Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-06-21
Big Returns from Small Farms.


sactions of the Wisconsin Horticultural So
ciety, an account of the success of Mr. J.
W. Smith, of Green Bay, in that state, in
securing large returns from the cultivation
of a thirteen acre farm 1t may be remem.
bered that the yield from this farm averaged
four hundred and eghty-three dollars per
acre for the whole area, the crops being gar
den vegetables, small fruits and seeds the
fruits and vegetables being often shipped
one, and even two hundred miles, for mar
ket. We gave this record as a stimulaut to
some of our young Vermont farmers, who
have, or can obtain, small tracts of good land
near railroad station, to 60 and do like
wisely. In many cases vastly better profit
can thus be had than by attempting to run
larger farms with limited capital, or under
load of debt. The markets of the numer-
New England afford practically unlimited
outlet for good vegetables and fruit, and the
numerous railroads give ready access to quite
number of them from almost any point
along our Vermont roads.
We have recently received letter from
Mr. Smith, from which we take the following;
| "Dedr Sir To-day my attention has been
called to an article that appeared in your
report that | made at our State IIorticul-
tural Society in the winter of 1874 and 1873,
| thank you for Your kind remarks upon my
practical truthfulness The report from
which you copied these items is certainly
true from beginning to end. keep my ac-
count of sales with great care, and can, at n
moments notice, refer TO the sales Of any
day, for years past, and tell just what sold
of any given article, how much were the
sales of the day, the week, the month, or the
year, or of any one of the articles for any
portion or the whole of that time
Last season many of my crops were
simply immense, but the prices broke down
and then the bottom entirely fell out Of the
market, and the result was that my years
crop has brought me much less money than
for some years previous.
zone of my largest crops last season was
my Strawberries. selected oAe-fourth of
an acre from the best of the piece (about
three-lourths of an acre). This selected
piece lay together not in patches, and from
that one-fourth of an acre | actually picked
three thousand five hundred and seventy-one
quarts of merchantable berries, or at the rate
of four hundred and Jortysir bushels Of sird'c
berries to the acre. This was no guess-work,
aud the account is true, 1t will appear in
detail in the coming volume of the transac-
tions of our society. believe that none
of us have any correct idea of the capabii-
ties of an acre of land when il is made to do
its best"
What Mr.. Smith says in these concluding
| lines has force and truth that no cultiya-
tor of land in the ordinary way can have the
least conception of. The results attained by
high culture are so far away from their or
binary experience that they sound like a
fairy tale. To tell man who thinks one
hundred and fifty bushels OF potatoes to the
acre, worth thirty-fye cents bushel-about
|
from land-that over four hundred bushels
of strawberries, selling at wholesale for at
least four dollars bushel, can be grown on
an acre is to tell him what he cannot help
regarding as :" big lie Yet our own ex-
perience oertifes to us the truth of Mr..
Smiths declaration, given above We do
not keep as careful record of our crops as
he does, aud have never grown Strawberries
so extensively, neither do we think oursef
as thorough or energetic a cultvator; but
our strawberry crop for two successive sea
sous has been, for 1874, at the rate of over
three hundred and eighty-iour and for 1875,
over two hundred and lightweight bushels
per acre. We say over" because these are
the sales, the considerable quantities used
and put up in the house not being included.
1t is true that the strawberry crop is liable
to casualties, but so is the potato crop. And
high culture suffers far less from drouths,
insects and disease than scrub farming"