was born and raised in the Old Country. When he made application to
relatives who ran a department store for employment, he did not possess
any qualities that they could use. They gave him work for two weeks,
during which time he must find a position elsewhere. At the end of two
weeks he managed to stay another four weeks. He realized he must do
something. He had no capital, but he decided to rent a store building in
the poor end of town. After hours he went about getting all the old
clothes he could collect from door to door.
He cleaned the old suits as best he could and offered them for sale at a
low price. He worked night and day, taking but little time for sleep,
and he soon began to make sales from his stock of old suits.
He obtained the assistance of another poor fellow who wanted to help
him. In a few months he was able to pay his help a regular salary.
Twelve months from the time started in business he had a fine stock of
clothing on hand and was employing four salesmen and making a good
profit.
Thrift coupled, with a good plan, will make a success every time. The
young man I have mentioned above had a very poor appearance, was not
educated, and had much to overcome, but his willingness to sacrifice
clothes, amusements and even food and sleep for a good plan brought him
permanent business in a remarkably short time.
PLAN No. 695. CLOTHES CLINIC
She had a family of six and she was the sole support of the home. All
six children were too young to work. The mother was ambitious for their
education and determined to do all that was possible to give them all
the educational advantages of other children.
To begin with, she had some old clothes on hand, and she soon became
very skilful in making them over into handsome suits for the boy and
pretty dresses for the girls. In fact, her children were the best
dressed of any in their school. Their clothes all had the appearance of
being made by a tailor. She dyed their shoes and made hats, coats,
dresses, underwear, neckwear and stockings. She became familiar with
dying and learned to remove stains from clothing.
People soon learned of her skill in this work. She arranged to teach
other mothers her art and received a good income every year from this
source. She would also, for a certain sum, take an old suit or dress and
help the mothers plan and cut out the kind of dress or suit it could be
made into.
During the war-time her work became very popular, as lots of good
material was found in old garments. Her specialty enabled her to assist
others to make a great saving in the home every year.
The government offered good assistance in this work during the war. The
Board of Vocational Education, Washington, D. C., puts out a pamphlet on
“Clothes for the Family” that would be an asset in any home. During the
war, in different parts of the country, there have been fashion shows of
clothes which were made from old garments. In one instance a pretty
little dress was made from a pink woolen nightgown.
This should be an excellent specialty for any ambitious woman. Clothes
should not be wasted when there is so much poverty.
A man and wife could base substantial and profitable business on the
above lines. Among the well-to-do, old clothing consisting of excellent
cloth can be purchased for a song. These garments can be made into
first-class outfits, by proper cleaning and tailoring, and sold at a
good profit.
PLAN No. 696. PROFIT FROM ONE PIG, $587
A Tennessee boy in May, 1918, invested $50 in a pure-bred gilt, and now
figures his profits at $587.35. She farrowed seven pigs, part of which
the boy sold for $133. With this money he purchased a boar of excellent
breeding, which he exhibited at the East Tennessee Division Fair,
winning the grand championship of the breed over all exhibits. He won
$87 in prizes, $45 of it in competition with experienced farmers. His
animals are now valued at $525. This, with the money from sales and
prizes-winnings, amounts to $745, from which he deducts $157.65 for feed
and care, leaving a profit of $587.35.
This plan would certainly pay a boy’s way through high school, besides
giving him a knowledge of stock raising that would be invaluable.
PLAN No. 697. GIRL MAKES 3,000 GALLONS OF SYRUP
A home demonstrator, who a few years ago was a member of one of the
canning clubs under the direction of the United States Department of
Agriculture, in connection with the state college, now owns and operates
an evaporator for the benefit of the farmers of New Kent County, Va. In
the past season 3,000 gallons of canned syrup or sorghum have gone from
her little plant. She says the turning out of thirty to forty gallons a
day has been easy and pleasant work.
Why not start this business in your community?
PLAN No. 698. THE BEST BEDBUG PREPARATION
The effectiveness of various exterminators of bedbugs is described in
Bulletin 707, issued by the United States Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C., embodying the results of experiments by the Bureau of
Entomology. Hydrocarbon oil sprays (kerosene, gasoline, etc.) were
found to be effective against bedbugs, killing, in most cases, 100 per
cent within forty-eight hours; coal-tar creosote emulsions were
effective, when used undiluted, but their effectiveness fell very
rapidly when they were diluted; mercuric chlorid, as a dust and a
6-per-cent-water solution, was found to kill 100 per cent; pyrethrum was
found to be very effective, while pyrethrum stems were of little or no
practical value; tobacco powders were to be found of little or no value,
and hellebore to be absolutely ineffective.
Why not put this up and give it a name and create a demand for it?
PLAN No. 699. BUILT HER HOME ON $40 SALARY
“How I paid for my home: As a girl, seven years ago, I built a
seven-room modern house costing $3,500. My income at that time was $40 a
month, as I worked as a maid in one of the best families. I built the
house as a home for myself. When I started to build I had the lot paid
for and $700 cash as first payment. The rest of the debt was paid at $35
or more per month. It never involved any hardships, and I was quite
often praised for owning such a fine house.
“When the house was finished I rented it for $36 a month, so as to make
better payments, and it did not take long before the house was paid for
and was mine.
“The foundation is 36x44 feet; there are seven large rooms on the first
floor, four closets, a linen closet, bath, large front and back porches,
a half basement with hot-air furnace, laundry with stationary tubs,
storeroom, coal bin with air-tight chute. The attic is finished and the
walls of the house are built strong enough to add another story if
desired.
“Owning a home not only proved a good investment but gave me real
satisfaction. I was highly respected and well esteemed by my neighbors
and people in general.
“My experience may show that any man or woman can own a home, even with
a small income, with a little saving and a plan.”
PLAN No. 700. RECEIVED $100 PER MONTH FOR 40 YEARS
An income of $100 a month is not out of the ordinary, but when that
income has been steady and all saved for forty years, it means a great
deal.
He was a farmer, and never had the opportunity of a high school or
college, but in spite of this handicap he made a success.
He stayed with his father until he was 23, at which time he decided to
go in for himself. So he took up a homestead in Minnesota. The first
year he put up his shack, 12x16 feet, and broke forty acres of land. His
brother took up an adjoining farm.
It was discouraging in those days, he said. It was a long way from the
railroad and people. One ox, an old cow and a plow were all they had to
work with, all other farm implements they made themselves. Wheat and
oats were the crops, and 25 bushels per acre was the first yield, and 70
cents was the price they received. The first year they saved about $300.
The second year they broke and planted forty more acres and saved $800.
In ten years’ time the railroad was built, the farm was all under
cultivation and a saving of $6,000 was made. Then along came a man with
$12,000 and paid this amount for the farm. With the $6,000 he had saved,
he now was worth $18,000.
This man has always followed the plan of pioneering. Not only has he and
his brother done so but his son also, and he is now up in the Alberta
country farming a large piece of land.
A plan like the above, coupled with thrift, will never fail. He stated
to me that he has lost but little during the forty years, and has saved
more than $100 a month during his forty years of farming.
If you want to homestead go to the United States land office and they
will tell you how much land is subject to be homesteaded.
PLAN No. 701. DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A PLUMBER
My conception of a plumber has always been a husky, dirty-faced fellow
who is full of independence and presenting an exorbitant bill for his
services. But my impressions were changed when I met Bert.
Before going into the plumbing and heating business he sold pumps and
windmills. He came to the city, and this is the way he became a
first-class plumber in one year without previous experience:
He started a repair shop of his own, went out with a soldering iron and
got the business. When he took a repair job he took his time and
carefully figured out how the plumber put his work together, and after a
year of careful study and some experiments of his own he took contracts
for plumbing. He made a special effort to do the work right so there
could be no complaint about it afterward. He spared no pains and never
allowed himself to hurry or slight his work. If he used more time than
the job justified, he made an allowance for that. When he heard of a
person “knocking” his work, he called on him at once and tried to
satisfy him and make him a booster instead. He also put in heating
plants which work was very profitable.
His profits were $10 a day the year round, and he plans to make it run
$20 a day the coming year. His business is only an ordinary and modest
little plumbing and heating concern in the outskirts of a city of
100,000. There is nothing impossible in his plan. He works regularly
eight hours every day and likes his work.
PLAN No. 702. REPRESENT LOCAL WEEKLIES
He represented a list of local weeklies, running from forty to sixty in
number. Through the Type Foundry Association this space can be secured
very cheap, something like 3 cents an inch per paper, costing to our man
to run and advertisement in forty papers the sum of $1.20.
He went over all the newspapers and publications that covered his
immediate territory and clipped from them all the classified
advertisements or display ads. that looked to have a prospect for
business. This clipping was pasted to a form letter, which he had
prepared, calling attention to the advantages of these forty papers to
his proposition. His price to them was $7.00 for the entire list, one
time. An order of one inch meant a profit to him of $5.80.
His net profits for orders--and this is always cash business--nets him
more than $100 a month. There is room for this business in every city of
over 50,000 population in the United States. The letter-writing does not
take over one hour a day, and he mails about eight letters per day.
This is a good business for a woman at home or a man could use it to
great advantage during his spare time.
[Illustration: Plan No. 702. He Washes so Others May See]
PLAN No. 702B. WINDOW-WASHING AND HOUSE-CLEANING
When he came to city he “was down and out.” He was a capable fellow, but
owing to domestic trouble he worried and drank a good deal. He was in
this shape when I first met him. He got a job washing windows and kept
at it. His employer knew nothing about window-washing or
house-cleaning--he was a business-getter instead--and finally as he was
unable to pay this man for his labor, he turned the business over to him
in payment for his services.
He quit drinking when the state went dry. He then saw great
possibilities in the window-washing and house-cleaning business. He
could do the work himself, and if those he hired did not do their work
properly he was quick to see it and let them go.
He would contract for the year to wash windows for an entire building at
something like 15 to 20 cents a window. He would go over all the windows
once every month. His arrangement was cheaper than having the janitor do
it. He also contracted to wash the halls and elevator shaft. He got
business where others could not. He and the men he hired knew how to
work.
When he had an unusually dirty job he used the following combinations
with great success: Citrus powder, three-fourths part; Wyandott powder,
one-fourth part; softsoap about the size of a hen’s egg in a bucket of
water. This solution was allowed to stand over night. When a place was
real dirty he went over it at least three times, washing with the grain
of the wood. He was especially careful to see that no streaky work was
done in the washing of walls, etc. He washed a square place at a time
and was particular to see that the sides and corners were as clean as
the center, then when the next square was done there was no overlapping
of several inches. He was also careful to see that the base-boards of
the room were clean, especially the corners and bottom, which if
neglected always remain unclean in appearance.
It is true that his work is not regarded as a high calling, but he
believed that if his work did not reflect credit on him, he would
reflect credit on it by performing his services well. He also cleaned
houses, using a vacuum cleaner.
His business is very profitable and produces for him a very good living.
PLAN No. 703. WHAT ONE GARDEN PAID
Records of the boys’ and girls’ club work of the United States
Department of Agriculture are full of instances of boys and girls who
grew more than enough vegetables for their home tables and who either
canned the surplus or sold the remainder at a profit not to be sneezed
at.
For instance, Thomas Bresnan, of Springfield, Illinois, a lad of 15,
made a net profit of $283 on a garden that was 310x410 feet.
Thomas had a hard time with worms, but he learned how to fight them. His
garden was so far away that when he needed lime he carried a heavy sack
of it three and one-half miles from Springfield. Some of the lime
spilled out and got into his eyes, and Thomas got mad and quit, but only
until he talked with his club leader, then he went in again and won, as
above mentioned.
PLAN No. 704. FATHER LEARNS A NEW TRICK
Early frosts are the bane of the tomato grower. When a severe one seemed
due one February night in Florida, both a little girl, who had one-tenth
of an acre planted, and her father, who had three, got busy covering up
their plants. “Father” put tomato baskets over the plants to protect
them, and so did Anna, but she did not stop at that; she placed a
handful of soil on top of each of her baskets. It required some time,
but it was time well spent, for when the baskets were removed Anna’s
plants were just as fresh as before the freeze, while “Father’s” had
suffered considerably. When the first picking was made in the latter
part of March, her father gathered thirteen crates from his three acres,
while the girl gathered eleven from one-tenth acre, from which a net
profit of $175 was made.
PLAN No. 705. GROWS THIRTY-ONE VEGETABLES IN HIS HOME GARDEN
Among the striking examples of individual achievement in home gardening
that have been reported to the United State Department of Agriculture,
is that of George A. Williams, an employe of the Government Pension
Office in Washington.
Despite the handicap caused by the loss of an arm, Mr. Williams last
season grew thirty-one varieties of vegetables in his home garden of
slightly less than one-fifth of an acre. He sold in his neighborhood
vegetables worth $326, in addition to those used by his family of four
persons.
Despite the success in this instance, the Department of Agriculture does
not advise home-gardeners to strive for a great variety of crops, but to
concentrate their efforts on a few.
Did you find it hard to get ahead last year? If so, perhaps your back
yard will put your effort on the profit side.
PLAN No. 706. WHAT A GIRL NEARLY BLIND DID
Of all the stories of girls’ efforts that have come to the United States
Department of Agriculture, none tells of more devoted work than that of
a Berkshire County, Massachusetts, girl, who is blind in one eye and
losing the sight of the other.
She raised a pig when the government called for more meat, and when the
army called for fruit pits to make gas-masks, the number of stones she
gathered was the second largest individual number in the country. And
she cultivated a garden successfully when the government told the
necessity for more food production.
“I was very much interested in club work this year, and I was very happy
while working in my garden,” wrote this girl in her story. “I knew that
all the time I was working in my garden I was helping Uncle Sam.”
Except a few furrows turned by her father, where the land was
particularly rough, all the work in her garden was done by the girl, and
in addition she helped her father in his food plot. Between the lines in
her report may be read some of her difficulties.
“The greatest delight my pig had,” she wrote, “was jumping the fence and
rooting in my garden.”
But nothing daunted her, and the surplus products of her work, stored
for the family’s winter use, made a fine showing.
When the father is having a hard time to make both ends meet the
children can do a great deal to put the home on a successful basis and
receive an education while doing so.
PLAN No. 707. SAVING EGGS IS PUBLIC SERVICE
The storing of eggs during the season of greatest production, when they
are the cheapest in price, becomes a public service by making them
available during the season of scarcity of fresh eggs. There are two
approved processes for storage; the first is the water-glass method, and
the second is the lime-water method.
Water-glass Method: For 30 dozen eggs, use two 5-gallon crocks
(capacity, 15 dozen eggs each.) Take 18 quarts of water that has been
boiled and cooled. Mix it with 2 quarts of sodium silicate. Place eggs
as collected, fresh and clean, in crocks, keeping covered to a depth of
at least 2 inches with water glass solution. Keep in a cool, dry place.
Eggs preserved in this way remain perfectly wholesome, maintain full
food value and are perfectly edible for from six to nine months.
Lime-water Method: Place 3 pounds of unslacked lime in 5 gallons of
water and let it stand until the lime settles and the liquid is clear.
Use same as water-glass. This method is recommended when water-glass
cannot be obtained; it is good, though not quite as reliable as the
other.
The above was published in the Extension News Service by State College
of Washington.
Every egg raiser should know when is the time eggs will bring the best
price and save them until that time.
Following the above simple suggestion alone would make the egg a
profit-maker.
PLAN No. 708. MONEY IN POULTRY
It is strange that the people generally do not avail themselves of the
great opportunity the United States Government gives them in poultry.
Write the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C., and tell them
you want a catalog of all publications they have which will help you to
raise chickens in town, city or country and you will be surprised at the
great amount of information at once available to you. This information
will save you several years’ unsuccessful experimenting and bring you to
your goal--a successful chicken-raiser--at a much earlier date. The
following are samples of what can be done by those who make poultry
raising a study.
PLAN No. 709. WHAT ONE WOMAN DOES
To prove that there is profit in poultry raising, let me cite the case
of Mrs. George L. Russell, of Missouri, whose husband had maintained all
along that her hens were an expense instead of a profit. He was giving
all his attention to some brood-mares in which he had invested $2,000.
In defense of her hens Mrs. Russell kept a set of books for a year and
proved by the actual figures that the money she had invested in poultry
was paying a better dividend than the money her husband had invested in
brood mares.
Last year she had a flock of 365 Brown Leghorn hens and cleared
$1,782.91, besides adding $200 worth of extra stock to her flock. Her
husband isn’t complaining anymore.
To his wife Mr. Russell gives all credit for the success of their
poultry business. “It has been a life-saver for me,” he said.
PLAN No. 710. ANOTHER CHICKEN RAISER
Mrs. H. A. Hume, of Tecumseh, Kansas, turned $150 worth of feed into
$427.16 worth of chickens, at market prices, this year, besides the eggs
she produced from 140 hens. She has demonstrated what can be done on a
general farm with poultry as a side line. She breeds a good laying
strain of White Leghorns.
PLAN No. 711. MAKES GOOD PROFIT
A California woman states in a letter the following: “Last month I
turned $275 worth of feed into $667 worth of eggs.”
If it is possible for these people to do this, it is possible for you,
or any other poultryman, to make good money out of your poultry if they
are properly handled.
PLAN No. 712. ARTICLES YOU CAN MAKE AND SELL
The following articles could be made by you and sold. They are necessary
to the household and will appeal to the housewife.
Each article is easily made up. Give a name to your article so that you
may have the advantage of repeat orders. To commence with you will have
to solicit your work. You will find that a neat pamphlet telling of the
value of your article distributed two or three days before you call will
be a great assistance to you.
PLAN No. 713. SHOWER BATH
A very simple, convenient and cheap arrangement for a home-made shower
bath has been built by a woman. Take a 2-gallon tin bucket, punch a hole
in the bottom of it, and solder in the opening a piece of metal piping 2
inches long. Attach to the pipe a 4-foot length of rubber tube, with a
sprayer from a garden watering-pot on the end. Tie to the handle of the
bucket a piece of rope and run the latter through a staple driven into
a wall at a suitable height, thus making a pulley by which the bucket
can be raised or lowered to meet the convenience of the person using the
shower. Drive a hook below the staple so that the rope can be fastened
to it to hold the bucket in place. A good-size wash tub placed beneath
the bucket will serve for the person to stand in. To cut off the water a
clothespin pinched on to the rubber tube will do. The cost of the shower
bath will be as follows:
2-gallon tin bucket .50
12 feet of rope .07
Rubber tube and connections 1.50
Piping .10
Stock .10
Staple .10
----
1.87
PLAN No. 714. DUSTLESS MOP
Another of the conveniences showing a woman’s ingenuity is a dustless
mop for painted or polished floors. The mop is made from old stocking
legs cut into 12-inch lengths and slashed into strips an inch wide up to
within 4 inches of the tops. For a handle cut the straw from a worn out
broom. Take a large wooden button and cover it with several thicknesses
of stocking, then fold the tops of the stockings so that they radiate
from a common center and screw them to the end of the broom handle
through the button. Tie twine several times around it just below the
button. The mop is then dipped into a solution of one-half cup of
paraffin and one cup of coal oil (kerosene) and allowed to dry. Keep
moist by rolling tightly and pressing into a paper bag.
PLAN No. 715. SCRUBBING CHARIOT
Another woman’s invention is the scrubbing chariot, and it is one of the
cleverest of labor-savers. This consists of a comfortable, padded frame
on rollers, which enables the housewife, in wiping floors, to roll
herself about and do her scrubbing with ease and comfort and save a
great many steps. An ordinary soap box can be used for this by cutting
down the sides to about five inches high and knocking out one side.
Padding made of burlap will make it comfortable when kneeling, and the
whole thing is placed on four rollers and stands just the height of the
rollers off the floor. On one side of it should be screwed a dish for
soap and on the other a rack for the scrubbing brush.
PLAN No. 716. ICELESS REFRIGERATOR
This iceless refrigerator was made by a woman, and its cost was
practically nothing. It stands in a tub of water and on the top shelf is
a pan of water. A canton flannel covering should be made and hung smooth
side outward, tied closely at the bottom, buttoned securely down one
side, and the top laid in the pan of water with a weight to hold it. Of
course, with this arrangement the cloth keeps itself continually wet
with water supplied from the pan on top and from the tub in which it
stands.
The central post should be substantial, with a large heavy base so that
it will not tip. Two shelves 12 inches apart will hold the milk, butter,
etc., and a third shelf at the top is necessary to hold the can of
water. Keep the refrigerator in a shady place where air will circulate
around it freely. On dry, hot days a temperature of 50 degrees can be
obtained in this refrigerator if plenty of water is kept in the pan and
in the tub.
PLAN No. 717. FOLDING IRONING-BOARD
This ironing-board is a step-saver. Being hinged to the wall, it is
always ready and in place. It may be hooked up against the wall when not
in use. The leg (braced) is hinged to the board and falls flat when the
board is lifted. With it down and in use the leg is not in the way and
skirts may be ironed without lifting or changing. The directions for
making are as follows: The ironing-board is 57 inches long and rounded
at the free end and should be made of thoroughly seasoned wood, 1¹⁄₂
inches in thickness.
Its width at its attached end is 15 inches, at the free end 10¹⁄₂
inches. The leg (brace) is 56¹⁄₂ inches if the board is attached to the
wall at 33 inches from the floor. If the board is higher the leg is
longer. Attach the leg to the board 11 inches from its free end, by
hinges.
The board should be padded with any heavy material such as cotton
flannel or a blanket, and brought to the under side of the board and
tacked smoothly in place. The ironing-sheet should be 4 inches wider
than the board with tapes on opposite sides about 10 inches apart to tie
it in place.
PLAN No. 718. SOLDERING KIT
An outfit for repair work by women in their homes is useful and will
save considerable time and expense. The equipment includes a soldering
iron, a small brush, a file, sandpaper or a brick to rub the iron clean
and to clean the surfaces to be repaired, a porcelain or stoneware cup,
and from the hardware store get 10 cents worth of muriatic acid, some
zinc points, such as glaziers use, and some solder. Soldering flux is a
solution of zinc in crude muriatic acid. To make it put half a
teaspoonful of muriatic acid in the cup and add one zinc point. Be sure
not to spill any on your clothes. It is used to tin the soldering iron
and also for brushing the tin and soldering surfaces so that the solder
will adhere to the tin.
While iron is heating, thoroughly clean the vessel to be mended, by
scraping down to the bare metal, then brush over it with the flux. When
your iron is heated, clean it free from soot or dirt with sandpaper or
other means, then dip it into the flux in the cup and at the same time
hold the solder to it, and the end of the iron will become covered with
the solder, which is called “tinning” it. For small holes this is all
the solder needed. Just touch the tinned iron to the hole and it is
filled. For larger holes more solder is needed. For a still larger hole
a zinc point can be laid on the hole and fluxed, then solder applied. A
hot iron and clean surface will insure good work.
PLAN No. 719. WOMEN MAKE GOOD COW-TESTERS
The twenty-seven women now employed as cow-testers by some of the 353
cow-testing associations in this country have not only done satisfactory
work, but have achieved results above the average, according to dairy
specialists of the United States Department of Agriculture.
The main reason why women have begun to do this work is the scarcity of
cow-testers. Most of the testers at work when the war began were young
men, and many of them are now in military service. Because of the
shortage of workers the past year has seen the number of cow-testing
associations (organizations of farmers who want to keep records of their
herds) decrease for 472 to 353, although there has been an increased
demand for such associations, and it is believed the number could easily
be doubled if enough testers were available. The work does not require
great physical strength. It does demand some training, but this is
easily acquired by women.
The first woman cow-tester in the United States, Miss Bessie Lipsitz,
began work less than three years ago, with a cow-testing association in
Grant County, Wisconsin. Wisconsin now has eighteen women cow-testers,
Iowa six and three other states have one each.
Considering that the testers get free board and lodging, the pay is
thought to be satisfactory. The women cow-testers are paid the same as
men and receive from $50 to $75 a month, besides board and lodging.
Conveyance to the next farm is furnished in some associations, while in
others the tester provides her own conveyance and the farmers furnish
free stable room and feed for her horse.
The employment of women as cow-testers came as a war measure. To keep
the work on a satisfactory basis, women must continue to receive the
same pay as the men for the same work. Occasionally there may be an
association in which it would not be advisable for a woman to work, but
if such is the case, the fault is with the association and not with the
woman cow-tester.
How to obtain more testers is a serious problem. Partially disabled
soldiers, in some cases, may be induced to take the necessary training
and enlist for the work. In some sections young men below the draft age
have been employed, and the results have been satisfactory. The most
radical step, however, and the one that promises the most far-reaching
and immediate results, is the employment of women as cow-testers.
PLAN No. 720. SUPPORTS FAMILY BY HOME CANNING
The sale of her canned fruits and vegetables has enabled a woman in
Albemarle County, Virginia, to feed and clothe her eight children the
last two years. When war was declared her eldest son enlisted in the
navy. In a few months the second son went into the army, and the mother
was left to wrestle with the problem of providing three meals a day for
the eight younger brothers and sisters. About this time the
home-demonstration agent of the United States Agricultural College was
teaching the women in that locality how to can. With a garden that could
raise plenty of fruit and vegetables, and with wild fruit to be had for
the picking, the mother of ten decided that therein lay the solution of
her problem. Results have proved that her judgment was right. Thousands
of cans of fruit and vegetables have been put up and sold from this
country home. One lot, which the home demonstration agent helped her
sell, brought $125. This plan made a living for a mother and eight
children.
PLAN No. 721. GIRL MAKES $98 FROM NINE HATCHES
Little girls who have to help themselves to go through high school can
often accomplish it by raising chickens.
A little girl in Orange County, Virginia, borrowed money to buy nine
settings of eggs. On this venture her first year’s work netted a profit
of $98, and she has three roosters left.
There is no reason why your little girl should not have a few chickens
and help swell the family income.
PLAN No. 722. MOUNTAINEER WOMAN CANS TO KEEP TEN CHILDREN IN SCHOOL
Knowledge of how to can products that will command a ready sale is
enabling a mother in the hills of Virginia, to keep her ten children in
school. Schoolbooks and clothes cost money, but this ambitious mother
was determined that her children were to have schooling if it were
possible.
Late in the fall, with a 2-horse wagon loaded with her canned fruit and
vegetables, this woman of the hills drove 20 miles to the
home-demonstration agent’s headquarters. She brought 30 gallons of apple
butter, 376 quarts canned tomatoes, 8 quarts ripe tomato catsup, 8
quarts green tomato catsup, 12 quarts succotash, 36 quarts soup mixture,
12 quarts okra, 12 quarts fox grape preserves, 48 No. 2 cans string
beans, 36 cans (No. 2) corn, 48 quarts peaches, 48 quarts blackberries,
12 quarts butterbeans, 12 quarts squash, 2 quarts damson preserves, and
8 quarts green tomato and mince meat to be sold.
Through the co-operation of the home-demonstration agent, the wagon was
emptied in a short time in the university town, and the little boys and
girls up in the hills will have shoes and schoolbooks this winter as a
result.
PLAN No. 723. SUCCESS IN POULTRY WORK
All poultry raisers, especially girls should receive encouragement and
inspiration from the record made by this girl. Her experience
demonstrates the wide possibilities for poultry paying a girl’s way
through school, making worth-while trips, purchasing their clothes, and
having spending money for other purposes. With an original investment of
$17.50 for a pen of Barred Plymouth Rocks, this girl in one season--her
first year in poultry work--made a net profit of $370.50.
According to her own story, she bought her original stock just a few
days before Christmas, in 1917, giving the local bank a note for $17.50.
Her birds began to lay a month later. From January 25 to October 17 the
original pen of pullets laid 650 eggs.
The first nine eggs she received from the flock were used as a setting,
from which were hatched and raised seven chicks. From these she selected
her chickens, which later took prizes at the tri-state and county fairs.
From her first 100 eggs set she hatched 92 chickens. From the next 125
eggs set, 110 chickens were hatched. During the season she raised 170
chickens.
According to her account these results were not obtained without work
and some hard luck. For example, a mink visited the flock on the night
of the 4th of July and killed twelve of the biggest chickens. Hawks in
the neighborhood seemed to have a fondness for her chicks, and carried
off their share.
Last September she sent two pens of her chickens to the tri-state fair,
where they won first and second prizes. The following month she
exhibited them at the county fair, and won first prize, which was $20.
She now has a flock of fifty selected pullets and eight cockerels, in
addition to her original pen.
In spite of the losses from the mink and all charges, she made a good
profit. All the grain fed came from her father’s farm, but was charged
at market prices, the total cost of feed amounting to $40. The cost of
the original chickens, interest and express, brought the expenses of the
season to $59.50. From the sale of settings of eggs, chickens sold,
prizes, and value of stock on hand, a total of $430 is credited to her
work. When expenses are deducted, there is a total net profit for one
year of $370.50.
PLAN No. 724. BUSY BEES WITH BUSY BOYS OR GIRLS MEAN MUCH HONEY
Bee raising by boys or girls received special encouragement during the
past year from the Department of Agriculture and the state agricultural
colleges because the honey produced aided materially in relieving the
sugar shortage. Plenty of cane sugar is now in sight, but the young
people seem to have no intention of ceasing in their efforts to produce
honey. They and their families have acquired a taste for the delicacy,
and hot biscuits minus honey don’t taste the same any more. Then, too,
there is a ready sale at a good price for all the surplus honey one can
produce.
The parents co-operated with the young people in the study of modern
methods and plans for bee raising. Comb-honey only had been produced
heretofore, as little had been known of extracted honey or how to manage
colonies producing it. The parents were willing to secure modern
equipment for the children, and to move the bees from old crooked combs
in poor boxes and hives to modern 10-frame hives. When the colonies
began to produce well, the children united in the purchase of a complete
extracting outfit.
With honey selling 20 to 30 cents a pound in some markets, keeping bees
is a business by which boys or girls can make fair incomes without the
expenditure of much work or time.
Two of the largest producers in Lyon County were boys of 17. One boy
with seven colonies produced over 500 pounds in the 1918 season. The
other, with fifteen colonies, took from his hives 858 pounds. With an
initial investment of $15, one of the smallest boys in the club, working
in the country at extracting time, found 100 pounds in his contest hive
and sixty pounds in the other. A third member cleared $40 from the
season’s work, besides supplying the family table.
PLAN No. 725. LOST--A COMMON FACTORY-HAND; FOUND--A GOOD FOOD PRODUCER
Four years ago a boy in Massachusetts faced what would have seemed even
to an adult a hard problem. Born in Italy, but thoroughly inoculated
with American ideas of the necessity of education, James was told by his
father while in the 8th grade that he could no longer be kept in school.
His future path was to lie toward the near-by factory.
Believing, because of his garden-club experience under the auspices of
the local leader of the United States Department of Agriculture, that he
could earn as much by potato raising outside of school hours as he could
in a factory by devoting his whole time, he finally obtained permission
from his father to try it. So successful was he that summer that his
father was willing that he should enter the 9th grade in the fall.
The next spring the superintendent let him have land to use for a large
garden. To ten boys he had selected from the upper grammar grades he
made the proposition to pay so much an hour and to give each a garden
plot. The following excellent advice he offered to them in addition: “If
you are going to quit, quit now while it is cool and not when it is hot
next August.”
By fall he had decided that enough could be earned in the summer to
enable him to attend high school and the agricultural college later. Now
a junior in high school, he has a good-size hot-house under lease, where
he raises cabbages, cauliflower, and tomato plants; he owns an auto
truck to handle his produce, and he has a bank account and pays his
bills by check.
With all the school and business cares, he still has time to look after
the school welfare of his younger brothers and sisters, visiting their
teachers and watching their progress.
A factory hand, probably only a mediocre one, has been lost, but a good
food producer has been gained through the vision given James by his
experience in raising a garden. If you are in a factory this example
will give you hope.
PLAN No. 726. A BOY’S BIG PROFIT ON ONE PIG
From Blackwell, Texas, comes the report of the worth-while achievement
of a 15-year-old boy, Kenneth Campbell. This little live-wire pig-raiser
sent his pig to the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show. It turned out to be the
grand champion barrow of the whole exhibit. It won $105 in prizes and
sold for $115. The initial cost of this prize-winner was $5 and $34.60
was spent for feed; leaving a net profit of $180.40.
It is a fine thing to teach your boy to-day, while you are with him, how
to support himself in an independent way. Would your boy know how to do
something himself, if you were gone? A knowledge of how to make his way
is worth more to him than your money when you are gone.
PLAN No. 727. WHAT A UTAH GIRL DID
“I am going to take the first prize in gardening away from the boys at
the Utah State Fair in 1919,” is the challenge of a 15-year-old girl
member of a boys’ and girls’ club in Salt Lake County, Utah, conducted
under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture and
the state agricultural college. It looks as if her prediction may come
true, for already this industrious girl has made a rather remarkable
record. She began at the age of 11, and in the first year her exhibits
took first prize at the grade school, first prize at the high school,
and second prize at the state fair. When she finishes her course at the
high school she is going to enter the Utah agricultural college.
In addition to plowing, harrowing, and leveling sixty acres of land and
helping her father with other farm operations--doing for him all that a
boy of her age could do and much more than many boys would be willing to
do--this young food producer this year raised and sold an abundance of
garden produce; put up 600 quarts of fruit and vegetables, besides
drying a quantity of them; raised 100 chickens, knitted socks for
soldier relatives overseas, and bought Liberty Bonds to back them up.
But let her tell her own story:
HELPED PLANT 1,500 FRUIT TREES
“I was born and raised in Salt Lake City. When I was eight years old my
father moved to his farm in Pleasant Green near Utah Copper Mills and
Garfield Smelter, Salt Lake County, Utah. It was covered with sage brush
and rock, which had to me removed.
“The following spring we cleared a part of the land and planted 1,500
fruit trees. We also engaged in truck farming that season. I, the oldest
girl of a very large family, assisted my father in every way I could. He
always enjoyed instructing me, and he explained every little question I
asked him. He taught me how to plant small seeds by mixing them with
sand, scattering it along the trench and covering with a hoe. Also he
taught me how to plant vegetables and how to cultivate. We raised an
abundance of tomatoes, cabbages, cauliflower, peppers, egg plant, and
also 1,600 bushels of carrots and 200 bushels of potatoes.
“The next year I assisted again, and the following year--I was then
eleven years old--he gave me a small space of my own, which he plowed
for me. He made me plant everything myself, also do the weeding and
hoeing. I raised an amount of garden truck and took it to town and sold
it. The next year--at the age of twelve--I was attending school in
Hunter when they started a boys’ and girls’ club. When I joined, my
father said I would have to learn to plow, so he bought me an 8-inch
plow. I plowed about half an acre; then he allowed me to drive three
horses with a sulky plow. I plowed twenty acres for him that year and
mowed thirty-three acres of alfalfa hay. My sister raked it, and we all
bunched it and I helped stack it. I raised nine different kinds of
tomatoes, six different kinds of peppers, cauliflower, cabbages, and
peanuts, and seventy-two different kinds of flowers. I took first prize
at the grade school and first prize at the high school and second prize
at the state fair.”
PLOWED SIXTY ACRES HERSELF
“Last year I plowed, leveled and harrowed thirty acres and cut all
father’s hay, put up 300 quarts of fruit and vegetables and had a war
garden. This year I plowed sixty acres all myself, harrowed and leveled
it--wheat, alfalfa and beets--and helped father plant and cut and
irrigate. I have put up fruit and vegetables--600 quarts--besides drying
fruit and vegetables, and have baked the bread, and on Saturday and
after school I have to plow until the ground freezes up, and finish in
the spring, 1919. I am going to take the first prize away from the boys
in gardening, in the Utah state fair.
“I attend the Cypress High School. When I finish there I am going to go
to the Utah Agricultural College.”
RAISED ONE HUNDRED CHICKENS
“I also raised 100 chickens this year. I joined the Soldiers of the
Soil, and with $15 I borrowed in June I bought 105 baby chickens and
raised 100 of them. In June, 1919, I will pay off my note. I am going to
market all my roosters and keep the pullets. I could pay the note now,
but I am going to lend it to Uncle Sam on the Fourth Liberty Bond for
our boys over there. I have found time to knit socks for some of my
cousins over on the firing line.”
PLAN No. 728. 33 ACRES, 23 PIGS, GIVE BOYS $2,255.64
Twenty-three boys under 16 years of age, in a Haywood County, Tennessee,
pig club, each bought a pig. The average weight of the pigs was 78
pounds. Most of them were registered. In 180 days they attained a weight
of 266 pounds each, at a cost for feed of 10¹⁄₂ cents a pound. These
pigs at the time of the local pig club show were worth 15 cents a pound,
at market prices, making a profit of 4¹⁄₂ cents a pound, averaging a net
return to each boy of $11.97 over cost of all feed--a total gain for the
club of $275.31.
Now see what the corn club in the same community has done: Thirty-three
boys, 16 and under, each cultivated one acre in corn, according to
instructions furnished by the county agent, produced an average of 53.1
bushels to the acre at $1.40 a bushel selling price--$74.48--making a
total production for all of $2,457. Cost of raising the corn was 27¹⁄₂
cents a bushel, or a total cost of $477.51, leaving a clear profit of
$1,980.33
Now add to this the pig club profits of $275.31 and you have a grand
profit for the boys of $2,255.64 from thirty-three acres of land and
twenty-three small pigs.
If boys can do this well what can a man thoroughly trained in farming
do? The government will supply you with unlimited literature on farming
if you write to them, and will give you much other assistance if you
call on them.
PLAN No. 729. TEXAS BOYS MAKE MONEY FROM CALVES
“I have bought a $50 Liberty Bond and intend to use the balance to help
in paying my expenses at the A. and M. College the coming term,” was the
answer of a boy in Nolan County, Texas, when asked what he would do with
the profit from the sale of his two prize-winning calves.
This boy, a member of an agriculture club conducted by the United States
Department of Agriculture and the Texas A. and M. College, exhibited two
calves at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show. His steer calf, a little over a
year old, and weighing 950 pounds, brought $149.62, besides winning $25
in prizes. The cost of feed and other expenses was $85 for each calf,
leaving a profit of $103.14 on the two, besides the $50 in prize money.
Another entry at the Fort Worth show was that of a 15-year-old club
member from Sweetwater, whose calf, fourteen months old and weighing,
after shrinkage, 1,060 pounds, sold for $169, after winning $20 in
prizes. This young exhibitor believes in good stock, and has bought a
registered Hereford calf with the proceeds.
PLAN No. 730. COW PROVIDES MUSIC LESSONS
In Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, lives a little girl who won in 1916
many prizes for farm club-work; enough in fact, to buy a calf. She sold
the calf, which had grown into a cow, for $80. She plans to use the
money for music lessons this winter while she is attending high school.
She is proud that she is able to pay for the lessons by her own work.
[Illustration: Plan No. 730. The Country Girl’s Friend]
PLAN No. 731. REAL ESTATE MAN BUYS SNAP
This man was engaged in real estate for years and stated that his best
profit was made from special propositions that he discovered during the
year.
Probably during the year he would find five or six different places that
were exceptional purchases. He put but very little money in these
investments as a rule, and would prepare them for early sale. He would
paint the dwellings, arrange the yards, and put in trees, if needed, and
if it was a farm he would wholly renovate the farm from one end to the
other, painting the buildings and re-arranging the entire place. Some
times it would take a year to get the farm into shape. He states that by
this method, he earned as high as $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
His wife has been a very valuable assistant to him in this work, as she
arranges the shrubbery and the general decoration of the house and yard
for him.
PLAN No. 732. HE BOUGHT AND SOLD MERCHANDISE STORES IN THE COUNTRY TOWNS
When this man was in the university he took a literary course, but after
finishing his college work, he took to business and enjoyed it
thoroughly. He found quite an opportunity in the small country towns
surrounding a northwestern city. He said the electric railway and
railroads and automobile highways were becoming such a factor within a
hundred miles of this city, and the advertising in the daily paper was
practically putting out of existence the small town merchants. He said
this was so manifest that many merchants were compelled to go out of
business. Where he made his profits, was to buy the merchandise of these
local merchants. He knew the value of their stock without making an
inventory of the goods. He told them he would buy on his own judgment.
Oftentimes on the purchase of the stock itself he would make more than
$2,000. He would then start in, fixing up the store, rearranging
everything about the place, putting in more new stock, and, as a result
he made a few sales. He conducts the business for about a year and
having obtained all the advantages and profits that a new store would
enjoy, he gradually sells out and closes up the business.
Often while holding these stores he is enabled to make an exchange and
thereby realize a nice profit. He has secured three or four stores, far
removed from the paved road, railroads and electric lines, and these pay
well. One plan he has adopted is when he goes into a new community to
start a weekly newspaper. Through this he carries all of his advertising
and the news of the community.
I saw him about six months ago, and he has made in six years more than
$30,000 in this work. His farm lands and four stores insure him a good
income. This is a good business in the surroundings of any large city.
PLAN No. 733. GIRL FROM SMALL COUNTRY TOWN EARNS HER WAY THROUGH HIGH
SCHOOL
She earned her way through high school by placing an ad. in the Sunday
Newspaper, stating that she would be glad to exchange, for her work,
room and board, as she desired to attend school and wanted to be with a
respectable family. This method is followed by hundreds of girls from
the country and when the summer vacation comes, she does certain farm
work, whereby she is enabled to make some extra money, and in this way,
makes enough money to pay her expenses while she is at high school.
Families that have a couple of small children are glad to avail
themselves of such an opportunity, and often a girl finds a good home.
PLAN No. 734. GRAIN SUPERVISOR. SEE PLAN No. 217
PLAN No. 735. ATTORNEY USES INFORMATION BUREAU IN HIS CITY
This attorney made up his mind when entering practice that he would use
as much care as possible in bringing his suits, so when a case was
brought to him, he always had a complete report concerning the party
against whom the suit was brought. He made it a point to know the
party’s standing in the community, whether he was good or poor pay, what
property he had, if he had property, what incumbrances were against
it,--in fact, he knew everything about his man before he started his
suit and knew very well what per cent of the judgment he would receive
if he obtained same. This was business-like and it made him much money
and saved him a great deal of time in useless litigation.
At the court house usually there is an information bureau, conducted by
some member of the reporting company of the city which can give him a
complete statement of the people’s credit. A Clipping Bureau in the city
can also give additional information. The information bureau of the
abstract office can tell all about the property that the party concerned
owns, the obligations against it and so forth. The assessor’s office,
county treasurer’s office and the clerk’s office are all able to give
information. He claimed that these various avenues of information which
he uses, have made him more than $1,000 to $1,200 a year.
He also runs in a few lawyer’s-directory services, holding himself ready
to give reports concerning people who live in the community. For these
reports he charges $2.00 or more and if the report is very long, he
makes a charge of $5.00. These reports, he says, run into a considerable
sum each week, which, alone, would defray all of his office expenses.
PLAN No. 736. DIVORCED WOMAN FARMS
This woman was left alone by the desertion of her husband and had two
small children to take care of. She endeavored to secure a position in
the city, but was unsuccessful, so she made arrangements to rent a farm
two or three miles from the city, and near the electric line. It was an
irrigated tract, and she went on the farm in the early spring and
remained there until late in the fall.
She had had very little farming experience prior to this time, but found
that she could not only make a living, but put up many preserves
besides, and soon she had four or five hundred dollars to carry her
through the winter.
PLAN No. 737. YOUNG LADY ON THE FARM BECAME AMBITIOUS
She became convinced that by making good cottage cheese there would be a
ready sale for it, so she prepared to learn all that she could about
cottage cheese making. She asked questions of all of those who made it,
and she attended every meeting where she could make inquiries about
making the cheese. She wrote to the Department of Agriculture for a
bulletin of how to make cottage cheese on the farm. From these sources
she gained much information and started making the cheese. She put it up
in very pretty packages and labeled them, “Cottage Cheese from the Farm
Direct to You.”
Those who ate her cottage cheese wanted more. She made a price high
enough to net her a very good profit. She placed an ad. in one of the
daily papers of the city and secured a good deal of business through it.
She delivered her sales by parcel post.
In the beginning prior to advertising, she solicited among her friends
by telephone, selecting in this manner people with whom she could get in
direct touch from the farm. She secured regular customers through her
friends who lived in the city in this manner, and in five or six months
she had a steady demand for all the cottage cheese she could
manufacture. She claims to make seven or eight hundred dollars a year in
this way.
PLAN No. 738. BLUE PRINTS OF FURNITURE BECAME VERY POPULAR
This man made a specialty of making blue prints of different kinds of
furniture that could be made at home. He exploited the fact that the
ordinary farm conveniences could be made by the man on the farm and much
money saved.
If it was a kitchen cabinet, he drew the plan and made a blue print of
it, which showed how to put it together. He also wrote a letter of
instructions on “What to Do and How to Do It,” and approximately the
cost of making the article. He had these blue prints and letters
prepared and when inquiry was made for these plans, for which he charged
$1.00 each, he forwarded them at once.
There was scarcely an article of utility in the house that he did not
have a blue print of, and instructions for making it, and the exact cost
of materials and tools necessary to do the work. These grew very
popular, and in a year’s time, by running an ad. in several of the
local, country, weekly and farm papers, he was enabled to make a net
profit of approximately $2,000. In the beginning he did this work on the
side, but later it took up his entire time.
PLAN No. 739. RETIRED MAN GOES INTO POLITICS
This man had sold his farm and had been residing in the city for about
two years without anything special to do. He became possessed of the
idea that he could serve his country, city or state in some manner, so
he saw one of the leading politicians of the town who gave him the
following advice:
That he go to one of the local attorneys and pay him a fee of, say,
$25.00 and get a complete list of all of the various offices that were
open to people in that county seat, giving the names of the township
offices that he might be able to fill, the requirements of each office
and the salary to be derived therefrom, and the time that these offices
would come up for appointment or election, also the same information
relative to the county, the city, and the other towns in the county;
also what offices were open in the state, with their respective salaries
and the requirements of each, and a further statement from the attorney
as to what appointments were open, or were available from the various
congressmen and other governmental agencies. This report was submitted
to him and he went over the entire field and ascertained which one
aroused his interest. After making his selection, he went to the office
of the county auditor and obtained leave to look over the votes that had
been cast for the last few years and found that the Republicans had
dominated the county for years back; so from this he determined that it
was a question of getting the nomination on the Republican ticket, and
this he set about to do.
First, he became familiar with the strong men of his party and also
found out in what way he could be of real service to the party. In this
way he ascertained what offices were short and what kind of competition
he could expect. While he did not get the office that he thought he was
best qualified to fill, yet there was another in which he did not
encounter any competition and was nominated and elected.
The $25.00 he paid the attorney for this outline was money well
invested, and he made the suggestion that any young man who desires to
follow public work for a livelihood would do well to follow the advice
which was so profitable to him.
Politics is like any business--one must build slowly and carefully.
After he has rendered his party service for a period of years, and even
though unsuccessful at the polls, there are always opportunities for him
to secure appointments on certain commissions or obtain good positions
through the influence of friends in the party. And receiving the above
report, which has been given as a suggestion, you will be very much
surprised to know how many political offices there are in your city,
county, state, and nation.
PLAN No. 740. DOUGHNUTS EARN HER A HOME
She lived in a city of about 50,000 population and was absolutely
dependent upon her own efforts. She chose, rather than go out to work,
to earn her money from her own kitchen, if possible. She had always been
complimented on the kind of doughnuts she made, and she thought that if
people were as appreciative as those who had eaten her doughnuts, she
would be able to make a very good income from making them. So she
started making “Home-made Doughnuts;” real home-made doughnuts--no
make-believe about them. She labeled them, “Mrs. Blanche’s Doughnuts.”
Soon she established a reputation for them, as people began to talk
about the quality of her doughnuts. They called for them at the store,
and the store people wanted to buy from her, so they could fill her
orders. The result was that in a few years she had bought and paid for a
home in one of the best districts of the city, as well as making a good
living besides.
To a woman who has a home and children, one wonders why she should
prefer to go out to work when there are so many plans that she can
execute in her own kitchen, and be with her family and be her own boss.
PLAN No. 741. HIDDEN COIN IN WINDOW
This is an old plan, but to those who have never seen it worked it might
be suggestive of some idea.
The merchant increased the value of his store windows by means of
concealing a coin or some other object and awarding the person who finds
the article, a certain prize. You would be surprised at the amount of
interest this attracts to a display window, and it often brings many
sales. At least, it has the effect of making the windows far better
advertising mediums.
PLAN No. 742. HE DREW PICTURES
If you wanted to illustrate certain subject matter in your book, this
man would with his camera take an exact picture, so as to give you an
idea of what his art work would be like. After taking these pictures, he
would send them to a Chicago company which would put them through a
process of enlarging to the desired size, leaving only the dim lines on
the print, so from these he could make his drawing. This man understood
art work and could lay in the lines with pen and ink in an excellent
manner and was sure to meet with the satisfaction of the man with whom
he was dealing. From this plan alone he was able to make a living.
PLAN No. 743. THE WAY A YOUNG BOY PAID HIS EXPENSES WHILE GOING THROUGH
THE GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL
This young man lived in the Northwest country about twenty miles from a
large city. At a very early age his mother died, leaving his father with
seven or eight children. His father was very cruel, and he can remember
how each child, when they became old enough to think for themselves, ran
away. He had three sisters, and because of the cruel treatment they had
to leave. His father refused to use any farm implements other than was
made by his own hands. When it came to putting the wood up in the
winter, he would make all of the children go out and work with large
saws until they almost dropped from exhaustion. He made a wagon to which
he hitched these children and compelled them to draw the wood to the
house. This kind of work continued until he was unable to stand it any
longer, and he left for the city, not knowing where he was going to make
his home.
He got a job working in a home, doing odd chores. He had a desire to go
to school, and this privilege was allowed him, and for his keep he
rendered service to the family. He was an exceptionally good boy and did
his best to please the people for whom he was working, with the result
that this was spoken of to others in the neighborhood. Finally a
doctor’s wife became interested in him and made it possible for him to
continue and devote his spare time to his school work. He realized this
advantage and worked hard and made a good showing in his grade school
work.
When it came to the high school, he was doubtful as to whether or not he
could continue, but the good woman encouraged him further, and believing
in his fidelity to his work and the great interest he manifested in his
education, she decided to assist him through a high school course, in
which he won an enviable reputation. He was made the president of his
class and won unusual honors through his ability as a debater.
This is a good illustration of what a boy, alone in the world, can do
for himself. This young man made it a point to please the persons for
whom he was working, and always had in mind the giving of more service
than was asked of him, and in this way he won their appreciation and
their good will, and naturally made them ambitious for his future
welfare.
PLAN No. 744. ELEVATOR BOY BECOMES ENGINEER
When I was in high school I knew a boy there who was engaged in the
elevator work. His dress was very ordinary; he had no parents and had to
look out for himself.
One day he had a conversation with one boy in the class who was planning
on becoming an engineer. This boy made it clear to him how important it
was to know all about algebra, geometry, etc., and do his daily work in
the best possible manner. He was much impressed with this conversation
and made up his mind that he would become an engineer. He continued his
work at the elevator, and in this way defrayed his entire high school
expenses. He was allowed the privilege of sleeping in one of the rooms
in the large building, which was his only home, and his elevator work
paid for his board and gave him a little extra money.
High school was not enough. He must go to college, and he felt that he
must go to one of the best engineering schools, which he did. He found
employment during the summer, worked in the various mines, where he
followed the mining engineer’s work and in this way not only made a good
salary but gained beneficial experience as well.
Not many years ago I met him and learned he was engaged in railroad work
in Alaska, held a very responsible position.
PLAN No. 745. HE DEVELOPED AN AMUSEMENT PLACE AT THE LAKE
This lake lay about seventeen miles outside of a city of some 125,000
population. About three years prior to the time to which I refer, a real
estate campaign was put on and a car line was built to this place, and
advertisements were displayed showing the advantage of this lake as a
future summer resort. After the real estate boom subsided the place did
not materialize as a summer resort.
One day a young fellow from an eastern city came to this place and
noticed the great opportunity for an amusement resort during the summer
months. He made a lease for a number of years and began to build up a
summer resort. He took the old restaurant building and turned it into an
up-to-date place. All people who took lunches at this restaurant, paid a
good price, but those who brought their lunches and desired to use the
hall, paid 25 cents for the privilege. He opened bathing houses and made
the usual charges, and pointed out to the people of the city the great
opportunity of visiting this lake Friday afternoon or Saturday night and
remaining until Monday. He made arrangements to supply them with tents.
He arranged with large stores to have picnics at this lake, and he
offered special inducements to the people to visit his resort. He was
very successful, and after a couple of years of this kind of work he had
made this one of the most popular places of amusement.
PLAN No. 746. RIDING TO COLLEGE ON BROOMS--HOME WORKERS IN SOUTH DOING
IT
Broom-making in some of the southern states is being encouraged by home
demonstration agents of the United States Department of Agriculture and
the state colleges. The home clubs in Alabama rank first in this work,
and the past year some especially good records have been made in the
state. The crowd which attends one of these broom-making demonstrations
is such as to make the passer-by think an auction is being held.
Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, grows broomcorn, and brush and broom-making
has become so popular in that section that all the members of clubs who
didn’t grow a patch last year are planning to do so the coming season. A
broom-making machine has been bought by one community in the county, and
other localities have ordered machines for use next summer. With a
machine, twenty-five brooms can be made in one day. Each member makes
her own brooms and gives one-fourth of her output for use of the
machine.
The cost of making a broom in that part of the state is estimated to be
20 cents, with the wire, thread, tacks, and handle costing about 12¹⁄₂
cents. Good hickory handles cost 8 cents apiece, while those of other
woods cost 6 cents. Tuscaloosa County plans soon to manufacture the
broom handles instead of buying them.
The community that possesses a broom-making machine has a source of
steady income. While the broom work is planned primarily for the young
people, the older members of the family, on cold rainy days and in
winter, find making these necessary household articles an easy way to
add to the family income. At the present price of brooms, fair wages can
be made.
When a pupil learns to make perfect brooms, if she wishes to put them on
the market, she is permitted to label them as “Tuscaloosa Grown” and
“Home-Demonstration-Club Brooms.” Some of the girls in the clubs are
planning to earn money for normal school and college by broom work. Will
they be termed witches if they ride to school on a broom?
The boys as well as the girls in the broom-corn sections are interested
in the industry. One boy in Cherokee County, Alabama, has been enabled
to enter high school by the money he earned in making brooms. He has
sold sixty at $1 each and has 200 more to make.
PLAN No. 747. GIRLS RAISING MORE CHICKENS THAN BOYS IN FLORIDA CLUBS
Thousands of chickens were added to Florida’s supply of fowls last year
by the efforts of the boys and girls under the supervision of the
home-demonstration agents of the United States Department of Agriculture
and the state colleges. The bronze medal for the best individual record
made by a girl went to one in St. Johns County. She set 179 eggs and
raised 152 chickens, valued at $264.24. The expenses for raising the
flock were $56.95, leaving a net profit of $207.29. A boy in Baker
County, won the state bronze medal given for the boy who made the best
individual report in the state. He raised eighty-three chickens, valued
at $116.15, at a cost of $47.64. His net profit was $68.51. The girls in
Florida apparently are outstripping the boys in the poultry-club work.
PLAN No. 748. POULTRY YIELDS $1.14 AN HOUR
A side line for the farmer’s wife which yields $1.14 for every hour she
puts into it is worth the consideration of every farm woman. A Wabash
County, Indiana, woman has demonstrated that this amount can be made by
keeping chickens. Last year the local county agent interested this woman
in keeping a farm poultry flock, and as a result she produced a net
profit of $172.24. She kept an accurate account of her work and found at
the end of the season that she had received $1.14 an hour for the time
she actually devoted to caring for her flock.
PLAN No. 749. GIRLS HERD THEIR OWN SHEEP
“After paying all expenses, I cleared $1,240 from my sheep last year,”
reports a girl member of a sheep club organized in Fremont County,
Wyoming. Several years ago she bought the first of a flock and she has
handled her sheep so successfully that they number 108 ewes. In 1918 her
flock produced seventy-nine lambs, seventy-six of which she raised.
These, with seven orphan lambs abandoned by sheep herders, constituted
the year’s increase. All the care the sheep require is given them by
their girl owner. She next plans with part of her profits to buy
twenty-five pure-bred Cotswold ewes in Nebraska and to use them to start
a pure-bred flock.
A girl in Sheridan County, Wyoming, in 1918 cleared $928 with a flock of
forty-eight ewes. During the coming season these two girls plan to throw
their sheep together and to herd them themselves over the Big Horn
Mountains. Orphan lambs discarded by other camps are also to be
collected and cared for by the youthful herders. Members of the boys’
and girls’ sheep clubs in some of the western states find the salvaging
of “bum” or stray lambs an economical way of obtaining a start in the
sheep-club work.
PLAN No. 750. CHAMPION DRAWS 80 CENTS AN HOUR FOR GARDEN WORK
Eighty cents an hour for working in his garden is what a man of Fillmore
County, Minnesota, earned in his one-tenth-acre plot. He was awarded the
state championship in garden work in Minnesota last year, and in his
report to the state club leader of the boys’ and girls’ club work, he
says:
“For several seasons I had grown a garden with some success, and in 1919
I determined to secure even better results. I started my garden on three
plots (all together comprising one-tenth-acre) differing widely in soil,
slope and surroundings. Two had been, until the year before, waste land,
and sprouted a healthy crop of bones and rusty cans in the wake of the
plow. I made my plans according to conditions and adhered to them
throughout the season to save time and confusion when there was real
work to do. Desk-farming is one of the most interesting features of the
work.
“Tomatoes, cabbages, eggplant, and everything that needed an early start
were planted about the first of April in four hotbeds of ordinary size.
All surplus plants were easily sold.
“In May, twelve dozen tomato plants were transplanted, and were coming
along splendidly until one day I found a thrifty plant nearly cut off.
This rather pleased me, as I had never seen a cutworm outside of a
picture, and I was glad to make his acquaintance. When the seedlings
fell, one by one, however, I decided I had seen enough of the pest.
Happily, their depredations were stopped in time and there were plenty
of plants to fill in.
“I raised about two-dozen kinds of vegetables to provide a variety for
the table, and for marketing, large crops of tomatoes, peas, cucumbers
and celery were planted.
“Canning was a big factor in making the garden a success. What we
couldn’t eat I sold, what I couldn’t sell we canned; and what we
couldn’t can, I fed to the chickens, so none were wasted. Our summer
kitchen was our cannery and the wash boiler our canner. For nearly
everything we used the one-period, cold-pack method and followed the
directions sent out by the government, with excellent results. We put up
221 quarts of tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, beets, chard, sweet
pickles, kohlrabi, tomato jelly and sauce, carrot conserve, dill
pickles, limes, cabbages, tomato jam, mincemeat, eggplant, celery and
others. Since we desired a pleasing variety we canned thirty-seven kinds
from our garden and purchased some others.
“In all my work with the plants I kept this in mind--that the earliness,
quality and quantity of the product is dependent on the seed,
environment (including weather, fertility, and shade) and the care given
them. So I purchased the best seed obtainable, planted it when natural
conditions were best, and cared for each kind as its peculiarity
required. Where there is a deficiency in any of these requirements, it
can in part be made up in the others.
“The total receipts from the one-tenth acre were $150.48; subtracting
$35.42 for expenses, a profit of $115.06 was left, or the equivalent of
80 cents per hour net for every hour spent working in the garden.
Home-gardeners will not have to strike for higher wages for some time
yet. In addition, I had the good fortune to win a $45 prize for an
exhibit of canned goods at the state fair. So I feel well repaid
financially for my efforts.”
PLAN No. 751. BOY BELIEVES IT’S WISE TO LEARN BY EXPERIENCE
Experience pays--that’s the belief of a boy of Montgomery County,
Indiana, state champion in the sow-and-litter project in 1918. And
because he wished to learn by doing from the start, this club member
himself selected and bought the sow he entered in the contest.
The hog was an immune, registered, big-type Poland China gilt, and at
the time of purchase, in January, she weighed 279 pounds. In April, nine
pigs were farrowed, all of which lived. The litter averaged forty-four
pounds apiece at nine weeks, when the leader in the boys’ and girls’
club work weighed them. Four were sold in the fall for $50 apiece, one
was fattened, killed and sold for $34, and four sow pigs which are being
kept are worth at least $200.
All the care of the pigs has been taken by their boy-owner. His father,
in the meantime, has become interested and from now on father and son
plan to make the raising of the big type Poland China pigs a main line
in their farming.
PLAN No. 752. SUCCESS INSPIRES
Here are the achievements of a Tennessee boy: Fifteen months ago he
purchased a Duroc Jersey gilt, giving his note for twelve months to the
local bank. This pig has farrowed twenty-seven pigs and has raised
twenty-one of them. The boy sold three of the first litter at $25 each.
Four of them now weigh 420 pounds and are worth $320. The seven pigs of
the second litter are worth $175, and the seven of the third are worth
$105, while the mother--the pig purchased when the boy entered the
club--is valued at $75. This means a profit of $750 in fifteen months.
PLAN No. 753. GIRL WINS POULTRY RECORD
The poultry record for the past year for West Virginia was made by a
girl of the Harrison County Poultry Club. Her record for the year shows
a profit of $111. She now has thirty-three year-old hens and
twenty-seven pullets in her flock, and has been getting a dozen eggs a
day, for which she has received 60 cents and more.
PLAN No. 754. CLUB STARTS BOY ON ROAD TO SUCCESS AS POULTRYMAN
That organized agricultural club-work among boys and girls is something
more than a contest which ends with the season, but a continuous,
constructive piece of work that eventually leads the club members into
the business of farming and home making is illustrated by the
accomplishments of a poultry club member in Vermont.
In 1912 a boy joined the Vermont Poultry Club, in spite of the
opposition of the members of his own family, and, in a number of
instances, discouraging words from friends and neighbors who did not
understand what club-work meant to the American boy. He started with
only a few settings of eggs, but two years later he was well on the road
to success, for he had become the champion in his county in poultry
club-work, having produced the best grade of birds and the most profit
from his investment. In 1914 he exhibited some of his birds at the
county fair, the poultry show, and the state fair, and succeeded in
winning a number of ribbons and first prizes. The following year he
became the champion poultry-club member of his state and was sent to New
York City to the National Education Association to tell how he did his
work and what he thought of it. The following year he again won the
state championship.
By that time his reputation in the poultry industry had spread to other
states and he was selling settings of eggs throughout New England direct
to consumers, and had built up a trade in the sale of birds for breeding
purposes.
One year later, in 1917, he started out with a business of his own,
using his own business cards, his own business stationery, and expanding
his poultry plant two-fold. He became manager not only of his own
poultry plant, which he developed rapidly, but found time to take a
position as superintendent of the poultry farm at one of the State
institutions.
PLAN No. 755. CLUB CALF BRINGS $1 A POUND AT MINNESOTA BABY BEEF SHOW
Sixteen counties in Minnesota were entitled to send forty-eight boy and
girl club members, with their calves which had won prizes in their
county, to the first baby-beef show held in that state. Owing to the
influenza epidemic only twenty-nine were able to go to St. Paul in
December and exhibit the baby beeves they had raised; but the crowd made
up in enthusiasm what it lacked in numbers. The calves were sold at
auction and brought an average of 20 cents a pound.
The champion, owned by Irwin McKay, was sold for 35 cents a pound, and
with the prizes won, netted his young owner $447. Later the calf was
resold for $930, or for a little more than $1 a pound. A boy on the farm
can easily pay for his education by raising stock as did the boys above.
PLAN No. 756. ONE EWE GIVES BOY PROFIT OF ALMOST FIFTY DOLLARS
Late in the fall of 1917, a boy of Henry County, Indiana, and nine other
boys in his neighborhood, organized a sheep club. A few interested
stockmen and the local bank made it possible for each club boy to secure
one breed ewe. Each boy gave his note to the bank for the purchase price
of his sheep.
In the summer of 1918, a boy presented the following statement of his
work and investments:
_Disbursements_
Cost of one ewe $18.00
Feed 6.25
Interest on note .72
------
Total cost $24.97
_Receipts_
1 ewe (inventory) $18.00
1 lamb (sold) 25.00
1 lamb (sold) 22.50
Wool (sold) 6.50
------
Total receipts $72.00
Total cost $24.97
------
Profit $49.03
Investments paying 200 per cent were worth looking into, the farmers who
lived in the locality of this club thought and interest in sheep raising
increased.
Another boy in the Henry County club has developed a flock of thirty
ewes, and plans to have more. His father has become so interested in his
work that, although the boy is rather young, he is allowed to go to
sales and do his own bidding on prospects for his flock. Practically all
the boys engaged in the sheep-club work are keeping their foundation
animals and at the same time are adding to their stock.
Previous to 1918, there were but few boys and girls organized into sheep
clubs under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture and the
state agricultural colleges. With the high price of wool and mutton, the
sheep project, however, has become increasingly popular. Last year 257
such clubs were organized, with an enrollment of 3,613 members. During
the year 8,005 lambs were raised by these young people, and 2,006 pounds
of wool were marketed. The total value of the flocks at the end of the
year was $131,173.40; the initial cost of the sheep, together with the
expense of feeding them, was $37,082.82; the total profit made by the
boys and girls who were members of the sheep clubs, and who continued
the work throughout the year, was $94,090.58. The results the boys have
been getting have opened the eyes of their fathers. The boys and girls
in the sheep clubs are demonstrating in every state that sheep are
profitable if well handled.
PLAN No. 757. BOYS’ YOUNG SOW MAKES NET PROFIT OF $385 IN LESS THAN 12
MONTHS
Three hundred and eighty-five dollars in less than a year--that’s the
clear profit a young sow gave two boys who live in Harris County, Texas.
Theorists in farm management and the like might figure up a pretty big
bill of costs against the sow, to be deducted from the profit she has
made, but the boys know that such figures would not tell the truth,
because they’ve got the money in their pockets--or they did have it.
The sow and her progeny did eat sixteen bushels of corn, worth $24, and
they did range over five acres of pasture, considered worth $25. These
two items--a total of $49--have already been charged to the sow, and
deducted from her gross revenue of $434. The remaining $385 is clear
profit, because the rest of the feed consisted of slop and surplus milk
that would have been thrown away had there been no pigs, and peanuts and
sweet potatoes gleaned by rooting the patches after the crops had been
harvested as carefully as possible. She farrowed her first litter of
pigs April 4, 1918. One died and two were given in payment for the sow.
The other four were grown, fattened, and killed to furnish the family
supply of lard and pork. Another litter of six pigs came later in the
year and are now on the farm--good-sized shotes in first-class
condition. The sow will farrow a third litter of pigs before long. The
account now stands this way:
The original sow, $60; six shotes, $60; 800 pounds of pork, $224; twenty
five gallons of lard, $90. These four items make a total of $434 from
which a deduction of $49 is to be made for corn and pasture. Those
figures prove that hog raising on the farms of Harris County, Texas, is
profitable. But the caution to be written at the bottom of this story
is: do not carry figures too far. Making figures in arithmetic fashion,
you would have this: If one sow makes a profit of $385, 100 sows would
make a profit of $38,500. That is perfectly good arithmetic but it is
not good farming.
The big profit in hog raising on southern farms, the specialists of the
United States Department of Agriculture point out, is made where the
farm family keeps enough hogs to consume all the waste products, to
convert into money the things that would otherwise be lost, and that can
be kept on a minimum of bought or stored feed. Every dollar got out of
that number of hogs is practically clear profit. Beyond that point the
profit dwindles.
The number of hogs that can be profitably kept is, of course, a matter
that each farm family must determine for itself. In some cases it may be
one sow. In others it may be six or a dozen or any number of sows. On
every farm there is some waste that pigs could convert into money. On
most farms it probably amounts to at least as much as on one farm,
where, in one year, a boy made one sow produce enough revenue to buy a
whole set of new furniture for mother or to keep sister in college for a
year.
PLAN No. 758. MONEY MADE IN PRESERVING EGGS
Two methods of preserving eggs are recommended by specialists of the
United States Department of Agriculture, they follow:
Water-Glass Method:--Use 1 quart of sodium silicate to 9 quarts of water
that has been boiled and cooled. Place the mixture in a 5-gallon crock
or jar. This will be sufficient to preserve 15 dozen eggs; and the
quantity needed to preserve a larger number of eggs will be in
proportion.
First, select a 5-gallon crock or jar, and clean it thoroughly, after
which it should be scalded and allowed to dry.
Second, heat a quantity of water to the boiling point and allow it to
cool.
Third, when cool, measure out 9 quarts of water, place it in the crock,
and add 1 quart of sodium silicate, stirring the mixture thoroughly.
Fourth, place the eggs in the solution. Be very careful to allow at
least two inches of the solution to cover the eggs.
Fifth, place the crock containing the preserved eggs in a cool, dry
place, well covered to prevent evaporation. Waxed paper covered over and
tied around the top of the crock will answer this purpose.
Lime method:--When water glass cannot be obtained the following method
may be used in its stead. Many consider this method entirely
satisfactory, though instances are known in which eggs so preserved have
tasted slightly of lime.
Dissolve 2 or 3 pounds of unslaked lime in 5 gallons of water, that has
previously been boiled and allowed to cool, and allow the mixture to
stand until the lime settles and the liquid is clear. Place clean, fresh
eggs in a clean earthenware jug or keg and pour the clear limewater into
the vessel until the eggs are covered. At least 2 inches of the solution
should cover the top layer of eggs.
Sometimes a pound of salt is used with the lime, but experience has
shown that in general the lime without the salt is more satisfactory.
Hold your eggs when the price is low by the above methods and sell when
the price is good.
PLAN No. 759. PROTECTION AGAINST FRAUDULENT COURT ACTIONS
How often it happens after one has applied years of honest endeavor that
worthless persons will compel him to go to court to defend his character
and property against a charge of fraud. After the case has gone to the
jury he still believes that it is impossible for such efforts against
you to succeed--that the charges and statements cannot be believed. The
jury goes to its room and decides the case. The members are tired and
want to get home, so they compromise, which means that the defendant
loses perhaps $5,000. He thought it impossible to be robbed in daylight
before a court and jury, by perjuries, but this is what has happened.
The lying combination has been successful. The court is not to blame
and sometimes the jury is not at fault. Doubtless the next few years
actions of this kind will be very numerous, as the people who traded
property during the war will hatch up all kinds of schemes to regain it.
I have listened for days at a time to men in fraud actions lie before
court and jury, and they knew they were perjurying themselves and knew
its penalty, but that did not deter them. They were wolves in sheeps
clothing, and possibility of money meant more to them, than honesty.
The most effective protection against men of this character is as
follows: When one has business transactions he should be sure to obtain
a signed letter similar to the following. If the parties to the
transaction are honest, they will not take exception to it. If it is a
trade give them the same kind of a letter:
............... 19....
To........................
Name
........................
Address
Dear Sir:--
I have directed this letter to you for the purpose of stating our
transaction of ................ 19.... with reference to
.................. which is as follows:
(Here give legal description of property and a short and condensed
statement of transaction.)
I wish you to understand that I have in no way depended or relied on
any statement made by you or your agent in above referred to
transaction but have made careful investigation for myself upon which
I have relied.
I have had this letter prepared for the purpose of assuring you on
behalf of myself and representatives that I am forever barred from
complaining in any manner about the above deal.
I remain,
Very truly,
............................
Name
Especially is such letter of value to a lawyer, as without it he may
some day be confronted with a former client who is willing to lie about
some transactions they have had.
This plan alone may save one his all some day, if he will follow it. As
a matter of fact, an attorney should insist on such a letter to protect
his client. If a person refuses to sign a letter similar to above it is
better to lose a deal, as such refusal warrants suspicions.
PLAN No. 760. IMPROVED MILKING STOOL
It does not seem that a milking stool could need any improvements.
Nevertheless, a party recently designed and made a very handy one for
the farmer.
The stool is strapped to the body of the milker, and when he rises from
the task of milking one cow to go to the next, the stool, of course,
goes with him, leaving his hands free. When the weight of the person is
placed on the seat, the spring in the rod supporting the seat is
compressed, and the rising of the occupant releases the weight, which
assists in lifting the stool from the ground.
When many cows have to be milked the work of carrying the stool becomes
labor which adds to the worker’s fatigue.
You can manufacture these yourself and market them.
The farmer owning stock can obtain a list of large and small stock
farmers from clipping bureaus in any large city. When advertising, begin
with a well-written classified ad. in a reputable farm paper.
PLAN No. 761. TRY TO FEED ALL THEY GROW
A farmer who lives in northern Idaho, says:
“I came here five years ago from Montana, buying an 80-acre stump farm,
with a small house and barn on it, and with a few acres of it cleaned up
along Sand Creek. I paid $2,600 for this place, and it took all the
money I had, except a little to buy a couple of cows and a team of
horses. For the last five years my wife and I have made a living on this
ranch, supporting five children, and have cleaned up the land, so that
to-day we have thirty-five acres under cultivation. We made it a point
to try to feed everything we grow on the place and selling it as a
manufactured product.
“Last year we produced seventy-five tons of choice clover and timothy
hay. The surplus timothy we sold at our barn door at about $16.00 per
ton. We raised some 150 sacks of potatoes on an acre of newly cleared
land and we have sold them at an average of about $1.50 per 100. We have
raised about one ton of carrots, three tons of rutabagas, and about one
ton of mangels, and red garden beets. The root crops we find very
profitable here, and they give us a fairly well balanced ration for our
milk cows, with clover hay. Our books show that our cows have averaged,
summer and winter, about $18 per month each. We have milked six cows the
past year. During that time we raised seventeen hogs, marketed them at a
fair price, and have fed our one team of horses.
“We have a nice trout stream running through our yard, as well as a
railway station a quarter of a mile away. We have refused an offer of
$8,000 for our place, stock and improvements, so that we feel justified
in feeling that we have done fairly well in the five years that we have
lived on the stump ranch.”
PLAN No. 762. FARMER IN THE WEST
This farmer tells of his success and satisfaction in Idaho, as follows:
“I got very tired of the long severe winters of North Dakota and
Minnesota, so I sold my stock and started west hunting for a better
climate. My wife liked it in northern Idaho, and her health was a great
deal better. So we purchased 160 acres of land. This land had been
cut-over about fifteen years ago and the stock from the adjoining town
had grazed over it and scattered clover and timothy seed so that the
stumps were almost covered up with hay.
“I made my first payment about the 10th of July, and in the next thirty
days I got in and with scythes and hand rakes put up some twenty-five
tons of fine clover and timothy hay. I bought five Holstein cows that
the Commercial Club had shipped in, paying $470 for the five cows. I
bought a cream separator and began work within thirty days after making
my initial payment. I found that 160 acres of stump land was too much
for one man to undertake with my limited capital, so I had a chance of
selling off ninety acres of it at an advance of $10.00 over the purchase
price, so that I sold that much and have about sixty acres left. We had
a lot of snow here the past winter, but the cold was not severe, there
only being six nights of zero weather during the entire winter.
“I now have a good barn, a small house, seventeen head of cattle, three
good horses, and have cleaned up fifteen acres of land. I expect to cut
fifty tons of good hay this coming season, and I do all the work myself,
with the exception of one boy. Our five cows have averaged us about $10
per month in cream checks.”
If a man wants to make a success of his life and has the will to do it
nothing can stop him.
PLAN No. 763. A GOOD COUNTRY TO LIVE IN
This man came to northern Idaho, from Minnesota, regarding which he
says: “Because we decided this was a good country to live in, I bought
120 acres of land from one of the lumber companies, cut-over land, and
began preparations in October, 1914. By hard work I was able to get in a
few acres for the crop the first spring, which cut me enough clover and
wheat, hay and grain to feed a team of horses, two cows, some pigs and
chickens. I have contracted clearing here at about $15 per acre. Off of
the three and a half acres of clover that I sowed down the first October
and November that I was here, I cut ten tons last season. This spring I
have sown down one-half acre of alfalfa, three acres of wheat,
twenty-five acres of extra fine clover, one acre in my garden and
orchard, and about five acres of new clover. I have twenty-one hogs that
I have raised on the clover stubble, two cows and two horses. Clover
makes a wonderful crop here, producing from two to three tons in two
cuttings every year. My wife and children are very much pleased and we
expect to pass our remaining days in this valley.”
PLAN No. 764. IRRIGATED FRUIT LAND NEAR SPOKANE, WASHINGTON
He bought his land at Opportunity nine years ago at a cost of $350 an
acre. He now has five and a half acres in bearing orchard, with 450
trees eight and nine years old. In 1913 they yielded an average of four
packed boxes of apples to the tree, for which he received an average
price of $1.31 a box, or a total return of $2,856.
The story of the production of these trees from the beginning is
interesting. The first year they yielded nothing; the second year, one
box; the third year, 125 boxes; the fourth year, 500 boxes; the fifth
year, 1,200 boxes; the sixth year, 1,800 boxes; the seventh year, 2,300
boxes and the eighth year, 2,300 boxes that he sold at $1.20 per box.
The lowest price that he received during this time has approximately
been $1 per box and he says that the farmer can make money marketing
fancy apples at 75 cents a box.
But more can be done on a 10-acre tract than grow apples. For the first
five or six years most of the land can be utilized by planting tomatoes,
cucumbers, cantaloupes, potatoes, squash, pumpkins and all sorts of
garden truck between the rows of trees. Most of the tracts are farmed
this way, in addition to setting aside a part of the land to be
permanently used for these crops, berry patches, etc. This
inter-planting makes the land pay operating expenses and a profit while
the trees are coming into bearing. After the trees attain size, the only
other crop that can be raised is clover or some legume that will put
nitrogen into the soil.
$300 AN ACRE FROM DEWBERRIES
The following figures are quoted from this Opportunity farmer and is
from his own experience with these crops: “Tomatoes will yield from ten
to twenty-five tons to the acre. Grapes do well and sold for the table
market. Have paid at the rate of $700 to the acre. Green corn for the
market pays well.” He has taken from $150 to $200 worth of hubbard
squashes off an acre. One acre of dewberries after the third year
brought in an average of $300 a year. He has realized about the same
from strawberries.
The first year he was on the land he took $525 worth of tomatoes off an
acre; $235 worth of cantaloupes off two-thirds of an acre; $175 worth
of watermelons from an acre. He has half an acre of cherry trees that
are paying him well.
[Illustration: Plan No. 764. When the Well is Dry They Know the Worth of
Water]
In his poultry yard he raises Rhode Island Reds, because he says they do
best in the winter when he has more time to give them and the price of
eggs is higher. During December, January and February, his 175 hens laid
enough eggs to bring in an average of $56 a month at a total expense for
feed, etc., of about $10.00 a month.
Discussing the cost of living and maintenance he says:
“It cost me $24 a year for domestic water and electric lights--a cheaper
rate than almost any city. The water for irrigation is $7 a year per
acre. My net income from my land last year averaged over $300 per acre.
My land nine years ago cost me $350 an acre; it is now worth $1,500 an
acre.”
The above is a remarkable record. Facts are more wonderful than
exaggerated statements. The above district is perhaps one of the most
beautiful home districts in the world.
PLAN No. 765. WEALTH PROM A GARDEN PATCH
Strawberries, raspberries, cabbage, cucumbers, currants, rhubarb, beans,
cantaloupes, gooseberries, grapes, hubbard squash, summer squash, corn,
green peppers, hot peppers, ground-cherries, watermelons, citron, egg
plant, tomatoes, are some of the things grown on the irrigated farm of
this man living near Spokane, Washington.
And these are the side lines: The entire place of twenty-five acres is
planted to fruit trees--apples and pears--now five and six years old.
Their 1915 gross returns were above $5,500, practically all from garden
produce. In 1914 their sales were $5,400.
This farm is an inspiration and an education. Every available square
foot seems to be growing something. Grapes are growing along the low
stone wall that separates him from his neighbor. Between trees are long
rows of vegetables and in the tree rows themselves are cucumbers, squash
and similar products.
One of the 1915 yields was $1,600 from three acres of strawberries. Six
rows of raspberries 160 feet long brought a return of $75. Five acres of
cantaloupes sold at an average price of $1.25 a crate and brought a
gross return that averaged $250 per acre. Sales of green corn ran $60 an
acre, and some of the corn and all of the fodder was left. An acre of
peppers brought in about $400. Currants proved very profitable, yielding
40 to 50 cents a bush, with about 1,000 bushes to the acre. Eggplant has
been made to pay over $300 per acre. From about an acre of tomatoes he
sold 1,200 crates at an average price of 35 cents a crate.
This produce was not peddled or even hauled to Spokane for sale among
the grocers. It was sold at wholesale and loaded on the cars at the
nearby stations. Much of it went to Spokane, but the greater part went
to outside markets.
PLAN No. 766. PROFIT FROM IRRIGATED LANDS
It is just a little difficult to tell the story of irrigated lands and
not seem to be painting the picture too bright. The enormous crops that
can be produced by intelligent use of the water are so large that it is
hard to believe that so much value can be taken off an acre of ground.
Alfalfa is perhaps the lowest in value per acre per year, and yet this
same hay fed to cows and pigs and marketed as milk and hogs can be made
to pay an annual return of from $125 to $250.
The well-conducted apple orchards produce from 250 to 500 boxes of
apples per acre per year. The average of the good orchards is somewhere
in between. These will run from 60 to 80 or 85 per cent fancy and extra
fancy and that means a sale price at the orchard around $1 a box.
PLAN No. 767. WHAT TEN ACRES DID
This farmer and his wife, living near Spokane, Washington, tell of the
comfort and profit they get from their ten acres as follows:
“From November 1, 1914, to November 1, 1915, we sold $300.00 worth of
eggs and $60 worth of old hens, besides raising 350 chickens. We think
that what we eat of eggs and chickens pays for their keep. From January
1 to September 1, 1915, I sold $90 worth of butter and sold a calf for
$15, besides what butter, cream and milk we used. We raised a
thoroughbred Jersey cow that began giving milk September 1, 1915, and
she made forty pounds of butter before she was two years old. We raised
two hogs and sold them for $32.50 and raised one for our own use. We
raised beans, sweet corn, carrots, and vegetables between our young
apple trees, and sold from our ten acres $600 worth of produce, besides
the eggs, poultry, butter and pork.”
PLAN No. 768. BEEF CATTLE PROFITABLE
A farmer of Davenport, Washington, says:
“I am satisfied that I can make the beef cattle business pay me a nice
profit. Starting with three head of beef cows worth $225 and buying $721
worth of cattle in two years, which I kept on cheap pasture most of the
year and fed only a small amount of hay for three months in the winter,
I sold $827 worth of butter and cattle in the two years and had stock
remaining worth $1,360. My net profit in the two years, exclusive of
labor and feed, was $1,241.”
In the West everything is being done to encourage diversified farming.
Many farmers buy their own butter, etc., which to Eastern farmers seems
strange, but wheat has been so profitable in the West that these farmers
were content.
PLAN No. 769. HOGS AS SIDE LINE
This farmer living near Ritzville, Washington, says:
“My net profit, exclusive of labor, for handling hogs as a side line one
year was $532.33.”
This is a good illustration of what opportunities the average farmer has
of developing more profit on his farm. It would take a pretty good
business in the city to handle side lines that would produce such a
profit on the first trial.
PLAN No. 770. NORTHWEST FARMER BELIEVES IN DIVERSIFIED FARMING
In the Northwest much of the land is summer-fallowed every other year,
and when the land can be put to profitable use those years it means much
to the profit end of farming. Here is what a man did near Colfax,
Washington. His statement is as follows:
“Four years ago I fenced my ranch with hog-tight woven wire fence and
purchased a bunch of hogs. The first year I sold $1,400 worth of hogs
and have averaged $2,000 per year ever since. I also purchased some
sheep and found that by running them between harvest and summer-fallow I
was able to keep down the weeds. I made a profit on my sheep in both
wool and mutton. I believe that if diversified farming is followed,
sixty to eighty acres is enough for one family in this locality.”
PLAN No. 771. WHAT A FARMER DID FOR HIS LAND
Here is his statement:
“It is my intention to abandon the practice of summer-fallow altogether
here by growing peas and other crops that can be grown to advantage on
the land. To-day, May 23rd, we are cultivating our peas, and after one
more cultivation they will be ready to lay by until harvesting. A piece
of wheat planted on ground cultivated to peas and hogged-off last fall,
stands four inches higher than any other wheat on the place. I believe
in alfalfa, clover and peas and the stock to consume them, in order to
return the manure to the soil.”
Thousands of acres of land in the past few years have been put to peas
and a good profit has been obtained.
PLAN No. 772. WESTERN FARMER’S EXPERIENCE
He lives in the Palouse farming district in the State of Washington and
makes the following statement:
“In 1915, fifty acres of wheat planted on corn land gave me $1,000 after
all expenses were paid. This was more than double the returns from fifty
acres of land that had grown wheat continuously or been summer-fallowed.
The same year fifty acres of corn brought me $600; that is, from corn,
potatoes, beans, etc. I sold seed corn to neighbors, to poultry raisers
and sold corn-fat hogs, and had left all my feed for two cows and five
horses for a year. My fifty acres of wheat on stalk land, the neighbors
will tell you, is the finest field to be found in this section of the
country.”
PLAN No. 773. COWS RETURN $200 A YEAR
One of the best examples of what can be done with dairy cows in the
Palouse country, State of Washington, is this farmer who started with
$300:
He built up a herd of Jerseys and mixed Holsteins and Jerseys, after
paying for his land, a few years ago. After three years, an inventory of
the stock, equipment and improvements showed a total gain of $13,425,
which has accrued to him over and above his living expenses. One year’s
crops from 140 acres of Palouse land were 200 tons of hay, 550 sacks of
oats and barley, 100 tons of ensilage, 400 sacks of potatoes, and about
$250 worth of fruit. Most of the crops were turned into milk, of which
44,700 gallons were shipped, and brought back a return of $8,940, an
average of over $200 for each cow milked.
PLAN No. 774. COWS HELPED HIM
This farmer left North Dakota and located in the State of Washington. He
states:
“I bought sixty acres of white pine and cedar stump land adjoining the
station of Matchwood, about six miles from Sandpoint, on a 10-year
payment plan, and in February, 1915, we moved up and began work on our
place. We bought two Jersey cows. The first year, with a few days work
on the outside, we were able to make a living from our two cows and
about 35 laying hens. We were able to put up about twelve tons of good
clover and timothy hay that we got with a hand scythe around the old
logging roads, where it was growing wild.
“The year 1916 will be my first year with any crop to amount to
anything. I have cleaned up in the past year about twenty acres, have
thirteen acres sown in grain and clover, about seven acres to grain and
root crops, and have thirty acres seeded among the waste timber and
stumps for pasturage. My place is fenced and cross fenced, and I have
running water on the place. In the past year we have sold over 500
pounds of butter, at an average of 30 cents per pound.”
PLAN No. 775. WOOL CLIP $1.00 PER HEAD
This man, living at Odessa, Washington, kept 1,200 sheep out nearly all
winter at strawstacks and grazing, the only expense for feeding being
thirty-five tons of alfalfa at $10.00 per ton. He clipped about a
dollar’s worth of wool per head and sold 300 head at $4.75 to $5.25 per
hundred weight. He says:
“I made a very nice profit and believe that nearly all farmers should
keep a band of sheep.”
The dry atmosphere, combined with the absence of heavy dews, and the
generally favorable climate, make the Big Bend a natural poultry
country. Disease is kept down to a minimum and the fowls themselves
thrive. The high price for eggs in this market makes the returns
unusually attractive. Turkeys, always difficult of successful raising,
seem to be in their natural climate in the Big Bend, and those who are
now in the business claim that the country will become famous for its
annual shipments of the great American bird.
Figure out the amount for yourself, and, if you live in the city, figure
what net profits your business paid last year, then deduct from that the
cost of food and clothes, rents, pleasure trips, amusements, etc., and
you will be surprised at what you have left. But remember Mr. Farmer’s
net profit is above his living, which is the very best.
PLAN No. 776. FARMER LIVES NEAR COLLEGE
Many farmers in the West will not trouble themselves with stock, but
this man shows how expensive an idea this is.
This farmer living near Pullman, Washington, has demonstrated that
dairying pays in the Palouse country. He owns 240 acres of land two and
one half miles from town that he values, with improvements, at $100 an
acre. Because of the size of his farm he raises quantities of wheat and
other products for the market, but his main income is from butter. He
makes this on the farm and sells it to the consumers at an average price
the year around between 35 and 40 cents a pound.
“Much of my land is in grass and alfalfa,” he says. “We market two nice
bunches of hogs each year, raised on the skimmed milk from the dairy.
Half as many heifers as we have cows are matured every year and added to
the herd to take the place of the cows sold. Veal and poultry and eggs
all bring in money. I raise thirty acres of corn a year for the silos.
This land is then sown to fall wheat. Rearing the family, near the
splendid schools of Pullman, and with the state college in sight, has a
lot to do with the satisfaction we get out of life.”
PLAN No. 777. CUT-OVER LAND FARMER
This farmer purchased a farm ten years ago near Newport, the county seat
of Pend Oreille County, Washington. He bought 268 acres at $23 an acre.
The farm is on the bench land where the soil is a sandy loam,
particularly suited for growing vegetables and grass crops.
Here is what he says:
“After the cordwood has been removed, the slashing and burning of the
rubbish and brush, leaving the ground free of everything except standing
stumps, should not cost over $10.00 an acre. It is my own experience
that it has not cost that much. Most of it I contracted at $7.50 an acre
and on two different tracts the contractor made over $3 a day. The
slashing should be burned in the fall whenever possible and a mixed
pasture grass sown in the ashes before the heavy fall rains. No
cultivation is necessary, as the light ashes make an ideal seed-bed and
a heavy, rich pasture is assured the following season.”
PLAN No. 778. TAUGHT HIS WAY THROUGH COLLEGE
This young man was a school teacher, but became convinced that he would
study law and wished to make it his profession. He had no money, was an
excellent speaker, and enrolled in the university for one year to
complete this course. At the end of the year his money was gone, and the
next year he taught, and he continued in this way until he finished his
university course.
While this is a hard method, every other year leaving the college and
spending it teaching, yet he made his goal, and many a teacher can do
the same.
PLAN No. 779. SOLD LAW BOOKS AND THUS PAID HIS UNIVERSITY EXPENSES
In every large university there is a good opportunity of purchasing
books at a small price from the out-going classes, or the class at the
end of each semester, and selling the books again to new students
entering for the following semester.
This young man started to make his expenses in that manner. He bought
books at a very small price and sold them at a very large price, and
thus was able to build up a large book business at the university. He
now has several rooms filled with books for incoming classes, and is in
a position to give good advice as to the class of questions that may be
asked from the various examinations in the different departments, as he
keeps a carefully collected list of questions when the term starts. He
has some of these typewritten and made into pamphlet form for sale. He
also has a stenographer, who takes the lectures in the different classes
so has them for sale to the students who are unable to take them down
during their class work, or for those who have been inattentive.
PLAN No. 780. THE WAY HE MADE GOOD IN THE ASSESSOR’S OFFICE
It is generally conceded that one of the hardest offices to fill, is the
office of county assessor.
No matter how hard you may try to please the public generally, on
assessment of their property, you will find delegation after delegation
appealing to you to make change in their assessment, and you will find
many of your dear friends who really insist on being treated in a
special manner and different than the rest of the other people, they
want you to discriminate as to them.
This young man had trained himself for the law and had practiced a few
years. He decided before going into politics to try-out serving in this
office for a time. After rendering his service for a number of years he
was announced by his friends for this office and won. He made up his
mind that when elected he would handle this office in a way that it
would reflect credit in after years. He had noticed many people, when
directing these offices, had failed, largely on account of their lack of
will power to stand by what they absolutely knew was right. If an
assessment was made on property and a delegation appeared before him, he
would take all the blame, if there was any, and would go into the matter
and have it settled once-for-all. After a short time people began to
find out that the assessor had a mind of his own; that he knew what was
right, and when any matter was taken before him they understood clearly
if their contention was right he would do all he could to assist them.
He followed this policy throughout his term of office. Another thing he
did after election was to call together all his assistants and made it
clear to them that they were to serve the public in the best possible
manner, and to be courteous at all times; and that the public was a
final judge as to their ability to serve them and that he was only an
instrument through which the public could give its approval or
disapproval.
After a service along the lines which has just been suggested, he was
re-elected to several other offices in the county, which is a remarkable
record.
As to building up any political machine, he did not do this, but of
course his friends and those who supported him were given preference in
his appointments, and they were loyal to him.
PLAN No. 781. THIS MAN BECAME COUNTY CLERK
He was a very likable man and had served in public office for a number
of years at the court house, and he in this way became generally
acquainted throughout the county. He decided to run for the office of
county clerk, and was successful.
As soon as he was elected he called together his assistants and made it
clear to them that in this office application was one of the important
parts of the service; that he wanted them to serve full time; that they
were serving the public, and that nobody should be impertinent or short
in their answers and should be most courteous in every way. In fact, he
made it clear to them that if they were unable to render service in this
way that they had better leave and, that they would be removed at any
time when the time came they could not treat the public right, because,
he stated, the public was their final judge.
The clerk himself was not a man given to very much talk, but he made it
a point, when the attorneys called to speak to them kindly and give the
greatest consideration regarding any matter they desired information.
This was granted to all attorneys, irrespective of age or
qualifications. The attorney handling the smallest business would
receive the same consideration that the most wealthy among them--they
were all equal in his office.
He also knew that if he was to be re-elected, or desired to win further
political preference, that he must start his campaign when he first
opened up the office, and this was his campaign: rendering the best kind
of service that lay within his power.
PLAN No. 782. ATTORNEY VISITS BROTHER-ATTORNEYS
After graduating from his college he called on attorneys, in the town
where he was reared, and obtained the best possible advice from them. He
inquired as far as he dared into what they did to make their practice a
success. Oftentimes attorneys do not know the plan they have followed,
but upon visiting with them you will soon discover that they have
followed some general plan of action. If the plan is productive of good
profits put it down as a lesson for yourself.
This attorney continued this practice for years. He always made it a
point to know all of his fellow attorneys and keep in touch with their
advancement from time to time. At least once a year he would lay aside a
certain amount of time to call on all the attorneys, and especially find
out, if possible, what kind of business they were doing and what new
ideas they had in that particular community for the advancement of their
profession. He states that each year he obtained points which meant a
great deal to his practice, as well as winning the friendship and good
will of his fellow attorneys. He states that there was hardly a year
that he did not receive something which meant five or six hundred
dollars to his practice. Some suggestions as to keeping up the business
that came into his office, or that his charges were not sufficient, or
he failed to use business methods in this or that.
PLAN No. 783. GIRL MAKES LIVING BY MAKING TABLE FAVORS AND DECORATIONS
OF PAPER
She purchased several rolls of crêpe paper of different colors at 15 or
20 cents per roll, and this she experimented with until she became very
proficient in the making of various table favors. And, as a matter of
fact, she became expert in making all kinds of decorations for tables.
The next thing for her to do was to get the business which would enable
her to make profits and keep her busy week in and week out. She watched
the papers very carefully, noting all of those who were giving parties
at their homes; she made a catalog of all the socially-inclined people,
and then made it a point to call upon them personally and arrange to
make them decorations for their next party.
She also called upon the restaurants and stood ready to make any special
design they desired on certain occasions. She solicited this work a
month ahead so that it would not all come at one time and make it
impossible for her to give them what they desired. For example,
Halloween, Saint Valentine’s Day and other days when the restaurants
desired many of such decorations, she took these orders in advance and
was prepared to deliver them when the occasion came.
[Illustration: Plan No. 783. She is Content Because Her Work is Well
Done]