1 Ocr., 1899,} QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 335 
not a blade of grass to be seen anywhere. Now it is practically flowing with 
milk and honey. It is a second Canaan, and I have never regretted taking it 
up. It has turned out a real success. The reason people fail at small 
farming is that they know nothing about the business. They start with the 
belief that any ignoramus can work a farm, and by-and-by they find out that 
they required a knowledge of the work to enable them to suceced. I think I 
have opened the eyes of the croakers, and now several good men are following 
_ my lead.” 
Professor Thomas Shaw, of Minnesota, gives in the Rural New Yorker 
some figures in connection with small farming, or rather market gardening, 
Which will surprise those who have never tried to discover what an amazing 
amount of produce a small patch of good soil can be made to produce under 
good management. 
He says :—“T have tilled a little piece of land with spade and hoe for the 
past four years, and the produce obtained from it every year is simply extraordinary. 
he garden covers but the nineteenth part of an acre, and the following is the 
record of the production from it in 1897 :— 
Onions, used green 
>» matured 
Radishes ... 
aD ae a ». 854 plants 
ses ee es toe 52 quarts 
... 2,126 plants 
eee eee see eee 
Spinach .., at ae oo ak nod EPL oy, 
Cucumbers, used erech... ost ons ... 9565 fruits 
Lettuce x: ses x5 aa -. 585 plants 
Summer Savory ... 0) nop aK: ce ~ PAM ap 
Sage ry dod hes fa) mee x0 Ch thes 
Parsley ... is ae ay) tea xO SO Rea 
Peppergrass ox) 030 on 10 200 56 
Corn, used green rer 043) x0 ».  L9l ears 
Cabbages... 35 Bs an cs? a0 65 heads 
Cauliflowers = 5 Ach an ox) 16 
Potatoes ... 
Tomatoes, used on table ys 60 fruits 
i harvested co ox 1230 3 pecks 
Vegetable oyster Ms i sr ae Ay mes 
Hall turnips an e a zy, nts Gy 
Pumpkins a0 on: a of: Jes 25 fruits 
Citrons in 3 Neg us ae Dees 
Squashes ... fe ie Me an + Dor 
Beans, used green ed ste a 4 quarts 
-. ipe and shelled .., xf ry: Be | 
Beets, used while growing of 50 00) 78 plants 
» harvested bez! te on ati 4 pecks 
Carrots, used while growing... ie ... 102 plants 
5 harvested ae are ee 6 pecks 
Peas in the pod, used green xt * 64. quarts 
“The soil, when broken inthe autumn of 1893, was poor and raw. ‘The 
subsoil was sandy in texture, yet it had enough clay in it to make it very hard 
in dry weather. The surface soil was made land, and consisted of the ordinary 
mould of the prairie. It was so shallow that on much of the plot the spade 
struck the stony, hard subsoil at about half its depth. The subsoil had been 
laced there when the cellar was dug. ‘The only manure used was what may 
€ called the equivalent of one load of farmyard manure when somewhat reduced 
by fermentation.. This manure came from’ the horse stable, and in the fresh 
orm was used for banking the cellar in winter. ‘Then it was taken each spring 
to the rear of the lot and shaped into a sort of compost heap, which receives 
the waste from the house, and in the autumn was spread over the land and 
buried when the garden was dug. No water was used in summer other than 
what fell from the clouds, except on rare occasions a little was applied by hand 
to newly set or struggling plants.” 
