The seeds of eggplant should be sown indoors at the same time that early

tomatoes and peppers are planted. The small plants should be

transplanted to pots or paper bands and kept in the house until the

weather is quite warm. The plants require a rich, deep soil, with plenty

of fertilizer. They should be set about 2¹⁄₂ feet apart each way. Six to

ten plants will be sufficient to supply the average family.

_Okra, or Gumbo_

Okra is sown in the open after danger of frost is over and the soil

becomes quite warm, but in the North a few plants for the home garden

may be started indoors. like tomatoes or peppers. Sow the seed a few

inches apart in the row and thin the plants to 18 inches to 2 feet

apart. Okra is very prolific, and 8 or 10 feet of row will supply the

needs of an average family. Give frequent shallow cultivation until the

plants are nearly grown.

The pods are the part of the plant used for food and should be gathered

while still crisp and tender. If the pods are removed so as to allow

none to ripen, the plants will continue to bear until killed by frost.

The White Velvet, Dwarf Green Prolific, Perkins Mammoth, Long-Podded,

and Lady Finger varieties are recommended.

_Onions_

The usual method of growing onions in the home garden is to plant a

quart or two of sets just as early in the spring as the ground can be

worked. Throughout the South the sets may be planted in the autumn and

the surface of the ground mulched with fine straw or light manure over

the winter. Onions may also be grown from seed, sown in the early autumn

in the South and early spring in the North, but as a rule it is more

satisfactory to secure a few sets for planting.

[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Planting onion sets; every bulb is placed with

the root end downward at a uniform depth and in straight rows.]

Onions require a light, mellow, rich soil. If planted in rows the sets

(fig. 14) should be placed by hand, root end downward, about 4 inches

apart in the row and covered to a depth of 1 inch. If planted in a bed

they should be spaced 4 to 6 inches apart in each direction. As a rule,

onion sets are not sold under variety names, but are classed as white,

brown, or red.

The Yellow Globe, Yellow Danvers, Red Wethersfield, and Silverskin are

among the leading varieties that are planted from seed. The Crystal Wax

and Red Bermuda varieties of the Bermuda type are often grown in the

Southern States.

Where wanted for green onions, the sets may be planted as a filler in

the rows with early tomatoes, but where mature onions are desired it is

best to plant them alone. Fully grown onions should not be pulled until

the tops have broken over and partially ripened. The bulbs should then

be pulled and spread in a cool, dry place (fig. 15) where they will get

plenty of air. The mature onions should be kept where it is quite cool

and dry. Slight freezing will not hurt the stored onions if they are not

disturbed while frozen.

[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Onions spread out to dry in the shade of a

tree.]

_Cabbage Group_

The cabbage group of garden plants includes both the early and the late

types of cabbage, cauliflower, kale, collards, and Brussels sprouts. The

general cultivation of each member of this group is practically the

same. They are natives of low-lying seacoast regions and require deep,

moist, and rather rich soil for their best development. The various

members of the cabbage group, however, may be grown in almost any

locality; in fact, cabbage is one of the most universally grown of our

garden crops. The important consideration is to have plenty of plant

food in the soil so that they will make a quick, tender growth.

_Early Cabbage_

Only a few heads of early cabbage should be grown in a small city

garden. The plants should be started indoors, but may be set in the

garden quite early if hardened off a little before setting them. In

certain sections of the South, especially near the seacoast, the early

varieties of cabbage may be started in October, planted out in November,

and matured in April or May of the following spring. The Jersey

Wakefield and Charleston Wakefield are the leading early varieties. They

may be set in rows 24 to 30 inches apart and 15 inches apart in the

row.

_Late Cabbage_

Late cabbage can be planted between the rows of early potatoes or after

snap beans, so that double service may be obtained from the soil. Late

cabbage may be planted July 1 in some sections of the North and will

form solid heads before the weather becomes cold enough to injure the

crop. The Late Flat Dutch, Danish Baldhead, and Copenhagen are among the

best late varieties. They should be planted in rows 36 inches apart and

18 inches apart in the row. Cabbage may be stored in a cool, dry,

well-ventilated cellar or buried in an outdoor pit in the garden.

_Cauliflower_

Cauliflower is much more difficult to grow than cabbage and is only

adapted to certain soil and climatic conditions which are to be found

near the seacoast and limited inland areas. The important consideration

in growing a spring crop of cauliflower is to have it so early that the

heads will be formed before the extremely hot weather begins. The

methods of starting the plants and general culture are the same as for

early cabbage. When the heads begin to form, the leaves should be

brought together above the heads and fastened by means of a string, so

as to shut out the sunlight and retain the snowy whiteness of the heads.

A fall crop of cauliflower can be grown in the same manner as late

cabbage. Cauliflower can not be stored to advantage, but must be used

within a few days after it is gathered.

_Kale_

Kale can be grown either as a spring or fall crop, and in sections where

the temperature does not go below zero during the winter it can be

planted in the fall and will be ready for use during March and April.

The market gardeners around Norfolk, Va., grow great fields of winter

kale, planting the seed in September and cutting the crop at any time

during the winter when the ground is free from snow and ice. About 50 or

60 feet of row in the home garden may be planted during the late summer

for fall and early winter use. Kale is not stored, but is left growing

until wanted for use.

_Collards_

No southern garden would be quite complete without a small plat of

collards for late fall and early winter use. Collards are a hardy form

of cabbage which forms a loose head or cluster of very tender leaves

that are used in much the same manner as cabbage. Throughout the South

collards are planted during the latter part of the summer and the plants

are left standing where grown, like late cabbage, and are quite hardy;

in fact, it is claimed that the flavor is greatly improved by a slight

freezing of the heads. Collards are not recommended for planting in the

Northern States. A small packet of seed is all that is necessary to

start the plants required in a family garden.

_Brussels Sprouts_

Brussels sprouts are a kind of cabbage that forms a large number of

buttons or small heads along its stem where the leaves are attached. The

culture of Brussels sprouts is the same as that of cabbage except that

the leaves are removed from the lower part of the stem to give the

buttons more room to develop.

_Kohl-Rabi_

Kohl-rabi is a near relative of cabbage. It forms an enlargement of the

stem just above the surface of the ground. This portion is used in the

same way as turnips.

_Salad Plants_

As a general rule, the American people do not eat enough green

vegetables, commonly referred to as salads. Crops of this class are

especially adapted to the small garden, as they occupy very little space

and will withstand more or less shading. The salad plants require a

deep, rich soil with plenty of moisture. They also thrive under

comparatively cool conditions.

_Swiss Chard_

Swiss chard resembles the common garden beet in appearance, but it does

not form an edible root, like the beet, and is grown for its large leaf

stems, which are boiled for greens. Americans do not as a rule eat

enough greens, and there is need to encourage the planting in the home

garden of Swiss chard and other crops that may be used for this purpose.

Beet tops while young and tender make good greens, but the leaf stems of

Swiss chard have a very excellent flavor and remain tender a long time.

As the outer leaf stems are removed the plants keep on forming new

leaves in the center, so that a continuous supply is provided.

Swiss chard is planted and cultivated the same as garden beets. One-half

ounce of seed will be sufficient for the ordinary family of five

persons. The variety known as Lucullus is considered best. Plant in the

early spring the same as beets, and thin the plants to about 6 inches in

the row.

_Spinach_

Spinach is another crop that is highly desirable for use as greens.

Spinach thrives in cool weather and should be grown both as a spring and

as a fall crop. In the extreme northern part of the country only one

crop may be grown. In sections where the winters are mild the seed can

be planted in the fall and the plants can remain in the ground all

winter. For a spring crop, plant in the open ground as soon as the soil

can be worked. The rows may be as close as 7 inches, and 12 to 15 seeds

should be sown to a foot of row, the plants being thinned so that they

will have 1¹⁄₂ to 2 inches of space for their development.

Spinach requires a very rich soil in order to make it grow quickly. A

bed 5 feet wide and 30 feet in length and having about eight rows

running the length of the bed will furnish enough spinach for the

ordinary family. The entire spinach plant is removed by cutting just

above the surface of the ground. From 2 to 3 ounces of seed will be

sufficient for a bed 5 by 30 feet in size. Spinach contains large

quantities of iron and is especially desirable as a part of the diet in

the early spring.

_Celery_

There is nothing particularly difficult about growing celery after the

plants are started. The celery seed bed requires very careful watering

until the plants are up and large enough to transplant. As a rule, it

will be best for city gardeners to purchase plants that are ready for

setting in the garden. Celery requires a rich soil and plenty of

moisture.

Anyone desiring to grow it should write to the United States Department

of Agriculture for a copy of the Farmers’ Bulletin on celery (No. 282),

which gives full directions for growing the crop.

The White Plume, Golden Self-Blanching, and Boston Market are among the

best varieties for the home garden.

_Lettuce_

No early garden would be complete without at least a bed of lettuce;

however, only a small space is necessary to grow plenty for the average

family. In the old-fashioned garden a small bed was spaded in one corner

and the seed sown broadcast and raked into the soil just as soon as the

ground was dry enough to work in the spring. As the plants grew and

began to crowd each other, they were thinned and those that were pulled

out were used on the table. Later, when the plants became larger, they

were cut off just above the ground.

Lettuce requires very rich soil and plenty of moisture, and will not

withstand continued hot weather. It can be grown in partial shade and is

one of the few crops that can be planted in back-yard gardens that are

shaded a portion of the time. A 5-cent packet of seed will produce all

the plants required for the small garden. A good method is to sow the

seed in a box in the house and transplant the small plants to a bed or

to rows in the garden. Lettuce is not injured by a light frost,

especially if the plants have been grown in the open. The seed or plants

may be planted between other crops that require a longer period for

their development than the lettuce. Two plantings should be made in the

spring and one in the late summer, in order to have a supply for a

considerable period.

Grand Rapids is the leading variety of loose-leaf lettuce, while the Big

Boston, Iceberg, and California Cream Butter are good heading sorts.

_Vegetables That Require Considerable Space in the Garden_

There are a number of garden vegetables that require too much space for

growing in the small home garden. Wherever plenty of land is available

these vegetables should be grown. Among those included in this group are

Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, sweet corn, squashes, cantaloupes,

and watermelons.

_Irish Potatoes_

Irish potatoes are among the first crops that can be planted in a home

garden. They have no place in a small garden, but where a space as great

as 30 by 60 feet is available they should be included. A peck of seed

potatoes, properly cut, will plant 300 feet of row and should yield 4 to

5 bushels. The usual method is to cut the seed, two eyes to each piece,

dividing the fleshy part of the potato as equally as possible. The seed

should not be cut until the ground is all ready to receive it. Great

care should be taken to get seed that is free from scab or other

diseases.

Irish potatoes can be planted in the North just as soon as the frost is

all out of the ground and the soil dry enough to work. In the South the

planting date will be governed by the season and the time that the young

plants will be safe from spring freezes. It generally takes three to

five weeks after planting in the Southern States for the potatoes to

come up. In the North they will appear in a shorter period if weather

conditions are favorable.

_Peas_

Peas, often called English peas, require considerable space and should

not be planted in a small garden. In order to be of real value at least

15 feet of row should be planted for each person in the family. Peas are

the first crop that can be planted in the spring. In the North, this

planting can be made just as soon as the ground can be worked, and two,

or even three, plantings should be made in order to have a continuous

supply. In the South, peas are planted about the same time as early

Irish potatoes or a little earlier.

Peas require a rather rich soil with a little fertilizer added, as they

make a quick growth. One pint of seed will plant 75 to 85 feet of row,

and this should yield plenty of peas for five persons at each of four or

five pickings. First, spade and rake the ground until it is fine and

mellow; then open a furrow 3 to 4 inches deep with the corner of a hoe.

Scatter the seeds broadcast in the bottom of the furrow or space them at

the rate of 12 to 15 peas to a foot and cover them 3 to 4 inches deep.

In heavy soils the seeds should not be covered so deeply as in light or

sandy soils. If the ground is cold the seeds may be 10 days or two weeks

in coming up, and if there should be a heavy rain meantime the crust

forming on the surface of the soil should be carefully broken over the

rows with a steel rake.

Extra Early Alaska, Gradus, and Thomas Laxton are among the leading

early sorts. The Champion of England and Telephone are considered good

medium and late varieties.

The extra-early sorts may be planted with the rows as close as 24 inches

apart where hand cultivation is practiced. The later and larger growing

varieties require a space of about 3 feet between the rows. There should

not be more than 10 days or two weeks’ difference between the planting

dates of early and of late varieties of peas, as the late ones mature

more slowly than the early sorts.

Several of the early varieties of peas can be grown without supports,

but they do better if given something to climb on. The late varieties

for the most part make a strong growth and require supports. Brush,

where it may be had, woven-wire netting, a wire fence, or strings on

stakes make satisfactory supports for peas. (Fig. 16.) The supports

should be in place when the peas come up, in order that the plants may

climb them from the first. Early spring peas occupy the land a

comparatively short time and may be followed by late cabbage, beets,

turnips, kale, spinach, or some other crop. A planting of peas made late

in the summer will often give a fine fall crop that is ready for use

just before frost in the autumn.

[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Tall-growing peas of the Telephone type,

supported on brush.]

_Sweet Corn_

Sweet corn requires plenty of space in order to produce enough ears to

supply an average family and for that reason finds its proper place in

large city and suburban gardens. The rows should be spaced at least 3

feet apart, and the individual plants should stand 15 to 18 inches apart

in the rows. If the corn is planted in hills containing three stalks

each of the hills must be at least 2¹⁄₂ feet apart in the row for the

early dwarf-growing varieties and 3 feet apart for the later or larger

growing sorts. Corn requires a rich soil and should not be planted until

the ground has warmed considerably. A pint of seed will plant 400 to

500 feet of row in either drills or in hills. Cover the seed 1¹⁄₂ to 2

inches deep and thin to three stalks in a hill or to single stalks 15 or

18 inches apart in drills. If a large number of offshoots or suckers

appear at the base of the plants at the ground, these should be removed,

as they draw the strength of the plant. None but those shoots that

appear very near the ground should be removed, as some of the varieties

have their ears quite low on the stalks and the young ear looks very

much like a sucker until the silk appears.

The Golden Bantam is the leading early variety. The Country Gentleman,

Stowell’s Evergreen, Mammoth Evergreen, and Ohio Sugar are among the

leading medium and late varieties. For a continuous supply, plant Golden

Bantam as early as possible, then follow in a few days with a planting

of Country Gentleman. Two weeks later plant Stowell’s Evergreen, and

follow with additional plantings of some good late variety every three

weeks until midsummer.

_Sweet Potatoes_

For an early crop, sweet-potato plants are started in a hotbed or

greenhouse, and they must not be set in the open until all danger of

frost is past and the ground is well warmed up. They usually thrive best

when planted on wide ridges some 4 to 4¹⁄₂ feet apart and 12 to 15

inches apart in the row. Any good garden fertilizer will answer for this

crop, and it is best applied either in small trenches or to the surface

of the ground before the ridges are thrown up. Frequent shallow

cultivation should be given until the vines begin to run. The Porto

Rico, Nancy Hall, and Southern Queen varieties are recommended, and the

Big-Stem Jersey where a dry-fleshed potato is desired.

_Vine Group_

The vine group includes cucumbers, summer and winter squashes,

cantaloupes, and watermelons. Owing to the space required by these crops

they are not adapted to planting in a small garden. For the convenience

of those who desire to grow them, brief cultural directions are given.

Practically all of the vine crops can be trained to a wire fence or

trellis or on wire netting. By this method they can be planted along a

fence or beside a building where there is good sunlight and the vines

can be trained up out of the way of other crops. In case cantaloupes or

squashes are grown on a trellis, it will be necessary to support the

fruits by means of bagging or cloth slings.

All of the vine crops require plenty of fertility in the soil. In

addition to a shovelful of manure and a handful of fertilizer in each

hill, a small quantity of commercial fertilizer may be worked into the

soil around each hill after the vines begin to spread over the ground.

The fertilizer should not be placed closer than a foot from the base of

the plants and should be scattered over a considerable area. The results

to be obtained in a small garden from growing any of the vine crops

except summer squashes and cucumbers are extremely doubtful, and

beginners are advised to devote the space to crops producing more food

on a small area.

_Cucumbers_

One or two hills will produce enough cucumbers for the average family.

Each hill should be given about 50 square feet of space, or 7 feet in

each direction. The hills should be made several days before planting,

with a shovelful of manure mixed thoroughly with the soil of each hill.

About a dozen seeds should be scattered in each hill and covered to a

depth of about an inch. Later, the plants should be thinned to three to

five in a hill.

Cucumbers are very tender and should not be planted until all danger of

frost is past. The plants may be started indoors by planting the seeds

in pots, paper bands, or quart berry boxes filled with soil; then set in

the garden when the weather is warm. The young cucumber plants are

frequently destroyed by a small beetle. The easiest way to protect the

plants is by covering each hill with a small wooden box the bottom of

which has been removed and a piece of fine mosquito or fly netting

tacked on. After the plants become toughened, the beetles are not likely

to trouble them.

White Spine is the most common variety.

_Cantaloupes_

Cantaloupes, sometimes referred to as muskmelons, are grown exactly the

same way as cucumbers.

The Rocky Ford, Tiptop, Hoodoo, and Ohio Sugar are among the leading

varieties.

_Watermelons_

Watermelons require too much space for planting in a small garden. The

cultivation of watermelons is practically the same as that of squashes.

The Kleckley Sweets and Florida Favorite are among the best small

watermelons for home growing. The variety known as Tom Watson is the one

most frequently sold on our markets.

_Squashes_

Two varieties of summer squashes are suited for growing in city gardens.

These are the Summer Crookneck and Pattypan. The summer squashes are of

bush habit of growth and do not require much space. Three to five hills

of either of the kinds mentioned will supply the ordinary family. The

hills should be 4 to 5 feet apart. Plant 8 or 10 seeds to a hill,

covering them to a depth of an inch, and when the plants are well

established thin them to three in a hill.

The Hubbard Squash and Boston Marrow form true vines and require more

space than the summer bush varieties. The fruits of the summer varieties

are used while they are young and tender, but those of the fall and

winter varieties are allowed to get fully ripe before being gathered and

stored. Four or five hills will be sufficient, and a space of 10 or 12

feet should be allowed between the hills.

The vine or running squash may be grown in a corner of the garden or on

a trellis. In one instance an old peach tree formed a support for a

large squash vine and the fruits were held up by slings consisting of

strips of bagging.

PLAN No. 281. MAKING CLOTHING FIREPROOF

To make clothing fireproof, and thus save hundreds of precious lives,

dissolve one pound of ammonium phosphate in one gallon of cold water,

and in this soak for five minutes the fabric to be fireproofed. Then

dry, and it will not burn. It does not harm the material. It sells for

about 25 cents a pound in the drug stores. Make it up and sell it at $1

per gallon. But when the cloth is washed it is no longer fireproof,

until treated with this solution again.

PLAN No. 282. MAKING PULLETS PAY

Buy pullets in the fall, give them good feed and care, and they will lay

eggs all winter, making you a profit of several dollars per pullet. Sell

them as hens the next spring and they will bring good prices for setting

purposes, or as a table bird.

PLAN No. 283. PUMPKINS IN POWDER FORM

Don’t can pumpkins. Slice thin, dry in the sun, then in an oven, and

grind up in powder form. Put in cartons for sale. It makes more pies per

pound than canned pumpkin.

Have a good recipe tried out with your powdered pumpkin. Put the

directions for use on your carton. Retail one-half pound cartons for 10

cents, or more, and it will make twice the number of pies that a 10-cent

can of pumpkin will. Get local customers first, and later deal with a

jobber or wholesaler.

PLAN No. 284. MONEY IN HORSE-RADISH

Horse radish has made money for live men. Simply grate the horse radish

and sell it when nice and fresh to the grocer, hotelkeeper, or to

individual users. Horse radish is perennial and needs little or no care.

A half-acre will produce a great amount of horse radish. To start it

take whole ones, cut them in small pieces, and plant like potatoes.

PLAN No. 285. PROFITABLE PLAIN SEWING

Women who used to spend hours and days in doing fancy but useless

needle-work, now believe in doing the plain kind of sewing and getting

paid for it. Making aprons, handkerchiefs, underskirts, and many similar

articles, is a much more valuable use of spare time, which most women

have. Lace-trimmed or monogramed handkerchiefs bring good prices.

PLAN No. 286. PICKLING DANDELIONS

Gather dandelions by the ton, put them down in brine just as you would

cucumber pickles. Retail them in the winter by the quart. This will make

you extra money.

PLAN No. 287. PLANTING ENDIVE FOR PICKLING

Plant endive on a city lot. This article can be treated in brine and

cannot be told from fresh dandelion greens. Get regular customers for

the entire winter. Supply stores, restaurants, etc.

PLAN No. 288. EARLY CUCUMBERS

Very early cucumbers bring $1.00 per dozen. Start your cucumber plants

early in strawberry boxes in the house. When they have four leaves on

them, transplant, early in April, and you will have your cucumbers in

the market before your neighbors have planted theirs. You could sell

cucumber plants to your neighbors and to the stores also.

PLAN No. 289. RAISING SWEET PEAS

Raise sweet peas. One ounce of seed will produce 10,000 blossoms, and

florists pay around $3.00 per 1,000 for them. On an acre thirty ounces

could be planted, or even on a city lot three ounces of seed can be

raised and make you money.

PLAN No. 290. A NOTION STORE AT HOME

A poor woman living in a Chicago suburb made a good living by laying in

a small but well selected stock of notions at her home, which was a long

distance from a store of any kind. She got these at wholesale prices,

and sold them at regular retail rates, so she made sufficient profit to

support herself in comfort, as the ladies in the neighborhood bought

practically all their little notions from her.

PLAN No. 291. MAKING COTTAGE CHEESE

Few foods are more palatable, more healthful or more economical than

cottage cheese, when properly made.

A California farmer’s wife makes hers from milk that is not too old, and

often sours sweet milk by adding a little buttermilk to it. She cooks it

in 5-gallon “shotgun” cans. As soon as the milk sets into a firm clabber

she puts the cans into a 30-gallon tank of boiling water, connected with

the kitchen stove by pipes and the usual waterback in the firebox,

stirring the milk a little, and cutting the curd with a long-bladed

knife. When the curd readily separates from the whey, lift the can out

and let it stand from ten to twenty minutes. The contents of the can are

then poured into a large bag made of cheese-cloth, which is hung up to

drain. The whey is fed to the pigs as it contains milk-sugar which is a

fattening ration. In a few hours the cheese will be drained enough. It

is then thoroughly mashed and mixed in a proper vessel, salted, and it

is ready for the trip to town. It should be sold at once as it does not

keep long.

If cream is plentiful and cheap, a little mixed with the cheese places

it at the top notch of quality. One can decide for himself whether he

can afford to sell cream in this way, by the price he obtains for the

cheese.

Cottage cheese is now sold at retail to the consumer for 10 to 15 cents

a pound. This means nearly 30 cents a quart, a pint weighing slightly

over a pound. It ought to bring at least 10 cents a pound to the maker,

which is no mean profit for skim-milk usually fed to hogs and calves.

PLAN No. 292. DEVELOPING AND PRINTING PHOTOGRAPHS

A city woman, fond of photography, made her spare time profitable by

developing and printing photographs for others, and by taking orders for

that class of work, and having it done by a local dealer, paying him 20

per cent of her earnings. As she purchased all her material from this

dealer, it helped increase his sales also.

PLAN No. 293. “CITRONETTE” CUCUMBERS

Raise cucumbers, and when ripe place on the market “citronette.” This is

better than “sugared citron” and much cheaper.

Recipe: Pick cucumbers when ripe; split in half; scrape out pulp. Put in

salt brine for one or two days, then draw off brine and add one pound of

sugar to each pound of cucumber rind; let stand over night for juice to

draw, then place on back of stove and allow to simmer until translucent

and most of the water has evaporated. Turn occasionally to keep from

burning. When the water has evaporated, and it looks dry, allow it to

cool. You then have “citronette.”

This project has been tried and it made $6.00 a day for a year, using

only one-half acre of ground.

PLAN No. 294. CANNING VEGETABLES, ETC.

Can vegetables, peas, beans, sweet corn, also fruit, and pickles. From a

good farm paper select an advertiser offering “home-canning outfits,”

and get his circulars. Buy an outfit. Get customers by placing a

tempting ad. in your local paper, and by getting out attractive placards

to be used by grocers who handle your goods. You can raise your own

vegetables and fruit, or buy them from a farmer wholesale very

reasonably.

PLAN No. 295. SMALL-TOWN CATERING

A young lady who lives in a small city where there are many social

functions, has found catering on these occasions quite profitable, and

she thus relates her plan of operations:

“I have furnished refreshments and acted as hostess for a social club of

young men--usually thirty plates at fifty cents each. I serve fruit

punch during the card game, and either a fruit salad or a meat salad,

with crackers, ice cream or sherbet, cake and nuts, or mints. My profit

is between five and six dollars. I also cater for the Masons’ ladies’

nights on the same terms, and in this small country town there is no

other business of that sort.

“The Masons have about one hundred plates. I introduce the ladies and

group them congenially; and the young daughters are only too glad to

wait on the tables in pretty aprons, so that I employ only one maid. I

arrange the tables for progressive Five Hundred. The girls who do not

play are glad to serve and punch the score cards. The men can play pool,

and there is a table for cinch and dominoes.”

PLAN No. 296. PERFUME FOR A SICK ROOM

The following makes a very pleasant antiseptic perfume for a sick-room,

imparting the odor of the pine woods, and is very grateful and

refreshing to an invalid:

Oil of bergamot, 6 drams; oil of orange, 1 dram; oil of rosemary, 1

dram; eucalyptol, 2 drams; bornyl acetate, ¹⁄₂ dram; tincture benzoin, 4

drams; water, 2¹⁄₂ parts; alcohol to make one gallon.

Mix and spray about the room whenever the air begins to indicate the

necessity for freshening it.

PLAN No. 297. RAISING CAPONS

One poultry man in a Kansas town got so much more for his young roosters

than was paid to any other person in the same place for apparently

similar stock, that several of them came to him to find out why this was

the case.

He replied that there was no secret about it, that he simply caponized

the male birds at about four months of age; that this process not only

made them grow much faster and larger, but gave their flesh a flavor no

other bird possessed, and that when people had once tasted a young

caponized cock they would buy no other, if they could possibly get

these.

The process is very simple, and is performed with a set of tools that

can be bought for $2, so that the extra profit on a few birds soon pays

for this expense and the time and trouble required.

The other poultry growers in the community at once adopted the same

plan, and the increased demand for their product in the market showed

them where and why they had been losing money before, instead of making

it.

PLAN No. 298. A LOSING GROCERY BUSINESS MADE A SUCCESS

Near a good-sized Texas town a man and his wife were trying to farm a

piece of sun-baked land, and were making a failure of it, when the wife

proposed that they start a small grocery. They had a few hundred

dollars, and borrowed a little more, and with this they bought a small

stock of groceries, but the growth of the business was so slow as to be

disheartening.

On her way down to their store one afternoon the woman noticed that

trade was brisk in those places that presented a cleanly appearance, and

then she got busy. Together they scrubbed the floors, applied paint

where it was needed, and began a general clean-up campaign that soon

transformed the dingy little place into a most attractive store room.

Pyramids of canned goods were erected in the show window, and everything

tastefully arranged on counters and shelves to present the best possible

appearance.

She had a number of jars of preserves, pickled fruits and vegetables

they had put up while on the farm, and these she brought to the store,

where they were quickly sold. She then put up more at their home, all of

which were sold at a big profit. Then she baked cakes and brought them

to the store, where they found a steady sale, which encouraged her to

bake many more.

As a means of advertising their “clean grocery,” they labeled the collar

of their dog and the net mesh that covered their delivery horse with

catchy phrases, and soon had their place widely talked about.

Their business grew until they were obliged to move to a larger

building, where they have the best trade in the town.

PLAN No. 299. BRINGING WOMEN TO A STORE

It was a woman’s idea that brought scores of women to a store, where her

husband was a clerk, who had never been in the place before, and coming

in once, usually became regular customers. Her idea was very simple, but

it worked splendidly. It was merely to have the management of the store

put up a free bulletin board in a prominent place just inside the

entrance, upon which women in need of maids, domestics, or help of any

kind, could pin up a short notice of the place offered, the wages paid,

special privileges and requirements. At the same time, women and girls

in search of employment could also use the bulletin board to help them

in securing the places they wanted, and it was not long until the store

was visited with women anxious to consult the bulletin board, which well

served its purpose as a free employment agency.

Very soon the store became talked about all over town, as the place to

look for help or positions, and of the hundreds of women who visited the

place for that purpose, many of them stayed to look over the stock, and

buy.

The business was so greatly increased that the management of the store,

impressed with the value of the idea, gave the husband of its originator

a considerable increase in salary.

PLAN No. 300. A TRAVELING GROCERY

A southern woman’s husband was 30 years old, and a grocery clerk at $50

a month. Both were hoping for something better, when a good idea came to

the wife. It was to start something new--a grocery on wheels!

She had saved a few hundred dollars before her marriage, but had never

told her husband, as she intended to surprise him with it when the

proper time came--and that time had arrived.

With this money to start with, she drew a plan for a wagon arranged with

shelves and compartments for holding canned goods, preserves, breakfast

foods, coffee, cheese, fresh-baked bread, cakes, pies, fresh fruits and

vegetables--everything to be found in a well-ordered grocery. Sealed

packages were a specialty, for sanitary reasons.

They had rented a neat little store in a suburb and put in a fine stock

of groceries, which the wife took care of while the husband made the

rounds of the entire neighborhood with his wheeled grocery. The women

were more than pleased to come out to the wagon every morning and make

their purchases for the day, without having to go to a market for what

they wanted, so that his wagon was in constant demand in every part of

the suburb. Later a motor truck took the place of the horse.

PLAN No. 301. SALES MANAGER BECOMES REALTY OWNER

The sales manager for a large Chicago concern was married, had three

children, and was getting further and further behind every year, with

debts that constantly increased. Then the wife thought out a plan that

she hoped would bring a betterment in conditions, and decided to make it

win.

She began by selling their grand piano for $800 and buying a second-hand

up-right for $185. Then she sold her buffet, china closet, two extra

bedroom suites, four good rugs, several sets of silverware, some china,

cut-glass, pictures, etc., at private sale, and from these she received

$720 more.

Out of her total receipts, she paid the family debts and had $640 left.

She paid $300 for a lot in the outskirts of the city; $54 for enough

second-hand lumber to build a shack 20x40 in size, she and her husband

putting up the building and putting in a cement floor, and lining the

building with tar paper. They divided the shack into four rooms with

straw matting for partitions, bought second-hand windows at $1 each, and

made their own doors. Then they placed rugs on all the floors except the

kitchen and moved in, thus saving $40 a month in rent.

They still had $200 in the bank, and out of this she paid $40 for

putting down a well, then she gave piano lessons to country children, at

50 cents an hour, and earned $20 a month that way. She set up her

grandmother’s old loom and wove rag rugs until she had earned $700 that

way, and at the end of three years they had $3,000 in the bank, had

raised the house, put in a foundation, dug a cellar and built two

porches.

In two years more they were another $2,000 ahead, so her husband

resigned his position and they began buying vacant lots at $250 to $400

each, bought old houses “for a song,” tore them down, and with the

material built several tiny new bungalows. The husband did the carpenter

work, she did the interior decorating work and the children helped a

good deal. When a bungalow was finished, they readily sold it for from

$1,700 to $2,200 and made a nice profit on each.

To-day they are living in a modern 9-room bungalow, and own twenty-seven

vacant lots besides, all paid for, and have an income of $4,000 a year.

PLAN No. 302. HOT SOUPS FOR BUSINESS GIRLS

A practical and profitable idea came to a woman in an eastern city when

she thought of the large number of business girls and girls in

government employ who so earnestly long for the taste of home-cooked

foods, which they never get.

Instantly she had formed her plan to put up ready-to-serve, homemade

soups, potpies, beans, clam and fish chowders, and other things, to be

delivered in glass jars, just at dinner time, to those girls who would

love to have a hot meal at home, if they had anyone to cook it for them,

or had time to cook it themselves.

Making sure that nothing left her kitchen until its taste and

attractiveness were tested and proven when it reached those tired women

and girls, it was a veritable blessing in glass jars.

She baked beans without pork, but with an onion in the center instead,

and covered with salad oil. She made Dutch potpie cooked like a stew,

made fish and clam chowders and prepared them all in the most appetizing

way, so that anyone would relish them.

Later she set up a table and an electric stove in the corner of a hall

in a large office building occupied mostly by men, where she served

lunches taken from her fireless cooker, and these the men took to their

offices on trays provided by themselves. On these she realized a profit

of 40 per cent, besides having enough food left to supply her own

family.

PLAN No. 303. BREAD AND CAKE BAKING SOLD TO WOMAN EXCHANGE

A married woman in New York, who had formerly been a stenographer but

could not return to that work on account of her household duties, which

included the care of two children, yet who was anxious to help in

enlarging the family income, decided to bake cakes and sell them through

various woman’s exchanges.

Her sales were very good, but often there would be cakes left over, and,

to avoid this, she changed her selling method so as to supply a certain

number of families with bread and cakes. Her entire capital was but $5,

and she started with seven customers, having discontinued her deliveries

to the exchanges.

She wrote to a number of people who were able to pay her prices, and

soon secured a good list of regular patrons. In six months she had

forty-five steady customers, was baking all kinds of cakes besides

raisin, whole wheat and brown breads, and rapidly increasing the number

of her patrons, so that in six months more she had a total of

seventy-eight. Some of these, when starting on their summer vacations,

arranged to have her supply them regularly by parcel post while away,

and when they returned in the fall they continued to buy her baked

products.

She employed a boy at $2 a week to make deliveries two afternoons each

week and all day Saturdays, and before very long her net profits had

reached $150 a month.

PLAN No. 304. MAKING USE OF SURPLUS APPLES

In some sections of the country thousands of bushels of fine apples are

allowed to go to waste every year, simply because there is no one to

gather them and make practical use of them.

A man in eastern Ohio, where the supply of apples is largely in excess

of the demand, made profitable use of this apple surplus by a new method

of concentrating cider, through freezing and centrifugal motion. This

method consists of first freezing the raw cider until it is solid, by

placing it in shallow trays and exposing it to a freezing outdoor

temperature. Then it is crushed up fine and put into a receptacle like a

barrel churn, and whirled very rapidly. This throws off the juice in the

form of a syrup and leaves the water in the machine as ice.

One gallon of this concentrated cider, or syrup, is as strong as five

gallons of ordinary apple cider, and when put in a cool place will keep

from six months to a year without fermenting. It also reduces the bulk

about four-fifths, so that it can be shipped at a low transportation

cost, thus increasing the profits by a large percentage.

This man gathered up several hundred bushels of the apples that were

going to waste, rented a cider press, and turned out the cider in

immense quantities, late in the fall when the weather was freezing cold.

The concentrated product he shipped to the city and sold it at big

profit, the first netting him nearly $1,000.

PLAN No. 305. SELLING EGGS AT A HIGH PRICE

Even in those times when eggs were selling to the middle man for 20

cents per dozen, a man who lived in the suburbs of an eastern city, and

kept hens that laid large, rich-looking, golden brown eggs, worth twice

as much as the tiny white ones in the dealers’ stalls, always sold every

egg he could produce for 60 cents per dozen, or a nickel each.

The way he did it was to advertise in the city papers that he would send

eggs by parcel post the very day they were laid, and guaranteed them to

be strictly fresh and safe for sick people as well as robust persons.

That brought in the orders, and the way he kept them coming from the

same people, year after year, was by making good--by actually shipping

the eggs the day they were laid--and strictly fulfilling every promise

he made. These facts, once duly impressed upon the minds of his city

customers, made the eggs he sent them worth three times the price of

ordinary market eggs of small size and uncertain age. Anyone, situated

as he was, can do the same thing and make money out of it.

PLAN No. 306. FREE RECIPE BOOKS TO FARMERS

In order to interest city merchants in the possibilities open to them

for country trade through the parcel post, and to interest the farmers

in the goods carried by the city merchants, an advertising man in a

western city thought out a plan that would do both.

First, he secured the name of every farmer within fifty miles of the

city in which he lived. Then he got up a little 16-inch page booklet,

with an attractive cover, and filled one-half of every page with

interesting and useful information for farmers, such as recipes, methods

of gardening farm, garden and orchard products, etc.

He then went to merchants in various lines, showed them the plan of the

booklet, exhibited his list of farmers’ names, assured them that he

would send a copy of the booklet free to every farmer on that list, and

got them to fill the other half of each page with an advertisement of

those goods especially for farmers’ use. The front of the cover he used

as a title page, while the three other cover pages he sold for

advertising purposes at good rates.

That little booklet netted him over $250, after he had submitted

affidavits to the advertisers that copies of it had been sent out free

to all the farmers, as he had agreed. He prepared another booklet, using

the same matter, except the ads., and these he obtained from another set

of advertisers. The matter already set up for the first booklet saved a

great deal on the cost of composition, and at the end of the year his

profits amounted to more than $2,000.

PLAN No. 307. TRUST PLAN WORKED LOCALLY

A mail-order man back east decided to work trust plan by which he could

keep in close touch with those selling the goods, and have settlements

where necessary.

From a catalog issued by a reliable house carrying a line of novelties

adapted to the trust plan, he selected a few attractive ones which any

child could sell at 10 cents each, and which cost him about $1.50 per

gross, and these he advertised in the local papers, offering a premium

to anyone selling a certain number of them.

He was thus enabled to place a large quantity of these novelties in the

hands of children and others, who sold them and promptly remitted or

called personally to make settlements and receive their premiums.

This system reduced his losses to a minimum and greatly increased his

profits, so that he sent no more goods on the trust plan to outside

towns, but confined his operations to his home city.

PLAN No. 308. ICE WOOL SHAWLS BY PARCEL POST

Another good parcel-post idea was worked out with success by a

mail-order man, as follows:

He bought a quantity of ice wool shawls from a Chicago supply house, at

a price which allowed him to retail them at 98 cents each, and still

make a good profit. He secured the names of all the farmers’ wives

within 150 miles, wrote a neat circular describing the beauty and

stylishness of ice-wool shawls, and, wrapping one of these around each

shawl, he sent them by parcel post, stating that if they wanted it for

98 cents, to remit him that amount, if not, to notify him on a postal

card enclosed for that purpose.

But a very few of the shawls came back. Hundreds of money orders for 98

cents each did come, and he sold thousands of them in that way,

realizing a good profit on each sale.

PLAN No. 309. CIGARS FOR FARMERS

A cigar man in Denver made up a special brand of cigars, placed two of

them in a neat little case, and sent them by parcel post to several

hundred farmers, with a note saying they were presented with the cigar

maker’s compliments. He also enclosed a coupon, good for a certain

premium with each box of cigars ordered. The cigars were good, and many

of the samples sent out brought orders for a full box, at the regular

price.

PLAN No. 310. A NEW TRUST PLAN

Instead of that disagreeable method of selling goods--house to house

canvassing--an agent in an Illinois city made use of the parcel post,

with good results.

Selecting the article he wished to sell, he prepared a strong circular

fully describing it, and wrapped the article in this circular, ready to

send out by parcel post.

From the city directory he obtained a list of householders in various

parts of the city, and mailed the article to them, with the statement

that it was sent for inspection, and that his agent would call in a few

days and give a full explanation.

He sometimes mailed out as many as 1,000 a day of these articles, and

later sent out agents to close the sales, on a commission basis; and, as

the sales were much more numerous under this plan than by canvassing

from house to house, the increased profits fully justified him in

assuming the extra expense the new plan involved.

PLAN No. 311. A GOOD COUPON IDEA

A Chicago man who knew the truth of the saying, “a woman loves a

bargain,” made a practical application of that principle to his own

profit.

From the catalog of a supply house he selected an article that could be

bought for a few cents, in considerable quantities, and yet would be a

good value when retailed at, say, 26 cents. In a local paper he placed

an ad. descriptive of the article, with a coupon at the bottom, saying:

“We have only a few of these on hand. If you wish one, send this coupon

and 26 cents, and we will send it by parcel post.” He sold large

quantities of goods by this method.

PLAN No. 312. SELL GOODS ON INSTALLMENTS BY PARCEL POST

A Seattle man originated the plan of selling goods on the installment

plan by parcel post, and made it succeed.

Running an ad. in the local papers, describing the article for sale, he

attached a coupon upon receipt of which the goods would be sent by

parcel post for inspection. If approved and desired, the first

installment was to be remitted at once, the others at stated intervals,

but in all cases the names of two references were required.

He sold quantities of goods, sustained no losses, and made a good profit

each year through this plan.

PLAN No. 313. MEDICAL VEGETABLE GARDEN

A San Francisco man, who knew something of the medical and other

properties of _Cannabis Americana_, commonly known as hemp, experimented

with it and found that it would grow in this country as well as in

India, and decided it was a good thing.

He procured enough seed to sow one acre of land, sewing it broadcast the

same as oats or buckwheat. He kept the weeds down until it had obtained

a good start, and, as it then grew fast as the weeds, it needed no

further attention. In the fall he cut it, cured it like hay, and sent it

to the market, where it brought 45 cents a pound. There were two tons of

it, and that 4,000 pounds sold for $1,800, all from one acre.

PLAN No. 314. IMPROVING A MARKET

A market-man’s wife, who wished to make her husband’s place of business

the most popular in that part of the city, did so by planning the meals

for about forty of their regular customers. She charged nothing for her

services, kept well within the weekly limit of each family, and relieved

the housewives of all anxiety in the matter of deciding what the menu

for each day should consist of. It not only made them permanent

customers, but enabled the storeman to order only what he knew would be

sold on any one day, so that his stock of meats and vegetables was

always fresh, his prices no higher than those who gave less attention to

their patrons’ needs, and his place was soon what the wife set out to

make it--the most popular and profitable market.

PLAN No. 315. BOOSTED HUBBY’S BAKERY

A woman in California, who was impressed with the waste of gas and other

fuels by women who devoted long hours to cooking “little dabs”, of

oatmeal and other foods for their children, concluded to make that an

unpopular and unprofitable pastime for these women, by having such

things all cooked in her husband’s bakery, where there would be no

waste, while it saved hundreds of mothers many anxious hours and tedious

toil that were wholly unnecessary.

Her husband agreed with her that it would be a good thing all round to

cook all these things in the bakery and place them on sale at prices

that would mean a great saving of material as well as fuel, and

guarantee their quality at the same time.

They began by cooking oatmeal guaranteed to have been steamed four

hours, and baked small individual rice puddings in attractive little

brown pottery molds, all of which sold so well that they added mutton

broth with rice, plain beef broth, chicken broth with barley, and bean,

pea purees for the children.

Desiring to expand their field of activities, they induced well located

bakeries, delicatessen and other stores to handle their products on a

commission basis, and, while their profits were not large, the business

finally became so extensive that it paid exceedingly well.

Finally they gave up all this, and established a small model factory for

children’s foods, and now have two motor wagons distributing these

foods, which bring them a profit of several hundred dollars a month.

PLAN No. 316. MAKING STOCKING PATTERNS

A lady in Reno, Nevada, who had long deplored the woeful waste involved

in the throwing away of women’s stockings as soon as a small hole

appears in the foot, hit upon an excellent plan for effecting a great

saving in this regard, and one that at the same time brought her a good

income.

Her plan was to make patterns for stocking feet, as the material in one

pair of women’s hose will re-foot three or four pairs, and thus save the

cost of a new pair when all that needs replacing is the small foot part

of the stocking.

Ripping up a stocking of a good make, she succeeded in cutting out a

perfect-fitting pattern from this, the only change necessary in using it

being to adapt it to various sizes, and then she advertised to save the

women of the country thousands of dollars in hosiery expense, if each of

them would send her 10 cents for a pattern that would enable her to

replace the feet of stockings whenever a small hole appeared in the heel

or toe. No matter what the material, whether it was wool, silk, lisle or

a coarse cotton, women realized that it would pay to re-foot them

instead of buying new ones, and thousands of them sent for the pattern.

Many of the women who bought the patterns admitted that they did so for

the purpose of making a business of re-footing stockings for women who

could not do it for themselves.

PLAN No. 317. A RHUBARB BED THAT PAID

A grocer’s wife, with only a few square feet in the back yard of a city

lot, cultivated a rhubarb bed that paid for itself hundreds of times

over, and required but little care from the time it was started.

She obtained several pieces of old root stock from a variety she knew to

be of the very best, and in the spring had the ground spaded up and

pulverized until it was almost like powder, then she added some good

fertilizer, and set out the roots in hills four feet apart each way,

leaving the top or eye an inch or so below the level of the ground.

These began to grow at once, and during the dry season were kept well

watered, being frequently hoed to kill all the weeds.

A considerable number of edible stalks were pulled the first season,

great care being taken to let none of them go to seed, by snapping off

the seed stems as fast as they appeared.

The second season the growth began early and was remarkably rapid so

that before any one else had rhubarb, she had a good display of it in

her husband’s store where it sold readily at a very high price.

Ever since then this small rhubarb bed has kept her in pin money, and

all the care it has required was to keep it free from weeds and to water

it occasionally.

PLAN No. 318. PUREBRED POULTRY

An Eastern Washington farmer, who had raised scrub poultry for years,

without ever being able to decide whether or not they were really worth

their keep, finally decided to raise pure-breds, and now feels justified

in making the change, as the returns from his high-grade fowls have been

large.

He simply selected the breed he liked best, and gave them the care to

which birds of high degree are entitled, and they have repaid him many

times over for his efforts.

He now finds he can get more for a single pure-bred fowl than twenty of

the common or barn-yard variety would bring, while their cost to raise

is considerably less--bird for bird. Another thing: A single setting of

eggs from a pedigreed hen brings him more than he could ever hope to

receive for all the eggs an ordinary hen would lay in an entire season,

and he is not only much better off financially, but feels that the

satisfaction of having a breed that everybody else wants is worth a good

deal to him.

PLAN No. 319. SORTING AND SELLING

A preacher’s wife, living in Michigan, has had to support the family for

the last fifteen years, and this she has accomplished by cultivating a

truck farm a few miles from the city in that state.

From this she derives an income adequate for all immediate needs. Her

good judgment and experience in the selection, sorting and selling of

farm and garden products have made her an expert. Her services command a

high figure and she earns a good living each year through this skill.

PLAN No. 320. ARCHITECT--SEE PLAN No. 217

PLAN No. 321. DUSTLESS DUSTERS AND OIL MOPS

A woman in a New Mexico city, where dust is one of the most plentiful of

products, earned a good living by making and selling dustless dusters

and oil mops to the people of her town.

To make a dustless duster, mix--out of doors, of course--1 quart of

gasoline, ¹⁄₂ pint of turpentine, ¹⁄₂ pound of whiting and ¹⁄₂ ounce

oxalic acid. Mix in a 2-quart fruit jar. Shake the cloths well, then dip

into the mixture, and hang out on the line to dry. The above amount is

enough for making several dustless dust cloths. She sells them at 25

cents each.

To make an oil mop, she gets 20 cents worth of paraffin oil, warms it up

by setting it in a pan of hot water, and dips the cloth in this and

squeezes it quite dry, then hangs it up to dry thoroughly. In this

mixture she also dips broom bags made of the legs of stockings sewed

together. She puts the oil in a bottle to use again.

PLAN No. 322. WHAT A BUSY COUNTRY GIRL DID

A little farmer girl, who is not a bit afraid of work, earns enough to

clothe her nicely every year, and here are some of the ways she does it:

Picks strawberries in June, at 2 cents a box; earns five dollars.

Picks huckleberries and blackberries in July and August; makes from

eighteen to twenty dollars.

Gathers wild grapes in September, and sells them at $1 per bushel or 50

cents for a peach basket full.

Gathers hickory nuts in October, and sells them from Thanksgiving to

Christmas at $2.25 to $2.50 a bushel. Also gathers chestnuts; sells them

for 15 cents a quart.

Plants 5 cents worth of popcorn seed in the spring; gets five bushels;

sells it at Christmas time for $2.50 a bushel; or $12.50.

In summer she gathers wild balsam blossoms and fresh pine needles; makes

them into small head pillows; sells these in drug and dry goods stores

at 25 cents each, net.

Gathers bayberries in August, and combines their natural wax with

paraffin, melting them into pretty, green-tinted candles. Ties these in

bunches of three with baby ribbon, and sells two bunches for 25 cents.

Planted sage bushes in a corner of the garden. Gets $1 to $5 from these

every summer.

She is now going to raise medical herbs, such as boneset, catnip,

wormwood, mullen, etc., and will sell these to a wholesale druggist at

big prices.

PLAN No. 323. A WIFE WHO BOUGHT A STORE

A street-car conductor on a Massachusetts street-car line, some twenty

years, would probably be a conductor still if it hadn’t been for his

wife, who took the initiative in launching an enterprise that finally

robbed him of his $16-a-week job and gave him one as joint owner, with

his better-half, of six prosperous stores, any one of which would make a

good living for an ordinary family, besides a fine home in the country.

The long hours and close attention of his position as conductor was

wearing on him, and the wife decided to take a hand in managing affairs.

A small creamery near their home was for sale for $800. The wife had

$500 she had saved, and she borrowed $300 more on her furniture and the

store fixtures. She at once changed the name of the creamery to that of

“Clover Farm Dairy Products,” cleaned the place all up, had the landlord

paint it white, put in new linoleums, and had the doors and windows

washed, so that everything about the place was “spick and span.”

She had previously arranged with the dairy above named to handle their

products, which were popular, and opened up for business. The first week

her profits were only $10, but in seven months the mortgage was paid

off, and the place was clear. She then put a counter in the storeroom,

and served sandwiches and light lunches all of which paid well. At the

end of the first year she had $2,500 laid away as profits.

By that time she proposed to buy another store, and each of them own

one, as her husband was ready to resign his position, and this venture

proved as profitable as the first one, they kept on until they now own

six stores and a nice farm.

PLAN No. 324. CLEANED AND REPAIRED CISTERNS

A man who made his living by doing odd jobs found the cleaning and

repairing of cisterns about the most profitable work he could find to

do.

Using a hand-pump to remove the water, he would go down into the cistern

and scrub the walls clean with a broom, then dip up and remove the dirty

water and debris from the bottom. Then he would throw in several buckets

of clean water to wash down any particles of dirt remaining, dip this

all out, and the cistern was clean.

But repairing was necessary in most cases, and if there was a leak, he

would enlarge the hole with a hammer, force in some beef suet and then

fill the hole with a mortar made of cement and water. For cracks in the

wall, he gave it a coat of cement and water, throwing dust-dry cement

over it until the cement set hard enough to hold. If the leak was so

great that the above method would not stop it, he cut a hole in the

bottom, set in a pail that could be emptied when full, and treated the

leak as above, afterwards filling the hole in the bottom with stiff

clay, cementing it with the mortar.

These jobs paid him well, and his time was fully occupied.

PLAN No. 325. GREASE-ERADICATING TABLETS

A very convenient grease-spot remover, made in tablet or stick form, was

put up and sold in large quantities by a traveling man, who realized how

easy it would be to use it while on the road. This is the formula he

used:

Soft soap, 2 pounds; powdered Fullers earth, 2 pounds; turpentine, 6

fluid ounces. Mix the soap with the earth, gradually working in the

turpentine, and give a dash of cheap scent, such as nitro benzol or even

lemon oil. Then fashion into sticks or cakes. The spot or stain is first

moistened with hot water, is rubbed with the cake and allowed to soak

for a few minutes, or to get nearly dry, then it is well rubbed with a

little warm water and a brush, or a piece of clean woolen, and

afterwards rinsed in clean water and finally rubbed dry and smoothed off

with a dry cloth or a brush.

Introducing this among other traveling men, merchants and others, he

soon found such a demand for it that he gave up his position on the

road, began making it on a large scale.

PLAN No. 326. A SOCIAL REGISTER

The society reporter of a leading daily newspaper in a middle western

city, who enjoyed an extensive acquaintance among the prominent people

of the place, devoted her vacation to accumulating the material for a

“social register” in addition to the knowledge she already possessed

regarding the foremost families of the city.

She was on intimate terms with most of the society leaders, and

therefore had but little difficulty in inducing them to pay her $2 each

for including the family name in the register, which was open only to

those who were representatives of good citizenship, and properly

entitled to such prominence.

The $2 paid by the head of each family covered the entire charge for

having the names of all members of the family in the book, and included

the family name, given names, address, telephone number, “at-home” days,

names of daughters having made their debut, as well as those “coming

out” the present season, the names of social societies or clubs to which

any members of the family belong, with official position, if any held

therein, the families, summer address, etc. In a word, it was a complete

record of the city’s best people.

She appointed one or two solicitors capable of approaching exclusive

people, for the purpose of enrolling them, and solicited only enough

advertisements of the highest class to fill six or seven pages, charging

very high rates for the same; and, although no capital was required to

start the enterprise, by the time the solicitors and the printers were

paid, she found she had cleared nearly $600 from the publication of the

book. Every two years thereafter she published a new edition.

PLAN No. 327. CHARACTER READING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

There are comparatively few persons who are really qualified to make a

success of this work, but once in a while some person is found who can

give a very close analysis of the individual character.

A young lady in Indianapolis, who possessed this gift, made a great

success of this work, and not only gave satisfaction to those who sent

photos for her reading, but derived a good living from it.

She advertised in the “personal” columns of several widely circulated

newspapers that she would describe the character of any one whose

photograph was sent to her, detailing the habits, vices, virtues and

other characteristics and traits of the individual, the strong and weak

points in his or her make-up, whom the person should marry, the line of

business to which he or she was best adapted--in short a clear and

complete delineation of that person’s character, yet not through

fortune-telling or anything of that kind.

She announced that, while the regular charge for such a reading was $1,

she would make the price 50 cents for a limited time, and guarantee

satisfaction.

Hundreds of photos, with the requested enclosures, were received as a

result of her first ad. and she was soon in receipt of a steady income

of $150 to $200 a month. The secret of it was that she could do just

what she said she could, and by honestly performing what she promised,

she gained the confidence and the patronage of those who answered her

ads.

PLAN No. 328. SELLING ICE CREAM, BANANAS, ETC., IN THE COUNTRY

A city man, who had formerly lived in the country realized how welcome

would be the sight of a covered express wagon, containing a sign, “Ice

Cream, Pop Corn and Bananas,” coming up the road toward a farm house on

a long lonesome Sunday afternoon. Why, everybody would be customers, and

that gave him an idea.

He owned just the kind of rig that would serve this purpose, and all he

needed was a neatly printed canvas sign tacked on each side of the frame

that supported the cover. A sign painter soon turned these out at a

small cost, and he next visited the headquarters of a large dairy

company noted for the excellence of its products. Here he made

arrangements to be supplied with from ten to twenty gallons of their

best ice cream, of different flavors, each Sunday, at wholesale rates.

A corn-popper, operated by a kerosene lamp that kept the pop-corn warm

as well as fresh, was his next purchase, then a few bushels of popcorn,

while a wholesale fruit house was glad to supply several hundred nice

ripe bananas at the regular prices to dealers.

The next Sunday was a beautiful day--just warm enough to make one wish

for ice cream--and he started out in his rig for a long drive into the

country. His coming created a sensation and the further he drove the

more he sold of his goods, until, just before sundown, the very last of

the ice cream, popcorn and bananas were sold. That night after supper he

figured up the results, and found his net profits amounted to just

$18.75 for that one day’s work. But that was only the beginning of a

profitable business.

HOME-MADE CANDY MAKING THAT PAID

A man in Seattle, who had never made an ounce of candy in his life,

bought a book on candy making at a stationer’s, then worked in a candy

factory for almost nothing for two months, and came out a skilled

confectioner. The following are some of the candies that proved to be

the best sellers and biggest money-makers, and he gives the formulas

below, with the statement that the making of any one of them will

provide a good living for any person who will work and stick to it. Each

is therefore submitted as a separate plan for making a living.

PLAN No. 329. MOLASSES CANDY

White sugar, 2 pounds; sugarhouse syrup, 1 pint; best molasses, 1 pint.

Boil until a little of it hardens when dropped into cold water, then

work in the usual manner.

This enjoyed a tremendous popularity, and yielded an immense profit.

PLAN No. 330. PEPPERMINT CREAMS

White sugar, 1 pound; essence of peppermint, 1 teaspoonful; add

sufficient water to work into a stiff paste, roll into thick sheets, and

cut out with a round stamp of the required size.

Profit enough in this to support an entire family.

PLAN No. 331. CHOCOLATE CARAMELS

Boil a quart of best molasses until it darkens, then put in water.

Before removing from the fire, add 4 ounces of fine chocolate. Pour a

thin layer into tin trays slightly greased, and when it hardens a little

cut into small squares.

His customers never seemed to get enough of these.

PLAN No. 332. A FINE NUT CANDY

Nut candies are always in demand, and those he made as follows were

particularly delicious:

Put the meats of walnuts, hickory nuts, peanuts, or any other kind

desired, to the depth of half an inch, on the bottom of tins previously

greased. Boil together 2 pounds of brown sugar, 1 pint of water, and 1

gill of molasses, until a portion of it hardens when cool. Pour the hot

syrup on the meats, and allow it to remain until hard, then break it

into small chunks.

This was one of his biggest money-makers.

PLAN No. 333. FIG PASTE

Chop a pound of figs fine, and boil in a pint of water until reduced to

a soft pulp. Strain through a fine sieve, add 8 pounds of sugar, and

evaporate over boiling water until the paste becomes quite stiff. Form

the paste into thick sheets, and divide into small pieces with a

thin-bladed knife. Roll the pieces in powdered sugar, and pack in wooden

boxes.

A delicious and healthful confection that proved its popularity all the

year round.

PLAN No. 334. SUPERB CHEWING GUM

No matter how great the supply of chewing gum becomes, the demand for it

always exceeds the supply. There is none better than the following,

which was one of his biggest sellers:

Chicle, 7 pounds; paraffin wax, 2 pounds, Tolu balsam, 4 ounces; Peru

balsam, 2 ounces. Dissolve the gum in as much water as it will take up,

melt the paraffine and mix all together. Now take finely granulated

sugar, 20 pounds; glucose, 8 pounds; water 6 pints. Put the sugar and

glucose into the water, dissolve and boil them to a “crack” degree

(confectioners’ term), pour the syrup over an oiled slab and turn into

it sufficient of the gum mixture to make it tough and plastic, adding

any of the following flavors, if desired: Cinnamon, chocolate,

sandalwood, wintergreen, myrrh, galangal, ginger and cardamon. When

completely mixed, remove to a cold slab previously dusted with powdered

sugar, roll out into sheets and cut into sticks.

PLAN No. 335. SPRUCE CHEWING GUM

Spruce gum, 20 parts; chicle, 20 parts; powdered sugar, 20 parts. Melt

the gum separately, mix while hot, and immediately add the sugar, a

small portion at a time, kneading it thoroughly on a hot slab. When

thoroughly mixed, roll and cut into sticks.

One of the most popular and profitable chewing gums made.

PLAN No. 336. CLERKS FOR U. S. GOVERNMENT. SEE PLAN No. 217

PLAN No. 337. DISTRIBUTING CIRCULARS

Even in a large city, where bill-board and distributing agencies are

already operating, there is still room for an energetic man to make a

good living by working independently.

A man in a western city did this:

By giving honest service at reasonable prices, he worked up a nice,

paying business, all his own, inside of a year’s time.

He not only obtained work by personal solicitation among the home

merchants, but mailed neat circular letters to large advertisers in

other towns, and advertised occasionally in the local papers,

guaranteeing the prompt delivery of printed matter anywhere at any time;

and, as those who employed him once found the service satisfactory, he

was able to enroll many of the large advertisers among his regular

customers.

PLAN No. 338. GENERAL HOUSE-REPAIRING

When an Omaha man had lost all his property, and began to think he was

“down and out,” he suddenly remembered that he was a regular “jack of

all trades”; that he could do almost anything around a house, and that

there was a good living for him in making use of his talents.

With a few dollars he had left after the collapse of his business, he

rented a small shop in a central location, and had some circulars

printed stating that he would do all sorts of repair work needed around

residences, such as fall to the lot of a bell-hanger, locksmith,

carpenter, plumber, gas-fitter, painter, paper-hanger, glazier, carpet

cleaner and layer, etc., on short notice and at reasonable rates.

He received many calls to do work in these various lines, and did it so

skillfully, quickly and reasonably that many housewives engaged him

permanently, at a stated sum per month, to look after such repairs as

became necessary to make around their homes.

His earnings the first year were nearly $1,500 and his income

increased.

PLAN No. 339. BUYING OLD BARRELS

An old man in a western city makes a profit of $25 or more a week by

buying used barrels from grocers and others and selling them to

manufacturers for about twice what he pays for them.

There are several firms in his city that buy all the barrels they can

get, and those that have been used answer the purpose just as well as

new ones. He first makes contracts with these firms to deliver so many

barrels per week at a certain price. Then he drives around in a little

wagon to all the groceries and other places where there are empty

barrels, and buys them cheaply, as most people are glad to get them out

of the way. With these he fills his contracts and makes a good living

from it.

PLAN No. 340. SELLING POPPED WILD RICE

Selling popped corn is an old story, but selling popped wild rice is

decidedly new. A man in San Francisco has done this for some time, and

made good money out of it. Wild rice is a complete food in itself, is

used largely by Northwestern Indians, and costs about 20 cents a pound,

in 100-pound lots, while it retails readily at 60 to 75 cents a pound,

as it is put in smaller packages than popcorn. When popped, it swells

and breaks open, and is very brittle and delicious. He also sells the

whole rice at a very good profit.

PLAN No. 341. RENEWING TYPEWRITER RIBBONS

A Chicago man paid $6.50 for a machine for making, renewing and

re-inking typewriter ribbons, and built up a good, paying business in a

very few months. With this machine new ribbons can be made for about

one-fourth the present prices, and it renews worn ones at a cost of one

cent each. It is very simple and easily operated.

He had 1,000 cards printed, saying: “Don’t throw away your worn

typewriter ribbons. I will pay you 2 cents each for them.” These cards

he distributed in business offices, and soon had so many calls that he

was obliged to hire a man to collect the old ribbons for him.

Most of the ribbons were as good as new, needing only to be re-inked,

and when he had done this he sold them at 25 cents each, as the demand

exceeded the supply.

He also advertised to re-ink ribbons for 25 cents each, and got enough

of these to keep him busy his extra time. He soon discovered that he had

a business of his own that paid him better than any salaried position he

could hope to obtain.

PLAN No. 342. RAN A PADDLE-WHEEL

Two boys at a popular eastern resort made a living by operating a

paddle-wheel--one of the simplest yet most profitable enterprises one

could find.

The wheel was a small wooden affair, something like the wheel of an

old-style baby carriage, and in the front side of the rim were driven

twelve wire nails, an equal distance apart, which stuck out about an

inch and a half, and the spaces between the nails were numbered from one

to twelve, with about 1-inch figures (clipped from a calendar, pasted on

cardboard and tacked on the wheel). The hub of the wheel was set on a

round peg fastened in a wooden pole about two inches thick and about

seven feet high; the bottom of the pole being propped in a foot-stand

like those that are used to hold up Christmas trees, and the rim of the

wheel was brought up to within about two inches of the top of the pole.

To the top of the pole was fastened an extension finger that came out

about two inches beyond the front of the wheel, and to this finger was

fastened a strip of thick leather about three and a half inches long.

This strip of leather was set so as to drop into the space between two

of the nails, so that when the wheel was spun around the leather was

struck by each nail every time the wheel went round.

Twelve paddles were used in connection with the wheel. These paddles

were merely flat pieces of wood in the shape of a broom with a small

handle, or, to be more exact, shaped like the back of a hair brush and

of about the same size. The paddles were numbered from one to twelve, to

correspond with the numbers on the wheel.

Chewing gum was sold at 5 cents a package, and a half pound of

chocolates was given away each time the wheel was twirled, each

purchaser of the gum being given a paddle to hold, with a number, and

when twelve sales were made, the wheel was spun around. Whoever held the

paddle with the number corresponding to that of the space between the

nails designated by the leather finger, when the wheel stopped, got the

chocolates.

Sales were many and the profits large--the cost of the gum and candy

being 27 cents, while the receipts from every turn of the wheel were 60

cents, a profit of 33 cents. And that wheel turned several hundred times

a day.

PLAN No. 343. MONEY IN POTATO CHIPS

An Illinois woman who wanted to help out in meeting the insurance

premium on her husband’s life policy, realized a good profit from making

and selling potato chips, which in nine weeks netted her $80, besides

selling $100 worth of home-baked doughnuts at a good profit.

Make the chips slice very thin, with a slicer. Have ready a pot or two

of real boiling hot grease. After the slices have soaked about two hours

in real cold water, fill a wire basket full of sliced potato and let

drain a short time and put them into the hot grease. You can purchase a

wire basket for this purpose for a very small sum.

One peck of potatoes with sufficient grease usually makes about six

gallons of chips. She sells a measure, one-half gallon scant, for 25

cents. This was easily handled in her home and it was possible to make a

good living and not neglect the family.

PLAN No. 344. BLIND MAN MAKES MONEY

A blind soldier, at a soldiers’ home in Illinois, earns money by making

fancy articles and ornaments of different colored beads. The number of

notches on each box designated the color of the beads therein, and he

very seldom makes a mistake. These ornaments are very pretty, and

visitors, as well as people in the town, buy many of them at good

prices. That poor old blind soldier is not complaining of hard times, no

matter how many younger people with good eyesight complain.

PLAN No. 345. ASSAYER-ASSISTANT. SEE PLAN No. 217

PLAN No. 346. SUPPLYING HOUSE NUMBERS

Making and placing house numbers is the kind of work a Washington man

follows with profit.

His method is to first determine on the height of the figure--3 inches

high being about right. Then cut a set of plain block figure stencils,

from 0 to 9, and mark the outline of the figure on a plate of zinc of

suitable size. Then trace the figure with white enamel and, when dry,

scrape off any enamel that overlaps the outline of the figures. The

background is then painted with bicycle enamel. When dry, punch a small

hole in each of the four corners and put up with round-headed nails.

The prices charged for the numbers put up, is usually 25 cents for a

3-figure number, 20 cents for a 2-figure number and 15 cents for a

1-figure number.

The making of the stencils is about the only difficulty connected with

the work, for after they are made the printing of the figures is purely

mechanical.

PLAN No. 347. POST CARD SERIES

A New York lady who had accompanied her husband on his vacation in the

mountains became, by accident, the originator of a pleasing and

profitable idea. She had promised several friends to write them often

concerning the many experiences of the trip, but found her time so taken

up that all she could find time to write was a few post cards. Even

then, she was interrupted while writing the first one by her husband

calling her to hurry up, as they were to go to a certain lake at a

certain hour, so she added to what she had already written the words,

“To be continued,” and mailed the card. The next day she wrote another,

with the same ending, and before long had made of them a regular series,

which delighted her friends, while they anxiously waited for the next

installment.

When she returned and they showed her the cards, all fastened together

in book form, making a complete story of the series, she decided upon a

plan:

Selecting a good, short love story from a popular magazine, she first

obtained the consent of the publishers to use it as she wished; then she

divided it into ten chapters, and had each chapter illustrated with an

appropriate cut, printed on a post card, and fastening them all

together, took them to the stores making a specialty of post cards, and

offered them for sale. She received many orders for the series, and they

sold well, so that she made an excellent profit on them, while engaging

in a delightfully agreeable work.

PLAN No. 348. GETTING MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS BY MAIL

An eastern lady of considerable literary talent and business ability,

who could not canvass figured out the following plan:

Securing the agency for several of the most popular magazines, she made

a list of her friends, and at odd hours she wrote them, mentioning the

fact that she was agent for certain magazines, and calling particular

attention to some special feature in which she knew each lady to be

interested. She concluded by assuring them that she should regard it as

a personal favor if they would subscribe; and, to make sure of a reply,

she enclosed a stamped, self-addressed envelope in each letter. The

number of those who sent their subscriptions in answer to these personal

letters was surprisingly large, and in acknowledging the receipt of

remittances she would ask if they would not favor her with the names of

some of their friends. This they did in most cases, and by writing these

friends’ friends, and referring to the former, by permission, as having

already subscribed, she built up a list of regular patrons that paid her

very well.

PLAN No. 349. MAKING RUBBER STAMPS

That there is good money in the making of rubber stamps, is proven by

the experience of a 20-year-old youngster who started in business for

himself in a western town of 8,000 inhabitants.

He bought a complete outfit, consisting of a vulcanizer, screw-press,

assorted type, etc., for $25, and as he had learned to set type in the

office of the local weekly paper, the business was easily learned. Here

is the way he started:

Set up the desired name and address in common type, oil the type and

place a paper guard about half an inch high around the form; now mix

plaster of paris to the proper consistency, pour on the type and allow

it to set. Have your vulcanized rubber all ready prepared in long strips

the proper width, and about ¹⁄₈ of an inch thick, and cut off the size

of the intended stamp. Remove the plaster cast from the type, and place

both the cast and the rubber in a screw-press; apply sufficient heat to

thoroughly soften the rubber, then turn down the screw hard and let it

remain until the rubber receives the exact impression of the cast and

becomes cold, when it is removed, neatly trimmed with a sharp knife, and

cemented to the handle ready for use.

The inks to be used with rubber stamps, he made as follows:

Aniline blue, water sol., 1 B. 3 parts; distilled water, 10 parts;

pyroligneous acid, 10 parts; alcohol, 10 parts; glycerine, 70 parts. The

blue should be well rubbed with the water, and the glycerine gradually

added; when the blue is dissolved, the other ingredients are added. This

makes a fine blue ink. Other colors may be produced by substituting for

the blue any one of the following: Methyl violet, 3 B. 3 parts. Nigrosin

W (for blue black), 4 parts. Vesuvius B (for brown), 5 parts. To make a

superior red ink, dissolve ¹⁄₄ oz. of carmine in 2 ozs. of strong water

of ammonia, and add 1 dram of glycerine and ³⁄₄ oz. of dextrin.

He not only supplied rubber stamps to his home town but a little ad. in

the local paper brought orders from other towns, and he soon had all the

business he could handle.

PLAN No. 350. PICTURE FRAMING

In a small Illinois town, where there was no competition from the big

city concerns that claim to do this work for practically nothing, an

elderly gentleman who had formerly been employed by a big

picture-framing house in Chicago built up a nice little business by

framing pictures and doing his work reasonably.

He rented space in the rear of a news depot, and bought a well selected

assortment of mouldings from his old firm at wholesale prices. He

purchased a mitre box, saw, hammer, glue-pot and some small brads, in

the use of which he was very skillful, and arranged with a dealer to

have glass cut any desired size at a reasonable rate.

Having done a little quiet soliciting among the people of the town and

surrounding country, aided by a modest but tasty display of mouldings

and finished frames in the show window of the place, he secured a large

number of orders. His work was skillfully done and his charges were

reasonable, which brought him a steady business.

It made him an excellent living, and he had no fears of losing his

position, a fate which often falls to a man as soon as his hair begins

to turn grey. He had a business of his own.

PLAN No. 351. SELLING POPCORN

While some people, who do not know any better, may smile at the man

engaged in so small a business as selling popcorn and peanuts, the

persons who do the selling know there is money in it if properly

conducted.

A man in an eastern city spent his last few dollars in buying a

two-wheeled cart, fitted with a glass case on top, bought a gasoline

lamp, a popper and a few pounds of popcorn and started out to make a

living.

His profits the first day were $2.25, but that was the smallest day’s

business he ever did, for his sales increased rapidly and in two years

he was the owner of a large bakery, running several delivery wagons to

supply his trade.

His success was partly due to his methods of preparing his popcorn for

sale which was as follows:

Popcorn Balls. To 4 quarts of the popcorn, take ¹⁄₂ cup of molasses and

¹⁄₄ cup of sugar. Do not add water. Boil the syrup until it will harden

in water (not brittle); then add ¹⁄₄ teaspoon of soda to improve the

color. Pour over the corn, mix well, and make into balls. Wet your hands

in cold water when molding the balls, so the corn will not stick to

them. To make the popcorn bricks, use the same process, but have molds

made the size required, but without a bottom. Set the molds on a smooth

surface and fill with the prepared corn; then have a block the size of

the inside of the mold, and about 1 inch thick; place on top of the corn

in mold and hammer down until the top surface of the block is level with

the edge of the mold, then lift up the mold, leaving the corn and block

on the table. Remove the block from the corn, and your popcorn brick is

ready to wrap in wax paper.

Sugared Corn in Bulk. Take 1 cup of best white sugar, three

tablespoonfuls of water, and one teaspoonful of butter. Pour all into an

iron kettle, and boil until ready to candy; then throw into the mass 3

quarts of freshly popped corn. Stir continually until the sugar is

evenly distributed over the corn; then remove from the fire, and stir

until it cools a little. You then have each kernel separate, and all

nicely coated with sugar. It should be watched closely while on the fire

to prevent scorching.

PLAN No. 352. DRESSING FOR CARRIAGE OR AUTOMOBILE TOPS

An automobile salesman in an eastern city experimented with various

kinds of dressings for leather tops on carriages or automobiles, until

he finally struck the right combination, and found such a demand for it

that he resigned his position in order to manufacture it. Here are the

ingredients used and their various proportions:

Orange shellac, 30 ounces; Venice turpentine, 1 ounce; castor oil, 1

ounce; gum sandrac, 1 ounce; nigrosin, 1 ounce; wood alcohol, 9 pints

and 6 ounces. Mix all together and shake until dissolved. Directions for

use: Carefully remove all dirt and dust from the leather with a damp

cloth, after which apply the dressing with a soft camel hair brush. This

preserves the leather, renders it waterproof, prevents all cracking, and

imparts a beautiful glossy finish, making old, faded leather look like

new.

He put this up in pint tin cans with screw tops, and retailed it at

$1.00 per can.

He also took orders for dressing carriages and automobiles, one can

being enough to use on the top, side curtains and rain apron. This could

all be done in half an hour, and he charged $2 to $3 for each job.

Livery stables and auto garages bought a dozen or more cans at a time,

as it is the best dressing on the market. It can also be used for rubber

and cloth tops, and will last for years. Water and mud do not affect its

luster.

PLAN No. 353. OPENED A NEWS DEPOT

On a capital of $25, a 19-year-old boy in a western town of 1,000 people

opened a news depot in a small way, yet made it pay him a profit of $900

the first year, and it now pays several times that amount. An eastern

news bureau supplies him, through its agency in the nearest city, with

all the paper-bound books, magazines, weekly and monthly periodicals for

which there is a demand, and takes back the copies unsold. He also added

a small line of cigars and tobacco, secured the agency for a steam

laundry in the city and has built up a very thriving little business of

his own.

PLAN No. 354. ATTORNEY FOR INTERSTATE COMMERCE. SEE PLAN No. 217

PLAN No. 355. HE SOLD BUTTERMILK

A young farmer lad who wanted to live in the city, found a way in which

that could be done, without any danger of his going hungry, or of being

obliged to look for a job.

Knowing the value of buttermilk as a food and a drink, he decided to go

into the business of selling it. There was a large creamery near the

city in which he had chosen to cast his fortune and he visited the

manager to learn the lowest price at which he could be supplied with

fresh buttermilk every day in quantities of not less than 100 gallons,

and was surprised at the low price quoted. He then visited a large

number of restaurants, hotels, saloons, etc., and offered to deliver to

them the quantity required by each every day, for 12 cents per gallon,

which was three times what it cost him.

Having a few hundred dollars, he purchased a rig especially adapted to

this purpose, and began his deliveries at once. He had attractive

showcards printed, “Fresh Buttermilk Sold Here,” and put up one of these

in a conspicuous place wherever he was making deliveries. He also had

the hotel keepers mention buttermilk on their menus, which they were

glad to do, as it cost only about half the price of sweet milk.

He had a publicity man prepare for him a number of articles dealing with

the healthfulness of buttermilk, and thus created an increased demand

for it by publishing one of these in the city papers once a week.

PLAN No. 356. NEWSPAPER OBTAINED BUSINESS BY LONG DISTANCE PHONE

The owner of one of the leading papers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the

oil boom found that the Denver papers were obtaining all the advertising

while his paper, which was in the oil district, was not receiving any

business.

He knew it would be difficult, if not impossible, to send a salesman to

Denver and obtain this business. The matter was discussed pro and con in

his office as to how this business could be obtained. He told his

advertising man about a plan of getting business by day-letter--upon

which this man proposed they secure this business by long distance

telephone. This the owner thought impossible but decided to try it. All

Denver papers running ads. were gone over carefully and his $35-a-week

advertising man began work. The business of that paper increased $4,500

a month for over three months and the $35-a-week man became worth $150 a

week. The plan provided a new and very direct method of reaching the man

who had the giving of the business. The salesman in this way had the

right of way. He got a quick decision. In talking to the prospective

advertiser he stated his name and the newspaper he was representing,

then complimented the advertiser on the excellent copy he was running in

the Denver paper and suggested that this ad. should be run in the

Cheyenne paper, stating his reason why it would be an advantage. He was

tenacious and intelligent and got the business before he hung up the

phone receiver. This plan brought more than $10,000 worth of business to

the paper in four months. Many claim that it is impossible, but it has

been successfully handled. It cost something like $300 a month for phone

charge, but that expense was made up by adding to the cost of the

advertising space. He did not lose 5 per cent in his collections.

PLAN No. 357. CLUB PLAN FOR HOUSEHOLD GOODS

A man who had been in several suit clubs, where each member pays in $1 a

week for a certain number of weeks, and a suit is drawn every week, thus

getting it for whatever he had paid in, be it $1, $10, or $40, wondered

why the same plan wouldn’t work just as well with sewing machines,

stoves, ranges, carpets, rugs, etc., as with suits. After thinking it

over he concluded it would. Then he started to work out a plan.

Having about $500 of his own, he rented a small store on a side street,

fitted it up with a desk, and a few chairs, and then going to a

wholesale furnishing house, he bought one of each of the articles above

mentioned, the retail price of which was $50. He paid $100 down, and the

balance he agreed to pay in installments of $50 per month. His discount

on the articles was 25%. These he had taken to his store room and

displayed to the best possible advantage.

Then he proceeded to secure 100 members of the club, each to pay $1 per

week for 52 weeks, one member to drop out each week. These payments met

the installments on the goods as they became due, and left a comfortable

balance besides, which was duly deposited in a bank. Each month one

member was awarded his or her choice of the articles bought, and another

was bought to replace it on the floor of the club room.

Many states now have statutes against drawing of any kind so the

statutes of your state should be first considered.

PLAN No. 358. STREET CAR TIME CARD ON CLOCK

A wide-awake advertising man in the Middle West worked out a plan that

was good, inasmuch as it gave accurate information every hour of the day

or night as to the exact leaving time of all the street cars. He

obtained a dozen good sized clocks, set up in different parts of the

city, and the Clock Co. kept them in perfect time for 50 cents per week

each.

A large board, neatly painted, and lettered, was made the background of

the clock, and on this was shown the exact time at which all street cars

left that corner, while generous spaces were left on the board for

advertising purposes. As everybody looked at that clock several times

per day, it was regarded as good advertising and the merchants in each

locality purchased the available space.

PLAN No. 359. MAKING HAIR CHAINS

A lady in Illinois, has for years earned considerable money by making

chains from human hair, and selling them to both men and women. Chains

for men are from 9 to 10 inches long, and sell for $1 to $5 each. Those

for women are about 22 inches in length and the charge for making these

ranges from $3 to $10 each.

She has been at this work so long that she has developed great speed in

making the chains, and she has no difficulty in finding a market for her

products. She has a comfortable and steady income from her work.

PLAN No. 360. NEWSPAPER MAN OBTAINED BUSINESS WHEN SICK

He was the owner of a daily paper in a town, which had secured a stock

convention. This convention was to take place in a week and here he was

sick in bed and unable to secure business from his advertisers.

Thinking the situation over one day the idea came to him, why not

prepare their advertisements from the copy they had previously used and

then send a day letter and make a bid for their business.

This idea he acted on at once. He fortunately found a copy of a paper

carrying advertisements for the desired companies--where the convention

met the year before.

His day letter ran something like this: “Stock convention to open here

on ---- (date). A large attendance certain. Your copy amounting to ¹⁄₂

page run in ------------ paper is before me and suggest this be run in

my Sunday, Monday and Tuesday editions of ----. Cost for 3 times ¹⁄₂

page $------. Wire answer at my expense.”

Out of 15 day letters sent he received answers from 12 to run ads. as

suggested.

He immediately put out the day letters to the remaining prospective

advertisers with the result he obtained better than $1,200 worth of

business. Some did not answer so he forwarded another wire for immediate

reply at his expense.

This is an illustration that a proper plan is effective under adverse

conditions.

PLAN No. 361. EYE SPECIALIST

Perhaps one of the neatest and best conducted businesses I ever visited

was run by an eye specialist in a city of the Northwest. I have known

personally many specialists but few could compare with this man. No

matter how full the office was one received prompt attention when he

entered.

As soon as I entered his office I was met by a good, wholesome looking

girl, card in hand, asking my name, address, phone and business; stated

the doctor was very busy but that she would make a preliminary inquiry,

on which I said my eye was affected and gave her a brief statement as to

what I thought was the cause of it and a few of its symptoms. She asked

me to be seated, saying she would prepare me for the doctor’s

examination which I had called to get, and that it would take about an

hour and thirty minutes for the atropin to take effect, at which time

the doctor would promptly make the examination, and thereupon she put

the atropin in my eye. This girl was a real saleswoman--no one escaped

her.

After I was located the doctor appeared in person with the card, shook

my hand and made me welcome, and showed real sympathy for my condition.

After my hour and a half had passed I was ushered into a neat little

dark-room, and finally taken to a third room where the doctor made a

very careful examination. He told me briefly the trouble, asked me a few

questions and listened attentively to my statement and later informed me

what my trouble was. He accompanied me to the desk, handed the card with

my name on it to the girl, again showing real concern for my unfortunate

condition, dictated to the girl a good statement of my trouble and had

her make a record of it, not omitting to give her all the medical

phraseology. He requested the name of my doctor and dictated a letter to

him.

When I left that doctor’s office I was impressed with the thoroughness

of his service, and the prompt and business-like method in which he

carried it out gave me confidence in him.

If other specialists would handle their business on as efficient and

business-like a basis as he did they would have very few bills that

would be lost.

The above plan, I can safely say, would double the business of the

average eye specialist; no one who entered the office would leave it

without receiving service and would be satisfied with it. Through the

card plan the doctor knows who you are, the business in which you are

engaged, and your general trouble, before meeting you.

PLAN No. 362. OUTSIDE HOUSE-CLEANING

Everybody, of course, is more or less familiar with the ordinary kind of

house-cleaning, but it remained for an enterprising young fellow in

Nevada, to introduce an entirely new style of the industry. His work was

the cleaning, not of the inside but of the outside of houses. There is

plenty of it left for other men to do, in thousands of towns in this

country.

[Illustration: Plan No. 362. Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck]

In his town many of the houses are frame, and he had noticed many of the

more pretentious ones showed coatings of soot and dirt that marred their

beauty. Arming himself with a bucket of hot soapy water containing some

laundry soap and washing powder, a ladder, a soft scrubbing brush and a

sponge, he went to one of the houses, owned by a man he knew, and asked

permission to try an experiment on a small section of the siding at the

rear of the house. It was granted and he proceeded to scrub it well with

the soapy solution, until the dirt was well removed and then he washed

it with a sponge dipped in clear, cold water.

Calling the owner of the house, that gentleman was so amazed at the

improved appearance of the cleaned spot that he asked our friend if he

hadn’t given it a new coat of paint. Being answered in the negative, the

house owner asked what he would charge to go over the entire exterior

and treat it in the same manner. He named a sum that would amount to

about $10 a day and was at once engaged to perform the work. The result

was so surprising that a dozen other property owners in the same

neighborhood gave him orders. His earnings from this method of house

cleaning averaged $50 a week. If the paint is in good condition, washing

is as good as re-painting, and much cheaper.

PLAN No. 363. ADVERTISING ON FLY PAPER

Most advertising men think they have brought out all possible forms of

publicity, but one of them in San Francisco thought of an entirely new

idea, and worked it to perfection. His plan was to make and distribute

fly paper free, containing advertisements which were also printed upon

it free of charge. You can’t see how he could make anything out of that?

Well, he saw a way.

He cut thin manilla paper into sheets 10x16 inches, upon which he had

printed six ads., each 4x4 inches, and covered these over with a sticky

preparation made by melting two pounds of white rosin in a pot and

stirring in a gallon of boiled linseed oil until it is of the proper

sticky consistency. This he applied with a wide, stiff brush, leaving a

margin of one inch all around the edge for handling. The ads. showed

plainly through this.

In order to secure the necessary ads. he agreed to print them on 100,000

sheets of the fly paper free, and to distribute the fly paper to all the

residences in the city, also free, but to charge each advertiser the

regular price of distributing circulars, $3 per 1,000, so that for each

1,000 sheets distributed, the six advertisers paid him $18, and for

every 100,000 sheets he collected $1,800 for distribution. The printing

was but a small item, and the cost of hiring boys to do the distributing

was not very heavy, so he received over $1,400 net profit for a few

weeks’ work. He presented an affidavit that the sheets had all been

distributed before presenting his bill to the advertisers, so he had no

difficulty in collecting the money due under the contracts.

PLAN No. 364. THE APPLES AND THE PARCEL POST

A woman who lived in a section where there were but few good orchards,

one of which was on the farm she and her husband owned, several miles

from a city, made money from carefully selected apples, three dozen in a

box, which she sent to the city by parcel post, and sold for 50 cents a

box.

The apples, of a choice variety, were so plentiful in this particular

orchard, that many of them would have gone to waste but for her

foresight in advertising them to be delivered at that rate by parcel

post, and orders came so fast it kept her busy filling them. The apples

were good, and reached her city patrons in such excellent condition that

repeat orders were a common occurrence and during the late summer and

fall she realized a profit of several hundred dollars through utilizing

a product that in many cases would have been just so much waste. Her

motto was: “Give a good article, and get a good price for it.”

PLAN No. 365. FROM CHINA PAINTING TO SAUSAGE MAKING

Making sausage--even the very best of sausage--may not seem quite so

romantic and “genteel” as china painting, but a very sensible and

talented woman, who had tried both, concluded to stick to the sausage

making, mainly for the greater revenues it produced.

To begin with, she had always been noted for the extra fine quality of

her home-made sausage, so she was not obliged to learn the business. She

informed her friends and neighbors that she was prepared to fill all

orders, and the orders came quickly and permanently. Then she placed a

small ad. in the local paper, which brought still more orders, and in a

short time she had all she could possibly do to fill them. The children

helped her in grinding and in delivering the sausage to her customers,

and as she used only the best meats, and utilized every particle of the

material, there was no waste, but a large and ever-increasing profit.

PLAN No. 366. WHAT A TEACHER DID “ON THE SIDE”

A teacher in Iowa improved her vacation by stenciling various designs,

such as coats of arms, family crests, etc., on sofa pillows and various

other articles of household and personal adornment. This occupation,

while very fascinating, was so novel as to attract wide attention and

create an unusual demand for that class of work, and the teacher who

introduced it into society circles in her home town was soon in receipt

of many orders. She later gave up her school work, to take up

stenciling, as it paid her much better than teaching.

PLAN No. 367. MADE MONEY IN SALTED PEANUTS

Preparing salted peanuts is an art, yet one that is easily learned, and

yields large profits. A young man in a western city of 12,000 to 15,000

inhabitants learned how to do it, and made it a profitable business on a

small capital.

The new method he employed was as follows:

Take a suitable amount of the shelled peanuts and boil in oil until well

done, after which remove them from the oil and spread thinly over a

tin-covered table; then sprinkle the desired quantity of fine salt over

them immediately. Let them dry and put up in neat packages.

Peanut oil, beef suet, or unsalted butter may be used. A substance known

as “Konut,” which may be had of the leading grocers, is in many respects

more satisfactory than any of the oils mentioned.

Use an iron kettle, and place the nuts in a basket made of iron wire

netting, so they may be easily lifted from the oil when cooked. Never,

under any circumstances, use brass, copper, or zinc for either the

kettle or the basket. The nuts should be stirred frequently, while

cooking, with a wooden paddle.

The best shelled peanuts cost 4 to 5 cents a pound in small quantities,

and this process of salting costs about one cent a pound, so that 5 or 6

cents a pound is the total cost. They easily bring 10 to 12 cents a

pound or more so that the young man made at least 100 per cent profit.

As peanut money is “turned over” very quickly, and doubled each time, he

soon realized he had a very profitable undertaking--a good money-maker.

PLAN No. 368. SELLING POWDER WITH A PREMIUM

To offer a premium as a means of inducing people to buy even an inferior

article sometimes succeeds, but here is the case of a Denver man who not

only offered an article of superior merit, but also gave a useful

premium with each sale, and it won him a patronage that was permanent

and profitable.

The article he had for sale was a lustre powder for cleaning any kind of

metal, paint or woodwork, and, although it consisted only of pure common

whiting, with a little oil of lavender to perfume it, it produced

excellent results as a cleaner, when used with a piece of clean flannel

dipped in warm water, squeezed nearly dry, and then dipped into the

powder, and briskly rubbed.

To induce sales, he put on a card three enameled knobs of various sizes,

for coffee pots, teapots, teakettles, pot covers, stewpans, drawer or

door pulls, which he bought for 60 cents per gross, and offered the

three for a premium with each 10-cent package of the powder sold.

The sales under this system were excellent, and when he figured that the

powder, printing, boxes, knobs, and all complete, cost him less than

2¹⁄₂ cents, and he sold them for 10 cents thus getting back $4 for $1,

he was well satisfied, as he knew it would not only produce him a

livelihood but a saving as well.

PLAN No. 369. LAWYER WHO ATTENDS TO BUSINESS

The average lawyer admittedly is a poor business man, because of his

neglect to study the ordinary methods of business.

When he takes your case he often proceeds to handle many details you

know nothing about which takes up his time and often much skill on his

part. All these steps, as a matter of fact, should be known to you so

that you may give him credit for his time and energy he has put in on

your behalf. His failure to call such matter to your attention means if

he charges you for the time he actually spent you think you have been

overcharged and he loses you as a client. For example, after the lawyer

appears for you a motion is made by the lawyer on the other side; this

means he must appear at least once before the court and argue the matter

which might take one-half to a whole day. Then a demurrer is filed which

will take as much more time, and finally the case is set down for trial.

As a rule you will see him only a few times before the trial and

naturally think that he has put in but little work.

The lawyer I have in mind handled his work on a business basis. As soon

as a case was placed in his hands he would immediately inform his client

of every step, and the nature of it, taken in the case. If a motion was

filed, he immediately on receipt of it dictated a letter to his client

telling him of the motion and the nature of it. When he attended court

to have the motion set down he informed his client of it. When the court

heard the motion he wrote his client when it would come up and that it

was not necessary for him to be present. If he was successful he

immediately informed his client of that. In this way he kept his clients

constantly informed of every detail. His stenographer was busy and he

could charge a much larger fee for his service and his client felt

everything possible had been done for his case. In the event that it was

necessary to show the court the amount of service rendered by him, he

could produce the correspondence which showed the amount of work and the

time expended by him.

Ninety per cent of the lawyers could double their incomes by giving

attention to the details of their business as herein suggested.

PLAN No. 370. WASHINGTON MAN GOES THROUGH EASTERN UNIVERSITY

He knew he must have the same opportunity to make good as other men and

he also knew if he was to be a lawyer he must study law. He worked for

one year but did not obtain one cent for his labor and during the summer

of that year he decided to enter an eastern university. He felt somehow

that he must go, and he decided that, money or no money, he would. For

$15 he had a tailor friend of his fix up two old suits and a light

top-coat of his brother’s, and with these clothes which would last him

for a year he felt that he had accomplished something. A friend of his

who was going to enter the university at that time wanted him to go also

and offered to lend him $100. He had $70 saved, so he accepted his

friend’s offer and made the attempt.

After arriving at the university, with entrance fee and books paid for,

he had very little money but by doing some extra work he managed to get

through the first year.

But how about the second year--what could he do now? Another friend

pointed out how the summer before he had sold a book and had cleared

about $300 in this way. There was hope, for if his friend could do it,

why couldn’t he? His friend borrowed $25 and divided with him, and down

into the country, armed with a prospectus they started in. That summer

he cleared more than $400. He went to the World’s Fair, and found

himself back in his class at college financed for another year. After

that he had no worry about defraying expenses at the University. If he

was short about Christmas vacation time he went out and made a vigorous

sales campaign and came back with the money.

This man was nothing out of the ordinary; as a matter of fact he was

only a medium salesman, but he must have his education and he did not

hesitate to sacrifice a little of his energy.

Any man who thinks he can and will back up this desire by real work can

do as well, if not better.

PLAN No. 371. THE WAY A BOY FROM INDIANA WENT THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF

MICHIGAN

He was full of energy and not afraid to use it. He had no money, but he

felt it was necessary for him to take an engineering course. How could

this be done without money?

He was half convinced that there was a way, and one day there were two

men from the University of Michigan selling books in his home town. He

became acquainted with them and found that they had no money and were

spending their vacation in his town raising money to complete their

courses. It was too late for him to go to work with them that season, so

he asked their advice. He was told there was no record of a young man

starving to death at Ann Arbor while working his way through but that

there were many thousands from all parts of the United States who had

worked their way through. They told him to go up to Ann Arbor about two

weeks before the college opened and get a job waiting on table. This

would take care of his board, and it was not considered a disgrace to

wait on table at the university. At the same time they advised him to

call at some houses and get a room where he could arrange to do odd jobs

for the landlady in payment. This advice he followed, obtained the

jobs, entered the Engineering Department, and got into the band, as he

played a horn, which gave him admittance to all games and affairs of the

university. He finished his first year O. K., and the next summer he

sold books and saved more than $300 for his next year’s schooling. Each

summer he sold--sold--sold, and put out other agents, who sold for him

until he had completed his college course with credit to himself and no

debts and a cash reserve.

[Illustration: Plan No. 371. A Word to the Wise is Sufficient]

Any young man can to-day do as well as he did a few years ago. Don’t let

anyone tell you the high cost of living makes it impossible.