A Living from the Land Part 1

A Living from the Land.

by William B. Duryee.

PREFACE

Homesteading days are here again. The present movement of people back to the land is of a different type and has different objectives from those which prevailed when a continent was to be conquered and exploited. Today we know that many urban industries will operate on a seasonal basis and we know too that periods of unemployment and shorter working days will provide more leisure and probably lower incomes for hundreds of thousands of families. The utilization of this leisure time to supplement incomes, to raise the standards of living and of health, and to attain some measure of economic security will tend more and more to settlement on the land.

In these days of rapid transportation and all the attributes and conveniences of modern country life, the hardships of the earlier period of land development are non-existent. Although urban industrial development has reached a point which will not be exceeded for many years to come, the individual who needs additional income may adjust himself to such circ.u.mstances by establishing a country homestead. Industrial activity is tending to decentralize, largely as the result of widespread power distribution, and a home in the country accessible to some form of manufacturing or business employment offers undeniable attractions.

This book is prepared primarily for the family that is inexperienced in country living and in soil culture. Such a family should know about the nature of the soil on which it lives, how to make it serve the family's needs and purposes, what to do, and what to avoid in order that success may be attained and failure averted. Students of agriculture as a vocation and practical farmers may find, beyond the elementary facts presented, information of value and help to them. To know and to understand the science and practice of agriculture is to have power to cope with and to enjoy soil culture and animal husbandry. If this little volume helps to answer clearly and definitely the many inquiries that are in the minds of prospective and active homesteaders, it will have served its purpose.

The knowledge of many practical people and the resources of agricultural inst.i.tutions and agencies have been drawn upon for this book. Grateful acknowledgment is made to those who have contributed constructive criticism and have helped in the preparation of material. Especial credit is due to the personnel of the New Jersey and New York colleges of agriculture and to my a.s.sociates in the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

WILLIAM B. DURYEE.

TRENTON, N. J.,

_December, 1933_.

_Chapter_ I

TURNING FROM THE CITY TO THE COUNTRY

America was founded on the rock base of agriculture. The early settlers tilled the soil and derived from it the simple things that they needed.

Necessity compelled them to be self-reliant, courageous and resourceful.

The establishment of a home in early days meant the clearing of land, the erection of a house for human habitation and the building of shelters for a few farm animals. Each farm home became practically self-sufficient so far as the family needs were concerned. Clothing was made there for each member of the family. After clearing and subduing the land, the settlers were able to produce their cereal foods. Animals were slaughtered and the meat processed to provide sustenance throughout the year. Through the exchange of commodities and ideas with neighbors, advances in living conditions were made.

The family that was not resourceful in those days failed to survive.

Neighbors were too busy working out their own existence problems to succor the incompetent. Resourcefulness was called upon in meeting onslaughts of beasts or human marauders. Thus there was built up a tradition of seeking and utilizing resources that has gone on to make our country great and the wonder of the rest of the world.

Since pioneer days we have built a great industrial, commercial and financial machine. American inventive genius, coupled with the best brains of the civilized world, attracted by resources and opportunities on every hand, has invaded every field and created a great industrial superstructure.

With the genesis and development of a great industrial era in the United States there started a movement of population from farms to established centers of population. The application of the sciences to the problems of filling human wants gave this movement greater impetus. Mining and the refining of metal ores, the exploiting of coal deposits, the building of railroads, the construction of buildings for business and residential purposes, as well as dozens of other great enterprises, served to draw from the country the best of its human resources.

Inventive genius began to concentrate on the solution of engineering and construction problems created by congestion of population and successive steps in industrialization. This same technical genius was applied also to farm operations which required laborious effort by men and work animals.

That this development itself progressed rapidly is demonstrated by the fact that while in 1810 the effort of nearly every person was required to produce enough food to sustain the population, in 1910 the efforts of one-third of the people were sufficient to provide food for the nation and export vast quant.i.ties to other countries.

While the nation continued to grow rapidly in population and sought to apply to ordinary practices the newer labor-saving devices, all was well.

It was inevitable, however, that the great industrial machine should become over-developed, at least temporarily. Instead of machinery being a servant of mankind it became an octopus that could not be checked.

Individual initiative, the wellspring of earlier developments in the process, became atrophied. There came about such a high degree of specialization in human effort as to make men dependent upon others for work to do. Consequently, even a slight throwing out of gear of the machine created unemployment, which reduced buying power for the machine-made products and started a vicious downward spiral accompanied by every form of economic distress.

When such partial or complete breakdown of the superstructure occurs, thoughtful people are brought "down to earth," both collectively and very intimately in thousands of individual cases. They begin to get back to fundamentals and to seek means of becoming so reestablished as to avoid future cataclysms. The family attracted to the city by the lure of high industrial wages and by crowded avenues finds in such a breakdown that it has lost its moorings.

In seeking means of reestablishment free of the terrifying complications of industrial life, the mind turns to the country, to the soil, to growing things that are not visibly affected by economic cycles. The open country seems ready to welcome back her errant children graciously and to enfold them within her protecting bosom. We cannot go back, however, to pioneer days. Free land is not available and we have not the arts or the patience to practice the means of livelihood of those days. To make the new or renewed relationship with the soil a success, it is necessary to understand that country life, too, has changed during industrial revolutions. Mother Earth is now, as ever, a generous but exacting parent.

To try to reestablish relationships in a blind and haphazard manner is likely to lead to further disaster. Such a debacle is quite needless, provided some fundamental principles and practices are understood and followed.

Unquestionably, the open country is now making the greatest appeal as a place of residence that it has made at any time in the history of the nation. To list the conveniences which now exist in the country is to duplicate those which many people have considered as available only in cities. In most areas of the country, for example, there are daily mail delivery, telephone service, some measure of fire protection, and transportation by automobile, bus or train. It is quite possible, for example, to step into a bus at one's dooryard and be carried to any part of the United States by the same method of transportation.

The development of the radio has brought to the country home all the surging activities of national life and varied educational and entertainment programs. The spread of electric light and power lines through the country const.i.tutes a boon that makes possible the use of all kinds of electrical appliances known in the city, including refrigerators, cooking ranges, washing machines, water pumps, water heaters and hundreds of other machines and appliances, some of which are in their infancy. No great difficulty is experienced in locating in the open country where such electrical facilities are available.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (_Courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture_)

An attractive farmstead offering requisites of a home in the open country.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: (_Courtesy U. S. Department of Agriculture_)

Floor plan of house shown on opposite page.]

On the main highways in the northern sections of the country a heavy fall of snow used to mean isolation for weeks. Today the snow is removed as rapidly as it falls, and these highways are kept open. The problems and perils of isolation are thus removed.

Tradesmen of all kinds are directing their sales toward country homes, and supplies of ice and all kinds of food can be obtained almost daily at the farm doorstep. There is also a tendency to develop factories in the country away from the high-rent areas of cities and to utilize the services of persons living in the vicinity of the factory for full or partial time in the plants. The cost of living can be reduced by living in the country, and opportunities for purchasing foods and other products at wholesale prices and storing them against the time of need make further economies possible.

The greatest a.s.set that the country has to offer relates to the health and character of those who live close to nature. It has long been recognized by many European countries that the ownership of even a small tract of land, no larger than a city lot, perhaps, is a definite a.s.set in building a nation and in building individual character. In Germany, in Denmark and in many other nations, the government lends its aid toward the establishment of people in the country and makes it possible for them to acquire and retain small holdings of land which they may call "home." It is on these small tracts that one sees veritable bowers of pastoral industry and beauty.

Residence in the open country, in contact with the soil, contributes to physical strength and to mental health. When a man lives in the country, his house, his way of living and his contribution to the community stand out where all may see them. These latter a.s.sets have always been inherent in country life. When to these are added the conveniences and the opportunities for community enjoyment that are now a part of rural life, its appeal is not difficult to understand.

Anyone who intends to live in the country has his individual problems to meet and to solve. In the solution of these problems there are many resources and avenues to which he may turn in the present day for help and for guidance. The tragic mistakes that have been made in the past can and should be largely eliminated in the future. A clearer understanding should be gained as to what one may obtain in the country in the form of a better way of living, serving as an anchor to the windward even under favorable economic conditions.

_Chapter_ II

GETTING ESTABLISHED IN THE COUNTRY

In the selection of a residence in the country, the settler must decide whether he wishes to locate on a farm of considerable acreage or whether he wants to have a relatively small tract ranging from 2 to 15 acres. In the latter case, he is thinking primarily of a place of residence with sufficient acreage to make it possible to secure a partial living from the land immediately surrounding the home. The trend in such purchases is toward the smaller place for a number of reasons.

A large farm acquired by a relatively inexperienced person means a very considerable burden in the development and maintenance of the land itself on a producing basis. Capital is required for the purchase of equipment and power. Parts of the land may need to be drained, and taxes must be paid whether the land is productive or not. A person acquiring a farm of 50 or more acres will find that the major portion of his time, thought and capital will be called upon to make it a success. If he has definitely cut off his city connections and the idea of having a job there, and has had experience in farming, then he may be in a position to take over a large acreage so that his full time and possibly that of other members of his family can be spent on various projects on the land he acquires.

We are here primarily concerned, not with those who desire to enter upon farming on a large scale, but with the family which would like to live in the country, secure a partial living from the land surrounding the home and still have the opportunity of gaining a livelihood from some industrial or commercial activity located in a near-by city or town. It is quite likely that we shall have a shorter working week and probably periods of unemployment for hundreds of thousands of ambitious people.

Therefore, a place in the country that is well located with respect to hard-surfaced highways and accessible to urban centers offers opportunities for combining the advantages and economic a.s.sets of country life with urban employment.

_Getting Started Right._--Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon getting the right start, particularly with respect to location. This is not only essential for the satisfaction of the present occupant of the premises, but also gives definite sales value in case circ.u.mstances make a change of location desirable or necessary.

It will often appear that the best location is on the outskirts of a city or town and from some angles this is good reasoning. There are some factors, however, that make such a location undesirable. For one thing, the tax rate is likely to be higher in such areas than in the open country, thus adding to overhead without compensating advantages. In the second place, urban centers develop without regard to soil type and this is an essential factor to the family that expects to engage in some agricultural pursuit. Again, the type of inhabitants that live on the fringe of towns and cities may not make good neighbors or a.s.sociates for children, especially. None of these disadvantages may be present in locations close to centers of population, but the prospective settler should give all these factors full consideration. The sales argument frequently advanced that such locations will grow in value due to growth of population may be fallacious.

Many have found that the higher costs of living in these areas often prevent the owner from holding on until the slow growth of population outward makes a worth-while profit possible from his real estate.