo or three months during the slack time of the year. 
course, when I once got started at the business, the business 
away with me. I didn’t propose to get left, but was deter- 
1ed to keep up my end of the game, and the result is I have 
‘own clear away from that little farm and truck garden that 
asmyideal. is af 
‘When I saw where this seed business was taking me to, I said 
that anyway, when I got to be forty years old, I was going to 
tire from business, and do the things I wanted to do. I didn’t 
Shenandoah, Iowa, March 1, 1941 
_the more I believe that the most of us are farming too much land,’ 
Doesn't Look Like: We'll Go Hungry 
Doesn’t look like we’d ever run out of something to eat, does it? And really 
there’s no reason why anybody with a little ambition and a few dollars worth, of seed 
should ever go hungry, if they’ll just put up what mother nature will grow for them. 
This was taken down in our Ozark cabin one night when Mrs. Field was bringing 
down some more jars. We have a duplicate set like this, of course, in the basement 
at Shenandoah. Mostly some of everything. Regular 57 varieties, and packed two 
feet deep on the shelf. 

No. 2 
mean that I was going to stop work, but I-was going to quit 
the responsibilities and worries of. actual ‘business life and do 
the things I have always wanted to do... 
But you know how it is, when the. time came I couldn’t go, 
and I haven’t let go yet, and it may be that I_never will.let go 
for a long time yet, unless the doctor orders: mé-te.let go and 
that is likely to be a long time ahead. 3 
But some of these times I am going to just walk out and 
tell the rest of the boys they can go ahead and run the business. 
Iam going down in the. hills on a few acres of ground and raise 
flowers and vegetables and fruit and a little patch of Alfalfa and 
a big patch of Strawberries and more flowers and go off on an 
automobile trip whenever I feel like it and just have the time 
of my life in general. Ill sit up on the porch with a pile of 
vegetables in front of me and have my picture taken and feel 
just as proud as 
a@ peacock. 
What’s the use 
of all this work 
and worry any-’ 
way? What will it 
bring you that you 
wouldn’t get any- 
way? 
And the city 
woman with her 
servants and her 
society and her big 
house and all of 
that, what has she 
got ahead of a 
woman on a nice 
little farm or acre- 
age? 
And speaking of 
cities, I really 
can’t see what any- 
body ever wants 
to live in a city 
for. Of course I 
have never really 
lived in a city, al- 
though I have vis- 
ited different cities 
several times for 
as much as three 
days at a time, but 
three days is about 
as long as I ¢an 
stand it. 
Iremember 
once I stayed in 
Chicago three days 
and if I had had to 
stay there three 
; days longer, I 
would have started out afoot if the trains hadn’t been running. 
If a lot of those poor devils in the city had a little home in 
the country, even if it were no more than the hills of the Ozarks, 
it seems to me they would be a whole lot better off. 
But most of them wouldn’t go to the country if they could. 
They’d starve—or go on relief first. And there you are again. 
Well, us people who do live in the country and the little towns 
ought to be properly thankful and make the most of our advan- 
tages. Don’t be surprised, if some of these times you hear that 
Henry Field, the seedsman, has suddenly moved on to a little 
truck patch, and that the doctors say he isn’t crazy either.—H. F, 
P. S.—The best way to start that garden is to get your order 
in early. I’m looking for it and we’re all ready for it and will 
get your stuff out to you so fast you’ll be surprised. If you can’t 
send an order, write me a letter anyway.—H. F. 
