MY THIRD YEAR--LIQUID MANURE--THREE YEARS’ RESULTS.
As usual with me at the opening of spring, the garden received our first
attention. Dick covered it heavily with manure, cleared it up and made
all ready for wife and daughter. This year we had no seeds to purchase,
having carefully laid them aside from the last. In order to try for
myself the value of liquid manuring, I mounted a barrel on a
wheelbarrow, so that it could be turned in any direction, and the liquor
be discharged through a sprinkler with the greatest convenience. Dick
attended faithfully to this department. As early as January he had begun
to sprinkle the asparagus; indeed he deluged it, putting on not less
than twenty barrels of liquor before it was forked up. It had received
its full share of rich manure in the autumn: the result of both
applications being a more luxuriant growth of this delightful vegetable
than perhaps even the Philadelphia market had ever exhibited. The shoots
came up more numerously than before, were whiter, thicker, and tenderer,
and commanded five cents a bunch more than any other. As the bed was a
large one, and the yield great, we sold to the amount of $21. I
certainly never tasted so luscious and tender an article. Its
superiority was justly traceable, to some extent, to the liquid manure.
The same stimulant was freely administered all over the garden, and with
marked results. It was never used in dry weather, nor when a hot sun was
shining. We contrived to get it on at the beginning of a rain, or during
drizzly weather, so that it should be immediately diluted and then
carried down to the roots. I have no doubt it promoted the growth of
weeds, as there was certainly more of them to kill this season than ever
before. But we had all become reconciled to the sight of weeds--expected
them as a matter of course--and my wife and Kate became thorough
converts to Dick’s heresy as to the impossibility of ever getting rid of
them. I was pained to hear of this declension from what I regarded as
the only true faith; but when I saw the terrible armies which came up in
the garden just as regularly as Dick distributed his liquor, I confess
they had abundant reason for the faith that was in them.
But the barnyard fluid was a good thing, notwithstanding. It brought the
early beets into market ten days ahead of all competitors, thus securing
the best prices. It was the same with radishes and salad. The latter is
scarcely ever to be had in small country towns, and then only at high
rates. But whether it was owing to the liquor or not, I will not say,
but it came early into market in the best possible condition; and as
there happened to be plenty of it, we sold to the amount of $19 of the
very early, and then, as prices lowered, continued to send it to the
store as long as it commanded two cents a head, after which the cow and
pigs became exclusive customers. The fall vegetables, such as white
onions, carrots and parsnips, having had more of the liquor, did even
better, for they grew to very large size. It was the same thing with
currants and gooseberries. The whole together produced $83; to which
must be added the ten peach-trees, all which I had thinned out when the
fruit was the size of hickory nuts, and with the same success as the
previous year. This was in 1857, that time of panic, suspension, and
insolvency. That year had been noted, even from its opening, as one of
great scarcity of money in the cities, when all unlucky enough to need
it were compelled to pay the highest rates for its use. But we in the
country, being out of the ring, gave way to no panic, felt no scarcity,
experienced no insolvency. Peaches brought as high a price as ever; as,
let times in the city be black as they may, there is always money enough
in somebody’s hands to exchange for all the choice fruit that goes to
market. The fruit from the ten trees produced me $69, making the whole
product of the garden $152. I thought this was not doing well enough,
and resolved to do better another year.
At the usual season for the weeds to show themselves on the nine acres,
it very soon became evident that two years’ warfare had resulted in a
comparative conquest. It may be safely said that there was not half the
usual number, and so it continued throughout the season. But no exertion
was spared to keep them under, none being allowed to go to seed. This
watchfulness being continued from that day to this, the mastery has been
complete. We still have weeds, but are no longer troubled with them as
at the beginning. The secret lies in a nutshell--let none go to seed.
Nor let any cultivator be discouraged, no matter how formidable the host
he may have to attack at the beginning. But if he will procure the
proper labor-saving tools, and drive them with a determined
perseverance, success is sure.
As usual, the strawberries came first into market, and were prepared and
sent off with even more care than formerly. The money pressure in the
cities caused no reduction in price, and my net receipts were $903. An
experienced grower near me, with only four acres, cleared $1,200 the
same season. His crop was much heavier than mine. If he had practised
the same care in assorting his fruit for market, he would have realized
several hundred dollars more. But his effort was for quantity, not
quality.
A portion of the raspberries had been thoroughly watered with the liquid
manure, all through the colder spring months. It was too great a labor,
with a single wheelbarrow, to supply the whole two acres, or it would
have been similarly treated. But the portion thus supplied was certainly
three times as productive as the portion not supplied. My whole net
receipts from raspberries amounted to $267. The plants were now well
rooted, and were in prime bearing condition. Since this, I have
quadrupled my facilities for applying the liquid manure. A large
hogshead has been mounted on low wheels, the rims of which are four
inches wide, so as to prevent them sinking into the ground, the whole
being constructed to weigh as little as possible. The sprinkling
apparatus will drench one or two rows at a time, as may be desired. The
driver rides on the cart, and by raising or lowering a valve, lets on or
shuts off the flow of liquor at his pleasure. Having been used on the
raspberries for several years, I can testify to the extraordinary value
of this mode of applying manure. It stimulates an astonishing growth of
canes, increases the quantity of fruit, while it secures the grand
desideratum, a prodigious enlargement in the size of the berries. I find
by inquiry among my neighbors that none of them get so high prices as
myself. Every crop has been growing more profitable than the preceding
one; and it may be set down that an acre of raspberries, treated and
attended to as they ought to be, will realize a net profit of $200
annually.
The Lawtons were this year to come into stronger bearing. Parties in New
York and Philadelphia had agreed to take all my crop, and guarantee me
twenty-five cents a quart. One speculator came to my house and offered
$200 for the crop, before the berries were ripe. I should have accepted
the offer, thinking that was money enough to make from one acre, had not
my obligation to send the fruit to other parties interfered with a sale.
But I made out a trifle better, as the quantity marketed amounted to 896
quarts, which netted me $206.08. In addition to this, the sales of
plants amounted to $101. As the market price for plants was falling, I
was not anxious to multiply them to the injury of the fruit; hence many
suckers were cut down outside of the rows, so as to throw the whole
energy of the roots into the berries; and I think the result justified
this course. The demand for the fruit was so great, that I could have
readily sold four times as much at the same price. As the season for the
blackberries closed, all the stray fruit was gathered and converted into
an admirable wine. Some seventy bottles were made for home use; and when
a year old, I discovered that it was of ready sale at half a dollar per
bottle. Since then we have made a barrel of wine annually; and when old
enough, all not needed for domestic purposes is sold at $2 per gallon.
It is a small item of our general income, but quite sufficient to show
that vast profit may be made by any person going largely into the
business of manufacturing blackberry-wine.
We raised nothing of value among the blackberries this year. The growth
of new wood had been so luxuriant, that the ground between the rows was
too much shaded to permit other plants to mature. In some places, the
huge canes, throwing out branches six to seven feet long, had
interlocked with each other from row to row, and were cut away, to
enable the cultivator and weeder to pass along between them, and
thenceforward this acre was given up entirely to the blackberries. As
the roots wandered away for twenty or thirty feet in search of
nourishment, they acquired new power to force up stronger and more
numerous canes. Many of these came up profusely in a direct line with
the original plants. When not standing too close together, they were
carefully preserved, when of vigorous growth; but the feeble ones were
taken up and sold. Thus, in a few years, a row which had been
originally set with plants eight feet apart became a compact hedge, and
an acre supporting full six times as many bearing canes as when first
planted. Hence the crop of fruit should increase annually. It will
continue to do so, if not more than three vigorous canes are allowed to
grow in one cluster; if the canes are cut down in July to three or four
feet high; if the branches are cut back to a foot in length; if the
growth of all suckers between the rows is thoroughly stopped by treating
them the same as weeds; if the old-bearing wood is nicely taken out at
the close of every season; and, finally, if the plants are bountifully
supplied with manure. From long experience with this admirable fruit, I
lay it down as a rule that every single condition above stated must be
complied with, if the grower expects abundant crops of the very finest
fruit. Observe them, and the result is certain; neglect them, and the
reward will be inferior fruit, to sell at inferior prices.
To the Lawtons succeeded the peaches, now their first bearing year. We
had protected them for three seasons from the fly by keeping the butts
well tarred, and they were now about to give some return for this
careful but unexpensive oversight. Some few of them produced no fruit
whatever, but the majority made a respectable show. I went over the
orchard myself, examining each tree with the utmost care, and removed
every peach of inferior size, as well as thinning out even good ones
which happened to be too much crowded together. Being of the earlier
sorts, they came into market in advance of a glut; and though the
money-pressure in the cities was now about culminating in the memorable
explosion of September, yet there was still money enough left in the
pockets of the multitude to pay good prices for peaches. It is with
fruit as it is with rum--men are never too poor to buy both. My 804
trees produced me $208 clear of expenses, with a pretty sure prospect of
doing much better hereafter. I had learned from experience that a shrewd
grower need not be apprehensive of a glut; and that if panics palsied,
or a general insolvency desolated the cities they still contrived to
hold as much money as before. Credit might disappear, but the money
remained; and the industrious tiller of the soil was sure to get his
full share of the general fund which survives even the worst convulsion.
My acre of tomatoes netted me this year $192, my pork $61, my potatoes
$40, and the calf $3. Thus, as my grounds became charged with
manure,--as I restored to it the waste occasioned by the crops that were
removed from it, and even more than that waste,--so my crops increased
in value. It was thus demonstrable that manuring would pay. On the
clover-field the most signal evidence of this was apparent. After each
cutting of clover had been taken to the barnyard, the liquor-cart
distributed over the newly mown sod a copious supply of liquid manure,
thus regularly restoring to the earth an equivalent for the crop
removed. It was most instructive to see how immediately after each
application the well-rooted clover shot up into luxuriant growth. I have
thus mowed it three times in a season, and can readily believe that in
the moister climate of England and Flanders as many as six crops are
annually taken from grass lands thus treated with liquid manure. Indeed,
I am inclined to believe that there is no reasonable limit to the yield
of an acre of ground which is constantly and heavily manured, and
cultivated by one who thoroughly understands his art.
Three years’ experience of profit and loss is quite sufficient for the
purposes of this volume. It has satisfied me, as it should satisfy
others, that Ten Acres are Enough. I give the following recapitulation
for convenience of reference:
_Expenses for three years._ 1855. 1856. 1857.
Manures of various kinds $268.00 $346.00 $358.06
Wages and labor 102.00 238.00 244.00
Feed for stock 28.00 79.30 103.00
Stakes and twine for Lawtons 7.00 8.00
Garden and other seeds 8.00 13.00
Cabbage and tomato plants 30.00
Lumber, nails, and sundries 14.50 81.00
Loss on cow 7.00
Cost of pigs 12.00 12.00 12.00
------ ------ ------
$455.00 $709.80 $806.06
------ ------ ------
_Receipts for three years._
Strawberries, 6 acres $857.60 $903.00
Lawton plants sold $460.00 213.50 101.00
Tomatoes, 1 acre 120.00 190.00 192.00
Garden, including ten peach-trees 80.00 121.00 152.00
Cabbages 82.00 70.20
Raspberries, 2 acres 38.72 267.00
Lawtons, 1 acre 159.84 206.08
Pork 49.00 58.00 61.00
Potatoes 24.00 40.00
Calf 2.00 3.00
Peaches, 804 trees, first bearing year. 208.00
------ -------- --------
$791.00 1,734.86 2,133.08
Expenses as above stated 455.00 709.80 806.06
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Annual profit $336.00 1,025.06 1,327.02
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This result may surprise many not conversant with the profits which are
constantly being realized from small farms. But rejecting the income
from the sale of plants, the pigs, and the calf, as exceptional things,
and the profit of the nine acres for the first year will be found to be
nothing per acre, for the second year, $83.50, and for the third,
$129.10. But there are obvious reasons why this should be so. The ground
was crowded to its utmost capacity with those plants only which yielded
the very highest rate of profit, and for which there was an unfailing
demand. In addition to this, it was cultivated with the most unflagging
industry and care. Besides using the contents of more than one barnyard
upon it, I literally manured it with brains. My whole mind and energies
were devoted to improving and attending to it. No city business was ever
more industriously or intelligently supervised than this. But if the
reward was ample, it was no greater than others all around me were
annually realizing, the only difference being that they cultivated more
ground. While they diffused their labor over twenty acres, I
concentrated mine on ten. Yet, having only half as much ground to work
over, I realized as large a profit as the average of them all.
Concentrated labor and manuring thus brought the return which is always
realized from them when intelligently combined.
For six years since 1857 I have continued to cultivate this little farm.
Sometimes an unpropitious season has cut down my profits to a low
figure, but I have never lost money on the year’s business. Now and then
a crop or two has utterly failed, as some seasons are too dry, and
others are too wet. But among the variety cultivated some are sure to
succeed. Only once or twice have I failed to invest a few hundred
dollars at the year’s end. All other business has been studiously
avoided. I have spent considerable money in adding to the convenience of
my dwelling, and the extent of my outbuildings; among the latter is a
little shop furnished with more tools than are generally to be found
upon a farm, which save me many dollars in a year, and many errands to
the carpenter and wheelwright. The marriage of my daughter Kate called
for a genteel outfit, which she received without occasioning me any
inconvenience. I buy nothing on credit, and for more than ten years have
had no occasion to give a note. If at the year’s end we are found to owe
any thing at the stores, it is promptly paid. As means increased, my
family has lived more expensively, though I think not any more
comfortably. I lie down peacefully at night, thinking that I do not
deserve more than others, but thankful that God has given me more. I
rise in the morning with an appetite for labor as keen as that for
breakfast. But others can succeed as well as myself. Capital or no
capital, the proper industry and determination will certainly be
rewarded by success.