MONEY IN THE SOIL.
Relation between Soils and Skulls--The Secrets of Successful
Farming--Why go to Alaska when there are Gold Mines at the
Home--Jute, a Keyword to Fortune--A Million Dollars in this
Suggestion--What Ignorance Costs the American Farmer--A Rival of
King Cotton--Doubling One’s Money in Fowls--How to get a Big Apple
Crop every Year--$6,000 a Year to go to South America--Or, If you
want to Go West, Uncle Sam will give you a Slice of Land--Onions
the “Open Sesame” to Fortune--Breaking Records with
Potatoes--Yankees and Hickory Nuts--How “Plunger” Walton made a
Fortune in Two Years--The Great Elmendorf Stock-Farm.
We often hear it said that there is no money in farming. On the other
hand, there are few occupations in which there is so much money, if the
work is carried on in the right way. The trouble is that people often
think it takes little intellect to be a farmer. The truth is just the
reverse. To get returns out of the soil there must be brains in the
skull. We know a farmer on Long Island with less than sixty acres of
land who has acquired a fortune in fifteen years of close application to
the problems of the farm. He has found the secret of knowing how to make
Nature give down her milk. Every foot of land is under cultivation, and
although he employs often as many as two score of men, he gives every
part of the work his personal inspection. Further than this, his three
secrets of success, he tells us, are, What, When and Where--What to
plant, When to plant, and Where to market.
Do you know it is a fact that $500,000,000 more was received from the
sale of crops this year than last? What do you think of that, you
Klondikers who suffer hardships in the Alaskan mountains for the sake of
a little gold which, after all, you will probably never get? If the gold
output of the newly discovered regions of the far North reaches this
year $10,000,000--a most liberal estimate, and probably two or three
times the actual yield--remember that the soil right here at home, with
one-half the labor and none of the risk of life, has yielded fifty times
that amount. And this is not the actual yield, but only the surplus over
and above what the fields gave the year before. Five hundred millions of
gold more than last year dug out of the soil--think of it! In the
following examples we only give the byways of farming--that is, what can
be done, by the cultivation of a single product, and not what may be
accomplished in the regular way. Of course, much more can be made by the
raising of several staples, and by a systematic rotation of crops.
711. SUBSTITUTE FOR SILK.--Send to the Department of Agriculture for
jute seed. Jute will take dye as a sponge takes water, and it has a
gloss which makes it capable of being used in combination with silk so
as to defy detection. Remember that when a thing can be made to look
like some other thing at one-twentieth the cost, it opens the way for
mines of wealth. A word to the wise is sufficient. Jute needs a warm
climate, and you must go to the Southern States.
712. WASHINGTON PIPPINS.--They are known as Newtown Pippins, but let us
give you a secret. The soil of the State of Washington is so adapted to
this apple that you can raise from one-fourth to one-half greater crops
than in any other State. Apple raisers, remember this.
713. DORSETS AND DOWNS.--Fancy breeds of sheep! Two hundred million
dollars worth of wool from these breeds were imported last year. That
was what we paid for a name, and for our ignorance in not knowing that
we can raise just as good sheep here. Reader, if you want a share of
this $200,000,000, study a good book about sheep farming, purchase a few
of these two famous breeds, and put the wool on the market as the
genuine Dorset; for so it is. The place counts for not one atom--only
the breed.
714. AMERICAN CHEESE.--Here again we are foolishly playing into the
hands of foreigners, paying $1,500,000 every year for that which can be
produced equally as good and cheap at home. Everybody should know that
there is no better spot on the globe for the kind of pasture that makes
delicious cheese than Delaware County in the State of New York. We pay
these millions to foreigners because we do not produce enough at home;
but here, within two or three hours freightage of the metropolis of the
Western World, we have the best cheese-producing country on earth.
715. BUSINESS APPLES.--We call them Business Apples because they will
mean a good business for you if you are wise enough to undertake their
culture. Go to Missouri and try the Ben Davis variety. The soil of that
State is the best for that kind of apple. A man there set out two
hundred trees, and last year sold $450 worth of Ben Davis apples. At the
same rate, one thousand trees, covering about five acres, should bring
you $2,500.
716. FORTUNES IN POPPIES.--Here is another new idea. France has caught
upon it; why may not the farmer of this country? Five hundred thousand
pounds of opium are sold every year in our drug stores, but it has been
thought that the drug could only be raised in the East. This is a
mistake. The French farmers sold 5,000,000 francs worth last year. It
yields a net profit of $25 an acre and requires little culture. It may
yet become a rival of King Cotton in our Southern States, but those who
are wide-awake enough to be the first in the field will reap the lion’s
share of this new bidder for our enterprise.
717. THE CAPON FARM.--One hundred per cent. capons! This is the actual
experience of a raiser. He operated on forty, sent them to market and
realized $39.24. He estimates the cost of keeping at less than fifty
cents each. There are few investments in which the gross proceeds are
double the cost. In addition, the raising of capons may be carried on
with the ordinary poultry farm.
718. BARRELS OF BALDWINS.--The home of this market favorite is Northern
New York and Northern New England. It is a hardy tree. Apple trees
commonly bear only every second year, and often cease to bear
altogether. The secret of success is to stir the soil and add a little
fertilizer. Good Baldwins, commanding from $2.50 to $3.50 per barrel,
may be raised every year with the certainty of clockwork, if the owner
only exercises proper diligence and care.
719. RARE RODENTS.--Money in rats and mice! In killing them? No, in
raising them. At the pet-stock department and appendage of the poultry
show in New York recently, rats and mice, white or finely marked,
brought all the way from $1 to $12, according to the fineness of the
colors. It will be a revelation to most farmers that there is money in
creatures which they have hitherto regarded as pests to be put out of
the way.
720. MORTGAGE-LIFTER OATS.--So-called because a man developed a
particular variety, and with the sales, advertised as fancy seed and
bringing more than double the ordinary kind, lifted a crushing mortgage
from his farm. You can develop a variety as well as he. Give it a taking
name, and advertise freely.
721. RECORD-BREAKING DATES.--A date plantation of five hundred or six
hundred acres, and capable of holding thirty thousand trees, can be
bought for $500. The fifth year after planting the trees should bear
sixty thousand pounds of dates, worth at least $6,000. Pretty good
return for $500! Dates are raised chiefly in South America.
722. DOLLAR WHEAT.--Western farmers have contended that if they could
command $1 a bushel for wheat they could get rich. This year their hopes
have been realized. If it is, as many believe, the beginning of better
times for the wheat-raiser, and the cereal can be kept at that price,
you have but to follow the advice of Horace Greeley, and “Go West” to
become a rich man. The government will give you the land, and industry
and economy will do the rest.
723. LEAF TOBACCO.--Where tobacco can be raised, farmers have abandoned
nearly every other crop. It needs a rich, warm soil, and some experience
in order to insure success; but if you “once learn the trade,” you will
hardly try to raise anything else. North of Virginia, it must be raised
it the “bottom-lands” of the rivers. Price, $8 to $10 per one hundred
pounds.
724. TREE NURSERY.--The expense of a tree nursery is almost nothing
beyond the first investment. Small trees before transplanting may be set
one foot apart, and hence an acre will hold about forty-four thousand.
At nine cents apiece--the average price--this means $3,960. Deduct for
labor and expressage. The success of the tree merchant depends almost
solely on his finding a market.
725. ROUND NUMBER ONIONS.--The round number of one thousand bushels to
the acre has been done, and can be done under favorable circumstances.
In a certain district in Fairfield County, Conn., nearly all the men are
well-to-do farmers. Ask them the secret of their success and the one
reply will be “onions.” Here, surely, even in rocky Connecticut, farming
pays. They get from seventy-five cents to $1.25 per bushel. The crop is
not always a safe one, dependent upon weather conditions; but, taken one
year with another, the farmers do well, and steadily add to their bank
account.
726. POTATO PROFITS.--Let us see what can be done with potatoes. In a
prize contest recently the average per acre was 465 bushels. The highest
was 975 bushels. The price per bushel was from sixty to sixty-six cents.
The next profit was on the average $260 per acre and in case of the
highest was about $500. Of course this is vastly above what is
accomplished by the ordinary farmer, but it shows what can be done with
good soil, liberal dressing, prolific variety, and thorough tillage.
727. GOLDEN GEESE.--Here is one man’s experience: “I bought a gander and
three geese. From the geese I received yearly forty eggs each in two
litters, or a total of 120. I find that from this number of eggs I can
safely count on seventy-five per cent of matured chicks, or ninety
goslings. The weight when fatted is 855 pounds, and at twenty cents a
pound I receive $171. Cost of keeping is $46. Profits, $125. Of course,
the sum varies one year from another, but this is my average for five
years.” At the same rate the goslings from 100 geese would pay a net
profit of $4,125, but if they paid only one-quarter that sum it would
still be a profitable investment.
728. CALIFORNIA PRUNES.--This great state has now 85,000 acres planted
with prunes, and produced last year 65,000,000 pounds. The crop has
grown from nothing to this enormous amount in the last few years. People
do not rush into an enterprise in this way unless they are pretty sure
it is a good thing. The “good thing” in this case is that prunes costing
one and one half cents per pound to raise sell for six and seven cents,
and the prune raisers are all getting rich.
729. A BEE FARM.--Here is another California bonanza. Says a man in the
southern part of the State: “Last year I marketed ten tons of extracted
honey, and three tons of comb honey, all from 154 colonies. I received
on an average ten cents per pound, or a total of $3,600. The space
employed was 1,386 feet, or somewhat less than an acre.”
730. THE APPLE ACRE.--A man in New England said that after forty years
experience, raising all kinds of crops, he found that his apple orchard
averaged $55 per acre, which was better than any crop on his other 200
acres of land.
731. THE SUGAR BEET.--Purchase a farm within a few miles of a sugar beet
factory. With proper cultivation you can grow nine tons to the acre, and
the factory price should be $4.50 per ton. The thriftiness of the beet
makes little trouble with weeds, and hence the expense of raising is not
one-fourth that of onions.
732. GILT-EDGED BREEDS.--The sum of $5,100 was recently paid for a
Poland-China boar. A litter of pigs of this breed brought $3,500. These
sums seem almost incredible, but when people have both the mania and the
money they will pay any amount to gratify their taste. There are persons
who take as much pride in pigs as others do in horses. The best way to
succeed with new breeds is to cultivate a strain for yourself. It
requires time, patience and experience, and some outlay in risk, but in
the end it pays, especially if one has the gift of knowing how to
trumpet his stock.
733. DECEMBER LAYERS.--With a trifling expense you can have eggs at
Christmas as well as at Easter. The price is often more than double at
the former season. Connect with hot water-pipes and keep your hens warm.
A cold hen never lays an egg. A poultry expert says if a flock is well
cared for the whole year round, it should pay annually for each hen $1
net. At the same rate a flock of four hundred would bring a net income
of $400.
734. FLORIDA CELERY.--In Florida the first growers made from $500 to
$1,500 per acre. Competition has reduced the price, but at present rates
men with six acres are getting a comfortable support, and those who have
the means to cultivate a large farm of this popular vegetable are
rapidly growing rich.
735. ONEIDA HOPS.--It takes a good many hops to weigh a pound, but
growers in Oneida County, New York, have raised 1,400 pounds per acre,
receiving therefor $112. Probably this is somewhat better than the
average, but profits in even low-price years are better in that section
of the country than for any other crop. Hops are a safe and easy crop.
736. BOSTON BEANS.--They are not raised in Boston--only baked there.
They are a hardy crop, and will grow on any properly cultivated soil.
One year with another they bring $2.50 per bushel. Beans are the surest
of all crops, and if the price were only as certain, you could figure
out your income in advance almost as accurately as if employed on a
salary.
737. CHRISTMAS TREES.--Buy for a few hundred dollars an abandoned farm
too poor for culture, and pack it with small evergreens. Christmas trees
command from fifty cents to $5, and you can grow a thousand of them on a
single acre. There are fortunes in what is called worthless land if you
know how to improve it.
738. THE GUARANTEED EGG.--A great business can be done with a guaranteed
egg. Success depends upon the absolute perfection of your egg. Have a
stamp made, and stamp every egg with the name of your farm, and offer to
replace any one found faulty. Also stamp the date on which they are
taken from the nest. In this way you will absolutely protect your
product from the frauds of dealers, your eggs will attain a wide
reputation, will have an unlimited demand, and you will grow rich. There
is a mine of gold in this suggestion.
739. DOUBLE VEGETABLE CULTURE.--Here is an idea of a New Jersey farmer.
He has conceived the notion of grafting tomatoes on potatoes vines, or
an air crop on a root crop, and thus raising vegetables at both ends.
There is nothing impracticable in the notion, and it is doubtless
entirely feasible, if only he is liberal enough with his fertilizers.
This is an idea for growers who have only a limited space, and where
land is high.
740. ENGLISH SHIRES.--Colts from Lord Rothschild’s stud farm last year
averaged $875. It costs little more to keep a good horse than a poor
one. There are great possibilities in the raising of fine-blooded
horses. The colt that won the great Futurity race this year could have
been easily bought for $700 before the race. Now $20,000 will not
purchase him. “Plunger” Walton made $350,000 in two years on the turf.
At the Elmendorf stud farm near Lexington, Ky., a short time ago
thirty-three yearling colts were sold at prices ranging from $150 to
$5,100, the average price being $1,460.87 per head; at the same time
twenty yearling fillies brought an average of $676.50 per head, the
forty-three yearling colts and fillies being the product of one breeding
farm and selling in one day for $47,130 or an average of $1,095.80 per
head.
741. FORTUNES IN NUT SHELLS.--Land too poor for meadow or even for
pasture may be utilized for nut-growing. The trees require little
attention, but will produce bushels of nuts if the soil is properly
stirred and fertilized every year. One man in Connecticut raises each
year 100 bushels of hickory nuts from ten trees, and sells them at $2 a
bushel. The rocky, waste lands of New England can grow millions of these
trees. Chestnuts can be grown cheaper than wheat. The standard price is
$4 to $8 per bushel, but large chestnuts, early in the season, that is,
in September and October, bring from $10 to $15 per bushel. Judge Salt,
of Burlington, N. J., says he has a chestnut tree in the middle of a
wheat field that pays more than the wheat. The average is about $19 per
tree, and twenty trees have ample room in an acre. This makes $300 per
acre with but little cost for cultivation. Here is something of
importance about the pecan. The chief pomologist at Washington, D. C.,
says: “The cultivation of nuts will soon be one of the greatest and most
profitable industries in the United States, and there is no use in
denying the fact that the Texas soft shell pecan is the favorite nut of
the world.” The average yield of these nuts in North Carolina is $300 to
$500 per acre. Some pecan trees in New Jersey are producing annually
five to six bushels of delicious, thin-shelled nuts.