CLOSE OF MY FIRST YEAR--ITS LOSS AND GAIN.
It was now the dead of winter. Every thing was frozen up; but though
cheerless without, it was far from being so within. My little library,
well supplied with books and the literature of the day, afforded me an
intellectual banquet which never palled upon the appetite. Here my desk
was ever open; here pen, and ink, and diary were constantly at hand, for
entering down my expenditures and receipts, with facts and observations
for future use. Thus conveniently provided, and all my life accustomed
to accounts, I found no difficulty at the year’s end in ascertaining to
a dollar whether my first season’s experience had been one of loss or
gain. I give the particulars in full--
Cost of stable manure and ashes $248.00
Plaster and guano, not all used 20.00
Ploughing, harrowing, and digging up the garden 30.00
Cabbage and tomato plants 30.00
Loss on my first cow 7.00
Garden seeds 8.00
Cost of six pigs 12.00
Corn-meal and bran 28.00
Dick’s wages for six months 72.00
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$455.00
Here was an outlay of $455, all of which was likely to occur every
year, except the two items of loss on cow, and cost of buying cabbages
and tomato-plants, which have subsequently been raised in a hotbed at
home, without costing a dollar. The great item is in manure, amounting
to $268; and this must be kept at the same figure, if not increased,
unless an equal quantity can, by some process, be manufactured at home.
Then there was the following permanent outlay made in stocking the farm
with fruit:
Strawberries for six acres $120.00
Raspberries for two acres 34.00
804 Peach-trees, and planting them 72.36
------
$226.36
This constituted a permanent investment of capital, and would not have
to be repeated, so that the actual cost the first year was, as stated,
$455. My own time and labor are not charged, because that item is
adjusted in the grand result of whether the farm supported me or not.
There was also the cost of horse and cow, ploughs, and other tools; but
these, too, were investments, not expenses. They could be resold for
money, no doubt, at some loss. A portion of that capital could therefore
be recovered. So, also, with the large item of $226.36 invested in
standard fruits; as, if the farm were sold its being stocked with them
would insure its bringing a higher price in consequence, probably enough
to refund the capital thus invested.
It is fair, therefore, to charge the current expenses only against the
current receipts. The latter were as follows:
Sales of blackberry plants $460.00
“ cabbages 82.00
“ tomatoes 120.00
“ garden products 80.00
“ pork 49.00
------
$791.00
Current expenses, as stated 455.00
------
Profit 336.00
This was about $1.25 per day for the two hundred and seventy-five days
we had been in the country, from April 1st to January 1st, and, when
added to our copious supplies of vegetables, fruit, pork, and milk, it
kept the family in abundance. I proved this by a very simple formula. I
knew exactly how much cash I had on hand when I began in April, and from
that amount deducted the cost of all my permanent investments in
standard fruits, stock, and implements, and found that the remainder
came within a few cents of the balance on hand in January. I did not owe
a dollar, and had food enough to keep my stock till spring. The season
had been a good one for me, and we felt the greatest encouragement to
persevere, as the first difficulties had been overcome, and the second
season promised to be much more profitable. I considered the problem as
very nearly solved.
It will be noted that no cash was received for strawberries, and herein
is involved a fact important to be known and acted on by the growers of
this fruit. Most men, when planting them, say in March or April, are
impatient for a crop in June. But this should never be allowed. As soon
as the blossoms appear, they should be removed. The newly transplanted
vine has work enough thrown upon its roots in repairing the damage it
has suffered in being removed from one location to another, without
being compelled, in addition, to mature a crop of fruit. To require it
to do both is imposing on the roots a task they are many times unable to
perform. The draft upon them by the ripening fruit is more than they can
bear. I have known large fields of newly-planted vines perish in a dry
season from this cause alone. The writers on strawberry culture
sometimes recommend removing the blossoms the first year, but not with
sufficient urgency. I lay it down as absolutely indispensable to the
establishment of a robust growth. Thus believing, my blossoms were all
clipped off with scissors; and hence, though stronger plants were thus
produced, yet there was no fruit to sell.
It must also be remembered that my entire profit consisted of the single
item of sales of plants; hence, if there had been no demand for Lawtons,
or if I had happened to have none for sale, there would have been an
actual loss. My having them was a mere accident, and my luck in this
respect was quite exceptional. Unless others happen to be equally lucky,
they may set down their first year as very certain to yield no profit.
With persons as inexperienced as I was when beginning, no other result
should be expected.
Winter is proverbially the farmer’s holiday. But it was no idle time
with me. I had too long been trained to habits of industry, to lounge
about the house simply because no weeds could be found to kill. The
careful man will find a world of fixing up to do for winter. As it came
on slowly through a gorgeous Indian summer, I set myself to cleaning up
the litter round the premises, and put the garden into the best
condition for the coming season. The verbenas had gone from the borders;
the petunias had withered on the little mound whereon their red and
white had flashed so gayly in captivating contrast during the summer;
the delicate cypress-vine had blackened at the touch of a single frosty
night; the lady-slipper hung her flowery head; all the family of roses
had faded; the morning-glory had withered; even the hardy honeysuckle
had been frozen crisp. From the fruit-trees a cloud of leaves had fallen
upon every garden-walk. Plants that needed housing were carefully
potted, and taken under cover. The walks were cleared of leaves by
transferring them to the barnyard. Bushes, trees, and vines were
trimmed. Every remnant of decay was removed. The December sunshine fell
upon a garden so trim and neat, that even in the bleakest day it was not
unpleasant to wander through its alleys, and observe those wintry
visitants, the snow-birds, gathering from the bushes their scanty store
of favorite seeds. The asparagus was covered deeply with its favorite
manure, and heavily salted. Tender roses were banked up with barnyard
scrapings, and every delicate plant protected for its long season of
hybernation.
Dick had his share of exemption from excessive labor. But I kept him
tolerably busy for weeks in gathering up the cloud of leaves which fell
throughout the neighborhood from roadsides lined with trees. No manure
is so well worth saving in October and November as the falling leaves.
They contain nearly three times as much nitrogen as ordinary barnyard
manure; and every gardener who has strewn and covered them in his
trenches late in the fall or in December, must have noticed the next
season how black and moist the soil is that adheres to the thrifty young
beets he pulls. No vegetable substance yields its woody fibre and
becomes soluble quicker than leaves; and, from this very cause, they are
soon dried up, scattered to the winds, and wasted, if not now gathered
and trenched in, or composted, before the advent of severe winter.
My horse, and cow, and pigs, all slept in leaves. Their beds were warm
and easy, and the saving of straw for litter was an item. As they were
abundant, and very convenient, Dick carted to the barnyard an enormous
quantity. Placing enough of them under cover, he littered all the stock
with them until spring. The remainder was composted with the contents of
the barnyard, and thus made a very important addition to my stock of
manure. Thus the leaf-harvest is one of importance to the farmer, if he
will but avail himself of it. A calm day or two spent in this business
will enable him to get together a large pile of these fallen leaves;
and if stowed in a dry place, he will experience the good effects of
them in the improved condition of his stock, compared with those which
are suffered to lie down, and perhaps be frozen down, in their own
filth. The fertilizing material of leaves also adds essentially to the
enriching qualities of the manure-heap. Gardeners prize highly a compost
made in part of decomposed leaves. The leaf-harvest is the last harvest
of the year, and should be thoroughly attended to at the proper time.
The leisure of the season gave us greater opportunity for intercourse,
both at home and abroad. The city was comparatively at our door, as
accessible as ever--we were really mere suburbans. We ran down in an
hour to be spectators of any unusual sight, and frequently attended the
evening lectures of distinguished men. It was impossible for the world
to sweep on, leaving us to stagnate. How different this winter seemed to
me from any preceding one! Formerly, this long season had been one of
constant toiling; now, it was one of almost uninterrupted recreation.
How different the path I travelled from that in which ambition hurries
forward--too narrow for friendship, too crooked for love, too rugged for
honesty, and too dark for science! Thus, if we choose, we may sandwich
in the poetry with the prose of life. Thus, many a dainty happiness and
relishing enjoyment may come between the slices of every-day work, if we
only so determine.