Three Acres and Liberty Part 8

Seed Potatoes $10.00 Commercial Fertilizer 13.00 Spraying for blight and pests 4.00

TOTAL $27.00

250 bu. selling at the minimum price $125.00

Less the cash outlay 27.00

Income to the grower from an acre $98.00

A production of 400 bushels costs no more cash outlay per acre, while the income is big wages to the farmer.

If but one acre be grown and hand labor is used, the labor might cost an average of $40 per acre, with wages at $1.35 to $1.50 per day, and if the produce is shipped any distance by rail and consigned, it would cost $40 to $50 to pay selling charges, leaving you a profit of about $30 per acre on this crop. Other crops in the rotation might not be so profitable, hence it is not fair to figure an income on one. But, of course, in the above estimate, we are considering mainly the cases where the gardener does the work and earns the wages himself.

An acre will bear if devoted to each crop, of:

Blackberries, 10,000 qt., which at 7 cent a qt., would bring $700.00 Dewberries, 9,000 qt., say at 7 cent a qt. 630.00 Gooseberries, 250 bu. at $2.00 a bu. 500.00 Strawberries, 8,000 qt. at 5 cent a qt. 400.00 Currants, 3000 plants yield 6000 bu. 200.00 Raspberries, per acre 200.00 to 600.00 Peaches, per acre 200.00 to 400.00 Pears, per acre 200.00 to 500.00 Apples, per acre 100.00 to 500.00 Grapes 100.00

Five, or even three acres will give a good living if this can be approximated:

An acre will produce in vegetables--either

Asparagus, 3000 bunches at 20 cent a bunch, would be $600.00 Cauliflower, 100 to 300 bbl. at $1.50, say 450.00 Onions, 600 bu. at 75 cent per bu. 450.00 Cabbage Seed, 1000 lb., at 40 cent a lb. 400.00 Brussels sprouts, 3000 qt. at 10 cent a qt. 300.00 Celery, 600 bunches at 5 cent a bunch 300.00 Parsnips, 300 bu. at 1.00 a bu. 300.00 Lettuce, 9000 heads at 3 cent a head 270.00 Lima Beans, 50 bu. at $5.00 a bu. 250.00

We may hope to get from an acre, respectively in

Potatoes, 300 bu. at 75 cent a bu, would be $225.00 Cabbages, 20 tons at $10.00 a ton 200.00 Carrots and Beets, 200 to 400 bu 150.00 Tomatoes, 200 crates at 75 cent a crate 150.00 Early Peas, 50 bu. at $2000 a bu. 100.00 Turnips, 400 bu. at 25 cent a bu 100.00 Spinach, 100 bbl. at 50 cent a bbl. 50.00

Mr. D. L. Hartman, whose experience in the North is given on a later page, has since moved to Little River, Florida. He writes in 1917:

"I have recently sold the last strawberries of a small plot. Owing to a combination of circ.u.mstances it produced, I think, the largest value per area of any crop I have ever cultivated. The main factors were high prices realized and heavy yield.

Area of plot, a trifle over one fifth acre. Total yield, 2295 quarts, total receipts, $ 4703.80.

First berries picked January 2nd; last berries picked June 26th; Variety, Brandywine.

"This shows a yield of 11,107 quarts per acre worth at the same rate, $3398.00.

"The fruit was all sold to stores in Miami (five miles distant) and brought an average you notice of 30-2/3 cents per quart for the crop, the highest bringing fifty cents per quart. The average price during the ordinary seasons is about twenty cents per quart. My ordinary average yield is less than half of this yield or about 5000 quarts per acre, and that is much above the average of most yields of other growers. The crop was started with northern plants, set just as for matted rows in the North, then early in November plants were dug up and set out in order in rows 12 inches apart and 8-1/2 inches apart in the row, leaving every fifth row vacant for paths.

It is super close culture; one plant per square foot for the total area or a little more.

"I often think that if I were operating in the North again I would like to try strawberries the same way, except that I would do the transplanting September 1st instead of November 1st as here, since I would expect them to grow larger and of course I would plan to mulch them during the winter. It would take a lot of planting but I think it would insure a tremendous yield. I find that the digging and planting including watering of 1500 plants makes ten hours' work with elimination of all waste motion."

You will not get as good results as Mr. Hartman's average, unless you learn as much as he has learned; he has succeeded by well-directed work in different places and circ.u.mstances.

The South and West are not the only places in the United States where a man can live on one acre of ground, by intensive culture and with irrigation. The Eastern and Middle States can present just as good, if not better, opportunities, especially where land in small tracts is available near the large cities.

_The Farmers' Advocate_ (Topeka, Kansas) says of lands which ten years ago were among the much advertised "abandoned farms" of the eastern states: "All over the eastern states where farming twenty years ago was p.r.o.nounced a failure under Western compet.i.tion there has sprung up this intensive cultivation. Violets are grown in one place and tuberoses by the acre in another. Celery is making one man's large profit near Williamsburg. Special fruits are cultivated.

Currants are grown by the ton and sold by the pound, yielding a profit. This is in progress over the entire range of farming."

At Hyde Park, a little village three miles north of Reading, Pa., there is a small farm owned by Oliver R. Shearer, who may be said to be one of the most successful farmers in the United States. This farm contains 3-1/2 acres, only 2-1/2 of which are cultivated, but they yield the owner annually from $1200 to $1500. From the profits of his intensive farming, Mr. Shearer has paid $3800 for his property, which, besides the land, consists of a modern two-story brick house, with barn, chicken-yard, and orchard, the whole surrounded by a neat fence. He has also raised and educated a family of three children.

There are no secrets, Mr. Shearer says, about his method of farming.

A study of conditions, the application of common-sense methods and untiring energy, he a.s.serts, will enable others to do what he has done, but that most men would kill themselves with the work.

In an agricultural exchange a small farmer tells that he makes a living and saves some money from a ten-acre farm. Before he was through paying for his land, which cost $100 an acre, building his house, fences, and outbuildings, he went in debt $1300, having about the same amount to start with. He is near a good market, and in five years has paid off the debt, and has been getting ahead ever since.

He raises poultry and small fruits, and says that it is a good combination, as most of the work with poultry comes in winter, while he can do nothing out of doors. He maintains that a ten-acre farm rightly managed will bring a good living, including the comforts and some of the luxuries of life, and says: "This I have fully demonstrated, and what I have done others may do."

_Maxwell's Talisman_ says:

"E. J. O'Brien of Citronelle, Alabama, received $170 clear from an acre of cuc.u.mbers shipped to the St. Louis market. He was two weeks late in getting them on the market. He says those two weeks would have meant nearly double the net returns. He does not consider this an extraordinary return and hopes to do better next year."

"Professor Thomas Shaw writes of a plot of ordinary ground in Minnesota comprising the nineteenth part of an acre, which for years kept a family of six matured persons abundantly supplied with vegetables all the year, with the exception of potatoes, celery, and cabbage. In addition, much was given away, more especially of the early varieties, and in many instances much was thrown away."

"In the market-gardens of Florida we see such crops as 445 to 600 bushels of onions per acre, 400 bushels of tomatoes, 700 bushels of sweet potatoes; which testify to a high development of culture."

We select from Bailey's "Principles of Vegetable Gardening" the following general estimates:

_Beets--_Average crop is 300-400 bushels per acre.

_Carrots--_Good crop is 200-300 bushels per acre.

_Cabbage--_8000 heads per acre.

_Potatoes--_The yield of potatoes averages about 75 bushels per acre, but with forethought and good tillage and some fertilizer the yield should run from 200 to 300 bushels, and occasionally yields will much exceed the latter figure.

_Rhubarb--_From 2 to 5 stalks are tied in a bunch for market, and an acre should produce 3000 dozen bunches.

_Salsify--_Good crop 200-300 bushels per acre.

_Onions--_A good crop of onions is 300-400 bushels to the acre, but 600-800 are secured under the very best conditions.

The price per ton for horseradish varies from ten to fifty dollars, and from two to four tons should be raised on an acre, the latter quant.i.ty when the ground is deep and rich and when the plants do not suffer for moisture.

Averages are very misleading and it would be better to pay little attention to them. They are like the average wealth possessed by a cla.s.s of twenty schoolchildren. The schoolmaster who had $20 asked what was the average wealth of each, if the total wealth of the cla.s.s was $20. The brightest boy answered, "One dollar." The schoolmaster asked Tommy at the foot of the cla.s.s if he did not think they would be a prosperous cla.s.s. He answered, "It depends on who has the 'twenty.'"

But, all the more, good averages imply some wonderful yields. The following are actual averages in the United States Twelfth and Thirteenth Census Report, respectively.

Flowers and plants, $2014 and $1911; nursery products, $170 and $261; sugar cane, $87 (4 tons per acre) and $5540; small fruits, $81 and $110; hops, $72 (885 lb. per acre) and $175; sweet potatoes, $37 (79 but per acre) and $55; hemp, $34 (794 lb. per acre) and $54; potatoes, $33 (96 bu. per acre) and $45; sugar beets, $30 (7 tons per acre) and $54; sorghum cane, $21 (1 ton per acre) and $23; cotton, $15 (4-10 bale per acre) and $25.70 flaxseed, $9 (9 bu. per acre) and $14; cereals, $8 and $11.40.

Specialties, however, often do much better. For example, R. B.

Handy, in Farmers' Bulletin No. 60, United States Department of Agriculture, tells us that a prominent and successful New Jersey grower says:

"I cannot give the cost in detail of establishing asparagus beds, as so much would depend upon whether one had to buy the roots, and upon other matters. Where growers usually grow roots for their own planting the cost is princ.i.p.ally the labor, manure, and the use of land for two years upon which, however, a half crop can be had.

"The cost of maintaining a bed can only be estimated per acre as follows:

Manure (applied in the spring) $25.00 Labor, plowing, cultivating, hoeing, etc 20.00 Cutting and bunching 40.00 Fertilizer (applied after cutting) 15.00