The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-10-12
Are Ten Acres Enough 4


That depends to what purpose the
ten acres are to be applied. Hundreds
OF men are drawn every year from pur-
suits which afford them fair living, to
farms and colonies, and settlements of
various kinds, only to meet with untold
privations and discomfoits foryears and
years, if not end in absolute ruin. We
all remember how, some twenty years
ago, thousands were unsettled in their
senses and their homes, by the appear
ance OF little book entitled, "Ten
Acres Enough" Any one who read it
attentiyely might see that in the ficti-
tous stretch given of the one who sue
ceeded SO well most of the success was
made to depend on the sale at high
prices of new blackberry root. A man
could do this as well on one acre as ten,
but the chance of new root of this
character will not come to one man in a
thousand, or one man in lifetime, and
to take such very rare instances into ac-8
count in the general product of. ten
acres is an absurdity. Still, the public
generally do not dwell long enough on.
these things as they read them, but,
taking in the general phrase, Ten
Acres Enough, " madly rushed on to-
destruction.
In the case of this little book, the au-
thor, who was sketching his own sue
cess with ten acres, wrote his manual a.
few years too soon, as the final ending
OF his experiment was not success. 1t
is true it enabled him to sell thousands.
and perhaps tens of thousands, of
blackberry roots, but the whole com
munity could not make fortunes out of
berry, which few persons might do
if they knew how
These sketches or brochures only tend
to mislead those who have been slowly
but surely trudging along in their orig
inal business, making comfortable
living and some money besides for old
age. We remember a very wealthy
family, who brought up in Philadelphia
a large family respectfully and as well
as most Woodworking people do, and
had progressed beyond middle life and
most Of their children were grown up
and doing for themselves They began
with starting small store or shop.
which was mostly attended to by the
wife with the help of one or two of the
children as they became old enough,
while the husband did his daily work as
a mechanic. 1t was fair success, and
at the end of ten or twelve years they
had succeeded in saving about 5000.
They had read, however, a number of
exaggerated reports of the enormous
profits of farming on small or moder-
ate scale, and regarding it as a fine
opening for them, and that their old
mode of making money was too slow
for people advancing in years and saw
ing so little, they sold out their store,
and the husband quit his work in the
shop, and, buying farm in aneighbor-
ing county and stocking it with every
thing of the best and newest, set to work
to realize. hasty fortune. But unfor-
tunately they left the business that they
well understood for another which they
knew nothing about and in a few years
their little savings had all disappeared
at least leaving them but few hundred
dollars, after selling off everything, with
which they went back again, making
their home with their children until
there should appear an opening in theiI
old line of business, in which, if they
were not doing as well as they would
like, they were making certain living
and steadily laying something by
This is not merely the history of thi,
family, or of family here and there
but of hundreds They forget that farm
ing has to be learned like any other bus
mess, and to succeed it must be prose
euted gradually, and requires, as othel
business, constant watchfulness, carr
and hard work, and is subjected t.
many risks. Farming will only pay il
this way, whether the farm be large O
small. And ten acres may be enough
for fruit and vegetables within easy
reach of a ready cash market. But theI
you must know thoroughly how al
these things can be produced at the ear
liest date, in the greatest abundance
and of the finest varieties and best quail
ity.- Germantown Telegraph.