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As usual with me at the opening of spring, the
garden received our first attention. Dick covered it heavily with manure,
cleared it up and made all ready for wife and daughter. This year we had
no seeds to purchase, having carefully laid them aside from the last. In
order to try for myself the value of liquid manuring, I mounted a barrel
on a wheelbarrow, so that it could be turned in any direction, and the
liquor be discharged through a sprinkler with the greatest convenience.
Dick attended faithfully to this department. As early as January he had
begun to sprinkle the asparagus; indeed he deluged it, putting on not less
than twenty barrels of liquor before it was forked up. It had received its
full share of rich manure in the autumn: the result of both applications
being a more luxuriant growth of this delightful vegetable than perhaps
even the Philadelphia market had ever exhibited. The shoots came up more
numerously than before, were whiter, thicker, and tenderer, and
commanded
five cents a bunch more than any other. As the bed was a large one, and
the yield great, we sold to the amount of $21. I certainly never tasted so
luscious and tender an article. Its superiority
was justly traceable, to some extent, to the liquid manure.
The same stimulant was freely administered all over
the garden, and with marked results. It was never used in dry weather, nor
when a hot sun was shining. We contrived to get it on at the beginning of
a rain, or during drizzly weather, so that it should be immediately
diluted and then carried down to the roots. I have no doubt it promoted
the growth of weeds, as there was certainly more of them to kill this
season than ever before. But we had all become reconciled to the sight of
weeds—expected them as a matter of course—and my wife and Kate became
thorough converts to Dick's heresy as to the impossibility of ever
getting rid of them. I was pained to hear of this declension from what I
regarded as the only true faith; but when I saw the terrible armies which
came up in the garden just as regularly as Dick distributed his liquor, I
confess they had abundant reason for the faith that was in them.
But the barnyard fluid was a good thing,
notwithstanding. It brought the early beets into market ten days ahead
of all competitors, thus securing the best prices. It was the same with
radishes and salad. The latter is scarcely ever to be had in small country
towns, and then only at high rates. But whether it was owing to the liquor
or not, I will not say, but it came early into market in the best
possible condition; and as there happened to be plenty of it, we sold to
the amount of $19 of the very early, and then, as prices lowered,
continued to send it to the store as long as it
commanded two cents a head, after which the cow and pigs became exclusive
customers. The fall vegetables, such as white onions, carrots and
parsnips, having had more of the liquor, did even better, for they grew to
very large size. It was the same thing with currants and gooseberries. The
whole together produced $83; to which must be added the ten peach-trees,
all which I had thinned out when the fruit was the size of hickory nuts,
and with the same success as the previous year. This was in 1857, that
time of panic, suspension, and insolvency. That year had been noted, even
from its opening, as one of great scarcity of money in the cities, when
all unlucky enough to need, it were compelled to pay the highest rates
for its use. But we in the country, being out of the ring, gave way to no
panic, felt no scarcity, experienced no insolvency. Peaches brought as
high a price as ever; as, let times in the city be black as they may,
there is always money enough in somebody's hands to exchange for all the
choice fruit that goes to market. The fruit from the ten trees produced me
$69, making the whole product of the garden $152. I thought this was not
doing well enough, and resolved to do better another year.
At the usual season for the weeds to show
themselves on the nine acres, it very soon became evident that two years'
warfare had resulted in a comparative conquest. It may be safely said that
there was not half the usual number, and so it continued throughout the
season. But no exertion was spared to keep them
under, none being allowed to go to seed. This watchfulness being continued
from that day to this, the mastery has been complete. We still have weeds,
but are no longer troubled with them as at the beginning. The secret lies
in a nutshell—let none go to seed. Nor let any cultivator be discouraged,
no matter how formidable the host he may have to attack at the beginning.
But if he will procure the proper labor-saving tools, and drive them with
a determined perseverance, success is sure.
As usual, the strawberries came first into market,
and were prepared and sent off with even more care than formerly. The
money pressure in the cities caused no reduction in price, and my net
receipts were $903. An experienced grower near me, with only four acres,
cleared $1,200 the same season. His crop was much heavier than mine. If he
had practised the same care in assorting his fruit for market, he would
have realized several hundred dollars more. But his effort was for
quantity, not quality.
A portion of the raspberries had been thoroughly
watered with the liquid manure, all through the colder spring months. It
was too great a labor, with a single wheelbarrow, to supply the whole two
acres, or it would have been similarly treated. But the portion thus
supplied was certainly three times as productive as the portion not
supplied. My whole net receipts from raspberries amounted to $267. The
plants were now well rooted, and were in prime bearing condition. Since
this, I have quadrupled my facilities for applying the liquid manure. A
large hogshead has been mounted on low wheels, the rims of which
are four inches wide, so as to prevent them sinking into the ground, the
whole being constructed to weigh as little as possible. The sprinkling
apparatus will drench one or two rows at a time, as may be desired. The
driver rides on the cart, and by raising or lowering a valve, lets on or
shuts off the flow of liquor at his pleasure. Having been
based on the raspberries for several years, I
can testify to the extraordinary value of this mode of applying manure. It
stimulates an astonishing growth of canes, increases the quantity of
fruit, while it secures the grand desideratum, a prodigious enlargement in
the size of the berries. I find by inquiry among my neighbors that none of
them get so high prices as myself. Every crop has been growing more
profitable than the preceding one; and it may be set down that an acre of
raspberries, treated and attended to as they ought to be, will realize a
net profit of $200 annually. The Lawtons were this year to come into
stronger bearing. Parties in New York and Philadelphia had agreed to take
all my crop, and guarantee me twenty-five cents a quart. One speculator
came to my house and offered $200 for the crop, before the berries were
ripe. I should have accepted the offer, thinking that was money enough to
make from one acre, had not my obligation to send the fruit to other
parties interfered with a sale. But I made out a trifle better, as the
quantity marketed amounted to 896 quarts, which netted me $206.08. In
addition to this, the sales of plants amounted to $101. As the
market price for plants was falling, I was not anxious to multiply
them to the injury of the fruit; hence many suckers were cut down outside
of the rows, so as to throw the whole energy of the roots into the
berries; and I think the result justified this course. The demand for the
fruit was so great, that I could have readily sold four times as much at
the same price. As the season for the blackberries closed, all the stray
fruit was gathered and converted into an admirable wine. Some seventy
bottles were made for home use; and when a year old, I discovered that it
was of ready sale at half a dollar per bottle. Since then we have made a
barrel of wine annually; and when old enough, all not needed for domestic
purposes is sold at $2 per gallon. It is a small item of our general
income, but quite sufficient to show that vast profit may be made by any
person going largely into the business of manufacturing blackberry-wine.
We raised
nothing of value among the blackberries this year. The growth of new wood
had been so luxuriant, that the ground between the rows was too much
shaded to permit other plants to mature. In some places, the huge canes,
throwing out branches six to seven feet long, had interlocked with each
other from row to row, and were cut away, to enable the cultivator and weeder to pass along between them, and thenceforward this acre was given
up entirely to the blackberries. As the roots wandered away for twenty or
thirty feet in search of nourishment, they acquired new power to
force up stronger and
more numerous canes. Many of these came up profusely in a direct line with
the original plants. When not standing too close together, they were
carefully preserved, when of vigorous growth; but the feeble ones were
taken up and sold. Thus, in a few years, a row which had been originally
set with plants eight feet apart became a compact hedge, and an acre
supporting full six times as many bearing canes as when first planted.
Hence the crop of fruit should increase annually. It will continue to do
so, if not more than three vigorous canes are allowed to grow in one
cluster; if the canes are cut down in July to three or four feet high; if
the branches are cut back to a foot in length; if the growth of all
suckers between the rows is thoroughly stopped by treating them the same
as weeds; if the old-bearing wood is nicely taken out at the close of
every season; and, finally, if the plants are bountifully supplied with
manure. From long experience with this admirable fruit, I lay it down as a
rule that every single condition above stated must be complied with, if
the grower expects abundant crops of the very finest fruit. Observe them,
and the result is certain; neglect them, and the reward will be inferior
fruit, to sell at inferior prices.
To the Lawtons succeeded the peaches, now their
first bearing year. We had protected them for three seasons from the fly
by keeping the butts well tarred, and they were now about to give some
return for this careful but unexpensive oversight. Some few of
them produced no fruit whatever, but the majority made a
respectable show. I went over the orchard myself, examining each tree with
the utmost care, and removed every peach of inferior size, as well as
thinning out even good ones which happened to be too much crowded
together. Being of the earlier sorts, they came into market in advance of
a glut; and though the money-pressure in the cities was now about
culminating in the memorable explosion of September, yet there was still
money enough left in the pockets of the multitude to pay good prices for
peaches. It is with fruit as it is with rum—men are never too poor to buy
both. My 804 trees produced me $208 clear of expenses, with a pretty sure
prospect of doing much better hereafter. I had learned from experience
that a shrewd grower need not be apprehensive of a glut; and that if
panics palsied, or a general insolvency desolated the cities, they still
contrived to hold as much money as before. Credit might disappear, but the
money remained; and the industrious tiller of the soil was sure to get his
full share of the general fund which survives even the worst convulsion.
My acre of tomatoes netted me this year $192, my
pork $61, my potatoes $40, and the calf $3. Thus, as my grounds became
charged with manure,—as I restored to it the waste occasioned by the crops
that were removed from it, and even more than that waste,—so my crops
increased in value. It was thus demonstrable that manuring would pay. On
the clover-field the most signal evidence of this was
apparent. After each cutting of clover had been taken to the
barnyard, the liquor-cart distributed over the newly mown sod a copious
supply of liquid manure, thus regularly restoring to the earth an
equivalent for the crop removed. It was most instructive to see how
immediately after each application the well-rooted clover shot up into
luxuriant growth. I have thus mowed it three times in a season, and can
readily believe that in the moister climate of England and Flanders as
many as six crops are annually taken from grass lands thus treated with
liquid manure. Indeed, I am inclined to believe that there is no
reasonable limit to the yield of an acre of ground which is constantly and
heavily manured, and cultivated by one who thoroughly understands his art.
Three years' experience of profit and loss is quite
sufficient for the purpose of this volume. It has satisfied me, as it
should satisfy others, that Ten Acres are Enough I give the following
recapitulation for convenience of reference:
This result may surprise many not conversant with
the profits which are constantly being realized from small farms. But
rejecting the income from the sale of plants, the pigs, and the calf, as
exceptional things, and the profit of the nine acres for the first year
will be found to be nothing per acre, for the second year, $83.50, and for
the third, $129.10. But there are obvious reasons why this should be so.
The ground was crowded to its utmost capacity with those plants only which
yielded the very highest rate of profit, and for which there was an
unfailing demand. In addition to this, it was cultivated with the most
unflagging industry and care. Besides using the contents of more than one
barnyard upon it, I literally manured it with brains. My whole mind and
energies were devoted to improving and attending to it. No city business
was ever more
industriously or
intelligently supervised than this. But if the reward was ample, it was no
greater than others all around me were annually realizing, the only
difference being that they cultivated more ground. While they diffused
their labor over twenty acres, I concentrated mine on ten. Yet, having
only half as much ground to work over, I realized as large a profit as the
average of them all. Concentrated labor and manuring thus brought the
return which is always realized from them when intelligently combined.
For six years since 1857 I have continued to
cultivate this little farm. Sometimes an unpropitious season has cut down
my profits to a low figure, but I have never lost money on the year's
business. Now and then a crop or two has utterly failed, as some seasons
are too dry, and others are too wet. But among the variety cultivated some
are sure to succeed. Only once or twice have I failed to invest a few
hundred dollars at the year's end. All other business has been studiously
avoided. I have spent considerable money in adding to the convenience of
my dwelling, and the extent of my outbuildings; among the latter is a
little shop furnished with more tools than are generally to be found upon
a farm, which save me many dollars in a year, and many errands to the
carpenter and wheelwright. The marriage of my daughter Kate called for a
genteel outfit, which she received without occasioning me any
inconvenience. I buy nothing on credit, and for more than ten years have
had no occasion to give a note. If at the year's end we are found to
owe anything at the stores, it is promptly paid. As means increased, my
family has lived more expensively though I think not any more
comfortably.
I do
not deserve more than others, but thankful that God has given me more. I
rise in the morning with an appetite for labor as keen as that for
breakfast. But others can succeed as well as myself. Capital or no
capital, the proper industry and determination will certainly be rewarded
by success.
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