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= | HENRY FIELD’S 
ED SEN 
“FOR THE MAN BEHIND THE HOE”’ 
Published by Henry Field in the Print Shop 
Vol. XXXII 


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- You’re going to hear a lot the next few 
= 1g years about th 
_ high cost of living. A lot of folks will be crying and Higans 
ing about it, and claiming that they can’t live on account 
exert; andall that. +. | | 
what you can count on as a fair yield ~ 
on only 1/100 part of an acre (about - 
SATE 26st Je Soo a ER 
- Potatoes—200 Ibs. Onto 
- -bage, Turnips, Sweet Potatoes about — 
~ the same—200 lbs. each. Radishes— 
200 doz. Strawberries—100 qts. Sweet 
ate. 
fruit and tree fruit too. 
as fruit is to raise, you 
. ae cee 
425 "11 admit that food prices are high in the stores and wil 
likely be higher yet, but that need not worry you a bit, fxs 
_ you can grow more food even in just a back yard garden, 
than two families could eat. Anyway we do, and we’re no 
smarter than you are. And it’s better _ hee 
food than you could possibly buy, too. 
All it takes is a few dollars worth 
of garden seeds and plants, a little 
good dirt, and a “will to work.” S 
If you want to get the real low- «+ 7 
down on it, go up town and price the | 
garden stuff and the fruit and the S 
canned goods in the stores, and then 
figure how much of it you could raise 
even in a small garden. Here’s about 
2 Onions, Cab- — 
Corn—200 ears. Green Peas, Green. 
Beans, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, or 
Muskmelons—about 5 bushels each. 
I have doubled all these yields in my 
own garden. Now figure up any of 
- them at the prices you would have to 
pay and see what it would come to. 
You'll be dizzy, but it’s the truth. 
T have been talking about just grow- 
ing plenty for yourself, but there 
would be mighty good money in sell- 
ing the surplus over what you need. 
Tt’s going to take a long time to get 
over this war spree, but the sooner 
we get down to bedrock and start 
growing our own food instead of wait- 
ing for some one to feed us, the bet- 
‘ter off we will all be. 
And don’t forget the fruit. It’s not - 
fair to raise a family without fruit, 
or with just.a as now ane then 
he store as a luxury. AS easy : 
from. the’® ape teehave _ Fillbasket. 
plenty of it—have it on the table every meal. We always 
do at our house. And we love Sit. é 
If you own your own home—and you should by all means 
—you should set fruit in every spare bit of ground. Small 
It grows as easy as weeds or grass 
‘and eats lots better, and eosts very little to set. A couple 
‘of rows of strawberries only 50 ft. long should make you 
‘100 quarts of delicious fruit. Raspberries or Blackberries 
almost as much, And grapes and Boysenberries and all 
practice what I 
hungry. Mrs. 
Shenandoah, Iowa, March, 1946 
AA 2 C) @ 
The High Cost of Living’’ 

IF I CAN DO IT—SO CAN YOU 
This is the way my own private garden 
looks at my Ozark cabin, 
preach and don’t aim to go 
Field canned a lot of these 
and we put a lot in the freeze box besides. 
Look good don’t they? And they look good 
on the table too—an 
No “store bought” stuff for us. 
P. S.—Those Peas behind me are our 
d taste still better. 
No. 2 

the rest. A few trees of Apples and Plums and Cherries 
and Peaches and Pears wil give you worlds of delicious 
fruit the year around. And do it year after year. 
And the plants and trees for all the things I have named 
would cost you less than what you spend in just one sea- 
son for a few little skimpy dabs of shipped in stuff. 
And you could grow it all on one fair sized town lot, or 
a good sized farm garden. Doesn’t it look like a good bet? 
And even if you are only a one year renter, you can grow 
_...,  Everbearing Strawberries, plenty of 
them, and get fruit the first year. 
And of course, have some chickens 
—but keep them out of the garden. 
And tame rabbits are not a bad idea. 
They’re good eating and easy to raise. 
I don’t claim to know how these 
terrible times are all coming out, but 
T do know that the family that has its 
own garden of vegetables and fruit 
and chickens with plenty to eat and 
put away for the winter, and a little 
extra to sell to the other fellow, will — 
be sitting on top of the pile. And if — 
they own their own home and have it 
paid for, I don’t see how anything 
that may happen can hurt them. 
Yes, I suppose I’m old fashioned, 
but it’s going to take a few old fash- 
jioned ideas to get this old world of — 
ours to running true on its course 
again after all we’ve been through. 
Well, I guess I’ve lectured you 
enough for one time, and I'll promise 
to let up on you for awhile now, if 
you'll try to do a little better. 
There’s liable to be a lot of folks go 
hungry one of these days, and I don’t 
aim for it to be me—or you, if I can 
help it. Henry Field 
P.S. We are working away hard as 
ever, trying to take care of you all on 
seeds and plants and chickens and 
seed corn and all the rest of the 
things we try to keep you supplied 
with. Thank goodness our young peo- 
ple are all coming back from the war 
safe and sound and will soon be on 
the job helping us‘ again. 
y It soon will be garden making time, 
and I will be able to get away from my desk and get out 
digging in the dirt again. I haven’t missed a spring in 
almost 70 years making garden and setting strawberries 
and peaches and roses and pansies and I sure don’t aim 
to quit now. 
Write and tell me how your garden did last year, and 
what you liked best and what failed—if any—and so on. 
And don’t let you or your family go hungry for lack of 
You can see I 
H. F. 
-garden and fruit. “And don’t forget the flowers either. 
Copyright, 1946, Henry Field Seed & Nursery Co. 
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